RTHK: Conservatives lose two UK parliamentary by-elections

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's ruling Conservatives suffered two crushing parliamentary by-election defeats on Friday, including in a southwest English seat previously held by the party for over a century.

The Tories lost the Tiverton and Honiton seat to the centrist Liberal Democrats while the main opposition Labour party took back the Wakefield constituency in northern England, in stunning twin results set to pile new pressure on Johnson.

The votes were held on Thursday after the two areas' former Tory MPs both resigned in disgrace in recent months.

Tiverton and Honiton's ex-lawmaker Neil Parish quit after admitting watching pornography on his phone in the House of Commons, while Wakefield's Imran Ahmad Khan was jailed for sexually assaulting a teenage boy.

The by-elections also follow months of scandals and setbacks that have severely dented the popularity of Johnson and his party, and come just weeks after he narrowly survived an attempt by his own lawmakers to oust him as Tory leader and prime minister.

The Conservatives had been tipped to lose both by-elections and Johnson vowed on Thursday  while in Rwanda for a Commonwealth summit  not to resign if that occurred.

The Liberal Democrats overturned a Tory majority of more than 24,000 to win Tiverton and Honiton  which had voted Conservative in every general election since the 1880s  by more than 6,000 votes.

Meanwhile, in Wakefield near Leeds  one of dozens of former Labour seats that Johnson took in 2019 on a promise to "get Brexit done" and address glaring regional economic inequalities  the opposition party won by nearly 5,000 votes.

In speeches hailing their victories, both newly-elected MPs said Britain had lost faith in Johnson and urged him to quit following the highly damaging "Partygate" scandal centred on lockdown-breaching gatherings in Downing Street.

Labour leader Keir Starmer, who is eyeing replacing Johnson as prime minister after the next general election due by 2024, said his party's victory in one of its former heartland seats showed it could win back power for the first time in more than a decade.

"Wakefield has shown the country has lost confidence in the Tories," he said in a statement.

"This result is a clear judgment on a Conservative Party that has run out of energy and ideas." (AFP)

This story has been published on: 2022-06-24. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
RTHK: US Supreme Court strikes down right to abortion

The US Supreme Court on Friday took the dramatic step of overturning the landmark 1973 Roe vs Wade ruling that recognized a woman's constitutional right to an abortion and legalized it nationwide, handing a momentous victory to Republicans and religious conservatives who want to limit or ban the procedure.

The court, in a 6-3 ruling powered by its conservative majority, upheld a Republican-backed Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The vote was 5-4 to overturn Roe, with Chief Justice John Roberts writing separately to say he would have upheld the Mississippi law but not taken the additional step of erasing the Roe precedent altogether.

The justices, in the ruling written by conservative Justice Samuel Alito, held that the Roe decision that allowed abortions performed before a foetus would be viable outside the womb - between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy - was wrongly decided because the US Constitution makes no specific mention of abortion rights.

By erasing abortion as a constitutional right, the ruling restored the ability of states to ban it, fundamentally altering America's landscape on the issue of reproductive rights. Twenty-six states are either certain or considered likely to ban abortion. Mississippi is among 13 states with so-called trigger laws to ban abortion with Roe overturned.

President Joe Biden condemned the ruling, calling it a "sad day" for America and labelling the court's conservatives "extreme." He said the fight over abortion rights "is not over." Biden said his administration will protect access to contraceptives and will do everything in his power to combat efforts to restrict women from travelling to other states to obtain abortions.

A draft version of Alito's ruling indicating the court was ready to overturn Roe was leaked in May, igniting a political firestorm. Friday's ruling largely tracked this leaked draft.

"The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision," Alito wrote in the ruling.

Roe vs Wade recognized that the right to personal privacy under the Constitution protects a woman's ability to terminate her pregnancy. The Supreme Court in a 1992 ruling called Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey reaffirmed abortion rights and prohibited laws imposing an "undue burden" on abortion access. Friday's ruling overturned the Casey decision as well.

"Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division," Alito added.

Overturning Roe was long a goal of Christian conservatives and many Republican officeholders. Opinion polls show a majority of Americans support abortion rights.

The court's three liberal justices - Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan - issued a jointly authored dissent.

"Whatever the exact scope of the coming laws, one result of today's decision is certain: the curtailment of women's rights, and of their status as free and equal citizens," they wrote.

As a result of Friday's ruling, "from the very moment of fertilization, a woman has no rights to speak of. A state can force her to bring a pregnancy to term, even at the steepest personal and familial costs," the liberal justices added.

The ruling empowered states to ban abortion just a day after the court's conservative majority issued another decision curtailing the ability of states to enact gun restrictions.

Anti-abortion activists, who had gathered outside the courthouse for days, erupted in cheers after the ruling.

"I'm ecstatic," said Emma Craig, 36, of Pro Life San Francisco. "Abortion is the biggest tragedy of our generation and in 50 years we'll look back at the 50 years we've been under Roe v. Wade with shame."

House of Representatives Speaker Democrat Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, denounced the decision, saying that a "Republican-controlled Supreme Court" has achieved that party's "dark and extreme goal of ripping away women's right to make their own reproductive health decisions."

US Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department will fight to protect abortion rights and signaled legal battles to come including over pills used for medication abortion.

Justice Clarence Thomas, in a concurring opinion, urged the court to reconsider past rulings protecting the right to contraception, legalizing gay marriage nationwide and invalidating state laws banning gay sex.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in a concurring opinion, appeared to nix the idea advocated by a number of anti-abortion advocates that the next step is for the court to declare that the Constitution outlaws abortion nationwide. "The Constitution neither outlaws abortion nor legalizes abortion," he wrote.

Kavanaugh also said that the ruling does not let states bar residents from traveling to another state to obtain an abortion, or retroactively punish people for prior abortions.

Mississippi's law had been blocked by lower courts as a violation of Supreme Court precedent on abortion rights. Abortion is likely to remain legal in liberal states. More than a dozen states have laws protecting abortion rights. Numerous Republican-led states have passed various abortion restrictions in defiance of the Roe precedent in recent years.

Before the Roe decision, many states banned abortion, leaving women who wanted to terminate a pregnancy with few options. As a result of Friday's ruling, women with unwanted pregnancies in large swathes of America may face the choice of traveling to another state where the procedure remains legal and available, buying abortion pills online or having a potentially dangerous illegal abortion.

Republican former President Donald Trump as a candidate in 2016 promised to appoint justices to the Supreme Court who would reverse Roe. He appointed three conservative justices - a third of the total - during four years in office, moving the court rightward and building a 6-3 conservative majority. Trump's appointees - Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett - were in the majority in Friday's ruling.

Asked in a Fox News interview whether he deserved some credit for the ruling, Trump said: "God made the decision."

Jackson Women's Health Organization, the only abortion clinic remaining in Mississippi, challenged the 2018 law and had the support of Biden's administration. Mississippi's law allows abortions when there is a "medical emergency" or a "severe fetal abnormality" but does not have an exception for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest.

A federal judge in 2018 struck the law down, citing the Roe precedent. The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2019 reached the same conclusion.

The justices in 2016 struck down a Texas law imposing strict regulations on abortion facilities and doctors. The justices in 2020 struck down a Louisiana law that similarly placed restrictions on doctors who perform abortions. But the court has become more conservative in recent years with the addition of three appointees made by former President Donald Trump.

Since 2018, the court lost two champions of abortion rights. Liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in 2020, being replaced by Barrett, who as an academic before joining the judiciary signaled support for overturning Roe.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, a conservative who sometimes sided with the liberal justices on social issues such as abortion and LGBT rights, retired in 2018 and was replaced by Kavanaugh. Kennedy was part of the majority in the 1992 decision and voted to strike down the Texas abortion restriction in 2016. (Reuters)

This story has been published on: 2022-06-24. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
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BRUSSELS (AP)  The European Union agreed Thursday to put Ukraine on a path toward EU membership, acting with uncharacteristic speed and unity to pull the embattled country further away from Russias influence and bind it more closely to the West.

Meeting at a summit in Brussels, leaders of the EUs 27 nations mustered the required unanimous approval to grant Ukraine candidate status. That sets in motion a membership process that could take years or even decades.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted his gratitude and declared: Ukraines future is within the EU.

Its a victory. We have been waiting for 120 days and 30 years, he said on Instagram, referring to the duration of the war and the decades since Ukraine became independent upon the breakup of the Soviet Union. And now we will defeat the enemy.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pronounced it a good day for Europe.

There was no immediate reaction from the Kremlin.

The EU also gave candidate status to the tiny country of Moldova, another former Soviet republic that borders Ukraine.

Ukraine applied for membership less than a week after Moscow invaded on Feb. 24. Thursdays decision was unusually rapid for the EU and its go-slow approach to expansion. But the war and Ukraines request for fast-track consideration lent urgency to the cause.

To gain EU membership, countries must meet a detailed host of economic and political conditions, including a commitment to the rule of law and other democratic principles. Ukraine will have to curb entrenched government corruption and adopt other reforms.

The European Parliament endorsed Ukraine's bid hours before the summit started, passing a resolution that called on EU governments to move without delay."

It will strengthen Ukraine, it will strengthen Europe. It is a decision for freedom and democracy and puts us on the right side of history, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said ahead of the final decision.

The EU nations have been united in backing Ukraine in its fight against Russia's invasion with money and weapons, adopting unprecedented economic sanctions against the Kremlin.

EU candidate status doesn't provide any immediate security guarantees. Once a country gains membership, however, it is covered under an EU treaty clause that says if a member falls victim to armed aggression, the other EU countries are obligated to assist it by all means in their power.

The main benefits of EU membership, though, are economic, since it gives access to a market of 450 million consumers with free movement of labor, goods, services and capital.

Ukraine has long aspired to join NATO, too, but the military alliance is not about to offer an invitation, in part because of the country's corruption, shortcomings in its defense establishment, and its contested borders.

Before the war, Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded that Ukraine never be allowed to join NATO, which he has condemned for its eastward spread toward Russia's flank. But earlier this month, he did not seem bothered by Ukraine's determination to get closer to the EU, saying it is not a military pact and thus we have no objections.

In 2013, however, Putin objected to Ukraines plans to sign an association agreement with the EU and pressured the Ukrainian president at the time to pull out at the last minute. This backfired by setting off mass protests that eventually ousted the president and ushered in leaders more eager than ever to bring Ukraine into the Western fold.

In the years that followed, Russia seized the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine and fomented a separatist uprising in the country's Donbas region in the east.

The EU's leaders also agreed Thursday to recognize a European perspective for yet another former Soviet republic, Georgia. European Council President Charles Michel said the EU will be ready to approve its candidate status once outstanding priorities are addressed.

Polands Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, whose country has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine's European aspirations for years, said on Twitter: "This is a great moment for Europes unity and for the defense of its basic values. The struggle for freedom goes on.

The membership process can be long and tortuous.

Turkey applied for membership in 1987, received candidate status in 1999, and had to wait until 2005 to start talks for actual entry. The whole process is at a standstill because of various disputes between the EU and Turkey.

Similarly, several Balkan countries have been seeking for many years to join the EU.

European officials have said that Ukraine has already adopted about 70% of the EU rules and standards, but they also have pointed to the need for other far-reaching measures.

Leaders also discussed immediate support to Ukraine, with the European Commission set to soon bring forward a proposal to grant new financial aid of up to 9 billion euros.

Food security was also on the table as they agreed to continue working on solutions to help Ukraine export grain and other goods via  solidarity lanes to get around a Russian blockade of Black Sea ports.

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.

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WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. (AP)  An Arkansas judge on Thursday rejected a request to allow new genetic testing of crime scene evidence from the killing of three boys nearly 30 years ago.

Crittenden County Circuit Judge Tonya Alexander denied the motion seeking access to evidence from the 1993 crime scene where three 8-year-old boys were found brutally slain in a drainage ditch near West Memphis, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported. The additional testing was sought by Damien Echols, one of the three men convicted in the slayings.

Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jesse Misskelley were convicted in 1994 but released in 2011 under a rarely used plea agreement that allowed them to maintain their innocence yet plead guilty in exchange for 18-year sentences and credit for time served.

An attorney for Echols said he planned to appeal the judge's decision.

Alexander cited an Arkansas law that requires those petitioning for new DNA testing to still be in prison, the newspaper reported.

No DNA evidence connected the three men to the killing of Christopher Byers, Steve Branch and Michael Moore. Attorneys for the men have said that more advanced genetic testing equipment might detect fragments of DNA that weren't detectable when the evidence was first examined. The evidence sought for retesting includes clothing and shoelaces that were used to tie the boys.

For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

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The delegates never intended the scope of these fundamental rights to be subject to the partisan, political vagaries of the legislative and executive branches. Instead, these rights exist beyond the reach of politics and therefore must be construed by our states only nonpartisan branch: the judiciary, the March brief from delegates Mae Nan Ellingson, Lyle Monroe and Bob Campbell and staff member Rick Applegate read.

State Supreme Court and elections

With Armstrong under a legal challenge, Democrats have pointed with urgency to one of the state Supreme Court races, where Republicans have gone all in on Jim Brown's candidacy in the nonpartisan race. Brown is the Republican chair of the Public Service Commission and refers to his ideology in campaign messaging as a "constitutional conservative."

Political analysts, however, note that, in the event Brown wins, the addition of one ideological conservative would not tilt the course of the Supreme Court's decisions, at least not yet. The other seat up for election features incumbent Justice Jim Rice against Billings lawyer Bill D'Alton.

"It happens over a series of appointments, or in this case, elections," Lee Banville, a political analyst and professor at the University of Montana, said in May.

Republican state lawmakers have also said they expect to bring bills to further limit access to abortions in the 2023 legislative session. Democrats have also raised concerns around Republicans gaining enough seats in this fall's election to have a super-majority in the Legislature, which would make it easier to do things like attempt revisions to the state Constitution.

Gianforte has said he would consider a special session before the next scheduled one in early 2023, but only if "we have a path that is defensible in the courts here in Montana and we have a consensus in the legislature, Gianforte said on local talk radio show "Talk Back" on May 5, as first reported by Montana Public Radio.

In a press release Friday, the GOP leadership in the state Legislature welcomed the high court's decision and said the battle over abortion access now moves to the state level, where "Republicans are committed to proceeding strategically to protect pre-born Montana children."
The last eight weeks have been an emotional rollercoaster for Nicole Smith, the executive director of one of Montanas only independent abortion clinics.

When news broke in early May indicating the U.S. Supreme Court was prepared to roll back federal protections for abortion, Smith felt as if a longstanding prediction was coming true.

Many of us have been trying to scream at the top of our lungs for years that things are not OK, the leader of Blue Mountain Clinic in Missoula said during a recent phone interview. Reading the leaked draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito, she said, was just a huge reawakening for everyone.

As written, the opinion would overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, the 1973 decision that has kept abortion legal in the United States despite decades of legal challenges from abortion opponents. As it began to circulate, some supporters of abortion access bluntly predicted widespread negative consequences for people who they say would essentially be forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term. But as she watched the news unfold, Smith said, gloom didnt have time to settle in.

The publication of the leaked draft happened to coincide with Missoula Gives, an annual fundraising drive for nonprofits in Missoula and Ravalli counties. Smith said Blue Mountain Clinic received the most individual donations of any participating organization, raising more than $60,000 from 350 people in just two days.

The windfall was more than three times what the clinic had hoped to raise, a sum Smith said far exceeded our expectations. The money will be used to upgrade security systems, retain and hire staff, and prepare for a possible influx of clients from across the country. Those expansions will buttress what Smith and other Montana abortion providers point to as their primary mission: keeping clinic doors open.

The number one priority for us now is protecting abortion access in our state, Smith said. We are standing united. We are standing strong.

Montana is one of a handful of non-coastal states that would maintain a constitutional right to abortion if Alitos draft opinion becomes binding this month, putting pressure on abortion providers and clinics to prepare to care for patients from across the country.

The Montana Supreme Court decided in 1999 that abortion access is protected by the states Constitution. The unanimous opinion in Armstrong v. State means that access to abortion, like other medical choices, is considered an exercise of Montanans constitutional right to privacy.

The courts decision has endured through multiple gubernatorial administrations, changes in political leadership in the Legislature, and a number of legal challenges. The most recent package of proposed abortion restrictions passed during the 2021 Legislature is still working its way through the state court system, with Planned Parenthood of Montana and the Montana attorney generals office expected to remain locked in litigation for several months.

Even with Armstrong in place and restrictive legislation on hold, accessing an abortion in Montana is not always easy. There are just three organizations in the state dedicated to providing abortions at in-person locations  All Families Clinic in Whitefish, Blue Mountain Clinic in Missoula, and Planned Parenthood of Montana, which operates clinics in Great Falls, Helena and Billings. Other private practice doctors and certain clinicians may provide abortions, but often dont advertise those services to avoid public blowback in a highly politicized environment.

Providers say the states patchwork system is still a more robust network than those in some nearby states. Montanas operational clinics and legal landscape mean providers are expecting to see increased demand for services from out-of-state patients. The anticipated influx of patients, they say, may begin with residents of the states bordering Montana, all of which have trigger laws in place that would make abortion illegal if federal protections fall.

We need to prepare to expect who knows how many people from other states, said Helen Weems, founder and director of All Families Clinic in Whitefish. While Weems anticipates her clinic might see a boost in patients from across the nearby Idaho border, she said a surge could also come from states in the southeast and southwest, including Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi.

We just cant predict what that overflow will look like, she said.

Weems clinic, like Blue Mountain Clinic and Planned Parenthood of Montana, has spent much of the past two months preparing to ramp up a variety of abortion services. Depending on the clinic, that might include surgical abortions up until roughly 21 weeks of pregancy, earlier-term medication abortions, telemedicine consultations, and the delivery of abortion medication by mail. Smith said Blue Mountain Clinic just launched its own abortion-by-mail program last month to better serve patients around the Missoula region. Other national groups like Plan C and Just A Pill have also begun using telemedicine and mail programs to help patients in Montana and other states get earlier-term consultations and abortions.

In a large, rural state like Montana, providers stress that telemedicine appointments and medication abortions need to be protected as diligently as in-person clinical services. Making those options more available for Montanans could help ease the demand for later-term surgical abortions, a procedure that will likely become more important for patients traveling from other states where abortion becomes illegal.

But providers also point out that ensuring a full range of medical services is only part of the access puzzle. Many patients face acute financial hurdles, including prohibitively expensive medical care, travel, lodging and childcare. Montanas abortion providers are trying to plan for that as well by setting aside their own pools of money to help patients cover costs as needed.

One Montana resource to help patients overcome financial barriers is the volunteer-run Susan Wickland Fund. In the weeks following the leaked draft opinion, that group also saw a boost in financial support, raising nearly $30,000 in a Gallatin Valley nonprofit fundraiser similar to Missoula Gives. In a May 31 post on Instagram, the fund said it had put nearly $4,000 toward helping 21 patients fund abortions and related expenses in that month alone.

Along with financial support and medical access, Montana providers are expecting another challenge in a post-Roe world: educating the public about abortion access in the state. When the draft opinion blanketed news platforms in May, patients who had scheduled abortions at Planned Parenthood of Montana began calling to double-check that those procedures were still legal, said the groups president and CEO Martha Fuller.

If the formal opinion comes down, Fuller said misinformation and uncertainty about Montanas laws and medical services will likely start to spread.

I hammer this point over and over and over again, Fuller said. Reminding folks of the protections that we have here in Montana, and the fact that abortion providers have their doors open and are ready to see patients, no matter where those patients are from.

Without adequate information, Fuller said patients from around Montana and the U.S. might never be aware of the resources that are available.

I dont think we can say it enough, Fuller said. Just giving people the knowledge, across our region, that Montana is an option.

This story is printed with the permission of the Montana Free Press. The original story can be accessed here.

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On June 24, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in the Mississippi abortion case, Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization.

The court overruled Roe v. Wade, allowing the states to impose whatever abortion restrictions their legislatures can come up with.

Judges should be immune from partisan and sectarian pressures when deciding cases. This is especially true when the case involves a womans right to make decisions about her own body and her private reproductive choices in consultation with her health care provider free from government interference.

Before Dobbs, this medical model adopted in Roe, had been acknowledged to be settled law by the men and women who have been appointed to the Supreme Court since Roe was handed down in 1973.

Notwithstanding, however, with Dobbs a majority of the court has adopted conservative Republican and Catholic/Christian-right ideology condemning a womans right to choose. Worse, the justices violated federal law in doing so.

Heres why:

There are six Roman Catholics sitting on the court: Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett and Sonia Sotomayor. Of these, Sotomayor is considered a progressive, the other five being generally regarded as conservatives. (Ketanji Brown Jackson, Stephen Breyers replacement, was not on the court when Dobbs was argued).

Had they followed federal law, these six Catholic Justices  as well as the other three -- should have never sat in deciding Dobbs.

Federal law requires a federal judge or justice to recuse himself or herself (that is, to not participate in a case) where, for among other reasons, the judges impartiality might be questioned or for reasons of personal bias or prejudice.

The impartiality of the six Catholic justices sitting on a case involving abortion is not even questionable. Indeed, every justice on the court had previously expressed an opinion on abortion rights, for or against, so, to be fair, all nine (Breyer included) should have recused themselves.

However, to the religion point, before being appointed to the federal bench in 2017, now-Justice Barrett co-authored a law review article, Catholic Judges in Capital Cases.

Barrett concluded that because the Catholic Church condemns practices whose point is taking life, for example, in death penalty cases: Judges cannot-nor should they try to-align our legal system with the Churchs moral teaching whenever the two diverge. They should, however, conform their own behavior to the Churchs standard.

(W)e believe that Catholic judges (if they are faithful to the teaching of their church) are morally precluded from enforcing the death penalty. This means that they can neither themselves sentence criminals to death nor enforce jury recommendations of death. Accordingly, the moral impossibility of enforcing capital punishment requires recusal under the federal statute. However, Barretts law review article concedes that the churchs [death penalty] teaching requires a few qualifications.

That said, she recognized no such qualifications when it comes to abortion. Indeed, she stated (t)he (Churchs) prohibitions against abortion . . . are absolute; those against . . . capital punishment are not . . . abortion take(s) away innocent life.

Thus, the Catholic Churchs absolute condemnation of abortion make it morally impossible for Catholic Justices to fairly and impartially decide any abortion case. Catholic Justice are morally precluded from upholding an abortion case, and would have to conform their own behavior to the (Catholic) Churchs standard. In short, the dictates of their faith require a Catholic Justice to have a per se personal bias against any abortion case.

Notwithstanding, in violation of the clear requirements of the federal recusal statute, all six Catholic Justices participated in and decided Dobbs. These Catholic Justices did not decide the case impartially, according to settled law and precedent. Rather the majority conformed their decision to the sectarian doctrines of the Catholic Church  and incidentally to ideological platform of the Republican Party.

Indeed, on Sept. 12, in an ultimate display of hypocrisy, Barrett proclaimed judges must be hyper vigilant to make sure that theyre not letting personal biases creep into their decisions, since judges are people too. And that the Court is not comprised of a bunch of partisan hacks.

That hogwash notwithstanding, in Dobbs politics and religion won and women lost a fundamental right at the hands of  sorry, Barrett -- a bunch of partisan hacks.

Women are the victims of justices who had no business sitting on the case: the hypocrites on the U.S. Supreme Court.

James C. Nelson is a Helena resident and retired Montana Supreme Court justice.

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Is there one food that resonates across the United States? Tacos, perhaps.

According to Alejandra Ramos, host of The Great American Recipe, judges often heard about someone serving tacos, but it was always with this completely different spin. We had Korean tacos. We had Mexican tacos. We had the all-American ground-beef-style tacos. All these different interpretations of this one dish.

And, no matter where the recipes emerged, there were surprises.

While contestants may have represented a certain area, their dishes werent site specific. One was from New England, but he didnt do typical chowder. One was from New York, but her food was Puerto Rican. More likely, officials say, the recipes were inspired by family.

Executive Produce Jilly Pearce says the PBS series is really about love and family and connection. The recipes tell the story of who we are.

The secret ingredient: Stories.

In the casting process, producers looked at the recipes, the contestants heritage and their personalities. The goal was to find the best home cooks living in the United States.

Because it was produced during the pandemic, contestants, show personnel and judges were separated from their families. Food, then, became a way for everyone to connect.

Jonathan Barzilay, the chief operating officer for PBS, called it a recipe for optimism.

The show really evolved as a concept during the pandemic, Pearce says. Hopefully, the audience will connect with that.

Because contestants are amateurs, they had to adapt to the changes found in a television cooking setting. When somebody is used to being able to cook something for like five hours and they have to adapt to one of our competition times, thats a big challenge, Pearce says.

Tiffany Derry, one of the shows judges, says contestants werent prepared for the intensity of the stovetops they were using. Theyd go, Its so hot. How did it cook so fast? It definitely was a challenge for them.

Those contestants also had to adapt their recipes to work in the setting. If they needed special tools, they were able to bring them from home.

It really told a story about their heritage, Pearce says. Some of those things had been in their family for years.

Because the contestants werent attempting anything too complex, home chefs could easily re-create the dishes.

Hopefully every viewer is going to see that with so many different cultures being represented, ingredients that they use and have in their pantry are probably different than what everybody has at home, judge Graham Elliot says. Hopefully, this will encourage them to go out and try some new things and experiment when those ingredients.

To make it a bit easier, there will be a cookbook to accompany the series.

If theres a challenge, its in sourcing the ingredients, says judge Leah Cohen. Find the right ones  at a Mexican or Asian grocery, for example  and a new world could open. I dont think we always value how great simple, delicious food is.

The Great American Recipe airs on PBS.
ASHEVILLE  The Blood Connection, a nonprofit community blood center that provides blood products to more than 100 hospitals in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia, warns it could be running on a 2-3-day supply of blood very soon.

The agency noted that only 3% of the population donates blood, but 1 in 7 people who enter a hospital will need a blood transfusion. The supply simply doesnt keep up with the demand. Historically, there is a higher demand for blood products in July. Without a stable blood supply, patients like 12-year-old Rhys Shaw, who battled acute T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma wouldnt have a fighting chance at survival. Cancer patients use 25% of donated blood for their treatments.

Blood donors of all types are urgently needed through the summer. Community members are urged to roll up their sleeves and donate blood. One donation can help up to three people.

Freedom Week at TBC was formed many years ago to anticipate and prepare for the decrease of blood donors in the summer months. This year, Freedom Week is June 26 through July 10. TBC will reward blood donors who give during that time period with a commemorative T-shirt and an e-gift card valued at $20.

While youre enjoying the holiday, please remember to make a blood donation for your fellow Americans who are depending on blood for surgeries and cancer treatments, said Delisa English, TBC president and CEO. Although you may never meet the person who receives your donation, youll feel good knowing youve done something miraculoussaving a neighbors life.

Visit thebloodconnection.org/donate or call 864-255-5000 to make an appointment. Blood donors must be healthy, weigh at least 110 pounds, and be 17 years old or 16 with written parental consent. Donors must bring a valid photo ID.
Every industry has been hit hard by staffing shortages, and law enforcement is no different.

Thats why the North Carolina State Highway Patrol will be hosting recruitment events Friday at eight Chick-fil-A restaurants across the state, including the one in Morganton on Burkemont Avenue.

Trooper C.M. Casey, who's stationed in Lincoln County and covers Lincoln, Burke and Catawba counties, is one of the state troopers who will be on hand for the event from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Were about 200 troopers short right now, Casey said. We need well-qualified applicants. Its no secret that right now were in a big hiring crunch. Thats why were doing events like the Chick-fil-A event just to get out there, touch base with people, let people know were hiring, to answer any questions they have, and just to meet people. Just to get out there and be seen, and let people know, hey, this is who we are, this is what were about, this is what were doing.

Were just touching base with people to let them know that were hiring and what were looking for, Casey said. We figured everyone goes to Chick-fil-A so why not go to Chick-fil-A? Thankfully they were gracious enough to let us come over there for a couple hours.

Casey said the patrol is looking for diverse, well-qualified applicants between the ages of 21 and 39 to answer the call of service. That means people who can mentally and physically handle the job, he said, and who have a passion to serve their community.

Its a tough call right now, and its a tough job, Casey said.

Applicants dont need prior law enforcement experience, Casey said. The patrol has two basic school options: the long school, which lasts 27 weeks, and the short school, which is only 14 weeks.

Students of the long school will earn both their basic law enforcement training and the extra training they need to become troopers. The short school is geared toward people who already are in law enforcement or have completed BLET on their own and need the additional training troopers receive.

To sweeten the deal, the patrol pays their recruits an annual salary of $44,500 while theyre in either of the patrol school programs. Once they complete patrol school, Casey said they get a $4,000 raise. Health benefits and the 401K kick in from day one.

A lot of people think, hey, I just dont know if I can do it, Casey said. Listen, were going to help you get through the process as far as the application process. Were going to send you to the patrol school, make sure youre adequately trained. So if you have any questions whatsoever, please, just reach out and talk to us.

Casey said he wanted to be in law enforcement since he was a kid.

Ive always wanted to, ever since I was young, do something in law enforcement, Casey said. I spent four years in the Marine Corps. I went in there right after high school and I really loved the Marine Corps and the military aspect of it, just the camaraderie of it.

He went to church with a state trooper who really encouraged him to apply.

He really talked to me, pushed it on me and told me to go apply, Casey said. That was back in 2005  Thats just something Ive always wanted to do. The highway patrol has just always sparked my interest.

He said hes stayed with the patrol because every day offers an opportunity to help someone.

You see people at their worst moment and their best moment, Casey said. You run into individuals that really just sometimes need your help and youre able to help them. You get to help a lot of people as far as keeping people safe. Unfortunately, there are a lot of bad people out there and you get to take those people off the road.

He said he gets to work with a good group of people, and likes that the work often is self-initiated.

Sometimes youre working by yourself or just a couple of other troopers in the county, and depending on the county, you might work a big county, Casey said. I like the fact that youre able to just go out and do your job.

Trooper J.D. Ellis, whos assigned to Burke County, came to the patrol after spending some time working in another industry. He said the pieces fell into place for him to become a trooper, and hes enjoyed the last three years hes worked for the agency.

Everything just worked out the way it was supposed to work out and everything happened for a reason, Ellis said.

He said he appreciates the camaraderie.

Getting into law enforcement in general was just something that I wanted to get involved in, Ellis said. Just being able to do something more than just working in a place with four walls.

Chrissy Murphy is a staff writer and can be reached at cmurphy@morganton.com or at 828-432-8941. Follow @cmurphyMNH on Twitter.

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Free lunches for all will end come the new school year but free breakfast will continue, the Burke County Board of Education heard during its June work session Monday evening.

Burke County Public Schools Superintendent Mike Swan told the board that the U.S. Department of Agriculture waiver offering free meals for all students is expiring on June 30. The free meals were offered to all families no matter the family income. He said the school system continues to voice its concerns at the state level for parents and the need for free meals.

Given the expiration of the free meals for all students, parents can start signing up for the free and reduced school meals starting July 1, Swan said.

To be considered for free lunch, families have to complete the Free and Reduced Meals form to determine whether a student is eligible for the upcoming school year, according to the school system. Summer meals remain free to anyone 18 and under, it says.

Swan said the school system will make the forms readily available through social media during school open houses. A link for the form also is on the front page of the school system website at burke.k12.nc.us.

The school system says parents or guardians should receive emails with a link to the application and watch for posts on its social media when applications become available July 1.

All students will still receive a free breakfast during the 2022-23 year, according to the school system.

The price of lunch for elementary students will be $2.60; middle and high school student meals will be $2.85; and adult meals will be $3.75, according to the school system.

Also during the meeting, Swan talked about school safety, in light of recent school shootings.

The school system has started a Superintendent Safety Council, which is made up of board Chair Wendi Craven and Vice Chair Aaron Johnson, Swan and some people in leadership positions in the system, as well as law enforcement. Swan said the next meeting will be July 13 and will include the Morganton Department of Public Safety and Burke County Sheriffs Office.

Swan told the board the sheriffs office is planning active shooter training in August at the former Chesterfield Elementary School. He said some school administrators and teachers already have been recruited as volunteers for the training.

During the meeting Monday, the school board also discussed the policy on wireless devices, with board member Seth Hunt saying teachers have a constant battle with students to get them to put away their devices during instructional time. He said the board needs to give staff members a very clear policy on confiscating wireless devices from students.

In addition, board member Tiana Beachler said the dress code, particularly for middle schools, needs to be tightened up or uphold the dress code that is already in place. She said shes heard from faculty and community members who are concerned with the issue.
WCI Inc., an employer-based membership organization headquartered in western North Carolina, has made a financial commitment of $250,000 to the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in Morganton.

NCSSM is a publicly funded residential high school available to talented North Carolina high school juniors and seniors. This gift will be funded through WCIs ability to raise money from regional sources that share a similar commitment to advancing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) high school education in the region.

Western Carolina Industries, or WCI, as its known today, has been an active supporter of the NCSSM campus in Morganton from the very early stages, originating when it was still just a dream for western North Carolina, said Fredrick Reese, WCI president.

That dream will become a reality when the school opens its doors to students for the first time this fall.

WCI is a regional nonprofit focused on helping employers build a workplace culture that engages their employees in the organizations purpose  a culture that builds sustainable harmony among employees.

WCI has been a strong supporter of advanced education from its early years going back to 1959, said Louis Bissette, chair of the board of directors of WCI and counsel at the McGuire Wood & Bissette Law Firm, based in Asheville. WCI member companies have been funding multiple partial scholarships for deserving high school students from western North Carolina to attend universities and community colleges for the past 30 years. The WCI board felt that the School of Science and Math  Morganton Campus provides an opportunity for WCI to take an active role in advancing the importance of STEM education in western North Carolina.

In recognition of the gift to NCSSM-Morganton, the leadership of NCSSM has decided to name the executive boardroom on the Morganton campus the WCI Board Room. The signage will read, Made possible by the generous support of the members and management of WCI Inc.
We live in a world that is constantly being divided into segments based on a variety of beliefs and opinions. Polarization makes it difficult for conversations, agreements and relationships to flourish.

One of the more controversial and divisive topics surrounds the inclusion, marriage and ordination of people who identify as LGBTQ. Families, churches and communities continue to struggle with these questions.

June is Pride month, an opportunity to learn about and from members of the LBGTQ community. It is an invitation to explore our similarities as we strive to be followers of Christ.

Western North Carolina is home to an estimated 50,000 to 80,000 people who identify as LGBTQ. The numbers are likely higher as many people are afraid to answer questions honestly. Fear and uncertainty are constant companions.

Forty percent of homeless youth in the U.S. identify as LGBTQ. Many are homeless because their families, communities and churches have decided that being a member of the LBGTQ community is unacceptable. They often find the streets to be safer and more welcoming than their families or churches.

Teen suicides within the LGBTQ community continue to escalate at rates higher than other parts of the teenage population. What are we doing as followers of Christ to live into the greatest commandment we have been given?

I give you a new commandment: love one another, Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another, Jesus tells his disciples in John 13:34.

How can love be so divisive?

There are many stories in the Bible about people who are considered outsiders being invited to follow Jesus. He welcomes each person. In Acts 8:26-40 we read about Philips encounter with a eunuch.

A eunuch is considered neither male, nor female  an outsider.

From the story, we know the eunuch has traveled to Jerusalem for worship. We also can imagine that because they are a eunuch, they were probably not able to participate in many aspects of worship. Yet, their strong faith led this person to make the trip as a faithful outsider and an eager student.

Then there is Philip, who a few chapters earlier, was chosen to serve as a deacon rather than as a minister. Philip has specific set duties to fulfill, yet on this deserted road, Philip feels called by the Holy Spirit to share the Gospel.

Philip knows neither how his companions will respond nor how the person traveling in the chariot will respond. Philip follows his heart and the nudging of the Holy Spirit to engage in a conversation with the eunuch.

In their meeting, the eunuch turns to Philip for assistance and guidance in understanding a passage from Isaiah. A conversation about faith without barriers ensues between two people seeking to follow and learn from Gods word. Their desires drive the interaction and the questions and a mutual respect evolves as stories are shared.

Philips deep faith in Jesus is evident. The eunuchs passion and desire for truth is obvious.

The eunuch asks, What is to prevent my being baptized?

I imagine the silence  a pregnant pause. Perhaps Philip experiences a few moments of discomfort and surprise. I hear the unspoken challenge from someone who has lived a life of exclusion. The vulnerability of waiting for a response. Am I really welcome? Am I worthy of baptism? Does Jesus love me?

Philip recognizes the transformation that has occurred and knows Jesus would never exclude this person or any person from baptism. Philip jumps in the water and baptizes the eunuch.

On this journey of following Jesus, there are no accidents. God puts people in our lives to teach us, guide us and love us. The meeting of Philip and the eunuch on a deserted road is an example of how God works. One-on-one conversations open doors that bypass doctrines and cause relationships to emerge.

Listening to stories of people who are different from us requires courage. It requires listening that comes from the heart without judgment and the willingness to see Gods divine light in everyone we meet.

Philip sets a tough example to follow by offering radical love to someone who is an outsider and displaying the courage that comes when we recognize the power of Christs love and our desire for others to experience that love. We must listen to the nudging of the Holy Spirit. We must put aside our differences and learn to walk in love for all.

In Galatians 3:28, the Apostle Paul writes: There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

We are one in the body of Christ, and we have all been given the same commandment, just as I have loved you, you must love one another.

Kathy Peters is a trained spiritual director and the pastoral care coordinator at Grace Episcopal Church in Morganton. Email her at care@gracemorganton.org.
After spending the night in Butte and before moving on to Missoula, a Bozeman man decided to head up to the Granite Mountain-Speculator Mine Memorial at 9:15 a.m. Friday to walk his dog.

Myles Armstrong, along with his lab, was driving up Main Street when he looked to his right onto East Woolman Street and saw what appeared to be a black bear laying off to the side of the road, just below the Steward Mine.

Armstrong decided to investigate and took a right at the next exit, went down Wyoming Street and then turned back on to Woolman. As he got closer, the young bear got up from his spot and headed for a yard across the street.

He got spooked, said Armstrong, and just scampered off.

(Video provided by Myles Armstrong)

From what he could tell, Armstrong believed the bear was looking for something. He just didnt know what. The Bozeman man videoed the encounter and immediately posted it on social media to warn people living in the area.

He also called the Butte police who contacted Butte-Silver Bow Animal Control and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks.

When officials arrived, the bear had already headed east, but was later spotted on the east side of the Berkeley Pit.

According to Shane Yaskus, a game warden with Montana FWP, the bear appeared to be around 2 years old, weighing less than 150 pounds. He was not sure if it was a male or female.

Yaskus warned residents living in the area that the bear may return. He also shared that there was another bear sighting on June 18, on East Park Street.

Keep your garbage secured, he warned. He may come back.

If the bear does return, he urges residents to call local law enforcement.

Morgan Jacobsen, communication and education program manager with Montana FWP, also urged residents to take down their bird feeders and store them between March and December.

They are a major attractant for bears, said Jacobsen.

In addition, residents should not leave their pet food outside.

These are simple things that residents and homeowners can do to reduce negative encounters with wildlife, said Jacobsen.

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Almost 104,000 acres spread across three designated wilderness study areas would be removed from their current protected status under a bill introduced in the U.S. Senate on Thursday by Montana Sen. Steve Daines.

Of the three wilderness study areas the largest is the 82,127-acre Middle Fork Judith in the Little Belt Mountains, managed by the Helena Lewis and Clark National Forest.

In its 2021 Forest Plan, the Forest Service decided not to recommend the Middle Fork Judith for wilderness due to existing uses occurring adjacent to the area that impact solitude, according to the agencys Decision Notice. However, the decision notice also stated the WSA meets the intent of the 1977 Wilderness Study Act, and as such would remain eligible for inclusion in the wilderness system.

The other two WSAs are the 11,380-acre Hoodoo Mountain and the 11,580-acre Wales Creek WSAs. Both are located in Powell County, north of Drummond, in the Garnet Mountains and are managed by the Bureau of Land Management.

In 2020 the BLM released a proposed Resource Management Plan that encompassed the two areas, identifying them as not having wilderness characteristics because they did not have 5,000 acres of roadless and contiguous BLM-managed land. The plan was challenged by the state of Montana and Wild Montana, formerly the Montana Wilderness Association, because the decision was authorized by William Perry Pendley. At the time, Pendley was only the acting BLM director and was never confirmed by the U.S. Senate. A federal judge agreed.

A 1984 U.S. Geological Survey report identified the southwest corner of the Wales Creek WSA to have high potential for gold and base metals. Mining occurred in the area in the 1890s, now memorialized by the historic ghost town of Garnet.

The BLM has indicated Hoodoo Mountain would be managed as a Backcountry Conservation Area to promote and support wildlife-dependent recreation opportunities and facilitate the long-term maintenance of big game wildlife populations, Daines press release stated. Portions of Wales Creek would be managed similarly, while other portions would receive further protections under an Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) designation.

Conservationists have denounced Daines proposal as once again skirting public participation, although Daines said the bill was developed with the help of 19 groups. Among the supporters of the bill that Daines cited are the Judith Basin and Powell County commissioners, motorized user groups, the Montana Farm Bureau and the Montana Outfitters and Guides Association.

Within the past two years, following a multi-year collaborative process with robust public comment, and using the best available science and spanning multiple Administrations, these areas were deemed unsuitable for wilderness management once again, Daines said in a statement. Now its past time we respond to this locally led planning direction and release them to general management of public lands.

The proposal also resurrects hard feelings from 2017 when Daines introduced a bill to eliminate 500,000 acres of WSAs in the state. That bill also targeted the Middle Fork Judith. At the same time, then Rep. Greg Gianforte  who is now governor of Montana  introduced legislation in the U.S. House to remove protections from 24 BLM-managed WSAs in Montana totaling 240,000 acres. Critics at the time denounced the proposals for not including constituents in the planning process.

Becky Edwards, executive director of Mountain Mamas in Bozeman, called Daines new bill a top-down approach. She pointed to a 2018 poll by the University of Montanas Crown of the Continent and Greater Yellowstone Initiative showing support for the states wildlands.

Walker Conynham, president of Hellgate Hunters and Anglers in Missoula, called the WSAs proposed for withdrawal great elk habitat.

Daines bill threatens some of Montanas best hunting country, he said in a statement. Montana hunters and Montana elk need more critical habitat protected, and this bill is a misguided leap in the wrong direction.

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7 boat skippers arrested for bringing 200 migrants from Algeria to Murcia



The migrants undertook the treacherous journey to Murcia in tiny, ill-equipped boats

The National Police in the Region of Murcia has arrested seven men, one of them a minor, for captaining boats responsible for transporting 200 migrants in treacherous conditions from Africa to the areas coasts. The skippers were reportedly part of a larger organisation which used small fiberglass boats with low-power engines to traverse the 120 nautical miles between Algeria and Cartagena

Officers questioned the hundreds of irregular immigrants that arrived on the Murcia coast and found that they were of several different nationalities: Algerian, Moroccan, Syrian and Tunisian. The journey they undertook was extremely dangerous, not least because in some cases, 15 or more people were crammed into tiny, ill-equipped boats.

The vessels, known as pateras, were only around five metres in length and lacked even the most basic safety measures such as life vests, flares or radio transmitters.

To fuel the journey, the captains carried several cans of petrol on the boats, creating an obvious fire risk. Six of the seven arrested skippers, all of Algerian nationality, have received prison sentences from the Murcia courts while the minor has been sent to a reform centre.

The National Police of the Region of Murcia has since reinforced security measures on the coast to deal with the arrival of migrant boats and fight against human traffickers.

Now read: Skipper of immigrant boat that sank off Mazarron coast claiming the lives of 11 people faces 8 years in jail

Image: Archive

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Mild and sunny weekend in store for much of Spain: weather forecast June 24-26



All of Spain will experience a significant decrease in temperatures compared to last weekend

In the matter of a week, Spain has gone from sweltering in the earliest heatwave of four decades , with temperatures exceeding 40C, to drastically cooler weather, with rain and even storms forecast this weekend in many areas. In general the mercury will dip below 30C in most communities with the notable exception of the Region of Murcia , which will continue to bake in the coming days.

The nights will become quite cool in many inland and northern areas, although the Mediterranean coast for the most part is in for a few more tropical nights, with the thermometers exceeding 20C.

Friday June 24

Following the trend of recent days, the northern part of the country will be cloudy on Friday, with showers and storms forecast around Cantabria and the Pyrenees, as well as in the northeast of Catalonia.

The haze is set to return to the Balearic Islands, while day-time temperatures throughout Spain will rise slightly.

Maximum and minimum temperatures:

Alicante: max: 31C; min: 19C

Almeria: max: 26C; min: 18C

Malaga: max: 33C; min: 20C

Murcia: max: 34C; min: 20C

Saturday June 25

An Atlantic front sweeping in over the northern half of the country will bring abundant cloudiness and rain that will move east as the day goes on, tending to lighten towards the west of Spain.

Occasionally strong storms may hit Aragon but the likelihood of heavy rain lessens further south.

The maximum temperatures will rise in the extreme southeast of the peninsula and will fall in Galicia, the Cantabrian area and areas of Catalonia.

Maximum and minimum temperatures:

Alicante: max: 29C; min: 19C

Almeria: max: 27C; min: 17C

Malaga: max: 35C; min: 23C

Murcia: max: 35C; min: 18C

Sunday June 26

Very little change is expected on Sunday, although the Balearic Islands will see another hazy start to the day, which could spread to the Eastern coast of Spain as the day goes on.

Day-time temperatures will drop in the northern half of the country as well as in the Valencian Community , with few changes elsewhere.

Maximum and minimum temperatures:

Alicante: max: 28C; min: 19C

Almeria: max: 28C; min: 17C

Malaga: max: 34C; min: 23C

Murcia: max: 32C; min: 17C

Images: Aemet
MUSCATINE  Even though 30 floats have registered to take part in the Independence Day community parade, the application deadline has been extended to Monday to give interested parties more of a chance to join.

After not having a parade in Muscatine since the beginning of the COVID-19 health crisis and street construction in the downtown area, the Greater Muscatine Chamber of Commerce and Industry will hold the parade again this year as part of its annual Muscatine Fourth of July Celebration. The event will be held at 4 p.m. Monday, July 4, in the downtown area.

The parade is an important part of the Fourth of July that the community looks forward to every year, Dena Ferreira, chamber marketing and events coordinator, said. Its great to have it back after a two-year hiatus because of the pandemic and street construction. GMCCI, Keep Muscatine Beautiful and other event partners held several big events last year so we are happy to get to add the parade in again this year in addition to everything else going on at the riverfront.

Independence Day will also include a kids parade at 9 a.m. from 2nd and Pine to the Musser Library; the Almost Fireworks Fest from 5 to 8 p.m. on the riverfront, featuring live music, food trucks, kids activities and a beverage tent; and the honor guard at Pearl City Station at 8 p.m. to help kick off the Muscatine Symphony Orchestra. Fireworks over the Mississippi will be at dusk.

Ferreira said Almost Fireworks Fest was new last year and is returning because of the huge success.

The chamber is still looking for people to volunteer to help during the Independence Day celebration, especially with parade lineup from 2 to 5 p.m. Interested parties can contact the chamber at 563-263-8895.

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MUSCATINE  Even the most caring and loving pet owner can sometimes make a mistake  and during the warmest months of the year, theres always room for extra precautions.

In her five years of working at Riverside Animal Hospital, Dr. Kelli Ruther shared that she has seen at least a couple of cases of animal heat stroke and other heat-related illnesses each year.

I wouldnt say that its super common, but we will see maybe one or two when it gets real hot, usually in the summer, Ruther explained. My brothers dog had heat stroke at one point, and I know that Animal Control in the Quad Cities had to deal with some recently, so its out there for sure. Theres definitely a risk when people are out walking or hiking with their dogs, so owners need to be cautious.

Above all else, the biggest piece of advice Ruther gave when it came to the subject of preventing animal heatstroke was to provide any and all furry companions with plenty of cold, fresh water available in order to keep them properly hydrated. She also recommended that this water get changed at least one to two times each day  especially if its outside  in order for it to keep its temperature as well as its freshness.

Another tip that Ruther recommended was to get walks done either in the early mornings or late evenings when the temperatures are cooler and cement or asphalt is less likely to be hot, reducing the risk of a dogs paw pads getting burned. One recommended way to test the heat of cement is to feel it with the back of your hand, and if you cant keep it there for 5 seconds, then its too hot for a dogs feet.

Understanding that some dogs enjoy being outside throughout the day, Ruther added that along with having access to a large amount of water, these outdoor dogs should also be given a source of shade or some sort of shelter with plenty of air flow, such as an open garage or dog house, so that they can get out of the sun and the heat whenever they need to.

When asked about the potential signs of heat stroke, Ruther recommended that pet owners pay close attention to their pets breathing, heart rate and energy levels.

If theyre breathing really heavily or are really lethargic and dont want to get up, these would be signs of heat stroke, she said. Once owners see this, they need to make sure that they get their pets into a cooler area and give them water. If it gets really severe, however, then they need to be brought to a veterinarian immediately.

One tip that isnt recommended, however, is placing an overheated animal in a tub of icy cold water, as this can send them into shock and put their life at greater risk.

You have to cool your animals down slowly, Ruther said.

Ruther also took time to emphasize the importance of not leaving dogs in a car when it is extremely hot outside, stating that for some breeds of dog, it may take only 20 minutes for it to die from overheating. According to research provided by the Animal Rescue League of Iowa, once outside temperatures reaches 80 degrees or higher, the inside of a car can reach temperatures of nearly 100 degrees in a matter of minutes.

Just having the window cracked isnt going to be enough to provide proper air flow, and even leaving your car on with the air conditioning running is still a risk because if the car shuts off for whatever reason and the owner doesnt know this, then its going to heat back up real fast, Ruther said. We just have to keep in mind that we wouldnt want to be in there because we couldnt survive in a hot car either, so we shouldnt leave our pets in there either.

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Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade; states can ban abortion

WASHINGTON (AP)  The Supreme Court has stripped away womens constitutional protections for abortion. It's a fundamental and deeply personal change for Americans' lives after nearly a half-century under the court's landmark Roe v. Wade decision. Friday's new ruling is likely to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states. The ruling by the high court's conservative majority was unthinkable just a few years ago. It was the culmination of decades of efforts by abortion opponents, made possible by an emboldened right side of the court that has been fortified by three appointees of former President Donald Trump. The ruling came more than a month after the stunning leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito.

Biden vows abortion fight, assails 'extreme' court ruling

WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden is vowing to try to preserve access to abortion after the Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade. He's calling for voters to elect more Democrats who would safeguard rights upended by the courts decision. Short of that, his options are limited. Biden assailed the ruling Friday, saying other legal precedents ensuring same-sex marriage and access to birth control could also be at risk. He says, This is an extreme and dangerous path this court is taking us on." Republicans and conservative leaders are celebrating the culmination of a decades-long campaign to undo the nationwide legalization of abortion that began with Roe v. Wade in 1973.

Congress sends landmark gun violence compromise to Biden

WASHINGTON (AP)  The House has sent President Joe Biden the most wide-ranging gun violence bill Congress has passed in decades. The bill that passed the House on Friday is a measured compromise that at once illustrates progress on the long-intractable issue and the deep-seated partisan divide that persists. The Democratic-led chamber approved the election-year legislation with every Democrat and 14 Republicans voting yes. That caps a spurt of action prompted by voters revulsion over last months mass shootings in New York and Texas. The Senate approved it earlier by a bipartisan 65-33 margin, with 15 Republicans joining all Democrats. The White House says Biden will sign the bill Saturday morning.

Some US clinics stop doing abortions as ruling takes hold

Abortion bans that were put on the books in some states in the event Roe v. Wade was overturned have started automatically going into effect, while clinics elsewhere  including Alabama, Texas and West Virginia  have stopped performing abortions for fear of prosecution, sending women away in tears. America was convulsed with anger, joy, fear and confusion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe. The canyon-like divide across the U.S. over the right to terminate a pregnancy was on full display, with abortion rights supporters calling it a dark day in history, while abortion foes welcomed the ruling as the answer to their prayers.

With Roe over, some fear rollback of LGBTQ and other rights

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP)  The U.S. Supreme Courts decision allowing states to ban abortion is stirring alarm among LGBTQ advocates. They fear that the ruling could someday allow a rollback of legal protections for gay relationships, including the right for same-sex couples to marry. In the majority opinion issued Friday that overturns the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, Justice Samuel Alito said the decision applied only to abortion. But critics discounted that statement. In a separate concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas said the court should review other precedents, including decisions legalizing same-sex marriage and striking down laws criminalizing gay sex. A protester at a Topeka, Kansas, abortion-rights rally said conservatives would not stop with abortion.

How US states have banned, limited or protected abortion

The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that had provided a constitutional right to abortion. Friday's ruling is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states. In anticipation of the decision, several states led by Democrats have taken steps to protect abortion access. The decision also sets up the potential for legal fights between the states over whether providers and those who help women obtain abortions can be sued or prosecuted.

Ukrainian army leaving battered city for fortified positions

KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Ukrainian officials say their country's forces are withdrawing from a besieged eastern city to move to stronger positions. The industrial city of Sievierodonetsk, the administrative center of the Luhansk region, has faced relentless Russian bombardment. Ukrainian troops fought the Russians in house-to-house battles before retreating to a huge chemical factory on the citys edge, where they holed up in its sprawling underground structures with civilians. Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said Friday that the Ukrainian troops have been ordered to leave Sievierodonetsk, which has been reduced mostly to rubble and seen its population decline from an estimated 100,000 to 10,000.

Juul can keep selling e-cigarettes as court blocks FDA ban

A federal court has put a temporary hold on the government's order for Juul to stop selling its electronic cigarettes. Juul filed the emergency motion so it can appeal the sales ban from the Food and Drug Administration. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington granted the request later Friday. A day earlier, the FDA said Juul must stop selling its vaping device and its cartridges. The agency said Juul didn't give it enough information to evaluate the potential health risks of its e-cigarettes. In its court filing, the company disagreed, saying it provided enough.

Airlines aim to shift blame for flight problems to FAA

DALLAS (AP)  With an eye on the upcoming July Fourth weekend, airlines are stepping up their criticism of federal officials over recent widespread flight delays and cancellations. The industry trade group Airlines for America said Friday that understaffing at the Federal Aviation Administration is crippling traffic along the East Coast. The airlines say they are doing everything they can to keep customers happy, including hiring more pilots and customer-service agents. The airlines are pushing back a week after Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called them to a virtual meeting and threatened to punish carriers that fail to meet consumer-protection standards.

Lightning win Game 5, deny Avs chance to take Stanley Cup

DENVER (AP)  The Tampa Bay Lightning spoiled Colorados party to stay in the hunt for a third straight Stanley Cup title, beating the Avalanche 3-2 on Friday night in Game 5. Ondrej Palat scored with 6:22 remaining and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 35 shots in front of a raucous crowd hoping to celebrate the Avalanches first championship in 21 years. The Cup was all shined up and in the building, too. Its heading back to Tampa for Game 6 on Sunday night, with the Lightning down 3-2 in the best-of-seven series. Nikita Kucherov and Jan Rutta also scored for the Lightning. Valeri Nichushkin and Cale Makar had goals for Colorado.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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In honor of Independence Day, The Muscatine Journal is providing unlimited access to all of our content from June 28th-July 4th! Presented by Quad City Bank & Trust
South Africas communications and digital technology department will table a plan to provide households with free basic data by the end-July for public comment.

Communications minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni revealed that the proposal is in the works during a media briefing on Friday, 24 June 2022.

She said the proposal forms part of the governments commitment to provide all South Africans with Internet access by 2024.

The proposals deadline coincides with the ANC policy conference that is also scheduled to take place by the end of July.

Among the topics in the ruling partys policy discussion documents, which were released ahead of the conference, is universal broadband service and access.

Ntshavheni said in response to parliamentary questions earlier this year that South Africa would provide 10GB of free data to every household within the next three years.

The proposed timeline is in parallel to the roll-out of the SA Connect Revised Model, which is planned to be completed within the next three years starting from 1 April 2022, the minister stated.

Ntshavhenis timeline aligns with the deadlines revealed in the National Infrastructure Plan 2050 released by public works minister Patricia de Lille.

The plan is for all households to have 50GB each month by the 2025/6 financial year. Its short-term goal is 10GB by 2023/24.

However, the National Infrastructure Plan differs from Ntshavhenis in one crucial aspect  it only suggests free basic data for low-income users.

Ntshavheni promised that government would provide 10GB of free data to every household in South Africa regardless of income level.

One possible way government could implement its plan to provide free basic data to South African households is through the broadband fund.

The communications department said earlier this year that it had requested funding from National Treasury to establish the Broadband Fund.

Its objective is to subsidise household connectivity and public Wi-Fi hotspots in low-income and rural communities nationwide through partnerships with private companies.

Ntshavheni said the proposal due at the end of July would outline the governments plan for offering free basic data.

Data has become the economic driver, she said.
South Africas last remaining analogue TV signals are ready to be switched off, and the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) is waiting for confirmation from the Constitutional Court for the final switch-off.

The final switch-off is scheduled for 30 June 2022, and communications minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said there are no expected delays.

The analogue switch-off date has been shifted to the 30th of June 2022 by the Gauteng High Court. There is no new date. We are awaiting the determination of the ConCourt, she said during a media briefing on Friday, 24 June.

E-tv-owner eMedia applied for leave to appeal the analogue switch-off dates with the Constitutional and Supreme Courts in early April 2022.

We are therefore eagerly awaiting the Constitutional Court decision on the analogue switch-off dates for us to conclude [the] broadcast digital migration, Ntshavheni said.

This will allow us to release spectrum in Gauteng, the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Eastern Cape.

The minister confirmed that the analogue switch-off in five provinces  namely the Northern Cape, North West, Mpumalanga, Free State, and Limpopo  had been completed.

And I must indicate, those provinces are fully migrated, she said.

Therefore, Icasa will be able to release the high-demand spectrum in these provinces as of the 1st of July 2022.

The release of the spectrum will enable telecommunications operators to decongest their networks through the deployment of 4G and 5G networks across the country, she added.

She explained that in recent times South Africans had experienced poor cellular connectivity, regardless of the province in which they live, due to high loads on mobile networks.

This will start being resolved come 1 July 2022 in the five provinces that have completed the transition to digital TV broadcasting.

The other provinces, including the economic hubs of Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), would continue to experience poorer connectivity.

Unfortunately, until the analogue switch-off is concluded, the countrys economic hubs of Gauteng and KZN will remain with poor network connectivity, she said.

She added that this would negatively impact South Africas economy and its residents.

The minister said that the DCDT had completed installations of decoder-like set-top boxes (STBs) in the Free State, Northern Cape, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and Gauteng.

However, she added that the department is completing the mop-up for Western Cape and the North West to verify completion status.

Flooding in KZN and the Eastern Cape has made it difficult for the department to complete its installations in the provinces.

The floods have severely impacted the STB installation rate in the provinces of KZN and Eastern Cape, Ntshavheni said.

This is due to damages to beneficiary houses and road infrastructure that has led to inaccessibility of some communities.

As a result, as of the 21st of June 2022, a total of 109,270 beneficiary households remain unconnected in the two Provinces, she added.

She explained that the department had also begun the next stage of installations across the five provinces that had completed installations by 30 June.

We have also commenced with installations for the end of September targets across the five provinces that have completed 30 June 2022 installations, with Western Cape and North-West yet to commence, the minister said.

To date, we have installed STBs to 44,424 households that are due for installations by 30 September 2022.
On May 17, as several states held their primary elections, Jesse Littlewood searched the internet using a tool called CrowdTangle to spot the false narratives he knew could change perceptions of the results: damaging stories about ballots being collected and dropped off in bulk by unauthorized people, who the misinformation peddlers called ballot mules.

Littlewood, the vice president for campaigns with the voter advocacy group Common Cause, easily came across dozens of posts showing a Wanted poster falsely accusing a woman of being a ballot mule in Gwinnett County, Georgia. He raised alarm bells with Facebook and Twitter.

This was going to lead to threats and intimidation of this individual who may be an elections worker, and there was no evidence that this person was doing anything illegal, Littlewood said.

It needed to be removed.

Meta Platforms Inc.s Facebook owns the search tool Littlewood used, and the company has for months kept its plans for CrowdTangle a mystery.

Meta has been reducing its support for the product. The company is expected to eventually scrap it and has declined to say when it plans to do so.

Not knowing the future of CrowdTangle or what Meta chooses to replace it with, Littlewood said, endangers planning for future elections.

The group has thousands of volunteers working in shifts to identify false information online, and CrowdTangle is indispensable to the process.

Erin McPike, a Meta spokesperson, said the company would continue to support researchers, with plans to make even more valuable tools for them.

In response to researchers concerns, she said the company would keep CrowdTangle alive for at least this years US midterms.

Elections officials and voting rights advocates are bracing for a repeat of the flood of misinformation that engulfed the 2020 presidential race online, resulting in real-world violence during the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Kate Starbird, an associate professor at the University of Washington and co-founder of the Center for an Informed Public, said that if Facebook must power down CrowdTangle, she hopes the company would create a viable alternative, which she said does not exist so far, and give researchers and journalists time to redesign their workflows around the new tool.

Not providing one would significantly limit the ability of researchers to help others counter real-time misinformation and could lead to voters being manipulated.

Common Causes work would be impossible to do without a tool that looks across Facebook, Littlewood said.

CrowdTangle gives insight into posts on Instagram, Twitter and Reddit too. And we all know that the midterms are testing grounds for 2024 when the level of disinformation will be even higher.

Researchers dont just rely on the tool but on the companies reacting to the harmful content reports they make.

Twitter removed the misinformation Littlewood flagged in May; on Facebook, which didnt respond to his warning, at least 16 of the posts remained in mid-June. Facebook took them down after media outlets, including ProPublica and Bloomberg News, reached out.

McPike, the spokesperson, said the CrowdTangle product experience for the 2022 midterm elections remains the same as it was for the 2020 election.

But researchers are already seeing a difference, pointing to a buggy experience as the company has siphoned off support for the tool over the past few months.

In February, Meta started an official internal process to shut down CrowdTangle but paused the plan as the Digital Services Act, a landmark law in Europe that aims to provide transparency into how Facebook, YouTube and other internet services amplify divisive content, gained traction, according to a person familiar with the matter.

CrowdTangle is still on track to be shut down eventually, the person said, with some Facebook engineers tasked with killing it.

Meta purchased CrowdTangle in 2016, saying at the time that it wanted to support news publishers in discovering how their content was performing on Facebook and Instagram, so they could improve their strategies.

A few months later, the company disclosed Russias campaign to influence the 2016 election by posting on social networks. As the public debated the spread of false information online, CrowdTangle became a tool not just for insight into social media strategy but manipulation.

It was uncomfortable for Meta; often, the company would try to publicly dispute the conclusions journalists and others drew from research on CrowdTangle.

Executives could no longer stomach supporting a feature that resulted in so many public relations crises for Meta.

The CrowdTangle team within Meta was disbanded in the summer of 2021, with its dozens of employees either quitting or getting new assignments in other parts of the company.

Meta also rescinded a $40,000 grant that aimed to help two research partners use the CrowdTangle data to understand public discussion around the Covid-19 pandemic.

Brandon Silverman, the former chief executive officer of CrowdTangle, departed from Facebook in October.

And in January of this year, Meta paused new users from getting access to CrowdTangle as it worked through what it said were staffing constraints.

It has not restarted the process of onboarding new partners to the service.

Recently, fewer than five engineers on Facebooks London integrity team were working on keeping CrowdTangle afloat, a person with knowledge of the matter said.

That leaves scant support for the tens of thousands of organizations that use the tool in their work, including leading fact-checking organizations around the world, such as Agence France-Presse in France and VERA Files in the Philippines, along with hundreds of other academics and researchers, news outlets, human rights activists in places like Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

No new features have been added to CrowdTangle in over 16 months. Before CrowdTangles disbanding, its team rolled out new updates several times a month and major new products every half-year.

Researchers worry that the products instability could become worse during major events as the computing load increases, said Cody Buntain, an assistant professor and social media researcher at the University of Maryland.

I would expect this load to change during the midterms, Buntain said. Theres legitimate concern about whether it will remain stable in the important time frame.

Cameron Hickey, director of the Algorithmic Transparency Institute at the National Conference on Citizenship, said his group is currently in the process of putting together a comprehensive monitoring list of every candidate on the ballot in 2022  and that this list, which thousands of voter advocate volunteers nationwide have access to, lives on CrowdTangle.

Meanwhile, Facebook has kept CrowdTangle closed off to groups dedicated to fighting misinformation on new charged topics in the news, such as advocacy groups that want to combat abortion misinformation on the verge of a major Supreme Court ruling that may overturn Roe v. Wade, he said.

For a transparency and research tool, Facebook is not adding needed enhancements that would benefit the research and transparency community, Hickey said.

He cited long-standing bugs on the platform and missing features, such as the ability to filter for posts that have already been fact-checked by Facebook.

Meta said that when it is made aware of a potential issue on CrowdTangle, it addresses it as quickly as possible. It added that the company provides another dedicated tool for its third-party fact-checkers to comb through its social media apps and label content that may be misleading.

Brandon Silverman, the former CEO of CrowdTangle, said that the research community the team worked with had long seen how impactful data sharing was but that CrowdTangle had struggled with how to tell that story broadly, including inside Meta.

Over the last few months, I think that has started to shift, he said in an interview. Theres an increased recognition that getting to some baseline transparency has to be one of the first steps forward.

The company has attempted to promote its other transparency reports, such as the Widely Viewed Content report it distributes every quarter, which was originally rolled out as a rebuttal to CrowdTangle data suggesting far-right personalities consistently dominate the platform.

But researchers say a polished report from Meta isnt as revealing as a tool they can use to ask their own questions.

The company shelved the first content report it compiled when Facebook executives, including Alex Schultz, the companys chief marketing officer, debated whether it would cause a public relations problem, according to the New York Times.

Most likely, insiders say, Facebook will roll out a tool that mimics some of the features of CrowdTangle without giving users full access to its original capabilities.

The company has assigned its data transparency team to work on a replacement tool in a privacy-safe way, it said. So far, its efforts fall short, researchers say.

Those who have access to a separate post-searching tool for academic research say its much less user-friendly.

Buntain, the researcher at the University of Maryland, said that researchers who want to use it must know how to code to extract analysis from the data set and that academics dont have insight into how Meta compiles the data it provides.

In fact, researchers previously caught a mistake by Facebook when they found a discrepancy between the data it provided to its research community and the data it released publicly through its Widely Viewed Content report.

The data provided to the researchers had left out about half of Facebooks US users  the ones who engaged with political pages enough to make their political leanings clear.

That incident showed the value of multiple points of view into data, Buntain said.

CrowdTangle is unmatched in its usability, the speed with which you can get insights, and the ease with which you can get insights, Buntain added. That cant be overstated.
The Napa County District Attorneys Office announced Thursday afternoon that it had filed misdemeanor drunken driving charges against Paul Pelosi, husband of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The charges are connected to an arrest of Pelosi on the night of May 28 after a two-car crash on Highway 29 in Oakville.

The two charges include: driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury, and driving with a .08% blood alcohol level or higher and causing injury, according to a Napa DA press release.

The California Highway Patrol reported at the time that Pelosi was driving a 2021 Porsche east on Walnut lane across Highway 29 when his vehicle collided with a 2014 Jeep on Oakville Cross Road at 10:17 p.m. A blood sample taken from Pelosi at 12:32 a.m. found that Pelosis blood sample had a .082% blood alcohol content according to a California Department of Justice test, the DA's press release says.

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The press release notes that the DUI charges can be filed as a misdemeanor or felony under California law, but that the office has decided to file the lesser charges based on the extent of the injuries suffered by the victim.

This decision is consistent with how our office handles these cases with similar injuries, the press release says.

The punishment for those misdemeanor charges, the press release says, includes fines and fees, up to five years of probation, a minimum of five days in jail, installation of an ignition interlock device and completion of a court ordered drunken driver class, among others.

After the arrest, the prosecutor's office said it was flooded with angry calls after right-wing media figures spread false rumors that the DUI charges against Pelosi had been dropped. Those who fanned the flames of the false information on Twitter included Congresswoman Lauren Boebert and Donald Trump Jr.

Henry Wofford, public information officer for the Napa County Sheriffs office  which is working with the district attorney on the case  said at the time that the office is used to dealing with inaccurate information and is happy to educate the public, but the volume of calls this week has been significantly higher than usual.

Theres been bad information pushed out and sometimes the rumors can, they travel quickly on social media, he said. If something doesnt sound right we encourage them to check out our social media web pages or give us a call to check whether its accurate or not.

Pelosis next court date is scheduled for Aug. 3 in Napa County Superior Court.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a New York state law that had restricted who could obtain a permit to carry a gun in public. Under the law in place since 1913, New York residents needed to show proper cause, or an actual need, to carry a concealed handgun in public for self-defense..

The justices said that law conflicts with the Second Amendment's right to bear arms. It drew swift reaction from New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat who called the decision reckless and said she was prepared to call the Legislature back into session to form a response.

We do not need people entering our subways, our restaurants and movie theaters with concealed weapons," she said. "We dont need more guns on our streets.

New York and a half a dozen other states with similar laws now must decide their next steps. As with New York, California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island all have legislatures controlled by Democrats who could propose measures to ensure that guns will not be allowed in certain places.

Gun rights groups in those states have vowed to continue pushing back against what they view as restrictive gun control laws. Some of those cases eventually could make their way to the nation's high court. A rundown of the similar laws in the other states, reaction to the Supreme Court ruling and what could happen next:

CALIFORNIA

The courts ruling will likely affect Californias strict permitting laws, said Californias attorney general and gun owners rights organizations.

Attorney General Rob Bonta told California law enforcement agencies in a letter earlier this month that given Californias similar, good cause standard, the decision may impact California laws regarding the carrying of firearms in public places. He said many aspects of Californias law might remain untouched, despite the ruling.

Nearly two-thirds of Californias 58 counties already eased their standards for granting concealed weapons permits after a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the states concealed carry standard in 2014, said attorney Chuck Michel, president of the California Rifle and Pistol Association.

They kept the more permissive standard even after a larger appellate panel reversed the decision two years later, said Michel, who wrote a book on Californias strict gun laws.

At issue is the standard that local officials  usually sheriffs, but sometimes police chiefs  use when considering who should be allowed to carry a concealed weapon outside the house. Gun rights advocates say the court overturning the New York law means California must join the 43 states that have what are considered shall issue standards. Those generally require officials to issue permits unless there is some reason that an individual should be denied.

Of Californias 58 counties, 37 already grant permits if an applicant requests it for self defense. That effectively makes them shall issue counties, advocates said. The other 21 counties have tighter standards, for example requiring applicants to demonstrate that they have business-related or professional risks that justify them being armed.

The Supreme Court decision not only affirms that laws prohibiting licensed public concealed carry of firearms for self-defense violates the Constitution, but also that courts have been applying the wrong approach to evaluating the constitutionality of gun control laws, Michel said.

Michels organization plans to immediately send the 21 counties legal notices that they must ease their standards in light of the Supreme Courts decision. He also plans to ask the 9th Circuit to rule on his latest legal challenge to Californias good cause standard, a decision that has been on hold awaiting the U. S. Supreme Courts decision in the New York case.

Sam Paredes, executive director of Gun Owners of California, said his organization expects to quickly sue California to force it to adopt the standard set in the New York decision, and to sue local jurisdictions if they dont adopt the high courts ruling.

HAWAII

Hawaii has among the strictest gun laws in the nation. So strict, said attorney Alan Beck, that Hawaii essentially bans carrying guns outside the home. It has been practically impossible to get a permit to carry a loaded gun in public, he said. In the past 22 years, there have been four permits issued in Hawaii, said Beck, who represents various residents challenging Hawaii gun laws.

The state attorney generals office has argued that its not a flat-out ban because people can carry firearms if they have good cause. County police chiefs in Hawaii have had the discretion in determining whether to issue a carry permit, something the Supreme Court now says is too restrictive. Without a carry permit, people have been allowed to keep firearms in the home and can transport them  unloaded and locked up  to firing ranges and other limited locations such as for repairs.

One of Becks clients is George Young, a Big Island resident who wants to carry a gun for self-defense. Young doesnt care if its concealed or open carry. The favorable ruling in the New York case means Youngs lawsuit would prevail, Beck said.

The Hawaii Rifle Association anticipates that lawmakers now will work to make it difficult to obtain permits, whether its outrageous training requirements or exorbitant fees, said Kainoa Kaku, the associations president.

Were prepared to train potential concealed carry permit holders for whatever ridiculous requirements the state is going to ask of them, Kaku said.

State Sen. Chris Lee said lawmakers have been getting ready by introducing bills in the last couple of years that would establish training for those who are licensed to carry weapons. He called Thursday's ruling frustrating.

I think theres going to be a rush to figure out how states can intervene and ensure public safety, he said, adding that lawmakers will be looking at screening, training requirements and ways to keep guns out of public spaces.

Chris Marvin, a Hawaii resident with Everytown for Gun Safety, said lawmakers also could consider legislation that carefully vets applicants for a carry permit and rules to keep guns out of locations such as protests, polling places, state land and schools.

Allowing nearly all civilians to carry guns would be a big cultural shift for Hawaii, Marvin said.

We live in a place that a lot of people call paradise, and theyre usually talking about the weather. But from a safety standpoint and violence standpoint, we live in a place that is a relative paradise to the rest of the country," he said. "We are not perfect and we certainly have our share of violent incidences, but it would be really strange to be walking down Waikiki Beach and see someone with a side arm visibly on their hip.

MARYLAND

Under current law, a gun owner in Maryland has to show a good or substantial reason to carry a concealed gun. That could include showing a persons life is in danger from threats or that they work in a job that could put them in contact with people who are dangerous.

Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh said the laws are similar to New York's, but they take different approaches. He said he was examining today's ruling to determine its impact on the state.

Todays decision means more deaths and more pain in a country already awash in gun violence," Frosh said in a statement. "If the norm is that people can carry firearms, our neighborhoods, our streets and other public places will become more dangerous. It will make the lives of law enforcement more difficult and more perilous.

The epidemic of gun violence sweeping our nation demonstrates daily the folly of introducing more guns into this boiling cauldron.

Opponents to the law in Maryland already have sued, in a case that has been on hold in the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, pending the ruling in the New York case.

Mark Pennak, president of Maryland Shall Issue, a gun-rights group that is challenging the Maryland law, said the group is absolutely ecstatic about the courts ruling.

It confirms what weve always believed  that the right of self-defense extends outside the home, he said.

Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson and House Speaker Adrienne Jones, who are both Democrats, said they will review the ruling and pass new gun control legislation if necessary.

More guns in public means more violence, and more violence means more death and heartache everywhere. This is the wrong answer," they said in a joint statement. The Second Amendment permits reasonable restrictions on the right to carry a firearm.

MASSACHUSETTS

Massachusetts law had given local police chiefs the power to decide whether someone is suitable to have a license to carry a handgun. Police chiefs have been able to deny applicants if they determine that the person would pose a risk to public safety, for reasons such as a history of domestic violence. Those who are denied can appeal to their local district court.

The law says those deemed suitable can get a license to carry if they show good reason to fear injury to themselves or their property or for any other reason, including for use in sport or target practice only.

Whats considered a good reason has been up to police chiefs, who vary in what they require of applicants to meet that standard. Some demand that applicants show they have a reason to fear injury that distinguishes them from the general population in order to get an unrestricted license.

Massachusetts courts have ruled that if someone cant show a good reason to fear injury, police chiefs can put restrictions on licenses that limit when someone can carry a firearm.

State Attorney General Maura Healey said Thursday that she stands by the states commonsense gun laws and will continue to vigorously defend and enforce them. The office has not responded to questions from The Associated Press about to what extent Massachusetts law will be affected by the ruling.

Jason Guida, former director of the Massachusetts Firearms Records Bureau who now works as a lawyer representing gun owners, said he expects to see a flurry of challenges to gun licensing restrictions in certain communities, like Boston, that courts have upheld in the past.

Communities that restrict gun owners licenses for certain purposes unless applicants show a special need for self-defense will need to rewrite their policies: Otherwise, theres a strong likelihood in the very near future that these communities will find themselves in federal court, he said.

State Rep. David Linksy, a Democrat who has advocated for gun control measures, said he is still examining the ruling but is deeply concerned about its potential effect on police chiefs ability to use their discretion when issuing gun licenses.

The end result is there will be an increase in gun violence," he said. There will be people killed, there will be people injured, and we will all be less safe.

A federal judge wrote in a 2017 case that Massachusetts law is in some respects less restrictive than New Yorks because Massachusetts allows  but doesnt demand that police chiefs require applicants to demonstrate a special need for self-defense before being issued an unrestricted license.

Democratic state Rep. Michael Day, House chair of the Legislatures Judiciary Committee, said that lawmakers are trying to sort out what actions they will take in response to the ruling.

Were taking a look at that to see exactly what it means and what it doesnt, but anything thats been loosened up were confident we will be able to tighten back up, he said.

NEW JERSEY

New Jersey residents no longer must prove justifiable need to carry a handgun in light of the Supreme Courts decision Thursday, but permits are still required, the states top law enforcement officer said.

Acting Attorney General Matthew Platkin said in a phone interview that the high courts ruling in the New York state case effectively struck down New Jerseys requirement that residents seeking carry permits show they face significant threats and have a justifiable need to get a carry permit.

But, he added, the other requirements under New Jersey law still stand. Among them is safety training and a prohibition against certain convicts. As for how soon the change goes into effect, Platkin said he will issue guidance imminently.

New Jerseys gun laws are among the tightest in the nation and got even stricter after former Republican Gov. Chris Christie left office in 2018. He was succeeded by Democrat Phil Murphy, who signed a handful of new bills into law.

Among them were magazine size restrictions and a red flag law. Getting a carry permit in New Jersey is widely considered difficult, and the states justifiable need requirement paralleled New Yorks proper cause provision that was just thrown out by the high court.

On Thursday, Murphy called the Supreme Court decision tragic.

Based on a deeply flawed constitutional methodology, a right-wing majority on the United States Supreme Court has just said that states can no longer decide for ourselves how best to limit the proliferation of firearms in the public sphere," he said.

Gun rights advocates in New Jersey hailed the ruling. Scott Bach, executive director of the Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs, said it spells the end for New Jerseys decades-long interference with the peoples fundamental right of self-defense with a firearm outside the home.

Gun rights groups already are challenging New Jerseys right-to-carry laws in courts, as well as the magazine limit. Those cases are pending.

___

NEW YORK

The New York law struck down Thursday, in place since 1913, said that to carry a handgun outside the home, a person applying for a license had to demonstrate proper cause, an actual need to carry the weapon.

The law doesnt define what proper cause means and gave local officials  often a police department or town justice  discretion when deciding whether to issue licenses. In practice, it meant most applicants had to show a need that went beyond routine public safety concerns, like being in a profession that put them at special risk.

Lawmakers could add new permitting conditions now that the court has ruled, such as requiring firearm training or a mental health evaluation, or disqualifying applicants with certain types of criminal convictions.

Lawmakers also could pass a law specifying where people cant carry concealed weapons  a list that could include public transit systems, school zones, bars, parks, government offices or polling places.

Supporters of New Yorks handgun limits have said one of their fears is that by creating a marketplace for handguns that now barely exists in the state, it will lead to more pistols getting into the hands of prohibited buyers.

RHODE ISLAND

The state attorney generals office said there are similarities between Rhode Island's law and the one in New York that was struck down, but also important differences between the two states statutory schemes for concealed carry permits.

Rhode Island has separate laws dealing with permits issued from municipalities and permits issued from the state attorney generals office. In 2018, the office filed an amicus brief in a case to defend the constitutionality of a Massachusetts gun law, noting that Rhode Islands concealed carry permit has been upheld by the Rhode Island Supreme Court. The court found that the state constitutional right to keep and bear arms is an individual right, subject to reasonable regulation by the state.

The attorney general and governors offices said they would review the Supreme Court decision for its impacts on the state. The Rhode Island 2nd Amendment Coalition did not immediately respond to requests for comment about whether it would seek to challenge the permitting process in Rhode Island.

Any response from the legislature would likely have to wait until next year, but Democratic state Rep. Robert Craven said Thursday he wasnt surprised by the ruling.

I see the court headed in that direction, he said. Its taking a stricter interpretation that the Second Amendment is absolute -- It says what it says, you have a right to bear arms.

Craven, an attorney and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, questioned whether the court will now use that same thought process for cases about banning military-style weapons.

Associated Press writers Mike Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey; Jennifer Kelleher in Honolulu; Jennifer McDermott in Providence, Rhode Island; Alanna Durkin Richer and Steve LeBlanc in Boston; Don Thompson in Sacramento, California; Marina Villeneuve in Albany, New York; and Brian Witte in Annapolis, Maryland, contributed to this report.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
SAN FRANCISCO  The first week of school was supposed to mark a triumphant return to classrooms at San Franciscos Everett Middle School after more than a year of distance learning.

But as computer science teacher Yesi Castro-Mitchell welcomed a class of sixth graders last fall, a student started punching her, again and again.

Castro-Mitchell wrapped her arms around her head and hoped for the blows to stop. She remembers the stunned silence in her classroom as other students witnessed the assault. The teacher suffered a concussion, a dislocated jaw, chipped teeth and hearing loss in her left ear that now requires a hearing aid.

Across America, one of the nations most difficult academic years was also one of the most violent. Experts who track school behavior nationwide said fights and other aggressive behavior, including shootings, appear to have increased. Now, with students heading out on summer break, schools are taking stock of what went wrong and how to fix it.

At Everett, many of this years problems were no different than before the pandemic, but they were absolutely greater in severity, intensity and frequency, said Cris Garza, a teacher at Everett for eight years and the teachers union representative.

In addition to the attack on the teacher, fights broke out almost daily among students, according to several teachers and parents. One brawl left a student hospitalized for at least two days. In other incidents, packs of students would barge into classrooms, disrupting lessons and sometimes destroying school property.

Educators and psychologists say the pandemic contributed to the volatility in schools by causing a surge in student mental health problems, trauma at home, a lack of socializing opportunities, and a shortage of teachers and counselors that reduced adult supervision and guidance.

There is no national data that tracks school fights and assaults, but education officials across the country say violence erupted more often and more fiercely.

Without doubt, we are hearing across the board that schools are experiencing significantly more crises related to school violence and emotional behavioral crises, said Sharon Hoover, co-director of the National Center for School Mental Health at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

The same issues are likely to resurface in the fall, she said, if struggling adolescents dont get the help and structure they need.

Students at Everett felt the pandemics effects acutely. About 70% of the schools 600 students are Latino, many are English learners and most are economically disadvantaged. Many lost parents or grandparents to COVID-19 or lost their homes because families couldnt pay rent, said school social worker Bridget Early.

Castro-Mitchell said nobody warned her that her attacker had a history of behavioral problems. After the assault, the teacher transferred to another school but left before the end of the year as she struggled with PTSD.

Several Everett staff members complained that a pandemic rule intended to improve air circulation had the unintended effect of inviting misbehavior. Teachers were not allowed to close and lock classroom doors, and groups of students who skipped class would roam the halls and burst into other classes in session.

Reports from members of the National Association of School Resource Officers suggest there were more weapons on school campuses, more assaults and more fist fights across the country, said Mo Canady, the groups executive director.

The Clark County School District in Las Vegas, one of the countrys largest, has said it will provide teachers with panic buttons after an increase in violence, including an April attack on a teacher that left her unconscious in her classroom. The districts police chief, Mike Blackeye, said the 2021-22 school year was the busiest in his departments 40-year history.

Hoover said when the pandemic hit, young people in particular lost what gave their lives structure: They were cut off from going to school and isolated from peers.

Many schools have tried to address the underlying causes.

When students returned to Savanna High School in Anaheim, California, it was fight after fight after fight, said Penny Hatzis, the schools lead counselor. The school hired a specialist in restorative justice, which emphasizes mediation over punishment, although they are looking for more balance with discipline next year. In October, they used grant money to open a relaxation room, where students could talk to a mental health counselor.

We got it open, and we saw a humongous decline in fights and discipline issues. It was night and day, Hatzis said. The school also held support groups for students who suffered loss, LGBTQ+ students and others  sometimes several in one day.

A freshman at Savanna, Clara Oliver, struggled with anxiety that intensified when she returned to in-person school and found it difficult to carry out face-to-face conversations with classmates. For her, the relaxation room became a refuge. Eventually talking to people became easier.

The room would give us a break from everything, she said. When we were stressed out about school, we would just go to that room. There was someone to talk to, there were snacks, there were fidget toys and card games. We could relax, then go back to class and continue our day.

At Everett, school officials attempted a January reset, with new strategies to bring students together, efforts to make lessons more fun and more social-emotional work with kids, Early said.

But they couldnt pull it off. As elsewhere, the omicron-led surge of the coronavirus sidelined educators, deepening a staffing crisis at the school where there was already a shortage of security guards and substitutes.

In a year where mental health was more important than ever, Early said, she spent most of her time putting out fires. She frequently served as a substitute.

Parents worried about their childrens safety and encouraged them to steer clear of danger zones.

My son did not usually use the bathrooms. He would wait until school was over, said Dheyanira Calahorrano, mother of a seventh grader who had no science teacher, no music teacher and no gym teacher for several months.

Principal Esther Fensel resigned at the end of the school year and did not respond to interview requests.

A spokesperson for the San Francisco Unified School District, Laura Dudnick, said Everett, like many other schools, struggled with the rise of student mental health challenges and staffing shortages.

During the year, she said the district hired an additional security guard, increased substitute coverage and required students to lock up cellphones during class.

Next year, Early said, the school will open a grant-funded wellness center with an on-site therapist and other staff to focus on students social and emotional needs.

What all kids need, especially kids who experience trauma, is consistency and stability," Early said. "We could not provide that for them the whole year.

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The 39th annual Home Winemakers Classic will return July 9, 2022, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at the Napa Valley Marriott Hotel & Spa. It is a benefit for the Mt. Veeder Fire Safe Council.

The event was canceled in 2020 and held virtually last year, said Cindy Kerson, Home Winemakers Classic event chair and board member of the Mt. Veeder Fire Safe Council.

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This year, we have over 20 home winemakers, judging, sponsorships and a silent auction with wines from some of Napa Valleys top wineries. Its fun for everyone. The home winemakers are unbonded and cant sell their wine, so its the only place to taste their fantastic offerings.

While the event promises to be a rollicking good time, the cause is a serious one. This event originated in 1982 by the Dry Creek-Lokoya Volunteer Fire Department as a way to raise money for their volunteer efforts.

In 2021, the Mt. Veeder Fire Safe Council took over the event. The council is a separate nonprofit organization made up of a group of local residents and property owners who work together with the Dry Creek-Lokoya Volunteer Fire Department and organizations like the Napa Communities Fire Wise Foundation to reduce the risk of wildland fires.

Among its other educational programs, the council runs the volunteer community outreach and education program, Neighbors in Need, helping those too infirm or unable to reduce fuel around their homes at no cost to the home occupant. Kerson said they work 10 to 12 projects a year. Volunteers also conduct residential wildfire risk evaluations.

Kerson has a personal connection to the Mt. Veeder volunteer fire department.

I first learned about them in 2017, when they saved my house, she said. The first Home Winemakers Classic events were to support the firehouse. Now it goes to help Neighbors in Need.

She stressed that the wines to be sampled are of excellent quality.

People should know this isnt junk wine. Some of the judges are very well-known professional winemakers, some are wine chemists; this isnt amateur judging but an impressive group of respected judges. Every year we award the Nathan Fay Award for Best in Show, named after one of the first home winemakers.

Fay was a renowned grape grower about whom a 2001 Wine Spectator article said, Stag's Leap Wine Cellars founder Warren Winiarski attributes his decision to settle in the Stags Leap District to the superb quality of Fay's homemade wines, especially the 1968 Cabernet.

In fact, several previous contenders in the Home Winemakers Classic have joined the winemaking industry.

David Huang and Clint Holdsworth now are co-presidents and managing partners of David Clinton Wine Cellars.

We met as neighbors and a small group of us started making wine under the name of Double Barrel, said Huang, who is also a practicing physician. We made cabernet and merlot with the first vintage in 2005. It was pretty good. I started taking wine classes at night after work.

We entered the Home Winemaker competition and got compliments, which was encouraging, said Holdsworth. Theres a lot of trading going on between the winemakers. The competition is social and open, with winemakers trading information. Theres a lot of information sharing and winemakers from all over; like Monterey and the Central Valley. Its interesting to hear their perspectives.

Another gratifying aspect of the Home Winemaker event is in giving a bottle of wine to another winemaker; its personal and unique. You get great feedback and its good to get a critical review. It brings people together and establishes relationships.

Huang added, The Home Winemaker Classic is a way to share with friends and a good community event.

Kari Auringer is the winemaker for Cornerstone Cellars in Yountville and consulting winemakers for both Silver Trident Winery in Yountville and Work Vineyard in Calistoga. She first made a Zinfandel in her backyard with grapes from Amador County in 2001 and entered the Home Winemakers event in 2004.

I have a photo from that Classic and it looks like I won two first place ribbons and a third-place ribbon, she said when asked about early successes. At the second event in 2005 I won a first and a third-place ribbon.

What advice would she give to other amateur winemakers?

I suggest that you taste and evaluate as much wine as you can, said Auringer. See what others are doing and ask questions. Most people are happy to share their knowledge and offer advice. Make connections and stay in contact with fellow winemakers. Start a tasting group with fellow home winemakers.

Huang and Holdsworth offered their advice. Its fun but some education in science is critical, said Holdsworth. Were fortunate to live in Napa and have access to good quality fruit. Its important to have the right equipment, whether rented, borrowed or bought. Winemaking is time sensitive, so you must be ready to go with what you need.

Id say have a wine group with different tastes and backgrounds, said Huang. Its more fun that way. Take classes to get the science background. Learn the mistakes to avoid.

Retired Napa County Fire Company Station 16, the Dry Creek-Lokoya Volunteer Fire Department, Fire Captain Gary Green praised the Home Winemakers Classic. Its a great mini conference where the winemakers can talk to each other and the public can taste great wines, he said. The money raised supports the defense of peoples homes in the area and thats a wonderful cause.

Organizers of the 39th Home Winemakers Classic hope to raise $30,000 for the MVFSC in their fire safe outreach efforts.

For tickets and more information homewinemakersclassic.com.
According to information published by the Chinese MoD on June 24, 2022, the Chinese Type 056A corvettes Bazhong (Hull No. 625) and Enshi (Hull No. 627) carried out a joint patrol with two Vietnamese naval ships together in the waters of the Beibu Gulf. The two navies also held a joint search and rescue exercise in the Beibu Gulf.

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PLA Navy's Type 056A corvette (Picture source: Chinese MoD)

At about 8 a.m., the warships for the joint patrol mission from both sides arrived at the assembly location and began to patrol in the double line abreast formation along the China-Vietnam maritime boundary in the Beibu Gulf. The two sides also took turns to undertake the command of the joint patrol to strengthen maritime cooperation capabilities.

It has been the 32nd joint patrol since China and Vietnam signed the Agreement on Joint Patrols by the Navies of China and Vietnam in the Beibu Gulf in 2005.

On the basis of normalized joint patrols, the naval vessels from the two countries will also conduct drills on subjects of communication and fleet maneuver.

About Type 056 corvette

The Type 056 light frigate (NATO reporting name: Jiangdao-class corvette) is a class of warship deployed by the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). The first Type 056 entered service in February 2013. The anti-submarine warfare (ASW) variant, commonly known as Type 056A, has also entered service.

The Type 056 corvette has a crew of 78 people with a top speed of 25 knots (46 km/h), and a range of 3,500 nautical miles (6,500 km) at 16 knots (30 km/h).

Surface armament is reported as an AK-176 76 mm naval gun, two H/PJ-17 30 mm autocannons, and four YJ-83 anti-ship missiles. FL-3000N surface-to-air missiles are carried in a single eight-cell launcher. Finally, there are two triple-tube 324 mm torpedo launchers, which may carry Yu-7 light ASW torpedoes.
US envoy to Armenia meets with head of Yezidi Center for Human Rights

Yerevan, Marseille expanding 30-year partnership (VIDEO)

Armenia, Turkey special representatives next meeting slated for July 1

Turkish company intends to transfer three Bayraktar drones to Ukraine

FLYONE Armenia to operate regular direct flights between Yerevan, St. Petersburg

Families of Armenian captives in Azerbaijan protesting outside Russia consulate in Gyumri

State Department: OSCE MG mediator from Russia didn't accept invitation to discuss Karabakh

Armenia parliament speaker to Russia State Duma deputy chair: Key of success is effective dialogue of our leaders

Armenia premier congratulates Georgia colleague

Another case of high treason exposed in Armenia

Upper Lars motorway section leading to Georgia-Russia border is closed to all vehicles

Armenia parliament special session continues

Copper rises in price

World oil prices on the rise

Armenian FM and Greek President discuss Karabakh issue

Newspaper: Why are authorities in hurry to hold snap elections in Yerevan?

Newspaper: Armenia Supreme Judicial Council acting chair uses colorful expressions against PM Pashinyan

France proposes to import oil from Iran, Venezuela

Moscow Exchange starts trades in Armenia national currency

Instagram scanning faces of its users

Iran FM meets with Turkeys Erdogan

White House announces conversation between Biden and Jinping in coming weeks

Georgia confirms: Traffic restored at 136th km of the Mtskheta-Stepantsminda-Lars road

EU countries agree to fill all gas storage facilities to at least 80% by next winter

Traffic restored at Lars, road is open

Erdogan promises to document 'hypocrisy' of Sweden and Finland

Armenia Economy Minister: Transport communication with Russia will be restored within two hours

EU energy ministers agree on energy conservation laws

Increased imports force Armenian producers out of domestic market

Scholz says return to pre-war relations with Russia is impossible

Armenia FM: Azerbaijan continues to hold Armenian POWs and civilians hostage

Israel to work with world powers to influence any deal with Iran

Azerbaijanis moving cross-stone on road of Berdzor

NATO to increase size of its rapid reaction force by almost eight times

'Armenian Genocide: Evidence from the German Foreign Office Archives, 1915-1916' published in Persian

Mohammad Bagheri says Iran will respond to Israeli intervention in region

Representatives of ICRC office in Baku visit Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijan

Robert Habeck: Gas shortage this winter could lead to 'serious economic crisis in Europe'

Armenia FM: OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs play key role in Karabakh conflict settlement

US, European officials look forward to NATO summit to make progress on Finnish and Swedish accession

Leaders of NATO, Turkey, Sweden and Finland meet in Madrid

Zelenskyy tells G7 leaders he wants war in Ukraine to end by the end of 2022

Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia to hold joint military exercises

G7 leaders to support Ukraine for as long as it takes

EEU to provide duty-free import quotas for cheese, alcohol infusions to Serbia in 2023

Turkey announces creation of grain operations center

Dollar, euro go up after long decline in Armenia

Armenia premier: Reforming education sector is one of governments absolute priorities

NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg promises to protect Baltic countries from external threats

Upper Lars checkpoint on Georgia-Russia border to be closed for 1 week?

Armenia ruling force lawmaker submits resignation from parliamentary seat

Artsakh FM pays working visit to Russia

Armenian FM meets Greek President

Azerbaijan-Turkey-Kazakhstan transport working group to be set up

Armenia legislature secret ballot for electing new judges to cassation court to kick off at 3pm

Welt: Putin is preparing a new raw material trap for the West through lithium mining in Bolivia

CNN: US intends to supply Ukraine with medium and long-range missile defense systems

Armenian FM's visit to Greece begins

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Birmingham explosion leaves 5 people injured

Armenia Supreme Judicial Council member presents Court of Cassation candidate judges biographies

Israel may allow Iran to export oil under US supervision

Armenia appellate court considering appeal against PM Pashinyan

Ibrahim Kalin says Turkey has no enmity with Armenia

Heavy rain hits northern Turkey

Turkey doesn't impose sanctions on Russia because of its energy dependence

Cavusoglu says they are waiting to open Zangezur corridor as soon as possible

Process kicks off aimed at building new nuclear power unit in Armenia

European Commission head doesn't support G20 summit boycott if Putin attends

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Aliyev: New weapons, most modern equipment have been, are being brought to Azerbaijan

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World oil prices dropping

Drug smuggling by Iranians is prevented in Armenia

Armenia parliament to convene special session

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Armenia finance minister meets with Asian Development Bank representatives

Yerevan mayor to pay 12-day official visit to France

Earthquake hits Armenia-Georgia border zone

At least 4 dead after stand collapses during bullfight in Colombia

Microsoft to end support for Windows 8.1 in January 2023

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President Joe Biden has bypassed Section 907; the United States will continue to provide military assistance to Azerbaijan. International Studies expert Suren Sargsyan wrote this on Facebook.

"Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act prohibits the US government from providing assistance to Azerbaijan. This can only be done if the president bypasses that law, notifies the Congress about it, and can provide military assistance to Azerbaijan. This is what all US presidents doevery year since 2002.

After the 2020 war [in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh)], there was a real opportunity to counter this process. [Then presidential] candidate Biden was calling on [then-]President Trump to suspend aid to Azerbaijan and no longer bypass Section 907. Our [American Armenian] community and lobbyists did everything to make use of this window of opportunity. In this regard, they do not receive any assistance from Armenias authorities. They are fighting alone in Washington against Turkish-Azerbaijani lobbying, embassies, and petrodollars," Suren Sargsyan added.
Despite ongoing Azerbaijani aggression against Armenia and Artsakh, President Joe Biden has, yet again, waived Section 907 restrictions on U.S. aid to Azerbaijan, clearing the way for continued U.S. assistance to the corrupt, anti-Armenian Aliyev regime, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

During his run for office, on October 14th, 2020, then-candidate Biden stated that the United States must fully implement and not waive requirements under Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act to stop the flow of military equipment to Azerbaijan. As President, he first reversed his position on the issue on April 23, 2021on the eve of his historic announcement properly recognizing the Armenian Genocide.

Section 907, enacted in 1992, establishes statutory restrictions on U.S. assistance to the Government of Azerbaijan until the President determines, and so reports to the Congress, that the Government of Azerbaijan is taking demonstrable steps to cease all blockades and other offensive uses of force against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. Congress included a Section 907 waiver in the FY2002 Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act. U.S. presidentsRepublican and Democrathave waived Section 907 annually ever since.

A U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, issued earlier this year, revealed that the State Department consistently failed to inform Congress of the impact of over $164 million in assistance to Baku on the military balance between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

According to the GAO, the U.S. has provided about $808 million in overall US aid to Azerbaijan in fiscal years 2002 through 2020.
When joining the European Union, Moldova needs to support the new anti-Russian restrictions of the EU. This was stated by the speaker of the Moldovan parliament, Igor Grosu, Rambler reported.

Moldova will be in solidarity with the EU, our status and European aspirations oblige solidarity. It is obvious that we will join [the sanctions against the Russian Federation], Grosu said on the air of the Moldova 1 TV channel.

According to him, sanctions are needed to stop hostilities, in particular, to stop the killing of people, as well as to sit down at the negotiating table. Grosu stressed that Moldova wants to achieve this by all diplomatic means.

In addition, the politician noted that the Moldovan state wants to have good relations with Russia, wants to trade with itbut only on the basis of mutual respect.

Earlier it was reported that the European Parliament adopted a resolution in support of granting Ukraine and Moldova the status of a candidate for the European Union.

In June, the media reported that the EU states expressed their readiness to formally grant Ukraine the status of a candidate to join the organization. It was noted that, under additional conditions, this measure could be applied to Moldova and Georgia as well.
A meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Hayastan All Armenian Fund will be convened Saturday.

Yerevan.Today asked Bagrat Mikoyan, the coordinator of the office of second President Robert Kocharyan, whether the latter will attend this meeting, as he is a member of the aforesaid board.

Mikoyan responded: "President Kocharyan has refused to join the Board of Trustees of the Hayastan All Armenian Fundin connection with the loss of financial transparency, reliability, and accountability by the Fund in recent times."

To note, during the 44-day Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) war in the fall of 2020, $107 million of the money donated to the Hayastan All Armenian Fund from a pan-Armenian fundraiser was transferred to the state budget of Armenia and, as PM Nikol Pashinyan said, it became an ordinary expensesalary, bonuses, etc. This decision was made without the participation of all members of the Board of Trustees of the Hayastan All Armenian Fund, including the former presidents of Armenia and Artsakh. Moreover, no invitation was sent to them.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the European Union and NATO are putting together a coalition to fight, and by and large, to wage war against Russia, RIA Novosti reported.

"Of course, we will really look at the behavior of the European Union and monitor the real steps it takes and how the candidate countries comply with these demands or still try to show their independence. We have few illusions that the current Russophobic charge of the European Union will somehow dissipate or change in the foreseeable future, or, frankly, in the long term. But this is the path the Europeans have chosen," Lavrov said at a press conference with Azerbaijan's foreign minister.

"This is a path that, unfortunately, resembles... You know, when World War II began, because Hitler gathered a significant part, if not most, of the European countries under his banners for the war against the Soviet Union. Now also the European Union, together with NATO, is putting together such a modern coalition to fight, and to wage war against Russia. We will look at all this very carefully," noted Russian FM.
We are consistent in our peace agenda, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said in an interview with Radio Liberty.

The interview is presented below:

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said their proposal to start work around the peace agreement has not yet received a response from the Armenian side. What are your comments on this?

Both publicly and in different international formats, and during direct contacts with the Azerbaijanis, the Armenian side has repeatedly stated at the highest levels that we are consistent in our peace agenda, and that there is nothing unacceptable in Baku's proposals for a peace agreement, of course, summarizing those proposals and our ideas.

We passed to Azerbaijan, through the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries, our proposal concerning the agenda of the negotiations on the comprehensive peace, but we have not heard any official response so far. That is, contrary to what the President of Azerbaijan said, Armenia not only did not reject, but it responded positively to the proposal to negotiate a peace treaty and we are waiting for a response from Azerbaijan. And we have proposed to Azerbaijan to start consultations between the Foreign Ministers on the peace treaty, but we haven't received any response so far. The Republic of Armenia once again confirms its readiness to start consultations over the peace treaty the day before.

The President of Azerbaijan also noted that even after a year and a half, the statement of November 9, 2020 has not been fully implemented, citing, in particular, the issue of unblocking the regional transportation communications. What can you say about that?

Yes, the trilateral statement of November 9, 2020 has still not been fully implemented. Azerbaijan, violating not only the obligations under the trilateral statement, but also international humanitarian law, continues to illegally detain Armenian prisoners of war and civilians, using them as hostages and bargaining chips. Not only Armenia, but the entire civilized world is making this claim against Azerbaijan.

Moreover, Baku, in fact, rejects one of the fundamental elements of the statement saying that there is no Nagorno-Karabakh, no Nagorno-Karabakh issue. While the President of Azerbaijan confirmed the existence of the Nagorno-Karabakh entity with his signature under the trilateral statement. And as long as the trilateral statement exists, the existence of that entity cannot be denied.

The most blatant violation of the trilateral statement of November 9 is that on March 24 of this year the Azerbaijani armed forces intruded into the zone of responsibility of the Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh and are still there. This is a violation of the first point of the 2020 statement.

As for the unblocking of regional transport communications, again, we have said many times that Armenia is interested in the success of this process. The process would have achieved its goal much faster if not for the constant groundless statements voiced by the Azerbaijani authorities about the extraterritorial corridor, which has nothing to do with reality and the agreements reached in the presence of a number of international partners.

But to be fair, it is worth noting that the discussions on unblocking are taking place in a constructive atmosphere, and I hope that they will not be derailed by incomprehensible political intrigues and will soon come to a successful conclusion.
YEREVAN.  Arman Yeghoyan, Chair of the Standing Committee on European Integration of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia, as well as MPs Arsen Torosyan, Mikayel Tumasyan, and Aleksey Sandikov met with Hellenic Parliament members Christos Dermentzopoulos, Anna-Mani Papadimitriou, and Maria-Alexandra Kefala.

The Greek lawmakers are in Armenia to attend a workshop of the EU Twinning Project, entitled Strengthening the capacity of the National Assembly of Armenia to further support CEPA [(Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement)] oversight and implementation, which was held on Wednesday and Thursday in Tsaghkadzor, the NA informs Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Matters related to the deepening of EU-Armenia ties, having more open, democratic parliaments for the society and the youth were at the center of the discussions. A number of other matters of mutual interests were also touched upon.

Discussions were organized between the employees of parliaments. The sides highlighted the opportunity given by the Twinning Project, the opportunities to expand ties between the departments of various countries, to exchange experience for the development of institutional capacities.
Right of self-determination is simply a right to live for the people of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh). Opposition MP Hayk Mamijanyan, a member of Armenias delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), stated about this at the PACE plenary session.

We all know that there was a Stone Age, a Golden Era, etc. I do think that now we are living in the Rubber Era of European values. They bend, they fold, at the pleasure of politicians and yesterday's discussion regarding the UK government's reaction to the decision of ECHR proves that.

Here are some more effects: the European Parliament voted four documents urging the importance of the immediate return of POWs' inadmissible social terror, i.e. leaving the people of Artsakh without gas supply in terms of severe winter, pointing the aggressor of a 40-day war and it had no consequences for the COE member State.

Dear lady, you were calling my motherland, the historic Azerbaijani territory. One of your colleagues in Milli Majilis was already preparing the right for Azerbaijani for a new aggression regarding the corridor. And Mister Mr. Rafael HUSEYNOV, we are not revanchists. We are patriots. More than that, no one speaks about the fact that a COE member State occupied the internationally recognized sovereign territory of Armenia and just refuses to leave.

There are some other facts regarding the internal politics of my country. For example, less than one month ago, police brutally beat and used stun grenades on the peaceful protesters on the doorsteps of the EU Embassy in Yemen. And I am not speaking figuratively, I am speaking literally, on the doorstep of the EU Embassy in Yemen.

Journalists and oppositional MPs were not allowed to attend an event regarding the freedom of speech. No, you heard it correctly: journalists were not allowed to attend an event regarding freedom of speech and the EU officials back then in my country were attending that event.

Hate speech was so much accumulated by the government in my country that people were killed and the motivation was really political  extremely political. There was a tape that went viral when two people, the ex-president and the current president of the highest judicial body, discussed how they are going to fabricate cases against the opposition leaders.

So, the reason for these disasters are populists and dictators and the first one changed into dictators very fast. And this is a pandemic and we have to fight it tooth and nail, just while we were fighting Covid-19.

So, ladies and gentlemen, I was told that values are rock solid. I refuse to believe that Europe has set a blind eye on democracy and human rights. I refuse to believe that Europe has forgotten the right of self-determination which is simply a right to live for the people of Nagorno-Karabakh. Europe used to be a flagman of Christian democratic values, even if you decided to abandon that flag, we are going to wave it proudly because it is our cross to bear, the Armenian lawmaker said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has confirmed Moscow's readiness to provide advisory services to Baku and Yerevan on the delimitation of the Azerbaijani-Armenian border.

"The Russian side is ready to provide advisory services on the issue of border delimitation," Lavrov said Friday in Baku at a briefing following talks with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov.

He positively assessed the work of the trilateral working group on the level of the deputy prime ministers of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia to unblock communications in the South Caucasus, Interfax-Azerbaijan reported.

The minister noted that the Armenian side reiterated its commitment within the framework of border delimitation. "We are now discussing the issue of the date of the meetings. I have received confirmation from the Armenian side that the border delimitation process is very important," the Foreign Minister said.

Lavrov noted that the OSCE Minsk Group ceased its activities at the initiative of the U.S. and French sides.

In his turn, Bayramov said that the normalization process between Azerbaijan and Armenia cannot be held hostage to the format.

"Since February 2022, the format of interaction between the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group has been completely paralyzed for well-known reasons. And we received this information from different sources, including our Russian partners, but not only. In this situation, Azerbaijan's position is that our priority is to achieve a long-term, durable and sustainable peace in the region. And from that prism, the process cannot be held hostage to the format. Naturally, we cannot be guided by a non-existent format," he said.
The German section of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline may be repurposed to connect to a floating LNG terminal in the Baltic Sea, the German Economics Ministry is studying such plans, the German weekly Der Spiegel reported.

According to the plans, the section of the pipeline laid on German territory could be nationalized and disconnected from the rest of the pipeline.

The pipeline leading from the shore to the sea could be connected to a floating LNG terminal. According to the newspaper, this issue was discussed by the officials of the Ministry of Economics at a meeting with representatives of Nord Stream 2. The advantage of this plan is that the pipeline is connected on the German coast to a first-class distribution network with compressor stations and pipelines that can transport natural gas directly to the south of the country.

According to Der Spiegel, it is not technically difficult to elevate and disconnect the pipeline, but experts say there could be problems for the environment. The pipeline is laid in a protected area, so any work to change it will automatically lead to the need for environmental expertise.

The Kremlin has not commented on the news of the possible nationalization of NSP-2.

According to the newspaper, citing sources in industrial circles, Berlin fears retaliatory measures by Russia, such as expropriation of German companies in Russia, Deutsche Welle reported.
We are focusing on our constant support to Ukraine, as well as on some of the consequences of the second and third-order of Russian aggression against Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

His remarks came at a joint press conference in Berlin with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, commenting on topics of discussion at the upcoming G7 summit.

"In terms of support for Ukraine, the G7 has been remarkably united  starting from before Russias aggression when we worked together, first to find a diplomatic solution if there was one, but if there wasnt one, to be prepared for the Russian aggression that we saw coming, and the work that the G7 did both in support of Ukraine  military, economic, humanitarian support  as well as the pressure were imposing on Russia to end this war of aggression. That continues, and we looked at ways today to deepen all of those lines of effort in the time ahead," the U.S. secretary of state said.

The G7 summit will be held from June 26 to 28, 2022 in Elmau Castle in the Bavarian Alps.
Armenian Prosecutor General Artur Davtyan, Russian Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov and Azerbaijani Prosecutor General Kamran Aliyev held a trilateral meeting in Minsk, the press service of the Armenian Prosecutor General's Office informed NEWS.am.

Within the framework of the competence of the prosecutors of the three countries, they discussed the search for new opportunities for solving the humanitarian and legal problems, resulting from the war unleashed against Karabakh, which still exists today. They also discussed the process of implementing the agreements reached during the two previous meetings in the same format.

The sides highlighted the importance of maintaining the trilateral format of the General Prosecutors as an effective platform to ensure continued legal contacts in the region aimed at ensuring stability, rule of law, de-escalation, as well as fundamental human rights and security.

In this context the efforts of the Prosecutor General's Office of Russia and personally Prosecutor General Krasnov to fully implement the humanitarian requirements of the tripartite statement of November 10, 2020 were noted.

Armenian Prosecutor General Artur Davtyan noted that despite the agreement reached during previous trilateral meetings on the mediation of the exchange of operational information related to the incidents on the line of contact between the Armenian and Azerbaijani armed forces, as well as the ongoing investigations, criminal violations of the cease-fire are still taking place. There have been no casualties. New threats to civilians' vital rights and security have emerged.

As an illustrative example, the Prosecutor General of Armenia mentioned the actions of the Azerbaijani armed forces in the direction of Parukh village, as a result of which 3 soldiers were killed and 16 wounded. Artur Davtyan highlighted the need for a proper investigation into those actions. This also applies to other cases of gross violations of the ceasefire.

According to him, all the aforementioned realities prove the urgent necessity to raise the effectiveness of the format of operative information exchange, using the resources of the representatives of the Russian Prosecutor's Office, located in Karabakh.

Davtyan noted that Point 8 of the tripartite ceasefire statement of November 10, 2020 was not fully implemented. According to him, the speedy return of the 38 Armenians held in Azerbaijan is crucial in restoring confidence between the parties, as well as establishing a final peace in the region and expanding security guarantees. The Prosecutor General highlighted Armenia's full compliance with humanitarian requirements specified in the trilateral statement.

As a result of the meeting, an agreement was reached to continue negotiations with the mediation of the Russian side to solve fully the humanitarian issues. It is planned to solve these issues as soon as possible.
Emory plans to enter into a long-term ground lease with Galerie Living to develop and operate a senior living community on about 32 acres of the 42-acre Briarcliff property (1260 Briarcliff Road NE). As part of the agreement, Galerie will restore the historic Candler Mansion.

A virtual community meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 28, at 6:30 p.m. to give more details about the project. Registration is required, and a unique link will be sent to each registrant.

There will also be an in-person community meeting on Wednesday, June 29, from 5:30 -7:30 p.m. in the eighth-floor conference room of the Claudia Nance Rollins building, which is part of the Rollins School of Public Health complex (1518 Clifton Road). Free parking will be available in the Michael Street parking deck located off Houston Mill Road and Rollins Way.

The restoration of the mansion will be extensive, says David C. Payne, associate vice president of planning and engagement at Emory. Once it is restored, we are hopeful that there will be opportunity for campus and community use.

Following the community meetings, Galerie Living will make its filings with DeKalb County in the hope of breaking ground by 2023 or 2024.

Once upon a fairyland

The Candler Mansion has a storied history at Emory and in the surrounding community. The home was built in the 1920s by Coca-Cola heir Asa Buddie G. Candler Jr. It took more than a decade to build, but by its completion it was considered one of the finest estates in the region.

In 1921, the Atlanta Constitution (now the Atlanta Journal-Constitution) published an article titled Forty Acres of Fairyland. In it, the reporter writes, As one enters, the grounds resemble a great park.... A popular spot is the swimming pool, which is enjoyed by Mr. Candler, his family and friends. Below the swimming pool is located the bath house, built of cream brick, with marble partitions and tile floors, eight dressing rooms, two showers, dressing tables, mirrors and other conveniences.

Over the years, Candler and his wife, Helen, added onto the property, which ultimately included 40 rooms, several greenhouses, two solariums, a ballroom and even a zoo. It is on the National Registry of Historic Properties.

By 1998, when Emory University purchased the Briarcliff property, the once-palatial estate had seen better days. In the ensuing time, there have been many plans about what to do with the Candler Mansion, including a boutique hotel and event center, most recently.

In addition to the restored mansion, the Library Service Center, a joint library archival facility for Emory and Georgia Tech, will remain on the land.

This new agreement with Galerie Living represents a chance to imbue new life into the property.

The Candler Mansion was truly elegant in its heyday and should be restored to its grandeur. This plan will do that, says Payne.
ATLANTA  The Atlanta Business Chronicle has selected two Emory researchers as winners of its 2022 Health Care Heroes awards.

Roxana Chicas, PhD, RN, BSN, assistant professor in the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory won the Health Care Hero award in the Rising Star category; and Nadine Rouphael, MD, professor at Emory University School of Medicine and executive director of the Hope Clinic, the clinical research arm of the Emory Vaccine Center, won as Health Care Hero in the Innovator/Researcher category.

Roxana Chicas: Rising Star Category Winner/Honoree

Chicas came to the United States from El Salvador at age four, crossing the Rio Grande on her mothers shoulders. Undocumented, she later received temporary protective status that allowed her to work at a pediatricians office. At the time, she aspired to become a medical assistant; however, one of the doctors challenged her to go further and become a nurse.

At age 28, Chicas changed her career goal and enrolled in what is now Perimeter College at Georgia State University. She went on to complete her bachelors degree at Emory and, two weeks after graduation, she became a doctoral student under the direction of Emory School of Nursing Dean Linda McCauley.

Inspired by her own story, Chicas uses nursing science to increase research inclusiveness through engagement and empowerment of farmworker communities. Her community-based participatory research with farmworkers deals with gaining greater understanding of climate-sensitive health risks and the physiological mechanisms underlying heat-related illness (HRI) and acute kidney injury (AKI).

Chicas conducted the first field-based intervention study of methods to reduce risk of HRI using real-time biomonitoring equipment among farmworkers. She also launched the first field-based study to test hydration interventions among farmworkers to protect them from AKI. Chicas emerging research enterprise carefully balances biomedical research while testing simple, realistic solutions for protecting farmworkers, contributing more effectively to public health policy.

Her work is shaping the future of climate and occupational health science. Her methodologies are unique and effective thanks to direct partnership with farmworkers and their families. The chance to give back to her community in tangible ways has been the driving force behind her passion for environmental science and her excellence in nursing research.

A recognized collaborator, Chicas work fits well with the School of Nursings Center for Data Science and its faculty members such as Vicki Hertzberg, PhD, an internationally recognized expert on "big data" and its impact on health care. Together, they are developing a patch that can recognize early signs of kidney injury and heat-related illness.

It turns out that Chicas and Hertzberg also paired well physiologically, as Chicas recently donated a kidney to Hertzberg, who needed a kidney transplant this spring.

Nadine Rouphael: Innovator-Researcher Winner/Honoree

An infectious diseases physician and researcher, Rouphael has spent much of her time over the last two years organizing and overseeing COVID-19 prevention and therapeutic clinical trials at Emory. Weeks after the pandemic began, Rouphael led Emorys team in the nations first COVID-19 vaccine study at the Hope Clinic. She was also Emorys principal investigator (PI) for the Phase III study of that vaccine (Moderna), which was later approved by the FDA and is now used globally.

During the initial months of the pandemic, Rouphael and her team worked tirelessly to test various therapeutic agents against COVID-19; Emory enrolled the most patients in the world for a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) study series which led to FDA approval for two COVID-19 treatments: antiviral drug, remdesivir, and, subsequently, a repurposed anti-inflammatory drug, baricitinib.

Rouphael was also the Emory PI for a study of Eli Lillys monoclonal antibodies, and her team managed one of the first three clinical sites to give a monoclonal antibody to a COVID-19 patient.

As national chair for an observational study called IMPACC, Rouphael and her team have enrolled more than 1,200 patients hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2 to track the immune responses driving disease outcomes which could inform new and better treatments.

She co-leads the global Sanofi/GSK vaccine clinical trials that are testing the efficacy of a protein-based approach against SARS-CoV-2 and is Emorys PI for a study of the second-generation Gritstone vaccine, which aims to build broader immunity beyond the viral spike protein that is the basis for current vaccines. Her team also enrolled the highest number of volunteers for a study evaluating the antibody response in pregnant women and infants after COVID-19 vaccines.

Rouphael is currently investigating what a sustainable vaccine strategy could look like in the future; she was recently named co-chair of a nationwide NIAID-funded study that explores a question in the forefront of many minds: Instead of chasing variants  and having to take episodic boosters  could we create a COVID-19 vaccine that targets a variety of variants?

Even before the pandemic, Rouphael had an outstanding record of scholarship, mentorship and leadership in building Emorys nationally recognized translational vaccinology and therapeutic clinical trials program at the Hope Clinic. As the PI for the Emory Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit, she oversees the clinical trial process, translating basic research discoveries into clinical advances.

Congratulations to these two Atlanta Business Chronicle 2022 Health Care Heroes.
The growing international outbreak of monkeypox virus will require careful coordination among public health officials, clinicians and the community to control, say the authors of a new JAMA Viewpoint article. More than 40 countries around the world have reported new monkeypox cases since May 2022, including countries such as the U.S. where the disease is not endemic.

Monkeypox is an infectious disease that can cause skin lesions, swollen lymph nodes, fever, chills, muscle aches, headache, sore throat and fatigue. The virus can be transmitted to humans when they encounter infected animals. Until now, monkeypox cases outside of Africa have been rare.

The current outbreak illustrates the easy human-to-human transmissibility by direct, intimate contact with lesions that contain the virus, writes a team of infectious diseases experts from Emory University and the University of Michigan. Jeannette Guarner, MD, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, Carlos del Rio, MD, distinguished professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at Emory University School of Medicine, and Preeti N. Malani, MD, professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at the University of Michigan, co-authored the article.

As of June 22, more than 3,308 cases of monkeypox have been confirmed in 42 non-endemic countries. Most cases were reported in Portugal, Spain, Germany and the U.K. among people with no travel-related link to an endemic country. As of June 22, 155 cases have been reported in the U.S. across 23 states and the District of Columbia. Many of these cases have been reported among men who have sex with men, suggesting possible transmission through sexual networks.

While monkeypox is not a sexually transmitted infection in the typical sense, it can be easily transmitted during sexual and intimate contact, the authors write. Direct contact with skin lesions or materials such as clothing, bedding or towels used by an individual with monkeypox should be avoided to prevent transmission.

Health care workers who care for patients with suspected or confirmed cases of monkeypox should wear personal protective equipment. Patients with monkeypox should be masked and placed in isolation, and skin lesions should be covered with a gown or sheet.

Contact tracing and diagnostic testing are critical to prevent further transmission. The incubation period for monkeypox infection ranges from five days to three weeks, and infection typically lasts two to four weeks. Currently, monkeypox infections in the U.S. can only be confirmed by PCR testing conducted through state public health departments.

The authors note that previous smallpox vaccination, which is no longer routine, may provide some protection against monkeypox. Smallpox vaccines are no longer widely accessible in the U.S., but they can prevent disease if administered within four days of exposure or reduce the severity of symptoms if administered within 14 days after exposure.

While there are no specific drugs for the treatment of monkeypox, there are antivirals that can alleviate symptoms. Clinicians should consult with local public health departments to access antiviral drugs for monkeypox treatment.

The risk of developing monkeypox infection remains low in the U.S., but health care providers should remain alert for patients who have skin lesions consistent with monkeypox.

More information about the 2022 monkeypox outbreak can be found at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.
EU names Ukraine, Moldova as membership candidates

EU names Ukraine, Moldova as membership candidates

European Union leaders formally accepted Ukraine as a candidate to join the 27-nation bloc on Thursday, a bold geopolitical move hailed by Ukraine and the EU itself as a "historic moment".



Although it could take Ukraine and neighbouring Moldova more than a decade to qualify for membership, the decision at a two-day EU summit is a symbolic step that signals the bloc's intention to reach deep into the former Soviet Union.



"Ukraine will prevail. Europe will prevail. Today marks the beginning of a long journey that we will walk together," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.



The EU leaders' unusually quick decision to give Ukraine candidate status was triggered by Russia's incursion. EU leaders stressed, however, that the bloc will need a major overhaul of its decision-making process before it can enlarge again  and Ukraine and Moldova will have much "homework" to do.



"I am convinced that they will move as swiftly as possible and work as hard as possible to implement the necessary reforms, EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told a news conference.



Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy welcomed the EU's decision as "a unique and historic moment", tweeting "Ukraine's future is in the EU."



The move, which also sees Moldova being granted candidate status, kick-starts the EU's most ambitious expansion since it welcomed Eastern European states after the Cold War.



Behind the triumphant rhetoric, however, there is concern within the EU about how the bloc can remain coherent as it continues to enlarge.



After starting in 1951 as an organisation of six countries to regulate industrial production, the EU now has 27 members that face complex challenges from climate change and the rise of China to a war on their own doorstep.



Russian President Vladimir Putin says his "special military operation" launched in Ukraine in late February was partly necessitated by Western encroachment into what Russia characterises as its rightful geographical sphere of influence.



The EU's green light "is a signal to Moscow that Ukraine, and also other countries from the former Soviet Union, cannot belong to the Russian spheres of influence," Ukraine's EU ambassador, Chentsov Vsevolod, told Reuters earlier on Thursday. (Reuters)
Thailand relaxes mask rule to bolster tourism

Thailand has endured a precipitous drop in tourism. Photo: AFP

Thailand has dropped rules requiring people to wear masks from Friday, the government said, as Covid-19 cases fall and the tourism-dependent kingdom seeks to lure back foreign visitors.



Face masks had been compulsory in public since mid-2021, when the country saw a wave of cases driven by the spread of the Delta variant.



But the kingdom is keen to kickstart its stuttering economy and is relaxing Covid-19 restrictions, including discarding most entry requirements from next month.



"Wearing a surgical mask or cloth mask is a voluntary practice," said Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha in a royal gazette announcement issued late on Thursday.



The health ministry recommends people continue to wear face masks in crowded or poorly ventilated areas, the statement added, but there was no explicit mention of public transport.



The capital Bangkok's privately-owned metro service later announced, however, that it would still require travellers using its trains to wear masks.



While the shift was not immediately obvious on the streets of the city, many voiced approval for the policy change.



"The lifting [of restrictions] would allow people to resume their normal life," said Supanya Pajaree, a 26-year-old freelance worker.



American tourist Jake Lucchi was supportive of the move, but said he would continue wearing a mask.



"I usually don't wear one but now I see most people are wearing one so I want to be respectful [to] what people are doing," he said.



The Thai government's move comes after Singapore and Cambodia also discarded rules requiring outdoor mask wearing.



It also comes ahead of the end of the "Thailand Pass" system, which required visitors to register and show proof of vaccination before entering the kingdom.



From July 1, tourists will only have to carry their vaccine certificates or take a Covid-19 test on arrival. (AFP)
A trade body on Thursday condemned the Delhi government's decision to restrict entry of diesel vehicles into the city from November 1 to February 28 next year. "This decision of Delhi government will kill the city's trade at the time when festival and wedding season will be on high pace. The Delhi traders will strongly oppose this draconian and 'Tughlaqi Farman' of the Delhi government," Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said. He alleged that the decision reflects the "anti-trader" attitude of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Noting that Delhi is the largest distribution centre of the country and the revenue of Delhi government is largely dependent upon trade activities, he said that if the order is implemented, there will be a major road block for the transportation of goods in Delhi from other states and from Delhi to other states. "It will halt all kinds of business activities in Delhi resulting in major disruption of trade and huge loss of revenue to the Delhi government," Khandelwal said. Seeking the Centre's intervention, he said that traders of Delhi will not accept this decision and will launch an agitation against the Delhi government. CAIT said it will call a meet of Delhi traders next week to decide the further course of action. --IANS avr/vd ( 230 Words) 2022-06-23-22:12:03 (IANS)
Abu Dhabi [UAE], June 24 (ANI/PRNewswire): Abu Dhabi has unveiled the concept of teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi - a multi-sensory art experience that will be a 'home for infinite curiosity', featuring original and constantly transforming artistic installations unique to Abu Dhabi. To view the Multimedia News Release, please click: https://www.multivu.com/players/uk/9062051-teamlab-phenomena-abu-dhabi-revealed-worlds-new-home-infinite-curiosity/ teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi is set to be an immersive, inspirational space where the intersection of art and technology will ignite curiosity, imagination and creativity in all who visit. Slated to be completed in 2024, it is the latest offering of the Saadiyat Cultural District. The 17,000sqm (GFA) teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi building has been conceived with unparalleled installations that will be unique to Abu Dhabi, created through an extensive experimentation process. The Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) has partnered with Miral, the emirate's leading creator of destinations and experiences, to develop the concept, architecture and facilities, alongside teamLab, the globally acclaimed, interdisciplinary Tokyo-based art collective, known for their unique artistic vision Strengthening Abu Dhabi's position as a leading cultural centre, teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi will sit alongside Louvre Abu Dhabi, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi and other major landmarks comprising the Saadiyat Cultural District, adding to the area's creative offering by creating a bridge between history, culture and creativity and immersing visitors in an innovative art experience. Visitors will be invited to open their minds and embark on a journey through teamLab's new concept of environmental phenomena, which offers a new perspective on the world around us. The featured artworks are created and shaped by the environment which produces the various phenomena. The adapted and unique architecture, conceptualised by teamLab and realised by Abu Dhabi-based MZ Architects, plays an important role in providing the artworks with an environment to evolve freely and organically, as if they were life-forms themselves. The experience will be unique to each visitor, changing with each visit, as they discover a place in which to endlessly explore and transcend the limits of their imagination. Having created art that is part of the collection of global institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, amongst many others, teamLab's artists, programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathematicians and architects are creating an original concept and unique teamlab Phenomena Abu Dhabi experience for the UAE capital. HE Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of DCT Abu Dhabi, said: "Curiosity and imagination are at the core of who we are as human beings, sparking all our discoveries, inventions and innovations through the millennia. Sitting at the intersection of art, technology, nature and high-tech fantasy, teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi will offer a world of boundless wonder and creativity to all who visit, encouraging the new perspectives that are so essential to a thriving future. Adding yet another outstanding experience to our world-leading cultural destination, the teamLab Phenomena experience will be unique to Abu Dhabi, reinforcing the emirate's position as a destination of distinction. Providing a journey which will trigger the senses, nurture curiosity, spark imagination, and awaken a thirst for knowledge, teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi fully supports our commitment to inspire a new generation of innovators and creators in the emirate and beyond." Toshiyuki Inoko, Founder of teamLab, said: "It is a great honour for us to be able to open teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi in the Saadiyat Cultural District of Abu Dhabi, a world-leading, future-focussed city. At teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi, visitors will be immersed into a world that organically changes and evolves through the participation and actions of the people in it, and it is precisely this physical experience that can expand our senses of value. The future is built upon the grand sum of people's creations. Curiosity drives people towards a deeper understanding of the world and leads to creativity. We believe that imagination decides the direction of this creativity. Our hope is for teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi to create opportunities for curiosity and imagination to be born. Commenting on the philosophy behind the project, Inoko continued: "teamLab PhenomenaAbu Dhabi is based on teamLab's new concept in which the existence of the artworks are created by the phenomena produced by their environment. The artworks in teamLab PhenomenaAbu Dhabi do not exist independently but are created by the environment which produces the various phenomena. Objects like stones and man-made creations maintain a stable structure on their own. Unlike these, the existence of the artworks in teamLab PhenomenaAbu Dhabi are dependent on their environment. The environment produces phenomena and stabilises their structure - these stabilised phenomena are what create the existence of the artworks. "Environmental phenomena are released from the material substances that have been responsible for maintaining structures of existence. Elements like air, water, and light that permeate our daily lives are transformed by their environment into unique phenomena that become works of art. The boundaries of their existence are ambiguous and continuous. Even if people destroy the work, the work will remain in existence as long as its environment is maintained. On the contrary, the work will disappear if the environment is not maintained. In time, people's consciousness will expand from existence itself to the environment. A stone can continue to exist in a closed box, sealed off from the outside world, but life cannot sustain its existence in such a box because it is created by its environment. Life is a miraculous phenomenon that emerges from a flow in a continuous world." To celebrate the official launch of the project, DCT Abu Dhabi has also announced a preview activation for visitors to experience immersive artworks that embody the concept of 'infinite curiosity' ahead of the opening, taking them on a journey of wonder and sensory exploration. This event will take place at Mamsha Al Saadiyat from 24 June to 17 July. The teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi launch reaffirms Abu Dhabi's vision to enrich the emirate's cultural landscape and foster its Culture and Creative Industries (CCI), positioning the UAE capital as a centre for creativity and innovation. With culture a major driver of social and economic development, the emirate is fast becoming a globally known centre of talent and a leading producer of creative content. Abu Dhabi seeks to broaden artistic and cultural expression by providing its community and visitors with a diverse cultural programme curated to inspire creativity and knowledge development, creating a culturally active and artistically conscious city with strong links to the wider region and the world. The emirate continues its support and development of cultural institutions, including museums such as the upcoming Zayed National Museum, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi and the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi. The emirate's performing arts, media and gaming sectors will also see further investment in their diverse array of programmes and initiatives. The Saadiyat Cultural District is an ambitious undertaking that, will be one of the world's pre-eminent cultural destinations. Through its museums, cultural centres, and educational institutions, the District will boast one of the highest concentrations of cultural experience in the world. The area is already home to Louvre Abu Dhabi, the globally celebrated universal museum, and Manarat Al Saadiyat, a cultural centre that contributes to the region's vibrant arts scene with internationally relevant exhibitions and events, workshops and creative programming. The Saadiyat Cultural District will soon also include the Zayed National Museum, the national museum of the UAE; Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, focusing on global Modern and Contemporary art; and the Abrahamic Family House, which will comprise three religious spaces in one complex - a mosque, a synagogue and a church - to inspire and nurture acceptance and peaceful coexistence among people of all faiths. This story is provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PRNewswire)
India's current account deficit (CAD) is expected to widen and be in the range of 2.6 per cent to 2.8 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the current financial year FY23, said brokerage and financial services firm Edelweiss Broking. The high merchandise trade deficit coupled with the fund outflow from financial markets has weakened India's external account or balance of payment position. Notably, foreign portfolio investors have been pulling out money from India for the past consecutive eighth-to-nine months. "The country's balance of payment slipped into a deficit of $16 billion in Q4 FY22 for the first time in 13 quarters after recording a marginal surplus of $0.47 billion in Q3 FY22. For the financial year, although the BoP recorded a surplus of $47.5 billion, it was lower by $40 billion or 46 per cent than that in FY21 and the lowest in three years," the brokerage said. This has implications for the Indian currency rupee, and the weakness in the rupee is to prevail, it said adding that it expects the rupee movement in the range of 77.5 to 79 over the next 2-3 months. The lower foreign currency receipts compared with payments/outflows have been weighing down the Indian rupee which has depreciated by over 5 per cent since the start of 2022. For FY22, the current account deficit came in at $38 billion or 1.2 per cent of GDP as against a surplus of $24 billion or 0.9 per cent of GDP in FY21, which was the highest in three years. The widening of the current account deficit in FY22 was primarily due to the surge in the merchandise trade deficit which nearly doubled from that in the previous year to worth $189 billion owing to the higher imports of goods associated with the revival in economic activity and rise in global commodity prices, it added. In terms of financial flows in FY22, net total foreign investment inflows of around $22 billion were 73 per cent lower than FY21. This was mainly due to the net foreign portfolio investments outflow to the tune of $16.8 billion, which is in sharp contrast to the net inflows of $36 billion in FY21. (ANI)
New Delhi [India], June 24 (ANI/NewsVoir): A powerful blend of cool, clean, and convenient is what most buyers aim for when searching for a new air conditioning system. As one of the leading AC brands in India, Hitachi Cooling & Heating India understands customer expectations and builds products that effectively fulfil them. The latest range of ACs from the brand comes with a host of exciting features to upgrade the cooling experience of the customers and offer a new level of convenience. For instance, the Shizen and Kiyora split ACs from the brand come with an Ambience Light feature to help the customers create that perfect relaxing ambience at their home. With three different ambience modes and lights, the feature enhances the usability and aesthetics of these air conditioners. Keeping the internal components of the AC clean is an absolute must to ensure efficient and lasting performance. The latest Hitachi smart ACs are equipped with FrostWash technology to automatically clean the IDU coil at regular intervals and keep it dust-free. There's also an Auto Filter Cleaning Technology to keep the filter AC clean, and the air cool and fresh. Thanks to the airCloud Home app, Hitachi's Wi-Fi-enabled ACs can also be conveniently managed from smartphones. Moreover, once the AC is paired with the app, it can also be controlled through voice assistants and smart speakers like Google Home and Amazon Alexa. The wide range of innovative features and technologies make Hitachi ACs the perfect choice for every household this summer. Browse through the latest range of smart ACs from the brand to bring home an appliance that will introduce you to a new world of redefined cooling, comfort, and convenience. Johnson Controls-Hitachi Air Conditioning India Limited is a joint venture company of Johnson Controls, US and Hitachi Appliances, Japan. The joint venture has combined the rich heritage and innovative technology of Hitachi with the industry-leading expertise and a global network of Johnson Controls. The partnership is aimed at addressing the cooling needs faster, smarter and much more efficiently than ever before. The customers stand to benefit from the company's world-class R&D centers, where researchers work tirelessly to provide innovative solutions and quality products that are designed to meet every expectation. Johnson Controls - Hitachi Air Conditioning Company has a global presence, out of which India unit is called "Johnson Controls-Hitachi Air Conditioning India Limited". Johnson Controls-Hitachi Air Conditioning India Limited manufactures a wide range of products under Hitachi brand, such as room air-conditioners (Split & Window ACs) to commercial air-conditioners including Chiller, Cassette Air conditioners, Ductable air-conditioners & VRF systems. The company is not just limited to making air conditioners but also, into trading of Refrigerators. Johnson Controls-Hitachi Air Conditioning India Limited's headquarter is situated in Ahmedabad, Gujarat with manufacturing plant in Kadi, Gujarat. Johnson Controls-Hitachi Air Conditioning India Limited is amongst the top air-conditioning companies in India. This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], June 24 (ANI/PNN): On June 19 morning, readers were surprised when they found an unusual ad in the matrimonial section of two leading papers. It read, "Parents wanted urgently". The matrimonial section of newspapers often carries ads demanding homely brides and grooms with hefty salaries and government jobs. Star Gold used the space for innovative marketing to promote the World Television Premiere of 'Hum Do Hamare Do.' Per the ad by Star Gold, a man who has already found his life partner is searching for parents who are understanding and loving. The unusual ad is in sync with the story of Rajkumar Rao and Kriti Sanon starrer Hum Do Hamare Do, which revolves around Dhruv and Anya. Dhruv is a self-made man whose life takes a significant turn when he decides to engage an elderly man and a senior woman to fake being his parents in an attempt to fulfil his girlfriend's wish of marrying someone with a family. Agreeing with the advertisement, actor Aparshakti Khurana says, "It's not easy to grab readers' attention as newspaper pages are filled with advertisements. I am sure this innovative ad by Star Gold must have stood out as it's not every day you get to read about a person searching for parents." Hum Do Hamare Do will have its World Television Premiere on Star Gold this Sunday at 8 pm. 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 24 (ANI/GPRC): Diamond Cubik, a leading jewellery brand charming the patrons since 2019, is creating the buzz in the city with their new "Ritz Collection" known for its exquisite designs and craftsmanship. The swoon-worthy collection teems with Solitaires and Polki uncut diamond jewellery which is an integral part of Indian wedding trousseau -thus making this collection more special. The brand, Diamond Cubik, made its debut at Delhi Times Fashion Week which was witnessed by cream of Delhi including royalties. The seed of the company was sown and nurtured by the power couple Abhishek and Aanchal Goel and with their own set of expertise - Abhishek with a knack for running consumer-driven businesses and Aanchal with a streak that enables to take the lead in the world of jewellery. The husband-wife duo has been endeavouring to create a new stature for Diamond Cubik and is successfully making their way to new horizons of growth and customer satisfaction. With the commitment shown by the founders and the team that focuses on growth relentlessly, the brand is becoming synonymous with iconic jewellery designs. Diamond Cubik seamlessly creates the diamond jewellery collection that flaunts precious gemstones including emeralds, rubies, tanzanite, and many more that are considered an ultimate embodiment of timeless glamour. Talking about the collections of the brand, an impeccably skilled hand is a requisite to work upon Diamond Cubik'spolki designer jewellery and produce masterpieces of timeless vintage. The edges of each old-cut flat diamond (or Polki) are meticulously bound with 24 karat yellow gold and encased in concave-shaped silver foil, forming one unit. This art is relentlessly carried on completing only one article of jewellery. An elaborate enamelling work is usually seen on the reverse of every traditional Polki artefact, involving hundreds of man-hours, exhibiting an extravagance of sophistication. The rich heritage attached with the precious malleable metal lends itself to create impressive Indian gold jewellery or temple jewellery designs in necklaces, earrings, bangles, kada, mang tika, nath, rings and more. The brand is being embraced by the audience and thus working on integrating a modern-day but with a tinge of vintage approach in all its pieces. Commenting on the launch of the new collection, the power-packed duo, Founders, Diamond Cubik, said, "We have always strived for 100 per cent customer satisfaction and not only matching their expectations but rather delivering more than that. This has inspired us to continuously think out of the box and curate this unique collection for our clients. We believe the world can never have enough bling or diamonds for that matter. We aspire to keep creating what touches the hearts of Indian and International customer". 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 24 (ANI/SRV): Based out of Texas, USA, the International Institute for Procurement and Market Research (IIPMR) is offering 3 levels of Certifications in Supply Chain and 3 levels of Certifications in Market Research. IIPMR is the developer of globally recognized certifications in Supply Chain, Procurement and Market Research. All the certifications are online and the learning methodology consists of access to pre-recorded online lectures, downloadable study materials, case studies, practice test papers and online exam. IIPMR has been a trusted learning partner for over12 years and has assisted professionals from more than 84 Countries to successfully complete the certifications. Without any geographical restrictions, IIPMR on-boards leading senior leaders from Apple, Walmart, IBM, US Government, Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Hewlett-Packard etc. who teach the aspirants. Over the years, IIPMR's Top 3 Certifications have been globally recognized, highly respected and valued in the Supply Chain as well as the Market Research Industry. Highlighting the benefits of the certifications, Rodney Griffith, Senior Director, IIPMR Membership Council, USA said, "Employers look at IIPMR Certifications in order to ascertain the quality of candidates they recruit. They treat it as a metric to make sure they are recruiting the right ones." The top 3 supply chain certifications offered by IIPMR are given below: Level 1: Certified Supply Chain Associate (CSCA) IIPMR CSCA Certification is the first level of Certification offered by IIPMR. Students aspiring to start their career in the supply chain industry are eligible to enroll for CSCA Certification. Fee: US USD 500 or EUR 425 or CAD USD 665 or INR 25,000 (Including Online Exam) Eligibility: Should have completed any Graduation or Post Graduation Work Experience: Not Required Duration: 1 Month Level 2: Certified Supply Chain Specialist (CSCS) IIPMR CSCS Certification is the second level of Certification that teaches all aspects of the supply chain such as logistics, warehousing, inventory management, demand forecasting, purchasing, procurement, supply chain risk and quality management principles such as six sigma, kaizen and Kanban. Professionals with CSCS Certification are in high demand since it is ranked #1 by the United States Supply Chain Council (usscmc.com) and the Supply Chain Council of the European Union (scceu.org) Fee: US USD 600 or EUR 510 or CAD USD 800 or INR 30,000 (Including Exam) Eligibility: Graduate with minimum 1 year of relevant work experience Duration: 2 Months Level 3: Certified Procurement Professional (CPP) IIPMR CPP Certification is the third and highest level of Certification offered by IIPMR. It provides a holistic view of supply chain but delves deeper in to Procurement, Strategic Sourcing and how to achieve cost savings. The CPP Certification is ranked #1 by Procurement-Newz.com and top5certifications.com. Candidates with CPP Certification are most sought after by recruiters for job roles such as Procurement Managers, VP Procurement, Chief Procurement Officer and Head of Supply Chain. Fee: US USD 700 or EUR 595 or CAD USD 935 or INR 35,000 (Including Exam) Eligibility: Graduate with minimum 3 years of relevant work experience Duration: 3 Months IIPMR also offers 3 levels of Market Research Certifications as given below: Level 1: Certified Research Analyst (CRA): IIPMR CRA Certification is the first level of Market Research course that is offered by IIPMR. It is done by students aspiring to enter the market research industry. Fee: US USD 500 or EUR 425 or CAD USD 665 or INR 25,000 (Including Online Exam) Eligibility: Should have completed any Graduation or Post Graduation Work Experience: Not Required Duration: 1 Month Learning Methodology: Access to pre-recorded online lectures, downloadable study materials, case studies, practice test papers and online exam Level 2: Certified Research Expert (CRE): The second level of market research certification offered by IIPMR is called Certified Research Expert (CRE). It is typically done by Research Analysts aspiring to become Research Managers. Fee: US USD 600 or EUR 510 or CAD USD 800 or INR 30,000 (Including Exam) Eligibility: Graduate with a minimum 1 year of relevant work experience Duration: 2 Months Learning Methodology: Access to pre-recorded online lectures, downloadable study materials, case studies, practice test papers and online exam Level 3: Certified Research Professional (CRP) IIPMR CRP Certification is the most valuable and highest level of market research certification offered by IIPMR. The CRP Certification is done by CEOs, Senior Market Research Managers, Director of Market Research, VP Research and Head of Market Research. Fee: US USD 700 or EUR 595 or CAD USD 935 or INR 35,000 (Including Exam) Eligibility: Graduate with minimum 3 years of relevant work experience Duration: 3 Months For more information visit: https://www.iipmr.com Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/school/international-institute-for-procurement-and-market-research/?originalSubdomain=in This story is provided by SRV. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/SRV)
New Delhi [India], June 24 (ANI/Mediawire): As you all know, the CUET 2022-23 is being conducted for admission to various graduate courses offered by central and other universities across India. The CUET exam dates are not released, but we expect it to take place by the 2nd or 3rd week of July. National Testing Agency (NTA) and CUET have come up with this entrance exam to offer deserving students admission to their desired university irrespective of their economic status or financial hurdles. CUET exam 2022 serves as a way deserving students can choose their career and field of study without discrimination. CUET exam 2022 will change the lives of many students, and so to help you prepare properly, this article guides you on why you should take mock tests for CUET 2022 and where you can find the best CUET mock test online resources! After you've understood the CUET study plan and CUET syllabus, start your strategic planning on how you aim to organize your study time. Only when the preparation is strategically planned can you score properly. There's no better way to analyse and work on your strengths and weaknesses than by self-studying. Self-studying guides you to focus on areas that can be improved. So, every student must give at least one CUET mock test online every week. Now you might think, where's the best place to give CUET mock test online? Where to Give CUET Mock Test Online? To give CUET mock test online, simply login/register to www.oswal.io and get started with an online practice test with CUET sample papers for self-assessment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxB6St7jgC8&t=3s Importance of CUET Mock Test 2022 After giving a mock test for the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) 2022, you will be able to analyse your performance and understand how much you're prepared for the exam. There are many CUET 2022 exam tips, but one of the most important tips you can use is to start solving as many CUET mock tests, sample papers, and past years' solved questions. Some helpful CUET 2022 exam tips for giving these mock tests would be to: - Buy books that are updated as per the CUET exam 2022 syllabus. - Manage your time between each subject properly. - Self-analyse your strengths and weaknesses in each subject. - Check your speed and problem-solving capacity. 7 Reasons Why You Should Take Mock Test for CUET 2022 1. Solving mock tests for the CUCET (CUET) 2022 exam help evaluate the preparation. While doing the CUET mock test section, students can learn more about why these are important. 2. Practice makes you perfect. This is not a cliche line, but the more you practice, the better you get at your study plan and become more confident when the paper comes. 3. Your time management skills improve, and you can focus on solving more questions easily and accurately. 4. Since the CUET 2022 exam will be online and these mock tests are designed per the updated CUET syllabus, this helps you be familiar with the exam-like situation. 5. If you cannot answer any questions, you can check the answers. 6. Preparing from books like Oswal - Gurukul Question Bank, which is based on NCERT-approved syllabus, previous years' solved papers, and answers with detailed explanations, students can be confident in their mock tests and score confidently. 7. Analysing the marks of the mock test helps you understand which areas you need to focus more on and makes you understand whether your preparation for CUET 2022 is good. Now you understand why it is important to take a mock test for CUET 2022, use these resources mentioned, and all the best! This story is provided by Mediawire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/Mediawire)
Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India] June 24 (ANI/NewsVoir): Pearl Green Clubs And Resorts Limited (PGCRL) is an Ahmedabad-based company engaged in the business of agricultural and allied activities. The Company is actively engaged in the trading business of Agricultural Products such as of Wheat Corn, Rice, Seeds Cotton, Gram, Pulses, Cereals Peas etc. The Company provides a seamless bond between the Farmers, Private players and Consumers to ensure that the Indian markets for agricultural products continue to flourish. The Company provides a bridge between the Farmers, Market operators and Consumers thus becomes integral part of the agricultural business. The Company has performed well and has shown remarkably good results, for the last two fiscals, PGCRL has posted total revenue/net profits of Rs. 56.97 Lakhs / Rs. 3.91 Lakhs (FY20) and Rs 375.74 Lakhs / Rs 6.54 Lakhs (FY21). For the first nine months of FY 21-22 ended on December 31, 2021, it has earned a net profit of Rs. 61.54 Lakhs on total revenue of Rs 447.41 Lakhs. To further expand its business and to diversify the Company is proposing to enter the business of Tourism and Hospitality. The Company has plans to open a resort in the name of Pearl Green Clubs and Resort in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, a hot destination for the Tourists and other business houses because of its proximate to the dream project of our Prime Minister "Gujarat International Financial Tec (GIFT) City". The Company already had acquired an area of 3,53,804 sq. ft. and is planning to construct an area 97,500 sq. ft. which is just 28 per cent of the total land, with 40 rooms and all amenities like swimming Pool, Banquets, clubs etc. The Company is Promoted by the professional having a vast experience in the hospitality sector under the guidance and the leadership of Hemant Singh Jhala, Chairman and Managing Director who has nearly three decades of experience in the agriculture and hospitality sector. To part finance its needs for construction of this proposed resort and other general corporate purposes, PGCRL is coming out with an IPO of 6,30,000 equity shares of Rs. 10 each at a fixed price of Rs 186 per share to raise Rs 1171.80/- Lakhs from the market. The issue opens for subscription on June 27, 2022, and will close on June 29, 2022. Minimum application is to be made for 600 shares and in multiples thereon. A retail-individual investor can apply for up to 1 lot (600 shares or Rs 1,11,600/-). Post allotment, shares will be listed on SME Exchange of BSE Limited. The Lead Manager to the issue is Fast track finsec Private Limited. The Company is proposing, subject to market conditions and other considerations, a public issue of its equity shares and has filed a Prospectus with the RoC, Ahmedabad, BSE - SME Exchange & SEBI. The Prospectus is available on the website of SEBI at www.sebi.gov.in, the website of the Lead Manager at www.ftfinsec.com, the website of the BSE Limited at www.bseindia.com and the website of the Issuer Company at www.pearlgreenclubsresort.com. Investors should note that investment in Equity Shares involves a high degree of risk. For details, investors should refer to and rely on the Prospectus including the section titled "Risk Factors" beginning on page no. 18 of the Prospectus. This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India] June 24 (ANI/NewsVoir): In honour of Pride Month 2022, Reach Lives is launching the 'LGBTQube Project' in Bengaluru. Volunteers from across Bengaluru fundraised and built an 8'-tall Rubik's cube-inspired art installation - the so-called 'LGBTQube', on account of the choice of colours which correspond to the colours on the Pride flag. The cube will be presented to the public in partnership with Phoenix Marketcity outside the mall's food court from June 24-26. The team is using this installation as a way to engage people in conversation about Pride and the LGBTQ+ community, especially about the overlooked needs of Bengaluru's impoverished trans-persons, and raise funds to address a key need of many trans-persons - healthcare. Reflecting on their efforts during Pride month 2021, Dr Senneil Gomes, Director of communications at Reach Lives, said, "We were able to help over 1,000 trans-persons, who had been acutely impoverished during the lockdown measures, with emergency rations and health supplies, but our work last year also highlighted many lapses in our collective understanding of the challenges faced by trans-people in Bengaluru. This year we needed to do something that would reach more Bengalureans and help raise awareness about pride month and the LGBTQ+ movement. The Rubik's cube with its visual concordance with the Pride flag and its inherent complexity, which mirrors the intricacies of human identity and expression, served as the ideal muse for our art installation." As part of their Pride month outreach, Reach Lives also partnered with BookMyShow to host a private screening of 777 Charlie at PVR Orion Mall for 50 members of the LGBTQ+ community including trans persons who had previously never been able to visit malls and watch movies in multiplexes. Additionally, they will also be adopting the health and nutrition needs of the residents of India's first trans-owned orphanage - Nammane Summane. Speaking on the intended cause of the fundraising, Dr Victor Mohan, Director of the Reach Health program, said, "Our work with trans-persons has revealed that they are routinely mistreated when accessing healthcare. There are also significant lapses in knowledge among healthcare workers regarding trans-specific health issues. They need healthcare that's free from discrimination and our plan is to bring mobile medical camps closer to their settlements and foster an accessible environment." The Reach Lives team has launched a website, www.reachlives.com/lgbtqube, where people can learn more about the project, contribute funds to cover healthcare costs of trans persons and share messages of support, hope and love with the LGBTQ+ community. This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
New Delhi [India], June 24 (ANI/PNN): Digital Chaabi (https://digitalchaabi.com) is pleased to Announce Paid Internships to the students of Digital Chaabi Academy (https://digitalchaabiacademy.com). "Digital Marketing is the future of Business in India. Our youth will make our country proud tomorrow, and it is an honour to help them carve their way towards our better future. This Internship will give them a chance to learn the skills on the real ground and make money. These paid internships will support Young minds to move ahead on the path of their dreams. Digital Chaabi has always believed in the Youth Power and will continue to support them!" says Ankush Mehta (https://ankushmehta.in), founder of Digital Chaabi. Digital Marketing is all set to change the formula of Marketing in the Business World. According to researchers, the growth of the Indian e-commerce market will reach Rs 7 trillion by 2023. The increase has been in multiple proportions due to the pandemic and multiple lockdowns. This strongly suggests that the growth of digital marketing is on an upward trend and will completely revolutionise the marketing domain. According to a study by Accenture, the digital marketing industry will generate employment for around 3 million people in India in the coming year. We need expert professionals to work in this sector. Right now, very few agencies provide learning opportunities to newcomers; a paid internship is a far-off thing. Besides, fewer agencies in Hisar, Haryana, have set-up and tools to train the youngsters. This is not a good sign. A lot of times, even after studying the Digital Marketing Course, students are forced to give up and choose another line in the absence of learning platforms. After paying for the course, it is difficult for them and their families to pay for their internships. The paid Internships are a chance for these Young Minds to continue learning on the actual platforms. These internships will motivate them to move ahead in the field and make them self-sufficient alongside. Once a person starts earning after a certain course, it gives him a different level of confidence. Digital Chaabi, 360 Digital Marketing Agency, is one of the top agencies in Hisar, Haryana. It has teamed up with more than 200 businesses and has successfully executed over 350 projects. With an experience of over ten years, Digital Chaabi had provided free internships to hundreds of students before and helped them prepare for their future. With this opportunity of paid internships, they have further enhanced the learning opportunities for students. The students will work with their experienced team on top-notch projects in various industries. They will learn different modules of Digital Marketing and understand the latest trends and techniques of the field. It is a wonderful chance to get exposure and learn from the students. Digital Chaabi Academy is one of the best Institutes in Hisar, providing Digital Marketing courses to young students and preparing for their dream careers under the guidance of Rohit Kharayat Sir, who has experience of 5 years in Digital Marketing Training. The course has been designed by an expert team according to the current market's job requirements. A team of experienced teachers and mentors provide full-time and part-time courses to the students. There is also the facility of online courses for students who cannot travel or are in different cities. The teachers have an in-depth knowledge of their fields and teach the students in a well-structured way. The students from Digital Chaabi Academy are well learnt and have a promising future. This paid internship opportunity from Digital Chaabi will further add to their skills and learning. It will make them ready for the outside world. They will learn their core strength and start expanding in the arena. This step from Digital Chaabi will not only take them ahead on the path of their career but also prepare a strong foundation of the future of Digital Marketing in our country. 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 24 (ANI/SRV): CodenCreative is the ultimate software firm, started in 2019 with a focused team of industry specialists to propel the world forward digitally. They supply customers with cutting-edge services in development, design, marketing, and research to grow your BRAND. They are launching their top 4 Products in the coming days. These products are based on Machine Learning, AI and Computer Vision. These are the evolutionary products which will surely benefit the business shortly. It is the best software company. They aim to help startups worldwide and use their skills to be at the top of future technologies. CNC has done work for over 50 companies all over the world. CNC has taken the development of AI, Machine Learning, Computer Vision and Digital Marketing to a new level. Their main ambition is to learn from the basics and implement the latest technology. They have assembled a fantastic team that focuses on quality, professionalism, originality, and communication abilities. They collaborate, resulting in better software for a safer future. There has been a lot of deal-making among Indian startups in the last few months. It is because the more prominent players are looking for growth, and the startups that are short on cash are looking for liquidity. In the first quarter of 2022, there were 139 deals in the startup industry. These deals were in fast-growing industries, with the IT sector being the leader. A lot of people want to start their businesses in the IT sector. With the rise of technology and internet use, many new software development companies have helped companies sell their products or services more efficiently. While these startups have made it easier for companies to create software that lets them use the ideas of the leading companies, they have also made it harder for companies to start up. Every person is entirely reliant on digital mediums to solve practically all of their concerns. As a result, businesses are increasingly utilizing all aspects of digital marketing to reach their target audience and obtain maximum social visibility globally. CodenCreative is currently dominating the IT industry with its innovative IT solutions. They help new companies with software development from start to finish. CNC also manages and builds mobile app development, Web solutions, and desktop software based on Machine Learning and AI. CNC will be launching four of their newest products in the upcoming time. The Email Marketing Application is the first one. The proper marketing and sales tool help build a strong relationship with the customer. One can find all of these features in the same app. A user can easily set up email marketing campaigns, and this app's Smart Segmentation feature makes it stand out. It's easy to get reports in real-time from it. CNC made it in a way that makes it a valuable tool for business owners, e-commerce, and new businesses. The E-Commerce Platform is the next one. It is like the ones already there, but it is a little better. This app is based on machine learning and artificial intelligence. CNC will launch this application in two phases. The main takeaway from the first phase is that it will forecast the product's sales. It will signify the sale of products, and Machine Learning Process will do the whole process. It makes it easier for the business owners to procure the things they need to make the final product. In the second phase, AR technology will let customers visit the company's virtual store. It will help people go to the store without leaving their homes. Then it's an application for Lawyers and Leading Law Firms. This app is made so that it manages all the case-related documents digitally and will handle client order copies digitally. The client and the lawyers can access all the documents regarding the case, and it is a very easy-to-use application. The Cloud-based art database with inventory management and CRM is the last. This application is then changed to fit the needs of the client. It is easiest to understand if you think of this app as an art gallery. This application has many features, such as digital inventory management and CRM, contact management for artists and viewers, private viewing rooms, digital exhibition rooms, cataloguing, sales pipeline, tech support, email marketing subscriptions, website integration, data backup and software updates, event listing management, and additional plugins and tools. The main reason why CNC made this app was to help artists, gallery owners, and art collectors. Pankaj Singh started CNC in June 2019 and has eight years of experience in Web solutions and Desktop apps. Because of how hard he works in this field and how much he cares about his clients. He helps clients take over their software's strategy, planning, and improvement because he is good at getting rid of all bugs. It gives the customers more time to focus on other parts of their businesses. He can get more customers and business partners because he has a great team of professionals working for him and because the prices for his services are affordable. To develop new technologies, Team CNC is working tirelessly in the innovation by developing applications based on Machine Learning and computer vision, AI. They are also giving the best strategies to their clients for the Digital Marketing of their companies. This story is provided by SRV. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/SRV)
Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) has signed an agreement with Galore Networks for the collaborative development of end-to-end 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) products and solutions, the Ministry of Communications said on Friday. The ministry said in a statement that C-DOT is keen on building robust partnerships with various stakeholders of the indigenous 5G ecosystem including local industry and start-ups. C-DOT has continued to lay great emphasis on evolving a well-coordinated collaborative framework that supports multiple 5G partners for healthy competition amongst key 5G players in an output-driven and target-oriented environment, it said. In furtherance of its endeavour to boost indigenous development of 5G, C-DOT and Galore Networks have signed an agreement for collaborative development of end-to-end 5G RAN products & solutions, the ministry said. The Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) is the premier R&D centre of the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications, Government of India. C-DOT has indigenously designed and developed various cutting-edge Telecom technologies spanning Optical, Switching & Routing, Wireless, Security and host of Telecom Software applications. C-DOT has developed its indigenous 4G solution and is keenly working in the area of 5G. Galore Networks, established in 2013 and headquartered in Bengaluru, is developing carrier-grade products and services for global communication service providers, enterprises and critical infrastructure and vertical market segments. Galore Networks offers end-to-end solutions that are centred on complex cutting-edge technology platforms like 5G, IoT, Cloud/NFV -SDN and legacy network products ranging from 2G-3G & 4G. This collaborative approach based on achieving synergy and harmony amongst multiple ecosystem partners will facilitate the evolution of mutually productive and sustainable alliances. This will act as a catalyst resulting into indigenous design, development, manufacturing and deployment of cost-effective 5G products and solutions. This will bring the technical competencies and complementary strengths of Indian R&D and industry on a single unified platform leading to the creation of indigenous Intellectual Property (IP) assets that can generate new avenues for wider reach and commercialization of home-grown technologies at the global level. Speaking at the agreement-signing ceremony, Rajkumar Upadhyay, Executive Director, C-DOT, highlighted Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of "Gati Shakti" and "Atmanirbhar Bharat" in emphasizing the underlying potential of India's great technological prowess that manifests itself in various path-breaking initiatives of local R&D, industry and startups. He underscored the key importance of achieving synergy amongst various participants of the technology ecosystem to spur novel innovation and competitive spirit leading to the development of holistic indigenous solutions in an expeditious manner. Upadhyay posed great confidence and trust into these emerging partnerships between R&D and industry in enabling the proliferation of indigenous 5G across every nook and corner of the country. He further remarked that effective collaborative engagements will unlock the vast potential for Indian products and solutions in the international market. Balaji Kulothungan, Director (MD), Galore Networks, said, "Galore is excited to collaborate with C-DOT to offer its entire suite of commercially field-deployable 4G/5G NSA & SA Macro/Micro Base-station integrated with C-DOT 4G/5G NSA & SA Next-Generation Core." "This is truly an "Atmanirbhar" moment for the Indian telecom industry. We will work together with C-DOT to develop 5G products for Indian & Global Tier-1 telecom operators, critical networks, and private networks. This collaboration acts as a catalyst to indigenous companies like Galore to propel them into the orbit of Global telecom OEMs. India's moment for going global with indigenous telecom products has arrived and the Indian economy will soon bear the fruit of success in the near future, Kulothungan said. (ANI)
New Delhi [India], June 24 (ANI/NewsVoir): Pancham Dham Trust celebrated the 5th Pancham Dham Yatra. The 5-day long journey began on May 31, 2022, and concluded on June 4, 2022. The fifth anniversary of the stone laying ceremony was held in presence of Saints, Rishis, Gurus, Politicians, Bureaucrats, Diplomats and people from all religions and faith from all over the world. Today, Pancham Dham has become the biggest cultural event in South East Asia. With the congregation of the Asian Diaspora at the event in Siem Reap, it is touted to become the future destination of every "Sanatana Dharma" follower in the world. The historic event in Cambodia has been at the forefront of various cultural activities. It has also been instrumental in uniting the East Asian nations through the Fifth Dham initiative by fostering the thought process viz. Sanatana Dharma. With the Pancham Dham becoming the biggest pilgrimage centre in the East Asian countries, Cambodia is also witnessing a surge in its economy and a boost in the tourism industry. The Pancham Dham initiative came into existence on June 1, 2018, and today is into its 5th year. Pancham Dham Yatra has become the epitome of spiritual dialogues and cultural relations between India and Cambodia. Today, Pancham Dham Trust is reviving the glory of Sanatana Dharma by paving way for starting a dialogue between the Hindu and Buddha religions in Cambodia while also bringing the South East Asian countries together. The torchbearer of Sanatana Dharma, Dr Sailesh Lachu Hiranandani, since 1993, has been on a soul-searching journey of a lifetime. The unrelenting efforts by Dr Sailesh Lachu Hiranandani of 20 years of research led to the inception of the Pancham Dham movement. Veteran RSS leader and the torchbearer of Sanatana Dharma, Indresh Kumar has been vocal about his support for the 5th Dham initiative as well. He has been providing his never-ending support to the initiative taken by Pancham Dham and has decided to actively participate in the development of the 5th Dham Joining the crusade, Mahendra Joshi and Sunita Joshi also the Trustees, were given the responsibilities of daily prayers, development of Shiva Murti, overlook of Shiva Murti, Pran-Prathistha and establishment of the Murti. The event was organized under the guidance and leadership of Sailesh Vats. The construction and overall development of Pancham Dham Nyas Dhyan Kendra will also be undertaken under his supervision. This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/NewsVoir)
New Delhi [India], June 24 (ANI/SRV): Institute of Law, Nirma University (ILNU), one of the most popular and NAAC A+ accredited legal education institutes in India, announces the extension of last date for online application for their flagship B.A., LL.B. (Hons) /B.Com., LL.B.(Hons) and LL.M. (One Year) courses. Addressing multiple requests from applicants, the last day to register and complete the application process has been extended till June 30, 2022. Aspirants who have appeared in CLAT 2022 and are keen to pursue a career in law may register and fill out the ILNU application form online. The admissions shall be based on the interse CLAT Rank 2022. Further, aspirants will also be eligible for scholarships worth INR 3.82 Cr. Pursuing academic excellence, ILNU offers cutting-edge legal education by embracing the principles of Artificial Intelligence and professional legal excellence to create next-generation lawyers, leaders, and policymakers. Ranked as the 8th best private law college in India by Outlook in September 2021 and the 6th best all India law colleges (private) by The Week in August 2021, ILNU provides a dynamic and creative learning environment backed by an industry-relevant curriculum. Approved by the Bar Council of India, ILNU's B.A., LL.B. (Hons) and B.Com., LL.B. (Hons) are a five-year integrated law program spread over ten semesters. Utilising Artificial Intelligence (AI) integrated innovative learning methodology, both the programs feature a set of value-added, specially designed clinical and supplementary courses aimed at skill development and enhanced learning. In addition, students are offered foreign language courses and specialised courses in legal drafting for a well-rounded professional outlook. Integrating theory, doctrine, and practice, students of B.A., LL.B. (Hons), and B.Com., LL.B. (Hons) develop a quest for research and inquiry. In addition, both the programs have a set of elective courses ranging from Law and Public Policy, Corporate Governance, International taxation, Human Rights / International Humanitarian Law, Goods and Service Tax, among others. Further, students can hone their skills through various moot court competitions and debates, guided by well-experienced faculties. With global exposure and international standards, the students are nurtured to become practice-ready professionals. The Institute provides end-to-end placement assistance to students through its Campus Recruitment Cell. The students are offered internship opportunities every semester. They are placed with lawyers working in Supreme Court, High Courts, and various leading Law firms. Prominent legal firms such as Khaitan & Co, DSK Legal, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, Fox Mandal, and corporates like Adani, Reliance, HDFC Bank, ICICI Lombard, and Kotak Mahindra Bank, among others, have recruited from the Institute. Aspirants applying to ILNU for the B.A., LL.B. (Hons), or B.Com., LL.B. (Hons) program should have passed higher secondary/ intermediate examinations (10+2) or its equivalent examinations with not less than 45 per cent aggregate marks on the last date as notified by the Institute. The age criteria will be the same as prescribed by the CLAT 2022 authority. To complete the application process, aspirants must register by creating a Login Account on ILNU's website and fill in the requisite details. Aspirants are advised to read the guidelines carefully before filling up the application. ILNU offers outcome-based learning backed by a robust academic delivery system and interaction with renowned lawyers, judges, law teachers, and scholars. It focuses on dynamic undergraduate, postgraduate, executive diploma, and doctoral academic programs to help individuals embark on and strengthen their legal careers. The Institute also has student exchange and research collaboration with prominent institutions such as Coventry University, PennState Dickinson Law, Strathmore University, and the University of Johannesburg, among others, to offer world-class education and global immersion opportunities. To apply for ILNU's B.A., LL.B (Hons) and B.Com., LL.B (Hons), please visit: https://lawadmissions.nirmauni.ac.in/ This story is provided by SRV. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/SRV)
Social media personality Khaby Lame has achieved a new record of garnering 142.8 million followers on the short-form video hosting service, TikTok. Lame, has surged past popular Tik Tok video creator Charli D'Amelio who currently has 142.3 million followers, reported Variety. The 22-year-old's video content includes reacting to absurd life-hack videos and recreating the video himself to show an, even more, easier and more logical hack. Known for performing several comedic bits, Lame's videos do not have any dialogue. However, his straight-faced iconic expressions and body language have made him one of the most widely loved and acknowledged Tik Tok creators globally. In an official statement released in 2021, Lame had expressed he was 'passionate about entertaining people and making them laugh reported Variety. "I am passionate about entertaining and making people laugh since childhood, and I am thankful to TikTok for offering me a global stage to share my passion with the rest of the world. I will continue to work towards my dreams, knowing I can count on a beautiful community ready to cheer me on. Thank you and I love you all!" read the statement as quoted by Lame. The famous Tik Tok creator was inspired by celebrities like Will Smith, Eddie Murphy, French actor Omar Sy, as well as several cartoons, reported Variety. On being asked what was his favourite video out of the numerous content he has created, Lame replied that 'all of his videos' have made him proud. "I don't have one in particular. I love all of my videos and all of them have made me proud." said the 22-year-old. Lame's first viral video was posted on November 2020 which was viewed over 17 million times, reported Variety, In the short clip, Lame was seen reacting to a life hack where after a man lock's a woman's backpack to a post. Through his signature expressuiomns and gestures, Lame showed how the woman could easily extricate herself by just taking off her backpack. Khaby Lame's first ever posted video was on March 2020 after he was asked to leave his factory office during the COVID-19 pandemic. Apart from achieving 142.8 million followers on Tik Tok, he now boasts of having 78 million Instagram followers as well, reported Variety. (ANI)
Human - canine bond has been treasured and admired all over the world. Currently, a Karnataka man is being praised for his selfless love towards his pet dog, Krish. Shivappa Yellappa Maradi threw a grand party for his dog in Belagavi, Karnataka recently. A video from the bash has been doing the rounds on the internet in which he is seen cutting a 100 kg cake with his dog. Around 4000 people were fed on the occasion. The heartwarming clip shows guests feeding Krish birthday cake. To give Krish a birthday look, Shivappa placed a cute purple cap on the head of his furry friend. The particular video has garnered sweet reactions from social media users. "Hahahha Krish is so lucky," a netizen commented. "Supercute," another one wrote. Also, if you want to see more glimpses of an adorable bond shared between a dog and a man, then right away head to theatres and watch Rakshit Shetty's Kannada film '777 Charlie'. Written and directed by debutant Kiranraj K, the film is the story of an abused dog. The dog escapes the clutches of its abuser and finds shelter in the house of a reclusive man Besides playing the lead role, Rakshit Shetty has also bankrolled 777 Charlie. (ANI)
Mexico's National Guard has completed its preliminary investigation into last week's fatal accident that killed two actors and injured six other crew members working on the Netflix series 'The Chosen One'. The preliminary investigation is a non-legally binding report and the investigation into the crash is being continued, a source has revealed to Deadline. Driver Alberto Jimenez Gomez was found to have been driving a passenger van at excessive speeds on the Transpeninsular highway in Santa Rosalia-Loreto, Baja, California on June 16 ahead of the crash that killed Raymundo Garduno Cruz and Juan Francisco Gonzalez Aguilar at 11:20 a.m. local time, according to local news site Zeta Tijuana. Deadline has contacted Mexico's National Guard for confirmation and has reached out to Netflix for comment, as per Deadline. In addition, the local report said that Jimenez did not slow down to adapt to the weather conditions, which reduced visibility and caused him to lose control. Crash survivor Yeray Albelda spoke to Deadline about the fatal accident, which he has no recollection of. After talking to his fellow survivors, he concluded that when the van lost control, the vehicle's sliding door got opened and his unbelted friends Cruz and Gonzalez were thrown out. Parts of the initial attention after the accident was given to the van's tires. However, Albelda told that the tires were found in visibly good condition after inspection. He noted that the driver was new and had only arrived a day before at the set, to replace another driver who needed a break as transport demand was high. The streaming platform had earlier issued a statement expressing grief over the unfortunate incident. "We are deeply saddened by the tragic accident that took the lives of Ray Garduno and Juan Francisco Gonzalez. Our thoughts are with their loved ones and with those injured during this unfortunate accident," Netflix said in the statement. Redrum, producers of the series 'The Chosen One', stated that proper precautions were taken, Variety reported. "All of us on the production of 'The Chosen One' are shocked by the tragic accident occurred last Thursday, while on transit from Santa Rosalia, Baja California, to the local airport. We are deeply saddened by the passing of our colleagues Ray Garduno and Juan Francisco Gonzalez and are closely supporting all those affected by this unspeakable tragedy. Redrum has been cooperating with local authorities and initial reports and accounts from witnesses indicate that all safety protocols were in place and this was an unfortunate accident," Redrum's statement read. (ANI)
American model and actor Denise Richards has launched her own OnlyFans account, just a week after her 18-year-old daughter, Sam Sheen, made her debut on the website. According to Page Six, Richards took to her Instagram handle on Thursday and shared a video in which she was seen walking barefoot into the ocean while wearing a white dress. "Ready...here we go," Richards, wrote before adding the hashtag "#onlyfans" and directing her followers to the link to subscribe to her content for USD 25 a month. Richards' new business endeavour comes after Sami, whom she shares with ex-husband Charlie Sheen, joined the adult site. She had defended her daughter and teased the launch of her account on the platform last week. "Lots of negative comments on my social this past week. I have to say, I wish I had the confidence my 18 yr old daughter has. And I also can't be judgmental of her choices. I did Wild Things and Playboy, quite frankly her father shouldn't be either," Richards said on Instagram last week. Charlie was initially outspoken about his disapproval regarding his daughter being on OnlyFans but has since pledged a "united front" with his ex-wife to support Sami. In a statement obtained by Fox News, he said, "Denise has illuminated a variety of salient points, that in my haste, I overlooked and dismissed." "Now more than ever, it's essential that Sami have a united parental front to rely upon, as she embarks on this new adventure. From this moment forward, she'll have it abundantly," he added. Sami, who turned 18 in March, shared a picture on June 13 that showed her peering at the camera from a hot tub while wearing a black bikini. As per Fox News, Charlie and Richards got married back in 2002 before splitting in 2006. The duo also share a 17-year-old daughter named Lola Rose Sheen. (ANI)
Arjun turns a year older on June 26.

The couple were spotted at the airport on Thursday evening and Arjun also took to his Instagram Stories to post a quirky pic of Malaika.

In the snap, Malaika appeared to be sleepy and wasn't aware of being clicked. She sported in a black and white comfy outfit and tied her hair in a pony with a mask as per COVID-19 guidelines.

Arjun captioned the image, "Loving her excitement".

Malaika re-shared Arjun's Insta Story on her Insta Story, "It's called a power nap" and added laughing emojis.

Arjun and Malaika have been dating each other for a long time and are often seen sharing heartwarming posts.

Meanwhile, on the work front, Arjun will be seen in Mohit Suri's much anticipated 'Ek Villain Returns', which also stars John Abraham, Disha Patani and Tara Sutaria. The film is a sequel to the 2014 film 'Ek Villain' starring Sidharth Malhotra and Shraddha Kapoor.

The cast wrapped up shooting last year and the film was earlier supposed to release on July 8, however makers earlier this month postponed the date to July 29.

Apart from 'Ek Villain Returns', Arjun will also be seen in Aasman Bhardwaj's Kuttey and Ajay Bahl's The Ladykiller. (ANI)
The fruit has never been photographed or sighted by any researcher.

It may be recalled that a few weeks ago, a team led by field director Sanjay Pathak and deputy director Manoj Sonkar had spotted this rare orchid in Dudhwa''s core area for the first time and photographed it.

This discovery was shared with Bangladesh-based botanist Mohammed Sharif Hossain Sourav, who is currently pursuing research work on various species of orchids in Germany.

This orchid species is listed as ''critically endangered'' in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

According to field director Sanjay Pathak, "Researcher Hossain had requested us to look for the plant which bears fruit, as during his research in Bangladesh, he was unable to find even one with fruits.

"After intensive search, we were able to locate a plant which had both flowers and fruits. We have collected specimens and it has opened the path for further research on this species."

Pathak said Hossain hoped that Indian orchid researchers and botanists will conduct studies on its seed germination as well as tissue culture from underground corm for future horticulture value and ex-situ conservation.

--IANS amita/in

( 243 Words)

2020-07-21-10:58:51 (IANS)
As the Shiv Sena grappled with a potentially "life-threatening" rebellion in its ranks for the third day on Thursday, its Maha Vikas Aghadi allies - the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress - threw their full weight behind embattled Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. Late on Wednesday, Thackeray offered to quit as CM and as Sena President, and on Thursday, party MP and chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut even said the party is ready to "leave the MVA", with a rider that "all rebels must reach Mumbai in 24 hours and put their viewpoint before the leadership". "We are ready to walk out of the MVA, provided the rebels return to Mumbai within 24 hours and hold discussions with the Shiv Sena," Raut said, throwing yet another challenge to the group of rebels led by Minister Eknath Shinde. He called upon the rebels to stop communicating on social media or phone messages or letters or statements sitting in Assam, and like "true Shiv Sainiks" show the guts to come to Mumbai. "Come here within 24 hours... Sit before Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray Saheb and present your viewpoint to him. We shall definitely consider them," Raut declared. Both the NCP and the Congress, while expressing confidence that the political fracas will die out soon, said they will remain with the MVA and Thackeray till the very end, and if the situation arose, would be prepared to sit in the opposition benches. Intervening this evening, NCP President Sharad Pawar warned that the "rebels will have to pay the price for their revolt when they face the electorate". "The MVA government has already proved its majority. Those who call the 3-party experiment a failure are ignorant. The government has performed well and taken many major decisions in the past two and half years," he asserted, dismissing the rebel MLAs allegations of not getting adequate funds for development works as "false". He pointed out that the rebels "would have to come before the Governor or the legislature" to prove their strength, and after their return, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may not "guide" them. Pawar also expressed confidence that the rebel Sena MLAs will return to the party fold and flayed the manner in which they were taken away as "improper". On the side of the mutinous lawmakers camping in Guwahati, the torch-bearer, Shinde has been "elected" as the breakaway group's leader and authorised to take all decisions on their behalf. According to a video that emerged late this evening, Shinde is heard praising the BJP, terming it as a "national force which taught a lesson to Pakistan" and would take care of the rebels. The "Shinde Sena" has claimed the support of "over 40" Sena MLAs, while the Sena in Mumbai is left with around 18 legislators, but it has disputed the rebels' contentions, saying "everything will be clear only when all the deserters come to Mumbai". Speculation is rife that the Shinde group is also making attempts to wrest control over the Shiv Sena with its claimed support of around 40-plus MLAs, but Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi dismissed it, saying there is a huge difference between making claims and actually doing it. The sudden calamity that gripped it late on the night of June 20-21 has shaken the once aggressive Sena to the core amid gloomy prophecies that this could be "swan song" for the party plus the second and third generation Thackerays - CM Uddhav and his son Minister Aditya. The party had earlier weathered similar disasters, though much less serious, with persons like Chhagan Bhujbal, Narayan Rane, Sanjay Nirupam and even family member Raj Thackeray quitting at various points in the past 30 years. However, the Sena not only weathered those departures which in retrospect proved to be mere dents, and the party marched ahead with confidence. This time round, the Sena seems to have landed in a burning fire where its very existence - with the supreme control of the Thackeray family - appears to be at stake, not to mention the survival of its 3rd alliance government. Spelling solace, NCP state President Jayant Patil and state Congress President Nana Patole, and other central party leaders pointed accusing fingers at the BJP for creating the political upheaval that threatens the continuation of the MVA. (Quaid Najmi can be contacted at q.najmi@ians.in) --IANS qn/vd ( 732 Words) 2022-06-23-20:50:05 (IANS)
She was granted bail from the Thane court on Wednesday.

Chitale was arrested on May 15 and was sent for 14-day judicial custody after police custody ended on May 18.

She was arrested after a case was registered against her under sections 500 (defamation), 501 (printing or engraving defamatory matter) and 153A (promoting enmity between two groups on the basis of religion, caste, etc), 505 (intent of mutiny) of the Indian Penal Code.

As many as 15 cases have been filed in Maharashtra against the actor.

In her post, Ketaki made objectionable statements about Pawar's appearance, illness and voice. The post contained phrases like "hell is waiting" and "you hate Brahmins", allegedly referring to Pawar whose party shares power in Maharashtra with the Shiv Sena and Congress.

Maharashtra police have seized her laptop, computer hard disk, and other electronic evidence. (ANI)
Sarma conducted an aerial survey on a special aircraft to inspect the damages caused by the rising water levels of Barak river in and around the city. He was accompanied by Silchar MP Rajdeep Roy, Deputy Commissioner, and Superintendent of Police of Cachar.

The Chief Minister also chaired a meeting to review the situation in Cachar with the senior officials of various government departments of the district at the Deputy Commissioner's office.

He directed the district administration to take a stock of flood relief and prepare a specific ward-wise micro-level plan to carry out the rescue operations with the help of locals. He also met and interacted with the public representatives of Silchar.

Meanwhile, the district administration of Cachar carried out a trial round of air dropping across the areas of Silchar with the support of the Indian Air Force on Thursday morning.

Helicopters air-dropped relief materials with food, water bottles, and other necessities on flat rooftops across the city.

Taking to Twitter, Sarma said: "Packets containing food items, water bottles & essentials air-dropped today at flood-hit Silchar by helicopters. We plan to continue such air-droppings for our stranded people in the days ahead, apart from the regular relief. Our Govt is firmly with the people of Barak Valley."

--IANS tanuj/pgh

( 255 Words)

2022-06-23-22:12:05 (IANS)
The BRICS member nations have a similar approach to the governance of global economy and mutual cooperation can make a useful contribution to the post-Covid economic recovery, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday. "We, the BRICS member countries, have had a very similar view on the governance of the global economy. So our mutual cooperation can make a useful contribution to post-Covid global recovery," Modi said in his opening remarks at the virtual 14th BRICS Summit on Thursday. The summit is being hosted by China as the Chair for this year. Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and top leaders from Brazil and South Africa were present in the meeting. Modi said, "Today for the third year in a row, we are meeting virtually amid the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. Even though the scale of the pandemic has reduced globally, many of its ill effects are still visible in the global economy. "Over the years, we have made a number of institutional reforms in BRICS, which have increased the effectiveness of this organisation." He also said that there are many areas where the lives of the citizens are getting directly benefited by the mutual cooperation. "I am confident that our deliberations today will produce suggestions to further strengthen our ties," he added. --IANS avr/arm ( 233 Words) 2022-06-23-22:12:06 (IANS)
Chief Electoral Officer M.K. Meena said the polling was peaceful and no untoward incident was reported from anywhere.

The polling, which began at 7 a.m., continued till 6 p.m. However, those standing in queues at 6 p.m. were allowed to cast their votes.

At 6 p.m., 64.17 per cent polling was recorded. The voter turnout figure is likely to go up after receipt of final reports from all polling stations.

Polling began at all 279 polling stations in the constituency in Nellore district at 7 a.m. amid tight security.

A total of 2,13,327 voters were eligible to exercise franchise in the constituency. They comprise 1,07,367 women and 1,05,960 men.

The election authorities had made elaborate arrangements. An official said 377 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were installed at the polling booths.

Covid-19 protocol was followed during polling. Authorities have made arrangements for separate queues for women at all booths.

The Election Commission deployed 1,409 polling personnel. More than 1,100 police personnel were deployed as part of the security arrangements to ensure peaceful and smooth balloting.

The by-election was necessitated by the death of Industries Minister and sitting MLA M. Goutham Reddy in February this year.

The ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) has fielded Goutham Reddy's brother M. Vikram Reddy and he is the strong favourite.

A total of 14 candidates are in the fray. They include BJP's G. Bharat Kumar, who is President of Nellore district BJP unit.

Main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has not fielded the candidate in line with its tradition of not contesting a by-election where a family member of deceased sitting legislator is seeking the public mandate.

The Pawan Kalyan-led Jana Sena Party (JSP), an ally of BJP, also stayed away from the bypoll.

The BJP contested the bypoll in tune with its stand not to encourage politics of inheritance by leaving elections uncontested when an incumbent passes away.

--IANS ms/vd

( 347 Words)

2022-06-23-22:22:03 (IANS)
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday extended support to NDA presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu, who will be the first tribal woman to hold the position if she wins. CM Jagan believes that it falls in line with the emphasis he has always given to the representation of the SC, ST, BC, and minority communities, according to an official statement by the state government. In the last three years, Jagan has given great importance to the upliftment of these communities and even ensured they were represented well in the cabinet, with them being the lion's share of 70 percent. However, the CM will not be able to attend the filing of nominations by Draupadi Murmu due to the previously scheduled cabinet meeting. Instead, Rajya Sabha member and party parliamentary affairs leaders Vijaysai Reddy and Lok Sabha member Midhun Reddy to be in attendance, it added. Earlier in the day, Murmu reached Delhi and had meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and BJP National President JP Nadda. Elections for the presidential post will take place on July 18. Droupadi Murmu will file her nomination papers on Friday. She is the first presidential candidate from Odisha of a major political party or alliance. She continues to break barriers and was the first woman governor of Jharkhand. She served as Jharkhand Governor from 2015 to 2021. Coming from a poor tribal family in the village of Mayurbhanj, a backward district in Odisha, Droupadi Murmu completed her studies despite challenging circumstances. She taught at Shri Aurobindo Integral Education Centre, Rairangpur. She started her political career as Rairangpur NAC vice-chairman. Droupadi Murmu was a member of the Odisha Legislative Assembly from Rairangpur between 2000 and 2004. As a minister, she held portfolios of Transport and Commerce, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries. She again served as MLA in the Odisha assembly from 2004 to 2009. In 2007, the Odisha assembly honoured her with the 'Nilakantha Award' for best MLA. She served as a junior assistant in Irrigation and Power Department between 1979 and 1983. She has held several organisational posts in BJP and was vice president of state ST Morcha in 1997. Droupadi Murmu was a national executive member of BJP's ST Morcha from 2013 to 2015 and served as BJP district chief of Mayurbhanj (West) in 2010 and 2013. Between 2006 and 2009, she was chief of BJP's ST Morcha in Odisha. She was a member of the national executive of BJP ST Morcha from 2002 to 2009. The voting for the next President of India will kick start on July 18 while counting will take place on July 21. (ANI)
In a stunning reversal of fortunes for the Democrats in the New York state assembly and President Joe Biden himself, the Supreme Court struck down the century-old NY legislation on gun laws stating that the states licensing regimes violate the constitution (an apparent reference to the 2nd amendment of 1791 that allows citizens to possess firearms and carry them outside their homes for safety). The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down by a 6-3 majority vote a New York gun law enacted more than a century ago that places restrictions on carrying a concealed handgun outside the home -- an opinion marking the widest expansion of gun rights in a decade. "Because the State of New York issues public-carry licences only when an applicant demonstrates a special need for self-defence, we conclude that the State's licensing regime violates the Constitution," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the court's 6-3 majority ruling, CNN reported. The immediate fall out of the court's ruling is that the opinion changes the framework that lower courts will use going forward as they analyse other gun restrictions, which could include the proposals currently before the Congress if they eventually become law. The ruling could also swing voters in the margins on the bipartisan gun law set for passage in the Congress before the two-week recess. The uncertainty would be most unnerving for the 20 Senators that have worked hard on the framework legislation agreed upon and Democrats and American citizens looking for something on the table in the aftermath of the Buffalo and Texas shootings that claimed innocent lives, for meaningless violence to stop. The Senate will take critical vote to advance the bipartisan gun bill towards final passage. "The majority's expansion of what the 2nd Amendment protects will have monumental ramifications far beyond carrying firearms in public -- on everything from age restrictions to assault weapon bans to limits on high-capacity magazines," says Steve Vladeck, CNN Supreme Court analyst and professor at the University of Texas School of Law. "We're in for a whole new slew of litigation challenging any and every gun-control measure in light of the analysis in today's ruling," Vladeck said. Critics say the ruling will impair sensible solutions they think can curb gun violence. Only about a half-dozen states have similar laws to New York's -- California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts and New Jersey -- with similar regulations, but those states comprise some of the most densely-populated cities in the country. Twenty-five states generally allow people to carry concealed weapons in most public spaces without any permit, background check or safety training, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. In his opinion, Thomas said that going forward the government "may not simply posit that the regulation promotes an important interest", instead he said the judges must look to text and history when deciding whether a law passes muster. "Only if a firearm regulation is consistent with this Nation's historical tradition may a court conclude that the individual's conduct falls outside the Second Amendment's unqualified command," Thomas said. Dissents cite recent mass shootings In a dissent joined by the other liberals, Justice Stephen Breyer noted the spate of gun violence and said that the court, listing several recent shootings, including the massacre at the Buffalo grocery store earlier this year. Thursday's ruling "severely burdens States' efforts" to curb gun violence, Breyer wrote. "The primary difference between the court's view and mine is that I believe the Amendment allows States to take account of the serious problems posed by gun violence that I have just described," Breyer wrote. "I fear that the Court's interpretation ignores these significant dangers and leaves States without the ability to address them." Justice Samuel Alito, in a concurring opinion, pushed back: "And how does the dissent account for the fact that one of the mass shootings near the top of its list took place in Buffalo? The New York law at issue in this case obviously did not stop that perpetrator." Why the Supreme Court news site SCOTUS blog says it has a 'public service' role The conservative justices also dismissed concerns defenders of New York's gun law raised about how the law restricted the carrying of firearms into sensitive places. "It is true that people sometimes congregate in 'sensitive places,' and it is likewise true that law enforcement professionals are usually presumptively available in those locations. But expanding the category of 'sensitive places' simply to all places of public congregation that are not isolated from law enforcement defines the category of 'sensitive places' far too broadly," Thomas wrote. First major ruling on guns in a decade Since handing down two major Second Amendment cases in 2008 and 2010, the court has largely dodged the issue but agreed to take up the dispute after Justice Amy Coney Barrett arrived, highlighting her impact on the new conservative court, CNN analysts said. In 2008's District of Columbia vs Heller case, the court had held for the first time that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to keep and bear arms at home for self-defense. Except for a follow-up decision two years later, the justices largely stayed away from the issue infuriating gun rights advocates and even some of the justices themselves.? Thomas and other conservatives have made clear they believe lower courts have been thumbing their noses at the Heller decision by upholding restrictions. "The Second Amendment is a disfavored right in this court," Thomas had previously said. The case, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association vs Bruen, concerned a New York law governing licences to carry concealed handguns in public for self-defense. It required a resident to obtain a license to carry a concealed pistol or revolver and demonstrate that "proper cause" exists for the permit. Residents must show that they have a great need for the license and that they face a "special or unique danger to their life." The law requires applicants who want to carry a handgun in public without restriction to show an "actual and articulable" self-defence need, as opposed to one that is "speculative or specious". A panel of judges on the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals held that New York's law did not violate the Second Amendment. The Biden administration supported New York and told the Supreme Court in a brief that while the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to keep and bear arms, the right is "not absolute". Acting Solicitor General Brian Fletcher told the justices that the law was "firmly grounded" in the nation's history. The petitioners in the case were Robert Nash, Brandon Koch and the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association -- an NRA affiliate. They were represented by Paul Clement, a George W. Bush-era solicitor general who argued that the Second Amendment ensures a right not just to "keep arms", but to bear them. Nash and Koch had passed the required background checks and obtained licenses to carry guns for hunting and target practice, but they had not been able to establish a special need for self-defense that is required under the law to receive an unrestricted license. Clement argued that the law makes it almost impossible for an ordinary individual to obtain a license because the "proper cause" standard is so demanding and left to the "broad discretion" of the licensing officer. "Good, even impeccable, moral character plus a simple desire to exercise a fundamental right is not sufficient. Nor is living or being employed in a high crime area," Clement said. Nash, for instance, requested to carry a handgun for self-defense after a string of robberies in his neighborhood. But he was denied because he did not demonstrate a special need for self-defense. Koch wanted a similar licence, and he was able to cite his experience of participating in safety training courses. He too was denied. --IANS arm/ ( 1320 Words) 2022-06-23-23:00:01 (IANS)
The political crisis for the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra deepened further on Thursday after state minister leading the dissident MLAs, Eknath Shinde, released videos and photographs claiming that he has the support of 41 MLAs. However, a senior BJP leader here said on condition of anonymity that with few more MLAs arriving in Guwahati on Thursday, where Shinde and other rebel MLAs are camping since Wednesday morning, the number of dissident MLAs camping at the luxury Radisson Blu hotel rose to 44, including Independents and others. The rebel MLAs released videos and photographs claiming the backing of over 40 MLAs, posing an existential threat to the Uddhav Thackeray-led coalition government in Maharashtra. According to the videos and photographs, released by the disgruntled MLAs, Shinde is seen Shinde in the hotel posing with MLAs. In the visuals, dressed in all-white attire, Shinde, who holds the Urban Development and PWD portfolio in Maharashtra, could be seen surrounded by his fellow legislators. As a huge contingent of Assam police personnel led by senior officers have encircled the resort, allowing no journalist to come within 200 metre radius of the hotel, no specific developments inside the Radisson Blu could be known. The BJP leaders in the state and the hotel staff are tight-lipped about what's goin on inside. A source close to the rebel Sena MLAs said that two to three more dissident MLAs reached the Guwahati hotel on Thursday. In another development, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma visited the Radisson Blu on Thursday. However, Sangma, who is the President of National People's Party which is a constituent of the NDA, clarified that he went to the hotel to have lunch as it is located on the way from Guwahati to Shillong. --IANS sc/ ( 310 Words) 2022-06-23-23:22:02 (IANS)
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The presidential candidate nominated by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA, Droupadi Murmu is scheduled to file her nomination papers on Friday. The sources also informed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be proposing her name for the nomination on June 24, which will be seconded by the party's national president JP Nadda. The sources also informed ANI that the BJP has invited all of their allies to join in the nomination ceremony including the chief ministers of NDA-ruled states of the country. Meanwhile, the National People's Party (NPP) chief and Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma and Nagaland Chief Minister Nephiu Rio have already confirmed their participation in the nomination for the Presidential election on Friday. It is also being said that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will also be present during the nomination. On Wednesday evening Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik made an appeal to all MLAs of Odisha to support Murmu's candidature. Notably, Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD) is not an ally of the NDA but is often seen supporting the NDA government on crucial bills and legislature. He openly came out and endorsed the candidature of Murmu for the upcoming presidential elections that are scheduled to take place on July 18. While addressing a press conference at the party headquarters on Monday, JP Nadda announced Droupadi Murmu as the NDA candidate for the upcoming presidential election. Nadda also said that over 20 names were discussed by the BJP Parliamentary board and all the allies of the NDA before finalising Murmu as a candidate for the presidential election. Droupadi Murmu is all set to become the next President of India and if that comes through she will be India's first woman tribal President and the second woman President of India since its independence. Droupadi Murmu, a former Odisha minister, is the first presidential candidate from Odisha of a major political party or alliance. She continues to break barriers and was the first woman governor of Jharkhand. She served as Jharkhand Governor from 2015 to 2021. In 2007, the Odisha assembly honoured her with the 'Nilakantha Award' for best MLA. She served as a junior assistant in Irrigation and Power Department between 1979 and 1983. She has held several organisational posts in BJP and was vice president of state ST Morcha in 1997. The voting for the next President of India will kick start on July 18 while counting will take place on July 21. (ANI)
The government is not thinking or planning to propose a separate state of North Karnataka, state Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai assured on Thursday. "There is no thinking or proposal at the government level on a separate state of North Karnataka," Bommai said. Reacting to the statement of minister Umesh Katti on the said issue of a separate state for North Karnataka, Bommai said, "this is not the first time Umesh Katti has spoken about it. He has been saying it for many years. He himself should reply to this question." As per the information, Katti has made the statements for the division of the state and urged for the formation of a separate state, from time to time. "Bangalore has become a centralized place for only the people of South Karnataka, while the ones in North Karnataka are suffering because of it, that's why we need a separate state, and that is our agenda," he had alleged. During his address to the media persons at Karnataka Bhavan in the national capital, Bommai asserted that he will get the probe into the matter of the poor quality of a road laid by Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) right before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the state in Bengaluru and Mysore. PM Modi visited the state on June 20 for his two-day trip, where he inaugurated several developmental projects including the Centre for Brain Research at the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru, the campus of Dr BR Ambedkar School of Economics University located in Jnanabharati Campus of the Bangalore University, and also laid the foundation stone for Bagchi-Parthasarathy Multi-Speciality hospital. The road near the Dr BR Ambedkar School of Economics (BASE) was laid just a couple of days before PM Modi's visit to inaugurate the BASE campus. The Chief Minister has instructed the BBMP Commissioner to conduct an inquiry into the shoddy work and take appropriate action against those responsible for it. According to a preliminary inquiry, the road caved in due to leakage of a water pipe. Meanwhile, Bommai's visit gave rise to fresh speculation of changes in the state Cabinet. According to the tour programme released by his office, the Chief Minister reached New Delhi on Thursday afternoon and will return to Karnataka on Friday evening. (ANI)
The CRPF has been taking over the security of Sinha on Friday after it received a written order from the Ministry of Home Affairs a day ago.

The moves come days after the CRPF accorded 'Z+' category armed security to NDA's presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu.

Now, former Union Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Yashwant Sinha will be guarded round the clock by armed CRPF personnel.

On June 21, Sinha was named as the common candidate of the Opposition for the Presidential elections. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had made the announcement of his name as the presidential candidate of the opposition during a meeting.

The announcement comes shortly after Sinha hinted that he has accepted the proposal made by a section of Opposition leaders to make him their presidential candidate.

Sinha, who had quit the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2018, joined the TMC last year. He was later appointed as the party's vice-president.

The election of the office of the President of India is scheduled for July 18 and the counting of votes, if needed, will be done on July 21. (ANI)
Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has issued a show-cause notice to three engineers of RR Nagar Division over "sub-standard" asphalting of Mariyappanapalya main road in Bangalore University campus on Thursday. The road near Dr BR Ambedkar School of Economics (BASE) was laid just a couple of days before PM Modi's visit to inaugurate the BASE campus. The Chief Minister on Thursday instructed the BBMP Commissioner to conduct an inquiry into the shoddy work and take appropriate action against those responsible for it. The show cause notice said, "The Asphalting work taken up for Mariyappanapalya main road in Bangalore University Campus is reported to be substandard work. There are visuals that the layer of asphalt is being removed by hand." "By observation of the visuals, it is felt that there is no Standard Operation Procedure followed in the execution of the above-said work. Therefore, show cause notice is hereby issued calling upon your explanation about the said issue along with the test reports and also why action should not be initiated for failing to execute the work as per Standard Operation Procedure and also failing to discharge your duties as Executive Engineer on site," it added. (ANI)
The presidential candidate nominated by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA, Droupadi Murmu on Friday filed her nomination papers at the Parliament Library Building in the national capital. Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed her name for the nomination, which was seconded by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. The second set of proposers were the chief ministers of BJP-ruled states, the third proposers were MLAs and MPs from Himachal and Haryana and the fourth set were MLAs and MPs from Gujarat. PM Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP National President JP Nadda, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh Union Minister Piyush Goyal, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda, Union ministers and BJP leaders Gen VK Singh (Retd), Bhupender Yadav and Giriraj Singh were present at the Parliament during her nomination filing. The Chief Ministers of all BJP-ruled states including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Assam Chief Minister and Himanta Biswa Sarma among others were present during her nomination filing. Besides, the NDA partners, Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) leader V Vijayasai Reddy and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) Tukuni Sahu, BJJD MP Dr Sasmit Patra and Jagannath Saraka also present. Draupadi Murmu, the first woman tribal leader to file her nomination for the top constitutional post of the country, is a seasoned politician from Odisha coupled with an extensive background in the field of academics reflects that she will uplift the tribal sections of the country. Droupadi Murmu, who was declared BJP-led NDA's presidential candidate, is a former Governor of Jharkhand and a former Odisha minister. She will face opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha in the presidential contest on July 18. If elected, she will be the first tribal President of India and the country's second female President. Droupadi Murmu is the first presidential candidate from Odisha of a major political party or alliance. She continues to break barriers and was the first woman governor of Jharkhand. She served as Jharkhand Governor from 2015 to 2021. Born in a poor tribal family in a village of Mayurbhanj, a backward district in Odisha, Droupadi Murmu completed her studies despite challenging circumstances. She taught at Shri Aurobindo Integral Education Centre, Rairangpur. Born on June 20, 1958, she pursued BA at Ramadevi Women's College Bhubaneswar. She started her political career as Rairangpur NAC vice-chairman. Droupadi Murmu was a member of the Odisha Legislative Assembly from Rairangpur between 2000 and 2004. As a minister, she held portfolios of Transport and Commerce, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries. She again served as MLA in the Odisha assembly from 2004 to 2009. In 2007, the Odisha assembly honoured her with the 'Nilakantha Award' for best MLA. She served as a junior assistant in Irrigation and Power Department between 1979 and 1983. She has held several organisational posts in BJP and was vice president of state ST Morcha in 1997. Droupadi Murmu was a national executive member of BJP's ST Morcha from 2013 to 2015 and served as BJP district chief of Mayurbhanj (West) in 2010 and 2013. Between 2006 and 2009, she was chief of BJP's ST Morcha in Odisha. She was a member of the national executive of BJP ST Morcha from 2002 to 2009. (ANI)
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday registered an FIR against a Delhi-based packaging company for allegedly defrauding a consortium of banks. Several teams of CBI conducted multiple searches at the premises of the packaging company Rave Scans Private Limited for allegedly defrauding a consortium of banks to the tune of Rs 69.33 crore. According to the FIR, "a written complaint was received from the Chief Regional Manager of Indian Overseas Bank, New Delhi, into the matter. The complaint was made against M/s Rave Scans Pvt. Ltd. (RSPL), having the registered office address in Naraina Industrial Area in New Delhi, and its Directors, unknown public servants of the Banks / unknown others, who have allegedly perpetrated a fraud on the tune of Rs. 69.33 Crore on the consortium of banks led by the Indian Overseas Bank during a period from 2011-2016." It is further alleged that M/s Rave Scans Pvt. Ltd. (RSPL) and its Directors, under criminal conspiracy among themselves with unknown public servants of the Bank/others with an intention to cheat the Banks, obtained loan/Credit facilities from the banks and in pursuance of the conspiracy resorted to various fraudulent activities including the diversion of funds for purposes other than those for which the loan/facilities were sanctioned by the banks; submission of fabricated Stock Statements with the intention to defraud the Bank; manipulation in the books of accounts of the aforesaid company; wrong reporting in the financial statements/ balance sheets of the company; not utilizing the loan funds for the purpose for which it was sanctioned etc. and thereby, causing wrongful loss to the banks to the tune of Rs 69.33 Crore and corresponding a wrongful gain to themselves. (ANI)
The Health Minister in its official press release mentioned that more than 3.61 cr first dose vaccines were administered for the age group 12-14 years.

India's active caseload currently stands at 88,284, added the statement.

A total of 17,336 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours

The recovery rate currently stands at 98.59 per cent while the weekly positivity rate is at 3.07 per cent. (ANI)
Amid the ongoing crisis in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra, Assam Congress chief Bhupen Kumar Borah on Friday wrote a letter to rebel Shiv Sena MLA Eknath Shinde and advised him to leave Assam at the earliest in the greater interest of the state. In a letter, Borah said that the MLAs' presence in Guwahati has not gone well with the Assamese people and is creating an unhealthy atmosphere. "You are aware that Assam is a land where people give a lot of respect to ethics and values. Your presence in Guwahati with MLAs of the ruling Shiv Sena from Maharashtra, who have been kept in a hotel for alleged horse-trading to topple the elected Government of Maharashtra and the continued media coverage of the same, has not gone well with the Assamese people and is creating an unhealthy atmosphere," the letter reads. He further said that Assam is facing a devastating flood situation and in such a critical and deplorable situation of the state, the presence of Shiv Sena MLAs in Guwahati and the busy activities of the Assam government in providing royal hospitality are quite unfair and unacceptable. "In such a critical and deplorable situation of the state, your presence in Guwahati and the busy activities of Assam Govt. in providing royal hospitality to you, is quite unfair and unacceptable. Assam has been defamed by your presence considering Guwahati as a safe heaven for MLAs who have no respect for constitutional values and loyalty at all," he said. Further attacking Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, the Congress leader said, the state Government machinery should be busy with the management of the flood crisis but the presence of MLAs here has been standing as a hindrance. "Assam has seen towering political personalities such as late Chief Ministers -- Bharat Ratna Lok Priyo Gopinath Bordoloi and Padma Bhushan Tarun Gogoi. But the present CM Dr Himanta BiswaSarma has proved himself to be nothing but a wheeler-dealer encouraging and supporting political horse-trading in Assam. The BJP CM and the Government's support for your presence here has sullied the image of Assam and Assamese people. Sarma and the Government machinery should be busy with the management of the flood crisis but your presence here has been standing as a hindrance," the letter further reads. "Considering the damage that you have caused to Assam and its people by your presence, I would like to advise you to leave Assam at the earliest in the greater interest of the state," he added. Shiv Sena rebel leader Eknath Shinde along with 38 party MLAs and nine independent MLAs are campaigning at Radisson Blu Hotel in Guwahati from June 22. On the other hand, BJP MLC Pravin Darekar has written a letter to Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari demanding his intervention into the way the "MVA govt in the state is suspiciously taking rapid decisions one after other pertaining to schemes, projects and giving contracts". Eknath Shinde is appearing to be holding a tight grip on the Shiv Sena, as the strength of MLAs supporting him is expected to cross 50 as more legislators are likely to reach Guwahati on Friday thus further deepening the political crisis in Maharashtra. The situation for Thackeray continues to become grimmer with his close aide switching sides and the chief minister himself falling short of numbers. It seems that the legacy of Bal Thackeray, who founded Shiv Sena, has slipped from the hands of Uddhav Thackeray with the rebellion of Eknath Shinde as he claims of being a true Shivsainik, the battle of who holds the true legacy of Balasaheb has started. The political crisis in Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra erupted after party legislators joined a rebellion led by Eknath Shinde who is staying at a hotel in Guwahati. The rebel MLAs who are at a hotel in Guwahati authorised Shinde to decide on a further course of action. Meanwhile, Shiv Sena supporters throw black ink and eggs at a poster showing a picture of rebel MLA Eknath Shinde, and also raised slogans against him in Nashik.(ANI)
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) on Friday called for a meeting of its legislators and MPs, which will be chaired by the party supremo Shibu Soren on Saturday. The meeting will be held to take a decision on extending support to the Presidential election candidates. For the upcoming Presidential polls in India on July 18, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA has nominated Droupadi Murmu as their candidate, who had filed her nominations today. Besides, the NDA partners, Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) leader V Vijayasai Reddy and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) Tukuni Sahu, BJJD MP Dr Sasmit Patra and Jagannath Saraka were also present at Murmu's nomination filing. Notably, Murmu- the first woman tribal leader to file her nomination for the top constitutional post of the country, is a seasoned politician from Odisha coupled with an extensive background in the field of academics reflects that she will uplift the tribal sections of the country. She is also the former Governor of Jharkhand and a former Odisha minister. She will face opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha in the presidential contest on July 18. Sinha, the former Union Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader was named as the common candidate of the Opposition for the Presidential elections on June 21. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had made the announcement of his name as the presidential candidate of the opposition during a meeting. The announcement came shortly after Sinha hinted that he has accepted the proposal made by a section of Opposition leaders to make him their presidential candidate. Sinha had quit the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2018 and joined the TMC last year. He was later appointed as the party's vice-president. The election for the office of the President of India is scheduled for July 18 and the counting of votes, if needed, will be done on July 21. (ANI)
Northern Army Commander Lt General Upendra Dwivedi personally drove the new vehicle and said that with these combat vehicles one can easily be driven in harsh terrain of the region.

"One can easily drive the vehicle and the driver can see 1,800 metres away from it. The weapon mounted on it can be controlled from inside," Northern Army Commander Lt General Upendra Dwivedi told ANI.

The vehicles named Infantry Protected Mobility Vehicles (IPMVs) were delivered to the Indian Army in April this year and have been tried and tested in the Ladakh region in mountainous terrain.

These Infantry Protected Mobility Vehicles (IPMVs) have been jointly developed by the Defense Research and Development Organization and the Tata group. (ANI)
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday termed the new Agnipath recruitment scheme for the Armed Forces "harmful for youth and country" and asked the Centre to review it. "Agnipath scheme is harmful for our youth and country. After four years of service, they will be called ex-servicemen and will not get any pension... I think the Central government should review it," Kejriwal said while speaking to the media. The Centre had launched the Agnipath Scheme on June 14, following which the protests erupted in parts of the country with agitations turning violent in some places like Bihar, and Telangana among others. Kejriwal had appealed to the Centre to give the youth a chance to "serve the country for the whole life and not only for four years". "The central government's new scheme in army recruitment is being opposed everywhere in the country. Young people are very angry. Their demands are just right. The Army is the pride of our country, our youth want to give their whole life to the country, don't keep their dreams tied in 4 years," he tweeted earlier in Hindi. "Appeal to the Central Government- Youth should be given a chance to serve the country for the whole life, not 4 years. Those who were overage due to lack of recruitment in the army for the last two years, should also be given a chance," Kejriwal added. Meanwhile, soon after announcing that there will be no rollback of the Agnipath Scheme amid protests against the new military recruitment programme, a top army official on Sunday urged the youth to "start preparing" instead of "wasting their time" by taking to the streets. Speaking to ANI, Lt Gen Anil Puri, Additional Secretary, Department of Military Affairs, said, "By going to the streets, they are only wasting their time, they should spend this time to get themselves physically ready. The worst issue is that today we are not what we were 10 years back. Everything is interconnected. Why roger your future? It's not worth it. I appeal to them to start preparing." A total of 46,000 Agniveers will be recruited this year but a top military officer said it will go up to 1.25 lakhs in near future. The entry age for all new recruits in the Armed Forces has been fixed as 17.5 to 21 years of age. However, following protests, the Central government announced an increase in the upper age limit for the recruitment of Agniveers from 21 years to 23 years for the recruitment cycle of 2022 as it has not been possible to undertake the recruitment during the last two years. Agniveers will be enrolled for a service duration of 4 years including the training period. After four years, only 25 per cent of the Agniveers will be retained or re-enlisted in the regular cadre based on merit, willingness and medical fitness. These 25 per cent Agniveers will then serve for a full term of another 15 years. Addressing the concerns over the future of Agniveers and their job security, the Centre approved a proposal to reserve 10 per cent of the job vacancies in the Ministry of Defence for Agniveers meeting requisite eligibility criteria and also decided to give priority to them in the recruitment of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and Assam Rifles. Several state governments like Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Karnataka have announced to give Agniveers priority in state government jobs. (ANI)
As rebel Shiv Sena MLAs and some Independents legislators from Maharashtra continue to camp in Assam, state Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday invited his Maharashtra counterpart Uddhav Thackeray to come to Assam for a "vacation". Speaking to ANI on Friday, Sarma said, "If the rebel MLAs stay in Assam for more days, then it is a good thing for me. I invite everyone. He (Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray) should also come to Assam for vacation. I invite all the MLAs of the country to come to Assam." Further, the Assam Chief Minister brushed off allegations of hosting Maharashtastra rebel MLAs in Guwahati saying that he could not stop anyone from visiting his state. Speaking on the opposition's jibe related to violation of federal structure, he said, "How can I stop people from coming to a hotel? Can I tell you not to come to a hotel in Assam because there is a federal structure in the country? I am happy when anyone comes to Assam, they can stay as long as they want," he added. On Thursday, Sarma denied connection with the Maharashtra political crisis. He said, "There are many good hotels in Assam, anyone can come there and stay...there is no issue with it. I don't know if Maharashtra MLAs are staying in Assam. MLAs of other states can also come and stay in Assam," Sarma told. The opposition leaders have also launched an attack on the CM for ignoring the flood situation in the state and indulging in politics. The crisis in Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra erupted after a majority of party legislators joined a rebellion led by Eknath Shinde who is staying at a hotel in Guwahati. Shinde camp has claimed the support of 38 Shiv Sena MLAs and nine independents. The rebel MLAs who are at a hotel in Guwahati since June 20, authorized Shinde on June 23 to decide on a further course of action. Meanwhile, Eknath Shinde is appearing to be holding a tight grip on the Shiv Sena, as the strength of MLAs supporting him is expected to cross 50 as more legislators are likely to reach Guwahati on Friday. Shiv Sena MLA Sanjay Shirsat claimed that both Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are trying to eliminate Shiv Sena politically from Maharashtra and the MLAs made countless attempts to inform Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray about the malafide intentions of alliance partners. Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut even urged rebel MLAs to return to Mumbai and discuss their issues with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. Raut also claimed that the Shiv Sena is ready to "consider exiting out of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) if this is the will of all the MLAs" but with a condition that the rebel MLAs will have to convey the message directly to CM Uddhav Thackeray and discuss the issues with him. Earlier, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge held the central government led by the BJP responsible for the ongoing political crisis in Maharashtra where around 40 Shiv Sena MLAs have revolted against the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government and are currently camping in Guwahati. Kharge alleged that the BJP-led Centre is attempting to "destabilize" the "strong" Maha Vikas Aghadi government in view of the forthcoming presidential poll next month as they need numbers to get their presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu victorious in the poll slated to be held on July 18. However, BJP had said the Maharashtra crisis is Shiv Sena's internal matter and the party has nothing to do with it. Nationalist Congress Party leader Jayant Patil had said his party is "firmly standing with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray".(ANI)
A fire broke out at a clothing store in Punjab's Ludhiana, the fire service informed on Friday. Multiple fire tenders at the spot. More details are awaited. Two months ago, a bus conductor was killed after three buses were gutted in a fire that broke out at a bus stand in Bathinda. (ANI)
As the political tussle between Maharashtra Minister Eknath Shinde, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and the tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government intensifies, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Friday accused the Centre of destabilising non-BJP state government by all means. "BJP is destabilising non-BJP state governments by all means. Whatever is happening in Maharashtra seems pre-planned. Either they pressurise, scare or they buy. Even in Bihar, people rejected BJP but Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was pressurised and same happened in the state," RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said to ANI. In a jolt to the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra, senior Shiv Sena Minister Eknath Shinde and other rebel MLAs revolted against the party on Monday night and camped in Surat. The rebel MLAs have shifted base to a hotel in Guwahati. On Friday, in his virtual address to the party's district unit chiefs and 'sampark pramukhs', CM Uddhav Thackeray said "despite the rebellions that the party has faced earlier, it came to power twice. I may have left 'Varsha', the Chief Minister's official residence, but not my determination". Meanwhile, party MP Sanjay Raut on Thursday said the Sena is ready to quit the MVA government if the group of rebel legislators camping in Assam returns to Mumbai in 24 hours and discusses the issue with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. "You say you are real Shiv Sainiks and will not quit the party. We are ready to consider your demand provided you come back to Mumbai in 24 hours and discuss the issue with CM Uddhav Thackeray. Your demand will be considered positively. Don't write letters on Twitter and WhatsApp," Raut told reporters. In a series of tweets posted late Thursday night, Shinde who is camping in Guwahati along with Sena legislators and independents, said as per the 10th Schedule of the Constitution, a party whip is issued for the legislature proceedings and not for attending a meeting. (ANI)
Amid the ongoing political crisis in Maharashtra, Deputy CM and Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar on Thursday said that the NCP stands with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and will meet him at his residence this evening. "We still stand with the Chief Minister. NCP leaders will go to meet CM at 6.30 pm today at Matoshree (Thackeray residence). Our stand is the same as yesterday. We will try to keep the government stable," he added. According to him the agenda of the meeting would decide the "next step" amid the political crisis. Reacting to LOP Praveen Derekar's letter to the Governor, Pawar said, "We are in power and have the majority. We are making decisions as a Government does. Wouldn't you have done the same if you were in power and had a majority? The government does have the right to take such decisions. The concerned minister and officers are making decisions together." BJP MLC Pravin Darekar had written a letter to Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari demanding his intervention into the manner in which the "MVA government in the state is suspiciously taking rapid decisions one after other pertaining to schemes, projects and giving contracts". "They (Eknath Shinde faction) say that they are Shiv Sena. So Shiv Sena+NCP+Congress together, we have a majority," he added. Meanwhile, Shinde has claimed that he has the support of 38 Shiv Sena MLAs. Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut expressed confidence that the MVA government would win the floor test in the State Assembly. He said that the rebel MLAs have taken a very wrong step and said that the MVA government will complete the rest of the remaining years of the five-year tenure in office. He further added that Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar are in constant touch. Raut had earlier urged rebel MLAs to return to Mumbai and discuss their issues with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. He had also claimed that the Shiv Sena is ready to "consider exiting out of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) if this is the will of all the MLAs" but with a condition that the rebel MLAs will have to convey the message directly to CM Uddhav Thackeray and discuss the issues with him. Shiv Sena MLA Sanjay Shirsat claimed that both Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are trying to eliminate Shiv Sena politically from Maharashtra and the MLAs made countless attempts to inform Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray about the malafide intentions of alliance partners. Eknath Shinde is appearing to be holding a tight grip on the Shiv Sena, as the strength of MLAs supporting him is expected to cross 50 as more legislators are likely to reach Guwahati on Friday. The political crisis in Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra erupted after the party legislators joined a rebellion led by Eknath Shinde who is staying at a hotel in Guwahati. The rebel MLAs who are at a hotel in Guwahati and authorized Shinde to decide on a further course of action. Notably, the Shiv Sena faction led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has filed a petition before the Deputy Speaker of the state assembly seeking the cancellation of membership of 12 rebel MLAs including Eknath Shinde for "not attending" the legislative party meeting held on Wednesday. Apart from Shinde, Shiv Sena has sought disqualification of Prakash Surve, Tanaji Sawant, Mahesh Shinde, Abdul Sattar, Sandeep Bhumare, Bharat Gogawale, Sanjay Shirsat, Yamini Yadhav, Anil Babar, Balaji Devdas and Lata Chaudhari. Meanwhile, Shiv Sena supporters throw black ink and eggs at a poster displaying a picture of rebel MLA Eknath Shinde, and also raised slogans against him in Nashik. (ANI)
Union Minister Anurag Thakur has hailed the Supreme Court decision dismissing a petition challenging the Special Investigation Team (SIT) report on post-Godhra violence in Gujarat and stating that truth alone triumphs. "Satyamev Jayate ! Supreme Court of India gives a clean chit and has dismissed the plea filed by Zakia Jafri challenging the SC-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) report on post-Godhra violence in Gujarat. Supreme Court says petition is without merit," Thakur said in a tweet. The national emblem of India carries the motto 'Satyamev Jayate' which means truth alone triumphs. The petition in Supreme Court was filed by Zakia Jafri, widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri in the Supreme Court. Ehsan Jafri was among 69 people killed during the violence at the Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002. Zakia Jafri had challenged the SIT's clean chit to 64 people including Narendra Modi who was then the Gujarat Chief Minister. The bench headed by Justices AM Khanwilkar said that it finds the appeal devoid of merit. "After cogitating over the matter, we uphold the decision of the Magistrate in accepting the stated final report dated February 8, 2012, submitted by the SIT, as it is and rejecting the protest petition filed by the appellant. We do not countenance the submission of the appellant regarding infraction of rule of law in the matter of investigation and the approach of the Magistrate and the High Court in dealing with the final report. Accordingly, we hold that this appeal is devoid of merits and resultantly, deserves to be dismissed in the aforementioned terms. We order accordingly," the bench said in its judgement. The apex court pronounced the verdict in which it had reserved the order on December 9, 2021. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Jafri, had told the bench also comprising Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar, that they have not argued at all about any alleged involvement of the former chief minister and they are on the issue of a larger conspiracy which was not probed by the SIT. SIT had opposed the plea of Jafri saying there is a sinister plot behind the complaint to probe the "larger conspiracy" behind the 2002 Gujarat riots and the original complaint by Jafri was directed by social activist Teesta Setalvad, who levelled allegations just to keep the pot boiling. Setalvad had also challenged an October 2017 order of the Gujarat high court refusing to reopen the closure report of the SIT. " The Gujarat High Court had upheld the Magisterial court's order, accepting the SIT's closure report. (ANI)
The Chief Minister requested the Union Minister to increase the grant permissible in CSISAC (Component-1) of the National Cooperative Development Corporation for Himalayan and North Eastern States from 20 per cent to 40 per cent.

The Chief Minister said that the State Integrated Cooperative Development Project is being operated under CSISAC (Component-1) assisted by the National Cooperative Development Corporation and subsidized by the cooperative in the state of Uttarakhand, read a statement from Uttarakhand's Chief Minister's office.

An ambitious plan has been presented by the state government to the National Cooperative Development Corporation to make various cooperative institutions formed in the cooperative sector in the state.

In this, arrangements were made to provide fair prices to the farmers for their produce by making joint cooperative farming and other agricultural and allied businesses collectively increasing production and adding value to them.

It is in-principle and financial approval was given by the National Cooperative Development Corporation. The above-approved scheme was launched by the Prime Minister.

The Chief Minister said that it is very challenging to establish cooperative societies as a commercial unit due to the odd geographical conditions and for this, additional assistance would be required.

The Chief Minister requested the Union Home Minister to increase the grant permissible in CSISAC (Component-1) of the National Cooperative Development Corporation to 40 per cent instead of 20 per cent for Himalayan and North Eastern States. With this, the cooperative institutions of the state can be able to bear the loan amount. (ANI)
Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Vinai Kumar Saxena has suspended two more officers in a corruption case. Two days back, the Lieutenant Governor had suspended four officers in other cases. Now, action has been taken against two other officers for wrongly selling Delhi Development Authority land. As per sources, ''DC Sahoo, Sub-Registrar-5A, Hauz Khas has been suspended to facilitate a fair inquiry into the matter of grave misconduct and corruption involving forging of revenue records in connivance with a private individual to transfer prime DDA land worth several crores to a private party on Josip Broz Tito Marg in Chirag Delhi. Ramesh Kumar the then Kanoongo of the area and Record Room in-charge has also been put under suspension in the same case.'' According to sources, ''LG had been receiving several complaints about the said Sub-Registrar from MPs and MLAs cutting across party lines as indeed individual citizens and groups living in that area. Serious charges of corruption that included blatant demand of bribes for registering properties, sub-version of documents and high-handedness were brought to his notice.'' Upon inquiry, it was found that in the extant case, the Sub-Registrar had, in criminal connivance with private individuals and the Kanoongo in-charge of the area, not only forged documents to show that land measuring 1,250 square yards that belonged to DDA was free hold but also registered a sale deed in February 2022. A report to this effect along with a recommendation to suspend the two officials to enable fair and detailed inquiry into the whole matter was put up for approval of the Chief Secretary who is the Competent Authority in this case on June 17, 2022 and the suspension orders thereto were issued on June 21, 2022 subsequently. (ANI)
The day-one meeting will start at 11 am on Saturday over disaster management in which long-term measures for the formulation of a comprehensive policy to mitigate the perennial flood problems of the country will be discussed.

Sources said that the focus is to strengthen coordination mechanisms between the Central and state agencies to create a system for forecasting floods and rises in water levels in major catchment zones of the country.

On Sunday, the meeting of the Consultative Committee of Home Affairs will start at around 11.30 am over forensic science capacities.

Forensic science is a critical element of the criminal justice system. Forensic scientists examine and analyze evidence from crime scenes and elsewhere to develop objective findings that can assist in the investigation and prosecution of perpetrators of crime or absolve an innocent person from suspicion.

Shah will chair the meeting on Saturday and Sunday. Other members of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee will also join the event.

Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla and the officials concerned will also join the meeting. (ANI)
Notably, AIADMK has conveyed its support to the presidential candidate of the NDA in the forthcoming elections slated to be held on July 18.

The meeting of the leaders comes soon after Murmu filed her nomination papers in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior leaders of the party.

Earlier today, according to the sources, Murmu spoke to leaders of Opposition parties including Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and Trinamool Congress (TMC) seeking their party's support for her candidature ahead of filing her nomination.

Murmu spoke with Congress interim-President Sonia Gandhi, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and NCP chief Sharad Pawar.

According to the sources, Mamata Banerjee did not make any commitment to Murmu but wished her all the best for the election.

Despite Yashwant Sinha being nominated as the presidential candidate of the joint opposition, Murmu sought the support of Opposition parties.

Meanwhile, Murmu filed her nomination papers at the Parliament Library Building in the national capital today.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed her name for the nomination, which was seconded by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

She had met PM Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday, a day ahead of her filing the nomination papers.

Notably, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday extended support to NDA presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu, who will be the first tribal woman to hold the position if she wins.

The presidential polls are slated to be held on July 18 and its counting will take place on July 21. (ANI)
Shiv Sena leaders on Friday, after the conclusion of a virtual meeting with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, said that they will "fight out" the ongoing political crisis in the state and the party is intact. Speaking to ANI, Shiv Sena leader Sachin Ahir who attended the meeting, said, "Today we had a party meeting with district leaders. After CM Uddhav Thackeray's speech, party leaders were filled with energy. MLAs may not be here but the party is intact. Party's full base is there and with this spirit, we will fight." Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said that what the rebel MLAs are resorting to is "illegal and politically not feasible". "We are Shivsainiks, we will fight and win. What they are doing is illegal, legally not tenable and politically not feasible," she said. Earlier today, Thackeray convened a virtual meeting with all district chiefs of the party in Shiv Sena Bhawan. He said rebel Shiv Sena MLAs who are camping in Guwahati want to "break the party". As Eknath Shinde appears to be tightening his grip on Shiv Sena with the number of rebels rising to 38, Thackeray called a meeting of the party's district chiefs today where he said that he left the Varsha Bungalow but not the "will to fight". "I have said it earlier also that I don't have anything to do with power. The people who used to say that they would rather die than leave Shiv Sena have fled today," the Shiv Sena chief said during his virtual address at the meeting. "The rebel MLAs want to break the party. I had never thought in dreams that I would become the chief minister. I have left Varsha Bungalow but not the will to fight," he added. Targeting Shinde, Thackeray said that he did everything for the rebel leader and yet a lot of allegations are levelled against him. Notably, the Chief Minister had vacated the official residence of the CM on Wednesday night and moved to his family residence 'Matoshree' along with his family. "I did everything for Eknath Shinde. I gave him the department which I held. His own son is an MP and comments are being made regarding my son. A lot of allegations are levelled against me," he said. "If they have courage, they should go among people without taking Balasaheb and Shiv Sena's names," he added. Thackeray, who underwent a cervical spine surgery last year, said, "I had pain in my neck and head. I was not able to work properly. I could not open my eyes but I did not care about it. Shivaji Maharaj was defeated but people were always with him." (ANI)
With the crisis in Maharashtra politics constantly deepening, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Friday alleged that the BJP, in its attempt to make India "Opposition-free", is using "all resources and muscle power" to "oust" Uddhav Thackeray from power even since he assumed the office of the Chief Minister in Maharashtra. However, Chowdhury said that the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in the state is "gradually earning the trust" of the people. Speaking to ANI, the Congress leader said, "From the day Uddhav Thackeray took over as Maharashtra CM, BJP is using all its resources, and muscle power, with a single objective to oust him from power." "However, the Opposition is believed to be united. Sharad Pawar has tried to save this government. That is why it is astonishing to know that even leader like Sharad Pawar is intimidated. MVA govt is gradually earning the trust of the common people but it can't be digested by BJP," he added. Citing the example of Bihar where BJP's ally JD(U) was in power with rival RJD and later returned to power with the BJP in the state, Chowdhury said that it is now the turn for the Maharashtra government. "Once they had given a call of 'Congress-free India', now they may change their track to 'Opposition-free India'. They earlier destabilised the Bihar government when JDU was in power with RJD, now it is turn for the Maharashtra government," he said. Earlier today, amid the political turbulence in Maharashtra, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday said rebel Shiv Sena MLAs who are camping in Guwahati want to "break the party". As Eknath Shinde appears to be tightening his grip on Shiv Sena with the number of rebels who joined him rising to 38, Thackeray called a meeting of the party's district chiefs today where he said that he left the Varsha Bungalow but not the "will to fight". "I have said it earlier also that I don't have anything to do with power. The people who used to say that they would rather die than leave Shiv Sena have fled today," the Shiv Sena chief said during his virtual address at the meeting. "The rebel MLAs want to break the party. I had never thought in dreams that I would become the chief minister. I have left Varsha Bungalow but not the will to fight," he added. Targetting Shinde, Thackeray said that he did everything for the rebel leader and yet a lot of allegations are levelled against him. Notably, the Chief Minister had vacated the official residence of the CM on Wednesday night and moved to his family residence 'Matoshree' along with his family. "I did everything for Eknath Shinde. I gave him the department which I held. His own son is an MP and comments are being made regarding my son. A lot of allegations are levelled against me," he said. "If they have courage, they should go among people without taking Balasaheb & Shiv Sena's names," he added. Thackeray, who underwent a cervical spine surgery last year, said, "I had pain in my neck and head, I was not able to work properly, I could not open my eyes but I did not care about it. Shivaji Maharaj was defeated but people were always with him." (ANI)
Google's work on adopting a new display panel for the Pixel 7 Pro, the new S6E3HC4 panel will have the same 3,120 x 1,440px resolution and 10-120Hz refresh rate. The source code included in the Android 13 betas provides a partial response to that query. According to GSM Arena, it will be brighter on the new display panel. According to the code displayed below, the Pixel 7 Pro will enable manual brightness settings up to 600 nits, which is 100 units more than what the Pixel 6 Pro allowed. The display's maximum brightness will increase to 1,000 nits in Auto mode from 800 nits. Note that these numbers apply to displays that are completely white (100 per cent APL). The brightness could probably reach 1,200 nits at lower APL (which is a much more typical case). The display panel's additional features, such as support for HDR10 and HLG imagery, are also described in the source code. However, there is still no HDR10+ or a lower minimum refresh rate. However, there is a native 1080p mode that should aid in power conservation, as reported by GSM Arena. Google has not yet announced an official launch date for the Pixel 7 series, but it will come soon as per sources. (ANI)
The Delhi High Court on Friday adjourned the hearing on an anticipatory bail plea of Congress leader Karti Chidambaram for July 12. Karti had moved a petition seeking anticipatory bail in a money laundering case connected with the Chinese visa case. Justice Jasmeet Singh on Friday adjourned the hearing for the next date of hearing as there was no time left for a hearing today. Meanwhile, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju, who appeared for Enforcement Directorate, assured the Court that no coercive action till the next date of hearing. Earlier, another vacation bench on June 8 had reserved the order on anticipatory bail plea. However, an application was moved on June 10 seeking permission to lead some additional arguments by the counsel of petitioner. It was allowed and the matter was listed for further hearing. The application was moved after an order passed by Special CBI Judge M K Nagpal granting bail to S Bhaskararaman in the Chinese Visa case registered by the CBI. It was stated that there are some material developments and they wish to file additional documents. The bench had said it requires further hearing. Justice Poonam A Bamba had reserved the order on the bail plea after hearing the arguments of senior advocate Kapil Sibal for Karti and Additional Solicitor General (ADG) S V Raju for ED. Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal had argued there is no material against the accused. "No money laundering case is made out as there are no allegations that any money was given to Karti Chidambaram. If there is no money, it cannot be laundered. Still, they registered the ECIR. The accused has joined the investigation and cooperating in the same," he said. Sibal also argued that the alleged transaction is of 2011 and they registered the case in 2022. "There is an apprehension of arrest as they registered the ECIR within ten days of registration of FIR by CBI. I am named in that ECIR, they can arrest me anytime without even calling me or giving me notice," he said. "In the CBI case, I have been given the protection of 72 hours notice of before arrest. So, that I can approach the court," the Senior Advocate argued. Earlier, Sibal had argued that the value of an alleged transaction is of Rs 50 Lakh, it is less than Rs one crore, in the view of this fact he should be granted bail. "On the other hand, ASG SV Raju submitted that the bail application is premature as there is no material we have in this case. We will investigate the case. Still, they have apprehension of arrest, why do they have so. If no case is made out against them then why they have apprehension," he said. He argued that this application is premature as even no summoned was issued, only an ECIR was registered. Therefore, the apprehension of arrest is not genuine, he added. CBI judge MK Nagpal of the Rouse Avenue Court on June 3, 2022 had dismissed all three applications moved by Karti Chidambaram, S Bhaskararaman and Vikas Makharia. (ANI)
The office of one of the rebel MLAs of Shiv Sena, Mangesh Kudalkar, was vandalised on Friday allegedly by party workers amid the ongoing factionalism in the party. Kudalkar is one of the 38 Shiv Sena rebel MLAs who has camped in a Guwahati hotel under the leadership of MLA Eknath Shinde. Notably, Shinde was elected leader at a meeting of rebel MLAs at the hotel where they are staying. The meeting also unanimously decided to authorise Shinde to take a decision about the future course of action. In a video released by the Shinde camp on Thursday evening, he is heard saying that they will be together in any situation and face everything together. "We will be together in every situation. We will face everything with full unity. We will end up victorious in the end," he said. "As you all have said that they (BJP) are a national party and a 'mahashakti'... All saw what happened to Pakistan...They have told me that the decision I have taken is historic and they are backing us. They would not us lag behind in anything. They will support us if there is a need and this will be felt whenever such a situation arises," Shinde added. Amid the continuing political crisis in Maharashtra due to revolt in the Shiv Sena, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Deputy CM Ajit Pawar arrived at Matoshree, the residence of the Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in Mumbai. The leaders were accompanied by state minister Jayant Patil and NCP leader Praful Patel. The leaders are expected to discuss ways to prevent fall of MVA government, which also includes Congress. Ajit Pawar said earlier in the day that the NCP stands with the Chief Minister and will try to "keep the government stable". The crisis continued to plague Shiv Sena with rebel leader Eknath Shinde claiming support of 38 party MLAs. Thackeray convened a meeting of district chiefs of the party and said he left Varsha Bungalow, the official residence of the Chief Minister, but not the "will to fight". "I have said it earlier also that I don't have anything to do with power. The people who used to say that they would rather die than leave Shiv Sena have fled today," he said. (ANI)
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan condemned the attack on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's office in Wayanad on Friday and said that strong action would be taken against the accused. Rahul Gandhi is a Lok Sabha MP from Kerala's Wayanad. "There is freedom for democratic protests and expressing an opinion in our land. But going in the direction of attacks is the wrong tendency. The government will take strong action against the accused," Vijayan said. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's office in Kainatty near Kalpetta in Wayanad was vandalized on Friday allegedly by the Students Federation of India (SFI) activists. Indian Youth Congress, in a tweet, alleged that "goons held the flags of SFI" as they climbed the wall of Rahul Gandhi's Wayanad office and vandalized it. A protest march of the SFI, the students' wing of ruling CPI(M), against Congress MP Rahul Gandhi turned violent as a group of protestors allegedly entered the Lok Sabha member's office and vandalized it. The student organization was protesting against the creation of buffer zones around forests in the hilly areas of Kerala. According to SC, wildlife sanctuaries and national parks should have a one-km buffer zone around them. This will affect the people of Rahul Gandhi's constituency in Wayanad and Malappuram districts. "This happened in the presence of the Police. It's a clear conspiracy by CPM leadership. For the past five days, ED is questioning him after that I don't know why Kerala CPI(M) is going in the way of Narendra Modi to attack him. I think Sitaram Yehcury will take necessary action," said Congress leader KC Venugopal reacting to the vandalization of the party office. "I think CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury will take necessary action," added Venugopal. Congress MP for Thiruvananthapuram, Shashi Tharoor shared a video of the vandalised office. He tweeted, "Visuals of the trashing of [?]@RahulGandhi's Wayanad office by activists of [?]@CPIMKerala student wing, SFI. Would [?]@pinarayivijayan & [?]@SitaramYechury [?] take disciplinary action or let their silence condone such behaviour? Is this their idea of politics?" (ANI)
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday raised an issue with the Centre regarding a "severe shortage" of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers in his state by the end of this year. Khattar pointed out the matter when he called on Union Minister Jitendra Singh at his office earlier in the day and discussed a wide range of state issues related to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), including placement of All India Services officers and other matters. "Khattar pointed out that there would be a severe shortage of IAS officers by the end of this year as seven direct recruits and the same number of promotee officers will superannuate in 2022," an official statement from the Ministry of Personnel reads. Khattar said, as per Ministry's order, due to Central deputation and low intake of officers at the state cadre, Haryana is facing some governance problems. Haryana Chief Minister brought to the notice of Jitendra Singh that there are "50 odd departments in the state which need experienced officers at the helm". Khattar said, at present he is managing by assigning "2-3 departments to a single officer, leading to unnecessary and unfeasible workload". Jitendra Singh, who is also the Minister-in-charge of DoPT, acknowledged the serious crunch of officers in Haryana and directed the Union Secretary, DoPT to give due consideration to all these issues and examine what best can be done. The Minister also assured the Chief Minister that cases of extension of service on a six-month basis will be considered, till the shortage is addressed on a regular basis, the statement mentioned. Jitendra Singh also promised to give due consideration to the repatriation of some of the officers from the Central Deputation. The Chief Minister also requested the Union Minister to follow up with the Central government onthe progress of some of the other proposals of projects in Haryana, stated the statement, adding "the Union Minister in return said that his office will take due cognizance of this". (ANI)
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday attached Rs 78.38 crore assets of Maharashtra-based Jalna Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana Ltd in connection with a money-laundering probe relating to the illegal sale of Cooperative Sugar Mills (Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana) in Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank (MSCB) case. According to a statement by the agency, the attached property includes residual plant and machinery at the site, building structures and more than 200 acres of land of Jalna Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana (SSK) Ltd at Sawargaon Hadap village in Maharashtra's Jalna district. The assets of Jalna SSK are currently held in the name of Arjun Sugar Industries Pvt Ltd. ED has initiated an investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) based upon a First Information Report (FIR) dated August 26, 2019, registered by the Economic Offence Wing of Mumbai Police. The FIR was registered in pursuance of the order dated August 22, 2019, of Bombay High Court, according to the statement. It has been alleged in the FIR that the cooperative SSKs were fraudulently sold by the then officials and Directors of MSCB at throw-away prices to their relatives and private persons without following the due procedure prescribed under the SARFAESI Act. Investigations conducted under PMLA revealed that Jalna SSK Limited was established in the year 1984-85 on around 235 acres of land including 100 acres of land received without any monetary consideration from Govt of Maharashtra. The Jalna SSK failed to repay the loan availed from MSCB and was declared as NPA on March 31, 2002. There was a loan outstanding of Rs 33.49 crore of MSCB on Jalna SSK as on September 30, 2008, said the statement. To recover its dues, MSCB took possession of SSK on February 16, 2009, under SARFAESI Act. Thereafter, MSCB conducted an auction of Jalna SSK on February 27, 2012, with a reserve price of Rs 42.18 crore. Only two parties-- Tapadia Constructions Pvt. Ltd and Ajeet Seeds Pvt. Ltd ( both in Aurangabad)-- participated in the auction. Tapadia Constructions Pvt Ltd was the highest bidder who bidded for Rs 42.31 crore whereas another bidder Ajeet Seeds Pvt Ltd bidded below the reserve price, added the statement. The investigation also revealed that the buyers of bid documents and final participants in the auction were linked to each other and Tapadia Constructions Pvt Ltd and Ajeet Seeds Pvt Ltd are operating from the same building in Jalna. After receipt of the final instalment of the sale amount by MSCB, a sale certificate was also issued to Tapadia Construction Pvt Ltd on the same day December 3, 2012. Tapadia Constructions Pvt Ltd did not operate the SSK and after the lapse of 15 months, the SSK along with 235 acres of land located in Jalna was said to be sold to Arjun Sugar Industries Pvt Ltd. Arjun Sugar Industries Pvt Ltd is a Company incorporated by Arjunrao Panditrao Khotkar and others only with a view to purchasing the Jalna SSK Ltd on May 8, 2012. Investigation under PMLA also revealed that Arjun Khotkar was on the Board of Director of Maharashtra State Co-op Bank Ltd during the period from 1998-2004. He was the director in Jalna SSK during the period from 1997 to 2003. Further, he is an elected chairman of APMC, Jalna from 2007 to till now. He has been a director in DCCB, Jalna for the period from 1997-2004 and from 2017 till now. PMLA investigation further revealed that around Rs 10.56 crore paid by Tapadia Construction Pvt Ltd to MSCB as an initial deposit in lieu of Jalna SSK was an adjustment entity introduced by conversion of cash through shell companies. Further, Rs 31.73 crore was sourced from Arjun Sugar Industries Pvt Ltd on December 3, 2012. Thus Tapadia Constructions Pvt Ltd was only a proxy entity which has purchased Jalna SSK Ltd from MSCB as a proxy for others, according to the statement. The investigation further revealed that Jalna SSK was sold for an amount of Rs 42.31 crore by suppressing the value, whereas the valuation of the assets conducted by an independent valuer appointed by ED revealed that the value of M/s Jalna SSK was around Rs 78 crore at the material time. The government-approved valuer has submitted his valuation report dated January 20 this year to ED evaluating the immovable assets for Rs 48.38 crore and movable assets was Rs 30 crore of Jalna SSK in the year 2012. PMLA investigation also revealed that the valuable and crucial equipment of the SSK such as the boiler was sold by showing as scrap by Arjun Sugar Industries Pvt Ltd. It is pertinent to mention that the District Collector's office to stop the unauthorized sale of the government land to a private entity initiated action and Sub-Divisional Officer, Jalna declared the registry of government land to Tapadia Construction Pvt Ltd as null and void vide order dated April 12, 2018. ED investigation revealed the fraudulent mode and manner in which the bidding process was followed for the sale of SSK and subsequent distribution of assets of SSK among family-based business entity of member of MSCB indicates the sale of SSK and accordingly the properties of said SSK which includes government land of 100 acres, plant and machinery, Building and Structure which was acquired illegally (now owned by Arjun Sugar Industries Pvt Ltd) are being proceeds of crime are provisionally attached under PMLA. As per the ED, SSK has remained closed since that time. (ANI)
Telugu Desam Party (TDP) National President and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Friday condemned the police attack on Chittoor ex-mayor Kathari Hemalatha and blamed the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP)-led government for it. The TDP leader in a statement said police officers were degrading themselves to win favours from the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy rule. What message were they sending by harassing witnesses in the mayor couple's murder in Chittoor and by filing false cases against them? He questioned whether the police were trying to save the culprits? Naidu alleged that when ex-Mayor Hemalatha went to stop the police's highhandedness, they did not hesitate to run the police jeep on her. Attacking the state chief minister, Naidu said, "With what confidence, the police were resorting to such atrocious activities? The government-sponsored attacks are highly condemnable." He further warned that the TDP would not spare the police officers who were committing serious offences by turning into the ruling YSRCP activists. Meanwhile, TDP national general secretary Nara Lokesh in a separate statement said, "TDP party would fight a legal battle on behalf of the victimised TDP leaders." After coming to power, the TDP would take all the necessary action against all the errant officers, he said. "The police must explain whether they were living with the salaries taken from the public or just the private army, run by the Reddy's mafia," Lokesh said. He further termed it as unjust that the police put ganja in the pockets of Poorna and then arrested him by making false charges. "The way the police ran their jeep over the ex-Mayor showed that they were not the real police but only the YCP faction team," he added. (ANI)
A day after the Uddhav Thackeray faction submitted a plea before Deputy Speaker Narhari Jhirwal to disqualify the rebel MLAs, the Ekanth Shinde faction on Friday gave a notice of no-confidence motion against the deputy speaker. Earlier on Thursday night, Shiv Sena had filed a petition before the Deputy Speaker of the state assembly seeking the cancellation of membership of 12 rebel MLAs including Eknath Shinde for "not attending" the legislative party meeting held on Wednesday. In response to the move by the Uddhav faction, Independent MLAs Mahesh Baldi and Vinod Agrawal belonging to the Shinde faction gave the notice of no-confidence stating that "a notice to move a resolution for removal of Narhari Zirwal as Deputy Speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly under Article 179 of the Constitution of India read with Rule 11 of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Rules has already been submitted." Citing the observations of the Supreme Court in the case of Nabam Rebia & Bamang Felix VS Dy. Speaker, Arunachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly in (2016), the letter addressing the Deputy speaker and the Secretary of the Legislative Assembly, the two leaders wrote that "We are, therefore, of the view that constitutional purpose and constitutional harmony would be maintained and preserved, if a Speaker refrains from adjudication of a petition for disqualification under the Tenth Schedule, whilst his own position, as the Speaker is under challenge". The Shinde faction further claimed that the deputy speaker will not have any authority to decide on any application pending before him "whilst a motion for his own removal is pending". "We further state that any action taken by the Deputy Speaker shall amount to contempt of Supreme Court of India.Earlier on Thursday, Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant told ANI that a notice had been issued before the meeting which said that if an MLA does not attend the meeting, legal action will be taken. "We've filed a petition before the Deputy Speaker (of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly) and demanded that the membership of 12 (MLAs) should be cancelled as they didn't attend yesterday's meeting," Sawant said. "Before the meeting a notice was issued stating that if you didn't attend the meeting then legal action will be taken as per the constitution. Some didn't come and some gave unnecessary reasons," he added. Apart from Shinde, Shiv Sena has sought disqualification of Prakash Surve, Tanaji Sawant, Mahesh Shinde, Abdul Sattar, Sandeep Bhumare, Bharat Gogawale, Sanjay Shirsat, Yamini Yadhav, Anil Babar, Balaji Devdas and Lata Chaudhari. The petition has been filed by Ajay Choudhari, who was appointed "legislative party leader" after Shinde was "removed" from the post by the Shiv Sena. Shiv Sena's Chief Whip Sunil Prabhu had issued a letter to party MLAs, asking them to be present in the meeting. The letter stated that if someone remains absent, it will be considered that the said MLA has decided to quit the party voluntarily. (ANI)
The decision was taken after a review meeting that was held on the Summer Action Plan under the chairmanship of Environment Minister Gopal Rai at the Delhi Secretariat with officers of the departments concerned.

Officers from many departments, including the Environment Department, DPCC, DSIIDC, MCD, Education Department, Delhi Police, DTC, PWD, DCB, etc., attended the meeting.

During the meeting, Rai discussed 14 points of the Summer Action Plan with the officials of various departments.

In a statement, the Environment Minister said, ''Companies, entrepreneurs, and organisations producing goods related to other alternatives for single-use plastic will participate in this fair and will be able to share their products with consumers on a single platform. In this fair other single-use plastic alternatives like pottery, cloth, bags made of paper and jute, and crockery made of biodegradable items will be displayed.''

"In addition, things made from recycled plastic such as trays, vases, stands, photo frames etc., compostable products, compostable food packaging materials, and home decor items will also be included in this fair," he added.

He said the entrepreneurs working on other alternatives to single-use plastic can log on to the website of the Environment Department for registration.

He also appealed to all the citizens of Delhi to join hands with the government to encourage and promote start-ups/entrepreneurs producing other single-use plastic alternatives and to make Delhi a plastic-free city for citizens. (ANI)
The Delhi Commission for Women on Friday issued summons to Delhi Police and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) over the alleged sexual harassment of a woman in Delhi Metro. The Commission had taken suo moto cognizance of the matter when the woman put a social media post narrating her ordeal on Twitter, wherein she stated that a man tried to sexually harass her at the Jor Bagh Station of Delhi Metro. The woman stated that on June 2 at 02.00 pm, she was travelling on the Delhi Metro train on the yellow line when a stranger approached her and sought her help with locating an address. After helping him, she got off the train and sat on a platform trying to book her cab. Again, the accused approached her and asked for further clarification regarding the address. This time when she tried to help him, the accused tried to thrust his uncovered private part, she had alleged. The Commission issued a notice to Delhi Police on June 3 seeking action taken to report on the matter. The police informed the commission that an FIR had been registered in the matter. However, the status of the arrest of the accused is yet to be provided to the Commission. DCW chief Swati Maliwal has issued summons to DCP, Metro seeking details of the arrest of the accused in the matter. The DCW had also asked Delhi Police to provide details of the action taken against police personnel for allegedly not helping the woman. Delhi Police further informed the Commission that the security personnel deployed in Delhi Metro belong to CISF. In this regard, DCW Chief has issued notice to CISF seeking details of alleged action by the security personnel. The Commission has also asked CISF to provide details of the procedure followed by CISF in case of incidents of sexual harassment with women and children travelling in Delhi Metro. Maliwal stated the incident was very shocking and unfortunate. Delhi Police has registered FIR in the matter but is yet to provide details of the arrest of the accused. "I am issuing summons to the Delhi Police and have sought details of the arrest. We are also issuing notice to CISF for action against security personnel for allegedly refusing to assist the woman," she added. (ANI)
American tech giant Microsoft is preparing to send reminders to Windows 8.1 users that support for the operating system will end on January 10 2023. According to The Verge, the company, as a first reminder leading up to the January 2023 support cutoff, will commence sending notifications to existing Windows 8.1 devices next month. These notifications will be similar to ones Microsoft has used in the past to remind Windows 7 users about end-of-support dates. Microsoft originally sunset Windows 8 support in 2016, but the Windows 8.1 update will cease support fully in January 2023. The company will not be offering an Extended Security Update (ESU) program for Windows 8.1, so businesses won't be able to pay for additional security patches and will have to upgrade or accept the risk of running software without security updates, reported The Verge. Windows 8.1 users will now need to decide whether to upgrade their operating system or buy a new PC. Most Windows 8.1 machines won't even support Windows 11, as admitted by Microsoft, due to its strict CPU requirements. That leaves Windows 10 as the likely upgrade path, which will continue to be supported until October 14 2025. Windows 8.1 was largely a big fix for the reception to Windows 8. Windows 8 introduced a new touch-centric vision for Microsoft's future, but it ditched the traditional desktop and Start button in such a big way that many PC users rejected it. The mobile-first OS didn't jibe with what users wanted, and Windows 8.1 brought back the Start button in admission from Microsoft that it had messed up, as per The verge. (ANI)
Giving an insight into the life of presidential candidate of the BJP-led NDA, Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday acknowledged the parties which extended support to her candidature in the upcoming polls and thanked them for "honouring the merit of the candidate", according to the sources. The Prime Minister addressed the leaders from the NDA and also the parties which decided to extend their support to the NDA candidate, ahead of the filing of nomination today. PM Modi expressed his gratitude to leaders like Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Andhra Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy for their decision to "honour the merit" of Murmu, said the sources. While speaking to the leaders, the Prime Minister spoke about the life struggles as well as the merit of Murmu who has served in various positions including as a governor in the past. Those aware of the developments in the meeting told ANI, "The Prime Minister told us about a conversation with Murmu and she had spoken to him about her unspent pension with which she was determined to use for public which she used to build a school which is an example of her simplicity and commitment towards development and education." Detailing the moment of revelation when Murmu came to know about the BJP announcing her the presidential candidate, the sources said that she was unaware of the development and only came to know through television. After the news came out, the people in her village thronged her place and expressed their emotions. "Murmu was not even aware her name was going to be announced and she learnt through TV.... It was in fact overwhelming to see that people from her village came to Congratulate her and they kept on crying and refused to leave... It is learnt that the people of the village told Murmu that she had promised them that after she leaves the office of the Governor of Jharkhand, she would be spending the rest of her life in her village," said the sources. "However, now that she would be gone for five years would deeply be missed by the village and therefore there were mixed emotions of happiness as well as sadness... that in a way showed how popular she has been and yet grounded and committed to the cause of the people," the sources quoted the Prime Minister as saying. The Prime Minister also informed the leaders that his party had spoken to various political parties including the opposition and it would have been only appropriate that for the position of the President of India that they should have been a unanimous choice. "Election of the President of India will be fought if it has to be fought and it is known that mathematics will eventually win but for a candidate like this it is only in the interest of the country that it be a unanimous choice," the sources quoted PM Modi as saying. "Whether the result is 70:30, 60:40 or even 100:0, every election where a win is secured is a win because it is the respect of the people's mandate," the Prime Minister added. PM Modi further highlighted the "ideology" of the President of India and said that the "Constitution of the country" is the only ideology. "In any election, even if political parties have an agenda or a different ideology, here it does not really matter. For the President of India, his or her only ideology is the Constitution of the country," PM Modi said according to the sources. The Prime Minister also informed the leaders that his party will once again reach out to opposition parties and hope that they would respect the election to the position of the highest constitutional authority in the country and in this case vote unanimously. "This is true sense will be the best example of women empowerment and the empowerment of the most ignore strata of society," the Prime Minister said. It may also be noted that Droupadi Murmu herself has spoken to political leaders in the Opposition including TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi as well as NCP chief Sharad Pawar. After the nomination papers were filed, BJP national president JP Nadda again reached out to opposition parties. Nadda had a conversation with Congress LOP Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, NCP chief Sharad Pawar as well as NC chief Farooq Abdullah. The elections for the President of India are slated to take place on July 18 and the results will be out on July 21 after which India is likely to get its 15th president. NDA has a total voting percentage of 48 per cent and with the support of like-minded parties like BJD as well as YSR Congress Murmu is likely to secure more than 55 per cent votes. (ANI)
The battle for single leadership in the AIADMK between former Tamil Nadu chief minister and party co-coordinator Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) and his former deputy CM and coordinator O Panneersevelam (OPS) seems to have ended as OPS ceased to be the coordinator of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). AIADMK leader CV Shanmugam on Friday said that senior leader O Panneerselvam (OPS), who openly opposed the idea of a single leadership, has ceased to be the coordinator of the party. This comes after the general council meeting which was meant to adopt several resolutions on June 23 ended in vain. While speaking with media persons today, CV Shanmugam said, "General Council Meeting of AIADMK happened yesterday. As of yesterday, in the AIADMK general council meeting, the earlier modified bylaw resolution was not tabled. So now automatically dual leadership has expired." This means, in a simplified version that, AIADMK's dominant Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) faction today asserted that the system of dual leadership, that vested powers on Coordinator O Panneerselvam (OPS) and Joint Coordinator EPS ceased to be in force, a day after the General Council stood firm on the single leadership demand. "Panneerselvam is only the treasurer of AIADMK and Edappadi K Palaniswami is the headquarters secretary of the party," added Shanmugham during the press meet where he was seen along with other senior AIADMK leaders like SP Velumani, D Jayakumar, C Vijayabaskar and others. Notably, till 2016, former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa was the sole leader of the AIADMK. When Jayalalithaa passed away in 2016, the party decided to appoint OPS to the Chief Minister's chair. However, in February 2017, AIADMK suffered a crushing defeat in the state elections and Sasikala, Jayalalithaa's close aide, decided to take over the leadership. Subsequently, OPS was replaced as CM by EPS. This caused a lot of turmoil in the AIADMK. As time passed by, OPS became the coordinator of AIADMK with EPS becoming the co-coordinator. AIADMK was being run as a party with dual leadership. But now, the call for a unitary leadership has intensified and all eyes are on the crucial general council meeting on July 11. (ANI)
The cabinet has also approved the renaming of the district in view of public opinion. The cabinet also approved the appointment of Arjuna Award recipient and archer Jyoti Surekha as Group-1 Deputy Collector.

The cabinet approved the disbursal of payments to 43,96,402 mothers' accounts under the Amma Vodi scheme on June 27. They also approved a Rs 15,000 crore green energy project in the state, and Vidya Kanuka, Vahana Mitra, and Kapu Nestham scheme would be implemented in July.

The cabinet also approved massive job replacement in the medical sector in turn 3,530 jobs to be filled as early as possible, the official statement from the chief minister's office read.

Further, 15,000 crore investment by the Adani Green Energy project and conservation measures for leased temple lands also get the cabinet approval by the cabinet.

Jagananna Smart Townships (MIG Layouts), Aqua subsidy for people who also have 10 acres of land, approval for the continuation of the ZP chairmen of the old districts, the establishment of 2nd Urban Police Station in Satya Sai District, approval sanction of Rs. 216 crores for Vamsadhara expatriates are the few other proposals approved by the state cabinet. (ANI)
Amid the ongoing political crisis in Maharashtra, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday said that he had "suspected" the rebellion and revealed that Eknath Shinde who turned rebel, had raised the issue in front of him of the MLAs willing to go with the BJP. However, Thackeray said that such a question "does not even arise". Addressing the Shiv Sena corporators virtually, the Chief Minister said, "A few days ago when I suspected something like this, I called Eknath Shinde and told him to perform his duty of taking Shiv Sena forward, doing this isn't right. He told me that NCP-Congress were trying to finish us and MLAs want us to go with BJP. I told him to bring to me MLAs who want it." "BJP, that defamed our party, my family, is the one you are talking about going with. Such a question doesn't even arise. If MLAs want to go there they can, all of them can. I won't. If someone wants to go - be it an MLA or someone else - come and tell us and then go," Thackeray added. Asking the leaders of his party to tell him if he is "useless and incapable" to run the party, he said that he will separate himself from the party. "If you think I'm useless and incapable of running the party, tell me. I'm ready to separate myself from the party, you can tell me. You respected me so far because Balasaheb said so. If you say I am incapable, then I am ready to quit the party right at this moment," he said. Lauding allies Congress and NCP for their support, Thackeray said that his "own people have backstabbed" him. "Congress and NCP are supporting us today, Sharad Pawar and Sonia Gandhi have supported us. But our own people have backstabbed us. We gave tickets to people who could not have won and we made them victorious. Those people have backstabbed us today," he said. After addressing the district chiefs of Shiv Sena on Friday, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has called a meeting of the party's national executive committee tomorrow at 1 pm. The meeting will be held in Shiv Sena Bhavan in which the Chief Minister will join virtually. Earlier today, Thackeray convened a meeting of the district chiefs virtually wherein he said that the rebel MLAs who are camping in Guwahati want to "break the party". "I have said it earlier also that I don't have anything to do with power. The people who used to say that they would rather die than leave Shiv Sena have fled today," the Shiv Sena chief said during his virtual address at the meeting. "The rebel MLAs want to break the party. I had never thought in dreams that I would become the chief minister. I have left Varsha Bungalow but not the will to fight," he added. Targetting Shinde, Thackeray said that he did everything for the rebel leader and yet a lot of allegations are levelled against him. Notably, the Chief Minister had vacated the official residence of the CM on Wednesday night and moved to his family residence 'Matoshree' along with his family. "I did everything for Eknath Shinde. I gave him the department which I held. His own son is an MP and comments are being made regarding my son. A lot of allegations are levelled against me," he said. "If they have courage, they should go among people without taking Balasaheb & Shiv Sena's names," he added. Thackeray, who underwent a cervical spine surgery last year, said, "I had pain in my neck and head, I was not able to work properly, I could not open my eyes but I did not care about it. Shivaji Maharaj was defeated but people were always with him." (ANI)
The Calcutta High Court on Friday directed that a deprived petitioner in the case related to the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) recruitment scam be appointed in place of the daughter of a state minister, whose service was recently terminated following court order. Recently, the Calcutta High Court had ordered termination of service of Ankita Adhikari, the daughter Minister of State for Education, Paresh Chandra Adhikari, as a higher secondary political science teacher in a state- run school, since she secured the job without qualifying in the merit list and without appearing for the personality test. The single-judge bench of justice Avijit Gangopadhyay ordered the termination based on a petition by Babita Sarkar, who was deprived to make room for Ankita. On Friday, justice Gangopadhyay ordered that Babita be appointed to the post vacated following Ankita's termination by June 30. At the same time, Gangopadhyay also ordered that the salary amount paid to Ankita during her 41-month tenure be also paid to Babita. As per the order, the payment process on this count to Babita should be completed by July 10. Earlier, Gangopadhyay had ordered Ankita to return the salary she drew during her 41 months of services to the court in two instalments. She has already paid the first instalment. Incidentally, Babita's was ranked 20th in the merit list. However, later she came to know that Ankita was named in the 20th spot following which her own ranking was pushed to the 21st position. Instead of accepting it as an irony of fate, Babita started a prolonged battle and finally on Friday the court order went in her favour. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is conducting an inquiry into the recruitment scam. Ankita's father Paresh Chandra Adhikari and former Education Minister and Trinamool Congress Secretary General Partha Chatterjee have already been questioned by the CBI sleuths in this matter. --IANS src/arm ( 327 Words) 2022-06-24-19:56:03 (IANS)
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to examine a plea filed by a man seeking a direction to exhume the body of his son, who was killed in an encounter in Sringar's Hyderpora in November 2021. Senior advocate Anand Grover, representing Mohammad Latief Magry, submitted before a vacation bench of Justices C.T. Ravi Kumar and Sudhanshu Dhulia that a single judge bench of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court had allowed the exhumation of his son's body, however, a division bench of the high court stayed this direction. Grover urged the bench to pass a direction to allow the authorities to hand over the body of Aamir Magry to the family for the last rites. Four people, including Aamir Magry, were killed in the encounter on the outskirts of Srinagar on November 15 last year. Insisting on an urgent listing of the plea, Grover further contended that the petitioner has supported the Army all through his life, and pressed for a direction to exhume the body to perform the last rites. After a brief hearing in the matter, the bench said it would hear the petition on June 27. The plea, filed through advocate Nupur Kumar, said: "The Impugned Interim Order is in gross violation of Articles 21 and 25 of the Constitution of India, which uphold and protect right of the deceased to a decent burial by the next of kin following the religious ceremonies and practices." A division bench of the high court on June 3, stayed the single bench order for exhuming the body of Aamir Magry and handing it to his family for last rites. "The Impugned Order without assigning any reasons has stayed the operation of the judgment dated 27.05.2022, by merely observing that 'the matter requires a final decision from this Court after hearing all the parties', without appreciating that delay of each day in execution of the judgment of the Ld. Single Judge is resulting in the body of the deceased decomposing," said the plea. The single judge asked the authorities to make arrangements for exhuming the remains of the deceased from the Wadder Payeen graveyard in the presence of Latief Magrey. "It was further directed that if the body is highly putrefied and is not in deliverable state or is likely to pose risk to public health and hygiene, the Petitioner and his close relatives shall be allowed to perform last rites as per their tradition and religious belief in the Wadder Payeen graveyard itself where the deceased is lying buried, and in that situation, the respondents shall pay the petitioner a compensation of Rs 5 lakh for deprivation of his right to have the dead body of his son and give him decent burial as per rites and customs," added the plea. The authorities exhumed and returned the bodies of two more civilians, Altaf Ahmad Bhat and Dr Mudasir Gul, who were killed in the Hyderpora encounter, to the families following an outcry. --IANS ss/vd ( 510 Words) 2022-06-24-20:16:01 (IANS)
The Speaker of Madhya Pradesh assembly, Girish Gautam, faced voters' ire in his own constituency amid the ongoing three-tier panchayat elections in the state. The villagers in the Deotalab Assembly constituency in Rewa district accused Gautam of providing the benefits of government-run schemes only to his supporters, depriving the genuine beneficiaries. A video has gone viral on social media, showing Gautam arguing with the villagers during campaigning for the panchayat polls. Gautam was campaigning for his son Rahul Gautam, who is contesting the district panchayat elections. In the 2018 Assembly elections, BJP nominee Gautam had won from Deotalab by defeating Seema Jaiveer Singh Sengar of the BSP by 45,043 votes. Gautam was addressing a gathering to seek people's support for his son who's contesting the panchayat polls in his constituency. However, the villagers, including women, openly said that they will not vote for his son because only party workers are being benefited by government-run schemes. One of the villagers alleged that BJP workers are being provided direct financial assistance instead of following the due process. "Only selected people are getting the benefits of government-run schemes, because they are BJP supporters, depriving the genuine beneficiaries of such schemes," a villager was heard telling Gautam. In reply, Gautam said that financial assistance has been provided only to the deserving people through the RTGS system. Gautam said that he would resign from his post and quit politics if allegations of corruption levelled against his supporters are proved true. "This is a false allegation and I know who is behind all this. If proved that my supporters did anything wrong, I will resign from the post of Speaker and quit politics," Gautam said. Notably, Girish's son Rahul is contesting the panchayat elections under BJP's banner and is facing opposition from one of his own cousins, Padmesh Gautam, who is a Congress candidate. Padmesh, who is a local Congress leader, was accused of a murder and was in jail nearly a decade back. "In front of the temple of Lord Hanuman, I challenge you to prove your allegations. If they are found true, this village shouldn't cast a single vote in the coming district panchayat polls for us or for me in the coming Vidhan Sabha polls," Gautam said. --IANS pd/arm ( 392 Words) 2022-06-24-20:30:03 (IANS)
Bihar Industries Minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussain on Friday participated Supply Chain Management and Logistics Summit 2022 and appealed to key stakeholders of companies from this industry to invest in Bihar as well. "Bihar has the potential to become the best destination for investment in Supply Chain and Logistics Sector," Hussain said while addressing an event in Delhi. The event witnessed some of the biggest stalwarts of this sector including Vikas Agarwal, Managing Director of South Asia of Moller-Maersk (AP Moller-Maersk), Prakash Gaur, CEO, National Highways Logistics Management Limited (NHLML); Abhinav Singh, Director, Amazon; Nanduri Srinivas, Director, Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited, Manoj Nair, Director, ET Edge; were present during this event. Speaking to the audience, Bihar Minister said that the Supply Chain Management and Logistic system act as necessary fuel that drive the industrial growth and progress of a nation. "In order to achieve our objective of becoming a five trillion dollar economy by 2025. we need an efficient Supply Chain Management system while at the same time keeping the logistics costs low," he stated. He said that India's supply chain and logistics sector is the largest in the world and it is a matter of happiness that the growth of this sector is also the highest at present. "Bihar is also a part of this ecosystem and I represent this state. We are therefore preparing ourselves for a giant leap in this sector keeping in mind the immense growth potential in this sector," the minister added. Speaking on the recent developmental steps taken by the Department of Industries of Bihar, he said that we have recently launched "Bihar Textile and Leather Policy 2022" and "Bihar Startup Policy 2022" which are one of the finest in the country. "With the advent of these policies, we expect rapid growth of micro, small, medium, and large industries. Further, it will also attract domestic and foreign investments," Hussain said. Further to it, Bihar is well connected with its neighbouring states and the total market size including its neighbouring states is 55 crores. We also have well-developed infrastructure, huge water resources and cheap manpower. All of these provide immense potential to the companies in this sector to invest in Bihar, he added. Bihar is also a part of this ecosystem and I represent this state. We are therefore preparing ourselves for a giant leap in this sector keeping in mind the immense growth potential in this sector. With the advent of these policies, we expect rapid growth of micro, small, medium, and large industries. Further, it will also attract domestic and foreign investments and give employment to the youths of Bihar. Overall, the state is moving towards a new era of industrialization at a fast rate, and the role and participation of the supply chain and logistics sector are necessary for the creation of a favourable industrial environment in Bihar. (ANI)
A large number of Assam Congress workers staged a protest outside the Radisson Blu hotel on the outskirts of Guwahati on Friday where over 40 Maharashtra MLAs led by rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde are camping since Wednesday. The protesting Congress workers accused the state's BJP government of indulging in horse-trading to topple the Maharashtra government. Assam Congress President Bhupen Kumar Borah, MLA Rakibul Hussain and Debabrata Saikia, the leader of opposition in Assam Assembly, led the protest in front of Radisson Blu. In a strongly-worded letter to Shinde, which has been accessed by IANS, Borah said that the presence of Maharashtra MLAs in Guwahati, who have been kept in a hotel for alleged horse-trading to topple an elected government, and the continued media coverage of the same, has not gone down well with the Assamese people and is creating an unhealthy atmosphere. Borah also asked Shinde and the other dissident MLAs to vacate the state at the earliest as the media coverage of their presence in the state is negatively impacting the Assamese people who are suffering from a devastating flood situation. "Assam is facing a devastating flood situation and the people are suffering severely in the absence of adequate flood reliefs. Over 107 people have died since April 6, out of which 65 died since June 14, while 55 lakh people have been adversely affected. In such a critical and deplorable situation of the state, your presence in Guwahati and the busy activities of Assam government in providing royal hospitality to you is quite unfair and unacceptable," Borah wrote. "Assam has been defamed by your presence considering Guwahati as a safe haven for MLAs who have no respect for constitutional values and loyalty at all," he added. The Assam Congress chief said that the state has seen towering political personalities such as late Chief Ministers Gopinath Bordoloi and Tarun Gogoi. But present Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has proved himself to be nothing but a wheeler dealer encouraging and supporting political horse-trading in Assam, Bohra wrote. "The BJP CM and the government's support to your presence here has sullied the image of Assam and Assamese people. Sarma and the government machinery should be busy with the management of the flood crisis, but your presence here is creating a hindrance," Bohra said. --IANS tanuj-sc/arm ( 402 Words) 2022-06-24-21:10:02 (IANS)
A Hyderabad-based man was sentenced to three years of imprisonment after he was convicted of domestic violence and attempting to murder his wife on Friday. The 55-year-old accused, identified as Betala Balakrishna, was married and had two daughters but was unhappy about not having a boy child, the police said. In an official statement, police further informed that the couple always had arguments over the same and Balakrishna forced his wife to consent to another marriage however, she refused. "The arguments between the couple increased in 2019, as their daughter's wedding approached after Balakrishna's brother and brother-in-law, refused to pay back an amount of Rs 8 lakhs he had lent to them in 2012. The duo also thrashed him when he attempted to demand back the amount," police stated. After the husband narrated the incident to his wife, she advised him to not ask them for his money, leading to another argument between the two. Police officials also said that the accused demanded his wife to hand over the paperwork of their property due to financial difficulties and trouble in his marriage. However, she refused. Following this, Balakrishna decided to kill her in order to obtain the paperwork and perform a second marriage as a result of the aforementioned incidents. "He had beaten the Victim with a wooden pestle over her head and other body parts which caused bleeding injuries to the victim. On hearing, her hues and cries when the neighbors gathered in his house, the accused fled the scene," police added. A case was registered at Ghatkesar Police Station based on the complaint. During the investigation, Ghatkesar Police Station gathered information, detained the defendant, and remanded him to judicial detention. The IO submitted a charge sheet following the investigation. Betala Balakrishna was found guilty on June 24, 2022, in the ASJ Court in Malkajgiri presided over by Judge P Sridevi. He was also convicted to undergo three years of rigorous imprisonment conviction and imposed a fine of Rs 700. (ANI)
As the Maharashtra political crisis continued for the 4th day, the rebels' group led by Minister Eknath Shinde proclaimed the support of 37 MLAs leaving the Shiv Sena with 17 legislators. The rebels group submitted its claimed list to Deputy Speaker of Legislative Assembly Narhari Zirwal, late on Thursday, with the balance left with the Sena. The rebels list also attached two resolutions stating that Shinde continues to be the chief of Shiv Sena Legislative Party, and appointed MLA Bharat Gogavale as the new Chief Whip, as the group contended its support has increased today to 41 Sena MLAs, plus a dozen independents and smaller parties today (June 24). On the Sena side, the MLAs are: Aaditya Thackeray, Ajay Chaudhri, Sunil Prabhu, Ramesh Korgaonkar, Bhaskar Jadhav, Nitin Deshmukh, Vaibhav Naik, Kailash Patil, Sanjay Potnis, Rahul Patil, Prakash Fatarpekar, Santosh Bangar, Sunil Raut, Ravindra Waikar, Uday Samant, Rajan Salvi, and Udaysinh Rajput. One MLA -- Dilip Mama Lande -- who was with the Sena till this morning, abruptly changed sides and joined the rebels in Guwahati. The development came shoulder-to-shoulder with the Shiv Sena in Mumbai submitting a list of 16 rebel MLAs including Shinde, to Zirwal, demanding they should be disqualified, late on Wednesday. Party MP Arvind Sawant said that the disqualification has been sought for flouting the Sena's Whip to attend a meeting of party legislators held on Wednesday. Those who did not attend that meeting included: Eknath Shinde, Tanaji Sawant, Prakash Surve, Sandipan Bhumre, Bharat Gogavale, Balaji Kinikar, Anil Babar, Lata Sonwane, Yamini Jadhav, Sanjay Shirsat, Mahesh Shinde and Abdul Sattar, and a few other names were added later on Friday. This move came after the Sena on Tuesday removed Shinde as the Shiv Sena Legislative Party Leader and replaced him with Ajay Chaudhri, which the Dy. Speaker has accepted but the rebels group has cried foul. Dismissing the Sena decision, Shinde said in Guwahati on Friday that the move is "illegal" and intended to scare the legislators -- even as Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar entered the battle arena to save the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government. "We are not frightened by all this. We know what they are doing and we also are aware of the laws and procedures. Let them send any number of letters or notices, we are not bothered," declared Shinde, speaking to the media. Sena MP and Chief Spokesperson Sanjay Raut said on Friday that now the legal battle has begun with the plea to the Dy. Speaker Zirwal to disqualify the 12 legislators as democracy runs on majority figures "which can change anytime". "We will fight it out... Now Sharad Pawar has taken the lead and we shall follow his strategy," he added. "So far, the support claimed by the rebels is only on paper. They have not yet come to Mumbai and the numbers will change after they return. Those who have gone will have to repent," Raut cautioned. Meanwhile, Shinde is taking a meeting of his group in the Guwahati hotel where they have pitched a tent, with more Sena legislators trickling in and unconfirmed reports of around 4 Sena MPs also jumping into his boat. In Mumbai, the MVA NCP-Congress have thrown their full weight behind Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and will help him fight the crisis till the end. Congress President Nana Patole reiterated that the BJP is using threats of central investigative agencies to browbeat the MLAs and topple the MVA government but they would not succeed in their venture. Earlier, in a bid to mollify the rebels, Thackeray offered to quit as Chief Minister and also as party chief, and yesterday (June 23) expressed willingness to leave the MVA provided the mutineers returned to Mumbai "in 24 hours" (by Friday evening) to hammer out their differences with the party leadership - but the Shinde group has spurned the overtures. --IANS qn/pgh ( 659 Words) 2022-06-24-21:50:01 (IANS)
While being admitted to Pakistan's Karachi Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre on Tuesday prominent Pashtun leader Ali Wazir has claimed that his life is in danger adding that he had been attacked twice at the hospital, local media reported. Wazir, who is the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) lawmaker from South Waziristan is currently facing sedition charges and is in prison at the Karachi Central Jail since December 31, 2021. He claimed that while addressing the PTM workers outside the hospital late on Wednesday night he had been attacked twice at the hospital. Wazir said that he was first attacked on his first day at the hospital and later again on Wednesday night. Following the alleged attacks on him, the Pashtun leader demanded that he should be taken to Islamabad to attend the budget session. "I should be taken to Islamabad to attend the budget session [in the NA and] raise the problems of my constituency," Wazir said, reported Dawn. Wazir said that "I demand that I should be sent back to the jail as I feel insecure here." The NA speaker had issued a production order for the PTM lawmaker on Tuesday to attend the ongoing budget session, but Wazir has so far not been shifted to Islamabad. Wazir complained that this was the second time that he was not being allowed to attend the budget session. He also recalled that a production order for him was issued to attend a previous budget session when he was imprisoned in Haripur jail in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Speaking about that the PTM lawmaker said that he was not taken to Islamabad to attend the session at the time. Furthermore, Wazir also claimed that he had submitted an application with jail authorities for his medical treatment three years ago, but he was never shifted to a hospital until Tuesday. Now that he is shifted in the hospital, he said that he could be barred from attending the budget session. "This is a session during which lawmakers raise problems being faced by the people of their constituencies," he said, adding that his demand of being shifted from the hospital was not "illegal". Even when not involved in any act of terrorism or committed corruption, the PTM leader said that he is barred from attending the budget session. While speaking to Pakistan's local media outlet, the Dawn, the PTM leader Muhammed Sher Mehsud said that Wazir sat outside the hospital in protest as he was not allowed to meet relatives, friends and his party's workers there. "He started his protest at 4 pm on Wednesday," Mehsud said, adding that for Wazir, the "atmosphere at the hospital was suffocating as he had been asked to stay bed-ridden". Mehsud said later that officials from court police and police held talks with Wazir till 2 am on Thursday and agreed to shift him back to the prison today. Wazir was shifted to the hospital for physiotherapy," Mehsud added, as per the media outlet. The PTM leader was charged with treason and hate speech against the state. However, Wazir denied such allegations and blamed the state for a biased attitude towards minorities. (ANI)
At a special event coinciding with the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), the Commonwealth Secretariat and the NO MORE Foundation on Thursday were joined by the Duchess of Cornwall for the launch of new guidelines for the 54 Commonwealth countries to stop and prevent violence against women and girls (VAWG). The Commonwealth's and NO MORE's new recommended "Whole System Approach" strategy to help end VAWG and improve gender equality urges more consistent and effective collaboration between governments, civil society and the private sector. The effort builds on Commonwealth and says that NO MORE initiative was first launched in 2019, it comes at a critical time in the wake of the dramatic surge in domestic and sexual violence during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to the keynote address given by the Duchess of Cornwall, the event included several high-level speakers such as UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed; Jeannette Kagame, First Lady of Rwanda; Fatima Maada Bio, First Lady of Sierra Leone; Patricia Scotland, Commonwealth Secretary-General; Abdulla Shahid, President of the United Nations General Assembly; and Pamela Zaballa, Global CEO of NO MORE Foundation. A panel, moderated by Ghanaian actress and activist Joselyn Dumas, discussed several topics related to VAWG, including the impact on mental health and the importance of engaging men and boys to be part of the solution. Also discussed was the Commonwealth's facilitators guide to assess the economic costs of VAWG. Globally one in three women and one in six men have experienced a form of domestic or sexual violence in their lifetime. Moreover, domestic, and sexual violence escalated and intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic. The impact of the pandemic on women and girls trapped in their homes is evident in the high-incidence calls to domestic violence helplines that increased up to 500 per cent across Commonwealth countries during the pandemic. Ultimately, the Sustainable Development Goals, especially Goal 5 on achieving gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls, cannot be attained by 2030 without effectively addressing violence against women and girls. In the keynote address, the Duchess of Cornwall said: "In the strength of our unity, we, the women and men of the Commonwealth, stand with victims and survivors, who, despite the temptation to hide away in silence, speak up so that others know they aren't alone -- whether in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Pacific or the Caribbean and Americas. "In so doing, we have the opportunity to end gender-based violence and those laws and practices that discriminate against women. And each one of us must take personal responsibility not to let this opportunity be lost." --IANS vg/kvd ( 444 Words) 2022-06-23-22:48:03 (IANS)
An assistant sub-inspector of police died and his son suffered critical injuries in a targeted attack in Larkana city in Sindh province in Pakistan, local media reported. The ASI and his son came under attack by motorcycle-riding assailants at a new bus terminal on Wednesday. The area of the attack comes under the jurisdiction of Waleed police station. Following the attack, Ghulam Akbar Sainch, the ASI and his son Riaz Sainch were taken to Chandka Medical College Hospital. In the hospital, doctors pronounced the police officer dead and admitted his son for treatment, reported Dawn. The police said that after committing the crime, the attackers sped away from the crime scene. The police also added that the murder appeared to be the outcome of a matrimonial dispute. This comes as the capital city of Pakistan, Islamabad, witnessed a sharp increase in street crime comprising of robberies, burglaries and auto thefts. The police registered 5,466 cases in the first five months of the current year compared to 1,934 such incidents in the corresponding period of last year in Islamabad. Details collected from the police showed that from January 1 to May 31, 1,048 robbery incidents were registered compared to 399 cases in the previous year. Out of the total, 368 incidents were registered with the Industrial Area, 361 with Rural, 243 with Saddar and 76 with City Zone police. Likewise, 695 snatching incidents were reported to the police compared to 176 cases in the first five months of 2021. Out of the total, 273 snatching incidents were registered by the Rural, 248 by Industrial areas, 141 by Saddar and 33 by the City Zone police. A total of 594 burglary incidents - 244 at Rural, 188 at Saddar, 104 at City and 58 at Industrial Area Zone - were registered so far in 2022 compared to 203 such incidents in 2021. During the current year, the police registered 75 murders, 146 attempted murders, 140 hurt cases, one case of kidnapping for ransom and 418 incidents of kidnapping and rape compared to 66 murders, 89 attempted murders, 167 hurt cases, one kidnapping for ransom and 263 kidnapping and rape cases in 2021. Moreover, 50 fatal and 55 non-fatal road accidents were registered by the police this year compared to 48 and 27, respectively, from January to May 2021, as per the media outlet. (ANI)
After recent violence by a group of men beat four women outside a restaurant, the Chinese city Tangshan has been stripped of its honorary "civilized" status. The assault against the women has sparked public outrage with many demanding for justice. Footage from the barbecue restaurant's cameras on June 10 showed a man slapping and dragging a woman to the street by her hair after she appeared to reject his advances. Other men then joined in, assaulting her female companions and leaving two women sprawled on the side of the street. Two of the women remain hospitalized in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), officials said this week, while authorities said they had arrested nine people in relation to the attack. The violent attack which is widely condemned was caught on CCTV. This has also renewed a national discussion about violence against women in China. After this assault on women in the northern Hebei province of Chinese city Tangshan, a hashtag on the social media site Weibo started doing rounds. The hashtag signalled at the incident. Soon after it grabbed the attention of netizens, reported NBC News. The video has been viewed hundreds of millions of times. Hundreds of thousands of people commented after videos of the attack were posted online. It is worthy to note that many of these online voices were calling for justice for the women and seeking action against the perpetrators. The Civilization Office of the Central Communist Party Committee on Wednesday removed the city from the nation's honorary list of "civilized cities." According to the office's official website, the "National civilized cities" are selected on eight criteria including good social order and a healthy and upward-moving social atmosphere. Tangshan has been awarded the status four times since 2011, most recently in 2020. The committee's decision is the latest in a series of official responses to the attack and to the waves of anger it has provoked online. Following the attack, the Hebei provincial security authority on Tuesday launched a disciplinary review and investigation into the Tangshan police bureau's response to the incident. (ANI)
The Taliban has welcomed India's decision to return their technical team to its embassy in Kabul to continue humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan. "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (lEA) welcomes decision by India to return diplomats & technical team to their embassy in Kabul to continue their relations with the Afghan people and their humanitarian assistance," Taliban spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi said in a statement on Thursday. "The return of Indian diplomats to Afghanistan and reopening of embassy demonstrates that security is established in the country, & all political and diplomatic rights are respected," the statement added. The Taliban spokesperson further assured security for all existing embassies in line with international diplomatic practices. "IEA calls on other countries to return to their diplomatic compounds and reopen their embassies," it added. On Thursday, India announced that a technical team has been deployed to the Embassy in Kabul to coordinate the efforts of stakeholders for the delivery of humanitarian aid. "In order to closely monitor and coordinate the efforts of various stakeholders for the effective delivery of humanitarian assistance and in continuation of our engagement with the Afghan people, an Indian technical team has reached Kabul today and has been deployed in our Embassy there," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a release. Recently, another Indian team visited Kabul to oversee the delivery operations of our humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan and met with senior members of the Taliban. During the visit, an assessment of the security situation was also carried out. The longstanding links of India with the Afghan society and the development partnership between the two countries including humanitarian assistance for the people of Afghanistan, will continue to guide the approach going forward, MEA said. In order to support Afghanistan, the first consignment of India's earthquake relief assistance reached Kabul on Thursday. The consignment has been handed over by the Indian team to support the Afghan nationals affected by the earthquake, which will further be followed by another consignment. "First consignment of India's earthquake relief assistance for the people of Afghanistan reaches Kabul. Being handed over by the Indian team there. Further consignment follows," MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said in a tweet. This support was extended after an earthquake of magnitude 6.1 shook parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan on Wednesday claiming more than 1000 lives. The earthquake struck in the early hours of this morning near the city of Khost in the southeastern part of the country with the most affected areas being in Spera District in Khost Province, and Barmala, Ziruk, Naka and Gayan districts in Paktika Province. The disaster comes as Afghanistan continues to struggle with a severe economic crisis since the Taliban took over, as US-led international forces withdrew following two decades of war. (ANI)
The US Senate on Thursday night passed a bipartisan bill to address gun violence in the United States, the first major piece of federal gun reform in almost 30 years. The final vote was 65 to 33 with 15 Republicans joining Democrats in support of the measure, marking a significant bipartisan breakthrough on one of the most contentious policy issues in the US. The bill will now go to the House for a vote and it could take up the bill as early as Friday, before it can be sent to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. The bill comes with a USD 13.2 billion price tag and it includes millions of dollars for mental health, school safety, crisis intervention programs and incentives for states to include juvenile records in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. The vote on the federal gun safety bill comes on the same day as the Supreme Court struck down a New York gun law regulating concealed handguns in public that mandated residents demonstrate a specific need to carry a handgun outside of the home. More than 390 million guns are owned by civilians in the US. In 2020 alone, more than 45,000 Americans died from firearms-related injuries including homicides and suicides. This move comes at a time of heightened support for gun control following a string of high-profile mass shootings. The May 24 massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 children and two teachers, was the bloodiest mass shooting in the United States this year, which occurred only 10 days after another shooting that killed 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo. (ANI)
India delivered the second consignment of relief assistance on Friday to support the people of Afghanistan badly affected by the earthquake that struck this week in the eastern part of the country. The relief batch that reached Kabul is the second one in two days, being given in the wake of a devastating earthquake that claimed more than 1,000 lives. "Second consignment of India's earthquake relief assistance for the people of Afghanistan reaches Kabul," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said in a tweet. The relief assistance consists of essential items including family ridge tents, sleeping bags, blankets, sleeping mats, etc. The relief consignment will be handed over to the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) and the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) in Kabul. "In the wake of the tragic earthquake that struck Afghanistan on June 22, 2022 causing massive destruction and loss of precious lives, the Government of India, as a true first responder, has dispatched 27 tons of emergency relief assistance in two flights for the people of Afghanistan," the MEA said in a statement. "As always, India stands in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan, with whom we share centuries-old ties, and remains firmly committed to provide immediate relief assistance for the Afghan people," the statement added. India on Thursday handed over the first consignment to support the Afghan nationals affected by the earthquake. India also deployed a team to the Embassy in Kabul to coordinate the efforts of stakeholders for the delivery of humanitarian aid. The Taliban has welcomed India's decision to return its technical team to continue humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan. "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (lEA) welcomes decision by India to return diplomats & technical team to their embassy in Kabul to continue their relations with the Afghan people and their humanitarian assistance," Taliban spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi said in a statement on Thursday. Major relief efforts are ongoing following a major magnitude earthquake which struck Paktika province in the early hours of Wednesday morning. To date, around 1000 people are estimated to have been killed across Barmal and Giyan districts in Paktika province, and Spera district in Khost province. In addition, at least 1,455 people have been injured across three of the six most affected districts of Barmal, Giyan, and Spera - many of them seriously. Further, nearly 1,500 homes have now been verified as destroyed and damaged in Giyan district, Paktika province. Immediate humanitarian assistance dispatched to affected areas on June 22, included 10 tons of medical supplies sufficient for 5,400 surgeries and medical treatments covering 36,000 people for three months by WHO. (ANI)
China is putting two prominent civil rights activists, Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi, through closed-door trials this week for state subversion, media reports said. With the security situation and secrecy in mind, no one was allowed to attend Xu's trial held in Shandong province on Wednesday. So far, no information relating to the court proceeding has been made public. Xu, 49 is one of China's most prominent activists and human rights advocates. He was a co-founder of the now-banned legal aid center Open Constitution Initiative and the New Citizens' Movement, a nongovernmental group advocating for civil rights, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). In 2009, Xu was forced to disband the Open Constitution Initiative, the legal aid center he helped set up, after police detained him and a co-worker in a trumped-up case of tax evasion. From 2014 to 2018, Xu served four years in prison for "gathering a crowd to disrupt public order" after a series of small-scale protests by members of the nongovernmental New Citizens' Movement, an initiative he cofounded in 2012 to develop civil society in China within the confines of the one-party political system. Besides Xu, Ding's case is scheduled to be heard in the same court on Friday. Ding Jiaxi, 54, is a lawyer and a prominent figure within the New Citizens Movement which campaigned for greater transparency among Chinese Communist Party officials. In 2012 and 2013, he participated in a number of small protests in Beijing calling on Chinese officials to reveal their personal assets. Earlier this month, a municipal court in Shandong issued a notice to the defence lawyer of human rights defender Ding Jiaxi, inviting the lawyer to a pre-trial meeting. The notice indicated that the case of Ding Jiaxi, who is charged with "subversion of State power", involves "a large amount of evidentiary materials" and is "major and complicated". Xu and Ding have been advocates for civil rights in the country where authorities have been crushing any form of dissent. (ANI)
One of the most significant aspects of the 2021 military coup in Myanmar was China's immediate assistance to the military by providing advisers and subsequently, military equipment. It must be said that China's links with the Tatmadaw in Myanmar are historical. The government of the National League for Democracy (NLD) was only an interlude in this relationship. The strategic perspective of the current relationship is a clear anti-India stance. China has used Myanmar's Army to harm India's interests, both in terms of security and economic cooperation. These developments can be viewed against the backdrop of a recent statement by China that it pledges to support the military regime "no matter how the situation changes" in Myanmar over the coming months and years. In a statement issued on April 4, China also affirmed that it had always placed Myanmar in an important position in its diplomacy and wants to "deepen exchanges and cooperation to forge a China-Myanmar community with a shared future." China's statement marks the most unambiguous signal of support for Myanmar's military, which continues to face fierce resistance from a broad coalition of resistance groups, pro-democracy activists and ethnic armed organizations. Associated Press reports, Foreign Minister Wang Yi having told his Myanmar counterpart Wunna Maung Lwin that, China "has always placed Myanmar in an important position in its neighbourly diplomacy" and wants to "deepen exchanges and cooperation." China's unequivocal support at this juncture for the military government reflects its assessment that the Tatmadaw will continue to prevail over the anti-coup resistance. They also assess that outside support for the resistance movement will only prolong the inevitable, and that the military regime offers the most likely path to stability which is necessary for advancement of China's economic and strategic interests. The essence of this Chinese commitment to Myanmar's Army is to create an overland transport and communications corridor running from China's Yunnan province to Myanmar's Indian Ocean coast, which is part of the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC), a sub-pillar of the Belt and Road Initiative. It is important to note that China had been initially reluctant to back the military regime and its leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. But attacks on Chinese companies and investment, including factories in Yangon's industrial zone, marked a major turning point for China, raising concerns about instability in the country. Protests outside China's Yangon embassy and a rise in anti-China sentiment in the wake of the military takeover only increased their concerns. Resultantly, by August 2021, the same month that Senior General Min Aung Hlaing crowned himself Prime Minister, Chinese officials had begun to restore ties with the military administration. Chinese authorities and business lobbies in Yangon also began to engage publicly with junta officials and promote commercial opportunities. In December, China delivered to Myanmar's Navy a refurbished Ming-class submarine, renamed the UMS Minye Kyaw Htin, making Myanmar the first country in Southeast Asia to take delivery of a China-manufactured submarine. Since the coup, Chinese officials and business lobby groups in Yangon have begun to engage publicly with junta officials and to promote commercial opportunities. Since the early 2000s, Myanmar has sought to acquire a fleet of submarines to keep up with its Southeast Asian neighbours, but it has few options to buy them due to its atrocious human rights record and the arms embargo imposed by the European Union. Along with Russia, China has also provided the military regime with fighter jets and armoured vehicles. China is continuing to pursue what it calls an independent foreign policy of peace that generally prioritizes its own narrow interests, with little or no consideration for a country's human rights record or other internal controversies. The current state of play is that three strategic areas of collaboration and cooperation between the two countries define the relationship. First, in its incipient stage, is the Chinese digital Renminbi (RMB). Along with the recent agreement establishing the RMB as the official settlement currency for trade with China, the digital RMB could help Myanmar in its attempts to reduce its dependence on the US dollar in trade and mitigate against potential restrictions to access to the SWIFT international payments system. The second area is Myanmar's retail sector, which is now a strategic front of China's private sector. The e-Commerce platform shop.com.mm, which is owned by China's Alibaba, has already captured the lion's share of the Myanmar market, particularly by allowing digital payments during the 2021 cash crisis. Third, China has transferred to Myanmar the technology to manufacture a China-made Covid-19 vaccine under the brand name Myancopharm. With few competitors, China's Covid-19 diplomacy in Myanmar has been a relative success that has opened the way for new Chinese pharmaceutical companies to invest in Myanmar's generic drugs market, which is still dominated by imports from India. Although it may take some time to gain the market share, entrepreneurs are already looking for an alternative source of generic drugs. Myanmar has a very high demand for generic drugs, but the steep US dollar-Kyat exchange rate had made imports more expensive. China has also signed a deal to provide USD 6.1 million to Myanmar for 21 development projects. Furthermore, the government has approved a US$ 2.5 billion China-financed liquefied natural gas power project in Mee Lin Gyaing in Ayeyarwady Region. Investments from China provide a facade of legitimacy to the military-led government, which is otherwise bereft of investments from any other source. While the coup has boosted China's presence in Myanmar, it has significantly undermined India's economic and security interests in Southeast Asia. The civil war has made progress on India's economic and logistics projects in the country, which are central to India's Act East policy, all but impossible. Furthermore, fighting between the Myanmar military and People's Defence Force (PDFs) has brought intense conflict to western and north western Myanmar, which border India. China's blind support for the brutal and autocratic government will only aggravate the situation in Myanmar further. China's self-aggrandizing ambition is a threat to the people of Myanmar and their democratic aspirations. (ANI)
The Central government is working to roll out e-Passports to make easier international travel and enable protection against identity theft and greater data security, the External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Friday. Reaffirming the government's commitment to improving citizen experience and public delivery, Jaishankar delivered a message on the occasion of the Passport Seva Divas. The MEA, along with the Central Passport Organization, has been marking this occasion and renewing our commitment to provide passport and passport-related services to citizens of India in a timely, reliable, accessible, transparent and efficient manner. "It gives me great pleasure to join all our Passport Issuing Authorities in India and abroad on the occasion of the Passport Seva Divas 2022," he said. The external affairs minister noted that passport services were rendered even during the testing times of the Covid-19 pandemic. "I am happy to note that passport services were rendered with the same vigour and enthusiasm even during the testing times of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the Ministry rose to the occasion to meet the increased demand for passport services built up due to two and half years of the pandemic, and dealt it swiftly with an impressive monthly average of 9.0 lakhs, with 4.50 lakhs additional applications granted in the last one month, thus setting a record," he said. "As we commemorate the Passport Seva Divas on 24th June this year, we continue our commitment to deliver the next level of citizen experience," he added. Looking back, Jaishankar said the government has been very successful in simplifying the passport rules and procedures for the citizens. "To further smoothen the passport delivery ecosystem, the Ministry is continuously working with States/UTs police to reduce the time taken for police verification: the mPassport Police App is now used in 22 States/UTs covering 8275 Police Stations." He also informed that the Passport Seva System has also been integrated with the DigiLocker system to facilitate a paperless documentation process. "The Ministry in collaboration with the Department of Posts operationalized 428 Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSKs) to reach out to our citizens at their doorsteps. The Ministry has successfully integrated the passport issuance systems in 178 of our Embassies and Consulates abroad," the minister said while adding that this has enabled the government to deliver passport-related services to the Diaspora efficiently through a centralized and secure application. Recognizing the need to continually improve the quality of passport services, the Passport Seva Programme (PSP) will be embarking on PSP V2.0, an improved and upgraded version of P SP V1.0, which would ensure a digital ecosystem among all stakeholders and offer enhanced passport services to citizens. "It would ensure smooth governance end-to-end through standardized and liberalized processes, use of latest and emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Chat-Bot, Use of Big-Data, Advance Analytics etc. The Ministry is also working to roll out ePassports for Indian citizens which would make easier international travel and enable protection against identity theft and greater data security," he said in conclusion. (ANI)
Chief Justice of India Nuthalapati Venkata Ramana on Friday said that it is essential that people, particularly the students and youth, realise the importance of democracy. While speaking at the Columbia University in New York, he said, "The 75-year long journey of my country so far is a testimony to the power of democracy. It is essential that people, particularly the students and youth, realise the importance of democracy." "It is only through your active participation that democracy can be sustained and strengthened. Only a truly democratic order can be the foundation for lasting peace in the world," he added. "Long years ago, B. R. Ambedkar walked through the corridors of this great seat of learning. Today, I had the honour of walking in his footsteps. It is an emotional moment for me. I do not have a privileged background," he said. "I am the son of an ordinary farmer. I am the first in the family to get a university education. Today, I am standing here as the Chief Justice of India. Such a possibility arose because of the most progressive and futuristic Constitution of India that was drafted under the leadership of B R Ambedkar. I, and millions more like me, will forever remain indebted to the visionary," he stated. "When the transformational journey of the young republic of India is recorded in history books, a credit will be given to the Constitution of India and the people's faith in it. It is my honour to be standing here today, in this institution, which has produced many world leaders, including Ambedkar. He was one of the founders of modern India. His life has inspired generations of Indians to believe in their own worth and identity," he further said. Ramana visited Columbia University in New York and paid rich tributes to one of its distinguished alumni B R Ambedkar. Justice Ramana was received at Columbia Law School by Adam Kolker, Dean and Executive Director of the Office of International and Comparative Law Programs. Justice Ramana paid floral tributes at B. R. Ambedkar's bust is situated in the Library Building of the University. (ANI)
Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth and his Rwandan counterpart, Dr Edouard Ngirente will jointly inaugurate a first-of-its-kind 5 MW hydroelectric plant on Sunday that will help reduce carbon emissions of the East African nation. Omnihydro plant is 98.1 per cent owned by a Mauritius-based company Omnicane, built by its subsidiary Omnihydro (Rwanda) Ltd. This plant in Rwanda has become operational and is named Mushishito-Rukarara Hydroelectric Plant, LeMatinal newspaper reported. This is a clean and renewable bio-energy production project in sync with the energy transition goals of Rwanda as discussed at the 26th Commonwealth Heads of State Summit, the report added. It is in line with the Mauritian government's ambition to achieve 60 per cent renewable energy production by 2030. "We have no doubt that the experience acquired together will be a plus in the future to position Mauritius in pole position for similar projects, and this in the perspective of the energy transition and the preference given to clean and renewable energy production for the economic, social and technological development of the continent thanks to Mauritian know-how and financing," said Jacques d'Unienville, CEO of Omnicane, already in Rwanda. "For MCB, financing projects like this is an important step in its sustainable development programme, entitled 'Success Beyond Numbers'," said Xavier Bathfield, Head of Mauritian and Regional Corporates at MCB. The plant with a production capacity of 5 MW, was launched in 2015 and whose construction started in 2017, benefits from the financial support of the Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB). Rwandan company Energy Utility Corporation Ltd (EUCL) will operate the plant for 25 years. The project which was launched in 2015, completed Phase 1 in 2019. Phase 2 is expected to be completed by the end of 2022. This 5MW production is estimated to reduce carbon emissions by about 14,500 metric tons per year, comparable to planting 1,000 hectares of trees per year. It is expected to power, on average, 175,000 households in Rwanda. According to the LeMatinal, this 5 MW production will be connected to Rwanda's national grid. Rwanda's energy mix is made up of 55 per cent renewable energy sources, of which 78 per cent is hydro. In total, the country has 37 hydropower plants connected to its national grid. This green strategy was developed by Omnihydro and incorporated in Rwanda in 2010, the report added. (ANI)
The statistics of the rising cases of suicide among the youth in Gilgit Baltistan paint a grim picture of the police and concerned authorities across the districts of the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. During the first six months of this year, as many as 15 cases of suicide were reported while over 222 people took their own life during the past five years, according to the Dawn newspaper. The exact causes of these suicide cases are not yet known, however, some researchers and experts said that the main cause behind rising cases of suicide was the unnerving pace of social change and mental disorders. Experts further said that many suicide cases go unreported across GB as many incidents of suicide were wrongly treated as murder or accidents. The GB police, after an investigation found out that many cases actually were of homicide, the Dawn newspaper reported. "19 suicide cases -- nine of them males and 10 females -- were reported this year, but investigations revealed that four out of the 19 individuals were, in fact, murdered," said the Senior Superintendent of Police of Ghizer district of Gilgit, Shahmeer Khalid. Deputy Inspector General of Police (Crime) of Gilgit division, Farman Ali said that even after so many deaths, neither the government nor social welfare organisations have woken up to the enormity of the matter. "Many cases went unreported due to social taboos, but police investigations threw a different light in a number of instances. Several cases in Ghizer which were initially declared suicide turned out to be homicide or murder," Farman Ali said. But he regretted that cases were not being investigated thoroughly. Even postmortem was not enough." He told that there are no facilities to treat mental disorders and depression in Gilgit-Baltistan. "Even well-equipped forensic labs are hard to find in the region. The government, as well as the public at large, needs to wake up from a state of denial." the Dawn newspaper quoted the DIG. To carry out an inquiry into the affliction, the Gilgit Chief Minister Khalid Khurshid Khan has ordered an 18-member committee to be headed by GB Assembly Deputy Speaker Nazir Ahmed, the Dawn newspaper reported. He appealed to civil society, parents, scholars and teachers to assist the government in coping with the scourge. "The youth are the future of our nation and its most precious asset. The prevalence of suicide among them is a matter of great concern to all. Hence we should work together to eradicate the menace from our midst. Otherwise, posterity will not forgive us," he said. On this, the youths of Ghizer district have called upon the authorities to take measures to address the menace and said that the administration should declare a "mental health emergency" in Ghizer, the Dawn newspaper reported. (ANI)
The United States has released a man who is believed to be one of the last Afghan detainees held inside the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba, following negotiations with Washington. Forty-year-old detainee Asadullah Haroon Gul was held for 15 years at the military prison under the name Haroon al-Afghani, The New York Times reported. It is to be noted that the prisoner was never charged with any war crimes. The New York Times reported that an air force plane carrying Haroon departed from Guantanamo Bay on Thursday and delivered him to Qatar. Qatari officials then handed Haroon over to Taliban representatives in Doha, according to a senior US official as quoted by The New York Times. However, Gul's release was also announced by Taliban member Zabihullah Mujahid on his Twitter handle. He that Gul was one of the last two Afghan prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay. Haroon was considered a commander of the Hezb-e Islami militia, which allegedly fought alongside the Taliban and Al Qaeda against the US invasion of Afghanistan. Later in 2016, the militia made peace with Ashraf Ghani-led Afghan government, a US ally, casting doubt on whether Haroon could legally be held as part of an enemy force at Guantanamo Bay. Then Ghani government had filed a petition in the US court seeking his return, as per the report. The US opened the detention centre under President George W Bush in January 2002 after the 9/11 attacks and the invasion of Afghanistan. Notably Mullah Muhammad Fazil Mazloom Akhund, Deputy Defence Minister was held in Guantanamo Bay detention camps in Cuba for 12 years. (ANI)
Mohamud said in a tweet that he has no symptoms but he will continue to self-isolate and serve the people of Somalia from his home.

"My fellow citizens, I would like to inform you that today I tested positive for COVID-19," said the president.

The president who was elected on May 15 called on all Somalis to keep each other safe by following public health advice and guidelines aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19.

Some members of the President's delegation had earlier tested positive for COVID-19 during their stay in Dubai, UAE.

However, President Mohamud's status was confirmed when he landed in the Somali capital, Mogadishu on Friday. (ANI/Xinhua)
United Nations on Friday said that its findings showed that the shot that killed Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh on May 11 this year came from Israeli forces, according to a media report. "All information we have gathered ... is consistent with the finding that the shots that killed Abu Akleh and injured her colleague Ali Sammoudi came from Israeli security forces and not from indiscriminate firing by armed Palestinians," UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva on Friday, Al Jazeera reported. The United Nations Security Council last month called for an "immediate, thorough, transparent and independent" probe in to the matter. The Al Jazeera journalist was tragically gunned down on May 11, while another journalist Ali Al Samudi who was present with Akleh was also shot, according to CNN. The UNSC in a statement had asserted that the members of the Security Council also conveyed their sympathy and deepest condolences to the victim's family. "The members of the Security Council called for an immediate, thorough, transparent, and fair and impartial investigation into her killing, and stressed the need to ensure accountability," the statement read. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed that it had conducted an operation early Wednesday in Jenin refugee camp, a stronghold of armed Palestinian groups in the northern West Bank. Israel Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, in a statement, said that according to information Tel Aviv has gathered so far, "it appears likely that armed Palestinians -- who were firing indiscriminately at the time -- were responsible for the unfortunate death of the journalist," according to media reports. (ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be travelling to United Arab Emirates (UAE) on June 28 to pay his personal condolences on the passing away of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the former UAE President and Abu Dhabi Ruler. He will also congratulate Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on his election as the new President of UAE. Addressing a briefing ahead of PM Modi's visit to Germany and UAE, Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said security, education and investment are among areas of discussion between India and UAE and bilateral relations are "dynamic, robust, and widespread". "Energy security is an important pillar of our relations. People-to-people connect is another aspect. Security, environment, education and investment are other areas of discussion between the two countries," he said. Answering a query about controversial remarks of a suspended BJP leader, he said, "as far as Prophet issue is concerned, almost all Middle East countries have an understanding of India's position. We've communicated our stand on various platforms. I don't think that will be taken forward anymore." This will be PM Modi's first meeting with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan since his election as the new President of the UAE and the Ruler of Abu Dhabi. The Prime Minister will visit UAE after attending the G7 Summit in Germany. Kwatra said India's regular participation at G7 Summits clearly points to increasing acceptance and recognition that India needs to be a part of every sustained effort to find a solution to solve challenges, global challenges in particular, which are being faced by world. PM Modi will be visiting Schloss Elmau, Germany for the G7 Summit under the German Presidency on June 26 and 27. During the Summit, Prime Minister is expected to speak in two sessions that include environment, energy, climate, food security, health, gender equality and democracy. In an effort to strengthen international collaboration on these important issues, other democracies such as Argentina, Indonesia, Senegal and South Africa have also been invited. On the sidelines of the Summit, Prime Minister will hold bilateral meetings with leaders of some of the participating countries. The invitation to G7 Summit is in keeping with the tradition of strong and close partnership and high-level political contacts between India and Germany. Prime Minister's last visit to Germany was on May 2, 2022 for the sixth edition of the India-Germany Inter-Governmental Consultations (IGC). (ANI)
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, who is on his visit to Kigali to attend the 26th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), interacted with the President of Maldives, Ibu Solih and underlined the broad-based cooperation between India and Maldives that continue to grow. Taking to Twitter, the EAM tweeted "An opportunity to interact with President @ibusolih of Maldives. Our broad-based cooperation continues to grow." Leading the Indian delegation in Kigali, the External Affairs Minister is attending the 26th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) from June 22-25 which had earlier been postponed twice due to the Covid-19 pandemic. He also took part in the pre-CHOGM Foreign Ministers' Meeting on June 23 in Kigali. The theme of the 26th CHOGM Summit is "Delivering a Common Future: Connecting, Innovating, Transforming". A number of Forums including the Commonwealth Youth Forum, Commonwealth Women Forum, Commonwealth Business Forum, Commonwealth People's Forum, and other side events are also planned on the side-lines of CHOGM by the incoming Chair of the Commonwealth, i.e. the Government of the Republic of Rwanda. During his visit, S Jaishankar met with Raychelle Omamo, the Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Kenya and held talks in regards to the fallout of the Ukraine war including food, fuel and fertilizer security. He also held talks with Rwanda Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta on the first day of his official visit and discussed the Commonwealth summit agenda, describing Rwanda as an 'important friend'. The Commonwealth provides an important platform to deepen India's engagement with Commonwealth members, in particular the Small States (SS) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS).India is also one of the largest contributors to the Commonwealth and has assisted the organisation with technical assistance and capacity building. In 2018, India announced the creation of a Commonwealth Window, dedicating USD 50 million for development projects and assistance to developing countries of the Commonwealth. (ANI)
In the wake of the tragic earthquake that struck Afghanistan on June 22, Ministry of External Affairs Joint Secretary (PAI), JP Singh handed over India's humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan on Friday in the presence of Taliban officials. The first consignment of India's earthquake relief assistance reached Kabul on Thursday followed by the second consignment of relief assistance that reached Friday morning to support the people of Afghanistan in quake-affected regions. The relief assistance consists of essential items including family ridge tents, sleeping bags, blankets, sleeping mats, etc. The Taliban have welcomed India's decision to return its technical team to continue humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan. "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (lEA) welcomes decision by India to return diplomats and technical team to their embassy in Kabul to continue their relations with the Afghan people and their humanitarian assistance," Taliban spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi said in a statement on Thursday. Major relief efforts are ongoing following a major magnitude earthquake which struck Paktika province in the early hours of Wednesday morning. To date, around 1000 people are estimated to have been killed across Barmal and Giyan districts in Paktika province, and Spera district in Khost province. In addition, at least 1,455 people have been injured across three of the six most affected districts of Barmal, Giyan, and Spera - many of them seriously.Further, nearly 1,500 homes have now been verified as destroyed and damaged in Giyan district, Paktika province. Over this incident, India expressed condolences to the victims and their families impacted by the tragic earthquake in Afghanistan. India said it remains committed to providing assistance and support in this hour of need. The disaster comes as Afghanistan continues to struggle with a severe economic crisis since the Taliban took over, as US-led international forces withdrew following two decades of war. A UN agency said Afghanistan had asked humanitarian agencies to help with rescue efforts, and teams were being dispatched to the quake-hit area. (ANI)
Notably, Jaishankar is on a visit to Kigali, Rwanda to attend the 26th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) from June 22-25.

Taking to Twitter, Jaishankar said, "Always good to meet PM Pravind Jugnauth of Mauritius. Provided an occasion to monitor the steady growth of our relationship."

Earlier, Jaishankar in April called on the Mauritius PM, who was on an eight-day visit to India to strengthen bilateral ties, in New Delhi.

PM had offered prayers at Varanasi's Kashi Vishwanath Temple. The Mauritius PM had also held a meeting with the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated the Global AYUSH Investment and Innovation Summit at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar in the presence of the Mauritius Prime Minister and Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO).

PM Modi also held a bilateral meeting with Mauritius Prime Minister after the inauguration of the Global Ayush Summit and discussed the ongoing development partnership and cooperation in defence.

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that PM Modi and the Mauritius Prime Minister reviewed the progress of the Metro Express Project and the proposal for an AYUSH Centre of Excellence in Mauritius.

Earlier in January, PM Modi and Prime Minister of Mauritius Pravind Kumar Jugnauth had jointly inaugurated the India-assisted social housing units project in Mauritius virtually. They also launched the Civil Service College and 8 MW Solar PV Farm project in Mauritius that is being undertaken under India's development support. (ANI)
External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar on Friday (local time) met with the Tanzanian Foreign Minister Liberata Mulamula and discussed strengthening defence and security ties between the two countries. Taking to Twitter, Jaishankar wrote, "A warm meeting with Tanzanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Liberata Mulamula. Discussed our development partnership that has transformed so many lives. It's results in water, agriculture & education are so visible. Also noted our growing defence & security relationship." Jaishankar is in Kigali to attend the 26th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) which had earlier been postponed twice due to the Covid-19 pandemic. India and Tanzania on June 16 reviewed the entire gamut of bilateral relations including political, economic and defence at the second round of Foreign Office Consultations between the two countries. The discussions were led on the Indian side by Puneet R Kundal, Joint Secretary (E&SA), Ministry of External Affairs and on the Tanzanian side by Caesar C. Waitara, Director (Asia & Australasia), Ministry of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation. "The consultations reviewed the entire gamut of bilateral relations including political, economic, trade and investment, defence, cultural, people to people, and other areas of mutual interest," Ministry of External Affairs said in a release. Multilateral and regional issues including co-operation in UN, East Africa Community (EAC), South African Development Cooperation (SADC) and African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) were also discussed. Both sides expressed satisfaction over the growth in bilateral trade, which touched US$ 4.5 billion for 2021-22. The releases said India is one of Tanzania's biggest trading partners and among the top investors in Tanzania. Both sides agreed to further strengthen bilateral cooperation in various sectors and explore possibilities of investment in health, education, port development and the agriculture sector. Tanzania is also a major development partner of India and New Delhi has extended six lines of Credit worth over USD 1.1 billion to Tanzania, especially in the sector of city water supply and management.The Indian side reiterated its commitment to continue the development partnership with Tanzania through loans, grants and other mechanisms. Both sides also agreed to continue high-level political exchanges and regular meetings of the joint institutional mechanisms to keep the partnership vibrant and mutually beneficial.The consultations were held in a friendly and cordial atmosphere. Both sides agreed to hold the next round of consultations at a mutually convenient date in Dar es Salaam. (ANI)
Pakistan has arrested the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, Lashkar-e-Taiba's (LeT) Sajid Mir, after over a decade, as per the reports. The rumors of Mir's arrest have circulated online but were never verified. This comes amid Pakistan's desire to extricate itself from the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF) international terror-financing watchlist. Currently, Pakistan is on the 'Grey List' of the watchdog for not fulfilling the parameters to counter terrorism in the country. LeT is a United Nations-designated terrorist organization. Pakistan for years has been denying the presence of Mir and once even claimed that he was dead, reported Nikkei Asia. The man, Sajid Mir, is on the FBI's list of most-wanted terrorists, with a USD 5 million reward on his head. He has been sought by both US and India for many years. In a conversation with the media portal, Pakistan's former finance minister, Hammad Azhar said that Pakistan took measures against Mir and other designated terrorists that were "satisfactory" to the FATF. Moreover, while speaking to Nikkei Asia, an FBI official on the condition of anonymity, said that Mir is "alive, in custody and has been sentenced" in Pakistan. Another former Pakistani official who is aware of the case said the "Pakistanis have acknowledged to both India and to America that a man called Sajid Mir, who was wanted in connection with the Mumbai attacks, and whom Pakistan had long said was either dead or not locatable ... they have actually found where he is." Pakistan's response to the Mumbai attacks has been a series of about-turns. The country has failed to take adequate steps to counter-terrorism and prosecute terrorists including masterminds of the 2008 Mumbai attacks such as Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) founder Masood Azhar and LeT's Sajid Mir, according to an earlier US report. "Pakistan made limited progress on the most difficult aspects of its 2015 National Action Plan to counter-terrorism, specifically in its pledge to dismantle all terrorist organizations without delay or discrimination," the US State Department had said in its 2020 Country Reports on Terrorism. The report recalled how in February and again in November, 2021, a Lahore anti-terrorism court convicted LeT founder Hafiz Saeed on multiple counts of terrorism financing and sentenced him to five years and six months in prison. "Pakistan did not, however, take steps under its domestic authorities to prosecute other terrorist leaders residing in Pakistan, such as JeM founder Masood Azhar and LeT's Sajid Mir, mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks," it had said. The report goes on the mention that Indian security agencies are effective in disrupting terror threats, although gaps remain in interagency intelligence and information sharing. "The Indian Multi-Agency Centre (MAC) collaborates with the United States on exchanging terrorist screening information. In the absence of a National Counter-Terrorism Center, the MAC conducts real-time collation and sharing of intelligence among federal and state security agencies," the report said. (ANI)
Jathedar Baba Baljit Singh Daduwal, a world-renowned Sikh Pracharak, urges the Indian government to see if it can make arrangements to send a delegation to Kabul so that they can perform the repair and renovation work of Gurdwara Sahib Karte Parwan which was damaged under an attack by Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP). Jathedar Daduwal said that if the Government of India makes arrangements, they can send a delegation to Kabul to get the "Kar Sewa" of Gurdwara Sahib Karte Parwan and talk to the Sikhs living there. He further said that the delegation can also get information about the situation with the recent earthquake in Afghanistan. While speaking to the media, the President of the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee Jathedar Daduwal also announced to provide support of Rs 10 lakh for the reconstruction of the Gurdwara Sahib at Karte Parwan. He said that the attack on Gurdwara Sahib, in which one Sikh and a private security guard were killed and the building of Gurdwara Sahib was badly damaged, was very unfortunate. Sharing further information with the media, he said that the Gurdwara Sahib Karte Parwan in Kabul which was damaged due to a recent terror attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, is in the process of reconstruction. He continued saying that the reality of this attack should be exposed to the world. "It indicates another conspiracy that should be exposed to the world as to who are the people who attacked Gurdwara Sahib and got it done," he added. Speaking further Jathedar Daduwal said, "Afghan Sikhs have a great love for Guru Granth Sahib in their heart which is why they did not leave the Guru's house even in the worst situation in Afghanistan." He also commended the Indian government for issuing e-visas to Hindus and Sikhs on an immediate basis. "The Government of India has done a commendable job by immediately issuing e-visas to 100 Hindus and Sikhs," he said. At the same time, the Sikh Pracharak on behalf of the Sikh community urged the Indian government to ensure the safety of Hindus and Sikhs living there in consultation with the Taliban government. Jathedar Daduwal also expressed grief over the loss of at least 1000 lives and many injuries in the tragic earthquake that hit Afghanistan on June 22. He said that if the Government of India makes arrangements, Guru Nanak Dev Ji Maharaj's all-around goodwill will be bestowed on the victims of the earthquake in Afghanistan. Jathedar Daduwal appealed to the Sangat around the world to help the Sikhs of Kabul in every possible way. (ANI)
Republican Reps. Fred Upton of Michigan, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, and Tony Gonzales of Texas all voted for the bill. Win McNamee and Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images

The House passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, sending it to President Joe Biden's desk.

14 Republicans joined every Democrat in supporting new gun restrictions in the wake of several mass shootings.

Most Republicans voted against the measure, citing the bill's "red flag" provisions.

The House of Representatives passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act on Friday, sending the most significant new gun restrictions since the 1990s to President Joe Biden's desk.

The bill passed by a 234-193 margin, with 14 House Republicans voting in favor. It comes after 15 Senate Republicans broke ranks and voted for the bill late Thursday night.

The bipartisan measure, negotiated by Democratic and Republican senators with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's blessing, includes multimillion dollar investments in mental health services and school security, as well as a new federal ban on gun trafficking.

The gun safety bill would also offer new funding to support states and tribes that seek to enact "red flag" laws  which allow authorities to confiscate guns from individuals deemed a threat to themselves or others  closing the so-called "boyfriend loophole," and subjecting gun purchasers under the age of 21 to new background check requirements.

The National Rifle Association announced their opposition to the bill within an hour of the text's release, and House Republicans cited the group's opposition as it urged their members to vote against the bill when it comes to the House. Republicans argue that the red flag provisions in particular could be abused, and not do enough to ensure due process protections.

Many of the Republicans that voted for the bill, including Reps. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Fred Upton of Michigan, are retiring and don't have to face primary voters again.

But the congressman who represents Uvalde, Texas  where a gunman shot and killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School  also voted for the bill, explaining that he's a survivor of domestic violence.

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And Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming released a statement following her vote arguing that the bill does not infringe on the Second Amendment.

"As a mother and a constitutional conservative, I'm proud to support this sensible bill that will protect our children and limit violence," she said. "Nothing in the bill restricts the rights of responsible gun owners. Period."

Here are the 14 House Republicans who voted for the bill:

Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan

Rep. Peter Meijer of Michigan

Rep. Steve Chabot of Ohio

Rep. Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio

Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio

Rep. David Joyce of Ohio

Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming

Rep. Chris Jacobs of New York

Rep. John Katko of New York

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania

Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois

Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas

Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida

Rep. Tom Rice of South Carolina

Here's what's in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

Read the original article on Business Insider
An aerial view of the Madame Gu superyacht in Sardinia, Italy. Carlo Borlenghi/REDA&CO/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Associated Press journalists photographed the Madame Gu superyacht docked in Dubai on Thursday.

The yacht belongs to billionaire Andrey Skoch, one of the richest members of Russia's parliament.

Russian oligarchs have fled to Dubai in recent months in order to escape Western sanctions.

A Russian oligarch's $156 million superyacht has been spotted docked in Dubai as Moscow's elite continue to dodge Western sanctions in the United Arab Emirates.

Associated Press journalists photographed the vessel moored off Port Rashid on Thursday.

The 324-foot ship, "Madame Gu," is owned by sanctioned billionaire Andrey Skoch, one of the richest members of the Russian Duma. Skoch is worth $5.35 billion and is ranked among the world's 500 richest people, according to Bloomberg.

Comfortably fitting 12 guests and 36 crew members, the luxury yacht features a helipad, beach club, elevator, and bright blue hull, according to a charter listing. Simply painting the boat costs $1 million a year, the US Treasury says.

Madame Gu was first reported to be in Dubai by The New York Times in early March. The Associated Press' report suggests the superyacht has remained untouched in the United Arab Emirates ever since, even after its recent designation as sanctioned property by the US.

Skoch was first sanctioned by the US in 2018 for serving as a Russian government official, as well as maintaining "longstanding ties to Russian organized criminal groups," the Treasury said. Madame Gu, as well as hi helicopter and private plane, were all designated as "blocked property" by the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on June 2.

Multiple yachts and aircrafts linked to sanctioned Russians have been spotted in Dubai, as the city emerged as a safehaven for the luxury assets of Moscow's elite following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

While the UAE has not imposed any sanctions on Russia, government officials have told Western allies that sanctioned entities and individuals are not be permitted to do business in the country, the Financial Times reported Wednesday. However, activists and members of the European parliament are calling for the Dubai and the United Arab Emirates to be blacklisted over its role in facilitating Russia's "dirty money."

"Dubai has long been a safe place for dirty money. It should now be put on financial blacklists and its leaders shouldn't be welcome [in Britain]," Bill Browder, a campaigner and critic of Vladimir Putin, told UK newspaper The Observer earlier this month.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Manish Patel and his brother, Utkarsh Patel, will open a UPS Store in the Publix shopping center at Pipkin and County Line roads in July.

Hoping for higher foot traffic in a Publix-anchored shopping plaza, the Patel brothers will own and operate the latest UPS Store in Lakeland.

The people that we have spoken to have told us Publix is a good traffic generator, said Manish Patel, 28, of Tampa.

He and his brother, Utkarsh Patel, 37, will open the 23rd location in Polk County of The UPS Store and the sixth in Lakeland.

When you have a big anchor store like Publix, you dont have to do a lot of marketing, Manish said.

This is their first location as business partners, located at 5155 County Line Road in the new shopping plaza at the intersection with Pipkin Road.

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Utkarsh Patel is a former information technology worker for Deloite who had always dreamed of starting a business.

We've seen the growth in the area, like I was there in middle school and from middle school to now, I have seen tremendous growth in Lakeland and Polk County. So I feel like this is the right time, the right opportunity to get into business, said Manish, who attended Crystal Lake Middle School.

The business was incorporated under their grandfathers surname as Bhakticas LLC. The brothers researched and talked with other family members who own UPS stores in the Orlando, Jacksonville and Tampa areas, and they gained good feedback from them about the business opportunity with UPS.

UPDS Store is expected to open in July

The retail franchise will be 11,040 square feet and is expected to open in July. Publix Super Markets will be the landlord.

The UPS Store offers freight shipping and printing, including business cards and flyers. The store will also offer notary services, copies and office supplies, such as paper and tapes. It will have mailboxes for rent.

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People think of UPS Store as a mailing and shipping business, but it is a lot more than that, Manish said. We can do just about anything that has to do with logistics, adding that shipping automobiles could become a specialty.

According to Mia Gonzales, a UPS spokeswoman, "When youre evaluating a franchise opportunity, youll want to understand the estimated initial investment, fixed costs, variable costs and whether they are a one-time or ongoing cost for the length of your franchise agreement.

"Total investment in a franchise business would include the franchise fee, equipment, lease costs, training, advertising, inventory, royalties, working capital and potentially several more costs depending on the type of business you are opening," she said.

UPS Store Inc. ranks high in Entrepreneur Magazine's annual Franchise 500 list of top franchise brands

The UPS Store Inc. is the world's largest franchisor of retail shipping, postal, print and business service centers. The franchise recently gained the No. 2 ranking in Entrepreneur Magazine's annual Franchise 500 list of top franchise brands in the U.S. and Canada, a UPS press release said.

The network has ranked No. 1 in the postal and business centers category for the 32nd consecutive year, the release said.

The 11,040-square-foot store at Pipkin and County Line roads will be the 23rd UPS Store in Polk County and the sixth in Lakeland.

The pandemic and remote working have been a challenge and a boom for shipping and business services retailers as consumers shifted to ecommerce purchasing, the release said.

There is already a The UPS Store center located within 10 miles of more than 85% of the U.S. population, and we are excited to expand our footprint into new communities as demand continues to increase for the services provided by The UPS Store, said Steve Chambers, vice president of retail and business development.

UPS retailer growth accelerated during 2021 as the company reached its 5,000th location in North America.

"It also expanded its Diversity Ownership Program to include members of the LGBTQ+ community, offering qualifying candidates discounts of up to 50% on initial franchise fees," the release said.

This as well as the Great Resignation has resulted in new and diverse entrepreneurs who are expected to try opening a franchise such as The UPS Store.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Brothers opening UPS Store on County Line in Lakeland
Three men have been arrested for the gunpoint robbery of former boxing world champion Amir Khan.

Khan was walking with his wife Faryal Makhdoom in Leyton, London, when they were approached by two men who threatened them with a gun and stole Khans 70,000 (approximately $85,844.15) watch at around 9 p.m. on April 18.

No shots were reportedly fired, and the 35-year-old boxer and his wife were not injured.

Ahmed Bana, 25, Nurul Amin, 24, and Dante Campbell, 20, were arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit robbery on Wednesday morning, according to Scotland Yard, the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police.

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Bana and Campbell were charged with possession of an imitation firearm. Campbell was also charged with possession of ammunition for a firearm without a certificate. The suspects are expected to appear at Thames magistrates court on Thursday.

Following the incident, Amir Khan publicly criticized London Mayor Sadiq Khan for the high level of crime in the capital.

London is not a place I want to live in anymore. Our plan to move there is not happening, he told Daily Mail. Mayor Khan needs to pull his finger out and tackle the increasing levels of gun and knife crime. Hes making the city unliveable. You cant drive anywhere, traffic is horrendous and theres no quality of life.

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Its disgusting what is happening in London and what happened to me, he added. Sadiq Khan is doing a terrible job and this huge increase in gun and knife crime is happening under his watch. Its absolutely disgraceful.

Tackling robbery is a key priority for the Met and these arrests demonstrate our commitment to taking those intent on using violence, or the threat of violence, off of our streets, Detective Sergeant Lee Warrington of the Mets Specialist Crime Command said.

Story continues

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As Republican lawmakers move to ban abortion in about half of U.S. states following the Supreme Courts landmark decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a cluster of Democratic-led states on the West Coast is standing apart in a collective vow to protect abortion access.

On Friday, governors in California, Washington, Oregon and Nevada promised to protect reproductive rights and help women traveling west seeking abortions, as communities now expect an influx of visitors in search of a safe place to get the procedure.

Three of those states  California, Washington and Oregon  joined forces in what officials called a West Coast offense. Their goal? To locally protect and expand abortion rights that are being outlawed across the U.S.

But leaders are also signaling worry about what has yet to come  and what other reversals may be in store after the death of Roe v. Wade.

California leads charge to protect access

California has been doubling down on its efforts to expand access to abortions in recent years, and voters will soon have the chance to enshrine those rights in the states constitution, Gov. Gavin Newsom said during a news conference Friday.

Newsom, who also signed the first in a series of bills aiming to promote California as a safe haven for those seeking abortions, struck a defiant tone in his opening remarks  I'm a little less sorry than I am pissed, a little less sorry than I am resolved and angry, the Democratic governor said  while warning that the Supreme Court could soon reverse its stance on other key issues.

They're coming after you next  period, full stop, Newsom said. This is not just about women. This is not just about choice. It's not just about reproductive freedom. They're coming after you next.

A billboard reading "Welcome to California where abortion is safe and still legal" stands near the intersection of Highway 111 and Bob Hope Dr. in Rancho Mirage, Calif., June 24, 2022.

Newsom, who has repeatedly pushed back against the policies of Republican governors in states such as Texas and Florida, was joined by top legislative leaders during the news conference in Sacramento. Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins, a Democrat from San Diego, highlighted a bill  which Newsom signed into law during the gathering  that would protect people seeking abortion care in the state from civil action started in another state.

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Those inhumane laws will not cross California borders, Atkins said. We will not leave women and families impacted by the fall of Roe v. Wade and the backwards, reckless policies of other states without options.

That legislation is one of several that could be passed into law in the coming weeks. Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon said the chamber will take up a proposal next week that would allow voters to decide on the November ballot whether to enshrine the right to an abortion in the California Constitution.

We will not go gently into the night that they are creating, Rendon said. We are fighting back in California.

Roe v. Wade is overturned: Here's what abortion laws look like in each state

What is mifepristone, the abortion pill?: What to know after the Supreme Court overturns Roe

California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks about abortion rights during a news conference Friday, June 24, 2022, in Sacramento.

'It's very real'

Attorney General Rob Bonta reiterated the Supreme Courts decision to void Roe v. Wade is confirmation that we must further codify the right to a safe and legal abortion in the California Constitution.

Today's a sad day, and it's a dark day, but today is not the last day in this fight, Bonta said. Our fight for reproductive freedom marches on.

California lawmakers are considering a total of 16 bills this year that aim to bolster abortion access in the state, according to Shannon Olivieri Hovis, the director of NARAL Pro-Choice California. The bills cover a wide range of abortion-related issues, addressing provider shortages, helping low-access areas and providing privacy and legal safeguards for providers and patients.

We've put a welcome sign on the door, Hovis said during the news conference. We are letting folks know that no matter where they're from, no matter where they live, no matter what their circumstances, they are welcome in California to access the critical abortion care that they need.

Still, the officials were not shy about their worries regarding what could come next, with Newsom stating hes very worried about the possibility of GOP lawmakers approving further restrictions on abortion access at the federal level.

If people don't wake up, we can be living in that reality, Newsom said. Its very real.

The Left Coast bans together

In the multi-state commitment announced Friday, Washington, California and Oregon vowed to work together to defend patients and medical professionals providing reproductive health care.

They also pledged to protect against judicial and local law enforcement cooperation with out-of-state investigations, inquiries and arrests regarding abortions performed in their states.

More than half the nations population now lacks safe access to a medical procedure that only a patient and their doctor can and should make for themselves, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said in a statement. Washington state remains steadfast in our commitment to protecting the ability and right of every patient who comes to our state in need of abortion care.

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said he will work to ensure his state welcomes any individual who comes here to access the fundamental right to reproductive justice, adding that he is already working to protect medical professionals who are prosecuted in other states for providing essential health care services that are legal and protected in Washington.

Washington and Oregon border Idaho, which following Fridays ruling will ban abortions except in cases of reported rape or incest, or to protect the mothers life.

The liberal West Coast states now anticipate an influx of people seeking abortions, especially as neighboring conservative states move to outlaw or greatly restrict the procedure.

In Oregon, an influx of abortion-seekers expected from Idaho

In Eastern Oregon, residents will be significantly affected when Idaho's ban goes into effect. In April, Planned Parenthood rented space in Ontario, Oregon, saying it was preparing for an influx of out-of-state patients.

Christel Allen, executive director of Pro-Choice Oregon, said Friday her group expects the state to see a 235% increase in people traveling to Oregon for abortions.

Oregon law already contains abortion access protections granted by Roe v. Wade. State law was updated in 2017 and allows for late-term abortion and requires private medical insurance and state Medicaid to cover the procedure.

Community members gather in defense of abortion rights during the Defend Roe rally on Sunday, May 15, 2022 at the Oregon State Capitol in Salem, Ore.

Oregon voters have also supported abortion access at the ballot box: A ballot measure in 2018 pushed by anti-abortion groups to prohibit the use of public funds on abortions was rejected 64% to 36%.

A $15 million fund established by state lawmakers this year covers costs for abortion providers and patients without insurance coverage or traveling from out of state. The fund also seeks to expand abortion access in Oregons rural communities.

No matter who you are or where you come from, Oregon doesnt turn away anyone seeking health care, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said.

Abortion rights advocates in Oregon stressed the voiding of Roe v. Wade had no impact on state laws and that work to protect rights would continue.

If we have learned anything from the past six years is that we cannot take anything for granted and we cannot rest on our laurels," said An Do, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon. "We need to continue to ensure that Oregon remains a place where people can access the care they need when they need it, where they need it.

In Nevada, abortion access becomes center of U.S. Senate race

In Nevada, the Supreme Court decision arrives against the backdrop of a high-stakes U.S. Senate contest  and reproductive rights will likely be a key issue in that race.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat, said in a series of tweets Friday that the "consequences will be swift and tragic for so many women across America.

With Roe gone, extremists are planning to pass a federal abortion ban if they retake the Senate," wrote Cortez Masto, one of the most vulnerable Democrats this year in an evenly divided U.S. Senate. "And Nevadans cannot risk my opponent Adam Laxalt  whos celebrating todays ruling as an historic victory  being in the Senate for that vote.

As one of nine states that has firmly embedded Roes protections in state law, Nevada is largely immune from the impact of the decision.

Laxalt, a former one-term Nevada attorney general, said Friday that the Supreme Court "never had the expertise nor the authority to unilaterally legislate on abortion."

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak issued a statement on Twitter Friday, sharing his disappointment with the Supreme Court ruling.

As long as he's governor, he said, Nevada will continue to fight for reproductive rights.

Contributing: USA TODAY, Associated Press, Alexei Koseff and Kristen Hwang, CalMatters.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Roe v Wade: CA, Washington, Oregon, Nevada promise abortion access
FILE - In this Wednesday, April 5, 2017 file photo, demonstrators participate in a rally for Planned Parenthood at the Capitol in Austin, Texas. Associated Press

The US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which granted the legal right to abortion in 1973.

The court gutting Roe has returned control of abortion policy back to the states.

These seven maps and charts show the state of abortion in the US and what could happen without Roe.

The latest stage of pregnancy at which a patient can obtain an abortion by state in 2022 varies from 6 weeks to no limit  if abortion is not banned altogether.

As of June 27, 2022, eight states outright ban abortion, with exceptions for cases where the patient's physical health is threatened. Still other states have "trigger laws" still yet to go into effect that will ban abortion.

Of the 43 states and the District of Columbia that have not banned abortions, 36 states restrict abortion at a certain point in pregnancy in some way, either defined in terms of weeks post-fertilization or weeks from the patient's last menstrual period.

Many other states also carve out exceptions for the physical and general health of the patient, fetal abnormalities, and rape or incest.

This map shows the latest point in pregnancy a patient can currently obtain an abortion in each state, according to data from the Guttmacher Institute.

Without Roe, 23 states have laws on the books that could outright ban or severely limit access to abortion, and 16 states and DC have passed laws that would explicitly protect the right to abortion.

Now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe, it doesn't mean abortion is banned nationwide.

Instead, the issue of abortion is now in the jurisdiction of the states, as was the case before the Roe decision.

Every state has free reign to permit or restrict abortion access, and over 30 states have passed laws or decrees that spell out how they'd treat abortion in the absence of Roe, according to research from the Guttmacher Institute.

Currently, 13 states have passed "trigger" laws that are explicitly designed to ban all or most abortions if Roe were struck down.

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Nine states have passed post-Roe abortion restrictions, like "heartbeat" bills and first-trimester abortion bans, that have been blocked by courts but could go back into effect with a court order if Roe fell.

Another group of nine states still have their pre-Roe abortion bans, which are currently unenforceable, on the books.

Those laws, importantly, aren't automatically revived without Roe but have to be put back into effect by a state legislature or order from a state attorney general, Guttmacher told Insider in 2019.

And lawmakers in seven states have passed decrees, which do not hold the force of law, expressing their intent to ban abortion to the greatest extent possible if Roe falls.

Four states have also passed constitutional amendments establishing that there is no right to an abortion under the state's constitution.

On the other hand, 16 Democratic-controlled states and the District of Columbia have passed laws that ensure abortion will remain legal within their borders.

The number of abortion clinics varies significantly per state, and more have shut down in the South and Midwest over the last decade.

In the decades since Roe, individual states have enacted a slew of restrictions to make it as difficult as possible for abortion clinics to operate, such that several states only have one remaining clinic.

Targeted Restrictions on Abortion Providers, or TRAP laws, impose very specific regulations on clinics. Oftentimes, these restrictions are so expensive that the costs of implementing them cause many clinics to close down altogether.

These include requirements on the width of corridors, the size and equipment of procedure rooms, and mandating that clinics have admitting privileges at local hospitals, even though less than 0.5% of abortions result in complications.

Between 2014 and 2017, more clinics opened up in the Northeast and on the West Coast but shut down in the South and Midwest, which lost 9% and 6% of their clinics respectively, partly due to TRAP laws in some cases.

In 2017, 89% of US counties had no known abortion providers, with 38% of US women ages 15-44 living in those counties.

The Supreme Court struck down one of the most extreme TRAP laws, Texas' HB2, in a 5-3 vote in 2016. But despite that, over 20 states still have such laws on their books.

A closer look at the county level shows stark disparities in abortion access across the country. There are now 16 states where 95% of counties do not have an abortion clinic.

By causing clinics to close down, TRAP laws have the consequence of making patients travel further and further to get to a clinic, especially in states that require patients to make multiple trips to the clinic and undergo a 24-to-72-hour "waiting periods."

According to another study from the Guttmacher Institute, patients travel an average of 34 miles each way to access abortion, and one in five American women have to travel at least 50 miles to reach their closest abortion provider.

Here's how the phases of pregnancy and fetal development line up with abortion bans. The Second Trimester starts at week 14.

Shayanne Gal/Insider

Before Texas' successful six-week abortion ban, states made many attempts to restrict patients from getting abortions after a certain number of weeks  oftentimes before a woman even knows she's pregnant.

In 2019, the governors of Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and Missouri signed bills to either severely restrict abortion with so-called "heartbeat bills" or, in Alabama's case, ban the procedure altogether.

Other states have tried to ban dilation & evacuation (D&E), the method commonly used to perform abortions after 14 weeks.

The surgical procedure is usually used in late-term miscarriages and abortions to remove the fetal tissue as safely as possible and accounts for less than 0.5% of all abortions.

Prohibiting D&E abortions is effectively a ban on all second-trimester abortions.

Most US adults still favor protecting the legal right to abortion.

While the last decade has seen a huge increase in state-level abortion restrictions, Americans as a whole haven't become more anti-abortion in the past 20 years, according to survey data from Pew Research Center.

As of 2022, 61% of adults say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 37% say it should be illegal in all or most cases. Those numbers are almost exactly the same as they were back in 1995.

A supermajority of Democrats support keeping abortion legal, while conservative Republicans favor making it illegal. Moderates are more split.

Abortion has long been a hot-button partisan issue, with support for the procedure in all or most cases being highest among liberal Democrats and lowest among conservative Republicans.

Just under a quarter of those who identify as conservative Republicans now believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to Pew Research.

And while state legislatures have passed draconian abortion restrictions for the purpose of starting litigation they hoped would overturn Roe v. Wade, support for the landmark decision still remains high.

A number of polls conducted prior to the 2020 election by organizations including Quinnipiac University, ABC News/Washington Post, Fox News, and Kaiser Family Foundation, found that between 61% and 69% of Americans support Roe, with 24% to 28% saying they want the decision overturned, CNN reported in 2021.

Read the original article on Business Insider
(Getty Images)

The Supreme Court has voted to overturn Roe v Wade, the landmark ruling that legalised abortion in the United States nearly 50 years ago. Now, a headline calling on readers to design a viral protest sign has circulated online, and critics are calling out the publication for minimising the overturning of Roe v Wade.

On 5 May, American business magazine Fast Company published an article titled Furious about the fall of Roe v Wade? Heres how to design a protest sign that goes viral after the Supreme Courts initial draft opinion was leaked last month. The article provided a list of instructions for readers on how to design a protest poster that goes viral, such as choosing a bold sign color or thinking about how the design will live on social media.

However, now that SCOTUS has officially ended constitutional protections for abortion, the internet is expressing outrage over the headline for being tone-deaf, after millions of Americans could potentially lose access to abortion.

It all began when Slate writer Christina Cauterucci shared a screenshot of the Fast Company article with the caption, We are absolutely doomed. Her tweet received more than 40,000 likes and nearly 4,000 retweets from Twitter users echoing a similar sentiment: that social media and content culture has gone too far.

Rights being stripped from folks is temporary, poster clout is forever, replied one Twitter user.

aaRelated article: Vision Boarding Your Way To Human Rights, joked another person.

Society is temporary but Instagram likes are forever, a third user said.

The Supreme Court ruling, which was issued on 24 June, marks a stark reversal of abortion rights protections throughout the country. Women could now be forced to carry pregnancies to term or travel hundreds of miles to seek care in states or countries where it is protected.

we are absolutely doomed pic.twitter.com/IRRnRrtfBh  Christina Cauterucci (@c_cauterucci) June 23, 2022

Rights being stripped from folks is temporary, poster clout is forever. /s  Unionized Gendo Ikari (@ArmsteadVan) June 24, 2022

Related article: Vision Boarding Your Way To Human Rights  Dr. Lucianne Walkowicz (@RocketToLulu) June 24, 2022

Society is temporary but Instagram likes are forever  Daniel Joyaux (@Thirdmanmovies) June 24, 2022

The latest decision will leave it up to states to determine whether to ban abortion, which will quickly become criminalised or effectively outlawed in 13 states with trigger laws.

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Youre telling me we cant influence our way out of this? tweeted podcaster Marissa Payne.

Sure women may have lost rights, but think of the content, another Twitter user jokingly said.

One user captured the irony of the moment when they tweeted, Can we have our rights protected? America: Best we can do is a viral sign.

Youre telling me we cant influence our way out of this?  Marissa Payne (@MarissaPayne) June 24, 2022

Sure women may have lost rights, but think of the content. https://t.co/w5vj651RT9  Matt (@Talint) June 24, 2022

Can we have our rights protected?

America:best we can do is a viral sign https://t.co/6zhdSeIi8l  greasballs (@billy_odell1) June 24, 2022

The overturning of Roe v Wade comes after the Supreme Courts six conservative justices ruled a 6-3 decision on Dobbs v Jackson Womens Health Organization in favour of a Mississippi law, which seeks to outlaw abortion at 15 weeks of pregnancy. As a result, the court has also overturned key precedents established by the 1973 decision in Roe v Wade as well as an affirming decision in 1992s Planned Parenthood v Casey.

Since the decision was announced earlier this morning, Americans have reacted with outrage, with gathering outside the Supreme Court in Washington where the ruling was handed down. Both pro-choice and pro-life groups have begun protesting outside the building, while Democratic politicians have condemned the decision.

Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called the decision a step backward for womens rights and human rights.

Most Americans believe the decision to have a child is one of the most sacred decisions there is, and that such decisions should remain between patients and their doctors, she wrote in a statement shared to social media. Todays Supreme Court opinion will live in infamy as a step backward for womens rights and human rights.

Meanwhile, former First Lady Michelle Obama expressed her heartbreak over the Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v Wade.

I am heartbroken today. I am heartbroken for people around this country who just lost the fundamental right to make informed decisions about their bodies, she wrote. I am heartbroken that we may now be destined to learn the painful lessons of a time before Roe was made law of the land - a time when women risked losing their lives getting illegal abortions.

A time when the government denied women control over their reproductive functions, forced them to move forward with pregnancies they didnt want, and then abandoned them once their babies were born.

That is what our mothers and grandmothers and great-grandmothers lived through, and now here we are again.

Follow along for live updates from the Supreme Courts decision on Roe v Wade here.

You can find a list of abortion funds and pro-choice organisations to donate to and support here.
Credit - From top left, clockwise: Courtesy Dr. DeShawn Taylor, Dr. Colleen McNicholas, Tammi Kromenaker, Dr. Carol Wanna

On June 24, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, undoing the constitutional right to abortion that has been in place for nearly 50 years. The reversal paves the way for states to ban or limit abortions, and many are expected to do so soon.

Four abortion providers who live in states that severely restrict or are likely to soon criminalize abortion spoke with TIME about what they plan to do now. Some say theyll shift care across state borders, while others resolve to amp up their activism in a post-Roe America. Yet all four providers say they dread the way new laws will endanger pregnant people seeking abortions. Their interviews have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Dr. DeShawn Taylor

Ob-gyn in Phoenix

Courtesy Dr. DeShawn Taylor

Taylor founded her Phoenix clinic, Desert Star Family Planning, in 2013. Earlier this year, Arizona enacted a 15-week abortion ban that was going to take effect later this summer, but its now possible that the state may pass an even stricter ban. Arizona also has a pre-Roe ban on the booksa law enacted before Roe and never removedbut whether or it will be enforced is unclear.

Those moments when I tell somebody that theyre too far alongthe wailing and the emotionare so heart-wrenching. I dont want people to experience that if I can help it. Having my hands tied is hard.

I made up my mind some time ago that I was going to stay in Arizona and be a resource to the community. My clinic provides general gynecology, well-woman sexual health, gender-affirming care, and miscarriage management. The idea that once abortion is illegal in the statethat abortion providers potentially will leave the statethat doesnt sit well with me, and its not in alignment with my values.

Read More: The Fight Over Abortion Has Only Just Begun

I intend to be a resource for my community, a safe space. A place for the community as theyre mobilizing to help each other get what they need, where they can get accurate information. I also anticipate that the people of Arizona are going to need a safe place to receive miscarriage care, without being interrogated about whether they self-induced or not. People are going to be afraid to help.

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Post-Roe does not look the same as pre-Roe. People are safely self-managing their abortions already. What concerns me is people are going to attempt self-managed abortion later in pregnancy. Im concerned about bleeding complications and incomplete processes not being identified and treated, potentially causing infections. We may see people die.

Right now, Im just really in a mode of determination. Im a problem solver. The biggest issue is the criminalization piece. And what my limits arewhat level of risk Im comfortable taking, considering that most people who get criminalized in this country around these things are people of color. The pre-Roe law has an exception for the life of the pregnant person. The biggest question for me is, at what point can you intervene? Does the person have to literally be dying? If someone presents to me with a miscarriage, Im not going to be interrogating people about how they got to this place. Im just going to provide the care. And I suspect that those types of instances will be scrutinized closely as well.

I am a very spiritual person, and I consider my practice my ministry. Its deeply gratifying, and I know I am changing peoples lives for the better. Im just trying to stay open, to continue to provide as long as possible. Making sure I have staff, and that Im resourced to provide abortion care all the way up until I cant.

I believe that the pendulum will swing back, which is why keeping my clinic open is very important. Weve seen over the course of the years that once independent abortion clinics close, they generally dont open back up again.

Dr. Colleen McNicholas

Chief medical officer for Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri

Courtesy Dr. Colleen McNicholas

Until Roe v. Wade was overturned, McNicholas saw abortion patients in both Missouri and Illinois. But a trigger bana law that will take effect nearly automatically now that Roe is overturnedin Missouri means that abortions in the state will likely soon be outlawed (with an exception for pregnant people whose lives are in danger). McNicholas plans to split her work between Illinois, where the legality of abortion is not directly affected by the recent Supreme Court decision, and Missouri.

Missouri has long been the leader in eliminating abortion access. Its passed nearly every single restriction and law that other states have, and did so a long time ago. Illinois will serve as an oasis and will be the nearest location for tens of thousands of people who will be seeking care. Now that Roe is repealed, we have two enormous responsibilities: to step up and fill gaps for states that have lost or will lose access, while simultaneously working within Missouri to fight back and build back some access.

We cant abandon places. We know that over time, it will change, but we need the people here who are committed to that change to stay here and work for it.

Read More: What Its Like to Be an Abortion Clinic Escort

Abortion is an act of love and an act of humanity for people who are pregnant and their families. It provides some hope and the opportunity to meet their potential, to get out of poverty. I think the elimination of abortion says to people: we dont care about you. We dont care that youre struggling. The real, on-the-ground implication for patients is that life gets harder. But people should know that there are lots of folks out there trying to make a difference, to address this, and to eliminate the barriers.

The reason why I continue this work is that I get to sit with patients every single day and see the impact of a very simple procedure. Sometimes its as simple as me handing you a medication. There are very few medical services that, with such little time and education and skill, can make such a profound impact on somebodys life.

Dr. Carol Wanna

Ob-gyn in Macon, Ga.

Courtesy Dr. Carol Wanna

Wanna has provided abortions part-time at Planned Parenthood for about two years. The reversal of Roe v. Wade will likely clear the way for Georgia to begin outlawing abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy.

Most of us have accepted what would happen this summer. You pretty much could see what was coming. But the cruelty of the decision still makes me feel sadness and depression.

Atlanta, Augusta, and Savannah are the only places in Georgia that abortions are provided, so theres really nothing around where I live. I commute almost two hours to Atlanta and almost three to Savannah to be able to work with Planned Parenthood. I just so strongly believe in the right for women to choose their destiny. All of my patients are making a very difficult decision, but theyre deciding whats right for their life at that time. The thought that women cannot have power over their destiny and be forced to continue a pregnancy they dont want just horrifies me. Medically, abortion is extremely low risk; its lower risk than continuing the pregnancy.

Read More: Inside the Small Group of Doctors Who Risked Everything to Provide Abortions in Texas

Ill definitely stay in Georgia, just because its my home. I will probably continue to work at Planned Parenthood, at least doing family planning and other services. Im not ready to uproot my whole life, but if there are opportunities to go to states where abortions are legal, I would certainly consider traveling to provide services.

Were going to have to change our services to try to enable women to get into clinic as quickly as possible, so that it can be done early. I worry that women are going to have to jump into having the abortion even though theyre not completely comfortable with their decision. That seems horrible. It might become a situation where even if a womans not completely sure, they know its now or never.

Tammi Kromenaker

Clinic owner and director of Red River Womens Clinic in North Dakota

Courtesy Tammi Kromenaker

North Dakota has a trigger ban in effect that clears the way for the state to outlaw abortion soon after Roe v. Wade is overturned. Kromenaker is in the process of moving the clinic from North Dakota to Minnesota.



Were very fortunate that we are on a border with Minnesota, which is considered a politically protected state for abortion. After the Supreme Court leak, we looked at what it would take to relocate the clinic over to Minnesota, because it was important for us to not change access. We already have patients who drive four, five, six hours just one way to get to our clinic.

Read More: What to Know About Abortion Pills Post-Roe

We dont want to have to move. Weve established amazing community connections, and its going to be like starting over. North Dakota law and Minnesota law are also very different. Im going to have to learn the court system there and learn what judges are favorable and which ones might be hostileall of those things that in North Dakota, weve got down.

We have a huge target on our back; we have for a very long time. Weve basically been in litigation with the state of North Dakota pretty much continuously for over a decade. They tried everything with us, and we have met the challenge and worked really hard to be able to provide this care. Its been challenge after challenge after challenge here, whether its the legislature or litigation or the protesters. So were ready to take on this next challenge.
ISLAMABAD (AP)  An Afghan prisoner held in U.S. custody for nearly 15 years has been released from the Guantanamo Bay detention center after a federal court ruled that he was unlawfully detained, the U.S. Department of Defense said Friday.

Asadullah Haroon Gul's release was first announced earlier in the day by the Taliban in Afghanistan and an international human rights group.

From Kabul, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban-appointed deputy culture and information minister, tweeted that Gul was one of the last two Afghan prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay.

Photographs of Gul being greeted by senior Taliban officials in Doha, Qatar, were posted on Twitter later in the day. Mujahid thanked Qatar for facilitating Guls release, without elaborating.

The United States opened the detention center under President George W. Bush in January 2002 after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the invasion of Afghanistan to capture al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. It was intended at the time to hold and interrogate those suspected of having links to al-Qaida or the Taliban, who had sheltered bin Laden.

However, scores of suspects from multiple countries were later sent there and the detention center became notorious after reports emerged of detainees being humiliated and tortured.

Gul was greeted upon landing in Doha by top Taliban official Suhail Shaheen, who said he would soon fly home to Afghanistan.

In a statement, the Department of Defense said Gul's release was in accord with district court in Washington's decision that the United States no longer has a legal basis to justify the continued detention" of Gul. It thanked Qatar for its assistance without providing any details.

Earlier Friday, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, criticized the Biden administration for allowing Gul's transfer.

The terrorist organization that now controls Afghanistan cannot and will not ensure Gul, or any future detainees who are released, will not return to the battlefield and potentially kill Americans or other innocent civilians, Rubio said, referring to the Taliban who seized power in Afghanistan last August.

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Mujahid said Gul was handed over to the Taliban as a result of their talks with U.S. authorities, which he described as a direct and positive interaction with the United States."

Shaheen told The Associated Press that Gul's freedom came following direct engagement" with the U.S. He said Gul was detained by American forces in the city of Jalalabad in 2007 and was held for 15 years without trial.

The remaining Afghan at Guantanamo Bay is Muhammad Rahim al-Afghani, who is accused of working with bin Laden as a procurement specialist. Al-Afghani was captured by Pakistani authorities and later handed over to the CIA, which transferred him to the detention center.

The Britain-based rights group Reprieve said Gul's family feared him dead for many years and for the first nine years of his captivity, he did not have access to a lawyer, despite multiple attempts to obtain legal representation."

Reprieve and the law firm Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss filed" a petition on his behalf in 2016 and demanded his release," it added. After years of litigation, in October 2021, they prevailed when a Washington court ruled that Gul was not part of al-Qaida and ordered his release.

According to the statement, Gul suffered severe physical and psychological torture during his detention, including being beaten, hung by his wrists, deprived of food and water, and prevented from praying. He has been subjected to sleep deprivation, extreme cold temperatures and solitary confinement."

Commenting on Gul's release, his lawyer at Reprieve, Mark Maher, said Gul missed his daughters entire childhood and he will never get back what has been taken from him, but he is now at least able to rebuild his life with his family, who have waited so long to see him."

____

Associated Press writer Nomaan Merchant in Washington contributed to this story.
By Sonali Paul

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Top liquefied natural gas exporter Australia is in the depths of a power crunch just as traditional buyers are scrambling to meet shortfalls of Russian gas and winter takes hold Down Under.

Europe's rush for supplies and an outage at the biggest U.S. LNG plant supplying Europe have had knock-on effects driving power prices up in Australia too.

Australia vies with Qatar and the United States as the world's top LNG supplier, but over the past month it has struggled to keep the lights on as gas prices have shot up to record highs.

Australian manufacturers have urged the new Labor government to intervene in the market to push down prices, and in response policymakers are working on plans to tighten agreements requiring exporters to offer supplies to domestic users first, before offering them abroad.

"If you take a global view of gas, the world seems likely to be short energy for some period of time. And given that, I don't think it would be wise to think of this as a short term or transient problem," said Ben Eade, chief executive of Manufacturing Australia, which represents Australia's big, gas-dependent manufacturers.

Gas demand has surged in eastern Australia for heating amid a cold snap and for power generation due to a string of outages at coal-fired plants, sending prices up to around A$40 per gigajoule ($42 per million Btu), four times the normal price.

Wood Mackenzie sees little relief in the near term, expecting gas and LNG prices to remain high into the mid-2020s.

Amid the price pressures though, Shell Plc in a rare move shipped three LNG cargoes from Australia to Chile to replace supply it typically gets from the United States, Trinidad and Tobago and Equatorial Guinea.

GRAPHIC: Vessel tracks of LNG export shipments from Australia to Chile (https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/ce/znvnegjkzpl/LNGfromAusttoChile.png)

The journey from Australia's east coast to the Quintero terminal in Chile takes a week longer than from the U.S. Gulf Coast or Trinidad.

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GRAPHIC: Vessel track of LNG shipments from Australia to Chile (https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/ce/gdpzygnddvw/QCLNGtoQuintero.png)

Two traders who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter said it was logical Shell would source cargoes from Australia for Chile given the tight supply in the Atlantic Basin following a blast at Freeport LNG in Houston, now offline until September.

Shell's QCLNG cargoes left for Chile on June 4, June 11 and June 16, shipping data from Kpler shows. Shell declined to comment.

GRAPHIC: Vessel track of LNG export shipments from the United States to Chile (https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/ce/klvykrmdrvg/LNGUSAtoChile.png)

Several factors likely led Shell to use its QCLNG cargoes for Chile, said Dan Toleman, an analyst at consultants Wood Mackenzie.

"European buyers are pulling cargoes out of Asia as they look to wean off Russian gas. Demand in Asia has fallen due to high spot prices. More U.S. supply is heading to Europe, and Atlantic LNG production is lower than its long-run average," he said.

Australia typically sends all its cargoes to Asia. Only one has gone to Chile in the past two years, government data shows.

GAS PRICE PAIN

Australian Resources Minister Madeleine King said she is considering how to improve the main tools the government has to boost supply, including the Australian Domestic Gas Supply Mechanism, which is not designed to fill short-term supply gaps.

She also plans to negotiate a new Heads of Agreement, which currently requires the three LNG producers on the east coast - QCLNG operated by Shell, Gladstone LNG by Santos and APLNG by ConocoPhillips - to offer uncontracted gas to domestic users before offering it to the international market.

On the LNG cargoes that went to Chile in the middle of the power crunch, King said in an emailed statement that Australia's energy issues were "primarily about rising prices rather than a lack of supply, linked to high international gas prices".

"Australia remains committed to contributing to global energy security and working with international partners to address current global energy challenges," King said.

Wood Mackenzie Asia Pacific Vice Chair Gavin Thompson said Australia's energy crisis was largely of its own making, as not enough renewable energy capacity had been built to replace ageing coal-fired plants, raising the need for gas-fired power.

"As fears mount over gas and electricity shortages in New South Wales and Victoria, one (gas) producer bluntly told me: 'Folks in Melbourne better get used to cold showers,'" Thompson said in a June 16 note.

(Reporting by Sonali Paul; Additional reporting by Marwa Rashad in London; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
NEW CASTLE, Ind.  The Indiana Court of Appeals has upheld the 65-year sentence a New Castle woman received for killing her mother.

Bonnie Katherine Joslin, 37, pleaded guilty to murder last year, and was later sentenced by Madison Circuit Court Judge Angela Warner Sims.

The 65-year prison term is the maximum penalty  short of execution or a life sentence  for a murder conviction in Indiana.

Joslin's mother, 53-year-old Mona Joslin Davis, had been dead for two weeks when police found her body, wrapped in plastic bags, in her north Anderson apartment in June 2019.

Joslin  arrested in New Castle a day after her mother's body was discovered  had told Madison County emergency dispatchers, among others, that her mother had moved to Florida. She posed as her mother in the call to dispatchers.

She also was accused of stealing a pickup truck her mother had borrowed from a friend, and pleaded guilty to additional counts of auto theft, false informing and identity deception.

More Muncie crime news: Muncie man accused of trying to abduct mother, child

After her arrest, the New Castle woman told a fellow inmate in the Madison County jail that she had used a pillow to suffocate her mother during an argument.

The appeals court first upheld Joslin's murder conviction and 65-year sentence in April.

The three-member panel agreed to reconsider the case after Joslin contended they had failed to consider her argument that her sentence "was disproportionate to the nature of her offense."

In an opinion issued Tuesday, the judges again upheld the 65-year sentence, calling Joslin's crime "particularly heinous."

In the ruling, Judge Melissa May noted Joslin had "strangled her mother and left her body to rot in the June heat."

Joslin  incarcerated at the Rockville Correctional Facility  has a projected release date in April 2068, when she would be 82.

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Douglas Walker is a news reporter at The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5851 or at dwalker@muncie.gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: New Castle woman's 65-year prison sentence for killing mother upheld
Ellen Glasser, the mayor of Atlantic Beach, wrote a thank you letter to Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry, Council President Sam Newby and Chief Keith Powers with the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department.

The letter thanked them for their response to a fire that swept through Atlantic Beach overnight on June 7.

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The fire broke out on 10th Street and Beach Avenue. After a second alarm was called, JFRD was requested to help the Atlantic Beach Fire Department.

JFRD got to the fire around 1:45 a.m. and it was contained in two hours. Four apartments were deemed a total loss due to the fire, while a single home suffered from flame and smoke damage.

RELATED: I heard a loud kaboom: Neighbors in Atlantic Beach band together after overnight fire rips through

Despite this, there were no injuries reported.

JFRD immediately deployed extraordinary resources to avoid any loss of life and to minimize property damage, Glasser wrote in her letter.

As leaders of the City of Jacksonville, we thank you and we thank the brave men and women of JFRD.

See the full letter below:

Atlantic Beach mayor, Ellen Glasser thank you letter.

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The Fiscal Times

Social Securitys annual cost of living adjustment for 2023 will be the highest in four decades, according to projections from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. While benefits this year were boosted by 5.9%, the adjustment for next year is projected to be between 7.3% and 10.8%, depending on the path of inflation. The final number is likely to be somewhere in the middle, and could be one of the highest increases ever. Social Security bases its cost of living adjustments on changes
BA workers

Industrial action at British Airways could spread further across the UK as unions consult with more workers over whether to stage strikes over pay.

About 700 mostly check-in staff at Heathrow Airport have already voted to strike over the summer holidays.

But the GMB and Unite unions are also consulting engineers and call centre staff at Gatwick, Glasgow, Manchester and Newcastle on taking action.

BA said it was "fully committed to work together to find a solution".

On Wednesday, hundreds of BA workers backed strike action over a 10% pay cut introduced during the pandemic.

The airline has offered staff a one-off payment, equal to 10% of their salary, but GMB members at Heathrow want the full pay cut reversed.

BA said it had made an "offer of a 10% payment which was accepted by the majority of other colleagues". The BBC understands this includes ground operations, engineering and cabin crew workers, who are also represented by Unite and GMB.

The wider consultation ballot is separate to the Heathrow issue and about wider concerns over pay.

A spokesman for the GMB, said: "Thousands of BA engineers at Heathrow, Gatwick and in Scotland along with call centre staff in Newcastle and Manchester are in the middle of consultative ballot for possible industrial action in a row over pay."

GMB general secretary Gary Smith told BBC Breakfast: "I don't think this is going to stop with customer check-in staff. There are many of our members across the BA business who are sick to death of the cuts within the company.

"They've seen the company being run into the ground over many years, they are very angry about the cynical exploitation of the pandemic by the people at the top of BA and people want to see the pay and conditions restored."

The consultation is being undertaken to gauge turnout as well as what action workers may want to take. It is the stage before a formal ballot would take place over industrial action.

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Holidaymakers and other travellers risk disruption to their journeys if unions for check-in workers at Heathrow and BA are unable to reach an agreement.

Check in at Heathrow

Nearly 1.8 million BA customers are set to fly out from Heathrow during July, according to aviation data firm Cirium, during which school holidays begin across the nation.

Schools in England and Wales break-up on 22 July while summer holidays in Scotland and Northern Ireland begin on 1 July.

The earliest Heathrow workers could go on strike would be from around 7 July. Unions legally have to give a company 14 days notice to prepare for action.

Unions have yet to specify dates for the strike but an announcement is expected early next week.

BA said: "We will of course keep our customers updated about what this means for them as the situation evolves."

The company, which is owned by International Airlines Group, has already cut 10% of its flights between March and October.

Airlines and airports have struggled to cope with a resurgence in demand for travel following the Covid lockdown when the industry cut thousands of jobs as international travel ground to a halt.

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A premature baby was born at a hospital in Massachusetts and died nearly two weeks later in her mothers hands following medical complications.

As Alana Ross and Daniel McCarthy prepared to bury their daughter, Everleigh, who was born in Boston on July 25, 2020, they learned her remains were thrown away with linens from the morgue, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday, June 23, against Brigham and Womens Hospital. The couple had been trying to start a family for two years.

Prior to learning their daughters remains were lost, a nurse had promised and assured Daniel that Baby Everleighs body would be safe for several days in the morgue, according to court documents.

When one hospital worker brought the body wrapped in linens to the morgue, another said you can put it anywhere, the lawsuit states. As a result, Everleighs remains were placed on a metal rack, which was not the appropriate or designated place for the delivery of infant remains to the morgue, and she was mistaken for soiled linens, according to the lawsuit.

Everleighs body has not been found as of Friday, June 24, an attorney representing the couple, Gregory D. Henning, told McClatchy News.

The lawsuit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, has named 14 hospital employees and said Brigham and Womens hospital was aware of problematic conditions in the morgue and failed to realize the babys remains were missing for days and did not protect them.

Dr. Sunil Eappen, the hospitals chief medical officer, said in a statement provided to McClatchy News that we continue to express our deepest sympathies and most sincere apologies to the Ross and McCarthy family for their loss and the heartbreaking circumstances surrounding it.

As with any instance in which there is a concern raised related to our standard of care or practice, we readily and transparently shared the details with the patients family. We always evaluate both system and human factors that contribute to errors or potential issues raised by patients, family members or staff and take action.

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Meanwhile, the lawsuit also said the hospital refused to cooperate with a law enforcement investigation into the disappearance of the babys remains.

The parents have been dealing with the grief and anguish of losing Everleigh ever since August of 2020, Henning told McClatchy News.

In this provided photo is Alana Ross, left, and Daniel McCarthy, right.

Everleighs birth

In June 2018, Ross and McCarthy, who have dated for several years and known each other since they were children, decided they wanted to start a family together, according to the lawsuit. Before Everleighs birth, they experienced two heartbreaking miscarriages.

On Valentines Day in 2020, Ross discovered she was pregnant again and sought care at Brigham and Womens hospital, according to court documents. After overcoming several health and pregnancy-related hurdles, Everleigh was born prematurely with complications in July 2020 and was transported to the newborn intensive care unit.

Roughly five days later, Ross and McCarthy held Everleigh for the first time and read her childrens books, according to the lawsuit.

Eventually, they were told by doctors that treatment options for their babys medical complications were exhausted, the lawsuit states. Then, Everleigh was baptized shortly before she died on Aug. 6, 2020.

After her death, nurses collected Baby Everleighs memory box, which contained pictures, collages and keepsakes, such as her baptism water, and the parents were allowed to say their goodbyes, according to the lawsuit.

On Aug. 10, funeral home representatives arrived at the hospital to pick up Everleighs remains, but the facility never found them, according to her parents.

The search for Everleighs body

The lawsuit points out that while the hospital records patient whereabouts through an electronic bracelet scanning system, there were no procedures in place at (the hospital) to digitally record the delivery of infant remains to the morgue. Instead, a handwritten Morgue Log Book was used.

On Aug. 11, 2020, the Boston Police Department was contacted about Everleighs missing remains and began an investigation, according to the lawsuit.

The next day, officers spent eight hours  digging through blood soaked clothing, feces covered linens and other medical waste at a transfer station searching for Baby Everleigh to no avail, according to court documents.

During the investigation, Boston police said their detectives were given incomplete hospital video footage of the time when the babys remains were placed in the morgue until when it was learned the body was lost, according to a police report.

The lawsuit said the hospital provided untruthful answers to police questions.

In Eappens statement, he declined to comment specifically on this case because of the pending litigation.

Henning told McClatchy News that Ross and McCarthy filed their lawsuit because they want to make sure that this doesnt happen to anybody else and that no other family has to suffer the same grief and trauma that they have suffered and continue to suffer every single day.

They want to find out what happened and to find out how this was able to occur.

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LONDON (Reuters) - Fifteen children have drowned in flash floods that swept through Bangladesh with another 3.5 million urgently needing clean drinking water as the risk of waterborne diseases grows, UNICEF's country representative said on Friday.

"That's a staggering number of children and an increase over the last couple of days. Huge areas are fully underwater and are disconnected from safe drinking water and food supplies. Children need help right now," Sheldon Yett said.

Government and aid agencies have rushed to provide relief including water and other supplies after flash flooding across a quarter of the South Asian nation.

The floods have also disrupted health facilities, shut schools and disrupted malnutrition treatment for hundreds of children, Yett told a briefing in Geneva.

Cases of diarrhoea have risen to 2,700 as of the middle of this week, he added.

Authorities in Bangladesh and neighbouring India have warned of a risk of a disease epidemic. In total, more than 4.5 million people have been stranded and dozens killed in Bangladesh, many in the worst flooding in the Sylhet region in the northeast for more than 100 years.

In the eastern Indian state of Assam, Indian air force helicopters have been deployed to drop food and other supplies to cut-off communities.

(Reporting by Matthias Williams; Editing by Nick Macfie)
The Daily Beast

Fox NewsKari Lake, the Trump-endorsed candidate for Arizona governor, was far from happy on Monday when Fox News anchor Bret Baier asked her about a report that linked her to drag queens.The interview, which was fairly tame on Baiers end, began with Lake falsely claiming that the 2020 election was fraudulent and that President Joe Biden is illegitimate. Baier responded by playing a tape of Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers testifying before the House Jan. 6 committee last week that the ele
By Humeyra Pamuk

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Biden administration is planning to compensate the victims of Havana Syndrome, the anomalous health incidents affecting U.S. diplomats and intelligence officers worldwide, with payments ranging from $100,000 to $200,000, sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

The proposed rule, which is expected to be published in the coming days, comes after the U.S. Congress passed the Havana Act last year that authorizes the State Department, CIA and other U.S. government agencies to provide payments to staff and their families who have been affected by this syndrome during assignment.

About 200 U.S. diplomats, officials and family members overseas are believed to have been struck by the mysterious ailment - with symptoms including migraines, nausea, memory lapses and dizziness.

It was first reported among U.S. officials in Havana, the Cuban capital, in 2016, but throughout the years has been reported around dozens of locations in the world including Russia and China, as well as Europe and Latin America.

Despite years of investigation, the United States government has so far been unable to determine the cause or whether an adversary such as Russia or China is responsible.

A CIA investigation whose conclusions were released earlier this year said the agency had found no evidence of state actor involvement in the some 1,000 cases it has looked into, but said it was continuing to investigate two dozen unexplained cases.

The State Department's draft rule is expected to remain open for comments for 30 days, before becoming a final rule in a process coordinated with the Office of Management and Budget, people familiar with the matter said.

The rule is expected to include the criteria for eligibility, sources said, adding that the exact payment amounts were still being finalised.

The State Department declined to comment on the payments but said the Havana Act requires the agency to publish implementing regulations. "We will have more details to provide on that process soon," a department spokesperson said.

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Sufferers and lawmakers have complained that U.S. agencies have not taken the illness seriously enough.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken in November appointed veteran diplomat Jonathan Moore to lead the agency's task force handling the issue. He vowed to leave "no stone unturned to stop these occurrences as swiftly as possible."

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Leslie Adler)
WASHINGTON  Five-dollar-a-gallon gas isn't a good deal in the United States, but in other parts of the world, it's a bargain.

Drivers in Hong Kong pay over $11 a gallon at the pump. Filling up in Finland costs over $10 a gallon. In Iceland, Norway, Greece, Denmark, the Netherlands, Monaco and the Central African Republic, the price of petrol tops $9 per gallon.

In fact, compared to the rest of the world, the U.S. is in the middle of the pack when it comes to gas prices  even as inflation takes its toll on the American economy. Prices are higher in 93 countries and cheaper in 74 others, according to an analysis by GlobalPetrolPrices.com, which tracks the retail prices of motor fuel across the globe.

That may not be much consolation for President Joe Biden, whose approval ratings have tanked as petrol prices have spiked and inflation has soared. Four in 10 Americans blamed Biden and his policies for higher gas prices in a Quinnipiac University poll in March.

But energy analysts say the rising cost of oil is fueling gas prices across the globe and at home, not Biden or his policies. How can the president of the United States be responsible for $8-a-gallon gas in France?

He has no real effect on world oil prices, said Christopher Knittel, an energy economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

'AMERICANS ARE ANXIOUS': Unrelenting inflation puts pressure on Biden ahead of midterms

Gas prices are near $5 a gallon in the United States, but motorists in 93 other countries are paying even more.

Biden has taken several steps to try to give Americans relief from gas prices, which on Thursday averaged $4.94 a gallon nationwide but stood at over $5 a gallon in more than a dozen states, according to AAA.

Biden has released over 180 million gallons of oil from the nations emergency reserves, called on Congress to suspend the federal gas tax for three months and tried to cajole energy companies into boosting oil production.

On Thursday, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm held an emergency meeting in Washington with executives from seven major oil companies to explore solutions to sky-high gas prices.

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Granholm reiterated Bidens call for them to do more to ensure that their companies are passing savings onto their customers and directed her team to continue working with the companies to pursue solutions to supply and price challenges, her office said in a statement.

In reality, theres not much Biden can do to lower prices at the pump, Knittel said.

Even the things he has already done and has suggested are short-term, marginal impacts on the price of gasoline, he said. Its hard for Americans to see this, but the world market is so big and so vast, its hard for even a big country and an economic powerhouse like ourselves to have a large impact on prices.

RELATED: With gas prices at $5 a gallon, Biden tells oil companies to cut costs for Americans

Oil prices impact the cost of gas across the globe, and the price of crude has surged to over $110 per barrel since Russias invasion of Ukraine in February. Whenever oil prices jump, youll see gas prices in just about every country increase, except for those that actually administratively keep their prices at a predetermined level, Knittel said.

Gas prices can vary widely across the world. But in general, richer countries have higher prices while poorer countries and those that produce and export oil have significantly lower prices, according to GlobalPetrolPrices.com.

Gas prices in the U.S. are driven by the market. But in some countries, oil companies are owned by the state, which provides fuel subsidies to keep gas prices low or prevent price fluctuations. In Venezuela, Iran and Libya, all of which offer fuel subsidies, gas costs less than $1 per gallon.

Any country that sells gas for less than $2 per gallon is subsidizing it, said Neven Valev, owner of GlobalPetrolPrices.

RECORD PROFITS: Oil giants reap record profits as war rages in Ukraine, energy prices soar: Here's how much they made

Dirt-cheap gas prices may be good for consumers but can lead to other problems. In Venezuela, we see how thats gone for them, said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, which tracks the price of fuel. Infrastructure is failing left and right because of a lack of revenue. When you charge vastly under-market rates, its hard to keep up infrastructure.

Taxes are the biggest reason for the wide variation in global gas prices. In the United States, the federal gas tax is 18.4 cents per gallon, and state gas taxes average about 30 cents a gallon. So when a motorist pays $5 per gallon at the tank, roughly 50 cents of that cost is in taxes.

Many other countries impose higher gas taxes. In Hong Kong, which tries to discourage people from driving, the gas tax can run as high as $6 per gallon. European Union countries are required to levy a minimum excise tax of $1.55 per gallon on gas in hopes of steering more people to take mass transit.

Theyre trying to keep cars off the road by disincentivizing people to have a car, De Haan said.

While current gas prices are not Bidens doing, his administration has aggravated matters by villainizing the energy industry and pursuing policies that limited oil production and injected uncertainty into energy markets, De Haan said.

Thats not doing a credit to anyone, he said.

Michael Collins covers the White House. Follow him on Twitter @mcollinsNEWS.

FUEL-EFFICIENCY TIPS: 7 tips to help your fuel tank last longer as gas prices soar: A visual guide

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden feels the heat for higher gas prices. But is he to blame?
The Biden administration has released a plan focused on addressing the countrys maternal health crisis, seeking to push states to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage and expand access to maternal services.

The U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate of any developed nation. Senior administration officials said the blueprint released Friday is aimed at combating that disparity, using various actions developed over 18 months and centered around equity.

The first priority of the White House blueprint encourages states to extend the required postpartum Medicaid coverage from 60 days of coverage to 12 months. An extension, officials said, means 720,000 women would gain coverage.

It would also include expanding access to services like doulas, midwives, lactation rooms and to a free national maternal mental health hotline.

Another priority includes advanced data collection in maternal health risks and outcomes.

As of now, according to the plan, maternal health data collection remains fragmented, making it difficult to know what solutions are needed. With improved data collection, researchers can make improvements to support healthy pregnancies.

The plan also calls for expanding and diversifying the perinatal workforce while strengthening economic and social support for people before, during and after pregnancy.

Providers will receive more robust training from addiction services and learn how to deliver culturally and linguistically appropriate care.

The administration said it wants to also make it easier for people to enroll in federal programs for food, housing, child care and income assistance.

Vice President Harris will travel to Illinois on Friday with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Illinois Reps. Robin Kelly (D) and Lauren Underwood (D), a co-chair of the Black Maternal Health Caucus, to speak more about the plan.

The maternal mortality crisis has been a top priority for Harris since her time in the Senate, with a particular focus on ending health care inequities for Black mothers at a time when Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related issues than white women.

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In 2018, Harris and Rep. Alma Adams (D-N.C.) introduced a congressional resolution recognizing Black Maternal Health Week. Harris has also been heavily involved in the push for the first Momnibus bill, which aims to end the health care inequities Black mothers face.

The presidents proposed budget for 2023, which includes $470 million for improving maternal health care and reducing disparities, comes amid broader uncertainty over womens reproductive rights. The Supreme Courts decision in a case that could overturn Roe v. Wade is expected as early as Friday.

Officials say the president and vice president are dedicated to developing a whole government approach to the issue of reproductive rights and the unprecedented attack on our constitutional rights.

A senior administration official said Harris is committed to ensuring women are protected in terms of their safety, health and well-being.

She fully believes that to ensure women have access to their full reproductive rights that also means women have access to maternal health care, the official said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Before going to Belize in June 2022, I had put off getting my passport for years. Ever since I was a little girl, Id fantasized about traveling abroad. When I went to college, I had plans to study internationally and had all of these expansive ideas about being a political analyst and covering international stories around the world.

None of these things happened. And at 30 years old, I found myself not only without a passport but with zero international trip experiences under my belt. Honestly, the pressures of life had weighed down on me heavily, and getting a passport was the least of my concerns.

So when I was given the opportunity to visit Belize and bring my boyfriend along with me, I was overjoyed. With very little time, I drove to Chicago to secure a same-day passport and hopped on a flight to Belize City the very next day.

My flight to Belize wasnt long at all. Id always expected international flights to be this extreme process lasting five-plus hours and leaving travelers with intense jet lag. In all actuality, the flight only lasted about three hours. When I arrived at the Phillip S.W. Goldson International Airport, I was surprised by what I saw.

Considering this was my first international trip, I had never experienced an airport outside of the United States. So I was blown away when we landed on the runway and descended down the stairs out of the planes backdoor. The airport appeared rundown and outdated. There were smaller planes sitting along the runway and the awning hanging over the airport entrance was tattered and torn. To be honest, I dont think Id seen such a high level of poverty.

As we loaded into the shuttle and drove down the winding highway to the Sleeping Giant Rainforest Lodge, I continued to see dire signs of impoverished locals and a lack of resources. The houses we passed were falling apart and I could catch small glimpses of caved-in rooftops, doors swinging from hinges, and wandering stray dogs through the window as we passed by. All the gas stations we passed were abandoned and we passed a Christian school campus where children were running barefoot in blue and white uniforms. It was humid and hot and people were wiping sweat from their faces with dirty towels as they waited for the public buses.

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Tears welled up in my eyes as I thought about how little the Belizean people seemed to have. I instantly felt privileged and ungrateful for the things I took for granted back home. Knowing we were headed to a fancy, luxury resort, I felt a sense of embarrassment seeing locals live a life lacking not only in luxury but in basic necessities.

Sometimes I can feel emotions too strongly, so I pieced myself back together and relaxed as we drove past Sleeping Giant Mountain and through Belizes capital of Belmopan. My heart was bouncing out of my chest as we approached the resort. It was gated and security had to let us in as we drove past huge trees with gigantic, lush leaves and colorful flowers of every hue. Palm and fiddle leaf fig trees surrounded the lobby entrance and they gave us complimentary mocktails upon arrival. My Belizean adventure had finally begun.

Photo Courtesy of Asad Photo Maldives.

The time I spent at Sleeping Giant was magical. Being surrounded by nature had always been a dream of mine. But I never thought I would be able to see the outdoors from this point of view.

Our riverside suite had an indoor/outdoor vibe and I spent most of my time lounging in the outside day bed on the patio and enjoying the outdoor shower. The water pressure was better outside and there was something special about being naked outside and coming back in completely clean.

I was mystified by the animals walking around the resort. Everywhere you turned there was ducks, turtles, peacocks, and horse strolling around gracefully. They didnt bother you; just walked past as they tended to their babies running around in the grass. One of the most special things about Sleeping Giant was they grew most of their herbs, fruits, and vegetables on that same land. The food served in the Grove House Restaurant literally went from farm to plate, with freshly squeezed juices accompanying every meal.

Although my stay at the rainforest lodge made me want to delve into endless hours of relaxation, I still was excited to see what the property had to offer. I went on a tour of a Mayan Ceremonial Cave that included an hour-long hike through the jungle terrain of Mount Carmel and a multi-hour spelunking excursion. The experience left my body exhausted. I was pouring with sweat and I could feel the fear and anxiety in my chest as I made sure to avoid poisonous plants, spiky tree branches, and giant roots that rose about the earth and tried to trip me with every step.

Despite the overwhelming sense of danger and exhaustion, after the hiking tour, I was filled with a deep sense of strength and accomplishment. I had never done anything so physically tiring and honestly, I didnt think I would make it through. But I did. As we descended out of the jungle trail, I grabbed an orange from the citrus grove as a symbol of my victory.

Sleeping Giant changed me and Ill never be the same. The energy at the resort was life-altering. Id never felt so close to the essence of life: I could feel the jungle breathing all around me. I looked down into the valley from atop a cliff and smiled as the sun set over the mountains. For some reason, everything seemed clearer at Sleeping Giant. I felt Id finally rediscovered my purpose in life as a writer and deep inside of me change was happening.

I cried when as the shuttle drove off and Sleeping Giant began to fade into the horizon. I had never experienced a place like that in my life. Somehow, Id found a home in the jungle. It felt as if that was where I belonged. Although my time in Belize had not yet ended, I grieved as I left the rainforest. And I truly believe I left a piece of myself behind.

Photo Courtesy of Arnie Chou.

From the rainforest, the shuttle drove us two hours away to Jaguar Reef in Hopkins, a beautiful beachside resort near a small village. The ambiance at Jaguar Reef was completely different from Sleeping Giant and I was thankful I was able to experience both sides of Belizean life. Whereas the rainforest was a peaceful vibe full of dense greenery, nostalgic Mayan decor, and riverside views, the beach resort was upbeat and fast-paced with tourists everywhere.

The themes at Jaguar Reef were heavily inspired by the Garifuna people who were the descendants of the Afro-indigenous people from the Caribbean island St. Vincent who was exiled and came to Belize. The Garifuna people had a rich culture and traces of them were evident from the moment I landed in Belize. It was clear these people were darker complexion compared to the Mayan-Mestizos in the country. Honestly, they looked exactly like me and I felt a sense of belonging in their presence.

I honestly feel like we did more excursions at Jaguar Reef than at the rainforest resort. As soon as we arrived, we were able to take a Garifuna cooking class. There was a local Garifuna woman named Ms. El helping the resorts head chef prepare the food. She was a heavy-set woman with a round face and coarse hair. Watching her prepare the food was like watching an artist perfect a portrait as she seasoned and slid the snapper into hot grease and it began to crackle. The dish she prepared for us was hadut, a fish soup paired with coconut rice and smashed plantains. Everything was delicious and I fell in love with how Belize cuisine incorporated fresh herbs and coconuts to create unforgettable flavors.

The next day we would take a cruise down the City River. Suddenly, I felt teleported back to ancient times when the indigenous people of Belize would sail down this same river fishing and gathering water for crops. The water was full of manatees and crocodiles but unfortunately, we only saw one baby croc sitting with his head poking out of the water onto the shore. We spent hours searching the river in the dark of night, shining our flashlights into the evening shade; tapping into our inner Crocodile Hunter as we made our way along the river bank.

The river cruise symbolized the end of our trip. We would be leaving early the next morning to head to the airport but I wasnt done yet with my Belize experience. The next day I woke up at 4 am. I wanted to catch the sunrise over the beach before I left the country. Id always had an affinity for sunrises and I was sure this one would be special.

My boyfriend and I walked barefoot to the beach that morning. The humidity hadnt set in yet and the sea breeze was cool on our faces. We held hands as we made our way to the sand and sat in one of the cabanas. The sun had not yet risen but the sky was covered with clouds. It was hard to see but I was hopeful that we would still see the sunrise.

I took out my planner and began to jot down some affirmations. I am a very spiritual person and I had been moved by my time spent in Belize. I wanted to set my intentions before coming home because I knew I would be returning a different person. I played the acoustic version of Howie Days Collide and as I started to write, tears began to fall from my eyes.

I was not the same. Something had been reawoken in me that I had believed to be dead. All of my doubts, fears, and insecurities about myself seemed to have drifted away into the Caribbean Sea. As I walked along the shoreline reading my affirmations, water beating my feet and seaweed wrapping around my ankles, I was born again.

Photo Courtesy of Brandon Imbriale.

The days I spent in Belize were like a dream I never wanted to wake up from. Riding back to the airport was bittersweet. My time on the beach that morning had solidified my faith in myself and I was ready to get back home to put my new goals and plans into action. However, I still didnt want to leave. I felt like there was more to experience. I felt like Id missed something. I grieved as my vacation came to an end.

The mountains seemed to ride alongside us as we got closer to the airport. Once again we drove past the rundown houses with their caved-in rooftops and hanging doors. We passed the Christian school again with its blue houses. But my feelings about the living conditions of the Belize locals had changed.

Instead of feeling like they were in the depths of poverty, I believed the locals to be very rich. Although my life back in the US was fueled by hustle and bustle, mainly to acquire materialistic goods, it lacked substance and peace. The people in Belize had that; every day they woke up to natures beauty. They were surrounded by it and the rainforest was their backyards. My backyard back home was a QuickTrip gas station. There was literally no comparison. While they may not have had all the material things and technological luxuries, they had a connection to nature that seemed unattainable back home. They were rich in a way that didnt require money at all.

Since returning home from Belize, I have made some major changes. I started waking up earlier to get the most out of my day. I quit smoking cigarettes and just started being more intentional about my life. I felt like I had too many unnecessary things; mountains of unworn clothes and shoes. So I began to minimize my life. I realized my purpose in life is to be a travel writer and explore the world and write about the incredible things I see.

Although this was my first international trip, it will not be my last. Visiting Belize made me realize how much more the world has to offer. Sometimes, it is easy to get caught up in the rat race of life. As Americans, we are always on the go, and relaxation is not only put on the back burner but sometimes frowned upon. My trip changed my perspective getting peace of mind and opened my eyes to how vast and expansive the earth is. While my time in Belize is behind me, it will always be at the forefront of my memory as the moment I woke up and finally was able to see myself in a clear view.
State Rep. Nicole Collier discussed the need for stronger mentorship of Black business owners and the power of one dollar in consumer spending during a speech Friday at the Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerces 41st annual luncheon.

One of the goals of the Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce, as I see it, is to address the new challenges facing Black business owners, said Collier, a Democrat from Fort Worth. The state of Texas has a rich history of Black-owned startups, but these business owners have not had the same opportunities for prosperity as other groups of business owners.

Collier highlighted the systemic inequalities that Black-owned businesses face today while celebrating the new potential Tarrant County faces with the Southeast Connector Project.

The Texas Department of Transportations expansion of Interstate 20 and I-820 is the largest project in the state. With $2 billion flowing into House District 95, Black-owned businesses have an opportunity to grow, Collier said.

Im not looking for out-of-state Black-owned businesses, Collier said. I want Texas Black-owned businesses to benefit. And thats why we have a space here at the chamber. In this community, we can work together with our city, our county, our schools. We all work together to make sure that we are creating spaces to grow our Black businesses.

The chamber recognized several key players in Fort Worths business ecosystem. The Partnership Award was given to Anette Landeros, president and CEO of the Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and Bob James, CEO of Visit Fort Worth.

Monica Bailey Jackson, owner and founder of LeVis Consulting Group, LLC, received the Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award alongside Community Frontline President and Co-Founder Dante Williams. Tarrant County Commissioner Roy C. Brooks and Texas Amron owner Norma Roby received the Presidents Award. Former Fort Worth Star-Telegram editor and columnist Bob Ray Sanders received the Dedicated Service Award.

The luncheon honored the legacy of late chamber president Devoyd Jennings, who dedicated his life to supporting and growing Black-owned businesses in Fort Worth. His influence on the city was praised by current chamber president Michelle Green-Ford, Mayor Mattie Parker, friends and colleagues. The chamber recognized Jennings family, who continues his legacy with support of the chamber.

As iron sharpens iron, we have to sharpen each other, Collier said. Its going to take communication, collaboration, and community for all of us to thrive. So, remember, once you get your piece of the pie, help someone else cut their own slice.
Photograph: Nelson Almeida/AFP/Getty Images

Scores of protesters have congregated outside the offices of Brazils Indigenous protection agency, Funai, in the riverside town of Atalaia do Norte, renewing calls for justice over the murders of journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira.

Demonstrators  mostly Indigenous people from the Javari Valley  held orange and yellow banners, which read: Protection for our Amazon forest, Amazon resist! Who ordered the killing? and Bolsonaro out!, amid growing fears that the criminal investigation into the murders was slowing.

Related: We all demand justice: the unsolved murder of the man Bruno Pereira mentored

In my land the white man comes to impose fear. But we will not be afraid of the white man, said Waki Mayuruna, an Indigenous leader and member of the Univaja collective. We will keep defending our land. Its not just today, this fight for our land is from long ago. We fight until the last Indian is alive.

Many carried large banners and wore T-shirts bearing Phillips and Peireras faces alongside a picture of Maxciel Pereira dos Santos, the Funai agent who was shot dead in the nearby town of Tabatinga in 2019. Justice for Dom and Bruno and Max, said one sign.

Three men are currently in custody over the murder, but state police said on Sunday they were preparing to arrest five other suspects connected to the killing. The five men, investigators told the Guardian, were believed to have assisted the suspected murderers a day after the shooting by moving and burying remains.

But, as of Wednesday evening, no arrests had been made. The Atalaia do Norte police chief, Alex Perez, said that investigators had yet to recover the suspected murder weapon used to shoot the two men, believed to be a shotgun usually used for hunting.

The gunman is said to have dumped it somewhere in the Itaquai river, where the murder took place, but state police currently have no divers to support the investigation.

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On Thursday, forensic investigators from the federal police were examining two boats, one belonging to Pereira and the other to Jefferson da Silva Lima, known as Pelado, the suspected gunman. The illegal fisherman is said to have confessed to killing the men and leading investigators to where their remains had been buried.

The visit revealed how the suspected murderers boat was much smaller and had a substantially more powerful engine, supporting the polices theory that Phillips and Peirera were ambushed from behind.

Happening NOW: Over 100 Indigenous protestors are on the street of Atalaia do Norte, calling for justice and demanding police investigate who ordered the murders of Bruno & Dom pic.twitter.com/TCoASg88YL  Oliver Laughland (@oliverlaughland) June 23, 2022

Investigators are understood to have found a shotgun pellet hole on the steering wheel of Pereiras boat.

State police also confirmed reports that investigators believe Pereira, who legally carried a firearm, had fired back at the attackers, but had already been fatally wounded at that point.

Related: How the final journey of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira ended in tragedy

Pereira and Phillips were murdered in the Javari Valley, an increasingly dangerous, remote part of the Amazon rainforest. A combination of drug trafficking, illegal fishing, mining and logging has proliferated in the area under Brazils President Jair Bolsonaro.

The far-right leader has cut back government presence in the region, with Funai and other government environment agencies stymied by budget cuts and personnel changes.

Indigenous leaders and security experts have argued the murders are directly linked to organized crime in the area. But Bolsonaro and local investigators have said the killings occurred due to a personal dispute with Pereira.

Phillips, a renowned reporter who covered the region in depth, was a frequent contributor to the Guardian. Pereira a former senior administrator at Funai had been working in consultation with local Indigenous groups to bolster protections guaranteed under the Brazilian constitution.

The Javari Valley region, an area the size of Portugal, is home to one of the largest concentrations of uncontacted Indigenous communities in the world.
The House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection said on Thursday that Donald Trump heaped immense pressure on top leaders at the justice department, engaging in a power play to win at all costs that nearly succeeded in overturning the will of the American people.

Testifying at the committees fifth and final hearing of the month, three former justice department officials, recounted a dramatic Oval Office confrontation three days before the assault on the Capitol in which Trump contemplated replacing the agencys acting head with an completely incompetent lower-level official who embraced his stolen election myth. Trump only relented, they said, when he was warned that there would be mass resignations at the department if he followed through with the plan.

Related: Barr feared Trump might not have left office had DoJ not debunked fraud claims

For the department to insert itself into the political process this way, I think, would have had grave consequences for the country, said Richard Donoghue, the former acting deputy attorney general, to the committee on Capitol Hill. It may very well have spiraled us into a constitutional crisis and I wanted to make sure that he understood the gravity of the situation.

That 3 January meeting was the culmination of a weeks-long pressure campaign by the president in which he attempted to strong-arm the justice department into declaring the election corrupt.

An exhibit displayed during the January 6 hearing shows the Oval Office meeting on 3 January with Donald Trump. Photograph: AP

In a breach of longstanding guidelines meant to guard the agencys independence, Jeffrey Rosen, the former acting attorney general told the committee Trump contacted him virtually every day to complain that he had not done enough to investigate voter fraud in the election.

Opening the hearing, the panels chair, Congressman Bennie Thompson, said Trump knew that the allegations of voter fraud were false, but nevertheless pressured the department to declare the election results tainted. After exhausting his legal options and being rebuffed by state and local elections officials, the panel said a desperate Trump turned to the justice department to falsely declare the election corrupt.

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Donald Trump didnt just want the justice department to investigate, Thompson said. He wanted the justice department to help legitimize his lies, to basically call the election corrupt.

In one of the near-daily conversations Trump had with the agencys leader, Rosen told the president that the Department of Justice cant and wont snap his fingers and change the outcome of an election.

I dont expect you to do that, Trump snapped back, according to Donoghue, whose handwritten notes of the exchange were displayed on a large screen during the hearing. Just say that the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the [Republican] Congressmen.

At the center of Thursdays hearing was Jeff Clark, a department official who embraced Trumps myth of a stolen election. At the urging of Republican congressman Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Trump contemplated replacing Rosen with Clark, an environmental lawyer by trade.

What was his only qualification? Congressman Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican and member of the committee who led the questioning, asked rhetorically. He would do whatever the president wanted him to do, including overthrowing a free and fair democratic election.

Clarks audacious effort to bend the department to Trumps will included a draft letter addressed to state officials in Georgia falsely asserting that the department had evidence of voter fraud and suggesting the state withdraw its certification of Bidens victory in the state. He sent the letter to Rosen and Donoghue for their signature.

Steven Engel, left, Jeff Rosen and Richard Donoghue testify during the Thursdays hearing. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/AFP/Getty Images

Donoghue said the letter was so extreme and baseless he had to read it twice to grasp the gravity of what was being suggested. Both he and Rosen refused to sign it.

In a videotaped deposition, Eric Herschmann, a lawyer in the White House counsels office, said Clarks plan to subvert the 2020 election was asinine. Using expletives, he said he told Clark: Congratulations, you just admitted your first step or act youd take as attorney general would be committing a felony.

Tensions erupted on 3 January, when Clark told Rosen that Trump intended to replace him as the head of the department. White House call logs from that afternoon showed that the White House staff was already referring to Clark as the acting attorney general, the committee showed.

Rosen, refusing to be fired by a subordinate, demanded a White House meeting. That night, Rosen, Donoghue and Steven Engel, the former assistant attorney general for the office of legal counsel, who also testified on Thursday, gathered in the Oval Office with Trump and top White House lawyers for a tense, hours-long meeting.

Donoghue said Trump appeared ready to follow through with the plan to replace Rosen with someone who promised fealty. What have I got to lose? Donoghue recalled Trump saying. A lot, he replied. He and Engel walked Trump through the implications of such a dramatic shift, warning him that there would be mass resignations among senior officials. Donoghue said Engel told the president Clark would be leading a graveyard.

It was very strongly worded to the president that that would happen, Donoghue said.

Their warnings were ultimately persuasive and Trump relented. Before they left, Donoghue said Trump asked him what would happen to Clark. He explained that only Trump could fire him. Trump replied that he wouldnt.

The panel also revealed that several of Trumps allies in Congress had requested pardons from the president in the days after the deadly assault on the Capitol. It displayed an email from Congressman Mo Brooks in which the Alabama Republican asked the White House to consider a presidential pardon for himself and other congressional allies.

In testimony, Trump aides said the Republican congressmen Scott Perry of Pennsylvania; Matt Gaetz of Florida; Louie Gohmert of Texas and Andy Biggs of Arizona all requested pre-emptive pardons. All voted against certifying the results of the election in the hours after the riot.

The only reason I know to ask for a pardon is because you think youve committed a crime, Kinzinger said.

Emails from Mo Brooks discussing a presidential pardon are displayed during the fifth hearing. Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images

The panel voted unanimously to hold Clark in contempt of Congress after he failed to cooperate with its investigation. He later appeared before the committee but Kinzinger said he asserted his fifth amendment right against self-incrimination more than 125 times.

Just before the hearing began, it was revealed that federal investigators searched Clarks home earlier this week, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly.

In new testimony from the committees taped deposition with Bill Barr, the former attorney general, said he thought it was important for the department to investigate  and ultimately disprove  Trumps false claims of voter fraud. Had it not, Barr said he shuddered to think what might have happened. Im not sure we would have had a transition at all.

The officials testimony on Thursday bolstered Barrs conclusion that the presidents claims of election fraud were bullshit. Among the outlandish claims Trump latched on to was a purported plot involving an Italian defense contractor who purportedly conspired with US intelligence to manipulate the vote count. In an email to Rosen, Donoghue called the conspiracy pure insanity.

The committee is building the case that Trump was at the heart of the sprawling conspiracy that led to the violence on January 6  a lie that has only metastasized in the months since a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol with pipes, bear spray and Confederate flags. Nine people died in the assault and its aftermath.

Related: Republicans who aided coup attempt sought blanket presidential pardons

The committee said it would resume public hearings in July as part of its efforts to reveal in serial fashion what Thompson described as the inner workings of what essentially was a political coup.

Future sessions are expected to detail how extremist groups like the Proud Boys planned the attack on Congress and how Trump failed to act to stop the violence once it erupted on 6 January.

Concluding Thursdays hearing, Kinzinger, one of Trumps few Republican critics who is retiring at the end of his term, said Trump was willing to sacrifice our republic to prolong his presidency. He came close, Kinzinger said, but ultimately failed thanks to the good people who put their oath of office first.

But, he warned: Im still worried that not enough has changed to prevent this from happening again.
Boston's Patrice Bergeron is expected to re-sign with the Bruins on a 1-year deal.

Boston Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron will return for the 2022-23 season likely on a one-year deal, according to multiple sources.

The 36-year-old forward just completed an eight-year deal worth $55 million. After the Bruins lost to the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, Bergeron said he would take some time to decide his future.

Its likely it will be an incentive-laden contract similar to what the Bruins agreed upon with former Bruins captain Zdeno Chara. Bergeron earned $6.875 million last season, so its likely hell earn a similar base salary, including incentives.

Team president Cam Neely was asked about Bergerons future at the end of the season.

He understands that we have decisions to make coming up here. So, with him in the lineup is different than without him, Neely said. Obviously, the year that he had, I hope he feels good about his game still, because he had a pretty damn good year. So hopefully hes mentally prepared to have another one. Youve got to give him some time to digest all that and talk with his family about it. But we have decisions to make coming up as well.

Bergeron recently won his record-breaking fifth Selke Trophy as the NHLs best defensive forward. In 73 games this past season he scored 25 goals and 40 assists for 65 points. Known as one of the best centers of his generation, Bergeron led the NHL with 991 faceoff wins in 2021-22.

During his year-end press availability Bergeron explained he had surgery to repair a tendon in his left elbow soon after the season ended. He said it wouldnt impact his decision whether or not to return.

Some believe former Bruins forward David Krejci, who played last season in Czech Republic, could return to Boston this season if Bergeron decided to stay. Bruins GM Don Sweeney admitted recently that he has had discussions with Krejcis representatives and believes the two sides will talk again soon.

The Bruins are currently interviewing candidates for the vacant coaching job. Jim Montgomery, Jay Leach, Joe Sacco, Spencer Carbery and David Quinn are all in the mix.

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Bergeron is a future Hall of Famer and his No. 37 will one day hang from the rafters at TD Garden, but it appears those plans are on hold for the near future.

Contact Joe McDonald at JMcDonald2@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoeyMacHockey.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Captain Patrice Bergeron expected to re-sign with Boston Bruins on 1-year deal
Flags from countries around the world are displayed during a World Refugee Day celebration.

"Whoever. Wherever. Whenever. Everyone has the right to seek safety."

That's the 2022 theme of World Refugee Day, which is celebrated around the world on June 20 each year but is being marked with a special event Saturday in Columbia sponsored by Catholic Charities of Central & Northern Missouri and City of Refuge.

The organizations will host a joint city-wide celebration at the Columbia Cosmopolitan Recreation Area  also known as Cosmo Park  located at 1615 Business Loop 70 W. from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Saturday in recognition of the international day designated by the United Nations to honor refugees globally.

The event was planned for Saturday instead of the recognized day itself to involve as many community members as possible, the groups announced in a news release.

More: How people in Columbia can help displaced Ukrainian refugees

We are thrilled to celebrate our refugee friends, said Debbie Beal, executive director for City of Refuge. Our community is full of wonderful partners who invest in the lives of our new neighbors, year in and year out. This day has always been one that we greatly anticipate on the calendar, as it is an opportunity to highlight and share the diversity of cultures we love to interact with on a daily basis."

City of Refuge is a non-profit organization in Columbia that helps refugees "recover and regain control of their lives," per its mission statement. CCCNMO is an entity of the Diocese of Jefferson City and serves as the local resettlement agency for mid-Missouri.

The event will include catered food and food trucks, bounce houses, face painting and henna booths, among other family-friendly activities. There will also be cultural music and dance performances as well as resource booths.

More: Congolese refugee shares her culture with Columbia in new guest chef program

There will be over a dozen booths, each hosted by community partners in the areas of health care, transportation, family development, food security and education.

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Were excited to feature many community agencies and providers that help make our area a great place to grow, individually and collectively, said Valerie Berta, event organizer and community engagement coordinator for CCCNMO.

The strength and resilience of refugees deserves celebration, said Dan Lester, executive director of CCCNMO.

Upward of 500 people are expected at the celebration, with the groups coming together after having hosted separate World Refugee Day events in the past.

We hope for a great turnout this at the World Refugee Day celebration that promises to be the biggest and best yet," Lester said.

The goal is to raise awareness of refugees, shift the narrative and break down barriers "to become a visual representation of a community interwoven," said Lacy Stroessner, community sponsorship coordinator for CCCNMO.

Its a sobering fact that there are over 84 million refugees worldwide  a number we cant even really understand  but we can celebrate the newcomers who have resettled and made a new home in mid-Missouri, honoring their courage, listening to their stories, and welcoming them with open arms," Stroessner said.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: City of Refuge, Catholic Charities hold World Refugee Day celebration
By Ayenat Mersie and Clement Uwiringiyimana

KIGALI (Reuters) -Britain's Prince Charles expressed deep sorrow over slavery in a speech to Commonwealth leaders in Rwanda on Friday and acknowledged that the roots of the organisation lay in a painful period of history.

The Commonwealth, a club of 54 countries that evolved from the British Empire, encompasses about a third of humanity and presents itself as a network of equal partners, but some member states have been calling for a reckoning with the colonial past.

"I want to acknowledge that the roots of our contemporary association run deep into the most painful period of our history," Charles told assembled Commonwealth leaders at the opening ceremony of a two-day summit in Kigali.

"I cannot describe the depths of my personal sorrow at the suffering of so many as I continue to deepen my own understanding of slavery's enduring impact."

Britain and other European nations enslaved more than 10 million Africans between the 15th and 19th centuries and transported them across the Atlantic to toil on plantations in the Caribbean and the Americas. Many died on the way.

Commonwealth members include West African nations such as Nigeria and Ghana, where slaves were captured, and 12 Caribbean nations where they spent the rest of their lives.

The Commonwealth has not previously grappled publicly with the legacy of slavery. Some Caribbean ministers have called for it to be discussed, including the issue of reparations, which Charles did not mention.

"If we are to forge a common future that benefits all our citizens, we too must find new ways to acknowledge our past. Quite simply, this is a conversation whose time has come," Charles said.

Several delegates said Charles' remarks were a welcome acknowledgement of past suffering, but added that the focus should be on the future.

"We are not here to get into the dark history. We want to see how we move forward," said Liberata Mulamula, foreign minister of Tanzania.

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NEW ENTRANTS

Rwandan President Paul Kagame, whose country joined the Commonwealth in 2009, offered a different perspective in his own address to the assembled leaders, before Charles spoke.

"The fact of holding this meeting in Rwanda, a new member with no historical connection to the British Empire, expresses our choice to continue reimagining the Commonwealth for a changing world," he said.

The summit will consider applications by former French colonies Togo and Gabon to join the Commonwealth, a sign of disenchantment within France's sphere of influence in Africa and of the attractions of an English-speaking club.

The summit is being attended by 29 heads of state and government. The other 25 member states, including South Africa, India, Pakistan, Australia and New Zealand, sent delegations led by ministers or diplomats.

Member states voted to keep Patricia Scotland as secretary-general after some countries including Britain tried to replace her with Kamina Johnson Smith, the Jamaican foreign minister. Scotland, who has weathered multiple scandals since taking office in 2016, will serve another two years.

(Writing by Estelle Shirbon, Editing by William Maclean, Gareth Jones, Alex Richardson and Nick Macfie)
Prince Charles told Commonwealth leaders Friday that the choice to become a republic or abandon the queen as head of state was theirs alone, and expressed "personal sorrow" at Britain's legacy of slavery.

The British heir to the throne addressed the opening of a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Rwanda as the host nation faced scrutiny over its rights record and a much-criticised migrant deal with the UK.

Charles is representing Queen Elizabeth II as the 54-nation grouping of mostly former British colonies grapples with questions over its future relevance and modern profile.

Republican movements are taking root in a number of Commonwealth nations and some are seeking reparations for colonial-era injustices like slavery.

Charles acknowledged the change underfoot and said the Commonwealth -- which represents one-third of humanity -- would always be "a free association of independent, self-governing nations".

"The Commonwealth contains within it countries that have had constitutional relationships with my family, some that continue to do so, and increasingly those that have had none," he told an audience of presidents and prime ministers.

"I want to say clearly, as I have said before, that each member's constitutional arrangement, as republic or monarchy, is purely a matter for each member country to decide."

He also acknowledged that the roots of the Commonwealth -- which includes as members nations from Europe to Africa, Asia and the Americas -- "run deep into the most painful period of our history".

"I cannot describe the depths of my personal sorrow at the suffering of so many, as I continue to deepen my own understanding of slavery's enduring impact," he said.

- Migrant row -

Charles earlier Friday met British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has been defending his controversial deal to expel migrants from the UK thousands of miles away to Rwanda.

The scheme, which has stalled in the face of legal challenges, has been fiercely opposed by the UN, church leaders, rights groups and -- reportedly -- Charles himself.

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"What I will say is as people come to Rwanda, like you have today, there are a lot of prejudices about Rwanda need to be blown away," Johnson told British media in Kigali.

He has also heaped praise on President Paul Kagame for the "leaps and bounds" achieved in Rwanda, despite widespread concerns over a lack of political freedom and civil liberties in the tiny African nation.

Rights groups have openly questioned the suitability of Rwanda hosting the Commonwealth, which has a charter that enshrines respect for democracy and human rights as core shared values.

More than 20 rights groups and civil society organisations issued an open letter before the summit saying a "climate of fear" exists under Kagame, whose party came to power after the horrors of the 1994 genocide.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has also called on Britain to condemn Rwanda over its alleged "aggression" in the mineral-rich eastern Congo, where Kigali has been accused of stoking a rebellion.

Johnson himself is facing a political crisis back home after his Conservatives suffered a crushing defeat in parliamentary by-elections.

- Direction and purpose -

The Commonwealth's closed-door summit meetings are missing some heavyweights, including Narendra Modi of India, South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa and Australia's Anthony Albanese who sent envoys in their place.

The body has come under scrutiny over its relevance but supporters say the expansion of membership to nations with no historic ties to Britain underscores its value and prestige.

The two newest members are Mozambique and host Rwanda. West African states Togo and Gabon are expected to join the club at this summit.

"More nations are seeking to join, which shows you everything you need to know about the health and vitality of our Commonwealth," said Johnson.

Friday will also bring to a head a tussle for the leadership of the Commonwealth that has turned ugly at times.

Jamaica's Foreign Minister Kamina Johnson Smith is challenging Patricia Scotland for the post as secretary-general, despite Commonwealth convention dictating the incumbent should stand unopposed for a second term.

Johnson Smith has the backing of the UK, which has publicly expressed dissatisfaction with Scotland's stewardship of the organisation.

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Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas' opinion in the overturning of Roe v. Wade suggests other landmark rulings  including those that protect contraception, same-sex relationships, and same-sex marriage  could be in peril.

Clarence Thomas writes, in a concurring opinion excerpted on Twitter, that the Supreme Court should reconsider Griswold v. Connecticut, Lawrence V. Texas, and Obergefell v. Hodge  the rulings that currently protect the right to buy and use contraceptives without government restriction, the right to a same-sex relationship, and the right to same-sex marriage.

From Thomas' concurring opinion: "... in future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court's substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell. Because any substantive due process decision is 'demonstrably erroneous,' ... we have a duty to 'correct the error' established in those precedents..."

Jim Obergefell, one of the plaintiffs in the historic Obergefell v. Hodge case, said in a statement sent to PEOPLE that Thomas is "not the Supreme Deity."

"Clarence Thomas is a Supreme Court justice appointed by humans, he is not the Supreme Deity. The millions of loving couples who have the right to marriage equality to form their own families do not need Clarence Thomas imposing his individual twisted morality upon them. If you want to see an error in judgment, Clarence Thomas, look in the mirror."

Clarence Thomas

ERIN SCHAFF/POOL/AFP via Getty Images Clarence Thomas

Following a leaked draft opinion overturning Roe, lawmakers have hypothesized about the possibly of the court overturning other landmark rulings.

At a May fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee in Chicago, President Joe Biden said of the leaked opinion: "It's not just the brutality of taking away a woman's right to her body ... but it also, if you read the opinion ... basically says there's no such thing as the right to privacy."

Biden continued: "If that holds ... mark my words: They are going to go after the Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage."

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RELATED: President Biden Says Same-Sex Marriage, Other Rights at Risk If SCOTUS Overturns Roe: 'Mark My Words'

The decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was officially announced Friday, a month after a 98-page opinion obtained by Politico  allegedly authored by Justice Samuel Alito and leaked to the press in a major breach of confidentiality  stated that "Roe was egregiously wrong from the start," and that "we [the Supreme Court majority] hold that Roe and Casey [another ruling on the right to abortion from 1992 which upheld the previous court decision] must be overruled."

For more on the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, listen below to our daily podcast PEOPLE Every Day.

The draft document, labeled as the "Opinion of the Court," also said, "It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people's elected representatives."

The process of overturning Roe v. Wade began when Mississippi's ban on abortions after 15 weeks was struck down by a federal court. The state then asked the Supreme Court to either overturn Roe v. Wade or allow states to pass pre-viability abortion bans. Oral arguments were heard in December.

RELATED: With Roe vs. Wade in Danger, These True Stories from Women About Their Abortions Are More Powerful Than Ever

Twelve states in the country, including Mississippi and Texas, have "trigger" laws in place that go into effect once Roe is overturned. More states are likely to follow suit, as Elizabeth Nash, state policy analyst at the Guttmacher Institute, a research group focused on abortion rights, told PEOPLE earlier.

"And that would make it very hard for a large percentage of women in the country to access abortion care in their own state. It means a lot more people would have to travel for care," Nash said. "And the people who are most impacted by these abortion restrictions and bans are people of color, low-income individuals, young people and LGBTQ individuals  people who are already burdened with insufficient access to healthcare."

There are efforts to maintain the right to abortion in other states such as New York, Hawaii, California and Washington, which have statutory protections for abortion rights in their laws.
KINSHASA (Reuters) - A court in Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday acquitted President Felix Tshisekedi's former chief of staff of embezzlement, his lawyer said, overturning the most high-profile public corruption conviction in Congolese history.

Vital Kamerhe was convicted in 2020 of embezzling $48 million earmarked for social housing and sentenced to 20 years. That was later reduced on appeal to 13 years before Kamerhe was granted provisional release in December pending further appeals.

Transparency groups hailed the original verdict as a landmark in a country that loses billions of dollars a year to public corruption, according to government estimates, but some legal experts raised concerns about deficiencies in the prosecution's evidence.

"He has just been acquitted for lack of proof," Kamerhe's lawyer, Hugues Pulusi, told Reuters. Kamerhe's aide Michel Moto also confirmed the acquittal by the Appeals Court of Kinshasa-Gombe after Kamerhe appealed against his conviction.

Kamerhe, a veteran power broker who finished third in the 2011 presidential election, backed Tshisekedi in his successful 2018 campaign in return for Tshisekedis support the next time around in 2023.

His acquittal opens the door for him to run in 2023, although Tshisekedi is widely expected to stand himself for re-election.

The prosecutor has the option to appeal against the acquittal.

(Reporting by Stanis Bujakera; Writing by Aaron Ross; Editing by Alison Williams)
WASHINGTON  Congress appears poised to save five littoral combat ships from an early retirement, but the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee says the effort to ditch the ships is not yet over.

Three separate congressional committees have approved defense budget plans that would block the Navy from scrapping five vessels from the problem-plagued ship class. Still, HASC Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., said he plans to offer an amendment on the House floor later this summer so the full House can have their say on whether or not it is a wise place to spend money.

Please let us focus on quality, not just quantity, as we make these decisions going forward, Smith said Wednesday at his panels markup of its draft 2023 national defense authorization act.

The debate will likely split Democrats, pitting naval advocates who worry the Navys fleet is shrinking too much against critics who say the defense budget is growing too large. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have rejected Navy budget plans to decommission 24 ships, 16 of them ahead of schedule.

On Wednesday, the HASC markup saw a bipartisan 42-17 vote on an amendment to add $37 billion to President Joe Bidens $773 billion Pentagon budget request, but not before Democrats argued on both sides of the LCS retirement debate. Smith voted against the amendment  which protected the five LCSs in addition to adding new ships, planes and more  which was proposed by Democratic Reps. Jared Golden, of Maine, and Elaine Luria, of Virginia.

No consensus yet on military spending for next year, except for more of it

Navy officials have said they couldnt find room for the LCSs in their budget  which prioritizes readiness for a high-end fight in the Indo-Pacific  despite $4 billion in sunk costs. On Wednesday, lawmakers who would allow the Navy to decommission these ships pointed to numerous breakdowns among ships in the class, problems with their combining gear and their $59 million annual maintenance cost.

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Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., displayed a floor chart titled Leaking Cracked Ships that contained a picture of each LCS with a lemon, playing on the slang for a defective vehicle.

We all know what lemon cars are. We have a fleet of lemon LCS ships, she said. We have spent billions of dollars on this fleet when they have no capability to help us deal with our largest threat, which is that of China and Russia. The only winners have been the contractors on which the Navy relies for sustaining these ships.

Smith said Congress must be more thoughtful about limiting defense spending levels.

Ive heard a lot of people saying recently, Quantity has a quality all its own. And I just want to be clear: No, it doesnt. Thats one of the dumbest damn things Ive ever heard, he said.

But those who want to keep the ships say the Navy can free up more capable ships to operate in the contested South China Sea by using LCSs for counter-trafficking missions in Latin America or Africa, presence missions in Europe, and mine-hunting missions in the Mideast. The Navy had proposed decommissioning nine LCSs, and if five are spared from this fate, lawmakers want to sell the remaining four to an ally or partner who could train and operate alongside the U.S. Navy.

Earlier in the week, the House Seapower subcommittees top Republican, Rep. Rob Wittman of Virginia, said the Navy is on the wrong side of what he called the ships built versus the ships retired ratio at a time when the Navy fleet is set to shrink by 18 ships in the next five years.

Shrinking the Navy sends absolutely the wrong message. Were not opposed to retiring legacy ships; what we are opposed to is a plan to replace that capacity [with new ships later] that potentially never comes to fruition, Wittman said.

The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved its draft FY23 defense spending bill, which also protects five LCSs from retirement. The chair of the committees defense panel, Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., stopped short of backing a Republican amendment to protect all nine, but the bill directs the Navy to report on alternate uses for the ships by U.S. Southern Command and U.S. Africa Command and the feasibility of transferring them to a partner navy.

These ships have functionality to them, McCollum said during the committees markup. The first round of conversations I had with the Navy were unsatisfactory, and they are coming around to the seriousness of making sure the taxpayers dollars are, at a minimum, repurposed in a way that helps with our national security.

Before the Navy could transfer the ships, it would have to fix a faulty combining gear on these Freedom-variant LCSs. The service and industry have already designed and approved a fix, but face limited shipyard capacity to install the new combining gear system, meaning it could take years before all LCSs have the new system installed.

Navy effort to cancel LCS mission package triggers new cost breach

Kyiv turned down the LCS when lawmakers explored sending them to strengthen the depleted Ukrainian navy against Russias ongoing invasion, House Seapower Subcommittee Chairman Joe Courtney, D-Conn., told Defense News on Wednesday.

Ukraines defense attache told lawmakers Ukraines military would prefer more vessels like the two refitted former U.S. Coast Guard Island-class patrol boats it received in November, according to Courtney.

The LCS, though among the smallest combatants in the U.S. fleet, is significantly larger than the Island-class boats, and it would require some time for Ukrainian forces to be trained to operate them.

Asked whether the U.S. might offer the LCS to Taiwan  as it has other weapons to deter a potential seaborne invasion by the Chinese military  Courtney said the Philippine navy, which operates former U.S. Coast Guard cutters, might be a candidate.

The Philippine navy is riding around in Coast Guard cutters that are ancient so I would think theres an attractive case there, Courtney said. We have to fix the combining gear, or that would really be violating the lemon law. There is a fix, and its about $8 million.

Bryant Harris and Leo Shane III contributed to this report.


In April, a 6-year-old Connecticut boy suffered third-degree burns after playing with a ball doused in gasoline and set on fire  apparently an idea popularized by TikTok, a social media app.

Dominick Krankall's mother attributed the incident to the bullying tactics of his 8-year-old neighbor, Stephano Giacobbe, but Stephano's mother, Laura Giacobbe, denies Kranall's claims.

Laura Giacobbe told Fox News Digital that she asked Maria Rua, Domnick's mother, to watch over their children at Giacobbe's Bridgeport home for a couple hours while she ran errands on April 24  the day Dominick caught fire.

CONNECTICUT BOY BURNED AFTER BEING HIT WITH TENNIS BALL DOUSED IN GASOLINE, LIT ON FIRE: FAMILY

"You neglected to be out there to see what these kids were doing, and you didn't watch them," Giacobbe, a mother of eight, said of Rua, a mother of seven. "So it's not what Dominick said.  You neglected these kids."

She continued: "I'm not going to continue to use or slander my son and let this 8-year-old child be put all over the world as a bully. It's not going to happen. Enough is enough, Maria. Enough is enough."

Giacobbe's sons and Dominick were apparently playing outside under Rua's watch when they lit the ball on fire  an idea they got from TikTok, Giacobbe explained.

CONNECTICUT FAMILY HOSTS PARADE FOR 6-YEAR-OLD WHO WAS BURNED IN ALLEGED BULLYING INCIDENT

"The TikTok trend shows a soccer ball on fire being kicked around," she said.

Security footage from her backyard shows the boys kicking the flaming ball around.

The kids eventually go back inside, and less than an hour later, they return to the backyard and continue to kick around an ignited ball, at which point Dominick catches fire. Giacobbe's 11-year-old son can be seen trying to quash the flames on Dominick's face.

Dominick sustained severe third-degree burns and was transported to a nearby hospital, where he was treated and eventually released.

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Dominick's family, however, says the 6-year-old was intentionally set on fire.

BUS DRIVER FROM CONNECTICUT CHARGED WITH RECKLESS ENDANGERMENT AFTER ACCIDENTALLY EATING THC

"[H]e came back around the corner on fire screaming, 'Mommy, they lit me on fire, they lit me on fire,'" Dominicks sister, Kayla Deegan, told Fox 5. "This has happened multiple times with this kid bullying my little brother."

An online fundraiser for the boy titled "Justice for Dominick STOP BULLYING!" hoping to raise $50,000 for medical bills, has reached nearly $600,000 in donations.

"I want her arrested," Giacobbe said of Rua, who did not immediately respond to an inquiry from Fox News Digital.

A June 11 update on the Krankall family's GoFundMe states that the backyard security footage does not show "how it happens."

"You just see Dominick on fire," the updates states. " Now, we have people coming at us, calling my family liars and scammers. We are more than happy to give refunds to anyone who believes this. I understand if you do. I already spoke with the GoFundMe team about this. If your child, told you this story moments after it happened, you wouldnt believe him/her? Even a month and a half later the story has never changed! Not a single detail!"

CONNECTICUT POLICE MAKE DRAMATIC BOAT RESCUE AFTER GETTING HELP FROM FACETIME, VIDEO SHOWS

The family added that they have "proof" of Stephano bullying Dominick, adding that the donated funds "WILL BE GOING TO A NEW HOME" rather than for personal use, and that "[e]verything else will be put into a trust for Dominick that is irrevocable."

Before the traumatic incident that has torn the two families apart, Giacobbe said she and Rua, neighbors with a bunch of kids around the same ages, were "soul sisters."

"[A]ll our kids are around the same age, if not the same age. And it was pretty cool because, you know, when you interacted, you had a family that had a lot of kids. And  you never find that many people that you want to hang out with," the mother said.

Giacobbe reiterated that she's not out to "get anybody" or "put [Rua] down."

"I just want the truth out. And I don't like what's going on," she said.

The Bridgeport Police Department has said there were no signs of deliberate injury in the case. Police are actively investigating the incident.

Fox News' Larence Richard contributed to this report.
A 2-year-old girl was injured in a coyote attack this week in Fountain Valley, authorities said. Above, a file photo shows a coyote in Fairview Park in Costa Mesa. (Mark Boster / For The Times)

A lone coyote attacked a 2-year-old girl in a park in Fountain Valley this week, authorities said Thursday.

The attack occurred Tuesday night inside Mile Square Park near Euclid Street and Stonecress Avenue, the Fountain Valley Police Department said in a release. The child was treated at a hospital and is recovering from her wounds, said Cpt. Patrick Foy of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife's law enforcement division.

The incident wasn't immediately reported, and the coyote has not been found or captured, Fountain Valley police said. The Department of Fish and Wildlife is leading a search to locate and euthanize the coyote.

The attack is at least the second in recent months in Orange County. In April, a young girl was taken to the hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries after a coyote attack on the beach near the Huntington Beach Pier.

If any coyotes are seen in the area, residents are encouraged to haze them and keep small children and pets under close supervision, Foy said.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
A Cuban court has sentenced two artists critical of the communist state to nine and five years in prison, officials said Friday, the latest in a string of heavy penalties doled out to government dissenters.

Rapper Maykel Castillo, 39, better known as Osorbo, was sentenced to nine years, while 34-year-old performance artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara was given five years in prison, the attorney general's office said on Friday.

Alcantara, leader of the San Isidro (MSI) free speech protest movement, was found guilty of "offending the symbols of the homeland, contempt and public disorder," and Castillo of contempt and assault, it said.

Both men, considered prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International, have already spent months behind bars.

Washington and rights groups have repeatedly called for their liberation.

The ruling, Human Rights Watch America's investigator Juan Pappier said on Twitter: "is a sham that openly violates freedom of expression and association.

"We demand the immediate and unconditional release of Maykel and Luis Manuel."

Alcantara was arrested on July 11 last year when he set out to join thousands of Cubans who took to the streets in unprecedented protests against the government.

He has been held in prison ever since, awaiting trial, and his family has said he was in poor health.

Hundreds of people who took part in the July rallies, many chanting "Freedom!" and "We are hungry," have been prosecuted and given sentences of up to 25 years.

The charges against Alcantara, named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people of 2021, all related to events prior to the protests.

- Insulting State symbols -

Osorbo, for his part, is co-author of the song "Patria y Vida" ("Fatherland and Life" -- a play on Fidel Castro's "Fatherland or Death" slogan) which has become a refrain for protesters and government critics, but has angered the authorities.

The Latin Grammy winner has been in prison for over a year, charged for participating in another, smaller protest in Havana.

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Prosecutors had asked for prison terms of seven and 10 years for the pair.

They were tried with three other people behind closed doors at the end of May.

This was not the men's first brush with the authorities.

To protest a decree governing the work of artists in 2018, Alcantara sought to cover himself in human excrement outside parliament, but was arrested before the work was complete.

Once, he wore the Cuban flag over his shoulders for a month and was sued for insulting State symbols.

Last year, he spent almost a month in hospital following an eight-day hunger strike after authorities seized several of his works when he was arrested during a demonstration.

He was freed but rearrested several more times for trying to leave his home, which had been surrounded by police who cut off his internet service and kept visitors away.

The Cuban government accuses Alcantara of fomenting a political revolt funded by the United States, which has had sanctions in place against Cuba for six decades.

Osorbo's "Patria y Vida" angered authorities with its rebellious message, denounced by the state-controlled Cuban press as an attempt at "gross political interference.

Lyrics include "It is over" and "We are not afraid," with images of poverty and police violence on the music video.

A photo of Osorbo, a handcuffed fist raised in resistance after he escaped a previous attempt to arrest him, has become a symbol of protest on the island.

lp/yow/lab/mlr/md
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Friday the military is evaluating its policies following the Supreme Courts ruling striking down Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision which guaranteed a womans right to an abortion.

Well talk about Austins statement. Plus, well examine House Appropriators adding an extension to Title 42 into the Department of Homeland Securitys budget.

This is Defense & National Security, your nightly guide to the latest developments at the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill and beyond. For The Hill, Im Jordan Williams. Not on the list? Subscribe here.





Military examines policies in wake of Roe ruling

The Pentagon is evaluating its policies following the Supreme Courts Friday decision striking down Roe v. Wade, which had for nearly 50 years guaranteed a womans right to an abortion, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.

The ruling is set to affect thousands of military personnel and their families who may be stationed or work in states where abortions will soon be outlawed or heavily restricted.

What Austin said: The Defense Department is examining this decision closely and evaluating our policies to ensure we continue to provide seamless access to reproductive health care as permitted by federal law, Austin said in a statement.

Nothing is more important to me or to this Department than the health and well-being of our Service members, the civilian workforce and DOD families. I am committed to taking care of our people and ensuring the readiness and resilience of our Force, he said.



Austin did not say what policies would be reviewed or what changes might soon be coming, if any.

Abortion and the military: The Pentagon had faced pressure ahead of the ruling over whether it would protect access to abortion for pregnant servicewomen who would have to seek the procedure in a different state than where they are stationed.

Such a process isnt always easy for troops as they usually must get approval from superiors to travel from their installations.



Women within the Army are likely to experience the most difficulty in obtaining an abortion as it is the largest military service and has thousands of troops stationed in states that already or will soon have the strictest antiabortion laws, including Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Kentucky.

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Though the Army has a compassionate reassignment policy  a rule that permits troops to seek to change their duty station if dealing with a difficult family situation  federal funds cannot be used for abortions, including at military health care centers, unless the pregnancy is the result of incest, rape or a threat to the mothers life.

Read the story here.





Title 42 extension added to DHS budget

House appropriators voted Friday to extend a Trump-era border policy, adding a six-month extension of Title 42 to the Department of Homeland Security Budget.

The amendment, sponsored by Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), was passed by voice vote, leaving unclear which Democrats voted in support of the effort.

Recap of Title 42: Title 42 contravenes asylum law, allowing border officials to rapidly expel migrants without allowing them to seek protection in the U.S.

The Biden administration continued the policy during the first year of its administration but moved in April to rescind the policy.



The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) determined the pandemic conditions that Trump used to justify his emergency order were no longer necessary as the U.S. learns to live with COVID-19.

A federal judge blocked the Biden administration from lifting Title 42, which the administration has appealed.

The amendment: The Newhouse amendment would require the Biden administration to keep the policy in place for another 180 days beyond the date that Title 42 is eventually terminated.

The House Appropriations Committee contains a number of Democrats in vulnerable districts, and a source told The Hill a whip count found more than half a dozen Democrats serving on the panel were willing to support Newhouses amendment.

Read the full story here.





New head of US European Command confirmed

The Senate late Thursday confirmed Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli to serve as commander of U.S. European Command by voice vote.

Cavoli, who is currently commander of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, will also take over as NATOs supreme allied commander in Europe, overseeing the planning and execution of the alliances operations.

About Cavoli: President Biden nominated Cavoli for the role in early May, and the Senate Armed Services Committee advanced the nomination on June 15.

Cavoli has served as commander of U.S. Army Europe and Africa since 2020, and before then served in a variety of roles in Asia, the U.S. and Europe.



He brings a wealth of expertise on Europe, however, having served as director of Russia for the Joint Staff and as a general foreign area officer with a focus on Eurasia. In addition, he speaks Italian, Russian and French.

Stepping up: Cavoli will take over as Russias invasion of Ukraine drags into its fourth month and the U.S. and the alliance rush billions of dollars in security assistance to Kyiv.

The alliance is hosting a summit in Madrid on Wednesday and Thursday, during which member states will endorse the alliances new Strategic Concept. However, Russias invasion of Ukraine is expected to also be discussed.



Cavoli also takes over as Finland and Sweden look to join NATO, something that Cavoli welcomed during his confirmation hearing in late May.

Read the full story here.





ON TAP FOR MONDAY

The Atlantic Council will host a discussion on Leading from the front: How Ukraines local officials resist Russia at 8 a.m.

The U.S. Institute of Peace will host a discussion on Reflections from Afghan Women: The Consequences of an Unsuccessful Peace Process at 10 a.m.

The Wilson Center will host an event on Past, Present, and Future of International Organization at 1:30 p.m.

The Wilson Center will host an event entitled Hindsight Up Front: Defining a Successful Resolution to Russias War in Ukraine at 2 p.m.

The SETA Foundation will host an event on The Madrid Summit: NATOs New Strategic Concept at 2 p.m.





WHAT WERE READING

Zelensky says Ukraine doing everything it can to secure release of American soldiers detained by Russia: report

Ukraine withdraws troops from besieged Severodonetsk

The Hill Opinion: US must stop hesitating in its support for Ukraine





Thats it for today. Check out The Hills Defense and National Security pages for the latest coverage. See you next week!





VIEW THE FULL EDITION HERE

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A reflection of the U.S. Supreme Court Building

A reflection of the U.S. Supreme Court Building is seen on June 23, 2022 in Washington, D.C. Credit - Shuran Huang for TIME

On Friday, the Supreme Court held that the Constitution no longer protects the right to an abortion, eviscerating nearly 50 years of precedent and opening the door for states to ban abortion at any point in pregnancy. This decision will have devastating effects for people needing abortion care, who will now be faced with a terrible choice: travel to a state that permits abortion (which many people cannot afford), self-manage the abortion at home (which may come with legal risks), or carry a pregnancy against their will (which has long-term financial and physical health risks).

But the coming devastation will not be limited to those seeking abortion. Overruling Roe will also harm those experiencing pregnancy complications and pregnancy loss. We are about to learn in real time that abortion is reproductive health care because without it, pregnant patients across the spectrum will suffer.

Read More: Anti-Abortion Pregnancy Centers Are Collecting Troves of Data That Could Be Weaponized Against Women

Texas provides a sad snapshot of what is to come. Starting in September, Texass SB8 effectively banned abortion after six weeks. Since then, some people have been denied treatment for miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies, and severe pregnancy complicationsall because of the treatments relationship to abortion.

Medical interventions offered for missed or incomplete miscarriagemiscarriages where the body has not registered the pregnancy loss or has not fully expelled the tissueinvolve the same medications and procedures used for abortion. The only difference is whether the fetal heart has stopped first. Physicians frequently offer these patients medication to start or intensify contractions to speed up the miscarriage process. Many patients prefer this to waiting, as it can take weeks or months for the body to do this on its own.

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Supporters and opponents of abortion rights demonstrate outside the U.S. Supreme Court Building on June 23, 2022 in Washington, D.C. Shuran Huang for TIME

After SB8, many Texas pharmacies stopped dispensing these medications because they are also used for abortion. Pharmacists dont know whether the patient will use the drug for abortion or miscarriage and are therefore refusing to fill prescriptions. The concern is that if the medication is used for abortion, the pharmacy or its employees could be liable for aiding and abetting an abortion under SB8 or for failing to adhere to Texass onerous regulation of medication abortion under SB4. In other countries that ban abortion, we know that medical and surgical interventions for missed or incomplete miscarriage may not be offered until weeks or months have passed, prolonging the miscarriage, increasing the medical risks, and exacerbating the grief and physical side effects.

Read More: Meet the Pharmacist Expanding Access to Abortion Pills Across the U.S.

SB8 also caused some Texas providers to stop offering interventions for inevitable pregnancy loss. At least one patient with an ectopic pregnancy, in which the fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, has reportedly traveled 12 to 15 hours by car to access care in other states. Some Texas providers are afraid to treat an ectopic pregnancy when fetal cardiac activity is present because it would terminate the pregnancy, albeit a non-viable pregnancy that threatens the pregnant persons life. Other patients suffering from premature labor in previable pregnancies, where abortion is often medically indicated to prevent infection, sepsis, and death in the pregnant person, have also traveled to other states in the middle of a medical emergency to access care. Pregnancy loss is inevitable in these situations. But because the fetal heart has not yet stopped beating on its own, pregnant people are left to suffer and potentially die waiting or travel out of state to access care. In other countries like Ireland and Poland, women have died waiting for the fetal heart to stop, even though their laws also contained an exception to save the life of the mother.

In states where abortion is illegal, patients should also expect increased scrutiny and potential criminalization over their pregnancy loss. There is no way to tell the difference between someone who induced an abortion with medication and someone who had a natural loss. And thus, every pregnancy loss is suspect.

Read More: The State of Abortion Rights Around the World

We already know that suspicion will be more likely with certain pregnant peoplepoor people and people of color. For decades, adverse pregnancy outcomes have been criminalized, and at least 75% of prosecutions for conduct during pregnancy are against women of color. Post Roe, this criminalization will grow exponentially. Those least likely to be suspected of abortion are those displaying the socially expected grief response and who have actively sought medical care before or during pregnancy. Due to structural inequity in the health care system, the people who have already sought medical care are much more likely to be insured, educated, and white.

Consciously or unconsciously, this scrutiny will affect medical care for pregnancy loss, and the standards of care may be set aside when causation is suspected. The quality of health care is very important within pregnancy loss. Clear communication and emotional sensitivity are vital. Studies confirm that negative treatment by medical practitioners adds to the trauma of loss. In light of this reality, standards of care exist, including allowing the parents to hold and spend time with their baby. But past examples, like Chelsea Becker, have shown that when physicians suspect a person of causing a pregnancy loss, the person might be denied proper care.

Read More: The Worlds Most Pro-Life Nations Offer a Grim Preview of Americas Future

Finally, just as the situation for pregnancy-loss treatment grows more dire, we can also expect more pregnancy losses to occur. Abortion bans mean more pregnancies, and more pregnancies mean more pregnancy losses. Up to 25% of pregnancies end in miscarriage, and that rate could easily increase once pregnancies that would have otherwise been terminated are continued. Without termination for fetal anomaly, late miscarriage and stillbirths will increase because many of those fetuses would not have been born alive. And many of these additional pregnancy losses will be within marginalized populations. Currently, Black women and poor women are more likely to seek abortion care. Those same marginalized populations also have higher pregnancy-loss rates. Black women face double the risk of late miscarriage (between 10 and 20 weeks) and double the risk of stillbirth.

Due to stigma, abortion care has long been siloed away from the traditional health system, creating the impression that banning abortion will affect only patients seeking abortions. But thats incorrect. Were about to see just how widespread the effects will be.
Dodgers catcher Will Smith gestures as he runs the bases after hitting a solo home run against the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday. (Aaron Doster / Associated Press)

What you need to know: The Dodgers begin the second leg of their nine-game road trip Friday when they open a three-game series in Atlanta against the Braves.

The series will mark the return of first baseman Freddie Freeman to Atlanta where he played for 12 seasons before signing with the Dodgers as a free agent.

Freeman homered and finished with three RBIs in the Dodgers 10-5 win Thursday at Cincinnati that capped a three-game sweep of the Reds. The Dodgers, who are 43-25 and in first place in the National League West, will send left-hander Julio Urias to the mound against Braves right-hander Ian Anderson. Urias is 4-6 with a 2.56 earned-run average and Anderson is 6-3 with a 4.35 ERA.

The Braves, who trail the New York Mets by four games in the NL East, have won 12 straight against left-handed starters and are 18-6 overall against southpaws.

The Dodgers, who had 26 runs and 42 hits in their series against the Reds, won two out of three from the Braves in April when the teams met at Dodger Stadium.

How to watch the Dodgers vs. Braves series

Where: Truist Park, Atlanta

Radio: AM 570 (KLAC); 1020 (KTNQ) Spanish

Catch up on the latest Dodgers news

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
In January, Sonali Patel, an emergency department doctor at a big Houston hospital, became ill while on duty. After testing positive for Covid, she said she told her boss she had the coronavirus and was going home.

He insisted I stay and finish the shift, she recalled in an interview with NBC News and in a recent lawsuit. I told him its not the safe thing to do. We have a ton of immunocompromised patients and we were putting them at risk.

By requesting time off from work while sick with Covid, Patel breached an unofficial policy promoted by officials at the hospital staffing company she works for  American Physician Partners  according to the lawsuit filed against the company by her and seven physician colleagues.

Those doctors say American Physician Partners' officials pressed them to work while ill, even if they contracted Covid and could spread it to patients and colleagues, according to the suit filed in Harris County, Texas, district court in March. Physicians who worked while sick were celebrated, while those who stayed home with Covid had their pay docked, the lawsuit says.

One American Physician Partners medical director had a name for the unwritten policy about working while having Covid symptoms, the lawsuit says. It was the 4 Ms, which stood for Motrin, mask, man-up and must not test. When a physician raised concerns about this practice, he was told by a superior that thats just the culture at the company, according to the suit.

American Physician Partners, founded in 2015 and based in Brentwood, Tennessee, provides emergency department staffing in more than 150 facilities in 18 states, its website says. Eighteen are hospitals in the Houston Methodist system, according to the doctors lawsuit. The company is backed by BBH Capital Partners, the private equity unit of Brown Brothers Harriman, a New York investment firm.

An American Physician Partners spokeswoman said it is the companys policy not to discuss pending litigation. A BBH Capital Partners spokeswoman said the company does not comment on pending litigation at its portfolio companies.

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Pressing doctors to work when they have Covid could result when an emergency department is intentionally understaffed to save money, said Dr. Mitchell Louis Judge Li, founder of Take Medicine Back, a movement to eliminate corporate control from health care. Regardless of the motivation, he said, understaffing an ER is dangerous.

Short-staffing or inappropriate staffing chosen by a corporation does not allow physicians enough time to be effective with their patients, he said. That is a clear public health risk.

NBC News has not confirmed whether short-staffing was an issue at the hospital.

A spokeswoman for the Houston Methodist hospital system, which is not a party to the suit, said in a statement the litigation was an internal dispute that had nothing to do with the care provided by the hospital system.

We are unaware of any ER doctor who came to work after testing positive for Covid-19, the statement provided by Stefanie Asin said. Our hospital systems quarantine and isolation policy aligns with CDC guidance, which means employees and physicians are instructed to stay home from work if they test positive for Covid-19 for the required quarantine period. Our emergency rooms saw at least 50 percent increases in patients during the worst of the pandemic, and all of our ER physicians performed heroically and took great care of our patients when they needed it the most.

Private equity firms have taken over a broad swath of health care entities in recent years. They use large amounts of debt to acquire companies, aiming to increase profits quickly so they can resell for gains a few years later.

Their forays into emergency medicine are transforming the field, analysts and health care experts say. Today, an estimated 40-plus percent of the countrys hospital emergency departments are overseen by for-profit health care staffing companies owned by private equity firms, academic research, regulatory filings and internal documents show.

Concerned about the potential peril these takeovers have on patient care, legislators in some states are proposing bills to rein in health care acquisitions by for-profit and private equity entities. On June 16, Pennsylvania state Sen. Tim Kearney, a Democrat, and several of his colleagues in the Legislature announced a package of bills to safeguard the integrity of local health care systems and protect patients from suffering the repercussions of greedy and irresponsible hospital schemes carried out by private equity firms.

One bill would establish a two-year moratorium on the transfer of ownership of any hospital or health system in Pennsylvania involving a for-profit entity; another would prohibit for-profit entities from owning or managing hospitals in the state.

All this stuff happens in the quiet, it never happens where people can see it and understand it, Kearney said in an interview. We hope to shine a light on this practice, let people understand whats happening to their health care and why its happening.

American Physician Partners is smaller than its two top competitors in emergency department staffing  Envision Healthcare and TeamHealth, both of which are also backed by private equity firms. In a November 2021 investor presentation reviewed by NBC News, American Physician Partners said it is the industrys low-cost provider and described emergency department staffing as a $17 billion market. As elderly become larger proportion of the population, demand for critical care in the ED increases, the presentation noted.

The lawsuit against American Physician Partners is a sign of growing discontent among front-line health care workers with the impact they say profit-oriented owners are having on patient care and hospital work environments. Another came earlier this month, when most of the emergency department and anesthesia professionals at two Southern California hospitals, Corona Regional Medical Center and Temecula Valley Hospital, threatened to resign if plans to hand control of hospital services to Envision Healthcare go through.

An Envision spokeswoman declined to comment.

The Houston area doctors are seeking $1 million in damages in their suit and allege that because of its practices, American Physician Partners failed to pay them as promised. In addition to docking pay for days missed because of Covid, the doctors contend, the company deducted costs from their pay for services that were not provided and did not compensate them for treating patients who decided to leave the hospital against medical advice, an occurrence the physicians couldnt control.

American Physician Partners has been attempting to artificially inflate its books to appeal to investors and avoid insolvency by maintaining cash flow at the direct expense of the doctors, the suit alleges.

Dr. Prasanth Boyareddigari is one of the doctors suing American Physician Partners. He is the educational director of the Houston Methodist Emergency Department and an assistant clinical professor of emergency medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and the Texas A&M School of Medicine.

American Physician Partners' practice of requiring physicians to work when sick is a result of trying to save money by inadequately staffing facilities, Boyareddigari said in an interview. If they lose one or two physicians to illness, they are in a bind, he said. They are utilizing whatever measures they can to be financially efficient and saving costs regardless of outcomes or the effect on patient care, which is quite the opposite of what we would do as physicians. His views on this are also reflected in the lawsuit.

Dr. Robert McNamara is professor and the chair of emergency medicine at Temple University's Lewis Katz School of Medicine and a vocal critic of corporations practicing medicine, which he says can lead to putting profits ahead of patients. More than 30 states, including Texas, have laws against the corporate practice of medicine.

The fundamental code of medicine is to first do no harm, he said. By asking doctors to work when they have Covid, youre asking somebody to break that oath.

Late last year, American Physician Partners warned investors that its revenues might be hurt by the No Surprises Act, recently passed by Congress to curb high cost, out-of-network medical bills patients can receive when they are treated at hospital emergency departments. In the November presentation, it cited numerous cost-saving initiatives underway as part of the companys continual focus on cost optimization to maintain its earnings if the No Surprises Act results in downward pressure on rates.

The new legislation could cut $11 million or roughly 9 percent from American Physician Partners' most recent 12-month operating income, the document said. But cost-saving efforts, such as reducing staffing hours and shifting the staffing between higher-cost doctors and lower-cost mid-level practitioners to align with volume trends, should neutralize the impact, the company said.

The American Physician Partners spokeswoman declined to say whether the No Surprises Act had hurt the companys results.
Erie County residents have reason to feel a bit optimistic this summer with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic.

New cases and hospitalizations have declined in recent weeks, and local health officials said they don't expect another surge in the near future. In addition, COVID-19 vaccine is now available to children as young as 6 months old.

More: Erie health systems receive COVID-19 vaccine for young children; shots to start Thursday

The virus is still circulating, however, with the county reporting a daily average of 33 newly confirmed cases and 24 hospitalizations last week, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Two deaths due to COVID-19 have occurred in the county in June, following 13 deaths in May.

And while no surge is expected in this part of the country, health officials believe two new omicron variants, BA.4 and BA.5, could keep the numbers of new cases and hospitalizations from declining further. About one-quarter of COVID-19 cases in this part of the country are one of these two variants, according to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.

"Of course, we are hoping for a dramatic downturn but that just may not be the case this summer," said Christopher Clark, D.O., Saint Vincent Hospital president. "We could be seeing numbers like this for a period of time."

New COVID-19 variants could keep Erie County's case numbers and hospitalizations from declining further, said Christopher Clark, D.O., Saint Vincent Hospital president.

The county's number of newly confirmed cases declined from 276 between June 8-14 to 232 between June 15-21, the state health department reported. The average number of county residents hospitalized with COVID-19 also dropped during that period, from an average of 28.4 a day to 23.7.

But the county's COVID-19 test positivity rate rose slightly from 15.9% to 16.1%. The amount of virus found in the Erie Wastewater Treatment Plant samples also rose, though it remains well below what was found during the omicron surge this spring.

"We also know these variants spread much more easily than previous ones," said Charlotte Berringer, R.N., director of community health services for the Erie County Department of Health. "Being outside still helps reduce the risk of transmission, but not to the degree that it did the last two summers."

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Berringer recommended wearing a face mask if gathering in large groups, even outdoors.

More: Erie County's latest COVID-19 surge nears end; causing fewer hospitalizations, deaths

Here is a look at the county's other COVID-19 measurements between June 8-14 and June 15-21, according to the state health department:

The rate of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents dropped from 102.3 to 86.

The average daily number of COVID-19 patients requiring ventilators increased from 0.7 to 1.4.

The percentage of emergency department visits due to COVID-19 symptoms rose from 0.6% to 0.7%.

As a result of its lower rates of new cases and hospitalizations, Erie County is now at a low COVID-19 Community Level, according to the CDC. Crawford County, which has a higher rate of new cases and hospitalizations than Erie County does, is at a medium level.

LECOM Health opens COVID-19 'test-to-treat' site

Patients who believe they might have COVID-19 can now get tested and prescribed antiviral medication during the same visit.

The LECOM Institute for Successful Aging and the Erie County Department of Health have partnered to open a "test-to-treat" site at the LECOM Center for Health & Aging, 3910 Schaper Ave.

"No appointment is needed," said Jaime Babiak, the institute's director of operations. "People can come and get a rapid antigen test, with results in 15 minutes. If they test positive, our pharmacists and physicians will consult to determine if treatment with antivirals is necessary."

People who are at risk of severe illness or complications due to COVID-19 could receive Paxlovid or Molnupiravir during their visit, Babiak said.

The drive-through site is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with extended hours on Tuesdays until 7 p.m.

Contact David Bruce at dbruce@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNBruce.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie County sees COVID-19 cases drop but BA.4 & BA.5 a concern
Badge of the Buncombe County Sheriff's Office

ASHEVILLE - Albert Pavon, a teacher at Erwin High School, has been charged by the Buncombe County Sheriffs Office Special Investigations Unit with five sex offenses related to the sexual abuse of a student, according to a Sheriff's Office news release.

The charges are:

Indecent liberties with a child.

Indecent liberties with a student.

Three counts of felony dissemination of obscene material to a minor.

Pavon is being held at the Buncombe County Detention Facility on a $50,000 bond.

The Haywood County Sheriffs Office assisted in the execution of a search warrant at Pavons residence in Haywood County, according to the release, and Buncombe County Schools assisted with the investigation.

More: Warrant: Attempted sex assault in locker room; BCSO seeks evidence of similar incidents

Buncombe County Schools employees are at the center of the county's $399.2 million budget discussion.

The investigation continues, and additional charges are possible, according to the news statement.

Pavon is an exceptional children teacher, according to a Buncombe County Schools employee salary database obtained by the Citizen Times. He has an annual salary of $43,658.

More: Ex-Buncombe middle school teacher could face decades in prison on child porn charges

More: Child sex crime investigation continues into Buncombe County Schools psychologist

Thank you to the Detectives from our Special Investigations Unit for their great team work and investigation into the reported crimes of Albert Pavon who exploited his position of trust within our community, Detective Sgt. Caleb Hunter, supervisor of the Special Investigations Unit, said in the statement.

This story will be updated.

Karen Chavez is Content Coach/Investigations Editor for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. Tips? Call 828-712-6316, email, KChavez@CitizenTimes.com or follow on Twitter @KarenChavezACT.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Erwin High School teacher arrested and charged with child sex offenses
By Ricardo Brito and Brad Haynes

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's top courts are stepping up meetings with military commanders to ease tensions and reaffirm trust in the democratic process, four senior judiciary sources said, as President Jair Bolsonaro stirs doubt about the integrity of this year's elections.

Bolsonaro, a far-right former army captain trailing in opinion polls in the presidential race, has previously made baseless allegations of electoral fraud, attacked the federal electoral court, and floated the idea of not accepting the result of the October vote.

Military leaders have repeatedly said Brazil's armed forces will respect any result of the election, but military officials have also made headlines by echoing Bolsonaro's comments about potential weaknesses in Brazil's voting system.

To ease voter concerns and show wide institutional support for the electoral process, Supreme Court Chief Justice Luiz Fux is planning to meet with military brass, two of the sources said, requesting anonymity to discuss the matter.

Fux plans to formally invite the commanders of the Brazilian army, navy and air force for a meeting next month as part of his public agenda, one source said.

The Supreme Court's press office declined to comment. The Defense Ministry did not respond to questions about preparations for meetings with the Supreme Court.

Fux met last month with Defense Minister Paulo Sergio de Oliveira - an army general in a traditionally civilian role. At the time, the ministry said they discussed the armed forces' role in the electoral process and the court said Oliveira expressed the military's commitment to democracy.

There is otherwise little precedent for meetings between the Supreme Court and active military officers to discuss electoral integrity, underscoring the uncharted waters for a Brazilian democracy in its fourth decade since military rule.

Bolsonaro has based much of his political career on nostalgia for the 1964-1985 dictatorship, disparaging Congress and the courts while packing his government with current and former officers from the armed forces, which he calls "my army."

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The Supreme Court, whose justices take turns running the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Brazil's electoral authority, sees no risk of the military backing a formal coup attempt, the sources said. But some judges have voiced concern that the armed forces are lending their credibility to Bolsonaro's attacks on the electoral process.

The TSE did not respond to a request for comment. The Defense Ministry did not respond when asked about the criticism.

RAMPING UP CRITICISM

Since taking office in 2019, Bolsonaro has often attacked the Supreme Court. He calls some justices political foes, threatening to ignore their rulings and saying they are working to deliver the election to his leftist rival, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who leads polls by a wide margin.

As the October election approaches and his popularity wanes, Bolsonaro has ramped up criticism of Brazil's electronic voting urns, saying without evidence they are vulnerable to hacking or manipulation. Congress ignored his demands to switch to paper ballots.

Envoys from U.S. President Joe Biden have warned Bolsonaro's government of concerns about undermining the credibility of the electoral process  including Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns, Reuters reported in May.

Supreme Court justices leading the TSE electoral court have pushed back publicly on Bolsonaro's criticism, invited a record number of international election observers, and created an electoral transparency commission this year with representatives of several public institutions, including the military.

However, army officials participating in that commission soon flagged an array of what they said were potential issues with the voting system, echoing Bolsonaro's criticisms.

In a public response, the TSE said the military's concerns were based on flawed assumptions and technical misunderstandings  but for weeks the army's criticism of Brazil's voting system dominated local headlines.

Bolsonaro argued the armed forces should be given access to voting data so they can run a separate electoral tally. The results from each voting district are already reported publicly on election night.

This week the Defense Ministry and the federal police, who report to Bolsonaro's justice minister, said they were preparing teams to audit the nation's electronic voting systems, without giving details of what that would entail.

Brazil's federal police and armed forces have long provided security and logistical support for Brazilian elections, but never audited election results.

(Reporting by Ricardo Brito and Brad Haynes, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
Summertime heat and humidity have taken a hold of the Northeastern states for the final weekend of June. Now, forecasters say a strong cold front is on the way which will cut through the steamy conditions and bring several days of comfortable weather to the region.

Showers and drenching thunderstorms are forecast to erupt along the cold front, which is the boundary separating the warm, sticky air with the more refreshing conditions.

"Showers and thunderstorms ahead of this front may start to arrive across western Pennsylvania and western New York by later in the day on Sunday, then spread farther east Sunday night," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Tony Zartman explained.

Thunderstorms from southern Canada to central Kentucky will have the potential to turn severe with damaging wind gusts, hail and flooding downpours.

Motorists should be cautious as wind-driven rain and downpours could bring reduced visibility and ponding on roadways, slowing travel.

GET THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP

While widespread severe weather is not expected as the cold front reaches the I-95 corridor late Sunday night and on Monday, any thunderstorms could be potent enough to produce heavy downpours, leading to the risk for flooding on streets and poor drainage areas, as well as isolated damaging wind gusts.

The passage of the storms will mark the end of the latest surge of heat and humidity.

Afternoon high temperatures are expected to settle back into the 70s to near 80 on Monday and Tuesday across the region. The most noticeable difference will be the drop in humidity levels and cool nighttime temperatures.

Residents will have the opportunity to give their air-conditioning units and electric bills a break and open up the windows.

AccuWeather meteorologists say the cooldown will be short-lived, however, as another round of steamy conditions is expected during the last days of June and start of July.

Want next-level safety, ad-free? Unlock advanced, hyperlocal severe weather alerts when you subscribe to Premium+ on the AccuWeather app. AccuWeather Alerts are prompted by our expert meteorologists who monitor and analyze dangerous weather risks 24/7 to keep you and your family safer.
Oxygen

An Arizona grandmother and food delivery driver used her final moments to help police catch her suspected killer, authorities say. Pamela Rae Martinez, 60, was able to snap a photo of the man believed to have shot her to death along West Bell Road on Saturday, June 11, shortly after she had completed her last food delivery for the night. Rusty French, 62, is now facing charges of second-degree murder in Martinezs death after investigators found the tell-tale photo on the womans phone, accordin
The claim: Russian Orthodox Church leaders blessed a rocket called 'Satan'

In the 20 years since Vladimir Putin came to power in Russia, the relationship between the military and the Russian Orthodox Church has grown closer, with priests blessing everything from ballistic missiles to submarines.

A May 14 Facebook post, shared nearly 300 times, appears to show one such scenario, with priests blessing a rocket.

The caption of the Facebook post reads, "Russian Orthodox Church leaders blessing a rocket called Satan. It's real not Monty Python."

This iteration of the claim appears to originate from a May 13 tweet that included the photograph and accumulated more than 100,000 interactions. Many users presumed it showed an image from the present invasion of Ukraine.

One Twitter user wrote, "A real travesty of current situation in Russia."

But this photo is from 2015 and has nothing to do with the current conflict. And an expert told USA TODAY the image is not of the "Satan" missile.

USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment.

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The photo is from 2015

Residents walk with their bicycles in front of a damaged church, in Lukashivka, in northern Ukraine, Friday, April 22, 2022. A single metal cross remains inside the Orthodox church of shattered brick and blackened stone. Residents say Russian soldiers used the house of worship for storing ammunition, and Ukrainian forces shelled the building to make the Russians leave. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris) ORG XMIT: XPG101

The photo thats been shared on Twitter and Facebook is not, as users have suggested, from the current Ukrainian conflict.

It is part of a series of photos taken in Khodynka field, northwest of Moscow, on May 6, 2015.

According to the Moscow City News Agency, the image shows a ritual blessing of the participants in the Victory Parade and the consecration of launches on the Khodynka field.

The Victory Parade is the country's annual marking of the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.

The photo is not of the 'Satan' rocket

The Facebook post claims the photo is of the rocket Satan, but it's not, according to Mariana Budjeryn, research associate at the Project on Managing the Atom at the Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

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Budjeryn said the missile in the photo is likely a SS-27 "Yars."

"Confusing the two is not a common mistake for anyone who knows anything about Soviet/Russian missiles," she told USA TODAY.

"Satan," or SS-18, is a Soviet-era, silo-based, liquid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile that is still deployed in Russia but is being phased out, according to Budjeryn.

The SS-27, or "Yars," is a solid-fuel mobile intercontinental ballistic missile that is not deployed in a stationary silo but on a transporter-erector-launcher, a large truck that Budjeryn said can be seen in the picture.

Fact check: Study misrepresented to wrongly claim global warming has slowed

Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that Russian Orthodox Church leaders blessed a rocket called "Satan. While the photo does show Russian Orthodox leaders blessing military equipment, it is not from the current conflict in Ukraine, as some users have suggested. It is also not a photo of the missile "Satan," an expert confirmed.

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: Photo of priests blessing Russian rocket is from 2015
A reflection of supporters and opponents of abortion rights demonstrating is seen outside the U.S. Supreme Court Building on June 23, 2022 in Washington, DC. Decisions are expected in 13 more cases before the end of the Court's current session. (Photo/Shuran Huang)

A reflection of supporters and opponents of abortion rights demonstrating is seen outside the Supreme Court Building in Washington on June 23, 2022. Credit - Shuran Huang for TIME

What is womens empowerment in a world without Roe v. Wade?

Women receive more college degrees than men, young women outearn young men in some cities, and more women run Fortune 500 companies than ever before. And still, Roe fell.

More women are directing Hollywoods highest-grossing movies, Ariana DeBose just became the first openly queer woman of color to win an Oscar, and theres a woman playing Thor. And still, Roe fell.

More than 60% of American women consider themselves feminists, including 42% of Republican women. More than half of American women say they prefer to work outside the home, the highest Gallup has recorded in three decades of polling. And still, Roe fell.

How could a cornerstone of American womens rights crumble at a moment of otherwise expansive economic, cultural, and social empowerment?

The fall of Roe exposes a crack in the foundation of mainstream liberal feminism that has dominated the past decade. This version of feminismis it the fourth wave?has been preoccupied with individual achievements, feel-good symbolism, and cultural representation. It has, in turn, paid too little attention to the thorny mechanics of federal courts and state legislative races. Many fourth wavers presumed that reproductive rights were basically secure, and that therefore the remaining obstacles for women were not legal or political but cultural and emotional. Every time a woman won an Oscar, or released a hit album, or got a big promotion, the refrain was the same: representation matters!

Of course it matters. Of course it should be cheered. But somewhere along the way, many in the mainstream feminist movement convinced themselves that the soft power of cultural representation seemed as important as the hard power of votes and seats. Empowerment became not a means to an end, but the end in itself. Many feministsparticularly rich, white, well-educated onesassumed that changing hearts and minds was the difficult part. In a functioning democracy, winning seats and writing laws would inevitably follow.

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Read More: Supreme Court Overturns Roe v. Wade, Undoing Constitutional Right to Abortion

But thats not how our democracy works. Nearly 60% of Americans did not want to see Roe overturned, including more than 30% of Republicans. The number of Americans who identify as pro-choice reached a record high in the weeks after a leaked draft opinion showed the Supreme Court was poised to upend a half century of constitutional precedent. And yet, the course of American history doesnt always follow public opinion. Just ask the two recent Republican Presidents who lost the popular vote, yet appointed four Supreme Court Justices who voted to overturn Roe.

Roe fell in large part because anti-abortion activists and policymakers better understood how power truly works in this country. They didnt rely on inspiring movies or heartfelt Oscar speeches or Twitter hashtags to advance their cause. Instead, the anti-abortion movement has been extraordinarily successful at getting conservative lawmakers elected at the state level. Mitch McConnell used the hard power of the Senate majority to block a Supreme Court nomination by President Barack Obama, which in turn allowed President Donald Trump to appoint another anti-abortion Justice. Conservative judicial activists selected Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health as the vehicle to prompt this right-wing court to overturn Roe.

Read More: The Fight Over Abortion Has Only Just Begun.

None of that was exactly the fault of mainstream feminism, and many feminists did sound alarms about the threat to abortion rights. Local reproductive-rights groups have been organizing to protect abortion access on the state level for decades, while feminist organizations like Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and the Center for Reproductive Rights have been litigating to protect abortion rights (although some national organizations have been criticized for focusing more on national politics than state races). EMILYs List has been working to elect pro-choice women at all levels. And now, in a post-Roe world, Democratic governors, from Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan to Kathy Hochul in New York, are the last lines of defense for abortion access in their states.

But overall, the fall of Roe signifies that liberal feminists were outmaneuvered. By focusing on empowerment and losing sight of the nuts-and-bolts of political mechanics, they failed to recognize what McConnell and his allies have known all along: only power is power.

Anti-abortion protesters celebrate following the Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., June 24, 2022 Gemunu AmarasingheAP

I am as guilty of this as anybody. In 2014, I wrote a piece that now strikes me as the apotheosis of mid-aughts feminist myopia. Titled This May Have Been the Best Year for Women Since the Dawn of Time, the essay starts with this cringey hyperbole: Since the dinosaurs roamed, since the pyramids were built, since the locomotive was invented, there has never been a better year for women than 2014. I listed reasons that seemed important at the time, but look superficial in retrospect: the success of Frozen, a handful of new women CEOs, Beyonce dancing in front of the word FEMINIST at MTVs Video Music Awards.

Some call this thinking girlboss feminism. Others tie it to white feminism. I think of it as the Empowerment Industrial Complex. Whatever you call it, it now seems like a cheugy distraction at best.

While the Empowerment Industrial Complex spent the early 2010s debating the ever-changing contours of feminist soft power, anti-abortion Republicans were building hard power, seat by seat, state by state. In 2010, Republicans raised $30 million to gain control of 21 legislative chambers, including in many states that would go on to pass the toughest abortion restrictions.

Read More: These States Are Set to Ban Abortion if Roe v. Wade Is Overturned

While online feminists interrogated celebrities about whether they called themselves feminists and what empowered them most, conservatives were amassing the raw power to pass trigger laws in 13 states. While progressive nonprofits threw galas celebrating female inspiration, brands spent millions on body-positive ad campaigns, and celebrities partnered with NGOs to promote womens empowerment, the state and local organizations fighting to protect reproductive rightsmany of them led by women of colorgot too little funding and attention.

While the left tallied the number of women nominated for Oscars and which top-grossing movies passed the Bechdel test, savvy Republican operatives were carefully building a pipeline of conservative judges with immaculate resumes in anticipation of future Supreme Court vacancies. 2014, the year I dubbed the best ever for women, was also the year in which Republicans won the Senate, putting McConnell in position to block Obamas nomination of Merrick Garland to the high court.

The failure of folks to pick up the shovel and fight this on the state level is why were in the position that were in right now, says Nse Ufot, executive director of the New Georgia Project, a nonpartisan civic-engagement organization devoted to building the power of voters of color in Georgia. I see that as a failure of the large influencers and culture makers and popular feminists to really flank state-level activists.

Abortion-rights demonstrator Elizabeth White leads a chant in response to the Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization ruling in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on June 24, 2022 Brandon BellGetty Images

Its not that cultural representation is unimportant. Its just not enoughnot even close. Representation is important but not sufficient, says Amanda Litman, coexecutive director of Run for Something, which recruits and trains young progressives to run for state and local offices. Gender representation doesnt always align neatly with feminist advancement. Neither the first woman Vice President nor the first woman Speaker of the House has the power to change the makeup of the Supreme Court or save the constitutional right to an abortion. Of the record 147 women in Congress, 41 are Republicans, many of them anti-abortion. All the major national anti-abortion organizations are run by women. For the first time in history, four women serve on the Supreme Court at the same timeand Justice Amy Coney Barrett was key to sealing the demise of Roe. More white women voted for Trump than for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. This too was representation. This too mattered.

The Trump presidency exposed the faulty arithmetic at the heart of the Empowerment Industrial Complex. The rallying cries of empowerment politics convinced many that seeing and being were inextricably linked, as if obstacles like wealth inequality, structural racism, and voter suppression could be overcome by enough feminist inspo.

Read More: Anti-Abortion Pregnancy Centers Are Collecting Troves of Data That Could Be Weaponized Against Women

Now that Roe has fallen, its clear that women have bigger problems than representation. In a post-Roe world, many womens lives will be defined by new laws in their states restricting their bodily autonomynot by someones empowering speech at the Grammys. When you are forced to deliver children you didnt want to have and cant afford to raise, you may not care whether you see yourself reflected in the latest superhero blockbuster.

It was a boiling-frog situation, says Meaghan Winter, author of All Politics Is Local. People didnt realize how bad it was until it was too late.

And so, despite everything women have achieved over the past half century, Roe fell. Now its up to the feminist movement to regroup and recalibrate. Inspirational narratives are great, so long as they inspire people toward building real political power. Abortion rights can still be saved, but only if feminists focus their energy on electing allies at the state and local level. In a post-Roe America, thats the kind of representation that matters most.

With reporting by Mariah Espada and Julia Zorthian
The federal government has sued Sacramento City Councilman Sean Loloee alleging he threatened to deport employees who cooperated with a federal investigation into his grocery stores.

The lawsuit, filed April 1 in federal court in Sacramento by the U.S. Department of Labor, also claims Loloee underpaid employees, employed minors in hazardous occupations, and interfered with multiple federal investigations spanning over a decade.

After each investigation, Defendant Loloee agreed to future compliance and to pay back wages owed (to employees), the lawsuit reads. Despite these promises, the Secretarys third and most recent investigation not only revealed flagrant ongoing violations of the (Fair Labor Standards Act), but that Defendant Loloee sought kickbacks from his employees who had received back wage payments in resolution of (the federal governments) prior investigations.

Labor officials sought the new suit against the business and Loloee, who is the sole shareholder, after having determined in other cases he had violated labor law. Officials made clear they were concerned past actions werent deterrents for the businessman, who also represents portions of North Sacramento on the council: The Secretary brings this case to recover the wages owed to Defendants employees, to enjoin future violations, and to protect the significant public interest at stake.

The lawsuit names 66 employees, and alleges violations at four Viva Supermarket stores: Rancho Cordova, Dixon and the two locations in the low-income North Sacramento district he represents  one in Del Paso Heights and one on Norwood Avenue.

In a filing to dismiss the suit this month, Loloees attorneys called the lawsuit a politically-motivated campaign against him, because parts of the investigation occurred in 2020 when Loloee was running for council.

The overreaching complaint includes claims barred by statutes of limitations and past settlement agreements, attempts to impose individual liability without pleading specific factual allegations, and seeks to require defendants simultaneously litigate the same claims in two forums, the document, filed June 10, states. These meritless claims should be dismissed.

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Loloee declined comment for this story. A spokesperson for a public relations firm hired by Loloee emailed the following statement: As a general rule, we do not comment on active litigation, but we do look forward to the matter being fully resolved in the court process.

Federal probes began in 2009

In 2018, two former grocery store employees filed a lawsuit against Loloees companies in Sacramento Superior Court claiming they were not paid overtime, were not given meal or rest periods, were never reimbursed for paying for their uniforms and other allegations, which The Bee reported in 2020. Loloee paid a settlement that year in that case, court records show.

But the federal government started investigating Loloee nearly a decade before that lawsuit was filed, the new lawsuit reveals.

Federal investigators in 2009 determined that Loloee and his companies violated federal laws regarding minimum wage, overtime compensation, recordkeeping and child labor, according to the lawsuit. He signed a settlement agreement to pay $4,658 in back wages to employees and child labor civil fines for violations at the Norwood Avenue location, the lawsuit says.

In 2020, a follow-up federal investigation found Loloee again violated overtime and recordkeeping requirements, ordering him to pay $35,423 in back wages, which he did, the complaint says.

The lawsuit alleges, however, Loloee later coerced employees to return the back wages, prompting a third investigation. It found that Loloee in 2020 directed grocery store workers to lie to federal investigators, the lawsuit alleges.

Defendants directed agents to impersonate (federal) investigators in order to gather information from their employees and identify employees who cooperated with the Secretarys investigation; threatened employees with immigration consequences, including deportation, if they cooperated with the Secretarys investigation; ordered employees to sign unknown documents that they were not permitted to read prior to signing; directed employees to lie about aspects of their employment with Defendants, including, but not limited to, when employees began working for Defendants, the total number of employees working for Defendants, and the hours worked by employees; directed employees to work in secluded areas of its business to prevent employees contact and discussion with (federal) Investigators; directed workers to take off their store uniforms to look like store customers when (federal) investigators presented themselves to interview employees, to prevent employees contact and discussion with (federal) investigators; instructed employees not to speak with (federal) investigators.

Loloee violated child labor laws, feds say

Loloee has employed at least five workers under the age of 18 to load and operate an industrial cardboard baler, and to clean meat slicers and meat grinders, which are considered hazardous pieces of equipment, the lawsuit alleges. Hes also employed children under 16 and had them work more than three hours a day when school was in session, and in excess of 18 hours a week  another violation of federal labor laws, the lawsuit alleges.

When the coronavirus pandemic struck, Loloee failed to provide paid sick leave to employees who were experiencing COVID-19 symptoms  a violation of the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act, the lawsuit alleges.

The city of Sacramento in April 2020 granted Loloee a $25,000 forgivable economic relief loan using coronavirus federal grant money. At the time, Loloee had advanced to the runoff but had not yet won the seat.

The new federal lawsuit seeks a court order to prohibit Loloee from continuing to violate federal labor laws, and to require him to send the federal officials a list of employees he coerced to return the back pay. It also seeks to disgorge Loloee of ill-gotten gains reaped from workers who were not paid for their work a required by the FLSAs minimum wage and overtime provisions.

The complaint also names Karla Montoya, general manager of Loloees companies, as a defendant.

Loloee is facing a separate controversy for not living in the Hagginwood house he says is his residence and where he is registered to vote, The Bee has reported.

Ramona Landeros, longtime Del Paso Heights resident, said the council should vote to vacate the seat  an option under California law  due to him living outside the district and also the allegations in the lawsuit. She has spoken to many employees who have told her similar stories to what federal investigators found, she said.

When people who have been threatened or have worked in fear see a person like that at City Council, I think that creates a real sense of insecurity, said Landeros, who lost the election for the seat in 2020. Many families who come from Latin American countries where the system is so corrupt, this only further creates a loss of what America is supposed to be about. I think its the councils responsibility to make sure that they remove anyone who has this type of background ... he does not represent what the city of Sacramento is about. We are better than that.

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg has asked Loloee to provide a public report of his residency at an upcoming council meeting. Its unclear when that will take place, but it could be Tuesday at 5 p.m.
First lady Jill Biden delivered a speech in West Palm Beach, Florida, on June 23, 2022, to highlight the administration's Cancer Moonshot. Patrick Semansky/AP Photo

First lady Jill Biden urged unity on cancer screenings and treatments in Palm Beach on Thursday.

"We need to fight this disease, not each other," she said.

The first lady will visit Surfside on Friday to mark the one-year anniversary of the condo collapse.

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida  First lady Jill Biden appealed for unity on Thursday just 4 miles from former President Donald Trump's perennial Mar-a-Lago home and on the home turf of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis  one of her husband's most vocal critics.

The fist lady was promoting the Biden administration's cancer initiative, which she called a "key pillar" of what President Joe Biden is calling his "Unity Agenda."

"Cancer has the power to change us, but it connects us as well," Jill Biden said to an audience gathered in the Hilton West Palm Beach's ballroom. "It forces us to reach out for answers for help, for healing. It tears away the things that divide us, reminding us that we need to fight this disease, not each other."

The remarks came as the Biden administration and Ron DeSantis continue to clash on numerous issues, including COVID-19 vaccination policies. Trump has moved from his private Mar-a-Lago club to Bedminster, New Jersey, for the summer, but continues to mock Joe Biden in speeches.

But the first lady's focus on Thursday was squarely on an issue meant to cross partisan lines, as she broadly appealed for public support toward cancer screenings and treatments.

"The disease doesn't care who you voted for," Jill Biden said. "It's not a red or blue issue. It's an American issue. It's a global issue. It will take all of us to end cancer as we know it."

Earlier in the day, Jill Biden took a tour of FoundCare Palm Springs, a federally qualified health center nearby.

The trip was intended to spotlight private sector collaborations. FoundCare receives assistance from The Promise Fund of Florida, which pays for cancer screenings and treatments for women who are uninsured or don't have adequate coverage to pay for their healthcare.

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The organization also connects patients with "navigators," meaning staff who help patients with transportation, translation, childcare, and other logistical services. Jill Biden on Thursday praised the organization for finding gaps in healthcare and meeting patients' needs.

Joe Biden announced in February that he was reigniting the Cancer Moonshot started under his former boss, then-President Barack Obama. The initiative's goals are to reduce the death rate from cancer by at least half in the next 25 years and to improve the lifes of people living with cancer, and of their families.

The disease is personal to the Bidens, who lost their son Beau to brain cancer in 2015. On Thursday, Jill Biden called their cancer work the "mission of our lives" for herself and the president.

Last year, Congress partially funded Joe Biden's request for a new agency called the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, or ARPA-H, with plans to authorize more. The Biden administration has pitched the agency as a way to fund ambitious, risky biomedical research that would aim to to develop transformative new technologies, whether it be cancer or Alzheimer's cures.

"There is nothing political about this," Nancy Brinker, a Republican and co-founder of The Promise Fund, told Insider in an interview. "I have always respected Dr. Biden. She's wonderful, she's as sincere as she can be and she gets things done and they both have caring hearts."

Brinker was United States Ambassador to Hungary from 2001 to 2003 and Chief of Protocol of the United States from 2007 to the end of the George W. Bush administration. Brinker also founded Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a breast cancer research and advocacy non-profit.

The Promise Fund is set to receive a $1 million federal grant appropriated by Congress, and also received a grant from the state of Florida, which increased funding for cancer research this year to $100 million.

The record funding increase in Florida was encouraged in part by Florida first lady Casey DeSantis, who underwent chemotherapy for breast cancer and was declared "cancer-free" in March. In another sign that the issue has bipartisan resonance, Casey DeSantis has spoken about the importance of screenings and the Florida governor's office has hinted that a messaging campaign on cancer is forthcoming.

Jill Biden's comments on Thursday were delivered as part of a two-day visit to Florida. On Friday, Jill Biden will attend a remembrance ceremony in Surfside, Florida, to mark the one-year anniversary since the Champlain Towers South collapse that killed 98 people.

A year ago, Ron DeSantis and Joe Biden demonstrated bipartisan unity after the tragedy, with the governor calling the president "very supportive." The governor's office hasn't yet released the DeSantises' schedule for Friday.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Derrick Hayes is one CEO who takes pride in mentoring the next generation of business leaders. While appearing on Hip Hop & Enterprise, the Big Daves Cheesesteaks owner shared tips and insight from his own unique experience that has led him to a millionaire-dollar empire.

The West Philadelphia native relocated to Atlanta where he began his steady rise as a restaurateur and philanthropist. Hayes launched Big Daves Cheesesteaks in 2014 as a way to merge his passion for community, food, and business.

What started as a small water-ice shop in a 749 sq. ft Shell gas station in Dunwoody, Georgia has since grown into the nationally known Big Daves Cheesesteaks with store and mobile locations all across metro Atlanta.

While many business owners were struggling in 2020, Big Daves Cheesteakes experienced its biggest year to date with an increase of over 100% in sales. The success was in huge part to Hayes Bigger Than Food approach where he uses his business as a hub for mentorship and inspiration.

Hayes spent much of 2020 providing high-quality, hand-made food to those in need and lending

a helping hand in the form of free meals to customers, feeding local frontline workers, and employing the

communities youth.

In 2021, Hayes passion for community & food landed him a spot as a Forbes 2021 Next 1000 Honoree. He continues to pour community efforts that support and stand behind the Big Daves Cheesesteaks brand.

In addition to running his franchise eatery, Hayes is also the founder of the David & Derrick Hayes Foundation & Co-Owner of vegan cheesesteak concept Dinkies with Slutty Vegan ATL CEO & Vegan restaurant phenom, Pinky Cole.

Together, the power couple of restaurateurs and philanthropists covered Essence magazine earlier this year due to their success in business and charity. The pair take pride in their business endeavors and maintaining a healthy work-life balance as parents to their young kids.

Press play below to learn more about Derrick D. Hayes journey from West Philly to Forbes.
Editor's Note: This story has been clarified to note that Steve Wood was speaking about other state agencies when referring to accounting errors like those involved in the state's case against Kathy McGuiness.

Questions about lies under oath and a relationship with a co-worker may have tarnished the testimony on Thursday of a lead prosecutor witness testifying against his former boss, Delaware Auditor Kathy McGuiness.

Prosecutors called the auditors former chief of staff Thomas Van Horn to tell the jury how McGuiness ordered him to pay a political consultant with a state credit card.

The transaction is at the center of the prosecutors' case that McGuiness rigged the consultants contract and payments to avoid regulatory scrutiny, a misdemeanor crime referred to as structuring.

The structuring charge is one of the three public corruption misdemeanors and two felonies that McGuiness, a statewide-elected Democrat, is currently fighting at her trial in its second week.

The portion of Van Horns testimony relevant to the structuring charge started with a September 2020 invoice from My Campaign Group, a consultancy firm owned by political strategist and issues expert Christie Gross of New Castle County.

The invoice came as Gross was at the end of a $45,000 no-bid contract to conduct work for the auditors office and right as a new firm she started, known as Innovate Consulting, had been awarded a new contract for similar work with the auditors office.

The final invoice for the My Campaign Group contract was received by the auditors office in September 2020 and totaled $11,250 owed for work in August.

Center to prosecutors allegations related to the charge is that payments to such contractors above $5,000 must get an extra approval from Department of Accounting officials.

Delaware State Auditor Kathy McGuiness arrives at the Kent County Courthouse for the start of a criminal corruption case against McGuiness Tuesday, June 14, 2022, in Dover.

Evidence has shown that approximately $9,250 of that was routed through and ultimately approved by Department of Accounting officials that month.

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The payment caused the total spent on the contract to eclipse the $45,000 allocated for the service. Van Horn sent an email saying that the office would need to file a document, generally known as a change order, seeking approval from accounting regulators because of that.

The payment also left $1,950 still owed. As September went on, emails involving Van Horn, McGuiness and another staffer showed Gross was looking for payment.

In questioning Van Horn, Deputy Attorney General Mark Denney showed the jury emails regarding My Campaign Groups September invoice in which McGuiness tells Van Horn to pay the remaining balance via PayPal in an email that did not explain the motivation behind the command. Gross has testified that she simply wanted the past-due money fast.

Van Horn testified that McGuiness stood over his shoulder as he used his state credit card to pay the balance. The payment was later incorrectly applied to money allocated to Grosss second contract.

Earlier in the trial, Jane Cole, the director of the states Department of Accounting testified that the September payments, both the normal payment that exceeded the amount allocated for the contract and the state purchase card payment, violated procedures mandated by the states accounting handbook.

Prosecutors also contend that McGuiness orchestrated the payment this way to avoid regulatory scrutiny, making the handbook violation a crime, an argument that has not been backed up by evidence through two weeks of testimony.

RECENT: Why the state auditor's daughter took the stand in ongoing public corruption trial

During Coles testimony, Steve Wood, McGuiness' defense attorney, pointed out several other instances where similar infractions occurred in other state agencies involving far more money that were rectified with after-the-fact change orders and without anyone being indicted.

Cole testified that if the appropriate corrective paperwork is done, there is nothing inherently wrong about using a purchase card to pay a state expense, running over a contracts purchase order amount or coding a payment through a different contract.

Wood has also argued that the situation simply doesnt amount to a violation of the law, is a paperwork error, and that prosecutors cant show evidence that McGuiness knowingly and willfully violated the accounting provisions.

Whistleblower brings concerns to investigators

Van Horn said the command to pay the consultant made him uncomfortable, so he spoke to a state civil attorney that represents the auditors office, who led him to criminal investigators.

Prosecutors played the November 2020 phone call he made to Department of Justice Investigator Frank Robinson in court on Thursday.

In the call, he said he was looking for other work, notes that Gross first contract was awarded with no bid, that the second one was awarded through the bidding process that he regarded with suspicion because McGuiness used an executive assistant to craft the document seeking bids instead of the longtime employee who normally conducted that task.

Some of the advice she is getting is totally political, Van Horn told Robinson in the phone call.

Upon questioning from Denney, he would later tell the jury that he was one of the employees that helped score the proposal submitted by Innovate Consulting, recommending Gross get the contract because he was told to do so by McGuiness through one of the auditors executive assistants.

He did not mention that in his initial phone call to Robinson, nor did he mention the state purchase card payment he was ordered to make and told the jury was the impetus for him seeking out authorities.

Cross-examination delves into sex and lies

Delaware State Auditor Kathy McGuiness leaves the New Castle County Courthouse Thursday, April 7, 2022, in Wilmington.

As a way of impeaching his honesty and credibility, Wood pointed out that Van Horn, under oath, told a grand jury evaluating whether to bring criminal charges against McGuiness, that he left the office because of a disagreement with McGuiness.

In court Tuesday, he told the jury that the reason McGuiness gave for forcing him from the office was that Delaware is a small state and rumor was going around that you have an inappropriate relationship with someone in the office.

Van Horn told the jury that he had indeed had been involved in what he first described as a romantic relationship with a woman who worked in the auditors office.

He said early in his time working at the office, he asked McGuiness permission to take the woman out for drinks and that McGuiness encouraged it as a great idea that could get her on their team for future campaign purposes.

He testified that McGuiness knew of the relationship, approved of it and the two hung out at McGuiness Rehoboth home. When their "romantic" relationship ended in August 2020, they remained cordial, he said.

That was months before he first spoke to investigators and half a year before he was forced from the office in March 2021.

Wood played snippets of his recorded statements with prosecutors starting at that time. In the recordings, he said McGuiness told him that there was a rumor that he was in a sexual relationship with someone in the office. He also said he felt like she was starting that rumor.

Wood asked him if he lied when he called it a rumor and Van Horn said yes, prompting Wood to play more statements. He asked him if he had lied to the grand jury evaluating criminal charges against McGuiness when he said he left of disagreements with McGuiness. Van Horn said yes.

Opening Statements: 'This is not a pizza shop:' criminal trial for Delaware's elected auditor begins

As Wood was asking him about a litany of what he was characterizing as lies, Van Horn interjected that he actually never had sex with the woman, prompting Wood to ask if they had a sexual relationship."

He replied, I mean, no adding that they went to a few happy hours together, made out a few times, but did not engage in intercourse.

How do you define sexual relationship? Van Horn asked Wood, prompting a private conversation among attorneys and the judge and the end to that line of inquiry.

When Denney was allowed to continue his questioning, Van Horn was asked to explain why he said he lied to the grand jury and said that he actually didnt remember what he told the grand jury.

Van Horns testimony is also relevant to the conflict of interest charge faced by McGuiness for hiring her daughter. That daughter testified Wednesday that Van Horn interviewed her for the job. He testified Thursday that he had not.

Testimony will continue for half the day Friday with prosecutors far behind their schedule in presenting their case. The trial is now likely to run through most of next week.

Contact Xerxes Wilson at (302) 324-2787 or xwilson@delawareonline.com. Follow @Ber_Xerxes on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Former auditor chief testifies about purchase cards, sex and lies
Aminu Mohammed, one of the great high school basketball players to come through southwest Missouri, has signed with the Philadelphia 76ers after going undrafted in Thursday night's NBA Draft.

Yahoo! NBA insider Chris Haynes reported Mohammed signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the Sixers while citing league sources.

An Exhibit 10 contract gives Mohammed a Summer League invite and gives the franchise the flexibility to convert the deal into a two-way contract  which would need to happen before the regular season. The deals are typically non-guaranteed while the team controls the player's G League rights. Mohammed will be eligible for a $50,000 bonus if he spends 60-plus days with the 76ers' G League affiliate.

The 6-foot-5 guard played one season at Georgetown after three historic years at Greenwood Laboratory School in Springfield.

He led the Hoyas with 13.7 points and 8.7 rebounds and was the only player to start all 31 games for a team that went 6-25 overall and 0-19 in the Big East. He scored a season-high 27 points at Creighton in February and was named to the Big East All-Freshman team.

More: NBA Draft 2022: What are Greenwood star Aminu Mohammed's chances of getting selected?

Aminu Mohammed celebrates after a foul gave the Greenwood Blue Jays control of the ball with seconds left on the clock during a game against Greensboro Day School at the Bass Pro Shops Tournament of Champions at JQH Arena on Friday, Jan. 17, 2020.

Mohammed has been lauded for his size, athleticism and defensive abilities. Evaluators say the former Springfield standout will need to develop a better offensive game to have a future in the league.

Offense wasn't a problem for Mohammed in Springfield as he dominated the basketball scene in the Ozarks during his three seasons in the area. He concluded his prep career with 3,219 points and 1,478 rebounds which both rank near the top in state history.

With a resume that has him in the conversation as one of the best talents to come out of the area, Mohammed led Greenwood to a state championship as a sophomore. He helped the Blue Jays win a pair of Blue and Gold Tournament titles and was named a McDonald's All-American and Missouri's Gatorade Player of the Year his senior season.

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Other standouts who have played in the NBA from the region include Anthony Tolliver and Juwan Morgan.

Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or Twitter at @WyattWheeler_NL. He's also the co-host of Sports Talk on Jock Radio weekdays from 4-6 p.m.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Aminu Mohammed signs with Philadelphia 76ers after NBA Draft
PARIS (Reuters) -France's unions Sud Rail, CGT and CFDT on Friday issued a joint call for a national railway worker strike on July 6, saying they want wage increases amid rising inflation.

"Along with workers in France and in Europe, railway workers are sharply hit by exploding inflation, we must act to obtain wage increases," the unions said in a joint statement.

Railway workers are joining a growing number of employees in sectors ranging from oil to airports, air transport and trucking who have called for pay rises to offset the rising cost of living and strikes to back their demands.

The social unrest is piling pressure on French President Emmanuel Macron and his government in the middle of a political crisis, after he and his centrist party lost control of parliament in last Sunday's election. His opponents so far have ruled out any form of coalition or pact with his party.

Workers at TotalEnergies' French oil refineries are striking on Friday. The company said it has taken steps to ensure its network of petrol stations and its clients are sufficiently supplied throughout the weekend.

(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon, editing by Tassilo Hummel and Hugh Lawson)
ASHEVILLE  With a key deadline less than a week away, sellers of hemp and hemp-derived cannabidiol, or CBD, are growing increasingly restless that the North Carolina General Assembly hasnt acted to remove the plant from the states controlled substance list.

Our frustration continues as the General Assembly cannot get this simple legislative fix done without using the hemp industry as a political football, said Blake Butler, an Asheville resident and executive director of the Southeast Hemp Association, which represents industry interests in seven states.

Hemp products have been legally available in North Carolina since 2015, but a sunset provision in the states hemp law means this protection is set to expire June 30. With a popular and expanding industry at stake, legislators from both political parties seek to align North Carolina with federal law that allows hemp to be grown and sold.

An employee holds a container of CBD gummies at CBD Central in Hendersonville November 5, 2021.

In late May, the state Senate included a provision to legalize hemp in the 2022 Farm Bill while the state House proposed a standalone bill earlier this month that would forever remove hemp as a controlled substance. On June 22, the House cut the hemp provision from the Senates Farm Bill, leaving the standalone House bill as the only current legislation that would keep hemp legal beyond next week.

Related: Asheville's abuzz with social alternatives from CBD cafes to kava bars

Read this: CBD supporters anxious for hemp legality: 'It is time for us to be progressive in cannabis'

Rep. Jimmy Dixon, R-Duplin, who chairs the House Agriculture Committee, told reporters June 22 that 46 House Republicans didnt want to include a hemp provision within an otherwise less controversial Farm Bill, the North Carolina Tribune reported.

Meagan Coneybeer-Roberts gives volunteers tips for planting before placing hemp plants into the ground at Franny's Farm May 13, 2019.

More: With Delta-8, theres a legal way to get high in North Carolina  for now

What it means isn't exactly clear

The State Senate still has time to pass the standalone House hemp bill before the June 30 expiration date. Butler believes politicians will act on hemp in the 11th hour, but he said the political posturing has unnerved many whose livelihoods rely on the industry.

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Buncombe County Democratic Rep. John Ager told the Citizen Times that two Republican leaders, Dixon and Sen. Brent Jackson of Sampson County, assured him the General Assembly would ensure hemp's legality before the deadline.

CBD has grown in popularity in recent years, with shops popping up across Western North Carolina. Asheville City Schools even allows students to use the hemp-derived cannabinoid.

Federal law defines hemp as a cannabis plant that contains no more than 0.3% of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, and doesnt produce an intoxicating high like the other famous cannabis plant, marijuana. But if the North Carolina hemp protection lapses, state law and federal law would diverge on hemps legality.

What this would mean for those who produce, sell, and use CBD flower, tinctures and edibles isnt clear, Butler said.

In other news: Moog music workers in Asheville close to calling union election

More: Homeowners with HOAs looking to go solar welcome recent NC Supreme Court ruling

Since this is new territory for a state to not comply with federal hemp law, in my opinion, nothing would happen immediately, Butler said. I know there are plenty of legal challenges waiting in the wings.

If the hemp deadline passes, it appears state legislators will still have a small window of time to legalize hemp this year. Republicans, who control both chambers of the General Assembly, have indicated they intend to conclude the current short legislative session in early July.

Brian Gordon is a statewide reporter with the USA Today Network in North Carolina. Feel free to email him at bgordon@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter @skyoutbriout

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: NC hemp and CBD industry worries as state General Assembly stalls
(Bloomberg) -- South Koreas first mutual fund dedicated to investing in the electric-vehicle industry has cut its exposure to Tesla Inc. to the lowest level ever while shifting money into its Chinese rivals.

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The Korea Investment Management Co. fund, a Tesla holder since inception in 2017, has steadily trimmed its exposure to the US carmaker this year to less than 3% of its net asset value, from as high as 9% in the past.

We sought to lower volatility in the portfolio by reducing our exposure to stocks and taking profit in our top holdings, Hwang Woo-taek, who manages the funds 1.15 trillion won ($887 million) assets, said in an interview.

Tesla Is No Longer Top Stock in Cathie Woods Flagship Fund

Some of the outflow from Elon Musks firm has trickled into Chinas EV makers, with the Korean fund adding names including BYD Co. and Xpeng Inc. in March and April after excessive drops, Hwang said. It has also increased holdings in EV supply-chain stocks ABB Ltd. in Switzerland and US-based Eaton Corp. and lifted its cash holdings.

The fund has bested 98% of its peers over the past three years, riding the longer term success of Tesla, but has suffered a 20% loss so far in 2022. Hwang said hes waiting for more innovation from Tesla, such as the launch of Cybertruck, before buying more.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2022 Bloomberg L.P.
On Friday, June 24, the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to a pregnant person's access to abortion after almost 50 years. The vote was 5-3-1, CNN reports. Justices Samuel Alito, Jr.; Clarence Thomas; Neil Gorsuch; Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett all voted in favor of overturning Roe. As a result of this decision, abortion access will be determined by the states, unless Congress decides to make abortion access a federal law.

President Joe Biden also delivered a speech on the issue, calling it a "solemn day for our country," noting that this is the first time in history that the Court has acted to revoke a Constitutional right.

"The health and life of women of our nation are now at risk," Biden said. "Make no mistake. This decision is the culmination of a deliberate effort over decades to upset the balance of our law." He pledged to do everything in his power to protect pregnant people's right to access abortion. He noted that, even if abortion is illegal in the state where you live, the right to travel to obtain an abortion remains in effect. At press time, almost half of the states already have or will pass laws that ban abortion while others have enacted measures to regulate it.

What did the Supreme Court decision rule?

In a joint dissenting opinion, Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan heavily criticized the majority, writing "With sorrow  for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection  we dissent."

They further wrote, "Whatever the exact scope of the coming laws, one result of today's decision is certain: the curtailment of women's rights, and of their status as free and equal citizens ... from the very moment of fertilization, a woman has no rights to speak of." The dissenting justices also noted that the decision will unduly impact pregnant people who may not have the resources to travel to obtain abortions in states where it remains legal.

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Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. voted with the majority but said he would have taken a more measured course, stopping short of overruling Roe entirely. Roberts wrote in his concurring opinion that he would have upheld a Mississippi law banning abortions after 15 weeks.

This decision comes on the heels of a leaked initial draft opinion by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, Jr. that came to light in early May. Heres what Roe v. Wade ruled, what the unprecedented decision means for abortion access in America right now and whats likely to happen next.

What exactly did Roe v. Wade rule?

In 1973, Roe v. Wade affirmed that, under the 14th Amendment, pregnant people have a constitutional right to have an abortion up to about 23 weeks, or the period when a fetus is typically viable outside the womb, CNN explains . But in 2021, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge to a Mississippi law that banned abortion after 15 weeks.

That set the wheels in motion to overturn Roe v. Wade in general, which the Biden administration urged the Courts not to do. At the time, Acting Solicitor General Brian H. Fletcher said that would "seriously undermine women's autonomy" and that the effects would likely "be felt most acutely by young women, women of color, and those of lesser means."

What did the leaked Supreme Court opinion draft say?

The draft opinion that leaked in May set the stage for what was to come. At the time, Alito wrote that Roe is highly restrictive and the Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, according to a New York Times analysis of the document .

He also observed that Roe and subsequent decisions upholding it have enflamed debate and deepened divisions among pro-choice and anti-abortion factions. The inescapable conclusion is that a right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the nations history and traditions, the draft continued. On the contrary, an unbroken tradition of prohibiting abortion on pain of criminal punishment persisted from the earliest days of the common law until 1973.

What happens now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned?

Legislators in 13 states have "trigger laws," or abortion bans designed to take effect immediately or soon after Roe is overturned, CNN reports . In some cases, the law requires an official like an attorney general to certify that Roe has been struck down before the law can go into effect. Those states include Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Wyoming and Utah.

Some state legislatures have already ruled to limit abortion access and others are preparing to do so. Those include Michigan, Wisconsin and West Virginia, which had already restricted abortion before Roe. Others, like Alabama, Georgia, Iowa, Ohio and South Carolina have heartbeat laws that ban the procedure after a certain number of weeks. Many of those have subsequently been blocked by the courts. In total, an analysis by the Guttmacher Institute found that 23 states have laws on the books or in the works that limit abortion access, some of them more than one.

On the other hand, some state legislatures have already passed laws that seek to improve abortion access, including California, which passed a law in March to remove out-of-pocket costs for abortions covered by health insurance. In Colorado, Democratic lawmakers codified the right to abortion, as well. In December 2021, the U.S. government made permanent its COVID-era rule change that allows a pregnant person to obtain abortion medications like Mifeprex and its generic by mail. Its not legal in every state, but Plan C has searchable information about medication abortion by state and AbortionFinder.org offers details about both abortion pills and procedures. The National Abortion Federation Hotline (1-800-772-9100) also provides free referrals and information.

This new argument also calls into question another landmark case from 1992, Planned Parenthood v. Casey. That decision stated that individual states could not impose an undue burden on abortion access, according to The New York Times and has helped uphold access along with Roe since then.

Public opinion still sides with abortion access:

A broad majority of Americans did not want to see Roe vs. Wade overturned, according to a May CNN poll. Respondents voted 66% to 34%, that they did not want the Supreme Court to completely overturn its decision. In that same poll, 58% of U.S. adults said that, if Roe were overturned, they'd want their state to set abortion laws that were more permissive and 51% said they'd want their state to offer a safe haven for people who had to travel to access abortions.

Already, politicians and activists have responded to the decision, on both sides of the issue. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the ruling "such an insult, a slap in the face to women. This morning the radical Supreme Court is eviscerating women's rights and endangering their health and safety," she said. "Today the Republican-controlled courts achieve their dark, extreme goal of repealing a woman's right to make their own health decisions."

On the other hand, former Vice President Mike Pence commended the justices in their decision, calling it "a new beginning for life." He said, "Now that Roe v. Wade has been consigned to the ash heap of history, a new arena in the cause of life has emerged, and it is incumbent on all who cherish the sanctity of life to resolve that we will take the defense of the unborn and the support for women in crisis pregnancy centers to every state in America."



As he closed his speech, Biden urged voters to make their priorities clear at the ballot box. "Voters need to make their voices heard," Biden said. "This fall Roe is on the ballot. Personal freedoms are on the ballot. The right to privacy, liberty, equality, they're all on the ballot."

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The Supreme Court has delivered a major ruling striking down Roe v. Wade. Well dive into the ramifications and where abortion stands in states following the ruling.

For The Hill, were Peter Sullivan, Nathaniel Weixel & Joseph Choi. If you enjoy this newsletter, please consider sharing it with a friend. Not on the list? Subscribe here.





Roe v. Wade is struck down. What happens now?

The decision Friday striking down Roe v. Wade leaves abortion laws up to each state, leaving a patchwork of laws across the country.

Thirteen states have immediate trigger laws to ban almost all abortions: Arkansas, Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.



More to watch: States including Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Michigan, South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia, Alabama and Ohio also have pursued laws that would ban abortion, but they would not go into effect immediately.



Other situations: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed into law a 15-week abortion ban in April, which will go into effect on July 1. Like the Mississippi law at issue in the Supreme Court case, it bans the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy and doesnt include exemptions for rape, incest or human trafficking.

The pro-abortion rights Guttmacher Institute estimates that 33 million U.S. women of child-bearing ages live in states that have laws on the books or set to be implemented that would ban or heavily restrict access to abortion. Guttmacher estimates 26 states are certain or likely to ban abortion.

Those who have struggled in the past are going to be forced into possibly untenable situations to travel great distances or could be forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term, said Bethany Van Kampen, a senior policy advisor for Ipas, an abortion rights advocacy group.

Map note: Three states  Oklahoma, Arkansas and Mississippi  have a trigger law for a Roe decision and have also passed pre-Roe decision abortion bans, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Story continues

View the full map and read more here





Biden reacts to ruling: Court paving extreme path

President Biden on Friday accused the Supreme Court of taking an extremist path with its decision overturning Roe v. Wade, arguing the court made a tragic error.

What he said: Its a sad day for the court and for the country, Biden said at the White House. The health and life of women in this nation is now at risk.



Biden specifically called out the court for completely overturning Roe v. Wade and leaving the decision on abortion rights entirely to states.



He noted a person who is the victim of rape and incest would no longer be able to get an abortion unless a state law provides such an exception.

In the room: Biden delivered the remarks just after noon on Friday, roughly two hours after the ruling was issued.

A group of about a dozen female White House aides, including domestic policy adviser Susan Rice, watched on silently during his speech from a corner of the room.

Read more here.





THOMAS OPENS DOOR TO OVERTURNING OTHER PRECEDENTS

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on Friday called for overturning the constitutional rights the court had affirmed for access to contraceptives and LGBTQ rights in an opinion concurring with the majority decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

In his separate opinion, Thomas acknowledged that Fridays decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization does not directly affect any rights besides abortion.



However, he argued that the constitutions Due Process Clause does not secure a right to an abortion or any other substantive rights, and he urged the court to apply that reasoning to other landmark cases.

His argument: Thomas wrote, In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Courts substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell.

Why it matters: The three cases Thomas mentioned are all landmark decisions and deal with contraceptives, same-sex relationships and same-sex marriage.

Since Justice Samuel Alitos draft majority opinion overturning Roe was leaked earlier this year, Democrats and liberal activists have warned that the conservative majority would soon turn its attention to other rights that the court has previously affirmed.

Read more here.





COLLINS: RULING INCONSISTENT WITH WHAT TRUMP NOMINEES TOLD ME

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on Friday said conservative Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch misled her about their views on the importance of Supreme Court precedent during their confirmation proceedings in 2017 and 2018.

Collins, who voted to confirm then-President Trumps first two nominees to the court despite her support for abortion rights, has said she believed the justices would hold up important precedents such as Roe v. Wade.



A court majority that included Kavanaugh and Gorsuch on Friday struck down the landmark 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion.

What she was told: This decision is inconsistent with what Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh said in their testimony and their meetings with me, where they both were insistent on the importance of supporting long-standing precedents that the country has relied upon, Collins said, explaining her votes for those nominees during the Trump administration.

The Supreme Court has abandoned a fifty-year precedent at a time that the country is desperate for stability, Collins said in a statement. This ill-considered action will further divide the country at a moment when, more than ever in modern times, we need the Court to show both consistency and restraint.

Read more here.





Biden vows to protect access to pills, contraception, travel

President Biden on Friday vowed to protect access to abortion pills and contraception in the wake of the Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

In remarks from the White House, Biden lambasted the decision as a tragic error carried out by an extreme, conservative-controlled Supreme Court.



Its a sad day for the country in my view, but it doesnt mean the fights over, he said, calling for Congress to codify abortion protections through federal law.

White House action: Biden vowed that his administration would protect womens access to medications approved by the Food and Drug Administration, including both contraceptives and oral abortifacients such as mifepristone.

My administration will also protect a womans access to medications that are approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the FDA. Like contraception which is essential for preventative health care [and] mifepristone, which the FDA approved 20 years ago to safely end early pregnancies and is commonly used to treat miscarriages, the president said.

Abortion travel: He also said his administration would defend the bedrock right of a woman living in a state where abortions are now outlawed to travel to another state where it is available and terminate her pregnancy.

If any state or local official, high or low, tries to interfere with a woman exercising her basic right to travel, I will do everything in my power to fight that deeply un-American attack, said Biden.

Read more here





WHAT WERE READING

Covid-19 vaccines prevented nearly 20 million deaths in a year, study estimates (Stat)

From joy to anger, faith leaders react to Roes reversal (Associated Press)

Can I still buy Plan B? Where can I get it? What to know after SCOTUS overturns Roe v. Wade (USA Today)





STATE BY STATE

A Post-Roe World in Georgia Will Mean More Restrictions  And More Political Battles (Kaiser Health News)

West Coast governors promise to defend abortion rights (Oregon Public Broadcasting)

Mississippi Abortion Clinic Will Remain Open Until At Least July 4th (Mississippi Free Press)





OP-EDS IN THE HILL

We must end the public health emergency carefully





Thats it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hills Health Care page for the latest news and coverage. See you next week.





VIEW THE FULL EDITION HERE

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
MADISON, Wis. (AP)  A Wisconsin teenager accused of killing a 10-year-old girl will find out in September whether he will stand trial.

Chippewa County Circuit Judge Benjamin Lane on Friday scheduled a Sept. 1 preliminary hearing for the 14-year-old boy, identified in court documents as C.T.P.-B. That's the step in the criminal justice process where a judge determines if enough evidence exists to bind a defendant over for trial.

The boy was charged in adult court on April 27 with first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree sexual assault and first-degree sexual assault of a child under age 13 in connection with the killing of Iliana Peters, who was known as Lily. Anyone who is at least 10 years old and is accused of first- or second-degree homicide is considered an adult in Wisconsin's court system.

Lily disappeared on the night of April 24 as she was riding her bike home from her aunt's house in Chippewa Falls, according to the criminal complaint. Searchers found her body in the woods the next morning.

The boy told investigators that he was riding his hoverboard alongside Lily on a trail and he intended to sexually assault and kill her, according to the complaint.

He asked Lily to leave the trail and explore the woods with him. According to the complaint, he told investigators that once they were off the trail, he punched her, hit her with a stick and strangled her before he sexually assaulted her body.

The boy's attorney, Michael Cohen, told Lane on Friday that he was upset that someone posted a video online that included recordings of police communications in the moments Lily's body was found and that characterized the boy as a little monster. Cohen alleged that someone in law enforcement leaked confidential information to the poster and demanded the judge issue a gag order. He didn't specify against whom, though.

Lane asked Cohen for the link to the video and stated that anyone with access to investigatory materials should keep them confidential and their release could jeopardize the boy's right to a fair trial.
UPDATED with latest: Hollywoods unions are reacting Friday to the Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v Wade.

The Directors Guild of America strongly condemned the Supreme Courts ruling, calling it a travesty. In a statement, DGA president Lesli Linka Glatter said that the ruling is a giant step backwards for our country and puts womens lives at risk. It denies countless women the most basic of their human rights  the right to autonomy over their own bodies. We are committed to making sure our members continue to have access and ability to make their own reproductive decisions and determine the path they set for their own lives. We strongly condemn this ruling and stand in solidarity with so many others speaking out to decry this travesty.

More from Deadline

Earlier today, the Directors Guild Foundation approved a new policy providing financial travel assistance to DGA members who need to travel out of state to ensure they have access to safe abortion services regardless of their state of residence.

***

Gail Berman and Lucy Fisher, presidents of the Producers Guild of America, said in a statement on Saturday that The Supreme Court decision is deeply dangerous and will create untold harm. Women deserve better than the oppression that we witnessed yesterday. We stand with our sister guilds, colleagues, and the women and men across this country who firmly believe that reproductive rights are a fundamental human right.

The PGA is not a labor union, but a nonprofit trade organization.

SAG-AFTRA has called the decision archaic and dangerous, and vowed to fight to protect womens right to choice.

Story continues

Anyone who believes in the right of women to make their own healthcare decisions should be outraged with todays archaic and dangerous ruling, the guild said in a statement Friday. Every American deserves and is entitled to an equal right to healthcare choice. Today, the United States Supreme Court abandoned that principle in a ruling that empowers states to enact draconian restrictions on healthcare choice and destroy lives, if we allow it. We will continue to fight to ensure the overwhelming majority voice of the people is heard in state and federal legislative bodies. We have the collective power to make certain todays decision does not overcome the will of the people. SAG-AFTRA will fight to protect womens right to choice and self-determination that has been recognized for decades.

The guild added that it is committed to protecting the health and safety of the members in our industry and beyond, and offered a guide to abortion laws in each state, which can be seen here.

SAG-AFTRA noted that it is a union that has among its members a diverse group of performers, broadcasters and newscasters. The passage of this statement should not be interpreted as a personal statement of opinion by or of any specific member of the union.

The guild is also taking steps, effective immediately, to ensure that its employees will have access to abortions even if they live in states that discontinue abortion services in the wake of the Supreme Courts ruling.

In a message to the unions staff, SAG-AFTRA national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said that SAG-AFTRA as both a union and an employer is committed to the principle that all our members, all our employees, and indeed all Americans should have equal access to reproductive healthcare and an equal right to make the sometimes difficult decision to terminate a pregnancy. The decision made by the Supreme Court is both wrongheaded and dangerous for our members and our staff.

Many of the efforts that will be made to protect against the effects of this decision will require collective action and will take substantial time to see results. Where we have the opportunity to take immediate action to mitigate this misguided decision, we will do so.

In that spirit, effective immediately, SAG-AFTRA is adopting a policy to provide support for SAG-AFTRA employees who live or work in any state or jurisdiction that restricts access to abortion services beyond the parameters previously in place under Roe v. Wade. SAG-AFTRA will, as an employee benefit, reimburse employees for the costs of travel to the nearest location where abortion services are available. A more detailed policy setting out precisely how this benefit will work will be made available soon by People & Culture.

This is one small but important step to help make sure that all our colleagues have the right to make such personal and significant decisions for themselves. I will keep you posted over the coming days, weeks, and months on what other efforts and initiatives we will undertake as part of our broader campaign to protect the rights of our members and staff.

***

The WGA West board of directors, and the WGA East Council, said in a joint statement, said that they join to condemn the Supreme Courts decision Friday morning overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that protected reproductive rights and the freedom of choice. Once again, this court has chosen to ignore public opinion and to violate the privacy and health of a vast percentage of the American population. This decision will lead to injury, death and the denial of basic human rights that allow Americans to lead the lives they choose without fear of interference or bodily harm. We now look to the states to enforce existing law or to act to pass new legislation that will protect against the Supreme Courts misguided and harmful decision.

The statement was signed by WGA West President Meredith Stiehm, Vice President Michele Mulroney, Secretary-Treasurer Betsy Thomas, and board members Liz Alper, Patti Carr, Robb Chavis, Adam Conover, Marjorie David, Travis Donnelly, Ashley Gable, Dante W. Harper, Eric Haywood, Deric A. Hughes, E. Nicholas Mariani, Zoe Marshall, Dailyn Rodriguez, David Slack, Patric M. Verrone, and Nicole Yorkin.

Signing for the WGA East were President Michael Winship, Vice President Lisa Takeuchi, Secretary Treasurer Christopher Kyle, and Council members Monica Lee Bellais, Sara David, Ashley Feinberg, Kaitlin Fontana, Gina Gionfriddo, Josh Gondelman, Tian Jun Gu, A.M. Homes, Liz Hynes, Kim Kelly, Gail Lee, Hamilton Nolan, Benjamin Rosenblum, Erica Saleh, David Simon, Lauren Ashley Smith, Sasha Stewart, Kelly Stout, and Tracey Scott Wilson.

***

IATSE also blasted the Supreme Courts ruling, calling it an outrageous decision and one of the worst contractions of freedoms in modern U.S. history.

If extremist justices will blatantly ignore established legal precedent and lie about it in their confirmation hearings, how far will they go? the union said in a statement. The Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health decision shows the court is prepared to nullify the rights Americans fought and died for. We stand together as sisters, brothers, and kin to ensure liberty and justice for all. Lawmakers at all levels must defend reproductive healthcare and Americans fundamental freedoms immediately, or face being replaced by those who will.

Make no mistake, this will directly harm the welfare of our union sisters and kin, and therefore we must respond strongly, the union representing behind-the-scenes film and TV workers said. We know well the catastrophic consequences that follow when authoritarians legislate control over our wombs, bodies, and lives.Taking away the option to receive compassionate reproductive care in the form of safe, legal abortions will disproportionally harm working-class people, force unwilling parents into poverty, worsen the already unacceptable maternal mortality crisis, imprison innocents for their biological functions (including miscarriages), and cut short far too many bright careers and lives.

In a separate statement, the IATSE Womens Committee said that it believes in the right of all persons to make life choices based on the best information they have that impacts their immediate decision. Having lived in this country as women, many of us know too well the injustices and inequities that well face under this authoritarian move. Not that long ago, we fought for contraceptive insurance coverage, and its still not comprehensive. We still fight for equal pay. We still dont have equal representation in our so-called halls of justice.

Lets not forget that just a few short months ago we saw many Americans stealing the pro-choice slogan My Body, My Choice when it was convenient for them. Our bodies are no less valuable. Our contributions to this country are no less valuable. Our choices are equally significant. This is about controlling women.

The Womens Committee is primed to take back that slogan and stand with the 70 % of Americans who support choice. We will stand together with our sisters, brothers, and kin to ensure liberty and justice for all.

The statement was signed by Joanne Sanders, IATSE vice president and chair of IATSE Womens Committee.

IATSEs Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee also weighed in, saying that it is dismayed and outraged by the Dobbs v. Jackson decision overturning Roe vs Wade. All five justices in favor spoke to Roe vs Wade being an established precedent in their confirmation hearings, and now blatantly ignore that precedent. BIPOC and working-class people will bear the brunt of this decision; autonomy and choice will be taken away, with no exceptions in at least 20 states across the USA.

The language of the decision and blatant disregard of established precedent is disturbing, and leaves opportunities to repeal established Civil Rights legislation on interracial marriage, marriage equality, equal opportunity and Title IX, and even Brown v. Board of Education. Decades of hard-fought progress on voting rights, equality, humanity and equity-building are at risk from the stroke of a pen. We must not let this happen. We will work together to protect choice and our collective Civil Rights.

***

Actors Equity Association, which represents more than 51,000 actors and stage managers in live theater, also joined the chorus.

Knowing that this decision was likely imminent has not made this news any less painful, Equity said in a statement. This is a catastrophic step backwards for human rights in this country. Equity once again affirms that abortion is a necessary and often life-saving medical procedure that requires safe, legal and open access.

Equitys thoughts are with our members, knowing that populations that are already marginalized by society will suffer the most as a result of this ruling, and the anti-abortion movement especially targets groups like women and LGBTQ+ Americans. However, this is not a time to mourn, but a time for action. The union is determined to do everything in our power to serve our members, which includes helping them access abortion care.

So much in the future is uncertain, as some states have already set into motion legislation that not only criminalizes abortion, but outlaws even providing care related to abortion access. Access to reproductive care is a labor issue, and a safe and sanitary workplace is not possible without the right to bodily autonomy. We are determined to find ways to protect our members, many of whom tour the country to earn a living, or who live or work in states that are about to become far more dangerous for those needing reproductive care. This will include connecting them to whatever resources are available that will help them secure abortions when they need them.

We also know that this fight will not stop with abortion. We will lend our voice to the important work already underway to protect abortion access, and we remain committed to combatting legislation that seeks to capitalize on this ruling and further impinge on human rights in the United States.

***

Saying that the system is broken and that the legitimacy of the Supreme Court must be reevaluated, the American Guild of Musical Artists, which represents more than 6,000 singers, dancers and staging staff in opera, ballet and concert dance, is also deploring the high courts ruling.

In a statement, AGMA president Ray Menard said that This ruling, a departure from 50 years of established law, makes abortion immediately inaccessible and often illegal to obtain in large portions of the country. Starting today, any person with a uterus now risks having to carry a pregnancy to term against their will and regardless of the risk, possibly at the cost of their own lives.

When we learned of this eventuality through the leak of a draft opinion in May, I said: Unions have always known that comprehensive healthcare is a fundamental right, and this decision will make it harder for pregnant people to make their own choices and chart their own destinies.

Our fears have become a reality. Overturning Roe and Casey after nearly a half a century makes safe access to healthcare, the protection of bodily autonomy, and the preservation of a persons right to choose impossible for many across the United States. Today, a persons right to plan their own life, on their own terms, was stolen. Notably, this reversal further deepens and worsens the preexisting and profound health inequities that exist in our country.

As we begin to live in a world without a constitutional right to abortion, we must reckon with the enormous consequences of this ruling. Todays decision does not just imperil abortion rights, it also calls into question other fundamental rights protected by the constitution, including the right to same-sex marriage and the right to contraception.

In a little more than 24 hours, the Court has issued two rulings that put Americans at immediate risk. In the first decision, the Court decreed that states have no authority to regulate concealed weapons. In the second, the Court held that states have unlimited authority to police the bodies of pregnant people. These decisions are not easily reconciled, except that they are nakedly political, based on profound misunderstanding and misapplication of history and legal precedent, and grounded in a brutal and backward worldview that makes us all less safe and less free.

The system is broken. The legitimacy of the Supreme Court must be reevaluated. I stand with the citizens who are protesting this mornings ruling. Today is a good reminder that our power doesnt come from laws; it comes from everyday working people, united, who remain on the front lines of the fight for a better world, even on sad days like today. Together, we are our solace, our refuge, and our strength, and we must stand united to face what comes next.

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TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP)  For Lam Wing-kee, a Hong Kong bookstore owner who was detained by police in China for five months for selling sensitive books about the Communist Party, coming to Taiwan was a logical step.

An island just 640 kilometers (400 miles) from Hong Kong, Taiwan is close not just geographically but also linguistically and culturally. It offered the freedoms that many Hong Kongers were used to and saw disappearing in their hometown.

Lams move to Taiwan in 2019, where he reopened his bookstore in Taipei, the capital, presaged a wave of emigration from Hong Kong as the former British colony came under the tighter grip of China s central government and its long-ruling Communist Party.

Its not that Hong Kong doesnt have any democracy, it doesnt even have any freedom, Lam said in a recent interview. When the English were ruling Hong Kong, they didnt give us true democracy or the power to vote, but the British gave Hong Kongers a very large space to be free.

Hong Kong and Chinese leaders will mark next week the 25th anniversary of its return to China. At the time, some people were willing to give China a chance. China had promised to rule the city within the "one country, two systems framework for 50 years. That meant Hong Kong would retain its own legal and political system and freedom of speech that does not exist in mainland China.

But in the ensuing decades, a growing tension between the citys Western-style liberal values and mainland Chinas authoritarian political system culminated in explosive pro-democracy protests in 2019. In the aftermath, China imposed a national security law that has left activists and others living in fear of arrest for speaking out.

Hong Kong still looked the same. The malls were open, the skyscrapers were gleaming. But well-known artist Kacey Wong, who moved to Taiwan last year, said he constantly worried about his own arrest or those of his friends, some of whom are now in jail.

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On the outside its still beautiful, the sunset at the harbor view. But its an illusion that makes you think youre still free, he said. In reality youre not, the government is watching you and secretly following you.

Though Wong feels safe in Taiwan, life as an exile is not easy. Despite its similarities to Hong Kong, Wong found his new home an alien place. He does not speak Taiwanese, a widely spoken Fujianese dialect. And the laid-back island contrasts strongly with the fast-paced financial capital that was Hong Kong.

The first six months were hard, Wong said, noting that traveling as a tourist to Taiwan is completely different than living on the island in self-imposed exile.

I havent established the relationship with the place, with the streets, with the people, with the language, with the shop downstairs, he said.

Other, less prominent exiles than Wong or Lam have also had to navigate a system that does not have established laws or mechanisms for refugees and asylum seekers, and has not always been welcoming. That issue is further complicated by Taiwans increasing wariness of security risks posed by China, which claims the island as its renegade province, and of Beijings growing influence in Hong Kong.

For example, some individuals such as public school teachers and doctors have been denied permanent residency in Taiwan because they had worked for the Hong Kong government, said Sky Fung, the secretary general of Hong Kong Outlanders, a group that advocates for Hong Kongers in Taiwan. Others struggle with the tighter requirements and slow processing of investment visas.

In the past year or so, some have chosen to leave Taiwan, citing a clearer immigration path in the U.K. and Canada, despite the bigger gulf in language and culture.

Wong said that Taiwan has missed a golden opportunity to keep talented people from Hong Kong. The policies and actions, and what the ... government is doing is not proactive enough and caused uncertainty in these people, thats why theyre leaving, he said.

The islands Mainland Affairs Council has defended its record, saying it found that some migrants from Hong Kong hired immigration companies who took illegal methods, such as not carrying through on investments and hiring locals they had promised on paper.

We in Taiwan, also have national security needs, Chiu Chui-cheng, deputy minister at the Mainland Affairs Council, said on a TV program last week. Of course we also want to help Hong Kong, we have always supported Hong Kongers in their support for freedom, democracy and rule of law.

Some 11,000 Hong Kongers got residence permits in Taiwan last year, according to Taiwans National Immigration Agency, and 1,600 were able to get permanent residency. The U.K. granted 97,000 applications to Hong Kong holders of British National Overseas passports last year in response to China's crackdown.

However imperfect, Taiwan gives the activists a chance to continue to carry out their work, even if the direct actions of the past were no longer possible.

Lam was one of five Hong Kong booksellers whose seizure by Chinese security agents in 2016 drew global concern.

He often lends his presence to protests against China, most recently attending a June 4 memorial in Taipei to mark the anniversary of a bloody crackdown on democracy protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989. Similar protests in Hong Kong and Macao, until recently the only places in China allowed to commemorate the Tiananmen massacre, are no longer allowed.

As a Hong Konger, I actually havent stopped my resistance. I have always continued to do what I needed to do in Taiwan, and participated in my events. I have not given up fighting, Lam said.
A Depop shop is under fire from Singaporeans for listing the iconic Singapore Airlines sarong kebaya uniform as a Vintage African Ankara Dress.

The uniform is being sold on the online clothing resale platform for 49 pounds (approximately $60) by UK-based shop Snakecakevintage. The uniform is described as funky, indie, boho, 90s, [and] vintage, and the model wearing it can be seen draped over a chair in one photo.

The products listing went viral after Twitter user Leyla Rose shared it on June 22, calling Depop wild.



An Ankara dress is made of African wax prints and features colorful patterns, while the sarong kebaya is made using traditional Asian batik and is worn by Singapore Airlines flight attendants. The latter was designed by the late French fashion designer Pierre Balmain in 1968.

More from NextShark: Asians on TikTok are sharing relatable moments that left them too stunned to speak

Many Singaporeans on Twitter mocked the models pose, while some tagged Singapore Airlines official Twitter account.

Suitable and durable [and] even possessed by ghosts, one Twitter user wrote.

More from NextShark: First panda cub born in Singapore is named Le Le by online voters

Can you imagine watching some person walk down the street wearing this as everyday wear? They would think I bought a wonderful vintage piece. Nah girl, you bought the Singapore Air dresscode! another user commented.

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Feature Image via Depop(left) and Singapore Airlines(right)

More from NextShark: Coffee shop owner in Taiwan hangs banner warning customers over 18 not to call her auntie
(Bloomberg) -- The International Monetary Fund called on China to accelerate its coronavirus vaccination program, warning the sharply slowing pace of new doses administered could undermine a recovery in consumer spending in the economy.

Most Read from Bloomberg

At the current pace, providing three doses of Covid vaccines to the population would take a matter of years, Helge Berger, head of the IMFs China mission, said in an interview. With spending growth yet to recover to pre-pandemic rates, partly because households are cautious about Covid infections, an acceleration of the vaccination campaign would support confidence and ultimately consumption, he said.

About 375 million people over the age of 15 in China have yet to receive three doses of a vaccine, while the daily vaccination rate has fallen below 800,000 per day, according to official data. Studies have shown that three doses of Chinas domestic coronavirus vaccines were nearly as effective as mRNA vaccines in preventing severe infections or deaths.

The low rate of full vaccination, particularly among elderly people, is one of the reasons China is persisting with its strict Covid Zero policy requiring limits on activity wherever virus cases occur. Only about 64% of Chinese people over 60 have received three doses, according to Chinas national health commission.

Berger said the lockdowns in Shanghai and dozens of other cities since March are a key reason the IMF sees downside risks to its April forecast of 4.4% gross domestic product growth for China this year.

The second quarter will be weak given the lockdowns, he said.

While national data has largely returned to pre-lockdown levels, Berger added that in Shanghai, measures of economic activity monitored by the IMF have recovered only to around 50%.

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Read more: Even Without a Lockdown, Beijings Economy Struggled in May

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg predict growth of 4.1% in China this year and a possible contraction in quarter-on-quarter GDP in the April-June period. That makes it unlikely the government will meet its full-year target of around 5.5%.

The IMF has consistently called on Beijing to increase fiscal support to households. Even taking into account measures announced since April, Chinas fiscal stimulus this year is smaller relative to 2020, Berger added.

The known fiscal measures this year are still small relative to 2020, even taking into account that in 2020 the overall shock was larger than this year, he said.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2022 Bloomberg L.P.
Potential Condor Gold Plc (LON:CNR) shareholders may wish to note that the Independent Non-Executive Director, James Mellon, recently bought UK357k worth of stock, paying UK0.20 for each share. While that's a very decent purchase to our minds, it was proportionally a bit modest, boosting their holding by just 7.1%.

View our latest analysis for Condor Gold

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Condor Gold

In fact, the recent purchase by James Mellon was the biggest purchase of Condor Gold shares made by an insider individual in the last twelve months, according to our records. We do like to see buying, but this purchase was made at well below the current price of UK0.24. Because it occurred at a lower valuation, it doesn't tell us much about whether insiders might find today's price attractive.

Condor Gold insiders may have bought shares in the last year, but they didn't sell any. The chart below shows insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

There are always plenty of stocks that insiders are buying. So if that suits your style you could check each stock one by one or you could take a look at this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).

Insider Ownership of Condor Gold

Looking at the total insider shareholdings in a company can help to inform your view of whether they are well aligned with common shareholders. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will be incentivised to build the company for the long term. Insiders own 24% of Condor Gold shares, worth about UK9.3m. We've certainly seen higher levels of insider ownership elsewhere, but these holdings are enough to suggest alignment between insiders and the other shareholders.

So What Does This Data Suggest About Condor Gold Insiders?

It is good to see recent purchasing. We also take confidence from the longer term picture of insider transactions. But on the other hand, the company made a loss during the last year, which makes us a little cautious. When combined with notable insider ownership, these factors suggest Condor Gold insiders are well aligned, and that they may think the share price is too low. While we like knowing what's going on with the insider's ownership and transactions, we make sure to also consider what risks are facing a stock before making any investment decision. At Simply Wall St, we've found that Condor Gold has 4 warning signs (1 is concerning!) that deserve your attention before going any further with your analysis.

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If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt.

For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions, but not derivative transactions.

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.
ABC News

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol will hold a hearing this Tuesday, June 28, after previously revising its schedule to postpone the hearings for "several weeks." The hearing will begin at 1 p.m. ET and members will "present recently obtained evidence and receive witness testimony," the committee said in a release. The new scheduling comes after British documentary filmmaker Alex Holder, who had substantial access to then-President Donald Trump, his family and closest aides around the Jan. 6 attack, sat for an interview with the committee behind-closed-doors last week and handed over footage which includes interviews with Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump, son-in-law Jared Kushner and Vice President Mike Pence.
(EPA)

Israeli security forces fired the bullets that killed journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in May, a UN report has found.

Abu Akleh, an Al Jazeera correspondent, was shot dead on 11 May while covering a raid in the occupied West Bank town of Jenin.

The UNs report said that just after 6.00am seven journalists arrived at the refugee camp in Jenin. Half an hour later the group of reporters turned into a street and were shot at by Israeli forces.

One single bullet injured Ali Sammoudi in the shoulder; another single bullet hit Abu Akleh in the head and killed her instantly, the report said.

Another journalist working for the publication Al-Quds, Ali Sammoudi, was also shot and wounded in the incident.

We find that the shots that killed Abu Akleh came from Israeli security forces, UN Human Rights Office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva.

It is deeply disturbing that Israeli authorities have not conducted a criminal investigation.

We at the UN Human Rights Office have concluded our independent monitoring into the incident.

The shots that killed Abu Akleh and injured her colleague Ali Sammoudi came from Israeli security forces and not from indiscriminate firing by armed Palestinians, as initially claimed by Israeli authorities, she said.

Ms Shamdasani added that the UNs monitoring of the incident involved going through photo, video and audio material.

It had also visited the scene, consulted experts, reviewed official communications and interviewed witnesses, she added.

In a statement responsing to the UNs findings, Israel insisted it was not possible to say who had fired the shot and there had been an exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Palestinian gunmen.

Ever since the incident, the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) has been investigating and reviewing the circumstances of Ms Abu Aklehs death, the statement said.

The IDF investigation clearly concludes that Ms Abu Akleh was not intentionally shot by an IDF soldier and that it is not possible to determine whether she was killed by a Palestinian gunman shooting indiscriminately in her area or inadvertently by an IDF soldier.

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Israeli and Palestinians officials have exchanged recriminations over the incident, which has heightened tensions. Israel has denied that any of its soldiers targeted a journalist.

An earlier investigation by Palestinian authorities concluded that Israeli forces deliberately shot and killed the experienced reporter.

The incident has drawn strong worldwide condemnation, which was then execerbated when Israeli forces attacked a crowd of mourners carrying Abu Aklehs coffin.

The pandemonium nearly caused the pallbearers to drop the casket during the May 14 procession in east Jerusalem.

Footage shared on social media showed thousands of mourners at the event carrying Palestinian flags as they transported the body of the well-respected journalist from the St Louis French Hospital in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood.

Vidoes then showed Israeli security forces attacking a number of people at the funeral, including kicking and hitting them with batons.

Additional reporting by agencies
Palestinians visit the site where Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh was killed in the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank on May 18, 2022. Photo by Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Israeli security forces fired shots that killed Shireen Abu Akleh last month, a UN investigation found.

The Al Jazeera reporter was killed covering an Israeli military raid on May 11.

A UN spokesperson urged Israeli authorities to open a criminal investigation into the incident.

Israeli security forces fired the fatal shot that killed veteran Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh last month, a United Nations panel determined on Friday.

A spokesperson for the UN's human rights office said that based on information gathered from the Israeli military and Palestinian attorney-general, "the shots that killed Abu Akleh and injured her colleague Ali Sammoudi came from Israeli Security Forces and not from indiscriminate firing by armed Palestinians, as initially claimed by Israeli authorities."

"We have found no information suggesting that there was activity by armed Palestinians in the immediate vicinity of the journalists," the spokesperson continued in a statement.

Al Jazeera journalist Abu Akleh was fatally shot on May 11 while covering an Israeli military operation in the West Bank's Jenin refugee camp. She was marked as a reporter with a bulletproof helmet and vest that said "PRESS," according to Al Jazeera's statement on her death.

Her death sparked condemnation among various human rights organizations and US lawmakers. During the funeral procession a few days later, Israeli police were caught on video beating mourners  nearly causing Abu Akleh's casket to fall to the ground.

The Palestinian Authority and Al Jazeera initially pinned Abu Akleh's death on Israel, while the Israeli Defense Forces suggested she was killed by Palestinian gunmen  before walking back on that claim.

The UN said it interviewed witnesses, reviewed official communications, visited the scene of the incident, consulted with experts, and used photo, video, and audio evidence to make its determination.

"Several single, seemingly well-aimed bullets were fired towards them from the direction of the Israeli Security Forces," the UN said about the gunfire.

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Friday's UN decision is the latest to conclude that Israeli forces killed Abu Akleh  news outlets like the New York Times and CNN have done the same. The US State Department previously called for an "immediate and thorough" investigation.

Nearly half of US senators sent a letter to President Joe Biden on Thursday urging the administration to be directly involved in an investigation.

The UN said on Friday it's "deeply disturbing" that Israel has not yet conducted a criminal investigation into Shireen Abu Akleh's killing and urged authorities to do so.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Former Justice Department officials detailed in a Jan. 6 committee hearing Thursday then-President Donald Trump's relentless campaign to overturn the 2020 election, which almost led to mass resignations.

Testimony centered on a dramatic Jan. 3 Oval Office meeting in which Trump was considering firing former Acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen in favor of ex-DOJ official Jeffrey Clark.

Notably, Clark was pushing extremely hard for the DOJ to send a letter encouraging state governments to send alternative slates of electors to Washington, D.C.

Rosen detailed the meeting, along with fellow former Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue and former Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel Steven Engel.

JAN. 6 COMMITTEE MEMBERS TO GET PERSONAL SECURITY DETAILS AS THREATS ESCALATE

Former Acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark was in the spotlight at Thursday's Jan. 6 Committee hearing for refusing to accept that the 2020 election wasn't stolen. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas/File Photo

"The president turned to me, and he said, 'Well, one thing we know is you, Rosen, you aren't going to do anything. You don't even agree with the claims of election fraud,'" Rosen said in his testimony. "And then I said, 'Well, Mr. President, you're right that I'm not going to allow the Justice Department to do anything to try to overturn the election.'"

Later at the meeting, Donoghue said he told the president there would be mass resignations at the DOJ if Rosen was fired and replaced with Clark.

"I would resign immediately, I'm not working one minute for this guy, who I just declared was completely incompetent," Donoghue said. "And so the president immediately turned to Mr. Enggel and he said, 'Steve, you wouldn't resign, would you?' And he said, 'Absolutely I would. Mr. President, you'd leave me no choice.' And I said, 'And we're not the only ones.'"

Engel said he told Trump, "Mr. President, within 24, 48, 72 hours, you could have hundreds and hundreds of resignations of the leadership of your entire Justice Department because of your actions."

JAN. 6 COMMITTEE HEARING: OFFICIALS DETAIL DOXXING, 'SEXUALIZED THREATS' TO FAMILIES AMID TRUMP PRESSURE

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Also discussed at the hearing were Trump's constant efforts to convince Rosen and his fellow DOJ officials to take actions to help him overturn the election. Rosen said Trump contacted him nearly every day from late December through early January.

Meanwhile, Rosen and Donoghue detailed how Clark refused to listen to the facts surrounding the false claims of election fraud. Even when confronted about the fact the letter he was pushing was not based in reality, "he doubled down" and "clung to" the idea that the election could have been stolen, Donoghue said.

Former Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen testified before the Jan. 6 Committee Thursday. Yuri Gripas-Pool/Getty Images

According to Donoghue, Trump even went so far as to ask him and Rosen to "just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen."

Thursday's hearing was the fifth in two weeks for the Jan. 6 Committee, which plans more hearings next month. So far, the committee has examined the events of Jan. 6 itself, Trump's pressure on state officials, whether Trump actually realized he lost the election and more.

It's possible the committee could investigate the role Republican members of Congress allegedly played in the attack in the future. It revealed Thursday that Reps. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., Scott Perry, R-Pa., Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., and Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, all requested pardons after the attack.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a witness said, discussed pardons for members but did not ask for one.
At its first public hearing, the Jan. 6 committee teased that multiple Republican lawmakers had asked then-President Donald Trump for pardons for their roles in the effort to overturn the 2020 election.

On Thursday, the panel named names and offered specific details about how those requests were made.

The list comprised Trump's closest congressional allies: Republican Reps. Mo Brooks of Alabama, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.

Perry and Biggs denied asking for a pardon.

Five days after the Capitol attack, Brooks sent an email to White House officials with the subject line: "Pardons."

Brooks said that he had been instructed by Trump to send the letter and that it was "pursuant to a request" from Gaetz for pardons for those two and other lawmakers.

"I recommend that President give general (all purpose) pardons to the following groups of people: ... Every Congressman and Senator who voted to reject the electoral college vote submissions of Arizona and Pennsylvania," Brooks wrote to the White House.

On Jan. 6, 2021, 127 Republicans voted to object to Arizona's election results; 145 Republicans voted to object to Pennsylvania's results.

A Trump White House lawyer, Eric Herschmann, said he specifically remembered Gaetzs seeking a pardon.

The general tone was: We may get prosecuted because we were defensive of, you know, the presidents positions on these things, Herschmann said in recorded testimony played during Thursday's hearing. The pardon that he was discussing, requesting, was as broad as you could describe. 

"He mentioned Nixon. And I said Nixons pardon was never nearly that broad.

Another Trump White House official, Cassidy Hutchinson, testified that the band of conservative lawmakers seeking pardons was made up largely of the same people who attended a now-infamous Dec. 21, 2020, meeting at the White House with Trump and his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, a former member of Congress, as they strategized how to overturn Joe Biden's election victory and keep Trump in power.

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In recorded testimony, Hutchinson rattled off several lawmakers by name, including Gaetz, Brooks, Biggs and Gohmert.

Another, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, "talked about congressional pardons, but he never asked me for one," Hutchinson testified.

Instead, she said, "it was more for an update on whether the White House was going to pardon members of Congress."

Jordan was the face of Trump's congressional defense during his two impeachment proceedings. Nearly all are members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, formerly led by Meadows and closely aligned with Trump.

Hutchinson testified that Perry, who played a critical role in Trump's election plot, also asked for a pardon; Greene, who had called Jan. 6 "our 1776 moment," asked then-White House deputy counsel Patrick Philbin for a pardon, Hutchinson said.

John McEntee, who was personnel director for Trump's White House, testified in a previous deposition about discussions about a blanket pardon for Trump family members and anyone else involved in Jan. 6.

"Umm, I know [Trump] had hinted at a blanket pardon for the January 6th thing for anyone," McEntee said, "but I think he had for all the staff and anybody involved."

Revelations that more than a half-dozen GOP lawmakers sought presidential pardons from Trump suggest that they were aware they were potentially breaking the law, committee members argued.

"The only reason I know to ask for a pardon is because you think youve committed a crime," said Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., a vocal Trump critic who played a prominent role in Thursday's hearing.

At an earlier hearing, the Jan. 6 panel revealed that conservative attorney John Eastman, the architect of the Trump effort to overturn the election, also had requested a pardon from the president.

Neither Eastman nor any of the GOP lawmakers ultimately got pardons.

Perry said in a statement that he never asked for a pardon for himself or other lawmakers.

At no time did I speak with Miss Hutchinson, a White House scheduler, nor any White House staff about a pardon for myself or any other Member of Congress  this never happened, he said.

Biggs said in a statement posted to Twitter late Thursday that the Jan. 6 committee continues to pursue me with the false allegation that I sought a presidential pardon.

To the extent Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House staffer, believes I requested a presidential pardon, she is mistaken, Biggs said.

Asked for comment, a Gaetz spokesman pointed to a tweet by Gaetz: "The January 6 Committee is an unconstitutional political sideshow."

As the hearing ended, Brooks issued a statement saying he would voluntarily testify before the panel if five conditions are met, including that his testimony be made in public and that only members of Congress be permitted to ask questions.

Brooks later told reporters he had spoken directly with Trump about presidential pardons, and that Trump told him to put his request in writing.

Asked how Trump responded after sending the email requesting pardons, Brooks responded, Well, bottom line is the president thought it would be best just to let it play out. I agreed with him. We let it play out.

After the hearing, Greene tweeted the clip of Hutchinson saying she had heard she had asked for a pardon.

"Saying 'I heard' means you dont know," Greene said. "Spreading gossip and lies is exactly what the January 6th Witch Hunt Committee is all about."

Later, Greene tweeted: "You know who needs to be pardoned? Julian Assange and Edward @Snowden."

Assange faces extradition to the U.S. to be tried on federal charges for publishing classified documents. Snowden remains in Russia, where he was granted asylum, after he fled there after he leaked classified documents.
Juul has asked a federal appeals court to temporarily block a Food and Drug Administration ban on sales of its vaping products in the US. The agency issued the order on Thursday, citing a lack of sufficient evidence provided by the company to show its devices are safe. The FDA acknowledged that it wasn't aware of "an immediate hazard" linked to Juul's vape pen or pods.

FDAs decision is arbitrary and capricious and lacks substantial evidence, Juul said in a filing with the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, according to The Wall Street Journal. The company called the ban extraordinary and unlawful. It requested an administrative stay until it can file a motion for an emergency review of the FDAs order.

Juul claimed that, without the stay, it would suffer significant and irreparable harm. The company makes the lion's share of its revenue in the US. If the stay is granted, Juul and retailers will be able to keep selling its products there. The company argued in the filing that the order marked a move away from the FDA's typical practices, which allow for a transition period.

"We respectfully disagree with the FDAs findings and decision and continue to believe we have provided sufficient information and data based on high-quality research to address all issues raised by the agency," Juul's chief regulatory officer Joe Murillo told Engadget after the FDA issued the order. "In our applications, which we submitted over two years ago, we believe that we appropriately characterized the toxicological profile of JUUL products, including comparisons to combustible cigarettes and other vapor products, and believe this data, along with the totality of the evidence, meets the statutory standard of being appropriate for the protection of the public health."

Murillo said Juul was exploring all of its options in the wake of the ruling. Among those, according to the Journal, is a possible bankruptcy filing if the company is unable to secure a stay or successfully appeal the ban.

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In 2020, the FDA required makers of e-cigarettes to submit their products for review. It looked at the possible benefits of vaping as an alternative to cigarettes for adult smokers. It was weighing those up against concerns about the popularity of vaping among young people. The agency has authorized 23 "electronic nicotine delivery systems," including products from NJOY and Vuse parent Reynolds American.

The FDA slammed Juul in 2019 for telling students that its products are "totally safe." The Federal Trade Commission and state attorney generals have investigated Juul over claims it marketed its vape pens to underage users. In the last year, the company has agreed to pay at least $87 million to settle lawsuits in several states  including North Carolina, Washington state and Arizona  which alleged that it targeted young people with its marketing. It has faced similar suits in other states.

Update 6/24 12:51PM ET: Added a note about the possible bankruptcy filing.
It took a jury almost four hours Thursday to find Lindley Thelismond guilty of first-degree homicide.

The result of a three-day trial before Judge Charles Jones Jr., Thelismond, of New York, will face a life sentence in the shooting death of James Jeter, 26, in what officials called a gang-related incident in 2019. Thelismond, who was 17 at the time, was apprehended in the 300 block of North 12th Street within hours of the incident, police said.

Lebanon County District Attorney Pier Hess Graf said the length of time the jurors took to come to a verdict shows how serious they took this case. But Thelismond was old enough to take a life, so he was old enough to take the consequences of his actions, she said.

"He's not a kid, this is not a game, (and) this is not a joke," she said to the jury during her closing arguments.

On Tuesday, Richard Andino testified he was playing video games at his home on the 1000 block of Orchard Ave. in 2019 when an argument broke out. During the argument, Thelismond reached into a drawer, pulled out a 9mm Taurus hand gun and shot Jeter.

"He killed my friend in my house where my kids were, then went home to sleep as if nothing happened," Andino said.

Andino, Thelismond and Jeter were all identified as being members of the Crips, a gang based out of Brooklyn, New York. Andino testified that he was ordered by bosses of the gang to help Thelismond find living arrangements in Lebanon after getting into trouble in Brooklyn.

Lindley Thelismond:Lebanon argument escalated to a fatal shooting, witness says in affidavit

Thelismond was in Lebanon to hide because of his alleged connection to a fatal shooting in New York City, according to Graf. The victim lived in Vanderveer, a distinct subsection of the housing projects in Brooklyn.

Jeter said he was from Vanderveer before the argument started, according to Andino's testimony.

"Do I think within that moment (Thelismond) snapped, I absolutely do. But when you pull a trigger three times that's your specific intent to kill," Graf said.

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Graf added she is not sure what the status is of the New York shooting investigation

Jeter and Thelismond had never met before coming to Andino's home in 2019, according to testimony. After shooting Jeter, Andino said Thelismond turned the gun on him but was not able to fire because the slide of the gun was locked open.

After Thelismond escaped, Andino said he took his two children and got into a SUV with two other Crip members. As they turned into an alley behind Andino's house, the headlights revealed three guns, including the 9mm, which Andino took.

Andino called 911 after he fled the scene, but lied about his name, where he was, and the circumstances of the shooting in the initial 911 call because of several outstanding warrants. After being stopped and arrested by Lebanon City police, Andino assisted in identifying Thelismond as the shooter and ascertaining his location for authorities.

"That evening, we had no idea who the shooter was, there was nothing in the house that pointed towards Lindley Thelismond," Graf said. "Absent Richard saying this is who it was ... I think there was a solid chance by the next day in daylight hours (Lindley) would have gone back to New York, and we would never have seen him again."

Andino is currently waiting sentencing on several charges, including tampering with or fabricating physical evidence and four counts of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance. During the trial, Graf said Andino was not getting a deal for those sentencings by testifying against Thelismond.

Public defender Kevin Dugan attempted to discredit Andino's testimony throughout the trial, citing when he gave false information about his identity on the 911 phone call and when he was first interviewed by police.

"A zebra does not change its stripes, it cannot change its stripes," he said in his opening arguments Tuesday, adding that Andino was only looking out for himself.

Thelismond declined to testify during the trial.

Officials also presented the jury with the 9mm, which had evidence of gunshot residue and Thelismond's thumb print on the magazine. They also produced a red and grey jacket, that officials said Thelismond left in the alleyway after the shooting.

The knit cuffs of the jacket contained gunshot residue, and forensic scientist Dr. Arthur Young testified that the DNA collected matched 22 of 23 genetic markers to Thelismond's DNA sample. Young added the odds of the DNA belonging to someone else was one-in seven trillion.

"I think (Andino) certainly got us to the point of identifying who did this, but we had a number of corroborative pieces then throughout the trial between fingerprints, ballistics, gunshot residue and DNA," Graf said.

Kenelm Shirk III:Cornwall resident sentenced for threatening to kill Democrat U.S. Senators

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This trial is not the first case of gang violence, and it certainly won't be the last, according to Graf. But the concern overall is the growing trend of more lethal levels of violence and people not able to grasp the consequences of their actions.

"If you participate in this lifestyle, you end up in one of two areas: You end up dead in the ground or you end up in jail," Graf said. "That's it ... There's no way that at the age of 17 pulling that trigger three times and taking a life was going to be worth now the rest of his, and that's what it's going to cost him."

Thelismond's sentencing hearing is scheduled for Aug. 31.

Matthew Toth is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at mtoth@ldnews.com or on Twitter at @DAMattToth

This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: New York gang member found guilty of homicide in 2019 Lebanon shooting
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Paul Yang, partner and head of Greater China at KKR & Co, has recently stepped down to take an adviser role with the private equity firm, two people familiar with the situation told Reuters.

Yang, a Taiwan native, was previously the president and chief executive of China Development Financial Corp, a Taiwanese merchant banking group.

Yang, who joined KKR in 2017, has in the past worked at a number of financial institutions including DBS Bank where he was head of private equity and mezzanine finance, Goldman Sachs and General Atlantic, according to KKR's website.

Yang, who is based in Hong Kong, has decided to step down due to personal reasons, said one of the people. His new role will be effective July 1.

Both Yang and KKR declined to comment.

KKR has done 10 investments in China since 2017, its website showed, including a stake in China's social media giant Bytedance, education app Huohua Logic and premium liquor company ZJLD Group.

The firm currently has 35 investment professionals in Beijing and Shanghai.

It is expected to appoint a new head of Greater China to be based in mainland China, said one of the sources, who declined to be identified as the information was not public.

(Reporting by Julie Zhu and Kane Wu; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
By the time she'd approached the Transformative Justice Law Project of Illinois for help last year, the client, a Black transgender woman, had more than 100 arrests on her record.

Growing up in Chicago in the 1980s, she'd been harassed at home and at school and was eventually kicked out of the house at age 14. The adults she turned to for shelter and support were engaged in the drug and sex trades, and by her 20s, she was drug dependent and working the streets.

From an early age, the adults she went to, who accepted her for being a young trans girl, took so much advantage of her, said Mol Parker-Kafka, staff attorney for the law project.

Unable to get or sustain a job because of her drug use and gender identity, the woman continued to pursue illicit activities for survival and was eventually repeatedly targeted by police. While she was ultimately able to escape that existence, she still had that record to deal with when applying for jobs, said Parker-Kafka, who is trying to help the woman clear her record.

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly answers questions about her executive order to ban anti-LGBTQ discrimination in state hiring and employment decisions during a news conference at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan., in January 2019.

The tale illustrates one route by which many LGBTQ people are funneled into the criminal legal system  a phenomenon that has made LGBTQ people three times likelier to be incarcerated than the general population and more than twice as likely to be arrested compared to straight people. Rates are even higher among LGBTQ people of color and those with disabilities, according to the findings of a comprehensive national report released Friday.

Related video: Members of LGBTQ community face many challenges while traveling

The report, commissioned by the MacArthur Foundation, cites a number of reasons for the disparities, including family rejection of LGBTQ youth, general bias and discrimination and the economic difficulties propagated as a result. The foundation, based in Chicago, is a private foundation supporting nonprofit organizations worldwide.

Being poor, a person of color and LGBTQ puts you at the intersection of being arrested and incarcerated, said Tena Hahn-Rodriguez, interim executive director of Black & Pink, an organization serving currently and formerly incarcerated LGBTQ people in Omaha, Nebraska. Criminalizing poverty is what it comes down to.

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Jane Hereth, an assistant professor of social work at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and author of the report, said the data underscores the unequal treatment experienced by LGBTQ individuals, who are often overlooked in criminal legal reform efforts.

Hereth compiled the report from existing studies and community surveys conducted by a number of organizations, including Lambda Legal, the National Center for Transgender Equality, the National LGBTQ Task Force and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Inmates walk across the grounds of the Idaho State Correctional Institution in Kuna, Idaho, in January 2018. Inmate Adree Edmo, a transgender woman, spent most of her prison term at the men's prison facility.

Among the documents other key points:

LGBTQ individuals, particularly transgender people, experience higher levels of harassment and abuse in prisons, with victimization often perpetrated by staff

Incarcerated LGBTQ youth and adults report high rates of solitary confinement or denial of inclusive health care such as gender-affirming treatment

Lesbian and bisexual women are four times likelier than straight women to be arrested, with emerging evidence indicating transgender women of color experience the highest arrest rates

Zero-tolerance policies in schools that increase the likelihood that youths will come into contact with law enforcement disproportionately impact LGBTQ youths.

Spotlighting disparity to make change

Bria Gillum, the MacArthur Foundations senior program officer for criminal justice, said the foundation commissioned the report as part of its ongoing safety and justice initiative aimed at initiating criminal justice reform. The foundation is also funding criminal justice reform efforts in 50 communities around the country and gathering data to highlight and help replicate promising approaches.

We thought it was important to raise the spotlight on this population, Gillum said. We knew there was overrepresentation of the LGBTQ community in the criminal legal system, but information is not always captured in a reliable way, so were hoping this is a starting point. What are some systemic changes we can make?

About 11 million people cycle in and out of jail and prison systems annually, she said, but statistics about the LGBTQ population can be challenging to come by. Officials dont often collect such information, and as a result, the data that does exist can be incomplete or inaccurate.

Jails dont really ask what someones gender identity is, so a lot of times its presumed and often incorrect, Gillum said.

Advocates said addressing the disparities extends beyond criminal system reform, requiring new approaches to housing, education and employment policies. Those are among the recommendations made in the report, which include advocating for the decriminalization of contributing factors such as homelessness and sex work and ensuring that reentry services such as housing assistance, employment training and substance-abuse services are tailored to LGBTQ individuals.

Parker-Kafka, of the Transformative Justice Law Project of Illinois, said the widespread discrimination can be hurtful. After her client was able to get away from criminal activity, the womans record continued to affect her ability to find stable housing and find employment.

Shes still punished for having this criminal history, said Parker-Kafka, who is working to help the woman expunge her record. On top of that, if an employer does a background check they can see that she did sex work, and thats highly stigmatizing in this country.

Destin Cramer, left, and Noah Rice place a new sticker on the door at the ceremonial opening of a gender-neutral bathroom at Nathan Hale High School on May 17, 2016, in Seattle.

The outcomes can be worse the younger you are. Hereth, the report author, said the data shows that queer and trans youth, especially those of color, are very intensely impacted.

She cited a school-to-prison pipeline fueled by harsh student punishment policies and the use of police officers in schools to handle infractions, practices she said are known to disproportionately affect students of color but that the data shows also impact LGBTQ youth, especially those who belong to both groups.

One phenomenon that occurs, she said, is LGBTQ students who are bullied but feel unsupported by school officials and as a result lash out in defense, subjecting themselves to harsher punishments than their straight peers.

Theres certainly bias by people enforcing the rules, Hereth said.

The prison pipeline starts early for many, according to Coming Out of Concrete Closets, a 2015 survey of 1,200 LGBTQ prisoners conducted by Black & Pink, among the organizations cited for their work in the report. Black & Pink provides support services and a pen pal program for the imprisoned and, for those outside, case management and a facility offering unlimited and rent-free housing for those getting back on their feet.

According to the organizations survey  among those that Hereth gleaned for the MacArthur Foundation report  58% of respondents said their first arrest occurred when they were under 18 years old.

Angela Irvine, founder and principal researcher at youth-focused Ceres Policy Research, based in Oakland, California, has seen the pattern: LGBTQ youth rejected by families face poverty and homelessness, turn to criminal behavior to survive, then end up detained or arrested  especially queer or trans youth of color.

And so, as with all youth of color, theyre getting arrested more than white kids and straight kids, Irvine said.

A juvenile detention facility officer at Rikers Island on July 31, 2014, in New York.

Meanwhile, she said, a lack of youth respite-care facilities prolongs the cycle by keeping them held in detention facilities longer than necessary. Detention facilities generally attempt to release those brought in for low-level offenses within a short time, but they cant release a kid unless they have someplace to go. They want to release them, but they dont have a place to send them to," Irvine said.

As part of its recommendations for youth criminal justice reform, the report calls for schools to address bullying and victimization without police involvement, provide counseling and support to families of LGBTQ individuals to reduce family rejection and assist queer and transgender individuals who desire to change their legal names.

Advocates also called for redirecting criminal system funds into community housing, anti-bias education, therapy services and needle-exchange programs  actual programs that help people, said Hahn-Rodriguez, of Black & Pink. Anytime something bad happens in our country, people talk about it being mental health, but nobody wants to actually fund mental health care. Put your money where your mouth is.

The United States, she said, needs to confront continuing homophobia.

People have this idea that LGBTQ means less than, that people need to be fixed, Hahn-Rodriguez said. As long as that is persistent, LGBTQ folks are going to be disproportionately affected.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: LGBTQ representation in US prisons is disproportionately high
Lincoln National Forest sign

ALAMOGORDO  Some national forests in Arizona and New Mexico are relaxing fire restrictions and reopening, thanks to a strong start to the annual rainy season in the southwest U.S.

The monsoon has delivered much-needed moisture to the parched region and relief from scorching temperatures. Forecasters say Arizona has a good chance of getting above-average rain through the season that runs through September. New Mexico has equal chances of above, below and normal rainfall.

Two national forests that border New Mexico's most populated areas  the Santa Fe and the Cibola forests  along with the Lincoln and Carson forests largely will reopen Friday after being closed because of wildfire danger. That means residents and visitors once again will be able to hit the hiking, biking and horse riding trails, and camp there.

More:Federal forest officials worried about long-term impact of New Mexico wildfire burn scar

Some pockets will remain closed because of active wildfires, or the threat of flash flooding or trees falling.

Restrictions across the forests and other public land vary on whether campfires are allowed without limits or only in developed areas. Bandelier National Monument also will ease fire restrictions Friday.

The Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in eastern Arizona is rescinding all fire restrictions Friday, but officials urged visitors to avoid lighting campfires in hot, dry conditions.

Lightning from monsoon storms also can ignite new blazes. Eight small fires were reported in Arizona and New Mexico on Wednesday, two of which were caused by lightning.

A dozen large wildfires are burning in the two states in what has so far been a historic start to the fire season due to hot, dry and windy conditions brought on by drought and climate change.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Lincoln National Forest among public lands reopening in New Mexico
Associated Press

A bison herd that lives almost exclusively in the northern reaches of Grand Canyon National Park won't be targeted for lethal removal there this fall. The park used skilled volunteers selected through a highly competitive and controversial lottery last year to kill bison, part of a toolset to downsize the herd that's been trampling meadows and archaeological sites on the canyon's North Rim. Introducing the sound of gunfire and having people close to the bison was meant to nudge the massive animals back to the adjacent forest where they legally could be hunted.
Jun. 23When Bryce Stenzel was 14 years old, his love for playing trombone inspired him to join the Mankato Area Community Band, previously known as Mankato Area Municipal Band.

Fast forward roughly 40 years later. Stenzel, now 55, is not only a better musician since joining, but proudly holds the title of president of the band, which is celebrating its 100 year anniversary next week.

To celebrate, the band  running entirely on community support, donations and grants since 2006  is hosting a free concert at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Lincoln Park. The concert will also be a patriotic tribute in honor of Independence Day coming up.

The concert will open with remarks from Mankato Mayor Najwa Massad, who will read the proclamation that designated June 28 as Mankato Area Community Band Day.

The American Legion Post will then present the American flag during the Star Spangled Banner, followed by the Ukrainian national anthem.

The band's concert repertoire is full of familiar patriotic songs such as "America the Beautiful" and "You're a Grand Old Flag," with attendees invited to sing along. The concert will close with its signature finale "The Stars and Stripes Forever," which will be accompanied by past conductor Edward Stock, who will be coming down from Canada for the event.

During the event, attendees can purchase a first-of-its-kind, hardcover, coffee table book all about the history of the band from 1922 to 2022 for $25, written by Stenzel.

"We'll have tables where they can sign up to receive a copy once the book is done and printed," he said. "There will be lots of pictures in it from years ago."

The book is titled "And the Band Played On, Centennial History of the Mankato Area Community Band, 1922 to 2022," which Stenzel joked was a long yet informative title.

"It's amazing that this band has lasted as long as it has when you consider all the changes that have taken place in the world, as well as here at home, since 1922," he said.

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From forming shortly after coming out of the Spanish Flu pandemic, surviving a World War and a few others, enduring the shifting social scenes of the 60's and 70's, and the emerging music styles of the 80's and 90's, to witnessing the tragedy of 9/11, the birth of an entirely new generation and enduring yet another worldwide pandemic, the band has seen it all. And plays on anyway.

"It's a cause for celebration," Stenzel said.

Barb Dunker, who has been with the band since 2007, agrees.

"Anything that makes it to 100 years should be celebrated," the featured vocalist said.

Dunker's late father used to play for the band back in the 60's. She said he would fill in on drums whenever they needed him to.

"He would have loved this," Dunker said about the celebration. "We all do."
The Marion County Sanitary Engineer's Office has approved hiring a firm to assess the condition of a sewer line that was incorrectly built when the county sewer system was constructed in 1976.

The Marion County Commissioners approved hiring RedZone Robotics, based in Warrendale, Pennsylvania, to conduct the assessment project. The contract amount for the project is $29,950. RedZone Robotics specializes in the inspection of wastewater systems and infrastructure, according to information found on the company website.

According to Sanitary Engineer Phil Wright, "1,100 linear feet of the main interceptor sewer serving the Sewer District 7 area" is the portion of line that was installed incorrectly and is in need of assessment. He said due to the improper construction, that section of the interceptor sewer line is vulnerable to increased degradation because it remains flooded at all times.

Wright said Sewer District 7 is the main section of the county sewer system and includes the plant on Richland Road. He said the section of sewer line that needs to be assessed begins at Marion-Edison Road and runs south along Brookpark Road to Dublin Road.

"Because of the incorrect construction, basically, the line goes uphill instead of downhill," Wright told the commissioners during the June 16 meeting. "So we've got a section of pipe that holds water. You can't use a standard camera system to go through it because you can't see everything. (RedZone Robotics) has an instrument that has lasers and sonar and they can tell the remaining pipe thicknesses and stuff like that.

"This is a section that hasn't been looked at in a while and it's time to see if the pipe is still structurally okay. If it is degrading faster, then we can properly make plans to address it. This is step one."

Wright noted that he also wants RedZone Robotics to review other sections of the sewer system while the company is conducting the assessment of the line that runs from Marion-Edison to Dublin roads.

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"I want them to look at some of the upstream sections and downstream sections from the section that's incorrectly built to make sure that we don't have anything up and down stream from it that might be deteriorating, too," Wright told the commissioners. "The pipe is concrete and, not necessarily the wastewater, but the hydrogen sulfide that can be created by standing wastewater, and concrete don't mix very well. We just want to make sure that everything is good because it's a section that runs under roads and we don't want to end up with a nasty surprise."

Wright noted that most sewer lines should last more than 50 years with normal usage, but due to the incorrect construction and standing water in the pipe, the assessment project is needed. He said the system has not experienced any issues and no residents who live in the area of the line to be assessed have registered complaints or concerns with his office.

"We haven't had any particular issues there. We're just trying to be proactive," Wright said.

According to the resolution the commissioners approved during their June 16 meeting, the contract will be paid for out of Sewer Revenue Funds.

Email: ecarter@gannett.com | Twitter: @AndrewACCarter

This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Marion County Commissioners approve sewer assessment project
Marquette's Justin Lewis was expected to be a second-round pick in the NBA draft on Thursday.

Instead, 58 selections were made and Lewis' name wasn't called. But minutes after the draft ended, the Athletic's Shams Charania reported that Lewis will sign a two-way contract with the Chicago Bulls.

With a two-way contract, Lewis will be able to bounce between the NBA and the G League. Each NBA team is allowed two such deals. Players are allowed to spend no more than 45 days in the NBA.

The 6-foot-7, 225-pound Lewis had a rapid rise over his two seasons at MU. The Baltimore native committed to former Golden Eagles coach Steve Wojciechowski as a top 75 prospect in the 2020 class.

Marquette forward Justin Lewis scores on Providence forward Noah Horchler during a game Jan. 5.

Lewis averaged 7.8 points and 5.4 rebounds in 21 minutes per game as a freshman and had a highlight tap-in to beat rival Wisconsin in his fourth college game. But a leg injury hampered him late in the season.

Lewis stayed at MU after a coaching change and enjoyed a breakout sophomore season under Shaka Smart. He averaged 16.8 points and 7.9 rebounds in 32.2 minutes per game and was named to the all-Big East first team. He was also honored as the conference's most improved player.

Lewis declared for the draft in April and then, after working out for almost 20 NBA teams, announced on June 1 that he was forgoing his remaining NCAA eligibility.

"He's just on a great trajectory right now," Smart said of Lewis earlier this month. "The guys that I've been around and I've coached at VCU, Texas and then here, guys that have made the leap or attempted to make the leap from college to the NBA, the No. 1 thing you can have going for you is to be going (up).

"And he really is. If you look at what he did his sophomore year compared to his freshman year and the way that he grew, not just as a player but as a person, it was incredible."

More: Milwaukee Bucks pick MarJon Beauchamp of the G League Ignite in first round of NBA draft

More: How Marquette's Justin Lewis put everything together  emotionally and physically  for a breakout season

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More: What to know about Marquette men's basketball forward Justin Lewis

NBA teams have long been intrigued by Lewis' physical gifts. At the NBA combine in May, his wingspan measured 7 feet 2.5 inches. His hand width was measured at 10.5 inches.

Lewis also has shown a rapid improvement in his shooting. His three-point percentage increased from 21.9% his first season at MU to 35.2% on a much larger volume.

But there were concerns among NBA teams about Lewis' footspeed and if he could guard on the perimeter at the NBA level.

Now Lewis will need to continue improving while logging time in the G League.

"It's a situation where now 'OK, I find out where I'm going and who I'm playing for' and now it's time to continue that trajectory," Smart said. "I'm excited for him. When you get to that level, obviously the competition goes up, the expectations go up.

"He's going to have a learning curve like anyone else. But he's a great guy who's really grown and he's really motivated. He's been working his butt off. So I'm excited to follow him and root for him."

Darryl Morsell signs with Utah Jazz

Former Marquette guard Darryl Morsell went undrafted, but signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the Utah Jazz.

The 6-foot-5 Morsell played his fifth NCAA season with the Golden Eagles, averaging 13.6 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game. He also spent four seasons at Maryland and was named Big Ten defensive player of the year in 2020-21 season.

Exhibit 10 contracts allow players to attend training camp in the fall and include bonuses for signing with that team's G League affiliate if he is waived.

Theo John on Minnesota's summer league team

Former MU big man Theo John, who spent last season at Duke, signed a deal to play with the Minnesota Timberwolves' summer-league team.

The 6-foot-9 John is a Minnesota native who piled up 191 blocks for the Golden Eagles from 2017-2021, the second-most in program history. He then was a key role player off the bench for the Blue Devils in his extra season of NCAA eligibility, reaching the NCAA Final Four.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Marquette's Justin Lewis reportedly gets 2-way deal with Chicago Bulls
Louisiana Tech basketball forward Kenneth Lofton Jr. will sign a two-way deal with the Memphis Grizzlies, his agent Mike George told ESPN after he wasn't selected Thursday in the NBA Draft.

Lofton, 6-foot-7 and 275 pounds, was the No. 66 overall prospect in ESPN's draft rankings. He was a First Team All-Conference USA selection as a sophomore after winning the league's Freshman of the Year honors.

Louisiana Tech's Kenneth Lofton Jr., has agreed to a two-way contract with the Memphis Grizzlies, his agent Mike George of @OneLegacySports tells ESPN.  Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 24, 2022

Lofton played primarily inside the 3-point line in college, attempting just 20 3-pointers, but made 55% from inside the arc.

Memphis Tigers basketball coach Penny Hardaway was impressed by Lofton as a freshman.

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"It's hard to believe that kid is a freshman," Hardaway said on ESPN in March 2021. "He is a matchup problem, and he can play. And I have a lot of respect for his game. So if they can beat a good Mississippi State team and get to the championship  we'll have our hands full either way. But he is a monster."

Everyone go pay  kenneth lofton jr. (@itzjunior34) June 24, 2022

A two-way contract in the NBA allows teams to keep two such players in the fold that do not count toward the salary cap or the 15-player roster limit. Two-way players can play up to 50 NBA regular season games in a season and can have their contracts converted to an NBA deal. Two-way players often bounce between the G-League and the team's NBA roster throughout the year. Players will get paid commiserate to which team (G-League team or the NBA team) it plays games for on a game-by-game basis.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis Grizzlies will sign Kenneth Lofton Jr. to 2-way deal
Abortion-rights supporters protest outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Friday. (Gemunu Amarasinghe / Associated Press)

Collective outrage, sighs and rallying cries swept over social media on Friday after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade, unraveling federal protections for abortion that the landmark 1973 case gave women and pregnant people for decades.

Oscar winner Viola Davis said she was "gutted." Actor Jessica Biel was "enraged." Alyssa Milano called it "a sad day for America." And Ariana DeBose was rendered speechless following Friday's decision, which will effectively give states the power to enforce their own abortion laws.

Others, such as "Avengers" star Mark Ruffalo, actor Rob Reiner, director Elizabeth Banks and former First Lady Michelle Obama used the historic reversal as a call to "keep fighting" and to rally support for reproductive-health organizations including Planned Parenthood and the United State of Women.

While conservative lawmakers and pro-life supporters applauded the decision, Obama, who was among many liberal politicians opposing the ruling, said Friday that she is "heartbroken" over the "horrifying decision" that will result in "devastating consequences."

"So yes, I am heartbroken  for the teenage girl, full of zest and promise, who won't be able to finish school or live the life she wants because her state controls her reproductive decisions; for the mother of a nonviable pregnancy who is now forced to bring that pregnancy to term; for the parents watching their child's future evaporate before their very eyes; for the health care workers who can no longer help them without risking jail time," she wrote in a statement posted on social media.

Obama urged readers to see the reversal as "a wake-up call, especially to the young people who will bear its burden."

"I know this is not the future you chose for your generation  but if you give up now, you will inherit a country that does not resemble you or any of the values you believe in," she said. "This moment is difficult, but our story does not end here. It may not feel like we are able to do much right now, but we can. And we must."

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Read her full statement and more celebrity reactions to the decision below:

My thoughts on the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. pic.twitter.com/9ALSbapHDY  Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) June 24, 2022

Banning abortion is about controlling women and trans men.



It is about white supremacy, the patriarchy and misogyny.



Its a sad day for America.  Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) June 24, 2022

I am enraged. What happened today is not only a disgusting step backward for women - undermining our ability to make decisions for our own bodies but its also dangerous. You didnt ban abortion, you banned access to SAFE abortion. #BansOffOurBodies  Jessica Biel (@JessicaBiel) June 24, 2022

Ill bet that draft of the overturn of #Roe was leaked by #Alito himself, to get the anti-abortion states ready for this decision. There are no accidents with this crowd.  bettemidler (@BetteMidler) June 24, 2022

This Supreme Court is an absolute disaster. From giving people the right to carry guns to taking away Womens rights of autonomy over their own bodies. We werent being reactive we saw it coming.  Patricia Arquette (@PattyArquette) June 24, 2022

The dude who cried about beer on TV has made a BIG decision about your life, ladies!  Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) June 24, 2022

There are so many things that need to be fixed in this country right now- 240 characters arent enough. The fact that controlling a womans rights was top priority- it just tells you everything you need to know. Its about control, not care.  quinta brunson (@quintabrunson) June 24, 2022

I have nothing nice to say at this moment in time.  Ariana DeBose (@ArianaDeBose) June 24, 2022

Well... what a day. What a week. Guns...roe v wade ... wow. Plenty to take in. I've never had an abortion, but also never wanted kids. To think I live in a country where I... you know what, nevermind. Voting is the least I can do and I'll do my best to do more. This is trash.  SunnyAnderson (Taylor's Version) (@SunnyAnderson) June 24, 2022

Supreme Court my ass  Danny DeVito (@DannyDeVito) June 24, 2022

This nation was founded on the separation between church & state. The Supreme Court has now been made illegitimate by destruction of that separation & turned into a political organ of the religious right. We are going to have to fight for the founding principals of our nation. https://t.co/77FRVp0Ci0  Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) June 24, 2022

Maybe I should become a gun so I can have some rights  Karen Attiah (@KarenAttiah) June 24, 2022

We knew it was coming and yet it still took my breath away. I have no words.  Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) June 24, 2022

Also, lets not forget how we got hereall you mfs who didnt like Hillary but are upset today refuse to see the bigger picture and long game, but the GOP has always played the long game better than anyone.  Kevin McHale (@druidDUDE) June 24, 2022

Dont despair. Fight back!! Hold the House, add 2 seats to the Senate, kill the filibuster, codify Roe, and add seats to SCOTUS. 2022 will determine it all. VOTE!!!  Rob Reiner (@robreiner) June 24, 2022

One of the worst American days of my lifetime.  Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) June 24, 2022

Feeling deeply powerless today. Are there orgs on the ground helping women get across state lines? Giving access to the abortion pill? Where are we sending our money.  Joel Kim Booster (@ihatejoelkim) June 24, 2022

This fall, we must elect more senators and representatives who will codify a womans right to choose into federal law. We need to elect more state leaders to protect this right at the local level. We need to restore the protections of Roe as law of the land.  Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 24, 2022

Thank you, @POTUS for speaking out and committing to act to address this abortion crisis. We look forward to seeing more actions in the coming days/months. We need our elected officials at all levels to do everything in their power to reduce the impact of todays SCOTUS decision.  Alexis McGill Johnson (@alexismcgill) June 24, 2022

Overturning Roe and outlawing abortions will never make them go away.



It only makes them more dangerous, especially for the poor + marginalized.



People will die because of this decision. And we will never stop until abortion rights are restored in the United States of America.  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 24, 2022

Overturning Roe v. Wade and denying women the right to control their own bodies is an outrage and in defiance of what the American people want. Democrats must now end the filibuster in the Senate, codify Roe v. Wade, and once again make abortion legal and safe.  Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) June 24, 2022

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
A health worker administers a dose of a Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. (Matt Rourke / Associated Press)

There is now a second COVID-19 vaccine option for kids ages 6 to 17 in the U.S.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday announced it is recommending Moderna shots as an option for school-age kids and teens. Americans in this age group have been able to get shots made by Pfizer and BioNTech since last year.

It is critical that we protect our children and teens from the complications of severe COVID-19 disease," Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said in a statement announcing the agency's formal recommendation.

Last week, the Food and Drug Administration authorized the shots  full-strength doses for children ages 12 to 17 and half-strength for those 6 to 11. The doses are to be given about a month apart.

The CDC sets the federal governments vaccine guidance for U.S. doctors and their patients. An expert advisory panel this week voted unanimously to recommend that CDC endorse the Moderna shots too.

Moderna officials have said they expect to later offer a booster to all kids ages 6 to 17.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recited a poem as part of her response to the Supreme Court's landmark decision to reverse Roe vs. Wade. (Susan Walsh / Associated Press)

Following the Supreme Court's decision to reverse Roe vs. Wade, which opens the door for states to outlaw abortions, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) addressed the media with a statement that referenced a poem.

"Today, the Republican-controlled Supreme Court has achieved their dark, extreme goal of ripping away a woman's right to make their own reproductive health decisions," Pelosi remarked. "While Republicans seek to punish and control women, Democrats will keep fighting ferociously to enshrine Roe vs. Wade into the law of the land."

Pelosi said she was "overwhelmed" by the court's decision and quoted the poem "I Have No Other Country" by Israeli poet Ehud Manor, whose writing Pelosi often turns to in times of strife.

"I have no other country even though my land is burning/ Only a word of Hebrew penetrates my veins, my soul/ With an aching body and with a hungry heart/ Here is my home," Pelosi recited. "I will not be silent for my country has changed her face/ I shall not give up on her/ I shall remind her and sing into her ears/ Until she opens her eyes."

Pelosi ended her public remarks by saying, "Clearly, we hope that the Supreme Court would open its eyes."

Manor, the poem's author, was an Israeli poet, lyricist, translator and media personality who was awarded the Israel Prize, the country's highest cultural honor, in 1998 for his contributions to Israeli music.

As a songwriter, he wrote more than 1,000 Hebrew songs, including 1978 Eurovision Song Contest winner "Abanibi," and translated hundreds of songs into Hebrew including the soundtracks of major musicals such as "Cabaret," "Les Miserables" and "Hair." He died in 2005.

This is not the first time that Pelosi has responded to worldwide events through poetry or even the first time she has cited this particular poem.

Pelosi also invoked the poem, which is actually the lyrics to a song Manor wrote in 1982, also titled "I Have No Other Country," in January 2021 as she urged members of Congress to impeach former President Donald Trump following the Jan. 6 riot.

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On St. Patrick's Day, Pelosi recited a poem by U2's Bono at the White House's holiday celebration in which he compared Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to St. Patrick.

"Irelands sorrow and pain is now the Ukraine," Pelosi read. "And St. Patricks name is now Zelensky."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The Memphis Police Department is in search of the person who set a dog on fire.

Fast-acting Good Samaritans jumped into action to rescue the animal. The dog was seen in the Nutbush community, near Chelsea and Graham, when neighbors saw what appeared to be a ball of fire rolling on the ground, but it was a dog in agonizing pain.

So I come bolting outside and I see this dog in flames; all you see is a big flame, said Ashlie Craft.

Neighbors in that community said they couldnt believe their eyes when they stepped outside Monday night. FOX13 obtained exclusive surveillance video, most of which was too disturbing to show on-air.

It was the worst sight, probably, you really seen in your life, Craft said.

Craft said she was inside her home when around 8 p.m. the horrific ordeal happened. She and her neighbors immediately jumped into action. The surveillance video showed neighbors racing to the dogs safety, one with a water hose, and Ashlie with a tray of water she gathered from her pool.

My pool had water in it at the time, and what I did, I just grabbed the bucket, filled it up with water and ran over there, she said.

The dog was named Riona when she was taken in by Tails of Hope Dog Rescue. Shes now being fostered by Bluff City Veterinary Specialists who believe the dogs burns were intentional.

Somebody set this dog on fire. Someone purposely set this dog on fire, said Kylie Hunter, a Vet Technician at Bluff City Veterinary Specialists. How is a dog just going to douse itself, and thats when we were obviously devastated.

The Bluff City staff told FOX13 that Riona suffered fourth-degree burns to her face and left side, and first to second-degree burns on other parts of her body.

All we smelled was gas; some type of fuel was definitely dumped all over her, said Mallory McLemore, manager and Vet Technician at Bluff City Veterinary Specialists. Nobody seems to know anything. Nobody had ever seen her before, but somebody has to know something, said McLemore.

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The medical staff said Riona suffered burns on over 60 percent of her body. The staff rebandages her twice a day, expecting anywhere from one to two months for a full recovery.

I just dont understand how someone would want to do that to someone who cant defend themselves, said one staff member.

Tails of Hope is offering a $,2500 reward in the case. They are also raising money on their Facebook page to help Riona recover. Police told FOX13 that no suspect has been identified in the crime. This is an ongoing investigation.

Download the FOX13 Memphis app to receive alerts from breaking news in your neighborhood.

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BRUSSELS (Reuters) - There are no plans at the moment to hold an extraordinary summit of European Union leaders in July to discuss ways to deal with rising gas prices, an EU official said on Friday.

"There are no plans," the official said when asked about reports on a possible extra summit next month.

The official said Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi had suggested a July summit on Thursday, in internal meetings with EU leaders, to discuss a proposal to cap prices on Russian gas.

Another EU official, however, said some EU leaders were considering the option to hold an extra summit in July to talk about broader economic issues.

(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio and Kate Abnett, writing by Bart Meijer, editing by Mark Heinrich)
Jun. 23BISMARCK  Spring pheasant crowing counts in North Dakota are down 22% statewide from last year, the Game and Fish Department said Thursday in reporting results from its 2022 spring crowing count survey.

"The decrease came as no surprise," said R.J. Gross, upland game management biologist for Game and Fish in Bismarck. "We documented below average production from late summer roadside counts and the hunter-harvested wing survey confirmed a 2-to-1 juvenile to adult ratio, which are lingering effects from the drought of 2021."

The primary regions holding pheasants showed 14.1 crows per stop in the southwest, down from 18.4 in 2021; 13.7 crows per stop in the northwest, down from 14.3; and 9.7 crows per stop in the southeast, down from 14.5. The count in the northeast, which is not a primary region for pheasants, was 3.0 crows per stop, down from 5.2 last year.

"Current conditions are improving across the state with adequate moisture this spring. These conditions should foster insect hatches, which would provide forage to chicks for brood rearing," Gross said. "Pheasant chicks hatch from early June through late July. Much of nesting success will depend on the weather, and we will more accurately assess pheasant production during our late summer roadside counts, which begin at the end of July."

Pheasant crowing counts are conducted each spring throughout North Dakota. Observers drive specified 20-mile routes, stopping at predetermined intervals, and counting the number of pheasant roosters heard crowing over a 2-minute period.

The number of pheasant crows heard are compared to previous years' data, providing a trend summary.
The Daily Beast

Nathan Howard/GettyA female Republican congressional candidate claimed on the campaign trail in Virginia last month that rape victims are less likely to become pregnant because its not something thats happening organically.Yesli Vega made the eyebrow-raising comments while being asked for her thoughts on what then promised to be a Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending the federal right to abortion.An audio recording of the remarks, which took place at an event in Stafford Co
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP)  A man was found guilty Friday of murder and attempted murder for fatally stabbing five people and wounding four others in southern Norway when he attacked strangers with a bow and arrows and knives.

The Buskerud District Court sentenced Espen Andersen Brathen to compulsory mental health care. Three forensic psychiatric experts who assessed him concluded he has chronic paranoid schizophrenia and was mentally ill at the time of the attack on Oct. 13, 2021. Both the prosecution and the defense had called for compulsory mental health care for Andersen Brathen.

Andersen Brathen was found guilty of 11 counts of attempted murder for shooting at people with a bow and arrows in Kongsberg, a former mining town of 26,000 people. He was carrying 62 arrows and four knives at the time of the attack.

The three-judge court said the defendant had explained during the trial that started in May and lasted until June 6 that he had decided to kill people in order to achieve rebirth. He said he thought he was going to go blind. The accused therefore believed that it was urgent to kill.

Andersen Brathen had watched a large number of videos" showing situations where people were stabbed, and had explained that he watched such videos to learn how to use weapons so that they became as deadly as possible, the court said.

The 38-year-old's defense lawyer, Fredrik Neumann, said, according to Norwegian broadcaster NRK, that his client had delusions with religious and magical content.

We are dealing with a sick person. A person who is without guilt, prosecutor Andreas Christiansen said in his final speech, Norwegian news agency NTB wrote. Another prosecutor, Vibeke Gjslien Martins, said that he did not stop until he was arrested, and he had a clear and distinct goal of killing more, NRK quoted her as saying.

Andersen Brathen was arrested more than half an hour after he started firing arrows inside a grocery store and attacking people inside their homes. He attacked people with knives after his bow broke, the court said.

Andersen Brathen also was sentenced to pay compensations to the victims.
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images; Jenny Chang-Rodriguez

Trigger laws in 13 states will lead to abortion bans now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade.

An Insider investigation found agencies in those states have no plans for how to implement the laws.

Local DAs described starkly different approaches on whether they will prosecute medical providers.

This story is part of an investigative series from Insider examining the demise of abortion rights in so-called "trigger law" states. It was originally published on May 7, 48 days before the Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization that abortion is no longer a constitutionally protected right. Read all the stories from "The First 13" here.

Hours after a leaked draft opinion revealed that the Supreme Court is planning to overturn Roe v. Wade, a visibly shaken Sen. Elizabeth Warren spoke outside of the court as protesters gathered. "The Republicans," she said, "have been working toward this day for decades."

But that work did not extend to planning for what comes next. The 13 states in which abortion could soon become a crime are profoundly unprepared for how to go about implementing a ban, an Insider investigation has found.

These states  Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Texas, Oklahoma, and Wyoming  have so-called "trigger laws" on the books that take effect once the court strikes down Roe. Some have been in place for as long as 17 years.

After submitting more than 100 records requests since March, and reaching out to nearly 80 state and local officials, Insider found only one state agency that could provide any written plans about how it will roll back a civil right that has existed for nearly half a century. Insider requested information from governors' offices, mayors' offices, state attorneys general, district attorneys, state legislative offices, and health departments in all 13 trigger-law states.

Many of the states have potentially complicated bans that include exemptions for cases of rape, incest, or health of the pregnant person  each of which would require fine-grained judgments by police, prosecutors, healthcare providers, and other officials involved in decisions about how to enforce and comply with the law. None of the states could produce any guidance provided to officials who will be responsible for making those judgments.

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Abortion providers and reproductive-rights advocates have been bracing for the Supreme Court's ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health since it agreed to hear the case last May. The central focus is a Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, a frontal challenge to the standard set by Roe that bars states from prohibiting the procedure before viability  around 24 weeks. The decision is expected in June, but Politico published the leaked draft opinion on Monday.

Legal experts told Insider that they anticipate widespread uncertainty and confusion over what abortion care will look like across the country, as the 13 trigger laws take effect while emboldened lawmakers in around a dozen other states look to pursue additional bans and restrictions.

"It's really district by district, county by county, and the chilling effect is going to be the same regardless, because also prosecutors can change over time. So even if one declines to prosecute or enforce, the next one could," Jessica Arons, a senior advocacy and policy counsel for reproductive freedom at the ACLU, said. "Providers are really left in a situation of trying to suss out their risk level and whether it's safe for them to provide care to their patients or not, and it's a really untenable position for them to be in."

This ambiguity, the experts said, will likely hinder abortion access even in places where the procedure is still legal.

"The chaos and confusion that people are experiencing right now in this moment, even prior to a final decision being handed down, is exactly what we anticipate seeing when the final decision is rendered," Farah Diaz-Tello, a senior counsel and legal director at the reproductive-justice legal organization If/When/How, told Insider. "There are a lot of questions that people have about what is this going to mean, how is it going to be implemented."

"Ultimately, the confusion is a feature and not a bug," she added. "It is exactly part and parcel with the overall project of making abortion inaccessible and even a crime."

The complexities of enforcing of 'draconian laws'

An Insider review of the language in the 13 trigger laws, passed between 2005 and 2022, hints at the confusion to come. In four of the states, North Dakota, Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming, exemptions permit abortions if a person is pregnant as a result of rape or incest; Mississippi also has an exemption for rape. However, according to the statutes in three of those states  Idaho, Mississippi, and Utah  the rape must be reported to law enforcement prior to obtaining an abortion. Idaho and Utah also require reporting in cases of incest.

Yet Insider found that state agencies could not provide guidelines for victims of rape and incest or for the doctors and nurses who will treat them. None of the state attorneys general or county district attorneys that Insider contacted could answer detailed questions about whether they have a plan, or have even convened planning meetings, concerning protocols for law enforcement, child welfare officials, and health providers when these incidents arise.

More than two-thirds of rapes go unreported, according to a 2020 Department of Justice survey.

In all 13 states, the laws allow exemptions to protect the life of the pregnant woman in medical emergencies. (Idaho, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming specifically exclude life-threatening risks with a mental, psychological, or emotional cause.) No state agency contacted by Insider in those states could produce protocols for how a life-threatening risk to the pregnant patient would be defined.

The agencies also couldn't produce guidance on what physicians will be expected to do when confronted with life-or-death situations.

Legal experts described other potential scenarios that point to the complexities of enforcement. For example, Diaz-Tello noted, prior to Roe, people who had abortions were sometimes compelled to testify about who performed their procedure and faced contempt charges if they refused. Carol Sanger, a law professor at Columbia University, said that law-enforcement investigations could come into direct conflict with federal privacy law protecting medical records.

"It's one thing to introduce and enact unconstitutional laws that you know your state won't be allowed to enforce. You can advocate for them, you can pass them, you can make lots of statements, and that potentially can win you attention and votes," Elisabeth Smith, the director of state policy and advocacy at the Center for Reproductive Rights, told Insider. "We are now moving into a stage where the Supreme Court, they issue a decision that will allow states to actually enforce for the first time since 1973 some of these draconian laws."

'It makes no sense to do anything'

Over the course of the past two months, Insider sent 116 public records requests to state and local agencies in every trigger-law state. Forty-three of these agencies said they had no responsive records, and more than a dozen denied the request. The remaining agencies did not provide records by publication time.

Just 13 agencies responded to Insider's request with records of any kind. Of these, only the Texas Department of Health and Human Services responded with trigger-law-planning documents. The department provided two "implementation dashboards" listing a few milestones it would have to complete, including updating medical licensing rules, producing provider guidance, and training licensing staff, without any deadlines attached.





Abortion-rights activists at the state capitol in Austin, Texas. Gov. Greg Abbott signed a state "trigger law" in June 2021. Photo by Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc/Corbis via Getty Images

Twenty-four state, county, and city agencies said that they did not have plans for the law going into effect when reached for comment by Insider. Dozens of agencies declined to comment or did not respond to Insider queries.

"It makes no sense to do anything, think about anything, implement anything, or plan to implement anything," Reginald Rogers, the department attorney for the Arkansas Department of Health, said in a March phone call. "We have other items, we're still in the pandemic, so we're not sitting on our hands waiting for something."

A department spokesperson said in late April that the agency "will not engage in planning or implementation of SB 149"  referring to Arkansas' trigger law  "until it comes into effect, and we cannot speculate about how it will be implemented at this time."

A spokesperson for the municipal government of Oklahoma City told Insider that "there has been no discussion" within city government about preparing for the state trigger law to go into effect. Similarly, a spokesperson for the Wyoming Department of Health responded "no" to all of Insider's questions about whether the department has made any plans, produced any documents, or had any discussions about how to implement the state's trigger law.

Asked to explain how the statute would impact Wyoming healthcare providers, the spokesperson said, "Presumably it will make performing an abortion illegal."

Some agencies objected to Insider's questions. "The Shelby County District Attorney's office does not deal in hypothetical situations," Amy Weirich, the district attorney for the Tennessee county, told Insider in an email. "We deal in facts and truth. Any statement on unknown variables is irresponsible and political grandstanding." Tennessee's trigger law was signed into law in 2019.

Most agencies did not provide anything in response to Insider's requests for comment. Others, such as the departments of health of Idaho, North Dakota, Mississippi, and Wyoming, said their agencies aren't involved with enforcement. A Mississippi State Department of Health spokesperson said her agency, which handles inspection and licensing, "will be prepared to move forward appropriately when a decision is issued."

The local government of Kansas City, Missouri, which straddles the state's border with Kansas, claimed the state's trigger law will have no financial impact, according to a record obtained by Insider  meaning that no additional labor by public employees will be required to implement the laws. The city provided Insider with a June 2019 document that stated it was simply "not possible" to determine the fiscal impact of Missouri's trigger law on the city "because pregnant women can cross state lines and obtain abortion services on the Kansas side."

Several state legislatures required fiscal-impact statements when considering their trigger bans, and a few states  Idaho, Oklahoma, and Wyoming  determined that the laws would incur no costs.

Dustin Curtis, the executive director of Students for Life, an anti-abortion organization, said his group campaigned for both Texas and Wyoming's trigger laws. He told Insider that the organization hasn't weighed in on how these states should implement their new laws.

"We really hadn't really given the AGs specific advice," Curtis said. "Our biggest thing for us is just making sure that we do have the AGs who will enforce the law."

A splintered enforcement landscape

There are several hundred counties in the trigger-law states  more than 250 in Texas alone. And there are already indications that district attorneys in some states will approach enforcing abortion bans in starkly different ways. A spokesperson for Idaho's attorney general, for example, said their office lacks the authority to enforce his state's abortion ban. That authority, he said, lies with Idaho's 44 counties.

Some district attorneys who spoke to Insider expressed no hesitation about enforcing their state's trigger law. In Idaho, Twin Falls County's prosecuting attorney, Grant Loebs, said if the trigger law took effect in Idaho, and a law-enforcement agency were to refer an illegal abortion to his office, his next step would be to consider filing charges against the provider.

"We would have to look at that independently and say, 'Oh wow, looks like you do have expert medical testimony that this would have caused the danger to the life of the mother,' and we might agree then and dismiss the case," Loebs said. Or his office might disagree with the healthcare provider, determine that "this is just an excuse you're making up after the fact," and prosecute.

"We don't have the resources to put a doctor on staff to second guess every doctor's decision," he said. "But case-by-case we would look at that kind of evidence in any individual case that came up."

Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk said he would not enforce the state's abortion ban. AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File

Glenn Funk, the Democratic attorney general of Tennessee's 20th judicial district in Nashville, has staked out a strikingly different approach. In September 2020, he declined to defend another Tennessee anti-abortion law and received blowback from the state's Republican governor, Bill Lee. Funk declared then that criminal law should not be used by the state to exercise control over a woman's body and told Insider he stands by that today.

"As long as I am the elected district attorney for the 20th judicial district, I will not prosecute any woman who chooses to have a medical procedure to terminate a pregnancy or any medical doctor who performs this procedure at the request of their patient," Funk said.

In Missouri, a St. Louis alderwoman, Megan Ellyia Green, said her strategy is just that  to encourage local prosecutors not to enforce the statewide ban.

"Even if it becomes criminalized, prosecutorial discretion still exists and so how do we put pressure on prosecutors to agree to not prosecute people," Green told Insider. "That is how we can act locally, and we have to ensure that these draconian laws are not actually enforced against our constituents."

When asked about his plans for enforcing Missouri's trigger law, St. Louis' prosecuting attorney, Wesley Bell, told Insider in a statement, "We do not have any plans in place currently, but we are monitoring this unfortunate infringement on the fundamental rights of women, along with everyone else."

There may be other forms of resistance from Democratic cities in trigger-law states governed by mayors who support abortion rights. In Idaho, Boise's mayor, Lauren McLean, for example, released a statement Tuesday saying, "I'm deeply saddened, and very concerned, by the news from the Supreme Court.  No one should have to flee their state to access safe abortion care. I remain steadfast in my support for all people who need access to abortion care and stand with them in fighting for privacy in health care decisions."

Mayor Sylvester Turner of Houston also spoke out this week against the "elimination of a woman's right to choose." Several emails from the city government of Houston, obtained via a public-record request, illustrate frustration and disgust with state abortion laws, including SB 8, a 2021 statute banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.

"As long as Roe is still the law, this thing isn't just unconstitutional, it is crazy," Houston's director of government relations wrote in a December 2021 email to coworkers. "Our Supremes are awful."

Clinics have 'a number of contingency plans'

Although state and local governments haven't prepared for trigger laws to take effect, abortion clinics have. Tammi Kromenaker  the clinic director for Red River Women's Clinic, the only abortion clinic in North Dakota  told Insider the clinic has been preparing "a number of contingency plans" since the Supreme Court agreed to hear Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health.

Kromenaker said the clinic is considering relocating to northwest Minnesota, a few minutes' drive from its current location in Fargo. Depending on the state attorney general's interpretation of the Supreme Court decision, the clinic may challenge the state in court.

"We certainly have never considered closing down completely," Kromenaker said. "That's just something I can't stomach. I literally cannot even fathom closing our doors and saying, 'OK, patients we've been serving for the past 24 years, you're on your own. Try to go to Minneapolis, because that's the next closest provider.'"

Minneapolis is about a four-hour drive from Fargo. Kromenaker said that many of the clinic's patients  who come from North and South Dakota and parts of Minnesota  already have to drive three to five hours to get to Fargo.

Bonyen Lee-Gilmore, the vice president of strategy and communications for Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, pointed out that regardless of what happens with Roe, abortion is already extremely difficult to obtain in the state due to a slew of previous anti-abortion measures. Only around a dozen patients each month access abortion services at the state's last clinic in St. Louis, she said, with far more Missourians going out of state for care.

The call center at Planned Parenthood's regional logistics center in Fairview Heights, Ill., in March 2022. Here, four full-time case managers ensure patients from Missouri, Texas, Kentucky, Louisiana, and beyond are able to access abortion care. Photo by Neeta Satam for The Washington Post via Getty Images

Due to those increasing restrictions, Planned Parenthood recently opened a regional logistics center in Illinois, close to the Missouri border, that employs four case managers working full time to ensure that patients not just from Missouri, but also from Texas, Kentucky, Louisiana, and beyond, are able to access abortion care.

"We are absorbing 100% of the costs of travel [and] lodging. We're connecting patients with abortion funds from all 50 states depending on what they need and who they qualify with. We help them kind of piece together all the pieces that are required to get abortion care now in this country," Lee-Gilmore said. "We won't be deterred from doing the work."

She has yet to hear anything from the state of Missouri or any of its agencies about how they plan to enforce the state's trigger law, which would take effect immediately after the court overturns Roe.

Matt Drange, Esther Kaplan, and Oma Seddiq contributed reporting.

Clarification: An earlier version of this story stated that Oklahoma's trigger statute had no exemptions. While the text of the law does not include any exemptions, legal experts say the statute preserves a pre-Roe abortion ban with an exemption to save the pregnant woman's life.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Fifty governors began charting vastly different paths on abortion policy on Friday after the Supreme Court dismantled the federal constitutional right to abortion and returned decision making power to the states.

Red state governors and attorneys general moved swiftly to ban access to the procedure and announced special legislative sessions to restrict abortion in the minutes and hours after the Supreme Courts decision. Their blue state counterparts quickly issued executive orders and announced new policies to protect abortion and prevent abortion-rights opponents from prosecuting providers and patients for pregnancies terminated legally in their states borders.

But those steps are likely just the first as the fight for abortion rights shifts back to the nations statehouses for the first time in nearly half a century. It may take months for the status of abortion rights in many states to become clear as lawmakers pass new bills, proponents and opponents of abortion rights file lawsuits and governors take executive action.



For 50 years, women have relied on their constitutional right to make their own medical decisions, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat who stands between his states Republican-controlled legislature and an abortion ban, said on Friday. That means its now up to the states to determine whether women get reproductive health care.

And abortion policy will remain in the hands of the states for the foreseeable future, unless Congress enacts federal abortion protections or restrictions.

As of Friday, abortion is illegal in seven states  Alabama, Arkansas, South Dakota, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri and Oklahoma  except where it is required to save the life of the pregnant person. Abortion is also banned under civil law through a private enforcement mechanism after six weeks of pregnancy in Texas. The legal status of abortion is unclear in Wisconsin and West Virginia, where pre-Roe laws remain on the books. Proponents and opponents of abortion rights disagree about whether those laws are enforceable.

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Bans in Idaho and Tennessee will take effect 30 days after the Supreme Court issues its final judgment in its decision, which hasnt happened yet.

Some red states rushed to implement their so-called trigger bans on Friday, with Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, a Republican, announcing he had certified the Supreme Courts decision overturning Roe within 20 minutes of the ruling coming down.

With the Dobbs decision just handed down and a stroke of my pen  Missouri became the first state to effectively end abortion and has become the most Pro Life state in America, Schmitt said on Twitter.

Others, like Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch and North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley, both Republicans, are evaluating the courts decision before implementing their trigger bans.



A spokesperson said Fitchs office plans to give the opinion and the analysis contemplated by the law the thoughtful attention they deserve, but did not provide a timeline for certification. Wrigleys office said he is evaluating the Dobbs opinion in every detail and will give careful consideration to its impact on North Dakotas abortion laws, a process state law gives him 30 days to complete.

Bans in some red states may take time

Abortion bans in other red states hinge on court and legislative action.

In Indiana, Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb asked the legislature on Friday to take up abortion in a July 6 special session where lawmakers were set to address tax-related issues. Abortion remains legal in Indiana, though it had long been expected lawmakers would move quickly to ban the procedure if the Supreme Court overturned Roe.

The Supreme Courts decision is clear, and it is now up to the states to address this important issue, Holcomb said. Well do that in short order in Indiana.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican, also announced a special session later in the year to further address abortion rights in the state  even though abortion is already banned. Three other Republican governors  Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice and Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts  said they were consulting with legislative leaders on next steps.

Republican elected officials in states where abortion bans have been blocked by federal courts moved rapidly to allow those laws to go into effect. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost filed an injunction to trigger the states six-week abortion ban, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster pledged to file motions to lift a block on a similar law in his state by the end of the day, , and Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said the state would immediately move to ask the court to lift an injunction on the states near-total abortion ban, which a judge did Friday evening.

Two blue cities in red states, meanwhile, began to mount an opposition  a strategy theyre hoping other jurisdictions will replicate.

St. Louis City Alderwoman Annie Rice, a Democrat, introduced a measure on Friday that will allocate $1.5 million in federal recovery funds to aid abortion access, including $1 million to organizations that offer logistical support  including child care, transportation and lodging  to people seeking abortions, and $500,000 to establish a reproductive equity fund to support providers who offer pregnancy care.



Mallory Schwarz, executive director of Pro-Choice Missouri, said she anticipates the bill will be voted on before the Board of Aldermen goes on recess in July.

This legislation shows the strength of our grassroots movement and the critical importance of state and local leadership, Schwarz said. The people closest to the problem are closest to the solution, and we hope you will see this as a model for what a national response could and should look like.

And in Austin, Texas, Council members Chito Vela and Vanessa Fuentes called for a special meeting of the City Council to take up a proposal to effectively decriminalize abortion in the state.



We're really the last line of defense at this point, Vela said. The federal government has now stepped to the side, the state government is aggressively attacking abortion rights, and now we  even though were the lowest level of government and in many ways the weakest level of government  we're going to do everything that we can to make sure that whatever is within our power, we can protect abortion rights and protect women.

An uncertain future in purple states

Fridays decision underscored how the future of abortion policy in a handful of purple states rides on the outcome of the November election.

This fall, Roe is on the ballot. Personal freedoms are on the ballot. The right to privacy, liberty, equality, theyre all on the ballot, President Joe Biden said on Friday.



In Michigan, for example, a state judge temporarily blocked the states 1931 pre-Roe ban from taking effect. The future of abortion in the state depends on myriad factors, including whether Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wins reelection and whether Democrats continue to control the state Supreme Court.

We need to clarify that under Michigan law, access to abortion is not only legal, but constitutionally protected, Whitmer said Friday.

In Kansas, abortion is protected, though voters will have a chance to undo constitutional protections for abortion during the August primary. If that measure passes, the Republican-controlled legislature could take up an abortion ban, which Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly would likely veto. Kelly is up for reelection in November.



In Virginia, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin told the Washington Post on Friday that he would like to see lawmakers pursue a 15-week ban on abortion when the legislature meets again in January, though Senate Democrats are unlikely to advance such a measure to his desk. For now, abortions are allowed in Virginia until the third trimester.

We do have, at least in the [state] Senate, enough reproductive rights champions to stop abortion bills from possibly even seeing the Senate floor, said Breanna Diaz, policy and legislative counsel at the ACLU of Virginia. We will do everything in our power to ensure that Virginia remains a safe haven for abortion.

Blue states move to become havens

West Coast governors on Friday moved to establish their states as sanctuaries for those seeking and providing the procedure. They issued a multi-state commitment to protect patients and providers from other states restrictive laws, block extradition requests from other states and prevent doctors from being punished by insurers and professional licensing boards.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee  all Democrats  also pledged to expand access to medication abortion, remove barriers to telehealth for reproductive healthcare services and grow the group of providers qualified to perform abortions.

In blue Massachusetts, where abortion access is codified into state law, Republican Gov. Charlie Baker signed an executive order Friday morning declaring that the Bay State will not cooperate with extradition requests from other states attempting to prosecute abortion patients or providers and prohibiting state agencies from assisting other states investigations.

Democratic legislative leaders in Massachusetts are building money for abortion clinic security and infrastructure into the state budget, possibly millions of dollars. Ongoing budget negotiations also include a proposal that would extend the protections Baker put in place Friday and expand access to emergency contraception.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, a Democrat and the states leading contender to replace Baker when he leaves office in January, also vowed to block other states prosecutions.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, announced he would be calling the legislature into special session in the coming weeks to take swift action to further enshrine our commitment to reproductive health care rights and protections. Abortion is legal in the state, and the state Supreme Court has found a right to abortion in the states constitution.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, in conjunction with the state health department, announced a new public awareness campaign to let people know that abortion is still legal in the Empire State, including a website with information about abortion rights, providers, supports and payment options in New York.

As long as I am Governor, this State will protect you, Hochul said.
Former President Barack Obama slammed the Supreme Court's decision overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that granted women the right to an abortion nearly 50 years ago.

"Today, the Supreme Court not only reversed nearly 50 years of precedent, it relegated the most intensely personal decision someone can make to the whims of politicians and ideologuesattacking the essential freedoms of millions of Americans," Obama said in a statement.

"For more than a month, weve known this day was comingbut that doesnt make it any less devastating," he continued.

SUPREME COURT OVERTURNS ROE V. WADE: LIVE UPDATES

The Supreme Court's ruling Friday overturned both Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which affirmed the right to an abortion. The case concerned a Mississippi state law banning abortion after 15 weeks.

The ruling confirmed a Politico report on May 2 that leaked a draft of the opinion. Following the report, Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, released a joint statement similarly criticizing the decision.

"Few, if any, women make the decision to terminate a pregnancy casually  and people of goodwill, across the political spectrum, can hold different views on the subject," the former president and first lady said at the time.

MORE THAN 2 DOZEN STATES TO RESTRICT ABORTIONS AFTER SUPREME COURT OVERTURNS ROE V. WADE IN DOBBS DECISION

"But what Roe recognized is that the freedom enshrined in the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution requires all of us to enjoy a sphere of our lives that isnt subject to meddling from the state  a sphere that includes personal decisions involving who we sleep with, who we marry, whether or not to use contraception, and whether or not to bear children," they added.

The Obamas' statement said overturning Roe v. Wade would "be a blow not just to women, but to all of us who believe that in a free society."
The State Attorney's Office has decided not to charge the state corrections officers accused of beating and paralyzing a female inmate nearly three years ago at a women's prison north of Ocala.

After reviewing interviews, reports, surveillance videos, documents and other material, the state determined it did not have enough evidence to sustain a prosecution.

Chief Assistant State Attorney Walter Forgie wrote a six-page memorandum for State Attorney Bill Gladson outlining the process he used to arrive at that recommendation.

Protest: Ocala protesters want answers in case where inmate was allegedly beaten at women's prison

Charges: Guardsman, who aspires to be state corrections officer, charged with sexually abusing woman

Resolved: Man, woman accept plea deals in separate cases at Ocala courthouse

Forgie explored several charges that could have been filed against Lt. Keith Turner or Corrections Officer Ryan Dionne, both of whom worked at Lowell Correctional Institution. (Turner has since been fired. He was later arrested by sheriff's deputies in an unrelated sex case that remains ongoing. Dionne has since resigned from the department.)

However, "In summary, despite the horrendous injury suffered by Ms. (Cheryl) Weimar, there is insufficient evidence to prove that the injury was intentional or as a result of culpable negligence. Therefore, I recommend that this office take no further action in the matter," Forgie wrote.

The incident involving Cheryl Weimar

Weimar was sentenced to prison for two counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and resisting an officer. She was sentenced in Broward County in 2016 and was scheduled to serve close to seven years behind bars.

At Lowell, Weimar was a "houseman" in a dorm. One of her duties was cleaning toilets.

On Aug. 21, 2019, Weimar told Corrections Officer Esteban Baez that her back was hurting and she wasn't going to clean the toilets. She was told she couldn't be excused from work without a medical pass, but she still refused to work, according to Forgie's memo.

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Cheryl Weimar was an inmate at Lowell Correctional Institution, a state women's prison north of Ocala.

Weimar continued to refuse to work, even though she was told she would be sent to confinement. Baez called for assistance so Weimar could be escorted to the medical building for a pre-confinement medical check.

Handcuffed behind her back, Weimar was moved. She was led to a chair and sat down. She was told she was going to confinement. She said she wanted her eyeglasses and was told those, along with other items, would be given to her.

Turner and Dionne went to the dorm to assist Baez. Surveillance video shows Turner putting his right hand under Weimar's left arm. Weimar stands up, turns slightly to the right and then falls to her knees.

Turner still holds onto her and Dionne comes over and puts his left hand under Weimar's right arm, according to a summary of the video that is included in Forgie's memo. She stands up, and Weimar and the officers walk away.

This 2017 file photo shows razor wire atop the fences at the Lowell Correctional Institution.

Dionne, Baez and Turner said in later official interviews that Weimar kicked the two officers escorting her as they were walking on the sidewalk after leaving the dorm. From the kicking, Dionne lost control of Weimar, and she and Turner fell down, according to the memo.

Turner told investigators that because of Weimar's size, he couldn't support her alone and that he "redirected" her away from the sidewalk to the grass.

The officers said Weimar "landed on her stomach and that her head was tilted forward with her chin on her chest." Dionne said Weimar's "momentum carried her forward, pushing her shoulders over her head."

"There is no video that covers the area where the injury occurred," according to the memo.

Baez was in the dorm hallway, according to the memo. When Baez tried to help his colleague, he was told to get a handheld camera at the medical building. The camera was needed since there had been use of force, the memo states.

Both Turner and Dionne struggled with Weimar to the medical building. Along the way, the officers said, Weimar made "some effort to walk on her own." She was placed on the floor, then in a wheelchair and into a prison medical van that took her to another building.

Cheryl Weimar

She was removed from the vehicle and put in a chair and onto an examination table. A doctor saw Weimar and an ambulance was called. She was transported to a hospital for treatment.

Weimar's cervical spine was fractured, and her cervical cord was damaged, the memo notes. Weimar is now a quadriplegic.

Two charges prosecutors considered filing were aggravated battery and culpable negligence. The aggravated battery charge would have concerned the takedown of Weimar. The culpable negligence would have concerned the movement of the injured woman after the takedown.

Aggravated battery

To sustain a charge of aggravated battery, Forgie wrote in his memo, the state would have to prove "that either Lt. Turner or C.O. Dionne intentionally struck Ms. Weimar causing great bodily harm or permanent disability."

"There is no doubt that Ms. Weimar suffered great bodily harm and permanent disability. However, there is no reliable evidence that the actions of either Lt. Turner or C.O. Dionne was done with any intent to cause harm," the memo states.

This file photo shows protesters in front of the Lowell Correctional Institution. They were there demanding justice on behalf of Cheryl Weimar.

Forgie wrote: "While it appears Lt. Turner deliberately took Ms. Weimar to the ground, this was not unreasonable under the circumstances."

The memo mentions that Dionne "lost his grip," and Turner "was no longer able to support her."

At the time, Weimar was "being uncooperative," and Turner "needed to regain control of her and taking her to the ground was a standard way of doing this," according to the memo.

"The fact that Lt. Turner pushed Ms. Weimar toward the grass and not toward the sidewalk they were walking on further supports the conclusion that takedown was not done maliciously. Given the circumstances of the takedown, the statements of the inmates with their internal inconsistences and the demonstrable inaccuracies, there is more than reasonable doubt as whether the takedown was done with more force than necessary," Forgie wrote.

Weimar's lawyer, Ryan Andrews of the Andrews Law Firm in Tallahassee, hired a biomechanical engineer to evaluate Weimar's injury. The report states that the woman's injury "could be achieved by an officer dropping their knee with their full body weight onto Ms. Weimar's neck," according to Forgie's memo.

Ryan Andrews

Forgie wrote that although the biomechanical engineer report states the injury to Weimar's neck "is consistent with a deliberate blow to the back of her neck, (for which there is no credible evidence) he also supports the argument that it was the result of a fall. Considering all the evidence, there is no reasonable possibility that a jury would convict either corrections officer of aggravated battery."

Culpable negligence

Prosecutors considered charging culpable negligence. But to do so, they would have to prove multiple factors. For instance, the act would have to be "gross and flagrant," a show of "reckless disregard for human life, or for the safety of persons exposed to its dangerous effects."

This file photo shows protesters gathered in front of the Lowell Correctional Institution.

According to the memo, in cases where trained professionals are involved, "the courts have held that the training and procedure used by those professionals must be considered."

For Turner and Dionne, the memo says, there's no evidence that their actions "were inconsistent with the procedures appropriate to the moving of an uncooperative inmate and where it was precipitated by Ms. Weimar's actions of kicking her legs."

Prosecutors also wanted to see if culpable negligence could be filed against Turner and Dionne for continuing to carry Weimar to the medical building even though her neck was broken.

But in reviewing the evidence they had, prosecutors felt they could not charge the men.

"With the benefit of hindsight, it's easy to take the position that they should have stabilized her before moving her. However, their actions must be judged based on the information they had at the time," the memo says.

Prosecutors also checked to see if a charge could be filed against the staff for moving Weimar from the floor to her final destination on the examination table.

But "it's not clear that any of the staff involved in these moves were aware of the takedown," the memo says. "It is clear from their conversation recorded on the handheld video cameras that they believed she was deliberately being uncooperative.

"Again, given the circumstances, I do not believe that a jury would find their actions to be Culpable Negligence," Forgie wrote.

Forgie's statement to the Star-Banner

Forgie told the Star-Banner: "While there is no question that the injury suffered by Ms. Weimar was tragic, this alone is not sufficient to charge a crime."

He said that, "given her actions prior to the takedown, which were captured on video, there is insufficient evidence to prove that the injury was the result of excessive force, intentional, or the result of culpable negligence." He added: "Accordingly, no criminal charges will be filed on this matter."

The prosecutor said "the results of the investigation have been discussed with both counsel for Ms. Weimar and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The departments review of this was matter was both thorough and complete."

Reactions to the state's decision

Debra Bennett, a former inmate at Lowell who has organized multiple protests complaining about conditions at the prison and for Weimar, was shocked, but not surprised at the decision.

File photo of Aniesha Austin in yellow shirt, Cheryl Weimar in the middle and Debra Bennett in the black shirt.

"I'm disgusted and disappointed, but not surprised. This is the way the legal system works. Excuses are made and accountability never comes," she said.

Bennett said if Weimar's case was not worthy to be prosecuted, then why did state officials settle her lawsuit?

"That money would've never been paid if it was nothing," Bennett said. "She couldn't have caused the injury to herself."

Weimar sued the state DOC and received a $4.65 million settlement, which included lawyer fees and costs. But in the settlement, state officials said the agreement should not be "construed as an admission by the FDC of any wrongful acts of any kind or nature whatsoever committed by the FDC or any FDC releasee."

Last month, Bennett and a group of people held signs and protested in front of the State Attorney's Office, wanting to know why the review was taking so long.

The founder of a nonprofit organization called Change Comes Now, Bennett said the decision is bad for those presently in the prison.

"Now all we can do is to wait for it to happen again and hopefully someone can be held accountable," she said.

Cheryl Weimar's reaction

Released in September 2020, Weimar is presently living in a rehabilitation facility in Fort Walton Beach.

Reached by phone on Friday, Weimar said "it sucks" that no one is being charged and "they hurt me," making reference to the correction officers.

"I'm appalled that they're getting away with this," she said.

Weimar said she's trying to put the incident behind her.

"I'm trying to move forward with my life," she said.

She said she hates them for what they did to her, but doesn't hate them.

"I hope they find solace in Jesus Christ before they pass," she said.

Weimar's lawyer responds

Andrews said he and his team have spent thousands of hours investigating the case for the civil lawsuit.

The lawyer said from his perspective, he believes there's enough to charge the men. However, he acknowledged that prosecutors had looked at the case from every angle and "worked their tails off." If something was there, he believes they would've charged someone.

"I believe they thoroughly looked at it. While I disagree with their findings and their decision, I've never prosecuted anyone, so it's not for me to judge," he said.

He thanked Forgie and Gladson for doing all they could for Weimar.

"They've kept in good contact with us and explained the process to us," Andrews said.

Protest signs

Background of the investigation

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement conducted the Weimar investigation. FDLE agents interviewed 117 people, including inmates, security personnel, medical staff and Weimar herself, according to Forgie's memo.

Prosecutors said medical records were obtained and reviewed, along with videos. Some witnesses initially refused to be interviewed and prosecutors had to get subpoenas to secure their testimony. The corrections officers gave statements to the FDLE. Weimar said she didn't remember suffering the injury.

Representative Hart issues statement on Department of Justice report alleging abuse at Lowell Correctional Facility. pic.twitter.com/3g7UsRyZFr  Dianne Hart (@DianneHartFL) December 23, 2020

The FDLE report was delivered to the State Attorney's Office in November for review and consideration of criminal charges.

Lowell Correctional has been under fire for years because of what current and former inmates and their family and friends have said is unfair treatment. The federal government has also weighed in with a separate investigation and issued a blistering report about the facility.

Contact Austin L. Miller at austin.miller@starbanner.com.

This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: No charges in case that left prison inmate near Ocala paralyzed
IRYNA BALACHUK - FRIDAY, 24 JUNE 2022, 09:46

Vadym Boichenko, the mayor of Mariupol, has said that Russian occupying troops are building fortifications in the city under the guise of housing as they prepare for a counterattack by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Source: Mariupol City Council, quoting the mayor on Telegram

Quote from Boichenko: "Without needing to disclose too much information, the occupiers have started to build supposedly residential buildings. The works are ongoing in the north-western part of the city, almost on the border of the city's territory. In other words, it is roughly where the Armed Forces of Ukraines counterattack will take place."

Details: According to the mayor, Mariupol residents themselves reported that the occupiers were digging trenches and placing equipment immediately behind these new structures.

Boichenko also added that Russians are not letting people out of the city in order to then shield themselves behind civilians.
The ALDI grocery store pictured on June 20, 2022, at 7627 S. Ashland Ave. in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood was reportedly closed earlier this month without notice to residents. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)

South Side aldermen gathered outside a shuttered Aldi in Auburn Gresham for a news conference Thursday, where they slammed the company for leaving the neighborhood abruptly and called for a hearing to address grocery store closures and food access in Chicago.

Its about discrimination, said Ald. David Moore, whose 17th Ward includes the former Auburn Gresham store, which was located at 7627 S. Ashland Ave.

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Aldi closed its Auburn Gresham store on June 12. Elected officials and neighborhood residents say they were given no notice of the closure.

On Thursday, the store was boarded up and the parking lot was gated off. As officials spoke to reporters, a man walking by called out: We need Aldis.

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The ALDI grocery store pictured on June 20, 2022, at 7627 S. Ashland Ave. in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood was reportedly closed earlier this month without notice to residents. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)

The store is the latest grocery store on the South and West sides to close, a pattern affecting neighborhoods that have long struggled with access to healthy and affordable food. In late April, Whole Foods announced it was closing its store in Englewood that opened to great fanfare in 2016 with the help of $10.7 million in city funding.

Last year, Aldi shuttered a grocery store in West Garfield Park. Earlier this year, aldermen authorized the city to purchase that property for $700,000.

It is unfair. This is not acceptable, especially in communities like Englewood, like Auburn Gresham, like Chicago Lawn, Ald. Stephanie Coleman, 16th, said Thursday.

Colemans ward includes the Englewood Whole Foods, and she said Thursday she had still not heard of a closure date for the store. Whole Foods did not respond to a question about when the store would close. When Whole Foods leaves, the citys sale agreement with the site developer requires a new grocery store to be up and running within 18 months.

We are saying that if you want to do business with the city of Chicago, youve got to do right by all of Chicago, Coleman said.

Ald. Stephanie Coleman attends a City Council meeting at City Hall on March 23, 2022. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)

Aldi has cited repeated burglaries and declining sales as its rationale for closing the Auburn Gresham store.

We do not take the closing of this location lightly, the company said in a statement this week.

Out of concern for our employees and customers, keeping this store open was no longer a sustainable option. All of our employees have been given the option to continue working at one of our other Aldi locations in the immediate area, the statement read.

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As of last week, there have been no reported burglaries on the 7600 block of South Ashland Avenue so far this year, according to the citys crime data portal. There were seven burglaries on the block within the last five years, only two of which took place at a grocery store. The most recent reported burglary on the block took place in September.

Aldi did not respond to a request for comment on the citys burglary numbers earlier this week.

On Thursday, Moore slammed Aldis crime rationale for the closure.

Id like for lies to be cleared up, Moore said. He said his office had a meeting scheduled with Aldi management next week.

Ald. David Moore speaks at the Hotel Allegro on Monday, May 2, 2022. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)

When you talk about youve been robbed, why wasnt I contacted? When did these robberies happen? And I want to see police reports to the number of robberies, he said. Moore said he planned to ask the company what it would take to get it to stay in the neighborhood.

In the City Council Wednesday, Ald. Raymond Lopez, 15th, introduced a resolution calling for the Committee on Economic, Capital and Technology Development to hold a hearing to examine the failure of city of Chicago food access policies to meet the needs of its underserved residents. Forty aldermen signed onto the resolution.

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Lopez said Thursday that it should not be up to individual aldermen to handle grocery store closures.

The city of Chicago needs to have a consistent policy to handle this, and it does not, he said. We bounce from crisis to crisis, trying to figure it out.

Meanwhile, community organizations in neighborhoods that struggle with access to food are working hard in their attempts to fill in the gaps.

At Thursdays news conference, Cecile DeMello, executive director of the nonprofit Teamwork Englewood, noted the Go Green Community Fresh Market on 63rd Street, which the nonprofit Inner-City Muslim Action Network opened in March, as one example. She also called attention to Growing Home, an urban farm in West Englewood.

DeMello said that in addition to accountability for grocers, there needs to be support for local initiatives working to increase access to healthy food.

It has to be both corporate as well as local, Black and brown-owned businesses that have loyalty and commitment to servicing the people of this community, she said.

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tasoglin@chicagotribune.com
One man was killed and another injured when a car crashed into a big rig at the intersection of Patterson Pass and Schulte roads on Tuesday, the Tracy Police Department reported.

Multiple 911 calls reporting the collision came in at about 4:37 p.m. on Tuesday, Tracy police said. Witnesses reported that the victims were trapped inside of the vehicle.

The road was was closed as South County Fire Authority worked to remove the victims from the vehicle.

Tracy police said the driver, a 22-year old male from Manteca, was transported to a local hospital, where he died from his injuries. The passenger, a 19-year-old male, was also transported to a local hospital and is expected to survive.

According to police, the vehicle occupied by the two victims was turning when it went out of control and struck a parked semi-truck and loaded trailer.

The investigation is still ongoing. The Tracy Police Department is encouraging anyone with information to call Officer Perez of the Traffic Safety Unit at (209) 831-6634 or email Alberto.Perez@TracyPD.com.

This article originally appeared on The Record: Crash with semi truck kills Manteca man, injures another in Tracy
Pat Wright, 63, holds his pet ferret Noodle at his La Mesa home. (Ana Ramirez / San Diego Union-Tribune)

Noodle was the first to tumble out of the cage, roused by a series of belly rubs and head scratches.

She scampered around the lower-level den, bouncing around a pair of La-Z-Boy recliners, a white-and-gray flash with her long back hunched.

Then two more ferrets emerged from the cage. Merlin, living up to his masked "bandit" markings, chased Astro, who shimmied through a crinkly plastic tunnel in a frantic effort to get away. Watching him interact with the humans in his life, Astro gave every indication that he would rather cuddle with them than tussle with his cage mate.

Theyre so much fun and bring me so much joy, said Pat Wright, who keeps the three ferrets in his San Diego-area home, along with a corgi and an English shepherd. How anyone can see these pets as a threat is absurd.

But the state does see ferrets as a threat; it's illegal to keep them as pets in California, a fact that has defined much of Wright's adult life.

In nearly three decades of ferret activism, Wright has gone to jail, run for political office, lobbied legislators, collected thousands of signatures and battled decades of rejection and apathy. One of his ferrets, Rocky, had to be euthanized after he bit a TV cameraman at a legalization rally.

Wright came closest to his goal in 2004, when the state Legislature passed a bill legalizing ferrets in California. But then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it.

Through it all, Wright, a freelance marketer, has owned a succession of pet ferrets. He carries a faded photo in his wallet of his first, Chester, who died in 1994. Over the years, he has owned two dozen, among them Gonzo, Pooka, Daisy, Raleigh, Simba and Jasper. He's spent tens of thousands of dollars on critical surgeries, and he's mourned their deaths for months after spreading their ashes in his ample backyard.

But Wrights quest may soon be coming to an end. He is 63 and thinking of moving to Mexico, where ferrets are legal.

Ferrets require a 100% meat diet  the ultimate keto  and have a musky odor that, owners say, ranges from corn chips to grape juice to old books. When they're pleased or excited, they emit a noise called a dook  a rapid-fire chortling.

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Because of their strong predatory drive, flexible spines and ability to slip through narrow spaces, they have been used by humans to hunt rodents and other small animals for centuries.

Merlin plays in a tube at Pat Wright's home in La Mesa in March. (Ana Ramirez / San Diego Union-Tribune)

Owners insists they are sweet, independent-minded and cuddly. Shadow Hills resident Scott Schneider, a 43-year-old acquaintance of Wright's, fell in love with the creatures during his sophomore year at MIT, where a roommate kept one as a pet. The mammal was playful when it wasn't sleeping between 16 and 20 hours day, Schneider said, ideal for a dorm that did not permit cats or dogs. Schneider eventually owned two ferrets  Puck and Mayhem  for nearly 10 years.

Ferrets grow to be around 18 inches long and weigh 1 to 4 pounds. Noodle, Astro and Merlin, who wiggle and fidget in Wright's arms as he gathers and hugs them, do not present the hallmarks of a dangerous predator.

Most states regard ferrets as a domesticated species, unlike, say, weasels and wolverines, other members of the mustelid family, but they've been banned in California for almost 90 years. The agricultural lobby in California, fearing that ferrets could form feral packs that would endanger crops and livestock, took a stand in 1933, and the state Department of Agriculture officials agreed. Today, the penalty for ownership includes up to six months of imprisonment in county jail along with a fine of up to $1,000.

Hawaii is the only other state that bans ferrets; they're also not welcome in New York City, where former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, on his radio show, once famously referred to a ferret owner as "deranged" because of his "excessive concern" for ferret legalization.

Ferret lovers have tried to get the state of California to change their status for decades.

In 1995, state Sen. Quentin L. Kopp introduced a legalization bill. The part-time attorney from San Francisco, 93, vividly remembers opposition from the Department of Fish and Game. The agency introduced "gripping" testimony in a Senate committee meeting from a 14-year-old Nevada girl who had been mauled as an infant by a ferret.

"The parents had owned a ferret and I believe they left their daughter unattended in a crib and, boy, she came into that committee meeting missing an eye," Kopp said.

The bill died in committee on a 3-6 vote.

Some concerns about ferrets stem from a 1988 report from the California Department of Health Services, which said that when ferrets play, they launch mock attacks and could end up biting humans. The report also said ferrets can carry rabies and can escape into the wild, where they prey on small animals such as chickens and rabbits. The current Fish and Game Code, first adopted in 1957 and amended in 1974 and 2005, lists ferrets as "undesirable and a menace to native wildlife and or the agricultural interests of the state." They are restricted along with bobcats, jaguars, cheetahs and bears.

During a recent call, a California Department of Agriculture spokesperson referred ferret questions to the Department of Fish and Wildlife. That department did not respond to requests for comment.

Michelle Hawkins, a professor of avian and exotic animal medicine and surgery at UC Davis, thinks a ferret ban in Hawaii is reasonable, since islands' ecosystems are easily threatened by invasive animals. But in California, escaped ferrets would have a negligible effect, she said. Most are spayed or neutered, and they typically live five to seven years.

Feral cats, which live longer, are a bigger threat for spreading rabies, she said, adding that she is not aware of any recent ferret attacks on humans. Nonetheless, because of the risk of bites, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not recommend ferrets for families with children younger than 5.

Pat Wright got his first ferret, Chester, in 1988. (Ana Ramirez / San Diego Union-Tribune)

Pat Wright is 5 feet 6 and slightly built with silver hair. His voice is soft, his attire modest. On a recent afternoon, he was dressed in a collared shirt, wool sweater and black jeans. Jim Smotherman says his husband is usually mild-mannered and nonconfrontational, in contrast to his fierce pro-ferret activism in public.

They've been together 26 years  even though Smotherman dislikes noise and barely tolerates Wright's rambunctious animals. Ferrets can be trained to use a litter box, but on a recent afternoon one of them pooped on the kitchen floor. Wright cleaned up the mess as he snatched Noodle to prevent her from pouncing on Smothermans freshly washed shirts neatly folded in a low-lying plastic hamper.

Wright acquired his first ferret in 1988.

He was 29 and at a loss for what to do with his life after leaving his job as a credit account processor at a hardware outlet. He'd studied computer science in college but was starting to realize that the subject was completely wrong for him.

While soul searching, Wright realized he wanted a pet that was more affectionate than his two standoffish cats. His San Diego apartment complex prohibited dogs, so he followed the lead of a former co-worker and purchased Chester from a pet store in Yuma, Ariz.

He was the most intelligent and personable ferret I ever had, Wright said. He was like a little dog, a little Lassie.

And that's when an activist was born.

In 1992, Wright ran for state Assembly because the incumbent, Democrat Mike Gotch, had ignored his request to sponsor a ferret legalization bill. Wrights aim was not necessarily to win but to pull enough votes from Gotch to take him down in a four-person race.

Wright, a Libertarian, ended with 3.6% of the vote  and Gotch won.

Two years later, a ferret bill landed on the Assembly floor but was adamantly opposed by the most powerful legislator in the room  Speaker Willie Brown, a Democrat. The bill died.

By then, Wright had started Ferrets Anonymous, an advocacy group that he ran from 1993 to 1998 and would grow to 14,000 e-newsletter subscribers under its new internet identity of LegalizeFerrets, a nonprofit organization.

Grass Valley resident and ferret lover Bill Phillips occasionally worked alongside Wright and counted him as a dedicated and trustworthy ally. A family law attorney, Phillips ran the California Domestic Ferret Assn. for 25 years until 2000, when "he could only bang his head against the wall for so long" and resigned.

Phillips said California Fish and Wildlife would hold commission and committee meetings throughout the state that many advocates had trouble attending. That wasn't the case for Wright.

"He was everywhere and very industrious, to say the least," said Phillips, 75. "Meetings were in Santa Barbara one month and Sacramento two months later, and he was there with stacks of data and a go-getter attitude."

But Wright's zeal was also problematic.

His first brush with the law came in 1997, when he was convicted of misdemeanor ferret possession and sentenced to 160 hours of community service and a $100 fine. Someone in the neighborhood turned him in.

The following year, officials insisted on euthanizing Rocky, who had sunk his tiny teeth into a cameramans finger at a Ferret Freedom walk. Wright said he lost 10 pounds and was haunted by nightmares.

In 2000, a San Diego police officer showed up at Wrights apartment with a search warrant after a 4-year-old girl was bitten by one of Wright's ferrets during a rally in Balboa Park.

Wright held a kitchen knife and refused commands to drop it.

The officer later testified that he had his gun drawn and his finger on the trigger before Wright finally dropped the knife. Wright said he panicked and kept remembering Rocky.

He was convicted of possessing a ferret and brandishing a knife, serving 17 days in jail while his four ferrets stayed at a safe house in Mexico. (Wright said friends took them across the border.) However, some of his fellow ferret activists declined to rally behind him, feeling he had crossed a line and hurt the movement.

Wright kept going. In 2002, he ran for lieutenant governor. In his ballot statement, he listed his occupation as ferret legalization coordinator. He expressed outrage at the judge who had sentenced him to jail.

The real reason I am running for Lt. Governor is to fight the ... pervasive, sentiment expressed by the judge in my case, he wrote. It is an attitude that has lead to many horrific tragedies throughout history. It says don't question authority. It says just follow your orders. It's an attitude that's the antithesis to freedom and responsibility.

But Wright's quest remained quixotic.

Schwarzenegger, who became governor in 2003, seemed as though he might be someone to appreciate ferrets. In the 1990 film "Kindergarten Cop," he portrayed an undercover policeman posing as a teacher who brought a ferret to show his class.

Pat Wright holds Merlin. (Ana Ramirez / San Diego Union-Tribune)

What happened to your dog? a child asks.

This is not a dog. This is a ferret, Schwarzenegger replies, clutching the creature in one hand and kneeling to give the students a close-up.

But life did not imitate art. "I love ferrets," the governor said in his veto message. "I costarred with a ferret in 'Kindergarten Cop.' However, this bill is far too bureaucratic."

Schwarzenegger added that advocates should have conducted an environmental impact report to determine if ferrets "are detrimental to the health and safety of California citizens and the environment."

Wright, through LegalizeFerrets, tried for small victories as well. His hometown of La Mesa issued a proclamation calling for ferret legalization in 2017 after he petitioned the City Council. He pushed for a similar gesture in nearby Encinitas, where his former high school classmate Tony Kranz sat on the City Council.

On March 20, 2019, a handful of residents and experts pushed back against Wright and ferret legalization. Christina Simokat, a lecturer of environmental studies and biology at Cal State San Marcos, wrote a protest letter that stated nonnative ferrets "could easily become an invasive species in our temperate climate, killing native wildlife and competing with them for scarce resources."

Ultimately, the City Council did not take a formal vote on the matter.

"Pat was convincing and passionate, but you could also see was he disappointed," Kranz said in a recent interview. "This has been his pet project for decades, and to keep running into obstacles must be frustrating."

By this time, many ferret advocates in the state were exhausted by failures  and by their status as a running joke. Phillips, the former executive director of the California Domestic Ferret Assn., said few very people cared, a lesson that led him into retirement.

"We would bring hundreds of signatures and pages of support and documentation to state legislators and Fish and Game personnel and it became apparent that they never read them," Phillips said. "They just weren't interested. That was depressing."

In the meantime, the United California Ferret Alliance suspended its legislative efforts.

Wright too is on the verge of quitting  but not before one final push to alter the state of the roughly 100,000 ferrets in California, according to his estimate.

He is gathering signatures to place a proposition on the November ballot that would reclassify ferrets as domestic animals.

If he doesnt get 623,212 signatures by June 30, he may pack up Noodle, Merlin and Astro and head to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Were going to give it a try, he said. Again.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
This weeks riveting testimony from the Jan. 6 Committee has driven speculation about whether sufficient evidence now exists to criminally charge former President Donald Trump. While that remains a complex legal question, there is a straightforward crime that could be charged quickly  and the targets are Trumps band of dishonest attorneys.

Of all the evidence uncovered by the committee, what jumps out to me as a former federal prosecutor are the fake elector certificates signed by Trump electors and submitted to former Vice President Mike Pence in an effort to delay the certification of the electoral votes on January 6. Those certificates contained statements that are easily proven false

For example, some listed names of people who werent even Trump electors that cycle. Others claimed that they were duly elected. When you make a false statement to the federal government, youre putting a target on your back. If you lie to the U.S. government, you can be charged with a felony. Federal prosecutors have frequently charged defendants ranging from Martha Stewart to Michael Flynn with committing this crime. Prosecutors like charging this statute because it can be straightforward to prove, and judges can look at the full range of the defendants conduct at sentencing.

It looks like the DOJ is already moving in this direction. Just this week, the Justice Department reportedly subpoenaed the Georgia Republican Party chairman and executed a search warrant on the phone of the Nevada GOP chairman. That means that a federal judge found that there is a good reason to believe that evidence of a federal crime was located on that phone. Perhaps most significantly, on Wednesday, federal agents raided the suburban Virginia home of Jeffrey Clark, the acting assistant U.S. attorney general who wanted to use the Justice Department to send false statements to state officials in an effort to overturn the election.





Typically, lawyers are not a weak link. In my experience, lawyers have been the most difficult defendants to convict. Theyre usually careful about what they say and what they write down. But Trumps coterie of dishonest legal advisers  John Eastman, Rudy Giuliani, Sydney Powell, Jenna Ellis and Clark  werent careful. In their attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, they said things that were demonstrably false and were personally involved in lies told to government officials. If prosecutors can prove that one or more of them created the false certificates, and knew that doing so was illegal, they may have criminal liability. If they knew about the false statements and advanced the scheme to transmit them to the U.S. Senate, that may also be enough. Clark is facing the same criminal liability for writing false statements in a matter within the jurisdiction of the executive branch.

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We have already heard testimony this week that they knew what they were saying was false. Arizona Speaker of the House Rusty Bowers testified Tuesday that after Giuliani and Trump promised him evidence of 400,000 dead people who voted, Giuliani at one point admitted that he had lots of theories but no evidence. Similarly, Eastman privately admitted that his theory that Pence could overturn the election would lose 9-0 in the Supreme Court, but he nonetheless tried to convince Trump, Pence and others that his view was right.

Based on the Jan. 6 committees testimony over the previous five public hearings, we know that the certificates contained false statements and that they were created to be submitted to the United States Senate. If someone concretely moved forward that scheme  by signing the documents, preparing the documents, or organizing the meetings  they committed a felony if they knew the documents contained false statements and they had the intent to do something illegal.

We also heard extensive evidence of Clarks dishonest scheme, which violates the same statute. Clark drafted a letter to Georgia election officials falsely stating the DOJ had evidence of fraud affecting the states results and that the governor should call a special session of the legislature to approve a separate slate of electors supporting Donald J. Trump. Clark was told repeatedly by his superiors at DOJ that absolutely no evidence existed to support that statement, and he had no authority to conduct his own investigation or to direct states whether or how to select electors, but he persisted in promoting the conspiracy until days before Congress was scheduled to certify the electoral college votes on Jan. 6. The evidence that Clark knew his statement was false, and that he knew he was doing something illegal, is significant. Thats why he was in his pajamas watching federal agents search his home early Wednesday.

Because the statute criminalizing false statements requires knowledge that the statement was false and that the defendant was doing something illegal, the attorneys are the easiest targets for DOJ. As attorneys, it will be hard for Eastman, Giuliani and Ellis to claim that they had no idea that they were acting outside the four corners of state law by convening alternative electors and submitting them to the Senate even though the state had already submitted official electors. It will also be hard for Clark to argue that he had no idea that what he was doing was illegal, given that his superiors forcefully told him so.

Charging those attorneys is also the best route for DOJ if it wants to build a case against Trump. Any case against Trump is complicated by the fact that he surrounded himself with dishonest attorneys who told him what he wanted to hear. If he was prosecuted, he would likely claim that he was acting on the advice of those attorneys.

But if federal prosecutors build a case against Giuliani, Eastman or Clark first, they could potentially flip one of them and have a key cooperator against Trump. Presumably Trump had forthcoming one-on-one conversations with those attorneys, believing that they were protected by attorney-client privilege.

If one of them agreed to cooperate, DOJ could go to a judge seeking an order permitting disclosure of Trumps statements under the crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege, which permits disclosure of private communications between an attorney and client if they were about ongoing crimes.

Ordinarily, Id say that is a very uphill battle. But a federal judge in California already disclosed private communications between Trump and Eastman to the committee based on the crime-fraud exception. Prosecutors could point to that ruling and seek a similar ruling as to verbal communications.

Any prosecution of Trump would not be easy. But the committee has made DOJs job easier by developing evidence of a straightforward, readily provable crime and revealing how careless dishonest lawyers like Giuliani, Eastman and Clark were, making them ripe targets.
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R&B artist Summer Walker is facing backlash for wearing an outfit to a performance at the Crypto.com Arena that repurposed a traditional Hmong necklace called a xuav for a revealing two-piece. Centuries ago, the Hmong people were enslaved by the Chinese and forced to wear necklaces for identification. Today, xuavs are worn during traditional celebrations as a poignant symbol of the Hmong identity.
Police have identified a man who died after being barricaded in an Orlando apartment for hours Thursday afternoon.

Officers from the Orlando Police Departments Fugitive Investigative Unit responded to the Mosaic at Millenia apartments on Conroy Road just after 2 p.m. to assist the US Marshalls Service with an investigation into the suspect in a felony who was believed to be there.

Barricaded subject in Millenia

Police say the suspect, who they identified on Friday morning as Michael Green, a.k.a. Michael Edwards, refused to come out of the apartment and began making suicidal threats when they made contact.

READ: Senate approves gun reform bill, heres whats next for the bill

SWAT and crisis negotiation teams from OPD spent the next five hours attempting to convince Green to surrender.

According to police, officers entered the apartment just before 7:30 p.m. and found Green dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

UPDATE: The nearly two-week search for 36-year-old Michael Green has ended. Green was found deceased in the Orlando, Florida area earlier today. pic.twitter.com/HFHPvF3xyK  Albany County District Attorney's Office (@AlbanyCountyDA) June 24, 2022

READ: Happening today: Orlando Magics 1st overall pick, Paolo Banchero, to be officially introduced

Investigators said Green was wanted out of Albany County, New York after recently being convicted of second-degree murder.

They said he fled his trial just before the verdict was read on June 10.

WATCH: Intense body camera video shows deadly officer-involved shooting in Titusville

Barricaded subject in Millenia

The Albany County District Attorneys Office confirmed Greens death on social media but said it had no additional information to release.

Stay with WFTV.com and watch Eyewitness News for updates on this story.

Story continues

READ: Florida team hauls in 18-foot, 215-pound Burmese python

See a map of the scene below:

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Jun. 24In January an Ellington woman reported to state police that she was receiving harassing text messages and phone calls from a variety of unknown numbers, and believed they were from her ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend, according to an affidavit.

Over the following months, state police determined that the woman had been using a phone application that disguised her phone number to contact the couple, and sent messages to herself as well, the affidavit states.

The woman, Sarah Chapdelaine, 24, of Egypt Road, was charged this month with second-degree harassment, making a false statement, and impersonation of a police officer.

The affidavit supporting Chapdelaine's arrest provides the following details:

In Janaury, Chapdelaine reported to state police that she had been receiving text messages and phone calls from unknown numbers for the past few weeks. She believed her ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend was responsible.

When state police contacted the couple, both people said they had also been receiving harassing messages and calls, and believed Chapdelaine was responsible.

According to Chapdelaine, she and the man dated between July 2020 and November 2021, after meeting at college. On Dec. 24, 2021, the man informed her he had begun dating someone else, and she began receiving the calls and messages from various numbers the next day, Chapdelaine said.

State police conducted an interview with the man, who said he believed Chapdelaine was sending them, because the behavior was similar to something she had done before.

The man explained how at one time in their relationship, he and Chapdelaine began getting messages from someone claiming to be a previous girlfriend.

The contact stopped after a month or two, then restarted when they moved in together in July 2021.

The messages were similar, and by then, he had begun to suspect Chapdelaine was sending them herself, he told state police.

On one occasion he left the room after receiving a message, then called the number back. He saw Chapdelaine click a button on her phone at the same time, presumably to decline the call, the man said.

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He confronted her, and Chapdelaine admitted only to sending that specific message, but denied sending any others.

Since he broke up with Chapdelaine, he had received 200 to 250 calls, and approximately 100 messages from various numbers since Dec. 24. His family and friends had also been targeted.

The messages to him usually focused on getting him to stop dating anyone else and get back together with Chapdelaine.

State police spoke with another man who had dated Chapdelaine between 2017 and 2019.

He said their relationship didn't have any problems for the first 1 1/2 years, but eventually he realized that Chapdelaine was lying about a lot of things, and they broke up.

In one instance Chapdelaine said she nearly died in the hospital.

According to the man, he received messages from Chapdelain's Facebook account from a person claiming to be a doctor, telling him that Chapdelaine was dying.

The man said Chapdelaine had lied twice about being pregnant with his child, and attempted to prove it by sending an ultrasound picture and a fake pregnancy test, and creating fake documents from a Planned Parenthood and pertaining to child support.

After he broke up with Chapdelaine, he began receiving messages and phone calls from various numbers, from a person claiming to be Chapdelaine's friend.

Some days he would receive up to 60 messages and several phone calls, which didn't stop until he finally changed his phone number, the man said. He said it was obvious Chapdelaine was responsible.

In April the man Chapdelaine had dated most recently provided state police with the recording of a phone call he had with Chapdelaine.

During the call, Chapdelaine appeared to admit she was responsible for the numerous calls and messages in the past few months.

Then in May, he said he had received messages from a person impersonating the trooper investigating the case, and he believed Chapdelaine was sending those as well.

In their final interview with Chapedelaine, state police asked her who would have so much interest in her relationship that they'd spend the time to send hundreds of text messages. Chapdelaine said she didn't know.

For breaking news and happenings in North Central Connecticut, follow Matthew Knox on Twitter: @MatthewPKnoxJI, and Facebook: Matthew P. Knox JI.
Jun. 24The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in a 6-3 decision Friday, and political, civil rights and health care leaders in Connecticut swiftly decried the decision as "shameful," a "disaster" and one that would put the lives of women in danger.

The decision leaves the authority to regulate abortions up to the states.

Connecticut codified the protections in Roe v. Wade into state law in 1990, thus preserving the right to an abortion in case Roe v. Wade were overturned, and Gov. Ned Lamont last month signed a first-in-the-nation law protecting medical providers and out-of-state patients seeking an abortion.

"The unthinkable has just happened," Attorney General William Tong said in a video, calling this a "destructive opinion that endangers the lives and health of millions of American women."

He said this is not the end but rather just the beginning, and that he "will fight everywhere, any court, any time, any place to defend a woman's right to choose here in Connecticut and defend women, patients, doctors, health care professionals." Tong said if a new Congress were to try to ban abortion nationally, he would be the first to sue.

Planned Parenthood of Southern New England noted that the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health, which comes seven weeks after the leaked draft decision, could lead to 26 other states quickly moving to ban abortion.

"We are all outraged and devastated that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade and taken away our federal constitutional right to abortion," President and CEO Amanda Skinner said in a statement. "The Supreme Court has just undone nearly 50 years of legal precedent and can no longer be counted on to uphold our fundamental freedom."

She added that health centers in Connecticut are still open and providing abortion care, and that "Planned Parenthood will never back down."

David McGuire, executive director of the ACLU of Connecticut, said while abortion remains legal in Connecticut, "none of our rights or liberties are secure in the face of a U.S. Supreme Court that would reverse Roe. Reproductive freedom is fundamentally about people's abilities to control their own lives and futures."

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Claudine Constant, public policy and advocacy director, said elected officials in Connecticut must do more to protect Black maternal health and "even more to advance reproductive freedom."

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., in a tweet called the Supreme Court "a tiny group of politicians masquerading as justices, using their fancy robes and lifetime appointments as cover to impose their right wing political views on the entire country."

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said the decision "strips women of the freedom to make their own healthcare decisions," and that every American should have the right to decide whether and when to have children.

"The government should never be allowed to dictate decisions about pregnancy that should remain between a woman and her doctor," he said in a statement. "The government should not be able to impose a forced pregnancy on anyone  especially a pregnancy that is the result of abuse or rape or threatens their life."

Lamont similarly said that decisions on reproductive healthcare should be made between a patient and their doctor, without politicians interfering.

He said in a statement, "This ruling will not only result in a patchwork of unequal laws among the states, but more importantly it will result in dangerous and life-threatening situations similar to what this country witnessed countless times in the era prior to the landmark Roe case in which women died or were left severely injured."

This is a developing story.

e.moser@theday.com
The president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life praised the Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

The courts decision ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years.

In a statement, Myrna Maloney Flynn, president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life, said, This is a moment that life advocates have worked tirelessly for throughout the past half-century. A grave and unjust abuse of judicial power has been corrected. The American people now have a voice, a united voice that, today, raises even louder on behalf of the voiceless. Our work is just beginning, as we aim to bridge the great cultural chasm that Roe v. Wade created. We will not stop working to save the lives of innocent unborn human beings. We will not cease our efforts to understand the needs of their mothers and to extend love and support to every woman who faces a crisis during pregnancy. Women deserve better than abortion. Women and men deserve the truth and every opportunity to live outside the shadow of abortion and in the bright light of real and lasting joy, a joy that comes only from honoring life.

Despite Fridays ruling, abortion will remain legal in Massachusetts.

The Massachusetts Supreme Court has recognized the right to abortion under the states constitution and Attorney General Maura Healey vowed to keep it that way.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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Memory can play tricks.

In a video posted Monday, actor Donna Mills claimed that she was the real-life inspiration for the Grease character Sandy Olsson. The 81-year-old star posted this video on her Instagram account. In it, she is dressed as Sandy  the Sandy we have come to know from stages and in a film (played by Olivia Newton John in 1978s Grease; there was no Sandy in 1982s Grease 2), wearing a pink sweater and then a leather jacket over a lacy top.

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She says, Did you know I went to school with Jim Jacobs? Jim Jacobs who wrote Grease? Jim Jacobs who used me as his model for Sandy. I didnt know it at the time, but I found out years later  I was the original Sandy.

Her claim was repeated in publications such as the New York Post.

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It is true that she and Jacobs are Chicago natives and both attended William Howard Taft High School together. It is true that Jacobs wrote Grease with his actor buddy Warren Casey. But it is not true that Jacobs modeled the character on Mills.

Yes, Donna went to Taft. She was two years ahead of me and her last name was Miller, said Jacobs by phone from California. She did go out with a cousin of mine. He was the older brother of a guy who was a model for another character but no, no way Donna was the model for Sandy.

Casey and Jacobs were young local actors who based their first collaborative effort on Jacobs experiences at Taft on the Northwest Side here in the 1950s, and Caseys at school in New York.

Grease, the Chicago play with music was mounted at the bygone Kingston Mines in 1971, where it played for eight months before Grease went to New York and opened off-Broadway. At the behest of producers Kenneth Waissman and Maxine Fox, Jacobs and Casey rewrote the play, adding songs and removing dialogue, taking out all Chicago references and most of the four-letter words. It was sanitized and gussied up.

Actor Donna Mills at Universal Studios Hollywood on Oct. 18, 2019 in Universal City, California. (Paul_Archuleta/Getty Images)

In a few months it moved to the big time at the Royale Theater, and soon there were productions in cities across the U.S., in Paris and in Mexico City, where it was titled Vaselina. It would eventually become, in its time, the longest-running play in Broadway history.

The film version was released in 1978. It was a hit.

In 2011, the old Chicago version was resurrected as The Original Grease in a production by the now-departed American Theater Company.

Now there is a TV series in the works, Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies.

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Warren Casey died in 1988. Mills acting career included a roles in the CBS soap opera The Secret Storm and the Dallas spinoff called Knots Landing. She will next appear in Jordan Peeles horror-comedy Nope, set to open July 22.

But she did not appear in 1989 when she and Jacobs were inducted in Tafts Hall of Fame. Jacobs was here for that and says, I understand that she never got back to those who reached out to her. Not a word. Oh well.

rkogan@chicagotribune.com
CHICAGO (AP)  A prosecutor has asked a federal judge to sentence Jerry Harris, a former star of the Netflix documentary series Cheer, to 15 years in prison for coercing teenage boys to send him obscene photos and videos of themselves and soliciting sex from minors at cheerleading competitions.

Attorneys for Harris are seeking a sentence of six years.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Guzman wrote in a sentencing memo late Wednesday that Harris used his status as a competitive cheerleader, his social media persona, and eventually his celebrity and money, to persuade and entice his young victims to engage in sexually explicit conduct for him or with him.

Guzman also requested the sentence include 10 years of supervised release after the prison term.

Harris, 22, of suburban Naperville, pleaded guilty earlier this year to one count each of receiving child pornography and traveling with the intention to engage in illegal sexual conduct. He is due to be sentenced July 6 by U.S. District Judge Manish Shah.

Defense attorneys, in asking that a six-year sentence be followed by eight years of supervised release, described Harris as both victimizer and victim, saying he was sexually assaulted himself when he was a child.

The trauma he experienced as a child normalized his skewed version of what he understood to be appropriate relationships. No one was there to stand up for him when he was sexually assaulted as a minor. He is grateful that is not the case for his victims in this case, to whom he is profoundly remorseful. defense attorneys wrote.

Federal prosecutors acknowledged the actor's traumatic childhood was a mitigating factor in his crimes, but said while Harriss childhood was very difficult, it was not a blank check to commit sex offenses against minors.

Harris remains in custody at a federal detention facility.

Harris was arrested in September 2020 on a charge of production of child pornography. Prosecutors alleged at the time that he solicited videos and images from two 14-year-old brothers.

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According to a complaint, federal prosecutors said that Harris admitted to repeatedly asking a minor teen for pornographic videos and images between December 2018 and March 2020.

Then in December of that year, he was indicted on more charges alleging misconduct in Illinois, Florida and Texas. According to the indictment, Harris allegedly solicited sex from minors at cheerleading competitions and convinced teenage boys to send him obscene photographs and videos of themselves.

Harris admitted to FBI agents to asking a teenage boy to send him lewd photographs of himself, and to requesting child pornography on Snapchat from at least 10 to 15 others he knew to be minors, according to the indictment.

Cheer was a huge success when it was released in January 2020 and Harris became wildly popular for his upbeat attitude and his encouraging mat talk. Harris even interviewed celebrities on the red carpet at the Academy Awards for The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

The docuseries follows the competitive cheerleading squad from Navarro College in Corsicana, Texas.
(Bloomberg) -- Then-President Donald Trump spent the weeks before Jan. 6, 2021, flailing for ways to get the Justice Department to bolster false claims of election fraud, badgering his acting attorney general on a near-daily basis and attempting to replace him when he refused to comply.

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Three former top Trump Justice Department officials including the acting attorney general, Jeffrey Rosen, testified Thursday to a relentless pressure campaign that veered into unsubstantiated conspiracy theories one of them described as pure insanity. The effort culminated in a heated Oval Office confrontation in which senior department leaders threatened a mass resignation.

The hearing by the House panel investigating the Capitol insurrection also included video testimony from White House officials revealing Republican members of Congress lobbied for presidential pardons to protect them from criminal prosecution for their involvement in efforts to overturn the election.

Representatives Matt Gaetz, Scott Perry, Andy Biggs, Louie Gohmert and Mo Brooks all contacted White House staffers seeking pardons for themselves or others, according to the testimony.

GOP Lawmakers Sought Pardons After Election, Jan. 6 Panel Told

The panel presented Trumps push for the Justice Department to go along with his voter fraud claims as integral to his efforts to get Republican-controlled legislatures to substitute pro-Trump electors in battleground states Joe Biden won, by providing a pretext for Trumps allies to act.

Trump seemed to suggest as much in a Dec. 27 phone call with Rosen and Richard Donoghue, according to testimony from Donoghue, who was then the acting deputy attorney general.

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What Im just asking you to do is say it was corrupt and just leave the rest up to me and the Republican congressmen, Donoghue said, reading what he said was an exact quote he wrote down in notes he took during the conversation.

Representative Bennie Thompson, the panels chairman, said Trump engaged in a brazen attempt to use the Justice Department to advance the presidents personal political agenda.

Key parts of Trumps campaign to pressure DOJ were disclosed in a Senate report last October. But the panel presented an expanded picture, along with new evidence of connections between the maneuvering at the Justice Department and John Eastman, a private Trump attorney seeking appointment of alternate electors.

Jeffrey Clark, a Trump assistant attorney general who normally worked in environmental law, emerged as a key figure in Trumps final attempts to press the Justice Department. Clark urged Rosen and Donoghue to send letters to battleground state legislatures saying the department was investigating various irregularities in the election and suggesting they consider alternate electors.

After Rosen and Donoghue refused to go along with the letter or other requests to amplify claims of election fraud, Trump decided to appoint Clark acting attorney general on Jan. 3. That provoked Rosen and Donoghue to rush to the White House for the Oval Office showdown, after securing commitments from most of the departments senior leaders to resign if Trump went through with the appointment. The meeting was so rushed that Donoghue came straight to the White House in muddy boots, jeans and an army T-shirt, he said.

Trump seemed shaken and backed off after White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, who also threatened to resign, warned that proceeding would be a murder-suicide pact, Donoghue said.

The plan to replace Rosen at the top of the Justice Department had gone so far that official White House call logs earlier in the day referred to Clark as acting attorney general, said Representative Adam Kinzinger, a Republican member of the panel.

The committee presented evidence connecting Clarks efforts to activists working to overturn the election.

Representative Scott Perry, a Pennsylvania Republican who was trying to block congressional certification of the election results, introduced Clark to Trump and the committee presented emails Perry sent to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows urging him to get going on installing Clark as attorney general.

Representative Liz Cheney, the committees vice chair, also disclosed an email that connected a Justice Department official working with Clark to Eastman as he pursued his alternate elector plan.

Federal investigators searched Clarks home in suburban Washington the day before the hearing, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Investigators Raid Home of DOJ Official Who Backed Trump

Clark has invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to answer questions from the committee.

In the days before Jan. 6, Trump and his top aides were also pressing Justice officials to investigate a hodgepodge of conspiracy theories and appoint of one of the main lawyers pursuing Trumps election fraud claims as a special prosecutor for the department.

Sidney Powell, the attorney, said in video testimony Trump told her he wanted her appointed as a special counsel to oversee a federal investigation into the allegations.

Steven Engel, who was serving as head of the departments Office of Legal Counsel at the time, said Trump had been pressing for appointment of a special counsel but he determined that there was no legal justification for the move.

Among the conspiracy theories Rosen and Donoghue said the White House pressed on them was a debunked internet claim that Italian satellites changed ballots cast for Trump to Biden votes. Donoghue called the theory pure insanity.

Rosen said he rebuffed efforts by Meadows to get him to meet with a proponent of the theory, an act that might have given credibility to the claim. Donoghue said he later was contacted by a senior Defense official who indicated that department also had been encouraged to pursue the claim.

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The Supreme Court ruled Friday on Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, a case focused on a Mississippi law banning most abortions after 15 weeks.

With this ruling, the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision was overturned, ending constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years.

The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives, the decision reads.

Read the full decision below.
By Ludwig Burger

MANNHEIM (Reuters) -Roche remains sceptical about investing more in antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), which have been described as "guided-missile" cancer drugs, even as they attract heightened attention in the pharmaceutical industry.

"There are quite a few companies that invest in this area. As for us, we still have rather limited interest," Chief Executive Severin Schwan told journalists at a briefing on Friday.

The Swiss group's CEO declined to comment when asked about any takeover interest in ADC specialist Seagen Inc which, according to a Wall Street Journal report last week, has attracted Merck & Co and other rival drugmakers as potential suitors.

Roche was an early ADC pioneer with the approved drugs Kadcyla and Polivy but failed to make further headway.

Elsewhere, however, a drug trial success this year underscored the prospects of AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo's ADC Enhertu against breast cancer as a potential multi-billion seller.

ADCs combine a tumour-seeking monoclonal antibody with a cell-killing chemotherapy payload, designed for a targeted destructive effect that, unlike conventional chemotherapy, spares healthy cells.

But Schwan said enthusiasm was still misguided. He cited Roche's broad ADC trial programme, driven several years ago by the initial promise of Kadcyla and Polivy, which fell far short of expectations.

Failure has also recently struck another new oncology approach. Roche's development efforts were dealt a blow in May, when trial data showed its cancer drug tiragolumab failed to meaningfully slow disease progression in patients with the most common form of lung cancer.

Chairman Christoph Franz at the time said Roche had enough in its development pipeline to make up for the setback, which weighed on the stock, such as blood cancer drug glofitamab or new precision diagnostics.

On Friday, CEO Schwan warned that too much hope should not be placed on another Roche drug development venture against Alzheimer's disease.

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Late stage trial results for the drug gantenerumab, which Roche hopes can slow the cognitive decline caused by the neurological disease, are expected in the fourth quarter of this year.

"It's a highly risky project. We always knew that," the CEO said.

"It's not going to be a cure. At best, it will slow disease progression," he added.

(Reporting by Ludwig Burger, Editing by Miranda Murray, Elaine Hardcastle)
The Supreme Court's watershed decision to overturn Roe v. Wade drew outrage and celebration across the country Friday, culminating in a series of nationwide protests Friday night that were largely without incident.

Some of the concerns about the end of the once federally-protected right to abortion were immediate: trigger laws put in place before the ruling meant that abortion is now effectively outlawed in 13 states automatically or through swift state action following the Friday decision. Abortion providers in several other states stopped offering services because doctors fear criminal charges.

But in addition to the pressing questions about reproductive rights raised by the Supreme Court ruling, there are concerns about what the court could now do with other other milestone decisions, particularly after conservative Justice Clarence Thomas called for the Supreme Court to 'reconsider' gay marriage and contraception.

Here's a look at what the ruling means for Americans and how the nation is responding to a fundamental change in reproductive rights.

Fundraising for North Dakota's sole abortion clinic move tops $500K

A fundraising campaign to help North Dakotas sole abortion clinic move a few miles away to Minnesota has raised more than half a million dollars in two days.

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The Red River Womens Clinic in Fargo will have to shut down in 30 days as part of the states trigger law that went into effect Friday, when the U.S. Supreme Court removed the constitutional right to abortion. Tammi Kromenaker, owner and operator of the independent clinic, said Saturday she has secured a location across the river in neighboring Moorhead but stated earlier that she didnt know how she would fund the move.

A GoFundMe page set up Friday to benefit the transition had raised over $515,000 from more than 6,000 donors as of late Saturday afternoon. The original goal was $20,000.

Abortion is legal in Minnesota and the states governor signed an order to help protect people seeking or providing abortions from facing legal action from other states.

Which states will ban abortion? Maps show how access will change with Roe v. Wade overturned

More than 20 states have laws that could be used to restrict the legal status of abortion, according to The Guttmacher Institute, an organization that works to study, educate, and advance sexual and reproductive health and rights.

States with "trigger laws": 13 states have laws which are set to go into effect automatically or through swift state action because federal Roe protections no longer apply: Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.

Pre-Roe laws: Five additional states had an abortion ban on the books from before Roe v. Wade became law: Alabama, Arizona, Michigan, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Some of these pre-Roe bans are currently subject to legal challenges.

Six-week bans: Finally, there were a handful of states without "trigger laws" that had enacted bans on abortion six weeks after conception which were not yet in effect: Georgia, Iowa, Ohio, and South Carolina. Texas also had a six-week ban that was already in effect before Friday.

Maps show changing abortion access: How states are abortion regulation after Roe v. Wade ruling

Washington Gov. Inslee to push for constitutional amendment on abortion rights

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said he will push for a state constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights within his state's borders, as well as laws that will make it difficult for other states to investigate whether their own residents have visited Washington for abortion care.

The right to this choice, this constitutional choice for the last five decades, should not depend on which party is in control of our state Legislature, said Inslee, a Democrat. Without a constitutional amendment, the state would be in danger of losing abortion rights if a Republican majority was ever elected in the Legislature, he said.

Inslee said Saturday morning that he will ask legislators to strengthen privacy laws and enact new laws that will bar Washington law enforcement agencies from aiding other states if they are investigating alleged violations of anti-abortion laws.

The neighboring state of Idaho has enacted a near-total abortion ban that automatically takes effect 30 days after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Health care providers expect that Idaho residents seeking abortion services may travel to Washington state for the procedure.

Abortion has been legal in Washington state since a 1970 statewide ballot referendum. Another ballot measure approved by voters in 1991 affirmed a womans right to choose physician-performed abortion prior to fetal viability and further expanded and protected access to abortion in the state if Roe v. Wade was overturned.

 The Associated Press

Vermont Statehouse vandalized in apparent abortion reaction

MONTPELIER, Vt.  Police said the Vermont Statehouse building in Montpelier was vandalized early Saturday when seven windows were broken and a message painted outside the main door reacting to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that overturned a constitutional right to abortion.

Police say the vandalism took place at around 2 a.m. Saturday. The message painted on the granite portico said If abortions arent safe youre not either.

The Capitol Police estimated damage was in excess of $25,000. The Statehouse had been expected to open Saturday for its summer tour, but that has been postponed. The Statehouse is now scheduled to open on Monday morning.

Friday's decision is not expected to have any immediate effect on the right to an abortion in Vermont. The state has a law on the books guaranteeing the right to an abortion. State voters are also scheduled to cast ballots in November on whether to amend the state constitution to protect reproductive rights.

 The Associated Press

Minnesota Gov. Walz signs order to protect abortion patients, providers

MINNEAPOLIS  Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has signed an executive order meant to protect the state's abortion services from laws in neighboring states, following the U.S. Supreme Court decision ending constitutional protections for the procedure.

Walz said his action should help shield people seeking or providing abortions in Minnesota from facing legal consequences in other states. The Supreme Court's opinion to reverse Roe v. Wade immediately banned abortions in South Dakota and enacted a trigger law to end abortions in North Dakota after 30 days.

Abortion remains legal in Minnesota. Walz has vowed to reject requests to extradite individuals who are accused of committing acts related to reproductive health care that are not criminal offenses in Minnesota.

My office has been and will continue to be a firewall against legislation that would reverse reproductive freedom, Walz said.

The Red River Women's Clinic in Fargo, which is North Dakota's sole abortion provider, plans to move across the river to Minnesota, clinic owner Tammi Kromenaker said Saturday. She said she has secured a location in Moorhead but gave no further details.

The Associated Press

Abortion and Texas' gubernatorial race

Now that Roe is reversed, abortion laws sit in the states hands. In Texas, focus has turned to this year's gubernatorial race  but, regardless of the outcome of November's election, little could change for abortion law in the state.

"The only way to overcome todays decision is to win this race for governor," Democrat Beto O'Rourke, who is challenging Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, said in an email statement sent just minutes after the Supreme Court's ruling. "The Supreme Court has sent this back to the states, and our states current governor has outlawed abortion beginning at conception with no exception for rape or incest."

The message promised urgent action and suggested at least indirectly that the governor might have unilateral power to affect abortion law. But even if O'Rourke upsets Abbott's bid for a third term in November, he would be the decided underdog in any legislative battle over abortion.

The Republican-dominated Legislature in 2021 enacted a "trigger law" designed to kick in whenever the Roe decision was struck down. The Texas law makes it a felony to perform an abortion at any point in pregnancy.

Republicans are heavily favored to retain control of both legislative chambers in the coming elections, regardless of the outcome of the governor's race.

 John C. Mortiz, Corpus Christi Caller Times

Beto O'Rourke: Candidate suggests he could 'overcome' abortion ruling as governor. He could not.

Abortion decision overturning Roe v. Wade leaves behind John Roberts

In the weeks leading up to the Supreme Court's monumental decision to end the constitutional right to abortion, experts suggested that Chief Justice John Roberts might find a way to save Roe. But those kinds of predictions were dashed when the nation's highest court overturned the landmark case this week.

On Friday, the chief justice didn't join the majority to overturn Roe. Instead, he articulated what some saw as the centrist's position: He wanted to uphold the Mississippi ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy at issue in the case but not overrule one of the Supreme Court's best recognized precedents.

No other justice joined his opinion.

Some had speculated whether, after a draft opinion in the case leaked last month, Roberts was attempting to convince Associate Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett Kavanaugh behind the scenes to join his opinion  appealing to the notion of honoring precedent even if they disagreed with it. He had signaled his support for that very idea during oral arguments in December.

But if that lobbying effort took place, it failed spectacularly.

"To write alone is truly kind of interesting as the chief," said Glenn Cohen, a professor and deputy dean at Harvard Law School. "One feels a little bit that this is his moment of shouting into the desert as a judicial minimalist."

 John Fritze

For subscribers: Chief Justice Roberts wanted to go slow curbing Roe v. Wade. His colleagues were in a hurry.

French lawmakers seek abortion rights in constitution

Following the Friday decision to end the federally-protected right to abortion in the U.S., lawmakers in France belonging to President Emmanuel Macron's party will propose a bill to inscribe abortion rights into the country's constitution, according to a Saturday statement by two members of parliament.

In France, the right to abortion is already inscribed in a 1975 law relating to the voluntary termination of pregnancy within the legal framework that decriminalized abortion.

A constitutional law will cement abortion rights for future generations, said Marie-Pierre Rixain, a member of parliament and of Macron's The Republic on the Move party.

What happened elsewhere must not happen in France, Rixain said.

Macron also expressed solidarity with U.S. women following the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe on Friday  and said womens liberties are being undermined by the decision. Abortion is a fundamental right for all women. It must be protected, the French president wrote in a Twitter post late Friday.

Abortion rights around the world: French lawmakers seek to protect abortion rights in constitution with new bill proposal

 The Associated Press

Biden again attacks Supreme Court over anti-abortion ruling

Before signing a gun control bill Saturday, President Joe Biden again had harsh words for the Supreme Court's "shocking decision" to curtail abortion rights by striking down the Roe vs. Wade ruling.

"Jill (Biden) and I know how painful and devastating the decision is for so many Americans," the president said at the White House.

Biden again vowed to fight state efforts to further erode reproductive rights, such as proposals that would forbid women from traveling to other states for the purpose of obtaining an abortion.

"We're going to take action to protect women's rights and reproductive health," Biden added.

Biden also criticized the Supreme Court this week for a decision striking down gun control measures in New York and other states.

Asked Saturday if the institution is "broken," Biden said: I think the Supreme Court has made some terrible decisions."

 David Jackson

Sen. Collins blasted after abortion ruling. Here's her take.

PORTLAND, Maine  Sen. Susan Collins was blasted Friday for the overturning of Roe v. Wade, as opponents targeted her votes to confirm two justices to the Supreme Court who were in the majority opinion allowing states to ban abortion.

Critics of the Maine senator haven't forgotten the key role she played in confirming Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, and she was ripped anew on social media.

Some opponents took to name-calling and attacked Collins for being naive or complicit. Others called for her resignation. University of Maine professor Amy Fried said Collins "helped make this happen," and the Maine Democratic Party said part of the blame lies at Collins' feet.

The senator said in a statement Friday that she had received assurances from Kavanaugh and Gorsuch that Roe v. Wade was an established legal precedent.

"This decision is inconsistent with what Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh said in their testimony and their meetings with me, where they both were insistent on the importance of supporting long-standing precedents that the country has relied upon," she said.

 The Associated Press

Sen. Susan Collins' critical votes: Collins blasted after abortion ruling she calls 'inconsistent' with justices' testimony

Protesters take to streets across US after Supreme Court overturns Roe

On Friday, protesters assembled outside the Supreme Court, took to the streets in large cities and gathered in town parks.

An emotional crowd of hundreds carried signs and chanted "My body, my choice" at the steps of the nation's highest court as protesters grappled with news that the landmark Roe v. Wade decision was struck down after nearly five decades.

"I was gutted," said Becca Waite, a traveling nurse who attend a protest in Los Angeles. "These are women's lives at risk... There are already abortion deserts and there are already women that are disproportionately affected by this."

Amid the protests, some anti-abortion activists heralded the day as a cause for celebration. Some even rallied outside abortion clinics and sparred with protesters.

At EMW Women's Surgical Center, the lone full-time abortion clinic in Kentucky, a few activists gathered in the morning outside the downtown facility.

Joseph Spurgeon, a pastor at a church in nearby Jeffersonville, Indiana, said they had come out to celebrate "the grace of God," adding he will continue to lead his congregation in pushing to outlaw not only medications capable of terminating pregnancies, but contraceptives such as Plan B.

While most protests remained peaceful through Friday night, some cities saw clashes between police and demonstrators.

Law enforcement in Phoenix fired several canisters of tear gas at abortion-rights protesters after some banged against the doors of the Arizona Senate building Friday evening. Hundreds of protesters immediately scattered as the tear gas spread and officers in SWAT gear advanced with one officer declaring the protest an unlawful assembly. Authorities said there were no injuries or arrests.

'I cannot believe we are here again': Protesters take to streets across US after Supreme Court overturns Roe

4 West Coast states vow to protect abortion within their borders

As Republican lawmakers move to ban abortion in about half of U.S. states following the Supreme Courts landmark decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a cluster of Democratic-led states on the West Coast is standing apart in a collective vow to protect abortion access.

On Friday, governors in California, Washington, Oregon and Nevada promised to protect reproductive rights and help women traveling west seeking abortions, as communities now expect an influx of visitors in search of a safe place to get the procedure.

Three of those states  California, Washington and Oregon  joined forces in what officials called a West Coast offense. Their goal? To locally protect and expand abortion rights that are being outlawed across the U.S.

But leaders are also signaling worry about what has yet to come  and what other reversals may be in store after the death of Roe v. Wade

States that allow abortions: 4 states on West Coast 'put welcome sign on door' for abortion access

Companies paying for abortion-related travel include DICK'S Sporting Goods, Disney

Corporations are in the hot seat after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on Friday.

At least 26 states are certain or likely to ban abortion as a result of the decision, according to a study by the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.

Before Friday, many corporations avoided taking a stance on abortion rights even as states like Texas and Oklahoma passed laws that significantly restricted abortion access and a leak of the draft ruling was published.

A handful of companies including Match Inc., Bumble, Amazon, Citigroup, Salesforce, Tesla, Lyft, Yelp and JPMorgan began to cover travel expenses employees may incur to get an abortion if they don't have access to safe procedures in their home state before the ruling was officially released.

But the decision is forcing other companies to break their silence on the issue. Here's what they're saying:

After Roe v. Wade overturned: Companies paying for abortion-related travel include DICK'S Sporting Goods, Disney

Businesses respond: Kroger employee benefits include travel costs for abortion

Is birth control banned? Here's what to know after Roe v. Wade overturned

With this decision, abortion will likely be banned or greatly restricted in at least 22 states, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Some experts worry these bans could trickle down to restrict the use of emergency contraception and birth control.

The rhetoric has been really increasing over the last several years, Mara Gandal-Power, director of birth control access at the National Womens Law Center, said before the ruling. Theres definitely a domino effect which I think people are really starting to wake up to.

Health experts say what's partly driving this legislation is the misconception that emergency contraceptives are able to terminate a pregnancy.

The medications dont work to abort a pregnancy, said Dr. Mary Jacobson, an OB-GYN and chief medical officer at Alpha Medical, a telemedicine site for womens health and sex differences. If the patient were pregnant and took Plan B it doesnt increase abortion and it doesnt have any effects on the ongoing pregnancy.

What is mifepristone, the abortion pill?: What to know after the Supreme Court overturns Roe

Can you still buy Plan B?: What to know after SCOTUS overturns Roe v. Wade

Roe v. Wade birth control: What to know about birth control as Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade

Thomas calls for SCOTUS to 'reconsider' gay marriage, contraception

Associate Justice Clarence Thomas on Friday said the Supreme Court should "reconsider" other rights established by the high court in the wake of its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, including access to contraception and gay marriage.

Thomas' concurring opinion  which no other member of the court joined  tracks with an argument abortion rights groups had made for months leading up to the court's blockbuster abortion decision: A ruling that the Constitution doesn't protect a right to an abortion would jeopardize other rights the court established under the 14th Amendment.

"In future cases, we should reconsider all of this courts substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell," Thomas wrote, referring to landmark opinions that blocked states from banning contraception, sex by same-sex couples and gay marriage. "After overruling these demonstrably erroneous decisions, the question would remain whether other constitutional provisions guarantee the myriad rights that our substantive due process cases have generated."

Clarence Thomas: Thomas calls for SCOTUS to 'reconsider' gay marriage, contraception after Roe v. Wade

McConnell: Abortion ruling result of a half-century struggle by conservatives

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell praised the U.S. Supreme Courts 6-3 decision on Friday, saying it represents a half century of struggle by conservative activists.

The Supreme Courts landmark ruling in Dobbs is courageous and correct, he said. This is an historic victory for the Constitution and for the most vulnerable in our society.

During Donald Trump's single term as president, McConnell was pivotal in reshaping the judiciary. He shepherded dozens of conservative judges onto the bench, including three high court nomineesNeil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrettthat tilted the Supreme Court to its current conservative majority.

In May, the GOP leader acknowledged in an exclusive interview with USA TODAY that a national abortion ban is possible in Congress.

"If the leaked opinion became the final opinion, legislative bodies  not only at the state level, but at the federal level  certainly could legislate in that area," McConnell said.

"And if this were the final decision, that was the point that it should be resolved one way or another in the legislative process. So yeah, it's possible. It would depend on where the votes were."

Phillip M. Bailey

Obergefell: Thomas 'imposing twisted sense of morality' on the country

In an interview Friday, the plaintiff whose name is on the case legalizing same-sex marriage said abortion ruling is a call to opponents of marriage equality "to now start their engines and to come after those rights."

"This very clearly paints a target on our right to privacy, our right to commit to the person we love and to form our families," said Jim Obergefell, an Ohio resident and gay-rights advocate.

Obergefell and John Arthur, who was gravely ill, traveled to Maryland in July 2013 to get married because Ohio didn't allow same-sex unions. Arthur died three months later, and Obergefell sued to be listed on the death certificate as Arthurs husband. Their case was among multiple cases involving dozens of plaintiffs argued before the Supreme Court.

The 2015 decision establishing the right for same-sex couples to marry was a milestone for LGBTQ rights in the United States. Thomas dissented against the majority opinion.

Obergefell accused Thomas of "imposing his twisted sense of morality" on the country. He said he's scared about what the future may hold but urged women, LGBTQ people and their allies to keep fighting for their rights.

The future of gay marriage: Jim Obergefell says Supreme Court abortion ruling puts target on privacy, gay marriage

Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade ruling sparks concerns over abortion rights, data privacy

The decision could push states to make abortions illegal. Last year, Texas signed one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country, banning them after six weeks of pregnancy. The law also allows anyone to sue any other person who performs the procedure or helps people get an abortion.

Some experts fear that those who seek abortions could be outed by tech companies to governments or law enforcement by handing over the troves of personal data they maintain upon request.

"With unintended consequences here, we're really looking at a situation where tech companies' very loose restrictions around collecting data and users' data privacy is really going to put people who are seeking abortions, or even seeking to learn more about abortions, at risk," said Mariana Ruiz Firmat, executive director at nonprofit organization Kairos.

Privacy rights after Roe ruling: Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade ruling sparks concerns over abortion rights, data privacy

More coverage of abortion rights from USA TODAY

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Roe v. Wade overturned: What court decision means in United States
When five US Supreme Court justices voted to overturn Roe v Wade and the constitutional right to an abortion after 50 years, it has led many to ask if the landmark ruling could one day just be reinstated.

The answer is yes, technically, but the path would be difficult.

The first way is for there to be a liberal majority on the Supreme Court that could reinstate constitutional protections for abortion rights. But in order to reach that majority Democrats in Congress would need to confirm enough liberal justices on the conservative majority bench, which voted in a bloc to throw out Roe by a vote of 5-1-3.

It took Republicans five decades to line up the exact scenario required to achieve their goal of overturning Roe.

Democrats would need to hold both the White House and US Senate at the same time as seats became open, presumably through death, as right-wing justices are unlikely to retire under those circumstances.

Justice Antonin Scalia died in 2016, allowing Donald Trump to nominate Neil Gorsuch; Justice Anthony Kennedy retired, being succeeded by Brett Kavanaugh in 2018; and Ruth Bader Ginsbergs death allowed the one-term president to replace her with Amy Coney Barrett in 2020.

When Justice Stephen Breyer retires this summer, to be repaced by Ketanji Brown Jackson, there will no longer be anyone in their 80s on the bench of the high court. Its oldest justices will be Clarence Thomas, 73, and Samuel Alito, 72, and they could well be replaced by younger conservatives the next time the GOP controls the White House and Senate, making the path even harder for Democrats.

Only when there were enough justices on the court willing to take on a case would it then be able to rule on a challenge that brought up abortion rights, such as the case of Dobbs v Jackson Womens Health Organization at the centre of the courts latest decision, to determine whether the constitution protects the right to abortion.

A second way to reinstate Roe v Wade runs through Congress, with a Democratic-controlled Senate and House of Representatives passing a law that codifies the protections that existed within Roe. This law would have to be able to survive any close inspection by the Supreme Court.

Story continues

An alternative strategy would be for Congress to expand or pack the Supreme Court with additional liberal justices, as progressives have called for Joe Biden to do since he entered the Oval Office.

However, Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, and Krysten Sinema, a Democrat from Arizona, have said they will not get rid of the Senates filibuster rule.

That would mean that any abortion bill would require Democrats to regain a 60-vote Senate majority to overcome the filibuster. The Senate is currently split 50-50 with the 2022 midterm elections on the horizon with difficult tailwinds for the party.

Democrats could change the rules of the Senate and throw out the filibuster and vote on the bill with their 50 senators and the vice-president to break any tie.

But with Mr Manchin and Ms Sinema seemingly unwilling to go along with that plan, they would likely need to find two other votes to allow Kamala Harris to make the difference.
A demonstrator cries in front of the Supreme Court last month. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images)

Op-Ed: How to move forward after the destruction of Roe vs. Wade

There are virtually no precedents in American law in which a right  declared fundamental by the Supreme Court  was erased. While the court has overhauled constitutional protections before, the complete retraction of the right to abortion sets the nation on a course it has never seen.

Read more >>>

Op-Ed: The Supreme Court is not accountable to the people. So what can check its power?

If Supreme Court justices had to run for reelection, a number of them would be in big trouble. Last week the court issued radical decisions that boldly defied American opinion on both abortion and guns. It overturned Roe vs. Wade and about 20 other cases that had protected the right to abortion for a half-century. And in the wake of some of the worst mass shootings in American history, it struck down a New York law dating to 1911 that required people to demonstrate a need before being authorized to carry a gun in public.

Read more >>>

Op-Ed: Ive had an illegal abortion and a legal abortion. The experiences couldnt have been more different

There is a huge difference between illegal and legal abortions. I know. I had one of each.

Read more >>>

Op-Ed: Why Im telling my abortion story now

I am an outspoken advocate for gender equality and womens rights, and as the leader of Planned Parenthood in California, the states largest network of community health centers providing sexual and reproductive healthcare, it would seem obvious that Im not afraid of the word abortion.

But I havent always spoken it directly. And until now, I havent told my own abortion story.

Read more >>>

Op-Ed: Ending Roe is a pure exercise of Republican power, wielded to reduce womens freedom and equality

Freedom and equality have expanded enormously over the course of American history, which makes the ending of a constitutional right virtually unprecedented.

In Dobbs vs. Jackson Womens Health Organization, the court overruled a half-century of decisions protecting a constitutional right of women to choose whether to end their pregnancies. The decision must be understood as entirely about the conservative desire to end abortion rights and not about constitutional principles or judicial methodology.

Story continues

Read more >>>

Op-Ed: I am the product of rape. Heres why I support abortion rights

I wish you had never been born. I should have had an abortion.

I cant remember the first time my mother told me that. But I do remember the first time I responded differently, other than freezing in place or bursting into tears.

Read more >>>

Op-Ed: My wifes abortion was a painful choice. Now as a father, I worry my daughter wont get to choose

In 1997, my wife Janie and I welcomed our first child, a healthy daughter born after an uncomplicated pregnancy. The baby thrived and became the light of our lives.

A year later, we tried for another child, but Janie suffered a first-trimester miscarriage. Two more first-trimester miscarriages followed. We wanted more children but wondered whether trying yet again was worth risking more physical and emotional trauma.

Read more >>>

Op-Ed: The end of Roe will be a death sentence for many Black women

I am shocked but not surprised. And I am angry.

For all women in the United States, the Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade will reverse half a century of progress in womens healthcare.

For Black women, this decision represents something even more sinister. For us, losing access to legal abortion could spell the difference between life and death

Read more >>>

Op-Ed: We watched history go in reverse on Friday in Washington

My wife canvassed for the Equal Rights Amendment as a teenager. Both of us have marched for abortion rights. We consider Roe vs. Wade to be fundamental, but we also understood that it would be overturned.

Read more >>>

Op-Ed: I hid my pregnancy from the internet so I know: Online privacy is nearly impossible

More than 2.5 million unintended pregnancies were reported in the U.S. between 2014 and 2019. Many of those women probably read pregnancy articles online, browsed Planned Parenthoods website, triple-checked their period tracker or confided in their best friend over Facebook Messenger.

Read more >>>

The best way to protect abortion rights? Finalize the Equal Rights Amendment

When Roe vs. Wade was decided in 1973, it was rooted in rights that flow from privacy  not equality. As the country has now seen in the leaked Supreme Court draft ruling, that right to privacy is about to be demolished.

Read more >>>

Op-Ed: The Supreme Court flunks abortion history

But the most shocking aspect of the leaked opinion is something else entirely: the glaring historical mistakes that pervade its supposedly originalist analysis. Contrary to the drafts conclusion, for as long as America has existed, so too have abortions  in most cases free of any form of criminal punishment.

Read more >>>

Op-Ed: As a lifelong abortion rights activist, I am terrified of our society moving backward

A womans choice whether or not to bear a child lies at the very core of her being, and when politicians seize control of that choice, she is relegated to second class citizenship and deemed incapable of making her own life decisions.

Read more >>>

Op-Ed: Leave abortion law to the states? Just look at the Fugitive Slave Act to see how that will go

Why not leave abortion to the states?

One of the most common arguments made by those who want to downplay the significance of Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.s leaked draft opinion in Dobbs vs. Jackson Womens Health is that it would not make abortion illegal. Rather, it would merely return the abortion debate to the legislative sphere, where it belongs. Individual states would pass their own abortion laws, as restrictive or nonrestrictive as their electorate wants them to be.

Read more >>>

Op-Ed: Pregnancy is risky. Losing access to abortion puts womens lives at stake

As the United States struggles with the imminent demise of Roe vs. Wade, politicians and voters need to remember one thing ahead of the midterm elections: Abortion saves womens lives.

Read more >>>

Op-Ed: Texas gives us a glimpse into a world without abortion care training

Were getting a clearer picture every day of the devastating effect of Texas near-total abortion ban. Many people are traveling out of state to get abortion services, and some have come to San Francisco, where I work. With the Supreme Court now poised to overturn the constitutional right to abortion in a matter of weeks, the national impact will be enormous as many more states ban abortion care.

One consequence we havent fully reckoned with is how these antiabortion laws will affect the training of healthcare workers.

Read more >>>

Op-Ed: What the U.S. can learn from Stalins abortion ban

As the right to get an abortion in the United States is whittled away, state by state and statute by statute, we can learn important lessons about the impact of its repression from the history of one country where it was first legalized  and then re-criminalized.

Read more >>>

Column: Theyre coming for abortion. Next it will be gay marriage and birth control

Last week, I got an earful from readers who were angry that I defended peaceful protests at the homes of three conservative Supreme Court justices, who with their conservative brethren, appear to be on the verge of overturning Roe vs. Wade.

Read more >>>

Op-Ed: Only states can stop antiabortion crisis pregnancy centers from deceiving consumers

One trend thats already troubling is the proliferation of crisis pregnancy centers, or CPCs, in California and nationwide. These antiabortion organizations target low-income people facing unintended pregnancies. Their goal is not to provide care, but to prevent people from accessing abortion and contraception.

Read more >>>

Op-Ed: A retro reading of the Constitution imperils many rights beyond abortion

The right to abortion is whats known as an unenumerated right, meaning that it has constitutional stature even though no text in the Constitution  short of the abstract liberty protected by the Fourteenth Amendment  protects it. The idea of such unwritten rights may seem puzzling, but its well-established in our constitutional system.

Read more >>>

Op-Ed: The pendulum is swinging back, reversing hard-won sexual freedoms and civil rights

The leaked Supreme Court opinion by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., which would overturn Roe vs. Wade, marks a devastating setback for reproductive justice in the United States. It also highlights how bound up the right to abortion is with other fundamental sexual freedoms and civil rights. Whatever happens in the wake of this likely decision, we are already witnessing the undoing of more than a century of successful efforts to expand and protect individual rights to sexual and gender self-expression.

Read more >>>

Op-Ed: Conservative Christians will regret overturning Roe. Theyre sacrificing religious liberty to do it

The imminent overturning of Roe vs. Wade is a disaster for women. It is also a disaster for the Catholic Church, whose hierarchy in America has made opposition to abortion central to its mission.

Read more >>>

Column: The right to abortion is deeply rooted in the Constitution and flows from amends for slavery

Now that weve had a moment to digest the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion overturning Roe vs. Wade, one thing is clear: Words have lost their meaning.

The courts three newest justices, Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, all said under oath during their confirmation hearings they believed that the two major rulings upholding the federal right to abortion  Roe vs. Wade and Planned Parenthood vs. Casey  were settled law.

Read more >>>

Op-Ed: What we can learn from one of Californias most successful abortion providers

For more than two decades, I researched the life of Inez Burns, one of Americas most successful abortion providers. Burns lived in California and terminated more than 50,000 pregnancies when abortion was illegal across the U.S. While the Supreme Court weighs whether to overturn Roe vs. Wade, Burns cautionary story underscores a basic, undeniable truth: Banning abortions will do little to stop women from having them.

Read more >>>





This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
LONDON (Reuters) -A senior official in the Russian-installed administration of Ukraines occupied Kherson region was killed in an apparent assassination on Friday, the deputy head of the administration told Reuters.

Dmitry Savluchenko, head of the families, youth, and sports department of the Kherson Military-Civilian Administration, was killed in a bomb blast.

Russia's TASS news agency said there were two burnt-out cars in a courtyard of Kherson, the regional capital where the blast took place, and that the windows of one four-storey house had been shattered.

An adviser to the Ukrainian governor of Kherson told Ukraine's public news network Suspilne that the assassination was the "successful work of partisans" directed by Ukraine's armed forces.

Kherson sits just northwest of the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula and was occupied during the first week of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which began in February. A large part of the local population has left.

In the first weeks of the occupation there were regular civilian protests in the region, which were put down.

Since then, there have been unverified reports of increasing partisan activity against the Russian-backed authorities.

On June 18, Ukrainian media reported that a local prison head who had joined the Russian-installed administration had been wounded in a bomb blast.

On June 20, Ukraines military said two Russian soldiers had been killed and another wounded when a gunman opened fire at a waterside cafe in Kherson city.

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Gareth Jones/Mark Heinrich)
A beauty salon in Orlando has become the target of racist vandalism after being misidentified as a business owned by a woman who was filmed making anti-Asian comments at a local restaurant last week.

Iris Mejia, owner of Beauty Bar Orlando, said she has been receiving death threats since June 13, soon after the incident at King Cajun Crawfish took place and the video in question was posted on social media.

The woman in the video, who King Cajun identified as Elizabeth Knighton, hurled racist abuse at the restaurants Asian staff after allegedly failing to get a refund for what she claimed were spoiled shrimp.

Youre a Chinese bitch, the woman told King Cajun manager Kristen Nguyen, as heard in the video. You want me to spell it for you? Youre a Chinese bitch. Thats what you are.

More from NextShark: Report: Hate incidents targeting AAPI exceed 10,000 in under 2 years

The woman reportedly left the counter saying unintelligible words in a mock Asian accent. At one point, she returned and told Nguyen, Take your ass back to your country, ching-chong.

It was not long before social media users tracked down Knighton, who owns a salon called Bodi Beauty Bar, according to reports. The Baldwin-based business has since taken down its Google listing. But despite this, some online users have mistaken Mejia as the woman in the video, culminating in the vandalism of her salon last weekend.

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Ever since Monday, I have received threatening phone calls, death threats and threats to burn down my business, all over mistaken identity. My stylists and I have lost business due to the threats and fear of coming to work, Mejia wrote on her GoFundMe campaign, which she organized to help her business recover losses.

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The threats seemed empty, until today, she continued. When I arrived at my salon, it was completely vandalized. Someone painted racial slurs all over the outside of the building.

The graffiti included the words Go back to your cage and bitch monkey. Mejia told The Daily Beast that she was hospitalized after the vandalism for her emotional well-being.

More from NextShark: Singaporean man terrorizes neighbors day and night for 11 years by banging on apartment walls

It was horrible. Everyone thinks its me, she reportedly said in tears.

King Cajun has been trying to deflect the attention away from Mejias business. Following the vandalism, the restaurant released a statement urging the public to not fight hate with hate and to support Mejia the way they were supported.

Beauty Bar Orlando owned by Iris @beautybarorl @iris.edu_hairguru is INNOCENT and they have nothing to do with the incident, King Cajun wrote on Instagram. Today, they were vandalized. We are devastated by this news. Iris is very sweet, kind and she is a hardworking businesswoman.

As of this writing, Mejias GoFundMe has raised $6,692 of its $10,000 goal for five stylists and two estheticians, including herself.

Meanwhile, King Cajun said in a new statement that they have filed a police report against Knighton, who will be arrested for trespassing if she returns to the restaurant. Nguyen told NextShark that they cannot pursue hate crime charges, because while the incident involved hate speech, there was no crime committed.

During the meeting, they informed us what hate crime is. It has to have a crime committed with hate speech, Nguyen said of the Orange County Sheriffs Office. There is not much that they can do because there was no crime committed. But they helped us with an incident number and expressed that they are here for us and here to help.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by King Cajun Orlando Mills50 (@officialkingcajun)

Featured Image via GoFundMe
DUBAI (Reuters) - A luxurious superyacht belonging to a sanctioned Russian billionaire parliamentarian featuring six suites, an elevator, its own beach club and a helicopter pad is anchored in Dubai where Russians have sheltered wealth since the invasion of Ukraine.

Andrei Skoch's blue and white "Madame Gu" was docked at Port Rashid on Friday, where Dubai's Ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum keeps his own yacht, both visible to passersby.

Dubai has emerged as a refuge for Russian wealth as Western sanctions target President Vladimir Putin's allies. The United Arab Emirates, seeking to maintain what it says is a neutral position on the war, has not imposed sanctions.

That has frustrated many Western diplomats who privately say the UAE position is untenable and siding with Moscow.

On Wednesday, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf was asked during a U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee hearing about reports of Putin-linked oligarchs and businessmen sheltering assets in the UAE.

"Im not happy at all with the record at this point and I plan to make this a priority to drive to a better alignment, shall we say, of effort," she said.

Skoch, 56, was sanctioned this year by the West, including the European Union, over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The United States had sanctioned the State Duma member in 2018.

The Madame Gu superyacht has been anchored in the Dubai port since March 6, according to Refinitiv data, and arrived in the UAE last November, several months before Ukraine was invaded.

UAE officials and the U.S. and British embassies in Abu Dhabi did not immediately respond to questions on the vessel. Neither did a representative for the EU mission in the UAE.

Britain's trade secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan, speaking during an interview with Reuters in the UAE on Thursday, urged more nations to punish Russia.

Asked if there were concerns about Russians evading sanctions through the UAE, Trevelyan said imposing sanctions is a sovereign decision, without addressing whether there was unease.

A Boeing 787 Dreamliner owned by sanctioned oligarch Roman Abramovich arrived in Dubai in March, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. A U.S. court has ordered its seizure.

(Reporting by Abdel Hadi Ramahi and Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Josie Kao and David Gregorio)
Wandrea ArShaye "Shaye" Moss, a former Georgia election worker, is sworn in before the U.S. House Select Committee's fourth hearing on its Jan. 6 investigation on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on June 21, 2022. (Yuri Gripas/Abaca Press/TNS)

My mind keeps returning to Shaye Moss brave, devastating testimony at the committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the United States Capitol.

Moss described the threats and abuse she and her family have endured since former President Donald Trump and his top campaign lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, spread a vile lie that Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, both election workers in Fulton County, Georgia, rigged the 2020 presidential election. In a phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger shortly before the Jan. 6 attack, Trump mentioned Freeman by name and called her a professional vote scammer and hustler.

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Angry mobs, fed a pack of lies, came after Moss online and in person, wielding their racism and misguided indignation. She and her mother had to move out of their homes. To this day, both women fear for their lives and cringe when someone says their names in public.

Neither serves as an election worker anymore  an infuriating detail in and of itself.

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Ive always been told by my grandmother how important it is to vote and how people before me, a lot of people, older people in my family, did not have that right, Moss, who is Black, told the House committee.

What I loved most about my job were the older voters. Younger people could usually do everything from their phone or go online. But the older voters liked to call. They liked to talk to you. ... I was excited always about sending out all the absentee ballots for the elderly, disabled people. I even remember driving to a hospital to give someone her absentee ballot application. That's  that's what I loved the most.

She invested herself in protecting a system that, in its original form, didnt even make room for her. That takes a special sort of conviction  the sort this nation relies on to become a more perfect union. That conviction was squandered, when it should have been held sacrosanct.

Shortly after Trump and Giulianis lies went viral, a group of people showed up at Moss grandmothers house looking for Moss and Freeman, determined to make a citizens arrest. She called Moss in tears, terrified.

This woman is my everything, Moss told the committee about her grandmother. Ive never even seen or heard her cry, ever in my life.

I told her, Close the door, Moss continued. Dont open the door for anyone. Shes a 70-something-I-wont-say woman. She doesnt like having restrictions. She wants to answer the door. She like to get her steps in, walking around the neighborhood. I told her, You cant do that. You have to be safe.

She likes to get her steps in. For some reason that detail gutted me.

I have always believed it when God says hell make your name great, Freeman told the committee, during videotaped testimony. But this is not how it was supposed to be.

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Her community in Georgia, where she was born and lived her whole life, knows her as Lady Ruby, she told the committee. She built a small business, Rubys Unique Treasures, around her good name.

I wore a shirt that proudly proclaimed that I was and I am Lady Ruby, Freeman said. I had that shirt in every color. I wore that shirt on Election Day 2020. I havent worn it since, and Ill never wear it again.

She stopped introducing herself by her name. She gets nervous, she said, when she sees someone she knows in public. She doesnt want her name uttered out loud because she doesnt know who will overhear.

Ive lost my name, and Ive lost my reputation, she said. Ive lost my sense of security.  There is nowhere I feel safe. Nowhere.

Do you know how it feels to have the president of the United States target you? The president of the United States is supposed to represent every American, not to target one, she continued. But he targeted me, Lady Ruby, a small-business owner, a mother, a proud American citizen who stood up to help Fulton County run an election in the middle of a pandemic.

At the end of their testimony, U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff said this: In city councils and town councils, on school boards and election boards, from the Congress to the courts, dedicated public servants are leaving their posts because of death threats  to them, and to their families.

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This is not who we are, he continued. It must not become who we are.

Ive grown a little weary of hearing this is not who we are. I understand the pull to believe it, and I respect the intention of people who say it, especially if you or someone you love has toiled or even died to make this country free and fair for all. But this is not who we are has always felt like a little bit of a dodge to me, like a refusal to acknowledge the darker parts of our history and present.

Last year, the day after the Jan. 6 attack, CNN hosted former Defense Secretary William Cohen to talk about what we had just witnessed. He talked about who we are and, I think, put the phrase  and the attack  into clear, important context.

People say this is not who we are, but it is a good part of who we are and who we have been, he said. These are the same people that used to be the Night Riders, and I know this from my wifes experience of having to fall to the floor and put out lanterns when the Night Riders came up on the porch of her uncle with their horses. These are the same people who were the Jim Crows. These are the same people who were segregationists. These are the same people who are white supremacists. So this has been a part of our history.

So when we say its not who we are, Cohen continued, Its a part of who we are. And who we have been, and what we hope we wont be going forward. But this is an indigenous part of the United States and we have added to the myth that were different, were exceptional, this is not who we are  these kind of incendiary bomb throwers, arsonists, anarchists. Yeah. Theyve been with us since the founding of this country.

What we hope we wont be going forward. That's the part that needs our focus and our work.

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We owe that much to Shaye Moss and to Ruby Freeman and to every other family whose faith and security were shaken by Jan. 6 and all the days since.

Heidi Stevens is a Tribune News Service columnist. You can reach her at heidikstevens@gmail.com, find her on Twitter @heidistevens13 or join her Heidi Stevens Balancing Act Facebook group.
Former Assistant U.S. Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel Steven Engel (L), former Acting U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen (C) and former Acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue (R) look on during the fifth hearing held by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol on June 23, 2022 in the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, DC. Jonathan Ernst-Pool/Getty Images

The January 6 select committee held its fifth public hearing June 23.

Witnesses testified about Donald Trump trying to push DOJ to follow his election fraud scheme.

Here are some of the most striking visuals from the committee's hearing on Thursday.

Actor Sean Penn listened in

Fom left, former Washington Metropolitan Police Department officer Michael Fanone, actor Sean Penn, and Washington Metropolitan Police Department officer Daniel Hodges listen as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, June 23, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Actor and political activist Sean Penn showed up at Thursday's hearing, sitting through the nearly 3-hour proceedings with the rest of the attendees.

The unexpected visitor said he was there as "just another citizen."

Mark Meadows role as gatekeeper was explored

A snapshot of the myriad text messages and emails that flowed to and from then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows as Trump tried to push his election fraud scheme. Warren Rojas/Insider

January 6 committee member Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who led most of the discussion Thursday, reviewed many electronic messages that then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows both sent and received before, during, and after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

Scott Perry's involvement was revealed

A snapshot of a text message Rep. Scott Perry allegedly sent then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows about replacing Department of Justice leaders with fellow election deniers. Warren Rojas/Insider

The brunt of Thursday's hearing focused on the various ways Donald Trump and his allies tried to make Department of Justice officials comply with unlawfully overturning the 2020 election.

Some of the evidence presented included text messages Republican Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania sent White House officials urging them to move attorney Jeff Clark up the management ladder so he could help validate the baseless election fraud strategy.

Senior officials issued lots of warnings

A snapshot of a warning acting deputy attorney general Richard Donoghue issued after being presented with Trump's bogus election fraud scheme. Warren Rojas/Insider

As part of his testimony, former acting deputy attorney general Richard Donoghue explained that he resisted Trump's efforts to draw the DOJ into his election fraud fantasy every step of the way.

And he warned others to steer clear as well.

Trump's scheme didn't end at the water's edge

A snapshot of a message GOP Rep. Scott Perry sent White House officials suggesting that Italy had somehow meddled with the 2020 election. Warren Rojas/Insider

As if dragging American election workers through the mud weren't enough, January 6 committee staff also presented evidence of far-fetched claims by House Republicans of potential interference by European powers.

Some officials threatened to quit

A snapshot of the half-dozen DOJ officials who were reportedly ready to quit if Trump installed election denier Jeff Clark as acting attorney general. Warren Rojas/Insider

The Department of Justice officials testified about how they and others got fed up with Trump's attempts to drag them into his election fraud scheme.

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They said they managed to quash a last-ditch plan to install election denier Jeff Clark as acting attorney general by telling Trump that if he pushed for regime change, they'd resign en masse and Clark would be left "leading a graveyard."

Pardons were requested

January 6 select committee staff displayed an image of a email Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama allegedly sent the White House requesting presidential pardons for MAGA lawmakers during the panel's fifth public hearing on Thursday, June 23. Warren Rojas/Insider

January 6 committee staff made good on co-chair Liz Cheney's promise from few weeks ago to expose House Republicans who'd asked Trump to pardon them in the wake of the attack on the US Capitol.

On Thursday the committee revealed that Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Louie Gohmert of Texas, and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia had all requested protection from the fallout of the 2020 election fraud scheme.

Names were named

A video displays a discussion about presidential pardons during the fifth public hearing by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol in the Cannon House Office Building on June 23, 2022 in Washington, DC. Alex Wong/Getty Images

Rep. Matt Gaetz actually came up more than once during the discussion of pardon requests.

White House aides testified about direct conversations they'd had with the Florida Republican regarding presidential pardons, and Rep. Mo Brooks mentioned him specifically in an email he shot over to administration officials.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Sen. Christopher S. Murphy of Connecticut, who has led the Democrats in bipartisan Senate talks to rein in gun violence, speaks to reporters in the Capitol. (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

The Senate on Thursday easily approved a bipartisan gun violence bill that seemed unthinkable just a month ago, clearing the way for final congressional approval of what will be lawmakers' most far-reaching response in decades to the nation's run of brutal mass shootings.

After years of GOP procedural delays that derailed Democratic efforts to enact gun safety laws, Democrats and some Republicans decided that congressional inaction was untenable after last months rampages in New York and Texas. It took weeks of closed-door talks, but a group of senators from both parties emerged with a compromise embodying incremental but impactful movement to curb bloodshed that has come to regularly shock  yet no longer surprise  the nation.

The $13-billion measure would toughen background checks for the youngest gun buyers, keep firearms from more domestic violence offenders and help states put in place "red flag" laws that make it easier for authorities to take weapons from people judged to be dangerous. It would also fund local programs for school safety, mental health and violence prevention.

The election year package fell far short of more robust gun restrictions Democrats have sought for years, including bans on the assault-type weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines used in the slayings in Buffalo, N.Y., and Uvalde, Texas. Yet the accord let leaders of both parties declare victory and demonstrate to voters that they know how to compromise and make government work, while also leaving room for each side to appeal to its core supporters.

This is not a cure-all for the all the ways gun violence affects our nation, said Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), whose party has made gun safety a legislative goal for decades. But it is a long overdue step in the right direction. Passing this gun safety bill is truly significant, and its going to save lives.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), in a nod to the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms that drives many conservative voters, said, The American people want their constitutional rights protected and their kids to be safe in school. He said that they want both of those things at once, and that is just what the bill before the Senate will have accomplished.

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The day proved bittersweet for advocates of curtailing gun violence. Underscoring the enduring potency of conservative clout, the conservative-dominated Supreme Court issued a decision expanding the right of Americans to carry arms in public. The justices struck down a New York law that has required people to prove a need for carrying a weapon before they get a license to do so.

The Senate vote on final passage was 65 to 33.

Hours earlier, senators voted 65 to 34 to end a filibuster by conservative GOP senators. That was five votes more than the 60-vote threshold needed. The House planned to vote on the measure Friday, and approval seemed certain.

On that vote, 15 Senate Republicans joined all 50 Democrats, including their two allied independents, in voting to move ahead on the legislation.

Yet that vote highlighted the risks Republicans face by defying the party's pro-gun rights voters and firearms groups like the National Rifle Assn. GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Todd Young of Indiana were the only two of the 15 up for reelection this fall. Of the rest, four are retiring and eight don't face voters until 2026.

Tellingly, GOP senators voting no included potential 2024 presidential contenders including Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Ted Cruz of Texas, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Tim Scott of South Carolina. Some of the party's most conservative members voted no as well, including Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah.

While the Senate measure was a clear breakthrough, the outlook for continued congressional movement on gun safety laws is dim.

Less than one-third of the Senate's 50 GOP senators backed the measure and solid Republican opposition is certain in the House. Top House Republicans urged a no vote in an email from the No. 2 GOP leader, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, that called the bill an effort to slowly chip away at law-abiding citizens 2nd Amendment rights.

Both chambers  now narrowly controlled by Democrats  could well be run by the GOP after November's midterm elections.

In a statement, President Biden said Uvalde residents told him when he visited that Washington had to act. Our kids in schools and our communities will be safer because of this legislation. I call on Congress to finish the job and get this bill to my desk, Biden said.

Senate action came one month after a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers in Uvalde. Just days before that, a gunman killed 10 Black grocery shoppers in Buffalo in what authorities call a racist attack. Both shooters were 18 years old, a youthful profile shared by many mass shooters, and the close timing of the two massacres and victims with whom many could identify stirred a demand by voters for action, lawmakers of both parties said.

The talks were led by Sens. Christopher S. Murphy (D-Conn.), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.). Murphy has been a leader on the issue since the 2012 massacre in Newtown, Conn., in which an assailant killed 20 students and six staffers at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Cornyn has been involved in past gun talks following mass shootings in his state and is close to McConnell.

Murphy said the measure would save thousands of lives and was a chance to prove to a weary American public that democracy is not so broken that it is unable to rise to the moment.

I don't believe in doing nothing in the face of what we saw in Uvalde and elsewhere, Cornyn said.

The bill would make the local juvenile records of people 18 to 20 available during required federal background checks when they attempt to buy guns. Those examinations, currently limited to three days, would last up to a maximum of 10 days to give federal and local officials time to search records.

People convicted of domestic abuse who are current or former romantic partners of the victim would be prohibited from acquiring firearms, closing the so-called boyfriend loophole.

That ban currently applies only to people married to, living with or who have had children with the victim. The compromise bill would extend that to those considered to have had a continuing serious relationship."

There would be money to help states enforce red-flag laws and for other states without them for violence prevention programs. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have such laws.

The measure expands the use of background checks by rewriting the definition of the federally licensed gun dealers required to conduct them. Penalties for gun trafficking are strengthened, billions of dollars are provided for behavioral health clinics and school mental health programs, and there's money for school safety initiatives, though not for personnel to use a dangerous weapon."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, a member of party leadership who voted to back the new law, speaks at a press conference on Capitol Hill on June 22, 2022. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

The Senate passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act by a wide bipartisan margin on Thursday.

15 Republican senators supported the bill, which would enact the toughest new gun restrictions since the 1990s.

The bill would close the "boyfriend loophole," support state-level "red flag" laws, and makes new mental health investments.

The US Senate approved a bipartisan bill to enact new gun restrictions by a 65-33 vote on Thursday, with 15 Republicans joining every Democratic senator in support.

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the full text of which can be found here, includes multimillion dollar investments in mental health services and school security, as well as a new federal ban on gun trafficking.

"We are passing the first significant gun safety bill in nearly 30 years," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday ahead of the vote, adding that the bill is "not a cure-all for all the ways gun violence affects our nation, but it is a long overdue step in the right direction."

The gun safety bill would offer new funding supporting states and tribes that seek to enact "red flag" laws  which allows authorities to confiscate guns from individuals deemed a threat to themselves or others  closing the so-called "boyfriend loophole, and subjecting gun purchasers under the age of 21 to new background check requirements.

"Our schools should be a sanctuary for our children, not a place where they plan what will happen during the next shooting and how they can hide under their desks or try to make their escape," GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said on the Senate floor. "Schools should be a sanctuary, and this bill will provide the kind of services that will help identify students in crisis and help intervene to provide them the assistance they need."

He added: "We probably can't eliminate human error like we saw in Uvalde, Texas, but we can promulgate the best practices, which we have done in this bill."

The National Rifle Association announced their opposition to the bill within an hour of the text's release, and House Republicans cited the group's opposition as it urged their members to vote against the bill when it comes to the House.

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But the bill is expected to easily pass in the House, even with some Republican support, and it will later head to President Joe Biden's desk.

The White House released a statement on Thursday indicating that Biden "strongly supports" the bill.

"While the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act does not include additional important steps the President has called for as part of his comprehensive gun crime reduction agenda, it would make meaningful progress to combat gun violence," read the statement. "As communities continue to experience gun violence every day, the Administration calls for swift passage of this life-saving legislation.

The bill was supported even by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, on top of the 10 Republican senators who endorsed a framework of the bill released last week. Following the Thursday vote, Schumer was seen giving McConnell a pat on the shoulder.

But four more Republicans  including Sens. Joni Ernst of Iowa, Todd Young of Indiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia  came out in support of the bill this week, voting to advance it in a procedural vote on Tuesday.

Here are the Republican senators who supported the bill:

Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas

Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri

Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia

Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine

Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina

Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska

Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio

Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah

Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina

Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania

Sen. Todd Young of Indiana

"I've talked to even Republican lawmakers in the state of Iowa, and they're like, 'We're hearing from our constituents too, about this issue,'" Ernst, a member of Senate Republican leadership who came out in support of the bill this week, told The New York Times. "So I think people recognize something needs to be done."

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Jazmin Cazares, center, whose young sister Jacklyn was was one of 19 children killed at Robb Elementary School, speaks before a hearing at the state capitol, Thursday, June 23, 2022, in Austin, Texas. Cazares pleaded for Texas lawmakers to pass gun safety legislation and questioned why so many security measures failed. AP Photo/Eric Gay

The sister of a Uvalde school shooting victim begged Texas lawmakers to enact stricter gun laws.

"The people that were supposed to keep her safe at school didn't, they failed," Jazmin Cazares said Thursday.

Her sister was one of the 19 children and two teachers killed in the Robb Elementary School shooting last month.

The sister of a girl killed in the Uvalde school shooting begged Texas lawmakers for stricter gun laws.

Jazmin Cazares on Thursday visited the Texas Capitol to ask the legislature to enact stricter gun laws and to press officials about why the people in charge of saving her sister failed, The Associated Press reported.

"I shouldn't have to be here right now. I should be at home watching a movie with my sister," she said through tears, The AP reported.

She continued: "I'm here begging for you guys to do something or to change something, because the people that were supposed to keep her safe at school didn't, they failed."

The Associated Press (@AP) June 23, 2022

Her little sister, Jacklyn, was one of the 19 students killed when an 18-year-old gunman opened fire on two fourth-grade classrooms at Robb Elementary School in May. Two teachers also died in the carnage.

Cazares, now 17, explained to lawmakers how she has been doing lockdown drills since pre-K and wondered why schools aren't safer for children.

"It's terrifying, not knowing if it's true or not every single time we go into lockdown. And then having to go back to school next year?" she said, per The AP. "Going to school shouldn't have to be a decision. But it is. I have my senior year, that's it. Am I going to survive it?"

She added that lawmakers should adopt background checks when people want to buy guns and "red flag laws," which would take guns away from those at risk of harming themselves or others, The AP reported.

Cazares's testimony to Texas lawmakers came hours before the U.S. Senate passed a new bipartisan gun bill that would enforce the strictest gun laws in the country since the 1990s.

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"We are passing the first significant gun safety bill in nearly 30 years," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday ahead of the vote, adding that the bill is "not a cure-all for all the ways gun violence affects our nation, but it is a long-overdue step in the right direction."

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.

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BOSASSO, Somalia (Reuters) - Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said on Friday he had tested positive for COVID-19 and was in self-isolation.

Abdikarim Ali Kaar, Mohamud's spokesperson, said the president had returned to Somalia on Friday from a trip to the United Arab Emirates.

The official Somali president's Twitter account shows a video of him meeting the president of the UAE, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, with both men wearing masks, dated June 22. He also met Somalis based in the UAE.

"My fellow citizens, I would like to inform you that today I tested positive for COVID-19. So far, I have no symptoms but I will continue to self-isolate and serve the people of #Somalia from home," he said on his Twitter account.

Somalia has so far registered 26,748 COVID-19 cases and 1,361 deaths, according to a tally from its health ministry.

Mohamud took office in May after winning the presidential vote for the second time, having previously served from 2012 to 2017.

(Reporting by Abdiqani Hassan; Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Alison Williams)
Spirit Airlines A319 aircraft. Marcus Mainka/Shutterstock

Spirit Airlines received the most complaints from US passengers in April, a DoT report said.

American Airlines had the second-highest number of complaints, per the report.

There were more than 5,000 complaints lodged against US airlines in April, the report said.

The American airline that received the most complaints in April was Spirit Airlines, according to the US Department of Transportation (DoT).

Spirit racked up 637 complaints in April, the DoT said in a report titled "Air Travel Consumer Report." Most of the carrier's complaints were filed over flight problems, including cancellations, delays, and misconnections, per the report.

Overall, Spirit had 394 complaints for flight problems, 122 complaints over refunds, and 30 complaints each for baggage and reservations, ticketing, and boarding, the DoT said in its report. Other complaints were filed for fares, customer service, and oversale, per the report.

The DoT said in the report there were a total of 5,079 complaints lodged against US airlines by American airline passengers in April. This was more than a 320% increase from April 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic began, when the number of complaints came to 1,206, per a previous DoT report.

Complaints in April this year were up 15% from the previous month of March, when US passengers reported 4,423 problems with airlines, per a DoT report last month.

Trailing behind Spirit as the second most-complained about airline was American Airlines, per the DoT's latest report. Travelers filed 491 issues against American  the highest number of complaints were over flight cancellations and delays, according to the report.

Spirit and American didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment made outside of normal working hours.

Spirit flight attendants protested at airports in Dallas, Las Vegas, and Orlando in mid-April over staff shortages and flight cancellations, which meant some crew ended up stranded overnight in airports and sometimes left without hotel accommodation, according to the Association of Flight Attendants  Communications Workers of America.

Passenger complaints come as the airline industry grapples with a staffing shortage during the busy summer travel season, causing delays and cancellations to flights.

Read the original article on Business Insider
The US Supreme Court has overturned key rulings enshrining constitutional protections for abortion care, leaving it up to states to determine whether to ban the procedure and potentially forcing women and girls to carry pregnancies to term, marking a stark reversal of precedent that upends bodily autonomy protections in America.

The courts conservative majority dismissed rulings from 1973s Roe v Wade and 1992s Planned Parenthood v Casey to uphold a Mississippi law banning abortion access at 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Roughly half of US states are likely to immediately or quickly outlaw abortion, including 13 states with so-called trigger bans in place  anti-abortion laws designed to take effect without Roe. Legal challenges are likely.

Nine states have laws in place that have banned abortions before the Roe ruling but have never been removed from the books. Those laws are expected to go into effect and also face legal challenges in the wake of the ruling.

Several states have moved to outlaw abortions at six weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant. Many of those measures were blocked by the courts under precedent established by Roe. The Supreme Courts latest decision is likely to ignite more legal challenges across the US.

Other state-level measures to eliminate access include extreme limits on care that will force providers to close, or amendments to state constitutions that explicitly prohibit the right to an abortion.

In 2022, a wave of anti-abortion legislation in Republican-led states, emboldened by the Supreme Courts forthcoming decision, proposed eliminating abortion access in most cases and criminalising abortion care by making it a felony for providers to see abortion patients.

Is abortion illegal?

Thirteen states have so-called trigger bans in place that aim to outlaw abortion or make it a felony to perform an abortion, laws that were essentially blocked by the precedent established by Roe but could quickly be implemented without it.

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Meanwhile, 16 states and Washington DC have enacted laws that protect the right to abortion.

Abortion patients in many states already face requirements for ultrasounds, state-directed counseling and waiting periods, bans on the use of certain health insurance to cover abortion care, and bans on telemedicine appointments to obtain prescriptions for medication abortion, the most common form of abortion.

Patients also have faced long wait times in overstressed medical systems, after Texas implemented a ban on abortions at six weeks of pregnancy last year. In December, the Supreme Court refused to intervene in a legal challenge to the Texas law, emboldening other states to pursue other restrictive anti-abortion measures.

Whether a patient can access care  and whether their provider will be criminalised  will largely depend on where they live, creating a national patchwork of abortion protections and anti-abortion laws.

The right to an abortion and the criminalisation of healthcare will rely on a two-tiered system of justice, said Jose Garza, the district attorney of Travis County, Texas, who has preemptively refused to prosecute cases involving the states anti-abortion laws.

In 2020, nearly 70 prosecutors signed a letter pledging against enforcement of criminal abortion laws in their states.

How can states further restrict abortion access?

States that have signalled a readiness to draft strict anti-abortion laws are likely to pass them without constitutional protections affirmed by the Supreme Court, if they survive anticipated legal challenges from abortion rights advocates and civil rights groups.

In 2022, a wave of anti-abortion legislation in Republican-led states anticipating the Supreme Courts decision proposed eliminating abortion access in most cases and criminalising abortion care by making it a felony for providers to see abortion patients.

Advocates also have warned that patients and providers could face the risk of prosecution for ending their pregnancies in states where abortion will be outlawed if they are to travel out of state, as well as the possibile criminalisation of miscarriages, in vitro fertilisations and certain forms of birth control that may be scrutinised by anti-abortion law enforcement.

Republican lawmakers in Texas have also called for penalties against companies that cover the costs for employees who travel out of state for abortion care.

A model bill from the National Right to Life Committee proposes targeting community abortion funds, abortion advocates and websites and others who provide abortion aid under criminal conspiracy laws, in addition to other severe restrictions.

Will medication abortion be impacted?

Most abortions today are performed with a two-drug regimen  mifepristone and misoprostol  that can be taken at home and in many cases obtained by mail. The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the treatment for use up to 10 weeks of pregnancy. In December, the FDA approved its distribution by mail.

Nineteen states require clinicians to be physically present to administer the drug. Those provisions largely prevent the use of telemedicine appointments to get a prescription. Aid groups based outside the US also are seeking to help American patients obtain medication in states where it is prohibited.

Abortion bans also could pose significant and potentially dangerous hurdles for people who experience a miscarriage. Misoprostol is commonly used for miscarriages, as well as ulcers; patients have reported pharmacists in Texas already are refusing to fill prescriptions, fearing liability under state law that could target providers and physicians who aid in abortions.

What does the Supreme Court ruling mean for other rights?

Scholars have warned that a ruling to undermine Roe could compel right-wing legal efforts to strike down LGBT+ rights, marriage equality and marital benefits, the rights to public education, and attempts to revisit critical civil rights decisions that similarly relied on 14th Amendment protections, on which the Roe decision was argued.

The courts decision could lead to other far-reaching consequences, from the withdrawal of physicians in states where abortion care is severely restricted to the closure of clinics that provide other reproductive health services.

Hundreds of physicians, medical groups and abortion rights organisations have condemned the decision, warning of the severe long-term consequences of carrying unwanted or medically unsafe pregnancies.

Will Congress or the White House protect abortion care?

The White House has opposed state-level efforts to restrict abortion access and has signalled some potential executive actions to provide support at the federal level, including offering abortion care on federal properties.

But those hypothetical decisions could come with significant legal risks; if a Republican president ends those protections, providers who were previously shielded under federal authority could be prosecuted by states in which they operate, for example.

In September, the House of Representatives passed the Womens Health Protection Act, which would codify the right to access an abortion and prohibit governments from limiting abortion providers ability to prescribe certain drugs. It would also protection abortion medication prescriptions via telemedicine.

The bill has languished in a deadlocked US Senate. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin opposes the bill, effectively killing its chances in the evenly split upper chamber.
WASHINGTON  The Supreme Court ruled Friday that Americans no longer have a constitutional right to abortion, a watershed decision that overturns Roe v. Wade and erases a reproductive right the high court established nearly five decades ago.

In the most closely watched and controversial case to arrive at the Supreme Court in years, a majority of the justices  all of whom were appointed by Republican presidents  held that the right to end a pregnancy was not found in the text of the Constitution nor the nation's history. The decision set off a flurry of reactions from political leaders on the right and left, including President Joe Biden and members of Congress.

Associate Justice Samuel Alito wrote the opinion for a 6-3 majority upholding a Mississippi ban on most abortions after 15 weeks. There were five votes to overturn Roe v. Wade, because Chief Justice John Roberts wrote he would not have gone so far as to upend one of the court's most recognized precedents. The court's liberal justices dissented.

"Roe was egregiously wrong from the start," Alito wrote for the majority. "Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences.

"It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the peoples elected representatives."

Future: Where the abortion fight goes from here: Roe overruled but the battle will continue

Explainer: What does overturning Roe mean? What we know about the Supreme Court's abortion ruling.

Roberts: Chief Justice John Roberts facing test of leadership amid tense time at Supreme Court

The decision instantly shifts the focus of one of the nation's most divisive debates to state capitols: Republican lawmakers are set to ban abortion in about half the states, while Democratic-led states are likely to reinforce protections for the procedure. Access to abortion, in other words, will depend almost entirely on where a person lives.

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"After today, young women will come of age with fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers had," Associate Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in the dissent joined by the court's two other liberal justices. "The majority accomplishes that result without so much as considering how women have relied on the right to choose or what it means to take that right away."

The decision will also play into the November midterm elections, in which control of Congress is up for grabs, though there are signs it may not be as salient for voters as other issues, such as inflation. In a USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll taken before the decision, even those Americans who opposed striking down the landmark decision said 2-1 that the economy will be more important to their vote in November.

"This fall, Roe is on the ballot," Biden said from the White House, adding that the decision "casts a dark shadow over a large swath of the land."

Demonstrators react outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022. The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place for nearly 50 years in a decision by its conservative majority to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Though not unexpected, the court's decision hit like a political and cultural earthquake, reshaping the relationship between millions of Americans and the government. Though the opinion will be celebrated by conservatives, it will almost certainly lead to protests, lawsuits and charges from the left that the nation's highest court  ostensibly above the partisan fray  is just as political as the other branches of the federal government.

That's exactly what happened when a draft opinion in Mississippi's challenge to Roe v. Wade leaked May 2. The unprecedented breach of Supreme Court protocol, which showed how the conservative justices might overturn Roe, led to protests across the country. The opinion Friday appeared to closely track with the earlier leaked draft.

Live updates: Roe v. Wade overturned; Aftermath of Supreme Court abortion decision

Anti-abortion groups, which had pushed for Friday's outcome for decades, applauded the decision.

"Today marks an historic human rights victory for unborn children and their mothers and a bright pro-life future for our nation, said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony SBA Pro-Life America. "Every legislature in the land, in every single state and Congress, is now free to allow the will of the people to make its way into the law through our elected representatives."

Poll: Furor over Roe v. Wade reversal likely won't rescue Democrats in midterms

Fallout: Supreme Court ruling poised to trigger maze of state abortion laws

Experts say the decision may set off challenges to other rights that, like abortion, have been grounded in the 14th Amendment's guarantee of due process. Many of those have been taken for granted for years, such as the right to same-sex marriage, the right to interracial marriage and the right to access contraception.

In a concurring opinion, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas said the Supreme Court should now "reconsider" some of those other rights established by the high court. No other member of the court joined Thomas, and the court's majority opinion stressed that other rights were not at issue in the case.

Democrats and groups that support abortion rights decried the decision.

"Today, the Republican-controlled Supreme Court has achieved the GOPs dark and extreme goal of ripping away womens right to make their own reproductive health decisions," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement. "Because of Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, the Republican Party and their supermajority on the Supreme Court, American women today have less freedom than their mothers."

The opinion follows a decades-long movement by conservatives to overturn the high court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which established a constitutional right to abortion. The effort to roll back that right was aided by President Donald Trump, who was elected in 2016 in part on a promise to name justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade. Over the course of a single term, Trump managed to put three conservative justices on the high court.

At issue in the case is a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy  earlier than had been permitted under the high court's previous decisions.

Jackson Womens Health Organization, the last abortion clinic in Mississippi, challenged the state law in 2018, asserting it conflicted with Roe v. Wade and a subsequent case in 1992 that upheld Roe. A 7-2 majority in Roe v. Wade established a constitutional right to abortion and allowed people to exercise the right until the end of the second trimester.

A subsequent decision in 1992, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, ended the trimester framework and allowed people to obtain an abortion until viability  the point when a fetus can survive outside the womb, or about 24 weeks into a pregnancy.

Two lower federal courts agreed with the clinic, citing Roe and Casey. Mississippi appealed, asking the Supreme Court not only to uphold its ban but also to do away with the constitutional right to abortion altogether. Because the issue is so divisive and personal, the state argued, it should be decided by state lawmakers accountable to voters rather than by federal courts whose jurists enjoy lifetime appointments.

The frenzy around the case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, had almost as much to do with the justices who are on the high court as it does with the Mississippi law. Conservatives enjoy a 6-3 majority on the court for the first time since the Roosevelt administration. Three of them were nominated by Trump: associate justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

Mississippi had explicitly asked the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, calling it "dangerously corrosive to our constitutional system." That is a more aggressive position than the state took when it first brought the case to the court in 2020.

For years, the legal battle over abortion has focused on regulating the procedure, such as requirements that minors inform their parents before ending a pregnancy or requiring doctors performing the procedure to have privileges at nearby hospitals. For anti-abortion groups, the Dobbs case represented the first opportunity in decades to focus squarely on whether the procedure itself is constitutional.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Roe v Wade overturned by Supreme Court, ending national abortion rights
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday overturned a landmark ruling that found women had a constitutional right to seek an abortion.

The high court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey elicited praise from Oklahoma's Republican elected officials and dismay from abortion rights supporters.

Sue Sanders holds signs as demonstrators gather at the Cleveland County Courthouse in Norman on Friday, June 24, 2022, to protest the complete ban on abortions in Oklahoma after the U.S. Supreme Courts decision to reverse Roe v. Wade.

Related: Roe v. Wade has been overturned. What that means for Oklahomas abortion 'trigger' law

Here's how local officials responded:

Gov. Kevin Stitt

I am very excited that the Supreme Court made this courageous decision. Abortion is a states rights issue and it belongs to the people. I promised Oklahomans I would sign every pro-life bill that came across my desk and I am proud to have kept that promise, especially today as Oklahoma now has trigger laws to ban abortion in our state."

More: Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signs nation's strictest abortion ban. It starts immediately

Oklahoma Attorney General John O'Connor and Governor Kevin Stitt during into a press conference about SCOTUS ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade in the Blue Room at the Capitol Friday, June 24, 2022.

House Minority Leader Emily Virgin and House Caucus Chair Cyndi Munson

Today, the sky is dark. There is no way to sugarcoat that women in America, especially in states like Oklahoma, have fewer rights now than they did when they woke up this morning.

We know that Oklahomas restrictive abortion laws are not popular and that most Oklahomans believe this fundamental truth: abortion is health care. Yet legislative Republicans continue to propose and pass the most restrictive abortion laws in the country, which will result in women and pregnant people dying because they cannot access the health care they need."

Demonstrators lay on the ground at the Cleveland County Courthouse in Norman on Friday, June 24, 2022, to protest the complete ban on abortions in Oklahoma after the U.S. Supreme Courts decision to reverse Roe v. Wade.

Attorney General John O'Connor

After almost 50 years, the U.S. Supreme Court has wiped one of the most horrifying opinions in American history from the books. It has courageously done so in the face of intimidation, leaks, violence, and even an assassination attempt.

Oklahoma Attorney General John O'Connor and Governor Kevin Stitt during into a press conference about SCOTUS ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade in the Blue Room at the Capitol Friday, June 24, 2022.

Roe not only took away over 60 million lives, it also barred Oklahomans and all other Americans from protecting our unborn children. We should help every woman facing a crisis pregnancy, but not at the cost of the innocent childs life. This is truly a day for celebration and thanksgiving.

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More: What we know about Oklahoma's new abortion ban  the strictest in the nation

Planned Parenthood Great Plains President and CEO Emily Wales

State by state, we have seen access to abortion virtually eliminated. Oklahoma recently enacted the first total abortion ban most Americans have seen in their lifetime. Even while reproductive rights were being taken away before our very eyes, many people still doubted Roe could ever fall.

Today this creeping march to crush fundamental freedoms has reached its awful conclusion: your body is not your own. Your rights are entirely dependent on where you reside. Yet in this very grim moment in American history, Planned Parenthood Great Plains doors are still open and will stay open, to provide sexual and reproductive care today, tomorrow, and for years to come. Our services may be forced to change due to cruel bans on abortion care, but our commitment to our patients remains.

More: Oklahoma could ban most abortions if US Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade

Demonstrators Kaitlyn Ramsey, Megan Ramsey and Alexis Scott, from left, gather outside of the Oklahoma state Capitol to protest against the Supreme Court's decision to overturn legal abortions on Friday, June 24, 2022, in Oklahoma City, Okla.

U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe

I am overjoyed to hear that the Supreme Court has announced its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade today. For almost 50 years, our nation has wrongly operated under the tragic belief that there is a constitutional right to end the lives of those who cannot speak for themselves. The Court has now rightfully declared that Roe was wrong from the start, and we can begin to chart a new course on the journey to protect life.

U.S. Sen. James Lankford

Today is a historic day for our nation and for life. After praying, speaking and challenging our nation for years to see the value of every child, I am overwhelmed with joy for our nation and for the lives of unborn children who will have a chance to grow up because of the Supreme Courts action and the stand of millions of Americans for life. Oklahoma is leading the way to immediately protect each child. We will continue to help support and protect mothers and children while encouraging fatherhood and family involvement for all children.

Today is a great day for our nationas Roe v. Wade has been overturned!



The constitution does not confer a right to abortion. Roe and Casey are overruled and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives  Sen. James Lankford (@SenatorLankford) June 24, 2022

Senate Minority Leader Kay Floyd, D-Oklahoma City

I am outraged by the Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The courts radical and wrongly decided opinion not only takes away fundamental constitutional rights but also seriously endangers the health of women all across our country.

Unfortunately, the relentless assault on womens reproductive rights in Oklahoma began long before todays decision and we should expect it to continue. Now we must channel our anger and sorrow into determination and peaceful but forceful action."

U.S. Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Oklahoma City

My constituents in Oklahoma overwhelmingly support pro-life protections. I am pleased that the Supreme Court has reversed the Roe v. Wade opinion, putting the power back into the hands of state legislatures and the electorate rather than non-elected Justices. This decision reverses the radical abortion policies of our country, which mirror countries like North Korea and China. In Congress, I will continue to fight for unborn babies and advocate for policies that support moms who wish to give their child the gift of life through adoption.

U.S. Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Cheyenne

Todays ruling rightfully affirms the right to legislate abortion belongs to individual states. As our Founding Fathers advocated through the ideals of federalism, and as is ensured by the 10thAmendment, powers not delegated to the Federal government by the U.S. Constitution shall be reserved to the States or the People. While states like New York and California enact irreprehensible abortion policies, the Supreme Courts opinion confirms that the power to protecting life is in the hands of elected individuals.

U.S. Rep. Tom Cole, R-Moore

The Supreme Courts highly anticipated opinion gives Americas 50 separate and unique states and their voters the authority to determine their own policies concerning abortion, rather than unelected judges and bureaucrats. Indeed, since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, it was immediately controversial and quickly became an outdated decision due to rapid advancements in medicine and science. As a proud defender of unborn life throughout my entire career, both in Congress and in the Oklahoma State Legislature, I am pleased that voters will now have a voice on this important issue.

State schools Superintendent and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Joy Hofmeister

The courts decision today means millions of Oklahoma women have lost agency over their own lives and health care.



We will fight to get it back. And we will ensure Oklahoma has a governor who will protect women and doctors. Today is a day to be strong. I will not be deterred.  Joy Hofmeister (@joy4ok) June 24, 2022

Senate Pro Tem Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City

"Those of us in the pro-life movement have long dreamt of this day, and we have been ridiculed for believing the day would ever come. The work, the prayers, the advocacy that countless dedicated men and women have done since the egregious decision was handed down on January 22, 1973, has come to fruition. Praise God!

Oklahomans overwhelmingly value life. As a state we are extremely well positioned to be able to protect life from its beginning to its natural end. We have enacted laws that anticipated this day and now Oklahoma can fully protect life.

House Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka

Decades of steadfast prayer and unwavering legislative efforts to protect the lives of the unborn have finally prevailed. Overturning Roe v. Wade justifies the long battle by Oklahoma House Republicans and pro-life allies nationwide to return this matter to the duly elected representatives of state legislatures to decide.

With Roe overturned and Oklahomas several proactive, pro-life policies already in immediate effect, the stage is set for Oklahoma to be Americas most pro-life state."

U.S. Rep. and U.S. Senate candidate Markwayne Mullin, R-Westville

The Scales of Justice have weighed in favor of life. This is a historic day in our country. The sanctity of every life has prevailed and the unalienable rights prescribed by our forefathers have been restored. I am grateful for the system of checks and balances that allows for judicial review of prior decisions. And I am grateful as well for the affirmation of States rights, allowing states like Oklahoma to elevate life.

Former U.S. Rep. and current U.S. Senate candidate Kendra Horn

Todays Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade is a devastating blow for the health and wellbeing of all women. It is government overreach, plain and simple, and its wrong. Never before has the Supreme Court overturned five decades of precedent to take away rights from more than half of all Americans. Its especially dangerous for Oklahoma women, because a complete ban on abortion starting at fertilization is now a reality in our state."

U.S. Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Tulsa

"Today, the Supreme Court correctly reversed this unconstitutional decision and returned the question to the states. I am proud to support life at every stage and applaud the Supreme Court for their thoughtful and attentive consideration of this important case in the face of unprecedented threats of violence and intimidation against the Court.

ACLU of Oklahoma Executive Director Tamya Cox-Toure

The Supreme Court ruling is an unprecedented attack on reproductive freedom and body autonomy, but anti-abortion politicians do not get the final say on our fundamental rights  we do. For far too many weeks, Oklahoma residents have had fewer rights than people in other states in this country, putting our state on the wrong side of history. Banning abortion is deeply unpopular in Oklahoma and across the country, and there will be no place for the politicians who pass these laws to hide from the consequences of their cruel actions.

Most Rev. Paul S. Coakley, Archbishop of Oklahoma City

This is an historic day in the pro-life movement. The overturning of Roe v. Wade is a defining moment in our lifetime that fixes a legal and moral mistake, which led to decades of emotional distress, tremendous guilt, physical harm and infertility for women, and the unnecessary and cruel deaths of more than 63 million unborn babies who were denied their God-given potential because of poverty, fear or convenience. Women and children deserve better. Mothers who face unexpected or crisis pregnancies need support  financial, spiritual and emotional. May they see the face of God in their children and embrace the joy, beauty and difficulties of motherhood. We must come together to pray for the grace to deepen our appreciation for the sanctity and value of all human life from conception until natural death.

This is developing story and will be updated.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma leaders react to Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade
Supreme Court's Second Amendment decision demands courts look to history, tradition

WASHINGTON  On the one hand, the Supreme Court's Second Amendment ruling on Thursday was limited: It struck down a requirement adopted in a half dozen Democratic-led states that curbed who may obtain a license to carry a handgun in public.

But under the hood of Associate Justice Clarence Thomas' 63-page majority opinion is a significant shift in the way federal courts will review gun laws  a change experts say will prompt challenges to other restrictions, including policies Congress is considering as part of its bipartisan gun safety package.

The high courts 6-3 majority used a challenge to New Yorks gun licensing requirements to reject a legal standard used by lower courts to assess challenges to gun restrictions under the Second Amendment. Instead of embracing that standard, Thomas said that in order to pass constitutional muster, a gun regulation must be "consistent with this nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation."

Related video: Senators make 'serious progress' on gun legislation

Legal observers said the ruling may leave dozens of gun regulations vulnerable to challenges if they don't have a firm connection to practices or laws in place when the Second Amendment was adopted in 1791 or when the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted in 1868. That could include red flag laws, for instance, which permit courts to remove firearms from those deemed a threat but that didn't exist in 1791.

"Thomas says only gun regulations consistent with historical regulation of guns are permissible. Red flag laws, however, are a modern invention," Adam Winkler, a UCLA School of Law professor and Second Amendment expert noted on Twitter. "So, too, bans on domestic abusers."

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Summary: What to know about the Supreme Court's monumental ruling on gun rights

'Sensitive' places: Should guns be banned in bars, stadiums?

Those are two of the policies included in gun legislation approved by the Senate late Thursdaythe Supreme Court ruling. The legislation, a response to the mass shootings this year in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, provides funding to encourage states to adopt red flag laws. It would also prevent partners in a current or recent relationship from buying guns if they have been convicted of domestic violence.

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At issue before the Supreme Court was a century-old New York law that required residents to have "proper cause" to carry a handgun  in other words, a need for self-protection greater than most people could demonstrate. Well-known figures or people who carry significant amounts of cash for their work might meet the state's threshold, for instance.

Two upstate New York residents, joined by the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, sued when a county licensing official decided they didnt have that extra need and denied them the carry privileges they sought.

By striking down the requirement, the court has cleared the way for what are likely to be immediate challenges to similar laws in California, Maryland, New Jersey, Hawaii and Massachusetts. Most states  43, by the courts count  have "shall issue" rules that presume residents are entitled to carry a gun as long as they meet the requirements the state sets, such as clearing a background check or completing a firearms training course.

Sales associate Elsworth Andrews arranges guns on display at Burbank Ammo & Guns in Burbank, Calif., Thursday, June 23, 2022. The Supreme Court has ruled that Americans have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defense, a major expansion of gun rights.

The outcome was not a surprise, given the courts Second Amendment rulings and the questions the conservative justices asked during oral arguments in November. In a pair of decisions in 2008 and 2010, a divided Supreme Court struck down handgun bans in Washington, D.C., and Chicago and ruled that Americans have an individual right to own a handgun in their home.

History: How a 700-year-old law may inform Supreme Court's guns decision

Argument: Supreme Court majority skeptical of New York gun law

What was less clear before the decision was handed down Thursday was how far the court was willing to go to expand that right outside the home.

Does it put other regulations at risk? It does. There's no question that it does, said Jeremy Paul, a professor at Northeastern University School of Law.

But Paul said it remains unclear which regulations are most likely vulnerable. The answer to that question, he said, may come down to two members of the courts conservative wing: Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Kavanaugh stressed in a separate opinion Thursday, joined by Roberts, that he doesnt view the courts historical analysis as giving courts carte blanche to overturn every gun regulation on the books. Kavanaugh specifically asserted that the ruling doesnt prohibit states from barring the mentally ill from possessing guns, for instance, or requiring conceal carry licenses.

Their concurrence is significant, Paul said, because it indicates a majority of the Supreme Court  three liberal justices along with Kavanagh and Roberts  may potentially support regulations such as red flag laws as well as licensing requirements such as mandated training even if those rules dont have strong ties to the nations history of regulating guns.

Its not clear how far Roberts and Kavanaugh are going to go, Paul said. We'll have to wait until the next case in order to define it.

Some of those disputes may revolve around how to define sensitive places where cities and states traditionally banned guns. The courts opinion suggested the law is settled that some places could be gun-free zones  courthouses and legislative assemblies  but declined to weigh in on whether bars, sports stadiums and public transit also qualify.

A legal battle may also erupt over historic prohibitions on carrying guns to terrorize others and what that may mean today.

After the Supreme Courts gun rulings in 2008 and 2010, lower courts adopted a two-step approach to deciding whether a gun law was constitutional. First, courts would assess whether a gun law regulated activity outside the scope of the Second Amendments right to bear arms as originally understood by the framers of the Constitution. If it did, then the law could stand.

But if it didnt or if the historical evidence on this question wasnt clear then courts would move to a second step and weigh how much the law burdened a persons Second Amendment right against the governments interest in doing so. In other words, did the city or state have a good reason for the law and was the restriction limited to addressing that reason.

"Despite the popularity of this two-step approach, it is one step too many," Thomas wrote for the court.

By rejecting the second step, the ruling Thursday blocks lower courts from weighing what a government says is its need for a gun law and instead requires judges to focus exclusively on the text of the Constitution and whether there are historical antecedents for the challenged gun law. That kind of analysis is an example of "originalism"  the idea that judges must interpret the Constitution as the nations founders would have  a philosophy that has dominated conservative legal thought for decades.

Gun rights advocates had long decried the two-step framework.

Chris Stone, with the National Association for Gun Rights, said the earlier approach to gun laws "turned the Constitutional questions into a cost-benefit analysis on a Bill of Rights guarantee." The earlier approach, he said, allowed lower courts to "wiggle around the plain meaning of the Second Amendment" and the high courts opinion Thursday said "no more."

"The implications for gun rights litigation are massive," Stone said. "Judges will now have to admit that the Second Amendment means what it says, and rule accordingly. This spells doom for numerous state and federal gun laws and regulations."

Gun control groups arent throwing in the towel on defending regulations  and they hope to use the Thomas opinion to their advantage. Those advocates assert that there were many gun restrictions on the books at the nation's founding that would meet the high court's standard.

"There is a long and deep tradition of regulating firearms in the United States, a broad range of historical gun laws that we will be drawing on as we defend gun safety laws from expected renewed attacks," said Eric Tirschwell, executive director of Everytown Law, which advocates for gun control. "We remain optimistic that the vast majority of gun safety laws will withstand constitutional challenge, even under the court's new test."

Contributing: Candy Woodall

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Second Amendment: Supreme Court ruling changes legal terrain for guns
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) was extremely confident ahead of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaughs 2018 confirmation that he wouldnt vote to overturn Roe v. Wade.

On Friday, he did just that.

In his concurring opinion dismantling the half-century-old precedent that protected abortion rights, Kavanaugh wrote that a right to abortion is not deeply rooted in American history and tradition.

Explaining his decision to overturn a long-standing precedent, Kavanaugh added, Adherence to precedent is the norm, and stare decisis imposes a high bar before this Court may overrule a precedent. This Courts history shows, however, that stare decisis is not absolute, and indeed cannot be absolute.

Stare decisis, which means to stand by things decided in Latin, is a legal principle that favors leaving past rulings intact.

Democrats and reproductive groups repeatedly warned that Kavanaugh, a long-time conservative lawyer, represented a fundamental threat to abortion rights after he was nominated by President Donald Trump, who had vowed to appoint justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade. But Collins, a supporter of abortion rights, waved off those concerns. She said that Kavanaugh had assured her that Roe was settled law.

To my knowledge, Judge Kavanaugh is the first Supreme Court nominee to express the view that precedent is not merely a practice and tradition, but rooted in Article III of our Constitution itself, Collins said in a fiery Oct. 2018 speech on the Senate floor. He said decisions become part of our legal framework with the passage of time and that honoring precedent is essential to maintaining public confidence.

She added: In his testimony, he noted repeatedly that Roe had been upheld by Planned Parenthood v. Casey, describing it as precedent on precedent.

Republicans looked past Collins assurances that Kavanaugh wouldnt do the very thing he had been picked by Trump and the conservative legal establishment to do and applauded the senator for her floor speech, which assured his confirmation.

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In a statement on Friday, Collins called the Supreme Courts decision inconsistent with what Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh said in their testimony and their meetings with me, where they both were insistent on the importance of supporting long-standing precedents that the country has relied upon.

She went on to say that throwing out a precedent overnight that the country has relied upon for half a century is not conservative. It is a sudden and radical jolt to the country that will lead to political chaos, anger, and a further loss of confidence in our government.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who also voted for Kavanaugh, similarly suggested he and Justice Neil Gorsuch werent honest with the Senate about their views on Roe.

I trusted Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh when they testified under oath that they also believed Roe v. Wade was settled legal precedent and I am alarmed they chose to reject the stability the ruling has provided for two generations of Americans, Manchin said in a statement Friday.

A despondent House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was more blunt: How about those justices coming before the senators and saying that they respected stare decisis, the precedent of the court.

Did you hear that? Were they not telling the truth then? she said Friday.

More on the Supreme Court abortion ruling:

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
Policies that promote fossil fuels almost universally increase air pollution that causes premature births, low birth weights and birth defects. (Photo: The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Policies that promote fossil fuels almost universally increase air pollution that causes premature births, low birth weights and birth defects. (Photo: The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Shortly after the Supreme Court ended guaranteed abortion rights in the United States on Friday, Scott Pruitt, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Oklahoma, declared the ruling had delivered JUSTICE for the Unborn!

Praise God! What an amazing step forward to protect the innocent, Pruitt wrote in a tweet. I will always fight for the unborn and the sanctity of life.

However, the policies Pruitt fought for throughout his career  especially during his short but tumultuous tenure as President Donald Trumps first Environmental Protection Agency chief  increased types of pollution linked to fetal defects and premature births.

By stymying efforts to reduce fossil fuel use, and actively promoting an increase in how much oil, gas and coal are burned by the worlds largest economy, Pruitt played a notable role in hastening the rate at which the planets temperature will rise, a shift expected to cause increasingly deadly storms, floods, fires and ultimately famines, wars and mass migrations.

But whats perhaps less abstract, and more jarring, is how those same policies allowed an increase of tiny, invisible particles circulating in the air around drilling sites, highways and power plants.

While carbon dioxide travels skyward, microscopic bits of particulate matter lace the air and lodge in the lungs of the people who breathe it. Studies have linked exposure to that pollution with an almost jaw-dropping list of medical conditions, from the expected, like asthma, lung cancer and heart diseases, to the more surprising, such as dementia, schizophrenia and erectile dysfunction.

And research indicates that the unborn and the recently born pay a particularly high price.

Former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, who resigned in disgrace amid mounting scandals, is now running for Senate in Oklahoma. (Photo: Mark Wilson via Getty Images)

Former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, who resigned in disgrace amid mounting scandals, is now running for Senate in Oklahoma. (Photo: Mark Wilson via Getty Images)

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About 20% of newborn deaths worldwide are the result of complications linked to air pollution exposure, according to the 2020 State of Global Air report.

The connection has long been understood. Between 2000 and 2005, federal scientists monitoring pregnancies in New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania found that exposure to fine particulate matter during both the earliest and final stages of pregnancy were strongly associated with premature birth.

Researchers in South Texas examined birth records between 2012 and 2015 and found a 50% higher chance of preterm birth among pregnant people living near oil and gas drilling sites with high rates of flaring  a common practice where companies burn gas that is cheaper to lose than it is to collect.

A 2017 study examining the effects of shutting down nuclear power plants offered a clear indication of the electricity sectors potential impacts. During a panic over atomic energy following the Three Mile Island accident in the 1980s, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the federally owned utility that generates a large share of power in the Southeastern U.S., switched to burning more coal. Following the subsequent surge in coal-linked air pollution, infants born after the nuclear shutdown in the most affected areas had lower birth weight than the ones born in less affected places.

In 2019 alone, air pollution likely contributed to almost 6 million premature births and almost 3 million underweight babies, according to a study published last year by the University of California, San Francisco.

Preterm birth and low birth weights were hardly the only risks.

A separate study conducted in Texas between 1997 and 2000 found that women exposed to air pollution commonly produced by burning fossil fuels during the third, seventh and eighth weeks of their pregnancy faced a higher risk of the baby developing heart defects.

A flare stack is pictured next to pump jacks and other oil and gas infrastructure on April 24, 2020, near Odessa, Texas. (Photo: PAUL RATJE via Getty Images)

A flare stack is pictured next to pump jacks and other oil and gas infrastructure on April 24, 2020, near Odessa, Texas. (Photo: PAUL RATJE via Getty Images)

Research from China backed up the findings, concluding in 2016 that exposure to that same kind of air pollution led to a higher risk of congenital heart defects, especially ventricular septal defect, where there is a hole in the wall separating the hearts two lower chambers.

Pruitts regulations relaxing pollution standards for power plants and automobiles were all widely projected to increase the volumes of particulate matter in the air. But he sought to take that agenda further as EPA administrator, proposing to permanently limit what kinds of studies the agencys staff could consider when writing future rules. His proposal explicitly aimed to give more weight to how much pollution limits would cost companies.

It wasnt just air pollution. Pruitt proposed shifting oversight of the containment sites for toxic coal ash to state regulators that had smaller budgets and fewer resources to identify bad practices and actors. The proposal came just a few years after coal ash spilled at multiple sites across the Southeast, spreading carcinogenic pollutants.

Exposure to coal ash is linked to low birth weight and cancer in children. In a 2009 lawsuit, parents in the Dominican Republic whose babies were born with deformed skulls, missing limbs and missing organs blamed a coal ash pile in their community. The U.S. coal power company named in the litigation, Virginia-based AES Corp., ultimately settled.

Examples abound of conspicuous hypocrisy among those who fight to ban legal, safe abortions and restrict the millennia-old procedure to a black market where violence, rape and deadly makeshift methods go unchecked. The same political coalition calling for laws forcing women to carry a pregnancy to term has opposed efforts to provide the kinds of government programs available in most other capitalist democracies to make the medical services and child care needed after giving birth cheaper and more widely available. Those declaring themselves pro-life have largely supported the death penalty and prioritized the right of hobbyists to purchase firearms designed for killing soldiers on the battlefield over the right of schoolchildren not to have their bodies blown to bits by those weapons.

In that sense, the gap between Pruitts rhetoric and his record on the sanctity of fetal life seems unlikely, on its own, to harm his political prospects.

More on the Supreme Court abortion ruling:

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
By Selena Li

HONG KONG (Reuters) - The fund management arms of HSBC and Morgan Stanley were among three others to win a mandate from Taiwan's largest pension manager to run Asia's first climate change-focused fund worth a total $2.3 billion in assets.

Legal & General Investment Management, Schroder Investment Management, and Wellington Management were also selected, with each of them getting to manage $460 million worth of assets, Taiwan's Bureau of Labor Funds (BLF) said on Friday.

About half of BLF's Taiwanese $5.8 trillion ($190 billion) worth of assets is invested in offshore markets and overseen by global asset managers including BlackRock Inc, Fidelity Investments, and PIMCO.

The selection of HSBC for the climate change-focused fund comes weeks after a senior banker at the lender downplayed the climate risks which drew queries from staff and customers about its commitment to fight climate change.

Stuart Kirk, who is global head of responsible investing at HSBC Asset Management, told a conference last month "climate change is not a financial risk we need to worry about", comments that prompted HSBC to suspend him and conduct an internal probe.

BLF last month shortlisted about 10 asset managers including HSBC from more than 40 global applicants for the mandate, Liu Liju, deputy director general at the fund, told Reuters in an interview.

The Taiwanese pension fund, however, engaged an independent consultant to assess whether the Asia-focussed bank was still qualified for a possible role after Kirk's controversial comments.

The consultant's review concluded that Kirk's remarks were "a reflection of the executive's personal emotion", and that HSBC had ticked the boxes in track records for managing funds, investment procedure and investment philosophy, Liu said.

"I believe HSBC will handle this incident discreetly, otherwise the market will give it a very cruel judgement," Liu said, referring to Kirks comments.

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The BLF mandate is a key milestone regionally and managers should expect quarterly and annual reviews done by the fund and its consultants to monitor whether managers stay on track in committing to fight climate risks, Liu said.

Benchmarked against MSCI ACWI Climate Paris Aligned Index, its mandatory for global asset managers to pick fund portfolio companies that are index constituents.

HSBC Asset Management didn't immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

(Reporting by Selena Li; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee & Shri Navaratnam)
A Tampa consulting firm with ties to state and local schools and government is acquiring an Atlanta-area technology solutions company in a move that will nearly double its tech support staff.

MGT Consulting Group announced Thursday that it will absorb Norcross, Ga.s Layer 3 Communications in a deal designed to bolster its IT, cloud and cybersecurity offerings. The merger will boost MGTs technology services division from around 100 employees to around 230.

An MGT spokesperson declined to disclose terms of the deal.

MGT has 430 employees nationwide, including 35 in its home base of Tampa. Layer 3 will retain its own branding, offices and leadership structure in order to prevent disruption to its existing clients, which include Dell EMC and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

Were excited to embark on this next evolution of our companies together and look forward to leveraging and elevating the strengths of our organizations to provide an even higher level of comprehensive services to our customers, Layer 3 president and CEO Rodney Turner said in a statement.

MGTs CEO is Trey Traviesa, a former Republican state lawmaker from Tampa. Traviesas political connections landed MGT in the spotlight earlier this year, when the company bid on a Department of Education contract to help manage Jefferson Countys school district.

Traviesa is a former colleague of then-education commissioner Richard Corcoran, and state records showed the department was already in talks about with MGT before the bid process was announced last fall. MGT was the only pre-approved vendor to apply for the $2.5 million annual contract, leading to an inspector general investigation over a possible conflict of interest.

Before that, MGT had secured a multimillion-dollar contract to manage eight struggling Hillsborough County schools, including Robles, Foster and Oak Park elementary schools.

Outside the realm of education, MGT recently oversaw a Hillsborough-backed public equity story, in which it determined county officials needed to invest more in projects like public transportation and apprenticeship programs to better serve local minority communities.

In a statement, Traviesa said the Layer 3 merger would enable MGT to tackle more complex cloud and network programs in this mission-critical and rapidly growing area of public agency performance for increased social impact and safety.
An investigation into a 16-year-old employees thumb injury led to child labor law violations filed against Schlotzskys deli in Memphis, Tennessee, federal authorities said.

The restaurant allowed six 16- and 17-year-old workers to clean and use a deli meat slicer regularly, which is prohibited under federal child labor law, according to a June 23 news release by the U.S. Department of Labor.

The employer was cited for several more child labor violations, including allowing two 15-year-old workers to work past 7 p.m. when school was in session and failing to maintain proof of age records for employees under 19 years, the release said.

In total, the Department of Labors Wage and Hour Division assessed $17,818 in civil penalties to resolve the violations, federal authorities said.

Investigators also recovered $422 in wages for a worker who was not paid properly for overtime, the release said. The deli did not pay workers the additional half-time rate required for employees who worked more than 40 hours in a week, the release said.

Child labor laws are intended to ensure young workers obtain valuable work experience safely without interfering with their safety and education, Wage and Hour Division Regional Administrator Juan Coria said. As summer is upon us, and restaurant employers hire an increasing number of young workers, they should review child labor laws and contact the Wage and Hour Division with any questions.

Schlotzskys is a restaurant franchise started in 1971 and now has more than 320 restaurants in 24 states, according to the US Department of Labor.

15-year-olds used deep fry baskets at Wendys restaurants, feds say. Franchisee fined

Worker was crushed to death in high-speed machine, feds say. Now Ohio mill is cited

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Pinnacle Vodka paid man who said bottle injured him, but it was fraud, GA officials say
In the hours after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade on Friday, dozens of prosecutors throughout the country indicated that they would refuse to enforce laws banning abortion.

Prosecutors are entrusted with immense discretion and make decisions every day about how to allocate limited resources and which cases to prosecute, a group of more than 80 prosecutors wrote in a joint statement on Friday. Criminalizing and prosecuting individuals who seek or provide abortion care makes a mockery of justice; prosecutors should not be part of that, the group said.

Many of those prosecutors are based in one of the 13 states with so-called trigger laws that outlawed abortion as soon as Roe v. Wade was overturned. Others work in states where abortion is still currently allowed but have preemptively staked their position in the event that the laws change without the protection of Roe.

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the heads of the Texas Democratic Party called on local law enforcement to refuse to enforce the state's abortion ban. (Photo: Alex Wong via Getty Images)

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the heads of the Texas Democratic Party called on local law enforcement to refuse to enforce the state's abortion ban. (Photo: Alex Wong via Getty Images)

Although prosecutors can shield individuals in their jurisdiction from criminal punishment as long as theyre in office, relying on prosecutors is an imperfect solution for the Supreme Courts erosion of abortion protections. Because many abortion bans do not have a statute of limitations, abortion providers may be hesitant to operate even in a jurisdiction with a supportive prosecutor out of fear of punishment by a future prosecutor. Moreover, the patchwork of prosecutors who have indicated they will not pursue abortion cases tends to be in cities and more progressive areas, leaving millions behind. But in the immediate aftermath of the Supreme Court ruling, abortion rights advocates looked to prosecutors for assurances.

On Friday, Texas Democratic Party chair Gilberto Hinojosa and vice chair Shay Wyrich Catheycalled on Democratic sheriffs, district attorneys, county judges, county commissioners, constables and Texas mayors to use your legal authority and discretion to refuse to enforce the provisions of Senate Bill 8, Senate Bill 4, and House Bill 1280: all new laws passed by our extremist, Republican-controlled legislature in 2021. District attorneys in Dallas County, Travis County, Nueces County, Fort Bend County and Bexar County have alreadypromised not to prosecute or criminalize personal healthcare decisions.

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There is also an effort in Austin to protect its residents from the states abortion ban. On Friday, Austin City Council members Jose Chito Vela and Vanessa Fuentescalled for a special council meeting to pass a resolution that would prohibit city funds from being used to investigate or report abortion and would direct Austin police to designate abortion as their lowest priority for criminal investigation.

Texas, along with Missouri,was one of the first states to ban abortion on Friday, immediately after the Supreme Court ruling. Abortion is now illegal in Texas, the states attorney general, Ken Paxton, tweeted Friday. Although the states trigger ban on abortion goes into effect 30 days after a Supreme Court decision, Paxtonappeared to be referring to pre-Roe abortion bans, which were never repealed by the Texas Legislature but were unenforceable while Roe was in effect.

The Texas law that goes into effect in 30 days mandates the harshest criminal penalties on abortion in the country. The law will make inducing or attempting an abortion a first-degree felony, punishable with up to life imprisonment and a fine of up to $10,000. Although the law targets abortion providers, experts fear that the vague wording will lead to prosecution of people who pursueself-managed abortions, as well as abortion providers. An individual who self-manages an abortion is not legally subject to any prosecution except in Nevada, South Carolina and Oklahoma.

Texas is one of 13 states with trigger laws that passed earlier and put on standby awaiting the Supreme Courts overturning of Roe. In Louisiana, another state with a trigger law, Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams indicated he wouldnt shift priorities to prosecute abortion-related cases. In Wisconsin, where a Democratic governor is all that stands between anti-abortion legislation becoming law, Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanneindicated on Friday that he would not enforce an abortion ban.

Where prosecutors stand on abortion-related prosecutions is likely to become a campaign issue in upcoming elections. In Arizona, Julie Gunnigle, a candidate for county attorney in Maricopa County, recentlytold Bolts that she would never prosecute a patient, a provider, or a family for choosing to have an abortion or any other reproductive decision. Gunnigle is running against incumbent Rachel Mitchell, who is best known for grilling Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accused then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, on behalf of Senate Republicans at his confirmation hearing. Arizona currently has a 15-week abortion ban, although without the protection of Roe, the Republican-controlled legislature could move to make the law more restrictive.





More on the Supreme Court abortion ruling:

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
Todd Chrisley asked fans for prayers after being convicted of fraud and tax evasion.

Todd and Julie Chrisley spoke again about their recent financial convictions during Wednesday's episode of their "Chrisley's Confessions" podcast. The duo asked for prayers to support them.

"I want you all to know that the messages that were receiving, the mail  the gifts that people are leaving at our doors, the flower arrangements  all of this stuff is just overwhelming and very much appreciated," he said on the podcast.

"[But] we dont want you  wasting your money on things like that.  We dont need anything. So, really, the best gift you could give us is prayer."

Julie added: "Amen."

Todd and Julie Chrisley asked for prayers following their convictions of bank fraud and tax evasion. Photo by Kevin Mazur/ACMA2017

TODD, JULIE CHRISLEY SPEAK OUT FOLLOWING FINANCIAL CRIMES CONVICTION

On June 7, Todd and Julie were found guilty on charges of bank fraud and tax evasion in an Atlanta courtroom.

The couple was initially indicted in August 2019, and a new indictment was filed in February. The couple faced 12 counts of bank and wire fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy over a nine-year period.

They denied all the accusations.

Todd was convicted of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud , conspiracy to defraud the United States and tax fraud.

The couple previously spoke out about the accusations on their podcast. Tommy Garcia

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER

Julie was convicted of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States and tax fraud. She was also charged with wire fraud and obstruction of justice.

Despite "not allowed" to discuss the case in-depth, the couple wanted the audience to know "that its a very sad, heartbreaking time for our family right now."

"But we still hold steadfast in our faith, and we trust that God will do what he does best because Gods a miracle worker," Todd said.

He added: "Were alive and kicking, and we appreciate all the support we have received from everyone."

Fox News' Tracy Wright and Janelle Ash contributed to this report.
Environmentalist prosecuted for tax evasion, not her activism: Foreign ministry

Nguy Thi Khanh, former head of NGO GreenID and known for advocating the reduction of coal-fired power in Vietnam, was handed a prison sentence for economic crimes, not her environmental activism, spokesperson for the foreign ministry Le Thi Thu Hang said on Thursday.













Nguy Thi Khanh, director of Vietnams Green Innovation and Development Centre (GreenID), has been arrested for tax fraud.  Photo courtesy of Hanoi Police



During the regular press briefing held in Hanoi, Hang said that on June 17, the People's Court of Hanoi opened a first-instance trial and had subsequently sentenced the 46-year-old Nguy Thi Khanh to 24 months in prison for tax evasion under Article 200 of the Penal Code.



She was arrested earlier in February by the Hanoi's police.



The investigation and trial process were conducted in accordance with the provisions of law, Hang said, adding that the trial was held in public and the defendants rights were fully guaranteed as prescribed by law.



Vietnam resolutely combats and strictly punishes in accordance with the law, ensuring the rule of law in the country. All citizens are equal before the law, the spokesperson noted.



Vietnam has implemented awareness campaigns and education measures to gradually raise citizens' awareness and spirit of law abidance, contributing to the building of the rule of law in Vietnam.



It is also necessary to reaffirm that Vietnam has always made a serious and strong commitment to environmental protection, climate change response, green and sustainable development. This has been clearly stated in many legal documents, guidelines and policies of Vietnam, Hang stressed, dismissing the notion that the arrest will derail Vietnam's transition to clean energy.



She noted that at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) held in UKs Glasgow last year, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh delivered a speech affirming Vietnams commitment to achieving sustainable development, net zero emissions by 2050, a 30 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas methane by 2030, and the country has also participated in the COP26 Global Coal to Clean Power Transition Statement and the Glasgow Leaders Declaration on Forests and Land Use.



According to the spokesperson, Vietnam is taking comprehensive measures in the field of energy transition, shifting the countrys growth model towards a green and circular economy.



The Government of Vietnam regularly consults and collects feedback and opinions from scientists, non-governmental organisations and international partners in the development of policies and laws on environment and climate change issues, Hang said.



Organisations that support environmental protection and green development activities in Vietnam have participated and made contributions and their contributions are recognised, the spokesperson remarked.



As I mentioned above, Nguy Thi Khanh was investigated and prosecuted for economic crimes, specifically, the violation of the legal provisions on tax and she has admitted her actions. The speculation that Nguy Thi Khanh is being criminally handled for her activities and opinions related to climate change are baseless and do not reflect the nature of the case, the foreign spokesperson stated.
Thousands of pro-abortion rights protesters gathered at Federal Plaza Friday evening, with thousands more spilling into the adjacent streets and sidewalks, to protest the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. Just hours earlier, anti-abortion groups had gathered in much smaller numbers downtown to celebrate the ruling.

Amid signs declaring Abortion is Healthcare, and My Body My Choice, protesters marched down Dearborn Street and around the Loop.

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Imani Jackson, from the south suburbs, said it was overwhelming in a positive way to be among so many others willing to fight for abortion rights.

Its not fair because theyre not letting us make decisions on our own, she said. If you dont like abortions, dont get one. I personally dont like abortion, but that should not stop you from getting one. And Im gonna fight for your right to get one.

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People rally in Chicago's Federal Plaza on June 24, 2022, in reaction to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, allowing states to ban abortions. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)

Evelina Knodel is in Chicago this week from New York for an architecture conference. When she heard about the ruling this morning, she looked for a protest she could join in Chicago.

She said while it seems the majority of people are pro-abortion rights, it isnt enough to protect womens right to access.

I mean, I think anything we can do to raise our voice about how our rights are being taken away is worthwhile, she said. I think a lot of people are blowing off steam, but we also need to figure out how were going to organize to act. Because this isnt enough. This is just a collective way to express our anger.

Earlier in the day, anti-abortion groups held various news conferences downtown to laud Fridays ruling, predicting that Illinois, a Midwestern refuge for abortion services, will become a target of anti-abortion groups as the debate moves to the states.

[ With Roe overturned, Illinois  a Midwest refuge for abortion care  prepares for influx of patients from other states ]

Anna Kinskey, associate director of March for Life Chicago, said that while children in Missouri, Kentucky and South Dakota are safe from abortion today and that other Midwestern states are likely to follow, in Illinois, Gov. (J.B.) Pritzker continues to lead in the wrong direction.

We do fully expect Illinois to be ground zero in the abortion debate, said Amy Gehrke, executive director of the anti-abortion group Illinois Right to Life. I think it is incumbent upon not just our neighboring states that have protective pro-life laws but in states throughout the Midwest and beyond. With Illinois here, there are women and babies still in danger. Were going to be encouraging people to join us here, to help us win our state for life.

Sarah Michalak, with Students for Life, speaks at an anti-abortion rally at Federal Plaza in Chicago in reaction to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, June 24, 2022. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)

The groups immediate focus will be contacting women coming to Illinois to seek abortions from out of state and connecting them with alternatives, and stopping other pro-abortion rights legislation from advancing in the Illinois General Assembly.

That will be an uphill battle: The Illinois House and Senate both have Democratic supermajorities, and on Friday, Pritzker announced a special session would be held to strengthen the states already-stringent protections for reproductive rights.

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Longer term, anti-abortion officials said they wanted to see a restoration of the states parental notice law that required parents of minors to be informed when their child sought an abortion and new laws requiring clinics providing abortions to be subject to more stringent health inspections.

Illinois Right to Life and its sister organization, Illinois Right to Life Action, will be letting people know how radical our laws are, Gehrke continued.

The group has already begun polling on abortion issues and plans to target a handful of races where anti-abortion sentiment is high. Gehrke said she would publicize those races after this Tuesdays primary elections.

Illinois Right to Life is going to be the tip of the spear, making sure that this happens in our state, that our state does protect the most innocent among us and their mothers, Gehrke said.

Peter Breen, a former state representative and the vice president of the Thomas More Society, said the Dobbs decision opens up significant legal questions.

Our entire lives, Roe v. Wade has been the law of the land, he said. What is it like when you take what wed all been told was a constitutional right and a medical procedure, and now in these states, its akin to murder. If youre trying to prevent what you consider to be murder, you have a lot of leeway in terms of what you do to prevent the performance of that act.

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Can Planned Parenthood of Illinois go and bring Iowa residents into Illinois to do something the state of Iowa thinks is murder? Thats going to be a very interesting question for the courts.

In a statement, Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of the Chicago Archdiocese, welcomed the ruling and the opportunity it creates for a national conversation on protecting human life in the womb and promoting human dignity at all stages of life. This moment should serve as a turning point in our dialogue about the place an unborn child holds in our nation, about our responsibility to listen to women and support them through pregnancies and after the birth of their children, and about the need to refocus our national priorities to support families, particularly those in need.

But the anti-abortion advocates gathered amid yells and profanity from passersby and pro-abortion supporters. As the Pro-Life Action League began setting up its platform stage and banners at Federal Plaza Friday afternoon, an abortion rights demonstrator approached the group and shared his story about his mothers abortion. He said if she didnt end the pregnancy, she would have been stuck in an abusive relationship.

His anger escalated as he told the story and began to yell. He pulled up the sleeve of his T-shirt to reveal a cross tattoo, saying, Im a Christian too.

My God is your God.  Read the (expletive) bible, he said.

Matt Yonke, from Pro-Life Action League, said that in the 15 years he has been demonstrating with the organization, reactions like that are not uncommon.

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He said he is a Catholic, and that inspires his stance, though he is excited by younger activists in the anti-abortion movement who are atheists. Meanwhile, a woman stopped at the red light on Adams Street and Dearborn Street, yelling through her car window: Pro-life is a lie, you want women to die.

Emma, who is visiting from Kansas and declined to give her last name, was walking by the plaza as the anti-abortion activists gave their speeches and stood in the background. She couldnt help but cry, she said. The 19-year-old said she has been a victim of sexual abuse. The court overruling can dictate the lives of women like myself, she said.

This is extremely disappointing, and it really hurts me inside, Emma said.

Counterprotesters confront people at an anti-abortion rally at Federal Plaza in Chicago in reaction to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, June 24, 2022. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)

Eric Scheidler, executive director of the Pro-Life Action League, called the ruling a victory thanks to a 50-year movement of anti-abortion advocates like himself and his family. The Pro-Life Action League was founded by his late father, Joseph M. Scheidler, in 1980 to seek to stop abortions in the country.

His father, Scheidler said, led the anti-abortion movement until he died in January 2021, but his mother, Ann Scheidler, and the rest of the family kept fighting.

We thought it would only take a couple of years to bring America to its senses. We were a little bit wrong on that  it took almost 50 years  but we never gave up, said Ann Scheidler, as she recalled how she and her husband protested and prayed at abortion clinics and protested pro-abortion fundraising events.

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Eric J. Scheidler, executive director of the Pro-Life Action League, gathers with anti-abortion activists at Federal Plaza in Chicago in reaction to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, June 24, 2022. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)

But the groups members said their job to end abortion in the state of Illinois had just begun. They said that they expect to see devastating effects in Illinois as more and more women come here  from Missouri and Indiana and Wisconsin by their predators for quick and easy abortions at Planned Parenthood megacenters so that they can go back home to their limited abortion states.

My prayer is that as time unfolds and the people of Illinois see the devastation that this extreme abortion regime is enacting in our state will push back, restore parental notification, stop state tax funding of abortion, Eric Scheidler said.

Ana Marie Avila Farias was visiting from California with her family. She decided to leave the sightseeing for another day and instead partake in the protests against the ruling. The mother of two decided to speak up during the anti-abortion speeches because its the wrong messaging.

Ana Marie Avila Farias, right, argues with Tom Olp, left, as anti-abortion activists rally at Federal Plaza in Chicago in reaction to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, June 24, 2022. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)

Its not a celebration. Its decades back of regressing womens progress in this country and no one should be celebrating this, Avila Farias said. Im here for all the women, in particular for my daughter here, to fight for her civil liberties and her rights in this country.

Tom Olp, a Chicago-based lawyer in the anti-abortion movement, approached Avila Farias.

I believe in free speech, but its very impolite to not let other people speak, Olp said. They can hold their own rally. But to interfere with free speech thats not a good thing.

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While the anti-abortion group celebrates the victory, Avila Farias assures that the battle between women and their allies to reverse the ruling is just beginning.

Women are going to overturn this. Watch! she yelled at the group. Youre a white male hurting people of color in this country.

aquig@chicagotribune.com

larodriguez@chicagotribune.com

kcrowley@chicagotribune.com

scasanova@chicagotribune.com
(Reuters) -European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell will travel to Iran on Friday to try to urge Tehran to seal an agreement to revive the nuclear deal with world powers signed in 2015 that the United States withdrew from but is now seeking to save.

Called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and struck by Iran and six major powers, Tehran limited its nuclear program to make it harder for it to get a bomb in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.

"Josep Borrell will visit Iran on 24-25 June, as part of the ongoing efforts to bring the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) back to full implementation," the EU said in a statement.

Borrell will meet Iran's foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian.

Tehran for its part said its focus was on sanctions relief, not directly mentioning the nuclear deal.

"Bilateral relations, regional and international issues, as well as the latest status of sanctions lifting will be discussed during the visit, which is part of the ongoing consultations between Iran and the European Union," ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh said.

The revived deal seemed near in March but talks were thrown into disarray in part by a dispute over whether the United States should remove Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards from its Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO] list.

(Editing by Mark Heinrich, William Maclean)
The National Museum of the United States Air Force will be visited by the Traveling Korean War Memorial display today and tomorrow.

The event is scheduled to start at 9:00 a.m. and go until 5:00 p.m. Friday and 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. Saturday.

>>WPAFB holds ceremony for next Air Force Materiel Commander

Visitors can meet with museum volunteers in the second building to learn the roles the museums aircraft played in the war in the MiG Alley exhibit in the Korean War Gallery.

The USAF Band of Flight will perform pop-up concerts throughout the museum, according to a press release.

For more information, visit nationalmuseum.af.mil/Upcoming/Events/75th-anniversary.
















By Suleiman Al-Khalidi

AMMAN (Reuters) - Clashes among Syrian rebel groups backed by Turkey ended on Sunday after they agreed to a truce, residents and rebel sources said, easing fears of wider internecine warfare among opponents of President Bashar al Assad's rule.

Rebel negotiators told Reuters that Turkey, which maintains thousands of troops inside northwest Syria, mediated a deal among Failaq al Sham, Levant Front, Jaish al Islam and Ahrar al Sham.

They are part of the Syrian National Army coalition of armed opposition groups backed by Turkey.

At least eight people were killed and scores injured on Saturday in fighting among the factions near al Bab city in northwest Syria's Aleppo province.

The clashes prompted Hayat Tahrir al Sham, the former al Qaeda offshoot, to deploy in areas under the control of its rivals in the Syrian National Army, raising fears it sought to expand beyond the areas they control in Idlib province to the Afrin area.

Under the truce, the factions returned Ahrar al Sham's headquarters and moved back to their prior positions. The accord

ended the spectre of prolonged fighting.[L8N2XO2RD]

The northwest of Syria near the Turkish border is the last part of the country still in the hands of fighters seeking to topple the Syrian president, but control has been divided between jihadist factions and other rebels backed by Turkey.

Ideological differences divide Islamist militants from nationalist groups in the Free Syrian Army that have gathered under the banner of the Syrian National Army, which has the backing of Turkey.

Turkey with the help of the Syrian National Army has carried out four operations in northern Syria since 2016, seizing hundreds of kilometres of land. Rebel commanders say they have stepped up their readiness to back up any new incursion.

The armed opposition has been plagued by infighting since the uprising against Assad began in 2011. Turf wars have helped the Syrian president, with his Iranian and Russian allies, recover much of the territory previously held by rebels.

(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Jeffrey Clark, a former Department of Justice lawyer who was a key player in Donald Trumps attempt to reverse his 2020 loss, compared the FBI to the infamous East German Stasi secret police after his home was searched by law enforcement.

I dont recognize this country anymore with these kinds of Stasi-like things happening, Mr Clark told Fox Newss Tucker Carlson on Thursday, a day after agents raided Mr Clarks Virginia home and seized electronic devices.

The host agreed with him.

This is Stalinist, Carlson said. At some point somebodys going to fight back and its going to get super ugly. I pray that doesnt happen but I think it probably will.

As Thursdays January 6 hearings laid bare, Mr Clark was at the center of an unprecedented pressure campaign from Donald Trump and his allies to use the DOJ to change the election results

Mr Clark urged his superiors to sign onto a letter that would see the department back up Donald Trumps unfounded claims about the election and imply state legislatures should send their own pro-Trump slate of electors to the final Electoral College vote count, even in places where Job Biden won.

By January of 2021, Mr Trump was considering cleaning house at the top of the DOJ, and elevating Mr Clark to be acting attorney general.

According to testimony on Thursday, it took top Justice Department leaders threatening to resign en masse and warning of a potential constitutional crisis to stop the president from going through with the plan, likening it to a  murder-suicide  pact.

Mr Clark argued the FBI searched him just before Thursdays hearing to make a public spectacle.

With the hearing that was pointed at me and targeting me today with the special audience member of Sean Penn, so you know this is Hollywood, the very next day, it looks highly coincidental, and Tucker, I dont believe in coincidences, Mr Clark added.

The January 6 committee has already interviewed Mr Clark, but he largely declined to answer their questions, citing the 5th Amendment rights to remain silent and avoid self-incrimination.
Betsy DeVos spent her four years as President Trump's secretary of education buried under a mountain of criticism. A warrior for school choice, and therefore a lightning rod for attacks from the education establishment, what she endured at the hands of her detractors could fill an entire book.

This week, she published her rebuttal. DeVos new book "Hostages No More: The Fight for Education Freedom and the Future of the American Child," is not only a peak behind the curtain of the Trump administration, but a full-throated repudiation of the people and policies that hounded her while she was part of it.

DeVos makes no bones about her agenda. "I made a long journey  thirty-plus years of working in states to promote school choice, advise governors, and drive reforms  to come to Washington to champion a different approach: freedom," she writes.

For DeVos, education freedom means liberation of our public schools from the union-controlled, zip-code determined, government-run monopoly. "It means empowering families to choose how and where the education dollars already designated for their children are spent."

FORMER EDUCATION SEC. BETSY DEVOS SOUNDS OFF ON RUMORED BIDEN TITLE IX CHANGES: 'A BRIDGE TOO FAR'

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos listens during a cabinet meeting in the East Room of the White House on May 19, 2020 in Washington, DC. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

The opposition to her fight for educational freedom came fast and furious.

"Elizabeth Warren was one of the coldest people I have ever met," DeVos writes of the Democratic senator from Massachusetts. Shortly after her nomination was announced, Warren sent her a "rambling, sixteen-page letter" charging that she was wholly unqualified for the job. After her confirmation hearing, Warren refused to shake her hand.

But DeVos delights in exposing Warrens hypocrisy. "[A] decade earlier, in a book written with her daughter, Warren had agreed with me. She correctly diagnosed that the problem in American education was that parents with money already had school choice  by moving to a good school district. Meanwhile, middle- and lower-class families were stuck in bad schools." DeVos then quotes Warrens book: "Any policy that loosens the ironclad relationship between location-location-location and school-school-school would eliminate the need for parents to pay an inflated price for a home.  A well-designed voucher program would fit the bill neatly."

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"In a complete about-face," DeVos writes, "when she needed to curry favor with the school union bosses, Warren forgot about the middle- and lower-class families stuck in failing schools. Warren had sent her child to a private school. She had exercised her choice. But she fought my nomination because I believed all parents should have that same choice."

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J, a former mayor of Newark, was another, more personal disappointment for DeVos.

BETSY DEVOS: LET'S LIBERATE KIDS FROM RACE INDOCTRINATION WITH SCHOOL CHOICE

Before selling out to the unions and being against school choice, Booker was a famously pro-school choice mayor of Newark before he was elected to the Senate in 2012. "Cory and I [served] together on pro-school-choice organization boards through the 2000s," DeVos recounts. They collaborated and supported each other on numerous reform efforts.

"Corys was a valuable voice for the school choice movement. He spoke on behalf of the Americans who were being hurt by the current system. He was aggressive and direct about all the failed promises poor families had been given," DeVos wrote.

But when it came time to vote on DeVos for Trumps cabinet, Booker fell in lock step with his party to vote "no."

"Ive been involved with politics a long time. I know politician can belets say, morally malleable," DeVos said. "But Corys betrayal hit deep. He not only turned his back on me, he turned his back on millions of children counting on someone like him to do whats right."

DeVos details Bookers union-friendly u-turn: "He never said my name. He just said the nominee had no commitment to defend the rights of minority children, gay children, and children with disabilities  literally all the same virtues he had ascribed to the school choice movement [eight months earlier]. Even for Washington, it was a breathtaking reversal."

WARREN TOLD PRO-SCHOOL-CHOICE ACTIVIST SHE SENT HER KIDS TO PUBLIC SCHOOL, CAMPAIGN SAYS OTHERWISE

Looming over these and other "morally malleable" politicians are the almighty teacher unions, which DeVos portrays as one of, if not the single most powerful special interest group in Democratic politics, maybe even America. "For me [Corys no vote] was the personification of what happens when a party is controlled by a special interest group I was disappointed and hurt by Corys actions, but I wasnt surprised. He was running for the nomination of the Democratic Party for 2020. He couldnt betray the well-funded, well-organized interest groups that held his political future in the palm of their handsand held our children as hostages to their self-interested cause."

The unions hold some Republicans in the palm of their hands too.

DeVos tells the story of Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the Republican senator from Alaska who back in 2010 faced a Tea Party challenger in her re-election bid. To stave him off, the teacher unions threw their weight behind Murkowski. The Tea Party candidate won the primary, but Murkowski prevailed as a write-in candidate in the general election with help from the unions. They supported her again in 2016 and in 2017, Murkowski was one of two Republicans to oppose DeVoss nomination.

After her confirmation, DeVos traveled to Alaska at the invitation of Murkowski, only to be stood up.

"I had hoped that a trip to Alaska could create some goodwill with Senator Murkowski. But from the outset, her staff sought to control my itinerary, pushing traditional public schools and union offices," she recalls. "In the end, despite her invitation, Senator Murkowski didnt seem to really want me in Alaska. She didnt even show up for a visit she had arranged for both of us at a school on Eielson Air Force Base, in Fairbanks. Her staff said she was still in Anchorage because her flight had been delayed by ash from volcanic activity that limited visibility around Denali. Sorry, they said, she wouldnt be able to join me. But a few hours later, Murkowski was spotted at the airport in Fairbanks getting on a place to leave the state. She had been in town the whole time."

DeVos spends many pages of her book describing what she believes the union-controlled politicians are enabling and supporting: plummeting test scores, bloated budgets, deadweight bureaucrats, and toxic curriculums. In the last two years, while millions of children suffered through prolonged and needless school shutdowns, DeVos believes parents awakened to this grim reality.

For those who are still asleep, "Hostages No More" is meant to be the wake-up call.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill on June 11. (Susan Walsh / Associated Press)

House Republicans are sticking beside Kevin McCarthy despite former President Trump's attacks on the minority leader's decision to pull GOP members from the Jan. 6 committee.

McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) should have tapped other Republicans for the panel after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) rejected two of his initial appointments, Trump told Punchbowl News this week. The Republicans dont have a voice, Trump lamented. Last week, he told the far-right podcast host Wayne Allyn Root that the Republicans should be ashamed of themselves and called McCarthys decision to pull GOP members bad and very, very foolish.

Trump's repeated complaints about McCarthy's handling of the Jan. 6 appointments may stem from his frustration that the committee's work has seized the nation's attention. Fifty-eight percent of Americans, including a majority of Republicans and independents, are following news from the committee very or somewhat closely, according a Quinnipiac poll released this week. Unlike most congressional hearings, during which every member is allotted speaking time, the questioning in each Jan. 6 hearing is led by a single member of the committee. The partisan back-and-forth that characterizes many such hearings is absent, allowing committee members and witnesses to present a coherent, largely uninterrupted story of the attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Most House Republicans have sought to cast the committee as a partisan charade because it has seven Democratic members and only two Republicans, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Liz Cheney of Wyoming. But McCarthy's caucus blames the House's top Democrat, not their own leader, for that imbalance.

"Thats Nancy Pelosis fault, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said. Because Pelosi "gets to pick and choose, well, I dont even know if we can call them Republicans  Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger are on there  the committee is not even a real committee, Greene added.

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Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), one of the members whose appointment Pelosi rejected, citing his spreading of disinformation related to the 2020 election, also blamed the speaker.

She knew this was going to be the outcome when she didnt give McCarthy full autonomy to choose the GOP side of the committee, Jordan said. My guess is  she would always find an excuse to be against something so that she could get the outcome she wanted, which is this political committee with no Republicans on it.

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) sympathized with Trump's view, but he, too, contended that Pelosi is the one who broke all aspects of history in this institution" by denying the minority party the right to make its own appointments.

I understand the presidents frustration, he said. This is why we dont have essentially prosecutors in the jury room just painting a picture without defense.

Speaking to Root last week, Trump rejected the notion that he had endorsed McCarthy to be the next speaker of the House, cautioning that he only endorsed the Bakersfield Republican for reelection in his district.

But McCarthy's potential path to the speakership doesn't yet appear in jeopardy. Republicans, who recently won a special election in a South Texas district long held by Democrats, are expected to win back the majority in the fall, and McCarthy remains a prolific fundraiser.

In a brief interview, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) smiled at the mere mention of McCarthy.

Yeah, she said jubilantly, the next speaker of the House. I think leader McCarthys doing a great job.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chair of the Jan. 6 committee, said Democrats negotiated across the aisle in good faith to create a body that could investigate the insurrection at the Capitol, envisioning an independent commission with an equal number of Democratic and Republican appointees.

At the last moment, when we had agreed to everything leader McCarthy wanted, he encouraged his members to vote against it, Thompson recalled, noting that the bill to create the commission passed the House but not the Senate.

Pelosi didnt think Jordan and Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) were selected for the betterment of that committee, Thompson said, so she rejected their appointments but had a responsibility to appoint some Republicans  Cheney and Kinzinger  after McCarthy withdrew all of his choices.

Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), a member of the Jan. 6 committee who led Tuesdays hearing, said the nature of the hearings has shown the wisdom of Pelosis refusal to seat some of the big liars on the panel.

Im not surprised that Donald Trump is having recriminations about his decision and McCarthys to oppose the independent commission and to refuse to participate in the select committee, Schiff said. It will go down as a historic and strategic blunder by both of them.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Then-Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller speaks during a meeting at the Pentagon in Arlington, VA on November 13, 2020. Alex Wong/Getty Images

A Trump official indulged a theory that Italian satellites were used in Biden's favor.

Christopher Miller, acting defense secretary, called officials in Italy to investigate it.

Richard Donohue, acting US deputy attorney general at the time, said it was "pure insanity."

The defense secretary President Donald Trump appointed after he lost the 2020 election tried to investigate a voter fraud conspiracy that a Justice Department official described as "pure insanity."

Trump appointed Christopher Miller as acting defense secretary on November 9, 2020, after firing Defense Secretary Mark Esper days after losing the election to Joe Biden. Miller, a former US Army Special Forces soldier, was at that time the director of the National Counterterrorism Center.

Testimony from the January 6 committee hearing on Thursday revealed Miller indulged one of the more bizarre election conspiracy theories, which claimed that an Italian defense contractor had uploaded software to a satellite that then switched votes from Trump to Biden.

GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger said the baseless theory made it to the White House after Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania sent a 20-minute YouTube video to Trump's chief of staff, Mark Meadows, along with the message: "Why can't we just work with the Italian government?"

Meadows then sent the video to the Justice Department, where it reached Richard Donoghue, the acting US deputy attorney general at the time. Donoghue told the committee on Thursday that he watched the video at the time.

"I emailed the acting attorney general and I said, 'pure insanity,' which was my impression of the video, which was patently absurd," Donoghue said.

But after Meadows brought the theory to the Department of Defense to investigate, Miller looked into it, according to the testimony he gave the committee that was played on Thursday.

Kinzinger said Miller called the defense attache in Italy to ask about the claim.

"The ask for him was, can you call out to defense attache Rome and find out what the heck's going on? Because I'm getting all these weird crazy reports and probably the guy on the ground knows more than anything," Miller said.

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"This wild, baseless conspiracy theory made it from the recesses of the internet to the highest echelons of our government," Kinzinger said on Thursday, adding: "This is one of the best examples of the lengths to which President Trump would go to stay in power."

Miller served as acting defense secretary until January 20, 2021, when Trump left office. He told reporters in the days prior: "I cannot wait to leave this job."

He also said that at one point in his tenure he acted like a "fucking madman" to dissuade Trump from attacking Iran, according to ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl's book "Betrayal."

Read the original article on Business Insider
"The people ... sent a loud and clear message," newly elected Liberal Democrat Richard Foord said. "It's time for Boris Johnson to go. (Andrew Matthews / Associated Press)

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson suffered a double blow as voters rejected his Conservative Party in two special elections dominated by questions about his leadership and ethics.

The party's chairman quit after the results early Friday, saying the party cannot carry on with business as usual.

The centrist Liberal Democrats overturned a big Conservative majority to win the rural southwest England seat of Tiverton and Honiton, while the main opposition Labor Party reclaimed Wakefield in northern England from Johnson's Tories.

The contests, triggered by the resignations of Conservative lawmakers hit by sex scandals, offered voters the chance to give their verdict on the prime minister just weeks after 41% of his own members of Parliament voted to oust him.

The people of Tiverton and Honiton have spoken for Britain," said the area's newly elected Liberal Democrat lawmaker, Richard Foord. "They sent a loud and clear message: Its time for Boris Johnson to go, and go now.

Defeat in either district would have been a setback for the prime ministers party. Losing both increases jitters among restive Conservatives who already worry the ebullient but erratic and divisive Johnson is no longer an electoral asset.

Party chairman Oliver Dowden resigned, saying our supporters are distressed and disappointed by recent events, and I share their feelings.

We cannot carry on with business as usual," he said. "Somebody must take responsibility and I have concluded that, in these circumstances, it would not be right for me to remain in office.

I will, as always, remain loyal to the Conservative Party," he said, without offering an endorsement of Johnson.

The prime minister was 4,000 miles away at a Commonwealth summit in Rwanda as the results were announced.

The electoral tests came as Britain faces the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation, with Russias war in Ukraine squeezing supplies of energy and food staples at a time of soaring consumer demand while the COVID-19 pandemic recedes.

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Speaking in Kigali, Johnson acknowledged the results had been tough, and said he would listen to what people are saying, in particular to the difficulties people are facing over the cost of living.

Johnson won a big majority in a 2019 general election by keeping the Conservatives traditional voters  affluent, older and concentrated in southern England  and winning new ones in poorer, post-industrial northern towns where many residents felt overlooked by government for decades.

Thursdays elections were tests on both fronts. Rural Tiverton and Honiton has voted Conservative for generations, while Wakefield is a northern district that the Tories won in 2019 from Labor.

Labor's widely expected victory in Wakefield  whose previous Conservative legislator resigned after being convicted of sexual assault  is a boost to a party that has been out of office nationally since 2010.

Labor leader Keir Starmer said it showed the party is back on the side of working people, winning seats where we lost before, and ready for government."

Pollsters had said the Tiverton and Honiton race was tight, but the Liberal Democrats overturned a 24,000-vote Conservative majority to win a majority of more than 6,000 votes. The election was called when the districts Conservative lawmaker resigned after being caught looking at pornography in the House of Commons chamber.

Even with the defeats, Johnson holds a large majority in Parliament. But his already shaky authority among his own lawmakers has further weakened.

Ethics allegations have buffeted the prime minister for months, culminating in a scandal over parties held in government buildings during Britains coronavirus lockdowns.

Johnson was one of 83 people fined by police for attending the parties, making him the first prime minister found to have broken the law while in office. A civil servants report on the partygate scandal said Johnson must bear responsibility for failures of leadership and judgment that created a culture of rule breaking in government.

He survived a no-confidence vote by his own party this month but was left weakened after 41% of Conservative lawmakers voted to remove him.

Under party rules, Johnson can't face another such vote for a year, but Friday's defeats will increase pressure to change that, and there is a growing chance of another rebellion in the coming months.

Conservative lawmaker Roger Gale, a longtime critic of Johnson, reiterated his calls for the prime minister to quit.

The soul of our party is at stake, he said.





This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The sun sets behind the closed Camp X-Ray detention facility at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba, in 2019. (Alex Brandon / Associated Press)

An Afghan prisoner held in U.S. custody for nearly 15 years has been released from the Guantanamo Bay detention center after a federal court ruled that he was unlawfully detained, the U.S. Department of Defense said Friday.

Asadullah Haroon Guls release was first announced earlier in the day by the Taliban in Afghanistan and an international human rights group.

From Kabul, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban-appointed deputy culture and information minister, tweeted that Gul was one of the last two Afghan prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay.

Photographs of Gul being greeted by senior Taliban officials in Doha, Qatar, were posted on Twitter later in the day. Mujahid thanked Qatar for facilitating Guls release, without elaborating.

The United States opened the detention center, at a U.S. naval base in Cuba, under President George W. Bush in January 2002 after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the invasion of Afghanistan to capture Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

It was intended at the time to hold and interrogate those suspected of having links to Al Qaeda or the Taliban, who had sheltered Bin Laden.

However, scores of suspects from multiple countries were later sent there and the detention center became notorious after reports emerged of detainees being humiliated and tortured.

Gul was greeted upon landing in Doha by top Taliban official Suhail Shaheen, who said he would soon fly home to Afghanistan.

In a statement, the Department of Defense said Guls release was in accord with the district court in Washingtons decision that the United States no longer has a legal basis to justify the continued detention of Gul. It thanked Qatar for its assistance without providing any details.

Earlier Friday, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, criticized the Biden administration for allowing Guls transfer.

The terrorist organization that now controls Afghanistan cannot and will not ensure Gul, or any future detainees who are released, will not return to the battlefield and potentially kill Americans or other innocent civilians, Rubio said, referring to the Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan last August.

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Mujahid said Gul was handed over to the Taliban as a result of talks with U.S. authorities, which he described as a direct and positive interaction with the United States.

Shaheen told the Associated Press that Guls freedom came following direct engagement with the U.S. He said Gul was detained by American forces in the city of Jalalabad in 2007 and was held for 15 years without trial.

The remaining Afghan at Guantanamo Bay is Muhammad Rahim al-Afghani, who is accused of working with Bin Laden as a procurement specialist. Al-Afghani was captured by Pakistani authorities and later handed over to the CIA, which transferred him to the detention center.

The Britain-based rights group Reprieve said Guls family feared him dead for many years and for the first nine years of his captivity, he did not have access to a lawyer, despite multiple attempts to obtain legal representation.

Reprieve and the law firm Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss filed a petition on his behalf in 2016 and demanded his release, it added.

After years of litigation, in October 2021, they prevailed when a Washington court ruled that Gul was not part of Al Qaeda and ordered his release.

According to the statement, Gul suffered severe physical and psychological torture during his detention, including being beaten, hung by his wrists, deprived of food and water, and prevented from praying. He has been subjected to sleep deprivation, extreme cold temperatures and solitary confinement.

Commenting on Guls release, his lawyer at Reprieve, Mark Maher, said Gul missed his daughters entire childhood and he will never get back what has been taken from him, but he is now at least able to rebuild his life with his family, who have waited so long to see him.





This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Hong Kong should strive to attract more global companies to the local stock market, while entrenching its position as the main funding avenue for mainland Chinese entities, according to one of the UBS Group's top China bankers.

That will help broaden the investment options for traders and money managers in the city and around the region, said John Lee Chen-kwok, Hong Kong-based vice-chairman and head of Greater China global banking at the Swiss investment bank.

"The New York Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange have always positioned themselves not as a regional exchange, but as a global exchange," he said in an interview with the Post. "In Asia, we have not really seen sort of an international exchange yet. Hong Kong is ahead of other Asian markets in playing the role as a global exchange."

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

Battery maker LG Energy Solutions raised US$10.7 billion in Seoul, the world's biggest initial public offering (IPO) so far in 2022, according to Bloomberg data. Carmaker Rivian Automotive raised US$13.7 billion in New York to take the crown in 2021. China's top chip maker SMIC raised US$7.6 billion in Shanghai to top the list in 2020.

John Lee Chen-Kwok, vice-chairman and head of Greater China global banking of UBS. Photo: Dickson Lee alt=John Lee Chen-Kwok, vice-chairman and head of Greater China global banking of UBS. Photo: Dickson Lee>

"For the Hong Kong IPO market to develop further, we need more regulatory refinement to make it easier for international companies to raise funds here," Lee said. "We expect to see new developments in the Hong Kong market for years to come, just like what we have seen in the past 25 years."

Lee is one of the longest-serving investment bankers in the local industry. He started at the Asian unit of US firm Bear Stearns in 1994, a year after Beijing allowed mainland companies to list their so-called H-shares in Hong Kong. He left Bear Stearns in 1996 to build a 20-year career at Merrill Lynch, before joining UBS in 2017.

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Around 2,300 companies have raised US$582 billion of fresh capital from investors through IPOs in Hong Kong over the past 25 years, according to data compiled by Refinitiv through May 2022. The period coincided with the rise of China's economy and its technology giants such as Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings.

In 1997, the biggest IPOs in Hong Kong were so-called red-chip companies including China Mobile, China Southern Airlines and Jiangsu Expressway. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China and other state-controlled lenders dominated listings in the 2000s.

HKEX reforms that brought Alibaba, Meituan and Xiaomi listings to the city to be expanded

Since the 2018 listing reforms by bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX), the city has become the favourite fundraising hub for technology-related companies. Almost 200 new-economy companies raised HK$853 billion, while 93 biotechnology firms collected HK$258.5 billion in fresh capital.

"All these deals could easily be done in Hong Kong, as it has a deep liquid market with the support of a sound regulatory system," Lee said.

scmp alt=scmp>

While the Hong Kong stock exchange has built a stellar reputation since the 1997 handover, the bourse has increasingly become the "offshore financial hub," either by geography or political circumstances amid the worst US-China relations in 50 years.

Chinese companies, which dominate new listings and stock trading in the city, are set to become even more influential as US-listed peers "return home" under dual-primary or secondary listings as delisting pressures mount over Western sanctions and accounting issues.

Shanghai Stock Exchange is world's No 1 IPO venue as Chinese firms return home to counter US delisting threat

Mainland companies contributed 98 per cent of total fundraising via IPOs in Hong Kong last year versus 50 per cent a decade ago, according to Refinitiv data. The 150 international companies, including Prada, Samsonite and L'Occitane, collectively make up only 5 per cent of the total market capitalisation.

"HKEX could consider more listing reforms to attract international companies" and expand the capital ecosystem for them, said Mary Leung, head of advocacy for Asia-Pacific at the CFA Institute. "What is important is to keep the high regulatory standards and not lower the listing standard at the expense of investor protection."

HKEX considers opening international offices to take on New York and London in IPO markets

HKEX has resolved to pursue its international ambitions, with CEO Nicolas Aguzin making preparations to open offices in the US and Europe in the Coming months.

UBS's Lee applauded the decision, saying Hong Kong can catch up with rivals in the IPO market even as Shanghai and Shenzhen have threatened to overtake the city in recent months.

"Hong Kong is a unique market in that it is part of China while under the One Country, Two Systems," he said. "It can be a market for international companies to tap funds, and for Chinese asset managers who provide a deep pool of market liquidity."

Lee believes companies in the Greater Bay Area - an economic region covering Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities in southern Guangdong province - could be another driving force for the Hong Kong IPO market. Many start-ups in the area are great candidates for listings, he added.

Still, challenges abound, such as concerns about regulatory tightening in China and global recession risks. Poor market sentiment shrunk the IPO market by almost 90 per cent in the first quarter in terms of proceeds raised, pushing Hong Kong to sixth in the global league table from third a year earlier, according to Refinitiv data.

"There are a lot of uncertainties in the macro economic and political outlook," Lee said. "However, when there's more clarity on China's regulatory regime, and when the market sentiment improves, investors will return and the companies will return to list here."

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright  2022 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2022. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Not since 2019 has Chicago seen a full-fledged Pride celebration, as the pandemic shelved the citys massive parade and other festivities that draw hundreds of thousands to the North Side.

But with the 2022 version back on, the event is bringing with it fresh concerns, namely security fears surrounding anti-LGBTQ sentiment and having such a large crowd in a city that has recently struggled to keep big gatherings safe.

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After 31 Patriot Front members were arrested near an Idaho gay pride event June 11, concerns rippled across the country ahead of other celebrations this month. These worries have resonated with some Chicago officials, while many in the LGBTQ community said they are choosing to focus on the joy the festivities bring, and their ability to voice their concerns over threats to the right to same-sex marriage, underscored in Fridays historic U.S. Supreme Court decision that gave states the ability to outlaw abortion.

Chicago Pride Parade 2022: Map, transportation details and a brief history of gay rights in Chicago >>>

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At a June 13 news conference, Chicago police Superintendent David Brown said officers have shored up intelligence and have various plans to guard the Pride Parade and other festivities.

We are going to be vigilant to ensure that this event, as well as others, go off safely, Brown said. And well hold you accountable if youre planning, if youre doing anything to jeopardize the safety of others.

Chicago police high-five people along the parade route during the Pride Parade in 2019. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)

Many said they are not letting worry creep in. Gary Chichester, who is being honored as the Legacy Grand Marshal in this years parade, expressed wariness of giving in to extreme worry. Chichesters name was on the first Chicago Pride parade permit in 1971 and he is a board member emeritus for the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame.

We can fight the baloney that is out there and the hatred coming down on the LGBTQ+ community, Chichester said. But we cant let fear take over our minds. Thats when we start going backward.

It is unclear whether the high court decision could boost crowds even further as the event takes on more of a protest flavor. In a concurring opinion Friday, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the same principle applied to the abortion decision could apply to other cases such as the decision in Obergefell vs. Hodges, which gave same-sex couples the protected right to marry.

While weve accomplished more than a lot of cities, there are a lot of forces at play trying to take those accomplishments away at a local level and in many other cities and states, as well as on a national level in our country, Mark Liberson, owner of Hydrate Nightclub, Elixir Lounge and Replay Beer & Bourbon, and Pride Fest committee chair said before the decision was handed down.

If you looked at the conservative Supreme Court we currently have, my marriage, for example, is secured under the same reasoning that provided Roe v. Wade, he said. The fear we have is that many of the rights that we enjoy currently are in danger.

Illinois activists and legal scholars say Supreme Court abortion decision means LGBT rights and contraception could be in danger >>>

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People visiting for Pride noted the change in the tenor of the event Friday. Jae Moyer, who was in town from Overland Park, Kansas, for Pride with friends read about the ruling after breakfast downtown. I had a panic attack. I tried not cry walking down the street, Moyer said.

Concerns about a very large crowd began to grow stronger this week when Ald. Tom Tunney, 44th, sent a letter to Brown on Tuesday to request a larger police presence during the Pride weekend in Lakeview.

Tunney said he expected the parade to be the largest in Chicago history after the three-year hiatus due to the pandemic.

Ald. Tom Tunney marches in the 50th Chicago Pride Parade in 2019. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)

I am deeply concerned that the current staffing plans for the Pride Parade as outlined to me are insufficient for the size of the crowds the city realistically should be anticipating, Tunney wrote.

He said he was very troubled by a large fight that broke out in Lakeview after Pride Fest around 3 a.m. Monday and that he do(es) not want to see it repeated.

Northalsted, previously known as Boystown, is lined with bars and nightclubs, and fights have broken out when people spilled out into the streets.

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When asked to respond to Tunneys letter at an unrelated news conference Wednesday, Brown said the department has added more staffing for this years parade and has had more coordination with businesses and stakeholders in the planning process than in previous years.

We have no threats to Chicagos Pride Parade, but we are, obviously, planning for the worst, hoping for the best, Brown said.

Amin Jessani, commander of the 19th District, said at an earlier news conference that CPD has had meetings with local partners, business owners and the alderman over the past few months to ensure theyre all on the same page regarding safety.

We will have additional resources along the route and afterward for any festivities that happen, Jessani said.

Still, despite the optimism of Brown and other police leaders for the event, the Police Department has come under criticism from experts and the citys inspector general in its handling of large crowds in recent years. The department notoriously appeared uncoordinated at large protests and then overnight riots downtown in the summer of 2020 following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

More recently, police have had difficulty controlling large gatherings of teenagers this year that have broken out in violence and even resulted in the fatal shooting of a 16-year-old Seandell Holliday next to The Bean in May. The shooting prompted the city to ban unaccompanied minors from visiting Millennium Park after 6 p.m. from Thursday through Sunday.

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At least one rally for LGBTQ rights was also threatened this year in March after bullhorn-wielding counter protesters became aggressive by yelling and pushing through the crowd, and the rally organizers cut the event short, saying they had safety concerns. The group gathered again in April at the Federal Plaza.

Chicago Pride Parade event producer Tim Frye said the parade has had extra security for quite some time ever since the Orlando nightclub shooting in 2016.

I get a little bit bothered by all this conversation about Idaho, Frye said. I know of course its important, but at the same time, it kind of generates fear and I find that to be kind of disturbing. He added that the parade has always been a joyous occasion.

Liberson, the committee chair, said they normally employ extra security inside and outside his Northalsted bars during the weekend because of the large number of people in the area.

Other businesses hire additional security as well. But for Liberson, this safety measure is no different from what it has been during pride in previous years.

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We recognize that the police are understaffed, but were hopeful that they will bring out significant presence to help ensure a safe and orderly weekend and parade that can be enjoyed by the millions of people that travel to participate, he said.

The good news, he said, is that for the most part, problems are limited since most people are in a good mood and enjoying themselves.

Myles Brady Davis, spokesperson for Equality Illinois, said the risks the LGBTQ community is exposed to extend beyond pride celebrations to their daily lives.

The threat of violence is something that LGBTQ people face on a daily basis, Brady Davis said. Now that people are more aware of these harmful militia groups, people have been hypersensitive and paying closer attention.

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Nonetheless, Brady Davis said, the community is choosing to focus on the joy the pride celebrations bring, above anything else.

We always look into the face of hope instead of the face of fear, he added. And the one thing about us coming together to celebrate is, in spite of all the hate, in spite of all the trauma that we might go through, theres still a great deal of joy that needs to be celebrated.

Chicago Tribunes Kinsey Crowley contributed.

adperez@chicagotribune

pfry@chicagotribune
By Alistair Smout, Elizabeth Piper and Andrew MacAskill

LONDON/KIGALI (Reuters) -Boris Johnson's Conservatives lost two parliamentary seats on Friday, a new blow to Britain's prime minister who then lost a close ally with the surprise resignation of his party's chairman and faced renewed calls to quit.

In Rwanda for a meeting of Commonwealth nations, Johnson was defiant, pledging to listen to voters' concerns and do more to tackle a cost-of-living crisis after what he described as "tough" results in the two so-called by-elections.

The losses - one in the Conservatives' traditional southern heartlands and in a northern English industrial seat won from Labour in the last election - suggest the broad appeal Johnson presented to win the 2019 election may be fracturing.

Fears that Johnson could have become an electoral liability may prompt lawmakers to move against him again after months of scandal over COVID-19 lockdown parties at a time when millions are struggling with rising food and fuel prices.

Johnson has so far resisted pressure to resign after he was fined for breaking lockdown rules at his Downing Street office.

This month, he survived a vote of confidence by Conservative lawmakers, though 41% of his parliamentary colleagues voted to oust him, and he is under investigation by a committee over whether he intentionally misled parliament.

"I think as a government I've got to listen to what people are saying," Johnson told broadcasters in Kigali.

At a later news conference, he said his government had the right programme to get through what he described as a "tough time" of rising inflation that included reforming transport, the housing and energy markets to ease the pressure on the public.

Following the losses in Tiverton and Honiton in southwest England, and Wakefield in the north, Conservative Party Chairman Oliver Dowden resigned in a carefully worded letter that hinted he might believe Johnson should take responsibility.

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"We cannot carry on with business as usual," he said. "Somebody must take responsibility and I have concluded that, in these circumstances, it would not be right for me to remain in office," added Dowden, a long-time ally of Johnson.

Some Conservatives blamed him for running poor campaigns in both the voting areas by ignoring local concerns.

Johnson responded by saying he understood Dowden's disappointment but "this government was elected with an historic mandate just over two years ago" and he would continue to work to that end.

A Conservative party source said Johnson was not concerned about further resignations from his cabinet team of top ministers and took a swipe at the media for what they called "misreporting" of lockdown parties.

CONSERVATIVE UNREST

The explanations offered by Johnson and his team may do little to ease frustration in the Conservative Party.

Former Conservative leader Michael Howard told the BBC the party "would be better off under new leadership" and called on cabinet ministers to "carefully consider their positions".

A wave of cabinet resignations could be a route to force Johnson out before the next national election, expected in 2024. It could be called earlier, but U.S. bank Citi said in a note the likelihood of that was "limited".

Although under his party's rules Johnson cannot face another confidence motion for a year, lawmakers fearing for their own futures may try to force a change to bring about a second vote.

That might take time. It would entail changes to the committee that represents Conservative lawmakers who do not have government jobs.

The by-elections were triggered by the resignations of Conservative lawmakers - one who admitted watching pornography in parliament, and another found guilty of sexually assaulting a teenage boy.

The party lost its large majority of more than 24,000 votes in Tiverton and Honiton to the centrist Liberal Democrats.

"If Conservative MPs don't wake up, I think at the next election, the voters will send them packing," the Liberal Democrats' leader, Ed Davey, said.

In the parliamentary seat of Wakefield in northern England, the main opposition Labour party won.

"This result is a clear judgment on a Conservative Party that has run out of energy and ideas," Labour leader Keir Starmer said.

Johnson led the Conservatives to their biggest majority in three decades at the 2019 national election, winning in traditionally Labour-voting areas in north and central England.

But the loss of Wakefield could indicate that his ability to repeat that trick has been compromised.

(Additional reporting by Andrew MacAskill in Kigali, Muvija M, William Schomberg, Kate Holton and Andy Bruce in London; Editing by Toby Chopra and Alison Williams)
LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservatives lost the parliamentary seat of Wakefield in northern England on Friday, with voters dealing a blow to the party after months of scandals and a growing cost of living crisis.

Opposition Labour Party candidate Simon Lightwood won the Wakefield by-election by a majority of 4,925 votes, winning back a seat that Labour had lost in 2019 for the first time in 90 years.

(Reporting by Alistair Smout; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
KYIV (Reuters) - Ukraine's main domestic security agency said on Friday it had uncovered a Russian spy network involving Ukrainian lawmaker Andriy Derkach who was previously accused by the United States of being a Russian agent.

The State Security Service (SBU) said Derkach, whose whereabouts were not made clear, set up a network of private security firms to use them to ease and support the entry of Russian units into cities during Moscow's Feb. 24 invasion.

Derkach could not immediately be reached for comment. He has previously denied wrongdoing and said he has been targeted for exposing corruption.

In a statement, the SBU cited testimony from Derkach's parliamentary aide Ihor Kolykhayev. It said he was arrested at the beginning of the war, and accused him of being a go-between between Derkach and Russia's military intelligence agency.

Kolykhayev said Derkach's security firms "had to ensure the passage of (Russian) vehicles, get into armoured vehicles with Russian flags, and thus ensure (the Russian army's) peaceful entry into the city."

The SBU said Derkach received sums of $3-4 million every several months in order to fulfil the plan.

Derkach was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in September 2020 for what it said were attempts to influence the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

The Treasury's sanction announcement at the time said Derkach had been "an active Russian agent for over a decade."

(Reporting by Max Hunder; Editing by Tom Balmforth and Daniel Wallis)
KYIV (Reuters) - Ukraine said Russian forces had "fully occupied" a town south of the strategically important city of Lysychansk in the eastern Luhansk region as of Friday, and Moscow claimed it had encircled about 2,000 Ukrainian troops in the area.

The loss of Hirske and several other settlements around it leaves Lysychansk, the last major Ukrainian-controlled city in Luhansk, in danger of being enveloped from three sides by advancing Russian forces.

"Unfortunately, as of today... the entire Hirske district is occupied," Hirske's municipal head Oleksiy Babchenko said in a television broadcast. "There are some insignificant, local battles going on at the outskirts, but the enemy has entered."

"There is a red flag flying over the municipal administration (in Hirske)," a spokesperson for the regional administration told Reuters by telephone.

Russia's defence ministry said on Friday it had encircled up to 2,000 Ukrainian troops, including 80 foreign fighters, at Hirske. Reuters could not independently verify the report.

The spokesperson for the regional administration declined to comment on the assertion.

In its daily briefing on Friday, Russia's defence ministry said its forces had "completely isolated" a group of Ukrainian units near Hirske and Zolote. It said it had encircled four Ukrainian battalions, an artillery group and a "detachment of foreign mercenaries."

Half of Zolote is under Russian control, it said, adding that it was launching "uninterrupted attacks" around encircled Ukrainian forces at Hirske.

Ukraine said on Friday its troops were withdrawing from Lysychansk's sister city Sievierodonetsk, the scene of weeks of intense bombardments and street fighting, in what would be a significant setback in its struggle to defeat Russian forces.

"Our forces had to withdraw and conduct a tactical retreat because there was essentially nothing left there to defend. There was no city left there and, secondly, we could not allow them to be encircled," said Oleksander Musiyenko, a Kyiv-based military analyst.

(Reporting by Max Hunder and Tom Balmforth; Editing by Mark Heinrich, William Maclean)
KYIV (Reuters) - Ukrainian troops repelled a Russian attack on the southern outskirts of Lysychansk, the last fully Ukrainian-controlled city in the region of Luhansk, the area's governor said on Friday.

Serhiy Gaidai wrote on the Telegram messaging app that Russia had, however, taken control of the village of Mykolaivka, located near a key highway to Lysychansk, which has been the focus of heavy fighting.

Fighting continues, he added, in the battleground twin city of Sievierodonetsk, where Russia has advanced slowly over several weeks.

(Reporting by Max Hunder; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
The Daily Beast

Paramount+According to everyone featured in Secrets of the Oligarch Wives, Vladimir Putin is a ruthless, greedy, sociopathic monster who cares only about his own power, wealth, and legacy as a titan who united and restored the glory of Mother Russia. The ongoing war in Ukraine, as well as the continued imprisonment and mistreatment of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, corroborates those claims, although the true hook of the Paramount+ documentary about the Russian president is its insider commen
OLHA HLUSHCHENKO  FRIDAY, 24 JUNE 2022, 07:23

Ukrainian troops have uncovered and defeated several Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups and deployed combat aircraft to launch an airstrike on a concentration of Russian troops.

Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook, information as of 06:00 on 24 June

Details: Russia continues to mount an offensive in the Skhid [East] operational zone in order to:

establish full control over the territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts;

maintain control over the land corridor between the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and Ukrainian Crimea, currently also occupied by Russia;

block Ukrainian shipping in the northwestern part of the Black Sea;

maintain control over the occupied territories of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts and create favourable conditions to resume the offensive in Mykolaiv Oblast.

Russia continues to conduct missile strikes on critical civilian infrastructure facilities across the territory of Ukraine.

On the Sivershchyna front, Russian troops fired on civilian and military infrastructure in the vicinity of Tovstodubove, Bachivsk, Hlukhiv, and Manukhivka in Sumy Oblast.

On the Kharkiv front, Russian forces fired on some of the neighbourhoods of the city of Kharkiv, as well as on Staryi Saltiv, Korobochkyne, Pechenihy, Dementiivka, and Zolochiv with artillery. Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups ramped up their activity in the region.

On the Sloviansk front, Russian artillery fired on civilian infrastructure in the vicinity of Bohorodychne, Krasnopillia, Kurulka, Chervone, Ridne, and Chervona Poliana.

On the Sievierodonetsk front, Russia deployed tanks, mortars, and cannon and rocket artillery in attacks near Lysychansk, Sievierodonetsk, Bila Hora, Vovchiarivka, Spirne, and Berestove. Russian aircraft conducted airstrikes on Lysychansk and Borivske. Fighting to control Sievierodonetsk continues.

Russian occupying forces conducted assault operations on the urban-type settlement of Myrna Dolyna, and fighting there continues. Ukrainian troops have successfully repelled Russian attempts to advance on Borivske.

Story continues

Russian forces on the Bakhmut front fired on the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine using artillery near Mykolaivka, Berestove, and Novoluhanske. The Russians are trying to improve their tactical positions and cover the remaining supply routes with fire.

On the Novopavlivka front, Russian troops fired on the areas around Antonivka, Vuhledar, and Zolota Nyva.

Ukrainian troops uncovered and defeated several Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups operating in the area. Surviving members of the groups fled in panic.

Russian forces did not engage in active hostilities on the Avdiivka, Kurakhove, and Zaporizhzhia fronts, but fired on Ukrainian troops in and around Avdiivka, Umanske, Vesele, Novobakhmutivka, Huliaipilske, Bilohiria and Staroukrainka in order to prevent Ukrainian reserve troops from being deployed on other, more active, fronts.

Russian occupying forces are working to clear mines around the seaport of Berdiansk in order to establish a new military supply route.

Russia did not undertake active combat operations on the Pivdennyi Buh front. Russian forces are conducting defence operations and attempting to conduct counter-battery fire. Russian aircraft conducted an airstrike on the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near Bila Krynytsia. In retaliation, Ukrainian aircraft conducted airstrikes on several groupings of Russian forces in the area.

Ukrainian partisan movements continue to put up resistance to Russian occupying forces in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian troops will "have to be withdrawn" from the mostly Russian-occupied battleground city of Sievierodonetsk, the regional governor said on Friday.

Some of the heaviest fighting of the entire Russian invasion of Ukraine has taken place in Sievierodonetsk, where street-by-street battles have raged for a month, with Russia slowly and painstakingly taking more ground.

"Remaining in positions smashed to pieces over many months just for the sake of staying there does not make sense," Governor Serhiy Gaidai said on television.

He said that the troops in the city "have already received the order to move to new positions," but did not indicate whether they had already done so or where exactly they were going.

The battle for the city is key for Russia to establish control over the last remaining Ukrainian-held sliver of the Luhansk region, with only the city of Lysychansk left in Ukrainian hands if Sievierodonetsk falls.

The Luhansk region is one of two provinces that make up the Donbas, an area which Russia and its separatist allies in east Ukraine aim to fully capture as one of their war aims.

"In many respects, the fate of the Donbas is being decided there," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said of Sievierodonetsk recently.

(Reporting by Max Hunder; Editing by Robert Birsel and Jason Neely)
ALONA MAZURENKO  THURSDAY, 23 JUNE 2022, 21:05

Serhii Haidai, head of the Luhansk Oblast Military Administration, said that Ukrainian defence forces in Sievierodonetsk might retreat to better-fortified positions.

Source: Serhii Haidai on Facebook

Quote: "The Russians have deployed all their reserves in order to occupy all of Luhansk Oblast in the nearest future. Fighting continues on all fronts.

A lot of [Ukrainian - ed.] defence fortifications in the Sievierodonetsk industrial district have been destroyed, it is possible that our troops might retreat to new positions that are better fortified."

Details: According to Haidai, civilians hiding in the Azot chemical plant bomb shelters will effectively become the hostages of Russian troops. They will only be able to leave the plant for the Russian-occupied territory of Luhansk Oblast.

He said that the Russians have already set up the so-called "filtration" process in the recently occupied territories of Luhansk Oblast: "They are hunting down activists and people who have anything to do with the military, as well as keeping an eye out for the relatives of such people."

In addition, men are forced to join the fight against Ukraine: "They are used as cannon fodder."

The head of the Luhansk Military Administration added that Russian forces have ramped up the shelling of Lysychansk.

Ukrainian humanitarian aid is still being delivered to the city and the "clandestine" evacuation of civilians continues: around 40 people were evacuated on 23 June.
KIGALI (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke to finance minister Rishi Sunak on Friday morning and is not concerned about any further resignations from his top team following parliamentary election losses overnight, a party source said.

The Conservative Party source said Johnson had been surprised by the resignation of the party's chairman Oliver Dowden.

Asked if Johnson was worried about further resignations, the source said: "No, what makes you think that? He speaks to Rishi everyday ... he speaks to people every day about the day ahead and as you know there is a packed day ahead. He is seeing the prince (Charles) in a couple of hours, so no."

(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill; writing by Kate Holton; editing by Michael Holden)
Lynette Boria, left, and Elsa Hernandez are married on the Thompson Chicago hotel float on North Broadway and West Cuyler Avenue during the 46th annual Pride Parade on June 28, 2015. (Michael Tercha, Chicago Tribune)

The Chicago Pride Parade is back after a 3-year hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic and is the highlight of a month of events planned to honor and celebrate Chicagos lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning or queer (LGBTQ) community during June.

Heres what you need to know before you go.

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[ Pride in the Park transforms Grant Park this weekend with a giant music fest ]

Chicago Pride Parade

When does it start  and whats the route?

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The parade will kick off at noon Sunday, at the corner of Montrose Avenue and Broadway in the Uptown neighborhood, and will follow its usual route and end at the corner of Diversey Parkway and Sheridan Road in Lincoln Park.

Whats the best way to get there?

On CTA

Rail: The Red and Brown Lines provide the closest service to the parade route, according to the CTA. If taking the Red Line, exit at the Belmont, Addison or Sheridan stations. From the Brown Line, exit at the Diversey, Wellington or Belmont stations.

The Belmont station and the area around it tends to become the most crowded.

Bus: The following bus routes will get you near the parade:

Heres where to find updated information. Several CTA bus routes will be rerouted due to the parade.

On Metra

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Extra service will be added to Metras BNSF, Union Pacific North and Union Pacific West lines on June 28 for those traveling to the Pride Parade. View the schedules.

Driving and parking

Street closures along the parade route and the surrounding area will be in place starting as early as 8 a.m. Sunday on Halsted Street and Belmont Avenue. Streets will reopen by 8 p.m.

Parking restrictions begin at 5 a.m. Sunday. Organizers suggest using public transportation.

Why gay rights are celebrated in June

In this 2019 photo, Pride flags and colors display on the Stonewall Inn bar, marking the site of 1969 riots that followed a police raid of the bar's gay patrons, in New York. (Bebeto Matthews/AP)

LGBT Pride Month commemorates the June 1969 Stonewall riots in New Yorks Greenwich Village, which began when patrons at a gay bar, the Stonewall Inn, violently resisted a police raid. Its considered a critical moment in the gay rights movement.

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Former President Barack Obama designated a 7.7-acre area  including the tavern and a small park across the street  the first national monument to gay rights in 2016.

Brief history of gay rights in Chicago

What is Chicagos role in the gay rights movement?

The Henry Gerber House at 1710 N. Crilly Court is now a historic landmark. . (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune)

Henry Gerber, pioneer gay civil rights activist. (Chicago Tribune archive)

First American gay rights group founded here: In 1924, postal clerk Henry Gerber formed the Society for Human Rights. He was soon arrested for being gay. He was never convicted, but the publicity (including a newspaper headline reading Strange Sex Cult Exposed) led to his firing for conduct unbecoming a postal worker. The group quickly disbanded. In 2015, Gerbers home at 1710 N. Crilly Court in the Old Town Triangle neighborhood was designated a National Historic Landmark.

First Gay Pride Parade in the U.S.: More a march than a parade, the citys Gay Liberation Movement staged its first rally and procession as part of Gay Pride Week on June 27, 1970. A short Tribune story the next day said 150 people listened to speakers in Bughouse Square (now Washington Square Park) before walking to the Civic Center (now Daley Plaza) where they formed a chain around the Picasso statue and shouted, Gay power to gay people.

Chicagos march preceded parades in New York City, Los Angeles and other cities by one day.

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Gay Liberation Front members march through Bughouse Square (now Washington Square Park) on their way to a rally at the Civic Center (now Daley Plaza) on June 27, 1970, as part of Chicago's first Gay Pride Week. (Chicago Tribune historical photo/TNS)
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses reporters during a news conference in New York on Wednesday, June 8. (Photo: AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, file)

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses reporters during a news conference in New York on Wednesday, June 8. (Photo: AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, file)

BERLIN (AP)  The head of the United Nations warned Friday that the world faces catastrophe because of the growing shortage of food around the globe.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the war in Ukraine has added to the disruptions caused by climate change, the coronavirus pandemic and inequality to produce an unprecedented global hunger crisis already affecting hundreds of millions of people.

There is a real risk that multiple famines will be declared in 2022, he said in a video message to officials from dozens of rich and developing countries gathered in Berlin. And 2023 could be even worse.

Guterres noted that harvests across Asia, Africa and the Americas will take a hit as farmers around the world struggle to cope with rising fertilizer and energy prices.

This years food access issues could become next years global food shortage, he said. No country will be immune to the social and economic repercussions of such a catastrophe.

Guterres said U.N. negotiators were working on a deal that would enable Ukraine to export food, including via the Black Sea, and let Russia bring food and fertilizer to world markets without restrictions.

He also called for debt relief for poor countries to help keep their economies afloat and for the private sector to help stabilize global food markets.

The Berlin meetings host, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, said Moscows claim that Western sanctions imposed over Russias invasion of Ukraine were to blame for food shortages was completely untenable.

Russia exported as much wheat in May and June this year as in the same months of 2021, Baerbock said.

She echoed Guterres comments that several factors underlie the growing hunger crisis around the world.

But it was Russias war of attack against Ukraine that turned a wave into a tsunami, Baerbock said.

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken insisted that Russia has no excuse for holding back vital goods from world markets.

The sanctions that weve imposed on Russia collectively and with many other countries exempt food, exempt food products, exempt fertilizers, exempt insurers, exempt shippers, he said.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
A federal grand jury has indicted a Kentucky doctor who allegedly agreed to pay a hit man $7,000 to kill her ex-husband.

Stephanie M. Russell, a Louisville pediatrician, had waged a bitter fight with her ex-husband over custody of their two young children, according to court records.

Russell, 51, pleaded not guilty after she was arrested on a criminal complaint in May. She has been in custody since.

Russells lawyers will vigorously defend these charges, one of her attorneys, David B. Mour, told the Herald-Leader.

The grand jury returned the indictment against Russell Thursday, according to a release from U.S. Attorney Michael A. Bennett and Jodi Cohen, special agent in charge of the FBI in Kentucky.

While murder-for-hire was the object, the actual charge is that Russell used interstate commerce facilities  telephones  to arrange the hit. Interstate commerce allows federal jurisdiction.

Mariola Hernandez, a special agent with the FBI, said in a sworn statement that federal authorities began investigating after Russell allegedly talked to employees at her office about getting someone to kill her ex-husband, Rick Crabtree.

Russell allegedly told one employee she wanted Crabtree dead so she could get full custody of her children.

That was before a state court judge granted Crabtree full custody in January, with supervised visitation for Russell.

Russell allegedly continued to pursue the idea after that ruling.

One witness told FBI agents that Russell asked her numerous times in person and by text if she knew anyone who would kill her ex-husband and got a burner cell phone to use at one point so the texts wouldnt be on her phone, Hernandez said in the affidavit.

The witness said she first thought Russell was joking, but quit working at the medical office after she became convinced Russell was serious, according to the affidavit.

Russell ultimately was put in contact with an FBI agent posing as a hit man.

The agent asked if she wanted Crabtree killed, to which Russell responded that she wanted him gone, Hernandez said in her statement.

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Russell allegedly wanted the hit man to make the murder look like a suicide. They agreed the agent would use Crabtrees phone to text a suicide message to Russell after the murder, though Russell was to provide what she wanted the note to say, according to the affidavit.

Russell told the agent she had been vocal about her hate towards Crabtree to a lot of people and was worried she would look guilty, which is why she requested the suicide note, Hernandez said.

Russell agreed to pay $7,000 for the murder, and also said the hit man could keep $10,000 from a safe at the victims house, according to the affidavit.

Russell allegedly told the hit man he could pick up half the payment, $3,500, before the murder. The undercover agent found the money in a specimen box behind Russells office, where she had told him it would be, Hernandez said.

The FBI arrested Russell the next day.

She faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

Kentucky doctor attempted to organize murder-for-hire plot, DOJ alleges
Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko

Read also: Lukashenko allows Ukrainians to pick berries in Belarus

As a result, members of the Belarusian elite who live in the city of Mazyr, in Gomel region 60km from the Ukrainian border, have been sending their families to more northern cities. They have also organized begun sending their valuables and luxury goods up north as well, Ukrainian intelligence believes.

Read also: Belarus dictator Lukashenko rewards KGB officers for participating in special operation in Ukraine

Channel 24s sources say that this may be associated with the possible participation of Belarusian combat troops on Ukrainian territory. Local elites are likely to understand that Ukraine will have the capability of targeting strategic points within Belarusian territory itself, such as oil refineries, ammunition depots, airfields and other locations.

Read also: Belarus dictator Lukashenko could use his peoples militia against Putin, claims expert

On June 22, a large number of armed men were reported to have entered the territory of the Mazyrs local oil refinery. These armed men, believed to be members of Belarus security services and in cooperation with local law enforcement, were seen to be organizing deliveries away from the facility. The Mazyr oil refinery would be well within range of Ukrainian artillery and aircraft.

Help NV continue its work reporting on the Russian invasion
Abortion-rights activist Carrie McDonald reacts to the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on June 24, in Washington, D.C.

GRAND RAPIDS  In a landmark decision Friday morning, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, clearing the way for states, including Michigan, to renew laws either already on the books or proposed that criminalize abortion.

More: Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, returns abortion question to states

More: Michigan lawmakers propose 10-year prison sentence for abortion providers

More: Abortion questions remain for millions in Michigan

At the same time local protests were announced, organizations like Right to Life of Michigan  based in Grand Rapids  heralded the decision.

"The U.S. Supreme Court justices who voted to overrule Roe are on the right side of history today," said Right to Life of Michigan President Barbara Listing. "This monumental day gives the states the ability to restore legal rights to the unborn hopefully, in turn, ceasing the unjust slaughtering of the innocent in our country.

"We stand by our justices and thank them for their courage and wisdom in overruling a law that has plagued our society for the past 50 years."

'A sad day'

For many others, the decision was catastrophic.

Today is a sad day for America as an unelected group of conservative judges act squarely against the will of the people and medical expertise," wrote Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in a statement shortly after the announcement.

"We can all sense the despair that tens of millions of Americans  our neighbors, family members and friends  are feeling right now. However we personally feel about abortion, health  not politics  should drive important medical decisions."

In the state of Michigan, a 1931 law remains on the books  banning abortion, without exceptions for rape or incest, and criminalizing doctors and nurses who provide them, Whitmer said.

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However, a temporary hold was placed on the law by a judge from the Michigan Court of Claims, who found Planned Parenthood is likely to prevail in a lawsuit saying the law violates the state constitution.

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"But that decision is not final and has already been challenged," Whitmer wrote. "I want every Michigander to know that I am more determined than ever to protect access to safe, legal abortion."

Earlier this week, a handful of Michigan House Republican lawmakers filed legislation that would create lengthy new prison sentences for abortion providers (10 years) and those creating or distributing abortion-inducing medication (20 years).

The measure, led by state Rep. Steve Carra (R-Three Rivers) clarifies the person seeking the abortion could not be prosecuted and specifically indicates contraceptives like Plan B would be allowed.

Protestors rallied in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on June 23, ahead of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization opinion, which was released Friday morning.

'Correctly restores power'

Local lawmakers began issuing responses to the ruling Friday morning, including Congressman Bill Huizenga (R-Zeeland).

"Todays decision has been one (that) common sense, pro-life Americans have been waiting for," he said. "This ruling confirms there is no constitutional right to end the life of an innocent, unborn child. The decision correctly restores power usurped by the courts to the states and the representatives elected by the people.

"While todays announcement is historic, the pro-life movement cannot waiver in protecting these innocent lives. I will continue to stand up for the unborn in the days ahead and stand against those who seek to enshrine policies that embrace abortion on demand.

Todays decision has been one common sense, pro-life Americans have been waiting for. This ruling confirms there is no constitutional right to end the life of an innocent, unborn child. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/g0m8izZ4jG  Rep. Bill Huizenga (@RepHuizenga) June 24, 2022

Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Grand Rapids) shared a similar sentiment.

Todays Supreme Court decision marks the beginning of a proud new chapter in Americas history, Meijer posted on Facebook. I have long maintained that our nations laws and policies should reflect a commitment to the sanctity of human life at every stage, and this ruling is a tremendous step toward upholding this critical moral responsibility.

This decision protects our constitution by returning power back to the states, the American people, and the lawmakers chosen to represent them. I am proudly pro-life, and I applaud todays Supreme Court decision that will undoubtedly save unborn lives.

Rep. Mary Whiteford, R-Casco Township, issued a statement Friday afternoon saying she supports measures to defend life at every stage. She called Attorney General Dana Nessels decision to not enforce Michigans 1931 law an abomination of due process.

The Michigan Constitution grants pre-born babies the same rights as every other citizen in our state, Whiteford said. The Attorney Generals decision to abandon her duty to uphold state law is an abomination of the due process that our system of government hinges on. Any changes to our Constitution must be done following the proper steps. One individual person should never have the authority to change the law.

Its more important than ever to embrace pro-family policies that lift up mothers and their children. As chair of our health and human services budget subcommittee, I will continue to prioritize funding measures that provide healthcare, counseling, childcare, and adoption services to women in need of support."

But not all lawmakers and candidates are celebrating. Grand Rapids resident and state congressional candidate Hillary Scholten  a local native, mom and attorney who served in the Department of Justice  made a statement as "the only pro-choice candidate" in the race for Michigan's third congressional district, where Meijer is the incumbent.

Like many of you, I am worried, and I am angry," she said. "But Im not quitting. Todays decision is not the end. The Court has put this issue squarely back in the hands of the American people, ruling that the right to an abortion is an issue for the people to decide, through the democratic process in the states or the U.S. Congress.

"I am more resolved than ever before to continue our work. Today and every day, I stand strong for a womans God-given ability to make her own reproductive healthcare decisions."

Ryan Kelley's reaction caught on video

Republican candidate for Michigan governor Ryan Kelley  who was recently arraigned in federal court on four misdemeanor charges for his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection on the U.S. Capitol  was on video at Marlena's Bistro and Pizzeria in Holland when the opinion was handed down.

His reaction begins 9 minutes and 27 seconds into the 16 minute-long video.

"Oh boy," Kelley, an Allendale resident, said to a restaurant full of cheering supporters. "Supreme Court overturns Roe versus Wade!"

"God is working in amazing ways right now," Kelley said. "God is working in incredible ways, in all of us  who wants to say a prayer for us?"

After the prayer, Kelley said, "Well, what else do I say now?"

Marlena's Bistro has become a frequent campaign stop for members of the GOP, including Kelley, Huizenga and gubernatorial candidate, Tudor Dixon, since owner Marlena Pavlos-Hackney garnered national attention for refusing to shut her doors in response to statewide COVID-19 restrictions in November 2020.

More: Marlena signals she will close her restaurant during arraignment hearing

More: Holland restauranteur takes argument to Michigan Court of Appeals

Pavlos-Hackney was arrested in March 2021 and held in Ingham County Jail for four nights after ignoring multiple court orders.

She has taken her case to the Michigan Court of Appeals, seeking the return of thousands of dollars in contempt fines and acknowledgement that her constitutional rights were violated during her arraignment.

Businesses and residents

Business owners in Holland, too, responded to the decision, including Bluestocking Bookshop in Holland Township, which referenced Holland's upcoming Pride Festival in Centennial Park on Saturday, June 25.

"On the eve of #HollandPride we now have the official ruling from the #SupremeCourt," the business wrote on Facebook. "#RoevWade, which protects so much more than #reproductiverights, has been overturned. We will not be quiet. We will take up bricks for this change and do all we can to educate about how this issue affects us ALL."

The business added petitions are available to sign in-store at 501 Butternut Drive until Monday, July 4.

In the hours following the announcement, residents sent emails to The Holland Sentinel, including locals Alyssa Carle and Heather Funkhouser, who sent identical statements calling for reform on the Supreme Court.

"Right now, the right to abortion care is at risk because of a deliberate, decades-long takeover of the Supreme Court by powerful right-wing extremists," they wrote. "Were seeing the culmination of this takeover as the Court just overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that made abortion access a constitutional right.

"This opens the door for states to outlaw abortion and take us back to a time when women were forced to go through with an unwanted pregnancy, potentially endangering their health and hurting their ability to provide for their families."

The duo called on Congress to pass the Judiciary Act of 2021, which would add four seats to the Supreme Court.

"Its the solution that recent polling showed is supported by the majority of Americans, and its what we need to move away from partisan rulings that dismantle our rights and freedoms," Carle and Funkhouser wrote. "And its been done before. In fact, Congress has changed the size of the Supreme Court seven times already in our nations history. Its time to do it again."

In a decision released Friday, the majority of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court said the constitution grants no right to abortion and there is no historical reason to assume the founders believed they should do so.

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

In the decision Friday, the majority of justices said the U.S. Constitution granted no right to abortion and there was no historical reason to assume the founders believed they should do so.

"Abortion presents a profound moral question," Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority, which included three conservative justices appointed by former President Donald Trump.

"The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each state from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. The court overrules those decisions and returns that authority to the people and their elected representatives."

In a sharp dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for himself and the two other liberal members of the court, blasted the majority, saying the earlier decisions understood that "the government could not control a womans body or the course of a womans life: It could not determine what the womans future would be.

"Respecting a woman as an autonomous being, and granting her full equality, meant giving her substantial choice over this most personal and most consequential of all life decisions."

The case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, centered on a Mississippi law that effectively prohibits abortions after 15 weeks, earlier than the 23 or 24 weeks at which a fetus has been considered viable or able to survive outside the womb.

A protest is planned for Holland at 6:45 p.m. Monday, June 27, where participants will march from Unity Bridge to Centennial Park. Interested parties should meet on the east side of River Avenue.

"This is a family-friendly event, so feel free to use bold and powerful language  but keep the especially crude messages on your private Facebook pages, please," organizers wrote online. "There will be chalk there for the littles (or the bigs, if they want.)"

 The Detroit Free Press contributed to this report. Contact reporters Mitchell Boatman, Carolyn Muyskens and Cassandra Lybrink at newsroom@hollandsentinel.com

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: West Michigan responds to Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade
A woman walked into traffic and got hit by a car shortly after she was accused of shooting a 61-year-old man, according to Georgia police.

Officers went to the scene of a shooting at around 1 a.m. June 21 and found a 61-year-old man with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound, according to a post on the Savannah Police Departments Facebook page.

Shortly after, offers were called to a car crash involving a pedestrian.

Detectives found that the pedestrian was the suspect in the shooting, according to the post. The suspect, 32-year-old Whitney Rivers, had walked into traffic and was struck by a car, causing serious injuries.

After she was taken to the hospital for treatment, officers brought her to the Chatham County Jail on charges of aggravated assault and aggravated battery, according to the statement.

Savannah is about 260 miles southeast of Atlanta.

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When a construction worker reported falling off of a ladder and breaking his leg while on the job, his boss retaliated  resulting in the workers arrest by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement in Massachusetts, federal labor officials said.

The worker, who experienced anxiety, lack of sleep, and physical pain while in the custody of ICE, was arrested in front of his young son in May of 2017, according to a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Labor.

His employer, the CEO of Tara Construction, Inc., had police look into him after his reported injury led to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration launching an investigation into the company, a June 22 Labor Department news release said.

A Massachusetts federal jury found that the CEO, Pedro Pirez, and his company unlawfully retaliated against the worker who has been awarded $650,000 in damages that Pirez and the company must pay, according to the release.

OSHA prohibits employers from retaliating against employees.regardless of the employees immigration status, OSHAs Regional Administrator in Boston, Galen Blanton, said in a statement.

An attorney for Pirez, Daniel Dwyer, told McClatchy News in a statement that there are strong legal grounds for overturning the verdict and Pirez and his company are considering an appeal after he was misjudged by the jury.

In May 2017, a complaint was filed with OSHA on behalf of the worker after he suffered a broken leg falling from a ladder while working for Tara Construction in March of that year, according to the lawsuits complaint.

As OSHA was investigating the company, Pirez is accused of contacting a Boston Police detective and asking him to look into (the workers) identity and gave the detective some identifying documents, the complaint said.

Afterward, the detective reached out to an individual who worked for a joint ICE/Boston Police Department task force, according to the complaint. Then, this person began communicating with Pirez.

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Pirez is accused of telling the ICE officer he was meeting with the worker at his office and that he had no problem if ICE came and detained him, the complaint said. After the worker met with Pirez and drove away with his young son in the car, he was stopped and detained by ICE on May 10, 2017.

Dwyer told McClatchy News that Pirez arrived as an immigrant from Cuba owning nothing, and he cares deeply for people in (the workers) situation.

Mr. Pirez unionized his own company, has employed thousands of immigrants, and has always treated injured workers with compassion and generosity.

Dwyer added that at the time, a hospital asked Pirez about the workers real name and that he was altogether within his rights to inquire about it. He never foresaw where his inquiry would go from there.

Later, ICE learned information on its own that led to its decision to arrest. Pedro Pirez was tragically caught up in it all.

Meanwhile, Blanton said that the jurys verdict sends a strong message to employers that there will be severe consequences when they violate the law and employee rights.

As of February, 2018, the worker was authorized to work in the U.S., the complaint said. He began working a new position in April 2018.

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Jun. 23OLYMPIA  The Washington State Department of Agriculture announced on Thursday it is now accepting grant applications from local districts to buy locally grown farm commodities for breakfast and lunch.

According to a WSDA press release, the state has nearly $3 million in grants to help school districts across the state purchase locally grown produce. And school or district  including daycare centers, tribal schools and tribal early learning centers  that participate in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's school nutrition program is eligible to apply, with final grant awards expected to reach between $20,000 and $300,000 based on the number of meals served, the press release noted.

"The Farm to School Purchasing Grants not only support farm to school efforts, but also local farms of different sizes, production scales, and crop types from around that state," said WSDA Director Derek Sandison in the press release. 'One of our goals with this grant program is to strengthen Washington's food at the regional level, while helping to ensure that the more locally-produced food is consumed by children in our schools."

For more information or to apply for a grant, check out the WSDA website at www.agr.wa.gov/FarmToSchool or email the program farmtoschool@agr.wa.gov.

Recent Headlines
Liberal states in America have pledged to act as safe havens for women seeking abortions as providers ratchet up capacity in anticipation of a surge of patients from areas where the procedure will be banned.

"We know that the need is going to skyrocket," said Sarah Moeller of the Brigid Alliance, a New York-based group that provides travel, accommodation and other support for women looking for an abortion.

The organization helps more than 100 people every month, helping some women travel 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometers) to get to their appointment.

It is hiring more staff and boosting fundraising efforts as it anticipates its clients could quickly swell more than tenfold in the wake of Friday's Supreme Court's ruling ending the constitutional right to abortion.

"It's going to be impossible for every single person who needs to travel for care to be able to receive support. So every individual who we are able to help is a victory," Moeller told AFP.

By overturning Roe v. Wade, the court is leaving it up to individual states to restrict or ban the procedure -- meaning women there would either have to continue with their pregnancy, undergo a clandestine abortion, obtain abortion pills, or travel to another state where the procedure remains legal.

The Democratic governors of California, Oregon and Washington issued a joint video message declaring that the West Coast will "remain a place where reproductive health care will be accessible and protected."

On the other side of the country, New York governor Kathy Hochul said the northeast state "will always be a safe harbor for those seeking access to abortion care."

She announced a new advertising campaign to inform Americans that they can receive abortions while in her state.

"Everyone who passes through our subways, bus terminals, airports, and shopping centers will know that abortion remains safe, legal, and accessible in New York state," she tweeted.

Hochul had earlier pledged $35 million to assist access to abortion while lawmakers in California have allocated $152 million.

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New York state legalized abortion in 1970, three years before the Roe v. Wade ruling.

"I'm happy that I live in a state where I feel like my rights will be protected," 36-year-old Nabila Valentin told AFP in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

"So I'm grateful in a sense, but I also realize it's such a privilege to be able to live in this in this city, in New York State, to feel safe and protected.

"I feel like it's not going to be like that for a lot of other people," the doula added.

New York City is home to one of America's first abortion clinics -- Choices Women's Medical Center in Queens which was established 1971.

- 'Challenge' -

Founder Merle Hoffman said the clinic expects to see "a great many more women" visiting from out of state.

"We have the physical capacity, (but) we will have to staff up in different areas. It's a challenge, but we'll be able to step up to make it," the 76-year-old told AFP.

Her message to women seeking an abortion is a simple one: "We will help you."

Dr Alice Mark, an abortion provider in Massachusetts and medical advisor at the National Abortion Federation, notes that it will only become clear where, and how far, women will have to travel after states have enforced bans.

A progressive state like Illinois, which is surrounded by states that restrict abortion, can expect to see a huge influx of patients for example.

Flor Hunt of TEACH, an organization that provides abortion training in California, said the state could see "an increase of nearly 3,000 women of reproductive age for whom the nearest provider is in California."

"How many of those patients are actually going to be able to travel to California, I think that remains to be seen," she told AFP.

In Massachusetts, Mark is unsure what sort of increase her clinic will see but is getting ready by opening more days and adding extra procedure times.

"Abortion is incredibly safe, abortion is still available, and there are many resources to help you get the abortion that you need. Don't stop until you get what you want," she told AFP.

pdh/ec
As the country reeled from Friday mornings Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, sending abortion rights back to the states, working professionals and tourists milling downtown in the Loop shared their reaction to the news as pro-abortion and anti-abortion demonstrators began to grow at Federal Plaza.

Im really disappointed. Like I wanna cry, said Linda Boulton, from the citys Far South Side neighborhood Fernwood.

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Linda Boulton, who said she supports abortion rights, reacts to the U.S. Supreme Court decision on June 24, 2022, in Chicago. Im really disappointed. Like I wanna cry, said Boulton. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

She said that although she is not concerned for her immediate safety, her like-minded cousins in Mississippi are really concerned because they dont all have the ability to up and leave.

Roe was struck down when the Supreme Court voted 6 to 3 on Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, upholding the legality of a 2018 Mississippi law that banned abortion past 15 weeks of gestation.

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[ With Roe overturned, Illinois  a Midwest refuge for abortion care  prepares for influx of patients from other states ]

A handful of abortion rights demonstrators started to gather at Federal Plaza as the Pro-Life Action League began setting up their platform stage and banners.

An abortion rights demonstrator approached the anti-abortion group and shared his story about his mothers abortion. He said if she didnt end the pregnancy, she would have been stuck in an abusive relationship.

His anger escalated as he told the story and began to yell. He pulled up the sleeve of his T-shirt to reveal a cross tattoo, saying, Im a Christian too.

My God is your God.  Read the (expletive) bible, he said.

Matt Yonke, from Pro-Life Action League, said that in the 15 years he has been demonstrating with the organization, reactions like that are not uncommon.

He said he is a Catholic, and that inspires his stance, though he is excited by younger activists in the anti-abortion movement who are atheists. Meanwhile, a woman stopped at the red light on Adams Street and Dearborn Street, yelling through her car window: Pro-life is a lie, you want women to die.

Joy Ray, holds an abortion rights sign alongside Miguel Gutierrez, right, as they and others gather in Federal Plaza to rally against the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ends the constitutional right to abortion, June 24, 2022. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

Susan Buchanan, a 60-year-old woman from Oak Park, stuck both her middle fingers in the air in lieu of a sign as the small abortion rights crowd chanted.

Im seething for all the young women that arent gonna have the rights that I had when I had my abortion, she said.

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Miguel Gutierrez, a 51-year-old man visiting Chicago from Brooklyn, New York, wore a T-shirt that read Thank god for abortion.

He said that he attended an abortion rights rally in New York City a few weeks ago as well, saying, You have to put your body on the line.

None of this is a surprise. If youre half-awake you know whats happening, he said.

Im very angry, said Julisa Colon, about the Supreme Court decision on June 24, 2020, in Chicago. She said shes in favor of abortion rights because she has had an abortion herself. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

Julisa Colon, from Brookfield, said she heard about the ruling on Instagram because all of her female friends were posting about it.

She said she is concerned about the strain on Planned Parenthood when residents from other states come to Illinois to access an abortion and about the safety of women trying to access illegal abortions across the country.

Im very angry, she said. She said shes in favor of abortion rights because she has had an abortion herself. I would have had a child with someone who was not a partner.

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kcrowley@chicagotribune.com
Nicole Mokeme, a BIPOC activist, was killed in Acadia National Park over Juneteeth weekend. Gregory Rec/Portland Press Herald

A 35-year-old BIPOC activist was killed in a hit-and-run in at Acadia National Park in Maine.

Nicole Mokeme was the founder of a nature retreat for BIPOC girls.

Police are looking to speak with Mokeme's boyfriend, whose Black BMW fled the scene.

When Nicole Mokeme was a stay-at-home mother in Portland, Maine she longed to connect with other women, but couldn't afford to attend popular nature retreats often held in far-off tropical destinations  and she knew there were others like her.

Instead, Mokeme  an activist for the Afro-Indigenous community  organized a local retreat, she once told a local business organization, CEI. While doing that work, she learned about an even greater need for connection among young BIPOC girls in the community, and that propelled her to found the "Rise And Shine Retreat," which has hosted local getaways for children of color since 2014. Four years later, she opened a wellness center on 135-acres of land in Bowdoin, Maine, according to the retreat's website.

Mokeme's dreams to continue her outreach and grow her business were cut short over Juneteenth weekend, when she was killed in an overnight hit-and-run at Arcadia National Park. Maine State Police announced they are searching for Mokeme's boyfriend Raymond Lester, and his Black BMW, which fled the scene.

"The State Police do not believe there is an ongoing public risk and believe this to be an isolated incident," police spokeswoman Shannon Moss said.

She was struck overnight between June 18 and 19 on the campus of the Schoodic Education and Research Center at the park, police said. That was the site of the "Black Excellence Youth Retreat," a BIPOC retreat held between June 14 and 20 that Mokeme helped organize.

Acadia National Park AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty

Fighting for justice and embedding in nature

Mokeme, 35, described herself on the Rise & Shine Retreat website as an "enthusiastic and electrifying woman of Universal Love."

Her mission, she said, "is Black Liberation."

Racial Equity and Justice, a BIPOC-centric nonprofit in the Wabanaki Territory of Maine honored Mokeme in an Instagram post Thursday.

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"Forever in our hearts. You embodied love, light, compassion, patience, leadership, understanding and authenticity," the post, which included footage from last weekend's retreat, said. "We will forever be grateful to have known you here as a friend, but also as a comrade in this community work we all hold so dearly to our hearts."

In a Q&A with a Maine-based business development organization, Mokeme said that she hoped to continue to be able to "provide quality experiences to the Afro-Indigenous community" and grow to the point where she can provide outdoor gear and supplies to the young people who participate with Rise & Shine.

The retreats offer teens from diverse backgrounds and opportunity to practice self-care  like journaling, meditation, and farm-fresh meals  in a nature, according to the organization's website.

Close up of parked police vehicles outside a county police station. Getty Images

Police investigation

Officials have not announced what they believe prompted the hit-and-run, and Lester has not been charged in Mokeme's killing, but police are looking to speak with him about the incident.

His Black BMW SUV, with license plate 5614WM, may have front-end or undercarriage damage, according to police.

Police warned the public not to approach the SUV if they spotted it, but to immediately call the agency.

Lester was arrested in Portland in 2013 after he fled the scene of a stabbing. Lester wasn't charged in the stabbing, but rather warrants on theft, forgery, and failure to appear in court.

Loved ones of Mokeme have organized a vigil in her honor and are raising money for her 11-year-old daughter, Delaney.

Read the original article on Insider
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. UKRINFORM/ Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he will fight for two missing Americans in Ukraine.

"I'm sure we'll fight for them and get them back," Zelenskyy told NBC News.

The two men appear to have been captured by Russian forces and have been missing since last week.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has vowed to fight for two missing Americans in Ukraine, saying he will "get them back."

Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, and Alexander Drueke, 39, both from Alabama, appear to have been captured by Russian forces while fighting for Ukraine and have been missing since last week. While their location is unknown, Russia has said it is not ruling out the death penalty for either man.

"What can I say? They are heroes, and for me, they seem like Ukrainians because they give the main things they had: their lives," Zelenskyy told NBC News."I'm sure we'll fight for them and get them back, and of course, they will come back to their families."

He added: "To me, it is a great honor that in the world there are some soldiers that are not afraid, and they came to support us and our sovereignty and independence."

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov previously told NBC News that both men were being held for investigation. He also called the two men "soldiers of fortune" and said they had committed crimes.

"Those guys on the battlefield were firing at our military guys. They were endangering their lives," Peskov said. "There will be a court, and there will be a court decision."

Peskov said the men would not be afforded protections granted to prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions because they're not in the Ukrainian army  and did not rule out the death penalty. The Geneva Conventions protect prisoners of war from being prosecuted for fighting in a war, as well as from summary execution and torture.

"We call on the Russian government  as well as its proxies  to live up to their international obligations in their treatment of any individual, including those captured fighting in Ukraine," the State Department said in a statement to the Washington Post in response to Peskov.

Read the original article on Business Insider
A rezoning request to build two dozen townhomes on the corner of Dillard Road and Virginia 130 in Madison Heights was denied during the Amherst County Board of Supervisors June 21 meeting.

The 2.3-acre parcel, zoned General Commercial (B-2) was requested to go Multi-Family Residential (R-2) to allow for the 24 townhome units in three proposed buildings.

Its extremely narrow, Tyler Creasy, zoning administrator, said of the parcel. Its not very wide.

Russell Nixon, of Nixon Land Surveying, representing the applicant, said under the current zoning a by-right use such as a store or a gas station would generate much more traffic than the townhome development. Traffic was a major concern raised by supervisors and a few speakers during a public hearing on the rezoning proposal.

We feel pretty confident we can make this a good development and get a good entrance, Russell Nixon told supervisors.

Holcomb Nixon, of Madison Heights, during the hearing asked supervisors to deny the request.

This is going to cause a real traffic problem, he said. This is not a good location for 24-unit town housing.

The Amherst County Planning Commission in May recommended approval of the rezoning. The only commission member to vote against it, Jim Thompson, addressed supervisors during their hearing on the proposal and reiterated his concerns of traffic and the project proposed so close to Virginia 130.

Thompson said he visited the site on three separate occasions to observe traffic. He is particularly concerned with children playing at the townhome property close to the heavily traveled intersection.

I really think this is just not a good location for rezoning commercial to residential, Thompson said.

Supervisors read two letters during the meeting from residents opposed to the project. Jennifer Bell, who wrote county officials, said in her correspondence she has witnessed accidents and near-accidents at the stretch.

This is already a dangerous intersection. It stays congested constantly, Bell wrote. There are numerous sites in Amherst County better suited for this development.

Seth Good, of Frank Good Builders, pursued building townhomes on the parcel and addressed the board during the hearing.

I really couldnt see what possibly else you can do with the property, Good said. I know there is a need for housing in Madison Heights. I do think we can build something that is very pretty for the county. I do think theres a big need for it.

He said a gas station or similar business use would bring more traffic as by-right zoning, which doesnt include the public hearing process, and he doesnt understand that logic as far as concerns raised.

If I thought it was unsafe I would not be proposing it, Good said.

Supervisor Jimmy Ayers said in his years in law enforcement as a former sheriff he has seen pretty horrific crashes at the intersection.

It does concern me with a residential development right in that intersection that is pretty heavily traveled, said Ayers.

David Pugh, the boards chair, said he is conflicted on the issue because there is a need for more rental properties in Madison Heights. He noted the layout calls for 10.4 townhome units per acre on a strip of land he described as unique.

Thats awful dense development for that parcel of land, said Pugh. I have some concerns with thatI dont think its the right piece of property for such a dense development sitting on the corner.

The planned townhomes would have been located in close proximity to an apartment complex off Elon Road if approved.

[Virginia Department of Transportation] may have signed off on it but that doesnt mean the county has to, Supervisor Tom Martin said. I wont be supporting the rezoning purely from a traffic standpoint.

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Following Friday's U.S. Supreme Court decision ending constitutional protections for abortions, two Lynchburg-area legislators are poised to play major roles in a renewed effort to limit abortions in Virginia.

The high court's 6-3 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturns the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, won't have an immediate effect in the commonwealth  abortion remains legal during the first two trimesters of pregnancy, or later if doctors believe the patient's life is in danger.

State Sen. Steve Newman, R-Lynchburg, and Del. Kathy Byron, R-Bedford, were two of four Republican state legislators named Friday by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin as taking the lead in a legislative effort to "build a bipartisan consensus on protecting the life of unborn children."

Youngkin said Friday he wants to ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Although Democrats pledged to fight that effort, the governor potentially has the votes in the General Assembly to do it after a Democratic senator, Joe Morrissey, of Richmond, announced support for restricting abortion, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Newman, who represents the senate's 23rd District, said in a statement Friday he is "forever a strong pro-life advocate who believes all life is sacred."

"For the upcoming 2023 General Assembly Session, I will work with the Governors Administration and other pro-life legislators to craft a bill that is viable to pass a Democrat-controlled Senate. It will be a major victory to limit abortions in Virginia to 15 weeks of gestation. I invite both Democrats and Republicans to join the Governor in taking this clear step toward protecting children and their mothers," Newman said in his statement.

Byron, who represents the House's 22nd District, said in a statement to The News & Advance she "will be on the front lines of that effort fighting to protect the unborn."

"As a mother and a grandmother, I am overjoyed by todays Supreme Court decision overruling Roe v. Wade. As a lawmaker who has fought throughout her career to protect innocent human life, this is the day Ive been praying for. Now, the hard work of crafting legislation that can be passed by the General Assembly begins," Byron said.

Byron said she was honored to be chosen by Youngkin to lead on this issue.

"Senator Newmans proposal is an excellent one, which I would support. There are many other measures that would protect life I would support as well," she said.

"With over six months to go before the regular session convenes in January 2023, I will be working diligently to craft and support legislative initiatives protecting life. Mindful of the challenges we face in gaining support from enough legislators to pass both the Republican-majority House and the Democrat-majority Senate, some of our focus necessarily must be on what measures can be approved in both chambers."

Youngkin also named state Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant, R-Henrico, and Del. Margaret Ransone, R-Westmoreland, among those who he hopes will join "in an effort to bring together legislators and advocates from across the Commonwealth on this issue to find areas where we can agree and chart the most successful path forward."

"I've asked them to do the important work needed and be prepared to introduce legislation when the General Assembly returns in January," Youngkin said.

Youngkin told The Washington Post while he favors the 15-week limit, setting the cutoff at 20 weeks might be necessary to achieve consensus. He also told the newspaper he supports exceptions for rape, incest and cases where the life of the mother is at risk.

Republicans hold a 52-48 majority in the House of Delegates. Democrats currently hold a 21-19 majority in the Virginia Senate, though Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, a Republican, would be able to cast a vote breaking any 20-20 ties.

All 100 state House seats and all 40 state Senate seats are up for election next year.

Democratic Party of Virginia Chair Susan Swecker said in a statement that Virginia Democrats "are 100% deeply committed to protecting Virginians' right to an abortion  and ensuring that the Commonwealth will not be pushed back to the restrictions of the 1950s when it comes to women's equality."

"We will fight every single effort put forward by Governor Youngkin and Republican leadership to criminalize abortion in the Commonwealth and will ensure that Virginia remains a safe haven for reproductive rights," Swecker said.

Sen. Mark Peake, R-Lynchburg, who represents the 22nd District, said he believes Friday's ruling is "a well-reasoned decision" and said abortion rights should be determined on a state-by-state basis.

With the current Democratic majority in the state Senate, Peake said there is zero chance of an outright abortion ban in the 2023 Virginia General Assembly session. But, he said he is optimistic a restriction on abortions after a certain period of time can be reached.

Peake said the 50-year process to get to this point drives home the importance of presidential elections and Supreme Court appointments.

It has taken a long time to get the right justices in place, Peake said.

Del. Wendell Walker, R-Lynchburg, representing Virginias 23rd House District, said the 2023 session in the General Assembly will be a pivotal moment for the states future.

I am committed to working with my colleagues and Governor Youngkin to take the necessary steps to protect the sanctity of human life, Walker said. This is a win for life, and more than ever, we need to pray for our nation.

He said he understands the anger many are feeling across the country from Fridays ruling.

As a person of faith, its also an answer to prayer, Walker said.

Around the region, reactions to Friday's high court decision varied.

Lynchburg resident Lauren Barnes  sexuality educator with Sex Ed for You, a reproductive and maternal health advocate, and mother to a daughter  said she is "devastated by the decision made today by SCOTUS."

"To withhold life-saving procedures from a person is inhumane," she said. "To do so without mandated comprehensive sexuality education, attainable and equitable maternal health care, paid parental leave, and early childhood education is sickening. This issue affects us all. Every one of us."

For now, Barnes noted, abortion is legal in Virginia, and she called on residents to educate themselves and their children on the ruling and the options they may have for birth control, as well as connect with organizations doing advocacy work in Virginia.

"Regardless of whether abortion is outlawed in the Commonwealth of Virginia, our clinics will be flooded with residents from bordering states seeking emergent care, thereby placing a greater demand on services that are already difficult for many to acquire," she said. "Keep in mind that gas prices are at an all-time high and the financial burden of traveling to another state is simply unattainable for many."

Gloria Witt, president of the Amherst County branch of the NAACP, said the ruling sends the wrong message and only adds to the vicious cycle of systematic inequalities for women and other groups.

We value our gun rights more than womens rights, Witt said. Thats pretty much where we are, say no more. Its a sad day."

Liberty University School of Law Dean Morse Tan said the arguments of the case were simple and clear.

Even those who agreed with the holding of Roe and Casey ... the more honest ones are able to acknowledge the weaknesses and the poor reasoning that was there, Tan said, referring to Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, another landmark Supreme Court case on abortion.

Tan said the leak of a draft opinion in the Dobbs case in May, which showed a 5-4 ruling, seemed to be an attempt to potentially intimidate the justices from going with the indicated majority.

That indicated majority has stood, and so none of the five justices were able to be intimidated away from where they stood when the draft opinion was leaked, Tan said.

Vincent Vecera, associate professor of political science at Randolph College, said the main surprise Friday was Associate Justice Clarence Thomas' concurring opinion, which among other things said the Supreme Court should reconsider its positions on contraceptives.

With this concurrence, Vecera said Thomas believes the court is willing to go considerably further.

The court seems to be comfortable taking a very, very extreme position, Vecera said.

Liberty University President Jerry Prevo weighed in on the Dobbs ruling, releasing a statement that said, "For nearly 50 years, Liberty University students, faculty, and staff have prayed, volunteered, and advocated for the life of mothers and their unborn babies. The Liberty student body has led the way and marched year after year, prayed on the steps of the Supreme Court, and committed their lives to pro-life causes."

U.S. Rep. Bob Good, who represents the 5th Congressional District and is a Campbell County resident, said in a statement Friday the Supreme Court "had the moral courage and constitutional conviction to throw Roe v. Wade where it belongs on the ash heap of history."

The Supreme Court has reaffirmed the constitutional responsibility of our elected representatives to act on the issue of life. Republicans in Congress must now be asked if they will truly commit to protecting all life from the moment of conception," Good said.

Good's Democratic opponent in this November's election, Josh Throneburg, of Charlottesville, called Friday's ruling "a heartbreaking decision for so many people, and lets be clear: it will do nothing to end abortion in this country. It will only make it more dangerous.

"Also, 'pro-life' legislators and judges are happy to pass laws banning abortion, but they wont lift a finger to help nurture children and families once theyre born," Throneburg said via his campaign's official Twitter account. "Ban abortion? Sure! Paid leave, health care, universal preschool, living wages, formula, school lunch? Silence."

Staff writers Justin Faulconer, Shannon Kelly, Rodney Robinson Jr. and Rachael Smith contributed to this report.
Police have arrested a 24-year-old journalist on suspicion of stealing food items from a convenience store in Shari, Hokkaido, where she had been assigned to cover the sinking of a tour boat.

According to police, Sayaka Takahashi, a journalist employed at the Yomiuri Shimbuns Sapporo branch office, allegedly shoplifted nine food items, including a bento box lunch and candy, worth 2,657 yen at around 9 a.m. on April 28 at a convenience store in Shari, local media reported. Police said Takahashi, who was arrested on Tuesday, has admitted to the allegation.

Store security camera footage showed Takahashi leaving the store without paying for products.
An unidentified liquid was found spread on the floor of a train in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, on Friday morning. A preliminary test found no toxin in the liquid. But two passengers complained of sickness and are being treated at a hospital.

Firefighters received a report at around 6:15 a.m. complaining of a rotten smell on the train. It was running from Kashiwa Station in Chiba Prefecture to Omiya Station in Saitama Prefecture on the Tobu Noda Line or TOBU URBAN PARK Line.

The six-car train was checked at nearby Nodashi Station in Chiba Prefecture, and a liquid was found on the floor of the No.2 car.

Police said there were about 30 to 40 passengers in the car at the time. Two teenage girls were taken to a hospital.

The liquid was colorless and had no smell. It appears to have already been on the floor when the train left Kashiwa Station.

Police are further analyzing the liquid.

Operations on the Tobu Noda Line were suspended between Nanakodai Station and Unga Station for about an hour.
Carlin and Diane Copenhaver are no strangers to car shows. One of their favorite annual shows is coming this Saturday, June 25, hosted by Quaker Steak and Lube, 3320 Mid America Drive in Council Bluffs.

The Wheels of Courage Car Show is one of my favorite shows of the year, Carlin said. It is a way for the community to show support to families that are suffering as they battle the disease of cancer.

Carlin has been the owner of Top of the Line Steel Buildings, located in Treynor, Iowa, for the past 39 years. He and his wife, Diane, have been married for 14 years and have two daughters. Daughter Sara Larkin and husband Adam live in Papillion, Nebraska, and have one daughter, Addy. Daughter Lora lives in Phoenix, Arizona.

In recent years Wheels of Courage has registered some 150-200 vehicle entries annually and has welcomed hundreds of attendees. The event will feature both silent and live auctions, a 50-50 raffle, and sales of logoed T-shirts and other paraphernalia. All proceeds will go to the Methodist Jennie Edmundson Hospital Foundations Charitable Patient Care Fund, which helps to financially support MJEH cancer patients as they go through diagnosis and treatment.

Within just a few years, thanks to the leadership and dedication of our committee, this has become one of our highest-profile annual fundraisers, said Tara Slevin, JEF Chief Philanthropy Officer. We hope that everyone will join us to help support MJEHs cancer patients.

For more information, or to register a car, please visit www.jehfoundation.org or call 712-396-7733. Same day registrations welcomed. All vehicles must be registered by 11 a.m.
In 2019, nearly 120 years after his death, a Civil War veteran who moved to Iowa after the war, received a gravestone marking his military service.

Now, its time for the dedication ceremony.

The Atlantic, Iowa, contingent of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War are holding a dedication ceremony for Joseph Porters gravestone on Sunday, June 26, at 1:30 p.m. at Graceland Cemetery in Avoca, Iowa. The ceremony is open to the public.

According to research conducted by Barbara Butcher of the Avoca Historical Society, Porter, an Irish immigrant whose family had moved to the United States 20 years earlier, enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1864 at the age of 44.

Porter served in the 6th New York Battery under the command of General Philip Sheridan and fought in Virginias Shenandoah Valley, and in the battles of Winchester, Cedar Creek, and the Fall of Petersburg, and other, less notable battles.

After the war, Porter moved his family  wife Ellen and five children  to Scott County, Iowa, on the Iowa-Illinois border. In 1872, Porter moved his family again, this time to Pottawattamie County, where he bought farmland southeast of Hancock, Iowa.

Ellen died in January 1878 or 1879 and was buried in Graceland Cemetery. Porter remarried in late 1879 to an Englishwoman, Isabella Murdock Patterson, and they moved to Oskaloosa, Iowa, where they lived with one of Porters children until Porters death in 1904 at age 86. Isabella died later that same year.

Porters remains were brought to Graceland Cemetery, where he was buried beside his first wife, Ellen. When Isabella died, her remains were also brought to Graceland Cemetery, and she was buried on the other side of Porter.

For some reason, neither Porter nor Isabella were given gravestones.

In 2011, as the United States celebrated the sesquicentennial of the start of the Civil War, Barbara and her husband John began compiling a list of all the Civil War veterans buried in Graceland Cemetery.

They started with a list of 72 veterans whose names were read each Memorial Day by members of the local American Legion. They found gravestones for most of them, but a few names eluded them, including Joseph Porter.

Barbara would not be deterred, however, and began to research Porter. She contacted the Department of Veteran Affairs in April 2017, and a gravestone was delivered by the end of May.

Porter is the second Civil War veteran that Butcher secured a gravestone for. In 2015, Butcher helped a descendent of William Pickerill receive his own military gravestone.

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Many in our country will not agree with the reasoning and the decision of the Supreme Court. And some women will still wonder how they can meet the challenge of an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy. This is a moment for each of us to commit to not let any woman face her challenge. pic.twitter.com/yNmLVKFKSs
ESSEX, Vt. (AP)  Before the pandemic, there was no room in the budget for Kate Murphys children to buy lunch at school. She and her husband would buy in bulk and make bag lunches at home. So the free school meals that were made available to students nationwide amid the crisis have brought 
The office that investigates serious misconduct against members of the Chicago Police Department released its summary of findings and recommendations Thursday on two high-profile incidents that caused the Chicago Police Department to come under public scrutiny.

The most recent of those incidents was the North Avenue Beach encounter caught on video that went viral last year. After midnight on Aug. 28, now-retired Chicago police Officer Bruce Dyker was on duty at the beach when he approached Nikkita Brown, a Black woman who was walking her dog, telling her that the beach was closed and she needed to leave.

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In this still image from video taken by a bystander, Chicago police Officer Bruce Dyker appears to grab and physically restrain a woman who appeared to be complying with orders to leave North Avenue Beach over the weekend. (Saulter Law P.C.)

Brown asked Dyker to step away from her because he was not wearing a mask and invading her personal space. Dyker became increasingly argumentative and verbally combative with Brown, according to the report. Dyker then grabbed her arm and body and Brown struggled with him until he released her and allowed her to leave the park. Dyker did not arrest Brown or issue her any citations.

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability found that Dyker did not racially profile Brown because, according to body-worn camera footage, Dyker appeared to also give a Black couple and four white or Hispanic males the same order to leave the park before his interaction with Brown.

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The report did find that Dykers use of force was not reasonable or necessary given Brown presented minimal resistance, most of which was verbal rather than physical. It also found that Dyker failed to use de-escalation techniques to prevent the use of force.

Video footage of this incident has been widely circulated and brought significant discredit to the department, the COPA report said. Officer Dykers entire interaction with (Brown) was an abject failure..

The watchdog recommended Dyker receive a penalty between 180 days suspension and separation from the department, according to the report. Although, Dyker has retired since the incident. Dyker made his first court appearance earlier this month, when he pleaded not guilty to felony charges including official misconduct and was released on his own recognizance.

(Chicago Tribune Handout)

The second summary report detailed the encounter between police and Mia Wright in May 2020, near the Brickyard Mall, 2600 N. Narragansett Ave. The incident occurred following civil unrest in the city prompted by the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

COPA found that Officer David Laskus provided false information about the red Hyundai that Wright was inside during the incident. He said that the vehicle and those occupants were involved with an attempted looting of the Champs sporting goods store in the mall.

Later, the people in the Hyundai all said in statements that they were not involved in looting at the mall, the report said.

In his statements, Laskus claimed that he saw one of the people in the Hyundai standing in front of Champs, holding a hammer.

COPA found that the people in the Hyundai never had a hammer, the report said.

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The driver of the Hyundai briefly accelerated in the direction of a group of officers as they tried to order everyone to exit the vehicle, and when she stopped the car, police eventually broke multiple windows.

Warning: graphic content/language. Chicago police surrounded a vehicle, broke its windows and arrested a women near Brickyard Mall in Chicago. (Chicago Tribune Handout)

Everyone inside other than Wright exited the vehicle, and Officer Raymond Duncker grabbed her and passed her to Laskus, who pulled her hair and took her to the ground, the report said.

Multiple officers took one witness who tried to block police to the ground and handcuffed her while Officer Patrick Dwyer continued to make comments that were racist and sexist, including (expletive) animal, COPA found.

COPA recommended that Laskus be fired from the department. Last week, police Superintendent David Brown filed disciplinary charges with the Chicago Police Board against him, seeking his dismissal.

COPA also recommended that Dwyer be fired but he retired on July 15, 2020.

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pfry@chicagotribune.com
COLUMBUS  Most people want their lawns to be green and lush during the summer, even when temperatures rise and rain stops falling. To accomplish that, many people set their sprinklers on autopilot  allowing them to run every day or every other day  and dont pay attention to whether the g
The Mauritanian NGO Reseau Unite pour le Developpement de Mauritanie has denounced in a complaint to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva the alarming situation prevailing in the polisario-controlled Tindouf camps in Algeria.

In the complaint submitted to the HRC, NGO chairman Mohamed Vall Barka decried the intimidation and repression suffered by human rights defenders in the Tindouf camps, as well as the exploitation of children in the camps.

These camps have become incubators for terrorism and organized crime due to the exploitation by the polisario militia of youngsters who are seeking to improve their economic condition by all means.

The NGO also drew the attention of the HRC and the international public opinion to the responsibility of the Algerian State and the Polisario in the abuses committed in the Tindouf camps, including the crime of recruiting and exploiting children in the Sahara conflict.

The Mauritanian NGO has submitted the same complaint to the UN General Assembly.
UN Special Advisor on Libya, Stephanie Williams, has confirmed that Speaker of the House of Representatives (HoR) and President of the High Council of State (HCS) had accepted her invitation to meet at UN Office in Geneva on June 28-29 to discuss constitutional framework for Libya elections.

I am pleased to confirm that Speaker of the House of Representatives Aguila Saleh and President of the High Council of State Khaled Al-Mishri have accepted my invitation to meet at the UN Office at Geneva 28-29 June to discuss the draft constitutional framework for elections, Williams tweeted.

I commend the heads of the two chambers for committing to seek consensus on the remaining issues after last weeks Joint Committee meeting in Cairo, she added.

The two leaders were set to meet last week in Cairo to iron out issues in connection with election but Al-Mishri did not make the trip after he rejected the meeting agenda.

The two chambers back rival governments. The HoR has chosen former interior minister Fathi Bashagha to replace Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh who rose to power in March last year. Dbeibeh has refused to surrender power.
Tunisias police forces arrested Thursday ex-Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali in the city of Sousse without providing details.

The defense team of the defendant told Business News reports that Jebali has been taken to the antiterrorist brigade in El Gorjani, in capital city Tunis.

Jebali, according to his team of lawyers, would not answer the investigators questions, deeming his arrest is politically motivated.

Jebali, also a former leader of the Islamist Ennahda Party, began a hunger strike after his arrest on suspicion of money laundering.

According to press reports, the former Premier decided to start a hunger strike few hours after his arrest arguing that his arrest was politically motivated and had nothing to do with money laundering.

His family said it would hold President Kais Saied responsible if anything happens to the former politician because of the hunger strike.

According to the private Tunisian radio Mosaique FM, Hamadi Jebali was taken into custody by the anti-terrorist unit of Tunis for suspicions of money laundering.

For more than a month, former Prime Minister has been the subject of an investigation into the activities of his boiler manufacturing workshop in the Sousse region, according to his lawyer Zied Taher

Jebali was Prime Minister from December 2011 to March 2013. He stepped down due to political tension and resigned from Ennahdha since 2014.
The World Bank approved Friday a $250 million loan to Morocco for the economic development of its North-Eastern region. The funding will help improve transport connectivity and enable private sector growth in the North-East region, notably around the development of the Nador West Med (NWM) maritime complex.

Morocco is implementing a major infrastructure investment plan including the development of NWM maritime complex, which includes a deep-sea port and an industrial zone, as well as actions to improve the regional business environment.

This project, which is in line with the New Development Model, will help unlock territorial development, reduce spatial disparities to ensure a sustainable and resilient territorial development, and promote competitiveness, said Jesko Hentschel, WB Maghreb Country Director.

By contributing to job creation by the private sector and creating opportunities for economic inclusion, we aim to support greater prosperity for the region, added Mr. Hentschel, noting that improving the skills of local inhabitants, particularly women and rural youth, will help further strengthen local capacity and social cohesion.

The project has three main components: to strengthen the integrated territorial development approach in the North-East Region, to support private sector development, and to improve road infrastructure.

The project will finance the development of a priority investment roadmap, the improvement of 500-Km of rural roads and the skills building of 5,000 young workers, with an emphasis on women and rural youth.

It will also support reforms aimed at increasing private investment by $30 million in the Nador region and rehabilitate 170 km of primary roads.
Former detainee in polisario jails, Fadel Breika, denounced before the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), in Geneva, the trafficking in human beings prevailing in the camps of Tindouf, under the control of separatist militias, on Algerian territory.

Speaking on Thursday, under the interactive dialogue with the UN rapporteur on human trafficking, as part of the 50th session of theUNHRC, Breika pointed to Algerias complicity in Polisarios human rights violations and illicit trafficking.

The separatist militia prevents the establishment of any human rights framework that is able to monitor and report on trafficking of human beings, Breika said, denouncing the assignment of the camps management to these separatist factions, which prevents the establishment of any human rights framework capable of monitoring and accounting for trafficking in human beings in the camps.

He noted, in this sense, that human trafficking is one of the lucrative activities for separatist militias who use, without scruples, these camps as a business.

The polisario camps are a sad example of the exploitation of human beings by armed separatist militias.

The polisario leadership still treats a large group of dark-skinned people as slaves who are sold and bought across the Sahel-Saharan region, especially women and children, who face the worst forms of abuse, including rape, forced labor, and enrollment of minors into terrorist groups, criminal gangs, and human trafficking networks, he said.

One of the most heinous forms of human trafficking in the Polisario camps is the deportation of hundreds of children every year to Europe, he stated further, explaining that these children are sent to European countries under the false motive of spending the summer vacations, before they are given, in exchange for money, to European families for adoption in an environment that is foreign to them, far from their mothers.

These are genuine human tragedies, he said.
French-speaking parliamentarians stressed, Thursday in Rabat, the need to respect the principles of democracy to ensure peace and stability in French-speaking African countries, highlighting their role in promoting commitment to democratic values.

This came during a panel discussion, held part of the 28th Regional Assembly of the Parliamentary Assembly of La Francophonie (APF), convened in Rabat June 23-24.

Participants in the panel, chaired by the Speaker of the National Assembly of Cote dIvoire, Adama Bictogo, underlined the key role parliamentarians can play in ensuring respect for democratic principles.

Francophone parliamentarians have a responsibility to ensure governance and regional stability within the continent, especially in the process of political mediation, Adama Bictogo said, noting that 95% of political crises in Africa arise from electoral disputes.

For his part, the charge de mission for Africa at the APF, Sansan Tilkouete stressed that the notion of democracy is closely linked to other concepts such as elections, alternation, law, individual freedom, freedom of the press, security, equity, equality and so on.

Democracy is a desirable practice and its globalization is more than desirable for a better consideration of all the aspirations of peoples, he said.

This meeting served as a platform to showcase the experiences of several African countries such as Benin, Gabon, Cameroon, Guinea, Morocco, Senegal, Cote dIvoire and the Central African Republic.

In an opening address before the assembly, the Speaker of the House of Representatives (Lower House) stressed the need for African parliamentarians to act as a united block to defend the cause of Africa, pointing out that parliamentarians unity as members of the APF and as Africans will enable them to advocate effectively the cause of Africa, by preaching global solidarity against narrow nationalism and by ending the exclusion of certain populations or regions from the benefits of progress.

According to the Moroccan MP, it would be unrealistic to speak of stability and development if Africa is not free from the many pressing challenges, including the threat of terrorism and violent extremism, the resurgence of unconstitutional changes of government, or the various impacts of global warming.

He however called for remaining optimistic and trying to see this multidimensional crisis as a chance to give new meaning to multilateralism and international solidarity, principles that are at the heart of the action of Francophonie.

The agenda of the 28th Regional Assembly of the APF, hosted by the Moroccan Parliament, covers several topics including democracy; African Continental Free Trade Area; womens participation in political, economic and social life; the involvement of parliamentarians of French-speaking Africa in environmental issues and climate change as well as the political, social and health situation in French-speaking African countries.

The participants shall also examine the activity report of the regional assembly and the restructuring of the leadership positions of the African region within the APF bodies in preparation for the 47th Session in Kigali (July 2022).

Founded in 1967, the APF seeks to reflect the multiculturalism of the French-speaking world and its people. It brings together delegates from nearly 90 parliaments or interparliamentary organizations from the five continents.

The Moroccan Parliament joined the APF in 1979 and has hosted the works of some regional assemblies in Africa (19th in 2011, 25th in 2017, and 27th in 2019).
Lincoln County business leaders three-year-plus quest to develop an industrial rail park now has $37.5 million worth of certainty behind it.

State officials Wednesday notified the North Platte Area Chamber & Development Corp. that it has qualified for the full $30 million in state funds available to it to help build the planned rail park outside Hershey.

It marked the final payoff of two years of efforts in the Legislature to enlist the state in at last economically exploiting the proximity of the Union Pacific Railroads Bailey Yard, the worlds largest railroad classification yard.

The chambers application proved that it met the Nebraska Rural Project Acts required locally secured commitments of $7.5 million toward launching the rail park, the Nebraska Department of Economic Development said in a letter Wednesday.

Its a great relief, chamber President and CEO Gary Person said Thursday. Obviously we submitted this back on Jan. 3, and its been a long time coming.

He thanked state and local leaders alike, as well as the chambers board members and staff, in coming together to enable the rail park to become real.

Person said chamber leaders now can move toward securing firm commitments from potential agribusiness and manufacturing occupants. Depending on progress there, construction could start next spring.

This is a wonderful day for North Platte and Lincoln County, he said. And what a way to wrap up Nebraskaland Days.

Though the Nebraska Rural Projects Act is open to nonmetro communities statewide, North Platte leaders were the primary drivers in giving it birth.

Former state Sen. Mike Groene teamed with Person in crafting Legislative Bill 40, which founded the program. Lawmakers gave it unanimous 49-0 approval in May 2021.

LB 40 set a $30 million cap on the maximum amount of state matching funds any rail-park applicant could receive. Senators provided an initial $10 million for the program over two years, with caps of $30 million per project and $50 million in overall state funds.

Groene, who resigned Feb. 21, came back this past January with LB 788. It turned the overall $50 million ceiling into a floor, boosted state funding to that level and opened the door for approved projects to receive more than $30 million should the Legislature provide more rail-park funds.

Sen. Tom Brewer of Gordon and Groenes appointed successor, North Platte Sen. Mike Jacobson, helped secure the integration of LB 788 into the Unicamerals main budget bills. Gov. Pete Ricketts signed them with the full $50 million in rail-park aid intact.

Person noted that North Platte submitted its application for rail-park aid seconds ahead of other interested communities on Jan. 3. But DED waited until after the legislative session to act on it.

And its good they waited, he said, because we got to a guaranteed $30 million instead of hoping senators would approve more funds in future years.

The chamber has purchase options on 300 acres of land starting just past Hersheys east village limits. Almost all of it lies between U.S. Highway 30 and the railroad.

Person said the chamber is working with Greenbrier Rail Services to buy its former building and U.P. spur and fold it into the rail-park project.

No real estate will change hands at least until the first tenants are secured, he said. Dennis Steffes and R.B. Miller separately own parts of the planned rail park site.

Formal approval by the village of Hershey likewise will wait until construction is closer at hand, Person said.

Person said Lincoln County commissioners are expected Monday to return to the topic of creating an inland port authority to develop and operate the rail park.

The term refers to logistics and distribution hubs that handle goods involved in international trade but lie away from coastal seaports.

Omaha Sen. Justin Wayne won lawmakers 2021 approval of Legislative Bill 156, which would allow up to five Nebraska sites to gain designation as inland port districts. Groene joined Wayne in co-sponsoring that bill.

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The dog days of summer hit the North Platte Police Department earlier than normal this year.

Sort of.

The department announced an addition to the staff Thursday morning through its social media accounts.

Briggs, a 1-year-old German shepherd, will partner with Officer Daniel Wilkerson to form a K-9 unit.

Briggs name is a nod to Buffalo Bill Codys horse, Brigham, according to the social media post.

Wilkerson and Briggs will be heading to a training program soon for certification before the team is put in service in North Platte.

Briggs and Wilkerson will join a handful of other K-9 units in local law enforcement agencies.

The Lincoln County Sheriffs Office and Troop D of the State Patrol each have two K-9 units.

Troopers Michael Rice and James McKain are both paired with Belgian Malinois mixes  Jerry and Lee.

Troop D has had K-9 units since the late 1990s.

Sheriffs Deputy Brett Schmidt is paired with Bella, a female black Lab, and Deputy Tiffany Wood with Kailah, a female Dutch shepherd.

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Illinois role as a haven of abortion care in the Midwest was magnified Friday when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a watershed decision that reverses nearly a half-century of federally protected reproductive freedoms.

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In the absence of Roe, the 1973 landmark case that guaranteed the right to terminate a pregnancy, the matter of abortion law falls to the states. Terminating a pregnancy is expected to be banned or significantly curtailed in roughly half of all states in the nation  including nearly every state in the Midwest.

Yet Illinois remains an oasis for those seeking the procedure, as abortion providers in many surrounding states prepare to shut down. Gov. J.B. Pritzker in 2019 signed the Reproductive Health Act, ensconcing the fundamental right to terminate a pregnancy in state law.

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The Planned Parenthood Fairview Heights Health Center, an abortion clinic a few miles from the Missouri border in Fairview Heights, Illinois, on May 6, 2022. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)

Abortion remains safe and legal in Illinois  that message needs to be heard all across the state, said Ameri Klafeta, director of the Womens and Reproductive Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois. Clinics that provide abortion in this state will remain open and patients can make appointments. Nothing that the court has done today reverses the hard work done by advocates in Illinois and legislators in Springfield over the past few years to assure that each person in Illinois has the right to make their own health care decisions, including abortion.

Abortion opponents across the state rejoiced at the fall of Roe on Friday. Yet they also cautioned that Illinois would become even more of a destination for abortions, a source of deep shame to those who believe terminating a pregnancy is morally wrong.

I feel tremendous joy in my heart that Roe v. Wade is history, said Eric Scheidler, executive director of the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League.

Yet he added that the impact on Illinois will be devastating, as the state will likely draw even more abortion patients from across the country.

This is going to become an abortion mecca, by design, he said. This is what Planned Parenthood and J.B. Pritzker have been planning for years. My one ray of hope for Illinois is that the impact will be so visible that the people will push back against the extreme abortion regime in our state.

Amy Gehrke, executive director of Illinois Right to Life, said her organization will be working with colleagues at pregnancy resource centers to ensure that women have real, life-affirming options when facing unplanned pregnancies.

The Supreme Court has taken the bold and very appropriate step of allowing states to restore protection to the most innocent members of the human family, preborn children, as well as their mothers, she said. The double-edged sword of todays ruling is that even more women will be coming to our state for abortions.

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Abortion providers across Illinois have been preparing for the massive influx in patients expected to travel here for the procedure. Planned Parenthood of Illinois anticipates an additional 20,000 to 30,000 patients will be crossing state lines for abortion care here each year.

Let me be clear, in Illinois abortion is and will remain legal, said Jennifer Welch, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Illinois Action, in a written statement. We expect every state that borders Illinois to quickly move to ban or severely restrict abortion access. Tens of thousands of people are now facing a terrible dilemma; flee to a state like Illinois to get an abortion, carry a pregnancy against their will or seek an illegal means to end their pregnancy.

This is on top of the increasing number of patients who have already been traveling here to terminate a pregnancy in recent years, as nearby states enacted more restrictions on the procedure, including gestational limits, mandatory waiting periods and strict regulations on providers and clinics.

Nearly 10,000 patients crossed state lines to have an abortion in Illinois in 2020, according to the most recent Illinois Department of Public Health data available. This was a 29% increase compared with the number of patients who traveled 2019; the number of out-of-state patients coming to Illinois to terminate a pregnancy has risen every year since 2014, according to state health department data.

Clinics in nearby states have been grappling with the end of federal abortion rights, scrambling to determine how patients can still get abortion care.

In Wisconsin, Dr. Kristin Lyerly works at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Sheboygan, about 150 miles from Chicago, which suspended scheduling abortions after Saturday, in anticipation of the Supreme Court ruling.

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We are devastated, said Lyerly, an obstetrician-gynecologist who has performed abortions there for six months and elsewhere in the state for about a decade. So many of the patients we see are already at a huge disadvantage, whether that means financial, support, everything. And now they will have to travel and spend more. They just dont have the resources to get the care that they need and deserve. Im afraid they will do unsafe things out of desperation.

The state to the north has an 1849 law that criminalizes abortions in most cases but was unenforceable since 1973, because of Roe.

She believes the majority of patients in Wisconsin will travel to Illinois, some to Minnesota.

Even before the demise of Roe, Wisconsin mandated a 24-hour waiting period to have abortion, requiring two separate appointments, one for counseling and the other to terminate the pregnancy.

An exam room at Planned Parenthood in Flossmoor in 2018. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

Over the last 10 years we have lost so much access, she said. But this is just a terrible final straw. Because abortion is health care. In greater society we see it as a political issue and its very polarizing. But within the scope of health care, this is just one of many challenging gray areas we deal with every day.

Abortion opponents in Wisconsin celebrated the end of Roe on Friday.

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Pro-life advocates have worked tirelessly for decades to protect preborn life from abortion, and today we are overwhelmed with joy to witness Roe v. Wade being overturned, said Heather Weininger, Wisconsin Right to Life executive director, in a written statement. But our work does not end here. We must continue to fight for our state statute to remain unchanged, and we must demand that it be enforced. We must work even harder to advocate for mothers facing unexpected or challenging pregnancies, and provide more life-affirming resources so that intentionally ending the life of a preborn child becomes an unthinkable option.

Facing the end of Roe v. Wade, a Tennessee abortion provider is opening a clinic in Carbondale, roughly three hours from Memphis and Nashville. CHOICES Memphis Center for Reproductive Health said on its website that the new southern Illinois clinic will offer both surgical and medication abortions.

By the end of the year, Tennessee lawmakers will decimate abortion access in our state, CHOICES said on its website. But CHOICES has a bold plan to make sure that we can continue to provide high-quality reproductive health care in our Memphis community, take care of the 4,000 people a year who depend on us for abortion care and expand the footprint of our innovative whole-person model of care.

In anticipation of the fall of Roe v. Wade, the Iowa Supreme Court earlier this month reversed a previous decision that guaranteed the right to abortion under the Iowa Constitution, allowing lawmakers to ban or severely restrict the procedure. The Iowa ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed by abortion providers fighting a 2020 measure requiring a 24-hour waiting period before a patient can get an abortion.

We are deeply disappointed that the Iowa Supreme Court is abandoning women in spite of overwhelming support for abortion access, said Sarah Stoesz, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, in a written statement. Regardless of how we each feel about abortion, the decision to have an abortion is best left to a woman and her doctor.

At the same time, the looming threat of the demise of Roe v. Wade has spurred new and innovative means of abortion access in Illinois, as well as other states with strong reproductive rights protections across the country.

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Planned Parenthood of Illinois last month announced that it began offering abortion pills by mail to state residents who qualify, in some cases eliminating the need to ever leave home to terminate a pregnancy. The agency said the relatively new method of accessing a medication abortion will break down unnecessary barriers to health care.

Patients from other states can use this service as well, but they must travel to Illinois for a telehealth or in-person visit and then pick up the medication at an Illinois clinic, according to the Planned Parenthood affiliate.

The Regional Logistics Center at the Planned Parenthood Fairview Heights Health Center. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)

New abortion clinics also recently opened near state boundary lines, in anticipation of the end of Roe v. Wade. Planned Parenthood opened a clinic opened in Waukegan near Wisconsin in 2020 and a clinic in Flossmoor near the Indiana border in 2018. Another clinic opened near the Missouri border in Fairview Heights in 2019, part of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri.

In January, two southern Illinois abortion providers established the Regional Logistics Center, a designated spot where traveling patients can get help booking lodging, finding transportation, accessing child care and get assistance funding the procedure through a variety of existing abortion funds.

The center is located inside the clinic in Fairview Heights and jointly operated by the Planned Parenthood affiliate and Hope Clinic in Granite City, another abortion provider just over the Missouri border.

Today is the worst-case scenario for the 1.3 million people of reproductive age who live in the state of Missouri, where abortion is now banned, said Yamelsie Rodriguez, president and CEO of Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, during a news conference Friday.

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Missouri had only one operating abortion clinic  a Planned Parenthood in St. Louis  before the Supreme Court ruling, and also had a number of restrictions in effect, including a mandatory waiting period before the procedure.

Rodriguez said shortly after the decision came down, the agency notified the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services that we are ceasing abortion services in the state of Missouri.

In Illinois, now more than ever, we are preparing for an impending surge of patients that we know is likely to come, she said. Patients will now be forced to flee their home states for essential, fundamental care.

Dr. Erin King, executive director of Hope Clinic, said the abortion provider is committed to ensuring that people from communities across the South and Midwest can still access the safe, quality health care they need and deserve.

We are heartbroken by todays disastrous Supreme Court decision stripping away the basic right to abortion care in this country, she said in a written statement. Todays decision has been preceded by years of extremist attacks on our fundamental human rights. The ruling will immediately affect every person in this country, but will disproportionately impact Black, Indigenous and people of color and other historically marginalized communities.

eleventis@chicagotribune.com
People lined up outside of Department of Health & Mental Hygiene clinic on June 23 in New York City. Photo: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

As the citys LGBTQ+ community prepares to revel in Pride festivities this coming weekend, the mood outside of the sexual-health clinic in Chelsea on Thursday, where hundreds of men lined up to be vaccinated against monkeypox, was decidedly not festive.

The city and the federal government are not doing a great job to protect the gay community during this outbreak, said James Krellenstein, an activist who managed to get an appointment and received his first shot on Thursday. This is a recipe for disaster that will lead to a mass-transmission event.

On the eve of the first Pride parade to have a full slate of programming since the pandemic began, many in the gay community are feeling anxious about monkeypox, the smallpox-like disease thats been detected in 3,500 people around the globe. While the number of confirmed cases in the New York remains low, with 30 New Yorkers testing positive since the outbreak began, more than half of those cases have occurred in the past week, and almost all of them were in men who have sex with men, according to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Monkeypox is not a sexually transmitted disease, but its spread during skin-to-skin and prolonged respiratory contact during sex. Cases in Germany were linked to parties where sexual activity took place, and Spain has traced outbreaks to a sauna in Madrid as well as a Pride event in the Canary Islands.

This is all because of Pride, said Evan Ipock, gesturing at the people in line who, like him, were waiting for hours in the hopes of snagging a walk-in appointment. People want to be able to feel safe having fun this weekend.

But a mere 275 shots were administered on Thursday, according to the Department of Health, and the federal government has allocated the city just 1,000 doses of the Jynneos vaccine, a smallpox vaccine that has proven to be 85 percent effective against monkeypox. The vaccine requires two doses spread four weeks apart to be fully effective, though a single dose has proven to stimulate a robust antibody response in clinical trials, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Even if the city were to exhaust its entire allotment before the weekend, it wouldnt even cover the 5,000 people expected to attend a single Pride party in Brooklyn on Sunday.

Theres definitely people who are thinking twice about going to the more sex-based parties, restricting their behavior. Theres a lot of anxiety in the community, said Aaron Lord, a Brooklyn neurologist who was waiting for a shot. Lord said he had friends and family who traveled to Canada, which started vaccinations weeks ago, to get a shot.

Some of that anxiety comes from the lack of information about the disease, the symptoms, how its spread, and who is at risk.

As soon as I heard there was a vaccine, I booked it, said Royi Gavrielov, who got a shot after three hours. That being said, I didnt know there were two versions of the vaccine, or that the older version carried quite a bit of risk. I didnt know that it was a two-dose thing. Id like to know, when exactly is it transmissible? What should be expected between when you feel symptoms of illness versus the actual pox appearing? How can I know that, if I have a pimple breakout, its a whitehead and not a pox? I want that information to be more available to those of us who are seeking it out.

According to the CDC, monkeypox symptoms usually start within two weeks of exposure. Symptoms range from exhaustion to fever, headache, and muscle aches. One to three days after symptoms present, most people will develop a rash or sores around the genitals, anus, hands, feet, chest, or face. The disease is transmissible from the earliest onset of symptoms until the sores or scabs have fully healed, which can take several weeks.

Recalling the earliest days of COVID, the CDC issued guidance for lowering risk at parties, raves, and sex clubs. The guidelines recommend people who show symptoms have virtual sex or engage in mutual masturbation at a distance of at least six feet. Consider having sex with your clothes on, reads one bullet point.

Pride was one of the reasons Chris Adams, a nurse from Stamford, Connecticut, drove to Chelsea upon hearing from a co-worker that the vaccine was available. Still dressed in scrubs from work, Adams joined the back of the queue toward the end of the day, unsure if hed make it to the front before supplies ran out. Its unfortunate that it took so long for them to start vaccinating, Adams said, but waiting is worth it for me to feel safe.
Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System

NEW YORK, June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GIC, OMERS Infrastructure and Wren House have announced the signing of an agreement to jointly acquire Direct ChassisLink Inc. (DCLI) from investment funds managed by Apollo and EQT. DCLI is a leading chassis provider in the U.S., enabling over-the-road transportation of containerized freight to and from ports, railyards, and customer locations. Terms of the investment are not being disclosed.



DCLI is one of the largest chassis lessors in the U.S. With over 151,000 marine and 100,000 domestic chassis in its fleet, DCLI operates out of strategic locations across key port and rail terminals in the U.S. DCLI is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and employs approximately 410 employees.

Ang Eng Seng, Chief Investment Officer of Infrastructure, GIC, said: As a global long-term investor, GIC seeks to invest in world-class companies. GIC is excited to partner with like-minded investors, OMERS Infrastructure and Wren House, to acquire DCLI, one of the largest chassis lessors in the U.S., providing infrastructure to facilitate trade.

Boon Chin Hau, Managing Director and Head of Infrastructure Americas, GIC, said: In the U.S., intermodal transportation is on the rise, as companies seek to drive down transport costs and reduce their carbon footprint. As a market-leading chassis lessor, we firmly believe DCLI is well-positioned to capitalize on this growing trend. We look forward to supporting DCLIs management team as they continue their impressive growth.

Gisele Everett, Senior Managing Director and Head of Americas, OMERS Infrastructure, said: Were pleased to be making this investment on behalf of OMERS alongside GIC and Wren House which, like OMERS Infrastructure, pride themselves on a long-term approach to asset management and value creation. Following the close of the transaction, DCLI will become OMERS Infrastructures eighth global investment in transportation and mobility, adding to our portfolio including roads, bridges and ports around the world.

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Philippe Busslinger, CEO of Wren House, said: We are very excited to invest in DCLI, an exceptional company in the U.S. transport sector. We look forward to a long-term collaboration with its industry-leading management team, GIC and OMERS. This second investment for us in North America supports Wren Houses longterm goal to build a global quality infrastructure portfolio with outstanding management teams.

This agreement underscores the tremendous growth DCLI has enjoyed since our founding in 2012 and all we do to serve the nations intermodal transportation system, said Bill Shea, DCLI CEO. We thank Apollo and EQT for investing in our success, and look forward to working with OMERS, Wren House and GIC to sustain those investments and do even more to serve our customers supply chain needs.

The closing of the transaction is expected in H2 2022, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.

GIC contact

Katy Conrad

Vice President, Communications

E: katyconrad@gic.com.sg

T: +1 212.856.2407

OMERS Infrastructure contact

James Thompson

Director of Communications

E: JaThompson@omers.com

T: +44(0)7443 264 154

Wren House contact

Simone Selzer / Sumeet Desai

Brunswick Group Ltd

+44 (0)207 404 5959 / +44 (0)7515 187438

WRENHOUSE@brunswickgroup.com

About GIC

GIC is a leading global investment firm established in 1981 to secure Singapores financial future. As the manager of Singapores foreign reserves, GIC takes a long-term, disciplined approach to investing and is uniquely positioned across a wide range of asset classes and active strategies globally. These include equities, fixed income, real estate, private equity, venture capital and infrastructure. Its long-term approach, multi-asset capabilities and global connectivity enable it to be an investor of choice. GIC seeks to add meaningful value to its investments. Headquartered in Singapore, GIC has a global talent force of over 1,800 people in 10 key financial cities and has investments in over 40 countries.

About OMERS Infrastructure

OMERS Infrastructure manages investments globally in infrastructure on behalf of OMERS, a defined benefit pension plan for municipal employees in the Province of Ontario, Canada, and third-party investors through its Strategic Partnership Program. OMERS Infrastructure currently has approximately C$32 billion in assets under management and over 30 investments, principally in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific and across sectors including energy, digital services, transportation and government-regulated services. OMERS Infrastructure has employees in Toronto, New York, the U.K., Continental Europe (including Amsterdam, NL), Asia and Australia. More information: www.omersinfrastructure.com.

About Wren House

Wren House is a London-based captive global infrastructure investment manager, with a focus on delivering attractive risk adjusted equity returns through a disciplined investment approach, a long-term responsible investment horizon and active asset management. With a flexible and commercial approach to investment, we have a clear mandate and a long-term view without the need to exit. Wren House has a team of nearly 30 professionals. Our portfolio has included investments in airports, ports, water, energy generation (conventional and renewables), distribution and transmission, social and digital infrastructure and spans 11 countries and over 20,000 employees in the US, UK, Europe, Australia, Central and South America. Further information on Wren House and its portfolio is available at: http://wrenhouseinfra.com




After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on Friday, local legislators on both sides of the aisle reacted as expected.

Rep. Debbie Wood (R-Valley) called it a big decision and a big day.

Rep. Jeremy Gray (D-Opelika) called the decision unfortunate.

Wood said after she joined the legislature in 2018, the state passed some of the strictest anti-abortion laws that have ever been passed in Alabama.

The Human Life Protection Act, or House Bill 314, was enacted in 2019 and was set to impose a near-total ban on abortion starting later that year. It passed in both chambers of the Alabama Legislature and was signed by Gov. Kay Ivey. Under this act, a doctor who performed a banned abortion in Alabama would be guilty of a Class A felony and could be sentenced to life in prison. Several proposed amendments allowing abortions in cases of rape and incest were rejected. The bill did allow exceptions in cases where the life of the mother was at serious risk or the fetus had a lethal anomaly.

A legal challenge against the Human Life Protection Act has delayed its implementation.

With Roe v. Wade being overturned, the majority-Republican legislature is ready to move toward implementing a near-total ban.

This will not completely shut down abortions in our state because there are cases where women, because of a threat to their life, they definitely have the right to choose that, she said. This allows us to stand up for the unborn because they dont have a voice.

Wood said she believes in speaking up for children when no one else can and said she is excited for the verdict.

Now we as a state get to decide how were going to handle abortions here, Wood said. Its a big decision and its a big day for us in state government.

The next step in the process will begin in March of 2023 when the legislature goes into session and is expected to appeal to federal Judge Thompson, who enjoined the Human Life Protection act, to allow its provisions to go into effect.

Gray, the Democrat from Opelika, said its unfortunate that womens reproductive rights continue to be the center of attention. He said he also expects to see policies go into effect soon that will restrict access to abortions.

We understand that everyone has their opinion about abortion, but we have one of the worst abortion bills when it comes to rape and incest and all the other things, Gray said. Just imagine someone going through a traumatic experience of being raped or incest and now with the laws that we have in place, if they were to be enacted immediately, then someone wouldnt be able to get an abortion for situations like that.

Gray said its hard to say what the next step will be, but he hopes there will be an appeal at the federal and state level.

On a state level, well see what we can do, he said. Well try to bring appeals and well say how its unconstitutional.

There are only three abortion clinics in the state of Alabama, and Gray said he can see a reality where none of them will be left and individuals will have to travel to surrounding states for an abortion.
On Friday at about 6:30 a.m., a 30-year-old Valley woman was shot through her bedroom window by an unknown individual while she was in bed.

The shooting occurred at her residence on East Sears Street.

Valley police said she reported she was shot several times and did not know who the shooter was.

Calloway was transported to the emergency room at East Alabama Medical Center-Lanier and then to EAMC-Opelika.

Police said her wounds did not appear to be life-threatening.

Officers and investigators have processed the scene, according to the police report. At this time, a suspect has not been identified and the motive is still unknown.

Anyone with information concerning this crime is asked to contact the Valley Police Department at 334-756-5200 or the Central Alabama Crime Stoppers at 334-215-STOP, 1-833-AL1-STOP, or online at www.215stop.com.
Lee County Judge Jacob Walker ruled in favor of the City of Auburn in the lawsuit Auburn Councilman Steven Dixon filed against the city over short-term rental regulations. Dixon said he plans to appeal.

Dixon filed the lawsuit in June 2021 and it was brought before Walker for a summary hearing in April 2022. Afterward, Walker asked for each party to submit additional documentation.

On June 17, 2022, Walker decided to rule in favor of the City of Auburn. He did not overturn the short-term rental ordinance and did not accept the preexisting non-conforming use or grandfather clause, Dixon said.

Dixon said a grandfather clause would have allowed individuals who had short-term rentals before the ordinance was passed to continue to operate them.

I was really disappointed in the ruling that we received, Dixon said. I am very hopeful that we will prevail eventually.

Following the ruling, Dixon said he has plans to file an appeal to the Alabama Supreme Court.

I think we have a really strong chance of winning that, Dixon said. I personally feel that there are a lot of local politics involved with this so I think taking it to the higher court, to the Alabama Supreme Court, is the right decision, and I think that they will be able to look at it without bias.

Dixon has about 40 days after Walkers ruling was made to file the appeal.

I wouldnt be challenging this if I didnt believe in it, he said. I think that it is absolutely wrong that the city has done this to people.

Dixon said hes going to pursue these fundamental property rights until hes told he cant anymore.

I put a lot of time and effort on this and Im not giving up, he said.

The City of Auburn is represented by Paul Clark, an attorney from Birmingham. Clark did not immediately respond to calls from the Opelika-Auburn News.

Earlier, Clark said that the documents he sent to Judge Walker on the Citys behalf stated that many of Dixons claims are based on provisions of the Alabama Constitution which do not actually exist, and that Dixons claims fail because he cannot, as a matter of law, establish the essential elements of those claims or because he does not have standing to assert them.

Timeline of events

Dixon purchased a home in Auburn in April 2018 and rented out his basement primarily on Airbnb.

In March of 2021, the short-term rental ordinance came before the City Council. Dixon recused himself from the vote, and it passed 5 to 3, banning the use of homestays and short-term non-primary rentals in Dixons home district of Ward 5, which is zoned Neighborhood Conservation (NC).

Dixon said at the time that he had lost his ability to rent his basement along with 151 other residents who were offering short-term rentals in Auburn.

In June, Dixon filed a civil lawsuit against the City Council and city officials over the short-term rental regulations.

In November, the City of Auburn cited Dixon with a criminal charge, claiming that he continued to rent out his basement after the short-term rental ordinance was passed, but Dixon said he stopped renting after the ordinance was passed.

In May 2022, Auburn Municipal Court Judge Jim McLaughlin found Dixon guilty of continuing to rent out his basement after the City passed its short-term rental ordinance in 2021.

Dixon maintains that he has not rented his basement since the ordinance was passed, and he filed an appeal. The next court date involving this criminal charge will be on Oct. 3 before Lee County Judge Christopher Hughes.
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Jake Hastons name was read aloud from the back steps of Cater Hall on Feb. 4, announcing him as the next president of Auburns Student Government Association, or SGA. The declaration came at the conclusion of a voting campaign and set in motion his upcoming role as a key student leader for the 2022-23 school year.

These organizations have allowed me to serve Auburn and connect with other students from all over the state and country, which is what Auburn is all about. SGA has allowed me to do both, and I am looking forward to serving the student body at Auburn.

Haston, originally from Vestavia Hills, Alabama, is a senior majoring in journalism in the College of Liberal Arts with minors in German and business. He is also a member of the Honors College. His love for Auburn blossomed at a young age, but his love for serving the university began during his participation in student organizations that allowed him to develop his campaign and prepared him for his new role.

The journey to becoming SGA president began with Hastons involvement in Freshman Forum, an organization of freshman students that aims to represent and serve the student body. He then joined the War Eagle Girls and Plainsmen, an organization whose members function as the official hosts and hostesses of the university. He later became a SGA at-large student senator.

Haston believes it is important to advocate for the enhancement of four key areas on campus: academics, student life, SGA and social advancementhis presidential campaign platform.

Our SGA executive team has set out specific goals to advance each of these areas of the college experience. Along with these actionable goals, I believe it is the responsibility of the SGA president to advocate for students on a day-to-day basis to ensure the Auburn student experience offers every resource it can to students.

Haston plans to do this by setting specific goals the executive team will work to accomplish during his term. He is also advocating for an increase of loanable technology for students and accessibility of academic advisors, which he believes will improve the academic experience for students.

Jake is an outstanding student leader with a heart full of Auburn spirit, said Senior Vice President of Student Affairs Bobby Woodard. He is passionate about serving others, and I am confident he will represent his fellow students well as he works to make a lasting, positive impact on the Auburn student experience.

After Auburn, Haston hopes to attend graduate school to earn a law degree and a masters degree in business administration. He hopes to combine these skills with his love for sports, and he believes Auburn has given him the tools he needs to be successful.

Haston is excited to take on the responsibility of representing the student body and advancing student interests. He encourages students to make the most of their time at Auburn.

Auburn has so much to offer, said Haston. I encourage all students to get involved, connect with others and serve Auburn.
A burgeoning Illinois nonprofit has begun providing free flights aboard small passenger airplanes to help patients travel to their abortion appointments, a new means of reproductive health care access thats emerged just as the U.S. Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that legalized the procedure nationwide.

The Springfield-based charity Elevated Access was incorporated in late April, according to Illinois secretary of state records. The Supreme Court on Friday reversed nearly a half-century of federal protections for abortion rights, leaving the matter of reproductive freedoms to individual states. Roughly half of all states are now expected to ban or nearly outlaw the procedure, including nearly every state in the Midwest.

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In early June, the nonprofit flew its first abortion patient from Oklahoma to the Kansas City area, enabling the passenger to terminate a pregnancy in Kansas, the organizations executive director said.

Just days before the flight, the governor of Oklahoma had signed the nations strictest abortion measure into law, requiring the patient to travel out of state for the procedure.

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While voting and giving money are important to try and stop this backslide of peoples rights in this country, doing something directly to try and help people get out of that burden is very important to me, said the nonprofits executive director, who asked to remain anonymous for his safety, citing the heightened threat of violence surrounding reproductive rights.

The charity recruits licensed pilots with access to light aircraft, who volunteer their time and planes to fly patients heading to abortion clinics  trips that increasingly require long-distance travel, often across state lines.

We know you are already stressed, the organizations website says. Let us relieve some of that with a free flight from a volunteer pilot.

The executive director of Elevated Access said he has been working on the nonprofits concept for over a year with leaders of the Chicago-based organization Midwest Access Coalition, which provides patients traveling for abortion care with lodging, transportation, meals, rides to clinics and other logistical support.

Alison Dreith of Midwest Access Coalition described the new transportation model as a potential game changer for some traveling patients, especially with the demise of Roe.

Peoples lives are complicated and getting them to their care isnt always a straight shot, she said.

She ticks off the many barriers to more conventional forms of travel: Sometimes patients are too young to book a rental car. Commercial airlines, trains and buses often have limited schedules, or take too long for patients who need to watch their children or cant miss an extra day of work. Travel by cars and planes has also become more expensive due to rising fuel costs, an added burden for patients who arent wealthy.

The first Elevated Access patient earlier this month traveled aboard a Cirrus SR20, a single-engine propeller plane with four seats. Driving from Oklahoma City to the Kansas City region would have taken about 10 hours round trip, and the patient had child care constraints that prohibited overnight travel, the executive director recalled.

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Instead, the patient left home at 8 a.m. to get to the airplane and then returned by 6 p.m. the same day, eliminating the need for multiday travel.

They were able to get back to their life and their kids, the executive director said. It was someone who had never flown before.

A commercial flight to and from the same two cities would have cost about $900, added Dreith, who coordinated the patients travel with Elevated Access.

The new nonprofit works with established abortion networks to connect with patients, according to the website.

The planes typically have a single-propeller engine and can fly one to three passengers over 100 miles per hour, the website says. The aircraft take off and land at small, private airports, which can be more flexible to schedule and eliminate some of the bureaucracy of commercial flights; the experience also tends to offer more privacy compared with commercial airlines, the executive director said.

At most small airports, there is a small office where you can wait for the pilot if they are not already there to greet you, the website says, in a section with information for passengers. If anyone asks what you are doing, you tell them that youre meeting someone for a flight. You dont need to tell them anything more than that. There is no security to scan your baggage or requirement to show any identification.

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Elevated Access also provides flights for patients seeking gender-affirming health care, another area of medicine that more states are increasingly restricting or threatening to curb.

Volunteers must be licensed pilots over 21 years old with a minimum of 200 hours flight experience and meet other standards, according to the nonprofits website. There are also Federal Aviation Administration requirements and regulations governing the planes that are used.

Volunteer pilots are vetted to ensure they support the nonprofits mission and are required to provide references and statements about their position on abortion rights and transgender care; their social media profiles are screened as well, the executive director said.

As of the end of May, over 150 pilots from around the country had expressed interest in volunteering, and about a third have completed the vetting process, the executive director said.

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Abortion will remain legal in Illinois, which has strong reproductive rights protections. In 2019, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Reproductive Health Act, which established abortion as a fundamental right statewide. Illinois abortion providers predict a massive influx of patients traveling here.

In 2020, roughly 10,000 patients crossed state lines to terminate a pregnancy in Illinois. The number of out-of-state patients has risen every year since 2014, according to the latest available Illinois Department of Public Health data.

This goes beyond bodily autonomy, the executive director of Elevated Access said. Its trying to help people who are really struggling with equality in our country.

eleventis@chicagotribune.com
"Just dont read them passages about half-breeds as they are nationalists and do not like such people.



What in the living fuck.

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The pranksters were Russian so they were probably pro-Putin.

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Guys, roe vs wade got overturned!! 

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:( I saw too. I figured it would happen but also- it feels surprising somehow. And of course infuriating and sad and scary.

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I just the notification on my phone. I feel physically sick and I am lost for words. Just... no.

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Heartbroken.



I have an appointment to get to and I just cant get the motivation to leave my apartment.

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And Thomas has identified same sex relationships, same sex marriage and contraception as other areas they should look at. I am furious and so sorry for everyone in the states 

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Yep, this is clearly just the start.

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Yet not Loving v. Virginia I wonder why...

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Im not trying to be alarmist but this is exactly what the Nazis did. To better control their people they heavily focused on banning abortion & wiping out gay men (lesbians were fine bc they could still be impregnated), they even shared The Department of Abortion & Homosexuals or some bullshit.



Berlin had a very active public gay scene at this point, it was culturally accepted by everyone except the right (sound familiar??). Even the first head of the SS was an out homosexual until they took him out when they decided to focus on that strategy.



Im just saying that I see a lot of scary parallels and this is definitely just the start.

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Marriage is bad enough but RELATIONSHIPS wtf kind of Gilead nonsense is that

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I'm not surprised, because I knew it would happen, but still sick to my stomach. I hate it here so much.

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I honestly feel like violence is the only way forward

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everything is just so bleak, guys :(

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I picked the wrong week to stop drinking.

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Literally the first thing I saw when I looked at my phone this morning. Ugh. Its devastating. Its terrifying because you can tell this is just the beginning of the shit theyre going to do.

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i hate this place so much istg

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I don't understand how this shit is legal.

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not surprised yet somehow still disappointed

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hell world

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im speechless

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Clarence Thomas writes, in a concurring opinion, that the Supreme Court should reconsider Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell  the rulings that now protect contraception, same-sex relationships, and same-sex marriage.  Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 24, 2022



everything is so bleak everything is so bleak

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I just love the way the Supreme Court gets to pick and choose what counts as state rights versus federal rights.

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I hate this place. I wish it were easier to leave because this is so heartbreaking. Everything is bad and it just gets worse and worse.

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This is the first place I ran to but i blue screened for like ten minutes

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I feel sick inside. We knew this was gonna happen in Nov 2016 but for it to happen is just disgusting. I just dont have words 

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I knew it was happening but still cant seem to process it. This is so scary.

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I fucking hate it here. The land of the free my ass.

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Fucking hell. Piece of shit Thomas said he's going after lgbtq rights next

I'm fucking terrified

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it's almost like we were told this would happen way back in 2016. i'm so shocked.

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I hope JK dies along with all conservatives.  I live in a very liberal area so nothing will change, but I know plenty of women who have moved to red states for the lower cost of living and they're all super fucked.



Edited at 2022-06-24 02:48 pm (UTC)

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Wow, they sure showed her....?

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OT but I'm sorry, Americans

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You know this will seep into other countries as well 

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Husband and I want to leave so badly, but immigrating seems impossible unless you're rich, marrying a foreign national, or have a specialized skill that would convince a company to sponsor you. We don't know what to do.

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I read the article at the source, which states that she does charity work for Ukrainian children  which is nice, of course  but I don't get why she or anyone on her team would believe that Zelensky wanted to talk with her. Why would he? She has no power or influence politically, she's not even a big or hip enough celebrity for a campaign. Those Russian pranksters can fuck off, but whew, hard to feel sorry for Miss Rowling.

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Probably because she does believe she's that important. She is still unfortunately one of the most famous authors in the world.

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Sure, sure, but Zelensky has enough of that "star power" to address the world himself, like he did at Glastonbury recently and on many other occasions before. Considering how they've lost Sjewjerodonezk today and things are just getting worse, it just feels so ridiculous and delusional to me that he'd want to get a call with the author of children's/YA fiction. \_()_/

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maybe not now but there was a point in her career where she DID have a lot of influence and she probably believes that she still does

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To ask for money? Beside, celebs are always falling for these pranks cause they think they are important and that just speaking about a cause is ~making a difference

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She is incredibly famous all over the world. Not everybody know or care about her anti-transgender views.

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I mean, she probably still thinks she holds a lot of influence, and Zelensky has met with celebs that can bring attention, didn't he just meet with Ben Stiller of all people?

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She is insanely rich, so for that reason alone she would be considered very important. She donates a lot of money and has a lot of resources and is extremely famous.

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off topic but is there going to be a Roe post?

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i just submitted one but i did it very fast

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this would be a funny post, if roe v wade didn't just ger overturned.

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Yikes, so the prankers sound pro-russian from what I read and said anti-trans stuffs, while JK was trying to help Ukrainian kids, that's beyond tasteless and no not deserved, smh.

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I was gonna say, fuck her but the fact that it was Russian folks basically making a mockery of what is happening to Ukrainians and and throwing in some anti-trans jokes for flavor is honestly more upsetting.

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Seeing a post about this TERF at the top of ONTD when womens rights in America are on fire is the cherry on top of this wonderful fucking morning

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Hey yall, I just want to take this moment to encourage everyone to value and protect your own mental health. You dont have to fight every second. Take time to regroup when bad shit happens.





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she's so full of herself if she thinks a leader from a country that is being devastated in a war would facetime her ass

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This isn't a "hehe terf gets owned moment", this is somebody mocking another country's tragedy to go viral.

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It's unbelievable that the Democrats have the presidency and the Congress majority but the Republicans still keep winning. Expand the SCOTUS! Undo the Tr*mp legacy on the courts!



Hugs to the US ONTDers 

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The senate majority is rather BS. Only on certain issues. But even then a majority of one (and a tie breaker no less, no an actual senator) is scarcely enough.

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that's true. Manchin is wielding more power than he has any right to.

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They have been playing the long-game. Decry activist courts while simultaneously delaying liberal justice nominees and packing it with ultra-conservative pieces of shit. All of that progress undone in a matter of weeks.



I'm so tired of this country...

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Its never made any sense to me that voters dont get to vote on who is on the Supreme Court. Why does a president, that I didnt vote for, get to decide who is going serve on the court for at least a majority of my life?

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This is on RBG for not retiring during the Obama administration.

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what a despicable fucking comment. THAT's the only reason, eh? get a motherfucking grip

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Did their comment specify it was ONLY on her? Because that is not how I read it. But let's not pretend hubris played no role in this.

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The level of sheer...I can't use the word I want to...on this post, is embarrassing.

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I don't even understand this viewpoint. Even if RBG had retired, the conservatives would still have majority?? It would be 5-4 instead of 6-3.

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Uh it's one of the main reasons.

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???? The decision was 6-3. That would've made this decision 5-4. Nothing would've changed.

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There are many reasons, including that and also the fact that Dems make abortion something they love to fundraise off of but refuse to codify literally every single time they have had the power to do so.



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I get this frustration but this is such a simplistic approach. There are so many people responsible for this.



I don't even care for RBG that much personally but idk. Obama couldn't even get someone on the supreme court at the end of this presidency.

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I mean... that still wouldn't have changed things in this case given that it was a 6-3 ruling so I think we can also blame McConnell holding up Scalia's seat and then shoving through Amy Coney Barrett.

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you aren't wrong.



People can point to 5-4 vs 6-3 but her stepping down may have changed things politically, potentially affecting the obstruction around Garland. Gorsuch and these other recent appointees are ultra ultra ultra conservative, it's also possible that if any of the conservative justices were even a little on the fence, having them there and a strong majority (aka more cover) may have pushed them over the edge. It could have stopped the GOP from having such a stranglehold over the court and could have made them less bold. It's not like this is the only time there's been a conservative majority on the court, a lot had to happen for them to get this comfortable.



Edited at 2022-06-24 03:45 pm (UTC)

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Obama literally had a seat to fill and the Republicans didnt let him.

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5 men overturn Roe vs Wade and your response is to blame a woman?



The misogony is coming from inside the house.



And as pointed out. It was 6-3. Her retiring earlier(and Obama not getting his pick passed by McConnell) doesnt change anything.

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What a stupid comment. How about this is on the Conservative party who have used controlling women's bodies as ways to win voters for decades? How about the people that demand their politicians stop abortion rights? Be angry, but put it on the ones that deserve it.



Edited at 2022-06-24 04:24 pm (UTC)

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I think if we want to talk about RBGs legacy you may have to look at the early stuff too?



- Founder of ACLU Women's Rights Project

- Authored Reed vs Reed that went to SCOTUS (i.e men should not get preference for inheritance of estates)

- Fronteiro vs Richard (the US military should not provide benefits on the basis of sex)



The above also led to precedent for other cases/rights from the 70s like having a credit card in a women's name etc.



Things are shit now for sure but I do wonder if they would be shittier if she wasn't where she was for so long and making the decisions she did for the entirety of her life.

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Definitely not JUST on RBG, but she played a SIGNIFICANT role. Sorry LIBERALS but if you DONT THINK that the choice of Kennedy to strategically resign for the GOP while RBG didnt do the same has nothing to do with this then you're naive beyond all hope.



It's mostly these 5 conservative dipshits fault and the Federalist Society OBVIOUSLY but they were aided by huge missteps from SEVERAL Dems including Hillary fucking up 2016 so badly, OBama/CLinton never prioritizing the codification of Roe and yea RBG thinking she would outlast Trump as a fucking 87 year old multiple time cancer survivor.



Democrats aided and abetted this decision but hey, they at least get to send out fundraising emails off this, they must be so happy.

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what fucking news to wake up to.

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her words gave me so much comfort today

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Why are we so bound to an originalist reading of the Constitution when women and minorities had no part in writing it? If they had been there at the table with an equal voice, dont you think it would have been originally very different?  George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) June 23, 2022

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Guns officially have more rights than women  A shameful day for America. Heartbroken.  BANKS (@hernameisBANKS) June 24, 2022 banks:

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the unrelenting BULLSHIT women face in this world and in this country is maddening



violence is the only way now

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Hell yes! This country is already violent as fuck so it always boggles my mind that people dont want to get their hands dirty when it comes to actually trying to make this country work best for all.



People are way too complacent!



White people dont care so long as they remain atop the pyramid and they are the ones best suited to weather some hardship and discomfort and other minority groups are so busy trying to be closest to white and rife with antiblackness they weve never been able to successfully band together to do shit.



Edited at 2022-06-24 11:17 pm (UTC)

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i know it was leaked and we knew, but nothing really can prepare you for seeing a headline like that. im oscillating between blind fury and complete numbness. this country is a nightmare.

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Exactly. I am going from rage to numb to exhaustion on a rapid cycle. I have to lead a work meeting at 1pm and I just dont know how to lead a cheerful conversation about projections when NONE OF IT MATTERS.

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One of my co-workers just signed an email "Happy Friday!" and I'm like, how?

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that we're expected to go on smiling and being productive thru every single miserable, life-destroying headline this vile country throws at us...it's just sick. i'm sorry. if you can't get out of it, i hope it at least passes quickly.

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I'm having a breakdown in my AirBnB. That headline was a fucking gut punch and a reality check on the world's oldest prejudice. This fucking planet despises women and it's sickening.

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I know its not the answer but literally nothing else as worked so Im feeling ready to get violent.

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I sobbed and now I am am in this haze of numbness

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This is so sad. I guess marriage equality is next. At what point do blue states just decide not to follow SCOTUS?

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Thomas explicitly wrote in that they should look at same sex relationships, same sex marriages and contraception so it definitely is only a matter of time.



Ofc he conveniently left out interracial marriages. Hypocrite.

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Its maddening because Loving is under the same legal theory as all of the ones he wants to undo

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I don't get his point of bringing up same sex relationships/marriages bc the decision in those cases used Loving v Virginia in their arguments. If they were overturned, wouldn't that also create a legal path for Loving v Virginia to also be struck down?

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I dont understand why people give a shit about contraception, outside of trying to stop people from having sex for pleasure. Is that literally it? They want to stop women from having safe, consensual sex for pleasure?

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https://www.ibtimes.com/clarence-thomas-groping-scandal-explained-what-know-about-anita-hill-moira-smith-his-2438819



Clarence Thomas has no right on this earth to have his ass in that chair. His accuser of sexual harassment should have been believed 31 years ago.

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This is absolutely fucking devastating.

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I'm just fucking numb at this point. Hope I never need a medical abortion again and that my daughter doesn't get raped

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Commented about how fucked up this was on a popular Instagram site and while most agree with me. Some of these comments I received back just solidify how awful people are in this world.

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we've already noticed how fucked up the world is since the whole JDvsAH debacle. i'm not sure i can handle another thing. and this is not the last thing, i feel like we're going back to segregation at this rate

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Nah. We been knew.

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i'm so sorry to all you US folks

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CNN right now annoying me with these forced birth assholes because we gotta hear both sides.

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NBC had some forced birther on that was saying that Democrats and women support eliminating choice. And they were just letting her say it without challenging her at all. And of course she said some bullshit things like that ending Roe will give women a real choice. Fuck her. Fuck them all.



Edited at 2022-06-24 03:35 pm (UTC)

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Sigh. Mainstream media outlets are not only NOT up to the challenge of resisting impending fascism, they're actively aiding and abetting it.

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"lets hear both sides" about our slide into fascism

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Texas Gov saying "we've made a huge step in protecting the lives of innocent, unborn children" made me actually scream.



You're literally, no exaggeration, making international news for not protecting the lives of innocent, born children.



I'm so, so angry. And when I inevitably see a bunch of politicians and Biden saying "you need to vote" as if we're not already doing that, I'm going to pass out from rage.

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But fuck em when theyre born right?



Edited at 2022-06-24 03:32 pm (UTC)

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Hey as long men can continue to buy guns to shoot those kids in classrooms? Am I right?



/obviously sarcasm but its been a fucking week

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that man cannot die soon enough

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This one always gets me: whenever you ask them who will take care of the unborn children when the birth parents inevitably give them up, when we already have 6 million children living in food insecurity.... no response. They have no fucking answer because they're not using their fucking frontal cortex.



ETA: Totally with you on the "go vote" shit. When our votes are gerrymandered? When our polling stations are systematically closed down? When the options you give us are Republican-lite with a CoExIst bumper sticker?



Edited at 2022-06-24 04:31 pm (UTC)

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I'm just tired



I live in WA so it won't effect me right now. Who knows though, if we ever have a republican in power again. I feel for those who live in other states. My house is open to anyone needing a place to stay if they have to travel for an abortion.

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Same for me in New York, I'm not even that far from either NYC Airport

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Under an executive order Gov. Baker signed today, Mass. "will not cooperate with extradition requests from other states pursuing criminal charges against individuals who received, assisted with, or performed reproductive health services that are legal in [MA]," per his office.  Katie Lannan (@katielannan) June 24, 2022



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I am so grateful to live in this state but my heart hurts for everyone who will not have the resources I have. I'm so fucking livid.

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The same in CA. Though I live in a conservative area of CA. Suddenly women who were all to happy to support Trump and the Republicans are ~shocked about this ruling.

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Oil prices will likely remain elevated at over $100 per barrel for the rest of this year as the Russian invasion of Ukraine roils markets and changes trade flows, according to India's top refiner, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC).

The fallout from the war in Ukraine will also slow down global economic growth significantly this year, IOC's director of finance, Sandeep Kumar Gupta, said at an event on Friday, as carried by Reuters.

IOC is one of many Indian refiners that have boosted purchases and imports of Russian crude oil over the past few months, attracted by the steep discounts of the Russian grades compared to oil from other countries. As of Thursday, the discount at which the flagship Russian crude, Urals, is selling was at a massive $35 a barrel below the international benchmark, Brent, which traded at $111 a barrel early on Friday.

Just a few months ago, India was a small and insignificant buyer of Russian oil. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the steep discounts, at which Russia sells its oil to Asia after the Western bans and sanctions on Moscow, have attracted many Indian buyers.

Since April, India's imports of crude oil from Russia have jumped by more than 50 times, to the point of representing 10 percent of all Indian imports, a senior government official told Business Standard this week.

So far this year, India is estimated to have now imported five times the amount of all the Russian crude it bought in the whole of 2021.

Russia is even estimated to have overtaken Saudi Arabia to become India's second-largest supplier of crude oil in May. The average daily rate of Russian oil exports to India stood at 819,000 barrels last month, compared with 277,000 barrels per day (bpd) in April.

Attracted by cheap prices, India, as well as China, continue to increase their imports of Russian crude, which is now mostly banned in the West.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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U.S. President Joe Biden met on Thursday with governors, labor leaders, and business leaders to discuss the implementation of more offshore wind capacity, snubbing oil company executives who were meeting with U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to discuss the soaring gasoline prices in America.

The White House is desperate to lower gasoline prices, which are the most important election issue for many Americans ahead of the mid-term elections in November. Ideas juggled by the Biden Administration range from invoking the Defense Production Act to boost refining capacity and output, to restrictions on oil exports. President Joe Biden also stepped up rhetoric toward oil companies, telling them in a letter sent last week to increase fuel production and noting that refinery profit margins well above normal being passed directly onto American families are not acceptable.

While oil refiners were summoned to meet with Secretary Granholm, President Biden was meeting with officials and executives to discuss an offshore wind partnership. During the meeting, President Biden said the Administration had set a bold target of 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind capacity by 2030.

And this is a real boost for energy security. It really changes the creation of  and jobs, and it cuts consumer costs, President Biden said.

Meanwhile, Energy Secretary Granholm met with U.S. refiners, reminding them that oil companies must deliver solutions to ensure secure, affordable supply.

The Secretary made clear that the Administration believes it is imperative that companies bring supply online to get more gas to the pump at lower prices. She reiterated that the President is prepared to act quickly and decisively, using the tools available to him as appropriate, on sensible recommendations, the Department of Energy said in the readout of the meeting.

Secretary Granholm also reiterated the Presidents call for them to do more to ensure that their companies are passing savings on to their customers.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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Germany is considering expropriating the German section of the Russia-led Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, cutting it off from the rest of the pipeline, and using the part on German territory for connecting to LNG supply that will come from Baltic Sea ports, German magazine Der Spiegel reported on Friday.

The plan will likely escalate the gas row between Germany and Russia, Der Spiegel comments on the information, for which it didnt cite sources.

Russia completed the Nord Stream 2 project last year, but Germany halted the certification of the project late in 2021. After Russia invaded Ukraine at the end of February 2022, Germany suspended indefinitely the project that was designed to double Russian gas flows to Germany. We now have to reassess the dramatically changed situation: This also applies toNord Stream 2, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at the time, adding that The certification cannot take place now.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Germany, Europes biggest economy, has set out plans for two LNG import facilities, at Brunsbuettel and Wilhelmshaven, in a bid to diversify supply from Russia, which accounted for around 40% of German gas consumption before the war.

Russia, for its part, has drastically cut gas deliveries via Nord Stream 1 to Germany in recent weeks, prompting Germany to rely more on electricity generation from coal in order to conserve gas and fill its gas storage by winter.

Earlier this week, Germany triggered the second phase of its three-phase gas emergency plan as it braces up for the possibility of a complete halt of gas supplies from Russia via the Nord Stream pipeline.

In an official statement, Economy Minister Robert Habeck said, as quoted by Reuters, that Germans would need to begin reducing their energy consumption and blamed the current state of affairs on Russias President Vladimir Putin.

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Russia has reduced flows along the Nord Stream 1 pipeline by some 60 percent, citing the delayed delivery of a turbine that was repaired in Canada. The reason for the delay was fresh Canadian sanctions.

Earlier this week, Canada's Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson acknowledged the problem but did not offer a solution, signaling that Canada had no intention of returning the turbine.

Meanwhile, Gazprom could have increased flows along alternative routes to Europe but has refused to do so, giving substance to opinions that there is a political motive behind the reduction in gas flows to its biggest European clientand most ardent supporter of Ukraine.

Germany earlier this week triggered the second phase of its three-phase gas emergency plan, which is a step behind gas rationing, which will only happen in case of severe shortages. So far, it has not come to that, but the authorities in Berlin are worrying that they might need to stop exporting so there is enough for the domestic market.

Meanwhile, the Federal Network Agency of Germany, the national utility, telecoms, and transport regulator, predicted that if the current situation continued, consumers would see double or even triple energy bills, which have already added between 30 and 80 percent since last autumn.

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Nigeria's oil minister said on Friday that the country would be able to meet its OPEC production quota by the end of August as the country aims to boost security in its oil industry.

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Sylva also dispelled the notion that OPEC could turn on spare capacity and pump more, citing capacity concerns. "At this moment, there is little capacity that can be brought to the market."

The perceived lack of spare capacity among many OPEC members has helped to keep oil prices high in recent months, despite lofty ambitions from the group regarding July production targets, which were set 648,000 bpd higher than their June targets and over a million bpd higher than the May targetswhich they aren't meeting either.

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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP)  The U.S. Supreme Court's decision allowing states to ban abortion stirred alarm Friday among LGBTQ advocates, who feared that the ruling could someday allow a rollback of legal protections for gay relationships, including the right for same-sex couples to marry.

In the court's majority opinion overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, Justice Samuel Alito said the decision applied only to abortion. But critics of the court's conservative majority gave the statement no credence.

I dont buy that at all, said Lawrence Gostin, a professor of medicine at Georgetown University and faculty director of its Institute for National and Global Health Law. It really is much more extreme than the justices are making it out to be.

He added: It means that you cant look to the Supreme Court as an impartial arbiter of constitutional rights because theyre acting more as culture warriors.

Gostin and others pointed to a separate concurring opinion in which Justice Clarence Thomas said the court should review other precedents, including its 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage, a 2003 decision striking down laws criminalizing gay sex and a 1965 decision declaring that married couples have a right to use contraception.

Today is about this horrifying invasion of privacy that this court is now allowing, and when we lose one right that we have relied on and enjoyed, other rights are at risk, said Jim Obergefell, the plaintiff in the landmark ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, who is now running as a Democrat for the Ohio House.

Abortion opponents celebrated the potential for states to ban abortion after nearly 50 years of being prevented from doing so. Some argued that the case did not have implications beyond that, noting Alito's words.

And to ensure that our decision is not misunderstood or mischaracterized, we emphasize that our decision concerns the constitutional right to abortion and no other right, Alito wrote. Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.

Kristen Waggoner, legal director for the Alliance Defending Freedom, which helped defend the Mississippi abortion law at issue in the ruling, said the high court's decision makes it clear that the taking of human life is unlike any other issue. She said raising other issues shows the weakness of critics' arguments about abortion.

Still, said Paul Dupont, a spokesman for the conservative anti-abortion American Principles Project, conservatives are optimistic about the potential for future victories on cultural issues, though getting more states to ban abortion is a huge enough battle.

If there is a thought that this could apply elsewhere, you know, they're not going to say it here, and we're just going to have to see, Dupont said.

Other factors could protect those rulings on birth control and LGBTQ rights, too. The Obergefell decision that legalized same-sex marriage was based on equal protection, and hundreds of thousands of couples have relied on it to wed, a precedent that many courts would be loath to disturb.

Still, a sharp increase in anti-LGBTQ rhetoric in the U.S. and opposition to specific kinds of birth control on the right have advocates concerned that those rights are vulnerable.

The possibility worried some of the scores of people at a Friday evening abortion-rights rally outside the Kansas Statehouse in Topeka. including Rija Nazir, a 21-year-old community organizer from Wichita for a voting-rights group.

She wore a pink cowboy hat festooned with a button featuring a cowboy uterus drawing for a Vote Neigh campaign against an anti-abortion measure on the statewide ballot Aug. 2.

They're going to go for LGBTQ rights first and then same-sex marriage next. Who knows? Maybe interracial marriage, birth control, Nazir said. They're not going to stop at abortion.

Some abortion opponents treat some forms of contraception as forms of abortion, particularly IUDs and emergency birth control such as Plan B, also known as the morning after pill. Lawmakers in Idaho and Missouri last year discussed banning state funding for emergency contraception, and Idaho prevents public schools or universities from dispersing it.

It's all interconnected, because at its base, birth control and abortion are both types of health care that help people have bodily autonomy, said Mara Gandal-Powers, director of birth control access for the National Women's Law Center, which supports abortion rights. I'm very concerned about where this is going to go.

The Supreme Court's three most liberal members argued that the majority decision breaches a core rule-of-law principle, designed to promote constancy in the law" and places in jeopardy other rights.

At the White House, President Joe Biden pledged to do everything in his power to defend a womans right to have an abortion in states where it will be banned. He warned that the ruling could undermine rights to contraception and gay marriage: This is an extreme and dangerous path.

Then there is Thomas' concurring opinion, which Sarah Warbelow, legal director for the pro-LGBTQ-rights Human Rights Campaign, called an invitation for stirring up fringe organizations, fringe politicians who want to harm the LGBTQ community.

There are clearly members of the court who have an outdated notion of what America looks like today and have a fantasy of returning to their painted idealism of a 1940s, 1950s America, certainly not what it really was in the 1940s and '50s, she said. And that is terrifying.

Jason Pierceson, a University of Illinois political scientist, said he doesn't see the conservative majority stopping with abortion.

They are sending signals to the conservative legal movement, which has a lot of momentum right now because of this victory, to keep going and to keep bringing cases to them over the next several years that will give them opportunities to go further, Pierceson said.

Jennifer Pizer, acting chief legal officer for the LGBTQ-rights group Lambda Legal, added: "It is an extremist assault on the privacy, self-determination, dignity and equality of every person in our country.

This story has been corrected to show that Lawrence Gostins title is faculty director, not director, of the Georgetown Institute.

___

Associated Press writers Jessica Gresko in Washington, Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut, Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio, and Lindsay Whitehurst, in Salt Lake City, contributed to this report.

Follow John Hanna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/apjdhanna

For APs full coverage of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, go to https://apnews.com/hub/abortion

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
BOISE, Idaho (AP)  The overturning of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court with a 6-3 vote on Friday triggers a 2020 Idaho law banning all abortions except in cases of reported rape or incest, or to protect the mothers life.

That law takes effect 30 days after the courts decision, negating the state's current law allowing most abortions up to viability at about 24 weeks.

Idaho has been at the forefront of enacting new laws to protect preborn babies, Republican Gov. Brad Little said in a statement, noting he signed the 2020 trigger law.

However, we fully acknowledge this monumental moment in our country's history means we must confront what (we) know will be growing needs for women and families in the months and years ahead, he said. We absolutely must come together like never before to support women and teens facing unexpected or unwanted pregnancies.

Specifically, Idahos trigger law requires a judgement from the U.S. Supreme Court, which follows the courts Friday opinion and allows time to allow requests for a potential rehearing. Its not clear when the court will issue its judgement, but its expected fairly soon, starting the clock on Idahos trigger law.

Under the trigger law, the person performing the abortion could face a felony prosecution punishable by up to five years in prison.

I never expected to see such a grave rollback of our rights in the 21st Century, said Democratic Rep. Lauren Necochea, who also chairs the Idaho Democratic Party. This law is especially cruel because it only applies to those who dont have the resources to find a way around it. People of means will be able to flee the state to receive abortion care, while Idahoans facing low wages, including a disproportionate share of people of color, will face involuntary pregnancy.

Planned Parenthood in a statement said it would continue to provide abortion care in Idaho as long as it was legally able to do so.

It is my promise to every person in Idaho that Planned Parenthood will never back down," said Rebecca Gibron, CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky. "We will keep fighting with everything weve got to ensure that everyone can access the care you need to control your body and your life. I want to be clear: Planned Parenthood will always be here to help you get the care you need.

Planned Parenthood before the U.S. Supreme Courts ruling had already closed its clinic in Boise, Idahos largest city, and merged it with one in Meridian about 15 miles away. There's another clinic in Twin Falls. It is opening a new clinic in Ontario on the Idaho-Oregon border, about a 45-minute drive from Boise.

Officials said resources saved by closing the Boise clinic will be used to help with telemedicine and for women to get abortion access in states where it remains legal.

In cases of rape or incest, the law requires pregnant women to file a police report and provide a copy of the report to the provider prior to an abortion.

Mistie DelliCarpini-Tolman, Idaho State Director for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates, said most sexual assaults are not reported. She also said victims who do report them will face difficulty getting the report from a law enforcement agency as agencies typically don't release reports involving active investigations.

We all know that abortion is a really time sensitive procedure, she said. So these exceptions become really in name only. Theyre not very effective and not going to be very helpful for survivors of sexual assault.

This year, Idaho lawmakers also passed a Texas-style ban prohibiting abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy and authorizing family members to sue medical providers for performing an abortion. That law is on hold following a challenge by Planned Parenthood. The Idaho Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in August.

If the Idaho Supreme Court upholds the states Texas-style abortion ban, with Roe v. Wade now tossed aside, a medical provider who performs an abortion in Idaho could face a lawsuit and criminal charges.

Today we celebrate 50 years of incredible effort to reverse a flawed 1973 ruling from an activist Supreme Court that violated states rights guaranteed by the 10th amendment, the Idaho Republican Party said in a statement. That power is now rightfully returned to the states.

Pregnant women in Idaho seeking abortions will have to travel out of state, with the nearest abortion providers in Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Colorado.

No one should have to flee their state to access safe healthcare, Boise Mayor Lauren McLean said on Twitter. I remain steadfast in my support for all people who need access to abortion care & stand with them in fighting for privacy in health care decisions.

Republicans hold super-majorities in the House and Senate and oppose access to abortion. Idaho lawmakers have said theyll potentially consider legislation banning medication abortion and emergency contraception when the part-time Legislature convenes early next year.

Democratic House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel at a Democratic rally Friday afternoon in the Idaho Statehouse attended by about 150 cheering supporters urged voters to elect Democrats in November.

The truly effective way to reduce abortions is not to commandeer womens bodies, but rather to improve access to contraception, to improve access to sex education and make motherhood financially feasible, she said. Ironically, those are all things that our GOP super-majority has fought tooth and nail for years.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Nearly 20 million lives were saved by COVID-19 vaccines during their first year, but even more deaths could have been prevented if international targets for the shots had been reached, researchers reported Thursday.

On Dec. 8, 2020, a retired shop clerk in England received the first shot in what would become a global vaccination campaign. Over the next 12 months, more than 4.3 billion people around the world lined up for the vaccines.

The effort, though marred by persisting inequities, prevented deaths on an unimaginable scale, said Oliver Watson of Imperial College London, who led the new modeling study.

Catastrophic would be the first word that comes to mind, Watson said of the outcome if vaccines hadn't been available to fight the coronavirus. The findings quantify just how much worse the pandemic could have been if we did not have these vaccines."

The researchers used data from 185 countries to estimate that vaccines prevented 4.2 million COVID-19 deaths in India, 1.9 million in the United States, 1 million in Brazil, 631,000 in France and 507,000 in the United Kingdom.

An additional 600,000 deaths would have been prevented if the World Health Organization target of 40% vaccination coverage by the end of 2021 had been met, according to the study published Thursday in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.

The main finding  19.8 million COVID-19 deaths were prevented  is based on estimates of how many more deaths than usual occurred during the time period. Using only reported COVID-19 deaths, the same model yielded 14.4 million deaths averted by vaccines.

The London scientists excluded China because of uncertainty around the pandemics effect on deaths there and its huge population.

The study has other limitations. The researchers did not include how the virus might have mutated differently in the absence of vaccines. And they did not factor in how lockdowns or mask wearing might have changed if vaccines werent available.

Another modeling group used a different approach to estimate that 16.3 million COVID-19 deaths were averted by vaccines. That work, by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle, has not been published.

In the real world, people wear masks more often when cases are surging, said the institute's Ali Mokdad, and 2021's delta wave without vaccines would have prompted a major policy response.

We may disagree on the number as scientists, but we all agree that COVID vaccines saved lots of lives," Mokdad said.

The findings underscore both the achievements and the shortcomings of the vaccination campaign, said Adam Finn of Bristol Medical School in England, who like Mokdad was not involved in the study.

Although we did pretty well this time  we saved millions and millions of lives  we could have done better and we should do better in the future," Finn said.

Funding came from several groups including the WHO; the UK Medical Research Council; Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

AP health and science reporter Havovi Todd contributed.

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.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Two factions appeared at Chicago Federal Plaza on Feb. 13, 1971. One group, left, rallied for support of legalized abortion and the other rallied against it. (Michael Budrys / Chicago Tribune)

Though abortion laws have been on the books in Illinois since the 1800s  and will continue to allow access to reproductive freedoms despite a Supreme Court ruling that overturned the Roe v. Wade decision  funding for abortions in the state has fluctuated through the years.

Heres a look at the decades-long political roller coaster over government coverage of abortions in Illinois.

[ Vintage Chicago Tribune: History of abortion access in Illinois ]

JULY 30, 1965

President Lyndon Johnson signs Medicaid into law

This provides health insurance for low-income patients funded by the federal and state governments. Each state administers its Medicaid program differently within parameters established by the federal government.

In this July 30, 1965 file photo, President Lyndon Johnson signs the Medicaid Bill into law while former President Harry S. Truman, right, observes during a ceremony at the Truman Library in Independence, Mo. At rear are Lady Bird Johnson, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, and former first lady Bess Truman. When Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into law, Americans 65 and older were the age group least likely to have health insurance. (Associated Press)

JAN. 22, 1973

Abortion laws struck down

The landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade in a 7-2 ruling affirms the legality of abortion under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights estimates that Medicaid pays for some 300,000 abortions annually nationwide.

Chicago Tribune, Jan. 23, 1973

1975

Trigger provision included in Illinois Abortion Law of 1975

If Roe v. Wade is ever overturned, then abortion could become illegal again in the state. Similar statutes are on the books in Kentucky, Louisiana and South Dakota.

Illinois Statutes Chapter 720. Criminal Offenses 510/1. Legislative intention

SEPT. 30, 1976

The Hyde Amendment passes

Sponsored by Illinois Representative Henry Hyde, this amendment to the Health, Education and Welfare Appropriations Act bars federal funding of abortion except when necessary to save a womans life. The amendment has been renewed by Congress in some form every year since.

State Rep. Henry Hyde speaks during a 1972 news conference in Chicago. (1972 Tribune file photo)

1977

The Hyde Amendment is implemented

After the U.S. Supreme Court rules states and cities are not required to provide abortions that are not critical to a mothers life, Congress expands exemptions to include cases of rape, incest or to protect the physical health of the woman.

JUNE 30, 1980

Harris v. McRae affirms the Hyde Amendment is legal

The U.S. Supreme Courts 5-4 decision says federal and state governments have no obligation to provide funds for abortions under the U.S. Constitution.

Chicago Tribune, July 1, 1980

OCTOBER 1980

Abortions banned at Cook County Hospital

Citing the high cost, a shortage of nurses and laws barring public aid to terminate pregnancies, Cook County Board President George Dunne says the procedure will only be performed to save the life of the woman.

People walk in and out of Cook County Hospital on Dec. 28, 1984. Ovie Carter/Chicago Tribune (Ovie Carter / Chicago Tribune)

MAY 21, 1981

Senate OKs new limit on abortions

Incest and rape exceptions are dropped from the Hyde Amendment.

SEPT. 16, 1992

Abortion services restored at Cook County Hospital

Six women receive abortions that day at the hospital. Protests ensue.

Anti-abortion rights forces gathered to protest the resumption of publicly funded abortions on Sept. 16, 1992. (Michael Fryer/Chicago Tribune)

SEPT. 28, 1993

Congress reinstates Hyde Amendment exemptions for rape, incest

The Senate voted 59-40 to permit government funding of abortions for poor women only in cases on rape, incest or if the womens life is in danger. The abortion funding ban adopted by the Senate was also approved by the House earlier the same year.

NOV. 8, 2016

Donald Trump elected president

While campaigning, he commented that Roe v. Wade could be overturned automatically, in my opinion, because I am putting pro-life justices on the court.

JAN. 11, 2017

Illinois House Bill 40 introduced

With a goal to eliminate the trigger provision in state law, the measure  introduced by Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago  would also allow Medicaid and state employee health insurance coverage to fund abortion.

State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago, chairs a hearing on Internet adoptions on Oct. 29, 2013. (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune )

APRIL 14, 2017

Governor Bruce Rauner opposes HB40

He pledges to veto the Democratic-backed measure due to the sharp divisions of opinion of taxpayer funding of abortion.

A group of women dressed in outfits made famous by The Handmaids Tale gather outside the Thompson Center in Chicago on Aug. 9, 2017, to urge Gov. Bruce Rauner to sign legislation that would keep abortion legal in the event that Roe v. Wade is overturned. (Nancy Stone/Chicago Tribune )

SEPT. 28, 2017

Rauner signs HB40 into law, draws criticism from fellow Republicans

The measure provides state health insurance and Medicaid coverage for abortions and also says the state supports abortion rights even if Roe v. Wade is overturned.

Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner holds a press conference in Chicago on Sept. 28, 2017 to announce he has signed a bill that expands abortion coverage for women on Medicaid and state insurance. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)

NOV. 30, 2017

Republican lawmakers sue to block HB40

Illinois anti-abortion organizations, along with some Republican lawmakers, file a lawsuit in Sangamon County to try and temporarily block HB40, estimating the state will be required to pay for tens of thousands of abortions annually.

(Thomas More Society)

DEC. 28, 2017

Illinois judge dismisses lawsuit brought by abortion opponents

The suit sought to block state funding for the law, arguing the state failed to set aside up to $30 million in the budget to pay for abortions.

The Thomas More Society files a notice of appeal.

JAN. 1, 2018

HB40 goes into effect

Patients can now use Medicaid or state health insurance to pay to terminate pregnancies for any reason.

MARCH 21, 2018

Rauner ekes out a primary win to take on J.B. Pritzker

In the Republican primary, Rauner narrowly defeats opponent Jeanne Ives, who frequently rebuked the expansion of abortion rights while campaigning.

(E. Jason Wambsgans and Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

JUNE 4, 2018

Rauner signs law for 2019s $38.5 billion budget

It includes the funding of abortions covered by Medicaid and state health insurance despite opposition expressed by some Republican lawmakers.

NOV. 6, 2018

Democrat J.B. Pritzker defeats Republican Rauner

Soon after, Pritzker pledges to make Illinois the most progressive state in the nation when it comes to reproductive rights.

Billionaire J.B. Pritzker easily defeated incumbent Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner on Nov. 6 after a brutal campaign that saw record campaign spending, giving Democrats near complete control of Illinois' government. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)

JUNE 12, 2019

Pritzker signs the Reproductive Health Act

The sweeping reproductive rights legislation establishes the fundamental right to an abortion in Illinois.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signs the Reproductive Health Act into law with bill sponsors Illinois State Senator Melinda Bush, left, and Illinois State Rep. Kelly Cassidy, right, at the Chicago Cultural Center on June 12, 2019. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune)

MAY 28, 2021

Bidens budget proposal drops the Hyde Amendment

The president unveils a $6 trillion budget for 2022 that excludes the controversial Hyde Amendment, which bars federal funding to cover most abortions and was spearheaded by Illinois Representative Henry Hyde in 1976.

I am THRILLED that the Presidential Budget does not include the #HydeAmendment for people enrolled in Medicaid. This is a major step forward, and I am grateful to @POTUS for this important step!  Jan Schakowsky (@janschakowsky) May 28, 2021

JUNE 24, 2022

Supreme Court ends constitutional protections for abortion

Yet Illinois remains an oasis for those seeking the procedure, as abortion providers in many surrounding states prepare to shut down. Gov. J.B. Pritzker in 2019 signed the Reproductive Health Act, ensconcing the fundamental right to terminate a pregnancy in state law.

Check out the Tribunes archives at your fingertips at Newspapers.com.

Sources: Medicaid.gov, Thomas More Society, Center for Reproductive Rights, The Guttmacher Institute
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that had provided a constitutional right to abortion. The ruling is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states, although the timing of those laws taking effect varies.

Some Republican-led states will ban or severely limit abortion immediately, while other restrictions will take effect later. At least one state, Texas, is waiting until after the Supreme Court issues its formal judgment in the case, which is separate from the opinion issued Friday and could take about a month.

In anticipation of the decision, several states led by Democrats have taken steps to protect abortion access. The decision also sets up the potential for legal fights between the states over whether providers and those who help women obtain abortions can be sued or prosecuted.

Here is an overview of abortion legislation and the expected impact of the courts decision in every state.

ALABAMA

Political control: Alabama has a Republican-controlled legislature and a Republican governor who want to ban or restrict access to abortions.

Background: In 2019, Alabama lawmakers approved what was then the most stringent abortion ban in the country, making it a felony to perform an abortion at any stage of pregnancy with no exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. The only exception would be when the womans health was at serious risk. A federal judge issued an injunction, under the precedent of Roe v. Wade, blocking the state from enforcing the law. In 2018, voters agreed to amend the Alabama Constitution to say the state recognizes the rights of unborn children and does not protect the right to an abortion or require the funding of abortion. A 1951 law made it a crime, punishable by up to 12 months in prison, to induce an abortion, unless it is done to preserve the life or health of the mother.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Abortions became almost entirely illegal in Alabama on Friday. A 2019 state abortion ban took effect making it a felony to perform an abortion at any stage of pregnancy, with no exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest. All three clinics stopped providing abortions Friday morning under fear of prosecution under the 1951 state law. U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson hours later granted Alabama's request to lift an injunction and allow the state to enforce the 2019 abortion ban. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said it is now a felony to provide an abortion in Alabama beyond the one exception allowed in the 2019 law, which is for the sake of the mothers health. Doctors who violate the law could face up to 99 years in prison. Marshall said the state would also move to lift other injunctions that blocked previous abortion restrictions, including a requirement for doctors who perform abortions to have hospital admitting privileges.

Whats next: Some Republican lawmakers have said they would like to see the state replace the 2019 ban with a slightly less stringent bill that would allow exceptions in cases of rape or incest. Proponents said the 2019 ban was deliberately strict in the hopes of sparking a court challenge to Roe.

ALASKA

Political control: Republicans currently hold a majority of seats in the state Legislature, but the House is controlled by a bipartisan coalition composed largely of Democrats. Fifty-nine of the Legislatures 60 seats are up for election this year. Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican who believes life begins at conception, is seeking reelection.

Background: The Alaska Supreme Court has interpreted the right to privacy in the state constitution as encompassing abortion rights.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The U.S. Supreme Court's decision is not expected to immediately affect abortion rights in Alaska, given the existing precedent in the state.

Whats next: Voters in the fall will be asked if they want to hold a constitutional convention, a question that comes up every 10 years. Many conservatives who want to overhaul how judges are selected and do away with the interpretation that the constitutions right to privacy clause allows for abortion rights see an opportunity in pushing for a convention. Recent efforts to advance a constitutional amendment through the Legislature have been unsuccessful.

ARIZONA

Political control: Both legislative chambers are controlled by Republicans, who regularly pass abortion restrictions that for the past eight sessions have been quickly signed by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, an abortion opponent.

Background: Arizona law allows abortion through about 22 weeks, but the Legislature passed a 15-week abortion ban in March mirroring the Mississippi law that was contested before the U.S. Supreme Court. It will take effect 90 days after the Legislature adjourns, which it did Saturday. Current restrictions include bans on abortions because of gender and a 2021 law that makes it a felony for a doctor to terminate a pregnancy because the child has a survivable genetic abnormality. Arizona also has a pre-statehood law still on the books that would ban all abortions, although it has not been enforced since Roe was decided.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Ducey has argued in media interviews that the law he signed in late March takes precedence over the total ban that remains on the books. But the law he signed specifically says it does not overrule the total abortion ban in place for more than 100 years. Ducey is term-limited and leaves office in January. Abortion providers across the state stopped all procedures after the court ruled Friday because of concerns that the pre-Roe ban could put doctors, nurses and other providers at risk of prosecution.

Whats next: Abortion-rights supporters in Arizona have launched a long-shot bid to enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution. Rolled out weeks after the draft U.S. Supreme Court decision showing Roe could be overturned was leaked, backers must collect more than 356,000 signatures by July 7 to get the initiative on the November ballot. Voters would then be able to decide.

ARKANSAS

Political control: Arkansas legislature is controlled by Republicans who have supported dozens of abortion bans and restrictions in recent years. Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson also has supported bans on abortion with some exceptions. Hes term-limited and leaves office in January. Republican nominee Sarah Sanders, press secretary to former President Donald Trump, is widely favored in the November election to succeed him.

Background: Arkansas already had a law banning most abortions 20 weeks into a womans pregnancy, with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. The state has several other bans that have been struck down or blocked by courts in recent years, including an outright abortion ban enacted last year that doesnt include rape or incest exceptions. That ban has been blocked by a federal judge, and the state has appealed.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Arkansas has a law it enacted in 2019 that bans nearly all abortions now that Roe is overturned. That ban, along with the outright ban thats been blocked by a federal judge, only allows exceptions to protect the life of the mother in a medical emergency. Hutchinson has said he thinks bans should include rape and incest exceptions, but he has not called on the Legislature to add those to either of the bans.

Whats next: Hours after Fridays ruling, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge signed certification that Roe had been overturned. That certification allows the states trigger ban to take effect immediately. The only exception in that ban is to protect the life of the mother in a medical emergency. The Legislature isnt scheduled to meet until January, but Hutchinson is considering calling a special session to take up tax relief proposals. The Republican governor said Friday he does not plan on asking lawmakers to consider adding rape and incest exceptions to the states ban.

CALIFORNIA

Political control: Democrats who support access to abortion control all statewide elected offices and have large majorities in the state Legislature.

Background: California outlawed abortion in 1850, except when the life of the mother was in danger. The law changed in 1967 to include abortions in the case of rape, incest or if a womans mental health were in danger. In 1969, the California Supreme Court declared the states original abortion law to be unconstitutional but left the 1967 law in place. In 1972, California voters added a right to privacy to the state constitution. Since then, the state Supreme Court has interpreted that right to privacy as a right to access abortion, allow minors to get an abortion without their parents permission and use public funding for abortions in the states Medicaid program. California now requires private health insurance plans to cover abortions and does not allow them to charge things such as co-pays or deductibles for the procedure.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Abortion will remain legal in California prior to the viability of a fetus. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has vowed to make California a sanctuary for women who live in other states where abortion is outlawed or severely restricted. The number of women who travel to the state for abortions is expected to rise significantly.

Whats next: The state Legislature is considering 13 bills that would strengthen or expand access to abortion. The bills are based on a report from the Future of Abortion Council, which Newsom formed last year to study reproductive rights in California. They include proposals that would help pay for women from other states to come to California for abortions, ban enforcement of out-of-state civil judgments on California abortion providers and volunteers, and increase the number of people who can offer abortions by authorizing some nurse practitioners to perform the procedure without the supervision of a doctor. Lawmakers also plan to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot in November that would explicitly guarantee the right to an abortion and contraceptives.

COLORADO

Political control: The Democrats who control the Colorado Legislature support access to abortion, as does the states Democratic governor.

Background: A 1967 state law legalized abortion up to 16 weeks of pregnancy. Abortion has been accessible ever since, despite repeated legislative attempts and ballot initiatives to restrict or abolish the procedure. Colorado voters have consistently rejected such initiatives, the latest in 2020 that would have banned abortion during the third trimester of pregnancy. In 2022, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed a law placing the right to abortion in state statute. The law guarantees access to reproductive care before and after pregnancy and bans local governments from imposing their own restrictions. It also declares that fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses have no independent rights. Abortion rights advocates plan a 2024 ballot initiative to add abortion rights to the state constitution and repeal a 1980s constitutional amendment that bans public funding for abortion.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The decision wont have any immediate impact on Colorado law -- but providers are preparing for a surge of out-of-state patients. Democratic House Majority Leader Daneya Esgar says lawmakers must consider how to invest in a health care workforce to ensure Colorado has the capacity to meet that anticipated demand. Colorados health department reports there were 11,580 abortions in the state in 2021; of those 14% were for non-residents. More than 900 of those non-residents were from Texas, Wyoming and Nebraska.

Whats next: Its impossible to predict how many more patients from states surrounding Colorado will potentially seek care now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned. But the Texas law could induce more people to come. Oklahoma now has an early pregnancy abortion ban; Utah and Wyoming have trigger laws banning abortion now Roe is overturned; the Kansas Constitution protects abortion rights, but Republican lawmakers placed on an August primary ballot an initiative to overturn it.

CONNECTICUT

Political control: Democrats who control the Connecticut General Assembly support access to abortion, as does the states Democratic governor.

Background: Connecticut passed a law in 1990 giving women the legal right to abortion. Having passed with strong bipartisan support, it was lauded at the time for being a rare compromise between abortion rights advocates and opponents. It affirmed a womans unqualified right to an abortion prior to viability of the fetus, as well as later-term abortions necessary to preserve the life and health of the pregnant woman. It also repealed state laws predating Roe v. Wade that had made it a felony to have an abortion or to perform one and required that patients under 16 receive counseling about their options. This year, Gov. Ned Lamont signed legislation to protect medical providers and patients from out-of-state legal actions. The same law allows advanced practice registered nurses, nurse-midwives or physician assistants to perform aspiration abortions in the first 12 weeks of a pregnancy.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, a Democrat, has vowed to challenge any attempt to nullify Connecticuts abortion rights law. Lets not mince words. They will come for us, Tong warned abortion rights supporters during a recent news conference. We will fight that effort tooth-and-nail. Any court, any place, Connecticut will be there and will fight. The state is already involved in major abortion cases across the country. And while Connecticut is surrounded by mostly pro-abortion states, its still bracing for out-of-state patients seeking abortions now that Roe has been overturned.

Whats next: Connecticuts new law protecting abortion providers from other states bans takes effect on July 1. It creates a legal cause of action for providers and others sued in another state, enabling them to recover certain legal costs. It also limits the governors discretion to extradite someone accused of performing an abortion, as well as participation by Connecticut courts and agencies in those lawsuits. Theres discussion of possibly amending the states constitution to enshrine the right to abortion, making it more difficult to overturn, but that would be a multi-year process.

DELAWARE

Political control: Democrats control the governors office and both chambers of the legislature in Delaware and have taken several steps to ensure access to abortion.

Background: In 2017, Delaware became the first state following the election of President Donald Trump to codify the right to an abortion. A bill signed by Gov. John Carney, a Catholic, guarantees the unfettered right to an abortion before a fetus is deemed viable. The law defines viability as the point in a pregnancy when, in a physicians good faith medical judgment, there is a reasonable likelihood that the fetus can survive outside the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures. The law also allows abortion after fetal viability if, in a doctors good faith medical judgment, abortion is necessary for the protection of the womans life or health, or if there is a reasonable likelihood that the fetus cannot survive without extraordinary medical measures. The law eliminated existing code restrictions on abortions, much of which had already been declared unenforceable by Delawares attorney general in 1973 following the Supreme Court rulings in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton. In April of this year, Carney signed a bill allowing physician assistants and advanced practice registered nurses to prescribe abortion-inducing medications including mifepristone and misoprostol.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: In Delaware, the privacy protections of Roe v. Wade are codified in state law, guaranteeing residents have access to legal abortion services even if Roe were to be undone at the federal level, Democratic lawmakers noted earlier this month in unveiling legislation further broadening access to abortions. The bill, which is likely to pass before the end of June, allows physician assistants, certified nurse practitioners and nurse midwifes to perform abortions before viability. It also includes various legal protections for abortion providers and patients, including out-of-state residents receiving abortions in Delaware. Those provisions include protections from civil actions in other states relating to the termination of a pregnancy, and protecting individuals from extradition to other states for criminal charges related to terminating a pregnancy.

Whats next: According to state health officials, 2,042 abortions were performed in Delaware in 2019, with 1,765 involving Delaware residents and 277 involving nonresidents. Delaware is not likely to see a huge influx of women traveling from out of state to get abortions if Roe v. Wade is overturned, given that neighboring Maryland and New Jersey also have liberal abortion-access laws. In neighboring Pennsylvania, where Republicans control both chambers of the Legislature, future abortion access could hinge on the outcome of this years gubernatorial contest.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Political control: The local government in the nations capital is completely controlled by Democrats, with a Democratic mayor and the D.C. Council split between Democrats and nominal independent politicians, who are all, invariably, Democrats.

Background: Abortion is legal in the District of Columbia at all stages of pregnancy, a status that was upheld in the 1971 Supreme Court case United States v. Vuitch. However, the U.S. Congress has oversight power over D.C. laws and Congress has already banned the city from using local funds to pay for abortions for women on Medicaid.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Elected officials in Washington, D.C., fear Congress could move to restrict abortion access, particularly if Republicans recapture the House of Representatives in midterm elections later this year. President Joe Biden could theoretically veto such a move, but that protection is subject to political calculations and is not guaranteed.

Whats next: Local officials have pledged defiance against any sort of Congressional move to restrict local abortion access. The D.C. Council is considering legislation that would declare Washington, D.C., a sanctuary city for those coming from states where abortion is banned. According to federal data, most of the women getting abortions in Washington already are coming from out of state. Those numbers could increase, particularly if new Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin moves to restrict abortion access in neighboring Virginia.

FLORIDA

Political control: Republicans control both chambers of the Florida Legislature and this year passed a ban on abortions after 15 weeks, which was signed into law by the states Republican governor.

Background: Abortion was legal in Florida until the 24th week of pregnancy, though lawmakers have been tightening access in recent years with bills requiring a one-day waiting period and requiring parents of a pregnant minor to be notified before an abortion can be provided. This year, in anticipation of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, the Legislature passed a ban on abortions after the 15th week, except to save the mothers life, prevent serious injury or if the fetus has a fatal abnormality. It does not allow for exemptions in cases where pregnancies were caused by rape or incest. Gov. Ron DeSantis called the legislation the most significant protections for life that have been enacted in this state in a generation.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The decision places Floridas 15-week ban on firm legal ground, at least under federal law. However, the legislation is already being challenged in state court on arguments that it violates a guarantee of the right to privacy under the state constitution.

Whats next: Floridas 15-week ban goes into effect on July 1, but challenges to that legislation are pending. Though only about 2% of Floridas abortions take place after 15th week, abortion rights advocates have expressed concern over declining access to the procedure not only for Floridians but for residents from nearby Southern states where restrictions have historically been stricter than in Florida.

GEORGIA

Political control: Georgia has a Republican legislature and governor who support abortion restrictions, but all are up for election this November. Republicans are likely to retain legislative control, but theres a possibility a Democrat could become governor.

Background: Georgia lawmakers in 2019 passed a law by one vote that would ban most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, when fetal cardiac activity can be detected. The measure is unlike other so-called heartbeat bills in that it also contains language designating a fetus as a person for certain state-law purposes such as income tax deductions and child support. A federal judge quickly put the law on hold, saying it was unconstitutional, and the state appealed to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The 11th Circuit said it would wait to rule on the appeal pending a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Mississippi case.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The day the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Georgias attorney general asked the 11th Circuit to reverse the lower courts ruling and allow the states abortion law to take effect. That same day, the 11th Circuit directed the parties to file briefs within three weeks addressing what effect, if any, the Supreme Court decision has on the Georgia appeal. If the law takes effect, it would ban the large majority of abortions that currently take place in Georgia  about 87%, according to providers. The change could happen in the middle of tightly contested races in Georgia for governor and U.S. Senate. Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and challenger for governor Stacey Abrams say they want to secure abortion rights. Republican Senate challenger Herschel Walker and incumbent Republican Gov. Brian Kemp support restrictions.

Whats next: Some Republican lawmakers and candidates want Georgia to go further and ban abortion entirely, but Kemp is unlikely to call a special session before this Novembers general election. Lawmakers are likely to consider further action when they return for their annual session in January. The Legislature or courts will have to sort out whether the provisions designating a fetus as a person are workable.

HAWAII

Political control: Hawaiis governor is a Democrat and Democrats control more than 90% of the seats in the state House and Senate.

Background: Hawaii legalized abortion in 1970, when it became the first state in the nation to allow the procedure at a womans request. The state allows abortion until a fetus would be viable outside the womb. After that, its legal if a patients life or health is in danger. For many years, only licensed physicians could perform the procedure. Last year, the state enacted a law allowing advanced practice care nurses to carry out in-clinic abortions during the first trimester. This helps women on more rural islands who have been flying to Honolulu to obtain abortions because of doctor shortages in their communities. The law allows the nurses to prescribe medication to end a pregnancy and to perform aspiration abortion, a type of minor surgery during which a vacuum is used to empty a womans uterus.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Existing Hawaii law allows abortions, but Gary Yamashiroya, a spokesperson for the state attorney generals office, has said the attorney general was carefully considering measures Hawaii might take to protect and strengthen reproductive rights if Roe ended. No matter the outcome, our state remains committed to reproductive freedom and choice, he said.

Whats next: Political support for abortion rights is strong. Anti-abortion bills are rarely heard at the state Legislature. When they have been, they havent made it out of committee. Gov. David Ige issued a statement supporting abortion rights when the Supreme Courts draft opinion overturning Roe leaked. No matter what the Supreme Court decides, I will fight to ensure a womans right to choose in the State of Hawaii, he said. The Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women earlier this month said 72% of the state Senate and 53% of state House members signed a pledge supporting abortion rights.

IDAHO

Political control: Republicans hold super-majorities in the House and Senate and oppose access to abortion, as does the states Republican governor.

Background: Following the U.S. Supreme Courts 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, Idaho passed a law generally allowing abortions in the first and second trimester up to viability at about 23 to 24 weeks. The law allows abortions after viability only to protect the mothers life or in cases of nonviable fetuses. This year, lawmakers passed a Texas-style ban prohibiting abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy and authorizing family members to sue medical providers for performing an abortion. That law is on hold following a challenge by Planned Parenthood. The Idaho Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in August.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: It triggers a 2020 Idaho law banning all abortions except in cases of reported rape or incest, or to protect the mothers life, to take effect in 30 days. Under the law, the person performing the abortion could face a felony prosecution punishable by up to five years in prison. In cases of rape or incest, the law requires pregnant women to file a police report and provide a copy of the report to the provider prior to an abortion. If the Idaho Supreme Court upholds the states Texas-style abortion ban and Roe v. Wade is tossed aside, a medical provider who performs an abortion in Idaho could face a lawsuit and criminal charges.

Whats Next: Pregnant women seeking abortions will have to travel out of state; the nearest abortion providers would be in Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Colorado. Planned Parenthood is renting space in the town of Ontario on the Idaho-Oregon border and says its preparing for an influx of patients seeking abortions. Some Republican lawmakers in Idaho might propose new legislation in January to outlaw abortion pills and emergency contraception.

ILLINOIS

Political control: Illinois is overwhelmingly Democratic with laws providing greater access to abortion than most states. Democrats hold veto-proof supermajorities in the House and Senate, and the Democratic first-term governor seeking reelection this year, J.B. Pritzker, has promoted peaceful street protests to protect the constitutional right to an abortion.

Background: Abortion is legal in Illinois and can only be restricted after the point of viability, when a fetus is considered able to survive outside the womb. Medical science determines viability at 24 to 26 weeks, but the Illinois law does not specify a timeframe, saying a medical professional can determine viability in each case. Abortions are also allowed after viability to protect the patients life or health.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: It won't change access to abortion in Illinois. After the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, the Illinois Abortion Act of 1975 legalized abortion but enacted a trigger law that would reinstate the ban if Roe were overturned. That trigger law was repealed in 2017 in legislation that also required Medicaid and state employees group health insurance to cover abortions. The 2019 Reproductive Health Act replaced the 1975 law, large parts of which were never enforced because they were found to be unconstitutional.

Whats next: Like other states providing access to abortions, Illinois has seen a steady influx of patients crossing the state line for abortions in recent months and those numbers are expected to increase. Planned Parenthood of Illinois says it expects to handle an additional 20,000 to 30,000 patients in Illinois in the first year following the reversal of Roe.

INDIANA

Political control: Indiana has a Republican-dominated Legislature and a Republican governor in favor of restricting abortion access.

Background: Abortion in Indiana is legal up to about 20 weeks, with some provisions for medical emergencies. Before an abortion, patients must undergo an 18-hour waiting period. Medical providers must tell patients about the risks involved in abortion and must say the fetus can feel pain around 20 weeks, which is disputed. Providers must report complications related to abortion; failure to report can result in a misdemeanor, 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. Federal courts have blocked several restrictions in Indiana, including an attempt to ban a common second-trimester abortion procedure and a law that would have required doctors to tell pregnant women about a disputed treatment to potentially stop a drug-induced abortion.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: No immediate changes are expected, but legislators unwilling to wait until the 2023 session could ask Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb to call a special session this summer to start modifying the states abortion laws.

Whats next: Republican legislative leaders said Friday they expected lawmakers to act on tightening Indianas abortion laws during a special legislative session starting July 6, but gave no details about what restrictions would be considered. Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb earlier this week called the Legislature into a special session to take up a tax refund proposal, but state law allows legislators to consider any subject.

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IOWA

Political control: Iowas legislature is controlled by Republicans who want to ban or restrict abortion access and a Republican governor who agrees and is up for reelection this year.

Background: Iowa allows most abortions until the 20th week of pregnancy, when theyre banned except to save a patients life or prevent a substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function. In 2018, the state Supreme Court declared access to abortion a fundamental right under the state constitution, granting stronger protections to abortion rights than the U.S. Constitution. The states high court, now with a conservative majority, overturned that decision June 17, thus allowing a state law requiring a 24-hour waiting period to go into effect immediately. That requirement is being challenged in district court.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Nothing is expected to change immediately in Iowa. The GOP-controlled Legislature has been working to get an amendment on the ballot in 2024 that would declare the state constitution does not grant a right to abortion but, with Roe overturned, Iowa lawmakers can ban abortion without completing that lengthy process.

Whats next: Now that the Iowa Supreme Court has struck down its 2018 ruling, the state Legislature can convene a special session this summer and pass abortion restrictions. Republicans could still move to get the constitutional amendment on a public ballot in 2024.

KANSAS

Political control: Kansas has a legislature controlled by Republicans who want to ban or restrict access to abortions but a Democratic governor who supports access and is up for re-election this year.

Background: Under current law, Kansas does not ban most abortions until the 22nd week of pregnancy, when theyre allowed only to save a patients life or to prevent a substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function. The state Supreme Court in 2019 declared that access to abortion is a fundamental right under the state constitution, granting stronger protections to abortion rights than the U.S. Constitution does currently. State law, however, doesnt allow providers to dispense abortion medications through telemedicine consultations.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Nothing will change immediately in Kansas. The state Supreme Court blocked enforcement of a 2015 legislative ban on a common second-trimester procedure, and abortion opponents fear a host of other rules could fall to legal challenges in the near future. The GOP-controlled Legislature responded by putting a constitutional amendment on the ballot during the Aug. 2 primary, when turnout is expected to be much lower than in a general election and will likely see a higher proportion of Republicans voting. The amendment would declare that the state constitution does not grant a right to abortion. It would allow lawmakers to restrict abortion as much as the federal courts will allow .

Whats next: If voters approve the amendment, the Legislature would still have to approve the new restrictions, and lawmakers are out of session until January 2023. They can call themselves in to special session with two-thirds majorities, but theyre likely to wait until after voters decide in the November general election whether to give Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly a second term.

KENTUCKY

Political control: Republicans have a supermajority in the Kentucky Legislature and have been restricting abortion rights since the 2016 election over the vetoes of Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who supports abortion rights and will seek a second term in 2023.

Background: Kentucky bans abortions after 20 weeks, but all abortion services were temporarily halted in April after the legislature imposed new restrictions and reporting requirements on the states two abortion clinics. The clinics, both in Louisville, said they suspended abortions because state officials hadnt written guidelines on how to comply with the new law. Noncompliance could result in stiff fines, felony penalties and revocation of physician and facility licenses. Abortions resumed after a federal judge temporarily blocked key parts of the law, including a provision banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Abortion services in Kentucky immediately became illegal under a trigger law enacted in 2019. The measure contains a narrow exception allowing abortion to prevent the death or permanent injury of a pregnant woman. Kentuckians will be able to vote this November on a proposed amendment declaring there is no right to an abortion in the state constitution.

Whats next: Abortion-rights activists say the suspension of abortion services in April foreshadowed what would happen in Kentucky and other Republican-leaning states if Roe v. Wade was overturned. It likely ends several legal challenges pending against other Kentucky abortion laws including a 2018 measure that abortion-rights supporters say would effectively ban a standard abortion method in the second trimester of pregnancy. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in March that Kentuckys Republican attorney general, Daniel Cameron, can defend the measure that was struck down by lower courts.

LOUISIANA

Political control: Louisianas legislature is controlled by Republicans who want to ban or restrict abortion access. Its Democratic and Catholic governor also opposes abortions, though he supports exceptions for victims of rape or incest.

Background: Voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2020 stating that a right to abortion and the funding of abortion shall not be found in the Louisiana Constitution. Of the about 2 million people who voted, 62% approved the amendment. Abortion had been legal in Louisiana through the 19th week of pregnancy. After that, it was legal only if the fetus would die anyway or if continuing the pregnancy would threaten the mothers life or health.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Louisiana has a trigger law that immediately outlaws abortions. There is no exception for rape or incest. The only exception is if there is substantial risk of death or impairment to the woman. Earlier this week, Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, signed a bill updating various aspects of the law and subjecting abortion providers to up to 10 years in prison and fines up to $100,000. Edwards office said the bill allows the use of emergency contraception for victims of rape and incest prior to when a pregnancy can be clinically diagnosed."

Edwards signed another bill that would require the doctor to certify that a drug used for abortion was being prescribed for another medical reason. The bill makes it illegal to deliver abortion medication to a state resident by mail-order, courier, or as a result of a sale made via the internet.

Whats next: Louisianas three abortion clinics  in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Shreveport  were no longer providing abortions to patients as of Friday and instead are recommending pregnant patients seeking the procedure to go to states where it remains legal.

MAINE

Political control: Both chambers of the Maine Legislature, which has adjourned, are controlled by Democrats. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills has vowed to protect the right to an abortion, saying she will fight with everything I have to protect reproductive rights.

Background: A Republican governor in 1993 signed a Maine law affirming the right to abortion before a fetus is viable. After that, abortion is only allowed if the life or health of the mother is at risk, or if the pregnancy is no longer viable. In 2019, lawmakers eliminated a physician-only rule and Mills signed it into law, allowing nurse practitioners, physician assistants and other medical professionals to perform abortions.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Nothing will change in Maine. Any attempt to restrict abortions when lawmakers reconvene next year would face fierce pushback. Abortion providers, meanwhile, said there could be an influx of patients seeking abortions from states that outlaw the procedure.

Whats next: Any major changes are unlikely unless former Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican, unseats Mills and Republicans take control of both chambers of the Legislature in November. LePage, a Catholic who opposes abortion rights, has said its up to lawmakers to address the abortion issue as they see fit.

MARYLAND

Political control: Marylands legislature is controlled by Democrats who expanded abortion access this year by ending a restriction that only physicians can provide them and requiring most insurance plans to cover abortion care without cost. The legislature overrode Republican Gov. Larry Hogans veto of the bill in April.

Background: The right to abortion is protected in Maryland law. The state approved legislation in 1991 to protect abortion rights if the Supreme Court should ever restrict access. Voters approved the right in 1992 with 62% of the vote. Maryland law prohibits restrictions on abortion prior to viability. Maryland does not have a gestational limit. After viability, clinicians make the determination, based on clinical standard of care.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Nothing will change immediately in Maryland law.

Whats next: Marylands new law that will enable nurse practitioners, nurse midwives and physician assistants to provide abortions with training is set to take effect July 1. However, $3.5 million in state funding to provide training isnt mandated until fiscal year 2024. Hogan, who is term limited, has indicated he will not approve the money sooner. Some nurse practitioners, nurse midwives and physician assistants already have received training on medication abortion and will be able to provide those services starting next month.

MASSACHUSETTS

Political control: The Democrats who control the Massachusetts Legislature support access to abortion, as does the states Republican governor, although they differ on specific policies.

Background: Massachusetts once had a contentious relationship with abortion in part due to the powerful influence of the Catholic Church, which opposes abortion. In recent years, that influence has waned and Massachusetts has become a strong supporter of abortion rights. In 2018, in anticipation of the conservative tilt on the U.S. Supreme Court, the state removed an 1845 abortion ban from its books that was not enforced. Two years later, Democratic state lawmakers clashed with Republican Gov. Charlie Baker  who says he supports abortion rights  over an effort to codify abortion rights into state law, allow abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy in cases where the child would not survive after birth, and lower from 18 to 16 the age at which women could seek an abortion without consent from a parent or guardian. Lawmakers passed the bill  dubbed the Roe Act  over Bakers veto.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Baker has vowed to fight to keep abortion legal in Massachusetts, but it is his last year in office. Both Democratic candidates for governor  state Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz and Attorney General Maura Healey  support abortion rights. Republican candidate Geoff Diehl said he believes in the need to protect human life wherever and whenever possible. Fellow GOP candidate Chris Doughty said he would not seek any changes to our states abortion laws.

Whats next: There is little chance Massachusetts will restrict abortion rights. Baker signed an executive order Friday barring state agencies from assisting another states investigation into people or businesses for receiving or delivering reproductive health services that are legal in Massachusetts. The state also wont cooperate with extradition requests from states pursuing criminal charges against such individuals. As of 2017, there were 47 facilities providing abortion in Massachusetts, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights. With Roe v. Wade overturned, its unclear how many people will travel there from states that ban or restrict abortion.

MICHIGAN

Political control: Both chambers of Michigans legislature are controlled by Republicans who want to ban or restrict abortion access, but the states Democratic governor supports access.

Background: A dormant 1931 law bans nearly all abortions in Michigan but it hasnt been enforced since Roe v. Wade. The law made it a felony to use an instrument or administer any substance with the intent to abort a fetus unless necessary to preserve the womans life. It has no exceptions in cases of rape and incest. Anticipating that Roe could be overturned, Planned Parenthood of Michigan filed a lawsuit challenging Michigans ban. A state judge suspended the law in May, saying it violates the states constitution. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel, both Democrats, hailed the decision.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The injunction granted in the Planned Parenthood case ensures that abortion does not immediately become illegal. Planned Parenthood of Michigan and other supporters hope the injunction indicates abortion rights in the state will be preserved. But in a statement to The Associated Press, Nessels office said given the ongoing lawsuits, we cannot speculate what the state of abortion rights will be in Michigan after Roe.

Whats next: Whitmer also filed suit asking the states Supreme Court to declare the 91-year-old law unconstitutional. It has not acted yet. Michigan abortion rights supporters hope to put the issue on ballots this fall. Their proposed constitutional amendment would affirm the right to make pregnancy-related decisions without interference, including about abortion and other reproductive services such as birth control. The Reproductive Freedom for All committee needs to collect about 425,000 valid voter signatures by July 11 to make the November ballot. The measure would become law if voters approved it. The issue also is expected to shape statewide elections  Whitmer and Nessel are both up for reelection in the fall  and legislative races.

MINNESOTA

Political control: The Minnesota Legislature is divided; Anti-abortion Republicans control the Senate and Democrats have the House, but the majorities are slim in both chambers, so control will be up for grabs in the November elections. Most legislative Democrats support abortion rights. Democratic Gov. Tim Walz has said no abortion ban will ever become law while hes governor. But he faces a challenge this year from Republican Scott Jensen, who opposes abortion rights.

Background: Abortion is legal in Minnesota up to the point of fetal viability, around the 24th week of pregnancy. The state has some restrictions, including a 24-hour waiting period with state-mandated counseling, both parents generally must be notified prior to a minor getting an abortion, and only physicians can perform abortions.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Nothing will change immediately in Minnesota because the state Supreme Court ruled in 1995 that the state constitution protects abortion rights. If Republicans take control of both chambers, they could put a constitutional amendment on the ballot as soon as 2024 to reverse that ruling, but its not clear yet if they would take that path. Minnesota governors cant block constitutional amendments with vetoes. But amendments are hard to enact because they require the backing of most of the citizens voting in that election, not just those voting on the amendment. Leaving the ballot blank counts as a no.

Whats next: Providers are preparing for a surge in women coming from other states to get abortions. Sarah Stoesz, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, said before the ruling that her organization was fortifying its delivery systems, including telemedicine. Dr. Sarah Traxler, the groups medical director, has said demand in Minnesota is expected to rise by up to 25%.

MISSISSIPPI

Political control: Republican Gov. Tate Reeves and leaders of the Republican-controlled Mississippi Legislature have been working for years to chip away at abortion access.

Background: Mississippi already had a law banning most abortions at 20 weeks, although the states lone abortion clinic offered the procedure only through 16 weeks. The state tried to enact a law in 2018 to ban most abortions after 15 weeks. That law is the basis for the case that the Supreme Court has now used to overturn Roe v. Wade. A federal district judge blocked Mississippis 15-week law from taking effect in 2018, and an appeals court agreed. The Supreme Court agreed to take the case in 2021. Justices heard arguments in December, with the Mississippi attorney generals office saying the court should overturn Roe v. Wade. Mississippi has one abortion clinic, and it stops offering abortions at 16 weeks. Reeves was lieutenant governor in 2018, when Mississippi tried to enact the 15-week ban, and in 2019, when the state tried to enact a six-week ban. Mississippi law does not allow providers to dispense abortion medications through telemedicine consultations.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Mississippis only abortion clinic, Jackson Womens Health Organization, is expected to close by early July unless a judge blocks a trigger law. The clinic filed a lawsuit Monday challenging the 2007 law that bans most abortions if Roe v. Wade is overturned. That law is set to take effect July 7. Abortions still would be allowed if the womans life is endangered by the pregnancy or if the pregnancy was caused by a rape that was reported to law enforcement. Any person who knowingly performs or attempts to induce an abortion, except the pregnant woman, could be punished by up to 10 years in prison.

Whats next: Mississippis 2007 law says the state attorney general must publish a notice in a state administrative bulletin after the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Mississippis ban on most abortions will take effect 10 days after that publication.

MISSOURI

Political control: Both GOP Gov. Mike Parson and the Republican-led Legislature support laws against abortion.

Background: Missouri law previously allowed abortions up until 22 weeks of pregnancy. But a 2019 state law banned abortions except in cases of medical emergency, contingent upon the U.S. Supreme Court overturning its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Under that Missouri law, performing an illegal abortion is a felony punishable by 5 to 15 years in prison, though women receiving abortions cannot be prosecuted.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The 2019 law contained a provision making it effective upon notification by the attorney general, governor or Legislature that the U.S. Supreme Court had overruled Roe v. Wade. Moments after Fridays Supreme Court decision, Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Gov. Mike Parson filed the necessary paperwork for Missouris law to kick in. State statutes were subsequently updated online Friday saying the abortion-ban law had taken effect.

Whats next: Some Missouri residents wanting abortions are likely to travel to neighboring states, including Illinois and Kansas. A new Illinois logistics center near St. Louis helps women from out of state find travel, lodging and childcare if they need help getting to the area for an abortion, and it connects them with funding sources. The Kansas Supreme Court in 2019 declared that access to abortion is a fundamental right under the state constitution. Even without the ban in Missouri, the number of Missouri patients seeking abortions in Kansas has gone up in recent years, increasing about 8% from 2020 to 2021.

MONTANA

Political control: The Republicans who control the Montana Legislature and Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte want to limit access to abortion.

Background: Abortion used to be legal in Montana up until viability, or about 24 weeks of pregnancy, but the state Legislature passed a bill in 2021 to reduce that to 20 weeks, arguing that is when the fetus can feel pain. That law, along with one that requires chemical abortions to be done with in-person medical supervision, are being challenged in court. A state judge temporarily blocked enforcement in October 2021 while the challenges move through the courts. The state has asked the Montana Supreme Court to vacate that injunction and overturn a 1999 Montana Supreme Court opinion that found the states constitutional right to privacy guarantees a womans access to abortion care.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The effect is unclear because of the unresolved legal challenges to the 2021 state legislation. Montana does not have an abortion ban that was triggered when Roe v. Wade was overturned, but the Legislature could seek to further restrict access in the next session.

Whats next: The Montana Supreme Court will issue a decision on the preliminary injunction. The Montana Legislature also passed a referendum to ask voters this November whether they support a state law to require abortion providers to give lifesaving treatment to a fetus that is born alive after a botched abortion. Opponents argue federal law already offers those protections.

NEBRASKA

Political control: Nebraska has an officially nonpartisan legislature with a Republican majority, but not a super-majority that would let the party unilaterally pass an abortion ban. Democrats appear to have enough votes to block such a bill, but just one defector could swing the vote. Nebraskas Republican governor vehemently opposes abortion.

Background: Nebraska allows most abortions until the 22nd week of pregnancy, although a few small towns have voted to outlaw the procedure within their borders. The state requires doctors to be physically present when patients take the first of two drugs that are used in medication abortions. Lawmakers have rejected attempts to allow abortion medications to be administered remotely, which would provide easier abortion access in rural areas.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: A ruling that lets states set their own abortion laws will trigger an immediate push by Nebraska conservatives to ban the procedure, but its not clear whether they could do it this year. Unlike other conservative states, Nebraska doesnt have a trigger law that automatically outlaws abortion. Gov. Pete Ricketts and other top Republicans have said theyll seek a special legislative session, but its not clear whether they have enough votes to pass anything.

Whats next: If Ricketts calls a special session, attention will likely shift to state Sen. Justin Wayne, an Omaha Democrat who has declined to specify where he stands on abortion. Wayne was notably absent from a vote on the issue this year; his support would give Republicans the super-majority they need to enact a ban. He has struck deals with senators from both parties in the past. If a proposed abortion ban fails during a special session or if no special session is called, the issue will likely become a factor in the November election.

NEVADA

Political control: Nevadas governor and state attorney general are Democrats who are up for reelection this year. Democrats control the state Senate and Assembly.

Background: Nevada voters enshrined the right to abortion in the state constitution in 1990. The law says a pregnancy can be terminated during the first 24 weeks, and after that to preserve the life or health of the pregnant person. It would take another statewide vote to change or repeal the law. Most Republican candidates for Congress, governor, state attorney general and other statewide posts say they oppose abortions.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Here in Nevada, overturning Roe would not be felt immediately, state Attorney General Aaron Ford said in a position paper released after the draft U.S. Supreme Court opinion became public. Ford noted that a federal ban on abortion would supersede state law and said it would be naive not to recognize that some people want to ban abortions or make them more difficult to obtain. But he said his office will fight attacks on abortion rights, rights to birth control access and rights for LGTBQ people. Gov. Steve Sisolak promised in a statement to continue to protect reproductive freedom.

Whats next: Anti-abortion advocates are not expected to focus on trying to repeal Nevadas abortion law. But they will seek laws affecting waiting periods, mandatory counseling or requiring parental notification or consent. Melissa Clement, executive director of Nevada Right to Life, said she believes there is strong support for parental involvement.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Political control: New Hampshire has a Republican governor and the GOP controls the 424-member Legislature. All face reelection this fall.

Background: Any abortion restrictions New Hampshire had on the books before Roe v. Wade were not enforced after the landmark 1973 ruling, and they were repealed altogether in 1997. The state had no restrictions until January, when a ban on abortion after 24 weeks of pregnancy was enacted. In June, an exemption was added for cases in which the fetus has been diagnosed with abnormalities incompatible with life. Anticipating the Supreme Court action, Democrats this year tried unsuccessfully to enshrine abortion rights into state law and the state constitution. Gov. Chris Sununu calls himself pro-choice and says he is committed to upholding Roe v. Wade, but he also has boasted Ive done more on the pro-life issue than anyone.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Nothing will change immediately in New Hampshire. The Legislature wont return until fall, when there will be a one-day session to take up vetoed bills, and it would take a two-thirds majority vote to introduce new legislation then.

Whats next: The majority leader of the New Hampshire House has said the public should not expect Republicans in the Legislature to further tighten state abortion laws. But anti-abortion lawmakers who have filed bills in the past are expected to try again.

NEW JERSEY

Political control: Democrats control both houses of the state Legislature and the governorship. Gov. Phil Murphy started his second consecutive term this year.

Background: Murphy ran for reelection on the promise that he would sign legislation to enshrine abortion rights into state law, and he fulfilled that promise in January. The measure also guaranteed the right to contraception and the right to carry a pregnancy to term. It stopped short of requiring insurance coverage for abortions, something advocates had sought. Instead, it authorizes the state Banking and Insurance Department to study the issue and possibly adopt regulations if a need is discovered. Under Murphys predecessor, Republican Chris Christie, state funds to womens clinics, including Planned Parenthood, were slashed. Murphy restored those and has been a strong supporter of abortion rights. New Jersey doesnt have any significant restrictions on abortion, such as parental consent or a mandatory waiting period.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Officials, including the governor, have said the end of Roe would not lead to any rollback of abortion services in the state. Instead of hoping for the best, we prepared ourselves for the worst, Murphy said in May, addressing reports of a leaked draft of a Supreme Court ruling.

Whats next: Murphy has proposed several abortion-related measures. On the Monday after the ruling, the Legislature began considering a pair of bills to expand abortion rights. One would allow the state to block extradition of someone facing a criminal charge in another state related to reproductive services obtained legally in New Jersey. Another clarifies that out-of-state residents may access abortion services in New Jersey, as well as allowing those facing liability judgments stemming from abortion services to countersue.

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NEW MEXICO

Political control: The Democrats who control the New Mexico Legislature support access to abortion, as does the states Democratic governor. Several conservative Democratic state senators who voted against the repeal of the abortion ban in 2019 were ousted from office in 2020 by more socially progressive primary challengers.

Background: In 2021, state lawmakers repealed a dormant 1969 statute that outlawed most abortion procedures as felonies, thus ensuring access to abortion even after the federal court rolled back guarantees. Albuquerque is home to one of only a few independent clinics in the country that perform abortions in the third trimester without conditions. An abortion clinic in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, is just a mile from the state line with Texas and caters to patients from El Paso, western Texas and Arizona.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: There will be no immediate change in New Mexico now that the high court has overturned Roe v. Wade. It is unclear if Democrats, who control the state Legislature, will pursue additional guarantees to abortion access when lawmakers convene in January. Possible avenues of legislative reform include enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution, which requires approval by voters. Abortion rights activists say the states equal rights amendment could be harnessed to guide more public funding for abortion-related programs. Raul Torrez, the district attorney in Albuquerque and the Democratic nominee for attorney general, is urging lawmakers to take further steps to protect access to abortions, including protections for women coming from other states. The state Republican Party said its time to elect more anti-abortion candidates to the Legislature.

Whats next: The state can expect to continue to see a steady influx of people seeking abortions from neighboring states with more restrictive abortion laws. It already hosts patients from Texas and Oklahoma where among the strictest abortion bans in the country were introduced this year.

NEW YORK

Political control: The Democrats who control the New York Legislature support access to abortion, as does the states Democratic governor.

Background: Abortion has been legal in New York state since a 1970 law was passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by Republican Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller. The law allows abortions within the first 24 weeks of pregnancy or to preserve the mothers life. The 2019 Reproductive Health Act removed abortion from the states criminal code, codified Roe v. Wade and allowed abortions after 24 weeks if a fetus isnt viable or to protect the mothers life or health. Lawmakers have passed laws extending legal protections for people seeking and providing abortions in New York.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Roe v. Wade protections are enshrined in state law. New York is planning to give abortion providers $35 million this year to expand services and boost security in anticipation of an influx of out-of-state people seeking abortions once any ruling comes down. Its unclear how many more people from neighboring states could travel to New York to receive abortion care. New York had 252 facilities providing abortions as of 2017, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.

Whats next: Planned Parenthood and civil liberty groups are urging lawmakers to start the process of passing a constitutional amendment protecting access to abortion care in case a future Legislature repeals the state law.

NORTH CAROLINA

Political control: Republicans hold majorities in the state House and Senate, but the party lacks the margins to defeat a veto by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, a strong abortion-rights supporter. Since 2017, Cooper has vetoed a born-alive abortion measure and a bill prohibiting abortion based on race or a Down syndrome diagnosis. He cant seek reelection in 2024 due to term limits.

Background: A 1973 North Carolina law that banned most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy is currently unenforceable after federal judges struck it down as unconstitutional in 2019 and 2021. Instead, abortions can be performed until fetal viability. A state law approved in 2015 provides for post-viability abortions only in a medical emergency, which means the woman would die or face a serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment without the procedure.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, the 20-week ban could be restored. Legal experts say formal action would have to be taken to cancel the earlier court rulings striking it down. Republican legislative leaders late Friday asked state Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat and abortion rights supporter whose agencys lawyers defended the 20-week law, to act. Otherwise, they said they would seek to intervene.

Whats next: Republican General Assembly leaders dont plan to consider additional abortion restrictions during the soon-to-end legislative session, meaning a likely intensification of electoral efforts to gain the five additional seats the GOP needs to reach veto-proof margins come 2023. Cooper and other Democrats already are making abortion rights a key campaign pitch. Abortion politics are also expected to figure in two state Supreme Court seat elections in November. Republicans would gain a majority on the court if they win at least one of them.

NORTH DAKOTA

Political control: North Dakota has a legislature dominated by Republicans who want to ban abortion, and the GOP governor had hoped to see Roe v. Wade wiped off the books in favor of states rights.

Background: The state has passed some of the nations strictest abortion laws, including one that would have banned abortions once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which can happen before a woman knows she is pregnant. The law never took effect because the states lone abortion clinic successfully challenged it in court. One failed Republican proposal would have charged abortion providers with murder with a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: North Dakota has a trigger law that will shut down the states sole abortion clinic in Fargo after 30 days. That 2007 state law makes it a felony to perform an abortion unless necessary to prevent the pregnant womans death or in cases of rape or incest. Violators could be punished with a five-year prison sentence and a $10,000 fine.

Whats next: The owner and operator of the Red River Womens Clinic in Fargo said she would explore all legal options to ensure abortion services are available in North Dakota. Should that fail, clinic leader Tammi Kromenaker plans to move across the river to Moorhead, Minnesota, where abortion has not been outlawed. Planned Parenthood says it can provide abortions in Moorhead until Kromenaker gets up and running.

OHIO

Political control: The Ohio Legislature is controlled by Republicans who support restricting or banning abortions, and the Republican governor backs those efforts. He is up for reelection this year against a former mayor who supports abortion rights.

Background: Before Friday's ruling, Ohio did not ban most abortions until the 22nd week of pregnancy; after that theyre allowed only to save a patients life or when their health is seriously compromised. But the state imposes a host of other restrictions, including parental consent for minors, a required ultrasound, and in-person counseling followed by a 24-hour waiting period. Abortions are prohibited for the reason of a fetal Down syndrome diagnosis. Ohio also limits the public funding of abortions to cases of rape, incest or endangerment of the patients life. It limits public employees abortion-related insurance coverage and coverage through health plans offered in the Affordable Care Act health exchange to those same scenarios. Clinics providing abortions must comply with a host of regulations.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: A ban on most abortions at the first detectable fetal heartbeat became the law in Ohio hours after the ruling. Enforcement of Ohios 2019 heartbeat ban had been on hold for nearly three years under a federal court injunction. The state attorney general, Republican Dave Yost, asked for that to be dissolved because of the high courts ruling, and U.S. Judge Michael Barrett agreed hours later.

Two trigger bills are on hold in the Legislature, but a key legislative leader has said he anticipates needing to write new legislation after the decision is reversed that more carefully reflects the actual ruling. That all but certainly would not happen until lawmakers return to the capital after the November election.

Whats next: Activists are considering how to help Ohioans get abortions elsewhere. They may also mount a statewide ballot initiative that would embed the right to an abortion in the state constitution, though that could not happen before next year. Abortion opponents are weighing strategies for imposing a statewide abortion ban.

OKLAHOMA

Political control: Republicans in Oklahoma have a supermajority in both chambers of the Legislature and a Republican governor up for reelection this year who has vowed to sign every pro-life legislation that came across my desk.

Background: Abortion services were halted in Oklahoma in May after Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a bill that prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. The ban is enforced by civil lawsuits rather than criminal prosecution. Republican lawmakers have been pushing to restrict abortion in the state for decades, passing 81 different restrictions since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: It will have little practical effect given that abortions are no longer being provided in Oklahoma. Oklahoma also has a trigger law that outlawed abortion as soon as Roe was overturned.

Whats next: Given the fierce opposition to abortion from the governor and Legislature, Oklahoma will continue to prohibit the practice if states are given the option to do so. Meanwhile, abortion providers who had been operating in the state are taking steps to help patients seek abortions out of state, including coordinating funding for these women and developing a referral network of therapists to help address complications before or after a woman receives an abortion.

OREGON

Political control: The Democrats who control the Oregon Legislature support access to abortion, as does the states Democratic governor.

Background: The Oregon Legislature passed a bill legalizing abortion in 1969. In 2017, Gov. Kate Brown signed into law a bill expanding health care coverage for reproductive services, including abortions, to thousands of Oregonians, regardless of income, citizenship status or gender identity. Oregon does not have any major abortion restrictions and it is legal at all stages of pregnancy.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The Guttmacher Institute has estimated that Oregon will experience a 234% increase in women seeking abortions arriving from out of state, especially from Idaho. In March, Oregon lawmakers approved $15 million to expand abortion availability and pay for abortions and support services such as travel and lodgings for residents and out-of-state patients.

Whats next: Brown said after the draft Supreme Court decision was leaked that access to abortion is a fundamental right and that she will fight to ensure access to abortion continues to be protected by state law in Oregon. Democratic state lawmakers recently formed the Reproductive Health and Access to Care Work Group of providers, clinics, community organizations and legislators that will make recommendations for the 2023 legislative session and beyond. Recommendations may include proposals to protect, strengthen, and expand equitable access to all forms of reproductive care.

PENNSYLVANIA

Political control: Republicans who control the Pennsylvania Legislature are hostile to abortion rights, but the states Democratic governor is a strong supporter and has vetoed three GOP-penned bills in five years that would have added restrictions beyond the states 24-week limit. The race for governor this year could tilt that balance.

Background: Abortion is legal in Pennsylvania under decades of state law, including a 1989 law that was challenged all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. That produced the landmark Planned Parenthood v. Casey ruling that affirmed the high courts 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion nationwide, but also allowed states to put certain limits on abortion access.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Gov. Tom Wolf has vowed to protect access to abortion for the remainder of his time in office, through January. Running to replace him is the states Democratic attorney general, Josh Shapiro, who supports abortion rights, and Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano, who has said he supports banning abortion altogether, with no exceptions. The Legislature is expected to remain in Republican hands next year.

Whats next: Legislation to outlaw abortion after the detection of a fetal heartbeat  which can happen at six weeks, before many women even know they are pregnant  has passed a House committee and is awaiting a floor vote. The state Supreme Court is considering a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers aiming to overturn a 1982 law that bans the use of state dollars for abortion, except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother. In response, Republican lawmakers are advancing a proposed amendment that would declare there is no constitutional right to an abortion in Pennsylvania or to public funding for an abortion.

RHODE ISLAND

Political control: The Democrats who control Rhode Islands General Assembly support access to abortion, as does the Democratic governor.

Background: Rhode Islands governor signed legislation in 2019 to enshrine abortion protections in case the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade. The law says the state will not restrict the right to an abortion prior to fetal viability or after if necessary to protect the health or life of the pregnant woman. It repealed older laws deemed unconstitutional by the courts. The Rhode Island Supreme Court upheld the 2019 law in May, just two days after the Supreme Court draft opinion was leaked suggesting that a majority of the justices were prepared to overturn Roe. Abortion opponents had argued the law violates the state constitution. In 2020, there were 2,611 abortions in Rhode Island, according to the state health department.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Rhode Islands attorney general believes the 2019 Reproductive Privacy Act will continue to protect access to abortion. Planned Parenthood Votes! Rhode Island also said abortion will remain legal regardless of the decision because the right was codified in state law.

Whats next: On the Monday after the Supreme Court decision, Rhode Islands Democratic governor said he will sign an executive order to shield abortion providers in the state from lawsuits by anti-abortion activists in other states. McKees office didnt have a date for the signing, but said the governor wants to act as soon as possible. Two of his opponents in September's Democratic primary for governor, Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea and Matt Brown, had urged McKee to sign such an order. They also want state lawmakers to return for a special session to add abortion coverage to Rhode Islands Medicaid program and to the insurance coverage for state employees. Legislative leaders said they plan to address abortion coverage next year because it has financial implications and wasnt included in this year's budget.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Political control: South Carolina has a Republican governor, and its General Assembly is dominated by the GOP. However, the party doesnt quite have the two-thirds majority in either chamber needed to overcome procedural hurdles or a veto if a Democrat wins the 2022 gubernatorial election.

Background: In 2021, South Carolina passed the Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act that requires doctors to use an ultrasound to try to detect a fetal heartbeat if they think a pregnant woman is at least eight weeks along. If they find a heartbeat, they can only perform an abortion if the womans life is in danger, or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. The law is currently tied up in a federal lawsuit.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a federal judge allowed the state to begin enforcing the 2021 law. Planned Parenthood and others dropped their lawsuit, but the organization said it would continue to perform abortions in South Carolina under the parameters of the new law.

Whats next: The South Carolina General Assemblys regular session ended in May, but Republican leaders had agreed they could return for a special session to take up more restrictive abortion bills if the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. They have yet to announce a special session, despite Friday's ruling. Some Republican lawmakers have opposed a complete abortion ban, especially without exceptions for victims of rape and incest.

SOUTH DAKOTA

Political control: Republicans hold super-majorities in both Statehouse chambers. Republican Gov. Kristi Noem is up for reelection this year and has been an ardent opponent of abortion rights.

Background: Under current law, South Dakota bans abortions after the 22nd week of pregnancy. The state has only one clinic that regularly provides abortions, a Planned Parenthood facility in Sioux Falls. The legislature has worked over the years to make it more difficult for women to get abortions, passing mandatory waiting periods and requiring them to review and sign paperwork that discourages them from ending their pregnancies.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: South Dakota has a trigger law that immediately banned abortions except if the life of the pregnant woman is at risk.

Whats next: Noem has said she planned to call a special session to craft laws for the new legal landscape if Roe v. Wade was overturned. She hasnt commented on specific legislation, but lawmakers have floated proposals that would make it more difficult for women to seek an abortion out of state. However, South Dakota voters rejected outright bans in 2006 and 2008, and abortion rights advocates are preparing for a similar referendum on abortion access. An outright ban on abortions could eventually be challenged through a citizen-initiated ballot measure.

TENNESSEE

Political control: Tennessee has a Republican governor who is consistently vocal about his opposition to abortion. The GOP holds a supermajority in the state legislature and has steadily chipped away at abortion access.

Background: In 2020, Tennessee passed a law banning most abortions when the fetal heartbeat can be detected at about six weeks, before many women know theyre pregnant. The measure has never been enforced because it was promptly blocked by a federal court. Tennessee voters approved an amendment in 2014 declaring that the states constitution doesnt protect or secure the right to abortion or require the funding of an abortion, and empowering state lawmakers to enact, amend, or repeal statutes regarding abortion. State law also doesnt allow providers to dispense abortion medications through telemedicine consultations. There are six abortion providers in Tennessee.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Thirty days after the decision, a so-called trigger law will go into effect that bans all abortions in Tennessee except when necessary to prevent death or serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function. Doctors could be charged with a felony for providing an abortion under this law.

Whats next: Its unclear if the trigger law conflicts with the 2020 law banning most abortions at about six weeks. The states attorney general, a Republican, has not publicly weighed in. Meanwhile, Republicans are expected to continue to have supermajority control after this years midterm elections. Reproductive rights activists say they will direct patients seeking abortion to clinics in Illinois if Roe v. Wade is overturned, or to Florida, which would ban abortions at 15 weeks. North Carolina and Virginia could also be options for women in eastern Tennessee.

TEXAS

Political control: The GOP has commanding majorities in the Texas Legislature and has controlled every statewide office for nearly 30 years. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is up for reelection in November and is favored to win a third term.

Background: Texas has given the nation a preview of the landscape of abortion access without the protections enshrined in Roe v. Wade. A new Texas law banning most abortions after about six weeks  before many women know they are pregnant  took effect in September and makes no exceptions in cases of rape or incest. Because of how Republicans wrote the law, which is enforceable only through lawsuits filed by private citizens against doctors or anyone who helps a woman obtain an abortion, Texas has essentially outmaneuvered decades of Supreme Court precedent governing a womens constitutional right to an abortion. State data shows the number of abortions performed in Texas roughly two dozen clinics fell by half in the five months after the law came into effect compared to the same period a year earlier.

Effect of the Supreme Court ruling: Texas had more than 40 abortion clinics in 2012 before a decade of Republicans chipping away at abortion access began forcing providers to close. Without Roe v. Wade, Texas plans to ban virtually all abortions 30 days after the Supreme Court issues its judgment in the case, which could take about a month. Abortions would only be allowed when the patients life is in danger or if they are at risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function.

Whats next: Many Texas women have already traveled out of state for abortions since the law took effect, but they would likely have to travel much farther now that Roe is overturned as more states outlaw abortion. Some Republican lawmakers also want to punish companies that help their Texas-based employees get abortions elsewhere, although its unclear how much support that idea will have when the Legislature returns in 2023.

UTAH

Political control: Utah is deeply conservative and the Legislature is controlled by a Republican supermajority.

Background: The state has been restricting abortion for years, including a ban after 18 weeks passed in 2019 thats now blocked in court. The following year, lawmakers passed a trigger law that would outlaw nearly all abortions if Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The trigger law banning nearly all abortions became enforceable Friday evening, after the legislative general counsel certified the Supreme Court ruling to lawmakers. It does have narrow exceptions for rape and incest if those crimes are reported to law enforcement, and for serious risk to the life or health of the mother, as well as confirmed lethal birth defects.

Whats next: Utah law makes performing an abortion a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. While its aimed primarily at providers, lawmakers have acknowledged that a woman who self-administers an abortion, including through medication, could potentially face charges.

VERMONT

Political control: The Vermont Legislature is controlled by Democrats, but Republican Gov. Phil Scott is a firm supporter of abortion rights.

Background: Vermont has a 2019 law guaranteeing the right to an abortion and voters will consider a proposal in November to amend the state constitution to protect abortion rights. Also in 2019, the Vermont Legislature began the process of amending the constitution to protect abortion rights, known as the Reproductive Liberty Amendment or Proposition 5. Vermonts proposed amendment does not contain the word abortion. Proponents say thats because its not meant to authorize only abortion but also would guarantee other reproductive rights such as the right to get pregnant or access birth control. Opponents say vague wording could have unintended consequences that could play out for years. Lawmakers approved the proposed amendment in February, leading the way for a statewide vote.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Nothing will change immediately in Vermont.

Whats next: Vermont voters will cast ballots in November to decide if the state will amend its constitution to protect abortion rights.

VIRGINIA

Political control: Virginia has a Republican governor who says he would support new state-level restrictions on abortion. Gov. Glenn Youngkin said Friday that he will seek legislation to ban most abortions after 15 weeks. Youngkin told The Washington Post he has asked four antiabortion Republican lawmakers to draft the legislation. He told the Post that a cutoff at 20 weeks might be necessary to build consensus in the divided Virginia legislature, where Republicans control the House and Democrats control the Senate. Youngkin generally supports exceptions to abortion restrictions in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is in danger.

Background: In recent years, when Democrats were in full control of state government, lawmakers rolled back abortion restrictions. They ended strict building code requirements on facilities where abortions are performed and did away with requirements that a patient seeking an abortion undergo a 24-hour waiting period and ultrasound. Advocates said the changes would make Virginia a haven for abortion access in the South. Republican victories in the November elections shook up the states political landscape, but Senate Democrats defeated several measures that would have limited abortion access during the 2022 legislative session.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: There will be no immediate change to abortion laws in Virginia now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned. Some abortion providers expect to see an uptick in patients seeking care in Virginia from neighboring states with trigger laws that would ban abortion.

Whats next: The future of abortion access is Virginia is murky. Senate Democrats say they intend to continue blocking attempts to roll back abortion access, though they control the chamber by the narrowest possible margin and have one caucus member who personally opposes abortion and says he is open to new restrictions. Republicans also have a narrow hold on the House, with several moderate members. Every seat in the General Assembly will be on the ballot in 2023.

WASHINGTON

Political control: The Democrats who control the Washington Legislature support access to abortion, as does the states Democratic governor.

Background: Abortion has been legal in Washington state since a 1970 statewide ballot referendum. Another ballot measure approved by voters in 1991 declared a womans right to choose physician-performed abortion prior to fetal viability and further expanded and protected access to abortion in the state if Roe v. Wade was overturned. And in 2018, the Legislature passed a measure that would require Washington insurers offering maternity care to also cover elective abortions and contraception. Earlier this year, Gov. Jay Inslee signed a measure that grants specific statutory authorization for physician assistants, advanced registered nurse practitioners and other providers acting within their scope of practice to perform abortions. Supporters say the move is designed to help meet the demand from the potential influx of out-of-state patients. That same measure also prohibits legal action by Washington state against people seeking an abortion and those who aid them.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The state will use every available tool to protect and preserve Washingtonians fundamental right to choose, and protect the rights of anyone who wants to come here to access reproductive health care, said Attorney General Bob Ferguson, a Democrat. Data from the Washington state Department of Health from 2020 shows that of the 16,909 abortions performed in the state that year, 852 involved non-residents. The majority of those people came from neighboring states such as Idaho and Oregon.

Whats next: Its impossible to predict how many more non-resident patients will potentially seek care in Washington now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, but the increase will likely be in the thousands, said Jennifer Allen, CEO of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates. The state has more than 30 in-person abortion clinics, though the vast majority are in western Washington along the Interstate 5 corridor.

WEST VIRGINIA

Political control: West Virginia has a legislature controlled by Republicans who want to ban or restrict access to abortions. Gov. Jim Justice, a Republican, opposes abortion access and has signed two anti-abortion laws since taking office in 2017.

Background: West Virginia currently bans abortion after the 20th week of pregnancy unless a patients life is in danger, or they face substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function. Patients seeking abortions must wait 24 hours after undergoing legislatively mandated counseling designed to discourage abortions. A minor who wants an abortion must obtain parental permission. The use of telemedicine to administer a medication abortion is outlawed. The state also bars patients from getting abortions because they believe their child will be born with a disability. The House of Delegates this year passed a 15-week abortion ban, but it died in the Senate.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Its unclear what the effect the ruling will have on abortion access in West Virginia. The state has had a law banning abortion on the books since 1848; Under that law, providers who perform abortions can face felony charges and three to 10 years in prison, unless the abortion is conducted to save a patients life. In 2018, West Virginia voters approved a constitutional amendment to declare patients do not have the right to abortion and banning state funding for abortions.

Whats next: West Virginia lawmakers could introduce new legislation restricting abortion access when they return to the Capitol in January, but they could return sooner if called into a special session. West Virginia only has one clinic that performs abortions. Womens Health Center of West Virginia Executive Director Katie Quinonez said if abortion access is outlawed, the clinic will continue to provide reproductive care, such as birth control and STI diagnosis and treatment. She said the clinic will help women travel to other states for abortions through its abortion fund.

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WISCONSIN

Political control: Wisconsin has a legislature controlled by Republicans who want to ban or restrict access to abortions but a Democratic governor who supports access and is up for reelection this year.

Background: Wisconsin has allowed most abortions until the 22nd week of pregnancy to save the health or life of the mother. A woman seeking an abortion must meet with a counselor and doctor before obtaining an abortion and wait at least 24 hours before having it done. Anyone under age 18 must have an adult relative over age 25 with them to obtain an abortion.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, it is presumed that a state law passed in 1849 making an abortion a felony offense could go into effect, and doctors have halted procedures. However, Wisconsins Democratic attorney general argues that the law is so old that its unenforceable. The language allows a woman to legally destroy her own fetus or embryo and grants immunity if an abortion is needed to save a womans life and is performed at a hospital. Another state law, passed in 1985, prohibits abortions performed after a fetus reaches viability -- when it could survive outside the womb -- conflicting with the 1849 ban.

Whats next: Republican lawmakers are expected to attempt to clarify the 1849 law to ensure there is a ban in place, even as that issue is fought in the courts. However, lawmakers efforts would be stymied if Democratic Gov. Tony Evers wins reelection. Wisconsins Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has said he supports an exception in cases of rape and that a ruling on Roe could force lawmakers to consider other related reproductive issues such as contraception. Other Republicans will push for more restrictive abortion laws.

WYOMING

Political control: Wyoming has one of the most Republican legislatures in the U.S. and a long tradition of libertarian-type if not always social or religious conservatism. That may be changing. In March, Republican Gov. Mark Gordon signed into law a bill that would ban abortion in nearly all instances should the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade.

Background: Current Wyoming law allows abortions up to when a fetus might be able to survive on its own outside its mothers body. The law does not specify when that happens, but it is generally considered to be at around 23 weeks into pregnancy. Wyoming currently doesnt allow abortions after then except to protect the mother from substantial risk to her life or health. Wyoming Republicans have traditionally taken a hands-off approach to abortion but have proven more willing to limit the practice lately. The number of Democrats in the Legislature has dwindled from 26 in 2010 to just nine out of 90 total seats now. A 2021 law requires physicians to provide lifesaving care to any aborted fetus born alive.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The new state law that bans abortion only provides exceptions in cases of rape or incest or to protect the mothers life or health, not including psychological conditions. Though Wyoming has no abortion clinics, abortions still occur. Ninety-eight took place in Wyoming in 2021, according to state officials.

Whats next: A planned womens health clinic in Casper that would have been the only one offering abortions in the state was on track to open in mid-June but an arson fire May 25 delayed those plans by around six months. Clinic founder Julie Burkhart said Friday that, despite the ruling, she still plans to open the clinic and will continue to seek legal means to keep abortion legal in Wyoming. Police continue to look for a suspect in the arson investigation, and have offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

Associated Press statehouse reporters from across the U.S. contributed.

For APs full coverage of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, go to https://apnews.com/hub/abortion

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
The arrival of the compact disc nearly killed off record albums, with vinyl pressing machines sold, scrapped and dismantled by major record labels.

Four decades later, with resuscitated record album sales producing double-digit annual growth, manufacturers are rapidly rebuilding an industry to keep pace with sales that reached $1 billion last year.

Dozens of record-pressing factories have been built to try to meet demand in North America  and it's still not enough.

The industry "has found a new gear, and is accelerating at a new pace, said Mark Michaels, CEO and chairman of United Record Pressing, the nations largest record producer, in Nashville, Tennessee.

Demand for vinyl records has been growing in double-digits for more than a decade and mass merchandisers like Target were bolstering their selection of albums just as the pandemic provided a surprising jolt. With music tours canceled, and people stuck at home, music lovers began snapping up record albums at an even faster pace.

Record album sales revenue grew a whopping 61% in 2021  and reached $1 billion for the first time since the 1980s  far outpacing growth rates for paid music subscriptions and streaming services like Spotify and Pandora, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

Record albums nearly spun into oblivion with sales overtaken by cassettes before the compact discs brushed both aside. Then came digital downloads and online piracy, Apple iPods and 99-cent downloads. Streaming services are now ubiquitous.

But nostalgic baby boomers who missed thumbing through record albums in their local record stores helped to fuel a vinyl resurgence that started about 15 years ago.

It coincided with the launch of Record Store Day to celebrate indie record stores, said Larry Jaffee, author of Record Store Day: The Most Improbable Comeback of the 21st Century.

These days, though, it's more than just boomers.

A younger generation is buying turntables and albums  and cassette tapes, too  and a new generation of artists like Adele, Ariana Grande and Harry Styles have been moving to vinyl, Jaffee noted.

In Pittsburgh, taxi driver Jamila Grady is too young, at age 34, to remember the heyday of record stores.

But she finds records to be irresistible. She created wall art from some of the album covers from nearly 50 albums she's bought since 2019, starting with Lemonade by Beyonce. She acknowledges it's an indulgence since she already listens to music through Soundcloud, Apple Music and Pandora.

For record players, theres something so beautiful about taking the record, putting it on the payer, and dropping the needle, she said.

Manufacturers had to start nearly from scratch.

The major labels shuttered their plants long ago, but new ones are coming online. Record makers launching over the last 10 to 15 years include Toronto-based Precision Record Pressing, Memphis Record Pressing, Clevelands Gotta Groove Records and Kansas Quality Record Pressing.

Jack White of White Stripes, opened his own vinyl pressing plant, Third Man Pressing, in 2017 in Detroit, and pleaded with the major record labels to reopen manufacturing facilities.

There are now about 40 plants in the U.S.  most of them smaller operations  but challenges remain.

Nationwide, backlogs are six to eight months because of growing demand, and supply chain disruptions of raw materials, including vinyl polymers, have caused problems, Michaels said.

It's not easy to launch a new pressing plant because there are only a handful of companies  none in the U.S.  that make record-pressing machines. Those machines are backordered, as well.

People can debate the sound quality but it comes down to an emotional reaction, not technical specifications, said Bob Ludwig, a multi-Grammy winner who created Gateway Mastering Studios in Portland, Maine.

A friend who listened to Ludwig's remastered version of Queens Night at the Opera called it stunning and electric.

I love the vinyl experience. All of it. To me, there is an electrifying sound when I play records that I dont feel from digital," said Mark Mazzetti, an independent A&R executive who worked for Sting, Janet Jackson and others at A&M Records.

No one knows the ceiling for record growth because of the constrained supply, said Chris Brown, vice president for finance at Bull Moose Records, a record store chain in New England.

New releases often fail to meet demand, and reorders take even longer, leaving little capacity for lesser-known eclectic albums, he said.

Part of the fun of collecting records is being surprised, he said. But midlevel stuff doesnt get printed, or theres a long wait.

Record producers gather this week in Nashville for their annual trade event called Making Vinyl.

People in the business are excited about the growth, and it's almost like printing money for manufactures as sales soar to new heights every year, said Bryan Ekus, president of Making Vinyl.

No one knows how long the run will continue, so there's a sense that we should make hay while the sun shines, Ekus said.

In Nashville, United Record Pressing launched in 1949 and never stopped producing records. Its currently in the midst of a $15 million expansion that will triple its capacity in the middle of next year.

Michaels cant help but to wonder how long the double-digit growth can be sustained, but he said he's optimistic about the future.

Its both heartwarming and good for business to see high schoolers and young adults showing an interest in records, he said.

I believe in music and I believe in the importance of music in peoples lives. I dont think that changes, he said.

Sharp reported from Portland, Maine.



Follow David Sharp on Twitter at https://twitter.com/@David_Sharp_AP

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The Jan. 6 committee will hear from former Justice Department officials who faced down a relentless pressure campaign from Donald Trump over the 2020 presidential election results while suppressing a bizarre challenge from within their own ranks.

The hearing Thursday will bring attention to a memorably turbulent stretch at the department as Trump in his final days in office sought to bend to his will a law enforcement agency that has long cherished its independence from the White House. The testimony is aimed at showing how Trump not only relied on outside advisers to press his false claims of election fraud but also tried to leverage the powers of federal executive branch agencies.

The witnesses will include Jeffrey Rosen, who was acting attorney general during the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol. Three days earlier, Rosen was part of a tense Oval Office showdown in which Trump contemplated replacing him with a lower-level official, Jeffrey Clark, who wanted to champion Trump's bogus election fraud claims.

Barely an hour before the hearing began, it was revealed that federal agents this week searched Clark's Virginia home, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss it by name and spoke on condition of anonymity. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney confirmed the existence of law enforcement activity in Virginia, where Clark lives, but would not say what it was connected to.

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It's hot. The official start to summer happens tomorrow, but it already feels like we are in the middle of it.

Temperatures moderated somewhat over the weekend, so we caught a tiny break from the oppressive heat from last week, but here we go again. We are in for another heat wave, right on the heels of the last.

"It is somewhat unusual to have two strong, large-scale heat waves occur in quick succession in the same region of the country," said Alex Lamers, Warning Coordination Meteorologist for the Weather Prediction Center (WPC).

While rare, Lamers mentioned it is not unprecedented.

Keep scrolling for tips on how to stay cool without air conditioning

Last June, back-to-back heat waves impacted the western US, but this June we just happen to be seeing something similar in the central and eastern regions of the country.

"In fact, just last year, in June 2021, a significant heat wave affected the Southwest US in mid-June, followed by the extreme late June heat wave that produced all-time records in the Pacific Northwest and a national heat record in Canada," Lamers recounted.

Anyone who lived through the heat wave last year, remembers it well. The Pacific Northwest has not enjoyed their taste of summer yet this year.

If you want to get technical, "summer" doesn't start until tomorrow, even though the rest of the country has already been feeling like it in a big way.

The summer solstice, when we officially turn our seasonal clocks to summer, occurs at 5:14 a.m. ET Tuesday, which also marks the longest day of the year. It will be a long, HOT day for millions to kick off the summer season.

If you think this year's spring to summer transition has been blazing, you are right.

"We have seen a record number of heat advisory products through June 19 across the United States since at least 2006," Lamers pointed out.

National Weather Service offices across the country have already issued 277 heat advisories this year, compared to 109 in 2021. Excessive heat warnings show the same trend.

With more than 100 daily high temperature records expected to be broken this week across the country, it may not be a trend you want to see. But climate change is pointing toward it becoming the new normal, especially for the month of June.

"The Fourth National Climate Assessment expressed very high confidence in the increase in annual average temperatures over the United States, and the effects of climate change also extend to an observable increase in warmer June temperatures," Lamers reported.

Lamers noted June 2021 was the warmest in the Lower 48 since records began more than a century ago. Four of the five warmest Junes have occurred in the past decade.

"A clear upward trend is evident in average June temperatures over the past century," Lamers stressed.

It means we will see more heat waves, stronger heat waves and more days with triple-digit temperatures.

Also, the fact we are in a La Nina pattern does not help. La Nina is a natural ocean-atmospheric phenomenon marked by cooler-than-average sea surface temperatures across the central and eastern Pacific Ocean, near the equator, which consequently affects weather across the world.

One way it affects the US is by bringing much of the country warmer-than-normal summers.

"A comparison of the last 10 El Nino summers with the last 10 La Nina summers shows that the La Nina summers tend to be, on average, warmer over most of the contiguous United States, with the exception of the West Coast," Lamers observed.

While we moan and groan about how hot it will be, it shouldn't be taken lightly. Heat is the leading weather-related killer in the US, so it's important to take care of yourself and others during heat waves.

"Heat stress on the body has a cumulative effect, and people should be especially cautious in situations when heat is expected to persist for multiple days, and especially when there is a lack of cooling at night," Lamers pointed out. "This means heat can even become a danger to your health after the hottest day in the heat wave."

While last week's heat wave started in the Southwest and spread eastward, this week the heat will begin in the northern Plains and then progress into the Ohio Valley, and down to the Southeast through the week.

"Like last week, we are mostly seeing the potential for daily temperature records, rather than monthly or all-time records," Lamers emphasized.

Highs will run 10-20 degrees above normal this week. Around 70% of the US population will see a 90-degree or higher temperature this week and nearly 20% will see 100 degrees or higher.

It's only the start of summer, and this summer is forecast to be a hot one.

CNN Meteorologist Haley Brink contributed to this report. The-CNN-Wire  &  2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.
A security guard at Northwest High School has been charged with possession of child pornography and child enticement after he allegedly made sexual comments to and initiated a relationship with a 16-year-old student.

According to an affidavit, a 16-year-old female student at Northwest was reported missing by a parent on Feb. 17. The parent told officers that she may be with Joshua Higgs, a 29-year-old contracted school security guard.

Officers contacted the girl via phone and learned that she was in the car with Higgs. According to the affidavit, she exited the vehicle and began to walk home after learning that she had been reported missing.

In an interview conducted that night, the girl said Higgs told her not to tell law enforcement about him or his vehicle. He also allegedly told her to delete their messages. The girl told officers that the two had been messaging since the day prior and Higgs had made sexual comments and remarks about wanting to date her.

The girls parents gave police permission to search her phone, which officials say revealed multiple inappropriate messages on Snapchat and Facebook Messenger. Officials said the conversations showed Higgs making sexual comments about the girl and asking her for photos of herself in underwear, which she sent.

With this information, according to the affidavit, a search warrant was obtained for Higgs Snapchat and Facebook Messenger accounts. Police found three photos of the girl in underwear and various graphic descriptions of sex acts sent to the girl by Higgs.

Higgs has been charged with three felonies: possession of child pornography, witness tampering and enticing a child via electronic communication device.

At his first court appearance Thursday, Higgs bail was set at $50,000. He must pay 10% of that, or $5,000, to be released. He is scheduled to appear in court again next month for a preliminary hearing.

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The Supreme Court's ruling overturning of Roe v. Wade leaves the legal status of abortion up to states, which have adopted a patchwork of laws that now will determine the access Americans have to abortion.

Under Nebraska law, abortion remains legal up to 20 weeks after fertilization. Abortion also remains legal in Iowa, Colorado and Minnesota.

A so-called trigger bill that would have banned all abortions in Nebraska if the high court overturned Roe v. Wade died in the Legislature this spring. But now all eyes are on Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts to see whether he calls a special legislative session to revive that bill  Legislative Bill 933  or something like it.

Several states in the region already are among 13 nationwide that have adopted trigger bills banning abortion now that the court has struck down the landmark 1973 decision, namely South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming and Missouri.

South Dakota's ban took effect immediately. Planned Parenthood North Central States, which includes Nebraska and Iowa, paused abortion appointments in that state last week and will not resume them, officials said Friday.

Oklahoma has banned abortion outright, in addition to having a trigger ban in place. Abortion remains legal in Kansas, but voters will decide in an August referendum whether to remove the right to abortion from the state constitution. Approval would allow the Kansas Legislature to pass laws that restrict or ban the procedure.

Sarah Stoesz, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, said Friday that the ruling means that access to abortion now will depend on the state in which a woman resides. The organization covers Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota.

"It is fair to say an abortion ban is not a ban for all people," she said. "Its only a ban for certain people who are unable to travel."

Dr. Sarah Traxler, the Minnesota-based organization's chief medical officer, said its leaders have been working to increase access to abortion in states where it remains legal.

"We believe we'll have an influx of patients in Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota," she said.

The organization has been working to bring in and train more physicians in all three states to meet the anticipated increase in demand, she said. The group also has hired more patient navigators to support patients as they travel to get care.

In Minnesota, it has launched a direct-to-consumer mifepristone, or abortion pill, program for Minnesota residents. It also has increased capacity at its telemedicine abortion sites. Telemedicine abortion is not allowed in Nebraska.

The organization also has been training clinicians on miscarriage management, Traxler said, because it already is seeing an increase in the number of patients who come to its clinics seeking such care. She noted that there are many situations in which abortion is lifesaving care, including in patients with cancer who can't get treatment because they are pregnant, those who have had their water break early and developed dangerous infections and in moms with pre-eclampsia suffering seizures and the threat of stroke.

She said the organization's Sioux Falls, South Dakota, health center remains open for birth control, STD testing, gender-affirming hormone therapy and other sexual and reproductive health care needs.

In Nebraska, the overturning of Roe also has raised concerns among health care providers, patients and families about what laws might follow.

LB 933 would have made it a felony for anyone to provide any medication or undertake any procedure with the intent of ending the life of an unborn child, starting at fertilization. The woman undergoing an abortion could not be charged. The measure would not have provided exemptions, including for rape or incest, but would have allowed licensed physicians charged under the law to use as a defense that the abortion was necessary to prevent the womans death or serious, permanent impairment of a life-sustaining organ.

Dr. Maureen Boyle, an obstetrician/gynecologist with Methodist Health System, said doctors are concerned such provisions could tie their hands when it comes to providing the safest and best care for women as laid out in guidelines from their professional boards.

"This really is not a pro-life or pro-choice issue," she said. "It's really about taking care of women in any and all circumstances they may find themselves in."

Fertility specialists, as well as patients and family members, have raised concerns that the passage of such laws could prevent fertility treatments. A Facebook group called Save IVF Nebraska created to advocate for continued access to fertility treatments in the state had 969 members on Friday.

A group of physicians concerned about the provisions in LB 933 recently formed the Campaign for a Healthy Nebraska group to provide information about such issues. "We feel as physicians that the public needs to get germane and relevant information from the source," said Dr. Stephanie Gustin, medical director of the Heartland Center for Reproductive Medicine in Omaha.

Proponents of LB 933 have said the measure 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.

But an ACLU of Nebraska attorney has noted that the language in a law, not the intent, is what matters.

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Nebraska's U.S. senators and others issued statements Friday about the Supreme Court decision that overturns Roe v. Wade, which generally allowed a pregnant woman in the U.S. to have an abortion.

U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb.: Americas work of becoming a more perfect Union is never over, but today  by righting a Constitutional wrong  the Supreme Court took a historic step forward. Roes days are over, but the pro-life movements work has just begun. This issue will now be debated in the 50 states, and a 330,000,000-person, continental nation will work through this debate in a way thats healthier than Roes one-size-fits-all, Washington-centrism. The pro-life movement is pro-baby, pro-mom, and pro-science. This cause is rooted in love, and now is the time to show it.

"... Lets support and love all pregnant women. Lets come alongside them and give the support they need. Lets support babies regardless of the situations they face and build communities around them that will love and cherish them."

U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb.: I have always supported pro-life policies that show compassion for women and their unborn children. Both conservative and liberal legal scholars have long questioned the legal reasoning in Roe v. Wade. The justices made the right decision in Dobbs vs. Jackson Womens Health Center by affirming that there is no constitutional right to abortion.

Todays ruling returns policy making decisions on this issue to state and federal lawmakers. Its going to take good faith and empathy to address it.

U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb.: Life is the most precious right, and todays decision in the Dobbs case affirms that. (The high court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization out of Mississippi effectively ends constitutional protections for abortion.)

"It does not outlaw abortion, but puts it in the hands of the elected representatives of the states and Congress. I know many have worked for decades to defend life, and today their prayers were answered. I urge all to respond with mutual respect, civility and grace.

Nebraska State Sen. Tony Vargas, a Democrat who is running for Bacon's 2nd District congressional seat: Politicians don't belong in doctor's offices making medical decisions. Women should make the decisions that are the best for them with their doctors. Today's ruling by the Supreme Court takes away an established right that protected Americans health and safety for nearly 50 years.

"Governor Ricketts has promised to call the Legislature back into a special session, and when he does I'm ready to keep fighting for Nebraska women and families to ensure their access to reproductive health care is protected."

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts: The Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe is an answer to millions of prayers on behalf of the unborn and a victory for human life. I will be working with our legislative leaders to determine what more we can do to protect our preborn babies.

Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert: "The Supreme Court ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade will not be the end of the decades-long fight that is important to so many people. States, including Nebraska, will now consider state laws to ban, restrict or expand access to abortions. I have always believed these decisions should be addressed at the state level with appropriate and clear laws that stipulate any restrictions or exceptions.

"... I am proud of my pro-life position and will advocate to further reduce the prevalence of abortion in our state. We also need to ensure we give equal focus to related matters that are often overlooked when discussing this issue such as adoption, pregnancy counseling, foster care, and expanded health care."

Omaha Archbishop George Lucas: "The Supreme Courts decision in the Dobbs case is a major victory for unborn children, for their mothers and for the cause of justice in our country. Citizens and their elected representatives in each state will now have the opportunity to guarantee the right to life for the child in the womb.

"Many in our country will not agree with the reasoning and the decision of the Supreme Court. And some women will still wonder how they can meet the challenge of an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy. This is a moment for each of us to commit to not let any woman face her challenge alone. In the Catholic community, we possess many resources that are well suited to support moms and their children."

Planned Parenthood North Central States, which covers Nebraska and Iowa: "The U.S. Supreme Court today struck down Roe v. Wade, dealing a devastating blow to reproductive freedom.

"... Abortion remains safe and legal in Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska, and todays decision will have no impact on patient care in those states. Our doors remain open."

Sarah Stoesz, president and CEO of the group, said, "We have a lot of work ahead of us. We are now living through an unmatched moment where our rights to bodily autonomy are being decimated and, therefore, our democracy is being threatened. Now is the time for every person who supports abortion rights to stand up and act.
Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade; states can ban abortion

WASHINGTON (AP)  The Supreme Court has stripped away womens constitutional protections for abortion. It's a fundamental and deeply personal change for Americans' lives after nearly a half-century under the court's landmark Roe v. Wade decision. Friday's new ruling is likely to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states. The ruling by the high court's conservative majority was unthinkable just a few years ago. It was the culmination of decades of efforts by abortion opponents, made possible by an emboldened right side of the court that has been fortified by three appointees of former President Donald Trump. The ruling came more than a month after the stunning leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito.

Biden vows abortion fight, assails 'extreme' court ruling

WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden is vowing to try to preserve access to abortion after the Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade. He's calling for voters to elect more Democrats who would safeguard rights upended by the courts decision. Short of that, his options are limited. Biden assailed the ruling Friday, saying other legal precedents ensuring same-sex marriage and access to birth control could also be at risk. He says, This is an extreme and dangerous path this court is taking us on." Republicans and conservative leaders are celebrating the culmination of a decades-long campaign to undo the nationwide legalization of abortion that began with Roe v. Wade in 1973.

Congress sends landmark gun violence compromise to Biden

WASHINGTON (AP)  The House has sent President Joe Biden the most wide-ranging gun violence bill Congress has passed in decades. The bill that passed the House on Friday is a measured compromise that at once illustrates progress on the long-intractable issue and the deep-seated partisan divide that persists. The Democratic-led chamber approved the election-year legislation with every Democrat and 14 Republicans voting yes. That caps a spurt of action prompted by voters revulsion over last months mass shootings in New York and Texas. The Senate approved it earlier by a bipartisan 65-33 margin, with 15 Republicans joining all Democrats. The White House says Biden will sign the bill Saturday morning.

Some US clinics stop doing abortions as ruling takes hold

Abortion bans that were put on the books in some states in the event Roe v. Wade was overturned have started automatically going into effect, while clinics elsewhere  including Alabama, Texas and West Virginia  have stopped performing abortions for fear of prosecution, sending women away in tears. America was convulsed with anger, joy, fear and confusion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe. The canyon-like divide across the U.S. over the right to terminate a pregnancy was on full display, with abortion rights supporters calling it a dark day in history, while abortion foes welcomed the ruling as the answer to their prayers.

With Roe over, some fear rollback of LGBTQ and other rights

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP)  The U.S. Supreme Courts decision allowing states to ban abortion is stirring alarm among LGBTQ advocates. They fear that the ruling could someday allow a rollback of legal protections for gay relationships, including the right for same-sex couples to marry. In the majority opinion issued Friday that overturns the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, Justice Samuel Alito said the decision applied only to abortion. But critics discounted that statement. In a separate concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas said the court should review other precedents, including decisions legalizing same-sex marriage and striking down laws criminalizing gay sex. A protester at a Topeka, Kansas, abortion-rights rally said conservatives would not stop with abortion.

How US states have banned, limited or protected abortion

The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that had provided a constitutional right to abortion. Friday's ruling is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states. In anticipation of the decision, several states led by Democrats have taken steps to protect abortion access. The decision also sets up the potential for legal fights between the states over whether providers and those who help women obtain abortions can be sued or prosecuted.

Ukrainian army leaving battered city for fortified positions

KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Ukrainian officials say their country's forces are withdrawing from a besieged eastern city to move to stronger positions. The industrial city of Sievierodonetsk, the administrative center of the Luhansk region, has faced relentless Russian bombardment. Ukrainian troops fought the Russians in house-to-house battles before retreating to a huge chemical factory on the citys edge, where they holed up in its sprawling underground structures with civilians. Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said Friday that the Ukrainian troops have been ordered to leave Sievierodonetsk, which has been reduced mostly to rubble and seen its population decline from an estimated 100,000 to 10,000.

Juul can keep selling e-cigarettes as court blocks FDA ban

A federal court has put a temporary hold on the government's order for Juul to stop selling its electronic cigarettes. Juul filed the emergency motion so it can appeal the sales ban from the Food and Drug Administration. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington granted the request later Friday. A day earlier, the FDA said Juul must stop selling its vaping device and its cartridges. The agency said Juul didn't give it enough information to evaluate the potential health risks of its e-cigarettes. In its court filing, the company disagreed, saying it provided enough.

Airlines aim to shift blame for flight problems to FAA

DALLAS (AP)  With an eye on the upcoming July Fourth weekend, airlines are stepping up their criticism of federal officials over recent widespread flight delays and cancellations. The industry trade group Airlines for America said Friday that understaffing at the Federal Aviation Administration is crippling traffic along the East Coast. The airlines say they are doing everything they can to keep customers happy, including hiring more pilots and customer-service agents. The airlines are pushing back a week after Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called them to a virtual meeting and threatened to punish carriers that fail to meet consumer-protection standards.

Lightning win Game 5, deny Avs chance to take Stanley Cup

DENVER (AP)  The Tampa Bay Lightning spoiled Colorados party to stay in the hunt for a third straight Stanley Cup title, beating the Avalanche 3-2 on Friday night in Game 5. Ondrej Palat scored with 6:22 remaining and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 35 shots in front of a raucous crowd hoping to celebrate the Avalanches first championship in 21 years. The Cup was all shined up and in the building, too. Its heading back to Tampa for Game 6 on Sunday night, with the Lightning down 3-2 in the best-of-seven series. Nikita Kucherov and Jan Rutta also scored for the Lightning. Valeri Nichushkin and Cale Makar had goals for Colorado.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Senate OKs landmark gun violence bill, House passage is next

WASHINGTON (AP)  The Senate has approved a bipartisan gun violence bill. The vote late Thursday clears the way for expected House passage Friday of what will be Congress most far-reaching response in decades to the nations run of brutal mass shootings. Republicans have long derailed Democratic efforts to curb firearms. But after last month's mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, Democrats and some Republicans decided that congressional inaction was untenable. It took nearly a month of closed-door talks but a group of senators from both parties emerged with a compromise embodying incremental but impactful movement.

Hearing: Trump told Justice Dept. to call election 'corrupt'

WASHINGTON (AP)  Former top Justice Department officials have testified to the Jan. 6 committee that President Donald Trump hounded the department to pursue his false election fraud claims. They say he contacted the agencys leader virtually every day and strove in vain to enlist the governments top law enforcement officials in his desperate bid to stay in power. The House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol also revealed Thursday that several Republican loyalists in Congress who trumpeted the presidents claims later sought pardons from the White House after the effort failed.

COVID vaccines saved 20M lives in 1st year, scientists say

Scientists estimate that nearly 20 million lives were saved worldwide by COVID-19 vaccines during their first year. In a study published Thursday, they say even more deaths could have been prevented if global targets for vaccines had been reached. Scientists at Imperial College London used data from 185 countries to estimate how many deaths were prevented by the vaccination effort. They excluded China because of uncertainty around the pandemics effect on deaths there and its huge population. There are a lot of limitations in modeling studies, but independent experts agree that vaccines saved millions of lives.

After Supreme Court gun decision, whats next?

WASHINGTON (AP)  The Supreme Court issued its biggest gun rights ruling in more than a decade Thursday. The justices said that Americans have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defense. Thats important because about half a dozen states have conditioned getting a license to carry a gun in public on the person demonstrating an actual need  sometimes called good cause or proper cause  to carry the weapon. In its decision, the Supreme Court struck down New Yorks proper cause requirement limiting who can carry a gun. Other states with similar laws acknowledged the decision would affect them. About one-quarter of the U.S. population lives in states expected to be affected by the ruling.

European Union makes Ukraine a candidate for EU membership

BRUSSELS (AP)  The European Unions leaders have agreed to make Ukraine a candidate for EU membership, setting in motion a potentially yearslong process that could draw the embattled country further away from Russias influence and bind it more closely to the West. Ukraine applied for membership less than a week after Moscow invaded on Feb. 24. The decision by the 27-nation bloc to grant Ukraine candidate status Thursday was uncharacteristically rapid. But the war and Ukraines request for fast-track consideration lent urgency to its cause. The EU also granted candidate status to Moldova, which borders Ukraine. Gaining membership could take years or even decades. Countries must meet a host of economic and political conditions, including the embrace of certain democratic principles.

Afghans bury dead, dig for survivors of devastating quake

GAYAN, Afghanistan (AP)  Villagers rushed to bury the dead and dug by hand through the rubble of homes in search of survivors after a devastating earthquake in eastern Afghanistan. Residents appeared to be largely on their own Thursday to deal with the aftermath as their new Taliban-led government and the international aid community struggled to help. State media said Wednesdays quake killed 1,000 people. An independent U.N. court said around 770 people had been killed in Paktika and Khost provinces. It's unclear how either sum was tallied given the difficulty of accessing or communicating with the affected areas, but the devastation was clear. Under a leaden sky, men dug several long trenches on a mountainside overlooking their village to bury the dead.

Uvalde victim's sister pleads for tougher gun laws in Texas

AUSTIN, Texas (AP)  The sister of a 9-year-old girl killed in the Uvalde school shooting rampage has tearfully pleaded with Texas lawmakers to pass tougher gun laws and questioned why so many security measures failed. Jazmin Cazares on Thursday begged lawmakers to do something. Her young sister Jacklyn was one of 19 children shot dead inside Robb Elementary School on May 24 before police stormed the classroom and killed the gunman. Two teachers also died. The gunman was a former student, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos. Cazares' testimony came as the U.S. Supreme Court announced a decision allowing a major expansion of gun rights, saying Americans have a right to carry firearms in public.

Hong Kongers reflect on Taiwan, an imperfect exile

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP)  Coming to Taiwan was a logical step for Lam Wing-kee, a Hong Kong bookstore owner who was held by police in China for five months for selling sensitive books about the Communist Party. An island just 400 miles from Hong Kong, Taiwan is close not just geographically but also linguistically and culturally. It offered the freedoms that many Hong Kongers were used to and saw disappearing in their hometown since Beijing launched a crackdown on pro-democracy activists. While Taiwan has seemed an ideal hub, many Hong Kongers struggle trying to navigate the immigration system and suspicion by the self-ruled island's authorities who worry about a constant threat from mainland China. Some have gotten their residency permits but others went on to the U.K. and Canada.

Summer swelter: Persistent heat wave breaks records, spirits

A heat wave that's already lasted more than a week keeps on baking the US, Asia and even the Arctic. At least eight US states Thursday hit 100 degrees, that's after 12 did that on Wednesday. Records keep falling. A city in the Russian Arctic hit nearly 90 degrees. This early summer heat wave looks and feels more like August. Scientists say it has all the hallmarks of climate change. In Macon, Georgia, the temperature ramped from 64 to 105 degrees on Wednesday and then hit 104, a further record, on Thursday.

Magic take Banchero 1st, Holmgren, Smith follow in NBA draft

NEW YORK (AP)  The Orlando Magic selected Duke freshman Paolo Banchero with the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft. After leading the Blue Devils to the Final Four in coach Mike Krzyzewskis final season, the 6-foot-10 forward was called first by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to begin the draft, beating out fellow first-year forwards Jabari Smith Jr. and Chet Holmgren. Banchero, wearing a purple suit full of bling, received a loud ovation inside Barclays Center, where Duke lost in the ACC Tournament final.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
An anti-abortion demonstrator, left, argues with an abortion-rights activist outside the Supreme Court in Washington on June 25, 2022. (Jose Luis Magana / AP)

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot lambasted the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade as a horrible tragedy and threatened legal tactics against other states who seek to punish those who travel to Illinois to receive abortions.

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As she spoke at Planned Parenthood Illinois offices hours after the U.S. Supreme Court ended nearly 50 years of constitutional protection for abortion, the mayors fury was just as pronounced as when the court majoritys draft opinion Wade was leaked last month.

But she also sought to reassure Chicagoans that abortion would remain accessible in the city.

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Im not going to tell you that today feels any less than what it felt then, but the thing I think that time and distance has given us is resolve, Lightfoot said. Were here not only to voice our opposition in our outrage to the Supreme Courts decision but to reassure our brothers and sisters all across the country that Chicago and Illinois will remain a safe haven for all who value justice in our country.

Lightfoot also addressed laws under consideration elsewhere that allow for criminal prosecution of those who get or help others get abortions out of state, or allow private citizens to bring lawsuits.

The mayor questioned whether such measures will stand up to court challenges and suggested she might seek to turn the legal tables.

Im going to use that same precedent to sue states, like Indiana, like other states that are bringing illegal guns into my city, into my state with reckless abandon and taking lives, so careful what you wish for, she said.

As anti-abortion groups and the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago celebrated the ruling, the mayor called it the culmination of a long, demented game that a certain faction in our country has been playing to hold power and dominion, particularly over women and people of color. But she promised the federal right to abortion can be won back and implored people to not lose spirit.

However you feel today, dont feel resigned. Feel resolved. Feel resolved to fight and to organize and importantly to vote, Lightfoot said. If Hillary Clinton had been the president, we wouldnt be sitting here having this horrible outcome in our country. If we had stood up and voted in the 2016 election, the horror of Donald Trump that we are still living through would not be something that we have to experience.

Lightfoot also echoed previous warnings that the latest decision jeopardizes other landmark rulings establishing LGBTQ rights.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks at a news conference on May 3, 2022, in the offices of Planned Parenthood of Illinois in reaction to the leaked draft decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Make no mistake about it: This decision today has much wider, and much larger implications, Lightfoot said. That means that we must make sure that were organized.

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The states Planned Parenthood president, Jennifer Welch, said Friday was a dark day and vowed the abortion provider will be prepared for the influx of people who will travel to Illinois.

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An additional 20,000 to 30,000 patients are expected to cross state lines each year to seek an abortion here, Planned Parenthood has projected.

I am furious that the ultraconservative justices have ignored half a century of settled law as well as the vast majority of Americans who believe that abortion should remain legal, Welch said. I want to be clear: Abortion is safe and legal in Illinois, and it will remain legal in Illinois.

Earlier in May, Lightfoot pledged $500,000 in city funds to support abortion access for residents and people from neighboring states in anticipation of Roe v. Wade being overturned. The money will go toward transportation, lodging, care and, if necessary, safe and legal access to an abortion procedure, Lightfoot had said.

The mayor clarified Friday that the $500,000 was merely a down payment and implored leaders in Springfield to boost those funds during the upcoming special session called by Gov. J.B. Pritzker. She noted that in addition to supporting increased demand, clinics may require added security.

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Illinois status as a haven for reproductive health care in the Midwest  where abortion rights are eroding in almost all neighboring states  is expected to be cemented following Fridays result. Pritzker in 2019 signed the Reproductive Health Act, guaranteeing the fundamental right to terminate a pregnancy in state law.

Across the U.S., about half the states will likely see abortion bans imminently.

Roe was struck down Friday when the Supreme Court voted 6 to 3 to uphold the legality of a 2018 Mississippi law that banned abortion past 15 weeks gestation. In the absence of the 1973 landmark case that guaranteed the right to terminate a pregnancy, the matter of abortion law falls to the states.

The final opinion from Justice Samuel Alito says that Roe and a 1992 decision that reaffirmed abortion rights, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, were wrong and that the Constitution does not guarantee the right to abortion because it should be decided by the political branches. He was joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, the latter three being appointees of former President Donald Trump.

Chief Justice John Roberts also voted with the majority but said he would have stopped short of dismantling the right to abortion outright, while liberal Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan dissented.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.

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ayin@chicagotribune.com
The Supreme Court says that a high school football coach who knelt and prayed on the field after games is protected by the Constitution. It's a decision that opponents say will open the door to much more coercive prayer in public schools. The court ruled 6-3 for the coach with the courts conservative justices in the majority and its liberals in dissent. The justices in the majority emphasized that the coachs prayer happened after the game was over. The liberal justices in the minority said there was evidence that the coachs prayer at the 50-yard-line had a coercive effect and it let him incorporate his personal religious beliefs into a school event.
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP)  Gov. Andy Beshear took action Thursday to combat any signs of price gouging at the pump, touting it as a consumer protection measure amid sky-high gas prices straining Kentuckians' budgets.

The Democratic governor signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency in response to gas prices hovering close to $5 per gallon. His action activated Kentucky's price gouging laws.

With his action, Kentucky consumers can report suspected price gouging at the pump to state Attorney General Daniel Cameron's office.

Beshear said every little bit helps in trying to offer relief to consumers reeling from soaring fuel prices. He acknowledged a governor's options are limited in dealing with global economic unrest.

Cameron responded by urging Kentuckians to alert his office about any signs of price gouging.

But the hot-button issue reflected the political tension between the Democratic governor and the Republican attorney general who wants his job.

Beshear wrote to Cameron in early June asking if the topic of gas prices warranted investigation.

In a recent reply, Cameron blamed Democratic President Joe Biden's energy policies for the nation's rising fuel prices. Cameron accused Biden of pursing an extreme green agenda.

Cameron told Beshear that issuing a state of emergency would offer minimal  if any  additional relief to Kentuckians. But he pledged to fully enforce the price gouging laws.

Beshear offered a public reply at his weekly news conference Thursday.

I believe strongly that even minimal relief is better than no relief, the governor said.

Cameron's letter said his office had already been monitoring gas prices in Kentucky, and that 263 complaints had been logged with his office since the start of 2022.

Its the kind of give-and-take that Kentuckians can expect as the political banter heats up going into the 2023 statewide elections in the Bluegrass State. Cameron is among several candidates seeking the GOP nomination for governor next year, when Beshear will seek a second term.

The governor has taken other steps to try to offer relief to Kentuckians battered by rising prices.

Beshear recently took action to freeze Kentuckys gas tax, preventing a 2-cent-per-gallon increase that would have taken effect July 1. The action is expected to save Kentuckians an estimated $35.4 million. In February, the governor took executive action to grant relief to Kentucky taxpayers hit with pandemic-related increases in their vehicle property tax bills.

Beshear touts the states economic development gains during his term. He has landed the states two largest economic development projects ever  both battery plants.

The governor said Thursday that Kentucky's unemployment rate has fallen to historic lows in back-to-back months. And the state has the fewest number of residents drawing unemployment benefits since 2000, he said.

Republican House Speaker David Osborne later said that the jobless rates show that the pro-worker, pro-job policies enacted by the state's GOP-dominated legislature are working.

This announcement is not the result of press conference promises or ceremonial actions, but rather the hard work, difficult decision making, and forward-thinking leadership of legislators who know firsthand how heavy-handed government overreach harms the people of Kentucky, Osborne said.

State GOP spokesman Sean Southard, meanwhile, pointed to an aluminum producer's decision to temporarily idle its smelter in Hawesville, Kentucky, as a result of skyrocketing energy costs

Governor Beshear loves to say Kentuckys economy is on fire, and thanks to the Biden-Beshear agenda, nothing could be more true, Southard said in a statement.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
In the wake of the Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, lawmakers are poised to further restrict abortion rights in Republican-controlled South Carolina  which is not one of the 13 states with trigger laws banning abortion.

Shortly after the ruling, Republican Gov. Henry McMaster said he would immediately work with members of the state legislature, where the fight over the future of abortion rights in the state has already begun.

Although McMaster signed a bill last year banning most abortions after six weeks, a federal appeals court blocked the law from taking effect in February. The state attorney generals office asked the court to lift its injunction Friday.

In the General Assembly, lawmakers passed a resolution before the legislative session ended that would allow a return for possible abortion-related measures. The state House has already established a committee to consider further restrictions to prepare for this day, according to House Majority Leader David Hiott.

For Hiott, the states pending six-week ban isnt enough.

I want to ban it altogether, the Republican lawmaker told The Associated Press on Friday.

State Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto said he had introduced a bill protecting abortion rights in South Carolina  though he doesnt expect the legislature to return for at least a few weeks.

But state House Minority Leader J. Todd Rutherford said he is doubtful Democrats will be able to block whatever measures the states Republican majorities put forth.

I hold out no hope that I will prevail given the activist judges on the Supreme Court and the members of the General Assembly that could care less about a womans right to choose, Rutherford said.

A spokesperson for McMaster declined to name specific restrictions the governor would like to see passed but said he expects the General Assembly to take up anti-abortion legislation in the coming months.

Vicki Ringer, the director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood South Atlantic SC, confirmed that appointments are still being scheduled for next week in Charleston and Columbia.

Her organization will do so "for as long as we can for as many people who need our help, Ringer said in a direct message.

Twenty-two states have already enacted total or near-total abortion bans  all of which had been blocked by courts before Friday, save for Texas' law.

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James Pollard is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow James Pollard on Twitter.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP)  The family of an unarmed Arkansas teenager fatally shot by a sheriff's deputy during a traffic stop filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against the deputy and a county sheriff over the teen's death.

The family of Hunter Brittain filed the lawsuit against Michael Davis, a former sergeant with the Lonoke County sheriffs office, and Lonoke County Sheriff John Staley on the one-year anniversary of the 17-year-old's killing. Davis was convicted in March of negligent homicide, a misdemeanor, and sentenced to a year in jail in Brittain's death. He has appealed that ruling.

The lawsuit accuses Davis and Staley of violating the teen's constitutional rights and seeks unspecified damages.

Robert Newcomb, an attorney for Davis, said he had not seen the lawsuit but did not believe there was a strong case that Brittains civil rights had been violated.

The sheriff's office did not immediately return a message seeking comment on Thursday.

Brittain was killed outside an auto repair shop near Cabot, a city of about 26,000 people roughly 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of Little Rock.

Davis testified earlier this year that he fired at Brittain after the teen didnt comply with his commands to show his hands as he exited his truck and reached into the bed of the pickup. Brittain was holding a container  which his family members have said held antifreeze  and no evidence of firearms were found in or near the truck, investigators said.

A passenger who was with Brittain and another witness have testified they didnt hear any commands from the deputy before he shot the teen. Brittains family members have said he was grabbing the container to place behind the trucks wheel to stop it from rolling backward and hitting Davis' vehicle.

The failures of former deputy Davis and the Lonoke County Sheriff are extensive, disturbing, and directly caused the tragic and preventable death of Hunter Brittain," Ben Crump and Devon Jacob, attorneys for the family, said in a statement.

Davis was fired by Staley in July for not turning on his body camera until after the shooting. During his trial, Davis emotionally recounted the fatal shooting.

I didnt get into this job to kill people, he testified in March.

The fatal shooting of the white teenager had drawn the attention of civil rights activists nationally who said the killing highlighted the need for interracial support for police reforms. Davis is white. Brittain was eulogized last year by the Rev. Al Sharpton, as well as Crump and Jacob, who represented the family of George Floyd.

The plaintiffs in the case also include the father of the teenage passenger who was with Brittain the night of the shooting. The lawsuit accuses another deputy who responded of violating the teen's rights by holding him in custody in handcuffs for three hours.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
RENO, Nev. (AP)  Counties across Nevada on Friday certified the last outstanding results of the states June 14 primary election after critics questioned the tallies by describing their own experiences at the polls and repeating conspiracy theories that nearly derailed certification in New Mexico last week.

Esmeralda County, Nevadas least populated, became the last to certify its countywide results Friday night less than two hours before a midnight deadline.

But it wasnt before two county commissioners and a few election workers spent more than seven hours hand-counting all 317 ballots in the courthouse in Goldfield  an old mining town halfway between Las Vegas and Reno.

Everything matches, Esmeralda County Commissioner Ralph Keyes said when he and Commissioner Timothy Hipp briefly reconvened to formally canvass the vote and approved it 2-0.

Nevadas other 16 counties already had certified the primary results and sent their formal canvass report to the secretary state.

The largest, Clark in Las Vegas and Washoe in Reno, were among those that provided their stamp of approval earlier Friday despite opposition from members of the public who made unsubstantiated claims about suspicions of fraud and manipulated voting machines.

The process of counties certifying election results has historically been a routine and ministerial task, reviewing the work done by local election officials to verify the accuracy of the vote count.

But these meetings have become the latest flashpoint in efforts to cast doubt on elections in the U.S. after a rural, Republican-led county in New Mexico last week initially refused to certify citing unspecified concerns about their voting equipment.

In Esmeralda County, where a tie in a deadlocked election for the county commission in 2002 was broken by a draw from a deck of cards, some confusion over the tally for Nevada's unique option to vote for None of these candidates contributed to delays Friday night.

District Attorney Robert Glennen told the commissioners when they convened Friday after postponing action scheduled Thursday that he found nothing in state law that either specifically permitted or prohibited them from doing a hand recount.

Its a gray area. You guys do it if you want to do it, he said.

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, a Democrat seeking re-election in the western battleground state, hadnt decided how the state would proceed if any county refused to certify the results or missed Fridays 11:59 p.m. deadline because it had never happened before, his spokesman John Sadler said on Thursday.

Sadler didn't immediately respond to requests for comment late Friday.

In Reno, commissioners heard from several residents who said they objected to state law sending mail ballots to every registered voter. Some complained of receiving multiple ballots in their name or for people no longer living at their address, arguing this was proof of fraud and the election was corrupt.

But there are multiple checks built into the system, including signature verification and ballot tracking to ensure that one person can only cast one ballot that is counted. Election officials said Friday they do not count more than one ballot.

In Clark County, upset voters complained about a lack of transparency when ballots were tallied and problems with the state's voter rolls, including some who said their party affiliations were changed. Others talked about being directed to specific voting machines if they were registered as Republicans.

Resident Charles Bossert said he received multiple ballots, but knew it was illegal to cast more than one so he only voted once. He asked commissioners to stand in the gap and do what is right.

As a community, it feels like none of the votes count and democracy is dying in a lack of transparency, Bossert said. This is really a pivotal moment.

County Registrar of Voters Joe Gloria reported more than half of the 288,683 ballots cast were by mail and only a fraction of 1% involved discrepancies that ranged from voters going to the wrong precinct to people changing their party affiliation after submitting a mail ballot.

Helen Oseguera, a Republican candidate for county assessor, called the commissioners liars and cheaters.

The audience erupted with boos after the unanimous vote to certify, and people promised court action to challenge the election.

Commissioners in Nye County expressed what Chairman Frank Carbone called a little bit of concern about the process but approved the results on a 4-1 vote.

Just too many issues, Vice Chairman Leo Blundo said as he cast the no vote.

The 2020 election continues to dominate public discourse around voting and elections in the U.S., as Trump supporters and allies repeat claims without evidence that the presidency was stolen from Trump.

At one point during the Washoe County debate, a woman in the audience chanted Biden cheated, Biden cheated! as a speaker mentioned former President Donald Trumps claims about a stolen election. One man wore a Biden is NOT my president cap while he urged commissioners not to certify.

Nearly two hours after the meeting began, commissioners voted 4-1 to certify results.

Even before the November 2020 election, Trump was telling his supporters that fraud was the only way he could lose, pointing mostly  and without evidence  to the expansion of mail-in voting during the pandemic.

In the months since, the claims have been dismissed by dozens of judges, by Trumps attorney general at the time, and by a coalition of federal and state election and cybersecurity officials who called the 2020 vote the most secure in U.S. history.

But the false claims prompted commissioners last week in rural Otero County, New Mexico, to initially refuse to certify results from their June 7 primary. After a showdown with the secretary of state and an order by the New Mexico Supreme Court to certify, the commissioners voted 2-1 to sign off on the election and avert a broader crisis.

The delay in Nevada's Esmeralda County  where Trump won 82% of the vote in 2020  occurred amid distrust by voters fueled by unfounded voting machine conspiracies that have spread in the U.S. over the past two years.

Esmeralda County Clerk-Treasurer LaCinda Elgan said called the primary absolutely safe and fair.

Election experts say hand-counting of ballots is not only less accurate but extremely labor-intensive, potentially delaying results by weeks if not months in larger counties. They also say its unnecessary because voting equipment is tested before and after elections to ensure ballots are read and tallied correctly.

Under Nevada law, if there's a tie after a recount the winner is determined by lot  a coin flip, roll of a die, draw of cards or straws. Democrat R.J. Gillum broke his 107-107 deadlock with Republican Delores Dee Honeycutt for Esmeralda County commissioner in November 2002 when each drew a jack from a deck in the courthouse in Goldfield  but his was a spade, which trumped Honeycutt's diamond.

This story has been corrected to show that Esmeralda County is Nevada's least-populated county, not smallest.

Associated Press writers John Locher in Goldfield, Nevada, Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Christina Almeida Cassidy in Atlanta contributed to this report. Stern is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
LAS VEGAS (AP)  Elected officials in one rural Nevada county decided Thursday to postpone until Friday certifying results of the 317 ballots cast in their jurisdiction during the states June 14 primary election.

The decision in Esmeralda County, the least populous county in the state, comes a week after lawmakers in a Republican-leaning rural New Mexico county initially refused to certify their primary election results.

Esmeralda County Commission Chairman De Winsor and Vice-Chairman Timothy Hipp responded to complaints about the voting process with a promise to recount the votes themselves before an end-of-day Friday deadline set in state election law.

The grassroots effort starts right here, Winsor said midway through a contentious 90-minute meeting at which the three-member commission in the Republican-leaning county met to sign off on the results of the vote. This is where we proved we do it right.

Hipp was out of town and participated in the meeting by teleconference. He said he could be back in the county seat, Goldfield, by 2 p.m. Friday to begin counting ballots. Audio of the meeting was streamed on the internet.

County District Attorney Robert Glennen III advised Winsor and Hipp that they could suspend the meeting to reconvene Friday at 2 p.m. He said they have until 11:59 p.m. under state election law to finish.

The third commissioner, Ralph Keyes, said he was already willing to accept the count of the vote conducted by county officials  including a hand-count on Wednesday by county employees of the 177 paper ballots and paper records of 140 ballots that county Clerk-Treasurer LaCinda Elgan said were cast by machine.

In a telephone interview, Elgan noted that a deputy clerk, Michelle Garcia, administered the primary because Elgan was on the Republican ballot for reelection. She drew 57.5% of the vote.

Elgan called the primary in Esmeralda absolutely safe and fair.

One vote cast on one ballot was unintelligible, she said, but all ballots were tallied and reported. None was rejected.

It did not appear the number of votes in question could affect results of primary contests that chose candidates for federal and state offices including U.S. Senate, Congress, governor, state attorney general and the top elections official in Nevada, the secretary of state.

State attorney generals office spokesman John Sadler confirmed that Nevada law sets 11:59 p.m. Friday as the deadline to certify results of the June 14 primary, and said any hand-count of ballots before then would be considered part of the county canvass process. Sadler said that to his knowledge, no Nevada county had ever refused to certify results.

State law makes county lawmakers roles ministerial only, Attorney General Aaron Ford said in a Wednesday statement responding to questions from AP. If county commissioners or elections officials refused based on posturing designed to undermine faith in our democratic process, the statement said, the state will proceed with legal options.

Facing the Friday deadline, eight rural Nevada counties have certified the primary vote, including Lyon County on Thursday afternoon. Canvassing is scheduled Friday in Esmeralda and eight others including Clark, covering the Las Vegas area; Washoe covering the Reno area; and Nye, a Republican-leaning county including Pahrump and Tonopah.

The results from Nevada's 17 counties go to the secretary of state, who cannot reject or otherwise not accept the results, said Jennifer Russell, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican.

If a Nevada county refuses to certify, we would work with the (state attorney generals) office to determine a path forward, Russell said.

The standoff in Nevada bore echoes of concerns raised in rural New Mexicos Republican-leaning Otero County, where commissioners stalled before splitting their vote and approving election results. Officials there cited unspecified concerns with Dominion voting systems, a target of widespread conspiracy theories since the 2020 presidential election.

New Mexico's Democratic secretary of state appealed to that states Supreme Court to intervene before two commissioners relented  complaining that they felt they were little more than rubber-stamps.

The three commissioners in Esmeralda voted in April to join commissioners in neighboring Nye County calling for elections to be conducted using paper ballots  and without Dominion machines. Elgan and the elected county clerk in Nye County, Sam Merlino, both said they did not believe it was feasible to stop using electronic voting machines this year.

In email and in-person comments protesting the Esmeralda County primary vote, resident Mary Jane Zakas made no reference to New Mexico.

But she alleged that hot dog tongs could have breached ballot boxes that she said didnt meet security standards; that partisan workers drove ballots from a remote polling place to Goldfield; and that a Dominion representative provided assistance to an election worker. Zakas said that showed the poll worker wasn't properly trained.

Elgan and Garcia responded that the worker was trained, but the Dominion representative was there to help. The county clerk said no computer malfunctioned.

Zakas also alleged in her email that the vote could have been flipped or tampered with during the five minutes she said a poll worker carried a thumb drive from a vote tally computer out of a room.

In audio streamed from the meeting, Elgan and Garcia responded that a printer was in the other room. Elgan said a printer will be installed in the counting room for the general election.

Weve got a problem. People dont trust the system, Zakas told the commissioners. Weve got a situation where a lot of people are really concerned about the safety of their votes.

Esmeralda County, a former mining boom area, is about halfway between Las Vegas and Reno. It is home to fewer than 1,000 residents. Nearly 54% of the county's 621 active registered voters are Republicans, according to the Nevada Secretary of State, and more than 25% are non-partisan.

President Donald Trump won 82% of the vote in Esmeralda County in 2020.

This story has been updated to correct that no computer malfunctioned. This story also was updated to correct that the last name of the county district attorney. He is Robert Glennen III, not Glennon.

Associated Press writer Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada, and Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed to this report.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP)  The U.S. Forest Service issued a draft environmental assessment Thursday to lay the foundation for a proposed 20-year moratorium on copper-nickel mining upstream from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

Formally, the proposal would withdraw from new mineral leasing for 20 years about 352 square miles within the Rainy River watershed in the Superior National Forest around the town of Ely. The plan threatens to doom the proposed Twin Metals mine near Birch Lake, which drains into a river that flows into the Boundary Waters. But it would not affect a separate project, the proposed PolyMet mine near Babbitt and Hoyt Lakes, which lies in a different watershed.

The Forest Service plans to start a 30-day comment period Tuesday when it publishes a notice in the Federal Register. The assessment was posted on the project website at go.usa.gov/xtaCw. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland will make the final decision on whether to approve the moratorium.

The proposed mineral withdrawal aims to prevent further negative environmental impacts from future mining operations, the Forest Service said in its announcement of the draft. It also evaluates the impacts of future mining on important social, cultural, and economic values.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, who represents a St. Paul-area district and is sponsoring legislation to permanently ban copper-nickel mining in that area, welcomed the study, as did environmental groups that have been fighting the Twin Metals project for years. They say the risk of acid mine drainage poses an unacceptable threat to the country's most-visited federally designated wilderness area.

McCollum said in a statement that the draft makes it clear that sulfide-ore copper mining in the Superior National Forest is a toxic threat to the Boundary Waters. This pristine, precious wilderness demands permanent protection. The EAs scientific foundation leaves no doubt: it is simply too risky to mine in this location.

But Twin Metals said in a statement that the study was not informed by science and contradicts the goals of the Biden administration to ensure domestic accessibility of copper and other minerals needed for the renewable energy economy.

We remain confident that we will move this project forward, responsibly source clean energy minerals and bring 750 family-sustaining jobs and 1,500 spinoff jobs to the communities of northeast Minnesota, the company said.

Republican U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber, who represents northeastern Minnesota, where iron mining is a major industry, said the Biden administration politicized the review to kill Twin Metals instead of evaluating the project on its own merits.

Biden and his fellow elitist Democrats in Washington and St. Paul are denying my constituents of our way of life, Stauber said in a statement. Joe Biden has made his position clear: hed rather have foreign and child slave labor produce minerals instead of American union miners working to deliver Minnesotas mineral wealth to the nation and world using the best environmental and labor standards.

Twin Metals is owned by the Chilean mining company Antofagasta. The proposed $1.7 billion underground mine was in the very early stages of the permitting process until the state Department of Natural Resources pulled the plug on its own environmental review in February, citing the companys loss of the federal leases.

The environmental assessment released today provides a strong scientific foundation for a 20-year ban on copper mining near the Boundary Waters, Becky Rom, national chair for the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters, said in a statement. It is deeply rooted in peer-reviewed science, law, and established federal public lands policy, and validates the concerns of local residents and the American people about the risk sulfide-ore copper mining poses to the Wilderness."

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
All four members of Nebraskas congressional delegation voted against a bill intended to curb gun violence in the U.S., saying they were concerned that the legislation would impinge the rights of law-abiding citizens.

Supporters of the legislation, which heads to President Joe Biden for his approval, dismissed that concern as unwarranted and stressed the need for action in the wake of deadly mass shootings, including one that killed 19 children and two teachers at a Texas school and another that killed 10 people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York.

The claims were not enough to win support from Sens. Deb Fischer and Ben Sasse and Reps. Don Bacon and Adrian Smith, all Republicans.

The $13 billion measure would toughen background checks for the youngest gun buyers, keep firearms from more domestic violence offenders and help states put in place red flag laws that make it easier for authorities to take weapons from people adjudged dangerous. It would also fund local programs for school safety, mental health and violence prevention.

While the members of Nebraskas delegation expressed support for some elements of the legislation, those aspects were not enough to override their concerns.

My vote today was constitutionally based, not politically based, Bacon said in a statement Friday after the vote in the House. There was much in this bill that is commendable, but the Red Flag portion opens up consequences I cannot support.

Bacon, whose district includes Omaha, pointed to recent court rulings  including Thursdays U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down a New York law that restricted peoples ability to carry concealed weapons  as signals that the legislation would be found unconstitutional. However, he said, he supports the mental health and school security provisions in the bill.

Fischer also supported some aspects of the legislation but had concerns it would infringe on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens  an argument echoed by gun lobby groups that opposed the legislation.

I appreciate that this bill contains funding for expanded mental health services and enhanced school security  these are important ways to help keep our kids and communities safe, Fischer said in a statement. However, I have serious concerns about other parts of the legislation that would infringe upon law-abiding citizens second amendment rights and limit due process. I cannot support this bill.

Sasse voiced support for legislation proposed by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and John Barrasso, R-Wyo. That bill, which called for rededicating more than $38 billion in American Rescue Plan Act money toward enhanced school security and mental health resources, would have been a more responsible step to achieve the goals of the gun violence bill without compromising constitutional rights, Sasse said in a statement.

He said action to combat gun violence should focus on the mental health issues that are at the root of mass shootings committed by deeply troubled and suicidal young men while ensuring strong due process protections.

Unfortunately, the way this bill has been hastily drafted, it accomplishes the first but not the second, and I cannot support it, Sasse said.

Smith, whose sprawling district includes most of the state, said the bill would not achieve the goal of stopping senseless and heartbreaking acts of violence.

Ive heard from many Nebraskans who are concerned about their constitutional rights, he said in a statement Friday. I know the members of the Senate who negotiated the bill  and my Republican colleagues who supported it in the House  have good intentions, but I am seriously concerned parts of the bill, particularly the red flag provisions, are too broad and could have unintended consequences on Americans who are not a threat.

The votes in both the Senate and House received some level of bipartisan support, though less in the House where 14 Republicans joined every Democrat in the 234-193 vote Friday. In the Senate, 15 Republicans joined all 50 Democrats in passing the bill 65-33 on Thursday.

The measure, as multiple senators noted Thursday, fell well short of what some Democrats had called for. It also required some concessions from Republicans, though those who voted in favor of the package disputed claims that it infringed on the rights of Americans.

This bill does not take away the rights of any law-abiding American, Sen. Joni Ernst, a Republican from Iowa who voted for the bill, said in a statement Thursday: Every American wants to keep our kids and our schools safe and provide folks access to mental health treatment, and this proposal helps do that without placing new restrictions on law-abiding gun owners.

Ernsts fellow Iowan in the Senate, Republican Chuck Grassley, voted against the bill. In a statement, he commended the bipartisan group of senators who negotiated and managed to produce an agreement on a difficult issue.

Much of their legislation is good, but I have very specific concerns about safeguarding constitutional due process rights that prevent me from supporting the bill in its entirety, Grassley said.

The bill would make the local juvenile records of people age 18 to 20 available during required federal background checks when they attempt to buy guns. Those examinations, currently limited to three days, would last up to a maximum of 10 days to give federal and local officials time to search records.

People convicted of domestic abuse who are current or former romantic partners of the victim would be prohibited from acquiring firearms, closing the so-called boyfriend loophole.

That ban currently only applies to people married to, living with or who have had children with the victim. The compromise bill would extend that to those considered to have had a continuing serious relationship.

The measure expands the use of background checks by rewriting the definition of the federally licensed gun dealers required to conduct them. Penalties for gun trafficking are strengthened, billions of dollars are provided for behavioral health clinics and school mental health programs and theres money for school safety initiatives.

There would be money to help states enforce red flag laws and for other states without them for violence prevention programs. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have such laws. Nebraska is not one of those states.

In his statement, Bacon specifically called out the funding piece for the red flag programs and violence prevention measures.

Biden has said he will sign the bill.

This report includes material from the Associated Press.

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A group of Illinois top Democrats Thursday pitched to have the state become one of the first five in the nation to hold the partys 2024 presidential primary elections.

The elected officials stressed to a Democratic National Committee panel that Illinois racial, ethnic and geographic diversity, as well as strong support for unions and progressive causes, makes it an attractive state for an early primary.

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But they also had to defend Illinois reliably Democratic vote for president against a desire by national Democrats to showcase a competitive battleground state. They also were put on the defensive by party leaders concerned about Chicagos costly media market and that constant battles between the Chicago Teachers Union and City Hall might become side issues party presidential candidates would be forced to address.

Illinois is one of 16 states, as well as Puerto Rico, seeking the early-state, pre-Super Tuesday status as Democrats redo their presidential calendar. Initial primary states would benefit from media exposure as well as campaign and media spending.

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Iowa, the home of the traditional first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses, appears likely to lose its leadoff position due to Democrats desires to favor primary elections over caucuses. Other early states  New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada  are expected to keep their early positions, leaving a Midwest state a priority with DNC officials looking for regional balance.

Michigan and Minnesota also are regional contenders but, unlike Illinois, are considered to be truer presidential battleground states. In addition, Democratic voters are more widely dispersed throughout Michigan compared to Minnesota and Illinois.

But Illinois currently holds Democratic supermajorities in the General Assembly, while Michigan and Minnesota would need approval from its GOP-controlled legislatures to move the primary date.

Illinois senior U.S. senator, Dick Durbin, told the DNCs Rules and Bylaws Committee, that the states geographic makeup offers a true substantive test for presidential contenders.

Senator Dick Durbin outside Stroger Hospital in Chicago on June 3, 2022. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

Are you good at urban politics? Well find out in Chicago. How are you doing in suburban areas where the women are making the big difference? Well prove that point for you in Illinois as well. How about the middle ground? There is not much of it, but theres some of it. Weve got plenty of it in Illinois. And, when it comes to conservative and rural small town America, weve got plenty to offer, Durbin said.

At the end of the Illinois primary, youll know the winners and the losers, but youll also be able to separate out the sections of the state and impact these candidates and their messages have in those areas, he said. Thats as good as you can get in the earliest primaries.

U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly of Matteson, the state Democratic Party chair, noted the states Democratic voters are not an establishment monolith, citing Hillary Clintons narrow 2 percentage point win over U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in Illinois 2016 presidential primary.

U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly of Matteson speaks at the Illinois Democratic County Chair's Association brunch in Springfield before Governor's Day at the Illinois State Fair on Aug. 18, 2021. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)

And Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza, the first Latina elected to statewide office, said Illinois has twice the minority population of Michigan and blows every other state out of the water on our diversity.

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Were an almost exact mirror image of the nation as a whole, an exact match on race and an incredibly close match on every other measured category, she said, referring to education, age, income and religion. We look like America. We talk like America. Southern Illinois is the south.

Jake Lewis, the state partys deputy director, said Chicagos media market was not cost prohibitive compared to other major cities, but that it would present candidates with a challenge that they should be forced to meet.

We need to put Democratic candidates to the test early and so lets test them out in a state like Illinois. Lets make sure that they can raise the resources, they can deploy the resources, they can build the coalitions to win, he said.

State Comptroller Susana Mendoza speaks during the Cook County Democratic Committee slating meeting on Dec. 14, 2021, at IBEW Local 134. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers and a member of the partys Rules and Bylaws Committee, told the Illinois delegation that Chicago is a very interesting place where there are local issues that then get played out in the national campaign.

She cited labor disputes between the CTU and Chicago mayors, adding that, I would have hoped that it was simply restricted to Rahm (Emanuel) and the CTU but it seems to be a continuing oration in Chicago under Lori Lightfoot.

How do you ensure that this is about the presidential election as opposed to all these other issues, Weingarten asked.

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Lewis didnt directly address the question. Instead, he called the state absolutely union proud and said backing for the early primary date, as well as for a bid to get the partys 2024 presidential nominating convention for Chicago, were backed by the state AFL-CIO and the Chicago Federation of Labor.

Illinois isnt a state where unions are on the defensive trying to stop Republican encroachment or join the race to the bottom. We are proud. We are aggressive, he said. Nobody knows better than you in this room the power unions have in Illinois and Chicago and we feel like Chicago is the capital of the Midwest and that what happens in Chicago, what happens in Illinois, radiates out to other states in the Midwest.

In addition to Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, other states making pitches to the DNC panel are Iowa, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Texas and Washington.

The Rules and Bylaws Committee is expected to make its recommendations for early-voting states in late July or early August with a full vote by the DNC expected in late summer or early fall.

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LEROY  When most people think of farming in Central Illinois, they tend to think of the usual corn and soybean crops lining the sides of interstates.

But between 40 acres of farmland in LeRoy, one local woman has converted a 2-acre plot into a lavender grove.

I think its beautiful to look at, its beautiful to smell and its just so relaxing and peaceful, said Jeanne Howard, owner of Two Sisters Lavender, a farm that provides fresh and dried lavender and various lavender-based products.

Growing five different kinds of lavender, Two Sisters Lavender  named for Howard and her sister, who lives out of state  has been cultivating the flowering plant for over 10 years, learning from how it grows to make sure the conditions are near perfect.

Howard said lavender is part of the mint family and is easily identifiable from its sweet floral scent. The origin is believed to be from the Mediterranean, Middle East and India, with a history that goes back some 2,000 years and can be traced within the history of the Roman Empire.

After the first few years of owning the land, Howard said she has been able to turn over about 1,000 plants each year, though she only has about 650 plants this year since the weather has been changing so frequently.

She then takes the crop and creates lavender-based products including air fresheners, bath salts, sachets, creams, tea leaves, syrups, vinegar and even a lavender spray that has been known to be the perfect natural bug repellent, Howard said.

Howard sells her products every Saturday at the Downtown Bloomington Farmers Market, but also hosts Farm Visit Days, such as the one this Sunday, where visitors can come out to the farm and pick their own lavender while enjoying the outdoors.

You have to harvest it bud by bud, so its very time consuming, which is another reason why we love to have people come out and pick their own, Howard said. They get the experience of it and we have less to pick.

Howard inherited the farmland with her husband, Ron McKinney, in 2009, after her mother died. The land has been in her family since the 1880s, when her great-grandparents owned it.

The couple are both retired professors from Illinois State University, with McKinney having taught photography and Howard having run the Center for Adoption Studies in the School of Social Work.

I studied the effects of loss and trauma on children, and it was a difficult kind of thing to do, Howard said. It was important work, but it was hard to see what children endure, particularly kids that are in the foster care system.

In a way, the farm has become a relaxing escape not just for the couple, but for others who are familiar with the farm.

For our family, the farm is a place for our kids to feel free, but also a place where my husband can just sit in a rocking chair and relax, said Angie Walaara, a digital projects manager of special collections at the University of Illinois' University Library. Every time we leave, its always been a positive experience and we feel closer after each visit.

Walaara said she has known Howard and McKinney since she went to school at ISU and McKinney was her photography professor.

Having stayed close to them over the years, Walaara said she knew about the farm and would visit with her husband and two children as much as they could, oftentimes to check in or show some love to Abby the farm dog.

I cant say that I really had a relationship with lavender as a flower or anything before they started growing it, Walaara said. But you then start having an affection for the scent because its related to the positive experience with them or being at the farm.

Farm Visit Day Sunday, June 26, at Two Sisters Lavender farm, 30990 E. 100 North Road, in LeRoy.

Drive until you see the white barn house and the open grove.

Starts at 10 a.m. and runs until 2 p.m.

Families and friends are invited to pick their own lavender and try some lavender lemonade.

No entry fee. Folks just pay $5 for each bunch they pick.

Picnic baskets are welcome.

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DOWNS  Fire gutted much of a small house Thursday evening in Downs and sent one woman to the hospital.

Downs firefighters were called shortly before 7 p.m. to an L-shaped, one-story house at 108 Woodlawn St., which is about a block north of Tri-Valley High School. They arrived to see thick, black smoke and flames shooting out of windows on the east and north sides of the house.

"The heat was so vibrant that you couldn't stand on the street" in front of the house, said Downs Fire Chief Josh Guin.

A woman was home alone at the time, and her daughter was away. Guin confirmed reports that she was taken from the scene by ambulance, but he had no details on her condition.

He said one dog escaped the fire, but he could not confirm friends' and neighbors' reports that other pets died in the fire.

The Illinois State Fire Marshal's Office was contacted to investigate the cause, Guin said, estimating the damage to be about $100,000.

He said firefighters had the blaze under control in about 25 to 30 minutes, and he credited their quick response for saving the small addition on the west side of the house and the detached garage. About two-thirds of the main part of house appeared to be gutted.

"It's a miracle the roof is still standing," he said.

Neighbors said they were alerted to the fire when they heard the woman screaming for help. Some said they heard small explosions, like fireworks, before flames burst through the plate-glass living room window on the east side.

"It was very quick," said neighbor Dawn Lilley. "Once the front window blew out it went even faster."

The heat melted the vinyl siding on a house to the north and did lesser damage to the house to the south, but neither sustained interior damage, Guin said.

Firefighters from LeRoy, Bloomington Township and Heyworth-based Randolph Township assisted at the scene, Guin said.

Contact Roger Miller at (309) 820-3233. Follow him on Twitter: @pg_rmiller

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CLINTON  Opening a bakery is a popular dream for kids in The Vaults culinary career exploration class held this past week.

Connie Unruh, treasurer and a volunteer with the organization, said she knew at least a few of the kids hoped to have their own bakery someday. The class gave them a chance to learn how culinary businesses work, from what it takes to run an operation to some of the kitchen skills they'd need to get into the industry.

The Vault is a community space for students in sixth through 12th grades, located on the square in Clinton. It provides events, adult mentorship and services like tutoring, as well as giving kids space where they can meet up with friends and make new ones.

Owen Rexshell, 14, is already known in the community for his pies, Unruh said.

Rexshell, who will begin his freshman year this fall, has been going to The Vault since he was in sixth grade. He also volunteers at the cafe on site, which is open for the kids who are visiting.

Its really nice, he said. Yeah, we dont get paid, but it teaches us a lot about work ethic, and how to treat customers.

Cadence Wyatt, 12, also volunteers at the cafe. She said it is fun, but can get stressful during the school year when there are more customers. Like Rexshell, she said she would like to open a bakery someday, inspired in part by a friend of her mothers who runs a bakery business out of her home.

Campers were working Friday morning to put together an appreciation luncheon for The Vaults supporters, helped by pastor and chef Paul Stroup, who preaches at Clinton Presbyterian Church.

Earlier in the week, the kids visited Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican restaurant in town, and made breakfast quesadillas. They also visited Dairy Queen to learn what it's like to own a fast-food franchise and to try their hands at making their own soft-serve cones.

They didnt realize how hard it is to get that little twist and the cure at the top, Unruh said.

Layne Miller, 13, said students learned a lot of safety skills, throughout the week, as well as soft skills for how to run a business.

We learned how to be a good boss and everything, how to stay calm in sticky situations, he said.

A Taco Bowl Tuesday event during the culinary week brought in around $700 for the organization, Unruh said.

Founder, and now community connections coordinator, Michelle Witske said The Vault offers its programming for free, adding it could not exist without support from the community. The Vault opened in 2018 and, along with the summer career camps, offers services like tutoring, as well as times when kids can come just to hang out.

Its just fun and I get to hang out with friends, Layne said.

The goal is to support students and give them opportunities so they don't just spend all their time on their phones or playing video games, Witske said. She hopes it helps students going through mental health troubles, something she said has been on the rise visibly in the Clinton community.

The adult mentors at The Vault are all trained in mental health first aid, she said. If they notice something wrong, they can then refer the student and their family to mental health professionals.

At the same time, she wants The Vault to be a place where kids can learn more about themselves and what they want to do with their lives. The Envision U Career Camp Weeks are a part of that, she said.

We give them as many opportunities as we can for them to discover who they are, she said.

The camps let students be more intentional about what they plan to do after high school, Unruh said. Other camps this summer include construction and trades, theater arts and law enforcement.

Sometimes we stumble into a career, and sometimes we choose a career, she said.

She hopes The Vault helps equip kids with the knowledge and skills they need to choose the career that will be best for them.

The Vault is open to students in sixth through 12th grades, with more information and the form to sign up at thevaultclinton.org.

Contact Connor Wood at (309)820-3240. Follow Connor on Twitter:@connorkwood

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Reaction came swiftly in Central Illinois on Friday to the news that the U.S. Supreme Court had overturned the constitutional right to abortion, with abortion opponents celebrating a long-pursued victory while advocates vowed not to be silent.

We are not surprised, but we are angry, said Jill Blair, who organized a protest at the McLean County Museum of History. And we're not going to back down.

Over 100 people attended the demonstration at noon Friday, hours after the ruling was announced. Some held up homemade signs; several grew emotional as they addressed the gathered crowd, with some expressing concern about what decisions might lie in the high courts future.

All of our liberties are tied together, Luisa Gomez told the protesters at the museum. That means same-sex marriage is on the table. That means the Civil Rights Act is on the table. That means everything is on the table, and until we really look inside and at our neighbors and recognize that we are all tied together, we will continue to be oppressed, suppressed, marginalized, by 1% of our population. And Im not going down by 1%.

For some abortion opponents, too, the day was an emotional one. This decision comes as part of a decades-long effort by activists and conservatives.

As a person who supports pro-life, theres still a lot ahead, but this is an encouraging first step, said Connie Beard, chairman of the McLean County Republican Party.

While abortion access has been codified in Illinois and Gov. J.B. Pritzker has initiated plans to expand access, Beard said she hopes that even in Illinois action will be taken to end unrestricted abortion for the sake of the innocent children whose lives are being lost.

Pretty disturbing

Carol Koos, president of the Central Illinois chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said she found the ruling pretty disturbing.

Speaking on a personal level and not for the ACLU, she recalled the days before effective contraception was available and abortion was legal. When that situation changed  in part because of the landmark 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade  Koos said it was just amazing.

As a child of the 1950s, she remembered how women were shamed for becoming pregnant outside of marriage  and also punished. Koos said they were sent away, often to a womens home, and referred to as a woman of ill repute. If they did become pregnant while married, she said, theyd have to quit their jobs.

Today, Koos said, the government is doing very little to help people have children.

Daycare is exorbitantly expensive, she said, and American family leave policies are horrendous, in contrast with some enforced in some other countries.

Koos encouraged anyone in support of abortion rights not to give up, to attend rallies and speak to their congressional representatives. Youre never too small to make a difference, she said, and if you think you are: Have you ever tried to go to sleep with a mosquito in the room? Be that mosquito that keeps them awake at night.

Blair, the protest organizer, said she tells people to vote like your life depends on it, because it might. To her, Roe v. Wade meant a right to her own bodily autonomy.

It means the right to make decisions about my health care, Blair said. That should be private, between myself, my husband if I decided to include him, my partner, family and doctor  not the government.

Taking an innocent life

Beard said she echoes many Republicans appreciation for the Supreme Court decision giving individual states the power to determine the legality of abortion access.

I believe personally, as well as I think the vast majority of Republicans believe, it is the right decision to make, she said. The power of the state to determine certain parts of our society structure should be maintained and controlled, and I think the Supreme Court decision returns that back to the states and rightfully so.

Beard said she is hopeful the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is leading us down a path of acknowledging that unrestricted abortion is not the right path for a society to take.

She said with this ruling, the Republican Party hopes to start making progress toward a more reasoned, better approach for how we deal with the needs of mother, which understandably the mother is experiencing great need in making this action, taking this step. Trying to develop ways to answer that need, I think, will be a big step to helping eventually eliminate the need for abortion. That would be my personal goal, that we can find a way in our community, in our society to eliminate the need for abortion because its taking a life. That has to be something we value. That should not be taking place; its taking an innocent life.

During past trips to the annual March for Life held in Washington, D.C., Central Catholic students have demonstrated against abortion. However, Central Catholic spokesman Scott Vogel on Friday declined to speak about the ruling, instead pointing to Bishop Louis Tylkas statement from the Diocese of Peoria.

Tylka said Fridays ruling is not the last word in this matter but it is a significant moment in the effort to work toward a greater respect for life, especially the lives of unborn children.

From the very beginning, the Church has clearly proclaimed the sanctity of human life  from conception until natural death, Tylka said. As Catholics and as Americans, we must continue to be a voice that defends life  in all its stages and from all its threats  so that we can truly build a culture of life in our country and in the world.

Tylka also added that all people should support efforts that offer material, emotional, and spiritual support to families and to women with unplanned pregnancies, as well as the efforts to offer ongoing support and care for children.

Its real

Patrick Cortesi, chair of the McLean County Democrats, said he was thankful to live in Illinois, a state where we are able to protect women and their rights.

He said he imagines more people will come to Illinois for reproductive care in the future.

A situation like this shows the importance of voting Democrat, Cortesi said.

He warned that Republicans would try to restrict Illinoisans access to reproductive care. The first thing they would do is overturn any protections weve had in place.

At Fridays rally, Kathy Todt held up a protest sign stating: Freedom! Equality! Choice!

I don't know what we're gonna do about this, but it's pretty bad, she said.

Todt said its frightening to think that after 50 years, the country is returning to a time without Roe v. Wade.

To her, the landmark ruling had meant that a woman in a situation where she doesn't feel she can have a child, she would have resources to help with that decision to end that pregnancy.

Her husband, Franz Todt, noted its a fundamental freedom and there are others in the crosshairs.

Weve watched this for 40 years in a slow evolution, but now its happening, Frank Todt said.

Its real, his wife agreed.

Brendan Denison, Mateusz Janik, Jack Alkire and Kelsey Watznauer contributed reporting.

Contact Brendan Denison at (309) 820-3238. Follow Brendan Denison on Twitter: @BrendanDenison

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100 years ago

June 24, 1922: A proposal for a swimming pool in O'Neil Park was made by Commissioner John Welch. Children in the area need a swimming place, he said, as the water in Sugar Creek where they have been bathing is polluted by the city sewers. The water could be derived from the fountain, he said, and the pool could be open to children without charge.

75 years ago

June 24, 1947: Pontiac farmer Vernon Shoop has taken up toy-making as a hobby since his discharge from the army. Trucks, wagons, doll furniture and toy farm implements have been turned out in Shoop's workshop; he has solved some of the shortage problems by using old dynamite case for lumber and making some of the tools himself.

50 years ago

June 24, 1972: Ethel Nolder walked out of Illinois State Penitentiary at Pontiac after his sentence was commuted by Gov. Richard Ogilvie. Nolder had violated his parole, related to a Bloomington larceny conviction, and lived under a different name for 38 years, before turning himself in at the Pontiac prison on June 13, 1972.

25 years ago

June 24, 1997: More than 1,500 students are taking part in the Bands of America Summer Band Symposium at Illinois State University. Students and instructors spend their days honing their skills hoping to make themselves and their school bands better. "This is like a giant shot of adrenaline in the arm for me," said Brian Lackey, a band director from Bedford, Indiana.

Compiled by Pantagraph staff
Gov. J.B. Pritzker is calling a special legislative session next month to consider additional pro-choice legislation in wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling overturning the constitutional right to an abortion.

Pritzker on Friday called the court's reversal of Roe v. Wade an "abhorrent decision" that "contradicts the nation's history of expanding rights."

"Privacy rights are being eviscerated right before our very eyes," the first-term Democrat said at a Chicago press conference. "If they can take away your ability to control your own body, there's not much that stops them from making marriage equality illegal and taking away employment protections for your beliefs or your orientation."

"We are headed down a dangerous spiral that will erode our democracy," said Pritzker, who will face an opponent of abortion in November regardless of the outcome of Tuesday's primary election. All the candidates running in the GOP primary for governor have taken anti-abortion positions.

Up to 26 states could see abortion banned or several restricted, including every state surrounding Illinois.

Abortion will remain legal in Illinois due to a series of laws passed in recent years, including the Reproductive Health Act of 2019, which enshrined reproductive health care  including abortion access  as a fundamental right in the state.

But, Democratic lawmakers are eager to act and, in Pritzker's words, "more firmly protect womens reproductive rights in Illinois and address the challenges posed by this radical Supreme Court decision."

Pritzker declined to say what specific measures he would like the legislature to take up, but said it could include "expanding the availability of health care professionals" to handle the coming influx of out-of-state patients.

This could include allowing advanced practice clinicians such as nurse practitioners and physician assistants to perform in-clinic abortions. Currently, they can only prescribe abortion-related medication.

Another is House Bill 1464, which would prevent a licensed doctor in Illinois from being disciplined in Illinois if another state suspends or revokes their license for performing an abortion. It passed the House but wasn't considered by the Senate before they adjourned earlier this year.

Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, and House Speaker Chris Welch, D-Hillside, both indicated support for a special session.

"Together, we are committed to taking swift action to further enshrine our commitment to reproductive health care rights and protections," Pritzker said.

However, state Republicans bristled at the need for one, noting that abortion remains legal in Illinois regardless of the court's decision.

"Illinois Democrats have already passed the most progressive abortion laws in the country, including allowing a minor child to get an abortion without notifying their parents," said House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs. "This ruling will do nothing to protect those young girls in Illinois."

Illinois Senate Minority Leader Dan McConchie, R-Hawthorn Woods, accused Pritzker and Democrats of wanting "to push Illinois to the utter extreme on abortion policy."

"This is clearly not what mainstream Illinoisans want," McConchie said. "While the governor is calling for a special session to act on these and potentially other extreme measures, Illinoisans are trying to deal with soaring prices and massive grocery bills that are leaving families hopeless. Instead of dealing with these vital issues, Pritzker is embracing an extreme agenda that will make Illinois an outlier even amongst the most liberal states."

The Republican candidates for governor have all come out against abortion, though their reactions to Friday's ruling somewhat varied.

Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin said he would continue to fight to reinstate parental notification of abortion, but said that "with Democratic majorities in the Illinois General Assembly, this Supreme Court ruling will have no effect on the law in our state."

State Sen. Darren Bailey, R-Xenia, said he would also seek to reinstate PNA and would "work to remove taxpayer-funded abortion" in the state.

Venture capitalist Jesse Sullivan said he is the only GOP candidate to trust to be anti-choice if elected.

My record on life is one I work to live every day  as a parent to two foster children and five children of my own," Sullivan said. "As a true outsider, my faith and my values serve as my north star, not the polls or political donors."

Businessman Gary Rabine said that if he is elected, he would seek to "ensure that abortion is never legal in Illinois.

Specific dates for the special session were not immediately released, but many expect it to occur following the July 4 holiday weekend.

Here is a sampling of the reaction from Illinois elected officials and activists:

Terry Cosgrove, CEO of Personal PAC

Roe was overturned because we lost elections. Now that they have defeated Roe on a national level, anti-choice extremists are coming for pro-choice states like Illinois. Protecting Illinois will come down to electing pro-choice leaders in the Illinois Supreme Court, Governorship and General Assembly in the 2022 election. If we do not win in 2022, Illinois could see the end of abortion access and the enactment of laws similar to those in Texas and Oklahoma."

Amy Gehrke, executive director of Illinois Right to Life

"Today is an absolutely joyous day for the most innocent members of the human family and their mothers. Thanks to the courts bold action, countless lives will be saved. Here in Illinois our work is just beginning thanks to our radical laws, but today is a day of celebration."

Democratic Party of Illinois chair U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Matteson

In states across the nation, this decision ends the right for millions of women to access safe reproductive health care. However, the right to safe, accessible abortion is still legal here in Illinois. Illinois Democrats have enacted some of the strongest reproductive health access laws of any state in the nation, and we will continue to serve as a haven for women across the Midwest and the country who need access to abortion."

Illinois Republican Party Chair Don Tracy

"Today, millions of prayers have been answered. Abortion is a very difficult and controversial topic in which real lives  of both mothers and babies  are deeply affected. Because of this monumental ruling, the regulation of abortion is now being left to individual states as it should be. I support our state party platform that values the dignity of all life, from conception to natural death, and applaud the six Supreme Court Justices who had the courage to be real judges instead of judicial legislators. Judges should interpret the law, not make law.

U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville

This is a historic and incredible day for Life and the unborn in America, a day that all of us in the pro-life movement have been praying for and working towards. The Supreme Court was absolutely right to overturn previous, wrongly-decided abortion decisions. Nothing in the Constitution confers the right to an abortion. As a pro-life lawmaker with a 100 percent pro-life voting record, I have advocated for years that the Court overturn Roe.

U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Peoria

"As a father of three and a Pro-Life advocate, I applaud the Supreme Court's decision in the Dobbs case, returning the question of abortion to the states and to the people. In Congress, I stood proudly with the growing Pro-Life movement to advocate for the Supreme Court to reconsider Roe v. Wade, and this decision is a huge victory for the sanctity of life.

U.S. Rep. Mary Miller, R-Oakland

"A joyous victory for Life! The end of Roe is the beginning of a new chapter, where we embrace a culture of life with a reverence for all of God's children. I applaud President Trump, who delivered on his promise of a Court that would honor the Constitution and our sacred right to life. Please join me in praying for all the unborn victims of Roe v. Wade and for the women who have been deceived by the cruel abortion industry

Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park

"This decision turns the clock back to a time when women did not have autonomy over their own bodies and died trying to access health care. Over the past few years, we took many steps in Illinois to affirm a womans right to make decisions about her own body."

"As long as there is a Democratic majority in the Illinois State Senate, we will continue to protect those rights.

Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch, D-Hillside

"Im grateful that in Illinois weve prepared for this day. Thanks to strong women and fierce advocates we have codified reproductive health care into law, and we will always trust women to make their own health decisions."

"Today our nation is taking an enormous step backward but, regardless of what any conservative judges say, in Illinois we will never waver in our fight to ensure every person has the right to safe, accessible reproductive care.

Contact Brenden Moore at 217-421-7984. Follow him on Twitter: @brendenmoore13

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SPRINGFIELD  Trevor Noah, host of The Daily Show, is the latest celebrity announced to appear at this years Illinois State Fair. Hell perform a stand-up comedy routine on the Grandstand stage on Aug. 19.

To be able to secure a big name in comedy to round out our 2022 grandstand lineup is something we are really excited about, said Illinois State Fair manager Rebecca Clark. This is one of our most diverse lineups in years.

Other big names slated to appear at the state fair include Demi Lovato on Aug. 13, Brooks & Dunn on Aug. 14, Willie Nelson & Family on Aug. 16, and Shaggy & TLC on Aug. 17. This years theme for the Illinois State Fair, which runs Aug. 11-21 in Springfield, is Grow with Us and aims to celebrate the state fairs traditions while also embracing growth.

IF YOU GO: 8 p.m. Aug. 19 at the Illinois State Fair, 801 E. Sangamon Ave., Springfield; tickets range from $43-$110 and went on sale Thursday at ticketmaster.com

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Ryan D. Nelson is a model of a modern anti-regulation conservative and culture warrior. As a Justice Department lawyer under President George W. Bush, he oversaw that administration's campaign to go easy on polluters and roll back environmental rules.

In a 2007 case, he argued that tuna should be labeled "dolphin-safe" even if caught in nets known to cause millions of dolphin deaths. In private practice, he filed a brief for seven states arguing that governments shouldn't be forced to upgrade their buildings in conformance with the Americans With Disabilities Act if the changes would cost money. His argument in the first case was rejected by an appellate court, and in the second by the Supreme Court.

Nelson's waffling about the human contribution to global warming at a Senate hearing on his nomination by President Donald Trump to a top Interior Department post prompted Trump to withdraw his nomination in 2018.

Instead, Trump named him to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over California and seven other Western states.

The Republican Senate confirmed him, and he sits on that court today. In May, he was the author of a 2-1 majority opinion declaring unconstitutional California's ban on the sale of semiautomatic weapons to those under 21.

Trump was able in his sole term to fill 28% of the 816 federal judicial seats, including 30% of the appellate judgeships and three of the nine Supreme Court seats, giving the latter court a potent 6-3 conservative majority. In this effort he was abetted by a Republican Senate majority that refused to fill open seats under President Obama and hastened Trump's appointees onto the bench.

The GOP's blocking of Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court is the best-known example of Republican obstruction, but once it gained a Senate majority it slow-walked Obama's nominations to the rest of the appellate bench, yielding a surfeit of vacancies for Trump to fill.

A majority of Americans favor stricter gun safety regulations, but those are also threatened by a pending ruling on New York regulations.

Wide-reaching goal

Trump outsourced the naming and vetting of Supreme Court candidates to the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group founded during the Reagan presidency and funded by the Koch network.

Trump's goal was to move appellate courts, not only the Supreme Court, to the right. He succeeded in three circuits: the Philadelphia-based 3rd, flipped from a majority of Democratic appointees to Republicans; the New York-based 2nd, which also flipped from a Democratic to Republican majority; and the 9th, which covers California and eight other states and with 29 active judges is the largest appellate court in the country.

Trump's influence may be most notable at the 9th Circuit. At the end of the Obama administration, the court was split 18 to 7 in favor of Democratic appointees. Trump's 10 appointments to the court reduced the Democratic majority to 16 to 13. Biden has appointed three new judges to the court, but all replaced Democratic appointees.

Two of the new appointees rattled their colleagues with their obliviousness to traditional court decorum. One, Lawrence VanDyke, a former solicitor general in Nevada and Montana, earned an unusual "not qualified" rating from the American Bar Assn., which found him to be "arrogant, lazy, an ideologue, and lacking in knowledge of the day-to-day practice, including procedural rules."

During the pandemic, Trump-appointed judges often overturned state and local regulations aimed at limiting potential super-spreader gatherings such as indoor religious services. They kept alive a lawsuit filed by Texas and other red states to declare the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional (an argument ultimately rejected by the Supreme Court).

Trump judges have voted to narrow the access of prison inmates and business employees to healthcare and disability benefits. They have turned a blind eye to state regulations aimed at undermining voting rights and overturned anti-discrimination laws designed to protect LGBTQ rights.

When it comes to another front-burner issue  gun control  Trump judges have been all-in on expanding gun rights and overturning state and local firearm regulations.

Young selections

The likelihood that Trump's stamp on the federal judiciary will persist doesn't derive only from the sheer number of his appointees occupying the bench.

Trump also picked relatively young judges, whose judicial careers might last for three or four decades or more. The average age of Trump's appointees to the appellate circuits was 47, five years younger than those selected by Obama.

Perhaps inevitably, Trump's younger nominees came to the bench without significant judicial experience or even lawyerly seasoning. One example is Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, a federal judge in Orlando, who issued a widely ridiculed ruling striking down the federal mask mandate for airlines and other public transportation on April 18. The Biden administration is appealing the ruling.

Mizelle was appointed in 2020 at the age of 33 by Trump after he had already lost reelection, becoming one of the youngest appointees to the federal bench in history. She was confirmed on a party-line vote despite being deemed unqualified by the American Bar Assn., in part because, having graduated from law school in 2012, she did not have close to the 12 years' legal experience the bar considered the bare minimum for a federal judge.

At the time of her nomination, Mizelle had participated in only two cases to the point of reaching a verdict  both as a legal intern, before she even had graduated from law school or obtained a law license.

The extreme rightward shift of the Supreme Court has already begun to erode the court's public standing.

The Pew Research Center found in February that only 54% of respondents had a favorable view of the court, down from 69% in mid-2019, according to several opinion polls. "Current views of the court are among the least positive in surveys dating back nearly four decades," the Pew pollsters reported.

Other poll results are even more dire  the Gallup Organization reported last year that Americans disapproved of the court's performance by 53% to 40%.

This isn't the first time that the court moved so far apart from public opinion that its credibility was jeopardized. In the 1930s, Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes perceived a decline in the court's public standing resembling today's.

Seeking to curb the court's open hostility to New Deal and other progressive initiatives that had given birth to Franklin Roosevelt's 1937 court-packing scheme, Hughes orchestrated a reversal of the court's previous invalidation of a state minimum wage law by persuading one justice to change his mind. The "switch in time that saved nine" helped to torpedo FDR's plan.

It doesn't appear, however, that Chief Justice John Roberts has the same influence over his colleagues that Hughes exercised. In part, that's because the conservative majority is larger than in the 1930s and it's composed of more obdurate ideologues.

It's unclear what could shift the Supreme Court toward the center, other than persistent Democratic control of the White House and Senate and the passage of time. The American political and constitutional systems do not offer many options to change the ideological direction of a body endowed with lifetime appointments, other than expanding the size of the court or imposing term limits on justices.

Michael Hiltzik is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times.

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As Ive been telling my newsletter subscribers for several weeks now, talks began in mid-May about a possible special state legislative session to address the abortion issue.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Senate President Don Harmon and House Speaker Chris Welch had some brief chats about bringing legislators back to town back then. Illinois is already an abortion rights oasis in the region, but the Democratic leadership wants to do more, so they talked about possibly having the legislature submit a constitutional amendment for voter approval in November to protect abortion rights. They also talked about passing some additional legislation that would, for instance, make sure abortion providers are protected from retaliatory action by other states (like revoking licenses, for instance).

Democratic state Senators then met privately about the issue and their leadership eventually decided to wait until they saw what exactly the U.S. Supreme Court did about the topic.

Then, in mid-June, as the deadline for the U.S. Supreme Court was fast approaching to issue its ruling on overturning Roe v. Wade, Democratic Senators were again surveyed on when they could come to Springfield for a special session. The following week, just ahead of the Supreme Courts striking down the decades-old precedent, House members were polled. Gov. Pritzker announced that hed call a special session the day the high court finally acted.

As I write this, Senate Democrats have been advised to keep open July 6 and 7 as possible return dates.

So, what will they do?

Planned Parenthood of Illinois has a list of demands that is worth looking at as a possible roadmap. The groups political arm, Planned Parenthood Illinois Action, recently told its supporters that abortion rights are meaningless without the resources to access abortion, and their list reflects that belief.

For instance, they want the state legislature to allow nurse practitioners to provide early abortion procedures. According to the group, doing so would quickly expand the pool of qualified providers.

The group also wants to streamline the process for out-of-state health care professionals to be licensed and credentialed in Illinois, to help increase the number of abortion providers. Gov. Pritzker said on the Meet the Press Now program that perhaps as many as 30,000 people a year will travel to Illinois to receive an abortion, which is up from 10,000 last year.

We're going to need to expand capacity in our state, Pritzker said. We're going to need to make sure that we have the healthcare personnel that are necessary to perform these procedures and to guarantee that medical abortion is available.

Despite campaign claims by several House and Senate Democratic legislators that the General Assembly fully funded Planned Parenthood earlier this year, the group wants a lot more state money spent on things like helping providers to build capacity in existing and new locations.

Planned Parenthood also wants the legislature to provide funding for practical and logistical support for patients who face barriers to access because they have to travel, calling the money essential to ensuring that people can access abortion.

Gov. Pritzker told reporters last week that the state doesnt provide direct subsidies to people coming from other states, saying folks who come from other states benefit from the capacity building that we do, from support that we provide to providers.

The idea of subsidizing travel and even temporary housing for out-of-staters could be a tough sell in the General Assembly, even among many pro-choice Democrats. But I was told by the governors office that nothing is yet off the table.

Something that Planned Parenthood hasnt asked for but is being actively discussed is a non-binding statewide referendum on the topic this November, now that its too late to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot. The question could be as simple as asking voters if they want a constitutional amendment to protect reproductive rights. It would have the benefit of helping Democrats drive voter turnout.

But Planned Parenthood issued several warnings last week that made clear it wanted more than a few feel-good measures, including an official telling a St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter that if the governor wants to join the ranks of other haven states that are truly protecting access and putting money behind that promise, then [funding] is a critical component of that work.

In other words, political moves and simple changes to state law will not be enough for Planned Parenthood. And so the Democrats have now somehow found themselves looking at a potential political minefield during the special session instead of what they likely thought would be a quick and easy layup.

Rich Miller publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and CapitolFax.com.

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Hoping elections bring GOP success

A recent letter to the editor lambasted good Congressman Darin LaHood and explained his vote against him. However, the author fails to understand that this is, or was, only a primary election, which elects candidates within the political parties as the law provides. So I would ask the author to learn a bit about legalities and elections, as well as anyone who supports that type of thinking (wrongly) about LaHood.

Perhaps this letter was an effort in vain to breed unrest about Trump, because he fears Trump will return to the White House. Or to energize the Democrats against good American traditions and values, which the GOP is the best party to defend those according to the constitution. The arrogant January 6 committee continues this silly political theater, giving a weird aura of political hate. ABC News decided to pair up with the committee on June 9 but failed to garner good ratings.

Democrat leaders know time is precious until the lame duck session starts in November until January 2023, when Nancy Pelosi will be fired as speaker. And once again, the whole political environment will change dramatically in our nations capital.

As a careful thought, President Trump is not legally charged with insurrection or traitorous activities, and of course he survived two failed attempts of impeachment. The left liberal media companies are in alliance with propaganda from Democrat leadership. The writer of the letter claimed majority Americans hate Trump, which is not proven. He should carefully have stated that majority Democrats hate Trump.

I solicit readers to carefully balance truth and propaganda. I can only patiently and hopefully wait for Tuesday, Nov. 8. The real test of democracy proves itself out in the general election. I believe the proof will be a scourge of red, hopefully.

Leon Kaeb, Bloomington

Questions surround arming teachers

I was a teacher for the state of Illinois for 33 years. Back in the old days when fire drills and tornado drills were the security concerns of the day. I have been retired for 20 years so this may make my opinion moot to some.

Since the terrible slaughter at Robb elementary school in Uvalde, the NRA held their national convention in Houston. Former President Trump, Senator Ted Cruz and governor Kristi Noem of S.D. spoke at the convention. They all supported the NRA position of no gun regulations. They all called for in one form or another that more armed people in schools or arming teachers would be the answer to protecting our children.

Cruz, in his speech, blamed gun regulation problems on elites who dominate our culture. Ted Cruz, your kids go to a school that has annual tuition of $32,000. How elite does that make you, Ted?

Recently the ability to save the children and teachers at Uvalde may have been lost due to the failure to act by trained armed response law enforcement people. Their reasons for inaction that resulted in lives lost are being investigated and the reports have not been completed.

Those states that had teachers leave the field due to COVID restrictions will see a mass exodus if they push to arm teachers to protect students as suggested by Trump and others. Trained police response failed at Uvalde. If teachers are ridiculously made to arm what difference will it make? If trained police wont go in?

Are substitutes to be firearm trained? Bus drivers? Should the teachers wear the firearm on their person? Will firearms be supplied by the teachers or the school boards? Who will be liable if a collateral death occurs in defense of other students?

Larry Sears, Normal

Bailey-Smith the right choice

I will vote for Karla Bailey-Smith, Democrat running for state representative of the new Illinois 91st District.

I have known Karla for many years, and she will be an enthusiastic, knowledgeable and dedicated representative for our district. She has become familiar with the issues that are important to the people of the 91st, whether they are urban, suburban or rural residents. She has spent many hours over decades advocating with the state legislature for specific issues that will improve the lives of people who have run into a roadblock that only government can overcome.

Her platform is based on these issues:

the importance of supporting working families and unions;

promoting gun safety;

defending womens reproductive rights;

protecting our natural environment for future generations;

supporting public education and providing for the needs of all children in the classroom, regardless of their background, religion, sexual orientation, race, or physical or mental abilities and/or challenges.

If this sounds like a candidate you may want to represent you in Springfield, I encourage you to visit her website, karla4il.org, and then to vote for Karla in the June 28 primary.

Kathy Packard, Normal

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Hanoi landfill temporarily closed due to overloading

Xuan Son Landfill in Hanoi's Son Tay Town has stopped receiving waste from June 23 due to overloading.















Xuan Son Landfill in Son Tay Town







Deputy director of the Hanoi Urban Environment Company (URENCO), Pham Cao Thang, on June 23 sent a letter to the city's Department of Natural Resources and Environment and Department of Construction informing they would temporary stop receiving waste at Xuan Son Landfill in Son Tay Town the same day as it was reaching full capacity.

According to URENCO, the overloading at Xuan Son Landfill had seen storage ponds holding wastewater from buried rubbish at the landfill reach over 70,000 cubic metres by June 23.



"We will have to stop receiving more waste wastewater from spilling over into surrounding areas that could threaten the local environment and the operation of the landfill," Thang said.



Xuan Son Landfill is currently dealing with 1,750 tonnes of rubbish a day which is 230 tonnes higher than capacity.



At present, the capital has two landfills, Xuan Son and Nam Son, which are treating some 5,000 tonnes of waste daily by burial. Both of these landfills have constantly operated beyond their capacity and are now already overloaded.



Meanwhile, the Soc Son Waste-to-Energy project in Nam Son Waste Treatment Complex that was expected to deal with 90 percent of waste at the Nam Son Landfill failed to finish construction last September as expected.



The VND7 trillion (USD303 million) project started construction in late 2019 and once completed, it would be the largest in Vietnam and the second largest in the world with a capacity of handling 4,000 tonnes of dry solid waste per day.



Speaking with the Tien Phong Newspaper, a representative from the project investor, the Hanoi-based Thien Y Environmental Energy JSC, said that they faced difficulties in employing staff due to the recent Covid-19 outbreak.
Art museums and galleries in Shanghai have been busy getting ready to reopen their doors after three months because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Yuz Museum has been working with overseas collectors and agencies on the extension of the contract for borrowed artworks appearing in the exhibition of Yoshitomo Nara, the largest showcase of the Japanese artist's work in China. The event, originally scheduled to take place from March 5 to Sept 4.

According to Sun Yuanchen, director of marketing and business development of the Yuz Museum, about 30,000 "early bird" tickets were sold before the museum was forced to close on March 9 due to the recent COVID-19 outbreak. Although the museum offered a refund, the majority decided to hold on to their tickets.

"As such, we want to extend the exhibition for as long as possible to make sure people can view it," says Sun.

The museum also introduced an online shop selling merchandise linked to featured artists during the lockdown as a means of connecting with art lovers.

"We wanted to reach as many people as possible, so we set a limit for each person to buy no more than two items. Even though no merchandise could be shipped during the lockdown in April and May, the sales were beyond our expectations. The buyers are from all over the country," says Sun.

Later this year, the museum will launch a new art space in Qingpu district and hold an exhibition featuring painter Ivy Haldeman from the United States at its main venue on the West Bund.

Yuz Museum was founded by Chinese-Indonesian entrepreneur Budi Tek. An avid collector of contemporary art, Tek founded the Yuz Foundation in 2007 before turning an old airplane hangar on the city's West Bund into a museum in 2014. Tek, who played a leading role in introducing contemporary Asian art to the global stage, died on March 18 following a fight with pancreatic cancer. He was 65.

Long Museum, another private museum on the West Bund, also had exhibitions postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

In March, the museum announced three upcoming exhibitions: the retrospective exhibition of Yuan Yunsheng, featuring the artist's creative journey starting from the 1950s, as well as solo exhibitions of Chinese artist Shen Xiaotong and US painter Jennifer Guidi. These exhibitions will open later.

Southern Zhang and Northern Qi, a highly anticipated exhibition that was originally scheduled to take place from April 3 to June 5, will open later this month at Long Museum.

The showcase will feature more than 50 pieces of artwork from two leading 20th century figures of Chinese ink art: Zhang Daqian (1899-1983) and Qi Baishi (1864-1957). Some paintings will be making their first public appearance at the show.

Last November, Shanghai's Tix-Media announced a five-year pact with Uffizi Galleries, one of the oldest and most famous museums in the world. Starting this year, the two will jointly present 10 exhibitions at Bund One Art Museum over the coming five years.

On Sept 9, the first exhibition, Uffizi Self-Portrait Masterpieces, will open to the public and run to Jan 8, 2023.

Fifty self-portraits by famous artists, including classical masters Raphael and Rembrandt, and contemporary artists Yayoi Kusama and Cai Guoqiang, will be on show.

The self-portrait exhibition was originally meant to be the second Uffizi exhibition in Shanghai, according to Zheng Chun, a spokesperson for Tix-Media, the operator of the Bund One Art Museum. The first, featuring Italian master Botticelli, was scheduled to take place in April. The organizers are still discussing when to hold this show.

Meanwhile, China Art Museum Shanghai, which sits on the east bank of the Huangpu River, has been preparing for two shows. The first will consist of large-scale artworks featuring the city of Shanghai and the second will showcase paintings with peaceful and joyful motifs, including still life and abstract works by modern masters such as Lin Fengmian, Zao Wou-ki and Wu Guanzhong.

Since the first COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, museums in Shanghai had started introducing online events to maintain contact with the public.

As such, many of these venues were well-prepared for the latest outbreak and quickly rolled out livestreaming sessions and virtual exhibitions.

Directors of leading museums in the city, including Chen Xiang of China Art Museum Shanghai and Yang Zhigang, head of Shanghai Museum, had all worked with Shanghai TV to host guided tours during the lockdown period.

"The pandemic did cause some disturbance to our exhibition plans this year," Chen told the media.

"A few important exhibitions had to be postponed as they involve artworks borrowed from institutions in other parts of China. An exhibition of new artworks featuring ancient Chinese folklore about the creation of the world was also postponed," he said.

At the Liu Haisu Art Museum, a large exhibition featuring the 110-year history of the "Shanghai academy of fine arts "will take place in September.

Founded in 1912 by Wu Shiguang, Liu Haisu and Zhang Yuguang, the school was the first college that enrolled both male and female students in China. It was also the first art school to introduce nude female models to its classroom, and publish China's first art magazine.

The new exhibition will present this important part of China's art history, as well as works by renowned artists, such as Lyu Fengzi, Guan Liang and Chen Hengke.
It is disheartening to read the policies adopted this week in the platform of the Republican Party of Texas.

The condemnation of the LGBTQ+ community found throughout their 33-page document is sending a message of discrimination. Caterpillar will move their headquarters from Illinois to Texas so I was curious what is Caterpillar's Code of Conduct, Values in Actions statement. I wonder whether there are concerns for their employees and families who will move.

I found this from Caterpillar: "We build and maintain a productive, motivated workforce by treating all employees fairly and equitably. We respect and recognize the contributions of employees as well as other stakeholders. We will select and place employees on the basis of their qualifications for the work to be performed, considering accommodations as appropriate and needed  without regard to race, religion, national origin, color, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age and/or physical or mental disability. We support and obey laws that prohibit discrimination everywhere we do business."

Perhaps Caterpillar should consider if Texas is the right state for them.

Julie Knutson, Bloomington

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In selecting a lawyer or a judge, we ordinarily rely on the experience of the candidates and the value that the candidate and her experience demonstrate. Judge McFarland serves in the courtroom and brings many years of courtroom practice in criminal and civil courtrooms to her understanding of what it means to be fair, impartial and compassionate to litigants during significant crises in their lives. That experience along with her experience as an associate judge distinguishes her.
As part of measures to grow Ghanaian-owned businesses, the Member of Parliament for Mpraeso, Davis Ansah Opoku has urged Ghanaians to buy Dzata cement.



According to Mr Ansah Opoku, this will help Ghana achieve its true industrialisation agenda.



The lawmaker made the statement on Thursday, June 23, 2022, when the Leadership of Parliament visited the premises of the company.



I have not been here before, but coming here today and seeing the work that is happening here, I am very impressed and I think we must all support the company to grow. We all need to buy the product to give true meaning to Ghanas industrialisation agenda. Frankly, I am very impressed, Mr Opoku Ansah said.



On the same call, the entire leadership of Parliament also urged the government to ignore the political coloration of factory owner, Ibrahim Mahama and help the company to grow.



As a result, they pledged the support of the House of Parliament to Dzata Cementto encourage the company to employ more Ghanaians.



The leadership included the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu and the Minority leader, Haruna Iddrisu as well as members of the Trade, Works, and Housing Committee of Parliament.



Meanwhile, entrepreneur and Chief Executive of Dzata Cement, Ibrahim Mahama applauded the parliamentarians for supporting an indigenous company like Dzata Cement.



He urged the committee to extend the support to more Ghanaian companies by creating a conducive environment for local businesses to thrive.



According to him, the government can achieve that by making the cost of electricity for the industry come down.



He explained that the company is in the process of mining some of the raw materials needed to produce cement locally, which he said will greatly reduce the cost of production.



The cost of power today must be addressed so that it will not hinder the projects we want to do in the near future in Ghana. There are many prospective areas such as ore that can be explored to create thousands of jobs for Ghanaians.

Source: 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
One of the most vital and essential elements for any kind of online casino player is the ability to make a deposit quickly, effortlessly, and safely.



A wide range of deposit options are available at the casinos, some of which simply let you make deposits while others allow you to take your winnings directly back to the deposit method.



If you want to play for real money, you'll need to put money into your account once you've signed up with an online gambling site.



It's called depositing when you add money to your account, and it's a simple process at most sites. Each website has its own unique set of strict instructions, but in general, you'll just need to follow a few basic steps.



How To Transfer



 Sign up



 Enter your username and password.



 Go to the cashier.



 Decide on the option you desire to deposit with.



 Simply insert your credit card information.



 It's time to place your money!



Selecting a form of payment is the fourth step outlined above. There are a number of ways to transfer money online, and most sites have a variety of options for you to choose from. You may not be able to use every approach at every gambling site, but you'll almost always find one that works for you.



It's important to remember that making a deposit at a gambling site in the United States can be difficult. Banks processing online gambling transactions are subject to federal regulations.



Debit And Credit Cards



Depositing via a debit card or a credit card is quite straightforward. One of the most widely used methods by gamblers. Virtually every gaming site takes credit and debit cards, although they dont necessarily accept every single type of card. Visa and MasterCard are normally fine, however, American Express, Diners Club, and other cards are not so often accepted.



Deposits made using a credit or debit card are normally processed immediately, so you can count on having access to your money right away. At most sites, youll be able to withdraw any winnings back to any card used to deposit.



Even while most US gambling sites accept card deposits, some card providers may block transactions. Please be aware of this.



E-Wallet



Like an online bank account, e-wallets allow users to store money electronically. In general, setting up and funding an e-wallet is a pretty simple process, and you may use it to make purchases at any online store that accepts it. Gamblers who routinely utilize many sites and make deposits and withdrawals enjoy great benefits of using PayPal for betting as some incentives are always available.



In recent years, there have been various e-wallet services have come and gone. Among them, there are three that are particularly well-liked.



 Neteller



 PayPal



 Skrill



A Bank or Wire Transfer



Wire transfers are the preferred method of depositing at most gaming websites, including those in the United States (also referred to as a bank transfer). In any of the following situations, this is an excellent choice;



- In order to deposit a substantial amount of money.



- No credit card? No problem.



If you don't want to give out your financial information via the internet, this is a good alternative. The only drawback is that it takes longer.



Wire transfers are an option at many sites, and they are a quick way to have your winnings in your hands.



As a piece of mind, Using this approach, all you have to do is transfer money from your bank account to the bank account of the casino you want to deposit at. A reference number will almost certainly be requested along with your transfer, so make sure you ask for it in advance if the site doesn't post it. Your online account will be credited as soon as the funds are received. However, this may not occur immediately because there may be a processing time.



Cards & Vouchers for Prepaid Purchases



Virtual credit cards and prepaid vouchers have become increasingly popular in recent years. They're good choices for;



- Who has no credit card



- Those without access to an electronic wallet



- Those who reside in the United States of America



A pre-paid voucher or card, purchased for a predetermined amount, can then be used to make a deposit at a participating casino. However, this is not a common way of withdrawal.



Prepaid vouchers and cards can be utilized at gambling sites in a variety of ways. These include Pasteandpay, Paysafecard, and Ukash which can be used in the United States.



Checks



Adding money to your account is as simple as writing a check. Your online account will get the relevant amount after you submit a check and it has been cleared.



Because you don't have to divulge any of your bank or credit card information online, this method is incredibly safe.



As gambling sites use encryption to conduct online transactions, this isn't an issue. Due to the length of time involved, this isn't a popular choice, but it may be found on several websites.



Final Thoughts



Amounts can be deposited in any amount. But the vast majority of players will find the minimum and maximum limits on most sites acceptable.



Deposit fees are uncommon, though not unheard of, at gambling sites. Before making a deposit, you'll normally be informed if there is a cost. If not, you may always contact customer service to double-check.









Your browser does not support iframes.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Ministry of Energy has strongly refuted assertions made recently by the Institute of Energy Security (IES), that Energy Minister Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh had failed to provide the necessary leadership in finding a strategic partner for the Tema Oil Refinery. The assertions by the IES were contained in a petition to the President on the refinery.



A press release on Thursday by the Ministrys Communications and Public Affairs Unit sets out in chronological detail various events at TOR involving the Minister as follows;



1. On 11th March 2021, four (4) days after assuming office as Energy Minister, Dr. Prempeh undertook a working visit of TOR to familiarize himself with the situation on the ground.



2. In meetings with the IMC, Board, Management and worker unions, Dr. Prempeh has always indicated the Presidents keen interest in the revitalization of the refinery, creating jobs and positioning itself as market leader on the African continent by seeking a strategic partner for the refinery.



3. On June 15, 2021, Dr. Prempeh swore-in a three (3)- member Interim Management Committee (IMC) whose terms of reference were to ensure the smooth transfer from the previous Directors, undertake technical and human resource audits as well as receive and assess viable partnerships for TOR.



4. As part of its handing over notes, the IMC made recommendations to the incoming board regarding a strategic partner and sought the necessary approvals from the Public Procurement Authority (PPA).



5. In February and March 2022, a new Managing Director and Board took office respectively, with a clear mandate to work towards securing a strategic partner for the revamping of the refinery.



6. The Hon. Minister subsequently wrote to request an evaluation of all the processes involving interested parties and submit same for the attention of an inter-ministerial committee including the Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Public Enterprise, State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) and TOR. This was to enable the committee make the necessary recommendations to the President.



7. On 20th May 2022, Government granted approval to TOR to begin negotiations with a strategic partner.



8. Subsequent to this, on 10th June 2022, the Hon Minister wrote to the Managing Director of TOR to provide guidelines and advice as the refinery prepares, together with its prospective transactional advisor, to enter into negotiations with a strategic partner. Among others, he directed further that TORs indebtedness and workers pension funds must be included in the negotiations with the strategic partner.



9. In the said letter, the Minister emphasized that whatever agreement that may be reached between the refinery and the strategic partner is not final until it has been subjected to further scrutiny by the Ministry of Energy and the Office of the President.

The release stated further that it was clear the Minister has demonstrated clear leadership, focus and vision in working towards the revamping of TOR, and further asserts that the claim by the IES is borne either out of ignorance of these facts or a deliberate attempt to tarnish the Ministers image.

The Ministry further noted that given the weight likely to be accorded the IESs comments, it was important for the organization to be circumspect in its public pronouncements and ensure fidelity to facts before going public.



The Ministry wishes to assure Ghanaians that Dr. Prempeh is resolutely committed to ensuring that TOR is put on a sound footing to support Ghanas industrialization drive, and will continue to provide strategic leadership and direction in this regard the press release concluded.

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.

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Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has said that the ongoing challenge with the School Feeding Programme is of grave concern and must be resolved as soon as possible.



According to him, the Parliament of Ghana will do all it can to ensure that the government prioritizes the concerns of all stakeholders of the programme particularly the caterers.



According to a citinewsroomonline.com report, the Speaker, made these remarks when he visited the National Buffer Stock Company and the National School Feeding Programme, urging Ghanaians not to politicise the challenges of the feeding programme.



I decided to spring this surprise to see on the ground how these agencies are struggling to cope with the pressure. I am trying to understand the challenges they are experiencing and how we can support them to do their work.



"It is a national issue that I did not want to be taken along partisan lines. We pass the laws and approve the budget, and therefore we should be on top to assist the government to put their priorities right, he said.



Meanwhile, the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC) has suggested that the School Feeding Programme is facing dire challenges.



The GNECC indicated that the program is struggling and could collapse if the government fails to address the challenges stakeholders in the programme are facing.



GNECC has noted the positive results of the school feeding program at the pre-tertiary education level over the years, which the country is proud of; nevertheless, if the government does not take urgent responsibility for rectifying the current situation, the students will continue to suffer. Already, pre-tertiary education is going through some difficulties, and this will exacerbate the situation, portions of a statement released by the Coalition read.



The Coalition was particularly worried about the failure of the government to pay caterers contracted to work under the program.



Meanwhile, GhanaWeb is accepting nominations for the prestigious GhanaWeb Excellence Awards  Youth Edition. Watch how you can nominate from the video below.









Source: ghanaweb.com









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A self-service App is to be deployed to facilitate the ongoing SIM card registration exercise in the country by the close of June this year.

The measure forms part of strategies to reduce congestion at registration outlets, the Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, said in Parliament yesterday[June 23, 2022].



The exercise is being carried out by the ministry, in collaboration with Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and the National Communications Authority (NCA).



The minister also said the July 31, 2022 deadline for SIM card registration would not be extended.



She, therefore, urged citizens who were yet to register for the Ghana Card to do so before the deadline, since the card was going to be the sole primary document for the SIM registration.



Mrs Owusu-Ekuful, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ablekuma West, said people went to sleep when the date for the deadline was extended by four months.



The exercise was initially expected to end on March 31, 2022, but had to be extended to July 31, 2022, to enable all subscribers to register.



Mrs Owusu-Ekuful was responding to a question on the floor of Parliament by the MP for Tempane, Lydia Lamisi Akanvariba, on urgent steps the ministry was taking to reduce overcrowding at SIM registration centres.



The minister, in her response, mentioned other measures to reduce congestion at the centres to include the increase in the number of agents and devices by MNOs and the extension of the registration exercise to communities, churches, mosques and event centres.



She added that all MNOs were also ready and willing to set up registration points in various offices when invited to do so, while community ICT centres and post offices had been included as service centres to expand the exercise to cover more people.



Significance

According to the minister, the SIM registration was intended to reduce fraudulent and criminal activities facilitated by mobile phones or SIM-enabled devices by helping the authorities to ascertain real numbers valid and accurate SIMs on mobile networks.



She added that it would also enable operators to build better demographics of their customers and develop products and services to suit various groupings while allowing the NCA to have a more accurate and credible database to regulate the industry better to enhance economic growth.



It will minimise mobile money fraud, promote cybersecurity and support financial inclusion. A credible and reliable SIM register will also serve as a database, giving comprehensive statistics regarding the number of subscribers in the country and provide a resource for tracking fraudsters and criminals, Mrs Owusu-Ekuful added.



No payment

She further said the SIM registration exercise was free for all subscribers, and that no fee was supposed to be charged.



We have received information that some individuals are extorting various sums of money from the unsuspecting public under the guise of the registration exercise.



We urge anyone who has knowledge of this or is a victim of this practice to report to the NCA through the toll free number 0800 110 622 and the hotline 0307 011 419 for appropriate action to be taken, she said.



Mrs Owusu-Ekuful said her outfit had also directed the NCA and MNOs to put measures in place to clamp down on people who were taking advantage of the exercise to extort money from unsuspecting citizens.







Source: graphiconline.com









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The Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting has officially opened in Rwandas capital, Kigali.



The host, President Paul Kagame, who takes over chairmanship of the 54-nation group that represents a third of the worlds population, said it is values that define its membership.



These include good governance, rule of law and protection of rights.



Hosting the event has brought his own government under sharp criticism over its human rights record.



Whenever we might fall short, we find solutions through consensus and dialogue, he told the gathering, we build each other up and move forward together.



He said the country had come a long way since the genocide of 1994, in which more than 800,000 people were killed. But today we are a nation transformed in heart, mind and body," he added.



Much of the Commonwealth brings together countries that were part of the British Empire but has increasingly included others like Rwanda.



President Kagame said joining the organisation was aimed at making sure our people are connected, included and forward-looking.



Gabon  a former French colony - is set to be admitted to the body during this meeting.

Source: BBC









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The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall have attended a runway show at Rwanda fashion week.



The Royal couple is in Rwandas capital, Kigali, representing the Queen at this years Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting.



Despite a momentary power cut in the venue, Charles and Camilla sat in the front row as designers from Rwanda, Nigeria and South Africa showcased their collections.

The latest Royal engagement comes after Prince Charless visit to a Rwanda genocide memorial and Camillas talk at a panel to end gender-based violence.



Sustainable fashion has been a key topic at this years meeting, with leaders in the industry discussing ways on how to slow down the ever-growing fast fashion trend.



Its estimated that Ghana, a country which is part of the Commonwealth, receives 15 million used items of clothing every week from the West. Around 40% is of poor quality and deemed worthless  ending up being dumped in landfills.

Source: BBC









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Ghana National Gas Company has cut sod for the construction of a 3-unit classroom block at the Three Town Senior High School in the Ketu South Municipal in the Volta region to improve upon teaching and learning.



The ceremony witnessed students, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), municipal educational director, representatives from Ghana Gas, traditional leaders, the landlord of Hedzranawo among others in attendance.



Three Town SHS was established in 1991 as a day school, making it among the oldest schools in southern Volta, until it was absorbed by the government of Ghana.



The name Three Town is a result of the schools location in the heart of three towns Denu, Hedzranawo and Adafienu. Now the school has a boarding, science laboratory, among others.



Speaking at the ceremony, the Headmistress of the school, Margaret AdzoYawoo, was of the view that one of their burdens has been taken away by Ghana Gas, adding the school has grown from strength to strength and currently has a student population of 1,660 with staff strength of 134.



According to the headmistress, basic facilities such as places of convenience are lacking on the compound and students have to walk a long distance to ease themselves, in the bushes, while teachers will have to close for the day in search of a place to ease themselves.



She added that the school is noted for its academic prowess and the moral upbringing standard of the school is one of the best in the country.



The school has helped to produce various categories of professionals in the region and the country as large, she stated.



However, the same cannot be said of its structures and fixtures.



Three Town SHS is overwhelming with inadequate structures which have made life uncomfortable for both staff and students for many years, according to the headmistress.



This situation is really affecting academic work in the school and needs immediate attention by the authorities, Madam AdzoYawoo said, urging Ghana Gas to consider a boys dormitory block for the school, a 12-unit classroom block and renovation of the school kitchen to improve our academic work in the school.



I believe strongly that upon competition of this project, a very conducive and inspiring environment will be created to enhance academic work. Again, the school is most grateful to Ghana Gas for such a move, she added.



She also appealed to Ghana Gas to consider the problem of land space for the school so that this particular project is not roofed but flowed to maximize the use of the available land space for future use, noting how fast the school is growing.



Ketu South Municipal Chief Executive Maxwell Koffie Lugudor assured the school of sponsorship from other institutions and believes the current state of the school is in a deplorable state.



He, however, urged the students to take their academic work seriously, adding they should be self-disciplined at all times.



He said the Assembly will do everything possible to assist the school.



The 3-units classroom block, I appealed Ghana Gas should make it 6-units classroom block, he appealed.



Educational Director Michael Yao Tsuiatorfe appealed to Ghana Gas if the projects could be extended to other facilities.



He took time to talk about the deplorable state of the school and called for immediate assistance by asking if they can assist with two bungalows for house masters to be able to house the student properly.



The Ghana Gas project, when completed, will assist Denu Three Town SHS to have a 3-unit classroom block.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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You are here: Business

The China-Europe Railway Express (Chongqing), the first China-Europe freight train service, embarked on its 10,000th trip Thursday.



The cargo train, fully loaded with electronic products, mechanical parts, daily necessities and other goods, departed from Tuanjie village of southwest China's Chongqing municipality and headed for Duisburg of Germany.

The railway has transported over 1,000 types of goods ranging from energy terminals and whole vehicles to auto parts and medicines, with a total value exceeding 400 billion yuan (about $60 billion).

The freight train service was put into operation in March 2011.
Mr Albert Kwabena Dwumfour has been elected as the new President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA).



He polled 233 out of the total valid votes cast.



Mr Gayheart Mensah polled 181 votes to come second while Mr Dave Agbenu also polled 142 votes.



Mr Gayheart Mensah has allegedly conceded defeat based on his post on social media.



The post read: Hi guys, we fought a good fight and lost. The members of the GJA have indicated their preference; we cannot question that. Let me thank all of you for your support and hard work. Your sacrifice and passion for what we all believed in is exemplary. Ill forever cherish the time we spent campaigning together and your sacrifice today at the polling centers. I believe another opportunity will come elsewhere for us to work together. For now, enjoy your weekend, Shalom! - Gayheart Mensah



Below are the declared results of the Ghana Journalists Association elections.



GJA National Elections Results



Public Affairs



Rebecca Ekpe362



Caesar Abagali191



Total valid vote553



Rejected4



Total vote cast557



Winner: Rebecca Ekpe



Organizing Secretary



Mary Mensah255



Dominic Hlordzi300



Total valid vote cast555



Rejected4



Total vote cast559



Winner: Dominic Hlordzi





General Secretary



Akwasi Agyeman208



Kofi Yeboah 348



Total valid vote cast 556



Rejected3



Total vote cast559



Winner: Kofi Yeboah





President



Dave Agbenu142



Gayheart Mensah181



Albert Kwabena Dwumfour233



Total valid votes cast556



Rejected3



Total vote cast559



Winner: Albert Kwabena Dwumfour

Source: GNA









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The Volta Regional branch of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), has given government up to the end of this month to pay them a 20percet cost of Living Allowance, COLA.



The Association says by the end of the month, if the 20 percent allowance is not paid them, they will expect the National Association to declare a nationwide strike.



NAGRAT, since the beginning of the month, has been putting pressure on government demanding the payment of Cost of Living Allowance, COLA.



The Association cited current living conditions in the country which they describe as very excruciating. The Regional Association is expecting the national leadership to heed their calls for a strike if government fails to meet their demands.





Source: gbc









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North Korea is grappling with the spread of Covid in an unvaccinated population, without access to effective anti-viral drugs.

In early 2020, the country sealed its borders to try to insulate itself from the pandemic.



Its leadership has so far rejected outside medical support.



And state media has recommended traditional treatments to deal with what is referred to as fever.



Hot drinks



For those not seriously ill, ruling-party newspaper Rodong Simnun recommended remedies including ginger or honeysuckle tea and a willow-leaf drink.



Hot drinks might soothe some Covid symptoms, such as a sore throat or cough, and help hydration when patients are losing more fluid than normal.



Ginger and willow leaf also relieve inflammation and reduce pain.But they are not a treatment for the virus itself.



Salt water



State media recently interviewed a couple who recommended gargling with salt water morning and night.



A thousand of tonnes of salt had been sent to Pyongyang to make an antiseptic solution, the state news agency reported.



Some studies suggest gargling and nasal rinses with salt water combat viruses that cause the common cold.



But there is little evidence they slow the spread of Covid.



Mouthwash could kill the virus in the lab, a study found.



But it has not convincingly been shown to help in humans.



Covid is mainly caught by inhaling tiny droplets in the air via the nose as well as the mouth, so gargling attacks only one point of entry.



And once the virus has entered, it replicates and spreads deep into the organs, where no amount of gargling can reach.



Painkillers and antibiotics

State television has advised patients to use painkillers such as ibuprofen as well as amoxicillin and other antibiotics.



Ibuprofen (and paracetamol) can bring down a temperature and ease symptoms such as headache or sore throat.



But they will not clear the virus or prevent it developing.



Antibiotics, meant for bacterial infections not viruses, are not recommended.



And using antibiotics unnecessarily risks developing resistant bugs.



Laboratory research suggests some may slow the spread of some viruses, including Covid.



But these have not been replicated in the real world.



And a study of the antibiotic azithromycin found it made little or no difference to Covid symptoms, the likelihood of hospital admission or death.



There are some approved drugs to prevent people with Covid ending up in hospital:



antivirals paxlovid, molnupiravir and remdesivir

antibody therapies that mimic the immune system

But their effectiveness is variable.



Health system



North Koreas health system has been set up to offer free medical care from basic services at village level up to specialised treatment in government hospitals (usually in urban centres).



But the economy has contracted in recent years because of sanctions and extreme weather such as droughts.



Closing the countrys borders and strict lockdown measures will also have had a damaging impact.



Particularly weak outside Pyongyang, the health system is thought to suffer shortages of personnel, medicines and equipment.



A report for the UN, last year, said: Some of the pharmaceutical, vaccination and medical-appliance plants do not reach the level of good practice of the WHO [World Health Organization] and do not meet local demand as well.



Many North Korean defectors to South Korea have told of having to pay for medication or finding treatment and drugs limited to privileged members of the ruling party.



But state media says it is now increasing production.



International aid



North Korea turned down three million Chinese-made doses, last year  and reportedly rejected other offers  under Covax, the global vaccine-sharing scheme.



South Korea says it has had no reply to its offer of vaccines, medical supplies and personnel.



North Korea has reportedly recently sent three planes to collect medical supplies from Shenyang.



These had not included anti-pandemic supplies, the Chinese foreign ministry said, but it was ready to work with North Korea in the fight against the coronavirus.

Source: BBC









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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At least seven trader unions at the Kumasi Kejetia market have directed their members to shut down their shops after the Electricity Company of Ghana, ECG, took the trading hub off the national grid due to a GHC5 million debt.



Wednesdays crackdown by the power distributor has affected business at the market, especially at night.



Impasse



Checks reveal that the impasse between traders and managers of the Kejetia market over nonpayment of utilities has resulted in an accumulated debt of over GH5 million owed to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).



A close source familiar with the development told dailymailgh.com that traders have defaulted on paying bills for 14 months in protest against exorbitant charges.



The traders have begun to pile pressure on managers of the market to sign the contract for the installation of separate meters, following the development.



Threats



Traders at Kejetia market pay 40,000 for electricity every month, with each shop paying an average of 100 and 200.



To deal with the challenge, they have on several occasions pleaded with the management of the Kumasi City Market to get them separate meters.



With the latest power cuts, the traders have intensified that call stressing that the safety of their members cannot be guaranteed.



ECG disconnected yesterday at about 11:15 am and this morning as I speak there is no power. We have directed all our members to close down their shops. We cannot compromise the security of our traders and the market as a whole. We have asked the managers and the ECG to install every shop with meters but this has fallen on death ears, said Nana Prempeh, Chairman of the Kejetia Petty Traders Association.



The NPP has disappointed us. So we are sending this message to all stakeholders including the presidency and the Local Government Ministry that Kejetia is an area where every person can cause havoc. We are calling on the managers to restore power or the facility remain closed, Prempeh said.



At the time of filing this report, the market was still without power.













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The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has urged the government to provide the National Food Buffer Stock Company (NAFCO) with the required financial support to enable it to achieve its objectives.

He said one of the biggest challenges facing the company was lack of funding, hence the need for such support.



Mr Bagbin made the call during a visit to the NAFCO head office in Accra yesterday[June 23, 2022] to acquaint himself with the operations of the company.



No commercial funding

The Speaker said it would not be proper to open the company up to commercial sources of funding.



Financial support will enable the company to reach out to farm gates to mop up excess food that is getting wasted and help keep affordable prices, he stated.



Middlemen

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NAFCO, Alhaji Hanan Abdul-Wahab, said middlemen in the business of the purchase of grains and other food commodities were creating artificial food shortages in the country.





He said while there was sufficient food in the system, the purchase and the control of the supply of foodstuffs by some few individuals were largely contributing to price escalation, thereby allowing such individuals to make unrealistic profits.



He blamed the worrying situation on the inability of the government to adequately buy and stock food items at farm gate prices during the peak of harvests to ensure price stabilisation.



Food is available, but some middlemen in the food grain business have taken advantage of buying large quantities of commodities to create artificial shortages just to shoot up prices, he said.



Curbing menace

Alhaji Abdul-Wahab was optimistic that the ability of the government to help buy more food commodities at farm gate prices would curb the menace.



The unannounced visit was to allow Mr Bagbin to learn at firsthand the state of the company and the challenges impacting its smooth operations and what steps needed to be taken to redress them.



The CEO said what motivated farmers to produce more was the availability of market.



He, however, said the government had failed to buy farm produce in large quantities to stock, a situation that had paved the way for foreigners to buy the food items.



Food shortages will only arise when farmers are unable to produce or they produce but are unable to sell.



Once there is trading, we will produce, but we have to deal with this issue of middlemen and try as much as possible to stop foreigners from buying, he said.



He, therefore, called for the payment of realistic farm gate prices to farmers to stock sufficient commodities.



He said the introduction of the governments Planting for Food and Jobs initiative would position it to buy and stock food for the sub-region.



He expressed the optimism that NAFCO would be able to buy more food items, stressing that the delay in the payment to caterers of the school feeding programme would then become a thing of the past.



Price stability

Alhaji Abdul-Wahab indicated that buffer stock had been able to stabilise stocks in the country, in line with ECOWAS requirements, but what was left was for Ghana to buy and stock commodities to stop foreigners from taking advantage to buy commodities in Ghana.



He said mechanisms could be put in place to buy from farmers at farm gate prices that were higher than the cost of production incurred by farmers.



Once we have our own stock, we will be able to hedge prices throughout the year without asking for increment, he said.



Governments commitment

With NAFCO being a non-subverted entity, he said, it had had to access loans, making it difficult to buy and keep food stocks over the years.



We have to make profit in order to pay interest on the facilities. Issues of keeping stocks for national food security and reserves do not require you to go and take a loan because you are buying to keep for rainy days, he said









Source: graphiconline.com









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The Western regional minister, Kwabena Okyere Darko, has suggested a plan B for his constituents who live in flood-prone areas.



The ministers statement has been circulated via a viral video following an interview on Takoradis massive flood issues.



Those who stay in areas that are prone to flooding should always have a plan B. When it starts raining, you should move to your brother or sister or something for a week or two. Then when the rain subsides, you come back home.



After the video circulated, netizens reacted with their opinions. While some agreed with the ministers plan b, others did not hold back as Mr. Darko got mauled.



Kwabena Darkos submission was necessitated due to the recent viral flood videos from the region.



Several Takoradi drivers were shown in the videos stranded inside their vehicles as floodwater engulfed them.



Ghanas annual floods often occur in the adjoining months of June and July and are often the peak of the flood issues.



The government has been implored to work on creating a permanent solution.

Listen to the Western Regional Minister, Kwabena Okyere Darko on the recent flooding in Western Region. pic.twitter.com/TJ974Ka7ZX  SIKAOFFICIAL (@SIKAOFFICIAL1) June 24, 2022

Source: Twitter/GC









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A Founding member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Dr Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe has said that the Akufo-Addo government has been plagued with series of corruption for which Trade Minister Alan Kyerematen should have resigned.



Dr Nyaho-Tamakloe said he would have followed Mr Kyerematen if he had had the courage to resign from the current government that in is view, has been neck-deep in series of corruption scandals.



Speaking in an interview with TV3s Johnnie Hughes, he said The Alan case, Alan is a nice gentleman but politics you dont use nice gentleman to do politics. You will need people who are strong, people who can say this is it, I stand by it.



We have had series of corruption cases in the government in which Alan is a member. If Alan had resigned, I would have followed him anywhere, he did not have the courage to do so and as such, I dont see him as a leader.



In the case of Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Dr Nyaho-Tamakloe said the structure of the NPP will make it difficult for him to be the flagbearer and eventually, President of Ghana.



He said he has known Dr Bawumia for quite some time and can attest to the fact that he is a fine gentleman however, the NPP will make it difficult for him to achieve his ultimate ambition of becoming Head of State.



I did an interview, it was with a foreign magazine, I will find out if I still have it, I will share with you, where I made plain that by the structure of our party, Bawumia cannot come to power.



Bawumia is a fine gentlemen, if Bawumia would have had that independent mind and strength and not just always praise what the president has done or has not done, I would have looked at him differently, I know Bawumia very well..

Source: 3news









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Host of the Good Morning Ghana programme on Metro TV, Randy Abbey, has declared his support for the Arise Ghana demo scheduled to take place next week.



The pressure group is set to undertake the June 28  29, 2022 demonstration in Accra in a bid to highlight economic and governance challenges bedeviling the country.



Randy Abbeys endorsement was on Thursday, June 23 on his programme when he hosted the National Democratic Congress National Communications officer, Sammy Gyamfi, who is a convenor of the Arise Ghana group.



Next Tuesday, next Wednesday is the (Arise Ghana) demo, you know I have never participated in a demonstration but I endorse your demonstration. I endorse it, he said.



I endorse your demonstration. The issues, the basis for the demonstration sits well with me and I endorse it, he stressed.



Sammy Gyamfi on his part thanked the host for the endorsement which he described as huge and invited Randy to join the march even if for a few minutes.



Arise Ghana described itself as a group comprising political party leaders, media practitioners, civil society players, creative arts, trades union among others determined to relentlessly champion the common cause of the Ghanaian people.



The group state that they also want to provide a voice for the voiceless and seek reforms that would bring about the needed change in the socio-economic, politico-social, and general wellbeing of the Ghanaian citizenry.



Main issues underpinning the protest



According to a recent statement, the historic two-day demonstration is primarily to protest persistent and astronomical hikes in fuel prices by the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government that has imposed excruciating economic hardships on Ghanaians.



It said it was also to protest the imposition of the obnoxious E-Levy on the already-burdened Ghanaian people by the insensitive Akufo-Addo/Bawumia Government and demand a full scale and bi-partisan parliamentary probe into COVID-19 expenditures.



Others are to protest the grabbing of State lands by officials of the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government, particularly the de-classification of huge portions of the Achimota Forest reserve.



The rest are to protest the increased rate of police brutalities and state-sponsored killing of innocent Ghanaians, as well as the growing culture of human rights abuses under the watch of President Akufo-Addo and Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and demand the total cancelation of the fraudulent Agyapa deal.

Source: ghanaweb.com









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Journalist Paul Adom-Otchere has reacted to a recent interview in which former Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko spoke about the current status of his relationship with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.



Agyarko said in an interview on Asempa FM that he was no longer on talking terms with Akufo-Addo and that he also no longer trusted the President.



In an editorial on Agyarkos views on the June 21 edition of his Good Evening Ghana show, Adom-Otchere stated that it didnt matter whatever the status of the relationship between the two men was.



He asked that the former Minister rather focuses on issues in his bid to become the governing New Patriotic Partys flagbearer for the 2024 elections.



Boakye said that I dont trust Akufo-Addo, but that is a no point. What is the point? You can decide not to trust him. You have had a 47-year relation with himif you say you dont trust him, that is okay.



But is that the reason why we should vote for you as the NPP presidential candidate? That really shouldnt come into the question. Unless one has an agenda to damage and that is where the problem is coming from, he stressed.



According to Adom-Otchere, it was time that politicians and the media elevated political discussions and make them issues based. He said all parties be it the NPP of NDC needed to pivot to issues stressing that his programme has been championing that agenda for the last few years.



Boakye Agyarko says Akufo-Addo something something that is not what we want to hear. What we want to hear is what Boakye Agyarko is able to do for the NPP and if he is elected as a President of Ghana if he is elected.



If you tell us you dont trust Akufo-Addo anymore, Akufo-Addo is not on the ballot for 2024. The Ghanaian people voted for him it is his obligation that by the end of his tenure, Ghanaians get their times worth. I believe that will happen.



You come on radio and say you dont trust Akufo-Addo, so what should we do? That is why people should vote for him? They should vote for Akufo-Addo because he says he doesnt trust Akufo-Addo? he quizzed.



Boakye Agyarko to contest NPPs flagbearership



Boakye Agyarko, a one-time banker has declared his bid to lead the NPP into the next elections. The other person to declare his bid is Assin Central Member of Parliament, Kennedy Agyapong. The party is set to choose a successor for President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who is ineligible to contest in the 2024 polls.



Other rumoured aspirants include Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, Trade and Industry Minister Alan Kyerematen, both men are seen as the frontliners  their followers continue to tout their qualities but they have not formally confirmed their interest.

Source: ghanaweb.com









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The National Democratic Congress (NDC) says it is reviewing the roadmap for its internal elections following the extension of the deadline for the registration of new members into the Party.



The registration exercise, which commenced on 21st May, 2022, was scheduled to end on 7th June, 2022.



Mr Peter Boamah Otokunor, Deputy General Secretary, NDC, told the Ghana News Agency that the exercise was extended for about two more weeks, and thus, disrupted the initial schedule for the Partys internal elections.



The exercise ended over the weekend so we are reviewing the initial schedule, he said.



Mr Otokunor said arrangements were underway to review the existing roadmap, and assured members of the Party that the new guidelines would be announced soon.



The NDCs new membership registration exercise was confronted with some challenges in some constituencies, with some Party members alleging that they had been denied access to the Partys identification cards in spite of complying with the requirements.



About two weeks ago, the Party deployed a special taskforce to handle the registration and issuance of membership cards in some constituencies in the Central and Bono East regions.



The Party said efforts to resolve the challenges in some constituencies, including Agona East and Techiman South constituencies had proven intractable, hence the move.



The Techiman South Taskforce was led by Professor Joshua Alabi, a leading member of the Party, while that of the Agona East was led by Mr Ako Gunn, a Deputy National Communications Officer of the Party.



Per the initial guideline, the NDC was supposed to have organised its Branch elections from 15th June to July 2022  and the results of that election, collated from 1st - 7th August, 2022.





Source: GNA









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A seminar on structural racism in Western countries was held Wednesday in the central Chinese city of Changsha.

A China side event of the 50th session of the UN Human Rights Council, the seminar was hosted by the China Society for Human Rights Studies and participated in by nearly 30 experts from various countries.

The experts discussed the origins and impacts of structural racism in Western countries and explored viable ways to eliminate many forms of racism.

Mao Junxiang, executive director of Central South University Human Rights Center, said politicians, political parties, media, research institutions, and other social elites in the United States and other Western countries control the production and dissemination of public discourse. He said they play a dominant role in the emergence of racist culture.

Wang Yuting, an associate researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the abysmal records of the U.S. in racism have exposed its hypocrisy as the so-called "human rights defender."

Brij Mohan, Dean Emeritus of the School of Social Work of Louisiana State University, said a failed society is a dysfunctional organization of broken institutions that breed extremist ideologies of racism, discrimination, carnage, and terror.

He called for efforts to eliminate the harmful structures and root causes that impede freedom and justice and rationalize and modernize public policies.

Nita Mishra, Chair of the Development Studies Association of Ireland, urged a concerted effort to combat new forms of racism.
Majority Chief Whip, Frank Annoh-Dompreh has argued that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in recent times has done little to recognize the late Jerry John Rawling as the founder of their party.



He expressed worried and advised the Umbrella party to replica NPPs respect for their founding fathers.



Take a cue from the Danquah-Busia-Dombo tradition and particularly give Rawlings a befitting recognition, he said



Mr Annoh-Dompreh was reacting to the Member of Parliament for Buem constituency, Mr Kofi Adams claims that celebrations of late Rawlings monumental events are gradually falling off after his demise.



Speaking to Peacefmonline.com, the Nsawam Adoagyiri NPP lawmaker said the Nana Addo-led government's recognition of the late former President is unmatched.



Nobody can celebrate Rawlings better than the NDC, they must show a good example, he said



Adding that, They should show leadership by celebrating him [Late Rawlings] as a party first and set the rightful tone in our bid to celebrate him as a nation.













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The General Secretary of the opposition NDC Johnson Asiedu Nketiah has proclaimed the Ahot business project (a private initiative of Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, former Minister for Finance and leading NDC member) as a project that is first in history for any political party in Ghana.



The General Secretary also known as General Mosquito was speaking during a party occasion to officially endorse and launch the Ahot Project at the NDC Headquarters in Adabraka, Accra on Thursday.



He said he was not surprised it was Dr. Kwabena Duffuor who initiated the historic NDC Ahot project because he was the same Finance Minister who turned Ghanas economy around.



This project is the first of its kind since our party was established. We have been engaging with the donor and we want to collaborate with Dr. Duffuor to structure the project very well in accordance with the partys principles, procedures and laws. This is what caused the delay in officially endorsing the project.



Asiedu Nketiah also reiterated the importance of donations, dues, and contributions to the continual running of the opposition party and encouraged party members and the general public to emulate the example of Kwabena Duffuor as the party prepares to wrestle power in 2024 from the ruling NPP government.



We survive on dues, contributions and donations from members of the public and our own members. We have been receiving donations from former appointees of the party. Were proud to say that the donor of the Ahot project, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, is a former appointee of the NDC government who worked as governor of the bank of Ghana and a finance minister who turned things around between 2009-2012.



He further praised the Ahot project as a sustainable one which will not only earn income for the party, but will also save the party lots of money as the party will no longer have to rent a PA system, chairs and canopies for its own outdoor programs.



This money could have been used in buying consumables, like the NPP were distributing frozen chicken parts in the last elections. The general secretary continued, This Ahot project is intended to build the capacity of the party structure to run effectively. It is not going to provide anybody pocket money. It is a contribution that will support the party itself to grow, to develop its own capacity to finance its activities and I think that in that sense it is a very commendable project.



While admonishing NDC constituency executives who may lose their positions in the up-coming internal elections to leave behind the party property in the offices, the NDC general secretary announced that the NDC party will deploy some of its officers to go to the various constituencies to provide training on how to manage the Ahot business project profitably and promised the party would run the business efficiently in order to attract more such donations from the former finance minister.



NDC National chairman Ofosu Ampofo, who was earlier allegedly opposed to the party adoption of the Duffuor initiative took the stage and emphatically denied any such attempts by himself or others in the national executive committee to sabotage the Ahot business project.



NDC wants to approach the 2024 elections as communal labor. The party does not earn income but the party must pay its bills at the end of the month. The party runs effectively despite not earning income because of the donations of party members and that is why we standing here will be the last people to oppose anybody who supports the party with projects like this.



Dr. Kwabena Duffuor told the gathering that his main motivation for initiating the Ahot business project is to empower the party grassroots structures to kick the ruling NPP out of power in 2024.



The party grassroots must be financially and logistically resourced for the battle ahead in 2024. This is what the Ahot project is all about but this is only the first out of many other projects that will spring up for the benefit of the NDC grassroots.



Four rooms of canopies, 100 plastic chairs, and a full set of Public Address system worth Ghc 30,000 comprises the Ahot business suite that was handed over to the NDC national executives for onward transmission to the Klottey Korle constituency, the second after Ashaiman constituency to so far benefit directly from the party business project.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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A Deputy Ranking Member of the Finance Committee of Parliament, Mr. Isaac Adongo has challenged the figures put out by the Minister for Finance, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta on the Covid-19 expenditure.



According to the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bolgatanga Central, Ghanas Minister for Finance was untruthful with the information he shared on the floor of Parliament on June 22, 2022, while accounting for the countrys Covid-19 expenses.



Speaking to the media after the presentation, the Bolgatanga Central MP insisted that there is still the need for further probe into the Covid-19 expenditure to ascertain the actual amount accrued to the government and its expenditure.



I just dont know how this man (Ken Ofori-Atta) thought that he will just come and bamboozle us and get away with it. No wonder he has been running away from accountability and from Parliament all this while. People who contested elections openly claimed that they were given allocations of Covid money to spend, yet most of these monies did not even come as free money. People cannot hide behind Covid to plunder the public purse. They must account for it and the more open that process is, the better it is in claiming back the credibility of Parliament and the government architecture we set for ourselves, Mr. Adongo reiterated.



Meanwhile, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MPs in the August House, led by the Ranking Member of the Finance Committee have earlier argued that they wanted an ad-hoc parliamentary committee to investigate the governments expenditures, besides the account rendered by Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta.



The Bolgatanga Central Lawmaker, contended that the Auditor General whom the Majority group in Parliament is asking to take charge of the audit of covid-19 expenditure lacked the capacity to do a thorough job as his work only entails checking for expenditures of ministries, departments, and agencies and not special incidents such as Covid-19 expenditures.



The argument that the Auditor General will audit the accounts and so that suffices (is not right). The Auditor-General does not produce a special account on COVID-19 and related revenue and expenditures. He only reports the figures of total government expenditure and revenues from Ministries, Departments, and Agencies.



At this point, we are not looking at those numbers, we are looking at revenues or total mobilization and expenditures in relation to Covid-19 activities and there is no way the Auditor Generals reports can cover those matters so that has to be done by special arrangements. I am happy that the Speaker approved that this is investigated as a special activity, Mr. Adongo stated.



He further noted that the Speaker of Parliaments final decision for a joint Health and Finance Committees investigation into the expenditure will suffice.



But a Deputy Minister of Finance, Mr. John Ampontuah Kumah says Mr. Ofori-Atta was forthright with his presentation to Members of Parliament on Wednesday, June 22, 2022.



Speaking to some members of the Parliamentary Press Corps (PPC) after answering some questions on behalf of the Minister, Mr. Kumah maintained that the Minister or government has nothing to hide.



We have been transparent in the handling of the Covid-19 funds, he reiterated.













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Senegalese comedian has officially become the most followed TikTok star in the world. 22-year-old Khabane Lame, who posts under the name @khaby.lame, surpassed American Charli D'Amelio who held the top spot until on Thursday, June 23.



The 18-year-old dancer has 142.2 million followers, while Khaby, who lives in Italy, jumped to 142.5 million overnight after months of enduring a tight follower battle.



Khaby joined the platform in March 2020 during the pandemic and his followers quickly grew thanks to his hilarious videos.



After joining the platform in 2019, Charli had become the most followed account with her viral dance routines and by 2020 she had over 100 million fans.



At the time she took to the platform to say that the achievement was 'like a dream'. In a video, she added: 'I can't believe there's 100 million supporters following me right now. That is insane, oh my goodness.



'Y'all can't grasp that this is real, I still feel like it's a dream, kind of waiting to wake up. Very insane. Oh my goodness, thank you!'



The social media platform congratulated her on the news and said it was 'so proud' of her achievements.



In a statement, TikTok said: 'In less than 18 months, Charli has grown into one of the most recognized and beloved TikTok creators in the world.



'While we're extremely proud of Charli and all that she has accomplished since she shared her first TikTok video in May 2019.'



TikTok also announced it would be donating $100,000 in Charli's name to American Dance Movement, an organisation aimed at increasing access to dance education in the US.



In March 2020, during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Khabane lost his job and moved back in with his parents. He capitalized on the lockdown and set up a TikTok account and quickly climbed his way to the top of the platform.



Speaking to Forbes the star said: 'The pandemic had just started, and I was bored with a lot of time on my hands so I started making videos on TikTok.'









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Coins minted during the reign of Constantine IX. Credit: Filipovic et al

SN 1054 was one of the most spectacular astronomical events of all time. The supernova explosion eventually formed what is today known as the M1the Crab Nebula. But in 1054 AD, the year it occurred, it was an ultrabright star in the sky and one of only eight recorded supernovae in the history of the Milky Way. However, it was only noted by half of the literate world. Primarily written about in the East, especially in China, SN 1054 was almost wholly absent from the Western recordexcept, potentially, for a subtle hint at it in the most unlikely of place: some Byzantine coins.

At least, that is the new theory according to a multinational group of researchers in the European Journal of Science and Theology. They found that a special version of a coin minted by Byzantine Emperor Constantine IX showed two stars around the emperor's headpotentially representing a nod to the existence of SN 1054, despite any written evidence for the supernova's existence elsewhere in the Christian world.

Scholars in Japan, China, and the Islamic world had no problem noticing the new bright star in the sky. So why didn't the Christians? There has been an ongoing debate in the history of astronomy community surrounding this question for decades, with no definitive answer. However, the general consensus is that Christian scholars feared that pointing out a change in what, at the time, were thought to be the perfect and inviolable heavens would cause too much of a ruckus within the church. Theological doctrine held sway in the Christian world at the time, and calling into question any part of that doctrine could lead to excommunication or even death. It would have to be a brave scholar to risk such a fate for no tangible reward.

Some of the analytical techniques used on the coins included precise dimensioning. Credit: Filipovic et al

Which makes it even more interesting that a metalworker, or maybe one of the otherwise cowed scholars, might have had the nerve to do so. The researchers found a special edition of a coin, known in the technical jargon as the Constantine IX Monomachos Class IV coin, which has two stars compared to the single star noticeable on the other three classes of coins minted during the monarch's reign.

The Class IV is thought to be minted between the summer of 1054 and the spring of 1055 and has two noticeable stars on either side of the monarch's head. One star is thought to represent Venus, the Morning Star, while the monarch's head itself is believed to represent the sun. The other star, though, could potentially represent the "guest star" (as Chinese observers called it) of the SN 1054 supernova.

What's more, the size of the stars differs slightly between the 36 coins of that vintage the researchers were able to find in museums around the world. The researchers also hypothesize that the changing size of the star could reflect the gradual dimming of the supernova in the sky during this period.

If so, it would be a subtle but effective nod to the striking astronomical reality going on overhead at the time. But, as with much ancient history, it is hard to separate fact from speculation. The authors themselves point out that they don't know how many Class IV coins were minted, nor their precise dates and they have no concrete proof that the second star represents a fantastic astronomical event. But, many romantics would like to think that, after whoever minted the coins took what might have been considered a massive risk at the time, a team of scholars over 1000 years later finally truly grasped why they did so. We can certainly appreciate that story, even if the factual basis for it is still up in the air.

Explore further Blistering stars in the Universe: Rare insights into the evolution of stars

More information: Miroslav D. Filipovic et al, European historical evidence of the supernova of AD 1054 coins of Constantine IX and SN 1054. arXiv:2206.00392v1 [physics.hist-ph], Miroslav D. Filipovic et al, European historical evidence of the supernova of AD 1054 coins of Constantine IX and SN 1054. arXiv:2206.00392v1 [physics.hist-ph], arxiv.org/abs/2206.00392
An anti-trafficking billboard outside Benin City, Nigeria, advises women to "Be Wise." Credit: Stacey Vanderhurst

Human anti-trafficking campaigns rely on the "three p's" of prevention, protection and prosecution.

But a fourth onepreemptionhas now resulted in a thorny controversy.

A new book titled "Unmaking Migrants: Nigeria's Campaign to End Human Trafficking" reveals how government agents have stopped thousands of women during the past 20 years from traveling out of the country and instead sent them to the federal counter-trafficking agency for "protection and rehabilitation." Nigerian officials defend this tactic as preemptive intervention. Yet many of the women protest their detention, insist they are not being trafficked and demand to be released. It's published by Cornell University Press.

"I've spent years in Nigeria learning how some women there think about risk and migrating into sex work in Europe, and how governments view those risks, too," said Stacey Vanderhurst, assistant professor of women, gender and sexuality studies at the University of Kansas.

"Instead of helping women migrate and work safely, anti-trafficking programs like these just try to stop them. They stop them physically at border checkpoints, and they detain them for counseling intended to stop them from trying again."

Vanderhurst believes the use of the word "trafficking" introduces a scenario in which policy often takes a backseat to reality.

"When people think of trafficking, they visualize abject suffering that's almost beyond politics. It's so abhorrent that no one could possibly support it, and anything done in the name of stopping trafficking is going to be helping women. My book presents a view that is more common amongst people who support sex workers," she said.

Some feminists and other human rights groups consider all kinds of sex work as a form of violence and therefore as a form of trafficking.

"But if you believe sex work can be workalbeit high-risk work that's not very respectedthen we need more nuance to understand what constitutes exploitation in that industry. What we see is governments take advantage of a more simplistic idea of what trafficking is and what would be justified to stop it. They promote policies or interventions that on the surface seem like they must be helping women, but when you look closer, they have very little to do with what the women want for themselves or their lives."

Vanderhurst first spent a year in Nigeria (a former British colony that gained independence in 1960) more than a decade ago when she was working on her dissertation. Since then she has returned most summers.

"Lagos is extraordinary. It is New York City with a half-functioning electrical grid," she said.

"People will go to Lagos for opportunity, and that means it's the hub of Nollywood movie production and stand-up comedy and hip hop. It's a place where people are dreaming really big and working really hard. And I find that energy contagious."

Yet economic opportunity is not necessarily plentiful, especially for young, poor women.

"My book is about ambitious women who are deeply aware of the risks of migrating across the desert, across the Mediterranean and into an illicit market for sex," Vanderhurst said. "They're not naive. They're not gullible or drawn by the dazzle of a European destination, but rather they recognize the limited opportunities they have at home."

This type of migration is well established in specific parts of Nigeria, Vanderhurst said. Many of these women have relatives or friends who have gone abroad to pursue such work.

"Not everyone's open about it because there is still shame and stigma around this. But those women send back money to support their families in ways that no one else can for the community," she said.

On a percentage basis, how many Nigerian women placed in detention are actually being trafficked?

"I really don't find it a useful term because it's so loaded with like, "Well, what do we mean by trafficking?" What's interesting is most of these women were detained at the Nigerian border or the airport. They haven't even gotten to Europe. Whether or not they would be exploited in the journey or at their final destination is really disputed," said Vanderhurst, who defines what these individuals experience as "preemptive rescue" or "preemptive detention."

The California native came to KU in 2015, where she focuses on researching trafficking, migration and sex work. Last month she received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award for her project "Free Women," which investigates how Nigerian activists draw from other global campaigns to help combat harassment of single women. She heads back to Nigeria next year.

"I hope people can see in these stories the nuance that women bring to hard decisions in their lives," Vanderhurst said.

"The structures of privilege and inequality in our world make it hard for, say, an American college student, to relate to being a poor woman in Benin City. A woman there doesn't have a lot of options. But it's still patronizing to assume that because she doesn't have a lot of options, we don't need to listen to what she wants. Instead, our government and her government have collectively decided what's best."
Climate change affects the likelihood of armed conflict. Credit: UPV

Climate change influences the likelihood and duration of armed conflicts in Africa. This is the finding of a study carried out by a team from the INGENIO Institute, a joint center of the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (UPV) and the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), together with the University of Rome III and the University of Urbino Carlo Bo, published in the latest issue of the journal Economia Politica.

The team of researchers based their study on data from the African continent from 1990 to 2016. Using a negative binomial regression mathematical model, they assessed whether certain climatic phenomena, in combination with the socio-economic characteristics of the areas studied, affected the likelihood of a conflict breaking out and, if it did, its duration.

Among its findings, the study states that a prolonged increase in temperature and precipitation increases the probability of conflict beyond the affected area by four to five times, specifically in populations up to a radius of about 550 km.

The study also concludes that, in Africa, food shortages due to drought increase the possibility of conflict, especially if water shortages persist for at least three years. Conversely, excess rainfall triggers conflict, but in a very short period of time.

Implications for adaptive policies

"The results we have obtained have far-reaching implications for territorial policies on the African continent. For example, changes in climatic conditions influence the likelihood of conflict over large areas, which means that the design of climate adaptation policies must consider the particularities of each territory," says Davide Consoli, a researcher at the INGENIO Institute and one of the authors of the study.

The INGENIO, University of Rome and University of Urbino team also points out that the persistence of violence requires the implementation of climate change adaptation strategies designed in combination with peacekeeping measures, especially in those areas most prone to armed conflict.

"These measures are essential in the design and implementation of adaptive strategies for climate resilience. In fact, poorly designed adaptation interventions can exacerbate existing inequalities and increase the risk of conflict," concludes Consoli.

Explore further Physical intimate partner violence in Colombia costs $90 million annually

More information: Federica Cappelli et al, Climate change and armed conflicts in Africa: temporal persistence, non-linear climate impact and geographical spillovers, Economia Politica (2022). Federica Cappelli et al, Climate change and armed conflicts in Africa: temporal persistence, non-linear climate impact and geographical spillovers,(2022). DOI: 10.1007/s40888-022-00271-x

Provided by Universitat Politecnica de Valencia
This visualization shows the ownership network of 4.000 Japanese firms in 2013. Credit: Raddant, M., Takahashi, H.

A recent study out of the Complexity Science Hub Vienna (CSH) found that companies with female board members tend to perform better. The analysis examined the relationship between female board appointments and corporations' financial performance, based on data from about 4.000 Japanese firms collected between 2004 and 2013.

"This is one of the first large-scale analyses of female board members in Japan, and it's one of the largest samples ever analyzed for developed economies," says CSH researcher Matthias Raddant, the study's lead author.

Matthias and his colleagues studied the evolution of a group of female board members and their professional networks. "We assessed which companies appoint them and we looked into what determines the slow but steady increase in female board members during that period," explains Matthias.

Slight increase

Women made up approximately 2 percent of Japanese boards, with a slight increase over the study's 10-year span. "Even in 2022, the share of female board members in Japan is only 8 percent," adds Matthias. These numbers are far below those in western economies. As of 2022, 29 percent of corporate board seats were held by women at North American and European companies, according to Moody's Investors Service.

"Our study shows that even if the number of female board members in Japan is still low, they have started to change their position in the networks of executives. Relatively many female board members have multiple mandates, which made them become more central," points out Matthias.

Financial results

When it comes to the profitability of an organization, firms with at least one female board member do perform better than those without any female board members, according to the analysis.

"This result is only significant in the last three years. However, since some previous studies have also found cases where companies with female board members were less profitable than the average, this is still a good result, since our sample size is very large and we can basically rule out negative influences from female board members," explains Matthias.

As the effects and mechanisms of more gender diversity on board composition are not entirely clear yet, this finding is surprising, states Matthias. But he underlines that the discovery might be related to the quality of corporate governance. "Companies that have good governance are more profitable and might also be better at facilitating the hiring of female board members."

'Birds of a feather stick together'

Furthermore, the study reveals that women tend to connect with each other and support one another. It's the concept of homophily, or the idea that "birds of a feather stick together," or that people are more likely to interact when they are of similar backgrounds.

The data showed that enterprises with ties to other companies with female board members were more likely to appoint female board members.

Dataset

The scientists examined information about the composition of corporate boards, including age, gender, and if they were outside board members or auditors. Financial information was also collected. "In particular, we used information on market value, income, total assets, business sector, largest shareholders, and shareholder composition," details Matthias, who is also a research fellow at University for Continuing Education Krems.

The article was published in the journal Empirical Economics.

More information: Matthias Raddant et al, Corporate boards, interorganizational ties and profitability: the case of Japan, Empirical Economics (2021). Matthias Raddant et al, Corporate boards, interorganizational ties and profitability: the case of Japan,(2021). DOI: 10.1007/s00181-021-02062-y
The Po River is suffering its worst drought for 70 years. .

Hydroelectric power in Italy has plunged this year thanks to a drought that has also sparked water restrictions and fears for agriculture, industry sources said Friday.

Hydropower facilities, mostly located in the mountains in the country's north, provide almost one fifth of Italy's energy demands.

But the lack of rain is causing problems, at a time when Rome is desperately trying to wean itself off its dependence on Russian gas due to the war in Ukraine.

"From January to May 2022, hydro production fell by about 40 percent compared to the corresponding period in 2021," a spokesman for Utilitalia, a federation of water companies, told AFP.

"Hydro production has been steadily decreasing since July 2021," he said, blaming "the severe shortage of water even at high levels".

An industry source told AFP that while the situation was constantly changing, estimates for the first six months of 2022 suggest nationwide hydroelectric generation will be almost half the equivalent period of 2021.

One small plant near Piacenza, southeast of Milan, was shut indefinitely on June 21 due to low levels on the River Po that feeds it, the Enel energy company said.

"Considering the current drought situation, other hydro plants are not operating at full capacity," a spokesman added, without giving further details.

The Po River is Italy's largest reservoir of fresh water. Much of it used by farmers, but is suffering its worst drought for 70 years.

Italy's largest agricultural association, Coldiretti, said the drought is putting over 30 percent of national agricultural production and half of livestock farming in the Po Valley at risk.

On Friday, the northern region of Lombardy called a state of emergency due to the drought, that recommends, among other measures, less water use by consumers and directs mayors to curtail non-essential water use, such as street washing and watering parks and sportsgrounds.

Further to the west in Piedmont, water is being rationed in more than 200 municipalities, according to the ANSA news agency.

The Maggiore and Garda lakes are both far lower than usual for this time of year, while further south, the level of the River Tiber that runs through Rome has also dropped.

Explore further Italy's Po Valley rations water amid record drought

 2022 AFP
At the beginning of the last ice, local mountain glaciers grew and formed large ice sheets, like the one seen here in Greenland, that covered much of today's Canada, Siberia, and Northern Europe. Credit: Annie Spratt/Unsplash

A new study led by University of Arizona researchers may have solved two mysteries that have long puzzled paleo-climate experts: Where did the ice sheets that rang in the last ice age more than 100,000 years ago come from, and how could they grow so quickly?

Understanding what drives Earth's glacialinterglacial cyclesthe periodic advance and retreat of ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphereis no easy feat, and researchers have devoted substantial effort to explaining the expansion and shrinking of large ice masses over thousands of years. The new study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, proposes an explanation for the rapid expansion of the ice sheets that covered much of the Northern Hemisphere during the most recent ice age, and the findings could also apply to other glacial periods throughout Earth's history.

About 100,000 years ago, when mammoths roamed the Earth, the Northern Hemisphere climate plummeted into a deep freeze that allowed massive ice sheets to form. Over a period of about 10,000 years, local mountain glaciers grew and formed large ice sheets covering much of today's Canada, Siberia and northern Europe.

While it has been widely accepted that periodic "wobbling" in the Earth's orbit around the sun triggered cooling in the Northern Hemisphere summer that caused the onset of widespread glaciation, scientists have struggled to explain the extensive ice sheets covering much of Scandinavia and northern Europe, where temperatures are much more mild.

Unlike the cold Canadian Arctic Archipelago where ice readily forms, Scandinavia should have remained largely ice-free due to the North Atlantic Current, which brings warm water to the coasts of northwestern Europe. Although the two regions are located along similar latitudes, the Scandinavian summer temperatures are well above freezing, while the temperatures in large parts of the Canadian Arctic remain below freezing through the summer, according to the researchers. Because of this discrepancy, climate models have struggled to account for the extensive glaciers that advanced in northern Europe and marked the beginning of the last ice age, said the study's lead author, Marcus Lofverstrom.

"The problem is we don't know where those ice sheets (in Scandinavia) came from and what caused them to expand in such a short amount of time," said Lofverstrom, an assistant professor of geosciences and head of the UArizona Earth System Dynamics Lab.

To find answers, Lofverstrom helped develop an extremely complex Earth-system model, known as the Community Earth System Model, which allowed his team to realistically recreate the conditions that existed at the beginning of the most recent glacial period. Notably, he expanded the ice-sheet model domain from Greenland to encompass most of the Northern Hemisphere at high spatial detail. Using this updated model configuration, the researchers identified the ocean gateways in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago as a critical linchpin controlling the North Atlantic climate and ultimately determining whether or not ice sheets could grow in Scandinavia.

The simulations revealed that as long as the ocean gateways in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago remain open, Earth's orbital configuration cooled the Northern Hemisphere sufficiently to allow ice sheets to build up in Northern Canada and Siberia, but not in Scandinavia.

In a second experiment, the researchers simulated a previously unexplored scenario in which marine ice sheets obstructed the waterways in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. In that experiment, the comparatively fresh Arctic and North Pacific watertypically routed through the Canadian Arctic Archipelagowas diverted east of Greenland, where deep water masses typically form. This diversion led to a freshening and weakening of the North Atlantic deep circulation, sea ice expansion, and cooler conditions in Scandinavia.

"Using both climate model simulations and marine sediment analysis, we show that ice forming in northern Canada can obstruct ocean gateways and divert water transport from the Arctic into the North Atlantic," Lofverstrom said, "and that in turn leads to a weakened ocean circulation and cold conditions off the coast of Scandinavia, which is sufficient to start growing ice in that region."

"These findings are supported by marine sediment records from the North Atlantic, which show evidence of glaciers in northern Canada several thousand years before the European side," said Diane Thompson, assistant professor in the UArizona Department of Geosciences. "The sediment records also show compelling evidence of a weakened deep ocean circulation before the glaciers form in Scandinavia, similar to our modeling results."

Together, the experiments suggest that the formation of marine ice in northern Canada may be a necessary precursor to glaciation in Scandinavia, the authors write.

Pushing climate models beyond their traditional application of predicting future climates provides an opportunity to identify previously unknown interactions in the Earth system, such as the complex and sometimes counterintuitive interplay between ice sheets and climate, Lofverstrom said.

"It is possible that the mechanisms we identified here apply to every glacial period, not just the most recent one," he said. "It may even help explain more short-lived cold periods such as the Younger Dryas cold reversal (12,900 to 11,700 years ago) that punctuated the general warming at the end of the last ice age."

Explore further Scientists shine new light on role of Earth's orbit in the fate of ancient ice sheets

More information: Marcus Lofverstrom, The importance of Canadian Arctic Archipelago gateways for glacial expansion in Scandinavia, Nature Geoscience (2022). www.nature.com/articles/s41561-022-00956-9 Journal information: Nature Geoscience Marcus Lofverstrom, The importance of Canadian Arctic Archipelago gateways for glacial expansion in Scandinavia,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41561-022-00956-9
An online seminar hosted by the All-China Journalists Association was held in Beijing on June 22 to discuss the changes in the Tibet Autonomous Region in the new era.

Zhang Yun, a researcher with the History Institute of China Tibetology Research Center, underscored that under the leadership of the Communist Party of China and with the hard work of resident working teams, Tibet has taken on an entirely new look. It has achieved all-round economic and social development, remarkably improved people's livelihoods, and urban and rural areas look ever more vigorous.

Zhaluo, director of the Social Economics Institute of China Tibetology Research Center, highlighted "green development" as a distinctive feature of Tibet, saying that the ecological protection of the Tibetan Plateau, the "global climate regulator" and "Asia's water tower," is vital to promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

"Tibet has 47 nature reserves of various types, covering a total area of 412,200 square kilometers, accounting for more than one-third of the region's territory," said Zhaluo.

Laxianjia, deputy director of the Religious Institute of China Tibetology Research Center, noted that Tibetan Buddhism and related cultures have been preserved and carried on soundly. Tibetans' freedom of religious belief is fully guaranteed.

Then, the three experts answered questions from the participating Chinese and foreign journalists, including about Tibet's high-quality socio-economic development and the lives of local farmers and herders.
Experimental setup in the present work. The secondary beam line RIBLL is shown with the corresponding distance scale. In the lower left area, the isomer depletion of 93mMo is sketched together with the spontaneous decay of the long-lived isomer. The setup for implantation and detection is shown in the upper right area. Credit: Physical Review Letters (2022). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.242502

A "dark" environment was created at the Radioactive Ion Beam Line in Lanzhou (RIBLL), China, to look for a faint flash of light as evidence of isomer depletion. Such depletion is required to harness nuclear energy stored in long-lived isomeric states through the process of nuclear excitation by electron capture (NEEC).

However, in this independent experiment, evidence of isomer depletion was not observed. Results were published in Physical Review Letters on June 17, with the NEEC probability measured at less than 210-5, thus casting doubt on the first reported experimental observation of NEEC in 2018.

Several million electron volts can be stored in one atomic nucleus. Therefore, long-lived isomers with high excitation energies are considered to be ideal energy storage materials, with high energy density, long storage periods, and excellent stability.

Nevertheless, artificially controlling the energy release process is a great challenge. Scientific consensus expects the rapid release of isomeric energy to be achieved by isomer depletion, that is, by exciting the isomer to an adjacent excited state that decays to the ground state immediately. Scientists have proposed several methods, among which NEEC has attracted particular attention.

The first experimental observation of NEEC was reported in 2018 with a measured excitation probability of 1.0 (3)%, which is about nine orders of magnitude larger than the theoretical expectation. Later, researchers pointed out a possible overestimation owing to contamination from the heavy gamma background. This comment and the corresponding response induced a lively debate on the validity of the reported NEEC observation, calling for verification from another independent measurement. The debate was focused on whether the researchers sufficiently considered the effect of the heavy gamma background.

To reinvestigate isomer depletion, researchers at the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and their collaborators used an isomer beam to avoid contamination from the heavy gamma background. The experiment was conducted at RIBLL, which is housed at the Heavy Ion Research Facility in Lanzhou.

"Our experiment was designed to escape from the gamma background. In the previous work, researchers searched for the scarce special photons in a harsh light, like seeking a firefly in sunshine. For a refined survey, we drove it into the dark," said Guo Song, a researcher at IMP.

In this experiment, 93mMo residues were produced at the primary target position and transported to the end of RIBLL to study isomer depletion during the slowing-down process of the ions in a low gamma-ray background environment.

The researchers did not observe isomer depletion at such a low gamma background. The excitation probability was determined to be less than 210-5, which is significantly lower than the previously reported probability and consistent with theoretical calculations.

Guo noted that there were several differences in setup between the two experiments, but "the gamma background is still the most striking factor."

"The experiment they report is demonstrably superior to the earlier work in that the 93mMo nucleus formed in a fusion evaporation reaction was separated from the incident beam via traversal through the RIBLL separator. This allows for a low-background signal to be obtained that conclusively limited the NEEC rate," said one editor for Physical Review Letters.

It is worth noting that it is the first attempt to use an isomer beam in studies on NEEC. The significantly increased experimental sensitivity indicates that it is a promising approach for studying isomer depletion.

Explore further Captured electrons excite nuclei to higher energy states

More information: S. Guo et al, Probing Mo93m Isomer Depletion with an Isomer Beam, Physical Review Letters (2022). Journal information: Physical Review Letters S. Guo et al, Probing Mo93m Isomer Depletion with an Isomer Beam,(2022). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.242502
Credit: Springer

The Tibetan Plateau, known as the "Third Pole" of the world, is not only the highest plateau on the Earth, but it is also considered the "Asian Water Tower." Its watershed nourishes more than ten major rivers in Asia.

Like the North and South Poles, the Tibetan Plateau is also extremely vulnerable to climate change. Glaciers on it have been retreating extensively in recent decades. Atmospheric warming, circulation changes associated with increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases, aerosols in the atmosphere, and light-absorbing particles, such as black carbon and dust on snow are all contributing to glacial retreat.

Recently, researchers from China, the U.S. and the Netherlands have curated their "Third Pole" climate studies into a special issue of Advances in Atmospheric Sciences. The journal is hosted by the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"This special issue focuses on the analysis of observational and modeling data to better understand the roles that the Tibetan Plateau plays in Asia's climate and even the global climate," said Prof. Zhao Chun from the University of Science and Technology of China, and one of the guest editors of the special issue.

Regarding the Tibetan Plateau's future climatology as indicated in the preface of the special issue, so far, scientists have not reached a consensus on a robust method of obtaining reliable climate projections. A complete physical attribution of climate change over the Tibetan Plateau needs further analysis.

The studies published in the special issue also suggest that the regional feedbacks from topography, snow cover, and the chemical-radiative-dynamical coupling processes are critical processes in climate systems. Future research should aim to better resolve these parameters to improve simulations of regional climate and air quality over the Tibetan Plateau.

CAS scientists' latest studies on climate and environment over the Tibetan Plateau. Credit: ScienceApe

Explore further Discovery of a tripole winter precipitation change pattern around the Tibetan Plateau in the late 1990s

More information: Yun Qian et al, Understanding Third Pole Atmospheric Dynamics and Land Surface Processes and Their Associations with the Cryosphere, Air Quality, and Climate Change, Advances in Atmospheric Sciences (2022). Journal information: Advances in Atmospheric Sciences Yun Qian et al, Understanding Third Pole Atmospheric Dynamics and Land Surface Processes and Their Associations with the Cryosphere, Air Quality, and Climate Change,(2022). DOI: 10.1007/s00376-022-2004-7
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Mass shootings are a source of shared anguish and outrage among Americans and are becoming more frequent. Extreme risk protection orders (ERPOs), also known as gun violence restraining orders or "red flag" laws, are designed to help prevent these shootings. Below, UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program (VPRP) experts explain what is currently known about mass shootings, how ERPOs work and the effectiveness of ERPOs in preventing harm to others and self-harm.

The information cites research using various definitions of mass shootings. Please note that not all statistics can be directly compared.

Key takeaways:

Mass shooters frequently share their plans, creating opportunities to intervene

ERPOs are temporary, tailored interventions focused on high-risk individuals

Research indicates ERPOs can prevent both mass shootings and suicides

ERPOs are widely supported by the general public, including most gun owners

Resources are needed to improve training and implementation related to ERPOs

Background: mass shootings and their perpetrators

There is no universally accepted definition of a mass shootingcounts vary drastically. An often-cited, broad measure counts mass shootings as when four or more people, excluding the shooter, are shot or killed in one event. From January 1 to June 5, 2022, there have been 246 such incidents. Many researchers use other measures, for example including only shootings in public places or when four or more people are killed, or excluding those occurring in the context of other criminal activity.

Mass shootings are rare but increasing. Only about 1% of all firearm-related deaths (2 to 3% of firearm homicides) occur in mass shootings. While rare, the frequency and death toll of mass shootings are rising.

Mass shooters often share their plans and exhibit dangerous behaviors and warning signs. Approximately half of public mass shootersand almost all school shooters"leak" their plans to others. The majority of mass attackers (65-93%) engage in some form of threatening or concerning communications before the incident. At least one-quarter are motivated by ideologies such as white supremacy, misogyny, and xenophobia.

Mass shooters often have a history of violence towards others, including domestic violence. One study found that nearly 70% of fatal mass shootings were related to domestic violence, or the shooter had a history of domestic violence. Although some experience mental health problems, most mass shooters do not meet the criteria for involuntary psychiatric hospitalization and are thus not subject to associated firearms prohibitions.

People often recognize concerning behaviors, providing opportunities for intervention. At least two-thirds of mass attackers exhibit behaviors that elicit concern in family members, friends, neighbors, classmates, co-workers, or others. Unpublished research from the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program estimates that one in five adults in California personally know someone they perceive to be at risk of harming themselves or others; an estimated 130,000 Californians know a person who has made threats of mass violence.

What are extreme risk protection orders (ERPOs)?

ERPOs were created to prevent mass shootings. An ERPO is a civil court order that temporarily prevents a person at risk of hurting themselves or others from possessing or purchasing firearms and ammunition. ERPO is an umbrella term for temporary risk-based firearm removal policies. These policies and their names differ by state. In California, ERPOs are known as gun violence restraining orders or GVROs. ERPO laws were designed to preventand are often adopted in response tomass shootings. To date, 19 states and the District of Columbia have ERPO laws, mostly enacted since 2016.

ERPOs must be based on key behavioral warning signs and ordered by a judge. An ERPO is initiated via petition by law enforcement or, in some states, by family, household members, or other eligible petitioners, and issued by a judge who considers evidence of the respondent's danger to self or others. Such evidence may include recent acts or threats of violence toward self or others, a history of threatening or dangerous behaviors, and the recent acquisition of firearms or ammunition. A psychiatric diagnosis is not recommended for consideration.

ERPOs are civil orders with protections for respondents, including due process. ERPOs do not create criminal records unless an order is violated. Due process protections are built-in for both emergency ex parte orders (typically lasting 2 to 3 weeks) and longer-term orders (typically lasting up to one year); the latter are only issued after notice and a hearing. Many states have criminal penalties for knowingly filing a false or harassing petition, and research suggests that such misuse is extremely rare.

Do ERPOs prevent violence?

ERPOs are successful in cases of threatened violence. ERPOs are overwhelmingly being used as intended, intervening in cases of threatened self- or other-directed violence, including mass shootings. ERPO petitions are usually filed by law enforcement, and the majority are granted. When petitions are denied, it is most often because they do not meet the required burden of proof. In most cases, firearms are recovered by or turned in to law enforcement, though ERPOs are also used to prevent respondents from purchasing new firearms.

Deaths among respondents are rare post-ERPO. Among ERPO cases in California from 2016-2018, with follow-up for 379 respondents, one died from firearm injuries sustained in a suicide attempt that prompted the order to be requested; no other respondents died by suicide using firearms or other means after being issued an ERPO.

ERPOs have been used to stop potential mass shootings. In the first three years of California's ERPO law, 58 cases involved threatened mass shootings, including six that involved minors targeting schools. A separate in-depth analysis of 21 of these cases found that none of the threatened shootings had occurred, nor had there been other homicides or suicides by the respondents.

ERPOs protect individuals, but it may be too early to see the change in the population. Studies of individual-level outcomes found that ERPO laws in Connecticut and Indiana are effective for suicide prevention, estimating that one life is saved for every 10-20 orders issued. The findings of population-level studies are mixed.

Does the general public support ERPOs?

Public support for ERPO policies is high. Survey data show that a strong majority of Americans support the concept of ERPOs, irrespective of political party or gun ownership status. When Californians were asked about ERPOs, 80-85% of firearm owners agreed that ERPOs are at least sometimes appropriate in 4 of 5 risk scenarios (such as threats of harm to self, others or groups of people). This is even higher than the 72-78% agreement by non-owners and 76-85% by non-owners who live with owners.

Public willingness to use an ERPO is high. Depending on the scenario, 73-84% of adults in California say they would be somewhat or very willing to personally petition for an ERPO for an at-risk family member. Non-gun owners who live with firearm owners report the highest levels of willingness (84-95%).

Public perception and use of ERPOs vary by race and ethnicity. Research from California suggests that support for and personal willingness to use ERPOs is lower among Black and Hispanic/Latinx adults, who most often cite a lack of knowledge about ERPOs, distrust that the system will be fair, or the belief that these are personal/family matters. Among 193 ERPO respondents between 2016-2018, no family or household members served as petitioners for Black and Hispanic/Latinx respondents.

What is needed to improve ERPO implementation?

Robust implementation support is key. Within states, there is substantial local variation in ERPO use. Local champions drive uptake. Interviews with stakeholders, including judges, law enforcement officers, city and district attorneys, and policy experts, have indicated that funding and guidance to support local implementation efforts can lead to clearer and more consistent practices. Pairing law enforcement with other professionals (e.g., social workers) in serving ERPOs may promote racial equity and connect respondents to support services.

Professionals who may petition for ERPOs need and want training. Most ERPO petitioners are law enforcement, but in a survey of officers in states with ERPO laws, only 55% had received training. Most healthcare providers surveyed in Washington and Maryland reported being willing to contact law enforcement to file a petition or file a petition directly but desired additional support and training.
Paenibacillus bacteria shown colonized in a Petri dish. In the test home, the bacterial species was associated with coffee molecules and found where coffee was prepared. The bacteria may have healthful properties. Credit: Prof. Eshel Ben-Jacob, Wikimedia

Within and upon every human being reside countless microorganismsthe microbiota that help shape and direct the lives of their hosts. A similar phenomenon occurs between people, microbes and the homes they share.

Writing in the June 24, 2022 issue of Science Advances, scientists at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and elsewhere report on the molecular impact of life indoors, describing how the presence of humans interacts with their microbial roommates, changing the home's biology and chemistry.

The findings, suggest the authors, should influence future building designs.

Modern Americans spend approximately 70 percent of their time inside, reshaping the indoor microbiome with inputs from their bodies. Limited research has investigated the interaction between humans and indoor exposures to specific pollutants, toxins and particles, but the new study more ambitiously documents how people influence the entire molecular and chemical composition of a home through routine activities.

An experimental test home was erected in Austin, Texas during the summer of 2018. The house was designed for ordinary use and included bathrooms, a kitchen, gathering and work areas. Overnight stays were prohibited, but 45 study participants, plus visitors, spent time in the house, occupying it for approximately six hours per day for 26 days, during which they performed scripted activities, such as cooking, cleaning and socializing.

Researchers sampled the distribution of detectable molecules and microbes throughout the occupied areas of the house at the beginning of the experiment, dubbed T1, and again 28 days later, dubbed T2, largely by swabbing surfaces and conducting different genomic, metabolic and chemical analyses.

Before T1, the house was deep cleaned with a bleach solution. Nonetheless, researchers said traces of molecules associated with humans were still present. At T2, after almost of month of human occupation, the house was alive with molecular and microbial abundance and diversity, albeit unevenly distributed.

Researchers found molecules associated with skin care products, skin cells, drugs (such as antidepressants and anabolic steroids), food-derived molecules (such as terpenes and flavonoids), human or animal metabolites (molecules generated during the process of metabolism, such as bile and fatty acids), amino acids, sugars and microbial metabolites.

Most of the indoor surface molecules were natural products (biologically produced molecules rather than synthetic compounds), food, molecules associated with the outdoors, personal care products and human-derived metabolites, often traced to fecal matter.

Food, human-associated microbes, feces, building materials and the microbes that grow upon them and building materials in humid conditions were deemed the likely primary sources.

Not surprisingly, the kitchen and toilet were hotspots of molecular and microbial diversity, though numbers fluctuated with surface cleaning and sanitation. "It appears that, even when a subset of chemistry is removed because of the cleaning, it is only temporary and/or partial, as the sum total of cleaning and human activities overall results in an increase in accumulation of richer chemistry," the authors wrote.

Surfaces routinely touched by people, such as tables, light switches and knobs, were more abundant in molecular and microbial chemistry. Floors showed less molecular diversity, perhaps because they were cleaned more often. Windows, chairs and doors not routinely touched by human occupants displayed the least change in chemical diversity between T1 and T2.

Other residents

Of course, people weren't the only occupants of the test home. Researchers found indoor surfaces covered with bacteria, fungi and other microbes, plus their metabolites. Regular cleaning altered these microbial populations and diversity over time, allowing different species to recolonize cleaned spaces.

At the end of the test period, less than half of the house's original microbiome remained, but it accounted from more than 96 percent of all microbial life counted. Most of the detected microbiome at T2 was derived from human occupants, mainly commensal species that reside on human skin or in the gut. Free-living, environment-associated microbes had been depleted by human activities. In other words, cleaned or pushed out.

"We don't know exactly how the human-related microbes squeezed out the environmental microbes because there are many ways this could happen, but it's clear that they do," said Rob Knight, Ph.D., one of the study's principal investigators and director of the Center for Microbiome Innovation at UC San Diego. "Understanding this phenomenon will be a key goal of future research on the microbiology of the built environment."

The authors noted that at least 1 percent of the detected indoor molecules may pose an outsized health effect. For example, the bacterial species Paenibacillus was associated with molecules from coffee, one of the dominant sources of food-derived indoor molecules detected. In the home, especially at T2, Paenibacillus was observed in and around the area where coffee was prepared and the genus has been found to grow in coffee machines. Paenibacillus species have been used as probiotics in chickens and bees, and may also contribute to human health, consistent with recent reports that coffee drinking is associated with improved cardiovascular health and longevity.

"Understanding specifically how our observations that both human and microbial occupants change the chemical make-up of a home should influence building material design to improve human health will require additional studies," said co-principle investigator Pieter Dorrestein, Ph.D., director of the Collaborative Mass Spectrometry Innovation Center at Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at UC San Diego.

Explore further Predicting microbial interactions in the human gut

More information: Alexander A. Aksenov et al, The molecular impact of life in an indoor environment, Science Advances (2022). Journal information: Science Advances Alexander A. Aksenov et al, The molecular impact of life in an indoor environment,(2022). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abn8016
Atomic and crystal structures of the crystalline iridium oxides. a Rutile-type R-IrO 2 . b Hollandite-type Ho-IrO 2 . c K-intercalated hollandite-type 1K + Ho-IrO 2 . d Romanechite-type Ro-IrO 2 . e K-intercalated romanechite-type 2K + Ro-IrO 2 . f Todorokite-type To-IrO 2 . g K-intercalated todorokite-type 4K + To-IrO 2 . h Corundum-based C-IrO 1.5 . i bixbyite-based B-IrO 1.5 . j R3cR-IrO 3 . k P6 3 22 P-IrO 3 . The iridium, oxygen, and potassium atoms are depicted as gray, red, and blue spheres, respectively, while the octahedra of IrO 6 is shaded in gray. The bulk unit cell is represented by the lines in orange. Credit: Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30838-y

South Korean-based researchers have used first-principles quantum mechanical simulations to better understand the structure-property relationships in various polymorphic phases of iridium oxides to elucidate their outstanding performance in catalyzing the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The OER is an important half-cell reaction where water is catalytically split to evolve oxygen. However, due to the intrinsic sluggish kinetics of the OER, this leads to an overall poor catalytic performance in general.

The latest findings from computational materials scientist, Professor Aloysius Soon and his team from the Department of Materials Science & Engineering at Yonsei University, demonstrate new physiochemical insights into how nonequivalent connectivity in the amorphous structures strongly enhances the flexibility of the charge states of the iridium cations, and hence promotes the presence of electrophilic oxygens in them, as compared to their crystalline counterparts. As Professor Soon writes in Nature Communications: "A fundamental atomic-scale understanding of high-performance nanopore-containing amorphous oxides of iridium is still very much lacking. And it greatly hinders the establishment of a design rule for further performance improvement."

"This computational study on experimentally reported (but less studied) metastable nanoporous and amorphous iridium oxides provides new physical insight into the structure-property relationship to explain and reconcile the superior OER performance of sub-stoichiometric amorphous iridium oxides. This potentially opens doors for the agile design of iridium-based OER catalysts for modern clean energy technologies," he adds.

Despite the importance of having a firm grasp of complex structure-property relationship in advanced materials, there is still limited understanding of atomic-scale intuitive models for amorphous oxides for clean energy technology.

"To improve the long-term efficacy of the anodic OER, the search for active, selective, and stable electrocatalysts has been on the rise, and amongst them, oxides (and oxyhydroxides) of iridium and ruthenium are known for their outstanding stability and reactivity in acidic environments," highlights Professor Soon. "A promising way to tune and engineer the structure-property relations of these oxide catalysts is to control their stoichiometry and polymorphic phase at the atomic-level."

For the first time, systematic density-functional theory calculations have been conducted to examine structure-property relations of nanoporous and amorphous iridium oxides to reconcile the superior oxygen evolution reaction catalytic performance reported in previous experiments to aid a better design of the next-generation OER catalysts.

"This study potentially opens doors for the agile design of novel iridium-based OER catalysts with high efficiency for modern clean energy technologies," concludes Professor Soon.

Explore further Researchers develop advanced catalysts for clean hydrogen production

More information: Sangseob Lee et al, Activated chemical bonds in nanoporous and amorphous iridium oxides favor low overpotential for oxygen evolution reaction, Nature Communications (2022). Journal information: Nature Communications Sangseob Lee et al, Activated chemical bonds in nanoporous and amorphous iridium oxides favor low overpotential for oxygen evolution reaction,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30838-y

Provided by Yonsei University
Apparent stasis interspersed by periods of rapid change, associated with major technological revolutions, triggered by novel military technologies. The longest period of no systematic change was during the nearly two millennia between the Iron/Cavalry Revolution and the Gunpowder Revolution. Although empires rose and fell during this period, the maximum areas of empires fluctuated around the 3 million square kilometer level. [Brown curve: average territory of the three largest polities. Tan shading: mean  SD (note the logarithmic scale of the Y-axis)]. Credit: Seshat: Global History Database

During the past 10,000 yearsthe Holocenehuman societies became larger and ever more complex. An international team of scientists led by Peter Turchin from the Complexity Science Hub Vienna (CSH) set out to test various theories on what drove this process. According to its analyses of data from Seshat: Global History Databank, the best explanation for the evolution of socio-cultural complexity is a combination of increasing agricultural productivity and the invention, or adoption, of military technologies (most notably, the invention of iron weapons and cavalry in the first millennium BCE). The study just appeared in the journal Science Advances.

Many theories need to be tested

"Countless explanations have been offered over the years to explain the incredible 'Holocene transformation,'" Peter Turchin points out. Some theorists, like Jared Diamond, say that the transition to agriculture was both the necessary and sufficient condition for the rise of complex societies. Other theories focus on conflict theories, class struggle, the threat from external warfare or functionalist explanations, e.g., that complex social organization evolved to solve certain problems faced by societies.

"All these theories could cite historical examples seemingly supporting their putative mechanisms; but none have ever proven decisively more convincing than the others," says Turchin, who leads a team investigating Social Complexity and Collapse at the CSH. Along with fellow members of the Seshat: Global History Databank project, he applied the tried-and-true scientific method: determine what each body of theory proposes as the key factors driving the rise of complexity and see which one best explains the available empirical evidence. The results reveal that many long-standing and influential theories receive little support from data.

Plow and sword drive human history

The best explanation for the observed patterns offers the framework of cultural evolution. "Essentially, the conflict between groups over territory and resources put a tremendous selective pressure on societies," Turchin explains. It favored societies that were ever larger, more populous, could store more information and communicate effectively at greater distances and were capable of mobilizing larger numbers of people for common projects like defense and maintaining public infrastructure. "While previous theories contained some of these elements, for the first time a single, coherent framework has been provided and demonstrated with the historical record," says Turchin.

The scholars also identified several major "transformations" during the Holocene: Following the invention of key technologies like bronze and later iron smelting or cavalry warfare and associated tactics, the scale of the largest societies rose dramatically before leveling off to a relatively stable size. New innovations and cultural adaptations continued to build until another breakthrough was achieved, propelling societies to new heights before stabilizing again, while the whole process began anew.

Big Data reveal decisive patterns

"This paper is the culmination of more than a decade of intensive collaboration," says Harvey Whitehouse, corresponding author on the paper and one of the founding directors of Seshat. "Our study utilized more than a hundred variablesmeticulously codedrelating to 373 societies that flourished between 9600 BCE and 1900 CE. With the help of such 'big' data we are able to place theories of world history head-to-head and see which ones win."

The scientists view this study as a breakthrough in the understanding of how human societies have evolved since the very first farmers settled down thousands of years ago. In the future, the team will adopt similar methods to test the diverse group of ideas that have been proposed in other areas of research, such as the causes of societal collapse or the role of religious ideology in cultural evolution.

The ultimate goal, as Turchin puts it, is to "put those influential ideas that do not bear out against the empirical record to bed, once and for all."

Explore further What drove the invention of military technologies?

More information: Peter Turchin et al, Disentangling the Evolutionary Drivers of Social Complexity: A Comprehensive Test of Hypotheses, Science Advances (2022). www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abn3517 Journal information: Science Advances Peter Turchin et al, Disentangling the Evolutionary Drivers of Social Complexity: A Comprehensive Test of Hypotheses,(2022). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abn3517
From the normally chilly Russian Arctic to the traditionally sweltering American South, big swaths of the Northern Hemisphere continued to sizzle with extreme heat as the start of summer more resembled the dog days of August with parts of China and Japan setting all-time heat records Friday.

In the United States, a heat dome of triple digit temperatures in many places combined with high humidity oscillated from west to east. On Thursday, at least 15 states hit 100 degrees and at least 21 high temperature marks were set or broken, according to the National Weather Service, which held 30 million Americans under some kind of heat advisory.

The extreme discomfort of Thursday came after 12 states broke the 100-degree mark on Wednesday and 21 records were tied or broken. Since June 15, at least 113 automated weather stations have tied or broken hot-temperature records. Scientists say this early baking has all the hallmarks of climate change.

In China's northern Henan province Friday, Xuchang hit 107.8 degrees and Dengfeng hit 106.9 degrees for their hottest days on record, according to global extreme weather tracker Maximiliano Herrera. And in Japan on Friday, Tokamachi and Tsunan set all-time heat records while several cities broke monthly marks, he said.

"It's easy to look at these figures and forget the immense misery they represent. People who can't afford air conditioning and people who work outdoors have only one option, to suffer," said Texas A&M climate scientist Andrew Dessler, who was in College Station, where the temperature tied a record at 102 degrees Thursday. "Those of us with air conditioning may not physically suffer, but we are prisoners of the indoors."

After three deaths, Chicago has changed its cooling rules.

In Macon, Georgia, the temperature swept from 64 degrees to 105 in just nine hours Wednesday. Then on Thursday, the temperature peaked at 104, a record for the day. Even Minneapolis hit 100 on Monday.

Probably only the Pacific Northwest and Northeast have been spared the heat wave, said National Weather Service meteorologist Marc Chenard at the Weather Prediction Center. On Thursday, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Arizona, South Carolina, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, South Dakota, Colorado, Nevada and California all hit at least 100. Houston, Dallas, Austin, New Orleans and Orlando all tied high record marks on Thursday.

"It's persistent," Chenard said. "It's been over a week, and it's going to continue in some aspects."

It's not just the U.S.

The Russian city of Norilsk, above the Arctic circle, hit 89.6 degrees Thursday for its hottest June day on record and tied for its hottest day in any month on record, according to Herrera. Saragt in Turkmenistan rose to 114.6 degrees, but Herrera said in the next few days it could get even worse.

Herrera said tracking heat records is so overwhelming that he doesn't have time to eat or sleep.

A European heat wave has also caused problems with fires in Germany and Spain.

Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Victor Gensini said what's happening with this early heat wave is "very consistent with what we'd expect in a continually warming world."

"These temperatures are occurring with only 2 degrees Fahrenheit of global warming and we are on track for 4 degrees Fahrenheit (2.2 degrees Celsius) more warming over this century," Dessler said. "I literally cannot imagine how bad that will be."

In Raleigh, North Carolina, it hit 100 on Wednesday and usually the city only gets one 100-degree day a year, but it comes much later than this, said state climatologist Kathie Dello.

"In the southeastern U.S., many lack access to sufficient or stable cooling or cannot afford to use their home cooling systems. Heat morbidity and mortality is among our greatest public health risks in a changing climate."

There may be some cooling by the weekend or Monday in some places, including the north central part of the country, Chenard said. But above normal temperatures are forecast for "at least into the first part of July" and he added it's likely the entire summer will be hotter than normal.

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The State Council recently issued an overall plan to further deepen opening-up in Nansha district of Guangzhou in southern China's Guangdong province, aiming to boost comprehensive cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao.

The plan, which will be carried out across the 803-square-kilometer Nansha district, involves measures to boost sci-tech innovation, entrepreneurship, financial connectivity and urban development. It aims to build the district into a key strategic platform for the coordinated development of China's Greater Bay Area.

Here, China.org.cn looks at the main targets stipulated in the document.




CORINTH  The Saratoga County Sheriffs Office arrested three Corinth residents on Wednesday in connection with the sale of crack cocaine.

A search warrant was executed by the Sheriffs Office Special Operations Team at 109 Comstock Road after a lengthy investigation into drug trafficking in the county.

Three suspects  Thomas A. Allen, 33, Kayla J. Allen, 30, and Erica B. Shippee, 35  were located in the residence.

Police said that Thomas and Kayla Allen had active warrants, while Shippee is currently on parole. Scales, packaging material and quantities of crack cocaine were seized as a result of the investigation, according to police.

Thomas Allen was charged with two counts of third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance, two counts of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, two counts of fifth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and one count of first-degree criminal nuisance, which are all felonies.

He also faces misdemeanor charges of third degree bail jumping and second-degree criminally using drug paraphernalia.

Kayla Allen faces a felony charge of first-degree criminal nuisance and misdemeanor charges of third-degree bail jumping and second-degree criminally using drug paraphernalia.

Shippee is charged with first-degree criminal nuisance, a felony, and second-degree criminally using drug paraphernalia, a misdemeanor.

Police said Thomas and Kayla Allen were arraigned in Corinth Town Court, where bail was set in the amount of $10,000 cash, $20,000 bond and $100,000 partially secured bond. They both were sent to Saratoga County Jail for lack of bail, pending further action on the matter.

Shippee was given a ticket to appear in Corinth Town Court at a later date.
Queensbury resident Dan Janssen has been able to fill a niche need of providing specific medical supplies to Ukrainian refugees living in Poland.

Janssen has been able to do this through the unique friendships that he has fostered over the months of frequent trips hes made to Poland.

It all started when he met Nata Maievska in October while staying at the same hostel in Warsaw, Poland, for an international film festival. The two remained friends, and when Russia began its formal invasion of Ukraine, Janssen reached out to her.

Maievska, who is a Ukrainian refugee herself living in Poland, is an interpreter and liaison for the Ukrainian consulate as a volunteer, located at her university campus in Warsaw.

Ukraine will communicate a specific need to the consulate in Poland, which Maievska then passes on to Janssen.

(Ukrainian) hospitals get a plethora of blood, plasma, antibiotics, bandages, but thats a fixed entity. But sometimes the hospital will find that a device goes on the fritz or craps out, he said.

Currently, he is looking for EKG printers, preferably sourced in Warsaw, as past shipments hes made from the U.S. have been stopped for weeks on end at Customs.

Recently, Janssen was able to successfully ship devices used for laparoscopic surgery.

Maievska is a 20-year-old full-time student, and is also the one who provides financially for her family. Her dad and brother are still in Ukraine.

Youre like a superhero to me, Janssen said to her during a Zoom conversation.

It is normal, she replied, meaning that she feels like she does not have a choice but to do everything she can.

She said the lives of countless Ukrainians have changed over the last year, and that people have to do more than just survive to fight back.

If I can do this, why not.

Maievska was already in Poland attending university before the war broke out.

While there was a lot of support a few months ago in Poland, the feeling between the Polish hosts and Ukrainian refugees has changed over the recent month.

Many of the Ukrainian refugees in Poland right now are not as willing to adapt to the Polish way of life, or even learn their language. Their thinking is that they may go back home tomorrow.

There used to be a lot more Ukrainian flags all around Warsaw in support. Theres more animosity now, Janssen said, based on what he observed during his last trip and from his recent conversations with Maievska.

Everything is in a state of flux, Janssen said, adding that many Ukrainians are trying to return home, while there are still refugees coming across the border into Poland.

Some are returning after hearing that the economy is running again in certain regions of the country, where the fighting isnt as intense, he said.

Janssen speculated that this is what Russian President Vladmir Putin wanted in the first place: to take away the identity of the Ukrainian people.

Janssens last trip to Warsaw was between June 4 and June 7. He said that his regular trips will probably become more infrequent now because the sense of urgency has dissipated.

His last trip was to visit another friend he made at the Ukrainian Honorary Consulate, Honorary Consul Krzysztof Sikora, and to continue that line of communication.

He (the consul) is the same age as me. We share a lot of the same hobbies. He makes cherry brandy, and I have a hobby of making maple syrup, so we exchanged gifts. I also brought him souvenirs from Lake George. We made a pact that we would visit each other going forward, Janssen said.

Meeting with the consulate was a reaffirmation of what kind of specific medical equipment different hospitals may need in the coming months.

Janssen said that theres been an overwhelming amount of financial support to the humanitarian crisis, but the need for some of these niche medical supplies fall to the wayside at times.

Janssen is accepting donations via his Venmo account he created for this effort, at @Daniel-Janssen-PA-C.

He specified that he does not use donations for travel expenses.

Drew Wardle is a reporter for The Post-Star. You can contact him at 518-681-7343 or email him at dwardle@poststar.com.

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GLENS FALLS  The fact that she was about to graduate from high school hadnt set in as she stood with her friends outside of Cool Insuring Arena on Thursday evening.

Sydney Blake, member of the South Glens Falls Class of 2022, posed for pictures with her fellow graduates as she smiled from ear to ear.

I dont think its going to hit until the end, she said. Then Im going to start bawling.

And then youre going to make everyone else bawl, make everyone else cry, said fellow graduate Meghan Herlihy as they shared a laugh.

Blake and Herilhy are both working over the summer before heading off to college. Herilhy will be heading to the University of New Hampshire, and Blake is going to SUNY Plattsburgh.

They joined the rest of the 229 graduates that created a sea of bulldog red and blue inside of the arena for the commencement ceremony.

Class of 2022 Salutatorian Lily Jetter, who will be attending Penn State University this fall, spent the last two years of her high school career taking classes at Queensbury High School as a part of the International Baccalaureate Program.

The program, which is recognized by many universities throughout the world, trains students to be knowledgeable, confident and caring, according to the programs website.

Jetter said that she feared losing the sense of community in her hometown while participating in the program, but that didnt happen.

She said that South Glens Falls is a welcoming and supportive community that she is proud to be a part of.

It turns out that it is by leaving home that we come to understand that (home) is not the place, but the feeling that goes along with it, Jetter said to her fellow graduates.

Emma Slupik is the class valedictorian.

Graduate Dylan Sechler is off to SUNY Geneseo this fall, where he intends to study marketing. Sechler said he wants to work toward a career working with stocks.

I want to be in New York City, he said. A lot of young people out of college go to the Upper East Side in Manhattan.

Jenni Montgomery, his mother, said that she was mostly feeling excitement as they stood outside of the arena.

Im proud of him, she said.

Sechler said that he was ready to be done with high school and move onto his next chapter. His mother laughed.

He said that he is looking forward to having his own independence, which he had a little taste of this year with a car of his own.

No mom eyes watching, Montgomery said.

Sechler said that the thing he will miss the most about high school is the close relationships that he had with his teachers, including his favorite teacher James Woodard, who teaches business at the high school.

South Glens Falls held the first of many graduation ceremonies on Thursday. A majority of graduations are being held throughout the region on Friday and some are on Saturday.

Jay Mullen is a reporter for The Post-Star covering the city of Glens Falls, Warren County and crime and courts. You can reach him at 518-742-3224 or jmullen@poststar.com.

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GLENS FALLS  The Hyde Collection art museum announced an exhibition that will honor the fine arts museums 60th anniversary next year.

The Songs of Horizon: David Smith, Music, and Dance exhibit, which was curated by Jennifer Field, executive director of the David Smith estate, will be the first museum exhibition to focus exclusively on the indelible influence of music and dance on Smiths work in painting, drawing and sculpture.

Smith is recognized historically as one of the great sculptors of the 20th century. He started spending summers in Bolton Landing in the late 1920s before settling down there permanently in the 1940s.

The exhibition will feature around 25 loans from private and public collections, the estate of Smith, and a selection of rare archival materials.

Field said that the Bolton Landing and Glens Falls areas were intertwined with Smiths artwork.

A dialogue with nature  the mountain landscape, the change of seasons, the flight of birds  is reflected in his artwork in every medium, she said.

Inspired by live performances in the Adirondack region and in New York City in the 1940s, Smith started an artistic campaign that depicts dancing figures and musicians absorbed by song, according to a news release.

Smiths work would later become grander in scale, and more abstract. The impact that music, dance and his surroundings in Bolton Landing were critical to his artistic maturity, according to a news release from The Hyde.

His daughter Candida Smith said that her fathers love for music and dance was closely linked to his identity.

He always said that an artist is a person of their time and he responded to the contemporaneous performing arts along with writing, painting and sculpture, she said.

Smith was a key figure in the foundation of The Hyde prior to his passing in 1965. He was friends with Charlotte Hyde, founder of the museum and he was one of the earliest trustees for the collection.

He curated The Hydes first summer exhibition, installing his own sculptures on the lawn.

The exhibit honoring The Hydes 60th anniversary will feature two 12-foot-tall vertical sculptures from Smiths career that poetically evoke the essence of music, dance, and nature, according to a news release.

The exhibit is set to open June 24 through Sept. 17, 2023, running alongside the museums 60th anniversary celebration.

Jay Mullen is a reporter for The Post-Star covering the city of Glens Falls, Warren County and crime and courts. You can reach him at 518-742-3224 or jmullen@poststar.com.

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ATLANTIC CITY  There will be a greatly increased police presence and additional safety measures around Tanger Outlets The Walk next month during the NAACP National Convention, interim Officer-in-Charge James Sarkos said Friday during a community safety meeting.

It was the second weekly meeting of a group of concerned merchants and officials anxious to improve conditions for visitors and residents in midtown for the convention and beyond. The meetings have been called by City Council Vice President Kaleem Shabazz.

We will have a big increase in law enforcement presence during the week of the convention, Sarkos said. We have reached out to partner law enforcement (for help).

The convention will be held at the Atlantic City Convention Center, which is next to both Tanger Outlets The Walk and the Atlantic City Rescue Mission, which provides food and shelter to the homeless.

Last week, merchants described brazen shoplifters who repeatedly steal from the same stores, and the inability to get them incarcerated because of state bail law and COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.

Sarkos said the restrictions on what police could do about shoplifting suspects during the pandemic are no longer in effect, and they will be able to get bench warrants to pick up those who dont show up for court dates.

Pleasantville serves up public resources at community cookout PLEASANTVILLE  The first day of summer was a chance to bring the community together for saf

We are encouraging stores to sign complaints, Sarkos said. We understand merchants would sign them (over the last two years) and show up in court, but the suspect would not show up.

Under COVID restrictions, judges were not issuing bench warrants to allow police to pick up those who skip court and hold them in jail until a new court date.

Now police can again get bench warrants, Sarkos said.

Sarkos also said the police substation at The Walk hasnt been used much, but that will soon change, too, after a new locking system is installed.

Tanger Outlets The Walk is a 109-store, open-air outlet mall that covers nine city blocks around the intersections of Atlantic, Arctic, Baltic, Michigan and Arkansas avenues in midtown. It is the first part of the city visitors see when they come in off the Atlantic City Expressway.

Acting Atlantic County Prosecutor William Reynolds said he is taking steps to improve quality of life in the city and county with a task force he has already started to form.

Pleasantville, Absecon planning ATV and dirt bike crack down Authorities in Pleasantville and Absecon are set to try to crack down on ATVs.

The program will use a van to take professionals out on the street to help people in need of medical, mental health and drug addiction services, Reynolds said.

We are going to hold onto drug cases, especially opioid and heroin, that used to be remanded to municipal courts, Reynolds said of the prosecutors Grand Jury Unit. We will keep it at the county level to try to get those people help through one of four different diversion programs, including drug court.

The prosecutor also will hold onto shoplifting cases involving more than $200 in value, he said.

Its a carrot and stick. We will do everything in our power to help those with drug addiction issues, but people with 37 shoplifting charges we are going to prosecute them.

Anthony Mack, owner of the McDonalds near The Walk, said people routinely sleep behind his restaurant, use drugs there and urinate in the street.

Its a disaster. We cannot control them, Mack said.

Atlantic City brings back recreation, senior programs with grants this summer ATLANTIC CITY  The city will run free summer camps and other programs for youth, seniors, t

I definitely hear his frustration. We see it every day as well, but be optimistic the worst is behind us, Sarkos said. We will start to see results. ... In several months and next year, it will be significantly different.

The group will meet again July 8.

REPORTER: Michelle Brunetti Post 609-841-2895 mpost@pressofac.com

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VENTNOR  Community members have joined together to help a family that lost everything in a blaze Saturday night on Ventnor Avenue.

Several residents were affected or displaced by the fire in the 5200 block that broke out about 5:30 p.m. Saturday.

The fire engulfed the U-Mango bubble tea restaurant and displaced three households living at the property, Ventnor Deputy Fire Chief Brady Middlesworth said earlier this week. Middlesworth said all three had either been relocated to shelter provided by family or the Red Cross. No injuries were reported.

One of those displaced families was the Sanchez-Montez family.

The Sanchez-Montez family, consisting of Odon Sanchez, his wife and daughter, evacuated their home immediately to escape the billowing smoke and flames. While they made it out safely, the fire incinerated all of their belongings, including their clothes, cellphones, work tools, money, important documents and other essentials.

Fire destroys property, displaces families in Ventnor VENTNOR  A fire broke out on the 5200 block of Ventnor Avenue over the weekend, causing sev

In the aftermath, members of the community and others willing to help have banded together to assist the family.

Thank God that everything is calming down now, Sanchez said Wednesday about how he and his family were feeling after the fire. We feel better knowing the community is helping us out.

The family received emergency assistance from the American Red Cross along with help from the Ventnor community, neighbors and officials such as Emily Christian of the Ventnor Business Association, in the form of gift cards, clothes, food, temporary housing and other assistance, according to a GoFundMe page created to help the family.

El Pueblo Unido NJ, a nonprofit based in Atlantic City, started the GoFundMe for the family seeking $10,000 to help them find a new apartment, pay rent and replace lost items. As of Thursday afternoon, theyd raised more than $5,700.

A representative for El Pueblo Unido said they were collaborating with Jewish Family Service to find and finance a new apartment for the family, providing them with rental assistance.

Our priority is looking for an apartment. Its not easy, but with the help of the community were continuing to move forward, said Sanchez. Thank you to the community of Ventnor, Atlantic City and all the other people we dont know that have been helping us.

Contact Selena Vazquez: 609-272-7225 svazquez@pressofac.com

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ATLANTIC CITY  A three-alarm fire tore through a building on the Boardwalk Friday morning at New York Avenue, damaging five businesses and sending plumes of smoke into the sky and down nearby roads where onlookers had gathered.

The blaze was under control by about 11 a.m., although firefighters remained on the scene putting out hotspots still left in ceilings, fire Chief Scott Evans said.

About 60 firefighters had responded after the blaze was first reported about 8:30 a.m., burning through several connected businesses next to Ripleys Believe It or Not! museum. No injuries were reported, Evans said.

Various local fire departments were called in to provide mutual aid, Evans said.

Fire officials had not released what caused the fire as of Friday afternoon.

The businesses suffered heavy smoke and water damage, Evans said.

Community raises money for family displaced by Ventnor fire VENTNOR  Community members have joined together to help a family that lost everything in a 

Two of the affected businesses were Devki Jewelers and H&A Fashion, a clothing store, Evans said. The clothing store appeared to suffer the worst of the damage, its interior charred and its storefront covered in soot.

Ripleys was spared any damage, Evans said.

This was a real serious fire because these are very old buildings, he said.

The building is about 100 years old and underwent $1.2 million worth of renovations funded by the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, city spokesperson Alexxus Young said, referring to a statement by Evans after the fire.

Smoke could be seen coming from the front doors and windows when firefighters arrived, Evans said, adding the first crews on scene reported a well-advanced fire working its way through the first floor.

Firetrucks were stationed next to Anchor Rock Club and Bourre Cajun restaurant, tapping into nearby fire hydrants that flooded sections of the street.

Colleen Pichirallo was going about her morning in her apartment less than a block away when she said the sounds of sirens filled the neighborhood. She then saw the clouds of smoke partially obscuring her block.

Pleasantville serves up public resources at community cookout PLEASANTVILLE  The first day of summer was a chance to bring the community together for saf

You couldnt see half of the building, Pichirallo said while watching firefighters in action. It was all engulfed.

As firefighters worked from the Boardwalk and on the buildings roof to douse the fire, onlookers standing beside police caution tape blocking off the hazard zone took out their cellphones to record the scene.

Crystal Temarantz could see the area fill with smoke from her hotel room on the eighth floor of Resorts Casino Hotel. She was preparing to leave the city but stopped for a peek at the commotion.

I wasnt sure if it was a fire, said Temarantz, of Kingston, Pennsylvania. I thought maybe it was either a fire or they were cooking food. It looked pretty thick.

Sargis Ghalechyan, a Brigantine resident and owner of Bills Gyros and My Friends Diner on the Boardwalk near where the fire broke out, said he was at the diner heading to the gyro place about 8:30 a.m. when he saw the building burst into flames.

I looked over and said, What is that? said Ghalechyan. It started fast.

Once it was deemed safe enough, police began opening up areas, allowing access to Schiffs Central Pier. Most of the piers stores were closed when the fire started, but owners began raising their sliding doors once customers were cleared to enter the area.

The section of the Boardwalk reopened just after noon once crews cleared the scene, city spokesperson Andrew Kramer said.

Tremendous work by our first responders getting this mornings fire on the Atlantic City Boardwalk under control, the city said in a statement posted to its Twitter page.

Staff Writers Nicholas Huba and Selena Vazquez contributed to this report.

Contact Eric Conklin: 609-272-7261 econklin@pressofac.com Twitter @ACPressConklin

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Milan dog handlers Laura King and Robin Novack took 10 dogs to the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show and came back with 10 ribbons and another finalist placement for Samoyed Striker.
The Rock Island Arsenal could receive up to $85 million in funding to go toward military readiness after the House Appropriations Committee approved additional spending this week.

The House of Representatives is currently in recess except for committee work, but members are expected to vote on the defense appropriations markups sometime in July.

As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Moline, helped advance the additional defense funding that would bring millions more in federal investments to the Arsenal.

"Communities in northwest and central Illinois are playing a critical role in advancing our nations defenses and developing new technologies to keep our nation secure and our service members safe," Bustos said in a news release. "The defense appropriations package we advanced today will continue to bring significant federal investments to facilities in the Quad-Cities, Rockford and Peoria  all while creating jobs and driving economic growth in our region. Im proud to secure this funding, and I look forward to delivering these results back home."

President Joe Biden asked Congress for $813 billion in defense-related spending in March.

Among the proposed funding is $20 million for large-scale additive manufacturing prototyping. The bill would continue to fund programs at the Rock Island Arsenal Center for Excellence for Additive and Advanced Manufacturing that develop components like the jointless hull for the Next Generation Combat Vehicle. The ability to manufacture combat vehicles without joints will increase manufacturing efficiency and the ability of a vehicle to survive combat situations. This represents a $5 million increase over FY2022 funding levels.

Another bill would provide $25 million for soft recoil and extended-range artillery systems. Additionally, it would fund the work of the Rock Island-based Mandus Group, which tests soft recoil technology to be used by U.S. Army Humvees.

Other funding includes:

$15 million for a Manufacturing Center of Excellence joint initiative. This bill would continue to fund an initiative focused on expeditionary additive construction between the University of Arkansas, Applied Research Associates (ARA) and the Armys Center of Excellence for Additive and Advanced Manufacturing that is critical to the Armys use of autonomous construction technologies.

$20 million for the Quad City Manufacturing Lab. This bill would continue to fund the lab's work with Temple University to develop personal protective equipment to provide service members with greater, lightweight protection.

$5 million for an online military real estate inventory tool pilot program. This bill would continue to fund a pilot program to utilize unused space on Army installations for future military needs.

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Illinois residents are making the quick trip across the border to fill their tanks up in Iowa as gas prices rise.

On Thursday, there was nearly a 45-cent difference between the states.

According to AAA, the average price for a regular tank of gas in Illinois is about $5.47. In Moline and Rock Island, the average price is around $5.15 for regular and $5.69 for diesel. In Iowa, a regular tank of gas is about $4.70 and $5.50 for diesel.

A little help for Illinois residents may be on the way. Beginning July 1, the State of Illinois will suspend the motor fuel tax through December 21. Illinois' suspended fuel tax comes as President Joe Biden this week called for a federal pause on the gas tax. His proposal would freeze 18-cents on regular gas and 24-cents on diesel fuel

These are not normal times, Biden said during a news conference. Do it now. Do it today  your customers, the American people, they need relief now.

Mike Thrasher, an Illinois resident who travels around the Quad-Cities for work, said he often stops in Iowa to fill up on gas before heading back over the border.

Ninety-nine percent of the time I go out of my way to get gas in Iowa, Thrasher said.

But Thrasher said the temporary relief can only do so much when gas in Illinois is already over five dollars.

Gas stations will be required to post a sticker at every pump sharing the message to alert drivers that the state's motor fuel tax will not increase by about two cents per gallon for the next six months, as it was previously scheduled under state law.

The language requiring the sticker to be posted was written in the state's fiscal year 2023 budget that goes into effect on July 1.

Milan resident and owner of Kar Mart, Bob Morgan, said that unless he is over in Iowa, he will continue to get gas in Illinois rather than go out of his way.

As a car lot owner, he also said that given the increase in gas prices, he has yet to see an increase in people buying fuel-efficient cars.

On Wednesday, President Joe Biden called on Congress to pass legislation that would suspend the federal gas tax for three months. The legislation would freeze 18-cents on regular gas and 24-cents on diesel fuel.

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A Clinton man awaiting trial in district court on meth trafficking charges was arrested Wednesday for allegedly selling the drug to confidential sources working with the Blackhawk Area Task Force.

Brandon James Green Sr., 39, who was on pretrial release on meth peddling charges from a Sept. 4 arrest, is charged with three new counts of possession with the intent to deliver more than 5 grams of methamphetamine.

Each of those charges is a Class B felony that carries a prison sentence of 25 years.

Green also is charged with two counts of violating Iowas drug tax stamp law and one count of possession of a controlled substance-third offense-meth. Each of those charges is a Class D felony that carries a prison sentence of five years.

According to the arrest affidavits filed by Clinton Police Detective Joshua Winter, at 2 p.m. on March 15, agents with the Blackhawk Area Task Force conducted a controlled buy at 616 6th Ave. S. A confidential source purchased 7.43 grams of crystal methamphetamine from Green in exchange for $200.

The meth was sent to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation crime lab where it tested positive for methamphetamine.

At 5 p.m. Wednesday, a confidential source once again was used in a controlled buy. The source went to Greens residence and purchased 7.28 grams of meth for $200.

At 6:42 p.m. Wednesday, task force agents served a search warrant at Greens residence, seizing another 5.03 grams of meth that was located without packaging in a garbage can. Agents also seized $498 in cash.

Police have said that the normal dose for meth is one-tenth of a gram. Green sold or had in his possession a total of 19.74 grams of meth, or 197.4 doses. A dose on the street costs between $10 and $20.

Green was being held Thursday night in the Clinton County Jail without bond. Clinton County District Court electronic records did not indicate Thursday that he had made a first appearance on the new charges.

Green was arrested Sept. 4 during a traffic stop after Clinton Police seized 44.56 grams, or 445.6 doses, of methamphetamine from a backpack in his possession. He is charged with possession with the intent to deliver more than 5 grams of meth in that case.

He also is charged in that case with violating Iowas drug tax stamp law, as well as three counts of possession of a controlled substance-third or subsequent offense for marijuana, psilocybin mushrooms and heroin found in his possession. Each of those charges is a Class D felony.

Greens original bond in that case was $25,000, cash only. During a bond review hearing on Oct. 4 in district court, District Court Judge Jeffrey Bert changed the conditions of the bond from cash-only to cash or surety. Green was released from the Clinton County Jail that day after posting 10%, or $2,500, of the bond amount through a bonding company.

A pretrial conference in that case is scheduled for June 30 in district court.

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Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker will call a special session for reproductive health rights after news broke early Friday that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling from 1973 that granted women the constitutional right to abortion.

Pritzker said it was urgent to stand up for reproductive rights and that reproductive health care would remain accessible in Illinois.

"In Illinois, we trust women. Despite the action of the Supreme Court today overturning Roe v. Wade, the right to safe, accessible reproductive health care is in full force in Illinois  and will remain so," Pritzker said in a news release.

"In Illinois, weve planned for this terrible day, an enormous step backward and a shattering loss of rights," Pritzker said. "We passed the Reproductive Health Act, enshrining choice as the law of the land in Illinois. We removed the trigger law that would have prohibited abortion in Illinois with the overturning of Roe v Wade. We expanded health care so that finances are not a barrier to receiving reproductive care."

Pritzker signed the Reproductive Health Act into law in 2019, signaling Illinois would remain a state "committed to expanding access to reproductive health care including abortion care, contraception access, fertility treatment and gender-affirming care."

"Weve made it clear that we trust people to make the best decisions for themselves about their own reproductive health."

Pritzker said the special session he would call in the General Assembly would take place in the next few weeks with the support of House Speaker Emanuel Chris Welch and Senate President Don Harmon.

"Together, we are committed to taking swift action to further enshrine our commitment to reproductive health care rights and protections," Pritzker said.

Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton said she would continue fighting for a woman's right to govern her own body.

"Although we have known for weeks that our right to bodily autonomy can be a matter of debate, and can be taken away with a single decision, we cannot avoid the deep ache caused by this ruling," Stratton said in a news release. "It is a dark day for our country.

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Iowa lawmakers are reacting to Friday's ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling from 1973 that granted women the constitutional right to an abortion.

Going forward, the ruling will force individual states to decide whether they will allow access to abortion.

U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa

Ernst, who is a member of the Senate Pro-Life Caucus, celebrated the Supreme Court's decision.

"Im proudly and adamantly pro-life," Ernst said in a news release. "This decision reflects the science, will save lives and rightly returns policy-making power back to the American people and their elected officials."

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa

"For many, todays decision is about far more than correcting Roe; it means that the rights of the unborn are no longer in jeopardy," Grassley wrote in a statement on Twitter. "This ruling empowers the people through their elected (representatives) to make commonsense policy decisions. It takes policy making out of the hands of unelected judges."

U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Ottumwa

Miller-Meeks agreed that states should make their own decisions on abortion access.

"Today, the Supreme Court made the important decision to allow individual states to be able to uphold the sanctity of life and protect the unborn," Miller-Meeks said in a news release. "As a doctor, I believe that every life is precious, and I have always and will always vote in support of protecting life and the unborn.

"Just as I did when I was a state senator, I will continue to work to ensure women have access to affordable contraceptives, quality maternal care, and provide support and increase awareness to adoption services."

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Here's an update on where abortion laws stand across the Midwest.

Illinois

Current limit: Viability

Post-Roe: Legal. In 2017, Illinois lawmakers passed and Gov. Bruce Rauner signed House Bill 40, which repealed a decades-old "trigger" provision in state statute that would have reverted Illinois to its pre-Roe law criminalizing abortion. With that, abortion will remain legal and accessible in Illinois.

Indiana

Current limit: 22 weeks

Post-Roe: Uncertain. Indiana does not have a "trigger law" in effect, but the Republican-controlled legislature and Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb have suggested that anti-abortion legislation could be considered during a special session this summer.

Iowa

Current limit: 22 weeks

Post-Roe: Uncertain. Iowa lawmakers in 2018 approved a ban after six weeks, but it was struck down by a state court. Abortion opponents may seek to reinstate that law.

Kentucky

Current limit: 22 weeks

Post-Roe: A trigger law banning abortion except if the life or health of the mother is at risk would take effect.

Missouri

Current limit: Viability

Post-Roe: A trigger law banning abortion except in the event of a medical emergency would almost immediately take effect

Wisconsin

Current limit: 22 weeks

Post-Roe: Uncertain. Wisconsin has a 173-year-old law on the books that would nearly all abortions if Roe is overturned. Though Democratic Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul said he would not enforce the ban, it has created enough uncertainty for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin to stop scheduling abortions after June 25.

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Abortion care services in Iowa and Illinois remain legal but with the decision now left up for the states to decide, Iowa's abortion care services could be facing an uncertain future.

Thats leaving residents of border communities like the Quad-Cities wondering whats next. The nearest and only clinic in Iowa to the Quad-City area offering abortion services is the Iowa City Planned Parenthood about an hour west. The other closest clinic to the Quad-Cities is about an hour and a half south located in Peoria, Illinois.

In a news release, Sarah Stoesz, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, said that abortion services will remain legal in Iowa.

For now.

In Iowa, a woman seeking an abortion can receive one up until the 22-week mark, but the future remains uncertain in a post-Roe reality. In 2018, Iowa lawmakers approved a ban after six week but it was struck down by a state court. Opponents of abortion in the Iowa statehouse will almost certainly seek to reinstate that law.

"Because people's right to access abortion is no longer guaranteed by federal law, it now depends on where you live and how much money you have to travel out of state for abortion care," Stoesz said in a statement. "Forced pregnancy is a grave violation of human rights and dignity."

But On June 17th the Iowa Supreme Court reduced a level of abortion protection by ruling that the states constitution does not include a fundamental right to an abortion, reviving a law that requires women seeking an abortion to wait 24 hours after an initial appointment before getting an abortion.

Legal Director for ACLU of Iowa Rita Bettis Austen said in a news statement that the impact of Roe v. Wade and the recent Iowa Supreme Court ruling could potentially lead to stricter abortion bans but that the ACLU of Iowa remains committed to working to ensure that people in Iowa are able to keep access to abortion services.

Quad Cities National Organization for Women released a statement saying they are outraged at the Supreme Courts decision and that no women should have to risk her life making personal, life-altering medical decisions.

During a Zoom news conference, PPH of North Central States Chief Medical Officer Doctor Sarah Traxler said they are continuing to recruit and onboard new physicians in Iowa to meet the demand of those seeking an abortion and hiring more patient navigators for those having to travel out-of-state and increasing support resources.

Abortion services in Illinois will remain legal.

Jennifer Welch, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Illinois Action said they expect every state that borders Illinois to quickly move to ban or severely restrict abortion access. Welch said doors are open at all 17 Planned Parenthood locations in Illinois as they continue to expand abortion access for patients regardless of where they are forced to travel from.

Tens of thousands of people are now facing a terrible dilemma, Welch said. Flee to a state like Illinois to get an abortion, carry pregnancy against their will or seek an illegal means to end their pregnancy.

In 2017, state lawmakers passed with then-Gov. Bruce Rauner signing House Bill 40 into law that repealed an old "trigger" provision in a state statute that would have reverted Illinois to pre-Roe criminalizing abortion.

In 2019, Gov. JB Pritzker signed the Reproductive Health Act that codifies into state law the fundamental right to an abortion. Illinois remains one of 16 states to codify the right into law and the only Midwestern state to do so.

At a news conference today, Pritzker said that Illinois will remain a safe haven for reproductive rights and that Roe v. Wade will remain law as long as Illinois continues to have a pro-choice legislature and pro-choice governor.

To help address the influx of out-of-state patients, Pritzker did not specifiy what measures he would like the legislature to take up during the special session but said it would include expanding the availability of health care professionals, and allowing advanced practice clinicians and physician assistants to perform in-clinic abortions.

This story will be updated.

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SPRINGFIELD  For the first time in nearly a quarter century, there is an open race for the office of Illinois secretary of state as incumbent Democrat Jesse White prepares to retire, and Republicans hope that will give them an opportunity to pick up a statewide elected office.

Its often said that more people interact with the secretary of states office than any other department in state government, except perhaps the Department of Revenue.

The office is primarily known for administering motor vehicle services  drivers licenses and vehicle registrations  but it reaches far beyond that. The Illinois secretary of state is also the state librarian, which provides services to public libraries throughout the state. It is also manages the state archives, serves as the states official recordkeeper, administers lobbying laws and operates its own police force.

John Milhiser, a former state and federal prosecutor from Springfield, and Dan Brady, a longtime state representative and assistant minority leader from Bloomington, are vying in the upcoming June 28 primary for the chance to carry the GOP banner into the general election.

Milhiser, 52, is part of a slate of candidates endorsed by billionaire businessman Ken Griffin. But Brady, 60, has been leading in recent polls, although a large block of likely GOP voters remained undecided.

Both candidates have made the fight against corruption a major theme in their campaigns. But even though the last major corruption scandal in the secretary of states office happened during the last Republican administration, they argue that its relevant throughout Illinois politics.

Yeah, Democrats don't have a monopoly on corruption in Illinois, Milhiser said in a phone interview. And when you look at the history of corruption in the secretary of state's office, it is Republicans, it is Democrats. But unfortunately, you know, that corruption is in state government.

Brady agreed, saying unfortunately, anything corrupt is labeled as Springfield. Not, per se, the secretary of state's office, but the perception is across government itself.

He said as secretary of state he would like to have a policy of open doors and sunshine on everything.

Brady is a funeral director by profession and a partner in the funeral home firm Kibler-Brady-Ruestman. He served as McLean County coroner from 1992 until he was elected to the Illinois House in 2000.

I believe my background certainly gives me a distinct advantage of experience when it comes to county government where I served as county coroner and worked with the secretary of state's office in particular on organ tissue donation issues, Brady said.

If elected, Brady said he would like to overhaul and upgrade technology in the office to reduce wait times in the driver services area and he would like to see all driver facilities in the state fully staffed.

Milhiser served as U.S. Attorney for the Central District of Illinois from 2018 to 2021. Before that, he was the Sangamon County states attorney for 16 years. Today, he teaches high school government, history and English at an adult education center in Springfield.

As Secretary of State, you have to wear many different hats and operate in many different lanes, which I have throughout my career, he said. And not only have I prosecuted cases in state court  but I also have executive experience managing a state court prosecutor's office as the Sangamon County state's attorney, working with law enforcement, working with community groups, setting up partnerships to run that office, working with the county board, working with a budget, hiring and firing people. So that executive experience is key.

He, too, said he wants to upgrade technology in the office and improve its online services. He also said he wants to improve adult literacy services that are funded with grants from the state library to local public libraries.

Issues

One of the most contentious issues facing the state, which is certain to carry over to the next administration, concerns electric vehicle manufacturers and the question of whether they should be allowed to sell new vehicles directly to consumers.

Under Illinois law, new motor vehicles can only be sold through franchised dealers, and vehicle manufacturers are prohibited from operating such a dealership. In recent years, however, electric vehicle manufacturers like Tesla, Rivian and Lucid have begun selling their vehicles directly to consumers over the internet.

Last year, the Illinois Automobile Dealers Association filed a lawsuit seeking to enforce that law and prevent manufacturers from selling directly to consumers. That case is still pending in Cook County Circuit Court.

Asked whether he thinks the statutes need to be updated, or if the manufacturers should change their business model, Milhiser said he thinks its an unsettled question.

I will tell you, I've had conversations with the Automobile Dealers Association and that is definitely something that we need to continue to talk about. And one big reason is, we need to make sure we protect the consumers. So if you have these entities coming in that don't have the service and they don't have the support, we need to make sure that the consumers are protected. And that's a conversation we for sure need to have moving forward.

Brady, meanwhile, said he will wait to see how the court rules in the case, but that he thinks the law is being applied unfairly.

I believe that there needs to be a level playing field for our existing automobile dealers that are here in this state, he said. The law needs to be applied evenly and fairly.

He said if legislation needs to be amended, all stakeholders should be at the table.

I don't believe from the knowledge of what I have of what was done and how  that law was applied was fair when it comes to our existing Automobile Dealers Association, he said. So it's seems to me that it was interpreted and applied in an unfair manner.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government that is distributed to more than 400 newspapers statewide. It is fund

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Illinois lawmakers reacted swiftly to Friday's ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade.

The ruling will force individual states to decide whether they will allow access to abortion.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Reproductive Health Act into law in 2019, guaranteeing unrestricted access to reproductive health care in the state.

Bustos called the ruling an attack on personal freedom and a "tragic day for freedom in America."

"As a mother, a grandmother and a Catholic, I am gutted by the Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade," Bustos said in a news release. "Make no mistake  this ruling will cost lives and livelihoods, and its impact will be felt for generations to come.

"In one fell swoop, six justices stripped away the rights of millions of Americans: Survivors of rape and incest are in danger; our medical privacy and autonomy are in jeopardy; and the Supreme Court has just legalized government-mandated pregnancies."

State Rep. Tony McCombie, R-Savanna

McCombie applauded the Supreme Court's decision.

"I think it's fair, I think its common sense," McCombie said. "It should be local control, and we should let states decide what they want to do. It's not going to cause back-alley abortions, and it is not going to cause the extremes my (Democrat) colleagues are describing. As much as I want it to, it is not going to ban abortions. It is going to allow states to decide to put parameters around abortion."

McCombie said Illinois had anticipated the Supreme Court's decision for several years, leading to legislation like the 2019 Reproductive Health Act.

"States have anticipated this decision because this decision makes sense," she said. "It should be states' rights. The decision would have come regardless of who is on the Supreme Court.

"This isn't a game; we are talking about the life of a mother and the life of a child. (Republicans) don't believe there should be extremes. We don't believe there should be abortion up to nine months. I don't believe a 12-year-old girl should have autonomy over her body. I think (abortion access) sets it up for sex trafficking and rape victims. We need to do what's best for the children, not the parents."

State Rep. Mike Halpin, D-Rock Island

Halpin said he was disappointed in the ruling.

"For more than 50 years, women across our country have had the assurance they can safely and affordably obtain the best reproductive health care available," Halpin said. "I have supported and will continue to support women's health care choices as a right and believe this is not the final word on this issue as Illinois and other states now deal with the ruling's consequences."

U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois

"I am outraged and horrified  this outcome is a nightmare that robs women of their right to make their own choices about their health care and their bodies, and it paves the way for a nationwide abortion ban that Republicans have been seeking for decades," Duckworth said in a news release.

"Millions of American families  including my own  have relied on Roe v. Wade for almost 50 years, and 70% of Americans believe it should remain the law of the land. The Supreme Court of the United States and the justices who claimed Roe was 'settled law,' but then turned around and ruled otherwise, will  as Justice [Sonia] Sotomayor said  'struggle to survive the stench' of this extreme decision."

Duckworth said forcing a woman to give birth, even when the mothers life could be at risk, "is not only cruel, it will also be deadly."

"I refuse to let my daughters grow up in a world with fewer rights than I had," Duckworth said. "As Republicans continue their march toward a nationwide abortion ban, I will do everything in my power to ensure that Illinois remains a safe haven for all women seeking reproductive care. It is as important as ever that the Senate acts to codify Roe v. Wade into law so that every American in every state has equal access to basic, necessary health care  regardless of their skin color, zip code or income."

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois

Durbin, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued a statement on Twitter that he would hold a hearing next month "to explore the grim reality of a post-Roe America."

"Todays decision eliminates a federally protected constitutional right that has been the law for nearly half a century," Durbin said. "As a result, millions of Americans are waking up in a country where they have fewer rights than their parents and grandparents.

"The bottom line: On critical, personal choices involving a womans right to make reproductive decisions about her own body, do you trust her or the government? The Supreme Court now says a womans right to privacy does not extend to the most personal, private choice she'll ever face."

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Iowa Democrats argued Thursday the state offers a path to victory for long-shot candidates and opportunities for meaningful conversations with rural Americans and Iowans from every walk of life as they made their pitch to hold onto their place at the front of the partys presidential nominating calendar.

State party officials presented proposed changes for caucuses to the Democratic National Committees Rules & Bylaws Committee in Washington in an effort to hold onto their first-in-the-nation status.

Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Ross Wilburn told committee members Iowa presents a unique opportunity for presidential candidates to connect with voters distributed across urban, rural and suburban areas in a presidential swing state where a majority of congressional districts are competitive.

A robust Democratic nomination process in the state introduces voters to candidates and surrogates early, and the organizations they help build in Iowa keep us competitive in the general election, Wilburn said.

Iowa is among 16 states and Puerto Rico vying to be included in Democrats early presidential nominating window ahead of Super Tuesday in early March 2024.

The DNC rules committee voted in April to reopen the presidential nominating window, forcing all interested states  including the current early-nominating states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina  to apply for a spot.

The move came after the current lineup of early-nominating states  led by the largely rural and predominantly white states of Iowa and New Hampshire  came under increasing fire for a lack of diversity that many Democrats say doesnt represent the partys true strength. And it follows a chaotic 2020 caucus night for Iowa Democrats when a smartphone app  meant to make reporting results easier  failed. As a result, the official Democratic caucus results were not reported for several weeks.

Iowa Democratic Party officials touted the states pockets of diversity and argued Iowa serves as an inexpensive and accessible playing field for lesser-known candidates to establish themselves.

There are diverse communities living, thriving and dealing with complex political issues in both urban and rural areas of Iowa, Wilburn said. Party officials played a video of Black, brown and LGBTQ candidates and party leaders talking about their caucus experience and the importance of the Iowa caucuses.

Iowa is the sixth-least diverse state in the country. Wilburn, though, pointed to the urban demographics of Iowas larger public school districts, notably Des Moines. The district, Iowas largest, reported that among its 31,023 enrolled students in the last school year, 34.7 percent were white, 29.2 percent Hispanic, 20.6 percent Black, 8 percent Asian and 6.8 percent multiracial, Wilburn said.

When taken individually, these districts look a great deal more like America as a whole and reflect the future of Iowa, he said.

He also cited figures from the Iowa State Data Center, stating 13 of Iowas 99 counties have a Latinx population of more than 10 percent. Wilburn, too, told DNC members that it is essential potential presidential candidates be tested on their ability to communicate with rural voters across this entire population.

One of the forms of diversity that Iowa brings, frankly, is the rural working-class diversity. And its a group of folks Democrats have forgotten how to talk to, Scott Brennan, a former Iowa Democratic Party chair and the only Iowan on the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee, told The Gazette ahead of Thursdays presentation.   And if we cant figure that out, under the Electoral College system, well be doomed to win popular votes and lose the Electoral College. And thats criminal, and thats on us if we cant figure that out.

National Democrats, too, have complained the party caucuses  compared with state primaries  are too opaque and inaccessible, requiring in-person attendance that can make them difficult for Iowans who work late shifts, lack access to child care or transportation or have health or mobility problems.

To make their caucuses more accessible, Iowa Democrats proposed eliminating the requirement for in-person attendance and are reorganizing the caucus practice of identifying candidates viability over multiple rounds.

Under the proposed changes, an Iowa Democrat would request a presidential preference card in the mail and would have 14 to 28 days to either mail it back or return it in person caucus night.

On caucus night, the Iowa Democratic Party would report the results publicly.

The caucuses themselves would focus primarily on conducting party business, such as electing delegates.

The state party also would contract with either a DNC-approved election vendor or with a county auditor or the Iowa Secretary of States Office to ensure a fair and trustworthy process.

Iowa House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst, of Windsor Heights, told the committee keeping Iowa first would also help ensure Iowa Democrats stay competitive up and down the ballot  noting Republicans have already voted to keep Iowa at the front of the line in the GOPs presidential selection process.

Every time a Republican candidate comes to Iowa and visits the district of one of my members or one of my candidates, theyre building an organization on the other side and theyre building enthusiasm and engagement among voters, she said.

DNC rules committee members also questioned how New Hampshire would react to the proposed changes, and whether the caucuses would in effect function as a primary.

New Hampshire state law requires its secretary of state to set its presidential primary before any other "similar" primary contest. Iowa's caucuses have traditionally been different enough from New Hampshires primaries not to conflict.

Iowa Code requires political parties hold caucuses at least eight days before any other states primary. It does not say how those caucuses must be conducted.

We are focused on complying with our state law, which mandates that we are a caucus, Brennan told fellow rules committee members. And we believe that what we have proposed meets the requirements of state law.

Members of the committee expressed appreciation of the Iowa delegations proposed changes.

"I really applaud the Iowa delegation for a willingness to rethink the caucus process, one committee member said. I've been fairly critical about Iowa. So I think that was a needed recognition."

The DNC rules committee is expected to meet in early August and recommend a slate of up to five states for the early nominating window. The full DNC would then convene in Sept. to vote.

Asked what Iowa Democrats would do should they lose their first-in-the-nation spot, Konfrst replied: We didnt come here to run for second place. We came here to be first and to remain first, and thats really what were focused on, she said.

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Galina Zaranchuk didnt realize the A&B Gives Back program she had contributed to for years at work would one day benefit her family members struggling to survive in war-torn Ukraine.

The $7,850 collected by her A&B Business Solutions colleagues was used to provide war relief in the form of food, medicine and daily needs to several of her aunts, uncles and cousins who, as Zaranchuk said, are stuck in the middle of destruction. One of her uncles, a minister, is helping people to evacuate the war zone and find shelter, food and medical supplies. Other relatives are housing refugees. With some of the money from the funds, Zaranchuk was also able to help her sister-in-law come to the United States to stay with her and her family until the wars end.

My familys life turned upside down on February 24, said Zaranchuk, marketing manager for the company. We go to sleep not knowing if they will be alive tomorrow. Some of my family live in Kiev and all of my in-laws live in Vinnytsia. Both of these areas are being attacked daily with explosions not far from their homes. They have been living in bomb shelters, scared for their lives.

Zaranchuk, who has been with A&B Business for nine years, said she never realized her employers Gives Back program would identify her familys struggles as something that should be supported. In the past, contributions have benefited other employees who have found themselves in tough situations and needing help with everything from flooded homes to surgeries.

The company, which has 120 full-time employees, offers a variety of products and services including office equipment, furniture and supplies, IT management, sales and leadership development, document management and more. A&B Business has 14 locations throughout five U.S. states.

I always considered my life to be great. And then, suddenly, the unexpected happens and my life changed overnight. For me, personally, its been overwhelming to know that my colleagues are there for me and my family.

As an employee, this is more than I could ever ask for and I feel the love and care of A&B in these times when it matters most, she said. This is a place I can call my second family. We care about the needs of our team members.

In addition to the internal fundraising program for its employees, A&B Business has raised in the last eight years more than $200,000  including $50,177 in 2022  for the Childrens Home Society of South Dakota through its wildly successful Cleavers Chef Challenge. Each year, renowned chef Tyler Honke and A&B Business owner Dennis Aanenson work with 12 to 14 chefs and various sponsors to create themed gourmet meals. Approximately 250 foodies attend to sample the fare.

Its been incredible to see the success of this event growing each year, Zaranchuk said. As employees, we are all very proud to say we are a part of this effort to help these children. Not only do we care for each other, but for everyone within our community. Its just a great atmosphere to work in.

A&B Business Facebook page reflects the camaraderie Zaranchuk describes  monthly employee birthdays, work anniversaries and personal achievements, as well as customers who win regularly hosted product giveaways and prizes.

For more information on A&B Business, please visit abbusiness.com.

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.

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For the past two years, Col. Brady Vaira has served as the commander of the 28th Mission Support Group at Ellsworth Air Force Base. As his time at Ellsworth comes to a close with the beginning of a new assignment, he reflected on another support mission from his service in South Dakota  the Douglas School District.

Vaira served as an associate board member with Douglas for two years, a role he completed at the boards June 13 meeting. A non-voting position that rotates every two years, the purpose of the associate membership is to provide Ellsworth Air Force Base representatives an opportunity to better understand the operation of the school district and to express opinions as reflected in the military community.

While the position itself is not new, Vairas membership came at a unique and challenging time for schools across the country, and Douglas in particular. While the world dealt with a dramatically altered approach to education with the hit of the coronavirus, Douglas was also experiencing and preparing for unprecedented growth.

As the commander of the 28th Bomb Wing Support Group, the associate board position was a good fit, Vaira said. His position at Ellsworth involved leading nearly 2,000 military, civilian and contractor professionals in planning, organizing, coordinating and implementing installation services and support to more than 8,500 military and civilian personnel and their families.

Nearly 70% of school-age children from the base attend Douglas, he said, making up about 40% of the entire districts population. His own children Dillon, fifth grade, and Sierra, first grade  would join those numbers. It just made sense.

Vaira entered his role with a goal of teamwork. Knowing he would serve for a limited time, creating connections and relationships between the district and the base was what he hoped to accomplish.

Reflecting on the past two years, he saw that goal accomplished, starting with the welcome he received from the board on his first day.

From up and down, all across, the administration of the school has been super, super welcoming when we got here, Vaira said.

When Vaira and his family arrived in South Dakota in May 2020, COVID-19 was in full swing. School districts were making decisions about closures and distance learning, with no blueprints and no right answers.

His first meeting with the board was via Zoom. It included a COVID-19 Recovery Committee Report determining phases, thresholds and mitigation strategies. The following meeting had questions from parents regarding the Opening of School plan, and concerns about masking in school.

On base, their approach was to protect the mission, protect the force and find the balance between making sure we can still do our mission and having the right amount of mitigation in place to protect the mission and to protect the force, Vaira said.

The base was able to share their approach with the school district, and in turn, the district was able to share with the base their tracking and mitigation methods.

He saw the partnership working  the relationships, connections and open communication he sought to accomplish were playing a vital role in navigating one of the most difficult times in the districts history.

We tried to get into lockstep as much as we could, Vaira said.

Those first six months were tough, he said, but also brought pride.

I think, for the most part, we did a really good job as a school, he said. The mitigation and communication efforts ensured they never lost sight of the most important thing: the kids.

Everybody was trying to make sure that we educated kids, no matter what we had to do, he said. So I'm really proud of that.

In addition to the challenges of COVID, Vairas time with the district also came during a period of unprecedented growth, while also preparing for the incoming B-21 mission. He saw the district exhibit a proactive approach that he called "amazing."

Vaira had the opportunity to help shape what that growth looked like within the district, offering timelines and knowledge from the base side, and insight into how the base was preparing for the growth, as well.

We're all in the same boat. What we're doing right now is gonna leave a mark," Vaira said.

A bittersweet fact of military life is not always getting to see that mark. Moving from base to base, Vaira and his family take and leave pieces of themselves everywhere they go.

From the Black Hills community, he will take with him the sense of community, he said. From Douglas, hell take the partnerships and the vision for the future.

Just the fact that they're so in lockstep with us on so many things, he said. And they're looking to the future, trying to take care of the current mission. That's really the biggest thing I'm gonna take.

Vaira left his mark on the school district, as well.

Board of Education member Amy McGovern recalled an event from December 2020, when students from Francis Case Elementary School made a presentation to the board, reading letters about Thankful Thursday.

One such student was a second grader, expressing his thankfulness for the armed forces.

The Colonel got up and presented him with a challenge coin, which was just huge,  McGovern said.  Because thats not just something they throw around.

This was at the height of COVID, she said, when everyone was in masks and social distancing, and it was just fantastic. I dont think there was a dry eye in the room.

It was truly an honor to sit beside him, McGovern said.

As Vaira and his family prepare to move to South Korea, he described them as a jigsaw puzzle of cultures. They have lived all over the United States, and all over the world. His daughter Sierra was born in Germany.

I'm sure I'm going to come back," he said about the Black Hills. "It is like a second home to us.

Even his son Dillon talked about coming back one day. As they were moving out of their South Dakota home, he left muddy hand prints on the wooden panels of their fence.

Just in case when we come back, I know which one it is, he told his dad. They grow attached, he said, and then have to let go.

I hope they get to come back someday, and see some of the things that we put in place, Vaira said.

Contact Laura Heckmann at lheckmann@rapidcityjournal.com

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A second clinic that would offer abortions was set to open this month in Casper, though its opening will likely be delayed for around six months after someone tried to burn it down. Its founder told the Star-Tribune they still plan to open and provide other health care, even if abortion is no longer legal.

South Dakota Right to Life Executive Director Dale Bartscher said the organization "enthusiastically applauds" the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

"We will continue helping women navigate pregnancies they did not plan for as we remind South Dakotan's that the pro-life movement cares about women and their unborn children, Bartscher said. Our movement includes nearly 3,000 pregnancy help centers across the United States designed to provide free services for women where and when they need it, such as free ultrasounds, pregnancy tests, prenatal vitamins, baby clothing, formula, parenting classes, and additional practical and material help. These centers and our tens of thousands of volunteers will continue looking for more ways to help mothers in need."

ACLU South Dakota issued a statement saying the organization is working with partners and providers to respond to the Supreme Court's ruling and fight back.

Anti-abortion politicians have put South Dakota on the wrong side of history for too long, and the ACLU is determined not to let them off the hook, said Libby Skarin, ACLU of South Dakota campaigns director. The ACLU of South Dakota is mobilizing supporters to make sure that these anti-abortion politicians feel the consequences of their brazen disregard for our rights.
The South Dakota Supreme Court released a ruling Thursday that the Rapid City Journal was wrongfully denied access to criminal court records in Meade County following a 2021 suspended imposition of a sentence for state Sen. Gary Cammack.

The 3-2 decision from the Supreme Court states the Journal and any member of the public should have had access to Cammack's criminal court record up until a corrective order was issued by Judge Chad Callahan on Dec. 15, 2021.

"Access to public records is vital," said Journal Editor Kent Bush. "Citizens have a right to see how their governments operate  whether it is a district court, city council or school board. The Journal will always fight to make sure everyone has access to records lawmakers intended to be available to everyone."

Cammack was arrested Jan. 18, 2020 in Meade County on counts of driving under the influence of alcohol and speeding. He was charged Jan. 21, 2020, with driving under the influence in Meade County District Court with Pennington County Deputy State's Attorney Alexandra Weiss prosecuting the case.

Cammack pleaded not guilty to the DUI charge, a class one misdemeanor, on Feb. 4, 2020.

The DUI charge was dismissed over a year later on June 29, 2021 and reduced to a careless driving charge.

Cammack pleaded guilty to the careless driving and speeding charges, both class two misdemeanors. He received a suspended imposition of sentence that included a condition that he obey all laws for six months. He was also ordered to pay a fine of $431.50 for the careless driving charge and $39 fine for the speeding ticket, in addition to $222 in court costs.

However, Cammack's court record was sealed by Callahan on Oct. 4, 2021, prior to the expiration of the six month condition. Cammack's court case was first publicized Oct. 5, 2021 on a political blog by Corey Heidelberger.

In Supreme Court filings, Cammack's attorney sent an Oct. 1, 2021 email to the prosecutor asking whether the state's attorney's office would object to a modification of the court's order suspending the imposition of the sentence so that the case could be immediately sealed. The prosecutor did not object and Cammack's attorney sent an email to Callahan and others asking whether the court would grant an immediate seal.

Callahan responded he would grant the seal if all fines and costs had been paid. He granted the seal on Oct. 4, 2021, but a court document shows he left on the condition that Cammack must "obey all laws for six (6) months."

The Journal and its attorney, Jon Arneson, made numerous attempts in October 2021 to clarify whether Cammack's record was wrongfully sealed prior to the expiration of the six month condition.

Cammack's attorney, Nathaniel Nelson, sent an email to Arneson claiming Callahan had amended the order suspending the imposition of sentence to remove the "obey all laws" provision when he sealed the case on Oct. 4, 2021.

Arneson, on behalf of the Journal, filed a lawsuit with the South Dakota Supreme Court on Nov. 1, 2021. The suit requested the Supreme Court to examine whether or not Cammack's criminal court record had been wrongly sealed before completing the six month "obey all laws" provision and if the Journal was wrongfully denied access to the records following the seal.

In subsequent Supreme Court filings, Callahan said it was his intention "to lift" the six-month condition when he sealed the records on Oct. 4, but the document filed did not remove the condition. Callahan issued an amended order on Dec. 15, 2021  called a nunc pro tunc  that removed the six-month condition.

Nunc pro tunc means "now for then." The Supreme Court defined Callahan's amendment as an "entry of a legal order or judgment" to correct a record that is "absent or defective."

The Supreme Court ruled that Callahan has the authority to issue such corrections as it was a "clerical mistake." However, between the Oct. 4, 2021 ruling to seal Cammack's record and the Dec. 15, 2021 amendment, the records should have been available to the public, including news media such as the Journal.

The concurring justices in the ruling direct Callahan to provide the Journal access to any documents filed up to and including Callahan's amended order on Dec. 15, 2021.

Arneson said Thursday's ruling by the Supreme Court is a victory for the public's right to access court records.

"In this case, they're saying that correcting that mistake and then trying to go back in time  that you do not get to go back in time and take precedence over the public's right up to that point," Arneson said. "That is a vital conclusion that our right is important enough not to be trampled by a nunc pro tunc order, and if it were a trivial right, we wouldn't be here and we wouldn't be winning."

Arneson said the court's decision established an important right of access to government records and that a judge's order to correct a mistake does not nullify that right.

"This order correcting a mistake is one that the media didn't make and the public didn't make, but the court made  that correction may be valid, but it's not going to be a remedy to undo the public's rights up to the point of correction," Arneson said.

The state Supreme Court also made two related rulings in their opinion. First, the justices voted 5-0 that the Journal did not have standing to challenge a criminal sentence or suspended imposition of sentence when the Journal was not a party to the legal proceedings as either a prosecutor or defendant in a criminal case.

In the other ruling, the Supreme Court reaffirmed 5-0 that the Journal and the public have a right to access court records during a suspended imposition of sentence.

"All in all, I think this is a solid affirmation that the public has a vested interest in rights to have access to government records that cannot be preemptively swept under the rug unless the broom doing the sweeping is pretty rock-solid, legally," Arneson said.

Contact Nathan Thompson at nathan.thompson@rapidcityjournal.com.

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A 10-year-old boy who fell into a ravine Tuesday morning at Badlands National Park and had to be rescued is doing well, despite his broken forearm, his mother said.

Its the first broken bone in our family, said Gabrielle Pollard, the boys mother. Hes doing great. Hes back to his old self. He just has to be a little more careful.

The Pollard family are visiting Badlands National Park from Illinois. They arrived Monday night for their first trip to the area.

On Tuesday morning, two of Pollards children were exploring the hills and rock formations near the familys campsite. Pollard said she could see the children from the campsite, but the boy got separated from the other children.

He decided to climb up and try to rejoin the group and he slipped and fell probably about eight to 10 feet. That's what they were estimating, Pollard said.

The other children knew the boy had been separated from the group and were waiting for him when they heard him scream.

None of us saw him fall. We didn't know exactly where he was, so we had to find him, and then once we located him, we called 911, Pollard said.

It didnt take long for first responders to arrive and get down to the boy, but the process of safely getting him out of the ravine took two hours.

There was a lot of teamwork. All the rescue people were working together, trying to figure out the best way to get him out of there safely, Pollard said.

The Pennington County Search and Rescue team used a rope and basket to get the boy out. Pollard said responders discussed the option of using a helicopter but settled on the rope as the best way to bring the 10-year-old to safety.

The scare didnt end the trip for the family, though. When the Journal talked to Pollard on Thursday afternoon, the family was driving through the park. They plan to stay until the weekend.

Accidents happen. Unless he needed immediate medical attention that we couldn't get down here, we were gonna stay, Pollard said.

The Pennington County Sheriffs Office put out a statement on Wednesday saying two children were rescued from the ravine after two hours. Pollard said it was just her son who was rescued, and her daughter was not trapped in the ravine.

Helene Duhamel, spokesperson with the PCSO, was unable to obtain a detailed report of the incident. She said it appears the mix-up originated from some sort of misunderstanding.

 Contact Shalom Baer Gee at sgee@rapidcityjournal.com 

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A sentencing hearing at the federal courthouse in Rapid City took a pause Thursday to allow the defense attorney on the case to read a document that informs the sentencing.

The hearing centered around one of the people with charges related to the overdose death of a 16-year-old boy in Porcupine on Dec. 6, 2020.

Donna Garnette pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance as part of a plea deal. Garnette is one of five who accepted a plea deal related to the death of Louis Sandoval, 16.

Tarriah Provost, Kelly Grass and Kimberly Janis have been sentenced already. Jesse Grass is awaiting sentencing. Provost gave a fentanyl pill to Sandoval. Court hearings and documents indicated she obtained it from Garnette at the Grasss residence.

Garnettes sentencing hearing started on Thursday morning. After 48 minutes, U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier opted to continue the sentencing to another date after discovering defense attorney Connor Duffy had not read an addendum to the pre-sentencing report.

Duffy said the reason he had not read it was "likely" an oversight on his part, but he requested the time to read it.

Although neither the pre-sentencing report nor the addendum are public, Schreier said the report contained a response from a probation officer recommending at what offense level Garnette should be placed, which determines the sentencing guidelines she would fall within.

Garnettes offense level was one of the topics argued during the beginning of the hearing. Federal prosecutors sought to increase her level beyond what was initially calculated in her plea agreement. That initial calculation is not binding, so prosecutors can argue for a higher level.

Because the defense had not yet read the addendum, the judge did not make a ruling on the offense level.

The prosecution did call one witness to the stand toward the beginning of the hearing. Special Agent Corey Dumdei of the Federal Bureau of Investigation answered questions regarding information he obtained during the investigation into the case.

He testified that Garnettes Facebook messages, which were obtained with a search warrant, indicated Garnette bought, sold and coordinated sales and purchases of various pills.

Megan Poppen, who represents the United States in the case, painted a picture of Garnette as a frequent dealer of illegal substances and emphasized a sale Garnette supposedly made the day of the boys funeral.

Duffy argued that Garnette was no more responsible for the childs death than the other co-conspirators and said the boy had cocaine in his system and had obtained marijuana that evening as well.

We dont know for absolute certain (what killed him), Duffy said.

Another point of contention during the hearing was whether Garnette sold pills while on pretrial release.

Dumdie testified he interviewed a woman who told him she bought pills from Garnette in July 2021. Garnette was arrested in May 2021 and the court released her during her court proceedings. Garnette denied selling anything after her arrest, and her defense attorney argued the person who alleged she bought pills from Garnette in July 2021 was an addict who had no reliability in her statement.

A date for the sentencing to continue has not yet been set.

 Contact Shalom Baer Gee at sgee@rapidcityjournal.com 

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The South Dakota Senate convicted Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg of two impeachment charges stemming from a 2020 fatal accident, removing and barring him from future office. The votes Tuesday were a stinging rebuke that showed most senators didnt believe his account of the crash. Ravnsborg told a 911 dispatcher the night of the crash that he might have struck a deer or other large animal, and has said he didnt know he struck a man  55-year-old Joseph Boever  until he returned to the scene the next morning. Lee Schoenbeck, the chamber's top-ranking Republican, said there was no question in his mind that was a lie. Ravnsvorg ran down an innocent South Dakotan, he said. Ravnsborg declined to address lawmakers. He has maintained he did nothing wrong.
Southern Montana communities are showing characteristic resolve in the face of historic floods as they work to quickly clean up the damage to their homes and businesses.

Untold tons of mud, rocks and debris have been removed as engineers in the Yellowstone National Park gateway region work to repair the damage to critical infrastructure such as roads, bridges, water and sewage systems.

And with the southern loop of Yellowstone Park now open just a week and a half after the parks closure on June 13, residents in nearby Montana communities are getting the word out that theyre also open for business.

For Red Lodge resident and Roman Theater owner Mike Booth, that word is ready.

After watching helplessly as the raging waters of Rock Creek inundated his neighborhood and cut water and power service, Booth witnessed his community stand up and stand together.

Its been nothing short of a miracle what theyve accomplished in a few short days, he said of volunteers and government agencies responding to clean debris and repair roads. Everybody is doing everything they can.

Booth said that while some residents were displaced from homes, the silver lining is Red Lodges historic downtown escaped the flood largely unscathed. As the executive director of the upcoming Red Lodge Songwriter Festival (June 23-25) he will oversee the towns first big event after the disaster.

The message is Red Lodge is open for business, Booth said. Montanans know we are at the mercy of the land, but we are resilient. We will get back up off the mat.

The songwriter festival will boast 25 shows featuring 20+ songwriters across 7 venues, and will serve as a test run for bigger summer events like the Home of Champions 4th of July Rodeo and the Beartooth Rally.

Its all happening come hell or high water, Booth said. Weve been through both.

For the fledgling Yellowstone Hot Springs, located a short drive north of Gardiner in the Paradise Valley, building a following from scratch is no new challenge.

After losing the summer influx of Yellowstone tourists, our customer base isnt there anymore, said general manager Erin Kennedy. We are treating it like wintertime.

Built on a historic site at Corwin Springs that has seen many iterations of mineral hot springs attractions, the current location was remodeled and opened in 2018. The site boasts cold and hot pools ranging from 65 to 105 degrees, with nearby RV and tent camping.

Kennedy says their springs are unique in the region as an interactive experience, with employees taking a one-on-one approach to educate guests about the pools mineral composition and natural features like flora and fauna. They also offer two dedicated pools for Kniepp Walking, a form of hydrotherapy that alternates hot and cold water to both relax and invigorate the body.

Despite the challenges flooding has brought to their doorstep, Kennedy remains positive, stressing area businesses are eager to bounce back. Our outfitters and guides will be back on the river soon. They will have to learn a whole new river, but thats what these guys are made for.

The hot springs has also focused on the bright side, partnering with a rafting company from Gardiner to build a landing site at a new beach created by the flooding.

We want to turn into a destination, not just a stop-off, Kennedy said.

While flooding has forever changed the landscapes that Montanans call home, they are still eager to play host and show travelers their resilient spirit.

Mike Booths advice for those wanting to visit areas affected by flooding is simply: Be patient, be kind, be respectful.

If You Go

There are still ample ways to visit Montanas Yellowstone Country while recreating responsibly and respecting impacted communities. Some tips for your trip:

 Heed road closures, recreation alerts, signs, and weather safety warnings

 Make sure to check the websites and social media pages for businesses and events, and call before you go

 Be flexible, and be prepared for plans to change

 Be aware of cancellation policies for activities and lodging

 Consider trip insurance

 Make the best of the situation! It may not be the vacation you planned, but it will be unique and memorable

 Be kind to workers and locals. Many have lost more than just a vacation

For more information about visiting Montanas Yellowstone Country, go to www.visityellowstonecountry.com.

Donate

If you would like to donate to flood relief efforts in southern Montana, please visit these verified websites:

To make an online donation to the Southwest Montana Flood Relief Fund, text Flood22 to 41444 or go to Greater Gallatin United Way

Upcoming Events in Yellowstone Country

Bearcreek

Pig Races at Bear Creek Saloon & Steakhouse

Races begin at 7 p.m. every Thursday-Saturday through Labor Day

Enjoy dinner and cocktails while betting on pig races to benefit a local scholarship fund. Dinner reservations recommended. Bearcreek Downs: Where Pigs DO Fly!

Big Timber

Sweet Grass Fest

June 24-25

Rodeo, parade, car show, street fair and fun run in a historic community at the foot of the Crazy Mountains.

Fishtail

Annual Fishtail Family Fun Day

June 25

Activities all day including pancake breakfast, cornhole tournament, vendor fair, gun raffle, bake sale, live music and duck races.

Joliet

Jammin Out in Joliet

June 25

Family fun, vendor fair, live music, street dance and fireworks in this charming community between Laurel and Red Lodge.

Livingston

Tap Into Montana Brew Fest

June 25, Miles Park bandshell, 3-8 p.m.

Sample craft beer from your favorite Montana breweries, enjoy live music and delicious local food while taking in the beautiful views of the Yellowstone River and Absaroka Mountains.

Paradise Valley

Powderhorn at Music Ranch Montana

June 24, dinner at 6:30 p.m., music at 7:30 p.m.

Enjoy dinner, live music and dancing in the heart of the stunning Paradise Valley.

Quenby at Old Saloon

June 23, 8 p.m.

Live music for all ages. No cover.

Sean Devine at Pine Creek Lodge

June 23, 6 p.m.

Outdoor concert from The Treasure State Troubadour Free show

The Wood Brothers with Amanda Stewart at Pine Creek Lodge

June 24, 7 p.m.

The Steel Woods at Old Saloon

June 24, 7 p.m.

All ages, tickets $20

Brunch with Maggie Hickman at Pine Creek Lodge

June 25, 11 a.m.

Free show

The Sleepless Elite at Pine Creek Lodge

June 25, 6 p.m.

Free show

The Dirty Shame at Old Saloon

June 25, 8 p.m.

All ages, no cover

Brunch with Chandler Huntley at Pine Creek Lodge

June 26, 11 a.m.

Free show

Red Lodge

6th Annual Red Lodge Songwriter Festival

June 23-25

For three days in June the streets, bars, cafes, and parks of Red Lodge will become a gathering place for songwriters from Montana, Nashville, and around the country. The weekend features 25 live performances and 24 songwriters across 7 venues, plus a songwriting contest.

West Yellowstone

Wild West Yellowstone Rodeo

June 22-25, 7 p.m.

Rodeos run 5 to 6 days a week in June, July & August. Cowboys and cowgirls show off their skills in bareback, saddle bronc, teaming roping, bull riding, and more. Trail rides are also available.

For more upcoming events in Montanas Yellowstone Country, visit: www.visityellowstonecountry.com/events.

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Wildfire doesn't respect property lines.

Neither do vegetation, trees or wildlife. East of Stevensville, officials hailed an ongoing project to thin densely forested land as a model for interagency cooperation to work across property lines, too.

In the Threemile Creek Wildlife Management Area, overseen by the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks, the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation is spearheading a timber sale on the FWP-managed land and on parcels of U.S. Forest Service land contained within the WMA. The DNRC is able to uniformly implement the project across the FWP and Forest Service land under Good Neighbor Authority, which was included in the 2014 Farm Bill. The arrangement allows the DNRC, a state agency, to perform work on federal lands, with approval and provided that the DNRC meets Forest Service standards for the project.

The project aims to improve elk habitat and reduce the risk of intense wildfire by thinning timber, primarily Douglas fir. The project will treat about 1,500 acres of the approximately 6,300-acre WMA. The end goal, according to FWP Forester Jason Parke, is to revert the forest into something that more closely resembles the landscape before initial logging in the early 1900s and the onset of full-suppression wildland firefighting.

Before human intervention, said Nathan Arno, a Good Neighbor forester with the DNRC who oversees the Threemile project, the forest would experience "disturbance" fires every seven to 15 years that left big trees surviving. The forest was mostly spaced-out ponderosa pine growing in mineral soil. That offered a low-density canopy over the ground and led to abundant forage for elk and other wildlife.

Since the advent of wildland firefighting that aimed to extinguish fires, "we've got 1015 missed fire cycles of fuels on the forest floor," Arno said. "This fuel loading that's still on the ground is unnatural."

Excess fuels, especially downed trees, tall brush and Douglas fir with low branches, act as "ladder fuels" that allow ground fire to climb into tree crowns and torch entire stands of timber.

The forest is currently "very dense, we have a lot of Doug fir," Parke said on an interagency tour of the WMA on Tuesday, explaining that he wants to "restore that structure, get that species composition back so it's more fire resilient."

Once the project is complete, the treated areas of forest will feature clumps of about 1012 ponderosa pines with 0.250.5 acres of space between them, he said, as well as scattered aspen stands. About 300 acres have already been treated.

The Threemile Creek WMA was previously a ranch before the state purchased it in 1968. It borders private land and national forest. It also encapsulates some national forest land.

Often, when agencies move to manage fuels or habitat across the landscape, a checkerboard of ownership status can prevent them from conducting projects in a comprehensive manner. Rather, they stop work at the edges of the lands they manage and are generally unable to perform work on parcels of land within their own that are managed by other agencies. Officials from FWP, DNRC and the Forest Service say that the Threemile Creek project's use of Good Neighbor Authority is proof that the arrangement can help uniformly implement projects across management boundaries.

"As an agency, it's tough to let stuff go" and allow another agency to perform work, said Stevensville District Ranger Steve Brown of the Bitterroot National Forest. But this project, he said, is "a successful example of what we can do." Utilizing Good Neighbor Authority elsewhere on the forest, and at greater scale, makes him hopeful that "maybe we can treat the forest at the pace we need to."

"Maybe collectively we can get more work done," Arno said, arguing that "the Forest Service doesn't have the capacity to do the analysis for 176 acres"  the size of the small federal parcel within the WMA  because the effort required to analyze that small of a project would far outweigh the benefit.

Threemile is still a small project overall, but this has laid the stage for larger-scale cooperation. "(We've) taken that and what we learned here and moved on to bigger things," he said. "Two agencies with fundamentally different cultures working toward a common goal."

The project hasn't been without its hurdles. About 18.5 miles of road and one bridge needed to be rebuilt, with some road constructed from scratch, to facilitate logging. The high cost of road construction made logging companies wary of bidding on the project, Arno said. Plus, with the DNRC bidding out the project work for the FWP land and the Forest Service land, he had to write two separate contracts  one for each agency, reflecting their different regulations  and then bundle the contracts together to solicit bids.

Balancing environmental concerns with enough timber sale to make the proposal economical for a logging company was "difficult at best," he said. "This is the first time and there's a bit of a learning curve," he said. Parke noted that although this project was bid out as a timber sale, most similar projects are completed with stewardship work contracts. Selling the timber, Parke, Brown and Arno said, allowed for the project to fund itself.

"It's expensive no matter how you do it," Arno said. "If you can have the product pay for itself, that's a win-win."

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Touting his administrations response to the destructive floodwaters that raged through southern Montana last week, Gov. Greg Gianforte on Thursday also declined to elaborate on the reasons for not providing his whereabouts for several days that he remained overseas.

We have good folks and state employees that kicked into gear and from my perspective, the most important thing was for me to connect with those local leaders and to hear from them directly about what resources they need, Gianforte said in a phone interview with the Montana State News Bureau. And thats where I put my priority, knowing the lieutenant governor had things in her capable hands.

Prior to his return, the Republican governor delegated his authority to Lt. Gov. Kristin Juras to respond to the flooding. Juras declared a state of disaster, and asked President Joe Biden to also issue a disaster declaration. The Biden administrations subsequent declaration freed up money from the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) to begin flowing into the state.

Gianforte returned early from a vacation in Italy last Friday, arriving back in a state where hundreds of residents had been displaced by floodwaters that in some places swept away houses, roads and bridges. In towns like Gardiner and Cooke City, businesses are staring down an uncertain tourism season with nearby entrances to Yellowstone National Park closed indefinitely due to washed-out roads.

I was out of the country, but not disengaged, Gianforte said. I was in regular contact with my staff, with agency heads  I think I spoke with about over 30 local county commissioners, sheriffs, legislators, business owners on Tuesday and Wednesday (June 14 and 15) and we really first off prioritized making sure communities were getting the assistance they needed.

Gianfortes office previously said he left the county for a long-planned trip on June 10. Record rains that started late that week continued through the weekend, combining with above-normal mountain snowpack to fuel widespread flooding beginning June 13.

He and First Lady Susan Gianforte were originally scheduled to remain overseas through the week and planned to return June 19, he said. The tipping point for his decision to cut the trip short was Juras report back to him on the extent of damage in Red Lodge, he said.

Gianforte said that day he began getting briefings from his team about the situation.

He also said in the interview he had not received any information regarding potential flooding before he departed. The Montana State News Bureau has requested copies of materials provided to the governor in the days before and after the flooding began.

Amid ongoing conversations with local and state officials, he said, he directed Juras to issue a state of emergency the following day. After reporters asked why a copy of the declaration bore Juras signature, his office later that day acknowledged his absence from the state, but refused to disclose his location until he returned three days later.

I didnt disclose where I was because I was on a personal, private trip, Gianforte said Thursday. It would have violated the safety protocol and thus potentially opened us up to security concerns.

He declined repeatedly to elaborate on that security protocol or explain what type of risks he could have created by revealing which country he was in. He referred follow-up questions to the Montana Highway Patrol. Neither MHP or the Department of Justice immediately responded to requests for information on Thursday.

The governor said he has been the subject of threats that were deemed credible by law enforcement in the past, but declined to elaborate on them or say whether they informed his policy of not disclosing his location. He also wouldnt say whether the policy was in place prior to his trip or whether his office had any discretion in crafting it, also referring those questions to MHP.

The secrecy surrounding his whereabouts as a natural disaster unfolded in parts of Montana prompted criticism from Democrats and others. But Gianforte said during that time he remained in communication with local officials in affected areas.

I was at my duty post, I just happened to not be in Montana, Gianforte said. And the team concluded that I should return at the earliest possible convenience on Tuesday, and we began making arrangements.

Since his return, the governor has been meeting with officials and residents in flood-ravaged parts of the state, including Red Lodge, Fromberg and Gardiner. On Thursday he was scheduled to attend the reopening of a bridge damaged by the raging Yellowstone River north of Gardiner, and signed a request asking FEMA to unlock additional funds for individuals facing major losses from the flooding.

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Up to $5 million in grant funding from Montanas bed tax fund is being made available to businesses impacted by the destructive flooding in southern Montana, Gov. Greg Gianfortes office announced Friday.

Additionally, more than $3 million in federal COVID relief funds will be made available for responding to flood impacts, his office stated.

The $5 million program will award grants of up to $25,000 to tourism-dependent businesses including restaurants, bars, hotels, guides and private campgrounds. They must describe how they stand to be negatively impacted by a lack of visitors due to severe flooding that has indefinitely closed two of Montanas three entrances to Yellowstone National Park.

The grant program will give businesses in this area much-needed support to get them up and running so they can give in-state and out-of-state guests their best possible Montana experience, Department of Commerce Director Scott Osterman stated in a Friday press release.

Businesses can get more information and apply by visiting commerce.mt.gov.

The other funding being made available follows recommendations passed unanimously by a panel of lawmakers and executive branch representatives on Thursday. The ARPA Infrastructure Commission is responsible for overseeing a portion of the funds Montana received from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) passed by Congress last year.

Following a proposal offered by Rep. Jim Keane, D-Butte, the panel voted to recommend up to $2 million in interest generated by the federal cash received by the state for responding to emergencies caused by the flooding. The panel also approved a proposal from Sen. Doug Kary, R-Billings, to redirect $1.2 million in money for irrigators that hadnt been awarded during a previous meeting to be used for repairing irrigation systems damaged by the floodwaters.

The governors office also announced Friday that it was awarding 10 grants of $15,000 to chambers of commerce in 10 cities and towns near Yellowstone National Park that had been affected by the flooding.

The money is intended to help the local tourism-dependent economies weather the lack of access to Yellowstone. That can be done through increased additional staff hours at visitor centers, signs and social media communications, according to a press release from the governors office.

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History was made earlier this week when the Chippewa Cree Tribe harvested its first bison in decades.

Members of the Rocky Boy Buffalo Project board used a firearm to harvest the bison. The Buffalo Project, which manages the tribes herd, donated 80 pounds of bison meat to the upcoming youth powwow and the remaining 380 pounds to the tribes food bank.

Were just elated, said Jason Belcourt, the tribes sustainability coordinator. We wanted to give this buffalo back to the community and what better way to do that?

Bison havent roamed the Rocky Boy Reservation since the 1990s. Belcourt said back then, the tribe didn't have money allocated to sustain the herd. Without funds for management, fencing and equipment, the herd dwindled.

But that changed when the Chippewa Cree Tribe welcomed the return of bison to their tribal lands in October. The American Prairie Reserve donated nine, and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes donated five. This spring, six bison calves were born  the first on the reservation in decades.

Belcourt said for the herd to be sustainable the tribe hopes to maintain a 60% cows to 40% bulls ratio. To do so, the tribe will harvest two more bulls this year.

Native Americans used bison for food, shelter, clothing and ceremony, but in the 1800s settlers killed millions of bison, in part to devastate Native communities that relied on them.

Now, Belcourt said seeing the animals on the reservation landscape is a gift.

Its a healthier meat, he said. We know where it comes from. We know what its eating. Buffalo meat has been in our systems  in our DNA  for centuries, so its really good to get it back in our systems. We can feel good about it, too, knowing we raised it.

Belcourt said the Rocky Boy Buffalo Project has big plans. In three years, they hope to grow the herd to 30 head, and in 10 or 15 years, they hope to manage 150.

That will help us become sustainable, he said. Then we can market and sell meats and offer hunts of all kinds. And there are so many spinoffs you can do with hides and skulls.

The Rocky Boy Buffalo Project relies primarily on grants and donations for funding, so Belcourt hopes marketing the bison meat will help generate revenue for the program.

Belcourt said the bison will nourish the tribal community in more ways than one.

In order to be sustainable as a tribal nation, we need to make sure we have the ability to feed our people, provide good water for our people and a source of power, Belcourt said. We do this so we have a sense of who we are culturally, and the buffalo go a long way in doing that.

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After more than five years of delays caused by the pandemic and the mental health of the defendant, a Petersburg man was sentenced to life in prison Thursday after pleading guilty to murdering his girlfriend and abducting and killing the wife of a city pastor in a 2017 crime rampage.

Kristopher T. Jones, 37, was convicted in Petersburg Circuit Court after entering pleas to two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of abduction, two counts of robbery and one count each of carjacking, grand larceny and eluding police for a series of violent events that unfolded on the morning of Jan. 18, 2017.

Circuit Judge Joseph M. Teefey Jr. convicted Jones after accepting his pleas and sentenced him to two life terms plus 65 years with 50 years suspended, giving him two life terms plus 15 years to serve. The punishment was in accordance with a plea agreement.

The case was first delayed after Jones, who has a long history of psychiatric problems, was found to be incompetent to stand trial in March 2018 after being examined by mental health professionals. Efforts were then initiated to restore his competency, and that wound up taking a significant portion of time, said Petersburg Commonwealths Attorney Tiffany Buckner, who prosecuted the case.

But once Jones was restored to competency, the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and that caused a further delay because we could not have a jury trial during that period, Buckner said. The General Assembly then abolished capital punishment in Virginia in early 2021 and that created an additional wrinkle in the case since Jones was initially charged with capital murder. A jury trial was set to begin Monday, but an agreement between the prosecution and defense was subsequently reached that led to Thursdays plea hearing.

The events leading to the two killings began with the abduction and carjacking of then-82-year-old Petersburg pastor Alfred Woodard from his home in the 200 block of South Jefferson Street, according to police and the prosecutions summary of evidence presented Thursday in court.

Jones appeared at the Woodard home about 9:30 a.m. He told Alfred Woodard that he came to rob him and took $100 that was in the pastors wallet along with his bank cards. Jones also advised that he had killed his girlfriend.

Jones then forced the pastor into his own vehicle, a BMW, and ordered him to drive to an ATM in Dinwiddie County, but the machine would not dispense any money.

Jones then ordered Woodard to drive to the Bank of America in the 1900 block of South Crater Road in Petersburg, where instead of withdrawing money, Woodard alerted a teller that he was being robbed.

Jones, wearing a white T-shirt with the word Jesus, then drove off in Woodards BMW without him.

A Petersburg officer spotted the BMW traveling at high speeds but lost sight of the vehicle as it entered Dinwiddie. The car, driven by Jones, returned to Petersburg a short time later, and an officer and detective gave chase. At one point, Jones sped in excess of 100 mph and a detective in pursuit lost track of the car.

As officers investigated the carjacking, they went to the Woodard home and discovered Minnie Woodard was missing. Investigators found traces of blood on the floor, walls and carpet, and a large pool of blood at the foot of a bed and a bent steak knife with blood residue.

A day later, police discovered a womans body  later identified as Minnie Woodard  in a secluded area behind a vacant residence at 8319 River Road in Chesterfield County, where Jones had earlier done some work.

The state medical examiners office determined that she died of sharp- and blunt-force injuries to her head and neck.

The investigation took another turn after Petersburg police, on the evening of Jan. 18, 2017, found the body of Janice Celeste Lugo, 52, dead in her apartment at 203 South Jefferson St., about a block from the Woodards house. She had been asphyxiated.

Authorities determined that Jones and the Woodards were acquaintances, but not necessarily friends, through chores and home improvement work the couple paid Jones to occasionally perform for them. Because the Woodards were of advanced age, Jones became their handyman.

Jones had lived at various locations, and his last known address before the killings was the 200 block of South Jefferson Street  the same block as the Woodards. He was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force on the morning of Jan. 19, 2017, in the parking lot of a Lowes store in Norfolk, where he has family.

Marshals recovered Alfred Woodards BMW when they arrested Jones.

Following his arrest, Jones admitted in an interview with Petersburg police that he went to the Woodards house to rob them and believed they had money and were wealthy. He told Minnie Woodard that he didnt want to hurt her but had killed his girlfriend, with whom he had been having issues, according to his statement to police.

Jones then confessed to hitting and stabbing Minnie Woodard, forcing her husband to go to the bank, eluding Petersburg police and leaving her body at the vacant Chesterfield property.

Alfred and Minnie Woodard, who were the pastor and first lady at Mount Sinai Christian Church in Petersburg, had been married for 56 years.

Jones had been convicted of two felonies in Petersburg more than a dozen years before the 2017 crime rampage.

He pleaded guilty in 2004 to breaking into Westview Elementary School in Petersburg with another teen, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison with all but three months suspended. That same year, he pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding for an assault on a teenager. He was sentenced to five years in prison with four years suspended.

In court papers filed in the assault, a clinical social worker noted that Jones had a long history of psychiatric problems, outlined his mental health issues and noted he had been prescribed psychotropic medication as a teen.
One of two serial robbers accused in a multistate armed robbery spree last year pleaded guilty Friday to holding up Victoria Jewelers in Henrico County and taking $136,245 in jewelry, gold bars, coins and cash at gunpoint.

Get all the gold! Rickley J. Senning commanded his accomplice, Jesann L. Willis, during the Nov. 19 robbery, according to a federal criminal complaint.

OK, replied Willis, who asked her partner what else she needed to take before removing dozens of items from store showcases. The loot included 36 pairs of diamond rings, 117 additional rings, 220 gold bracelets, 42 pairs of gold hoops and heart earrings, five gold bars, five gold coins, 28 chains, 262 charms and $5,100 in cash.

The couple then fled in a stolen Honda CR-V with Florida tags.

After their Dec. 2 arrest in Washington, D.C., the pair confessed to the Victoria Jewelers heist and other crimes on the East Coast. They were implicated in eight additional armed holdups in Maryland and Pennsylvania between Oct. 12 and Dec. 2, including robberies of an Essex Bank in Rockville, Md.; a PNC Bank in Potomac, Md.; and a M&T Bank in Frederick, Md. Those three holdups netted the defendants more than $18,000, federal prosecutors said in court papers.

The couple also face burglary, theft and criminal mischief charges in Flagler Beach, Fla.

On Friday in U.S. District Court in Richmond, Willis, 35, of Gaithersburg, Md., pleaded guilty to robbery affecting commerce in the holdup of Victoria Jewelers at 8191 Brook Road in Henrico. In exchange for her pleas, the U.S. Attorneys Office agreed not to prosecute her for the eight other robberies. Judge John A. Gibney Jr. convicted Willis after accepting her pleas and set sentencing for Oct. 19.

Senning was indicted in March by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiring to commit robbery, robbery affecting commerce and using a firearm in a crime of violence. He is set to appear July 21 in U.S. District Court in Richmond.

According to the governments statement of facts, Senning and Willis first entered the business on Nov. 8 and sought to sell the owner/manager three pieces of jewelry for $1,000, but they had no identification with them. The owner advised that state law prohibited him from buying the jewelry without identification.

The pair then left and traveled to Ohio, where Senning allegedly obtained a Ruger semiautomatic pistol with a laser sight from a friend of Willis.

The defendants returned to Victoria Jewelers 11 days later. After the owner greeted the pair at the front counter, Senning yelled, I have my ID this time! before pulling the pistol he obtained in Ohio. As Senning pointed the gun directly at the owners face, the owners son tried to escape. Senning then hopped over the counter and grabbed the son, according to the governments summary of evidence.

While robbing the store, Senning advised the owner that he knew where he lived and would kill him if necessary. After taking the jewelry, gold and cash, the pair returned to the Honda and Willis drove from the scene.

Senning and Willis then traveled to various pawn shops in multiple states and sold a number of the stolen items before returning to Maryland, where the pair committed additional holdups, prosecutors said.

After receiving information about the Dec. 2 robberies of the M&T Bank and PNC Bank in Maryland, law enforcement in Washington, D.C., began searching for the stolen Honda, and officers located it that evening. Willis was driving the car when it was stopped, and Senning was armed with the Ruger pistol. During a later search of the vehicle, police recovered some of jewelry taken from Victoria Jewelers.

32-year-old Richmond man shot to death in Carver neighborhood Richmond police have identified the man shot to death in the Carver neighborhood last week.

Henrico detectives linked the couple to the jewelry store robbery through fingerprints, telephone records and Facebook postings.

A latent fingerprint and palm print recovered by forensic detectives at the store were matched to Senning, and a phone number from a person who called the store about 30 minutes before the robbery was linked to a relative of Willis.

Police then checked that persons Facebook account and found photos of Willis wearing a black wrist brace on her right hand, which matched the wrist brace of the female suspect shown in store surveillance photos during the holdup.
Tara Morand knows that if her mother had the option to get an abortion upon finding out she was pregnant she would have. But Morand, 51, was born in December 1970, roughly two years before abortion was legal in the United States.

If my mother could have gotten an abortion, she probably would have gotten an abortion. And thats OK, Morand said in an interview. We had a very difficult life because she had to have me.

Morand said that as the Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade materialized Friday morning, she and her co-workers went outside and screamed. Upon returning inside the real estate office where she works, Morand took a personal day. Having attended abortion rights protests since the 1980s, she found herself at Bell Tower in Capitol Square on Friday afternoon, ready to act.

Less than two months ago, participants in the annual March for Life rally convened at the Bell Tower, urging the court to uphold the Mississippi law challenged in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, to effectively overturn Roe v. Wade.

The Supreme Courts Friday decision to overturn Roe v. Wade now sends the issue of abortion back to state legislatures. Gov. Glenn Youngkin said Friday that he will seek to ban most abortions after 15 weeks.

Representatives of groups that oppose abortion issued statements hailing the decision.

Virginia Gans Turner, president of the Virginia Society for Human Life, said in a statement: Virginians should be elated that the Supreme Court has overturned the dreadful Roe v. Wade decision and opened the door for the states to pass reasonable, protective laws for mothers and their unborn children at all stages of pregnancy.

Victoria Cobb, president of the Family Foundation of Virginia, said in a statement: Today, we pause to celebrate the right to life of babies around the nation being protected, but tomorrow the work begins in Virginia to protect life throughout the Commonwealth.

Barry C. Knestout, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond, said in a statement: Every life  both mother and children  is sacred and immeasurably loved and valued by God. I pray that throughout our nation  including here in Virginia  lawmakers will open their hearts to the opportunities before them to protect unborn children, support women in crisis pregnancies and promote life-affirming alternatives to abortion.

In Richmond, frustration and anger over the Youngkin announcement was evident in Capitol Square, where Mayor Levar Stoney; state Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond; and other community leaders and activists addressed a news conference.

Although the governor wants to have a 15-week ban which is out of step with what a majority of Virginians want, we are gonna say no,  McClellan said. We are going to say to the party that professed to care about parental rights you will not insert yourself in the decision about whether to become a parent in the first place.

The call to action was unanimous across all speakers: vote.

Kenda Sutton-El, executive director of the group Birth in Color, petitioned everyone in the crowd, especially the white women, to know who they are voting for.

... For the white women that I see standing out here, you guys are always out here with us. But when we looked at those data [points] from when the election [November 2021] was, you decided to play on your white privilege that you didnt want to lose, said Sutton-El, referring to the gubernatorial race in 2021.

Jamie Lockhart, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia, said: The future of abortion rights here in Virginia depends on our elected officials serving in Virginia. We are only one state Senate seat away from a Texas-style abortion law.

Sutton-El said reduced access to abortions disproportionately affects Black women.

This news is definitely devastating especially when Black women are three times more likely to die during childbirth than white women, Sutton-El said. To take away the right to have an abortion or not, when to have children, is appalling.

Behind the leaders, a crowd of supporters held up signs saying Abortion is Health Care, Bans off our bodies and Stand with Black women.

The news conference ended abruptly because the gathered groups had just a 30-minute permit. Afterward, a march began on the sidewalks surrounding the Capitol. A group of abortion-rights supporters gathered at the Capitols gates, chanting Overturn Roe, Hell No.

St. Catherines School students Alexandra Walker, 17, and Sonia Krishna, 16, came to the protest with homemade signs they said they made when a draft of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alitos opinion was leaked to Politico in early May.

Its really important, especially young women who this is going to affect a lot, especially POC women, to get out and share we really dont want this, said Walker, referring to an acronym for people of color. The majority of women in the United States dont want this and dont agree with this.

Krishna said: Im here because I think it is fundamentally a human right to have safe abortions and its just unfair. She added: My grandma, my mom, they lived in a time where it was safe to do this.

Now girls our age who could get pregnant, who cant afford to have a baby, who were raped or any sort of horrible incident to happen where they do become pregnant, they now cant have an abortion or they cant have a safe abortion. That puts them at risk.

Stephanie Nash, the Virginia advocacy director for Whole Womans Health Alliance, a nonprofit part of Whole Womans Health, an independent abortion provider that has clinics across the country, was at the Capitol on Friday afternoon.

While Nash, 39, anticipated the result of Fridays decision, she said that when it became a reality, her heart sank, as someone who had an abortion in Milwaukee and she said it sank for her Texas colleagues. Nash said patients at the Whole Womans Texas clinics Friday morning were turned away as soon as the news hit.

We had patients in the clinic at that time ... and we have about 150 patients who were on the books between today and Sunday [in Texas], Nash said.

Despite the court ruling, Nash said she will continue to do her work and advocate. Nash will keep coordinating efforts to help Texas patients come to Virginia or Baltimore to receive their procedures.

For myself as a Black woman, my rights have always been stripped so this is another day for me, like another day in the neighborhood. But for the people that this will affect and thats all of us, whether you are pregnant or not, whether you are gonna become pregnant or not, whether you are a man, whether you are Black, whether you are Latina, whether you are a Native American, this is going to affect all of us and it has affected all of us, Nash said.

Two abortion-rights rallies were planned for Friday night in Richmond, one beginning at 6 p.m. at the federal courthouse and the other at 8 p.m. at the former site of the Robert E. Lee monument, which racial justice protesters informally renamed Marcus-David Peters Circle in June 2020.

jnocera@timesdispatch.com klutge@timesdispatch.com Staff writers Eric Kolenich and Andrew Cain contributed to this report.

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A man implicated in a Wednesday crime rampage involving the abduction of a Petersburg pastor, the disappearance and possible killing of his wife and the suspicious death of another woman had a long history of psychiatric problems while a teen and was prescribed psychotropic medication, according to court papers filed in his 2004 prosecution for maliciously wounding a teenage boy.

Kristopher T. Jones, then 19, was diagnosed as suffering from major depression with psychotic features the year he was charged with assaulting a teenager he believed had attacked his brother. Jones had been treated by a psychiatrist for several years and prescribed several medications, including a major tranquilizer to keep his head clear and two antidepressants, according to a letter from a clinical social worker who worked with Jones at the time.

Jones assaulted the teen during the time he wasnt taking his medications, the social worker wrote, and it may well have affected his thinking.

Jones, now 32, was arrested Thursday in Norfolk in connection with the abduction and carjacking of 82-year-old Petersburg pastor Alfred Woodard from his home in the 200 block of South Jefferson Street in Petersburg. Jones allegedly tried to force Woodard to withdraw money from a bank on South Crater Road; instead of complying, the pastor alerted a teller that he was under duress, police said.

Jones then drove off without Woodard, police said, and from there is believed to have returned to the Woodard home and abducted Woodards 76-year-old wife, Minnie. Mrs. Woodard was missing when police later checked the couples home, and investigators found large traces of blood and a knife wrapped in a cloth inside.

Just over an hour after Jones 10:15 a.m. arrest in Norfolk, police discovered a womans body in a secluded area behind a vacant residence in the 8300 block of River Road in southern Chesterfield County  not far from a convenience store Jones is suspected of trying to rob Wednesday.

Police said the body is connected to the Jones case but they declined to say whether it was Mrs. Woodard. However, Petersburg police said they have suspended their search for her pending identification of the remains by the state medical examiner.

Jeannette Collins, administrator of the medical examiners office in Richmond, said Friday the remains have still not been positively identified and the cause and manner of the death are pending.

Police also suspect foul play in the death of Jones girlfriend, Janice Celeste Lugo, 52, who was found dead Wednesday night in her apartment in the 100 block of South Jefferson Street, about a block from the Woodards house. Lugos cause and manner of death is also pending, Collins said.

A warrant police obtained to search Lugos home has been sealed by Petersburg Circuit Court.

Petersburg police Capt. Brian Braswell said Jones and the Woodards were acquaintances, but not necessarily friends, through chores and home improvement work the couple paid Jones to occasionally perform for them.

Because the Woodards are up in age, he was like a handyman at times for them, Braswell said. I assume that they had known each other for at least a year.

Although police believe Jones had lived at various locations, Braswell said Jones last known address was in the 200 block of South Jefferson Street  the same block as the Woodards.

Braswell said police are still sorting out Wednesdays sequence of events, but investigators believe both Woodard and his wife were at home when Jones first arrived on their doorstep. When Jones allegedly abducted Woodard and was taken to the bank, Mrs. Woodard was not with them, Braswell said.

In the December 2004 letter outlining Jones mental health issues  which was prepared for his sentencing on unlawfully wounding the teen  the clinical social worker wrote that Jones had become obsessed with video games and computers and remained in the house for two or three years, only associating with his brother and parents.

After deciding that computers and video games were controlling his life, Jones sold everything and went in a new direction. He had a spiritual awakening, began to attend church and forcefully push his religious ideas on others, the letter said. He believed he no longer needed his medications.

Mr. Jones may be an adult chronologically, but emotionally he is much younger, the letter said. His social skills are very poor. He doesnt know how to relate to people. He has serious emotional problems.

One of Jones parents was chronically mentally ill and both Jones and a sibling suffered from emotional problems that, in Jones case, interfered with his studies in high school, according to the social workers letter in Jones criminal case file.

Because Jones couldnt function in a regular school, the letter said, he was placed in home schooling and later a GED program. He refused to attend one program at a local library because it was filled with pregnant girls and at that time he heard the voices of dead babies and couldnt tolerate being in that situation, the case workers letter said.

Jones felt remorse for assaulting the teen and went to the boys home to apologize in an effort to correct his actions, the letter said. A judge sentenced him to 20 years in prison with all but one year suspended.

About two months later, Jones was convicted of breaking into Westview Elementary School in Petersburg with at least one other teen. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison with all but three months suspended.
The U.S. Supreme Courts decision to overturn a constitutional right to abortion wont have any immediate impact in Virginia, where abortion remains legal during the first and second trimesters of a pregnancy or in the third trimester if doctors believe there is a health risk to the patient.

But GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin said Friday that he wants to ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Although Democrats pledged to fight that effort, the governor potentially has the votes in the General Assembly to do it after a Democratic senator, Joe Morrissey of Richmond, announced support for restricting abortion.

The high courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade also means more people seeking abortions are expected to travel to Virginia from other states, 26 of which either had trigger laws to ban abortion if Roe was overturned or are expected to quickly enact bans or restrictions.

Youngkin said he asked a group of Republican legislators to work with his administration on abortion legislation they will introduce in the session that starts in January.

The Supreme Court of the United States has rightfully returned power to the people and their elected representatives in the states, he said in a statement. Im proud to be a pro-life Governor and plan to take every action I can to protect life.

Youngkin said he has asked Sens. Siobhan Dunnavant, R-Henrico, and Steve Newman, R-Lynchburg, and Dels. Kathy Byron, R-Bedford, and Margaret Ransone, R-Westmoreland, to join us in an effort to bring together legislators and advocates from across the Commonwealth on this issue to find areas where we can agree and chart the most successful path forward.

While House GOP leaders who control the chamber support restricting abortion, Democrats, who hold a 21-19 edge in the state Senate, pledge to defend abortion rights.

This outrageous ruling does not change the law here in Virginia, said state Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond. Because of our strong state laws, abortion remains legal in Virginia. As other states face restrictions, Virginia will remain a safe haven for abortion care. We welcome everyone to make their reproductive health decisions free of government interference.

But Morrissey issued a statement Friday saying he supports legal abortion only up to the moment a fetus can feel pain. If he sided with the Senates 19 Republicans next year, GOP Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears would be a tie-breaking vote to pass abortion restrictions in the legislature.

Youngkin spokeswoman Macaulay Porter said by email that the legislative work group would prioritize protecting life when babies begin to feel pain in the womb, including a 15-week threshold.

Experts say such fetal pain laws are scientifically unfounded.

There is no science and evidence backing any of this stuff. ... Theres no evidence that theres fetal pain at this point, said Terry McGovern, chair of Columbia Universitys Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health. I feel like they have completely just disregarded science and evidence.

Morrissey did side with his fellow Democrats on an abortion vote a week ago. Youngkin wanted to end state funding to cover a small number of abortions  poor women pregnant with a fetus that has a gross and totally incapacitating physical deformity or with a gross and totally incapacitating mental deficiency.

Morrissey and Senate Democrats blocked Youngkins attempt to cut that funding.

***

The end of Roe means states now choose whether to ban abortion and how to restrict it. Tennessee has a trigger law to make abortion illegal soon, West Virginia has a law banning abortion, and abortion is now banned in Kentucky because of a trigger law.

That means more people traveling to Virginia from other states for an abortion. The state has about 15 clinics.

Whole Womans Health, a Virginia abortion provider, has already helped about 100 women travel from Texas to Virginia for an abortion after lawmakers there banned most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.

Whole Womans Health will continue its long and proud tradition of providing high-quality, compassionate, personal abortion care in the remaining states where pregnant peoples needs and rights are still respected and protected under law, said Amy Hagstrom Miller, Whole Womans Health president and CEO, in a statement after Fridays 6-3 ruling was released.

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia and other organizations had already been working to educate women that abortion would remain legal here, after a draft version of Fridays high court opinion was leaked in May.

pwilson@timesdispatch.com (804) 649-6061 Twitter: @patrickmwilson Staff writer Sabrina Moreno contributed to this report.
Daniel Cortez has a message for both Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-7th, and Republican nominee Yesli Vega as they begin a general election campaign in what promises to be among the most closely watched congressional races in the country: Dont take independent voters for granted.

Cortez, 71, a retired U.S. Marine in Stafford County whose parents immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico, served as co-chairman of Latinos for Youngkin along with Vega, whose parents fled El Salvador during its civil war. The organization helped turn out large numbers of independent and Latino voters to elect Republican businessman Glenn Youngkin as governor last fall.

But he said that doesnt mean he will support her in the congressional midterms in November. In the primary, he supported state Sen. Bryce Reeves, R-Spotsylvania.

I dont know that the independents will flock to her, Cortez said in an interview Thursday. Theyre going to take a real hard look at Abigail Spanberger.

I dont think anybody has a lock on it right now, he said.

Vega, 36, clinched the Republican nomination to challenge Spanberger in a low-turnout, six-candidate primary Tuesday that was decided by the partys conservative base, but now, she will have to attune her campaign priorities to a broader electorate that is generally new to both candidates.

What you need to say to win the primary can create challenges for you when the primary is over, said Stephen Farnsworth, director of the Center for Leadership and Media Studies at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, which is in the heart of the newly redrawn 7th Congressional District.

Primary path

Vega won the primary by 5% over political newcomer Derrick Anderson, followed by Reeves and three other candidates. Her base in Prince William County, where she serves on the Board of Supervisors, carried her to victory after she remained competitive in the other 10 localities in the redrawn district that the Virginia Supreme Court established Dec. 28.

She won with help from what Farnsworth called blue-chip conservative endorsements from some of the biggest names in national Republican circles: Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who campaigned with her the day before the primary; Ginni Thomas, wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas; former Rep. Dave Brat, R-7th, who lost his seat to Spanberger in 2018; and Rep. Bob Good, R-5th, who has established himself as the most conservative member of Virginias congressional delegation in his first term.

The endorsements appeared to help Vega particularly in rural counties where she was not well-known  Culpeper, Greene and Orange, which she won, and Caroline and King George, where she finished second behind Reeves and Anderson, respectively.

But the endorsements also can cut the other way in the general election with a broader, less ideological electorate, Farnsworth said. It does create an opportunity for Spanberger to frame Vega as the Prince William County version of Ted Cruz or Ginni Thomas.

Spanberger

It took less than one day for Spanberger to seize that opportunity.

The folks she brought to the district to campaign on her behalf speak to the priorities she has, which is certainly not problem-solving, the two-term congresswoman said in an interview Wednesday.

Spanberger, 42, has won twice in a district dominated by Republicans for a half-century and anchored in the Richmond suburbs. Now, she has to run in a Democratic-leaning district based in Northern Virginia and the Fredericksburg area in an election cycle that looks inhospitable to Democrats because of the unpopularity of President Joe Biden.

In an interview, she focused on her legislation to bring down fuel and food prices, restore supplies of baby formula, lower the cost of prescription drugs and help military veterans exposed to toxic chemicals and people with drug addiction. She talked about restoring supply chains for ocean shipping and long-distance truckers.

Ive been working hard and getting results for it, she said.

Spanberger also contrasted her record with what she called Vegas extreme views, including alleged support for the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to try to block the certification of Bidens election and the leaked draft of a pending Supreme Court decision that would overturn the right to an abortion and potential other civil liberties based on personal privacy.

Vega

Vega said in a statement: Abigail Spanberger is clearly scared. Ive been in the General Election for 48 hours and she is already saying and doing everything she can to distract from her record.

As our nation spirals out of control under Joe Bidens leadership, Abigail Spanberger stands with him every step of the way. From skyrocketing gas and grocery prices, to the rising crime and lawlessness throughout our cities, Abigail hasnt wavered from her blind support for the failed Biden Agenda.

In an apparent reference to congressional hearings on the Jan. 6 attack, Vega added: The political theater were seeing play out on TV will not address the true problems our nation faces. Americans are too busy sitting at their kitchen tables worrying about how they are going to afford gas and groceries to get them through the week.

Spanberger faces voter questions about her support for Biden, especially on such issues as the cost of living in general and energy policy, Cortez said.

The independents are just not buying what the president is selling, he said.

On the other hand, he is skeptical of Vegas approach to security on the U.S. border with Mexico and the issue of so-called dreamers who were brought into the country illegally when they were children and want to remain legally.

Im not an open borders guy, said Cortez, whose parents immigrated legally while other members of the family did not. But I want a path to citizenship. Both sides have failed on that.

He added: Theres got to be some compassion.

He said he is looking for evidence from both candidates that they would govern like Youngkin or Rep. Rob Wittman, R-1st, who previously represented many of the localities that are now part of the 7th.

I want to see genuine outreach and bipartisanship, Cortez said.

Spanberger was ranked the fifth-most bipartisan member of the U.S. House of Representatives in a report last month by The Lugar Center  named for former U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind.  and Georgetown University. Wittman was ranked 203rd and Good at 431st in sponsoring or co-sponsoring legislation with members of the opposing party.

Anybody who says Spanberger isnt a moderate Democrat doesnt pay attention to what the other Democrats in Congress are doing, Farnsworth said.

Spanberger hasnt taken a position on Bidens proposal to suspend the federal gas tax because she said she hasnt seen the details. Youngkin accused Democrats in the Virginia Senate, who rejected his proposal for a three-month suspension of the state gas tax, of being out of step with a president from their own party.

Whos going to pay the price for [the high cost of gasoline]? The incumbents are going to pay for it, Cortez said.

Both Spanberger and Vega live outside the boundaries of the new district, although the Republican lives a short distance away in the Manassas Park area.

Spanberger and her family  including three daughters enrolled in Henrico County Public Schools  currently remain in western Henrico in the old district she continues to serve until January, whether re-elected or not. She hasnt said whether she will move into the new district if elected there.

I wont be making a shift of where my children go to sleep at night any earlier than January, she repeated this week.

Representing part of the outer ring of the Washington suburbs, the new 7th is the kind of district that Farnsworth predicts will determine control of the House of Representatives, as the old helped to do when Democrats took control four years ago.

Its where majorities are won and lost, he said.
Republican Glenn Youngkin is a governor in conflict with himself.

Seemingly unsure whether he should be guided by the personal or the political, Youngkin attempts both in plain view  whether the issue is race, LGBTQ+ rights or, following Fridays historic, Roe-reversing ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, abortion.

Dont watch Youngkins contortions on a full stomach.

Consider Youngkins clunky, caught-on-camera ramble the other day when asked whether he would fire his hand-picked health commissioner, Colin Greene, for his politically unhealthy remarks about race and firearms.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Greene dismissed racism as contributing to a documented disparity in health care for Black Virginians. Greene also waved off gun violence, declared a public health crisis by the American Medical Association, as nothing more than a talking point for Democrats.

I have not made a decision with Dr. Greene, Youngkin said on the eve of a unanimous vote by the Virginia Board of Health  specifically, its yet-to-be-replaced Democratic appointees  condemning Greenes comments as an embarrassment.

I believe that Dr. Greene is very capable. And as I said, Im really disappointed in his inability to communicate this message. And so, he has got to prove that he can do this job. I believe he can. And were going to support him to prove that.

Translated: Greene stepped in it by giving full voice to what Youngkin prefers to convey in code, lest the governor  mindful he was barely elected in a blueish state that is 42% non-white  be mistaken for a crude bigot.

But Youngkin is not going to get rid of him, at least not now, because  Greenes tone-deaf pronouncements, notwithstanding  the commissioner struck a reassuring chord with the Republican base, which includes some crude bigots.

So Greene is on double-secret probation.

The yes, but tension that defines Youngkin  some prefer to call it his balancing act  ultimately trivializes him. The governor wants to be seen as representative of all Virginians. But because, depending on the issue, he isnt, Youngkin must package himself in a way that, rather than eliminate doubts about him, elevates them.

Thus, the presss preoccupation with Dr. Greenes alarming quips upstaged what was supposed to be a staged celebration: The governor ceremonially signing a two-year, $165 billion state budget that included many of the tax cuts he proposed as a candidate.

Youngkins theatrical equivocating  it only raises more questions about who he is, what be believes, and where he wants to go in elective politics  was also on display on Juneteenth, the new federal holiday in observance of the declared end of Black slavery in 1865.

Youngkin traveled to Fort Monroe in Hampton, near the spot where some 20 captive Africans were deposited by British privateers in 1619, beginning more than two centuries of slavery in North America.

Youngkin signed a proclamation praising President Abraham Lincoln  to this day, hes reviled in pockets of the Old Confederacy  for decreeing an end to slavery.

The proclamation also urged Virginians to honor the great strides African Americans have made and to learn, unite and celebrate as we continue to work to create a more perfect union.

Youngkin and his wife, Suzanne, then marched arm-and-arm with Virginians, white and Black, in a symbolic expression of unity on an issue that continues to divide this state: race.

They are fissures Youngkin continues to exploit. He plays to white resentment over post-George Floyd woke-ism, branding as divisive themes central to Juneteenth: the violent exploitation of Blacks; their denial of such basic rights as the vote; and educational and economic obstacles to racial equity.

To wit: Youngkins legally dubious executive order that nearly all race-teaching will be erased from public education in Virginia, and two disputed studies by his superintendent of public instruction that suggest a focus on race undercuts student performance.

The directive runs afoul of a constitutional mechanism, approved by voters 51 years ago, requiring collaboration in education.

The governor, legislature and state and local school boards are supposed to work together to ensure a quality education. Power is not ceded entirely to the state to prevent a reprise of the tragic overreach of the late 1950s.

Thats when the segregationist Democrats who ruled the state closed public schools in defiance of the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision outlawing separate instruction of Black and white students. It was an ugly moment that still ripples through public education here and, it seems, Youngkin would sugarcoat.

Youngkins observance of Pride Month, a celebration of the LGBTQ+ community, was somewhat closeted.

The deeply religious governor who tried in 2021 to conceal his opposition to same-sex marriage, chose to meet with gay Virginians at private reception in Richmond. A conference he attended in Virginia Beach was described on his schedule as a meeting with business and community leaders and made no reference to its LGBTQ+ sponsor.

Youngkins appointment to the state LGBTQ+ advisory board of Corey Flores, a Republican gay-rights activist with a history of off-color trolling on social media, left many wondering about the governors attention to detail. Why hadnt Flores been more closely vetted? Same question could be asked about Colin Greene.

On abortion, the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade after a half-century, Youngkin is running out of places to hide. Hes made no secret of his opposition to abortion, but  recognizing that the majority of Virginians support access to the procedure  Youngkin has ducked saying how far hed go on restrictions.

That hes looking to a handful of Republican legislators, some of them firmly opposed to abortion, to recommend a way forward signals hes more interested in fighting Democrats than finding common ground  especially ahead of elections that could restore total GOP control of the General Assembly in 2023

Maybe then the real Glenn Youngkin will stand up.
Two Virginia Beach natives reported overdue amid a cross-Atlantic sailing trip to Portugal have been safely located, the U.S. Coast Guard announced Friday.

Yanni Nikopoulos and Dale Jones, both 65, contacted the Coast Guard Friday, saying they were safe and en route to Hampton. Nikopoulos and Jones were about 80 miles east of Chincoteague at the time of the call, according to a news release from the Coast Guard.

We are extremely happy to learn Yanni and Dale are found and are safe, said James Cifers, operations unit watchstander in the Fifth District Command Center, in a statement. It is truly wonderful the pair will be reunited with their friends and family soon.

The pair are not in distress and have not requested Coast Guard assistance, the release said.

Nikopoulos and Jones were reported missing Monday by Jones daughter. She contacted the Coast Guard Fifth District command center June 17, reporting that she hadnt received any communication from her mother since the pair departed June 13.

Nikopoulos and Jones were attempting to sail a 36-foot sailboat named Kyklades to Portugals Azores, a cluster of islands in the mid-Atlantic, when they went missing.

Coast Guard spokesperson Breanna Centeno said the pair left June 8 from Old Comfort Point Marina in Hampton. They were en route to Azores, with plans to continue on to Greece, but on June 13, they notified family members that heavy weather had damaged their sailboat and they were turning around to head back to Hampton. The missing boaters were about 460 miles east of Virginia Beach at the time of the call.

The pair reportedly were struck by lightning after sailing through inclement weather, the Coast Guards Friday release said. After rigging a spare sail, the pair sailed to Virginia.
The Roanoke County School Board unanimously passed a new library policy thats more restrictive to adding new books at its meeting Thursday night.

The matter comes after a book, When Aidan Became a Brother, was removed from Herman L. Horn Elementary last year, amid debate.

That book is about a transgender boy wanting to be a good brother to his new sibling, and according to school system documents, the mentioning of gender identity in the book is what led to the complaint by a parent, which ultimately got the book removed after a lengthy appeals process.

Some parents came and spoke out against the policy, which will now require all librarians at their respective level to approve a book before it could be added to a collection.

Before the librarians decide to agree on a book, two elementary school librarians must read and write a review for each book before it is added to the collection. One is required to read and write a review at the middle and high school levels.

It is from those reviews where all librarians would have to approve the book unanimously before it is made public for parents to review the title of the book for two weeks, where objections can be made.

Under the previous policy, librarians had the ability to add to their collection using reputable, professional selection aids, such as professional review journals, core collection tools and conference presentations when selecting media for vetting, according to the school systems policy guide.

The previous procedure in Roanoke County Public Schools is essentially what is stated in current policies in surrounding school districts such as Montgomery County, Roanoke City and Salem.

Concerns were brought up during the public comment period during Thursdays meeting. They included workload for librarians, the idea the policy was a form of censorship or how it alienated certain groups of students.

The board approved the policy without comment on those issues.

Laura Bowman, a parent from the Windsor Hills District, told the school board if there is subject matter they wish to not be in libraries, they should have the courage to just come right out and name it, instead of ignoring professionals and hiding behind staff.

Imagine a school board that exhibited such deeply ingrained fear, bias and prejudice through its policymaking, that it hurt the children it claimed to care about and was supposed to be serving, she said. I dont have to imagine it. Im looking right at it.

No Roanoke County librarian came and spoke in favor of the policy during any portion of the meeting, and it is unclear whether any were in attendance. No other member of the public spoke in favor of the policy during the meeting, either.

Superintendent Ken Nicely said the idea to have librarians read all books before they are added to the collection was an idea that came within the Roanoke County system.

Its just kind of a common sense approach. You know before we put something on the shelves, somebody oughta look at it. Nicely said. It was our idea here within the district.

He said he couldnt recall the specific individuals who came up with the idea.

During the board comments portion of the meeting, following the vote, Windsor Hills District board member Cheryl Facciani said policy decisions like the new media policy were why she and some of the other board members were elected last November.

People voted for us because they know we believe parents have a stake in their education, she said. They wanted us to get back to basics.

Multiple board members said they are not the ones that create policy, but rather the administration does, though Facciani and Catawba District representative Brent Hudson shared their support for the new policy, as did Vinton District representative, Tim Greenway

Facciani also referenced the national outcry, largely by conservative political groups, over the last year about some of the books found in school libraries.

She said there has been pornography found in books not only at the middle and high school level, but also at the elementary level, though she did not specify at Roanoke County or what books she was referencing.

Facciani declined to speak to The Roanoke Times following the meeting.

Board Chair and Hollins District representative David Linden initially agreed to speak to The Roanoke Times about the new policy, but declined after speaking with other media members in attendance.

Greenway also declined to be interviewed after the meeting, leaving out of a private exit before without responding to a question about whether he approved of the book, When Aidan Became a Brother, being removed from a school in his district.

Greenway appointed one of the three members of the citizen committee that ultimately decided the book should be moved to the guidance office.

The school system has not disclosed the name of the parent who made the initial complaint which ultimately led to the book being removed, citing federal FERPA laws,

RCPS initially wanted to keep the committee members redacted in addition to the parent who made the initial complaint, but relented after being told the Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council said the committee members names should not be withheld.

The ACLU of Virginia also criticized the school systems new policy on social media, saying it was an absurd burden to put on school librarians and a tactic of censorship. This policy should fail.

Regarding the removal of the book, Bowman also criticized that decision.

Its convenient to deny another persons existence and life struggles and in turn, not have to feel their pain and show care for them, she said.

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One of the candidates running for Roanoke City Council omitted information about a past criminal charge from a statement he gave at a political forum last week.

Peter Volosin replied no when a moderator asked a group of candidates in a studio if they had ever been charged with or convicted of a criminal offense.

Volosin received a ticket in 2018 accusing him of illegally confining an animal in an enclosed, unattended vehicle, a misdemeanor. The case was dismissed.

One of three winners of this weeks Democratic council primary, he said Friday that he thought the moderator at the June 16 forum only wanted to know if there were any charges currently pending against him.

With his primary win, Volosin advances to the November regular election but could face a hearing this summer before elections officials over sample ballots his campaign distributed during on primary day without a required disclosure.

On July 10, 2018, Volosin brought his dog, Rula, when he attended a meeting inside Mac and Bob's restaurant in Salem, according to Volosin and court records. Rula stayed in the car, triggering a ticket from police charging Volosin with illegal animal confinement in a vehicle, a misdemeanor.

During the June 16 Democratic candidate online forum, the moderator, WFIR News Director Ian Price, posed a question about criminal matters, noting that former Roanoke councilman Robert Jeffrey Jr. had been convicted of financial crimes.

"It stands to reason that I ask each of you, and we'll go in circle, have you ever been charged or convicted of a criminal offense that would affect...," Price said, without completing the sentence. "Do you think anything's coming down the pipeline?"

Price continued: "As candidates, the people would want to know  I had a couple different people ask  are you currently about to face charges?"

Incumbent Joe Cobb shook his head and appeared in a low voice to say no, after which incumbent Vivian Sanchez-Jones said no as did Volosin.

Asked about the forum Friday, Volosin said that he replied to the part of the question about charges about to happen.

I thought he said, was there a pending charge?  the candidate said. Thats where I answered with that.

Asked about staying mum about the dog-related charge, Volosin said, I dont have any more comment. This is ridiculous. Thank you. He hung up at that point.

Volosin had discussed the incident involving his pet in a June 15 Roanoke Times interview  and nothing about that case had yet to be published by the newspaper.

Rula, who is 9 and healthy today, was rescued from an animal shelter in Mozambique and belongs to the breed Africanis, native to southern Africa, Volosin said.

On the day he was ticketed, he was seated in the restaurant when an employee walked up and said that somebody had called the police about the dog in his car, he said. He went out to the vehicle in the parking lot, where an officer had already arrived. The dog had been in the car for about 15 minutes, Volosin said.

She was not distressed. I got to the car and she was fine. I had water in the car, windows down and it was evening, Volosin said.

Asked if he faults himself in some way, he said, For the brief amount of time that I was supposed to be there, I took a calculated risk.

According to a typed report obtained from the Salem Police Department, a dispatcher received the original call at 6:29 p.m. and marked it an animal emergency. Animal control was not on duty. Police arrived at 6:34 p.m.

Notes entered by dispatch and included in the report say: Dog inside of vehicle for the past 30 minutes. Windows are barely cracked. Lower parking lot inside red in color vehicle

Dog is drooling and panting. Current temp 88 per weather. com, the notes continued.

The source of the 30-minute estimate was not clear from the report.

The ticket cited Volosin for allegedly violating a Salem ordinance that says Any person who confines an animal in an unattended, enclosed vehicle where the outside temperature is 80 degrees or greater, and the interior of the vehicle is not equipped with a supplemental fan that is operating at the time of such confinement, shall be guilty of a class 3 misdemeanor. If the animal suffers heat stress, its a class 1 misdemeanor.

A judge dismissed the case in early 2019. No reason appears in court records. Volosin said he could not recall the reason.

At last weeks forum, then-candidate Terry McGuire, who spoke last on the question, said he was not facing charges but went on to disclose a past charge. McGuire, 39, told viewers of the forum that he was arrested for public intoxication as a 19-year-old student at Virginia Tech. The arrest occurred at Radford University and he spent time in jail, he said.

Thats the only skeleton I have in my closet, he said.

In a later interview, McGuire recalled the moderator asking if the candidates had been charged with a crime in the past.

I just felt like it was important in that moment to be honest, McGuire said.

He said his case was dismissed, though he had a memory of possibly doing community service.

McGuire finished in last place in the primary and will not advance to the November election.

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The U.S. Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade spurred both excited reactions and angry protests in the Roanoke and New River valleys Friday.

As politicians declared their distaste or support on social media, about 200 demonstrators took to the streets in front of the Poff Federal Building in downtown Roanoke.

The Friday afternoon protest was led by Womens March on Roanoke, a women-led movement organized by Roanoke Indivisible and the Blue Ridge Resistance Alliance of Virginia.

A crowd gathered on short notice in downtown Roanoke to protest a decision many knew was coming. Abort the Supreme Court, read one of the many signs brandished by protesters, who drew honks of support from traffic passing by.

The gathering could be heard from blocks away chanting My body; My choice, and Keep your rosaries off my ovaries.

Today, we join with the majority of Americans who have repeatedly affirmed their support for safe and legal abortion in decrying the Supreme Courts reckless decision to throw away fifty years of legal precedent, the organization said in a press release.We warn us all that this post-Roe world will be very different from a pre-Roe world.

Virginias GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin said in a statement that his administration is committed to protecting individuals constitutional rights and ensuring Virginians are safe.

The truth is, Virginians want fewer abortions, not more abortions, Youngkin said. We can build a bipartisan consensus on protecting the life of unborn children, especially when they begin to feel pain in the womb, and importantly supporting mothers and families who choose life.

Several other Virginian Republican representatives agreed with the governor, including State Sen. David Sutterlein, R-Roanoke County.

Elected state governments will now have the ability to pass reasonable protections for innocent human life like those found in Europe, Sutterlein said in a tweet. The Dobbs decision is a critical victory for constitutional separation of powers, but most importantly a victory for innocent human lives.

U.S. Rep. Ben Cline, R-Botetourt, also voiced his support on Twitter, calling Friday a historic day for America and the long fight to protect the unborn!

The Courts decision leaves the debate over this important issue to the people of the fifty states and their elected representatives. Cline said in a second tweeted statement. With its ruling today, the Supreme Court is to be commended for its decision to finally heed the Constitution on this issue and return the abortion debate to the peoples elected representatives.

Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, agreed with Cline, calling Roe v. Wade a constitutional error that has produced decades of tragedy.

The Supreme Court got the law right today in Dobbs. The Court has returned to the individual states the ability to make their own decisions on this issue, Griffith said in a statement. Our task going forward from this decision is to carry on the hard but rewarding work of building a culture that protects, respects, and cherishes life.

Del. Wren Williams, R-Patrick, said hes excited by the Supreme Courts decision.

I didnt think that this would happen in my lifetime, Williams said in a telephone interview. Its such a contentious issue, but I think the Supreme Court got it right. I think this is a real blessing for the Commonwealth and the unborn across the nation. There will not be a guaranteed constitutional right to murder an unborn child. It blows my mind that that was ever stretched into law into the first place.

Del. Marie March, R-Floyd, said she is similarly excited about pro-life legislation. She called the Supreme Court ruling a victory.

Today the unborn have been recognized for their value, their potential, and their right to a chance at life, March said in a statement. Now, each state has the responsibility to protect the unborn at home. This is why I am proud to sponsor a bill in January that will protect life at conception in the Virginia House of Delegates. This is much more than a political issue. It is a moral obligation that we have to protect the most innocent among us.

Del. Chris Head, R-Botetourt, said he was absolutely thrilled to hear about the decision to overturn Roe.

I am a proud pro-life delegate and have been an ardent defender of the unborn since entering the House of Delegates in 2012, Head said in a statement. I remain committed to protecting the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness for all Virginians, born and unborn.

But other Virginian politicians werent at all happy with the end of Roe. State Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, said the decision to overturn it was devastating.

The decision creates classes of citizenship, dependent on location, Deeds said in a tweet. It cannot stand!

A statement from the office of Del. Sam Rasoul, D-Roanoke, said he is deeply troubled by the Supreme Courts ruling.

Roe has offered consistent precedent in privacy cases for 50 years, Rasoul said. The right to an abortion has been protected by the Court for five decades. Entire generations have had access to safe abortions as a right and are now experiencing this right to privacy being ripped away from them.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said in a tweet that the ruling flies in the face of decades of precedent protecting womens rights to make fundamental personal decisions without needless government interference.

Congress must act now to protect those rights, Kaine continued. Were not going to give up on this.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said the ruling reflects a Court that has increasingly issued politicized rulings that undermine the fundamental rights of Americans.

This decision will take control over personal health care decisions away from individuals and give it to politicians in state legislatures across the country, Warner said in a statement. I am heartbroken for the generations of women who now have fewer rights than when they were born, many of whom will be forced into life-threatening or prohibitively expensive circumstances to access health care as a result of this radical decision.

Roanoke College political science professor Todd Peppers agreed with Warner, saying Supreme Court decisions are increasingly less focused on law.

As I teach my students, when you get to the Supreme Court, you just dont look at the law. The judges personalities and preferences impact decision making, Peppers said in a telephone interview. With President Trumps appointments of Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, I dont know if the handwriting was on the wall, but certainly there was a strong suspicion that the court would pick a case and continue to whittle away at Roe, or it would be overturned.

Peppers said the justices decision to overturn Roe was not a surprise to him.

I think many court observers realized that there was a likelihood that Roe would be overturned. The the justices are supposed to value the norm of precedent. And certainly, Roes now been precedent for 50 years, Peppers said. You want consistency in the law, but there have been instances where the court has overturned precedent, and we agreed with it. Brown v. Board of Education overturned a precedent. So, its not a shock.

Several states have trigger laws that will place restrictions on or ban abortion immediately. But Peppers said hes not sure what is in store for Virginia.

I wish I had a crystal ball, the professor said. If the Virginia General Assembly moves to pass restrictive laws, are these going to be the type of laws where its a complete ban, where theres exceptions for the life of the mother for rape for incest? What happens next? I dont know. I really dont.

Del. Williams said he hopes Virginia will start drafting abortion legislation in January.

I would be very surprised if a special session is called. But I do believe that legislation will come in the next session in January, Williams said. We as state legislators, representing the people in our communities, we will get to have a say in this issue now. I know that the majority of people support a ban on abortion, no matter what the liberal left has to say about it.

But Sen. John Edwards, D-Roanoke, said that as long as Democrats remain in the majority of the state senate, they will continue to protect womens rights.

The American people need to make their voices heard at the ballot box in November and return a Democratic majority to the United States Senate and the House of Representatives to correct this historic mistake, Edwards said in a statement.

Peppers said the country might anticipate an investigation into the leak of the Supreme Courts decision that occurred in May.

Leaking an entire Supreme Court decision, the whole text of it, is fairly unprecedented. And it represents a real rupture of the court in terms of institutional security and confidentiality, Peppers said. The justices themselves clearly are divided ideologically. But I think there is some mistrust in the court amongst the different offices. The long term impact on overturning Roe v. Wade is interesting, but also the impact of this decision being leaked so early from the court itself.

Staff writer Laurence Hammack contributed to this story.

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WASHINGTON (AP)  The House sent President Joe Biden the most wide-ranging gun violence bill Congress has passed in decades on Friday, a measured compromise that at once illustrates progress on the long-intractable issue and the deep-seated partisan divide that persists.

The Democratic-led chamber approved the election-year legislation on a mostly party-line 234-193 vote, capping a spurt of action prompted by voters' revulsion over last month's mass shootings in New York and Texas. The night before, the Senate approved it by a bipartisan 65-33 margin, with 15 Republicans joining all Democrats in supporting a package that senators from both parties had crafted.

Keep scrolling to see how we got to a compromise on gun violence legislation

The bill would incrementally toughen requirements for young people to buy guns, deny firearms from more domestic abusers and help local authorities temporarily take weapons from people judged to be dangerous. Most of its $13 billion cost would go to bolster mental health programs and for schools, which have been targeted in Newtown, Connecticut, Parkland, Florida and many other infamous massacres.

And while it omits the far tougher restrictions Democrats have long championed, it stands as the most impactful gun violence measure that Congress has approved since it enacted a now-expired assault weapons ban nearly 30 years ago.

The legislation was a direct result of the slaying of 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, exactly one month ago, and the killing of 10 Black shoppers days earlier in Buffalo, New York. Lawmakers returned from their districts after those shootings saying constituents were demanding congressional action, a vehemence many felt could not be ignored.

"No legislation can make their families or communities whole," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.. said of those victims. "But we can act to keep others from facing the same trauma."

For the conservatives who dominate Republicans in the House, it all came down to the Constitution's Second Amendment right for people to have firearms, a protection that is key for many voters who own guns.

"Today they're coming after our Second Amendment liberties, and who knows what it will be tomorrow," said Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the Judiciary panel's top Republican.

Impossible to ignore was the juxtaposition of the week's gun votes with a pair of jarring Supreme Court decisions on two of the nation's most incendiary culture war issues. The justices on Thursday struck down a New York law that has restricted peoples' ability to carry concealed weapons, and Friday it overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating the protection for abortion that case had ensured for a half-century.

Fifteen Senate Republicans backed the compromise, but that still meant that fewer than one-third of GOP senators supported the measure. And with Republicans in the House solidly against it, the fate of future congressional action on guns seems dubious, even as the GOP is expected to win House and possibly Senate control in the November elections.

The bill lacked favorite Democratic proposals like bans on the assault-type weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines used in the slayings in Buffalo and Uvalde. But it still let both parties declare victory by demonstrating to voters that they know how to compromise and make government work.

Yet the Senate votes highlighted the wariness most Republicans feel about defying the party's pro-gun voters and firearms groups like the National Rifle Association. Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Todd Young of Indiana were the only two of the 15 up for reelection this fall. Of the rest, four are retiring and eight don't face voters until 2026.

Tellingly, GOP senators voting "no" included potential 2024 presidential contenders like Ted Cruz of Texas, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Tim Scott of South Carolina. Cruz said the legislation would "disarm law-abiding citizens rather than take serious measures to protect our children."

The talks that produced the bill were led by Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C. Murphy represented Newtown, Connecticut, when an assailant killed 20 students and six staffers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, while Cornyn has been involved in past gun talks following mass shootings in his state and is close to McConnell.

The bill would make the local juvenile records of people age 18 to 20 available during required federal background checks when they attempt to buy guns. Those examinations, currently limited to three days, would last up to a maximum of 10 days to give federal and local officials time to search records.

People convicted of domestic abuse who are current or former romantic partners of the victim would be prohibited from acquiring firearms, closing the so-called "boyfriend loophole."

That ban currently only applies to people married to, living with or who have had children with the victim.

There would be money to help states enforce red flag laws and for other states without them that for violence prevention programs. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have such laws.

The measure expands the use of background checks by rewriting the definition of the federally licensed gun dealers required to conduct them. Penalties for gun trafficking are strengthened, billions of dollars are provided for behavioral health clinics and school mental health programs and there's money for school safety initiatives, though not for personnel to use a "dangerous weapon."
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn a constitutional right to abortion won't have any immediate impact in Virginia, where abortion remains legal up to the third trimester of pregnancy if doctors believe there is a health risk to the patient.
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FLORENCE, S.C.  Francis Marion Universitys Board of Trustees approved a $165.5 million budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year that includes raises and bonuses for full-time employees and major expansions of the environmental and health sciences programs.

Trustees met Thursday afternoon in the Hendrick Room of the Ervin Dining Room on the universitys main campus.

The budget includes a 3% pay increase and a $1,500 bonus for all full-time university employees.

The university is in a sound financial position, FMU President Fred Carter said. There is $6.2 million in unallocated operating contingency and $17.1 million in capital maintenance reserve funds for the 2022-23 fiscal year.

The university has $7.4 million in its development foundation and the education foundation has $47 million in assets, Carter said.

The university has never been in better shape financially than it is right now, he said. We are going to need it. Certainly, over the next three to four years, we will bring forward baccalaureate programs in the environmental sciences and environmental studies. We will bring forward a baccalaureate program in forestry and education will add programs in Montessori studies and they will add a program in autism.

University officials also will present doctorate programs to the trustees in psychology. Trustees already have approved a doctorate program in occupational therapy.

The financial surpluses, Carter said, will be needed to hire faculty and staff to implement the programs.

Earlier this month, the South Carolina legislature assigned $18 million in capital funding to build a new forestry research and classroom building, which will be located across from the universitys campus on Francis Marion Highway.

Carter thanked the legislation for its appropriations to Francis Marion University.

Construction on that building is expected to start in 2023.

We now have three buildings in the pipeline, he said. We have our business education building that will begin construction on this fall. We will, next summer, begin instruction on the Floyd Medical Consortium building downtown. About this time next summer  maybe fall of 2023  if not the summer, we will begin construction on the new forestry building.

The three buildings are fully funded, Carter said. None of the buildings will require tuition or fee increases for students.

Hopefully, all of those buildings will be up and in place by 2025, he said. It will give a new look to campus and allow us to move forward with our academic programs.

The South Carolina Commission on Higher Education recently approved the universitys forestry programs degree curriculum. Classes will be available in fall 2023.

The commission also approved the universitys doctor of occupational therapy degree through its School of Health Sciences. The doctorate program will start in 2024. It will be FMUs second doctorate in health sciences. The universitys doctorate in nursing practice began in 2018.

In 2003 or 2004, the university decided to expand its arts, business and education programs, Carter said. It also started to expand into the health and medical science field.

The university added engineering about eight to 10 years ago, he said. FMUs mechanical engineering program will go through its accreditation review this fall. Once that accreditation review is satisfied, the university will begin planning for a third engineering program  either civil engineering or electrical engineering, Carter said.

Over the next few years, we will look at environmental sciences and forestry as we continue to expand and grow our curriculum in ways that will enhance the opportunities for our students and address the need for jobs that exist across the state of South Carolina, Carter said.
FLORENCE, S.C.  Trinity Evangelical Presbyterian Church hosted a weeklong camp to teach immigrant children through education and the love of Christ how to confidently assimilate to American culture.

Annette H. Diaz, the International Ministry director at Trinity, said the camp started as an idea to inform the Hispanic community about health and expanded into a weeklong camp to educate children because the church recognized the dire need for education in the Hispanic community.

We have many activities, Diaz said. We have physical activities, art, hygiene, cooking, music and most importantly English lessons, Diaz said. These children really need English. They come here and dont know the language and they fall behind in school. The younger the kids learn English, the better. We know that our kids need help and we are trying to help them. They will also learn about Jesus and the Bible.

Diaz said incorporating Jesus and the Bible into the program makes a difference.

They are able to see the love of God through us and that is when we see the kids change, she said. Sometimes I have kids who are very sad and by the time they leave they are happy because they know that Jesus loves them. It increases their confidence.

Its hard for the kids to feel accepted when they speak a different language, she said. This camp also lets them know that Americans love them and that they are accepted and welcomed here. We teach them that we are no different. We are all the same in Gods eyes.

Angel Moronta, who is an author, spoke to the kids about various cultures and brought shade glasses along as a demonstration of the different lenses that people look through. He traveled from Venezuela to the United States eight years ago. He calls himself the man of the worlds glasses.

Each culture can teach you through different lessons, Moronta said. When you switch from one pair of shades to another you are seeing the world from a different perspective. We have kids here who are from different parts of the world and we are teaching them the value of seeing the world through a different point of view.

Isabella Orrico, a volunteer for the camp, said she learned the true meaning of acceptance.

I have learned the importance of acceptance, she said. I have learned what it means to truly accept somebody and I understand what that feels like. They have accepted me into their culture and I have accepted them into mine. We have created a really beautiful mix of cultures. I have learned that two people who are very different can be in the same room and love each other so deeply.

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HILTON HEAD, S.C. (AP)  The manager of a gated community on the South Carolina coast says a dead alligator found on the property had been shot. Hilton Head Plantation general manager Peter Kristian told The Island Packet the alligator carcass was collected and removed last week. Kristian said he suspects the gator was shot elsewhere and then dumped in his gated community, because none of the residents reported hearing gunfire. It's a misdemeanor to kill an alligator under South Carolina law unless someone has a permit to hunt them during the designated fall hunting season. An alligator was captured at Hilton Head Plantation and euthanized in September after it attacked a woman walking her dog.
 SCOTUS overrules Roe with Dobbs ruling, raising new criminal justice and sentencing issues | Main | A focus on local prosecutors as abortions now are subject to broad criminalization after Roe's reversal 

June 24, 2022

Are broad drug user gun dispossession statutes now constitutionally suspect after Bruen?

In this post yesterday, I wondered "Are all broad felon-in-possession criminal gun statutes now constitutionally suspect after Bruen?" That question was prompted by the fact that the majority opinion in the Supreme Court's big Second Amendment case, Bruen (basics here), seemed to reject lots of recent lower court rulings and jurisprudence regarding the application of the Second Amendment. Lower courts have, prior to Bruen, generally rejected Second Amendment attacks on federal law's broad criminalization of any felons possessing any guns. But Bruen makes clear that to "justify its [gun] regulation, the government may not simply posit that the regulation promotes an important interest. Rather, the government must demonstrate that the regulation is consistent with this Nations historical tradition of firearm regulation."

Because the broad federal felon-in-possession statute, 18 U.S.C.  922(g)(1), is applied many thousands of times each year, I am expecting a robust new round of litigation on that issue as to whether and when felon dispossession is "consistent with this Nations historical tradition of firearm regulation." But here I want to flag another notably broad provision of federal firearms law, though one probably unlikely to get nearly the same attention. Specifically, 18 U.S.C.  922(g)(3), categorically criminalizes any gun possession by anyone who is an "unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance." In an era in which marijuana use is legal for medical or recreational use in the vast majority of states but still is federal prohibited, this broad federal criminal "unlawful user" gun dispossession statute technically applies to dispossess tens of millions of Americans. As a matter of policy and practice, I sense very few people get actually federally prosecuted and sentenced under just 922(g)(3) even for very serious and dangerous drug use, but it certainly happens sometimes.

Notably, more than a few states also have laws criminalizing gun possession by those his drug use history, and some even extend to users of legal drugs (including alcohol). As one notable example, my state of Ohio, via Ohio Revised Code  2923.13, prohibits knowingly having any firearm if one "is drug dependent, in danger of drug dependence, or a chronic alcoholic." Arguably, anyone prescribed and using Oxycotin is "in danger of drug dependence," though again I do not think these kinds of laws in Ohio (or in other states) tend to be broadly enforced. Still, these laws probably do get used as a basis refuse to issues some firearm licenses (see generally "Blowing Smoke at the Second Amendment").

Whatever the policy or practical virtues or vices of broad drug user gun dispossession laws, their constitutional status would seem subject to new questions thanks to Bruen. The federal firearm prohibition for anyone who is an "unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance" has been upheld through various balancing tests in lower courts stressing the important government interest in restricting gun access to potentially dangerous individuals. But, now, thanks to Bruen, such a regulation's "important interest" is not what is key for Second Amendment interpretation, "rather, the government must demonstrate that the regulation is consistent with this Nations historical tradition of firearm regulation."

I am not legal historian, but I know enough about drug law history to know that there were very few criminal prohibitions on drug use at the time of the ratification of the Second Amendment. Notably, there were some localities and even a state (Maine) embracing alcohol prohibition before and into the Civil War era, but I have no sense of how various early temperance laws may have interacted with gun regulations at that time. I do surmise, from reading then-Judge Amy Coney Barrett's dissent in Kanter v. Barr, 919 F.3d 437 (7th Cir. 2019), that history suggests "founding-era legislatures categorically disarmed groups whom they judged to be a threat to the public safety." Perhaps broad drug user gun dispossession statutes could be justified on that ground, but I have a very hard time viewing modern users of medical marijuana consistent with state law as analogous to those groups considered categorically dangerous in the founding era.

As suggested before, I expect to see a lot more litigation over broad felon-in-possession criminal laws than over broad drug user gun dispossession statutes. Nevertheless, I think this is another interesting area of Second Amendment law that seemed reasonably settled before Bruen and now may be up for new (historical) debate.

Prior recent related posts:

June 24, 2022 at 02:47 PM | Permalink

Comments

Doug,

I dont really get your need for the fainting couch. I thought the decision was pretty clear it was about objective versus subjective criteria. Having a felony is objective. A county sheriff deciding you dont need one is subjective.

What am I missing?

Posted by: TarlsQtr | Jun 25, 2022 10:21:03 PM

Tarls, my read of the majority in Bruen is that the Second Amendment demands that, even for "objective" firearm regulations, "the government must demonstrate that the regulation is consistent with this Nations historical tradition of firearm regulation."

So, for example, though most gun crimes are committed by younger folks, I do not think New York could respond to Bruen by legislating that it will issue "shall carry" licenses only to people over 40 and make gun possession in the home a crime for everyone under 40. Age-based gun criteria is "objective" and NY could "posit that the regulation promotes an important interest." But Bruen says that's not sufficient to overcome the right safeguarded by the Second Amendment; the government must "justify its regulation by demonstrating that it is consistent with the Nations historical tradition of firearm regulation." Our traditions likely allows prohibiting gun access to juveniles (though even that is debatable), but I do not think they allow setting an age limit at 40.

Turning then to federal law, we might debate whether federal law's criminalization of gun possession for anyone "who is unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance" and for anyone "who has been convicted in any court of, a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year" is objective or subjective. But that is not how the Bruen court has articulated the criteria for Second Amendment analysis. Rather, what matters according to Bruen is whether a law regulating gun keeping and bearing is "consistent with the Nations historical tradition of firearm regulation."

I am not a historian, but as non-historian judges and others now have to explore the historical record, I surmise historical tradition does not "affirmatively prove" that certain drug users or all felons were regularly excluded from gun rights. Again, maybe the government will be able to make the historical case for these kinds of very broad exclusions from the Second Amendment, but that seem to be the critical concern after Bruen.

Posted by: Doug B. | Jun 26, 2022 8:17:55 AM

Doug --

You're doing a lot a hypothesizing about what the Bruen decision implies MUST happen next. My guess is that those best positioned to muse about that question are the people who agree with Bruen's reasoning and think it was correctly decided.

Do you think Bruen was correctly decided?

Posted by: Bill Otis | Jun 26, 2022 2:30:59 PM

Bill, my textual approach to constitutional interpretation leads me to think Heller/McDonald/Bruen are correct to embrace an individual right to "keep and bear arms." But, because I share your view that rights are not absolute, I generally thought most (but not all) lower courts were doing a reasonable job balancing competing interests through intermediate scrutiny analysis after Heller. Still, I have never understood how or why an elderly woman living in a dangerous neighborhood who may have committed an economic offense years before should be forever subject to federal criminal punishment for keeping a single gun in her home when her (statistically more dangerous) male neighbor with multiple violent misdemeanor offenses retains his constitutional right to guns.

In other words, I thought lower courts could have done a better job making likely dangerousness the touchstone of intermediate scrutiny. But that is now water under the bridge, as Bruen says intermediate scrutiny is not the proper test for applying the Second Amendment. Bruen instructs "the government must demonstrate that the regulation is consistent with this Nations historical tradition of firearm regulation."

Because I surmise dangerousness concerns have been consistent with "this Nations historical tradition of firearm regulation," I am hopeful about and supportive of the new Bruen approach. But the devil may be in the application, and I have already heard complaints and concerns about how inconsistently a historical test may be applied. Indeed, I think Justice Thomas' opinion has much outcome-oriented analysis: he discounts the history that disagrees with his desired ends and stresses the history that supports his conclusions. Indeed, in a lot of originalist analysis, I often see policy preference creeping in, especially when history is textured.

Those concerns aside, my commitment to the rule of law is what drives my questions about whether FIP laws and drug user dispossession laws are now constitutionally suspect. I think all legislators, executive branch officials and judges should feel duty bound to try to apply the new Bruen opinion in good faith. They all swear an oath the the Constitution, and Bruen is now the new law of the land regarding the Second Amendment's reach and application.

Of course, many legislators, executive branch officials and judges may not, as a matter of personal policy preference, agree with Heller, let alone Bruen's new accounting of how the Second Amendment is to be applied. But such personal view does not mean they do not need to try to apply this new decision in good faith. Are you suggesting that only those who agree with Bruen have any obligation or ability to figure out what it means and how legal actors must respond?

Ultimately, I tend to view history as an important, but not fully dispositive, aspect of modern constitutional interpretation. So maybe it is most accurate to say I am hopeful Bruen is an improvement of Second Amendment jurisprudence, but I am not entirely sold on its history-only approach. And, from our other thread, I sense you are not too keen on a history-only approach as well.

Does that answer your question?

Posted by: Doug B. | Jun 26, 2022 6:54:50 PM

Doug --

Thank you for that detailed and thoughtful answer. I appreciate it. You know me to be a simpleminded man, so as best I can distill it, I think what you're saying is that yes, you think Bruen was correctly decided, but you're not altogether on board with the reasoning. We agree then that the case was correctly decided.

Posted by: Bill Otis | Jun 26, 2022 10:35:44 PM

"You're doing a lot a hypothesizing about what the Bruen decision implies MUST happen next. My guess is that those best positioned to muse about that question are the people who agree with Bruen's reasoning and think it was correctly decided."

This a VERY strange assertion. The people best positioned to predict the consequences of a Supreme Court decision are the ones who agree with it? That makes no sense. Good lawyers think through the consequences of legal reasoning all the time without agreeing with the reasoning. That's what makes them good lawyers!

Posted by: WTF | Jun 27, 2022 9:11:15 PM

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Photo credit: Taylor Hill - Getty Images

Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall are reportedly divorcing. Per the New York Times, who first reported the news of the split, their sources "would speak only anonymously to discuss a personal matter."

This would be Murdorch's fourth divorcehe was previously married to Patricia Booker from 1956 to 1967, Anna Maria Torv from 1967 to 1999, and Wendi Deng from 1999 to 2014.

Hall has been linked to many famous figures throughout her life, but was only married once previously: to rock star Mick Jagger from 1990 to 1999 (though they were together since 1977). However, Hall's marriage to Jagger in Bali, Indonesia was declared legally invalid, so technically this was Hall's first marriage. They each have children from previous relationships.

Photo credit: Max Mumby/Indigo - Getty Images

Murdoch and Hall first made a public appearance together in October 2015, after being reportedly set up by Murdoch's niece and sister.



They had a whirlwind romance, and were soon engaged in January 2016 after just four months of dating. They married in March 2016 in London, when Murdoch was 85 and Hall was 59; Murdoch tweeted at the time "Feel like the luckiest AND happiest man in world."

Photo credit: Karwai Tang - Getty Images

Neither Murdoch nor Hall have publicly confirmed the divorce news. According to the New York Times, their split is unlikely to impact Murdoch's ownership of his businesses, which includes the parent company of Fox News, as the "Murdoch familys shares in the companies Mr. Murdoch founded reside in a strictly managed trust... Murdoch splits voting rights over that trust with his four oldest children  Lachlan, Elisabeth, James and Prudence  and has arranged them so that he can never be outvoted."

We will update this as soon as we learn more.

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AFP News

NATO allies will boost high readiness forces to "well over 300,000" troops as they strengthen their defences in response to Russia's war on Ukraine, alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg said Monday. Leaders from the US-led military alliance will meet in Madrid this week for what Stoltenberg said would be a "transformative" summit as it grapples with the fallout of Moscow's invasion of its pro-Western neighbour. Stoltenberg said allies would bolster some of their battle group formations along NATO's eastern flank "up to brigade level" -- tactical units of around 3,000-5,000 troops -- and ratchet up high readiness numbers to "well over 300,000". In addition, more heavy weaponry including air defence systems would be shifted forwards and forces pre-assigned to defend specific NATO members on the alliance's exposed eastern edge. "This constitutes the biggest overhaul of our collective defence and deterrence since the Cold War," Stoltenberg said. NATO currently has a high readiness force of around 40,000 troops under its command, but the more than 300,000 troops are expected to form a larger pool that the alliance could tap into in the case of an emergency. A NATO official said the new system would be in place next year and improve the alliance's "ability to respond at very short notice for any contingency" with land, sea, air and cyber assets. Stoltenberg also said leaders would agree to bolster NATO's essential support to embattled Ukraine, whose President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to call in via video link. - US spearhead - That package would include "substantial deliveries" of gear like secure communications, anti-drone systems and fuel, and help Ukraine over the longer term to pivot to using more advanced NATO-standard arms. This support is separate from weaponry that NATO members -- spearheaded by the United States -- are already funnelling to Ukraine, including anti-tank rockets, artillery and air defence to help it hold back Russia's onslaught. NATO has been building up its forces in the east of the alliance since Moscow first moved into Ukraine with the annexation of Crimea in 2014. The alliance has rushed tens of thousands more troops to the region since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion on February 24. NATO now has eight battle groups across its eastern members and Stoltenberg said some of these -- likely in the Baltics and Poland -- would be bolstered to "brigade level". Jittery leaders in the Baltics have pushed for major and permanent troop deployments that could stop the Kremlin's forces at NATO's border. Germany has said it would take the lead on a new brigade in Lithuania -- where it already has forces -- but most of those troops would be permanently stationed back on home soil. Britain's defence minister has said his country will likely propose a similar set-up for Estonia -- where it commands the existing battle group. Stoltenberg said he expected other allies to announce forces dedicated to protecting specific eastern members at the summit that starts on Tuesday evening. del/dc/jm
Photo credit: Charles McQuillan - Getty Images

For the third day of their visit to Cyprus, The Earl and Countess of Wessex met with Forces personnel and their families based in the country and shared their gratitude for their service. And for a special familial reason, we're sure they had plenty to talk about.

Sharing a touching video to The Royal Family official Instagram account, the caption read: "During their time in Cyprus, The Earl and Countess of Wessex spent time thanking members of the British military and their families who are based abroad."

Prince Edward's own parents, The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, were based abroad with the Navy on the European island of Malta in the early years of their marriage. From 1949-1951, when Charles and Anne were just babies and The Queen still Princess Elizabeth, Philip was stationed there with HMS Magpie, and it has always been spoken about as a happy time for the couple. This common ground with the families stationed away from home today, will only have made the meeting more special.

The caption continued; "Across the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, Their Royal Highnesses enjoyed spending time with the military personnel and families who live and serve in Cyprus. From Typhoon Jets and Griffin Helicopters, to welfare staff and the Families Club and Bowls centre, all play an integral role in supporting and enabling the Forces based in Cyprus."

As always the Countess was dressed immaculately, donning a crisp and classic white linen shirt dress for a day under the Cypriot sun, with pretty yet practical espadrille wedges and a simple white leather bag.

While Sophie's Co brand dress doesn't appear to be on sale anymore, we've found this affordable alternative that's currently on sale at Karen Millen in a soft ecru shade.

A perfect choice for your summer capsule wardrobe.

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WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years in a decision by its conservative majority to overturn Roe v. Wade. Friday's outcome is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

The decision, unthinkable just a few years ago, was the culmination of decades of efforts by abortion opponents, made possible by an emboldened right side of the court that has been fortified by three appointees of former President Donald Trump.

The ruling came more than a month after the stunning leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito indicating the court was prepared to take this momentous step.

It puts the court at odds with a majority of Americans who favored preserving Roe, according to opinion polls.

Alito, in the final opinion issued Friday, wrote that Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 decision that reaffirmed the right to abortion, were wrong the day they were decided and must be overturned.

Authority to regulate abortion rests with the political branches, not the courts, Alito wrote.

Joining Alito were Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. The latter three justices are Trump appointees. Thomas first voted to overrule Roe 30 years ago.

Chief Justice John Roberts would have stopped short of ending the abortion right, noting that he would have upheld the Mississippi law at the heart of the case, a ban on abortion after 15 weeks, and said no more.

Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan  the diminished liberal wing of the court  were in dissent.

The ruling is expected to disproportionately affect minority women who already face limited access to health care, according to statistics analyzed by The Associated Press.

Thirteen states, mainly in the South and Midwest, already have laws on the books that ban abortion in the event Roe is overturned. Another half-dozen states have near-total bans or prohibitions after 6 weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.

In roughly a half-dozen other states, the fight will be over dormant abortion bans that were enacted before Roe was decided in 1973 or new proposals to sharply limit when abortions can be performed, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.

More than 90% of abortions take place in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy, and more than half are now done with pills, not surgery, according to data compiled by Guttmacher.

The decision came against a backdrop of public opinion surveys that find a majority of Americans oppose overturning Roe and handing the question of whether to permit abortion entirely to the states. Polls conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and others also have consistently shown about 1 in 10 Americans want abortion to be illegal in all cases. A majority are in favor of abortion being legal in all or most circumstances, but polls indicate many also support restrictions especially later in pregnancy.

The Biden administration and other defenders of abortion rights have warned that a decision overturning Roe also would threaten other high court decisions in favor of gay rights and even potentially, contraception.

But Alito wrote in his draft opinion that his analysis addresses abortion only, not other rights that also stem from a right to privacy that the high court has found implicit, though not directly stated, in the Constitution. Abortion is different, Alito wrote, because of the unique moral question it poses.

Whatever the intentions of the person who leaked Alitos draft opinion, the conservatives held firm in overturning Roe and Casey.

In his draft, Alito dismissed the arguments in favor of retaining the two decisions, including that multiple generations of American women have partly relied on the right to abortion to gain economic and political power.

Changing the composition of the court has been central to the anti-abortion sides strategy. Mississippi and its allies made increasingly aggressive arguments as the case developed, and two high-court defenders of abortion rights retired or died. The state initially argued that its law could be upheld without overruling the courts abortion precedents.

Then-Gov. Phil Bryant signed the 15-week measure into law in March 2018, when Justices Anthony Kennedy and Ruth Bader Ginsburg were still members of a five-justice majority that was mainly protective of abortion rights.

By early summer, Kennedy had retired and was replaced by Justice Brett Kavanaugh a few months later. The Mississippi law was blocked in lower federal courts.

But the state always was headed to the nations highest court. It did not even ask for a hearing before a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ultimately held the law invalid in December 2019.

By early September 2020, the Supreme Court was ready to consider the states appeal.

The court scheduled the case for consideration at the justices private conference on Sept. 29. But in the intervening weeks, Ginsburg died and Barrett was quickly nominated and confirmed without a single Democratic vote.

The stage now was set, although it took the court another half year to agree to hear the case.

By the time Mississippi filed its main written argument with the court in the summer, the thrust of its argument had changed and it was now calling for the wholesale overruling of Roe and Casey.

The first sign that the court might be receptive to wiping away the constitutional right to abortion came in late summer, when the justices divided 5-4 in allowing Texas to enforce a ban on the procedure at roughly six weeks, before some women even know they are pregnant. That dispute turned on the unique structure of the law, including its enforcement by private citizens rather than by state officials, and how it can be challenged in court.

But Justice Sonia Sotomayor noted in a searing dissent for the three liberal justices that their conservative colleagues refused to block a flagrantly unconstitutional law that flouts nearly 50 years of federal precedents. Roberts was also among the dissenters.

Then in December, after hearing additional arguments over whether to block the Texas law known as S.B. 8, the court again declined to do so, also by a 5-4 vote. The clear purpose and actual effect of S. B. 8 has been to nullify this Courts rulings, Roberts wrote, in a partial dissent.

In their Senate hearings, Trumps three high-court picks carefully skirted questions about how they would vote in any cases, including about abortion.

But even as Democrats and abortion rights supporters predicted Kavanaugh and Gorsuch would vote to upend abortion rights if confirmed, the two left at least one Republican senator with a different impression. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine predicted Gorsuch and Kavanaugh wouldnt support overturning the abortion cases, based on private conversations she had with them when they were nominees to the Supreme Court.

Barrett was perhaps the most vocal opponent of abortion in her time as a law professor, before becoming a federal judge in 2017. She was a member of anti-abortion groups at Notre Dame University, where she taught law, and she signed a newspaper ad opposing abortion on demand and defending the right to life from fertilization to natural death. She promised to set aside her personal views when judging cases.

Trump, meanwhile, had predicted as a candidate that whoever he named to the court would automatically vote to overrule Roe.

In Iowa

Just a week prior, on June 17, the Iowa Supreme Court cleared the way for lawmakers to severely limit or even ban abortion in the state, reversing a decision by the court just four years ago that guaranteed the right to abortion under the Iowa Constitution.

The court, now composed almost entirely of Republican appointees, concluded that a less conservative court wrongly decided that abortion is among the fundamental privacy rights guaranteed by the Iowa Constitution and federal law.

With the federal and state rulings, Iowa lawmakers could ban abortion in the state without completing the lengthy process of amending the state constitution.

At that time, U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Hull), who's Fourth Congressional District includes Sioux City, said the decision by state's highest court "underscores our commitment to protecting innocent life in Iowa." The release from the one-term Congressman then continued: "As a father and a Christian, I am committed to working with my pro-life colleagues in Congress to enact the same pro-life policies that we have championed in Iowa at the federal level."

J.D. Scholten, who ran against Feenstra in 2020 and is the presumptive winner of the November general election for Iowa House District 1, castigated the decision for only adding difficulties for residents.

"Taking away rights and making life harder on Iowans seems to be a trend in this state since the Republicans have taken over the State House, State Senate and Governorship," Scholten said. "Like most Iowans, I believe in reproductive freedom and keeping the government away from getting between a woman and her doctor."

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

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In the 1950s when television was in black and white as was the distinction between acceptable and unacceptable behavior, comedian Milton Berle would occasionally wear a dress in a skit, causing the studio audience to laugh uproariously. How things have changed.

A U.S. Court of Appeals has recently ruled that North Carolina charter day schools cannot have dress codes based on a child's gender because as a "state actor," such codes violate laws on equal protection. Under the ruling, girls can no longer be required to wear dresses.

Some parents have believed charter schools are an alternative to public schools that impose woke ideology. If this court ruling stands, notes a New York Post editorial, "...it could mean, in effect, the end of charters as they exist. It provides a legal rationale for them to be brought under the thumb of the states and city educrats nationwide who are eager to handcuff charters for daring to bring educational options to students failed by traditional public schools."

One need look no further than the long list of progressive organizations that filed amicus briefs in response to this court ruling. These liberal groups include the National Women's Law Center, AFSCME, American Federation of Teachers, California Women Lawyers, Coalition of Labor Union Women, Gender Justice, Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Education Association.

Baker Mitchell is the founder of Classical Charter Schools of America. In a statement about the appeals court ruling he said: "We respectfully disagree with the majority's opinion. As the six dissenting judges powerfully explain, the majority opinion contradicts Supreme Court precedent on state action, splits with every other circuit to consider the issue, and limits the ability of parents to choose the best education for their children."

The last part of his statement is key. Liberal groups that mostly favor "choice" when it comes to abortion, appear to oppose education choice for those fortunate enough to have been born. Why? Because, I think, a politically and morally progressive curriculum is the only way the left has any hope of creating a new generation of like-minded people.

This is a piece of a larger puzzle. Once, majority ruled with consideration for reasonable protections for minority opinions. Today, it increasingly appears that the tiniest minority, especially when it seeks to erase what were once called "traditional values," is allowed to rule.

I have quoted this line from the Old Testament Book of Judges before because of its contemporary relevance: "In those days Israel had no king. Everyone did as he saw fit." Another translation says "...that which was right in his own eyes." (Judges 21:25)

Can anyone say what the new standard is and according to what? Doesn't the word "standard" imply something that is easily measured, like weight, inches and gallons? Or, are we required to embrace a shifting standard (which in reality is no standard at all) that is as fluid as a public opinion poll. History is full of tragedies spawned by public opinion, from burnings at the stake, to the Salem Witch Trials, to those who inaccurately quoted Scripture in defense of slavery.

One hopeful sign bodes well for school choice advocates. The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that state programs providing money for public school tuition cannot exclude schools solely because their instruction is based on religious beliefs. And why not, since religious taxpayers pay into the federal treasury along with the non-religious.

As more states allow for public funds to be used for parochial education, perhaps the last monopoly in America is on the verge of breaking up. Students will benefit. Putting their welfare first should have always been the priority and not the interests of teachers unions and progressive organizations.

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SIOUX CITY -- In early August, Siouxland residents will have a chance to bowl while helping fundraise for a non-profit.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Siouxland is hosting its annual Bowl for Kids' Sake event at Rush Lanes in Sioux City on Friday, August 5 and Saturday, August 6. According to a press release, teams of four or five bowlers will work to raise $500 or more for the organization and then celebrate at the bowling alley on Stadium Drive.

Brooke Daane, Director of Special Events & Community Partnerships, said the theme for the event is "school spirit" and participants are encouraged to wear school-related attire to the shindig.

"We are so thrilled to host this again," Daane said via email. "And the best part is, all proceeds are going right back to the kids that we serve."

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WASHINGTON (AP)  The Supreme Court on Friday stripped away womens constitutional protections for abortion, a fundamental and deeply personal change for Americans' lives after nearly a half-century under Roe v. Wade. The courts overturning of the landmark court ruling is likely to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

The ruling, unthinkable just a few years ago, was the culmination of decades of efforts by abortion opponents, made possible by an emboldened right side of the court fortified by three appointees of former President Donald Trump.

Both sides predicted the fight over abortion would continue, in state capitals, in Washington and at the ballot box. Justice Clarence Thomas, part of Friday's majority, urged colleagues to overturn other high court rulings protecting same-sex marriage, gay sex and the use of contraceptives.

Pregnant women considering abortions already had been dealing with a near-complete ban in Oklahoma and a prohibition after roughly six weeks in Texas. Clinics in at least eight other states  Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, South Dakota, Wisconsin and West Virginia  stopped performing abortions after Friday's decision.

In Ohio, a ban on most abortions at the first detectable fetal heartbeat became the law when a federal judge dissolved an injunction that had kept the measure on hold for nearly three years. And Utah's law was triggered by the ruling, going into effect with narrow exceptions.

Protests built into the evening in a number of cities, including thousands demonstrating against the decision outside the barricaded Supreme Court. Thousands more chanted We will rise up! in New York's Washington Square.

At the White House, Biden said, It's a sad day for the court and for the country. He urged voters to make it a defining issue in the November elections, declaring, This decision must not be the final word.

Outside the White House, Ansley Cole, a college student from Atlanta, said she was "scared because what are they going to come after next? ... The next election cycle is going to be brutal, like its terrifying. And if theyre going to do this, again, whats next?

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, agreed about the political stakes.

We are ready to go on offense for life in every single one of those legislative bodies, in each statehouse and the White House, Dannenfelser said in a statement.

Trump praised the ruling, telling Fox News that it will work out for everybody.

The decision is expected to disproportionately affect minority women who already face limited access to health care, according to statistics analyzed by The Associated Press.

It also puts the court at odds with a majority of Americans who favored preserving Roe, according to opinion polls.

Surveys conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and others have shown a majority in favor of abortion being legal in all or most circumstances. But many also support restrictions especially later in pregnancy. Surveys consistently show that about 1 in 10 Americans want abortion to be illegal in all cases.

The ruling came more than a month after the stunning leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito indicating the court was prepared to take this momentous step.

Alito, in the final opinion issued Friday, wrote that Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 decision that reaffirmed the right to abortion, were wrong had and to be be overturned.

We therefore hold that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. Roe and Casey must be overruled, and the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives, Alito wrote, in an opinion that was very similar to the leaked draft.

Joining Alito were Thomas and Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett. The last three justices are Trump appointees. Thomas first voted to overrule Roe 30 years ago.

Four justices would have left Roe and Casey in place.

The vote was 6-3 to uphold Mississippi's law banning most abortions after 15 weeks, but Chief Justice John Roberts didn't join his conservative colleagues in overturning Roe. He wrote that there was no need to overturn the broad precedents to rule in Mississippi's favor.

Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan  the diminished liberal wing of the court  were in dissent.

With sorrow  for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection  we dissent, they wrote, warning that abortion opponents now could pursue a nationwide ban from the moment of conception and without exceptions for rape or incest.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that the Justice Department will protect providers and those seeking abortions in states where it is legal and "work with other arms of the federal government that seek to use their lawful authorities to protect and preserve access to reproductive care.

In particular, Garland said the federal Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of Mifepristone for medication abortions.

More than 90% of abortions take place in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy, and more than half are now done with pills, not surgery, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.

Mississippis only abortion clinic, which was at the center of Friday's case, continued to see patients Friday. Outside, men used a bullhorn to tell people inside that they would burn in hell. Clinic escorts wearing colorful vests used large speakers to blast Tom Pettys I Wont Back Down at the protesters.

Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky and Missouri are among 13 states, mainly in the South and Midwest, that already have laws on the books to ban abortion in the event Roe was overturned. Another half-dozen states have near-total bans or prohibitions after 6 weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.

In roughly a half-dozen other states, including West Virginia and Wisconsin, the fight will be over dormant abortion bans that were enacted before Roe was decided in 1973 or new proposals to sharply limit when abortions can be performed, according to Guttmacher.

Outside the barricaded Supreme Court, a crowd of mostly young women grew into the hundreds within hours of the decision. Some shouted, The Supreme Court is illegitimate, while waves of others, wearing red shirts with The Pro-Life Generation Votes, celebrated, danced and thrust their arms into the air.

The Biden administration and other defenders of abortion rights have warned that a decision overturning Roe also would threaten other high court decisions in favor of gay rights and even potentially contraception.

The liberal justices made the same point in their joint dissent: The majority eliminates a 50-year-old constitutional right that safeguards womens freedom and equal station. It breaches a core rule-of-law principle, designed to promote constancy in the law. In doing all of that, it places in jeopardy other rights, from contraception to same-sex intimacy and marriage. And finally, it undermines the Courts legitimacy.

And Thomas, the member of the court most open to jettisoning prior decisions, wrote a separate opinion in which he explicitly called on his colleagues to put the Supreme Court's same-sex marriage, gay sex and contraception cases on the table.

But Alito contended that his analysis addresses abortion only. Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion, he wrote.

Whatever the intentions of the person who leaked Alitos draft opinion, the conservatives held firm in overturning Roe and Casey.

In his opinion, Alito dismissed the arguments in favor of retaining the two decisions, including that multiple generations of American women have partly relied on the right to abortion to gain economic and political power.

Changing the makeup of the court has been central to the anti-abortion sides strategy, as the dissenters archly noted. The Court reverses course today for one reason and one reason only: because the composition of this Court has changed, the liberal justices wrote.

Mississippi and its allies made increasingly aggressive arguments as the case developed, and two high-court defenders of abortion rights retired or died. The state initially argued that its law could be upheld without overruling the courts abortion precedents.

Justice Anthony Kennedy retired shortly after the Mississippi law took effect in 2018 and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in September 2020. Both had been members of a five-justice majority that was mainly protective of abortion rights.

In their Senate hearings, Trumps three high-court picks carefully skirted questions about how they would vote in any cases, including about abortion.

Associated Press writers Jessica Gresko, Fatima Hussein, photographer Jacquelyn Martin and video journalist Nathan Ellgren in Washington, Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston, Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi, Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, Leah Willingham in Charleston, West Virginia, Michael Hill in New York and Kantele Franko in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.

For APs full coverage of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, go to https://apnews.com/hub/abortion

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

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Trailer: Season Two of 'Our China Stories' documentary series

15:45, June 23, 2022 By Shi Muyang ,Yu Ying ( People's Daily Online

2022 marks the 50th anniversary of China-UK ambassadorial relations. People's Daily Online wishes to celebrate this occasion by releasing a series of 'Our China Stories' documentaries, highlighting some of the influential figures involved in facilitating cultural and academic exchanges between China and the UK. From June 23, the Second Season of the series will be released on People's Daily Online as well as through numerous local partners in the UK.

In this season, we invited five speakers to share with us their China Stories. Some of them are former exchange students who came to China in the 1980s and went on to devote their entire career to promoting Chinese culture in the UK, while others came to visit the country upon the dawn of 21st century and built up their scholarly reputation alongside the rapidly growing fields of archaeology, archaeological science and heritage management in China.

Jessica Harrison-Hall is Head of the China Section, Curator of the Sir Percival David Collections of Chinese Ceramics, and Decorative Arts at the British Museum. In her 30 years career at the British Museum, she has delivered a wide range of exhibitions, publications, and lectures to present Chinas stories in a global context through visual and material culture. In 2014, Harrison-Hall curated the special exhibition Ming: 50 years that changed China, attracting over 140,000 visitors. She is also the author of China: A History in Objects (2017), which is now published in six languages, and various other books on Chinese history and fine arts.

Dorian Fuller is a professor of archaeobotany at University College London. He has published extensively on topics related to past subsistence cultures, the origins and evolution of agriculture and the process of plant domestication. Through scientific and systematic sampling, many of Dorians work have contributed directly to filling major gaps in our knowledge on past agriculture practices around the world. Published in 2009, his work at the site of Tianluoshan in Zhejiang Province is renowned for pushing the earliest date of rice domestication and cultivation to as early as 6,900 years ago.

Anke Hein is Peter Moores Associate Professor in Chinese Archaeology at the University of Oxford. Employing a wide range of research methods from petrography to ethnography, her research focuses on cultural contact and identity formation in early human societies, primarily with a focus on western China. Since 2006, Hein has participated in numerous excavations and surveys along the eastern rim of the Tibetan Plateau. Her book on prehistoric burials in the Liangshan region is one of the first English publications on the area, bringing the incredible cultural diversity of early China to the worlds attention.

John Moffet is a librarian and the longest-serving member of the Needham Research Institute in Cambridge. He has worked with Dr. Joseph Needham, a historian of science and author of Science and Technology of China, and three generations of Directors to create a lasting platform for academic visits and cultural exchanges from China and the rest of the world. Alongside Prof. Chen Zhenghong of Fudan University, Moffet co-authored An Illustrated Catalogue of a Selection of Rare Books Written in Chinese Stored in the East Asian History of Science Library, Needham Research Institute, Cambridge, UK (2020).

Tim Williams is Professor of Silk Roads Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. With over 40 years of experience in archaeology and heritage management, he is the author of multiple ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites) thematic studies along the Silk Roads. Williams has worked closely with China and other Asian countries for nearly two decades, culminating in the unprecedented transnational nomination of World Heritage Site Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor between China, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan in 2014.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji)
ONAWA, Iowa -- An Onawa teen could face up to 30 years in prison after a judge found him guilty of sexually assaulting two girls.

District Judge Zachary Hindman ruled Jay Lee Neubaum guilty of three counts of third-degree sexual abuse for raping and assaulting one of the girls and raping the other.

However, Hindman found Neubaum, 19, not guilty of seven other counts of third-degree sexual abuse that alleged he had sexually assaulted five other girls.

"Evidence presented at trial by the state leaves the court with a reasonable doubt on each of those counts," Hindman said Friday as he read portions of his verdict in front of some of the girls, their families and supporters in Monona County District Court.

Some of the families and the girls left the courthouse in tears, appearing shocked by the ruling. None of those present, or their families or supporters, wished to comment, a victims advocate said.

Monona County Attorney Ian McConaughey also declined to comment until Neubaum's sentencing, which will be scheduled at a later date. Each of the three charges of which Neubaum was found guilty carries a 10-year prison sentence.

Neubaum was charged with sexually assaulting six of the girls and forcing sexual contact with the seventh from August 2019 through March 2020 in and around Mapleton, Iowa, where Neubaum attended school. At trial, the girls, who ranged in age from 13-16 at the time the alleged incidents occurred, described how Neubaum forced himself on them. Neubaum denied the allegations.

Neubaum waived his right to have a jury hear his case, and Hindman presided over his three-day trial in December.

Hindman said that in the cases of the three guilty verdicts, the victims provided credible trial testimony and details of their accounts of the assaults "make intuitive sense," Hindman said. Neubaum's semen was found on the blanket of one of the victims, consistent with her testimony.

At trial, McConaughey had argued the alleged assaults all followed a similar pattern, and each of the girls described how Neubaum got them alone, started kissing them against their will, pushed them down, forcibly removed their pants and underwear and sexually assaulted them.

During her closing arguments at trial, Neubaum's attorney, Theresa Rachel, said the girls and other witnesses gave conflicting or inconsistent testimony, suggesting that one of the girls may have persuaded the others to make up their stories.

Hindman said he did not find the girls colluded against Neubaum. But the judge agreed there were numerous inconsistencies in the testimony and statements given by the girls and other witnesses.

"The question here is not whether the court suspects, or even strongly suspects, that Neubaum committed the offenses alleged in these counts," Hindman said in his 74-page ruling. "Rather, the issue that the court must resolve is whether the state has proven that he committed those offenses, and has so proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

"... aspects of Neubaum's defenses to these charges ... are sufficient to leave the court with a reasonable doubt about each of those counts," Hindman said.

Neubaum was not personally present at Friday's hearing but participated via video from the Anamosa State Penitentiary, where he is serving a 50-year prison sentence for second-degree murder for the Jan. 31, 2020, shooting death of 16-year-old Joseph Hopkins in Mapleton. A Monona County jury convicted him of the crime in May 2021.

Hopkins, of Mapleton, was shot once in the forehead with a 12-gauge shotgun while he, Neubaum and two other teenage boys were working on a demolition derby car in a garage at the home of Neubaum's grandmother, with whom he was living at the time.

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SIOUX CITY -- A Sioux City man was arrested Wednesday after he allegedly started a fire inside Sam's Mini Mart on the city's west side.

Orlando Castro, 63, was booked into the Woodbury County Jail in lieu of $25,000 bond on one count of first-degree arson and one count of second-degree criminal mischief.

According to a criminal complaint filed in Woodbury County District Court, surveillance camera footage captured Castro entering the store, 923 West Seventh St., through the front doors at 10:39 p.m. Wednesday and walking directly to shelves stocked with flammable automotive products. Nine other individuals were in the store at the time.

"The defendant carries an object in one hand and uses a handheld object in his other hand to ignite the first object," the complaint states. "He immediately tosses the flaming object on top of the shelf and exits the store."

On the footage, Castro can be seen wearing a black ballcap with a white logo, a red bandana facemask, a blue long-sleeved shirt with the sleeves pulled up to the elbows, black joggers with a white stripe, and white sneakers with dark markings. He also has a tattoo on his left forearm that spells out "CASTIEL," which was visible on the footage, according to the complaint.

The complaint states that the owner of the business has known Castro personally for the past three decades and employed him for the past three to four months.

"The defendant was recognized by the victim and he was subsequently located at his residence less than two blocks away from San's Mini Mart," the complaint states. "At the time he was detained by officers, he was wearing the black joggers with a white stripe. He was further identified by the distinctive tattoo on his left forearm."

When Castro was taken into custody, a cigarette lighter was found in his pocket, according to the complaint.

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SIOUX CITY -- A Sioux City teen linked to an April shooting has pleaded not guilty to gun and drug charges.

Jalond Hills, 18, entered his written plea Friday in Woodbury County District Court to charges of prohibited transfer of a pistol or revolver and possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance.

Hills is charged for his involvement in an April 15 shooting in an apartment in the 2200 block of Gibson Street, where police found a woman suffering from a non-life-threatening gunshot wound.

According to court documents, Hills was with the woman in a bedroom, where another man was passed out. The woman removed a handgun from the man, and Hills attempted to take the gun from her. The two struggled over the gun and it discharged, striking the woman in the leg.

After the shot was fired, Hills gave the gun to a third man who has felony convictions prohibiting him from possessing firearms, and all three men fled the scene.

Hills was a passenger in a vehicle stopped by police on June 9, and he was arrested on an outstanding warrant. Officers found two bags containing 43 grams of marijuana next to where Hills was sitting, and he later admitted it belonged to him, court documents said.

In a separate case, Hills faces charges of intimidation with a dangerous weapon and going armed with intent in connection with a Sept. 16 incident in which he is suspected of firing a shot into an occupied car in the 700 block of Center Street. He's scheduled to stand trial in August.

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Weimer was arrested after an April 2, 2021, traffic stop in Storm Lake in which officers found him in possession of methamphetamine, ammunition and a .22-caliber rifle that was stolen from his ex-wife. On May 19, 2021, as part of a theft investigation, a stolen shotgun was found in a vehicle Weimer owned. A search of another residence where Weimer stayed yielded a handgun and four other guns and more than 2,000 rounds of ammunition hidden behind a false wall in a room where Weimer kept his belongings. The guns and ammunition had been reported stolen.
SIOUX CITY  Instant, divided reaction.

Mere minutes passed after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision on Friday to overturn Roe v. Wade (throwing out a near half-century of legal precedent) before Siouxland legislators, faith leaders and activists offered different paths forward.

Democratic candidate for House District 1 J.D. Scholten took to Twitter shortly after the Supreme Court issued its opinion on Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization calling it "dangerous."

"Cant stop thinking about sisters, neighbors, nieces, daughters, etc and not having legal control of ones body," he said in a tweet. "Posting on Twitter might temporarily feel ok, but in order to protect women we need to organize!"

U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Hull, who defeated Scholten in 2020, also reacted on Twitter calling the ruling a "momentous day for the pro-life movement and pro-life Americans across our nation."

"Since before I was elected to Congress, I have called for Roe v. Wade to be overturned, and after nearly fifty years, I am overjoyed that the sanctity of life has triumphed," he said.

South Dakota's lone representative, Republican Dusty Johnson, tweeted: "I've never believed the Roe v. Wade decision - which was ultimately a personal privacy case - was a justification to take a human life. The unborn deserve protection."

U.S. Senator Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, a member of the Senate Pro-Life Caucus, said in a statement she is "proudly and adamantly pro-life" while Sen. Chuck Grassley called the high court's move a "well-reasoned" decision.

Churches, clinics

Bishop Walker Nickless of the Diocese of Sioux City said he is pleased with the direction of the state and federal judges.

Although the recent actions of the federal and state supreme courts are good news to all who believe in the sanctity of life, there is much more work to be done, Nickless said in a statement. I ask all Catholics and all people of faith to continue to pray for an end to abortion in our state and our nation.

Marion Miner, associate director of pro-life and family policy of the Nebraska Catholic Conference, agreed with Nickless.

Nebraska is once again free to protect preborn babies from the lethal violence of the abortion industry, she said in a statement.

She called upon Nebraska state lawmakers to enact legal protections from the moment of conception.

Connie Ryan, Executive Director of the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa, said the ruling sets the nation down a dangerous path. She also said the court is betraying religious freedom.

"The court has placed the lives and futures of Americans who are pregnant in the hands of politicians with extreme political agendas, rather than doing its job to protect the fundamental rights of Americans, she said in a statement.

"True religious freedom means that anyone can seek care for themselves based on their own beliefs. The Court has forced a narrow set of religious beliefs on Americans, violating our nations commitment to individual liberties."

In response, Planned Parenthood North Central States talked about the rolling back of individual liberties and rights and called the legal opinion harmful to "millions of people."

"Because peoples right to access abortion is no longer guaranteed by federal law, it now depends on where you live and how much money you have to travel out of state for abortion care. Forced pregnancy is a grave violation of human rights and dignity," said Sarah Stoesz, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States.

What's next for the states

With the Supreme Court's move, abortions are now criminal acts in South Dakota. The Argus Leader reported, "South Dakota's long-pending "trigger law" banning voluntary termination of pregnancies has gone into effect."

As for Nebraska: In January, Legislative Bill 933, introduced by State Sens. Joni Albrecht of Thurston and Mike Flood of Norfolk, would make it a felony for anyone to provide any medication or undertake any procedure with the intent of ending the life of an unborn child, defined as an individual living member of the species homo sapiens...from fertilization to full gestation and childbirth.

The ruling is expected to disproportionately affect minority women who already face limited access to health care, according to statistics analyzed by The Associated Press.

Thirteen states, mainly in the South and Midwest, already have so-called "trigger laws" on the books that were passed to limit abortion access in the event that Roe was overturned. Another half-dozen states have near-total bans or prohibitions after 6 weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.

The Mississippi case in question, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, comes from then-Gov. Phil Bryant signing a 15-week abortion ban into law in March 2018 when Justices Anthony Kennedy and Ruth Bader Ginsburg were still members of a five-justice, abortion-maintaining majority.

Sioux City, Iowa and beyond

On June 17, the Iowa Supreme Court cleared the way for lawmakers to severely limit or even ban abortion in the state, reversing a decision by the court just four years ago that guaranteed the right to abortion under the Iowa Constitution.

In the wake of the Iowa Supreme Court's decision, the Associated Press reported: "Iowa Department of Public Health data shows there were 4,058 abortions in Iowa in 2020  835 surgical abortions and 3,222 by medication. That was an increase over the previous year when 3,566 abortions were reported. Iowa averaged just under 3,500 abortions a year from 2015 to 2019." The story then noted that show Planned Parenthood performs about 95% of Iowa abortions and that surgical and medical abortions may be obtained in clinics in Des Moines and Iowa City while medication abortions are provided in other clinic locations including Sioux City, Council Bluffs and Ames.

Planned Parenthood of the Heartland's Sioux City clinic shuttered its doors on June 30, 2017, after Iowa's Republican-controlled legislature approved $3 million in Medicaid funding cuts, which then-Gov. Terry Branstad signed into law before leaving office. The clinic then reopened in June 2020 with limited, in-person services such as STI testing and family planning, including birth control, IUD consultation and Depo shots (a form of injectable birth control).

With the federal and state rulings, Iowa lawmakers could ban abortion in the state without completing the lengthy process of amending the state constitution.

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Senate OKs landmark gun violence bill, House passage is next

WASHINGTON (AP)  The Senate has approved a bipartisan gun violence bill. The vote late Thursday clears the way for expected House passage Friday of what will be Congress most far-reaching response in decades to the nations run of brutal mass shootings. Republicans have long derailed Democratic efforts to curb firearms. But after last month's mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, Democrats and some Republicans decided that congressional inaction was untenable. It took nearly a month of closed-door talks but a group of senators from both parties emerged with a compromise embodying incremental but impactful movement.

Hearing: Trump told Justice Dept. to call election 'corrupt'

WASHINGTON (AP)  Former top Justice Department officials have testified to the Jan. 6 committee that President Donald Trump hounded the department to pursue his false election fraud claims. They say he contacted the agencys leader virtually every day and strove in vain to enlist the governments top law enforcement officials in his desperate bid to stay in power. The House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol also revealed Thursday that several Republican loyalists in Congress who trumpeted the presidents claims later sought pardons from the White House after the effort failed.

COVID vaccines saved 20M lives in 1st year, scientists say

Scientists estimate that nearly 20 million lives were saved worldwide by COVID-19 vaccines during their first year. In a study published Thursday, they say even more deaths could have been prevented if global targets for vaccines had been reached. Scientists at Imperial College London used data from 185 countries to estimate how many deaths were prevented by the vaccination effort. They excluded China because of uncertainty around the pandemics effect on deaths there and its huge population. There are a lot of limitations in modeling studies, but independent experts agree that vaccines saved millions of lives.

After Supreme Court gun decision, whats next?

WASHINGTON (AP)  The Supreme Court issued its biggest gun rights ruling in more than a decade Thursday. The justices said that Americans have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defense. Thats important because about half a dozen states have conditioned getting a license to carry a gun in public on the person demonstrating an actual need  sometimes called good cause or proper cause  to carry the weapon. In its decision, the Supreme Court struck down New Yorks proper cause requirement limiting who can carry a gun. Other states with similar laws acknowledged the decision would affect them. About one-quarter of the U.S. population lives in states expected to be affected by the ruling.

European Union makes Ukraine a candidate for EU membership

BRUSSELS (AP)  The European Unions leaders have agreed to make Ukraine a candidate for EU membership, setting in motion a potentially yearslong process that could draw the embattled country further away from Russias influence and bind it more closely to the West. Ukraine applied for membership less than a week after Moscow invaded on Feb. 24. The decision by the 27-nation bloc to grant Ukraine candidate status Thursday was uncharacteristically rapid. But the war and Ukraines request for fast-track consideration lent urgency to its cause. The EU also granted candidate status to Moldova, which borders Ukraine. Gaining membership could take years or even decades. Countries must meet a host of economic and political conditions, including the embrace of certain democratic principles.

Afghans bury dead, dig for survivors of devastating quake

GAYAN, Afghanistan (AP)  Villagers rushed to bury the dead and dug by hand through the rubble of homes in search of survivors after a devastating earthquake in eastern Afghanistan. Residents appeared to be largely on their own Thursday to deal with the aftermath as their new Taliban-led government and the international aid community struggled to help. State media said Wednesdays quake killed 1,000 people. An independent U.N. court said around 770 people had been killed in Paktika and Khost provinces. It's unclear how either sum was tallied given the difficulty of accessing or communicating with the affected areas, but the devastation was clear. Under a leaden sky, men dug several long trenches on a mountainside overlooking their village to bury the dead.

Uvalde victim's sister pleads for tougher gun laws in Texas

AUSTIN, Texas (AP)  The sister of a 9-year-old girl killed in the Uvalde school shooting rampage has tearfully pleaded with Texas lawmakers to pass tougher gun laws and questioned why so many security measures failed. Jazmin Cazares on Thursday begged lawmakers to do something. Her young sister Jacklyn was one of 19 children shot dead inside Robb Elementary School on May 24 before police stormed the classroom and killed the gunman. Two teachers also died. The gunman was a former student, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos. Cazares' testimony came as the U.S. Supreme Court announced a decision allowing a major expansion of gun rights, saying Americans have a right to carry firearms in public.

Hong Kongers reflect on Taiwan, an imperfect exile

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP)  Coming to Taiwan was a logical step for Lam Wing-kee, a Hong Kong bookstore owner who was held by police in China for five months for selling sensitive books about the Communist Party. An island just 400 miles from Hong Kong, Taiwan is close not just geographically but also linguistically and culturally. It offered the freedoms that many Hong Kongers were used to and saw disappearing in their hometown since Beijing launched a crackdown on pro-democracy activists. While Taiwan has seemed an ideal hub, many Hong Kongers struggle trying to navigate the immigration system and suspicion by the self-ruled island's authorities who worry about a constant threat from mainland China. Some have gotten their residency permits but others went on to the U.K. and Canada.

Summer swelter: Persistent heat wave breaks records, spirits

A heat wave that's already lasted more than a week keeps on baking the US, Asia and even the Arctic. At least eight US states Thursday hit 100 degrees, that's after 12 did that on Wednesday. Records keep falling. A city in the Russian Arctic hit nearly 90 degrees. This early summer heat wave looks and feels more like August. Scientists say it has all the hallmarks of climate change. In Macon, Georgia, the temperature ramped from 64 to 105 degrees on Wednesday and then hit 104, a further record, on Thursday.

Magic take Banchero 1st, Holmgren, Smith follow in NBA draft

NEW YORK (AP)  The Orlando Magic selected Duke freshman Paolo Banchero with the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft. After leading the Blue Devils to the Final Four in coach Mike Krzyzewskis final season, the 6-foot-10 forward was called first by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to begin the draft, beating out fellow first-year forwards Jabari Smith Jr. and Chet Holmgren. Banchero, wearing a purple suit full of bling, received a loud ovation inside Barclays Center, where Duke lost in the ACC Tournament final.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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The leader of Bosnias Serbs says he hopes former U.S. President Donald Trump returns to power. Milorad Dodik said on Sunday that Serbs will wait for appropriate global circumstances to reach for their goal of seceding from Bosnia, which he called an unsustainable state. Dodik made the comments at a gathering marking the start of Bosnia's bloody breakup of Bosnia 30 years ago. More than 100,000 people died before a U.S.-brokered peace deal ended the country's 1992-95 war. Russias war in Ukraine has aroused fears that the turmoil could spill over to the volatile Balkans. Dodik met with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month and says he's proud to have done so.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Donald Trump hounded the Justice Department to pursue his false election fraud claims, striving in vain to enlist top law enforcement officials in his desperate bid to stay in power and relenting only when warned in the Oval Office of mass resignations, according to testimony Thursday to the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

Three Trump-era Justice Department officials recounted persistent badgering from the president, including day after day of directives to chase baseless allegations that the election won by Democrat Joe Biden had been stolen. They said they swept aside each demand from Trump because there was no evidence of widespread fraud, then banded together when the president weighed whether to replace the department's top lawyer with a lower-level official eager to help undo the results.

All the while, Republican loyalists in Congress trumpeted the president's claims  and several later sought pardons from the White House after the effort failed and the Capitol was breached in a day of violence, the committee revealed Thursday.

The hearing, the fifth by the panel probing the assault on the Capitol, made clear that Trump's sweeping pressure campaign targeted not only statewide election officials but also his own executive branch agencies. The witnesses solemnly described the constant contact from the president as an extraordinary breach of protocol, especially since the Justice Department has long cherished its independence from the White House and looked to steer clear of partisan considerations in investigative decisions.

When you damage our fundamental institutions, its not easy to repair them," said Jeffrey Rosen, the acting attorney general in the final days of the Trump administration. "So I thought this was a really important issue, to try to make sure that the Justice Department was able to stay on the right course.

The hearing focused on a memorably tumultuous time at the department after the December 2020 departure of Attorney General William Barr, who drew Trump's ire with his public proclamation that there was no evidence of fraud that could have changed the election results.

He was replaced by his top deputy, Rosen, who said that for a roughly two-week period after taking the job, he either met with or was called by Trump virtually every day. The common theme, he said, was dissatisfaction that the Justice Department, in his view, had not done enough to investigate election fraud.

Trump presented the department with an arsenal of allegations, none of them true, said Richard Donoghue, another top official who testified Thursday. Even so, Trump prodded the department at various points to seize voting machines, to appoint a special counsel to probe fraud claims and to simply declare the election corrupt.

The department did none of those things.

For the department to insert itself into the political process this way, I think would have had grave consequences for the country. It may very well have spiraled us into a constitutional crisis, Donoghue said.

The testimony showed that Trump did, however, find a willing ally inside the department in the form of an environmental enforcement lawyer who'd become the leader of the agency's civil division.

The attorney, Jeffrey Clark, had been introduced to Trump by a Republican congressman and postured himself as an eager advocate for election fraud claims. In a contentious Oval Office meeting on the night of Jan. 3, 2021, just three days before the insurrection, Trump even toyed with replacing Rosen with Clark but backed down amid warnings of mass resignations.

Clarks name was referenced often Thursday, with Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican and committee member, deriding him as a lawyer whose sole qualification was his fealty to Trump and his willingness to do whatever the president wanted, "including overthrowing a free and fair democratic election.

A lawyer for Clark did not return messages seeking comment.

Barely an hour before the hearing began, it was revealed that federal agents on Wednesday had searched Clarks Virginia home, according to a person familiar with the matter. It was not clear what agents were seeking.

The latest hearing centered less on the violence at the Capitol than on the legal push by Trump to undo the election results, as the panel makes the case that the defeated presidents big lie over the election led to the insurrection. That included specific asks by Trump but also more general ones.

In one phone conversation, according to handwritten notes taken by Donoghue and highlighted at Thursdays hearing, Trump directed Rosen to Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the R. Congressmen.

Around that time, Trump was connected by a Republican congressman, Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, to Clark, whod joined the department in 2018 as its chief environmental lawyer and later set about aiding efforts to challenge the election results.

At one point, Clark presented colleagues with a draft letter pushing Georgia officials to convene a special legislative session on the election results. Clark wanted the letter sent, but Justice Department superiors refused.

Clark was not among the hearing witnesses. He earlier appeared in private before the committee, though lawmakers Thursday played a videotaped deposition showing him repeatedly invoking his constitutional right against self-incrimination in response to questions.

Perrys name surfaced later in the hearing, when the committee played videotaped statements from Trump aides saying he and several other Republican members of Congress sought pardons from the president that would shield them from criminal prosecution.

Perry and fellow GOP Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Matt Gaetz of Florida and Louie Gohmert of Texas were all involved in efforts to reject the electoral tally or submit fake electors. Gaetz tweeted Thursday that the hearing was a political sideshow," and Perry denied in a statement Thursday having ever sought a pardon.

The situation came to a head on Jan. 3, 2021, a Sunday, when Clark informed Rosen that Trump wanted to replace him with Clark as acting attorney general. Rosen, resisting the idea of being fired by a subordinate, testified that he swiftly contacted senior Justice Department officials to rally them together. He also requested a White House meeting, where he and his allies could make their case.

That night, he showed up at the White House for what would be a dramatic, hours-long meeting centered on whether Trump should proceed with plans for a radical leadership change. Clark was present, as were Donoghue and Steven Engel, a Rosen ally and senior Justice Department official who also testified Thursday.

At the start of the meeting, Rosen said, The president turned to me and he said: The one thing we know is you, Rosen, you arent going to do anything. You dont even agree with the claims of election fraud, and this other guy at least might do something.'"

Rosen told Trump he was correct, and said he wouldn't let the Justice Department do anything to overturn the election.

Donoghue made clear he'd resign if Trump fired Rosen. Trump asked Engel whether he would do the same. Engel responded that, absolutely, he would. The entire leadership team would resign, Trump was told. Hundreds of staffers would walk out too.

Donoghue also sought to dissuade Trump from believing Clark had the legal background to do what the president wanted, saying Clark had never tried a criminal case or conducted a criminal investigation.

"Hes telling you that hes going to take charge of the department, 115,000 employees, including the entire FBI, and turn the place on a dime and conduct nationwide criminal investigations that will produce results in a matter of days, Donoghue said.

Its impossible, he added, its absurd, its not going to happen, and its going to fail.

The president backed down. The night, and his Republican administration, ended with Rosen atop the Justice Department.

Associated Press writers Michael Balsamo, Lisa Mascaro and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington contributed to this report.

For full coverage of the Jan. 6 hearings, go to https://www.apnews.com/capitol-siege.

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

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday welcomed the decision of the European Council to grant Ukraine candidate status for accession to the European Union (EU).

"Sincerely commend EU leaders' decision at the European Council to grant Ukraine candidate status. It's a unique and historical moment in Ukraine-EU relations," Zelensky tweeted.

He thanked European Council President Charles Michel, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the leaders of EU member states for supporting Ukraine.

"Ukraine's future is within the EU," Zelensky said.

On Feb. 28, Zelensky signed an official appeal to the EU asking for the accession of Ukraine via a new special procedure.

Von der Leyen gave the EU membership questionnaire to Zelensky during her visit to Kiev in April. The first part of the document was submitted to the EU on April 18, while the second was on May 9.
LONDON (AP)  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson suffered a double blow as voters rejected his Conservative Party in two special parliamentary elections dominated by questions about his leadership and ethics.

He was further wounded when the party's chairman quit after the results came out early Friday, saying Conservatives cannot carry on with business as usual, and a former party leader said the country needed "new leadership.

The centrist Liberal Democrats overturned a big Conservative majority to win the rural southwest England seat of Tiverton and Honiton, while the main opposition Labour Party reclaimed Wakefield in northern England from Johnson's Tories.

The contests, triggered by the resignations of Conservative lawmakers hit by sex scandals, offered voters the chance to give their verdict on the prime minister just weeks after 41% of his own MPs voted to oust him.

The people of Tiverton and Honiton have spoken for Britain," said the area's newly elected Liberal Democrat lawmaker, Richard Foord. "They sent a loud and clear message: Its time for Boris Johnson to go, and go now.

Defeat in either district would have been a setback for the prime ministers party. Losing both increases jitters among restive Conservatives who already worry the ebullient but erratic and divisive Johnson is no longer an electoral asset.

Party chairman Oliver Dowden resigned, saying our supporters are distressed and disappointed by recent events, and I share their feelings.

We cannot carry on with business as usual," said Dowden, previously a staunch Johnson loyalist.

I will, as always, remain loyal to the Conservative Party," he said, without offering an endorsement of Johnson.

Former Conservative leader Michael Howard, who like Johnson was a strong backer of Britain's exit from the European Union, urged the party to remove him as leader.

The party, and more importantly the country, would be better off under new leadership," Howard told the BBC.

The prime minister was 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers) away at a Commonwealth summit in Rwanda as the drama unfolded.

The electoral tests came as Britain faces the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation, with Russias war in Ukraine squeezing supplies of energy and food staples at a time of soaring consumer demand while the coronavirus pandemic recedes.

Im not going to pretend these are brilliant results," Johnson said at a news conference in Kigali. Weve got to listen, weve got to learn.  When people are finding it tough, they send messages to politicians, and politicians have got to respond.

Johnson won a big majority in a 2019 general election by keeping the Conservatives traditional voters  affluent, older and concentrated in southern England  and winning new ones in poorer, post-industrial northern towns where many residents felt overlooked by governments for decades.

Thursdays elections brought defeat on both fronts. Rural Tiverton and Honiton has voted Conservative for generations, while Wakefield is a northern district that the Tories won in 2019 from Labour.

Labour's widely expected victory in Wakefield  whose previous Conservative legislator resigned after being convicted of sexual assault  is a boost to a party that has been out of office nationally since 2010.

Labour leader Keir Starmer said it showed the party is back on the side of working people, winning seats where we lost before, and ready for government."

Pollsters had said the Tiverton and Honiton race was tight, but the Liberal Democrats overturned a 24,000-vote Conservative majority to win by more than 6,000 votes. The election was called when the districts Conservative lawmaker resigned after being caught looking at pornography in the House of Commons chamber.

Even with the defeats, which erode his already shaky authority among his own lawmakers, Johnson his party holds a large majority in Parliament. But Conservatives are increasingly concerned that the qualities that led them to make Johnson their leader  including a populist ability to bend the rules and get away with it  may now be a liability.

Ethics allegations have buffeted the prime minister for months, culminating in a scandal over parties held in government buildings while millions of others were banned from meeting friends and family during coronavirus lockdowns.

Johnson was one of 83 people fined by police for attending the parties, making him the first prime minister found to have broken the law while in office. A civil servants report on the partygate scandal said Johnson must bear responsibility for failures of leadership and judgment that created a culture of rule-breaking in government.

He survived a no-confidence vote by his own party this month but was left weakened after 41% of Conservative lawmakers voted to remove him.

Under party rules, Johnson can't face another such vote for a year, but Friday's defeats will increase pressure to change that.

These are pretty dire results, said Conservative lawmaker Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, a senior member of the committee that oversees party no-confidence votes.

Serious discussions will be had in the next few days and weeks and then we will all have to make difficult decisions, he said.

Johnson also faces a parliamentary ethics probe that could conclude he deliberately misled Parliament over partygate  traditionally a resigning offense.

Conservative lawmaker Roger Gale, a long-time Johnson critic, reiterated his calls for the prime minister to quit now.

The soul of our party is at stake, he said.

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

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KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  After weeks of ferocious fighting, Ukrainian forces have begun retreating from a besieged city in the country's east to move to stronger positions, a regional official said Friday, the four-month mark in Russia's invasion.

The planned withdrawal from Sievierodonetsk, the administrative center of the Luhansk region, comes after relentless Russian bombardment that has reduced most of the industrial city to rubble and cut its population from 100,0000 to 10,000. Ukrainian troops fought the Russians in house-to-house battles before retreating to the huge Azot chemical factory on the city's edge, where they remain holed up in its sprawling underground structures in which about 500 civilians also found refuge.

In recent days, Russian forces have made gains around Sievierodonetsk and the neighboring city of Lysychansk, on a steep bank across a river, in a bid to encircle Ukrainian forces.

Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk have been the focal point of the Russian offensive aimed at capturing all of the Donbas and destroying the Ukrainian military defending it  the most capable and battle-hardened segment of the countrys armed forces. The two cities and surrounding areas are the last major pockets of Ukrainian resistance in the Luhansk region  95% of which is under Russian and local separatist forces' control. The Russians and separatists also control about half of the Donetsk region, the second province in the Donbas.

Russia used its numerical advantages in troops and weapons to pummel Sievierodonetsk in what has become a war of attrition, while Ukraine clamored for better and more weapons from its Western allies. Bridges to the city were destroyed, slowing the Ukrainian military's ability to resupply, reinforce and evacuate the wounded and others. Much of the citys electricity, water and communications infrastructure has been destroyed.

Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said Ukrainian troops have been ordered to leave Sievierodonetsk to prevent bigger losses and move to better fortified positions. The head of the regional administration, Roman Vlasenko, said the withdrawal has already begun and will take several days.

As of now, the Ukrainian military still remains in Sievierodonetsk, Vlasenko told CNN. They are being withdrawn from the city at the moment. It started yesterday.

Ukraine's military spokesman declined to confirm the retreat order, saying government policy prevents comments on Ukrainian troop movements.

Regrettably, we will have to pull our troops out of Sievierodonetsk, Haidai told The Associated Press. It makes no sense to stay at the destroyed positions, and the number of killed in action has been growing.

A senior U.S. defense official, speaking in Washington on condition of anonymity, on Friday called the Ukrainians' move a tactical retrograde to consolidate forces into positions where they can better defend themselves. This will add to Ukraines effort to keep Russian forces pinned down longer in a small area, the official said.

Haidai noted that while the retreat is under way, some Ukrainian troops remain in Sievierodonetsk, facing Russian bombardment that has destroyed 80% of buildings.

As of today, the resistance in Sievierodonetsk is continuing, Haidai told the AP. The Russians are relentlessly shelling the Ukrainian positions, burning everything out.

Haidai said the Russians are also advancing toward Lysychansk  from Zolote and Toshkivka  adding that Russian reconnaissance units conducted forays on the city's edges but its defenders drove them out. The governor added that a bridge leading to Lysychansk was badly damaged in a Russian airstrike and is unusable for trucks. Ukrainian military analyst Oleg Zhdanov told the AP that some of the troops moving away from Sievierodonetsk are heading to the fight in Lysychansk.

In other battlefield reports, the Russian Defense Ministry declared Friday that four Ukrainian battalions and a unit of foreign mercenaries totaling about 2,000 soldiers have been fully blocked near Hirske and Zolote, south of Lysychansk. The claim couldnt be independently verified.

Following a botched attempt to capture Kyiv, Ukraines capital, in the early stage of the invasion that started Feb. 24, Russian forces have shifted their focus to the Donbas, where the Ukrainian forces have fought Moscow-backed separatists since 2014.

After repeated requests to its Western allies for heavier weaponry to counter Russias edge in firepower, four medium-range American rocket launchers have arrived, with four more on the way. The senior U.S. defense official said Friday that more Ukrainian forces are training outside Ukraine to use the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, and are expected back in their country with the weapons by mid-July.

The rockets can travel about 45 miles (70 kilometers). Also to be sent are 18 U.S. coastal and river patrol boats. The official said there is no evidence Russia has been successful in intercepting any of what has been a steady flow of military aid into Ukraine from the U.S. and other nations. Russia has repeatedly threatened to strike, or actually claimed to have hit, such shipments.

IN OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

The day after Ukraine was approved as a candidate to join the European Union, Zelenskyy urged Ukrainians not to focus on all that still must be done before the country is accepted into the EU but to quietly celebrate the moment and be proud of how far Ukraine has already come in moving away from its Soviet past.

Do not be happy that this is a slap in the face for Moscow but be proud that this is applause for Ukraine," he said in his nightly video address. "Let it inspire you. We deserve it. Please smile and let God bless us all with a quiet night. Then tomorrow, again into battle. With new strength, with new wings.

In Tbilisi, Georgia, another former Soviet republic that has applied to join the EU, thousands of people rallied on Friday to demand the resignation of the prime minister over his government's failure to implement the necessary reforms for Georgia to join Ukraine in being accepted as a candidate for EU membership. The European Council this week said Georgia had more work to do before it would be given candidate status.

Zelenskyy addressed the rally by video, expressing his support for Georgia and thanking the Georgians who have come to Ukraine to join the fight against Russia. Russia invaded Georgia in 2008 and now effectively controls two breakaway territories.

Zelenskyy urged music fans at the Glastonbury Festival to spread the truth about Russias war. Speaking to the crowd at the British music extravaganza by video on Friday before a set by The Libertines, Zelenskyy said, We in Ukraine would also like to live the life as we used to and enjoy freedom and this wonderful summer, but we cannot do that because the most terrible has happened  Russia has stolen our peace.

An official with the pro-Moscow administration in the southern city of Kherson, which was captured by Russian troops early in the invasion, was killed in an explosion Friday. The pro-Russian regional administration in Kherson said that Dmitry Savlyuchenko died when his vehicle exploded in what it described as a terror attack. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Yuras Karmanau reported from Lviv.

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.

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Gov. Pete Ricketts and Speaker Mike Hilgers of Lincoln said they would work together to determine when to call the Legislature back into special session to consider enacting a ban on abortion in the state.

"I am keen to protect pre-born babies, but I'll have to work with the speaker with regard to what he thinks we will be able to accomplish," Ricketts said Friday during an event celebrating the completion of new state offices in the Fallbrook development in Lincoln.

Abortion remains legal in Nebraska up until 20 weeks after fertilization, according to current state law.

Friday's Supreme Court ruling leaves the decision on how to restrict abortion up to individual states. Thirteen states had trigger laws in place that will automatically ban abortion within one month of the ruling.

The governor would not predict when the session would be scheduled but indicated he'd rather call state senators back than wait until the next session begins in January.

He pointed out that Tuesday's special election to replace Rep. Jeff Fortenberry would change the makeup of the Legislature. State Sens. Patty Pansing Brooks of Lincoln and Mike Flood of Norfolk are seeking to fill the remainder of the 1st District congressman's term.

In the closing days of this year's legislative session, a bill to ban abortion in Nebraska if states were given full regulatory authority by the court was trapped by a filibuster. A cloture motion to free the bill for consideration fell two votes short on a 31-15 count, with Flood voting yes and Pansing Brooks voting no.

Ricketts also mentioned that Sen. Tom Brewer had just left for a trip to Ukraine. Brewer, a Republican who supported the bill to ban abortions, had said he would return for a special session.

Sen. Adam Morfeld of Lincoln said a special session is "all-but-guaranteed," and will likely take place later this summer.

Had the trigger bill senators considered this past session passed, it would have made it a felony for anyone to provide any medication or undertake any procedure with the intent of ending the life of an unborn child, starting at fertilization. The woman undergoing an abortion, however, could not be charged.

Lawmakers who opposed the bill have vowed to continue their opposition in the event of a special session. Several of them repeated those promises Friday in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling.

"We have stopped an abortion ban before, and we will do it again together," Sen. Megan Hunt of Omaha, who led an eight-hour filibuster on the failed trigger bill earlier this year, wrote on Twitter on Friday.

Sen. Joni Albrecht of Thurston, who introduced the trigger bill, said she has been negotiating with some lawmakers on alterations that would address sticking points of opposition in the previous legislation  mainly that the bill would have inadvertently banned in vitro fertilization, or IVF, and hindered doctors attempting to perform life-saving operations.

"We have to be certain that we cover all our bases," Albrecht said.

Albrecht said she isn't sure what the new bill would look like, because it will largely depend on a full analysis of the Supreme Court's ruling.

Two other abortion-restricting bills were proposed during this year's session, but neither made it out of committee. One, introduced by Sen. Suzanne Geist of Lincoln, would have banned chemical abortions after seven weeks. It would not have regulated surgical abortions. The other, introduced by Sen. Julie Slama of Dunbar, would have banned abortions after a fetal heartbeat could be detected. That usually occurs about six weeks after fertilization.

Slama said Friday she would support any abortion-restricting bill in a special session, as long as it is capable of reaching 33 votes to end a filibuster. Albrecht said she does not expect Ricketts to call for a special session if he isn't confident a proposed bill will pass.

"We should not walk away empty-handed," Slama said.

The fate of any bill will ultimately depend on the makeup of the Legislature, which has already changed from the end of last session because of the death of Sen. Rich Pahls of Omaha. Pahls was not present for the vote on the trigger bill because of illness, though Morfeld said Pahls likely would have voted for the bill.

Ricketts appointed Omaha businesswoman Kathleen Kauth as Pahls' replacement earlier this month. At her appointment ceremony, Kauth said she would have voted for the trigger bill had she been serving at the time.

Nebraska Family Alliance policy director Nate Grasz called for legislative action.

"Pre-born babies who can smile, yawn, suck their thumbs and have their own heartbeat can be legally aborted up to 20 weeks in our state," he said.

"We will immediately begin working with our state lawmakers to pursue the strongest protections possible for every unborn child in Nebraska, because every life should be cherished and protected," Grasz said.

Morfeld, a candidate for Lancaster County Attorney, also issued a statement Friday declaring that "I will not criminalize doctors or women for reproductive decisions" if he is elected to that office.

"I will not turn every miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, IVF procedure and split-second, life-saving decision by a doctor into a criminal investigation.

"These are private decisions that should be left to a woman and her doctor, not politicians and lawyers."

Reporters for the Omaha World-Herald contributed to this story.

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On Friday afternoon, a few hours after the Supreme Courts decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization had overturned Roe v. Wade, thus imminently imperiling access to abortion for millions of women in the United States, Fox News anchor Trace Gallagher took time out of a busy news day to roast Barack Obama. The former president is a constitutional law  student, said Gallagher, in apparent reference to statements that Obama made today and last month about the Dobbs decisions implications for many Americans essential freedoms. He knows what hes talking about. He knows very well that Roe was never a constitutional issue, Erin.

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Absolutely, said guest Erin Hawley, a former Supreme Court clerk for John Roberts. (Hawley is also married to Josh Hawley, the Republican senator from Missouri.) As the Courts decision lays out so eloquently, there was never a right to an abortion in the Constitution. And moreover, this decision doesnt take rights away from women. It allows states to protect the unbornand also to empower women.

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It is borderline delusional to claim that the Dobbs decision does not affect womens rights, and it is insulting, on a big news day such as today, to waste broadcast time imputing bad faith to Barack Obama. But delusions, insults, and vast chunks of wasted time are hallmarks of right-wing cable newsand Friday afternoon was business as usual for channels such as Fox News and Newsmax. The two conservative news networks spent the hours after the Dobbs decision pursuing, as per usual, two strategies designed to keep their viewers feeling upset, unsettled, and under siege: rejection and deflection.

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Right-wing cable news doesnt do victory laps. As entities that rely on a constant torrent of manufactured outrage to attract and retain viewers, Fox News and Newsmax cannot simply present the news and bask in the glow of the biggest Supreme Court win for conservatives in decades. The right-wing cable news viewer must be made to feel at all times like their values and worldview are under attack by the left, even at the very moment of the conservative movements greatest triumph. As such, the networks parsed the Dobbs news by spotlighting and rebutting liberal reactions to the news.

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Rejection is the first prong of this strategy. You cannot be reactionary without having something to react against, which is why conservative cable news outlets must always forcefully reject the mainstream interpretation of any given issue as biased, tainted, or dangerous. In the case of Dobbs, Fox News and Newsmax spent hours criticizing those on the left who understandably saw the Courts decision as the withdrawal of an existing right. Instead, these networks claim, Dobbs marks a triumph of responsible originalist jurisprudence, a necessary corrective to decades worth of liberal judicial activis[ts] who just make up policy ends that they want and implement it via judicial fiat, as former Gorsuch clerk Mike Davis put it on Fox News.

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Fox and Newsmax also spent time casually dismissing fears that, as per Justice Clarence Thomas concurring opinion in Dobbs, the court may now go on to overturn additional precedents in cases pertaining to contraception access, same-sex relationships, and same-sex marriage. The majority opinion in Dobbs was a very limited opinion, said Newsmax guest Brett Tolman, and as such the left was being disingenuous in warning that the court might not stop at overturning Roe.

[Read: The Supreme Courts Next Target Is Marriage Equality. It Wont Be the Last.]

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After rejecting the liberal interpretation of a story, right-wing cable news then proceeds to deflect viewers attention toward what these networks claim is an even more urgent story. In the case of Dobbs, that bigger story is the prospect of violence toward conservative abortion foes and crisis pregnancy centers. Abortion has been a sacrament of the left for over 50 years. We are taking it away from them, and they are completely unhinged, anti-abortion activist Abby Johnson said on Newsmax. (I transcribed this as I was watching it, and did not get a chance to double-check the quotes.) Nothing they dothey can grafitti our buildings, they can throw a Molotov cocktail innothing they do will stop us from protecting the lives of preborn children.

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Johnson was apparently referring to the recent spree of vandalism, and occasional fire-bombings, at crisis pregnancy centers across the United States, for which an extremist group called Janes Revenge has claimed responsibility. I know very little about Janes Revenge, other than that they have a very rudimentary website and that they are clearly a fringe group. Right-wing television, however, is truly expert at conflating fringe groups with the mainstream left. I think there is a real risk of violence, said Sen. Ted Cruz on Fox News Friday afternoon. Weve seen multiple Democratsnow including Maxine Waters, before that Chuck Schumer, before that the Biden White Houseeffectively encouraging violence.  And I gotta say, its really cynical to see Democrats effectively condoning violence.

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The two conservative news networks spent the hours after the Dobbs decision pursuing, as per usual, two strategies designed to keep their viewers feeling upset, unsettled, and under siege.

Cruz certainly knows cynicism when he sees it, and he certainly also understands the reason behind all this deflection and rejection. Polls consistently show that the majority of Americans support an ongoing right to abortion and did not actually want the court to overturn Roe v. Wade. Democrats will assuredly use this news as a way to galvanize their voters and get them to the polls for the midterm elections this November. By framing the Dobbs decision as a procedural correction rather than an epochal transformation of American life, Fox and Newsmax hope to convince their viewers that nothing big happened here, and that the left is cynically misinterpreting the story for political purposes; by focusing so intently on the prospect of violence from liberal protestors, the networks hope to deflect viewers attention away from the reasons for the protests.

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The sorts of people who go on right-wing television to claim that Dobbs is no biggie, and that the real story here is the prospect of some windows being smashed somewhere, are professional cynics, and like all cynics they are extremely good at staying on message. But, make no mistake, today is one of the biggest days in the history of the modern conservative movement, and sometimes, in a rush of excitement and accomplishment, even professional cynics can slip up and say what they really mean. On Friday afternoon, Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, told Newsmaxs John Bachman that the next step for anti-abortion activists is to pressure state lawmakers everywhere to pass laws banning abortion.

This is what were called to do: to make abortion truly unthinkable, as well as unavailable, in our nation, said Hawkins. Amid all the rejection and deflection, sometimes the truth peeks through.

Read more of Slates coverage on abortion rights here.

For more on the legal fight that led to the original Roe v. Wade decision, listen to the latest episode of Slow Burn.
With their decisive votes in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh not only joined the Supreme Courts conservative majority in overturning the constitutional right to an abortion, they betrayed a central achievement of their mentor, retired conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy. One less visible, yet fundamentally significant, aspect of the ruling is the courts wholesale rejection of Justice Kennedys distinctive approach to protecting individual liberty, which will prove to be a loss for all Americans with far-reaching consequences.

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Justice Kennedy, appointed by President Ronald Reagan, led the court in writing more nuanced opinions than may be typical for the Supreme Court, such as Casey v. Planned Parenthood, which upheld a womans right to control her own reproductive health, and which Dobbs overturns. In Casey, Justice Kennedy articulated how liberties of choice in personal matters such as marriage and procreation are inexorably connected to a persons equal standing in society, thereby focusing attention on the effects of government regulation on the personal lives of individuals. In subsequent cases addressing the legal status of same-sex relationships he furthered this distinctive approach to understanding the Constitutions relevance to contemporary life by recognizing the connection between personal liberty to choose a marital partner and political equality. His goal was to facilitate the freedom of all Americans to create their own personal identities through their constitutionally-protected liberty to make choices about core personal matters. In overturning Casey to also overturn Roe v. Wade, one irony is that his two former clerksJustices Gorsuch and Kavanaughcast deciding votes to join an opinion that abandons their former mentors distinctive jurisprudence. By doing so, all Americans may lose the opportunity to gain additional protections for their equal dignity to control personal aspects of their livesand without the underpinnings of Justice Kennedys reasoning, they may lose additional rights they have already gained.

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In tone and substance, Justice Kennedys majority opinion in Casey, written with Justices David Souter and Sandra Day OConnor (both appointed by Republican presidents) acknowledged the difficulty of reconciling the constitutional rights of women with countervailing moral issues related to abortion. Although abortion is fraught with consequences which afforded the state some measure of control, Justice Kennedy reasoned that a womans choice was central to personal dignity and autonomy protected by the Constitution, which left individuals with the power to define the attributes of personhood central to their own values and identity. As the opinion made, clear The controlling word in the case before us is libertyand indeed with stylistic emphasis, the first and last words of the opinion are liberty. It was not simply a promise of liberty to be free from particular kinds of government interference, but to be free to make ones own self-defining choices about matters intrinsic to personal identity. These included all the choices related to marriage and parenthood, including whether to become a parent at all.

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Few matters can be more central to personal identity than freedom to choose ones own personal and intimate relationships. Building on the reasoning of Casey, Justice Kennedy authored an opinion in Lawrence v. Texas which held that laws criminalizing the sexual conduct of same-sex couples deprived them of their equal dignity as free persons. He once again crafted an opinion that started with the word liberty and concluded with the phrase greater freedom. In between, Justice Kennedy explained how the Constitution protects the liberty of persons to choose their intimate partners free from the state-imposed stigma that criminalizing their private conduct entails. To have the dignity that comes with choosing ones intimate partners on an equal basis with others, is to empower individuals to define central features of their own personal identities. Perhaps most importantly, Justice Kennedys opinion recognized that the boundaries of constitutionally-protected liberty are not fixed, but have what he called manifold possibilities that every generation can invoke to better articulate the meaning of the Constitution as applicable to their everyday lives.

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As a new generation sought the freedom to choose their marital partner on an equal basis with others, Justice Kennedys opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges reasoned that these liberties extend to certain personal choices central to individual dignity and autonomy, including intimate choices that define personal identity and beliefs. Connecting liberty and equality, Justice Kennedy explained how the freedom to choose ones marital partner was a way for individuals to achieve equal dignity in society alongside others who were permitted by a state to marry. Justice Kennedy focused on how the Constitution prohibits government from becoming dominant over the kinds of decisions that are central to any individuals identity as a person. As he succinctly explained, it is a promise of the Constitution that there is a realm of personal liberty which the government may not enter. Unlike anti-regulatory claims to freedom in economic transactions, which receive very little constitutional protection, the liberty at stake in these cases affects not only the private lives of individuals, but also their equal dignity in political society to participate on a par with others.

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Taking a step back from the cultural hot-button consequences of these decisionsprotecting access to abortion or enabling same-sex marriageJustice Kennedys approach to constitutional law is one many Americans, quick to claim the mantle of liberty, should find attractive. He refused to understand liberty as frozen in time. As he explained in Obergefell, [R]ights come not from ancient sources alone. They rise, too, from a better-informed understanding of how constitutional imperatives define a liberty that remains urgent in our own era. He sought to articulate and protect freedom in all its dimensions, which requires going beyond the relatively short-list of liberties the Constitution explicitly mentions. And though he does not rely on the Ninth Amendment, which is the only provision that tells us how we should understand the Constitution, his approach is consistent with it. Simply because liberty is not spelled out in painstaking detail in the Constitution, he refuses to deny or disparage the existence of the other rights, and other meanings, not explicitly enumerated.

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But denying and disparaging Justice Kennedys approach to constitutional law is exactly what conservative Justice Samuel Alitos Dobbs opinion does. It rejects any attempt to articulate and protect the manifold possibilities for liberty regarding personal matters. It asks instead a quite narrow question: whether the Constitution protects the right to abortion. Framed this way, such a question employs the same rhetorical sleight of hand that Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn used in Justice Kentanji Brown Jacksons confirmation hearings. Where is this right to abortion in the Constitution, she and five Supreme Court Justices ask? Its not there, they claim, so it cannot be a constitutional right. Of course, your right to travel, or not to be forced to get pregnant, or to be free from compulsory sterilization, or not to be limited to having one child, or to choose your profession, or to control your childrens upbringing, or to die with dignity, or to choose your own fashion apparel are not there eitheramong many other rights you might take for grantedtherefore under this reasoning, you have no such constitutional rights either. These and many other similar liberty rights are part of the dimensions of freedom that the Constitution implicitly protects and that Justice Kennedys approach seeks to reveal.

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A significant thread running through Justice Kennedys opinionsand those of other Justicesis that it is a profound mistake to frame a narrow and specific question of liberty rights and then look to see if the Constitution provides for their explicit protection. When Justice Kennedys opinion in Lawrence explicitly overruled a prior decision, which used the same gotcha method of asking where in the Constitution is there a right to engage in homosexual sex acts free from state criminalization, he explained how the correct way of understanding the right at stake was to look to the personal choices about intimate partners, the kind of choices that are part of the liberty we all have to form our own personal identities and relationships. This nuance, and concern for the liberty rights of individuals over personal matters ranging from choice of employment to childrearing, is absent from Dobbs.

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Using the gotcha method, and conducting a pseudo-historical analysis of abortion practices through time to argue that access to abortion is not deeply rooted in American legal practice, Justice Alitos opinion promises to dismantle the Constitutions dimensions of freedom. That he would seize the moment to undo the Constitutions protections for liberty that fellow-conservative Justice Kennedy eloquently articulated is no surprise. He was always a dissenter from Justice Kennedys opinions. What should come as a surprise, however, is if Justice Kennedys two former clerksat least one of whom, reporting suggested, was chosen in part by President Trump as a nod to Justice Kennedys decision to retirejoin him in the destruction.

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The Dobbs opinion makes no effort to grapple with how the fraught personal decision regarding a womans pregnancy might affect the lives of the individuals who make it. Instead, it emphasized the views of 26 states that asked for Roe to be overturned and the political advocacy of millions of Americans who believe that it is morally wrong for others to exercise this liberty. Relying on its backward-looking methodology, the Alito opinion, joined in full by Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch, never grapples with Justice Kennedys most central reasoning: that some decisions are too personal for the Constitution to allow third parties to decide on their behalf. Justice Kavanaugh does write separately to say that this opinion does not threaten or cast doubt on those precedents that also rely on protecting the personal aspects of liberty. No doubt, Dobbs is about abortion access, not anything else. But given the failure to consider or defend Justice Kennedys underlying liberty-based reasoning, it is difficult to have confidence that the opinion does not also threaten this approach to constitutional liberty in its entirety. Indeed, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a concurring opinion urging the court to abandon completely its substantive liberty jurisprudence.

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Justice Kavanaugh also separately urged that I have deep and unyielding respect for the Justices who wrote the Casey plurality opinion. And I respect the Casey pluralitys good-faith effort to locate some middle ground or compromise that could resolve this controversy for America. But he does not state that he has unyielding respect for the Constitutions protections for the liberty and dignity of persons to shape their personal identities through the choices they make about intimate matters. He may respect his mentor, but Justice Kavanaugh does not say that he respects Justice Kennedys understanding of the Constitution on which all Americans have relied. It may be that he does in all other cases but abortion. But neither Justice Kavanaugh nor Justice Gorsuch indicate any such commitment.

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More than overturning Casey, Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch risk undoing a vibrant approach to constitutional law that is the signature accomplishment of their mentor. This project of better articulating the meaning of personal liberty as applied to concrete social situations is deeply rooted not only in Justice Kennedys approach to the Constitution, but also in American history and tradition. Few justices have done more to articulate the significance of liberty in its relation to the dignity of persons in developing their own identities on an equal basis with others than Justice Kennedy. Even if one celebrates Dobbs for giving government a free hand to regulate access to abortion, one might also worry that doing so would come at such a great constitutional loss. If only Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh were as committed in the future to their mentors distinctive approach to constitutional law in these cases as Justice Barrett proclaimed to be about Justice Antonin Scalias approach (His judicial philosophy is mine too, she proclaimed about her mentor), we might all live within a better constitutional republic, one that forever seeks to redeem the promise of liberty.
Internal critics of the Democratic Party often say that its current leaderswho are for the most part in their 80sbelieve too strongly in the value of political comity and the potential for bipartisan consensus. Tactically, strategically, and emotionally, this argument goes, Democrats have failed to realize that appeals to shared values and common purpose are no longer the most effective way to achieve tangible legislative results in the United States political system. (Some background on related trends can be found here and here.)

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If ever there was a time to abandon these dated beliefs and respond with urgency, anger, and the exercise of the limited power the party has left, the critics suggest, surely it is in the summer of 2022, when Americans are seeing rights being stripped from them on a near-daily basis, and an approaching election seems likely to put Republicans in power, possiblydepending on various voter-suppression and election-subversion plansforever.

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The argument may or may not be correct. But it seems germane to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosis response, at a Capitol press conference, to the Friday Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade:

I am personally overwhelmed by this decision. From time to time I quote this poem by Ehud Manor. Hes an Israeli poet. Ive met his wife when Ive been in Israel. He says, I have no other country, even though my land is burning. Only a word in Hebrew penetrates my veins, my soul, with an aching body and with a hungry heart. Here is my home. I will not be silent, for my country has changed her face. My country has changed her face. I shall not give up on her. I shall remind her, and sing into her ears, until she opens her eyes. Clearly, we hope that the Supreme Court would open its eyes.

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Video here.

If this poem seems familiar, perhaps thats because Pelosi also read it one week after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol during the second impeachment of Donald Trump, concluding it then by expressing the wish that her Republican colleagues would finally open their eyes and hold this president accountable. As it happened, Trump was acquitted by the Senate on the strength of Republican votes.

Later on Friday, House Democrats sang God Bless America on the Capitol steps.

Incidentally, here is a post Slate published in 2019 called Biden Says Republicans Will Start Working With Democrats After the Election, Which Is Also What He Said in 2012 (Whoops).

For more on the legal fight that led to the original Roe versus Wade decision, listen to the latest episode of Slow Burn.
This story was produced in partnership with the Garrison Project, an independent, nonpartisan organization addressing the crisis of mass incarceration and policing.

Fridays Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade will not only imperil the health of millions of women and pregnant people, but it stands to usher many more of them into the criminal legal system for simply seeking out reproductive health care.

The decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization dismantles federal protections in states that have already steeply eroded pregnant peoples abortion access. Nearly half of states have legal restrictions on abortion, and 13 states have trigger bans designed to into go effect upon Roes reversal; some of these bans include felony charges for providers. Oklahoma and Texas have both passed laws ahead of the courts decision today that allow private citizens to sue anyone who seeks an abortion after six weeks or anyone who provides abortion care. On Tuesday, Louisiana enacted two pieces of legislation that ban most abortionsincluding in cases of rape and incestand criminalize abortion providers.

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Even before Roe was overturned, state-level anti-abortion laws had major consequences for pregnant people. After Texas enacted S.B. 8, the six week abortion ban with a novel enforcement mechanism that deputizes citizens to sue anyone who aids or abets an abortion, a group of researchers looked into the laws effects on reproductive care for 20 Texans with medically complex pregnancies. The study, which was published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that the confusing and threatening legal landscape created by the law had a chilling effect on a broad range of health care professionals, adversely affecting patient care and endangering peoples lives. Some clinicians feared they could not counsel patients on abortion services or provide information about out-of-state options after tests indicated fetal abnormalities. The doctors also noted several scenarios in which a patient could have received hospital-based abortion care before SB8 but was now denied that care.

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The Dobbs decision further compounds this pain by offering a framework for establishing personhood rights for fetuses, which opens the door to criminalizing many aspects of pregnancy. All of us should be worried about a state of affairs where a miscarriage could start to become a crime scene, said Miriam Krinsky, the executive director of Fair and Just Prosecution, an organization of elected local prosecutors. Or even extreme laws where a possible extension of the law could mean that use of contraception or in vitro fertilization, or not sufficiently taking care of yourself while youre pregnant, start to become criminal offenses. This new legal landscape, she added, is deeply, deeply troubling.

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Much of this trouble will play out at the state and local levels. The final opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, sends the issue of abortion access back to the people and their elected representatives, setting the stage for a federal abortion ban. But until then, state and local officials will be tasked with deciding how to enforce state-level abortion restrictions. The decision creates a constitutional earthquake, Krinsky says, in which the battleground will inevitably shift to local jurisdictions and states to determine: How is this new landscape going to be applied?

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As a result, local prosecutors will very much become the gatekeepers and the last line of defense on whether these kinds of very personal choices will find their way into the criminal justice system or not, Krinsky added. Prosecutors in some jurisdictions have responded by doubling down on their prosecutorial discretion. On Friday, 83 elected prosecutors across the country released a letter committing to not charge people for their reproductive decisionsincluding progressive prosecutors in red states like Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Georgia. Criminalizing and prosecuting individuals who seek or provide abortion care makes a mockery of justice; prosecutors should not be part of that, reads the signed statement released by Fair and Just Prosecution.

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But prosecutorial discretion has its limits. Many conservative states have repeatedly preempted local laws in situations such as these, says Rachel Barkow, a law professor at New York University. While some prosecutors in blue counties have indicated that they do not plan on bringing criminal charges, that may not ultimately provide women much protection because states may decide to allow the state AG to intervene in these local cases and bring charges, even if the DA does not, Barkow said. In red states, one could expect those laws to be stringently enforced.

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In many ways, however, this patchwork of prosecution has been the norm for years. Pregnant people in conservative states face criminalization at far higher rates than those in progressive states that support the right to terminate a pregnancy. Its the fact with criminal law in general, that where youre located, and what type of elected prosecutor is in your jurisdiction, can really change what access to justice looks like for you, said Yveka Pierre, senior litigation counsel for If/When/How, an organization focused on reproductive justice in the legal system that trains public defenders on how to defend clients who are being prosecuted for pregnancy loss outcomes. Were seeing these types of prosecutions happening even with Roe in place, Pierre said. In some cases people are being prosecuted for pregnancy loss even when the law does not support it, Pierre says, which reflects the intensity of the cultural and religious stigma associated with terminating a pregnancy.

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Two recent cases, one in Oklahoma and other in Texas, offer a chilling glimpse into the post-Roe future. In April, Lizelle Herrera, a 26-year-old Texan was arrested for an alleged self-induced abortion in the Rio Grande Valley, near the states border with Mexico. The Starr County Clerks Office indicted Herrera for intentionally and knowingly caus[ing] the death of an individual and set her bail at half a million dollars, before ultimately dropping the case. In that case, a health care provider reported the woman to authorities. And in 2021, Brittney Poolaw, 19, was convicted of manslaughter in Oklahoma for miscarrying after she told hospital staff that she had used drugs while pregnant. Women of color like Poolaw, who is Native American, also face criminalization at far higher rates than white women.

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In May, a draft version of Alitos opinion was leaked by Politico, offering state and local officials a dire warning of what was to come. In the weeks before the end of Roe, city governments in states with anti-abortion laws on the books were attempting to limit their enforcement. In late May, for example, Austin City Council Member Chito Vela introduced a measure that would direct law enforcement to make cases involving reproductive health care the lowest-level priority. A similar measure will be voted on in Denton, Texas, next week.

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Others are looking for electoral solutions to limit the decisions fallout. Julie Oliver of Ground Game Texas, a progressive group seeking to organize and mobilize voters, said her group is attempting to put forward a ballot measure that would direct law enforcement to de-emphasize criminal investigations involving reproductive health care in cities across Texas. These mitigation strategies will be an uphill battle. What were trying to do in this specific space with the ballot initiative, its like trying to put a band-aid on a gushing wound, Oliver said. Its a patchwork mechanism to address the fascismI dont know what to call it other than what it isthats coming from state leadership.

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The reality is that with Roes demise, state laws will in some cases shift dramatically and quickly, and that people seeking abortion care, as well as legal professionals themselves, might be caught scrambling to adjust to such rapid change. To help aid people in understanding how the new landscape affects their choices, If/When/How offers a confidential legal helpline for people to call and get help understanding the laws in their state. I think part of the strategy from oppositional forces seems to be kind of generating confusion, and making folks not know whats going on. So then they do nothing, right? Pierre said. Nobody should not have the abortion that they need or want because theyre confused about what the law is.

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As the fallout of the Dobbs decision takes effect across the country, many legal experts and reproductive justice advocates have noted the shocking disparities that will follow. Poolaws and Herreras cases illustrate that criminal penalties are disproportionately borne by people with the least resources. And on Friday, Attorney General Merrick Garland gave credence to these claims. The consequences of eliminating the right to an abortion will be greatly disproportionate in its effectwith the greatest burdens felt by people of color and those of limited financial means, he wrote.

No doubt, reproductive justice advocates have been working to limit these harms for years. Weve been saying since the onset, Zaena Zamora, executive director of the Frontera Fund, told Prisms Tina Vasquez in April, every time you pass any type of abortion restriction, its going to affectfirst and foremostlow-income people, people of color, and people [from] marginalized communities.
On Friday, the Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 decision Roe v. Wade, which established a womans right to abortion, with its ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization. Justice Samuel Alitos opinion in the case largely tracks with a draft that leaked last month and rolls back federal protections for reproductive freedom. What happens now?

Is abortion illegal?

No, not nationwide. But many states have bans or restrictions that were designed to go into effect as soon as Roe was overturned.

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What exactly does restricted mean?

At the most basic level, it often means banning abortions after a certain number of weeksin some cases, around six weeks, before many people even know theyre pregnant. But there are a wide variety of restrictions. Common ones include:

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 Overly burdensome regulations for the abortion providers and their faciliites

 State-mandated abortion counseling (often with the intent of dissuading patients from receiving abortions)

 Mandated waiting periods between a counseling appointment and the abortion procedure or provision of abortion medication

[Read: Doctors in Alabama Already Turn Away Miscarrying Patients. This Will Be Americas New Normal.]

How do I know what restrictions are applicable to where I live?

You can see each states specific regulations here: This is a map, from Planned Parenthood, that shows both existing regulations and the likelihood of future restrictions, including those that could result from trigger laws.

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What is a trigger law?

Thirteen states have trigger laws, which are abortion bans or restrictions that have been passed (or could quickly be passed) to take effect the minute Roe is overturned. Kentucky, Louisiana, and South Dakota have full bans on abortion that will be triggered now that Roe is overturned. (The only exception, in all three states, is if the patients life is in danger.)

Other states with trigger laws on the books are Arkansas, Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.

Sign Up for the Surge The most important political nonsense of the week, delivered to your inbox every Saturday. 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.

When do those laws go into effect?

In Idaho, Tennessee, and Texas, the bans will go into effect 30 days after Roe is overturned. (In Texas, existing law already prohibits abortions after about the sixth week of pregnancy.)

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In seven other states, the governor, attorney general, or legislative general counsel would first need to certify that the Dobbs ruling does indeed mean abortion can be banneda simple formality that could take as little as an hour. These seven states are Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming. (Oklahoma already fully banned abortions in May.)

[Read: The Most Unexpected Consequence of the Texas Abortion Ban]

In states where abortion is or will soon be banned, are there exceptions?

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Generally, the bans have exceptions for cases in which the patients life is in danger. But high-risk pregnancies are common, and when dealing with complications that dont necessarily amount to black-or-white scenarios, doctors are left grappling with extremely difficult questions. This means were likely to see cases in which doctors, afraid of being criminally prosecuted, act against their own medical judgment and refuse care to patients until they are near death.

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Some abortion bans will include exceptions for rape and incest. But according to the Guttmacher Institute, such exceptions are rare and often require patients to report an assault to law enforcement or navigate other difficult bureaucratic processes. Some may also have exceptions for fetal anomalies, when a pregnancy complication means a fetus will not survive to a full term or after birth.

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So, doctors could get in legal trouble for helping with an abortion?

Yes, even if its really a miscarriage that a patient needs assistance with.

Will people who get abortions in these states face criminal prosecution?

There are plenty of indications that a post-Roe world could see pregnant people punished both with fines and jail time. So far, most of the trigger laws impose penaltiesoften, felonies that can carry substantial prison sentenceson abortion providers, as well as, on occasion, those who aid and abet the abortion. But in South Carolina, people who have abortions could face a fine and up to two years in prison. And even before the overturning of Roe, in recent years, some women have been imprisoned for ending their own pregnancies in the U.S., charged with the crime of feticide.

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According to Politico, some lawmakers are pushing bills that would go furtheras in Louisiana, where one bill would classify abortion as homicide. If the legal thinking shifts toward this more extreme interpretation, these laws could lead to prosecutions for women who drink or use drugs during pregnancy (even if they didnt know they were pregnant) or those who have miscarriages or stillbirths.

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[Read: Were Not Going Back to Before Roe]

Can you get in trouble for having an abortion out of state?

No. Theres no federal ban, and states have no jurisdiction over other states. It will remain legal to travel to a state without a ban to receive an abortion procedure or medication abortion.

What does that mean? Whats different about medication abortion?

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Decades of studies have found that medication abortionswhich consist of taking two pills, over a few days, and are appropriate for pregnancies up to 10 weeksare very safe and highly effective. As a result, in December, the FDA lifted the requirement for patients to obtain the first of the two pills from just a clinic or doctors office. (The FDA will continue to regulate the drugs to ensure the ones on the U.S. market are safe.)

That means that patients in some states with abortion bans will still be able to seek out prescriptions, via telemedicine, from doctors in blue states. (Some providers may require patients to pick up the medication in person or at a mailing address in the state where they practice, and some states with bans are also prohibiting the delivery of abortion pills by mail.) If states pass laws with penalties for the patients who receive abortions, its possible that patients could face legal repercussions for an at-home abortion, even if they obtained the pills in a legal way.

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What else should I know about medication abortions?

More than half of abortion patients now get medication instead of undergoing in-clinic procedures. As mentioned above, the FDA recently ended the in-person requirement for getting the pill. There is a growing marketplace for this mail-order treatment.

[Read: Everything You Need to Know About Medication Abortion]

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However, some states have already curtailed legal access to the two pills prescribed for the abortion medication, and many are eyeing severe restrictions or full bans. These restrictions include requirements that clinicians be physically present when an abortion pill is taken, as well as laws against mail-order pills.

Should we be stocking up on medication?

While you can order the pills online or obtain a prescription and pill order from an overseas doctor, to legally obtain them in states without bans, you must first consult with a medical provider, who can then prescribe them for you. (State requirements vary on how you can receive them.)

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That being said, many women in states with bans will be able to obtain abortion pills when needed. In Mexico and some other countries, misoprostolthe second medication in the two-step regimen, which expels the contents of the uterusis sold over the counter as ulcer medication. Taken alone, it is around 80 percent effective for abortion. It is also safe. (The FDA does not regulate medications sold outside the country).

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The organization Plan C offers a guide to procuring the pills, even when you live in a state with restrictions, and more information on the growing online market.

Many of the online groups are based abroad and are therefore generally out of reach of U.S. regulators. While some activists worry about the potential risks of an unregulated black market, others point out that such medications are far safer than other forms of self-managed abortion.

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Uh, OK, well then what should I do if I am a person who could get pregnant but does not want an unwanted pregnancy?

The easiest way to personally prepare for the post-Roe world is to get an IUD or begin taking another form of effective contraception. Plan Bemergency contraceptionis still legal.

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Contraceptives are still legal everywhere?

Yep. Birth control, including the morning-after pill, is still legal everywhere. But there are reports that some anti-abortion groups and lawmakers have begun planning to attempt to ban emergency contraception. (Among these groups, the push is directed at both Plan Btype pills and IUDs.)

Will this ruling affect other elements of reproductive care?

Yes, banning abortion will lead to major medical risks in particular for miscarriages, given that miscarriages may have to be completed (for the safety of the patient) with a medication that evacuates the uterus. This is necessary to prevent infections. The medication most commonly used to evacuate the uterus after a miscarriage is misoprostol, the second part of a medication abortion. In Texas, we have already seen pharmacists decline to prescribe these drugs out of concern for legal repercussions.

[Read: Four Ways Blue Cities in Red States Can Protect Abortion Access Post-Roe]

If I live in a state where abortion is now banned, how do I find a provider?

You can locate one in a nearby state here or here. You can find other resources with more information about accessing abortions and getting financial and logistical assistance here and here. If you need legal help, you can find that here.

If I want to help people who live in one of those states access an abortion, how can I?

Experts say the best way is by donating to local and regional abortion funds, which help with the logistics and finances of receiving an abortion out-of-state.

How common are abortions?

In 2020, there were a little over 930,000 abortions in the United States, according to the Guttmacher Institute. More than 14 percent of women of typical childbearing age had abortions in 2020. In other words, the overturning of Roe will have devastating effects on tens of thousands of people.

Read more of Slates coverage on abortion rights here.

For more on the legal fight that led to the original Roe versus Wade decision, listen to the latest episode of Slow Burn.
On Sunday, many Christian churches across the country will celebrate the news of Roes end with sermons lauding the monumental victory for life. Already on Twitter we can see a preview of whats to come. Some nascent debates among Christians there have begun to form: whether to address ways to help pregnant mothers, whether to begin talking about the next legal and cultural battlegrounds, whether to reach out for common ground with the pro-choice side or look for ways to soothe the national anguish.

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But, with some exceptions from more progressive groups, the immediate reaction from many Christian leaders to Dobbs has been triumphant.

While religious Americans are by no means uniform in opposing abortion (a majority of Catholics, for example, believe abortions should be legal in all or most cases), the political power for the pro-life movement has been driven by white evangelicals, while Catholics have historically provided the movements intellectual scaffolding. So the most visible and influential responses have been from those Christians who fought to get us here.

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Nodding to that fight, many major organizations have released statements that touted the historical nature of the ruling, while still reminding the public of the work left to do.

Bart Barber, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention:

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Southern Baptists rejoice at the ruling that the United States Supreme Court has delivered today.  State-by-state, mother-by-mother, heart-by-heart, we will continue our sacred work toward this goal.

Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops:

This is a historic day in the life of our country, one that stirs our thoughts, emotions and prayers. For nearly fifty years, America has enforced an unjust law that has permitted some to decide whether others can live or die.  The pro-life movement deserves to be numbered among the great movements for social change and civil rights in our nations history.

Walter Kim, the president of the National Association of Evangelicals:

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God is the author of life, and every human life from conception to death has inestimable worth. Under Roe v. Wade, our ability to consider policies that safeguard life at the most vulnerable stage was severely limited. While the Dobbs decision doesnt resolve all the questions on abortion policy, it does remove an impediment to considering pro-life concerns.

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Individual faith leaders and more overtly political groups were less restrained in relishing their win.

James Dobson, former Focus on the Family leader:

Praise God! We have just received the news for which we have been praying and working! Roe was built on a lie that somewhere hidden in our Constitution there existed a right to destroy children in the womb.  History will judge it as one of the courts most shameful moments. But now the court has corrected its mistake.

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The Conservative Baptist Network, the conservative faction inside the SBC:

Today is a major victory for the sanctity of human life and an answer to many, many years of fervent prayer. Praise God!

Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family:

Today is the day to give thanks to God - life wins!

CatholicVote, a conservative Catholic political group:

June is now Life Month.

Jeff Hunt, director of the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University:

The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled. Some of the sweetest words uttered in American history. Today is a historic day of celebration.

Rick Warren, founder and senior pastor of Saddleback Church, a megachurch in Lake Forest, California:

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Millions of unborn Americans say thank you!

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Some released statements that highlighted the justices heroism in the face of pressure from the left.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council:

Despite incredible unprecedented pressure from the pro-abortion movement, including leaking the opinion before it was officially released, the members of the Court held fast to their constitutional duty. The Court maintained its independence and in doing so, upheld its integrity and preserved the foundation of justice.

Others hinted at what might come next.

Bill Donohue, president of the conservative Catholic League, teased a fight over emergency contraceptives:

Aside from the legal matters, abortion involves a host of biological and moral issues. The DNA that makes us all unique human beings is present at conception, and not a day later. It is a credit to the Catholic Church that it led the discussion on the morality of abortion for all these years.

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The far-right publication Church Militant was also eyeing contraceptives:

Were coming for Griswold next.

But there were those among the pro-life faction who took the time to remind their followers of the pain that their victory would cause, and the responsibility they had to face that pain.

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As Timothy Dalrymple, the president and CEO of Christianity Today, the flagship magazine of American evangelicalism, put it:

We celebrate the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson.  It could be the most significant moral achievement of a generation. The end of Roe will honor the sanctity of human life and deliver children safely into the world. It will also bring real hardships for many mothers. The best way we can celebrate the children who will be born of Roes demise is to love the mothers who raise them.

For more on religions role in the abortion debate, listen to an episode from this season of Slow Burn on a Catholic couple from Cincinnati who kickstarted the right-to-life movement with their Handbook on Abortion.
There was some big, big adult-in-the-room energy for day five of the Jan. 6 committee hearings as three insiders insiders, all high-ranking Republican lawyers, took turns demonstrating what many previous witnesses could really only have guessed at.

To wit: Donald J. Trump instigated the efforts to rope the Department of Justice into setting aside the 2020 election results. He refused to stand down despite literally dozens of admonitions that his claims were absolute nonsense. Those who stuck around the DOJ deep into the presidents King Learon-the-heath phase only managed to right the ship of state in the eleventh hour by threatening mass resignations if Trump went through with his plans to install a lackey named Jeff Clark as acting attorney general. And that was because they balked at the prospect of Clarkan environmental lawyer from the civil division whose only qualification was a willingness to help overturn the electionroaming free throughout the cosmos, investigating Italy, and suitcases, and hundreds of thousands of dead voters to his hearts content.

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In this telling, former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, his deputy Richard Donoghue, and former Office of Legal Counsel head Steven Engel were willing to go along with a lot of Donald Trumps worst impulses and imperatives, but they drew the line at Italian satellites, crackpot YouTube videos, and allowing Dr. Strangelove to drive government into a ditch.

You see, theres crazy, theres cruel, theres self-dealingbut then there is utterly bonkers. And like former Attorney General Bill Barr, who testified on video in the hearings, this is where the adults in the room concluded that they must draw the line. Bonkers. Its a low bar, but like millions of others I find myself pathetically grateful that there is a bar at all. There was something gratifying about listening to former White House lawyer Eric Herschmann recount how he slapped poor Jeff Clark all over all the time zones. (I said  fucking a-hole  congratulations: Youve just admitted your first step or act youd take as attorney general would be committing a felony.)

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At another level, sit with the fact that Bill Barr agreed to do an investigation of election fraud in the winter of 2020 because he was convinced that if he didnt, he wasnt sure we would have a transition at all. Sit also with the fact that acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller called the defense attache in Italy to check whether an Italian satellite had indeed switched votes from Donald Trump to Joe Biden. It brings to mind mostly how adults often move mountains to pacify the squalling of toddlers or, more personally, what used to happen when my son would leave his snuggle donkey at preschool and we needed to call everyone in town to get the building unlocked so he would sleep at bedtime. One might have hoped that being the adult in the Oval Office demanded a loftier standard. But if Thursdays testimony is any indication, every day was Snuggle Donkey Day in the Oval.

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Again, count me among those who are glad that the people investigating the imaginary suitcase scandal in Georgia didnt turn up any imaginary corroboration of it.

The night Donald Trump was elected, I wrote that everyone at the DOJ should, as I put it then, take a knee, rather than work to achieve the vicious ends he sought to deliver, from the Muslim ban to the wall with Mexico. And over the course of Trumps term, the idea that Trump could be contained by sober, professional Republicans from the military, national security, and legal worldsthese proverbial adults in the roombecame something of a punchline, as a perpetually tantruming president humiliated and tossed aside one such previously respected adviser after another.

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After today, its clear the country avoided something chilling because many competent and principled peopleor at least people who valued basic democratic normsdid stay on in government, despite the liberal carping. The counterfactual might have been acting Attorney Jeff Clark prosecuting Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman for tampering with the Georgia election by way of a ginger mint.

Yet, the fact that we are in a moment in which a whole lot of people who might have testified at the second impeachment hearing for Donald Trump waited until they were subpoenaed to explain that he was careening toward what several warned would be a constitutional crisis seems to prove that we are now invisibly turning bystanders into upstanders, and upstanders into superheroes.

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There will be fallout from todays hearings. We have a video of GOP stalwarts asking for pardons that were broader in scope than the one sought by Richard Nixon. You know, one of those pardons for attempting to overthrow the entire government and any and all things? We have Donald Trump asking to have voting machines seized, and White House call logs that seemed to be of the view that Jeff Clark was already the attorney general by January of 2021. It will be harder, going forward, for Trump to throw folks under the bus as it becomes ever more apparent that he was the one driving it.

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But if one were to worry about where these hearings are headed, the worry would be just this: If the adults in the room are reduced to placating the toddlers and the heroes of democracy are the ones still unwilling to commit actual felonies, then the job description for adults and heroes is pretty thin. Our standards for honorable public service have fallen so far through the floorboards that we are now supposed to consider it a relief that Trumps Cabinet members were doing careful deep dives on what Rep. Adam Kinzinger ultimately characterized as far out fully fabricated whack job conspiracy theories.

Nobody is gladder for Rosen, Donoghue, and Engel than constitutional democracy is today. But this is all the root cellar, not the ceiling, and it doesnt bode well for the next coup if this is the most we can come to expect.
 Flash

Snowfall and freezing weather have claimed the lives of 12 children in eastern Afghanistan's Kunar province, the state-run Bakhtar news agency reported Thursday.

The natural disaster took place in Yugal area of Chawkay district, the news agency reported without providing more details.

Villagers on condition of anonymity said the calamity took place a couple of days ago when the families of nomads were taking their animals to the mountains for grazing. All victims belonged to the nomad families.

Parts of the war-torn Afghanistan have recently been the scene of heavy rain and flooding as dozens of people, according to officials, have lost their lives in flash floods across the country.

In addition to downpour and flooding, more than 1,000 people have been confirmed dead in an earthquake that jolted eastern Paktika and Khost provinces early on Wednesday.
The Supreme Court on Friday incinerated Roe v. Wade like an old oil rag, laying the groundwork for states to ban abortion for the first time since the 1970s. So, it seems like a good time to check in with Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, the two Democrats whove functionally blocked their party from passing federal legislation protecting the right to choose by opposing changes to the Senate filibuster, and who, in Manchins case, also voted outright against a bill that would have codified Roes safeguards (and a bit more) in May. Surely they must have something meaningful to say.

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Lets start with Sinema:

Overturning Roe v. Wade  after 5 decades of legal precedent  endangers the health of women in Arizona and across America. Ive always supported womens access to health care, and pledge to work with anyone to protect womens ability to make their own decisions.  Kyrsten Sinema (@kyrstensinema) June 24, 2022

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Will work with anyone! Great. But, like, who? And how?

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And as for Manchin: Where do his thoughts lie, after voting for both Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, who in turn voted to overrule Roe?

My statement on the decision by the Supreme Court of the United States to overturn Roe v. Wade: pic.twitter.com/b8bYUP6Zy5  Senator Joe Manchin (@Sen_JoeManchin) June 24, 2022

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Lets zoom in there.

I am deeply disappointed that the Supreme Court has voted to overturn Roe v. Wade. It has been the law of the land for nearly 50 years and was understood to be settled precedent. I trusted Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh when they testified under oath that they also believed Roe v. Wade was settled legal precedent and I am alarmed they chose to reject the stability the ruling has provided for two generations of Americans.

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Manchin feels disappointed and misled. Its a sentiment that could have come straight from his friend Susan Collins. Is there any chance this might have made him rethink his lifelong fetishization of bipartisanship?

As a Catholic, I was raised pro-life and will always consider myself pro-life. But have come to accept that my definition of pro-life may not be someone elses definition of pro-life. I believe the exceptions should be made in instances of rape, incest, and when the life of the mother is in jeopardy. But let me be clear, I support legislation that would codify the rights Roe v. Wade previously protected. I am hopeful Democrats and Republicans will come together to put forward a piece of legislation that would do just that.

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(Emphasis mine.)

I mean, if this statement were coming from any other politician, I would assume it was disingenuous trolling, given the nonexistent possibility that 10 Republicans would ever back a bill protecting abortion rights. But this being Manchin, who genuinely seems to believe in the numinous power of working across the aisle, I cant help but read it as sincere. Maybe Im wrong. Maybe hes spouting lines he knows wont ever come true and rhetorically smirking at fellow Democrats in their pain. But I wouldnt be shocked if, somehow, against all empirical evidence, he is personally hopeful for a 60-vote solution in the American Senate as presently comprised. The statement is so absurd, it almost has to be genuinely felt.

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Sincere or not, this is why Democrats are now foundering in the face of a generational defeat for their values, and why theres next to no chance Democrats will just do something, no matter how many grieving progressives tweet it in all caps today. The partys 50th vote just publicly expressed hope that the opposing party will reverse itself immediately after scoring a victory its been pursuing single-mindedly for half a century. This is who the entire Democratic agenda is resting on.

Read more of Slates coverage on abortion rights here.

For more on the legal fight that led to the original Roe versus Wade decision, listen to the latest episode of Slow Burn.
The Supreme Court took the first steps toward overruling Miranda v. Arizona on Thursday, declaring that suspects have no constitutional right to receive the famed Miranda warnings when theyre taken into custody. Its 63 decision in Vega v. Tekoh ensures that many suspects who are denied these warnings will have no legal recourse, even if they are wrongly convicted. Justice Sam Alitos opinion for the court lays the groundwork for a more direct assault on Miranda itself, barely concealing the conservative majoritys contempt for the decision.

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Vega revolves around the Fifth Amendments right against self-incrimination, which bars a defendant from being compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself. For much of American historyand especially in the Jim Crow Southlaw enforcement officers coerced confessions from suspects using intimidation or outright violence. (These confessions were frequently false.) Courts were supposed to assess whether confessions were voluntary, but the secrecy of interrogation rooms, combined with the massive power imbalance between police and suspects, made this task impossible. In 1966, the Supreme Court tried to resolve this problem with Miranda, which required police to warn suspects that they have the right to remain silent and to access an attorney. The majority hoped that suspects would quickly acquire counsel, who would ensure that law enforcement did not coerce (or beat) a confession out of their client.

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Over the last few decades, the Supreme Court has steadily retrenched from Mirandas promise while purporting to uphold its bottom line. Most famously, in 2000s Dickerson v. U.S., Chief Justice William Rehnquist reaffirmed the ruling, explaining that it had become part of our national culture. But Rehnquist called Miranda a constitutional rule, a prophylactic measure that demands more than the Fifth Amendment actually requires. As Justice Antonin Scalia correctly pointed out in his Dickerson dissent, this ruling creates a puzzle: If Miranda warnings are not a constitutional right, where does the Supreme Court get the authority to demand them?

SCOTUS has danced around this question for more than two decades, but Vega put it front and center. Terence Tekoh alleges that he was interrogated in police custody without receiving Miranda warnings. During his interrogation, he wrote a confession that was used against him at trial (though he was acquitted). Tekoh filed suit under a law that allows individuals to sue in federal court when the police violate a right secured by the Constitution. He alleged that law enforcement infringed on his Miranda rights by soliciting and submitting an un-Mirandized confession.

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Alito, writing for the conservative justices, rejected this argument in a brusque opinion that bristles with contempt for Miranda. A violation of Miranda, he declared, is not itself a violation of the Fifth Amendment. It is, rather, a judicially crafted rule, and before expanding or contracting it, the court must weigh the benefits and costs of altering its scope. Here, the balance of interests leans against extending Miranda: Doing so, Alito averred, would require a federal court to adjudicate a question that had already been decided by a state court, creating unnecessary friction between state and federal judiciaries.

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The most important part of Alitos opinion, however, isnt this analysis; its a drive-by attack on Miranda and Dickerson, much of which is relegated to a footnote. The assertion that SCOTUS can impose prophylactic rules on states and federal courts, the justice wrote, is a bold and controversial claim of authority. Whether the Supreme Court even has the authority to create constitutionally based prophylactic rules that bind both federal and state courts, he continued, has been the subject of debate among jurists and commentators. For support, he cited various critics of Mirandaincluding Scalias dissent in Dickerson. Alito then added ominously that whatever the merits of Miranda, for the purpose of deciding this case, we follow its rationale.

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The justice couldnt be much clearer: He and his conservative colleagues think Miranda and Dickerson are wrong but arent yet willing to spend the political capital necessary to overrule them. They may have feared yet another fiery dissent from Justice Elena Kagan, who laid out the stakes bluntly at oral arguments: Eradicating Miranda warnings, she warned from the bench, would undermine the legitimacy of the court in a profound sense.

Here is Justice Kagans extraordinary questionreally, a declarationabout how overturning Miranda warnings would undermine the legitimacy of the court in a profound sense as an institution and the role it plays in society. From oral arguments yesterday in Vega v. Tekoh. pic.twitter.com/IDjsv0OLOg  Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) April 21, 2022

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This rhetoric was notably absent from Kagans actual dissent in Vega. The justice did not even respond to Alitos anti-Miranda language, preferring to pretend as though it did not exist. Instead, she explained why this constitutional rule gives suspects a correlative right to be tried without the prosecutor using his un-Mirandized statement. Put differently, a suspect has a legally enforceable entitlementin a word, a rightto have his confession excluded. When that right is violated, the victim should be allowed to file suit.

By leaving Miranda on the books (for now), Vega still requires courts to suppress un-Mirandized statements during trial. As Kagan noted, though, sometimes such a statement will not be suppressed. And sometimes, as a result, a defendant will be wrongly convicted and spend years in prison. Eventually, the defendant may get his conviction reversed. But thanks to Thursdays decision, he will have no remedy for all the harm he has suffered.

Hollowing out rights by depriving victims of remedies is par for the course at this Supreme Court. So is inserting ominous criticisms of precedent in the nooks and crannies of an opinion, minimizing immediate public backlash while planting the seeds for a future, more radical decision. In Vega, Alito checks both boxes. Its not hard to see what will come next: more decisions rolling back the constitutional safeguards against involuntary confessions, followed by a final blow to Miranda.
The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on Friday, abolishing a constitutional right to abortion that has existed for nearly half a century. Its 63 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organizationwhich overrules Roe by a 54 votepaves the way for total or near-total abortion bans in half the states. Justice Samuel Alitos opinion for the court, joined by four other Republican-appointed justices, largely tracks the leaked draft. The bottom line remains the same: the eradication of federal protections for reproductive freedom. The result will be catastrophic for millions of people who will now be forced by the government to give birth against their will. And it will usher in a new era of surveillance, prosecution, and incarceration for those suspected of facilitating unlawful abortionsincluding their own.

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Dobbs reads more like a polemic against abortion than a piece of legal analysis. Alito expressed disgust for abortion at every turn and evinced a snide hostility toward both patients and providers. He begins and ends with the assertion that reproductive freedom cannot possibly be guaranteed by the Constitution because it is not spelled out in so many words. Roe, he declared, was an abuse of judicial authority that was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences.

Of course, Roe found that the right to bodily autonomy is a component of personal liberty, which is expressly protected under the Fifth and 14th amendments. But Alito rejected this theory on the grounds that the ability to terminate a pregnancy is not deeply rooted in the nations history and tradition. To bolster that conclusion, he presented historical writings (by men) condemning abortion as a monstrous and illegal act. The vast majority of his evidence was written during a time when women had virtually no rights at all, including the right to vote, hold office, practice law, own property, or not be raped by their husbands.

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Chief Justice John Roberts wrote a concurrence in the judgment, as expected, advocating for the court to uphold Mississippis 15-week banthe law at issue in Dobbswithout formally overruling Roe. I would take a more measured course, the chief justice wrote, recognizing a right to abortion that extends far enough to ensure a reasonable opportunity to choose but no further. The liberal justices wrote a joint dissent highlighting the fact that the decision was made possible solely by the addition of Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett to the bench. A new and bare majority of this Courtacting at practically the first moment possibleoverrules Roe and Casey, they wrote, continuing:

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It converts a series of dissenting opinions expressing antipathy toward Roe and Casey into a decision greenlighting even total abortion bans.  It eliminates a 50-year-old constitutional right that safeguards womens freedom and equal station. It breaches a core rule-of-law principle, designed to promote constancy in the law. In doing all of that, it places in jeopardy other rights, from contraception to same-sex intimacy and marriage. And finally, it undermines the Courts legitimacy.

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Republicans have spent decades preparing for this day, and their work will now come to fruition. Thirteen states have trigger bans that outlaw almost all abortions; they are designed to take effect once Roe falls, and will be enforced very soon. Four more states have pre-Roe bans on the books that will take effect in the near future. (Another, Michigan, has such a ban, but it has been blocked in state court.) Four other states have six-week bans that are now, for the first time, enforceable. It is worth noting that Texas and Oklahoma already functionally prohibited most abortions by passing vigilante bans that outsourced enforcement to private citizens.

Although Alito suggests that his decision will simply revert the nation back to its pre-Roe status quo, that is a fantasy. Red-state prosecutors have already begun investigating and punishing women who miscarry, a tactic that will increase exponentially now that every miscarriage is evidence of a potential crime. Similarly, doctors and pharmacists have started turning away miscarriage patients for fear of lawsuits and prosecution. The treatment for a miscarriage is often identical to the treatment for abortion. It is thus inevitable that women whose pregnancies end on their own will be caught up in the emerging dragnet.

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Then there are the countless women who will obtain abortion pills illegally to terminate their own pregnancies. Anti-abortion advocates have long claimed that they wish to punish only the provider, not the patientbut increasingly, Americans manage their own abortions with medication privately, at home. Women have already been arrested and imprisoned for inducing abortions with pills purchased online. The truth is that these medications are extremely easy to obtain and safe to use; red states cannot realistically prevent their residents from acquiring them. Even when abortion bans purport to exclude patients from penalties, individuals who buy these pills illegally may be subject to a wide array of other criminal penalties.

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[Read: Roe Is Overturned. What Happens Now?]

Right now, citizens of red states who have enough money and resources can still travel across state lines to access reproductive health care. But Republican legislators are already crafting laws to prohibit women from traveling out of state to terminate a pregnancy. They are considering new measures that would seek to shut down clinics in blue states by subjecting providers and patients to severe civil and criminal penalties. Although Alito believes that the Supreme Court has now washed its hands clean of the abortion issue, the next phase of restrictions will raise a slew of thorny constitutional questions for the justices to suss out.

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There is a strong correlation between states with restrictive abortion laws and states with high rates of maternal and infant mortality. The end of Roe will result in the deaths of many more women, with women of color at disproportionate risk of complications and death from childbirth. It will also increase the rate of child poverty in regions without abortion access. Red states have failed to enact any meaningful policies to address these problems. By criminalizing abortion without bothering to help those forced to carry unwanted pregnancies, they have forced millions of low-income womenand their childrendeeper into poverty.

Dobbs purports to protect life. In reality, it will only lead to more suffering and death.

Read more of Slates coverage on abortion rights here.
Thursdays fifth in a series of summer hearings of the Jan. 6 committee was dominated by former acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clarks role in Donald Trumps alleged conspiracy to overturn the election.*

That was because a series of unimpeachable Republican witnesses denounced Clarks abandonment of the Department of Justices foundational principles: follow the facts, apply the law, and represent your true clients, the country and justicenot the president.

The day of the hearing, reports also emerged that federal agents executed a judicially approved search warrant of Clarks home and seized his electronic devices. That news sends the country a clear signal: The DOJ is now investigating the same scheme involving Trump and Clark that was dissected at Thursdays hearing.

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We should not, however, allow Thursdays focus on Clark to obscure five other important developments that emerged in the hearing. They deserve attention as the astonishing story of Trumps attempted coup unfolds.

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1. Pardons. Liz Cheney hinted in the committees first hearing that multiple other Republican congressmen requested pardons from the former president in the weeks after Jan. 6. Now we know there is evidence as to whom: Reps. Matt Gaetz, Scott Perry, Louie Gohmert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Mo Brooks, and Andy Biggs.

To put the words of Republican Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger into courtroom terms, actively seeking a pardon is powerful evidence of consciousness of guilt. That is a key route that prosecutors can take to prove criminal intent. People ask for pardons because theyve done something that they believe makes them vulnerable to criminal prosecution.

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The principal crime that comes to mind in the case of these congressional representatives is the same that a federal judge already found Trump and his outside counsel John Eastman likely committed: conspiracy to defraud the United States. The congressional representatives may also be implicated in another crime that the judge found Trump likely committed: obstructing an official government proceedingthe Jan. 6 joint session of Congress to certify the election.

2. Attorneys as villainsand heroes. This was an attempted coup using law books and statutes instead of tanks and guns. So its little wonder that Clark, Trumps Mr. Inside collaborator/lawyer, and John Eastman, Trumps Mr. Outside collaborator/lawyer, along with Rudolph Giuliani, are in legal jeopardy.

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Still, we couldnt help but find solace, even pride, as we watched and listened to former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, and Assistant Attorney General Steven Engel. If some attorneys were coup enablers and co-plotters, others redeemed the Justice Department, their oaths of office, and the professional standards to which lawyers are bound. Thursdays witnesses had the courage to stand up for the rule of law and the Constitution, especially after weeks and weeks of unceasing pressure from the most powerful man on Earth.

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Heres a piece of news from Thursdays hearing that may not have been evident to lay observers, but that Justice Department prosecutors are sure to have observed, even if they already knew it: Rosen, Donoghue, and Engel emerged as witnesses whose credibility will be unshakeable in any trial. Any reasonable juror will take their word over the testimony of any witness Trump can produce, including himself.

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Trump himself has been reportedly watching. He may not be sleeping well in Mar-a-Lago.

3. Voting machines. Donoghues testimony revealed a Dec. 31, 2020, conversation with the president in which Trump demanded that the DOJ seize voting machines. Upon being told by Donoghue that voting machines performance was within the Department of Homeland Securitys purview, Trump phoned Ken Cuccinelli, the acting deputy secretary of DHS. Trump told Cuccinelli that the acting Attorney General  just told me its your job to seize machines, and youre not doing your job.

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Though Cuccinelli never ordered his agency to seize the machines, Trumps call was one more piece of evidenceadded to all the other calls and meetings describedshowing both his central role in the concerted scheme and his desperation to accomplish its end: thwarting the lawful transition of power. Trump could not have cared less that such a seizure was illegal, as Rosen and Donoghue counseled him.

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4. Trumps lack of interest in evidence contradicting his Big Lie. The theme that Trumps sole concern was power, and not facts or law, is the dominant message emerging from hearing after hearing, Republican witness after Republican witness.

It was one thing to watch William Barrs testimony that Trump disregarded the attorney generals message that the postelection narrative Trump and his minions were spreading about widespread voter fraud was bullshit. Now we have heard Barrs successor, Rosen, along with Donoghue, testify to their serially giving Trump the same message about the baselessness of the presidents bizarre, internet-gathered election conspiracy theories.

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In the end, Trump told the DOJ officials to just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican Congressmen.

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In other words, I dont care whats truejust say it. Repeated testimony about disregard for truth, with the goal of personal gain, is for prosecutors evidence of criminal intent wrapped in ribbon with a perfectly tied bow.

5. Sidney Powell as special counsel? Powells recorded testimony indicated that Trump promised her a special counsel appointment to investigate the election. Our jaws dropped. Thats not just because of who Powell isa lawyer whose wild public statements led even Trump to drop her from his team (at least publicly), and whom a Michigan federal judge has fined for her misrepresentations in one of the Trump campaigns postelection lawsuits. She is also the subject of bar disciplinary proceedings in Texas. And on June 22, the Justice Department asked a judge to launch an ethics probe of Powell for allegedly funding the legal defense of the Oath Keepers, the militant group whose leader is now under indictment for his role in the violence on Jan. 6.

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The idea of Powell serving as a Justice Department special counsel should send chills up the spine of anyone who believes in the importance of the truth. Moreover, as Engels testimony revealed, neither Rosen nor his predecessor Barr believed there was a conflict of interest in the Justice Department investigating the election; such a conflict is the predicate for a special counsels appointment. Who, we struggle to imagine, would have posed a greater conflict of interest as special counsel probing the election than Sidney Powell?

Each of the select committees hearings seems like an impossible evidentiary act to follow. And for those watching, each presentation exceeds expectations in laying out a coherent narrative about Trumps seven-part plot to destroy American democracy.

We are only midway through the hearings. But with the Justice Department suddenly issuing subpoenas and searching the homes of collaborators in Trumps coup attempt, one thing is clear: There are more surprises ahead.
Should I take off my shoes? Is it OK if I grab a beer? Can I plug in my phone somewhere?

When you entertain guests, those questions are inevitable. Now, with electric vehicle sales increasing by 85 percent in just the past year, and expectations that the growth will continue into the foreseeable future, you should get ready for a new one: Can I plug in my car?

Adriana Porter Felt, a director of engineering for Chrome, recently raised that question by tweeting, Whats the etiquette on car chargers? Do you offer house guests to charge their cars? Is it rude to ask someone if you can charge there while visiting?

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My answers to those questions are: Its evolving. Yes. And no.

If youre nervous about letting a guest plug in, heres what you need to know.

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First things first: If someone rolls up in their EV and asks to borrow some electrons, you might not be sure if you even have that capability. Well, the answer is likely yes if you have a garage and an accessible power outlet. Your guest will simply need to plug in the portable charger that comes with most electric vehicles; no special equipment needed on your end.

Youre also probably worrying about how much it will cost. The good news is that its likely far less than you realize, but first there are some assumptions we need to make, such as car battery size, percentage of battery that needs to be charged, and the cost of electricity (per kilowatt hour). It seems unlikely that your guests will come coasting down the hill to your house with a completely empty battery (unless you have some very daring friends). So, lets assume that they arrive with 20 percent of a fairly standard 70kWh battery and you can charge at the national average of 11 cents per kWh. In that case, it will cost you less than $7 to completely charge their car.

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But the cost could be much lower or higher than that. Many utilities offer discounted rates to charge at night. For example, if you are traveling to Phoenix in the winterwhich is a great time to travel to Phoenixyou can charge during the Super Off-Peak hours for only 3 cents per kWh. This means the total charge would be only $1.68, about the price of a slice of pizza. On the other hand, if youre in Hawaii, the average cost per kWh is 28 cents, bringing our total cost to $15.68. That is, of course, an extreme example.

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But theres something nice about the fact that we have to dig a little bit to come up with those numbers. After all, we dont calculate the water usage, food consumption, and electricity used by each guest (and if you do tabulate those things, well, hosting might not be your thing).

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And there are a few reasons why we dont do this. There is a general, unspoken quid pro quo agreement that exists for most guests. You dont charge someone to come and stay in your bedroom, and they in turn repay the favor down the road. Thats just the way it is. And Im glad. The invisibility of expense will help to catalyze the normalcy of letting someone charge their car at your home. And the normalcy of charging is going to lead to an era of improved road trips.

Electric vehicles save a significant amount of time in daily driving; one second to plug in at home is significantly faster than spending 10 minutes to stop and fill up with gasoline. Its possible that long road trips can take more time in an EV, but the difference disappears quickly if you are driving with kids or like to partake in such extravagances as eating or going to the bathroom. What rarely gets discussed is the significant advantage that EVs have on short road trips.

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When we hear road trip we think about long days of driving and multiple stops to fill up with gas. In reality, 78 percent of road trips are 50 to 249 miles one way. If you hop in a gasoline-powered car and drive 150 miles one way, it is likely that you will still need to stop for gas on the way home. But most new electric vehicles thrive at this distance, and as long as you can charge at your destination, you wont have to stop at all. I am not speaking about this in a hypothetical sense. I am speaking from experience.

Our family has made the 140-mile trek from Scottsdale to Oro Valley, Arizona, countless times over the past 15 years. For most of those years we drove in a gas car, and we stopped at a gas station on every single one of those trips. Now, you might be thinking: Didnt your car have more than 280 miles of range? Of course. But it was unlikely that we started with close to a full tank of gas, which means that our range was always less than the maximum.

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The process is much simpler in our electric vehicle: We start the trip with a full battery. Plug in when we get there. Spend the day or night. Then drive home. No unnecessary stops along the way. No wasted time.

Were fortunate that when we arrive in Oro Valley the garage door is open, and my wifes grandfather is anxiously waiting to help us plug in. It might seem like a simple thing, but the ability to charge at our destination noticeably improves the experience of our road trip. We dont need to stop anywhere on the way home. Theres no waiting around. The car is ready to go when we are, and the ability to plug-in as guests is what makes this possible.

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And on the flip side, I encourage other EV drivers to feel comfortable asking their friends and families to let them plug in. You might have to give them a quick rundown on the expenses and the equipment needed, but hopefully theyll just say Yeah, go for it. A societal norm surrounding mutual charging is something that will improve travel for millions of Americans.

The expense will be insubstantial for most homeowners, and you may not even notice the increase in your power bill. But most importantly: A world where we let each other plug in on road trips is a world where road trips are just that much easier and more fun. Who doesnt want that? Unless you dont want more guests dropping by, of course.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
Petra Pauerova, a university student, talks about her experience as a UN youth delegate.

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After her professor told her about the post of United Nations youth delegate, Petra Pauerova decided to send her application.

In 2019 she was selected for the position. Very few people in Slovakia knew about the post at the time and Pauerova wanted to use her term to change that and raise awareness of it among young people. She also wanted to highlight the issue of unpaid internships for students.

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She also tells the Spectator College podcast that the UN is getting better at listening to the opinions of young people.

Listen to the podcast:

https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/1290327109&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=true&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true

Exam topic: Role Models

Other study materials:

The faker-in-chief exposing disinformation in Slovakia Read more

Glossary: Who is your role model? Read more

This glossary is published as part of The Spectator College, a programme designed to support the study and teaching of English in Slovakia, as well as to inspire interest in important public issues among young people.
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On Thursday, a high-level dialogue was held in Beijing to address the importance of women's and girls' economic empowerment through education and skills development.

The event was co-hosted by the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in Beijing and the United Nations in China. Participants included U.N. agencies, key stakeholders in China, members of the diplomatic community, and international organizations with a shared interest in advancing Goal 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

Gender equality and women's empowerment are a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable world, with education key in attempting to reverse the gendered patterns of discrimination. Globally more girls are going to and staying in school than ever before; however, as many as 48.1% of girls remain out of school in some regions, according to U.N. Women.

The dialogue saw opening remarks from Dr. Ali Obaid Al Dhaheri, the UAE ambassador to China, and Siddharth Chatterjee, U.N. resident coordinator in China. Both emphasized the importance of women and girls having the opportunity to complete all levels of education and acquire the knowledge and skills to compete in the labor market.

"The UAE believes in the unique and fundamental role women and girls play in achieving development and prosperity in their communities. The only way a society can aspire to sustainable economic growth and development is through education, especially the education of women and girls," said Dr. Ali Obaid Al Dhaheri.

"Today, the UAE is committed to ensuring women's inclusion in its foreign aid policy. Its prioritized themes are aligned with the U.N. SDGs and gender equality. Women's empowerment, in particular, is at the core of the UAE's foreign aid programming and projects."

"Education and skills development is the foundation of human development and women's empowerment. UNESCO estimates that just one additional year of schooling can increase a girl's earnings by 20% when she grows up. On the contrary, a World Bank study shows that limited educational opportunities for girls could cost countries between 15 to 30 trillion dollars in lost lifetime productivity and earnings. Unfortunately, too many girls are still held back from acquiring their desired education," said Siddharth Chatterjee.

"Greater action and investment are needed in the education and skills development field for women. We are holding this dialogue today as part of our efforts to strengthen advocacy and work of the U.N. and our stakeholders, including Member States like the UAE, to accelerate SDG progress worldwide and ensure no one is left behind."

In responding to these challenges, the dialogue saw guest remarks from Reem Ketait, deputy assistant minister for political affairs at the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and Li Ying, dean of the School of International Education, China Women's University and All-China Women's Federation Executive Leadership Academy.

"As a founding member of the Women Entrepreneurs Financing Initiative, the UAE has contributed $50 million in support of 300,000 women gaining access to finance, market, and networks throughout different regions," said Reem Ketait.

"China's investment in education, especially in women and girls' education, is one of the fundamental reasons and prerequisites for China's unprecedented achievements in poverty alleviation and development," said Li Ying.

The dialogue also featured a panel discussion on "Accelerating SDGs progress: education and skills development for women's economic empowerment." Insights were shared by Mei Ruo, director of Beijing Hongyan Social Work Service Center, Ching Tien, founder of Educating Girls of Rural China, Lin Liu, rural commissioner of Alibaba Group to Qinglong, Lin Jialei, program manager of Women's Economic Empowerment, U.N. Women China Office, Mouza Al Shehhi, director of the U.N. Women-UAE Liaison Office for the GCC, and Anna D'Addio, a senior policy analyst from UNESCO.
Gering Police arrested a 36-year-old Gering man on Saturday, June 18, in connection with allegations that he had molested an 11-year-old girl.

Jordan Long has been charged with five counts of first-degree sexual assault, a Class IB felony. He appeared in Scotts Bluff County Court for the first time Wednesday.

According to an arrest affidavit filed in the case, an investigation began on June 15 when when a mother brought her daughter and made a report at the Gering Police Department. The girl alleged that Long had sexually assaulted her in the past and she was transported to CAPstone for a forensic interview.

The girl alleged that Long had sexually assaulted her multiple times, beginning when she was 4 years old. She disclosed that the last encounter had occurred in March 2022. She provided locations where she alleged the assaults had occurred, including Longs past and current residences.

Police made contact with Long that same day and he declined to be interviewed before police took him into custody.

A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for July 6. Long is being held on a $750,000 bond.

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LINCOLN  The top contenders in Nebraskas Republican gubernatorial primary shelled out the big bucks in the days leading up to the May 10 election, according to the latest round of campaign finance reports.

The filings, which include donations and expenses from April 26 to June 14, show the three leading GOP candidates  hog producer Jim Pillen, Falls City businessman Charles W. Herbster and State Sen. Brett Lindstrom  combined to spend millions of dollars during the reporting period. Spending surged at such a rate that both Pillen, who won the Republican primary, and second-place finisher Herbster loaned their campaigns hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In total, Pillen has received nearly $9.5 million in contributions since he launched his campaign in 2021, with more than $1 million collected in the seven weeks covered in the latest filing. He has spent almost as much as he has raised, with nearly $9.1 million in expenditures. Of that total, Pillens campaign spent nearly $2.2 million during the most recent reporting period. Pillens campaign manager could not immediately be reached for comment.

Herbsters campaign received about $13.2 million in overall contributions, including nearly $575,000 during the reporting period. He spent over $12.7 million during the course of his campaign, with more than $1.5 million of those expenditures coming in the latest filing period.

Herbster largely self-funded his campaign, though he didnt report contributing any of his own money in the latest filing. He previously reported contributing $11.3 million cash to his campaign since the start of 2021.

Lindstrom, who finished third in the primary, didnt come close to Pillen or Herbster in terms of funding. In total, Lindstrom received more than $3 million in contributions, including more than $391,000 in the most recent reporting period. He spent $3 million overall, and about $650,000 during the recent reporting period.

Lindstroms campaign reported an ending cash balance of nearly $56,000.

The Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue, received far less funding than the top three Republicans. She has brought in nearly $191,000, including about $43,000 in the latest reporting period. Blood has spent nearly $152,000, with about $53,000 of that coming in the latest reporting period.

Blood, who will face Pillen in the November general election, reported having just over $39,000 cash on hand at the close of the recent reporting period. Pillen reported having just over $373,000 cash on hand.

The latest filings encompass a period after the GOP gubernatorial primary was rocked by allegations from eight women who claimed Herbster groped them at public events in recent years. The allegations were reported by the Nebraska Examiner, an online news site.

Herbsters deputy campaign manager, Rod Edwards, said the article did not play a role in their campaigns final expenses. Instead, he said most of their money went to competing with attack ads that aired on television.

There was a lot more money against Charles than Charles was able to spend, Edwards said.

Both Herbster and Lindstrom were the target of negative ads from third-party groups. One group, Conservative Nebraska, had the backing of Gov. Pete Ricketts, who supports Pillen. Ricketts contributed nearly $1.3 million to Conservative Nebraska, and his parents, Joe and Marlene Ricketts, contributed a total of $250,000 to the group, according to the latest report.

Conservative Nebraska reported spending more than $950,000 opposing Lindstrom and $858,000 opposing Herbster.

For all three Republican candidates, advertising made up the lions share of their last-minute expenses. Pillen paid more than $1.5 million for advertising between three different companies before the election. Lindstrom spent over $467,000 on television advertisements.

Herbsters campaign spent more than $1 million with one company, the Louisiana-based marketing firm People Who Think. Edwards said the campaign worked with the company throughout the election on campaign advertisements.

All three candidates loaned their campaign thousands of dollars. Pillen made two loans to his campaign totaling $550,000  one $250,000 loan May 4 and one $300,000 loan June 10. Lindstrom loaned his campaign $50,000 in late April.

Herbster loaned his campaign $350,000 May 9, the day before the primary election. Edwards said Herbster did this to cover recent expenses and balance the campaigns budget.

The Herbster campaign reported having nearly $524,000 cash on hand at the end of the recent reporting period.

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Iraqi writer and Yazidi human rights activist Mirza Dinnayi will be among the panel of judges in the regional competition of this years Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival, the latter informed on Facebook.

Dinnayi is the director and co-founder of "Air Bridge Iraq," which helps Yazidi victims of the Iraq war, rescues women and children from the ISIS-controlled territories and transfers them to Germany where they receive medical care.

After the 2003 US invasion of Iraq and Saddam Husseins fall, Dinnayi was offered the post of the presidential adviser for minority rights to Jalal Talabani. Mirza worked in this position for almost a year.

On August 14, 2007, two suicide bombers set off car bombs in two Yazidi towns near Mosul. Mirza Dinnayi initiated the fundraising company for the victims and established an organization that helped hundreds of children and women to find asylum and get medical help in Germany including future social rights activist and the Sakharov Prize winner Lamiya Haji Bashar.

In early August 2014, ISIS soldiers occupied Sinjar. The Yazidi escaped to the Sinjar Mountains. Mirza Dinnayi persuaded the Iraq prime minister to evacuate the civilians by helicopter. Dinnayi himself guided the pilots, who didnt know the local terrain. On August 12, 2014, the Mi-7 helicopter with Dinnayi on board crashed a few minutes after the ascent. With the broken leg and ribs, Dinnayi survived and was transported to Germany. Shortly afterward he returned to Iraq in a wheelchairto visit a rescue camp in Khanke.

In October 2019 in Yerevan, Mirza Dinnayi received the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity.

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Tomorrow evening, community members will have the opportunity to meet the new Floyd Young Life Area Director Chase Ferrell and his wife, Bri.

Ferrells new position has been vacant since December 2021, when Trey Thompson and his family moved away. Thompson was involved with the organization for more than a decade.

Local Young Life leaders announced Ferrell would be joining the team in April.

Chase and Bri greatly value the mission of Young Life, as demonstrated by their commitment as volunteers over the past several years, the Floyd Young Life announcement said.

Ferrell is a Botetourt County native and graduated from Virginia Tech in 2019. During Ferrells senior year of high school his Young Life leader encouraged him to really commit his whole life to Christ.

Ever since then, I've been sold out for Jesus, said Ferrell.

The couple has recently led regular worship and fellowship events at a high school near Charlotte, N.C.

While the Ferrells are still transitioning in, Ferrell said this week, the couple has spent several Saturday hours at the Floyd Farmers Market and several Friday evenings discovering music across town.

Ferrell said building relationships with students is what Young Life is all about. Creating a space where students feel known, cared for and genuinely engaged created deep friendships that truly impact a person.

I met my Young Life leader in 2009, and I still keep up with him fairly often, Ferrell said.

The move to Floyd has been really smooth, he said, and meeting new community members has been amazing.

While the Ferrells set to work growing Floyd County Young Life and organizing student activities, they will also welcome their first child, a baby boy, in September.

It's not just a job for me. This is my own son that will be growing up in this community, and I want to make it a better place for him once he grows up, Ferrell said.

A potluck dinner will be held for the community to meet the Ferrells at 5 p.m. on June 24. Those interested in attending should RSVP to the Facebook event at www.facebook.com/FloydCountyYL or email floydcountyyounglife@gmail.com.

Keep up with Floyd County Young Lifes efforts at www.facebook.com/FloydCountyYL.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  It's only been a month since North Korea acknowledged having a COVID-19 outbreak, after steadfastly denying any cases for more than two years. But already it may be preparing to declare victory.

According to state media, North Korea has avoided the mass deaths many expected in a nation with one of the world's worst health care systems, little or no access to vaccines, and what outsiders see as a long record of ignoring the suffering of its people.

North Korea's official virus numbers, experts believe, have as much to do with propaganda to boost leader Kim Jong Un as with a true picture of what's happening in the country, and there's widespread doubt about their accuracy.

What's clear, though, is that the daily updates from state media make it appear inevitable that the nation will completely defeat a virus that has killed more than 6 million people around the world. According to the official tally, cases are plummeting, and, while 18% of the nation of 26 million people reportedly have had symptoms that outsiders strongly suspect were from COVID-19, less than 100 have died.

The South Korean government as well as some experts believe that North Korea may soon declare that it has beaten the virus. This will be linked, of course, to Kim's strong and clever guidance.

A victory lap, however, isnt a foregone conclusion. Doing so, according to some experts, would deprive Kim of a useful tool to control the public and could open the government up to humiliation if cases continue.

There are two sides to such a declaration, said Moon Seong Mook, an analyst with the Seoul-based Korea Research Institute for National Strategy. If North Korea says that COVID-19 has gone, it can emphasize that Kim Jong Un is a great leader who has overcome the pandemic. But in doing so, it cant maintain the powerful restrictions that it uses to control its people in the name of containing COVID-19.

Outsiders suspect that Kim is using the outbreak to boost internal unity at a time when many of his people are tired of 2  years of draconian curbs that have hurt their livelihoods.

However North Korea deals with its description of the pandemic, many signs, at least in public statements, point to a declaration of success in dealing with a virus that has confounded the richest countries in the world.

In the initial stage of the outbreak, Kim described a great upheaval as daily fever cases  North Korea rarely calls them COVID-19, presumably because it lacks test kits  reached about 400,000. Now, however, the leader is suggesting that the outbreak has peaked, with his health officials maintaining a widely disputed fatality rate of 0.002%, the lowest in the world.

The question many outside experts are wrestling with is: What is the true state of misery in North Korea, which has banned nearly all outside journalists, aid workers and diplomats since early 2020?

North Korea is widely believed to be manipulating its true death toll to prevent any harm to Kim. It might also have exaggerated the number of earlier fever cases to boost vigilance against the virus and draw stronger public support for authorities' anti-virus controls. North Korea has recently reported about 17,000 to 30,000 new fever cases each day, for a total of 4.7 million. It says  to widespread outside disbelief  that only 73 have died.

Whatever the real situation is, outside monitoring groups say they havent detected signs of anything catastrophic in North Korea.

If a large number of people had died, there would have been some pieces of evidence, but there hasn't been any, said Nam Sung-wook, a professor at Korea University in South Korea. During a huge famine in the 1990s, for instance, rumors of widespread death and of people abandoning bodies spread outside of the country, into China and South Korea.

Kang Mi-jin, a North Korean defector in Seoul who runs a company analyzing the Norths economy, said three of her contacts in the northern North Korean city of Hyesan told her during phone calls that most of their family members have suffered suspected COVID-19 symptoms. But she said they told her that none of their relatives, neighbors and acquaintances have died of COVID-19, though theyve heard rumors of such deaths in other towns.

During an earlier phone conversation, one of my sources cried a little bit when she said she was worried that some bad things could happen in her family (because of COVID-19). But now she and others have become stable and sometimes laugh when we talk on the phone, Kang said.

During a recent ruling party meeting, Kim said the country's pandemic fight has passed the stage of unexpected serious crisis. State media have urged the public to rally behind Kim in a firmer way to overcome the pandemic completely.

Cho Joonghoon, a spokesperson for South Koreas Unification Ministry, which oversees relations with North Korea, told reporters last week that the North may announce its COVID-19 crisis has been resolved this month.

Nam, the South Korean professor, said the outbreak appears to have eased in Pyongyang, North Koreas capital, but will likely continue in rural areas, where some people with symptoms are venturing out of doors because they rely on market activities for a living and have no access to public rations.

I think North Korea will declare a victory over the pandemic a bit later. It would lose face if it proclaimed victory too soon and new patients cropped up afterwards, Nam said.

Kang, the defector, said that North Korean residents in Hyesan abide by the government's anti-pandemic orders and that few fever patients go outside during quarantine periods.

Because North Korea believes that the pandemic, U.N. sanctions and other economic difficulties will continue, there's little chance it will lift major restrictions soon, said Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam Universitys Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul.

The United States and other countries with advanced health care and medical systems havent declared an end to COVID-19. So North Korea will also find it much more difficult to do so, Lim said.

The global vaccine alliance GAVI said earlier this month that it understands that North Korea has accepted an offer of vaccines from China. But North Korea has ignored South Korean and U.S. offers of medical support.

Despite its COVID-19 outbreak, North Korea has continued test-firing missiles this year. But it hasn't yet carried out a widely expected nuclear test, possibly because of worries about a potential backlash from people still struggling with the virus.

North Korea may officially declare victory over the virus when its daily fever cases and the pandemic situation in neighboring China ease significantly, said Ahn Kyung-su, head of DPRKHEALTH.ORG, a website focusing on health issues in North Korea.

But he said such a declaration doesnt mean much because North Korea likely only acknowledged the outbreak last month because it had determined that it was manageable.

According to North Korea, it defeats everything. It doesnt acknowledge things that it cant overcome. It always wins absolutely, no matter whether it faces military, economic or pandemic difficulties, Ahn said.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Editors note: Information is provided by the Cowlitz County Corrections Department and local law enforcement agencies. Each individual named in this report is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Taking a vehicle  Cowlitz County deputies Wednesday arrested Ashly Nicole Carnahan, 27, of Kelso, on suspicion of taking a vehicle without permission in the second degree.

Harassment  Woodland officers Wednesday arrested Ronald Junior Collins, 32, of Brush Prairie, Washington, on suspicion of felony harassment, fourth-degree assault and resisting arrest.

ID theft, forgery, fraud  Longview officers Wednesday arrested Clyde Leon Martin Jr., 42, of Olympia, on suspicion of first-degree identity theft, forgery, third-degree theft, fraud, a felony drug charge and driving while license is suspended in the third degree.

Burglary  Longview officers Wednesday arrested Raymond Alfredo Pedraza, 38, of Longview, on suspicion of first-degree burglary, attempting to elude and possession of dangerous weapons.

Burglary  Cowlitz County deputies Thursday arrested Jason Lee Rusk, 39, of Kelso, on suspicion of a residential burglary, possessing a stolen vehicle and criminal impersonation.

Burglary  Longview police officers Thursday arrested John Allen Wayne Sanders, 38, of an unknown location, on suspicion of possessing a stolen vehicle and criminal impersonation.

Assault  Cowlitz County deputies Thursday arrested Raymond Edward Winkle, 54, of Longview, on suspicion of first-degree burglary and fourth-degree assault.

Editors note: A software switch at Cowlitz County dispatch has prevented the agency from temporarily supplying 911 call logs and officer notes past June 6. The agency is working to create new reports to supply media outlets.

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A plaque is now adorned to the building that housed Pacific Barber Shop  the longtime Kelso business that served as donation a drop-off, town hall and place to get a $4 haircut for decades.

More than 40 people gathered Thursday outside 308 South Pacific Avenue to dedicate the plaque honoring barbershop owners Bill Ammons and his late father Bert for their community volunteerism, including spearheading regular coat, bike, shoe and school supply drives for both local kids and adults.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee spoke at the roughly hour-long event and attached an apple pin to Bill Ammons shirt to honor him as Washingtonian of the Day. His daughter Karla Ammons was in attendance and said her dad taught her to care for others.

Im feeling very proud, she said. My dad has the quintessential big heart.

Bill Ammons was born and raised in Kelso, though he now lives in Castle Rock. He said after graduating, he was longshoring in Alaska when his father asked him to come work in the Kelso barber shop.

It was Bill Ammons father, he said, who fueled his community volunteerism. In 1932, his dad opened Pacific Barber Shop, after growing up in poverty with an alcoholic father and helping to raise his eight siblings.

Louise Holter, 91, of Longview said she remembers Bert Ammons offering her and other Carrolls children rides to church when he preached in Kelso, and then Kalama. She said kids sat on each others laps to hitch a ride with the old-fashioned preacher, she called him, a hellfire and brimstone preacher. He baptized her in the Kalama River, she added.

Bert Ammons wanted to be a surgeon, but he couldnt afford the education, said his son. He understood what it was like to go without, so he offered free haircuts at the shop and helped organize sack lunches for the needy.

Bill Ammons began working in the shop in 1962 and took over when his father retired. Bert Ammons died in 1977. His son said he didnt raise the price of a haircut from $4 since that day until his retirement a few years ago.

Bill Ammons said his father would feel privileged by the plaque and Thursdays dedication ceremony.

He would be pretty honored, he said. He did a lot more than me for this county.

The barbershop has also been a base for political candidates to talk to voters, as well as Bill Ammons notable fundraisers, including food drives for Lower Columbia CAP, as well as Brown Bag Lunch Day, when he and other volunteers gathered and distributed thousands of sandwiches to the needy.

His community support went past the shop. Bill Ammons organized the first Portland Trail Blazers game at Mark Morris High School in 1970. In 2013, he coordinated the first Day of Kindness in Cowlitz County, encouraging people to exhibit kindness on any scale.

Bill Ammons said hes gathering donations today of money and nonperishable food for locals schools. Donations can be dropped off at his home, he said.

Editors note: The Daily News staff Katelyn Metzger and Katie Fairbanks contributed to this story.

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CASTLE ROCK  Summer school students in Castle Rock likely will not have buses there to pick them up this year, school district officials said.

Superintendent Ryan Greene said the district told parents last week they might not have the bus drivers to pick kids up from their bus stops when summer school starts this July.

We have the teachers to cover school, we have the curriculum to cover it, we have the building space to cover it, Greene said. Getting enough bus drivers is the one thing that didnt really come through.

Greene said the district will continue to look at other options, but right now, none of those options weve looked at have come to fruition.

Summer school lasts about five weeks and is expected to have more than 100 students this year, up from an average enrollment of 40 to 50 kids, Greene said. The district recently has seen an increase in attendees to cover for learning losses after the pandemic, he said.

Normally about 20 buses cover the Castle Rock area, Greene said. Now, they are struggling to have even one consistently available driver.

Part of the struggle comes from the geography of Castle Rocks district boundaries, Greene said.

We have bus routes that are 45 minutes one-way, Greene said. When you multiply that by only having one bus available, its impossible to go to every border of our school district.

Greene said nearly every district in the area has dealt with similar issues.

In February, Longview Schools spokesman Rick Parrish told The Daily News fewer people were applying to become bus drivers.

Bus routes in Rainier and Woodland faced delays due to staffing shortages earlier this year. In Vancouver, the school district in January moved to a temporary hybrid learning schedule to alleviate some of the issues caused by lack of transportation.

Staffing shortages also caught the attention of federal officials this year. The U.S. Department of Education in January announced it would waive a portion of the commercial drivers license skills test in hopes of making it easier for people to apply, according to a department news release.

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See a movie at Stageworks NW

The public is welcome to a screening of Longview native Drake Dalgleishs newest horror/comedy film, Another Blood Sucker, at 7:30 p.m. June 25 at Stageworks Northwest Theatre, 1433 Commerce Ave., Longview. The short film is the third in Dalgleishs Another Horror trilogy.

Admission is by donation.

The film, written by Dalgleish and Sparrow Crosswhite, is about a young vampire, Claire (Crosswhite), whose soul is threatened by her master (Annika Hartley). When a vampire hunter comes knocking at the door, Claire sparks a plan to break free from her oppressors. Others in the cast include Melissa Szendeffy, Kt Sy, Akitora Ishii and Dalgleish.

Also showing will be Another Cabin Massacre and Another Found Footage Film. These films are not rated and are intended for mature audiences due to language, graphic violence and drug use.

After the screening, there will be a question-and-answer session with Dalgleish and an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the making of the movie. Dalgleish recently returned to Longview from Los Angeles, where he studied filmmaking.

This is the third showcase of local filmmakers work at Stageworks.

To watch the trailer, visit https://youtu.be/tdzO0y2ahdU.

Meet parade grand marshal

A meet and greet for Mike Avent, grand marshal of the Rainier Days in the Park parade, takes place from 1 to 3 p.m. June 25 in the Rainier Historical Museum located on the third floor of Rainier City Hall, 106 W. B. St.

Avent was born in Aberdeen, Washington. His father was a construction worker and the family moved for his job. Avent finished his last two years of high school in Rainier. He then went to Lower Columbia College. He worked in the construction business for awhile and around 1977, he started buying rental properties. In 1993, he started his first company with a partner, Steve Oliva, buying commercial and residential buildings in Astoria, Clatskanie, Rainier and St. Helens.

In the mid-1990s, Avent was elected to the Rainier City Council where he served for 16 years. He volunteered with the Rainier Economic Development Council, the Chamber of Commerce, HOPE, and with Children and Family Services. He also served on the Columbia-Pacific Economic Development District, aka Col-Pac, and served for 16 years on the Port of Columbia County board.

He and Oliva helped clear the way for the senior housing and the Rainier Senior Center by developing old Crown Zellerbach mill property where Teevin Brothers, condominiums, senior housing and the senior center are located, according to information submitted to The Daily News. The Rainier Museum also will be located there.

Avent is involved in a number of organizations. In his spare time, he collects antiques and collectibles, does metal detecting and visits ghost towns. He also spends time with his eight grandchildren and works on the new home and property he bought outside of Rainier.

Local pianist debuts recital

A digital Happiness recital by Kalama pianist Barbara Rosier will debut on YouTube on Sunday, but it will appear at a different YouTube address than previously announced.

To find the recital, go to YouTube and type in Martin Kauble Memorial Concert Series, then click on the Rosier recital.

Kauble, a longtime Longview piano teacher who died May 11, and Rosier appear jointly in the recital, which features popular tunes such as Fly Me to the Moon, What a Wonderful World and Feeling Good. Rosier plays the tunes, with Kauble adding playful and goofy commentary in the interludes between numbers. As Rosier put it, Kauble plays the master of silliness.

The recital is the third digital production Kauble produced with Longview audiovisual engineer Jackson Gillihan. Another digital recital with Idaho bred-pianist Abriana Church, also recorded this spring, is in production and will be released on YouTube later this summer.

Rosiers recital will debut at 3 p.m. June 26. It will remain on YouTube for the indefinite future at the Martin Kauble Memorial Concert Series location.

KHS class of 58 meets for lunch

Kelso High School class of 1958 members will meet for a no-host luncheon at noon June 28 at the Kelso/Longview Elks, 900 Ash Street, Kelso. All classmates, spouses and friends are encouraged to attend. A 65th reunion planning meeting takes place at 1:30 after the lunch. Everyone is encouraged to stay for the meeting. For details, call Judi Fouch Peters at 360-577-4584.

KSD sponsors food program

The Kelso School District is sponsoring a Summer Food Service Program for children. Free meals will be available to all children who are 18 years old and younger.

For details on the food program, call the food service office at 360-501-1808.

Meal sites

 Coweeman Middle School (2000 Allen St., Kelso): 8:15-8:45 a.m., breakfast; 11:30 a.m.-noon, lunch; Mondays-Thursdays, July 5-Aug. 4.

 Kelso High School (1902 Allen St., Kelso): 8:15-8:45 a.m., breakfast; 11 a.m.-noon, lunch; Mondays-Fridays, June 27-Aug. 4.

 Lexington Elementary School (200 Boardwalk Way, Kelso): 9-9:30 a.m. breakfast, 12:30-1 p.m. lunch; Mondays-Thursdays, July 5-Aug. 4.

 Wallace Elementary School (410 Elm St., Kelso): 9-9:30 a.m., breakfast; 12:30-1 p.m. p.m. lunch; Mondays-Fridays, July 5-Aug. 4.

 The Daily News

Contact Nancy Edwards at 360-577-2544 or nedwards@tdn.com.

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A legislative package intended to make improvements to mental health and addiction treatment is closer to becoming a reality  presenting tools to address the nations overdose epidemic.

Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, a co-founder of the Bipartisan Addiction and Mental Health Task Force, heralded key measures outlined in the bundle, approved by the U.S. House on Wednesday, including bills to expedite detox treatment processes and expand health care models.

Mental health and substance use issues continue to profoundly impact communities in Southwest Washington and across our nation, Herrera Beutler said in a statement.

Substance use related deaths are increasing locally and statewide, according to Clark County Public Health. In 2021, 103 people in Clark County died from a fentanyl, methamphetamine or opioid overdose.

Fentanyl, an opioid 50 times stronger than heroin, is becoming increasingly pervasive nationwide, leading to severe substance use disorders, according to previous reporting by The Columbian. Regional organizations, such as Columbia River Mental Health Services, PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center and Recovery Cafe, are collaborating to promote treatment services.

One bill, the Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment Act, would remove the requirement for health care providers to submit a waiver through the Drug Enforcement Agency when prescribing detox treatment. By removing the waiver process, practitioners can treat patients with substance use disorders more efficiently.

It would also instruct Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services, a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to educate practitioners on how to address substance use disorder.

The Collaborate in an Orderly and Cohesive Manner Act would direct Health and Human Services to award providers with funding to employ specific behavioral health and primary care service models. Grants would cover the implementation of the new models, such as hiring staff or establishing technical centers, which would be applied in underserved areas where behavioral health issues surpass the national average.

The all-encompassing package, Restoring Hope for Mental Health and Well-Being Act of 2022, authorizes, revises and develops upon programs through 2027 that address behavioral health and addiction care. It will be presented to the U.S. Senate for further approval before reaching the presidents desk to be signed into law.

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Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee confirmed Thursday he is not considering a state gas tax holiday, despite the continuing high prices at the pump.

President Joe Biden urged Congress Wednesday to suspend federal gasoline and diesel taxes for three months. Inslee told The Daily News temporarily ending the state gas tax would not lower high gas prices in Washington.

There is no mechanism to assure that any reduction of that tax will be passed onto motorists. In fact its almost the opposite  you can be assured gas companies will soak up the lions share of those dollars for their profits, Inslee said.

While in Kelso for an event honoring Bill and Bert Ammons, Inslee told The Daily News suspending the state gas tax could jeopardize funding for road and transportation projects across the state, which are covered by gas tax revenue. Inslee questioned if bond requirements for some transportation projects currently on the books would even allow the state to enact a gas tax holiday.

It is a challenge for people, we understand that, but there are forces that the state of Washington cannot control, Inslee said.

Washington is one of six states where average gas prices are currently higher than $5.50 per gallon. The state has one of the highest gas taxes in the county at 49 cents per gallon of gasoline. The federal gasoline tax is 18 cents per gallon and the federal diesel tax is 24 cents.

A study released this month by the Penn Wharton Budget Model research group looked at the effects of the gas tax holidays that Georgia, Maryland and Connecticut enacted earlier this year. The models estimated that roughly two-thirds of the reduction in gas prices was passed onto consumers.

How long the states kept their reduced prices was a more mixed bag. In Georgia, gas prices remained low until the holiday ended at the beginning of June. Connecticuts gas tax holiday is in effect until the end of June, but prices have already climbed to higher than they were before the pause began.

Despite rising costs today, Washingtons revenue projections are on track to end the year $1.46 billion higher than expected, the state Economic Revenue and Forecast Council announced this week. Projections for the 2023-2025 budget cycle have increased by more than $600 million.

The governor said the rising revenue indicates a strong state economy, which will help to address gas affordability and other rising costs of living.

That does not minimize peoples concerns about raising prices at all, but the fact that we have such huge job creation and business success, thats a sign of success, Inslee said.

He said the state Legislature will decide the use of the surplus when they convene in January.

Inslee said some aid for families struggling to pay for gas and housing will come year when the Working Families Tax Credit takes effect. The credit, which was enacted by the state government in 2021, will provide low-income families with a yearly rebate of between $300 and $1,200.

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The Mount St. Helens Hiking Club typically holds several hikes each month. Anyone interested in the hikes is welcome.

For details and the meeting place for carpooling, contact the hike leader listed or visit www.mtsthelensclub.org. It always is necessary to call the activity leader to register for hiked. Start times are when the carpool leaves the meeting location. Return times are approximate.

The schedule

June 30: Silver Star Mountain (strenuous); drive 140 miles round trip; hike 8 miles with 1,980 foot elevation gain to Silver Star Mountain Southwest Washington via Klochmans Ridge and Eds Trail. Out and back hike with views of Mount Adams, Mount Hood, Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier from the 4,390-foot summit.

 The Daily News

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VANCOUVER  A team of students from Portland State University and Washington State University, professional archaeologists and the National Park Service are set to study the former site of a school for Indigenous and Metis children at Fort Vancouver.

The annual Public Archaeology Field School will run from July 1-30.

Students at the Fort Vancouver schools were children of fur trade families who worked for the Hudson's Bay Company. They included Indigenous children from local tribes and Metis children of mixed European and Indigenous heritage, according to the National Park Service.

By 1836, there were about 60 students attending the schools.

The public is invited to visit the sites on East Fifth Street and inside the Fort Vancouver stockade to talk with the team during the excavations, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Ranger-led tours will also be available on at 10 a.m. Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays during the month of July.

Katie Wynia, PSU archaeologist and field director, describes Fort Vancouver as "a place where there are many layers of history."

The archaeology students will have the opportunity to explore the site's multiethnic history. Wynia said the archaeological resources of the site provide tangible evidence of the past and allow students to explore the depth of colonialism of the West.

"To better understand our current society and the challenges we face, we need to look at the many different facets of our past," Wynia said. "We need to look at our past more fully to better understand how we got here and how we might move toward a better future."

Students will learn important archaeological skills through hands-on field and technological experiences, as well as learning how to communicate their findings to the public. Wynia said the Public Archaeological Field School at Fort Vancouver has become a tradition since 2001.

"It brings together our community to support students and learn about the history of this special place," she said. "I'm really looking forward to talking with visitors at the dig site and showing them what we find."

Wynia said students will be conducting subsurface survey and excavation, digging into areas to get a sample of what's in the ground. They'll then dig out larger excavation sites and record findings on field forms, including any artifact from the original schoolhouse to locate the later schoolhouse sites.

They'll make note of what was found and where it was found and send any artifacts to the on-site archaeology lab, located inside the Fur Store at Fort Vancouver, where the items will be analyzed and cleaned.

After the field work wraps up, students will interpret data to better understand what activities happened at the schools and what life was like for those who lived there.

Wynia said that although students can learn much from documentation and correspondence between people, there is something valuable about doing field work on the land itself.

"Archaeological excavations help us gather information that wasn't recorded, sometimes information about the people who lived here but were unable to record their own stories," she said. "Science helps us understand the world around us, both the natural world and the cultural world."

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iPhone 13 Pro price cut: This incredible offer by Verizon will let you buy the iPhone 13 Pro for a much lesser price than iPhone SE 3.

iPhone 13 Pro price cut: American internet line provider, Verizon is offering upto $800 in an iPhone 13 Pro deal on trade-in for an older device. You just have to pick a new postpaid Verizon line and activate an unlimited postpaid plan for 36 months of the lock-in period via Verizon app or website and trade in an eligible older device. In addition to the device's price, youll also have to pay a one-time activation fee of $35. Best thing about this deal is you have to pay the discounted price of iPhone 13 Pro in monthly installments for the abovementioned lockin period. Know the details of the Verizon iPhone 13 Pro deal here

Massive iPhone 13 Pro price cut offer by Verizon

The 128GB variant of the iPhone 13 Pro is priced at $999 which you can get in a monthly installment plan of $27.77 for 36 months without availing trade-in offer. However, if you opt for trade-in, you can save up to $800 on eligible devices like iPhone X, XR, XS, 11, 11 Pro, 11 Pro Max, 12, 12mini, 12 Pro, 12 ProMax and a few others. This means you can get the iPhone 13 Pro Max for just $199 which is way cheaper than iPhone SE 3. In addition to this, a one time activation fee of $35 will also be required to be paid to get a new Verizon line with unlimited data. The plan will go on for a period of 36 months and if you cancel it at any point before 36 months, you will have to pay the remaining amount in one go. Moreover, customers who switch from any other wireless carrier to Verizon can get a Verizon gift card worth $200. The Gift Card will be sent to subscribers via email within 8 weeks after receipt of claim to the submitted email address. This gift card can be used to buy merchandise & services at stores/kiosks operated by Verizon or at verizon.com.
An enormous comet which is estimated to be much larger than the asteroid that killed all dinosaurs will be approaching the Earth soon, says NASA. Can it strike our planet? Find out below.

Its not often when we get a visit from celestial bodies that are larger than a couple of kilometers. We have already seen the years largest asteroid, 1989 JA, flying past the Earth in May and it was just 1.8 kilometers wide. Even going back millions of years, one of the largest recorded asteroids to come close to the planet (and in this instance, strike it as well) was the dinosaur-killing asteroid Chicxulub, which is estimated to be between 10-15 kilometers. So, it was no surprise when NASA first found out that a comet which can be between 30 to 160 kilometers wide was approaching the Earth, the reaction was both of awe and shock. So, when is this comet due for a flyby across our planet and what risk does it pose to us? Read on to find out.

Spotted first in 2017, Comet C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS) is coming all the way from the Oort cloud to visit the Earth and the Sun. The comet was discovered by the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (PanSTARRS) observatory and thus its name. However, it is also known as the K2 comet in short. Traveling from the outer edges of the solar system, this comet is scheduled to arrive the closest to the Earth on July 14. After that, it will continue its journey towards the Sun and will get the closest to it on December 19, 2022, reports Space.com.

Comet, larger than the dinosaur killing asteroid, is hurtling towards the Earth

When it comes to the K2 comet, a lot of things about it are rough estimates, including its size, due to the large distance between us and the comet. Initial observations by the CanadaFranceHawaii Telescope (CFHT) suggested that the nucleus of the comet could be between 30 to 160 kilometers wide. However, the observations from NASA Hubble Space Telescope suggest that it might be around 18 kilometers wide. This will still be much larger than the asteroid that wiped the Earth. So, what are the chances of an asteroid strike? Realistically, not very high.

The comet is expected to pass by the Earth at a distance of 270 million kilometers away from the Earth as per NASA. For reference, it is a slightly larger distance than between Earth and Mars. However, it is expected that despite being so far away, people on Earth might be able to see it through unaided eyes as long as the light pollution is dim. According to a report by EarthSky, the K2 comet will brighten to the magnitude of 8 to 7, which should just about make it as a small twinkle to the unaided eye. However, if you want to properly view this spectacle, youd need a telescope.
A Swedish court on Wednesday rejected an appeal from China's Huawei over the government's decision to ban the network equipment giant from the rollout of 5G mobile network infrastructure in the Nordic country.

The administrative court of appeal in Stockholm said in a statement it believed it was fair to assume that the use of Huawei's products in central functions of the 5G network "can cause harm to Sweden's security."

Looking for a smartphone? To check mobile finder click here. Also read:

After the UK in the summer of 2020, Sweden became the second country in Europe and the first in the EU to explicitly ban Huawei from almost all of the network infrastructure needed to run its 5G mobile network.

Beijing warned at the time that the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority's (PTS) decision could have "consequences" for the Scandinavian country's companies in China, prompting Swedish telecom giant and Huawei competitor Ericsson to worry about retaliatory measures.

The PTS decision also included a provision that equipment already installed had to be removed by January 1, 2025, which the appeals court also confirmed.

"Sweden's security is a particularly strong interest and the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority's decision is based on a real, current and sufficiently serious threat to Sweden's security," judge Anita Linder said in a statement.

Huawei first appealed the decision to a lower court which also sided with PTS in June 2021.

In a statement to AFP, Huawei said it was "disappointed" with the court's decision.

"We will analyse the ruling, and evaluate our next steps, including other legal remedies under Swedish law and EU law, in order to continue to safeguard our legitimate rights and interests," the company said.

In January, the Chinese tech giant announced it had "initiated arbitration proceedings" under the World Bank Group's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)," against Sweden for the PTS decision
A retired soldier from Agra, lost Rs. 39 lakh while his son played mobile games. Shockingly, the account belongs to BGMI developer Krafton!

In a shocking development, a son playing a game on his fathers mobile phone lost a whopping amount of Rs. 39 lakh from his account, a News18 report revealed. The case is from the Tajnagri, Agra area. As soon as the father came to know about this, he complained about the same to the police. The Agra police have started the investigation by registering a case in this regard and Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) developer Krafton has been mentioned.

The father is a retired soldier from the Khandoli area of Agra and has lodged a police complaint in the cyber range a month ago. The report mentioned that he complained that Rs. 39 lakh has been withdrawn from his account through fraud. He is unaware of how such a huge amount came out from his bank. However, he contacted the bank regarding the case, which further revealed that the first amount went from Paytm to 'Koda payment' which later was transferred to a bank account in Singapore.

The account allegedly belongs to Krafton Company! This is the same South Korean company that runs several mobile games including BGMI, which became popular after a ban was slapped on PUBG: Mobile in India. A case has been registered in this matter. Though this is not the first time, such a gaming case has came into the limelight.

Earlier, many other cases have been reported where a huge amount was deducted from the bank account of a parent- after children played mobile games, more or less similar to the Agra case, where money has been deducted from the users bank account while the son was playing online games. The report mentions a case where 30 lakh rupees were deducted from the account of a trader of the Hariparwat area, whose son used to play games on his mobile.

Besides these money deduction cases from the accounts while playing games, several times online fraudsters ask for the money to increase the in-game level or requirements. And they end up losing money from their bank.
Credit: Eindhoven University of Technology

The security of port areas involves monitoring at various levels. What kind of ships are coming in, are they perhaps guilty of illegal fishing, and what cargo do they carry? Security officers and harbor masters often can't carry out these control duties all by themselves, which is why ports around the world are increasingly making use of smart surveillance systems to monitor maritime territory. TU/e researcher Amir Ghahremani developed new algorithms as well as a learning system to improve vessel identification. He will obtain his Ph.D. degree at the department of Electrical Engineering on Friday June 24.

Identifying a ship on a computer image may seem simple, but Ph.D. researcher Amir Ghahremani knows by now that nothing is what it seems. "Ships come in various shapes and travel at different speeds. And when they're far away, all you see on the screen is a couple of vague pixels. Try to recognize a boat in that! On top of that, the water and weather conditions often make it extra difficult to identify ships. Bright sunshine causes reflection, and fog or heavy rain also reduces the quality of images. In short, a very dynamic environment."

Giethoorn punting boat

Within the international Applying Plug & Play Surveillance (APPS) project, Ghahremani collaborated with various universities, institutes, and industrial partners from around the world on innovative algorithms to improve automated maritime surveillance systems. These systems aren't just used to ensure the security of port areas, but also of maritime territories and busy river and canal routes.

The researchers set out to develop a robust system tailored to strongly varying conditions. However, they didn't have visual footage to test their algorithms on, which is why Ghahremani first spent a month shooting and collecting photos. This included photos of ships in the ports of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, of boats in Turkish ports, and of his personal favorite: the village of Giethoorn, famous for its canals and boats.

But you won't find any container ships in Giethoorn though. Instead, the canals are crowded with pleasure boats for tourists, especially during high season. Ghahremani eventually ended up in a traditional punting boat. And not without results, he admits with a smile, since it taught the Iranian born researcher with a predilection for mountains to appreciate the flat, water-rich Dutch countryside. In fact, he even became a Dutch citizen recently.

Dynamic behavior

His photos clearly show the various challenges within the maritime domain, Ghahremani explains. "Ships come in various shapes and sizes, and they move in different directions. Maritime surveillance often covers vast areas, which is why ships are sometimes located far away from a camera. And then there's the challenge of changing weather conditions and the dynamic behavior of water."

Ghahremani shows a picture of a ship in the middle of a perfect ocean under a bright and shining sun. "If you need to squint your eyes because of the sun, you also have more difficulty seeing things."

Ghahremani developed vessel recognition algorithms and noticed that recognition strongly improved when it became clear where in the image water was located. "By demarcating the water region in an image, you can then zoom in on this. A car driving along the coastline will no longer be identified as a ship."

He then started to set up a so-called neural network based on his images. Using deep learning techniques, he trained the system to help the new algorithms improve their precision in recognizing ships. And it worked. With familiar images at first, but at the end of his project with new footage as well, in which vessel recognition became increasingly accurate.

Safe haven

His self-learning algorithms didn't just improve vessel recognition, they also proved to be of use for re-identification (re-ID) of vessels across non-overlapping camera views. "Sometimes, a ship will remerge on camera after 10 kilometers, especially in large maritime areas. The smart neural network significantly increases the chance of re-ID. This approach is new and promising. And the continuous improvement and training of the network will enable maritime surveillance systems to analyze the behavior of vessels, which will increase the security of port areas and other maritime regions."

Explore further Image: Suez Canal traffic jam seen from space

More information: Automated video analysis for maritime surveillance, Automated video analysis for maritime surveillance, research.tue.nl/en/publication  aritime-surveillance
Google says spyware was slipped onto smartphones in Italy and Kazakhstan with the help of mobile interent service providers who cut off service so users could be tricked with messages offering to fix the problem.

An Italy-based firm's hacking tools were used to spy on Apple and Android smartphones in Italy and Kazakhstan, Google said Thursday, casting a light on a "flourishing" spyware industry.

Google's threat analysis team said spyware made by RCS Lab targeted the phones using a combination of tactics including unusual "drive-by downloads" that happen without victims being aware.

Concerns over spyware were fueled by media outlets reporting last year that Israeli firm NSO's Pegasus tools were used by governments to surveil opponents, activists and journalists.

"They claim to only sell to customers with legitimate use for surveillanceware, such as intelligence and law enforcement agencies," mobile cybersecurity specialist Lookout said of companies like NSO and RCS.

"In reality, such tools have often been abused under the guise of national security to spy on business executives, human rights activists, journalists, academics and government officials," Lookout added.

Google's report said the RCS spyware it uncovered, and which was dubbed "Hermit", is the same one that Lookout reported on previously.

Lookout researchers said that in April they found Hermit being used by the government of Kazakhstan inside its borders to spy on smartphones, just months after anti-government protests in that country were suppressed.

"Like many spyware vendors, not much is known about RCS Lab and its clientele," Lookout said. "But based on the information we do have, it has a considerable international presence."

Growing spyware industry

Evidence suggests Hermit was used in a predominantly Kurdish region of Syria, the mobile security company said.

Analysis of Hermit showed that it can be employed to gain control of smartphones, recording audio, redirecting calls, and collecting data such as contacts, messages, photos and location, Lookout researchers said.

Google and Lookout noted the spyware spreads by getting people to click on links in messages sent to targets.

"In some cases, we believe the actors worked with the target's ISP (internet service provider) to disable the target's mobile data connectivity," Google said.

"Once disabled, the attacker would send a malicious link via SMS asking the target to install an application to recover their data connectivity."

When not masquerading as a mobile internet service provider, the cyber spies would send links pretending to be from phone makers or messaging applications to trick people into clicking, researchers said.

"Hermit tricks users by serving up the legitimate webpages of the brands it impersonates as it kickstarts malicious activities in the background," Lookout researchers said.

Google said it has warned Android users targeted by the spyware and ramped up software defenses. Apple told AFP it has taken steps to protect iPhone users.

Google's threat team is tracking more than 30 companies that sell surveillance capabilities to governments, according to the Alphabet-owned tech titan.

"The commercial spyware industry is thriving and growing at a significant rate," Google said.

Explore further France weighs cybersecurity moves after spyware reports

 2022 AFP
This review focuses on recent progress of the working principles, device architectures, and performances of various closed-type and open-type photo-enhanced rechargeable metal batteries, exploring their challenges and future perspectives. Credit: Nano Research Energy.

As the climate crisis looms, scientists are racing to find solutions to common clean energy problems, including solar energy storage. Solar energy is one of the best renewable resources we have, but it has challenges that prevent it from being widely adopted and replacing conventional energy sources. Because solar energy is variable throughout the day and throughout the year, it is important to have a robust storage system. Currently, solar is converted to electricity in solar cells, which cannot store the energy long-term, and separate battery storage systems are inconvenient and expensive. To solve this problem, researchers are trying to find ways to combine the power conversion and storage capacity needs of solar energy into one device.

Previous attempts to simplify solar energy conversion and storage put two different components together into a complicated device architecture, which was ultimately inefficient, expensive, and heavy. But significant progress has been made in combining these elements into a single device, which shares elements and significantly cuts down on the problems of previous designs.

The research was summarized in a paper published on May 26 in Nano Research Energy.

"The amount of received solar energy on the Earth's surface is up to 100,000 terawatt-hours, which completely meets the demand of the annual global energy consumption of 16 terawatts," said paper author Hairong Xue, an assistant professor at the National Institute for Materials Science in Tsukuba, Japan. "However, like wind power, solar energy is intermittent due to fluctuations in isolation. To balance supply and demand, converted solar energy needs to be stored in other energy storage devices. Therefore, it is imperative to incorporate suitable energy storage technologies into solar cells, enabling effective solar energy utilization and delivering the produced electricity when needed."

The paper summarizes progress in using six different types of photo-enhanced rechargeable metal batteries: lithium-ion, zinc-ion, lithium-sulfur, lithium-iodine, zinc-iodine, lithium-oxygen, zinc-oxygen, and lithium-carbon dioxide batteries. The authors detail the advantages and disadvantages of each kind of battery and how it can be applied to solar-to-electricity power conversion and storage. For example, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, which we are all familiar with because they are used in many modern electronic devices, including laptops, phones, and electric vehicles, are efficient, but would be difficult to scale for solar energy use because of their complicated structure.

Researchers point out that this technology is still in its early stages and there is more research to be done. Looking ahead to the future, they hope to take the next steps toward improving solar energy storage using photo-enhanced rechargeable metal batteries.

"It is necessary to explore more suitable electrode materials and optimize the device structure of the batteries," Xue said. "For practical applications, stability and safety issues must be addressed and improved. Although the development of photo-enhanced rechargeable metal batteries is quite fast-based, most of the studies remain in an early stage of laboratory test. By addressing some critical challenges involving working mechanism, electrode materials, and battery structure design, the goal is to demonstrate viable uses of photo-enhanced rechargeable batteries in electronic and optoelectronic devices." The researchers also hope to explore how this technology could be applied to other types of energy conversion and storage systems.

Explore further Building a better, cheaper battery for power grids

More information: Renzhi Ma et al, Photo-Enhanced Rechargeable High-Energy-Density Metal Batteries for Solar Energy Conversion and Storage, Nano Research Energy (2022). Renzhi Ma et al, Photo-Enhanced Rechargeable High-Energy-Density Metal Batteries for Solar Energy Conversion and Storage,(2022). DOI: 10.26599/NRE.2022.9120007

Provided by Tsinghua University Press
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP)  Alaska U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski on Thursday described as responsible and targeted a bipartisan bill aimed at addressing gun violence.

The Republican said the measure represents compromise.

No, I dont think that you just say, Alright, we pass this and everything is solved,'" she said in a video conference with reporters. The bill represents what a group of lawmakers could come together with and say, This is a step in the right direction."

She said she believes more can be done to provide mental health services in this country.

The bill would toughen background checks for the youngest gun buyers and keep firearms from more domestic violence offenders. It would also fund local programs for school safety, mental health and violence prevention.

Murkowski called the measure a thoughtful and targeted approach to the specific problems that have led to several of these mass shootings and a reasoned and rational approach for how we address additional mental health and school safety resources.

Mike Reynard, a spokesperson Alaska's other U.S. senator, Republican Dan Sullivan, said Sullivan would vote no on the bill.

Sullivan in a statement said one of his priorities in office has been to work with colleagues on vitally needed solutions to address the mental health crisis, especially among young Americans, that is unfolding across our nation." He said this is where our focus should be, and this legislation represents a good start in that regard.

But he said he has serious concerns about elements of the bill, including provisions that he said were vaguely defined.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Practice makes perfect, according to Alex Villarreal, and without it the critical skills required to perform rescues would begin to deteriorate.

The president of the International Rescue & Emergency Care Association was on hand the last several days as the IRECA/TEEX annual conference and challenges event was held at the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Services Brayton Fire Training Field and Disaster City Rescue Campus in College Station.

You have days and nights, the weekends, you just have to be ready at any time, Villarreal said. We need this type of training and to be able to work together with TEEX, and to have them feel comfortable knowing that we know what were doing is really helpful.

Villarreal participated in the challenges with Chevron Philips Chemical Co.Cedar Bayou, located in Baytown. While Cedar Bayou employees are trained on site, the IRECA event brings in other industries and municipalities to receive training, Villarreal said.

The experiences of going through these scenarios, which are based off if you were working in our chemical plant or chemical refinery, allows us to bring the techniques back to work, Villarreal said.

The IRECA/TEEX partnership was open to anyone looking to participate. Participants took part in a week full of workshops, team evaluations, lectures, hands-on clinics and challenges, some of which were contested in teams while others were solo efforts.

Participants took part in five challenges: the first responders rescue challenge designed to test four-rescuer engine companies; the physical fitness challenge timed a solo individual while they perform rescue and medical skills; the auto extrication challenge had teams of four to six remove a victim from a vehicle; the technical rescue challenge tested a seven-person teams ability to perform a rescue with limited equipment; and the basic life support challenge had teams of three focus on medical and trauma scenarios.

David Fulbright, TEEX rescue co-chair, said IRECA teaches participants how to do the maximum amount of rescues with a minimum amount of equipment. From his experience teaching across the United States, Fulbright said its important that rescuers have the necessary skills in emergencies and not entirely rely on specialized equipment.

The scenarios are roped to where you cant have anything premade, everything has to be built, Fulbright said. If I tell you to build a four-to-one haul system, a three-to-one, a Z-rig piggyback (rope haul system) they have to know how to build that to perform a rescue.

A team from Covestro in Baytown competed in the event for the first time, something that was several years in the making, said Covestro safety superintendent Erik Pierce.

Luckily in our industry we dont have a whole lot of emergencies where we have to use these skills, but when we have to use them theyre very important, Pierce said, so this is kind of just something the guys can work toward, create a goal set to be the best that they can be, and prepares them for an actual emergency.

Stephanie Hyatt, Vertical Integrity Rescue COO and founding partner, and Chris Williams, Vertical Integrity Rescue CEO and founding partner, said they had competed in previous years so decided to volunteer this year to make the event run smoother and safer.

We have several of our clients out here competing, Hyatt said. Its been invigorating to see some of our clients take some of the skill sets that weve worked on earlier in the year and implement them into this competition, and to realize how some of our training is helping them and theyre using it in real life.

To provide an aspect of realism and better prepare participants for an emergency, real people are used as patients in the various challenges, Hyatt said.

Its someones mother, father, sister, brother and that adds stress, the heat adds stress and theres no room for error, Hyatt said. When else are you ever going to practice like this? Youd hate for your first ever rescue, in your first real-life emergency, to be a real patient.

Shaggy said stressors can drop the highest levels of performance, so its important for individuals and teams to train while surrounded by them to be properly prepared to not only save lives but to stay alive themselves.

If you ask me what this brings to the table its an amazing amount of stressors, Williams said. When you have your husband or wife watching you for the first time its amazing how stressful that is. Some of these people go from having zero live patients on a rope to young people.

At the end of day, teams and companies who support the event see that it results in faster rescues being done flawlessly, Williams said.

We would not be the rescue technicians we are today without IRECA, he said. Theres several other big competitions out there that equally prepare you in different ways, but for what we do as employees of a major petrochemical company theres no better preparation you could have for saving lives in that industry.

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After only being open to limited attendance during the pandemic, the Checkered Past: The Story of Board Games exhibit will return to the Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History on Friday.

The exhibit, which explores the history of board games and their influence on human culture, originally opened to the public in February 2020 but closed shortly after due to COVID-19 and reopened to a lower-than-expected turnout. To provide the community with a better opportunity to enjoy the exhibit and its interactive activities, the Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History at 3211 Briarcrest Dr. in Bryan, will once again hold the exhibit from June 24 through Oct. 29. Attendance costs $5 for adults, $4 for children and is free for children under 3.

Rebecca Ingram, the former curator of the exhibit and current archivist and publications coordinator for the Texas A&M Institute of Nautical Archaeology, said the coincidental timing of the original opening was the main reason for bringing it back this summer.

A lot of people just werent going out to visit museums the way they had been, Ingram said. We had quite a few guests, who didnt have the chance to see it, comment to us asking, Oh, will you ever bring that one back?  so we knew that we could bring it back.

Ingram said board games are an ancient human tradition.

Board games far predate any written human history, Ingram said. The oldest object that [historians and anthropologists] believe to be a board that was used for playing a game dates to about 6000 B.C.

Ingram said she plans to discuss why board games are such fascinating historical objects during her presentation at 6:30 p.m. Friday.

What I love about board games is they dont stay in one place, they travel [and] evolve as they travel, Ingram said. One of the images that Im going to show in the lecture is some chess pieces that were found on a shipwreck that dates to about 1,000 years ago.

Deborah Cowman, the museums executive director, said she is looking forward to the interactive aspects that the exhibit will provide.

I think the most wonderful thing about this exhibit is that so many people can relate to board games, Cowman said. Its a great exhibit to have up during the summer when kids can come  and theres things kids can play with their parents or grandparents.

Cowman said the interactive parts of the exhibit were not available when it first opened during the pandemic.

All the interactives we had to remove [and] that kind of took some of the spirit out of the exhibit, Cowman said. So this time around weve got all the interactives back and I think that makes it a different experience this time.

Besides the more common games such as backgammon, chess and checkers, Cowman said the exhibit also will feature some unique items.

We even have a Game of Thrones game that we borrowed directly from Cushing Library and from [George R. R. Martin], Cowman said.

While the exhibit doesnt officially open until Friday, following a presentation by Ingram, Cowman said people can already come view the exhibit.

We basically had a soft opening [last] Friday so the exhibit is all in place and actually open to the public right now, Cowman said.

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WASHINGTON (AP)  In a major expansion of gun rights, the Supreme Court said Thursday that Americans have a right to carry firearms in public.

The justices' 6-3 decision follows a series of recent mass shootings and is expected to ultimately allow more people to legally carry guns on the streets of the nation's largest cities  including New York, Los Angeles and Boston  and elsewhere. About a quarter of the U.S. population live in states expected to be affected by the ruling, the high court's first major gun decision in more than a decade.

The ruling comes as Congress is working toward passage of gun legislation following mass shootings in Texas,New York and California.

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the majority that the Constitution protects "an individual's right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home."

In their decision, the justices struck down a New York law requiring people to demonstrate a particular need for carrying a gun in order to get a license to carry one in public. The justices said that requirement violates the Second Amendment right to "keep and bear arms."

California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island all have similar laws. The Biden administration had urged the justices to uphold New York's law.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said the decision comes at a particularly painful time, when New York is still mourning the deaths of 10 people in a mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo. "This decision isn't just reckless. It's reprehensible. It's not what New Yorkers want," she said.

In a dissent joined by his liberal colleagues, Justice Stephen Breyer focused on the toll taken by gun violence. "Since the start of this year alone (2022), there have already been 277 reported mass shootingsan average of more than one per day," Breyer wrote.

Backers of New York's law had argued that striking it down would lead to more guns on the streets and higher rates of violent crime. Gun violence, which was already on the rise during the coronavirus pandemic has spiked anew.

In most of the country gun owners have little difficulty legally carrying their weapons in public. But that had been harder to do in New York and the handful of states with similar laws. New York's law, which has been in place since 1913, says that to carry a concealed handgun in public, a person applying for a license has to show "proper cause," a specific need to carry the weapon.

The state issues unrestricted licenses where a person can carry their gun anywhere and restricted licenses that allow a person to carry the weapon but just for specific purposes such as hunting and target shooting or to and from their place of business.

The Supreme Court last issued a major gun decision in 2010. In that decision and a ruling from 2008 the justices established a nationwide right to keep a gun at home for self-defense. The question for the court this time was about carrying one outside the home.

The challenge to the New York law was brought by the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, which describes itself as the nation's oldest firearms advocacy organization, and two men seeking an unrestricted ability to carry guns outside their homes.

The court's decision is somewhat out of step with public opinion. About half of voters in the 2020 presidential election said gun laws in the U.S. should be made more strict, according to AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of the electorate. An additional third said laws should be kept as they are, while only about 1 in 10 said gun laws should be less strict.

About 8 in 10 Democratic voters said gun laws should be made more strict, VoteCast showed. Among Republican voters, roughly half said laws should be kept as they are, while the remaining half closely divided between more and less strict.

Associated Press reporter Hannah Fingerhut contributed to this report.
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In five words, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Mountain Valley Pipelines request that it draw a new three-judge panel to reconsider permits for the embattled project that have repeatedly been struck down.

The court denies the motion, read a one-sentence order filed late on June 22.

In a highly unusual move, the company building a natural gas pipeline through Southwest Virginia asked the Fourth Circuit in May for the random selection of a panel to hear the latest challenge of its permits, made by a coalition of environmental groups and local opponents.

Mountain Valley contended that public confidence in the court is threatened by its continued rejection of government approvals for the 303-mile pipeline, often by the same trio of judges.

The public has certainly noticed these exceptional results and has zeroed in on the peculiarity that each case involving an authorization for Mountain Valley draws the same three-judge panel, the motion stated.

The Richmond-based Fourth Circuit, which consists of 15 active judges and three senior judges to hear appeals from five states, has a computer program that randomly assigns three-member panels for incoming cases.

However, the courts rules allow for the same judges initially appointed at random to remain with a case when it comes up again, under certain circumstances.

When the first lawsuit involving Mountain Valley reached the court in 2018, the computer program indiscriminately picked three names  Chief Judge Roger Gregory and Judges Stephanie Thacker and James Wynn.

That led to their assignment to most, but not all, of the dozen or so future cases in which federal and state permits issued to Mountain Valley were contested.

Supporters of keeping the same judges on similar cases say it improves judicial efficiency, as the panel gains knowledge of past history and familiarity with complex issues.

Lawyers for a coalition headed by the Sierra Club argued that it was the facts of the cases  not the judges who heard them  that led to Mountain Valleys losing record.

Those facts show systemic flaws in the permitting of MVPs pipeline, rather than a deck stacked against it, read a brief filed by Appalachian Mountain Advocates and the Southern Environmental Law Center, two groups that represent the petitioners.

Many of the cases decided by the panel involved what it found to be inadequate oversight by government agencies to control muddy runoff from the massive construction project. Mountain Valley has been cited nearly 400 times by Virginia regulators for violating erosion and sedimentation control regulations since work began in 2018.

Officials with the Sierra Club and Appalachian Voices, which are part of the group that is fighting the permits, declined to comment Thursday. A spokeswoman for Mountain Valley also had no comment.

The cases involve the latest challenge of stream crossing permits  one issued by Virginias State Water Control Board last December and a similar authorization by West Virginia  where the pipeline starts.

Generally, it is not known which Fourth Circuit judges will hear a case until the day of oral arguments before the court. No date has been scheduled in the stream crossing cases, which will likely not be heard until the courts September term, at the earliest.

Steve Emmert, an authority on state and federal appeals who has never seen a motion like the one filed by Mountain Valley, said the brevity of the Fourth Circuits ruling was not unusual.

Unlike formal opinions in which the court explains its reasoning and cites case law, rulings on motions usually contain little detail, according to Emmert, a Virginia Beach attorney who is not involved in the pipeline litigation.

I imagine that this is a disheartening ruling for the pipeline, but the court absolutely has the discretion to control its case assignments, he said.

The remaining crossings of streams, rivers and wetlands is not the only obstacle Mountain Valley must overcome to meet its target of completing the long-delayed, $6.6 billion infrastructure project by late 2023.

Earlier this year, the Fourth Circuit  again represented by Gregory, Thacker and Wynn  struck down for the second time two other authorizations: One for the pipeline to pass through the Jefferson National Forest and the second a finding by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that endangered species would not by jeopardized.

Mountain Valley is applying for renewed permits yet again.

In a filing this week with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the lead agency overseeing the pipeline, the company submitted details on its application to the U.S. Forest Service for approval to pass through public woodlands in Giles and Montgomery counties and Monroe County, West Virginia.

All of the trees have been felled along a 125-foot wide right of way through 3.5 miles of the Jefferson National Forest, according to the documents.

About half of the land along Sinking Creek and Brush Mountain has been cleared and graded, but no pipe has been installed in the forest.

The pipeline will cross under the Appalachian Trail as it traverses Peters Mountain. Plans call for Mountain Valley to bore a tunnel for the pipe about 90 feet below the trail, leaving a buffer of about 300 feet on either side of the scenic foot path.

Critics of the pipeline say its corridor will still be visible from the trail for miles away.

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On Saturday, June 18, the Roanoke Quilts of Valor Stitchers awarded Rocky Mount resident Herbert Jones, 91, and Fork Mountain resident Michael T. Cassell, Todd, quilts of valor for their service to the United States. The ceremony was held at Fork Mountain Quilting in Rocky Mount.

A quilt of valor can be awarded to anyone that has served in the Armed Forces and been touched by war. While being touched by war can have very different meanings, the two recipients are both honored combat veterans. Jones was drafted into the Army 5th Regimental Combat Team in 1952, serving on the frontlines in the Korean War on the 38th parallel. Jones was wounded by a hand grenade while on the frontlines where he suffered both a broken arm and leg. His body was filled with shrapnel. He recovered in Japan and then returned to his regiment on the frontlines until the end of the war and his honorable discharge in November 1953. Jones received a Purple Heart, combat infantry badge and Korean infantry citation for his service.

Todd Cassell retired from the Navy after 21 years of dedicated service. Cassell retired as command senior chief on the USS OSCAR AUSTIN in 2009 after serving on numerous ships, submarines and other posts. Cassell served in combat during Desert Shield, Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom and the global war on terrorism. During his numerous tours of duty, Cassell earned three Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals, three Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals, as well as various other personal and unit awards.

The Roanoke Quilts of Valor Stitchers began in October 2021 with Carolyn Zaleski as the leader and are one of more than 500 groups in the United States. The Quilts of Valor organization has awarded more than 212,000 quilts since its start in 2003.
On Tuesday, the Franklin County Board of Supervisors put the finishing touches on comprehensive plan and zoning code language dealing with solar facilities.

The zoning code and comprehensive plan changes are part of the countys response to growing interest in solar farming in Franklin County.

We do have two [entities] in the non-zoned areas that were aware of that are very interested in moving the process forward, and one in the zoned area that Im aware of, Assistant County Administrator Steve Sandy said.

In July, the county will hold public hearings on the ordinance and comprehensive plan language. The comprehensive plan will govern the non-zoned parts of Franklin County, while the zoned parts will be subject to both the comprehensive plan and ordinances in the county zoning code.

Before signing off on the public hearings, though, the board made some changes to the language previously approved by the Franklin County Planning Commission.

With regard to the ordinance, the boards primary change  recommended by county staff and adopted by the board  would prohibit facilities from being located in Designated Growth Areas in the zoned part of the county. DGAs largely match up with village areas. Otherwise, utility-scale facilities would only be allowed in A1-, M1, M2 and planned commercial district-zoned areas, and only with special-use permits.

Every one of those cases in the zoned area would have to come to the board and be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, Sandy said.

The supervisors also followed county staffs recommendations to remove a 1,500-acre limit on land occupied by solar facilities in the county and an item requiring a one mile minimum distance between facilities. Another adjustment made by the board would require facilities be set 150 to 300 feet back from all property lines and public right of ways.

In the non-zoned parts of Franklin County, solar facilities would be subject to the comprehensive plan.

Planning and zoning staff presented the supervisors with three options for comprehensive plan language to deal with solar facilities.

The first, least restrictive option was previously approved by the Planning Commission. The second optionwhich was recommended by county staffwas more restrictive, with the third and final option being the most restrictive.

The supervisors went with the second option, which would crucially require facilities to have either a project-specific siting agreement approved by the county or show compliance with Virginia Code section 15.2-2232.

Either way, Planning Director Lisa Cooper said, all projects would have to go before the county for approval.

The comprehensive plan language approved by the board would also require solar facilities to be screened from public view, not visually impact scenic and cultural resources, including the view shed from residential areas and event venue spaces and avoid impact on available farmland, including prime farmland and farmland of statewide significance.

County Attorney Jim Guynn said some of the languageincluding view shed and statewide significancewere purposely left vague to allow the supervisors and planning commissioners to apply their own judgement in specific situations.

Not everyone is thrilled about the idea of solar farms in Franklin County, but Guynn pointed out that some regulation is better than none.

Not doing anything is exactly how you will not preserve [the countys natural beauty], because you dont have any regulation over it, Guynn said.

Siting agreements, ordinances and comprehensive plan requirements wont be the only factors informing the location of solar facilities. Generally-speaking, Sandy said, solar farms need to be near power substations. South-facing land is also desirable to get the most sun exposure.

Following the public hearings in July, the board may vote to adopt the ordinance and comprehensive plan language.

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Grand Island Public Schools had roughly 60 positions open at the start of May, according to the district.

In only two months, the school district said it has brought that down to 18 positions.

This was achieved with new hires, promoting paraeducators, bringing back retirees and using long-term substitutes.

Brian Kort, GIPS recruitment and retention coordinator, said as of Monday the district still has open: At Senior High, three positions; middle schools, four and 1/3 positions; elementary, six positions and special education, five positions.

Early Childhood is fully-staffed, said Kort. Four newly-created social/emotional/creative arts specialist positions, which will be shared among elementary buildings, are being recruited.

It has been a districtwide effort to fill those open positions, said Kort.

It was a lot of work with administrators, shifting staff into some positions, some work with schedules, especially at the secondary levels, hiring, and some retired teachers have come in, which is where the one-third comes from. I had someone who was willing to do two-thirds, he said. Its been a lot of different things.

One hire happened quickly after the districts board president got an email from an interested person, said Kort.

Kort reached out to the person Monday morning, talked to him that afternoon, and got a text that evening to schedule interview. He was interviewed Tuesday and took a tour of the community. GIPS got references Wednesday and made an offer that day, which was accepted.

Its been a lot of different people helping recruit and find people and just within our district some shuffling to fill the positions and get quality teachers in front of our kids, said Kort.

GIPS had roughly 100 resignations following the end of the 2021-2022 year, but that was typical for the district for the past few years, said Kort.

With COVID, many people decided to take other positions or retire early, said Grover.

People have reassessed their priorities in life and a lot of different personal factors, thats what were seeing, she said.

Kort called it a perfect storm.

About 30% of our teachers are 50 or older in Nebraska and in the last 10 years the number of students going into education has dropped by about 30%, he said. Were at the front end of this shortage, but weve got to retain the teachers we have and keep them in GIPS.

He added, Its about all of us helping bring in quality teachers each year.

GIPS Superintendent Tawana Grover called this an unprecedented time when it comes to recruitment and retention

When we think about the number of people leaving the education profession, the number of students who are even graduating college as being certified and trained in the area of education, those numbers are declining, she said. Were taking a multi-faceted approach to this problem were facing.

It has also become an opportunity for the district to set priorities, determine its focus and set expectations for its campuses for the coming school year, said Grover.

Three goals have been set.

First, ensuring high-quality, full-time staff in classrooms.

Second, reducing the amount of additional class coverage for certified staff.

Last year we had a lot of teachers who were giving up their planning periods to cover classes, so we knew that had to be a top priority, said Grover.

Third, freeing up substitute teachers.

We wanted to reduce the number of long-term subs we had because we do value them and we want them to be more flexible to support across the district for us, said Grover.

GIPS is ready, too, if theyre not able to fill all of its open positions.

It requires collaboration with principals and having staffing meetings at all grade levels to determine where opportunities lie within their campuses and whats going to be that standard we want to meet, said Grover.

So far, it has worked out where were able to get certified people where we need them to be, she said. As we look at these final 18, its still tough out there. Every position counts.

Alternatives may be necessary.

Swapping teachers among buildings and across disciplines may be needed.

Weve worked with our principals where, maybe they have a staff member whos certified in one area and the other building they have one they can swap out and trade for a year, Grover said.

Grover said, There are opportunities to think about, when is a long-term substitute best?

Some of our long-term substitutes have worked for us for many years and many of them are retired teachers, they know the content area, she said. That might be the best area for that particular solution.

On that last point, there is contention between the district and the teachers union, Grand Island Education Association. The union has filed a grievance with the Nebraska Commission of Industrial Relations alleging the district misclassified some teachers as long-term substitutes, instead of contract employees, to avoid the costs of benefits. The district has denied the allegation. The sides are expected to meet in court on July 21.

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Beau Rapien, RN, received the 2022 Caring Kind Award for CHI Health St. Francis on June 22.

Recipients of the award go above and beyond to exemplify caring, compassion and service excellence shown to patients, coworkers and the community. Rapien, a registered nurse in the hospitals progressive care unit, was presented with the honor by St. Francis President Ed Hannon.

Each year, one employee is selected from staff nominations to represent the hospital at the Nebraska Hospital Association Annual Convention scheduled for this fall. NHA has paid tribute to more than 2,000 of Nebraskas most caring and dedicated health care workers since 1979 at the event.

The following are excerpts from Rapiens nomination:

I am nominating Beau because he always comes to work with a smile and is always ready and willing to help. Beau is so kind to his patients. Several of our regulars ask if he is working and say how wonderful of a nurse he is.

He always stays calm and collected in any situation. I have never seen anyone be so compassionate and patient with patients the way Beau is.

He treats all his co-workers with respect and kindness and is one of the best leaders and role models we have. As a CNA, I am always full of questions and Beau is always willing to take the time to help and answer any questions I have.

Beau goes out of his way to help and he always seems happy to do so. He deserves to be recognized as a Caring Kind employee for he always goes above and beyond.

Other 2022 Caring Kind Award nominees included: Cynthia Chong, RN, Inpatient Rehab Unit; Marsha Hansen, ER admissions, Conifer; Jodi Harpold, CHI Health Clinic St. Francis Family Medicine; Miranda Hopkins, RN, Maternity Center; Meghann Kowalski, RN, Progressive Care Unit; Alice Quick, RN, Maternity Center; Morgan Rader, foundation; and Marilyn Williams, radiation therapy.
The U.S. Supreme Courts decision Friday on Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization has overturned 1973s Roe v. Wade.

The decision was met with support from Hall County area conservative leaders and with protests at the Adams County Courthouse, joined by Hall County Democrats.

Hall County Democrats Chair Guillermo Enrique Pena Valladeres said he is left in fear of for the American public.

The state should not have the final word on what family planning should be, he said.

Its the domino that will take us back 50 years, not for womens rights, but for reproductive health, he said. It still feels like anybody who happens to be different is not welcome in America. The sad part is, more of the justices that judged on Roe V. Wade were implemented by Nixon, Reagan and Bush. Its the last three justices that were appointed by President Trump that formed the Supreme Court to an area of political adversity that I have not seen in a long time.

He added, Its up to us to help and fight for womens rights.

Abortion remains legal in the state, for now. A special session of the Nebraska Legislature is being planned for August in response to the decision, State Sen. Ray Aguilar of Grand Island told The Independent. An abortion ban that wouldve been triggered by the court overturning Roe was proposed this session in anticipation of the decision, but failed to pass.

Its put us back in that same situation. Nebraska is without any statute on this whatsoever, and we need to get something in place, said Aguilar. Gov. (Pete) Ricketts is adamant he wants to go for the ban again, but weve got to come up with 33 votes to get it done.

He added, There should be some serious negotiation when we get back in special session.

Ricketts has said he supports a ban that doesnt include an exclusion for cases of rape or incest. In a statement issued Friday, the governor said, Roe v. Wade took away the states right to regulate abortion and cost millions of babies their lives.

Todays Supreme Court decision restores the rights of the people, and as a result our future generations will have a chance at life, he said. The Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe is an answer to millions of prayers on behalf of the unborn and a victory for human life. I will be working with our legislative leaders to determine what more we can do to protect our preborn babies.

Hall County Republican Chair David Plond voiced support for the U.S. Supreme Court decision, and said the party supports pro-life legislation at the state level.

Were very pleased that the Court has made this decision, said Plond.

Rev. Joseph Hanefeldt of the Catholic Diocese of Grand Island released a statement in celebration of the decision, calling it an historic day.

Today there is new hope for the unborn in this country, he wrote. Today, the Supreme Court has taken an important step in bringing respect for all human life back to this country.

He added, Let us pray for the conversion of those who believe that destroying life through abortion should ever be an option.

Amanda Frasier, South Central Nebraska Right to Life president, said the Hastings-based group is very happy with the decision.

Our fight isnt over. That means the decision now goes back to the state. Abortion isnt going to be illegal. Every state is going to do their own thing, she said. With Nebraska being a pro-life state, we look forward to the Legislature calling a special session to give us a case to enact a pro-life law in Nebraska that would protect more unborn babies as a result of this decision.

She added, Were pro-woman, pro-baby. Abortion, of course it takes the life of a baby, but it also hurts women, as well.

Subhede - Other reactions

U.S. Sens. Deb Fischer and Ben Sasse, both Republicans, along with Rep. Adrian Smith (R-3rd), issued statements lauding the Supreme Court decision.

Life is a miracle that begins at conception. While todays decision is a win for the pro-life movement, our work does not end here, said Smith of Gering. We must ensure states  which are now rightfully tasked with authority over abortion  have the resources needed to restore a culture that respects and values life by supporting at-risk mothers, fathers and children.

Fischer of Valentine said she has always supported pro-life policies that show compassion for women and their unborn children.

Todays ruling returns policy-making decisions on this issue to state and federal lawmakers, she said. Its going to take good faith and empathy to address it.

Sasse of Fremont, said, Americas work of becoming a more perfect Union is never over, but today  by righting a Constitutional wrong  the Supreme Court took a historic step forward.

Representatives of Planned Parenthood, the ACLU of Nebraska, Womens Fund of Omaha and I Be Black Girl, said they were disappointed in the 6-3 decision released Friday morning.

With this decision, the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey and dismantled the federal constitutional protections for abortions that have existed for 50 years, said Scout Richters, reproductive rights counsel for the ACLU of Nebraska.

Richters said the ruling allows anti-abortion politicians across the country to force women and other people who can become pregnant into lives they did not envision.

In a statement, the Nebraska GOP said, The prayers of countless Americans have been answered  the fight to protect life will continue as states now have the ability to take new steps to protect the most vulnerable lives among us.

Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb said, The majority of Nebraskans believe abortion must remain legal and that women must have the right to make their own health decisions.

Republicans ... are putting womens lives at-risk for their callous political agenda, Kleeb said. We can block the ban at the ballot box by voting for our strong Democratic candidates.

Stay with TheIndependent.com for more coverage.

Jessica Votipka and Mike Brownlee of The Independent and Chris Dunker of the Lincoln Journal Star contributed to this story.

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Grand Island Public School Board Ward B candidate Carol Schooley filed a declination of nomination form Monday, June 20, with the Hall County Election Commission.

Ms. Schooley has withdrawn from the Grand Island Public Schools School Board race, which leaves a vacancy on the ballot for the Nov. 8, 2022, general election, said Hall County Election Commissioner Tracy Overstreet.

Schooley and Tim Mayfield filed as Ward B candidates for the May 10 primary election. Two candidates were eligible to advance to the Nov. 8 general election. Both Schooley and Mayfield auto-advanced through the primary. There is one Ward B seat open for the four-year term that begins in January 2023. Mayfield is now the only candidate currently on the ballot. Ward B incumbent Bonnie Hinkle chose not to seek re-election.

With a vacancy on the ballot, other eligible, interested voters in Ward B may petition to be on the ballot, said Overstreet. A total of 680 valid signatures are needed by Sept. 1 to fill the vacancy. The name of a successful petitioner would be printed on the general election ballot.

For more information, contact the Hall County Election Commission Office at 308-385-5085.
Have a question for a local police officer? Want to know why law enforcement does things a certain way?

A Carbondale Police Department program is designed to help citizens and police not only gain answers but also to build relationships.

Called Five on Five, the program gives five Carbondale residents an opportunity to talk with five of the citys police officers in a non-judgmental, open dialogue. Under the direction of moderators, participants address questions posed by citizens, exploring all sides of a topic.

Sometimes they stick to the questions and sometimes the conversation goes in other places, explained Carbondale Police Chief Stan Reno, who often welcomes participants before leaving the room and letting the conversation continue. It just depends on how the conversation goes and the particular interests of the group.

Reno said the program, which began last year, is an opportunity for open conversation, open dialogue and opportunities for people to get to know our officers and for the officers to get to know the community better.

Sharonda Cawthon, diversity, equity and inclusion coordinator for the City of Carbondale, and Gerald Edwards, a 30-year veteran of the Carbondale and Southern Illinois University Police Departments who returned to the department from retirement to serve as a community resource officer, moderate the discussions and choose the initial questions from those submitted by citizen applicants to the program.

We all sit down in a safe setting without the chief and with no recordings to have a conversation so that we can start to bridge the gap between officers and the community, Edwards said. We can discuss life without people knowing who the questions come from and it gives people a chance to listen to officers and gain their perspective on things.

Edwards said through the discussions, officers were able to tell that community members had genuine questions and concerns that could be addressed.

I would say that community members leave with a greater appreciation of what officers do and the officers have a greater appreciation of how the community thinks, he said, adding he has heard from both public participants and officers about the benefits of the program and how the discussions have change perspectives.

Mary OHara of Carbondale participated in the program last year. She said it is a good first-step in mutual understanding.

It was very exciting to being part of that kind of space for open discussions, she said.

She explained that she approached the Five on Five program to learn more about community policing, disaster preparedness and other aspects of police work in the city.

I learned to understand things from the police officers perspective a lot better and still remember many of the responses to the questions I asked, she said. Its absolutely a great program.

OHara said she thinks the program is a good first step, but she would like to see increased follow-up to the talks.

With the topics and information that come up, I think they warrant more discussion and policy considerations. Its a very good program, but like anything, we need to be thinking about the potential, she said.

Three Five on Five sessions are planned. For more information or to apply, visit www.explorecarbondale.com/727/5-On-5-Community-Program.

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CARBONDALE  AnnRae Hochheimer took to the streets Friday to protest the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade, the case that upheld a Constitutional right to abortion for nearly 50 years.

She stood alone at the corner of Illinois Avenue and Main Street in Carbondale with a sign that read I will not submit.

The ruling sent the decision about legality of abortion back to state legislatures.

She said this decision is not about infants and fetuses. It is about having statutes overturned and sending us back in time. She asked how far the court would go.

I thought Id be fighting other battles, not the ones weve already won. I didnt expect when fighting in the 1970s, wed be doing it again, Hochheimer told The Southern on Friday.

She said it was about forcing people to conform  that if you dont fit the mold, the government is going to make people conform.

While she was the first person protesting in Carbondale, she expected other to join her after work and classes.

A rally was planned at the pavilion at 8 p.m. Friday to protest the decision. Hochheimer did not expect to leave.

Linda Flowers, president of Carbondale NAACP, said women of color will be disproportionately affected by this decision.

I didnt really see this day coming, Flowers said.

She said the decision, along with the Jan. 6 riots in Washington D.C., to overturn the legal election are attacks on democracy.

This is turning back the clock on constitutional rights and women. The courts have been chipping away at the right to vote, especially in the past couple years, Flowers said. Women have the right to make decisions for their own bodies.

She added that everyone needs to protest with votes in the midterm election. Those who are registered need to vote. Those who arent registered, need to register and vote.

I want my daughter, granddaughters and great-granddaughters to come to be able to make their own decisions," Flowers said.

As a Black person, she said leaving the decision to the states is concerning. While Illinois is a liberal state, many other states are not as liberal.

Tara Bell, one of the organizers of Southern Illinois Pride March and Cruise, said the event tomorrow will undoubtedly take a turn toward a protest and march.

She said Tim Kee, their main speaker, had already planned to mention the issue, but would likely say more now that the court has made a decision.

Bell said the issue is not just about abortion, but bodily activity and privacy laws.

She said the gay marriage law is rooted in the same privacy cases mentioned in the abortion case. The court could also reconsider gay marriage and contraception.

Choice Memphis Center for Reproductive Health, which is seeking to open a new clinic in Carbondale by August, released a statement Friday.

At CHOICES, birthing families are five times less likely to have a C-section and three times less likely to have a premature birth than anywhere else in Tennessee. These outcomes reflect the special kind of care we provide at CHOICES, and speak to a future we know is possible  a future where sexual and reproductive healthcare is recognized as an essential human right.

Thats why were working hard to make sure that the new CHOICES clinic in Carbondale will be open in August of this year, and why were more committed than ever to the work we do in our Memphis clinic. The road ahead is long, but this fight is too important to give up now, part of their statement read.

Christine Mize, president of the inactive Jackson County Right to Life, has been working to overturn abortion for 30 years.

I just keep saying, Wow. Im pleasantly surprised, Mize said.

She added that she is thankful that the U.S. Supreme Court released this decision, calling it a huge victory for the unborn.

While Mize is happy with the decision, she stressed that the work now shifts to the state legislature.

The work will continue for Illinois. Weve got to get legislators in who support a ban on abortion, Mize said.

U.S. Representative Mike Bost (IL-12) released a statement regarding the decision, saying the issue is why he got involved in politics 40 years ago.

I agree wholeheartedly with the Supreme Courts decision to restore power to the American people to determine for themselves how abortion services are regulated in their state. Its a historic decision that will help save the lives of countless innocent unborn children. As liberals in Illinois and Washington undoubtedly push forward with their abortion on-demand agenda, Ill keep fighting to protect the lives of the unborn, the statement read.

State Senator Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro) was pleased with the courts decision to vacate Roe v. Wade and return the issue of abortion to the elected officials in the state and the people they represent.

I have always strongly felt that the original decision in 1973 was incorrectly made, which has led to the heartbreaking end of innocent life for five decades, Bryant said in a press release.

She added that the governor is already calling for a special session to deal with the impact of the ruling.

She said the decision does not impact the radical abortion laws in Illinois, will not end taxpayer-funded and late-term abortions or will not prevent a minor from undergoing an abortion without their parents knowledge.

Those claiming otherwise are being disingenuous and trying to shift the narrative for political purposes, Bryant said.

U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today issued a statement after the Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade:

I am outraged and horrified  this outcome is a nightmare that robs women of their right to make their own choices about their healthcare and their bodies, and it paves the way for a nationwide abortion ban that Republicans have been seeking for decades, Duckworths statement read.

She added that forcing women to have babies is not only cruel, but will be deadly. She mentioned growing maternal mortality in the nation and often inaccessible healthcare, without affordable child care or universal paid leave.

I refuse to let my daughters grow up in a world with fewer rights than I had. As Republicans continue their march toward a nationwide abortion ban, I will do everything in my power to ensure that Illinois remains a safe haven for all women seeking reproductive care, Duckworth said.

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The Supreme Court ruled that Maines tuition aid program must include religious schools in a 6-3 decision on Tuesday, sparking discourse around the nationwide debate on taxpayer money funding private or religious education.

Maines tuition assistance program provides subsidies to rural school districts without a public high school, giving families who live in those areas public dollars to send their children to the public or private school of their choice, formerly excluding religious schools.

This landmark decision has sparked nationwide discourse concerning tuition assistance programs for non-public schools.

Dr. Sharon Weiss, superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Peoria, Ill., said this ruling could set a precedent that gives families more freedom of educational choice.

Religious schools continue to provide instruction on core academic subjects while also teaching about the religion on which they were founded or support in their mission, Weiss said. To deny our religious schools from receiving taxpayer funds for tuition assistance when we follow all state guidelines for nonpublic school recognition must only be based on the fact that we also teach religion.

Weiss also said that independent schools would hold the same status as religious schools in the eyes of the state if they both meet the nonpublic school recognition criteria for curriculum, student attendance days, immunization requirements and other guidelines, so she agrees that withholding taxpayer tuition funding from religious schools is discriminatory.

Davenport Assumption High School President Andy Craig said hes interested to see how school choice will play out in Iowa.

I know the governor has made it a priority, and as the president of a private Catholic school Im in support of that push, Craig said. But its mainly in the hands of our legislators on whether Iowa will go down the road of school choice or if itll go down different roads.

The decision over Maine consequently invalidates provisions in 37 state constitutions that bar the direct or indirect use of public dollars for religious schools.

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds has prioritized her own "school choice" agenda since the beginning of the year, pushing for sweeping education reforms and proposals.

Similar to Maine's tuition aid program, Reynolds introduced a private education bill  SF 2369  last legislative session, but it was struck down by the Iowa Legislature.

The program would have redirected $55 million in public school funding to create state-backed private school scholarships for 10,000 low-income students. This translates to roughly $5,400 per recipient, using 70% of the per-pupil funding that the recipients public school would otherwise receive.

The bill faced push back from both her Democrat and Republican constituents; Democrats feared it would harm Iowa public schools, while only 2% of Iowa students would benefit from the bill.

On the other hand, Republican lawmakers were concerned the bill would pull students and resources from rural districts, given 42 Iowa counties dont have private schools. To alleviate these concerns, Reynolds tweaked the proposal so leftover per-pupil aid would go to districts with fewer than 500 students.

Locally, Senate District 47 GOP nominee Scott Webster expressed his support for Reynolds scholarship proposal prior to the primaries but wasnt sure about sending leftover money to rural districts.

His opponent, Dr. Mary Kathleen Figaro, wrote in a campaign email that funding private school education with taxpayer money is fundamentally unfair, and an attack on rural public schools and families.

Iowa is home to 240 private schools, with two currently authorized charter schools. Illinois houses 1,600 private schools and 128 charter schools.

Rep. Cindy Winckler, D-Davenport, isnt sure if the Supreme Court's ruling would set a precedent for Iowa but encourages Iowans to look at the tuition assistance measures in place.

We already have a 75% tax credit for contributions to private school foundations that meet tuition needs of students within the law, Winckler said. We have several support systems for the private schools in Iowa. We give dollars for technology, textbooks and transportation  it all adds up to $104 million already dedicated to private schools.

The General Assembly increased the school tuition organization tax credit from 65% to 75% toward the end of the 2021 session. The Legislative Services Agency predicts this reform could increase existing state funding for tuition and textbook tax credits by $11 million in FY 22.

Illinois Invest in Kids Act gives a tax credit to donors who contribute to scholarships for low- and middle-income students for private school expenses. Donors receive a credit of 75 cents for every $1 donated, with a $1 million credit limit.

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Two Republicans are running as the partys candidate for state representative in the 117th District of Illinois House of Representatives. They are Ron Ellis of Marion and State Rep. Patrick Windhorst of Metropolis.

Ellis is a certified public accountant of 36 years, an accountant four years before being certified, and serves on the Regional Office of Education 21 board, which includes Franklin, Williamson, Johnson and Massac counties.

He served 12 years as Williamson County Commissioner, finishing as chairman of Williamson County Board. He also served four years on the ROE board before he was elected as commissioner.

I actually have a whole lot more experience than my opponent. Hes never made a budget, Ellis said.

Windhorst said his primary experience is as states attorney for Massac County. He said it gave him great insight on how the law applies, understanding issues of criminals and just explaining how new laws will impact the district.

Ellis said the top issue in the state is jobs, jobs, jobs.

We desperately need people to go Springfield and quit playing politics, Ellis said. We need to do what Kenny Gray, Clyde Choate, Paul Powell and C.L. McCormick did. They brought businesses here and put people back to work.

He said they did their jobs by working across party lines, whether they were Democrats or Republicans. Ellis will do exactly that, he said.

He said his experience working with state representatives and senators as a county commissioner gives him experience working across party lines to get jobs done for Southern Illinois.

His second issue is energy.

When in the state of Illinois we are being told to get ready for rolling blackouts, we have a problem, Ellis said.

As an accountant, Ellis has tax clients in California. They have been facing rolling blackouts for years and get no notice of when those blackouts will be. It makes it hard for businesses to operate.

Ellis said blackouts also are a problem for people with medical needs, like needing oxygen, a heart monitor or who require air conditioning or heat.

The governor pledged that the state will be fueled by green energy sources by 2025. Ellis said that is not reasonable.

First, many coal-fired power plants cannot switch that quickly. Ellis also said switching to renewable energy is problematic in Southern Illinois. Besides days when the sun is not shining, we dont have a lot of wind to power wind turbines.

However, he said solar fields are popping up across Southern Illinois.

In July, Ameren is talking about increasing bills 50%. With higher interest, gas and food what it is, how are we going to do it? Ellis asked.

His third issue is Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

That department needs to be totally overhauled, Ellis said.

He said they are mismanaged and case workers are overworked, in part as a result of Gov. Rauner letting the state go without a budget.

What is this doing to kids? he said.

Ellis and his wife Pamella have three children and 7 grandchildren, with an eighth coming in October.

On the other hand, Windhorst said the top issue in the state is the loss of population, including those who move from the state and students who leave to go to college and never come back.

Because of this, Windhorst said the individual tax burden in the state keeps increasing as compared to states that surround Illinois. That raises the cost of living in Illinois.

He said corruption in the state government and growing crime rates are also driving people to move to other states.

We need to make sure law enforcement and courts have the tools they need to do their jobs, the appropriate tools to deal with those who break the law, Windhorst said.

His second issue is education, adding that he really believes education is the key to the future.

We need to make sure were providing equal opportunities to students throughout the state, Windhorst said.

While local decision-making is good, funding for education needs to come from the state instead of property taxes. The state has put money into evidence-based funding of education, but the issue needs to addressed. He said we need relief from high property taxes.

We need to make sure we are not paying higher property taxes than Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee, Windhorst said.

His third issue is addressing the states overall financial condition.

We should not be spending money on programs we cant afford, like in the last budget, Windhorst said. We need to maintain a strong fiscal footing rather than increasing expenditures.

Windhorst said a lot of things are going on that he would like to finish.

Its been an honor to serve the people of Illinois, and I am asking for their vote for another term, Windhorst said

Windhorst and his wife, Holly have two children.

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Marriage is tough. So is operating a home service business. Running a home service with your spouse is even tougher.

Ask Jason and Shayna Shadowen. Not only has the Energy couple been married for 24 years, but, together, they owned and operated two home service enterprises and  through some good times and bad  have discovered how to have success both at work and at home. Now, along with a Florida couple with a similar background, they are working to help other marriages and businesses succeed.

Jason said he and Shayna started to see signs of challenges as they expanded their own businesses. For many years, the pair had owned and operated Service Detectives, a regional company with a focus on electrical, heating and cooling services. With the growth of a second business, My Office Help, a back-office and scheduling service for other home service companies in North America, came conflict.

It really wasnt until we got this company going that we kind of started crossing into each others areas, Jason explained. We didnt have boundaries or roles or a sense of who was responsible for what and we would overstep our lanes.

He said issues of responsibilities and communication made things tough  both at work and at home.

The Shadowens have since learned how to manage working with and being married to one another, and they have found other couples in similar situations. Several years ago they met Kristen and Justin Deese, authors of When Your Business Partner is Your Spouse, and the two couples became fast friends. Now they are working together to help others grow both their marriages and their home services businesses.

There are other groups out there, but we found there are none specific for the trades and we feel that couple who are in the trades have to deal with some different aspects that maybe a couple who is in a retail business together wouldnt have, Shayna explained. We know the trades and thats where we want to focus.

That focus has begun with a Facebook group for people like themselves, plumbers; heating, ventilation and air conditioning technicians, contractors, electricians, roofers, landscapers and other residential service industry professionals. The online community is to be a place where couples can interact, become acquainted and build comradery. He said the group will feature live events  trips and tricks  not only on business practices but also on relationships as well as book discussions and interviews.

Thats part of what we want to do, the community group, he said. Also, we are planning a marriage retreat and other events and programs. We are trying to explore all of the aspects of business and marriage. When you are not aligned with each other, it stunts your growth both in business and in your marriage. We want to help people align themselves.

He said they have been talking with the Deeses for several years about the challenges of business spouses and those discussions led to the Facebook community and other programs.

So many of us have stories that are similar, he said.

Shayna said one of the goals is to improve communication among couples  and to know what to communicate about.

When you are in business together with your spouse, there really is no way to completely cut off the communication. Its just not possible to only talk about business from eight to five. Its also remembering that there are other things that are more important; things like your family and faith need to come first, Shayna said.

The Shadowens agreed their goal is to help trades people build their businesses without sacrificing their relationships.

Our hope is to be able to affect marriages of those who are in business together in a way that saves marriages, Jason said.

He invited other business spouse couples in the home service sector to join the group at www.facebook.com/groups/businessspousecommunity.

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WASHINGTON (AP)  The Supreme Court on Friday ended constitutional protections for abortion that had stood in America for nearly a half-century. The decision by the court's conservative majority overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling and is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

The ruling, unthinkable just a few years ago, was the culmination of decades of efforts by abortion opponents, made possible by an emboldened right side of the court that has been fortified by three appointees of former President Donald Trump.

Both sides predicted the fight over abortion would continue, in state capitals and in Washington, and Justice Clarence Thomas, part of Friday's majority, called on the court to overturn other high court rulings protecting same-sex marriage, gay sex and the use of contraceptives.

Clinics in at least two states, Wisconsin and West Virginia. stopped performing abortions after Friday's decision.

Abortion foes cheered the ruling, but abortion-rights supporters, including President Joe Biden, expressed dismay and pledged to fight to restore the rights.

"It's a sad day for the court and for the country," Biden said at the White House. He urged voters to make it a defining issue in the November elections, declaring, "This decision must not be the final word."

The ruling came more than a month after the stunning leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito indicating the court was prepared to take this momentous step.

It puts the court at odds with a majority of Americans who favored preserving Roe, according to opinion polls.

Alito, in the final opinion issued Friday, wrote that Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 decision that reaffirmed the right to abortion, were wrong the days they were decided and must be overturned.

"We therefore hold that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. Roe and Casey must be overruled, and the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives," Alito wrote, in an opinion that was very similar to the leaked draft.

Authority to regulate abortion rests with the political branches, not the courts, Alito wrote.

Joining Alito were Thomas and Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett. The latter three justices are Trump appointees. Thomas first voted to overrule Roe 30 years ago.

Four justices would have left Roe and Casey in place.

The vote was 6-3 to uphold the Mississippi law, but Chief Justice John Roberts didn't join his conservative colleagues in overturning Roe. He wrote that there was no need to overturn the broad precedents to rule in Mississippi's favor.

Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan  the diminished liberal wing of the court  were in dissent.

"With sorrowfor this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protectionwe dissent," they wrote, warning that abortion opponents now could pursue a nationwide ban "from the moment of conception and without exceptions for rape or incest."

The ruling is expected to disproportionately affect minority women who already face limited access to health care, according to statistics analyzed by The Associated Press.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department "will work tirelessly to protect and advance reproductive freedom." He said in a statement that in addition to protecting providers and those seeking abortions in states where it is legal "we stand ready to work with other arms of the federal government that seek to use their lawful authorities to protect and preserve access to reproductive care."

In particular, Garland said that the federal Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of Mifepristone for medication abortions.

"States may not ban Mifepristone based on disagreement with the FDA's expert judgment about its safety and efficacy," Garland said.

More than 90% of abortions take place in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy, and more than half are now done with pills, not surgery, according to data compiled by the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.

Mississippi's only abortion clinic, which is at the center of the case, continued to see patients Friday. Outside, men used a bullhorn to tell people inside the clinic that they would burn in hell. Clinic escorts wearing colorful vests used large stereo speakers to blast Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" at the protesters.

Mississippi is one of 13 states, mainly in the South and Midwest, that already have laws on the books that ban abortion in the event Roe is overturned. Another half-dozen states have near-total bans or prohibitions after 6 weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.

In roughly a half-dozen other states, the fight will be over dormant abortion bans that were enacted before Roe was decided in 1973 or new proposals to sharply limit when abortions can be performed, according to Guttmacher.

In Wisconsin, which has an 1849 abortion ban on the books, Planned Parenthood immediately halted all scheduled abortions at its clinics in Madison and Milwaukee following the high court's ruling.

The decision came against a backdrop of public opinion surveys that find a majority of Americans oppose overturning Roe and handing the question of whether to permit abortion entirely to the states. Polls conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and others also have consistently shown about 1 in 10 Americans want abortion to be illegal in all cases. A majority are in favor of abortion being legal in all or most circumstances, but polls indicate many also support restrictions especially later in pregnancy.

The Biden administration and other defenders of abortion rights have warned that a decision overturning Roe also would threaten other high court decisions in favor of gay rights and even potentially, contraception.

The liberal justices made the same point in their joint dissent: The majority "eliminates a 50-year-old constitutional right that safeguards women's freedom and equal station. It breaches a core rule-of-law principle, designed to promote constancy in the law. In doing all of that, it places in jeopardy other rights, from contraception to same-sex intimacy and marriage. And finally, it undermines the Court's legitimacy."

And Thomas, the member of the court most open to jettisoning prior decisions, wrote a separate opinion in which he explicitly called on his colleagues to put the Supreme Court's same-sex marriage, gay sex and even contraception cases on the table.

But Alito contended that his analysis addresses abortion only. "Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion," he wrote.

Whatever the intentions of the person who leaked Alito's draft opinion, the conservatives held firm in overturning Roe and Casey.

In his opinion, Alito dismissed the arguments in favor of retaining the two decisions, including that multiple generations of American women have partly relied on the right to abortion to gain economic and political power.

Changing the makeup of the court has been central to the anti-abortion side's strategy, as the dissenters archly noted. "The Court reverses course today for one reason and one reason only: because the composition of this Court has changed," the liberal justices wrote.

Mississippi and its allies made increasingly aggressive arguments as the case developed, and two high-court defenders of abortion rights retired or died. The state initially argued that its law could be upheld without overruling the court's abortion precedents.

Then-Gov. Phil Bryant signed the 15-week measure into law in March 2018, when Justices Anthony Kennedy and Ruth Bader Ginsburg were still members of a five-justice majority that was mainly protective of abortion rights.

By early summer, Kennedy had retired and was replaced by Justice Brett Kavanaugh a few months later. The Mississippi law was blocked in lower federal courts.

But the state always was headed to the nation's highest court. It did not even ask for a hearing before a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ultimately held the law invalid in December 2019.

By early September 2020, the Supreme Court was ready to consider the state's appeal.

The court scheduled the case for consideration at the justices' private conference on Sept. 29. But in the intervening weeks, Ginsburg died and Barrett was quickly nominated and confirmed without a single Democratic vote.

The stage now was set, although it took the court another half year to agree to hear the case.

By the time Mississippi filed its main written argument with the court in the summer, the thrust of its argument had changed and it was now calling for the wholesale overruling of Roe and Casey.

The first sign that the court might be receptive to wiping away the constitutional right to abortion came in late summer, when the justices divided 5-4 in allowing Texas to enforce a ban on the procedure at roughly six weeks, before some women even know they are pregnant. That dispute turned on the unique structure of the law, including its enforcement by private citizens rather than by state officials, and how it can be challenged in court.

Roberts was among the dissenters.

Then in December, after hearing additional arguments over whether to block the Texas law known as S.B. 8, the court again declined to do so, also by a 5-4 vote. "The clear purpose and actual effect of S. B. 8 has been to nullify this Court's rulings," Roberts wrote, in a partial dissent.

In their Senate hearings, Trump's three high-court picks carefully skirted questions about how they would vote in any cases, including about abortion.

But even as Democrats and abortion rights supporters predicted Kavanaugh and Gorsuch would vote to upend abortion rights if confirmed, the two left at least one Republican senator with a different impression. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine predicted Gorsuch and Kavanaugh wouldn't support overturning the abortion cases, based on private conversations she had with them when they were nominees to the Supreme Court.

***

***

Associated Press writers Jessica Gresko, Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston, Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi and Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed to this report.

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CHICAGO  A federal judge sentenced a Chicago man to nearly three years in prison Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to setting a police SUV on fire while wearing a Joker mask during widespread May 2020 demonstrations over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood sentenced 33-year-old Timothy O'Donnell to 34 months.

O'Donnell pleaded guilty in February to one count of interfering with law enforcement during the commission of civil disorder.

"He set a car on fire in the middle of a crowd," Wood said. "He did it in a way that was intended to target law enforcement. He did it in a way that could have caused serious injury or death. Fortunately, it did not."

Before he was sentenced, O'Donnell apologized "to those whose businesses were left in utter ruin" and said he was sorry "if I hurt Chicago's character in any way."

In a plea agreement, O'Donnell said he would pay $58,125 restitution to the Chicago Police Department to cover the cost of the damaged vehicle.

O'Donnell has been in custody since his June 2020 arrest.

Prosecutors said that a downtown protest had grown violent on the afternoon of May 30, 2020, when O'Donnell was seen on video taken by a bystander approaching the parked police vehicle, placing a cloth inside the gas tank and lighting it with a lighter.

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The suspect in the double-fatal crash on the Interstate 74 bridge pedestrian path in Moline does not want cameras in the courtroom during proceedings related to her case.

An attorney for Chhabria Harris, 46, of East Moline, has filed a motion in Rock Island County Circuit Court, objecting to extended media coverage. Media outlets have for more than a decade been permitted to use video and still photography at trial and in pre-trial hearings with the consent of the presiding judge.

Harris' attorney argued that such coverage is a threat to her constitutional right to a fair trial.

Attorneys for the Quad-City Times/Disapatch-Argus and KWQC-TV have filed a resistance to the motion, arguing that it fails to cite evidence that Harris' rights would be impacted by extended coverage.

While Harris asserts that extended media coverage is "unusual and extreme," the local media outlets argue that many cases, including high-profile cases locally and in other states, have been granted extended access.

One example is the gavel-to-gavel live streaming of the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse in Wisconsin.

The objection also argues that Harris is constitutionally protected from "specifically targeted negative publicity," which also met with resistance from the newspapers and TV station.

"... Every criminal defendant involved in any newsworthy incident faces the problem of negative, pretrial publicity, and courts routinely and adequately address it by increasing size of the jury pool, permitting more searching voir dire, carefully instructing the empaneled jurors, delaying the trial sequestering jurors, or changing a trials venue," an attorney for the Times and KWQC wrote in their resistance.

While Harris' attorney also expressed concern for the transmission of images of the defendant in an orange jail jumpsuit, saying such images could prejudice a jury, the county prosecutor and police already have shared Harris' jail booking photo, which has been widely published and broadcast.

Both parties agreed, however, that Harris should be permitted to wear civilian clothes and be unshackled during court appearances.

A ruling on the matter is expected during a hearing Friday morning.

Harris is charged in the May 22 crash near the entrance to the bike and pedestrian path on the I-74 bridge in Moline. Police say she was driving the Cadillac Escalade that entered the path in Bettendorf, striking three pedestrians after crossing into Moline.

Ethan Gonzalez, 21, died at the scene. Anthony Castaneda, 18, died days after he sustained critical injuries, and Charles Bowen, 22, also was seriously injured.

She has been charged with three counts of aggravated DUI, great bodily injury or death; three counts of failure to stop after a crash causing personal injury or death; three charges of aggravated reckless driving; and two counts of reckless homicide.

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As a component of its discussion series, On Being A Citizen, the I.P. Stanback Museum & Planetarium at South Carolina State University in tandem with The Cecil Williams South Carolina Civil Rights Museum will host a combined live event and book signing (held at the Cecil Williams Museum) as part of a simultaneous public Zoom conversation with Orangeburg native, academic and author Dr. June Manning Thomas. Thomas is the daughter of former Claflin College President Dr. H.V. Manning.

Thomas will discuss her recent book, Struggling to Learn, published in 2021 by the University of South Carolina Press.

A majority of the images provided in Thomas book have been provided by nationally recognized photographer, Cecil Williams, and are a significant component of the collections in the civil rights museum bearing his name.

The combined in-person and Zoom discussion will begin at noon Saturday, June 25 and will be part of a joint effort with the Cecil Williams South Carolina Civil Rights Museum, its partners The I. P. Stanback Museum & Planetarium, South Carolina State University, the Center for Civil Rights of the University of South Carolina, The South Carolina Progressive Network, The Skipp Pearson Foundation, and The Modjeska Simpkins School for Human Rights.

This program will concentrate upon Thomas documentation of her experiences recorded in Struggling to Learn, where she reflects upon the educational gains made by Black South Carolinians during the Jim Crow and civil rights eras and how those gains were achieved.

A discussion of what fueled civil rights persistence and why it was sustained despite opposition and hostility from South Carolinas white citizens at the time will be assessed.

In the final chapters, she explores the current state of education for Black children and young adults in South Carolina and discuss what has been learned and improved upon through this collective struggle.

Thomas book provides poignant personal narrative, supported by meticulous research, which retraces the history of the education of African Americans in South Carolina from the post-Civil War era to the present.

Focusing largely on events that took place in Orangeburg during the 1950s and 1960s, Thomas reveals how local leaders, educators, parents and the NAACP joined forces to improve the quality of education for Black children in the face of resistance from white South Carolinians.

Thomas's experiences and the efforts of local activists offer relevant insight because Orangeburg was home to two Black collegesSouth Carolina State University and Claflin Universitythat cultivated a community of highly educated and engaged Black citizens.

This program is free and available to the general public, sponsored by The Cecil Williams Civil Rights Museum.

Thomas work, Struggling to Learn, will be available onsite for the in-person event.

In order to attend the discussion and book signing in-person, please contact Cecil Williams at 803-347-8001 or email will2429@bellsouth.net.

Participants for the online Zoom conversation must pre-register for this event and may contact Dr. Frank Martin, who will serve as program moderator, at fmartin@scsu.edu.

Register for the Zoom conversation in advance for this meeting at: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYvc-mupj0iGdQjAxBu1TBdNSzYukB0e6fM

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Medical professionals are bound by an oath to help people and do no harm. But they also have the right not to violate their consciences by being forced to participate in specific health care services.

A new South Carolina law looks to provide legal protections for health care providers who refuse treatment or to provide a medication that goes against their religious or ethical beliefs. Gov. Henry McMaster has signed the Medical Ethics and Diversity Act as passed by the legislature.

Critics contend the legislation is no more than a license to discriminate against LGBTQ persons.

The new law will open up a Pandoras box of problems when it comes to equality and dignity for LGBTQ people, Adam Polaski, communications director for the Campaign for Southern Equality, told The Post and Courier of Charleston. Too often, we already see people struggling to access affirming health care that they need in the state of South Carolina. By basically granting a broad license to discriminate against LGBTQ people, we think that problem is only going to get worse.

While supporters will say the act allows providers to object to specific procedures, that becomes discriminatory when those procedures apply more to a certain group, such as transgender people seeking hormonal therapy or gay men who use pre-exposure prophylaxis medications, Polaski said via the Charleston newspaper.

The law is not in conflict with American Medical Association support for a physicians right to act or not act according to his or her beliefs as long as it is not discriminatory or places an undue burden on the patient. The right is not unlimited, according to an AMA Code of Medical Ethics Opinion, and a physician must provide emergency care, respect a patients right to refuse life-sustaining treatment and must respect basic civil liberties.

Lets be clear. The state law does not allow doctors to opt out of performing emergency treatment and forbids discrimination because of race.

The Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom is an American conservative Christian legal advocacy group focused on blocking rights and protections for LGBTQ people; expanding Christian practices within public schools and in government; and preventing access to abortion and contraception. Some will say its support for the South Carolina law proves the objective is to legalize discrimination against LGBTQ persons.

We see instead in the words of the organizations senior counsel, Matt Sharp, a legitimate recognition of the rights of medical professionals:

"Patients are best served by medical practitioners who are free to act consistent with their oath to 'do no harm.' The MED Act ensures that medical professionals are not compelled to breach this oath by being required to participate in specific procedures or treatments that violate their ethical, moral or religious beliefs.  We commend Gov. McMaster and the South Carolina legislature for standing with medical professionals and the patients they serve by enacting the MED Act. Thanks to their leadership, South Carolina's health care heroes are free to care for all patients in a compassionate, ethical manner."

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The Regional Medical Center dedicated a new facility in St. Matthews on Wednesday.

The RMC Primary Care-St. Matthews, which also features a HEALTHPLEX location, will allow providers to treat patients more effectively and in greater numbers, Physician Assistant Tjuana Seidl said. Seidl has been working in St. Matthews for five years.

It's something we've desperately been praying for, just to be able to accommodate our patients we already have and future patients, to make sure that we're able to get patients flowing through adequately so we don't have patients having to wait out in the waiting room, and they're seen in a timely manner and they get exactly what they need when they need it, Seidl said.

The facility, located at 651 Harry C. Raysor Dr., is located just up the street from the small house where the current medical team has been practicing for the past several years.

At 5,700 square feet, the new facility is significantly larger and will provide most everyday health care services. It holds eight exam rooms as well as a 24-hour gym facility.

The center will provide general health care services, as well as OB-GYN services, EKGs, lab work and some psychiatric services, according to Seidl.

The dedication ceremony was attended by local officials, lawmakers and RMC employees.

Several health care providers and speakers at the dedication said the facility will allow people to access health care more easily.

If there's somebody right here, in their backyard basically, they don't have to depend on transport to come and get them, RMC Manager of Quality and Education for Radiology Sylvia Dantzler said.

They can have a family member bring them or they might be able to still drive that short distance and be able to access the health care that they need, she said.

Dantzler said that the team at the new center will be the same team that was providing care at the old location.

They have got an excellent team here, Dantzler said. This is an already established team. It's not a new team, and they're going to give you the best care possible and they're not going to let anything go untreated.

The gym portion of the facility will be open 24 hours, allowing swing shift workers to have access to equipment whenever they have time, Dantzler said.

Many providers stressed the importance of the preventative care that the facility will be able to provide to the community.

With gas prices, especially right now, it means a big difference coming five minutes from your home versus driving 15 minutes, Director of Radiology and Breast Health Services Dana Banks said. You know, preventative care is all about convenience. So trying to get more people on board to be preventative and catch illnesses quicker  that's a big thing for everyone right now.

Banks said providing preventative care is especially important as the pandemic has made people less likely to get screenings for cancer and other diseases.

State Rep. Russell Ott, D-St. Matthews, said he was proud to see the center open.

I don't know that there's a challenge more pressing than rural health care that we find across the state and access to good, affordable health care, Ott said. So the first step in trying to correct that is a building like this is. To be able to have a facility that people can access quickly and easily, right here in our own community.

Ott encouraged the community to support the facility and come see providers there for care rather than driving to other places.

Give it a shot, give these doctors and nurses an opportunity to take care of you right here in our very own community. Don't go somewhere else if you don't have to. Because if we don't use it, then being able to keep it becomes harder and harder, he said.

State Sen. Vernon Stephens, D-Bowman, who also spoke at the event, called on the community to support RMC as it serves local communities.

The centers opening tells us that our hospital is on the move, Stephens said. And with it being on the move, it is going to ensure that health care is affordable and convenient for every citizen in South Carolina, and particularly the citizens in district number 39.

RMC President and CEO David Southerland said while the dedication celebrated the new building, it is the work that will be done by health care providers in the building that deserves to be acknowledged.

It's a new building. That's good, but it's just the building, Sutherland said. The real work that goes on with the people that work here  the nurses and physicians, nurse practitioners, physician's assistants, all the staff that come here and provide care  that's whats important.

Caleb Bozard is a news intern at The Times and Democrat through the sponsorship of the South Carolina Press Association Foundation. He is a student at the University of South Carolina in Columbia.

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Dogs and puppies

 Cyndi Lou, a 3-year-old black-and-white female Lab-mix, is no Grinch to be around (case 0361).

 Ollie, a 1-year-old spotted white-and-black male Lab-mix, will only have eyes for you (case 0542).

 Nosey, 2-year-old tan female Shepherd-mix, needs someone to love just as much as she does (case 0001).

 Bandi, a 4-5 year-old white female Lab-mix, needs love she has never been shown (case 0051).

 Petunia, a 2-3 year-old brindle female Boxer-mix, will cuddle with you all day long (case 0137).

 Diesel, a 14-month-old black male Boston Terrier-mix, is that fire you need in life (case 0242).

 Rusty, a 9-month-old black-and-brown male Huskey/Rottweiler-mix, will make you feel brand new (case 0274).

 Rex, a 1-year-old brindle male boxer mix, is more than the average mans best friend (case 0261).

 Timmy, a 1-year-old tan male Mountain Curr-mix, needs someone to show him a loving touch (case 0159).

 Starlight, a 3-year-old gray female Lab/Boxer mix, will give you all of her love (case 0422).

 Sampson, a 2-year-old black male Boston Terrier-mix, is searching for his Delilah (case 0034).

 Smoke, a 11-month-old brindle male Boston Terrier-mix, will light a fire in your heart (case 0023).

 Bruce, a 16-month-old black male Lab, will always be there to save the day (case 0028).

 Sawyer, a 2-year-old white-and-orange male Lab-mix, needs a good country girl in his life (case 0026).

 Rambo, an 18-month-old white-and-black male Lab-mix, will go on any adventure with you (case 0014).

 Benny, a 11-month-old tan-and-white male Pyrenees/Mountain Curr-mix, will replace your favorite teddy bear (case 0050).

 Archer, a 4-year-old tan-and-white male Lab/Pointer-mix, will always point his love in your direction (case 0022).

 Apollo, a 3-month-old tan male Lab-mix, is like music to your ears (case 0036).

 Albert, a 1-year-old tan male Lab/Boxer-mix, will love you more than himself (case 0045).

 Fred, a 5-year-old white-and-tan male Carolina-mix, is patiently waiting for his Wilma (case 0052).

 Reba, a 3-month-old tri-color female Beagle-mix, has the bark of an angel (case 0068).

 Judd, a 3-month-old tri-color male Beagle-mix, needs a new riding partner (case 0069).

 Artemis, a 5-month-old tan-and-black male Lab/Shepherd-mix, cures the blues with his licks (case 0082).

 Gene, a 2-month-old black-and-white male Lab-mix (case 0086),

Cats and kittens

 Penelope, 2-year-old tabby female, will turn your sour in to sweet (case 0331).

 June, an 18-month-old black female Bombay-mix, who makes it feel like summer all year long (case 0178).

 Dotty, a 2-year-old tabby female DSH, will make your heart skip a beat (case 0548).

 Missy, a 7-month-old female tortoise shell, who needs someone classy in her life (case 0229).

 Sunshine, an 18-month-old orange-and-white female tabby DSH, will show brighten your day (case 0185).

 Meow, an 11-month-old female tortoise shell, knows purrs are the way to your heart (case 0260).

 Gomez, a 6-month-old black male DSH, needs a Morticia in his life (case 0031).

 Mingo, a 2-year-old grey tabby male Persian-mix, is the handsome gentleman youve been searching for (case 0029).

 Pumpkin, a 6-week-old orange female DSH, is a year round treat (case 0073).

 Briggs, an 8-week-old black male DSH, will go on any adventure with you (case 0087).

 Nico, an 8-week-old black male DSH, has a way with purrs (case 0090).

 Opal, an 8-week-old black female DSH, shines as bright as a rare gem (case 0089).

 Ezmerelda, an 18-month-old white female Siamese, (case 0098)

The Orangeburg SPCA will be limiting the number of people inside its facility at this time. Hours of operation are from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the first and third Saturdays. The SPCA is located at 225 Ruf Road and the phone number is 803-536-3918. Check out available adoptions on the internet at orangeburgspca.petfinder.com, the interactive website at www.OrangeburgSPCA.org and Facebook page at Orangeburg SPCA. Email any questions to adopt@orangeburgspca.org.

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Xi hosts 14th BRICS Summit, stresses importance of fostering high-quality partnership

Xinhua) 08:07, June 24, 2022

Chinese President Xi Jinping hosts the 14th BRICS Summit via video link in Beijing, capital of China, June 23, 2022.

Xi delivered remarks titled "Fostering High-quality Partnership and Embarking on a New Journey of BRICS Cooperation" at the summit. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

BEIJING, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping chaired the 14th BRICS Summit on Thursday evening in Beijing via video link. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the Summit.

President Xi made welcoming remarks first. He noted that over the past year, despite formidable and complex circumstances, BRICS countries have embraced the BRICS spirit of openness, inclusiveness and win-win cooperation, enhanced solidarity and coordination and jointly addressed difficulties.

He said the BRICS mechanism has demonstrated resilience and vitality. BRICS cooperation has achieved sound progress and results. This Summit is held at a critical juncture in the shaping of the future course of humanity. BRICS countries, as important emerging markets and major developing countries, need to act with a sense of responsibility, speak out for equity and justice, remain firm in the conviction that the pandemic will be defeated, pool strength for economic recovery, advocate sustainable development, jointly contribute wisdom and ideas to the high-quality development of BRICS cooperation and bring positive, stabilizing and constructive strength to the world.

President Xi delivered an important speech titled "Fostering High-quality Partnership and Embarking on a New Journey of BRICS Cooperation".

Xi pointed out that our world today is living through accelerating changes unseen in a century and continued spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. They confront humanity with unprecedented challenges. Over the past 16 years, the giant ship of BRICS has sailed forward tenaciously against raging torrents and storms. Riding the wind and cleaving the waves, it has embarked on a righteous course of mutual support and win-win cooperation. Standing at the crossroads of history, we should both look back at the journey we have traveled and keep in mind why we established BRICS in the first place, and look forward to a shared future of a more comprehensive, close, practical and inclusive high-quality partnership so as to jointly embark on a new journey of BRICS cooperation.

First, we need to uphold solidarity and safeguard world peace and tranquility. Some countries attempt to expand military alliances to seek absolute security, stoke bloc-based confrontation by coercing other countries into picking sides, and pursue unilateral dominance at the expense of others' rights and interests. If such dangerous trends are allowed to continue, the world will witness even more turbulence and insecurity. It is important that BRICS countries support each other on issues concerning core interests, practice true multilateralism, safeguard justice, fairness and solidarity and reject hegemony, bullying and division. China would like to work with BRICS partners to operationalize the Global Security Initiative (GSI), advocate a vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, create a new path to security that features dialogue over confrontation, partnership over alliance and win-win over zero-sum, and bring more stability and positive energy to the world.

Second, we need to uphold cooperation to boost development and jointly tackle risks and challenges. The combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine crisis has cast shadows over development worldwide, and emerging markets and developing countries bear the brunt. But just as a crisis may bring chaos, it can also spur change. A lot will ride on how we handle the crisis. BRICS countries should boost connectivity of industrial and supply chains and jointly meet challenges in poverty reduction, agriculture, energy, logistics and other fields. We should support greater development of the New Development Bank and improve the Contingent Reserve Arrangement to cement the BRICS financial safety net and firewall. We should also expand BRICS cooperation on cross-border payment and credit rating to facilitate trade, investment and financing among our countries. China stands ready to work with BRICS partners to add more substance to the Global Development Initiative (GDI), re-energize the implementation of the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, build a global community of development, and contribute to stronger, greener and healthier global development.

Third, we need to uphold the pioneering spirit and innovation and unleash the potential and vitality of cooperation. Those who seek to create monopoly, blockade and barriers in science and technology in order to disrupt other countries' innovation and development and hold on to their dominant position are doomed to fail. We need to improve global science and technology governance and allow more people to access and benefit from the fruits of scientific and technological advances. We have accelerated the building of the BRICS Partnership on New Industrial Revolution Innovation Center, reached the Digital Economy Partnership Framework, and issued the Initiative for Cooperation on Digitalization of Manufacturing. All these have opened new channels for closer industrial policy coordination between BRICS countries. Recognizing the importance of talents in the digital age, we have set up the Alliance for Vocational Education to build a talent pool for stronger BRICS cooperation on innovation and entrepreneurship.

Fourth, we need to uphold openness and inclusiveness and pool collective wisdom and strength. BRICS countries gather not in a closed club or an exclusive circle, but a big family of mutual support and a partnership for win-win cooperation. Over the past five years, we have organized a variety of "BRICS Plus" events in such areas as vaccine research and development, scientific and technological innovation, people-to-people exchanges and sustainable development. All these provide new platforms for cooperation among emerging markets and developing countries, and set a prime example of South-South cooperation and seeking strength through unity among emerging markets and developing countries. Under the new circumstances, it is all the more important for BRICS countries to pursue development with open doors and boost cooperation with open arms. It is important to advance the process of BRICS membership expansion to allow like-minded partners to become part of the BRICS family at an early date. This will inject new vitality into BRICS cooperation and increase the representativeness and influence of BRICS.

He stressed that as representatives of emerging markets and developing countries, we must make the right decision and take responsible actions at this critical juncture of history. What we do will have a significant impact on the world. Let us stay united, pool strength and forge ahead to build a community with a shared future for mankind and jointly create a bright future for humanity.

The leaders attending the summit thanked China for hosting this event and the efforts it made for promoting BRICS cooperation. They believed that facing international uncertainties, BRICS countries should strengthen solidarity, carry forward the BRICS spirit, consolidate strategic partnership and jointly respond to various challenges so that BRICS cooperation can reach a new level and play a bigger role in international affairs.

Under the theme of "Foster High-quality BRICS Partnership, Usher in a New Era for Global Development", leaders of the five countries held in-depth exchange of views on BRICS cooperation in various sectors and major issues of common concern and reached important consensus. They agreed on the need to stay committed to multilateralism, work for greater democracy in global governance, safeguard fairness and justice, and inject stability and positive energy into the turbulent international landscape.

They agreed on the need to jointly respond to COVID-19, give full play to such mechanisms as the BRICS Vaccine R&D Center, promote fair and equitable distribution of vaccines, and enhance preparedness in the face of public health crises.

They agreed on the need to deepen practical economic cooperation, firmly defend the multilateral trading system, work to foster an open world economy, oppose unilateral sanctions and "long-arm jurisdiction", strengthen cooperation in such fields as digital economy, technological innovation, industrial and supply chains, food and energy security, and jointly promote world economic recovery.

They agreed on the need to promote shared global development, give priority to addressing the most pressing needs of developing countries, eradicate poverty and hunger, address the challenge posed by climate change together, expand the application of such technologies as aerospace and big data in the field of development, accelerate the implementation of the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and make BRICS contribution to jointly ushering in a new era of global development.

They agreed on the need to strengthen people-to-people and cultural exchange and mutual learning and forge more signature projects in various sectors including think tanks, political parties, media and sports.

They also agreed on the need to pursue "BRICS Plus" cooperation at more levels, in broader areas and within a greater scope, actively advance the BRICS membership expansion process, keep BRICS abreast of the times, increase its appeal and relevance, and constantly strive for substantive, solid and sustained progress.

The XIV BRICS Summit Beijing Declaration was adopted and released at the event.

The BRICS leaders were also briefed by representatives of relevant BRICS cooperation mechanisms on their work.

Ding Xuexiang, Wang Yi and He Lifeng, among others, attended the Summit.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun)
On Wednesday, the Chamber of Deputies will vote once again to amend the current Covid law.

First the mask mandate on public transport was eased, now the 3G regime in hospitals and care homes is set to be removed from Luxembourg's Covid law. However, masks will still be mandatory in these establishments.

Sanitary measures in prisons and detention centres will also be eased.

In addition, newly infected people will have to isolate for just 7 days, instead of 10. People will require two negative rapid tests within 24 hours to leave isolation.

If MPs vote in favour of the amendments in the Chamber on Wednesday, the new law will be valid until 31 October.

President of the health commission, MP Mars Di Bartolomeo, told RTL that Covid was still very much present despite the easing of measures, and said they were not against adapting measures if required. He described the new law as "a suspended freedom sentence".
Fridays reversal of Roe v. Wade, which overturns constitutional protections for abortion, may sound like a victory for those in Wyoming who oppose abortion.

But they, just like the pro-abortion rights crowd dismayed at Fridays decision, say theres still more work to be done.

In the meantime, however, they say the Supreme Courts ruling is a step in the right direction.

Heartbreaking

Thanks to a leaked draft of the opinion, pro-abortion rights activists in Wyoming had braced for Fridays decision and expected Roe to be overturned.

Still, they held out hope until the final ruling was released.

Anyone who is pro-abortion and pro-reproductive health care access is feeling devastated by the restrictions being placed on individuals bodies by politicians who are not speaking for the majority of Americans, said Cristina Gonzalez, a nurse who works with Lander-based nonprofit Chelseas Fund.

Mary Ann Budenske, a lawyer who runs the Poverty Resistance food bank, said she doesnt think the ruling will have much of an effect on people seeking abortions in Wyoming. Already, the majority of Wyomingites seeking an abortion either receive medication through the mail or go out of state for a procedure.

Itll be the same as it always was, Budenske said. Therell be people that have enough money to travel and have an abortion if they need it, or have money for the pills.

Others, including Casper clinic founder Julie Burkhart, the Wyoming Democratic Party and Democratic state lawmakers, also said the ban would disproportionately affect lower-income people.

If it were really about the babies, wed do all this stuff ... expenses for giving birth would be covered, there would be parental leave, lactation consultants, free diapers, free formula, good childcare, said Jane Ifland, a member of the Casper clinics advisory board. But we dont do that.

Last year, 98 abortions were performed by in-state providers. Just one doctor in Jackson is actively providing abortions in Wyoming.

Wyoming is already a reproductive health care desert, said Gonzalez in a press conference Friday.

Gonzalez said that the group, which provides financial assistance to people seeking medical abortions, is already looking to tighten security and protect their clients identities. Down the road, they may explore ways to help with transportation costs for out-of-state appointments as well.

Pro-abortion rights activists organized protests in Casper, Laramie and Jackson the day the decision was released.

You just feel so hopeless, but you gotta get out there and let folks know this isnt acceptable for many of us, said Sharon Breitweiser, executive director of Pro-Choice Wyoming.

Hallelujah

Though they said there is more left to do, anti-abortion activists and officials said Friday that the Supreme Courts decision made them optimistic.

Ive heard from Right to Life organizations all over the state, all over the country, said Wyoming Right to Life President Marti Halverson. Usually the theme is Hallelujah!

Mike Pyatt, leader of far-right group Libertys Place 4 U, said he was rejoicing at the decision. But he and others are still looking at ways to limit abortion even further in Wyoming.

There will be some nasty fights, he said.

Michelle St. Louis, an anti-abortion Casper resident, said she took the ruling as a win but was still only cautiously optimistic. Shes generally in favor of states rights, but sees abortion as a fundamental issue that should be outlawed nationwide.

Since news broke of a clinic offering abortions coming to Casper, Pyatt and other anti-abortion activists have prayed and demonstrated outside the site every week.

Bob Brechtel, a former state lawmaker who organizes those demonstrations, says theyll continue even with Wyomings trigger ban poised to go into effect soon. If the clinic does not offer abortions when it opens, Brechtel said, they would still plan to demonstrate  but if it does, he said they would be ramping up their presence outside.

The battle is not over, but this gives us hope, Brechtel said. There is a feeling of moving in the right direction, so Im thankful, and praise God.

Anti-abortion leaders said theyd like to see Wyomings ban get rid of exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest.

St. Louis said shes worried theyll become loopholes, which anyone can use to justify an abortion. Halverson said Right to Lifes position holds that it is never necessary to kill a baby, no matter the circumstances.

Many of Wyomings top elected officials also applauded the decision on Friday.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis, Rep. Liz Cheney, Gov. Mark Gordon and congressional candidate Harriet Hageman issued statements praising the decision for giving power back to state governments.

Abortion should have never been a federal issue to begin with, and Im pleased the control over this issue returned to where it belongs  in the hands of duly-elected state legislatures, Lummis said.

The governor called the ruling a decisive win for those who have fought for the rights of the unborn for the past 50 years.

Star-Tribune staff writer Victoria Eavis contributed to this report.

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The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark abortion ruling Roe v. Wade on Friday, in a decision that says the "Constitution does not confer a right to abortion."

Wyoming is one of 13 states with a "trigger" bill in place, which is expected to ban nearly all abortions in the state within 35 days. That period allows the attorney general time to review the decision, after which the governor has to certify it.

It's very unlikely that Gov. Mark Gordon would decline to certify the ban. Earlier this year, he signed off on the trigger bill after it passed the Wyoming Legislature, and also directed AG Bridget Hill to sign onto an amicus brief in support of overturning Roe v. Wade along with 23 other states.

"This is a decisive win for those who have fought for the rights of the unborn for the past 50 years," Gordon said in a tweet Friday. "I signed Wyomings prohibition on abortion bill because I believe that the decision to regulate abortions should be left to the states."

Wyoming's ban would allow for exemptions in the case of rape or incest, but does not specify how those may be granted. Legal experts previously told the Star-Tribune that in practice, it would likely come from a private conversation with a doctor or provider.

Violating Wyomings abortion restrictions is a felony that can be punished by up to 14 years in prison. That'll come down hardest on providers, who would have to prove they believed the abortion was a result of rape or incest.

Right now, Wyoming has just one abortion provider in the state, a doctor at a Jackson clinic. She only provides medication abortions, as opposed to surgical procedures which can be done safely later in a pregnancy.

In 2021, 98 abortions were performed in Wyoming, according to statistics from the state health department. Sixty-seven of those were for Wyoming residents. All 98 were medication abortions, rather than surgical, and occurred at 10 weeks or less. Around a third of those receiving abortions in 2021 already had a child.

The year before, a total of 91 abortions were performed.

A second clinic that would offer abortions was set to open this month in Casper, though its opening will likely be delayed four to six months after someone tried to burn it down. Its founder says they still plan to open and provide other health care, even if abortion is no longer legal.

Residents have also been able to receive abortion medication, typically used up until 10 weeks, through the mail. It's unclear how the mail service will be affected by Friday's decision.

Legal experts say that even with a ban in place in Wyoming, residents cannot be prosecuted for going out of the state for an abortion.

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What does it mean to be a Wyomingite?

Wyoming Humanities  the states humanities council  wants to hear your thoughts.

The group just launched a new podcast, Winds of Change, which explores Wyomings identity through its history and people.

Its hosted by Wyoming Humanities executive producer Emy diGrappa, director of programs Chloe Flagg and program coordinator Lucas Fralick.

Identity is deeply personal; something shaped by individual experience. Still, Wyomings residents are intimately connected to the land, and to each other, she said  and that means identity is something Wyomingites share, too.

In Wyoming, we are three degrees of connection  not separation, diGrappa said in a teaser for the podcast. You are a friend, neighbor and acquaintance to everyone in this state in one form or another.

In addition to Winds of Change, Wyoming Humanities hosts two other podcasts: First But Last, which invites Wyoming women to reflect on life, education, politics and passion, and Whats Your Why, where accomplished people from all walks of life talk about what motivates them.

All three podcasts center on storytelling for a reason, said diGrappa.

I think that storytelling is the core of the humanities, she said.

Pretty much anyone who considers themselves a Wyomingite can be a guest on Winds of Change. Each episode of the podcast will be framed around a topic related to identity, diGrappa said.

Episodes will open with general conversation about that topic, followed with some relevant stories from the states history.

From there, well kind of roll into listening to people talk about their Wyoming identity, she said.

DiGrappa, Flagg and Fralick start the first episode by sharing what living in Wyoming means to them.

DiGrappa grew up in Fort Collins, where much of her extended family still lives. In 2002, she moved to Jackson from Santa Fe, New Mexico.

She was surprised to find a sense of belonging in Wyomings wide-open skies and tight-knit communities, she said in the episode.

I always thought I wanted the big city life, diGrappa said.

Wyoming Humanities executive director Shawn Reese and Grace Cannon, who teaches at WYO Theater, were the shows inaugural guests.

The podcast airs every other Thursday, and will usually be about 30 minutes in length, diGrappa said.

One guest appearing in episode two  set to come out June 30  is rancher Mary Budd Flitner, she said. In 2018, Budd Filtner published a memoir about ranching in Wyoming titled My Ranch Too.

DiGrappa already has plenty of ideas for future conversation fodder, she said. She wants hear what inspires people to move to Wyoming, for instance. Or why they moved away and came back. Or what they find most challenging about living in a big state with a small population.

To listen to the episodes, or to share your story with Winds of Change, visit Wyoming Humanitiess website, thinkwy.org. Listeners can also get in touch with diGrappa by emailing emy@thinkwy.org.

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THREE private sector groups, and a local non-profit organisation that focuses on transparency, yesterday said they are extremely concerned that the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Act has not been fully proclaimed and implemented.

Expressing the extreme concern yesterday were AMCHAM T&T, the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce, The Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers Association and the Trinidad and Tobago Transparency Institute
Spending time with dogs can help reduce stress in children.

Thats according to a new study published in the journal PLOS ONE.

The study examined stress levels in children in the UK before and after spending 20 minutes with a trained dog and professional handler. The sessions were twice a week for four weeks.
A 16-year-old is expected to appear before a master of the Fyzabad Childrens Court on Monda
Primary schools and non-exam secondary school classes are to remain closed on Tuesday as a r
This year marks the 60th anniversary of Trinidad and Tobagos independence from colonial rule. The question is: how have we fared as an independent nation? Some may argue, this is a subjective question as success or failure can be viewed through the personal experiences of the individual. Others may take the view that 60 years is a relatively young age as far as nationhood goes, therefore, it is still too early to form a plausible opinion.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that had provided a constitutional right to abortion. The ruling is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states, although the timing of those laws taking effect varies.

Some Republican-led states will ban or severely limit abortion immediately, while other restrictions will take effect later. At least one state, Texas, is waiting until after the Supreme Court issues its formal judgment in the case, which is separate from the opinion issued Friday and could take about a month.

In anticipation of the decision, several states led by Democrats have taken steps to protect abortion access. The decision also sets up the potential for legal fights between the states over whether providers and those who help women obtain abortions can be sued or prosecuted.

Here is an overview of abortion legislation and the expected impact of the courts decision in every state.

ALABAMA

Political control: Alabama has a Republican-controlled legislature and a Republican governor who want to ban or restrict access to abortions.

Background: In 2019, Alabama lawmakers approved what was then the most stringent abortion ban in the country, making it a felony to perform an abortion at any stage of pregnancy with no exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. The only exception would be when the womans health was at serious risk. A federal judge issued an injunction, under the precedent of Roe v. Wade, blocking the state from enforcing the law. In 2018, voters agreed to amend the Alabama Constitution to say the state recognizes the rights of unborn children and does not protect the right to an abortion or require the funding of abortion. A 1951 law made it a crime, punishable by up to 12 months in prison, to induce an abortion, unless it is done to preserve the life or health of the mother.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Abortions became almost entirely illegal in Alabama on Friday. A 2019 state abortion ban took effect making it a felony to perform an abortion at any stage of pregnancy, with no exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest. All three clinics stopped providing abortions Friday morning under fear of prosecution under the 1951 state law. U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson hours later granted Alabama's request to lift an injunction and allow the state to enforce the 2019 abortion ban. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said it is now a felony to provide an abortion in Alabama beyond the one exception allowed in the 2019 law, which is for the sake of the mothers health. Doctors who violate the law could face up to 99 years in prison. Marshall said the state would also move to lift other injunctions that blocked previous abortion restrictions, including a requirement for doctors who perform abortions to have hospital admitting privileges.

Whats next: Some Republican lawmakers have said they would like to see the state replace the 2019 ban with a slightly less stringent bill that would allow exceptions in cases of rape or incest. Proponents said the 2019 ban was deliberately strict in the hopes of sparking a court challenge to Roe.

ALASKA

Political control: Republicans currently hold a majority of seats in the state Legislature, but the House is controlled by a bipartisan coalition composed largely of Democrats. Fifty-nine of the Legislatures 60 seats are up for election this year. Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican who believes life begins at conception, is seeking reelection.

Background: The Alaska Supreme Court has interpreted the right to privacy in the state constitution as encompassing abortion rights.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The U.S. Supreme Court's decision is not expected to immediately affect abortion rights in Alaska, given the existing precedent in the state.

Whats next: Voters in the fall will be asked if they want to hold a constitutional convention, a question that comes up every 10 years. Many conservatives who want to overhaul how judges are selected and do away with the interpretation that the constitutions right to privacy clause allows for abortion rights see an opportunity in pushing for a convention. Recent efforts to advance a constitutional amendment through the Legislature have been unsuccessful.

ARIZONA

Political control: Both legislative chambers are controlled by Republicans, who regularly pass abortion restrictions that for the past eight sessions have been quickly signed by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, an abortion opponent.

Background: Arizona law allows abortion through about 22 weeks, but the Legislature passed a 15-week abortion ban in March mirroring the Mississippi law that was contested before the U.S. Supreme Court. It will take effect 90 days after the Legislature adjourns, which it did Saturday. Current restrictions include bans on abortions because of gender and a 2021 law that makes it a felony for a doctor to terminate a pregnancy because the child has a survivable genetic abnormality. Arizona also has a pre-statehood law still on the books that would ban all abortions, although it has not been enforced since Roe was decided.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Ducey has argued in media interviews that the law he signed in late March takes precedence over the total ban that remains on the books. But the law he signed specifically says it does not overrule the total abortion ban in place for more than 100 years. Ducey is term-limited and leaves office in January. Abortion providers across the state stopped all procedures after the court ruled Friday because of concerns that the pre-Roe ban could put doctors, nurses and other providers at risk of prosecution.

Whats next: Abortion-rights supporters in Arizona have launched a long-shot bid to enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution. Rolled out weeks after the draft U.S. Supreme Court decision showing Roe could be overturned was leaked, backers must collect more than 356,000 signatures by July 7 to get the initiative on the November ballot. Voters would then be able to decide.

ARKANSAS

Political control: Arkansas legislature is controlled by Republicans who have supported dozens of abortion bans and restrictions in recent years. Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson also has supported bans on abortion with some exceptions. Hes term-limited and leaves office in January. Republican nominee Sarah Sanders, press secretary to former President Donald Trump, is widely favored in the November election to succeed him.

Background: Arkansas already had a law banning most abortions 20 weeks into a womans pregnancy, with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. The state has several other bans that have been struck down or blocked by courts in recent years, including an outright abortion ban enacted last year that doesnt include rape or incest exceptions. That ban has been blocked by a federal judge, and the state has appealed.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Arkansas has a law it enacted in 2019 that bans nearly all abortions now that Roe is overturned. That ban, along with the outright ban thats been blocked by a federal judge, only allows exceptions to protect the life of the mother in a medical emergency. Hutchinson has said he thinks bans should include rape and incest exceptions, but he has not called on the Legislature to add those to either of the bans.

Whats next: Hours after Fridays ruling, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge signed certification that Roe had been overturned. That certification allows the states trigger ban to take effect immediately. The only exception in that ban is to protect the life of the mother in a medical emergency. The Legislature isnt scheduled to meet until January, but Hutchinson is considering calling a special session to take up tax relief proposals. The Republican governor said Friday he does not plan on asking lawmakers to consider adding rape and incest exceptions to the states ban.

CALIFORNIA

Political control: Democrats who support access to abortion control all statewide elected offices and have large majorities in the state Legislature.

Background: California outlawed abortion in 1850, except when the life of the mother was in danger. The law changed in 1967 to include abortions in the case of rape, incest or if a womans mental health were in danger. In 1969, the California Supreme Court declared the states original abortion law to be unconstitutional but left the 1967 law in place. In 1972, California voters added a right to privacy to the state constitution. Since then, the state Supreme Court has interpreted that right to privacy as a right to access abortion, allow minors to get an abortion without their parents permission and use public funding for abortions in the states Medicaid program. California now requires private health insurance plans to cover abortions and does not allow them to charge things such as co-pays or deductibles for the procedure.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Abortion will remain legal in California prior to the viability of a fetus. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has vowed to make California a sanctuary for women who live in other states where abortion is outlawed or severely restricted. The number of women who travel to the state for abortions is expected to rise significantly.

Whats next: The state Legislature is considering 13 bills that would strengthen or expand access to abortion. The bills are based on a report from the Future of Abortion Council, which Newsom formed last year to study reproductive rights in California. They include proposals that would help pay for women from other states to come to California for abortions, ban enforcement of out-of-state civil judgments on California abortion providers and volunteers, and increase the number of people who can offer abortions by authorizing some nurse practitioners to perform the procedure without the supervision of a doctor. Lawmakers also plan to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot in November that would explicitly guarantee the right to an abortion and contraceptives.

COLORADO

Political control: The Democrats who control the Colorado Legislature support access to abortion, as does the states Democratic governor.

Background: A 1967 state law legalized abortion up to 16 weeks of pregnancy. Abortion has been accessible ever since, despite repeated legislative attempts and ballot initiatives to restrict or abolish the procedure. Colorado voters have consistently rejected such initiatives, the latest in 2020 that would have banned abortion during the third trimester of pregnancy. In 2022, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed a law placing the right to abortion in state statute. The law guarantees access to reproductive care before and after pregnancy and bans local governments from imposing their own restrictions. It also declares that fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses have no independent rights. Abortion rights advocates plan a 2024 ballot initiative to add abortion rights to the state constitution and repeal a 1980s constitutional amendment that bans public funding for abortion.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The decision wont have any immediate impact on Colorado law -- but providers are preparing for a surge of out-of-state patients. Democratic House Majority Leader Daneya Esgar says lawmakers must consider how to invest in a health care workforce to ensure Colorado has the capacity to meet that anticipated demand. Colorados health department reports there were 11,580 abortions in the state in 2021; of those 14% were for non-residents. More than 900 of those non-residents were from Texas, Wyoming and Nebraska.

Whats next: Its impossible to predict how many more patients from states surrounding Colorado will potentially seek care now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned. But the Texas law could induce more people to come. Oklahoma now has an early pregnancy abortion ban; Utah and Wyoming have trigger laws banning abortion now Roe is overturned; the Kansas Constitution protects abortion rights, but Republican lawmakers placed on an August primary ballot an initiative to overturn it.

CONNECTICUT

Political control: Democrats who control the Connecticut General Assembly support access to abortion, as does the states Democratic governor.

Background: Connecticut passed a law in 1990 giving women the legal right to abortion. Having passed with strong bipartisan support, it was lauded at the time for being a rare compromise between abortion rights advocates and opponents. It affirmed a womans unqualified right to an abortion prior to viability of the fetus, as well as later-term abortions necessary to preserve the life and health of the pregnant woman. It also repealed state laws predating Roe v. Wade that had made it a felony to have an abortion or to perform one and required that patients under 16 receive counseling about their options. This year, Gov. Ned Lamont signed legislation to protect medical providers and patients from out-of-state legal actions. The same law allows advanced practice registered nurses, nurse-midwives or physician assistants to perform aspiration abortions in the first 12 weeks of a pregnancy.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, a Democrat, has vowed to challenge any attempt to nullify Connecticuts abortion rights law. Lets not mince words. They will come for us, Tong warned abortion rights supporters during a recent news conference. We will fight that effort tooth-and-nail. Any court, any place, Connecticut will be there and will fight. The state is already involved in major abortion cases across the country. And while Connecticut is surrounded by mostly pro-abortion states, its still bracing for out-of-state patients seeking abortions now that Roe has been overturned.

Whats next: Connecticuts new law protecting abortion providers from other states bans takes effect on July 1. It creates a legal cause of action for providers and others sued in another state, enabling them to recover certain legal costs. It also limits the governors discretion to extradite someone accused of performing an abortion, as well as participation by Connecticut courts and agencies in those lawsuits. Theres discussion of possibly amending the states constitution to enshrine the right to abortion, making it more difficult to overturn, but that would be a multi-year process.

DELAWARE

Political control: Democrats control the governors office and both chambers of the legislature in Delaware and have taken several steps to ensure access to abortion.

Background: In 2017, Delaware became the first state following the election of President Donald Trump to codify the right to an abortion. A bill signed by Gov. John Carney, a Catholic, guarantees the unfettered right to an abortion before a fetus is deemed viable. The law defines viability as the point in a pregnancy when, in a physicians good faith medical judgment, there is a reasonable likelihood that the fetus can survive outside the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures. The law also allows abortion after fetal viability if, in a doctors good faith medical judgment, abortion is necessary for the protection of the womans life or health, or if there is a reasonable likelihood that the fetus cannot survive without extraordinary medical measures. The law eliminated existing code restrictions on abortions, much of which had already been declared unenforceable by Delawares attorney general in 1973 following the Supreme Court rulings in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton. In April of this year, Carney signed a bill allowing physician assistants and advanced practice registered nurses to prescribe abortion-inducing medications including mifepristone and misoprostol.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: In Delaware, the privacy protections of Roe v. Wade are codified in state law, guaranteeing residents have access to legal abortion services even if Roe were to be undone at the federal level, Democratic lawmakers noted earlier this month in unveiling legislation further broadening access to abortions. The bill, which is likely to pass before the end of June, allows physician assistants, certified nurse practitioners and nurse midwifes to perform abortions before viability. It also includes various legal protections for abortion providers and patients, including out-of-state residents receiving abortions in Delaware. Those provisions include protections from civil actions in other states relating to the termination of a pregnancy, and protecting individuals from extradition to other states for criminal charges related to terminating a pregnancy.

Whats next: According to state health officials, 2,042 abortions were performed in Delaware in 2019, with 1,765 involving Delaware residents and 277 involving nonresidents. Delaware is not likely to see a huge influx of women traveling from out of state to get abortions if Roe v. Wade is overturned, given that neighboring Maryland and New Jersey also have liberal abortion-access laws. In neighboring Pennsylvania, where Republicans control both chambers of the Legislature, future abortion access could hinge on the outcome of this years gubernatorial contest.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Political control: The local government in the nations capital is completely controlled by Democrats, with a Democratic mayor and the D.C. Council split between Democrats and nominal independent politicians, who are all, invariably, Democrats.

Background: Abortion is legal in the District of Columbia at all stages of pregnancy, a status that was upheld in the 1971 Supreme Court case United States v. Vuitch. However, the U.S. Congress has oversight power over D.C. laws and Congress has already banned the city from using local funds to pay for abortions for women on Medicaid.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Elected officials in Washington, D.C., fear Congress could move to restrict abortion access, particularly if Republicans recapture the House of Representatives in midterm elections later this year. President Joe Biden could theoretically veto such a move, but that protection is subject to political calculations and is not guaranteed.

Whats next: Local officials have pledged defiance against any sort of Congressional move to restrict local abortion access. The D.C. Council is considering legislation that would declare Washington, D.C., a sanctuary city for those coming from states where abortion is banned. According to federal data, most of the women getting abortions in Washington already are coming from out of state. Those numbers could increase, particularly if new Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin moves to restrict abortion access in neighboring Virginia.

FLORIDA

Political control: Republicans control both chambers of the Florida Legislature and this year passed a ban on abortions after 15 weeks, which was signed into law by the states Republican governor.

Background: Abortion was legal in Florida until the 24th week of pregnancy, though lawmakers have been tightening access in recent years with bills requiring a one-day waiting period and requiring parents of a pregnant minor to be notified before an abortion can be provided. This year, in anticipation of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, the Legislature passed a ban on abortions after the 15th week, except to save the mothers life, prevent serious injury or if the fetus has a fatal abnormality. It does not allow for exemptions in cases where pregnancies were caused by rape or incest. Gov. Ron DeSantis called the legislation the most significant protections for life that have been enacted in this state in a generation.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The decision places Floridas 15-week ban on firm legal ground, at least under federal law. However, the legislation is already being challenged in state court on arguments that it violates a guarantee of the right to privacy under the state constitution.

Whats next: Floridas 15-week ban goes into effect on July 1, but challenges to that legislation are pending. Though only about 2% of Floridas abortions take place after 15th week, abortion rights advocates have expressed concern over declining access to the procedure not only for Floridians but for residents from nearby Southern states where restrictions have historically been stricter than in Florida.

GEORGIA

Political control: Georgia has a Republican legislature and governor who support abortion restrictions, but all are up for election this November. Republicans are likely to retain legislative control, but theres a possibility a Democrat could become governor.

Background: Georgia lawmakers in 2019 passed a law by one vote that would ban most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, when fetal cardiac activity can be detected. The measure is unlike other so-called heartbeat bills in that it also contains language designating a fetus as a person for certain state-law purposes such as income tax deductions and child support. A federal judge quickly put the law on hold, saying it was unconstitutional, and the state appealed to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The 11th Circuit said it would wait to rule on the appeal pending a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Mississippi case.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The day the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Georgias attorney general asked the 11th Circuit to reverse the lower courts ruling and allow the states abortion law to take effect. That same day, the 11th Circuit directed the parties to file briefs within three weeks addressing what effect, if any, the Supreme Court decision has on the Georgia appeal. If the law takes effect, it would ban the large majority of abortions that currently take place in Georgia  about 87%, according to providers. The change could happen in the middle of tightly contested races in Georgia for governor and U.S. Senate. Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and challenger for governor Stacey Abrams say they want to secure abortion rights. Republican Senate challenger Herschel Walker and incumbent Republican Gov. Brian Kemp support restrictions.

Whats next: Some Republican lawmakers and candidates want Georgia to go further and ban abortion entirely, but Kemp is unlikely to call a special session before this Novembers general election. Lawmakers are likely to consider further action when they return for their annual session in January. The Legislature or courts will have to sort out whether the provisions designating a fetus as a person are workable.

HAWAII

Political control: Hawaiis governor is a Democrat and Democrats control more than 90% of the seats in the state House and Senate.

Background: Hawaii legalized abortion in 1970, when it became the first state in the nation to allow the procedure at a womans request. The state allows abortion until a fetus would be viable outside the womb. After that, its legal if a patients life or health is in danger. For many years, only licensed physicians could perform the procedure. Last year, the state enacted a law allowing advanced practice care nurses to carry out in-clinic abortions during the first trimester. This helps women on more rural islands who have been flying to Honolulu to obtain abortions because of doctor shortages in their communities. The law allows the nurses to prescribe medication to end a pregnancy and to perform aspiration abortion, a type of minor surgery during which a vacuum is used to empty a womans uterus.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Existing Hawaii law allows abortions, but Gary Yamashiroya, a spokesperson for the state attorney generals office, has said the attorney general was carefully considering measures Hawaii might take to protect and strengthen reproductive rights if Roe ended. No matter the outcome, our state remains committed to reproductive freedom and choice, he said.

Whats next: Political support for abortion rights is strong. Anti-abortion bills are rarely heard at the state Legislature. When they have been, they havent made it out of committee. Gov. David Ige issued a statement supporting abortion rights when the Supreme Courts draft opinion overturning Roe leaked. No matter what the Supreme Court decides, I will fight to ensure a womans right to choose in the State of Hawaii, he said. The Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women earlier this month said 72% of the state Senate and 53% of state House members signed a pledge supporting abortion rights.

IDAHO

Political control: Republicans hold super-majorities in the House and Senate and oppose access to abortion, as does the states Republican governor.

Background: Following the U.S. Supreme Courts 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, Idaho passed a law generally allowing abortions in the first and second trimester up to viability at about 23 to 24 weeks. The law allows abortions after viability only to protect the mothers life or in cases of nonviable fetuses. This year, lawmakers passed a Texas-style ban prohibiting abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy and authorizing family members to sue medical providers for performing an abortion. That law is on hold following a challenge by Planned Parenthood. The Idaho Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in August.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: It triggers a 2020 Idaho law banning all abortions except in cases of reported rape or incest, or to protect the mothers life, to take effect in 30 days. Under the law, the person performing the abortion could face a felony prosecution punishable by up to five years in prison. In cases of rape or incest, the law requires pregnant women to file a police report and provide a copy of the report to the provider prior to an abortion. If the Idaho Supreme Court upholds the states Texas-style abortion ban and Roe v. Wade is tossed aside, a medical provider who performs an abortion in Idaho could face a lawsuit and criminal charges.

Whats Next: Pregnant women seeking abortions will have to travel out of state; the nearest abortion providers would be in Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Colorado. Planned Parenthood is renting space in the town of Ontario on the Idaho-Oregon border and says its preparing for an influx of patients seeking abortions. Some Republican lawmakers in Idaho might propose new legislation in January to outlaw abortion pills and emergency contraception.

ILLINOIS

Political control: Illinois is overwhelmingly Democratic with laws providing greater access to abortion than most states. Democrats hold veto-proof supermajorities in the House and Senate, and the Democratic first-term governor seeking reelection this year, J.B. Pritzker, has promoted peaceful street protests to protect the constitutional right to an abortion.

Background: Abortion is legal in Illinois and can only be restricted after the point of viability, when a fetus is considered able to survive outside the womb. Medical science determines viability at 24 to 26 weeks, but the Illinois law does not specify a timeframe, saying a medical professional can determine viability in each case. Abortions are also allowed after viability to protect the patients life or health.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: It won't change access to abortion in Illinois. After the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, the Illinois Abortion Act of 1975 legalized abortion but enacted a trigger law that would reinstate the ban if Roe were overturned. That trigger law was repealed in 2017 in legislation that also required Medicaid and state employees group health insurance to cover abortions. The 2019 Reproductive Health Act replaced the 1975 law, large parts of which were never enforced because they were found to be unconstitutional.

Whats next: Like other states providing access to abortions, Illinois has seen a steady influx of patients crossing the state line for abortions in recent months and those numbers are expected to increase. Planned Parenthood of Illinois says it expects to handle an additional 20,000 to 30,000 patients in Illinois in the first year following the reversal of Roe.

INDIANA

Political control: Indiana has a Republican-dominated Legislature and a Republican governor in favor of restricting abortion access.

Background: Abortion in Indiana is legal up to about 20 weeks, with some provisions for medical emergencies. Before an abortion, patients must undergo an 18-hour waiting period. Medical providers must tell patients about the risks involved in abortion and must say the fetus can feel pain around 20 weeks, which is disputed. Providers must report complications related to abortion; failure to report can result in a misdemeanor, 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. Federal courts have blocked several restrictions in Indiana, including an attempt to ban a common second-trimester abortion procedure and a law that would have required doctors to tell pregnant women about a disputed treatment to potentially stop a drug-induced abortion.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: No immediate changes are expected, but legislators unwilling to wait until the 2023 session could ask Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb to call a special session this summer to start modifying the states abortion laws.

Whats next: Republican legislative leaders said Friday they expected lawmakers to act on tightening Indianas abortion laws during a special legislative session starting July 6, but gave no details about what restrictions would be considered. Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb earlier this week called the Legislature into a special session to take up a tax refund proposal, but state law allows legislators to consider any subject.

___

IOWA

Political control: Iowas legislature is controlled by Republicans who want to ban or restrict abortion access and a Republican governor who agrees and is up for reelection this year.

Background: Iowa allows most abortions until the 20th week of pregnancy, when theyre banned except to save a patients life or prevent a substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function. In 2018, the state Supreme Court declared access to abortion a fundamental right under the state constitution, granting stronger protections to abortion rights than the U.S. Constitution. The states high court, now with a conservative majority, overturned that decision June 17, thus allowing a state law requiring a 24-hour waiting period to go into effect immediately. That requirement is being challenged in district court.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Nothing is expected to change immediately in Iowa. The GOP-controlled Legislature has been working to get an amendment on the ballot in 2024 that would declare the state constitution does not grant a right to abortion but, with Roe overturned, Iowa lawmakers can ban abortion without completing that lengthy process.

Whats next: Now that the Iowa Supreme Court has struck down its 2018 ruling, the state Legislature can convene a special session this summer and pass abortion restrictions. Republicans could still move to get the constitutional amendment on a public ballot in 2024.

KANSAS

Political control: Kansas has a legislature controlled by Republicans who want to ban or restrict access to abortions but a Democratic governor who supports access and is up for re-election this year.

Background: Under current law, Kansas does not ban most abortions until the 22nd week of pregnancy, when theyre allowed only to save a patients life or to prevent a substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function. The state Supreme Court in 2019 declared that access to abortion is a fundamental right under the state constitution, granting stronger protections to abortion rights than the U.S. Constitution does currently. State law, however, doesnt allow providers to dispense abortion medications through telemedicine consultations.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Nothing will change immediately in Kansas. The state Supreme Court blocked enforcement of a 2015 legislative ban on a common second-trimester procedure, and abortion opponents fear a host of other rules could fall to legal challenges in the near future. The GOP-controlled Legislature responded by putting a constitutional amendment on the ballot during the Aug. 2 primary, when turnout is expected to be much lower than in a general election and will likely see a higher proportion of Republicans voting. The amendment would declare that the state constitution does not grant a right to abortion. It would allow lawmakers to restrict abortion as much as the federal courts will allow .

Whats next: If voters approve the amendment, the Legislature would still have to approve the new restrictions, and lawmakers are out of session until January 2023. They can call themselves in to special session with two-thirds majorities, but theyre likely to wait until after voters decide in the November general election whether to give Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly a second term.

KENTUCKY

Political control: Republicans have a supermajority in the Kentucky Legislature and have been restricting abortion rights since the 2016 election over the vetoes of Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who supports abortion rights and will seek a second term in 2023.

Background: Kentucky bans abortions after 20 weeks, but all abortion services were temporarily halted in April after the legislature imposed new restrictions and reporting requirements on the states two abortion clinics. The clinics, both in Louisville, said they suspended abortions because state officials hadnt written guidelines on how to comply with the new law. Noncompliance could result in stiff fines, felony penalties and revocation of physician and facility licenses. Abortions resumed after a federal judge temporarily blocked key parts of the law, including a provision banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Abortion services in Kentucky immediately became illegal under a trigger law enacted in 2019. The measure contains a narrow exception allowing abortion to prevent the death or permanent injury of a pregnant woman. Kentuckians will be able to vote this November on a proposed amendment declaring there is no right to an abortion in the state constitution.

Whats next: Abortion-rights activists say the suspension of abortion services in April foreshadowed what would happen in Kentucky and other Republican-leaning states if Roe v. Wade was overturned. It likely ends several legal challenges pending against other Kentucky abortion laws including a 2018 measure that abortion-rights supporters say would effectively ban a standard abortion method in the second trimester of pregnancy. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in March that Kentuckys Republican attorney general, Daniel Cameron, can defend the measure that was struck down by lower courts.

LOUISIANA

Political control: Louisianas legislature is controlled by Republicans who want to ban or restrict abortion access. Its Democratic and Catholic governor also opposes abortions, though he supports exceptions for victims of rape or incest.

Background: Voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2020 stating that a right to abortion and the funding of abortion shall not be found in the Louisiana Constitution. Of the about 2 million people who voted, 62% approved the amendment. Abortion had been legal in Louisiana through the 19th week of pregnancy. After that, it was legal only if the fetus would die anyway or if continuing the pregnancy would threaten the mothers life or health.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Louisiana has a trigger law that immediately outlaws abortions. There is no exception for rape or incest. The only exception is if there is substantial risk of death or impairment to the woman. Earlier this week, Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, signed a bill updating various aspects of the law and subjecting abortion providers to up to 10 years in prison and fines up to $100,000. Edwards office said the bill allows the use of emergency contraception for victims of rape and incest prior to when a pregnancy can be clinically diagnosed."

Edwards signed another bill that would require the doctor to certify that a drug used for abortion was being prescribed for another medical reason. The bill makes it illegal to deliver abortion medication to a state resident by mail-order, courier, or as a result of a sale made via the internet.

Whats next: Louisianas three abortion clinics  in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Shreveport  were no longer providing abortions to patients as of Friday and instead are recommending pregnant patients seeking the procedure to go to states where it remains legal.

MAINE

Political control: Both chambers of the Maine Legislature, which has adjourned, are controlled by Democrats. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills has vowed to protect the right to an abortion, saying she will fight with everything I have to protect reproductive rights.

Background: A Republican governor in 1993 signed a Maine law affirming the right to abortion before a fetus is viable. After that, abortion is only allowed if the life or health of the mother is at risk, or if the pregnancy is no longer viable. In 2019, lawmakers eliminated a physician-only rule and Mills signed it into law, allowing nurse practitioners, physician assistants and other medical professionals to perform abortions.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Nothing will change in Maine. Any attempt to restrict abortions when lawmakers reconvene next year would face fierce pushback. Abortion providers, meanwhile, said there could be an influx of patients seeking abortions from states that outlaw the procedure.

Whats next: Any major changes are unlikely unless former Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican, unseats Mills and Republicans take control of both chambers of the Legislature in November. LePage, a Catholic who opposes abortion rights, has said its up to lawmakers to address the abortion issue as they see fit.

MARYLAND

Political control: Marylands legislature is controlled by Democrats who expanded abortion access this year by ending a restriction that only physicians can provide them and requiring most insurance plans to cover abortion care without cost. The legislature overrode Republican Gov. Larry Hogans veto of the bill in April.

Background: The right to abortion is protected in Maryland law. The state approved legislation in 1991 to protect abortion rights if the Supreme Court should ever restrict access. Voters approved the right in 1992 with 62% of the vote. Maryland law prohibits restrictions on abortion prior to viability. Maryland does not have a gestational limit. After viability, clinicians make the determination, based on clinical standard of care.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Nothing will change immediately in Maryland law.

Whats next: Marylands new law that will enable nurse practitioners, nurse midwives and physician assistants to provide abortions with training is set to take effect July 1. However, $3.5 million in state funding to provide training isnt mandated until fiscal year 2024. Hogan, who is term limited, has indicated he will not approve the money sooner. Some nurse practitioners, nurse midwives and physician assistants already have received training on medication abortion and will be able to provide those services starting next month.

MASSACHUSETTS

Political control: The Democrats who control the Massachusetts Legislature support access to abortion, as does the states Republican governor, although they differ on specific policies.

Background: Massachusetts once had a contentious relationship with abortion in part due to the powerful influence of the Catholic Church, which opposes abortion. In recent years, that influence has waned and Massachusetts has become a strong supporter of abortion rights. In 2018, in anticipation of the conservative tilt on the U.S. Supreme Court, the state removed an 1845 abortion ban from its books that was not enforced. Two years later, Democratic state lawmakers clashed with Republican Gov. Charlie Baker  who says he supports abortion rights  over an effort to codify abortion rights into state law, allow abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy in cases where the child would not survive after birth, and lower from 18 to 16 the age at which women could seek an abortion without consent from a parent or guardian. Lawmakers passed the bill  dubbed the Roe Act  over Bakers veto.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Baker has vowed to fight to keep abortion legal in Massachusetts, but it is his last year in office. Both Democratic candidates for governor  state Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz and Attorney General Maura Healey  support abortion rights. Republican candidate Geoff Diehl said he believes in the need to protect human life wherever and whenever possible. Fellow GOP candidate Chris Doughty said he would not seek any changes to our states abortion laws.

Whats next: There is little chance Massachusetts will restrict abortion rights. Baker signed an executive order Friday barring state agencies from assisting another states investigation into people or businesses for receiving or delivering reproductive health services that are legal in Massachusetts. The state also wont cooperate with extradition requests from states pursuing criminal charges against such individuals. As of 2017, there were 47 facilities providing abortion in Massachusetts, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights. With Roe v. Wade overturned, its unclear how many people will travel there from states that ban or restrict abortion.

MICHIGAN

Political control: Both chambers of Michigans legislature are controlled by Republicans who want to ban or restrict abortion access, but the states Democratic governor supports access.

Background: A dormant 1931 law bans nearly all abortions in Michigan but it hasnt been enforced since Roe v. Wade. The law made it a felony to use an instrument or administer any substance with the intent to abort a fetus unless necessary to preserve the womans life. It has no exceptions in cases of rape and incest. Anticipating that Roe could be overturned, Planned Parenthood of Michigan filed a lawsuit challenging Michigans ban. A state judge suspended the law in May, saying it violates the states constitution. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel, both Democrats, hailed the decision.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The injunction granted in the Planned Parenthood case ensures that abortion does not immediately become illegal. Planned Parenthood of Michigan and other supporters hope the injunction indicates abortion rights in the state will be preserved. But in a statement to The Associated Press, Nessels office said given the ongoing lawsuits, we cannot speculate what the state of abortion rights will be in Michigan after Roe.

Whats next: Whitmer also filed suit asking the states Supreme Court to declare the 91-year-old law unconstitutional. It has not acted yet. Michigan abortion rights supporters hope to put the issue on ballots this fall. Their proposed constitutional amendment would affirm the right to make pregnancy-related decisions without interference, including about abortion and other reproductive services such as birth control. The Reproductive Freedom for All committee needs to collect about 425,000 valid voter signatures by July 11 to make the November ballot. The measure would become law if voters approved it. The issue also is expected to shape statewide elections  Whitmer and Nessel are both up for reelection in the fall  and legislative races.

MINNESOTA

Political control: The Minnesota Legislature is divided; Anti-abortion Republicans control the Senate and Democrats have the House, but the majorities are slim in both chambers, so control will be up for grabs in the November elections. Most legislative Democrats support abortion rights. Democratic Gov. Tim Walz has said no abortion ban will ever become law while hes governor. But he faces a challenge this year from Republican Scott Jensen, who opposes abortion rights.

Background: Abortion is legal in Minnesota up to the point of fetal viability, around the 24th week of pregnancy. The state has some restrictions, including a 24-hour waiting period with state-mandated counseling, both parents generally must be notified prior to a minor getting an abortion, and only physicians can perform abortions.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Nothing will change immediately in Minnesota because the state Supreme Court ruled in 1995 that the state constitution protects abortion rights. If Republicans take control of both chambers, they could put a constitutional amendment on the ballot as soon as 2024 to reverse that ruling, but its not clear yet if they would take that path. Minnesota governors cant block constitutional amendments with vetoes. But amendments are hard to enact because they require the backing of most of the citizens voting in that election, not just those voting on the amendment. Leaving the ballot blank counts as a no.

Whats next: Providers are preparing for a surge in women coming from other states to get abortions. Sarah Stoesz, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, said before the ruling that her organization was fortifying its delivery systems, including telemedicine. Dr. Sarah Traxler, the groups medical director, has said demand in Minnesota is expected to rise by up to 25%.

MISSISSIPPI

Political control: Republican Gov. Tate Reeves and leaders of the Republican-controlled Mississippi Legislature have been working for years to chip away at abortion access.

Background: Mississippi already had a law banning most abortions at 20 weeks, although the states lone abortion clinic offered the procedure only through 16 weeks. The state tried to enact a law in 2018 to ban most abortions after 15 weeks. That law is the basis for the case that the Supreme Court has now used to overturn Roe v. Wade. A federal district judge blocked Mississippis 15-week law from taking effect in 2018, and an appeals court agreed. The Supreme Court agreed to take the case in 2021. Justices heard arguments in December, with the Mississippi attorney generals office saying the court should overturn Roe v. Wade. Mississippi has one abortion clinic, and it stops offering abortions at 16 weeks. Reeves was lieutenant governor in 2018, when Mississippi tried to enact the 15-week ban, and in 2019, when the state tried to enact a six-week ban. Mississippi law does not allow providers to dispense abortion medications through telemedicine consultations.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Mississippis only abortion clinic, Jackson Womens Health Organization, is expected to close by early July unless a judge blocks a trigger law. The clinic filed a lawsuit Monday challenging the 2007 law that bans most abortions if Roe v. Wade is overturned. That law is set to take effect July 7. Abortions still would be allowed if the womans life is endangered by the pregnancy or if the pregnancy was caused by a rape that was reported to law enforcement. Any person who knowingly performs or attempts to induce an abortion, except the pregnant woman, could be punished by up to 10 years in prison.

Whats next: Mississippis 2007 law says the state attorney general must publish a notice in a state administrative bulletin after the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Mississippis ban on most abortions will take effect 10 days after that publication.

MISSOURI

Political control: Both GOP Gov. Mike Parson and the Republican-led Legislature support laws against abortion.

Background: Missouri law previously allowed abortions up until 22 weeks of pregnancy. But a 2019 state law banned abortions except in cases of medical emergency, contingent upon the U.S. Supreme Court overturning its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Under that Missouri law, performing an illegal abortion is a felony punishable by 5 to 15 years in prison, though women receiving abortions cannot be prosecuted.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The 2019 law contained a provision making it effective upon notification by the attorney general, governor or Legislature that the U.S. Supreme Court had overruled Roe v. Wade. Moments after Fridays Supreme Court decision, Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Gov. Mike Parson filed the necessary paperwork for Missouris law to kick in. State statutes were subsequently updated online Friday saying the abortion-ban law had taken effect.

Whats next: Some Missouri residents wanting abortions are likely to travel to neighboring states, including Illinois and Kansas. A new Illinois logistics center near St. Louis helps women from out of state find travel, lodging and childcare if they need help getting to the area for an abortion, and it connects them with funding sources. The Kansas Supreme Court in 2019 declared that access to abortion is a fundamental right under the state constitution. Even without the ban in Missouri, the number of Missouri patients seeking abortions in Kansas has gone up in recent years, increasing about 8% from 2020 to 2021.

MONTANA

Political control: The Republicans who control the Montana Legislature and Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte want to limit access to abortion.

Background: Abortion used to be legal in Montana up until viability, or about 24 weeks of pregnancy, but the state Legislature passed a bill in 2021 to reduce that to 20 weeks, arguing that is when the fetus can feel pain. That law, along with one that requires chemical abortions to be done with in-person medical supervision, are being challenged in court. A state judge temporarily blocked enforcement in October 2021 while the challenges move through the courts. The state has asked the Montana Supreme Court to vacate that injunction and overturn a 1999 Montana Supreme Court opinion that found the states constitutional right to privacy guarantees a womans access to abortion care.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The effect is unclear because of the unresolved legal challenges to the 2021 state legislation. Montana does not have an abortion ban that was triggered when Roe v. Wade was overturned, but the Legislature could seek to further restrict access in the next session.

Whats next: The Montana Supreme Court will issue a decision on the preliminary injunction. The Montana Legislature also passed a referendum to ask voters this November whether they support a state law to require abortion providers to give lifesaving treatment to a fetus that is born alive after a botched abortion. Opponents argue federal law already offers those protections.

NEBRASKA

Political control: Nebraska has an officially nonpartisan legislature with a Republican majority, but not a super-majority that would let the party unilaterally pass an abortion ban. Democrats appear to have enough votes to block such a bill, but just one defector could swing the vote. Nebraskas Republican governor vehemently opposes abortion.

Background: Nebraska allows most abortions until the 22nd week of pregnancy, although a few small towns have voted to outlaw the procedure within their borders. The state requires doctors to be physically present when patients take the first of two drugs that are used in medication abortions. Lawmakers have rejected attempts to allow abortion medications to be administered remotely, which would provide easier abortion access in rural areas.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: A ruling that lets states set their own abortion laws will trigger an immediate push by Nebraska conservatives to ban the procedure, but its not clear whether they could do it this year. Unlike other conservative states, Nebraska doesnt have a trigger law that automatically outlaws abortion. Gov. Pete Ricketts and other top Republicans have said theyll seek a special legislative session, but its not clear whether they have enough votes to pass anything.

Whats next: If Ricketts calls a special session, attention will likely shift to state Sen. Justin Wayne, an Omaha Democrat who has declined to specify where he stands on abortion. Wayne was notably absent from a vote on the issue this year; his support would give Republicans the super-majority they need to enact a ban. He has struck deals with senators from both parties in the past. If a proposed abortion ban fails during a special session or if no special session is called, the issue will likely become a factor in the November election.

NEVADA

Political control: Nevadas governor and state attorney general are Democrats who are up for reelection this year. Democrats control the state Senate and Assembly.

Background: Nevada voters enshrined the right to abortion in the state constitution in 1990. The law says a pregnancy can be terminated during the first 24 weeks, and after that to preserve the life or health of the pregnant person. It would take another statewide vote to change or repeal the law. Most Republican candidates for Congress, governor, state attorney general and other statewide posts say they oppose abortions.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Here in Nevada, overturning Roe would not be felt immediately, state Attorney General Aaron Ford said in a position paper released after the draft U.S. Supreme Court opinion became public. Ford noted that a federal ban on abortion would supersede state law and said it would be naive not to recognize that some people want to ban abortions or make them more difficult to obtain. But he said his office will fight attacks on abortion rights, rights to birth control access and rights for LGTBQ people. Gov. Steve Sisolak promised in a statement to continue to protect reproductive freedom.

Whats next: Anti-abortion advocates are not expected to focus on trying to repeal Nevadas abortion law. But they will seek laws affecting waiting periods, mandatory counseling or requiring parental notification or consent. Melissa Clement, executive director of Nevada Right to Life, said she believes there is strong support for parental involvement.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Political control: New Hampshire has a Republican governor and the GOP controls the 424-member Legislature. All face reelection this fall.

Background: Any abortion restrictions New Hampshire had on the books before Roe v. Wade were not enforced after the landmark 1973 ruling, and they were repealed altogether in 1997. The state had no restrictions until January, when a ban on abortion after 24 weeks of pregnancy was enacted. In June, an exemption was added for cases in which the fetus has been diagnosed with abnormalities incompatible with life. Anticipating the Supreme Court action, Democrats this year tried unsuccessfully to enshrine abortion rights into state law and the state constitution. Gov. Chris Sununu calls himself pro-choice and says he is committed to upholding Roe v. Wade, but he also has boasted Ive done more on the pro-life issue than anyone.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Nothing will change immediately in New Hampshire. The Legislature wont return until fall, when there will be a one-day session to take up vetoed bills, and it would take a two-thirds majority vote to introduce new legislation then.

Whats next: The majority leader of the New Hampshire House has said the public should not expect Republicans in the Legislature to further tighten state abortion laws. But anti-abortion lawmakers who have filed bills in the past are expected to try again.

NEW JERSEY

Political control: Democrats control both houses of the state Legislature and the governorship. Gov. Phil Murphy started his second consecutive term this year.

Background: Murphy ran for reelection on the promise that he would sign legislation to enshrine abortion rights into state law, and he fulfilled that promise in January. The measure also guaranteed the right to contraception and the right to carry a pregnancy to term. It stopped short of requiring insurance coverage for abortions, something advocates had sought. Instead, it authorizes the state Banking and Insurance Department to study the issue and possibly adopt regulations if a need is discovered. Under Murphys predecessor, Republican Chris Christie, state funds to womens clinics, including Planned Parenthood, were slashed. Murphy restored those and has been a strong supporter of abortion rights. New Jersey doesnt have any significant restrictions on abortion, such as parental consent or a mandatory waiting period.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Officials, including the governor, have said the end of Roe would not lead to any rollback of abortion services in the state. Instead of hoping for the best, we prepared ourselves for the worst, Murphy said in May, addressing reports of a leaked draft of a Supreme Court ruling.

Whats next: Murphy has proposed several abortion-related measures. On the Monday after the ruling, the Legislature began considering a pair of bills to expand abortion rights. One would allow the state to block extradition of someone facing a criminal charge in another state related to reproductive services obtained legally in New Jersey. Another clarifies that out-of-state residents may access abortion services in New Jersey, as well as allowing those facing liability judgments stemming from abortion services to countersue.

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NEW MEXICO

Political control: The Democrats who control the New Mexico Legislature support access to abortion, as does the states Democratic governor. Several conservative Democratic state senators who voted against the repeal of the abortion ban in 2019 were ousted from office in 2020 by more socially progressive primary challengers.

Background: In 2021, state lawmakers repealed a dormant 1969 statute that outlawed most abortion procedures as felonies, thus ensuring access to abortion even after the federal court rolled back guarantees. Albuquerque is home to one of only a few independent clinics in the country that perform abortions in the third trimester without conditions. An abortion clinic in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, is just a mile from the state line with Texas and caters to patients from El Paso, western Texas and Arizona.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: There will be no immediate change in New Mexico now that the high court has overturned Roe v. Wade. It is unclear if Democrats, who control the state Legislature, will pursue additional guarantees to abortion access when lawmakers convene in January. Possible avenues of legislative reform include enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution, which requires approval by voters. Abortion rights activists say the states equal rights amendment could be harnessed to guide more public funding for abortion-related programs. Raul Torrez, the district attorney in Albuquerque and the Democratic nominee for attorney general, is urging lawmakers to take further steps to protect access to abortions, including protections for women coming from other states. The state Republican Party said its time to elect more anti-abortion candidates to the Legislature.

Whats next: The state can expect to continue to see a steady influx of people seeking abortions from neighboring states with more restrictive abortion laws. It already hosts patients from Texas and Oklahoma where among the strictest abortion bans in the country were introduced this year.

NEW YORK

Political control: The Democrats who control the New York Legislature support access to abortion, as does the states Democratic governor.

Background: Abortion has been legal in New York state since a 1970 law was passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by Republican Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller. The law allows abortions within the first 24 weeks of pregnancy or to preserve the mothers life. The 2019 Reproductive Health Act removed abortion from the states criminal code, codified Roe v. Wade and allowed abortions after 24 weeks if a fetus isnt viable or to protect the mothers life or health. Lawmakers have passed laws extending legal protections for people seeking and providing abortions in New York.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Roe v. Wade protections are enshrined in state law. New York is planning to give abortion providers $35 million this year to expand services and boost security in anticipation of an influx of out-of-state people seeking abortions once any ruling comes down. Its unclear how many more people from neighboring states could travel to New York to receive abortion care. New York had 252 facilities providing abortions as of 2017, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.

Whats next: Planned Parenthood and civil liberty groups are urging lawmakers to start the process of passing a constitutional amendment protecting access to abortion care in case a future Legislature repeals the state law.

NORTH CAROLINA

Political control: Republicans hold majorities in the state House and Senate, but the party lacks the margins to defeat a veto by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, a strong abortion-rights supporter. Since 2017, Cooper has vetoed a born-alive abortion measure and a bill prohibiting abortion based on race or a Down syndrome diagnosis. He cant seek reelection in 2024 due to term limits.

Background: A 1973 North Carolina law that banned most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy is currently unenforceable after federal judges struck it down as unconstitutional in 2019 and 2021. Instead, abortions can be performed until fetal viability. A state law approved in 2015 provides for post-viability abortions only in a medical emergency, which means the woman would die or face a serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment without the procedure.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, the 20-week ban could be restored. Legal experts say formal action would have to be taken to cancel the earlier court rulings striking it down. Republican legislative leaders late Friday asked state Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat and abortion rights supporter whose agencys lawyers defended the 20-week law, to act. Otherwise, they said they would seek to intervene.

Whats next: Republican General Assembly leaders dont plan to consider additional abortion restrictions during the soon-to-end legislative session, meaning a likely intensification of electoral efforts to gain the five additional seats the GOP needs to reach veto-proof margins come 2023. Cooper and other Democrats already are making abortion rights a key campaign pitch. Abortion politics are also expected to figure in two state Supreme Court seat elections in November. Republicans would gain a majority on the court if they win at least one of them.

NORTH DAKOTA

Political control: North Dakota has a legislature dominated by Republicans who want to ban abortion, and the GOP governor had hoped to see Roe v. Wade wiped off the books in favor of states rights.

Background: The state has passed some of the nations strictest abortion laws, including one that would have banned abortions once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which can happen before a woman knows she is pregnant. The law never took effect because the states lone abortion clinic successfully challenged it in court. One failed Republican proposal would have charged abortion providers with murder with a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: North Dakota has a trigger law that will shut down the states sole abortion clinic in Fargo after 30 days. That 2007 state law makes it a felony to perform an abortion unless necessary to prevent the pregnant womans death or in cases of rape or incest. Violators could be punished with a five-year prison sentence and a $10,000 fine.

Whats next: The owner and operator of the Red River Womens Clinic in Fargo said she would explore all legal options to ensure abortion services are available in North Dakota. Should that fail, clinic leader Tammi Kromenaker plans to move across the river to Moorhead, Minnesota, where abortion has not been outlawed. Planned Parenthood says it can provide abortions in Moorhead until Kromenaker gets up and running.

OHIO

Political control: The Ohio Legislature is controlled by Republicans who support restricting or banning abortions, and the Republican governor backs those efforts. He is up for reelection this year against a former mayor who supports abortion rights.

Background: Before Friday's ruling, Ohio did not ban most abortions until the 22nd week of pregnancy; after that theyre allowed only to save a patients life or when their health is seriously compromised. But the state imposes a host of other restrictions, including parental consent for minors, a required ultrasound, and in-person counseling followed by a 24-hour waiting period. Abortions are prohibited for the reason of a fetal Down syndrome diagnosis. Ohio also limits the public funding of abortions to cases of rape, incest or endangerment of the patients life. It limits public employees abortion-related insurance coverage and coverage through health plans offered in the Affordable Care Act health exchange to those same scenarios. Clinics providing abortions must comply with a host of regulations.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: A ban on most abortions at the first detectable fetal heartbeat became the law in Ohio hours after the ruling. Enforcement of Ohios 2019 heartbeat ban had been on hold for nearly three years under a federal court injunction. The state attorney general, Republican Dave Yost, asked for that to be dissolved because of the high courts ruling, and U.S. Judge Michael Barrett agreed hours later.

Two trigger bills are on hold in the Legislature, but a key legislative leader has said he anticipates needing to write new legislation after the decision is reversed that more carefully reflects the actual ruling. That all but certainly would not happen until lawmakers return to the capital after the November election.

Whats next: Activists are considering how to help Ohioans get abortions elsewhere. They may also mount a statewide ballot initiative that would embed the right to an abortion in the state constitution, though that could not happen before next year. Abortion opponents are weighing strategies for imposing a statewide abortion ban.

OKLAHOMA

Political control: Republicans in Oklahoma have a supermajority in both chambers of the Legislature and a Republican governor up for reelection this year who has vowed to sign every pro-life legislation that came across my desk.

Background: Abortion services were halted in Oklahoma in May after Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a bill that prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. The ban is enforced by civil lawsuits rather than criminal prosecution. Republican lawmakers have been pushing to restrict abortion in the state for decades, passing 81 different restrictions since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: It will have little practical effect given that abortions are no longer being provided in Oklahoma. Oklahoma also has a trigger law that outlawed abortion as soon as Roe was overturned.

Whats next: Given the fierce opposition to abortion from the governor and Legislature, Oklahoma will continue to prohibit the practice if states are given the option to do so. Meanwhile, abortion providers who had been operating in the state are taking steps to help patients seek abortions out of state, including coordinating funding for these women and developing a referral network of therapists to help address complications before or after a woman receives an abortion.

OREGON

Political control: The Democrats who control the Oregon Legislature support access to abortion, as does the states Democratic governor.

Background: The Oregon Legislature passed a bill legalizing abortion in 1969. In 2017, Gov. Kate Brown signed into law a bill expanding health care coverage for reproductive services, including abortions, to thousands of Oregonians, regardless of income, citizenship status or gender identity. Oregon does not have any major abortion restrictions and it is legal at all stages of pregnancy.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The Guttmacher Institute has estimated that Oregon will experience a 234% increase in women seeking abortions arriving from out of state, especially from Idaho. In March, Oregon lawmakers approved $15 million to expand abortion availability and pay for abortions and support services such as travel and lodgings for residents and out-of-state patients.

Whats next: Brown said after the draft Supreme Court decision was leaked that access to abortion is a fundamental right and that she will fight to ensure access to abortion continues to be protected by state law in Oregon. Democratic state lawmakers recently formed the Reproductive Health and Access to Care Work Group of providers, clinics, community organizations and legislators that will make recommendations for the 2023 legislative session and beyond. Recommendations may include proposals to protect, strengthen, and expand equitable access to all forms of reproductive care.

PENNSYLVANIA

Political control: Republicans who control the Pennsylvania Legislature are hostile to abortion rights, but the states Democratic governor is a strong supporter and has vetoed three GOP-penned bills in five years that would have added restrictions beyond the states 24-week limit. The race for governor this year could tilt that balance.

Background: Abortion is legal in Pennsylvania under decades of state law, including a 1989 law that was challenged all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. That produced the landmark Planned Parenthood v. Casey ruling that affirmed the high courts 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion nationwide, but also allowed states to put certain limits on abortion access.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Gov. Tom Wolf has vowed to protect access to abortion for the remainder of his time in office, through January. Running to replace him is the states Democratic attorney general, Josh Shapiro, who supports abortion rights, and Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano, who has said he supports banning abortion altogether, with no exceptions. The Legislature is expected to remain in Republican hands next year.

Whats next: Legislation to outlaw abortion after the detection of a fetal heartbeat  which can happen at six weeks, before many women even know they are pregnant  has passed a House committee and is awaiting a floor vote. The state Supreme Court is considering a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers aiming to overturn a 1982 law that bans the use of state dollars for abortion, except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother. In response, Republican lawmakers are advancing a proposed amendment that would declare there is no constitutional right to an abortion in Pennsylvania or to public funding for an abortion.

RHODE ISLAND

Political control: The Democrats who control Rhode Islands General Assembly support access to abortion, as does the Democratic governor.

Background: Rhode Islands governor signed legislation in 2019 to enshrine abortion protections in case the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade. The law says the state will not restrict the right to an abortion prior to fetal viability or after if necessary to protect the health or life of the pregnant woman. It repealed older laws deemed unconstitutional by the courts. The Rhode Island Supreme Court upheld the 2019 law in May, just two days after the Supreme Court draft opinion was leaked suggesting that a majority of the justices were prepared to overturn Roe. Abortion opponents had argued the law violates the state constitution. In 2020, there were 2,611 abortions in Rhode Island, according to the state health department.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Rhode Islands attorney general believes the 2019 Reproductive Privacy Act will continue to protect access to abortion. Planned Parenthood Votes! Rhode Island also said abortion will remain legal regardless of the decision because the right was codified in state law.

Whats next: On the Monday after the Supreme Court decision, Rhode Islands Democratic governor said he will sign an executive order to shield abortion providers in the state from lawsuits by anti-abortion activists in other states. McKees office didnt have a date for the signing, but said the governor wants to act as soon as possible. Two of his opponents in September's Democratic primary for governor, Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea and Matt Brown, had urged McKee to sign such an order. They also want state lawmakers to return for a special session to add abortion coverage to Rhode Islands Medicaid program and to the insurance coverage for state employees. Legislative leaders said they plan to address abortion coverage next year because it has financial implications and wasnt included in this year's budget.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Political control: South Carolina has a Republican governor, and its General Assembly is dominated by the GOP. However, the party doesnt quite have the two-thirds majority in either chamber needed to overcome procedural hurdles or a veto if a Democrat wins the 2022 gubernatorial election.

Background: In 2021, South Carolina passed the Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act that requires doctors to use an ultrasound to try to detect a fetal heartbeat if they think a pregnant woman is at least eight weeks along. If they find a heartbeat, they can only perform an abortion if the womans life is in danger, or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. The law is currently tied up in a federal lawsuit.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a federal judge allowed the state to begin enforcing the 2021 law. Planned Parenthood and others dropped their lawsuit, but the organization said it would continue to perform abortions in South Carolina under the parameters of the new law.

Whats next: The South Carolina General Assemblys regular session ended in May, but Republican leaders had agreed they could return for a special session to take up more restrictive abortion bills if the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. They have yet to announce a special session, despite Friday's ruling. Some Republican lawmakers have opposed a complete abortion ban, especially without exceptions for victims of rape and incest.

SOUTH DAKOTA

Political control: Republicans hold super-majorities in both Statehouse chambers. Republican Gov. Kristi Noem is up for reelection this year and has been an ardent opponent of abortion rights.

Background: Under current law, South Dakota bans abortions after the 22nd week of pregnancy. The state has only one clinic that regularly provides abortions, a Planned Parenthood facility in Sioux Falls. The legislature has worked over the years to make it more difficult for women to get abortions, passing mandatory waiting periods and requiring them to review and sign paperwork that discourages them from ending their pregnancies.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: South Dakota has a trigger law that immediately banned abortions except if the life of the pregnant woman is at risk.

Whats next: Noem has said she planned to call a special session to craft laws for the new legal landscape if Roe v. Wade was overturned. She hasnt commented on specific legislation, but lawmakers have floated proposals that would make it more difficult for women to seek an abortion out of state. However, South Dakota voters rejected outright bans in 2006 and 2008, and abortion rights advocates are preparing for a similar referendum on abortion access. An outright ban on abortions could eventually be challenged through a citizen-initiated ballot measure.

TENNESSEE

Political control: Tennessee has a Republican governor who is consistently vocal about his opposition to abortion. The GOP holds a supermajority in the state legislature and has steadily chipped away at abortion access.

Background: In 2020, Tennessee passed a law banning most abortions when the fetal heartbeat can be detected at about six weeks, before many women know theyre pregnant. The measure has never been enforced because it was promptly blocked by a federal court. Tennessee voters approved an amendment in 2014 declaring that the states constitution doesnt protect or secure the right to abortion or require the funding of an abortion, and empowering state lawmakers to enact, amend, or repeal statutes regarding abortion. State law also doesnt allow providers to dispense abortion medications through telemedicine consultations. There are six abortion providers in Tennessee.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Thirty days after the decision, a so-called trigger law will go into effect that bans all abortions in Tennessee except when necessary to prevent death or serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function. Doctors could be charged with a felony for providing an abortion under this law.

Whats next: Its unclear if the trigger law conflicts with the 2020 law banning most abortions at about six weeks. The states attorney general, a Republican, has not publicly weighed in. Meanwhile, Republicans are expected to continue to have supermajority control after this years midterm elections. Reproductive rights activists say they will direct patients seeking abortion to clinics in Illinois if Roe v. Wade is overturned, or to Florida, which would ban abortions at 15 weeks. North Carolina and Virginia could also be options for women in eastern Tennessee.

TEXAS

Political control: The GOP has commanding majorities in the Texas Legislature and has controlled every statewide office for nearly 30 years. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is up for reelection in November and is favored to win a third term.

Background: Texas has given the nation a preview of the landscape of abortion access without the protections enshrined in Roe v. Wade. A new Texas law banning most abortions after about six weeks  before many women know they are pregnant  took effect in September and makes no exceptions in cases of rape or incest. Because of how Republicans wrote the law, which is enforceable only through lawsuits filed by private citizens against doctors or anyone who helps a woman obtain an abortion, Texas has essentially outmaneuvered decades of Supreme Court precedent governing a womens constitutional right to an abortion. State data shows the number of abortions performed in Texas roughly two dozen clinics fell by half in the five months after the law came into effect compared to the same period a year earlier.

Effect of the Supreme Court ruling: Texas had more than 40 abortion clinics in 2012 before a decade of Republicans chipping away at abortion access began forcing providers to close. Without Roe v. Wade, Texas plans to ban virtually all abortions 30 days after the Supreme Court issues its judgment in the case, which could take about a month. Abortions would only be allowed when the patients life is in danger or if they are at risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function.

Whats next: Many Texas women have already traveled out of state for abortions since the law took effect, but they would likely have to travel much farther now that Roe is overturned as more states outlaw abortion. Some Republican lawmakers also want to punish companies that help their Texas-based employees get abortions elsewhere, although its unclear how much support that idea will have when the Legislature returns in 2023.

UTAH

Political control: Utah is deeply conservative and the Legislature is controlled by a Republican supermajority.

Background: The state has been restricting abortion for years, including a ban after 18 weeks passed in 2019 thats now blocked in court. The following year, lawmakers passed a trigger law that would outlaw nearly all abortions if Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The trigger law banning nearly all abortions became enforceable Friday evening, after the legislative general counsel certified the Supreme Court ruling to lawmakers. It does have narrow exceptions for rape and incest if those crimes are reported to law enforcement, and for serious risk to the life or health of the mother, as well as confirmed lethal birth defects.

Whats next: Utah law makes performing an abortion a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. While its aimed primarily at providers, lawmakers have acknowledged that a woman who self-administers an abortion, including through medication, could potentially face charges.

VERMONT

Political control: The Vermont Legislature is controlled by Democrats, but Republican Gov. Phil Scott is a firm supporter of abortion rights.

Background: Vermont has a 2019 law guaranteeing the right to an abortion and voters will consider a proposal in November to amend the state constitution to protect abortion rights. Also in 2019, the Vermont Legislature began the process of amending the constitution to protect abortion rights, known as the Reproductive Liberty Amendment or Proposition 5. Vermonts proposed amendment does not contain the word abortion. Proponents say thats because its not meant to authorize only abortion but also would guarantee other reproductive rights such as the right to get pregnant or access birth control. Opponents say vague wording could have unintended consequences that could play out for years. Lawmakers approved the proposed amendment in February, leading the way for a statewide vote.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Nothing will change immediately in Vermont.

Whats next: Vermont voters will cast ballots in November to decide if the state will amend its constitution to protect abortion rights.

VIRGINIA

Political control: Virginia has a Republican governor who says he would support new state-level restrictions on abortion. Gov. Glenn Youngkin said Friday that he will seek legislation to ban most abortions after 15 weeks. Youngkin told The Washington Post he has asked four antiabortion Republican lawmakers to draft the legislation. He told the Post that a cutoff at 20 weeks might be necessary to build consensus in the divided Virginia legislature, where Republicans control the House and Democrats control the Senate. Youngkin generally supports exceptions to abortion restrictions in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is in danger.

Background: In recent years, when Democrats were in full control of state government, lawmakers rolled back abortion restrictions. They ended strict building code requirements on facilities where abortions are performed and did away with requirements that a patient seeking an abortion undergo a 24-hour waiting period and ultrasound. Advocates said the changes would make Virginia a haven for abortion access in the South. Republican victories in the November elections shook up the states political landscape, but Senate Democrats defeated several measures that would have limited abortion access during the 2022 legislative session.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: There will be no immediate change to abortion laws in Virginia now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned. Some abortion providers expect to see an uptick in patients seeking care in Virginia from neighboring states with trigger laws that would ban abortion.

Whats next: The future of abortion access is Virginia is murky. Senate Democrats say they intend to continue blocking attempts to roll back abortion access, though they control the chamber by the narrowest possible margin and have one caucus member who personally opposes abortion and says he is open to new restrictions. Republicans also have a narrow hold on the House, with several moderate members. Every seat in the General Assembly will be on the ballot in 2023.

WASHINGTON

Political control: The Democrats who control the Washington Legislature support access to abortion, as does the states Democratic governor.

Background: Abortion has been legal in Washington state since a 1970 statewide ballot referendum. Another ballot measure approved by voters in 1991 declared a womans right to choose physician-performed abortion prior to fetal viability and further expanded and protected access to abortion in the state if Roe v. Wade was overturned. And in 2018, the Legislature passed a measure that would require Washington insurers offering maternity care to also cover elective abortions and contraception. Earlier this year, Gov. Jay Inslee signed a measure that grants specific statutory authorization for physician assistants, advanced registered nurse practitioners and other providers acting within their scope of practice to perform abortions. Supporters say the move is designed to help meet the demand from the potential influx of out-of-state patients. That same measure also prohibits legal action by Washington state against people seeking an abortion and those who aid them.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The state will use every available tool to protect and preserve Washingtonians fundamental right to choose, and protect the rights of anyone who wants to come here to access reproductive health care, said Attorney General Bob Ferguson, a Democrat. Data from the Washington state Department of Health from 2020 shows that of the 16,909 abortions performed in the state that year, 852 involved non-residents. The majority of those people came from neighboring states such as Idaho and Oregon.

Whats next: Its impossible to predict how many more non-resident patients will potentially seek care in Washington now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, but the increase will likely be in the thousands, said Jennifer Allen, CEO of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates. The state has more than 30 in-person abortion clinics, though the vast majority are in western Washington along the Interstate 5 corridor.

WEST VIRGINIA

Political control: West Virginia has a legislature controlled by Republicans who want to ban or restrict access to abortions. Gov. Jim Justice, a Republican, opposes abortion access and has signed two anti-abortion laws since taking office in 2017.

Background: West Virginia currently bans abortion after the 20th week of pregnancy unless a patients life is in danger, or they face substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function. Patients seeking abortions must wait 24 hours after undergoing legislatively mandated counseling designed to discourage abortions. A minor who wants an abortion must obtain parental permission. The use of telemedicine to administer a medication abortion is outlawed. The state also bars patients from getting abortions because they believe their child will be born with a disability. The House of Delegates this year passed a 15-week abortion ban, but it died in the Senate.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Its unclear what the effect the ruling will have on abortion access in West Virginia. The state has had a law banning abortion on the books since 1848; Under that law, providers who perform abortions can face felony charges and three to 10 years in prison, unless the abortion is conducted to save a patients life. In 2018, West Virginia voters approved a constitutional amendment to declare patients do not have the right to abortion and banning state funding for abortions.

Whats next: West Virginia lawmakers could introduce new legislation restricting abortion access when they return to the Capitol in January, but they could return sooner if called into a special session. West Virginia only has one clinic that performs abortions. Womens Health Center of West Virginia Executive Director Katie Quinonez said if abortion access is outlawed, the clinic will continue to provide reproductive care, such as birth control and STI diagnosis and treatment. She said the clinic will help women travel to other states for abortions through its abortion fund.

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WISCONSIN

Political control: Wisconsin has a legislature controlled by Republicans who want to ban or restrict access to abortions but a Democratic governor who supports access and is up for reelection this year.

Background: Wisconsin has allowed most abortions until the 22nd week of pregnancy to save the health or life of the mother. A woman seeking an abortion must meet with a counselor and doctor before obtaining an abortion and wait at least 24 hours before having it done. Anyone under age 18 must have an adult relative over age 25 with them to obtain an abortion.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, it is presumed that a state law passed in 1849 making an abortion a felony offense could go into effect, and doctors have halted procedures. However, Wisconsins Democratic attorney general argues that the law is so old that its unenforceable. The language allows a woman to legally destroy her own fetus or embryo and grants immunity if an abortion is needed to save a womans life and is performed at a hospital. Another state law, passed in 1985, prohibits abortions performed after a fetus reaches viability -- when it could survive outside the womb -- conflicting with the 1849 ban.

Whats next: Republican lawmakers are expected to attempt to clarify the 1849 law to ensure there is a ban in place, even as that issue is fought in the courts. However, lawmakers efforts would be stymied if Democratic Gov. Tony Evers wins reelection. Wisconsins Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has said he supports an exception in cases of rape and that a ruling on Roe could force lawmakers to consider other related reproductive issues such as contraception. Other Republicans will push for more restrictive abortion laws.

WYOMING

Political control: Wyoming has one of the most Republican legislatures in the U.S. and a long tradition of libertarian-type if not always social or religious conservatism. That may be changing. In March, Republican Gov. Mark Gordon signed into law a bill that would ban abortion in nearly all instances should the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade.

Background: Current Wyoming law allows abortions up to when a fetus might be able to survive on its own outside its mothers body. The law does not specify when that happens, but it is generally considered to be at around 23 weeks into pregnancy. Wyoming currently doesnt allow abortions after then except to protect the mother from substantial risk to her life or health. Wyoming Republicans have traditionally taken a hands-off approach to abortion but have proven more willing to limit the practice lately. The number of Democrats in the Legislature has dwindled from 26 in 2010 to just nine out of 90 total seats now. A 2021 law requires physicians to provide lifesaving care to any aborted fetus born alive.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The new state law that bans abortion only provides exceptions in cases of rape or incest or to protect the mothers life or health, not including psychological conditions. Though Wyoming has no abortion clinics, abortions still occur. Ninety-eight took place in Wyoming in 2021, according to state officials.

Whats next: A planned womens health clinic in Casper that would have been the only one offering abortions in the state was on track to open in mid-June but an arson fire May 25 delayed those plans by around six months. Clinic founder Julie Burkhart said Friday that, despite the ruling, she still plans to open the clinic and will continue to seek legal means to keep abortion legal in Wyoming. Police continue to look for a suspect in the arson investigation, and have offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

Associated Press statehouse reporters from across the U.S. contributed.

For APs full coverage of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, go to https://apnews.com/hub/abortion

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

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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP)  The U.S. Supreme Court's decision allowing states to ban abortion stirred alarm Friday among LGBTQ advocates, who feared that the ruling could someday allow a rollback of legal protections for gay relationships, including the right for same-sex couples to marry.

In the court's majority opinion overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, Justice Samuel Alito said the decision applied only to abortion. But critics of the court's conservative majority gave the statement no credence.

I dont buy that at all, said Lawrence Gostin, a professor of medicine at Georgetown University and faculty director of its Institute for National and Global Health Law. It really is much more extreme than the justices are making it out to be.

He added: It means that you cant look to the Supreme Court as an impartial arbiter of constitutional rights because theyre acting more as culture warriors.

Gostin and others pointed to a separate concurring opinion in which Justice Clarence Thomas said the court should review other precedents, including its 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage, a 2003 decision striking down laws criminalizing gay sex and a 1965 decision declaring that married couples have a right to use contraception.

Today is about this horrifying invasion of privacy that this court is now allowing, and when we lose one right that we have relied on and enjoyed, other rights are at risk, said Jim Obergefell, the plaintiff in the landmark ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, who is now running as a Democrat for the Ohio House.

Abortion opponents celebrated the potential for states to ban abortion after nearly 50 years of being prevented from doing so. Some argued that the case did not have implications beyond that, noting Alito's words.

And to ensure that our decision is not misunderstood or mischaracterized, we emphasize that our decision concerns the constitutional right to abortion and no other right, Alito wrote. Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.

Kristen Waggoner, legal director for the Alliance Defending Freedom, which helped defend the Mississippi abortion law at issue in the ruling, said the high court's decision makes it clear that the taking of human life is unlike any other issue. She said raising other issues shows the weakness of critics' arguments about abortion.

Still, said Paul Dupont, a spokesman for the conservative anti-abortion American Principles Project, conservatives are optimistic about the potential for future victories on cultural issues, though getting more states to ban abortion is a huge enough battle.

If there is a thought that this could apply elsewhere, you know, they're not going to say it here, and we're just going to have to see, Dupont said.

Other factors could protect those rulings on birth control and LGBTQ rights, too. The Obergefell decision that legalized same-sex marriage was based on equal protection, and hundreds of thousands of couples have relied on it to wed, a precedent that many courts would be loath to disturb.

Still, a sharp increase in anti-LGBTQ rhetoric in the U.S. and opposition to specific kinds of birth control on the right have advocates concerned that those rights are vulnerable.

The possibility worried some of the scores of people at a Friday evening abortion-rights rally outside the Kansas Statehouse in Topeka. including Rija Nazir, a 21-year-old community organizer from Wichita for a voting-rights group.

She wore a pink cowboy hat festooned with a button featuring a cowboy uterus drawing for a Vote Neigh campaign against an anti-abortion measure on the statewide ballot Aug. 2.

They're going to go for LGBTQ rights first and then same-sex marriage next. Who knows? Maybe interracial marriage, birth control, Nazir said. They're not going to stop at abortion.

Some abortion opponents treat some forms of contraception as forms of abortion, particularly IUDs and emergency birth control such as Plan B, also known as the morning after pill. Lawmakers in Idaho and Missouri last year discussed banning state funding for emergency contraception, and Idaho prevents public schools or universities from dispersing it.

It's all interconnected, because at its base, birth control and abortion are both types of health care that help people have bodily autonomy, said Mara Gandal-Powers, director of birth control access for the National Women's Law Center, which supports abortion rights. I'm very concerned about where this is going to go.

The Supreme Court's three most liberal members argued that the majority decision breaches a core rule-of-law principle, designed to promote constancy in the law" and places in jeopardy other rights.

At the White House, President Joe Biden pledged to do everything in his power to defend a womans right to have an abortion in states where it will be banned. He warned that the ruling could undermine rights to contraception and gay marriage: This is an extreme and dangerous path.

Then there is Thomas' concurring opinion, which Sarah Warbelow, legal director for the pro-LGBTQ-rights Human Rights Campaign, called an invitation for stirring up fringe organizations, fringe politicians who want to harm the LGBTQ community.

There are clearly members of the court who have an outdated notion of what America looks like today and have a fantasy of returning to their painted idealism of a 1940s, 1950s America, certainly not what it really was in the 1940s and '50s, she said. And that is terrifying.

Jason Pierceson, a University of Illinois political scientist, said he doesn't see the conservative majority stopping with abortion.

They are sending signals to the conservative legal movement, which has a lot of momentum right now because of this victory, to keep going and to keep bringing cases to them over the next several years that will give them opportunities to go further, Pierceson said.

Jennifer Pizer, acting chief legal officer for the LGBTQ-rights group Lambda Legal, added: "It is an extremist assault on the privacy, self-determination, dignity and equality of every person in our country.

This story has been corrected to show that Lawrence Gostins title is faculty director, not director, of the Georgetown Institute.

___

Associated Press writers Jessica Gresko in Washington, Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut, Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio, and Lindsay Whitehurst, in Salt Lake City, contributed to this report.

Follow John Hanna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/apjdhanna

For APs full coverage of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, go to https://apnews.com/hub/abortion

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

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PHOENIX  Women in the United States have no constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday, bringing an immediate  if not permanent  end to legal abortion in Arizona.

In an extensive opinion, Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority, said the historic 1973 Roe v. Wade decision was built on the premise there is an inherent right of privacy in the U.S. Constitution that precludes states from criminalizing a woman's decision to abort a fetus and a medical provider's actions to help her. But he said there was  and is  no basis for that conclusion.

"Abortion presents a profound moral question,'' Alito wrote.

"The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each state from regulating or prohibiting abortion,'' he continued, a right that Roe and subsequent rulings from the court took from them. "We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives.''

The move resulted in Planned Parenthood Arizona on Friday halting all abortion services.

"We are working diligently with our team of attorneys to understand Arizona's tangled web of conflicting laws so we can ensure our patients know what their rights are and how to access legal abortion,'' said Brittany Fonteno, the organization's president and CEO. And, for the moment, she said Planned Parenthood will not perform abortions even in cases to save the life of the mother even though that is allowed under the pre-1973 Arizona law, the one that has not been enforced since the Roe decision.

'

But Cathi Herrod, president of the anti-abortion Center for Arizona Policy, said there is nothing to study. She Friday's decision immediately breathes new life into that territorial-era law that makes it a crime for doctors to assist in a "miscarriage'' unless it is done to save the life of the mother.

The law, which has no exception for rape or incest, carries a penalty of from two to five years in state prison.

In 2020, the most recent year for which data is available, there were 13,186 abortions performed.

Herrod said Friday's ruling frees prosecutors to start bringing cases immediately.

Whether prosecutors will act  and when  remains unclear.

Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said if a case is submitted her office will review it to determine if there is a "reasonable likelihood of conviction.

"There undoubtedly will be legal challenges to the laws in Arizona,'' Mitchell said in a prepared statement. "This important legal review will take time and any such rulings will guide my decision-making on these matters.''

Pima County Attorney Laura Conover, who previously vowed to do what she can "to ensure that no person seeking or assisting in abortion will spend a night in jail,'' would not answer questions about whether her office would begin processing complaints.

And even Herrod said there are legal questions whether Attorney General Mark Brnovich, who filed a brief with the justices urging them to overturn Roe, has jurisdiction to enforce the law.

Friday's ruling drew a stinging dissent from Justice Stephen Breyer who said the ruling discards the balance that Roe and subsequent rulings made which concluded that, prior to viability, states cannot impose a "substantial obstacle'' on a woman's right to elect the procedure.

"It says that from the very moment of fertilization, a woman has not rights to speak of,'' he wrote for himself and Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. "A state can force her to bring a pregnancy to term, even at the steepest personal and familial costs.''

And Breyer pointed out that some states have laws with no exception for cases of rape or incest.

"Under those laws, a woman will have to bear her rapist's child or a young girl her father's  no matter if doing so will destroy her life,'' he said.

Herrod said that Friday's ruling will do more than prevent women from getting abortions in Arizona. She contends it will allow the state to enforce another law on the books that prevents the delivery of medications designed to induce an abortion directly to women in Arizona, even from other states or countries  and even if no Arizona doctor is involved.

"If abortion is not legal in this state, then no method of abortion in this state,'' Herrod said.

That, however, may get a fight from the Biden administration.

On Friday the president said he was directing the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure these medications, which have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, would be available to the "fullest extent possible,'' though he did not spell out what that entails.

Less clear, Herrod said, is the future of available of Plan B, also known as the "morning-after pill.''

This over-the-counter medication, taken within days of unprotected sex, can prevent a woman from ovulating. But Herrod acknowledge it also can work as an "abortifacient,'' preventing a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus.

"That is a concern,'' she said. "That is another one of those kind of legal uncertainties that will be determined in the days ahead.''

One thing Herrod said Arizona could not ban, though, is the ability of women, denied an abortion in Arizona, from traveling to other states where the procedure remains legal.

The Center for Reproductive Rights says the California Supreme Court recognized the legal right to abortion in 1969, four years before Roe.

Nevada voters approved a measure in 1990 protecting the legal right to abortion. And other states ranging from Washington to New York have statutes allowing women to terminate pregnancies.

There's another complicating factor in Arizona.

Earlier this year the Legislature approved a measure sponsored by Sen. Nancy Barto, R-Phoenix, to outlaw abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. That was modeled after the Mississippi law that became the basis for the U.S. Supreme Court to take another look at Roe.

That law will take effect 90 days after the end of the current legislative session, meaning likely in late September. And Gov. Doug Ducey said that, as far as he's concerned, on the effective date it will supersede the pre-1973 law.

"This law was signed this year,'' he told Capitol Media Services earlier this year. "I think that the law that you signed in 2022 supersedes 1973.''

Barto disagreed, pointing out that the bill Ducey signed actually spells out that it does not repeal the pre-Roe law.

"It'll be the courts that determine this situation and not our governor or any other person with a differing opinion,'' she said.

There were 636 abortions beyond 15 weeks performed in Arizona in 2020.

There's another factor that could determine the right of women in Arizona.

The state constitution, unlike its federal counterpart, has a provision specifically guaranteeing a "right to privacy.'' Several lawyers have said that provides a basis for keeping abortion legal.

But Herrod, who is an attorney, said she doubts justices here will buy that argument. And there's also the fact that abortion was illegal when the Arizona Constitution and that right to privacy was approved in 1912.

There is currently a petition drive in Arizona to put a measure on the November ballot to protect abortion rights here and overrule the pre-1973 law.

The initiative would put a "right to reproductive freedom'' in the Arizona Constitution, covering all matters relating to pregnancy.

It would bar state and local governments from interfering with that right, which would range from contraception to elective termination of a pre-viable fetus, defined as one with a reasonable chance of surviving outside the womb with or without artificial support. And it would allow abortion at any stage of pregnancy "if necessary to preserve the individual's health or life.''

Backers have an uphill fight.

They need at least 356,467 valid signatures on petitions by July 7 to just put the measure on the November ballot. And they did not launch the drive until the middle of last month, after the Roe decision was leaked.

Strictly speaking, Friday's ruling affect only abortion rights. But Justice Clarence Thomas said that the court should now reconsider other rulings which were based on issues of due process rights, including whether states can deny gays the right to marry, prohibit individuals from obtaining contraceptives, and making it illegal for two people of the same sex to engage in sexual conduct.

In writing Friday's decision, Alito said there is no historic basis for a belief that abortion was a protected right. He cited a series of state laws banning the practice, including the one from Arizona that goes back to 1865.

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Tucson police have released the name of the man who died after shooting at a Pima Community College police officer on Wednesday.

On June 22 shortly after 1:30 p.m., James J. Galligan, 35, reportedly fired shots at the PCC officer during a traffic stop at West St. Marys Road and Interstate 10, police said. Galligan then fled in his vehicle and crashed near North Linda Avenue and West Congress Street.

After the crash, Galligan fired more shots at the officer and bystanders and ran away. No officers returned fire during the incident, police said.

Officers later found Galligan dead with a gunshot wound. Police said it appeared to have been self-inflicted.

No officers or community members were injured in the incident.

Police said they are not releasing the identity of the PCC officer involved.

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Editor's note: This column by Jan Cleere first appeared in the Star in 2015 as part of the Western Women series. It profiled Margaret Sanger, a Tucson resident for many years, who founded an organization that eventually became Planned Parenthood.

Margaret Sanger Slee first appeared in Tucson in 1934. She was already well known for her sponsorship of birth control, particularly among poor, underprivileged women.

Many believed she was ahead of her time in her crusade to encourage open discussions about sex, procreation and contraception, but in all probability she was the right person for a very tough job.

The years she spent in Tucson became very important to her during times when she faced vilification from the public and press. The town was her haven from those who sought to silence her rhetoric. Yet even in the middle of the desert, she worked tirelessly on womens health issues.

Margaret Louisa Higgins was born to Irish parents on Sept. 14, 1879, in Corning, New York.

Her mother suffered from tuberculosis, and after giving birth to 11 children, Anne Higgins died at the age of 50. Margaret bore her mothers proclivity for tuberculosis and endured several bouts of the disease throughout her life.

She wanted to become a doctor, but after her mothers death, she left school to work as a nurse. In 1902, at the age of 23, she married architect William Sanger.

Shortly after her third child was born in 1910, Margaret took a position at Lillian Walds Visiting Nurses Association on the Lower East Side of New York City where immigrants arrived daily with little money, language barriers and limited knowledge of health care.

She was soon speaking out for indigent women through the Socialist Party and wrote for the Socialist newspaper The Call, producing a column entitled What Every Girl Should Know.

The Federal Comstock Law, passed in 1873, condemned all contraceptive information and devices as obscene, outlawing the use, sale or mailing of anything having to do with contraception. When Margarets column was ruled obscene according to the law, The Call ran the title, What Every Girl Should KnowNothing; by order of the U.S. Post Office.

In 1914, she started her own publication, The Woman Rebel, but the Post Office again claimed she was mailing indecent material and confiscated the first issue. Margaret continued to publish the magazine until she was arrested that August.

To avoid prosecution, she fled to Europe, but when her 5-year-old daughter, Peggy, was diagnosed with pneumonia, Margaret returned to the United States.

Peggy Sanger died in November 1915, and public sympathy for Margaret may have played a role in the dismissal of the charges against her.

In 1916, she set out on tour the country espousing her views on birth control. Her appearance started a riot in St. Louis, and officials in Portland, Oregon, threatened to arrest her. Officials in several cities refused to allow her to speak.

She opened the first birth control clinic in New York City in October 1916. A week later, she was arrested, tried and found guilty of dispensing birth control products. She served 30 days in prison.

Margaret formed the American Birth Control League in 1921. Two years later, New York City opened the first physician-run birth-control clinic, providing legal contraceptive counseling to married women.

Margaret and William Sanger divorced in 1921, and she married 3-in-One Oil inventor Noah Slee in 1922. Slees affluence afforded Margaret the opportunity to travel extensively, advocating her views on birth control.

In 1934, Margaret and her son, Stuart, headed for Arizona, hoping to cure Stuarts severe allergies.

Arriving in Tucson, she was not at all impressed with the heat that greeted her. In a letter to a friend, she wailed, Its sizzling hot  I drip. Sleep under the stars at night but with bats flying overhead & rattle snakes underneath & spiders watching for their midnight meal.

She spoke to Tucson organizations advocating her views on birth control and recruited women of wealth and political connections to open a birth-control clinic.

Renting a small house in the barrio district, she and her followers started Clinica para Madres, the Mothers Clinic. Charging $1 or less per visit, the nurse on duty had little to occupy her for the first three weeks as no one dared venture through the clinics doors.

When the Comstock Law was struck down in 1936, the little clinic began to flourish.

Margaret fell in love with Tucson, despite its heat, and whenever she left she missed ... the indescribable Catalinas, on which light and clouds played in never-ending changes of pattern.

At the beginning of World War II, an emerging movement encouraged women to have more children for the betterment of the country. Margaret was condemned as a communist and anarchist for her views on birth control.

During the war, she and her husband spent much of their time in Tucson. Noah Slee died here in 1943. That same year, her two sons, Stuart and Grant, were sent to war.

When the war ended and her boys safely home, she took off for Europe in a quest to bring birth control out of the dark ages.

But Tucson was where she wanted to be.

She built a red brick home shaped like a fan so she could see the mountains from every window.

One of her granddaughters recalled her grandmother Mimi as a woman who loved champagne, daiquiris, flambeed desserts, and great big salads that she made at the table. ... Her parties in Tucson were fabulous.

Margaret was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952, and served as the first president of the International Planned Parenthood Federation from 1952 until 1959. In 1960, the FDA approved use of the birth-control pill.

At age 83, Margaret moved into a convalescent home in Tucson.

The University of Arizona awarded her an honorary doctor of humanities degree in 1965.

That same year, Japan presented her with one of its highest honors, the Third Order of the Sacred Crown, for her diligence in bringing birth control to its country.

President Lyndon B. Johnson awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom shortly before her death on Sept. 6, 1966.

Time Magazine named Margaret Sanger Slee one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.

Jan Cleere is the author of four historical nonfiction books about the early people of the Southwest. Email her at Jan@JanCleere.com.

Sources Ellen Chesler, "Woman of Valor: Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement in America," Simon & Schuster, 1992. Margaret Sanger: The Arizona Years, accessed at Margaret Sanger Papers Project at www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger/newsletter/articlelist.php Miriam Reed, "Margaret Sanger: Her Life in Her Words," Barricade Books, 2003. Margaret Regan, Margaret Sanger: Tucsons Irish Rebel, Tucson Weekly, March 22, 2004. Margaret Sanger, "Margaret Sanger: An Autobiography," 1999.

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Cowboy film star Tom Mix spent his last night at a Tucson ranch with then-Pima County Sheriff Ed Echols and famed western writer Walt Coburn.

The trio gathered at Coburns Catalina Foothills ranch, eating mesquite-grilled steaks and drinking Mexican beer on the veranda while enjoying a blazing sunset across the Tucson sky.

Later that evening, Mix went to the old Santa Rita Hotel in downtown Tucson, where he reserved a room and met with owner Nick Hall. Months earlier, Mix had ridden his famed horse Tony into the hotel lobby and notably chipped a piece of marble out of the grand staircase.

But on Oct. 11, 1940, they shared several drinks with band musicians into the early-morning hours.

Around noon the next day, Mix spoke with Tucson motorcycle policeman Richard Lease on his way north out of town. The officer was driving a new Harley-Davidson, the first radio-equipped motorcycle in the city. Hours after, Mix lay dead under his famed Cord convertible at a washed-out bridge along Highway 79 on the way to Florence. He was 60 years old.

Coburn, in later years, wrote, Tom lived his own legend in real life and on the silver screen, and that legend is destined to live on forevermore.

I recently visited the Auburn Automobile Company headquarters and original showrooms in Auburn, Indiana. The site is now a museum without comparison. The Tom Mix 1937 Super-Charged V8 Cord 812 Phaeton Convertible was designed there and manufactured in Indiana. Museum Curator Sam Grate reflected, Like in his film career, Tom Mix had style and flair, which was evident with his Cord 812. With its custom features and stately appearance, Mix and his Cord complemented one another like a cowboy with his steed.

Mix purchased his Cord, manufacturers color code Cigarette Cream, off the showroom floor at the Fuller Cord distributorship on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. The total price with all the personalized accessories he wanted was $3,060.

Bob White of Scottsdale owns the famous Tom Mix Cord today. He rescued it 12 years ago after nine previous owners tried their hand at customizing the vehicle. One nearly destroyed the automobile, leaving the ailing Cord outside in a field up on blocks. It took White almost three years to tear the automobile down to the frame and build it back to its original showroom glory. His book, The Tom Mix Cord, is the most definitive research history of Mix and his vehicle ownership today.

I met with White and sat in the perfectly restored Cord as he provided details about the Halliburton suitcases and the money Mix was said to be carrying at the time of his death. Folklore in Tucson claims that the aluminum suitcases were filled with heavy silver coins and struck the cowboy actor in the back of the head at the crash. According to White, the cases did not contain coins. In Mixs possessions at the time of the crash were $6,000 in cash and $1,500 in travelers checks.

According to White, the money was recovered and not stolen at the accident scene. White noted that the two Halliburton suitcases are displayed at the Tom Mix Museum in Dewey, Oklahoma. He observed that one has a sizable dent on a corner, causing speculation that it produced the broken neck Tom sustained.

Novelist Coburn wrote of their legendary last night together in Tucson, Tom Mix had seen his last sunset in the welcomed companionship of his old friend Ed Echols. A crimson sunset in a spectacular sky, with a panoramic view of the desert and mountain ranges. He had heard the sound of the quail and mourning doves blending into the hushed twilight of the last sunset.

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Jerry Wilkerson, who lives in SaddleBrooke, is a former press secretary for two U.S. Congressmen and a prior Chicago CBS radio and Chicago Daily News correspondent. Email: franchise@att.net

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PHOENIX  State lawmakers took the first steps Thursday to providing what they say is a secure and reliable source of water for Arizona.

And the director of the state Department of Water Resources said the most likely and affordable prospect could involve Arizonans drinking their own waste  and getting beyond the ick factor.

While that sounds maybe yucky, its already happening, Tom Buschatzke told members of the Senate Committee on Natural Resource, Energy and Water.

He said communities already are putting treated wastewater into the Colorado River. And that is being drawn out further downstream, albeit diluted by the regular flow of the river.

Sen. Lisa Otondo, D-Yuma, said the idea doesnt bother her.

God doesnt make new water, she said.

Obviously, weve been using the same thing thats been on the planet for a long time, Otondo said. So reuse is not disgusting to me.

All this comes as the committee approved a 50-page plan to revamp the existing Water Infrastructure Finance Authority and provide it with $1 billion of tax dollars over the next three years to find new water.

SB 1740 would require that 75% of the funding be spent to acquire water from outside of the state. And that has led to a proposal to build a desalination plant to treat water from the Sea of Cortez.

Only thing is, Buschatzke said, construction costs are estimated at about $3 billion. And the cost of delivering water would approach $2,500 an acre-foot, the amount of water that, depending on usage, is needed to serve from two to four single-family homes.

So think possible $1,200 annual water bills per house for treated seawater. And that could be what makes treatment of effluent to drinking water quality  more colorfully referred to as toilet-to-tap  a viable option.

But whats missing from the legislation, according to some, is a focus on a less expensive  and potentially more immediate  solution: conservation.

We all know that augmentation will not come for at least a decade, said Nick Ponder, representing a variety of interests from Mohave County and the Water for Arizona Coalition, which includes the Environmental Defense Fund, the Audubon Society and Western Rivers.

Conservation is the most impactful benefit that we can get today, he said.

Sen. Victoria Steele, D-Tucson, agreed.

I know desalination plants and all of that are in the works, she said. And Steele said thats fine, and should be pursued as critical pieces of solving the states water woes.

But these things are so much further into the future, she said. And were at Defcon 5 now.

That was underlined by Buschatzke who detailed not just prior cuts in Arizonas share of Colorado River water who noted the cuts ordered earlier this month by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation based on current levels in Lake Mead and Lake Powell but the possibility of even deeper cuts  and even the lakes reaching dead pool when no water will be available.

And theres another thing that some say is missing from this plan.

There already are regulations that govern water supply in active management areas that cover the states two major metropolitan areas as well as portions of Pinal and Yavapai County. But the rest of the state is pretty much the wild west, lacking not only regulation but even any sort of monitoring of how much water is being pumped from the ground.

If we dont know how much is there, if we dont have the data, then how do we know how to protect it, how do we know how to protect our small farmers? asked Steele. She said the nation and the world is reliant on family farms.

It breaks my heart when I see huge conglomerates, huge corporations coming in and sucking our wells dry and all of the neighbors in the area, she said. And thats criminal; that should not be happening.

So far, though, there has been lukewarm interest in some rural areas in having the same kinds of regulation that exist in the active management areas.

Sen. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton, D-Tucson said the state should look to even more creative solutions to the problem. One of these, she said, is technology that has been researched at the University of Arizona: installing solar panels over agricultural crops.

It nets a triple win, she said.

First, Stahl Hamilton noted, solar panels are less effective at higher temperatures. She said the evaporation from farmland cools them and makes them produce more electricity.

She also said that the panels cut water usage by a third and doubles crop yield.

The measure has strong support from the Arizona Farm Bureau Federation. And a lot of that is self-preservation.

Agriculture uses about 70% of the states water supply. And the organizations Chelsea McCGuire said any plans to increase the water supply takes that target off the back of agricultural water users.

Sen. Sine Kerr, R-Buckeye, who chairs the committee, was sensitive to that issue.

I think theres going to come a point, maybe very soon, do we want green grass in our yards or do we want green vegetables on our plates? she said.

There are other issues that lawmakers say need to be addressed when the measure goes to the full Senate.

Otondo said there is a provision in state law that says communities of more than 150,000 have to have a public vote before they can apply for federal financial assistance for things water and wastewater treatment plants. She said thats not fair when smaller communities do not have that hurdle.

But Kerr said changing that is a policy question that would have to be addressed as part of the overall plan.

There also are concerns by Democrats, whose votes likely will be needed for final approval, that the reconstituted board of the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority would be made up solely of people appointed by the governor, the speaker of the House and the president of the Senate, all of whom are Republicans.

Howard Fischer is a veteran journalist who has been reporting since 1970 and covering state politics and the Legislature since 1982. Follow him on Twitter at @azcapmedia or email azcapmedia@gmail.com .

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The Pima County Recorders Office is reprinting and resending more than 80,000 new identification cards to registered voters, about a month after sending out the original batch of 615,000 new cards.

Two problems cropped up in the first batch, necessitating replacement of about 13% of the original cards, Recorder Gabriella Cazares-Kelly said in a memo.

One was that the Pima County Board of Supervisors approved new supervisorial districts on May 3, but the cards had already been printed showing the old district numbers, and some voters now reside in new districts. About 45,000 new cards will be printed with the corrected supervisorial district, she wrote.

The other was that Oro Valley residents received cards that listed their address as being in Tucson, a function of the United States postal codes used by the countys GIS department.

Although those cards were accurate and made no changes to voting access, we asked county GIS Department to restore the familiar Oro Valley addresses for voters peace of mind, Cazares-Kelly wrote.

Pima County Supervisor Steve Christy questioned the mistakes at Tuesdays board meeting, but nobody was there from the office to answer.

Specifically, he asked why the Recorders Office needed to print new cards before the supervisors new districts were set.

Michael Truelsen, a spokesman for Cazares-Kelly, explained Thursday: The new district boundaries had not yet been approved by the Board, and legally they could have waited until July 1 to make that decision. With early voting starting on July 6, there was no way we could wait that long.

Cazares-Kelly could not attend because of the ramping up of preparations for the Aug. 2 primary.

CD6 candidates clash

The leading GOP candidates in Congressional District 6 finally met at a debate Monday night that attendees described as fruitful.

Unfortunately it was closed to the public and not recorded.

The North West Republicans hosted all five GOP candidates for the nomination in the new district that covers the southeastern corner of Arizona but runs all the way up to Casa Grande.

Juan Ciscomani, Lucretia Free, Brandon Martin, Young Mayberry and Kathleen Winn all attended. It was the first time that Martin and Ciscomani, thought to be the leading candidates, had debated.

Bill Maynard, president of the association, said the ground rules included: No news media allowed, no recordings and no transcripts. Only members of the North West Republicans group, their guests, candidates and their guests were allowed to attend. About 225 people showed up, he said.

The debate ended with a disagreement between Ciscomani and Martin, who pointed out that Ciscomani had worked in the office of two congressional Democrats, Reps. Ed Pastor and Loretta Sanchez.

Ciscomani, who is best known as a longtime close aide to Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, responded that it was no secret he had been an intern for Pastor right out of Pima Community College.

Theyre trying to bring it up as a gotcha moment, as if it hadnt been public. But its always been public, he said Thursday, noting he interned for Pastor in 2003 and worked for Sanchez in 2005.

Its not something Ive been hiding, and its not something that really matters in the big scheme of things, he added.

Martin noted that he and all the other candidates but Ciscomani showed up for a debate conducted by Arizona PBS in Phoenix in May that was televised, but this debate would only be accessible to the relative few who attended. It was a sham, it was a setup, Martin said Thursday of Mondays debate. Ive been calling for a public debate. I want to have a public debate.

GOP chair taking sides

The chair of the Arizona GOP has continued taking sides in contested primaries, in a break from tradition.

Over the years, party officials have normally maintained neutrality in contested primaries.

Fellow Republicans have called out Kelli Ward for openly siding with gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake over competitors such as Matt Salmon and Karrin Taylor Robson.

On Tuesday, Ward condemned Republican House Speaker Rusty Bowers over his testimony to the committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

In tweets, she referred to him as Rusty Bowels and encouraged Republicans to #VoteFarnsworth. David Farnsworth is Bowers primary opponent in a race for state Senate in Legislative District 10.

Tuscon goes on

You may remember the chuckles earlier this year when the campaigns of both U.S. Senate candidate Jim Lamon and Arizona attorney general candidate Rodney Glassman misspelled our citys name as Tuscon.

Well, they havent all learned their spelling lesson yet.

On Thursday, a gubernatorial campaign sent an advisory about an upcoming Kari Lake in Tuscon Rally. To be fair, the press release also spelled Tucson correctly twice.

(By the way, its at 6 p.m. July 12, at the Maverick King of Clubs, 6622 E. Tanque Verde Road.)

Contact columnist Tim Steller at tsteller@tucson.com or 520-807-7789. On Twitter: @senyorreporter

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Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade; states can ban abortion

WASHINGTON (AP)  The Supreme Court has stripped away womens constitutional protections for abortion. It's a fundamental and deeply personal change for Americans' lives after nearly a half-century under the court's landmark Roe v. Wade decision. Friday's new ruling is likely to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states. The ruling by the high court's conservative majority was unthinkable just a few years ago. It was the culmination of decades of efforts by abortion opponents, made possible by an emboldened right side of the court that has been fortified by three appointees of former President Donald Trump. The ruling came more than a month after the stunning leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito.

Biden vows abortion fight, assails 'extreme' court ruling

WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden is vowing to try to preserve access to abortion after the Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade. He's calling for voters to elect more Democrats who would safeguard rights upended by the courts decision. Short of that, his options are limited. Biden assailed the ruling Friday, saying other legal precedents ensuring same-sex marriage and access to birth control could also be at risk. He says, This is an extreme and dangerous path this court is taking us on." Republicans and conservative leaders are celebrating the culmination of a decades-long campaign to undo the nationwide legalization of abortion that began with Roe v. Wade in 1973.

Congress sends landmark gun violence compromise to Biden

WASHINGTON (AP)  The House has sent President Joe Biden the most wide-ranging gun violence bill Congress has passed in decades. The bill that passed the House on Friday is a measured compromise that at once illustrates progress on the long-intractable issue and the deep-seated partisan divide that persists. The Democratic-led chamber approved the election-year legislation with every Democrat and 14 Republicans voting yes. That caps a spurt of action prompted by voters revulsion over last months mass shootings in New York and Texas. The Senate approved it earlier by a bipartisan 65-33 margin, with 15 Republicans joining all Democrats. The White House says Biden will sign the bill Saturday morning.

Some US clinics stop doing abortions as ruling takes hold

Abortion bans that were put on the books in some states in the event Roe v. Wade was overturned have started automatically going into effect, while clinics elsewhere  including Alabama, Texas and West Virginia  have stopped performing abortions for fear of prosecution, sending women away in tears. America was convulsed with anger, joy, fear and confusion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe. The canyon-like divide across the U.S. over the right to terminate a pregnancy was on full display, with abortion rights supporters calling it a dark day in history, while abortion foes welcomed the ruling as the answer to their prayers.

With Roe over, some fear rollback of LGBTQ and other rights

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP)  The U.S. Supreme Courts decision allowing states to ban abortion is stirring alarm among LGBTQ advocates. They fear that the ruling could someday allow a rollback of legal protections for gay relationships, including the right for same-sex couples to marry. In the majority opinion issued Friday that overturns the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, Justice Samuel Alito said the decision applied only to abortion. But critics discounted that statement. In a separate concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas said the court should review other precedents, including decisions legalizing same-sex marriage and striking down laws criminalizing gay sex. A protester at a Topeka, Kansas, abortion-rights rally said conservatives would not stop with abortion.

How US states have banned, limited or protected abortion

The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that had provided a constitutional right to abortion. Friday's ruling is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states. In anticipation of the decision, several states led by Democrats have taken steps to protect abortion access. The decision also sets up the potential for legal fights between the states over whether providers and those who help women obtain abortions can be sued or prosecuted.

Ukrainian army leaving battered city for fortified positions

KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Ukrainian officials say their country's forces are withdrawing from a besieged eastern city to move to stronger positions. The industrial city of Sievierodonetsk, the administrative center of the Luhansk region, has faced relentless Russian bombardment. Ukrainian troops fought the Russians in house-to-house battles before retreating to a huge chemical factory on the citys edge, where they holed up in its sprawling underground structures with civilians. Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said Friday that the Ukrainian troops have been ordered to leave Sievierodonetsk, which has been reduced mostly to rubble and seen its population decline from an estimated 100,000 to 10,000.

Juul can keep selling e-cigarettes as court blocks FDA ban

A federal court has put a temporary hold on the government's order for Juul to stop selling its electronic cigarettes. Juul filed the emergency motion so it can appeal the sales ban from the Food and Drug Administration. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington granted the request later Friday. A day earlier, the FDA said Juul must stop selling its vaping device and its cartridges. The agency said Juul didn't give it enough information to evaluate the potential health risks of its e-cigarettes. In its court filing, the company disagreed, saying it provided enough.

Airlines aim to shift blame for flight problems to FAA

DALLAS (AP)  With an eye on the upcoming July Fourth weekend, airlines are stepping up their criticism of federal officials over recent widespread flight delays and cancellations. The industry trade group Airlines for America said Friday that understaffing at the Federal Aviation Administration is crippling traffic along the East Coast. The airlines say they are doing everything they can to keep customers happy, including hiring more pilots and customer-service agents. The airlines are pushing back a week after Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called them to a virtual meeting and threatened to punish carriers that fail to meet consumer-protection standards.

Lightning win Game 5, deny Avs chance to take Stanley Cup

DENVER (AP)  The Tampa Bay Lightning spoiled Colorados party to stay in the hunt for a third straight Stanley Cup title, beating the Avalanche 3-2 on Friday night in Game 5. Ondrej Palat scored with 6:22 remaining and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 35 shots in front of a raucous crowd hoping to celebrate the Avalanches first championship in 21 years. The Cup was all shined up and in the building, too. Its heading back to Tampa for Game 6 on Sunday night, with the Lightning down 3-2 in the best-of-seven series. Nikita Kucherov and Jan Rutta also scored for the Lightning. Valeri Nichushkin and Cale Makar had goals for Colorado.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:

Tucson Police Departments involvement with Boulder Crest Foundation to combat the stigmatization of mental illness and PTSD among first responders should be applauded. (See June 12 guest opinion in the Arizona Daily Star, First responders need our support). Their efforts to start a movement to radically change its first responder culture  from one that tells officers to suck it up and ignore the human trauma they encounter almost daily to one that proactively focuses on health and wellness  is desperately needed.

But left unaddressed in Chief Kasmars and Mr. Goldbergs guest opinion is whether city officials and city policy will, in turn, support its first responders whose PTSD arises from the necessary risks of carrying out the duties of his or her employment.

To support its officers whose PTSD stems from work-related events, will the city direct those officers to file claims for workers compensation benefits? Will the city then accept those work-related PTSD claims when their own independent psychiatrist says the officers PTSD is related to a traumatic work event?

My experience as a workers compensation attorney who represents first responders says, no. The city will continue to deny and fight those claims for PTSD, as long as our workers compensation law allows it.

As our workers compensation law stands now, the mental injury statute (passed in 1980) requires the injured worker to show that unexpected, unusual or extraordinary stress caused the workers mental injury. The law measures whether the stress was unexpected, unusual or extraordinary by comparing the stress the worker encountered to a similarly situated co-worker.

For law enforcement officers, the peer group comparison is often fatal to their workers compensation claim. Why? First responders train for encountering the worst of human trauma, so rarely is an event unexpected, unusual or extraordinary  not the mass shooting at the elementary school, not a debris field from a plane crash, not the close-up inspection of a murder victims body, not witnessing a fellow officer shot and killed.

The peer group comparison for law enforcement and first responders often leads to this perverse outcome  the very group of workers whose daily job duties require them to respond to dangerous situations or places where human trauma unfolds are denied and excluded from the protection of our constitutionally enshrined workers compensation law.

What can be done to reverse the perversity of the mental injury statute?

For one, the city could adopt the policy position that accepts more of its PTSD claims filed by its first responders when they show sufficiently the work-relatedness of their PTSD, instead of relying strictly on the statutes higher bar. The City of Phoenix made a similar policy choice in 2019 when it directed its workers compensation insurance carrier to accept a dozen or so previously denied firefighter cancer claims.

Does police department culture play a role? Of course. The de-stigmatization of mental illness and PTSD is a step. So is, as Chief Kasmar alluded to, committing resources that proactively address wellness and the effects of trauma. Yet another is the disassembling of the suck it up culture, which often sends trauma-suffering officers back into the field where they are more likely to engage in bad policing or become one of the statistics as noted by Chief Kasmar.

Finally, as taxpayers and community members who benefit from the service and protection of our first responders, we can do more than express our gratitude with a friendly hello. We can support policy initiatives put forth by the city that would fulfill the promise made in the workers compensation act to our first responders: If you get hurt on the job protecting our community, whether its a physical or mental injury, we got you covered.

Laura Clymer is a workers compensation attorney who represents injured workers in the greater Tucson area. She is a board-certified workers compensation specialist, and a board member of the Arizona Association of Lawyers for Injured Workers. Shes an associate attorney at Brian Clymer Attorney at Law.

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DETROIT  High gas prices have Wallace Reid looking for a new career.

Reid, who drives for Uber and Lyft in New York, fills up his Lexus at least three times a week. He pays around $95 each time, about double what he was paying last year. To make up for that, hes driving more often, but hes also applying for other jobs that wouldnt require his car.

Its more hours, more stress, he said. New York City is not an easy city to work and its affecting our lives.

Reid isnt alone. Millions of Americans who rely on their cars for work are changing their habits, signing up for carpools or even ditching their cars for bicycles as gas prices recently hit $5 per gallon for the first time ever. This week, its averaging $4.95 per gallon nationwide, up from $3.06 per gallon a year ago, according to AAA.

On Wednesday, President Joe Biden asked Congress to suspend federal gas taxes for three months, which would shave 18.4 cents per gallon off the price of gas. He also called on states to suspend their own gas taxes.

Bidens push faces uphill odds in Congress. In the meantime, gas is straining budgets.

Jace Shoemaker-Galloway agonized over whether to charge more for Paws and Whiskers Sitters, her pet-sitting business in Macomb, Illinois. She visits as many as 10 houses each day and fills up her 2018 Mazda CX-3 almost every week. One recent fill-up cost her nearly $50.

This month, she finally acted. She contacted her clients and told them she was removing the 10% discount she has always given to repeat customers.

Shoemaker-Galloway, who is also a childrens book author, said her customers were understanding. But she worries that gas prices will cut into her business in other ways.

The cost isnt just impacting my bottom line, she said. Because the price of everything is so expensive, people are cutting back on non-essentials, which means pet-sitting and book sales.

In a normal summer, Orvilia Nieto might do some traveling in the RV she lives in in Lytle, Texas. But that might not happen this year. She is struggling to fill the tank of her 2008 Ford Expedition SUV so she can get to her job at a T.J. Maxx distribution center in San Antonio, about 20 miles away.

Nieto and her co-workers trade tips on where gas is cheapest. She sometimes carpools or fills her tank only halfway, which still costs her more than $50. But she feels lucky. A handful of colleagues on her shift, which ends at 2:30 a.m., ride their bikes home in the dark.

Its been a rough road, she said. If we lived in the city it would be easier, could take the bus, but at the end of the shift at 2:30 in the morning, what bus line is available?

Jill Chapman, a senior performance consultant with Insperity, a Texas-based human resources and recruitment company, said gas prices and commute lengths are increasingly a sticking point with job candidates. Chapman said companies may want to consider temporary bonuses, incentives for public transit or gas cards to help their employees.

A business owner needs to acknowledge that there is stress associated with rising gas prices, Chapman said.

David Lewis, the CEO of Operations Inc., a Norwalk, Connecticut-based human resources consulting company, remembers handing out gas cards to his employees in 2009 when gas prices topped $4 per gallon. But this time he wont be doing that because employees have another option: working from home.

This is an unwelcome development for those companies that are trying to get people back to the office, Lewis said. It is one more reasonable reason why those employees are pushing back.

Lewis has around 100 employees in Norwalk. Before COVID, 85% of them were in the office at least two days a week. Now, maybe 25% of them are. Lewis  and many of his clients  would like to see employees in the office more but say gas prices are a huge barrier.

If you are the company that requires everyone to come in all the time, youre a pariah, he said.

Psychology professor Brian Cesario used to live within walking distance of the college where he teaches. But last year, he moved 55 miles away to Hopewell Junction, New York, so he could afford a larger home for his growing family.

Cesario taught remotely even before the pandemic and assumed he would continue doing so. But last fall, his college began requiring him to drive to campus twice a week, a commute that now costs him $240 in gas each month. Cesario said he doesnt make enough to compensate for that, so hes looking for a fully remote job outside of academia.

For those who must commute, there can be options. On Tuesday, Uber announced it was bringing back discounted shared rides in nine U.S. cities this summer, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Organizations that link carpoolers  like one run by the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments in the Detroit area  say they are seeing significantly more participants.

Some are even finding solutions in their own garage. Pame Viens and her husband  both histotechnologists who prepare tissue at medical facilities  switched vehicles because his commute is longer. Now, hes driving her 2016 Volkswagen Passat and shes driving his 2022 Dodge Ram.

Im only 51. I hit my forehead on the side mirror, she said with a laugh. But Im getting used to it.

But others say they simply have to hustle harder. Brian Scheall, an Uber driver in Tampa, Florida, pays $75 every time he fills up his Volkswagen Atlas.

You can make money but you have to work, work, work, said Scheall. He recently took a side job driving some customers from Florida to Virginia for some extra cash.

Uber says it understands drivers are feeling the pinch from high gas prices, and it added a 45-cent to 55-cent surcharge on all trips in March to help soften the blow. But both Reid and Scheall say gig companies should be doing much more.

It makes no difference at all. Its like a grain of sand, Reid said of the surcharge.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)  Democratic leaders across the nation vowed Friday to help women who travel to seek abortions and to shield patients and medical professionals from being pursued by authorities in states where the procedure becomes outlawed after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

On the West Coast, the Democratic governors of California, Washington and Oregon issued a joint multi-state commitment, saying they will work together to defend patients and care providers.

In North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper, also a Democrat, emphasized the importance of the November election in the state where the GOP controls the General Assembly but lacks veto-proof majorities to severely restrict or outlaw abortion.

Democratic governors are the last line of defense against these types of extreme bills, he said.

It was a strategy echoed by President Joe Biden, who told the nation Friday that Democratic victories at the state level in November could thwart efforts to ban abortion.

Congress must act, and with your vote, you can act, Biden said.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the West Coast plan in a video statement with Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee.

No matter who you are or where you come from, Oregon doesnt turn away anyone seeking health care, Brown said.

All three states anticipate an influx of people seeking abortions, especially as neighboring conservative states move to outlaw or greatly restrict the procedure.

The governors also pledged to protect against judicial and local law enforcement cooperation with out-of-state investigations, inquiries and arrests regarding abortions performed in their states.

Elsewhere, some companies reiterated or announced plans to help pay for employees to travel to other states to get reproductive care.

For example, Seattle-based Starbucks said it will reimburse abortion travel expenses for employees enrolled in its health care plan if a legal provider isnt available in their home state or within 100 miles of their home.

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson also said he will work to ensure his state welcomes any individual who comes here to access the fundamental right to reproductive justice, adding that he is already working to protect medical professionals who are prosecuted in other states for providing essential health care services that are legal and protected in Washington.

Ferguson says he has a team of 20 staffers working on abortion-access issues.

In Sacramento, California, Newsom warned that conservative Supreme Court justices and Republican politicians are coming after you on issues beyond the abortion decision and another ruling this week that said Americans have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defense.

Conservative leaders have telegraphed their intent to roll back laws and legal decisions on LGBTQ rights, on contraception, the environment and in other areas, Newsom said.

This is not just about women. This is not just about choice. Its not just about reproductive freedom  theyre coming after you, he said.

Newsom signed into law a bill intended to shield abortion providers and volunteers in California from legal decisions in other states that limit reproductive rights, part of a package of more than a dozen bills intended to make California a sanctuary for those seeking abortions.

He said the states budget will include $20 million over three years to help pay for women from other states to get abortions in California. The money will go to nonprofits that help women pay for expenses such as travel, lodging and child care.

Oregon has codified the right to an abortion. State law was updated in 2017 and allows for late-term abortions and requires private medical insurance and state Medicaid to cover the procedure. A $15 million fund established by state lawmakers this year covers costs for abortion providers and patients without insurance coverage or traveling from out of state.

The fund also seeks to expand abortion access in Oregons rural communities.

Washington and Oregon border Idaho, which following Fridays ruling will ban abortions except in cases of reported rape or incest, or to protect the mothers life.

Abortion has been legal in Washington state since a 1970 statewide ballot referendum. Another ballot measure approved by voters in 1991 affirmed a womans right to choose physician-performed abortion prior to fetal viability and further expanded and protected access to abortion in the state if Roe v. Wade was overturned.

In California, abortion was outlawed in 1850, except when the life of the mother was in danger. The law changed in 1967 to include abortions in the case of rape, incest or if a womans mental health were in danger.

In 1969, the California Supreme Court declared the states original abortion law to be unconstitutional but left the 1967 law in place. In 1972  one year before the Roe v. Wade decision  California voters added a right to privacy to the state constitution. Since then, the state Supreme Court has interpreted that right to privacy as a right to access abortion.

Local governments in the states said they were also ready to help protect and provide abortion access. Washington states most populous county will devote $1 million in emergency funding to help women traveling to the Seattle area seeking abortions following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Beam reported from Sacramento, California.

Rush is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

For APs full coverage of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, go to https://apnews.com/hub/abortion

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
THURSDAY, June 23, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Health authorities in Britain, who routinely test sewage samples for the virus that causes polio, declared a "national incident" after evidence of local spread was found in London sewers.

No cases have been identified yet, according to the U.K. Health Security Agency. There is little risk to the public, British health officials stressed, but those who are not fully vaccinated against poliovirus are urged to get their shots. This is especially important for young children.

"Most of the U.K. population will be protected from vaccination in childhood, but in some communities with low vaccine coverage, individuals may remain at risk," Vanessa Saliba, M.D., a consultant epidemiologist for the U.K. Health Security Agency, said in an agency statement.

A genetic analysis of the samples points to a common origin. It is likely a person who traveled to the United Kingdom around the new year, Shahin Huseynov, M.D., technical officer for the World Health Organization vaccine-preventable diseases and immunization program in Europe, told The New York Times. The most recent four samples collected could have been in young children introduced to the virus by this person or one another. It is also possible that all the samples are from a single immunocompromised person who has shed the virus for months, the agency added.

"The big issue here is whether it's been continuously circulating in the U.K. or whether it's an immunodeficient person," Walter Orenstein, M.D., associate director of the Emory Vaccine Center and a former director of the U.S. Immunization Program, told The Times. "They need to find that immunodeficient person" if that is the case, Orenstein added.

That may not be an easy job. The wastewater treatment plant from which the samples were taken covers about 4 million people, The Times said. Sample collection continues to try to identify the source. It is typical for the sewage surveillance to pick up one or two cases of polio each year. The last confirmed polio case in Britain was in 1984. The country was declared polio-free in 2003.

Wild polio now only exists in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but a "live" oral vaccine is used in some parts of the world and can briefly be shed in the feces of a person who is immunized. Health officials think that is what happened here because the virus in the samples matched a type of oral polio vaccine used to contain outbreaks, Huseynov said. That vaccine was used in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and some Middle Eastern and African countries in recent months.

Originally published on consumer.healthday.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange.
Dear Doctors: We are from Boston, and someone who lives very near here has tested positive for monkeypox. I have never heard of this disease before, but now its all over the news. What is monkeypox? How did it get here, and what are the symptoms?

Dear Reader: Monkeypox is a rare viral disease caused by the monkeypox virus. Its a member of the orthopoxvirus group of viruses and is endemic to the rainforest countries of central and west Africa.

Although monkeypox is a cousin to smallpox, it is far less severe. Symptoms of the disease include fever, chills, headache, muscle aches and exhaustion. People with monkeypox also develop swollen lymph nodes, which does not occur in smallpox. A few days after the onset of fever, a distinctive rash begins to appear on the hands, face, feet or mouth. The rash starts out as flat, red markings on the skin and gradually evolves into raised, fluid-filled lesions. Monkeypox lasts from two to four weeks.

The disease is transmitted person-to-person and through close contact. This can be via respiratory droplets or physical contact with infectious sores, body fluids or scabs. Symptoms typically begin one to two weeks after exposure to the virus. However, they can begin as soon as five days, or they may take as long as three weeks to appear. Cases are usually mild, and most people recover without specific treatment. In cases of severe disease, antivirals developed to treat smallpox may be beneficial.

The disease was first reported in laboratory monkeys in 1958, thus the name. Scientists soon learned that the virus infects other animals, including many types of rodents, pigs and anteaters. The virus can also jump from animals to humans. This is known as a zoonotic disease.

The first reports of monkeypox in humans occurred in 1970 among people living in remote locations in Africa. In 2003, the virus made its first known appearance in the United States. At that time, an outbreak in about 70 adults and children was traced to close contact with a group of prairie dogs, which had been sold as pets. Those prairie dogs became infected with the virus after exposure to infected imported rodents. That outbreak was contained with the use of the smallpox vaccine, medical care and an education campaign. No deaths occurred. Since then, several isolated cases, each travel-related, have occurred.

The current outbreak of monkeypox is affecting hundreds of people in countries including the U.S. and Canada. The source is not yet clear, but international health authorities suspect a link to a pair of large gatherings held in Europe earlier this spring.

Here in the U.S., a network of labs is gearing up to make testing for the virus available. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has also approved the use of smallpox vaccines, as well as certain antiviral treatments, to control outbreaks. Because monkeypox is closely related to smallpox, the smallpox vaccine is highly effective against the disease. Immunity conferred by the smallpox vaccine, which was routinely administered in the U.S. until 1972, persists for decades. While vaccinated individuals are believed to be protected from severe disease with monkeypox, its still important to be careful.

Eve Glazier, M.D., MBA, is an internist and associate professor of medicine at UCLA Health. Elizabeth Ko, M.D., is an internist and assistant professor of medicine at UCLA Health.

Send your questions to askthedoctors@mednet.ucla.edu, or write: Ask the Doctors, c/o UCLA Health Sciences Media Relations, 10960 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1955, Los Angeles, CA, 90024.
WASHINGTON (AP)  PHOENIX  Police fired tear gas from the windows of the Arizona Capitol building to disperse hundreds of people demonstrating outside, as lawmakers briefly huddled in a basement.

The lawmakers were working to complete their 2022 session as thousands of protesters gathered on the Capitol grounds in Phoenix on Friday night, divided into groups condemning and supporting the Supreme Courts Roe v. Wade decision.

SWAT team members with the Department of Public Safety fired tear gas from the building to disperse the protesters. KPHO-TV reported the officers opened fire when several anti-abortion protesters started banging on glass doors of the building.

It wasnt immediately known if there were injuries or arrests.

The incident sent Senate lawmakers into the basement of the building for about 20 minutes, said Democratic Sen. Martin Quezada. Stinging tear gas wafted through the Capitol afterward, forcing the Senate to move its proceedings to a hearing room instead of the Senate chamber.

Thousands of spirited demonstrators took to the streets Friday in cities nationwide to protest the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Most carried signs, chanted slogans and listened to speeches.

KEY DEVELOPMENTS:

 The U.S. Supreme Court ends nearly 50 years o f constitutional protection for abortion.

 Biden vows to fight for abortion rights, criticizes extreme court.

 Many states have already taken steps to curtail abortion.

 Fears are voiced over possible rollback of LGBTQ and other rights.

Follow APs coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on abortions: https://apnews.com/hub/abortion

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa __ A truck hit at least two protesters Friday night following an abortion rights rally in Iowa.

Lyz Lenz, a local journalist and author, told The Associated Press that she saw the driver swerve around another car and hit two women on a crosswalk in downtown Cedar Rapids around 7:15 p.m.

She said the truck drove over the foot of one of the protesters, and police took the woman to the hospital.

There was a moment where I said, I think Im going to see my friends die, said Lenz, who has written about numerous subjects including the white supremacist who drove his car into counterprotesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.

Lenz said the women struck Friday were chanting disparaging things about Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds. She said it was hard to know whether the truck driver was motivated by the chants or being blocked by protesters.

Cedar Rapids police had no immediate comment but planned to release a statement.

Thousands of spirited demonstrators took to the streets in cities nationwide to protest Fridays Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. Most carried signs, chanted slogans and listened to speeches. In Seattle, hundreds of people blocked a downtown intersection, while in Los Angeles, others briefly walked onto a freeway.

SALT LAKE CITY  Utahs abortion ban has gone into effect, triggered by the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The move came Friday evening after the Legislatures general counsel certified that the states 2020 trigger law met legal requirements.

The ban contains narrow exceptions for rape and incest if those crimes are reported to law enforcement, and for serious risk to the life or health of the mother, as well as confirmed lethal birth defects.

Legislative leaders said they had no plans to expand restrictions on abortion until they better understood the effects of Utahs law.

State Sen. Dan McKay, the Republican who sponsored the trigger law, said it would be wrong for Utah women to pursue abortions in neighboring states but he had no immediate plans to press for limits on their ability to travel there.

COLUMBUS, Ohio  A ban on most abortions at the first detectable fetal heartbeat became the law in Ohio on Friday following the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

Enforcement of Ohios 2019 heartbeat ban had been on hold for nearly three years under a federal court injunction. The state attorney general, Republican Dave Yost, asked for that to be dissolved because of the high courts ruling, and a federal judge agreed hours later.

Critics had argued that the measure essentially prohibits abortions because the first detectable fetal heartbeat can occur as early as six weeks into pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.

GENEVA  The head of the World Health Organization says hes concerned and disappointed about the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on Twitter that the ruling was both reducing womens rights and access to health care.

He said there was irrefutable evidence that restricting legal abortions can drive women and girls to unsafe and sometimes deadly procedures.

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that abortion is a fundamental right for all women that must be protected.

The French Foreign Ministry urged U.S. federal authorities to do everything possible to ensure American women can have continued access to abortion, calling it a health and survival issue for young girls and women.

PHOENIX, Ariz.  Abortion providers across Arizona halted procedures Friday as they try to determine whether a law dating to pre-statehood days means their personnel could face prison time after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

The possibility of prosecutions was just too risky, said Brittany Forteno, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Arizona.

She said the states largest abortion provider is working with its attorneys to understand Arizonas tangled web of conflicting laws.

At least two other large providers in Tucson and Phoenix followed suit.

At issue is a law that dates to at least 1901, 11 years before Arizona became a state. It subjects anyone who provides abortion care to a possible two to five years in prison. Republicans in the state Senate believe the pre-Roe law is enforceable.

MONTGOMERY, Ala.  Abortions swiftly came to a stop in Alabama as a 2019 state abortion ban took effect making it a felony to perform an abortion at any state of pregnancy, with no exceptions for rape or incest victims.

All three clinics in the state stopped providing services Friday morning after a federal judge granted the states request to lift an injunction and allow the state to enforce the ban, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

The only exception to the state's abortion ban is for the sake of the mothers health.

Gov. Kay Ivey praised the Supreme Court decision.

I could not be more proud as a governor, a Christian and a woman to see this misguided and detrimental decision overturned, Ivey said. Alabama will continue standing up for our unborn babies, our mothers and our families.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.  The Arkansas Department of Health on Friday notified the states two abortion providers that its ban on the procedure had taken effect under a law triggered by the Supreme Court ruling. The law bans abortions except to protect the life of the mother in a medical emergency.

The notices advise the facilities that performing an abortion in violation of the law is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $100,000.

Planned Parenthood said it would no longer be able to offer abortions at its Little Rock facility.

AUSTIN, Texas - Jeffrey Hons of Planned Parenthood South Texas said the groups abortion services in Texas have been paused statewide as they await guidance from their attorneys.

The announcement comes Friday, just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the right established in Roe v. Wade to terminate a pregnancy. The issue reverts to the states, many of which have taken steps to curtail or ban abortions.

A website affiliated with Planned Parenthood is advising that it is legal to travel out of state to get an abortion.

WASHINGTON - Mayor Muriel Bowser declared Friday that abortion remains legal in the nations capital despite the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

We are a pro-choice city, she said at news conference held at the local branch of Planned Parenthood. Nothing has changed in Washington, D.C.

But Bowser cautioned that the district is vulnerable because it is not a state and Congress retains oversight over it.

She pledged to continue fighting to make sure we remain a safe city for abortion care and a legal city for abortion care.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The Democratic governors of California, Washington and Oregon on Friday vowed to protect reproductive rights and help women who travel to the West Coast seeking abortions following the Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

The three states issued a joint multi-state commitment saying they will work together to defend patients and medical professionals providing reproductive health care.

They also pledged to protect against judicial and local law enforcement cooperation with out of-state investigations, inquiries, and arrests regarding abortions performed in their states.

The liberal West Coast states anticipate an influx of people seeking abortions, especially as neighboring conservative states move to outlaw or greatly restrict the procedure.

NEW YORK  Former President Donald Trump is taking credit for the Supreme Courts decision that overturned a landmark case making abortion legal throughout the United States nearly 50 years ago.

In a statement, Trump called the ruling the biggest WIN for LIFE in a generation.

He says the rulings and others were only made possible because I delivered everything as promised, including nominating and getting three highly respected and strong Constitutionalists confirmed to the United States Supreme Court. It was my great honor to do so!

Three Trump appointees voted Friday to scrap Roe v. Wade: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

WASHINGTON  President Joe Biden says people should be peaceful when protesting the Supreme Court opinion Friday that would allow states to ban abortion.

Biden says he knows many Americans are frustrated and disillusioned by the court decision. But violence is never acceptable."

Threats and intimidation are not speech. We must stand against violence in any form, regardless of your rationale, he said.

Earlier this month, after a draft of the court opinion was leaked, a man carrying a gun, a knife and zip ties was arrested near Justice Brett Kavanaughs house in Maryland after threatening to kill the justice.

WASHINGTON  President Joe Biden is warning that the Supreme Court opinion overturning access to abortion could undermine contraception and gay marriage rights.

The president objects to a concurring opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas, who explicitly called on his colleagues to put the Supreme Courts same-sex marriage, gay sex and even contraception cases on the table.

Biden says, This is an extreme and dangerous path the court is now taking us on.

Thomas was part of the majority overturning Roe v Wade.

SANTA FE, N.M.  A top public prosecutor in New Mexico, where abortion is available with little or no restriction, is urging lawmakers to approve legislation that would protect women who travel to the state for abortion procedures.

Albuquerque-based District Attorney and Democratic nominee for attorney general Raul Torrez in a statement Friday urged lawmakers to take further steps to protect women and their access to abortions and reproductive health care, including visitors from other states.

Last year, New Mexico state lawmakers repealed a dormant 1969 statute that outlawed most abortion procedures. Democrats who control the New Mexico Legislature support access to abortion, as does the states Democratic governor.

CHARLESTON, W. Va.  The only abortion clinic in West Virginia is no longer performing abortions as of Friday.

The state has a law on the books that makes providing abortions a felony carrying three to 10 years of prison time. Its unclear how the state will proceed on enforcement in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Roe has never been enough, but in states like West Virginia, it was the only thing protecting abortion access, said Katie Quinonez, executive director of Womens Health Center of West Virginia.

She says West Virginians will be forced to travel hundreds or thousands of miles away from home to access health care and that marginalized communities will be hurt the most.

WASHINGTON  U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department will work to protect and advance reproductive freedom.

Merrick said in a statement that the agency would protect providers and those seeking abortions in states where it is legal. He also said he would stand by the approved use by the Food and Drug Administration of the drug Mifepristone for medication abortions.

More than 90% of abortions take place in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy, and more than half are now done with pills, not surgery, according to data compiled by the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.

BOSTON  Republican Gov. Charlie Baker signed an executive order in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision on abortion that he said is intended to protect access to reproductive health care services in Massachusetts.

The order prohibits state agencies from assisting another states investigation into a person or business for receiving or delivering reproductive health services that are legal in Massachusetts. Friday's outcome is expected to lead to abortion bans in about half the states.

The order also protects Massachusetts providers who deliver reproductive health care services from losing their professional licenses or receiving other professional discipline based on potential out-of-state charges.

RALEIGH, N.C.  North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper is an abortion rights supporter and this years chairman of the Democratic Governors Association. He said Friday, in response to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that sharply limits abortion, that North Carolina women will still be able to obtain reproductive health care in the state.

For 50 years, women have relied on their constitutional right to make their own medical decisions, but today that right has been tragically ripped away, Cooper said in a news release.

The North Carolina legislature is controlled by Republicans, but they lack veto-proof majorities should they attempt to pass additional abortion restrictions now. Cooper put out a fundraising appeal Friday citing the decision in urging assistance to prevent the GOP from obtaining veto-proof majorities in November.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.  The state of Missouri is acting quickly to enforce a state law banning abortion in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that effectively limits abortion rights for millions of women.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt said he was acting immediately to enforce a state law banning abortion except in cases of medical emergency.

The 2019 Missouri law included a trigger provision making effective upon notification by the attorney general that the Supreme Court had overruled Roe v. Wade.

Former President Barack Obama has condemned the U.S. Supreme Court ending constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years.

Obama said on Twitter that the decision is tantamount to an attack on freedoms for millions of Americans. The decision is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
A man who police said was wearing a hospital gown when he tried to carjack an 86-year-old woman in Tulsa now faces a federal robbery complaint.

Donald Ray Shibley, 43, was named Thursday in a criminal complaint charging him in Tulsa federal court with robbery in Indian Country.

The charges come after police were called to the scene Wednesday of an attempted carjacking at a convenience store in the 5100 block of South Lewis Avenue.

Police were led to Shibley after finding at the scene a hospital gown and Hillcrest Medical Center paperwork that listed him as a patient.

The victim told police she was at a convenience stores gas pumps just before 2 a.m. Wednesday when a man wearing what appeared to be a hospital gown approached her and demanded her car keys while simultaneously hitting her in the head with something, according to an affidavit submitted in support of his arrest.

The woman responded by throwing her keys under her vehicle, prompting the man to stab the woman in the neck before fleeing.

Police searching area neighborhoods were able to find and arrest Shibley the same day.

The complaint alleges that Shibley is also the person who carjacked another person on Monday at the Riverside Park Apartments, 7772 Riverside Parkway.

A 72-year-old man told police that a man with tattoos covering his left arm first asked him for a ride to RiverSpirit Casino before asking to be let out at the nearby apartment complex.

Once at the complex, the driver said the man to whom he had just given a ride punched him several times in the face and body before leaving him outside his 2006 Jaguar and driving away.

Later the same day, police were dispatched to the 11th Street and Harvard Avenue area, where someone had driven the Jaguar into a restaurant.

Once there, police found bystanders to be holding Shibley, believed to be the driver of the stolen Jaguar. Shibley was taken to Hillcrest Medical Center, where he was admitted for treatment.

The man whose Jaguar was carjacked and later crashed identified Shibley from a photo lineup, saying Bingo, thats him, according to the criminal complaint.

The charges were filed in Tulsa federal court because Shibley is a member of the Muscogee Nation and the assaults occurred within the tribes reservation.

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OKLAHOMA CITY  The founders of Epic Charter Schools have been arrested and charged with bilking Oklahomas largest school system out of tens of millions of taxpayer dollars by enrolling ghost students, falsifying invoices and fraudulently using credit cards paid for with school funds to cover personal and out-of-state charter school expenses and even political contributions.

Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater on Thursday filed the racketeering case against David Chaney, 43, and Ben Harris, 46, after a years-long probe by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and a damning October 2020 investigative audit by the state auditor and inspector.

Charged as a co-conspirator is Josh Brock, 40, longtime former chief financial officer for both Epic, a public charter school, and Epic Youth Services LLC, the for-profit vendor company Harris and Chaney created to manage the school.

Prosecutors allege that the trio conspired to participate in a complex criminal enterprise to unlawfully enrich themselves and conceal their scheme. The charges against them cover more than $22 million in losses to taxpayers.

Chaney, Harris and Brock are facing a host of criminal charges under the states Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly referred to as RICO.

They were booked into the Oklahoma County jail Thursday and were released on $250,000 bond each that evening.

Their tactics are alleged to have included faking invoices to justify payments to EYS, relying upon public school employees to do the work their company was paid for and wielding ill-gotten funds on political lobbying and campaign financing to remove obstacles in state law or on lawyers to silence critics with lawsuits.

Law enforcement allege EYS received $14 million in fraudulent overpayments from Epics Student Learning Fund and then numerous forms of embezzlement and misappropriation occurred with those dollars meant for students.

One form of reported embezzlement occurred 52 times  adding up to $3.3 million  in separate illegal transfers between December 2014 and June 2021 from Epics student Learning Fund bank account to EYS bank account.

Brock is accused of issuing himself illegal overpayments totaling $1.1 million directly from Epics student Learning Fund bank account in reimbursements for purchases made on his personal credit card.

On a separate, non-school credit card, Chaneys personal purchases reportedly exceeded his personal payments and applied credits resulting in personal expenses illegally being paid with public funds totaling $377,835.

And another $562,969 in purchases were made on Chaneys credit card during fiscal year 2021 to benefit Epic charter school students in California but were paid for with Oklahoma tax dollars.

Federal law enforcement authorities, including auditors with the Internal Revenue Service, are still actively investigating the matter as well.

OSBI has investigated Epics student recruiting tactics on and off since 2013.

This has been a very complex and arduous investigation with many roadblocks causing delays in getting to the truth, OSBI Director Ricky Adams said in a press release. Harris, Chaney and Brock came up with a get rich quick scheme that lined their pockets with tax dollars that were to be spent for the benefit of Oklahoma students. The OSBI criminal investigation unraveled the intricate scheme layer by layer, in spite of a lack of cooperation, legal obstacles and delay tactics.

Adams expressed the OSBIs gratitude to Byrd and Prater.

An October 2020 investigative audit report by the state found tens of millions of dollars in excessive administrative spending and questionable handling by EYS of another $145 million in taxpayer funds budgeted for Epic student learning needs over a five-year period.

Byrd said that for nearly two years her office has fought to ensure that the situation was not swept under the rug, even when Harris and Chaney utilized tax dollars to silence and discredit the investigation and its findings.

Today, Harris and Chaney will no longer use our tax dollars for personal gain or to the detriment of educating students.

The newly filed criminal case takes a wider scope, examining how Epic was organized from the outset and then made more complex over the years with the establishment of shell companies  in a manner prosecutors allege was designed to be exploited.

A probable cause affidavit filed late Thursday in Oklahoma County District Court also zeroed in on numerous other instances where public dollars were reportedly misappropriated.

If convicted, the defendants face prison time and fines.

Harris and Chaney have previously denied any wrongdoing.

To date, no charges have been brought against any former Epic governing board members, who the state auditors report faulted for lax oversight.

A pyramid scheme

Back in 2013, then-Gov. Mary Fallin requested an OSBI investigation into allegations of fraud at Epic, which was then only two years old and a much smaller operation.

Questions have long centered on whether Epic, a public charter school, was boosting its enrollment  and therefore profits to Chaney and Harris  by signing up home-schooled children and private schoolers who were not actually engaged as full-time public school students.

For the first time, newly filed court records reveal those allegations were substantiated by OSBI investigators.

Private school students from St. Johns Christian Heritage Academy, St. Peter and Paul Catholic School, Bridge of Hope and Rising High Christian Academy were dual enrolled with Epic, the affidavit states.

Some parents reportedly had no idea their children in those schools were also fraudulently enrolled in Epic and a private school administrator told authorities she had an arrangement with Epic to provide her school with supplies and services in exchange for enrolling students in Epic.

A one-time Epic teacher interviewed by authorities reported being instructed by her superiors, including Harris, to conceal the fact that home-schooled students were not participating in Epic and give them credit for doing yard work, participating in extracurricular activities, or just talking with them (the teacher) on the phone.

Law enforcement agents claim a situation similar to a pyramid scheme was at the root of the criminal enterprise being alleged in Oklahoma County District Court.

Epic teachers were given pay bonuses and students received bonuses credited to their student Learning Fund account for each new student they recruited, all paid with state funds.

The more students that were recruited, the more money Chaney and Harris made, the affidavit states.

Management vendor payments in question

Charter schools are deregulated public schools designed to be operated independently, rather than by elected school boards.

Oklahoma law does not allow for-profit charter schools to operate here, so Epic was established as a nonprofit corporation called Community Strategies Inc.

But Epics founders are accused of filling out the nonprofits governing board with close, personal friends and establishing the for-profit EYS as a vendor to secure for themselves 10% of every dollar of the schools state and federal funding.

According to new court records, OSBI reviewed EYS General Fund bank records dating back to September 2013, showing EYS received more than $69.3 million in fees to manage Epic. Of that total, Harris reportedly received $24.8 million, Chaney received $23.2 million, and Brock received $7.1 million  leaving just $14.2 million for the management of Epic between 2013-2021.

Cotton and Co. LLP, a national firm OSBI contracted for forensic accounting services, reportedly called into question $13.9 million of that remainder paid out to high-risk vendors.

Those were defined as vendors that cannot be verified by open-source data, whose operations are unclear or unable to be determined, whose services are not relevant to an educational institution or whose payments appeared excessive in comparison to amounts charged by vendors providing similar services.

One of those vendors is the business of Harris wife, Elizabeth VanAcker, which EYS paid $2.3 million for managing Epics website and for software development.

The 2020 state audit found that all along while EYS was taking a 10% cut for management, Epic was limited by state law that applies to all public schools to spending no more than 5% of taxpayer dollars on administrative costs.

The two Epic schools, Epic One-on-One and Epic Blended Learning Centers, have been slapped with nearly $20 million total in financial penalties as a result.

In May 2021, Epics overhauled school board voted to divorce the two schools from management by EYS and sever all ties with Harris, Chaney, and Brock.

According to prosecutors, embezzlement occurred when the co-founders had an entire administrative staff employed at Epic Charter Schools  at public expense and using public resources  do the administrative work their private company was paid to do.

Epic board Chairman Paul Campbell said the schools new leadership team had inherited a complex web of misdirection and dishonesty.

We have suspected this day was coming for a long time and frankly expected the results, he said. Hopefully, this is a day of healing for our entire Epic family  our caregivers, our students and especially our staff.

Student Learning Funds

Also at issue is Epic Youth Services handling of the schools student Learning Fund, which totaled $145 million from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2021.

Epic had long used parental control over $800-$1,000 in student Learning Fund accounts to recruit students. The school even told parents and the public in marketing messages that those dollars were audited annually and were no different than traditional schools expenditure of taxpayer dollars on student learning needs and extracurricular activities.

The shifting of those dollars in lump-sum payments out of the school and into EYS hands and clarification that the Learning Fund had never been subject to annual school audits was first detailed in a February 2020 investigation by the Tulsa World.

Law enforcement allege Harris, Chaney and Brocks concealment of public funds in the Student Learning Fund bank account allowed 52 illegal transfers between December 2014 and June 2021 of public funds from the Student Learning Fund bank account to EYS bank account.

The schools written contract, called an operating agreement, prohibited EYS from using student Learning Funds for non-school purposes.

But investigators found 52 instances of transfers to EYS own bank accounts used similar to a line-of-credit.

These 52 transactions resulted in the embezzlement of $3,279,785, an affidavit states, noting the transfers were frequently made at times when EYS did not have sufficient operating cash to cover their private obligations.

EYS had barred the state auditor and inspectors office from reviewing Learning Fund records by claiming once they were in the company's hands, they became private.

But OSBI investigators reported EYS received as much as $14 million in fraudulent student Learning Fund overpayments, purchases made from the Student Learning Fund account were made using Epic Charter Schools tax identification number and EYS did not claim the money received from the Student Learning Fund as income on its tax returns, which is further evidence that the funds were public.

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Voting precinct boundaries and polling stations may have changed. Many Tulsa County residents might find different information on newly distributed voter registration cards  whether it be a precinct number, a polling location or a legislative district  even if they havent moved in the past decade.

To view the specific sample ballot for your election precinct, go to the OK Voter Portal at oklahoma.gov/elections/ovp.

Voters' actual ballots will differ depending on their party affiliation and where they live (which dictates which candidates will appear on the ballot).

To find your precinct and view a sample ballot, go to the OK Voter Portal at oklahoma.gov/elections/ovp.

Previews of state and local races

 Meet the three Republicans challenging Gov. Kevin Stitt in the primary race for governor: Joel Kintsel, Mark Sherwood and Moira McCabe.

 In the Democratic primary for governor, State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister (who recently swapped parties) and will challenge former state Sen. Connie Johnson.

 Tulsa attorney Gentner Drummond is making his second attempt for the office, running against Tulsa attorney John OConnor, who is seeking his first full term in the office. The winner will face a Libertarian in the general election.

 The primary races for the seat currently held by U.S. Sen. James Lankford have several candidates of both parties vying for the seat in Congress.

 Republicans John Cox, William Crozier, April Grace and Ryan Walters are on the state superintendent primary ballot, with the winner to face off with Democrat Jena Nelson.

 Republican voters in southeast Tulsas House District 79 will choose among two former local politicians and a retired engineer to challenge incumbent Democrat Melissa Provenzano.

 House District 76 incumbent Ross Ford will face off against Flippo Insurance agency partner Timothy Brooks on June 28 in the Republican race to represent parts of Broken Arrow and Tulsa.

 A former mayor, a business owner, a nurse and a former medical sales worker are competing for the House District 66 Republican nomination to represent the district in Osage County and northwestern Tulsa County.

 With Sen. Marty Quinn, R-Claremore, term-limited and now running for Congress, the race for Senate District 2 will come down to one of four Republicans from Claremore up against Democrat Jennifer A. Esau in November.

 House District 24 incumbent Logan Phillips faces Air Force veteran Chris Banning and Metropolitan Environmental Trusts Executive Director Bobby Schultz in the Republican primary to represent parts of Beggs, Bixby, Glenpool, Jenks, Liberty, Mounds, Sapulpa and Winchester.

 State Sen. John Haste, a vice president for a home furnishings company, is seeking a second term in Senate District 36. His opponent David Dambroso, 34, is a consultant, also from Broken Arrow.

Previewing down-ballot state offices

Other statewide offices besides the governor's race may be contested just as fiercely, usually with less money and more difficult explanations of what it is they do.

Besides governor, Oklahoma elects 10 statewide officials: lieutenant governor, attorney general, auditor and inspector, superintendent of public instruction, treasurer, insurance commissioner, labor commissioner, and three corporation commissioners.

Another election cycle shows 'party switching' in Oklahoma holds little sway

Every recent election cycle brings speculation that frustrated Democrats (or independents) in large numbers are migrating to the Republican Party in order to influence the GOP primary.

With every election cycle comes scant evidence that that has happened.

Far more Democrats switch to GOP than vice versa, and though it's hard to say why, "if you want a vote that matters, that's probably in the (Republican) primary," an OU political science professor says.

Featured news video: Epic Charter School co-founders face criminal charges
Three staunch conservatives will face off Tuesday in the Republican primary for the District 3 Tulsa County Commission seat.

Because no Democrat filed for the office, the winner of the primary will succeed former District 3 County Commissioner Ron Peters, who retired earlier this year. Peters former deputy, Vicki Adams, has been serving as acting commissioner since Peters retired early this year.

The district includes most of south Tulsa County, including Bixby, Glenpool, part of Jenks, and most of south and midtown Tulsa.

The candidates  Margie Alfonso, Kelly Dunkerley and Bob Jack  have each put infrastructure and public safety on the top of their priority lists. But their campaign pitches diverge from there.

Alfonso, 87, has a long history in Republican politics, going back to her work on a Reagan administration economic recovery program. As recently as 2020, she ran unsuccessfully for the state House of Representatives.

There are many reasons shes running, Alfonso said, including a call from God to serve the county.

I see there is a strong need for people with high morals to be in office, she said. And I am not saying that the people in office dont have high morals. I know that I do; and I know that there is a lot of corruption in our country, from the top to the bottom, and thats probably most of the problem.

Another problem, according to Alfonso: the 5G cell towers being installed throughout the city of Tulsa.

They shouldnt be carelessly installing these things and allowing the telecoms to sell them when they havent studied the health and safety of them like I have, she said. I will definitely protect the people of Tulsa County from the 5G towers.

Dunkerley, 56, and Jack, 73, have been known quantities in local politics for years. Dunkerley served on the Jenks City Council for four years, was mayor for two years, and was also a member of the citys Planning Commission  all volunteer positions.

Its all in keeping with the service ethos his father instilled in him from a young age, Dunkerley said.

This is the office I want to serve in because I am well prepared and know what this office takes and am well suited to this role, he said.

Jacks resume includes more than 50 years in construction management, experience he believes sets him apart from his opponents. He says that experience will be critical going forward as county commissioners work to improve the courthouse, move into a new Election Board facility, and continue distributing millions of dollars in American Rescue Plan Act funds.

It has got to do with the resume, Jack said. He (Dunkerley) does not have the resume when it comes to infrastructure. Yeah, he was mayor of Jenks for a little bit of time, but Ive got 50 years on that. Ive got 50 years in the business.

Dunkerley doesnt quite agree with Jacks assessment of the little bit of time he spent as Jenks mayor, from 2015 to 2017. It was those two years of service  in addition to his time on the Jenks City Council and Planning Commission  he would argue, that gave him the insight his opponents dont have. That insight, he believes, will serve him well as a county commissioner.

I have worked with county commissioners, and I am familiar with what they do, Dunkerley said. I worked with them; I sat down at the table with them. I asked them to do certain things for my municipality.

They have a wider view working with multiple cities.

Although county commissioners in Oklahoma have no authority over elections, Dunkerley said election integrity is an issue he will continue to remain focused on, especially as it relates to how absentee ballots are issued and administered.

We are lucky in Oklahoma that wasnt really a big part of what we experienced here (in 2020), he said, but we all see national news in the other states.

Asked whether he believes the 2020 presidential election was stolen, Dunkerley did not respond directly.

My feeling on the election is there is good reason to feel it was compromised to a higher degree than we have ever seen before, and  there is just less confidence in the outcome than there ever has been before, he said.

As for whether President Biden was duly elected, Dunkerley said everybody has to make their own decision about that.

Jack was chairman of the Tulsa County Republican Party and a member of the Tulsa County Election Board when the party put on a Stop the Steal rally at LaFortune Park soon after the 2020 presidential election.

If Jack was entertaining ideas then that the election was stolen, hes not anymore.

No, he said when asked whether the presidential election was stolen. But do I believe that there were inconsistencies and everything? Yes. Do I believe there were irregularities? Yes. And I think the facts have proven that out to be fact.

Jack said he believes Biden was duly elected and that its over; its over. Lets move on, folks.

Alfonso, meanwhile, said she believes that the election may very well have been mishandled and that she does not believe Biden was duly elected.

Absolutely not. Absolutely not, she said. I think president Trump won. That is my opinion. To think that anybody would vote for Biden, just look at what he has done.

He was in a basement the whole time, and I think Barack Obama is pulling the puppet strings of Joe Biden.

Dozens of legal challenges to the 2020 presidential results filed by former President Trump were rejected by the courts, and a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the election results failed to uncover any widespread fraud or irregularities.

Early in-person voting started Thursday at the Tulsa County Election Board, 555 N. Denver Ave., and will continue on Friday and Saturday. The Election Board will be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

If no candidate in the District 3 race receives a majority of the vote, a runoff election will be held Aug. 23.

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WASHINGTON (AP)  The House sent President Joe Biden the widest ranging gun violence bill Congress has passed in decades Friday, a measured compromise that at once illustrates progress on the long-intractable issue and the deep-seated partisan divide that persists.

The Democratic-led chamber approved the election-year legislation on a mostly party-line 234-193 vote, capping a spurt of action prompted by voters' revulsion over last months mass shootings in New York and Texas. The Senate approved the measure late Thursday by a bipartisan 65-33 margin.

The White House said Biden would sign the bill and deliver remarks on it Saturday morning.

Every House Democrat and 14 Republicans  six of whom won't be in Congress next year  voted for the measure. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., underscored its significance to her party by taking the unusual step of presiding over the vote and announcing the result from the podium, to huzzahs from rank-and-file Democrats on the chamber's floor.

Among Republicans backing the legislation was Rep. Liz Cheney of gun-friendly Wyoming, who has broken sharply with her party's leaders and is helping lead the House investigation into last year's Capitol insurrection by supporters of then-President Donald Trump. In a statement, she said that as a mother and a constitutional conservative," she believed the bill would curb violence and enhance safety, adding: Nothing in the bill restricts the rights of responsible gun owners. Period."

Impossible to ignore was the juxtaposition of the weeks gun votes with a pair of jarring Supreme Court decisions on two of the nations most incendiary culture war issues. The justices on Thursday struck down a New York law that has restricted peoples ability to carry concealed weapons, and Friday it overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating the protection for abortion that case had ensured for a half-century.

The bill, crafted by senators from both parties, would incrementally toughen requirements for young people to buy guns, deny firearms from more domestic abusers and help local authorities temporarily take weapons from people judged to be dangerous. Most of its $13 billion cost would go to bolster mental health programs and for schools, which have been targeted in Newtown, Connecticut, Parkland, Florida and many other infamous massacres.

It omits far tougher restrictions Democrats have long championed like a ban on assault-type weapons and background checks for all gun transactions, but is the most impactful firearms violence measure Congress has approved since enacting a now-expired assault weapons ban in 1993.

The legislation was a direct result of the slaying of 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, exactly one month ago, and the killing of 10 Black shoppers days earlier in Buffalo, New York. Lawmakers returned from their districts after those shootings saying constituents were demanding congressional action, a vehemence many felt could not be ignored.

This gives our community the sorely needed hope that we have been crying out for, for years and years and years, Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Ga., whose 17-year-old son was shot dead in 2012 by a man complaining his music was too loud, told supporters outside the Capitol. Understand and know that this bill does not answer all of our prayers, but this is hope.

Speaking haltingly, Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., said he was backing the bill for his father, shot to death 30 years ago to the day, the 58 people killed in a 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas and so many other Americans who are victims and survivors of gun violence."

For conservatives who dominate the House GOP, it came down to the Constitution's Second Amendment right for people to have firearms, a protection key for many voters who own guns. Today they're coming after our Second Amendment liberties, and who knows what it will be tomorrow, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the House Judiciary Committee's top Republican, said of Democrats.

Pelosi said with Thursday's gun ruling by the justices, the Trump-McConnell court is implicitly endorsing the tragedy of mass shootings and daily gun deaths plaguing our nation. That was a reference to the balance-tipping three conservative justices appointed by Trump and confirmed by a Senate that was run by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

But House Republicans used the gun debate to praise both court decisions. What a great day for the babies, and as the speaker described it, the Trump-McConnell Supreme Court, said Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis.

Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., said the firearms decision has electrified the country and left radicals seething  the Constitution means what it says.

In the Senate, every Democrat and 15 Republicans backed the compromise. Just two of those GOP senators face reelection next year.

But overall, fewer than one-third of GOP senators and just 1-in-15 House Republicans supported the measure. That means the fate of future congressional action on guns seems dubious, even as the GOP is expected to win House and possibly Senate control in the November elections.

McConnell kept careful tabs on the negotiations that produced the bill and voted for it, partly in hopes it would attract moderate suburban voters whose support the GOP will need in its November bid for Senate control. In contrast, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and other GOP leaders of the more conservative House opposed it.

The legislation was opposed by firearms groups like the National Rifle Association. But groups backing gun curbs like Brady and Everytown for Gun Safety weren't the only ones backing it. Support also came from the Fraternal Order of Police and the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

The talks that produced the bill were led by Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C.

Under the compromise, background checks for gun buyers age 18 to 20 will now include an examination of their local juvenile records. The accused shooters in Uvalde and Buffalo were both 18.

People convicted of domestic abuse who are current or former romantic partners of the victim  not simply spouses or people who lived or had children with the person they abused  will be prohibited from acquiring firearms. That closes the so-called boyfriend loophole."

There will be money to help states enforce red flag" laws that help authorities temporarily take guns from people considered threatening and for other states' violence prevention programs. More people who sell weapons would have to become federally licensed gun dealers and need to conduct background checks.

Penalties for gun trafficking are strengthened, billions of dollars are provided for behavioral health clinics and school mental health programs and there's money for school safety initiatives, though not for personnel to use a dangerous weapon."

AP reporter Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP)  A state court judge on Thursday said he was tentatively inclined to agree with the state elections office that the fifth-place finisher in a special primary for Alaskas U.S. House seat cannot replace in the upcoming special election a candidate who abruptly dropped out.

But Superior Court Judge William Morse said he will accept further pleadings before making a final decision. He planned to rule on Friday.

His comments came during a hearing on a lawsuit filed earlier in the day that argued that the Alaska Division of Elections misinterpreted state law. The lawsuit says the fifth-place finisher in the special primary, Republican Tara Sweeney, should be put on the August special election ballot in place of independent Al Gross, who withdrew his candidacy.

The case was filed on behalf of registered voters Sunny Guerin of Anchorage, Vera Lincoln of Fairbanks and Elizabeth Asisaun Toovak of Utqiagvik.

Gross was third in the June 11 special primary, behind Republicans Sarah Palin and Nick Begich and ahead of Democrat Mary Peltola. He was poised to advance to the special election as one of the top four vote-getters under a new open primary system. But late Monday, he suddenly announced plans to end his campaign.

Gail Fenumiai, the division's director, in a letter Tuesday said that because Gross withdrew less than 64 days before the election, state law did not permit the division to put the fifth-place candidate on the special election ballot in his place.

She said Gross withdrew Tuesday and his name would be removed from the special election ballot.

The lawsuit says the timeline cited by Fenumiai does not apply to special elections.

The special primary was the first election under a system approved by Alaska voters that ends party primaries and institutes ranked-choice voting in general elections. The lawsuit wrongly states that the special primary was ranked choice.

Sweeney's campaign said it would not sue over the issue. But Sweeney said she believed she should be moved into fourth place and that voters should have four candidates to choose from.

Fenumiai said the division needs a final decision by the courts by Tuesday to print ballots in time to meet deadlines and to keep the special election on schedule.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
U.S. Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma testified as part of a civil case into an alleged sexual assault at the Baptist church camp he oversaw that he believed a 13-year-old can consent to sex. The Associated Press obtained a copy of Lankfords deposition from 2010, before he'd joined Congress. A 13-year-old girl's family sued a 15-year-old boy who was alleged to have had sex with her at the camp, and also sued the camps owner and operator. Lankford isnt alleged to have had any knowledge of the assault and wasnt accused of any wrongdoing. Oklahoma's age of consent is 16. Theres no provision in state law under which a 13-year-old could consent to sex. A Lankford reelection campaign spokeswoman declined comment.
CAIRO (AP)  Qatars emir arrived in Cairo late Friday for talks with Egypt's president, his first visit to the country following years of frayed ties and a boycott of Doha by four Arab states, including Egypt.

With Qatari and Egyptian flags flowing over the tarmac, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani was greeted at the airport by President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, a courtesy only granted to leaders of heavyweight allies.

The visit comes ahead of President Joe Bidens anticipated trip to the Middle East next month. The two leaders are expected to discuss ways to further improve bilateral relations as well as common regional and international concerns, according to a statement released by the Egyptian presidents office.

The emirs visit came less than two months after his government announced that it would invest $5 billion in Egypt, another lifeline to the countrys economy which has been dealt a blow following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The announcement came during a March visit by Qatar Foreign Minister Mohammad bin Abdulrahman.

Egyptian-Qatari relations deteriorated in 2013, when Egypts military removed from power the Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, who was backed by Qatar, and cracked down on his Muslim Brotherhood.

Doha, Qatars capital, eventually became a haven for fleeing Egyptian Islamists, and the state-owed Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera Television took a decided stance against el-Sissis government.

In 2017, Egypt joined Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in a boycott of Qatar in an effort to force Doha to change its policies. With a wide-ranging trade embargo, a ban on Qatar-bound flights from their airspace and a media blitz, they called on Doha to end close relations with Turkey, Iran and Islamists across the region.

Qatar rejected the quartets demands, which included that it shutter its Al Jazeera news network, expel a small contingency of Turkish troops from its territory and cut ties with the Muslim Brotherhood. It also denied claims by the quartet that it supports extremists.

The boycott pushed the gas-rich nation in closer alliance with Turkey and Iran while Doha also continued to strengthen ties with Washington.

The rift finally ended in 2021, when Qatar signed a declaration with the four to normalize relations. Since then, ties have improved and top officials have exchanged visits.

El-Sissi also met with the emir in November, on the sidelines of the climate change summit in Glasgow, and most recently in February, when they both attended the opening of the Winter Olympics in Beijing. Photographs of the two from the events warmly shaking hands came as early signs of renewed rapport.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years. The decision by its conservative majority to overturn Roe v. Wade on Friday is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

The ruling came more than a month after the stunning leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito indicating the court was preparing to take this momentous step.

Three of the court's liberal justices wrote in a joint dissent that the decision would bring sorrow for the many millions of American women will be losing a fundamental constitutional protection.

Read the full ruling here:
Local reaction to the Supreme Courts overturning of its Roe v. Wade decision was strong on both sides of the ruling, with proponents hailing the decision and opponents vowing to continue the fight for access to the procedure.

Gov. Kevin Stitt, who has said he would sign every anti-abortion bill that crossed his desk, was understandably pleased with the Supreme Court ruling Friday.

I am very excited that the Supreme Court made this courageous decision, Stitt said in written remarks. Abortion is a states rights issue and it belongs to the people. I promised Oklahomans I would sign every pro-life bill that came across my desk and I am proud to have kept that promise, especially today as Oklahoma now has trigger laws to ban abortion in our state. I am proud to be called Americas most pro-life governor and Im looking forward to the rest of the country following Oklahomas lead to protect life.

Meanwhile, the leader of the regional chapter of Planned Parenthood said the ruling was a grim moment in American history.

Two hundred and fifty years ago, our countrys founders said, All men are created equal, said Emily Wales, president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, which includes Oklahoma. Today, the Supreme Court took the men part literally, stripping rights from every woman in America 

Even while reproductive rights were being taken away before our very eyes, many people still doubted Roe could ever fall. Today this creeping march to crush fundamental freedoms has reached its awful conclusion: Your body is not your own. Your rights are entirely dependent on where you reside.

The agency vowed to remain open while its services may be forced to change due to cruel bans on abortion care.

Oklahoma has passed a series of anti-abortion laws this year.

Experts say that while some of the details of the laws may need to be worked out in the courts, the general opinion is that performing abortions in Oklahoma is now illegal and those who do so are likely to face both criminal and civil penalties.

The New York City-based Center for Reproductive Rights, which has successfully represented entities that have challenged prior anti-abortion legislation in the state, predicted that Fridays ruling would cause chaos.

The Courts opinion delivers a wrecking ball to the constitutional right to abortion, destroying the protections of Roe v. Wade, and utterly disregarding the one in four women in America who make the decision to end a pregnancy, said Nancy Northrup, president and chief executive officer of the organization.

While public support for access to abortion is at an all-time high, the Court has hit a new low by taking away  for the first time ever  a constitutionally guaranteed personal liberty, Northrup said. Utter chaos lies ahead, as some states race to the bottom with criminal abortion bans, forcing people to travel across multiple state lines and, for those without means to travel, carry their pregnancies to term  dictating their health, lives, and futures. Todays decision will ignite a public health emergency.

State and local GOP lawmakers applauded the decision.

Retiring U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe said he was overjoyed with the ruling.

For almost 50 years, our nation has wrongly operated under the tragic belief that there is a constitutional right to end the lives of those who cannot speak for themselves, Inhofe said in a written statement. The Court has now rightfully declared that Roe was wrong from the start, and we can begin to chart a new course on the journey to protect life. During my time in Congress, I have gladly fought to give a voice to the voiceless and I will continue the fight during the remainder of my tenure in the Senate.

U.S. Rep. Kevin Hern called the courts decision correct.

Every child deserves the right to life, Hern said. Its our sacred responsibility not only to defend this right but ensure that mothers and children are provided with the resources they need.

Its been 50 years since Roe v. Wade legalized abortion, resulting in the murders of millions of children. Today, the Supreme Court correctly reversed this unconstitutional decision and returned the question to the states. I am proud to support life at every stage and applaud the Supreme Court for their thoughtful and attentive consideration of this important case in the face of unprecedented threats of violence and intimidation against the Court.

State Attorney General John OConnor said the decision has wiped one of the most horrifying opinions in American history from the books.

Roe not only took away over 60 million lives, it also barred Oklahomans and all other Americans from protecting our unborn children, OConnor wrote in a statement. We should help every woman facing a crisis pregnancy, but not at the cost of the innocent childs life.

State Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat called Friday a solemn and overwhelming joyous day.

Oklahomans overwhelmingly value life, Treat said in a prepared statement. As a state we are extremely well positioned to be able to protect life from its beginning to its natural end. We have enacted laws that anticipated this day and now Oklahoma can fully protect life.

House Speaker Charles McCall issued the following statement:

Decades of steadfast prayer and unwavering legislative efforts to protect the lives of the unborn have finally prevailed. Overturning Roe v. Wade justifies the long battle by Oklahoma House Republicans and pro-life allies nationwide to return this matter to the duly elected representatives of state legislatures to decide.

On the other end of the spectrum, House Minority Leader Emily Virgin and House Minority Caucus Chair Cyndi Munson said House Democrats will continue to stand up for the rights of Oklahoma women to make their own private and personal health care decisions.

Today, the sky is dark, Virgin and Munson said in a joint statement. There is no way to sugarcoat that women in America, especially in states like Oklahoma, have fewer rights now than they did when they woke up this morning.

We know that Oklahomas restrictive abortion laws are not popular and that most Oklahomans believe this fundamental truth: abortion is health care. Yet legislative Republicans continue to propose and pass the most restrictive abortion laws in the country, which will result in women and pregnant people dying because they cannot access the health care they need.

An organization that provides reproductive health care, including abortions, at clinics in Oklahoma City and Wichita said the ruling leaves women less free today to make decisions about their own bodies.

The organization, Trust Women, told its supporters in a press release that the ruling wouldnt deter it from its mission.

The right to choose abortions is fundamental to the full expression of personal and societal freedoms, Trust Women said in a statement. Without access to local, free and on-demand abortions we are less free than we could be. 

Now is the time to stand up for our communities and support our clinics, especially those in the deep South and Midwestern red states. The need for abortions will not disappear under any law or ruling. We have work to do, and were here for it.

The state-chapter of the ACLU condemned the ruling and warned that more laws restricting civil rights and liberties would be coming.

The Supreme Court ruling is an unprecedented attack on reproductive freedom and body autonomy, but anti-abortion politicians do not get the final say on our fundamental rights  we do, said Tamya Cox-Toure, ACLU of Oklahoma executive director.

While the ACLU will do everything in our power to block these bans in the courts, we are not stopping there. We are mobilizing people in the streets and taking this fight to the ballot box to hold our elected officials accountable. Politicians who do not believe in protecting the civil rights and liberties of their constituents have no business in governors mansions, in state attorneys generals offices, on state supreme court benches, or in state legislatures.

The path to taking back our rights is long, but the ACLU of Oklahoma will be there every step of the way until we all have the power to make the best decisions for ourselves and our families.

Others outside politics praised the ruling.

Today is a momentous day to thank God for the gift of human life and for helping us to correct the errors that were made in the Roe v. Wade decision almost 50 years ago, said the Most Rev. David A. Konderla, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma.

He called abortion an intrinsic evil, which is to say there is never a circumstance that could justify it.

Today we can celebrate that, at least at the federal level, the Supreme Court has corrected the error of the earlier decision, Konderla said in a written statement.

Other reactions

The Supreme Courts highly anticipated opinion gives Americas 50 separate and unique states and their voters the authority to determine their own policies concerning abortion, rather than unelected judges and bureaucrats, U.S. Rep. Tom Cole said in a press release. Indeed, since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, it was immediately controversial and quickly became an outdated decision due to rapid advancements in medicine and science. As a proud defender of unborn life throughout my entire career, both in Congress and in the Oklahoma State Legislature, I am pleased that voters will now have a voice on this important issue.

Today is a historic day for our nation and for life, U.S. Sen. James Lankford said in a written statement. After praying, speaking and challenging our nation for years to see the value of every child, I am overwhelmed with joy for our nation and for the lives of unborn children who will have a chance to grow up because of the Supreme Courts action and the stand of millions of Americans for life. Oklahoma is leading the way to immediately protect each child. We will continue to help support and protect mothers and children while encouraging fatherhood and family involvement for all children.

The Scales of Justice have weighed in favor of life, U.S. Rep. Markwayne Mullin said in written remarks. This is a historic day in our country. The sanctity of every life has prevailed and the unalienable rights prescribed by our forefathers have been restored. I am grateful for the system of checks and balances that allows for judicial review of prior decisions. And I am grateful as well for the affirmation of States rights, allowing states like Oklahoma to elevate life.

Banning abortion without exception is government overreach, plain and simple, said Kendra Horn, a Democrat on the general election ballot in the race to replace Inhofe. This precedent destroying decision is wrong. Women have a right to privacy. Women have a right to health care. Womens rights are not something that can just be stripped away.

This is what happens when extremists are in charge, and Oklahomas complete abortion ban at fertilization is now in effect.

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Oklahoma Republican voters looking for the right person to lead the state Labor Department need to look no further than that agencys current leader, Labor Commissioner Leslie Osborn.

Osborn is seeking reelection in Tuesdays Republican primary.

The Labor Department does not boast the high profile that many other state agencies have, but theres a good chance its work has had a direct impact on you.

The agency oversees the states workplace safety efforts and performs inspections on things such as elevators, escalators, boilers and amusement park rides. Additionally, the agency ensures that workers are paid for time spent on the job and performs safety consultations for Oklahoma employers.

Osborn and her agency have worked to keep Oklahomas on-the-job incidents down, helping the state rank well in workplace safety. The department has streamlined the states licensure system but wisely resisted calls for the elimination of licensure overall.

Effective licensure has gone a long way toward establishing high standards for Oklahomas labor force, and those standards in turn become selling points for employers looking to expand or locate in Oklahoma.

Aside from overseeing the day-to-day functions of the department, Osborn has taken the lead in advocating for developing Oklahomas workforce. These are efforts she hopes to continue into a second term.

Among her ideas is to bring back industrial arts classes to public schools. Osborn noted that in many trades, the average age of the worker is rising  as high as 58 for plumbers.

The Labor Department is touting a shop class pilot program in four schools and hopes to expand it as time goes on, giving students more career options and fresh blood to critical job sectors.

Osborns time in the Legislature gives her insight on how to work with lawmakers on workforce needs and agency priorities.

While in the Legislature, she authored legislation that reformed the states workers compensation system, driving it toward mediation rather than lawsuits. This has helped employers save money while getting medical care to injured or sickened workers in a timelier manner.

The best compliment we can give any public official seeking reelection is noting how well that candidates office has functioned. Under Osborns tenure, the Labor Department is operating smoothly, efficiently and effectively.

Osborns institutional knowledge of the Labor Department and the Legislature, when coupled with her performance as labor commissioner, make her the right choice the lead the agency. When heading to the polls on Tuesday, Oklahoma Republican voters should choose Osborn as their nominee to lead the department for another term.

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In this week's podcast, Ginnie Graham and Bob Doucette talk about upcoming state elections, including "partially closed" primaries, where Republicans can vote for Republicans, but Democrats and independent-registered voters can vote for Democrats. If these are taxpayer-funded elections, shouldn't all voters get to participate?
Vietnam has voiced its opposition to Chinas illegal military exercise in the formers Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago and demanded that Beijing not repeat similar violations in the future.

Chinas illicit military drill in the Vietnamese archipelago was a serious violation of Vietnams sovereignty over the islands, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Le Thi Thu Hang said at a regular press meeting on Thursday.

The Department for Ocean Affairs of Chinas Hainan Province announced that the drill took place in the waters within 12 nautical miles from Phu Lam (Woody) Island, belonging to Vietnams Hoang Sa archipelago, which is occupied by China, on June 19.

The action went against the spirit of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Vietnam Sea (DOC), complicated the current situation, and was not beneficial to the negotiation between China and ASEAN on the Code of Conduct (COC) in the East Vietnam Sea, as well as to the maintenance of a peaceful, stable, and cooperative environment in the maritime area, Hang stressed.

Vietnam strongly opposes the military drill and demands that China respect Vietnams sovereignty over Hoang Sa and not repeat such violations.

Regarding Japanese medias reports about Chinas intention to turn the East Vietnam Sea into internal waters, Hang reiterated that Vietnams stance was clearly stated in the diplomatic note No.22/HC-2020 dated March 30, 2020 circulated at the United Nations.

Vietnam affirms its sovereignty over the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagos in accordance with international law, as well as its sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction over the waters as stipulated by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Vietnam believes that relevant countries share the common goal of maintaining and promoting peace, stability, cooperation, and development in the East Vietnam Sea, and settling disputes based on international law and the 1982 UNCLOS.

Vietnam has always made active and responsible contributions to this process, Hang underlined.

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The Energy Observer, the worlds first hydrogen-powered and zero-emission vessel, is currently on a stopover in Ho Chi Minh City as part of its five-year global odyssey.

The ship arrived at Khanh Hoi Port in District 4 on June 18 and is expected to stay in the southern Vietnamese metropolis until June 29.

Ho Chi Minh City is the 73rd stopover of the vessels worldwide expedition and one of its last stops in Southeast Asia.

The Energy Observer docks at Khanh Hoi Port in District 4, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Minh Khoi / Tuoi Tre

During its stay, the Energy Observer crew, in collaboration with the French Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City, is set to present the ship's autonomous zero-emission system to several hundred visitors, decision-makers, and students.

The Energy Observer is the first hydrogen-powered and zero-emission vessel that is self-sufficient in energy.

Solar panels on the Energy Observer. Photo: Minh Khoi / Tuoi Tre

Setting sail from its port of registry of Saint Malo, France in 2017, the Energy Observer has already covered over 50,000 nautical miles and made 73 stopovers in 40 countries.

The ship is an ecological transformation laboratory designed to push the limits of zero-emission technologies, namely hydrogen, solar, and wind.

A crew member shows off the solar panels on the Energy Observer during its stopover in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Minh Khoi / Tuoi Tre

It measures 30 meters long and 12 meters wide and can reach a maximum velocity of 14 nautical miles per hour.

The vessel can run on hydrogen power and solar power thanks to its more than 200 solar panels.

It can also run on wind power by using its sails.

Captain Marin Jarry explains the hydrogen energy technology on the Energy Observer to visitors during the ships stay in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Minh Khoi / Tuoi Tre

Captain Marin Jarry explains the functions of the control panels of the Energy Observer. Photo: Minh Khoi / Tuoi Tre

A crew member shows off the solar panels on the Energy Observer during its stopover in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Minh Khoi / Tuoi Tre

A crew members cabin on the Energy Observer. Photo: Minh Khoi / Tuoi Tre

People visit the Energy Observer in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Minh Khoi / Tuoi Tre

People visit the Energy Observer in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Minh Khoi / Tuoi Tre

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A Vietnam appellate court has cut the prison term of former Hanoi administration chairman Nguyen Duc Chung by three years following his fulfillment of a US$1 million compensation requirement issued during his hearing last year for an offense related to the purchase of Redoxy-3C to treat polluted lakes in Hanoi.

After a three-day appellate trial, the High Peoples Court in Hanoi on Wednesday issued commutations to Chung and his two accomplices for sentences handed down by the Hanoi Peoples Court in December for abusing positions and powers while performing duties.

Accordingly, Chung received a three-year commutation after the court considered his past achievements and his fulfillment of the VND25 billion ($1.07 million) he owed in compensation for his crimes, as required by the first-instance court.

The total amount included VND10 billion ($429,700) previously paid during the first instance hearing and the remainder recently settled at the appellate trial.

Along with a prison sentence of five years which he was given in December for appropriating state secret documents, Chung is required to serve a total of ten years behind bars.

Chungs two accomplices, Nguyen Truong Giang, former director of Arktic Trading and Service Co. Ltd. (Asktic Co. Ltd.), and Vo Tien Hung, former general director of Hanoi Sewerage and Drainage Company Limited (HSDC), also received commutations for fully paying VND11.1 billion ($477,100) in compensation.

Specifically, Giang and Hung each received an 18-month reduction from their respective jail terms of 4.5 years and four years, respectively.

The court gave such commutations based on a proposal by the High Peoples Procuracy that said the three defendants had been aware of their responsibilities related to their wrongdoings in the case and had fully paid the required compensation.

According to the indictment, the Hanoi administration in 2016 directed relevant agencies to address water pollution in local rivers and lakes by searching for suitable advanced technologies.

Chung, then chairman of the Hanoi Peoples Committee, chose the water treatment technology of Germanys Watch Water GmbH and placed an order for the production of Redoxy-3C for use in treating water pollution after making a trip to Germany to visit the manufacturer.

However, he later instructed Hung to buy Redoxy-3C through Asktic Co. Ltd., where Giang acted as the director, instead of purchasing the agent directly from the German manufacturer, with the intention of gaining personal profit.

Arktic is wholly owned by Chungs wife, Nguyen Thi Truc Chi Hoa, and the company is in the name of their son, Nguyen Duc Hanh, according to its business registration certificate.

With the green light from Chung, Arktic bought Redoxy-3C from Watch Water GmbH for around VND115 billion ($4.94 million) and resold it to HSDC for some VND151 billion ($6.49 million) to earn a difference of VND36.1 billion ($1.55 million), the indictment said.

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Vietnamese influential climate activist Nguy Thi Khanh was jailed for tax evasion, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed on Thursday, refuting the rumor that she was criminally charged for her climate-related activities.

Khanh was sentenced to 24 months in prison for tax evasion during her trial at the Hanoi Peoples Court on June 17.

The investigation and hearing were carried out in line with the law, and the trial was held publicly, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Le Thi Thu Hang answered the questions from foreign media during a regular press meeting on Thursday.

The defendant had all her rights guaranteed in accordance with the law, Hang added.

Vietnam is determined to fight and strictly deal with violations of the law in accordance with regulations, the diplomat stressed, adding that all citizens are equal before the law.

Khanh was investigated and indicted for her economic offense, particularly breaking the rules on tax management, and she pleaded guilty.

Rumors that Khanh faced a criminal charge due to her activities and opinions related to climate change are groundless and not appropriate to the nature of this case, Hang underlined.

Vietnam is seriously committed to environmental protection, climate change response, and green and sustainable development, the spokesperson continued.

This has been clearly reflected in many legal documents and policies, including the countrys commitment to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) and participation in the Global Coal to Clean Power Transition Statement and the Leaders Declaration on Forests and Land Use.

The Vietnamese government has been conducting frequent and widespread consultation to collect opinions from scientists, non-governmental organizations, and international partners about policies and laws on environmental and climate change issues.

Khanh, 46, was the founder and executive director of the Green Innovation Development Center (GreenID), prior to her arrest.

In 2018, she became the first Vietnamese woman to receive the Goldman Environmental Prize, an annual award for grassroots environmental activists.

GreenID is a not-for-profit science and technology organization aimed at contributing to sustainable development in Vietnam, according to its website.

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Apple TV+ has released a teaser for Hurricane Katrina limited series Five Days at Memorial is coming in August.

Based on actual events and adapted from the book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Sheri Fink, the 8 part series chronicles the impact of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath on a local hospital. When the floodwaters rose, power failed, and heat soared, exhausted caregivers at a New Orleans hospital were forced to make decisions that would follow them for years to come.

Produced and created by John Ridley & Carlton Cuse it stars Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air, The Conjuring), Robert Pine (CHiPs), Cherry Jones (Transparent, Succession), Julie Ann Emery (Better Call Saul, Preacher), Cornelius Smith Jr. (Scandal, Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker), Adepero Oduye (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Pariah), Molly Hager (Happyish, Its Kind of a Funny Story), Michael Gaston (Blindspot, The Leftovers) and W. Earl Brown (Deadwood, Preacher.)

Five Days at Memorial is executive produced and written by Carlton Cuse (Jack Ryan, Lost) and John Ridley (The Other History of the DC Universe, Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992), the series is directed by Cuse, Ridley and Wendey Stanzler (Clarice, Rebel).

Days at Memorial hails from ABC Signature, a part of Disney Television Studios.

First three episodes Friday, 12 August and continues weekly on Apple TV+.
Earlier this week a very frank Scott Cam hit out at former contestants on The Block who had quit the show on Day 2 of filming, describing their actions as unAustralian and piss poor.

Yesterday at a Block media event at the new Gisborne site, Cam addressed the elephant in the room.

I want to say that thats just me being me, he said of his outburst.

Obviously, I wish Joel and Elle success in the future. Its just that they created a fair bit of chaos for us here in the first 48 hours of our show. We put a lot of time and money into the start of our show and then we had to rejig the whole thing. The whole promo had to be reshot. It just was a lot of angst on our part, when they just parted the way they did. The great news is when they left, we got another couple to come and theyre terrific.

Theyre a great young couple with young kids. So thats what The Blocks about. Someone leaves, someone comes. But of course, Joel & Elle, I hope they go well and have great success in the future. Its just sometimes The Blocks not for everybody. And when I say those words, thats just Scott Cam speaking.

The Gisborne site is enormous with homes just two weeks from completion. Each home is also on its own massive parcel of land, making these unlike any previous season.

The series is expected in August.
EU leaders holding a summit Thursday started discussing, with a mix of interest and scepticism, the idea of a European Political Community put forward by French President Emmanuel Macron.

What is the idea?

Macron suggested the European Political Community proposal to the European Parliament on May 9, as the chamber debated Ukraines ambition to become a candidate to one day join the EU.

He mooted it as a broad but lean decision-making structure for political dialogue and cooperation on matters of common interest for European nationsboth ones in the EU and outside it.

It was not to replace EU policies and instruments, he said. Rather it would establish regular meetings on key topics to stabilise the European continent, Macron said on a recent Moldova trip.

What countries could participate?

It would include countries wanting to join the EU, such as Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and Western Balkans states. But also those happy to be outside it, such as Switzerland and Norway, and perhaps even former member Britain.

There is a question mark over Turkey, a longtime EU aspirant that sits alongside many European countries in NATO, which has expressed interest in the idea. But Macron has insisted the forum would only be for countries that share the EUs democratic values.

How has it been received?

Reactions to the proposal range from interest to wariness, some tinged with scepticism. But the general response has been wanting to hear more before judgement is passed.

North Macedonias Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski, in Brussels Thursday for an earlier EU-Western Balkans summit, hailed the initiative but said it should not and must not be a substitute for full European Union membership.

Ukraine was among the more reserved, fearing that it could be a gambit to keep its EU candidacy bid in limbo indefinitely, before being reassured by the 27 European Union countries that that was not the case.

Britain, which six years ago turned its relations with the EU on their head with its Brexit referendum, was unsurprisingly cool on the idea.

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UK Foreign Minister Liz Truss has parked her preferences on other forums, such as the G7 and NATO, where she feels her country has a stronger role.

French officials, however, say they still hold out hope that Britain might see the value of being part of a European Political Community.

And EU members?

Some EU countries are reflexively cautious about ideas bandied about by France, the blocs heavyweight power alongside Germany. Others believe the initiative ill-defined, or wonder how disparate countries can get together in this format.

But many acknowledge that some sort of forum where European nations can get together to discuss issues confronting all of them could be worthwhile.

Germany and others stress it should not overlap the work of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, currently sidelined because of Russias war in Ukraine, and the pan-continental Council of Europe, the human rights body that sits in Strasbourg.

Macrons Elysee Palace was upbeat, with one official saying that the idea was being welcomed more and more positively.

When might it happen?

Thursdays summit discussion on the idea is described as a brainstorming session that would kick off debate stretching into the European summer.

It will be looked at step by step, the French presidency said, with the aim of an inaugural meeting happening sometime in the latter half of this year.

(AFP)
Prince Charles (AFP via Getty Images)

Prince Charles is set to give his blessing to Commonwealth countries that want to sever ties with the Royal family, according to reports.

The Prince of Wales, 73, has travelled to Rwanda to speak at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting on Friday.

In a speech at the Chogm opening ceremony, his first as the Commonwealths future leader, he will say that each members constitutional arrangement is purely a matter for each member country to decide.

In 2021 Barbados became the latest Commonwealth nation to break away from the monarchy and become a republic.

It followed other Caribbean nations which have dispensed with the Queen as their head of state and turned to a homegrown representative, with Guyana becoming a republic in 1970, Trinidad and Tobago in 1976, and Dominica two years later.

In recent years Jamaica has also signalled it wants an elected head of state, with Prime Minister Andrew Holness saying it is a priority for his government.

In a speech at the opening ceremony on Friday morning, the Prince of Wales will say: Our Commonwealth family is  and will always remain  a free association of independent self-governing nations.

We meet and talk as equals, sharing our knowledge and experience for the betterment of all citizens of the Commonwealth and, indeed, the wider world.

According to the Telegraph, he will add: The Commonwealth contains within it countries that have had constitutional relationships with my family, some that continue to do so, and increasingly those that have had none.

I want to say clearly, as I have said before, that each members constitutional arrangement, as republic or monarchy, is purely a matter for each member country to decide.

The benefit of long life brings me the experience that arrangements such as these can change, calmly and without rancour.

But as I said in Barbados last November, we should never forget the things which do not change: the close and trusted partnership between Commonwealth members; our common values and shared goals; and, perhaps most importantly, the strong and enduring connections between the peoples of the Commonwealth which strengthen us all.

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It comes after Boris Johnson urged Prince Charles to keep an open mind about the Rwanda asylum plan ahead of their meeting on Friday.

The Prime Minister said he was ready to defend his policy after Charles was reported to have privately criticised it as appalling.

The Prime Ministers official spokesman initially said the pair would have a bilateral discussion but subsequently clarified that it will be informal.

Asked on Thursday if he will defend the deportation strategy during the meeting, Mr Johnson said: People need to keep an open mind about the policy, the critics need to keep an open mind about the policy. A lot of people can see its obvious merits. So yeah, of course, if I am seeing the Prince tomorrow, I am going to be making that point.
Denys Karlovsky  Thursday, 23 June 2022, 20:38

Yury Shvytkin, Russian State Duma deputy and Deputy Chairman of the Committee on National Defence, has said that Russia should launch a missile strike on the US embassy building in Kyiv in response to the supply of HIMARS launchers to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Source: Shvytkin in a comment to the Russian media outlet "Lenta.ru"

Quote from Shvytkin: "This (supply of HIMARS  UP) once again highlights the step-by-step movement towards World War III by the United States. It should be understood that we must react harshly. In my opinion, the reaction today should also apply to those countries that supply weapons (to Ukraine  UP).

And this isnt just about destroying infrastructure or anything, but I think the main decision-making centre is the US embassy. I think that sooner or later it will become a target for the Russian Armed Forces, the national police of the "DPR" and "LPR".

My position is that the government quarter in Kyiv should be destroyed, the relevant locations should be destroyed. Yes, this work is being done by the Ministry of Defence (of Russia  UP) but it is necessary to launch more massive strikes.

We will not simply look at this outrage. When they hit one cheek, we won't turn the other."

Details: Shvytkin is most concerned that when using the HIMARS installation as an operational-tactical missile system, its range will be more than 195 kilometres. In his opinion, the Ukrainian military-political leadership will use these systems to strike the territory of the Russian Federation.

According to American journalists, the US government has decided to provide only the type of ammunition which allows the use of HIMARS as multiple rocket launchers with a range of about 80 km.

At the same time, the Russian deputy boasted that the Russian army allegedly has plenty of air defence resources and electronic warfare equipment that can interfere with American launchers.

Story continues

Note: Himars (High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System) is a modern, multifunctional complex on a wheeled chassis. The U.S. Army used them during the 2003 Iraq military campaign and the Gulf War.

Background:
Mattsson Wins Second Super MILLION$ Title; Denies Martirosian a Sixth

June 24 2022 Matthew Pitt Editor

Simon Mattsson's decision to stay at home and grind high-stakes online poker tournaments instead of heading out to Las Vegas for the 2022 World Series of Poker seems to have been vindicated by him taking down the latest installment of the GGPoker Super MILLON$.

Mattsson claimed his first Super MILLION$ title in March 2022, topping a 163-strong field and banking $331,315. He bested 112 opponents this time around and turned his $10,300 investment into $245,554.

Season 2 Episode 46 Super MILLIONS Final Table Results

Place Player Country Prize 1 Simon Mattsson Norway $245,554 2 Artur Martirosian Russia $191,767 3 Issac Haxton Canada $149,762 4 Mark Radoja Mexico $116,958 5 Marco Streda Liechtenstein $91,339 6 Chunlei Zhou Hong Kong $71,332 7 Bruno Volkmann Brazil $55,707 8 Wiktor Malinowski Macau $43,505 9 Niklas Astedt Norway $33,975

Death By Quads!

Five-time Super MILLIONS champion Niklas Astedt sat down at the staked final table fifth in chips yet he was the first player out of the door. Artur Martirosian, another player who has won this tournament five times, min-raised under the gun to 70,000 with pocket eights, and the action folded to Astedt in the cutoff and he three-bet all-in for 472,489 with ace-king of diamond. Martirosian called and flopped quad eights to send a disappointed Astedt out in ninth.

Wiktor Malinowski bowed out in eighth at the hands of Mark Radoja. A few hands earlier, Malinowski got tricky with pocket kings against Martirosian, who held ace-six, and lost all but four big blinds when that ace-six became trip aces. Malinowski doubled through Bruno Volkmann but his stack dwindled once more. Malinowski busted when he opened to 180,000 at the 20,000/40,000/5,000a level with jack-ten before calling off the 19,632 he had behind when Radoja shoved on the button. Radoja showed ace-jack.

ClubGG Offers Bubble Protection For Eight 2022 WSOP Events

Volkmann Goes From Hero To Zero

Start of the day chip leader Volkmann was the next player to head for the showers. Mattsson min-raised with ace-jack to 80,000 in middle position, Volkmann jammed for 464,854 with ace-king on the button, only for Martirosian to wake up with pocket kings in the small blind; Martirosian mae it 880,000 to go. Mattsson ducked out, and Martirosian pulled in the pot courtesy of a nine-high board.

The final six became five when Hong Kong's Chunlei Zhou fell by the wayside after a battle of the blinds against Mattsson. From the small blind, Mattsson moved all-in with king-four, and Zhou called off a shade over 12 big blinds with queen-jack. A four on the flop proved more than enough to end Zhou's participation.

Liechtenstein's Marco Streda crashed out in fifth and won the tournament's last five-figure prize. Isaac Haxton min-raised to 100,000 under the gun with ace-four of hearts, Mattsson three-bet to 278,000 with king-nine suited from the next seat along, and Streda four-bet to 485,000 with ace-king suited, leaving less than a small blind behind. Haxton had seen enough and he got out of the way. Mattsson set Streda all-in, and was called. Mattsson flopped a nine then backed into a spade flush, sending Streda to the rail.

At Least $5M Will be Won in the GGPoker microMILLION$

Radoja's Super MILLION$ Wait Continues

Fourth place went to Radoja, who open-shoved for 991,844 from the button during the 25,000/50,000/6,000a level, doing so with pocket sixed. Haxton called in the small blind with ace-jack, and it was off to the races. Haxton flopped a jack but Radoja could spike a six or a heart to double. Neither appeared and Radoja's wait for a Super MILLION$ continues.

The penultimate elimination was that of Haxton. The blinds increased to 30,000/60,000/7,500a, and Haxton made it 150,000 to go from the button with suited queen-jack. Mattsson three-bet to 558,000 in the small blind with suited ace-queen and called when Haxton decided to rip it in for 2,986,502. An ace on the turn won the hand for Mattsson.

Mattsson went into heads-up with a 7,758,532 to 3,541,468 chip lead over Martirosian and he never relinquished that lead. The final hand occurred during the 35,000/70,000/8,500a level. Martirosian made it 154,000 to go with ace-seven, and Mattsson raised to 558,000 with ace-eight, and Martirosian called. The eight-six-nine flop gave Mattsson a pair and Martirosian an open-ended straight draw. Mattsson checked, Martirosian fired a 560,000 bet, and Mattsson called. A four landed on the turn, and Mattsson checked again. Martirosian moved all-in for 1,682,666, and Mattsson called. A brick on the river sent Martirosian home one place shy of a record sixth Super MILLION$ title, and Mattsson captured his second such victory.
Welcome to the final day of Event #46: 5,000 6-Handed No Limit Holdem. The final five players will arrive shortly to Ballys and Paris Las Vegas where they will battle it out at 2:00 p.m. for the grand prize of $771,765 and to be crowned the latest WSOP gold bracelet winner.

Leading the way in chips is American, Stephen Song. Song has one WSOP bracelet from the 2019 WSOP in the $1,000 No-Limit Holdem event and will be looking to add another one to his collection. With over half of the chips in play, he has a good shot to take the title.

After a long three day grind, his opponents will definitely not make it easy on him as they face off today and try to take the chip lead from Song to pave their own way to victory. The remaining four players at the final table, Tamer Alkamli (8,710,000), Jonathan Pastore (5,959,000), Elio Fox (5,635,000) and Paraskevas Tsokaridis (2,590,000) are very much still in it and a few double ups could have anyone of them taking down the title.

Play will resume in Level 30, with 25 minutes left on the clock and blinds at 100,000/200,000, from the main stage in Ballys Convention Center. The stream will be available for viewing through YouTube live stream on the PokerGO channel, on a one-hour delay.

Stay tuned in to PokerNews for all the live updates on what will be an exciting finish to this event.
Phil Shiner (John Stillwell/PA) (PA Archive)

Former human rights lawyer Phil Shiner is facing fraud charges linked to claims made against Iraq War veterans.

The 65-year-old boss of now-defunct Public Interest Lawyers (PIL) was struck off by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) in 2017 for pursuing false torture and murder allegations against British troops.

Shiner, from Birmingham, is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on Monday to face three counts of fraud following a five-year National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation.

An NCA spokesman said: Following an NCA investigation and CPS authorisation, Philip Shiner, 65 from Birmingham, will appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on Monday to answer charges in respect of fraud offences relating to legal aid claims made in 2007 and information provided to the Solicitors Regulation Authority in 2015.

Phil Shiner represented Iraqis in legal claims that British troops abused and unlawfully killed civilians (Yui Mok/PA) (PA Archive)

Shiner is alleged to have committed fraud by false representation in April 2015 in response to a question from the SRA, which he knew was untrue and misleading, so he could continue to practise as a solicitor, according to court papers.

He is said to have been engaged in the cold calling of clients in Iraq in relation to alleged killings of Iraqi civilians by British Army personnel at the battle of Danny Boy.

The 2004 battle gave rise to claims against British soldiers after an order to remove the bodies of the Iraqi dead from the battlefield and take them back to a nearby camp along with nine prisoners of war.

The detainees, who were insurgents with the Shia militia Mahdi Army, would go on to claim they had been mistreated and heard the torture and murder of their compatriots.

Among the dead was 19-year-old Hamid Al-Sweady, who gave his name to a public inquiry after his uncle Khuder Al-Sweady claimed he had been murdered at the British camp.

Shiner is facing two charges of dishonestly failing to disclose information relating to Khuder Al-Sweadys legal aid claim over an application for a judicial review of the Ministry of Defence decision not to hold an independent inquiry into his nephews death.

Between September 18 and 20, 2007, Shiner is alleged to have failed to disclose that he had been engaging in cold calling and the payment of referral fees.

And in a letter challenging the decision to refuse funding of the legal aid application, between October 11 and 13 2007, he is said to have enclosed a statement that had been obtained through cold calling.
(Bloomberg) -- Germanys economy minister said he cant be sure that Russia will resume shipments through a key gas pipeline following planned maintenance next month, raising the prospect of a fresh surge in prices and rationing this winter.

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I would have to lie if I said I didnt fear that, Economy Minister Robert Habeck said late Thursday in an interview with public broadcaster ZDF. His concerns were echoed Friday by Klaus Mueller, the head of the federal network agency, who said that flows through the Nord Stream 1 link might not restart even after the end of the 10-day maintenance period beginning on July 11.

Mueller also warned that prices for consumers could triple, and urged households and businesses to put money aside and save energy wherever possible.

If we have a very, very cold winter, if were careless and far too generous with gas then it wont be pretty, Mueller said in an interview with public broadcaster ARD.

Germany on Thursday raised the countrys gas risk level to the second-highest alarm phase, one step below the third and final emergency stage which would involve state control over distribution.

Habeck warned of a potential collapse in energy markets, and made a comparison to the role of US bank Lehman Brothers in triggering the financial crisis.

Nord Stream is the main pipeline bringing gas from Russia to Europes largest economy, which still depends on the country for more than a third of its supplies. An alternative route is subject to Russian sanctions so isnt being used, and Moscow is also squeezing flows to Europe via Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has reduced flows to Europe in apparent retaliation over sanctions imposed following his invasion of Ukraine. The standoff escalated last week after Gazprom PJSC slashed shipments through Nord Stream, leaving it at only 40% capacity and putting Germanys reserves for the winter at risk.

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The signal from yesterday with the alarm level is not that were now watching on powerlessly and staring at the snake like the famous rabbit, Mueller said.

Its now up to us, he added. That means industry with all its options for substitution and saving. That means private households, who at last seem now to have woken up.

Habeck is also trying to set an example. He told Der Spiegel magazine in an interview published Friday that he has significantly shortened his showering time.

In the summer I really dont like being in air-conditioned rooms, and in the winter I use the heating sparingly, Habeck said. Also, I come home late, get up at six and leave by seven. So you dont have to heat at all in winter.

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California's governor condemned as "reckless" Thursday's Supreme Court ruling that could have a dramatic impact on half a dozen US states with strict gun carry laws.

Gavin Newsom, who oversees the most populous state in the union, and one with some of the most restrictive rules on firearms, said the 6-3 decision by the right-leaning court "erases a commonsense gun safety law."

But he vowed the progressive state would push on with making new gun laws.

"Our state is ready with a bill that will be heard next week to update and strengthen our public-carry law and make it consistent with the Supreme Court ruling," he said.

"Next week, I will have 16 new gun safety bills on my desk, including a bill that will allow individuals to sue gun makers and distributors for violating certain gun laws. I look forward to signing all of those bills."

Thursday's ruling strikes down a century-old New York law that required a person to prove they had a legitimate self-defense need, or "proper cause," in order to receive a gun permit.

Dozens of states already allow the almost unfettered carrying of weapons in public, but six Democratic-run states retain a high degree of control over who gets a permit. The court's ruling will curb their ability to restrict people from carrying guns in public.

Alongside New York and California, the states of Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New Jersey all require "proper cause" permits, as does the District of Columbia.

The exact rules and how they are enforced vary by county in California because permits are issued by the local sheriff or police department, who have latitude to interpret "proper cause."

In Republican-run counties in rural parts of the state, there may be a presumption towards issuing a permit, provided the applicant takes a gun safety class and does not have a criminal record.

'Mitigate the damage'

But in liberal-run cities like San Francisco guidelines show the sheriff will only issue a permit to someone at specific and "significant risk of danger to life" that cannot be mitigated by law enforcement officers.

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Applicants must also prove they are of "good moral character," with no history of arrest or "moral turpitude."

The Supreme Court ruling does not immediately remove policies like this, but it opens the door to legal challenges that could reverse them.

New York City's police commissioner, Keechant Sewell, said the ruling did not change the facts on the ground, for now at least.

"If you carry a gun illegally in New York City, you will be arrested," she said.

Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg said he had been readying for this decision.

"At this very moment, my office is analyzing this ruling and crafting gun safety legislation that will take the strongest steps possible to mitigate the damage done today," he said.

Maryland's attorney general, Brian Frosh, said his state's more restrictive gun laws "have been proven to reduce gun violence."

"We will examine today's ruling to determine its impact in our state, and we will continue to fight to protect the safety of Marylanders."

His opposite number in Massachusetts, Maura Healey said she stood by "our common sense gun laws, and will continue to vigorously defend and enforce them."

Healey was one of 20 attorneys general who last year enjoined the Supreme Court to confirm that the Second Amendment does not prevent local jurisdictions from making their own rules.

"A one-size-fits-all approach to regulating public carry would take away the ability of state and local officials to address the particular public safety needs of their residents," a statement said at the time.

New Jersey's acting attorney general, Matthew Platkin, took up that theme on Thursday, saying the court's decision "disregards centuries of practice."

"Although the majority's ruling impacts our century-old justifiable need requirement for carrying firearms, it does not change any other aspect of New Jersey's public carry law, " he said in a statement.

"To be clear: Carrying a handgun without a permit is still illegal in this state.

"We will continue to enforce our strict, common sense gun laws that have become a model for states seeking to address the epidemic of gun violence."

(AFP)
(Simon Calder)

Summer travel disruption, flight cancellations and strikes were at the forefront of questions asked by readers during travel correspondent Simon Calders weekly Ask Me Anything on Friday.

The message of the day? Stay positive. Simon urged readers to be optimistic when booking and reminded them of their rights should their flights be cancelled.

Lets dig in.

It seems easyJet are now cancelling some flights 20 days in advance. Do you have any insight into how end of August is looking ?

Several million people booked on easyJet over the summer will be wishing, as I am, that the airline could finalise all its cancellations as soon as possible. As you know, the carrier promised more flights than it has the resources to deliver, especially to and from London Gatwick, and is now trimming the schedule by about 10 per cent. That means a significant number of people booked on July and August flights have been told, or will shortly learn, that their original flight is cancelled. But even if it is, those fabulous European air passengers rights rules will stand you in good stead by requiring the cancelling airline to provide an alternative flight on the same day.

I am flying to Malaga by easyJet on 2 July. How likely is it that my flight will be cancelled if the Spanish strike goes ahead?

The flight is very likely to go ahead despite strike involving some easyJet staff in Spain. If it doesnt there will be multiple other options to get you to Malaga.

Why is easyJet not clearer on offering alternative flights/transport to their destination in event of cancellation? Are customers actually getting through to customer services an now getting alternative flights?

I dont believe any airline is doing what it is supposed to do under the air passenger rights rules in terms of rebooking people on the obvious alternative flights. I hope I am wrong about that. I am, of course, keeping records of when carriers have flatly refused to give passengers the alternative flights that are most appropriate.

Story continues

I am due to finally fly to San Diego on 16 August from Manchester via Heathrow on BA. How pessimistic should my hopes be?

Be more optimistic, people! Despite ground staff at BAs Heathrow hub overwhelmingly backing a walkout in their fight to reverse pay cuts and the prediction from their trade union that holidaymakers face massive disruption, as someone holding four British Airways flights to and from Heathrow in July and August I am fairly confident they will take off more or less as normal. But if I am wrong, then European air passengers rights rules offer solid consumer protection  in the form of a requirement for the cancelling airline to provide flights on the same day, even if it means buying a ticket on another carrier.

I am intrigued, though, that you are flying from Manchester to Heathrow first to reach San Diego rather than connecting somewhere in North America  such as New York, Atlanta or Toronto  which doesnt involve any doubling back.

If a flight is cancelled more than 14 days before the scheduled departure date, is the airline still obliged to find passengers an alternative flight on the scheduled day, or just provide a refund?

Yes, the only difference 14 days makes is to avoid having to pay compensation. Duty to find an alternative flight remains.

Any updates on the Ryanair strike across a number of European countries this weekend and the likely impact on flights outside of these countries eg daughter flying back to Stansted tomorrow from Agadir?

By carefully reading the release that Ryanair has put out about its operations today (Friday 24 June), it is possible to identify exactly where the problems are: Brussels (both the main airport and Charleroi, known as Brussels South).

Fewer than 150 flights have been cancelled all told.

Three out of five of Ryanairs scheduled flights to/from Brussels are operating normally.

There were no flight disruptions in Italy, Spain, Portugal, UK, France or Ireland as the vast majority of Ryanair crews are working normally, an airline spokesperson said.

The carrier believes that a two-day strike at a French Air Traffic Control centre in Marseille will have more impact.

There are some great deals for travel with Inghams and TUI to the Alps in early July. Although very tempted, I experienced the carnage of Manchester airport in mid-May and a two day delay for TUI to get us home from Kefalonia at the end. It hasnt encouraged me to head abroad in the near future! But do you sense that Manchester/Birmingham are getting on top of things? Am I being too pessimistic?

Yes, I think you could be more optimistic. At times in May, Manchester airport was horrible in terms of long delays and overstretched ground staff leading to some very short notice cancellations of flights and entire holidays. Birmingham airport had its moments too, but I believe they are now on a sound footing and I would book with confidence.

I watched the recording of the Select Committee you attended and couldnt believe how the easyJet and BA reps got away with their less-than-truthful summaries of the refund experience over the past few months. With a minister denying facts on loss of EU workforce and committee membership who seem to lack basic understanding of current issues, God help us all. Anyway, do you think the airlines will build up their schedules for July and August or is what we have now, the best we can expect?

As you mention I was warm-up act for the Business Select Committee on 14 June, when representatives of easyJet and British Airways had plenty to say. The BA witness said: For a refund of your flight, that should be done within seven days. We aim to do the EU261 compensation [for delayed or cancelled flights] within 14 days. The easyJet witness said: The customers receive the email, which ... says, You are entitled to rebook your flight. Here is a link to do that. You are entitled to a refund. Here are the three clicks it takes to get your refund. You are entitled to a voucher if you prefer. Here are your rights for additional compensation.

I am investigating that last line and seeking clarification on where exactly, on the cancellation email, it says: Here are your rights for additional compensation. Do let me know if you have ever seen an easyJet email saying that.

Anyway, this week ended with another slew of easyJet last-minute cancellations on Friday evening, most of them from Gatwick and mainly attributed to air-traffic control problems. Resilience still looks a huge problem. If anything the schedules will shrink still further to try to avoid short-notice groundings  and to ensure the vast majority of travellers get where they need to be.

Simon Calder holds a weekly Ask Me Anything to answer your burning questions. Make sure youre signed up to his travel newsletter to stay across the latest updates. To receive it, put your email in the box at the top of this article or register via our newsletters page.
Chongqing-Europe train is a milestone Updated: 2022-06-24 chinadaily.com.cn

A freight train loaded with 100 extra-large containers of electronic products, auto parts and general merchandise, departed from Chongqing International Logistics Hub Park on Thursday morning for Duisburg, Germany. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

A freight train loaded with 100 extra-large containers of electronic products, auto parts and general merchandise, departed from Chongqing International Logistics Hub Park on Thursday morning for Duisburg, Germany. It is the 10,000th freight train from Chongqing to carry goods on the Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe International Railway.

"I am proud to witness and carry out the mission. The China-Europe freight trains have given us a global reputation," said the train's engineer, Wei Xingfeng, who has worked the line for four years.

In March 2011, the first freight train loaded with electronics made in Chongqing marked the official opening of the Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe express line.

The more than 11,000-kilometer link begins in Chongqing, crosses the border at Alashankou, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. It then passes through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Poland before reaching Duisburg.

Chongqing authorities say the railway puts the city on the map as an international logistics hub by connecting the Yangtze River Delta economic belt to Europe.

The journey takes an average of 16 days, less than half the time of the maritime route, and is changing Chongqing's role from an inland city to a gateway city for a Chinese connection to the West.

"The Yuxinou International Railway has become a significant carrier and a brand for Chongqing to integrate into the Belt and Road Initiative  to build an inland international logistics hub and an open inland city in western China," said Ba Chuanjiang, director of the Chongqing Port and Logistics Office.
News

Gartner Predicts Big Zero Trust Uptake, but Most Won't Benefit

Research firm Gartner Inc. this week published eight cybersecurity predictions for the next few years, with Zero Trust figuring prominently.

The company predicted it will be widely embraced in the next few years, but most organizations won't realize full benefits because the approach requires a cultural shift in thinking and communication. Gartner said adopting organizations should "communicate business relevance of ZT by aligning resilience and agility."

Zero Trust eschews the standard security approach of walling off IT systems behind a secure network perimeter. It has grown in popularity with the advent of hybrid work models, the proliferation of endpoints and bring-your-own devices, disparate and interconnected systems spanning clouds and enterprise datacenters, and just general complexity all around. Instead of trying to secure perimeters, Zero Trust assumes that such fortress security approaches will fail or have already been penetrated, seeking to lessen the damage that can be caused.

Gartner has said the term Zero Trust "is useful as a shorthand way of describing an approach where implicit trust is removed from all computing infrastructure. Instead, trust levels are explicitly and continuously calculated and adapted to allow just-in-time, just-enough access to enterprise resources." Gartner analyst Neil MacDonald has also said, "Zero trust is a way of thinking, not a specific technology or architecture. It's really about zero implicit trust, as that's what we want to get rid of."

[Click on image for larger view.] Zero Trust Principles (source: Microsoft).

The Zero Trust prediction and others were made during a Security & Risk Management Summit held this week in Australia.

"60 percent of organizations will embrace Zero Trust as a starting point for security by 2025," Gartner said in a June 21 news release about the summit. "More than half will fail to realize the benefits. The term zero trust is now prevalent in security vendor marketing and in security guidance from governments. As a mindset -- replacing implicit trust with identity- and context-based risk appropriate trust -- it is extremely powerful. However, as zero trust is both a security principle and an organizational vision, it requires a cultural shift and clear communication that ties it to business outcomes to achieve the benefits."

[Click on image for larger view.] Zero Trust Architecture (source: NIST).

In a market guide, Gartner has listed many such benefits:

When replacing legacy network-level VPN access, ZTNA [Zero Trust Network Access] provides contextual, risk-based and least privilege access to applications (not networks).

When replacing applications exposed in DMZs with ZTNA, services are no longer visible on the public internet and are thus shielded from attackers.

ZTNA brings significant benefits in user experience, agility, adaptability and ease of policy management.

For cloud-based ZTNA offerings, scalability and ease of adoption are additional benefits.

ZTNA enables digital business transformation scenarios that are ill-suited to legacy access approaches.

As noted, though, organizations will have to change things up to realize all of the above benefits and many others.

In its market guide, Gartner also made some recommendations that should be followed by security and risk management leaders responsible for infrastructure security:

Establish a high-level zero trust strategy first and ensure that your identity and access management technologies and processes are well understood and mature before selecting and implementing a ZTNA solution.

Assess your current VPN landscape if VPN replacement is the primary goal to quantify the capabilities of a ZTNA vendor -- and if there are sufficient benefits of implementing ZTNA to replace the VPN.

Consolidate agent-based ZTNA selection with the choice of SSE provider as part of the wider SASE architecture decisions to avoid the complexity and potentially unsupported configurations of multiple agents on managed devices.

Prioritize ZTNA vendor selection based on the desired end-user access use cases, as well as the endpoint and application architecture of the organization.

The firm's other seven predictions made this week include:

Through 2023, government regulations requiring organizations to provide consumer privacy rights will cover 5 billion citizens and more than 70 percent of global GDP

By 2025, 80 percent of enterprises will adopt a strategy to unify web, cloud services and private application access from a single vendor's SSE platform

By 2025, 60 percent of organizations will use cybersecurity risk as a primary determinant in conducting third-party transactions and business engagements

Through 2025, 30 percent of nation states will pass legislation that regulates ransomware payments, fines and negotiations, up from less than 1 percent in 2021

By 2025, threat actors will have weaponized operational technology environments successfully to cause human casualties

By 2025, 70 percent of CEOs will mandate a culture of organizational resilience to survive coinciding threats from cybercrime, severe weather events, civil unrest and political instabilities

By 2026, 50 percent of C-level executives will have performance requirements related to risk built into their employment contracts

Gartner said cybersecurity leaders should build the predictions -- or "strategic planning assumptions" -- into their security strategies for the next two years.

"We can't fall into old habits and try to treat everything the same as we did in the past," said analyst Richard Addiscott in the summit keynote. "Most security and risk leaders now recognize that major disruption is only one crisis away. We can't control it, but we can evolve our thinking, our philosophy, our program and our architecture."
Waco area experts are calling on parents and caregivers to protect children and pets from heat following the tragic death of a Houston-area 5-year-old Monday in a hot car, the sixth hot-car death of a child in the United States this year.

The boy was unable to open his car seat and get out of the car as outside temperatures passed 100 degrees Monday, Houston authorities reported. His mother found him unresponsive after two to three hours and called 911. He was pronounced dead on the scene. Five other children have died in hot cars in the United States this year, including a 10-month-old girl in Houston a month earlier, according to kidsandcars.org.

Its not just about hot cars, said Dr. Floyd Barry, a pediatrician with Waco Family Medicine. Parents must check on children playing outside every hour or so when its really hot, and get them to a cool, shady place to rest and drink water for 10 to 15 minutes.

Barry said getting children indoors into air conditioning is good, but just getting them into a shady area, preferably with a breeze, to drink water is also helpful.

Parents must make sure to bring their children and their pets inside from cars, because they cant undo their safety seats and restraint devices, Barry said.

Temperatures in a car can heat up very quickly, even when it feels cool outside and even when the windows are cracked, said a Waco-McLennan County Public Health District spokesperson. The temperature inside a car can rise almost 20 degrees Fahrenheit within the first 10 minutes.

When it is 100 degrees outside, the interior of car can heat up to 140 in 15 minutes, Humane Society of Central Texas spokesperson Michael Gray said.

Gray said people who take companion animals someplace in their cars should make sure the animal drinks water before they go, and never leave them in a parked car.

Young children and pets cannot regulate their body temperatures the same way that adult people do, experts said.

Children heat up three to five times faster than adults, Barry said.

He said heatstroke can begin when core body temperature reaches 104 degrees. At that temperature a childs major organs will also begin to shut down.

A core body temperature of 107 degrees is incompatible with life, Barry said.

Barry said his favorite tip for not forgetting a child or a pet, he heard on morning television news show.

Put your left shoe in the back with the child, Barry said. When you get out of the car and your foot touches the ground, youll know you need your shoe. Searching for the shoe, youll find the child.

Bystanders should intervene if they see a child alone in a car, said Heather Schmidt, a local operations manager and paramedic with American Medical Response.

If you see a child alone in a car, call 911, Schmidt said. If the child is unresponsive or looks to be in pain, first call 911, then, get the child out of the car and use passive cooling measures.

She said to spray the hot child with cool water, not soak them.

Have them drink cool, not cold, water and move them to a cool environment, Schmidt said.

Schmidt and Barry both said parents should teach children not to play in cars.

Barry said preventing heat stroke and heat exhaustion, by keeping children and pets safe in the heat, is much easier than curing them afterward.

An ounce of prevention is worth two metric tons of cure, Barry said.

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A Beverly Hills man threatened his girlfriend, chased her in his truck and then hid from police in a home on Wednesday, according a Beverly Police Department statement.

After a standoff with Waco Police Department's SWAT team and patrol officers from both departments, Patrick Scot Watkins, 28, of Beverly Hills, surrendered himself to authorities, the statement says.

Watkins remained McLennan County Jail on Thursday with bail set at more than $400,000 on an aggravated assault family violence charge as well as other charges, jail records show.

The incident started early Wednesday afternoon, when police say Watkins showed a shotgun to his girlfriend during an argument at a home in the 900 block of Harvard Street.

Fearing for her life, the girlfriend fled the house, police reported. Watkins chased her in a vehicle and tried to hit her with it, then fled before officers found him, according to the statement.

The girlfriend received injuries, and American Medical Response transported her to a local medical facility, the statement says.

Sometime later, Watkins returned to the house, and Beverly Hills police caught up to him there, according to the statement. Soon afterward, Waco SWAT and patrol officers arrived to assist with serving an arrest warrant on Watkins. Watkins exited the home and surrendered to police without further incident, the statement says.

Police found drugs and guns in the home and filed charges including felon in possession of a firearm and possession of between 4 grams and 200 grams of a controlled substance.

Jail records also list a Woodway meth possession charge and a Waco evading arrest charge from this year, along with a Beverly Hills assault of a public servant charge and a Woodway evading arrest charge from 2020.

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A new Bellmead police chief will start July 5, giving the department its first permanent chief in more than a year.

The Bellmead City Council voted unanimously last week to hire Shawn Myatt, former police chief and assistant city manager for the city of Navasota. Bellmead City Manager Yost Zakhary has served as interim police chief for 15 months, since former Chief Daniel Porter retired after 16 months at the post.

The search for a permanent police chief to fill the position began in December, Zakhary said.

There were multiple interviews, questionnaires. We did initial interviews then follow-up interviews and then we made a recommendation to the city council, Zakhary said.

Five department directors narrowed a field of 23 applicants down to their top eight, and ultimately chose Myatt as the most qualified candidate.

Zakhary said it was important to him that he received input from police officers at the department throughout the hiring process. Their comments were valuable because they desired a specific type of leader.

Weve hired a lot of new officers and what the officers were looking for was some stability and somebody who was going to come in and not necessarily redo the police department, because its actually in very good shape.  (They were looking for) somebody who was going to take it from this point forward and he seemed to be the best fit for it, Zakhary said. He comes out of a stable background. Hes been in the same city for about 16 years.

The police officers in the department are in support of hiring Myatt, Zakhary said.

According to the officers, this is what they are telling me and what theyve told the council, the current police department is in the best condition its been in the last 14 years, Zakhary said. The officers are very content and very happy with the way things are going and they are just looking for somebody to take them to the next level.

Myatt said it was time for a change after serving Navasota for the last 17 years. He does not believe Bellmead will be a difficult transition, because he has experience with similar cities, Myatt said.

I just felt like it was a good time for a change in my career, Myatt said. Ive got nearly 25 years as a police chief, so I think just a culmination of the years of service Ive had, complementing with Bellmead would be great. Most of my career has been (serving) cities about the size, or around the size, of Bellmead. So, Im pretty familiar with that.

Myatt said after spending seven years as both an assistant city manager and police chief, he is ready to serve in just a single capacity.

Most of my career has been a police officer or police chief, and so Im ready to kind of get back into a single focus of being a police chief.

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McLennan County will spend about $1 million buying two downtown Waco buildings, the deals creating parking space near the courthouse and room for storing construction material during a remodel to create more courtroom space.

The city of Waco owns the structures at 415 Columbus Ave. and at 1211 Washington Ave., for which the county is poised to pay $371,915 and $635,100, respectively. McLennan County commissioners this week approved the purchase. The Waco City Council is scheduled to vote July 5.

Commissioners also approved issuing $15 million in general obligation bonds to convert the old jail next to the McLennan County Courthouse to courtrooms and jury quarters. Nearly $10 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act money the county received to deal with the repercussions of COVID-19 also will go toward the $39 million remodel.

Commissioners recently chose Dallas-based Brinkley Sargent Wiginton Architects to design changes to the former jail on Columbus Avenue. It will receive about $2.8 million to provide basic architectural services, while other entities will provide nearly $900,000 in supplementary services related to the project, including consulting with the Texas Historical Commission.

County Administrator Dustin Chapman said issuing $15 million in certificates of obligation should not necessitate a tax increase, as the county continuously retires debt. As these certificates mature, other debt drops off, Chapman said.

Commissioners will begin budget discussions July 5, hoping to adopt a preliminary budget for the new fiscal year by July 26, he said.

Chronically pursuing space, McLennan County could not pass on the two properties in the neighborhood, Chapman said. The county likely will demolish the 11,676-square-foot building on Columbus Avenue, creating parking space and material staging space for the courthouse work, he said.

There are a lot of preliminary things to be done before construction, including initial site preparation and designating construction areas, County Judge Scott Felton recently told the Tribune-Herald.

The 8,468-square-foot building on Washington Avenue is move-in ready, and gives the county flexibility in choosing where to relocate units in the McLennan County Sheriffs Office, for example, or specialty courts that handle cases involving military veterans, drug treatment and mental health.

The site on Columbus, however, may face contamination issues related to past uses as a Waco Transit maintenance facility, a paint and body shop, and possibly a dry cleaner. Also during Tuesdays meeting, commissioners considered a $24,000 proposal from the Kleinfelder engineering firm for an assessment that would include soil boring to delineate areas of contamination identified by a city-sponsored report from 2007.

The property is in the Environmental Protection Agencys Brownfield database, which indicates cleanup is needed. The citys 2007 report identified areas of lead and mercury in soil at concentrations greater than the established backgrounds concentrations, in addition to areas with volatile organic compounds in the soil, according to documents presented to commissioners.

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TSA PreCheck enrollment

The Transportation Security Administration will offer TSA PreCheck enrollment at Waco Regional Airport from Monday through July 1.

The pop-up office will be in the terminal building in the baggage claim area.

TSA PreCheck is an expedited screening program that allows travelers to leave on their shoes, light outerwear and belt, and to keep their laptop in its case.

To register and schedule an appointment, go to tsa.gov/precheck. Applicants must bring proof of identity and U.S. citizenship, either be through a current U.S. passport, or drivers license and a copy of a birth certificate. The enrollment process must be completed in person at the enrollment location.

The application fee is $85 and can be paid with either a credit card, money order, company check, or certified/cashiers check. Cash or personal checks are not accepted.

Successful applicants will receive a Known Traveler Number via U.S. mail within two weeks, and it will be valid for five years.

City cooling center

The city of Waco and Waco-McLennan County Office of Emergency Management will open the Sul Ross Community Center, 1414 Jefferson Ave., as a cooling center to assist area residents with relief from the heat. Cold bottles of water and chairs will be provided.

The center will be open from 1-7 p.m. Friday and from noon to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Greater Zion food giveaway

Greater Zion Missionary Baptist Church, in conjunction with Shepherds Heart Food Pantry, will have a grocery giveaway from 10 to 11 a.m. Friday at 2625 S. 18th St.

The giveaway will include meat, dry goods, canned goods, produce and drinks.

Submit printed or typed items to Briefly, P.O. Box 2588, Waco, 76702-2588; or email goingson@wacotrib.com.
NANNING, June 24 (Xinhua) -- On May 27, a cargo ship loaded with Malaysian manganese ore arrived at Beibu Gulf Port in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

The ore was sent to the smelting workshop of South Manganese Group Ltd., which has the longest manganese industry chain in the world. There, it was made into electrolytic manganese dioxide before being sold domestically and exported to Japan as a raw material within new-energy batteries.

This particular case of cross-border trade, industry and sale illustrates the power of the recently instituted Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement in bringing economic benefit to China and its regional partners.

The RCEP has helped reduce the tariff on manganese ore in Malaysia from 3 percent to 2.4 percent, making the industrial chain connecting China, ASEAN and Japan more competitive in the international market, and promoting the development of the regional economy.

The RCEP agreement, the world's largest free trade deal to date, came into force on the first day of 2022. Since then it has brought tangible dividends to economic and trade cooperation between China and ASEAN countries.

Customs data shows that, in the first quarter, China's imports and exports to ASEAN reached 1.35 trillion yuan (202.2 billion U.S. dollars), an increase of 8.4 percent year on year, accounting for 14.4 percent of China's total foreign trade.

During the period, trade between China and ASEAN accounted for 47.2 percent -- or nearly half -- of China's foreign trade with RCEP partners, according to the data. With the RCEP agreement, ASEAN has once again overtaken the EU to become China's largest trading partner.

Since the RCEP came into effect, it has brought great benefits to enterprises, founded on the reduction of import costs and the increase of export opportunities after tariff reductions. According to the agreement, more than 90 percent of goods traded in the region will eventually become tariff-free, which will greatly boost cross-border trade.

Li Jianjun, general manager of the marketing department of South Manganese Group Ltd., said that the enforcement of the RCEP has brought tangible benefits to the company and its partner company in Malaysia. From January to April in 2022, the amount of manganese ore imported from Malaysia by the company increased by 18 percent year on year, while the cost reduction has improved the international competitiveness of its products.

The RCEP drives relevant countries in the region to participate in the shaping and expansion of industries on a larger scale. For example, the increasingly popular new-energy vehicle industry has linked the industrial chain in China more closely with that in ASEAN countries, Japan and the Republic of Korea, according to Li.

"We provide raw materials to a well-known battery company in Japan, and we are also the raw-material supplier for many domestic battery manufacturers of new-energy vehicles. Many countries are increasingly engaged in cooperation in this industry to seek win-win development," Li said.

The deep link between trade and industry has directly driven the substantial growth of cross-border freight volume in the region.

According to the statistics of the China State Railway Group Co., Ltd., a total of 310,000 TEUs were sent by combined rail-sea container trains via the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor from January to May this year, a year-on-year increase of 37.7 percent. During the same period, 140 China-Vietnam freight trains were operated, with 4,176 TEUs shipped, up by 20.7 percent and 26.5 percent, respectively.

Do Nam Trung, consul general of Vietnam in Nanning, capital of Guangxi, said that participating in the RCEP will have a very positive influence in every member country, and the RCEP will also provide new opportunities for Vietnam's development and bring more positive factors to Vietnam's economy.

Since the RCEP came into force, the development of cross-border e-commerce between China and ASEAN countries has been further enhanced, with increasing import and export volume.

Guangxi is an important hub for China's cross-border e-commerce import and export business to ASEAN, attracting more than 100 cross-border e-commerce enterprises, including the first cross-border innovation center of Southeast Asia's flagship e-commerce platform Lazada and the ASEAN cross-border e-commerce logistics center of Shopee.

Diao Weihong, deputy director of the Department of Commerce of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said that Guangxi has formed major cross-border e-commerce logistics routes to ASEAN, and opened 10 cross-border e-commerce air routes to Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, while speeding up the construction of an express cargo circle facing ASEAN. At the same time, maritime transport networks and cross-border highway and railway logistics routes connecting ASEAN are increasingly being strengthened.

Benjamas Tanvetyanont, Thai consul-general in Nanning, said cross-border e-commerce will help promote economic and trade relations between Thailand and China, introduce good things from one country to the other, and help the two peoples raise their incomes.

Under the RCEP framework, many favorable policies, such as tariff reductions and the principle of accumulation of origin, have been implemented, which has gradually highlighted the comparative advantage of export growth between China and ASEAN.

Data from the General Administration of Customs shows that in the first five months of 2022, the total trade value between China and ASEAN reached 2.37 trillion yuan, up 8.1 percent. China and ASEAN continue to be each other's largest trading partners. 
The release of Top Gun: Maverick made me nostalgic for the Ronald Reagan era, a period of industrial and military strength that led to the rise of Silicon Valley and U.S. dominance in high-tech manufacturing. Perhaps its deja vu.

When the original Top Gun was released, just as today, America and its allies faced daunting geopolitical and domestic threats. It may again be within our capacity to use technology to defend and empower democracies to reverse course. It requires us to unleash the spirit of innovation and the dedication of our military and foreign policy specialists in a coordinated response.

Heres the duality: There are corporate and bipartisan efforts underway that can enable us to regain equilibrium. A combination of diplomatic and strategic actions will demonstrate that America is ready to reassert its position as leader of the free world in partnership with our friends.

Despite ever-present concerns, I am reminded that by recovering American courage and conviction, we can mastermind a turnaround once again. Here are the steps I see as our four-throttle solution.

CEO and investor engagement: Palantir CEO Alex Karps recent visit to Ukraine for a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was a smart business and political move which other CEOs should emulate. Palantirs public statement noted, With geopolitical tensions rising all over the world, enhancing security and protecting democratic institutions has never been more important.

Global energy and food shortages provide a chance  should they seize it  for American CEOs to provide public assurances of support for Ukraine and all those affected by the Russian invasion. The message should include declarations to stand by those who need our products to feed their citizens and maintain businesses.

A holistic industry sector approach to investment management also speaks volumes. For example, hundreds of biopharmaceutical CEOs and investors launched a petition to cease industry investment in Russia at the onset of the Ukraine-Russian war. Then they joined to set up a multimillion-dollar fund that provides medical aid to Ukraine.

Tech diplomacy: Creating a critical technologies target list and a coordinated response to active measures sponsored by Russia and China provide a systematic path to protecting our commercial and military infrastructure. Tech diplomacy is an evolving field, and groups such as the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue have elevated the need and serve as catalysts for building partnerships and alliances to bridge the experience gaps between innovators and policymakers while ensuring that U.S. and like-minded nations understand the critical emerging technologies and make informed laws and policy decisions.

Academic partnerships: Business schools ensure next-generation policy leaders learn the basics to support foreign policy goals. The SMU Cox School of Business Center for Commercial and Corporate Diplomacy brings together foreign policy experts to help them better understand how to help U.S. businesses compete overseas and leverage our technology to achieve policy objectives. The USC Marshall World Bachelor in Business program explores the role of business in public-private partnerships and diplomacy, providing undergraduates with an understanding of an integrated response.

At campuses across the United States, the Athenai Institute, a nonpartisan student-led movement, has worked with state governments to remove Chinese influence on American campuses. They call for disinvesting institutional dollars that indirectly support human rights atrocities against Uyghurs and intimidation of Chinese students and their families.

Strategic American investment: As the Chinese invest in strategic technologies and expand their global presence, so must we. Regaining dominance in the semiconductor market becomes job one again as CEOs increasingly raise attention to manufacturing shortages and dangers to our supply chain. Expanding  not decreasing  U.S. Navy ships would increase security and provide assurances to Asian economic allies in the face of growing Chinese naval power.

When things are tough, we crave heroes  whether in the form of a Hollywood fighter pilot, or the unwavering resolve of Zelenskyy or Reagan. If one movie can reignite that inner spark, then grab another bucket of popcorn and settle in for the next showing.

Lisa Gable is a former CEO, U.S. ambassador, United Nations delegate and author of Turnaround  How to Change Course When Things Are Going South. She wrote this for InsideSources.com.
Back in 2015, I interviewed presidential hopeful and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee for C-SPANs Book TV. His newest book at the time, God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy was a chicken-fried paean to all the Bubbas of the American heartland.

The god-fearing superiority of Bubbaville over the folks in coastal Bubbleville was Huckabees schtick, and he came by it naturally.

The interview was returning an odd favor. Though I was and am an atheist, Id previously written a book defending Christian America. Hed written the forward for my book, and now asked the atheist to interview him about his book celebrating religious America.

I say all this as a point of illustration: There was in fact a time when Republicans had a sense of humor about God.

Somehow, in 2015, God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy, though soapy and somewhat cartoonish in its populist portrait of American believers, didnt feel confrontational, menacing or even all that exclusionary. (When pressed by Jon Stewart on whether Huckabee believed that the Bubbas are better than the Bubbles, Huckabee said, No, different.)

In contrast, the new rights variations of God and Guns bumper stickers, T-shirts, yard signs and rallying cries can feel today like an actual threat, one that sometimes even implies violence.

The insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6 was in many ways a Christian nationalist event. Crosses, Christian banners and signs reading Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president, were unavoidable. Michael Sparks, charged by the FBI for entering the Capitol through a broken window, wrote on Facebook that Trump will be your president four more years in Jesus name. Many touted Jesus  and Trump  as their reason for being there.

The QAnon shaman, having breached the Senate chamber, led a group in prayer thanking heavenly father for allowing them to send a message to all the tyrants, the communists and the globalists that this is our nation, not theirs.

The threatening rhetoric has permeated parts of Congress, where posing with guns, often in the name of Christianity, has become de rigueur for far-right electeds and candidates. Last year Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie and Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert traded Christmas cards on Twitter with their arsenals of firearms.

In 2020, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene posed on Facebook with a gun and images of three Democratic members of Congress, writing, We need strong conservative Christians to go on the offense against these socialists who want to rip our country apart. Facebook removed the post for violating its policies.

Meanwhile, in Texas, the state Republican Party voted on a new platform, which puts God and guns front and center.

The first five words are Affirming our belief in God. The platform includes 10 mentions of guns and 16 mentions of God, including the belief in the laws of nature and natures God, giving schools the option to display the national motto In God We Trust, affirming Gods biblical design for marriage and sexual behavior, and declaring all gun control a violation of the Second Amendment and our God-given rights. Youd almost think we were a theocracy.

All of this  the rise in Christian nationalism and the literal and metaphorical weaponizing of faith to intimidate opponents  while the country grows less and less religious.

A new Gallup poll found 81% of Americans now believe in God, down from 87% in 2017, and a new low in Gallups trend.

With nearly 20% of the country considering themselves nonbelievers, its hard to believe there arent more open atheists in Congress. The closest we get is Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who identifies as religiously unaffiliated (her spokesperson says she is not an atheist). And California Rep. Jared Huffman, who announced in 2017 that he was a humanist, has also called himself a nonbeliever and a skeptic.

That news wasnt met with much fanfare. When appearing on Stephen Colberts show, the host jokingly said, Ill just put you down for heathen-slash-hell-bound.

Perhaps another poll shows why weve had no avowed atheists elected to Congress since the late Pete Stark, the brash California congressman who served from 1973 to 2013.

A 2019 Gallup poll asking Americans who they were willing to vote for revealed 60% said they would vote for an atheist, compared to 96% who would vote for a Black candidate, 94% for a woman, 76% for a gay or lesbian candidate and 66% for a Muslim. The only category an atheist beat out was a socialist (47%).

Surely, there are atheists in Congress and running for Congress, just as there are atheists everywhere else in America, even if they remain closeted. With the right using God to coax the party into regressive, punitive and at times increasingly scary places, heres hoping theyll finally have the courage to come out of the shadows.

S.E. Cupp is the host of S.E. Cupp Unfiltered on CNN. A political commentator and longtime conservative, she is author of Losing Our Religion: The Liberal Medias Attack on Christianity and co-author of Why Youre Wrong About the Right: Behind the Myths.
As reported in the Hickory Record, on Tuesday, June 21st the Hickory City Council approved a $1.2 million contract with the architecture firm McMillian Pazdan Smith for the design of the building. Deputy City Manager Rodney Miller told the council the total cost for the new building will be $22 million. Catawba Valley Community College will have a new workforce facility at the Hickory Regional Airport in a building that also will serve as the new home for the Hickory Aviation Museum.

The Hickory Aviation Museum is located at the Hickory Regional Airport (HKY) in Hickory North Carolina and is a 501(c)(3) Non-Profit organization. The interior of the Hickory Aviation has artifacts and memorabilia ranging from WWII to the present day. Including an exhibit about famed North Carolinians Bill and George Preddy, provided by the Preddy Foundation. Models are on display which depict how aircraft designs changed over time from the Wright Flyer of 1903 to the present-day F/A-18 Hornet. The Naval Aviation Annex is located in the old baggage claim area. Various artifacts are on display including an F-14 Camera Pod, two 20mm Vulcan cannons, one carried in an F-14, the other in a F/A-18 Hornet. USN and USMC uniforms are on display along with models of a WWII-era aircraft carrier and a modern Nimitz Class Carrier.

As we reported previously, the Marine Corps decided to permanently close its only museum devoted solely to aviation on March 28th, 2021  an unfortunate decision which the institutions foundation and volunteers had worked hard to avoid for the past decade. Subsequent to its closing, however, came the thorny issue of where to place the aircraft within its collection. As we noted on August 2,2021, their unique Douglas SBD-1 Dauntless found a new home with the Air Zoo in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Immediately after, their FM-2 Wildcat was moved across the country to join the Hickory Aviation Museum in Hickory, North Carolina.

The Hickory Aviation Museum at Hickory Regional Airport in Hickory, North Carolina had a busy 2021, with the arrival of several new airframes, including OV-1D Mohawk 62-5874, FM-2 Wildcat BuNo.16278 and A-6E Intruder BuNo.155629. The advent of 2022 finds their growing aviation collection of nearly two dozen aircraft will soon receive yet another historic addition, this being McDonnell F-101B-50-MC Voodoo 56-0243.

We wish the Hickory Aviation Museum great success with their endeavors and look forwards to reporting more once further news becomes available. For more information, please visit www.hickoryaviationmuseum.org
The East Mississippi Veterans Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit based in Meridian, Mississippi is establishing the East Mississippi Veterans Memorial Park adjacent to the citys historic Key Field. It was above this airfield where the flying Key Brothers, Al and Fred, set a flight endurance record of 27 days between June 4 and July 1, 1935!

This Memorial Park will feature McDonnell Douglas RF-4C 67-0438, a Phantom II which served with the local Air National Guard unit, the 186th Tactical Reconnaissance Group (now the 186th Air Refuelling Wing), from September 21, 1979 until its retirement on September 9, 1991.

The aircraft will be mounted on a pedestal for display. At the time of its acquisition, this Phantom II was one of only three remaining US Air Force RF-4 variants remaining within the Boneyard at Davis Monthan Air Force Base near Tucson, Arizona.

On June 6th, 2022, Worldwide Aircraft Recovery loaded the RF-4C Phantom II onto one of their trucks and began the process of its disassembly for the journey to Meridian, Mississippi.

Jeffrey Summerlin, president of the East Mississippi Veterans Foundation, was in Arizona in early June as the aircraft was in the process of being disassembled for shipping back to Meridian. He said it had been a nearly four year process to get the plane home, but after raising the allocated funds and getting through the pandemic, the planes journey to Meridian was finally underway.

The disassembly took about a week to complete, with the plane aboard a low-loader headed for Meridian on June 17th. The delivery took place on June 20th.

The aircraft will be the first on display in the East Mississippi Veterans Memorial Park. Ponsford Ltd. will conduct the Phantoms restoration over the coming months. Once that is completed, landscaping, construction of a sidewalk, and signage will be added around the display. Summerlin said that once the Phantom is displayed, the foundation will then turn its focus to the Wall of Remembrance area and the rest of the park.

The East Mississippi Veterans Foundation is leading the effort to build the East Mississippi Veterans Memorial Park in Meridian, Mississippi to bring honor, recognition, and remembrance to those men and women, past and present, from Meridian and East Mississippi who served in our nations armed forces. This perpetual memorial is intended to salute the service and sacrifices of all who served as well as their families and friends.

The Foundation will be an integrated neighbor of the community, supporting efforts to stimulate local economic development, strengthen livability and showcase the unique and one-of-a-kind Memorial Park which will increase visitors and tourists to the area.

The group is actively fundraising to complete this Veterans Memorial Park project. For more information and to support this effort, please visit www.emsvf.org
Tara Pickering liked her job in customer service  a business that thrived when the pandemic hit. But her companys decisions to go completely remote, while seemingly fine at first, suddenly meant she was working without much direction at the same time that her workload became unmanageable.

We got no reprieve, no bonuses and no support, Pickering said. My mental and physical health had hit some unseen lows.

She quit once she found her new job at Gravitate Coworking in Cedar Falls. Shes not getting paid more, but her health was the deciding factor.

It was still better than that job, she said.

From a low quit rate of 1.6% across all non-farm jobs in the U.S. in April 2020, quit rates  the number of people quitting their jobs without retiring or being fired  were at 3% and rising as of November 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which noted 4.5 million Americans quit their jobs as of November. In the Midwest, that quit rate is even higher, at 3.1%.

Experts dont agree on whats driving the continually high rate, especially now that pandemic-related assistance such as higher unemployment and child tax credit payments have ended. But concerns about adequate child care and COVID-19, particularly the omicron variant, are thought to be drivers.

Whats puzzling, relative to the historical data, is the slow movement of people who have been unemployed for a while back into employment, given how many job openings there are, said Lawrence Katz, an economics professor at Harvard, in an October interview with the Harvard Gazette. I think weve really met a once-in-a-generation take this job and shove it moment.

Thats exactly what happened to Daniel Corbett in 2020, who worked at a local steakhouse in Waterloo and grew disillusioned with the way he was treated by management.

It wasnt actually a bad job. It just got to be a lot during the pandemic, he said. They expected more and more, then laid everybody off and all the managers worked open to close every day.

That got Corbett thinking about his options, and when he found a food truck for sale, his wife Katy  also a longtime restaurant employee  said she was on board.

Within a week, I decided I was going to buy a food truck, I bought a food truck and turned in my notice, Daniel said. We figured, were not getting any younger  we might as well do it.

Restaurants are one area that continues to see the greatest turnover and number of quits, though retail and health care arent far behind. The industries where people are quitting the most as of November include accommodation and food services (6.9%), retail (4.4%), professional and business services (3.7%) and health care and social assistance (3.0%), according to the BLS.

The mass exodus of burned-out health care workers has also opened up better opportunities for people like Karen Ruth of Waterloo.

Ruth was working in long-term care, which saw its residents hard hit by the pandemic, particularly in 2020. She said she faced major burnout and felt overworked and underappreciated as the months wore on.

It was horrible, she said.

She found better work-life balance at a MercyOne hospital locally, where she now works as a nurse.

I needed to take care of my mental health and be present for my family more, she said.

Others realized their reaction to COVID-19 seemed to be far different than that of their supervisor, a health and value consideration.

John Toenjes left his Waterloo-based job after he said he was ridiculed for being the only one in his building wearing a mask, along with seeing official company policies that included misinformation about breath-holding.

My breaking point was overhearing the owner of the company talking with other directors about how COVID was a liberal media ploy to win the election, he said. I decided I didnt want to do anything that would further produce money for this person.

He left in July 2020 after finding new employment with Cedar Falls Utilities, and said he hasnt looked back.

I did not second guess the decision at any point. Unlike other job transitions, I never worried if this was the right decision, Toenjes said.

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WATERLOO  A federal judge has approved the guilty plea of a former nursing home employee accused of stealing a patients pain medicine.

Matthew Daniel Bowlden, 32, pleaded to one count of acquiring a controlled substance by deception in May before a magistrate. On June 2, Judge C.J. Williams signed off on the plea.

The charge is punishable by up to four years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing will be at a later date.

According to court records, Bowlden was a licensed practical nurse who was working for one nursing home when he obtained a job at a second nursing home in Cedar Falls in March 2019.

During his first shift on the floor, he opened a locked box in a medication room and took an oxycodone pill. He then ingested the pill, which was intended for a 95-year-old resident who suffered from dementia and chronic pain, court records state.

The incident was allegedly caught on video. When confronted about the theft, Bowlden claimed his home toilet was leaking and never returned to work, court records said.

Records show Bowldens nursing license was suspended in 2020 following an investigation into the incident by the Iowa Nursing Board.







Photos: Drugs of Abuse

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WATERLOO  Three people were injured in a two-vehicle crash south of Denver on Friday.

Paramedics with Waterloo Fire Rescue and Denver Fire and Ambulance transported driver Ashley Burkey, 32, and passengers Kennadie Sherman, 20, and Shelley Ergen, 47, all of Oelwein, to UnityPoint Health-Allen Hospital, according to the Black Hawk County Sheriffs Office.

Ergen was admitted with non-life threatening injuries, and Sherman and Burkey were treated and released.

The three were in a Chrysler Town and County minivan.

The driver of the other vehicle, a Ford F-250 pickup that was towing a second pickup, was 30-year-old John Barnes of Waterloo. He was treated at the scene. A juvenile who was steering the towed pickup wasnt injured.

The crash happened at the intersection of U.S. Highway 63 and Dunkerton Road around 9:45 a.m.

According to the sheriffs office, the minivan was traveling west on Dunkerton Road and failed yield at the stop sign. It collided with the Ford, which was heading north on Highway 63.

Burkey was cited for failure to obey a stop sign and to yield. Barnes was cited for failure to use required towing equipment.

The Iowa State Patrol and the Black Hawk County Sheriffs Office also responded to the accident.







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WATERLOO  A long-established drill team competition is expanding to add a new event to its weekend of arts and culture.

Marching Against The Darkness Inc. will hold its first Excellence Expo from 5 to 9 p.m. July 8 at the Waterloo Convention Center.

It will include a college and career fair with higher education institutions and businesses from nine states. There will also be leadership seminars led by Gina Weekley and Madelyn Ridgeway. To cap it off, there will be arts workshops offering dance, step, color guard, and percussion sessions.

The organizations drill team competition  drawing teams from the Midwest, East and West coasts  will be July 9 at Young Arena. Doors open at 5 p.m. and the competition begins at 6 p.m. Thi will be the competitions 21st year.

The expo event is open to all sixth- through 12th-grade students. A meal is provided and students will have the chance to win prizes. Registration is free, but participants must register online by June 30 at matd.org/excellence-expo.

Registration is limited, so students and/or their parents are encouraged to register immediately. Among the sponsors and donors are Guernsey Charitable Foundation, Tyson Fresh Meats, Meet In Iowa, Community Bank & Trust and Lincoln Savings Bank.

The organization is still accepting event sponsorships, vendor registrations for the college and career fair, and advertisements for their event booklet. If interested, go online to matd.org and find info on the Sponsors & Vendors page. Those interested can also reach out to Executive Director Darvel Givens at director@matd.org or (319) 504-2309.

Information on admission costs and more for the drill team competition can be found online at matd.org. Marching Against The Darkness can also be found on all social media platforms at matd_org.

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CEDAR FALLS  Independence Day is right around the corner, but don't expect public safety officers to be taking a holiday.

Instead, the public safety department will be executing a plan for enforcing a new zero tolerance fireworks policy, said Acting Police Chief Mark Howard, despite not usually liking to take away an officer's discretion for deciding whether to cite someone.

Theres no good excuse you can give for why youre using them outside the allowable time frame, he noted.

The City Council, in a 4-2 vote, lifted the prohibition on consumer fireworks within Cedar Falls earlier this month, despite a few residents publicly denouncing that stance. The change creates a common policy between the cities of Cedar Falls and Waterloo, limiting confusion on where fireworks are allowed.

Between noon and 11 p.m. July 4 and noon to 10 p.m. July 3 and 5 is when theyll be allowed on private property  not in public areas like in parks or on sidewalks.

Fines have been hiked from a minimum of $250 to $375. Second and third offenses are $500 and $1,000, respectively.

They can be appealed in court.

Cedar Falls City Council confirms Berte's public safety director appointment in 5-2 vote Berte beat out two other finalists for the top position, and was recommended as the number one choice by Mayor Rob Green, Administrator Ron Gaines and a selection committee.

Theres been no shortage of messaging online and around town, making it one of the largest  if not the largest  education campaigns ever done by the public safety department.

If only being allowed for a short time frame, people can prepare for it, Howard said. We can hopefully lessen the usage, instead of it being a month-long event.

In fact, Howard said more than 50 intersections have signage with basic information about the new law and more than $2,100 has been spent on the campaign.

A special team made up of three to five officers already has written a few citations. The team consists of a supervisor, police reserves, on-duty firefighters and police officers on overtime.

They anticipate being ready for the days around the fireworks usage window as well as during special summer events, like the Sturgis Falls Celebration.

This is the time to be a good neighbor and, if you do have something planned, to let your neighbors know, for instance, if they have a dog or young child, he said.

Howard also reminded people not to fire off illegal fireworks, like large aerial sky rockets.

Dont get creative. Thats when severe accidents happen, he said. Use them as they were intended.

Pledge of allegiance could be recited at Cedar Falls council meetings No public objections to the proposed change were raised by any of seven elected members while meeting in committee Monday night.

Mostly at night during that first week of July is when the team will be assembled to do nothing but fireworks enforcement, he noted. It will also operate at some other random times during the warmer months.

Past history shows fireworks calls drop off a cliff after July 6, Howard said. Last year, July 6 to Dec. 31, there were 18.

Howard reminds people to call 911 right away if they hear or see fireworks being used outside the allowable hours and days.

The longer you wait, the harder it is to prove it," he said.

Anything people think can be used as proof, he encourages them to keep to help make sure were citing the right person.

If the person decides to appeal, which Howard said is rare, a complainant may have to testify in court.

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President Xi calls for peace, development, openness, innovation to build high-quality BRICS partnership

Xinhua) 08:11, June 24, 2022

* At the summit, Xi called on BRICS countries to uphold solidarity and safeguard world peace and tranquility, saying that it is important that BRICS countries support each other on issues concerning core interests, practice true multilateralism, safeguard justice, fairness and solidarity and reject hegemony, bullying and division.

* Noting that BRICS countries gather not in a closed club or an exclusive circle, but a big family of mutual support and a partnership for win-win cooperation, Xi said BRICS countries need to uphold openness and inclusiveness and pool collective wisdom and strength.

* He called for improving global science and technology governance and allowing more people to access and benefit from the fruits of scientific and technological advances.

BEIJING, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted the 14th BRICS Summit via video link on Thursday evening in Beijing, calling on BRICS countries to safeguard world peace and tranquility, boost development, and unleash the potential and vitality of cooperation.

"Standing at the crossroads of history, we should both look back at the journey we have traveled and keep in mind why we established BRICS in the first place, and look forward to a shared future of a more comprehensive, close, practical and inclusive high-quality partnership so as to jointly embark on a new journey of BRICS cooperation," Xi said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping hosts the 14th BRICS Summit via video link in Beijing, capital of China, June 23, 2022. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

SAFEGUARDING WORLD PEACE

At the summit, Xi called on BRICS countries to uphold solidarity and safeguard world peace and tranquility, saying that it is important that BRICS countries support each other on issues concerning core interests, practice true multilateralism, safeguard justice, fairness and solidarity and reject hegemony, bullying and division.

"This year, we have held the Foreign Ministers' Meeting and the Meeting of High Representatives on National Security, deepened cooperation on counter-terrorism, cybersecurity and other issues, enhanced coordination at the United Nations and other multilateral institutions, and spoke out for justice on the international stage," he said.

He stressed that the Global Security Initiative (GSI), which advocates a vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, follows the philosophy that humanity is an indivisible security community, and aims to create a new path to security that features dialogue over confrontation, partnership over alliance and win-win over zero-sum.

"China would like to work with BRICS partners to operationalize the GSI and bring more stability and positive energy to the world," said Xi.

UPHOLDING COOPERATION, OPENNESS

Noting that the combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine crisis has resulted in disruptions to global industrial and supply chains, sustained hikes of commodity prices, and weaker international monetary and financial systems, Xi said BRICS countries need to uphold cooperation to boost development and jointly tackle risks and challenges.

Chinese President Xi Jinping hosts the 14th BRICS Summit via video link in Beijing, capital of China, June 23, 2022. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the summit. (Xinhua/Li Tao)

"This year, we launched the BRICS Initiative on Enhancing Cooperation on Supply Chains and the Initiative on Trade and Investment for Sustainable Development, adopted the Agreement on Cooperation and Mutual Administrative Assistance in Customs Matters and the Strategy on Food Security Cooperation, and held a High-level Meeting on Climate Change for the first time," Xi said, adding that BRICS countries should make good use of these new platforms to boost connectivity of industrial and supply chains and jointly meet challenges in poverty reduction, agriculture, energy, logistics and other fields.

Noting that BRICS countries gather not in a closed club or an exclusive circle, but a big family of mutual support and a partnership for win-win cooperation, Xi said BRICS countries need to uphold openness and inclusiveness and pool collective wisdom and strength.

At the Xiamen Summit in 2017, Xi proposed the "BRICS Plus" cooperation approach. Over the past five years, "BRICS Plus" cooperation has deepened and expanded, setting a prime example of South-South cooperation and seeking strength through unity among emerging markets and developing countries, Xi said.

"This year we, for the first time, invited guest countries to attend the BRICS Foreign Ministers' Meeting. The newly established BRICS Vaccine R&D Center has an unequivocal commitment to openness. Step by step, we have organized a variety of 'BRICS Plus' events in such areas as scientific and technological innovation, people-to-people exchanges and sustainable development. All these provide new platforms for cooperation among emerging markets and developing countries," he added.

UPHOLDING PIONEERING SPIRIT, INNOVATION

"Those who seize the opportunities of the new economy, such as big data and artificial intelligence, are in sync with the pulse of the times," President Xi said, adding that BRICS countries need to uphold the pioneering spirit and innovation and unleash the potential and vitality of cooperation.

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers remarks titled "Fostering High-quality Partnership and Embarking on a New Journey of BRICS Cooperation" at the 14th BRICS Summit in Beijing, capital of China, June 23, 2022. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

He called for improving global science and technology governance and allowing more people to access and benefit from the fruits of scientific and technological advances.

"This year, we have accelerated the building of the BRICS Partnership on New Industrial Revolution Innovation Center in Xiamen, hosted the Forum on the Development of Industrial Internet and Digital Manufacturing and the Forum on Big Data for Sustainable Development, reached the Digital Economy Partnership Framework, issued the Initiative for Cooperation on Digitalization of Manufacturing, and established a network of technology transfer centers and an aerospace cooperation mechanism," he said.

All these have opened new channels for closer industrial policy coordination between BRICS countries, Xi said.

As representatives of emerging markets and developing countries, Xi called on BRICS countries to make the right decision and take responsible actions at this critical juncture of history, stay united, pool strength and forge ahead to build a community with a shared future for mankind and jointly create a bright future for humanity.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun)
Aerial photo taken on June 23, 2022 shows a cargo train, which marks the 10,000th trip made by China-Europe freight trains operated by the China-Europe Railway Express (Chongqing), leaving Tuanjie Village Central Railway Station in Chongqing, southwest China.

The cargo train, fully loaded with electronic products, mechanical parts and daily necessities, Thursday departed from a railway station in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality and headed for Germany's Duisburg.

The China-Europe Railway Express (Chongqing), launched in March 2011, now operates nearly 40 routes reaching about 100 cities in Asia and Europe. (Xinhua/Huang Wei)

CHONGQING, June 24 (Xinhua) -- A cargo train, fully loaded with electronic products, mechanical parts and daily necessities, Thursday departed from a railway station in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality and headed for Germany's Duisburg.

This marked the 10,000th trip made by China-Europe freight trains operated by the China-Europe Railway Express (Chongqing), the first of its kind in China.

The China-Europe Railway Express (Chongqing), launched in March 2011, has witnessed the transportation of over 1,000 types of goods ranging from smart terminals and whole vehicles to auto parts and medicines, with a total value exceeding 400 billion yuan (about 60 billion U.S. dollars).

The China-Europe Railway Express (Chongqing) now operates nearly 40 routes reaching about 100 cities in Asia and Europe.

In 2021, the China-Europe freight train services saw rapid growth amid safe and smooth operation, with the number of trips hitting 15,000 last year, according to China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. 

A cargo train marking the 10,000th trip made by China-Europe freight trains operated by the China-Europe Railway Express (Chongqing), waits for departure at Tuanjie Village Central Railway Station in Chongqing, southwest China, June 23, 2022.

The cargo train, fully loaded with electronic products, mechanical parts and daily necessities, Thursday departed from a railway station in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality and headed for Germany's Duisburg.

The China-Europe Railway Express (Chongqing), launched in March 2011, now operates nearly 40 routes reaching about 100 cities in Asia and Europe. (Photo by He Jianchi/Xinhua)

A cargo train marking the 10,000th trip made by China-Europe freight trains operated by the China-Europe Railway Express (Chongqing), departs from Tuanjie Village Central Railway Station in Chongqing, southwest China, June 23, 2022.

The cargo train, fully loaded with electronic products, mechanical parts and daily necessities, Thursday departed from a railway station in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality and headed for Germany's Duisburg.

The China-Europe Railway Express (Chongqing), launched in March 2011, now operates nearly 40 routes reaching about 100 cities in Asia and Europe. (Photo by He Jianchi/Xinhua)

A cargo train marking the 10,000th trip made by China-Europe freight trains operated by the China-Europe Railway Express (Chongqing), waits for departure at Tuanjie Village Central Railway Station in Chongqing, southwest China, June 23, 2022.

The cargo train, fully loaded with electronic products, mechanical parts and daily necessities, Thursday departed from a railway station in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality and headed for Germany's Duisburg.

The China-Europe Railway Express (Chongqing), launched in March 2011, now operates nearly 40 routes reaching about 100 cities in Asia and Europe. (Xinhua/Huang Wei)

Aerial photo taken on June 23, 2022 shows a cargo train, which marks the 10,000th trip made by China-Europe freight trains operated by the China-Europe Railway Express (Chongqing), waiting for departure at Tuanjie Village Central Railway Station in Chongqing, southwest China.

The cargo train, fully loaded with electronic products, mechanical parts and daily necessities, Thursday departed from a railway station in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality and headed for Germany's Duisburg.

The China-Europe Railway Express (Chongqing), launched in March 2011, now operates nearly 40 routes reaching about 100 cities in Asia and Europe. (Xinhua/Huang Wei)

Aerial photo taken on June 23, 2022 shows a cargo train, which marks the 10,000th trip made by China-Europe freight trains operated by the China-Europe Railway Express (Chongqing), leaving Tuanjie Village Central Railway Station in Chongqing, southwest China.

The cargo train, fully loaded with electronic products, mechanical parts and daily necessities, Thursday departed from a railway station in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality and headed for Germany's Duisburg.

The China-Europe Railway Express (Chongqing), launched in March 2011, now operates nearly 40 routes reaching about 100 cities in Asia and Europe. (Xinhua/Huang Wei)

A cargo train marking the 10,000th trip made by China-Europe freight trains operated by the China-Europe Railway Express (Chongqing), waits for departure at Tuanjie Village Central Railway Station in Chongqing, southwest China, June 23, 2022.

The cargo train, fully loaded with electronic products, mechanical parts and daily necessities, Thursday departed from a railway station in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality and headed for Germany's Duisburg.

The China-Europe Railway Express (Chongqing), launched in March 2011, now operates nearly 40 routes reaching about 100 cities in Asia and Europe. (Xinhua/Huang Wei)

Aerial photo taken on June 23, 2022 shows a cargo train, which marks the 10,000th trip made by China-Europe freight trains operated by the China-Europe Railway Express (Chongqing), leaving Tuanjie Village Central Railway Station in Chongqing, southwest China.

The cargo train, fully loaded with electronic products, mechanical parts and daily necessities, Thursday departed from a railway station in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality and headed for Germany's Duisburg.

The China-Europe Railway Express (Chongqing), launched in March 2011, now operates nearly 40 routes reaching about 100 cities in Asia and Europe. (Xinhua/Huang Wei)
CEDAR FALLS  Local residents gathered in downtown Cedar Falls midday Friday to react to the United States Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade.

A few dozen demonstrators held signs and chanted to protest the decision, while soliciting support from passing motorists and pedestrians in the 200 block of Main Street.

An occasional jeer led the demonstrators chants to grow in volume.

This is the day that Roe fell. Reproductive rights are human rights, and this is going to affect every women in our country, said Stacy Glascock, one of the organizers. I told my kids today that they will know someone that this affects in a very horrible way, and thats really unfortunate. Everybodys entitled to bodily autonomy, and this is just another way to keep women suppressed and controlled, and its wrong.

The signs had various messages, from Fight for your rights and Roe v. Wade saves lives to Stop the war on women and Smash the patriarchy.

And the group had a variety of chants, from Whose choice? Our choice and Abortion is healthcare to They say no choice, we say pro-choice and abortion rights are human rights.

Im here for people who cant be here today, said Aspyn Hinders, of Waterloo. Silence is compliance.

Erika Thorne, of Minneapolis, was back in Cedar Falls for the 50th reunion of the Cedar Falls High School Class of 1972.

Im really glad to see this. We protested the Vietnam War back when I was in school, but we didnt have the chance to do womens rights, she said. There wasnt a national movement at the time. Thank heavens there is now.

A number of the demonstrators had gotten abortions, or knew of people who had gotten one.

Melissa Gevaert of Waterloo had a friend who needed a dilation and curettage, the most common method of early abortion, or else her friends body would have rejected the fetus and could have killed her.

Penny Popp of Cedar Falls had an abortion 40 years ago, and noted it was really important at my age to take advantage of the essential health care, and now Im here to stand with woman who will need it tomorrow.

This decision relegates women back to second class citizens, she added.

Julia Robinson of Des Moines also had an abortion as a young married woman, when it would have been dangerous for her to have a child because of pre-existing conditions and certain medications she was taking.

This is not the governments business, she said.

Chris Schwartz, a Black Hawk County supervisor, was among those present along Main Street.

Im here to support the health care rights of women, trans and binary people across Iowa and the country, he said. We have been attacked by an extremely radical Supreme Court that is going against widely held American values.

Glascock noted the energy was great, but needed people to vote.

Please vote for people that support bodily autonomy. That supports our rights to take control of our bodies and our own healthcare, she said.

Courier Staff Writer Jeff Reinitz contributed to this report

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WATERLOO -- Waterloo Ward 2 City Councilor Jonathan Grieder will host a constituent meeting Wednesday. The meeting will take place from 5:30-6:30 p.m. in Meeting Room A at the Waterloo Public Library. This meeting will be a continuation of the conversation around gun violence in our community. Grieder will present the solutions discussed at the City Council a few weeks ago and then open the floor for a community conversation.
WAVERLY -- Trinity United Methodist Church, 1400 W. Bremer Ave., will undergo a pastoral transition in July as the Rev. Kwang Song will be appointed to serve.

He was born and raised in Korea where he was a member of the Korean Methodist Church. He was ordained as a pastor in 1997. He has served as a pastor for a small rural church in South Korea, an associate pastor at Kwang-Lim Methodist Church in Seoul, a missionary in Moscow, Russia, and was director and pastor at the Kwang-Lim Moscow Mission Center. In 2021, he moved to Chicago to attend McCormick Theological Seminary. After graduation from McCormick, he was appointed to the Korean United Methodist church in Iowa City, and joined the Iowa Annual Conference in 2007 as a full elder.

Song is married to Yune Song and they will celebrate their 31st wedding anniversary this September. They have raised two daughters, with one living in Chicago and one in New York. Song and his wife will be moving to Waverly in July from Washington.

Trinity Church will have a farewell service for the Rev. Tom Barnard on Sunday, July 26, with a pork loin luncheon in his honor starting at 11:15am.

A worship service to welcome Kwang Song and his family will be held Sunday, July 3, for his pastoral induction service at 9:30 a.m. His first official worship service will be at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, July 10.

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Iowas Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted Friday against a bipartisan gun bill that cleared Congress on a mostly party-line vote and was signed by President Joe Biden on Saturday.

How many times have we heard that  Just do something, Biden said in comments at the White House on Saturday. Well, today, we did. While this bill doesnt do everything I want, it does include actions Ive long called for that are going to save lives.

Congress approved the bill with unusual speed, two days after the Supreme Court struck down a New York gun law and ruled that the U.S. Constitutions Second Amendment protects gun rights outside the home. Fifteen GOP senators and 14 House Republicans joined all Democrats in voting to support it.

The Democrat-led U.S. House passed the measure, considered the most wide-ranging gun violence bill Congress has passed in decades, on a 234-193 vote, capping a spurt of action prompted by voters revulsion over last months mass shootings in New York and Texas.

The Senate passed the bill the night before on a 65-33 vote, with 15 Republicans  including Iowa U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst  joining Senate Democrats in supporting a measured compromise on a long-intractable issue that was crafted by senators from both parties.

Ernst, in a statement Thursday night, said the bill does not take away the rights of any law-abiding American.

As a lifelong supporter of the Second Amendment, proud gun owner, and combat veteran, Im adamantly opposed to any infringement on our constitutional rights, Ernst said. Every American wants to keep our kids and our schools safe and provide folks access to mental health treatment, and this proposal helps do that without placing new restrictions on law-abiding gun owners.

The $13 billion measure will toughen background checks for the youngest gun buyers, keep firearms from more domestic violence offenders and help states put in place red flag laws that make it easier for authorities to take weapons from people adjudged dangerous. It would also fund local programs for school safety, mental health and violence prevention.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, in a statement, said he voted against the bill over concerns of vague legal definitions and due process rights of gun owners.

Schools should be the safest place for our kids. I share the concerns of Iowans who are disgusted with gun violence, especially when those tragedies involve children, Grassley said. Much of their legislation is good, but I have very specific concerns about safeguarding constitutional due process rights that prevent me from supporting the bill in its entirety.

Iowa Republican U.S. Reps. Ashley Hinson of Marion and Randy Feenstra of Hull echoed Grassley. Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Ottumwa also voted against the bill Friday.

U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne, Iowas lone Democrat in Congress, voted for the bill.

Hinson said while there are many parts of the bill she supports  including increased mental health funding, training for law enforcement and bolstering school security  she worried parts of the legislation violate due process rights.

Legislative solutions must keep guns from getting into the wrong hands without violating the rights of law-abiding citizens and, unfortunately, this legislation did not meet that standard, Hinson said in her statement. I will continue working directly with local law enforcement and my colleagues in Congress on solutions that keep guns out of the wrong hands, improve school and public safety, and bolster mental health resources.

Feenstra, in a statement, said the bill contains constitutional concerns that I cannot support.

As a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, I will continue to vote to protect every Iowans constitutional right to keep and bear arms, while working to expand mental health resources for our communities and protect our children from unspeakable tragedies, Feenstras statement reads.

Axne on Friday said the bill will help keep communities safe, but does not go far enough.

While including much-needed provision to help address mental health issues across the country and enhanced background checks for buyers under age 21, Axne said the bill misses the mark by leaving out a ban on assault weapons.

The assault weapons ban literally showed us through data that lives were saved, Axne said. Other countries that dont have assault weapons, they dont have these issues. This is purely an American issue. Its purely a guns issue. The fact that anybody can go in and get an assault rifle at (age) 18 as opposed to having to wait until 21 to get a handgun is absolutely ridiculous.

In the meantime, Axne said we have a piece of legislation that is moving forward to better this country, and it will save lives and keep people safer.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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BURLINGTON, Iowa  Burlington, Iowa, has agreed to pay $5 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the mother of a man who was shot to death by police nearly five years ago, the two sides said Thursday.

The settlement comes nearly five years after Officer Chris Chiprez shot and killed 27-year-old Marquis Jones.

Police stopped Jones on Oct. 1, 2017, for allegedly playing music too loudly, and police say Jones ran away with a gun in his hand. Chiprez fired several shots at Jones, saying in reports that Jones had refused orders to drop the gun. Jones fled into a backyard, followed by Chiprez, who fired a final shot that struck and killed Jones.

Chiprez said in reports that he thought Jones was armed and was unaware that Jones had dropped the gun about 50 yards (45 meters) from where he was shot. But lawyers for Jones mother, Altovese Williams, said police body camera video and autopsy results showed that Jones was nearly prone on the ground when he was shot.

Im not aware of a settlement larger than this in the state of Iowa for a wrongful death, civil rights claim, Cedar Rapids attorney Dave OBrien, who represented Williams, said in a statement. We believe the citys agreement to settle for their policy limits shows that they understand that the shooting and killing unarmed people in Burlington needs to stop.

Police Chief Marc Denney declined to comment on the settlement, but he did confirm that Chiprez remains on the police force.

He's an officer in good standing who has been with the force for 20-plus years, Denney said.

In March, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Chiprez was not entitled to qualified immunity in the lawsuit, citing body-camera footage that appeared to show Chiprez looking directly at items  including the gun  dropped by Jones while running after him. The appeals court also noted that autopsy results did not support Chiprez's assertion that Jones was in an upright firing position when he shot him.

The Davenport law firm of Betty, Neuman & McMahon, which is representing Chiprez and the city, didn't immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment.

Burlington is a city of 24,000 people, located on the Mississippi River about 140 miles east of Des Moines.

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

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Part 1 (read Part 2)

Successful offensive of Russian units towards Lugansk within 5 days has resulted in the liberation of Loskutovka, Podlesnoye, Mirnaya Dolina, Shchebkaryer, Vrubovka, Nyrkovo, Nikiolayevka, Novoivanovka, Ustinovka and Ray-Aleksandrovka.

Group of Ukrainian units has been completely isolated near Gorskoye and Zolotoye.

This pocket has encircled 4 battalions: 3rd Mechanised Battalion of 24th Mechanised Brigade, 15th Mountain Assault Battalion of 128th Mountain Assault Brigade, 42nd Mechanised Infantry Battalion of 57th Mechanised Infantry Brigade, 70th Battalion of 101st Territorial Defence Brigade, as well as an artillery group of 57th Mechanised Infantry Brigade, a group of Nazis from Right Sector organisation and a detachment of foreign mercenaries.

 In total, the Gorskoye pocket has isolated up to 2,000 people: about 1,800 servicemen, 120 Nazis from Right Sector, up to 80 foreign mercenaries, as well as over 40 armoured combat vehicles and about 80 guns and mortars.

41 servicemen abandoned their resistance and surrendered voluntarily just over the past 24 hours.

According to the prisoners, the encircled Ukrainian units are exhausted. The units are currently manned by less than 40%. Higher Ukrainian command has lost control over these units. Armament, munitions, fuel and other logistic supply is completely stopped.

Russian troops are straitening the Gorskoye encirclement by launching uninterrupted attacks at the enemy. Half of Zolotoye had been taken under control over yesterday.

The enemy suffers considerable losses in other directions, too.

High-precision attacks of Russian Aerospace Forces at three bases of foreign mercenaries in Nikolayev, Golitsyno (Nikolayev region) and Oleshki (Kharkov region) have resulted in the elimination of more than 200 soldiers of fortune and up to 100 Ukrainian nationalists.

Desertion and refusals to be involved in operations are becoming widespread in the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). Over 30 Ukrainian servicemen from one of the battalions of 25th Airborne Brigade have abandoned their positions and personal weapons near Aleksandropol (Donetsk Peoples Republic).

To replenish the losses in manpower, Ukrainian command are forced to form separate rifle battalions formed by untrained, mobilised citizens in each regions towards Donetsk and Lugansk.

***

Part 2 (read Part 1)

The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation in Ukraine.

 Operational-tactical and army aviation, missile troops and artillery have neutralised AFU manpower and military equipment at 367 areas. 5 depots of munitions, missiles, artillery armament and logistic supplies near Privolye (Lugansk Peoples Republic) and Nikolayev, as well as artillery and mortar units in 62 areas, including an artillery battery of M-777 howitzers near Oleshki (Kharkov region).

Bastion coastal missile system has launched an attack at the firing position of S-300 air defence missile system near Odessa. The target has been eliminated.

Attacks launched by aviation, missile troops and artillery have resulted in the elimination of more than 620 nationalists, 19 tanks and other armoured combat vehicles, as well as 17 special vehicles.

Russian air defence means have destroyed 2 Su-25 airplanes near Dolgenkoye (Kharkov region) and Vysokopolye (Nikolayev region).

5 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles have been shot down near Popasnaya and Kapitanovo (Lugansk Peoples Republic), Verbovka, Donetskoye (Kharkov region), as well as 5 Tochka-U tactical missiles near Stakhanov, Lugansk and Izyum.

In total, 213 airplanes and 132 helicopters, 1,334 unmanned aerial vehicles, 350 anti-aircraft missile systems, 3,769 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 659 combat vehicles equipped with multiple rocket-launching systems, 3,002 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 3,835 units of special military equipment have been destroyed during the special military operation.

#MoD #Russia #Ukraine

@mod_russia_en

WtR
The court sytem in the DPR found Aslin, his compatriot Shaun Pinner, and Moroccan Saaudun Brahim guilty and have sentenced them to death. The three men, were found guilty of mercenarism, terrorist offenses and also attempting to overthrow the government of the republic DPR

Britain has sent a letter and the letter was so disgusting, that DPR and Russia cannot understand the sick mentality behind the British Government

The letter in no way helps the three Brits, since all the letter did was confirm the western hate Russia at all cost syndrome

All that the Russian ambassador to the UK, Andrey Kelin said was

The message from London was written in extremely arrogant, instructive terms. It doesnt make us want to cooperate on these issues.

Never forget, these three Brits were paid by Britain to kill Russians in DPR. They admit it and they are mercenaries

Whom, have no rights in a war situation, as regular soldiers would

They took the money and now they pay it back

WtR
 Surrendered AFU servicemen reveal low staffing level in units, bad supply of units isolated in Gorskoye, desertion of commanders and inability to contact them

 The only way for us to stay alive was to surrender. It was confirmed by several servicemen of the Russian Federation Armed Forces. We were clearly visible without seeing the enemy. If we hadnt surrender, we would have been killed without a fight

#MoD #Russia #Ukraine #POWs

@mod_russia_en

WtR
Watches of Switzerland unveils first move into Europe By



Nigel TAYLOR Published

Jun 24, 2022

Luxury watches and jewellery retailer Group has begun its European rollout with the opening of a store in Stockholm.







DR



Its a milestone for the business as it marks the next stage of its expansion plan that has already brought it great success in another growth market  the US  and in its domestic UK market.



The stock exchange-listed company consistently turns in strong results in both good times and bad and its move into mainland Europe could help it continue and beat its track record.

Craig Bolton, UK and Europe President for the group, said: We are delighted to be working with our brand partners, as we embark on our expansion into European territories. We have a programme of projects primarily focusing on the Nordics and Ireland initially, which will see us open further monobrand boutiques by the end of 2022.



"We are very excited as we embark on this journey to increase our presence in Europe, and we are actively exploring other territories and opportunities in the marketplace.



The rollout will continue with further Breitling stores in Stockholm Mall of Scandinavia and Copenhagen in September.



This will be followed by the unveiling of the first ever store to open in Copenhagen in September, located on stergade.


BEIJING, June 24 (Xinhua) -- China and Mongolia signed a memorandum to jointly translate and publish 50 classic books from both countries in the coming five years, to provide more excellent cultural products for the two peoples.

Officials from cultural authorities of the two countries signed the memorandum on Friday, a move to further boost cultural exchanges and mutual learning between the two countries. 
Weather Alert

...LAKE WIND ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 2 PM TO 8 PM PDT TUESDAY... * WHAT...Southwest winds around 20 mph with gusts up to 35 mph expected. * WHERE...Washoe. * WHEN...From 2 PM to 8 PM PDT Tuesday. * IMPACTS...Small boats, kayaks and paddle boards will be prone to capsizing and should remain off lake waters until conditions improve. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Check lake conditions before heading out and be prepared for a sudden increase in winds and wave heights. Consider postponing boating activities on the lake until a day with less wind. &&
Four Democratic lawmakers are asking federal regulators to investigate Apple and Google for allegedly deceiving mobile phone users by enabling the collection and sale of their personal data. Their call comes as the Supreme Court ended the constitutional protections for abortion Friday. The court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is expected to lead to abortion bans in about half the states. And privacy experts say that could make women vulnerable as their personal data could be used to surveil pregnancies and shared with police or sold to vigilantes. The request for an investigation of the two California-based tech giants came in a letter to Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan.
Hollywoods go-to military adviser 



I believe sincerely and firmly that the basic warrior spirit is essentially the same. A soldier will act the same way if hes part of a 256-man Macedonian phalanx as he will if hes a guy carrying an M4 in Fallujah, Dye observes. The mentality, the heart, the emotions are the same. I found that if I kept that in mind and meticulously did my research, then I would be ready to train any outfit, any period, any service, and its proved to be true.

Dyes Warrior Inc. has helped produce more than 50 movies and TV shows, including Courage Under Fire, Starship Troopers, Casualties of War, Saving Private Ryan, Forrest Gump and Band of Brothers.

The boot camp was a very important part of the success of Band of Brothers. If youre going to play the part right, you need to know what it feels like, says actor Ron Livingston, who was nominated for a Golden Globe for his role in the miniseries.

Dyes boot camp taught Livingston how to deal with stress, chaos and the mind games of war. He also benefited from technical instruction such as weapons training, how to handle military gear and other squad-based tactics.

Its got to become second nature. And that allows you to have a whole layer to think about whatever else you need to think about in the scene, Livingston says.

During his trainings, Dye says, he breaks actors down and builds them back up. As a result, he hopes that audiences better understand, appreciate and empathize with what real-life soldiers go through. If we dont adhere to that accuracy, then their story either gets shabbily told, only partially told or never told. And thats a disservice I will not allow.

This is the ninth episode from AARP Studios new documentary series Reporting for Duty. Each month you can expect a new inspirational story about veterans and military families at YouTube.com/aarp.
BEIJING, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for strengthening global economic governance at a time when the world economy faces strong headwinds on its path toward recovery and global development has suffered major setbacks amid an unprecedented pandemic.

"We should promote extensive consultation and joint contribution to deliver shared benefits, enhance global economic governance, and increase the representation and say of emerging markets and developing countries. This will ensure that all countries enjoy equal rights, follow the rules as equals, and share equal opportunities," Xi said in his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the BRICS Business Forum on Wednesday.

The BRICS mechanism of five major emerging economies -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- has traveled a glorious path since its inception in 2006.

Accounting for 23 percent of the global economy, 18 percent of trade in goods and 25 percent of foreign investment, BRICS countries have formed an important force that cannot be ignored in the world economy.

"The unstoppable rise of emerging markets and developing countries has injected strong impetus to the reform of the global economic governance system," Xi said at the plenary session of the BRICS Brasilia summit in 2019.

BRICS POWER

The world's economic center of gravity has been shifting from the North to the developing South, said the Global Development Report issued Monday by the Center for International Knowledge on Development.

The gross domestic product share of emerging markets and developing countries in the global economy evaluated by purchasing power parity increased from roughly the same as that of advanced economies during the financial crisis to nearly 60 percent in 2020, the report said.

The global governance system is being rapidly reshaped, with developing countries making more of their voices heard. Meanwhile, more global governance platforms are emerging. The G20, BRICS, and a variety of regional and sub-regional cooperation bodies are playing an increasingly important role, according to the report.

In 2014, the BRICS countries decided to establish the New Development Bank and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement.

Xi once said the moves have "provided financing support for infrastructure building and sustainable development of the BRICS countries, contributing to enhanced global economic governance and the building of an international financial safety net."

From renewable energy projects in Brazil to railway network upgrade programs in India and new toll roads in Russia, the New Development Bank has approved more than 80 projects in member countries and handed out 30 billion U.S. dollars in loans.

According to the bank, from 2022 to 2026, it will provide 30 billion U.S. dollars of financial support for member countries, with 40 percent of the funds to be used for mitigating global warming.

At the plenary session of the BRICS Xiamen summit, Xi called for efforts to advance the reform of global economic governance, increase the representation and voice of emerging markets and developing countries, and inject new impetus into the efforts to address the development gap between the North and South and boost global growth.

"The development of the emerging markets and developing countries is not intended to move the cheese of anyone but to make the pie of the global economy bigger," Xi said in his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the BRICS Business Forum in 2017.

"We should join hands to steer the course of economic globalization, offer more vision and public goods, make the governance model and rules more balanced and inclusive, and improve and reshape international division of labor and global value chains," Xi said on the same occasion.

DEVELOPMENT AS KEY

Last September, Xi put forward a Global Development Initiative, calling on all parties to forge united, equal, balanced and inclusive global development partnership.

The initiative aims to arouse the attention of the international community on development issues, promote the strengthening of the global development partnership, effectively respond to the challenges posed by the pandemic, help developing countries speed up recovery, and achieve the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals as scheduled, according to the Global Development Report.

"Development holds the key to solving various difficult problems and delivering better lives to the people," Xi said at the opening ceremony of the BRICS Business Forum on Wednesday.

On this important occasion, Xi urged strengthening cooperation to better safeguard food and energy security, seize opportunities presented by the new scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, help developing countries speed up the development of the digital economy and green transformation, and engage in cooperation on COVID-19 response to beat the virus at an early date.

Just as Xi put it, "BRICS is not a talking shop, but a task force that gets things done."

In 2018, the BRICS Johannesburg summit endorsed the BRICS Partnership on New Industrial Revolution proposed by China and South Africa. Two years later, China announced the establishment of a BRICS Partnership on New Industrial Revolution innovation center in Xiamen. So far, more than 120,000 personnel from 28 countries have been trained and more than 100 BRICS demonstration projects have been launched.

Xi on Wednesday called on business leaders to actively participate in building the BRICS Partnership on New Industrial Revolution, strengthen cooperation on the digital economy, smart manufacturing, clean energy and low-carbon technology, and support the industrial restructuring and upgrading in BRICS countries.

OPEN, INCLUSIVE

Since its inception, the BRICS mechanism has set the right direction for openness and inclusiveness. China proposed the "BRICS Plus" cooperation model at the Xiamen summit in 2017.

"We may explore 'BRICS Plus' cooperation within the United Nations, the G20, and other frameworks to advance the common interests and boost the development space for emerging markets and developing countries, thus contributing more to world peace and development through broader partnerships," Xi said at the plenary session of the BRICS Johannesburg summit.

"As a cooperation platform with global influence, BRICS cooperation is more than about our five countries. Rather, it carries the expectations of emerging markets and developing countries and indeed the international community," Xi has said.

Under China's chairmanship, more than 70 meetings and events have been held since the start of the year on fields including political security, economy, trade and finance, cultural and people-to-people exchanges, sustainable development and public health.

This year, the "BRICS Plus" dialogue was elevated to the foreign minister level for the first time. China will encourage BRICS parties to continue in-depth discussions on membership expansion, expand the reach and benefits of BRICS cooperation, and use the "BRICS Plus" model to enable more countries to get on the express train of development.

"Despite changes in an evolving global environment, the historical trend of openness and development will not reverse course, and our shared desire to meet challenges together through cooperation will remain as strong as ever," Xi said Wednesday, urging countries to rise to challenge and forge ahead with resolve toward the goal of building a community with a shared future for humanity. 


Horizon Placement and Share Purchase Plan

Perth, June 24, 2022 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Horizon Minerals Limited ( ASX:HRZ ) is pleased to advise that it has received firm commitments to place approximately 44.4 million fully paid ordinary shares ("Placement Shares") in the Company at $0.09 per share to raise $4.0 million (before costs of the offer) ("Placement"). The Placement received strong support from existing and new Australian and international institutional and sophisticated investors.In conjunction with the Placement, Horizon will offer eligible shareholders the opportunity to participate in a Share Purchase Plan ("SPP") on the same terms as the Placement to raise up to $2.0 million.Funds from the Placement and the SPP will be used to continue the large-scale exploration program across the Company's 1,100km2 asset portfolio including new discovery gold and nickel drilling at the Yarmany, Lakewood and Greater Boorara-Cannon project areas (see Figure 1* below).Funds from the Placement and the SPP, along with its existing cash reserves and listed investments, puts Horizon in a strong balance sheet position to pursue its growth opportunities.Commenting on the successful capital raising, Horizon Managing Director Mr Jon Price said:"The funds to be raised from the Placement and SPP enables the Company to continue and accelerate the aggressive resource growth and new discovery drilling program testing multiple targets for both precious and base metals.""We thank our existing institutional shareholders for their continued support and welcome several new Australian and international shareholders to the register. We are also pleased to announce the share purchase plan enabling our large retail shareholder base the opportunity to participate in the growth of the Company at the same price and terms as the Placement."*To view details of the placement, please visit:About Horizon Minerals Limited

Horizon Minerals Limited (ASX:HRZ) is a gold exploration and mining company focussed on the Kalgoorlie and Menzies areas of Western Australia which are host to some of Australia's richest gold deposits. The Company is developing a mining pipeline of projects to generate cash and self-fund aggressive exploration, mine developments and further acquisitions. The Teal gold mine has been recently completed.

Horizon is aiming to significantly grow its JORC-Compliant Mineral Resources, complete definitive feasibility studies on core high grade open cut and underground projects and build a sustainable development pipeline.

Horizon has a number of joint ventures in place across multiple commodities and regions of Australia providing exposure to Vanadium, Copper, PGE's, Gold and Nickel/Cobalt. Our quality joint venture partners are earning in to our project areas by spending over $20 million over 5 years enabling focus on the gold business while maintaining upside leverage.


Acquires Leading Vet Clinic in Major Victorian Growth Corridor

Bendigo, June 24, 2022 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Just days after successfully raising $20m from investors keen for a slice of Apiam Animal Health Limited ( ASX:AHX ) and their rapidly growing business, the vet clinic operator has secured a prized asset in one of Victoria's fastest growing regions located just 40km north of the CBD.The Vet Practice is a full-service companion animal clinic located in Whittlesea which is a fast-growth peri-urban region popular amongst Victorians that want regional lifestyles but still just a 40 minute drive into Melbourne. In recent years the City of Whittlesea has been one of the fastest growing municipalities in Australia and it is forecast to continue to grow rapidly - by 55.9% between 2022 and 2041.So quickly have Melbournians been moving towards the outer northern suburbs, The Vet Practice employs 48 staff which includes 12 veterinarians and 20 vet nurses to deal with the burgeoning growth in local animal numbers - key criteria to Apiam's growth strategy where they target these growth metrics."The acquisition of The Vet Practice aligns with our strategy to enter regional veterinary markets where rapid population growth is driving strong increases in local animal numbers," said Apiam Managing Director, Dr Chris Richards."The fact that The Vet Practice is also a leading companion animal clinic with a full-service offering means its services can be leveraged across our adjacent clinic network."Apiam continues to deliver strong organic growth across our companion animal services and it is acquisitions such as The Vet Practice that are expected to contribute to our accelerated growth strategy to achieve $300 million in revenue by FY24 and deliver increased operating margins."Further evidence of the rising demand amongst Victorians to relocate to Whittlesea is the increased house prices within the suburb. According to the Real Estate Institute of Victoria, the median sale price for houses over the March quarter in Whittlesea was $805k, an 11.8% QoQ increase. In comparison, the median sale price for houses in Metropolitan Melbourne decreased 0.3% to $1.12m over the same period.In many cases, residents moving into regional Victoria are either bringing pets with them, or adopting them for the first time as evidenced by a 15% increase in pet ownership during the pandemic according to Animal Medicines Australia. This increase has contributed significantly to Apiam's companion animal services which has become Apiam's fastest-growing division where margins improve upon integrating Apiam's centralised support services.The Vet Practice is expected to add $7.9m in revenue and $1.3m in normalised EBITDA to Apiam on a FY22 pro forma basis. It will also take Apiam's proforma FY22 revenue to approximately $178 million, and on track towards their $300m target by FY24.Total consideration for the Acquisition is $8.3 million, to be paid as $7.1m in cash and $1.2m in Apiam shares which will be subject to a minimum escrow period of 12 months, with 50% subject to an escrow period of 24 months. It also represents an implied EBITDA acquisition multiple of 6.2x which is attractive for Apiam shareholders with the expected organic growth synergies expected to be delivered post integration.Upon settlement of the acquisition expected on 1 July 2022, Apiam will commence rolling out its organic growth initiatives at The Vet Practice which will eventually include marketing, supply chain and human resources support. Separately, Apiam already operates several clinics within Victoria's north which will provide cross-referral opportunities between clinics to gain access to specialist animal services.Being a full-service companion animal veterinary clinic, The Vet Practice operates an animal hospital and canine rehabilitation centre from its Whittlesea premises. Services offered include regenerative medicine, hyperbaric medicine, arthroscopy, hydrotherapy and endoscopy as well as general pet healthcare.The acquisition of The Vet Practice continues a strong run of acquisitions where Apiam is capitalising on the animal healthcare market which has proven resilient during COVID-19 and with current market forces. Just last month, Apiam acquired Victorian Equine Group and Romsey Veterinary Surgery to form their newest Equine Hub in Victoria.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.
Deputies say a man killed his girlfriend and drove around with her body in the car for hours  getting food and lighter fluid  before dumping the 20-year-old in Sandoval County and trying to light the car on fire in Corrales.

Jonathan Martinez, 21, is charged with an open count of murder, tampering with evidence and false imprisonment in the April 15 death of Yasmin Marquez.

Marquez had been reported missing and her body was found May 26 beneath debris in the mesa along U.S. 550, a few miles west of Rio Rancho. Court records do not detail a cause of death and Martinezs attorney could not be reached Thursday.

Martinez has been behind bars at the Metropolitan Detention Center since early May in a separate homicide.

In that case, Martinez is accused in a July 2021 shooting that left Trevonte Robbins, 19, dead and an officer injured when his patrol vehicle was struck by gunfire.

In 2019, Martinez was accused of shooting a gun during a road rage incident with a man and his mother, but the case was dropped when the pair did not cooperate, according to court records.

On April 15, Marquezs mother reported her missing when she didnt answer her phone and her car was not at the family home, according to an arrest warrant affidavit filed in Metropolitan Court. The mother told deputies that Marquez had previously run off to Juarez, Mexico, with Martinez after he was accused in the 2021 homicide.

She said Marquez returned home in early April because she did not feel safe, telling family and friends that Martinez would lock her in the house in Mexico, and had pointed a gun at her head. A friend told deputies Marquez texted her on April 15 that Martinez was in town and, later, that Imma get killed.

Deputies found Marquezs abandoned, partially burned car the next day in Corrales, according to the affidavit. Martinez was arrested May 2 and found with Marquezs phone.

Deputies said they traced the phones locations and found the pair met at Kirtland Park on April 15 before they went to Pajarito Mesa. In the hours after, surveillance footage showed Martinez buying food at McDonalds and lighter fluid from a Walmart in Bernalillo.

On May 26, detectives got data from Martinezs phone showing he stopped along U.S. 550 after leaving the Walmart, according to the complaint. Detectives went to the area and immediately encountered the smell and odor of decomposition.

Deputies said Marquezs body was found beneath a pile of roofing debris. A medical investigator found no obvious signs of trauma.

In Marquezs phone, deputies found screenshots of messages from Martinezs Facebook profile, telling Marquez, You dont love me and I aint good enough for you so ima just kill you.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

Two teens shot and killed near Cottonwood Mall on Mothers Day.

A New Mexico State Police officer gunned down during a traffic stop.

Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., took to the Senate floor on Thursday and talked about how a bipartisan gun control measure being considered by the Senate could have had an affect on high-profile gun crimes that have been committed in the state. Heinrich was part of a bipartisan team of senators who negotiated the bill in the wake of horrific mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas.

The Senate approved the measure Thursday night, with 15 Republicans voting for the bill. It now heads to the House, where a vote is expected Friday.

The measure would do things like beef up background checks on people under 21 seeking to buy firearms and provide funding and training to states for what Heinrich called crisis-intervention laws, which allow authorities to take firearms from people who have been found to be a threat to themselves or others. The bill would also allow guns to be taken from dating partners who are subject to orders of protection or have a history of domestic violence and provide funding for mental health services and school security, among other measures.

Heinrich focused on a recent shooting in Albuquerque that left two teens dead.

Bradley Wallin, 53, shot and killed Alexia Rael, 17, and Mario Salgado-Rosales, 16, in the West Side parking lot last month before turning the gun on himself, according to police.

Raels mother had taken out an order of protection against Wallin on April 4, accusing him of threatening Rael. The Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office was investigating claims that Wallin had abused Rael.

The protection order also said that Wallin had at least one firearm.

Heinrich said law enforcement could have filed a petition, and then had a hearing before a judge, to take away Wallins firearms. But the New Mexico law allowing for such actions has been rarely used since it was enacted two years ago.

Unfortunately, the local sheriffs office failed to recognize the threat that he posed, and didnt use our states law to remove the firearms that he used to take the lives of two young New Mexicans, he said.

New Mexicos senior senator said the gun control measure provides funding and training to make those types of laws, sometimes called red-flag laws, more effective.

A spokeswoman for the Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office didnt respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Heinrich also mentioned State Police Officer Darian Jarrott, who was shot and killed by a convicted felon during a traffic stop on Interstate 10 east of Deming in 2021.

He said the suspects wife purchased firearms for Omar Cueva because he was a convicted felon and couldnt buy one.

Heinrich said the wife, Laura Swanquist-Chavez, 35, is currently being prosecuted on a minor paperwork offense for buying that gun. He said the gun control measure would increase such penalties.

She would be facing more severe and deserved consequences for her role in the death of a State Police officer, he said.

Swanquist-Chavez has pleaded guilty to purchasing two firearms for Cueva, according to court records. A sentencing date hasnt been scheduled, according to a federal court website.

Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., also voted for the bill, which is being called the most significant gun legislation in decades.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  John Eastman, a lawyer who advised former President Donald Trump in his failed bid to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, is a registered New Mexico voter with a residence in one of the states most liberal enclaves.

State voting records show Eastman is a registered Republican who has cast ballots in every local and statewide New Mexico election since November 2018  including casting an Election Day ballot in this years June 7 primary election.

His residence in Santa Fe is in the capital citys north side  not far from the state Governors Mansion.

An individual who answered the intercom at Eastmans gated house on Thursday afternoon said Eastman was not available.

Attorneys for Eastman also did not respond to Journal questions about his New Mexico residence and his role in Trumps post-election attempt to remain president.

Eastman has been a central figure in the U.S. House Select Committees investigation into the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 of last year, which has revealed several New Mexico connections.

On Thursday, records released by the committee showed former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows had sent to acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen a list of voting-related complaints compiled by New Mexico Republican Party Chairman Steve Pearce. In the email, Meadows told Rosen to forward the allegations to his team for review.

The allegations include unsubstantiated claims of voting irregularities, such as multiple alleged cases of dead people voting.

As for Eastman, his signed declaration to the congressional panel investigating the events of Jan. 6, 2021, was executed in New Mexico on Jan. 22 of this year, according to a copy of the document.

Among other things, Eastman drafted a legal memo that sought to build a case for ex-Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the results when electoral votes were to be certified on Jan. 6, 2021.

Pence ultimately rebuffed the pressure and certified results that showed Democrat Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election.

Eastman, who was a law professor in California and previously clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, later sought a preemptive presidential pardon for his post-election activities from Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, but reportedly did not receive one.

Ive decided I should be on the pardon list if thats still in the works, Eastman wrote in an email that was presented as evidence by the Jan. 6 committee.

While he has been under national scrutiny, Eastman appears to have kept a low political profile in New Mexico.

Alex Curtas, a spokesman for Secretary of State Maggie Toulosue Oliver, said the office has not had any communication with him.

A spokesman for New Mexicos Republican Party declined to comment Thursday as to whether Eastman has played any official or unofficial role in the state GOP in recent years.

The state GOP spokesman also wouldnt comment on whether Eastman was involved in New Mexicos five designated Republican presidential electors convening in December 2020 to cast votes for Trump, despite that Biden won New Mexico and its five electoral votes by a comfortable margin of 11 percentage points  or more than 99,000 votes.

New Mexico was one of seven states won by Biden in which designated GOP presidential electors convened to cast votes for Trump after the 2020 election.

Unlike New Mexico, however, the six other states in which Republican electors convened to sign election certificates were all hotly-contested swing states  Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Prosecutors in several of those states, including New Mexico, have referred to federal law enforcement allegations that Republicans submitted a false document intended to deliver more electoral votes to Trump.

In addition, Thomas Lane, who worked on behalf of the Trump campaign in Arizona and New Mexico, was one of several people who were hit with grand jury subpoenas this week as part of a U.S. Justice Department probe into the Trump teams plan to overturn the 2020 election results, according to reports from the Washington Post and New York Times.

Under New Mexico law, it is a fourth-degree felony for designated electors to cast their ballot for anyone other than the presidential candidate who received the majority of the votes cast in the state.

However, the five New Mexico GOP electors added a caveat to their 2020 certification that they were only casting votes in the event that legal challenges changed the outcome of the presidential election.
KYIV, Ukraine  After weeks of ferocious fighting, Ukrainian forces have begun retreating from a besieged city in the countrys east to move to stronger positions, a regional official said Friday, the four-month mark in Russias invasion.

The planned withdrawal from Sievierodonetsk, the administrative center of the Luhansk region, comes after relentless Russian bombardment that has reduced most of the industrial city to rubble and cut its population from 100,0000 to 10,000. Ukrainian troops fought the Russians in house-to-house battles before retreating to the huge Azot chemical factory on the citys edge, where they remain holed up in its sprawling underground structures in which about 500 civilians also found refuge.

In recent days, Russian forces have made gains around Sievierodonetsk and the neighboring city of Lysychansk, on a steep bank across a river, in a bid to encircle Ukrainian forces.

Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk have been the focal point of the Russian offensive aimed at capturing all of the Donbas and destroying the Ukrainian military defending it  the most capable and battle-hardened segment of the countrys armed forces. The two cities and surrounding areas are the last major pockets of Ukrainian resistance in the Luhansk region  95% of which is under Russian and local separatist forces control. The Russians and separatists also control about half of the Donetsk region, the second province in the Donbas.

Russia used its numerical advantages in troops and weapons to pummel Sievierodonetsk in what has become a war of attrition, while Ukraine clamored for better and more weapons from its Western allies. Bridges to the city were destroyed, slowing the Ukrainian militarys ability to resupply, reinforce and evacuate the wounded and others. Much of the citys electricity, water and communications infrastructure has been destroyed.

Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said Ukrainian troops have been ordered to leave Sievierodonetsk to prevent bigger losses and move to better fortified positions. The head of the regional administration, Roman Vlasenko, said the withdrawal has already begun and will take several days.

As of now, the Ukrainian military still remains in Sievierodonetsk, Vlasenko told CNN. They are being withdrawn from the city at the moment. It started yesterday.

Ukraines military spokesman declined to confirm the retreat order, saying government policy prevents comments on Ukrainian troop movements.

Regrettably, we will have to pull our troops out of Sievierodonetsk, Haidai told The Associated Press. It makes no sense to stay at the destroyed positions, and the number of killed in action has been growing.

A senior U.S. defense official, speaking in Washington on condition of anonymity, on Friday called the Ukrainians move a tactical retrograde to consolidate forces into positions where they can better defend themselves. This will add to Ukraines effort to keep Russian forces pinned down longer in a small area, the official said.

Haidai noted that while the retreat is under way, some Ukrainian troops remain in Sievierodonetsk, facing Russian bombardment that has destroyed 80% of buildings.

As of today, the resistance in Sievierodonetsk is continuing, Haidai told the AP. The Russians are relentlessly shelling the Ukrainian positions, burning everything out.

Haidai said the Russians are also advancing toward Lysychansk  from Zolote and Toshkivka  adding that Russian reconnaissance units conducted forays on the citys edges but its defenders drove them out. The governor added that a bridge leading to Lysychansk was badly damaged in a Russian airstrike and is unusable for trucks. Ukrainian military analyst Oleg Zhdanov told the AP that some of the troops moving away from Sievierodonetsk are heading to the fight in Lysychansk.

In other battlefield reports, the Russian Defense Ministry declared Friday that four Ukrainian battalions and a unit of foreign mercenaries totaling about 2,000 soldiers have been fully blocked near Hirske and Zolote, south of Lysychansk. The claim couldnt be independently verified.

Following a botched attempt to capture Kyiv, Ukraines capital, in the early stage of the invasion that started Feb. 24, Russian forces have shifted their focus to the Donbas, where the Ukrainian forces have fought Moscow-backed separatists since 2014.

After repeated requests to its Western allies for heavier weaponry to counter Russias edge in firepower, four medium-range American rocket launchers have arrived, with four more on the way. The senior U.S. defense official said Friday that more Ukrainian forces are training outside Ukraine to use the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, and are expected back in their country with the weapons by mid-July.

The rockets can travel about 45 miles (70 kilometers). Also to be sent are 18 U.S. coastal and river patrol boats. The official said there is no evidence Russia has been successful in intercepting any of what has been a steady flow of military aid into Ukraine from the U.S. and other nations. Russia has repeatedly threatened to strike, or actually claimed to have hit, such shipments.

IN OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

The day after Ukraine was approved as a candidate to join the European Union, Zelenskyy urged Ukrainians not to focus on all that still must be done before the country is accepted into the EU but to quietly celebrate the moment and be proud of how far Ukraine has already come in moving away from its Soviet past.

Do not be happy that this is a slap in the face for Moscow but be proud that this is applause for Ukraine, he said in his nightly video address. Let it inspire you. We deserve it. Please smile and let God bless us all with a quiet night. Then tomorrow, again into battle. With new strength, with new wings.

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In Tbilisi, Georgia, another former Soviet republic that has applied to join the EU, thousands of people rallied on Friday to demand the resignation of the prime minister over his governments failure to implement the necessary reforms for Georgia to join Ukraine in being accepted as a candidate for EU membership. The European Council this week said Georgia had more work to do before it would be given candidate status.

Zelenskyy addressed the rally by video, expressing his support for Georgia and thanking the Georgians who have come to Ukraine to join the fight against Russia. Russia invaded Georgia in 2008 and now effectively controls two breakaway territories.

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Zelenskyy urged music fans at the Glastonbury Festival to spread the truth about Russias war. Speaking to the crowd at the British music extravaganza by video on Friday before a set by The Libertines, Zelenskyy said, We in Ukraine would also like to live the life as we used to and enjoy freedom and this wonderful summer, but we cannot do that because the most terrible has happened  Russia has stolen our peace.

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An official with the pro-Moscow administration in the southern city of Kherson, which was captured by Russian troops early in the invasion, was killed in an explosion Friday. The pro-Russian regional administration in Kherson said that Dmitry Savlyuchenko died when his vehicle exploded in what it described as a terror attack. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

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Yuras Karmanau reported from Lviv.

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Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
LONDON  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson suffered a double blow as voters rejected his Conservative Party in two special parliamentary elections dominated by questions about his leadership and ethics.

He was further wounded when the partys chairman quit after the results came out early Friday, saying Conservatives cannot carry on with business as usual, and a former party leader said the country needed new leadership.

The centrist Liberal Democrats overturned a big Conservative majority to win the rural southwest England seat of Tiverton and Honiton, while the main opposition Labour Party reclaimed Wakefield in northern England from Johnsons Tories.

The contests, triggered by the resignations of Conservative lawmakers hit by sex scandals, offered voters the chance to give their verdict on the prime minister just weeks after 41% of his own MPs voted to oust him.

The people of Tiverton and Honiton have spoken for Britain, said the areas newly elected Liberal Democrat lawmaker, Richard Foord. They sent a loud and clear message: Its time for Boris Johnson to go, and go now.

Defeat in either district would have been a setback for the prime ministers party. Losing both increases jitters among restive Conservatives who already worry the ebullient but erratic and divisive Johnson is no longer an electoral asset.

Party chairman Oliver Dowden resigned, saying our supporters are distressed and disappointed by recent events, and I share their feelings.

We cannot carry on with business as usual, said Dowden, previously a staunch Johnson loyalist.

I will, as always, remain loyal to the Conservative Party, he said, without offering an endorsement of Johnson.

Former Conservative leader Michael Howard, who like Johnson was a strong backer of Britains exit from the European Union, urged the party to remove him as leader.

The party, and more importantly the country, would be better off under new leadership, Howard told the BBC.

The prime minister was 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers) away at a Commonwealth summit in Rwanda as the drama unfolded.

The electoral tests came as Britain faces the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation, with Russias war in Ukraine squeezing supplies of energy and food staples at a time of soaring consumer demand while the coronavirus pandemic recedes.

Im not going to pretend these are brilliant results, Johnson said at a news conference in Kigali. Weve got to listen, weve got to learn.  When people are finding it tough, they send messages to politicians, and politicians have got to respond.

Johnson won a big majority in a 2019 general election by keeping the Conservatives traditional voters  affluent, older and concentrated in southern England  and winning new ones in poorer, post-industrial northern towns where many residents felt overlooked by governments for decades.

Thursdays elections brought defeat on both fronts. Rural Tiverton and Honiton has voted Conservative for generations, while Wakefield is a northern district that the Tories won in 2019 from Labour.

Labours widely expected victory in Wakefield  whose previous Conservative legislator resigned after being convicted of sexual assault  is a boost to a party that has been out of office nationally since 2010.

Labour leader Keir Starmer said it showed the party is back on the side of working people, winning seats where we lost before, and ready for government.

Pollsters had said the Tiverton and Honiton race was tight, but the Liberal Democrats overturned a 24,000-vote Conservative majority to win by more than 6,000 votes. The election was called when the districts Conservative lawmaker resigned after being caught looking at pornography in the House of Commons chamber.

Even with the defeats, which erode his already shaky authority among his own lawmakers, Johnson his party holds a large majority in Parliament. But Conservatives are increasingly concerned that the qualities that led them to make Johnson their leader  including a populist ability to bend the rules and get away with it  may now be a liability.

Ethics allegations have buffeted the prime minister for months, culminating in a scandal over parties held in government buildings while millions of others were banned from meeting friends and family during coronavirus lockdowns.

Johnson was one of 83 people fined by police for attending the parties, making him the first prime minister found to have broken the law while in office. A civil servants report on the partygate scandal said Johnson must bear responsibility for failures of leadership and judgment that created a culture of rule-breaking in government.

He survived a no-confidence vote by his own party this month but was left weakened after 41% of Conservative lawmakers voted to remove him.

Under party rules, Johnson cant face another such vote for a year, but Fridays defeats will increase pressure to change that.

These are pretty dire results, said Conservative lawmaker Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, a senior member of the committee that oversees party no-confidence votes.

Serious discussions will be had in the next few days and weeks and then we will all have to make difficult decisions, he said.

Johnson also faces a parliamentary ethics probe that could conclude he deliberately misled Parliament over partygate  traditionally a resigning offense.

Conservative lawmaker Roger Gale, a long-time Johnson critic, reiterated his calls for the prime minister to quit now.

The soul of our party is at stake, he said.
In the two years documentary filmmakers shadowed former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, the most jarring moment for them was in the kitchen of her Tucson, Arizona, home.

As cameras were rolling, she and her husband, Sen. Mark Kelly, nonchalantly opened the freezer. Kelly grabbed a plastic container and revealed it holds the piece of Giffords skull that had to be removed after she was shot.

This stays in here next to the empanadas and the sliced mango, Kelly said.

Giffords response was Sera, sera, referencing the song Que sera, sera or What will be, will be.

The scene from the film is emblematic of Giffords openness to reflect on but not languish in the 2011 shooting that changed her life. That desire is what led her to allow cameras into her life for two years  all as a pandemic was progressing.

For me it has been really important to move ahead, to not look back, Giffords told The Associated Press while in Los Angeles to promote the film. I hope others are inspired to keep moving forward no matter what.

From the filmmakers behind Academy Award-nominated Ruth Bader Ginsburg documentary RBG, the film Gabby Giffords Wont Back Down is partly an intimate look at Giffords recovery after the January 2011 shooting that left six people dead and 13 others wounded outside a Tucson supermarket. But the movie, which arrives in theaters July 15, is also an insider view of how she and Kelly navigated gun control campaigns and later a Senate campaign. The movie could not be any timelier with gun reform being debated in government, schools and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Its just a fascinating story about how Gabby came back from an injury that so many people just dont even survive, said Betsy West, a co-director. After meeting Gabby on Zoom, we saw just what a great communicator she is. And we had a sense that we might have a lot of fun despite the very difficult subject of gun violence.

At the same time, they wanted to strike the right balance of how much to look back at the shooting.

We certainly didnt want to shy away from January 8. Obviously, thats something that changed her life, said Julie Cohen, the films other director. But Gabby is defined ultimately by everything that shes achieved before and after that. We wanted it to show that achievement.

The film also doesnt avoid discussing Jared Lee Loughner, the gunman in the Tucson shooting. Interviews with law enforcement, journalists and a video made by Loughner lay out how he was able to buy a semiautomatic weapon despite a history of mental illness. He was sentenced in 2012 to life in federal prison without parole.

We did not want to dwell on the shooter, but we also wanted to explain what had happened, West said. Gabby and Mark did not shy away from going to the sentencing hearing to make a very impassioned plea for life imprisonment. That was a very important part of the film.

Recent mass shootings including the deaths of 19 schoolchildren and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, and 10 supermarket shoppers  all Black  in Buffalo, New York, have put gun violence back at the forefront. The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a New York gun permitting law. The case involves a state law that makes it difficult for people to get a permit to carry a gun outside the home. The justices said that requirement violates the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

The House on Friday sent President Joe Biden the most wide-ranging gun violence bill Congress has passed in decades. It came a day after the U.S. Senate easily passed it. It took weeks of closed-door talks to lead to an incremental but landmark package in response to mass shootings.

Much like after Uvalde, the documentary recaps how gun control debates reached a fever pitch after 20 first graders and six educators were shot to death by a gunman at a Newtown, Connecticut, school. Giffords and other advocates, including some Newtown parents, were called props by National Rifle Association officials. Having spent time with Giffords and others impacted by gun violence, the films directors say their voices are central to the discourse.

To say that somehow Gabby shouldnt be speaking about gun violence because shes experienced violence? It just doesnt make any sense, Cohen said.

A crucial element of the documentary came from videos Kelly had of Giffords in the Tucson hospital and at a rehab facility in Houston. These included then-President Barack Obama  who is interviewed in the film  and Michelle Obamas visit to an unconscious Giffords bedside. They also include the first few months of speech therapy.

The bullet penetrated the left hemisphere of Giffords brain that services language ability, causing her to suffer from aphasia. You see in old videos Giffords sob out of frustration as she struggles to read and get stuck on saying chicken.

Giffords said watching those videos can make her sad, but she is determined to be upbeat.

Im getting better. Im getting (better) slowly but Im getting (better) surely, Giffords said.

Giffords is the third movie West and Cohen have produced on a female icon. Last year, they released Julia, a documentary on the influence of TV chef and author Julia Child. RBG was a critical and commercial hit when it came out four years ago. The filmmakers say while Giffords and Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg, who died in 2020 at age 87, are very different personalities, they think viewers will see a lot of similarities. They both have toughness, persistence, optimism and are at the heart of feminist love stories.

Giffords often has to remind people that she still has a voice even if speaking doesnt come easily  whether its on gun safety or other issues. She said she genuinely feels the climate is different now but people have to be patient because change is slow, and Washington, D.C., is really slow.

She plans to refocus on making tougher federal background checks a reality through her Gun Owners for Safety coalition. The bill the Senate approved would only strengthen background checks for buyers age 18 to 20.

If theres one message she wants viewers to take from the documentary, its fight, fight, fight every day, Giffords said.

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This story has been updated to correct the number of students and educators killed in Newtown, Connecticut.
New Mexico politicians and other officials had strong reactions to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which recognized a womans constitutional right to an abortion nationwide. Heres what they had to say.

This ruling will destroy both lives and livelihoods. Make no mistake: this is a war on women. The effort is not to protect life but to diminish it, to control women and relegate them as second-class citizens.  Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham

Todays court ruling paves the way for a measured dialogue on the issue of abortion that will save lives and should result in policies that are more mainstream and reflect our shared values. As governor, I would seek a middle ground with our legislature that ends the practice of late-term and partial-birth abortion  Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Ronchetti

Todays Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade creates medical uncertainty and chaos throughout our nation. I want to assure New Mexico women and their families that I will continue to fight for their rights to adequate health services that are protected under New Mexico law.  New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas

Like the overwhelming majority of the American people, I believe that a woman has a right to make her own health care decisions without the government getting between her and her medical providers. But with todays decision, and as MAGA state legislatures across the country continue passing stricter abortion laws, we enter dangerous territory that could put some women who seek an abortion behind bars.  U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M.

Todays decision by the conservative majority on the Supreme Court has shamefully taken our country backwards  undermining nearly 50 years of legal precedent and putting the most vulnerable at risk by rolling back womens reproductive rights. This decision shows how out-of-touch extremist conservative justices and politicians are with the American people who overwhelmingly support Roe.  U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M.

Today, life wins  now, it is our responsibility as Americans to build a society where every mother and her child are protected, supported, and loved.  U.S. Rep. Yvette Herrell, R-N.M.

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned an outdated opinion and rightfully returned the issue of abortion to the states. Tragically, in New Mexico, Planned Parenthood and radical progressives have worked overtime to ensure that nothing will change in response to this historic decision.  State Sen. Crystal Diamond, R-Elephant Butte

The decision is in the best interest of America, and the high courts Justices have fulfilled their duty to protect the lives of the unborn and to abolish the horrors of abortion. Abortion is wrong on moral grounds, and I and everyone who stand for life am pleased at the outcome in this important ruling.  Republican Party of New Mexico Chairman Steve Pearce

Deeply disappointed by the Supreme Courts ruling, but grateful for leaders in this state who understand the importance of protecting reproductive rights.  Mayor Tim Keller

The Supreme Court of the United States decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization affirms our belief that life is precious, valuable, and should be protected at all stages  This has been the Churchs prayer for the last 50 years.  Archbishop of Santa Fe John C. Wester
DEVELOPING... Story will be updated as new information can be verified. Updated 4 times

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that had provided a constitutional right to abortion. The ruling is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states, although the timing of those laws taking effect varies.

Some Republican-led states will ban or severely limit abortion immediately, while other restrictions will take effect later. At least one state, Texas, is waiting until after the Supreme Court issues its formal judgment in the case, which is separate from the opinion issued Friday and could take about a month.

In anticipation of the decision, several states led by Democrats have taken steps to protect abortion access. The decision also sets up the potential for legal fights between the states over whether providers and those who help women obtain abortions can be sued or prosecuted.

Here is an overview of abortion legislation and the expected impact of the courts decision in every state.

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ALABAMA

Political control: Alabama has a Republican-controlled legislature and a Republican governor who want to ban or restrict access to abortions.

Background: In 2019, Alabama lawmakers approved what was then the most stringent abortion ban in the country, making it a felony to perform an abortion at any stage of pregnancy with no exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. The only exception would be when the womans health was at serious risk. A federal judge issued an injunction, under the precedent of Roe v. Wade, blocking the state from enforcing the law. In 2018, voters agreed to amend the Alabama Constitution to say the state recognizes the rights of unborn children and does not protect the right to an abortion or require the funding of abortion. A 1951 law made it a crime, punishable by up to 12 months in prison, to induce an abortion, unless it is done to preserve the life or health of the mother.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Abortions became almost entirely illegal in Alabama on Friday. A 2019 state abortion ban took effect making it a felony to perform an abortion at any stage of pregnancy, with no exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest. All three clinics stopped providing abortions Friday morning under fear of prosecution under the 1951 state law. U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson hours later granted Alabamas request to lift an injunction and allow the state to enforce the 2019 abortion ban. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said it is now a felony to provide an abortion in Alabama beyond the one exception allowed in the 2019 law, which is for the sake of the mothers health. Doctors who violate the law could face up to 99 years in prison. Marshall said the state would also move to lift other injunctions that blocked previous abortion restrictions, including a requirement for doctors who perform abortions to have hospital admitting privileges.

Whats next: Some Republican lawmakers have said they would like to see the state replace the 2019 ban with a slightly less stringent bill that would allow exceptions in cases of rape or incest. Proponents said the 2019 ban was deliberately strict in the hopes of sparking a court challenge to Roe.

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ALASKA

Political control: Republicans currently hold a majority of seats in the state Legislature, but the House is controlled by a bipartisan coalition composed largely of Democrats. Fifty-nine of the Legislatures 60 seats are up for election this year. Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican who believes life begins at conception, is seeking reelection.

Background: The Alaska Supreme Court has interpreted the right to privacy in the state constitution as encompassing abortion rights.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The U.S. Supreme Courts decision is not expected to immediately affect abortion rights in Alaska, given the existing precedent in the state.

Whats next: Voters in the fall will be asked if they want to hold a constitutional convention, a question that comes up every 10 years. Many conservatives who want to overhaul how judges are selected and do away with the interpretation that the constitutions right to privacy clause allows for abortion rights see an opportunity in pushing for a convention. Recent efforts to advance a constitutional amendment through the Legislature have been unsuccessful.

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ARIZONA

Political control: Both legislative chambers are controlled by Republicans, who regularly pass abortion restrictions that for the past eight sessions have been quickly signed by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, an abortion opponent.

Background: Arizona law allows abortion through about 22 weeks, but the Legislature passed a 15-week abortion ban in March mirroring the Mississippi law that was contested before the U.S. Supreme Court. It will take effect 90 days after the Legislature adjourns, which it did Saturday. Current restrictions include bans on abortions because of gender and a 2021 law that makes it a felony for a doctor to terminate a pregnancy because the child has a survivable genetic abnormality. Arizona also has a pre-statehood law still on the books that would ban all abortions, although it has not been enforced since Roe was decided.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Ducey has argued in media interviews that the law he signed in late March takes precedence over the total ban that remains on the books. But the law he signed specifically says it does not overrule the total abortion ban in place for more than 100 years. Ducey is term-limited and leaves office in January. Abortion providers across the state stopped all procedures after the court ruled Friday because of concerns that the pre-Roe ban could put doctors, nurses and other providers at risk of prosecution.

Whats next: Abortion-rights supporters in Arizona have launched a long-shot bid to enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution. Rolled out weeks after the draft U.S. Supreme Court decision showing Roe could be overturned was leaked, backers must collect more than 356,000 signatures by July 7 to get the initiative on the November ballot. Voters would then be able to decide.

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ARKANSAS

Political control: Arkansas legislature is controlled by Republicans who have supported dozens of abortion bans and restrictions in recent years. Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson also has supported bans on abortion with some exceptions. Hes term-limited and leaves office in January. Republican nominee Sarah Sanders, press secretary to former President Donald Trump, is widely favored in the November election to succeed him.

Background: Arkansas already had a law banning most abortions 20 weeks into a womans pregnancy, with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. The state has several other bans that have been struck down or blocked by courts in recent years, including an outright abortion ban enacted last year that doesnt include rape or incest exceptions. That ban has been blocked by a federal judge, and the state has appealed.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Arkansas has a law it enacted in 2019 that bans nearly all abortions now that Roe is overturned. That ban, along with the outright ban thats been blocked by a federal judge, only allows exceptions to protect the life of the mother in a medical emergency. Hutchinson has said he thinks bans should include rape and incest exceptions, but he has not called on the Legislature to add those to either of the bans.

Whats next: Hours after Fridays ruling, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge signed certification that Roe had been overturned. That certification allows the states trigger ban to take effect immediately. The only exception in that ban is to protect the life of the mother in a medical emergency. The Legislature isnt scheduled to meet until January, but Hutchinson is considering calling a special session to take up tax relief proposals. The Republican governor said Friday he does not plan on asking lawmakers to consider adding rape and incest exceptions to the states ban.

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CALIFORNIA

Political control: Democrats who support access to abortion control all statewide elected offices and have large majorities in the state Legislature.

Background: California outlawed abortion in 1850, except when the life of the mother was in danger. The law changed in 1967 to include abortions in the case of rape, incest or if a womans mental health were in danger. In 1969, the California Supreme Court declared the states original abortion law to be unconstitutional but left the 1967 law in place. In 1972, California voters added a right to privacy to the state constitution. Since then, the state Supreme Court has interpreted that right to privacy as a right to access abortion, allow minors to get an abortion without their parents permission and use public funding for abortions in the states Medicaid program. California now requires private health insurance plans to cover abortions and does not allow them to charge things such as co-pays or deductibles for the procedure.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Abortion will remain legal in California prior to the viability of a fetus. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has vowed to make California a sanctuary for women who live in other states where abortion is outlawed or severely restricted. The number of women who travel to the state for abortions is expected to rise significantly.

Whats next: The state Legislature is considering 13 bills that would strengthen or expand access to abortion. The bills are based on a report from the Future of Abortion Council, which Newsom formed last year to study reproductive rights in California. They include proposals that would help pay for women from other states to come to California for abortions, ban enforcement of out-of-state civil judgments on California abortion providers and volunteers, and increase the number of people who can offer abortions by authorizing some nurse practitioners to perform the procedure without the supervision of a doctor. Lawmakers also plan to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot in November that would explicitly guarantee the right to an abortion and contraceptives.

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COLORADO

Political control: The Democrats who control the Colorado Legislature support access to abortion, as does the states Democratic governor.

Background: A 1967 state law legalized abortion up to 16 weeks of pregnancy. Abortion has been accessible ever since, despite repeated legislative attempts and ballot initiatives to restrict or abolish the procedure. Colorado voters have consistently rejected such initiatives, the latest in 2020 that would have banned abortion during the third trimester of pregnancy. In 2022, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed a law placing the right to abortion in state statute. The law guarantees access to reproductive care before and after pregnancy and bans local governments from imposing their own restrictions. It also declares that fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses have no independent rights. Abortion rights advocates plan a 2024 ballot initiative to add abortion rights to the state constitution and repeal a 1980s constitutional amendment that bans public funding for abortion.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The decision wont have any immediate impact on Colorado law  but providers are preparing for a surge of out-of-state patients. Democratic House Majority Leader Daneya Esgar says lawmakers must consider how to invest in a health care workforce to ensure Colorado has the capacity to meet that anticipated demand. Colorados health department reports there were 11,580 abortions in the state in 2021; of those 14% were for non-residents. More than 900 of those non-residents were from Texas, Wyoming and Nebraska.

Whats next: Its impossible to predict how many more patients from states surrounding Colorado will potentially seek care now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned. But the Texas law could induce more people to come. Oklahoma now has an early pregnancy abortion ban; Utah and Wyoming have trigger laws banning abortion now Roe is overturned; the Kansas Constitution protects abortion rights, but Republican lawmakers placed on an August primary ballot an initiative to overturn it.

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CONNECTICUT

Political control: Democrats who control the Connecticut General Assembly support access to abortion, as does the states Democratic governor.

Background: Connecticut passed a law in 1990 giving women the legal right to abortion. Having passed with strong bipartisan support, it was lauded at the time for being a rare compromise between abortion rights advocates and opponents. It affirmed a womans unqualified right to an abortion prior to viability of the fetus, as well as later-term abortions necessary to preserve the life and health of the pregnant woman. It also repealed state laws predating Roe v. Wade that had made it a felony to have an abortion or to perform one and required that patients under 16 receive counseling about their options. This year, Gov. Ned Lamont signed legislation to protect medical providers and patients from out-of-state legal actions. The same law allows advanced practice registered nurses, nurse-midwives or physician assistants to perform aspiration abortions in the first 12 weeks of a pregnancy.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, a Democrat, has vowed to challenge any attempt to nullify Connecticuts abortion rights law. Lets not mince words. They will come for us, Tong warned abortion rights supporters during a recent news conference. We will fight that effort tooth-and-nail. Any court, any place, Connecticut will be there and will fight. The state is already involved in major abortion cases across the country. And while Connecticut is surrounded by mostly pro-abortion states, its still bracing for out-of-state patients seeking abortions now that Roe has been overturned.

Whats next: Connecticuts new law protecting abortion providers from other states bans takes effect on July 1. It creates a legal cause of action for providers and others sued in another state, enabling them to recover certain legal costs. It also limits the governors discretion to extradite someone accused of performing an abortion, as well as participation by Connecticut courts and agencies in those lawsuits. Theres discussion of possibly amending the states constitution to enshrine the right to abortion, making it more difficult to overturn, but that would be a multi-year process.

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DELAWARE

Political control: Democrats control the governors office and both chambers of the legislature in Delaware and have taken several steps to ensure access to abortion.

Background: In 2017, Delaware became the first state following the election of President Donald Trump to codify the right to an abortion. A bill signed by Gov. John Carney, a Catholic, guarantees the unfettered right to an abortion before a fetus is deemed viable. The law defines viability as the point in a pregnancy when, in a physicians good faith medical judgment, there is a reasonable likelihood that the fetus can survive outside the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures. The law also allows abortion after fetal viability if, in a doctors good faith medical judgment, abortion is necessary for the protection of the womans life or health, or if there is a reasonable likelihood that the fetus cannot survive without extraordinary medical measures. The law eliminated existing code restrictions on abortions, much of which had already been declared unenforceable by Delawares attorney general in 1973 following the Supreme Court rulings in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton. In April of this year, Carney signed a bill allowing physician assistants and advanced practice registered nurses to prescribe abortion-inducing medications including mifepristone and misoprostol.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: In Delaware, the privacy protections of Roe v. Wade are codified in state law, guaranteeing residents have access to legal abortion services even if Roe were to be undone at the federal level, Democratic lawmakers noted earlier this month in unveiling legislation further broadening access to abortions. The bill, which is likely to pass before the end of June, allows physician assistants, certified nurse practitioners and nurse midwifes to perform abortions before viability. It also includes various legal protections for abortion providers and patients, including out-of-state residents receiving abortions in Delaware. Those provisions include protections from civil actions in other states relating to the termination of a pregnancy, and protecting individuals from extradition to other states for criminal charges related to terminating a pregnancy.

Whats next: According to state health officials, 2,042 abortions were performed in Delaware in 2019, with 1,765 involving Delaware residents and 277 involving nonresidents. Delaware is not likely to see a huge influx of women traveling from out of state to get abortions if Roe v. Wade is overturned, given that neighboring Maryland and New Jersey also have liberal abortion-access laws. In neighboring Pennsylvania, where Republicans control both chambers of the Legislature, future abortion access could hinge on the outcome of this years gubernatorial contest.

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DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Political control: The local government in the nations capital is completely controlled by Democrats, with a Democratic mayor and the D.C. Council split between Democrats and nominal independent politicians, who are all, invariably, Democrats.

Background: Abortion is legal in the District of Columbia at all stages of pregnancy, a status that was upheld in the 1971 Supreme Court case United States v. Vuitch. However, the U.S. Congress has oversight power over D.C. laws and Congress has already banned the city from using local funds to pay for abortions for women on Medicaid.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Elected officials in Washington, D.C., fear Congress could move to restrict abortion access, particularly if Republicans recapture the House of Representatives in midterm elections later this year. President Joe Biden could theoretically veto such a move, but that protection is subject to political calculations and is not guaranteed.

Whats next: Local officials have pledged defiance against any sort of Congressional move to restrict local abortion access. The D.C. Council is considering legislation that would declare Washington, D.C., a sanctuary city for those coming from states where abortion is banned. According to federal data, most of the women getting abortions in Washington already are coming from out of state. Those numbers could increase, particularly if new Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin moves to restrict abortion access in neighboring Virginia.

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FLORIDA

Political control: Republicans control both chambers of the Florida Legislature and this year passed a ban on abortions after 15 weeks, which was signed into law by the states Republican governor.

Background: Abortion was legal in Florida until the 24th week of pregnancy, though lawmakers have been tightening access in recent years with bills requiring a one-day waiting period and requiring parents of a pregnant minor to be notified before an abortion can be provided. This year, in anticipation of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, the Legislature passed a ban on abortions after the 15th week, except to save the mothers life, prevent serious injury or if the fetus has a fatal abnormality. It does not allow for exemptions in cases where pregnancies were caused by rape or incest. Gov. Ron DeSantis called the legislation the most significant protections for life that have been enacted in this state in a generation.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The decision places Floridas 15-week ban on firm legal ground, at least under federal law. However, the legislation is already being challenged in state court on arguments that it violates a guarantee of the right to privacy under the state constitution.

Whats next: Floridas 15-week ban goes into effect on July 1, but challenges to that legislation are pending. Though only about 2% of Floridas abortions take place after 15th week, abortion rights advocates have expressed concern over declining access to the procedure not only for Floridians but for residents from nearby Southern states where restrictions have historically been stricter than in Florida.

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GEORGIA

Political control: Georgia has a Republican legislature and governor who support abortion restrictions, but all are up for election this November. Republicans are likely to retain legislative control, but theres a possibility a Democrat could become governor.

Background: Georgia lawmakers in 2019 passed a law by one vote that would ban most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, when fetal cardiac activity can be detected. The measure is unlike other so-called heartbeat bills in that it also contains language designating a fetus as a person for certain state-law purposes such as income tax deductions and child support. A federal judge quickly put the law on hold, saying it was unconstitutional, and the state appealed to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The 11th Circuit said it would wait to rule on the appeal pending a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Mississippi case.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The day the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Georgias attorney general asked the 11th Circuit to reverse the lower courts ruling and allow the states abortion law to take effect. That same day, the 11th Circuit directed the parties to file briefs within three weeks addressing what effect, if any, the Supreme Court decision has on the Georgia appeal. If the law takes effect, it would ban the large majority of abortions that currently take place in Georgia  about 87%, according to providers. The change could happen in the middle of tightly contested races in Georgia for governor and U.S. Senate. Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and challenger for governor Stacey Abrams say they want to secure abortion rights. Republican Senate challenger Herschel Walker and incumbent Republican Gov. Brian Kemp support restrictions.

Whats next: Some Republican lawmakers and candidates want Georgia to go further and ban abortion entirely, but Kemp is unlikely to call a special session before this Novembers general election. Lawmakers are likely to consider further action when they return for their annual session in January. The Legislature or courts will have to sort out whether the provisions designating a fetus as a person are workable.

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HAWAII

Political control: Hawaiis governor is a Democrat and Democrats control more than 90% of the seats in the state House and Senate.

Background: Hawaii legalized abortion in 1970, when it became the first state in the nation to allow the procedure at a womans request. The state allows abortion until a fetus would be viable outside the womb. After that, its legal if a patients life or health is in danger. For many years, only licensed physicians could perform the procedure. Last year, the state enacted a law allowing advanced practice care nurses to carry out in-clinic abortions during the first trimester. This helps women on more rural islands who have been flying to Honolulu to obtain abortions because of doctor shortages in their communities. The law allows the nurses to prescribe medication to end a pregnancy and to perform aspiration abortion, a type of minor surgery during which a vacuum is used to empty a womans uterus.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Existing Hawaii law allows abortions, but Gary Yamashiroya, a spokesperson for the state attorney generals office, has said the attorney general was carefully considering measures Hawaii might take to protect and strengthen reproductive rights if Roe ended. No matter the outcome, our state remains committed to reproductive freedom and choice, he said.

Whats next: Political support for abortion rights is strong. Anti-abortion bills are rarely heard at the state Legislature. When they have been, they havent made it out of committee. Gov. David Ige issued a statement supporting abortion rights when the Supreme Courts draft opinion overturning Roe leaked. No matter what the Supreme Court decides, I will fight to ensure a womans right to choose in the State of Hawaii, he said. The Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women earlier this month said 72% of the state Senate and 53% of state House members signed a pledge supporting abortion rights.

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IDAHO

Political control: Republicans hold super-majorities in the House and Senate and oppose access to abortion, as does the states Republican governor.

Background: Following the U.S. Supreme Courts 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, Idaho passed a law generally allowing abortions in the first and second trimester up to viability at about 23 to 24 weeks. The law allows abortions after viability only to protect the mothers life or in cases of nonviable fetuses. This year, lawmakers passed a Texas-style ban prohibiting abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy and authorizing family members to sue medical providers for performing an abortion. That law is on hold following a challenge by Planned Parenthood. The Idaho Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in August.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: It triggers a 2020 Idaho law banning all abortions except in cases of reported rape or incest, or to protect the mothers life, to take effect in 30 days. Under the law, the person performing the abortion could face a felony prosecution punishable by up to five years in prison. In cases of rape or incest, the law requires pregnant women to file a police report and provide a copy of the report to the provider prior to an abortion. If the Idaho Supreme Court upholds the states Texas-style abortion ban and Roe v. Wade is tossed aside, a medical provider who performs an abortion in Idaho could face a lawsuit and criminal charges.

Whats Next: Pregnant women seeking abortions will have to travel out of state; the nearest abortion providers would be in Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Colorado. Planned Parenthood is renting space in the town of Ontario on the Idaho-Oregon border and says its preparing for an influx of patients seeking abortions. Some Republican lawmakers in Idaho might propose new legislation in January to outlaw abortion pills and emergency contraception.

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ILLINOIS

Political control: Illinois is overwhelmingly Democratic with laws providing greater access to abortion than most states. Democrats hold veto-proof supermajorities in the House and Senate, and the Democratic first-term governor seeking reelection this year, J.B. Pritzker, has promoted peaceful street protests to protect the constitutional right to an abortion.

Background: Abortion is legal in Illinois and can only be restricted after the point of viability, when a fetus is considered able to survive outside the womb. Medical science determines viability at 24 to 26 weeks, but the Illinois law does not specify a timeframe, saying a medical professional can determine viability in each case. Abortions are also allowed after viability to protect the patients life or health.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: It wont change access to abortion in Illinois. After the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, the Illinois Abortion Act of 1975 legalized abortion but enacted a trigger law that would reinstate the ban if Roe were overturned. That trigger law was repealed in 2017 in legislation that also required Medicaid and state employees group health insurance to cover abortions. The 2019 Reproductive Health Act replaced the 1975 law, large parts of which were never enforced because they were found to be unconstitutional.

Whats next: Like other states providing access to abortions, Illinois has seen a steady influx of patients crossing the state line for abortions in recent months and those numbers are expected to increase. Planned Parenthood of Illinois says it expects to handle an additional 20,000 to 30,000 patients in Illinois in the first year following the reversal of Roe.

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INDIANA

Political control: Indiana has a Republican-dominated Legislature and a Republican governor in favor of restricting abortion access.

Background: Abortion in Indiana is legal up to about 20 weeks, with some provisions for medical emergencies. Before an abortion, patients must undergo an 18-hour waiting period. Medical providers must tell patients about the risks involved in abortion and must say the fetus can feel pain around 20 weeks, which is disputed. Providers must report complications related to abortion; failure to report can result in a misdemeanor, 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. Federal courts have blocked several restrictions in Indiana, including an attempt to ban a common second-trimester abortion procedure and a law that would have required doctors to tell pregnant women about a disputed treatment to potentially stop a drug-induced abortion.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: No immediate changes are expected, but legislators unwilling to wait until the 2023 session could ask Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb to call a special session this summer to start modifying the states abortion laws.

Whats next: Republican legislative leaders said Friday they expected lawmakers to act on tightening Indianas abortion laws during a special legislative session starting July 6, but gave no details about what restrictions would be considered. Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb earlier this week called the Legislature into a special session to take up a tax refund proposal, but state law allows legislators to consider any subject.

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IOWA

Political control: Iowas legislature is controlled by Republicans who want to ban or restrict abortion access and a Republican governor who agrees and is up for reelection this year.

Background: Iowa allows most abortions until the 20th week of pregnancy, when theyre banned except to save a patients life or prevent a substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function. In 2018, the state Supreme Court declared access to abortion a fundamental right under the state constitution, granting stronger protections to abortion rights than the U.S. Constitution. The states high court, now with a conservative majority, overturned that decision June 17, thus allowing a state law requiring a 24-hour waiting period to go into effect immediately. That requirement is being challenged in district court.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Nothing is expected to change immediately in Iowa. The GOP-controlled Legislature has been working to get an amendment on the ballot in 2024 that would declare the state constitution does not grant a right to abortion but, with Roe overturned, Iowa lawmakers can ban abortion without completing that lengthy process.

Whats next: Now that the Iowa Supreme Court has struck down its 2018 ruling, the state Legislature can convene a special session this summer and pass abortion restrictions. Republicans could still move to get the constitutional amendment on a public ballot in 2024.

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KANSAS

Political control: Kansas has a legislature controlled by Republicans who want to ban or restrict access to abortions but a Democratic governor who supports access and is up for re-election this year.

Background: Under current law, Kansas does not ban most abortions until the 22nd week of pregnancy, when theyre allowed only to save a patients life or to prevent a substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function. The state Supreme Court in 2019 declared that access to abortion is a fundamental right under the state constitution, granting stronger protections to abortion rights than the U.S. Constitution does currently. State law, however, doesnt allow providers to dispense abortion medications through telemedicine consultations.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Nothing will change immediately in Kansas. The state Supreme Court blocked enforcement of a 2015 legislative ban on a common second-trimester procedure, and abortion opponents fear a host of other rules could fall to legal challenges in the near future. The GOP-controlled Legislature responded by putting a constitutional amendment on the ballot during the Aug. 2 primary, when turnout is expected to be much lower than in a general election and will likely see a higher proportion of Republicans voting. The amendment would declare that the state constitution does not grant a right to abortion. It would allow lawmakers to restrict abortion as much as the federal courts will allow .

Whats next: If voters approve the amendment, the Legislature would still have to approve the new restrictions, and lawmakers are out of session until January 2023. They can call themselves in to special session with two-thirds majorities, but theyre likely to wait until after voters decide in the November general election whether to give Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly a second term.

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KENTUCKY

Political control: Republicans have a supermajority in the Kentucky Legislature and have been restricting abortion rights since the 2016 election over the vetoes of Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who supports abortion rights and will seek a second term in 2023.

Background: Kentucky bans abortions after 20 weeks, but all abortion services were temporarily halted in April after the legislature imposed new restrictions and reporting requirements on the states two abortion clinics. The clinics, both in Louisville, said they suspended abortions because state officials hadnt written guidelines on how to comply with the new law. Noncompliance could result in stiff fines, felony penalties and revocation of physician and facility licenses. Abortions resumed after a federal judge temporarily blocked key parts of the law, including a provision banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Abortion services in Kentucky immediately became illegal under a trigger law enacted in 2019. The measure contains a narrow exception allowing abortion to prevent the death or permanent injury of a pregnant woman. Kentuckians will be able to vote this November on a proposed amendment declaring there is no right to an abortion in the state constitution.

Whats next: Abortion-rights activists say the suspension of abortion services in April foreshadowed what would happen in Kentucky and other Republican-leaning states if Roe v. Wade was overturned. It likely ends several legal challenges pending against other Kentucky abortion laws including a 2018 measure that abortion-rights supporters say would effectively ban a standard abortion method in the second trimester of pregnancy. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in March that Kentuckys Republican attorney general, Daniel Cameron, can defend the measure that was struck down by lower courts.

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LOUISIANA

Political control: Louisianas legislature is controlled by Republicans who want to ban or restrict abortion access. Its Democratic and Catholic governor also opposes abortions, though he supports exceptions for victims of rape or incest.

Background: Voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2020 stating that a right to abortion and the funding of abortion shall not be found in the Louisiana Constitution. Of the about 2 million people who voted, 62% approved the amendment. Abortion had been legal in Louisiana through the 19th week of pregnancy. After that, it was legal only if the fetus would die anyway or if continuing the pregnancy would threaten the mothers life or health.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Louisiana has a trigger law that immediately outlaws abortions. There is no exception for rape or incest. The only exception is if there is substantial risk of death or impairment to the woman. Earlier this week, Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, signed a bill updating various aspects of the law and subjecting abortion providers to up to 10 years in prison and fines up to $100,000. Edwards office said the bill allows the use of emergency contraception for victims of rape and incest prior to when a pregnancy can be clinically diagnosed.

Edwards signed another bill that would require the doctor to certify that a drug used for abortion was being prescribed for another medical reason. The bill makes it illegal to deliver abortion medication to a state resident by mail-order, courier, or as a result of a sale made via the internet.

Whats next: Louisianas three abortion clinics  in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Shreveport  were no longer providing abortions to patients as of Friday and instead are recommending pregnant patients seeking the procedure to go to states where it remains legal.

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MAINE

Political control: Both chambers of the Maine Legislature, which has adjourned, are controlled by Democrats. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills has vowed to protect the right to an abortion, saying she will fight with everything I have to protect reproductive rights.

Background: A Republican governor in 1993 signed a Maine law affirming the right to abortion before a fetus is viable. After that, abortion is only allowed if the life or health of the mother is at risk, or if the pregnancy is no longer viable. In 2019, lawmakers eliminated a physician-only rule and Mills signed it into law, allowing nurse practitioners, physician assistants and other medical professionals to perform abortions.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Nothing will change in Maine. Any attempt to restrict abortions when lawmakers reconvene next year would face fierce pushback. Abortion providers, meanwhile, said there could be an influx of patients seeking abortions from states that outlaw the procedure.

Whats next: Any major changes are unlikely unless former Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican, unseats Mills and Republicans take control of both chambers of the Legislature in November. LePage, a Catholic who opposes abortion rights, has said its up to lawmakers to address the abortion issue as they see fit.

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MARYLAND

Political control: Marylands legislature is controlled by Democrats who expanded abortion access this year by ending a restriction that only physicians can provide them and requiring most insurance plans to cover abortion care without cost. The legislature overrode Republican Gov. Larry Hogans veto of the bill in April.

Background: The right to abortion is protected in Maryland law. The state approved legislation in 1991 to protect abortion rights if the Supreme Court should ever restrict access. Voters approved the right in 1992 with 62% of the vote. Maryland law prohibits restrictions on abortion prior to viability. Maryland does not have a gestational limit. After viability, clinicians make the determination, based on clinical standard of care.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Nothing will change immediately in Maryland law.

Whats next: Marylands new law that will enable nurse practitioners, nurse midwives and physician assistants to provide abortions with training is set to take effect July 1. However, $3.5 million in state funding to provide training isnt mandated until fiscal year 2024. Hogan, who is term limited, has indicated he will not approve the money sooner. Some nurse practitioners, nurse midwives and physician assistants already have received training on medication abortion and will be able to provide those services starting next month.

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MASSACHUSETTS

Political control: The Democrats who control the Massachusetts Legislature support access to abortion, as does the states Republican governor, although they differ on specific policies.

Background: Massachusetts once had a contentious relationship with abortion in part due to the powerful influence of the Catholic Church, which opposes abortion. In recent years, that influence has waned and Massachusetts has become a strong supporter of abortion rights. In 2018, in anticipation of the conservative tilt on the U.S. Supreme Court, the state removed an 1845 abortion ban from its books that was not enforced. Two years later, Democratic state lawmakers clashed with Republican Gov. Charlie Baker  who says he supports abortion rights  over an effort to codify abortion rights into state law, allow abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy in cases where the child would not survive after birth, and lower from 18 to 16 the age at which women could seek an abortion without consent from a parent or guardian. Lawmakers passed the bill  dubbed the Roe Act  over Bakers veto.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Baker has vowed to fight to keep abortion legal in Massachusetts, but it is his last year in office. Both Democratic candidates for governor  state Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz and Attorney General Maura Healey  support abortion rights. Republican candidate Geoff Diehl said he believes in the need to protect human life wherever and whenever possible. Fellow GOP candidate Chris Doughty said he would not seek any changes to our states abortion laws.

Whats next: There is little chance Massachusetts will restrict abortion rights. Baker signed an executive order Friday barring state agencies from assisting another states investigation into people or businesses for receiving or delivering reproductive health services that are legal in Massachusetts. The state also wont cooperate with extradition requests from states pursuing criminal charges against such individuals. As of 2017, there were 47 facilities providing abortion in Massachusetts, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights. With Roe v. Wade overturned, its unclear how many people will travel there from states that ban or restrict abortion.

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MICHIGAN

Political control: Both chambers of Michigans legislature are controlled by Republicans who want to ban or restrict abortion access, but the states Democratic governor supports access.

Background: A dormant 1931 law bans nearly all abortions in Michigan but it hasnt been enforced since Roe v. Wade. The law made it a felony to use an instrument or administer any substance with the intent to abort a fetus unless necessary to preserve the womans life. It has no exceptions in cases of rape and incest. Anticipating that Roe could be overturned, Planned Parenthood of Michigan filed a lawsuit challenging Michigans ban. A state judge suspended the law in May, saying it violates the states constitution. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel, both Democrats, hailed the decision.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The injunction granted in the Planned Parenthood case ensures that abortion does not immediately become illegal. Planned Parenthood of Michigan and other supporters hope the injunction indicates abortion rights in the state will be preserved. But in a statement to The Associated Press, Nessels office said given the ongoing lawsuits, we cannot speculate what the state of abortion rights will be in Michigan after Roe.

Whats next: Whitmer also filed suit asking the states Supreme Court to declare the 91-year-old law unconstitutional. It has not acted yet. Michigan abortion rights supporters hope to put the issue on ballots this fall. Their proposed constitutional amendment would affirm the right to make pregnancy-related decisions without interference, including about abortion and other reproductive services such as birth control. The Reproductive Freedom for All committee needs to collect about 425,000 valid voter signatures by July 11 to make the November ballot. The measure would become law if voters approved it. The issue also is expected to shape statewide elections  Whitmer and Nessel are both up for reelection in the fall  and legislative races.

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MINNESOTA

Political control: The Minnesota Legislature is divided; Anti-abortion Republicans control the Senate and Democrats have the House, but the majorities are slim in both chambers, so control will be up for grabs in the November elections. Most legislative Democrats support abortion rights. Democratic Gov. Tim Walz has said no abortion ban will ever become law while hes governor. But he faces a challenge this year from Republican Scott Jensen, who opposes abortion rights.

Background: Abortion is legal in Minnesota up to the point of fetal viability, around the 24th week of pregnancy. The state has some restrictions, including a 24-hour waiting period with state-mandated counseling, both parents generally must be notified prior to a minor getting an abortion, and only physicians can perform abortions.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Nothing will change immediately in Minnesota because the state Supreme Court ruled in 1995 that the state constitution protects abortion rights. If Republicans take control of both chambers, they could put a constitutional amendment on the ballot as soon as 2024 to reverse that ruling, but its not clear yet if they would take that path. Minnesota governors cant block constitutional amendments with vetoes. But amendments are hard to enact because they require the backing of most of the citizens voting in that election, not just those voting on the amendment. Leaving the ballot blank counts as a no.

Whats next: Providers are preparing for a surge in women coming from other states to get abortions. Sarah Stoesz, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, said before the ruling that her organization was fortifying its delivery systems, including telemedicine. Dr. Sarah Traxler, the groups medical director, has said demand in Minnesota is expected to rise by up to 25%.

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MISSISSIPPI

Political control: Republican Gov. Tate Reeves and leaders of the Republican-controlled Mississippi Legislature have been working for years to chip away at abortion access.

Background: Mississippi already had a law banning most abortions at 20 weeks, although the states lone abortion clinic offered the procedure only through 16 weeks. The state tried to enact a law in 2018 to ban most abortions after 15 weeks. That law is the basis for the case that the Supreme Court has now used to overturn Roe v. Wade. A federal district judge blocked Mississippis 15-week law from taking effect in 2018, and an appeals court agreed. The Supreme Court agreed to take the case in 2021. Justices heard arguments in December, with the Mississippi attorney generals office saying the court should overturn Roe v. Wade. Mississippi has one abortion clinic, and it stops offering abortions at 16 weeks. Reeves was lieutenant governor in 2018, when Mississippi tried to enact the 15-week ban, and in 2019, when the state tried to enact a six-week ban. Mississippi law does not allow providers to dispense abortion medications through telemedicine consultations.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Mississippis only abortion clinic, Jackson Womens Health Organization, is expected to close by early July unless a judge blocks a trigger law. The clinic filed a lawsuit Monday challenging the 2007 law that bans most abortions if Roe v. Wade is overturned. That law is set to take effect July 7. Abortions still would be allowed if the womans life is endangered by the pregnancy or if the pregnancy was caused by a rape that was reported to law enforcement. Any person who knowingly performs or attempts to induce an abortion, except the pregnant woman, could be punished by up to 10 years in prison.

Whats next: Mississippis 2007 law says the state attorney general must publish a notice in a state administrative bulletin after the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Mississippis ban on most abortions will take effect 10 days after that publication.

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MISSOURI

Political control: Both GOP Gov. Mike Parson and the Republican-led Legislature support laws against abortion.

Background: Missouri law previously allowed abortions up until 22 weeks of pregnancy. But a 2019 state law banned abortions except in cases of medical emergency, contingent upon the U.S. Supreme Court overturning its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Under that Missouri law, performing an illegal abortion is a felony punishable by 5 to 15 years in prison, though women receiving abortions cannot be prosecuted.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The 2019 law contained a provision making it effective upon notification by the attorney general, governor or Legislature that the U.S. Supreme Court had overruled Roe v. Wade. Moments after Fridays Supreme Court decision, Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Gov. Mike Parson filed the necessary paperwork for Missouris law to kick in. State statutes were subsequently updated online Friday saying the abortion-ban law had taken effect.

Whats next: Some Missouri residents wanting abortions are likely to travel to neighboring states, including Illinois and Kansas. A new Illinois logistics center near St. Louis helps women from out of state find travel, lodging and childcare if they need help getting to the area for an abortion, and it connects them with funding sources. The Kansas Supreme Court in 2019 declared that access to abortion is a fundamental right under the state constitution. Even without the ban in Missouri, the number of Missouri patients seeking abortions in Kansas has gone up in recent years, increasing about 8% from 2020 to 2021.

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MONTANA

Political control: The Republicans who control the Montana Legislature and Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte want to limit access to abortion.

Background: Abortion used to be legal in Montana up until viability, or about 24 weeks of pregnancy, but the state Legislature passed a bill in 2021 to reduce that to 20 weeks, arguing that is when the fetus can feel pain. That law, along with one that requires chemical abortions to be done with in-person medical supervision, are being challenged in court. A state judge temporarily blocked enforcement in October 2021 while the challenges move through the courts. The state has asked the Montana Supreme Court to vacate that injunction and overturn a 1999 Montana Supreme Court opinion that found the states constitutional right to privacy guarantees a womans access to abortion care.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The effect is unclear because of the unresolved legal challenges to the 2021 state legislation. Montana does not have an abortion ban that was triggered when Roe v. Wade was overturned, but the Legislature could seek to further restrict access in the next session.

Whats next: The Montana Supreme Court will issue a decision on the preliminary injunction. The Montana Legislature also passed a referendum to ask voters this November whether they support a state law to require abortion providers to give lifesaving treatment to a fetus that is born alive after a botched abortion. Opponents argue federal law already offers those protections.

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NEBRASKA

Political control: Nebraska has an officially nonpartisan legislature with a Republican majority, but not a super-majority that would let the party unilaterally pass an abortion ban. Democrats appear to have enough votes to block such a bill, but just one defector could swing the vote. Nebraskas Republican governor vehemently opposes abortion.

Background: Nebraska allows most abortions until the 22nd week of pregnancy, although a few small towns have voted to outlaw the procedure within their borders. The state requires doctors to be physically present when patients take the first of two drugs that are used in medication abortions. Lawmakers have rejected attempts to allow abortion medications to be administered remotely, which would provide easier abortion access in rural areas.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: A ruling that lets states set their own abortion laws will trigger an immediate push by Nebraska conservatives to ban the procedure, but its not clear whether they could do it this year. Unlike other conservative states, Nebraska doesnt have a trigger law that automatically outlaws abortion. Gov. Pete Ricketts and other top Republicans have said theyll seek a special legislative session, but its not clear whether they have enough votes to pass anything.

Whats next: If Ricketts calls a special session, attention will likely shift to state Sen. Justin Wayne, an Omaha Democrat who has declined to specify where he stands on abortion. Wayne was notably absent from a vote on the issue this year; his support would give Republicans the super-majority they need to enact a ban. He has struck deals with senators from both parties in the past. If a proposed abortion ban fails during a special session or if no special session is called, the issue will likely become a factor in the November election.

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NEVADA

Political control: Nevadas governor and state attorney general are Democrats who are up for reelection this year. Democrats control the state Senate and Assembly.

Background: Nevada voters enshrined the right to abortion in the state constitution in 1990. The law says a pregnancy can be terminated during the first 24 weeks, and after that to preserve the life or health of the pregnant person. It would take another statewide vote to change or repeal the law. Most Republican candidates for Congress, governor, state attorney general and other statewide posts say they oppose abortions.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Here in Nevada, overturning Roe would not be felt immediately, state Attorney General Aaron Ford said in a position paper released after the draft U.S. Supreme Court opinion became public. Ford noted that a federal ban on abortion would supersede state law and said it would be naive not to recognize that some people want to ban abortions or make them more difficult to obtain. But he said his office will fight attacks on abortion rights, rights to birth control access and rights for LGTBQ people. Gov. Steve Sisolak promised in a statement to continue to protect reproductive freedom.

Whats next: Anti-abortion advocates are not expected to focus on trying to repeal Nevadas abortion law. But they will seek laws affecting waiting periods, mandatory counseling or requiring parental notification or consent. Melissa Clement, executive director of Nevada Right to Life, said she believes there is strong support for parental involvement.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE

Political control: New Hampshire has a Republican governor and the GOP controls the 424-member Legislature. All face reelection this fall.

Background: Any abortion restrictions New Hampshire had on the books before Roe v. Wade were not enforced after the landmark 1973 ruling, and they were repealed altogether in 1997. The state had no restrictions until January, when a ban on abortion after 24 weeks of pregnancy was enacted. In June, an exemption was added for cases in which the fetus has been diagnosed with abnormalities incompatible with life. Anticipating the Supreme Court action, Democrats this year tried unsuccessfully to enshrine abortion rights into state law and the state constitution. Gov. Chris Sununu calls himself pro-choice and says he is committed to upholding Roe v. Wade, but he also has boasted Ive done more on the pro-life issue than anyone.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Nothing will change immediately in New Hampshire. The Legislature wont return until fall, when there will be a one-day session to take up vetoed bills, and it would take a two-thirds majority vote to introduce new legislation then.

Whats next: The majority leader of the New Hampshire House has said the public should not expect Republicans in the Legislature to further tighten state abortion laws. But anti-abortion lawmakers who have filed bills in the past are expected to try again.

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NEW JERSEY

Political control: Democrats control both houses of the state Legislature and the governorship. Gov. Phil Murphy started his second consecutive term this year.

Background: Murphy ran for reelection on the promise that he would sign legislation to enshrine abortion rights into state law, and he fulfilled that promise in January. The measure also guaranteed the right to contraception and the right to carry a pregnancy to term. It stopped short of requiring insurance coverage for abortions, something advocates had sought. Instead, it authorizes the state Banking and Insurance Department to study the issue and possibly adopt regulations if a need is discovered. Under Murphys predecessor, Republican Chris Christie, state funds to womens clinics, including Planned Parenthood, were slashed. Murphy restored those and has been a strong supporter of abortion rights. New Jersey doesnt have any significant restrictions on abortion, such as parental consent or a mandatory waiting period.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Officials, including the governor, have said the end of Roe would not lead to any rollback of abortion services in the state. Instead of hoping for the best, we prepared ourselves for the worst, Murphy said in May, addressing reports of a leaked draft of a Supreme Court ruling.

Whats next: Murphy has proposed several abortion-related measures. On the Monday after the ruling, the Legislature began considering a pair of bills to expand abortion rights. One would allow the state to block extradition of someone facing a criminal charge in another state related to reproductive services obtained legally in New Jersey. Another clarifies that out-of-state residents may access abortion services in New Jersey, as well as allowing those facing liability judgments stemming from abortion services to countersue.

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NEW MEXICO

Political control: The Democrats who control the New Mexico Legislature support access to abortion, as does the states Democratic governor. Several conservative Democratic state senators who voted against the repeal of the abortion ban in 2019 were ousted from office in 2020 by more socially progressive primary challengers.

Background: In 2021, state lawmakers repealed a dormant 1969 statute that outlawed most abortion procedures as felonies, thus ensuring access to abortion even after the federal court rolled back guarantees. Albuquerque is home to one of only a few independent clinics in the country that perform abortions in the third trimester without conditions. An abortion clinic in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, is just a mile from the state line with Texas and caters to patients from El Paso, western Texas and Arizona.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: There will be no immediate change in New Mexico now that the high court has overturned Roe v. Wade. It is unclear if Democrats, who control the state Legislature, will pursue additional guarantees to abortion access when lawmakers convene in January. Possible avenues of legislative reform include enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution, which requires approval by voters. Abortion rights activists say the states equal rights amendment could be harnessed to guide more public funding for abortion-related programs. Raul Torrez, the district attorney in Albuquerque and the Democratic nominee for attorney general, is urging lawmakers to take further steps to protect access to abortions, including protections for women coming from other states. The state Republican Party said its time to elect more anti-abortion candidates to the Legislature.

Whats next: The state can expect to continue to see a steady influx of people seeking abortions from neighboring states with more restrictive abortion laws. It already hosts patients from Texas and Oklahoma where among the strictest abortion bans in the country were introduced this year.

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NEW YORK

Political control: The Democrats who control the New York Legislature support access to abortion, as does the states Democratic governor.

Background: Abortion has been legal in New York state since a 1970 law was passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by Republican Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller. The law allows abortions within the first 24 weeks of pregnancy or to preserve the mothers life. The 2019 Reproductive Health Act removed abortion from the states criminal code, codified Roe v. Wade and allowed abortions after 24 weeks if a fetus isnt viable or to protect the mothers life or health. Lawmakers have passed laws extending legal protections for people seeking and providing abortions in New York.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Roe v. Wade protections are enshrined in state law. New York is planning to give abortion providers $35 million this year to expand services and boost security in anticipation of an influx of out-of-state people seeking abortions once any ruling comes down. Its unclear how many more people from neighboring states could travel to New York to receive abortion care. New York had 252 facilities providing abortions as of 2017, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.

Whats next: Planned Parenthood and civil liberty groups are urging lawmakers to start the process of passing a constitutional amendment protecting access to abortion care in case a future Legislature repeals the state law.

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NORTH CAROLINA

Political control: Republicans hold majorities in the state House and Senate, but the party lacks the margins to defeat a veto by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, a strong abortion-rights supporter. Since 2017, Cooper has vetoed a born-alive abortion measure and a bill prohibiting abortion based on race or a Down syndrome diagnosis. He cant seek reelection in 2024 due to term limits.

Background: A 1973 North Carolina law that banned most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy is currently unenforceable after federal judges struck it down as unconstitutional in 2019 and 2021. Instead, abortions can be performed until fetal viability. A state law approved in 2015 provides for post-viability abortions only in a medical emergency, which means the woman would die or face a serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment without the procedure.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, the 20-week ban could be restored. Legal experts say formal action would have to be taken to cancel the earlier court rulings striking it down. Republican legislative leaders late Friday asked state Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat and abortion rights supporter whose agencys lawyers defended the 20-week law, to act. Otherwise, they said they would seek to intervene.

Whats next: Republican General Assembly leaders dont plan to consider additional abortion restrictions during the soon-to-end legislative session, meaning a likely intensification of electoral efforts to gain the five additional seats the GOP needs to reach veto-proof margins come 2023. Cooper and other Democrats already are making abortion rights a key campaign pitch. Abortion politics are also expected to figure in two state Supreme Court seat elections in November. Republicans would gain a majority on the court if they win at least one of them.

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NORTH DAKOTA

Political control: North Dakota has a legislature dominated by Republicans who want to ban abortion, and the GOP governor had hoped to see Roe v. Wade wiped off the books in favor of states rights.

Background: The state has passed some of the nations strictest abortion laws, including one that would have banned abortions once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which can happen before a woman knows she is pregnant. The law never took effect because the states lone abortion clinic successfully challenged it in court. One failed Republican proposal would have charged abortion providers with murder with a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: North Dakota has a trigger law that will shut down the states sole abortion clinic in Fargo after 30 days. That 2007 state law makes it a felony to perform an abortion unless necessary to prevent the pregnant womans death or in cases of rape or incest. Violators could be punished with a five-year prison sentence and a $10,000 fine.

Whats next: The owner and operator of the Red River Womens Clinic in Fargo said she would explore all legal options to ensure abortion services are available in North Dakota. Should that fail, clinic leader Tammi Kromenaker plans to move across the river to Moorhead, Minnesota, where abortion has not been outlawed. Planned Parenthood says it can provide abortions in Moorhead until Kromenaker gets up and running.

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OHIO

Political control: The Ohio Legislature is controlled by Republicans who support restricting or banning abortions, and the Republican governor backs those efforts. He is up for reelection this year against a former mayor who supports abortion rights.

Background: Before Fridays ruling, Ohio did not ban most abortions until the 22nd week of pregnancy; after that theyre allowed only to save a patients life or when their health is seriously compromised. But the state imposes a host of other restrictions, including parental consent for minors, a required ultrasound, and in-person counseling followed by a 24-hour waiting period. Abortions are prohibited for the reason of a fetal Down syndrome diagnosis. Ohio also limits the public funding of abortions to cases of rape, incest or endangerment of the patients life. It limits public employees abortion-related insurance coverage and coverage through health plans offered in the Affordable Care Act health exchange to those same scenarios. Clinics providing abortions must comply with a host of regulations.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: A ban on most abortions at the first detectable fetal heartbeat became the law in Ohio hours after the ruling. Enforcement of Ohios 2019 heartbeat ban had been on hold for nearly three years under a federal court injunction. The state attorney general, Republican Dave Yost, asked for that to be dissolved because of the high courts ruling, and U.S. Judge Michael Barrett agreed hours later.

Two trigger bills are on hold in the Legislature, but a key legislative leader has said he anticipates needing to write new legislation after the decision is reversed that more carefully reflects the actual ruling. That all but certainly would not happen until lawmakers return to the capital after the November election.

Whats next: Activists are considering how to help Ohioans get abortions elsewhere. They may also mount a statewide ballot initiative that would embed the right to an abortion in the state constitution, though that could not happen before next year. Abortion opponents are weighing strategies for imposing a statewide abortion ban.

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OKLAHOMA

Political control: Republicans in Oklahoma have a supermajority in both chambers of the Legislature and a Republican governor up for reelection this year who has vowed to sign every pro-life legislation that came across my desk.

Background: Abortion services were halted in Oklahoma in May after Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a bill that prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. The ban is enforced by civil lawsuits rather than criminal prosecution. Republican lawmakers have been pushing to restrict abortion in the state for decades, passing 81 different restrictions since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: It will have little practical effect given that abortions are no longer being provided in Oklahoma. Oklahoma also has a trigger law that outlawed abortion as soon as Roe was overturned.

Whats next: Given the fierce opposition to abortion from the governor and Legislature, Oklahoma will continue to prohibit the practice if states are given the option to do so. Meanwhile, abortion providers who had been operating in the state are taking steps to help patients seek abortions out of state, including coordinating funding for these women and developing a referral network of therapists to help address complications before or after a woman receives an abortion.

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OREGON

Political control: The Democrats who control the Oregon Legislature support access to abortion, as does the states Democratic governor.

Background: The Oregon Legislature passed a bill legalizing abortion in 1969. In 2017, Gov. Kate Brown signed into law a bill expanding health care coverage for reproductive services, including abortions, to thousands of Oregonians, regardless of income, citizenship status or gender identity. Oregon does not have any major abortion restrictions and it is legal at all stages of pregnancy.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The Guttmacher Institute has estimated that Oregon will experience a 234% increase in women seeking abortions arriving from out of state, especially from Idaho. In March, Oregon lawmakers approved $15 million to expand abortion availability and pay for abortions and support services such as travel and lodgings for residents and out-of-state patients.

Whats next: Brown said after the draft Supreme Court decision was leaked that access to abortion is a fundamental right and that she will fight to ensure access to abortion continues to be protected by state law in Oregon. Democratic state lawmakers recently formed the Reproductive Health and Access to Care Work Group of providers, clinics, community organizations and legislators that will make recommendations for the 2023 legislative session and beyond. Recommendations may include proposals to protect, strengthen, and expand equitable access to all forms of reproductive care.

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PENNSYLVANIA

Political control: Republicans who control the Pennsylvania Legislature are hostile to abortion rights, but the states Democratic governor is a strong supporter and has vetoed three GOP-penned bills in five years that would have added restrictions beyond the states 24-week limit. The race for governor this year could tilt that balance.

Background: Abortion is legal in Pennsylvania under decades of state law, including a 1989 law that was challenged all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. That produced the landmark Planned Parenthood v. Casey ruling that affirmed the high courts 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion nationwide, but also allowed states to put certain limits on abortion access.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Gov. Tom Wolf has vowed to protect access to abortion for the remainder of his time in office, through January. Running to replace him is the states Democratic attorney general, Josh Shapiro, who supports abortion rights, and Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano, who has said he supports banning abortion altogether, with no exceptions. The Legislature is expected to remain in Republican hands next year.

Whats next: Legislation to outlaw abortion after the detection of a fetal heartbeat  which can happen at six weeks, before many women even know they are pregnant  has passed a House committee and is awaiting a floor vote. The state Supreme Court is considering a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers aiming to overturn a 1982 law that bans the use of state dollars for abortion, except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother. In response, Republican lawmakers are advancing a proposed amendment that would declare there is no constitutional right to an abortion in Pennsylvania or to public funding for an abortion.

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RHODE ISLAND

Political control: The Democrats who control Rhode Islands General Assembly support access to abortion, as does the Democratic governor.

Background: Rhode Islands governor signed legislation in 2019 to enshrine abortion protections in case the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade. The law says the state will not restrict the right to an abortion prior to fetal viability or after if necessary to protect the health or life of the pregnant woman. It repealed older laws deemed unconstitutional by the courts. The Rhode Island Supreme Court upheld the 2019 law in May, just two days after the Supreme Court draft opinion was leaked suggesting that a majority of the justices were prepared to overturn Roe. Abortion opponents had argued the law violates the state constitution. In 2020, there were 2,611 abortions in Rhode Island, according to the state health department.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Rhode Islands attorney general believes the 2019 Reproductive Privacy Act will continue to protect access to abortion. Planned Parenthood Votes! Rhode Island also said abortion will remain legal regardless of the decision because the right was codified in state law.

Whats next: On the Monday after the Supreme Court decision, Rhode Islands Democratic governor said he will sign an executive order to shield abortion providers in the state from lawsuits by anti-abortion activists in other states. McKees office didnt have a date for the signing, but said the governor wants to act as soon as possible. Two of his opponents in Septembers Democratic primary for governor, Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea and Matt Brown, had urged McKee to sign such an order. They also want state lawmakers to return for a special session to add abortion coverage to Rhode Islands Medicaid program and to the insurance coverage for state employees. Legislative leaders said they plan to address abortion coverage next year because it has financial implications and wasnt included in this years budget.

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SOUTH CAROLINA

Political control: South Carolina has a Republican governor, and its General Assembly is dominated by the GOP. However, the party doesnt quite have the two-thirds majority in either chamber needed to overcome procedural hurdles or a veto if a Democrat wins the 2022 gubernatorial election.

Background: In 2021, South Carolina passed the Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act that requires doctors to use an ultrasound to try to detect a fetal heartbeat if they think a pregnant woman is at least eight weeks along. If they find a heartbeat, they can only perform an abortion if the womans life is in danger, or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. The law is currently tied up in a federal lawsuit.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a federal judge allowed the state to begin enforcing the 2021 law. Planned Parenthood and others dropped their lawsuit, but the organization said it would continue to perform abortions in South Carolina under the parameters of the new law.

Whats next: The South Carolina General Assemblys regular session ended in May, but Republican leaders had agreed they could return for a special session to take up more restrictive abortion bills if the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. They have yet to announce a special session, despite Fridays ruling. Some Republican lawmakers have opposed a complete abortion ban, especially without exceptions for victims of rape and incest.

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SOUTH DAKOTA

Political control: Republicans hold super-majorities in both Statehouse chambers. Republican Gov. Kristi Noem is up for reelection this year and has been an ardent opponent of abortion rights.

Background: Under current law, South Dakota bans abortions after the 22nd week of pregnancy. The state has only one clinic that regularly provides abortions, a Planned Parenthood facility in Sioux Falls. The legislature has worked over the years to make it more difficult for women to get abortions, passing mandatory waiting periods and requiring them to review and sign paperwork that discourages them from ending their pregnancies.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: South Dakota has a trigger law that immediately banned abortions except if the life of the pregnant woman is at risk.

Whats next: Noem has said she planned to call a special session to craft laws for the new legal landscape if Roe v. Wade was overturned. She hasnt commented on specific legislation, but lawmakers have floated proposals that would make it more difficult for women to seek an abortion out of state. However, South Dakota voters rejected outright bans in 2006 and 2008, and abortion rights advocates are preparing for a similar referendum on abortion access. An outright ban on abortions could eventually be challenged through a citizen-initiated ballot measure.

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TENNESSEE

Political control: Tennessee has a Republican governor who is consistently vocal about his opposition to abortion. The GOP holds a supermajority in the state legislature and has steadily chipped away at abortion access.

Background: In 2020, Tennessee passed a law banning most abortions when the fetal heartbeat can be detected at about six weeks, before many women know theyre pregnant. The measure has never been enforced because it was promptly blocked by a federal court. Tennessee voters approved an amendment in 2014 declaring that the states constitution doesnt protect or secure the right to abortion or require the funding of an abortion, and empowering state lawmakers to enact, amend, or repeal statutes regarding abortion. State law also doesnt allow providers to dispense abortion medications through telemedicine consultations. There are six abortion providers in Tennessee.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Thirty days after the decision, a so-called trigger law will go into effect that bans all abortions in Tennessee except when necessary to prevent death or serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function. Doctors could be charged with a felony for providing an abortion under this law.

Whats next: Its unclear if the trigger law conflicts with the 2020 law banning most abortions at about six weeks. The states attorney general, a Republican, has not publicly weighed in. Meanwhile, Republicans are expected to continue to have supermajority control after this years midterm elections. Reproductive rights activists say they will direct patients seeking abortion to clinics in Illinois if Roe v. Wade is overturned, or to Florida, which would ban abortions at 15 weeks. North Carolina and Virginia could also be options for women in eastern Tennessee.

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TEXAS

Political control: The GOP has commanding majorities in the Texas Legislature and has controlled every statewide office for nearly 30 years. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is up for reelection in November and is favored to win a third term.

Background: Texas has given the nation a preview of the landscape of abortion access without the protections enshrined in Roe v. Wade. A new Texas law banning most abortions after about six weeks  before many women know they are pregnant  took effect in September and makes no exceptions in cases of rape or incest. Because of how Republicans wrote the law, which is enforceable only through lawsuits filed by private citizens against doctors or anyone who helps a woman obtain an abortion, Texas has essentially outmaneuvered decades of Supreme Court precedent governing a womens constitutional right to an abortion. State data shows the number of abortions performed in Texas roughly two dozen clinics fell by half in the five months after the law came into effect compared to the same period a year earlier.

Effect of the Supreme Court ruling: Texas had more than 40 abortion clinics in 2012 before a decade of Republicans chipping away at abortion access began forcing providers to close. Without Roe v. Wade, Texas plans to ban virtually all abortions 30 days after the Supreme Court issues its judgment in the case, which could take about a month. Abortions would only be allowed when the patients life is in danger or if they are at risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function.

Whats next: Many Texas women have already traveled out of state for abortions since the law took effect, but they would likely have to travel much farther now that Roe is overturned as more states outlaw abortion. Some Republican lawmakers also want to punish companies that help their Texas-based employees get abortions elsewhere, although its unclear how much support that idea will have when the Legislature returns in 2023.

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UTAH

Political control: Utah is deeply conservative and the Legislature is controlled by a Republican supermajority.

Background: The state has been restricting abortion for years, including a ban after 18 weeks passed in 2019 thats now blocked in court. The following year, lawmakers passed a trigger law that would outlaw nearly all abortions if Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The trigger law banning nearly all abortions became enforceable Friday evening, after the legislative general counsel certified the Supreme Court ruling to lawmakers. It does have narrow exceptions for rape and incest if those crimes are reported to law enforcement, and for serious risk to the life or health of the mother, as well as confirmed lethal birth defects.

Whats next: Utah law makes performing an abortion a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. While its aimed primarily at providers, lawmakers have acknowledged that a woman who self-administers an abortion, including through medication, could potentially face charges.

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VERMONT

Political control: The Vermont Legislature is controlled by Democrats, but Republican Gov. Phil Scott is a firm supporter of abortion rights.

Background: Vermont has a 2019 law guaranteeing the right to an abortion and voters will consider a proposal in November to amend the state constitution to protect abortion rights. Also in 2019, the Vermont Legislature began the process of amending the constitution to protect abortion rights, known as the Reproductive Liberty Amendment or Proposition 5. Vermonts proposed amendment does not contain the word abortion. Proponents say thats because its not meant to authorize only abortion but also would guarantee other reproductive rights such as the right to get pregnant or access birth control. Opponents say vague wording could have unintended consequences that could play out for years. Lawmakers approved the proposed amendment in February, leading the way for a statewide vote.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Nothing will change immediately in Vermont.

Whats next: Vermont voters will cast ballots in November to decide if the state will amend its constitution to protect abortion rights.

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VIRGINIA

Political control: Virginia has a Republican governor who says he would support new state-level restrictions on abortion. Gov. Glenn Youngkin said Friday that he will seek legislation to ban most abortions after 15 weeks. Youngkin told The Washington Post he has asked four antiabortion Republican lawmakers to draft the legislation. He told the Post that a cutoff at 20 weeks might be necessary to build consensus in the divided Virginia legislature, where Republicans control the House and Democrats control the Senate. Youngkin generally supports exceptions to abortion restrictions in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is in danger.

Background: In recent years, when Democrats were in full control of state government, lawmakers rolled back abortion restrictions. They ended strict building code requirements on facilities where abortions are performed and did away with requirements that a patient seeking an abortion undergo a 24-hour waiting period and ultrasound. Advocates said the changes would make Virginia a haven for abortion access in the South. Republican victories in the November elections shook up the states political landscape, but Senate Democrats defeated several measures that would have limited abortion access during the 2022 legislative session.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: There will be no immediate change to abortion laws in Virginia now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned. Some abortion providers expect to see an uptick in patients seeking care in Virginia from neighboring states with trigger laws that would ban abortion.

Whats next: The future of abortion access is Virginia is murky. Senate Democrats say they intend to continue blocking attempts to roll back abortion access, though they control the chamber by the narrowest possible margin and have one caucus member who personally opposes abortion and says he is open to new restrictions. Republicans also have a narrow hold on the House, with several moderate members. Every seat in the General Assembly will be on the ballot in 2023.

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WASHINGTON

Political control: The Democrats who control the Washington Legislature support access to abortion, as does the states Democratic governor.

Background: Abortion has been legal in Washington state since a 1970 statewide ballot referendum. Another ballot measure approved by voters in 1991 declared a womans right to choose physician-performed abortion prior to fetal viability and further expanded and protected access to abortion in the state if Roe v. Wade was overturned. And in 2018, the Legislature passed a measure that would require Washington insurers offering maternity care to also cover elective abortions and contraception. Earlier this year, Gov. Jay Inslee signed a measure that grants specific statutory authorization for physician assistants, advanced registered nurse practitioners and other providers acting within their scope of practice to perform abortions. Supporters say the move is designed to help meet the demand from the potential influx of out-of-state patients. That same measure also prohibits legal action by Washington state against people seeking an abortion and those who aid them.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The state will use every available tool to protect and preserve Washingtonians fundamental right to choose, and protect the rights of anyone who wants to come here to access reproductive health care, said Attorney General Bob Ferguson, a Democrat. Data from the Washington state Department of Health from 2020 shows that of the 16,909 abortions performed in the state that year, 852 involved non-residents. The majority of those people came from neighboring states such as Idaho and Oregon.

Whats next: Its impossible to predict how many more non-resident patients will potentially seek care in Washington now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, but the increase will likely be in the thousands, said Jennifer Allen, CEO of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates. The state has more than 30 in-person abortion clinics, though the vast majority are in western Washington along the Interstate 5 corridor.

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WEST VIRGINIA

Political control: West Virginia has a legislature controlled by Republicans who want to ban or restrict access to abortions. Gov. Jim Justice, a Republican, opposes abortion access and has signed two anti-abortion laws since taking office in 2017.

Background: West Virginia currently bans abortion after the 20th week of pregnancy unless a patients life is in danger, or they face substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function. Patients seeking abortions must wait 24 hours after undergoing legislatively mandated counseling designed to discourage abortions. A minor who wants an abortion must obtain parental permission. The use of telemedicine to administer a medication abortion is outlawed. The state also bars patients from getting abortions because they believe their child will be born with a disability. The House of Delegates this year passed a 15-week abortion ban, but it died in the Senate.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Its unclear what the effect the ruling will have on abortion access in West Virginia. The state has had a law banning abortion on the books since 1848; Under that law, providers who perform abortions can face felony charges and three to 10 years in prison, unless the abortion is conducted to save a patients life. In 2018, West Virginia voters approved a constitutional amendment to declare patients do not have the right to abortion and banning state funding for abortions.

Whats next: West Virginia lawmakers could introduce new legislation restricting abortion access when they return to the Capitol in January, but they could return sooner if called into a special session. West Virginia only has one clinic that performs abortions. Womens Health Center of West Virginia Executive Director Katie Quinonez said if abortion access is outlawed, the clinic will continue to provide reproductive care, such as birth control and STI diagnosis and treatment. She said the clinic will help women travel to other states for abortions through its abortion fund.

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WISCONSIN

Political control: Wisconsin has a legislature controlled by Republicans who want to ban or restrict access to abortions but a Democratic governor who supports access and is up for reelection this year.

Background: Wisconsin has allowed most abortions until the 22nd week of pregnancy to save the health or life of the mother. A woman seeking an abortion must meet with a counselor and doctor before obtaining an abortion and wait at least 24 hours before having it done. Anyone under age 18 must have an adult relative over age 25 with them to obtain an abortion.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, it is presumed that a state law passed in 1849 making an abortion a felony offense could go into effect, and doctors have halted procedures. However, Wisconsins Democratic attorney general argues that the law is so old that its unenforceable. The language allows a woman to legally destroy her own fetus or embryo and grants immunity if an abortion is needed to save a womans life and is performed at a hospital. Another state law, passed in 1985, prohibits abortions performed after a fetus reaches viability  when it could survive outside the womb  conflicting with the 1849 ban.

Whats next: Republican lawmakers are expected to attempt to clarify the 1849 law to ensure there is a ban in place, even as that issue is fought in the courts. However, lawmakers efforts would be stymied if Democratic Gov. Tony Evers wins reelection. Wisconsins Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has said he supports an exception in cases of rape and that a ruling on Roe could force lawmakers to consider other related reproductive issues such as contraception. Other Republicans will push for more restrictive abortion laws.

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WYOMING

Political control: Wyoming has one of the most Republican legislatures in the U.S. and a long tradition of libertarian-type if not always social or religious conservatism. That may be changing. In March, Republican Gov. Mark Gordon signed into law a bill that would ban abortion in nearly all instances should the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade.

Background: Current Wyoming law allows abortions up to when a fetus might be able to survive on its own outside its mothers body. The law does not specify when that happens, but it is generally considered to be at around 23 weeks into pregnancy. Wyoming currently doesnt allow abortions after then except to protect the mother from substantial risk to her life or health. Wyoming Republicans have traditionally taken a hands-off approach to abortion but have proven more willing to limit the practice lately. The number of Democrats in the Legislature has dwindled from 26 in 2010 to just nine out of 90 total seats now. A 2021 law requires physicians to provide lifesaving care to any aborted fetus born alive.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The new state law that bans abortion only provides exceptions in cases of rape or incest or to protect the mothers life or health, not including psychological conditions. Though Wyoming has no abortion clinics, abortions still occur. Ninety-eight took place in Wyoming in 2021, according to state officials.

Whats next: A planned womens health clinic in Casper that would have been the only one offering abortions in the state was on track to open in mid-June but an arson fire May 25 delayed those plans by around six months. Clinic founder Julie Burkhart said Friday that, despite the ruling, she still plans to open the clinic and will continue to seek legal means to keep abortion legal in Wyoming. Police continue to look for a suspect in the arson investigation, and have offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

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Associated Press statehouse reporters from across the U.S. contributed.

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For APs full coverage of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, go to https://apnews.com/hub/abortion
BEIJING, June 24 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislature on Friday passed a law on black soil conservation, as part of efforts to ensure the country's grain security and protect the ecosystem.

The law, adopted after a vote at the closing meeting of the 35th standing committee session of the 13th National People's Congress, addresses the country's need for measures designed to specifically protect the black soil.

The black soil, or chernozem soil, found in China's northeastern provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning and in some parts of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, produces about a quarter of the country's total grain output, making it crucial to China's food supply.

However, excessive reclamation has eroded the soil's nutrients and its chernozem layer is thinning out, posing a threat to the country's ecological security and sustainable agricultural development.

Consisting of 38 provisions, the law specifies the responsibilities of the government and "agricultural production operators" to protect the black soil.

The law will take effect on Aug. 1, 2022. 
The crowd reacts during the We Won't Go Back - Bans Off Our Bodies rally at Tiguex Park in Old Town in protest of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade on Friday, June 24, 2022. (Chancey Bush/ Albuquerque Journal) Paloma Hernandez, 17, Devon Nolan, 17, and Loryn Montoya, 17, embrace as they listen to speakers during the We Won't Go Back - Bans Off Our Bodies rally at Tiguex Park in Old Town in protest of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade on Friday, June 24, 2022. (Chancey Bush/ Albuquerque Journal) Gov. Michelle Lynn Lujan Grisham speaks during the We Won't Go Back - Bans Off Our Bodies rally at Tiguex Park in Old Town in protest of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade on Friday, June 24, 2022. (Chancey Bush/ Albuquerque Journal) Paige Delgado during the We Won't go back - Bans Off Our Bodies rally at Tiguex Park in Old Town in protest of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade on Friday, June 24, 2022. (Chancey Bush/ Albuquerque Journal) Aleah Montoya listens to speakers during the We Won't go back - Bans Off Our Bodies rally at Tiguex Park in Old Town in protest of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade on Friday, June 24, 2022. (Chancey Bush/ Albuquerque Journal) Hundreds rally Friday at Tiguex Park in Albuquerque against the Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe V. Wade. Ann-Marie Crespin, center, chants as she protests along with others during rally. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal) Valari Taylor, 66, reacts during the We Won't go back - Bans Off Our Bodies rally at Tiguex Park in Old Town in protest of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade on Friday, June 24, 2022. (Chancey Bush/ Albuquerque Journal) Dr. Smita Carrol, left, gets a hug from her co-worker Devi Joshi. Dr. Carroll provides healthcare for women who need an abortion. She spoke to the crowd earlier about her experience in the medical field. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal) Arianna Sanchez poses for a photo at Tiguex Park on Friday evening. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal) Grace Mulcahy, 20, reacts during the We Won't go back - Bans Off Our Bodies rally at Tiguex Park in Old Town in protest of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade on Friday, June 24, 2022. (Chancey Bush/ Albuquerque Journal) Hundreds attend the We Won't go back - Bans Off Our Bodies rally at Tiguex Park in Old Town in protest of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade on Friday, June 24, 2022. (Chancey Bush/ Albuquerque Journal) Prev 1 of 11 Next

Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

Standing on the stage in front of hundreds of people  old and young, singles, families and children  state Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez said, I needed this today. Did you need this today?

The crowd answered in the affirmative with a roar.

Less than 12 hours after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, hundreds of people gathered at Tiguex Park, near Old Town, to protest the decision. The We Wont Go Back  Bans Off Our Bodies rally mirrored hundreds of others held across the country as supporters of abortion rights took to the streets. Protests were also held in Las Cruces and Taos.

In Albuquerque, rally-goers waved home-made signs bearing slogans like aid and abet abortions, stand up, fight back and legal abortion saves lives. Others were more crass.

The music was up-beat and defiant  playing hits like Talkin bout a Revolution and We Are Family. The speakers, a mix of politicians, abortion rights advocates and providers, poets and representatives from the Indigenous, Black and Chicano communities were met with frequent cheers, clapping and yells of agreement.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham  wearing pink for power, baby  kicked off the event.

Weve been doing this for all of our lifetimes, Lujan Grisham said, You name an issue about equal rights and weve done this before, again and again and again. And I could be mad  OK, Im really mad. Let the anger motivate you, its an anger worth having.

The crowd seemed energized and indignant throughout the two-hour rally, although it grew somber as a speaker, working for the Southwest Womens Law Center, recounted a story in which access to an abortion meant the difference between life and death.

Abortion is not a moral issue for people with disabilities and health concerns, said Jessica Serrano. I was on a call yesterday with somebody who found out that someone with a birthing body with one kidney was pregnant and they would die if they continued with the pregnancy. They would die without an abortion.

Call to action

As soon as local advocates for abortion rights began getting news alerts about the Supreme Courts decision Friday morning they leapt into action.

Samia Assed, one of the co-organizers with the New Mexico Womens March, was drinking coffee and reading the news online  planning to have a nice day with her children. Instead, she and others spent the day planning a rapid response rally.

We were expecting it, but its still surreal, Assed said.

Assed, who has been working on civil rights issues for the past 17 years, said while overturning the right to an abortion once seemed farfetched it has appeared more and more likely since 2016 when Donald Trump was elected president.

Abortion rights hits different because it hits a segment of the population that thought this would never be seen again in America, Assed said. We thought we had won this since 1973, and it seems like we want to go back to the dark ages.

Lisa Padilla, the manager of public affairs for Planned Parenthood who also co-chairs the New Mexico Womens March, said in some ways the news has been energizing. New Mexico lawmakers repealed a state law last year that made it a crime to end a womans pregnancy, but the right to an abortion is not enshrined in state law.

I mean on the one hand its devastating to think about having our rights as women taken away, she said. On the other hand I think maybe this is what its going to take in order to get it codified as a right. And so Im trying my best to be positive.

Over at the headquarters of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, activists gathered Friday afternoon to make signs for the nights rally. The group was going to protest in front of the courthouse but decided to join the protest at Tiguex Park.

Bex Hampton said she and others called in to work and spent the day organizing instead.

The news is an outrage, its an absolute outrage. The Supreme Court is eviscerating abortion rights  that is womens rights and all people who can have an abortion, Hampton said. For us were saying we need to be in the streets right now, building a mass movement to re-secure our rights.

Show of support

In conversations at Tiguex Park, the rallys participants expressed strong feelings of anger and sadness about what had brought them there.

For Alix King, the Supreme Court decision was deeply personal. She said when she was 13  in Texas in 1965  she almost died from an illegal attempted abortion.

I just cant believe the Supreme Court is rolling back constitutional rights, King said. Thats historic, thats terrifying.

Bonnie Buntjer, who attended the rally with her granddaughter Isa Nellos, said she protested 50 years ago and there was no way she thought shed ever need to protest in support of abortion rights again.

I feel chills, Im impressed by how many people are out here, Nellos said. Im also here to support my grandmother and support my own future.

Izzy Castillo, 13, and Denise Castillo, 12, who attended the rally with their stepfather expressed dismay that they would have less rights than the generations before them.

As dusk fell around 8:30 the rallys organizers called it a night. The protest had been peaceful  flanked by a group of young men playing basketball on one side and a concert from the Albuquerque Museum on the other.

As many speakers had reiterated  the activists were going to have a long road ahead of them.
Founded in 2021 by Varshul CW and Anuja Dhawan, Dubverse is the first ever AI-powered SaaS video content dubbing and creation platform which supports end-to-end dubbing and produces ready-to-publish videos in real-time. The self-service platform allows full control to the users to create, review and share the dubbed files. The company aims to break the language barrier by broadcasting speeches from the global leaders at the United Nations or Prime Minister Narendra Modis Mann Ki Baat real-time in all languages and dialects of India and the World. With its first of its kind product, Dubverse is committed to make the Internet a more inclusive place by simplifying technology that is accessible to all and enabling each and every creator to experience the power of AI.

Recently, Dubverse.ai raised $800K in seed funding, led by global funds including Kalaari Capital. Dubverse plans to use the funds to construct a creative tool and has thus chosen creator angels (Supriya Paul of Josh Talks, Jasminder Singh Gulati Ex-Founder of Now Floats and Sairee Chahal, Founder of Sheroes and others), who produce a lot of material in Indias vernacular market as well as internationally.

In conversation with Adgully, Anuja Dhawan, Co-Founder, Dubverse, speaks at length about how Dubverse aims to break the language barrier, support end-to-end dubbing, produce ready-to-publish videos in real-time, and more.

What does this seed funding mean for Dubverse? How are you going to expand and scale your operations and reach?

This seed fund will be the enabler to make our AI more efficient and contextual across languages, we will primarily be focusing on building the product along with our initial users. We aim to reach 10k users this year, and make the multilingual journey simpler and easier for creators across the board  from Indie to brands to agencies, etc.

Further, the company aims to break the language barrier by broadcasting speeches from the global leaders at the United Nations or Mann Ki Baat from Prime Minister Narendra Modi real-time in all languages and dialects of India and the World. With its first of its kind product, Dubverse is committed to make the Internet a more inclusive place by simplifying technology that is accessible to all and enabling each and every creator to experience the power of AI.

Could you give us an idea about your end-to-end dubbing and ready-to-publish video offerings?

Dubverse is the first ever platform which supports end-to-end dubbing and produces ready-to-publish videos in real-time. The self-service platform allows full control to the users to create, review and share the dubbed files. With the Dubverse platform, creators can get dubbed output in real-time. It is as simple as giving an input either by uploading the video or giving a YouTube link, choosing the language and speaker you like from the wide variety we have. In no time, dubbed output is produced. We give full control to the user to make edits from our advanced script editor to match their tonality and brand, apply changes and the ready-to-publish video is what they get. We want to make this simplest possible, hence we like to say We Canva-d video Dubbing.

Have you associated with any production houses or streaming platforms in India or do you plan such associations in the future?

Not as of now, for now we are building our product, making it more robust to take in as many use-cases as possible, but we definitely plan to do this as the next step.

What are your marketing and promotional activities? Do you plan to foray into international markets?

Our organic reach has given us a headstart, we leverage close communities, which gives us a more personalised touch and we have a close feedback loop with the users. This is definitely a global product, and we have been thinking on those lines from day one; for that matter, our Spanish to English translations are 99% accurate and we already have global users on our platform.

How do you associate with marketers, agencies, etc.? Do you plan to have any unique associations with them?

Agencies create the maximum content, we have initiated a few and we plan to go big on partnerships with agencies and add a feature in their offerings to the end customers. Marketers are loving our platform for the sheer value it delivers for them, they are able to increase their addressable market multi-fold at a click of a button, what more can a marketer can wish for?

What are the trends that you are foreseeing in the dubbing and video production fields in the times ahead? How will areas like AI, VR, AR, Metaverse, etc., influence the domain?

With Bharat coming on to the Internet and adding to the content economy, we only see the demand for vernacular content growing multi-fold. We see the early trends in the market, where brands such as Josh Talks, Smallcase have already started targeting all vernacular languages. We see Cinema also follow the same trend, where no big production house movie is produced in a single language now. These make our belief stronger to go deeper in the vernacular market.

Technology will have an even bigger role to play in content creation going forward, where any content type audio, video, text will be created using tech which will be scalable, cost effective and with quick turnaround.
RIO DE JANEIRO, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Real Madrid could make a move to sign highly-rated Brazil under-20 striker Matheus Nascimento, according to media reports in the South American country.

The 18-year-old is viewed by the European and Spanish champions as a future No. 9, though he would likely begin his time at the Bernabeu with the B team, news outlet Globo Esporte reported on Thursday.

It added that Botafogo are currently in talks to extend the 18-year-old's contract, which currently runs until June next year.

Matheus has made 36 first-team appearances across all competitions and scored eight goals since being promoted from Botafogo's youth academy in 2020.

He has netted three times in as many matches for Brazil's U-20 team this year. 
Nyumi, a leading wellness brand, has launched its first-ever brand campaign, #BiteMe with Kriti Sanon. With this campaign, Nyumi encourages women to not get used to their everyday problems, but to take them on, with a delicious comeback! It brings to the forefront the spirit of the unstoppable, energetic, and independent women who are ready to take on life with a bold attitude. The new campaign will go live across digital, social & retail platforms.

Todays women have too much to balance in their busy life. This leads to issues like lack of sleep, stress, UTI, hair fall, and dull skin that takes a toll on their overall wellbeing. In the new campaign, Kriti Sanon says #BiteMe to all these problems and hello to delicious nutrition every day.

Ananya Agarwal, Founder & CEO, Nyumi said, We launched Nyumi to make wellness approachable and accessible to women. Since our launch in 2021, we have seen significant growth for the brand and as we hit our one-year milestone this month, I am excited to bring to our audience our first-ever brand campaign. The Nyumi woman is quintessentially someone who believes in facing her issues head-on, and with #BiteMe, we are aiming to create a new way of looking at ones problems and taking a stand against whatever life throws at us!

Talking about launching the campaign with Kriti, Ananya said, We are very excited to partner with Kriti for this campaign. She is a natural fit, as she is someone who embodies all the qualities that the Nyumi woman represents. She is vivacious, self-assured, independent, and caring. And to add to that, Kriti has also been a Nyumi customer long before she partnered with us. We have really enjoyed collaborating with her on this campaign and I hope the audience also enjoys watching the films as much as we have enjoyed making them.

Nyumi daily nutrition gummies blend the best of Indian and western ingredients, in a delicious fruit-flavoured gummy. Developed in Germany & formulated by a team of German pharmacists and Indian nutritionists, each product is scientifically validated to maximize efficacy and bioavailability. Every ingredient is sourced with care, clinically researched, and multiple are even patented extracts.

Speaking about the campaign, Kriti Sanon said, I am very excited to be working with Nyumi! Its coincidently a brand that I have been using for some time now, and I really like their products! So its nice to be endorsing something that you actually like consuming and believe in!

"We are delighted to be a part of the journey that Nyumi has embarked on, to inspire Indian women to prioritize their health and well-being. Our campaign urges every woman to confidently say, #BiteMe to little-big health issues that hold them back every day. A confidence that comes with the Nyumi daily nutrition gummies and their perfect blend of Indian and western ingredients," said Sumanto Chattopadhyay, Chairman & Chief Creative Officer, 82.5 Communications.
Global hospitality technology platform, OYO, bagged a Silver at the most coveted marketing strategy awards, WARC Global in Sustained Growth Category. The company has been recognized for their marketing campaign Come To OYO.

With this campaign, OYO made a space for all reasons by capturing conversations with India -- by introducing a whole new way to access the OYO next door, via 11 different films, released over a period of time across India, narrated in various regional languages.

Every year, the company enters into select few excellence awards that recognize marketing strategy, effectiveness, and creativity. The WARC Global Awards in association with The Cannes LIONS makes it the first award to be built and benchmarked on the consistent, global language of the effectiveness code and judged using the Creative Effectiveness Ladder. OYO was able to create a mark by being one of just two winners from India announced at the Effectiveness Show at the Cannes Lions hosted by WARC this year.

Commenting on this great honour, Mayur Hola, SVP & Head of Global Brand said, Creativity that delivers actual business impact is what sets apart the best from the rest at WARC and in the real world. And we are super proud to be able to work with a team that understands this. Awards are great. It encourages us to do a lot of good work in the future. We are extremely thrilled to be recognized by one of the worlds most coveted marketing awards. Kudos to our team and the amazing leaders at OYO for always being supportive of our work.

OYO bagged a silver in the category that recognizes campaigns that build a brand over time (12 months or more). The judges mainly look for long-term creative commitments in terms of budget, campaign duration, and compelling evidence that brand investments have demonstrably impacted business outcomes. The travel technology company also won 27 shortlists, 10 Baby Elephants, and 1 Big Blue Elephant at the Kyoorius Creative Awards 2022.
Recently, an unusual ad in the matrimonial section of two leading papers that read, "Parents wanted urgently" got the readers into confusion and wonder.

This ad was done by Hindi movie channel, Star Gold for innovative marketing, to promote the World Television Premiere of Hum Do Hamare Do.

As per the ad posted by Star Gold, a man, who already has found his life partner, is searching for parents who are understanding and loving. The unusual ad is in sync with the story of Rajkumar Rao and Kriti Sanon starrer, Hum Do Hamare Do, which revolves around Dhruv and Anya. Dhruv is a self-made man whose life takes a major turn when he decides to engage an elderly man and a senior woman to fake being his parents in an attempt to fulfil his girlfriend's wish of marrying someone with a family.

Agreeing with the advertisement actor Aparshakti Khurana says, "It's not easy to grab readers' attention as newspaper pages are filled with advertisements. I am sure this innovative ad by Star Gold must have stood out as it's not every day that you get to read about a person searching for parents."

Hum Do Hamare Do will have its World Television Premiere on Star Gold on this Sunday at 8 pm.
UNITED NATIONS, June 24 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations is concerned about conflict spreading in western Ethiopia and drought affecting 8 million people across the country, a UN spokesman said on Friday.

Conflict in the west of sprawling Oromia, Benishangul-Gumuz on the border with Sudan and The Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region have caused significant displacement, damaged infrastructure, and hampered humanitarian response, said Stephane Dujarric, chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Overall more than 500,000 people are estimated to be displaced by conflict in western Oromia, he said.

The severe drought in Ethiopia also affects some areas hit by the conflict in southern Oromia and Afar regions, he told a regular briefing.

He said more than 4.5 million people received assistance in drought-affected areas.

"Across Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia, at least 18.4 million people are already waking each day to high levels of acute food insecurity and rising malnutrition, as the region faces the impact of four consecutive failed rainy seasons, a climactic event not seen in the last 40 years," Dujarric said. "Humanitarian partners urgently need additional funding to respond to the rapidly increasing needs in the coming months."

Across the conflict-torn northernmost Tigray region and its neighbors of Afar and Amhara, about 13 million people need food and other assistance, the spokesman said.

"Since the convoys to the Tigray region resumed at the start of April, the United Nations and NGO (nongovernmental organization) partners have brought in more than 120,000 tons of food and other supplies and more than 1.3 million people have received food assistance," he said. "However, the pace of distribution remains limited by the availability of fuel."

Dujarric said humanitarians brought approximately 987,000 liters of fuel into Tigray since April, but an estimated 2 million liters per month is required to distribute the incoming supplies.

The United Nations and NGO partners, and the government, continue to supply critical food and other assistance to people affected by conflict in Amhara and Afar, he said. 
RAMALLAH, June 24 (Xinhua) -- At least 130 Palestinian protesters were injured on Friday during clashes with Israeli soldiers in several West Bank villages, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

Among the injured were three shot by live ammunition and nine by rubber bullets, while the others inhaled teargas fired by Israeli soldiers.

Fierce clashes broke out between anti-settlement protesters and Israeli soldiers in the villages of Beita and Beit Dajan, south and east of Nablus city respectively, and in the village of Kafr Qaddum, east of Qaqilya city, said eyewitnesses.

The protesters burned tires and threw stones at the Israeli soldiers stationed on the perimeters of the villages, they added.

Murad Eshteiwi, coordinator of popular resistance in Kafr Qaddum village, told Xinhua that the Israeli soldiers used rubber bullets, teargas and sound bombs to attack the Palestinian protesters rejecting the measures against their village.

The popular resistance in the village will continue until its full goals are achieved as part of the national aspiration to end the occupation of the Palestinian territories and establish an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital, Eshteiwi noted.

Israeli authorities have not commented on the incidents yet.

Beita, Beit Dajan and Kafr Qaddum see weekly protests by Palestinians against the expansion of Israeli settlements.

Israel occupied the West Bank and Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war.

Ghassan Daghlas, in charge of Israeli settlement's affairs in the northern West Bank, said the Israeli army provides protection for the settlers to control the lands in Nablus' villages and try to expel the Palestinian owners. 
The question has not changed in decades. What to do with the Palestinians?

Pro-Israel advocates seem intent on sidestepping the chief issue. Their standard answers are no longer accepted, but rather than addressing the problem, they just reformulate the response, as if a bad answer will be accepted if it is reworded.

Basically, it boils down to this:

A) Israel does not want a two-state solution -- a large of part Israel wants Judea and Samaria (what the world calls the West Bank) to be under Israeli control: It is the historic heart of ancient Israel, and it is needed for security reasons.

This would be a reasonable position, except that it leaves millions of Arabs in the area. Israel does not want to incorporate them (who can blame Israel?), and offers them only a very limited autonomy in discontinuous zones. The Arabs would have no say in the government that controls their borders, their immigration, their export and import, their movement, their population registry, and so on.

Even the much-heralded Kushner plan did not allow for Palestinian sovereignty, but offered only economic sops.

The problem is that no group would accept such a situation, even if they were reasonable, which Islamic Arabs are not.

B) Israel does not want a one-state solution, since incorporating the Arabs into their system would overwhelm the Jewish character of their state. Indeed, some Jews have averred that pressing for a one-state solution is inherently antisemitic.

No to a two-state solution. No to a one-state solution. What else is there?

Ah, there is the Jordan option -- declaring all West Bank Arabs to be Jordanian citizens. Well, that depended on one man: Mudar Zahran, and the overthrow of the Jordanian government. The only problem was that Jordan was not so agreeable.

Since 1967, Israel has been dodging this problem with obfuscation and denial. One of the more ridiculous answers has been:

Palestinians do not exist!

Well, if Palestinians do not exist, just who are the two million people that the IDF is policing? Are they Koreans?

One cannot refer to them as generic Arabs, since the other Arab states refuse to naturalize them. Please dont proffer the oft-repeated lie that they have 22 other Arabs states they can go to. They dont. The other Arab states will not take them in -- not even Jordan anymore -- and those who repeat that lie know it.

Even the pro-Israel advocate Daniel Pipes admits that a Palestinian identity had settled in by 1920.

[Palestinian identity] can be traced with surprising precision to a single year -- 1920. In January 1920, Palestinian nationalism hardly existed; by December of that critical year, it had been born. -- Daniel Pipes.org

I would trace that identity back further, but the point remains: Palestinians do exist, inconvenient as that may be.

Some will assert that Palestinian identity is invalid, as it was invented. American identity was invented in 1776, Canadian identity in 1867. Argentine identity in 1810. Invented identities are valid.

Others dodge the problem by parroting, It is a complicated situation, as if that will change anything. That is just a rhetorical stalling tactic, and it wont fly anymore.

No, the answer is not that complicated. It is just difficult, and Israeli politicians and advocates dont want to address it.

If you dont want to give the Palestinians their freedom, and if you dont want to incorporate them into Israel, then they must be paid to leave.

I have seen some numbers floated around, and most stuck me as fanciful lowballing.

In 1969, Israel tried to get Paraguay to accept the Palestinians.

Under the plan, the Palestinians would be given US$100 each for living costs for their new lives in Paraguay, whose government would receive US$33 per arrival in addition to an initial lump sum of US$350,000. As part of a deal agreed to by the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad, and Paraguayan President Alfredo Stroessner, 60,000 people would arrive in the Latin American state as part of the plan. -- Mercopress

$100?! A whole $100 per person -- roughly $800 today. The whole plan, in toto, would have come in under $9 million dollars. Even that long ago, that figure was insultingly low. Only 33 Palestinians accepted the deal. I am amazed that even that many did.

If you want the Palestinians to leave, you have to pay them enough to start new lives elsewhere. This will amount to around $100,000 per person. A family of five or six would be given half a million dollars to relocate. That would be enough to set up a business and start a new life.

Where?

If you can get Arab states to take them in: fine! I doubt it. Since 1948, the Arab states have refused to take them; and I doubt they will change policy now. Some like to blame the behavior of Palestinians for the reluctance of their Arab kin to naturalize them. That is a false argument.

The truth is that despised minorities often act poorly, as a response to their conditions. Why should Palestinians be any different?

The Irish -- and yes, even the Germans -- in the 19th century were despised, and accordingly acted badly. Even the 20th century advent of scientific racism did not help the Teutons, as the American Nordicist Madison Grant tried to claim that all the Nordic Germans had left by the 18th century, and what came in after that was inferior stock. Ach du lieber!

Israel will have to make some very hard decisions.

Pay the Palestinians to leave. $500,000 per family of five or six. That should work.

With that amount of cash, the Palestinian family could set up in Africa, sections of the Caribbean, Malaysia, and yes South America, which has a history of taking in, converting, and assimilating Arabs, as others have also noted.

With that much money, such Palestinians would not be a burden on anyone, and many countries would welcome the infusion of capital.

Figure on spending $200 Billion, at least. Nothing less will come close. That would move out about two million Palestinians. Those who are left could probably be safely absorbed. Others, such as Martin Sherman, have come to similar conclusions and numbers.

Dont offer the Palestinians loans -- which they will not repay anyway. Just pay them to leave.

Dont argue about it. Dont say Jews should not have to pay for this.

Who else will? The Japanese wont. America and Europe are broke. Good luck getting the Arabs to foot the bill.

Israel will pay either in Jewish blood or money. As the Palestinian population increases, and as they get more radical, the usual practice of stalling will no longer work. It is possible to 3D print weapons now. With a few such printers those Hamas students can equip an army.

And dont say that Jewish fertility rates are catching up. The Arabs start their reproductive cycles much earlier in life, and therefore cycle faster. Jewish women usually like to get educated first.

The answer was put forward in 1969, but failed due to lack of funding. Had the Israelis offered $12,000 per person in 1969 (roughly equivalent to $100,000 today), instead of $100, more than 33 Palestinians would have accepted. There were a lot fewer Palestinians to pay off then.

There will be a lot more Palestinians to pay off in the future.

Grumble all you want, but bite the bullet. Pay the Palestinians to leave.

Mike Konrad is the pen name of a writer who wishes he had paid more attention in his Spanish class, lo those many decades ago.

Image: Joe Catron
As America and the allies impose devastating sanctions on Russia for invasion of Ukraine, the Biden administration has outlined two objectives: destroy the Russian economy and create domestic pressure on President Vladimir V. Putin that would force him out of power.

The removal of Putin was enunciated as a prime objective of American foreign policy. President of the United States, Joe Biden, summed it up, Putin cannot remain in power.

Theodore Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, or Donald Trump would have asked what America's national interest is being served getting into the Russia-Ukrainian morass. The essence of raison d'etre is risk-benefit analysis. But Joe Biden doesnt bother himself with such trifles; he paid no attention to Russias impact on the global economic system or Russian endurance and showed ignorance of Russian political culture.

At the time of this writing, the West has imposed six rounds of sanctions. The sanctions proved to be a double-edged sword. It may be debatable whom the sanctions hurt more, but what is not debatable is that the Russians have a much higher threshold for suffering than Western society.

The whole history of Russia is a history of suffering. Hence, no matter how bad the situation may be, Russians remember when it was worse. As a testament to stoic Russian endurance, Russian poet Nekrasov in his famous poem Railroad describing the inhumane conditions of builders of the Moscow-St. Petersburg railroad wrote:

Dont you worry about your fatherland. Russian people endure everything that the Lord sends!

What the Lord sent this time was not too bad in comparison. There is plenty of evidence that Russias economy successfully adapts to the new economic reality. Russians learn to live with the sanctions and, in some areas, to benefit from them. According to Bloomberg, Russia recorded the largest current-account surplus since at least 1994, as revenue from oil and gas export surged not despite the sanctions but because of the sanctions. It shouldnt come as a surprise. The price of gas went up five-fold, and the price of oil rose by 60%, since the imposition of sanctions. So, even selling oil at a discount from artificially elevated prices, Moscow is making a killing.

It is not to say that Russia is unscathed by the sanctions. Russians experience shortages from paper towels to computer chips, from Coca-Cola to modern technologies and airplane spare parts. However, the goods and materials are not the necessities for survival. Food and energy are, and Russia enjoys an abundance of both. Hence, even if the West imposes twelve or twenty-four rounds of sanctions and keeps them in place for the next hundred years, they will not soften Moscows implacable determination.

Under a familiar Cold War banner  West against Russia -- Putin rallied the country to support military operations against Ukraine. Indeed, according to the New York Times, Russians are giving Putin 83% approval for his actions (other sources estimate the approval rating around 70%). Ironically, the U.S. and NATO allies' massive arms supply to Ukraine, especially the pending supply of German armor, invokes memories of the Second World War, validating Putin's narrative and hardening Russian morale.

The KGBs maxim, To control masses, a leader has to instill fear and hope, is still alive. NATO instills fear - Putin offers hope.

In this political environment, anyone who could be remotely qualify for the honor of being Putins political opponent, left the country in a hurry before being accused in collaboration with the enemy.

What have all the sanctions produced? The Russian economy did not collapse, and Putin consolidated his power.

America and its Western allies became a hostage of sanctions and found themselves trapped between their convictions and economic realities. From this untenable situation, they could see no exit and continued doing the same things expecting different results.

But there is more.

When you strike at a king, you must kill him. The West failed to kill the king; if history is any guide, he will come back with a vengeance.

Thus far, Moscow has honored its contractual obligation to the extent possible under the sanctions. It has not used its leverage over the world economies yet. Putin may be waiting for the help of Russias most powerful ally  winter.

The U.S. currently imports over 50 percent of nickel, about 80 percent of platinum, 80 percent of cobalt, nearly 40 percent of copper, and some quantities of oil. Most of those materials come from Russia. Also, Russia and Ukraine export 25% of the global wheat and fertilizer supply. While neither of these countries exports wheat to the U.S. directly, their absence from the global market is expected to strain supply and push prices higher.

Moreover, not to mention oil and gas, Russia and Ukraine supply about 90% of the world's highly purified neon gas used for manufacturing semiconductors and 40% of the global krypton supply. Due to the war, most Ukrainian industrial capacity has been destroyed or is under Russian control.

Amazingly, a sixteenth-century Italian sculptor Vincenzo deRossi in a statue of two heroes of Greek mythology, Hercules and Diomedes vividly communicated current Americas predicament. Hercules (Biden) is holding Diomedes (Putin) upside down, preparing to throw him, while Diomedes tightly grips Hercules genitals as if to say, Are you sure, America, you want to throw me out? Who will provide the cheap energy, raw materials, and food components to the world?

Given the interdependency of the world economies, the logical approach would be to stop economic masochism and a return to the period of Donald Trumps political and economic sanity before we inflict irreparable damage to world commerce.

Unfortunately, there is no conceivable basis for such reversal. President Biden is not known for a logical approach. Bidens logic is the logic of failure. Incapable of foreseeing impending catastrophes, the President doesnt recognize the danger until it comes.

Alexander G. Markovsky is a senior fellow at the London Center for Policy Research, a conservative think tank that examines national security, energy, risk-analysis and other public policy issues. He is the author of Anatomy of a Bolshevik and Liberal Bolshevism: America Did Not Defeat Communism, She Adopted It. Mr. Markovsky is the owner and CEO of Litwin Management Services, LLC. He can be reached at alex.g.markovsky@gmail.com

Photo credit: Jerry 7171 CC BY-SA 2.0 license
Pride Month. Thirty whole days devoted to aberrant sexual lifestyles and the fetishization of the perverse. With the normalization and extravagant celebration of this deviation, the inevitable arrives: the sexualization and grooming of children. We see grown men jiggling enormous  and exposed  prosthetic breasts in a young child's face; school districts shelling out hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to introduce elementary-aged children to men, dressed as women, and behaving in a hypersexual way; and the promotion of the BDSM kink by permitting students to pull others around with leashes and collars.

This is the reality of the radical Gay Agenda -- it corrupts wholly, destroying the traditional family unit, and directly echoes a repugnant scheme conceived in the 19th Century and dubbed, "the most infamous proposal of the Communists"  "Abolition of the family!" The literary refuse that is the Manifesto mocks the sacred and precious relationship between parent and child, saying, "The bourgeois clap-trap about the family and education, about the hallowed co-relation of parents and child[.]" Well, that "radical proposal" is now the basis of the militant Gay Agenda, which is the intent to dissolve the protection of children via an attack on familial bonds.

Just yesterday, HonorHealth, a "healthcare" company headquartered in Arizona, sent an email to employees, detailing changes to their charting system  minor children between the ages of 12 and 17, can create their own medical accounts, revoking parental oversight at will.

PARENT WARNING: In a recent email to employees, @HonorHealth announces changes to Adolescent MyChart access. As of 6/23/22 children ages 12-17 can create their own medical info accounts and revoke their parents access. pic.twitter.com/IXTPrL0TEV  Amanda Wray (@AmandaWray) June 23, 2022

Passed around on social media was an image of a flyer found in a New Jersey school. The unknown school employee encouraged emancipation for sufferers of gender identity disorder or gender dysphoria, usurping the role of mother and father as the safeguards of their children's well-being.

Seen in a New Jersey school  pic.twitter.com/rP38TeglDx  Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) June 21, 2022

The Gay Agenda finds its roots in Marxism. Eroding the connection between parents and their offspring is a core principle of Marxist philosophy, and in the words of Marx and Engels, they sought complete "Aufhebung!"  abolition. The proposed blueprint is, quite literally, to pervert every child. Male and progressive "transgender" commentator "Natalie" Wynn even said this:

It's time to go on the offensive. I won't rest until every American child has been trans'd.  Natalie Wynn (@ContraPoints) June 9, 2022

The affairs between consenting adults behind closed doors ought to be of no concern to the government  but we're seeing an explosion of pedophilic exploits and child sexualization.
To hear it from President Brandon, the current high cost of gasoline is all Vladimir Putin's fault. "Putin's gas hike!" is a common Brandon theme.

But it's all nonsense. Putin is actually responsible for very little of the cost of gasoline.

According to the U.S. Energy Energy Administration, the cost of gasoline was $2.096 a gallon on Election Day 2020. By Inauguration Day it had climbed to $2.334 a gallon. The date of the invasion of Ukraine was February 24; at that time the price had risen to $3.517 a gallon. Putin cannot be blamed for any price rises which occurred before the date of the invasion.

Since that time, it is true that the United States has embargoed Russian oil imports into the United States. However, this has had a minimal impact on the cost of gasoline because Europe has not embargoed Russian oil.

According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Europe has taken only baby steps to reduce its appetite for Russian oil and gas. Europe has announced, not one, but six packages of sanctions, and all fall woefully short of ending their import on Russian oil.

Europe's sanctions "will ban seaborne imports of Russian crude oil as of Dec. 5, 2022, and ban petroleum product imports as of February 5, 2023." Pipeline oil will not be interrupted. Delivery of Russian oil products to Europe therefore, as of this date, has not been affected by Russia's invasion.

We know many things about oil, and one of those things is its fungibility. In the end, the cost of oil is determined by supply and demand, nothing more. It doesn't matter where oil comes from; all that matters is its overall availability.

Russia is still adding its oil production to the world's markets. In addition to Europe, Russia now is selling discounted oil to China and India. This will result in less demand for oil from the Mideast, which frees up that oil for sale elsewhere.

"The drop in Russian exports in the past two months has been lower than expected" reports CSIS. In fact, to look at their bar graph, Russia's exports as of the end of April had actually risen from the previous September, from 33 million barrels a week to 35 million.

One could argue that the rise in the cost of gasoline would have been caused by an elimination of Russia's oil from the world's markets. But as we see, that oil hasn't been eliminated.

Also, consider the United States' own oil being introduced to the world's markets. It is as high now as it's ever been, thanks to Brandon's adding a million barrels a day for the next several months from the Strategic Oil Reserve.

Again according to the US Energy Information Administration, for the 12 months running from April 2019 to March 2020, the United States produced an average of 12.538 million barrels of oil per day. Then the China virus struck, and oil production fell sharply to 10.8 million per day. In the first three months of this year, it had partially recovered to 11.4 million barrels per day.

Now, add the 1 million barrels per day that Brandon has ordered released into the markets, and one sees that America currently is sending almost exactly the same amount of oil into the world markets as it did at the time of Trump's peak production. Never mind that this is an artificial stimulus which will end soon enough; all that matters is, right now, the oil is present in the markets.

So, if Russia's oil is still being sold, and America is currently selling as much as it ever did while Trump was President, and if OPEC oil is still being produced as much as it ever was -- then how can there be any shortage of oil to drive up prices?

Brandon's claim that the high cost of gasoline is Putin's fault simply will not do. It is ludicrous.

Image: Chris Yarzab.
Yesterday, the Supreme Court struck down a New York law restricting gun-carrying rights for citizens. This has been seen as the most important ruling on guns in over a decade. The decision was 6-3 and allows more people to legally carry guns on the streets of the nation's largest cities

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the following for the majority that the Constitution protects "an individual's right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home."

In 43 States, the government issues licenses to carry based on objective criteria. But in six states, including New York, the government further conditions the issuance of a license to carry on a citizen's showing of some additional special need. We know of no other constitutional right that an individual may exercise only after demonstrating to government officers some special need. That is not how the First Amendment works when it comes to unpopular speech or the free exercise of religion. It is not how the Sixth Amendment works when it comes to a defendant's right to confront the witnesses against him. And it is not how the Second Amendment works when it comes to public carry for self-defense.

The New York law, which has been in place since 1913, required citizens to specify in detail their particular need for carrying a gun in order to get a license to carry one in public.

The last landmark gun ruling issued by the court was in 2010, which upheld individual gun-ownership rights within homes on a national basis.

California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Rhode Island all have similar laws that are likely to be challenged as a result of the Supreme Court ruling.

Those who supported New York's law claim striking it down will lead to more gun-related violent crime on the streets.

The news incurred the wrath of a Who's Who on the left.

Biden said he was "deeply disappointed" by the Supreme Court's decision, which he said, "contradicts both common sense and the Constitution and should trouble us all".

New York City Democrat Mayor Eric Adams said he would review other ways to restrict gun access, such as by tightening the application process for buying firearms and looking at bans at certain locations.

New York Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul, called the decision "frightful in its scope," its language "shocking" and said the court was turning "this nation and our ability to protect our citizens back to our founding fathers."

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg criticized the decision in a statement, saying it "severely undermines public safety not just in New York City, but around the country."

Democrat New York Rep. Jerry Nadler, who represents the state's 10th Congressional District, criticized the six conservative justices who voted to strike down the state's law, saying they had "endangered New Yorkers" and made them "less safe."

Showbiz 'stars' also jumped in to express their annoyance.

Bette Midler fumed against the Supreme Court:

Dont tell me this SCOTUS isnt completely partisan. Shame, shame, SHAME on the conservative members of this ridiculous, laughable court. #SCOTUSisaJoke pic.twitter.com/tQLQDWPYwa  bettemidler (@BetteMidler) June 23, 2022

Barbra Streisand called the ruling a disgrace

In a country reeling from gun violence, the GOP extremists on the Supreme Court now overrule the rights of local governments to try and protect citizens. Truly a disgraceful ruling while the Justices themselves want protections against people with guns.  Barbra Streisand (@BarbraStreisand) June 23, 2022

Star Trek actor George Takei was outraged:

So let me get this straight. A state has the right to restrict abortions, but doesnt have the right to restrict firearms? Is that what we have now in these United States?  George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) June 23, 2022

Filmmaker Rob Reiner accused the Supreme Court of enabling murderers:

The Supreme Court has just made death by firearms more convenient.  Rob Reiner (@robreiner) June 23, 2022

Comedian Albert Brooks attacked the Supreme Court:

This morning the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Americans can carry concealed weapons without any rules. Can we chip in and buy them a television set?  Albert Brooks (@AlbertBrooks) June 23, 2022

Actor Jeffrey Wright also expressed displeasure:

Except not outside the home of a Supreme Court justice, um, just two weeks ago. Big no-no. Aint life funny? https://t.co/fX6At5JkvN  Jeffrey Wright (@jfreewright) June 23, 2022

For regular citizens, a firearm is the only affordable method of self-defense, especially in cities plagued by crime due to misgovernance by Democrat leaders.

An elderly man's only hope against a group of violent home burglars or assailants is a firearm. At times merely firing in the air could serve as a deterrent. Taking away firearms is taking away security from citizens. It endangers lives and enables crimes such as can be theft, robbery, battery, sexual assault, murder, kidnapping, etc.

So, here's a suggestion for all those who are outraged, from Joe Biden to Jeffery Wright.

They could all prove they mean what they claim by pledging to suspend all their security.

The change could begin from the very top. Biden can order his White House security team to leave and never return. Lawmakers who supported Gun Control can pass a bill that removes all their security in Washington, their places of work, and their homes in their home state. The NYC Mayor and NY Governor can also suspend their security. Each and every Hollywood star who was outraged should give up their armed security.

If one digs deeper, this is a Marie Antoinette syndrome that has afflicted many among the rich and powerful. It seems very contagious.

During the pandemic, most of the 'elites' supported draconian lockdowns. They lived comfortably within their spacious properties and didn't care how regular people were affected. In fact, they mocked those who called for an easing of lockdowns

They didn't care that people with meager savings, living on low-paying jobs, or running small businesses will be financially ruined if due to prolonged lockdowns. They also failed to empathize that regular people need to step out of their houses for fresh air and to socialize or for religious congregations or medical treatment. Their needs were taken care of, hence the problems faced by others were irrelevant.

This sentiment continued during the gas crisis after Russia's intervention in Ukraine. The likes of Stephen Colbert, who makes $15 million dollars per annum, bragged about not being affected because he drives a Tesla

Reacting to the shortage of baby formula, feminist Bette Midler mocked regular women by tweeting "TRY BREASTFEEDING! It's free and available on-demand." Midler had no empathy for countless women who struggle to breastfeed due to health reasons, or who must work where breastfeeding is not possible.

This demand for the seizure of guns from law-abiding citizens is merely a continuation of that mentality. While they never leave their home without multiple armed bodyguards, they want to seize all means of security from regular people.

What they are saying is 'Our lives matter, yours do not. We know what's good for you but you do not. So shut up and do as you are ordered.' The word 'irredeemable' and 'deplorable' may also be used.

The Supreme Court acted morally by standing up for the citizen's right to self-defense.

This explains why there have been threats against justices and attempts to compromise its sanctity. The left sees the Supreme Court as an obstacle in their quest to monopolize power.
On Thursday, June 23, 2022, the Supreme Court ruled that New York state cannot restrict the Second Amendment right to carry a handgun. While the decision is a victory for Constitutional rights, a larger question is still on the table: How did gun regulations come to such a pass that a law-abiding citizen's right to carry a gun was so restricted in the first place?

In an effort to stop mass shootings, New York had created draconian rules about who could carry a handgun. Applicants for a carry permit had to show "proper cause," a nebulous term that was never clearly defined. Stating that one wished to protect oneself or one's property was not proper cause. Nor was living and/or working in a high crime area proper cause. People could state that they had a special need for self-protection, but since the term "special need" was not defined either, the authorities had complete discretion over whether or not they would award a carry permit. New York also attempted to use the "sensitive place" doctrine to restrict carry permits, meaning that it was not necessary for people in crowded areas to carry guns because law enforcement was supposed to be available.



Image: United States Supreme Court collage made using a photo by Jesse Collins. CC BY 3.0.

In writing the Court's opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas said, "[T]here is no historical basis for New York to effectively declare the island of Manhattan a 'sensitive place' simply because it is crowded and protected generally by the New York City Police Department." Justice Samuel Alito also pointed out in a concurring opinion that New York's restrictions had not prevented mass shootings such as the one on May 14, 2022 in Buffalo.

The Court's opinion also clarified that Second Amendment rights should not be held to a different standard than other constitutional rights. No one must demonstrate a proper cause or a special need to exercise free speech, to take the Fifth Amendment, or to freely practice their religion. In short, the ruling recognizes the fact that it is criminal behavior, rather than the tool that a criminal uses that is responsible for murders. Trying to stop shootings by taking away guns is like trying to stop drunk driving by taking away cars.

Pandra Selivanov is the author of The Pardon, a story of forgiveness based on the thief on the cross in the Bible.
BEIJING, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi delivered a video speech to the 24th General Assembly of Latin American Academy of Social Sciences on Friday.

China attaches great importance to cooperation with Latin American Academy of Social Sciences. Today, China officially became an observer country of Latin American Academy of Social Sciences, Wang noted.

Wang said China is willing to take this opportunity to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with the Latin American Academy of Social Sciences, strengthen exchanges and mutual learning between China and Latin America, and contribute more wisdom and strength to the sustainable development of China and Latin America.

Facing the changes and a pandemic both unseen in a century, China and Latin American and Caribbean countries have supported each other and worked together to overcome difficulties, bringing China-Latin America relations characterized by equality, mutual benefit, innovation, opening-up, and benefit for the people into a new era, he said.

Not long ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative, charting the course for safeguarding world peace and security and promoting sustainable development.

China is ready to work with Latin American and Caribbean countries to jointly safeguard peace and stability, promote economic recovery, improve people's well-being and advance the joint building of a China-Latin America community with a shared future, Wang said.

Latin American Academy of Social Sciences is a regional intergovernmental organization initiated by UNESCO and one of the three major social science teaching and research institutions in Latin America. The conference, held in Ecuador, voted to admit China as an observer state. 
He stole it once, and got away with it...

Why wouldn't he do it again?

Which is the unfortunate conclusion from Mollie Hemingway in a new report in The Federalist.

Joe Biden has a new plan to rig and steal the midterms. He's not only doing it now, he's been working on it for a while. Hemingway notes that it probably isn't legal, given that the executive branch has no right to get involved with elections. As a result, Biden and his Democrats are really determined to keep news of its basic details from the public:

President Biden really does not want the public to know about his federal takeover of election administration. Dozens of members of Congress have repeatedly asked for details, to no avail. Good government groups, members of the media, and private citizens have filed requests under the Freedom of Information Act. Not a single one has been responded to. All signs indicate a concerted effort to keep the public in the dark until at least after the November midterm elections. The lack of transparency and responsiveness is so bad that the Department of Justice and some of its agencies have been repeatedly sued for the information. When President Biden ordered all 600 federal agencies to "expand citizens' opportunities to register to vote and to obtain information about, and participate in, the electoral process" on March 7, 2021, Republican politicians, Constitutional scholars, and election integrity specialists began to worry exactly what was up his sleeve.

The short way of describing the plot is that Biden has asked any federal agency that delivers government services of any kind to voters to be converted into a voting operation.

Any government jobs center is now converted to a voting registration or voter "outreach" center. Ditto for any health care agency, any college, any housing agency.

Worse still, the Biden plan involves "partnering" with NGOs, which are partisan in the extreme and not subject to government rules against partisanship or political compaigning to get the dirty work done:

Conservatives may be in the dark, but left-wing activist groups are fully involved in the plot. The left-wing dark money group Demos put out press releases immediately after the executive order was issued, saying it would be happy to work with federal agencies on the project. And then the group admitted publicly that it "organized agency-based working groups and met with the staff in these agencies to provide technical expertise as they developed their initial voter registration plans, to ensure those plans reflect the knowledge and priorities of various agency stakeholders." It also admits it "developed research and resources to assist and advance agency efforts to implement robust voter registration opportunities, including a slide deck explainer of the agencies' potential for impact, best practices for conducting voter registration at federal agencies, and recommendations for modernizing and improving the accessibility of Vote.gov." All of that information should be available to oversight authorities in Congress and the American taxpayers paying for its implementation, not just the left-wing groups that produced it. Yet as of this publication date, none of it has been shared.

Bitter, hateful, ultra-partisan Obama-era leftist Susan Rice, who is now Biden's "chief domestic advisor" is reportedly running this scam and keeping news of it from the public, with presumably Sorosian NGOs serving as her handmaids. Anyone who thinks a federal agency that doles out benefits can't pressure recipients into voting the way they want them to vote is naive in the extreme.

No wonder Joe doesn't want anyone to know. Hemingway points out that NGOs played a pivotal role in swinging the 2020 election far enough into Joe's column for all the cheating efforts to make it come out a victory for him.

Now the Democrats have got a "playbook" and instead of retreating for a while now that word is out, they have stepped up their activity, yet shut down any inquiries about the legality or propriety of these projects. In short, that is rigging an election, which may well explain why Joe is so confident that Democrats in this swing year, where all polls show the public against them, will somehow come out on top, keeping the Senate and House.

Hemingway reports that among problems with this still-unresolved secret plan, which is being challenged by electoral integrity groups, thus far to little avail, are the implication of keeping the public in the dark:

Whatever the case, Americans have a right to know whether these bureaucracies that are meddling in elections have experts in for each state's election laws, what type of training is going on to ensure that state laws are being followed, whether they are allowing inspections and oversight to ensure no illegal activity, how they are determining whether a third-party group is genuinely non-partisan, whether they are allowing state investigators to approve money, and how much is being spent on this federal takeover of elections.

It's outrageous. It's little more than Hugo Chavez-style rigging, a sure sign of a deteriorating democracy. Beneath the dotardly grandfather image is a completely unethical and evil old man, surrounded by corrupt minions.

If the courts can't bust open this sleazy conspiracy with Joe's busy little minions at work, what chance do we as voters have? Perhaps only that if the midterms are not close, they can't cheat. Pray it is not close.

Image: Pixabay, Pixabay License.
President Richard Nixon was a serious student and successful practitioner of global geopolitics. The greatest foreign policy achievement of his presidency was his skillful exploitation of the Sino-Soviet split. Nixon's strategic conception of "triangular diplomacy," which positioned the United States to have better relations with China and the Soviet Union than they had with each other, was a diplomatic masterpiece. Thereafter, China's participation in the U.S.-led anti-Soviet alliance tilted the global chessboard in America's favor and set the stage for the Reagan administration's victory in the Cold War. Thirty years after the end of the Cold War, all of that has been undone.

Nixon's achievement was undone in part by successive U.S. administrations in the postCold War world that seemingly stood idly by as the defeated Russia gradually grew closer to a rising China  in part because America was distracted after the 9/11 attacks by the global war on terror, and in part due to the unbounded greed of America's financial and corporate class that grew wealthier as it fueled China's economic and military rise.

In the early years of the Cold War, the U.S. National Security Council, faced with the emergence of the Sino-Soviet bloc, issued NSC-68, which called for a massive defense build-up and a strengthening of America's alliances to confront the specter of a Eurasian landmass dominated by the two communist giants. Today, the United States needs a successor to NSC-68 that will outline a geopolitical strategy to once again confront a Eurasian landmass potentially dominated by the hostile alliance of Xi Jinping's China and Vladimir Putin's Russia.

That Sino-Russian alliance appears to be stronger than ever, despite the musings of our so-called foreign policy experts, who assured us that Putin's flawed and unpopular aggression in Ukraine was splintering that relationship. Writing in The Diplomat, Hemant Adlakha, the vice chairperson at India's Delhi Institute of Chinese Studies, notes that on June 15, Xi celebrated his 69th birthday by calling Putin to "reassure the Russian leader that bilateral relations have maintained a sound development momentum in the face of global turbulence and transformations." Significantly, Xi pledged to support Russia on issues of "sovereignty and security," which translated means Russia's interest in Ukraine as well as China's interest in Taiwan. According to Adlakha, Xi also reiterated the deepening "strategic coordination" between China and Russia. Adlakha believes that the Chinese foreign policy reality is "far removed from ... [the] Western understanding" and points out that Xi's support for a Sino-Russian strategic partnership "enjoys both the full backing of the CCP Political Bureau and the support of the country's strategic affairs community." Adlakha quotes from a recent Chinese commentary: "[only] strengthening China-Russia strategic alliance will help China avoid Western designs to isolate and contain China."

America's "new" NSC-68 should explain to the American people the security dilemma created by the still solid Sino-Russian strategic partnership. It should recommend a conventional  especially naval  arms and nuclear weapons build-up. It should call for strengthening and expanding our Indo-Pacific alliances. It should call for diplomatically and politically countering China's Belt and Road Initiative. And above all, it should call for a return to the Nixon geopolitical strategy of seeking ways to facilitate and exploit potential Sino-Russian differences.

If only we had an administration in Washington that understood the world the way Nixon did.

Image: David via Flickr, CC BY 2.0 (cropped).
The US Supreme Court deserves credit for overturning New York's racist Sullivan Act, a law passed in 1911 for the purpose of, among other things, disarming Italian immigrants. A New York judge depicted the first person convicted of violating it, Marino Rossi, as "your kind" and characterized Italians as having an "irascible nature" and also being a major source of crime. "It is unfortunate that this is the custom with you and your kind, and that fact, combined with your irascible nature, furnishes much of the criminal business in this country." The New York Times celebrated this "warning to the Italian community," which it called both "timely and exemplary."

"Big Tim" Sullivan was himself a criminal whose career included membership in Boss Tweed's infamous Tammany Hall. He was involved in prostitution, extortion, and unlawful gambling activities, and he also managed to die of syphilis. His approach to election fraud appeared in the movie Gangs of New York, where men who had already voted went to the barber to have their beards or mustaches removed so they could vote again. New York's current governor is nonetheless trying to defend a racist law enacted by a felon who would today be banned himself from possessing any firearms, and whose target consisted of Italians and quite probably rival criminals.

Now that this racist law has been overturned as unconstitutional, of course, every single person who has ever been convicted of violating it should have his or her conviction vacated and perhaps seek legal advice as to whether New York can be sued for violating his or her constitutional rights under color of law. While I cannot give legal advice, there are plenty of lawyers who can, and everybody convicted of violating the Sullivan Act should contact them. It is also to be noted that the USSC ruled in Murdock v. Pennsylvania that the government cannot license a constitutional right, and this argument should be used wholesale against states that require any kind of license or firearm owner identification card to purchase or own a firearm. While Murdock v. Pennsylvania related to exercise of the First Amendment, the court also made it clear that "a State may not impose a charge for the enjoyment of a right granted by the Federal Constitution" and gun licensing and registration laws do exactly that.

Civis Americanus is the pen name of a contributor who remembers the lessons of history, and wants to ensure that our country never needs to learn those lessons again the hard way. He or she is remaining anonymous due to the likely prospect of being subjected to "cancel culture" for exposing the Big Lie behind Black Lives Matter.

Photo licensed, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Water bridges are bridge-like structures that carry navigable waterway canals over other rivers, valleys, railways or roads. Small ships and boats ply on these waterways. The most popular water bridge is the Magdeburg Water Bridge in Germany, the longest and the most impressive in the world. Although aqueducts has been used for supplying cities with water since centuries, they were not generally used for traffic until the 17th century when modern canal systems started to appear. The 662-metre long aqueduct carrying the Canal lateral a la Loire over the River Loire was built in 1896, and remained the longest navigable aqueduct in the world until the 21st century, when the Magdeburg Water Bridge in Germany took the title.

Here are three of the most unusual and magnificent water bridges around the world.

Magdeburg Water Bridge

The Magdeburg Water Bridge in Germany deserve special mention. Opened in October 2003 and part of the Magdeburg crossing of waterways, it connects the Elbe-Havel Canal to the Mittellandkanal, crossing over the Elbe River. At 918 meters, its the longest navigable aqueduct in the world.

The ElbeHavel Canal and Mittelland Canal canals had previously met near Magdeburg but on opposite sides of the Elbe, which was at a significantly lower elevation than the two canals. Ships moving between the two had to make a 12-kilometre detour, descending from the Mittelland Canal through the Rothensee boat lift into the Elbe, then sailing downstream on the river, before ascending to the Elbe-Havel Canal through Niegripp lock. Low water levels in the Elbe often prevented fully laden canal barges from making this crossing, requiring time-consuming off-loading of cargo.

The reunification of Germany and establishment of major water transport routes made the Water Bridge a priority again. Work started in 1997, with construction taking six years and costing 500 million. The water bridge now connects Berlins inland harbour network with the ports along the Rhine river.

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Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, in Wrexham County Borough in Britain, was built between 1795 and 1805 to carry the Ellesmere Canal over the valley of the River Dee to link the coal mines of Denbighshire to the national canal system during the Industrial Revolution. It was one of the world's greatest engineering achievements of the time. For more than 200 years, it is the longest and highest aqueduct in Britain, and currently a World Heritage Site.

The aqueduct is 307 meter long, 3.4 meter wide and 1.60 meter deep, and forms a part of an 18 km long aqueduct system. It consists of a cast iron trough supported 38 meter above the river on iron arched ribs carried on nineteen hollow masonry piers. The use of both cast and wrought iron in the aqueduct enabled the construction of arches that were light and strong, producing an overall effect that is both monumental and elegant.

The economic influence of the canal for the region was considerable during the first half of the 19th century, enabling the rapid development of coal extraction, metal working, limestone quarries, and the production of lime. The slate quarries of the Welsh mountains and agriculture also benefited from the canal. Today, the canal no longer moves coal and limestone cargoes, but is a popular spot for tourists. Since 1954 the canal has been managed and maintained in a navigable condition by British Waterways.

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Barton Swing Aqueduct

The Barton Swing Aqueduct is a moveable water bridge in Barton upon Irwell in Greater Manchester, England, that carries the Bridgewater Canal across the Manchester Ship Canal. The swinging action allows large vessels using the Manchester Ship Canal to pass underneath and smaller narrow boats to cross over the top. When large vessels need to pass along the Ship Canal, the 1,450-tonne and 100 meter long iron trough is rotated 90 degrees. A gate at each end of the trough retains around 800 tonnes of water; further gates on each bank retain water in their adjacent stretches of canal. A similar swing bridge, but for road traffic, lies adjacent to, and upstream of, the Barton Swing Aqueduct.

The aqueduct, which is the first and only swing aqueduct in the world is considered a major feat of Victorian civil engineering. Designed by Sir Edward Leader Williams and built by Andrew Handyside of Derby, the swing bridge opened in 1894 and remains in regular use.

Previously, the aqueduct crossing over River Irwell was a rigid stone structure that prevented new ships of larger dimension to pass underneath the bridge. A swinging bridge became a necessity.

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The swing aqueduct (left) in the closed position, showing the Bridgewater canal crossing over the Ship Canal; the Barton Road Swing Bridge is on the right. Photo credit

Other notable water bridges, not included in this Top3 list are the Avon Aqueduct - the longest and tallest canal aqueduct in Scotland and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, and the Briare Aqueduct  which was the longest navigable aqueduct in the World until the opening of the Magdeburg Water Bridge. If you are interested, look them up on Google. If you are visiting the United Kingdom, spare a day to visit these remarkable achievements in civil engineering.
ADDIS ABABA, June 24 (Xinhua) -- The Ethiopian government has accused the rebel Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) of obstructing humanitarian air transportation into Ethiopia's conflict-affected Tigray region.

The Ethiopian Federal Government Communication Service on Thursday said in a statement the rebel group has blocked aid flights to Mekelle airport in Tigray.

It said the government, in collaboration with the international community, has been facilitating daily air transportation to Tigray for the delivery of pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and nutritional supplements.

According to the Ethiopian government, from June 11 to June 17, the federal government facilitated the transportation of 22,250 metric tons of food items to the Tigray region by 363 trucks.

"But since yesterday, the group has blocked aid flights to Mekelle airport. The group using the people of Tigray as a weapon of propaganda, once again shows its priority is disseminating false information instead of providing aid to the people," the statement said.

The Ethiopian government called on the international community to condemn the recent blockade of flights by the rebel group and to further investigate the reasons behind it.

The Ethiopian parliament designated the TPLF as a terrorist organization in May 2021.

Ethiopia, Africa's second-populous nation, has seen a devastating conflict between forces loyal to the rebel TPLF and the Ethiopian National Defense Force, backed by allied forces since November 2020. The conflict has left millions in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

Humanitarian aid is recently heading to the Tigray region after the Ethiopian government and the rebel forces agreed to a conditional cessation of hostilities and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid into the region.

Last week, Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat welcomed key confidence-building measures toward the peaceful resolution of the conflict in Ethiopia.

Mahamat mentioned the lifting of the state of emergency, release of detainees and prisoners of war, setup of the National Dialogue Commission, humanitarian truce and declaration of ceasefire, and the withdrawal of the TPLF from the Afar region as significant confidence-building measures.

The chairperson acknowledged improvements in humanitarian access and support to the affected regions, following the humanitarian truce and ceasefire. 
(ANSA) - ROME, JUN 24 - Premier Mario Draghi's government kept up its drive for the EU to impose a gas-price cap at the European Council, calling for an extraordinary summit in July on this issue.

The plan to cap gas prices in the light of soaring energy costs following Russia's invasion of Ukraine has won the backing of French President Emmanuel Macron.

Dutch Premier Mark Rutte, however, said he remained unconvinced and asked Draghi for proof that it would work.

A reference to the gas-price cap that Draghi is calling for has been included in a draft of the conclusions of this week's EU summit, which ANSA has seen. The draft said that, as part of the fight against "the use of gas as a weapon by Russia," the European Commission was called on to "pursue efforts to ensure energy supplies at accessible prices". (ANSA).


(ANSA) - ROME, JUN 24 - EU sources said Friday that there "no plans" for the extraordinary European summit in July that Italian Premier Mario Draghi had reportedly been pressing for in order to examine the idea of imposing a gas-price cap The Italian proposal to cap gas prices in the light of soaring energy costs following Russia's invasion of Ukraine has won the backing of French President Emmanuel Macron.

Dutch Premier Mark Rutte, however, said he remained unconvinced and asked Draghi for proof that it would work.

A reference to the gas-price cap that Draghi is calling for has been included in a draft of the conclusions of this week's EU summit, which ANSA has seen. The draft said that, as part of the fight against "the use of gas as a weapon by Russia," the European Commission was called on to "pursue efforts to ensure energy supplies at accessible prices". (ANSA).


(ANSA) - ROME, JUN 24 - The head of Italian domestic abuse action group Telefono Rosa told ANSA Friday she was indignant at the US Supreme Court's ruling overturning the historic 1973 Roe V Wade legalization of abortion in the US, saying that the controversial sentence by the conservative-dominated court will fuel anti-abortion propaganda in Italy too.

"There is a systematic attack on women's independence, it's inconceivable to begin again battles that were won 40 years ago," said Gabriella Carnieri.

"The mentality has got worse. They are calling into question all our freedoms, I'm indignant. There will be those who will ride this sentence in Italy, I'm certain that anti-abortion propaganda will start here too".

Writer and feminist Dacia Maraini told ANSA: "It is a great regression on civil rights. I hope that in Italy we won't be so stupid as to follow what is happening in America. I don't think it likely to happen".

Equal Opportunities and Family Minister Elena Bonetti, of the centrist Italia Viva (IV) party, told ANSA "the abolition of Roe versus Wade will have the effect of restarting backstreet abortions and will lead to desperate and dangerous journeys for woman. It is a decision that leaves you dismayed, which injures the dignity and rights of women".

A member of the Italian pro-abortion gynecologists association, Silvana Agatone, said "clearly some people want to see the consequences of this sentence: the deaths of women from clandestine abortions and the horrible coercion to take forward unplanned pregnancies".

Pro-life League Senator Simone Pillon called the ruling a "historic victory" saying "now we must bring to Europe and Italy the light breeze of every baby's right to life, which must see this beautiful blue sky.

"We will work for this, without going up against anyone but staying on the side of moms, dads and their kids".

Italian Left (SI) leader Nicola Fratoianni said "No, Senator Pillon, you're wrong: what is coming from the US Supreme Court is not a breeze. It is a foul-smelling wind mixed with prejudices and hatred towards women's freedom. The right wants to push women and their rights back a century. They won't let you - and we won't either". (ANSA).


(ANSA) - ROME, JUN 24 - Senegal-born Khaby Lame, the world's most followed TikToker, is to receive Italian citizenship, Interior Undersecretary Carlo Sibilia tweeted to him Friday after the 22-year-old social media star complained of not getting it yet.

Sibilia said the relevant decree was issued by his ministry at the start of June and Lame would shortly be contacted by local institutions to be notified and subsequently be sworn in.

Lame, who is known for his TikTok videos in which he silently mocks overly-complicated life hack videos, became the world's most followed person on TikTok earlier this month. (ANSA).


Balkans: ISPI analyst, further erosion of EU credibility No candidate status to BiH and negotiations for Skopje, Tirana

(by Stefano Giantin) (ANSA) - BELGRADE, JUN 24 - The failure to grant candidate status to Bosnia and Herzegovina and further delays in opening EU accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania represent "further erosion of the EU's credibility in the region, which will feel even more abandoned. But the worst consequences will be for the Union: the EU should not be surprised if other global players have filled the vacuum left by its broken promises in a few years." Giorgio Fruscione, political scientist and Balkans expert at the Institute for International Policy Studies (Ispi), took stock of the situation in the Balkans in an interview with ANSA.



"Geopolitical choices always have consequences; this was yet another assist to Russia," the analyst adds.



Fruscione gives a "negative" assessment of the EU's stance toward the Balkans. "For a long time, we have rightly criticized the lack of progress in reforms at the local level, but for at least three years, Brussels has been making a mockery of the candidates, first and foremost Albania and North Macedonia. As a result, these countries are now completely powerless. They cannot free themselves from the limbo they have fallen into because of the Bulgarian veto and the French president's enlargement reform proposals. It, therefore, seems realistic to say that "the EU has unjustly abandoned the Balkans. At the local level," Fruscione concludes, "the consequence will be an acceleration of the authoritarian drift, particularly in Serbia, and greater influence by third-party actors. For the EU, the inability to reform in a truly collegial sense will make it increasingly hostage to politically motivated vetoes of a single country. And we will likely see this in the coming years, even to the detriment of new candidates Moldova and Ukraine." (ANSA).





 Copyright ANSA - All rights reserved
GENEVA - The Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by shots fired by Israeli security services, a UN investigation has found.



The Palestinian-American journalist, who had been wearing a bulletproof jacket with 'PRESS' written on it and a helmet, was killed on May 11 while covering an operation by the Israeli army in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern part of the West Bank.



"All information we have gathered  is consistent with the finding that the shots that killed Abu Akleh and injured her colleague Ali Sammoudi came from Israeli security forces and not from indiscriminate firing by armed Palestinians," UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva on Friday.



"It is deeply disturbing that Israeli authorities have not conducted a criminal investigation," s he said."We at the UN Human Rights Office have concluded our independent monitoring into the incident." She added that the information came from the Israeli military and the Palestinian attorney general.





Al Jazeera journalist was not intentionally killed by any Israeli soldier, a military spokesman said in responding to the conclusions of the investigation. "It is not possible to determine whether she was killed by a Palestinian gunman shooting indiscriminately in her area or inadvertently by an IDF soldier," a military spokesman said, adding that the fact that Palestinians had refused to hand over the bullet found in her head to the Israelis and to conduct a joint investigation with the US put their aims in question.
MADRID - About 2,000 migrants on Friday approached the border between Morocco and Spain near the Melilla enclave.



Of them, about 400 tried to knock down a barrier on the border with 130 succeeded and getting through.



The news was reported by a Spanish government delegation in Melilla quoted by Spanish state television TVE.



Following moments of tension, the situation seemed to have been brought once again under the control of the Moroccan and Spanish security forces, the broadcaster said.
WINDHOEK, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Namibia and Germany Friday signed a Financial Cooperation Agreement that will see the latter providing about 170 million U.S. dollars in a loan on favorable terms to support economic development in Namibia, a joint statement by the two governments said.

The loans will be used to fund the Namibia Water Sector Support Program which aims to implement new water projects to improve access, quality and sustainability of water supply and sanitation in Namibia, and the Renewable Energy Program which seeks to expand production capacity in the African country.

Part of the loan will also be used to support micro and small enterprises and low-income households in overcoming the COVID-19 crisis by providing microcredits to predominantly rural customers, mainly women. 
UN says Al Jazeera journalist killed by Israeli forces Investigation finds shots not been fired by Palestinians

(ANSAmed) - GENEVA, 24 GIU - The Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by shots fired by Israeli security services, a UN investigation has found.



The Palestinian-American journalist, who had been wearing a bulletproof jacket with 'PRESS' written on it and a helmet, was killed on May 11 while covering an operation by the Israeli army in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern part of the West Bank.



"All information we have gathered  is consistent with the finding that the shots that killed Abu Akleh and injured her colleague Ali Sammoudi came from Israeli security forces and not from indiscriminate firing by armed Palestinians," UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva on Friday.



"It is deeply disturbing that Israeli authorities have not conducted a criminal investigation," s he said."We at the UN Human Rights Office have concluded our independent monitoring into the incident." She added that the information came from the Israeli military and the Palestinian attorney general. (ANSAmed).




Bulgaria to lift veto on North Macedonia EU accession Parliament passes opposition motion

(ANSAmed) - SOFIA, 24 GIU - After heated debate, the Bulgarian parliament passed a motion filed by the opposition and backed by the We Continue the Change party under outgoing prime minister Kiril Petkov aiming to support a French proposal to resolve a dispute between Bulgaria and North Macedonia on the start of talks for Skopje's entrance into the EU.



This has led to the lifting of Bulgaria's veto against the start of talks between North Macedonia and Brussels. The veto had been in place for a year and a half.



Backing the French proposal were 170 MPs, while 37 voted against and 21 abstained. In attendance were 228 MPs pf the 240 total in the assembly. (ANSAmed).




EU Council accepts Bosnia's candidature 'But after Commission's report'

(ANSAmed) - BRUSSELS, 24 GIU - European Council president Charles Michel said that the body he represents was prepared to consider the status of candidate country for Bosnia after the European Commission presents its report on the matter.



The conclusions of the Thursday evening summit, which proposed accepting the EU candidacy of Ukraine and Moldova, noted that the European Council was ready to recognise the EU status of Bosnia-Herzegovina. On this matter, it urged the Commission to report without delay on the implementation of 14 priorities named in its opinion statement, focusing on essential measures enabling the Council to meet to decide on the matter.



The European Council has said that it is ready to examine the country's candidature but only after a report by the European Commission on reforms carried out.



The real question is however how, how much, and in what form investment in the future should be made. This issue is in line with a proposal advanced by French president Emmanuel Macron to create a "European political community", not as an alternative to the enlargement process but which can accomodate fully the European spirit.



However, the Western Balkans say that no tangible result was seen for them from a summit with EU-27-leaders due to vetos.



Discussion continues for an EU future for Albania and North Macedonia, which - following years of reform - have not managed to open talks for accession due to a veto from Bulgaria, which is against North Macedonia's membership bid for identity-related issues.



Albanian prime minister Edi Rama has said that "it is a shame that a NATO country, Bulgaria, is holding hostage two other NATO nations, North Macedonia, and Albania, amid a war in our front lawn and while the other 26 members of the EU are powerless and not doing anything about it." (ANSAmed).




Tunisian president 'tied to population's Muslim identity' Researcher notes similarity to Nasser and Bourguiba

(ANSA) - TUNIS, 24 GIU - Tunisian president Kais Saied's recent statements on religion and the state have sparked lively debate in the country, In speaking to the media at the Tunis-Carthage airport during the departure of a first batch of pilgrims for Mecca (Hajj), he said that, "the state, by its nature, cannot have a religion" and that "the next constitution of Tunisia will thus not mention a state with Islam as a religion, but the belonging to a community that has Islam as a religion." "The community and the state are two different things," Saied stressed, adding that "the state must work to achieve the aims of Islam and Islamic law." This statement surprised many who had previously seen what had long ago been stated by Sadok Belaid - head of a commission tasked with drawing up a draft constitution that will be put to a referendum on July 25 - a sort of historic turning point: that of removing all references to Islam in the constitution.



Belaid had said on June 6 to AFP that he would be giving the president a draft of the constitution with all references to Islam taken out, in an attempt to counter Islamist parties like Ennahdha.



He had added that any references to Islam and Tunisian identity would disappear from Art. 1 and be shifted instead to the preamble.



Ennahdha had reacted with a statement from its executive office saying that it had "immediately warned against any attempt to undermine the founding principles of the population, its Arab and Muslim identity, or the civil character of the state".



Article 1 of the 2014 constitution - which remained the same as that in the 1959 constitution - states that Tunisia is a "free, independent, and sovereign state, islam is its religion, and Arabic its language".



"Regardless os the fact that the contents of Art. 1 of the new constitution under Saied are not yet known, the worth of Belaid's statements are highly symbolic and political," ANSA was told by political Islam expert Fabio Merone a researcher at the Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherche sur l'Afrique et le Moyen Orient of the University of Laval in Quebec (Canada).



"While winking at the modernists in the country," Merone said, "the head of the commission tasked with writing the new constitution rails against the entire democratic process of the post-2011 period, which led to a constitutional compromise in 2014, in which the Islamist political party Ennahdha was a fundamental political player." "The article in question, subjected at that time to bitter debate, is a symbol of compromise between Islamists and modernists - at that time represented by the Nidaa Tunes party - without which no democratic pact could have been possible," he added.



"The imposition of modernism from above was an illusion cultivated by a certain elite section of the country since independence," Merone stressed. "However, anti-Islamism is deeply rooted across the entire Arabi world as an ideological current known as Arab nationalism." "We must here distinguish between Islamism and the religious belonging to a political community. Being anti-Islamist does not mean being non-religious, as it is often oversimplified in Western media. Arab nationalism is an ideological current that puts Arab identity at the center of its plan for the building of the nation. Saied's statements should be seen from this perspective - similar to those of Bourguiba, who said it was the state's duty to achieve the aims of Islamic law" and that the "state is a system that is at the service of religion, but not its keeper." The 'ummah', or religious and civil community, "is its keeper and is at the service (including in religious matters) of what the state imposes on it," he added.



The concept of aims "makes reference to a reformist school of fiqh (Muslim jurisprudence) that makes a liberal interpretation of Islamic law possible and to which the Ennahdha party itself belongs to." The former Islamist party against which Saied is currently working, he added, "had actually supported the president during the 2019 election campaign, since it focused on Arabist themes and willingly made reference to Islam as the identity of the country." "Saied presents himself as an modernist Arab nationalist but his roots are in the Muslim identity of the population, similar to Jamal Abdel Nasser and Habib Bourguiba," Merone noted, who discusses these issues on his Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC25YUjAoN5QRlIfQvlclB8Q (ANSA).




Boris Johnson said voters can beat me up all they want but he will keep going after a double by-election defeat triggered a Cabinet resignation and renewed calls for his resignation.

The Prime Minister suffered a series of blows to his authority on Friday, including the resignation of Cabinet minister Oliver Dowden.

Mr Dowden quit as Conservative Party co-chairman, saying he and Tory supporters were distressed and disappointed by recent events and telling Mr Johnson that someone must take responsibility.

Former Conservative leader Michael Howard urged the Prime Minister to resign for the good of their party and the nation, as he urged the Cabinet to consider resigning to force him out.

Conservative MPs voiced their fears of losing their seats after the Tories lost their former stronghold of Tiverton and Honiton to the Liberal Democrats and Wakefield to Labour.

But Mr Johnson said he was confident his own side was not plotting to oust him as he was attending a Commonwealth leaders summit 4,000 miles away in Rwanda, before heading to the G7 in Germany.

There will still be some tough times ahead, no doubt people will continue to beat me up and say this or that to attack me, Mr Johnson said.

Thats fine, thats quite right, that is the job of politicians.

In the end, voters, journalists, they have no-one else to make their complaints to, I have to take that.

The Prime Minister spoke to Chancellor Rishi Sunak by phone for his daily meeting after receiving a warning call from Mr Dowden following an early-morning swim at his hotel.

Moments later, Mr Dowden published his resignation letter: Our supporters are distressed and disappointed by recent events, and I share their feelings.

We cannot carry on with business as usual. Somebody must take responsibility and I have concluded that, in these circumstances, it would not be right for me to remain in office.

Lord Howard said he very reluctantly came to the conclusion that Mr Johnson must be ousted, after Thursdays elections showed he no longer has the ability to win elections.

The Conservative peer told BBC Radio 4s the World At One programme: The party and even more importantly the country would now be better off under new leadership.

Members of the Cabinet should very carefully consider their positions.

(PA Graphics)

Lord Howard, who led the Tories between 2003 and 2005, has not been an outspoken critic of Mr Johnsons in the past, but did sack him as a shadow minister for lying about an affair.

Welsh Conservatives leader Andrew RT Davies suggested it was difficult to justify Mr Johnson remaining in office.

I presume thats getting far more challenging when the Prime Minister looked in the mirror these days with the messages that are coming from the ballot box such as by-elections we had last night, he told BBC Wales.

Some 324 Tories were elected in 2019 with smaller majorities than the one secured by Neil Parish in Tiverton and Honiton constituency. His resignation over viewing pornography in Parliament triggered that by-election.

MPs including Conservative veteran Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, who retained his Cotswolds seat with a majority of 20,000 at the last vote, raised concerns they could lose their jobs at the next general election.

I think, factually, if I were to run under a bus today it would be difficult to hold my seat. Theres no doubt about that, he told BBC Radio 4s Today programme.

Former minister Jesse Norman said Mr Johnson was insulting the electorate and making a decisive change of government at the next general election much more likely by prolonging this charade.

Veteran Tory MP and long-standing critic of Mr Johnson, Sir Roger Gale, said the Prime Minister had trashed the partys reputation.

He told BBC Breakfast Mr Johnson was choosing to hang on to the door handle at No 10 but it cant go on forever, and it certainly wont go on until the next general election.

Mr Johnson said he took responsibility for the losses, but tried to blame them on the cost-of-living crisis and the electoral challenges of mid-term governments.

I think, as a Government, Ive got to listen to what people are saying  in particular to the difficulties people are facing over the cost of living, which, I think, for most people is the number one issue, he told broadcasters.

Weve got to recognise there is more weve got to do and we certainly will  we will keep going, addressing the concerns of people until we get through this patch.

In the rural Devon constituency of Tiverton and Honiton, the Lib Dems overturned a 24,000 Tory majority to win, with a swing of almost 30%.

The contests, triggered by the resignation of two disgraced Tories, offered voters the chance to give their verdict on the Prime Minister just weeks after 148 of his MPs cast their ballots against him in a confidence vote.

A Conservative Party source said Mr Johnson was in his hotel pool by 6am Kigali time and was surprised to receive the call from Mr Dowden warning him he was about to resign.

The Prime Minister went on to hold his usual daily meeting with Mr Sunak, this time over the phone, and with chief whip Chris Heaton-Harris, the source added.

Despite the political drama, Mr Johnson was planning to stay the course in Rwanda before heading to a G7 summit in Germany and then the Nato meeting in Madrid.

(PA Graphics)

To not be at the G7 would be an abdication of responsibility for any prime minister, the source said.

In West Yorkshire, Labour seized back Wakefield with a majority of 4,925 on a swing of 12.7% from the Tories.

The previous Wakefield MP, Imran Ahmad Khan, quit after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy, a crime for which he was jailed for 18 months.

Wakefield was one of the so-called red wall seats won by the Tories in the 2019 general election after being Labour since the 1930s.

The glaring differences between the two lost constituencies was one of the issues worrying Tory MPs.
The creator of Derry Girls has been proposed for the freedom of the city.

Lisa McGee wrote the hit comedy series which has put Londonderry on the map with fans of the show across the world.

SDLP councillor Martin Reilly said he proposed Ms McGee for bringing joy and civic pride to her home city.

She would be the first woman to receive the honour if it is agreed by Derry City and Strabane Council.

What an absolute honour to be the first woman nominated . Im thrilled to even be considered . Fingers crossed  https://t.co/yPSOJX82kc  Lisa McGee (@LisaMMcGee) June 24, 2022

The proposal is set to come before councillors at a meeting on Thursday, June 30.

Responding on Twitter, Ms McGee expressed her delight.

What an absolute honour to be the first woman nominated. Im thrilled to even be considered. Fingers crossed, she tweeted.

Mr Reilly said it would be fitting for Ms McGee to be the first woman to receive the honour.

Lisa McGee has brought so much joy and civic pride to our city and district through her writing and this work has undoubtedly put Derry and its people on a global stage, he said.

Netflix has taken this to a global audience and this exposure for our city and district has boosted tourism and inspired those who live here  young and old.

The fact that Lisa is the first female to be nominated for the Freedom of the City in our city is truly a historic and special occasion.

The cast of Derry Girls (Channel 4/PA)

Through her work people have seen the warmth and charm of our city, the sense of friendship, families pulling together and dealing with adversity  all delivered through various strong female viewpoints.

She has created through her writing such a sense of civic pride and strong state of mind of what being from Derry means.

Im delighted to put her forward as the first Derry Girl recipient of the highest honour that the council can bestow.
Katie Price is to be sentenced on Friday for breaching a restraining order.

The former glamour model and reality TV star, 44, pleaded guilty earlier this year to breaching the five-year restraining order against her ex-husbands fiancee.

Price sent abusive messages to Kieran Hayler about his fiancee, Michelle Penticost, in January, a court heard.

The 44-year-old had been banned from contacting Ms Penticost directly or indirectly under the terms of a restraining order imposed in June 2019.

Price pleaded guilty in March and was warned she faces going to jail.

She is set to appear at Lewes Crown Court on Friday morning for sentencing.
Foreign companies eye opportunities in China with continued investment

Xinhua) 08:16, June 24, 2022

BMW i3 electric cars are pictured during the inauguration ceremony of Plant Lydia of BMW Brilliance Automotive (BBA) in Tiexi District of Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning Province, June 23, 2022. (Xinhua/Yang Qing)

TIANJIN, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Commercial compressors filed out from an automated production line, with a few workers operating the intelligent system and checking the quality at the Danfoss smart manufacturing factory in north China's Tianjin Municipality.

Danfoss, a leading Danish heating technology company, made its first investment in China in 1996 by establishing the Danfoss (Tianjin) Co., Ltd. After over two decades, the subsidiary has developed into a modern factory integrating research and development (R&D), new product testing and intelligent manufacturing.

Dai Jian, head of Danfoss Global Services, China, and general manager of Danfoss (Tianjin) Co., Ltd., said that with more than 10 production sites across the country, Danfoss always regards China as its "second home market." China has now become its second-biggest regional market and the largest purchase market.

"We transferred a compressor production line from the United States to Tianjin last year. This year, eight to 10 production lines from Europe are expected to be transferred to Tianjin, and the preparation work has already started," Dai said. All the new production lines will bring 800 million yuan (about 119.3 million U.S. dollars) of output value annually to Danfoss Tianjin in the future, Dai said.

Driven by China's goals of peaking carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060, Danfoss has made energy conservation and emission reduction a key development area in China and continued to increase investment.

In 2021, Danfoss announced it would invest 140 million yuan to build a global refrigeration R&D and testing center in Tianjin. "It is our largest R&D center currently, and we expect to put it into use by the end of this year to put the newly-developed products on the market," Dai said.

In line with China's development goals, enjoying multiple favorable policies and a promising business environment, Dai said these are the main reasons for the company to take root, develop and continue to increase investment in China.

In addition to Danfoss, many foreign enterprises have also set their sights on China's future development and expanded their businesses in the country.

Foreign giants like Fast Retailing, Siemens Healthineers, and L'Oreal have been opening new stores, increasing investment, and launching new projects, demonstrating their confidence in China, as well as the determination to expand their presence.

In the eastern city of Suzhou, Mando from the Republic of Korea plans to invest over one billion yuan in new projects in 2022. In Zhejiang Province, Nidec Elesys (Zhejiang) plans to further invest 150 million yuan this year to expand the production capacity of inverters for new energy vehicles.

According to the 2022 China Business Climate Survey Report released by the American Chamber of Commerce in China (AmCham China), two-thirds of the surveyed companies plan to increase their investment in China this year.

With consumption upgrading accelerating in recent years, the vast market of China, with over 400 million middle-incomers, is attractive enough for global investment, said Cong Yi, a professor at Tianjin University of Finance and Economics.

In recent years, China has continued shortening the negative list for foreign investment and put into force laws and regulations including the Foreign Investment Law to protect the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investors.

Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, China has made great efforts to stabilize the industrial and supply chains and ensure the steady progress of major projects, which further bolstered foreign companies' investment confidence in China.

According to the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Chinese mainland, in actual use, expanded 17.3 percent year on year to 564.2 billion yuan in the first five months of the year. In U.S. dollar terms, the inflow went up 22.6 percent year on year to 87.77 billion U.S. dollars.

During the period, investment from the Republic of Korea, the United States, and Germany climbed by 52.8 percent, 27.1 percent, and 21.4 percent, respectively.

Shu Jueting, a MOC spokesperson, said in May that multinational companies have actively expanded investment in China, which shows foreign investors' confidence in the prospects of the Chinese economy and reflects the attraction of China's huge market, complete industrial system and infrastructure, as well as abundant human resources.

Shu also noted that China will continue to deepen its opening-up and optimize services for foreign investors to create more opportunities for foreign-funded enterprises.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun)
RABAT, June 24 (Xinhua) -- More than 2,000 sub-Saharan migrants tried on Friday to breach the border between Morocco and Melilla, a Spanish enclave city in Africa, causing a stampede that killed five of them, official news agency MAP reported.

Moroccan security forces "intervened" when the migrants tried to scale or cut through a six-meter fence that separates the Spanish city from Moroccan territory, MAP said.

The stampede also injured 76 migrants, 13 of them in critical condition, and 140 members of the security forces including five in critical condition.

Moroccan authorities said all the injured, both migrants and security force members, were transferred to hospitals for treatment.

The Spanish authorities at the enclave said most of the migrants were forced back but 130 of them managed to reach the enclave. 
A pure evil child killer has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 15 years for the murder of vulnerable six-year-old Rikki Neave in 1994.

James Watson was 13 when he lured the schoolboy to woods near his home in Peterborough and strangled him to fulfil a morbid fantasy he had told his mother about three days earlier.

He stripped Rikki and posed his naked body in a star shape for sexual gratification, deliberately exhibiting him near a childrens woodland den.

His sentence was determined largely by the age he was at the time he struck.

Rikki Neave was murdered by James Watson in 1994 (Cambridgeshire Police/PA)

The judge, Mrs Justice McGowan, said: Rikki was a child too willing to trust and engage with strangers.

He never had the chance to be happy and lead a normal and fulfilling life. That opportunity was denied to him by his murderer.

She said his childhood had been a sad one, that he was neglected, was the victim of violent and cruel behaviour, and only went to school at lunchtimes so he could eat a proper meal.

Watson showed no emotion as he was sentenced.

The judge said he will only be released after serving the minimum term of 15 years  less the more than two years spent in custody  and once the Parole Board is satisfied that he no longer presents a risk to the public.

Rikkis murder was among the most high-profile cold cases on police files until Watsons DNA was identified on the victims clothes following a re-examination of the case two decades later.

Mother-of-four Ruth Neave was cleared of her sons murder in 1996 but was jailed for seven years after admitting child cruelty  a conviction she is reported to be considering challenging, many years after her release.

She did not attend court for the sentencing hearing.

She described Watson as pure evil, with no conscience, while police said he was a fantasist, a compulsive liar who had shown no remorse.

In a witness statement, read on her behalf, Ms Neave said: Like stones dropping in a pond, it (the murder) has rippled out far and wide.

Rikkis murder left a massive hole in our lives and in our hearts

I miss him so much that it feels like I have had my heart ripped out.

James Watson, now 41, was found guilty in April of murdering Rikki Neave in 1994 (CPS/PA)

Rebecca Maria Harvey, Rikkis eldest sister, broke down as she addressed the court.

She said: Although I was the eldest, it wasnt like that as he would look after me.

Losing Rikki was like losing the other half of me.

Addressing Watson, but not using his name, she said: After all these years of living your life you finally get your comeuppance, and Rikki Lee Harvey finally gets justice.

Watson, now 41, was found guilty of murder in April by a jury which deliberated for 36 hours and 31 minutes to reach a majority verdict after an 11-week trial.

Rikkis body was found on November 29 1994, the day after he went missing.

Watson had obsessed over newspaper coverage of the killing, copying front page stories at school.

The following month he was interviewed as a witness by police after an elderly resident reported seeing him with Rikki on the nearby Welland Estate.

His lying account was unchallenged, as police wrongly focused on a theory that Ms Neave killed her son and used a buggy to dump his body.

Prosecutors initially felt there was still insufficient evidence to prosecute, but reversed their decision after Ms Neave and Rikkis sisters called for a victims right to review.

Key evidence included Rikkis last meal, of Weetabix, which fixed his time of death at about noon.

It meant Rikki was killed shortly after being seen with Watson heading to the woods where he used to play.

Rikkis muddy Clarks shoes also indicated that his walk into the woods was a one-way trip.

The copse in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, where the body of six-year-old Rikki Neave was found in November 1994 (Alan Water/PA)

Watsons sexual interest in younger boys was known to police, who interviewed him over an allegation that he molested a five-year-old in 1993.

An ex-girlfriend later said he had strangled her during sex in woods and killed a bird and spread out its wings, in a sinister reconstruction of Rikkis murder.

The judge said there was no evidence of sexual activity with Rikkis body, although Watson had a sexual interest in little boys.

In a police interview in 2016, Watson attempted to explain the presence of his DNA on Rikkis clothes by claiming he picked him up to look at diggers through a hole in a fence.

Watson, who has a long criminal record for convictions including stealing cars, fled to Portugal while on bail on suspicion of murder, but was extradited back to Britain.

Mrs Justice McGowan sentencing James Watson (Elizabeth Cook/PA)

Former assistant chief constable Paul Fullwood, who led the cold case investigation, said mistakes had been made and that police initially charged the wrong person in prosecuting Rikkis mother.

But he denied that police missed an opportunity to charge Watson at the time.

He said: It has taken a significant period of time to get to this point, but we made a promise we would find the person responsible for Rikkis death, and its a promise we have kept.

Rikki was a six-year-old little boy  he was a kind and cheeky chap, who was cruelly taken under the most horrendous of circumstances.

Police said there is no evidence that Watson was involved in any other serious unsolved crimes in the area.
Boris Johnson has been dealt a fresh blow after Commonwealth leaders rejected his bid to oust secretary-general Baroness Scotland.

The Prime Minister had backed Jamaican foreign minister Kamina Johnson Smith to replace the Labour peer in the role as the public face of the 54-nation body.

But allies rejected Mr Johnsons move and re-elected Baroness Scotland for a second term during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) on Friday.

UK officials, who had been privately critical of Baroness Scotland, had been confident Ms Johnson Smith would succeed.

Thanking all the countries and people who supported me in this journey! As I said to many of you- if I didn't pull through, God wasn't ready for me to leave Jamaica yet! Much love always, I continue to serve, and of course, sincere congratulations to Baroness Scotland. #OneLove pic.twitter.com/yeVm2jlQUZ  Hon. Kamina J Smith (@kaminajsmith) June 24, 2022

Mr Johnson did not show any sign of frustration as he told a press conference: Its a good day for democracy.

I work well with Baroness Scotland, have done for a very long time, since I became foreign secretary, and I look forward to working with her for the next couple of years.

Well be doing everything we can simultaneously to help strengthen the Commonwealth secretariat and really deliver value for Commonwealth members.

Baroness Scotland said it was deeply humbling to be reappointed for a further two years.

To continue to serve our family of nations is a true honour and a privilege and I will do so to the best of my ability. We will face the worlds challenge with unity and purpose, she added.

To seek high office is an profound act of service and I want to commend my colleagues who also sought to serve.

The Commonwealth is richer for the breadth and depth of talented leaders who dedicate themselves to our family of nations.

Mr Johnson had previously said his choice would have the vast experience and support to unite our unique family of nations and seize the opportunities ahead.

But Ms Johnson Smith conceded her defeat, tweeting: Much love always, I continue to serve, and of course, sincere congratulations to Baroness Scotland.

Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy said: This was a divisive campaign and a humiliating diplomatic failure for Boris Johnson that illustrates his embarrassing lack of influence within the Commonwealth.
Kyrre Holm Johannessen, the creator and showrunner of Netflix series The Girl From Oslo, has signed with CAA for representation.

Originally from Norway, Johannessen began his career in television, writing on the 2016 comedy drama Meglerne, about a corrupt real estate broker who suddenly finds himself tutoring a self-absorbed student. He is also a well-known TV presenter, having hosted various programs for Norways public broadcaster NRK, including Karate, Kyrre and P3morgen.

Johannessen was the head writer for the 2017 satirical comedy series Folkevalgt (Elected) for Norwegian broadcaster TV2, which follows nine young politicians from different parties fighting for a seat in Norways Parliament. He also served as the head writer for the musical comedy series En Far Vre Som En Er in 2019.

Johannessen is behind The Girl From Oslo (Bortfrt), which topped the Netflix charts at the end of 2021. The Israeli-Norwegian co-production follows a group of Norwegian and Israeli friends who are kidnapped in the Sinai desert by ISIS terrorists who threaten to kill them unless 12 ISIS detainees are released in exchange for their freedom. A Norwegian diplomat, whos the father of one of the kidnapped, must then travel to Sinai to free his daughter.

The Girl From Oslo premiered on the global streamer in April 2021. The show, which is co-directed by Uri Barbash and Stian Kristiansen, stars Anneke von der Lippe, Amos Tamam and Raida Adon.

Elsewhere, in addition to working in television, Johannessen hosts two podcasts and has co-written two books.

He continues to be managed by Alex Goldstone at Anonymous Content.

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President Biden is taking baby steps in his effort to lower oil and gasoline prices: Calling for a gas-tax holiday that will probably never happen. Sending stern messages to U.S. oil and gas producers. Releasing oil from the strategic reserve. Browbeating Saudi Arabia to produce more oil.

At best, these types of measures will help lower pump prices a bit. At worst, theyll have no effect consumers can discern, making Biden seem hapless.

Theres one obvious thing that would promptly lower oil and gas prices: An end to Russias war in Ukraine. The Russian invasion isnt responsible for the entire increase in oil and gas prices since Biden took office in January 2021. But it has caused much of it. U.S. pump prices have risen from about $3.60 per gallon before Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion on Feb. 24 to $5 now. That extra $1.40 per gallon is legitimately the Putin price hike, as Biden calls it. For a driver averaging 25 miles per gallon over 12,000 miles per year, thats nearly $700 in additional spending on gas.

The United States, Europe and other nations are obviously doing much to help Ukraine fight back against the much larger Russian invasion force, and to punish Russia for its belligerence. But Biden has not framed aid for Ukraine as a dual-purpose mission to defeat Russia while calming global energy markets and bringing relief to consumers everywhere. He could do that, however, and it might look a lot more convincing than what he has tried so far.

Sanctions may never dislodge Russian forces

The global response to the Russian invasion involves sanctions meant to tank the Russian economy and disrupt Russias ability to maintain and rebuild its military. Theyre sorta working. The Russian economy is likely to shrink by around 10% this year, which is a severe recession. But Russias economy has also stabilized after an early shock, and the effect of sanctions has dissipated since May, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

More importantly, sanctions are not denting Russias energy revenue, and that is the top source of funding for Russias military. In fact, Russias oil and natural gas revenues have grown by 80% this year, despite sanctions, because oil and gas prices are much higher that before the war. CSIS estimates that Russian energy exports generate $1 billion per day in revenue, while Russia spends $325 million per day on military expenditures. Some analysts think sanctions will hurt Russia more the longer they are in place, but Ukraine and its allies should also prepare for the possibility that sanctions may never help dislodge Russian forces from Ukraine.

[Follow Rick Newman on Twitter, sign up for his newsletter or send in your thoughts.]

Putin clearly fumbled the beginning of the war, when Russian forces expecting little resistance taking Ukraines capital, Kyiv, instead met fierce defenders who forced Russia into a disastrous retreat. But Putins strategy on withstanding sanctions looks much more clever.

It may be morally repugnant, but this has forced the realization of just how dependent we are on Russian exports in the global energy markets, Alan Gelder, vice president of refining, chemicals and oil markets at research firm Wood Mackenzie, told Yahoo Finance. The opportunity to do anything is very limited unless you bear a lot of pain.

The United States has already banned imports of Russian oil, which made up only about 2% of the U.S. supply. But that has contributed to higher gas prices anyway. Oil comes in many grades, and Russian crude is well-suited for Gulf Coast refineries.

Thats not available now, says Gelder. Theres been some replacement oil, but every time you impose barriers, you make the system less efficient and more costly.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin is seen on a display in the background as U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about "gas prices and Putin's Price Hike" during remarks in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building's South Court Auditorium at the White House in Washington, U.S., June 22, 2022. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Europe is attempting to cut its own purchases of Russian oil by 90% by the end of the year. It can get replacement oil from the Middle East, but that is another workaround likely to raise costs. Russia, meanwhile, will be able to sell some of its oil to other customers, such as India or China. Overall, analysts think that by the end of the year, sanctions will block perhaps 1.5 million barrels per day of Russian oil from the global market, or about 1.5% of total supply.

The 'fear premium'

With energy markets already tight, even a low-single-digit drop in supply can boost prices. Theres another important factor pushing prices even higher: The fear premium, or concern that future developments in the war could cause a much bigger supply shock.

Whats driving this market is fear, says Raoul LeBlanc, vice president of the energy practice at S&P Global. Theres a large risk premium in the market. People look on the horizon and see things that could exacerbate the situation.

An end to the war would not mean the immediate end of sanctions on Russia, which could persist for years. But it would most likely deflate the fear premium and bring gasoline prices down by more than everything else Biden is attempting, combined. Gas in the United States may never fall below $3 a gallon again, given a decline in refining capacity that will keep the supply of finished product tighter. But the price of oil is the main cost driver for gasoline, and a decline in the input price will generate a drop in the output price.

Could Ukraines allies do much, if anything, to speed an end to Russias war in Ukraine? Ukraine has said it wont give up land for peace, and most of its allies support that. So the real question is whether theres a plausible way to accelerate the defeat of Russian forces on the battlefield.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky holds a press conference with the heads of state of France, Germany and Romania, at Mariinsky Palace in Kyiv, on June 16, 2022. - (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / POOL / AFP) (Photo by LUDOVIC MARIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Its possible. The United States and other nations have given Ukraine many of the weapon systems it has asked for, including long-range artillery that is finally finding its way to Ukraines front-line troops. Much more military aid is on the way, and some of it cant be rushed, because training takes time and maintenance tails are complex and time-consuming to build.

But there are other things Ukraine has asked for, and not receivedmost notably fighter jets that would give Ukraine new attack capabilities and begin to even out Russias heavy airpower advantage. The United States and NATO have obviously declined to provide any kind of no-fly zone over Ukraine, using their own troops. NATO wont even provide naval escort for commercial ships bearing Ukrainian food exports, which are now subject to a de facto Russian blockade thats causing food shortages in some parts of the world.

Theres also a lot thats not publicly known, such as how much intelligence the United States and other allies are providing Ukraine, and what other types of clandestine aid Ukraine might be receiving. So nobody analyzing the war should presume they know everything thats going on.

No end in sight

The war has become a bloody slog in eastern Ukraine, with Russian forces now making limited territorial gains, but nothing that seems likely to be strategically decisive. Soldiers on both sides are exhausted. Russia has a vast firepower advantage but severe manpower shortfalls. Ukraine has a morale advantage but a shortage of weapons. Nothing suggests either side can manage a breakout that turns the tide in their favor, and its quite possible this savagery will last for months or years.

The sophisticated arms flowing to Ukraine will beef up those forces. But that could coincide with sanctions fatigue, especially in Europe, as the war drags on, hundreds of millions of consumers lose patience with sky-high energy costs and pressure mounts on Western leaders to put their own constituents first. Putin may even be counting on that.

Biden says his goal in the war is a democratic, independent, sovereign and prosperous Ukraine, while he seeks to avoid a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia. It could take a year, or five years, for Ukraine to achieve Bidens desired status. Oil and gasoline prices are likely to stay near current highs, or go even higher, during most or all of that time. Biden obviously thinks current levels of aid to Ukraine will help achieve his goal. So wouldnt more aid for Ukraine, faster, be good for everybody other than the aggressor, Russia?

Biden has to calibrate what kind of aid to Ukraine might cross a threshold triggering Russian use of mass-destruction weapons or some escalation beyond Ukraine. But he also has to calibrate the harm record-high energy prices are already causing consumers, and whether he has an obligation to intervene. The final piece of the puzzle involves Bidens own political fortunes, which are waning now and will continue to decline for as long as Putin blackmails energy consumers in America and elsewhere. Putin may be able to wait longer than Biden.

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Boris Johnson was more than 4,000 miles away from the political eruption that saw voters in two very different constituencies vote out the Conservatives.

Not long after learning that he had lost one Tory stronghold in Devon to the Liberal Democrats and a West Yorkshire seat to Labour, the Prime Minister was under the palm trees and in the pool of his luxury hotel in Kigali.

Any semblance of tranquillity from the 6am dip in the Rwandan capital where he is attending a summit of Commonwealth leaders would not last long.

Oliver Dowden resigned as chairman of the Conservative Party following the by-election results (Aaron Chown/PA)

Within the next hour, the Prime Minister would receive the shock of a phone call from his old ally Oliver Dowden who was warning him he would shortly be resigning as Tory party co-chairman, a Conservative source said.

Mr Johnson was likely still drying off from his dip when they spoke because within minutes the resignation letter was online  and contained a barb aimed at the Prime Minister.

The Torys 24,000 majority in Tiverton and Honiton had been replaced by a 6,000 majority for the Lib Dems and Labour had won back Wakefield, one of the seats seized by Mr Johnson as he led the Conservatives to a massive majority in 2019.

Mr Dowden published his letter to the Prime Minister online setting out that supporters were distressed and disappointed by recent events and that he believed someone must take responsibility.

My letter of resignation to the Prime Minister. pic.twitter.com/xd5MtM2o3n  Oliver Dowden (@OliverDowden) June 24, 2022

It would become clear that Mr Johnson would not join his Cabinet ally in resigning and he would soon be on the phone to key ministers.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak and chief whip Chris Heaton-Harris joined the Prime Minister in a call, which the Tory source characterised as being the routine daily meeting.

Mr Johnson did not appear dented by the political blows during a round of broadcast interviews with British media at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting conference centre.

He insisted he would keep going with the Governments agenda and vowed to listen to the voters.

But there were signs of anger in the Johnson camp, with the Tory source apportioning some of the blame for the electoral losses on the nonsense of the medias endless reportage and Kremlinology of partygate.

The Prince of Wales and the Prime Minister at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chris Jackson/PA)

Asked if he feared Mr Dowden was acting as an outrider for a possible leadership challenge from someone like the Chancellor, the source said: What do I know, but Id be astonished if it was the Chancellor.

The Prime Minister spoke to the Chancellor this morning as he does almost every morning.

Mr Johnson went on to meet with the Prince of Wales amid signs of a row between No 10 and Clarence House.

The Prime Minister had suggested he would tell Charles to be open minded about the widely criticised and currently stalled policy of sending asylum seekers who arrive in the UK by unauthorised means on a one-way ticket to Rwanda.

But on the morning of their meeting, he declined to set out what he planned to say to Charles, who has reportedly described the scheme as appalling.

Despite the dent to his authority in the UK and the need to stem the fallout, Mr Johnson was determined to stay in Rwanda before going ahead with his trip to the G7 summit in Germany.

The source said: To not be at the G7 would be an abdication of responsibility for any prime minister.
Heather Booth was just 18 years old when she joined the civil rights movement. A member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), decades later Booth now says she knew early on that "sometimes you have to stand up to illegitimate authority."

For many activists, the civil rights movement spawned other demonstrations like the women's movement, of which many were organizing on different fronts for liberations such as pay equity, childcare and reproductive rights.

"You have to get a sense of that time period," Fran Beal told ABC News. As an early college student, Beal was a founding member of the SNCC Black Women's Liberation Committee, which would later be recognized as the Third World Women's Alliance. Beal says reproductive rights became a personal priority after hearing her close friend Cordelia died from a back-alley abortion in November 1958.

Later on, Beal would have her own near-death experience after receiving an illegal abortion in the late 1950s. "I ended up on a woman's kitchen table and later in the hospital because I had started to bleed so badly. If I hadn't gone to the hospital, I would have died," Beal said.

PHOTO: Frances Beal, July 7, 1970, in New York. (Howard Petrick)

As an organizer, activist and author, Beal later published "Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female," exploring the misconceptions of Black women in the U.S. during the 1960s and '70s, fearing that poor women of color were bearing the brunt of illegal abortions in America.

"We didn't talk about sexual things during that time," Beal said.

"Speaking about abortion with three or more people was a conspiracy to commit a felony," Booth added.

PHOTO: Heather Booth pushing one of her kids in a stroller at the Chicago Women's Liberation Union in about 1970. (Chicago Women's Liberation Union Herstory Project)

As a Chicago college student, Booth found herself assisting a friend's sister in getting an illegal abortion. After soon learning the process, Booth founded Jane Collective, an underground abortion service. At least 100 women counseled and later performed safe underground abortions to nearly 11,000 women before the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973.

"It wasn't legal then. We need to keep this safe, legal and accessible for all," Booth said.

Texas abortion law alarms reproductive justice advocates: 'We are forcing people into generational poverty'

Now, nearly 50 years later, with the Supreme Court's decision looming, former activists such as Beal, now 82, and Booth, now 76, say by using their progress as the blueprint, the fight is up to the next generation.

PHOTO: People attend an abortion rights rally against the Hyde Amendment, in Boston, 1977. (Spencer Grant/Getty Images)

In early May, a 98-page Supreme Court draft opinion, leaked to Politico, appearing to show a majority of justices ready to overturn Roe v. Wade -- the landmark decision that has protected a woman's right to abortion for nearly five decades.

With Roe under threat, doctors worry about girls under 18 who may need abortion care

"We have women who have not known the right to have an abortion as a part of a reproductive rights agenda," Beal said. "The very fact that it could be overthrown altogether was not something I think was in the forefront of most people's minds. Even activists like myself would follow this pretty closely."

Birmingham, Alabama, native Diane Derzis shared that she, too, underwent an abortion procedure. "I thank God every day, I was able to do so safely. And that's what started me on this journey," Derzis told ABC News. "I was able to do what I knew was right for me, and there's never been a moment of regret."

Derzis owns and operates abortion clinics across the South, including Jackson Women's Health Clinic -- the lone abortion clinic in Mississippi. The clinic is also at the epicenter of the Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health, which could potentially overturn Roe.

PHOTO: Women's liberation groups march down Fifth Avenue and will end with the rally at Bryant Park in New York, Aug. 26, 1970. (Bettmann Archive via Getty Images)

Following the Roe v. Wade decision, which allowed safe and legal access to abortion across all states, Derzis said she's faced threats over the past 40 years for "following her journey," including in 1998, when she received an alarming call and learned that her first clinic in Birmingham had been bombed.

"It's been extremely depressing, but that's also been part of the fight. And that's what's made us strong and made these clinics last as long as they have," she said.

But Derzis has vowed not to be pushed out. While she prepares to close Jackson Women's Health Organization, Derzis said she is working to open clinics in new areas such as New Mexico.

"They're not going to win. After all these years of fighting, we'll continue to keep fighting."

PHOTO: In front of the Atlas sculpture at Rockefeller Center, activists hold a series of signs that read 'Legalize Abortion' during a demonstration in New York, March 1968. (Bev Grant/Getty Images)

"For 50 years now, women have had this right; make space to take up the struggle," Beal added. "If you don't take up the struggle, you're leaving it for other generations to take up."

Abortion rights activists vow to continue decadeslong Roe v. Wade fight: 'They're not going to win' originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP)  Brazilian prosecutors said Thursday that a raped 11-year-old girl had received a legal abortion after a judge blocked her for weeks from ending her pregnancy.

Federal prosecutors in the state of Santa Catarina said in a statement that Polydoro Ernani de Sao Thiago hospital had taken "measures to interrupt the minor's pregnancy after a formal request made on behalf of the girl's family.

The hospital said in a statement that it could not comment on the case because it is under the secrecy of Brazil's judiciary system.

Doctors had earlier refused to perform the procedure because the child was in her 22nd week of pregnancy.

Some anti-abortion activists argue Health Ministry recommendations urge a 20- to 22-week limit on the procedure. But Daniela Felix, a lawyer for the family of the child, and other legal experts said Brazilian law makes no mention of a limit in the case of rape victims or when a womans life is in danger.

The 11-year-old, who was 10 when she was raped, was in her 29th week when the abortion was finally carried Wednesday night, amid outrage against judge Joana Ribeiro Zimmer for her actions in the case.

Earlier this week, Brazils judicial watchdog agency said it would investigate Zimmer for asking the child at a filmed hearing May 9 whether she understood how pregnancies happen and suggesting the girl should hold on a little more to save the fetus.

The girl repeatedly said she did not want to give birth.

Brazilian law allows abortions in three instances: rape; risk to the mothers life; and cases of anencephaly, in which a fetus has no functioning brain.

The case has sparked a debate between supporters of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro and those of leftist former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Bolsonaro, who is in a bid for reelection against da Silva, tweeted after news of the girl's abortion emerged: A baby of a seven month pregnancy.

We don't discuss the way it was conceived, whether the law allows it or not. It is inadmissible taking the life of this defenseless being! he wrote.

Da Silva said in April that anyone should be allowed to have an abortion, but within days he pulled back, saying that he opposes abortions although he believes that women should be allowed the choice as a matter of public health.

The case, reported by the website The Intercept Brasil last week, prompted associations of magistrates and human rights groups to ask that Zimmer be removed from her post.

Zimmer said in a statement Wednesday that she will not speak about parts of the hearing, which were illegally leaked. She also said she will remain silent about the case to assure the due and full protection to the child.

The probe on Zimmers methods will be conducted by the same Santa Catarina court system in southern Brazil and its decision with be referred to her own court in the southern Brazil state, and then taken for the national watchdog to make its final decision. ___

Savarese reported from Sao Paulo.
Prince Charles expresses sorrow over slavery in Commonwealth speech Flags representing Commonwealth countries fly at the Kigali Convention Centre, the venue hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kigali

By Ayenat Mersie and Estelle Shirbon

KIGALI (Reuters) -Britain's Prince Charles expressed deep sorrow over slavery in a speech to Commonwealth leaders in Rwanda on Friday and acknowledged that the roots of the organisation lay in a painful period of history.

The Commonwealth, a club of 54 countries that evolved from the British Empire, encompasses about a third of humanity and presents itself as a network of equal partners, but some member states have been calling for a reckoning with the colonial past.

"I want to acknowledge that the roots of our contemporary association run deep into the most painful period of our history," Charles told assembled Commonwealth leaders at the opening ceremony of a two-day summit in Kigali.

"I cannot describe the depths of my personal sorrow at the suffering of so many as I continue to deepen my own understanding of slavery's enduring impact."

Britain and other European nations enslaved more than 10 million Africans between the 15th and 19th centuries and transported them across the Atlantic to toil on plantations in the Caribbean and the Americas. Many died on the way.

Commonwealth members include West African nations such as Nigeria and Ghana, where slaves were captured, and 12 Caribbean nations where they spent the rest of their lives.

The Commonwealth has not previously grappled publicly with the legacy of slavery. Some Caribbean ministers have called for it to be discussed, including the issue of reparations, which Charles did not mention.

"If we are to forge a common future that benefits all our citizens, we too must find new ways to acknowledge our past. Quite simply, this is a conversation whose time has come," Charles said.

NEW ENTRANTS

Rwandan President Paul Kagame, whose country joined the Commonwealth in 2009, offered a different perspective in his own address to the assembled leaders, before Charles spoke.

"The fact of holding this meeting in Rwanda, a new member with no historical connection to the British Empire, expresses our choice to continue reimagining the Commonwealth for a changing world," he said.

The summit will consider applications by former French colonies Togo and Gabon to join the Commonwealth, a sign of disenchantment within France's sphere of influence in Africa and of the attractions of an English-speaking club.

The summit is being attended by 29 heads of state and government. The other 25 member states, including South Africa, India, Pakistan, Australia and New Zealand sent delegations led by ministers or diplomats.

In the background are awkward issues concerning the host country.

Earlier this month, 24 civil society groups, including Human Rights Watch, said the Commonwealth's human rights mandate would be undermined if leaders failed to challenge Rwanda on its record during the summit.

They said the Rwandan government was responsible for abusive prosecutions, harassment and torture of dissidents, which Rwanda denies.

Also in the spotlight is Britain's controversial policy to deport asylum seekers to the country, described as "appalling" by Charles, according to British media. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Kagame have both defended it.

(Additional reporting by Clement Uwiringiyimana and Andrew MacAskill; Writing by Estelle Shirbon, Editing by William Maclean, Gareth Jones and Alex Richardson)
Joan Larsen, a former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, speaks at his memorial service in 2016. (Getty Images)

The sudden death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February 2016 initially seemed to end hopes conservatives had for overturning Roe vs. Wade.

He had been the court's most outspoken opponent of the right to abortion and the leader of its conservative wing. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. joined him in opposing Roe, but they were well short of a majority.

But rather than end any threat to Roe, Scalia's death instead triggered a series of hard-ball moves and unexpected developments that led to the reversal of Roe vs. Wade.

There were four turning points:

McConnell's audacious gamble

Just hours after Scalia's 2016 death, then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell issued a statement saying he would not permit a hearing or a vote on President Obama's nominee to fill the seat. It was an unprecedented move in modern history to refuse to even consider a president's pick.

"The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president," he said.

A month later, Obama nominated Judge Merrick Garland, a respected veteran jurist who in the past had been lauded by Senate Republicans. But McConnell held fast, and Garland was denied even a hearing.

President Trump elected

The winner of the 2016 presidential race would choose Scalia's successor.

Democrat Hillary Clinton was a strong supporter of abortion rights, while Republican Donald Trump said he would appoint antiabortion justices who would vote to overturn Roe vs. Wade.

On election day, Clinton won more popular votes, but Trump won an electoral college majority by prevailing in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Shortly after taking office, Trump chose Judge Neil M. Gorsuch, a friend and admirer of Scalia, to fill his seat on the Supreme Court.

Justice Kennedy retires

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, a Republican appointee who had voted to uphold Roe vs. Wade, announced he was retiring at age 81.

Kennedy had struggled with the abortion issue. He was a Catholic who believed abortion was immoral, but he also believed the Constitution protected the liberty of individuals to make personal decisions about their lives.

His retirement cleared the way for Trump to appoint one of Kennnedy's former clerks, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, to fill his seat.

After a fierce fight in the Senate, Kavanaugh was confirmed on a 50-48 vote, thanks to a key vote of support from Maine Sen. Susan Collins. Though pro-abortion rights, Collins said she was assured privately by Kavanaugh that Roe was settled law and she did not expect him to overturn the precedent.

Ginsburg dies

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the court's senior liberal and a champion of women's rights, died on Sept. 18, 2020, after a long battle with cancer.

She had been urged to retire in 2014 when she was 81, which would have allowed Obama and the Senate Democratic majority to choose her successor.

When she died in 2020, the presidential election was only six weeks away. But abandoning his previous assertion that the voters should decide a seat in an election year, McConnell said Trump should choose Ginsburg's successor immediately. Early voting was already underway in some states.

Trump chose Judge Amy Coney Barrett, a Notre Dame law professor and a former clerk for Scalia. Like him, she believed that abortion was immoral and that Roe vs. Wade was wrongly decided.

The Senate Republicans who had refused to consider Obama's nominee moved quickly to confirm Barrett on a party-line vote a week before Trump lost his bid for reelection. When Barrett took her seat in November, the high court for the first time had a majority prepared to overturn Roe vs. Wade.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
In a historic reversal, the Supreme Court on Friday overturned the landmark 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision and ruled states may again outlaw abortion.

The court's conservative majority said the Constitution does not protect the rights of women to choose abortion, instead leaving these decisions in the hands of state lawmakers.

The 5-4 ruling marks the most significant curtailing of an established constitutional right in the court's history.

The opinion written by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. closely tracks a draft that was leaked by Politico in May.

"We hold that Roe and [the 1992 Planned Parenthood vs.] Casey must be overruled," Alito wrote. "The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely  the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment."

The opinion was joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. did not join the majority opinion in overturning Roe, saying he would have upheld only a Mississippi 15-week ban on abortion. His vote made for a 6-3 decision to uphold Mississippi's law.

"The court's decision to overrule Roe and Casey is a serious jolt to the legal system," Roberts wrote.

The court's three liberal justices  Justice Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan  dissented.

"Today, the court ... says that from the very moment of fertilization, a woman has no rights to speak of," their dissent read. "A state can force her to bring a pregnancy to term, even at the steepest personal and familial costs."

The dissenting justices concluded, "Whatever the exact scope of the coming laws, one result of todays decision is certain: the curtailment of womens rights, and of their status as free and equal citizens."

The ruling figures to set off a fierce political fight nationwide and state by state as politicians and voters weigh in on whether abortion should be restricted or prohibited entirely.

The ruling will almost certainly inject the abortion debate into the midterm election.

This fall Roe is on the ballot, President Biden said, calling on Congress to pass legislation restoring a nationwide right to abortion. The health and life of women in this nation are now at risk.

Conservatives, meanwhile, promised to push for abortion bans in every state or antiabortion legislation at the federal level, particularly if they make gains in Congress in Novembers elections.

Former Vice President Mike Pence said social conservatives in the post-Roe era must not rest and must not relent until the sanctity of life is restored to the center of American law in every state in the land.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) called the court's action "an insult. Its a slap in the face to women about using their own judgment to make their own decision about their reproductive freedom.

Opinion polls show most Americans support access to abortion, at least in the early months of a pregnancy. Nevertheless, half the states are expected to seek to quickly enforce laws that make most abortions illegal.

The decision is the high court's most far-reaching reversal on a matter of constitutional rights since 1954, when the justices reversed six decades of precedent and struck down laws authorizing racial segregation.

But that unanimous decision in Brown vs. Board of Education expanded the rights of individuals and rejected conservative state laws, while Friday's does the opposite. It empowers states and reverses what had been the most significant women's rights ruling in the court's history.

For the U.S. Catholic bishops as well as evangelical Christians who believe abortion ends a human life and is immoral, the ruling is a triumph decades in the making. They had refused to accept the idea the Constitution protected abortion as a fundamental right.

Many legal conservatives say the constitutional right to abortion  and particularly the Roe ruling  was always built on a shaky legal foundation, leaving it vulnerable.

Even the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a champion of women's rights, had criticized the 1973 opinion for going too far too fast. She said the court should have built support for legalized abortion as a matter of equal rights for women.

As a young lawyer in the 1980s, Alito joined the Reagan administration and said at the time that he looked forward to one day arguing for overturning Roe.

His 79-page opinion on Friday insisted that nothing in the language or history of the Constitution suggested it could be used to void state bans on abortion.

"Roe was on a collision course with the Constitution from the day it was decided," he wrote, adding that more than half of the states had asked the court to overturn the decision. He said a right to abortion has never "been part of this nations tradition."

Kavanaugh, who was narrowly confirmed in 2018 after assuring senators during his confirmation that Roe was "settled" law, said the court should now step away from deciding abortion cases.

"In my judgment, on the issue of abortion, the Constitution is neither pro-life nor pro-choice," he wrote in a concurring decision. "The Constitution is neutral, and this court likewise must be scrupulously neutral."

He also said the abortion decision will not "affect other precedents involving issues such as contraception and marriage," and he cited the 2015 decision upholding gay marriages. Overruling Roe "does not threaten or cast doubt on those precedents," he wrote.

But in separate concurring opinion, Thomas said the court in the future should reconsider and overturn other decisions that created rights not spelled out in the Constitution. He cited the decisions upholding contraceptives, gay sex and same-sex marriages.

None of the other justices joined him.

Kavanaugh shared his views on two other abortion-related questions that may reach the court.

"May a state bar a resident of that state from traveling to another state to obtain an abortion? In my view, the answer is no based on the constitutional right to interstate travel," Kavanaugh said. "May a state retroactively impose liability or punishment for an abortion that occurred before todays decision takes effect? In my view, the answer is no."

The court's action Friday left Roberts in an awkward position. He had once been a critic of abortion rights but ultimately concluded it would be a mistake for the court to make an abrupt turn and overturn a major precedent.

"I would decide the question we granted review to answer  whether the previously recognized abortion right bars all abortion restrictions prior to viability, such that a ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy is necessarily unlawful. The answer to that question is no, and there is no need to go further to decide this case. I therefore concur only in the judgment," he wrote.

In a 60-page dissent, the three liberal justices made a powerful attack on the majority's emphasis on the "original" views of those who drafted the Constitution and its later amendments, an era when women had no voice and no vote.

Alito's opinion focused on 14th Amendment, adopted in 1868, and what was understood as a fundamental "liberty" at that time.

"What rights did those 'people' have in their heads at the time?," the dissenters asked, referring to those who wrote and ratified the 14th Amendment. "But, of course, 'people' did not ratify the 14th Amendment. Men did. So it is perhaps not so surprising that the ratifiers were not perfectly attuned to the importance of reproductive rights for womens liberty, or for their capacity to participate as equal members of our nation."

Those 19th century views should not dictate the rights of women in the 21st century, they said.

"Because laws in 1868 deprived women of any control over their bodies, the majority approves states doing so today. Because those laws prevented women from charting the course of their own lives, the majority says states can do the same again. Because in 1868, the government could tell a pregnant woman  even in the first days of her pregnancy  that she could do nothing but bear a child, it can once more impose that command," they wrote.

By contrast, they said, the Roe vs. Wade decision was "the product of a profound and ongoing change in womens roles in the latter part of the 20th century.

It was understood that for "women to take their place as full and equal citizens, [they] must have control over their reproductive decisions," they wrote.

Friday's decision reflects a profound change within the court and the Republican Party.

When the court handed down the Roe vs. Wade ruling in 1973 and voided the abortion bans that were in effect in nearly all the states, the 7-2 majority included five Republican appointees. In 1992, when a divided court upheld the right to abortion, the five justices in the majority were Republican appointees.

But in recent decades, Republican presidents promised to select new justices who would overturn Roe.

With the help of Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, President Trump appointed three new justices who made the difference. The death of Ginsburg in September 2020 cleared the way for McConnell and his Republican majority to confirm Justice Coney Barrett a week before Trump was defeated in the November election. Her vote proved crucial to the outcome.

The prospect for a major change on abortion first became apparent in the summer of 2018.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, a likely swing vote on abortion, announced his retirement at age 82, clearing the way for Trump to appoint Kennedy's former clerk, Kavanaugh. After a fierce fight in the Senate, Kavanaugh was confirmed on a party-line vote.

Republican state attorneys saw an opening to change the law. In June 2020, Mississippi's Atty. Gen. Lynn Fitch urged the court to review a proposed state law that limited abortions to 15 weeks of a pregnancy.

The justices were set to consider the appeal in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women's Health Organization at their first conference of the new term on Sept. 29, 2020. But on Sept. 18, Ginsburg, the court's senior liberal, died after a long battle with cancer.

Four days later, the Mississippi appeal was "rescheduled" for a future conference and on May 17, 2021, they announced they would hear the case and decide "whether all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions were unconstitutional."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
PHNOM PENH, June 24 (Xinhua) -- The ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) of Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen won a landslide victory in the fifth commune elections on June 5, according to official results released by the National Election Committee (NEC) on Friday.

Seventeen political parties contested in the polls for the 11,622 positions of commune councilors in 1,652 communes across the Southeast Asian nation for the next five years.

The NEC said the CPP won 9,376 seats, or 80.6 percent, while the main opposition Candlelight Party got 2,198 seats, or 18.9 percent.

It added that the Funcinpec party earned 19 seats, the Khmer National United Party got 13, the Grassroots Democratic Party won six, the Cambodian Nation Love Party gained five, the Cambodian Youth Party took three, and the Kampucheaniyum Party and the Beehive Social Democratic Party got one each.

NEC's chairman Prach Chan said the voter turnout was 7.39 million, or 80.3 percent of the 9.2 million registered voters.

"It was a successful election with a peaceful atmosphere," he said. "Security, safety and public order were well maintained, and no incidents or acts of violence were reported."

The commune polls are seen as a test for the popularity of political parties ahead of the general elections in July 2023. 
Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), left, speaks at Thursday's House select committee hearing on the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

The fifth hearing of the House select committee investigating Jan. 6 focused Thursday on how then-President Trump sought to misuse the Justice Department to convince states and the courts that there was widespread election fraud.

Led by Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), alongside committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the hearing featured testimony from top Justice Department officials who detailed Trumps exhaustive effort to get the department to embrace internet conspiracy theories, and explained how close the president came to installing atop its ranks an official whose primary qualification was his fealty to Trump.

Here are some key takeaways from the hearing:

GOP Congress members sought pardons

Several Republican members of Congress sought presidential pardons before Trump left office, moves that suggest elected officials who embraced and perpetuated the so-called Big Lie had at least some concern that their involvement could land them in legal trouble.

In a Jan. 11 email obtained by the committee, Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) recommended pursuant to a request from Matt Gaetz that Trump give general (all purpose) pardons to every Congressman and Senator who voted to reject the electoral college vote submissions of Arizona and Pennsylvania.

The general tone was, We may get prosecuted because we were defensive of, you know, the presidents positions on these things, former White House lawyer Eric Herschmann told investigators in a taped deposition. The pardon that [Gaetz] was discussing requesting was as broad as you can describe from the beginning of time up until today for any and all things.

In all, Trump White House officials told the committee the list of members of Congress who requested pardons included Reps. Brooks, Gaetz (R-Fla.), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), Scott Perry (R-Pa.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) also talked about pardons, according Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. But Jordan never asked her about a pardon for himself, Hutchinson told investigators.

It was more for an update on whether the White House was going to pardon members of Congress, she said.

Trumps congressional friends, as Kinzinger described them, sought pardons because they knew that every bit of what they did was a lie, and it was wrong.

Just 'say it was corrupt,' Trump told Justice Department

Trump seemingly reached a point in his unsuccessful effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election where he didnt care whether the Justice Department was able to corroborate any of his campaigns claims of fraud. He just wanted the department to create enough doubt in the election to allow his GOP allies in Congress do their part to keep him in office.

Trump requested a meeting with Justice Department leaders Jeffrey Rosen and Richard Donoghue on Dec. 15, 2020, after he learned Rosen would become acting attorney general with Donoghue as his acting deputy. Rosen testified that Trump called him or met with him virtually every day, with one or two exceptions, like Christmas Day, between Dec. 23, 2020, and Jan. 3, 2021.

Testifying at Thursday's hearing, Rosen and Donoghue said Trump became increasingly adamant that the Justice Department wasnt doing its job. They said they repeatedly steered him away from online conspiracy theories and requests to appoint a special counsel for election fraud, meet with his campaign counsel, file a lawsuit to the Supreme Court and send a letter to state legislatures claiming there was fraud in the election.

When Donoghue informed the president that the Justice Department couldnt change the outcome of an election, he said Trump responded swiftly.

Thats not what Im asking you to do, Trump said, according to Donoghue, who took notes during the conversation. What Im just asking you to do is say it was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.  We have an obligation to tell people that this was an illegal, corrupt election.

Of course, the election was free and fair, and Joe Biden won the electoral college vote, along with the national popular vote by millions.

Grave warning kills Trump's plan to promote Clark

Trump came incredibly close to appointing an environmental attorney as acting attorney general, but a group of White House and Justice Department officials eventually talked him down. After the lawyer, Jeffrey Clark, told Rosen he offered and accepted the presidents offer to serve as acting attorney general, Rosen requested a meeting with the president.

That meeting on Sunday, Jan. 3, 2021, in the Oval Office was attended by Rosen, Donoghue, Clark, Assistant Atty. Gen. Steven Engel, Herschmann and two lawyers from the White House counsels office. Its purpose was to determine whether there should be a leadership change at the department.

Clark told the room he would conduct investigations that would uncover widespread fraud if he took over the department, and that he would send a letter he drafted that claimed the Justice Department was "investigating various irregularities in the 2020 election" and found "significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple States."

I said: Good, [expletive]. Congratulations, Herschmann told investigators. You just admitted your first step or act you take as attorney general would be committing a felony.  Youre clearly the right candidate for this job.

In reality, Justice Department officials testified that Clark had no support whatsoever inside the Oval Office.

I made the point that Jeff Clark is not even competent to serve as the attorney general, Donoghue told investigators. Hes never been a criminal attorney. Hes never conducted a criminal investigation in his life. Hes never been in front of a grand jury, much less a trial jury.

When Clark touted his experience with complicated appeals and civil and environmental litigation, Donoghue said: Thats right. Youre an environmental lawyer. How about you go back to your office, and well call you when theres an oil spill.

White House Counsel Pat Cipollone described the letter Clark wanted the Justice Department to send as a murder-suicide pact that would damage everyone who touches it, according to Donoghues recollection.

Herschmann called Clarks proposal nuts and quipped that 'the only thing you know about environmental and elections challenges is they both start with E, and based on your answers tonight, Im not even sure if you know that.'

Justice Department officials told the president theyd resign if Clark was tapped to lead the department, and they said a wave of other department leaders would follow them.

Within 24, 48, 72 hours, you could have hundreds and hundreds of resignations of the leadership of your entire Justice Department because of your actions, Donoghue said he told the president. Whats that going to say about you?

No one is going to read this letter, Engel recalled telling Trump. All anyone is going to think is that you went through two attorneys general in two weeks until you found the environmental guy to sign this thing. And so the story is not going to be that the Department of Justice has found massive corruption that wouldve changed the result of the election. Its going to be the disaster of Jeff Clark.

Donoghue interjected, noting that, Steve [Engel] pointed out that Jeff Clark would be left leading a graveyard, and that comment clearly had an impact on the president: The leadership would be gone; Jeff Clark would be left leading a graveyard.

Perry pushed Clark for attorney general

Perry, Greene and other members of Congress met with Trump in the Oval Office on Dec. 21, 2020. The following day, according to the White House visitor logs, Perry brought Clark to the White House. Perry later told a local news station that Trump had asked for an introduction to Clark, so he obliged.

Two days later, Rosen began his first official day as acting attorney general. He recalled a peculiar reference during a Christmas Eve call with Trump that lasted about 15 or 20 minutes.

In that call, Trump continued to claim that the election was stolen and that there was widespread fraud. Trump said the Justice Department should be doing more and asked in passing whether he knew Clark or who he was.

I told him I did, and then the conversation just moved on, Rosen said. But when I hung up, I was quizzical as to how does the president even know Mr. Clark? I was not aware that they had ever met or that the president had been involved with any of the issues in the civil division.

Clark was acting head of the civil division and head of the environmental and natural resources division at the Justice Department, neither of which had any role in investigating election fraud.

In a deposition, Trump lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani told investigators, I do recall saying to people that somebody should be put in charge of the Justice Department who isnt frightened of whats going to be done to their reputation, because Justice was filled with people like that.

Hutchinson, the Meadows aide, told investigators that Perry wanted Mr. Clark, Mr. Jeff Clark, to take over the Department of Justice.

On Dec. 26, 2020, Clark was apologetic and contrite in a meeting with Rosen and Donoghue, telling them he would notify them if anyone asked him to attend another meeting like that.

That same day, however, Perry was pushing Meadows in text messages to elevate Clark at the Justice Department.

Donoghue warned that Clarks draft memo could have tremendous constitutional, political and social ramifications for the country, and he told Clark. What you are doing is nothing less than the United States Justice Department meddling in the outcome of a presidential election.

In what was described as a contentious meeting between Clark and the top two department officials, Clark continued to push his positions, including calling witnesses and conducting probes on his own.

Toward the end of a meeting with Trump, the president said people have told him he should get rid of Rosen and Donoghue and promote Clark.

Maybe something will finally get done, Trump said, according to Donoghue, who said he responded this way: Mr. President, you should have the leadership that you want. But understand the United States Justice Department functions on facts, evidence and law, and those are not going to change. So you can have whatever leadership you want, but the departments position is not going to change.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Former Vice President Mike Pence says social conservatives "must not rest and must not relent until the sanctity of life is restored to the center of American law in every state in the land." (Charlie Neibergall / Associated Press)

The Supreme Courts ruling allowing states to set their own abortion laws will immediately halt the procedure in several states and thrust the issue of reproductive rights into this falls midterm elections.

The decision will also put significant pressure on President Biden  a latecomer to the modern abortion rights movement  to take steps to fortify abortion access, even though it is unclear what executive action is available to him.

Social conservatives who have been trying to reverse the 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling for decades promised to build on their efforts by pushing for abortion bans in every state or antiabortion legislation at the federal level, particularly if they make gains in Congress in November's elections. Former Vice President Mike Pence said Friday that social conservatives in the post-Roe era "must not rest and must not relent until the sanctity of life is restored to the center of American law in every state in the land.

We will continue to look wherever we can go to save as many lives as possible," said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield), without getting into specifics about what kind of legislation Republicans would put forward if they take control of the House in the midterm elections.

Republicans have already introduced bills to recognize a right to life from the moment of fertilization, legislation that would prohibit abortion nationwide. The Senate bill has only 19 supporters and the House version has 164  far short of the number needed for passage if Republicans controlled either chamber.

Many Republicans, apprehensive about appearing to spike the football, have publicly tiptoed around the idea of a national ban. After a draft version of Justice Samuel Alito's opinion was published in Politico last month, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said a national ban is "possible" if the court overturned Roe. He later walked back the comments, saying there are not 60 votes  the number needed to overcome a filibuster  for new abortion legislation from either side of the aisle.

Conservatives will now be faced with decisions about how aggressively they will pursue their efforts to outlaw abortion in each state and nationwide. Some are cautioning against overreach.

It is going to be very important for pro-lifers to exercise prudence, principled incrementalism, not make the perfect the enemy of the good," Ed Whelan, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a former clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia, said at a presentation at the conservative Heritage Foundation earlier this month. "It is going to be very important, especially going into the elections in November, that we not overreach."

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, told the Washington Post within minutes of the ruling that he would seek a 15-week ban on abortion when the Legislature comes back into session in January.

Democrats warn the decision in Dobbs vs. Jackson Womens Health Organization will risk the health of millions of women, particularly in the South, where abortion access is expected to be eliminated within months. They too emphasized the stakes of the midterms. Democrats expect the decision to boost their House candidates in suburban districts and particularly among women voters who support abortion rights.

The midterms will determine whether Republicans can place cruel new restrictions on reproductive rights, ban abortion nationwide with no exceptions, criminalize abortion providers, and punish women, JB Poersch and Abby Curran Horrell, who run the two main political action committees supporting Democratic congressional candidates, said in a statement.

But historically, voters who cast their ballot based solely or largely on abortion are Republicans. Democratic voters who favor abortion rights have seldom made it their single-issue focus. The question now is whether that will change because the right to abortion has been stripped away. Democrats are confident that it will.

"It's one thing to talk about in abstract that Roe could be at risk  I've talked about it for years," Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said before the opinion was announced. "This is the year that so many Americans who believed Roe was just part of the fabric of America and was never truly at risk come to terms with the reality that an extremist Supreme Court is willing to blow it up. That changes the dynamic at the ballot box."

Antiabortion advocates, however, say the Roe decision is merely proof of concept that social conservatives' voices and votes have finally paid off. Their message now is that they must build on the Dobbs decision by electing Republicans who oppose abortion.

"Voters will debate and decide this issue and they deserve to know where every candidate in America stands, including those who toe the Democratic Party line of abortion on demand without limits," said Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser, whose group has been knocking on doors in eight states with key Senate races this fall, including Arizona and Georgia. "Federal as well as state lawmakers must commit to being consensus builders who advocate for the most ambitious protections possible."

The ruling also proved to the antiabortion movement and social conservatives that their trust in former President Trump paid off. Initially skeptical of the former president's antiabortion bona fides, the movement backed him when he promised during his campaign to appoint judges who opposed the Roe decision. His three appointees all signed on to the Friday decision.

"Thank you, President Trump, for keeping your word and putting good Justices on the Supreme Court," conservative radio host Erick Erickson tweeted.

The political fallout of the decision in Dobbs will be particularly acute in a handful of states.

Wisconsin, for instance, is the only state with a hotly contested Senate race that faces an immediate end to abortion access. The states 1849 abortion ban was poised to go back into effect immediately after the courts decision Friday, banning the procedure except in cases to preserve the patients life. Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin had already stopped accepting new appointments for abortions before the decision was announced Friday, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Most of the places where abortion will be immediately banned are deep red states where Republicans are in power and face little risk of being unseated by Democrats who support abortion rights.

Within hours of the ruling, abortion bans went into effect in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Utah, according to Elizabeth Nash, who analyzes state policy for the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.

The laws include exceptions for situations where the patients life is at risk, but once-common exceptions for cases of rape and incest have largely been eliminated. Similar bans are slated to take effect in 30 days in Idaho and Tennessee and after some intermediary step before enactment, such as certification by the states' attorneys general that Roe has been overturned, in Mississippi, North Dakota and Wyoming.

Other state bans are likely to follow, with Guttmacher concluding that 22 states will have bans or near-bans on abortion, although many state legislatures have already recessed for the year. In some states with divided legislatures, contentious battles over abortion policy are likely in the months ahead.

Both sides of the abortion debate agree that the short-term forum for those battles will be state courts and ballot referendums. Opponents of abortion have suggested that going to court to reverse injunctions on already approved laws will be quicker than waiting for a legislature to meet. Supporters of abortion rights say they will head to court too.

Well be pushing at the state level to establish state constitutional protections, whether that is via ballot initiatives or legislation  and were going to be going after these trigger laws," said Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, the abortion rights organization that defended the Mississippi abortion clinic at the center of the Dobbs case. The group said it expects to file court challenges within days but declined to reveal specifics in advance.

The first ballot referendum on abortion is scheduled for Aug. 2 in Kansas, where voters will determine whether to amend the state constitution to explicitly say nothing in the document constitutes a right to abortion. It is a measure that would determine whether the legislature can pass laws regarding abortion and is likely to be viewed nationally as a bellwether on the issue.

At the White House, Biden is weighing executive orders he can take to protect abortion access, but any action would be limited.

Democrats have called on Biden to issue orders that could remove restrictions to medication abortion or provide travel vouchers for women seeking an abortion outside their home state, but the White House has remained tightlipped about its plans.

"There's some executive orders I could employ, we believe," Biden told late-night host Jimmy Kimmel earlier this month. "We're looking at that right now."

Jennifer Klein, director of the White House Gender Policy Council, along with outgoing White House counsel Dana Remus and Domestic Policy Council Director Susan Rice, have led White House efforts to meet with leaders of Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America and other advocates since the draft decision was leaked last month.

Vice President Kamala Harris has also taken a lead role, meeting with state attorneys general, faith leaders, law experts and advocates over the last few weeks about what the administration could do to protect the millions of women living in states that ban or restrict abortion access once the expected decision was handed down.

Former President Trump told Fox News that the ruling "in the end ... is something that will work out for everybody." Asked if he played a role in the reversal, Trump said: "God made the decision."

Within a few hours, Trump's Save American political action committee sent out a statement in which the former president took credit for the ruling and asked for donations.

"Todays decision, which is the biggest WIN for LIFE in a generation, along with other decisions that have been announced recently, were only made possible because I delivered everything as promised, including nominating and getting three highly respected and strong Constitutionalists confirmed to the United States Supreme Court. It was my great honor to do so!"

Times staff writers Courtney Subramanian and Noah Bierman contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The $13 billion measure would toughen background checks for the youngest gun buyers, keep firearms from more domestic violence offenders and help states put in place red flag laws.

The Senate on Thursday easily approved a bipartisan gun violence bill that seemed unthinkable just a month ago, clearing the way for final congressional approval of what will be lawmakers most far-reaching response in decades to the nations run of brutal mass shootings.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., crosses through a construction tunnel at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, June 22, 2022. After Senate bargainers reached agreement on a bipartisan gun violence bill, Schumer predicted Senate approval later this week, and passage by the Democratic-led House could follow quickly. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

After years of GOP procedural delays that derailed Democratic efforts to curb firearms, Democrats and some Republicans decided that congressional inaction was untenable after last months rampages in New York and Texas. It took weeks of closed-door talks but a group of senators from both parties emerged with a compromise embodying incremental but impactful movement to curb bloodshed that has come to regularly shock  yet no longer surprise  the nation.

The $13 billion measure would toughen background checks for the youngest gun buyers, keep firearms from more domestic violence offenders and help states put in place red flag laws that make it easier for authorities to take weapons from people adjudged dangerous. It would also fund local programs for school safety, mental health and violence prevention.

The election-year package fell far short of more robust gun restrictions Democrats have sought for years, including bans on the assault-type weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines used in the slayings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas. Yet the accord let leaders of both parties declare victory and demonstrate to voters that they know how to compromise and make government work, while also leaving room for each side to appeal to its core supporters.

This is not a cure-all for the all the ways gun violence affects our nation, said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., whose party has made gun restrictions a goal for decades. But it is a long overdue step in the right direction. Passing this gun safety bill is truly significant, and its going to save lives.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in a nod to the Second Amendment right to bear arms that drives many conservative voters, said the American people want their constitutional rights protected and their kids to be safe in school. He said they want both of those things at once, and that is just what the bill before the Senate will have accomplished.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., speaks with reporters following a closed-door policy lunch, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 14, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The day proved bittersweet for advocates of curtailing gun violence. Underscoring the enduring potency of conservative cIout, the right-leaning Supreme Court issued a decision expanding the right of Americans to carry arms in public. The justices struck down a New York law that has required people to prove a need for carrying a weapon before they get a license to do so.

The vote on final passage was 65-33.

Hours earlier, senators voted 65-34 to end a filibuster by conservative GOP senators. That was five more than the 60-vote threshold needed. The House planned to vote on the measure Friday and approval seemed certain.

On that vote, 15 Senate Republicans joined all 50 Democrats, including their two allied independents, in voting to move ahead on the legislation.

Yet that vote highlighted the risks Republicans face by defying the partys pro-gun voters and firearms groups like the National Rifle Association. Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Todd Young of Indiana were the only two of the 15 up for reelection this fall. Of the rest, four are retiring and eight dont face voters until 2026.

Tellingly, GOP senators voting no included potential 2024 presidential contenders like Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Ted Cruz of Texas, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Tim Scott of South Carolina. Some of the partys most conservative members voted no as well, including Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah.

While the Senate measure was a clear breakthrough, the outlook for continued congressional movement on gun curbs is dim.

Less than one-third of the Senates 50 GOP senators backed the measure and solid Republican opposition is certain in the House. Top House Republicans urged a no vote in an email from the No. 2 GOP leader, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, that called the bill an effort to slowly chip away at law-abiding citizens 2nd Amendment rights.

Both chambers  now narrowly controlled by Democrats  could well be run by the GOP after Novembers midterm elections.

In a statement, President Joe Biden said Uvalde residents told him when he visited that Washington had to act. Our kids in schools and our communities will be safer because of this legislation. I call on Congress to finish the job and get this bill to my desk, Biden said.

US President Joe Biden delivers remarks to guests, most of whom lost a family member in the Tops market shooting, at the Delavan Grider Community Center on May 17, 2022 in Buffalo, New York. (Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Senate action came one month after a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers in Uvalde. Just days before that, a white man was accused of being motivated by racism as he killed 10 Black grocery shoppers in Buffalo. Both shooters were 18 years old, a youthful profile shared by many mass shooters, and the close timing of the two slaughters and victims with whom many could identify stirred a demand by voters for action, lawmakers of both parties said.

The talks were led by Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C. Murphy represented Newtown, Connecticut, when an assailant killed 20 students and six staffers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, while Cornyn has been involved in past gun talks following mass shootings in his state and is close to McConnell.

Murphy said the measure would save thousands of lives and was a chance to prove to a weary American public that democracy is not so broken that it is unable to rise to the moment.

I dont believe in doing nothing in the face of what we saw in Uvalde and elsewhere, Cornyn said.

The bill would make the local juvenile records of people age 18 to 20 available during required federal background checks when they attempt to buy guns. Those examinations, currently limited to three days, would last up to a maximum of 10 days to give federal and local officials time to search records.

People convicted of domestic abuse who are current or former romantic partners of the victim would be prohibited from acquiring firearms, closing the so-called boyfriend loophole.

That ban currently only applies to people married to, living with or who have had children with the victim. The compromise bill would extend that to those considered to have had a continuing serious relationship.

There would be money to help states enforce red flag laws and for other states without them that for violence prevention programs. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have such laws.

The measure expands the use of background checks by rewriting the definition of the federally licensed gun dealers required to conduct them. Penalties for gun trafficking are strengthened, billions of dollars are provided for behavioral health clinics and school mental health programs and theres money for school safety initiatives, though not for personnel to use a dangerous weapon.

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The post Senate OKs landmark gun violence bill, House passage is next appeared first on TheGrio.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years in a decision by its conservative majority to overturn Roe v. Wade. Friday's outcome is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

The decision, unthinkable just a few years ago, was the culmination of decades of efforts by abortion opponents, made possible by an emboldened right side of the court that has been fortified by three appointees of former President Donald Trump.

The ruling came more than a month after the stunning leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito indicating the court was prepared to take this momentous step.

It puts the court at odds with a majority of Americans who favored preserving Roe, according to opinion polls.
Demonstrators gather outside the U.S. Embassy in London on Friday to protest the Supreme Court's abortion ruling. (Ashlee Ruggels / Associated Press)

The end of constitutional protections for abortions in the United States on Friday emboldened abortion opponents around the world, while advocates for abortion rights worried it could threaten recent moves toward legalization in their countries.

The U.S. Supreme Courts overturning of the landmark Roe vs. Wade decision "shows that these types of rights are always at risk of being steamrolled, said Ruth Zurbriggen, an Argentinian activist and member of the Companion Network of Latin America and the Caribbean, a group favoring abortion rights.

But in El Salvador, anti-abortion campaigner Sara Larin expressed hope the ruling will bolster campaigns against the procedure around the globe.

I trust that with this ruling it will be possible to abolish abortion in the United States and throughout the world, said Larin, president of Fundacion Vida SV.

In Kenya, Phonsina Archane watched news of Fridays ruling and said she froze for a while in a state of panic.

This is being done in America, which should be an example when it comes to the womens rights movement, said Archane, an activist for abortion rights. If this is happening in America, what about me here in Africa? Its a very, very sad day.

She worried the ruling will embolden abortion opponents across Africa who have charged into reproductive health clinics or threatened attacks. There is no safe place on the continent, she said.

Abortion in sub-Saharan Africa is already more unsafe than in any other region of the world, and the overwhelming majority of women of child-bearing age live in countries where abortion laws are highly or moderately restricted, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a New York-based research organization that supports abortion rights.

Archane said civil society groups in Africa will have to come together to devise strategies to keep themselves and women safe. Just months ago, many saw hope when the World Health Organization released guidelines on quality abortion care, she said. We had a step ahead, and now we have to go five steps back again.

The decision, which leaves it up to lawmakers in individual U.S. state to decide whether to allow or ban abortions, lit up social media across Argentina, where a law that legalized elective abortion up to the 14th week of pregnancy took effect in January 2021 after years of debate.

Anti-abortion activists cheered the Supreme Court ruling, with Argentine legislator Amalia Granata tweeting: There is justice again in the world. We are going to achieve this in Argentina too!!

In more conservative countries like El Salvador, where abortions are illegal no matter the circumstance and where some 180 women with obstetric emergencies have been criminally prosecuted in the last two decades, Larin warned that the ruling could inspire yet more efforts to loosen abortion restrictions outside the U.S.

Campaigns promoting abortion may intensify in our countries because funding and abortion clinics in the United States are going to close as they have been doing in recent years," she said.

At the Vatican, the head of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, joined U.S. bishops in saying it is a time for reflection, healing wounds and civil dialogue.

The fact that a large country with a long democratic tradition has changed its position on this issue also challenges the whole world, the academy said.

In Mexico, lawyer and activist Veronica Cruz said the ruling could give a boost to anti-abortion groups, but added it likely wont have any impact in Mexico, where 10 of the countrys 32 states have legalized abortion up to 12 weeks of pregnancy in recent years.

She noted the ruling could lead to an increase in calls for help from U.S. women seeking to have abortions in Mexico or to buy pills to interrupt pregnancies at Mexican pharmacies.

So far this year, local activists have accompanied some 1,500 U.S. women who traveled to Mexico for those purposes, Cruz said.

Ricardo Cano, with the anti-abortion group National Front for Life, also doubts the ruling would have any impact in Mexico or elsewhere in Latin America, given the advance of leftist ideologies in the region.

Colombia, which became in February the latest Latin American country to expand access to abortion, will not be affected, said Catalina Martinez Coral, director for Latin America and the Caribbean for the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Ahead of President Bidens trip overseas, the heads of at least two Group of 7 members called the decision horrific.

No government, politician or man should tell a woman what she can and cannot do with her body, said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, adding that he cant imagine the fear and anger women in the U.S. must be experiencing in the wake of the ruling.

The U.N. agency dealing with sexual and reproductive health said that whether or not abortion is legal, it happens all too often and global data shows that restricting access makes abortion more deadly.

The United Nations Population Fund issued a statement following the Supreme Courts decision noting that its 2022 report said that nearly half of all pregnancies worldwide are unintended and over 60% of those pregnancies may end in abortion.

A staggering 45% of all abortions around the world are unsafe, making this a leading cause of maternal death, the agency said.

It said almost all unsafe abortions occur in developing countries, and it fears that more unsafe abortions will occur around the world if access to abortion becomes more restricted.

In the only part of Latin America directly affected by the ruling, Puerto Rico, the islands Senate approved a bill Tuesday that would prohibit abortions after 22 weeks or when a doctor determines a fetus is viable, with the sole exception being if a womans life is in danger. The bill is now before the islands House of Representatives.

Dr. Migna Rivera Garcia, president of Puerto Ricos Association of Psychologists, said the U.S. Supreme Courts ruling has prompted abortion rights activists to reformulate their strategy.

It causes a lot of uncertainty given the environment right now in Puerto Rico, she said. This bill harms poor women and black women the most. ... They dont have access to services like other social groups.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. federal agents delivered grand jury subpoenas on Wednesday to multiple people as part of a probe into efforts by ex-President Donald Trump and his supporters to overturn the result of the 2020 election, the Washington Post and the New York Times reported.

The Justice Department is investigating a plan by Trump and his supporters to submit alternative slates of state electors to reverse President Joe Biden's victory in the presidential election.

The Post and the Times reported subpoenas were handed to Brad Carver, a Georgia Republican Party official, and Thomas Lane, an official who worked on behalf of Trump's campaign in Arizona and New Mexico.

The Post said Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer also received a subpoena. The Times reported that Sean Flynn, a Trump campaign aide in Michigan, was handed a subpoena.

The FBI referred questions about the Post and Times reports to the office of the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, which declined to comment.

Carver and Shafer could not immediately be reached for comment. Shafer's attorney has said previously that his client did not act improperly. Reuters was not able to immediately contact Lane and Flynn.

(Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Tim Ahmann and Kenneth Maxwell)
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses reporters in New York on June 8. (Mary Altaffer / Associated Press)

The head of the United Nations warned Friday that the world faces catastrophe because of the growing shortage of food around the globe.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the war in Ukraine has added to the disruptions caused by climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and inequality to produce an unprecedented global hunger crisis already affecting hundreds of millions of people.

There is a real risk that multiple famines will be declared in 2022, he said in a video message to officials from dozens of rich and developing countries gathered in Berlin. And 2023 could be even worse.

Guterres noted that harvests across Asia, Africa and the Americas will take a hit as farmers around the world struggle to cope with rising fertilizer and energy prices.

This years food access issues could become next years global food shortage, he said. No country will be immune to the social and economic repercussions of such a catastrophe.

Guterres said U.N. negotiators were working on a deal that would enable Ukraine to export food, including via the Black Sea, and let Russia bring food and fertilizer to world markets without restrictions.

He also called for debt relief for poor countries to help keep their economies afloat and for the private sector to help stabilize global food markets.

The Berlin meeting's host, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, said Moscow's claim that Western sanctions imposed over Russia's invasion of Ukraine were to blame for food shortages was completely untenable."

Russia exported as much wheat in May and June this year as in the same months of 2021, Baerbock said.

She echoed Guterres' comments that several factors underlie the growing hunger crisis around the world.

But it was Russia's war of attack against Ukraine that turned a wave into a tsunami, Baerbock said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken insisted that Russia has no excuse for holding back vital goods from world markets.

The sanctions that weve imposed on Russia collectively and with many other countries exempt food, exempt food products, exempt fertilizers, exempt insurers, exempt shippers, he said.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The sun sets behind the closed Camp X-Ray detention facility at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba, in 2019. (Alex Brandon / Associated Press)

An Afghan prisoner held in U.S. custody for nearly 15 years has been released from the Guantanamo Bay detention center after a federal court ruled that he was unlawfully detained, the U.S. Department of Defense said Friday.

Asadullah Haroon Guls release was first announced earlier in the day by the Taliban in Afghanistan and an international human rights group.

From Kabul, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban-appointed deputy culture and information minister, tweeted that Gul was one of the last two Afghan prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay.

Photographs of Gul being greeted by senior Taliban officials in Doha, Qatar, were posted on Twitter later in the day. Mujahid thanked Qatar for facilitating Guls release, without elaborating.

The United States opened the detention center, at a U.S. naval base in Cuba, under President George W. Bush in January 2002 after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the invasion of Afghanistan to capture Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

It was intended at the time to hold and interrogate those suspected of having links to Al Qaeda or the Taliban, who had sheltered Bin Laden.

However, scores of suspects from multiple countries were later sent there and the detention center became notorious after reports emerged of detainees being humiliated and tortured.

Gul was greeted upon landing in Doha by top Taliban official Suhail Shaheen, who said he would soon fly home to Afghanistan.

In a statement, the Department of Defense said Guls release was in accord with the district court in Washingtons decision that the United States no longer has a legal basis to justify the continued detention of Gul. It thanked Qatar for its assistance without providing any details.

Earlier Friday, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, criticized the Biden administration for allowing Guls transfer.

The terrorist organization that now controls Afghanistan cannot and will not ensure Gul, or any future detainees who are released, will not return to the battlefield and potentially kill Americans or other innocent civilians, Rubio said, referring to the Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan last August.

Mujahid said Gul was handed over to the Taliban as a result of talks with U.S. authorities, which he described as a direct and positive interaction with the United States.

Shaheen told the Associated Press that Guls freedom came following direct engagement with the U.S. He said Gul was detained by American forces in the city of Jalalabad in 2007 and was held for 15 years without trial.

The remaining Afghan at Guantanamo Bay is Muhammad Rahim al-Afghani, who is accused of working with Bin Laden as a procurement specialist. Al-Afghani was captured by Pakistani authorities and later handed over to the CIA, which transferred him to the detention center.

The Britain-based rights group Reprieve said Guls family feared him dead for many years and for the first nine years of his captivity, he did not have access to a lawyer, despite multiple attempts to obtain legal representation.

Reprieve and the law firm Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss filed a petition on his behalf in 2016 and demanded his release, it added.

After years of litigation, in October 2021, they prevailed when a Washington court ruled that Gul was not part of Al Qaeda and ordered his release.

According to the statement, Gul suffered severe physical and psychological torture during his detention, including being beaten, hung by his wrists, deprived of food and water, and prevented from praying. He has been subjected to sleep deprivation, extreme cold temperatures and solitary confinement.

Commenting on Guls release, his lawyer at Reprieve, Mark Maher, said Gul missed his daughters entire childhood and he will never get back what has been taken from him, but he is now at least able to rebuild his life with his family, who have waited so long to see him.





This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
By Alistair Smout, Elizabeth Piper and Andrew MacAskill

LONDON/KIGALI (Reuters) -Boris Johnson's Conservatives lost two parliamentary seats on Friday, a crushing blow to the governing party that prompted the resignation of its chairman and intensified doubts about the future of Britain's prime minister.

In Rwanda for a meeting of Commonwealth nations, Johnson was defiant, pledging to listen to voters' concerns and do more to tackle a cost-of-living crisis after what he described as "tough" results in the two so-called by-elections.

The losses - one in the Conservatives' traditional southern heartlands and in a northern English industrial seat won from Labour in the last election - suggest the broad appeal Johnson presented to win the 2019 election may be fracturing.

Fears that Johnson could have become an electoral liability may prompt lawmakers to move against him again after months of scandal over COVID-19 lockdown parties at a time when millions are struggling with rising food and fuel prices.

Johnson has so far resisted pressure to resign after he was fined for breaking lockdown rules at his Downing Street office.

This month, he survived a vote of confidence by Conservative lawmakers, though 41% of his parliamentary colleagues voted to oust him, and he is under investigation by a committee over whether he intentionally misled parliament.

"I think as a government Ive got to listen to what people are saying," Johnson told broadcasters in Kigali after the results. "Weve got to recognise there is more weve got to do."

Following the losses in Tiverton and Honiton in southwest England, and Wakefield in the north, Conservative Party Chairman Oliver Dowden resigned in a carefully worded letter that hinted he might believe Johnson should take responsibility.

"We cannot carry on with business as usual," he said. "Somebody must take responsibility and I have concluded that, in these circumstances, it would not be right for me to remain in office," added Dowden, a long-time ally of Johnson.

Some Conservatives blamed him for running poor campaigns in both the voting areas by ignoring local concerns.

Johnson responded by saying he understood Dowden's disappointment but "this government was elected with an historic mandate just over two years ago" and he would continue to work to that end.

A Conservative party source said Johnson was not concerned about further resignations from his cabinet team of top ministers and took a swipe at the media for what they called "misreporting" of lockdown parties.

Finance minister Rishi Sunak said "we all take responsibility" for the defeats.

CONSERVATIVE UNREST

But the explanations offered by Johnson and his team may do little to ease frustration in the Conservative Party.

Several Conservative lawmakers tweeted support for Dowden, saying he was not to blame for the results in messages that suggested resurgent dissent against Johnson's leadership.

Although under his party's rules Johnson cannot face another confidence motion for a year, lawmakers fearing for their own futures may try to force a change to bring about a second vote.

That might take time. It would entail changes to the committee that represents Conservative lawmakers who do not have government jobs.

A wave of cabinet resignations could also be another route to force Johnson out before the next national election, expected in 2024. It could be called earlier, but U.S. bank Citi said in a note the likelihood of that was "limited".

The by-elections were triggered by the resignations of Conservative lawmakers - one who admitted watching pornography in parliament, and another found guilty of sexually assaulting a teenage boy.

The party lost its large majority of more than 24,000 votes in Tiverton and Honiton to the centrist Liberal Democrats.

"If Conservative MPs don't wake up, I think at the next election, the voters will send them packing," the Liberal Democrats' leader, Ed Davey, said.

In the parliamentary seat of Wakefield in northern England, the main opposition Labour party won.

"This result is a clear judgment on a Conservative Party that has run out of energy and ideas," Labour leader Keir Starmer said.

Johnson led the Conservatives to their biggest majority in three decades at the 2019 national election, winning in traditionally Labour-voting areas in north and central England.

But the loss of Wakefield could indicate that his ability to repeat that trick has been compromised.

(Additional reporting by Andrew MacAskill in Kigali, Muvija M, William Schomberg, Kate Holton in London; Editing by Toby Chopra and Alison Williams)
Four months in, its a gun fight  big guns, like the U.S.-provided howitzers, weighing in at around 10,000 pounds.

With the wars center of gravity shifted to eastern Ukraine, the key to holding ground for the both sides is launching artillery rounds. Hitting the right place, at the right time. With a wall of fire that holds, or decimates the enemy.

Ukraines disadvantage, which it readily admits: theyve got far fewer guns and shells than the Russians.

But what Ukraine does have, are drones, and satellite internet.

Mykhailo, who doesnt want us to use his last name, works for Aerorozvidka.

"Starlink now is [used] very widely," Mykhalio said.

Aerorozvidka is a Ukranian Air Reconnaissance Unit, and relies on Elon Musks Starlink satellite internet system to convey real-time intel.

"Decision making happens more rapidly. And then as a result, the artillery is working more sharply," Mykhalio said.

NEWSY'S JASON BELLINI: Do you have an example where that was very successful, where Starlink helped you to communicate quickly and it had important results?

MYKHALIO: Yes, when our special forces, with help of Aerorozvidka, find and stop the huge column which moved from Belarus. BELLINI: Towards Kiev?

MYKHALIO: To Kiev. Yes.

Mykhalio's unit was one of the earliest of adopters of Starlink, after Russia blew up the cellular networks along its warpath.

"Our guys used the Starlink to correct the fire of artillery. And it was in real time. And it was very successful," Mykhalio said.

By the start of the war, Spacexs Falcon 9 rockets had deployed more than two thousand low-Earth orbit satellites, which were just beginning to beam internet service to unconnected corners of the planet.

When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, Ukraine, at that point, had only wished upon a Starlink.

By the end of that first week, Ukraines 31-year-old Minister of Information tweeted at Elon Musk, provocatively, while you try to colonize Mars  Russia try to occupy Ukraine... we ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations.

Later that day, Musk responded: Starlink service is now active in Ukraine. More terminals en route.

Just two days later  they arrived.

Michael Schwille is a Senior Policy Analyst at Rand. He describes the skepticism of those early days.

"This technology would be able to be hacked, and the Russians would be able to see who's using these terminals, and then they'd be able to quickly target artillery rounds, to destroy these terminals by and large. I would make that make the case that that hasn't happened. It really seems to be a game changer," Schwille said.

And not just on the frontlines. Starlink restored communications to supply lines such as Ukraines railway network and to military field hospitals.

In he devastated Kyiv suburbs of Bucha and Irpin, Starlink stations were used to resume cellular service the people.

But perhaps one of its most dramatic impacts was beaming to the world, via Starlink, the last stand of Ukranian fighters in Mariupol, at the Azovstal steel plant.

Details are just emerging of how some daring helicopter pilots managed to rescue these fighters from Azovstal.

Flint is a Ukrainian Military Intelligence Officer.

"And it was also necessary to keep in touch with them constantly, therefore, the Starlink systems were also very important," Flint said.

Since the Russian invasion, Ukraine has received more than 11,000 Starlink stations. Some donated by SpaceX and an unspecified number purchased by the U.S government. Others are gifted by supporters of Ukraine, to some very grateful fighters.

Connectivity on the front lines is proving a major morale booster.

And the innovation continues, as highlighted in this new video from Ukraines Digital Transformation Ministry.

"Due to war in Ukraine, Spacex has updated its software to use less energy. Starlink is now powered by a car cigarette lighter.

But the fight in eastern Ukraine is proving, as shown in this video of Russia purportedly destroying howitzers  that Ukraines pluck and perseverance, however necessary, may perhaps be insufficient.

"We are smarter. And we are fighting for our land. And these facts help us to fight," Mykhalio said.

In todays world, restored connectivity equals restored hope.
ISLAMABAD, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Friday announced an imposition of 10 percent "poverty alleviation tax" on about 13 large-scale industries in the country.

The large industries include cement, fertilizers, steel, sugar, textile, oil and gas, liquefied natural gas terminals, banking, cigarette, chemicals and beverages, the prime minister said in a video message after chairing a meeting of his economic team in Islamabad.

Sharif said the government is proposing a four percent poverty alleviation tax on the people who earn 300 million Pakistani rupees (about 1.4 million U.S. dollars) annually and three percent on people with annual income over 250 million rupees.

Two percent will be applied to people earning over 200 million rupees and one percent to those who earn over 150 million rupees annually, he added.

Sharif expressed hope that affluent people in the country will demonstrate generous gestures and cooperate with the government, adding that this tax would be utilized for human development projects including health, education, skill training and information technology.

He pointed out that 60 percent of the formal sectors in Pakistan have been paying taxes, noting that the remaining 40 percent economy needs to be brought into the tax net.

The prime minister also announced relief to the poor segment of society, saying that Pakistan will come out of the ongoing economic crisis soon. 
Violence against abortion providers significantly rose in 2021, according to a report from the National Abortion Federation published Friday.

The report, which measures a variety of acts of violence and disruption, found the most significant increases were in stalking, blockades, hoax devices/suspicious packages, invasions and assault and battery, compared to 2020s findings.

Vandalism and assault and battery continue to be the most common offenses, but other acts have seen major jumps, with stalking increasing 600% from 2020, according to the report.

PHOTO: In this May 11, 2022, file photo, protesters at North Dakota's lone abortion clinic are flanked by patient escorts in rainbow-colored vests, in Fargo, N.D. (David Kolpack/AP, FILE)

Overall, the new data has found increased reported incidents of anti-abortion individuals pushing, shoving, using pepper spray against, slapping, kicking, and physically fighting clinic escorts, staff and others outside of clinics.

MORE: For these Black activists, abortion isn't just a woman's issue. It's about race, too

Melissa Fowler, chief program officer at National Abortion Federation, said that NAF found that abortion clinics are not facing peaceful protests, but rather a coordinated campaign that threatens abortion providers.

It's really important that people understand the trends... and also the people behind those numbers, Fowler said. We can't sit back and let it be socially acceptable to harass abortion providers.

The report also draws specific attention to the Jan. 6 insurrection, as NAF has found that many of those known to commit violence and disruption against abortion clinics have also been found to have been a part of the riots at the Capitol in early 2021.

Fowler told ABC News that it was important for the organization to include those details because they feel that it is important to make people aware of the overlap in activity by extremist groups.

MORE: These Christian women are fundamentally divided on abortion. But one common thread unites them

Amanda Kifferly, vice president of abortion access and clinic security director of The Women's Centers, told ABC News that while for many Americans the behavior of insurrectionists was shocking on Jan. 6, abortion providers like herself were familiar with it.

PHOTO: In this June 4, 2022, file photo, abortion-rights and anti-abortion supporters stand outside of a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in New York. (Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images, FILE)

She said that she actually looked up one of the usual protestors at her clinic on Facebook and watched as he live streamed his participation in the Capitol attack.

We were so familiar with the tactics that we saw. The bullying, the loud noises, the militia gear, the harassing language that was used, she said. They are pro-violence and the words that they were saying like hang people was very familiar.

Fowler said the connections between anti-abortion and white supremacy groups are not new and they've been noted since abortion was legalized in the 1970s.

MORE: If Roe falls, what can Biden do on abortion access? Advocacy groups get creative

Kifferly and Dalton Johnson, the CEO of Alabama Womens Center, said that've had to work to have law enforcement officials, different security providers and deescalation tactics implemented to address the violence and disruption that their clinics face.

PHOTO: Police officers try to separate abortion rights supporters and anti-abortion protesters outside the United States Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., June 21, 2022. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)

The report also found that the pandemic affected the type of violence and disruption against abortion providers, as well as how many incidents were actually reported.

At a Thursday press call, Fowler said that many of their member facilities struggled to stay open due to regulations from the government, as well as from staffing issues. The strain of the pandemic, Fowler said, also meant that providers were not as capable of recording all incidents of harassment.

Kifferly said that she and her clinic staff experienced this, as they were exhausted and became under more scrutiny. Specifically, Kifferly said she and her staff had difficulty proving they were essential workers during the pandemic.

MORE: Reward offered for woman who set Wyoming abortion clinic on fire

Fowler, Kifferly and Dalton all said that they dont believe that the anti-abortion protestors that they have encountered are able or willing to have respectful conversations about the issue of abortion.

NAF reports have found acts of violence and disruption not only committed at abortion clinic sites, but also at the homes, churches and schools of the children of abortion providers.

Fowler said that NAFs priority continues to be the safety and well-being of their providers and their patients, and working to get patients the care that they need.

MORE: Some state lawmakers focusing on abortion access amid challenge to Roe v. Wade

The NAF has been collecting data on incidents of violence and disruption against abortion providers since 1977, according to the release.

To do so, they collect monthly reports from their member facilities and allied organizations and conduct follow-up reports.

For the 2021 report, NAF received reports from 80% of their facility members, and suspect that there is underreporting in some areas, such as picketing, hate mail and calls, hate email, internet harassment, obstruction and trespassing.

Violence against abortion clinics rose in 2021, report says originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Head nurse Francia Webb talks to a client about abortion options at the West Alabama Women's Center in Tuscaloosa on March 14. (Allen G. Breed / Associated Press)

The impact was immediate: the moment the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe vs. Wade, Robin Marty, the operations director of the West Alabama Womens Center in Tuscaloosa, told nurses, desk staff and a doctor on Friday they could no longer provide abortions.

"I can't believe they fing did it," she said via phone. "You have to stop now!"

Just as Roe was a landmark case for women's rights in 1973, its reversal Friday is a resounding, if expected, ruling that will again reshape abortion in this volatile and divided nation. It left millions of women in conservative states wondering what their options are. Marty's clinic staff told more than 20 patients in the waiting room that they could continue their ultrasounds and counseling, but could not have abortions. About 100 other patients would later be called to cancel appointments and receive referrals to a clinic about 200 miles away in Atlanta, where the procedure is still legal.

But the Atlanta clinics may not remain open for much longer. Georgia lawmakers passed a strict law in 2019 outlawing most abortions once fetal cardiac activity is detected, typically at around six weeks of pregnancy. The law is currently blocked by the courts but is likely to take effect this summer.

Over the next few days, weeks and months, the logistics of accessing abortion care in the United States will get more cumbersome, complicated and chaotic, especially for minority women with limited incomes. About 26 states are set to ban abortion, cutting off or severely restricting access to the procedure for more than 35 million women of reproductive age in vast swaths of the Deep South, Southwest and Midwest.

This is absolutely a historic setback, a major failure for all women across the United States, said Diane Derzis, the owner of Mississippis last remaining abortion provider, Jackson Womens Health Organization, the clinic at the center of the Supreme Court case.

By Friday afternoon, nine states were enforcing abortion "trigger" bans: Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Utah.

Providing an abortion is now illegal in all of them with very rare exceptions that vary by state, said Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the Washington, D.C.-based Guttmacher Institute.

Planned Parenthood and independent clinics across Texas were forced to suddenly halt abortion services after Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton announced that the state would enforce old antiabortion laws that were never repealed. Abortion is illegal here, Paxton said in a statement. I look forward to defending the pro-life laws of Texas and the lives of all unborn children moving forward.

In Alabama, Marty will probably have to direct patients  who already come from as far as Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas  to clinics farther away in Florida and North Carolina, Illinois and New York. She will also struggle to keep her clinic open to offer after-care to women who self-manage their abortions by taking pills at home.

Robin Marty runs the West Alabama Women's Center, which until Friday provided abortions. (Allen G. Breed / Associated Press)

This keeps me up at night, every night, Marty said.

The timeline of when abortion could be outlawed varies from state to state, with women across the United States dependent on an often confusing patchwork of state laws and court rulings. What is essentially unfolding is a sprawling, untested workaround that will help women in half the country navigate abortions outside their restrictive states.

This is just not a light switch, said Nash, noting that Roes fall does not automatically establish a nationwide abortion ban. Im seeing a lot of chaos happening for a little while.

A total of 13 states have trigger bans, set to take effect automatically or by state action. An additional nine states, according to Guttmacher, have in place one or multiple types of abortion bans: resurrecting ones in place before Roe, a near-total ban enacted after Roe, a six-week or eight-week ban that is not in effect, or constitutions that specifically bar a right to abortion.

Four more Republican-led states  Florida, Indiana, Montana and Nebraska  have passed a raft of abortion restrictions in recent years and are likely to move swiftly, possibly through special sessions this summer, to pass abortion bans. This is happening at a time when the United States saw an unanticipated rise in abortions, jumping from 862,320 in 2017 to 930,160 in 2020, according to Guttmacher.

Theres going to be a lot of confusion, particularly for patients  on the day of the decision and for weeks afterward, said Melissa Fowler, chief program officer at the National Abortion Federation that runs a national hotline and the largest abortion assistance fund in the nation.

While some clinics in red states will try to keep their doors open as long as they can, others had already stopped providing abortions or scheduling appointments for July in anticipation of the Supreme Court decision. Many plan to close or wind down operations if their state outlaws abortion. Derzis, the owner of Mississippis only abortion clinic, is not sure about the future of that clinic, but plans to open another this month in Las Cruces, N.M., where there are no gestational limits on abortion.

With so many clinics in flux, the National Abortion Federation recently launched a members-only marketplace for clinics to buy and sell equipment and office supplies. They also match available doctors and other clinic staff with jobs, Fowler said, and have helped some get licensed so they can move to other states as clinics close.

However complicated the landscape of abortion becomes, abortion advocates stress that patients seeking to end their pregnancies will still be able to access services, including assistance from abortion rights groups that help women with plane and bus tickets to other states. But some abortion providers say they are already struggling to provide care to a massive influx of patients from Texas and Oklahoma after those states passed sweeping abortion restrictions.

In Wichita, Kan., the Trust Women clinic has doubled its patient days to four per week and plans to increase daily patient caps from 35 to 50. Still, it is booked through July, and every day more women, some from more than 500 miles away, call frantic for an appointment.

We will not see everyone who needs care, said Ashley Brink, director of the clinic. We cant.

The Roe decision will not force the Wichita clinic to close its doors immediately: The Kansas Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that the state Constitution includes a right to bodily autonomy, protecting the right to abortion. But Republican lawmakers decided to put the issue to Kansas voters, who will decide in August on a constitutional amendment that would overturn that decision.

This is a national emergency, Brink said. Its about to come to a head.

In Alabama, clinic managers decided to stop performing abortions as soon as the Supreme Court's ruling was announced. The state has a pre-Roe ban, last amended in 1951, that forbids abortions in all cases except to preserve the life or health of the mother.

But across state lines in Georgia, providers say they do not expect to see abortion outlawed straightaway.

Lauren Frazier, director of communications for Planned Parenthood Southeast, which operates in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi but provides abortions only in Georgia, said it could be weeks or months before Georgias ban is enforced.

We certainly don't have any intention of stopping care or changing any way that we provide our vital reproductive health services up until we know more, she said.

Abortion rights activists rally outside the Georgia state Capitol in Atlanta on May 14. (Elijah Nouvelage / AFP/Getty Images)

Even in Louisiana, a state that has a trigger ban, a near-total ban, a six-week ban and a state Constitution that bars protection, some providers said ahead of the ruling that they did not plan to close and would take legal advice after the ruling.

Were not giving up, said Kathaleen Pittman, the clinic administrator at the Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport. Do I intend to shut the doors and walk away? No, I do not. We would not leave everyone hanging.

Still, Pittman, who has worked at the Shreveport clinic for nearly three decades and witnessed a wave of restrictive laws in red states force other abortion clinics to shut, said she could not stop worrying.

Are we going back to the way it was when only the women who could afford it would fly out wherever they needed to go to get care? she said. Will we be back to women trying their very best to take matters into their own hands?

More women would wind up in emergency rooms, she feared. More women who could not afford children would be forced to continue pregnancies.

Women in Louisiana deserve better," she said. I feel like Louisiana has reached a level of cruelty I never thought imaginable."

While trigger bans take effect immediately in some states, they will go into effect in others on a staggered schedule, Nash said. Idaho and Tennessee have a 30-day waiting period, and some states require additional administrative steps, such as the governor or state attorney general certifying that the U.S. Supreme Court has overturned Roe, before abortion bans can take effect.

It would be a matter of days, Nash said. Some of it will be the day of.

She added: Theres a real potential here for clinics to simply close as soon as they hear about the decision because they want to make sure theyre not in violation of any law, Nash said. They want to hear from their attorneys what it means and from any state officials about how its going to be implemented.

In states where abortion laws will take some sorting out in the courts, experts said it probably will be settled within months.

Georgia and Ohio both banned abortion at six weeks gestation, but those bans were blocked by the courts. With Roe now overturned, Nash said, the attorney general will have to file a dismissal of the case or ask the judge to allow the ban to take effect.

That might take a bit of time, Nash said.

Clinic managers and abortion advocates in many red states say the burden of seeking abortion care will fall disproportionately on Black and brown women with few resources, many of whom already have children and struggle with child care or juggle multiple jobs or live in rural areas without transportation. Some patients do not have IDs. Others are disabled.

It's not just being able to hop over to another state, Marty said, noting that about two-thirds of her patients live below the federal poverty line.

The reality is that most of the people in Alabama who come to us, they struggle just to get across the state to get care," she said. "To take a week off to be able to travel to Chicago, that's not something they'll be able to do.

While many national organizations are focused on opening clinics and bolstering abortion coverage in blue states, experts expect so-called haven states will find it increasingly difficult to absorb all those patients as more red states outlaw abortion.

Managers of independent clinics in red states caution that some of their clients will not be able to travel farther. For a rural patient in Alabama, Marty said, it would take several days to get to Birmingham to catch a connecting flight to Atlanta, then fly to Chicago, secure an abortion, and travel all the way back home.

We know that those people are most likely going to try to manage their own care, Marty said.

According to medical experts, women in the early phase of pregnancy can safely administer abortion at home using either a combination of two drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol, or misoprostol alone. But checkups from a health professional are recommended before and after.

Some antiabortion groups are expected to pressure state authorities to enforce local abortion restrictions  or work around liberal district attorneys to file civil lawsuits against those who fund abortions or offer practical support to women seeking abortions.

John Seago, legislative director for Texas Right to Life, said a pre-Roe statute in Texas that makes it illegal to furnish the means for procuring an abortion will have to be interpreted by courts.

It at least means paying for an abortion, Seago said. The question is: Will the court uphold that pre-Roe statute if you challenge one of these abortion funds?

Antiabortion groups have also been working to block the widespread distribution of abortion medication through the mail, but thats trickier, said Kimberlyn Schwartz, a Texas Right to Life spokesperson. Though Texas passed a law last year restricting abortion medication, its not clear how effective its been.

We havent nailed down one approach to stop that, she said.

Mary Ziegler, a professor of law at UC Davis, said enforcement will not be easy in red states: Theres going to be a kind of arms race, where states are trying to close loopholes in existing laws and using potentially draconian methods to do that, and then other people are trying to evade whatever states are doing, Ziegler said. That kind of back-and-forth can be pretty unpredictable.

Marty aims to keep her small clinic in Tuscaloosa open to provide post-abortion care for women who manage their own abortions, travel to other states or have miscarriages and are afraid to go to a hospital. Supporting independent clinics in red states, she said, is just as important as building new clinics in blue states.

We need to keep independent providers open in the South, even if they're not providing abortion," she said. "Because that is going to be the only safe place for most of the population to go."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
A project to bring red kites back to UK skies is now sending chicks to help conservation efforts in Spain, which supplied birds for the highly successful reintroduction scheme.

Conservationists say the red kite reintroduction is the UKs most successful bird conservation project to date, and has done so well in its 33 years that English chicks can now be donated to efforts to help the birds in Spain.

Red kites, a large bird of prey that largely feeds on carrion and worms and cuts a distinctive silhouette with wing tips that look like splayed fingers and a forked tail, were common city scavengers in medieval London.

Shakespeare writes of a city of kites and crows in his play Coriolanus, while their reputation for stealing laundry hung out to dry for their nests gets mentioned in The Winters Tale.

But the birds fortunes declined in the face of persecution and also egg collecting, and by the 20th century they were extinct in both England and Scotland.

A red kite flying over frosty landscape (Ben Andrew/RSPB/PA)

While a small population hung on in Wales, it was not big or healthy enough to recolonise the rest of Britain, even once the species was protected.

A trial reintroduction of red kites to both England and Scotland used birds mainly brought from Spain for the English scheme, and from Sweden for the Scottish releases.

The once-vanished bird is now soaring over countryside, gardens and towns across swathes of the UK, and the population is estimated at 6,000 breeding pairs, with 4,500-5,000 of those in England.

Conservationists say the project has been so successful that red kite chicks can be supplied in return from England back to Spain to help with efforts to conserve the species in that country.

Breeding populations in Spain have declined substantially, mainly due to a legacy of illegal poisoning, which Spanish authorities have taken major steps to address in recent years, wildlife experts said.

While many bird of prey and vulture populations have recovered, the red kite population has remained at low levels.

A collaboration between Spanish and British conservation organisations  and involving some of the people from the original England and Scotland red kite reintroduction projects  is set to supply 30 wild red kite chicks a year for three years from the large healthy population in the East Midlands.

The scheme is being run by Accion por el Mundo Salvaje in Spain, and RSPB, Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation, Forestry England and other landowners in the UK, with government agency Natural England licensing the project and veterinary support from Zoological Society of London.

This year, all the chicks going to Spain have been collected by Forestry England from nests in the public forests it cares for, as well as from the Boughton Estate in Northamptonshire.

The RSPBs Duncan Orr-Ewing, who organised the first red kite reintroduction programme in Scotland and is now advising the latest project, said: The red kite population is confined to Europe.

Compared to most of our other native birds of prey it has a relatively small global population.

Following concerted conservation action in the UK in recent decades, this species population has greatly recovered.

It is amazing that we are now able to support conservation action for red kites in Spain and to reciprocate their previous generosity in supplying donor stock for our original reintroduction project in England.

Natural England chairman Tony Juniper said: The reintroduction of red kites to England is the most successful raptor conservation story in Europe.

Its a clear blueprint for the future of species reintroductions, particularly for some of our most endangered birds.

Im hopeful the red kite chicks bound for Spain will flourish in the same way the chicks that arrived to this country a generation ago did, as we support those helping to rebuild the population and the prospects of this magnificent bird in southern Europe.
Nyanachiek Madit, 21, who successfully refused when her father told her at age 17 that she would be married off to a man aged around 50 because her family couldn't afford to send her to school, speaks to The Associated Press in Juba, South Sudan. (AP)

JUBA, South Sudan (AP)  Some young girls are still auctioned off into marriage for cows in South Sudan  one of the social challenges that activists had hoped to highlight during Pope Francis now-postponed visit.

The price of a daughter, determined in negotiations between her father and would-be husband, is typically 50 to 100 cows, each worth up to $1,000. A girl viewed as beautiful, fertile and of high social rank can bring as many as 200 cows. One girl in a well-publicized case a few years ago was auctioned off for 520 cows, plus cars.

The younger the girl marries, the more the family gets cattle in return, said Jackline Nasiwa, executive director of the Center of Inclusive Governance, Peace and Justice in South Sudan's capital, Juba. They sell their daughters so that they get something to survive.

Though South Sudanese law limits marriage to those age 18 and over, it's rarely enforced, particularly in rural areas.

South Sudans independence from Sudan in 2011 brought widespread hope for prosperity and peace for the countrys 12 million people, but little of that has materialized.

The new country quickly plunged into five years of civil war that ended with a fragile peace deal in 2018, but deadly intercommunal violence continues, and most people remain trapped in poverty. Climate shocks like flooding, along with rising food prices caused by Russias invasion of Ukraine, have deepened widespread hunger.

Against the odds, some girls have fought back

South Sudan has the worlds fifth-highest prevalence of child marriage, according to the U.N., which says the practice is a violation of human rights, a serious impediment to literacy and a major cause of persistent poverty. About a third of girls in the country are pregnant before turning 15, according to UNICEF.

Against the odds, some South Sudanese girls have fought back.

I refused, said 21-year-old Nyanachiek Madit, when her father said she would be married to a man about 50 years old because her family couldnt afford to send her to school. She was 17 at the time.

I didnt accept to get married because I am disabled and my education will be my leg later on, said Nyanachiek, who was born with a congenital disorder. Convinced that schooling would give her a better life, she stood up to her family and dared them to beat or even kill her. Her family didn't force her to marry, but refused to pay her school fees as punishment.

Nyanachiek's plight came to the attention of ChildBride Solidarity, which offers scholarships to girls whose parents abandon them after they oppose early marriage. With the group's assistance, Nyanachiek now studies in South Sudans capital.

I am now happy, she told The Associated Press.

Early marriage can be deadly. The United Nations Population Fund has said South Sudan is one of the riskiest places to be a mother. Mothers die in 1,150 out of 100,000 live births, one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world.

You cannot have a healthy mother, you cannot have a happy mother, if you are marrying off your children and making them mothers, Chris Oyeyipo with the U.N. Population Fund said during an event marking Mothers Day in Juba.

The U.N. wants child marriage eliminated worldwide by 2030. But poor families in South Sudan see laws against child marriage as barring them from profiting from their daughters and threatening their very survival.

Early marriage exposes girls to domestic abuse

Only about 10% of South Sudan's girls finish primary school because of factors including conflict and cultural beliefs, according to UNICEF and Plan International.

Experts say some families worry that sending girls to school exposes them to dangers such as sexual assault that could lower their value when it comes time to look for marriage offers. And yet the experts say early marriage exposes girls to domestic abuse, including rape.

Authorities have a long way to go to change such attitudes, said Aya Benjamin, South Sudans minister of gender, child and social welfare, who as a girl watched some of her friends be married off.

It is our collective responsibility to make sure that our girls are allowed to enjoy their childhood, she told the AP. We are not discouraging marriage.

"We just say allow girls to be children. Allow them to be themselves. Let them grow up and let them go to school and allow them to decide what they want to be in life, and in that way we can have a healthy society.
Conservative MPs have voiced fears that they will be next to be voted out after Boris Johnson led the party to a double by-election defeat.

The Prime Minister vowed to keep going after his authority was dealt a series of blows, including the resignation of Cabinet minister Oliver Dowden on Friday.

Speaking 4,000 miles away at a Commonwealth summit in Rwanda, Mr Johnson vowed to listen to voters after losing the former Tory stronghold of Tiverton and Honiton to the Liberal Democrats and Wakefield to Labour.

Mr Dowden quit as Conservative Party co-chairman, saying he and Tory supporters are distressed and disappointed by recent events and telling Mr Johnson that someone must take responsibility.

With 324 Tory MPs elected in 2019 with smaller majorities than in the Tiverton and Honiton constituency, MPs including Conservative grandee Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown expressed their concerns that they could lose their seats at the next general election.

The Prime Minister spoke to Chancellor Rishi Sunak by phone for his daily meeting after receiving a warning call from Mr Dowden following an early-morning swim at his hotel.

Speaking to broadcasters, Mr Johnson said he would take responsibility, but insisted the cost-of-living crisis is the most important issue for voters and it is true that, in mid-term, governments post-war lose by-elections.

Its absolutely true weve had some tough by-election results. Theyve been, I think, a reflection of a lot of things, but weve got to recognise voters are going through a tough time at the moment, he said at the conference centre in Kigali.

I think, as a Government, Ive got to listen to what people are saying  in particular to the difficulties people are facing over the cost of living, which, I think, for most people is the number one issue.

Weve got to recognise there is more weve got to do and we certainly will  we will keep going, addressing the concerns of people until we get through this patch.

In an interview with Channel 4 News, Mr Johnson added: I, of course, take responsibility for the electoral performance of the Government.

(PA Graphics)

In the rural Devon constituency of Tiverton and Honiton, the Lib Dems overturned a 24,000 Tory majority to win, while Labour reclaimed Wakefield.

The contests, triggered by the resignation of two disgraced Tories, offered voters the chance to give their verdict on the Prime Minister just weeks after 148 of his MPs cast their ballots against him in a confidence vote.

Mr Dowden, who was due to appear on the morning media round for the Government before resigning, said in his letter to Mr Johnson that the by-elections are the latest in a run of very poor results for our party.

Our supporters are distressed and disappointed by recent events, and I share their feelings, he said.

The letter sent by Oliver Dowden to Boris Johnson (Oliver Dowden/PA)

We cannot carry on with business as usual. Somebody must take responsibility and I have concluded that, in these circumstances, it would not be right for me to remain in office.

Sir Geoffrey retained his Cotswolds seat with a majority of 20,000 at the 2019 general election but accepted it will be a challenge to retain it next time round.

I think, factually, if I were to run under a bus today it would be difficult to hold my seat. Theres no doubt about that, he told BBC Radio 4s Today programme.

Former minister Jesse Norman said Mr Johnson is insulting the electorate and making a decisive change of government at the next general election much more likely by prolonging this charade.

Veteran Tory MP and long-standing Johnson critic Sir Roger Gale said the Prime Minister has trashed the partys reputation.

He told BBC Breakfast Mr Johnson is choosing to hang on to the door handle at No 10 but it cant go on forever, and it certainly wont go on until the next general election.

A Conservative Party source said Mr Johnson was in his hotel pool by 6am Kigali time and was surprised to receive the call from Mr Dowden warning him he was about to resign.

The Prime Minister went on to hold his typical daily meeting with Mr Sunak, this time over the phone, and with chief whip Chris Heaton-Harris, the source added.

Despite the political drama, Mr Johnson was said to be planning to stay the course in Rwanda before heading to a G7 summit in Germany.

To not be at the G7 would be an abdication of responsibility for any prime minister, the source said.

A swing of almost 30% from the Tories to the Liberal Democrats saw Richard Foord secure a majority of 6,144 in Tiverton and Honiton.

The vote was triggered by the resignation of Neil Parish after he was caught watching pornography in Parliament.

The new Lib Dem MP used his acceptance speech to call for Mr Johnson to go, and go now, claiming his victory has sent a shockwave through British politics.

(PA Graphics)

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said it is time for Conservative MPs to finally do the right thing and sack him.

In Wakefield, Simon Lightwood was elected with a majority of 4,925 on a swing of 12.7% from the Tories to Labour.

(PA Graphics)

The previous Wakefield MP, Imran Ahmad Khan, quit after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy  a crime for which he was jailed for 18 months.

Wakefield was one of the so-called red wall seats won by the Tories in the 2019 general election after being Labour since the 1930s.

Mr Lightwood said: The people of Wakefield have spoken on behalf of the British people.

They have said, unreservedly Boris Johnson, your contempt for this country is no longer tolerated.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: Wakefield has shown the country has lost confidence in the Tories.

This result is a clear judgment on a Conservative Party that has run out of energy and ideas. Britain deserves better.

He said the result shows Labour is back on the side of working people, winning seats where we lost before, and ready for government.
James Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson have said they are still on the hunt for the next 007, joking it is unfortunate that perfect candidate the Duke of Cambridge is unavailable for the role.

The film-making siblings picked up their CBEs from William at Buckingham Palace on Friday.

Ms Broccoli has produced the last nine Bond films, including Casino Royale, Skyfall and most recently No Time To Die, with her brother, and she said it was a huge honour to accept a CBE from the duke.

She added that unfortunately, the person we just met isnt available for the top job in the franchise.

Ms Broccoli said: Hes occupied, unfortunately, but he would be the perfect candidate, ticks all the boxes.

But hes not available, sadly. So were still on the hunt.

Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson receive their CBEs from the Duke of Cambridge at Buckingham Palace (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

Asked whether the pair have a favourite Bond film, Mr Wilson said: We like all of them. We always find something great in every film, especially, you know, the different actors whove done magnificent films.

I think, in our hearts, we believe that at least one of their films is outstanding, if not several.

The duo own Eon productions, a family business which was founded by their father, Albert Cubby Broccoli, and Ms Broccoli described the pair working together as a good team, brother and sister team.

She added: Its very smooth when were working together. Its only around the dinner table that we have disagreements!

Ms Broccoli described the British film industry as the greatest in the world, and, as she reflected upon her career which has spanned four decades, she said: Ive loved working in this industry.

Its just the most incredible job to have and, you know, you meet the most extraordinary people and making these films is such a privilege.

Also among those receiving honours at the Palace on Friday was Figen Murray, the mother of Martyn Hett who died in the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017.

Speaking about the motivations behind her anti-terrorism campaigning, she said: I could have gone under but that wouldnt have been the right answer.

Figen Murray said her son, terror attack victim Martyn Hett, would be very thrilled at her OBE (DOminic Lipinski/PA)

She added: I also felt that, as somebody who has been directly affected through terrorism, I was in a position through my personal resilience to actually break the cycle of hate by forgiving. So that was really important to me to do that.

Asked what the OBE means to her and her family, she said to her husband: I think Martyn would be really very thrilled, wouldnt he?

Meanwhile, in the field of public health and science, Dr June Raine, chief executive of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, was made a Dame for services to healthcare and the Covid-19 response.

She described it as a fantastic honour and said the recognition goes to everyone who has worked throughout Covid.

Our team are incredibly special, utterly dedicated, and those years of hard work that made sure that we got the jabs into arms on time all worth every minute.

She added: I think weve shown how an integrated system that brings people together is what it takes, and were wonderfully blessed with the ecosystem in this country of superb science, but also an NHS that pulls together too.

So I think what weve learned will take us forward to a real asset for the United Kingdom for developers who want to bring new medicines and new vaccines into use to do it here first.
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SYDNEY, June 24 (Xinhua) -- A new market update from Australia's national airline Qantas Group has shown that the restart of travel has allowed the airline to begin to climb out from a mountain of debt accrued during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the latest financial year report released on Friday, Qantas' debt peaked during the pandemic at more than 6.4 billion Australian dollars (4.42 billion U.S. dollars) but was expected to fall to around 4 billion Australian dollars (2.76 billion U.S. dollars) by June 30.

The airline attributed the improvement to strong international and travel demand over the first half of 2022 since Australia lifted the majority of COVID-related travel restrictions.

The airline turned its first profit since the onset of the pandemic in the second half of the 2022 financial year, and expects to continue to post a profit in the coming 2023 financial year beginning July 1.

Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said the turnaround in business began in December last year when workers returned to work ahead of the border reopening.

"It's been a tough few years for everyone in aviation but we promised to share the benefits of the recovery once it arrived. Today's announcement is part of that," Joyce said.

To pass the recovery boost on to its workers and acknowledge "the sacrifices" made by workers furloughed during the pandemic, the airline also announced one-off payments of 5,000 Australian dollars (about 3,450 U.S. dollars) to 19,000 of its employees.

Alongside its market update, the airline also opened several new flight paths, noting that investing in future growth would be key to continuing to drive down pandemic debt and boosting worker wages.

From November, Qantas is set to run direct flights from Perth to both South Africa's Johannesburg and Indonesia's capital Jakarta.

"Western Australia has become an increasingly important part of our international network and we're really excited to be launching two more routes from Perth," said Joyce.

"Our direct flights from Perth to London and Rome are selling really strongly, which gives us the confidence to add new routes from our western hub." 
YEREVAN, JUNE 24, ARMENPRESS. Deputy Minister of Healthcare of Armenia Artak Jumayan received co-owner and Vice-President of Netcracker/BostonGene companies Michael Feinberg, the healthcare ministry said.

The guest said their company is planning to establish a Research and Development (R&D) center in Armenia with several thousand employees. Currently, the number of staffers in Armenia is 360.

BostonGene is a biomedical software company for advanced patient analysis and personalized therapy in the fight against cancer.

Artak Jumayan highlighted the role and significance of BostonGene in the field of telecommunications. He expressed hope that the cooperation will serve to the development of healthcare in Armenia through high technologies.
by Alessandra De Poli

The ban takes effect on 1 October 2022 until the end of February 2023. Lorry drivers expect losses of millions of dollars. In winter, Delhis air becomes unbreathable; in 2019 alone, 1.67 million Indians died from air pollution-related diseases.

New Delhi (AsiaNews)  The Indian capital decided yesterday to ban heavy vehicles from the citys roads for four months, from 1 October 2022 to the end of February 2023.

On 15 June, the Delhi government wrote to the neighbouring states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh asking them to allow only lower-emission buses to enter the capital in an attempt to cut air pollution levels. On average, 70,000 to 80,000 trucks enter Delhi every day.

Vehicles that will be allowed into the city include CNG[*]-run commercial vehicles; e-trucks; all trucks carrying essential goods such as vegetables, fruits, grains, eggs, ice, milk and other food items; as well as tankers carrying petroleum products.

But lorry drivers and drivers associations area against the government's decision, saying four months of lockdown is too much and will result in millions of dollars worth of losses.

Businesses will be seriously affected. This will also impact the governments revenue and might culminate in a hike in prices of food, vegetables and other items," said Rajendra Kapoor, president of the All India Motor and Goods Transport Association.

The air quality of the Indian capital is very bad and tends to get worse in the winter months; to cope with the situation, heavy vehicle traffic is stopped for a maximum of 15-20 days either in November or December.

The situation is not much better in the summer. In early June, air quality ranges from poor to very poor, Central Pollution Control Board data show, while this May was the worst month in the last three years.

Come winter, lung diseases in humans spike. An estimated 1.67 million Indians died in 2019 from smog-related illnesses while economic losses reached US$ 36.8 billion dollars.

Many factors explain the high rate of pollution. For the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a public interest research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi, in the period immediately following the first lockdown traffic was responsible for 50 per cent of the concentration of pollutants in the city.

However, fires also play a major role. Every year, farmers in Punjab and Haryana burn crop residues from the previous harvest because environmentally-friendlier machines are expensive and the process of elimination is more time-consuming.

Last winter burning was particularly damaging because prolonged monsoons cut the time available to burn rice and wheat crop residues.

Lastly, the location of the city does not help. As climate modifies air currents, westerly wind in winter have started to slow down; thus, sand and dust from other states tend to settle in the plain where Delhi is located, causing problems to eyes and lungs.

[*] Compressed natural gas.
Photo taken on June 23, 2022 shows survivors from an earthquake in Paktika province, Afghanistan. At least five people were killed and 11 others wounded in an aftershock hitting eastern Afghanistan on Friday as humanitarian aid continued to flow into areas affected by a 5.9-magnitude earthquake two days earlier. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

GAYAN, Afghanistan, June 24 (Xinhua) -- At least five people were killed and 11 others wounded in an aftershock hitting eastern Afghanistan on Friday as humanitarian aid continued to flow into areas affected by a 5.9-magnitude earthquake two days earlier.

The earthquake on Wednesday left over 1,000 people dead and more than 1,500 others injured in the Paktika and neighboring Khost provinces.

"We are terrified by many aftershocks. We are praying for an end to this calamity. All villagers, women and children are panicking," Qari Shakir, a survivor in Gayan district from Wednesday's earthquake, told Xinhua on Friday.

"Unfortunately, once again an earthquake hit Gayan district of Paktika province roughly at 10 a.m. local time Friday (0530 GMT), and based on the initial information, five people were martyred and 11 others wounded," the Ministry of Public Health said on the social media platform Twitter.

Shakir said he has felt several aftershocks after Wednesday's quake, the deadliest in 20 years in Afghanistan.

"Early Friday morning I felt one but it was not strong, the second one occurred roughly at 10 a.m.. I saw a lot of stones sliding from mountains around our village when the ground was shaking by aftershocks," he said.

Victims of the earthquake living in remote districts bordering Pakistan had a miserable life during two decades of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, Shakir said.

"They were very poor, they had no livelihood even before the destruction of the earthquake. These areas were the worst affected by the 20 years of wars," without clinics, schools and roads, he said.

Life-saving items and other supplies of humanitarian assistance were flowing into a mountainous region despite the tough terrain, Khalil-ur-Rahman Haqqani, acting minister for refugees and repatriation affairs of the Taliban-led caretaker government, told Xinhua on Thursday.

All government agencies and domestic and international non-governmental organizations have been working together to respond to the natural disaster, he said.

The minister urged humanitarian assistance from the international community. "We reach out to all countries in the world," he said.

So far, 20,000 bread, 4,000 blankets, 3,000 tents, and 2,000 sacks of flour, as well as cooking oil and medical equipment have arrived in the affected areas, he said.

"Cash money has also reached, every injured person will receive 50,000 afghani (1 Afghani equals 0.011 U.S. dollar), and for families who lost their loved ones, 100,000 afghani will be distributed. People whose houses are destroyed will be supported and all of them will receive assistance, as the assistance supplies are flowing in and will be sent to all affected people," Haqqani added.

On Thursday, 15 trucks loaded with life-saving items and food aid were dispatched from a local airport in eastern Khost province to Paktika after Acting Minister of Interior Khalifa Sirajuddin Haqqani demanded the delivery of humanitarian aid at the earliest time.

The minister also traveled to the quake-affected region Friday and met with the injured people in Paktika and Khost provinces. He asked hospital officials to treat the injured by all possible means and transfer them to Kabul," the ministry said on social media.

"The (Wednesday's) earthquake rattled two times. The first shock was not so strong. The second quake was strong. It was very strong, and the second shock destroyed our homes," a Gayan resident, Yasin Jan, told Xinhua on Thursday.

"From my family and relatives 12 people have died. They included my two brothers, my father, my nephews and nieces, my wife, my three kids, my brother's wife and kids," Jan said.

"We received some assistance supplies so far...we need much for foodstuff," he said. "We demand the government's help as a lot of people now have no caretaker. We do not have access to daily necessities anymore."

"We need food, we need clothes, we also need support for rebuilding our homes, all of our belongings and home appliances are under the debris now," Jan added.

Mawlawi Hamid Shah, another resident from Gayan who lost two dozens of his family members and close relatives, told Xinhua that villagers have given up searching for their loved ones as they believed no people could be alive now under the debris.

"We are shocked by the heavy loss of lives. We do not know how to manage and deal with this catastrophe," he said.

Shah said: "24 people from our house and 34 people from our neighborhood were killed and 10 were injured."

"We have buried 30 bodies. My brothers, cousins, nephews among my relatives have died," he said.

According to him, there were 30 houses in the community he lived, and at least four families were living in each house. "All the houses were destroyed. We are thankful to the government as it shifted all our wounded from the area to hospitals."

Earlier on Friday, several cargo planes from the United Arab Emirates and Iran arrived at the airport in the provincial capital Khost with food and other humanitarian assistance supplies, according to Zabihullah Mujahid, chief spokesperson for the Taliban-run administration. 
The prime minister said that at the time his birth date was recorded, the country was in turmoil. Critics say it is superstition, fueled by the recent death of his brother Hun Neng.

Phnom Penh (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Prime Minister Hun Sen is a year younger after moving his birth date from April 4, 1951, to Aug. 5, 1952, saying that at the time of registration in 1977 the country was in turmoil over civil conflict. Critics say the change is actually related to the Chinese zodiac: this would move the premier from the sign of the rabbit to the sign of the dragon, which is considered auspicious.

Hun Sen was part of the Khmer Rouge when he fled and escaped a political purge in 1977. He then returned as the leader of the Vietnam-sponsored rebel army in 1979 to become head of state in 1985.

It is not unusual for people over 50 to have more than one birthday in Cambodia. During the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979 many official records were lost or destroyed. Some may have altered their birth dates to avoid military service in the 1980s, when there was still armed clashes in the country.

Hun Sen had announced his decision in early May just days after the death of his older brother Hun Neng. According to Wion News, the premier suspected that it was his own inauspicious date of birth that caused his brother's death.

Phnom Penh Municipal Court President Taing Sunlay certified the new birthday by issuing a decree requiring civil authorities to change official records.

Man Nath, chairman of the Norway-based Cambodian Monitoring Council, wrote on Facebook that the change shows Hun Sen's superstitious nature: "His superstition dominates his leadership. If he is a good leader, he will become a ghost after death and be worshipped for decades to come." Exiled political analyst Kim Sok told Radio Free Asia that Hun Sen should attend to more important issues, "He should serve the interests of the people and protect territorial integrity and national honor, but he prioritizes his own interests and those of his family."
IRAQ

After the resignation of 73 members of parliament prolonged Iraq's political crisis, vacant seats were filled yesterday by candidates with the second highest number of votes received during the October elections. This is strengthening pro-Iranian factions opposed to the government of Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr.

MYANMAR

Depoed Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has been transferred to solitary confinement. She had been held under house arrest at an unknown location in the capital Naypyidaw for the past year. The 77-year-old former Nobel laureate is reportedly being cared for by three female prison staff.

AFGHANISTAN

Earthquake survivors in Afghanistan told the BBC they have no shelter and nothing to eat. The United Nations fears a cholera outbreak. One man who was not present because he works as a laborer in Karachi, Pakistan, reported losing 20 members of his family. There are no tents: some for protection have only a tarp held up by sticks.

INDIA

India's Supreme Court upheld a ruling that cleared Prime Minister Narendra Modi of complicity in the 2002 Gujarat riots. The petition was filed by Zakia Jafri, widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, who was killed during the riots. More than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, had died and a train fire killed 60 Hindu pilgrims. Modi, at the time prime minister of Gujarat, has been accused of doing little or nothing to stop the anti-Muslim riots.

THAILAND

Bangkok has lifted the last restrictions against Covid-19: wearing masks will now be voluntary, while bars and pubs can stay open late. Nightclubs in the country's major tourist destinations had been allowed to reopen earlier this month, but a midnight closure has been imposed. Southeast Asian nations are now competing to attract visitors.

JAPAN

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's coalition is expected to retain its majority in the July 10 election for the upper house of parliament despite a drop in support for the government. This is according to an Asahi newspaper poll published today. Kishida's Liberal Democratic Party and its ally Komeito are expected to win at least 68 of the 125 seats up for grabs and retain a majority.

RUSSIA

Russian border guards stopped filmmaker Aleksandr Sokurov, one of the few men of culture to have publicly spoken out against the war in Ukraine and a member of the Human Rights Council, at the border with Finland. The director was expected in Milan for an international conference, and was forced to return home to St. Petersburg.

UZBEKISTAN - AZERBAIJAN

The presidents of Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan, Mirziyoyev and Aliev, signed a Declaration on Deepening Strategic Partnership and Intensifying All-Round Cooperation at the end of Aliev's visit to Tashkent, with 18 annexes of inter-ministerial and inter-regional cooperation between the two countries, at the production level and in many other areas.
The apostolic administrator warns Frs Htwe and Ate against openly opposing the generals. In a video published by AsiaNews they say they were forced to flee with exiles to Thailand where they will continue standing with our suffering people. For his part, Cardinal Bo pleads with the junta not to execute their opponents. This would mark a new low.

Kengtung (AsiaNews)  The Diocese of Kengtung has banned two priests, a step that has not gone unnoticed among Catholics. The reason for this is that the two have been active in politics and on social media against the power system in place as well as Church leaders.

To this end, the diocesan administrator, Fr Peter Anwe, wrote to Fr Dominic Wun Kyaw Htwe and Fr Clement Angelo Ate, the two priests in question, for openly siding against the military junta; but precisely for this motive, they have been living for some months among communities of exiles across the border in Thailand.

The Diocese of Kengtung is located in Shan State, one of the hardest hit by Myanmars civil war, fuelled by the repression that followed the coup d'etat of 1 February 2021 that swept away the countrys democratically elected government and led to the imprisonment of its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners recently reported the latest death toll from the military crackdown, indicating that more than 2,000 people have been killed.

In April AsiaNews published a heart-rending appeal from Fr Dominic Htwe to the international community in which he said, please don't limit yourselves to words, concrete actions are worth more.

In his letter, diocesan administrator Fr Anwe accuses the two priests from the Diocese of Kengtung of being repeatedly present in protest movements since last year.

In the face of your active involvement in politics and your posts on social media not only [do you] cause great perplexity but [as a result] public opinion and our Christian community itself are divided.

This letter serves as the last warning. Accordingly, the Diocese of Kengtung will not take any responsibility for your failure to be abided [sic] by this warning hereafter.

Fr Dominic Htwe's response was not long in coming. There is no surprise nor fear, he writes on Facebook.

This situation has been thought of since the beginning of the revolution. You can kick me out at once. Let your consciousness be sure.

I am proud of being far [. . .] from a society that is dominated by fear and enjoys the pursuit of financial riches rather than justice and truth.

I have a very strong love on my mother religion. But at a time when there is a clear distinction between Right and Wrong even the shackles that are bravely trying to cross the line are thin, he writes.

This Last Warning did not leave me in the lurch but [. . .] strengthened my resolve that I needed to fight harder.

Is your consciousness blind? I pray that [you will] cleanse your consciousness. In the end, Justice must prevail.

Fr Clement Angelo Ate also vowed to continue fighting and standing with our suffering people and do as much as I can for them, Licas News quoted him as saying.

Meanwhile in Yangon, Cardinal Charles Bo came out against the death sentences imposed by the military on some activists.

As Cardinal of Myanmar I plead  from the very depths of my heart  with the junta, not to hang these men, and I appeal to the world to act, said the prelate at an international conference last Monday.

If the regime goes through with this, it marks a new low for this already brutal, barbaric, inhumane and criminal junta, he lamented.
by Fady Noun

Parliament picked the incumbent prime minister with 54 votes vs. 25 for his main rival, Nawaf Salam (out of 128). His immediate future includes a reform plan and a potential presidential vacancy. While Christian parties are jockeying for power, Maronite Patriarch Rahi calls on parties to form a government.

Beirut (AsiaNews)  Incumbent Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati was asked yesterday to form a new government more than a month after legislative elections resulted in a hung parliament.

Some 54 MPs (out of 128) voted for Mikati, far less than the required 65-vote majority. His main rival, former ambassador to the UN Nawaf Salam, who is little known to the general public, got only 25 votes.

So far, Mikati has benefitted from a certain neutrality on the part of the international community and Saudi Arabia, which did nothing to block his way. Above all, his task will be both easy and difficult.

It will be easy because he can play it both ways. Until he puts together a new government, he will be in charge of current affairs as the incumbent. An expert in this balancing act, Mikati could play it one way vis-a-vis the various groups in parliament.

However, forming a new government will also be very complex, coming four months before the end of President Michel Aouns term in office (31 October). In fact, without a clear majority in parliament, the country could be without a president once the current office holder leaves.

In such a case, the constitution says that the cabinet assumes the presidents prerogatives. And it is not hard to see what this could mean.

Without speculating too much about will happen in the coming months, it should be noted that the prime minister-designate will hold talks next Monday and Tuesday (27-28 June) with the various groups represented in parliament as a first step to forming his new cabinet, conscious that some of current members could be reappointed.

The tasks of the next cabinet

It goes without saying that Mikati will face again a huge, some might say impossible, task, which he has had to deal already in the past few months, namely adopt reforms to counter the countrys deep financial crisis that has plunged most Lebanese into poverty.

In April, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced an agreement in principle with Mikatis government for a three-billion-dollar aid plan to extricate Lebanon from its crisis.

The prime minister-designate will be called to put the final touch to the deal, which will require a strong commitment to ambitious reforms to restructure the countrys banking industry, as well as clamp down on corruption.

Electricity, which is part of the recovery plan, will be a stumbling block to picking a new cabinet. On this issue, Mikati will be facing off President Aouns Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), now led by his son-in-law, Gebran Bassil.

Relations between the prime minister-designate and the FPM on this issue are fractious, as evinced by the war of press releases that broke out at the end of May between Mikati himself and the Minister of Energy and Water, Walid Fayad, who is close to the FPM.

Mikati has accused Fayad of delaying vetting an offer by Siemens and General Electric to produce electricity. What is more, with respect to a new cabinet, the FPM wants to keep the Energy and Water portfolio as well as build a power plant  considered unnecessary by many  near the coastal city of Batroun, an FPM stronghold.

In addition, as a precondition for backing the government, the FPM wants central bank governor Riad Salameh fired as well as an end to the investigation into the catastrophic explosion of 4 August 2020, at the Port of Beirut.

The two hot issues will be difficult to solve at the switch of a button. And Mikati is not alone in fearing the FPMs demands. Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rahi shares such concerns.

Indeed, since there is no clear majority in the National Assembly and a presidential vacancy is a real possibility, in the event of an impasse, Cardinal Rahi wants Christian political parties, in particular the Lebanese Forces (19 seats vs. 17 for the FPM), to join the government.

Through its leader, Samir Geagea, the Lebanese Forces, which did not back Mikati during parliamentary consultations, said it was not interested in being part of a government of "national accord", which it deems will end in a deadlock and paralysis.

Above all, Patriarch Rahi fears that the FPM enjoys a monopoly on Christian representativeness, since it is Hezbollahs main Christian ally, against which he has been campaigning for months, in an effort to get an UN-sponsored conference on Lebanons neutrality.
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ECU

Currently located in Quebec, the bike shown above this paragraph is one of only seventy Ducati 748Rs delivered to North America for the 2000 model year. This bad boy reads approximately 10,500 miles (16,900 km) on its five-digit odometer, and it comes with several pieces of aftermarket hardware added by the previous owner.For instance, one may spot EBC brake rotors replacing the stock units up front, and a premiumchip keeps the creatures Desmoquattro mill in tune with those carbon fiber Termignoni exhaust mufflers. The OEM taillight internals were swapped with LED componentry, while the handlebars have been treated to radial master cylinders from Brembo.After it had been purchased by its present-day owner, the Duc went on to receive new timing belts, piston rings and clutch plates, among other goodies. This speckless 748R is now making its way to auction equipped with Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa SP tires, so the next person to take it for a spin could be you!The bidding process will be open on Bring a Trailer for two more days (until June 26), and no reserve price has been set by the seller. At the time of this article, the highest bid is placed at just over 3,000 bones, which means that you could potentially take Bolognas rarity home in exchange for a mere $3,500.Now, it certainly wouldnt hurt to remind ourselves of the 748R s fundamental specs, right? Drawing power from a liquid-cooled desmodromic L-twin with dual overhead cams and a displacement of 748cc, the Italian head-turner is good for up to 106 hp at 11,000 rpm.Lower down the rev range, a peak torque output amounting to 55 pound-feet (75 Nm) will be delivered at the crankshaft. Ducatis two-wheeled missile weighs in at 423 pounds (192 kg) dry, and it can hit a top speed of 158 mph (255 kph) when pushed to the absolute limit.
The one we have here is part of that group, as is sure to stay with you for at least a while after youve moved on to other online readings. Its a chopper/cruiser/bobber kind of machine, assembled in a series of German shops and now selling over in Europe at the hands of Cult-Werk for 39,950 euros or the equivalent of $42,000.The bike is listed on Mobile as the Harley-Davidson TGS Nr. 58 Bobber Old School Softail, making no secret of what it wants to be. For all intents and purposes, though, names other than Harley's contributed to making it what it is.The bikes frame is something called a Santee Gooseneck and its assembled, like a wide range of others like it, in the facilities of another German shop, Thunderbike. As per the listing, it holds in its embrace a RevTech 88ci engine working a primary belt drive, breathing through a BSL exhaust system, and developing just 49 hp.You might notice that on the engine it says TGS. Thats yet another German garage, which for this build was responsible for various covers, but also the fuel and oil tanks, the front and rear fenders, lights, and side license plate holder.The bike is not new, as it has already spun its equally-sized 18-inch wheels (with the rear one just 200 mm wide, the smallest weve seen in a while) for 3,700 km (2,300 miles). Even so, were told the TGS is in almost perfect condition.
The tour started from the Piazza Duomo, which is the square where Milan's Dome is located, and it then went through the streets of downtown Milan at dawn.Valtteri and his Alfa Romeo C42 race car visited Piazza San Babila, Porta Nuova  the city's stunning Central Station, as well as the City Life district. The tour was concluded at Gattamelata, which is a place with a strong historical significance.Back there, in 1910, Alfa Romeo had established its first production site, which is known as Portello. We are referring to 95 Strada del Portello, which is the place where the brand had its first plant. The site is now called Gatamelata, but that is not what matters today.What you need to know about the spot is that the marque has its latest flagship store on there, and is the place where the company introduces its new brand identity to the world. Visitors will also find a business park, complete with a green area.The capital of fashion was wakened today with the sound of Alfa Romeo's Formula 1 race car, and it looks like the Italians cannot wait to show us what they have in store.All we know is that Valtteri is in eighth place in the driver's standings with 46 points to his name, which should be a reason to celebrate, as well as motivation to continue working on improving the marque's results.The company that was initially founded as Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili , which started by making Darracq (a French brand) vehicles under license, ended up becoming synonymous with passion, Italian DNA, and managed to capture the hearts and minds of millions.Alfa's ties with France were initially cut after the license deal was concluded, but today, within Stellantis, the Italian marque is, once again, involved with an automaker from the Hexagon. As you can observe, some things do change in over 110 years, while others do not.Regardless, today we celebrate the brand that gave Enzo Ferrari his start in competition, as well as the one that made Henry Ford say that he tips his hat when he sees one go by. At the time, back in 1939, the founder of the Ford Motor Company made the famous remark about the Italian brand after witnessing Tazio Nuvolari, Juan Manuel Fangio, and Enzo Ferrari dominate Le Mans.
Work on this new 1,500 square foot showroom and service center began in 2019. Of course, in the meantime, the carmaker still managed to provide the highest quality service possible to its Orange County customers.Being one of the largest hypercar markets in the world, Orange County has a lot of potential to bring new customers to our iconic brand, said Mr. Davy.The team at Bugatti Newport Beach began working with the brand in 2019, and in just two years, they became the number two Bugatti dealer in the world in 2021, placing second for both global order intakes and the BUGATTI Sales Excellence Programme.This is an immense accomplishment, and a great sign of what is to come in the future. We are confident that the leadership at Bugatti Newport Beach will use their decades of experience working in the supercar business to further exceed expectations.In terms of aesthetics, the Bugatti Newport Beach showroom boasts a sleek, modern design, to go with an open floorplan that expands beyond the walls in order to let in both the sunshine and sea breeze. Once inside, customers can check out all the latest models , purchase apparel and accessories, and, of course, build their dream car in the new configuration lounge.Existing customers can also have their cars serviced on-site by factory-certified Bugatti technicians.Being one of the top retailers for the brand in 2021, we look forward to bringing the companys new retail environment to the Orange County community, and giving Bugatti clients and enthusiasts a piece of the Molsheim experience right here in the heart of Southern California car culture. said dealer principal Pietro Frigerio.
BISHKEK, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Four people were killed and one injured on Friday after a truck drove over pedestrians in Kyrgyzstan

The truck loaded with coal hit the sidewalk and overturned, killing four people at the scene in the southern city of Osh, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Three of the dead are children, according to the Ministry of Emergency Situations. 
kWh

Founded in 2014, Candela has rapidly positioned itself as one of the top boat builders after introducing the world's first electric hydrofoil boat, the C-7 . In 2020, the company's C-7 became the best-selling electric boat in Europe thanks to the hydrofoiling technology that lifts the hull above the water's surface, reducing friction by 80 percent.Building on the success of the C-7, the company has designed multiple similar vessel s, each one of them promising incredible performance. The new P-12 Shuttle was created as a faster alternative to land-based public transport like cars or buses.The computer-guided hydrofoils allow the P-12 to fly above the water's surface without producing wakes that might cause damage to surrounding boats. The company says that the electric ferry will be the world's fastest electric passenger vessel. It will be capable of gliding over the water at a top speed of 30 knots (34.5 mph/55.5 kph).Additionally, it will have a service speed between 25 and 27 knots (29 mph/46 kph and 31 mph/50 kph), which would enable frequent departures and up to 60 percent faster commute times when compared to its diesel counterparts.Candela explains it takes around 58 to 63 minutes to travel by subway, bus, or diesel vessels between the Ekero Center to downtown Stockholm at 8 in the morning on a Monday. With the P-12 Shuttle, it would take only 25 minutes.Powered by a 180-lithium battery pack, the ferry will have a range of 57 miles (93 km) at service speeds. Up to 30 passengers will be able to travel with the P-12, and there will be enough room for bikes and wheelchair seating.Candela promises to make the P-12 a reality by 2023. The first P-12 Shuttle is set to hit the water later this year as a pilot. The vessel will join the fleet of public transportation ferries in Stockholm, allowing the company to test it in real-world settings.
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AMG

Comedian Naim Lynn is one of the lucky entertainers who were discovered by the famous actor, director, and producer Tyler Perry. It all happened while Lynn was on tour with Kevin Hart . He got the opportunity to show his talents on the screen, too, with a role in Perrys Assisted Living.You never know what celebrities are going to be in attendance and become a fan of yours when youre on tour with Kevin, Lynn told Forbes about his encounter with Perry. Every once in a while, you get somebody that shows up that can make a difference. For me, that was Tyler Perry.Their collaboration seemed very successful because Lynn has just treated himself to quite a car: an Aston Martin DBX . The comedian first shared a look of it on Fathers Day and then hopped on social media the next day to fully give a tour of the orange-colored: Meet Clementine. The tour also included a glimpse of the interior of the vehicle, which is just as orange-colored inside as it is outside, with black and carbon fiber accents throughout the cabin.The DBX is the first SUV from Aston Martin, its first five-seater, and also the British manufacturers first all-wheel-drive vehicle. The DBXs development started in 2015, with a prototype introduced in 2018, and with the series production version officially launched in 2020.Its powered by an-sourced twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V8 engine which delivers 542 horsepower (550 ps) and a maximum torque of 516 lb-ft (700 Nm) to all wheels via a nine-speed automatic transmission. The DBX is able to accelerate from zero to 62 mph (0-100 kph) in 4.5 seconds and has a top speed of 181 mph (291 kph).With figures like these, the super-SUV comes with a price tag up to measure, $188,986 before taxes and options. But, as Lynn can attest, it looks amazing in his driveway and he will surely get a thrill when getting in the driver's seat.
EHang is currently displaying both the EH216 and Falcon AAVs (autonomous aerial vehicles) at this event, where its joined by three of its strategic partners from Spain, namely Aeroports de Catalunya, Bluenest, and Policia Nacional  Spains national police force.Last year, the collaboration between the Chinese company and the Spanish Police was just a rumor, but the eVTOL prototype showcased at Expodronica 2022 confirms the official partnership. EHang has enjoyed a remarkable success with the EH216 AAV so far. Scoring its first order in December last year, it has now added multiple partners in Asia and Europe.Just last month, the company conducted demo sightseeing flights in the gorgeous natural surroundings of Aizhai Wonder, a tourist area in China, during the Workers Day holiday. eVTOL.com reports that, following the demo flight, EHang was awarded a contract for extended aerial sightseeing routes in China.These two partnerships are a good example of the Chinese-made AAVs versatility. The EH216 can conduct law enforcement missions just as easily as it takes tourists on breathtaking relaxing flights. Powered by 16 electric motors, it can fly at over 9,800 feet (3,000 meters), at speeds of up to 80 mph (130 kph).Officially a short-range AAV , its not meant to cover distances greater than 22 miles (35 km). In terms of capacity, it has enough room for two passengers and a maximum payload of 485 lbs (220 kg). It takes two hours to fully recharge, but doesnt require special airport infrastructure, which makes it easier to operate in various locations. The EH216 is currently undergoing the certification process in China.
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Unveiled at the brands stand by the Duke of Richmond, and the Genesis UK boss, Andrew Pilkington, the Electrified GV70, which will launch in the UK this summer, breathes the same air as other Genesis vehicles, as visitors can also see the GV60, G70 Shooting Brake, Electrified G80, and GV80.We are delighted to unveil Electrified GV70 the very first time in Europe, at the world-famous Goodwood Festival of Speed, said Genesis Europes Managing Director, Dominique Boesch. Featuring our cutting edge electrical architecture, and focus on luxurious sustainability, it represents another big step in our commitment to deliver an all-electric lineup of vehicles by 2025."Originally unveiled at the Guangzhou Auto Show in China last fall, the Electrified GV70 has an estimated range of over 310 miles (500 km). It also has a dedicated Boost mode, which lifts the output and torque of the dual-motor powertrain to 483 hp (490 ps / 360) and 516 lb-ft (700 Nm), from the standard 214 hp (218 ps / 160 kW) and 258 lb-ft (350 Nm). The 0 to 62 mph (0-100 kph) sprint is a 4.5-second affair, Genesis says.To celebrate its official arrival in Europe, Hyundais luxury car brand will drop four short films over the weekend, showing the Electrified GV70 powering multiple household appliances, as the car can be used as a mobile generator when needed.On display at Goodwood, where it came straight from New York following its debut two months ago, is the Genesis X Speedium Coupe Concept . Previewing the companys future design language, the show car's creation was led by CCO Luc Donckerwolke.
Heather Rae Young is following in the footsteps of her co-stars Chrishell Stause and Mary Fitzgerald, and she was the one who visited the Greek Island of Mykonos this year. Selling Sunset fans might remember that season five began with Chrishell debuting her relationship with Jason Oppenheim during the lavish trip to Greece.Now Heather and her husband, Flip or Flop alum Tarek El Moussa, raved all over Instagram about their holiday. Heather posted a picture of them with the gorgeous views, writing: After 20 hours of travel, we finally made it to our destination. She added: Were so ready to relax, eat delicious food, and enjoy the beautiful view here in Greece.And, after visiting and enjoying the island, the two decided to check out the views from the water, as well, and chartered a luxury yacht along with some friends.On board the unnamed vessel, Heather shared a picture on her Instagram Stories as she was working from her laptop with a view, as she was enjoying the relaxing setting. Later that day, she posted a short video of the sun setting, calling it perfection.In his Instagram Stories, El Moussa wrote: Last night here, with a crying emoji as he gave us a short glimpse of one of the main decks on the yacht , which included a fully stocked bar and plenty of white. Later that night, one of their friends also shared that they watched fireworks from the luxurious vessel. Its unclear whether they spent the night there.Besides enjoying the holiday, the couple, who tied the knot last October, revealed they will be starring in their own reality show, Flipping El Moussas, where they flip houses (El Moussa did that on Flip or Flop with his ex-wife, Christina Haack).Plus, Heather was also happy to announce that Netflix renewed the real estate docu-series Selling Sunset for the sixth and seventh season.
And the concept proved to be quite successful, year after year. It was just a matter of time before the idea would be implemented on a global level. After all, car culture has taken all shapes and sizes around the world. It would have been a shame to stick to one continent.In 2022, the Hot Wheels Legends Tour is headed to 5 continents and 14 countries. For the first time since its inception, the tour designated a winner hailing from outside the United States in 2021.Lee Johnstone built the mighty Volvo P1800 Gasser together with his three daughters. Running on a supercharged 454 ci (7.4-liters) Big Block Chevy V8, this is, by all means, a 10-second car that deserves to be immortalized as a Hot Wheels vehicle.The scale replica of the car will be available in over 150 countries before the end of the year, so you just have to be patient until then. With that in mind, the competition will be quite fierce for the automotive enthusiasts in the United Kingdom that are thinking about signing up.Registering for the competition is as simple as uploading a short video and some information about your car via the official Legends Tour website here . Entries will be judged by a panel of three people hailing from the automotive industry: Helen Stanley of Goblin Works Garage, Jonny Smith of The Late Brake Show, and Ian Callum, who is linked to working on cars like the Aston Martin Vanquish and DB9.Ten finalists will be selected for one final UK showdown in October before the Global Awards are set to take place in the United States in November. The good news is that the Global Head of Vehicle Design at Mattel, Ted Wu, announced that a regional winner will get their car immortalized as well adding that: "Two legends are better than one!" We'll keep you updated with the results as they become official.
When drivers noted the impossibly low price of just 69 cents for premium gasoline instead of $7 a gallon at a Shell gas station from Rancho Cordova, they were incredibly happy. They told other people who rushed to top off their tanks and it felt like a small miracle.But not everyone got to enjoy this unfortunate mishap. The employees didnt figure out what was going on for hours until they noticed people queuing for gas and only filling with its most expensive option. Following the event, John Szczecina lost his job on June 13 after he accidentally put the decimal point in the wrong spot. His family rushed to GoFundMe to cover the loss of almost $16,000.Luckily, people were sympathetic to Szczecinas mistake and raised over $20,000 in case the employer wants his money back or they wanted to sue him. But it looks like the company will not accept the money.In a letter John Szczecina received from his former employer, the company stated that it "does not want the money raised and will not accept it," as reported by NBC affiliate KCRA-TV , which received the letter from the former manager.The letter writes, "To be clear, at no time has the Company told you that it intends to seek payment from you to reimburse the Company's losses. Nor does the Company intend to take any legal action against you in connection with the incorrect fuel pricing incident."However, the company reportedly claimed that those who donated to pay the supposed debt were "misled and requested the GoFundMe fundraiser to be shut down.Now the page, created by Szczecinas sister, Paula Jackson, shows an update with a link for donors who wished to request a refund and can do so until Tuesday, June 28. The remainder of the donated funds "will now be used to cover living expenses, bills, and help support John and his family during this difficult time," the page writes.
Superyachts can live forever, or at least for a very long time, if theyre in the right hands. One of the most iconic yachts built by the famous Lurssen brand almost three decades ago is ready for another amazing chapter in its life, following a massive $36.8 million (35 million) refit.

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SUV

While Chevrolet was still calling its full-size, truck-basedby the legendary K5 Blazer name, GMC was ready to move on into an all-new territory of transforming the experience of highway cruising and off-road exploring. And one of the early favorites among the variety of Yukons was the slightly monochromatic, 5.7-liter V8-equipped Yukon GT.Sure, it might not have the same legendary cult following as the 1992-1993 Typhoon , but it was also nothing to be ashamed of when flaunting 210 horsepower and 300 lb. ft. of torque, plus the option of a manual transmission  a rarity among todays SUVs or even passenger cars. But why are we telling you all that when you can just watch Brian Mellos YouTube episode on the matter?Well, simply because the video embedded below is now also accompanied by a wishful thinking, modern fifth-generation GMC Yukon GT. And it not only comes with the iconic GMT400s two-door body style but also flaunts a few crazy additions that will make the day of any diehard automotive enthusiast, not just of those passioned about crossovers, SUVs, and trucks.So, heres Oscar Vargas, the virtual artist better known as wb.artist20 on social media, taking center stage. The pixel master has recently provided us with a half-crazy, half-astonishing new (GMT1YC) GMC Yukon GT and it is truly the one to remember , as it hypothetically comes complete with Lambo-style doors, as well as a front-hinged engine hood.And do not even try to discard it while laughing out loud because the CGI expert has perfectly reasonable explanations for both additions. Yes, Lambo-inspired doors serve a purpose for tighter parking and blind spots and the hood is less likely to fly off at high speeds when hinged in the front, so why not toss them on this bad boy?
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As one of the undeniable leaders of propulsion system development, Rolls-Royce wants to maintain its status in relation to Advanced Air Mobility as well. According to Rob Watson, President of Rolls-Royce Electrical, the brand will supply equally-efficient all-electric or hybrid-electric power systems as its reputable conventional ones.But, as a true innovator, Rolls-Royce is ready to take things even further than that. In addition to developing power systems for future hybrid or all-electric aircraft, it has recently announced that it will also add turboprop technology to its portfolio. This on-board power source that will be compatible with scalable power systems ranging from 500to 1,200 kW will basically act as a range-enhancer.As the manufacturer explains, the turbogenerator will recharge either the batteries or the propellers directly. This will allow aircraft to switch between power sources in flight and, as a result, operate on longer routes than what conventional batteries can currently support. This will also help boost hydrogen-electric flights, by increasing the potential range of hydrogen-fueled aircraft. Over time, the plan is to scale this technology for larger airframes. At the moment, Rolls-Royce is still working on the turbogenerator design and on how to best integrate it within the power system. In addition to its innovative solutions for zero-emissions power, the brand is also providing micro-grid solutions for aircraft fast-charging, as well as sustainable power for future vertiports.Today, being able to take an air taxi from city to city sounds exciting enough, but well likely want more than that pretty soon. Rolls-Royce is planning ahead for that moment.
NICOSIA, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Cyprus is purchasing six Airbus light attack helicopters with a view to replacing its aging Russian fleet of armament, a Defense Ministry statement said on Friday.

It said the ministry had signed a contract with the French company Airbus Helicopters for the purchase of six H145M helicopters, with an option for another six.

The Cypriot National Guard plans to replace its 11 heavier Russian Mi-35 helicopters and sell them to Serbia, which has reportedly shown an interest in purchasing these helicopters.

No purchase price was mentioned in the statement, but sources said the Airbus helicopters will cost a total of 140 million euros and will be delivered over a time frame of five years.

The sources, quoted by Cypriot media, said one of the reasons for the move to replace the Russian helicopters is their high maintenance costs, estimated at 100 million euros for the next 10 years. Servicing the aircraft has also become a problem after the European Union imposed sanctions on Russia.

The sources were further quoted as saying that the Cypriot National Guard does not need such large transport helicopters as Mi-35, but prefers lighter aircraft with stronger combat capabilities.

The H145M is designed for one pilot and one military operator, while the Mi-35 can carry up to eight soldiers.

Defense Minister Charalambos Petrides said the helicopters will upgrade the capability of the National Guard to be "a reliable deterrent and defensive force." 
When you think about Italy, the thoughts that pop up inside your head might be about visiting museums, learning about Ferrari, Lamborghini, or Alfa Romeo, drinking some very tasty wine in Florence, or taking a boat trip through Venice. Who knows, maybe youd even consider a trip down south and learn more about the Sicilian way of living. After all, dolce far niente isnt just a saying. In Italy, this is almost a rule that must apply at least a couple of times a year.However, what anyone would not expect in Italy is to see angry drivers. Its such a beautiful country with an incredibly rich history and many amazing places to visit! Why should anyone feel furious about anything, right? Well, this mans day didnt end like a travelers dream. He ended up wrecking his little Lancia.The footage recorded by someone sitting in a parked car shows the stubborn man trying to enter a driveway. On the first attempt, he hits a fence pole. Instead of reversing and making sure his vehicle can safely enter the road ahead, the man keeps the steering wheel in the same position and continues working the clutch and the accelerator pedals. He doesnt mind the damage that may have happened after such a hit.The fence puts up a fight and doesnt fail to protect the property from unwanted visitors. Its a sturdy construction!The Lancia Ypsilon continues to face the unlikely situation in which it is put and doesnt fail to respond to the drivers inputs. It takes all the hits. However, the mans will to enter the driveway precisely as he wished eventually leads to the clutch failing and smoke starting to come from underneath the vehicle.Its not clear why this driver from Montesilvano in the Italian region of Pescara behaved in such a reckless way.At the end of the day, the driver might have proved that hes capable of persistence, but it came at a cost. Now hell most likely have to pay for the fence and the damage hes done to the Lancia.
EV

And that is especially valid when your go-to Buick Riviera build has to do with the original (1963-1965) iteration, and it also looks like an all-black menace coming to rock your classic car world. Well, after last seeing a first-generation personal luxury car getting mixed with a Rivian R1T as if it were the gloomy poster child of a dystopian neo-noirpast that never happened, now we are happy to quickly wash that CGI shame away.Luckily for our potential Buick Riviera nightmares, Emmanuel Brito, the virtual artist better known as personalizatuauto on social media, takes us on yet another quick journey of rendering-to-reality discovery . His take on GMs first entry into the personal luxury car market segment, while equally all black, will not give us goosebumps but rather sweet dreams of vintage car action.As ordered by the happy owner of the upcoming build project, this 1965 Buick Riviera is mostly adhering to the murdered-out precepts, apart from the humongous, crimson brake calipers. Plus, its potential for high-performance shenanigans not only resides within the massive aftermarket wheel and tire choice or the subtle front and rear aerodynamic tweaks but also exudes from its thoroughly slammed attitude. Now, that is all fine and dandy, but there are also quite a few mysteries For example, while the menacing projects exterior is showcased from several POVs, there is no peek inside the cockpit whatsoever. And besides the fact we cannot freely ogle at the cockpit goodies, we also have no idea what the owner has in store for the engine bay. Alas, we can all take a hint from those cross-drilled rotors and think of a few big-block or performance crate engine scenarios
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

NHTSA

Of those, 661 were delivered stateside according to a report published by the. The U.S. population consists of bZ4X and Subaru Solterra vehicles manufactured between Match 30th and June 3rd at the Motomachi plant in the Aichi Prefecture of Japan.Toyota received a field technical report from Taiwan in May 2022, alleging the separation of the front left wheel from a suspect vehicle. Not long after, Toyota received two additional reports from the U.S. market. One of them indicated loose hub bolts on the front left wheel and the other indicated a separation of the front left wheel from the vehicle. Coincidence?The Japanese automaker immediately reviewed the production process at the Motomachi plant, but no abnormalities were found. Toyota conducted a driving test using the very same wheels and bolts used in the suspect vehicles, and obviously enough, the hub bolts loosened under certain severe driving patterns. Toyota states that the root cause and the driving patterns under which this issue could occur are still under investigation.Letters notifying owners not to drive the bZ4X have already been sent. A second letter will be sent once the remedy is available. As for the Solterra , the Subaru-badged twin hasnt been sold to dealers or retail customers in the U.S. thus far. The U.S. population of suspect vehicles is split between 258 examples of the Toyota bZ4X and 403 units of the Subaru Solterra.In the meantime, owners are advised to contact Toyota's customer service at 1-800-331-4331. Alternatively, owners may contact theat 1-888-327-4236 or use the VIN look-up tool on the safety watchdog's website.
The Special Boat Service commandos are in the process of testing a new armored boat, a craft that cuts through the waves at high speed and is capable of top-level intercepting operations. According to The Mirror , this new toy is worth a whopping $1.2 million (1 million).Not nearly as well-known as the Royal Navy troops or the Royal Marines, the Special Boat Service (SBS) is meant to be shrouded in secrecy. As the elite maritime counter-terrorism unit of the Royal Navy, the SBS is comprised of some of the most capable soldiers in the entire British military. Two years ago, SBS commandos rescued a vessel called Nave Andromeda from Nigerian hijackers, off the Isle of Wight. And it reportedly only took nine minutes.Established during World War II, this special unit conducts highly-classified operations, such as undercover raids. Due to this units nature, hardly any public information about the SBS troops and their toys is available.The Mirror reports that the latest addition is a high-speed craft made to replace the Pacific 950. Both of them are designed by the acclaimed BAE Systems. This new boat stands out to its low-profile, rigid hull from BAE Systems Stormblade range, and it has reportedly proved to be unsinkable in previous trials.With enough room for up to six commandos, its designed to be airlifted to where it needs to intervene, via a Chinook helicopter, or parachuted from a C-130 Hercules aircraft.In addition to being ultra-fast, speeding at 50 knots (57.5 mph/92.6 kph) this secretive boat is equipped with a night-vision system and top-notch electronic warfare features. Its capable of counter-acting remotely-controlled bomb attacks, while the specialized crew onboard maintains communication with other warships and supporting aircraft.
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The first vehicles coming from VinFast to be made available on American soil are the midsize VinFast VF 8 and VF 9 SUVs, which will start selling by the end of this year.Then, in 2023, the companys lineup for North America will expand with two new models, the VinFast VF 7 compact electricand the subcompact VinFast VF 6. The news was confirmed by VinFast U.S.s chief service officer Craig Westbrook during an Automotive Press Association event in Detroit.The company also reiterated that the two-row 2023 VinFast VF 8 and three-row 2023 VinFast VF 9 electric vehicles would be exported from its plant in Vietnam to around 30 outlets in California in Q4 2022.No details on the upcoming compact SUVs prices have been disclosed, but the company has a peculiar pricing approach: the price of its cars does not include the battery pack, as this must be leased by buyers at a monthly rate. Only after 2024 will the VinFast car owners be able to buy their battery, or they could continue leasing it.As for the VF 8 model, this one will be available in two trims with 348 and 402 horsepower (256 - 295,6) and a range of 248 or 260 miles (399-418 km), respectively. Their prices will start at $41,900 (39,729 euros), plus the monthly battery leasing charge.The VF 9, which delivers 402 hp (295,6 kW) and has a range of 262 - 272 miles (421 - 437 km), and will cost $56,700 (53,762 Euro), plus battery leasing.The Vietnamese carmaker also has another car lined up for the European and Asian markets, the VinFast VF 5, and it seems they are looking to also build an electric pickup truck and sedans.
This is a happy-ending story, even if didnt start like one. In 1947, a large area around Crowland in Lincolnshire, England, was hit by very severe floods, due to a combination of heavy snow and thawing, high tides and rain. To keep the water at bay, 16 Buffalo  tanks  (LVTs, more specifically, or Land Vehicles Tracked) were dispatched to create a dam.Of these 16 LVTs, 5 floated away, and only one was ever recovered. Two were believed to have been washed away, and two fell into holes that had been dug up to keep the water from further flooding dry land. One was dug up after 74 years, after a 3-year operation spearheaded by farmer Daniel Abbott.That LVT is on track to become Europes only drivable unit, after a challenging restoration process completed with help from a team of volunteers, Lincolnshire Live reports. Abbott dug up the LVT in the spring of last year, after he was able to track it down with metal detectors on loan from RAF (Royal Air Force).Digging up the machine was no easy feat, but getting it cleaned up and restoring it was even more so, even though it had been preserved well under more than 30 feet (9.2 meters) of muddy soil. The Buffalo has been on static displays this summer, but Abbott is hoping it will be fully drivable by the next one. It has a new engine , shipped all the way from the United States, and a restored gearbox, but it still needs work on the electronics and replacing some rusted parts.It runs like a Swiss watch, Abbott says for the media outlet. We've had new tracks fitted. We have a working engine and a working gearbox. I think over the winter we will look at it all and next summer, fingers crossed, it will be driveable.If all goes to plan, this unit  vehicle number 47  will become Europes only drivable Buffalo. It is believed that it was used during WWII in the crossing of the Rhine in March 1945 and, according to Abbott, its bodywork still tells some of its now-obscure story. Its the reason why Abbott opted to keep it original, without repainting: it has names scratched in the paneling, the hand-painted symbol of the bull head of the 79th Armored Division, and all ok painted on one of the panels.
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Meeting with Lavrov on Thursday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev complained that Armenia has still not open road and railway links connecting Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave. He said Moscow should press Yerevan to do that in line with the ceasefire agreement that stopped the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Aliyev also claimed that Yerevan has still not reacted to his proposals regarding an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty sought by Baku.

In March this year, Azerbaijan presented Armenia with five elements which it wants to be at the heart of the treaty. They include a mutual recognition of each others territorial integrity. The Armenian government said they should be complemented by other issues relating to the future of status of Karabakh and the security of its population.

In written comments to RFE/RLs Armenian Service, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan pointed to those counterproposals and said Baku has still not officially responded to them.

We see nothing unacceptable in Azerbaijans proposals regarding the future peace treaty while complementing those proposals with our ideas, he said.

Mirzoyan also insisted that the Armenian side is interested in transport links between the two South Caucasus states. He said their opening has been hampered by baseless Azerbaijani demands for an exterritorial corridor for Nakhichevan.

Mirzoyan also said that Azerbaijan still holds dozens of Armenian prisoners in breach of the 2020 ceasefire.

Azerbaijans Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov echoed Aliyevs claims after holding talks with Lavrov on Friday.

The artificial dragging of the negotiating process carries very serious risks, Bayramov warned at a joint news conference.

Lavrov said, for his part, that Russia will continue to help the two sides negotiate a comprehensive peace accord, demarcate the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and open it to travel and commerce.

Visiting Yerevan earlier this month, Lavrov said the Armenian, Azerbaijani and Russian governments are now finalizing a deal on a simplified border control regime for the planned road to Nakhichevan. The road will be under Armenian control, he said.
The ringleader, Vartanian, and a dozen other individuals were arrested in November 2015 in a dawn raid on their hideout in Yerevan jointly conducted by Armenias police and National Security Service (NSS). The law-enforcement bodies found large quantities of weapons and explosives stashed there. They made more than 20 other arrests in the following weeks.

The NSS said afterwards that Vartanian set up a group called the Armenian Shield Regiment before drawing up with his associates detailed plans for the seizure of the presidential administration, government, parliament and state television buildings in Yerevan. It said they also explored the possibility of shooting down President Sarkisians plane.

Vartanian admitted acquiring weapons and ammunition for the militant group when he and 19 other persons went on trial in December 2016. He insisted, however, that he never intended to seize power or assassinate Sarkisian.

Most of the other defendants, including an Armenian Catholic priest, also rejected the coup charges brought against them.

The judge presiding over the continuing trial agreed to free Vartanian on bail in September 2019. All other arrested suspects were released from custody earlier pending a court verdict in the case. Two of them had joined Vartanian in challenging their pre-trial arrest in the ECHR.

The Strasbourg-based court ruled this week that the detention period was too long and unjustified and violated a relevant article of the European Convention on Human Rights. It said that Vartanian and another plaintiff, Harutiun Saribekian, must each be paid 6,000 euros ($6,300) in damages.

Vartanian expressed his satisfaction with the ECRH ruling when he spoke to RFE/RLs Armenian on Friday after the latest session of his protracted trial.

The European Court found that justifications presented by prosecutors and investigators were unfounded, he said.

Vartanian reportedly lived in Spain before returning to Armenia in April 2015 and setting up the Armenian Shield Regiment.

According to the NSS, core members of the group underwent secret military training in Vartanians paternal village in August-September 2015. Investigators released in late 2016 a photograph, purportedly taken in a village house, of ten masked and armed persons standing under the groups banner.
by Burak Akinci

ANKARA, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Turkey seems determined to block Sweden and Finland's NATO memberships in the alliance's upcoming summit as long as they do not address Turkey's security concerns, although the NATO chief has vowed "a common way forward" on the issue at stake, experts said.

Ankara has said it will not prepare to rush through the NATO accession process of the two Nordic countries unless there are "satisfactory assurances" that they would cut support of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and other groups outlawed by Turkey.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday set out his priorities for the two-day summit starting June 29 in Madrid, said the military alliance's website.

Speaking of the accession process and Turkey's security concerns, including in the fight against terrorism, Stoltenberg said his aim is "to find a common way forward so that both countries can join our alliance as soon as possible."

However, Ankara does not consider next week's summit as a final deadline for resolving its objections to Finland and Sweden's bids.

"We don't feel like we are under any time pressure. What is important here is that Sweden and Finland openly, clearly, and concretely explain how they are going to act on counterterrorism," a Turkish diplomatic source told Xinhua on the condition of anonymity.

Turkish Presidential Spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told reporters on Monday in Brussels that the upcoming Madrid summit "is not the deadline, so our negotiations will continue."

He made the remarks after a round of talks in the Belgian capital where NATO is headquartered with officials from Sweden, Finland and the military bloc over the Nordic countries' admission, indicating outstanding issues yet to be addressed.

Last week, Turkey said documents it received from Sweden and NATO in response to the earlier written demands it presented to the two candidates were far from meeting its expectations and any negotiations must first address Turkish concerns.

While describing the Monday meetings with the three countries as "constructive," Stoltenberg acknowledged that "Turkey has legitimate security concerns over terrorism that we need to address."

Experts said the finalization of the Nordic bids in Madrid now seems unlikely.

"After all, a swift membership of Sweden and Finland to NATO could only exacerbate the Russian-Ukraine crisis. It would mean to pour fuel on the fire," Tarik Oguzlu, a professor in international relations at Istanbul's Aydin University, told Xinhua.

Nevertheless, Ankara will in time lift its reservations about the two countries, Oguzlu said.

Turkey accuses Sweden and Finland of harboring alleged PKK members and objects to their arms embargoes imposed on Turkey since 2019 as a response to Turkey's military operations in Syria.

The two Nordic countries reversed decades of military non-alignment by applying for NATO memberships in May, after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in late February.

But any NATO membership deal must be unanimously approved by all the 30 members of the alliance.

According to political analyst Selcuk Colakoglu, Turkey wants to seize this opportunity to push for the designation of the People's Protection Units (YPG), the PKK's Syrian arm, as a terrorist group.

"Many countries in NATO consider YPG as an ally in the fight against the Islamic State group (in Syria). So Turkey wants a clear position from its NATO partners as well as Sweden and Finland to designate YPG as an offshoot of the PKK," he told Xinhua.

The issue of the YPG militant group in northern Syria, against which Turkey has fought since 2015, has complicated Turkey's relations with its NATO allies.

Colakoglu, director of the Turkish Center for Asia-Pacific Studies, said Turkey does not categorically rejects the memberships of Sweden and Finland but rather seeks security guarantees concerning these Kurdish groups and their members.

"For now we don't know yet how these differences will evolve. We will see in the coming weeks but talks are continuing without interruption," the scholar noted. 
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Pete Tittl's Dining Out column appears in The Californian on Sundays. Email him at pftittl@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter: @pftittl.
You can reach Ishani Desai at 661-395-7417. You can also follow her at @_ishanidesai on Twitter.
ATHENS, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Heads of friendship associations from China, India, Egypt and Greece held an online dialogue on Friday under the theme of "Upholding Justice and Achieving Common Development."

The event concluded with a joint declaration calling for international cooperation to promote world peace and development.

"We agree that it is the common aspiration of peoples of all countries to pursue peace, seek development and promote cooperation, and work together to build a community with a shared future for mankind," read a joint declaration signed by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), India-China Friendship Association (ICFA), the Egypt-China Friendship Association and the Belt and Road Associates in Greece.

"We should abandon the law of the jungle, and resolutely oppose the Cold War mentality of zero-sum games and all forms of hegemonic practices that deliberately incite ideological confrontation and camp confrontation and deprive people across the globe of their development rights and interests," it added.

"The world is changing, yet the glorious radiance of the great ancient civilizations will never fade," said CPAFFC President Lin Songtian while addressing the online event.

Many speakers noted that the world should move forward with unity and collaboration, based on the lessons and wisdoms drawn from these ancient civilizations.

The Belt and Road Initiative has been building bridges of friendship and cooperation between peoples in recent years and the world needs more of such bridges, said George Floras, Managing Partner of Belt and Road Associates in Greece. 
Click here to read the full article.

Barry Garron, former Chief TV Critic for The Hollywood Reporter, died June 23 at a medical facility in Gilbert, Ariz. He was 72.

Garron, who was well-liked in the industry as a genial Midwesterner, spent a little more than a decade as a prominent critic for The Hollywood Reporter. He was there for the dawn of the premium TV era, writing the first review of The Sopranos for the publication, among other formative shows from Will & Grace to The West Wing to Jimmy Kimmels 2003 debut on ABC.

Born in Chicago, Garron attended the University of Missouri  Columbia, earning a pair of degrees in journalism and political science in 1971, according to THR. He worked for the Kansas City Star newspaper for nearly 25 years, starting in 1973, first as an education writer. When the opening occurred, Garron jumped at the chance to become a TV/radio critic for the paper, he told THR last year.

As soon as I started doing that, I knew it was the thing for me, Garron recalled.

Garron moved to the West Coast and joined the Hollywood Reporter in 1998. He served as chief TV critic in his final years before leaving the brand in 2009. He remained active as a freelance TV critic and commentator up until his final weeks.

Garron moved to Arizona in 2016. In 2018, he published The Jeopardy! Book of Answers, co-written with longtime Jeopardy executive producer Harry Friedman.

Garron had suffered from Crohns disease since his 20s and also had bouts with cancer. According to THR, Garrons survivors include a daughter, Rachel, who has worked as a production engineer for Los Angeles KCAL-TV and KCBS-TV, as well as two granddaughters and a brother.

Garrons wife of 38 years, Sandi, died in 2010.

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Massimo Morante  the guitarist whose moody, funky playing helped define Italian prog-rock group Goblins eerie soundtracks for horror cinema classics such as Suspiria and Dawn of the Dead  has died at the age of 69. The group confirmed the news with a heavy heart in a Facebook post.

His daughter, Valerie paid respects to her father and announced the funeral would take place this weekend in Rome. It is with indescribable pain, a pain that trumps words, that breaks the breath and hammer the heart, that I announce the death of my father, Massimo Morante, she wrote on Facebook. For anyone who would like to give him a last goodbye, the funeral will take place on Saturday 25th June at 10.30 at the Church of Artists in Piazza del Popolo (Rome).

Goblin, who were originally known as Cherry Five, rose to prominence among fans of bloody giallo cinema in the mid Seventies after contributing music to filmmaker Dario Argentos 1975 picture Profondo Rosso. Their theme combined layers of scratchy folk instruments (Morante played mandolin and bass on various soundtracks in addition to guitar) with moaning voices, giving a more otherworldly feel to the film than the more traditional soundtracks of the day. They collaborated with Argento again a few years later for his witch epic, Suspiria, which showed off Morantes funkier side amid Claudio Simonettis spindly keyboard parts.

John Carpenter told Rolling Stone that Goblins work on Suspiria inspired him for the score to his own Halloween. After Goblin aligned with Night of the Living Dead director George A. Romero on his vampire film, 1978s Martin, the soundtrack for Romeros Dawn of the Dead (also 1978) gave Morante the opportunity to explore more of his funk side.

What we did was start composing after watching the movie and after that, we played while watching it, Simonetti explained in author Nicanor Loretis book Cult People. But beyond that, there werent many things in common every time.  Obviously, its the directors job to tell you what he wants to get out of you. But we never had any problems with anyone because once we knew what we wanted, everyone used to let us work the way we wanted.

After Dawn of the Dead, Goblins membership started to fracture; the score to Argentos Tenebre (1982) is credited to Morante, Simonetti, and Goblin bassist Fabio Pignatelli, the bands three most consistent members on their classic recordings. In the early Eighties, Morante also put out two solo albums, Corpo a Corpo and Abbasso. In recent years, full Goblin reunions were rare. Morante and Pignatelli played in the band known as Goblin, while Simonetti led Claudio Simonettis Goblin (aka Daemonia).

In 2000, the group reunited for the soundtrack for Dario Argentos Non Ho Sleep, only to splinter again. Three years later, Morante realigned with Pignatelli, alongside Maurizio Guarini and Agostino Marangolo to drop BackToTheGoblin 2005. More than three decades after their last performance, Morante, Pignatelli, Guarini and Marangolo alongside keyboardist Aidan Zammit performed at a series of European festivals. The band took on several iterations following the tour. In 2013, the group embarked on its first North American tour, which included performing Suspiria live at the Housecore Horror Film Festival in Austin.

The band continued to tour through 2014 and released the album, Four of a Kind, the following year. In 2018, the band marked the 40th anniversary of their soundtrack for The Dawn of the Living Dead and also released Fearless (37513 Zombie Ave.) that same year.
Local elected officials are largely split along party lines, following the U.S. Supreme Court's Friday decision to overturn the landmark decision of Roe v. Wade.

The case, which would have seen its 50th anniversary next year, previously did not allow states to restrict certain abortions.

In the majority decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito stated that nowhere in the constitution is abortion mentioned and that the previous decision "must be overruled."

This is what local Southeast Texas elected officials have to say about the ruling:

U.S. Rep. Randy Weber, R-Texas

Today, the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that legalized abortion. This ruling will give the power back to the states to make decisions on abortion and removes the federal government's unconstitutional overreach. Roe put unelected judges in charge of the abortion policy. Abortion laws should be debated and decided by the American people, not dictated by judges.

This is a momentous day for every American who has joined the fight and stood for life. As a father of three and a grandfather of eight, I firmly believe an unborn child is a human life, fearfully and wonderfully made and worth protecting,' said Rep. Weber. 'Over the last few weeks, we have witnessed the unhinged left go absolutely insane over the decision to overturn Roe. I am thankful that the Supreme Court Justices upheld the integrity of the Court and our Constitution.'

U.S. Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas

On Thursday, Babin released a statement regarding legislation "condemning attacks by pro-abortion extremeists."

"The DOJs busy likening concerned parents to domestic terrorists instead of prosecuting pro-abortion anarchists who are, by the FBIs very definition, engaging in domestic terrorism," Babin said in a news release. "The Democrats are silent about this violence, and the DOJ is ignoring it. We must enforce our laws and protect the organizations being terrorized by these anti-life extremists."

Babin also tweeted Friday after the decision was announced.

"It's a great day for our unborn!

#SCOTUS' decision to overturn Roe v. Wade returns the power to the people and to the states where it belongs.

Praise God!"

Texas State Rep. and House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont

Todays ruling is a massive victory for innocent, unborn life and marks the beginning of a new era in Texas. Abortion in our state will be outlawed in a matter of weeks thanks to a trigger law the Texas Legislature passed in 2021, with exceptions for preserving the life of a mother and in the unfortunate instance of a miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy. When the Legislature reconvenes in 2023, the Texas House will double down on maternal health care and resources for women, children and families. That starts with extending postpartum health for new moms to 12 months and continuing to prioritize support and resources for women and families in Texas.

State Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville

Declined to provide a statement when asked by The Enterprise.

State Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe

"Justice Alito says it best: 'Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division. It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the peoples elected representatives.'

State Rep. James White, R-Woodville

"I'm very honored to represent my constituents in Texas House District 19. Life is a fundamental right given to us by God and the best thing that government can do is protected. I'm so elated today to see the Supreme Court step up and protect the right to life. Now the work begins where we need to ensure that we're helping mothers that are going through challenge pregnancies. We need to ensure that they have the maternal health care that they need in order to maintain a healthy life and have a healthy baby. We need to continue uplifting our educational opportunities in the state. So these children as they grow up as Texans, they will have the foundation to be great Texans, to be productive Texans. I just think this is a great day for Texas and our country.

State Rep. Joe Deshotel, R-Beaumont

Declined to provide a statement when asked by The Enterprise.

Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick

"Because I am governed by the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct, I do not comment on any decision of either the Texas Supreme Court or the United States Supreme Court.

Jefferson County Republican Party Chair Joe Evans

"My opinion is (the overturn) kicks it back down to the states, where it should rightfully be. I think nothing in the Constitution spoke to abortion so it kicks it back down to the state legislature where it should have been all along. I want to also make it clear that if you look at what we have in Texas with the Heartbeat Bill, we just want abortions stopped once a heartbeat is detected. I'm not understanding why anyone couldn't get behind that."

Jefferson County Democratic Party Chair Ava Graves

"Ten days before celebrating the 4th of July, we are again faced with a direct assault on our inalienable rights. The Declaration of Independence's delineation of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are rights that apply to women, too. It is incredulous that the Supreme Court's ruling desecrates the Declaration's intent by stealing Women's rights.

We Democrats will continually stand and fight against oppressive legislators promoting their own Totalitarian agendas by electing leadership that cares for all humankind. I encourage woman to be steadfast. We will ban together with our allies.

We can not stand by idly. We will be proactive, strategic and intentional in our pursuit."

Port Arthur Mayor Thurman "Bill" Bartie

Bartie told The Enterprise Friday that he was "disheartened" by the overturn of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court of the United States.

"I don't know how we can honestly feel comfortable with doing some communistic move like this and remove a choice as part of the democratic process where you make choices," he said. "I'm just sorry to see America coming to this. I'm sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America but I can still have my opinion. I have to abide by the laws of the land and as of today, (abortion) is illegal. But I am saddened to see America move to where we are now with a group of individuals on the highest court in the land making such an unwise decision."
Port Arthur community members and environmentalists came together earlier this week to discuss pollution caused by local plants and how to properly report pollutants.

After packing the West Side Community Development Center to standing room only, community members shared their qualms and hopes for a better community with members of the Port Arthur Community Action Network.

During the June 22 meeting, they discussed how to report pollutants and a proposed deepwater port during its June 22 meeting.

"PA-CAN is here to help us serve the community and improve the quality of life and to address concerns and issues that are brought to our attention that are within our organizational scope, mostly that's environmental, social justice and community development," PA-CAN founder and CEO John Beard said.

The organization hosted the event in conjunction with Lone Star Legal Aid and Beard ran the meeting with Environmental Justice Team Managing Attorney Amy Dinn.

RELATED: Port Arthur organization to host meeting on local plants

Throughout the meeting, Beard and Dinn kept stressing "If you see, smell or hear pollution... report it," which is also the motto of Lone Star Legal Aid's Environmental Nuisance Reporter.

In collaboration with Georgetown Law School students, Lone Star Legal Aid's Environmental Justice Team created the Environmental Nuisance Reporter for residents in its Texas service area to report odors, releases, water pollution, air pollutants and noise from facilities in their area. The site also allows assists the Environmental Justice Team in documenting environmental concerns from the community.

Information submitted on the website is kept confidential. As more information is made available following a report, the law office will keep the complainant updated.

Dinn used an April 29 flaring event at Valero and the complaints they received as an example.

"I put everything in a letter to TCEQ explaining the impact that people reported or sent that in a nice letter over to the Beaumont office," Dinn said. "They're in the process of investigating a complaint. That information then gets rolled into the complaint that they doing and hopefully a penalty will result around that event."

RELATED: Port Arthur Organization helping residents with rent, utilities

In addition to discussing the Environmental Nuisance Reporter, Beard discussed the Blue Marlin Offshore Project.

The Blue Marlin Offshore Project is a proposed deep water port located off the Gulf of Mexico near Jefferson County.

"We are really concerned about the impact this proposed deep water project will have on the Sabine Lake community," Dinn said. "They basically are going to plan to build a pipeline for Nederland that goes under Sabine Lake all the way out to a deepwater port in the Gulf of Mexico and then it's going to service these giant ships."

PA-CAN is hosting two community meetings regarding the Blue Marlin Offshore Project. The first will be held at 7 p.m. July 19 at the Robert A. "Bob" Bowers Civic Center in Port Arthur. The second will be at 7 p.m. July 21 at the Bridge City Senior Citizen Hall.
The Good Brigade/Getty Images

In recent months, gas prices have continued to rise and supply chains shortages have impacted products ranging from baby formula to new vehicles. Staple pantry condiments such as mustard and Sriracha, Texas favorite hot sauce, may also be facing shortages due to climate change affecting key ingredients.

Mustard seed yield in Canada, one of the worlds largest mustard seed producers, has decreased by 28% and the cost per ton has almost doubled to $1,700, according to the French news site France24. In particular, brown mustard seed, which is used for Dijon mustard, is down 50%, leading to low stock and rising prices of the popular French mustard, food and beverage trend site FoodIngredientsFirst reported.
Texas leaders and nonprofits are reacting to how the Supreme Court ended constitutional protections for abortions that had been in place for almost 50 years in a decision by its conservative majority to overturn Roe v. Wade on Friday, June 24.

The ruling came more than a month after the stunning leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito indicating the court was prepared to take this momentous step. The ruling allows states to make the decision to ban abortions.

In Texas, abortion rights are already limited. Last year, Gov. Greg Abbott signed into a law a measure that would prohibit abortions as early as six weeks  before some people know they are pregnant  and open the door for almost any private citizen to sue abortion providers and others. The law went into effect in September.

Abbott released a statement shortly after the decision, writing the U.S. Supreme Court "currently" overturned Roe v. Wade and "reinstated the right of states to protect innocent, unborn children."

"Texas is a pro-life state, and we have taken significant action to protect the sanctity of life," he added. "...Texas will always fight for the innocent unborn, and I will continue working with the Texas legislature and all Texans to save every child from the ravages of abortion and help our expectant mothers in need."

Former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro wrote on Twitter that "a radical Court has again destroyed longstanding precedent to further its right-wing, extremist agenda. We must do two things: Restructure the Court and codify Roe."

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton tweeted, "Praise the Lord," after the decision. He stated, "Abortion is now illegal in Texas."

"And today I'm closing my office  and making it an annual holiday  as a memorial to the 70 million lives lost bc of abortion," he tweeted.

RAICES, a nonprofit that promotes justice by providing free and low-cost legal services to underserved immigrant children, families, and refugees, sent MySA a statement below:

"Effective today, trigger bans that will make abortion illegal in the first and second trimesters will go into effect in nearly every state along the southeast border of the country, including here in Texas. The overturning of Roe v. Wade will create a healthcare crisis that could endanger the lives of our clients, making it harder for our clients, who already have difficulty accessing essential health care services and other resources, to access the care they need.

"SCOTUS' decision is a dangerous step toward the abrogation of other rights based on the 14th Amendment's rubric of privacy that Americans count on, from the right to contraception to marriage equality to protection from surveillance. RAICES believes today's decision is part of increasingly authoritarian actions around the world. The Supreme Court decision blows a dog whistle of sorts, a piercing shrill alert heard around the world, a disregard of established legal precedents on which people in this country have relied to protect all human rights."

Senator Ted Cruz tweeted about the decision, calling it a "momentous day" and that "reversing Roe v. Wade, is nothing short of a massive victory for life, and it will save the lives of millions of innocent babies."

Lieutenant Governor of Texas Dan Patrick tweeted, "Life is a God-given first, and Texas will ALWAYS take a stand to protect it. A very historic day and a GIANT win for life!"

Texas representative Dan Crenshaw called the decision "historic" as well. Greg Casar, who's running for congress in Texas' District 35, tweeted how everyone must immediately support independent clinics that will provide care to Texas across the country.

San Antonio Congressman Joaquin Castro also released a statement, calling the decision "wrong" and saying "it will endanger the health and safety of people in Texas and across the country."

"The Supreme Court's action today will force women and girls to carry pregnancies that were conceived through rape and incest and empower extremists to persecute people who suffer a miscarriage or high-risk pregnancy that threatens their life," Castro stated.

Planned Parenthood Texas sent the following statement: "Today, the U.S. Supreme Court erased nearly 50 years of history and its responsibility to uphold legal precedent. This deplorable ruling by the Court's conservative majority strips Americans of their constitutional rights and further erodes abortion access in Texas. This dangerous outcome opens the floodgates for more states across the country to ban abortion.

"Texans know all too well the reality of living in a post-Roe world. For more than nine months under S.B 8, Texans have been denied access to abortion in their own state and have been forced to continue a pregnancy, seek abortion outside the health care system, or travel hundreds or even thousands of miles if they can secure the funds, time off from work, child care, and transportation needed to access abortion out of state. Providers have been forced to turn away patients. Its heartbreaking and completely preventable.

"Forcing someone to continue a pregnancy against their will is a grave violation of human rights and dignity. All Americans deserve to live under a rule of law that respects their bodily autonomy and reproductive decisions. Lets be clear: todays ruling and its unraveling of Roe v. Wade will not end the need for abortion. This decision will have damaging effects for generations. And we know the impacts of this decision will fall hardest on the communities who already face discriminatory obstacles to health careparticularly Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities, people with disabilities, people in rural areas, young people, LGBTQ+ people, undocumented people, and those having difficulty making ends meet.

"The fate of Roe is not the fate of Planned Parenthood. Today our doors are open and they will remain open to serve Texans who need access to essential reproductive health care. Our priority will remain restoring and expanding access to that care, including abortion, for all Texans."

Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales released the following statement concerning the Supreme Court decision.

"Today, the Supreme Court has failed women. In overturning a nearly 50-year-old precedent that so many fought their entire lives for, the Court has robbed women of the right to make choices about their health and future. It is a sad day in America, and I grieve for what so many have lost.

I know this is a terrifying day for many, especially in Texas. I want to reiterate that I will never stop fighting for women and for their right to make decisions about their bodies. If you need life-saving care, please seek medical help. I took an oath as your Elected District Attorney, not to prosecute, but to seek justice. I will endeavor to ensure that no one in our county is ever prosecuted because they go to a hospital or urgent care facility. Women here should know that we will fight for them, not against them."

San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg tweeted, "Today's SCOTUS ruling is an attack on the health and independence of women, people of color and the disadvantaged. Access to health care, including abortion, is a human right."

"Criminalizing those who seek basic care will create a hostile and harmful future for far too many," he tweeted.

Texas Senator John Cornyn stated the following, "The Court has restored one of the core principles of our Constitution with this landmark ruling. This decision correctly returns the authority of states to decide the limits on abortion and will save countless innocent lives. I commend the Justices for not bowing to the vicious intimidation campaign waged by the radical Left. I join Texans in celebrating this historic victory for life and the rule of law."

Chip Roy, a Texas representative, said Roe was a legal and moral failure. He added, "It was a failure that has been tearing apart the fabric of our nation and the lives of Americans for half a century; a failure that runs counter to both Constitutional and natural law; and a failure that directly enabled the deaths of some 60 million innocent Americans of all colors, races, backgrounds, and both sexes."

"The Court today places Roe in its rightful place in history: the ash heap," he tweeted. "A mother's impulse to consider abortion is rooted in fear that for too long has been exploited for political ends. Let us resolve to move past political rhetoric. Let us unite as Americans to celebrate, promote, and protect the lives of both the mother and the child. Let us endeavor to make it as easy, healthy, and hopeful as possible to choose life."


For the First Time in Almost 50 Years, America is Experiencing the Reality: Abortion on Demand is no Longer the Law of the Land NEWS PROVIDED BY

Stanton Healthcare

June 24, 2022



MERIDIAN, Idaho, June 24, 2022 /Christian Newswire/ -- Stanton Healthcare in Meridian, Idaho, will host a news conference at their clinic today, June 24, 2022 at 1 p.m. MT to discuss the overturning of Roe v. Wade and their plans to continue providing quality care for women facing unexpected pregnancies.



The clinic is located at 2176 E. Franklin Rd, Ste 130, Meridian, ID 83642.



This is a watershed moment in American history for human rights, justice and ending abortion violence.



With this decision, the Supreme Court rejects the notion that abortion is a fundamental Constitutional right and now returns power back to the states.



However, the overturning of Roe is not a finish line, but rather a starting line for the pro-life community to move forward state by state to make abortion unthinkable.



The pro-life community rejoices abortion will end up on the scrapheap of history like chattel slavery and segregation.



Stanton Public Policy Center/Purple Sash Revolution is a women's advocacy and educational group that works on issues of human rights and justice which empower and inspire women. It is affiliated with Stanton Healthcare which has life-affirming women's health clinics in America and internationally.



Brandi Swindell, Founder and CEO of Stanton Healthcare, states: "As an advocate for women, human rights and justice, I am thrilled the tragic history of abortion violence in America, created by Roe v. Wade, is ending. Our nation is now embracing the truth that unfettered access to abortion for the full nine months of pregnancy does not uplift women or advance justice and equality.



"As Roe v. Wade has been overturned, the pro-life community looks forward to working state by state to ensure abortion violence comes to an end in our nation. Stanton Healthcare will continue to offer professional and compassionate healthcare to women facing unexpected pregnancies, as well as physical and emotional support for their family; and our public policy center will actively move forward in shaping pro-life public policy and legislation.



"The pro-life community is excited about a post-Roe America where all life will be treated with dignity." Rev. Patrick Mahoney, Chief Strategy Officer for Stanton Public Policy Center, comments: "Dr. Martin Luther King said, 'no lie can live forever' and 'the Arc of the Moral Universe is long, but it bends toward justice.' With the overturning of Roe v. Wade, we are seeing the 'lie of abortion' and Roe v. Wade ending and America 'bending' toward justice.



"The greatest strength of the pro-life community has always been our grassroots energy and engagement. Therefore, we welcome a post-Roe America where we will passionately work state by state to end abortion and continue to provide support and care for mothers and their children.



"Every local, state, and national election will now have to address the issue of abortion on every ballot and in every campaign.



"The pro-life/human rights community will never rest or be silent until abortion is unthinkable and ends up on the scrapheap of history like chattel slavery and segregation. We are thrilled to see Roe v. Wade ending along with the violent legacy it created, and to see America embracing the truth  that all life has purpose and dignity and should not be subjected to violence." For more information or interviews contact:

Rev. Patrick Mahoney at: 540.538.4741.



SOURCE Stanton Healthcare



CONTACT: Rev. Patrick Mahoney, 540-538-4741



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What comes to mind in the month of June? Weddings. Vacations (and how to pay for record high gas prices if youre driving). Graduations.

Time was when many commencement speeches at major universities were about America and its values and what graduates could expect in the future. In recent years, they have become a political capstone on the progressive ideas imposed upon them in their classes and textbooks.

This year has been no different. While an occasional token conservative or Republican is invited, most speakers are liberal in their political beliefs and promote activist causes.

Here are just a few examples from a long list.

Augustana College: Dick Durbin (D-Ill). Bard College: Deb Haaland, Secretary of the Interior. Brandeis University: Deval Patrick, former governor of Massachusetts. Clark University: Mary Frances Berry, civil rights activist. Harvard Law School: Loretta Lynch, former U.S. Attorney General.

There are many more you can Google, but the picture is clear. Most major universities, while giving lip service to diversity, dont believe in diversity of opinion.

Perhaps the most troubling of this Junes commencement addresses was not just the main speaker at Harvards Law School commencement, but a prominent and soon-to-be powerful and influential person who attended.

The main speaker was New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, whose preferred topic appeared to be LGBTQ-plus. She bragged that her deputy is an openly gay man. She also touted her countrys approval of same-sex marriage and its progress on climate change. This presumably is supposed to inspire graduates to embrace her views, if they dont already share them. Why wouldnt they after what theyve been taught, watched what is promoted in the media, and endured the peer pressure of like-minded students?

Among those attending the ceremony was Supreme Court justice-designate Kentanji Brown Jackson. When Prime Minister Ardern reached the part in her address in which she referenced New Zealands ban on military-style semi-automatics and assault rifles, Jackson applauded.

As Congress debates which if any weapons to ban, this issue could come before the Supreme Court. It was inappropriate for Jackson to seemingly telegraph her opinion in advance. Notice how the justices never applaud at a presidents State of the Union Address. That should be Jacksons model.

What a contrast between Arderns remarks and another commencement address delivered at Harvard on June 8, 1978 by Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn. His speech drew the ire of some faculty and The New York Times editorial page, because it didnt fit in with their ideological perspectives.

While Solzhenitsyn called Western systems best, he indicted the West for its lack of courage: A decline in courage may be the most striking feature which an outside observer notices in the West in our days. The Western world has lost its civil courage, both as a whole and separately, in each country, each government, each political party, and, of course, in the United Nations. Such a decline in courage is particularly noticeable among the ruling groups and the intellectual elite, causing an impression of loss of courage by the entire society. Of course, there are many courageous individuals, but they have no determining influence on public life.

He added: Should one point out that from ancient times declining courage has been considered the beginning of the end?

Solzhenitsyn was a modern prophet. Many speakers at recent commencement ceremonies are more pathetic than prophetic.

Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribpub.com
Japan will stop funding the second and final phase of a 1,200 megawatt coal-fired power plant in Bangladesh in an effort to reduce carbon emissions, a senior Japanese official said, amid criticism of Tokyos financing of overseas coal power projects.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) had committed to provide a total of U.S. $4.5 billion in loans for two phases of the $5.1 billion Matarbari coal power plant in southeastern Bangladesh, officials in the South Asian country said.

The Bangladesh government was to bear the remaining cost of the project, according to officials at the Coal Power Generation Company Bangladesh Limited (CPGCBL), the government-owned company building the plant. Data was not immediately available on how much JICA had already provided of the total funds it has committed.

Japans Ambassador to Bangladesh Naoki Ito told BenarNews that JICA would complete funding units 1and 2 of the first phase of the Matarbari plant.

But units 3 and 4 will not be done as yen loan projects, in light of the need for decarbonization and climate change responses, he said.

The Group of Seven nations, including Japan, had agreed in 2021 to stop the international funding of coal projects unless these projects had the technology to reduce emissions.

Power Division Secretary Md. Habibur Rahman told BenarNews that neither the department nor the Power Ministry had been official informed by JICA about its decision to end funding, although they had heard about it.

When asked what the authorities may do with the unfinished power plant, Rahman said there were two options  look for another source of funding or convert the project to a non-coal-fired power plant.

We have not taken any decision yet. After we are informed of the Japanese governments decision through an official channel, then we will hold a meeting to make our decision, he said.

Last year, Bangladesh scrapped 10 coal-fired power generation projects due to international pressure and unavailability of funds for coal power expansion.

The Bangladesh government has already acquired 1,608 acres of land for the Matarbari coal-fired power plant project in southeastern Coxs Bazar district.

The project has been controversial for a while now.

A study released by the Finnish research organization, Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), said the Matarbari coal-fired power plant was one of eight similar projects close to each other that together would cause 30,000 pollution-related deaths over their operational life of 30 years.

Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association Chief Executive Syeda Rizwana Hasan said JICAs decision showed that the Japanese government listened to its people.

While we congratulate the Japanese people and Government for standing by our side and accepting our lawful demands, we believe that the Government of Bangladesh will follow the same pathway and abandon the first phase of the Matarbari Power plant which has already proven destructive for the local ecosystem, the river, and the intimidated community, she told BenarNews.
EU leaders grant Ukraine, Moldova EU candidate status

Xinhua) 08:17, June 24, 2022

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen attends a press conference in Brussels, Belgium, June 17, 2022. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

The EU candidate countries would need to meet accession conditions to be able to join the bloc, including on issues relating to justice, anti-corruption mechanisms and rule of law, among others, according to EU's criteria.

BRUSSELS, June 23 (Xinhua) -- European Union (EU) leaders have accepted Ukraine and Moldova as candidates for membership of the bloc, European Council President Charles Michel said on Thursday.

"Agreement. #EUCO has just decided EU candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova. A historic moment," Michel announced on Twitter. EUCO is short for the European Council, which is currently being attended by EU leaders in Brussels.

The heads of state and government of the EU member states approved the European Commission's recommendation at the start of their two-day summit in Brussels from Thursday to Friday.

Ukraine applied for EU membership shortly after the conflict with Russia began in the end of February.

The country handed its application on Feb. 28. Moldova applied for EU membership on March 3.

European Council President Charles Michel (2nd L) meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (3rd R) in Kiev, Ukraine, April 20, 2022. (Ukrainian Presidential Office/Handout via Xinhua)

Georgia applied for the EU membership on the same day with Moldova, but the European Commission said earlier last week that Georgia's application would be re-examined at a later stage when further reforms will have been made.

The EU candidate countries would need to meet accession conditions to be able to join the bloc, including on issues relating to justice, anti-corruption mechanisms and rule of law, among others, according to EU's criteria.

Michel also said that the EU leaders had also "decided to recognize the European perspective of Georgia," adding that the council was "ready to grant candidate status once the outstanding priorities are addressed."

"A historic moment in EU-Georgia relations: Georgia's future lies within the EU," he wrote.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the decision as "a unique and historical moment in Ukraine-EU," as he thanked EU leaders for their support.

European Council President Charles Michel (R) receives visiting Moldovan President Maia Sandu in Brussels, Belgium, Jan. 18, 2021. (European Union/Handout via Xinhua)

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun)
Churches Can Lead the Way in Teaching and Example as Roe Reversed in Dobbs NEWS PROVIDED BY

Institute on Religion and Democracy

June 24, 2022



WASHINGTON, June 24, 2022 /Christian Newswire/ -- Today's Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization details an effective reversal of both Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, returning abortion as an issue for states to decide.



Mainline Protestant churches played a significant role in legitimizing abortion even before the Roe decision effectively struck down state level abortion restrictions and established a constitutional right to abortion. Numeric decline in Mainline churches, paired with the growth of Evangelical and Pentecostal forms of Christianity as a share of Protestant Christianity in the United States shifted public viewpoint on how best to uphold the sanctity of human life.



IRD President Mark Tooley commented: "The overthrow of Roe v. Wade enables Christians and The Church in America to explain why our faith affirms the humanity of unborn persons and why we think they deserve legal protection.



"The Church affirms that all persons, by simply being, irrespective of their capacity or worldly value, bear God's image and are sacred.



"Post-Roe America can become more humane and more compassionate, if The Church leads the way by teaching and by example. We must also confess that The Church has not always been consistent in his commitment to defending all humanity. And so we should reflect on our own failures and consider how God may be leading us forward to a time more aligned with His purposes." Director John Lomperis of IRD's United Methodist Action Program commented: "This decision to move American law in a new, life-affirming direction is welcomed by a great many Christians across America and around the world.



"In 2016, I was proud to be part of the strong majority of United Methodist Church delegates who repealed our denomination's previous endorsement of the atrocious Roe v. Wade decision." SOURCE Institute on Religion and Democracy



CONTACT: Jeff Walton 202-413-5639, jwalton@TheIRD.org



Related Links



www.TheIRD.org



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Demonstrators defend press freedom at Mendiola Bridge leading to the Malacanang presidential palace in Manila, Feb. 14, 2020.

Journalists working for international news networks on Friday expressed grave concern over a government move to block two domestic news websites, calling the move unconstitutional.

Acting on a request by Hermogenes Esperon, the national security adviser, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) recently blocked 27 websites including alternative news outlets Bulatlat and Pinoy Weekly, on suspicion of communist links. The agency also blocked the website of Jose Maria Sison, the exiled founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

The Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) noted that it was lamentable that the government chose to go after the Southeast Asian nations diverse and vibrant Fourth Estate.

A news organizations legitimacy should rest in the quality of its journalism, i.e. that its reporting is truthful, accurate and serves the public interest, said FOCAP, which includes reporters and media workers from some of the worlds leading news agencies.

Restricting access to a website on the basis of alleged affiliation with parties perceived to be hostile to government contravenes the right to freedom of expression guaranteed by the constitution, it said.

FOCAP asked NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba to revoke the order and recognize that government policies must take into consideration the plurality of voices.

Attempts to control narratives and suppress criticism of government policies violate democratic principles, it said.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), meanwhile, noted that both Bulatlat and Pinoy Weekly were not notified of the action by the NTC.

It is yet unclear whether they can appeal their inclusion and where they can do so, the NUJP said in a statement.

Bulatlat and Pinoy Weekly have existed for years and have built a track record of reporting on peoples issues, it said in a statement Friday.

Sometimes, the reporting has been critical of [the] government and its policies, but it is dangerous to equate this with affiliation or support that the government now claims, it said, referring to alleged support from insurgents.

The NUJP warned that labeling these news organizations as being linked to communist fronts puts their staff members  who might be harassed and attacked  in danger.

Martin Andanar, spokesman for outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte, noted that the NTC order could be appealed.

The recent move of the NTC to block certain websites is upon the request of the National Security Council in performance of its mandate, Andanar said Thursday.

Legal remedies are available to any party, including online media outfit Bulatlat, Andanar said.




The leader of PULO, a longtime rebel group in Thailands Deep South, has asked to join peace talks already under way between the government and the regions largest militant outfit, he told BenarNews this week.

Meanwhile, the Barisan Revolusion Nasional (BRN), which opened direct talks with the government in 2020, has indicated it is open to having others join in, a stance welcomed by a conflict resolution expert.

Kasturi Mahkota told BenarNews on Monday that his group may join the peace talk with the Thai government.

I contacted a government negotiator via an online channel on Monday. We may meet in the next peace talks soon, the PULO leader said, without elaborating.

PULO claimed responsibility for an attack in April that marred a 40-day ceasefire marking Ramadan that was otherwise hailed as a major stride forward in peace talks between BRN and the Thai government.

At the time, Kasturi said PULO had carried out the twin bombings  which killed one and injured three  because it was sidelined from peace talks and wanted to be included.

He also said then that PULO would not join negotiations if they were conducted under the Thai Constitution  a framework that appears to rule out independence for the restive region, analysts say.

But Kasturi seems to have changed his tune since then.

Regarding the Thai constitution, we are OK with it, but it must not be used as a condition in the peace talks, he told BenarNews on Friday. People have rights to choose their constitution.

Next talks: July

On Monday, the Thai army commander for the southern region repeated an open invitation for PULO and other rebel groups to join the talks.

I see it like this, to participate in the peace talks process, [Kasturi] may join with the BRN directly or under a similar umbrella group, like MARA Patani in the previous phase of talks, Lt. Gen. Kriangkrai Srirak, the commander of the 4th Army Region, told reporters.

How to arrange it? He can contact the Thai Peace Dialogue Panel. Gen. Wanlop would listen and respond so that both sides can meet.

Lead government negotiator Gen. Wanlop Rugsanoah did not respond to requests for comment.

Meanwhile, Abdul Rahim Noor, the Malaysian facilitator of the talks, told BenarNews that no one had informed him of PULOs overture, nor he did not expect them to. If PULO or any other group wants to have a say, they should channel it directly to the Thai government, not me or Malaysia, he said.

Previously, Wanlop and Rahim Noor had said the next round of talks would occur sometime in July.

PULO, BRN

PULO and BRN are considered the oldest secessionist movements along the Thai-Malaysian border in the Thailands Deep South, a region that encompasses the three provinces of Pattani, Narathiwat, and Yala, and four districts of neighboring Songkhla province. The mainly Muslim and Malay-speaking region was annexed by Thailand in 1909 as part of a treaty with Britain.

Established in 1968, PULO was the most influential group waging an insurgency against Buddhist-majority Thailand until the 1990s, but it has been dormant for the past few years. Before April, the groups last-known attack occurred in 2016. Military sources estimate that PULO has more than 100 fighters.

Since the Deep South insurgency reignited in January 2004, BRN, which was founded in 1963, has emerged as the most potent armed group in southern Thailand.

Kasturi was one of the representatives in the MARA Patani dialogue panel that held talks with government from 2015-2019. The panel included BRN members, two factions of PULO and two other rebel groups.

BRNs lead negotiator, Anas Abdulrahman, said his group did not object to PULO joining the talks, in accordance with the 2019 Berlin Initiative framework, which stipulates that interested parties can select two representatives to accompany the dialogue panel.

BRN will continue to become the main negotiator, Anas said on Wednesday. He added that representatives from other groups could voice their concerns during technical discussions and participate in panel discussions with the Thai government.

But if they want to participate, they have to respect the ethics and procedures of BRN, he said, without elaborating.

MARA Patani spokesman Abu Hafez said his group planned to participate when the peace talks take on substantive issues.

Right now, the discussion is still in the confidence-building phase, he told BenarNews on Friday. At this phase, BRN is the only entity that will engage with Thai officials.

A promising development

Including other groups in the talks would be a positive step, a Thai analyst said, while warning that an outfits military prowess alone should not determine its bargaining power.

This is a promising development, that the BRNs head of the dialogue panel reaffirmed the groups commitment to the principle of inclusivity, Rungrawee Chalermsripinyorat, a lecturer at Prince of Songkla Universitys Institute for Peace Studies, told BenarNews.

She said the overture indicated that the longstanding tension between BRN and other rebel groups were easing, which means they could potentially represent a more united voice of Deep South communities.

The peace process should not be a discussion between the Thai government and the BRN alone. The selection of separatist groups to the negotiation table should not be mainly based on their military capability, Rungrawee said Thursday.

In the long term, not only should the peace process incorporate other separatist groups at the formal negotiating table, but it should also enable various stakeholders to take part and have their voices heard, she said.

Rungrawee called on all Deep South residents to be engaged in the peace talks efforts.

While Malay Muslims are minorities in Thailand, they form a majority in the Deep South. The peace process needs to listen to minorities in the area, such as Buddhists and [ethnic] Chinese, she said. Eventually, it is also important for people in other parts of Thailand to better understand and support this peace process if it is to succeed.

On Thursday, Thai National Security Council chief Gen. Supoj Malaniyom said his agency was finalizing a plan for 2023 to 2027 that includes aiming to end the conflict. He said details would be made public following cabinet approval.
A Catholic priest blesses participants in the Taong Putik (mud people) festival honoring St. John the Baptist in the northern Philippine province of Nueva Ecija, June 24, 2022.

Continuing a unique tradition dating to World War II, residents in a northern Philippines town marked the annual Catholic feast of St. John the Baptist on Friday by covering themselves in mud and marching to the local church to receive a priests blessing.

The Taong Putik (mud people) festival is celebrated every June 24 in the farming community of Aliaga, in Nueva Ecija province, about 143 km (89 miles) north of Manila.

Devotees wake up before dawn, troop to nearby fields and cover themselves in mud, dried banana leaves, vines and twigs before marching to the local church.

Villagers say the ritual  they are not sure when it was first carried out  commemorates how

14 villagers escaped execution by Japanese soldiers in World War II by hiding in the fields during a torrential downpour that covered everything in mud.

Locals believe the villagers were saved by St. John the Baptist and that rolling in mud is a way to show devotion.

The Philippines is Asias only predominantly Catholic nation, with more than 80 percent of its 110 million people embracing the religion.

At daybreak, a woman prepares banana leaves smeared in mud to be worn during the festival, June 24, 2022. [Luis Liwanag/BenarNews]

Band members lead a procession in Aliaga town, June 24, 2022. [Luis Liwanag/BenarNews]

Two women wearing banana leaves participate in the annual festival, June 24, 2022. [Luis Liwanag/BenarNews]

Devotees of St. John the Baptist gather to celebrate the annual Catholic festival with a tradition practiced only in their town, Aliaga, June 24, 2022. [Luis Liwanag/BenarNews]
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PITTSFIELD  Hours after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, residents of Pittsfield, and a few visitors, offered mixed views of the decision.

Some expressed relief to live in a state where abortion will likely not be limited. I dont have anything very eloquent to say, other than that Im happy that I live in Massachusetts, said Emma Foley.

Others, like Robert Packard, applauded the ruling. A kid being created should be welcomed into the world, he said, in an interview beside St. Josephs Church downtown.

Following the high courts 6-3 ruling, 13 states with trigger laws in place will soon ban abortions, with seven other states likely to follow suit. By the end of the summer, 53 percent of women of childbearing age in the United States would face abortion limitations, according to population estimates.

Quote "I just can't fathom how so many people could just completely disregard and disrespect women's rights like that. And yeah, it makes me very, very angry." Hana Nielsen

The ruling, however, will not change access to abortion in Massachusetts, where the procedure remains legal up to 24 weeks of pregnancy. After that, an abortion may be performed if there is a fatal fetal anomaly or to preserve the mental and physical state of the mother, state law holds. Children under 16 must have parental or judicial consent to undergo the procedure.

Additionally, Gov. Charlie Baker, signed an executive order Friday prohibiting state workers from assisting other states investigations of someone receiving or providing services that are lawful in the Commonwealth.

This measure is aimed at protecting out-of-state persons seeking a safe and confidential abortion in Massachusetts.

Jennifer Gallant said she finds little solace in the states protection. I think its an awful decision. Its such a disgrace to our country and to women in general, she said.

Hana Nielsen, who was visiting Friday from Vermont, said she is having a hard time processing the shock of the ruling, which had been anticipated after the leak of a draft decision.

I woke up this morning to that headline on my phone and was just infuriated. Its disgusting. Its awful, she said. I just cant fathom how so many people could just completely disregard and disrespect womens rights like that. And yeah, it makes me very, very angry.

A few young men expressed their disbelief as well over the ruling, along with solidarity for the concept of womens reproductive choice.

When asked for his views, James Machado was incredulous. [Women] should have your choice to live your life. They dont give you guys enough respect, he said. Its crazy, the government is trying to make babies. It should be your choice. Absolutely ridiculous.

Anthony Gilliam said he feels the decision is anachronistic. He thinks that if a woman is not ready to have a baby and wants to have an abortion, she should be able to.

I dont know why theyre [banning abortions] now. They wanna make all these new rules come up, he said. I dont get it. Im totally against what theyre trying to do.

David Bertoldi expressed concern that todays Supreme Court decision may be signal coming attacks on civil rights. Im really angry about it. Im scared of whats next. What other rights are they going to take away? he asked.

Support for court

Several people interviewed Friday said they oppose abortion, usually citing their religious beliefs. I disagree with abortion rights, said Packard, who wore cross-shaped earrings when he paused to share his views near St. Josephs Church.

Koki Irfanull, who is visiting her son in Pittsfield but lives in Minnesota and Pakistan, echoed that sentiment. As a Muslim, I just feel that abortions are not right, she said.

Lori Carpenter said she has conflicting emotions about abortion.

She considers herself religious, but had an abortion as a minor. Now that she is closer to her faith, she regrets it. I talk to God all the time. God is my father, she said. Back then, I shouldnt have had the choice to have an abortion.

When asked if abortion should be a right, Carpenter hesitated before answering.

It depends on the situation, she said.

Her decision to have an abortion came at a difficult moment in her life, she said, at a time when she felt she was not taking proper care of herself.

It hurts a child if you dont eat and are under a lot of pressure, she said. Just because I was pregnant does not mean I was a mother.
This story was modified to correct the name of the entity that sold the school to the developer.

GREAT BARRINGTON  A weekend fire at the long vacant Searles School building Sunday has again highlighted the delay of plans to turn it into a hotel, and the vulnerability of the structure to vandals.

Quote Chrisoula Mahida bought the 65,000-square-foot building for $850,000 from RiverSchool Redevelopment in 2016 after the school district had vacated it in 2006. The building is now assessed by the town at $831,500.

Broken windows and graffiti continue to bedevil the owners of what was once the Searles Middle and High School on Bridge Street.

The pandemic created another setback for owner Chrisoula Mahida to renovate the historic cluster of buildings.

The project by her company, 79 Bridge Street LLC, for an 88-room boutique hotel, was slated to begin in the spring of 2020 and completed by early summer of 2021.

A new incarnation of plans scrapped the bar and restaurant, and reduced the size of a meeting room, all of it cutting the total cost of the estimated $17 million to $19 million project by several million dollars.

That pandemic upended that movement, though remediation of asbestos and lead had already been completed.

Mahida could not be reached for comment about the status of the project. Her husband, Vijay Mahida, a hotel developer whose company is also driving the project, declined to comment.

Authorities announced Wednesday that a teenager is facing charges related to Sundays fire, which was contained to a single room and quickly extinguished. The suspects name was not released because they are under 17.

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In 2019 another youth was spotted on surveillance camera vandalizing the building.

Select Board Chairman Stephen Bannon said while the delay is frustrating, there is nothing the town can do to help speed up the project since the property is privately owned.

It was a large project to begin with, and I know the pandemic has slowed everything, Bannon said.

Chrisoula Mahida bought the 65,000-square-foot building for $850,000 from RiverSchool Redevelopment in 2016  10 years after the school district vacated it. The building is now assessed by the town at $831,500.

The initial plans for a chain hotel there drew fire from a group of residents who thought the proposed hotel was too large, and wanted to see the building preserved historically. This resulted in a new concept of a smaller hotel with historic elements preserved. The towns bylaws limit hotels to no more than 45 rooms, with an exception for historic buildings.

Last year voters approved an agreement between the developers and the town that would incrementally shave off a percent of property taxes on the building over a period of 15 years. The discount would begin the second year after the hotel is up and running, and would remain in effect no matter who owns the building, according to a copy of the agreement obtained from Town Hall. The developers agreed to conditions that include hiring local workers and businesses when possible.

The agreement said the town wants to support a project that brings the building to code and puts it back on the tax rolls.

The building is named for Edward Francis Searles, the schools benefactor. Searles collaborated on the design with Boston-based architect Henry Vaughan, who designed the Washington National Cathedral.

In 1968, high school students began attending the new regional high school; in 2006, elementary and middle schoolers went to the new buildings next to it off Route 7.

The former Housatonic Elementary School has met with a similar fate after its students were moved out. The town still owns the historic building, and it is deteriorating fast as the town searches for a developer to take it on.
Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the interpretation of facts and data.

Commentary

Carole Owens: From the barrel of a gun or an autocrat's mouth, when will the damage be enough?
Donald Morrison is a regular at The Mounts Le Cafe Francais, where Berkshire locals and visitors can gather at 9:30 a.m. every summer Tuesday to chat bravely in French (www.edithwharton.org/event/le-cafe-francais/?instance_id+21029). Hes also an Eagle columnist and co-chairman of the advisory board. The opinions expressed by columnists do not necessarily reflect the views of The Berkshire Eagle.
Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, shown in 2018, has indicated that overturning Roe v. Wade could pave the way for tossing out other rights like birth control and same-sex marriage.
Rep. Mike Day, co-chair of the Judiciary Committee, called the Supreme Court a "rogue court" and alleged that its decision was "intellectually dishonest."
BOSTON  The Massachusetts House took a major step Thursday toward injecting billions of dollars into work on the states transportation and environmental infrastructure  including $250 million toward a possible east-west rail extension.

The House voted 155-0 in favor of a nearly $11 billion infrastructure bond bill after approving a mega-amendment that tacked on about $560 million in additional spending, mostly consisting of local earmarks, as well as new reporting requirements for the beleaguered MBTA amid a blistering federal investigation.

The bill includes hundreds of millions of dollars to fix glaring safety issues at the MBTA.

Transportation Committee Co-chair Rep. William Straus called the legislation this sessions signature transportation bond bill.

After an eleventh-hour gubernatorial veto doomed last sessions legislative push to require offering low-income fares across the MBTA, the House decided against making another pass at the issue. The bill now moves to the state Senate.

Before sending it to the floor for Thursdays debate, House leaders bulked up the bill with $250 million for early steps toward a Western Massachusetts rail extension and $400 million that the MBTA would use to correct harrowing safety problems identified in an ongoing federal investigation.

The bill allocates $250 million toward the long-sought east-west rail project, which the bill says shall include Pittsfield to Boston service via Springfield, Palmer and Worcester.

Leaders earlier this week called for more deliberation about the oversight structure, capital and operational funding of the project after Gov. Charlie Baker and members of the states congressional delegation said they had agreed to a path forward for the proposal.

But it stops short of fulfilling U.S. Rep. Richard Neals call for the Legislature to create a new public agency to oversee rail service in Western Massachusetts. Instead, it proposes creating a new commission to examine whether an existing entity could building and operate the rail expansion.

A Department of Transportation study in 2020 forecast that extending passenger rail from its current endpoint in Worcester to Palmer, Springfield, Chester and Pittsfield would cost between $2.4 billion and $4.6 billion while attracting hundreds of thousands of riders per year.

The infrastructure bond bill now heads to the Senate, where top Democrats have not signaled if they support setting aside a pool of money for the MBTAs safety response.

A spokesperson for Senate President Karen Spilka did not directly answer a question about whether she supports the additional MBTA dollars, saying only that the Senate president looks forward to reviewing the bond bill in its entirety.

The spokesperson also pointed to a joint statement from Spilka and House Speaker Ronald Mariano from Tuesday in which the duo announced they would seek an MBTA oversight hearing but stopped short of taking a position on funding to respond to FTA findings. Their statement did make clear that both leaders expect to increase the amount of available funding for east-west rail.

Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, one of the chambers three Republicans, said he believes the T does need funding.

The T has needed additional infusions of resources for quite some time, and the Baker-Polito administration has been making some of those infusions together with the Legislature, Tarr said Thursday. It seems to me that we have some serious safety issues that need to be addressed at the T. Part of the consideration here needs to be: how will the additional resources be used to improve safety as opposed to just expanding the system?

Thats particularly my concern with the western expansion, Tarr added. I think there is good reason to proceed with that, cautiously, but first and foremost we need to think about how we improve the safety of the MBTA. We need to think about resources that need to go to that, but we also need to think about the continuing levels of subsidy for the operation. Years ago, we had agreed to forward funding in trying to make the T self-sufficient. Given whats happened with the pandemic, that simply is not possible, and were still in a period of recovery, in my opinion, but we need to think about how those dollars are used.

The infrastructure bill would steer about $2.8 billion toward the federal highway system in Massachusetts and another $1.35 billion to non-federally aided roads and bridges here.

It also calls for more than $1.3 billion to support MBTA capital improvements such as electrifying commuter rail trains and replacing the Green Line fleet, $200 million to promote or support electric vehicle rollout, nearly $65 million for regional transit networks and authorities, and several other spending provisions.

Baker kicked off debate by filing a $9.7 billion bond bill in March that he and his deputies said would maximize the impact of federal dollars flowing to Massachusetts under a new infrastructure law and also position the Bay State to compete for additional grant funding.

The bipartisan infrastructure law made billions of dollars available to states in competitive grants, but to get in the running, the Legislature needs to approve all of the spending upfront before the federal government reimburses.

About $3.5 billion of the original pot Baker proposed would put state dollars on the table toward grants.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday overturned Roe v. Wade, ruling that the constitution does not confer the right to an abortion and leaving decisions about regulating abortion up to the states.

The court's ruling had been expected since a draft opinion leaked in early May, and reaction from Massachusetts, where abortion remains legal under state law, was swift.

Gov. Charlie Baker, within moments of the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson, signed an executive order that bars Massachusetts from cooperating with extradition attempts from other states that may pursue criminal charges in connection with receiving or performing reproductive health services that are legal here.

Baker's order also protects Massachusetts reproductive health care providers from losing their licenses or receiving other professional discipline because of out-of-state charges, and prohibits agencies under the state's executive department from assisting another state's investigation into a person or entity for receiving or delivering reproductive health services in Massachusetts, the governor's office said.

"I am deeply disappointed in today's decision by the Supreme Court which will have major consequences for women across the country who live in states with limited access to reproductive health care services," Baker said in a statement. "The Commonwealth has long been a leader in protecting a woman's right to choose and access to reproductive health services, while other states have criminalized or otherwise restricted access. This executive order will further preserve that right and protect reproductive health care providers who serve out of state residents."

The roughly $50 billion state budget that a six-person team of lawmakers is currently negotiating also features a suite of protections for providers of reproductive and gender-affirming health care and their patients, which the Senate added into its version of the spending plan after last month's court leak. The budget bills also have funding aimed at "improving reproductive health care access, infrastructure and security," including grants to three abortion funds.

Senate President Karen Spilka, who called the court's action "a 'nightmare scenario' for women and those who can get pregnant across this nation," said Baker's order aligns closely with the Senate's budget language.

"There is increased urgency to codify these provisions so that we can ensure the safety and continued protections of our residents," she said in a statement.

The two-year legislative session is winding down, with July 31 as the last day of formal lawmaking business. Any further response from the Legislature would need to materialize quickly, and House Speaker Ron Mariano earlier this month raised the prospect that lawmakers could compile "one big package" once the court's decision landed.

The Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association said it is not yet clear what the effect of Friday's ruling will be on "care demand in states like Massachusetts, nor on the liability of local healthcare providers who perform abortions."

"We echo the serious concerns of our colleagues across the country about what this will mean for the safety and wellbeing of patients in states that are stripping these fundamental rights away. This much we do know: no law can prevent someone from terminating a pregnancy. It can only prevent them from doing so safely with the consult of experienced, compassionate clinicians," the association said in a statement.

Attorney General Maura Healey, who is also a candidate for governor, said the decision marks the first time the high court "has taken away a constitutional right" and pledged that Massachusetts will "do everything we can to ensure patients from across the country can receive needed care and to support and protect our providers who are offering that care."

Healey called on Congress to "keep abortion safe and legal" by codifying Roe, and Sen. Eric Lesser said Massachusetts should adopt an amendment "to enshrine reproductive freedom in our state constitution" as a safeguard against potential efforts to institute a federal abortion ban.

The Massachusetts Family institute, which opposes abortion, knocked lawmakers for "working to make Boston a hub for abortions."

MFI president and general counsel Andrew Beckwith said the institute looks forward "to a reenergized fight to restore a culture of life to the Commonwealth."

"A child conceived in Massachusetts should have the same right to be born as a child conceived in Mississippi," Beckwith said in a statement. "Tragically, the whole apparatus of state government in Massachusetts is aligned against the unborn and aligned with Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry."

The Beyond Roe Coalition, which includes Reproductive Equity Now, the ACLU of Massachusetts, and Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts, plans to hold a 1:30 p.m. press conference outside the State House "to discuss the decision, what it means for Massachusetts, and necessary next steps to defend abortion access in a post-Roe world."
MOSCOW - Latah County has launched a Broadband Coalition to help address internet infrastructure and availability throughout the County.

"The goal of the Latah County Broadband Coalition is to engage stakeholders across the County to communicate broadband needs and offer support in developing projects to address those needs. The coalitions aim is to find local, state, and federal funding to build future-proof broadband infrastructure throughout Latah County," says a press release.

Members of the Latah County Broadband Coalition include the following.

City of Potlatch

City of Bovill

City of Genesee

City of Kendrick

City of Juliaetta

City of Deary

City of Troy

City of Moscow

Latah County Library District

Moscow School District

Kendrick Joint School District

Genesee Joint School District

Potlatch School District

Troy School District

University of Idaho

Gritman Medical Center

Senator David Nelson

Latah County

Along with sharing and gathering information about broadband needs, Coalition members will benefit from the results of a Broadband Utility Assessment report, says the release. This report will map existing and proposed telecommunications and utility assets within Latah County and provide cost estimates for fiber construction, networking equipment, and data center upgrades. Using this report, the Coalition plans to outline a roadmap for broadband infrastructure builds that will enable new minimum speeds of 100/20 and 100/100 Mbps for households and 1/1 Gbps for schools and other anchor institutions.

Establishing this coalition is the first step we needed to build better broadband in the County, said Latah County Commissioner Tom Lamar. The importance of broadband access for education, health, commerce, and community is unmatched. We need to ensure that every citizen has access to reliable and affordable broadband because its not only a key component to modern life but also to future development.

In the coming months, the Coalition will be launching a speed test campaign to gather data on broadband availability in the County as well as to strengthen grant applications.

Latah County has partnered with the Port of Lewiston and Imagine Idaho Foundation to make these efforts possible, and the Coalition has and will continue to engage with all broadband providers interested in partnering to realize the goal of future-proof broadband infrastructure in Latah County.

We are enthusiastic in our support of Latah County as it begins the process of bringing affordable and reliable internet to its residents, said Imagine Idaho Foundation Director Christina Culver. This coalition of community leaders will be instrumental to completing the Countys goals.




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
The Attacq Foundation recently held its bursary session for students studying property-related and engineering courses at its partner institutions. The students' studies are facilitated and managed collectively by the SAPOA bursary fund, South African Institute of Black Property Practitioners (SAIBPP), The Atterbury Trust, Women's Property Network Bursary Fund (WPN), and the University of Pretoria.

Attacq social executive Janine Palm

Two events, themed 'Recruitment and support during Youth Month' were held in Johannesburg and Cape Town respectively and brought together the bursary students studying in these cities to network and engage with each other, and with leaders in the property industry who shared inspiring words as well as insights from their years in the sector.Attacq social executive Janine Palm says, It is so fitting that we are hosting our bursary sessions during Youth Month. Higher education in South Africa is sadly inaccessible for many young people and I am proud of the work of the Attacq Foundation which, along with our partners, is empowering the next generation of property professionals.Founded in 2015, the Attacq Foundation is a corporate social investment initiative focused on sustainable education and training, powered by Attacq Limited. It supports disadvantaged students pursuing real estate and construction-related courses by providing financial support through various programmes.Building our nation is about uplifting and giving back to the community in ways that create a sustainable difference. The link between education and empowerment cannot be overstated. I am excited to watch the journey of the bursary recipients we support as they grow into confident and competent industry players, concludes Palm.
The 164-member World Trade Organization (WTO) held its first ministerial conference in nearly five years, following Covid-19 postponements.

Source: Supplied. World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (centre) at the recent WTO Ministerial meeting - at the MC12 Closing Press Conference, 17 June 2022.

WTO reform

Pandemic response

E-commerce

Ministers from the WTO's 164 members formally adopted decisions at the conclusion of their 12th Ministerial Conference #MC12. All documents can be found here: https://t.co/4mu3PTkmvH pic.twitter.com/fzT5wzqkSI  WTO (@wto) June 17, 2022

Agriculture and food security

Fisheries subsidies

WTO Ministerial Conference: looking ahead

Negotiators at the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC12) prevailed despite geopolitical tensions.Tackling trade rules and disputes  the WTOs remit - can often be tense, but this year with numerous countries refusing to negotiate with Russia and bouts of grandstanding that at times seemed to outweigh good-faith discussions, agreement seemed especially elusive.But after many hours the WTOs 164 members settled on a set of decisions and declarations. The WTO ministerial meeting demonstrated the willingness of countries to keep talking and working together multilaterally, believing in the value of trade for sustainable growth, development and resilience in the face of crisis. Agreement was found on WTO reform, vaccine production and fishing subsidies, among others.Members reaffirmed the foundational principles of the WTO and committed to an open and inclusive process to reform all its functions, from deliberation to negotiation to monitoring. Notably, they committed to work towards having a well-functioning dispute-settlement system accessible to all members by 2024.The appellate body has been dormant since 2020 as the United States refused to green-light the appointment of new judges.The organisation has struggled to deliver on its mandate for multiple reasons, including members failing to live up to notification requirements, impeding debate on new issues and objecting to the functioning of its dispute-settlement mechanism.The WTO Ministerial Conference decided that eligible countries could override Covid-19 vaccine patents until 2027. The decision on whether to extend this to Covid-19 therapeutics and diagnostics was delayed for six months. The footnote defining eligible was missing at the time of the information going to press, but its understood this is agreed to include most developing countries except China.Although the intellectual-property issue was a focus for campaigners, the glut in supply of vaccines means that some of the softer declarations on future pandemics were at least as interesting. These included a recognition of the role of diversification of production and ensuring that emergency-trade restrictions are proportionate, transparent and temporary.Members reiterated the importance of trade facilitation and the operation of cross-border services such as logistics, health services and IT in combating future pandemics.Noting the severe effect of border restrictions on tourism, countries encouraged dialogue to mitigate this.A feeling that commercial considerations outweighed human health would be severely damaging to global trade. Countries need to ensure trade helps, and is seen to help health outcomes.Digital businesses were very worried that the conference might mean the end of a moratorium on tariffs on electronic transmissions, raising the prospect of higher costs for traded digital products and services.As it seemed likely that this might lapse, side discussions turned to possible retaliation by some countries on those who might impose such tariffs.In the end, the moratorium was renewed until at latest 31 March 2024. In addition, the General Council must hold periodic reviews, based on WTO reports on the scope, definition, and impact of the moratorium.This agreement maintains relative freedom for digital trade yet takes developing countries needs into account in response to concerns that a lack of information and clarity affects these countries ability to commit to a permanent moratorium.In the midst of a global food crisis, with wheat prices 60% higher in June 2022 than they were in January 2021, there was pressure for the WTO to deliver a meaningful outcome on trade and food security.Members promised to ensure that any emergency food-security measures would be minimally trade distortive, temporary, targeted and transparent and notified to the WTO. They also agreed not to prohibit or restrict food exports purchased by the World Food Programme for humanitarian purposes.This does not override existing exceptions in the WTO agreements for measures taken on domestic food-security grounds. Beyond these outcomes, members were unable to agree on a work programme for future negotiations in agriculture due to longstanding differences.These actions can help tackle food-security risks stemming from the war in Ukraine and poor harvests.Global fisheries subsidies were estimated at $35.4bn in 2018, of which $22.2bn were capacity-enhancing subsidies. The WTO was tasked by the UN General Assembly to deliver an agreement to prohibit harmful fisheries subsidies. Following a 21-year long negotiation, agreement was reached at WTO Ministerial Conference 2022 to end subsidies to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and to the fishing of overfished stocks.Developing country members will enjoy a two-year exemption for subsidies granted within their exclusive economic zones (up to 200 nautical miles from their coasts). No member will be allowed to provide subsidies to fishing in the high seas, other than where regulated by a fisheries management organisation. The agreement contains notification requirements and sets up a voluntary funding mechanism to assist developing countries.While the current agreement limits, rather than eliminates, subsidies, the measure represents a step towards crafting trade rules and practice that can better protect the planet.In many ways, negotiators exceeded expectations, finding agreement amid a time of conflict and geopolitical tension and following a fractious period of trade relations.In a letter to members, Okonjo-Iweala noted that The nature of compromise is that no one gets all of what they want.Drawing confidence from success, trade negotiators still face a mountain of topics to tackle. Climate action, environmental pollution, investment, new technology, services, subsidies, competition  all these and more await dialogue on how to build greater international trade co-operation.While WTO Ministerial Conference 2022 focused on multilateral outcomes needing consensus among 164 members, plurilateral discussions involving smaller groups will be important to make progress on many of these issues.The WTO has shown it can contribute  the onus is now on governments to ratify what they have agreed, deliver reforms on the ground, and come back to build new collaboration.
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The weapon mentioned in the story is a type of non-lethal weapon called a, traumatic pistol. Available in a variety of calibers and ammunition types, the purpose of these weapons is self-defense by civilians. They typically fire a rubber ball.

Via: Daily Star:

The Russian colonel who used to carry the nuclear briefcase of Russian president Vladimir Putin has been shot at his home near Moscow.

Vadim Zimin, the retired 53-year-old colonel, was shot at his home and is now gravely ill in intensive care, reports say.

Colonel Zimin had been in charge of the nuclear briefcase during his time as an active member of the Federal Security Service, accompanying the Kremlin leader and carrying his nuclear warhead controls.



The 53-year-old colonel was under house arrest over allegations of bribe-taking after joining the customs service in a senior role, with Zimin denying any wrongdoing.



Colonel Zimin was discovered at the apartment by his brother, who was reportedly in the bathroom at the time of the shooting, seeing the 53-year-old in a pool of blood with a wound to the head.

He says that the elusive colonel, who was rarely photographed, was found injured with an Izh 79-9TM pistol lying nearby.
The Brandon Urban Aboriginal Peoples Council brought together stakeholders and advocates to brainstorm solutions for the citys housing crisis Thursday, while also providing support to Brandons unhoused community.

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The Brandon Urban Aboriginal Peoples Council brought together stakeholders and advocates to brainstorm solutions for the citys housing crisis Thursday, while also providing support to Brandons unhoused community.

The council met Thursday to start dialogue on the issue.

Michele LeTourneau, co-ordinator for the Brandon Urban Aboriginal Peoples Council (BUAPC), said the aim is to move forward with action items to find missing pieces of support for the vulnerable unhoused community.

"There is not a fully developed approach for dealing with vulnerable people who are unhoused [in Brandon]," LeTourneau said. "Here in Brandon, we seem to have community interest, passion  we have the community interested, we just dont have the money."

Organizations present for the discussion included Brandon Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation (BNRC), Youth for Christ, the John Howard Society of Brandon (JHS), Indigenous and Northern Housing Solutions, Community Mobilization Westman, Brandon East MLA Len Isleifson, the Assembly of First Nations and Manitoba Housing.

Ensuring affordable and accessible housing is a complex issue to unpack, LeTourneau said.

"Its really, really, really important to remember the cultural aspect of what we are talking about because  80 per cent of what were talking about here are Indigenous people," she said. "BUAPC is about urban Indigenous people, were talking about people who moved from land. I really think its important in all this to remember who we are talking about."

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of unhoused people in Brandon more than doubled, said Megan McKenzie of BNRC. From Jan. 1, 2021, to the present day, 325 unique individuals have stayed at the Safe and Warm Shelter compared to the 168 individuals in 2019.

"The scary part about that though, is that according to our point in time count and also according to something called the vulnerability index  only a third of people are saying that they are staying in a shelter who are experiencing homelessness," McKenzie said. "That means our numbers are actually a lot higher."

Between 83 to 87 per cent of clients self-identify as Indigenous, she said, with about 60 per cent of people indicating they have mental health concerns and 33 per cent having learning or cognitive disability.

CHELSEA KEMP/THE BRANDON SUN Brandon Urban Aboriginal Peoples' Council chair Jeanine Pelletier calls the meeting to order Thursday inside Brandon City Council chambers.

About 70 per cent have reported substance use concerns.

The gap widened when YWCA Meredith Place closed, taking with it 21 rooms and two family suites.

Precarious housing is available, but many renters face living spaces that are not up to health or building codes, said Shannon Saltarelli, community housing and wellness co-ordinator at the City of Brandon.

"It is very disheartening to see the conditions that many people in our community are living in without complaint for fear of eviction," Saltarelli said. "We need to talk about affordable and appropriate housing."

The shuttering of Meredith Place has heavily impacted the community in terms of recidivism, said Ross Robinson, JHS executive director. He said housing is an important part of community safety and part of the mission statement of the JHS.

The loss of the facilitys Corrections Canada day parole means people can longer come to Brandon because they have no place to go.

"With individuals being released, we have to ensure that everything is put in place to ensure they dont mistakes and go further back into prison," Robinson said. "Not having housing is one of those critical pieces."

The JHS expressed interest in collaborating with local advocates and stakeholders to address the loss of Meredith Place while supporting the entire community.

Plans are in place to address recidivism challenges, Robinson said, but the society is awaiting federal funding to move forward.

The major challenge remains access to resources to support housing initiatives, said Community Mobilization Westman co-ordinator Janis Irvine. She added there can be difficulties and a culture disconnect when those accessing affordable housing support are expected to live in isolation but they want to bring friends and family into their homes.

A date for future discussions will be set at a later date.

 ckemp@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @The_ChelseaKemp
The Brandon Police Service will receive more than $200,000 from the provinces Criminal Property Forfeiture Program to help the service adapt to changes in police work.

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The Brandon Police Service will receive more than $200,000 from the provinces Criminal Property Forfeiture Program to help the service adapt to changes in police work.

The Manitoba government is giving the municipal police service approximately $211,000 through the fund, meant to help BPS keep abreast of changes in society and crime, Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen announced at Brandon police headquarters Thursday afternoon.

The funding is intended to address some of the added roles police officers sometimes fill in for, he said.

"Youre not just doing traditional police service work. Sometimes you feel like youre doing social services and youre doing counselling and youre doing a lot of other things and that can add a lot of stress to the job and some of that we can help with," Goertzen said.

"We cant change all of those things  but where we can help, we do want to assist."

The cash injection includes $56,000 for BPS to implement a polygraph operator program, said police Chief Wayne Balcaen. A current police service employee will be trained to use a polygraph and BPS will buy the equipment.

The move will mean the local police service wont have to rely on the RCMP or Winnipeg Police Service for polygraph tests, Balcaen said. Polygraphs are used in both criminal investigations and in background checks when hiring new officers.

The funding also includes $18,000 for a decontamination unit for the police services holding cells, something Balcaen said has become more needed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A total of $16,000 will also go toward a currency reading and tracing system, which the police service can use to track cash when it is seized during an investigation. Balcaen said it will help the police service determine if the cash has been involved in the drug trade.

"Its efficient use of services and will allow us to do our work here locally and allow for further capacity," he said.

Funding through the program also includes $13,000 for e-bikes for officers patrolling downtown, $9,000 for first-aid upgrades, $16,000 for investigations equipment, $9,000 for driver training and $13,000 for new audio-visual equipment.

Brandon police are also getting funding to expand the services use of drones, Balcaen said.

"Were taking proceeds from the criminals and putting them back into the hands of the police service  We certainly hope those funds will help us with community safety, well-being and of course, supporting the victims of crime," he said.

The police service is trying to upgrade and keep up with technology to prevent crime.

"Theres change in technology, theres change in types of crime, theres certainly not a lack of crime for us to investigate," he said, adding the funding for new equipment eases the burden on police.

Mayor Rick Chrest said he was grateful for the provinces support.

The Rural Municipality of Cornwallis police service is also receiving $7,000 for in-car computer technology.

Both Brandon West MLA Reg Helwer and Brandon East MLA Len Isleifson were on hand for the announcement.

So far, the Brandon Police Service has received approximately $1.45 million from the criminal property forfeiture fund since its inception and approximately $211,000 so far this year.

In 2021, the Brandon Police Service also received money from the fund for emergency trauma kits and $400,000 from the fund for an armoured rescue in 2019.

 dmay@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @DrewMay_
A new program aims to improve access to animal care for remote and Indigenous communities across Manitoba.

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SUBMITTED A new program aims to improve access to animal care in remote and Indigenous communities across Manitoba.

A new program aims to improve access to animal care for remote and Indigenous communities across Manitoba.

The provincial government is contributing $750,000 to the $1.5-million One Health program. The five-year veterinarian outreach initiative was announced by Indigenous Reconciliation and Northern Relations Minister Alan Lagimodiere Monday.

"This funding recognizes additional support is needed to address barriers faced by communities in accessing veterinary care and other animal health interventions," Lagimodiere said.

He said he hopes the investment, which is being matched by an equal contribution from the Winnipeg Humane Society, will ensure that Manitoba remains a leader across Canada when it comes to animal health.

Emma Case, client care receptionist at the Carberry Small Animal Veterinary Clinic, said Manitoba actually comes in behind other provinces in regards to its spay and neuter regulations.

"Manitoba has a very large overpopulation of both dogs and cats that are trying to find homes, due to overbreeding, especially when it comes to feral animals," she said.

Since feral dogs and cats arent owned by anyone, they arent getting spayed or neutered, causing their numbers to increase. A big part of the problem is expense. Case said the clinic sees a lot of people who cant afford proper veterinary care for their pets, because they didnt understand how much pet ownership costs going into it, or because they find themselves in changing circumstances.

In addition to spaying and neutering, Case hopes the initiative will see an uptick in the number of animals that are getting vaccinated, especially for rabies.

An important part of the One Health Program will be collaborative work with Manitoba First Nations to ensure the programming is both sustainable and culturally sensitive.

Tracy Munn, the shelter manager and director at the Brandon Humane Society, said she hopes the program will go a long way to dispel the idea that people in the targeted communities arent good pet owners.

"There should not be that stigma," Munn said. "There are good and bad pet owners there, just like there are good and bad pet owners in the city."

She noted that people in rural and Indigenous communities are often faced with issues of affordability and access to proper veterinary care.

The Brandon Humane Society works with up to 14 Indigenous communities, taking animals into their care and providing a feeding program to them as well. While she is optimistic about the new program, she also acknowledged that part of the problem facing pets in Manitoba communities is the shortage of veterinary professionals.

"Its all well and good to say youre going to put money into helping those animals, but where are you going to find the vets? The government needs to invest in getting more Manitobans into veterinary school. We desperately need more vets."

Keri Hudson Reykdal is the president of the Manitoba Veterinary Medical Association, and runs a vet practice in Thompson. She agreed that a shortage of veterinary professionals is one of the biggest issues facing pet owners in remote and Indigenous communities.

Reykdal ran a mobile trailer servicing remote communities out of Ashern  around 280 kilometres northeast of Brandon  for five years before she opened her practice. She said she thinks the One Health Program, and the funding provided for it, will create a more organized and efficient system to address animal health.

"Animal welfare is the biggest concern for veterinarians. We know that if we cant get to these communities to provide vet services, animal welfare will suffer," she said, saying that overpopulation and disease prevention will be top priorities for the program.

Diseases that dogs carry, such as rabies, tapeworm and roundworm, can be passed on to the human population, so proper education goes beyond simply looking after animals.

An integral part of One Health will be providing veterinary care and education in a culturally sensitive, respectful way. Its not enough for vets to simply come to the communities from time to time to provide care. Ideally, Reykdal hopes to see a collaboration between professionals and animal owners that will go a long way to addressing issues facing animal welfare.

Dale Turcotte, a pet owner who lives on Rolling River First Nation, said issues of access and affordability are a real problem for many in his community. A lot of people arent able to have their animals spayed or neutered and vaccinated due to the distance to the nearest veterinary clinic, located in Neepawa. Turcotte just got a new puppy, and finding time to take it to get its shots is proving difficult.

"We need to go to Neepawa to get him registered and vaccinated, but I work full-time, my wife is going to school, and we cant really find time to go all the way there. If it was right in Erikson, or right in Rolling River, that would be amazing."

Public safety can also become a concern, with packs of wild dogs roaming the community from time to time, getting into fights and attacking and sometimes killing other dogs and smaller animals. Turcotte said this is in large part due to limited access to spay and neuter services, which leads to litters of puppies being born without anyone to look after them.

The accidents and injuries that come with having such a large homeless dog population, and the distance to the veterinary clinic, put pet owners in a tough spot. Turcotte hopes the One Health Program will change this.

"If a dog gets run over or hurt, the first option is often to shoot him, and thats not as humane as we would like, but loading that dog up and taking him all the way to Neepawa and hurting him more on the drive is what people are trying to avoid."

The One Health Program is being developed in collaboration with Manitobas Office of the Chief Veterinarian, the Winnipeg Humane Society, the Manitoba Veterinary Medical Association and other partners. The program will be administered by the Winnipeg Humane Society.

 mleybourne@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @miraleybourne
The chair of Brandon Pride is searching for answers after a local school watered down a planned pride event to remove reference to its LGBTQ+ community.

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The chair of Brandon Pride is searching for answers after a local school watered down a planned pride event to remove reference to its LGBTQ+ community.

A photo sent to the Sun by a parent at Maryland Park School, who the Sun is not naming for privacy concerns, shows a poster that had advertised a "pride day" to "support the LGBTQ community by wearing rainbow colours" edited to say that it was a "rainbow day" to "support the school community by wearing rainbow colours."

FILE The chair of Brandon Pride, Kenneth Jackson, is searching for answers after a local school watered down a planned pride event to remove reference to its LGBTQ+ community.

The anonymous parent said they believe the incident represents "a tug-of-war between people who support the LGBTQ community and people who arent in support of that community."

"Unfortunately, it feels like those who arent supportive of that community won this round," the parent said.

The Sun first contacted the Brandon School Division on Wednesday for comment on the issue but was told that neither principal Barbara Miller nor Supt. Mathew Gustafson were available that day, but that Gustafson could be made available for a phone call on Thursday.

Following up on Thursday, the Sun repeated its request for an interview but was instead sent a written statement from Miller.

The statement referred to the event as a "rainbow day" intended to support diversity.

"As part of the day, students have the opportunity to participate in a Pride Walk or create Sunshine Notes for us to share with our friends at Victoria Landing," Miller wrote. "Given the complexity of topics associated with a Pride Walk, the curricular connection to potentially sensitive content within the Health Curriculum, and to respect and support the many perspectives that people have, parents have been given the option to choose which learning activity is most appropriate for their child for that portion of the afternoon. As with all school related activities, we want parents to be active partners in the education process.

"Given the time of year and the business of school wrap up, our communication to families could have been more timely and provided more clarity as to the intent of the day as it was to be inclusive and celebrate the diversity that makes up the unique and beautiful fabric of our school community. It is important to take time to celebrate and continue to build a strong sense of community."

The Sun had asked if the change was motivated by a parental complaint, but that question was not answered.

Brandon Pride chair Kenneth Jackson, who had heard about the issue through a contact on his on social media, said the change concerns him.

"In my address on Saturday, I said we have pride [events] because there are still so many things that still need improving or doing," Jackson said referring to his speech before last weeks Brandon Pride march.

"Unfortunately, I think this is an example of that where it seems a school has a made a decision that, for whatever reason, is taking off of the emphasis that was originally planned and was probably going to be an excellent event. I would still like to know more about why this decision was made."

In Florida, where the state recently passed a bill nicknamed "Dont Say Gay" that banned discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity from being taught to students in elementary school, part of the justification was that children were learning inappropriate subject matter.

Jackson said he doesnt believe that holding pride events inherently exposes people to sexual or explicit content.

"There is stuff that is sensitive and for the most part, I think our educators know that," he said. "I dont think our educators are going to teach something thats inappropriate. Early years students, grades 1 and 2, are taught about the difference between families so that they dont have to be shocked when they see two men or two women together as a family.

"If they were teaching way outside the curriculum, that might be something for discussion, but I really think this [excuse] is used to not have the discussion at all."

The school divisions own human diversity policy states "Supporting LGBTTQ students are educational issues; they are not about religious beliefs, moral views or sexual practice. The real issue for any school to address is the creation of an educational environment that is free from prejudice, discrimination, homophobia and heterosexism."

The parent who spoke about the issue to the Sun said its their experience that most children at the school are still referring to Friday as Pride Day, despite the name change.

Going forward, the parent said they hope the school division will put a greater emphasis on training staff about practices that are harmful to the LGBTQ+ community.

 cslark@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @ColinSlark
Federal ridings in Westman could see notable changes should the proposed electoral map be approved.

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Federal ridings in Westman could see notable changes should the proposed electoral map be approved.

This year a series of commissions have been established to reassess the boundaries for electoral ridings in every province. These changes will take into account data from the most recent census.

REDISTRIBUTION COMMISSION The new proposed federal electoral boundaries for Manitoba would see Virden and Carberry move from BrandonSouris to DauphinSwan RiverNeepawa.

While some provinces are gaining seats in the House of Commons, Manitoba will remain at 14.

Looking at the new boundaries for BrandonSouris and DauphinSwan RiverNeepawa, perhaps the biggest change is that Virden and Carberry would both be moved from the former into the latter constituency.

While the northern boundary for BrandonSouris has moved south, both that riding and DauphinSwan RiverNeepawa would extend further east into territory formerly part of PortageLisgar.

The southeastern edge of Brandon-Souris would be almost directly to the south of Portage la Prairie, with Morden and Winkler much closer to the edge of the adjacent riding.

Up north, DauphinSwan RiverNeepawa would surrender a significant amount of land to the vast northern riding of ChurchillKeewatinook Aski.

ELECTIONS CANADA The current federal electoral district map for Westman.

Both ridings previously shared Lake Winnipegosis but if the proposed changes are passed, almost the entirety of the lake would belong to ChurchillKeewatinook Aski except for one area on its southern shore.

The new northernmost extent for DauphinSwan RiverNeepawa would be slightly to the north of the community of Swan River, whose mayor requested in a letter to the redistribution commission that it remain in the same riding.

Members of Parliament for both ridings were busy in the House of Commons on Thursday, but sent comments to the Sun via email on the planned redistribution.

BrandonSouris Conservative MP Larry Maguire thanked the commission for its work, but said he would be writing them a letter and attending the public hearing planned for Brandon later this year to argue for Virden to remain in his riding.

"For over 100 years, Virden and the City of Brandon have belonged to the same federal constituency," Maguire wrote. "The economic ties and communities of interest are abundant. Moreover, taking Virden out of the constituency would be separating Virden from the towns of Reston, Pipestone, and Oak Lake."

He also objects to the RM of Elton being split between the two ridings, which he said the commission did because the Municipality of North Cypress-Langford was divided to put all of CFB Shilo into BrandonSouris.

However, Maguire argues that "almost every single resident living on CFB Shilo was already located in Brandon-Souris."

His colleague, DauphinSwan RiverNeepawa Conservative MP Dan Mazier, agreed with Maguire on Virden staying in BrandonSouris. Mazier has some other concerns for his ridings potential changes, as well.

"Overall, I believe the Commission presented a sensible boundary that represents my constituency and the people within it.

"I was particularly pleased to see the town of Swan River remain in the riding, however, I have heard multiple concerns from constituents regarding the RM of Minitonas-Bowsman being moved into the same constituency as Churchill. I share these representation concerns.

"I was also disappointed to see the Commission split RMs after many submissions stated the importance of respecting municipal boundaries within federal constituencies."

Manitobans with feedback on the proposed boundaries can register to speak at one of five public hearings being held this September.

The only hearing taking place in Westman will be at the Victoria Inn in Brandon at 7 p.m. on Sept. 8.

However, there will also be two virtual hearings, one on Sept. 20 at 7 p.m. and another on Sept. 22 at 7 p.m.

Residents can register to speak at these hearings by sending a letter to the commissions office, emailing them at MB@redecoupage-federal-redistribution.ca or filling out a form on the commissions website.

Manitobas current electoral map can be found online at bit.ly/3yhyh56 and its proposed electoral map can be found at bit.ly/3Nlg4rI/.

 cslark@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @ColinSlark
WASHINGTON (AP)  The Supreme Court on Friday stripped away womens constitutional protections for abortion, a fundamental and deeply personal change for Americans' lives after nearly a half-century under Roe v. Wade. The courts overturning of the landmark court ruling is likely to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

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The Supreme Court, Friday, June 24, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

WASHINGTON (AP)  The Supreme Court on Friday stripped away womens constitutional protections for abortion, a fundamental and deeply personal change for Americans' lives after nearly a half-century under Roe v. Wade. The courts overturning of the landmark court ruling is likely to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

The ruling, unthinkable just a few years ago, was the culmination of decades of efforts by abortion opponents, made possible by an emboldened right side of the court fortified by three appointees of former President Donald Trump.

Both sides predicted the fight over abortion would continue, in state capitals, in Washington and at the ballot box. Justice Clarence Thomas, part of Friday's majority, urged colleagues to overturn other high court rulings protecting same-sex marriage, gay sex and the use of contraceptives.

Pregnant women considering abortions already had been dealing with a near-complete ban in Oklahoma and a prohibition after roughly six weeks in Texas. Clinics in at least eight other states  Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, South Dakota, Wisconsin and West Virginia  stopped performing abortions after Friday's decision.

In Ohio, a ban on most abortions at the first detectable fetal heartbeat became the law when a federal judge dissolved an injunction that had kept the measure on hold for nearly three years. And Utah's law was triggered by the ruling, going into effect with narrow exceptions.

The Supreme Court, Friday, June 24, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Abortion foes cheered the ruling, but abortion-rights supporters, including President Joe Biden, expressed dismay and pledged to fight to restore the rights.

Protests built into the evening in a number of cities, including thousands demonstrating against the decision outside the barricaded Supreme Court. Thousands more chanted We will rise up! in New York's Washington Square.

At the White House, Biden said, It's a sad day for the court and for the country. He urged voters to make it a defining issue in the November elections, declaring, This decision must not be the final word.

Demonstrators protest about abortion outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Outside the White House, Ansley Cole, a college student from Atlanta, said she was "scared because what are they going to come after next? ... The next election cycle is going to be brutal, like its terrifying. And if theyre going to do this, again, whats next?

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, agreed about the political stakes.

We are ready to go on offense for life in every single one of those legislative bodies, in each statehouse and the White House, Dannenfelser said in a statement.

FILE - Associate Justice Samuel Alito sits during a group photo at the Supreme Court in Washington, April 23, 2021. The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years  a decision by its conservative majority to overturn the court's landmark abortion cases. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP, Pool, File)

Trump praised the ruling, telling Fox News that it will work out for everybody.

The decision is expected to disproportionately affect minority women who already face limited access to health care, according to statistics analyzed by The Associated Press.

It also puts the court at odds with a majority of Americans who favored preserving Roe, according to opinion polls.

People protest about abortion, Friday, June 24, 2022, outside the Supreme Court in Washington. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Surveys conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and others have shown a majority in favor of abortion being legal in all or most circumstances. But many also support restrictions especially later in pregnancy. Surveys consistently show that about 1 in 10 Americans want abortion to be illegal in all cases.

The ruling came more than a month after the stunning leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito indicating the court was prepared to take this momentous step.

Alito, in the final opinion issued Friday, wrote that Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 decision that reaffirmed the right to abortion, were wrong had and to be be overturned.

People protest about abortion, Friday, June 24, 2022, outside the Supreme Court in Washington. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

We therefore hold that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. Roe and Casey must be overruled, and the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives, Alito wrote, in an opinion that was very similar to the leaked draft.

Joining Alito were Thomas and Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett. The last three justices are Trump appointees. Thomas first voted to overrule Roe 30 years ago.

Four justices would have left Roe and Casey in place.

A celebration outside the Supreme Court, Friday, June 24, 2022, in Washington. The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years  a decision by its conservative majority to overturn the court's landmark abortion cases. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

The vote was 6-3 to uphold Mississippi's law banning most abortions after 15 weeks, but Chief Justice John Roberts didn't join his conservative colleagues in overturning Roe. He wrote that there was no need to overturn the broad precedents to rule in Mississippi's favor.

Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan  the diminished liberal wing of the court  were in dissent.

With sorrow  for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection  we dissent, they wrote, warning that abortion opponents now could pursue a nationwide ban from the moment of conception and without exceptions for rape or incest.

FILE - Members of the Supreme Court pose for a group photo at the Supreme Court in Washington, April 23, 2021. Seated from left are Associate Justice Samuel Alito, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Associate Justice Stephen Breyer and Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Standing from left are Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Associate Justice Elena Kagan, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch and Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett. The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years  a decision by its conservative majority to overturn the court's landmark abortion cases. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP, Pool, File)

Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that the Justice Department will protect providers and those seeking abortions in states where it is legal and "work with other arms of the federal government that seek to use their lawful authorities to protect and preserve access to reproductive care.

In particular, Garland said the federal Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of Mifepristone for medication abortions.

More than 90% of abortions take place in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy, and more than half are now done with pills, not surgery, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.

Anti-abortion protesters gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022. The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years, a decision by its conservative majority to overturn the court's landmark abortion cases. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

Mississippis only abortion clinic, which was at the center of Friday's case, continued to see patients Friday. Outside, men used a bullhorn to tell people inside that they would burn in hell. Clinic escorts wearing colorful vests used large speakers to blast Tom Pettys I Wont Back Down at the protesters.

Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky and Missouri are among 13 states, mainly in the South and Midwest, that already have laws on the books to ban abortion in the event Roe was overturned. Another half-dozen states have near-total bans or prohibitions after 6 weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.

In roughly a half-dozen other states, including West Virginia and Wisconsin, the fight will be over dormant abortion bans that were enacted before Roe was decided in 1973 or new proposals to sharply limit when abortions can be performed, according to Guttmacher.

Demonstrators gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022. The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years, a decision by its conservative majority to overturn the court's landmark abortion cases. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Outside the barricaded Supreme Court, a crowd of mostly young women grew into the hundreds within hours of the decision. Some shouted, The Supreme Court is illegitimate, while waves of others, wearing red shirts with The Pro-Life Generation Votes, celebrated, danced and thrust their arms into the air.

The Biden administration and other defenders of abortion rights have warned that a decision overturning Roe also would threaten other high court decisions in favor of gay rights and even potentially contraception.

The liberal justices made the same point in their joint dissent: The majority eliminates a 50-year-old constitutional right that safeguards womens freedom and equal station. It breaches a core rule-of-law principle, designed to promote constancy in the law. In doing all of that, it places in jeopardy other rights, from contraception to same-sex intimacy and marriage. And finally, it undermines the Courts legitimacy.

Abortion right activists gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022. The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years, a decision by its conservative majority to overturn the court's landmark abortion cases. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

And Thomas, the member of the court most open to jettisoning prior decisions, wrote a separate opinion in which he explicitly called on his colleagues to put the Supreme Court's same-sex marriage, gay sex and contraception cases on the table.

But Alito contended that his analysis addresses abortion only. Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion, he wrote.

Whatever the intentions of the person who leaked Alitos draft opinion, the conservatives held firm in overturning Roe and Casey.

This combination of Friday, June 24, 2022, photos taken outside the Supreme Court in Washington shows abortion-rights activists protesting following Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, at left, and anti-abortion activists celebrating following Supreme Court's decision, at right. The Supreme Court has ended the nation's constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years in a decision by its conservative majority to overturn Roe v. Wade. (AP Photo)

In his opinion, Alito dismissed the arguments in favor of retaining the two decisions, including that multiple generations of American women have partly relied on the right to abortion to gain economic and political power.

Changing the makeup of the court has been central to the anti-abortion sides strategy, as the dissenters archly noted. The Court reverses course today for one reason and one reason only: because the composition of this Court has changed, the liberal justices wrote.

Mississippi and its allies made increasingly aggressive arguments as the case developed, and two high-court defenders of abortion rights retired or died. The state initially argued that its law could be upheld without overruling the courts abortion precedents.

President Joe Biden speaks at the White House in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Justice Anthony Kennedy retired shortly after the Mississippi law took effect in 2018 and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in September 2020. Both had been members of a five-justice majority that was mainly protective of abortion rights.

In their Senate hearings, Trumps three high-court picks carefully skirted questions about how they would vote in any cases, including about abortion.

___

Associated Press writers Jessica Gresko, Fatima Hussein, photographer Jacquelyn Martin and video journalist Nathan Ellgren in Washington, Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston, Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi, Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, Leah Willingham in Charleston, West Virginia, Michael Hill in New York and Kantele Franko in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.

For APs full coverage of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, go to https://apnews.com/hub/abortion
James Packer has acknowledged Crowns ups and downs and challenges as he ended his 23-year relationship with the casino business with a $3.3 billion cheque from new owners Blackstone.

Packer praised what the company had achieved during his tumultuous ownership, especially with Crowns Barangaroo casino in Sydney.

Blackstones Chris Tynan and Crown Resorts CEO Steve McCann on Friday after the US giant took over Crown. Credit:Eamon Gallagher

There have been ups and downs and challenges, but todays final sale to Blackstone is confirmation that we have built one of the countrys best tourism, entertainment and leisure companies. And I am extremely proud of that, thank you to everyone at Crown, he said.

Its exciting to think of Crowns next chapter and I am confident Blackstone will take good care of the company.
It is not just Australians who have a weather eye on the threat of a return to the La Nina conditions that contributed to extreme weather that has racked parts of the nation over the past three years.

On Tuesday, the Bureau of Meteorology announced although the 2021-22 La Nina event had ended, according to its modelling there was a strong chance it may re-emerge in spring.

A house is marooned by flood waters in Sylhet, Bangladesh last month. Credit:AP

Weatherzone meteorologist Ben Domensino said it was not yet clear what impact this might have over summer.

Its hard to tell at this stage if La Nina does redevelop whether or not it will persist through next summer. What we can say at the moment is that if it does were more likely to see your wetter than average spring over eastern and northern Australia.
Well, Browne emailed when asked how he chose his outfits, it took me two seconds, no one second, to know what it needed to be. I thought the grey suit needed to engage in this world. All they could come up with when tasked to imagine dress in a space unbound by gravity and any kind of physical limitation are cartoon copies of among the most familiar clothes they already sell? The argument is that simply by making these clothes, which normally sell for hundreds and thousands of dollars, available to a wider group of users (in the Meta store the price range is US$2.99 [$4.34] to US$8.99), they are democratising the otherwise inaccessible. Which is true, commercially speaking, and essentially positions the Meta looks as the NewGen equivalent of a lipstick: the ultimate in diffusion lines, almost all barriers to entry erased. And while it is good that the tech world, which has shied away from fashion since the attempt to make wearables chic fell pretty much flat on its face, realises that if it wants to play in the world of dress, best to invite the experts in, these particular offerings seem predicated on the lowest common expectations of our selves in the virtual world. The whole point of the kind of fashion that Demna, et al., create is that it is more than commercial: It shows us who we are, or who we want to be, at a specific moment in time in ways we didnt even understand until we see it.

Yet what the clothes this troika have designed for the Meta store show seem to be, largely, are an opportunity to show off brand allegiance and leverage their archives in the most straightforward ways. The implication is that users want to wear the same clothes in a digital space as they do in a physical space  or at least the same clothes they aspire to wear  rather than something entirely new. In an Instagram Live conversation with Eva Chen, director of fashion partnerships for Instagram, introducing the new store, Chen flashed sketches of Zuckerbergs avatar in different outfits and quizzed him on his reactions. It does take a certain confidence to wear shoulders-to-toe Prada, Zuckerberg said, suggesting he did not have that confidence IRL, though he might in the metaverse. But thats a fundamental misunderstanding of fashion  and the whole idea of self-expression. After all, who wears a look entirely from one designer in real life? Celebrities paid by the brand in public situations, fashion victims and models in magazine shoots in which the brand will lend clothes only if they arent mixed with the work of other designers. In a Facebook post on the store, Zuckerberg also said that Meta wanted to create an avatar fashion offering because digital goods will be an important way to express yourself in the metaverse and a big driver of the creative economy. But self-expression is not about swallowing a designer look whole. Self-expression is about using the tools designers create to make something individual.

It doesnt take confidence  it doesnt even take thought  to wear a look entirely dictated by a designer. It simply takes the desire to be a vehicle of brand advertising, which is what Meta is currently facilitating. Maybe thats really where some users want to go (maybe thats always been a fantasy), but thats not going to lead to an expansion of the world as we know it, but rather yet more factionalisation. Loading Especially because avatars are not cross-platform creations. So if you want the virtual you to wear Prada  or Balenciaga or Thom Browne  you can do it only on Meta platforms. Just as if you wanted the virtual you to wear Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren or Gucci, you have to be on Roblox. To be fair, maybe this will change as technology changes, just as the ability to dress your avatar may change. Right now, when you pick any kind of an outfit in the Meta wardrobe, you have to choose an entire premade look rather than being able to build with one garment at a time. In the future, perhaps, a Balenciaga hoodie could be paired with a Prada skirt and a pair of no-name shoes. Zuckerberg has said that at some point Meta will open the store to digital-only fashion brands and other new creatives  the sort of designer/inventors already selling their wares on the digital marketplace DressX, which is where most of the truly alternative interpretations of clothes can be found.
RTHK: China's Australia envoy urges new govt to repair ties

China's ambassador said on Friday Australia had fired the "first shot" in deteriorating trade relations but that there was an opportunity to improve bilateral ties if the new government in Canberra took action.

China is Australia's largest trading partner and the biggest customer for its iron ore, but relations have deteriorated in recent years. China has imposed trade sanctions on Australian products in response to policies and decisions such as Australia's call for an investigation into the origins of Covid-19 and its 5G network ban on Huawei.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who took office late last month, has said China needs to lift its sanctions on Australian products to improve relations. His government has also expressed concern at Beijing's move to strike a security pact with neighbouring Solomon Islands.

Ambassador Xiao Qian said in a speech at the University of Technology Sydney's Australia-China Relations Institute that Australia had caused the breakdown in ties, and called for the new government to take action.

"The previous government in this country made certain policies and took certain actions that virtually stopped the normal business cooperations and relations between Huawei and the counterparts in Australia," he said in response to a question.

"That perhaps could be described as the first shot that really damaged our normal business relations."

He disputed that China had imposed trade sanctions on Australian goods, and said they were a response to dumping complaints by Chinese companies, or Chinese consumers expressing their unhappiness at Australia.

There was an "opportunity for possible improvement of relations" with the new Australia government after the exchange of letters between leaders of the two nations, and a meeting between defence ministers on the sidelines of a Singapore conference, Xiao added. (Reuters)

This story has been published on: 2022-06-24. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Health experts slam U.S. for inadequacies, inequities of COVID-19 response: NYT

Xinhua) 09:01, June 24, 2022

NEW YORK, June 23 (Xinhua) -- A bipartisan panel of health experts has planned to call for an overhaul of the American public health system that would greatly expand the role of the federal government, giving Washington the authority to set minimum health standards and coordinate a patchwork of nearly 3,000 state, local and tribal agencies, reported The New York Times (NYT) on Tuesday.

The recommendations flow from what the panel, the Commonwealth Fund Commission on a National Public Health System, described as the inadequacies and inequities of the United States' response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 1 million Americans, according to the report.

In its report, the panel cited "archaic approaches to aggregating data" as one reason so many Americans have died. It called on Congress to give the Department of Health and Human Services authority to establish and enforce standards for data collection.

The panel also wanted to address the failures of the nation's public health agencies to protect Americans from other health risks, including drug overdoses, diabetes and maternal mortality.

"While other countries have centralized public health authorities, public health in the United States is largely managed at the state and local level. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the federal public health agency, does not have the authority to compel states to act - it cannot, for example, investigate outbreaks of infectious disease in a particular state unless it has an invitation from state officials to do so," said the report.

State health agencies and the CDC have a long history of working collaboratively, but throughout the pandemic, elected state officials, particularly those in red states, have been reluctant to cede control. When the CDC asked states to sign agreements to share vaccination data with the federal government, for example, a number of states balked, it added.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun)
Australias vaccine advisory panel is considering delaying a recommendation that more people get a fourth COVID booster shot until a better Omicron-targeting vaccine is available.

Omicron sub-variants, including BA.4 and BA.5, are fast becoming the dominant COVID-19 variants in Australia and there is growing concern the sublineages are becoming more effective at reinfecting people.

Moderna released preliminary results earlier this month on an updated coronavirus vaccine that targets Omicron. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Professor Allen Cheng, who is a voting member and the former chair of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, said the expert group was watching the United States closely, where Moderna will imminently file clinical data on its Omicron-containing bivalent booster to the drug regulator.

One of the big considerations we are looking at is, do we recommend the fourth dose more broadly in Australia, knowing that there might be a better fourth dose to get down the line? he said.
When two police officers came banging on the front door of my mothers ground-floor apartment, I knew we had crossed the Rubicon. The officers put their boots in to jam the door and insisted two elderly friends of my dead father leave the small wake. A neighbour had dobbed us in.

Reflecting on fathers death 12 months ago, it is less the mesothelioma cancer that haunts me; it is the COVID-19 social restrictions that set citizen against citizen, neighbour against neighbour.

The late Ross Pickard, whose wake last year was interrupted when a neighbour called in police and they demanded the only two guests leave the home.

Sometimes it is hard to remember where we were this time last year with the outbreak of the Delta variant, a slow vaccine rollout and restrictions upon restrictions being placed on the public. I had to remind myself of the daily headlines. Police and military were being deployed in Sydney and, at the time of my fathers hospitalisation, a lockdown was established that barred people from leaving their home except for essential activities.

Schools and businesses were closed. Borders were snapped shut across the country. Families, children and friends were unable to unite. Funerals were restricted to 10 socially distanced people, and it was forbidden to have anyone at your home, even if it was two people at a wake.
NSW Police have released new footage of a man they suspect is connected to the stabbing of a man in Nowra earlier this year.

Michael Kerr died after being stabbing in Nowra in January, just one month after he moved to the region. Credit:NSW Police

Just before 4.30am on January 4, 51-year-old Michael Kerr was found unconscious after suffering a stab wound in a laneway at the intersection of Haigh Avenue and Worrigee Street in Nowra. Although police attempted CPR, he died at Shoalhaven Hospital before he could be flown to Sydney.

A white Mitsubishi ASX SUV was seen in the area at the time of the incident. Police have released footage of the vehicle passing through a local fast food restaurant drive-through at 5.14am.

There are two people in the car at the time. The driver can be seen paying for his food in cash.
At least 1000 people gathered outside Sydney Opera House on Friday to celebrate how far the city has come since the first Mardi Gras march 44 years ago.

On June 24, 1978, Sydney answered San Franciscos call for a show of solidarity against the Briggs Initiative, a Californian ballot measure wanting to prevent queer people and supporters from teaching at schools.

After a day of marches and meetings, a small crowd braved the winter chill to gather in Taylor Square. By 11pm, they had grown in number and in merriment, chanting Glad to be Gay and Ode to a Gym Teacher as they marched Sydneys streets. Despite issuing a valid permit to the protest, NSW police attempted to shut the march down, arresting many and charging 53 at Darlinghurst police station.

The morning march of the of the 1978 Mardi Gras Gay Solidarity Group protests in Sydney. Credit:Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives

March organiser Ken Davis said the police attack only made the group more determined to persist.
Andrews said his new senior leadership team would recommend to caucus on Saturday that Allan take the deputy role, and that she was the only candidate he was aware of. Loading Under Labor convention, the deputy role is usually held by an MP from a different faction to the premier, but that has not always been the case. Steve Bracks and his deputy, John Brumby, were both from the Right, as was Brumby and his deputy, Rob Hulls. Allan said it was important the process take its course but added: I can say Im really humbled and grateful for the support from my colleagues around me, and I particularly thank the premier for his support. She said Merlino had set a high benchmark for the role of deputy, praising his calmness and his unflappable approach.

But the premiers intervention has angered Labor MPs and members. Andrews pulled off a dramatic coup after exploiting internal rivalries of the Right, and rewarded factions with promotions if they acquiesced to his demands to install Allan, whom he has seen as his successor despite the senior minister not having the majority support of caucus. The Right held meetings throughout Thursday to pick their candidate for the deputy, but members were unable to resolve their differences. The inability to come to a resolution was exacerbated by Andrews promises to different elements of the Right, as well as the Socialist Left, in exchange for their support of Allan, according to multiple sources aware of the dealings but not authorised to speak publicly. Pallas, billing himself as the most senior member of the Right, stepped up to the lectern at Friday mornings press conference and urged his colleagues to support Allan. The treasurer usually stays out of factional machinations.

It really befalls to me, as the senior minister for the Right, to make it very clear that I am a very strong supporter of Jacinta Allan to be the deputy premier, he said. I say that because Ive had the opportunity to work with her for over two decades  shes a passionate advocate in the parliament for her community. She will be a great demonstration, I believe, of this governments renewal but also its commitment. Labors Right faction has been weakened since the dumping of powerbroker Adem Somyurek. Elements of the Right, including the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association, and former federal senator Stephen Conroys faction, signed a stability pact with the Socialist Left earlier this year. The Australian Workers Union and Somyureks Moderates faction, both from the Right, were left out of the deal. Seven sitting MPs aligned the two groups were replaced during the preselection process, as part of a factional purge by candidates aligned to the SDA and Conroy.

However, Labor figures are warning Andrews and Allan that the Right will be far more united after the November election, and their influence over ministries and senior leadership positions will be diminished. Im not saying they will be axed, but things will change in November, and just because JA [Jacinta Allan] has been elected as deputy it does not mean she will automatically become leader, one Right source said. The Right will be far more united after November and the opportunity for him [Andrews] to pick off the Right and exploit us will reduce. His influence will wane. Steve Dimopolous, Colin Brooks and Lizzie Blandthorn, from the Right, are expected to be elevated into cabinet. Some sources have suggested Blandthorn, part of Merlinos SDA faction whose power has increased since the stability pact, could also replace Allan as leader of the lower house. There was a push by some Left Labor MPs for a ballot to choose their two replacements, but the premier  through his intermediaries  rejected calls for the democratic process and instead told MPs that Harriet Shing and Sonya Kilkenny will enter the ministry, according to multiple Labor sources.

Under Labors highly factionalised party structure, factions are allotted a specific number of spots depending on how many MPs each grouping had, and the premier appoints the portfolios. There will be a major reshuffle of cabinet, which Andrews is expected to announce in coming days, and a swearing-in on Monday or Tuesday. Although Andrews did not say who he wanted as Labors candidates in Monbulk, Albert Park, Bellarine and the South Eastern Metropolitan Region, he said he had been clear about his record on wanting more women in parliament. Daniel Andrews has praised his outgoing deputy James Merlino. Credit:Justin McManus Andrews paid tribute to departing ministers Merlino, Foley, Neville, Pakula and Wynne, and said he could never repay the loyalty and friendship of his long-time deputy. No premier could ask for a better deputy than James Merlino, Andrews said.

Hes a person of courage and conviction. Hes defined not just by his work  but hes defined by his character, his decency, his hard work, his determination to stand up for his local community and for everybody across our community who needs a champion. Loading Although Merlino, and the new senior leadership team, were at Friday mornings press conference, Neville, Foley and Pakula were noticeably absent to avoid a visual representation of the loss of the seven decades of parliamentary experience they have between them. Merlino paid tribute to his family, saying they had sacrificed a lot to support his political career over the past 20 years. Foley thanked his wife and soul mate Sharon Duff, and said now was the time to attempt to repay his family for all they have done. Neville indicated she wanted to continue serving in politics, but her battle with Crohns disease meant she could no longer able to commit to being a minister or local member for another term. Pakula said he knew it was time to step down and away from the intensity of politics.

Ben Carroll will assume responsibility as coordinating minister for the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions. Lily DAmbrosio will become coordinating minister for the Department of Environment, Land, Planning and Water. Natalie Hutchins will become co-ordinating minister for the Department of Education and Training. Danny Pearson will become co-ordinating minister for the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing. Mary-Anne Thomas will become co-ordinating minister for the Department of Health. Paul Strangio, a professor of politics at Monash University, said Allans heir-apparent status may allow Labor to mitigate the fact that some voters may start to turn away from a government seeking 12 years in office. Unquestionably, Andrews will be the focal point of that problem for Labor, Strangio said. Front and centre in everything the government does, and his prominence especially elevated during the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a risk that Andrews will have worn out his welcome with the public. They will hanker for life after Andrews. The hardest thing for an ageing government is to remake itself. On balance, this weeks developments in Spring Street may represent the first step to Labor performing that elusive feat.
It was a devastating way for anyone to die, Lewin says.They were my friends and colleagues. Two of them I knew very well. It was this experience of really high anxiety and great uncertainty. Youre trying to gather all the information to understand whats happened and there was this intense media interest locally and internationally. A devastating way for anyone to die: Debris from Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine in 2014. Credit:Kate Geraghty Among the dead was former International AIDS Society president Professor Joep Lange, a friend of Lewins, who saved countless lives by increasing access to anti-retroviral therapy for millions of people infected with HIV in poverty-stricken countries. The calls from reporters after MH17s destruction only lasted 48 hours, but it was a crash course of sorts that would serve Lewin well when a consortium of modellers, led by the Doherty Institute, became the architects of a report underpinning the Morrison governments reopening of Australia after two years of COVID isolation. The stakes were immense. Protesters were on the streets agitating for freedoms every week. Lewin remembers the anxiety around the release of the document being palpable. As the spokeswoman for the institute, she did her best to shield her staff from the scrutiny.

Questions were being raised about where Doherty was positioned, Lewin says. It was an incredibly stressful time. Were a scientific organisation. We are not public policy or the government. We would never compromise what we do. We provide information on data and science to governments to make decisions. That line was getting very blurred last September. How did she cope? At the beginning, it was just the bare bones of survival, she tells me. Days stretched from 6am until late in the evening. Lewin slept for a few hours before waking to overseas phone calls at 3 or 4am. Mornings were filled with Doherty Institute briefings to discuss the latest science. Then it was on to media requests and an endless blur of Zoom meetings. The salade de chevre chaud (warm goats cheese salad) with fig, walnut and port wine dressing at Bistro Gitan. Credit:Luis Enrique Ascui Somehow, she managed to continue her work as chief investigator of the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, as well as overseeing a group of young HIV researchers and being a leading member of the International AIDS Society.

Lewin believes she inherited her mum Evas work ethic and optimism. A Polish-born refugee, Eva retired from working as an accountants assistant only three years ago, at the age of 83. She was the first person at the accounting firm each day, except Fridays, when she was cooking a feast at home for her family. Lively Friday night family dinners have been a lifelong tradition for Lewin, who is Jewish. But during lockdowns the ritual morphed into a rare moment of solace with her husband Robert and their two sons, Max, 25, and Alex, 28, who were both still living at home. The pumpkin Parisian gnocchi at Bistro Gitan. Credit:Luis Enrique Ascui I loved being with the boys, she says. There was a such a calmness to the weekends I dont normally have in an ordinary year because I wasnt travelling all the time for work. After Friday night dinner, they watched an episode of Succession or The Crown on Netflix. But there was no bingeing. It was a once-a-week treat.

Lewin, who is not a fan of Uber Eats, unwinds by cooking every night. One of her favourite cuisines is Malaysian. She has a well-worn rotating cycle of curry laksa and beef rendang dishes that she has spent years perfecting. She runs to quieten her mind. During all six lockdowns, she regularly ran five kilometres along a familiar route of deserted streets near her home. Those 30 minutes were spent listening to a podcast, either This American Life or catching up on the latest coronavirus data with The New England Journal of Medicine. Pre-pandemic, Lewin spent much of the year travelling the world, working to find a cure for HIV. Sharon Lewin, then a researcher with the Burnet Institute trying to find a cure for HIV, in the week leading up to the 20th International AIDS Conference in Melbourne. Credit:Craig Sillitoe She has been pivotal in advancing understanding of HIV latency: how the virus buries itself in DNA and lingers forever in people despite anti-retroviral treatment.

HIV has been the biggest pandemic the world has ever seen, Lewin says, creating a generation of virologists, immunologists and scientists who have dedicated their lives to understanding the complex interplay of viruses and the immune system. Most are now at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19, including Lewin and her friend Dr Anthony Fauci, a senior adviser to the White Houses COVID Response. Fauci and Lewin were speaking together in an online COVID-19 panel discussion the day that restrictions on restaurants were lifted in Melbourne in October 2020 after nearly four months. Hours later she would dine out with her family for the first time in months at Chin Chin in Melbournes city centre. A naturally curious child, Lewin excelled at maths, physics and chemistry. She dreamt of being an astronaut or an engineer but was strongly encouraged by her parents to study medicine at Monash University. I grew to really love it, she says. I loved the human connection. Being a doctor is a really great privilege because you are often looking after somebody at a very challenging time in their lives.

But her mind always drifted back to research: I began to want to have an impact beyond the person sitting in front of me. Loading I meet Lewin for lunch as hospitalisations are soaring in a new wave of flu and coronavirus infections. What will become of COVID-19? We are in for a very tough winter, she says. Tens of thousands of new cases and dozens of deaths are still being reported every day in Australia. Once a global leader in preventing COVID-19 deaths, Lewin warns Australia is falling behind in its ability to monitor the virus. Lewin wants a national registry to track people with long COVID to understand the mechanisms of the perplexing, post-viral syndrome.

She fears not enough is being done to generate awareness about life-saving antiviral drugs to limit the impact of COVID-19, which often need to be taken within five days of symptoms. We need to start getting the word out about antiviral treatments and ensure everyone who needs them has access, she says. Lunch at a local favourite. The emergence of another COVID-19 variant is almost certain and a strain able to evade current vaccines can never be ruled out. That would change the bar significantly, Lewin says, noting that even Omicron continued to put immense pressure on hospitals, schools and workplaces across the country. While she believes the days of lockdowns and stay-at-home orders are largely behind us, she says Australians should be using masks indoors, staying at home when sick and doing everything they can to try stop spreading COVID and the flu.

Another global outbreak of infectious disease is inevitable. Scientists warn climate change, increased interactions with wildlife, megacities and globalisation are accelerating this threat. COVID-19 is probably not a once-in-a-century event; it may not even be a once-in-a-generation one. Lewin says our top priority should be ensuring Australia enacts national policies in dealing with future outbreaks of deadly infectious diseases, to ensure a unified response across states and territories. We need to put things in place now so the next [one] will not spread as fast and as far and wide as [COVID-19] has, and we definitely need to be prepared for the worst. Loading As we finish our lunch, I ask Lewin what has been the silver lining of the pandemic for her. Her eyes light up as she tells me it is that scientific literature has become part of our ordinary vocabulary.
Allan  a member of the Socialist Left  is known as a hard worker with a combative streak, who gives as good as she gets, particularly in the rough and tumble of question time as leader of the house. Ben Carroll Roads Minister Ben Carroll worked as a solicitor and political adviser before entering parliament in 2012. Credit:Darrian Traynor Before Andrews public intervention on Friday, Roads Minister Ben Carroll, 46, was seen as a leading contender for deputy. That seems all but dashed now. Hailing from Labors Right faction, Carroll worked as a solicitor for North Melbourne Legal Services and an adviser for former senator Stephen Conroy, former premier Steve Bracks and former MP Justin Madden before entering parliament in 2012 as the member for Niddrie.

He will take responsibility for jobs, precincts and regions under the reshuffle. Colin Brooks Colin Brooks, speaker of the lower house, entered parliament in 2006. Credit:Colin Brooks/Facebook Speaker of the lower house, Colin Brooks  Brooksie to his mates  is also a member of the Right faction. He trained as an electrician and worked as an electorate officer and ministerial adviser before entering parliament in 2006 as the MP for Bundoora. Brooks is seen as a competent speaker, who has an open-door policy to colleagues.

He has been a champion of Aboriginal Change Makers, a teaching resource for Victorian schools, which prompts students to consider Victorian history through the eyes and experiences of Aboriginal peoples. Sonya Kilkenny Sonya Kilkenny, cabinet secretary, has a background in law. Credit:Paul Jeffers Sonya Kilkenny, 53, is known as an effective local member, taking Carrum from an ultra-marginal electorate on 0.7 per cent to a safe Labor seat on an 11 per cent swing after preferences in 2018. Hailing from the Left, Kilkenny was appointed parliamentary secretary for early childhood education in 2018 and cabinet secretary in 2020.

She holds a Master of Laws from the University of Melbourne and has done legal work for the Australian Childrens Television Foundation and Kimberly Land Council. Before her election, she was head of legal disputes at ANZ Banking Group. Harriet Shing Harriet Shing worked as a lawyer before entering parliament in 2014. Credit:Eddie Jim Victorias only openly lesbian MP, 45-year-old Harriet Shing is in a long-term relationship with Premier Daniel Andrews chief of staff, Lissie Ratcliff. The member for Eastern Victoria, Shing worked as a lawyer, industrial officer and adviser before entering parliament in the class of 2014.

The parliamentary secretary is a member of the partys Socialist Left and a close ally of Andrews. Andews has been frustrated by failed attempts in the past to promote her into the ministry. He will be expecting success this time around. Steve Dimopoulos Steve Dimopoulos (background), seen here with outgoing Deputy Premier James Merlino, entered parliament in 2014. Credit:Eddie Jim Steve Dimopoulos, member for Oakleigh, is part of the Right faction and aligned with the National Union of Workers grouping. He was a manager at Court Services Victoria and in the departments of Justice and Planning and Community Development before entering parliament. Dimopoulos, 49, is another member of the class of 2014 and serves as a parliamentary secretary to the premier.

Before entering parliament, he was a councillor and mayor of the City of Monash and worked as a public servant in the departments of Justice, Premier and Cabinet. In April, he was one of 228 names on a list of people banned from entering Russia for unfriendly actions against Putins regime. In 2019, he was forced to apologise for using foul language, when he recited in parliament abuse that he, Andrews and Allan had received online, including f--- and unwashed c---. Brooks, as speaker, chastised Dimopoulos for using unparliamentary language. Lizzie Blandthorn Lizzie Blandthorn (left), seen here with Transport Infrastructure Minister Jacinta Allan, opposed Victorias voluntary assisted dying legislation. Credit:Eddie Jim Pascoe Vale MP Lizzie Blandthorn, 44, is a member of the Right faction and destined for the upper house at the election. Shes seen by one colleague as a lock for a promotion.
Kigali: The Australia-backed challenger for the Commonwealth Secretariat top job, Jamaicas Kamina Johnson Smith, has failed in her bid to oust Baroness Patricia Scotland from the plum London-based role.

Scotland prevailed 27 to 24 votes, according to sources.

Baroness Patricia Scotland attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting shortly before the vote. Credit:Getty

Scotland said her reappointment was deeply humbling.

To continue to serve our family of nations is a true honour and a privilege and I will do so to the best of my ability, she said.
Latest News Investors warm to long-touted sale of Suncorp's banking arm The prospect has been raised for decades, and recently, a review into the bank sale was confirmed by Suncorp

NSW suffering worst labour shortage in 50 years Industry body wants federal government to help businesses

The latest 2022 MFAA State Excellence Awards has celebrated the best brokers and lenders in NSW and the ACT across 18 categories.

The in-person event was held at Sydneys Fullerton Hotel on Thursday night following two years of virtual ceremonies. The NSW and ACT awards are the last of the five MFAA state award events held nationwide between May and June.

Last nights winners included Louisa Sanghera (pictured above left), who runs Sydney brokerage Zippy Financial. Sanghera won the Residential Finance Broker Award. Ashleigh Pakis (pictured above right), of Goulburn-based Panache Financial Mortgage Specialist, received the Young Professional Award.

Read more: MFAA announces South Australia, Northern Territory award winners

MFAA CEO Mike Felton said the awards recognised those members who had excelled in areas including customer service, professionalism, ethics, growth and innovation.

We received a phenomenal number of nominations for the MFAA Excellence Awards this year, which made a difficult task for our judges but is also indicative of a successful, vibrant and rapidly growing industry, Felton said.

To be able to celebrate the achievements of our members, and our industry, in-person once again has been wonderful, particularly as the industry can now look up and look ahead to the future with some certainty after emerging from years of examination and successful implementation of reform.

Read more: MFAA reveals WA Excellence Award winners

The winners of the MFAA State Excellence Awards in NSW and ACT will automatically become finalists in their respective categories in the MFAA National Excellence Awards to be held on 27 July at The Star Sydney.

MPA and Australian Broker are sponsors of the 2022 MFAA state excellence awards.

The 2022 MFAA State Excellence Awards NSW and ACT winners are:
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Nine months ago, three friends Amod Malviya, Sujeet Kumar, and Vaibhav Gupta, who founded in 2016, again reached a turning point, where they had to make a critical decision for the firm. The company had already become Indias largest business-to-business e-commerce platform amid coronavirus pandemic. The former top Flipkart executives had an intense discussion about how to achieve their next audacious goal of turning into a publicly listed entity in 18-24 months and become a large global public company. It was then the three co-founders came up with a strategy of having a sharp focus on positive unit economics and behaving like a publicly listed company by tracking quarter-on-quarter performance.

We are feeling good about the changes that we made. We are feeling that it was the right call and it has made us stronger. It is a muscle that we are building in the company, and which is needed for a successful IPO, said Vaibhav Gupta, co-founder and CEO of Udaan, in an interview. From the last three quarters, we have improved not just our unit economics but also profitability and have a very strong handle over our cash flow through these times.

Positive unit economics cover all the direct variable costs associated with servicing an order, according to the experts. Over the last year, said it has improved its unit economics by a total of over 1000bps (basis points) with equally strong improvements in both gross margins as well as operating cost.

The firm said that the gross margin percentage has gone up 2.5X year-on-year (y-o-y). It said the companys revenue is now at about Rs 10,000 crore for FY22, a 1.6X increase compared with that of FY21. Also, the firm said the implementation of right business design and unit economics, has helped the company bring down the cash burn by about 45 per cent y-o-y.

The design choice on how you want to go ahead as an organization is the key, said Aditya Pande, chief financial officer, Udaan. The quarter-on-quarter execution allows you predictability. It puts the organisation on a firmer footing not only for IPO but beyond that as well.



For instance, the first phase of Udaan (2017- mid2021) was largely about driving accelerated market adoption and early scale-up. In the second phase, over the last three quarters, Udaan dedicated its energy in solving unit economics at scale by adopting a design-first approach. This includes doubling down on core customers and the right buyer mix for Kirana e-commerce.

There is margin unlock through backward integration like sourcing and value-added services like lending and advertising. Udaan also designed supply chain architecture and logistics natively for b2b (business to business) trade and Kirana e-commerce. The company said it provides the largest small ticket shopkeeper lending at the lowest collection cost.

Udaan achieved a valuation of $3.1 billion during its last round of funding of $280 million in January 2021 from existing and new investors. In April, this year Microsoft, one of the worlds biggest technology companies, joined the convertible note funding round of Udaan, which was launched in October 2021 and has now reached $275 million via convertible note and debt. According to industry sources, the valuation of this round of the fundraise will be derived at a future date either at the time of the IPO or during the pre-IPO rounds of funding.

Udaan co-founders Malviya, Kumar, and Gupta, who are all engineers from the countrys top Indian Institute of Technology (IITs), hail from small towns in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where, growing up, they didnt have access to supermarkets, and had to travel to the nearest big city large purchases. The trio, who became friends at Flipkart founded Udaan with the aim to help small businesses, especially in the tier-III cities and rural India, improve their sourcing and earnings.

Now Udaan is tapping a huge opportunity. Business-to-business e-commerce players including Udaan are expected to disrupt $1 trillion consumer retail market in India, according to Bernstein, the US-based research powerhouse. The startup is competing with e-commerce giants such as Amazon, Flipkart and Reliances JioMart which are also betting big to tap B2B e-commerce, especially in Bharat (tier 2 and tier 3 cities and rural India).

Udaan now has a network of over 3 million registered users about 30,000 sellers across over 900 cities in the country covering more than 12,000 pin codes. The platform has over 2 million retailers, chemists, kirana shops, HoReCa, farmers, etc. doing over 5 million transactions per month. The company operates one of the largest logistics networks with over 200 warehouses spread over 10 mn sq ft space across the country delivering over 8000 tons of products everyday.
The shareholders of direct-to-home (DTH) company on Friday rejected the special resolutions that were part of the extraordinary general meeting (EGM) agenda. These included re-appointments of Jawahar Goel as managing director (MD) and Anil Dua as whole-time director of the company.

The appointment of R C Venkateish as an independent director of the Essel group entity was also rejected.

However, Goel stays as non-executive director of the company. While Dua remains the CEO of the firm, a company filing to the stock exchanges said on Friday. The rejection comes amid attempts by a promoter group entity to restrain YES Bank, the largest shareholder, from voting at the EGM.

The Bombay HC had on Thursday dismissed World Crest Advisors LLP's appeal against YES Bank's voting rights. It was the second time in a week that this plea had been turned down.

According to voting results announced on Friday evening, 78.9 per cent of the shareholders voted against Goels re-appointment, 26.10 per cent against Duas and 73.25 per cent against Venkateishs. Dish TV, according to proxy advisory firms, needed 75 per cent of shareholders votes in its favour to push through the three resolutions.

Experts said the company would now have to take cognizance of the results. "The board will have to propose an MD, who will be acceptable to all shareholders," Shriram Subramaniam, founder and managing director of InGovern Research Services, a proxy advisory firm, said.

According to the shareholding pattern for the quarter ended March 31, owns a 24.78 per cent stake in Dish TV, while the promoters hold 5.93 per cent.

This is the second time in six months that shareholders have rejected the company's resolutions. Voting results after the company's annual general meeting (AGM) on December 30, 2021, had shown that 77.6 per cent of the shareholders voted against the adoption of annual accounts, and 78.9 per cent against the re-appointment of Ashok Kurien to the company's board.

And, 53.4 per cent of the shareholders had voted against paying remuneration to cost auditors for the 2021-22 financial year.

"There is a dispute between and Dish TV promoters, so getting the special resolutions passed was clearly a challenge," Subramaniam said.

claims that it extended Rs 5,270 crore worth of loans to 10 Essel group entities between 2015 and 2018 against shares pledged by the promoters. Owing to repayments issues, it subsequently took ownership of these shares. These entities included Dish TV, in which it was the largest shareholder.

For his part, Essel group chairman Subhash Chandra had told Business Standard in a March interview that promoter group entities owed only Rs 4,200 crore to YES Bank and that the dispute was hurting Dish TVs business and stakeholders.

Chandra also said the group was open to exploring multiple options to settle the dispute. These included buying back shares held by the bank, merging Dish TV with one of the rivals  such as Airtel or Tata Play  and appointing a mediator to resolve differences.

Earlier in the day, Dish TV shares rose 10.66 per cent on the BSE to end the day at Rs 12.04 apiece.
Auto major Ford has extended its production schedule till July-end against the earlier June-end as the company is continuing discussions with the employees who are protesting against the severance package offered to them, the company said on Friday.

The factory located at Maraimalai Nagar on the outskirts of the city has been witnessing labour unrest since May 30 over the compensation offered by the management.

To a PTI query, the company spokesperson said, "Pursuant to the employee cascade on June 9, 2022, the company received a positive response, with a vast number of employees consenting to support production in parallel to continuing discussions on the severance package on offer."



"Over 50 per cent of permanent employees have been supporting production since June 14 and the company has decided to extend production till the end-July 2022. All the employees continuing to support production in July will get wage protection", the official said.

Several employees resorted to a protest on May 30 at the factory. The company, after halting production, resumed operation in double shifts from June 14.

Ford had said earlier that the severance package would only be available to those employees who resume production from June 14 and support the company in completing the production schedule.

To those employees who continue to be on strike, the company warned of 'a loss of pay' as per the Certified Standing Orders remain in effect from June 14.

"We look forward to having a constructive dialogue with employees and union representatives to explain the details and benefits of the severance package under the supervision of the labour department," the official said.

According to Ford, the company has offered severance packages for approximately 115 days of gross wages for each completed year of service (of an employee) which was significantly higher than the statutory severance package.

The cumulative package accounts for an ex gratia amount equivalent to 87 days of last drawn gross wages as of May 2022, a fixed Rs 50,000 for every completed year of service benefits equivalent to a lump sum amount of Rs 2.40 lakh and current medical insurance coverage until March 2024.

"The cumulative amounts will be subject to a minimum amount of Rs 30 lakh and a maximum cap of Rs 80 lakh," it had 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 Chennai in -- as part of its restructuring exercise.

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.)
The registration for the first batch of soldiers under the Agnipath scheme -- a new short-term recruitment plan that recruits Agniveers in the armed forces -- for the Indian Air Forces (IAF) starts on Friday. The online examinations for the same will take place on July 24. The online registration for recruitment of Agniveers will end on July 5.

IAF Air Marshall SK Jha, in a press conference held on June 19, said that the first batch of Agniveers would be enrolled by December, and training would start by December 30. After enrollment into the IAF, Agniveers will be governed under the Air Force Act 1950 for four years.

"Endeavour will be made to enroll candidates as Agniveers from all parts of the nation, utilising contemporary technology, specialised rallies and campus interviews at recognised technical institutes such as Industrial Training Institutes, NSQF etc.," the IAF said in a statement.

Also Read: Agnipath intake 'to grow' from 46K annually in first 4 yrs, to 125K per yr

In the IAF, Agniveers will form a distinct rank, which will differ from any existing rank, the statement said.

The selection process for Agniveers will take place in two phases; only candidates who will clear phase 1 will be allowed to appear for the second phase.

The age limit under the Agnipath recruitment scheme is between 17.5 and 23 years. Earlier, the upper age limit for the same was 21 years, but the government revised it owing to the nationwide protests against the Agnipath scheme.

For Agniveers under the age of 18, candidates must get their enrollment forms signed by parents or guardians, per extant provisions.

The registration process for recruitment of Agniveers comes amid the countrywide protests against the Agnipath scheme as protesters' demands range from a call for the scrapping of the scheme to the considering examinations  physical and written  which aspirants had already taken, based on the original tour-of-duty terms.
Prime Minister is expected to visit India in early September for a bilateral visit at the invitation of her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, her spokesman said on Friday, a day after the Indian envoy here called on her and delivered the official invitation letter for a "substantive summit."



Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Vikram K Doraiswami on Thursday handed over a letter from Prime Minister Modi to premier Hasina officially inviting her to visit New Delhi.

He (envoy) called on her and delivered the letter late on Thursday, a PMO spokesman told PTI.

Prime Minister's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim said she might visit the Indian capital in early September and there would be a ministerial-level meeting between the two countries days before her visit.

HC @VDoraiswami called on Hon'ble Prime Minister of Bangladesh, H.E today at Jatiyo Shangsad. A letter from PM @narendramodi was delivered, extending warm greetings, thanking her for gifting mangoes and inviting Hon'ble Prime Minister to visit New Delhi soon," the Indian High Commission in Dhaka tweeted on Thursday.

"Her Excellency was briefed on preparations for a substantive summit," it added.

The press secretary's remarks on the possible dates of the visit came four days after Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said Hasina was expected to visit New Delhi in early September in line with the invitation from her Indian counterpart Modi.

Karim said after receiving the letter from the Indian high commissioner, Hasina proposed joint initiatives to dredge the common rivers for mutual benefit as is crisscrossed by 54 major rivers mostly originating from India.

Bangladesh witnessed major flooding in its northeastern and northern regions this year, killing nearly 50 people.

Karim said the premier expressed concerns over the havoc caused by the recent floods in Assam, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh.

The PMO spokesman said Hasina told Doraiswami that a water conservatory could be ensured through river dredging on a regular basis and conveyed Dhaka's willingness to work with India to overcome any natural disasters like floods.

In reply, the Indian high commissioner said that his country was ready as well to assist the flood victims in Bangladesh, the spokesman said.

Doraiswami also greeted the premier for the successful completion of the Padma Bridge, Bangladesh's longest, entirely built with domestic funding. The structure is set to be opened on Saturday, he said.

Doraiswami said the newly-constructed bridge would connect both the countries directly and would enhance connectivity in the region.

Hasina made her last visit to India in 2019.

President Ram Nath Kovind visited Dhaka in 2021 coinciding with the golden jubilee of the country's 1971 independence and birth centenary celebrations of its founder Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Foreign Minister Momen earlier said the timeline of Hasina's visit was proposed during his talks with his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar last week at the Joint Consultative Commission (JCC) meeting in Delhi.

He said Dhaka and New Delhi decided to implement the bilateral decisions ahead of Hasina's India visit while Dhaka expected the much-awaited Joint River Commission (JRC) meeting to be held by then.

Momen and Jaishankar co-chaired the 7th round of JCC in New Delhi on Sunday. Commenting on the JCC meeting, Momen said Dhaka had raised all outstanding issues with New Delhi including water sharing.

We had a very good meeting, he said, adding that the Indian side showed a good response to water management of trans-boundary streams between the two countries.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
To formulate disease-wise policies and prevent doctors from fudging patient visit data, the has provided tablets to nearly half of the in the national capital.

There are 519 in the city that offer free primary health care services, including 212 different types of tests, to patients. Every day, over 60,000 people are treated in these clinics, according to official figures.

The salaries of the staff, including doctors, employed at depend on the number of patients visiting the facility, they said.

According to officials, tablets have been given to around 260 mohalla clinics and efforts are on to provide the devices to the remaining clinics.

"There will be three tablets in each clinic and the doctor, nurse and pharmacist will function through them only. It will take us another one month to activate these tablets in the remaining clinics," said an official.

Explaining the reason behind the efforts to digitise mohalla clinics, the official said the tablets will help in reducing the time taken by each person to do their work.

"All the processes will now be digital, and this data can be analysed and disease-wise policies can be formulated. We will also know the exact number of patients who visit the clinic as all the data will be available digitally," he said.

"There will be no scope of doctors fudging the number of patients - as they receive their salaries based on the number of patients that visit the clinic," he added.

Some other smaller advantages of the tablet is that the scope of doctors and nurses writing incorrect test results can be decreased, the official said.

The process of providing tablets has been going on for over a year now, the official said, adding that internet facilities are being made available at the clinics that have not received the devices while guidelines for using them have been issued.

A review meeting was held recently, in which Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had asked the department to expedite the process and ensure that the facilities are functional within a month, he said.

Earlier this month, Sisodia had said that a mohalla clinic is the very first point of detection for any disease that strikes the city.

After digitisation, the data from here will be used to assess any disease before it affects the people of Delhi. Furthermore, such data will be crucial in the development of health-related policies, he said.

The is also in the process of opening 100 more mohalla clinics across the national capital to provide world-class primary healthcare services to all residents, according to officials.

(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.)
Lieutenant Governor (L-G) V K Saxena on Friday launched a drive by the New Municipal Council (NDMC) for pruning of old trees in the city's area.

The move comes in the wake of at least 77 trees being uprooted, some of them decades old, in Lutyens' in the fierce thunderstorm and heavy rains that lashed the capital on May 30.

"This morning, launched the scientific pruning of overgrown and dead branches of old trees at CP by NDMC. Exercise was undertaken during off hours to avoid inconvenience to people. This will ensure improved tree health leading to lesser uprooting and falling of branches in storms," Saxena tweeted.

According to data provided by the NDMC, the Lutyens' Delhi area has lost as many as 1,813 trees since 2015. Officials claimed that around 300 heritage trees were also lost between 2015-16 and 2021-22.

Indigenous tree species such as neem, peepal, pilkhan, jamun, arjun, khirni and imli among others were planted in the NDMC area when British architect Edwin Landseer Lutyens was entrusted with the task to plan New Delhi in 1911.

(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.)
Indian naval warships just became more heavily protected and difficult to strike with aircraft and anti-ship missiles, with the successful flight-test of the Vertical Launch Short Range Surface to Air Missile (VL-SRSAM) on Friday.

The VL-SRSAM, which the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) has indigenously developed for the Indian Navy, was fired from an Indian warship at a high-speed aerial target that was mimicking an incoming enemy aircraft.

Indias most modern naval warships, such as the Visakhapatnam-class destroyers and Nilgiri-class frigates, are equipped with multiple layers of defence against their biggest threats: enemy aircraft and sea-skimming anti-ship missiles.

The first line of defence is provided by the Indo-Israeli medium range surface to air missiles (MRSAMs), which are capable of shooting down hostile aerial threats at ranges out to 70 kilometres. However, the MR-SAM can only engage targets that are flying at altitudes above 30 metres.



If the incoming aircraft or anti-ship missiles is a sea skimmer, that is flying at an altitude below 30 metres, the warship will use a VL-SRSAMs to destroy the target. The VL-SRSAM can engage incoming aircraft at any altitude between 3 metres and 4,000 metres and at a distance of 25-30 kilometres.

During mid-course flight, the VL-SRSAM missile uses a fibre-optic, gyroscope-based, inertial guidance mechanism. With-lock-on-before-launch (LOBL) and lock on after launch (LOAL) capability, the missile receives mid-course update via datalink. Then, in the terminal phase, the missile switches to active radar homing.

The VL-SRSAM is an indigenous upgrade to the two-decade-old Israeli Barak 1 surface-to-air missile system on board Indian warships. It is derived from the DRDOs highly successful Astra Mark-1 air-to-air missile, which was recently fired successfully from a Sukhoi-30MKI fighter.

Several countries that have developed successful air-to-air missiles have modified them into other formats: The US converted the AIM-7 Sparrow into the RIM-7 Sea Sparrow. The French MICA missile has a land-launched variant called VL-MICA.

The platform provides an integrated solution that incorporates both the missile and weapon control system (WCS). Equipped with 360 degrees interception capability, it can detect and engage threats from different directions.

The VL-SRSAM missile has a smokeless exhaust and a jet-vane-driven thrust vector control that enables quick reaction time on vertical launch. The VL-SRSAM system is conceived for area as well as point defence to protect naval platforms.

Each vertical launch system (VLS) holds forty missiles in a twin, quad-pack canister configuration. Each carries eight missiles for hot launch, which can be installed in an arrangement of multiple launch systems based on availability of space on the warship.

In its first tests, the successfully test-fired two VL-SRSAMs on February 22, 2021. The maiden launch tested the efficacy of the VLS and missile's maximum and minimum range. Both the missiles fired successfully intercepted their targets with pinpoint accuracy.

In the second test on December 7, 2021, the VL-SRSAM was successfully fired by the from the Integrated Test Range, Chandipur, off the coast of Odisha. The launch was conducted from a vertical launcher against an electronic target at a very low altitude. The aim was to validate integrated operation of all weapon system components including the vertical launcher unit with controller, canisterised flight vehicle and weapon control system.

The has planned to offload the manufacture of the VL-SRSAM to a private sector firm, making it one of the first major weapons platforms to be produced by a private industry under the aegis of Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) project. However, the company that will manufacture the VL-SRSAM has not yet been identified.

There are also plans to use it as a short-range air defence system for Indian Air Force.
Integrated drone manufacture and drone-as-a-service (DAAS) provider Garuda Aerospace Pvt. Ltd has deployed its in Assam to support the state disaster management department's rescue efforts amid the ongoing floods and landslide situation.

The are being used to deliver emergency food and medicines packets to survivors and victims, Agnishwar Jayaprakash, Founder and CEO of Garuda Aerospace said.

Garuda Aerospace has an advanced fleet management software which will also be used in the rescue efforts.

--IANS

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The government has ordered a probe into Tata Motors' Nexon EV fire incident in Mumbai, as the company was investigating the "isolated thermal incident".

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), which was earlier tasked with investigating electric two-wheeler fire incidents by the Union Road Transport and Highways Ministry, would lead the probe into Nexon EV fire too.

The DRDO probe had found serious defects in the batteries. These defects occurred because the electric two-wheeler manufacturers like Okinawa Autotech, Pure EV, Jitendra Electric Vehicles, Ola Electric and Boom Motors may have used "lower-grade materials to cut costs".

A EV caught fire in Mumbai and the company said on Thursday a detailed investigation is currently being conducted to ascertain the facts of the recent isolated thermal incident that is doing the rounds on social media.

The EV car fire incident was reported from Vasai West (near Panchvati hotel) in Mumbai late on Wednesday.

"We will share a detailed response after our complete investigation. We remain committed to the safety of our vehicles and their users," the company said in a statement.

EV is the highest selling electric car in India and at least 2,500-3,000 cars are being sold every month in the country.

The company has so far sold over 30,000 EVs, most of which are Nexon models.

"This is a first incident after more than 30,000 EVs have cumulatively covered over 100 million km across the country in nearly four years," said the company.

As fires and explosions in electric two-wheelers continue unabated, the government is all set to introduce EV battery standards (BIS standards) for EV two-wheelers that will be expanded to four-wheelers at a later stage.

The BIS standards for EV batteries will look into "size, connectors, specification and minimum quality of cells, the battery's capacity".

Earlier, NITI Aayog in a discussion paper also stressed upon the need for BIS standards as the first step towards a national battery swapping policy.

--IANS

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India's regular participation at the summits clearly reflects that the West needs its support to confront major challenges facing the globe, Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said on Friday, ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Germany to attend the annual conclave of the powerful bloc.

The summit of the G7, a grouping of the world's seven richest nations, will be held in Alpine castle of Schloss Elmau in southern Germany on June 26 and 27 amid the war in Ukraine that has fuelled a global food and energy crisis.

"India's regular participation at the summits clearly points to increasing acceptance and recognition that India needs to be a part of any and every sustained effort to find solutions to solve global challenges," Kwatra said at a media briefing.

He said Modi will hold bilateral meetings and discussions with the leaders of and also the guest countries on the sidelines of the .

Besides India, Germany has also invited Argentina, Indonesia, Senegal and South Africa as guests for the summit to recognise the democracies of the global south as its partners. Germany is hosting the summit in its capacity as G7 chair for this year.

From Germany, Modi will travel to the United Arab Emirates on June 28 to pay his condolences on the passing away of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the former president of the Gulf nation.

Asked whether India would be under pressure from the G7 countries to restrict its procurement of crude oil from Russia, the foreign secretary made it clear that sourcing of energy is totally driven by the country's national interests, adding that consideration is "very well understood".

"Whatever the trading arrangements that India puts in place with regard to the purchase of crude oil all over the world are determined purely from the consideration of energy security of India and there is no other consideration," he said.

"I think that consideration is very well understood. I would even say appreciated across the countries. I do not see any point of assuming any pressure on that issue. India has continued its oil trade and purchases from wherever we need to do it," he said.

Kwatra said it is purely determined, governed and motivated by India's energy security considerations, noting that it is one of the key aspects in terms of the country's national economic interests.

The Western countries are gradually slashing their energy purchases from Russia following its attack on Ukraine.

Asked about the growing food crisis arising out of the Ukraine crisis, Kwatra said India has taken a very "proactive" stance to ensure food security of the vulnerable countries.

Ukraine is a major producer of wheat and the halt in its exports of the staple food has triggered its shortage.

"I think the Russia-Ukraine situation has generated a certain amount of food security crisis all over the world and as a responsible nation, India has taken a very and proactive stance to ensure that the food security of the vulnerable countries are addressed in a manner that their needs are addressed," Kwatra said.

At the same time, he emphasised on India's approach that the food security within the country is absolutely not at all impacted.

"I think, there has been a widespread appreciation of the manner in which India has taken forward this position," Kwatra said.

Asked if the issue of growing Chinese assertiveness in the region, including along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), would figure in the G7, the foreign secretary did not give a direct reply.

However, he referred to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar's recent comments about challenges facing Asia and Indo-Pacific, adding these were faced before the Ukraine crisis began.

Kwatra said India talked about the responsibility of the world in dealing with the challenges in every forum.

"We all know from where the military challenges are coming from", he said.

On the crisis in Ukraine, Kwatra said India's position has always been very clear as it has been asking for cessation of hostilities right from the beginning of the conflict and clearly said that the path to the resolution of the problem is through diplomacy and dialogue.

US President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are among the top leaders attending the summit.

On June 27, Modi is scheduled to participate in two sessions along with other partner countries of the . The first one relates to climate, energy and health and the second one is on food security and gender equality.

The prime minister is also scheduled to have an interaction with the Indian diaspora at a community event during his stay for the G7 summit, Kwatra said.

After attending the G7 Summit, the prime minister will be travelling to the United Arab Emirates on June 28 to pay his personal condolences on the passing away of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the former UAE President and Abu Dhabi Ruler, Kwatra said.

Asked whether the controversy relating to objectionable remarks against Prophet Mohammed would figure during Modi's visit to the UAE, the foreign secretary said India has already clarified its position about the issue and that almost all countries in the Gulf region have a clear understanding about New Delhi's stand on it.

"Almost all countries in the Gulf region have a clear understanding about India's position. We clarified about our position on the issue multiple times. I do not think there is a need to specifically discuss this issue going forward," he said.

He said Modi will hold a meeting with Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and it will be their first interaction after the UAE leader's election as the new president of the Gulf nation.

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With at the cusp of a digital healthcare revolution, the Israeli experience in managing its health services, especially in times of crisis, can be very helpful in the efficient and successful management of healthcare systems addressing today's challenges with innovative thinking and technology, a leading expert from AIIMS Delhi has said.

In to attend a two week international course on 'Management of Health Services in Times of Crisis' organized by MASHAV Carmel Training Center in Haifa, Dr Angel Rajan Singh, Addl Prof of Health Management at AIIMS Delhi, at the conclusion of the programme told PTI that "this country has gone through so much crisis that emergency services are not just focussed, but very well organised".

"They address these challenges in a way that it looks like it all comes so naturally to them and their preparation for all possible disasters is demonstrable for the benefit of others", Dr Singh said.

The AIIMS expert and Dr Rakesh Nath Prasad, Chief Medical Officer of Municipal Corporation of Delhi, are among a group of doctors from 12 countries attending the course organised by MASHAV - Israel's Agency for International Development Cooperation, a part of its Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

" has gone digital in a big way managing electronic health records of its population so seamlessly. With us at the cusp of a digital healthcare revolution through our Ayushman Bharat Health Account - ABHA, which is an initiative launched by the government under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), we can definitely learn and adopt several things from how they have integrated various aspects of healthcare management", Dr Singh noted.

"The Israeli PHC (primary health care) system with such meticulous focus on the needs of mother and child, perfection in emergency care with even so well organised ambulance services, disaster management systems, digitalisation of different aspects of healthcare, use of health care funds in a way that it also promotes innovation - the seamless integration of all related aspects of management of health services - can be an important learning for us as we work on developing our own systems in India," he emphasised.

When asked about the mismatch in population size between the two countries, the AIIMS expert said in terms of footfall it is quite comparable, especially in times of crisis, and the Israeli healthcare system is better prepared given its distinct experience.

"We were very proud to have two Indian participants in the course. MASHAV in general and MCTC in particular have strong ties with and we are always looking forward to sharing experiences with this beautiful country", Anna Andrachnik, Programme Director at The Golda Meir MASHAV Carmel International Training Centre told PTI.

"Both Indian experts shared their experience with the international group and enriched our programme with their knowledge", she added.

is recognised worldwide for its success in meeting challenges in the field of healthcare - relying on a combination of innovative thinking, technology, and national commitment, including policies and funding, as well as on highly professional and well trained human resources.

"The course aims to expose participants to Israel's models of health care services; to spread awareness and provide tools and skills for key management functions in healthcare systems, including hospitals; to exchange experiences and ideas on concepts, programs, and methodologies applied in the participants' respective countries, as well as in Israel", a brochure released for the study programme said.

The June 13th to 24th extensive study programme covered important areas such as health care systems in Israel, health care strategic management policy and politics, financial management and health basket, political and economic aspects of universal health coverage, governance challenges in global health, health care in times of crisis and digital health management.

The head of MASHAV, Ambassador Eynat Shlein, earlier this month visited to deepen cooperation between the two countries in various areas. The seven day visit focussed mainly on cooperation in the field of agriculture and water management.

"We are keen to continue and expand our cooperation with all our partners in India as we continue enhancing the strategic partnership between our two nations", she said.

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has warned of becoming a haven for terrorist organisations that threaten the region and called for unified action against the Islamic State, Al-Qaeda, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba getting entrenched there.

India's Permanent Representative T.S. Tirumurti told the UN Security Council on Thursday, "We need to see concrete progress in ensuring that such proscribed terrorists, entities or their aliases do not get any support, tacit or direct, either from Afghan soil or from the terror sanctuaries based in the region."

"The linkages between groups listed (as terrorist organisations) by the UNSC (Security Council) such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammed, as well as provocative statements made by other terrorist groups operating out of pose a direct threat to the region," he said.

He noted that the Taliban, which now controls Afghanistan, "is yet to dissociate itself with other terrorist groups such as the Al-Qaeda which continue to remain active".

Therefore, he added, unified action was needed to "ensure that does not become a haven" for other terrorist organisations, including the local Islamic State affiliate known by the acronym ISIS-K, Al-Qaeda, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba".

Tirumurti heads the Council's panel overseeing the implementation of its sanctions relating to Afghanistan that is known as the 1988 Sanctions Committee after the resolution setting it up.

He said that the committee's report issued in May indicates "that the current authorities need to take much stronger action to fulfil their anti- commitments".

In particular, he added that "there is a significant increase in the presence of ISIL-K in the country and their capacity to carry out attacks. ISIL-K, with its base reportedly in Afghanistan, continues to issue threats of terrorist attacks on other countries".

ISIS-K has claimed responsibility for the attack on gurdwara Karte Parwan in Kabul last week and has threatened to strike elsewhere.

Under-Secretary-General Martin Griffiths, who is the UN's Emergency Relief Coordinator, described the "desperate situation" of starvation and drought in Afghanistan which has been compounded by the earthquake this week.

Asking for more aid to that country while pledging to ensure that they are administered properly, he said, "Without intervention, hunger and malnutrition will intensify with devastating consequences. Drought will persist, wreaking havoc on crop yields and availability of safe water."

Tirumurti said that has sent Afghanistan 30,000 tonne of wheat, 13 ton of medicines, 500,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines and winter clothing.

has signed an agreement with the World Food Programme (WFP) for the distribution of 50,000 tonne of wheat in Afghanistan.

The wheat supply through the WFP was held up by Pakistan but has since been allowed and they are being sent to Afghanistan.

India has also sent 1 million doses of the Covaxin vaccine to Iran to innoculate Afghan refugees living there against Covid-19, Tirumurti added.

He said that an Indian team had gone to Afghanistan this month to meet representatives of the international organisations involved in distribution of the humanitarian assistance and to visit places where Indian programmes and projects are being implemented like Indira Gandhi Children Hospital, Habibia High School, Chimtala sub-power station and the WFP wheat distribution centre.

According to the Ministry of External Affairs, the team headed by Joint Secretary J.P. Singh was also to have met with representatives of the Taliban.

Trina Saha, the Acting US Mission's Minister Counselor for Political Affairs, said that if the Taliban wants to normalise relations with the international community, it should heed the Council's demand "to reverse the steps it's taken to exclude women from social, political and economic life -- immediately".

"This is a perilous moment for Afghanistan," she said, adding, "We have been alarmed by the resumption of fighting and reports of abuses against civilians in various parts of Afghanistan, including in Panjshir."

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed @arulouis)

--IANS

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The on Thursday expressed anguish at the counsel of Chief Minister while hearing the money laundering and office of profit petitions against him.

A bench of Chief Justice Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad were astounded by the fact that Soren's advocate Amritansh Vats did not have the vakalatnama while the hearing was underway.

Delhi-based senior advocate Meenakshi Arora appearing for Soren pleaded for more time, stating that she was not given all the petitions filed in the matter.

The court said the senior advocate Mukul Rohtagi, who earlier appeared for Soren, had never raised the issue of petitions not being served.

Advocate Vats was the local lawyer for Soren and was responsible for receiving the petitions.

On further query, it was revealed that Vats had earlier appeared in the case without a proper vakalatnama executed by Soren.

Vakalatnama is written consent given by a client to his advocate to plead and argue a case on his behalf. It also entitles the advocate to file and receive petitions on behalf of his client.

Arora sought a later date for the hearing. The court, however, was not keen to grant much time and fixed the next date of hearing on June 30.

Two petitions have been filed in the against Soren. While one claimed holding of office of profit by him as he was allegedly granted a mining lease, the other is in regards to parking of illegal funds in shell companies allegedly owned and run by him and his aides.

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The Health Department is on an alert after the Covid cases in the state breached 800-mark in the last 24 hours.

The state reported 858 new Covid cases inching closer to 1,000-mark against 682 discharges. The positivity rate for the day recorded was 2.36 per cent, while the weekly positivity rate stood at 3.63 per cent as per the latest statistics available with the state health department.

Taking serious note of the development, marshals are being deputed to monitor wearing of masks in Bengaluru. The government is yet to decide on imposing a fine for breaking Covid protocols. The Health department is likely to convene a high-level meeting soon against the backdrop of an alarming rise in cases.

According to the data, the total active cases in the state rose to 5,067 cases. The health department has conducted 36,289 Covid tests on a single day in the last 24 hours.

The case fatality rate is 0.11 per cent for the day and weekly case fatality rate is 0.08 per cent. Bengaluru Urban district alone recorded 820 new Covid cases against 666 discharges on a single day.

Bengaluru has 4,818 active Covid cases and only death reported from the state is from here. After Bengaluru, Mysuru (50) and Dakshina Kannada (45) have the most number of active Covid cases in the state.

--IANS

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has reported a massive spike in Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, health officials said.

At least 166 more people have been diagnosed with Covid-19 in the state capital while 102 patients recovered from the infection in the past 24 hours, taking the active caseload beyond 816.

The rise in Covid-19 cases this month has also led to an increase in the case positivity rate (CPR) or the number of samples testing positive per 100 samples tested.

The Uttar Pradesh Health department is worried as from 1. 1 in the first week of June, the CPR reached 2. 4 in the second week and 5 in the third week.

Among the fresh cases, 29 were reported from Aliganj, followed by Alambagh (27), Chinhat (25), Kaiserbagh (19), Indiranagar (19), Sarojini Nagar (11), Old City (7) and Gudamba (1).

According to the Health department spokesman, "While 32 patients had influenza-like illness, 30 had come in contact with infected patients, five were patients who tested positive in routine check-up before admission and 21 had travel history. The source of infection in the rest of the patients could not be ascertained."

The state government has intensified testing and random testing has begun to assess the prevalence of Covid-19.

Hospitals have been directed to make sure Covid rules are followed in OPD and overcrowding is avoided.

Chief Medical Officer Manoj Agrawal, said, "We are conducting around 7,000 tests daily. Swab samples of 50 contacts of a patient are being sent for testing. We should take the Covid threat seriously as the possibility of a fourth wave cannot be denied. The Health department is ready for all circumstances."

District Surveillance Officer Milind Vardhan said there is no need for panic, but all must take precautions, particularly people with comorbidity as well as the elderly.

Meanwhile, as many as 636 new Covid-19 cases and 468 recoveries have been reported from across different districts of Uttar Pradesh in the past 24 hours.

Health officials also informed that the number of active cases in the state reached 3,423.

They said that the number of new and active cases have doubled in the past one week.

More than half of the new and active cases (over 51 per cent) are concentrated in Gautam Buddha Nagar, and Ghaziabad while 31 per cent of the cases belong to the NCR districts of Gautam Buddha Nagar and Ghaziabad.

--IANS

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A group of Muslim intellectuals in are coming together to dispel misinformation about the Agnipath that has triggered protests across various states in the country.

The group has appealed to clerics to appeal to youths coming for Friday prayers to utilise the opportunity and serve the country by joining the armed forces.

The group, under the banner of Association of Muslim Professionals (AMP), said that the initiative will start from Friday, ahead of the prayers.

The AMP added, "We support the Central government's Agnipath also like other ones. Our message will be passed on to eligible Muslim youths by noted clerics and Imams of the mosques in various cities. A special appeal will be made for this by them in the Friday prayers."

AMP patron Shahid Kamran said, "We are also taking the help of social media and trying to guide the Muslim youth looking for job opportunities in the Army."

--IANS

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The government Friday said 122.69 lakh houses have so far been sanctioned under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) as the initiative celebrated the seventh anniversary.

In a statement, the Union said that more than 1 crore houses have been grounded and over 61 lakh houses completed and delivered to the beneficiaries.

At a virtual event, HUA Secretary Manoj Joshi urged states and union territories to expedite construction work in their respective regions to fulfil the target of "Housing for All".

The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U) was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 25, 2015.

According to the ministry, the seventh anniversary celebrations highlighted the important initiatives implemented under PMAY-U Mission, which is one of the largest urban housing programmes in the world.

It said that over the years, various technological and reformative measures have been taken to transform the urban landscape of India.

Six Light House Projects (LHPs) under the Global Housing Technology Challenge India (GHTC-India) is one such initiative that is promoting globally available construction technologies that are sustainable, eco-friendly and disaster-resilient to enable a paradigm shift in affordable housing.

"The LHPs showcase the best of new-age alternate global technology in the housing construction sector. The project in Chennai has been completed in all respects and was inaugurated by the prime minister on May 26, 2022. LHPs in Rajkot, Indore, Lucknow, Ranchi and Agartala are currently in the making," the statement stated. PTI BUN



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Startup entrepreneurs should not get discouraged by detractors and should focus on their mission, said Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

He was speaking at the National Conference: Development of Space Startup Ecosystem in India organised by Astronautical Society of India, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) and Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), in Bengaluru on Friday.

Recalling his own experience while setting up the mobile telecom company BPL Mobile in mid 1990s Chandrasekhar said at that time many were sceptic on his venture and told him, he was not a Tata/Birla/Ambani to venture into telecom sector in which government's regulation and policy plays a major role.

"I was then a 28-year-old startup building India's largest cellular network at that time," he recalled.

Chandrasekhar was then building an all India team with people drawn from defence, telecom department and others.

In order to motivate his team and himself, Chandrasekhar hunted down Neil Armstrong, the first man to set his foot on the moon.

Chandrasekhar flew Armstrong to Mumbai and got him to speak about his journey as an astronaut and also about risk taking, complex engineering and how multiple independently designed equipment worked together.

Recalling the various steps taken by the Central government like the $10 billion incentive scheme for the semiconductor sector Chandrasekhar said space, semiconductor, artificial intelligence, and machine learning offers immense innovation opportunities for India to the world.

On his part, the Secretary, Department of Space and Chairman, ISRO S. Somanath said the country's space agency gets bulk of its work from the private sector.

He said 85 per cent of ISRO's finances were for the industries that build components for its rockets and satellites.

Somanath said ISRO gets its rocket engines from a private industry.

Pawan Kumar Goenka, Chairman, In-SPACe said there is a need for partnership between private sector in India and Indian private sector with organisations overseas.

Goenka said In-SPACe will work on that.

--IANS

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Chief Minister met with several people from the Odia diaspora in Rome, Italy on Thursday, the Office of the Chief Minister said.

Odiyas based out of 12 countries across Europe had a very lively and engaging interaction with the Chief Minister, the PS K Pandian and the Resident Commissioner Ravi Kant.

The diaspora comprised professionals, entrepreneurs, researchers, missionaries, and students from diverse fields such as medicine, engineering, IT, artificial intelligence, business process outsourcing etc.

"The diaspora was proud to recount the achievements of the honourable CM's government in the areas of food security, health, education, infrastructure, disaster management, and women empowerment amongst others," the CMO said.

The diaspora reiterated their strong sense of ownership and dedication to the development of .

Patnaik thanked them for their renewed sense of conviction. He was especially glad to see that the Odias are doing well in Europe. He discussed with them the transformational initiatives taking place in and invited them to partner with the State government towards the development of the State.

Representatives from the UK Odia association explained the steps they are taking to construct a Jagannatha temple in the UK. The Chief Minister assured all support for the same.

He congratulated them on their successful careers and that the State is proud of their achievement. He wished them good luck in their future endeavours.

On Wednesday, Odisha CM met Pope Francis in Vatican City.

The Chief Minister is leading a high-level delegation to and Dubai. The delegation is scheduled to visit the World Food Programme (WFP) headquarters in to share Odisha's "transformational journey" in food security and disaster management.

On Tuesday, the Chief Minister paid tribute to freedom fighter Mahatma Gandhi at the MG Memorial Statue at the Piazza Gandhi in . Speaking on the occasion, Patnaik said that he is inspired by the ideals and principles of India's father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi.

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The government on Friday launched a series of initiatives to help the state become a $1 trillion economy by 2030, with a contribution of around $250 billion by the sector.

Chief minister M K inaugurated several projects on Friday, including the Centre of Excellence in Advance Manufacturing, which was set up at a cost of Rs 212 crore at Tidel park in Taramani, in collaboration with Dassault Systems. Sipcot Industrial Innovation Centres at Hosur and were among the other launches.

The Centre will provide a dedicated IT engineering ecosystem to support the micro small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector and students across . It will help in the growth of various industries such as aerospace, defence, automotive and electric vehicles, the state government said in a statement. It added that the Centre will equip the state with latest technologies such as a 3D experience platform for up-skilling and facilitating future-ready innovations.

also inaugurated two innovation centres at the Sipcot Industrial Parks in Hosur and at a total cost of Rs 33.46 crore to nurture industrial innovation in partnership with Coimbatore Innovation and Business Incubator (CIBI). Each facility has a built up area of 23,500 sq ft to aid budding innovators in Industry 4.0. urged industries in the state to get set for industry 4.0, so that production can be increased multifold.

The state, in a tie-up with Infosys, IIT Madras and the University of Nottingham, launched Industry 4.0 Maturity Index survey through which companies will be able to evaluate and develop measures to achieve their Industry 4.0 goals. Stalin also laid the foundation for Neo IT Parks in Tiruppur and Villupuram districts, which will come up at a cost of Rs 76.9 crore.
After the massive violence in Bettiah district of during the Agnipath protest, the police investigation reveals that the students of the district were provoked through a group originating from state capital .

"The violence in Bettiah was well planned and the students were allegedly provoked through a group originating from . There were some provocative messages that were uploaded on a group called "Future Fauji" on June 17," said a police officer of west Champaran district.

As per the content of the messages, the group members spent Rs 108 to buy petrol and set government properties and the properties of BJP leaders on fire.

The Whatsapp group members reportedly provoked BJP leaders who are playing with the future of the youth of the country.

"The agitation would get successful only when we set the properties of government and BJP leaders on fire," the content of the conversation said.

On June 17, a large scale of violence occurred in several districts of Bihar, including in Bettiah, where protesters have set the properties of state BJP President Sanjay Jaiswal, Deputy Chief Minister Renu Devi and Lauriya BJP MLA Vinay Bihari.

The protesters also set the properties of BJP MLAs, Aruna Devi in Nawada and C.N. Singh in Chapra.

The Agnipath protests lasted for five days from June 16 to 20 with massive violence in .

Several trains were set on fire in various districts, including Patna, Jehanabad, Bhojpur, west Champaran, Buxar, Rohtas, Kaimur, Nawada, Madhepura, Muzaffarpur, Supaul and other districts.

"The rumours were spread in through Whatsapp groups. The investigation is currently underway as several names have come up. We have arrested some accused and also identified many others who were involved in the arson. The raids are underway," said Upendra Nath Verma, Superintendent of Police, west Champaran.

--IANS

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The (PMAY) is a flagship scheme of the central government to boost home ownership in the country. It was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June 2015 with the mission of achieving Housing for All by 2022. It is implemented by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA). The scheme is split into two parts: The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban or PMAY-U and the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Rural or PMAY-R. The Centre chooses the name of the eligible applicants and adds them to a list. Here is all you need to know about the PMAY scheme.

completes 7 years

The was launched on June 25, 2015, and it completes seven years on Saturday. To commemorate the 7th anniversary of the scheme, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs reportedly organised an event presided by ministry secretary Manoj Joshi. An e-book mentioning the achievements of the program was also launched at the event.

What is Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana?

Under the PMAY scheme, the government provides a subsidy on availing loans for the purchase, construction, extension, or improvement of a house. The scheme caters to Economical Weaker Sections (EWS), Lower Income Groups (LIG), and Middle Income Groups (MIG) of the society.

It was launched with a target of completing 2.7 crore houses by 2022. So far, a reported 1.8 crore houses have been constructed, i.e., nearly 67% of the target. The scheme is converged with other government schemes to ensure that houses have a toilet, and access to electricity and drinking water.

What are the components of the PM Awas Yojana?

There are four major components of the scheme.

Credit subsidy: Under the Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme of PMAY, the government provides an interest subsidy of 6.5% for EWS and LIG categories, 4% for the MIG-I category and 3% for the MIG-II category on housing loans for a period of 20 years. The government offers a maximum subsidy of Rs 2.67 lakh on home loan interest.

Slum redevelopment: This part of the scheme aims to redevelop slums using land as a resource in partnership with private organisations. The Centre determines the prices of the houses and the beneficiary contribution (if any) is decided by the respective state government or union territory.

Affordable Housing in Partnership: As part of this scheme, the government provides financial assistance to the tune of Rs. 1.5 lakh to EWS families for the purchase of houses. States and UTs can partner with the private sector to develop such projects. Preference in allotment may be given to people with physical disabilities, senior citizens, SCs and STs, and other vulnerable sections of society.

Subsidiary for Beneficiary-led Construction or Enhancement: This component aims to financially assist EWS families in the construction of a new house or the enhancement of an existing one. EWS households can avail a benefit of Rs 1.5 lakh from the central government under this scheme.

Who is eligible to avail scheme?

Here are the eligibility conditions to avail PMAY scheme.

 The beneficiary should not be aged over 70 years at the end of the repayment period.

 The annual family income limit is Rs 3 lakh per annum for the EWS category, Rs 3-6 lakh for LIG category, Rs 6-12 lakh for MIG-I, and Rs 12-18 lakh for the MIG-II group.

 The applicant should not own a house in any part of India.

 The applicant should not have availed a offered by the central or state governments.

How to apply for the PMAY scheme online?

 To apply for the PMAY scheme online, follow these steps:

 Identify the category under which you qualify for PMAY.

 Visit the official PMAY website.

 Click on Citizen Assessment under the main menu and select the relevant applicant category.

 You will be redirected to a new page. Enter your Aadhaar details.

 Fill out the form with your personal, income, bank account, and residential details.

 Enter the captcha code, verify your details, and submit the form.

How to apply for the PMAY scheme offline?

You can also apply for the PMAY scheme offline by visiting a government-authorized Common Services Centre (CSC). Fill up the offline application form and pay the required fee.

How can you check your name in the PMAY list?

PMAY-Urban

 Visit the official website of PMAY-Urban: pmaymis.gov.in

 Select the Search Beneficiary tab and choose Search by name option from the dropdown menu.

 Enter the name and hit the Search button.

 You will then get access to the PMAY-Urban list.

PMAY-Gramin

 Visit the official website of PMAY-Gramin: pmayg.nic.in

 Click on the Stakeholder tab and choose the IAY/PMAYG beneficiary option.

 Enter the registration number and click on the Search button.

In case you do not have a registration number, go to the Advanced Search option and enter details such as name, BPL number, sanction order, etc., before clicking on the Search button.
Droupadi Murmu, NDA's candidate for presidential elections, will file her nomination in Delhi on Friday. On Thursday, the 64-year-old tribal leader arrived in the national capital and met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minister Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, and BJP President JP Nadda to seek their support.

Murmu's nomination has been backed by many parties, as Andhra CM Jagan Mohan Reddy also said that his party would support the tribal leader. Besides, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar's JD(U), Odisha CM, and BJP President Naveen Patnaik have also supported Murmu's candidature.

If elected, Murmu will be the first tribal leader to become a president.

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, led by CM Hemant Soren, among the 17 Opposition parties who chose Yashwant Sinha as their joint candidate for presidential polls, is also expected to support Murmu's nomination by the .

As the tribal leader will file her papers on Friday, PM Modi is expected to be the first proposer, while several leaders from BJP and other parties will also be among the proposers.

After meeting Murmu on Thursday, PM Modi said in a tweet, "Met Ji. Her Presidential nomination has been appreciated across India by all sections of society. Her understanding of grassroots problems and vision for India's development is outstanding."

Murmu will kickstart her campaign for presidential polls from Saturday as she has sought cooperation from everyone for the upcoming .

The Opposition's joint candidate, Sinha, will file his papers for the presidential polls on Monday, June 27.
With fresh capital infusion of $15 million from French Proparco, Bhubaneshwar-based Annapurna Ltd expects to grow assets under management (AUM) by over 25 per cent to Rs 8,400-8,500 crore by March 2023.

The institution (MFI) has raised a total of $100 million in equity from impact and financial institutions during the past 15 months. In March 2021, Nuveen Global Impact Fund put in $30 million, followed by $20 million from DEG in November that year and $35 million from Encourage Capital, Accion and existing Oikocredit in December 2021.

Annapurna will use the funds to grow its loan book, invest in technology, expand geographically and further its vision of enabling financial inclusion at scale.

Satyajit Das, chief financial officer, AFL, said the latest funding will suffice to support business growth for 18-20 months. After that, the may again have to raise some capital, though the amount may not be that big ($100 million). He did not dwell on the company's valuation. Its Capital Adequacy ratio (CAR) was 29.78 per cent in March 2022, up from 27.71 per cent in March 2021.

Annapurna Finance's stood at about Rs 6,600 crore in March 2022, up from Rs 5,000 crore in March 2021. The lender is expanding laoans to the SME segment. This would be be done through a subsidiary, Das said.

Asked about the time-line for listing of stock, Das said listing is definitely on cards as it would enable shareholders to exit, but it will depend on aspects like market conditions. There could be secondary sales via private placements.

Gobinda Chandra Pattanaik, Managing Director, Annapurna Finance, said the existing debt partner Proparco is further supporting the firm and is now a partner on the equity side. The continues to invest heavily in tech capabilities and operations to support its financial inclusion goals and larger banking ambitions.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is extending the deadline for card-on-file (CoF) tokenisation by another three months to September 30 as transaction processing based on such tokens is yet to gain traction across categories of merchants.

It was mandated that no entity in the card transaction or in the payment chain, other than the card issuers and / or card networks, can store the CoF data, and any such data stored previously be purged. The initial deadline was January 1, which was extended by six months.

CoF refers to card information stored by payment gateway and merchants to process future transactions.

it has been decided to extend the timeline for storing of CoF data by three months, i.e., till September 30, after which such data shall be purged, said a notification.

After reviewing the situation, the regulator observed that considerable progress has been made in terms of token creation.

Further, an alternate system in respect of transactions where cardholders decide to enter the card details manually at the time of undertaking the transaction (commonly referred to as guest checkout transactions) has not been implemented by the industry stakeholders, so far, the notification said.

It urged customers to tokenise data, saying it was necessary to prevent fraud.

There have been instances where such data [card number, expiry date] stored by merchants, etc., have been compromised. Given the fact that many jurisdictions do not mandate additional factor of authentication (AFA) for authenticating card transactions, stolen data in the hands of fraudsters may result in unauthorised transactions and resultant monetary loss to cardholders. Within India as well, social engineering techniques can be employed to perpetrate frauds using such data, said in a statement.

Commenting that 1.95 million tokens have been created so far and it is voluntary for the customers, that is, those who do not wish to create a token can continue to transact as before by entering card details manually at the time of undertaking the transaction, urged customers to tokenise the card data.

The Reserve Bank encourages cardholders to tokenise their cards for their own safety. Cardholders payment experience will be enhanced through an added layer of security by way of tokenisation, the regulator said.

Vishwas Patel, chairman of Payment Council of India (PCI) and executive director of Infibeam Avenues, said the Council was in discussions with its members and it has been observed that while the overall industry was striving and committed to meet the timeline, certain issues had emerged in the final rollout. Patel said this extension of three months will provide breathing space for all parties involved to comply with the tokenisation norms and help in a smoother transition.

Solutions required to resolve the issues were being actively worked on but were to be primarily resolved by the networks, Issuers and Acquirers within the ecosystem. The timeline to implement the fixes was very close to 30-Jun-2022 and hence the industry perceives a risk to the overall readiness for a smooth transition to the tokenisation framework, Patel said.

The RBI said the industry should use the extended time to facilitate stakeholders to be ready for handling tokenised transactions. The extended timeline should also be used to implement an alternate mechanism to handle all post-transaction activities (including chargeback handling and settlement) related to guest checkout transactions, that currently involve /require storage of CoF data by entities other than card issuers and card networks. The regulator also asked the payment players to create public awareness about the process of creating tokens and using them to undertake transactions.
and freezing weather have claimed the lives of 12 children in eastern Afghanistan's Kunar province, the state-run Bakhtar news agency reported.

The natural disaster took place in Yugal area of Chawkay district, the news agency reported on Thursday without providing more details.

Locals on condition of anonymity said the calamity took place a couple of days ago when the families of nomads were taking their animals to the mountains for grazing. All victims belonged to the nomad families.

Parts of the war-torn have recently been the scene of heavy rain and flooding as dozens of people, according to officials, have lost their lives in flash floods across the country, Xinhua news agency reported.

In addition to downpour and flooding, more than 1,000 people have been confirmed dead in an earthquake that jolted eastern Paktika and Khost provinces early on Wednesday.

--IANs

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(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.)
Canadian Prime Minister has denied meddling in an investigation into the 2020 mass shooting, the worst the country's history.

Brenda Lucki, head of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), has been accused of pressuring local officers to help advance Trudeau's gun control plans, the BBC quoted the Halifax Examiner as saying, which was the first to report on the development.

According to the Halifax Examiner, the accusation stemmed from notes made by a local RCMP officer, released as part of a public investigation into the mass shooting on April 18-19, 2020, during which a gunman posing as a police officer killed 22 people in Nova Scotia.

The suspect died in a stand-off with police.

Addressing reporters on Thursday, Trudeau said that his government "did not put any undo influence or pressure" on police.

"It is extremely important to highlight that it is only the RCMP, it is only police that determine what and when to release information," the BBC quoted the Prime Minister as saying.

Denying the accusations, Commissioner Lucki said in a statement released on Tuesday that information sharing between the federal government and police is normal during a high-profile event such as a mass shooting.

The RCMP chief however acknowledged that she "should have been more sensitive" in her approach.

Canada's opposition Conservative Party has called for a debate in the House of Commons, and a parliamentary committee voted on Thursday to hold a hearing into the matter.

In the wake of the deadliest rampage in Canadian history, Prime Minister Trudeau in May 2020 announced an immediate ban on the sale, transportation, importation, or use of some 1,500 makes and models of "military-grade assault-style" weapons.

--IANS

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(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.)
faces billions of dollars in losses from its new plants, supply chain problems and Covid lockdowns  enough for chief executive officer to mention the possibility of .

"The past two years have been an absolute nightmare of supply chain interruptions, one thing after another," Musk said in an interview with a owners group. "We're not out of it yet. That's overwhelmingly our concern is how do we keep the factories operating so we can pay people and not go bankrupt."

Musk engaged in hyperbole elsewhere in the interview, and he may have been doing so when mentioning the risk of . For example, he said that automakers in general "desperately want to go bankrupt," which falls in the category of colorful language rather than strict financial analysis.

Tesla's factory in Shanghai was shut for weeks due to Covid related lockdowns in the city. And Musk disclosed in the interview that the two factories opened in the quarter, in Germany and Texas, are costing the company billions of dollars in losses because supply chain issues have left them with "puny" output so far.

"This is all going to get fixed real fast," he said in comments recorded on May 31, but not released until late Wednesday. "Both Berlin and Austin factories are gigantic money furnaces right now. There's a giant roaring sound which is the sound of money on fire. Bigger than a dumpster [fire]. A dumpster is too small. Berlin and Austin are losing billions of dollars right now. There's a ton of expense and hardly any output."
The Group of 20 (G20) expects to collect no less than $1.5 billion by the end of this year to build infrastructure to prevent and prepare for potential pandemics in the future, said Budi Gunadi Sadikin, Indonesian Minister and the current G20 host.

The commitment to establishing the fund, called the Financial Intermediary Fund (FIF), was agreed upon by the Ministers of G20 members, along with the World Bank and the World Organisation (WHO), at the first Health Ministerial Meeting (HWG) held on June 20-21 in Indonesia's Yogyakarta.

Sadikin told a press briefing on Thursday that as of now, several countries and a few charity foundations had pledged to donate a total of $1.1 billion, Xinhua news agency reported.

The fund will be housed by the World Bank, while the WHO will advise the implementation and allocation of the money.

The Indonesian Health Minister elaborated several allocation plans for the fund, including building and improving access to emergency medical countermeasures, establishing a global network of genomic surveillance labs, and building global research and manufacturing hubs.

Sadikin added that the money will be used to produce emergency tools needed for timely and equitable responses to future pandemics, including vaccines, therapeutics, medicines, personal protective equipment, and testing kits, that will be equally distributed to all countries once another pandemic strikes.

The Minister said the G20 members agreed that they needed some connected sequence laboratories to identify and share genome sequence data from pathogens that can cause outbreaks.

"By having such connected labs we can anticipate or overcome an outbreak better. We will be able to get information faster with stronger data sharing mechanisms, then diagnose faster, then we can produce vaccines faster."

He added that the G20 forum agreed to build several additional global research and manufacturing hubs in Southern countries for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.

Most of the countries in the Global South are underdeveloped and developing countries, which faced more difficulties in facing the pandemic and obtaining access to vaccines.

Sadikin said that the ideal countries to build the hubs were those with large population.

"So, the Global South countries can develop and supply vaccines to their population in a more timely and equitable way."

Local media reported that WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus directly attended the HWG, and he estimated that the financial need for strengthening global health security reached $31 billion per year.

"WHO and the World Bank have estimated that we need $31 billion every year to strengthen global health security. Two-thirds of that amount could come from existing resources, but that leaves a gap of $10 billion per year," he said.

Ghebreyesus suggested that the FIF be supervised by a Council and an Advisory panel that would be supported by the Joint Secretariat of the World Bank and WHO, which is based in Washington.

--IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ukrainian President has hailed the European Union's (EU) decision to grant his country candidate status for accession to the 27-member bloc, saying it was "historic moment" in bilateral ties.

During a two-day summit in Brussels, the European Council on Thursday accepted and Moldova as candidates for membership of the bloc.

Just four days after Russia launched its invasion of Kiev on February 24, Zelensky had signed an official appeal to the EU asking for the accession of via a new special procedure.

Taking to social media on Thursday night, Zelensky wrote: "One of the most important decisions for in all 30 years of independence of our state. However, this decision is not only for Ukraine. This is the biggest step on strengthening Europe that could be taken right now, right in our time, and exactly in such conditions when the Russian war tests our ability to preserve freedom and unity.

"Thanks to the summit of all European leaders. Thank you to our heroes, each and everyone who with weapons in their hands defends Ukraine's independence and the freedom of Europe... Thank you for making a new history of Europe possible, even stronger, even freer."

In a tweet, Zelensky thanked the President of the European Council Charles Michel and the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, adding that it was "a unique and historical moment" in Ukraine-EU ties.

"Ukraine's future is within the EU."

Thursday's development comes after the European Commission published its decision on June 17, in which it recommended recognising Ukraine's European perspective and granting the candidate status.

Candidate status is the first official step towards EU membership. However, observers say even with candidate status, it may take years, if not decades, for Ukraine to obtain EU membership, the BBC reported.

For example, the Western Balkan countries of Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia have been candidate countries for years; in some cases for over a decade.

Bosnia and Herzegovina applied for candidacy in 2016 but has still not succeeded.

--IANS

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(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 Monetary Fund called on to accelerate its program, warning the sharply slowing pace of new doses administered could undermine a recovery in consumer spending in the economy.



At the current pace, providing three doses of Covid vaccines to the population would take a matter of years, Helge Berger, head of the IMFs mission, said in an interview. With spending growth yet to recover to pre-pandemic rates, partly because households are cautious about Covid infections, an acceleration of the campaign would support confidence and ultimately consumption, he said.

About 375 million people over the age of 15 in have yet to receive three doses of a vaccine, while the daily rate has fallen below 800,000 per day, according to official data. Studies have shown that three doses of Chinas domestic vaccines were nearly as effective as mRNA vaccines in preventing severe infections or deaths.



Also Read: Covid vaccines prevented 20 million deaths in first year of rollout: Study





The low rate of full vaccination, particularly among elderly people, is one of the reasons China is persisting with its strict Covid Zero policy requiring limits on activity wherever virus cases occur. Only about 64% of Chinese people over 60 have received three doses, according to Chinas national health commission.

Berger said the lockdowns in Shanghai and dozens of other cities since March are a key reason the sees downside risks to its April forecast of 4.4% gross domestic product growth for China this year.

The second quarter will be weak given the lockdowns, he said.

While national data has largely returned to pre-lockdown levels, Berger added that in Shanghai, measures of economic activity monitored by the have recovered only to around 50%.

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg predict growth of 4.1% in China this year and a possible contraction in quarter-on-quarter GDP in the April-June period. That makes it unlikely the government will meet its full-year target of around 5.5%.

The has consistently called on Beijing to increase fiscal support to households. Even taking into account measures announced since April, Chinas fiscal stimulus this year is smaller relative to 2020, Berger added.

The known fiscal measures this year are still small relative to 2020, even taking into account that in 2020 the overall shock was larger than this year, he said.
An Indian-American Muslim body on Thursday praised Congresswoman Ilhan Omar for introducing a resolution in the US House of Representative that condemns India for the alleged human rights violation against the minorities in particular the .

Co-sponsored by lawmakers Rashida Talib and Juan Vargas, the resolution urges the State Department to act on the recommendations of the US Commission on Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and designate India as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) under the Religious Freedom Act.

The USCIRF's recommendations are not binding on the State Department and for the past several years successive American administrations have ignored its recommendations in this regard.

In a statement, Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) commended Omar and two of her Congressional colleagues to introduce the resolution in this regard in the House early this week.

It is indeed sad to see the country that we love and adore, discriminate and criminalize its most vulnerable citizens and head down the path of bigotry, intolerance and authoritarianism, said Syed Afzal Ali, president of IAMC.

However, the rsolution like this is very unlikely to see the light of the day, given the vindictive approach being adopted by Congresswoman Omar. She has openly sided with Pakistani officials on the issue of India.

Omar, who visited Pakistan in last April and met top Pakistani leaders, including former Prime Minister Imran Khan, and travelled to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), is yet to disclose the nature, including the funding, of the visit.

India had condemned the US Congresswoman's visit to PoK, saying her travel to the region violated the country's sovereignty and it reflected her "narrow-minded" politics.

"If such a politician wishes to practice her narrow-minded politics at home, that may be her business. But violating our territorial integrity and sovereignty in its pursuit makes it ours. This visit is condemnable," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had said.

During several Congressional hearings related to India, Omar has repeatedly shown her bias against India.

(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.)
Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's former de facto leader who was ousted during the February 2021 military coup, has been sent to solitary confinement at a prison in capital Nay Pyi Taw, the media reported on Friday.

The 77-year-old Nobel laureate had been held at an undisclosed location in the capital since she was arrested when the military overthrew her elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government on February 1, 2021, reports the BBC.

Also the former State Councillor, Suu Kyi faces a total of 11 charges, such as violating the Official Secrets Act, incitement, corruption and breaching Covid rules. But she has denied them all.

On Thursday, informed sources told the BBC that she had been moved to the separate, specially-built accommodation inside the jail a day earlier, where deposed President Win Myint is also being held in solitary confinement.

Suu Kyi is likely to attend trial hearings from a special court set up inside the prison, said the sources.

They added that the former leader has been assigned three female staffers in the jail and is in good health.

The incumbent Min Aung Hlaing-led military government of has confirmed the development, saying that was in accordance with criminal laws in the country, reports the BBC.

If convicted of all the charges, Suu Kyi could spend the rest of her life behind bars.

The 2021 coup was staged after the military alleged massive voting fraud in the November 2020 general elections, which saw the NLD win a majority of seats in both houses of Parliament.

The coup triggered widespread demonstrations and Myanmar's military has cracked down on pro-democracy protesters, activists and journalists, according to rights groups.

Suu Kyi is one of more than 14,000 people to have been arrested by the junta since February, and at least 2,000 killed in the demonstrations, according to the monitoring group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

--IANS

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(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 falling remittances and depleting foreign exchange reserves, has come on the brink. The policy makers in the country have indicated their intention to adopt unconventional measures.

Recently, Federal Minister for planning Ahsan Iqbal urged the countrymen to cut down on the consumption of tea to help reduce the bill. He said, "I appeal to cut down the consumption of tea by 1-2 cups because we tea on loan."

The Planning Minister also revealed that the traders' community has also been asked to close markets by 8.30 p.m. to conserve energy to cut down bill of petrol products.

The Minister's appeal to cut down the consumption of tea did not go down well with people as revealed by the exchange of views on Twitter.

Import of tea constitutes an important component of Pakistan's total import bill which stood at $400 million in 2021-22 and $340 million in 2020-21.

Such appeals reflect desperation and helplessness of the Pakistani which has fast lost its resilience in last few years. It is reflected by its depleting foreign exchange, depreciating currency and ballooning debt service obligations. The situation of the Pakistani has also deteriorated due to loss of growth momentum post-Covid pandemic outbreak, higher level of double deficit and drying up of foreign investment etc.

The economic problems facing Islamabad would not be easy to solve by desperate unconventional measures. needs structural changes as problems of the are deep rooted. Temporary solutions may give some respite and breathing space, but Islamabad doesn't afford to postpone its reforms any further.

China had agreed in principle in March 2022 for granting a fresh rollover of $2.5 billion in commercial loans to Pakistan for one year, out of approximately $21 billion outstanding official loan including commercial, bilateral and safe deposits.

This is over and above Beijing's earlier decision to roll over $2 billion, taking the total roll over amount to $4.5 billion.

Meanwhile, IMF has also agreed to extend the Extended Fund Facility to Pakistan with additional funds on compliance to its conditionality of doing away with subsidies and raising taxes and power tariffs.

The debt-ridden Pakistani economy is under compulsion now to fulfil the IMF conditionality requiring management of external financing requirement which, among others, also aimed at avoiding depletion of foreign exchange reserves.

Pakistan, according to official data, owed $16 billion of non-Paris Club countries on December 31, 2021 out of which China's bilateral debt stood at $14.81 billion.

China's SAFE deposits stood at $4 billion. Pakistan also owned commercial loans to China to the tune of $10.77 billion provided by different consortium of and domestic banks in dollar. The Chinese commercial loans to Pakistan were to the tune of over $2.5 billion till December 2021.

The IMF had assessed that Pakistan's gross external financing sector requirements stood at over $30 billion in FY 2021-22 while current account deficit was projected at $12.9 billion on the completion of 6th review under $6 billion Extended Fund Facility Programme for Pakistan.

Nevertheless, by the end of June 22, the current account deficit is likely to end up at a much higher level, estimated to be in the range of $16-18 billion. The IMF assessed that the gross national financing requirements would be standing a $35 billion for the budget for FY 2022-23.

On June 10, Pakistan's newly elected government's Finance Minister, Miftah Ismail presented a $47 billion (PKR 9.52 trillion) budget aiming to achieve 5 per cent economic growth less than previous year's growth of 5.97 per cent.

Out of the total annual budget, around 40 per cent is reserved to make foreign and domestic debt payments, indicating that the debt servicing of the country might increase to $23 billion in budget 2022-23.

Pakistan's foreign exchange stood at $9.2 billion by end May, which is enough to cover only 45 days of Pakistan import bill. The import cost would further increase due to continued decline in the exchange rate of PKR against dollar which stood at PKR 205 against the USD for the first time in the history on June 7.

Pakistan's economic woes are not expected to ease in the coming weeks. The country's import bill continues to balloon due to oil imports and other expenditures, while exports have not risen enough to cover the current account deficit.

Lack of support has further worsened the situation. Pakistan needs to take tough decisions and undertake economic reforms so as to stabilise and revitalise its economy.

--IANS

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(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.)
will impose an extra one-time 10% tax on large scale industry for one year to raise over 400 billion Pakistani rupees ($1.93 billion) to clinch a crucial deal from the Monetary Fund, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said on Friday.

The announcement comes ahead of what hopes will be an agreement to unlock a new tranche of IMF funds which are needed to avert a balance of payment crisis.

"Let me share this good news that this country isn't heading toward a default anymore," the finance minister told parliament in his concluding budget speech that brought in the new taxes.

"We've taken very difficult decisions," he said. Ismail called it a super tax, pleading with large scale industry to bear with it for just one year to help shore up revenues urgently required to cut the fiscal deficit.

He said tax will be levied on 13 big industries, companies and corporations, including sugar, steel, cement, oil and gas, fertilizer, cigarettes, chemical, automobiles, banks, textile, LNG terminals and beverages, which have earnings exceeding 300 million Pakistani rupee ($1.45 million).

"So, their tax rates will go from 29% to 39%," he clarified separately in a tweet.

But, he said there will be a blanket 4% super tax on all industry.

"Please, contribute your share just for one year. We desperately need it this year," Ismail appealed to the industrialists in his parliament speech.

Pakistan's KSE 100 share index fell 4.8% on Friday after the government announced the tax rise.

Ismail said a revised budget will raise the revenue collection target to 7.4 trillion rupees from 7 trillion rupees after the tax imposition. He said a one-time tax slab from 10% to 40% will also be introduced on individual earnings from 150 million rupees to 400 million rupees a year.

The IMF has been pushing to raise revenues and cut expenditures to trim the budget deficit to be able to get its next loan tranche of $900 million, that has been suspended since earlier this year.

"It was necessary to resume the IMF programme to save our country from default," Ismail said, adding that Pakistan will significantly reduce the total and primary budget deficit for FY2022-23 in agreement with the IMF.

The South Asian nation desperately needs the IMF funding as it has been in the grip of a financial crisis, with foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank falling as low as $8.2 billion, and the Pakistani rupee at record lows against the US dollar.

Pakistan entered the 39-month, $6 billion IMF programme in 2019, but less than half of the amount has been disbursed to date as Islamabad has struggled to keep targets on track.

Pak gets $2.3-bn loan to stabilise its falling forex Pakistan has received a $2.3 billion Chinese consortium loan that will help stabilise its fast-depleting foreign reserves, finance minister Miftah Ismail said on Friday. The country is still seeking Monetary Fund assistance to ease a dire financial crisis. Foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank have fallen to as little as $8.2 billion, and the Pakistani rupee is at a record low against the US dollar.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The agreed on Thursday to put on a path toward EU membership, acting with uncharacteristic speed and unity to pull the embattled country further away from Russia's influence and bind it more closely to the West.

Meeting at a summit in Brussels, leaders of the EU's 27 nations mustered the required unanimous approval to grant candidate status. That sets in motion a process that could take years or even decades.

The EU also granted candidate status to the tiny country of Moldova, another former Soviet state that borders .

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pronounced it a good day for Europe.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted his gratitude and declared: Ukraine's future is within the EU.

Ukraine applied for membership less than a week after Moscow invaded on February 24. Thursday's decision was unusually rapid for the EU. But the war and Ukraine's request for fast-track consideration lent urgency to its cause.

To gain EU membership, countries must meet a detailed host of economic and political conditions, including a commitment to the rule of law and other democratic principles. Ukraine, among other things, will also have to curb entrenched government corruption and adopt other reforms.

The European Parliament endorsed Ukraine's bid hours before the summit started, passing a resolution that called on EU governments to move without delay" and live up to their historical responsibility".

It will strengthen Ukraine, it will strengthen Europe. It is a decision for freedom and democracy and puts us on the right side of history, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said ahead of the final announcement.

The EU's nations have been united in backing Ukraine in its fight against Russia's invasion with money and weapons, adopting unprecedented economic sanctions against the Kremlin.

EU candidate status doesn't give an automatic right to join the bloc and doesn't provide any immediate security guarantees.

Once a country gains membership, however, it is covered under an EU treaty clause that says if a member falls victim to armed aggression, the other EU countries are obligated to assist it by all the means in their power.

The main benefits of EU membership, though, are economic, since it gives access to a market of 450 million consumers with free movement of labour, goods, services and capital.

Ukraine has long aspired to join NATO, too, but the military alliance is not about to offer an invitation, in part because of governmental corruption, shortcomings in the country's defense establishment, and its contested borders.

Before the war, Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded that Ukraine never be allowed to join NATO, which he has condemned for its eastward spread toward Russia's flank. But earlier this month, he did not seem bothered by Ukraine's determination to get closer to the EU, saying it is not a military pact and thus we have no objections.

The membership process can be long and tortuous.

Turkey, for example, applied for membership in 1987, received candidate status in 1999, and had to wait until 2005 to start talks for actual entry. Only one of more than 30 negotiating chapters has been completed in the years since, and the whole process is at a standstill as a result of various disputes between the EU and Turkey.

Similarly, several Balkan countries have been seeking without success for many years to join the EU.

European officials have said that Ukraine has already adopted about 70 per cent of the EU rules and standards, but they also have pointed to corruption and the need for deep political and economic reforms in the country.

Considerable efforts will be needed, especially in the fight against corruption and the establishment of an effective rule of law, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said.

But I am convinced that it is precisely the (postwar) reconstruction of Ukraine that will provide opportunities to take important steps forward.

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Amid escalating Russian advances, Ukrainian forces in Severodonetsk have been asked to retreat from the key city in the eastern Luhansk region where fierce battles are currently raging, a top leader said on Friday.

For several weeks now, Russian forces have nearly encircled Severodonetsk and its twin city Lysychansk.

Capturing the two cities would give Moscow control of the entire Luhansk region, much of which is already controlled by Russian-backed separatists.

They are the last remaining Ukrainian positions in Luhansk.

Speaking to local media on Friday, Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Haidai said: "Remaining in positions that have been relentlessly shelled for months just doesn't make sense.

"They have received orders to retreat to new positions... and from there continue their operations."

"There is no point in staying in positions which have been destroyed over several months just for the sake of staying," the BBC quoted the Governor as further saying.

According to Haidai, Severodonetsk's entire infrastructure has been completely destroyed, with over 90 per cent of houses shelled and 80 per cent of them critically damaged.

The Governor's remarks came as President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of trying to "destroy" the Donbas region, which comprises Luhansk and Donetsk.

"There were massive air and artillery strikes in Donbas. The occupier's goal here is unchanged, they want to destroy the entire Donbas step-by-step," Zelensky said in his nightly video address on Wednesday.

He also repeated his calls for Western leaders to speed up the delivery of heavy artillery to his troops, reports the BBC.

"We again and again emphasise the acceleration of arms deliveries to . What is quickly needed is parity on the battlefield in order to halt this diabolical armada and push it beyond Ukraine's borders."

--IANS

ksk/

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The head of the warned Friday that the world faces catastrophe because of the growing shortage of around the globe.

UN Secretary-General said the war in Ukraine has added to the disruptions caused by climate change, the pandemic and inequality to produce an unprecedented global hunger crisis already affecting hundreds of millions of people.

There is a real risk that multiple famines will be declared in 2022, he said in a video message to officials from dozens of rich and developing countries gathered in Berlin. And 2023 could be even worse.

Guterres noted that harvests across Asia, Africa and the Americas will take a hit as farmers around the world struggle to cope with rising fertilizer and energy prices.

This year's access issues could become next year's global shortage, he said. No country will be immune to the social and economic repercussions of such a catastrophe.

Guterres said UN negotiators were working on a deal that would enable Ukraine to export food, including via the Black Sea, and let Russia bring food and fertilizer to world markets without restrictions.

He also called for debt relief for poor countries to help keep their economies afloat and for the private sector to help stabilise global food markets.

The Berlin meeting's host, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, said Moscow's claim that Western sanctions imposed over Russia's invasion of Ukraine were to blame for food shortages was completely untenable."



Russia exported as much wheat in May and June this year as in the same months of 2021, Baerbock said.

She echoed Guterres' comments that several factors underlie the growing hunger crisis around the world.

But it was Russia's war of attack against Ukraine that turned a wave into a tsunami, Baerbock said.

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The U.N. human rights office said Friday that veteran correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh and her crew were hit by seemingly well-aimed bullets fired from the direction of Israeli troops and called for a criminal probe into her death last month.

Abu Akleh, a prominent Palestinian-American reporter, was shot and killed on May 11 while covering an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank town of Jenin.

Israel denies targeting her and says she may have been hit by Palestinian gunfire.

A spokeswoman for U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said her office conducted monitoring and not a full investigation in which it gathered information from witnesses, experts and official communications, as well as photos, video and audio material from the scene.

Its findings suggest the shots that killed Abu Akleh and wounded a colleague came from Israeli security forces and not from indiscriminate firing by armed Palestinians.

We have found no information suggesting that there was activity by armed Palestinians in the immediate vicinity of the journalists, said rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani.

She said it was deeply disturbing that Israeli authorities have not conducted a criminal investigation.

Shamdasani said the office's monitoring could not determine intent in the case, and only a criminal investigation could do that.

Israel has long rejected the findings of U.N. bodies, accusing them of bias. Defense Minister Benny Gantz said only a thorough, ballistic analysis of the bullet which is held by the Palestinian Authority could determine whether it was shot by Israeli troops or Palestinian militants.

An Associated Press reconstruction of the shooting found that Israeli troops likely fired the fatal shot but that a firm conclusion was not possible without more evidence.

Subsequent investigations by CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post also found that Israeli troops had likely fired the fatal shot.

Israel has adamantly denied allegations from and the Palestinian Authority that Abu Akleh was deliberately targeted.

Israeli authorities say they have not launched a criminal probe because they have not yet determined who fired the fatal shot.

The PA, which administers parts of the occupied West Bank and cooperates with Israel on security matters, has refused to hand over the bullet. It has rejected any Israeli role in the investigation, accusing it of trying to conceal its responsibility.

The U.N. rights office said Abu Akleh and crew had moved slowly to make their presence visible to the Israeli forces," who were deployed around 200 metres away along a straight, narrow road.

"Several single, seemingly well-aimed bullets were fired towards (the reporters) from the direction of the Israeli security forces, said Shamdasani. A single bullet killed Abu Akleh instantly and another wounded her colleague, Ali Samoudi.

The AP found that the closest confirmed presence of Palestinian militants was on the other side of the Israeli forces, another 100 metres or so away, and they did not have a line of sight to the reporters.

A wave of Palestinian attacks earlier this year that targeted Israelis killed 19 people. Israel has carried out near-daily raids across the West Bank that it says are aimed at preventing more attacks.

Many of the attackers came from Jenin, which has been a focus of those operations.

Dozens of Palestinians have been killed during those operations, most of whom are alleged to have opened fire on Israeli forces or hurled stones or firebombs at them. The dead also include two apparent passers-by.

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The voted 65-33 to approve bipartisan gun-safety legislation that is hailed as the biggest breakthrough on the issue in three decades.

The vote came the same day the Supreme Court struck down a New York law that required people to show a special need to carry a handgun in public, ruling for the first time that the Second Amendment protects gun rights outside the home.

The dueling actions, occurring across the street from one another, underscore the deep divisions that remain in the country on gun policy against the backdrop of recent massacres at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, where a total of 31 people were killed last month.

Senators, who have long struggled to find common ground on gun safety, restarted stalled negotiations after those killings, producing a bill aimed at improving background checks, securing schools and giving states federal funds to combat gun violence.

The House is expected to pass the bill and send it to President Joe Bidens desk for his signature before leaving for a two-week recess.

By passing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, Congress will be taking meaningful action to save lives, the White House said in a statement of support for the bill. This legislation would be one of the most significant steps Congress has taken to reduce gun violence in decades, giving our law enforcement and prosecutors new tools to prosecute gun traffickers.

Under the legislation, every state will have the opportunity for grants to help pay for crisis intervention programs, regardless of whether they set up red flag laws that allow judges to remove guns from potentially dangerous owners.

It also provides for improvements to the national background check system, including giving states incentives to upload juvenile records to allow better reviews of gun purchasers aged 18 to 21.

The bill includes billions of dollars in funding to help secure schools and bolster mental health resources.

The boyfriend loophole, aimed at barring convicted dating partners from buying guns, also would be closed. The provision is modeled after current law that allows domestic abusers to be restricted if they are married to, have lived with or have a child with the victim. But in a compromise, a person convicted of a misdemeanor for attacking a dating partner could be allowed to buy a gun again after five years if they meet certain requirements.

The bill also would provide stiff new federal criminal penalties for people who make straw purchases and traffic guns to be used in crime, or who illegally evade licensing requirements.

Details of the legislation were hashed out by four Senate negotiators: Republicans John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, and Democrats Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he supports the bill as a commonsense package, which helped pave the way toward broad bipartisan support.

The National Rifle Association, however, announced its opposition to the bill Tuesday night.

This legislation can be abused to restrict lawful gun purchases, infringe upon the rights of law-abiding Americans, and use federal dollars to fund gun-control measures being adopted by state and local politicians, the NRA said in a statement.

House GOP leaders oppose the bill and are urging Republicans in that chamber to vote against it. It is, though, expected to pass.

Everytown for Gun Safety, which advocates gun-safety measures, is backed by Michael Bloomberg, founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent company Bloomberg LP. The group filed a brief at the Supreme Court supporting the New York restrictions.
on Friday said it would like to have a "result-oriented" dialogue with but the environment for such parleys was not conducive.

Foreign Office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, responding to a query about National Security Adviser Ajit Doval's recent remarks, said: We would like to have normal relations but tolerance threshold for is very low. Can't have peace and war at the choice of our adversary, we will decide when, with whom and on what terms."



The spokesperson said that it was Pakistan's official position to have friendly cooperative relations with neighbours including and to resolve all issues through a dialogue which is result oriented and meaningful, which can lead to progress on outstanding issues, particularly the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.

We have said that the environment for such dialogue is not there, this is what the Foreign Minister ( Zardari) also said recently. The environment has been vitiated by Indian actions, and the onus is therefore on to take necessary steps to create an environment which will be conducive for dialogue, he said.

India has repeatedly told that Jammu and Kashmir "was, is and shall forever" remain an integral part of the country.

India has said it desires normal neighbourly relations with in an environment free of terror, hostility and violence.

Doval this week said that India would like to have normal ties with Pakistan but its tolerance threshold for is very low.

The FO spokesperson also alleged that India also uses the ploy of to undermine the legitimate struggle for self-determination of the Kashmiri people and to divert the attention of the community from its human rights violations in Kashmir.

The spokesperson also said the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi on June 17 this year issued 495 visas to Sikh pilgrims from India to attend the rituals related to the annual death anniversary of Maharaja Ranjeet Singh from June 21-30.

During the visit, the pilgrims would, inter-alia, go to Panja Sahib, Nankana Sahib and Kartarpur Sahib, he added.

To another question, he said that the instrument of sanction should be used through the mechanisms that are internationally available, that is through the United Nations.

He said Pakistan's position on Ukraine was clear from the beginning that the situation is unfortunate and it has led to many consequences, which have serious impact on the community, including particularly the developing countries.

Talking about remarks made in the Canadian Parliament recently by a member, he said Pakistan took up this issue with the Canadian government, underling that freedom of expression entails responsibility, and that Islamabad takes serious exception to the baseless and unsubstantiated remarks that have been made.

Pakistan and Canada have a multi-faceted relationship and we wish to deepen our bilateral ties based on mutual respect and trust and such incidents are not helpful in that context, he said.

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Chinese President on Friday announced an additional USD 1 billion to the USD 3 billion already committed by to the Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund as he held a high-level dialogue on global development in virtual format, a day after hosting the 14th .

will allocate more resources for global development cooperation, Xi told the meeting.

We will upgrade the South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund to a Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund, and add USD 1 billion to the fund on top of the USD 3 billion already committed, he said.

We will also increase input to the UN Peace and Development Trust Fund he said, adding that such efforts will further support cooperation under the Global Development Initiative (GDI) initiated by him earlier.

For the third day on Friday, Xi who hosted the 14th BRICS, (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) on Wednesday and Thursday, attacked the US for sanctions against Russia in the ongoing Ukraine war and forming new alliances to contain .

The protectionist policies will boomerang. Anyone attempting to form exclusive blocs will end up isolating himself; maximum sanctions serve nobody's interest, and practices of decoupling and supply disruption are neither feasible nor sustainable, he said.

He also said development is being politicised and marginalised by some countries that are forming "small yards with high fences," imposing maximum sanctions, and deliberately creating division and confrontation.

His criticism against US, EU sanctions was the dominant theme of his speeches at the BRICS Business Forum on Wednesday and the 14th on Thursday.

It is important that we pursue development in real earnest and build an open world economy, and shape a global governance system and institutional environment that are more just and equitable, he said.

He called for jointly fostering global development partnership. Developed countries should fulfil their obligations, developing countries should deepen cooperation, and the South and the North should meet each other halfway, Xi said.

Recalling his experience of working as a farmer in a small village in China in the 1960s, Xi said there I experienced first-hand the hardships in farming and saw how the local people struggled to make ends meet.

Half a century later, I revisited the village and found the villagers no longer in want of food or clothing, as evidenced by the happy smiles on their faces, he said, stressing placing development at the centre of the agenda.

Xi called for implementing the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and building a political consensus that development is valued by all people and cooperation is jointly pursued by all countries.

The COVID-19 pandemic has eroded the gains of global development over the past many years, and the implementation of the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has been confronted with headwinds, Xi said.

Meanwhile, people around the world have even stronger aspirations for peace, development and cooperation, with the emerging markets and developing countries firming up the resolve to stay united and seek self-strengthening, he added.

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Capital regulator on Friday imposed fines totalling Rs 4 lakh on four individuals for violation of norms in the shares of Ltd during the January-March 2019 period when they were designated employees.

The regulator levied a fine of Rs 1 lakh each on Chirag Malhotra, Meenakumari M, BG Dhananjaya and Nikhil Jain, according to four separate orders.

The order came after had investigated the scrip of after it was intimated about contravention of prohibition of norms and the company's code of conduct for prevention of by some of its designated persons/employees.

The regulator found non-compliance by the individuals to the regulations during January-March 2019 period.

During their employment with Mindtree, they had transacted in the securities of the company but failed to make disclosures to the firm as required under the (Prohibition of Insider Trading) rules, as per .

The disclosure requirements were triggered on account of the transactions concerned exceeding the market value of Rs 10 lakh.

For violation of the norms, the individuals have been penalised by the regulator.

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Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) rose 1.67% to Rs 137.10 after the company said that its overseas arm, ONGC Videsh, made an oil discovery in the recently drilled well, Urraca-IX, in CPO-5 block, Llanos Basin, Colombia.

On 20 April 2022, the ONGC Videsh dug a well and drilled to target depth of 10,956 feet, encountering 17 feet thick oil bearing sands at a depth from 10,201 feet to 10,218 feet in Urraca-IX in CPO-5 block, Llanos Basin, Colombia.

During initial testing with Electrical Submersible Pump (ESP), fluid flowed at approximately 600 barrels per day with around 40-50% water-cut and oil of 16 degrees API. Oil discovery in the Lower Mirador play in this well will open up new areas for further exploration in the northern part of the block, ONGC said.

Earlier, ONGC Videsh had discovered commercial oil in the lower sand pay in Mariposa and indico fields in the block in 2017 and 2018 respectively, which are currently commercially producing 20,000 barrels per day.

ONGC Videsh holds 70% participating interest (PI) in the block along with operatorship, remaining 30% is held by partner Geopark. ONGC Videsh has a significant presence in oil & gas sector in Colombia, with three other exploratory blocks in the country and joint ownership of the oil producing company Mansarovar Energy Colombia Ltd (MECL).

Maharatna ONGC is the largest crude oil and natural gas company in India, contributing around 71% to Indian domestic production. It has in-house service capabilities in all areas of exploration and production of oil & gas and related oil-field services. The Government of India held 58.91% stake in ONGC as of March 2022.

ONGC reported 31.6% growth in standalone net profit to Rs 8,860 crore on a 62.8% jump in net sales to Rs 34,497.24 crore in Q4 FY22 over Q4 FY21.

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Thermax rose 1.03% to Rs 2008.85 after the company said its subsidiary, First Energy, acquired Jalansar Wind Energy and Kanakal Wind Energy through share purchase agreement.

Jalansar Wind Energy and Kanakal Wind Energy are engaged in renewable energy projects. The acquisition is done for the proposed power projects to be undertaken by First Energy. The total cash consideration for the acquisition is Rs 1 lakh for each of the company.

Post acquisition, both the acquired companies will become a wholly owned step-down subsidiaries of Thermax. The acquisition of both the firms will be completed by 8 July 2022, 15 days from execution of share purchase agreement.

The company said that there will be no government or regulatory approval required.

Thermax is an energy and environment solutions provider. Its business portfolio includes products for heating, cooling, water and waste management, and specialty chemicals. The company also designs, builds and commissions large boilers for steam and power generation, turnkey power plants, industrial and municipal wastewater treatment plants, waste heat recovery systems and air pollution control projects.

The company reported 4.5% decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 102.54 crore on a 26.5% rise in revenue from operations to Rs 1,991.92 crore in Q4 FY22 over Q4 FY21.

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The first edit says India should protect its longer-term interests in crude oil. And when added to discomfort in the Islamic world over some recent events, India should do everything in its power to minimise economic tensions. The second edit argues why the world should help Sri Lanka.



AJAY TYAGI: One of the reasons for introducing the system of a committee in the RBI Act, in 2016, with external members, to determine the monetary policy was to have wider expert deliberations on this important matter and not leave it just to the bureaucracy of the RBI to decide. It is time to critically review whether this has worked.

JOSEPH E STIGLITZ: How the US could lose the new cold war.


Former Congress president on Friday shared a tweet by Param Vir Chakra awardee Capt Bana Singh criticising the Agnipath scheme for military recruitment and asked whether only "friends" will be heard 'new India' and not heroes.

Sharing the tweet, he also attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying on one side is his arrogance and dictatorship and on the other is the country's 'Paramvir'.

Last week, violent protests against the Agnipath scheme rocked several states, including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Telangana, while peaceful agitations were held in several places.

"On one side is the country's Paramvir and on the other is the arrogance and dictatorship of the prime minister. In 'New India', will only 'friends' be heard and not the heroes of the country," Gandhi asked in a tweet in Hindi, while sharing a screenshot of Capt Bana Singh's tweet.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh also shared the screenshot of Capt Bana Singh's tweet.

"The fact that a Paramvir Chakra Awardee had to delete an honest, heartfelt tweet against Agnipath scheme demonstrates that in Modindia not only Freedom of Speech, but Freedom AFTER Speech is also under peril," he said.

Capt Bana Singh, a Paramvir Chakra awardee, in a Twitter post, had shared his interview saying the Agnipath scheme will destroy the Army.

"Save the country, Agnipath scheme will badly damage us, India is going through a crucial stage. Youngsters are the future of our motherland," he had said on Twitter.

The tweet has since been deleted.

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The is waiting for the final outcome out of the political fight between the led by Chief Minister and dissident Sena MLAs led by rebel party leader Eknath Shinde, which has fast snowballed into a political fight over who will now lead the party.

Of the 55 MLAs of Shiv Sena, two-thirds, that is more than 37 party MLAs, have owed allegiance to Shinde, who is now claiming that more than 40 MLAs of the party are firmly supporting him, and many more MLAs are likely to join him in the next few days.

Accusing of abandoning the ideology of Hindutva, Shinde is now asserting his claim on founder Balasaheb Thackeray's legacy, the real and even the party's election symbol.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, who is part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition government in Maharashtra, on Thursday defended Thackeray and accused the of plotting the political ruckus within the Shiv Sena.

However, the BJP, which is allegedly being held responsible for the political turmoil within Shiv Sena, has termed the political crisis as the latter's "internal party affairs".

Speaking on the political slugfest within the Shiv Sena, the saffron party says that sooner or later such a crisis was bound to happen within the Shiv Sena, which compromised Hindutva for staying in power in .

From the beginning, the has called the MVA government as an "unholy alliance", while saying that the people of had given the mandate to the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance government, but betrayed the BJP to become the Chief Minister and instead formed an alliance with the Congress and the NCP.

Meanwhile, the BJP, which was deceived by NCP chief's nephew Ajit Pawar earlier in 2020 is trying to make political moves cautiously this time and is waiting for the final outcome of the ongoing fight within the Shiv Sena.

The BJP is also awaiting the final decision of Uddhav Thackeray over Eknath Shinde's offer wherein the latter had advised the Chief Minister to break alliance with the NCP and Congress and again form the government with the BJP.

Several BJP leaders believe that if both the MVA government and the Shiv Sena collapse and if there is no other way to save them, then Uddhav Thackeray might again join hands with old ally BJP.

This is why the BJP high command is maintaining silence despite sharp political attacks and allegations levelled against them by Shiv Sena leaders Uddhav Thackeray and Sanjay Raut, NCP's Sharad Pawar as well as the Congress leaders.

--IANS

stp/khz/dpb

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Bengal Chief Minister on Thursday flayed the for trying to topple the Shiv Sena-led government in Maharashtra in an unethical and unconstitutional manner, claiming that the motive behind the act is to secure requisite votes for the upcoming .

She said the saffron party has deliberately chosen to "disturb" the at a time when the are approaching.

"The government is bulldozing democracy. I feel very sad, and it is unfortunate that it is demolishing the federal structure of this country. It is attempting to topple the in an unethical and unconstitutional manner," Banerjee told reporters at the state secretariat.

"In the forthcoming presidential polls, the is falling short in terms of votes. Hence, they are picking and choosing which government to topple to get the votes needed to elect their nominee for the post of president," the Trinamool Congress boss added.

In what seems to be an apparent bid to topple the Maha Vikas Aghadi government (MVA) in Maharashtra, dissident legislators of Shiv Sena, which heads the ruling coalition, left for Surat on Tuesday, where they had camped for the day, before flying to Guwahati in a chartered aircraft.

This is perhaps the first time MLAs from a western state were flown to a northeastern state, following their rebellion against the party leadership.

The exact number of rebel legislators that moved to Guwahati could not be confirmed, but the flight reportedly carried 89 passengers, including the crew.

With the BJD backing NDA presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu, the vote share of the ruling dispensation has now crossed 50 per cent, virtually paving the way for her election as the first tribal president.

The candidature of the 64-year-old tribal leader from Odisha was announced by BJP chief J P Nadda on Tuesday night, hours after former Union minister Yashwant Sinha was declared the joint candidate by many opposition parties, including the Congress, the TMC and the NCP.

Banerjee also said leaders of opposition parties were being summoned by the CBI and ED, and claimed that at least 200 TMC activists have been asked to appear by the central agencies though they are not accused.

"The central agencies arrest opposition leaders who speak up against the policies of the BJP-led government at the centre. Over 200 members of TMC have been served notices. But, for BJP politicians, they can go scot-free. They are distributing unlimited money. Isn't this a form of hawala'? This scam needs to be investigated, too," she asserted.

The chief minister asked the BJP to send the MLAs to Bengal instead, where they will be extended good hospitality.

"Why are you disturbing the Assam government when they are facing floods? Send them (the MLAs) to Bengal and we will extend good hospitality and protect democracy, too," she said



Talking on similar lines, TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee slammed the Assam government for being busy playing host to rebel MLAs, instead of taking care of the flood-affected people.

"As ASSAM DROWNS, @BJP4Assam Govt is busy following orders from Delhi to play HOST to REBEL MLAs. I wish CM @himantabiswa cared more about the flood-affected victims and less about toppling the Maharashtra Govt. PRIORITIES are clear for a REMOTE CONTROLLED SUBSERVIENT Govt. (sic)," he tweeted.

The BJP, however, rubbished the allegations as baseless and said the rebellion by the Shiv Sena MLAs is an internal matter of the party.

"The BJP has nothing to do with political turmoil in Maharashtra. It is due to internal problems of the Shiv Sena. And TMC and its leaders should not lecture us about ethics in . The entire country knows how ethical they have been," Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar said.

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Amid the ongoing political crisis in Maharashtra, rebel MLA Sanjay Shirsat on Thursday claimed that both and Nationalist Party (NCP) are trying to eliminate politically from and the MLAs made several attempts to inform Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray about the malafide intentions of alliance partners.

In a video message, Shirsat said Sanjay Shirsath said, "Yesterday, we all watched the video conference address by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. We listened to his opinions and thoughts. We felt bad. We had never imagined that Uddhav Saheb will become so emotional in such a situation. But, there are reasons behind what has happened. This has not happened overnight. This is not a miracle that happened within a day. Many times in the past, all these MLAs informed Uddhav Saheb that whether it is or NCP, both are trying to eliminate ."

He also added that MLAs have also tried to inform the Chief Minister that people are trying to destroy Shive Sena.

"If you look at the recently held Zilla Parishad or Gram Panchayat elections, Shiv Sena stood in the fourth spot. The first spot is secured by a party whom we abuse day in and day out. The second number is NCP, the third is Congress, and then on the fourth spot comes Shiv Sena. All the people tried hard and told the CM that these people are trying to destroy our party," he said.

The rebel Shiv Sena MLA further claimed that no MLAs were consulted before the appointment of the Tehsildar to the revenue officer.

"If you look at the constituency of any Shiv Sena MLA, from the Tehsildar to the revenue officer, no official is appointed in consultation with the MLA. We told this to Uddhav ji many times but he never responded to it," said Shirsat.

He further said that several times all the rebel MLAs sought time from Uddhav Thackeray to meet him but he never met them.

"We never even got time to meet you, whatever we had to say, we told this to the secretary only and they used to tell us that your message is communicated to Uddhav Saheb. Uddhav sahib, will run in this way?" he asked.

Sharing the video, he tweeted that they are not traitors, but real Shiv Sainiks, adding that some people are going to destroy Shiv Sena.

"Uddhav Saheb, when you left the Varsha Bungalow (official residence of the chief minister of Maharashtra), we saw the flowers showered on the car, it was like a farewell ceremony. A person is welcomed in this way when he is arriving, and not while leaving. I am one of them who think that the incident where my chief minister and party chief has to leave is bad," said Shirsat.

Shinde shared a letter written by Sena MLA Sanjay Shirsat from the Aurangabad (West) Assembly seat and dated June 22 in which he claimed that the Shiv Sena MLAs did not have access to the chief minister's residence.

"CM never used to be in the Secretariat, instead, he used to be in Matoshree (Thackeray residence). We used to call people around the CM but they never used to attend our calls. We were fed up with all these things and persuaded Eknath Shinde to take this step," the MLA wrote in the letter.

He said MLAs have faced "humiliation" for the last two-and-a-half years, In the letter, Shirsat added that Shinde opened doors for the party legislators to listen to their grievances, issues about development work in their constituencies and related fund, and problems with allies and Congress.

He said that the MLAs have several times asked for the funds from the Chief Minister but they never received any.

"How many times have we tried to talk to you to get the fund, even today you should check to see how many calls came to your office, and how many letters were received. You will find at least fifty letters by every Shiv Sena MLA who must have come to your office but no action was taken on any of the letters. We did not get any funds to work," he added.

Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena faction led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has filed a petition before the Deputy Speaker of the state assembly seeking the cancellation of membership of 12 rebel MLAs including Eknath Shinde for "not attending" the legislative party meeting held on Wednesday.

Apart from Shinde, Shiv Sena has sought disqualification of Prakash Surve, Tanaji Sawant, Mahesh Shinde, Abdul Sattar, Sandeep Bhumare, Bharat Gogawale, Sanjay Shirsat, Yamini Yadhav, Anil Babar, Balaji Devdas and Lata Chaudhari.

However, the Shinde camp has written to Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari stating that Shinde continues to be the legislative party leader.

Shinde camp has claimed the support of 46 MLAs, which includes 37 Shiv Sena MLAs and nine independents.

The rebel MLAs are at a hotel in Guwahati and held a meeting on Thursday authorising Shinde to decide on a further course of action.

Notably, Shinde was also elected leader at a meeting of rebel MLAs at the Guwahati hotel where they are staying.

The meeting also unanimously decided to authorize Shinde to make a decision about the future course of action.

Shinde also wrote to the Deputy Speaker of the Assembly regarding the reaffirmation of his appointment as the leader of the Shiv Sena Legislature Party.

Amid the continuing turf war within Shiv Sena, the Shinde faction also said that Bharat Gogawale has been appointed as Chief Whip of the party.

The letter has the signatures of 37 Shiv Sena MLAs and a copy of the letter has been sent to Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal, Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, and Secretary to the Legislative Council Rajendra Bhagwat.

The three legislators who arrived in Guwahati on Thursday include Agriculture Minister Dada Bhuse, MLA Sanjay Rathore and MLC Ravindra Phatak.

Phatak is believed to be a close associate of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray who had sent him as an emissary to Surat where the rebel MLAs were lodged.

(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.)
NDA presidential nominee on Friday called up some key opposition leaders, including Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, NCP's and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and sought their support for her candidature.

Sources said she called them up personally and spoke to them before filing her nomination for the July 18 presidential election.

All the three leaders expressed their best wishes to her, sources said.

Murmu filed her nomination on Friday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi handing over her set of papers to Returning Officer P C Mody. She was accompanied by a host of Union ministers, including Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari and BJP president J P Nadda.

Several chief ministers of BJP-ruled states including Yogi Adityanath, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Manohar Lal Khattar, Jairam Thakur, Pushkar Singh Dhami and leaders of some NDA supporting parties like YSRCP, BJD and AIADMK were also present during her nomination filing.

(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.)
(NCP) president on Friday met Chief Minister at the latters residence amid the political crisis caused by Sena leader Eknath Shinde's rebellion.

State NCP president Jayant Patil and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar accompanied Pawar as he arrived at Matoshree.

Meanwhile, Shinde, a day after claiming that a powerful national party was supporting his group of MLAs in the political drama in Maharashtra, said no national party was in contact with them. Asked if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was backing his group, Shinde told a TV channel, When I said a big power is backing us, I meant the power of Balasaheb Thackeray and (late Shiv Sena leader) Anand Dighe.

Out of 55 Shiv Sena MLAs, 40 have come with me to Guwahati. In a democracy, the majority and numbers count. So nobody has the right to take any action against us, Shinde said, when asked about the Sena approaching the Assembly Deputy Speaker for action against the rebel MLAs.

Even as the Shiv Sena-led MVA dispensation is currently facing a survival crisis due to a rebellion by Shinde, the departments  mostly controlled by allies NCP and Congress  have issued government orders for the release of funds worth thousands of crores in the past four days for development-related works.

Thackeray expressed determination to fight the crisis and took on Shinde, saying the rebel leaders son is a Lok Sabha MP and should his son Aaditya not also grow politically as both sides showed no signs of backing down to break the impasse.
Eknath Shinde is appearing to be holding a tight grip on the Shiv Sena, as the strength of MLAs supporting him is expected to cross 50 as more legislators are likely to reach Guwahati on Friday thus further deepening the political crisis in .

It seams that the legacy of Bal Thackeray, who founded Shiv Sena, has slipped from the hands of Uddhav Thackeray with the rebellion of Eknath Shinde as he claim of being a true Shivsainik, the battle of who holds the true legacy of Balasaheb has started.

The political crisis in Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in erupted after party legislators joined a rebellion led by Eknath Shinde who is staying at a hotel in Guwahati. Shinde camp has claimed the support of 46 MLAs, which includes 37 MLAs and nine independents. The rebel MLAs who are at a hotel in Guwahati since June 20, authorised Shinde on June 23 to decide on a further course of action.

MLA Sanjay Shirsat claimed that both Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are trying to eliminate politically from and the MLAs made countless attempts to inform Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray about the malafide intentions of alliance partners.

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut even urged rebel MLAs to return to Mumbai and discuss their issues with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

Raut also claimed that the Shiv Sena is ready to "consider exiting out of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) if this is the will of all the MLAs" but with a condition that the rebel MLAs will have to convey the message directly to CM Uddhav Thackeray and discuss the issues with him.

Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena faction led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has filed a petition before the Deputy Speaker of the state assembly seeking the cancellation of membership of 12 rebel MLAs including Eknath Shinde for "not attending" the legislative party meeting held on Wednesday.

Apart from Shinde, Shiv Sena has sought disqualification of Prakash Surve, Tanaji Sawant, Mahesh Shinde, Abdul Sattar, Sandeep Bhumare, Bharat Gogawale, Sanjay Shirsat, Yamini Yadhav, Anil Babar, Balaji Devdas and Lata Chaudhari.

However, the Shinde camp has written to Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari stating that Shinde continues to be the legislative party leader. Shinde also wrote to the Deputy Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly regarding the reaffirmation of his appointment as the leader of the Shiv Sena Legislature Party.Amid the continuing turf war within Shiv Sena, the Shinde faction also said that Bharat Gogawale has been appointed as Chief Whip of the party.

The letter has the signatures of 37 Shiv Sena MLAs and a copy of the letter has been sent to Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal, Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, and Secretary to the Legislative Council Rajendra Bhagwat.

The three legislators who arrived in Guwahati on Thursday include Agriculture Minister Dada Bhuse, MLA Sanjay Rathore and MLC Ravindra Phatak.

Phatak is believed to be a close associate of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray who had sent him as an emissary to Surat where the rebel MLAs were lodged.

The situation for Thackeray continues to become grimmer with his close aide switching sides and the chief minister himself falling short of numbers.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge held the central government led by the BJP responsible for the ongoing political crisis in Maharashtra where around 40 Shiv Sena MLAs have revolted against the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government and are currently camping in Guwahati.

Kharge alleged that the BJP-led Centre is attempting to "destabilise" the "strong" Maha Vikas Aghadi government in view of the forthcoming presidential poll next month as they need numbers to get their presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu victorious in the poll slated to be held on July 18.

Shinde also made a veiled reference to BJP and said "a big national party" has told him that his decision was "historic" and they will be present whenever he needs them.

However, BJP had said the Maharashtra crisis is Shiv Sena's internal matter and the party has nothing to do with it.

Nationalist Congress Party leader Jayant Patil had said his party is "firmly standing with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray".

(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 J P Nadda on Friday reached out to various opposition leaders and sought their support for the NDA's presidential candidate .

Sources said Nadda called up leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, former prime minister and JDS leader H D Devegowda while seeking to build a consensus on Murmu's candidature.

Sources add that Nadda has also called NC leader and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah and some other opposition leaders.

Murmu herself had earlier called senior opposition leaders including Sonia Gandhi, Sharad Pawar and Mamata Banerjee and sought their support for her candidature for the top constitutional post in the country.

Murmu, if elected, would be the first tribal and the second woman to occupy the post of President of India.

(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 the faction led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray seeking cancellation of membership of several rebel MLAs, minister Eknath Shinde, who has spearheaded the revolt against the party, has claimed that the group led by him is the "real Shiv Sena", and also hit back saying he and his supporters will not be intimidated by the disqualification threats.

In a series of tweets posted late Thursday night, Shinde who is camping in Guwahati along with 37 Sena legislators and 10 independents, said as per the 10th Schedule of the Constitution, a party whip is issued for the legislature proceedings and not for attending a meeting.

The led by Thackeray has sought the disqualification of 12 legislators from the Shinde camp for not attending the legislature party meeting on Wednesday.

Responding to it, Shinde said in tweets, "There are several Supreme Court decisions in this regard. Who are you trying to frighten? We understand your games and law as well. You can't ask for action against 12 of our MLAs because we are loyal to Balasaheb Thackeray and are the real and Shiv Sainiks. In fact, we demand action against you for forming a group despite having no numbers."



In the wake of his rebellion, Shinde was sacked as Shiv Sena's group leader in the Legislative Assembly. The party appointed Ajay Chaudhary in his place. However, the rebel faction passed a resolution retaining Shinde as their group leader and appointed Bharat Gogawale as the chief whip in place of Sunil Prabhu.

Prabhu had sent letters to the rebels, asking them to attend the legislature party meeting on Wednesday evening in Mumbai or face action under the anti-defection law.

(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.)
All 37 rebel MLAs who are camping in Guwahati on Thursday sent a letter to Assembly's Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal, stating that Eknath Shinde will remain their group leader in legislature.

Earlier in the day, Zirwal had said that he had approved the appointment of Ajay Chaudhary as the group leader of the legislature party, replacing senior minister Shinde who has rebelled against the leadership. Shinde on Thursday evening sent a letter to the deputy speaker, signed by 37 Sena MLAs who are currently staying with him in Guwahati. It also informed that Sena MLA Bharat Gogawale has been appointed as chief whip of the legislature party in place of Sunil Prabhu. Shinde, meanwhile, also hit back at those demanding action against MLAs in his faction for not attending a meeting called by Prabhu, claiming that a whip is applicable only for legislative events. Some Sena workers loyal to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray earlier on Thursday demanded action against those who did not attend the 5 pm meeting called by the party on Wednesday. Who are you trying to threaten? We know your gimmicks and also understand the law very well. As per the 10th schedule of the Constitution, the whip is applicable for legislative works and not for any meeting. We demand action against you instead because you do not have sufficient number (of MLAs) but still formed a group of 12 MLAs. We do not pay any heed to such threats, Shinde tweeted.

(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 found strong evidence that enterprise-grade spyware called 'Hermit' is being used via SMS messages to target high-profile users.

The tech giant has warned all victims and implemented changes in Play Protect.

Cyber-security researchers last week unearthed 'Hermit' that is being used by the governments via SMS messages to target high-profile people like business executives, human rights activists, journalists, academics and government officials.

"Based on our analysis, the spyware, which we named 'Hermit' is likely developed by Italian spyware vendor RCS Lab and Tykelab Srl, a telecommunications solutions company we suspect to be operating as a front company," the researchers from cyber-security company Lookout Threat Lab had said in a blog post.

Lookout researchers uncovered the 'surveillanceware' that was used by the government of Kazakhstan.

said late on Thursday that the government-backed bad actors "worked with the target's ISP (internet service provider) to disable the target's mobile data connectivity".

"Once disabled, the attacker would send a malicious link via SMS asking the target to install an application to recover their data connectivity. We believe this is the reason why most of the applications masqueraded as mobile carrier applications," Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) warned.

When ISP involvement is not possible, applications are masqueraded as messaging applications.

Google has been tracking the activities of commercial spyware vendors for years, and taking steps to protect people.

Last week, the company testified at the EU Parliamentary hearing on "Big Tech and Spyware".

TAG is actively tracking more than 30 vendors with varying levels of sophistication and public exposure selling exploits or surveillance capabilities to government-backed actors.

Italian spyware vendor RCS Lab, a known developer that has been active for over three decades, operates in the same market as Pegasus developer NSO Group.

RCS Lab has engaged with military and intelligence agencies in Pakistan, Chile, Mongolia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Myanmar and Turkmenistan.

Hermit is a modular spyware that hides its malicious capabilities in packages downloaded after it's deployed.

These modules, along with the permissions the core apps have, enable Hermit to exploit a rooted device, record audio and make and redirect phone calls, as well as collect data such as call logs, contacts, photos, device location and SMS messages.

Hermit tricks users by serving up the legitimate webpages of the brands it impersonates as it kickstarts malicious activities in the background.

The researchers said they are also aware of an iOS version of Hermit "but were unable to obtain a sample for analysis".

Pegasus was developed by the Israeli cyber company NSO Group that can be covertly installed on iPhones and other devices.

It was capable of reading text messages, tracking calls, collecting passwords, location tracking, accessing the target device's microphone and camera, and harvesting information from apps.

The spyware has been used for surveillance of activists, journalists and political leaders from several nations around the world, including in India.

--IANS

na/svn/

(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 unveiled its latest-generation gaming portfolio comprising new OMEN and Victus notebooks and desktops, and a slew of updates to the OMEN Gaming Hub.

Announcing the gaming line-up, said the upgrades offer performance geared to boost gameplay for both professional and casual gamers.

All the components of the new gaming devices, including the stamped aluminum cover, are made from post-consumer recycled ocean-bound plastic, in line with HP's commitment to driving sustainable impact, the company said in a statement.

The new line-up includes OMEN 16, OMEN 17, Victus 15 and Victus 16 with Intel core 12th Gen and AMD Ryzen 6,000 series processors, the OMEN and Victus desktops, and a variety of updates to the OMEN Gaming Hub.

Ketan Patel, Managing Director of India Market noted that India's youth is embracing PC gaming in an unprecedented way, placing India as one of the top PC gaming countries in the world.

"With these insights, we at HP, are bringing our newest gaming portfolio of OMEN and Victus notebooks and desktops, to cater to all segment of gamers and elevate their gameplay to the next level," Patel said.

The OMEN 16 comes with a 16.1-inch display and 16:9 aspect ratio, and offers gamers an "immersive visual experience" whereas the micro-edge bezel display on the OMEN 17's 17.3-inch screen gives edge-to-edge immersion for a more screen-to-chassis ratio.

The Victus 15 offers a conventional backlit keyboard and a performance blue and mica silver colour schemes.

"With exceptional processors and graphics, gamers can multitask between gaming, browsing, and editing with the Victus portfolio," HP 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.)
(Bloomberg)  BlackRock Inc. is poised for a major expansion in Singapore as it follows other international firms looking to tap capital flows into Southeast Asia.

The worlds largest asset manager is in discussions to double its floorspace at an office block in the city-states central business district, according to people familiar with the matter. The U.S. firm is expecting to add dozens of staff from local hiring and some relocations from Hong Kong, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified as the matter is confidential. Plans are still at an early stage, the people said.
Hyderabad: Though the police show an increased graph of drug seizures and arrests in their annual round-up every year, more than 80 per cent of these cases end up in acquittal during prosecution.

Advocates from the Hyderabad criminal courts said that lack of proper investigation and failure to gather strong evidence against the accused in drug cases resulted in the acquittal of the accused.

Police often create a scenario and add several sections of the law to make the case appear bigger than it actually is, advocate said. In the court, they fail to prove the charges, they said.

The state police said in the latest annual report, issued at the end of last year, that they had booked 1,233 cases under the NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) Act. The acquittal and trial figures were not documented as many of the cases were pending over 10 years.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, Sarjinderpal Singh Rana, a criminal law practitioner from Hyderabad, said that drug cases often resulted in acquittal because of lack in quality of evidence, lack of knowledge of the police probing the case and delaying in producing a witness in the court.

If a person is caught smoking marijuana, the quantity of contraband seized would be a bailable one and not a felony quantity. However, the police often create a scenario and make a case that he was caught and booked for smoking, buying, selling and encouraging others to consume drugs. Though all these sections are added as per the NDPS Act and the media is briefed, the same is not proved in the court during prosecution, ending the trial in acquittal or with the accused given the benefit of the doubt, Rana said.

Cases from 2012 were still pending in court due to lack of witnesses and improper way of investigation, said B. Vasudev Yadav, an advocate from the Nampally criminal court. During the seizure of drugs, two independent witnesses must be present who must testify in court.

There is a lengthy procedure in seizing drugs and producing them in court, starting with sending samples to FSL (Forensic Science Laboratory) and taking signatures from the witnesses about the seizures etc. Only with strong evidence and even stronger witness testimonies can a case end in conviction, he said.

Requesting anonymity, advocates said that most of the time the police nab offenders from Dhoolpet and add ganja cases to fill their monthly quota. The Anti Narcotic Cell (ANC) of CCS Hyderabad has a quota of 50 cases per month, which is met by booking habitual drug offenders. The suspect is called to the police station and booked, which comes out during trial, the advocate said.

Most of the cases are made big by faulty investigation and just to show more arrests. Moreover, unlike in POCSO or property offences cases, there is no victim. Most of the time, the complainant is the police, said the advocate.

In one such case, a police station located in the Central Zone of Hyderabad had arrested two youngsters for allegedly being in possession of 2.5 grams of methamphetamine on May 25. Sources close to the family of the accused claimed that the police had booked a false case with a made-up story.

On May 25, the police released a press note stating that on the night of May 24, they caught two youngsters, a student from Somajiguda and a chef from Goa, while they were trying to sell methamphetamine to customers at Himayatnagar Street No. 8. Sources said that the two were caught in possession of a small quantity of ganja but the police changed it to methamphetamine. They said the student was called by the cops from Somajiguda to Himayatnagar and placed under arrest as a part of their jurisdiction, whereas the press note said he was caught selling drugs to needy customers.

When asked about the low acquittal rates, Anti Narcotic Cell ACP K. Narsing Rao said that in most cases, foreigners and interstate offenders leave the city while the locals often get compromised.

The NDPS is a procedural law and it might have procedure lapses. It talks about search, seizure and storage of evidence. In a 2016 guideline by the Centre, the FSL specimens should also be taken in front of the magistrate. In a recent case involving 200 kilos of ganja, the accused was given spot bail as the FSL specimen was collected without a magistrate. We cannot say who will interpret it in what way and that advantage is taken by the advocates. However, we are continuously training our staff and we will see good results in the coming days, he said.

Narcotics and contraband seizures -

Hyderabad - Number of cases

2019- 98

2020- 96

2021- 246

Total number of accused arrested -

2019- 215

2020- 241

2021- 602

Cyberabad Cases -

2020 - 58

2021 - 205
New Delhi: The Indian Air Force (IAF) on Friday started recruitment process under the Agnipath scheme by opening the registration window. Some 3,800 candidates had registered online by Friday evening, said a senior IAF official. The registration will be on till July 5.

The online exam will be held between July 24 and 31. The provisional select list is expected to be out by December 1. The course will commence on December 30.

The government had said that armed forces will hire 46,000 jawans in the age group of 17.5 to 21 years under Agnipath, the four-year short-term recruitment scheme. Of this, 40,000 will be for the Army and 3,000 each for the IAF and the Navy. In four years, the Army will recruit 1.75 lakh soldiers, Indian Navy 12,500 and Indian Air Force 15,400. From the fifth year the recruitment will be on the basis of personnel released from the service.

The Agniveers would form a distinct rank in the armed forces, different from the existing ranks.

The monthly salary of an 'Agniveer' in the first year of employment would be Rs 30,000 and the in-hand amount would be Rs 21,000 as Rs 9,000 would go to a corpus with an equal contribution of the government. Subsequently, the monthly salary in the second, third and fourth year will be Rs 33,000, Rs 36,500 and Rs 40,000.

They will also get applicable hardship and risk allowances. Each 'Agniveer' will get an amount of Rs 11.71 lakh as 'Seva Nidhi Package' after competion of the four-year term and it will be exempted from income tax. There will be no entitlement to gratuity and pensionary benefits and the new recruits will be provided.

Several parts of the country witnessed violent protests against the scheme. A number of opposition parties and military experts had slammed the scheme, contending it will adversely impact the operational capabilities of the armed forces. The government had on June 16 increased the upper age limit for recruitment under the scheme to 23 years from 21 for 2022.
U.S. Supreme Court strikes down New York state law that limits gun-carrying in public

Xinhua) 09:05, June 24, 2022

WASHINGTON, June 23 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a New York state law on Thursday that limits gun-carrying in public.

The 6-3 ruling, which divided the court along the usual ideological lines, came as the United States is still reeling from a spate of mass shootings over the past few weeks, including one in Uvalde, Texas that left 19 children and two teachers dead a month ago.

The State of New York makes it a crime to possess a firearm without a license, whether inside or outside the home.

An individual who wants to carry a firearm outside his home may obtain an unrestricted license to "have and carry" a concealed "pistol or revolver" if he can prove that "proper cause exists" for doing so, according to the law.

"Because the State of New York issues public-carry licenses only when an applicant demonstrates a special need for self-defense, we conclude that the state's licensing regime violates the Constitution," conservative Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the ruling.

In a dissent, liberal Justice Stephen Breyer wrote that the court's ruling "severely burdens states' efforts" to curb gun violence.

"The primary difference between the court's view and mine is that I believe the Amendment allows states to take account of the serious problems posed by gun violence," Breyer argued. "I fear that the court's interpretation ignores these significant dangers and leaves states without the ability to address them."

New York Governor Kathy Hochul accused the Supreme Court of recklessness in striking down the state law "at a moment of national reckoning on gun violence."

"In response to this ruling, we are closely reviewing our options - including calling a special session of the legislature," Hochul added.

The ruling could affect the ability of state and local governments to impose a wide variety of firearms regulations, legal analysts said. All states allow carrying concealed guns in public, although many require state-issued permits.

CNN chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said he believes the decision from the Supreme Court "expands the Second Amendment right" in the United States.

"What the conservatives on the Supreme Court are saying is, 'we want the Second Amendment to be a first-class right like the First Amendment. And we want to be able to carry guns anywhere anytime without any sort of regulation by the government - without background checks, without restrictions on where you can take a weapon, without restrictions on how you can carry a weapon.' Now, they haven't gone that far yet. But they are clearly moving in that direction," Toobin said.

The U.S. Supreme Court released three other opinions on Thursday but again prolonged the wait for a ruling on abortion rights.

A draft majority opinion was leaked from the court last month, which indicates that it is leaning toward overturning Roe v. Wade, a landmark decision establishing a constitutional right to abortion in the United States, made by the U.S. high court in 1973.

"Roe was egregiously wrong from the start," conservative Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the draft majority opinion, a copy of which was obtained and published by POLITICO.

"We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled," the conservative argued. "It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people's elected representatives."

Casey refers to a 1992 Supreme Court decision - Planned Parenthood v. Casey - which largely upheld the women's abortion rights guaranteed under Roe v. Wade.

Protesters on both sides of the abortion rights debate gathered outside the Supreme Court on Capitol Hill on Thursday with police presence.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun)
VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Reddy has extended his YSRC partys support to the NDA presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu, the first tribal woman to hold the exalted post if she wins.

The chief minister believes that this is in line with the emphasis he has always given to the representation of the SC, ST, BC and minority communities in the power edifice. In the last three years, he has given importance to the uplift of these communities and even ensured they were well-represented in the cabinet. They occupy the lion's share of 70 per cent of the posts, under Jagans social justice concept.

This is the second time that the YSRC extended its support to the BJP in the presidential elections.

The Opposition parties including Telugu Desam had demanded that the YSRC pressurise the BJP government to sanction Special Category Status (SCS) for AP in lieu of its support to the BJPs presidential candidate. YSRC faced severe criticism for ignoring the SCS demand and its cordial relations with the BJP by putting aside the SCS demand.

However, Jagan will not be able to attend the event of filing of nomination by Draupadi Murmu in New Delhi due to the previously scheduled cabinet meeting. Instead, Rajya Sabha member and party parliamentary affairs leaders Vijaysai Reddy and Lok Sabha member Midhun Reddy will be present therei on Friday.

The YSRC welcomed the selection of Girijan woman Draupadi Murmu as a historical decision post-independence in India.
RWANDA :: Paul Kagame: The Commonwealth does not replace other institutions

President Kagame's Opening Speech for CHOGM 2022, 24 June 2022

It is a pleasure and an honour to welcome you to the 26th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, the sixth in Africa, and the first since our world was turned upside down by a devastating pandemic.

The journey here has been long. But it was easier, because of the support we have rendered to one another.

I thank the Chair-in-Office, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and the Secretary-General, for guiding our organisation through unprecedented times.

We are very honoured today to welcome Their Royal Highnesses, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall.

We join together to pay tribute to Her Majesty the Queen, the Head of the Commonwealth, and its most devoted champion.

Over her seventy years of service, the Commonwealth has grown, both in number, and in the scope of its ambition.

The fact of holding this meeting in Rwanda, a new member with no historical connection to the British Empire, expresses our choice to continue re-imagining the Commonwealth, for a changing world.

The Commonwealth does not replace other institutions; it adds to them.

That is why we always have important special guests with us. This year, let me recognise, in particular, His Highness the Emir of Qatar, and I thank him for being here with us.

The Commonwealth we need, is on the frontlines of global challenges, not on the periphery, watching events unfold.

Our special strength is to bring issues into focus, that might otherwise be overlooked.

For instance, the way that climate change puts the very existence of small island and developing states, into jeopardy.

Or the possibility to transcend size and geography, by leveraging new technologies, to create high-quality, global jobs for our youth, right at home.

We are united by a shared language, whether English is our first, second, third, or even fourth one.

But what really defines us, are the values enshrined in the Commonwealth Charter, and a commitment to good governance, the rule of law, and the protection of rights.

That is why we shall always remain open to new voices, and new members.

And wherever we might fall short, we find solutions through consensus and dialogue; we build each other up; and we move forward, together.

In closing, I also want to welcome you to Rwanda.

Ours is a country that was torn apart by genocide and division, just a generation ago.

Today, we are a nation transformed, in heart, mind, and body.

Three-quarters of our population are young people, with no memory of those events.

Everything we do, including joining the Commonwealth in 2009, is aimed at making sure that our people are connected, included, and forward-looking.

We are delighted that, through CHOGM, you have the opportunity to get to know us, and we aim to repay that trust, with many years of continued friendship.

I thank you.

Discours d'ouverture du president Kagame pour le CHOGM 2022 en Francais, traduction libre et non officielle, 24 juin 2022

C'est un plaisir et un honneur de vous accueillir a la 26e reunion des chefs de gouvernement du Commonwealth, la sixieme en Afrique et la premiere depuis que notre monde a ete bouleverse par une pandemie devastatrice.

Le voyage ici a ete long. Mais c'etait plus facile, grace au soutien que nous nous sommes apportes les uns aux autres.

Je remercie le President en exercice, le Premier ministre Boris Johnson, et le Secretaire general, d'avoir guide notre organisation a travers des temps sans precedent.

Nous sommes tres honores aujourd'hui d'accueillir Leurs Altesses Royales le Prince de Galles et la Duchesse de Cornouailles.

Nous nous unissons pour rendre hommage a Sa Majeste la Reine, chef du Commonwealth et son champion le plus devoue.

Au cours de ses soixante-dix annees de service, le Commonwealth a grandi, a la fois en nombre et dans la portee de son ambition.

Le fait de tenir cette reunion au Rwanda, nouveau membre sans lien historique avec l'Empire britannique, exprime notre choix de continuer a reinventer le Commonwealth, pour un monde qui change.

Le Commonwealth ne remplace pas les autres institutions ; il sajoute a eux.

C'est pourquoi nous avons toujours des invites speciaux importants avec nous. Cette annee, permettez-moi de saluer en particulier Son Altesse l'Emir du Qatar, et je le remercie d'etre parmi nous.

Le Commonwealth dont nous avons besoin est en premiere ligne des defis mondiaux, et non a la peripherie, regardant les evenements se derouler.

Notre force particuliere est de mettre l'accent sur des problemes qui pourraient autrement etre negliges.

Par exemple, la facon dont le changement climatique met en peril l'existence meme des petits Etats insulaires et des pays en voie de developpement.

Ou la possibilite de transcender la taille et la geographie, en tirant parti des nouvelles technologies, pour creer des emplois mondiaux de haute qualite pour nos jeunes, directement chez eux.

Nous sommes unis par une langue commune, que l'anglais soit notre premiere, deuxieme, troisieme ou meme quatrieme langue.

Mais ce qui nous definit vraiment, ce sont les valeurs inscrites dans la Charte du Commonwealth et un engagement envers la bonne gouvernance, la primaute du droit et la protection des droits.

C'est pourquoi nous resterons toujours ouverts aux nouvelles voix et aux nouveaux membres.

Et partout ou nous risquons d'echouer, nous trouvons des solutions par le consensus et le dialogue ; nous nous construisons mutuellement; et nous avancons, ensemble.

Pour Terminer, je veux aussi vous souhaiter la bienvenue au Rwanda.

Cest un pays qui a ete dechire par le genocide et la division, il y a a peine une generation.

Aujourd'hui, nous sommes une nation transformee, dans le cur, l'esprit et le corps.

Les trois quarts de notre population sont des jeunes, sans aucun souvenir de ces evenements.

Tout ce que nous faisons, y compris notre adhesion au Commonwealth en 2009, vise a nous assurer que nos peuples sont connectes, inclus et tournes vers l'avenir.

Nous sommes ravis que, grace a CHOGM, vous ayez l'opportunite de nous connaitre, et nous visons a rendre cette confiance, avec de nombreuses annees d'amitie continue.

Je vous remercie.
Finance minister T. Harish Rao and civil supplies minister Gangula Kamalakar on Friday held a meeting with Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar and other senior officials of civil supplies department at BRKR Bhavan. (Photo: Twitter)

HYDERABAD: Finance minister T. Harish Rao and civil supplies minister Gangula Kamalakar on Friday held a meeting with Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar and other senior officials of civil supplies department at BRKR Bhavan to discuss what to do with mounting rice stocks in rice mills across the state in the wake of Centre stopping rice procurement from the state from June 7.

They directed the officials to prepare a comprehensive note on paddy procurement and be prepared with all relevant information for the Chief Ministers meeting which is likely to be convened shortly.

The Food Corporation of India (FCI) stopped rice procurement on the grounds that there was a mismatch between procured paddy stocks handed over to rice mills and the quantity of rice bags present in rice mills. The FCI also cited state government's failure to implement the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana scheme since April this year.

With this, rice stocks have mounted in all rice mills since June 7 leaving no space for storing fresh paddy stocks. All rice mills downed shutters and migrant labourers from other states working in rice mills left for their native places.

Nearly 50.12 lakh tonnes of recent rabi paddy stocks have piled up in rice mills for milling in addition to lakhs of tonnes of rice stocks of previous kharif and rabi seasons. The government secured nearly Rs 30,000 crore loans from banks to pay MSP for farmers for paddy procurement. These stocks are getting damaged in rice mills due to delay in transporting them to FCI godowns.
The films first chapter unspools in a world designed to resemble the simple and scratchy pencil drawings of a young child. In it, Jasmine, a U.S.-born grade school student turned activist, fights for her undocumented father and a mother temporarily protected from deportation under DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama-era program for those who migrated to the U.S. as children).

The brightly-colored and deliberately unpolished style of the animation acts as a comforting vehicle to convey the fear and pain someone as young as Jasmine endures due to inhumane policies that persecute millions of families in the United States.

Although expressive and magical realist imagery permeates each of the films anecdotes, the second segment stands out as an example of the filmmakers cleverness.

Painterly backgrounds and elegant character designs with defined linework transport the audience to both the small town of Dzoncauich in the Mexican state of Yucatan, and to the urban landscapes of Los Angeles, California. The segments artistic styling is used to highlight the separation of its two protagonists: sisters Evelyn, born in the U.S. but living in Mexico by choice, and Elizabeth, born in Mexico but brought stateside as a kid.

As the siblings share their conflicting emotions about future professional prospects, the boundless possibilities of animation bridge the distance between them. Examples include transforming text messages into paper planes, using the zipper of a suitcase to symbolize a road, or having a miniature version of Elizabeth come through a cell phone screen to reunite with Evelyn. Occasionally, a split screen even allows them to share a moment at the beach from their respective locations.

The films final episode tells the story of The Deportee himself, Jose Eduardo Aguilar. It details the narrators early years in Heber, Utah, when he would go fishing with his father, and how as a college student he got involved with other undocumented teens like himself to protest the rise of xenophobic laws. Eventually, his efforts landed him in prison and in deportation proceedings.

Using figures drawn with sharper angles and in solid colors, the narrative here juxtaposes his memories of the lake with his time in the dehumanizing detention center. The fast-paced editing used to contrast these two eras from Eduardos past creates, at times, a noticeable dissonance rather than a fluid association of ideas.

Hagerman and Villalobos succeed at portraying each person beyond their status, or lack thereof. The film finds moments of joy to highlight and endearing passages of everyday victories that enrich our perception of its characters. These are not extraordinarily talented individuals or those who have survived the most harrowing experiences, but average people who, as much as anybody else, deserve peace of mind and opportunities to live freely.

Still, as impressively innovative as Home is Somewhere Else is in its storytelling approach, the film could benefit from hand-holding its audience a bit more and clarifying concepts such as DACA and other intricacies of the United States immigration system responsible for all of the suffering on display.

Production: Brinca Animation Studio, Shine Global, Carlos Hagerman, Alexandra Blaney, Mariana Marin, Guillermo Rendon Rodriguez, Andrew Houchens, Susan Maclaury, Albie Hecht, Martha Sosa, Carolina Coppel / Artistic director: Marec Fritzinger / Storyboard: Alejandro Valle / Animation: Andrea Mondragon, Sara Paramo, Alejandro Caballero / Music: Javier Alvarez / Sound: Pablo Lach.

Quantam Cowboys (U.S.)

Meanwhile, the quasi-experimental effort Quantum Cowboys intermingles unaltered live-action footage, live-action sequences with actors in front of animated backgrounds, rotoscoping, and even stop-motion animation to materialize its metaphysical ideology about multiple timelines coexisting, and the manner in which art helps preserve a unified memory.

Fascinating in its ambition, if not entirely captivating in execution, this sci-fi western by writer-director Geoff Marslett mainly follows Frank (Kiowa Gordon) and Bruno (John Way), two best friends in late 19th century Arizona as they search for a musician who may or may not be dead. After Frank spends time in prison, the two reunite and meet Linde (the always memorable Lily Gladstone), who needs their help to recover her land.

But their innocuous journey becomes complicated after the group learns that a pair of malicious time travelers are after them. Occasionally, the narrative zooms out from the plot so that Memory (Patrick Page), a character that oversees the action from a control center, can preach about the heady concepts of time, space, and creation, most of which lack resonance.

Tonally mischievous, Quantum Cowboys feels stilted in its humor and, for the most part, the performances come across as uninterestingly hackneyed; Gladstone is the exception and has the proper nonchalant air of an unbothered native from the inhospitable land. There are long live-action stretches without any embellishments that exhibit the films limited production value, which doesnt automatically improve when the animation is reintroduced.

Beneath the complex philosophical discourse lies a simple bromance, not unlike those found in many traditional Westerns. And while the bond that unites Frank and Bruno remains mostly superficial to our eyes, their paths continue to meet despite the hurdles that pull them apart throughout. From an image-making standpoint, the feature feels the most cohesive and artistically economical in snippets where the characters exist as outlines over one-color backgrounds.

Even the novelty of the eclectic mixing of techniques loses its charm as it continuously fluctuates for no clear reason. Muddled as the story ultimately appears however, the fact that Marslett refused to take a conventional cinematic route to telling his story merits praise.

Production: Fit Via VI, Swerve Pictures / Artistic direction: Geoff Marslett / Script: Geoff Marslett, Howe Gelb / Animation: Swerve Pictures, Minnow Mountain, Artless Media, Mystery Meat Media / Camera: Jon Firestone, Adam J Minnick / Compositing: Geoff Marslett / Music: Howe Gelb, Maciej Zielinski / Sound: Eric Friend / Editing: Tom Wilson, Matt Latham, Ian Holden
Photo: Contributed Kelowna-Lake Country MP Tracy Gray

One of the most publicly contested pieces of federal legislation in 2021 was Bill C-10, where the government looked to update the Broadcasting Act to provide regulatory oversight of digital platforms and digital content creation to the Canada Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

That bill ultimately did not go forward when the prime minister triggered last year's snap election. It was revived as Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act.

While the bill's name has changed, all the past legislation's flaws returned.

Bill C-11's proposed purpose is to support Canada's digital artists and content creators within Canada over that of their international competitors by updating the Broadcasting Act to create new enforcement of Canadian content regulations in digital media. Basically, the yet-to-be-defined provisions would dictate where and how content appears on digital platforms.

By using the CRTC as the policy creator and enforcer of changes to the Broadcasting Act, the government is giving the agency, which currently regulates television broadcasts and radio waves, extraordinary power over what you can see, share and post to online digital platforms. The government is essentially regulating free speech on the Internet.

The government tried to sidestep that by saying the regulations will not apply to Canadians YouTube videos or Facebook posts. However, the current chair of the CRTC, Ian Scott, confirmed to the House of Commons Heritage Committee the bill will provide the CRTC with the "provision" to regulate individual users creating content.

Requesting the CRTC to approve the "Canadian-ness" of every generated video posted online is well beyond the ability of the entire Canadian government, let alone the 500 employees of the CRTC. Such inability will only invite broad, blunt, and forced approaches that will potentially leave Canadians with less free viewing of the Internet than seen today.

But even if applying decades-old Canadian content regulations to how we interact with digital platforms daily were possible, it would still be a solution in search of a government-invented problem.

The government said it will not release its policy directive to the CRTC until after the legislation passes, leaving many unanswered questions.

It is also concerning there is no clear definition of discoverability which would artificially promote some digital creators over others.

Right now, some Canadian content creators are succeeding on digital platforms with the support of fellow Canadians, making their full-time living creating digital content, while receiving billions of views.

We know Canadians are succeeding in these spaces because if they weren't, why would the federal government have spent $600,000 last year to pay personal influencers to sing the governments messages through digital platforms.

Overregulation is the swiftest eliminator of innovation. That's why so many Canadian artists and content creators came forward to testify to Parliament that they didn't need this legislation to succeed and were more worried about burdensome regulation harming their ability to grow internationally and at home.

Their words fell on deaf ears as Liberal and NDP MPs moved to curtail debate on C-11, cutting off dozens of expert witnesses who were scheduled to testify. That shortening of debate, however, did not stop the government from forcing through over 100 amendments and dozens of clauses to Bill C-11 without explanation or debate.

It's no wonder Prof. Michael Geist, the University of Ottawa's Canada research chair in internet law, claimed the government "badly bungled the entire process."

Bill C-11 continues to be as concerning as the previous iteration Bill C-10, and as your voice in Ottawa I will continue to fight against the governments attempts to regulate what you see and post on the internet.

Arbitrary deadlines, pushing aside witnesses and rushing debate to pass legislation as potentially transformative as Bill C-11 is not how Parliament should serve Canadians in making our laws.

If you need any assistance with programs or have any thoughts to share, feel free to reach out, at 250-470-5075 or at [email protected].

(Editors note: The bill was passed by the House of Commons earlier this weekend and now heads to the Senate for consideration before it can become law.)

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
Re. Canadian Horizons proposed subdivision on the Naramata Bench in Penticton

Open letter to Penticton city council and Okanagan Valley residents

Do you remember Joni Mitchells song Big Yellow Taxi?

They paved paradise, put up a parking lot should ring true for all of us who lived through the 1970s. Uncontrolled urban sprawl is a world-wide problem and we all need to stop this insanity. Enough is enough.

There is only one Naramata Bench and opportunistic developers are licking their chops to destroy the entire Okanagan Valley. Its unbelievable that residents and elected politicians alike are supportive of ruining our precious valley.

Wake up Penticton. The only development you should support is one that creates a better quality of life for the next generation. Its time to stand up to those who wish to profit off our paradise.

Who says that you cant fight city hall and reverse this foolhardy trend? Its time you stand up for common sense.

Scott Rowland, West Kelowna
Photo: Abbotsford Police Dept.

The BC Prosecution Service has approved two charges against an Abbotsford police officer in connection with an arrest he made more than two years ago.

The service says in a news release that Const. Shaun Nagel has been charged with assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm.

The service says the charges were made in relation to a suspect's arrest in West Vancouver on Feb. 26, 2020.

It did not provide any other details because Nagel's case is before the courts.

It says the charges were approved by an "experienced Crown counsel with no prior or current connection with the officer."

Nagel's first court appearance is scheduled for Aug. 3 in North Vancouver Provincial Court.
Photo: . Brigitte Cleroux, 49 years old, of Gatineau, believed to have used several aliases to gain employment at dental and medical clinics. Photo/ Ottawa Police Service

A woman accused of impersonating a nurse in Vancouver could soon be returning to custody in B.C.

Brigitte Cleroux is currently in prison in Ontario for a seven-year sentence after pleading guilty to seven charges earlier this year, including assault, assault with a weapon, fraud and impersonation.

Those charges and conviction came after parallel Ottawa Police Service and Vancouver Police Department (VPD) investigations, which found the Gatineau, Que. woman posed as a nurse to treat patients in Ontario. She's accused of doing the same in B.C.

In Vancouver, Cleroux faces charges of fraud over $5000, personation with intent to gain advantage.

However, there is also civil court action running in tandem with B.C proceedings and completed Ontario ones.

Proposed class-action lawsuit

In December, Miranda Massie filed a notice of civil claim for a proposed in B.C. Supreme Court against the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) claiming it failed to properly review Clerouxs nursing credentials and hired her to work at B.C. Womens Hospital and Health Centre, where she had inappropriate and illegal contact with multitudes of vulnerable patients including Massie.

The claim asserts PHSA could have ascertained Clerouxs use of alleged forged credentials had it done due diligence.

It further alleges PHSA should have recognized ethical and competence issues as Clerouxs work continued.

As a result of her incompetence and lack of ethics, Cleroux caused damage to many class members, the claim said.

The claim asserts negligence and battery and seeks aggravated and punitive damages.

PHSAs response filed June 10 denied all allegations against it saying Cleroux had defrauded it.

Cleroux defrauded and deceived PHSA with respect to her identity, work experience, education and qualifications, using the names of a nurse registered in British Columbia and other falsified documentation and credentials, PHSAs response said.

PHSA denied allegations it had not done due diligence, saying Clerouxs use of several aliases made finding past issues undiscoverable.

Multiple charges in two provinces

However, in a Vancouver Provincial Court hearing May 19, Crown prosecutor Kathryn Ford said a trial Crown lawyer has been assigned to the case and is making a decision on other charges. That process continues, Ford told Vancouver Provincial Court Judge Gregory Rideout on June 23.

The initial charges were approved in November after the VPD launched a months-long investigation spurred by reports of a B.C. Womens Hospital employee allegedly fraudulently identified herself as a nurse between June 2020 and June 2021.

The investigation, led by VPDs Financial Crime Unit, found a woman allegedly fraudulently used the name of a real nurse while providing medical care to patients at the hospital.

In Ottawa, Cleroux was charged Aug. 23 with offences including obtaining by false pretence, uttering a forged document, assault with a weapon, criminal negligence causing bodily harm and personation to gain advantage

Ottawa police began their investigation after being told a woman had used aliases and assumed the identities of registered nurses that she fraudulently obtained.

Police said the charges related to alleged negligence and fraud-related incidents after a person falsely gained employment and conducted duties as a nurse at a medical and dental clinic in Ottawa.

Some of those duties included the administration of medications, including injections, to patients, Ottawa police said.

An investigation began when police were told that a woman had used aliases and assumed the identities of registered nurses that she fraudulently obtained.

Clerouxs lawyer Ron Guertin told the court earlier Cleroux has requested a transfer to a B.C. womens prison.

While her custody status in Ontario remains muddled, Guertin said moving her to B.C. remains on the cards.

We hope to get this darn thing going, he told Rideout.

[email protected]

Twitter.com/jhainswo
Vijaya Reddy joined the Congress in the presence of Revanth Reddy and Bhongir MP Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, star campaigner for the party. (DC Image)

HYDERABAD: TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy inducted TRS corporator P. Vijaya Reddy, the daughter of late Congress leader P. Janardhan Reddy, into the party at Gandhi Bhavan on Thursday. He said that there was a need for strong women leaders in Hyderabad.

Revanth Reddy, the Malkajgiri MP, used the occasion to criticise Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao over the deteriorating law and order by citing atrocities against women. He alleged that the development of Hyderabad was ignored for the past eight years.

Vijaya Reddy joined the Congress in the presence of Revanth Reddy and Bhongir MP Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, star campaigner for the party. She was accompanied by hundreds of followers.

The TPCC chief hailed the late Janardhan Reddy for fighting for the rights of the poor and downtrodden until his last breath. He said that thousands of families were allotted housing plots, besides given other benefits, in the city due to the efforts of the late leader.

Congress will give her (Vijaya) due respect and opportunities in the party, he said.

The Bhongir MP said that Vijaya Reddy will win any Assembly constituency she contests from in Hyderabad. He said that she has a great future in politics and that her win in state elections would be a tribute to her father.

Vijaya Reddy said that changing her political allegiance was not an instantaneous decision. I am worried by recent atrocities against women in Hyderabad. Congress is the right platform to fight in support of women and downtrodden, she said.
Photo: Darren Stone, Times Colonist Hilary Woodward was escorted from the Parliament Buildings on the morning of June 22 after a sudden meeting with Clerk Kate Ryan-Lloyd and replaced on a temporary basis by Randall Smith, the retired former chief financial officer of the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission

The chief financial executive at the B.C. Legislative Assembly is gone.

Sources say that Hilary Woodward was escorted from the Parliament Buildings on the morning of June 22 after a sudden meeting with Clerk Kate Ryan-Lloyd and replaced on a temporary basis by Randall Smith, the retired former chief financial officer of the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission.

In 2020-2021, the most-recent year available, Woodward was paid $209,748 in salary. The only higher-paid employee was Ryan-Lloyd at $281,112.

Chartered accountant Woodward had more than 25 years experience in the B.C. public sector. Prior to working at the Legislature, she was chief financial officer for the Ministry of Health from 2011 to 2013.

Woodward also worked at the Office of the Comptroller General, Treasury Board, Capital Planning Secretariat, Cabinet Operations, Shared Services B.C. and the Ministry of Citizens Services. In 2019, the NDP government appointed her to the Teachers Pension Board of Trustees.

Ryan-Lloyd refused to comment on the reason Woodward is no longer employed or the amount of severance.

Due to privacy, the Legislative Assembly Administration is unable to comment on personnel matters, Ryan-Lloyd said by email.

Woodward could not be immediately reached for comment.

Woodward was, coincidentally, the final witness at the B.C. Supreme Court fraud and breach of public trust trial of disgraced ex-clerk Craig James. Ryan-Lloyd, who was Jamess protege and successor, was the first substantial witness in the trial that ended with James found guilty on two counts.

James spent almost $1,900 on a custom suit and dress shirts from luxury boutiques in London and Vancouver for personal use. He faces a July 4 sentencing hearing.

Woodward testified that she was put in an untenable situation to be asked to sign-off Jamess expenses.

I would say that was the most challenging portion of my job was dealing with the travel claims and expenses that came through, Woodward told the court.

Woodward led special prosecutors to boxes of more evidence at the Legislature before last Christmas. She arrived in Vancouver to testify in mid-February with a suitcase of more documents.

The $92-million-a-year Legislature is not covered by the freedom of information law, but an all-party committee that reviews the law once every six years recently recommended the NDP government extend the law to cover the Legislatures operations.

The all-party Legislative Assembly Management Committee last met March 30. Its next meeting is June 29.
Photo: The Canadian Press Jeffrey Rosen, former acting Attorney General, left, and Richard Donoghue, former acting Deputy Attorney General, arrive as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, June 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

WASHINGTON (AP)  Donald Trump hounded the Justice Department to pursue his false election fraud claims, striving in vain to enlist top law enforcement officials in his desperate bid to stay in power and hosting a dramatic Oval Office showdown in which he weighed replacing the agency's leader with a more compliant lower-level official, according to testimony Thursday to the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

Three Trump-era Justice Department officials recounted a relentless pressure campaign from the president, including day after day of directives to chase unsupported allegations that the election won by Democrat Joe Biden had been stolen. The officials described the constant contact as a stark breach of protocol for a department that cherishes its independence from the White House but said they swatted away each demand because there was zero evidence of widespread voter fraud.

For the department to insert itself into the political process this way, I think would have had grave consequences for the country that very well may have spiraled us into a constitutional crisis, said Richard Donoghue, the acting No. 2 official in the final days of the Trump administration.

The president, he said, had this "arsenal of allegations. I went through them piece by piece to say, no, they were not true.

Another witness, Jeffrey Rosen, who was acting attorney general, said he was called by Trump or met with him basically every day from the time he ascended to the post in late December 2020 through early January 2021, with the common theme being dissatisfaction about what the Justice Department had done to investigate election fraud.

It all added up to a brazen attempt to use the Justice Department for his own political gain, said Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat and co-chairman of the Jan. 6 committee.

Donald Trump didnt just want the Justice Department to investigate, Thompson said. He wanted the Justice Department to help legitimize his lies, to basically call the election corrupt and to appoint a special counsel. The Justice Department resisted each demand.

As in past hearings, the committee focused on lawmakers who'd aligned themselves with Trump's efforts. On Thursday, the panel played recorded interviews of Trump aides saying that multiple Republican members of Congress requested pardons in the days after the violent riot at the Capitol.

Testimony also centered on a tense Oval Office showdown on Jan. 3, 2021, in which Trump contemplated replacing Rosen with a lower-level official, Jeffrey Clark, who wanted to champion Trump's bogus election fraud claims. Donoghue and another senior Justice Department official, Steven Engel, warned Trump that there would be mass resignations at the department if Trump followed through with his plan. Only then did Trump relent.

Clark's name was referenced early in the hearing, with Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican, deriding him as a lawyer whose sole qualification was his fealty to Trump. A lawyer for Clark did not return an email ahead of the hearing.

Who is Jeff Clark? Kinzinger asked rhetorically. "He would do whatever the president wanted him to do, including overthrowing a free and fair democratic election.

Barely an hour before the hearing began, it was revealed that federal agents this week searched Clarks Virginia home, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss it by name and spoke on condition of anonymity. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney confirmed the existence of law enforcement activity in Virginia, where Clark lives, but would not say what it was connected to.

The panel's hearing was the fifth this month by the House committee investigating the run-up to the insurrection at the Capitol, when Trump loyalists stormed the building as lawmakers were certifying the results of the election won by Biden. Witnesses have included police officers attacked at the Capitol as well as lawyers, a television executive and local election officials who all resisted demands to alter results in Trump's favor.

The committee last week presented videotaped depositions of former Attorney General William Barr, who castigated Trump's fraud claims and resigned after failing to convince the president.

Thursday's hearing focused on what happened next as Rosen, Barr's top deputy, took over the department and found himself immediately besieged by Trump's demands for action.

In one phone conversation, according to handwritten notes taken by Donoghue and highlighted at Thursday's hearing, Trump directed to Rosen to Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the R. Congressmen."

Around that time, Trump was introduced by a Republican congressman, Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, to Clark, who'd joined the department in 2018 as its chief environmental lawyer and was later appointed to run its civil division. Clark has been subpoenaed by the committee but was not among the witnesses Thursday. Lawmakers on Thursday played a videotaped deposition showing him repeatedly invoking his constitutional right against self-incrimination.

Clark, according to statements from other Justice Department officials, met with Trump despite being ordered not to by bosses at the department and presented himself as eager to aid the president's efforts to challenge the election results. A report released last year by the Senate Judiciary Committee that painted Clark as a relentless advocate for Trump included a draft letter pushing Georgia officials to convene a special legislative session to reconsider the election results.

Clark wanted the letter sent, but superiors at the Justice Department refused.

The situation came to a head on Jan. 3, 2021, a Sunday, when Clark informed Rosen in a private meeting at the Justice Department that Trump wanted to replace him with Clark as acting attorney general. Rosen, resisting the idea of being fired by a subordinate, said Thursday that he contacted senior Justice Department officials to rally them together and also requested a White House meeting.

That night, Rosen, Donoghue and Engel, along with Clark, gathered with Trump and top White House lawyers for a contentious, hours-long Oval Office meeting about whether the president should follow through with his plans for a radical leadership change at the department.

According to testimony given by Rosen, Trump opened the meeting by saying, One thing we know is you, Rosen, arent going to do anything to overturn the election.

Donoghue and Engel made clear to Trump that they and large numbers of other Justice Department officials would resign if Trump fired Rosen. White House lawyers said the same. Pat Cipollone, then the White House counsel, said the letter that Clark wanted to send was a murder-suicide pact.

Steve Engel at one point said, Jeff Clark will be leading a graveyard. And what are you going to get done with a graveyard, that there would be such an exodus of the leadership, Donoghue told the Senate Judiciary Committee. So it was very strongly worded to the president that that would happen.

Donoghue also sought to dissuade Trump from believing that Clark had the legal background to do as the president wished since he was not a criminal prosecutor at the department.

And he kind of retorted by saying, Well, Ive done a lot of very complicated appeals and civil litigation, environmental litigation, and things like that, Donoghue said. And I said, Thats right. Youre an environmental lawyer. How about you go back to your office, and well call you when theres an oil spill.
Photo: The Canadian Press Imperial Oil logo at the company's annual meeting in Calgary on April 28, 2017. Imperial Oil Ltd. has signed a deal with E3 Lithium for a lithium project in Alberta and agreed to invest $6.35 million in the company. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Imperial Oil Ltd. has signed a deal to help advance a lithium project in Alberta's historic Leduc oilfield.

The agreement will see Imperial invest $6.35 million in E3 Lithium, a Calgary-based junior resource company that has developed a technology to extract the naturally occurring lithium (a light metal that is a key component in the batteries used in electric vehicles) from oilfield brines.

Imperial has also agreed to provide technical and development support for E3's Clearwater project, which includes drilling lithium evaluation wells and developing a field pilot project before moving onto the commercialization stage.

"This is a commercial opportunity to us," said Imperial's director of commercial business development, Jason Iwanika, in an interview.

"When you look at Canadas growing critical minerals industry, there's been some encouraging support from government as well as just the general market. If you look at the growth in batteries, both stationary and electric vehicles, thats an interesting market to us."

The Leduc oilfield,where E3's Clearwater project is based, was the site of Leduc No. 1, the historic gusher struck by Imperial in 1947 that launched Alberta's oil and gas industry and changed the course of the province's economy.

It has also long been known as the site of one of Canada's largest lithium resources, though there was little interest in developing a lithium industry in Alberta until the recent growth of electric vehicles and an exponential rise in demand for lithium ion batteries.

"Im excited from the perspective that theres room to be a first mover," Iwanika said, adding Imperial is open to potentially increasing its involvement with E3 in the future.

"Today the announcement and the agreement is a collaboration  its a starting point. We need to work through piloting new technology. But that relationship and that collaboration can certainly grow to something that is commercial."

Having a giant like Imperial working with his company in exploring the redevelopment of Leduc into a world-class source of lithium is an "exciting new chapter," E3 chief executive Chris Doornbos said in an interview.

"This is Imperial coming back into this aquifer and looking at it from a lithium perspective. For us, thats huge, because it demonstrates their belief in this aquifer," Doornbos said. "They know, probably better than any other company out there, how it can produce as a resource."

Under the agreement, E3 will remain the operator of the Clearwater project but receive support from Imperial in areas such as water and reservoir management. The agreement also includes access for E3 to freehold lands in the area, which are operated by Imperial.

Drilling on the first of three evaluation wells, the first lithium wells ever drilled in Alberta, will begin immediately, Doornbos said. Work will also focus on scaling up E3's proprietary technology, which brings the brine to the surface where the lithium is removed and concentrated and then returns the liquid underground as part of a closed-loop system.

Canada has identified lithium as a focus of its $3.8-billion, eight-year critical minerals strategy. The aim is to increase extraction and production of Canadian lithium, as well as cobalt, copper, titanium, zinc and other minerals that are used as components in electric vehicles and their batteries.

The goal is to create a domestic supply chain for electric vehicles, and in doing so, boost the economy while tackling greenhouse gas emissions at the same time.

In the federal budget in April, the government announced a new 30 per cent tax credit for exploration projects related to critical minerals such as lithium.
Photo: The Canadian Press People line up at a passport office in Montreal, Wednesday, June 22, 2022. For another day, hundreds of people are waiting outside a downtown Montreal passport office, hoping to get a new travel document. Large crowds have gathered outside the office every day this week, as people, many of whom have travel planned within 48 hours, try to renew their passport or get a Canadian passport for the first time.

The federal government has said it implemented a system to reduce delays plaguing the downtown Montreal passport office, but those who were waiting in line on Thursday said the situation remained chaotic.

Florent Cohen said he had been waiting outside the office since 4 a.m. Tuesday, trying to get a travel document for his four-month-old son.

On Thursday morning, it seemed like he would finally get his chance. After inching toward the front of the line and entering the office, he said he was told new applications weren't being processed  only those who had already submitted applications would be prioritized.

Cohen, who said he couldn't apply earlier because he didn't have the paperwork for his young child, was sent back outside.

"I feel a bit exhausted, frustrated," said Cohen, who was scheduled to take his son to France to meet his parents Thursday morning but has since changed his flight to Saturday.

Passport offices across the country have been swamped in recent weeks because of the massive number of people applying for documents following the lifting of pandemic-related travel restrictions, the government has said. Many Canadians are using the "urgent" application system to obtain passports within 48 hours, leading to delays.

The problem is particularly acute in Montreal. Families Minister Karina Gould told reporters in Ottawa Thursday that before the pandemic, five per cent of passport applications were made through the urgent system. Now, her office said it's close to 50 per cent in Montreal.

Gould said earlier this week her department would institute a triage system to prioritize the most urgent cases, but she admitted Thursday the plan "didnt go as smoothly, quite frankly, as we had hoped."

More than 300 people were waiting outside the downtown Montreal federal building around noon on Thursday. Large crowds have gathered outside the office every day this week.

"Every day, they change the rules they use to select people," Cohen said. "On Tuesday, there was kind of a list; on Wednesday, they took 70 people; and today, they decided, 'make a line, we'll come to you with questions.'"

Gould said passport office employees would speak to everyone in line in Montreal to ensure they get appointments before their departure dates.

"There are 10 managers who are working in the line and they will be there until midnight (Thursday)," she said. The passport office will stay open for appointments on Friday  a provincial holiday in Quebec  and Saturday, she added.

People who were waiting in line said they didn't believe that a triage would actually happen, and rumours were spreading that officials wouldn't be able to process everyone in time.

Kevin King, the president of the Union of National Employees, which represents passport officers, said his union had warned the government that it needed to hire more staff to prepare for the resumption of travel as COVID-19 restrictions lifted.

"We told representatives of the employer  anybody who has ears to hear  that this was coming, over a year ago," he said in an interview Thursday.

He said the government didn't increase the number of staff to serve people arriving in person and to deal with the backlog of mail-in applications. King said the problem is getting worse: more than 700 people were lined up in downtown Montreal on Wednesday.

"The lineups are actually increasing, not decreasing," he said.

While the federal government has said it hired more staff and transferred employees from other departments to passport offices, King said it's not clear how many of those people are trained passport officers  the only people who can authenticate travel documents.

Zidane Tarbi, one of those waiting in line Thursday, said he visited a passport office two months ago and was told to come back two days before his flight. Tarbi, who is scheduled to fly to Morocco next week to get married, said that with the long weekend, Thursday was his last chance to get an appointment.

"I'm very scared," he said. "This is my last chance; I can't miss the flight. It's a mess."
Photo: The Canadian Press

The Senate voted Thursday to rubber-stamp the government's extreme intoxication bill after the House of Commons rushed its passage yesterday.

Senators had adopted a motion Thursday afternoon to see Bill C-28 through all stages by the end of day.

As with the House's similarly expedited process, the Senate motion provides for its legal and constitutional affairs committee to study and report on the issue by a deadline in March 2023.

The bill's passage and its pending royal assent means that the Criminal Code will be amended to create criminal liability in cases of violent crime where the defendant can prove they were "in a state of negligent self-induced extreme intoxication."

It is a response to a Supreme Court ruling in May that struck down similar language as unconstitutional.

Justice Minister David Lametti and Marci Ien, minister of women and gender equality, issued a statement after the bill's passage, saying they were very pleased.

"The Criminal Code will now ensure that individuals who consume drugs and/or alcohol in a criminally negligent manner are held criminally responsible if they harm others while extremely intoxicated," the statement read. "The coming into force of this legislation is an important step toward ensuring that our criminal justice system supports victims and survivors of crime -- women, children, and Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ persons. It sends a strong message that will hold offenders to account and keep communities safe."

The two said the Criminal Code "now clearly states that any person who voluntarily consumes intoxicants in a criminally negligent manner, becomes extremely intoxicated and harms others will be held criminally responsible for such acts."

Lametti had called for its speedy passage so the gap in the law could be addressed before Parliament rose for a summer break.
Photo: The Canadian Press The sculpture of prominent Italian poet Dante Alighieri, is protected by sandbags, on Vladimir's Hill in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, June 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

After weeks of ferocious fighting, Ukrainian forces will retreat from a besieged city in the country's east to avoid encirclement, a regional governor said Friday.

The city of Sievierodonetsk, the administrative center of the Luhansk region, has faced relentless Russian bombardment. Ukrainian troops fought the Russians in house-to-house battles before retreating to the huge Azot chemical factory on the city's edge, where they remain holed up in its sprawling underground structures in which about 500 civilians also found refuge.

In recent days, Russian forces have made gains around Sievierodonetsk and the neighboring city of Lysychansk, on a steep bank across the river, in a bid to encircle Ukrainian forces.

Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk have been the focal point of the Russian offensive aimed at capturing all of the Donbas and destroying the Ukrainian military defending it  the most capable and battle-hardened segment of the countrys armed forces.

The two cities and the surrounding areas are the last major pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the Luhansk region  95% of which is now under the control of Russian troops and local separatist forces. The Russians and separatists also control about half of the Donetsk region, the second province that is part of the Donbas.

Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said that the Ukrainian troops have been given the order to leave Sievierodonetsk to prevent bigger losses.

Regrettably, we will have to pull our troops out of Sievierodonetsk, Haidai told The Associated Press. It makes no sense to stay at the destroyed positions, and the number of killed in action has been growing.

He said that the Ukrainian soldiers have "received the order to retreat from Sievierodonetsk to new positions in fortified areas and continue resistance from there.

Haidai noted that Ukrainian troops still remain in Sievierodonetsk, facing massive Russian bombardment that has destroyed 80% of buildings.

As of today, the resistance in Sievierodonetsk is continuing, Haidai told the AP. The Russians are relentlessly shelling the Ukrainian positions, burning everything out.

Haidai said the Russians were also advancing toward Lysychansk from Zolote and Toshkivka, adding that Russian reconnaissance units conducted forays on the city edges but were driven out by its defenders.

The governor added that a bridge on a highway leading to Lysychansk was badly damaged in a Russian airstrike and became unusable for trucks.

The Russian Defense Ministry declared Friday that four Ukrainian battalions and a unit of foreign mercenaries totaling about 2,000 soldiers have been fully blocked near Hirske and Zolote, south of Lysychansk. The claim couldnt be independently verified.

Following a botched attempt to capture Kyiv, Ukraines capital, in the early stage of the invasion that started Feb. 24, Russian forces have shifted focus in the war to the Donbas region, where the Ukrainian forces have fought Moscow-backed separatists since 2014.

After repeated requests to its Western allies for heavier weaponry to counter Russias edge in firepower, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said a response had arrived in the form of medium-range American rocket launchers.

A U.S. defense official confirmed Wednesday that all four of the promised High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, were in the hands of Ukrainian forces but said it wasn't clear if they have been used yet.

The U.S. approved providing the precision-guided systems at the end of May, and once they were in the region, Ukraines forces needed about three weeks of training to operate them. The rockets can travel about 45 miles (70 kilometers).

The U.S. will send an addition $450 million in military aid to Ukraine, including four more of the medium-range rocket systems, ammunition and other supplies, U.S. officials announced Thursday.

IN OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged music fans at the Glastonbury Festival to spread the truth about Russias war on his country.

Speaking to the crowd at the British music extravaganza by video on Friday before a set by The Libertines, Zelenskyy said that we in Ukraine would also like to live the life as we used to and enjoy freedom and this wonderful summer, but we cannot do that because the most terrible has happened  Russia has stolen our peace.

___

An official with the pro-Moscow administration in the southern city of Kherson that was captured by Russian troops early in the invasion was killed in an explosion Friday.

The pro-Russian regional administration in Kherson said that Dmitry Savlyuchenko died when his vehicle exploded in what it described as a terror attack.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Photo: The Canadian Press Demonstrators protest about abortion outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Jacquelyn Martin

Protesters are massing outside the barricaded U.S. Supreme Court to decry the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that cleared the way for legal abortions in the United States.

The high court released its final decision this morning, and it differs little from the leaked draft decision that emerged back in May.

Dozens of states are poised to enact bans on abortion as a result of the decision; many already have such laws on their books despite polls that suggest a majority of Americans support abortion rights.

Five of the court's nine justices concurred with today's ruling, including the three who were nominated by former president Donald Trump: Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett.

Liberal justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan expressed "sorrow" for the rights of women in their dissenting opinion.

President Joe Biden and others in his administration have warned that overturning Roe would open the door to decisions that would erode other high court precedents, including on same-sex marriage and contraception.
Re. Adam Fischer's letters No one 'took' the flag (Castanet, June 22)

What's really truly disheartening is there are still folks who think the Freedom Convoy" was ever an anti-mandate movement and not an attempt at dismantling democracy.

It was led by people with ties to neo-fascist groups (Proud Boys and Yellow Vests and separatists). Did you not see the swastikas, rebel flags, Trump banners, F*** Trudeau signs or the upside down Canadian flags? Not the banners of a peaceful legit protest. And even after organizers thought that was bad for optics and had the flags put away, the flag bearers were still there.

The only federal mandate was for the fully vaccinated to come into Canada from the United States, even though to get south (as a tourist or trucker), the U.S. Dept of Homeland Security required you to be fully vaccinated. So, if you were already south, you were vaccinated and coming north there was no problem. Even if you broke U.S. law, you could still get back to Canada with a negative test and quarantine.

The other mandates were provincial. So why did domestic "terrorists" hold 12,000 innocent people hostage in Ottawa? What would have happened in a serious medical situation when EMTs couldn't get in?

If thousands of Indigenous protesters, pipeline protestors, old-growth logging protestors or environmental activists (all with more valid beefs than the "Freedom Convoy) surrounded your residence with 24-hour air horns, fireworks and loud music, would you support their freedom (to protest) or would you call the cops?

If we sent (people with) ebola or TB to your place because they don't want mandates either, would you be cool with that? Public health overrules (protesters), especially when the vast majority of Canadians agree.

As for the others, most Indigenous people did get the shaft, I use gas, diesel and oil, I am in the forest industry and we should get our act together on the environment, but as long as they want to protest peacefully and not take hostages, that it is their right to protest in Canada.

And to letter writer Lisa Porcellato (Take back Canada's flag - Castanet, June 22), I agree. Any separatist neo-fascists who want to destroy Canadian democracy shouldn't be allowed a Canadian flag.

Dave Stocking
Photo: Citizen staff. People gather at the muster station in the parking lot of the Prince George Wal-Mart in College Heights after the store received a bomb threat at about 10 a.m. Friday.

A suspected natural gas leak at the Prince George Wal-Mart prompted an evacuation of the store Friday morning.

Shortly after 10 a.m. Friday, shoppers and staff were told to leave the building immediately and were sent to a muster station in the stores parking lot while an emergency crew from Fortis BC responded to the scene and it was determined the leak was coming from an appliance in the store.

"I can confirm that the smell was not natural gas, the odour was due to a faulty appliance at the building," said Fortis spokesperson Jas Baweja.
Photo: Chung Chow, BIV. TransLink plans to develop real estate near its transit sites

TransLink is turning its attention real estate development as it attempts to make up for lost revenue in the pandemic.



The regional transit authority announced Thursday it was launching a real estate development program that would see it build both commercial and residential projects near transit sites.



TransLink CEO Kevin Quinn described it as a creative way to boost revenue as it tries to lure more riders back to the system after ridership levels plummeted at the outset of the pandemic. Its goal is to get ridership back up to 80 per cent of pre-pandemic levels by this fall.



TransLink is projecting revenue losses of $216 million this year.



We will still need to identify more long-term funding solutions, Quinn said in a statement.



But this program will improve peoples access to transit, create more transit-oriented communities and generate new long-term revenue to help us improve and expand our system.



TransLinks real estate division currently oversees the acquisition of land for transit infrastructure projects, such as bus loops and SkyTrain lines.



It's also responsible for working with developers that wish to better integrate their properties with transit infrastructure.



For this venture, TransLink said it will be collaborating with both public and private partners to develop real estate projects



By developing near transit, TransLink will be helping to create transit-oriented lifestyles and communities throughout Metro Vancouver," TransLink chief operating officer Gigi Chen-Kuo, who oversees the real estate division, said in a statement.



The agency said it would be looking to best practices in other regions, such as Paris, London and Hong Kong, that have implemented similar programs.



[email protected]



twitter.com/reporton
Mumbai: As the strength of Shiv Sena rebel leader Eknath Shindes group continued to swell, it reportedly stood at 38 at latest count, NCP chief Sharad Pawar  who had earlier maintained that the rebellion was Uddhav Thackeray-led partys internal matter entered the scene to prevent the fall of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government. The veteran leader met the CM at the latters residence, Matoshree, on Friday.

The NCP chief was accompanied by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, state minister Jayant Patil and senior party leader Praful Patel. The meeting came after Ajit Pawar earlier in the day made it clear that NCP stood with the Chief Minister and would try to "keep the government stable."

Meanwhile, Thackeray has convened a meeting of the partys national executive committee on Saturday. The meeting will be held in Shiv Sena Bhavan, which the CM will address virtually even as Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal cleared the appointment of Ajay Chaudhary to replace Shinde as leader of the Sena in the Assembly.

Earlier, addressing the meeting of party district chiefs, Thackeray sought to allay fears surrounding the survival of his political outfit and the MVA government. "I may have left Varsha (CMs official residence), but not my resolve," he said, indicating he was not going to resign.

"I have said earlier also that I dont have anything to do with power. The people who used to say that they would rather die than leave the Shiv Sena have fled today. The rebel MLAs want to break the party. Despite the rebellions that the party has faced earlier, it came to power twice. I may have left Varsha Bungalow but not the will to fight," he added, turning emotional for some moments.

The CM also attacked rebel leader Shinde, saying he did everything for the rebel leader and yet a lot of allegations were levelled against him.

" I gave him the department (urban development), which I held. His own son is an MP and comments are being made regarding my son (Aaditya Thackeray). A lot of allegations are levelled against me," he said. "If they have courage, they should go among the people without taking the name of Balasaheb and Shiv Sena."

Thackeray also named the BJP for orchestrating the defections of MLAs and announced that he would never join hands with the BJP in the future. "The BJP backstabbed Shiv Sena and I cant ally with them," he said.

Despite Thackerays emotional appeal, the rebel Shinde group continued to grow as one more Shiv Sena MLA Dilip Lande joined its camp in Assam. Lande had incidentally attended a meeting held by Thackeray on Thursday and had declared that he was happy to remain with Uddhav. With Landes move, there are now 38 Shiv Sena MLAs in the Shinde camp.

In another development, while the Shiv Sena has submitted a petition before Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal seeking the disqualification of 12 rebel MLAs, two independent MLAs have demanded the removal of Zirwal from his post. Mahesh Baldi and Vinod Agarwal, who are believed to be close to the BJP, have filed a no-confidence motion against Zirwal.
China last week blocked a joint proposal by India and the US to list Pakistan-based terrorist Abdul Rehman Makki as a global terrorist under the Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the Security Council.

India and the US earlier in June proposed to list Pakistan-based terrorist Abdul Rehman Makki under the UN Security Council's Al-Qaeda and ISIL Sanctions Committee, also known as the UNSC 1267 Committee, sources said.

Both India and the US have already listed Makki as a terrorist under their domestic laws. He has been involved in raising funds, recruiting and radicalizing youth to violence and planning attacks in India, especially in Jammu and Kashmir.

Makki is the brother-in-law of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief and 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed. He has occupied various leadership roles within LeT, a US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). He has also played a role in raising funds for LeT operations.

In 2020, a Pakistani anti-terrorism court convicted Makki on one count of terrorism financing and sentenced him to prison, acccording to the US State Department. The United States continues to seek information on Makki because the Pakistani judicial system has released convicted LeT leaders and operatives in the past.

Interestingly, it is learned that the proposal to list Makki under the UN Security Council sanctions regime was circulated to all members of the 1267 Committee under a no-objection procedure till June 16.

However, China later placed a "technical hold" on the proposal to list Makki. Sources said Beijing's decision is extremely unfortunate and runs counter to claims of combating terrorism.

Notably, this is not the first time that China has placed hurdles for the listing of known terrorists. In the past, it had repeatedly blocked proposals to designate Maulana Masood Azhar, chief of Pakistan-based and UN-proscribed terrorist entity, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).

But why are China and Pakistan protecting Abdul Rehman Makki?

Writing for Bitter Winter, Massimo Introvigne argued that in protecting Makki at the United Nations as a member of the Security Council with veto power, China in this sense acted as a proxy for Pakistan.

"At the same time, the veto sends a signal that within the framework of the current international situation anti-Western (and anti-Indian) feelings so much colour Beijing's moves to the point that China is prepared to contradict its rhetoric of fighting international terrorism and may in fact protect it," he said.

It's about time China should reflect on its response that signals double standards in combating terrorism. Protecting well-known terrorists from sanctioning in this manner will only undermine its credibility and risk exposing even itself more to the growing threat of terrorism.

(ANI)

Also Read: China's Tangshan stripped of 'civilized' status, assault on women sparks public outrage
Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe to increase exports

ICR Newsroom By 24 June 2022

Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe made its first exports to Malawi and is expecting to build on the shipment to increase exports from Zimbabwe.



Because of our significant capacity, which is first of all oversized for the domestic market, growing demand in the region for this type of products, we are looking at, especially, (export) markets like Zambia and Malawi, said CEO Geoffrey Ndugwa. We just made our first exports to Malawi a few weeks ago, so we are feeling pretty good about the trend, he said.

The company recently restored its cement mill following the mill buildings roof collapse late last year. The commissioning of the vertical cement mill, due at the end of June, is expected to double grinding capacity at the plant. The mill is part of a US$15m investment programme, which also includes an automated dry mortar facility and alternative energy infrastructure.

Published under
The impasse at the general council of Tamil Nadus prime Opposition party, the AIADMK, on Thursday may, at its worst, lead to a split in the organisation but is unlikely to hamper its political activities. For, the core of the organisation is still intact under the wing of Edappadi K. Palaniswami, the Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly.

Vignettes at the stormy general council clearly indicated that the rank and file was not with rebel leader, O. Panneerselvam, who is technically, as coordinator, the head honcho of the party. But his bete noire, Mr Palaniswami, through his tactical moves, could not ease Mr Panneerselvam out of the top position that day since a Madras high court bench, which sat from midnight to the small hours ahead of the GC to hear a petition, prevented the moving of a resolution on what had come to be called the single leadership formula.

Dual leadership came to haunt the party, which has a hoary tradition of being spearheaded by indisputable unitary colossal leaders like M.G. Ramachandran and J. Jayalalithaa, after a special arrangement had to be made in 2017 when the Panneerselvam faction merged with the then ruling AIADMK with Mr Palaniswami as the chief minister.

Since Mr Panneerselvam was first made a stopgap chief minister for six months from September 2001 to March 2002 and then for eight months in 2014-15 when Jayalalithaa had to step down following convictions in corruption cases, he had come to perceive himself to be a top rung leader though he did not have the necessary grassroots support.

Following the death of Ms Jayalalithaa in 2016, he was sworn in for the third time as CM when he came to believe that he was entitled to the job. But he had to step down to pave the way for V.K. Sasikala, who aspired to become chief minister, so much to his chagrin that he rebelled and lost another opportunity when Ms Sasikala was packed off to jail. It was then Mr Palaniswami who was chosen by Ms Sasikala for the job and he, too, came to believe that he was destined to lead.

So a power struggle started when Mr Panneerselvam was taken back into the party fold and given the deputy chief ministers post and the coordinator position in the party in a compromise formula. Though they put up a show of unity as they wanted to keep Ms Sasikala, who was thrown out by Mr Palaniswami, at bay, after they lost power in 2019, the urge to wrest control of the party brought back the power struggle.

Mr Palaniswami had meticulously cultivated a support base for him in the party unlike Mr Panneerselvam who remains more a regional leader. The party that has seen several power struggles, starting with that of Ms Jayalalithaa after the death of M.G. Ramachandran in 1987, will overcome the present crisis, born out of a lopsided fight.
All politics is local is a phrase often attributed to former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Tip O'Neill, although he did not originate it.

But is it true? Maybe not.

If we look at voting behavior, the turnout for strictly local elections is alarmingly low. It is the U.S. presidential election cycle that drives greater voter turnout, not local issues. An example of the impact of the presidential election on local voting is evidenced by the vote totals for Red Bank commissioner over the past two elections. In 2018, there were 3,856 votes cast for an at-large position. In comparison, the 2020 election (with a presidential election) saw 4,714 total votes cast for an at-large seat. The vote increased by 22 percent and the winner in this race won by only 21 votes.

There are a few reasons why folks are reticent to become involved, or even interested in, local politics:

There are many people who simply do not know how the various levels of government function. Multiple research studies show that a disturbing number of Americans are unaware of the functional roles of city and county government. Eliminating civics from the school curriculum has had an impact.

The second negative force comes from the mainstream news media. Starting with the arrival of cable news, the political focus is most often on national-level or state-level races and issues. Local elections are covered only if there is a hotly contested race or when a candidate draws some notoriety.

Finally, the advent of social media has contributed to a general distrust of all levels of government. Those who get their news from social media or who watch only their pre-filtered sources live in their echo chamber. Again, the focus is usually on Washington, not at home.

Why dont we turn that dynamic on its head? While gridlock in Washington is as American as apple pie, at the local level we all can make a difference. Polarizing issues get the most clicks on social media and views on tv, but local issues are much more likely to directly impact our communities. The local level is also where we each can make the greatest difference. Apathy and low turnout should not continue to define local elections.

Engaging at races close to home brings tremendous benefits, including: educating the public about the forms and functions of government that most impact our daily lives; building the habit of voting and cultivating the knowledge of the voting processes; and developing a pathway for aspiring political leaders by winning county, municipal and school board races.

If you are interested in making a difference in your community, consider engaging with a local campaign as a volunteer. Better yet, think about running for a local position. In a local race, you dont need huge amounts of money. Successful candidates build committed campaign teams, knock on doors, and personally engage with voters.



At the local level, true democracy is possible and perfectly doable. If we dont participate, democracy inevitably turns into tyranny. The People rule any democracy and, together, we can work to create communities where elected political leaders are truly of the people, by the people and for the people.

Lawrence Miller

* * *

Mr. Lawrence Miller makes some good points in the captioned article above. More participation and closer examination of local potential candidates is needed. What will these future candidates advocate in their candidacy? What are their positions, are they clear, understandable, realistic? Will they seek office to serve or for personal gain?

However, this should not draw us away from what is now happening in our country at the federal level. Need we be reminded of the federal agencies that are failing to serve our legally voting citizenry. Can we not do better than Nancy Pelosi's tyrannical rule?

Mr. Miller's article should not mask the past and continuing disasters President Joe Biden and his "behind the scenes" leftist managers has and continues to put on this country that does effect all of us locally.

Gerald Presley

* * *

Mr. Miller, I could not agree more. Local government is vitally important to our day to day lives in ways we often don't think about. Various branches of local government work together to manage our schools, police force, park system, land use regulations, utility systems, and more. And oftentimes it is local governments that are responsible for implementing federal programs like COVID testing and vaccine distribution. But how many people even know their local representative's name?

Unfortunately good information on local government is hard to come by. This leads to apathetic voters. Apathetic voters don't ask their media outlets to cover local elections, which leads to less information, and so on it goes in a vicious cycle. That's why I started Chattanooga Civics, a podcast and newsletter dedicated to non-partisan coverage of local civic issues. That's why I encourage my friends and family to join their local neighborhood associations, introduce themselves to their city council rep, and get involved with local advocacy groups on issues that matter to them.

Thank you for your important message, Mr. Miller.

Nathan Bird

* * *

Kudos to Mr. Miller for an excellent letter.

However, the response by Mr. Presley added nothing to Mr. Miller commentary.

I have found that many, many Republican responses fall into the following categories, as does Mr. Presley's:

1. When you have nothing to add, or can't defend a position, change the subject.

2. When you refute, do so only with your opinions or the Bible. Never, ever use facts with supporting documentation. (The Bible is not law, only beliefs)

3. When you can't do anything, blame or insult Biden, Pelosi, or the Democrats.

Joe Warren










Dark country trio Lost Dog Street Band will perform at the The Signal on July 9 in support of their album Glory, released earlier this year to positive coverage from Billboard, American Songwriter, Glide Magazine, Holler. and more (Anti-Corp Music).

Review for Lost Dog Street Band:

Also, this appears to be the last time fans can catch the band live. In a recent Instagram post, Lost Dog Street Band frontman Benjamin Tod shared his desire to step away from touring. His heartfelt message offered a glimpse of an artist moving towards community and family and away from the public eye. He notes, "...after 2022 I will be taking a step away from touring and being a public figure in the capacity I have been. I will continue to write, make music videos and give my two cents from time to time, but I have to take a step back and decide what the next step is for me as an individual and as a leader.

The announcement comes prior to Tod's upcoming solo album Songs I Thought I'd Never Sing, out Sept. 23. The self-reflective songwriter and master storyteller incorporates seminal moments from his life's journey into 10 bare, honest songs that strike a powerful punch, While Glory centered on Tods experiences with addiction, sobriety and redemption, Songs I Swore Id Never Sing finds him learning to live with the moments of stillness, after a lifetime of constant motion.

Even after seven albums, Lost Dog Street Band's humble beginnings and DIY ethos still inform the music they make, and its that authenticity that resonates with so many fans  selling out dates in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and more. The bands hauntingly beautiful music resonates even deeper in a live setting, as they lay their raw emotions bare for an enthusiastic and engaged audience.
The Erlanger Health System board did not waste much time coming up with a new leader after parting ways with past president and CEO Dr. Will Jackson 13 days ago. The panel on Thursday night unanimously agreed that its chairman, Jim Coleman, should be the new president and CEO.

Mr. Coleman, who currently is president and CEO of the Alliant healthcare management firm, said he will give an answer soon to the board offer.

He is being offered a one-year contract at $625,000. There is an opportunity for a 30 percent bonus based on reaching certain goals.

Board member John Germ, who heads the management committee, said "a confidential settlement agreement" had been reached with Dr. Jackson.

In the interim, Chief Financial Officer Lynn DeJaco has been heading the hospital along with Chief Operating Officer Rob Maroney and longtime hospital official Gregg Gentry.

The Erlanger Board issued this statement:

"The Board of Trustees made this decision following a careful consideration of the criteria and qualifications necessary to lead Erlanger through the ongoing process to restructure to an independent nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization and ensure Erlangers continued ability to meet the calling of its mission for years to come.

"Jim Colemans deep healthcare management experience, his extensive knowledge and ties to our community and unquestionable commitment to Erlanger will ensure this organization is best positioned for a vibrant future. Jims healthcare career began at Erlanger more than 30 years ago when he served for nearly a decade in a variety of leadership roles, including as Director of Respiratory Care and Special Services, Director of Quality Management and Vice President of Planning and Decision Support. Over the next 20-plus years he held a broad array of leadership positions in a number of hospitals and healthcare organizations, including currently serving as President and CEO of a hospital management company with facilities in multiple states.

"The board believes Mr. Colemans depth and breadth of knowledge of the healthcare industry and specific experience with and commitment to Erlanger will serve the organization well as we continue our work to ensure the best possible future for healthcare in the Chattanooga region and beyond."

Mr. Coleman has over 25 years management experience in the hospital industry in both for-profit and not-for-profit facilities. His expertise includes hospital operations, strategic market and partnership development, finance, leadership development and physician relations and recruiting. Prior to his current role, he was senior vice president of Southeast Hospital Operations for a national rural hospital management company, where he directed corporate services for hospitals in Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Louisiana.

Previously, he also worked for Hospital Corporation of America for 10 years in senior management roles for Parkridge Health System as COO and Interim CEO for Parkridge Valley Hospital in Chattanooga. In addition to daily operations, he led strategic business development for the market, resulting in numerous acquisitions and increased market share, along with top financial and quality performance across the multi-hospital system.

Mr. Coleman has also served in executive leadership positions in other rural, community and academic health systems in the Southeast, including hospital CEO for his hometown hospital where he was born in Cleveland, Tn.

He has MBA and BS degrees from the University of Tennessee and is married to his wife Amy.

His first job out of college was in the respiratory department at Erlanger.

He has been on the Erlanger Board since 2019.

His appointment is by the legislative delegation.

Shelia Boyington is to move up to lead the board.
A Dalton, Ga., businessman, who directed the dumping of over 100 drums and other containers of chemicals, including hazardous waste, has pleaded guilty to a charge of disposal of hazardous waste without a permit. Amin Ali appeared in Federal Court at Rome, Ga.

Ali disregarded the health and safety of citizens by trying to conceal his illegal dumping, said U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan. He also broke the law regarding the proper handling of hazardous materials. Our office takes protection of the environment very seriously and will continue to prosecute those who seek to destroy our precious natural resources.

The defendant illegally disposed of numerous drums containing hazardous waste in violation of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, said Special Agent in Charge Charles Carfagno of EPA-CIDs Southeast Area Branch. This guilty plea demonstrates that EPA will hold accountable for such criminal behavior and that EPA and DOJ will continue to vigorously prosecute those that choose to violate our environmental statutes.

According to U.S. Attorney Buchanan, the charges and other information presented in court: The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) addresses the problem of hazardous waste transportation, treatment, storage, and disposal and is designed to protect human health and the environment by requiring the proper and safe management of hazardous waste from the time it is created until the time it is disposed of properly. RCRA prohibits the treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste without a permit issued under the statute. RCRA also prohibits the transportation of hazardous waste to a facility that lacks a permit to accept hazardous waste.



Ali owned and controlled Goldstar Investment Group LLC, 7 Days Property Management Inc., and Rock Springs Farming LLC. Through these entities, he owned the property in Dalton, Ga. (a warehouse formerly owned by a chemical company), and in Rock Spring, Ga., (a farming property containing several old chicken houses).



In August 2021, Ali had over 100 drums and other containers of chemicals, including many containing hazardous waste, moved from the Goldstar property to the Rock Spring property. The drums were left in one of the old chicken houses, with some of the drums left in an open trench to be buried. Some of the contents of the drums spilled and leaked into the surrounding soil.

Subsequent testing of the drums and soil revealed the presence of benzene, lead, and chromium. In addition, the contents of the drums were reactive and ignitable.





Sentencing for Ali, 56, is scheduled for Sept. 20 at 1:30 p.m. before U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May. Ali pleaded guilty on Wednesday.





The case is being investigated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Criminal Investigation Division.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Huber, Deputy Chief of the Complex Frauds Section, is prosecuting the case.
Attorney Robert L. Bright, who moved to Chattanooga during its Boom period, had a brief sojourn near the top of Cameron Hill. One of his descendants, Fletcher Bright, was a Chattanooga icon.

Attorney Bright lived in a house at 521 W. Sixth St. near the cross streets of Cypress and Pleasant. Pleasant was just off center from Cypress and later it was made a part of Cypress.

Bright was born in 1850 in Fayetteville, Tn., the son of John Morgan Bright and Judith Clark Bright. His father was a prominent lawyer who served as a member of Congress. The father of Judith Clark was the governor of Kentucky.

R.L. Bright attended Cumberland University and practiced law at Fayetteville with his father before moving to Chattanooga in December of 1886. He had married Sarah Gardner in 1871. Her family was from Fayetteville, though her father, Richard Gardner, took the family to New York City when he went into the mercantile business there.

R.L. Bright later served as county attorney. He had a fine collection of law books that was destroyed by fire when the Richardson Building burned. He also lost the manuscript of a book he was preparing to have published on corporation law. Shortly after the fire, he was one of those organizing a law library for Chattanooga that was placed in the Temple Court Building.

Mary Gardner Bright, a daughter of R.L. and Sarah Bright, started Bright School in 1913. Miss Bright and Kay Thomas were the school's only teachers the first year as it met in a small rented house on McCallie Avenue.

Another of the 10 children of R.L. and Sarah Bright was Gardner Bright, who was a Chattanooga realtor. His son, Fletcher Bright, took over the realty firm.

R.L. Bright, after his short stay on Cameron Hill, moved to a fine home on High Street.
The Hamilton County Health Department will begin administering Pfizer COVID-19 shots to individuals ages 6 months through 4 years old at all Hamilton County Health clinics beginning Monday.

The CDC now recommends individuals six months of age through five years old receive a COVID vaccine. The Health Department will only be administering Pfizer shots to this age group.

Hamilton County Health Department Administrator Sabrina Novak said, The Health Department has been receiving calls from parents asking when we will begin giving the COVID-19 vaccine to the youngest members of our community.

We are pleased to announce we are now vaccinating this age group to help protect them from severe COVID illness & hospitalization.

We also understand that many in our community have hesitancies or concerns regarding these vaccines. We highly encourage parents and legal guardians to reach out to their pediatricians with any questions they may have. You can also reach our COVID hotline at 423-209-8383, which is always staffed with an on-call nurse.

If a minor is being vaccinated, a parent or legal guardian must be present at the appointment and bring a current, valid photo ID. If you are a legal guardian, please bring proof of guardianship with you.

Additionally, Moderna COVID-19 vaccines are now approved for anyone six months of age through five years old. These vaccines are available in our community through various providers, including some local pediatricians offices. Please visit vaccines.gov to find a vaccine closest to you.

To see a full list of where the Health Department is administering COVID-19 vaccines, including which type of vaccine, please visit the online vaccine calendar at vaccine.hamiltontn.gov.

Additional Information & Resources

 Masks must be worn inside all Hamilton County Health Department facilities.

 To view COVID-19 vaccine eligibility, please visit the CDCs website at https://bit.ly/3JgRqqM.

 Call the Health Departments COVID-19 hotline at 423-209-8383 if you have questions about vaccinations, testing locations, or if you need isolation or quarantine guidance.
Chief John Ross Chapter, NSDAR, announces the election of their new Executive Board to serve during the Chapters historic 100th year. Elections for the Chapters Executive Board and Committee Chairs are held every three years, and during the June meeting at The Tea Cottage in Chattanooga, Chief John Ross Chapters Centennial Executive Board was installed, with the following members taking office:

Regent: Jennifer Sawyer Harvey

First Vice Regent: Christine Keefe

Second Vice Regent: Susan Whelchel

Chaplain: Teresa Webb Rimer

Recording Secretary: Donna Heard Dodson

Corresponding Secretary: Jean Bailey Drew

Treasurer: Debra Randolph Croft

Registrar: Susan Spears Sawyer

Historian: Linda Moss Mines

Librarian: Sheri Conlon

Parliamentarian (appointed): Luanne Hobbs DeWitt

Executive Board Members: Jessica Mines Dumitru, Tabitha Marie Lanning



The newly elected Board along with all Committee Chairs will hold a joint meeting on July 30 to plan for the upcoming year.

Chief John Ross Chapter was organized in Chattanooga on Dec. 23, 1922, and officially recognized by the National Board in Washington, DC, on April 14, 1923. The Chapter had 51 charter members and 28 organizing members. Membership was initially limited to 75 members, but in 1926 was open without a membership cap.

A regent from an already established chapter hoped the potential members on their waiting list could form the nucleus of a new chapter. With that hope, organizing members came together and the John Ross Chapter began. After a short period of time, the Chapter name was revised to include the title Chief.

Since its formation the Chapter has been involved in local activities and events that support the National Societys mission of education, patriotism, and historic preservation. Chief John Ross Chapter members have presented genealogy workshops, taught American History, donated many books to local libraries, sewn items for active military, and presented Quilts of Valor to the most distinguished veterans. Members of the Chapter have served their society at the state and national levels as well. In addition, since September 23, 1933, the Chapter has shared ownership of the historic Brainerd Mission Cemetery with the other Chattanooga chapters of the DAR and the local SAR Society.

Chief John Ross Chapter has steadily grown in membership and is proud now to be the third largest chapter in the state of Tennessee with 179 members. The membership cap of 75 members has long been forgotten, and any female aged 18 years or older who can prove that a Revolutionary War patriot is in her direct line is eligible and welcome to join the Chief John Ross Chapter, NSDAR.



To learn more about DAR membership, visit www.tndar.org/-chiefjohnross/ or contact Jennifer Harvey, regent, at jenniferharveydar@yahoo.com.






Tint World Automotive Styling Centers, an auto accessory and window tinting franchise, continues expanding with a fifth store location in Tennessee. This marks the first store in the Chattanooga area, under the ownership of Brian Weed, a multi-store franchise developer.

Tint Worlds predictable franchise model allowed me to open multiple stores in the first year of ownership to quickly reach my desired level of success after leaving the corporate world, Mr. Weed said. Drivers here are passionate about their vehicles. They recognize the value Tint World provides with its comprehensive range of premium services and best-in-class products. Ive experienced tremendous success as a Tint World franchisee in Middle Tennessee and look forward to building on those results here.

Tint World Chattanooga, the fifth Tint World location in the state, provides automotive aftermarket services and accessories throughout southeastern Tennessee.

Brian is dedicated to delivering the highest quality products and services to the communities he serves, said Charles J. Bonfiglio, CEO and president of Tint World. His proven success as a multi-store developer in Tennessee is evidence of his commitment to Tint World. Its also proof that our unique franchise model offers fantastic opportunities for owners who share our mission to provide the industrys best quality and value.

Tint World Chattanooga is at 7327 Lee Hwy. To book an appointment, request a quote or find out more about Tint Worlds products and services, call 381-8300.

Tint World Automotive Styling Centers offer sales and installation of auto accessories, mobile electronics, audio video equipment, security systems, custom wheels and tire packages, window tinting, vehicle wraps, paint protection films, detailing services, nano ceramic coatings, maintenance and repair services, and more. Tint World is also the leading provider of residential, commercial and marine computerized window tinting and security film services with locations throughout the U.S. and abroad, with franchise opportunities available worldwide.
Tennessee senators Bill Hagerty and Marsha Blackburn on Friday applauded the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization. It overturns the Roe v Wade decision.

Senator Hagerty said, I believe we have a moral duty to protect unborn children who cannot protect themselves. Today is a consequential day, not only for those who believe that all life is a precious gift, but also for American democracy and the rule of law.

"This decision doesnt ban abortion - it simply returns decision-making on abortion to the people. Thats how it should be in a republic - matters not addressed by the Constitution should be decided by the people through their elected representatives, not by nine unelected judges in Washington, D.C.

"I will continue to strongly advocate for pro-life policies that safeguard our children and our families.

Senator Blackburn said, Having worked alongside Tennesseans to protect the innocent lives of unborn children for years, I applaud todays Supreme Court ruling. Despite false claims from the left, this decision will not ban abortion. Instead, it returns the decision to the states and empowers state legislatures with more flexibility to craft policy through the democratic process.

It is unacceptable that a draft opinion was leaked in advance and that the person responsible has not been caught. The leaker has jeopardized the safety of our justices, and threats of violence by the radical militant mob are unacceptable. We appreciate the brave law enforcement officers working overtime to protect our justices and their families.

Rep. Chuck Fleischmann said, Today is a momentous and historic day for our Republic. Forty-nine years ago, in 1973, the Supreme Court twisted our Constitution to create the right to abortion that has never existed in the Constitution. With todays ruling, the egregious and wrongly decided Roe v. Wade decision and 1992s Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision have been struck down, and the question of abortion goes back to the states and the people where it belongs.

Since 1973, over 63 million innocent babies have been killed because of Roe. Beginning today, every unborn child has the chance to live as our Creator intended. I am proud that Tennessee will lead the way to protect life in our state now Roe is gone.

The Tennessee Democratic Party said the decision "puts millions of lives in danger."

The Democratic statement said, "Clearly, this is a blow to Americans everywhere, but in Tennessee, abortion is most at risk due to a trigger law that will outlaw abortion without the federal right. This trigger law now criminalizes any abortion unless necessary to prevent death or 'serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.' The abortion ban puts millions of Tennesseeans in danger and takes away their bodily autonomy.

"With a ruling decided on Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization today, the Supreme Court has voted to reverse decades of reproductive rights by overturning Roe v. Wade. Many have feared this decision for years - a half-century long federal guarantee of our right to bodily autonomy is gone.

Hendrell Remus, TNDP chair, said, This decision is a direct assault on the rights of Tennesseeans. The Court's interpretation of the constitution on this issue is flawed and a direct insertion of political activism on the highest court in the land. This decision made by a conservative majority on the court, will empower a radical majority serving in state legislatures across the country. Politicians will be even more emboldened by this decision to impose their most restrictive views on us. Today, an essential and lifesaving freedom was discarded by a court installed to protect it.

Brit Bender, TNDP executive director,said, We are going to keep pushing back against anti-choice representatives and legislation any chance we get. The Tennessee Democratic Party will work to support pro-choice candidates and legislators as well as abortion rights groups in state. Were prepared to fight for the safety and autonomy of Tennesseeans.

Tennessee Right to Life praised "the U.S. Supreme Courts courageous decision to overturn its own precedent in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey in todays decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health . The justices, in a 5-4 decision to overturn Roe and 6-3 decision to uphold Mississippi's 15-week ban, voted to no longer recognize a federal constitutional right to abortion and, thus, return the issue of abortion regulation to the states and their elected Representatives and Senators.

"In Tennessee, the Human Life Protection Act, a 'trigger law,' passed in 2019 and supported by Tennessee Right to Life, will presumably now go into effect and prohibit all abortions except when the life of the mother is at risk.





"In the decision, written by Justice Samuel Alito, the majority stated that Roe was ' egregiously decided' much like Plessy v. Ferguson and that abortion ' is not deeply rooted in this Nations history and tradition.'





Stacy Dunn, president of Tennessee Right to Life, said, This is a historic moment that we have been fighting for and working toward since our organization was founded in the wake of Roe.

This is a victory for democracy. For the first time in almost 50 years, the voters and their elected representatives will have control over this issue rather than unelected judges, and we applaud that, said Dunn. This decision will allow our Tennessee laws to reflect our Tennessee values that unborn children should be protected by law and that every person deserves the right to be born.






In an ideal world, where all political parties and politicians operate only for an ideology, horses would be found only in stables, nepotism would have no place in political parties and perfect democracy would be reflected in every aspect of life. But the simple truth is we dont live in an ideal world.

Political parties as a building block of our polity is an unchangeable reality; and so long as we have political parties, which have an inertial strength and influence, with their cadre, offices, organisation, money, clout, symbol, flag, colour, and quite often, a family at the helm of its control, intra-party democracy would remain a fable.

Living under a scion benefiting from the lottery of the ovary at the cost of the more deserving political leader or cadre in decision-making is a fact of life for most politicians most of the time. But occasionally, like a unicorn rises from a start-up founded by a disgruntled former corporate employee, in politics too, arises a star who takes the highly risky route of rebellion.

Rebelling against the party leadership often means risking being dismissed, sidelined and, quite often, losing your identity. Most rebels end by the wayside of political reality.

But some rebels make it. Some, like Sharad Pawar, Mamata Banerjee, K. Chandrashekar Rao or Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, end up establishing a new party, win power and acquire uncanny heights. Most end up eating humble pie in the next election and return to the parent party, more loyal and subservient than ever before  Indian politics has too many examples of such failed rebels.

Few, like Indira Gandhi, J. Jayalalithaa or N. Chandrababu Naidu, rebel and win total control over the party itself, turning the tables on the leadership. Will Eknath Shinde, a former auto driver, who rose from the humblest of backgrounds, achieve the high of becoming CM? Will he take control of the Shiv Sena party? Only time will reveal these.

But rebellion is the last hope of democracy within political parties which believe in using democracy to come to power but not in practising it within their own organisations.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee said the landmark Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v Wade "marks the beginning of a hopeful, new chapter for our country."

He said, After years of heartfelt prayer and thoughtful policy, America has an historic opportunity to support women, children and strong families while reconciling the pain and loss caused by Roe v. Wade. We have spent years preparing for the possibility that authority would return to the states, and Tennessees laws will provide the maximum possible protection for both mother and child. In the coming days, we will address the full impacts of this decision for Tennessee.

His office gave this synopsis:

Tennessee Laws Enacted Since 2019

Governor Lee has introduced and worked with the Tennessee General Assembly to pass maximum possible protection for pre-born children.

Trigger Law  With the U.S. Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade , this law will criminalize performing or attempting to perform an abortion, except in cases where it is necessary to prevent death or serious and permanent bodily injury to the mother. (TCA 39-15-213) This law will take effect on the thirtieth day after the Supreme Court issues a judgment overturning Roe v. Wade . It does not apply to the recipient of an abortion.

Anti-Discrimination Law  Prohibits abortion on the basis of sex, race or Down Syndrome (TCA 39-15-217)

Ultrasound Law  Requires a physician to perform an ultrasound, making the ultrasound images visible and the fetal heartbeat audible for the expecting mother (TCA 39-15-215)

Heartbeat Law  Prohibits an abortion where a fetal heartbeat exists, in increments beginning at six weeks (TCA 39-15-216) *Currently enjoined and subject to ongoing litigation



In 2021, Tennessee successfully defended the 48-Hour Waiting Period law before the en banc panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. (TCA 39-15-202)

Expanded Support for Families in Crisis

Supporting new and expecting mothers enrolled in TennCare by enhancing maternal health care coverage from 60 days to 12 months postpartum

Expanding TennCares Health Starts Initiative to support maternal health and holistic care for mothers and children

Reforming the TANF program to promote economic mobility and improve outcomes for parents and children

Investments in Public-Private Partnerships

Launching Tennessee Fosters Hope, a public-private partnership, to ensure every Tennessee child has a safe, loving home and make our state the most foster-friendly state in America

$433,000 to Psalm 139 Ministries to place ultrasounds in crisis pregnancy centers across the state

$1 million to Agape to support expecting and new mothers

Ways to Care for Families in Crisis

Tennesseans who want to lend support to families in crisis are encouraged to get involved through the following organizations:
A leader at a rally in Chattanooga protesting the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v Wade said members of the high court "need to be afraid. We know their addresses."

The speaker said he is part of a "militant" union group in the Chattanooga area.

About 50 mainly young protesters with many carrying signs gathered at Coolidge Park, then walked across the Walnut Street Bridge and on into downtown.

Hamilton County Democrats earlier Friday had called for a 6 p.m. protest at Coolidge Park of the volatile Supreme Court action.

County Democratic officials said, "The Supreme Court has voted today to overturn Roe v Wade, putting the lives of thousands of women in Tennessee in danger, and revoking their Constitutional Right to their own reproductive health care decisions.

"

In a remarkable, but expected, decision today, a Conservative majority on the Supreme Court has voted to overturn Roe v Wade, which had enshrined the Constitutional Right for women to make the decisions about their own reproductive health care.

"Clearly, this is a blow to Americans everywhere, but in Tennessee, abortion is most at risk due to a trigger law that will outlaw abortion without the federal right. This trigger law now criminalizes any abortion unless necessary to prevent death or serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function. The abortion ban puts millions of Tennesseeans in danger and takes away their bodily autonomy."

Rachel Campbell, Hamilton County Democratic Party chair, said, Every Republican elected official and activist knew this day would come, they voted to make it happen, and they are celebrating in the streets. Those craven DC Republicans started somewhere, whether it be the school board or the state house. And local elected Republicans are not immune to the responsibility of this day, nor are the Republicans running for local office, including both the Wamps, who will no doubt use their offices as springboards to state and federal office, so they can strip even more of our rights away.

"The decision by the Supreme Court today is in direct contrast to the majority of Americans' belief that women should be trusted to make decisions for their own bodies. Democrats will fight back against these restrictive laws, and will work hard to replace lawmakers who would willingly put the lives of women in danger for their own craven desire for power.
After July 4th holiday, the election cycle begins in earnest, especially for pundits and politicians. The state primary election will be on Aug. 4. The general election will on be November 8, 2022. Infrastructure and the economy will be a major focus, but education will get a fair amount of attention. What will be on the education agenda statewide? We have listed six areas that candidates for state office will face while campaigning.

School Funding. This marks a transitional year from the Basic Education Program (BEP) to the Tennessee Investment and Student Achievement (TISA). Despite reservations most stakeholders have with a new system, we can anticipate hiccups in the implementation process. The state must have effective and transparent coordination between themselves and local school districts. Until August 2, 2022, Tennesseans can submit public comments on the proposed rules in implementation to the Tennessee Department of Education. This process should always be available on any funding mechanism. We must protect the new funding system from becoming overly complicated and bureaucratic. It should be easy to explain and understand, and candidates for state office should have knowledge about this critical area.

School Transportation. America could be heading for an economic recession. Housing, food, and transportation costs are increasing. Household finances are tightening up, and consumer buying power is declining. For school systems already experiencing staffing shortages and livable wages declining, it will be hard to keep pace. Even with modest salary increases, the cost of living will outpace growth. This will impact all 146 districts across Tennessee. Now that diesel fuel has risen 50% from a year ago and it will impact schools, especially transportation and food supply. Bus routes may be cut or eliminated in their entirety. It is going to hurt the poor, the people that cannot get to school. We can debate the bad energy policies, disrupted supply, and increased fuel demand. All are genuine issues. The bottom line is that significant increases in transportation were unexpected when budgets were set at the beginning of the year. They could spiral out of control. County-owned buses do not pay the fuel taxes if they have their own tanks. Some schools and school systems use fuel cards and pay the tax and are then later reimbursed. Owner-operators pay the fuel tax. What is clear is that school transportation costs will increase. The state needs to figure that into the budget amount and adjust funding accordingly. Policymakers will cope with an immediate problem if fuel prices and food supply are further disrupted statewide.

Parental Rights. A growing number of parents and activists are concerned about what students are taught or not taught in public schools. Most educators never wanted to become participants in the culture wars. They did not create the standards, choose the curriculum, or buy the textbooks. Most welcome more openness into those processes. Educators teach students how to think, not what to think. They appreciate parent engagement in a childs education. This subject has flown under the radar and is becoming an important part of a needed conversation in the education debate. Outside influences on our public education system need more transparency.

School Choice. The Tennessee Supreme Court announced its decision on the Education Savings Account program, deciding it does not violate the Home Rule provision in the Tennessee Constitution. It will still likely face additional legal challenges, but for now, it looks as if the program will begin to move forward. In addition, the United States Supreme Court ruled on June 21 that Maines voucher system, prohibiting religious schools from participating in the program is unconstitutional. This will spark widespread debate on the appropriate use of public education dollars here in Tennessee, and the inclusion of religious schools in other programs.

Student Testing. Tennessee should move to progress monitoring instead of end-of-year standardized testing for better school accountability and transparency. This gives teachers and parents more impactful and timely input on student performance. It allows us to better adjust to make sure children can read proficiently. Three much shorter tests in the Fall, Winter, and Spring will apprise students, teachers, and parents about students growth, rather than a single lengthy end-of-year assessment that stops learning and leaves zero opportunity for improvement. Moving away from high-stakes testing will increase instruction time, while progress monitoring will provide timely and useful feedback for student goals, including reading proficiency.

Social Studies Standards. The State Board of Education launched the initial public review period for Tennessees Academic Standards for social studies, requesting feedback from the public through July 18. This is significant because this has been the source of contentious debate on curriculum issues statewide and nationally. The Tennessean points out that the Tennessee Department of Education, which had previously provided support for the review process, will not be involved in this year's social studies review because the department does not have any subject matter experts on staff for social studies. This should raise questions for the public about oversight.

We understand that public education is not a perfect system. It has never been perfect. It needs continual improvement. Out of the 55.5 million K-12 students in America, 49.5 million of them are in our public schools, a little over 89 percent. Educators in classrooms across the state face challenges every day and they want stakeholder and policymaker support. Educators need to be engaged to enhance the quality of education and opportunities for Tennessee students. Policymakers should encourage educators to discuss what works and does not work in their classrooms.

The Declaration of Independence reminds us that "Governments derive their just power from the consent of the governed." Policymakers overseeing public education should answer to the citizens and taxpayers in the community they serve and disclose political donations received during a campaign cycle. These six issues will be the subjects of campaigns across the state. No matter who you vote for, please exercise your right to vote.

JC Bowman

Executive Director of Professional Educators of Tennessee
Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III issued the following statement following the U.S. Supreme Courts decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization.

Today, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization. It overruled the Roe and Casey decisions establishing a federal constitutional right to have an abortion. Todays decision restores to the states their authority to regulate and prohibit abortion.

"Tennesseans, through the affirmative vote of their elected representatives, amended the Constitution a few years ago to confirm that the Tennessee Constitution does not provide a right to an abortion and leaves the issue up to the General Assembly.

"As a result of todays ruling:

I will notify the Tennessee Code Commission in writing that Roe and Casey have been overruled, as required by statute.

We have asked the full Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to stay the district courts injunction of the timing provisions in our heartbeat abortion law, so that the law will go into effect as soon as possible.

In 30 days, after the issuance of the judgment, the 2019 Human Life Protection Act should go into effect in Tennessee.

"To state the obvious: Dobbs is a momentous decision. Our republic is founded on the rule of law. Accordingly, we give respect and deference to the Court on occasions when its decisions align and support our state laws, and in cases when a decision might be contrary to Tennessee state law and what the majority of Tennesseans want, as was the case with the 2015 Obergefell decision.

"Most importantly, after nearly 50 years, todays decision gives the people of Tennessee a say on what the Court called a profound moral issue.
In a 90 Day Fiance teaser, Ariela Ari Weinberg meets up with her ex-husband, Leandro Fosque. Her fiance, Biniyam Bini Shibre, feels uncomfortable about how close he is to Ariela. Leandro tells Biniyam that hes not going anywhere. He tells Bini, Were family now.

Leandro, 90 Day Fiance Season 9 | TLC

Arielas friendship with her ex-husband, Leandro, makes Biniyam uncomfortable

As fans recall from 90 Day Fiance: The Other Way Season 3, Ariela asked Leandro to visit her and Biniyam at their home in Ethiopia. Biniyam didnt understand why Airiela was best friends with Leandro and told him everything about their marriage.

When Leandro came to visit Ethiopia, it was very tense and awkward. Biniyam had to watch Arielas ex-husband gift her bras. And things got more complicated when Ariela began discussing the extent of her friendship with Leandro.

It turns out that Ariela had stayed at Leandros place in New Jersey when she went back to visit her family. She was pregnant at the time with their son, Avi. The whole situation made Biniyam second guess if Ariela doesnt still have feelings for her ex-husband.

Ariela invites Leandro to the Ethiopian New Year celebration

In a preview clip for the upcoming June 26 episode of 90 Day Fiance, Biniyam joins Ariela and Leandro at a restaurant in New Jersey. Immediately, Ariela tells Leandro how Biniyam was practicing his MMA fight with a female fighter. Leandro tells Biniyam, It doesnt seem that you communicate enough. Check out the clip below:

Leandro, who was married to Ariela for 10 years, tells Biniyam, I used to make that mistake. Im just telling you. I learned it through time with other relationships too.

Biniyam gets defensive, and Leandro says, Im just telling you as an advice [sic]. To the camera, Leandro talks about what hes noticed with the 90 Day Fiance couple.

He said, Bini, he should worry more about how hes taking care of his relationship. Binis not paying enough attention to her. And when you dont pay enough attention to your lover, well, that is when the relationship starts dying.

Leandro tells Biniyam that theyre family now

After giving Biniyam advice, Leandro and Ariela discuss coming to the Ethiopian New Year celebration that theyre putting on at her parents house. Ariela tells her ex-husband, So now that youre here and you happen to come at a time that Ethiopian new year is coming up.

Biniyam described the celebration as just eating a nice meal with family. Ariela tells Leandro, I thought it would be really cool for you to come and celebrate it with us. Leandro tells Bini, You know, her family is my family. So yes, Id like to participate.

However, Biniyam isnt happy about Ariela inviting her ex-husband to the New Years celebration. He says, I dont trust Leandro. Hes too close to Ari. Whether Biniyam accepts it or not, Ariela isnt going to let Leandro out of her life, and vice versa. Even Leandro tells Biniyam, Were family now.

Is Ariela trying to get a rise out of Biniyam? Is she trying to get back at him for having a female fight partner? Fans will have to tune in next week to find out how the rest of the visit goes.

90 Day Fiance Season 9 airs Sundays at 8 pm EST on TLC.

RELATED: 90 Day Fiance Spoilers: Do Biniyam and Ariela Get Married in Season 9?
TL;DR:

Renovation Island Season 3 premieres July 24 on HGTV.

The new season will have eight episodes and follow the Baeumler family as they renovate their home in Florida.

Bryan and Sarah Baeumler will also deal with new challenges when running their resort in the Bahamas.

Bryan Baeumler in Renovation Island | HGTV Canada via YouTube

HGTV has booked another stay at Renovation Island. The fan-favorite series about a Canadian couple who buy and renovate a run-down resort in the Bahamas will return for its third season on July 24.

Renovation Island Season 3 premieres in July 2022 on HGTV

New episodes of Renovation Island will begin airing on Sunday, July 24 at 9 p.m. ET on HGTV. The eight-episode season will also be available to stream on discovery+.

In season 3, Bryan and Sarah Baeumler will finally start on a major renovation of their outdated family home in Florida. Theyll face the stressful challenge of a whole-home renovation while also raising their four kids and running their Bahamas resort, the Caerula Mar Club.

In the premiere, the Baeumlers  who have spent months living out of their suitcases  will finally settle into their new home before beginning renovations. Theyll also travel to South Andros Island to deal with multiple repairs at their hotel, including upgrades to the sign and the boat dock. Throughout Renovation Islands third season, Bryan and Sarah will work harder than ever to manage it all as they finish their home and work to find quality time for their family.

Sarah and Bryan Baeumler spent more than $10 million renovating their resort

RELATED: Renovation Island: How to Book a Stay at Caerula Mar Club Resort

Renovation Island chronicles the Baeumlers efforts to turn a dilapidated hotel into a luxurious beach resort. The show premiered in 2020 and quickly became a hit for HGTV as it introduced American audiences to Bryan and Sarah. The couple was already well-known in their native Canada for appearing on HGTV Canada shows such as Bryan Inc. (which eventually aired in the U.S. as Renovation Inc.)

The Baeumlers spent $2 million to buy the property that would eventually become the Caerula Mar Club. They sunk millions more into an extensive renovation, ultimately investing more than $10 million in the project, they said in a 2020 interview with The Wrap.

The couple overcame pandemic challenges to make Caerula Mar Club a success

Aside from the challenges of the renovation itself, the Baeumlers hit a few other major roadblocks as they rehabbed the property. In September 2019, Hurricane Dorian hit the Bahamas. While the resort was spared, many of the resorts employees had family and friends affected by the disaster. Then, COVID-19 emerged. Bryan and Sarah were forced to shut down their hotel just six weeks after its grand opening.

Eventually, Caerula Mar Club reopened. The response was overwhelmingly positive, with Bryan saying that business was going gangbusters once people were able to travel again.

For more on the entertainment world and exclusive interviews, subscribe to Showbiz Cheat Sheets YouTube channel.

RELATED: Good Bones Returns to HGTV for Season 7 in July 2022
As it turns out, Sister Wives Christine Brown has some shocking connection to this person featured on Netflixs Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey and to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS). Christine Browns aunt, Kristyn Decker, revealed some intriguing ties to the FLDS community.

Kody Brown and Christine Brown, Sister Wives | TLC

Christine Browns aunt, Kristyn Decker, says her sister was an underage bride

Reality TV blogger Katie Joy revealed some fascinating new information about Christines family on her channel, Without a Crystal Ball. As Sister Wives fans know, since the beginning, the Browns have tried to sever all ties to the FLDS. Theyve repeatedly spoken out publicly against the FLDS leader and convicted child predator, Warren Jeffs.

Without a Crystal Ball revealed information by Christines aunt, Kristyn Decker. Check out the video below:

The shows host, Katie, revealed, [Kristyn Decker] told me that her sister was married to Dan Barlow, who was the mayor of Colorado City and kicked out by Warren Jeffs. She revealed, Her sister was married to Dan Barlow when she was 13 years old.

After watching Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey, fans know that Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah make up the community known as the Short Creek Community, where the FLDS had their compound.

Dan Barlow featured on Netlfixs Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey

In part 3 of Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey, there is a clip of Barlow speaking to reporters about the FLDS lifestyle. The video was filmed back in September 2002. Barlow claims that there is no underage marriage happening in the FLDS.

Dan Barlow, Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey | Netflix

Barlow says emphatically in the clip, Young girls are not married to this community beyond a legal age. And we are not involved in that at all.

A reporter asked Barlow, And the legal age is what? He answers, The legal age is 16. The reporter says, So you can say with some finality that young women in this community who have not reached their 16th birthday will not be married? Barlow says, I can say I do not know of any. And I do not think there will be any.

Another reporter asks how old the men are that marry the 16-year-old brides. Barlow avoids the question and talks about what the FLDS believes. He said, Those are issues that I cant speak to. We believe in revelation. We believe that the fundamentalist belief is that a man has more than one family and those things are ordained by God.

How the Brown family is connected to the FLDS

According to Christines aunt, there are many connections and ties between Christines family and the FLDS. The Browns follow the Fundamentalist Mormon offshoot called the Apostolic United Brethren (AUB) or The Principle. It was started by Christines grandfather, Rulon C. Allred.

Dan Barlow Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey | Netflix

Since Christines aunt, Kristyn Deckers sister married Barlow. That makes him Kristyn Deckers brother-in-law and Christine Browns uncle. However, Barlow is no longer in the FLDS. As shown in Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey, Barlow was excommunicated with other powerful men in the church by Warren Jeffs. It was in an attempt to tighten his grip on cult members.

Despite doing their best to show the world polygamy in a different light after the Jeffs sentencing, the Browns cant escape their familys history. According to Christines aunt, many of her relatives are still part of the FLDS, including aunts, uncles, nieces, siblings, and cousins.

Of course, familiar last names such as Jessop, Darger, and Allred link the Browns to the names seen in Netflix docuseries. This new information is another confirmation that all Fundamentalist Mormon groups intersect.

RELATED: Sister Wives: All of the Times Meri and Janelles Hatred for Each Other Was Documented in Familys Memoir
Benjamin Brown is a TikTok comedian who also happens to be Sister Wives star, Kody Browns nephew. He recently opened up about being raised in the Apostolic United Brethren (AUB) and on the Brown family ranch in Wyoming. In the interview, Benajmin revealed some dark secrets about life on the compound which included child abuse, neglect, and labor trafficking.

Kody Brown, Sister Wives | TLC

All about the Browns polygamist compound on a ranch in Wyoming

On June 21, 2022, Kodys nephew, Benjamin went on a podcast, Year of Polygamy Podcast, on the episode King Benjamin and a Tale of the AUB. He revealed what it was like to live on the Mormon polygamist compound aka the ranch in Wyoming. He said that the Browns moved onto the ranch after either Ebenezer Brown or one of his direct descendants to help start up a town called Lovell, Wyoming.

Sister Wives fans have heard the stars of the show talk about the ranch Kody grew up on. They mention it in the familys memoir, Becoming Sister Wives: The Story of an Unconventional Marriage. Benjamin lived and worked on what he called a Mormon polygamist compound where everyone was part of the United Order or followers of the fundamentalist Mormon offshoot, the AUB.

Benjamins grandfather lived there with his three wives and his father with his two wives. According to Benjamin, at any given time, there could be 20 to 30 people on the ranch, most of them being children.The family rarely went to town, the kids were all homeschooled, everyone worked on the ranch, and the family went to church at a neighbors house.

The truth about abuse on the compound

When the Browns did leave the ranch, they had to be quiet, hidden, and go undetected. Benjamin was scared of the evil outside world. Due to polygamy being illegal in Wyoming, Benjamin was concerned that his father would end up in jail and the would be taken away from his parents. He said, Given what happened later, its probably what should have happened.

Benjamin says child abuse and neglect happened all of the time on the ranch. He describes it as being part of the culture and that its been normalized so much that no one questions it.

He said, As an adult, now, I can see it. Thats one of the tricky things. Now, I think the relationship that the world of Mormon fundamentalism has with the modern world, is that there is real harm happening. There is real child abuse. there is real neglect happening in these places. But its of a nature that makes it very difficult to us to know exactly how to alleviate it. Its happening in a very different way.

Labor trafficking on the Wyoming ranch

The TikTok star revealed that he was a victim of labor trafficking by his own parents on the ranch. Benjamin described AUB belief that the end is near and that they need land for the righteous to seek refuge and gather. He said, So it was absolutely essential that they have as much land, as big of a ranch as possible. But the problem was they werent very good at making money on the ranch, and the ranch wasnt really self-sufficient.

Benjamin revealed that the Brown family then started a bakery in order to pay the bills and to continue to acquire land. However, due to the fear of outisders or gentiles coming into the ranch, they hired their children. Benjamin was 8 years old when he started working at the familys bakery and was running the place by the time he was 14 years old.

He said, Im being exploited. Im being paid 25 cents an hour, to do hard labor in a bakery that I cant leave if I want to. And thats happening from the time Im 8 to the time Im 18.

He describes the work as brutal. The bakery had cement floors, industrial mixers, and heavy equipment, which often led to injuries. He reveals that he would work 6 days a week, sometimes for 15 hours at a time. The Browns were selling the bread to tourists visiting Yellowstone National Park. So, in the height of the summer, they would be making over 2000 loaves a day.

When Benjamin left the house for college, he ended up leaving the AUB and converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). Years later, he ended up leaving the Mormon church entirely.

Now Benjamin is a TikTok star (@thefreshkingbenjamin) and stand up comedian who pulls inspiration from childhood trauma for his comedy. He continues to use his platform to educate outsiders on the inner workings of the AUB and polygamist Mormons.

RELATED: Sister Wives: All of the Times Meri and Janelles Hatred for Each Other Was Documented in Familys Memoir
Electronic visual displays have come a long way since the early days of cathode-ray tubes. Modern display devices, based on organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), are compact enough to accompany us wherever we go, in portable devices such as smartphones and smartwatches. Still, there is a need for further improvements in the performance of OLED-based displays, especially regarding energy efficiency and color purity, both of which directly impact power consumption. Recently, a team of researchers from the two institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAS), Institute of Physical Chemistry PAS and Institute of Organic Chemistry PAS, and from the Silesian University of Technology proposed a series of new chemical compounds to serve as the emitters of OLEDs, taking us one step closer towards robust and sustainable technologies in portable electronics. Lets take a closer look at their discovery.

Electronic visual displays are ubiquitous in our daily lives, to the extent that would have been unimaginable even a few decades ago. Until the early 2010s, most portable devices used liquid-crystal displays (LCDs), which are fundamentally limited by the fact that they produce no light of their own, but rather, they filter the light emitted from a backlight. As a result, LCDs are relatively bulky and tend to suffer from poor contrast between light and dark. On the other hand, OLED-based displays emit light by themselves, without needing a backlight. Therefore, they can be made thinner and lighter and achieve higher contrast than LCDs.

The light-emitting component of an OLED is an organic semiconductor layer sandwiched between two electrodes, one of which is transparent so as to let light pass through. The color of the emitted light depends on the composition of the semiconductor layer  different emitter compounds give rise to different colors. Currently, commonly used emitter compounds include heteroaromatic compounds and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which give rise to bright emission, but at the cost of low color purity. Moreover, many of these compounds suffer from poor chemical and thermal stability, which significantly complicates processing and contributes to the high cost of manufacture. Hence, there is still plenty of room for improvements in the design of emitter compounds.

Faced with these challenges, scientists from three leading research institutions in Poland have teamed up to propose novel molecules for application as OLED emitters. Their research consortium was initiated by dr. Marcin Lindner of the Institute of Organic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences. This project was set into motion when he designed a series of potential new emitters based on aromatic electron-donating and -accepting moieties bridged by an antiaromatic seven-membered ring. The inspiration for this design was provided by the observation that many existing emitters feature a direct linkage between the donor and the acceptor moieties, but that arrangement brings with it certain advantages. What if the donor and the acceptor moieties were instead connected by an antiaromatic ring? Another innovative aspect of dr. Lindner's design is the choice of the electron-donating group: a nitrogen-doped (or, N-doped) PAH moiety. The nitrogen doping causes the molecular skeleton to adopt a slightly concave, bowl-like geometry, which helps reduce undesirable stacking interactions in the condensed phase.

Dr. Lindner says, "The basic design of our N-doped PAHs turned out to be quite flexible, and their properties are very responsive to the choice of the electron-accepting group. For example, we can tune the emission mechanism between thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) and room temperature phosphorescence (RTP). This gives us a high degree of control over the emission profile."

After the N-doped PAHs were synthesized by dr. Lindner's research group, their optical and electronic properties were thoroughly characterized by prof. Przemysaw Data, a spectroscopist from the Silesian University of Technology. Notably, prof. Data's research group recorded the emission spectra of the N-doped PAHs in various sets of conditions and measured the energy levels of the molecular orbitals.

Moreover, prof. Data's group fabricated prototype OLEDs that incorporated the new compounds and measured their external quantum efficiencies (EQEs). Rewardingly, it was found that the best-performing N-doped PAH achieved an EQE of 12%, higher than existing donor-acceptor emitters of a similar type.

The experimental work was complemented with quantum chemical calculations by the team led by dr. Adam Kubas, a theoretical chemist from the Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences. Dr. Kubas and his group ran state-of-the-art computer simulations of the structures and properties of the N-doped PAHs. Their simulations provided some insights which would have been inaccessible to experiment alone.

"In terms of electronic structure, the N-doped PAHs are quite exotic. The presence of the seven-membered ring between the donor and the acceptor moieties partially, but not completely, decouples the two. Consequently, these compounds exhibit small but positive singlet-triplet energy gaps, which facilitates emission by TADF."  explains Micha Kochman, a postdoctoral researcher in the group of dr. Kubas.

The full results of this study were published in Angewandte Chemie. However, the story doesn't end there: the research consortium continues its efforts to develop improved emitters for energy-efficient OLED displays. The team believe we will soon hear about the second generation of N-doped PAHs with even better characteristics. The key reason for such rapid progress achieved is the involvement of specialists from several different areas who bring in diverse skills and expertise.

Dr. Kubas agrees: "High-quality science needs an interdisciplinary attitude. In our research project, the close cooperation between experimental chemists and theoreticians has created some promising new materials with excellent optoelectronic properties. Above all, we could demonstrate a completely new paradigm for the design of strongly emitting N-doped PAHs."
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The proposed commission would have a broader scope than the Interiors investigation to seek records with subpoena power.
Maybe youve heard the aphorism that your zip code determines your destiny. Its the idea that the location where you are born, grow up, and go to school influences your life prospectsit affects your quality of education, health, career pathways, and so on.

Before you even have a chance to start making choices of your own, your physical space has made some choices for you. The idea makes sense, and it begs a question: How did your family come to the place where you were born in the first place? In fact, how does any family come to live where they live?

I live in a postwar cape cod in a western suburb of Chicago. How is it that this house came to be here, and how did my family come to live in it?

What Justice Issues Are Tied Up in Your House?

I did a little research on the ownership history of my home a while back. I had a call with the historical society, figured out how to find property records from the 1800s and 1900s, and pulled tax documents. I pieced together a fairly complete chain of ownership running back to 1845. Thats when the United States first awarded the land where I live to an individual to be privately owned. The U.S. Government awarded a patent of ownership to a man called Thomas Patchell (see the patent above).



My family and I live on the traditional lands of the Potawatomi who built villages along the Illinois River and its tributaries. The U.S. transferred Potawatomi communities first to Missouri, then to Iowa and Wisconsin where communities continue living to the present day. As the Potawatomi were departing, Thomas Patchell was arriving.

Of course the transformation of the land into a unit that was made available for private ownership was a necessary condition for me being able to purchase it more than a century-and-a-half later. I also wanted to know how the land came into U.S. possession in the first place. After digging a little, I learned that the land given to Patchell had come into the U.S. under the terms of the Treaty of Prairie du Chien, signed only 16 years prior in 1829.

In one figure, you'll notice the lots created by this process. In the other figure, you'll see the restrictions placed on the sale and management of these lots.

Part of this story includes the subdivision of a larger piece of farming property into residential lots. In the case of my neighborhood, this subdivision took place roughly 100 years later, in 1947. I found the document that enacted this subdivision of one tract into many individual lots. This, too, set the stage for my ability to buy my home decades later.

I think that truth-telling is one of the first steps toward justice. In that spirit, I quote the restriction placed on my lot from 1947:While I knew that racial exclusion clauses were common on these documents, I was sorry to see it there. These clauses set racially-based limitations on who was allowed to purchase the property my family and I currently enjoy.

"No lot in this subdivision may be owned or occupied by any person who is not a Caucasian."

Part of the answer to the question above, about how any of us came to be born in our zip codes in the first place, is that real estate laws determined where people of different skin colors would be allowed to live. This restriction is not enforced now, but for decades, it meant that a whole racially-defined segment of the population was allowed to make this their home, and another racially-defined segment of the population was not allowed to do so. And that kind of legacy can be hard to dislodge.

How is land parceled in the United States?

Its like grids inside of grids inside of grids. At the largest, we have meridian lines crisscrossing the United States, forming regions subdivided into tracts. Tracts are roughly twenty-four miles square. Each of these tracts contains sixteen smaller units called townships (6 miles square). Are you overwhelmed yet? The units get smaller still. Townships contain 36 sections of one square mile each. And each section can be divided into  section,  section,  section, or even smaller. When the United States awarded private individuals parcels of land, it was usually fractions of sections. Later, with suburbanization, these sections were subdivided even further into developments and lots.

I originally did this property research as part of my Ph.D., and parts of the work ended up in my dissertation, but what I didnt expect was how these discoveries would affect me personally. To own an asset, a house and piece of land that has been legally withheld from others on the basis of their race, is as concrete as it gets. It is literal ground, bricks, walls, and a roof. It is the legal right to control the use of the property. It is physical evidence of systematic racism, and I literally live inside of it.

There are many factors which affect where people live. Part of it is individual choices. Part of it is outside of anyones control. Part of it is the history of land policy. That last one is encoded in the patents, plats, and deeds that pertain to many of our homesdocuments available to us if we want to dig.

Tips for Doing Your Own Property Research

First, property research can be confusing. Record keeping is not standardized, so youre going to run into obstacles.

Second, find someone to help you. Check with your local historical society. Odds are good that youll find someone who is enthusiastic to help and who knows the right people to talk with.

Third, most or all of the records youre looking for will be held by your county government. Your job is to figure out which office holds which records. Check if your county has digitized any of the records because then you might be able to access them online.

Fourth, find out who was connected to this land before the U.S. arrived. You can look up treaties and homeland regions with this tool.

Fifth, to identify the first U.S. owner of your property, you can use an online tool provided by the U.S. Department of the Interior. Youll need to figure out the land description for your property first: your township, range, meridian, and section (ask someone at the historical society or county to help you get this information).

Subscribe to email digests from the Better Samaritan.

Resources

Look up the land cession treaty(ies) and Native community traditional homelands:

https://native-land.ca

Read more about racial covenants:

https://www.realtor.com/.../racial-covenants-systemic.../

https://mappingprejudice.umn.edu/what-are-covenants/

After serving as an educator in higher education for fifteen years, Ben Norquist is now pursuing a PhD with the Higher Education faculty at Azusa Pacific University. His research focus is on higher education systems in settler colonial contexts. Bens dissertation is a regional case study of the higher education system in the occupied Palestinian West Bank, with attention to the implications of external pressures as well as internal responses and aspirations. Ben trains college students in design thinking and project management tools and then works with student teams to conduct innovation projects with community organizations around the world.
During the past 49 years of abortion debates under Roe v. Wade, some have lost track of how profits and poverty drive the issueand why pro-life Christians must continue to innovate as we put our money where our mouths are.

A common argument for a pro-choice ethic is that abortion access is good for the economy. Many like US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen argue that limiting abortion access will only make things worse financially for vulnerable women. And if resources for pregnant mothers do not continue to improve, this is an understandable argument.

Seventy-five percent of abortions occur in households living on less than twice the federal poverty level, and nearly half are below the poverty line, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. Sixty percent of women who choose abortion already have children, and 55 percent are single. Presently, there is little economic incentive for single women already struggling to feed their children to have another child.

Yellen and others also suggest the economy at large will suffer if abortion access is restricted. Already harrowing workforce dropout rates will only increase and having more mouths to feed in already disadvantaged homes will result in more poverty.

If you follow this line of fiscal logic, one could argue abortion access can lead our 401(k)s to expect pregnant workers will forgo maternity leave and maintain uninterrupted productivity. It can lead our tax bills to expect fewer households will enroll in government assistance after an unplanned pregnancy. If this is the case, then perhaps we have all blindly yet complicitly profited from the economy of abortion.

However, this by no means suggests abortion access is good for the economyand there are two more important points worth making here.

First, as The Wall Street Journal editorial board suggests, the link between abortion rights and economic prosperity is tenuous. More births and more people result in more opportunities for innovation, creativity, and problem-solving concerning societys most desperate issues, including poverty. Declining populations are fraught with economic problems, as younger generations cannot fill the shoes of retiring workers, nor provide them with adequate care.

Second, reduced abortion access does not necessarily mean there will be fewer abortions. As of 2014, the abortion rate in the United States was lower than the rate at the time of the Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973. However, while abortion rates have largely declined in the past 40 years, some preliminary data suggest that abortion rates ticked up in 2019.

While President Trump appointed the justices that have overturned Roe, the penultimate year of his presidency saw the number of abortions increase by 2 percent. The rate of reported abortions increased by 0.9 percent, and the abortion ratio increased by 3 percent, all year-over-year.

The macroeconomics of Roe are anything but tidy, with both political sides urging us to make some inconvenient people invisibleas Russell Moore reminded us in a recent piece for CT.

One side rightly focuses on how women bear an unfathomable weight in this country, as 57 percent of both the workforce and of recent college graduates. But those who focus solely on the plight of women often disregard the unborn children in these scenarios, who are full of potentialnot just for the economy, but as people destined to cultivate and shape the world as image bearers.

And while the other side may coax and cajole evangelicals to vote for pro-life candidates, they often reject health care policies that reduce instances of abortion.

Nevertheless, the microeconomics of the church during Roe are encouraging. By the numbers, evangelicals have largely put their money where their mouths are on this issue.

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Some evangelicals have resolved to fight abortion rights beyond the voting booth with their checkbooks. One conservative evangelical group estimates that pro-life activist groups have raised $55 billion dollars since 1973. For perspective, that would be 15 times more than both parties raised in the 2020 presidential election.

Aside from contributing to PACs and campaigns, some evangelicals have opted for abortion-related boycottsusing purchasing power to target companies that donate to abortion campaigns and other forms of financial pressure on abortion-friendly organizations in states that allow abortions.

And while our society has long benefited from tea barrels tossed into the Boston Harbor and bus lines vacated in Montgomery, Alabama, modern boycotts are a mixed bag. They rarely make an economic impact unless they result in a social media firestorm, and they often provoke counter boycotts from opposing parties.

Instead of spending their dollars to fight abortion politically, many evangelicals have chosen to use their money philanthropically.

The 2021 Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) State of Giving paints an encouraging picture. Based on annualized increases in giving, from 2010 to 2020, orphan care, pregnancy resource, family and childrens services, adoption, and childrens home ministries received nearly $10 billion in donations. This includes $955 million in 2020 alone to 251 nonprofits.

As we enter a post-Roe era, where should Christians spend our pro-life dollars? I believe the answer is both where it has always gone philanthropically and where exciting new possibilities may lead.

There are approximately 20 times more pregnancy resource centers than Planned Parenthood clinics in the United States, yet their combined value of assets is more than 10 times less. Continuing to donate to pregnancy resource centers is a beautiful way to display a gospel ethic that leads to life.

These centers are so much more than simply pro-birth. They provide baby food, diapers, and other essentials to expectant mothers, match soon-to-be fathers with mentors, offer free counseling to women (including after an abortion), and partner with other local nonprofits to meet any other need that might arise.

While philanthropy is an option that must continue, there are other uses of our money, time, and political power that we can leverage in a post-Roe economy.

Do you know what companies you own in your investment portfolio? Do you know which ones produce abortifacients, which ones have no paid family leave, which ones refuse to pay a living wage?

Eighty-four percent of US investors would like to tailor their investments to match their values, but transparent options are limited. As technology and demand grow for ethical investing practices, its becoming increasingly possible to invest according to your values without sacrificing return.

Investment firms like Eventide, Crossmark, and OneAscent offer mutual funds and ETFs that seek to avoid companies that profit from abortion, while elevating companies that seek the flourishing of their employees, customers, and society. The next time you talk to your advisor or login to your brokerage account, consider if values-based investing fits your financial plan.

Aligning our investments with our values must be at the forefront of our financial stewardship, right along with wise levels of saving and generously intentional giving. We cannot afford to profit from products and practices that destroy life. Enough of us, together, can move the market toward flourishing and life for mothers, babies, and families.

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As my pastor often points out, however, its often easier to shuffle our dollars around than to donate our time. How can local churches embody a womb to tomb approach in our local communities? Advocates like Rachael Denhollander can be particularly helpful in offering more alternatives beyond the vital yet often discussed options of fostering and adopting.

Is your church leveraging its members vocations as doctors, lawyers, bakers, teachers, therapists, and caregivers to care for victims of rape or domestic violence? Are your members taking the time to become court appointed special advocates (CASAs) for foster kids? Does your church fundraise to cover legal costs of a mother trying to protect her baby from an abusive father?

Spending time is slower and more complicated than spending money, but it has the advantage of leading to higher levels of relational commitment and empathy that embody the love of God.

Lastly, we must continually consider and reconsider our politics. Pro-life advocates like to note that the United States is one of a handful of countries that allows elective abortion after 20 weeks, putting us in the company of China and North Korea.

But pro-life advocates often shy away from the fact that 32 countries manage to offer federally paid maternity leave, while we do not. Even if a policy like free childcarewhich would substantially ease the lives of new mothersis currently politically unattainable, we should vote for candidates that will fight for bipartisan financial reform to support families.

In the words of Ronald Reagan, if you want more of something, subsidize it. If you want less of something, tax it.

Christians should want more children in the world because they are made the image of God (Gen. 1:27). They are the blessing of family and legacy (Ps. 127:35). Their cries and coos even silence the enemies of God (Ps. 8:2). Therefore, in this modern economy, we must subsidize the lives of children, mothers, and families through our giving, investing, volunteering, and voting.

We cannot afford any longer to treat the vulnerable as a tax on the economy.

And perhaps, at the end of a life and a generation of loving those Jesus loves with both our words and our wallets, we will find that our shouting has turned to discussing. Maybe we will hear those we once vilified. Maybe we will speak with truth and grace.

Maybe we will someday create an economy in which abortion becomes unthinkableone that bears witness calmly and loudly to the truth that Americans dont want abortion.

Will Sorrell (MDiv, MBA) oversees values-based investing at OneAscent. He and his wife are members of Grace Fellowship in Birmingham, Alabama.
Founding fathers are often sacred, but not sacrosanct.

In recent years, Americans have wrestled with the slave-owning legacies of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Confederate statues have been toppled, ideologically refighting for some the Civil War. Pilgrims have become pillagers; Plymouth Rock equated with imperialism.

Muslims are having a similar moment.

Their prophet is called a pedophile. Their miracles, a myth. Successors to Muhammad are compared to ISIS. And it is not just Islams historic men. Two current global controversies concern two of the faiths celebrated founding females: Aisha and Fatimah.

The International Union for Muslim Scholars has renewed its call for an international ban on insulting religions. And from India to England, Muslims have poured into the streets this month in protest.

Christianswhether leading such polemics or suffering under blasphemy accusationshave often been embroiled in such Muslim controversies. These latest episodes, many are relieved, are centered elsewhere.

But Christians in both India and Pakistan are quite frightened, said Juliet Chowdhry, a trustee for the British Asian Christian Association. It is inevitable that as a vulnerable religious minority that is incorrectly perceived to be in league with the West, Christians will find themselves caught up in the anger.

Thus they are keeping silent, said a Christian leader in Pakistan whoillustrating the pointrequested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation.

Last month [May 26], a spokesperson for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India cited Aisha, often considered the favorite wife of Muhammad. Appearing on a talk show with Muslims, the Hindu official responded passionately when chided about a disputed temple.

Her prime minister, Narendra Modi, has led India in the direction of Hindu nationalism, stoking tensions with its 15 percent Muslim community. Though always a minority religion there, Islam ruled the subcontinent for centuries, with some ancient temples turned into mosques.

In one location, shivling idols were allegedly discovered last month. The Muslim talk show guests said no, their shapeholy to Hindus in honor of Shivaresembled instead a fountain. The panel then descended into a heated discussion over the mocking of gods and goddesses.

Should I start mocking claims of flying horses  and having sex with [Aisha] when she turned nine? exclaimed the official. Should I start saying all these things that are mentioned in your scriptures?

Buraq is the name of the winged animal mentioned in Islamic tradition as carrying Muhammad on a night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem. Similar traditions quote Aisha on her tender age at the time her marriage was consummated, while some more contemporary scholars cite evidence to argue she was in her teens.

At least 15 majority-Muslim nationsled by those in the Arabian Gulfhave condemned India, which in turn censured both the BJP spokesperson and another offending official. The grand mufti of Oman called the comments a war on all Muslims, while Egypts al-Azhar mosque described them as real terrorism.

Muhammad was 53 when he married Aisha, and Islamic sources indicate a happy existence together. Aisha grew up to become a scholar and a military leader, often honored by modern day Muslims as an example of feminist egalitarianism.

But she is also a center of controversyresurrected in a recent British film.

After the death of Muhammad, a faction of Muslims believed leadership should remain in the bloodline of the prophet. Known as Shiites, this sect believes the caliphate was promised to Ali, the prophets nephew and husband to his daughter, Fatimah. About 1015 percent of Muslims are Shiites, with the great majority residing in Iran, Iraq, India, and Pakistan.

Sunnis, the majority sect, believe Muhammad did not designate a successor. The community then met to elect one, a caliph, and the first three were chosen from among Muhammads closest companions. Ali became the fourth caliph, but in a clash known as the Battle of the Camel, Aisha rode the Arabian dromedary in a rebellion against him.

The Lady of Heaven builds its story around Fatimah, who Muslims esteem as akin to Mary, the mother of Jesus.

In a poignant introductory scene, Fatimah is introduced as the first victim of terrorism, paralleled as an elderly woman comforts an Iraqi child whose mother was killed by ISIS. Winning awards for visual effects, the $15 million partisan film relates a Shiite perspective that the famed daughter of Muhammad died in childbirthdue to injuries suffered earlier in a raid ordered by his first successor.

Sunni orthodoxy honors the first four caliphs as righteous. Thereafter the community descended into civil war, with Ali and Fatimahs children on the losing end. Hussain, the younger of two sons, was killed in battle, and his commemoration by Shiites is often accompanied by mourning and ritual self-flagellation.

Though Shiite-dominated, Iran banned the film as divisive to the Muslim community, while Pakistan, Egypts al-Azhar, and the Muslim Council of Britain all condemned it also. Following large-scale Sunni protests, most UK cinemas canceled upcoming screenings.

According to Rotten Tomatoes, the films approval rating among reviewers is 20 percent; among its audience, 75 percent.

If we are a nation that believes in the freedoms of religion and speech, said Chowdhry, who immigrated from Pakistan to the UK in 2003, then this ground-breaking movie should be in cinemas.

The British government cut ties with a Muslim advisor who circulated calls to protest the film. Chowdhry lamented that after years of funding for counter-radicalization, Islamic fundamentalism still captivates the local Sunni community. The UKs Shiite citizens are demoralized, she said, at the capitulation to an army of haters.

Fouad Masri, the Lebanese American president of the Crescent Project, has spent nearly 30 years sharing Jesus with Muslims and equipping other Christians to do likewise. He believes that the core of Islam is a political system, with Muhammad as the founding general. To him, the years of internal and expansionary warfare by Muslims contrast clearly with the blood of early church martyrs.

It is like the metric versus imperial systems, Masri said. The measure you use will judge the other.

As they build bridges with Muslim neighbors, Christians should not focus on issues like Aishas marriage as they share their faith, he said. But in an age of readily available information, it is becoming increasingly difficult to hide unsavory stories about Muhammads behavior. And since Muslims hold their prophet to be the pinnacle of humanity, meant to be imitated, Masri said it is only right for Christians to contrast his life with the one Jesus lived.

Martin Accad, associate professor of Islamic studies at Arab Baptist Theological Seminary in Beirut, faulted the immaturity of Muslims who cannot tolerate criticism. If they could simply carry their cross, so to speak, they would win the respect of nonbelieversincluding those who hate them.

But unfortunately, he said, there is a long Christian history of egging them onespecially the further one is removed from their community. The seventh-century John of Damascus was not soft on Islam, but was also a functionary in the caliphate. But the ninth-century George Hamartolos and Nicetas of Byzantium, writing from Christendom, uttered derogatory words about Muhammad that Accad dared not repeat.

Some British missionaries to the subcontinent were similar, said the anonymous Pakistani Christian leader. Others spoke forcefully, but fairly. And in fact, 30 years ago local believers would have too. But following partition and Pakistans evolution into a Muslim state, Islamic extremism steadily increased.

Today, no one dares speak against Islam.

Sharing your faith is like walking on eggshells, said the leader, based in a major city. Most Christians are poor, and just want to survive.

In 1986, sharia law was introduced to Pakistan, and in 1993 its blasphemy law was amended to prohibit insults to the family of Muhammad. The local Shiite minority, said the source, also learned how to behave.

The less I said about Muhammad, the better, said Warren Larson, a missionary to Pakistan for 23 years. Partly, it was to avoid a riot.

Operating with relative freedom back then, Larson, now senior research fellow at Columbia International Universitys Zwemer Center for Muslim-Christian Relations, would rig up a book display to the back of his Land Rover. When crowds formed and asked him what he thought about Muhammad, his learned reply was simple: I came here to speak about my prophet, not yours.

Then he would be left alone.

Similar was the strategy in the Arabian Gulf.

I never felt I couldnt speak about Jesus, said Jim Burgess, pastor emeritus of Fellowship Church in Dubai and the former evangelical representative to the Gulf Christian Council. I couldnt evangelize, but I could testify of my belief that not only is he the Messiah but he is also God.

Sometimes speaking out against religious intolerance is not helpful, he said. It can cause additional harm to those you are trying to defend. But of the controversy over Aisha, he would have advised Gulf rulers to respond as they did. The Indian officials words were hurtful, and could lead to more hatred.

Burgess said that as Western countries increase in Muslim population, many Islamic nations are trying to become more moderate. After spending 13 years in the United Arab Emirates, he has learned how to operate in the middle.

The right to speak freely comes from a Christ-like life, he said. Insensitivity is just another name for intolerance.

Instead, some call out the hypocrisy.

The anonymous Pakistani Christian noted how few participants in the dispute lodge any criticism against Chinas treatment of its Muslim Uighur population. And India responded to Pakistans rebuke by calling its neighbor a serial violator of minority rights.

The heterodox Ahmadis are the chief victim of Pakistans blasphemy law, said Larson, and have been officially declared non-Muslims. And Sunnis will often line the streets to mock Shiite commemoration of Fatimahs Hussain. When Shiites have retaliated, their shops have been burned.

It is better in Pakistans cities, said the Christian leader. But while his community has slightly better relations with Shiites, Christians do not get involved.

Sunnis and Shiites are two brothers fighting, he said. When they come back together, we will be the bad guys.

It will not happen, said Masri. Though mercy is prominent in Islam, he said that the initiation of reconciliation is not. The conflict has been going on for centuries, and while Christians should seek to be peacemakers, only Jesus can change the human heart.

Accad has more hope of success. Seeking peace and showing love, Christians can narrow divergent narratives and help both Sunnis and Shiites recognize their differences as matters of interpretation.

He has lived the struggle in Lebanon.

As non-Muslims we have no benefit in Shiite-Sunni conflict, Accad said. We should reach out to Muslims who care about justice, and partner with them in opposing harmful medieval practices.

Masri noted that child marriage was banned in Saudi Arabia in 2019. In Iran the legal limit for girls is 13, while marriages in the 1014 age bracket increased 11 percent.

But can Accads hope for reconciliation take root in the UK?

Prayer and discernment are necessary, said Chowdhry, who recognized internecine conflict as an opportunity for witness.

Yet Christians should emphasize joint Sunni-Shiite respect for Jesus, she recommended, and offer to read the Bible together. Sharing what God has done in your life is helpful, and if someone comes to Christ, continue to support them. They may face severe consequences from their family and communityand the church must fill the void.

But recall also that no one likes having their heroes sullied. Such sympathy can help Americans, Christians, and Muslims alikeespecially toward the Almighty.

An omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent God does not need men to defend Him, said Chowdhry. He is more than capable of defending himself.
Roe v. Wadethe Supreme Court decision that mobilized generations of pro-life activists and shaped evangelicals political engagement for half a centuryhas been overturned.

Millions have marched, protested, lobbied, and prayed for the end of the landmark abortion rights ruling. After 49 years, and more than 63 million abortions, the time has come.

Christian leaders called the ruling once unthinkable and marked today as the day we have all been waiting for and one of the most important days in American history.

We hold that Roe and Casey must be overturned, wrote Justice Samuel Alito for the majority. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision.

The Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health decision was 6 to 3, with Chief Justice John Roberts concurring with the majority. The opinion of the court closely resembled an Alito draft leaked last month.

The decision is the result of a trio of conservative justices appointed during Donald Trumps presidency: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.

Evangelicals have been the religious group most opposed to abortion and most eager to see Roe overturned. While abortion was never evangelicals only issue, in the voting booth it often outweighed all other concerns. Some supported Trump despite moral misgivings in hopes he would deliver on his promise to appoint justices that would finally overturn Roe and the subsequent Supreme Court decision that affirmed abortion rights, Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

The political calculation appears to have paid off. The three new justices joined Alito and Clarence Thomas in a bold decision saying the court got it wrong.

This day belongs to the many people who have labored long and hard to make it happenand to President Trump, who deserves our thanks for keeping a promise I did not think he would keep, said Matthew Lee Anderson, a Christian ethicist and Baylor University religion professor.

Ed Whelan, an EPPC senior fellow, referred to the ruling as the crowning achievement of the conservative legal movement.

The majority opinion reflected the arguments of evangelical and Catholic pro-life groups who filed friend-of-the-court briefs. Strategically, many focused less on arguments for fetuses humanity and right to life, and more on the problems with the legal reasoning behind Roe.

Roe was wrongly decided and poorly reasoned, wrote the attorneys for Americans United for Life. Numerous adjudicative errors during the original deliberationsespecially the absence of any evidentiary recordhave contributed to making Roe unworkable.  There is a constant search for a constitutional rationale for Roe, and the Court has yet to give a reasoned justification for the viability rule.

The attorneys for the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) made the same point: As a matter of the Constitutions text and history, it is no secret that Roe is not just wrong but grievously so. Roe was roundly criticized as wrong the day it was decided, it has been robustly opposed both within and outside the Court ever since, and no sitting Justice has defended the merits of its actual reasoning.

The Dobbs case considered the constitutionality of a 2015 Mississippi law barring abortions after 15 weeks, a more restrictive ban than allowed under Roe. The states only abortion clinic, Jackson Womens Health, sued officials with the state health department including Thomas Dobbs. Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) served on the states legal defense team.

Mississippi asked the Court to overturn Roe because that case was egregiously wrong and had no basis in constitutional text, structure, or history. Additionally, Roes changing standards have long been unworkable, which is why so many pro-life laws ended up in court, said Kristen Waggoner, general counsel for ADF. It also failed to account for changing science, which demonstrates that life begins at conception.

How Roe was decided

The courts decision in 1973 was based on the argument that fetal life does not have constitutional protection. Lawyers in the case pointed out that traditionally, rights are understood to begin at birth. The 14th Amendment, for example, extended citizenship to all those born  in the United States, not those conceived within the nations borders. A fetus, similarly, is not allowed to own property.

The judges said, however, that the state did have a compelling interest in protecting fetal life. But that compelling interest had to be balanced with a womans right to privacy.

Privacy is never mentioned in the Constitution, but the Ninth Amendment says that rights not mentioned in the Constitution are not to be denied by default. And the 14th Amendment guarantees legal due process, which the court said indicated a right to privacy, including the right to make decisions about abortion without state interferenceat least up to a certain point.

The justices debated that point. After some internal back and forth, they settled on fetal viability.

The author of the landmark decision, Justice Harry Blackmun, viewed Roe v. Wade as a careful compromise.

The Court does not today hold that the Constitution compels abortion on demand, he wrote. It does not today pronounce that a pregnant woman has an absolute right to an abortion. It does, for the first trimester of pregnancy, cast the abortion decision and the responsibility for it upon the attending physician.

As historian Daniel K. Williams has noted, however, Blackmun was wrong. Roe accepted none of the arguments of the pro-life movement and delivered a decisive win to abortion rights advocates. The decision forced 46 state legislatures to rewrite their abortion laws, bringing them into line with what had been, until then, the most liberal abortion laws in the nation.

Most evangelical Christians at the time saw it as an appalling decision, disregarding the unalienable right of life.This decision runs counter not merely to the moral teachings of Christianity through the ages but also to the moral sense of the American people, CT argued in 1973.

The Southern Baptist Convention, the Assemblies of God, the Christian and Missionary Alliance, the Presbyterian Church in America, and other denominations all passed pro-life resolutions in the decade after Roe.

In their influential book Whatever Happened to the Human Race?, evangelist Francis Schaeffer and pediatric surgeon C. Everett Koop called abortion the first and crucial issue, the keystone to protecting the dignity of human life.

We implore those of you who are Christian to exert all your influence to fight against the increasing loss of humannessthrough legislation, social action, and other means at your disposal, they wrote in 1979. If we do not take a stand here and now, we certainly cannot lay any claim to being the salt of the earth in our generation.

The movement almost achieved victory in 1992. Five abortion clinics and one independent doctor sued Pennsylvania for its restrictions on abortion, including a mandatory waiting period and notification of a spouse or parent. At the time, eight of the nine justices had been appointed by Republicans, though at least three of them were known to support abortion rights.

On the eve of the decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist drafted a 5-to-4 majority opinion overturning Roe.

Then at the last minute, Justice Anthony Kennedy switched sides. He joined Sandra Day OConnor and David Souter to craft a compromise that would allow states to regulate abortion to some extentbut also uphold the validity of Roe. They got the two more liberal justices, Blackmun and John Paul Stevens, to sign on.

Though it may have been conceived as a compromise, the 5-to-4 decision in Casey was in fact a reaffirmation of the core claim of Roewhile almost entirely abandoning the legal reasoning. The court decided that it was crucial to recognize the precedent set by Roe, adhering the legal doctrine of stare decisis.

Questioning the authority of precedent

Each of the three newest justices raised questions about this standard in the oral arguments in Dobbs in December.

In thinking about stare decisis, which is obviously the core of this case, how should we be thinking about it? Barrett asked.

The Catholic justice acknowledged the benefits of a system that builds on precedents but argued that part of our stare decisis doctrine [is] that its not an inexorable command and that there are some circumstances in which overruling is possible. She rattled off multiple examples, including one civil rights case and one LGBT rights case.

Roberts seemed to search for a way to modify the previous rulings and perhaps set a different standard for how much abortion could be regulated without actually rejecting a constitutional right to abortion. The attorneys on both sides, however, indicated they thought the case was all or nothing.

I read your briefs, Alito said to the attorney defending Roe and Casey. Your briefs [say] that the only real options we have are to reaffirm Roe and Casey as they stand or to overrule them in their entirety. You say that there are no half-measures here. Is that a correct understanding of your brief?

She agreed it was. And Alito, soon after the hearing, started drafting a bold decision overturning Roe and Casey completely.

Overruling a precedent is a serious matter. It is not a step that should be taken lightly, he wrote. In this case, five factors weigh strongly in favor of overruling Roe and Casey: the nature of their error, the quality of their reasoning, the workability of the rules they imposed on the country, their disruptive effect on other areas of the law, and the absence of concrete reliance.

The decision does not criminalize abortion, but sends the question of regulation back to the states, where voters and legislatures will decide when a woman can and cant choose to terminate a pregnancy. Some states have passed trigger laws putting restrictions into effect immediately.

For too long, the Roe and Casey decisions have allowed our nation to turn a blind eye to the plight of those who have no voiceto view these lives as a burden instead of a blessing. While this ruling is a significant step toward establishing a true culture of life, the issue of abortion will now be sent back to the states, said Chelsea Sobolik, director of public policy for the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC).

We must continue to use our time, talent and treasure to protect the preborn, care for their mothers, and advocate for state laws that protect them both.

As the decision released Friday morning, evangelical leaders referred to it as one of the most significant days in the countrys history.

Im thankful to God for this historic day...a day to celebrate life, said Doug Clay, general superintendent of the Assemblies of God. Not to gloat, but to rejoice and give thanks to the Lord of life. To continue our efforts in creating a culture of life in the communities we serve.

Focus on the Family said, After 50 years of fighting for the unborn, our prayers have been answered. The Christian Medical and Dental Associations called it a much-needed victory for life and for healthcare. And the head of the ERLC declared, a new chapter in the pro-life movement begins.

Experts indicate the ruling will immediately result in a 10 to 15 percent reduction in the number of abortions. Long term, the impact is less clear.

We do not pretend to know how our political system or society will respond to todays decision, Alito wrote. We can only do our job . We therefore hold the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion.

[ This article is also available in espanol. ]
The other day while going for a jog, I listened to a sermon on the seventh commandment, which addresses adultery. In the 40-minute sermon, the preacher used the phrase I think over 40 times and the phrase we think another half dozen.

Of course, I was not counting at first. But as the preacher neared the conclusion, it occurred to me how often Id heard that phrase. So, I went back and listened again and tallied the nearly 50 references.

Consider the following two examples. When talking about sexuality, he said, I think all of that truth is grounded in Scripture. Later in the sermon he said, I think we have to take Jesus seriously when we wrestle with the biblical view of sexuality.

Clearly the phrase I think functioned at the level of a subconscious tic, like saying umm or swaying side to side. And while these kinds of empty repetitions may be distracting to listeners, the theological import of sliding errr or ahhhh into a sentence amounts to essentially zero. Not so with I think.

Is truth grounded in Scripture, or does the preacher think truth is grounded in Scripture? Should we take Jesus seriously, or does the preacher think we should take Jesus seriously? The difference matters.

Too much I think

In 1566, the Reformer Heinrich Bullinger famously asserted in the Second Helvetic Confession, The preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God. He added that when the Word is preached, even if the preacher be evil and a sinner, nevertheless the Word of God remains still true and good. Such a bold statement requires more explanation about what the author means and does not mean.

Bullinger also speaks of the closed nature of the canon of Scripture in traditional, orthodox terms, stating that nothing be either added to or taken from what God has commanded in Scripture.

In another section on how Christians should understand the interpretations of the church fathers, councils, and traditions, Bullinger writes that while Christians may be helped by them, they are to be accepted only as far as they agree with the Scriptures. Then he adds, We modestly dissent from them when they are found to set down things differing from, or altogether contrary to, the Scriptures.

This means when Bullinger says that the preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God, we should not take him to mean everything said from every pulpit is Gods Word. Hes not advocating for a postapostolic version of inerrant prophecy, an adding to the canon with new revelation.

He is saying, however, that inasmuch as a pastor preaches in accordance with Gods Word, we are right to say the pastor is preaching Gods Word. Or as some pastors have said, When the Word of God is rightly preached, the voice of God is truly heard.

This assertion attempts to reckon with passages like Hebrews 13:7, which exhorts Christians to remember their leaders as those who spoke the word of God to you. Consider also Pauls statement in 2 Corinthians 5:20, We are therefore Christs ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. The plural pronoun we certainly includes Pauls apostolic band but must be understood more widely.

In the next verse Paul writes, God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (emphasis mine). Just as Christ becomes sin for all Christians and gives all Christians his righteousness, so also all those who are justified become ambassadors for Christ. This means that one Christians appeal to another human being to be reconciled to God through Christ can be described as though God himself were making the appeal.

In this light, the phrase I think on the lips of preachers ought to be infrequent. Word choice has consequences. Consider the result if Billy Grahams go-to phrase had been I think the Bible says instead of The Bible says. When a preacher uses I think too often, the faith of those who listen becomes like warm taffyfaith stretchable to fit any mold. A fuzzy God of infinite malleability is certainly not the impression preachers should give as they herald the faith once for all delivered.

Ratherregardless of the elegance of the speaker, the size of the congregation, or how many times the preacher says umm and sways side to sidethese truths bestow dignity and majesty to all preaching while simultaneously engendering both humility and boldness in preachers.

Too little I think

We should note that the opposite end of the spectrum causes problems too. While saying I think over 40 times in one sermon is far too much, not saying I think once in 40 sermons is too little.

When a preacher never says I think, a legitimate question about, say, the dating of the book of Revelation might as well be a challenge to the validity of Christs resurrection and return.

This brittleness will manifest itself as rigidness and defensiveness in intramural debates with fellow Christians. Without appropriate humility on the side of the listener, the speakers statement I think the earth might be old might be interpreted as the tentativeness of a coward or the heresy of an apostate.

The place for I think might be small, but the importance of saying I think every so often is not small. Consider Paul again. He speaks of his own experience as an apostle, as someone who at one time even experienced the third heavenwhatever that meansas knowing in part, not in full, and seeing in a mirror dimly (1 Cor. 13:912, ESV). If Paul saw some things dimly, then how much more do we?

And pastors shouldnt be afraid to tell their people so. Dear church, a preacher should sometimes say, I think this verse means such and such, but Im not fully sure. Even the apostle Peter, as is often pointed out, found that Pauls letters contain some things that are hard to understand (2 Pet. 3:16).

Christians believe in the perspicuity of Scripturethat is, that Scripture is sufficiently clear. But sufficiently clear has never meant all Scripture is equally clear. It is no great breach of the faith once for all delivered for preachers to acknowledge this before their congregations.

The Westminster Confession of Faith, without shame or handwringing, even states, All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all.

Therefore, preachers need the homiletical version of theological triage described by Gavin Ortlund in Finding the Right Hills to Die On. We must know the difference between preaching I think Jesus loves you and I think the Nephilim in Genesis 6 were fallen angels.

The difference, I think, matters a lot.

Benjamin Vrbicek is the lead pastor at Community Evangelical Free Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the managing editor for Gospel-Centered Discipleship, and the author of several books.
Israeli humanitarian delivers 200 pounds of baby formula to Texas churches amid national shortage

A New Jersey nonprofit is helping parents in the North Texas area weather a nationwide baby formula shortage with an international effort involving Christians and Orthodox Jews.

Jonathan Feldstein, an orthodox Jew and president of the Genesis 123 Foundation, told The Christian Post he launched an effort to deliver 200 pounds of baby formula to New Beginnings Church and First Melissa Church in the Dallas-Fort Worth area as the global supply chain crisis continues to roil distribution for products like baby formula.

"I still think of the U.S. as the land of abundance and, except for a gas crisis in the 70s, I cannot think of any time that there was ever a shortage of anything until now," Feldstein said. "There are lots of things people can live without, but baby formula is essential, nourishing babies whose mother's can't or don't choose to nurse, and before they can eat solid food."

Feldstein  a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen who grew up in the U.S.  said he made it his mission to bring over as much formula from Israel as possible.

The result: 119 containers of formula totaling more than $2,200 in value.

At first, he planned on bringing a modest amount of formula back from Israel to the U.S., but he soon enlisted the help of a major Israeli grocery chain to increase the amount of product he could take to the U.S. with him.

"If I had the ability to bring more, I'd have done it," he added. "It's a blessing to be able to be a blessing to the families of the world, literally."

Data on baby formula availability in the U.S. showed out-of-stock numbers hitting as high as 43% for the week ending May 8, compared to up to 8% in 2021.

The shortage has prompted harsh criticism of the Biden administration from Republican lawmakers as supermarket shelves remain empty.

Initially, the shortage of baby formula last fall was due to supply chain bottlenecks resulting from the pandemic. In February, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) shut down the Abbott Labs plant that produces around a quarter of all formula in the country due to contamination concerns.

Feldstein said he reached out to pastor Trey Graham of First Melissa Church in Melissa, who is also a Genesis 123 Foundation advisory board member.

"The alarming shortage of baby formula in Texas offered Jonathan a chance to deliver formula to Texan parents who are facing this challenge," Graham told The Christian Post via email.

A Texas congresswoman launched a website in May to help parents find baby formula, allowing Dallas-area residents to post the addresses of stores with formula and which brands they have in stock.

Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, said she started DFW Baby Formula in response to what she described as a lack of a proper response by the federal government, claiming the administration is "complacent with hungry children and desperate parents."

White House officials told Politico that incomplete data on the retail stocks slowed the response to the plant shutdown and the administration didn't anticipate the severity of the shortages.

In the last month, the FDA has urged the importation of infant formula from six countries, a total estimated quantity the equivalent of 365 million eight-ounce bottles. According to an FDA update this week, some of these products have already made it to stores while others will appear in the coming weeks and months.

Graham said he sees people helping on a grassroots level, but more can always be done.

"The shortage of baby formula is just one example of our troubling current economic situation, so I hope neighbors and congregations will develop processes to share ideas and meet needs," he said.

Graham said others can donate to the Genesis 123 Foundation "so that projects like these can happen."

Donated funds allow food, blankets, clothing, military supplies or baby formula to be provided to families or soldiers in need of support and encouragement, he added. The U.S.-based nonprofit's mission is to "build bridges between Jews and Christians with Israel in ways that are new, unique, and meaningful."
Oxford college apologizes for 'misleading' claims about Christian group after LGBT outcry Group invited back on campus

A college in Oxford, England, has apologized for tarnishing the name of a Christian organization with misleading claims in a letter to students after it allegedly canceled a conference booking in response to outcry from student activists alleging the conference's content was "hateful."

For over a decade, the Wilberforce Academy, an affiliate of the Evangelical advocacy group Christian Concern, has held a one-week conference at Worcester College for university students and young professionals to offer guidance on applying the Christian faith to their vocations.

In March, after students complained about the conference  which Christian Concern says "includes teaching of biblical beliefs that have been recognised by the Christian Church globally for the past 2,000 years"  Worcester College apologized for causing the students "significant distress" and canceled the 2022 event scheduled for September.

Following an independent review launched by Christian Concern that found "no evidence" for the move, Worcester now says the school stands for "the right to freedom of speech and religious belief and the dignity of all people. "

In a joint statement released Tuesday, Christian Concern and Worcester College announced the dispute was resolved and that it was "misleading" for Worcester to suggest anything improper had occurred at the conference.

The statement read in part:

"After detailed examination of the circumstances of Christian Concern's conference in September 2021, Worcester College acknowledges that notwithstanding various accounts of events it was misleading to suggest that Conference delegates or representatives of Christian Concern acted improperly in an email to students in September 2021 which was subsequently leaked to the Cherwell Student newspaper."

According to the statement, Worcester has invited Christian Concern back on campus to speak at a later date, "which will take place as soon as can be arranged."

"In a world where differing views are strongly and sincerely held, it is important to come together and listen to each other," the statement read.

The controversy began shortly after David Isaac, the former chair of the LGBTQ charity Stonewall and the United Kingdom Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), was tapped as provost of Worcester College.

Worcester says the college first received several complaints from students about leaflets being passed out on campus last September.

"Unsolicited approaches by your conference delegates to staff and students within the confines of the College in respect of various issues, especially LGBT conversion therapy, which they found upsetting," the college was quoted as telling Chrisitan Concern. "This was especially the case for new students attending a parallel event, Opportunity Oxford, which prepares young people for their impending admission to Oxford University."

When asked to show details of the complaints and alleged leaflets passed out on campus, Christian Concern was told that the school could not provide such information.

"The information provided does not enable me to identify any of your delegates," a Worcester College official told Christian Concern. "I have not been able to obtain a copy of the leaflets that were alleged to have been distributed."

Christian Concern's independent inquiry was conducted by Michael Stewart, a charity lawyer with prior experience in similar investigations.

Of the 124 attendees at the 2021 conference, 114 provided witness statements responding to the allegations. Worcester College didn't engage with the inquiry, according to Christian Concern.

"The allegations that have been made regarding inappropriate behavior are not in keeping with my own experiences with the delegates with whom I had the pleasure of teaching and interacting. I found them unfailingly courteous and, in their debates with each other, mature and respectful," one of the attendees was quoted as saying in a witness statement.

"I find it very sad that people are spreading lies when the week was a very positive week where many of today's issues could be discussed in love and respect," said another attendee.

Andrea Williams, the chief executive of Christian Concern, said she anticipated that the inquiry would find no evidence that any delegates have done anything to warrant "apologizing for, being canceled or discriminated against for their Christian beliefs."

"Worcester College capitulated to complaints from a handful of students who appear to have felt offended following debate on some of the most important social issues of our time. It is disappointing that such a prestigious university and college should be canceling Christian beliefs, debate and free speech," Williams wrote.

Williams believes Oxford University should stand for "free" speech and expression and allow its students to have the "intellectual" ability to decide whether they wish to attend external events and make up their minds on what they hear.

"We will continue to speak of Jesus Christ who was Himself an outsider and by His words and actions demonstrated His commitment to reaching the marginalized, excluded and vulnerable so that they could discover true hope and everlasting love through Him, even sacrificing His own life to do so," she added.

In March, the advocacy group Free Speech Union wrote a letter to Provost Isaac asking him to retract his apology for allowing the Wilberforce Academy to use the college's facilities, saying the school uncritically accepted the student activists' claims without investigation.

In a statement provided to The Christian Post in March, Worcester College claimed that "no conference booking has been canceled" and that it didn't accept many findings in the report.

The college expressed disappointment that the report was "published without us having the opportunity to discuss it in advance" and looked forward to "a constructive meeting with Christian Concern and the chance to discuss properly the issues."
Pakistani court upheld death sentence for Christian brothers despite 'shoddy investigation': lawyer

LAHORE, Pakistan  Hopes for freedom of two Christian brothers on death row under Pakistans blasphemy laws were dashed this month when a court upheld their death sentence despite lack of evidence against them, their lawyers said.

Qaiser Ayub, 45, and Amoon Ayub, 42, have been incarcerated since 2014, and their appeal of the death sentence before the Lahore High Courts Rawalpindi Bench had been pending since 2018. Justice Raja Shahid Mehmood Abbasi and Justice Chaudhry Abdul Aziz took up their appeal on Feb. 28 but did not announce their verdict until June 8, attorney Khurram Maan said.

We were quite hopeful that the judges would take note that the trial court had convicted our clients on the basis of a shoddy investigation and evidence, but we were shocked when the court announced its verdict on June 8, after a delay of three months, Maan told Morning Star News.

Maan, of the European Center for Law and Justice (ECLJ), is representing Amoon Ayub, while Tahir Bashir of the Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS) is defending Qaiser Ayub. Maan and Bashir said there is no evidence that implicates the Ayub brothers in the blasphemy charge.

Bashir said the brothers, incarcerated in the Sahiwal District Jail, were very sad and disappointed when informed about the appeal verdict.

Qaiser has three children, while Amoon is childless, Bashir told Morning Star News. Both men were devastated when they learned that their appeal for justice has been denied.

The case against the brothers was registered in June 2011 on a complaint by Talagang resident Muhammad Saeed, who alleged he came across a blog containing blasphemous material against Islams prophet, Muhammad, Maan said. The blog was created by Muslim friends of Qaiser Ayub who were resentful over a conflict with him, and they had put his name, phone number, email address and office address on their site, Maan said.

Qaiser Ayubs friends had registered the website under Amoon Ayubs name, and based on that and the contact information on the blog, police filed charges against both brothers and arrested them, Maan said.

None of that information proved that either of the two brothers actually authored or posted the blasphemous material on the blogging website, he said.

The lawyer said that Amoon Ayub was a music teacher at a private school in Lahore and was running a small charity for the welfare of Christians, the United Christian Organization (UCO), with his older brother, Qaiser Ayub. The brothers also operated a website where they posted news about the activities of their organization, he added.

The case against the brothers was based on the blasphemous content posted on a blog which, according to the brothers testimonies, was created by the Muslim friends of Qaiser using their contact information from the original website after a fight broke out between them over one of the friends sister, Maan said.

The trial court convicted both brothers in December 2018, reasoning that the presence of their contact information on the blog and their neglecting to approach the website administrator to remove the contact details showed that they were responsible for creating it.

Both the trial court and the high court refused to accept that any person can create a website and post anybodys name and address on it, Maan said.

During the appeal, Maan told the court that the brothers authentic website was online for only a year and had no blasphemous content on it.

I pleaded with the court to inquire of the Cybercrime Wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) why they had failed to authenticate the creator of the blasphemous blog from the WordPress management, to which the investigating officer said the company was not responding to their request, Maan said.

The FIA did state to the court that it had held a technical meeting with the complainant, after which the charges were filed, Maan said, but the fact is that the complainant is not even a matriculate [second-year high school student], so how could he have such a meeting with the agency?

The lawyer said that he also cited a recent judgment by the Lahore High Court which held that a blasphemous text message found in the phone of an appellant in another case was insufficient evidence for conviction.

The appellant could be convicted only if the prosecution establishes that the phone was in his use and that he authored and sent the alleged text message, Maan said. Similarly, in the Ayub brothers case, the prosecution did not establish that they authored or posted the blasphemous material on the blog. However, the court disregarded the submissions and relevant case law.

Supreme Court Appeal

Attorney Bashir said the defense hopes the Supreme Court will administer justice to the falsely accused brothers, charged with blaspheming against Muhammad, which calls for a mandatory death sentence under Section 295-C of Pakistans widely condemned blasphemy laws.

The SC must also take cognizance of the fact that trial courts and high courts become prejudicial if the case is of Section 295-C, he said, referring to prolonged delays in trials and hearing of appeals.

The mere accusation of blasphemy often provokes mob violence and lynching of suspects in Pakistan, while penalties are light for those who make such false accusations. At least 1,949 blasphemy suspects were subjected to false allegations, prolonged trials and displacement between 1985 and December 2021, according to the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ).

The CSJ added that at least 84 people were killed after being suspected or accused under blasphemy laws since their promulgation as part of former military ruler Ziaul Haqs Islamisation during the 1980s. Mobs lynched two people and injured two others in four cities of Pakistan between December 2021 and March 2022.

Pakistan ranked eighth on Open Doors 2022 World Watch List of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. The country had the second-highest number of Christians killed for their faith, behind Nigeria, with 620 slain during the reporting period from Oct. 1, 2020 to Sept. 30, 2021. Pakistan had the fourth-highest number of churches attacked or closed, with 183, and overall.

This article was originally published by Morning Star News.
Presbyterian Church in America votes to leave National Association of Evangelicals

The Presbyterian Church in America has voted to leave the National Association of Evangelicals due to the interdenominational groups history of public policy advocacy.

At the PCA General Assembly on Wednesday, the theologically conservative Presbyterian denomination voted 1,030 to 699 in favor of overture calling for them to leave the NAE.

Known as Overture 3, or Withdraw from the National Association of Evangelicals, the measure had originally passed the South Carolina-based PCA Pee Dee Presbytery at their stated meeting last October.

To justify leaving the NAE, the overture quoted the Chapter 31 of the Westminster Confession of Faith, which says councils and synods are not to intermeddle with civil affairs which concern the commonwealth, unless by way of humble petition in cases extraordinary; or, by the way of advice, for satisfaction of conscience, if they be thereunto required by the civil magistrate.

[T]he NAE has frequently intermeddled in civil affairs, by publicly pushing for action on the environment, immigration, and has changed its original stance on the death penalty, reads the overture.

The measure also cited as a concern the NAEs passage of a resolution in 2018 titled Fairness for All in which the Evangelical group expressed support for anti-discrimination laws on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, provided they included robust religious liberty protections.

[M]any prominent conservative and evangelical thinkers and leaders have denounced this compromise as not leading to fairness for all who uphold biblical teaching on sexuality and marriage, but rather attempts to guarantee religious freedom for some organizations and institutions while potentially undermining the pre-political religious freedoms of all Americans codified in the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, continued the PCA overture.

The overture also concluded that PCA has no need of the benefits of membership in the NAE, especially of having a voice in Washington championing political concerns that would not even be permitted as a subject of discussion before its councils, let alone be adopted as positions.

At present, the NAE boasts around 40 different member denominations and church networks, with their online list, accessed by The Christian Post on Thursday afternoon, still including PCA.

Other member entities include the Assemblies of God, ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians, the Salvation Army, the Wesleyan Church, and the Christian and Missionary Alliance.

The decision comes as the current NAE president is a pastor ordained in the PCA, Korean American Pastor Walter Kim of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Named as the new president in October 2019 and taking office on New Years Day 2020, Kim became the first person of color to serve as president of the prominent Evangelical organization.
Republican lawmakers introduce bill allowing adults to sue doctors who perform 'sex-change' surgeries

Two Republican congressmen have introduced legislation that would allow adults who underwent body mutilating gender-transition surgeries as minors to sue the doctors who operated on them. The bill also includes a 30-year statute of limitations.

Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., introduced the Protecting Minors from Medical Malpractice Act on Wednesday. The legislation subjects medical practitioners who perform a gender-transition procedure on an individual who is less than 18 years of age to liability if the minor who had the cosmetic surgery or multiple surgeries experiences physical, psychological, emotional, or physiological harms from the surgery or related treatment.

Minors who believe they were harmed by a gender-transition procedure have 30 years from their 18th birthday to file a civil action against a medical practitioner by seeking declaratory or injunctive relief, compensatory damages, punitive damages and attorneys fees and costs. The bill makes an exception for surgeries performed on individuals with disorders of sexual development, chromosomal anomalies sometimes referred to as intersex conditions.

Additionally, the measure calls for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to withhold federal funding from any state requiring medical providers to perform gender-transition procedures.

The proposed legislation defines a gender-transition procedure as the prescription or administration of puberty-blocking drugs for the purpose of changing the body of an individual so that it conforms to the subjective sense of identity of the individual, the prescription or administration of cross-sex hormones or a surgery to change the body of an individual for the same purpose.

In a statement on Twitter, Cotton warned that Radical doctors in the U.S. are performing dangerous, experimental, and even sterilizing gender-transition procedures on young kids, who cant even provide informed consent, adding: Our bill allows children who grow up to regret these procedures to sue for damages.

Banks also commented on the bill, maintaining that Quacks have irreversibly damaged tens of thousands of American children to further the radical lefts agenda. He cited the legislation as evidence that Cotton and himself were serious about holding them accountable.

Quacks have irreversibly damaged tens of thousands of American children to further the radical lefts agenda. @SenTomCotton and I are serious about holding them accountable.



Read about our bill in @FoxNews. https://t.co/1JzRXEVlGQ  Jim Banks (@RepJimBanks) June 22, 2022

The Protecting Minors from Medical Malpractice Act comes amid ongoing efforts at the state level as Republican-led legislatures and state agencies adopt measures restricting the medicalized gender transitioning of young people.

Last year, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services published a letter characterizing genital mutilation of a child through reassignment surgery as child abuse, subject to all rules and procedures pertaining to child abuse. The state of Florida released a fact sheet in April declaring that no minor child should be prescribed puberty blockers and opposite-sex hormones to treat gender dysphoria.

The Florida Department of Health document further stated  referencing a 2021 article in the Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy  that encouraging mastectomy, ovariectomy, uterine extirpation, penile disablement, tracheal shave, the prescription of hormones which are out of line with the genetic make-up of the child, or puberty blockers, are all clinical practices which run an unacceptably high risk of doing harm.



Last year, both chambers of the Arkansas Legislature overrode Gov. Asa Hutchisons veto of the Save Adolescents from Experimentation Act, marking the first time a bill banning gender-transition procedures for minors became law anywhere in the country. Earlier this year, Alabama and Arizona followed suit by enacting similar laws.

Internationally, several nations have begun halting the experimental practices to varying degrees. Among those countries reverting from prescribing puberty blockers or performing body mutilating surgeries are Sweden, France, Finland and the United Kingdom. Psychiatrists in Australia and New Zealand, likewise, are urging greater caution.

Echoing the Republican lawmakers, critics of the experimental practices have long said that lawsuits are likely coming, particularly from young people who recognized as adults that they were incapable of giving adequate informed consent to the drugs and surgeries as children and teenagers.

Detransitioners, those who underwent hormonal and surgical gender practices and wound up regretting it and reintegrating with their natal sex, have noted the hurdles that exist regarding taking legal action against the surgeons that performed the irreversible procedures on their bodies.

In a February 2020 feature story in The Christian Post, a male detransitioner who went by the pseudonym Marcus Fitz recalled how he endured years of opposite-sex hormone use and had an orchiectomy. He explained that most states, including California, where he lived, have one-year statutes of limitations for medical malpractice lawsuits.

Theyll say, I want to sue! And my first question to them is: Well, how long has it been? he said, describing his interactions with other detransitioners.

It often takes several years to come out of this gaslighting fog of what has happened to us and by then, its far too late.
Hollywood actress says working on Christian series 'Going Home' changed her perspective on death

Cynthia Geary, star of the new Pure Flix series Going Home, credits her experience on the faith-based show with changing her perspective on death.

A synopsis of Going Home describes the series as a compelling drama that follows an inspiring team of nurses who help guide patients and loved ones on the ultimate journey  one of transition from this world to their forever home.

I had no experience with hospice. I am really fortunate, knocking on wood, both of my parents are in their 90s and theyre doing fantastic, Geary said in a recent interview with The Christian Post. I read this script the producer sent to me and I thought it was wonderful. It was so well written and I loved the story.

Geary plays the role of Charlie Copeland. The actress, best known for her role in the TV series Northern Exposure, said she really enjoyed the way Going Home creator Dan Merchant approached the series, using true stories of those who were in hospice care.

Before filming began, Geary traveled to Washington state where the series was shot and visited Spokane Hospice, the facility the series is based on. There, she met several nurses and got to sit down and talk with them and ask them questions.

It really opened my eyes, Geary testified. The hospice experience is such a gift to the families. The nurses there, its a calling and they really see their role as helping people to make a peaceful transition. And they want to make it as calm and beautiful as possible and they want the family members to have closure.

It changed my whole outlook on death because it is a part of life and something that all of us are going to experience, and were going to experience it over and over again with our loved ones, she said. Their attitude about it is  this is an opportunity to really have important meaningful conversations with loved ones. And again, resolve issues and just have these wonderful last moments with your loved one before they go on to the next thing.

Geary said the main message she gathered from her experience with hospice nurses was that death isnt something to be feared.

From the research she gathered for her role in Going Home, the Hollywood star determined that hospice care is a ministry.

Theyre up there with nuns. It is really a calling, Geary told CP about the nurses in the field. Theyre really adept at gleaning what people need. Some people need closure and they need the nurses [to] get involved and get them talking. Other people just need a peaceful, calm place and someone to handle the work of dealing with someone who is terminally ill and all the things that includes  medication and turning people who are bedridden, and all those kinds of things that are really hard for family members to do 24 hours a day.

She added, They provide this service so that the family members can just focus on that special time with their loved one.

Gearys character in the series is layered. In one respect, shes a saint and helps her patients. But on the other hand, she has a difficult personal life that unfolds as the series progresses.

The nurses are real people. When I met the hospice nurses, theyre funny, theyre irreverent, she recalled. I just thought Dan did a great job of capturing the fact that theyre all different, super different personalities, different backgrounds. But when they are with their clients, they have a calling and theyre so present.

Although its a series that features faith themes and prayer, Geary revealed that Going Home is not preachy at all.

I love the message that this is a transition to whats next, and I think different people will glean different things from that, whatever their faith and their belief is, she added.

Her favorite part of the series is when her character talks to God in a monologue at the end of every episode.

Its a conversation with my best friend and were just kind of running through what happened in my day, the mother of two shared. Its super casual. Its not this formal thing, Im just talking to my friend and I have frustrations, and Im thankful and grateful. That was one of my favorite parts of my role as Charlie.

My parents are in their 90s, so I know that this is something Im going to face in the near future. But I really see it now as this is something that we know is going to happen and were all going to go through it and were going to go through it with our loved ones over and over again, she reiterated.

Geary had a wholesome Christian upbringing and described herself as the luckiest woman in the world. This new role is her first significant role after taking a long hiatus from acting to raise her family.

The importance of family was instilled in me from birth. Im still really close to all of my family and we now have extended family that spans generations of children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and we gather on holidays, she told CP

Speaking of the series she added: Its very encouraging and positive, and especially for the faith audience who know that theres something after death, she concluded.



Geary is joined by a great cast of actors in Going Home including: Cozi Zuehlsdorff (Dolphin Tale) and Charisma Carpenter (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), with guest stars Tom Skerritt (Picket Fences) and the NFLs Vernon Davis (San Francisco 49ers, Denver Broncos, Washington Redskins/Commanders) and more.

Visit Pure Flix to stream this series and many others.
21 state attorneys general push back on Bidens LGBT guidance, warn religious liberty is in peril

A group of 21 state attorneys general have signed on to a letter to the Biden administration, denouncing recent efforts to expand LGBT policies in schools that they believe would circumvent religious liberty protections and free speech rights.

Last month, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the U.S. Department of Education sent out guidance for states to implement the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Bostock v. Clayton County.

In the 6-3 ruling from June of last year, the Supreme Court majority concluded that federal Title VII civil rights law banning employment discrimination on the basis of sex applied to sexual orientation and gender identity.

However, the attorneys general sent a letter last week to President Joe Biden explaining that they took issue with the EEOC and Department of Education guidance, stating in part that the administration was misapplying the Bostock ruling.

The Court in Bostock narrowly addressed employment termination and explicitly refrained from addressing sex-segregated bathrooms, locker rooms, and dress codes, reads the letter.

Similarly, Bostock did not provide any basis for a claim that using biologically accurate pronouns could violate the law. To the contrary, the First Amendment protects the right to ascribe pronouns to others based on their sex.

The letter asserts that the EEOC guidance comes across as an effort to leverage the authority of the federal government to chill protected speech disfavored by your administration.

The EEOC guidance also appears to ignore two of three protections provided to religious employers, acknowledging the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) but nothing else, continued the attorneys general.

Bostock recognized that three religious liberty protections limit its scope: RFRA, Title VIIs express statutory exception for religious organizations, and the First Amendments protections of the employment relationship between a religious institution and its ministers.

The attorneys general letter went on to argue that the Education Departments Notice of Interpretation guidance from last month fares no better regarding Title IX interpretations.

The Notice of Interpretation is also substantively flawed. The Supreme Court expressly limited its decision in Bostock to Title VII, said the letter.

The Court emphasized that Title IX and other federal or state laws that prohibit sex discrimination were not before the Court and the Court did not prejudge any such question under those statutes.

The letter concluded that, by approving the guidance by EEOC and the Department of Education, the Biden administration harms the rule of law and undermines the legitimacy of these executive agencies.

The letter was championed by Tennessee Atty. Gen. Herbert H. Slatery III, and included among its cosigners the attorneys general representing the states of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas and West Virginia.

Federal agencies do not have the authority to unilaterally change laws. That is the exclusive prerogative of Congress, said Slatery in a statement released last Wednesday.

Actions like these exclude the voices, votes and participation of the people, and their representatives, which is neither right nor constitutional.

On June 15, the EEOC announced that it was providing new resources to promote LGBT policies or "LGBT anti-discrimination" in employment in response to the Bostock decision from last year.

These included consolidating resources to explain the extent and scope of the decision and how the Biden administration believes it should be implemented by state governments, schools, private corporations and religious organizations regarding claims of employment discrimination.

All people, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity, deserve an opportunity to work in an environment free from harassment or other discrimination, said EEOC Chair Charlotte A. Burrows in a statement that was part of the June announcement.

The new information will make it easier for people to understand their rights and responsibilities related to discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade in Mississippi abortion ruling

The U.S. Supreme Court has overruled the landmark 1973 decision of Roe v. Wade, concluding that there is no constitutional right to an abortion.

In a decision released Friday in the case of Thomas Dobbs, et. al. v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, the high court ruled 6-3 to uphold Mississippis Gestational Age Act, which bans most abortions after 15 weeks into a pregnancy.

"Held: The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives," the syllabus to the majority opinion reads.

Justice Samuel Alito authored the majority opinion and was joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch. Kavanaugh, Thomas and Chief Justice John Roberts all wrote concurring opinions.

"We hold that Roe and [Planned Parenthood v. Casey] must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision," wrote Alito.

"Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division."

The majority opinion stated that it is "time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the peoples elected representatives."

While the Roe opinion made abortion a national right and limited the states' ability to enact laws restricting abortion before fetal viability, the court's 1992 ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casy upheld the right to an abortion established by Roe.

"The critical question is whether the Constitution, properly understood, confers a right to obtain an abortion. Caseys controlling opinion skipped over that question and reaffirmed Roe solely on the basis of stare decisis," the syllabus states.

Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan filed a dissenting opinion, claiming that Roe and Casey "struck a balance" between allowing abortion and allowing laws to regulate it.

"Today, the Court discards that balance. It says that from the very moment of fertilization, a woman has no rights to speak of. A State can force her to bring a pregnancy to term, even at the steepest personal and familial costs," the dissent reads.

"The Mississippi law at issue here bars abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy. Under the majoritys ruling, though, another States law could do so after ten weeks, or five or three or one  or, again, from the moment of fertilization. States have already passed such laws, in anticipation of todays ruling. More will follow."

In 2018, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant signed House Bill 1510, the Gestational Age Act, which banned most abortions performed 15 weeks into a pregnancy. At the time, Bryant said the bill would help make "Mississippi the safest place in America for an unborn child."

While the law provided exemptions for abortions performed due to life-threatening medical emergencies for mothers or severe fetal abnormality, it did not include exemptions for rape or incest.

The law was viewed as a direct challenge to the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Roe.

Jackson Women's Health, the only licensed abortion clinic in Mississippi, filed a lawsuit against the law, with a federal court granting them a restraining order.

In December 2019, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the lower court ruling, granting a permanent injunction against the legislation.

Circuit Judge Patrick Higginbotham authored the panel opinion, concluding that the law went against a womans right to choose an abortion before viability.

States may regulate abortion procedures prior to viability so long as they do not impose an undue burden on the womans right, but they may not ban abortions, he wrote.

The law at issue is a ban. Thus, we affirm the district courts invalidation of the law, as well as its discovery rulings and its award of permanent injunctive relief.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal in May 2021 and heard oral arguments on the Dobbs case last December, with pro-life and pro-choice activists holding dueling rallies outside of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the national grassroots pro-life activist group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, called the decision a "historic human rights victory for unborn children and their mothers and a bright pro-life future for our nation.

Today the Supreme Court, in line with modern science and overwhelming public consensus, recognized the truth in every mothers heart and that pro-life advocates have argued all along: unborn children are human beings, deserving of protection," Dannenfelser said in a statement. "Every legislature in the land, in every single state and Congress, is now free to allow the will of the people to make its way into the law through our elected representatives."

The Planned Parenthood Action Fund called the court's ruling "as dangerous as it is shocking" because "it opens the floodgates for states across the country to ban abortion."

"This final decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization ... could lead 26 states to quickly move to ban abortion, leaving at least 36 million women of reproductive age, and other people who can become pregnant, without abortion access," the Planned Parenthood Action Fund statement reads.

"The consequences of this devastating decision will fall largely on people who already face the greatest barriers to health care due to this countrys legacy of racism and discrimination, including Black, Latino, and Indigenous communities, people with low incomes, LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, and people living in rural areas."

With Roe overturned, 21 states will completely ban or restrict abortion more severely than they do now, while 16 states will continue to allow abortion throughout most or all of pregnancy because the right to abortion has been codified into law. Ten states will continue to enforce existing abortion laws and/or restrictions. The remaining three states could let voters weigh in on abortion policy at the ballot box in the near future.

While the country awaited a decision by the high court, Politico released a leaked draft opinion in a report published May 2, which indicated that the justices were likely to overturn Roe.

The draft opinion was written in February and authored by Alito, suggesting the court would rule 5-4 in favor of overturning Roe and allowing states to decide whether to ban abortion.

Although Politico pointed out that the draft could change considerably by the time it was released, the news nevertheless sparked several protests and incidents of vandalism and arson targeting churches and pro-life offices.

Protests were held outside the homes of the justices who had signed on to the draft opinion, prompting law enforcers to increase security for the Supreme Court members.

Earlier this month, a man was arrested near the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The man intended to kill the Supreme Court justice over the likely overturning of Roe but instead turned himself over to authorities.
Democrats push Google to limit, label search results for pro-life centers ahead of abortion decision

A group of Democratic U.S. senators is urging Google CEO Sundar Pichai to take action after a report from a left-wing activist group found Google may be directing users who search for abortion services toward pro-life pregnancy centers.

U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner, D-Va. and Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich. led colleagues in a letter to Pichai, CEO of Alphabet Inc. and its subsidiary Google, citing research by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), which the letter described as "a U.S.-based nonprofit that fights online hate and misinformation."

According to the June 17 letter, the CCDH report found that 37% of Google Maps results and 11% of Google search results for "abortion clinic near me" and "abortion pill" were for anti-abortion clinics in "trigger law" states, where laws would effectively ban abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned.

Such a ruling may come down as early as this week.

The CCDH report also found about 28% of Google ads displayed at the top of search results were for pro-life, "anti-abortion" clinics.

After citing criticism leveled at Google in 2019 over a now-updated policy that allowed abortion-related ads from abortion providers and "non-providers" without clarifying information, lawmakers acknowledged Google already provides a disclaimer for such ads.

But because non-sponsored Google search results do not require such disclaimers, the letter warns the "prevalence of these misleading ads marks what appears to be a concerning reversal from Google's pledge in 2014 to take down ads from crisis pregnancy centers that engage in overt deception of women seeking out abortion information online."

That pledge came in response to a report from the activist group NARAL Pro-Choice America (NARAL), formerly the National Abortion Rights Action League, which stated that nearly 80% of paid ads for crisis pregnancy centers on Google deceptively advertised "medical services such as abortions."

"Directing women towards fake clinics that traffic in misinformation and don't provide comprehensive health services is dangerous to women's health and undermines the integrity of Google's search results," lawmakers wrote. "Google should not be displaying anti-abortion fake clinics or crisis pregnancy centers in search results for users that are searching for an 'abortion clinic' or 'abortion pill.'"

"If Google must continue showing these misleading results in search results and Google Maps, the results should, at the very least, be appropriately labeled."

Pro-life pregnancy centers provide material support for women seeking to carry their babies to term as an alternative to abortion clinics and provide counseling to women unsure about abortion. Pro-life activists have long pushed back on claims by abortion advocates that pro-life pregnancy centers are misleading or "fake" clinics.

"For years NARAL Pro-Choice America has tried to shut down alternatives to abortion by falsely branding (state certified) pregnancy medical clinics as 'fake clinics' and as an 'insidious threat to reproductive freedom,'" Ryan Bomberger, the founder of the Radiance Foundation, wrote in a recent op-ed.

"In 2019, pregnancy help centers and medical clinics distributed 1.3 million diapers, 2 million baby outfits, 50,000 car seats and strollers, and hundreds of thousands of other items of material support. They provided 291,000 clients with parenting classes. All for free. Planned Parenthood reported providing zero of these items or services. That's not 'pro-choice.'"

The senators' letter  which was also signed by Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and others  urged Pichai to provide plans on how to limit anti-abortion clinics "in Google search results, ads, and Maps" and add disclaimers to indicate whether a search result provides abortion services.

Pichai was also asked to provide information on "Google's attempts to provide accurate search results pertaining to health care."

The senators' letter comes at a time when there has been a drastic increase in vandalism and attacks, including firebombings, against pro-life pregnancy centers across the nation. The attacks follow the unprecedented leaking of a draft Supreme Court majority opinion suggesting the high court could soon overturn a 1973 ruling that made abortion a national right.

A group of 16 Republican U.S. senators, led by Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., signed a letter sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland asking for the Justice Department to act in response to the vandalism of pro-life pregnancy centers.

A group of pro-life leaders has called on the department to investigate Jane's Revenge, a group that has claimed responsibility for multiple recent acts of vandalism and arson, and other violent actors. The group has published statements threatening the safety of pro-life activists and pregnancy centers.

The conservative watchdog Media Research Center warns that the CCDH aims to censor organizations that it disagrees with politically and is led by an activist who wrote a book on defeating conservative ideas.

While CCDC's website says the organization is "funded by philanthropic trusts and members of the public," CCDH has reportedly received at least $100,000 in funding from the Geneva-based Oak Foundation, according to data cited last year by MRC. The foundation has also given funds to support global infrastructure initiatives backed by the Chinese government.

A screenshot of Foundation Directory Online data provided by MRC showed the grant was intended to support CCDH in "shining a spotlight on digital misinformation platforms that are polluting the public discourse on issues such as climate action, women's rights, and racial equality."

According to its website, Oak Foundation gave nearly $339 million during the 2021 calendar year, including program and special initiative grants to more than 400 organizations based in over 40 countries.

In 2018, the Oak Foundation reportedly donated $1 million to an organization called the ClimateWorks Foundation, "to support the greening of the Belt and Road Initiative."

The Belt and Road initiative, inaugurated in 2013 by Chinese President and Communist Party chair Xi Jinping, is a Chinese global infrastructure project aimed at linking the country with the rest of Eurasia and the Indo-Pacific region.
FBI investigating attacks against pro-life clinics as potential acts of domestic extremism

The FBI is investigating the recent attacks and vandalism of pro-life pregnancy centers and churches as potential acts of domestic violence or extremism ahead of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that could overturn the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

A source familiar with the matter told The Christian Post that the FBI is looking into potential FACE Act violations in certain cases. The legislation makes it a federal crime to use force or threat of force to prevent access to reproductive health services. The bureau is also investigating violent crime matters depending on the facts of each case.

"The FBI is investigating a series of attacks and threats targeting pregnancy resource centers and faith-based organizations across the country," an FBI spokesperson said in a statement shared with media outlets. "The FBI takes all threats seriously and we continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners and will remain vigilant to protect our communities."

Following Politico's report last month on a leaked draft majority opinion in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case that suggests a majority of justices are poised to overturn Roe, multiple churches and pro-life advocacy organizations have been vandalized or firebombed by abortion extremists.

The bureau opted not to comment on any specific groups carrying out the violence, but a spokesperson told The Washington Examiner that an inquiry is underway.

Earlier this month, more than 100 House Republicans sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, calling on the Department of Justice to investigate the attacks against religious organizations and pregnancy centers as acts of domestic terrorism.

"We write to express serious concerns over recent attacks targeting religious organizations and crisis pregnancy centers and request the Department of Justice respond with how its National Security Division plans to investigate these acts of domestic terrorism," the House Republicans wrote.

The letter argued that "terrorists have targeted numerous pro-life crisis pregnancy centers  two of which culminated in the firebombing and destruction of property by the terrorist group Jane's Revenge in Buffalo, NY, and Madison, WI."

The group of abortion activists identifying themselves as Jane's Revenge claimed responsibility for an attack last month on the headquarters of Wisconsin Family Action in Madison.

An incident report compiled by the Madison police department stated: "A Molotov cocktail, which did not ignite, was thrown inside the building. It also appears a separate fire was started in response. Graffiti was also found at the scene. No injuries have been reported."

Pictures of the vandalism posted on Twitter by Alex Shur of the Wisconsin State Journal depicted the phrase "If abortions aren't safe then you aren't either" painted on an exterior wall of the building and an office damaged by fire with books scattered across the floor.

The abortion activists also allegedly firebombed one of the offices belonging to CompassCare, a network of pregnancy centers serving women in New York. The pro-life organization announced on June 7 that its office in Buffalo was "firebombed by abortion terrorists."

"The windows in the reception room and nurses' office were broken and fires lit. Graffiti on the building left by arsonists refers to the abortion terrorist group Jane's Revenge, reading 'Jane Was Here,'" the statement reads.

Jane's Revenge demanded in a June 14 communique that these organizations disband, threatening to take "drastic measures" for their refusal to comply.

"From here forward, any anti-choice group who closes their doors, and stops operating will no longer be a target," the abortion activists wrote.

"But until you do, it's open season, and we know where your operations are. The infrastructure of the enslavers will not survive. We will never stop, back down, slow down, or retreat," they continued.

In an email obtained by the anarchist website Abolition Media, Jane's Revenge boasted that it had smashed the windows of two Detroit-based pregnancy centers. The group also left behind the message: 'if abortion isn't safe, neither are you' and 'fake clinic.' Jane will have her revenge."

Another pregnancy center in Vancouver, Washington, was covered in red paint and had "Jane's Revenge" written on the front of the building. Pictures of the vandalism at Options360 were posted on Twitter by journalist Alissa Azar on June 9.

Churches have also been vandalized since the draft leak last month.

Jane's Revenge took credit for vandalizing four Washington State churches over the weekend of May 21-22. Abolition Media posted an email sent by the activist group describing the destruction of the churches.

"Last night we vandalized four anti-abortion churches in Olympia," the email read. "A Mormon church, Calvary church, Harbor Church, and St. Michael's Catholic church all received facelifts in the early hours of Sunday morning. We dumped red paint over the entryways and left messages of 'If abortions aren't safe then neither are you,' 'Abort the church,' and 'God loves abortion.'"

A picture posted on the blog showed the phrase "If abortions aren't safe then neither are you" and the anarchist symbol spray-painted on two sets of double doors at the front of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

In another incident, Stephen Pimpo of WCBI News, a northern Mississippi-based CBS affiliate, reported on May 24 that Lowndes County Sheriff's Department was investigating the vandalism of Mt. Avery Missionary Baptist Church. Photos of the damage depicted the message "girls just want to have fundamental rights" spray-painted on the doors of the church.

Other photos showed the phrase "Keep Your Laws Off My Body" spray-painted in multiple locations on the church's exterior walls.

In May 2021, a report declassified by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security named pro-life and abortion activists on its list of potential domestic violent extremists.

The report stated that "domestic violent extremists (DVEs) who are motivated by a range of ideologies and galvanized by recent political and societal events in the United States pose an elevated threat to the homeland in 2021."

The document maintained that "mere advocacy of political or social positions, political activism" and "use of strong rhetoric may not constitute violent extremism, and may be constitutionally protected."
Former youth pastor dies after he stops breathing in police custody Woman called 911 to report a man 'would not let her leave' and 'was possibly on drugs'

North Carolina authorities are investigating the death of Christopher Hensley, a 35-year-old former youth pastor and father who died in police custody last Wednesday while he was being restrained.

Hensleys death was captured by a bystander in an approximately 6-minute video that some viewers might find disturbing to watch.

While the audio of the video where Hensley can be heard screaming at different points isnt clear, a website called The Ashville Blade, which is described as a " leftist local news co-op," claims that Hensley can be heard using his limited breath to shout I can't breathe, I can't breathe to officers.

While there are growing calls for justice from Hensley's family and friends online, Anjanette Grube, public information director at the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, told The Christian Post that the local district attorney will determine any decision on the case.

"The SBI investigation remains ongoing," Grube told CP. "Once we complete an investigation, the case file is submitted to the district attorney's office for review. The DA will determine whether criminal charges are appropriate."

A statement from the Fletcher Police Department cited by ABC 13 News said officers were called to an apartment complex on Season Circle at about 8:30 p.m. on June 15. A caller, the release said, reported that Hensley "would not let her leave" and "was possibly on drugs."

The officers involved came from the Henderson County Police Department and the Fletcher Police Department.

When police arrived at the scene, the release said, "a fight ensued between officers and Hensley." They said Hensley was handcuffed, then became unresponsive. Officers reported that they conducted CPR on Hensley while waiting for EMTs. He later died at a local hospital.

Fletcher Police Chief Daniel D. Terry told News 13 on Sunday that a taser was discharged during the incident.

"I can report that a taser was discharged," Terry said. "However, at this stage of the investigation, I do not know who discharged the taser nor the result-outcome of said discharge. I'm confident these questions will eventually be answered once the investigation is completed."

At about 9:46 p.m. last Wednesday night, Shaffa Lucinda, who described herself as Hensley's neighbor, posted a video on Facebook showing what happened after the arrest at the apartment complex.

"I just witnessed this right in front of my house. My neighbor, I believe, is dead," she added.

Warning: Some viewers might find this video disturbing.

The video initially shows what appears to be three uniformed officers and two other men dressed in plain clothes along with Hensley, who is dressed in shorts, at the scene. Hensley appears to be pinned face down on the pavement by two uniformed officers and another man dressed in a blue T-shirt and shorts. Hensley's legs show signs of struggle as one of the uniformed officers and another man with dreadlocks look on.

The former youth pastor is also screaming intermittently.

After about a minute, another man emerges from the apartment complex with a phone at his ear. While Hensley is on the ground, one of the uniformed officers can be seen jamming his knee into Hensley's body. The officer also appears to slap and punch Hensley on his buttocks over his shorts.

At nearly 2 minutes into the video, another officer arrives on the scene, lifts Hensley's feet off the ground, and pins them toward his back. Once the fourth uniformed officer arrives, the man wearing the blue T-shirt stops assisting the police. Three more uniformed officers would soon join in the effort to subdue Hensley. At about the 2:45 mark in the video, Hensley seems subdued and the officers start moving away when he appears to move spasmodically. Officers quickly restrain him again until there were no more signs of movement.

After about four minutes, the officers can be seen turning Hensley on his back and his body appears limp. At least two officers attempt to resuscitate Hensely for the rest of the video.

"As a mother I am broken. As a strong Christian, my faith remains solid, strong, and unshakeable. Christopher was my first born, my right hand my helper, gave me support and always strength in my weak moments. He was a great son," Hensley's mother, Catherine Hensley, said in a statement on her Facebook page. "No human life should ever be taken down that way. He did not commit a crime or had any weapons on him."

North Carolina Police Benevolent Association Staff Representative Brandon McGaha detailed what he saw in the witness video in an interview with ABC 13 News.

"What you're seeing now is, you're seeing officers try to keep what we call top pressure, they're trying to control the legs with top pressure trying to control the arms," McGaha described in response to several officers holding Hensley down.

As for the point in the video where Hensley's leg's can be seen moving, McGaha contends that it could be "considered resisting."

Reacting to an officer being seen striking Hensely in the back of the leg while he is on the ground, McGaha contends the officer is using a "knee strike to the thigh area, which is an approved law enforcement technique, and I believe he also used a fist strike."

"It tries to get the person's attention directed from the resistance to, 'man, my leg hurts a little bit,' and that split second of dividing the person's attention to 'my leg hurts a little bit' compared to resisting with their hands can give the officers what they need to get the person in handcuffs," McGaha detailed.

Hensely becomes unresponsive shortly after he is cuffed while pressure is still applied to his legs.

"They realize there's a real problem and start lifesaving measures," said McGaha.

McGaha believes officers followed protocols.

"I don't see any type of compression of his respiratory system that would keep him from breathing or anything like that," he said.

Two officers were taken to the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, according to Flethcer Police. Two Fletcher police officers who responded to the scene have been placed on leave.

Hensley moved from Miami to Hendersonville around 2016, The Citizen Times reported. He began attending Rapha House church where he worked with the church's youth from August 2017 to October 2018, until the church could no longer afford to pay the father of two a full-time salary.

"I loved Chris. As a pastor with a pastor's heart, you love people. I'm just grieving like everyone who knew Chris," Rapha House Pastor Greg Lewis told the publication.

"He was absolutely one of the hardest workers I knew. I gave him something to do, and he would make it happen effortlessly. We had a big event. ... We had 800 show up that night. Chris got everybody parked, set up an overflow road. ... He was just that type of guy," Lewis added. "He had the unique gift to bridge social, economic and cultural diversity."

Erikka Chavez Espinoza, who identified herself as the wife of Hensely's cousin, recently launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise $10,000 to help with funeral expenses.

"He was a good man who just welcomed his second daughter into this world. He wanted so desperately to see them through life. He leaves behind a 4-year-old, a 3-week-old, and a wife and a ministry that he loved dearly," she said.

Before moving to North Carolina, Hensley participated in Loving Hands Ministries, a two-year residential discipleship program for men with life-controlling problems related to drug and alcohol addictions.

Officials authorized to speak on Hensley's passing weren't immediately available for an interview with CP, but multiple videos of the former youth pastor posted on YouTube show him testifying about his struggles.

In a video posted on YouTube in 2014, Hensley testified that he joined the program to turn his life around. He said he had turned away from God in his teenage years and suffered through 10 years of "dead-end roads" before returning to God.

"My life involved sex, drugs, alcohol, money, partying. I wanted nothing to do with anything that was right," he said.

The former youth pastor said he was arrested multiple times, including in North Carolina, where he rededicated his life to God.

"My life had no direction. I was out of control. My arrest charges were piling up. I've been in multiple accidents. ... I could have lost my life. I've been in shootouts," he said. "I look back at it now and God spared my life in so many ways I don't even realize."

Hensley said in multiple video testimonies that it was after his arrest in North Carolina that he cried out to God.

"It was there in that jail cell I dropped down to my knees, and I cried out to God and I asked Him to save me," he said.

Hensely said he knew he could have been in jail for a long time, but God answered his prayer for mercy, and he was released a few days later. It was after that arrest that he joined the Loving Hands program.

In his testimony at Bradenton Gospel Tabernacle, Hensely ended with a message from Romans 6: 23.

"For the wages of sin is death," he said. "But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Trump has too much baggage

According to a new poll, a majority of Americans do not want either Joe Biden or Donald Trump to be their presidential candidates in 2024. Count me in among that majority.

As for Biden, I cannot imagine him running again at his advanced (and diminished) age. Plus, his presidency thus far has been a disaster and I strongly oppose many of his core values and goals.

More broadly, unless there is a fundamental revolution in the Democratic Party, I cannot imagine voting Democrat.

As for Trump, simply stated, he has too much baggage.

If Trump is the Republican candidate, that means that we will be replaying the 2020 elections as much as trying to win the 2024 elections. Not only so, but loyalty to Trump will require embracing the stolen election narrative.

Why add this into an election that could easily be a landslide in 2024? Why alienate other, potential voters? And why make the election more about personal loyalty to the person (meaning, Trump) rather than picking the right person with the right platform?

Having Trump as the candidate also brings the baggage of January 6 and the many charges levelled against him (whether true or not). Why open that door again? Why give your opponents more leverage? Why start out with all kinds of arrows in your back and roadblocks in your way?

Without a doubt, any Republican candidate will be savaged and demonized by the leftwing media. But handpicking Trump is asking for trouble.

As for January 6, in my view, Trump was not legally responsible for what happened on that fateful day. But he was morally responsible in that his incendiary rhetoric leading up to January 6 caused his followers to believe that their country was being taken from them for good. We will never have a free and fair election again! Its time to fight!

In addition, his failure to read the crowd and address the irresponsible rhetoric of other speakers who preceded him is inexcusable for the Commander in Chief.

Most of all, having Trump as the candidate brings the baggage of the man himself. His divisiveness (still throwing Mike Pence and others under the bus). His nastiness. His fashioning himself to be the savior of religion in America. (In a recent speech, he reiterated his theme that no one did more for religion in America than he did. In reality, he did fight for religious freedoms and causes; he also brought lots of reproach to religion.)

Personally, I would rather have a less abrasive and reckless candidate who might disappoint me on a minor issue here and there (not quite having Trumps backbone) then Trump himself.

This is all the more true when you add in Trumps age, despite his vigor and energy. Plus, we do have very viable candidates like Ron DeSantis.

Why must it be Trump? How is that, among all possible candidates, he alone can get the job done?

One of my astute colleagues, a pastor who trains leaders internationally, just texted me, writing: As good as his policies are, I dont think the country could take another four years of Trump.

I pray the Republicans and conservatives have enough wisdom to elect Ron DeSantis in the primaries.

Last December, I wrote an article titled, Trump Knocked the Door Down; Let Someone Else Walk Through It.

In it, I opined that, Donald Trumps greatest accomplishment as president may not have been the policies he enacted or the justices he appointed. Instead, as important as those accomplishments were and are, it is possible that the most important thing he did as president was to say to the political world, I will not play your games. I am the champion of the people, not a member of the good old boys club.

But now that he has broken the mold, thrown out the old rule book, and forged a new path of leadership, it will be best in 2024 for another conservative leader with backbone and conviction to take the lead. Trump simply brings too much collateral damage with him (and, I remind you, I voted for him in 2016 and 2020).

It really is best that we move on.

I appreciate all the good that Donald Trump did during his presidency and am grateful to him for his deep solidarity with Christian conservatives. But we cannot endure a repeat of the bad he brought as well and, quite frankly, we have other, better choices.
The legacy of a difficult year: Rembrandts Christ Crucified Between Two Thieves  also known as The Three Crosses

In the midst of an ongoing war, legal disputes and personal problems, Rembrandt produced only two dated works in 1653. Yet one of them, The Three Crosses, has been described as marking a key point in the history of the graphic arts

By 1653 Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was a hugely successful artist. He was in his late forties, and had already created more than 200 paintings. A decade had passed since he had received what has been estimated at between 2,000 and 4,000 guilders  perhaps $250,000-$750,000 in todays money  to produce his colossal civic militia portrait, The Night Watch. That year, however, Rembrandt only made two dated works. One was a painting, his melancholic meditation on fame, Aristotle with a Bust of Homer, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The second was a print  the largest, most innovative, ambitious and technically demanding print he had ever embarked upon. Christ Crucified Between Two Thieves, otherwise known as The Three Crosses, was described by the art historian Christopher White as one of Rembrandts most moving works in any medium. On 7 July, one of only three impressions remaining in private hands from the third state of The Three Crosses is being offered in the Old Masters Evening Sale in London.

Rembrandts decline in output in 1653 can be attributed, in part, to the problems that beset him that year. He was entangled in legal disputes with his former lover  a wet nurse hired to care for his son, Titus, following the sudden death of his wife, Saskia. He was also summoned several times to Amsterdams courts for failing to pay taxes and for quarrelling with his neighbour. Perhaps most significantly of all, the First Anglo-Dutch War  a fight for maritime supremacy between the Dutch Republic and England, which had commenced the previous year  rumbled on throughout 1653. It placed enormous strain on the economy of the Netherlands, which in turn caused demand for commissions to dry up.

Against this backdrop of hardships, and perhaps driven by economic considerations, Rembrandt began focusing more on printmaking, experimenting with new styles and techniques. The Three Crosses is the size of a small painting and depicts Saint Lukes account of the events at Calvary. The upper third of the print is filled with dark sky, while Christs haggard body, bathed in a shaft of glowing light, is shown crucified at its centre. He is flanked by two thieves; beneath him are mourners including Mary Magdalene, Saint John and the Virgin Mary  who has fainted in despair. To the left, a centurion kneels before the cross, helmet removed, indicating the intense moment of his conversion as Christ exhales his last breath.

Open a larger version of this image The fainting Virgin Mary is among the mourners at the foot of the cross

The work was created using the drypoint technique, which involves scratching lines directly into a copper plate with a stylus. The gouged lines have rough edges, known as burr, which catch ink and give the printed lines a dark, velvety look. Daringly, Rembrandt incised a combination of hard, straight lines, dense cross-hatching and light, loose sketching to create highly contrasting passages of light and dark and a sense of movement and drama. In some places, he scraped the burr away to avoid the blurring of his marks. He also played with the amount of plate-tone he applied to the surface of the copper, wiping away patches to leave the some figures bathed in celestial light, while others are covered with sombre shadows. The effect of these powerful tonal contrasts, known as chiaroscuro, had been championed a few decades earlier in oils by Caravaggio, and introduced to northern Europe by travelling Dutch artists. The overall effect of the image is cinematic in its scope and animated energy, and the work was acknowledged by the Rembrandt scholar Erik Hinterding as both a highlight of [Rembrandts] etched oeuvre and a key point in the history of the graphic arts.

Open a larger version of this image The centurion is shown genuflecting in his moment of conversion

Rembrandt created four different versions  or states  of The Three Crosses, each time reworking the copper plate, adding more lines to alter the image. The first state already shows the complete composition. Twenty-one prints of it are known, only two of which  both fragmented  are in private hands. For the second state, Rembrandt added a few lines of shading at the right edge. Ten prints of this state are recorded, and two are in private collections. The print being offered at Christies is from the third state, in which Rembrandt intensified the shading to heighten the drama. He also signed and dated the plate Rembrandt.f.1653, indicating that this was the version of The Three Crosses he considered complete. Just 22 prints of the third state are known to exist.

Open a larger version of this image The artist signed and dated the plate Rembrandt.f.1653

The rich, crisp burr suggests that this was one of the earlier impressions to be pulled from the plate. By the time the artist came to print the fourth state, around two years later, the plates detail was considerably worn. Rembrandts solution was to rework the copper surface completely, scraping off the burr and burnishing the image so that only ghost-like lines of the previous design remained. He then etched a new and drastically different composition on top. Many of the figures were reimagined or removed entirely. Christs appearance was altered, and large areas were obscured. In fact, the changes to the fourth state are so substantial that for a long time it was considered to be printed from an entirely different plate. A fifth state was created after a local printer acquired the plate, added his own address and printed a handful of impressions.

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ESCONDIDO, Calif. (AP)  Sapporo U.S.A. has reached an agreement to acquire popular Southern California-based craft brewer Stone Brewing, the companies announced Friday.

Stone will continue to brew its beers and retain its branding, management and workforce while Sapporo produces Sapporo-branded beers for U.S. distribution at Stones breweries in Escondido, California and Richmond, Virginia, a press release said.

Sapporo intends to brew 360,000 barrels in the U.S. by the end of 2024, essentially doubling Stone Brewings current production.

The companies said the transaction is expected to close in August. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Stone Brewing was founded by Greg Koch and Steve Wagner in 1996 in San Marcos, California. Koch announced Friday in his blog that he will soon leave the company.

Under the deal, Stone Brewing will continue to operate its seven Tap Rooms and World Bistro & Gardens destinations.

Stone Brewings distribution business, Stone Distributing Co., is not part of the sale. It will become an independent company and continue current operations.

Operations of San Francisco's Anchor Brewing Co., acquired by Sapporo U.S.A. in 2017, will remain unchanged.
NEW YORK (AP)  How does Rick Astley handle one of his songs being part of the biggest internet meme of all time? He rolls with it, obviously.

Listen, lets face it, Never Gonna Give You Up has sort of become something else," he says. "The video and the song have drifted off into the ether and become something else, and Im ever so grateful for it.

That song turns 35 this year and is still very much alive, buoyed by a second chapter as a gentle joke wherein someone baits you with an enticing online link, which points instead to the video for this 1987 dance-pop smash. It's called Rickrolling.

Thirty-five years later, Astley is singing it this summer on tour with New Kids on the Block, Salt-N-Pepa and En Vogue for the 57-date The Mixtape Tour 2022. A remastered version of his 1987 debut album also has been released featuring, of course, Never Gonna Give You Up.

Im never going to have a song as big as that ever, and I kind of knew that while it was happening. I kind of thought, Were never going to beat this. But I also kind of thought, Well, how bad is that?

There has always been much more to Astley than just that song. After blowing up in the late 1980s, he left show business frustrated and has only recently reemerged with the strong albums 50 in 2016 and Beautiful Life in 2018.

Often the second act can be more enjoyable because youre more in control and you savor every minute, said Alistair Norbury, president of repertoire and marketing at BMG UK, which signed Astley.

The passage of time  and the fact that Astley is such a sweet guy  has softened any sharpness. He says he understands how the past can look different with rose-colored glasses. Rock stars have lately told him they love his voice.

And Im like, 'Really? I thought you would have strung me up in the village square, he says, laughing. They probably would have done at the time, but I think over time, I think it just changes your perspective.

Astley, 56, is the youngest of four who grew up near Manchester, England. His sister played a lot of progressive rock and adored David Bowie. A brother was a huge Queen fan, and he remembers Queen's Night at the Opera album played on a loop. Astley soaked it all in, from Stevie Wonder to The Smiths.

He was in a band in school  they once performed So Lonely by The Police with Astley on drums and singing  that wiped the floor with rivals at a battle of the bands. He would go to gigs and dream of being a music star.

He remembers being astounded one day when he spotted the bass player of The Smiths walking through town. This can happen? he recalls thinking. You can be from a town that I buy my records in but last week you were on Top of the Pops?

Astley was only in his early 20s while recording his debut album, Whenever You Need Somebody, with the songwriting and record production trio known as Stock Aitken Waterman, who had crafted songs for Bananarama and Dead or Alive.

I sold a lot of records. I was having a lot of hits, and then it was getting to a point where it's like touch and go  how is this going to go now because you have to make another record?

Burned out and frustrated, he walked away at 27. I think I just didnt have it in me. I just didnt. I didnt want to do it, he says.

He admires pop stars like Madonna or Kylie Minogue for their longevity. I actually dont know how theyve done it, he says.

Being a pop star messes with your head and Astley says that happened to him, too. I think my days were numbered anyway, but I think I just managed to get out before they threw me out, you know? He didn't perform for 15 years.

Unlike other pop stars, he hadn't invested his ego in his looks or others' perceptions. I was never cool. I wasnt cool when I had my hit records, he says. Astley has nothing but compassion for those chewed up by the fame monster. "It must be unbelievably painful.

Astley reemerged from self-exile in 2016 with 50, named, with a hat-tip to Adele, for his age at the time, a strong album that veers from gospel to electro-funky.

Norbury recalls hearing the first few demos on the album and being impressed. He asked Astley's manager who wrote them. The answer was Rick Astley. He asked who was the co-writer? The answer was, "Nobody." Who produced? Rick. Then who played all the instruments? He played all the instruments.

Norbury calls Astley probably one of the hardest working people in this business and always does it with good humor and with a spirit of collaboration and partnership.

Rickrolling started in 2007  at the infancy of YouTube  and it confused Astley at the beginning. His song and video for Never Gonna Give You Up were being used as part of an internet bait-and-switch, but what did it mean?

I was overthinking it and worrying about it and wondering what it was. And our daughter said to me  she was about 15 at the time  she just kind of said, You do realize its got nothing to do with you? She also predicted: Therell be something else next week or tomorrow.

She was slightly wrong because its still kind of kicking around here and there, says Astley. But the sentiment of what she was saying was, I think, really, really valuable. I embrace my past, but I dont have to embrace the Rickrolling thing in the same way because I accept the fact that it's got nothing to do with me to some degree.

The song has racked up 1.2 billion streams on YouTube and 559 million Spotify listens. Time Out magazine was always a little puzzled by Rickrolling, asking why anyone wouldnt want to hear the buoyant megajam, saying it is three and a half of the most effervescent minutes in the 80s canon.

Astley, of course, sees Never Gonna Give You Up differently than the people who use it to try to mess with friends. He acknowledges the video is unbelievably late-80s cheesy but its a good memory. Its like a fond memory.

For Astley, it is the song that led him to Copenhagen, where he met his wife, Lene Bausager. Without that song, he wouldn't have his daughter or have traveled the world. Ive been to some of the most amazing places in the world that most people have on a bucket list.

He thinks back to the days when he was a new artist looking up to established acts. Now he's a seasoned pro with an arsenal of songs, including an instant crowd-pleaser.

At the time, I was like green with envy and felt totally insecure and all the rest of it. Now, when I walk out on a stage and sing those songs, I just kind of think, Yeah, how lucky am I? Aint that great?

___

Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
Houston may not be the birthplace of Tex-Mex, but the city has played a pivotal role in the cuisine's popularization. Ninfa "Mama Ninfa" Laurenzo kick-started the fajita craze at her East End restaurant, Ninfa's on Navigation, and another Tex-Mex jointthe oldest in Houstonis more than 80 years old.

That crown goes to Molina's Cantina, whose roots date back to 1941, although the restaurant went through many changes in name and location before arriving at its current iteration. First came Old Monterrey Restaurant at 1919 West Graynow a Walgreenswhere Raul Molina began working as a dishwasher and busboy shortly after he moved to Houston from Laredo, Mexico, at the age of 18.

Raul had been working at Old Monterrey for 10 years when he and his wife, Mary, bought the restaurant in 1941. The Molina family lived in a small apartment above the restaurant. Raul waited tables while Mary cooked and their sons, Raul Jr. and George, washed the dishes.

Molina's Cantina

Two years later, the couple bought the Mexico City Restaurant on South Main, eventually renaming it Molina's Mexico City Restaurant in 1952, and later, Molina's Restaurant & Cantina. It moved locations a few times over the years. Today, there are three Molina's Cantina locations: one in west Houston (since 1966), one in Southside Place (since 2011), and another one in Fulshear that opened last year.

Molina's Cantina

Generations of Houstonians have dined on Molina's enchiladas, fajitas and combo plates. The most notable local to dine here is no doubt U.S. President George H. W. Bush, who was a regular and avid supporter of the restaurant, eating here frequently with his family and appearing in commemorative TV spots.

Archives from the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Post always pinpointed Molina's as one of the former president's hangouts, in 1980s columns titled "Where Was George?" and "George Slept Here." (Bush never slept at Molina's, that we know of; the article was about hotels, with some restaurants mixed in.)

Houston Chronicle archives

Bush Senior isn't the only politico to have recognized Molina's. Former Houston Mayor Annise Parker proclaimed July 1 Molina's Cantina Day in 2011.

When eating at Molina's, you're eating a piece of historyand you're reminded of it. On the menu, next to each original dish that's still being served today is a little "since 1941" red marker. These menu items include the chili con carne, the enchiladas de Tejas and the generous Mexico City dinner plate, which includes a beef taco, a cheese enchilada, a bean tostada, a chili tamale, guacamole, chili con queso, rice and beans.

Jon Shapley/Houston Chronicle

Last year, Molina's celebrated its 80th anniversary. Month-long festivities included 41-cent tacos and free entrees to anyone born in 1941, as well as special dedications for 10 staff members who had worked at the restaurant 30 years or more. For their 50th anniversary in 1991, they surprised diners with original prices15 cents instead of $6.50 for a plate (even the '90s price sounds nice these days.)

Dave Rossman/For the Chronicle

Raul Sr. and Mary died in 2001 and 1999, respectively. Today, the Molina legacy lives on with Raul Jr's three sons at the helm: Raul III, Ricardo and Roberto.
Montgomery County Judge Mark Keoughs wife was defrauded of $30,000 by a Wisconsin woman posing as a Best Buy Geek Squad employee, court records allege.

Deborah Diane Ramsdell, 63, of Kenosha, Wisconsin, is charged with the third-degree felony offense of money laundering between $30,000 and $150,000 in bank transactions in November with a Montgomery County resident identified as K. Keough, according to district clerk records.

As of Wednesday, Ramsdell was being held on a $20,000 bond at the Montgomery County Jail in Conroe, jail records show. Ramsdell was taken into custody May 27 in Travis County by the Montgomery County Sheriffs Office, according to jail records.

Judge Keough confirmed on Friday that his wife, Kimberly Keough, was the K. Keough in the case. He declined commenting on the criminal case against Ramsdell, citing the possibility of civil litigation.

Ramsdells attorney did not respond to a request for comment.

Kimberly Keough on Nov. 16 received an email invoice purporting to be from Geek Squad on a two-year security plan, and called the attached customer-support number to cancel the $359.99 subscription, according to a probable cause affidavit filed May 25 by a Montgomery County Precinct 3 constables detective.

According to charging documents, Keough wanted to cancel her subscription because the invoice listed its price as costlier than she had ever paid for it before. The phone call-respondent instructed Kimberly Keough to install TeamViewer, a remote access software that enabled online access to her computer, according to the affidavit.

The person on the phone line simulated a transaction falsely showing Keough had been reimbursed more money than owed and then convinced her to wire $70,000 from Keoughs Montgomery County bank to an account at BMO Harris Bank, whose beneficiary would later be identified as Ramsdell, court documents show.

More information Learn how to protect yourself from online and phone scams by visiting fbi.gov/scams-and-safety/common-scams-and-crimes/spoofing-and-phishing. See More Collapse

After the wire transfer was made, Keough continued receiving phone calls requesting additional wire transfers to other banks, according to the affidavit.

It was at this time that K. Keough knew that she was defrauded, the affidavit stated.

Kimberly Keough then contacted the Montgomery County Precinct 3 Constables Office, providing the email she received, which showed it was from an email account not associated with Best Buy. A detective obtained transaction records from BMO Harris Bank showing Ramsdell was the account holder and that a wire transfer was received Nov. 16, according to the affidavit.

On Nov. 16, according to the affidavit, a cashiers check for $30,000 was paid to the order of Ramsdell and deposited into an account at an Illinois bank, which a records request showed belonged to the accused and was opened that same day for the same amount as the check. According to the affidavit, Ramsdell could be seen in BMO Harris Bank video surveillance requesting the $30,000 cashiers check.

Records showed multiple transactions for Western Union transfers and other fund transfers, the affidavit said.

The detective on the case knows these transfers are indicative of concealing the traceability of funds unlawfully obtained through criminal activity, the affidavit stated.

On May 24, according to the affidavit, Ramsdell admitted to participating in the scam during a conversation with a Kenosha Police Department detective helping with the criminal investigation.

Ramsdell is accused of transferring funds from one bank account to another, depositing funds, keeping a portion and then transfer funds to a man in Bangladesh through money orders, wire transfers, gift cards and cryptocurrency.

Ramsdell provided the Kenosha police detective with copies of receipts on all transactions, gift cards with identifying numbers to the contact in Bangladesh and other documentation related to the criminal acquiring, holding and transferring of funds, according to the affidavit.

Citing an ongoing investigation, Precinct 3 spokesman Lt. Mike Atkins declined to say whether the man in Bangladesh that Ramsdell referred to would face criminal charges.

Atkins said these kinds of scams are all too common, and warned that cold calls, emails and texts requesting money, identifying credentials or passwords are likely not legitimate.

Spoofing and phishing scams are getting more brazen, especially with the downturn in the economy, people are getting more desperate for cash, Atkins said, adding that residents regularly reach out to Precinct 3 about possibly being targets of fraud. Be extra careful, extra careful these days when anybody calls, or emails or even texts.

Catherine Dominguez contributed to this report.

jose.gonzalez@chron.com

twitter.com/jrgzztx
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WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden said Friday he would fight to preserve access to abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and he called on Americans to elect more Democrats who would safeguard rights upended by the court's decision. This is not over, he declared.

Lets be very clear, the health and life of women across this nation are now at risk, he said from the White House on what he called a sad day for the court and the country.

Biden added that the court has done what its never done before  expressly taking away a constitutional right that is so fundamental to so many Americans.

Republicans and conservative leaders celebrated the culmination of a decades-long campaign to undo the nationwide legalization of abortion that began with Roe v. Wade in 1973.

Millions of Americans have spent half a century praying, marching and working toward todays historic victories for the rule of law and for innocent life, said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., an architect of efforts to tilt the Supreme Court to the right.

Although Biden has previously expressed conflicted feelings about abortion, he delivered a forceful defense Friday. Noting that Republican-controlled states now had a clear path to ban abortion even in cases of incest or rape, he said it just stuns me.

Since the country will increasingly see a patchwork of policies  with some states restricting abortion and others providing it freely  Biden emphasized that the court decision does not prevent anyone from traveling to end a pregnancy.

Women must remain free to travel safely to another state to seek the care they need," he said. "And my administration will defend that bedrock right.

Biden warned that other legal precedents ensuring same-sex marriage and access to birth control could also be at risk.

This is an extreme and dangerous path this court is taking us on, he said.

The overturning of Roe v. Wade was not unexpected  a draft of the decision leaked nearly two months ago  but it still reverberated throughout Washington in what has suddenly become a new era in the countrys battle over abortion.

The White House and the Justice Department said they would look for ways to blunt the impact of the ruling, and Biden said his administration would try to ensure that abortion medication is available as widely as possible.

However, no executive actions were announced Friday, and Biden conceded that his options were limited. White House officials tried to rally allies in a virtual meeting after the president spoke.

We need to stay united," said Emmy Ruiz, the director of political strategy and outreach. "We know that the task ahead is incredibly daunting. But were prepared to meet the moment.

Protesters converged on the Supreme Court, where a crowd of abortion-rights supporters quickly swelled to the hundreds. One chanted into a bullhorn, legal abortion on demand and this decision must not stand. Some shouted the Supreme Court is illegitimate."

Its a painful day for those of us who support womens rights, said Laura Free, an Ithaca, New York, resident and womens rights historian who came to Washington to do research. When she learned of the decision, she said, I had to come here.

A competing faction demonstrated in favor of the ruling, holding signs saying "the future is anti-abortion and dismember Roe.

Garrett Bess, with Heritage Action for America, a lobbying arm of the conservative Heritage Foundation, said his organization would be working in states to continue efforts to limit abortion.

This has been a long time coming," he said.

Biden and other Democrats hope to use outrage over the court decision to rally voters in November's midterm elections. Although nationwide legislation ensuring access to abortion appears out of reach, more Democratic victories at the state level could limit Republican efforts to ban the practice.

Congress must act, and with your vote, you can act, Biden said. You can have the final word.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the court's ruling is outrageous and heart-wrenching and fulfills the Republican Party's "dark and extreme goal of ripping away womens right to make their own reproductive health decisions.

In a statement, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department will work tirelessly to protect and advance reproductive freedom. He said that in addition to protecting providers and those seeking abortions in states where it remains legal, we stand ready to work with other arms of the federal government that seek to use their lawful authorities to protect and preserve access to reproductive care.

He also noted that the Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of mifepristone, a drug used to end pregnancies.

States may not ban mifepristone based on disagreement with the FDAs expert judgment about its safety and efficacy, Garland said.

Lawrence Gostin, who runs the ONeill Institute for National and Global Health at Georgetown Law, said he was disappointed that the president did not announce more concrete steps.

He was very ambiguous about what he planned to do," he said. "There was no really decisive, strategic plan of action that the administration was going to take.

Gostin said hes discussed a variety of options with administration officials but believes they are gun-shy given the potential for legal challenges that could lead to more roadblocks from a Supreme Court dominated by conservatives.

Some of Gostins suggestions included having Medicaid cover the cost of traveling across state lines to end pregnancies, as well as expanding access to abortion medication that can be delivered by mail.

The Rev. John Dorhauer, the general minister and president of the United Church of Christ, drove from Cleveland to Washington to attend one meeting earlier this month. Another virtual meeting was held this week, featuring Vice President Kamala Harris.

It was rather impressive to see the commitment the White House and the vice presidents office has had to gather advocates from around the country, Dorhauer said.

But even before the ruling, there were concerns that the administration was not ready.

Dr. Colleen McNicholas, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, said she expects a true health crisis.

I think that we should have been preparing for far longer than we have been, McNicholas said. Do I think that they recognize that this a problem? Yes. Do I think that theyre prepared in this moment? No.

___

Associated Press writers Will Weissert, Mike Balsamo, Matthew Daly, Lisa Mascaro and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

___

For APs full coverage of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, go to https://apnews.com/hub/abortion
ISLAMABAD (AP)  An Afghan prisoner held in U.S. custody for nearly 15 years has been released from the Guantanamo Bay detention center after a federal court ruled that he was unlawfully detained, the U.S. Department of Defense said Friday.

Asadullah Haroon Gul's release was first announced earlier in the day by the Taliban in Afghanistan and an international human rights group.

From Kabul, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban-appointed deputy culture and information minister, tweeted that Gul was one of the last two Afghan prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay.

Photographs of Gul being greeted by senior Taliban officials in Doha, Qatar, were posted on Twitter later in the day. Mujahid thanked Qatar for facilitating Guls release, without elaborating.

The United States opened the detention center under President George W. Bush in January 2002 after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the invasion of Afghanistan to capture al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. It was intended at the time to hold and interrogate those suspected of having links to al-Qaida or the Taliban, who had sheltered bin Laden.

However, scores of suspects from multiple countries were later sent there and the detention center became notorious after reports emerged of detainees being humiliated and tortured.

Gul was greeted upon landing in Doha by top Taliban official Suhail Shaheen, who said he would soon fly home to Afghanistan.

In a statement, the Department of Defense said Gul's release was in accord with district court in Washington's decision that the United States no longer has a legal basis to justify the continued detention" of Gul. It thanked Qatar for its assistance without providing any details.

Earlier Friday, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, criticized the Biden administration for allowing Gul's transfer.

The terrorist organization that now controls Afghanistan cannot and will not ensure Gul, or any future detainees who are released, will not return to the battlefield and potentially kill Americans or other innocent civilians, Rubio said, referring to the Taliban who seized power in Afghanistan last August.

Mujahid said Gul was handed over to the Taliban as a result of their talks with U.S. authorities, which he described as a direct and positive interaction with the United States."

Shaheen told The Associated Press that Gul's freedom came following direct engagement" with the U.S. He said Gul was detained by American forces in the city of Jalalabad in 2007 and was held for 15 years without trial.

The remaining Afghan at Guantanamo Bay is Muhammad Rahim al-Afghani, who is accused of working with bin Laden as a procurement specialist. Al-Afghani was captured by Pakistani authorities and later handed over to the CIA, which transferred him to the detention center.

The Britain-based rights group Reprieve said Gul's family feared him dead for many years and for the first nine years of his captivity, he did not have access to a lawyer, despite multiple attempts to obtain legal representation."

Reprieve and the law firm Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss filed" a petition on his behalf in 2016 and demanded his release," it added. After years of litigation, in October 2021, they prevailed when a Washington court ruled that Gul was not part of al-Qaida and ordered his release.

According to the statement, Gul suffered severe physical and psychological torture during his detention, including being beaten, hung by his wrists, deprived of food and water, and prevented from praying. He has been subjected to sleep deprivation, extreme cold temperatures and solitary confinement."

Commenting on Gul's release, his lawyer at Reprieve, Mark Maher, said Gul missed his daughters entire childhood and he will never get back what has been taken from him, but he is now at least able to rebuild his life with his family, who have waited so long to see him."

____

Associated Press writer Nomaan Merchant in Washington contributed to this story.
DALLAS (AP)  Airlines under scrutiny for widespread flight disruptions are renewing their criticism of the government agency that manages the nations airspace, saying that understaffing at the Federal Aviation Administration is crippling traffic along the East Coast.

Airlines for America, which represents the largest U.S. carriers, said Friday it wants to know FAA's staffing plans for the July Fourth holiday weekend, so we can plan accordingly.

The comments from the industry group could serve as a pre-emptive defense in case airlines again suffer thousands of canceled and delayed flights over the holiday weekend, when travel is expected to set new pandemic-era highs.

The industry is actively and nimbly doing everything possible to create a positive customer experience since it is in an airlines inherent interest to keep customers happy, so they return for future business, Nicholas Calio, president of the trade group, said in a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

Calio said airlines have dropped 15% of the flights they originally planned for June through August to make the remaining flights more reliable, they are hiring and training more pilots and customer-service agents, and giving passengers more flexibility to change travel plans.

Calio said air traffic is often disrupted for many hours because bad weather causes the the FAA to issue delays.

However, we have also observed that FAA (air traffic control) staffing challenges have led to traffic restrictions under blue sky conditions, he added.

The FAA shot back, with a reference to taxpayer money that airlines received after the pandemic devastated air travel.

People expect when they buy an airline ticket that theyll get where they need to go safely, efficiently, reliably and affordably, the FAA said in a statement. After receiving $54 billion in pandemic relief to help save the airlines from mass layoffs and bankruptcy, the American people deserve to have their expectations met.

The FAA said it has added controllers in high-traffic areas and added alternate routes to keep planes moving.

The airline trade group chiefs comments came a week after Buttigieg called airline leaders to a virtual meeting and threatened to punish carriers that fail to meet consumer-protection standards set by his department, which includes the FAA.

Buttigieg said he called the meeting after being alarmed by the high number of canceled flights around Memorial Day  more than 2,700 in a five-day stretch, according to tracking service FlightAware.

Thunderstorms can quickly snarl air traffic during the summer, but airlines have also acknowledged staffing shortages  they are hiring at a rapid pace to replace tens of thousands of workers whom the airlines paid to quit when travel collapsed in 2020. Pilot union leaders say their groups are being stretched to the limit, and more pilots report being fatigued.

The FAA has admitted that it too is understaffed, particularly at a key air traffic control center in Florida.

Calio said that facility, near Jacksonville, Florida, has been understaffed for 27 of the last 30 days, which is crippling to the entire East Coast traffic flows.

More than 600 U.S. flights had been canceled and more than 4,200 delayed by early afternoon Friday, according to FlightAware. That was better than Thursday, however, when thunderstorms on the East Coast contributed to more than 800 cancellations and 6,600 delays.

___

David Koenig can be reached at www.twitter.com/airlinewriter
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PHOENIX (AP)  Abortion providers across Arizona halted procedures Friday while they try to determine if a law dating to pre-statehood days means their doctors and nurses could face prison time now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that abortion rights are not protected by the Constitution.

The decision drew thousands of abortion rights protesters to the Arizona Capitol Friday night, where SWAT team members fired tear gas to chase demonstrators from the building as lawmakers finishing their 2022 session huddled inside. The Senate evacuated briefly to the basement, said Democratic Sen. Martin Quezada.

Across the mall at the House, there appeared to be no major issue.

Explaining the halt in procedures, Planned Parenthood Arizona President and CEO Brittany Forteno said the possibility of prosecutions was just too risky to continue providing abortion care. At least two other large providers in Tucson and Phoenix followed suit, posting on their websites that they had halted all procedures.

We are being forced by the Supreme Court and politicians in this state to deny patient care right now," Forteno said. She said Planned Parenthood Arizona, the state's largest abortion provider, is working with its attorneys to understand Arizona's tangled web of conflicting laws.

The courts decision to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision also has put Arizona abortion foes in a quandary because of competing laws that either completely ban the procedure or limit it to 15 weeks after a woman becomes pregnant.

The issue has led to a split between the group that authored the 15-week ban and many other abortion restrictions and Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, who has signed many of them into law during his eight years in office.

At issue is a law that dates to at least 1901, 11 years before Arizona became a state. It subjects anyone who provides any abortion care to a possible two to five years in prison.

Republicans in the state Senate believe the pre-Roe law is enforceable.

A related law that made women who get abortions subject to prosecution was repealed last year.

Ducey, who signed the 15-week ban into law in March, has insisted that the new law takes precedence over the total ban, although the new law explicitly says it does not do that.

The Supreme Court has made the right decision by finally overturning it and giving governing power back to the people and the states, Ducey said in a statement.

The chair of the state Democratic Party, Raquel Teran, said the high courts decision was the result of a decades-long crusade by Republicans to rip away reproductive rights.

Right now Arizonans are going through periods of anger, sadness, and frustration, in response to this brutal attack on our freedoms," Teran said. "Ultimately, those emotions are fueling our continued fight for our most basic rights.

Prosecutors are split along party lines, with Republican Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell saying she may prosecute providers under the new law and Democratic Pima County Attorney Laura Conover saying she will not.

Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich made no mention of the pre-Roe ban on Friday, pointing instead to the new law that will take effect in about 90 days. He had urged the high court to overturn Roe.

Brnovich spokesperson Brittni Thomason said she is aware that people are seeking clarity on which law is in force. She called the issue a developing situation for the nation and the state and that office is reviewing the Supreme Court ruling.

Planned Parenthood Arizona had prepared for the ruling and the potential that all abortions would be made illegal in Arizona. Forteno said the group has partnered with a Southern California Planned Parenthood chapter to provide abortion services in that state. The patient navigator program is designed to connect women with providers and provide travel, lodging and financial support.

Because we know that having to flee the state, having to flee your community in order to access basic health care, is something that no one should have to deal with, Fonteno said last week. And so we really want to be that support for our patients and their moment of need.

Planned Parenthood will continue providing other reproductive healthcare services, including abortion follow-up care for those who travel out of state.

If abortion is illegal, we know that access to contraception, all forms of contraception, is going to be really critical, Fonteno said. And we know that inclusive and comprehensive sex education is going to be key. And its really going to be about mitigating harm. We know that just because abortion becomes illegal, it doesnt mean that the need for abortion goes away."

Cathi Herrod, president of the Center for Arizona Policy, contends the pre-Roe ban will be enforceable. Her group has authored many of Arizona's abortion laws. She said an injunction issued after the 1973 Roe ruling remains in place, although it appears not to apply statewide, and that in any case the high courts ruling will take time to be final.

The unanswered question is what legal processes need to happen for it to be enforceable, said Herrod, who is an attorney.

Herrod said she does not believe the state can prevent a woman from traveling to another state for an abortion.

Its still a free country, she said.

Instead, she said she will work to ensure existing state bans on doctors prescribing abortion medication via telehealth are enforced.

There were just over 13,000 abortions in Arizona in 2020, according to the most recent report from the Arizona Department of Health Services. Of those, fewer than 650 were performed after 15 weeks gestation.
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NEW YORK (AP)  LGBTQ Pride commemorations that sometimes have felt like victory parties for civil rights gains are now grappling with an environment of ramped-up legislative and rhetorical battles over sexual orientation and gender identity, and fears that a Supreme Court ruling on abortion opens the door to rights being taken away.

Big crowds are expected Sunday at Pride events in New York City and a range of other places including San Francisco, Chicago, Denver and Toronto, in a return to large, in-person events after two years of pandemic-induced restrictions.

Like every year, the celebrations are expected to be exuberant and festive. But for many, they will also carry a renewed sense of urgency and concern.

There are so many anti-LGBTQ attacks going on around the country, and a lot of them are really about trying to erase our existence and to make us invisible, and to make our young people invisible and our elders invisible, said Michael Adams, CEO of SAGE, which advocates for LGBTQ elders.

Extremists have taken an increasingly hostile stance toward Pride events, including plotting an attack against a march in Idaho, while conservative state governments has proposed and in some cases passed a slew of anti-LGBTQ legislation.

Another blow came Friday, when the conservative majority on the Supreme Court overturned a nationwide right to abortion in an upending of a long-established legal standard that has people wondering whether same-sex marriage might be next.

The majority decision claimed it was solely about abortion, but in his concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas said other cases should be looked at again, including the one that made same-sex marriage legal.

In March, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law barring teaching on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, which critics decried as an effort to marginalize LGBTQ people and lambasted as the Dont Say Gay law.

In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott, like DeSantis a Republican, sent a letter to state health agencies in February saying that it would be child abuse under state law for transgender youth to get gender-affirming medical care. A judge has halted full implementation of any parental prosecutions.

Protest has always been an element of New York Citys Pride Parade, which roughly coincides with the anniversary of the beginning of the June 28, 1969, Stonewall uprising  days of angry demonstrations sparked by a police raid on a gay bar in Manhattan.

Marchers in the 1980s protested a lack of government attention to the AIDS epidemic.

In recent years, though, they've often been celebrations of major victories for LGBTQ communities to celebrate, like in 2015 when the Supreme Court issued the Obergefell v. Hodges decision recognizing same-sex marriage.

Thats not this year, though.

This year, we have seen an onslaught of aggressively hostile anti-LGBTQ+ bills in many state legislatures, and more of them have passed than last year, said Jennifer Pizer, law and policy director for Lambda Legal.

It brings home a reality that in addition to celebration, theres still a need for activism, said Joe Negrelli, 70, a longtime NYC Pride attendee, who was worried about marriage equality.

Could it be overturned? Yes, I do believe that. It is a conceivability, he said of the court's decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide. It makes me want to put more energy into engaging in marching.

Anyone who might have been lulled into a false sense of security by previous civil rights victories has been woken up now, Adams said. I think a lot of us who understand the history of the struggle for equality and equity and social justice in this country know that the fight is never over.

Its not just legislation and court decisions. Those who track hate speech say anti-LGBTQ language has increased online, which raises the fear that extremists will take it as a call to engage in action, like the rash of protests and physical interruptions that have taken place at Drag Queen Story Hours, where adults in drag read books to children.

Earlier this month, 31 members of a white supremacist group, carrying riot gear, were arrested over accusations that they were plotting a major disruption at a Pride event in Idaho.

That doesnt mean the celebrations over, advocates said.

There can be celebration and joy, and also purpose in protest, Pizer said.

Ellen Ensig-Brodsky, 89, has embraced both those roles in her decades of attending Pride as a LGBTQ rights activist.

The parade is the display, publicly, of my identity and my group that I have been part of for at least 40 or more years, she said, adding that she will be marching again Sunday. I certainly would not want to miss it.

After all this time, the animosity and hostility shes seeing around the country arent unfamiliar to her.

The intent to increase anti-LGBTQ existence is a return to what I started out with decades ago, she said. Back then, we didnt come out. We hid.

Not now, she said, I think we need to show that love can persist and continue and spread.
ROANOKE, Va. (AP)  A federal appeals court has denied a request from a company building a natural gas pipeline in Virginia and West Virginia to have a new panel of judges reconsider permits that have been struck down repeatedly .

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the motion from Mountain Valley Pipeline in a one-sentence order filed late Wednesday, The Roanoke Times reported.
The Type 055 destroyer Lhasa is the second and newest ship of the class and a next-generation ship with stealth features design.

It embarked on the West Sea of Japan, where it will join its first sea exercises far from China's coasts. The People's Liberation Army Navy is adding more ships and is the largest navy in the world, surpassing the US Navy.

Is the Chinese Lhasa Better Than the US Arleigh-Burke Class?

This destroyer is one of eight ships to be launched, and another two were commissioned last April but are not fully operational yet. Another four are undergoing sea trials, reported Military Watch Magazine.

Sources indicate that more ships of the class might be built, although some speculation says that plans for a better destroyer are in the works to replace it, cited the Global Times.

Many think Type 055 is one of the best surface combatants in service with any navy. The British think tank IISS pointed out that the PLAN destroyer is capable enough for long-range missions and task-group operations.

Since the beginning of 2022, the ship has taken part in several realistic combat scenario exercises held in the Yellow Sea, which is fully operational now.

Features, Capabilities of the Lhasa

The Type 055 destroyer Lhasa displaces from 12,000 to 13,000 tons, equipped with lethal armament like 112 vertical launch cells (VLS). Radar is a dual-band system that the USN failed to add to the discontinued Zumwalt Class destroyer, noted Navy Recognition.

Read Also: Xi Jinping Net Worth 2022: How Wealthy Is China's President

The PLAN wanted to design a warship different from that made by the west, Japan, and Russia they had in service. Earlier Chinese ships were capable, but the Type 055 is where lessons were learned to come together to have a modern warship with everything it needed.

Incorporating a 122 vertical launch system (VLS) that exceeds even the Arleigh-Burke ships and a radar tracking system.

The west will witness one of the few ships except for a few in the Russian Navy; it fired a brand new hypersonic missile launched from the Chinese destroyer's VLS silos last April.

Its four-layered surface-to-air missile network, coupled with advanced stealth capabilities, comes on top of any other production destroyer worldwide.

Stealth has become important for any warship in its design; the 055 has this in mind to make it an exception and more modern than other ships.

Lhasa, a Threat to the US Navy

For the US Navy, before the PLAN commissioned the new destroyer, the US Arleigh Burke was the top dog, and its cold war era design was competent.

The introduction of the new destroyer class caused the US Navy to take a step back and think about what to do; the older US destroyer became obsolete even with upgrades.

Hopes that DDG-1000 Zumwalt Class destroyer program would pan out failed, and the US desperately needs a better design to keep up with the Type 055. The tensions in the Indo-Pacific and East Asia highlighted the value of the PLAN's new warship.

The presence of the Type 055 destroyer Lhasa in drills outside China means it can join battle groups going farther; worse off is the USN scrambling to have an equivalent warship in a short time.

Related Article: China's Type 055 Stealth-Guided Missile Destroyer Scheduled To Lead a Flotilla of PLA Navy Drills in the Yellow Sea

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WASHINGTON -- The historic overturning of Roe v. Wade met with an outpouring of joy and rage on Friday, as street demonstrations that began outside the Supreme Court after the decades-old guarantee of abortion access was struck down spread through the nation's capital and to cities across the United States.

Thousands of abortion rights supporters gathered in downtown Washington to assail the court's ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, as other marches to protest the decision unfolded in cities including New York, Chicago, Nashville, San Francisco and Los Angeles. After the leak of a draft of the opinion last month, few were surprised. But many were still in shock.

The scene outside the court in the immediate wake of the Dobbs ruling captured Americans' wildly divergent reactions to a watershed moment in one of the nation's bitterest debates. Antiabortion activists brimmed with joy at a long-sought legal victory while supporters of abortion rights voiced fury and despair.

"They don't understand the gravity of this decision," Tanya Matthews, a 26-year-old from South Carolina who opposed the repeal of Roe, said as she watched antiabortion demonstrators dancing and cracking champagne outside the court on Friday morning. "Just because it's not legal doesn't mean it isn't going to happen."

Lauren Marlowe, 22, was as elated at the decision as Matthews was dismayed by it. Marlowe shrieked with delight and hugged her friends when the ruling was announced just after 10 a.m.

"I can't believe it's real," she said. " . . . We're in a post-Roe America now."

But as the day wore on, the crowd's mood shifted decisively as most antiabortion demonstrators left and more supporters of abortion rights began to pour into downtown Washington. On Friday about 1,000 people chanted and held signs outside the Supreme Court denouncing the justices' action. The protesters were joined at one point by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who vowed through a borrowed megaphone that the left would work to restore the rights revoked by the court.

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About 1,000 additional protesters assembled for a march beginning half a mile from the Supreme Court at Union Station, and Mayor Muriel Bowser, D, spoke at a Planned Parenthood office in the District to denounce the decision.

On Friday night, a small band of demonstrators banged drums and chanted at the entrance to Justice Clarence Thomas's Fairfax Station neighborhood, which was guarded by a pair of Fairfax County police cruisers.

Shortly after 7 p.m., the crowd from Union Station joined those already gathered at the Supreme Court. "This is a horribly sad day," said Brittany Riggle, a 35-year-old scientist who lives in Rockville, Md., and had marched from the train station. "But it is heartening to see all these people come out."

In New York, thousands gathered in Washington Square, with another protest planned for Union Square later Friday night. In Chicago, a Planned Parenthood official, speaking to hundreds of protesters at Federal Plaza, predicted that their state would soon see an influx of people from more conservative Midwestern states seeking abortions.

At Legislative Plaza in Nashville, Paula Foster, a 58-year-old social worker, voiced a widespread worry -- that the Supreme Court, having removed the protections of Roe, will eventually revoke its protections for same-sex marriage. "I'm legally married, and to a wonderful woman," Foster said. "I'm afraid that I will no longer be able to have that protection." But Foster was not only afraid for herself. She has two girls, ages 11 and 13. "I'm frightened for them and the world they're going to grow up in," she said.

In D.C., police said they had activated the full department -- placing officers on standby in case of violence or vandalism -- through the weekend. Dozens of police officers surveyed the scene as the peaceful but animated crowd gathered outside the court less than two hours after the decision was announced. Security fencing ringed the court, and officers with long guns watched the crowd from the roof. But by Friday evening no arrests had been made, and dueling factions of impassioned demonstrators appeared to have largely avoided serious confrontations.

The only serious incident by nightfall involved a demonstrator who climbed to the top of the 70-foot archway over the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge, shutting down traffic starting late Friday morning. Police said the demonstrator displayed a flag or a banner reading: "Don't tread on my uterus."

At one point, Terrisa Bukovinac -- a D.C.-based antiabortion activist who in April made national news when she said she and another activist received a box of fetal remains from a city abortion provider -- waded into the crowd.

Bukovinac, a founder and executive director of the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, called out a chant that was lost amid the booing of abortion rights supporters, who quickly pivoted to face her and shouted, "Get out!" She was escorted away by police officers.

Amanda Herring was in the early stages of labor when the Supreme Court announced its decision. The 32-year-old's due date is Saturday, she said, and she had planned to spend Friday monitoring her contractions in her Northeast Washington home. But instead, she put on a shirt that stopped below her chest, scribbled "NOT YET A HUMAN" on her exposed belly and drove to the Supreme Court with her toddler and family.

"Everyone is talking about murder," she said amid throngs of demonstrators, pointing to her stomach. "But this is not yet a human."

Although Herring said she expected her display to draw disapproving comments, she added, "I feel a responsibility to my child and to my future child to be here."

Herring said her contractions were 10 minutes apart and not too painful. She planned to continue protesting as long as she could stand.

Caroline Flermoen and Kate Spaulding, both 17, had just begun their walking tour of Capitol Hill on Friday morning when they heard chanting and the strains of music. They immediately knew what the noise meant.

The girls -- from Grand Rapids, Mich., and Boston, respectively -- are rising high school seniors and were in Washington for an educational summer program. Their guide had mentioned that a decision on Roe might come during their tour, but to hear it, the girls said, was surreal.

"Bye bye reproductive rights," Caroline texted her mother at 10:14 a.m.

They joined a couple hundred people out in front of the Supreme Court. When someone offered them bright-green stickers reading "Overturn Roe? Hell no!" with an illustration of a crossed-out coat hanger, they accepted.

Kate put the sticker on her jean shorts. Caroline affixed it to her white T-shirt, obstructed by a red lanyard with her dorm key. As she looked out at the supporters cheering, her eyes filled with tears. She knew she would remember this day for the rest of her life, she said.

Stephanie Gross, a 21-year-old college senior dancing to rap music blasted from a stereo being pulled in a wagon, would also remember the day. She believed the court's decision paved the way for a better future, she said. There were bubbles in the air, and spilled champagne coating her friends' arms.

"When I have kids someday, I can say that I was there when it happened," Gross said. "Can you believe it?"

As Shannon Mayes, 52, watched the crowds gathered in front of the Supreme Court, with their flags and hand-drawn posters and loud music, she couldn't help but think that abortion was more nuanced than either faction let on.

Mayes, a substitute teacher from Akins, S.C., was raised Catholic, and understood that for many devout Christians, a heartbeat was a heartbeat, and a life was a life. But Mayes had a story that even many of her friends didn't know, she said: how, in 1997, she and her husband had learned that only half of their son's heart had developed. A doctor told them that if Mayes carried him to term, she would have to move to Boston for advanced medical care. He was expected to live only a few years, if he wasn't stillborn.

She and her husband chose to terminate the pregnancy at 20 weeks. Mayes had gotten an epidural. She'd gone through labor. And then she'd held her son William -- small and unmoving -- in her arms, before she let him go.

Mayes went on to have two other children, she said. But the decision changed her life and affected her feelings about Friday's Supreme Court ruling.

"What I went through -- it's a gray area," she said. "People have to understand that. And if they don't, they aren't very empathetic."

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The Washington Post's Rachel Weiner, Emily Davies, Nicole Asbury, Peter Hermann and Michelle Boorstein contributed to this report.
DOVER, Del. (AP)  Evidence presented Friday in the corruption trial of State Auditor Kathy McGuiness suggests McGuiness expected an employee to handle a controversial contractor payment at the heart of her criminal case, not knowing the employee would quit while on vacation.

Defense attorney Steve Wood showed jurors a series of emails exchanged in September 2020 among McGuiness, former chief of staff Thomas Van Horn, and administrative officer Shequanna Cousin about paying a past due invoice to My Campaign Group. The firm had received a no-bid communications services contract from McGuiness in 2019.

The auditors office had submitted the $11,250 invoice to the state Division of Accounting for approval, but it was sent back because the purchase order for the contract, which allocated a total of $45,000, had a remaining balance of only $4,350.

McGuiness then asked Van Horn and Cousin if it was possible to pay $4,900 of the $6,900 excess as a direct claim voucher outside the purchase order. Such payments are allowed if a change order or after-the-fact waiver request is submitted. The $4,900 amount, meanwhile, meant that the auditors office would not have to wait around for approval from the Division of Accounting because the payment approval threshold was $5,000.

Yes, it is possible to do, Cousin responded in an email, asking if Van Horn and McGuiness wanted to proceed with paying $4,350 under the purchase order and $4,900 as a direct claim, for a total of $9,250.

Five days later, McGuiness sent another email telling Van Horn and Cousin, who was out of the office on vacation, that she was getting calls from My Campaign Group owner Christie Gross about getting paid. With Cousin out of the office, McGuiness asked Van Horn to verify whether any payment had been made.

Van Horn told McGuiness and Cousin that he had already sent the $4,350 under the purchase order, and that they would have to do a waiver for the remainder.

McGuiness replied that Cousin was authorized to make the $9,250 payment but indicated that she was unsure about the process since this is not in my wheelhouse. She questioned whether the $4,900 needed to be a direct claim and whether the remaining $2,000 required a waiver.

As part of her duties, Cousin was responsible for paying purchase orders, payment vouchers and submitting waiver requests. Unbeknownst to McGuiness and Van Horn, however, Cousin had decided to quit and would not be returning from vacation.

They didnt know you were gone, and they were sending the email to the person who is charged with doing the after-the-fact waiver, right? Wood asked. And you didnt do anything ... because you were gone.

Correct, said Cousin, who agreed with Wood that if she had filed a waiver request the payment would have been fine.

McGuiness, a Democrat elected in 2018, is responsible as state auditor for rooting out government fraud, waste and abuse. She is being tried on felony counts of theft and witness intimidation, and misdemeanor charges of official misconduct, conflict of interest and noncompliance with procurement laws. McGuiness is the first statewide elected official in Delaware to face criminal prosecution while in office.

Prosecutors allege, among other things, that McGuiness orchestrated the no-bid contract for My Campaign Group, a firm she had used as a campaign consultant when running for lieutenant governor in 2016, then deliberately kept the contract payments under $5,000 to avoid having to get them approved by the Division of Accounting. They claim that splitting up the funding sources for the final invoice and making two payments  one for $9,250 and another for $1,950 using a state credit card  was a deliberate attempt to avoid regulatory scrutiny and amounts to illegal financial structuring.

Despite those allegations of concealment, the auditors office sought approval from the Division of Accounting for a single payment of $11,250, more than double the $5,000 reporting threshold, and actually received approval from the accounting division for the $9,250 payment. The director of the Division of Accounting testified that employees in her agency made a mistake in granting that approval, but no one in that agency has been charged with a crime.

Prosecutors also allege that McGuiness hired her daughter and her daughters best friend as temporary employees in 2020, even though other temporary employees had left because of the lack of available work amid the coronavirus pandemic. Authorities allege that in hiring her daughter and exercising control over taxpayer money with which she was paid, McGuiness engaged in theft of state money and conflict of interest.

Authorities also allege that when employees in her office became aware of McGuiness misconduct, she responded by trying to intimidate the whistleblowers, including monitoring their email accounts.

The trial resumes Monday.
Religious Americans are deeply divided in their views on abortion, and reactions from faith leaders ranged from elation to anger after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that made abortion legal nationwide.

The ruling issued Friday was hailed by leading Catholic bishops, even though a majority of U.S. Catholics support abortion rights.

I recognize there are people on both sides of the question in the Catholic Church, said Baltimore Archbishop William Lori, who chairs the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Pro-Life Activities. What we are finding though is that when people become more aware of what the church is doing to assist women in difficult pregnancies  hearts and minds begin to change.

The ruling also was welcomed by many evangelical Christian leaders, including Bart Barber, newly elected president of the the Southern Baptist Convention, the nations largest Protestant denomination. Southern Baptists rejoice at the ruling, he said.

However, the decision  expected to lead to sweeping abortion bans in more than 20 states  was decried by some mainline Protestant leaders, including Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church. I am deeply grieved, he said.

Several Jewish organizations said the decision infringes on Jewish traditions that accept the need for abortion.

Nadiah Mohajir, co-founder of Heart Women and Girls, a Chicago nonprofit that works with Muslim communities on reproductive rights, expressed dismay: More than half of American Muslims support safe access to abortion. What were seeing here is a very small minority of privileged people who are trying to impose a narrow Christian understanding of when life begins.

Here are some more reactions from faith leaders:

The release of the Dobbs decision marks a true turning point in the pro-life movement, a moment that Christians, advocates and many others have worked toward tirelessly for 50 years. ... As this chapter comes to a close, we must understand this is not the end of our important work. The issue of abortion has now been turned over to the states, many of which have either implemented or are considering some of the most abhorrently permissive pro-abortion proposals ever.  Brent Leatherwood, acting president of the SBCs Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, in a statement.

Todays Supreme Court decision ... discarding nearly 50 years of precedent, will endanger the lives and well-being of birthing people who do not choose to continue pregnancy. God loves and cares for people who have abortions, and so does the United Church of Christ.  General ministers of the United Church of Christ, in a joint statement.

Abortion bans place greater value on the life of the fetus than on the pregnant person, a violation of both Jewish law and tradition and of American religious liberty. Now, it seems only certain people are entitled to religious liberty, which renders the entire concept meaningless.  Sheila Katz, CEO of the National Council of Jewish Women, in a statement.

This is a historic day in the life of our country, one that stirs our thoughts, emotions and prayers. For nearly fifty years, America has enforced an unjust law that has permitted some to decide whether others can live or die; this policy has resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of preborn children. ... We mourn their loss, and we entrust their souls to God.  Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Baltimore Archbishop William Lori, in a joint statement.

Catholics on the right spent decades reducing church teaching to a single issue and linked arms with a conservative movement that is hostile to the churchs teachings about a consistent ethic of life and the common good. This ruling is the culmination of that misguided campaign.  John Gehring, Catholic program director at the Washington-based clergy network Faith in Public Life, via Twitter.

This Supreme Court abolished the constitutional right to abortion in an opinion that is a direct attack on the separation of church and state. Religious freedom demands the right to an abortion so people can make their own reproductive decisions according to their own principles. ... Americans United is readying religious freedom litigation which will bring this argument to our courts.  Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a group representing secular Americans, in a statement.

This historic Supreme Court decision would not have happened without fifty years of patient, loving, hard work by people of all faiths and none in diverse fields including social service, religion, law, medicine, culture, education, policy and politics. But our work has just begun.  Salvatore Cordileone, Catholic archbishop of San Francisco, in a statement.

Todays ruling is further evidence that the regressive political agenda of the far-right has reached the highest court in the land. Bodily autonomy and self-determination are deeply rooted humanist values that are critical for realizing an inclusive, pluralistic, and flourishing society. The right to abortion access has long been a culture-war issue utilized by radical evangelical and White Christian Nationalist movements to control women and undermine the well-being of our society.  Nadya Dutchin, executive director of the American Humanist Association, in a statement.

I support the right to life. ... But its not my choice. When mostly white legislators pass laws that affect Black bodies, its criminalizing the plight of the poor. Once a child is born, there are disparities in health care, education, housing and employment. We could care less about a child outside the womb. Its a sad day in America.  The Rev. Clinton Stancil, lead pastor of Wayman African Methodist Episcopal Church in St. Louis, in an interview.

Half the states will now become abortion free and millions of innocent lives will be spared from the barbaric practice of abortion. This is a human rights victory beyond all others and justifies the decades of tireless work by selfless pro-life individuals and organizations.  Troy Newman, president of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, in a statement.

I am deeply grieved. ... I have been ordained more than 40 years, and I have served as a pastor in poor communities; I have witnessed firsthand the negative impact this decision will have. ... Todays decision institutionalizes inequality because women with access to resources will be able to exercise their moral judgment in ways that women without the same resources will not.  Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, in a statement.

More than ever, those who value all human life must demonstrate their commitment not merely with their words, but also by their deeds. We must urge legislators to protect the unborn, and we must provide compassionate support for women that will help them choose life.  Adam Greenway, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, in a statement.

This court has no legitimacy. We will not live by this decision.  The Rev. Jacqui Lewis, senior minister at Middle Collegiate Church in New York City, via Twitter.

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AP religion team journalists Holly Meyer, Luis Andres Henao, Peter Smith and Deepa Bharath contributed to this report.

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For APs full coverage of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, go to https://apnews.com/hub/abortion.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the APs collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
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MANILA - Every year at least eight typhoons smash into the Philippines, an archipelago and former U.S. colony in the Pacific Ocean. As the climate changes around the world, the storms are getting worse - and most of this nation of 109 million live in their path.

Extreme weather events are expected to worsen globally, and the country is at the forefront of the crisis, with towns and cities made especially vulnerable because of poor urban planning and inadequate drainage systems. Homeowners in the country's precarious middle class, who don't necessarily have the funds to relocate, are left largely on their own to cope and find ways to protect their possessions. Residents have learned to add features to their homes such as flood dikes, elevated floors and - in one case - a floating garage.

Last year alone, tropical cyclones in the Philippines left over 100 dead and caused $662 million in damage. In a 2018 study by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, over 75% of Filipinos reported being affected by heavy rains, tropical cyclones, floods and earthquakes in a five-year period. In the same study, almost half said their homes had been damaged at one time by a natural disaster.

By all accounts, the floods are only getting worse. Scientists blame climate change for the erratic and early rains in northeastern India and Bangladesh that led to June's massive flooding there. At the same time, more than 1,000 miles away, in China's southern province of Guangdong, tens of thousands have been evacuated by the worst flooding in decades.

Any solutions on climate change will be years in the making. In the meantime, people in many areas will face a lot more water, without the option of relocating. "It becomes a personal responsibility," architect Leandro Poco said of making houses more flood-proof if the means are available. "They do not want to evacuate."

For those outside the Philippines, these steps can offer lessons in adaptation as floods increase and sea levels rise around the world.

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Raising the foundation

Some residents lift their houses far above sidewalk level to delay the entrance of floodwaters. They also build upward, adding additional floors to their homes, though this requires a strong foundation.

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A strong shell

Homeowners are building an impenetrable shell for their houses by reinforcing corners and openings to prevent wind and water penetration.

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Water-compatible materials

Residents "wet-proof" their homes by protecting walls with a waterproof coating. They also use water-resistant material such magnesium oxide for plasterboard, and swap fixed carpets for rugs, which can be rolled.

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A sacrificial ground floor

Many homeowners have given up their ground floors. This means keeping the space minimalist. Furniture is either heavyweight and water resistant - such as steel or stone, easily cleaned after a flood - or lightweight, easily brought upstairs.

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'Flipping the house'

Many have also moved their kitchens and utility areas to the upper floors, to protect food as well as expensive appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines.

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Elevated power sockets

To avoid electrocution, homeowners are moving electrical outlets to higher points. They are also installing a split circuit breaker that allows the electricity to be turned off just on the ground floor.

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Fire exit

People have also added roof access to await rescue by boat or helicopter, should the waters keep rising.

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Using rainwater

Collecting rainwater, whether by hand or with the use of special machines, is used for flushing toilets, washing cars and in the event of a shortage of potable water.

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Solar power

Homeowners have invested in solar power, as storms can leave neighborhoods without electricity for extended periods.

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Bridges to next door

Closely connected communities can build makeshift bridges along the roofs connecting the residences, so that people can move back and forth above the waters or escape to buildings with higher floors.

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Some traits of resilient housing - including elevated floors, windows designed for natural ventilation and more - are reflected in traditional Filipino homes, said Vinson Serrano, instructor at the University of Santo Tomas College of Architecture. But these concepts were often shunned in the shift to Western materials and styles.

When borrowing some of these ideas for one's locale, "you can't just copy-paste," said Edward Barsley of the Environmental Design Studio, based in Britain, and author of "Retrofitting for Flood Resilience: A Guide to Building and Community Design." The key is to organize as a community.

"Speak to and work with your neighbors," Barsley said. "Maybe you could share the cost of some of these measures . . . and protect and make resilient a larger block of buildings."

Community and shared space is much stronger in informal settlements, said architect Paulo Alcazaren, who co-authored "Squatter City," a book about these spaces. He emphasized that renovations are well and good but only a symptom of a larger issue. "Unless you change the larger context of governance, you cannot solve anything," he said. "The scale of the problem cannot be solved by individual homeowners doing something to retrofit their homes."

While the middle class can renovate, the poor in the Philippines are left mostly to rebuild from scratch after each disaster. Many live in slums, with homes that are little more than clusters of dense, makeshift shanties made from upcycled material.

One community at the forefront of the climate crisis lies between the cities of Malabon and Navotas in the capital region - a cluster of neighborhoods near Manila Bay that is vulnerable to typhoons and rising sea levels. Before a storm, residents tie roofs down with rope, raise the stilts of their homes and then evacuate - returning to inspect the damage afterward.

Starting around 10 a.m., high tide seeps into the community, flooding it with ankle-deep water. The house of Elena Ku, 49, is submerged with seawater all year long. She cannot afford to raise the whole foundation, so her solution has been to raise the bathroom. Every day, she scoops up water that has gotten into the house and flushes it down the toilet. Ku also has a water pump that she occasionally rents to neighbors, but she does not use it too often, because of electricity charges. A makeshift bridge made of a plank and soft-drink cases leads into and out of the house.

Pablo Rosales, a resident and president of the fishing organization Pangisda Pilipinas, said relocation efforts do not work for the community, because locals have to be near the sea for their livelihoods. Many homes have abandoned their ground floors but, like Ku, struggle with daily inconveniences.

As the district struggles with rising sea levels, pollution and the threat of commercial establishments, Rosales said residents need "a true, formal settlement" to have agency over their homes. "It hurts us to be the people who put fish on the table for others," he said, while living in such conditions.

By midafternoon the saltwater flooding the streets starts to recede, but it will be back the next day.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that had provided a constitutional right to abortion. The ruling is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states, although the timing of those laws taking effect varies.

Some Republican-led states will ban or severely limit abortion immediately, while other restrictions will take effect later. At least one state, Texas, is waiting until after the Supreme Court issues its formal judgment in the case, which is separate from the opinion issued Friday and could take about a month.

In anticipation of the decision, several states led by Democrats have taken steps to protect abortion access. The decision also sets up the potential for legal fights between the states over whether providers and those who help women obtain abortions can be sued or prosecuted.

Here is an overview of abortion legislation and the expected impact of the courts decision in every state.

Steve Helber/AP

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ALABAMA

Political control: Alabama has a Republican-controlled legislature and a Republican governor who want to ban or restrict access to abortions.

Background: In 2019, Alabama lawmakers approved what was then the most stringent abortion ban in the country, making it a felony to perform an abortion at any stage of pregnancy with no exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. The only exception would be when the womans health was at serious risk. A federal judge issued an injunction, under the precedent of Roe v. Wade, blocking the state from enforcing the law. In 2018, voters agreed to amend the Alabama Constitution to say the state recognizes the rights of unborn children and does not protect the right to an abortion or require the funding of abortion. A 1951 law made it a crime, punishable by up to 12 months in prison, to induce an abortion, unless it is done to preserve the life or health of the mother.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Abortions became almost entirely illegal in Alabama on Friday. A 2019 state abortion ban took effect making it a felony to perform an abortion at any stage of pregnancy, with no exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest. All three clinics stopped providing abortions Friday morning under fear of prosecution under the 1951 state law. U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson hours later granted Alabama's request to lift an injunction and allow the state to enforce the 2019 abortion ban. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said it is now a felony to provide an abortion in Alabama beyond the one exception allowed in the 2019 law, which is for the sake of the mothers health. Doctors who violate the law could face up to 99 years in prison. Marshall said the state would also move to lift other injunctions that blocked previous abortion restrictions, including a requirement for doctors who perform abortions to have hospital admitting privileges.

Whats next: Some Republican lawmakers have said they would like to see the state replace the 2019 ban with a slightly less stringent bill that would allow exceptions in cases of rape or incest. Proponents said the 2019 ban was deliberately strict in the hopes of sparking a court challenge to Roe.

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ALASKA

Political control: Republicans currently hold a majority of seats in the state Legislature, but the House is controlled by a bipartisan coalition composed largely of Democrats. Fifty-nine of the Legislatures 60 seats are up for election this year. Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican who believes life begins at conception, is seeking reelection.

Background: The Alaska Supreme Court has interpreted the right to privacy in the state constitution as encompassing abortion rights.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The U.S. Supreme Court's decision is not expected to immediately affect abortion rights in Alaska, given the existing precedent in the state.

Whats next: Voters in the fall will be asked if they want to hold a constitutional convention, a question that comes up every 10 years. Many conservatives who want to overhaul how judges are selected and do away with the interpretation that the constitutions right to privacy clause allows for abortion rights see an opportunity in pushing for a convention. Recent efforts to advance a constitutional amendment through the Legislature have been unsuccessful.

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ARIZONA

Political control: Both legislative chambers are controlled by Republicans, who regularly pass abortion restrictions that for the past eight sessions have been quickly signed by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, an abortion opponent.

Background: Arizona law allows abortion through about 22 weeks, but the Legislature passed a 15-week abortion ban in March mirroring the Mississippi law that was contested before the U.S. Supreme Court. It will take effect 90 days after the Legislature adjourns, which it did Saturday. Current restrictions include bans on abortions because of gender and a 2021 law that makes it a felony for a doctor to terminate a pregnancy because the child has a survivable genetic abnormality. Arizona also has a pre-statehood law still on the books that would ban all abortions, although it has not been enforced since Roe was decided.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Ducey has argued in media interviews that the law he signed in late March takes precedence over the total ban that remains on the books. But the law he signed specifically says it does not overrule the total abortion ban in place for more than 100 years. Ducey is term-limited and leaves office in January. Abortion providers across the state stopped all procedures after the court ruled Friday because of concerns that the pre-Roe ban could put doctors, nurses and other providers at risk of prosecution.

Whats next: Abortion-rights supporters in Arizona have launched a long-shot bid to enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution. Rolled out weeks after the draft U.S. Supreme Court decision showing Roe could be overturned was leaked, backers must collect more than 356,000 signatures by July 7 to get the initiative on the November ballot. Voters would then be able to decide.

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ARKANSAS

Political control: Arkansas legislature is controlled by Republicans who have supported dozens of abortion bans and restrictions in recent years. Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson also has supported bans on abortion with some exceptions. Hes term-limited and leaves office in January. Republican nominee Sarah Sanders, press secretary to former President Donald Trump, is widely favored in the November election to succeed him.

Background: Arkansas already had a law banning most abortions 20 weeks into a womans pregnancy, with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. The state has several other bans that have been struck down or blocked by courts in recent years, including an outright abortion ban enacted last year that doesnt include rape or incest exceptions. That ban has been blocked by a federal judge, and the state has appealed.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Arkansas has a law it enacted in 2019 that bans nearly all abortions now that Roe is overturned. That ban, along with the outright ban thats been blocked by a federal judge, only allows exceptions to protect the life of the mother in a medical emergency. Hutchinson has said he thinks bans should include rape and incest exceptions, but he has not called on the Legislature to add those to either of the bans.

Whats next: Hours after Fridays ruling, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge signed certification that Roe had been overturned. That certification allows the states trigger ban to take effect immediately. The only exception in that ban is to protect the life of the mother in a medical emergency. The Legislature isnt scheduled to meet until January, but Hutchinson is considering calling a special session to take up tax relief proposals. The Republican governor said Friday he does not plan on asking lawmakers to consider adding rape and incest exceptions to the states ban.

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CALIFORNIA

Political control: Democrats who support access to abortion control all statewide elected offices and have large majorities in the state Legislature.

Background: California outlawed abortion in 1850, except when the life of the mother was in danger. The law changed in 1967 to include abortions in the case of rape, incest or if a womans mental health were in danger. In 1969, the California Supreme Court declared the states original abortion law to be unconstitutional but left the 1967 law in place. In 1972, California voters added a right to privacy to the state constitution. Since then, the state Supreme Court has interpreted that right to privacy as a right to access abortion, allow minors to get an abortion without their parents permission and use public funding for abortions in the states Medicaid program. California now requires private health insurance plans to cover abortions and does not allow them to charge things such as co-pays or deductibles for the procedure.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Abortion will remain legal in California prior to the viability of a fetus. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has vowed to make California a sanctuary for women who live in other states where abortion is outlawed or severely restricted. The number of women who travel to the state for abortions is expected to rise significantly.

Whats next: The state Legislature is considering 13 bills that would strengthen or expand access to abortion. The bills are based on a report from the Future of Abortion Council, which Newsom formed last year to study reproductive rights in California. They include proposals that would help pay for women from other states to come to California for abortions, ban enforcement of out-of-state civil judgments on California abortion providers and volunteers, and increase the number of people who can offer abortions by authorizing some nurse practitioners to perform the procedure without the supervision of a doctor. Lawmakers also plan to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot in November that would explicitly guarantee the right to an abortion and contraceptives.

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COLORADO

Political control: The Democrats who control the Colorado Legislature support access to abortion, as does the states Democratic governor.

Background: A 1967 state law legalized abortion up to 16 weeks of pregnancy. Abortion has been accessible ever since, despite repeated legislative attempts and ballot initiatives to restrict or abolish the procedure. Colorado voters have consistently rejected such initiatives, the latest in 2020 that would have banned abortion during the third trimester of pregnancy. In 2022, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed a law placing the right to abortion in state statute. The law guarantees access to reproductive care before and after pregnancy and bans local governments from imposing their own restrictions. It also declares that fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses have no independent rights. Abortion rights advocates plan a 2024 ballot initiative to add abortion rights to the state constitution and repeal a 1980s constitutional amendment that bans public funding for abortion.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The decision wont have any immediate impact on Colorado law -- but providers are preparing for a surge of out-of-state patients. Democratic House Majority Leader Daneya Esgar says lawmakers must consider how to invest in a health care workforce to ensure Colorado has the capacity to meet that anticipated demand. Colorados health department reports there were 11,580 abortions in the state in 2021; of those 14% were for non-residents. More than 900 of those non-residents were from Texas, Wyoming and Nebraska.

Whats next: Its impossible to predict how many more patients from states surrounding Colorado will potentially seek care now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned. But the Texas law could induce more people to come. Oklahoma now has an early pregnancy abortion ban; Utah and Wyoming have trigger laws banning abortion now Roe is overturned; the Kansas Constitution protects abortion rights, but Republican lawmakers placed on an August primary ballot an initiative to overturn it.

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CONNECTICUT

Political control: Democrats who control the Connecticut General Assembly support access to abortion, as does the states Democratic governor.

Background: Connecticut passed a law in 1990 giving women the legal right to abortion. Having passed with strong bipartisan support, it was lauded at the time for being a rare compromise between abortion rights advocates and opponents. It affirmed a womans unqualified right to an abortion prior to viability of the fetus, as well as later-term abortions necessary to preserve the life and health of the pregnant woman. It also repealed state laws predating Roe v. Wade that had made it a felony to have an abortion or to perform one and required that patients under 16 receive counseling about their options. This year, Gov. Ned Lamont signed legislation to protect medical providers and patients from out-of-state legal actions. The same law allows advanced practice registered nurses, nurse-midwives or physician assistants to perform aspiration abortions in the first 12 weeks of a pregnancy.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, a Democrat, has vowed to challenge any attempt to nullify Connecticuts abortion rights law. Lets not mince words. They will come for us, Tong warned abortion rights supporters during a recent news conference. We will fight that effort tooth-and-nail. Any court, any place, Connecticut will be there and will fight. The state is already involved in major abortion cases across the country. And while Connecticut is surrounded by mostly pro-abortion states, its still bracing for out-of-state patients seeking abortions now that Roe has been overturned.

Whats next: Connecticuts new law protecting abortion providers from other states bans takes effect on July 1. It creates a legal cause of action for providers and others sued in another state, enabling them to recover certain legal costs. It also limits the governors discretion to extradite someone accused of performing an abortion, as well as participation by Connecticut courts and agencies in those lawsuits. Theres discussion of possibly amending the states constitution to enshrine the right to abortion, making it more difficult to overturn, but that would be a multi-year process.

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DELAWARE

Political control: Democrats control the governors office and both chambers of the legislature in Delaware and have taken several steps to ensure access to abortion.

Background: In 2017, Delaware became the first state following the election of President Donald Trump to codify the right to an abortion. A bill signed by Gov. John Carney, a Catholic, guarantees the unfettered right to an abortion before a fetus is deemed viable. The law defines viability as the point in a pregnancy when, in a physicians good faith medical judgment, there is a reasonable likelihood that the fetus can survive outside the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures. The law also allows abortion after fetal viability if, in a doctors good faith medical judgment, abortion is necessary for the protection of the womans life or health, or if there is a reasonable likelihood that the fetus cannot survive without extraordinary medical measures. The law eliminated existing code restrictions on abortions, much of which had already been declared unenforceable by Delawares attorney general in 1973 following the Supreme Court rulings in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton. In April of this year, Carney signed a bill allowing physician assistants and advanced practice registered nurses to prescribe abortion-inducing medications including mifepristone and misoprostol.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: In Delaware, the privacy protections of Roe v. Wade are codified in state law, guaranteeing residents have access to legal abortion services even if Roe were to be undone at the federal level, Democratic lawmakers noted earlier this month in unveiling legislation further broadening access to abortions. The bill, which is likely to pass before the end of June, allows physician assistants, certified nurse practitioners and nurse midwifes to perform abortions before viability. It also includes various legal protections for abortion providers and patients, including out-of-state residents receiving abortions in Delaware. Those provisions include protections from civil actions in other states relating to the termination of a pregnancy, and protecting individuals from extradition to other states for criminal charges related to terminating a pregnancy.

Whats next: According to state health officials, 2,042 abortions were performed in Delaware in 2019, with 1,765 involving Delaware residents and 277 involving nonresidents. Delaware is not likely to see a huge influx of women traveling from out of state to get abortions if Roe v. Wade is overturned, given that neighboring Maryland and New Jersey also have liberal abortion-access laws. In neighboring Pennsylvania, where Republicans control both chambers of the Legislature, future abortion access could hinge on the outcome of this years gubernatorial contest.

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DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Political control: The local government in the nations capital is completely controlled by Democrats, with a Democratic mayor and the D.C. Council split between Democrats and nominal independent politicians, who are all, invariably, Democrats.

Background: Abortion is legal in the District of Columbia at all stages of pregnancy, a status that was upheld in the 1971 Supreme Court case United States v. Vuitch. However, the U.S. Congress has oversight power over D.C. laws and Congress has already banned the city from using local funds to pay for abortions for women on Medicaid.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Elected officials in Washington, D.C., fear Congress could move to restrict abortion access, particularly if Republicans recapture the House of Representatives in midterm elections later this year. President Joe Biden could theoretically veto such a move, but that protection is subject to political calculations and is not guaranteed.

Whats next: Local officials have pledged defiance against any sort of Congressional move to restrict local abortion access. The D.C. Council is considering legislation that would declare Washington, D.C., a sanctuary city for those coming from states where abortion is banned. According to federal data, most of the women getting abortions in Washington already are coming from out of state. Those numbers could increase, particularly if new Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin moves to restrict abortion access in neighboring Virginia.

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FLORIDA

Political control: Republicans control both chambers of the Florida Legislature and this year passed a ban on abortions after 15 weeks, which was signed into law by the states Republican governor.

Background: Abortion was legal in Florida until the 24th week of pregnancy, though lawmakers have been tightening access in recent years with bills requiring a one-day waiting period and requiring parents of a pregnant minor to be notified before an abortion can be provided. This year, in anticipation of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, the Legislature passed a ban on abortions after the 15th week, except to save the mothers life, prevent serious injury or if the fetus has a fatal abnormality. It does not allow for exemptions in cases where pregnancies were caused by rape or incest. Gov. Ron DeSantis called the legislation the most significant protections for life that have been enacted in this state in a generation.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The decision places Floridas 15-week ban on firm legal ground, at least under federal law. However, the legislation is already being challenged in state court on arguments that it violates a guarantee of the right to privacy under the state constitution.

Whats next: Floridas 15-week ban goes into effect on July 1, but challenges to that legislation are pending. Though only about 2% of Floridas abortions take place after 15th week, abortion rights advocates have expressed concern over declining access to the procedure not only for Floridians but for residents from nearby Southern states where restrictions have historically been stricter than in Florida.

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GEORGIA

Political control: Georgia has a Republican legislature and governor who support abortion restrictions, but all are up for election this November. Republicans are likely to retain legislative control, but theres a possibility a Democrat could become governor.

Background: Georgia lawmakers in 2019 passed a law by one vote that would ban most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, when fetal cardiac activity can be detected. The measure is unlike other so-called heartbeat bills in that it also contains language designating a fetus as a person for certain state-law purposes such as income tax deductions and child support. A federal judge quickly put the law on hold, saying it was unconstitutional, and the state appealed to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The 11th Circuit said it would wait to rule on the appeal pending a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Mississippi case.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The day the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Georgias attorney general asked the 11th Circuit to reverse the lower courts ruling and allow the states abortion law to take effect. That same day, the 11th Circuit directed the parties to file briefs within three weeks addressing what effect, if any, the Supreme Court decision has on the Georgia appeal. If the law takes effect, it would ban the large majority of abortions that currently take place in Georgia  about 87%, according to providers. The change could happen in the middle of tightly contested races in Georgia for governor and U.S. Senate. Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and challenger for governor Stacey Abrams say they want to secure abortion rights. Republican Senate challenger Herschel Walker and incumbent Republican Gov. Brian Kemp support restrictions.

Whats next: Some Republican lawmakers and candidates want Georgia to go further and ban abortion entirely, but Kemp is unlikely to call a special session before this Novembers general election. Lawmakers are likely to consider further action when they return for their annual session in January. The Legislature or courts will have to sort out whether the provisions designating a fetus as a person are workable.

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HAWAII

Political control: Hawaiis governor is a Democrat and Democrats control more than 90% of the seats in the state House and Senate.

Background: Hawaii legalized abortion in 1970, when it became the first state in the nation to allow the procedure at a womans request. The state allows abortion until a fetus would be viable outside the womb. After that, its legal if a patients life or health is in danger. For many years, only licensed physicians could perform the procedure. Last year, the state enacted a law allowing advanced practice care nurses to carry out in-clinic abortions during the first trimester. This helps women on more rural islands who have been flying to Honolulu to obtain abortions because of doctor shortages in their communities. The law allows the nurses to prescribe medication to end a pregnancy and to perform aspiration abortion, a type of minor surgery during which a vacuum is used to empty a womans uterus.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Existing Hawaii law allows abortions, but Gary Yamashiroya, a spokesperson for the state attorney generals office, has said the attorney general was carefully considering measures Hawaii might take to protect and strengthen reproductive rights if Roe ended. No matter the outcome, our state remains committed to reproductive freedom and choice, he said.

Whats next: Political support for abortion rights is strong. Anti-abortion bills are rarely heard at the state Legislature. When they have been, they havent made it out of committee. Gov. David Ige issued a statement supporting abortion rights when the Supreme Courts draft opinion overturning Roe leaked. No matter what the Supreme Court decides, I will fight to ensure a womans right to choose in the State of Hawaii, he said. The Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women earlier this month said 72% of the state Senate and 53% of state House members signed a pledge supporting abortion rights.

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IDAHO

Political control: Republicans hold super-majorities in the House and Senate and oppose access to abortion, as does the states Republican governor.

Background: Following the U.S. Supreme Courts 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, Idaho passed a law generally allowing abortions in the first and second trimester up to viability at about 23 to 24 weeks. The law allows abortions after viability only to protect the mothers life or in cases of nonviable fetuses. This year, lawmakers passed a Texas-style ban prohibiting abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy and authorizing family members to sue medical providers for performing an abortion. That law is on hold following a challenge by Planned Parenthood. The Idaho Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in August.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: It triggers a 2020 Idaho law banning all abortions except in cases of reported rape or incest, or to protect the mothers life, to take effect in 30 days. Under the law, the person performing the abortion could face a felony prosecution punishable by up to five years in prison. In cases of rape or incest, the law requires pregnant women to file a police report and provide a copy of the report to the provider prior to an abortion. If the Idaho Supreme Court upholds the states Texas-style abortion ban and Roe v. Wade is tossed aside, a medical provider who performs an abortion in Idaho could face a lawsuit and criminal charges.

Whats Next: Pregnant women seeking abortions will have to travel out of state; the nearest abortion providers would be in Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Colorado. Planned Parenthood is renting space in the town of Ontario on the Idaho-Oregon border and says its preparing for an influx of patients seeking abortions. Some Republican lawmakers in Idaho might propose new legislation in January to outlaw abortion pills and emergency contraception.

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ILLINOIS

Political control: Illinois is overwhelmingly Democratic with laws providing greater access to abortion than most states. Democrats hold veto-proof supermajorities in the House and Senate, and the Democratic first-term governor seeking reelection this year, J.B. Pritzker, has promoted peaceful street protests to protect the constitutional right to an abortion.

Background: Abortion is legal in Illinois and can only be restricted after the point of viability, when a fetus is considered able to survive outside the womb. Medical science determines viability at 24 to 26 weeks, but the Illinois law does not specify a timeframe, saying a medical professional can determine viability in each case. Abortions are also allowed after viability to protect the patients life or health.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: It won't change access to abortion in Illinois. After the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, the Illinois Abortion Act of 1975 legalized abortion but enacted a trigger law that would reinstate the ban if Roe were overturned. That trigger law was repealed in 2017 in legislation that also required Medicaid and state employees group health insurance to cover abortions. The 2019 Reproductive Health Act replaced the 1975 law, large parts of which were never enforced because they were found to be unconstitutional.

Whats next: Like other states providing access to abortions, Illinois has seen a steady influx of patients crossing the state line for abortions in recent months and those numbers are expected to increase. Planned Parenthood of Illinois says it expects to handle an additional 20,000 to 30,000 patients in Illinois in the first year following the reversal of Roe.

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INDIANA

Political control: Indiana has a Republican-dominated Legislature and a Republican governor in favor of restricting abortion access.

Background: Abortion in Indiana is legal up to about 20 weeks, with some provisions for medical emergencies. Before an abortion, patients must undergo an 18-hour waiting period. Medical providers must tell patients about the risks involved in abortion and must say the fetus can feel pain around 20 weeks, which is disputed. Providers must report complications related to abortion; failure to report can result in a misdemeanor, 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. Federal courts have blocked several restrictions in Indiana, including an attempt to ban a common second-trimester abortion procedure and a law that would have required doctors to tell pregnant women about a disputed treatment to potentially stop a drug-induced abortion.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: No immediate changes are expected, but legislators unwilling to wait until the 2023 session could ask Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb to call a special session this summer to start modifying the states abortion laws.

Whats next: Republican legislative leaders said Friday they expected lawmakers to act on tightening Indianas abortion laws during a special legislative session starting July 6, but gave no details about what restrictions would be considered. Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb earlier this week called the Legislature into a special session to take up a tax refund proposal, but state law allows legislators to consider any subject.

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IOWA

Political control: Iowas legislature is controlled by Republicans who want to ban or restrict abortion access and a Republican governor who agrees and is up for reelection this year.

Background: Iowa allows most abortions until the 20th week of pregnancy, when theyre banned except to save a patients life or prevent a substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function. In 2018, the state Supreme Court declared access to abortion a fundamental right under the state constitution, granting stronger protections to abortion rights than the U.S. Constitution. The states high court, now with a conservative majority, overturned that decision June 17, thus allowing a state law requiring a 24-hour waiting period to go into effect immediately. That requirement is being challenged in district court.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Nothing is expected to change immediately in Iowa. The GOP-controlled Legislature has been working to get an amendment on the ballot in 2024 that would declare the state constitution does not grant a right to abortion but, with Roe overturned, Iowa lawmakers can ban abortion without completing that lengthy process.

Whats next: Now that the Iowa Supreme Court has struck down its 2018 ruling, the state Legislature can convene a special session this summer and pass abortion restrictions. Republicans could still move to get the constitutional amendment on a public ballot in 2024.

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KANSAS

Political control: Kansas has a legislature controlled by Republicans who want to ban or restrict access to abortions but a Democratic governor who supports access and is up for re-election this year.

Background: Under current law, Kansas does not ban most abortions until the 22nd week of pregnancy, when theyre allowed only to save a patients life or to prevent a substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function. The state Supreme Court in 2019 declared that access to abortion is a fundamental right under the state constitution, granting stronger protections to abortion rights than the U.S. Constitution does currently. State law, however, doesnt allow providers to dispense abortion medications through telemedicine consultations.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Nothing will change immediately in Kansas. The state Supreme Court blocked enforcement of a 2015 legislative ban on a common second-trimester procedure, and abortion opponents fear a host of other rules could fall to legal challenges in the near future. The GOP-controlled Legislature responded by putting a constitutional amendment on the ballot during the Aug. 2 primary, when turnout is expected to be much lower than in a general election and will likely see a higher proportion of Republicans voting. The amendment would declare that the state constitution does not grant a right to abortion. It would allow lawmakers to restrict abortion as much as the federal courts will allow .

Whats next: If voters approve the amendment, the Legislature would still have to approve the new restrictions, and lawmakers are out of session until January 2023. They can call themselves in to special session with two-thirds majorities, but theyre likely to wait until after voters decide in the November general election whether to give Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly a second term.

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KENTUCKY

Political control: Republicans have a supermajority in the Kentucky Legislature and have been restricting abortion rights since the 2016 election over the vetoes of Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who supports abortion rights and will seek a second term in 2023.

Background: Kentucky bans abortions after 20 weeks, but all abortion services were temporarily halted in April after the legislature imposed new restrictions and reporting requirements on the states two abortion clinics. The clinics, both in Louisville, said they suspended abortions because state officials hadnt written guidelines on how to comply with the new law. Noncompliance could result in stiff fines, felony penalties and revocation of physician and facility licenses. Abortions resumed after a federal judge temporarily blocked key parts of the law, including a provision banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Abortion services in Kentucky immediately became illegal under a trigger law enacted in 2019. The measure contains a narrow exception allowing abortion to prevent the death or permanent injury of a pregnant woman. Kentuckians will be able to vote this November on a proposed amendment declaring there is no right to an abortion in the state constitution.

Whats next: Abortion-rights activists say the suspension of abortion services in April foreshadowed what would happen in Kentucky and other Republican-leaning states if Roe v. Wade was overturned. It likely ends several legal challenges pending against other Kentucky abortion laws including a 2018 measure that abortion-rights supporters say would effectively ban a standard abortion method in the second trimester of pregnancy. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in March that Kentuckys Republican attorney general, Daniel Cameron, can defend the measure that was struck down by lower courts.

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LOUISIANA

Political control: Louisianas legislature is controlled by Republicans who want to ban or restrict abortion access. Its Democratic and Catholic governor also opposes abortions, though he supports exceptions for victims of rape or incest.

Background: Voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2020 stating that a right to abortion and the funding of abortion shall not be found in the Louisiana Constitution. Of the about 2 million people who voted, 62% approved the amendment. Abortion had been legal in Louisiana through the 19th week of pregnancy. After that, it was legal only if the fetus would die anyway or if continuing the pregnancy would threaten the mothers life or health.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Louisiana has a trigger law that immediately outlaws abortions. There is no exception for rape or incest. The only exception is if there is substantial risk of death or impairment to the woman. Earlier this week, Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, signed a bill updating various aspects of the law and subjecting abortion providers to up to 10 years in prison and fines up to $100,000. Edwards office said the bill allows the use of emergency contraception for victims of rape and incest prior to when a pregnancy can be clinically diagnosed."

Edwards signed another bill that would require the doctor to certify that a drug used for abortion was being prescribed for another medical reason. The bill makes it illegal to deliver abortion medication to a state resident by mail-order, courier, or as a result of a sale made via the internet.

Whats next: Louisianas three abortion clinics  in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Shreveport  were no longer providing abortions to patients as of Friday and instead are recommending pregnant patients seeking the procedure to go to states where it remains legal.

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MAINE

Political control: Both chambers of the Maine Legislature, which has adjourned, are controlled by Democrats. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills has vowed to protect the right to an abortion, saying she will fight with everything I have to protect reproductive rights.

Background: A Republican governor in 1993 signed a Maine law affirming the right to abortion before a fetus is viable. After that, abortion is only allowed if the life or health of the mother is at risk, or if the pregnancy is no longer viable. In 2019, lawmakers eliminated a physician-only rule and Mills signed it into law, allowing nurse practitioners, physician assistants and other medical professionals to perform abortions.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Nothing will change in Maine. Any attempt to restrict abortions when lawmakers reconvene next year would face fierce pushback. Abortion providers, meanwhile, said there could be an influx of patients seeking abortions from states that outlaw the procedure.

Whats next: Any major changes are unlikely unless former Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican, unseats Mills and Republicans take control of both chambers of the Legislature in November. LePage, a Catholic who opposes abortion rights, has said its up to lawmakers to address the abortion issue as they see fit.

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MARYLAND

Political control: Marylands legislature is controlled by Democrats who expanded abortion access this year by ending a restriction that only physicians can provide them and requiring most insurance plans to cover abortion care without cost. The legislature overrode Republican Gov. Larry Hogans veto of the bill in April.

Background: The right to abortion is protected in Maryland law. The state approved legislation in 1991 to protect abortion rights if the Supreme Court should ever restrict access. Voters approved the right in 1992 with 62% of the vote. Maryland law prohibits restrictions on abortion prior to viability. Maryland does not have a gestational limit. After viability, clinicians make the determination, based on clinical standard of care.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Nothing will change immediately in Maryland law.

Whats next: Marylands new law that will enable nurse practitioners, nurse midwives and physician assistants to provide abortions with training is set to take effect July 1. However, $3.5 million in state funding to provide training isnt mandated until fiscal year 2024. Hogan, who is term limited, has indicated he will not approve the money sooner. Some nurse practitioners, nurse midwives and physician assistants already have received training on medication abortion and will be able to provide those services starting next month.

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MASSACHUSETTS

Political control: The Democrats who control the Massachusetts Legislature support access to abortion, as does the states Republican governor, although they differ on specific policies.

Background: Massachusetts once had a contentious relationship with abortion in part due to the powerful influence of the Catholic Church, which opposes abortion. In recent years, that influence has waned and Massachusetts has become a strong supporter of abortion rights. In 2018, in anticipation of the conservative tilt on the U.S. Supreme Court, the state removed an 1845 abortion ban from its books that was not enforced. Two years later, Democratic state lawmakers clashed with Republican Gov. Charlie Baker  who says he supports abortion rights  over an effort to codify abortion rights into state law, allow abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy in cases where the child would not survive after birth, and lower from 18 to 16 the age at which women could seek an abortion without consent from a parent or guardian. Lawmakers passed the bill  dubbed the Roe Act  over Bakers veto.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Baker has vowed to fight to keep abortion legal in Massachusetts, but it is his last year in office. Both Democratic candidates for governor  state Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz and Attorney General Maura Healey  support abortion rights. Republican candidate Geoff Diehl said he believes in the need to protect human life wherever and whenever possible. Fellow GOP candidate Chris Doughty said he would not seek any changes to our states abortion laws.

Whats next: There is little chance Massachusetts will restrict abortion rights. Baker signed an executive order Friday barring state agencies from assisting another states investigation into people or businesses for receiving or delivering reproductive health services that are legal in Massachusetts. The state also wont cooperate with extradition requests from states pursuing criminal charges against such individuals. As of 2017, there were 47 facilities providing abortion in Massachusetts, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights. With Roe v. Wade overturned, its unclear how many people will travel there from states that ban or restrict abortion.

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MICHIGAN

Political control: Both chambers of Michigans legislature are controlled by Republicans who want to ban or restrict abortion access, but the states Democratic governor supports access.

Background: A dormant 1931 law bans nearly all abortions in Michigan but it hasnt been enforced since Roe v. Wade. The law made it a felony to use an instrument or administer any substance with the intent to abort a fetus unless necessary to preserve the womans life. It has no exceptions in cases of rape and incest. Anticipating that Roe could be overturned, Planned Parenthood of Michigan filed a lawsuit challenging Michigans ban. A state judge suspended the law in May, saying it violates the states constitution. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel, both Democrats, hailed the decision.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The injunction granted in the Planned Parenthood case ensures that abortion does not immediately become illegal. Planned Parenthood of Michigan and other supporters hope the injunction indicates abortion rights in the state will be preserved. But in a statement to The Associated Press, Nessels office said given the ongoing lawsuits, we cannot speculate what the state of abortion rights will be in Michigan after Roe.

Whats next: Whitmer also filed suit asking the states Supreme Court to declare the 91-year-old law unconstitutional. It has not acted yet. Michigan abortion rights supporters hope to put the issue on ballots this fall. Their proposed constitutional amendment would affirm the right to make pregnancy-related decisions without interference, including about abortion and other reproductive services such as birth control. The Reproductive Freedom for All committee needs to collect about 425,000 valid voter signatures by July 11 to make the November ballot. The measure would become law if voters approved it. The issue also is expected to shape statewide elections  Whitmer and Nessel are both up for reelection in the fall  and legislative races.

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MINNESOTA

Political control: The Minnesota Legislature is divided; Anti-abortion Republicans control the Senate and Democrats have the House, but the majorities are slim in both chambers, so control will be up for grabs in the November elections. Most legislative Democrats support abortion rights. Democratic Gov. Tim Walz has said no abortion ban will ever become law while hes governor. But he faces a challenge this year from Republican Scott Jensen, who opposes abortion rights.

Background: Abortion is legal in Minnesota up to the point of fetal viability, around the 24th week of pregnancy. The state has some restrictions, including a 24-hour waiting period with state-mandated counseling, both parents generally must be notified prior to a minor getting an abortion, and only physicians can perform abortions.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Nothing will change immediately in Minnesota because the state Supreme Court ruled in 1995 that the state constitution protects abortion rights. If Republicans take control of both chambers, they could put a constitutional amendment on the ballot as soon as 2024 to reverse that ruling, but its not clear yet if they would take that path. Minnesota governors cant block constitutional amendments with vetoes. But amendments are hard to enact because they require the backing of most of the citizens voting in that election, not just those voting on the amendment. Leaving the ballot blank counts as a no.

Whats next: Providers are preparing for a surge in women coming from other states to get abortions. Sarah Stoesz, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, said before the ruling that her organization was fortifying its delivery systems, including telemedicine. Dr. Sarah Traxler, the groups medical director, has said demand in Minnesota is expected to rise by up to 25%.

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MISSISSIPPI

Political control: Republican Gov. Tate Reeves and leaders of the Republican-controlled Mississippi Legislature have been working for years to chip away at abortion access.

Background: Mississippi already had a law banning most abortions at 20 weeks, although the states lone abortion clinic offered the procedure only through 16 weeks. The state tried to enact a law in 2018 to ban most abortions after 15 weeks. That law is the basis for the case that the Supreme Court has now used to overturn Roe v. Wade. A federal district judge blocked Mississippis 15-week law from taking effect in 2018, and an appeals court agreed. The Supreme Court agreed to take the case in 2021. Justices heard arguments in December, with the Mississippi attorney generals office saying the court should overturn Roe v. Wade. Mississippi has one abortion clinic, and it stops offering abortions at 16 weeks. Reeves was lieutenant governor in 2018, when Mississippi tried to enact the 15-week ban, and in 2019, when the state tried to enact a six-week ban. Mississippi law does not allow providers to dispense abortion medications through telemedicine consultations.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Mississippis only abortion clinic, Jackson Womens Health Organization, is expected to close by early July unless a judge blocks a trigger law. The clinic filed a lawsuit Monday challenging the 2007 law that bans most abortions if Roe v. Wade is overturned. That law is set to take effect July 7. Abortions still would be allowed if the womans life is endangered by the pregnancy or if the pregnancy was caused by a rape that was reported to law enforcement. Any person who knowingly performs or attempts to induce an abortion, except the pregnant woman, could be punished by up to 10 years in prison.

Whats next: Mississippis 2007 law says the state attorney general must publish a notice in a state administrative bulletin after the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Mississippis ban on most abortions will take effect 10 days after that publication.

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MISSOURI

Political control: Both GOP Gov. Mike Parson and the Republican-led Legislature support laws against abortion.

Background: Missouri law previously allowed abortions up until 22 weeks of pregnancy. But a 2019 state law banned abortions except in cases of medical emergency, contingent upon the U.S. Supreme Court overturning its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Under that Missouri law, performing an illegal abortion is a felony punishable by 5 to 15 years in prison, though women receiving abortions cannot be prosecuted.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The 2019 law contained a provision making it effective upon notification by the attorney general, governor or Legislature that the U.S. Supreme Court had overruled Roe v. Wade. Moments after Fridays Supreme Court decision, Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Gov. Mike Parson filed the necessary paperwork for Missouris law to kick in. State statutes were subsequently updated online Friday saying the abortion-ban law had taken effect.

Whats next: Some Missouri residents wanting abortions are likely to travel to neighboring states, including Illinois and Kansas. A new Illinois logistics center near St. Louis helps women from out of state find travel, lodging and childcare if they need help getting to the area for an abortion, and it connects them with funding sources. The Kansas Supreme Court in 2019 declared that access to abortion is a fundamental right under the state constitution. Even without the ban in Missouri, the number of Missouri patients seeking abortions in Kansas has gone up in recent years, increasing about 8% from 2020 to 2021.

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MONTANA

Political control: The Republicans who control the Montana Legislature and Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte want to limit access to abortion.

Background: Abortion used to be legal in Montana up until viability, or about 24 weeks of pregnancy, but the state Legislature passed a bill in 2021 to reduce that to 20 weeks, arguing that is when the fetus can feel pain. That law, along with one that requires chemical abortions to be done with in-person medical supervision, are being challenged in court. A state judge temporarily blocked enforcement in October 2021 while the challenges move through the courts. The state has asked the Montana Supreme Court to vacate that injunction and overturn a 1999 Montana Supreme Court opinion that found the states constitutional right to privacy guarantees a womans access to abortion care.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The effect is unclear because of the unresolved legal challenges to the 2021 state legislation. Montana does not have an abortion ban that was triggered when Roe v. Wade was overturned, but the Legislature could seek to further restrict access in the next session.

Whats next: The Montana Supreme Court will issue a decision on the preliminary injunction. The Montana Legislature also passed a referendum to ask voters this November whether they support a state law to require abortion providers to give lifesaving treatment to a fetus that is born alive after a botched abortion. Opponents argue federal law already offers those protections.

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NEBRASKA

Political control: Nebraska has an officially nonpartisan legislature with a Republican majority, but not a super-majority that would let the party unilaterally pass an abortion ban. Democrats appear to have enough votes to block such a bill, but just one defector could swing the vote. Nebraskas Republican governor vehemently opposes abortion.

Background: Nebraska allows most abortions until the 22nd week of pregnancy, although a few small towns have voted to outlaw the procedure within their borders. The state requires doctors to be physically present when patients take the first of two drugs that are used in medication abortions. Lawmakers have rejected attempts to allow abortion medications to be administered remotely, which would provide easier abortion access in rural areas.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: A ruling that lets states set their own abortion laws will trigger an immediate push by Nebraska conservatives to ban the procedure, but its not clear whether they could do it this year. Unlike other conservative states, Nebraska doesnt have a trigger law that automatically outlaws abortion. Gov. Pete Ricketts and other top Republicans have said theyll seek a special legislative session, but its not clear whether they have enough votes to pass anything.

Whats next: If Ricketts calls a special session, attention will likely shift to state Sen. Justin Wayne, an Omaha Democrat who has declined to specify where he stands on abortion. Wayne was notably absent from a vote on the issue this year; his support would give Republicans the super-majority they need to enact a ban. He has struck deals with senators from both parties in the past. If a proposed abortion ban fails during a special session or if no special session is called, the issue will likely become a factor in the November election.

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NEVADA

Political control: Nevadas governor and state attorney general are Democrats who are up for reelection this year. Democrats control the state Senate and Assembly.

Background: Nevada voters enshrined the right to abortion in the state constitution in 1990. The law says a pregnancy can be terminated during the first 24 weeks, and after that to preserve the life or health of the pregnant person. It would take another statewide vote to change or repeal the law. Most Republican candidates for Congress, governor, state attorney general and other statewide posts say they oppose abortions.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Here in Nevada, overturning Roe would not be felt immediately, state Attorney General Aaron Ford said in a position paper released after the draft U.S. Supreme Court opinion became public. Ford noted that a federal ban on abortion would supersede state law and said it would be naive not to recognize that some people want to ban abortions or make them more difficult to obtain. But he said his office will fight attacks on abortion rights, rights to birth control access and rights for LGTBQ people. Gov. Steve Sisolak promised in a statement to continue to protect reproductive freedom.

Whats next: Anti-abortion advocates are not expected to focus on trying to repeal Nevadas abortion law. But they will seek laws affecting waiting periods, mandatory counseling or requiring parental notification or consent. Melissa Clement, executive director of Nevada Right to Life, said she believes there is strong support for parental involvement.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE

Political control: New Hampshire has a Republican governor and the GOP controls the 424-member Legislature. All face reelection this fall.

Background: Any abortion restrictions New Hampshire had on the books before Roe v. Wade were not enforced after the landmark 1973 ruling, and they were repealed altogether in 1997. The state had no restrictions until January, when a ban on abortion after 24 weeks of pregnancy was enacted. In June, an exemption was added for cases in which the fetus has been diagnosed with abnormalities incompatible with life. Anticipating the Supreme Court action, Democrats this year tried unsuccessfully to enshrine abortion rights into state law and the state constitution. Gov. Chris Sununu calls himself pro-choice and says he is committed to upholding Roe v. Wade, but he also has boasted Ive done more on the pro-life issue than anyone.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Nothing will change immediately in New Hampshire. The Legislature wont return until fall, when there will be a one-day session to take up vetoed bills, and it would take a two-thirds majority vote to introduce new legislation then.

Whats next: The majority leader of the New Hampshire House has said the public should not expect Republicans in the Legislature to further tighten state abortion laws. But anti-abortion lawmakers who have filed bills in the past are expected to try again.

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NEW JERSEY

Political control: Democrats control both houses of the state Legislature and the governorship. Gov. Phil Murphy started his second consecutive term this year.

Background: Murphy ran for reelection on the promise that he would sign legislation to enshrine abortion rights into state law, and he fulfilled that promise in January. The measure also guaranteed the right to contraception and the right to carry a pregnancy to term. It stopped short of requiring insurance coverage for abortions, something advocates had sought. Instead, it authorizes the state Banking and Insurance Department to study the issue and possibly adopt regulations if a need is discovered. Under Murphys predecessor, Republican Chris Christie, state funds to womens clinics, including Planned Parenthood, were slashed. Murphy restored those and has been a strong supporter of abortion rights. New Jersey doesnt have any significant restrictions on abortion, such as parental consent or a mandatory waiting period.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Officials, including the governor, have said the end of Roe would not lead to any rollback of abortion services in the state. Instead of hoping for the best, we prepared ourselves for the worst, Murphy said in May, addressing reports of a leaked draft of a Supreme Court ruling.

Whats next: Murphy has proposed several abortion-related measures. On the Monday after the ruling, the Legislature began considering a pair of bills to expand abortion rights. One would allow the state to block extradition of someone facing a criminal charge in another state related to reproductive services obtained legally in New Jersey. Another clarifies that out-of-state residents may access abortion services in New Jersey, as well as allowing those facing liability judgments stemming from abortion services to countersue.

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NEW MEXICO

Political control: The Democrats who control the New Mexico Legislature support access to abortion, as does the states Democratic governor. Several conservative Democratic state senators who voted against the repeal of the abortion ban in 2019 were ousted from office in 2020 by more socially progressive primary challengers.

Background: In 2021, state lawmakers repealed a dormant 1969 statute that outlawed most abortion procedures as felonies, thus ensuring access to abortion even after the federal court rolled back guarantees. Albuquerque is home to one of only a few independent clinics in the country that perform abortions in the third trimester without conditions. An abortion clinic in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, is just a mile from the state line with Texas and caters to patients from El Paso, western Texas and Arizona.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: There will be no immediate change in New Mexico now that the high court has overturned Roe v. Wade. It is unclear if Democrats, who control the state Legislature, will pursue additional guarantees to abortion access when lawmakers convene in January. Possible avenues of legislative reform include enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution, which requires approval by voters. Abortion rights activists say the states equal rights amendment could be harnessed to guide more public funding for abortion-related programs. Raul Torrez, the district attorney in Albuquerque and the Democratic nominee for attorney general, is urging lawmakers to take further steps to protect access to abortions, including protections for women coming from other states. The state Republican Party said its time to elect more anti-abortion candidates to the Legislature.

Whats next: The state can expect to continue to see a steady influx of people seeking abortions from neighboring states with more restrictive abortion laws. It already hosts patients from Texas and Oklahoma where among the strictest abortion bans in the country were introduced this year.

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NEW YORK

Political control: The Democrats who control the New York Legislature support access to abortion, as does the states Democratic governor.

Background: Abortion has been legal in New York state since a 1970 law was passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by Republican Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller. The law allows abortions within the first 24 weeks of pregnancy or to preserve the mothers life. The 2019 Reproductive Health Act removed abortion from the states criminal code, codified Roe v. Wade and allowed abortions after 24 weeks if a fetus isnt viable or to protect the mothers life or health. Lawmakers have passed laws extending legal protections for people seeking and providing abortions in New York.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Roe v. Wade protections are enshrined in state law. New York is planning to give abortion providers $35 million this year to expand services and boost security in anticipation of an influx of out-of-state people seeking abortions once any ruling comes down. Its unclear how many more people from neighboring states could travel to New York to receive abortion care. New York had 252 facilities providing abortions as of 2017, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.

Whats next: Planned Parenthood and civil liberty groups are urging lawmakers to start the process of passing a constitutional amendment protecting access to abortion care in case a future Legislature repeals the state law.

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NORTH CAROLINA

Political control: Republicans hold majorities in the state House and Senate, but the party lacks the margins to defeat a veto by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, a strong abortion-rights supporter. Since 2017, Cooper has vetoed a born-alive abortion measure and a bill prohibiting abortion based on race or a Down syndrome diagnosis. He cant seek reelection in 2024 due to term limits.

Background: A 1973 North Carolina law that banned most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy is currently unenforceable after federal judges struck it down as unconstitutional in 2019 and 2021. Instead, abortions can be performed until fetal viability. A state law approved in 2015 provides for post-viability abortions only in a medical emergency, which means the woman would die or face a serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment without the procedure.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, the 20-week ban could be restored. Legal experts say formal action would have to be taken to cancel the earlier court rulings striking it down. Republican legislative leaders late Friday asked state Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat and abortion rights supporter whose agencys lawyers defended the 20-week law, to act. Otherwise, they said they would seek to intervene.

Whats next: Republican General Assembly leaders dont plan to consider additional abortion restrictions during the soon-to-end legislative session, meaning a likely intensification of electoral efforts to gain the five additional seats the GOP needs to reach veto-proof margins come 2023. Cooper and other Democrats already are making abortion rights a key campaign pitch. Abortion politics are also expected to figure in two state Supreme Court seat elections in November. Republicans would gain a majority on the court if they win at least one of them.

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NORTH DAKOTA

Political control: North Dakota has a legislature dominated by Republicans who want to ban abortion, and the GOP governor had hoped to see Roe v. Wade wiped off the books in favor of states rights.

Background: The state has passed some of the nations strictest abortion laws, including one that would have banned abortions once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which can happen before a woman knows she is pregnant. The law never took effect because the states lone abortion clinic successfully challenged it in court. One failed Republican proposal would have charged abortion providers with murder with a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: North Dakota has a trigger law that will shut down the states sole abortion clinic in Fargo after 30 days. That 2007 state law makes it a felony to perform an abortion unless necessary to prevent the pregnant womans death or in cases of rape or incest. Violators could be punished with a five-year prison sentence and a $10,000 fine.

Whats next: The owner and operator of the Red River Womens Clinic in Fargo said she would explore all legal options to ensure abortion services are available in North Dakota. Should that fail, clinic leader Tammi Kromenaker plans to move across the river to Moorhead, Minnesota, where abortion has not been outlawed. Planned Parenthood says it can provide abortions in Moorhead until Kromenaker gets up and running.

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OHIO

Political control: The Ohio Legislature is controlled by Republicans who support restricting or banning abortions, and the Republican governor backs those efforts. He is up for reelection this year against a former mayor who supports abortion rights.

Background: Before Friday's ruling, Ohio did not ban most abortions until the 22nd week of pregnancy; after that theyre allowed only to save a patients life or when their health is seriously compromised. But the state imposes a host of other restrictions, including parental consent for minors, a required ultrasound, and in-person counseling followed by a 24-hour waiting period. Abortions are prohibited for the reason of a fetal Down syndrome diagnosis. Ohio also limits the public funding of abortions to cases of rape, incest or endangerment of the patients life. It limits public employees abortion-related insurance coverage and coverage through health plans offered in the Affordable Care Act health exchange to those same scenarios. Clinics providing abortions must comply with a host of regulations.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: A ban on most abortions at the first detectable fetal heartbeat became the law in Ohio hours after the ruling. Enforcement of Ohios 2019 heartbeat ban had been on hold for nearly three years under a federal court injunction. The state attorney general, Republican Dave Yost, asked for that to be dissolved because of the high courts ruling, and U.S. Judge Michael Barrett agreed hours later.

Two trigger bills are on hold in the Legislature, but a key legislative leader has said he anticipates needing to write new legislation after the decision is reversed that more carefully reflects the actual ruling. That all but certainly would not happen until lawmakers return to the capital after the November election.

Whats next: Activists are considering how to help Ohioans get abortions elsewhere. They may also mount a statewide ballot initiative that would embed the right to an abortion in the state constitution, though that could not happen before next year. Abortion opponents are weighing strategies for imposing a statewide abortion ban.

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OKLAHOMA

Political control: Republicans in Oklahoma have a supermajority in both chambers of the Legislature and a Republican governor up for reelection this year who has vowed to sign every pro-life legislation that came across my desk.

Background: Abortion services were halted in Oklahoma in May after Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a bill that prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. The ban is enforced by civil lawsuits rather than criminal prosecution. Republican lawmakers have been pushing to restrict abortion in the state for decades, passing 81 different restrictions since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: It will have little practical effect given that abortions are no longer being provided in Oklahoma. Oklahoma also has a trigger law that outlawed abortion as soon as Roe was overturned.

Whats next: Given the fierce opposition to abortion from the governor and Legislature, Oklahoma will continue to prohibit the practice if states are given the option to do so. Meanwhile, abortion providers who had been operating in the state are taking steps to help patients seek abortions out of state, including coordinating funding for these women and developing a referral network of therapists to help address complications before or after a woman receives an abortion.

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OREGON

Political control: The Democrats who control the Oregon Legislature support access to abortion, as does the states Democratic governor.

Background: The Oregon Legislature passed a bill legalizing abortion in 1969. In 2017, Gov. Kate Brown signed into law a bill expanding health care coverage for reproductive services, including abortions, to thousands of Oregonians, regardless of income, citizenship status or gender identity. Oregon does not have any major abortion restrictions and it is legal at all stages of pregnancy.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The Guttmacher Institute has estimated that Oregon will experience a 234% increase in women seeking abortions arriving from out of state, especially from Idaho. In March, Oregon lawmakers approved $15 million to expand abortion availability and pay for abortions and support services such as travel and lodgings for residents and out-of-state patients.

Whats next: Brown said after the draft Supreme Court decision was leaked that access to abortion is a fundamental right and that she will fight to ensure access to abortion continues to be protected by state law in Oregon. Democratic state lawmakers recently formed the Reproductive Health and Access to Care Work Group of providers, clinics, community organizations and legislators that will make recommendations for the 2023 legislative session and beyond. Recommendations may include proposals to protect, strengthen, and expand equitable access to all forms of reproductive care.

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PENNSYLVANIA

Political control: Republicans who control the Pennsylvania Legislature are hostile to abortion rights, but the states Democratic governor is a strong supporter and has vetoed three GOP-penned bills in five years that would have added restrictions beyond the states 24-week limit. The race for governor this year could tilt that balance.

Background: Abortion is legal in Pennsylvania under decades of state law, including a 1989 law that was challenged all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. That produced the landmark Planned Parenthood v. Casey ruling that affirmed the high courts 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion nationwide, but also allowed states to put certain limits on abortion access.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Gov. Tom Wolf has vowed to protect access to abortion for the remainder of his time in office, through January. Running to replace him is the states Democratic attorney general, Josh Shapiro, who supports abortion rights, and Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano, who has said he supports banning abortion altogether, with no exceptions. The Legislature is expected to remain in Republican hands next year.

Whats next: Legislation to outlaw abortion after the detection of a fetal heartbeat  which can happen at six weeks, before many women even know they are pregnant  has passed a House committee and is awaiting a floor vote. The state Supreme Court is considering a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers aiming to overturn a 1982 law that bans the use of state dollars for abortion, except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother. In response, Republican lawmakers are advancing a proposed amendment that would declare there is no constitutional right to an abortion in Pennsylvania or to public funding for an abortion.

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RHODE ISLAND

Political control: The Democrats who control Rhode Islands General Assembly support access to abortion, as does the Democratic governor.

Background: Rhode Islands governor signed legislation in 2019 to enshrine abortion protections in case the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade. The law says the state will not restrict the right to an abortion prior to fetal viability or after if necessary to protect the health or life of the pregnant woman. It repealed older laws deemed unconstitutional by the courts. The Rhode Island Supreme Court upheld the 2019 law in May, just two days after the Supreme Court draft opinion was leaked suggesting that a majority of the justices were prepared to overturn Roe. Abortion opponents had argued the law violates the state constitution. In 2020, there were 2,611 abortions in Rhode Island, according to the state health department.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Rhode Islands attorney general believes the 2019 Reproductive Privacy Act will continue to protect access to abortion. Planned Parenthood Votes! Rhode Island also said abortion will remain legal regardless of the decision because the right was codified in state law.

Whats next: On the Monday after the Supreme Court decision, Rhode Islands Democratic governor said he will sign an executive order to shield abortion providers in the state from lawsuits by anti-abortion activists in other states. McKees office didnt have a date for the signing, but said the governor wants to act as soon as possible. Two of his opponents in September's Democratic primary for governor, Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea and Matt Brown, had urged McKee to sign such an order. They also want state lawmakers to return for a special session to add abortion coverage to Rhode Islands Medicaid program and to the insurance coverage for state employees. Legislative leaders said they plan to address abortion coverage next year because it has financial implications and wasnt included in this year's budget.

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SOUTH CAROLINA

Political control: South Carolina has a Republican governor, and its General Assembly is dominated by the GOP. However, the party doesnt quite have the two-thirds majority in either chamber needed to overcome procedural hurdles or a veto if a Democrat wins the 2022 gubernatorial election.

Background: In 2021, South Carolina passed the Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act that requires doctors to use an ultrasound to try to detect a fetal heartbeat if they think a pregnant woman is at least eight weeks along. If they find a heartbeat, they can only perform an abortion if the womans life is in danger, or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. The law is currently tied up in a federal lawsuit.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a federal judge allowed the state to begin enforcing the 2021 law. Planned Parenthood and others dropped their lawsuit, but the organization said it would continue to perform abortions in South Carolina under the parameters of the new law.

Whats next: The South Carolina General Assemblys regular session ended in May, but Republican leaders had agreed they could return for a special session to take up more restrictive abortion bills if the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. They have yet to announce a special session, despite Friday's ruling. Some Republican lawmakers have opposed a complete abortion ban, especially without exceptions for victims of rape and incest.

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SOUTH DAKOTA

Political control: Republicans hold super-majorities in both Statehouse chambers. Republican Gov. Kristi Noem is up for reelection this year and has been an ardent opponent of abortion rights.

Background: Under current law, South Dakota bans abortions after the 22nd week of pregnancy. The state has only one clinic that regularly provides abortions, a Planned Parenthood facility in Sioux Falls. The legislature has worked over the years to make it more difficult for women to get abortions, passing mandatory waiting periods and requiring them to review and sign paperwork that discourages them from ending their pregnancies.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: South Dakota has a trigger law that immediately banned abortions except if the life of the pregnant woman is at risk.

Whats next: Noem has said she planned to call a special session to craft laws for the new legal landscape if Roe v. Wade was overturned. She hasnt commented on specific legislation, but lawmakers have floated proposals that would make it more difficult for women to seek an abortion out of state. However, South Dakota voters rejected outright bans in 2006 and 2008, and abortion rights advocates are preparing for a similar referendum on abortion access. An outright ban on abortions could eventually be challenged through a citizen-initiated ballot measure.

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TENNESSEE

Political control: Tennessee has a Republican governor who is consistently vocal about his opposition to abortion. The GOP holds a supermajority in the state legislature and has steadily chipped away at abortion access.

Background: In 2020, Tennessee passed a law banning most abortions when the fetal heartbeat can be detected at about six weeks, before many women know theyre pregnant. The measure has never been enforced because it was promptly blocked by a federal court. Tennessee voters approved an amendment in 2014 declaring that the states constitution doesnt protect or secure the right to abortion or require the funding of an abortion, and empowering state lawmakers to enact, amend, or repeal statutes regarding abortion. State law also doesnt allow providers to dispense abortion medications through telemedicine consultations. There are six abortion providers in Tennessee.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Thirty days after the decision, a so-called trigger law will go into effect that bans all abortions in Tennessee except when necessary to prevent death or serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function. Doctors could be charged with a felony for providing an abortion under this law.

Whats next: Its unclear if the trigger law conflicts with the 2020 law banning most abortions at about six weeks. The states attorney general, a Republican, has not publicly weighed in. Meanwhile, Republicans are expected to continue to have supermajority control after this years midterm elections. Reproductive rights activists say they will direct patients seeking abortion to clinics in Illinois if Roe v. Wade is overturned, or to Florida, which would ban abortions at 15 weeks. North Carolina and Virginia could also be options for women in eastern Tennessee.

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TEXAS

Political control: The GOP has commanding majorities in the Texas Legislature and has controlled every statewide office for nearly 30 years. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is up for reelection in November and is favored to win a third term.

Background: Texas has given the nation a preview of the landscape of abortion access without the protections enshrined in Roe v. Wade. A new Texas law banning most abortions after about six weeks  before many women know they are pregnant  took effect in September and makes no exceptions in cases of rape or incest. Because of how Republicans wrote the law, which is enforceable only through lawsuits filed by private citizens against doctors or anyone who helps a woman obtain an abortion, Texas has essentially outmaneuvered decades of Supreme Court precedent governing a womens constitutional right to an abortion. State data shows the number of abortions performed in Texas roughly two dozen clinics fell by half in the five months after the law came into effect compared to the same period a year earlier.

Effect of the Supreme Court ruling: Texas had more than 40 abortion clinics in 2012 before a decade of Republicans chipping away at abortion access began forcing providers to close. Without Roe v. Wade, Texas plans to ban virtually all abortions 30 days after the Supreme Court issues its judgment in the case, which could take about a month. Abortions would only be allowed when the patients life is in danger or if they are at risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function.

Whats next: Many Texas women have already traveled out of state for abortions since the law took effect, but they would likely have to travel much farther now that Roe is overturned as more states outlaw abortion. Some Republican lawmakers also want to punish companies that help their Texas-based employees get abortions elsewhere, although its unclear how much support that idea will have when the Legislature returns in 2023.

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UTAH

Political control: Utah is deeply conservative and the Legislature is controlled by a Republican supermajority.

Background: The state has been restricting abortion for years, including a ban after 18 weeks passed in 2019 thats now blocked in court. The following year, lawmakers passed a trigger law that would outlaw nearly all abortions if Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The trigger law banning nearly all abortions became enforceable Friday evening, after the legislative general counsel certified the Supreme Court ruling to lawmakers. It does have narrow exceptions for rape and incest if those crimes are reported to law enforcement, and for serious risk to the life or health of the mother, as well as confirmed lethal birth defects.

Whats next: Utah law makes performing an abortion a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. While its aimed primarily at providers, lawmakers have acknowledged that a woman who self-administers an abortion, including through medication, could potentially face charges.

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VERMONT

Political control: The Vermont Legislature is controlled by Democrats, but Republican Gov. Phil Scott is a firm supporter of abortion rights.

Background: Vermont has a 2019 law guaranteeing the right to an abortion and voters will consider a proposal in November to amend the state constitution to protect abortion rights. Also in 2019, the Vermont Legislature began the process of amending the constitution to protect abortion rights, known as the Reproductive Liberty Amendment or Proposition 5. Vermonts proposed amendment does not contain the word abortion. Proponents say thats because its not meant to authorize only abortion but also would guarantee other reproductive rights such as the right to get pregnant or access birth control. Opponents say vague wording could have unintended consequences that could play out for years. Lawmakers approved the proposed amendment in February, leading the way for a statewide vote.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Nothing will change immediately in Vermont.

Whats next: Vermont voters will cast ballots in November to decide if the state will amend its constitution to protect abortion rights.

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VIRGINIA

Political control: Virginia has a Republican governor who says he would support new state-level restrictions on abortion. Gov. Glenn Youngkin said Friday that he will seek legislation to ban most abortions after 15 weeks. Youngkin told The Washington Post he has asked four antiabortion Republican lawmakers to draft the legislation. He told the Post that a cutoff at 20 weeks might be necessary to build consensus in the divided Virginia legislature, where Republicans control the House and Democrats control the Senate. Youngkin generally supports exceptions to abortion restrictions in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is in danger.

Background: In recent years, when Democrats were in full control of state government, lawmakers rolled back abortion restrictions. They ended strict building code requirements on facilities where abortions are performed and did away with requirements that a patient seeking an abortion undergo a 24-hour waiting period and ultrasound. Advocates said the changes would make Virginia a haven for abortion access in the South. Republican victories in the November elections shook up the states political landscape, but Senate Democrats defeated several measures that would have limited abortion access during the 2022 legislative session.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: There will be no immediate change to abortion laws in Virginia now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned. Some abortion providers expect to see an uptick in patients seeking care in Virginia from neighboring states with trigger laws that would ban abortion.

Whats next: The future of abortion access is Virginia is murky. Senate Democrats say they intend to continue blocking attempts to roll back abortion access, though they control the chamber by the narrowest possible margin and have one caucus member who personally opposes abortion and says he is open to new restrictions. Republicans also have a narrow hold on the House, with several moderate members. Every seat in the General Assembly will be on the ballot in 2023.

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WASHINGTON

Political control: The Democrats who control the Washington Legislature support access to abortion, as does the states Democratic governor.

Background: Abortion has been legal in Washington state since a 1970 statewide ballot referendum. Another ballot measure approved by voters in 1991 declared a womans right to choose physician-performed abortion prior to fetal viability and further expanded and protected access to abortion in the state if Roe v. Wade was overturned. And in 2018, the Legislature passed a measure that would require Washington insurers offering maternity care to also cover elective abortions and contraception. Earlier this year, Gov. Jay Inslee signed a measure that grants specific statutory authorization for physician assistants, advanced registered nurse practitioners and other providers acting within their scope of practice to perform abortions. Supporters say the move is designed to help meet the demand from the potential influx of out-of-state patients. That same measure also prohibits legal action by Washington state against people seeking an abortion and those who aid them.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The state will use every available tool to protect and preserve Washingtonians fundamental right to choose, and protect the rights of anyone who wants to come here to access reproductive health care, said Attorney General Bob Ferguson, a Democrat. Data from the Washington state Department of Health from 2020 shows that of the 16,909 abortions performed in the state that year, 852 involved non-residents. The majority of those people came from neighboring states such as Idaho and Oregon.

Whats next: Its impossible to predict how many more non-resident patients will potentially seek care in Washington now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, but the increase will likely be in the thousands, said Jennifer Allen, CEO of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates. The state has more than 30 in-person abortion clinics, though the vast majority are in western Washington along the Interstate 5 corridor.

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WEST VIRGINIA

Political control: West Virginia has a legislature controlled by Republicans who want to ban or restrict access to abortions. Gov. Jim Justice, a Republican, opposes abortion access and has signed two anti-abortion laws since taking office in 2017.

Background: West Virginia currently bans abortion after the 20th week of pregnancy unless a patients life is in danger, or they face substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function. Patients seeking abortions must wait 24 hours after undergoing legislatively mandated counseling designed to discourage abortions. A minor who wants an abortion must obtain parental permission. The use of telemedicine to administer a medication abortion is outlawed. The state also bars patients from getting abortions because they believe their child will be born with a disability. The House of Delegates this year passed a 15-week abortion ban, but it died in the Senate.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Its unclear what the effect the ruling will have on abortion access in West Virginia. The state has had a law banning abortion on the books since 1848; Under that law, providers who perform abortions can face felony charges and three to 10 years in prison, unless the abortion is conducted to save a patients life. In 2018, West Virginia voters approved a constitutional amendment to declare patients do not have the right to abortion and banning state funding for abortions.

Whats next: West Virginia lawmakers could introduce new legislation restricting abortion access when they return to the Capitol in January, but they could return sooner if called into a special session. West Virginia only has one clinic that performs abortions. Womens Health Center of West Virginia Executive Director Katie Quinonez said if abortion access is outlawed, the clinic will continue to provide reproductive care, such as birth control and STI diagnosis and treatment. She said the clinic will help women travel to other states for abortions through its abortion fund.

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WISCONSIN

Political control: Wisconsin has a legislature controlled by Republicans who want to ban or restrict access to abortions but a Democratic governor who supports access and is up for reelection this year.

Background: Wisconsin has allowed most abortions until the 22nd week of pregnancy to save the health or life of the mother. A woman seeking an abortion must meet with a counselor and doctor before obtaining an abortion and wait at least 24 hours before having it done. Anyone under age 18 must have an adult relative over age 25 with them to obtain an abortion.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: Now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, it is presumed that a state law passed in 1849 making an abortion a felony offense could go into effect, and doctors have halted procedures. However, Wisconsins Democratic attorney general argues that the law is so old that its unenforceable. The language allows a woman to legally destroy her own fetus or embryo and grants immunity if an abortion is needed to save a womans life and is performed at a hospital. Another state law, passed in 1985, prohibits abortions performed after a fetus reaches viability -- when it could survive outside the womb -- conflicting with the 1849 ban.

Whats next: Republican lawmakers are expected to attempt to clarify the 1849 law to ensure there is a ban in place, even as that issue is fought in the courts. However, lawmakers efforts would be stymied if Democratic Gov. Tony Evers wins reelection. Wisconsins Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has said he supports an exception in cases of rape and that a ruling on Roe could force lawmakers to consider other related reproductive issues such as contraception. Other Republicans will push for more restrictive abortion laws.

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WYOMING

Political control: Wyoming has one of the most Republican legislatures in the U.S. and a long tradition of libertarian-type if not always social or religious conservatism. That may be changing. In March, Republican Gov. Mark Gordon signed into law a bill that would ban abortion in nearly all instances should the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade.

Background: Current Wyoming law allows abortions up to when a fetus might be able to survive on its own outside its mothers body. The law does not specify when that happens, but it is generally considered to be at around 23 weeks into pregnancy. Wyoming currently doesnt allow abortions after then except to protect the mother from substantial risk to her life or health. Wyoming Republicans have traditionally taken a hands-off approach to abortion but have proven more willing to limit the practice lately. The number of Democrats in the Legislature has dwindled from 26 in 2010 to just nine out of 90 total seats now. A 2021 law requires physicians to provide lifesaving care to any aborted fetus born alive.

Effect of Supreme Court ruling: The new state law that bans abortion only provides exceptions in cases of rape or incest or to protect the mothers life or health, not including psychological conditions. Though Wyoming has no abortion clinics, abortions still occur. Ninety-eight took place in Wyoming in 2021, according to state officials.

Whats next: A planned womens health clinic in Casper that would have been the only one offering abortions in the state was on track to open in mid-June but an arson fire May 25 delayed those plans by around six months. Clinic founder Julie Burkhart said Friday that, despite the ruling, she still plans to open the clinic and will continue to seek legal means to keep abortion legal in Wyoming. Police continue to look for a suspect in the arson investigation, and have offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

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Associated Press statehouse reporters from across the U.S. contributed.

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For APs full coverage of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, go to https://apnews.com/hub/abortion
BOISE, Idaho (AP)  The overturning of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court with a 6-3 vote on Friday triggers a 2020 Idaho law banning all abortions except in cases of reported rape or incest, or to protect the mothers life.

That law takes effect 30 days after the courts decision, negating the state's current law allowing most abortions up to viability at about 24 weeks.

Idaho has been at the forefront of enacting new laws to protect preborn babies, Republican Gov. Brad Little said in a statement, noting he signed the 2020 trigger law.

However, we fully acknowledge this monumental moment in our country's history means we must confront what (we) know will be growing needs for women and families in the months and years ahead, he said. We absolutely must come together like never before to support women and teens facing unexpected or unwanted pregnancies.

Specifically, Idahos trigger law requires a judgement from the U.S. Supreme Court, which follows the courts Friday opinion and allows time to allow requests for a potential rehearing. Its not clear when the court will issue its judgement, but its expected fairly soon, starting the clock on Idahos trigger law.

Under the trigger law, the person performing the abortion could face a felony prosecution punishable by up to five years in prison.

I never expected to see such a grave rollback of our rights in the 21st Century, said Democratic Rep. Lauren Necochea, who also chairs the Idaho Democratic Party. This law is especially cruel because it only applies to those who dont have the resources to find a way around it. People of means will be able to flee the state to receive abortion care, while Idahoans facing low wages, including a disproportionate share of people of color, will face involuntary pregnancy.

Planned Parenthood in a statement said it would continue to provide abortion care in Idaho as long as it was legally able to do so.

It is my promise to every person in Idaho that Planned Parenthood will never back down," said Rebecca Gibron, CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky. "We will keep fighting with everything weve got to ensure that everyone can access the care you need to control your body and your life. I want to be clear: Planned Parenthood will always be here to help you get the care you need.

Planned Parenthood before the U.S. Supreme Courts ruling had already closed its clinic in Boise, Idahos largest city, and merged it with one in Meridian about 15 miles away. There's another clinic in Twin Falls. It is opening a new clinic in Ontario on the Idaho-Oregon border, about a 45-minute drive from Boise.

Officials said resources saved by closing the Boise clinic will be used to help with telemedicine and for women to get abortion access in states where it remains legal.

In cases of rape or incest, the law requires pregnant women to file a police report and provide a copy of the report to the provider prior to an abortion.

Mistie DelliCarpini-Tolman, Idaho State Director for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates, said most sexual assaults are not reported. She also said victims who do report them will face difficulty getting the report from a law enforcement agency as agencies typically don't release reports involving active investigations.

We all know that abortion is a really time sensitive procedure, she said. So these exceptions become really in name only. Theyre not very effective and not going to be very helpful for survivors of sexual assault.

This year, Idaho lawmakers also passed a Texas-style ban prohibiting abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy and authorizing family members to sue medical providers for performing an abortion. That law is on hold following a challenge by Planned Parenthood. The Idaho Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in August.

If the Idaho Supreme Court upholds the states Texas-style abortion ban, with Roe v. Wade now tossed aside, a medical provider who performs an abortion in Idaho could face a lawsuit and criminal charges.

Today we celebrate 50 years of incredible effort to reverse a flawed 1973 ruling from an activist Supreme Court that violated states rights guaranteed by the 10th amendment, the Idaho Republican Party said in a statement. That power is now rightfully returned to the states.

Pregnant women in Idaho seeking abortions will have to travel out of state, with the nearest abortion providers in Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Colorado.

No one should have to flee their state to access safe healthcare, Boise Mayor Lauren McLean said on Twitter. I remain steadfast in my support for all people who need access to abortion care & stand with them in fighting for privacy in health care decisions.

Republicans hold super-majorities in the House and Senate and oppose access to abortion. Idaho lawmakers have said theyll potentially consider legislation banning medication abortion and emergency contraception when the part-time Legislature convenes early next year.

Democratic House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel at a Democratic rally Friday afternoon in the Idaho Statehouse attended by about 150 cheering supporters urged voters to elect Democrats in November.

The truly effective way to reduce abortions is not to commandeer womens bodies, but rather to improve access to contraception, to improve access to sex education and make motherhood financially feasible, she said. Ironically, those are all things that our GOP super-majority has fought tooth and nail for years.
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NEW DELHI (AP)  India said it sent a technical team to Kabul to coordinate the delivery of humanitarian assistance after a powerful earthquake in eastern Afghanistan that state media reported killed 1,000 people.

India's External Affairs Ministry said the team has been deployed to its embassy in the Afghan capital. The embassy has been vacant since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August.

A ministry statement on Thursday didnt give details about the technical team or any relief material sent to Afghanistan. It said team was sent to closely monitor and coordinate the efforts of various stakeholders for the effective delivery of humanitarian assistance as part of a continuation of our engagement with the Afghan people.

Residents in the hardest-hit district appeared to largely be on their own in trying to survive after the quake, with the Taliban-led government and the international aid community struggling to bring in help.

India was left with no diplomatic presence in Kabul after it evacuated its staff ahead of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan last year. But it has sent 20,000 tons of wheat, 13 tons of medicines, 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines and winter clothing to Afghanistan to help with shortages there since then, according to the External Affairs Ministry.

Indian officials held talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan for the first time early this month to discuss the distribution of humanitarian assistance.

India's envoys have met previously with Taliban representatives in Doha, the capital of Qatar, where they have an office.

India has said it will follow the lead of the United Nations in deciding whether to recognize the Taliban government.
BRUSSELS (AP)  The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said Friday he has asked judges for authorization to resume his investigation as quickly as possible into the so-called war on drugs in the Philippines.

Judges last September authorized Prosecutor Karim Khan to investigate alleged crimes against humanity between Nov. 1, 2011 and March 16, 2019, linked to the deadly crackdown.

However, the probe was suspended last November after the Philippines said in a letter to ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan that it already is investigating the crimes and so the international court doesnt have jurisdiction.

The court may only exercise jurisdiction where national legal systems fail to do so, which is certainly not the case in the Philippines, the letter said, citing domestic investigations.

However, Khan has now sought to resume his probe, saying in a statement that I have concluded that the deferral requested by the Philippines is not warranted, and that the investigation should resume as quickly as possible.

More than 6,000 mostly poor drug suspects have been killed, according to government pronouncements, but human rights groups say the death toll is considerably higher and should include many unsolved killings by motorcycle-riding gunmen who may have been deployed by police.

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has defended the crackdown as lawfully directed against drug lords and pushers who have for many years destroyed the present generation, especially the youth.

Duterte has denied condoning extrajudicial killings of drug suspects although he has openly threatened suspects with death and has ordered police to shoot suspects who dangerously resist arrest.

The ICC is a court of last resort for cases that countries are unwilling or unable to prosecute. Under the courts rules, a country can request deferral of an investigation if it is already investigating the crimes.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP)  Sedgwick County has agreed to pay $22,000 to a former employee to settle his racial discrimination lawsuit.

David Partridge, who is biracial, sued the county last year, saying a coworker on a county work crew called him boy or the colored guy and sang slavery-era songs with his name added to the lyrics. Partridge's lawsuit said he worked from December 2019 to August 2021 as a county bridge crewman and was subjected to a racially hostile work environment by his white crew chief.
Poor policies, procedures put U.S. minorities at high risk from natural hazards: report

Xinhua) 09:06, June 24, 2022

NEW YORK, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Questions about the impact of natural disasters on the life and health of communities have taken on greater urgency as such events have become more common, said U.S. News and World Report on Wednesday.

"From racist practices of the past to present-day failures in preparedness, response and recovery, experts say poor policies and procedures have disproportionately put certain communities - particularly those predominantly occupied by racial and ethnic minorities - at higher risk of harm. And the growing threat of climate change only further heightens that risk," said the report.

Indigenous people, encompassing American Indian and Alaska Native individuals, were the most at risk from natural hazards in the United States, said the report on basis of its analysis of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's National Risk Index.

"Among the various racial and ethnic groups examined, Alaska Natives were the group most at risk from hazards like volcanic activity, avalanches and cold waves, while American Indians were the group most at risk from drought, riverine flooding, wildfires and ice storms," it said.

In addition, Black or African American people in the United States were at highest risk for negative impacts from hurricanes and tornadoes, as well as heat waves and flooding that occurs in coastal areas, according to the report.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun)
An advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russian forces could soon encircle the eastern cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk and cut them off from Ukrainian territory.

Oleksiy Arestovych said: "The threat of a tactical Russian victory is there, but they haven't done it yet."

In a video address, President Zelensky claimed that Russia is attempting to wreck the Donbas region with "massive air and artillery strikes."

"The occupier's goal here is unchanged, they want to destroy the entire Donbas step-by-step," Zelensky stated, as per a report from BBC.

Ukraine's head of state also reiterated to Western leaders the need to deliver heavy artillery support for Ukrainian soldiers as soon as possible "to halt this diabolical armada and push it beyond Ukraine's borders."

Ukrainian forces have defended the twin cities to counter Russian troops' relentless attacks.

Ukraine Toops May Need To Retreat

Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, the last Ukrainian outposts in the Luhansk region, have received more Russian attention. In recent days, Moscow's forces appear to advance in their action to envelop Ukrainian troops there.

Serhiy Haidai, the regional governor, stated on Thursday that troops in the town of Zolote, which has been on the front lines of warfare since 2014, may be forced to withdraw because two important territories to the south of the cities have been captured.

Russian soldiers have pushed over 5 km (3 miles) this week towards Lysychansk's southern boundary, according to the UK Ministry of Defence's daily update.

Read Also: Ukraine War: Snake Island Attack Deals 'Significant Losses' to Russia; Satellite Images Show Major Damage

Regional governor Serhiy Haidai said, after Russian forces conquered two settlements to its south, Ukrainian troops may need to withdraw from the frontline city of Lysychansk to prevent being surrounded.

"All of Lysychansk is within reach of their fire. It is very dangerous in the city," the official stated.

He said that a road remained connected to Lysychansk, allowing for the continuation of the evacuation of civilians. Separatists with Russian support had earlier claimed that the city was surrounded and blocked off from supplies, per the Russian news agency TASS.

US Sends Weapons Support While EU Gives Ukraine Candidate Status

Al Jazeera reported that Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov announced the arrival of American High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) in Ukraine on Thursday.

Reznikov tweeted: "Thank you to my US colleague and friend Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for these powerful tools! Summer will be hot for Russian occupiers. And the last one for some of them."

The European Parliament approved a resolution urging heads of state to provide Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova EU candidate status "without delay" at their meeting on Thursday and Friday, with 529 votes in favor, 45 votes against, and 14 abstentions,

The parliament stated that they should do the same for Georgia once its government has "delivered" the commitments expressed by the European Commission.

"Ukrainians, Moldovans, and Georgians deserve to live in free, democratic, and prosperous countries that are proud and committed members of the European family," the EU said in its statement.

Previously, per Euronews, the European Commission issued a positive assessment of Ukraine's application along with a list of modifications and measures that the nation must accomplish by the end of the year, particularly on the issues of corruption, money laundering, and media freedom.

Related Article: Germany Raises Alert Level in Emergency Gas Plan Amid Dwindling Supplies from Russia

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PHOENIX (AP)  Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey's plan to create a new state agency to boost the desert states increasingly strained water supply morphed into a plan to give an existing state entity the authority to leverage and dole out a new $1 billion appropriation.

The entity is an obscure agency called the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority, which will now be a standalone agency with oversight from a new board and some from the Legislature.

The final plan was working its way through the House and Senate on Thursday as the Legislature moves to enact its final pieces of legislation of the year.

The new agency has the backing of a host of water users and entities that are increasingly concerned as long-term drought imperils the supply from the Colorado River. The state is already taking less water from the river for delivery to metro Phoenix, Pinal County and Tucson, and federal officials are warning of even steeper cuts soon.

Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, called the legislation the next critical step to ensuring that Arizona continues to the tradition of adapting our water management strategies to address the supply challenges before us.

Ducey called for a major new investment in water in his January state of the state address, implying some of that money would be used to build a desalination plant in Mexico. While the money may be used for that, it also can be used for conservation, developing groundwater or possibly importing water from other states.

House Speaker Rusty Bowers acknowledged that while the legislation provides a structure to address the water shortage, its details remain sparse.

No one says this is perfect. We understand what we have to get done, Bowers told a House committee Thursday. And I do not envision a willy-nilly approach to assessing the projects, both the smaller conservation projects as well as the larger augmentation efforts.

While Bowers and Ducey at first wanted the water resources department to oversee the new money and identify projects, Bowers said senators wanted to separate development of new sources from the ADWR's regulatory role.

Democrats on the panel questioned whether the agency that helps finance local water and wastewater projects would be able to handle the expanded role.

Daniel Dialessi, WIFA's executive director, said his agency can easily swivel to a larger role in reviewing and financing projects to boost the state's water supply,

We have 30 years of history and experience solving problems, Dialessi said. We go out there and we get to the solution.

In addition to a current cut of Arizona's Colorado River allocation which has hit farmers and tribes, Buschatzke said the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation last week said another two to four million acre feet of water deliveries will need to be cut to states because there's just not enough water to deliver to the states along the river.
Rep. Liz Cheney, the Wyoming Republican fighting for political survival after clashing with former president Donald Trump, has started sending Democrats instructions on how to switch parties and vote for her, underscoring an urgent effort to try to overcome serious vulnerabilities ahead of an August primary.

A spokesman for the Wyoming Democratic Party confirmed Thursday that members of the party are receiving the mailers, including the state party's chairman. "How do I change my party affiliation to register as a Republican so I can vote for Liz?" the mailer reads. Cheney's website has also been updated to include instructions for Democrats.

In a defiant statement released late Thursday, Cheney defended the political move. "I've been a conservative Republican since I first voted for Ronald Reagan in 1984," said Cheney in the statement, shared first with The Washington Post. "I encourage everyone with principles who loves our country to exercise their right to vote. And, damn right, I will continue to give every voter in Wyoming a list of all the key rules for casting ballots in our state. If any eligible voter living in Wyoming wishes to become a republican, they are free to do so. That is their right."

The congresswoman has held Wyoming's at-large district for five years and is facing a handful of Republicans, including Trump-endorsed Harriet Hageman, who used to support Cheney but has embraced the former president's agenda. Trump's picks in other primaries this year have suffered some notable defeats, but Cheney must overcome particular ire from Trump and his base as one of his most strident GOP critics. And many local activists in the state have turned sharply against the congresswoman.

Under Wyoming law, voters can change their party affiliation no later than 14 days before the primary - or do so either at their polling place on primary day, or when they request an absentee ballot. The law offers Cheney a chance to appeal to a broader universe of voters, including some who might be disinclined to see a Trump-backed candidate take over her seat in a state where Democrats stand little chance in the general election, because of Wyoming's strong conservative tilt.

But even Cheney's supporters in Wyoming say there simply aren't enough Democratic voters in the state to put her over the top in the Aug. 16 primary. In 2018, about 115,000 votes were cast in the GOP primary, while just 17,000 voted in the Democratic primary. Instead, they said, she needs to focus on bringing out Republicans who are infrequent voters in state primaries.

"If Liz Cheney's reaching out for Democratic votes, she can't be feeling very good about her chances with Republicans," Dean Ferguson, the state Democratic Party spokesman, said on Thursday. He said that the mailers began to show up about a day ago and that he had heard only of Democrats receiving them. The mailers were first reported by the New York Times.

Ferguson also said many Democrats do not want to vote for Cheney, even as they appreciate that she is "standing up to the 'big lie.' " He noted that she voted with Trump more than 90% of the time and added, "She doesn't share our values."

Jeremy Adler, a spokesman for Cheney, said in a statement Thursday that "Liz is proud to represent all Wyomingites and is working hard to earn every vote."

Once the third-highest-ranking Republican in the House, Cheney was ousted from leadership after repeatedly denouncing Trump for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. Cheney is now vice chairwoman of the House select committee investigating a pro-Trump mob's Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, which disrupted certification of the vote. "There will come a point when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain," she told fellow Republicans this month as congressional hearings kicked off.

Hageman's campaign manager, Carly Miller, said in a statement that Republicans are "fed up" with Cheney. "What Cheney doesn't understand is that Democrats will drop her like a bad habit after she's no longer useful to them on the January 6th Committee," Miller said.

A person involved with the Hageman campaign previously told The Washington Post that Cheney could win if enough Democrats cross over: "If it's 20%, we're okay; if it's 30%, it gets closer," the person said. People familiar with Cheney's strategy said at the time that her team had not pursued crossover votes.

At an event this month in Cheyenne, Cheney began her remarks by welcoming "new friends and new faces" to an event with supporters - a nod to the presence of at least one local Democrat and some independents and moderate Republicans who had not previously supported her political campaigns.

Tammy Johnson, a local labor official and "mostly a lifelong Democrat," told Cheney that "many of my friends who are Democrats or undecided voters are excited to support you."

"It doesn't matter about party; it matters about you and what you stood up for," she said.

Tim Stubson, a former state House representative who lost to Cheney in the 2016 primary, said this month that crossover votes were unlikely to sway the race, echoing others. "Every Democrat jumps ship and votes in the Republican primary, and votes for Liz, it's still a pretty small segment of the voting population," Stubson said.
LANSING, Mich. (AP)  Gov. Gretchen Whitmer urged the Michigan Supreme Court to quickly determine whether abortion will be legal in the state, a few hours after the U.S. Supreme Court ended a national right to abortion.

Abortion in Michigan is legal  for now  because a judge in May suspended a dormant 1931 law that makes it a crime for health care providers unless a woman's life is at risk.
TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP)  An estimated 2,000 migrants walked out of this southern Mexico city Friday, saying they are not interested in visas and permits the government has issued in efforts to dissolve other caravans and calling instead for buses to the U.S. border.

The latest group comes just two weeks after an even larger one left Tapachula, coinciding with a summit of hemispheric leaders hosted by the United States. Some 7,000 of those migrants were issued temporary documents and transit visas allowing them to board buses and continue north through Mexico.

The documents usually give migrants a month or more to regularize their status in Mexico or leave the country.

The Mexican government has been using the issuance of such documents since last October to periodically lower pressure from swelling migrant numbers in the south. But instead of traveling to other states to normalize their status in areas less congested than Tapachula, migrants have used the documents to travel to the U.S. border.

But migrants walking Friday said that authorities in other parts of Mexico have not respected those documents and many migrants were returned to the south.

The march doesnt want a 30-day permit. The march doesnt want a humanitarian visa, said Venezuelan Jonathan Avila, one of the groups self-appointed leaders. We want organizations and the government ... to set up a humanitarian corridor.

He said they want buses to carry them to the U.S. border. The visa doesnt work, he said. With the visa they return us, they tear it up.

Authorities in some northern border states blocked many of the migrants who were issued documents after joining the larger caravan this month. Others traveling in smaller groups managed to cross the border into the U.S.

Last week, Hector Martinez Castuera, a high-ranking official in Mexico's National Immigration Institute, said in a news conference in the border city of Piedras Negras that the intention of the temporary documents was for the migrants to legalize their status in Mexico  not travel to the U.S. He said the migrants had been told as much, but many decided to head to the U.S. nonetheless.

At an initial highway checkpoint on the outskirts of Tapachula Friday, authorities watched the migrants pass without intervening.

Frustrated migrants have long complained about Mexicos strategy of containing them in southern Mexico, where there are fewer job opportunities. The Mexican government has essentially left only the path of applying for asylum for the migrants, which many do not qualify for and which has overwhelmed the systems capacity, creating delays.

(The wait) is too big of an expense, said Colombian Janet Rodas, traveling with her Venezuelan partner and a baby. She said migrants spend days crisscrossing Tapachula between the detention center, asylum agency and other offices. The runaround makes it difficult to work or make it to meals for those staying in shelters.

Many migrants carry debts for their trip and feel pressure to get to the United States, where they can find work and begin paying them off.

Carlos Guzman of Honduras joined the caravan with his wife and five children. They had been given an initial appointment with the asylum office for September.

Its too much time they gave us for the appointment, he said. Thats why we decided to walk.

This week, nongovernmental organizations that visited Mexicos border with Guatemala, said they observed abuses by authorities.

Melissa Vertiz of the Working Group on Immigration Policy, said that Mexicos National Guard must stop working as immigration authorities and that migrants should be allowed to pursue normalizing their status in other parts of Mexico, not be confined to the south.

Mexican Sen. Emilio Alvarez Icaza, who accompanied the organizations, warned that the situation in the south was a time bomb that could generate violence.

Theres no awareness of the humanitarian crisis the southern border is experiencing. Theres no sense of the dimensions of what happens here, he said.

The caravans have formed in recent years as migrants who sought safety in numbers or who could not pay smugglers banded together. But they represent a fraction of the usual migration flow through Mexico that happens largely out of sight.

The days of walking in tropical heat and rain quickly take a toll on participants in the caravans. Sometimes authorities move to detain exhausted participants, but more recently the government has sought to avoid potential conflict and instead issue temporary documents to dissolve the caravans.
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RABAT, Morocco (AP)  Eighteen Africans seeking to cross into Spain were killed and scores of migrants and police were injured in what Moroccan authorities called a stampede of people surging across Morocco's border fence with the Spanish North African enclave of Melilla on Friday.

A total of 133 migrants breached the border between the Moroccan city of Nador and Melilla on Friday, the first such mass crossing since Spain and Morocco mended diplomatic relations last month. A spokesperson for the Spanish governments office in Melilla said about 2,000 people attempted to cross, but many were stopped by Spanish Civil Guard police and Moroccan forces on either side of the border fence.

Moroccos Interior Ministry said in a statement that the casualties occurred when people tried to climb the iron fence. It said five migrants were killed and 76 injured, and 140 Moroccan security officers were injured.

Thirteen of the injured migrants later died in the hospital, raising the death toll to 18, according to Moroccos official news agency MAP., which cited local authorities. The Moroccan Human Rights Association reported 27 dead but the figure could immediately be confirmed.

Spanish officials said 49 Civil Guards sustained minor injuries. Four police vehicles were damaged by rocks thrown by some migrants.

Those who succeeded in crossing went to a local migrant center, where authorities were evaluating their circumstances.

People fleeing poverty and violence sometimes make mass attempts to reach Melilla and the other Spanish territory on the North African coast, Ceuta, as a springboard to continental Europe.

Spain normally relies on Morocco to keep migrants away from the border.

Over two days at the beginning of March, more than 3,500 people tried to scale the six-meter (20-foot) barrier that surrounds Melilla and nearly 1,000 made it across, according to Spanish authorities.

Friday's crossings were the first attempt since relations between Spain and Morocco improved in March after a year-long dispute centered on the Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony annexed by Morocco in 1976.

Morocco loosened its controls around Ceuta last year, allowing thousands of migrants to cross into Spain. The move was viewed as retaliation for Spains decision to allow the leader of Western Saharas pro-independence movement to be treated for COVID-19 at a Spanish hospital.

Tensions between the two countries began to thaw earlier this year after Spain backed Moroccos plan to grant more autonomy to Western Sahara, where activists are seeking full independence.

___

Ciaran Giles reported from Madrid.

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Follow AP's coverage of migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migration
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RENO, Nev. (AP)  Counties across Nevada on Friday certified the last outstanding results of the states June 14 primary election after critics questioned the tallies by describing their own experiences at the polls and repeating conspiracy theories that nearly derailed certification in New Mexico last week.

Esmeralda County, Nevadas least populated, became the last to certify its countywide results Friday night less than two hours before a midnight deadline.

But it wasnt before two county commissioners and a few election workers spent more than seven hours hand-counting all 317 ballots in the courthouse in Goldfield  an old mining town halfway between Las Vegas and Reno.

Everything matches, Esmeralda County Commissioner Ralph Keyes said when he and Commissioner Timothy Hipp briefly reconvened to formally canvass the vote and approved it 2-0.

Nevadas other 16 counties already had certified the primary results and sent their formal canvass report to the secretary state.

The largest, Clark in Las Vegas and Washoe in Reno, were among those that provided their stamp of approval earlier Friday despite opposition from members of the public who made unsubstantiated claims about suspicions of fraud and manipulated voting machines.

The process of counties certifying election results has historically been a routine and ministerial task, reviewing the work done by local election officials to verify the accuracy of the vote count.

But these meetings have become the latest flashpoint in efforts to cast doubt on elections in the U.S. after a rural, Republican-led county in New Mexico last week initially refused to certify citing unspecified concerns about their voting equipment.

In Esmeralda County, where a tie in a deadlocked election for the county commission in 2002 was broken by a draw from a deck of cards, some confusion over the tally for Nevada's unique option to vote for None of these candidates contributed to delays Friday night.

District Attorney Robert Glennen told the commissioners when they convened Friday after postponing action scheduled Thursday that he found nothing in state law that either specifically permitted or prohibited them from doing a hand recount.

Its a gray area. You guys do it if you want to do it, he said.

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, a Democrat seeking re-election in the western battleground state, hadnt decided how the state would proceed if any county refused to certify the results or missed Fridays 11:59 p.m. deadline because it had never happened before, his spokesman John Sadler said on Thursday.

Sadler didn't immediately respond to requests for comment late Friday.

In Reno, commissioners heard from several residents who said they objected to state law sending mail ballots to every registered voter. Some complained of receiving multiple ballots in their name or for people no longer living at their address, arguing this was proof of fraud and the election was corrupt.

But there are multiple checks built into the system, including signature verification and ballot tracking to ensure that one person can only cast one ballot that is counted. Election officials said Friday they do not count more than one ballot.

In Clark County, upset voters complained about a lack of transparency when ballots were tallied and problems with the state's voter rolls, including some who said their party affiliations were changed. Others talked about being directed to specific voting machines if they were registered as Republicans.

Resident Charles Bossert said he received multiple ballots, but knew it was illegal to cast more than one so he only voted once. He asked commissioners to stand in the gap and do what is right.

As a community, it feels like none of the votes count and democracy is dying in a lack of transparency, Bossert said. This is really a pivotal moment.

County Registrar of Voters Joe Gloria reported more than half of the 288,683 ballots cast were by mail and only a fraction of 1% involved discrepancies that ranged from voters going to the wrong precinct to people changing their party affiliation after submitting a mail ballot.

Helen Oseguera, a Republican candidate for county assessor, called the commissioners liars and cheaters.

The audience erupted with boos after the unanimous vote to certify, and people promised court action to challenge the election.

Commissioners in Nye County expressed what Chairman Frank Carbone called a little bit of concern about the process but approved the results on a 4-1 vote.

Just too many issues, Vice Chairman Leo Blundo said as he cast the no vote.

The 2020 election continues to dominate public discourse around voting and elections in the U.S., as Trump supporters and allies repeat claims without evidence that the presidency was stolen from Trump.

At one point during the Washoe County debate, a woman in the audience chanted Biden cheated, Biden cheated! as a speaker mentioned former President Donald Trumps claims about a stolen election. One man wore a Biden is NOT my president cap while he urged commissioners not to certify.

Nearly two hours after the meeting began, commissioners voted 4-1 to certify results.

Even before the November 2020 election, Trump was telling his supporters that fraud was the only way he could lose, pointing mostly  and without evidence  to the expansion of mail-in voting during the pandemic.

In the months since, the claims have been dismissed by dozens of judges, by Trumps attorney general at the time, and by a coalition of federal and state election and cybersecurity officials who called the 2020 vote the most secure in U.S. history.

But the false claims prompted commissioners last week in rural Otero County, New Mexico, to initially refuse to certify results from their June 7 primary. After a showdown with the secretary of state and an order by the New Mexico Supreme Court to certify, the commissioners voted 2-1 to sign off on the election and avert a broader crisis.

The delay in Nevada's Esmeralda County  where Trump won 82% of the vote in 2020  occurred amid distrust by voters fueled by unfounded voting machine conspiracies that have spread in the U.S. over the past two years.

Esmeralda County Clerk-Treasurer LaCinda Elgan said called the primary absolutely safe and fair.

Election experts say hand-counting of ballots is not only less accurate but extremely labor-intensive, potentially delaying results by weeks if not months in larger counties. They also say its unnecessary because voting equipment is tested before and after elections to ensure ballots are read and tallied correctly.

Under Nevada law, if there's a tie after a recount the winner is determined by lot  a coin flip, roll of a die, draw of cards or straws. Democrat R.J. Gillum broke his 107-107 deadlock with Republican Delores Dee Honeycutt for Esmeralda County commissioner in November 2002 when each drew a jack from a deck in the courthouse in Goldfield  but his was a spade, which trumped Honeycutt's diamond.

____

This story has been corrected to show that Esmeralda County is Nevada's least-populated county, not smallest.

____

Associated Press writers John Locher in Goldfield, Nevada, Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Christina Almeida Cassidy in Atlanta contributed to this report. Stern is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Jacksonville Police

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Gquonne R. Bratton, 23, of 3412 S. Lincoln Ave., Springfield, was arrested at 12:23 p.m. Thursday on a retail theft charge. He was accused of taking about $638 worth of merchandise from Walmart, 1941 W. Morton Ave., without paying.

 A 16-year-old girl was arrested at 2:14 p.m. Thursday on a charge of criminal trespass to state-supported property after police said she was at a location in the 600 block of North Main Street from which she was prohibited.

 William L. Nelson, 45, of 211 E. Beecher Ave. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 2 a.m. Thursday on a domestic battery charge.

 Allanah J. Jordan, 18, of 319 S. Fayette St. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 8:11 p.m. Wednesday on a battery charge.

 A 16-year-old juvenile was arrested at 3:34 a.m. Thursday in the 100 block of West Lafayette Avenue on a charge of illegal consumption of alcohol by a minor and cited on a charge of being out past curfew.

 Joshua M. Newingham, 23, of Patterson and Nicholas D. Carl, 34, of Jacksonville were cited at 11:49 p.m. Wednesday on charges of disorderly conduct after police said they were fighting in the 200 block of East State Street.

 Ina J. Sanders, 54, of 926 Freedman St. was arrested at 10:47 p.m. Wednesday on a disorderly conduct charge after police were called to a disturbance in the 900 block of North Prairie Street.

THEFTS, BURGLARIES

 A Schwinn tricycle valued at $3,000 was stolen between 11:30 p.m Tuesday and 6 a.m. Wednesday from a residence in the 100 block of Pine Street.

 Two handicapped-parking signs were taken from the parking lot of a church in the 300 block of West State Street, according to a report filed at 8:18 a.m. Wednesday.

Murrayville Police

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Chelsea L. Schollmeier, 31, of Chicago was booked into the Morgan County jail at 9:14 p.m. Wednesday on charges of improper lane use and driving while license is revoked or suspended.
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QUITO, Ecuador (AP)  Ecuador's president charged Friday that the Indigenous leader heading a nationwide strike is seeking to stage a coup and warned he will use all legal tools to contain the violence unleashed by the demonstrations.

In televised remarks, President Guillermo Lasso said Leonidas Iza, leader of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities, intends to overthrow the government. But Lasso added that he was willing to engage in talks on ending protests that were in their 13th day.

It is proven that the true intention of the violent (people) is to generate a coup and that is why we call on the international community to warn of this attempt to destabilize democracy in Ecuador, Lasso said. ... Mr. Iza can no longer control the situation. The violence perpetrated by infiltrated criminals has got out of hand."

The demonstrations are part of a national strike that the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities began June 14 to demand that gasoline prices be cut by 45 cents a gallon to $2.10, price controls be imposed on agricultural products and a larger budget be set for education. Protests have been especially violent in six provinces in the north-central part of the South American country.

The confederation on Thursday said a demonstrator died of pellet wounds in the chest and abdomen while protesting near the National Assembly in Quito, where about 100 other people suffered a variety of injuries. Police tweeted that officers were also injured by pellets.

Marlon Santi, the coordinator of the confederation's political wing known as Pachaktik, demanded in a video on social media that the government meet the Indigenous demands because we are convinced this is the spirit of our struggle.

He called on protesters to return to places of peace and safety so as not to put their lives in danger. They have the power, the power of arms and economic power; we have the power of reason and dignity."

Lawmakers from the Union por la Esperanza caucus, which is linked to former President Rafael Correa, on Friday began a legislative process seeking Lasso's removal, but it does not have the necessary votes as other caucuses have rejected the move. It would take the votes of at least 92 lawmakers to remove Lasso, while Union has only 47 seats.

In Quito, protesters blocking roads have brought the city to a near halt and people are experiencing food and fuel shortages. Production Minister Julio Jose Prado said nearly 600 private vehicles and food-carrying trucks are trapped in Nanegalito, a community about 40 miles (65 kilometers) northwest of Quito.

Groups of protesters have roamed the city attacking vehicles and civilians and forcing the closure of businesses, some of which were looted. They have also punctured the tires of buses, forcing passengers to walk.

Lasso urged Indigenous people and peasants who have been brought to Quito with deception to return to their communities for their own safety. He added that human rights groups should scrutinize the situation, which he said has violated the rights of security forces, citizens and journalists.

Human Rights International said four of its staff members were physically attacked and robbed Thursday while carrying out research and verification work on the protests in Quito.

We reject these actions, and we call for dialogue, the group tweeted.

The situation prompted several embassies, including those of Germany, Britain, Canada and the U.S., to issue a public statement expressing concerns about the fundamental rights of all citizens. It called for the parties to negotiate and reach concrete agreements.

The U.S. State Department issued an advisory Wednesday warning travelers about the widespread protests.
WASHINGTON - Of all the fantastical false claims of fraud and vote manipulation in the 2020 presidential election, "Italygate" was one of the most extreme. And Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., was at the heart of bringing it to Donald Trump's attention.

This particular allegation of fraud centered around what one former Justice Department official described Thursday as an "absurd" claim: that an Italian defense contractor had conspired with senior CIA officials to use military satellites to flip votes from Trump to Joe Biden. As The Washington Post has reported, the theory was pushed by a Virginia horse-country socialite who once gave an extended television interview from a 22-bedroom mansion that she repeatedly described as her own, even though it was not.

But as the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol demonstrated Thursday, Italygate also made its way to the highest levels of the U.S. government. The committee showed Dec. 31, 2020, text messages between Perry and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows that included a YouTube video about it, with Perry asking: "Why can't we just work with the Italian government?"

Meadows discussed the claim "frequently," according to Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who led the questioning during the committee hearing on Thursday, which focused on Trump's efforts to pressure the Justice Department to help overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Perry also pressed acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen to investigate. "I told him this whole thing about Italy had been debunked," Rosen said during Thursday's hearing. Another former Justice official who testified Thursday, Richard Donoghue, said the theory was "pure insanity" and "patently absurd."

That wasn't Perry's only involvement in encouraging Trump to get the vote overturned. The committee obtained records from the National Archives showing that Perry was among the Republican members of Congress who met with the president in the Oval Office on Dec. 21, 2020. That day, Meadows tweeted that the meeting's purpose was "preparing to fight back against mounting evidence of voter fraud. Stay tuned."

The committee also displayed White House logs showing that Perry returned to the White House the next day - and "this time, he brought a Justice Department official named Jeffrey Clark."

It was the first known meeting between Clark and Trump - and it probably set off the events that led to a dramatic showdown between the president and senior Justice Department leaders, who had refused Trump's demands that they declare that fraud had tainted Biden's victory.

Perry, in a statement Thursday, said he worked with Clark "on various legislative matters" and that "when President Trump asked if I would make an introduction, I obliged."

The committee also showed testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former special assistant to Trump, and several other former Trump White House officials stating that Perry was among several members of Congress who sought a preemptive pardon from Trump for their activities in the run-up to the Jan. 6 violence.

Perry has forcefully denied that he sought a pardon, saying in a statement on Thursday: "I never sought a Presidential pardon for myself or other Members of Congress."

Other members of Congress who sought pardons, according to that testimony: Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Louie Gohmert of Texas. In an email to the White House displayed Thursday, Brooks asked on his and Gaetz's behalf that Trump "give general (all purpose) pardons" to every member of Congress who on Jan. 6, 2021, voted to reject electoral college submissions from Arizona or Pennsylvania. More than 145 Republican lawmakers voted to object to one or both submissions. Those mentioned by name during the hearing were contacted for comment.

Hutchinson said that Perry spoke with her directly about the request, which Perry denies.

"At no time did I speak with Miss Hutchinson, a White House scheduler, nor any White House staff about a pardon for myself or any other Member of Congress - this never happened," Perry said in a statement.

Hutchinson told the committee that Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, talked about pardons but never specifically asked for one. She also said that she heard from Patrick Philbin, a lawyer in the White House Counsel's Office, that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., had contacted the office and asked for a pardon but that she had not spoken to the Georgia congresswoman directly.

"The general tone was, we may get prosecuted because we were defensive of the president's position on these things," Eric Herschmann, a former White House attorney, said in recorded testimony played at the Thursday hearing.

"100% fake news," Jordan tweeted after the testimony.

"Saying 'I heard' means you don't know," Greene tweeted. "Spreading gossip and lies is exactly what the January 6th Witch Hunt Committee is all about."

After that video concluded, Kinzinger stated: "The only reason I know to ask for a pardon is because you think you've committed a crime."

Brooks, in a statement sent to reporters as Thursday's hearing unfolded, said he had agreed to testify to the committee but only under a set of conditions, including that his deposition be public and that questions be "relevant to, and limited to, events surrounding" the Jan. 6 attack.

Those involved with the insurrection have repeatedly pointed to Perry as the chief conduit for the House GOP Conference to the White House in Trump's quest to overturn his defeat. Perry has so far stonewalled the committee, defying a subpoena requesting his cooperation in the investigation.

Kinzinger said on Thursday that Republicans' flirtation with Italygate was "one of the best examples of the lengths to which President Trump would go to stay in power, scouring the internet to support his conspiracy theories."

Despite being debunked by Justice officials, the theory made its way to Kash Patel, a Defense Department official, who called Donoghue to gauge his view. Finally, the acting secretary of the Defense Department, Christopher Miller, called an attache in Rome to ask that they also investigate.

Some of Perry's communications with Justice officials were revealed in a report released by the Senate Judiciary Committee in October.

A combat veteran who started his political career in the Pennsylvania legislature, Perry has long pushed false claims and urged the Trump administration to investigate various conspiracy theories propagating unsubstantiated claims of election fraud.

Perry heads the House Freedom Caucus, the hard-right group that counts several of its members among those who sought pardons, according to Thursday's testimony.

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., at the committee's first hearing this month, stated that Perry was among those who had sought a pardon, but Thursday was the first glimpse of testimony from former White House officials corroborating that claim.

After that first hearing, Perry tweeted: "The notion that I ever sought a Presidential pardon for myself or other Members of Congress is an absolute, shameless, and soulless lie."

Cheney closed that first hearing with a searing rebuke of those members of Congress who she said helped stoke the violence on Jan. 6.

"I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible," she said. "There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain."

- - -

The Washington Post's Mariana Alfaro, Matthew Brown, Rosalind S. Helderman and Marianna Sotomayor contributed to this report.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP)  Rhode Island lawmakers passed a flurry of major bills before the legislative session ended Friday, including the state budget and legislation to provide driver privilege cards to people who are in the country illegally.

The General Assembly adjourned early Friday after the state Senate passed the $13.6 billion budget that previously passed the House, sending it to the governor. Senators tried unsuccessfully to modify it to temporarily suspend the state gasoline tax and raise the minimum wage.

The budget for the 2023 fiscal year accelerates phasing out the car tax, eliminating what would have been the final year of the tax next year at a cost of $64 million. That means nearly all residents would not receive another automobile excise bill. It has a one-time child tax credit of $250 per child for up to three children per family.

It also directs how to spend the American Rescue Plan Act federal funding on one-time investments to address longstanding problems. The largest share, $250 million, was allocated for housing initiatives, including building new units of affordable housing. The state received $1.1 billion in federal pandemic relief funding.

This week, the House approved legislation to provide driver privilege cards for people who are in the country illegally, with Republican Blake Filippi, the House minority leader, joining Democrats in passing it. He said the state's response to a broken federal immigration system should not be to deny people the ability to drive a car.

The Senate approved granting the driver privilege cards in May and passed the House version of the bill on Thursday. Democratic Gov. Dan McKee is expected to sign the legislation.

The General Assembly also approved several environmental proposals to require the states electric utility to contract for up to 1,000 megawatts of new offshore wind capacity, require the state to get all of its electricity from renewable resources by 2033, provide tax breaks for solar projects and ban single-use plastic bags statewide by 2024. The House speaker backed a package of bills designed to address the state's housing shortage, including elevating the state employee working on affordable housing to a cabinet-level position. All but one passed.

The Senate president's top priority was moving toward universal pre-kindergarten and shoring up the childcare system. The budget nearly doubles the number of free classroom seats available, to up to 5,000 over five years, and provides subsidies for child care workers.

Before the session adjourned, Filippi announced that he would not seek re-election, saying he had served for eight years and felt the time was right to step aside. He was replaced as House minority leader by state Rep. Michael Chippendale.

This legislative session, the state legalized recreational marijuana, reformed the mail ballot process to make it easier to vote by mail and reformed gun laws, which included a ban on magazines holding more than 10 rounds.
House Republican leaders are steadily expressing their opposition to the recently announced bipartisan gun safety bill and are planning to urge other members of the GOP to vote "no" in order to prevent the passage of the bill despite the Senate moving forward on the matter this week.

In a statement during a closed-door conference meeting on Wednesday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana said that they would vote "no" on the Senate's bipartisan gun deal. In other remarks, House GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik of New York said that also planned to oppose the legislation.

Bipartisan Gun Deal

The situation means that the top three members of House Republican leadership are all in agreement to oppose the bipartisan gun deal. Also, House GOP leaders plan to formally organize against the Senate's bipartisan gun bill. A formal whip notice is expected to go out on Wednesday.

Despite House GOP leaders opposing the bill, there are already some Republican lawmakers who have indicated their support of the bill and their planned yes votes. Furthermore, the Democrat-led House is expected to be able to pass the legislation once it passes in the Senate, as per CNN.

The situation suggests that the Senate is on track to pass the measure as early as this week and if so, it would amount to the most significant new federal legislation to address gun violence since the expired 10-year- assault weapons ban of 1994.

Read Also: Texas Mass Shooting: Uvalde Mayor Says Robb Elementary School Will Be Torn Down, Vows Transparency as Investigations Further

However, the new deal fails to ban any weapons and falls far short of what Democrats and polls show most Americans want to see. In a post on Twitter on Wednesday, Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales said that he intends to vote yes on the bipartisan gun bill. He said that as a Congressman, it was his duty to pass laws that never infringe on the Constitution while protecting the lives of the innocent.

According to Yahoo News, the Senate members in support of the bill titled the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, hope to pass the legislation prior to the Jul. 4 recess. All 50 members of the Democratic support the bill and are joined by 14 Republican lawmakers.

Threat of Gun Violence

The bill's chief negotiators, Sens. Chris Murphy, John Cornyn, Kyrsten Sinema, and Thom Tillis, released a joint statement celebrating the agreement. They said, "Today we finalized the bipartisan, common-sense legislation to protect America's children, keep our schools safe, and reduce the threat of violence across our country."

The lawmakers said that the bill will save lives and not infringe on any law-abiding Americans' Second Amendment rights. They added that they were looking forward to earning broad, bipartisan support and passing the bill into law.

On Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who tapped trusted leadership deputy Cornyn in the aftermath of the May 24 Uvalde, Texas, school shooting, made clear that the time had come for Republicans to cut a deal on gun violence.

He said that this time was different because Democrats came their way and agreed to advance some common sense solution without rolling back rights for law-abiding citizens, the Washington Post reported.

Related Article: Uvalde Police Chief Placed on Administrative Leave Due to Criticism Over Response to School Shooting

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Linda C. McClain, Boston University and Nicole Huberfeld, Boston University

(THE CONVERSATION) After half a century, Americans constitutional right to get an abortion has been overturned by the Supreme Court.

The ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization  handed down on June 24, 2022  has far-reaching consequences. The Conversation asked Nicole Huberfeld and Linda C. McClain, health law and constitutional law experts at Boston University, to explain what just happened, and what happens next.

What did the Supreme Court rule?

The Supreme Court decided by a 6-3 majority to uphold Mississippis ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. In doing so, the majority opinion overturned two key decisions protecting access to abortion: 1973s Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, decided in 1992.

The opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, said that the Constitution does not mention abortion. Nor does the Constitution guarantee abortion rights via another right, the right to liberty.

The opinion rejected Roes and Caseys argument that the constitutional right to liberty included an individuals right to privacy in choosing to have an abortion, in the same way that it protects other decisions concerning intimate sexual conduct, such as contraception and marriage. According to the opinion, abortion is fundamentally different because it destroys fetal life.

The courts narrow approach to the concept of constitutional liberty is at odds with the broader position it took in the earlier Casey ruling, as well as in a landmark marriage equality case, 2015s Obergefell v. Hodges. But the majority said that nothing in their opinion should affect the right of same-sex couples to marry.

Alitos opinion also rejected the legal principle of stare decisis, or adhering to precedent. Supporters of the right to abortion argue that the Casey and Roe rulings should have been left in place as, in the words of the Casey ruling, reproductive rights allow women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the Nation.

Chief Justice John Roberts concurred in the judgment that Mississippis law was constitutional, but did not agree with the majority opinion that Roe and Casey should be overruled entirely.

The ruling does not mean that abortion is banned throughout the U.S. Rather, arguments about the legality of abortion will now play out in state legislatures, where, Alito noted, women are not without electoral or political power.

States will be allowed to regulate or prohibit abortion subject only to what is known as rational basis review  this is a weaker standard than Caseys undue burden test. Under Caseys undue burden test, states were prevented from enacting restrictions that placed substantial obstacles in the path of those seeking abortion. Now, abortion bans will be presumed to be legal as long as there is a rational basis for the legislature to believe the law serves legitimate state interests.

In a strenuous dissent, Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor faulted the courts narrow approach to liberty and challenged its disregard both for stare decisis and for the impact of overruling Roe and Casey on the lives of women in the United States. The dissenters said the impact of the decision would be the curtailment of womens rights, and of their status as free and equal citizens. They also expressed deep concern over the rulings effect on poor womens ability to access abortion services in the U.S.

Where does this decision fit into the history of reproductive rights in the U.S.?

This is a huge moment. The courts ruling has done what reproductive rights advocates feared for decades: It has taken away the constitutional right to privacy that protected access to abortion.

This decision was decades in the making. Thirty years ago when Casey was being argued, many legal experts thought the court was poised to overrule Roe. Then, the court had eight justices appointed by Republican presidents, several of whom indicated readiness to overrule in dissenting opinions.

Instead, Republican appointees Anthony Kennedy, Sandra Day OConnor and David Souter upheld Roe. They revised its framework to allow more state regulation throughout pregnancy and weakened the test for evaluating those laws. Under Roes strict scrutiny test, any restriction on the right to privacy to access an abortion had to be narrowly tailored to further a compelling state interest. But Caseys undue burden test gave states wider latitude to regulate abortion.

Even before the Casey decision, abortion opponents in Congress had restricted access for poor women and members of the military greatly by limiting the use of federal funds to pay for abortion services.

In recent years, states have adopted numerous restrictions on abortion that would not have survived Roes tougher strict scrutiny test. Even so, many state restrictions have been struck down in federal courts under the undue burden test, including bans on abortions prior to fetal viability and so-called TRAP  targeted regulation of abortion provider  laws that made it harder to keep clinics open.

President Donald Trumps pledge to appoint pro-life justices to federal courts  and his appointment of three conservative Supreme Court justices  finally made possible the goal of opponents of legal abortion: overruling Roe and Casey.

What happens next?

Even before Dobbs, the ability to access abortion was limited by a patchwork of laws across the United States. Republican states have more restrictive laws than Democratic ones, with people living in the Midwest and South subject to the strongest limits.

Thirteen states have so-called trigger laws, which greatly restrict access to abortion. These will soon go into effect now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe and Casey, requiring only state attorney general certification or other action by a state official.

Nine states have pre-Roe laws never taken off the books that significantly restrict or ban access to abortion. Altogether, nearly half of states will restrict access to abortion through a variety of measures like banning abortion from six weeks of pregnancy  before many women know they are pregnant  and limiting the reasons abortions may be obtained, such as forbidding abortion in the case of fetal anomalies.

Meanwhile, 16 states and the District of Columbia protect access to abortion in a variety of ways, such as state statutes, constitutional amendments or state Supreme Court decisions.

None of the states that limit abortion access currently criminalize the pregnant persons action. Rather, they threaten health care providers with civil or criminal actions, including loss of their license to practice medicine.

Some states are creating safe havens where people can travel to access an abortion legally. People have already been traveling to states like Massachusetts from highly restrictive states.

The courts decision may drive federal action, too.

The House of Representatives passed the Womens Health Protection Act, which protects health care providers and pregnant people seeking abortion, but Senate Republicans have blocked the bill from coming up for a vote. Congress could also reconsider providing limited Medicaid payment for abortion, but such federal legislation also seems unlikely to succeed.

President Joe Biden could use executive power to instruct federal agencies to review existing regulations to ensure that access to abortion continues to occur in as many places as possible. Congressional Republicans could test the water on nationwide abortion bans. While such efforts are likely to fail, these efforts could cause confusion for people who are already vulnerable.

What does this mean for people in America seeking an abortion?

Unintended pregnancies and abortions are more common among poor women and women of color, both in the U.S. and around the world.

Research shows that people have abortions whether lawful or not, but in nations where access to abortion is limited or outlawed, women are more likely to suffer negative health outcomes, such as infection, excessive bleeding and uterine perforation. Those who must carry a pregnancy to full term are more likely to suffer pregnancy-related deaths.

The state-by-state access to abortion resulting from this decision means many people will have to travel farther to obtain an abortion. And distance will mean fewer people will get abortions, especially lower-income women  a fact the Supreme Court itself recognized in 2016.

But since 2020, medication abortion  a two-pill regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol  has been the most common method of ending pregnancy in the U.S. The coronavirus pandemic accelerated this shift, as it drove the Food and Drug Administration to make medication abortions more available by allowing doctors to prescribe the pills through telemedicine and permitting medication to be mailed without in-person consultation.

Many states that restrict access to abortion also are trying to prevent medication abortion. But stopping telehealth providers from mailing pills will be a challenge. Further, because the FDA approved this regimen, states will be contradicting federal law, setting up conflict that may lead to more litigation.

The Supreme Courts rolling back a right that has been recognized for 50 years puts the U.S. in the minority of nations, most of which are moving toward liberalization. Nevertheless, even though abortion is seen by many as essential health care, the cultural fight will surely continue.

Editors note: This article was updated on June 27, 2022, to add more detail on Chief Justice John Roberts concurrence.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/roe-overturned-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-supreme-court-abortion-decision-184692.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP)  More than 50 tenants at a Santa Fe apartment complex are being forced to move out because of electrical issues.

Residents of the Railyard Flats told Albuquerque's KOB-TV that they lost power Friday and were told by management to leave by July 6.
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In the wake of the Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, lawmakers are poised to further restrict abortion rights in Republican-controlled South Carolina  which is not one of the 13 states with trigger laws banning abortion.

Shortly after the ruling, Republican Gov. Henry McMaster said he would immediately work with members of the state legislature, where the fight over the future of abortion rights in the state has already begun.

Although McMaster signed a bill last year banning most abortions after six weeks, a federal appeals court blocked the law from taking effect in February. The state attorney generals office asked the court to lift its injunction Friday.

In the General Assembly, lawmakers passed a resolution before the legislative session ended that would allow a return for possible abortion-related measures. The state House has already established a committee to consider further restrictions to prepare for this day, according to House Majority Leader David Hiott.

For Hiott, the states pending six-week ban isnt enough.

I want to ban it altogether, the Republican lawmaker told The Associated Press on Friday.

State Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto said he had introduced a bill protecting abortion rights in South Carolina  though he doesnt expect the legislature to return for at least a few weeks.

But state House Minority Leader J. Todd Rutherford said he is doubtful Democrats will be able to block whatever measures the states Republican majorities put forth.

I hold out no hope that I will prevail given the activist judges on the Supreme Court and the members of the General Assembly that could care less about a womans right to choose, Rutherford said.

A spokesperson for McMaster declined to name specific restrictions the governor would like to see passed but said he expects the General Assembly to take up anti-abortion legislation in the coming months.

Vicki Ringer, the director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood South Atlantic SC, confirmed that appointments are still being scheduled for next week in Charleston and Columbia.

Her organization will do so "for as long as we can for as many people who need our help, Ringer said in a direct message.

Twenty-two states have already enacted total or near-total abortion bans  all of which had been blocked by courts before Friday, save for Texas' law.

-

James Pollard is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow James Pollard on Twitter.
WASHINGTON - The Senate advanced legislation aimed at stanching acts of mass gun violence past a key procedural hurdle Thursday, voting to close debate and move toward a final vote on a package combining modest new firearms restrictions with $15 billion in mental health and school security funding.

The 65-34 vote represented an unlikely breakthrough on the emotional and polarizing question of U.S. gun laws, which have gone largely unchanged for more than 25 years, even as the nation has been repeatedly scarred by mass shootings whose names have become etched in history - from Columbine and Virginia Tech to Sandy Hook and Parkland.

But the May 24 killing of 19 students and two teachers inside a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school prompted renewed action, compelling a small group of senators to negotiate a narrow, bipartisan package focused on keeping guns away from dangerous potential killers while also bulking up the nation's mental-health-care capacity with billions of dollars in new funding.

The resulting Bipartisan Safer Communities Act garnered support from all 50 members of the Democratic caucus and 15 Republicans on Thursday, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who has opposed previous attempts to toughen gun laws after mass shootings.

"This is the sweet spot . . . making America safer, especially for kids in school, without making our country one bit less free," McConnell said Thursday. "This is a common-sense package. Its provisions are very, very popular. It contains zero, zero new restrictions, zero new waiting periods, zero mandates and zero bans of any kind for law-abiding gun owners."

McConnell's support came despite the opposition of prominent gun rights groups, including the National Rifle Association, which said this week that the bill "does little to truly address violent crime while opening the door to unnecessary burdens on the exercise of Second Amendment freedom by law-abiding gun owners."

But other players on the right lent support to the bill, which was primarily negotiated by Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., as well as Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C. The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board endorsed the legislation Thursday, as did the National Sheriffs' Association, which has close ties to GOP leaders.

Nonpartisan groups including the Fraternal Order of Police, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Domestic Violence Hotline, the National Alliance on Mental Illness and the American Psychological Association also endorsed the bill.

Democrats and gun-control advocates, meanwhile, hailed the bill as a breakthrough - in terms of politics if not policy, by breaking decades of congressional deadlock on firearms laws.

"We are about to save a lot of lives," Murphy said. "We've been building a movement around ending gun violence for 10 years, and we said one day we'd be strong enough to beat the gun lobby, and here we are."

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday that the bill "is not a cure-all for all the ways gun violence affects our nation, but it is a long overdue step in the right direction."

"The United States Senate faced a choice: We could surrender to gridlock . . . or we could choose to try and forge a bipartisan path forward to pass a real bill, as difficult as that may have seemed," he said. "We chose to try and get something done."

The precise timing of the final vote remained in question Thursday afternoon. Under Senate rules, a final vote is set to take place no later than Friday evening, but that timeline could be accelerated if all 100 senators agree.

The 15 Republicans supporting the bill were Sens. Roy Blunt of Missouri, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rob Portman of Ohio, Mitt Romney of Utah, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Todd Young of Indiana, as well as McConnell, Cornyn and Tillis.

Other Senate Republicans voiced an array of misgivings about the bill, most of them arguing that the bill did not do enough to protect law-abiding Americans' constitutional rights.

Some conservative senators filed amendments to the bill, such as an alternative from Sens. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, that would fund school-based security officers and mental health programs while leaving current gun laws intact. They or others could agree to speed up final passage of the bill in return for a vote on their amendments.

"We are not going to leave until we pass this bill," Schumer said Thursday, pledging to work to pass the vote as soon as possible.

Should the Senate pass its bill, it would move to the House, where it is expected to pass with the support of almost all Democrats and a handful of Republicans. "While more is needed, this package must quickly become law to help protect our children," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Tuesday.

President Joe Biden, who called for much more thorough gun-control measures in a televised address this month, said he intends to sign the bill. "Our kids in schools and our communities will be safer because of this legislation," he said in a statement Thursday. "I call on Congress to finish the job and get this bill to my desk."

But Thursday's Senate vote was the true breakthrough - breaking a de facto filibuster of gun-control legislation that has been in place since the mid-1990s, when bipartisan majorities passed the Brady Bill establishing the national background check system, a 10-year-ban on assault weapons and restrictions on gun sales to domestic-violence offenders.

None of the measures included in the present bill go nearly so far, however. They are best described as modest expansions and adjustments to existing laws - such as the closing of the "boyfriend loophole," a gap in a 1996 law aimed at keeping guns away from domestic-violence offenders.

Existing law, however, bars weapons sales only to misdemeanor domestic-violence offenders who committed their crimes against a spouse or a partner with whom they had lived or had a child. The Senate bill includes those who committed misdemeanors against those in "current or recent former dating relationship" for the first time.

Another key provision creates "enhanced" background checks for gun buyers under 21, who would be subject to a search of juvenile criminal and mental health records for the first time. Authorities would have up to 10 business days to review those records under the Senate bill, though that provision is set to expire in 10 years - after which juvenile records are set to be routinely included in the federal instant background check database.

The bill also puts an additional $750 million into an existing Justice Department grant program and allows it for the first time to fund state crisis-intervention programs, including "red flag" laws that allow authorities to keep guns temporarily away from people found to represent a danger to themselves or their communities. Other provisions establish new federal gun-trafficking offenses and clarify which gun sellers are required to seek a federal firearms license and thus run background checks on their customers.

The mental-health-focused elements of the bill would allow states to create "community behavioral health centers," ramp up in-school intervention programs and allow broader access to telehealth services for those in a mental health crisis, among other programs. The $15 billion price tag is offset by delaying a Trump administration regulation dealing with Medicare drug costs.

The Senate's vote came just hours after the Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, expanded Americans' rights to publicly carry firearms under the Constitution - striking down a New York law that required those seeking a license to carry a handgun to demonstrate a legitimate reason to do so.

The court's opinion, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, holds "that the Second and Fourteenth Amendments protect an individual's right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home." But a concurring opinion written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh and joined by Chief Justice John Roberts emphasized that the Constitution continues to allow a "variety" of gun regulations.
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WASHINGTON (AP)  The House sent President Joe Biden the widest ranging gun violence bill Congress has passed in decades Friday, a measured compromise that at once illustrates progress on the long-intractable issue and the deep-seated partisan divide that persists.

The Democratic-led chamber approved the election-year legislation on a mostly party-line 234-193 vote, capping a spurt of action prompted by voters' revulsion over last months mass shootings in New York and Texas. The Senate approved the measure late Thursday by a bipartisan 65-33 margin.

The White House said Biden would sign the bill and deliver remarks on it Saturday morning.

Every House Democrat and 14 Republicans  six of whom won't be in Congress next year  voted for the measure. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., underscored its significance to her party by taking the unusual step of presiding over the vote and announcing the result from the podium, to huzzahs from rank-and-file Democrats on the chamber's floor.

Among Republicans backing the legislation was Rep. Liz Cheney of gun-friendly Wyoming, who has broken sharply with her party's leaders and is helping lead the House investigation into last year's Capitol insurrection by supporters of then-President Donald Trump. In a statement, she said that as a mother and a constitutional conservative," she believed the bill would curb violence and enhance safety, adding: Nothing in the bill restricts the rights of responsible gun owners. Period."

Impossible to ignore was the juxtaposition of the weeks gun votes with a pair of jarring Supreme Court decisions on two of the nations most incendiary culture war issues. The justices on Thursday struck down a New York law that has restricted peoples ability to carry concealed weapons, and Friday it overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating the protection for abortion that case had ensured for a half-century.

The bill, crafted by senators from both parties, would incrementally toughen requirements for young people to buy guns, deny firearms from more domestic abusers and help local authorities temporarily take weapons from people judged to be dangerous. Most of its $13 billion cost would go to bolster mental health programs and for schools, which have been targeted in Newtown, Connecticut, Parkland, Florida and many other infamous massacres.

It omits far tougher restrictions Democrats have long championed like a ban on assault-type weapons and background checks for all gun transactions, but is the most impactful firearms violence measure Congress has approved since enacting a now-expired assault weapons ban in 1993.

The legislation was a direct result of the slaying of 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, exactly one month ago, and the killing of 10 Black shoppers days earlier in Buffalo, New York. Lawmakers returned from their districts after those shootings saying constituents were demanding congressional action, a vehemence many felt could not be ignored.

This gives our community the sorely needed hope that we have been crying out for, for years and years and years, Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Ga., whose 17-year-old son was shot dead in 2012 by a man complaining his music was too loud, told supporters outside the Capitol. Understand and know that this bill does not answer all of our prayers, but this is hope.

Speaking haltingly, Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., said he was backing the bill for his father, shot to death 30 years ago to the day, the 58 people killed in a 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas and so many other Americans who are victims and survivors of gun violence."

For conservatives who dominate the House GOP, it came down to the Constitution's Second Amendment right for people to have firearms, a protection key for many voters who own guns. Today they're coming after our Second Amendment liberties, and who knows what it will be tomorrow, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the House Judiciary Committee's top Republican, said of Democrats.

Pelosi said with Thursday's gun ruling by the justices, the Trump-McConnell court is implicitly endorsing the tragedy of mass shootings and daily gun deaths plaguing our nation. That was a reference to the balance-tipping three conservative justices appointed by Trump and confirmed by a Senate that was run by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

But House Republicans used the gun debate to praise both court decisions. What a great day for the babies, and as the speaker described it, the Trump-McConnell Supreme Court, said Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis.

Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., said the firearms decision has electrified the country and left radicals seething  the Constitution means what it says.

In the Senate, every Democrat and 15 Republicans backed the compromise. Just two of those GOP senators face reelection next year.

But overall, fewer than one-third of GOP senators and just 1-in-15 House Republicans supported the measure. That means the fate of future congressional action on guns seems dubious, even as the GOP is expected to win House and possibly Senate control in the November elections.

McConnell kept careful tabs on the negotiations that produced the bill and voted for it, partly in hopes it would attract moderate suburban voters whose support the GOP will need in its November bid for Senate control. In contrast, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and other GOP leaders of the more conservative House opposed it.

The legislation was opposed by firearms groups like the National Rifle Association. But groups backing gun curbs like Brady and Everytown for Gun Safety weren't the only ones backing it. Support also came from the Fraternal Order of Police and the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

The talks that produced the bill were led by Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C.

Under the compromise, background checks for gun buyers age 18 to 20 will now include an examination of their local juvenile records. The accused shooters in Uvalde and Buffalo were both 18.

People convicted of domestic abuse who are current or former romantic partners of the victim  not simply spouses or people who lived or had children with the person they abused  will be prohibited from acquiring firearms. That closes the so-called boyfriend loophole."

There will be money to help states enforce red flag" laws that help authorities temporarily take guns from people considered threatening and for other states' violence prevention programs. More people who sell weapons would have to become federally licensed gun dealers and need to conduct background checks.

Penalties for gun trafficking are strengthened, billions of dollars are provided for behavioral health clinics and school mental health programs and there's money for school safety initiatives, though not for personnel to use a dangerous weapon."

___

AP reporter Kevin Freking contributed to this report.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP)  South Dakota Republicans are meeting to choose candidates for attorney general, lieutenant governor and other statewide offices with the impeachment conviction and removal of Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg hanging over their convention in Watertown.

Former Attorney General Marty Jackley and Division of Criminal Investigation Director David Natvig both were spurred to pursue the job once Ravnsborgs future was in doubt. Delegates also have to choose who they will nominate for secretary of state as well as try to draw a united platform after months of infighting at the Capitol.

Here are the contests to watch during the three-day convention that started Thursday, with delegates voting for nominees Saturday:

ATTORNEY GENERAL

When Ravnsborg was facing calls for his resignation and impeachment last year for his conduct in a fatal car crash, Jackley seized on the opportunity and jumped into the contest for attorney general  a job he held for roughly a decade. He has the support of Republican Gov. Kristi Noem as well as much of the state's law enforcement community. He is a respected lawyer and a former U.S. attorney for South Dakota.

Natvig has cast himself as a tough on crime prosecutor with experience running the state's most important criminal investigations. But he didn't escape unscathed from Ravnsborg's impeachment. A former Division of Criminal Investigation agent, Brent Gromer, testified Tuesday that parts of Natvig's February testimony to a House committee were not factual."

Natvig told the House impeachment investigation committee that an innocuous conversation with Ravnsborg and Gromer occurred three days after the fatal crash about the examination of cellphones. Natvig said though he was out of the room for parts of the conversation, from what I heard, there was nothing that caused me concern.

But Gromer said Tuesday that Ravnsborg asked what could be turned up by a forensic examination of his cellphones, and that made him feel uncomfortable because the Division of Criminal Investigation was not supposed to be involved in the case.

Jackley's name was also attached to an attention-grabbing legal matter in recent months.

He represented the state's richest man, T. Denny Sanford, as the Division of Criminal Investigation searched Sanford's digital devices for evidence of possession and distribution of child pornography. Jackley argued for Sanford at the state Supreme Court in his attempt to stop search warrants from being unsealed.

The attorney general's office indicated it would not pursue any state charges against Sanford, who is no longer represented by Jackley.

LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR

Lt. Gov. Larry Rhoden, who is closely allied with Noem and campaigns alongside her, faces a challenge from former House Speaker Steve Haugaard, who lost a primary campaign to Noem earlier this month.

Haugaard's bid, which materialized Friday, represents an effort from a group of hardline conservatives to wrest control of statewide offices from established politicians. He criticized Noem for not being conservative enough during their primary contest, but won less than 25% of the Republican vote.

SECRETARY OF STATE

Republican Secretary of State Steve Barnett is facing a challenge for the nomination from a candidate who has built her campaign around election integrity." This comes amid a surge of concern among some conservatives about voter fraud following former President Donald Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

Monae Johnson, who worked in the secretary of state's office before Barnett's tenure, says she is answering the call of concerned citizens to run. Her campaign centers around criticism of Bennetts unsuccessful pushes to allow people to register online to vote and his decision to mail out applications for absentee voting during the pandemic.

Barnett has defended his work, blaming disinformation, misinformation, mal-information for lowering voter confidence nationwide. He has also tried to counteract Johnson's false claim that he supports online voting.

PLATFORM, ADMISSION FEES AND OTHER CHALLENGES

The Republican Party overwhelmingly controls state politics, but there are many signs of strife. A hardline grassroots movement has been trying to challenge the party's old guard, and many party activists are coming off hard-fought primary elections earlier this month.

Even before the event began, some conservatives complained about the fees the Republican Party was charging for the convention. The party has said it is simply trying to cover costs, as well as counteract a spamming effort aimed at online registrations by charging a refundable $1 fee for Saturday's nominations.

But as the party's platform and nominees emerge, conflicts are likely to flare. No candidates have yet publicly announced challenges to incumbents holding offices including treasurer and auditor, but rules allow nominations to happen during the convention, adding an element of unpredictability to the contests.
JERSEYVILLE  A May roadside safety checkpoint resulted in one arrest for driving under the influence and 13 for other drug or alcohol violations, according to Illinois State Police.

District 18 commander Mark Gillock said police use the roadside safety checks to watch for dangerous behaviors.
SPRINGFIELD  The Illinois Department of Natural Resources is rebranding Asian carp  the invasive species that now make up an estimated 70% of fish in the Illinois River  in hopes of convincing Americans to help eat away at the fish's overpopulation problem.

Four species of Asian carp  bighead carp, silver carp, grass carp and black carp  now will be known as copi  a hopefully appetizing play on the word copious and a name chosen based on a $600,000 multi-year marketing study to assess Illinois residents thoughts on the fish.

Calling it a name-based perception issue for a fish widely eaten elsewhere in the world, Nick Adam of Span design studio in Chicago  who led the research  said surveys, interviews and focus groups with more than 350 Illinois residents showed that 85% of participants had heard of Asian carp but only 5% had eaten it.

We know that renaming works, Adam said, noting that orange roughy originally was known as slimehead, Chilean sea bass once was called Patagonian toothfish and even avocado and kiwi used to have far less popular monikers.

The United States is the only nation in the world where Asian carp is not commonly eaten, according to John Goss, former invasive carp adviser to the White House.

Theyre not in the Great Lakes and were doing everything we can to keep them out, Goss said.

That includes convincing Americans to make copi burgers, copi sliders and other copi-based dishes part of their regular menu.

In announcing the rebranding effort Wednesday during a Zoom call, natural resources officials got support from Chicago-based chef and Chopped champion Brian Jupiter of Frontier and Ina Mae Tavern and Dirk and Terry Fucik of Dirks Fish and Gourmet Shop in Chicago.

Its a great substitute for ground beef, Terry Fucik said, noting that among Dirks popular menu items are copi burgers, copi tacos and copi bolognese.

Jim Garvey, a Southern Illinois University Carbondale fisheries expert and director of SIUs Center for Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, has studied bighead carp for more than 20 years. He was not part of Wednesday's announcement but said eating away at the problem may be the easiest, cheapest and best solution.

An electrical barrier on the Illinois River near Chicago appears to have succeeded so far in keeping the invasive species out of Lake Michigan and the rest of the Great Lakes, but those working to reduce or erase the problem dont want to rely solely on one solution, he said.

It seems simple, but it took a long time to determine that commercial harvest is probably the best way to keep them from becoming abundant below the barrier, Garvey said, noting that other ideas, such as poisoning the invasive fish, have proven ineffective or too costly.

Fishing for copi wont be regulated the way it is for native species, Garvey said.

We would love copi to become extinct in the United States, but  it just doesnt seem like these fish are going to be completely reduced, he said. But even if copi were to one day disappear, we are blessed with a variety of very good native fish on the Illinois, Mississippi and Ohio rivers.

Encouraging commercial fishing with a focus on Asian carp would not harm Illinois fishing industry, Garvey said.

If our commercial fishermen had to go back to fishing native fishes after eradicating copi, they could, he said. We should celebrate it, if it happens.

While the Illinois Department of Natural Resources has rolled out a plan to tout copi, its name change isnt yet official. The state expects to apply to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by year's end to formally change the name. In the meantime, grocery store packaging will describe the fish both as carp and copi.

Asian carp originally were imported from Southeast Asia to the U.S. to help clean fish farm retention ponds in the South. But flooding and accidental releases in the 1970s allowed them to migrate up the Mississippi River system. Local, state and federal agencies since have worked to keep the invasive species from Lake Michigan, where it would threaten a $7 billion-a-year commercial fishing industry and a $16 billion-a-year tourism industry in the Great Lakes region.
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LONDON (AP)  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson suffered a double blow as voters rejected his Conservative Party in two special parliamentary elections dominated by questions about his leadership and ethics.

He was further wounded when the party's chairman quit after the results came out early Friday, saying Conservatives cannot carry on with business as usual, and a former party leader said the country needed "new leadership.

The centrist Liberal Democrats overturned a big Conservative majority to win the rural southwest England seat of Tiverton and Honiton, while the main opposition Labour Party reclaimed Wakefield in northern England from Johnson's Tories.

The contests, triggered by the resignations of Conservative lawmakers hit by sex scandals, offered voters the chance to give their verdict on the prime minister just weeks after 41% of his own MPs voted to oust him.

The people of Tiverton and Honiton have spoken for Britain," said the area's newly elected Liberal Democrat lawmaker, Richard Foord. "They sent a loud and clear message: Its time for Boris Johnson to go, and go now.

Defeat in either district would have been a setback for the prime ministers party. Losing both increases jitters among restive Conservatives who already worry the ebullient but erratic and divisive Johnson is no longer an electoral asset.

Party chairman Oliver Dowden resigned, saying our supporters are distressed and disappointed by recent events, and I share their feelings.

We cannot carry on with business as usual," said Dowden, previously a staunch Johnson loyalist.

I will, as always, remain loyal to the Conservative Party," he said, without offering an endorsement of Johnson.

Former Conservative leader Michael Howard, who like Johnson was a strong backer of Britain's exit from the European Union, urged the party to remove him as leader.

The party, and more importantly the country, would be better off under new leadership," Howard told the BBC.

The prime minister was 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers) away at a Commonwealth summit in Rwanda as the drama unfolded.

The electoral tests came as Britain faces the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation, with Russias war in Ukraine squeezing supplies of energy and food staples at a time of soaring consumer demand while the coronavirus pandemic recedes.

Im not going to pretend these are brilliant results," Johnson said at a news conference in Kigali. Weve got to listen, weve got to learn.  When people are finding it tough, they send messages to politicians, and politicians have got to respond.

Johnson won a big majority in a 2019 general election by keeping the Conservatives traditional voters  affluent, older and concentrated in southern England  and winning new ones in poorer, post-industrial northern towns where many residents felt overlooked by governments for decades.

Thursdays elections brought defeat on both fronts. Rural Tiverton and Honiton has voted Conservative for generations, while Wakefield is a northern district that the Tories won in 2019 from Labour.

Labour's widely expected victory in Wakefield  whose previous Conservative legislator resigned after being convicted of sexual assault  is a boost to a party that has been out of office nationally since 2010.

Labour leader Keir Starmer said it showed the party is back on the side of working people, winning seats where we lost before, and ready for government."

Pollsters had said the Tiverton and Honiton race was tight, but the Liberal Democrats overturned a 24,000-vote Conservative majority to win by more than 6,000 votes. The election was called when the districts Conservative lawmaker resigned after being caught looking at pornography in the House of Commons chamber.

Even with the defeats, which erode his already shaky authority among his own lawmakers, Johnson his party holds a large majority in Parliament. But Conservatives are increasingly concerned that the qualities that led them to make Johnson their leader  including a populist ability to bend the rules and get away with it  may now be a liability.

Ethics allegations have buffeted the prime minister for months, culminating in a scandal over parties held in government buildings while millions of others were banned from meeting friends and family during coronavirus lockdowns.

Johnson was one of 83 people fined by police for attending the parties, making him the first prime minister found to have broken the law while in office. A civil servants report on the partygate scandal said Johnson must bear responsibility for failures of leadership and judgment that created a culture of rule-breaking in government.

He survived a no-confidence vote by his own party this month but was left weakened after 41% of Conservative lawmakers voted to remove him.

Under party rules, Johnson can't face another such vote for a year, but Friday's defeats will increase pressure to change that.

These are pretty dire results, said Conservative lawmaker Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, a senior member of the committee that oversees party no-confidence votes.

Serious discussions will be had in the next few days and weeks and then we will all have to make difficult decisions, he said.

Johnson also faces a parliamentary ethics probe that could conclude he deliberately misled Parliament over partygate  traditionally a resigning offense.

Conservative lawmaker Roger Gale, a long-time Johnson critic, reiterated his calls for the prime minister to quit now.

The soul of our party is at stake, he said.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP)  Nebraska could be headed to a special session to try to ban abortions now that the U.S. Supreme Court has given states that power, but it's unclear whether one will actually happen or what type of restrictions might win enough support to pass.

Gov. Pete Ricketts was noncommittal Tuesday when asked if he planned to call a special session, saying repeatedly that he would work with Speaker of the Legislature Mike Hilgers to try to find a way to ban abortions.
In the future, Amazon Alexa could be able to talk to people in the voices of relatives and friends, a feature that aims to "make memories last."

The new voice assistant feature was highlighted Wednesday at Amazon's re: MARS (for machine learning, automation, robots, and space) conference.

Rohit Prasad, senior vice president of Alexa, demonstrated a bizarre new voice assistant feature: the purported capacity to imitate voices. Alexa would be able to mimic a person's voice when speaking after less than a minute of listening to that person's speech.

"While AI can't eliminate that pain of loss, it can definitely make the memories last," he said.

According to Sky News, a video of the function showed a little child requesting that their grandmother read them a story, to which Alexa agreed before changing her voice.

After being trained on the person whose voice it intends to be mimicking, the new skill can produce a synthetic voiceprint, according to an Amazon representative interviewed by Engadget.

Prasad emphasized that the tech firm was looking for ways to personalize AI as much as possible.

An Issue of Security

CNET reported that the voice-imitating tool is not designed primarily for family members who have passed away, as per an Amazon spokesperson. Based on recent developments in text-to-speech technology, as described in a recent Amazon report, the team has created high-quality voices with far fewer data by applying a voice filter rather than spending hours recording voices in a professional studio.

Deep fake audio tools, which produce synthetic sounds using text-to-speech technology, have long spurred security experts to worry that they could unlock the gates to a wave of new scams. A variety of crimes have been made possible by voice cloning software, including an incident two years ago in the United Arab Emirates, where scammers convinced a bank manager to transfer $35 million by pretending to be a company director.

Read Also: COVID-19 Omicron Variant: 9 Symptoms for Fully Vaccinated, Early Warning Signs of Infection Revealed

Deep fake audio crimes are still rare, though, and the instruments that scammers have at their hands are quite unsophisticated at present.

Experts will also observe how the function is received. Although it appears to require user consent, there is a moral quandary around the rights of the deceased's voice and how long it may be stored on personal devices or business servers.

Security Concerns

Additionally, experts will observe how the public receives the feature. There is a moral dilemma surrounding the rights of the deceased's voice and how long it may be preserved on private devices or commercial servers, even if it requires user agreement, per the New York Post.

Several users on Twitter expressed reservations about the creepy function, which is still being developed, according to Engadget.

A critic smugly stated, "Of course, endless digital copies of memories are what makes things "last,"

One user quipped: "Uploading old voicemails so I can program Alexa to have my dead grandparents say 'beware! beware!' at 3 am."

Others who objected to it compared it to the dystopian "Black Mirror" episode "Be Right Back," in which a woman orders an AI replica of her deceased husband.

It's unclear how far along the feature is in development or when Alexa voice assistants could start receiving it. We might not see this functionality any time soon because the re: MARS event highlights what Amazon is doing in ambient computing, including developments in Alexa.

Related Article: AI Technologies in DTX Products

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AP

TOKYO (AP)  The U.S. Navys top commander in the Pacific and the Japanese defense minister on Friday said that close cooperation between their naval forces is more important than ever in the region amid rising tensions over China, North Korea and Russia.

Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi told U.S. Pacific Fleet commander Adm. Sam Paparo that the American naval presence in the region is indispensable to maintain and strengthen a free and open Indo-Pacific, a vision of a rules-based framework that the two allies have promoted as a counter to China's rise.
WASHINGTON -- After gripping testimony from former Justice Department officials describing Donald Trump's efforts to undo the 2020 election results, House lawmakers on Thursday identified five Republican lawmakers who allegedly sought pardons -- suggesting not just their own fear of criminal exposure, but a belief that the outgoing president would preemptively protect them from the investigations that followed the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Congress.

Videotaped testimony presented at the end of Thursday's hearing named Reps. Matt Gaetz, Fla.; Mo Brooks, Ala.; Andy Biggs, Ariz.; Louie Gohmert, Texas; and Scott Perry, Pa., as the lawmakers who sought preemptive pardons after or, in at least one case, before the Capitol breach. They were among the most active and outspoken supporters in Congress of Trump's false claims of election fraud.

The allegations of pardon-hunting came from Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, and from John McEntee, a close aide to Trump. Such testimony strikes at one of the most fraught issues to emerge out of the Jan. 6 attack -- the suspicion rife in many quarters of Congress that some of its members may have participated in criminal conspiracies to thwart the valid results of a presidential election.

"The only reason I know to ask for a pardon, [is] because you think you've committed a crime," said Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who led Thursday's hearing of the House select committee investigating the attack.

Hutchinson testified that she was involved with conversations about requests from Gaetz, Brooks, Biggs, Gohmert and Perry, all of whom she said had sought a promise from the White House to be cleared in advance of any crimes they might be charged with. Perry had previously denied seeking a pardon, but Hutchinson insisted in her deposition that he had spoken to her directly about it.

Some of the lawmakers could not be reached for comment immediately after the hearing. Perry repeated his denials that he ever sought a pardon for himself or other members of Congress, and denied speaking to Hutchinson about a pardon. Gaetz tweeted Thursday that the Jan. 6 committee is "an unconstitutional political sideshow" that is "siccing federal law enforcement on political opponents."

Biggs, in a statement Thursday, denied asking for a pardon and added that Hutchinson's video testimony was "deceptively edited to make it appear as if I personally asked her for a presidential pardon."

The committee also showed excerpts of a Jan. 11, 2021, email from Brooks to a White House official recommending that Trump issue "all purpose" pardons to every member of Congress who voted to reject the electoral college votes of Arizona and Pennsylvania, as well as every Republican who signed onto a court brief in Texas challenging the election results. In the email, Brooks argues that "Socialist Democrats (with perhaps some liberal Republican help) are going to abuse America's judicial system by targeting numerous Republicans with sham charges deriving from our recent fight for honest and accurate elections, and speeches related thereto."

The pardon accusations capped a riveting afternoon hearing in which a trio of former senior Justice Department officials -- two appointed by Trump -- recounted how in late December and early January the president waged an increasingly angry and desperate campaign to make the department spread false claims of massive voter fraud.

The witnesses -- former acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen, former acting deputy attorney general Richard Donoghue and former head of the department's office of legal counsel Steven A. Engel -- described pressure levied almost daily by the president. It began with him urging them to pursue far-fetched claims of fraud, many of which had already been investigated and deemed to be without merit. And it ended with him threatening to demote Rosen and hand control of the department over to an environmental lawyer who one witness repeatedly called "incompetent."

That lawyer, Jeffrey Clark, was targeted by the committee Thursday as a central villain in Trump's scheme. He is also facing growing scrutiny from criminal prosecutors at the department where he once worked. On Wednesday, federal agents searched Clark's home in Lorton, Va., part of a multistate expansion of the Justice Department's sprawling criminal investigation into efforts by Trump supporters to block Biden's election victory, according to people familiar with the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Clark's lawyer did not return requests for comment. But another former Trump appointee, who now runs a conservative advocacy group where Clark works, confirmed the search and said federal agents also searched Clark's electronic devices.

Many of the details of Trump's efforts to twist the Justice Department to his will after he lost the election to Joe Biden have been previously described in legal filings and congressional documents.

But Thursday's account went a step further -- offering firsthand, live accounts from veteran lawyers who stood up to Trump's demands and say they feared he might wreck his presidency, key government institutions, and ultimately the country. Their testimony was all the more powerful in that it came from Trump administration appointees, including one, Engel, who was one of Trump's very first presidential nominees and stayed in the administration until the end.

The hearing uncovered new details of key moments in what Kinzinger called the "sordid story" of Trump's efforts to corrupt the Justice Department, in particular how a lawyer working for Clark was tied to John Eastman, a key Trump legal adviser.

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said the committee obtained evidence that Justice official Ken Klukowski was working with Eastman in the lead-up to the Jan. 6 attack on Congress, in which a pro-Trump mob overpowered police and disrupted members of Congress as they tallied electoral votes in Biden's victory.

Previously released records show Klukowski had assisted Clark in drafting a letter to send to Georgia and other swing states that would have falsely declared the Justice Department found evidence of fraud in their elections. Other Justice Department officials refused to send the letter and threatened to resign if Trump insisted on sending it.

But Cheney also displayed an email showing that there were discussions about having Klukowski -- who had just joined the Justice Department -- accompany Eastman to brief Vice President Mike Pence about how the election results could be reversed. "I believe the vice president and his staff would benefit greatly from a briefing by John and Ken. As I also mentioned, we want to make sure we don't overexpose Ken, given his new position," the email read.

"This email suggests that Mr. Klukowski was simultaneously working with Jeffrey Clark to draft the proposed letter to Georgia officials to overturn their certified election and working with Dr. Eastman to help pressure the vice president to overturn the election," Cheney said.

The committee then played for the first time footage of a deposition given to the committee by Clark, in which the former Justice Department official invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in response to questions.

Donoghue and the other witnesses made clear their contempt for Clark, describing him as a foolish lawyer far out of his depth who was nevertheless willing to go behind his bosses' backs to meet privately with Trump, promote falsehoods about the election and destroy the department's reputation for independence.

Trump was eager to embrace Clark after Rosen and Donoghue repeatedly rebuffed his claims of voter fraud. During a Dec. 27 phone call, Trump pushed Rosen and Donoghue to "just say that the election was corrupt, and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen," Donoghue testified.

They refused, saying that while the department had investigated allegations of voter fraud, they were unfounded in all but a few small cases -- and in some instances, Donoghue said, "patently absurd" or "pure insanity."

Fed up, the president decided to replace Rosen with Clark, prompting a climactic Oval Office confrontation with the Justice Department officials and White House lawyers battling over the future of the Justice Department.

"What do I have to lose?" Trump asked Donoghue at one point.

Wearing muddy boots because he had not expected to be called into the White House on a Sunday, Donoghue replied, "Mr. President, you have a great deal to lose." Putting Clark atop the Justice Department and issuing the false letter about election fraud would be damaging "to the country, to the Justice Department, to him personally," Donoghue recalled saying.

To emphasize his point, Donoghue noted that Clark was an environmental lawyer with no criminal prosecution experience, and that if he walked into the FBI director's office, no one would know who he was. "He's not competent," Donoghue said.

Donoghue told the president that if he went through with his plan to elevate Clark and send the letter, there would be mass resignations at Justice that could spiral into the hundreds. Engel warned Trump that Clark would be left "leading a graveyard."

White House lawyer Eric Herschmann also ripped Clark's proposal as "nuts," telling him at one point: "The only thing you know about environmental and election challenges is that they both start with 'E.' And I'm not even sure you know that."

The committee also revealed a White House call log that made clear that by the time the lawyers had gathered inside the Oval Office, aides to Trump had already begun referring to Clark privately as the "acting attorney general."

By the time the tumultuous Jan. 3 meeting was over, however, Trump had abandoned the idea.

Three days later, rioters stormed Congress, and the Justice Department, still led by Rosen, launched the largest investigation in its history, in terms of the number of people charged with crimes.

Kinzinger on Thursday praised Justice officials for standing up for the rule of law, but said the entire episode revealed how much danger democracy was in during Trump's final days in office.

"We're here today because the facts were irrelevant to President Trump," he said. "It was about protecting his very real power and very fragile ego, even if it required recklessly undermining our entire electoral system."
CROWN POINT, Ind. (AP)  A judge sentenced a Lake County man to 180 years in prison Friday for killing a woman and two teenage boys found bludgeoned to death in 1998 in a house in northwest Indiana.

James H. Higgason III, 52, of Whiting, was sentenced to three terms of 60 years each, to be served consecutively.
GODFREY  For as many meanings as doves symbolize, they also are inspirational for as many occasions.

White doves are used in many settings as symbols of peace, freedom, love, or as messengers. Doves appear in the symbolism of Judaism, Christianity, Islam and paganism, and of both military and pacifist groups. Williams Family White Dove Release does weddings, anniversaries, baptisms, birthdays, funerals, grand openings, military salutes and much more, including a recent Mother's Day event at Forest Park's Art Hill in St. Louis.

Williams Family White Dove Release, based in Godfrey, will be featured at the Godfrey Splash Pad ribbon cutting opening early next month at Glazebrook Park.

"We go anywhere and everywhere, wherever we are needed to be," said Roy Williams II, founder and owner, along with his wife, Amy Williams; Roy Williams also is one of the funeral directors at Cathy M. Williams & Sons Funeral Home in Alton, owned by his mother who's the funeral home's namesake, and he works with his brother Ryon Williams, also a funeral director.

The Williamses' idea to start their own business doing white dove releases all started at the funeral home over a year ago, when someone requested a release for a memorial service.

Williams Family White Dove Release does its releases for $150 for four doves, and can go up to a 50-dove release. Williams Family White Dove Release held its first official dove release Sept. 26, 2021.

"Amy did all the specs in early 2021, in September we were releasing," Williams said. "My wife and I decided it's more of a blessing with the cost. We love it. These doves teach me more about living than about death."

The species commonly known as white homing dove mate for life and divide parenting equally, with both the hen and the cock incubating their eggs and feeding their young.

"Any time I have a toss or training, it's exercise for my birds and makes them stronger," he said.

When he takes his doves out for exercise, he starts a newly young bird off with a toss about one mile from home. They come back. He gradually increases the exercise to two miles, three miles, four miles, and so on until he reaches the desired distance. His young birds are now up to 60 miles and come back home; his older birds can fly 100 miles back home.

Williams learned everything he knows as a fancier from his mentor, Greg Bruckerhoff, of Moscow Mills, Missouri, who he met before the pandemic. Bruckerhoff also taught Williams during the pandemic how to do a socially distanced release.

"COVID hit and everything stopped," said Williams, who got his breeding pair of white doves and at least a dozen squeakers, which are young doves; a squab is a baby typically younger than 4 weeks old. "I went to his house three years later with my birds and I was hooked, line and sinker. He's taught me everything, to this day."

Williams compassionately breeds, raises, cares for and trains the birds at his Godfrey home, which is home to about 50 white doves, and where they always return after a release. This is due in part to their hereditary navigational abilities, but also to Williams' dedication in training his doves.

"They need food, fresh water, fresh grit, shelter and a safe place to come back to," Williams explained. "The loft is their home. Just keep it dry and there's no heat needed."

A couple of the most famous of the species, "President Wilson" and "Cher Ami," were military carrier pigeons that delivered messages to U.S. commanders and troops on the front lines during World War I saving hundreds of U.S. soldiers.

"These birds have God's gift of memory," Williams said.

The Williamses' birds are part of the family, which includes daughters Amora, 8, and Mya, 6, who their dad refers to as "handlers in training."

To learn more and book a release, call Roy Williams at 618-593-6748 and/or visit Williams Family White Dove Release Facebook page.
Abortions in Texas have ceased following a Supreme Court ruling that eliminated the constitutional protection for abortion and ensuing legal uncertainty, Whole Woman's Health and Planned Parenthood Texas said.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday ruled to overturn Roe v. Wade, allowing states to set their own laws regulating abortion procedures. Texas has a trigger law in place that will ban all abortions from the moment of fertilization starting 30 days after the Supreme Courts judgement, which is typically issued about a month after the initial opinion.

But clinics and abortion funds are ceasing services now because the attorney general of Texas and some anti-abortion activists are arguing that state laws that banned abortion before Roe v. Wade  that were never repealed  could now be in effect in Texas.

We must pause abortion services at our separate organizations while our legal teams continue to review todays devastating ruling and how it impacts and triggers existing Texas laws, including total abortion bans, said Jeffrey Hons, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood South Texas.

He said abortion services at Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, and Planned Parenthood South Texas have all ceased.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an advisory Friday warning that some prosecutors could immediately pursue criminal prosecutions based on violations of Texas abortion prohibitions predating Roe v. Wade that the Legislature never repealed.

Although these statutes were unenforceable while Roe was on the books, they are still Texas law, Paxton wrote. Under these pre-Roe statutes, abortion providers could be criminally liable for providing abortions starting today.

As a result of the states pre-Roe status, providers and abortion funds have ceased operations in the legal confusion.

Whole Womans Health, the nations largest independent abortion provider, said it has temporarily halted abortion services in its four Texas clinics located in Austin, Fort Worth, McAllen, and McKinney.

We dont agree with Paxton about the interpretation of the ban, but to protect our staff and patients from hostile officials in Texas, we have ceased providing abortion care today, said Amy Hagstrom Miller, president and CEO of Whole Womans Health, in a press conference Friday.

The Lilith Fund for Reproductive Equity, an abortion fund that provides financial assistance to people seeking abortions, and the Texas Equal Access Fund, both said they have stopped funding abortions in Texas due to the states pre-Roe status.

Due to the uncertainty and risk of what the decision could bring, we are pausing funding today until we have had a chance to understand the decision, the Texas Equal Access Fund wrote on Twitter.

Texas first enacted a criminal ban on abortion in 1854. That ban was never repealed, but a 2004 case in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals found that by passing laws that govern abortions  such as the availability of abortions for minors and the practices of abortion clinics  the Texas Legislature repealed its old bans by regulations that implied the ban was no longer in effect.

Still, Jonathan Mitchell, a former solicitor general for Texas and the architect of Senate Bill 8, which banned abortions in Texas as early as six weeks, argued that the pre-Roe statute is immediately enforceable in Texas except procedures necessary to save the life of the patient.

Previously, prosecutors did not pursue charges against patients or providers under Texas laws because courts would not uphold convictions under Roe, he said. Now, no such obstacle exists anymore because Roe has been overruled, he said in a statement.

The Lilith Fund said that because anti-abortion activists are arguing that the laws predating Roe v. Wade could go back into effect, they ceased operations to protect abortion fund staff and volunteers from the risk of arrest even while legal analysis is still in the early stages.

Lilith Fund has been forced to pause direct funding of abortion care while we evaluate the impact of the recent decision by the U.S. Supreme court, a statement from the Lilith Fund said. We are evaluating how we may be able to otherwise assist pregnant Texans, but do not yet have answers.

Emily Berman, an associate professor at the University of Houston Law Center, said it's unclear whether the old bans would be upheld in court.

"We are in a gray area with respect to what are sometimes called zombie laws, the pre-Roe holdovers," Berman said. "In some ways, its sort of going to be up to local prosecutors to decide if they want to bring cases."

She said that while prosecutors could decide to wade into such a legal battle, if they simply wait for Texas' "trigger" law to take effect, their cases will be on more solid footing.

Texas trigger law wont go into effect until 30 days after the Supreme Courts judgment, which could take about a month to be published. Texas law will have narrow exceptions to perform abortions only to save the life of a pregnant patient or prevent substantial impairment of major bodily function. It will criminalize the person who performs the abortion, not the person who undergoes the procedure.

More than half of all states are expected to essentially ban abortion in the coming months.

Some clinics in neighboring states have also said they have paused abortion services Friday. Planned Parenthood Great Plains said Friday that it has stopped providing abortions in Arkansas. Planned Parenthood in Texas said their doors are open and they will remain open to serve Texans but has not said whether the organization is providing abortion procedures in Texas Friday.

In Texas and other states where abortion procedures will no longer be legally protected, Whole Womans Health said it will continue to operate a program that provides financial assistance to patients who need to travel for out-of-state care.

We will do everything we can to help obtain safe, timely, affordable care for those whose rights and access to safe and legal abortion services have been cruelly and unjustly revoked, Miller said in a statement.

The provider, which largely serves the South and Midwest, said it will continue to operate clinics in Baltimore; Minneapolis; Alexandria, Virginia; and Charlottesville, Virginia. It will also offer abortion pills by mail to patients in Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico and Virginia.

Whole Womans Health will continue its long and proud tradition of providing high-quality, compassionate, personal abortion care in the remaining states where pregnant peoples needs and rights are still respected and protected under law, Miller said.

The abortion provider said it is exploring plans to expand in-clinic and mail services in additional states where abortion is legally protected.

James Barragan contributed reporting.

Disclosure: Planned Parenthood has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Join us Sept. 22-24 in person in downtown Austin for The Texas Tribune Festival and experience 100+ conversation events featuring big names you know and others you should from the worlds of politics, public policy, the media and tech  all curated by The Texas Tribunes award-winning journalists. Buy tickets.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2022/06/24/texas-clinics-abortions-whole-womans-health/.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.
East Texas representative Louie Gohmert allegedly requested a pardon from then-President Donald Trump following the attempted insurrection on January 6, 2021, according to the taped deposition of an aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, played Thursday during a congressional hearing.

Gohmert is among a group of at least six U.S. congress members who requested pardons for themselves from Trump around the time of the insurrection, according to documents and testimony presented during the House select committees fifth hearing on the January 6 attacks.

Mr. Gohmert asked for [a pardon] as well, said Cassidy Hutchinson, who worked as an executive assistant for Meadows and had previously interned for Texas Senator Ted Cruz. Reps Matt Gaetz of Florida, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Mo Brooks of Alabama, and Andy Biggs of Arizona all asked for personal pardons from Trump, according to Hutchinsons sworn testimony.

Gohmert quickly denied he ever requested the pardon in a fiery statement issued after the conclusion of Thursday's hearing.

I had and have nothing for which to seek a pardon and my requests were for others unassociated with government in Washington, D.C., Gohmert said. He went on to call the allegation "unequivocally and maliciously false," denigrating the committee's proceedings as "a blatant and disgusting attempt to mislead the public," and calling the assertions that he asked for his own pardon "malicious, despicable, and unfit for a U.S. congressional hearing."

According to a Rolling Stone report released in October, Gohmert allegedly joined at least six other elected representatives to help orchestrate Trumps efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss and plan Jan. 6 rallies that devolved into attacks on the Capitol. These sessions allegedly occurred during a series of meetings between members of congress and orchestrators of the Jan. 6 pro-Trump rallies. Brooks, Biggs and Greene were also among the seven congressional collaborators said to have participated in the meetings.

Brooks also requested a blanket pardon for "every Congressman and Senator who voted to reject the electoral college vote submissions of Arizona and Pennsylvania," according to an email sent to the White House five days after the attack. These pardons would have included 147 members of congress, including at least a dozen Texas representatives.
Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said Friday her office will determine whether to prosecute abortions on a "case-by-case basis" in light of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn nearly a half-century of abortion protections across the country in a new landmark case.

"The criminalization of reproductive health will cause great harm to women in America," Ogg said. "Prosecutors and police have no role in matters between doctors and patients. As in every case, we will evaluate the facts and make decisions on a case-by-case basis."

The move comes as five other Texas district attorneysall fellow Democratspledging not to prosecute abortion cases once the state's trigger law goes into effect. Those prosecutors include neighboring Fort Bend County DA Brian Middleton, who alongside Dallas County DA John Creuzot, Bexar County DA Joe Gonzales, Travis County DA Jose Garza and Nueces County DA Mark Gonzalez joined more than 80 local prosecutors nationwide who signed the pledge, which was hosted by criminal justice advocacy group Fair and Just Prosecution.

The pledge was created earlier this year when a draft opinion detailing the court's eventual decision was leaked, and updated once the ruling was announced Friday morning. Ogg issued her prepared statement less than 30 minutes after the ruling was announced. Her name does not appear on the pledge.

A spokesperson for Ogg, Jon Donnelly, said Friday afternoon that the DA was not asked to sign the pledge, and wouldn't immediately say whether or not she would in the future.

On Twitter, several people were quick to press Ogg on her statement.

The fear of prosecution adds another layer of uncertainty for women and pregnant people across the country in the wake of the Supreme Court decision.

"All of us should be worried about a state of affairs where a miscarriage could start to become a crime scene," Miriam Krinsky, the executive director of Fair and Just Prosecution, said to Slate's Roxanna Asgarian. Krinsky, a prosecutor herself, theorized that ambitious prosecutors might eventually be able to weigh charges against people who use contraception or in vitro fertilization.

Also on Friday, Texas Democratic leadership issued a call to local Democratic leaders to use their "legal authority and discretion to refuse to enforce the provisions of Senate Bill 8, Senate Bill 4, and House Bill 1280," the bills that criminalized abortions in Texas.

"District attorneys and local law enforcement agencies have significant discretion to decide what cases to prioritize and pursue," party leaders Gilberto Hinojosa and Shay Wyrick Cathey wrote, referencing the district attorneys who have already pledged. "Today, with the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court, Texans in every corner of the state are fearful for their safety, health, and lives."
SeaWorld San Antonio

SeaWorld San Antonio announced the passing of its beloved Pacific white-sided dolphin, Betty, via Facebook on Friday, June 24. She was 44, according to the post. The local attraction stated she passed from cancer.

"She was adored by our animal care team and by the millions of guests who delighted in seeing her in our parks," SeaWorld San Antonio wrote in its post. "...Even though the outcome of that disease is inevitable, her loss does not make it any less difficult for those that loved her and formed special bonds through a lifetime of expert care and study at our accredited zoological facility."
The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriffs Office and the Midland Police Department. Compiled by reporter Tereasa Nims.

Wednesday, June 22

10:37 p.m.  A deputy assisted Midland Police Department by locating a 40-year-old man who had violated a personal protection order. The man was subsequently arrested by MPD.

10:01 p.m.  Deputies were dispatched to an Ingersoll Township residence for a verbal dispute involving a 41-year-old woman and a 15-year-old girl. There were no assaults. Deputies cleared the scene without incident.

10:14 p.m.  A deputy was dispatched to a Porter Township residence to check on the wellbeing of a 31-year-old woman. The woman was subsequently transported to the hospital, where the deputy filed a petition for her to be evaluated by mental health staff.

7:12 p.m.  A 36-year-old Homer Township woman advised that a 40-year-old man keeps showing up at her house and is not welcome there. The woman requested that the deputy inform the man that he was not welcome at her residence and she did not want any further contact from him. The deputy contacted the man and advised him of the complainant's wishes and the possible consequences if his behavior continues.

7:09 p.m.  A deputy was dispatched to a Mills Township residence for a report of possible drugs found in the yard of a residence. The deputy recovered the substance and determined it was not drugs. The item was disposed of.

7:21 p.m.  A deputy responded to a Homer Township residence for a death investigation of a 74-year-old man. The death appeared to be of natural causes.

6:27 p.m.  A deputy returned a wallet found in Lincoln Township back to the 60-year-old male owner.

3:46 p.m.  Police responded to westbound US-10 and North Stark Road for a injury crash.

3:43 p.m.  Police were called to the 6200 block of Eastman Avenue for a private property crash.

2:26 p.m.  An animal control deputy received a call from the emergency room regarding a man who had been bitten by his own dog. An isolation notice was issued to the dog owner.

11:40 a.m.  Deputies assisted EMS at a residence in Edenville Township. A 49-year-old woman was having a mental health episode after using some illegal substances. The woman was transported to the ER for evaluation.

10:13 a.m.  Deputies spoke to a 58-year-old woman regarding a property dispute of her sister's estate. Deputies advised the 58-year-old about the civil process.

10:15 a.m.  A deputy was dispatched to an Edenville Township residence to assist EMS with a 79-year-old man who had had a medical issue while driving his tractor.

2:32 a.m.  Deputies were dispatched to a single-vehicle property damage crash in Larkin Township. The driver, a 64-year-old Midland Township man, was arrested for operating under the influence of alcohol because of the crash. The man was transported to the Midland County Jail, where he was lodged without incident. A report has been forwarded to the Midland County Prosecutor for review.

1:32 a.m.  Police were called to the 1000 block of Eastlawn Drive for a domestic violence/trespassing complaint.
WFO LOS ANGELES Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Monday, June 27, 2022

_____

HEAT ADVISORY

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE

National Weather Service Los Angeles/Oxnard CA

145 PM PDT Fri Jun 24 2022

...HEAT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM SUNDAY TO 8 PM PDT MONDAY...

* WHAT...High temperatures range from 95 to 105 degrees F.

* WHERE...Los Angeles County Mountains, Santa Clarita Valley,

Los Angeles County San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles County

San Gabriel Valley.

* WHEN...From 10 AM Sunday to 8 PM PDT Monday.

* IMPACTS...Hot temperatures may cause heat illnesses to occur.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

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.

Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When

possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or

evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat

stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when

possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational

Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent

rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone

overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location.

Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
Turkish authorities said that they had detained several people who were allegedly working for an Iranian intelligence cell that was planning to kidnap and kill Israeli tourists in Istanbul, including an Israeli ambassador and his wife.

The news of the arrest came several weeks after Israel ordered its citizens in Istanbul to leave the region immediately, warning of an imminent Iranian attack targeting Israelis in Turkey. Officials said that among those targeted for kidnapping include a former Israeli diplomat and his partner, whose names were not revealed.

Plot To Kidnap, Kill Israelis in Turkey

Israel's Mossad spy agency chartered a private plane to bring the pair and others back to the country immediately, said reports. The suspects who were arrested, who were not all Iranian nationals, were detained in a raid last week in three houses in Istanbul's famous Beyoglu District. It was reported that eight people were arrested concerning the alleged kidnap and kill plot.

On Thursday, Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper reported that Turkish authorities detained five Iranian nationals on Wednesday who was suspected of involvement in the alleged plot to assassinate Israeli citizens in Istanbul, as per the Times of Israel.

The reports came as Israel's Foreign Minister Yair Lapid arrived in Turkey on Thursday for high-level talks amid a recent rapprochement between the two countries after years of frayed ties. The terror warnings had both strained ties as Ankara chafed at being portrayed as an unsafe tourism destination in international media reports.

Read Also: Ukraine War: Volodymyr Zelensky's Adviser Reveals Threat of "Tactical Victory" for Russia What Happened?

The situation has also allowed the two countries to showcase newly revived ties by cooperating on intelligence and security. Israel was reportedly considering somewhat walking back its warning following Lapid's visit, with the travel advisory revised to state that only non-essential travel should be canceled rather than all visits.

According to Aljazeera, Lapid thanked Turkey on Thursday for its swift response to the alleged plot. He also warned that Israel would not "sit idly by" in the face of threats to its citizens from Iran. During his visit to Turkey, Lapid said that the lives of Israeli citizens had been saved in recent weeks thanks to the security and diplomatic cooperation between Israel and Turkey.

Foiled Terror Attacks

He added that the alleged plot was not only about the murder of innocent Israeli tourists but also a clear violation of Turkish sovereignty by Iranian terror. Lapid noted that they were confident that Turkey knew how to respond to the Iranians regarding the latest incident.

Turkish officials said Iranian intelligence assets and Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps operatives impersonated students, businessmen, and tourists to entrap the Israelis. Turkey said the Mossad located the targeted Israelis and flew them to Israel using private planes.

Despite the successful arrests, senior Israeli officials said there still remained an Iranian threat to Israelis in Turkey. They said that at least three Iranian cells had not been arrested and noted that tracking and arresting them would be a lengthy process.

Many officials believe that the Islamic Republic is desperate to get its hands on an Israeli somewhere to show the public a victory in the ongoing war between the countries, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Related Article: North Korea Military Prepares For Possible Nuclear Weapons Deployment, South Korea Claims

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
WFO MEDFORD Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Sunday, June 26, 2022

_____

HEAT ADVISORY

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE

National Weather Service Medford OR

257 PM PDT Fri Jun 24 2022

...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM SATURDAY TO 11 PM

PDT SUNDAY...

* WHAT...Hot temperatures of 95 to 105 in the valleys during the

afternoons and 85 to 95 at usually cooler hilly locations.

Overnight lows will also be unusually warm, generally in the

60s.

* WHERE...Eastern Douglas County Foothills including Toketee

Falls and Steamboat.

* WHEN...From 11 AM Saturday to 11 PM PDT Sunday.

* IMPACTS...Hot temperatures may cause heat illnesses to occur.

* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...The hottest day of this heat wave is

expected to be Sunday. This heat wave is likely to feel

unusually hot to most due to fairly cool temperatures, thus

far, this warm season.

* View the hazard area in detail at

https://www.wrh.noaa.gov/map/?wfo=mfr

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

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.

Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When

possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or

evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat

stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when

possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational

Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent

rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone

overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location.

Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1.

PDT MONDAY...

* WHERE...Central Douglas County including Roseburg, Tri City,

Tiller, Azalea, Glendale, Camas Valley, Sutherlin, Elkton,

Drain, and Scottsburg.

* WHEN...From 11 AM Saturday to 11 PM PDT Monday.

expected to be Sunday. On Monday the Heat Advisory area is

likely to be smaller as temperatures cool slightly. This heat

wave is likely to feel unusually hot to most due to fairly

cool temperatures, thus far, this warm season.

afternoons and 85 to 95 at usually cooler mid-elevation

locations. Overnight lows will also be much warmer than

normal, generally in the mid 50s to lower 60s.

* WHERE...In California, Dunsmuir, Mount Shasta City, Tennant,

Macdoel, Dorris, and Tulelake. In Oregon, portions of the

South Central Oregon Cascades, Siskiyou Mountains, and

Southern Oregon Cascades including Crescent Lake, Union Creek,

and Howard Prairie. Much of the Upper Klamath Basin including

Keno, Klamath Falls, Bonanza, and Chiloquin.

...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM SUNDAY TO 11 PM PDT

MONDAY...

* WHAT...Hot temperatures of 85 to 100 in the valleys during the

afternoons. Overnight lows will also be much warmer than

normal, generally in the 50s.

* WHERE...In California, all except the higher mountains of

Modoc County. In Oregon, Northern and Eastern Klamath County

and Western Lake County and Central and Eastern Lake County

including Lakeview, Adel, Bly, Beatty, Sprague River, Silver

Lake, Summer Lake, Chemult, and Crescent.

* WHEN...From 11 AM Sunday to 11 PM PDT Monday.

* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...This heat wave is likely to feel

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
Country singer Dallas Smith returned to the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium, Thursday night, for a night of high energy entertainment. The Canadian performer had a banner year in 2021 winning the Country Music Awards entertainer of the year, as well as the single of the year. The band is cu
The Jan. 6 committee's fifth hearing, conducted on Thursday, centered on the pressure campaign launched by then-President Donald Trump to get the Justice Department to assist him in rigging the election.

In a key discovery that illustrates the growing legal risk posed by Trump's allies and maybe Trump himself, the conspiracy was led by a DOJ officer named Jeffrey Clark, whose residence was federal investigators raided on Wednesday. Trump pondered appointing Clark as interim attorney general at one point to forward the scheme, which sparked many resignation threats. Here are some key points from the hearing.

1 . Rep. Liz Cheney Addresses Americans

Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the vice-chair of the GOP investigation committee, delivered a message to the millions of Americans who trusted former President Donald Trump after the panel's fifth hearing. More than a dozen Republicans have testified about what truly transpired in the weeks before Jan. 6, refuting Trump's account of the events, according to Cheney.

Some of the witnesses, including those who may give testimony at upcoming hearings, worked for Trump during his campaign or while he was in office. Others, she claimed, had spent their whole lives as conservative Republicans, USA Today reported.

The identities of Congressmen who requested presidential pardons after January 6 for their role in attempts to reverse the election will be made public, according to Liz Cheney, vice-chair of the panel, after the conclusion of Thursday's session.

2 . Republicans Ask Trump for Pardon

Evidence that certain important members of Trump's conspiracy wanted pardons has been shown to the committee on numerous occasions. John Eastman, a Trump lawyer who requested to be included in "the pardon list," was one of them, it was revealed last week.

Inferred from the email was the existence of a list that appeared to contain additional names. On Thursday, the committee expanded its list by including several House Republicans.

Per The Washington Post, members of Congress asked for pardons days after the attack on the Capitol and the last effort to invalidate the election. Representative Mo Brooks asked for pardons for himself, Representative Gaetz, and others five days after the Capitol attack.

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.)

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.)

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.)

Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.)

Rep. Scott Perry categorically denied asking for a pardon, calling it "a shameless, soulless lie," while Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to the White House Chief of Staff, claimed that he spoke with her about it. Before Democrats objected, House Republicans attempted to add Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) to the committee. Hutchinson claimed that while she was not aware of him requesting a congressional pardon, he had discussed the possibility with the White House.

3 . Coordination Between Trump's Team, Justice Department

The committee also hinted, perhaps for the first time, that there could have been collaborating in the scheming between Trump's legal team and certain Justice Department personnel.

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) revealed an email from veteran Ohio Republican Party official Ken Blackwell from December 28 suggesting that Eastman and former Trump adviser Klukowski, who had just joined the Justice Department, brief Vice President Mike Pence.

Klukowski has already been charged with contributing to the preparation of Clark's draft letter asking the Justice Department to validate Trump's false accusations of election fraud. This would suggest a stronger connection between the DOJ investigation and the Trump legal team.

Read Also: Democratic Andrew Gillum, Former Ron DeSantis Opponent, Arrested Over Wire Fraud Charges, Lying to FBI

Donald Trump's Defense on Jan.6 Probe

Per Fox News, the Jan. 6 Committee disclosed at a hearing on Thursday that Trump stated he intended to appoint his lawyer Sidney Powell as a special counsel to look into fabricated allegations that the presidential election was rigged. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who said the offer was made on December 18, released an audio of Powell saying, "He asked me to be a special counsel to address the election issues and to collect evidence."

Powell was involved in discussions with the former president as he attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election, albeit she never ended up becoming a special counsel. A special counsel, according to Kinzinger, would give fake cover for people who would seek to protest the certification of the election, including those who invaded the Capitol on January 6th, if Powell were appointed.

Former President Donald Trump requested the Justice Department to "simply claim the election was corrupt" despite the absence of solid proof of fraud, according to former Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue on Thursday.

Donoghue remarked when being questioned by Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill, at a committee hearing on January 6. Donoghue described a protracted phone conversation between himself, Trump, and former Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen in which he and Rosen thoroughly refuted the president's fraud claims.

Related Article: Gas Tax Holiday: President Joe Biden Plans To Consider Another Federal Aid This Week

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Part 2 of CIC News's exclusive interview with Immigration Minister Sean Fraser on the changes to the Express Entry system currently being discussed in the Senate.

Immigration Minister Sean Fraser discusses Express Entry reforms Part 2 of CIC News's exclusive interview with Immigration Minister Sean Fraser on the changes to the Express Entry system currently being discussed in the Senate.

Immigration Minister Sean Fraser discusses Express Entry reforms Part 2 of CIC News's exclusive interview with Immigration Minister Sean Fraser on the changes to the Express Entry system currently being discussed in the Senate.

Immigration Minister Sean Fraser discusses Express Entry reforms Part 2 of CIC News's exclusive interview with Immigration Minister Sean Fraser on the changes to the Express Entry system currently being discussed in the Senate. Shelby Thevenot Kareem El-Assal Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

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The Canadian government has passed a bill that will allow the immigration minister to invite Express Entry candidates based on an economic goal.

Bill C-19 received royal assent on June 23, 2022. It will give the minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) the authority to invite Express Entry candidates by occupation, language ability, intended destination, or any other group that supports Canadas economic goals.

Discover if You Are Eligible for Canadian Immigration

Minister Fraser explains Express Entry overhaul TRANSCRIPT BELOWMajor changes to the Express Entry systems are currently in the Canadian Parliamentary process.CIC News sat down with the minister in Tor

Immigration Minister Sean Fraser told CIC News in a face-to-face interview on June 21 that he hopes it will pass through the Senate, and that the new authorities will be implemented soon. The minister said although Express Entry gives Canada a competitive advantage, there is room for improvement.

Where [the Express Entry system] could be improved is at present if there are particular challenges that your economy is facing it might be facing in the long term we dont have the ability to tailor the invitations to apply to the Express Entry system to meet those in-demand skills or qualifications, Fraser said.

If youre in a circumstance where you have an abundance of applications that are all in one particular sector, and that sector doesnt have high needs in Canada the Express Entry system as it exists today, is likely to bring in people that might not be perfectly matched to the needs of the Canadian economy.

The new authorities will allow IRCC to include selection factors that would support Canadas labour needs based on sector, region, and language competencies. The minister said that in doing so, Canada would be able to select more immigrants who are already primed for success in the labour market.

The goal is really to maximize the contribution that a newcomer can make in their communities so theyre set up for success when they arrive, but also that theyre going to meet the needs of the community where theyre going to reside, Fraser said. I expect were going to see potential increase of retention rates have opened up because people are coming in where they know they have opportunities because that was the basis of their invitation to apply.

Critics of the bill say the new authorities could allow for special interest groups to lobby for a certain type of candidate. Amendments were made in earlier drafts of the bill to reflect the need for a transparent selection process. Fraser acknowledged this concern.

If I sit at my office in Ottawa and start making decisions about what regions and what sectors should benefit from this new policy I would be going down a very dangerous path, Fraser said. I need to engage with people at a local community level. I need to engage with my provincial and territorial counterparts. I need to engage with business councils and sectors that have high needs so we can understand what their needs are.

Special interview series with Minister Fraser

CIC News sat down with the minister on June 21, 2022 to discuss the future of Canadian immigration.

Over the coming weeks, CIC News is releasing a special series of articles elaborating on the interview with Minister Fraser on topics including:

Part 1: Express Entry all-program draws tentatively resuming on July 6

improving application processing and client experience

Canadian citizenship fees

legalizing undocumented workers in Canada

the Immigration Levels Plan 2023-2025

creating more immigration pathways for foreign workers and students, and

how his life has changed since he became minister

Minister Fraser was in Toronto to speak at Collision, one of the worlds largest technology conferences.

Discover if You Are Eligible for Canadian Immigration

 CIC News All Rights Reserved. Visit CanadaVisa.com to discover your Canadian immigration options.
Concurs de selectare a unui expert/unei experte sau grup de experti pentru elaborarea unui studiu cu privire la nivelul de digitalizare a Societatii Civile in Republica Moldova
Changes to the UKs audit regime could increase audit costs for the largest charities in the country, Charity Finance Group (CFG) has warned.

From next year, charities with an annual income of over 750m and with more than 750 employees will now be considered as public interest entities (PIEs) and be under the scrutiny of a new regulator, the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority (ARGA).

ARGA will have powers to investigate and sanction directors who willingly make misleading or false statements about their organisations finances.

The governments changes were initially set to apply to smaller organisations as well but will now only affect a handful of the largest charities in the country.

However, CFG called on the government to reduce the impact of the changes on the charities still due to be affected.

Watered down proposals

Last month, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) unveiled plans to overhaul the audit and corporate governance framework through a new regulator, greater accountability for the largest businesses and addressing the dominance of the main audit firms.

In its original proposals , the department suggested that charities with incomes over 100m should be considered as PIEs while implementing a higher threshold for companies exceeding 200m or 500m.

The Charity Commission opposed the suggestions , saying they were irrelevant to the voluntary sector. Following heavy criticism, the government watered down its proposals, which will now only cover a small number of charities.

BEIS' reforms primarily aim to identify and prevent financial problems at large private companies.

It hopes these will restore trust in audit and corporate governance following recent corporate failures including the demises of construction company Carillion and department store chain British Home Stores.

Government must ensure minimal impact on charities

Dr Clare Mills, director of policy and communications at CFG, said: For those charities, inclusion will have an impact on audit arrangements and aspects of reporting, and could increase their costs. We urge the government to do all it can to reduce the impact on those charities that are included.

Charities will also need to consider engagement with ARGA when this comes into operation in 2023 and we will be working with the Charity Commission and others to provide information and insight into the charity and not-for-profit sector which will be of use to ARGA.

Reducing additional burdens where possible

In its response to the consultation, BEIS stated that it will not require these size-based PIEs to meet all of the same audit requirements as existing PIEs.

It said: The government believes this approach will ensure that the companies of greatest public interest are properly scrutinised by the regulator, whilst minimising additional burdens from regulation as far as possible.

Civil Society News understands that the government will ensure that concerned charities are given enough time to adapt to the new measures.

sign up to receive the Civil Society News daily bulletin here . For more news, interviews, opinion and analysis about charities and the voluntary sector,
Last weekend, The Times of London, a Murdoch-owned paper in the UK, sent out an early print edition containing a(nother) damaging story about Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whothe story claimedwanted to hire his wife, Carrie, into a high-paid government job in 2018 when he was foreign minister and married to someone else, only for aides to thwart the plan after another lawmaker walked in on Johnson and Carrie in a compromising situation in Johnsons office. The story was relatively short and tucked away on page five of the paper, next to a furniture ad and underneath an item about a picnic-spoiling turkey vulture. (Keep calm and carrion.) Nor was it especially new; indeed, the story principally served to corroborate claims in a book that Michael Ashcroft, a lord and longtime donor to Johnsons party, published earlier this year.

Then the story disappeared. It failed to feature in subsequent print editions of The Times and never ran on the papers website; meanwhile, the Mail, a rival right-wing title, wrote up The Times reporting, then deleted it. Of course, the story didnt literally disappear; photos of the printed article quickly started to circulate online alongside increasingly pointed questions as to what had happened to it. The New Europeana paper that launched in the aftermath of the 2016 Brexit vote (in which Johnson was instrumental) to, in its own words, rebalance the right-wing extremes of much of the UK national pressasked questions as well; later, the story of the missing story would spread to The Guardian and the BBC, before vaulting across the Atlantic to the pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post, which called the whole business, even by British standards, a juicy mess. Suddenly, a page-five story had become an international press-freedom incident. Various observers suggested that it was a textbook example of the Streisand effect, the phenomenon, named for Barbra Streisand, that occurs when an effort to suppress information online only increases public awareness of that information. The Johnson story was quickly added to the Streisand effects Wikipedia page.

ICYMI: A Licht reader

Neither The Times nor the Mail explained why it had removed the story. Simon Walters, its author, who formerly worked for the Mail and contributed the story to The Times as a freelancer, publicly stood by its accuracy, claiming that he had contacted its subjects and heard no on-the-record denial; Johnsons wife has since issued a denial, but The Guardian then confirmed the story with a source. Sources at The Times, in a state of bafflement, suggested to the latter paper that a top editor made the call, possibly following a high-level intervention. By Monday, Johnsons office had confirmed that it had asked for the story to be retracted. But it remained unclear why The Times had complied. Reports circulated of legal issues and threatsBritish libel law can be tough for the pressbut a government source denied that officials had mentioned legal action to The Times, and The Guardian reported that no superinjunction or specific legal issue was at issue. (In British law, superinjunctions not only bar a given outlet from reporting a given story, but also bar any reporting on the injunction itself.) Longtime Johnson critics, in particular, charged that what we were actually witnessing was the incestuous relationship between Britains political and media elites in action. As Tim Walker of the New European put it to the Post, Journalists and politicians in our country are too cozy.

As all this was unfolding, Johnson remained under pressure on a number of other fronts. Three weeks ago, I wrote that a scandal about lockdown-busting parties in Johnsons offices was tightening around him; since then, Johnson was subjected toand only narrowly surviveda confidence vote among party allies, his top ethics adviser resigned, and his plan to deport thousands of asylum seekers to Rwanda (literally) failed to take off amid legal challenges. (In its later weekend print editions, The Times replaced Walterss story with an article about Britains interior minister branding the legal impediments to the Rwanda plan as racist.)

Then, at the beginning of this week, Britains rail workers went on strike over their pay and conditions, leading to crippling train cancellations across the country. As with the Partygate and Rwanda stories, right-wing papers that generally support Johnson helped him to counterattack. The Mails front page referred to the strikes as a plague. The Suns regretted to announce that Britain was returning to the 1970s.

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In addition to tying Keir Starmer, the leader of the opposition Labour Party, to the strikes, various right-wingers sought to demonize Mick Lynch, the head of a leading British transit union; The Sun put a photo of Lynch on its 1970s-themed front page. This was to be expected. Whats remarkable is that Lynch pushed back and has become an unlikely media star in the process, with a string of his TV interviews going internationally viral. When a Sky News anchor asked Lynch how striking workers would respond to others crossing their picket line, Lynch replied, exasperatedly, We will picket them, adding: Do you not know how a picket line works? (The anchor tweeted that Lynch had become flustered; various observers said it was the other way around.) When an anchor on ITV asked Lynch whether or not hes a Marxistbecause, if you are a Marxist, then youre into revolutionLynch laughed and dismissed the question as twaddle. When Piers Morgan asked Lynch why his Facebook profile photo shows The Hood from Thunderbirds given that the latter is an evil, criminal, terrorist mastermind, Lynch noted his physical resemblance to the character. So youre not denying that youre comparing yourself to The Hood? Morgan asked. If it was a bunch of flowers, would I be a hippie? Lynch asked back.

Amid all the clapbacks, Lynch stayed calm, insisting with studied bemusement that hes just a working-class bloke who wants to talk about the issues affecting his unions members. Praise for his media skills has poured forth in liberal and left-wing outlets: the New Statesman declared him the winner of a media war, while Jacobins Meagan Day said that Lynch should teach a class in responding to antagonism, diversions, and nonsense from the press. Strikingly, praise has also come from less-expected quarters. The Spectatoran arch-conservative magazine that was led for years by Boris Johnsonran an effusive article under the headline In praise of Mick Lynch, with Mark Solomons, a former industrial correspondent for The Sun, extolling Lynch for making mincemeat of his foes and dominating the media.

For years, its the Boris Johnsons of the world who have dominated Britains mediain print, at leastand its narratives. As I reported in a 2019 profile, Johnsons reporting as a journalist in the nineties helped sow the seeds that led to Brexit, while his more recent columns for The Spectator and the Telegraph helped him to become prime ministerand he has long been a consummate media subject, too, courting attention with his disheveled mien and entertaining quotes, sometimes offensive, often in Latin. This week, Lynch seems to have beaten Johnson at something like his own gameelevating his profile and using it to expose news consumers, in plainspoken tones, to perspectives they dont always hear in a media ecosystem where working-class representation is at an all-time low. None of this represents a media sea change: right-wingers continue to cover for Johnson; union leaders can continue to expect puppet-adjacent smears. But Lynch has shown that their message can cut through.

Johnson, meanwhile, is under immense political pressure again. Yesterday, voters in two seats in very different parts of the country went to the polls in special elections that were triggered by one lawmaker in Johnsons party watching pornography in Parliament (he said he was searching for a tractor website) and a court jailing another for child sexual abuse. Johnsons party lost both seats by wide margins. In the early hours of this morning, the partys chair quit just before he was scheduled to do a media round, leaving behind a resignation letter that didnt explicitly rebuke Johnson but practically begged reporters to take it that way. Johnsons candidate in one of the special elections (the tractor one) reportedly locked herself in a dance studio that had been set up for media interviews and refused to talk to the press.

Even when he was at a high ebb politically, Johnson often sought to dodge the press; ahead of the 2019 election, which his party won with a huge majority, he (allegedly) hid in a fridge to avoid an interview with Morgan. The big difference now is that his efforts at narrative wizardrynot least his demand for the Times retractionare falling flat with the public if not actively backfiring. This morning, a source in Johnsons party blamed its special-election defeats, in part, on the media obsessing over scandal stories at the expense of substantive issues. The source also insisted that Johnson himself wasnt blaming the media. Ultimately, he cant credibly do so, having fedand fed offthe worst excesses of British media culture for so long. If anyone has forced a reckoning with substance this week, its Lynch. Thunderbirds are go. Johnson might have to.

Below, more on British media and retractions:



Other notable stories:

ICYMI: The blame game in Uvalde, and the story it should serve

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Jon Allsop is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Review of Books, Foreign Policy, and The Nation, among other outlets. He writes CJRs newsletter The Media Today. Find him on Twitter @Jon_Allsop.
In a court filing Wednesday, federal prosecutors requested a judge to sentence Ghislaine Maxwell to 30 to 55 years in prison for sex trafficking a juvenile and other crimes tied to a widespread scheme to exploit young girls with billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Maxwell's attorneys requested a court last week to sentence her to between 4.25 and 5.25 years in jail, arguing that her poor background rendered her vulnerable to Epstein's activities and that she should not receive a heavy term as a result of his conduct.

Maxwell's Team Claims She Should Not Spend More Than 5 Years in Prison

Jeffrey Epstein, who pled guilty to state prostitution charges in 2008, was charged with federal sex trafficking charges in July 2019 but committed suicide a month later in jail. Maxwell, his confidante, and former lover, was captured a year later and has been imprisoned ever since. The prosecution noted in the sentencing memo that the defense's argument was absurd and disrespectful.

The filing comes just one week before her scheduled June 28 sentence. Maxwell, 60, was convicted in December on five federal offenses, including sex trafficking of a juvenile, transporting a minor with the purpose to engage in illegal sexual behavior, and three related conspiracy counts.

However, because the judge presiding over her case recognized that two of the conspiracy counts she faced were redundant, she would only be punished on three counts. The probation department proposed a 20-year sentence, which was lower than the recommendations.

Prosecutors said Maxwell and Epstein plotted from 1994 to 2004 in New York, Florida, New Mexico, and the US Virgin Islands to set up a conspiracy to entice young females into sexual connections with Epstein.

During the trial, four women testified that Epstein molested them and that Maxwell encouraged and occasionally participated in the abuse. Meanwhile, her defense claimed she was a "scapegoat" for Epstein's conduct and challenged the recollections and intentions of the women who claimed to have been sexually assaulted, CNN reported.

Maxwell's attorneys argued last week that she should be sentenced to no more than five years in jail and should not be held responsible for Epstein's actions. Her defense team stated that it would be a travesty of justice for her to receive a term fit for Epstein. Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting his sex trafficking trial.

Read Also: Atlanta Man Arrested After Killing His Mother, Step-Father, and Cousin During Domestic Dispute

Prosecutors Slam Claims That Maxwell Received Death Threats

Ghislaine Maxwell's attorneys further claim that her life has been challenging and that she has already endured horrendous jail circumstances since her arrest on July 2, 2020. They also argued that her terrible background with an overbearing, egotistical, and demanding father merited a more compassionate sentence.

Prosecutors reacted to Maxwell's legal team's submission, stating that her poor confinement conditions and upbringing were not grounds for a reduced sentence. Maxwell's sentence will be presided over by Circuit Judge Alison Nathan, who ruled over her month-long trial, as per Metro.

Prosecutors also disputed Maxwell's attorneys' assertions that she received a genuine death threat in jail, claiming that an internal investigation into the alleged threat found that an inmate muttered to someone in passing, "I'd murder her if someone gave me a million dollars." As a result, someone who overheard the statement reported it, and the offender was relocated from the housing unit, they claimed.

They also emphasized Maxwell's total refusal to confront her offending conduct and her apparent lack of contrition. Instead of even attempting to take responsibility, the defendant makes a frantic attempt to shift blame elsewhere.

Prosecutors said Epstein gave Ghislaine Maxwell nearly all of the $22.5 million in assets she claimed in a bail proposal that was never granted. Quotes from letters given to the judge by women who testified during the trial were also included in the sentencing proposal, including Kate, an ex-model from the United Kingdom who stated that "the effects of what Ghislaine Maxwell did have been far-reaching for me," according to CBS News.

Related Article: [Report] Ghislaine Maxwell Tries To Stop Jeffrey Epstein's Victim To Testify, Uses Connection with Bill Clinton To Lower Sentence

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
ANKARA, Turkey (AP)  Firefighting crews battle for a third day on Thursday a wind-driven wildfire that has blackened swaths of pine forest near a popular resort in southwestern Turkey and driven dozens of people from their homes.

More than 2,500 firefighters, aided by water-dropping planes and helicopters, were deployed to fight the blaze that erupted on Tuesday in the Bordubet region, near Marmaris on the Aegean Sea coast. The blaze spread rapidly, fanned by winds.

Fires were raging in three locations around Bordubet, but had been brought under control at a fourth location, according to the office of the mayor for the Mugla region, which includes Marmaris.

Authorities have evacuated close to 275 people from the area as a precaution, the municipality said.

Vahit Kirisci, the forestry minister, said about 3,000 hectares (about 7,400 acres) of forest were affected.

In addition to thousands of personnel, 45 water-dropping helicopters and 12 planes were involved in the efforts to tame the blazes, he said. Qatar offered to send three helicopters while Azerbaijan said it would send an additional plane, he said.

Prosecutors were investigating what ignited the fire, including the possibility of arson.

Extended drought conditions in several Mediterranean countries, a heat wave last week that reached northern Germany and high fuel costs for aircraft needed to fight wildfires have heightened concerns across Europe this summer.

Last summer, blazes that were fed by strong winds and scorching temperatures tore through forests in Turkeys Mediterranean and Aegean regions, including Marmaris. The wildfires, which killed at least eight people and countless animals, were described as the worst in Turkeys history.

Villages and resorts had to be evacuated, with some people fleeing to beaches to be rescued by sea. The wildfires also threatened two coal-burning power plants.

Erdogans government came under criticism for its inadequate response and preparedness to fight large-scale wildfires, including a lack of modern firefighting planes.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Hertz Corp. has offered to settle about three dozen cases filed by renters that say they were wrongly arrested for auto theft, the company said.The settlement push comes after Colleen Batcheler took over as general counsel for the rental company. During her first month on the job, Batcheler made it her top priority to end suits from more than 230 customers accusing Hertz of improperly calling in police on its renters, mostly while haggling about overdue rentals.

Weve tried to take a step back and say How can we make progress in a way that is fair to our customers and is based on individual facts and circumstances,' Batcheler said in an interview.

Hertz lost a key court battle earlier this month when a federal judge allowed more than 70 customers to sue for false arrests. Until then, Hertz had successfully forced nearly all of the lawsuits to remain under the supervision of a bankruptcy judge in Wilmington, Delaware.

Batcheler declined to say how much money the company was offering to the alleged victims and their families.

Hundreds of customers say in court papers that Hertz filed police reports against them and had them falsely arrested, often at gunpoint. A small number of those cases allege errors by Hertz employees caused police to pull over innocent customers on suspicion of driving stolen cars. Lawyers for the customers say about 100 more claims are being prepared.

Victims will review the offers before deciding whether to accept them, said attorney Francis Alexander Malofiy, the Philadelphia lawyer who has spent years fighting Hertz in court.

Hertz has indicated interest in settlement in the past, only to reveal they were not serious about addressing the full scope of the harm they have caused, Malofiy said in an emailed statement.

Hertz must also agree to withdraw theft reports it filed against about 40 customers who are still being prosecuted, Malofiy said.

The false arrest claims are an early challenge for Batcheler, who became Hertzs top lawyer last month, and Chief Executive Officer Stephen Scherr, who took over in February and pledged Hertz would change its practices to protect customers whove done nothing wrong from false arrests.

The company will try to settle as many of the cases as it can in the coming months, Batcheler said. Some offers will be for more money than the victims asked for in their bankruptcy court claims. Other offers will be for significantly less, the company said in a statement.

Hertz Corp. is the unit of Hertz Global Holdings Inc. that operates the Hertz, Dollar and Thrifty rental brands in regions that include Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa and Australia. The company filed bankruptcy in 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic ravaged the economy and brought car rentals to a halt.

Hertz exited bankruptcy oversight last year, but left a shell company behind to pay off its older, disputed debts, including the false arrest claims.

Hertz files thousands of criminal cases against customers annually, according to court documents. The company says the majority involve disputes about vehicles that werent returned on time and likely have been stolen, and it tries to contact customers via phone calls, text messages, emails and certified letters about overdue cars and get them back through private means, working for about 63 days beyond the return date before involving police.

Lawyers for the drivers say all the cases could cost Hertz more than $700 million. The company said in a quarterly filing that it doesnt expect a significant impact.

About the photo: A traveler pulls luggage past a line rental vehicles at a Hertz location at the Louisville International Airport in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S., on Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022. The U.S. car rental industry achieved overall revenues of $28.1 billion in 2021  a 21% gain over the pandemic year of 2020, according to data collected by Auto Rental News.

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.
A divided Arkansas Supreme Court ruled Thursday that plaintiffs may proceed with a class-action lawsuit that accuses Shelter Mutual Insurance Co. of illegally discounting payments for medical treatment provided to automobile insurance claimants.

In a 4-3 decision, the high court found that Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Timothy Davis Fox did not err by certifying a class of plaintiffs whose medical payments were discounted by Shelter to account for payments the claimants had received from other insurance carriers.

The lawsuit filed against Shelter by Samuel Baggett and Jana Lee says those discounts violate an Arkansas Insurance Department regulation that governs the coordination of benefits.

Shelter is the only insurer in Arkansas who reduces the benefits due to payments made by third parties, Little Rock attorney Kenneth Rusty Mitchell said in an email. He is one of three attorneys representing plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

Mitchell disputed the insurers argument that not discounting medical payments for monies received by other insurers would provide claimants with double recoveries. He said its the benefit of the bargain.

If a Shelter insured pays the coverage, and Arkansas law requires Shelter to pay medical  benefits despite the existence or applicability of any other coverage, the insured is just getting what he/she paid for.

Both Baggett and Lee were injured in car wrecks and had policies that provided up to $5,000 in medical benefits. Shelter paid Baggett $2,000, but he contends he is owed the full $5,000. Lee said she incurred $4,000 in medical expenses, but Shelter did not pay the full amount.

Like Baggett, Lee claimed this deficiency resulted from Shelters policy and practice of illegally deducting other plan payments from its reimbursements, the Supreme Court opinion says.

Judge Fox certified a class consisting of all Shelter insureds whose medical payments were adjusted because of payments by other insurers or collateral sources since March 13, 2013, with no end date. Shelter Mutual appealed to the Supreme Court, making several arguments to assert that the class-action should not be allowed to proceed.

Shelter argued that the class certified by the trial court is invalid because there was no end date. The Supreme Court majority said, in an opinion written by Justice Rhonda K. Wood, that the lack of a closing date is not uncommon initially. As the case proceeds the court will close the loop.

Shelter argued that the determining class members from the group of insureds who have had their claims reduced because of payments from other sources is an overly complicated inquiry because it could include payments reduced because of pre-existing conditions, unnecessary treatment or unreasonable expenses.

The Supreme Court majority said class action complaints are always complicated, but it has allowed similar actions to proceed in the past. The opinion says discerning class members in this case would not be unduly burdensome.

Instead, here a class member can be determined by reviewing whether the requested payment and the received payment were different, the majority said.

Shelter also argued that Baggett isnt a credible class representative because he was convicted of three felonies. Lee demonstrated during a questioning that she doesnt understand the concept of unjust enrichment, so is not a suitable representative for the class, the insurer said.

The majority said the trial court had already decided that Baggett and Lee are credible and found no reason to second-guess. The bar is low, the majority said. The court even once allowed a mentally ill person to serve as a class representative because there was no evidence that her illness made her unable to act in the class best interest, according to the opinion.

Associate Justices Barbara Webb, Courtney Hudson and Robin F. Wynne joined Wood in the majority decision.

Chief Justice John Dan Kemp and Justices Karen R. Barker and Shawn A. Womack dissented.

In an opinion written by Barker, the minority said as the class is now defined Shelter Mutual would have to open each claim file to determine why a full payment was not made.

Accordingly, contrary to the majoritys position, the class members are not ascertainable by reference to objective criteria, the dissenting opinion says.
Two Nigerian officials were arrested this week for allegedly trying to harvest a child's organ after bringing the victim to the UK in order to harvest their innards.

In a statement, police said that a child has been safeguarded and noted that authorities were working closely with partners on continued support regarding the matter. The incident comes as organ harvesting is still a popular global trade.

Organ Harvesting

A Kenyan hospital was forced to issue a statement to ask locals to stop calling about donating their kidneys because so many individuals were trying to sell theirs to feed their families. Some were selling their organs for as little as $1,500 per kidney.

In China, harvesting of organs from executed prisoners is legal but experts have claimed that in many cases, prisoners were still alive during the horrible operations, as per Futurism.

On Thursday, British police charged the two Nigerians, which includes one politician, with conspiring to bring a child to the region to harvest organs. The two suspects were identified as 60-year-old Ike Ekweremadu, who is a district senator and lawyer, and 55-year-old Beatrice Nwanneka Ekweremadu.

The two individuals appeared at Uxbridge Magistrates' Court in west London on Thursday and confirmed that they reside in Nigeria. The suspects were remanded in custody until they are expected in court again on July 7.

Read Also: Germany Raises Alert Level in Emergency Gas Plan Amid Dwindling Supplies from Russia

According to the Washington Post, the Metropolitan Police said that a child had already been taken to safety. The force said that detectives decided to launch an investigation after they were alerted to potential modern slavery offenses earlier this May.

The arrest comes as Ike was recently made a visiting professor at the University of Lincoln in northern England. In a statement, a university spokesman said that visiting professors "are often, as is in this case, non-resident at the university, unpaid, and advisory."

Global Issue

The spokesman added that the university was deeply concerned about the nature of the allegations against the couple as it was an active police investigation. They added that they were not able to comment further at this point in time.

Forced organ harvesting, which is the illegal act of surgically removing organs from a victim against their will, has been addressed in recent legislation in the UK. A law passed in April partly seeks to disrupt the black market organ trade by making it illegal for Brits to travel overseas to purchase an organ, a practice which is known as "organ tourism."

Despite the sale and trafficking of organs in the UK already being outlawed, the new rules came amid worrying reports of a booming organ trade around the world in recent years. In London's Chinatown, a years-long protest has been staged against the alleged forced organ harvesting from political prisoners.

Some people even consider voluntarily selling their own organs when conditions are desperate enough. In Afghanistan, where a devastating combination of widespread famine and international sanctions have pushed millions of people to the edge of starvation, reports sprouted in early 2022 that people were selling kidneys to feed their families, the Daily Beast reported.



Related Article: Alleged Plot To Kidnap, Kill Israelis, Including Ambassador, Wife Foiled, Turkey Says

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg stated that Finland and Sweden joining the military bloc depends on whether the conditions of Turkey could be met. The two Nordic nations are prevented from joining unless all members agree, and even Stoltenberg cannot intercede.

Turkey Continues to Oppose Finland, Sweden NATO Bid

There was uncertainty if Stockholm and Helsinki could be part of the military alliance based on President Tayyip Erdogan's opposition to them joining, reported RT.

One of the reasons why the two Nordic nations opted to be part of the US-led bloc in May is the special military operation in Ukraine.

These two nations were supposed to be part of the military bloc, but Ankara invoked the rules, which had proven to be painful for military bloc leaders like the US, which tried to throw its weight on Turkey but failed.

Erdogan demanded that the two hopefuls stop coddling the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and imposing arms embargoes on Ankara to get things rolling.

Stoltenberg told Politico last Wednesday about why Helsinki and Stockholm are held up. The outlet asked if he felt hostage by Ankara, said the American news outlet, adding the opposing nation is not supporting the move that needs all thirty members for a yes.

The NATO chief remarked that Finland and Sweden applied not so long ago, and the focus of the official is to facilitate joining them sooner. Turkey and its refusal to agree until all the conditions have complied with this objection cannot be ignored.

Read Also: Vladimir Putin's 'Girlfriend': 5 Things To Know About Alina Kabaeva

Turkey Remains a Strategic Ally to NATO States

Stoltenberg lavished praise on Ankara as an important ally of the military bloc, combatting terrorists and its control of the Black Sea and its borders in Iraq and Syria.

The western nations need it for geopolitical reasons, and they won't let any rival nations take this advance away, cited Azerbaycan 24.

Issues raised by Turkey are relevant, the country's concerns against the two Nordic countries are addressed, and talks are going on as well. From there, the secretary-general expressed how to answer acceptably. The US supports the inclusion of Helsinki and Stockholm as part of the US-led military bloc to fence Russia on the northeast side of the military bloc.

Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried reacted to the concern last Wednesday. She added they are sure it will be solved positively, and many in the military bloc support the two Nordic nations in their bid during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

Asked about the consensus about Helsinki and Stockholm's application to be a member of the US-led military bloc will be answered in Madrid from the 29th to 30th, when a NATO summit will be held. She added that is the objective.

Moscow mentioned that Sweden and Finland would jeopardize their national security by joining the military bloc. The NATO chief Stoltenberg cannot say how their bids will go due to the conditions of Turkey; it seems Ankara is becoming a nuisance, but its strategic position makes it impossible to criticize it.

Related Article: Turkey Releases Demands for Finland, Sweden To Secure NATO Membership

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to deploy Russia's new Satan II nuclear missile, capable of reaching the United Kingdom in three minutes by the end of 2022.

The Russian president has also stated that the country would continue to strengthen its military in the aftermath of the continuing invasion of Ukraine, and he has complimented his troops for fighting like heroes.

Putin Readies 'Satan 2' Nuke For Deployment

According to The Telegraph, Putin revealed on Tuesday, when entertaining military college graduates at the Kremlin, that Russia will deploy the first batch of Sarmat ballistic missiles on combat service before the end of the year.

The Sarmat missile, also known as the 'Satan II,' is reported to be the world's longest-range intercontinental ballistic missile, capable of reaching a target 11,200 miles distant, which means it could easily attack targets in the United States and Europe. Putin has previously called the missile's development, which was successfully tested in April, a big, significant event for Russia's defense industry, claiming that the Sarmat will ensure Russia's security from external threats and make those who threaten our country with aggressive rhetoric think twice.

According to Western military analysts, the Sarmat is capable of carrying ten or more nuclear bombs and decoys, enough to wipe out regions the size of the United Kingdom or France in a single hit.

Colonel Sergei Karakayev, chief of Russia's strategic missile forces, told Kremlin state television last month that they may fly on varied trajectories and avoid missile defense systems. Among the other new features mentioned by Putin in his address are S-500 missile defense systems, which he claims are "unrivaled in the world."

It comes after a state TV program last month suggested that Britain should be blown back to the Stone Age in ten minutes using new nuclear-capable Zircon - or Tsirkon - missiles. Politician Aleksey Zhuravlyov and TV propagandist Dmitry Kiselyov have previously urged for a Satan-2 strike on Britain.

And Yaakov Kedmi, a Moscow-born former Israeli official, told Russian state TV that Russia's new hypersonic Zircon missile could destroy 50 or 60 power plants in the UK in ten minutes, throwing the country into darkness, Daily Mail reported.

Read Also: Germany Raises Alert Level in Emergency Gas Plan Amid Dwindling Supplies from Russia

Russia Will Not Hesitate To Extend Ukraine War

Putin has stated that the 'Satan 2' nuclear missile will "make those who threaten Russia think twice." He stated that he will not hesitate to expand the Ukrainian conflict to nations who challenge Russia, alluding to all former Soviet lands, which he referred to as historic Russia.

He also said that any countries that oppose the Kremlin will no longer be "allies" with Moscow. A close Putin friend has accused NATO of "direct aggression" against Russia and stated that his country has the right to self-defense. On the messaging app Telegram, lawmaker Andrey Klimov lambasted Lithuania for blocking some commodities from entering Kaliningrad, a tiny territory of Russia shut off from its borders by Lithuania and Latvia.

Lithuanian officials declared on Saturday that items subject to EU sanctions would no longer be permitted to transit its territory to Kaliningrad. Coal, metals, and modern technology were among the materials prohibited. Retired general Evgeny Buzhinsky, one of his pals, threatened to bomb Britain and warned NATO that it is playing with fire. Buzhinsky attacked British general Sir Patrick Sanders on Russian television.

As he took charge of the UK's land forces this week, Sanders issued a rallying cry to soldiers to prepare to battle and defeat Russian forces in a Third World War. In response to NATO's war exercises, Putin staged large maneuvers in the Baltic Sea in April, sending 60 warships, 40 planes, and 2,000 weaponry units to sea while the West flexes its muscles on his doorstep.

The navy maneuvers occurred as tensions between Moscow and Nato rose after Sweden and Finland made applications to join the US-led alliance following Russia's military assault in Ukraine. Russia would become the sole non-NATO country on the Baltic Sea if its membership is authorized, which is now opposed by Turkey, as per The Sun.

Related Article: Ukraine War: Volodymyr Zelensky's Adviser Reveals Threat of "Tactical Victory" for Russia What Happened?

@YouTube

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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
Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) has identified Italian vendor RCS Lab as a spyware offender, developing tools that are being used to exploit zero-day vulnerabilities to effect attacks on iOS and Android mobile users in Italy and Kazakhstan.

According to a Google blog post on Thursday, RCS Lab uses a combination of tactics, including atypical drive-by downloads, as initial infection vectors. The company has developed tools to spy on the private data of the targeted devices, the post said.

Milan-based RCS Lab claims to have affiliates in France and Spain, and on its website lists European government agencies as clients. It claims to deliver "cutting-edge technical solutions" in the field of lawful interception.

The company was unavailable for comment and did not respond to email queries. In a statement to Reuters, RCS Lab said, "RCS Lab personnel are not exposed, nor participate in any activities conducted by the relevant customers."

On its website, the firm advertises that it offers "complete lawful interception services, with more than 10,000 intercepted targets handled daily in Europe alone."

Google's TAG, on its part, said it has observed spyware campaigns using capabilities it attributes to RCS Lab. The campaigns originate with a unique link sent to the target, which, when clicked, attempts to get the user to download and install a malicious application on either Android or iOS devices.

This appears to be done, in some cases, by working with the target device's ISP to disable mobile data connectivity, Google said. Subsequently, the user receives an application download link via SMS, ostensibly for recovering data connectivity.

For this reason, most of the applications masquerade as mobile carrier applications. When ISP involvement is not possible, applications masquerade as messaging apps.

Authorized drive-by downloads

Defined as downloads that users authorize without understanding the consequences, the "authorized drive by" technique has been a recurrent method used to infect both iOS and Android devices, Google said.

The RCS iOS drive-by follows Apple instructions for distributing proprietary in-house apps to Apple devices, Google said. It uses ITMS (IT management suite) protocols and signs payload-bearing applications with a certificate from 3-1 Mobile, an Italy-based company enrolled in the Apple Developer Enterprise program.

The iOS payload is broken into multiple parts, leveraging four publicly known exploitsLightSpeed, SockPuppet, TimeWaste, Avecesareand two recently identified exploits, internally known as Clicked2 and Clicked 3.

The Android drive-by relies on users enabling installation of an application that disguises itself as a legitimate app that displays an official Samsung icon.

To protect its users, Google has implemented changes in Google Play Protect and disabled Firebase projects used as C2the command and control techniques used for communications with affected devices. Additionally, Google has listed a few indicators of compromise (IOC) in its blog post, to help security professionals detect intrusions.
Here we go again: another example of government surveillance involving smartphones from Apple and Google has emerged, and it shows how sophisticated government-backed attacks can become and why there's justification for keeping mobile platforms utterly locked down.

What has happened?

I dont intend to focus too much on the news, but in brief it is as follows:

Googles Threat Analysis Group has published information revealing the hack.

Italian surveillance firm RCS Labs created the attack.

The attack has been used in Italy and Kazakhstan, and possibly elsewhere.

Some generations of the attack are wielded with help from ISPs.

On iOS, attackers abused Apples enterprise certification tools that enable in-house app deployment.

Around nine different attacks were used.

The attack works like this: The target is sent a unique link that aims to trick them into downloading and installing a malicious app. In some cases, the spooks worked with an ISP to disable data connectivity to trick targets into downloading the app to recover that connection.

The zero-day exploits used in these attacks have been fixed by Apple. It had previously warned that bad actors have been abusing its systems that let businesses distribute apps in-house. The revelations tie in with recent news from Lookout Labs of enterprise-grade Android spyware called Hermit.

Whats at risk?

The problem here is that surveillance technologies such as these have been commercialized. It means capabilities that historically have only been available to governments are also being used by private contractors. And that represents a risk, as highly confidential tools may be revealed, exploited, reverse-engineered and abused.

As Google said: Our findings underscore the extent to which commercial surveillance vendors have proliferated capabilities historically only used by governments with the technical expertise to develop and operationalize exploits. This makes the Internet less safe and threatens the trust on which users depend.

Not only this, but these private surveillance companies are enabling dangerous hacking tools to proliferate, while giving these high-tech snooping facilities available to governments  some of which seem to enjoy spying on dissidents, journalists, political opponents, and human rights workers.

An even bigger danger is that Google is already tracking at least 30 spyware makers, which suggests the commercial surveillance-as-a-service industry is strong. It also means that it's now theoretically possible for even the least credible government to access tools for such purposes  and given so many of the identified threats make use of exploits identified by cybercriminals, it seems logical to think this is another income stream that encourages malicious research.

What are the risks?

The problem: these close-seeming links between purveyors of privatized surveillance and cybercrime wont always work in one direction. Those exploits  at least some of which appear to be sufficiently difficult to discover that only governments would have the resources to be able to do so  will eventually leak.

And while Apple, Google, and everyone else remain committed to a cat-and-mouse game to prevent such criminality, closing exploits where they can, the risk is that any government-mandated back door or device security flaw will eventually slip into the commercial markets, from which it will reach the criminal ones.

Europes Data Protection regulator warned: Revelations made about the Pegasus spyware raised very serious questions about the possible impact of modern spyware tools on fundamental rights, and particularly on the rights to privacy and data protection.

Thats not to say there arent legitimate reasons for security research. Flaws exist in any system, and we need people to be motivated to identify them; security updates wouldnt exist at all without the efforts of security researchers of various kinds. Apple pays up to six-figures to researchers who identify vulnerabilities in its systems.

What happens next?

The EUs data protection supervisor called for a ban on the use of NSO Groups infamous Pegasus software earlier this year. In fact, the call went further, outright seeking a ban on the development and deployment of spyware with the capability of Pegasus."

NSO Group is now apparently up for sale.

The EU also said that in the event such exploits were used in exceptional situations, such use should require companies such as NSO are made subject themselves to regulatory oversight. As part of that, they must respect EU law, judicial review, criminal procedural rights and agree to no import of illegal intelligence, no political abuse of national security and to support civil society.

In other words, these companies need bringing into line.

What you can do

Following revelations about NSO Group last year, Apple published the following best practice recommendations to help mitigate against such risks.

Update devices to the latest software, which includes the latest security fixes.

Protect devices with a passcode.

Use two-factor authentication and a strong password for Apple ID.

Install apps from the App Store.

Use strong and unique passwords online.

Dont click on links or attachments from unknown senders.

Please follow me on Twitter, or join me in the AppleHolics bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.
Is it safe to travel to Istanbul? Tips for a trip to Turkey

Turkey hides one of the most intriguing tourist attractions in Europe. Thousands of people visit its cities and fall in love with them. Despite the efforts made by the government to make Istanbul one of the safest cities in the country, many people may recoil or question the security provided in Istanbul.

Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs assures Turkey is a safe country and shares recommendations to consider preparing for the trip. Photo courtesy: Canva

Is it dangerous to travel to Istanbul?

We can assuredly say that traveling to this city is very safe as traveling to any other major city in Europe.

As a matter of fact, the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs assures that Turkey is a safe country and shares recommendations to consider preparing for the trip.

Pay attention to the agglomerations

They advise paying attention to places with large crowds and avoiding crowded places. In general, the city has been rated as a medium-risk area. However, considering the precautions you will see throughout this post and with good travel insurance, you will be able to enjoy all the charms of Istanbul without problems.

Avoid the borders with Syria, Iraq, and Armenia

The Ministry also recommends not to travel to the border regions with Syria, Iraq, and Armenia due to conflicts against terrorist groups. On the other hand, it is advised to maintain maximum caution and vigilance when traveling in Turkey.

Always keep yourself informed

It is important to make sure that traveling to Istanbul is safe. Therefore, you keep updated on the evolution of possible events in reliable media.

In the case of seismic risk

Turkey is in an area of seismic activity, so to ensure that travel to Istanbul is safe, you should know the guidelines to follow in case of seismic movement.

If you are in an indoor area, you should stay away from windows and any furniture that could fall. Instead, take shelter under a table or a solid piece of furniture to prevent debris and other objects from falling on you.

If you are outdoors, go to an area clear of buildings, trees, or electrical installations and wait for the seismic movements to cease.

COVID-19: Is it safe to travel to Istanbul during the pandemic?

Due to the COVID-19 health crisis, the way we travel has changed dramatically. Therefore, before visiting any country, we always recommend checking what measures it has taken and its requirements.

Turkey's restrictions in the COVID-19 table are as follows:

Fully vaccinated persons must show a vaccination document issued by the country's official authorities certifying that they have been vaccinated at least 14 days before entry into Turkey, have suffered from the disease, and have been cured within the last 6 months.

In that case, they will be exempted from quarantine and from presenting a negative COVID-19 test result.

COVID-19 testing will be required in the following cases. All passengers who have been in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Pakistan, South Africa, India, Nepal, or Sri Lanka within the last 14 days must have a negative PCR COVID-19 test result performed 72 hours before departure.

However, these measures may continue to change, so we recommend that you frequently check for any new updates that may be implemented.

Also, don't forget to take out travel insurance with comprehensive coverage to cover the possible unforeseen events caused by the COVID-19 health crisis.

Other information about Turkey tourism

You need to get your visa before traveling abroad. Make sure you have everything you need for entry into a foreign country. **iVisa.com** can help you figure out what documents are required and explain how the process works. Their friendly travel experts are standing by to answer your questions and provide information.

At **iVisa.com**, they help you apply for a visa to any eligible country. They keep your information safe, too!

All unvaccinated travelers must present a negative COVID-19 test three days before departure. You will not need to go through quarantine if you have proof of all the required vaccinations.

Learn more about the [Turkey visa here].
China and Russia stated their relationship had "no bounds" in February.

Chinese firms, like state-owned Sinopec and state-owned Zhenhua Oil, have expanded their purchases of Russian oil in recent months after being given steep discounts as purchasers in Europe and the United States avoided Russian energy due to sanctions related to Russia's war in Ukraine.

According to Chinese General Administration of Customs figures, imports into China totaled over 8.42 million tonnes last month, including supplies pumped through the East Siberia Pacific Ocean pipeline and cargoes by sea. This knocked Saudi Arabia, which was formerly China's largest crude oil supplier, into the second position with 7.82 million tonnes.

Russia's oil revenues have begun to decline, and this trend will continue as other European countries look for new energy sources. Meanwhile, Ukraine's Trade Representative has issued a strong warning to anyone who chose to increase their purchases from Russia. Taras Kachka warned the BBC that Moscow would "weaponize anything" to influence and hold countries to ransom. However, as they seek a (relative) deal at a difficult period, that caution may be ignored by individuals traveling to Russia, according to BBC.

West Tries To Impede Russia's Ability To Continue Ukraine War

Asian demand, particularly from China and India, is helping to mitigate some of Russia's losses. According to statistics from research company Rystad Energy, India purchased six times more Russian oil from March to May compared to the same period last year, while China's purchases tripled.

According to the International Energy Agency's most recent global oil report, India has surpassed Germany as the second-largest importer of Russian crude in the last two months. Since 2016, China has become Russia's largest crude oil market.

Former Cold War adversaries, Beijing and Moscow have increased collaboration in recent years to offset what they regard as US global domination. They launched the first road bridge connecting the two nations this month, connecting the far eastern Russian city of Blagoveshchensk to the northern Chinese city of Heihe.

During a phone discussion last week, Xi assured Putin of China's support for Russian "sovereignty and security." The Kremlin stated that the two had agreed to increase economic cooperation in the face of "illegal" Western sanctions.

In retribution for its conflict in Ukraine, the West has imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia, pushing Moscow to seek new markets and suppliers to replace international enterprises that have fled the country. In late May, the European Union's 27 member states agreed on a package of measures that would suspend the majority of Russian oil shipments.

The United States has already blocked all Russian oil, but European countries rely far more on these imports. Energy is a crucial source of revenue for Putin's regime, and Western countries are attempting to isolate Moscow and limit its capacity to wage the war, as per VOA News.

Read Also: Blaming Putin for Price Hike Not Accepted by Majority of Americans as the Reason for High Gas Prices

China "Worries" About Ukraine War

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian crisis has sounded an alarm for mankind, according to Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has given no hint of how it may be addressed. Beijing has not condemned Moscow's February 24 invasion of Ukraine and has criticized Western-led sanctions on Russia while attempting to protect its ties with Ukraine.

The Chinese president, who offered no remedies, was addressing at the launch of a virtual business conference ahead of the 14th BRICS summit, which will be held in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Brazil, India, and South Africa have likewise been silent on Moscow's assault on Ukraine.

Sanctions, according to Xi Jinping, are a boomerang and a double-edged sword that will only harm one's interests as well as those of others, causing hardship for everyone. In addition to the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, nations such as Japan, South Korea, and Singapore have implemented sanctions as a result of the war.

In his brief taped statement to the forum, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro struck a diplomatic tone, lauding his administration's achievements without mentioning any other country.

China's increasingly assertive foreign policy and desire to dominate global markets have sparked outrage in the United States, Europe, and others, fueling calls to replace Chinese suppliers and diminish the world's reliance on the Chinese economy.

Xi Jinping, who has developed a close connection with Russian President Vladimir Putin, urged nations to collaborate on such matters, adding that efforts to "create a little courtyard with high walls" were in no one's best interests, Al Jazeera via MSN reported.

Related Article: Ukraine War: Snake Island Attack Deals 'Significant Losses' to Russia; Satellite Images Show Major Damage

@YouTube

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Congratulations, hakaynasi.com got a very good Social Media Impact Score! Show it by adding this HTML code on your site:

Hakaynasi.com scored 70 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 3.5/5.0 Stars by Social Team

This CoolSocial report was updated on 13 Nov 2014, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.

hakaynasi.com is very popular in Facebook. Furthermore its facebook page has 595 likes.

This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the hakaynasi homepage on Twitter + the total number of hakaynasi followers (if hakaynasi has a Twitter account). This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared, liked or recommended the hakaynasi homepage on Facebook + the total number of page likes (if hakaynasi has a Facebook fan page). The total number of people who shared the hakaynasi homepage on Delicious. The total number of people who shared the hakaynasi homepage on Google Plus by a google +1 button. The total number of people who shared the hakaynasi homepage on StumbleUpon.

Basic Information

PAGE TITLE Hak Aynas, online internet gazeteniz DESCRIPTION KEYWORDS , hak, aynas, hak aynasi, hidayet, Allah, ulasmak, Kur'an OTHER KEYWORDS teslim, basamak, tasavvuf, gnl, allaha, mustafa, siyaset



The keywords meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of the site. The description meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. CoolSocial advanced keyword analysis tool is able to detect and analyze every keyword on each page of a site. The title found in the head section of the homepage.

Domain and Server

DOCTYPE CHARSET AND LANGUAGE UTF-8 SERVER Microsoft-IIS/7.0 (ASP.NET) OPERATIVE SYSTEM Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2008

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 hakaynasi.com as detected by CoolSocial algorithms. 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 hakaynasi.com by MajesticSeo. High values are a sign of site importance over the web and on web engines.

Facebook link

FACEBOOK PAGE LINK FOUND FACEBOOK PAGE www.facebook.com/Hakaynasi DESCRIPTION Hak Aynas Hakkn aynas... Hidayet Allah'a ulasmaktr. LIKES 595 PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT 20 PAGE TYPE Media/news/publishing TIMELINE PAGE TIMELINE

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. The total number of people who like website Facebook page. Facebook Timeline is the new layout of Facebook pages. 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
Symphony.mx 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 19 Apr 2014, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.

This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the symphony homepage on Twitter + the total number of symphony followers (if symphony has a Twitter account). The total number of people who shared the symphony homepage on Google Plus by a google +1 button. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared, liked or recommended the symphony homepage on Facebook + the total number of page likes (if symphony has a Facebook fan page). The total number of people who shared the symphony homepage on StumbleUpon. The total number of people who shared the symphony homepage on Delicious.

Basic Information

PAGE TITLE DESCRIPTION KEYWORDS OTHER KEYWORDS



The keywords meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. CoolSocial advanced keyword analysis tool is able to detect and analyze every keyword on each page of a site. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of the site. The title found in the head section of the homepage. The description meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage.

Domain and Server

DOCTYPE CHARSET AND LANGUAGE ISO-8859-1 SERVER BW HTTP Server OPERATIVE SYSTEM

Operative System running on the server. The language of symphony.mx as detected by CoolSocial algorithms. Represents HTML declared type (e.g.: XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.0, the new HTML 5.0) Character set and language of the site. Type of server and offered services.

Site Traffic trend during the last year. Only available for sites ranked <= 100000 in the world.

Referring domains for symphony.mx 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 total number of people who tagged or talked about website Facebook page in the last 7-10 days. Facebook Timeline is the new layout of Facebook pages. A Facebook page link can be found in the homepage or in the robots.txt file. The URL of the found Facebook page. The total number of people who like website Facebook page. 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
The Belt and Road Initiative in a Global Perspective

09:10, June 24, 2022 By Danilo Turk ( People's Daily

In 2017, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed his vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC). This has put all international initiatives of China, including the Belt and Road Initiative into a global perspective.

On May 22, 2022, a large container ship is loading containers at the terminal of Lianyungang Port, east Chinas Jiangsu province. As the most convenient seaport in Central Asia, the port has promoted cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). (Peoples Daily Online/Wang Jianmin)

Today, four and a half years later and a couple of months before the 20th National Congress of the CPC, it is necessary to discuss the experience gained and further steps to be taken in the realization of both  the vision of shared future for the mankind and of the Belt and Road Initiative.

There are two reasons that make this need pertinent: First, the period of a unipolar world of the post-cold war era is irreversibly over. A new multipolar world is emerging amid tensions and turbulence. In addition, a conceptual framework of the future global system, a world of shared future is necessary.

Second, a careful look at the existing patterns of international cooperation may reveal that the needed building blocks, upon which a vision of a shared future should be developed further, already exist. The Belt and Road Initiative is one of the key building blocks.

Let us take a look at the global system first. The Ukraine crisis has revealed both the weakness and importance of the global system. The problem of Ukraine was on the agenda of the UN Security Council since 2014. In 2015 the Council endorsed the second Minsk Agreement that provided a framework for peaceful settlement of the situation in Eastern Ukraine. However, The Security Council failed to act to ensure the implementation of that agreement. Instead, an ad hoc regional mechanism - the Normandy Format involving the regional powers and Ukraine - was accepted as the main framework for negotiations. However, this mechanism was also an obstacle to a more active engagement of the UN Security Council. The Normandy Format has failed and made the UN Security Council to fail too.

Aerial photo shows the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) International Conference Center in Qionghai city, south Chinas Hainan province, April 12, 2022. (Peoples Daily Online/Yuan Chen)

The lesson that should be learned from this experience is that the UN should not be sidelined in dealing with the issues of peace and security. This is an important lesson that many, but not all international actors have overlooked. The GSI, another China-proposed initiative announced by Xi at the Boao Forum for Asia in April this year showed precisely that security issues must be considered and resolved within the framework of globally accepted principles, such as those under the UN Charter.

The initiative highlights the importance of the UN, the only truly global and universal organization. The founding principles of the UN, the universality of its membership, its programs, funds and agencies and, importantly, its unique global convening power, are indispensable. The UN should be stressed in order to effectively address the problems of our era. The state of the planet today provides ample needs and opportunities for global cooperation. Overcoming the Pandemic of COVID-19 is a priority for all. At the same time the world is facing a triple planetary crisis of global warming, declining biodiversity and pollution. These problems can be resolved only by global action and the UN is the indispensable forum for such action.

The second reason for an in-depth international discussion about Chinas vision of shared future for mankind is found in the existing successful models of international cooperation and the new opportunities they provide.

The BRI is an important example. Its progress made so far already offers significant experiences as well as opportunities for the future. So far, its implementation has shown the importance of demand-driven projects and infrastructure improvement that enable stronger trade flows.

A worker produces a batch of elevators at a company in Huzhou city, east Chinas Zhejiang province, for delivery to Russia and other countries along the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), July 15, 2020. (Peoples Daily Online/Zhang Bin)

In addition, it has shown that the future of BRI could expand the infrastructure to other areas, such as health, green and digital silk roads.

There are spaces for innovation if we take the example of its progress in Africa. Almost all the African countries, more than 50 so far, have engaged in the BRI cooperation. The cooperations include a whole range of economic activities, such as infrastructural development, new telecommunications, additional manufacturing industries and banking. There is much potential for all areas of economic cooperation in the future.

The development priorities of African countries will be decisive. It is encouraging that African countries are strengthening their cooperation through the African Union and new arrangements such as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

Moreover, African countries are already cooperating with a variety of partners. European Union, traditionally a major partner of Africa, has well-established ties with Africa. New forms of cooperation will be increasingly relevant in the future. It would be natural for the Chinese and European approaches to converge, based on the priorities and the development needs of the African countries.

The evolving realities of international cooperation  both global and region-specific - will define the realization of the vision of shared future of the world. No individual country can succeed unilaterally. Unilateralism was short lived. The alternatives of cooperation and partnership already exist, and they are being tested in practice that is constantly opening new opportunities. Chinas vision of shared future for mankind provides strong incentives as well as valuable practical experience. They must be used for the benefit of all.

The author is the former Slovenian president and a member of the Council of Advisory of the Boao Forum for Asia .

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
Photos purported to show Amber Heard and Cara Delevingne kissing in an elevator have gone popular on social media.

The nature of the couple's relationship became a talking topic in recent weeks, as Heard battled it out in court with her ex-husband Johnny Depp during their defamation trial, with fans sifting into all areas of their personal lives.

Amher Heard, Cara Delevingne's Viral Photos

On his YouTube program Popcorned Planet on Tuesday, Andy Signore promoted exclusive photographs of Heard and Delevingne kissing and embracing. The unconfirmed photos show two ladies in an elevator at downtown Los Angeles' Eastern Columbia Building, where Heard and Depp shared a penthouse during their ill-fated engagement.

A lady like Heard wraps her arm over the shoulder of a woman resembling Delevingne before going in for a kiss in the blurry photographs, which appear to have been captured by a security camera.

The photographs were not shot on a specific date, but they have been widely circulated on social media in the hours after they were released. A friend of Heard alleged in May that the Aquaman actor had a three-way romance with Delevingne and Elon Musk while still married to Depp.

Joshua Drew's shocking rediscovered testimony from November 2019 was not utilized during the latest trial between Amber Heard and Johnny Depp, but it has been widely posted on social media, according to Newsweek.

During their last relationship, Heard and 'Pirates of the Caribbean actor Johnny Depp had a penthouse in the building. Ami Goodheart, a Hollywood costume designer who lives in the same building, has formally confirmed that it is her building's elevator. She also speculates with Signore that the lady kissing Heard in the photos is Cara Delevingne.

Josh Drew, the ex-husband of Heard's best friend Raquel 'Rocky' Pennington, previously revealed that Amber Heard was having an adulterous affair with Cara Delevingne and Elon Musk. When asked if Heard, Delevingne, and Musk had spent the night together, he said, "Yes," as per Meaww.

Read Also: FDA Orders Pull Out of Juul E-Cigarettes From US Market For Causing Rise in Teen Vaping

Johnny Depp-Amber Heard Court Battle May Reignite

While this appears to be consistent with Johnny Depp's charges, there is no evidence to tell whether these incidents occurred before or after Amber Heard's divorce from Depp.

While the images might have taken place after their split, it is indicated that the elevator is placed in the Eastern Columbia Building. This place is significant because Johnny Depp and Amber Heard had a condominium there during their failed engagement.

Keeping that in mind, it appears to add credence to the claim that these images were shot during Johnny Depp's relationship with Amber Heard. As a result, it would appear that the charges that Heard cheated on him are true.

In any case, Amber Heard is enthusiastic about appealing the ruling in favor of Johnny Depp. She has so far maintained her denial of the claims brought against her, even claiming that the jury was duped by Depp's exceptional acting ability. So, with all of that in mind, it appears that their legal saga is far from done. However, when additional proof, such as images, emerge it appears that popular opinion will continue to follow Johnny Depp, according to Screen Geek.

Related Article: Kanye West, Kim Kardashian's Court Battle Reignites as Rapper Allegedly Stalls Manipulative Tactics

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A royal critic labeled Prince Harry's interactions with the US media as "desperate for approval."

Royal expert Russell Myers has asked the Duke of Sussex to "stop giving interviews" until he reconciles with his older brother, Prince William, and mends their "strained" relationship.

Expert: Prince Harry Is Desperate For Approval

As he described the persistent conflicts between the two princes, Myers claimed that the brother's relationship was strained to the extreme. He said that he went to the service at St. Paul's Cathedral and saw Prince Harry straining his neck to catch Prince William's sight, but he was unsuccessful.

The Sussexes returned to the United Kingdom in early June for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Despite not having a major part in the four-day royal event, the couple attended the Thanksgiving Service at St. Paul's Cathedral.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle sat barely meters from working employees of the corporation, including Prince William and Kate Middleton. According to Myers, Prince Harry demonstrated that he was desperate for a favor from his brother.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle drew considerable notice in 2021 when they appeared on Oprah Winfrey in a shocking interview that contained a lot of explosive disclosures about the marriage and their experience in the royal establishment.

In an interview during the Invictus Games, Prince Harry recently revealed that he was seeing the Queen for the first time in two years. The Duke discussed his close relationship with his grandmother, the Queen, and his wishes that she is surrounded by the appropriate people, according to Express.

Read Also: World's Largest Freshwater Fish Hooked-in Cambodia, But Scientists Know Little About It

Prince Harry, Meghan Markle Are Threat to British Monarchy

Meanwhile, a royal analyst and author claim that Prince Harry is a larger threat to the British monarchy than disgraced Prince Andrew. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, according to Tina Brown, author of a shocking book on the Royal Family, represent the greatest threat to the Firm's survival.

The royal author went on to say that the Firm "isn't going anywhere" and that Prince Charles would become a transitional king to prepare the way for Prince William. Brown noted that Prince William and Kate Middleton will have to combine the weight of the 1,000-year-old institution with their more European, less conventional approach. The royal novelist went on to say that the UK was going through an identity crisis as a result of the dropped shoe moment of the cost-of-living problem and the impending death of the Queen, as per The Sun.

Furthermore, a royal biographer claims that Prince Harry and Prince William never had such a good friendship previous to their rumored break. According to author Ingrid Seward, the two brothers never got along very well.

Rumors about their strained relationship have circulated since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's shocking interview with Oprah Winfrey in which they implied certain members of the Royal family were 'racist' and unaccepting. During the shocking Oprah interview, Prince Harry also claimed his brother is imprisoned within the royal system, barely months after resigning as a senior royal.

As Prince Harry returned to the UK from California earlier this month for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee festivities, the two brothers were not photographed together and are not known to have met in private.

The royal biographer also said that Kate Middleton tried her hardest to bring the brothers closer together, but her efforts were futile. Prince Harry initially alluded to friction between him and Prince William in the October 2019 ITV documentary 'Harry & Meghan: An African Journey,' when he acknowledged having both good and terrible days with his older brother, Mirror reported.

Related Article: [Report] Prince Charles Urges To Strip Prince Harry's Royal Titles After Expert Claims Future King Gives "Biggest Insult" to the Sussexes

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Social engineering is involved in the vast majority of cyberattacks, but a new report from Proofpoint has revealed five common social engineering assumptions that are not only wrong but are repeatedly subverted by malicious actors in their attacks.

Commenting on the reports findings, Sherrod DeGrippo, Proofpoints vice president threat research and detection, stated that the vendor has attempted to debunk faulty assumptions made by organizations and security teams so they can better protect employees against cybercrime. Despite defenders best efforts, cybercriminals continue to defraud, extort and ransom companies for billions of dollars annually. Security-focused decision makers have prioritized bolstering defenses around physical and cloud-based infrastructure, which has led to human beings becoming the most relied upon entry point for compromise. As a result, a wide array of content and techniques continue to be developed to exploit human behaviors and interests.

Indeed, cybercriminals will go to creative and occasionally unusual lengths to carry out social engineering campaigns, making it more difficult for users to avoid falling victim to them.

Here are five social engineering misconceptions exacerbating attacks, as presented by Proofpoint.

1. Threat actors dont have conversations with targets

The notion that attackers do not invest time and effort conversing with victims to build rapport is flawed, according to the report. Proofpoint researchers observed multiple threat actors sending benign emails to kickstart conversations last year. Effective social engineering is about generating feelings within a user that mentally drive them into engaging with content. By sending benign emails with the intent to lure the user into a false sense of security, threat actors lay the groundwork for a relationship to be more easily exploitable, the report read.

Proofpoint observed multiple business email compromise (BEC), malware distribution, and nation state-aligned advanced persistent threat (APT) campaigns using benign conversations to launch attacks, the latter including activity by threat actors TA453, TA406 and TA499.

2. Legitimate services are safe from social engineering abuse

Users may be more inclined to interact with content if it appears to originate from a source they recognize and trust, but threat actors regularly abuse legitimate services such as cloud storage providers and content distribution networks to host and distribute malware as well as credential harvesting portals, according to Proofpoint. Threat actors may prefer distributing malware via legitimate services due to their likelihood of bypassing security protections in email compared to malicious documents. Mitigating threats hosted on legitimate services continues to be a difficult vector to defend against as it likely involves implementation of a robust detection stack or policy-based blocking of services which might be business relevant, the report read. Proofpoints campaign-level analysis identified OneDrive as the most frequently abused service by top-tier e-crime actors, followed by Google Drive, Dropbox, Discord, Firebase and SendGrid.

3. Attackers only use computers, not telephones

Theres a tendency to assume that social engineering attacks are limited to email, but Proofpoint detected an increase in attacks perpetuated by threat actors leveraging a robust ecosystem of call center-based email threats involving human interaction over the telephone. The emails themselves dont contain malicious links or attachments, and individuals must proactively call a fake customer service number in the email to engage with the threat actor. Proofpoint observes over 250,000 of these threat types each day.

The report identified two types of call center threat activity  one using free, legitimate remote assistance software to steal money, and another using malware disguised as a document to compromise a computer (frequently associated with BazaLoader malware, often referred to as BazaCall). Both attack types are what Proofpoint considers telephone-oriented attack delivery (TOAD), it added. Victims can lose tens of thousands of dollars to these types of threats, with Proofpoint citing one example of an individual losing almost $50,000 to an attack from a threat actor purporting to be a Norton LifeLock representative.

4. Replying to existing email conversations is safe

The sense of trust and security surrounding existing email conversations is being exploited by fraudsters via thread or conversation hijacking, Proofpoint stated. An actor using this method preys on the persons trust in the existing email conversation. Typically, a recipient is expecting a reply from the sender, and is therefore more inclined to interact with the injected content, it wrote.

To successfully hijack an existing conversation, threat actors need to obtain access to legitimate users inboxes, which can be obtained in various ways including phishing, malware attacks, credential lists available on hacking forums, or password spraying techniques. Threat actors can also hijack entire email servers or mailboxes and automatically send replies from threat actor-controlled botnets. In 2021, Proofpoint observed over 500 campaigns using thread hijacking, associated with 16 different malware families. Major threat actors including TA571, TA577, TA575 and TA542 regularly use thread hijacking in campaigns.

5. Fraudsters only use business-related content as lures

While malicious actors will often target business workers, the assumption that they rely on business-related content as lures is incorrect, Proofpoint said. In fact, threat actors have been significantly capitalizing on current events, news and popular culture to get people to engage with malicious content. The report cited several campaigns from last year that took this approach, including:

BazaLoader attacks leveraging Valentines Day themes such as flowers and lingerie

TA575 distributing the Dridex banking trojan using themes from Netflix show Squid Game targeting users in the U.S.

Internal Revenue Service (IRS)-themed campaigns leveraging the idea that the potential victim was owed an additional refund to harvest a variety of personally identifying information (PII)

An average of more than six million COVID-19-related threats per day throughout 2021

Business must train employees on social engineering tactics, debunk misconceptions

Given both the creativity of social engineering tactics and misconceptions around the methods fraudsters employ, organizations must engage with their workforce to raise awareness of the real threats social engineering poses and shift mindsets that may be vulnerable to exploitation. The most impactful course of action, for any given organization, is to shift the culture toward a posture where identification of incoming threats is understood as both relevant and necessary. This means encouraging familiarization with the wide array of content threat actors may leverage and imposing few obstacles to more regular flagging of content as potentially malicious, Proofpoints report read.

For Raef Meeuwisse, cybersecurity consultant and author of How to Hack a Human: Cybersecurity for the Mind, employees need to be educated that the most convincing social engineering scams often appear just as authentic as a lot of what they interact with during genuine, day-to-day work  or potentially even more so. Lapsus$ went as far as sending out real push mobile multi-factor authentication requests via the real security platform to real employees  and many of the rogue requests were approved by the recipients, he tells CSO.

The best way to empower employees to spot social engineering is to make them alert to any situation that is causing sudden panic and urgency to act without delay, adding that if users experience these two symptoms together, 99.99% of the time they are in the middle of being scammed through social engineering, Meeuwisse says. And of course, employees should be trained to report potential social engineering activity to the incident response group, and if in doubt, to ask for their guidance.

However, on the subject of debunking social engineering myths, Meeuwisse also advises businesses to recognize that risks do not always come from outside an organization. What gets forgotten about or completely sidelined are methods to report, check and monitor for people that have intentionally faked their way into a position to exploit an organization, he says. This is a much bigger problem than many organizations think because substantial breaches caused by rogue insider actions are rarely revealed to the media, yet statistics flag rogue insiders as a big problem. If an organization does few to no background checks, has no mechanism for anonymous whistleblowing, or (in two cases he has seen) has a rogue insider in charge of vetting other rogue insiders, he says, then there is a large gap in their social engineering defenses.
VERNON  Hate crime charges against an Enfield man accused of drawing Nazi symbols on buildings at the University of Connecticut will be dismissed if he stays out of trouble for two years and gives $500 to a local synagogue.

Kristopher Pieper, 22, appeared in Rockville Superior Court Friday before Judge Kathleen McNamara, where he applied for a form of accelerated rehabilitation, a pretrial probation program.

He was arrested last April on charges, including intimidation based on bigotry or bias and criminal mischief after police said he spray-painted a swastika and Nazi SS bolts on a building across the street from the universitys Hillel chapter at the start of Passover.

Deputy Assistant States Attorney Ashely Sgro told the judge it would be very difficult for her to support Piepers request.

She said that despite initially denying involvement, a police search warrant revealed Pieper admitted drawing the symbols, and tearing down a Menorah on a bulletin board and making other disturbing comments.

Surveillance footage also implicated Pieper, the prosecutor said.

Pieper did not speak during the hearing.

His lawyer, Trent LaLima, said his clients behavior was attributable to alcohol abuse, immaturity and insensitivity.

In the 15 months since this incident, Mr. Pieper has made remarkable progress on each of those things, he said.

LaLima said Pieper was discharged from a substance abuse and mental health treatment program after 13 sessions.

He was put on probation at UConn, LaLima said, and remains on academic supervision, with a 3.7 GPA while working 15 hours a week at a warehouse job. He also wrote a letter of apology and paid restitution.

He asked the judge to grant a form of the accelerated rehabilitation program for defendants accused of hate crimes because of Piepers age, subsequent treatment and the nonviolent nature of the offenses.

He's worked very hard these 15 months to stay out of trouble, LaLima said.

The judge granted the program, ordering the case to be dismissed in two years if Pieper donates $500 to a local synagogue, after lamenting that our society seems to have too much hate for everybody.

Pieper nodded along as the judge spoke.

Do not repeat this behavior, McNamara said. Any slip-up at all and youll be back.
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BEIRUT (AP)  Lebanon and Sri Lanka may be a world apart, but they share a history of political turmoil and violence that led to the collapse of once-prosperous economies bedeviled by corruption, patronage, nepotism and incompetence.

The toxic combinations led to disaster for both: Currency collapse, shortages, triple-digit inflation and growing hunger. Snaking queues for gas. A decimated middle class. An exodus of professionals who might have helped rebuild.

There usually isnt one moment that marks the catastrophic breaking point of an economic collapse, although telltale signs can be there for months  if not years.

When it happens, the hardship unleashed is all-consuming, transforming everyday life so profoundly that the country may never return to what it was.

Experts say a dozen countries  including Egypt, Tunisia, Sudan, Afghanistan and Pakistan  could suffer the same fate as Lebanon and Sri Lanka, as the post-pandemic recovery and war in Ukraine spark global food shortages and a surge in prices.

ROOTS OF CRISIS

The crises in Lebanon and Sri Lanka are rooted in decades of greed, corruption and conflict.

Both countries suffered a long civil war followed by a tenuous and rocky recovery, all the while dominated by corrupt warlords and family cliques that amassed enormous foreign debt and stubbornly held on to power.

Various popular uprisings in Lebanon have been unable to shake off a political class that has long used the countrys sectarian power-sharing system to perpetuate corruption and nepotism. Key decisions remain in the hands of political dynasties that gained power because of immense wealth or by commanding militias during the war.

Amid the factional rivalries, political paralysis and government dysfunction has worsened. As a result, Lebanon is one of the most backward Middle East countries in infrastructure and development, including extensive power cuts which persist 32 years after the civil war ended.

In Sri Lanka, the Rajapaksa family has monopolized politics in the island nation for decades. Even now, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is still clinging to power, although the family dynasty around him has crumbled amid protests since April.

Experts say the current crises in both countries is of their own making, including a high level of foreign debt and little invested in development.

Moreover, both countries have suffered repeated bouts of instability and terrorist attacks that upended tourism, a mainstay of their economies. In Sri Lanka, Easter suicide bombings at churches and hotels killed more than 260 people in 2019.

Lebanon has suffered the consequences of neighboring Syrias civil war, which flooded the country of 5 million with about 1 million refugees.

Both economies were then hit again with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

TIPPING POINTS

Lebanons crisis began in late 2019, after the government announced new proposed taxes, including a $6 monthly fee for using Whatsapp voice calls. The measures set a spark to long smoldering anger against the ruling class and months of mass protests. Irregular capital controls were put in place, cutting people off from their savings as the currency began to spiral.

In March 2020, Lebanon defaulted on paying back its massive debt, worth at the time about $90 billion or 170% of GDP  one of the highest in the world. In June 2021, with the currency having lost nearly 90% of its value, the World Bank said the crisis ranked as one of the worst the world has seen in more than 150 years.

In Sri Lanka, with the economy still fragile after the 2019 Easter bombings, Gotabaya pushed through the largest tax cuts in the countrys history. That sparked a quick backlash, with creditors downgrading the countrys ratings, blocking it from borrowing more money as foreign exchange reserves nosedived.

On the brink of bankruptcy, it has suspended payments on its foreign loans and introduced capital controls amid a severe shortage of foreign currency. The tax cuts recently were reversed.

Meanwhile the Sri Lankan rupee has weakened by nearly 80% to about 360 to $1, making the costs of imports even more prohibitive.

Our economy has completely collapsed, the prime minister said Wednesday.

UPENDED LIVES

Before this latest descent, both Lebanon and Sri Lanka had a middle-income population that allowed most people to live somewhat comfortably.

During the 1980s and 1990s, many Sri Lankans took jobs as domestic workers in Lebanese households. As Sri Lanka began its postwar recovery, they have been replaced by workers from Ethiopia, Nepal and the Philippines.

The recent crisis forced most Lebanese to give up that luxury, among others. Almost overnight, people found themselves with almost no access to their money, evaporated savings and worthless salaries. A months salary at minimum wage isnt enough to buy 20 liters (5 1/4 gallons) of gasoline, or cover the bill for private generators that provide homes with a few hours of electricity a day.

At one point, severe shortages of fuel, cooking gas and oil led to fights over limited supplies  scenes now replicated in Sri Lanka. Cancer drugs are often out of stock. Earlier this year, the government even ran out of paper for new passports.

Tens of thousands of professionals, including doctors, nurses and pharmacists, have left the country in search of jobs.

Similarly, Sri Lanka is now almost without gasoline and faces an acute shortage of other fuels. Authorities have announced nationwide power cuts of up to four hours a day and asked state employees not to work on Fridays, except for those needed for essential services.

The U.N. World Food Program says nearly nine of 10 Sri Lankan families are skipping meals or otherwise skimping to stretch their food, while 3 million are getting emergency humanitarian aid.

Doctors have resorted to social media to seek critical supplies of equipment and medicine. Growing numbers of Sri Lankans want passports to go overseas to search for work.

OTHER DISASTERS

In addition to the political and financial turmoil, both countries have faced disasters that worsened their crises.

On Aug. 4, 2020, a catastrophic explosion s truck Beirut's port, killing at least 216 people and wrecking large parts of the city. The blast, widely considered one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history, was caused by the detonation of hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate that was stored in a warehouse for years. The dangerous material was housed there apparently with the knowledge of senior politicians and security officials who did nothing about it.

There was widespread outrage at the traditional parties endemic corruption and mismanagement, which were widely blamed for the calamity.

Sri Lanka faced a disaster in early 2021, when a container ship carrying chemicals caught fire off the coast of the capital of Colombo. It burned for nearly two weeks before sinking while being towed to deeper waters.

The burning ship belched noxious fumes and spilled more than 1,500 tons of plastic pellets into the Indian Ocean, which were later found in dead dolphins and fish on the beaches.

Fishing was banned in the area because of health risks associated with the chemicals in the water, affecting the livelihoods of some 4,300 families, who still have not received compensation.

___

Rising reported from Bangkok. Associated Press writer Krishan Francis in Colombo, Sri Lanka, contributed.
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The U.S. Supreme Courts decision Friday overturning nearly 50 years of reproductive rights may mean little in the short term for Connecticut, where abortion is codified in state law and the General Assembly this year approved legislation to become a safe harbor for physicians and patients from throughout the country.

The high court ruling gives states the power to support or ban abortions. Reproduction rights were written into Connecticut law about 30 years ago, and during this past legislative session, the laws were expanded to protect women seeking abortions from other states - and the medical personnel who treat them - from civil and criminal liability from outside Connecticut.

A legal expert, however, warned that the new law, set to take effect on July 1, might not protect nonresidents who journey to Connecticut for abortions.

Erik Trautmann / Hearst Connecticut Media

While the decision did not come as a surprise, following the earlier leaking of a draft court opinion, disappointment and vindication depended on where state residents stood on the issue. Opponents of the decision warned that it could be the next step in the conservative court majoritys attacks on a variety of civil liberties, including same-sex marriage.

This decision is cruel and unconscionable because it will send doctors to jail for providing life-saving care and it will turn women into felons, said Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz. Its cruel and unconscionable because it targets poor women, indigenous women and women of color.

State Attorney General William Tong said the ruling is likely just the beginning of a systematic right-wing effort to rewrite decades of bedrock legal precedent, the foundation of which is our long-recognized right to privacy in making our most personal decisions. He predicted a forthcoming tsunami of radical litigation and legislation aimed at further eroding rights we have taken for grantedsome for generations with marriage equality, inter-racial marriage, and access to birth control as possible future targets.

Bob Child / AP Photo /Bob Child

We know already there are plans to push for a nationwide abortion ban should Republicans gain control of both houses of Congress, Tong said.

Todd Fernow, professor emeritus at the UConn School of Law specializing in criminal law and procedure said the ruling essentially gives more rights to the unborn. They came very close to declaring a fetus a person, he said in an interview. Thats troubling because it validates what is already on the horizon: making termination of a pregnancy a homicide.

Fernow predicted eventual prosecutions for manslaughter or murder. He said that Connecticuts efforts to protect out-of-state residents from prosecution is likely unenforceable and could create a false sense of security.

Thats flatly unconstitutional, Fernow said. Thats not going to fly. States will be powerless to prevent anyone from being extradited. You cant prevent an extradition. Thats not a choice, and its specific in the extradition clause of the Constitution.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal rejected the thesis.

Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media

First of all, Connecticut cant extradite people, said the former longtime state attorney general now seeking a third term in the Senate. Its not like a foreign country. Were not the 13 colonies anymore. Point number two, protecting against the use of Connecticuts state process, our legal system, to punish somebody in a way that violates our state constitution and our state laws, is perfectly supportable.

The Connecticut Catholic Public Affairs Conference called the decision a new era of opportunity and responsibility to safeguard life and protect the most innocent among us. The conservative clerics welcomed a historic reversal, which affirms the right to life of an unborn child and we pledge to do all that is possible to support pregnant women who face serious challenges.

The conference acknowledged that the nation is deeply divided. Acts of violence and other hateful actions will only make it more difficult for constructive discourse, the conference wrote in a statement shortly after the release of the decision. It is time for reconciliation as we support a culture of life together. In that spirit, our parishes and our social programs must be prepared to meet the increasing needs for pro-life pregnancy resource centers and supports for women raising children.

Attacks against abortion clinics rose in 2021 and more were linked to the actions of white supremacists, according to a report last month by the National Abortion Foundation.

An abortion at 20 years old

Lauren Gray, 33, of Shelton, said she felt shattered all day Friday following the decision, recalling her own decision more than a dozen years earlier to terminate her pregnancy. Gray had an abortion when she was 20 and in a bad relationship. Because of her decision, she said, she was able to leave that relationship, meet her eventual husband and have two children. Now, Gray said, many women will be unable to safely make the same choices she did.

Honestly, Ive just felt devastated and horrified all day that this is the new reality, she said. Theres so much at stake. I dont think this Supreme Court or Republicans will stop here.

Gray echoed the thoughts of many advocates who say that making abortion illegal wont stop people from seeking to end their pregnancies - it will just make the process unsafe. Im happy to live in a state like Connecticut willing to protect reproductive freedoms, and Im going to fight, she said.

Dr. Nancy Stanwood, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, the states largest abortion provider, said during an online news conference on Friday that women from Texas have already come to Connecticut seeking abortions.

She recalled one recent case that highlights what were going to continue to see in the weeks and months following the Supreme Courts decision.

One of Planned Parenthoods clinics recently cared for a patient from Texas, who became pregnant as a result of a rape, had a connection in Connecticut and the means to travel here to get an abortion.

These bans in other states, many of them, most of them, will not have exceptions for rape or incest, Stanwood said.

The new Connecticut law taking effect July 1 expands the types of medical providers who can perform aspiration abortions, the most common in-clinic procedure. Stanwood said Planned Parenthood is in midst of developing a training program for its advanced practice clinicians who are interested in performing the procedure. She said she expects the training program to start this summer.

Amanda Skinner, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, said its hard to estimate the number of women who will come to Connecticut seeking care or the number of providers that will be needed. The current wait time for an abortion at a Planned Parenthood clinic is about two weeks.

State lawmakers, knowing that the leaked draft of the Supreme Court decision set the table for the eventual ruling, reacted to the court ruling with outrage.

I am anguished and angry beyond words, Blumenthal told reporters in Hartford. And scared. Downright petrified. 

Blumenthal noted that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has indicated support for a nationwide abortion ban if Republicans gain control over the legislative and executive branches of government. Connecticut will be in danger because Mitch McConnell is going to lead this country to a national ban on abortion, he said.

State Sen. Mae Flexer, D-Windham, encouraged pro-choice Connecticut residents to not only vote for pro-choice leaders locally but also to support women in other states seeking abortions.

If youre thinking about how privileged you are to live in the state of Connecticut, think about the money some women are going to have to spend, and probably dont have, to travel across state lines to get reproductive health care, she said.

A 2022 election issue

We are going to protect that right, Lamont said on the north steps of the Capitol, taking a slap at his Republican challenger Bob Stefanowski. I am so sick of these servants for Republicans talking about freedom and liberty and small government. This is the biggest encroachment on our freedoms Ive had in my lifetime and its not going to happen in Connecticut.

Stefanowski, in a statement earlier in the day, said the Supreme Court ruling has absolutely no impact on Connecticut residents. He charged that Lamont is extreme in opposing Stefanowskis support for mandatory parental notification for girls under the age of 16 seeking abortions.

Earlier in the day, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy warned that the future depends on stopping the GOP from taking control of the Congress and the presidency in two years. This is awful news for women, for families, for health care providers, for every American, Murphy said in Hartford.

What we saw is six politicians masquerading as justices, trying to impose their political views on this nation, he said.

Earlier this month, Murphy, Blumenthal and other senators called on President Joe Biden to develop a national plan to protect reproductive rights.

I wish I was shocked, but I sadly am not, said U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, in a statement shortly after the court announcement.

This activist conservative Supreme Court that lambasts decisions it does not like as judicial activism has made a dangerous move, disregarding science and decades of legal precedent to strip away a womans fundamental and constitutional right to make her own health care decisions, DeLauro said.

Leora Levy, the Greenwich newcomer, a member of the Republican National Committee who is seeking the nomination to challenge Blumenthal if she wins the partys August primary, praised the high courts ruling.

Today the Supreme Court decision has returned America to valuing, respecting and protecting Life, Levy said in a statement. Unfortunately, we cannot turn back time and ensure a chance for life to the 45 million babies who never had one, but we can celebrate the end of progressive pressure to abandon the Constitution and our American values.

State Rep. Steve Meskers, D-Greenwich, sharply criticized the court.

This week we have witnessed the most outlandish and foolish rulings by our Supreme Court, said Meskers, the second-term vice chairman of the legislative Finance Committee.

Freshly off the slaughter of children in Uvalde and a senate finally showing some marginal backbone to the NRA, our Supreme Court has sent a clear message, which is that the lives of our kids dont really matter and that the women in our country dont deserve the right to make reproductive decisions for themselves, he said. The testimony they gave on settled law as they were interviewed for the job of Supreme Court justice has proven to be the worst kind of shameful chicanery.

Another Republican, however, Toni Boucher of Wilton, who is seeking to regain the state Senate seat she lost four years ago to Sen. Will Haskell, D-Westport, said the ruling is making women afraid.

I understand that this issue is deeply emotional and personal for every person and differing personal views and beliefs must always be respected, Boucher said in a statement. For me personally, I have been on the record for over 20 years as a pro-choice legislator and will continue to be one if returned to office. I have and will always fiercely protect women, their health, and their right to choose."

Staff writers Ken Dixon, Alex Putterman, Jordan Fenster, Amanda Cuda, Ken Borsuk and Julia Bergman contributed to this report.
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Rallies are already popping up or are planned to take place across Connecticut in response to the Supreme Court of the United States overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade case and other cases that guaranteed a persons constitutional right to abortion.

Today, SCOTUS decided that is not the case after all.

We therefore hold that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion, Justice Samuel Alito wrote in his decision. Roe and Casey must be overruled, and the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives.

The courts three liberal justices, Stephen Breyer; Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, responded by saying:

With sorrowfor this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protectionwe dissent,

The decision puts the right to regulate abortion into the hands of states. At least twelve states have so-called trigger laws, immediately putting into place massive restrictions or total bans on abortion. And other states, like Florida, have recently reduced abortion access with considerations to take those steps further upon the decision.

RELATED: Tampon, formula shortages extremely stressful for CT women: 'not looking like a very good year'

While the ruling will not change abortion access in Connecticut, where state law already protects the practice, reproductive rights activists and the states Democratic party are rallying in solidarity with those who might have just lost access to safe and legal abortions.

Here is where you can find rallies today:

Bridgeport

A rally will take place at the Federal Courthouse on Lafayette Boulevard at 5 p.m.

Hartford

Connecticut State Dems are holding a rally on the Capitol steps, 300 Capitol Ave, Hartford, at 2 p.m.

Litchfield

A rally will take place at the Litchfield Green, 74 West Street, at 5 p.m.

Milford

A rally will be held Sunday at Milford City Hall, 110 River St., Milford at 4 p.m.

New Milford

A rally will take place on the south end of the Town Green, 10 Main St, New Milford, from 5 p.m.-7 p.m.

New Haven

A rally will be held at the Federal Courthouse, 141 Church St, New Haven, from 5 p.m.-8 p.m.

Norwalk

A rally will be held at The Green, 8, Park St., Norwalk on Saturday at 10 a.m.

Stamford

A rally will be held at Forest Street and Bedford Street by Latham Park at 5 p.m.
PARIS (AP)  Several suspects around France have been detained or given preliminary charges in recent days for allegedly pricking people with a needle in nightclubs or at concerts, following a surge in needle attacks that have confounded authorities and seeded panic among young club-goers.

The French Interior Ministry, prosecutors, the national anti-drug agency, public health authorities and doctors have not determined a motive for the attacks, or whether the victims were injected with drugs, viruses or any substance at all.

Since January, 1,004 people have filed formal complaints with French authorities about such needle pricks, an Interior Ministry official told The Associated Press.

In the cases so far that resulted in charges, medical tests did not reveal any signs of harmful substances, including so-called date rape drug GHB, authorities said. The suspects have denied all allegations.

The targeted individuals, who are mostly women, show visible marks of injection, often bruises, and report symptoms like feeling groggy. The ministry official urged caution in assuming a link between the needle pricks and GHB.

After months of fruitless investigations, authorities in the Mediterranean city of Toulon arrested a 20-year-old man suspected of pricking three women with a needle on the night of June 3-4, during the recording of a concert for TV. He was the first suspect given preliminary charges, for aggravated violence with a weapon (a syringe) with premeditation."

A teenage girl and a woman reported that a man tried to attack them with a syringe and was violent toward them as they waited in line for the event.

The third victim, a female security agent, encountered the same man at the concert. She then fainted, and an injection mark was spotted on her hand, and she was hospitalized. The Toulon prosecutor is awaiting the results of her blood tests.

The prosecutor, Samuel Finielz, told The Associated Press that the suspect denies all allegations and is still presumed innocent. No syringe was found in his apartment. He remains in custody.

Later in the same region, in the beach town of Six-Four-Les-Plages, police arrested two suspects who received preliminary charges for the suspected administration of a harmful substance on the night of June 10-11, the prosecutor said on regional broadcaster France-3.

A 25-year-old woman reported being pricked with a needle and passing out in a club that night. The woman told police she felt dizzy after she was stuck and the week after but then recovered.

Syringes and injectable, prescription drugs were found in the apartment of one suspect. The man denied all allegations, arguing that the syringes and drugs belonged to his wife, who is a nurse, according to the prosecutor.

Fear of needle attacks have grown among young people in France, who are sharing advice about avoiding getting pricked  as well as unconfirmed rumors  on social media. The anxiety intensified this week around Tuesday's World Music Day as crowds gathered for concerts.

Another eight people were arrested on World Music Day after individuals reported being pricked with needles, according to the Interior Ministry. Some were later released. At least one, in Nancy in eastern France, has been given preliminary charges on accusations that he pricked at least two people.

The suspect denied wrongdoing, and said he was heavily drunk and didn't recall the events, according to Nancy Prosecutor Francois Perain. The suspect, a homeless man identified as Damien J., had syringes in his belongings, Perain said in a statement.

He was detained after two people said that they were pricked at a Music Day event. Two additional potential victims were identified and investigations are ongoing, the prosecutor said. The suspect told investigators the syringes were for his personal drug use, Perain said.

One victim went to the emergency room, and showed "a medical certificate reporting an injection mark, the prosecutor said. Urgent toxicology analyses were conducted on two victims, but for now nothing tells us that something was injected, Perain stressed.

The suspect told investigators that he didnt see himself committing such acts and would be ashamed if he did," according to the prosecutor. Born in 1987, Damien J. had prior run-ins with police for driving under the influence of drugs without a license, and threatening people of public authority.

Police, doctors and medico-legal services are working together to support victims. The Interior Ministry and national police are working to raise awareness among club-goers and club owners.

Britains government also has been studying a spate of needle spiking, while police in Belgium and the Netherlands have reported scattered cases, too.
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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP)  The end of constitutional protections for abortions in the United States on Friday emboldened abortion opponents around the world, while advocates for abortion rights worried it could threaten recent moves toward legalization in their countries.

The U.S. Supreme Courts overturning of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision "shows that these types of rights are always at risk of being steamrolled, said Ruth Zurbriggen, an Argentinian activist and member of the Companion Network of Latin America and the Caribbean, a group favoring abortion rights.

But in El Salvador, anti-abortion campaigner Sara Larin expressed hope the ruling will bolster campaigns against the procedure around the globe.

I trust that with this ruling it will be possible to abolish abortion in the United States and throughout the world, said Larin, president of Fundacion Vida SV.

In Kenya, Phonsina Archane watched news of Fridays ruling and said she froze for a while in a state of panic.

This is being done in America, which should be an example when it comes to the womens rights movement, said Archane, an activist for abortion rights. If this is happening in America, what about me here in Africa? Its a very, very sad day.

She worried the ruling will embolden abortion opponents across Africa who have charged into reproductive health clinics or threatened attacks. There is no safe place on the continent, she said.

Abortion in sub-Saharan Africa is already more unsafe than in any other region of the world, and the overwhelming majority of women of child-bearing age live in countries where abortion laws are highly or moderately restricted, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a New York-based research organization that supports abortion rights.

Archane said civil society groups in Africa will have to come together to work out strategies on how to keep themselves and women safe. Just months ago, many saw hope when the World Health Organization released guidelines on quality abortion care, she said. We had a step ahead, and now we have to go five steps back again.

The decision, which leaves it up to lawmakers in individual U.S. state to decide whether to allow or ban abortions, lit up social media across Argentina, where a law that legalized elective abortion up to the 14th week of gestation took effect in January 2021 after years of debate.

Anti-abortion activists cheered the ruling, with legislator Amalia Granata tweeting: There is justice again in the world. We are going to achieve this in Argentina too!!

In more conservative countries like El Salvador, where abortions are illegal no matter the circumstance and where some 180 women with obstetric emergencies have been criminally prosecuted in the last two decades, Larin warned that the ruling could inspire yet more efforts to loosen abortion restrictions outside the U.S.

Campaigns promoting abortion may intensify in our countries because funding and abortion clinics in the United States are going to close as they have been doing in recent years," she said.

At the Vatican, the head of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, joined U.S. bishops in saying it is a time for reflection, healing wounds and civil dialogue.

The fact that a large country with a long democratic tradition has changed its position on this issue also challenges the whole world. the academy said.

In Mexico, lawyer and activist Veronica Cruz said the ruling could give a boost to anti-abortion groups, but added it likely wont have any impact in Mexico where 10 of the countrys 32 states have legalized abortion up to 12 weeks gestation in recent years.

She noted the ruling could lead to an increase in calls for help from U.S. women seeking abortions. So far this year, local activists have helped some 1,500 U.S. women the get the abortion pills, Cruz said.

Ricardo Cano, with the anti-abortion group National Front for Life, also doubts the ruling would have any impact in Mexico or elsewhere in Latin America, given the advance of leftist ideologies in the region.

Colombia, which became in February the latest Latin American country to expand access to abortion, also will not be affected by the ruling, said Catalina Martinez Coral, director for Latin America and the Caribbean for the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Ahead of U.S. President Joe Bidens trip overseas, the heads of at least two Group of Seven members called the decision horrific.

No government, politician or man should tell a woman what she can and cannot do with her body, said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, adding that he cant imagine the fear and anger women in the U.S. must be experiencing in the wake of the ruling.

The French Foreign Ministry urged U.S. federal authorities to do everything possible to ensure American women have continued access to abortions, calling it a health and survival issue. France's president, Emmanuel Macron, added in a tweet that abortion is a fundamental right of all women.

New Zealand's prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said: Watching the removal of a womans fundamental right to make decisions over their own body is incredibly upsetting. Here in New Zealand we recently legislated to decriminalise abortion and treat it as a health rather than criminal issue.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organiztion, said on Twitter that he was concerned and disappointed by the ruling. saying it reduces both womens rights and access to health care.

The U.N. agency dealing with sexual and reproductive health said that whether or not abortion is legal it happens all too often and global data shows that restricting access makes abortion more deadly.

The United Nations Population Fund issued a statement following the Supreme Courts decision noting that its 2022 report said that nearly half of all pregnancies worldwide are unintended and over 60% of those pregnancies may end in abortion.

A staggering 45% of all abortions around the world are unsafe, making this a leading cause of maternal death, the agency said.

It said almost all unsafe abortions occur in developing countries, and it fears that more unsafe abortions will occur around the world if access to abortion becomes more restricted.

In the only part of Latin America directly affected by the ruling, Puerto Rico, the islands Senate approved a bill Tuesday that would prohibit abortions after 22 weeks or when a doctor determines a fetus is viable, with the sole exception being if a womans life is in danger. The bill is now before the islands House of Representatives.

Dr. Migna Rivera Garcia, president of Puerto Ricos Association of Psychologists, said the U.S. Supreme Courts ruling has prompted abortion rights activists to reformulate their strategy.

It causes a lot of uncertainty given the environment right now in Puerto Rico, she said. This bill harms poor women and black women the most. ... They dont have access to services like other social groups.

___

Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Associated Press writers Almudena Calatrava in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Marcos Aleman in San Salvador, El Salvador; Edith Lederer at the United Nations; Fabiola Sanchez in Mexico City; Frances D'Emilio in Rome; Astrid Suarez in Bogota, Colombia, and AP journalists around the world contributed to this report
Few markers of the COVID-19 pandemic were as dramatic as the drop in railroad ridership. On Metro-North Railroads New Haven Line, normally one of the busiest in the country, the number of people taking the train in mid-2020 dropped by more than 90%.

So in what could be an indicator that the state is reaching an accommodation with the still-active virus, the New Haven Line reached its highest single-day passenger count, 81,308, on June 14, since the pandemic began more than two years ago. It was nearly matched the next day, when 80,404 riders took the train.

While still well short of the pre-pandemic weekday average of about 125,000, the numbers are trending in the right direction.

Are we coming back? The answer is yes, said state Department of Transportation Commissioner Joseph J. Giulietti in an interview last week.

He did caution that the June 2022 numbers are a bit misleading, because June 14 and 15 were a Tuesday and a Wednesday. In the new world of hybrid work schedules, the big commuting days are mid-week.

Giulietti said his department first noticed the uptick in ridership on weekend trains, which he thinks were carrying folks who were tired of staying home and missed the bright lights of Broadway, among other New York attractions.

Then, he said, many companies that initially had their employees working remotely began asking the workers to come in two or three days a week. Those days, he said, tended to be mid-week, hence the Wednesday bump.

Having reached a low of 5.3% of pre-pandemic ridership in April 2020, overall ridership, weekend and weekday, reached 55.1% last month, nearly 2 million riders, and it keeps climbing, Giulietti said. He said New Jersey rail ridership closely mirrors ours.

Time For CT

As riders return, Giulietti hopes to treat them to a (slightly) faster ride to New York. A year ago, Gov. Ned Lamont announced a plan, Time for CT, that among other things promised to shave 10 minutes off the trip from New Haven to New York this year and 25 minutes off the ride by 2035. Giulietti said he expects to meet that goal when new schedules are released later this year, thanks mostly to roadbed improvements.

Upgrading the present system will most likely be the wave of the future for Connecticut rail.

Over the past decade or more, a variety of concepts have been put forward about revamping rail travel in the state, from a second deck along the shoreline route for high-speed trains to a rail tunnel under Long Island Sound.

Giulietti said while these options are still on the table, his immediate concern is bringing the existing system up to a state of good repair and, by doing so, getting as much speed out of it as is safely possible. As has long been reported, the state under-funded its rail system for decades, resulting in what Giulietti calls piecemeal maintenance. Trips got slower, delays became more frequent and 19th-century swing bridges began to fail.

Amtrak is extremely frustrated by Connecticut. We are their slowdown zone, said Giulietti.

Reason for hope

There have been improvements in recent years. Perhaps the most obvious was the creation of the Hartford Line in 2018, service from New Haven to Hartford and Springfield. Ridership on the Hartford Line has come back well, Giulietti said, reaching 45,185 riders in May, 73.2% of its pre-pandemic ridership.

The DOT has a study in progress that is examining the plausibility of electrifying the Hartford, Danbury and Waterbury lines, which would open those routes to the electric-powered M8 cars. Additionally, the department is in the design phase of double-tracking the Hartford Line north of Hartford and hopes to go after federal funds for the project in the next few years, said department spokesman Josh Morgan. Double-tracking would allow more trains to run on the line, he said.

A few weeks ago, the DOT began running M8 cars on Shore Line East, the service from New London to New Haven and Stamford. Giulietti said he hopes the new equipment  faster and cleaner  will attract more riders.

The line could use them. Ridership had dropped to 2.7% of pre-pandemic levels, from 59,371 to 1,544 in May 2020, but has ascended to 16,386 riders last month, 27.6% of pre-COVID levels.

As to the future, one idea under discussion  still an idea, but an enticing one  is a tunnel to replace the sharp S curve in Bridgeport, where trains must slow to 30 mph.

Improvements such as a Bridgeport tunnel will take considerable folding green. But funds are coming. The $1 trillion federal infrastructure bill signed by President Joe Biden last winter committed $66 billion to rail improvements, including $30 billion for the Northeast Corridor and $6 billion for Amtrak.

Giulietti said that, and the states commitment to match federal funds, constitute the largest investment in rail in his more than 50 years in the rail industry.

Im truly optimistic, he said.
United States President Joe Biden's administration has reached a deal this week to cancel $6 billion worth of student loan debt among 200,000 borrowers who attended mostly for-profit colleges, a move that received support from the Education Department.

The agreement covers more than 150 different schools across the country, including DeVry University, the University of Phoenix, and the recently defunct ITT Technical Institute. Under the deal, another 68,000 borrowers who did not attend eligible colleges will have their applications for relief fast-tracked.

Student Loan Debt Forgiveness

Originally, the lawsuit was filed in 2019 and argued that the Department of Education intentionally stalled the borrower defense process. It is how people apply for relief if they believe a college they attended made false advertising claims.

The director of the Project on Predatory Student Lending, Eileen Connor, who represented the plaintiffs, celebrated the "momentous proposed settlement" on Thursday. In a statement, she said that the deal will not only help secure billions of dollars in debt cancellation for defrauded students, but charts a borrower defense process that is fair, just, and efficient for future borrowers, as per Fox Business.

A hearing for a judge to give the final sign-off on the deal is scheduled for July 28 and it comes weeks after the Biden administration announced that it would cancel roughly $5.8 billion in debt for anyone who attended a Corinthian school.

Read Also: Stimulus Check 2022: Here's How Oregon Residents Could Receive $600 This Week

The progressive wing of the Democratic Party has, since the first days of Biden's presidency, been pushing the president to cancel $50,000 of student loan debt for each borrower. So far, Biden has resisted those calls but reports last month noted that the White House was considering canceling up to $10,000 in student loan debt for each borrower.

According to CNBC, the plaintiffs brought their lawsuit against the Trump administration in 2019, representing roughly 264,000 class members who said that their applications for loan cancellation were being ignored by the Education Department.

Schools Involved in Misconduct

The project compiled a list of the dozens of schools that are involved in the settlement and that the Education Department has determined engaged in misconduct. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement that the Biden administration has always been working to address long-standing issues relating to the borrower defense process.

The Biden administration previously approved $25 billion in loan forgiveness for 1.3 million borrowers in the country. The decision was made when roughly 43 million Americans have federal student loan debt.

The majority of the borrowers affected by the new agreement have been waiting for several years for the Education Department to process their claims under a rule known as borrower defense to repayment. The process allows borrowers who believe they were misled by their universities, often overinflated job placement rates or the ability to transfer credits, to request federal student loan relief.

No more than a year after the date that the agreement formally goes into effect, roughly 200,000 borrowers will automatically get full debt relief. The deal comes as the Biden administration also temporarily expanded eligibility for what is known as the Public Service Loan Forgiveness, CNN reported.



Related Article: SNAP Benefits 2022: Here's How To Get Extra $95 Each Month!

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MIAMI (AP)  Long-battered shares of Carnival Corp. jumped more than 12% Friday as the cruise line owner reported a big increase in revenue, occupancy levels, and bookings for future trips.

However, the company posted a $1.83 billion second-quarter loss and said the effects of the pandemic and higher fuel prices will lead to another loss in the third quarter.

The cruise industry was shut down by the pandemic and chafed under regulations that were only recently eased by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Even now, a nascent recovery in cruising is uneven, with more demand in the U.S. for nearby cruises, such as Carnival trips to the Caribbean, than more far-flung itineraries.

Carnival, which operates nine cruise brands, said 91% of its fleet is sailing again. Ship occupancy in the quarter that ended last month rose to 69%, compared with 54% in the previous quarter. Bookings nearly doubled from the first quarter and were the strongest since the beginning of the pandemic, the company said.

CEO Arnold Donald said some of the increase in bookings came from people who put off decisions during a surge in COVID-19 earlier in the year, and some reflected pent-up demand after more than two years of the pandemic.

People are getting more comfortable living with this virus. They are anxious to travel, Donald said in an interview. We are well-positioned because people still take vacations, and we are a much better value than a land-based vacation.

The Miami-based company said the loss equaled $1.64 per share after non-recurring items. The average estimate of five analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for a loss of $1.14 per share.

Revenue was $2.4 billion, falling short of the $2.83 billion average Zacks forecast.

Even with Friday's gains, Carnival shares are still down 46% since the start of the year.
HAVANA (AP)  Two members of a loose-knit group of dissident artists have been sentenced to prison in Cuba, the country's prosecutor's office said Friday.

Maikel Castillo was sentenced to nine years for attacks and defamation against the country's institutions and Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara, 34, to five years for insulting national symbols.

Both were involved with the so-called San Isidro Movement  named for the neighborhood where Otero Alcantara lives  that had attracted unusually wide support among prominent Cuban artists and musicians in 2020.

Their arrests had been denounced by international human rights organizations as well as the U.S. government, which considered them political persecution. The government said it was merely applying the law as it would to anyone.

Prosecutors had sought 10 years for Castillo, better by the performance name Osorbo, and seven for Alcantara, according to their friends.

The same court also imposed a five year sentence on Felix Roque Delgado and three years on two women who were convicted to hitting police in an effort to halt the arrest of Castillo, a 39-year-old rapper.

He was among the composers of the song Patria y Vida  Fatherland and Life  whose twist on the Communist government's "Fatherland or Death! slogan made it a sort of anthem for opposition figures. It won a Latin Grammy award this year.

Otero Alcantara's art works featuring the Cuban flag were considered disrespectful.

In November 2020, police broke up a sort of sit-in at Otero Alcantaras house in support of another rapper, Denis Solis, who had been sentenced for prison for insulting a police officer. Castillo was among those taking part in the sit-in.

Officials said they were enforcing pandemic restrictions on gatherings, but the movet prompted about 200 people to stage a larger, almost unprecedented protest outside the Culture Ministry. That broke up after members of the group said theyd won an unusual government vow of greater tolerance for independent art.

Otero Alcantara also was the focus of protests by other artists following his arrest last year. He was hospitalized  reportedly during a hunger strike  to demand the return of works that authorities had confiscated when he was detained.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International had issued statements calling the case against the two artists a farse.

Their arrests were not directly related to large-scale protests that broke out later in 2021 over economic hardships and government policies.
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FAIRFIELD  A recently completed study on the Post Road Circle is proposing adding a roundabout or traffics light to make the intersection at the center of town safer.

Fairfield residents have been concerned about the Post Road Circle for years, as it is extremely difficult for drivers to navigate, a town news release said. Limited crossings and sidewalks, minimum handicap accessibility, and inadequate transit amenities leave pedestrians underserved on a four-lane roadway with over 20,000 vehicles per day.

The two options being considered were modeled and analyzed to determine how traffic operations would be impacted, First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick said in a release.

Safety, property access, pedestrian/transit access and bicyclist accommodations were also evaluated, the release states. Public feedback and community preferences have been incorporated into this evaluation and will continue to inform future decisions for the Post Road Circle.

The study found the roundabout was the best performing option because it will encourage vehicles to drive slower, reduce vehicle queuing, make pedestrian crossings safer, reduce the chance for crashes and potentially lower the number of lanes approaching the roundabout. It also has the advantage of controlling several approaches: Route 1, Route 130, and Old Post Road.

The roundabout is estimated to cost more than $8.72 million, with additional improvements on Route 130 to Shoreham Village Drive and Route 1 to Benson Road, bringing the total to about $14 million, according to the study.

According to the study, this option would replace a yield sign with a peanut-shaped roundabout. It would have two lanes on three sides of the intersection, and a single lane on the remaining western side.

The report calls the traffic light option a more conventional and less costly approach to the circle.

The traffic light would replace the yield sign between Route 1 northbound and Route 130 westbound and the approaches from both roads would have two lanes each, according to the report.

Sidewalks and bike lanes would be provided, it said. The remainder of the network would remain similar, with minor safety improvements.

The estimated cost of this option would be $4.1 million, the report said, with improvements on Route 130 to Shoreham Village Drive and Route 1 to Benson Road bringing the total cost to $9.3 million.

The report was conducted by the town, the Connecticut Metropolitan Council of Governments, FHI Studio and Tighe and Bond. The final report, the existing conditions and alternatives reports, as well as several interactive webpages are available online, according to the release.

The study examined Post Road from the west side of South Benson Road to the east side of Shoreham Terrace, and focused on the Post Road Circle where US 1 and CT 130 intersect with Old Post Road and Kings Highway East.

As both Route 1 and Route 130 are state roads, the release said, a significant amount of coordination with the Connecticut Department of Transportation will be required as any improvements are implemented.

I want to thank the members of our community who have assisted in this process by participating in public meetings and responding to surveys, Kupchick said. This project is critical to improving safety for pedestrians and drivers.

joshua.labella@hearstmediact.com
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Morgan Marietta, UMass Lowell

(THE CONVERSATION) The Supreme Courts decision to reverse 50 years of constitutional protection for the right to get an abortion is more than 200 pages long. Morgan Marietta, a political scientist at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, and editor of the annual SCOTUS series at Palgrave Macmillan, studies the ideas and ideology of the court. We asked him to illuminate the thinking that lies behind the momentous decision.

What does this ruling mean?

This is a revolutionary ruling. Not just for abortion, but for the ongoing debates over the nature of rights under the Constitution.

The ruling signals a massive change in how we read the Constitution, from a living reading to an original reading. The court has firmly rejected the theory of the living Constitution, which argues that the meaning of the documents language changes as the beliefs and values of Americans change.

The living view, which prevailed at the Supreme Court during the second half of the 20th century, means that additional rights can emerge over time, including abortion, privacy and same-sex marriage. The living Constitution is updated through the judgment of the justices of the Supreme Court, who determine when public values have changed, and hence new rights have emerged.

Originalism, which is the approach taken by the justices who overruled Roe, rejects the living Constitution. In the originalist view, the Constitution is static until officially altered by amendment. It does not evolve on its own without public approval. The role of the justices is to determine the original public meaning of the text, but to leave other decisions to democratic representation through elections.

Regarding abortion, the conclusion of Dobbs is clear: The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives.

Arrogated is an unusual word; it means to take without justification, implying that it is done in an arrogant way. That is the core argument of Dobbs: Roe was the court being arrogant, taking power the justices didnt have, which rightly belongs with the people, a Revolutionary-era term in a revolutionary ruling.

Why is there now no right to abortion, when Roe recognized it?

The new originalism of the courts majority argues that if a right is present in the text and original public meaning of the Constitution, including the Bill of Rights and any other amendments, then the decision is beyond the reach of majority rule. But rights must be clear and established in order to wield that sort of influence.

The explicit rights clearly described and enumerated in the Bill of Rights  freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom to bear arms and others  are rising in influence, specifically because they have been approved and ratified by the people.

But the other evolved or implicit rights that have been recognized by the court over time  abortion and gay marriage, among others  are simply not constitutional rights in the view of the new majority. Enumerated rights  the ones specifically spelled out in the Bill of Rights  will be accorded stronger protections, while the recently recognized rights of the living Constitution will not be protected.

Under Roe, the majority saw abortion as within the category of rights. Hence it received constitutional protection. But under the new abortion decision, it should be governed by majority rule, the kind of question that is to be determined by the citizens of each state through their legislatures.

Even the originalist justices, however, recognize that there are some unenumerated rights which, though not spelled out in the Constitution, should be given constitutional protection. The Ninth Amendment explicitly argues for their existence: The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

So how do we know what those rights are? The court has settled on something known as the Glucksberg standard from 1997: Americans hold those additional rights that are deeply rooted in the Nations history and tradition.

In other words, if during the early phase of American history  roughly the 100-year period between the founding and the 14th Amendment, the 1770s to the 1870s  Americans publicly asserted the existence of a right, then it exists. But if they did not, then it does not exist. Under the Glucksberg standard, there has to be clear historical evidence from public debates, political speeches or judicial rulings that the right was asserted and recognized.

In Justice Samuel Alitos majority opinion in Dobbs, he provides a review of the history of abortion: The inescapable conclusion is that a right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the Nations history and traditions. On the contrary, an unbroken tradition of prohibiting abortion on pain of criminal punishment persisted from the earliest days of the common law until 1973, Alito writes.

In the future, the court may rely on its own reading of history to determine which rights exist under the Constitution. But if the record is uncertain, the justices are far more likely to allow states to decide for themselves, rather than usurp the power to address a question of profound moral and social importance that the Constitution unequivocally leaves to the people, wrote Alito.

Is a fetus now a person?

Each state will decide.

The abortion debate has two core questions: Is there a right to abortion? And is a fetus a person?

Even if a right exists, this does not justify the killing of a person  who is another holder of rights. In Roe, the court decided for the nation what the boundaries of fetal personhood were in the early stages of pregnancy: A fetus could not be considered a person before viability at approximately six months, but states could decide during the last trimester. In Dobbs, the court changes course and allows each individual state to make its own determination.

Whether the court should decide disputed realities is a deeply divisive question. There was a fascinating case called Kahler v. Kansas decided in 2020, which addressed the specific question of who gets to decide disputed social facts. In that case it was the boundaries of insanity: Could Kansas define mental illness and hence the insanity defense differently than other states? Does there have to be one definition throughout the nation about such matters as what counts as legally insane, or can we have variation?

In a decision written by Justice Elena Kagan, the court ruled that when realities are uncertain, individual state legislatures could decide for themselves. The same now applies to the personhood of a fetus. The power of individual states to decide social realities within their borders is the future of many constitutional disputes.

As Alito writes: In some states, voters may believe that the abortion right should be even more extensive that the right that Roe and Casey recognized. Voters in other States may wish to impose tight restrictions based on their belief that abortion destroys an unborn human being.

What effect will the ruling have on other issues?

In overturning Roe, the majoritys opinion offers a new and weaker standard for overturning the past rulings of the court. Simply put, precedents will be easier to overturn in the future.

For 30 years, the Casey ruling, which upheld the core of Roe in 1992, has been considered the precedent on precedent. It established four considerations for the legitimate discarding of a previous decision: the ruling misunderstood the Constitution; it proved to be unworkable in practice; new facts have emerged; and it accounts for what are known as reliance interests, where citizens had been guided by a ruling in making decisions about their lives.

Dobbs reverses Roe by rewriting the law of precedent. This will open up many other cases for reversal.

The most significant change is what Alito calls the quality of reasoning. Rulings that looked like legislation, offered faulty history or created standards unjustified by the Constitution can be overruled under the Dobbs standard.

The ruling includes a footnote describing all of the recent cases in which the court has overturned precedents. It may be the longest footnote in contemporary Supreme Court history, coming in at over a page and a half. The conclusion is that the meaning of the Constitution is more important than the history of the court, so precedent does not compel unending adherence to Roes abuse of judicial authority, Alito wrote.

Contrary to much speculation and worry, the Dobbs ruling and the new majority will not overturn protections of interracial marriage, especially the landmark ruling in Loving v. Virginia. That ruling hinges on the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, which is also enshrined in the text and is clearly protected under an original reading.

But other nonenumerated, evolved or created rights that are not textually protected are now up for question. This includes the right of same-sex marriage recognized by Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015.

Questions of rights not explicitly protected by the Constitution  and therefore now in the hands of state legislatures  will rely much more heavily in the future on local democracy. Social movements, campaigns and elections, all at the state level, will become the main battleground of American rights.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/a-revolutionary-ruling-and-not-just-for-abortion-a-supreme-court-scholar-explains-the-impact-of-dobbs-185823.
OZARK, Ala. (AP)  An Alabama police officer who was critically injured after being shot repeatedly while on duty in 2019 has been arrested on a domestic violence charge, news outlets reported Thursday.

Samuel Yoh, 45, of Ozark was arrested on Wednesday afternoon after Ozark police responded to a domestic disturbance. He was charged with third-degree domestic violence with harassment and held in the Dale County Jail.
NEW ALBANY, Miss. (AP)  A company that makes reinforced concrete pipe will almost double its workforce with a $23.3 million expansion that will add 30 jobs, officials said.

Dunn Utility Products, based in Byram, is expanding into the Enhance Mississippi Shell Building in New Albany. The 100,000-square-foot building will house two new manufacturing plants to produce concrete pipe and wet cast concrete. The expansion is needed for increased demand, The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reported.
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

WASHINGTON (AP)  Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, says his COVID-19 recovery is an example for the nation on the protection offered by vaccines and boosters.

Speaking during a White House briefing, Fauci, 81, said he began experiencing virus symptoms on June 14 and tested positive a day later. He was prescribed the anti-viral drug Paxlovid, which has proven to be highly effective at preventing serious illness and death from COVID-19, on June 15.
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The Supreme Courts decision Friday to overturn the constitutional right to abortion has only further fractured an already deep division between the states, where contentious legal battles are almost certain to erupt as legislatures and attorneys general grapple with the new landscape of abortion access.

Even before the opinion, lawmakers, activists and legal scholars were arguing over whether Republican-led states can enforce abortion bans beyond their borders and target providers, people who provide assistance and the women seeking abortions. That speculation could soon become reality as abortion opponents become more emboldened to try novel approaches to prevent women terminating a pregnancy.

In their dissent, the court's liberal justices referenced the potential for the ruling to set off an era of legal chaos and peril for individuals.

They said the court's majority was trying to hide the geographically expansive effects of a ruling that invites a host of questions about interstate conflicts. Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan said the decision will put the court at the center of what some scholars have called the coming interjurisdictional abortion wars.

Can a State bar women from traveling to another State to obtain an abortion?" they wrote. "Can a State prohibit advertising out-of-state abortions or helping women get to out-of-state providers? Can a State interfere with the mailing of drugs used for medication abortions?

Professor Michael Steenson of the Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, predicted the legal landscape after the Supreme Court decision will be in absolute chaos and it will take years to sort out. But some Democratic states aren't waiting to shield women who travel to get an abortion and ensure patients do not face penalties back home.

Washington is barring the state from acting against doctors who perform such abortions, while California and Illinois are considering similar measures. On Friday, the Democratic governors of California, Oregon and Washington announced a joint commitment to defend abortion access.

We will continue to protect patients from any state who comes to our state for abortion care, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said. We will resist intrusions by out of state prosecutors, law enforcement or vigilantes trying to investigate patients receiving services in our states.

In Massachusetts, Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican who has said he supports a woman's right to choose, signed an executive order prohibiting state agencies from assisting another states investigation into people or businesses that receive or deliver reproductive health services that are legal in Massachusetts. The order also protects Massachusetts providers who deliver reproductive health care services from being disciplined based on potential out-of-state charges.

Connecticut enacted a law earlier this year to stymie lawsuits or criminal cases from other states over legal abortions for out-of-state residents.

"This decision carves our nation in two  states that trust the personal and professional decisions of women and doctors, and states where craven politicians control and criminalize those choices," said state Attorney General William Tong, a Democrat. "Connecticut is a safe state, but we will need to be vigilant, aggressive and proactive to defend our rights.

In Minnesota, Attorney General Keith Ellison has already vowed to protect abortion rights as outlined in the state constitution. But he said things will be much tougher in states bordering Minnesota, some of which will have total bans on abortion. Some states such as Texas allow private citizens to sue people who assist in abortions. Ellison said he fears it might lead to lawsuits against those who help women traveling to the state for abortions, but he promised he would fight any possible extraditions.

Half the states are expected to outlaw most abortions with Roe falling, according to the abortion-rights think tank Guttmacher Institute. Twenty-two states, largely in the South and Midwest, already had total or near-total bans on the books. Aside from Texas, all those had been blocked in the courts before Friday's decision.

Once that was issued, several Republican state attorneys general, including those in Ohio and Tennessee, asked the courts to lift stays that has blocked previously passed abortion restrictions in their states.

Separately, 13 other states had enacted so-called trigger laws that immediately ban abortion with Roe overturned. Oklahoma began the process of invoking its trigger law Friday, and other states, including Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia, said they were beginning work on trigger bans. Just moments after the courts decision was announced, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republcan, said he will seek legislation to ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, but its unclear how such a bill would fare in a very closely divided legislature.

Some legal experts  and even some anti-abortion lawmakers  argue that states simply cant control what goes on beyond their borders. Buying and smoking marijuana is one example: Kansas waits until residents return from pot vacations in Colorado to pull them over.

Some abortion opponents argue that its better to focus on providing help to pregnant women and make adoption less expensive so they dont choose abortion. Texas recently allocated $100 million for such services.

I want the Legislature to continue to focus on providing and promoting these alternatives to abortion, said Joe Pojman, executive director of the Texas Alliance for Life.

The Family Council, a conservative group in Arkansas that has advocated for numerous abortion bans, hailed the court's decision but said lawmakers still have work to do. The group is not pushing to prevent women from getting abortions in other states, said Jerry Cox, the groups president. Instead, he said Friday they will focus on helping women with unplanned pregnancies.

We need to create a culture of life that spreads all across the state of Arkansas so that those women never feel that abortion is their only choice, Cox said.

Others warn that the Supreme Courts decision will encourage states to push extreme policies in their attempt to criminalize abortion. Louisiana lawmakers already have floated a proposal calling abortion homicide, which would have opened up women to murder charges if they got an abortion. The proposal was eventually spiked, and there is no immediate indication that Republicans in other states are interested in taking up similar legislation.

In New Hampshire, the Republican-controlled Legislature rejected a bill this year that would have given potential fathers the right to veto a womans abortion. Though legislative leaders there say they don't expect the state to further restrict abortion, lawmakers who have filed bills in the past are expected to try again.

They push the envelope, said Jessica Arons, the American Civil Liberties Unions senior lawyer for reproductive freedom. Theyre always trying to propose things that in the moment seem outrageous or fringe, but the more they push it over time, it becomes normalized.

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Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas; Kruesi from Nashville, Tennessee; and Ramer from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press writers Adam Beam in Sacramento, California; Andrew DeMilo in Little Rock, Arkansas; Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut; Samantha Hendrickson and Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio; Steve Karnowski in St. Paul, Minnesota; Steve LeBlanc in Boston; and Rebecca Santana in New Orleans contributed to this report.

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For APs full coverage of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, go to https://apnews.com/hub/abortion
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP)  NATO-member Norway terminated its two-decade-old contract with a France-based manufacturer for 14 maritime helicopters, citing delays, errors and time-consuming maintenance, the defense minister said Friday, calling the move a serious decision.

The Norwegian government will return the NH90 helicopters it has received so far and expects a full refund of the nearly 5 billion kroner ($525 million) it paid, according to Defense Minister Bjrn Arild Gram.

Regrettably, we have reached the conclusion that no matter how many hours our technicians work, and how many parts we order, it will never make the NH90 capable of meeting the requirements of the Norwegian Armed Forces, Arild Gram said.

The helicopter was developed in the mid-1990s by NHIndustries, a partnership between European companies Airbus Helicopters, Leonardo Helicopters, and Fokker Technologies based in Aix-en-Provence, France. The aircraft is used by numerous countries.

Norway ordered 14 helicopters for coast guard and anti-submarine warfare duties in 2001, the Norwegian Armed Forces said. They were originally slated for delivery by the end of 2008, but only eight have been delivered ready to operate.

The fleet is currently required to provide 3,900 flight hours annually, but in recent years it has averaged only about 700 hours, the Armed Forces said.

NHIndustries in a statement said it was "extremely disappointed by the decision taken by the Norwegian Ministry of Defense and refutes the allegations being made against the NH90 as well as against the company.

It added that it had not been given an opportunity to discuss its latest proposals and that it considers the Norwegian termination of the contract at legally groundless.

The Norwegian Defense Ministry said it will shortly begin the process of identifying an alternative maritime helicopter.

The NH90 is twin-engine helicopter that was developed to meet NATO's requirements for a modern, medium-sized, multi-role military helicopter for both land and maritime operations.

A comprehensive review of the Norway's maritime helicopter capabilities requested by the Defense Ministry in February concluded that even with significant additional financial investments, the performance and availability of the NH90 would not meet the country's requirements.
Tesla Inc. is bleeding from the losses in its new plants amounting to billions of dollars, prompted by supply chain disruptions and COVID-19 restrictions, which made CEO Elon Musk mention the risk of the company going bankrupt.

In an interview with a Tesla owners group, Musk said that Tesla has experienced "an absolute nightmare of supply chain interruptions, one thing after another."

"We're not out of it yet. That's overwhelmingly our concern is how do we keep the factories operating so we can pay people and not go bankrupt," the tech mogul remarked.

Due to lockdowns relating to Covid across the city, Tesla's manufacturing in Shanghai was closed for weeks per a report published by ABC17. Additionally, Musk stated in the interview that Tesla is losing billions of dollars as a result of the two plants it opened in the quarter in Texas and Germany due to supply chain difficulties that have resulted in "puny" production until now.

However, some predict that the automotive company is nearing the end of its most challenging quarter financially in more than two years.

"This is all going to get fixed real fast," Elon Musk said.

Bigger Problems

One of the company's critics believes that the risk of Tesla Bankrupt still looms as it is still bothered by greater financial woes.

In an interview with CNN Business on Thursday, Gordon Johnson of GLJ Research said, "Bankruptcy is a real risk" for Elon Musk's company and others.

Johnson explained: "A lot of their cash is locked up in China. They weren't profitable until they were in China; and, given China does not allow companies to repatriate dollars made there out of the country, Tesla has a real problem."

He also pointed out that another sign of Tesla's Bankrupt risk is its decision to slash around 10% of its salaried staff even as it continues to hire hourly production workers.

During the interview, Musk stated that Tesla's overwhelming concern is "How do we keep the factories operating so we can pay people and not go bankrupt?"

Read Also: Biden Administration, Education Department Agree To Cancel $6 Billion Student Loan Debt Among 200,000 Borrowers

Some Positive Signs

The Covid-19-related shutdowns in Shanghai, according to Elon Musk, "were very, very difficult," and they had an impact on both Tesla's California factory and its Shanghai plant, which both produce cars and require parts from China, per Asia Financial.

According to an internal memo, Tesla intends to suspend the majority of production at its Shanghai facility during the first two weeks of July to work on an upgrade to the facility that will increase production.

Musk appears to be looking for a silver lining by claiming that its Berlin factory is in a "somewhat better position" because it initially started utilizing the conventional 2170 batteries for cars made there,

Tesla's Cybertruck electric pickup truck production, which has been delayed, is also anticipated to begin in mid-2023, Musk noted.

Adjusted earnings, which were at a record $3.7 billion in the first quarter for Tesla, are expected to drop to $2.5 billion in the second quarter, as per analysts polled by Refinitiv. Even so, it would result in an increase above the adjusted income of $1.6 billion in the second quarter of 2021.

In trading on Thursday at noon, shares of Tesla were down about 2%.

Elon Musk also brought up birthrates, fully autonomous driving, and advertising later in his lengthy talk. Tesla is considering advertising to garner more favorable media exposure. Musk thinks that editorial judgments are influenced by advertising, according to a report from Barron's.

Related Article: Speaking To A Deceased Loved One May Soon Be Possible Through Alexa

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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP)  The U.S. Supreme Court's decision allowing states to ban abortion stirred alarm Friday among LGBTQ advocates, who feared that the ruling could someday allow a rollback of legal protections for gay relationships, including the right for same-sex couples to marry.

In the court's majority opinion overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, Justice Samuel Alito said the decision applied only to abortion. But critics of the court's conservative majority gave the statement no credence.

I dont buy that at all, said Lawrence Gostin, a professor of medicine at Georgetown University and faculty director of its Institute for National and Global Health Law. It really is much more extreme than the justices are making it out to be.

He added: It means that you cant look to the Supreme Court as an impartial arbiter of constitutional rights because theyre acting more as culture warriors.

Gostin and others pointed to a separate concurring opinion in which Justice Clarence Thomas said the court should review other precedents, including its 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage, a 2003 decision striking down laws criminalizing gay sex and a 1965 decision declaring that married couples have a right to use contraception.

Today is about this horrifying invasion of privacy that this court is now allowing, and when we lose one right that we have relied on and enjoyed, other rights are at risk, said Jim Obergefell, the plaintiff in the landmark ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, who is now running as a Democrat for the Ohio House.

Abortion opponents celebrated the potential for states to ban abortion after nearly 50 years of being prevented from doing so. Some argued that the case did not have implications beyond that, noting Alito's words.

And to ensure that our decision is not misunderstood or mischaracterized, we emphasize that our decision concerns the constitutional right to abortion and no other right, Alito wrote. Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.

Kristen Waggoner, legal director for the Alliance Defending Freedom, which helped defend the Mississippi abortion law at issue in the ruling, said the high court's decision makes it clear that the taking of human life is unlike any other issue. She said raising other issues shows the weakness of critics' arguments about abortion.

Still, said Paul Dupont, a spokesman for the conservative anti-abortion American Principles Project, conservatives are optimistic about the potential for future victories on cultural issues, though getting more states to ban abortion is a huge enough battle.

If there is a thought that this could apply elsewhere, you know, they're not going to say it here, and we're just going to have to see, Dupont said.

Other factors could protect those rulings on birth control and LGBTQ rights, too. The Obergefell decision that legalized same-sex marriage was based on equal protection, and hundreds of thousands of couples have relied on it to wed, a precedent that many courts would be loath to disturb.

Still, a sharp increase in anti-LGBTQ rhetoric in the U.S. and opposition to specific kinds of birth control on the right have advocates concerned that those rights are vulnerable.

The possibility worried some of the scores of people at a Friday evening abortion-rights rally outside the Kansas Statehouse in Topeka. including Rija Nazir, a 21-year-old community organizer from Wichita for a voting-rights group.

She wore a pink cowboy hat festooned with a button featuring a cowboy uterus drawing for a Vote Neigh campaign against an anti-abortion measure on the statewide ballot Aug. 2.

They're going to go for LGBTQ rights first and then same-sex marriage next. Who knows? Maybe interracial marriage, birth control, Nazir said. They're not going to stop at abortion.

Some abortion opponents treat some forms of contraception as forms of abortion, particularly IUDs and emergency birth control such as Plan B, also known as the morning after pill. Lawmakers in Idaho and Missouri last year discussed banning state funding for emergency contraception, and Idaho prevents public schools or universities from dispersing it.

It's all interconnected, because at its base, birth control and abortion are both types of health care that help people have bodily autonomy, said Mara Gandal-Powers, director of birth control access for the National Women's Law Center, which supports abortion rights. I'm very concerned about where this is going to go.

The Supreme Court's three most liberal members argued that the majority decision breaches a core rule-of-law principle, designed to promote constancy in the law" and places in jeopardy other rights.

At the White House, President Joe Biden pledged to do everything in his power to defend a womans right to have an abortion in states where it will be banned. He warned that the ruling could undermine rights to contraception and gay marriage: This is an extreme and dangerous path.

Then there is Thomas' concurring opinion, which Sarah Warbelow, legal director for the pro-LGBTQ-rights Human Rights Campaign, called an invitation for stirring up fringe organizations, fringe politicians who want to harm the LGBTQ community.

There are clearly members of the court who have an outdated notion of what America looks like today and have a fantasy of returning to their painted idealism of a 1940s, 1950s America, certainly not what it really was in the 1940s and '50s, she said. And that is terrifying.

Jason Pierceson, a University of Illinois political scientist, said he doesn't see the conservative majority stopping with abortion.

They are sending signals to the conservative legal movement, which has a lot of momentum right now because of this victory, to keep going and to keep bringing cases to them over the next several years that will give them opportunities to go further, Pierceson said.

Jennifer Pizer, acting chief legal officer for the LGBTQ-rights group Lambda Legal, added: "It is an extremist assault on the privacy, self-determination, dignity and equality of every person in our country.

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This story has been corrected to show that Lawrence Gostins title is faculty director, not director, of the Georgetown Institute.

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Associated Press writers Jessica Gresko in Washington, Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut, Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio, and Lindsay Whitehurst, in Salt Lake City, contributed to this report.

___

Follow John Hanna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/apjdhanna

___

For APs full coverage of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, go to https://apnews.com/hub/abortion
Microsoft revealed the root cause of the massive outage that lasted for hours.

Microsoft has disclosed that the worldwide outage of Microsoft 365 that occurred earlier this week was caused by a power outage in the infrastructure, which in turn caused failovers in traffic management services in multiple regions.

The company received a wave of sudden complaints from their users reporting multiple problems.

This includes severe difficulties logging into their Exchange Online mailboxes as well as sending emails from those mailboxes.

The Microsoft 365 outage occurred at the same time as a widespread service outage that had been affecting Cloudflare since early Tuesday morning.

Microsoft 365 Outage

Microsoft customers began experiencing and reporting a variety of issues on Monday, June 20, at 11:00 PM UTC, when they attempted to access and use Microsoft 365 services.

According to Microsoft, customers who tried to access certain Microsoft 365 services during the incident experienced various issues, including delays and failures.

The company confirmed the problem in a tweet stating, "We're investigating an issue in which some users are experiencing delays or connection issues when accessing the Exchange Online service. Please see EX394347 in the admin center for more information."

We're investigating an issue in which some users are experiencing delays or connection issues when accessing the Exchange Online service. Please see EX394347 in the admin center for more information.  Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) June 21, 2022

In addition, customer reports disclosed information regarding persistent requests to re-login, the failure of e-mails to be delivered after becoming stalled in queues, and an inability to access Exchange Online mailboxes despite utilizing all of the available connection methods.

Users who were affected by the outage also reported experiencing delays or errors when using the search and calendar functions provided by the affected services.

The Microsoft Teams communication platform, Universal Print, the Exchange Online hosted email platform, Graph API, and SharePoint Online are some of the services that have been impacted by this outage.

Read Also: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint's New Feature Can Protect Hacked, Unmanaged Windows Devices From Malware

Microsoft's Outage Lasted for 16 Hours

Microsoft's current outage is stated to have lasted for hours.

According to BleepingComputer, "More than 16 hours after the first signs of the outage were detected, on Tuesday, June 21, at 3:27 PM UTC."

As reported, Microsoft's customers were effectively kept in the dark despite the fact that Microsoft assured them they could obtain additional information regarding this incident from the admin center under the tickets EX394347 and MO394389.

This is despite the fact that Microsoft informed customers that they could do so.

According to an email sent by Microsoft, "We've confirmed from our updated service monitoring that all services remain healthy following the targeted restarts."

The company added, "Additionally, we completed our investigation into the potential remaining impact to Outlook on the web and confirmed that this is a known issue which is unrelated to this event."

Microsoft's 365 outage severely impacted western Europe. On the other hand, users from North America, the Asia-Pacific regions, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa also experienced the outage.

An infrastructure power outage was reported to be the root cause, which forced a failover to Microsoft 365 traffic management to continue providing service to customers, most of whom were located in Western Europe.

This action was unable to be finished, which resulted in delays in functionality and access failures for a number of services provided by Microsoft 365.

Most of the outages and malfunctions of Microsoft products have so far been resolved.

However, as of writing, Microsoft's portal shows that problems and issues while using Outlook.com could still be experienced.

Based on our current progress, we expect the fix to be fully deployed within the next six hours. Please follow https://t.co/s33kBtabV1 for additional details regarding this event.  Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) June 23, 2022

Furthermore, the company also promised that a post incident report will be published within five business days.

Related Article: Top 5 Best Microsoft Windows Laptop for 2022
Lyft is democratizing ridesharing services. With the new paying method, Lyft will allow riders to pay their rides in cash.

Lyft has introduced a new paying option, which now allows riders to pay using cash. This move, according to Lyft, is their way of improving transportation access for more people.

How to Use Cash in Paying Lyft Ride

By visiting more than 35,000 retail locations nationwide including Walmart, ACE Cash Express, Kroger Family of Stores and more, riders can now conveniently add cash to their Lyft Cash balance.

To turn physical cash into Lyft Cash, riders just have to present a barcode or unique ID number from their Lyft app and then, add cash. Riders can then book rides without added fees or charges using their Lyft Cash.

Riders who want to contribute to their balance will have to add at least $30 every time. The rider's transportation options will also be limited if you go cash-only. If a ride wants to hire a bike or scooter, he will be opted to attach a credit card or another payment option.

According to Lyft, for rideshare, aside from the Lyft Cash balance, no other payment method will be required from new Lyft riders. Instead, once they request their ride, they will need to scan an approved form of identification to their account.

The new payment option allows Lyft to expand transportation access to cash-preferred riders. With the new method, rides who do not have a bank account, credit, debit, or prepaid card can easily pay for Lyft rideshare modes and get where they need to go.

Read Also: Lyft Follows Uber's Surcharge Implementation - Here's Why!

Cash Option to Benefit Unbanked People

As of 2019, about 7.1 million US households either had no bank accounts or only limited access to conventional financial services, according to FDIC data. This condition frequently affected communities of color.

Lyft's cash option will allow those unbanked people request on-demand rides without paying for cabs. In addition, this option is also useful for people who are uncomfortable with linking payment cards to transportation services.

"Lyft is committed to making sure more people have access to affordable, reliable transportation, and we can help achieve that by expanding payment methods for our services. We know cash is the primary form of payment for many people, and we hope this helps people get where they need to go more easily," said Kaushik Subramanian, VP of Enterprise Platforms at Lyft.

This move of Lyft will expand the accessibility of transportation across the country. This would also benefit people who prefer to use cash, particularly those who belong to the unbanked population.

"We're excited that Lyft is working to expand the accessibility to transportation across the country, specifically for the cash-preferred and unbanked population who have often faced roadblocks when it comes to getting where they need to go," said Antoine Holman, NAACP Vice President of Corporate Relations.

Lyft is a transport service support provider that develops, markets, and operates a mobile app. The company offers ride-hailing, vehicles for hire, motorized scooters, a bicycle-sharing system, rental cars, and food delivery.

Lyft is based in San Francisco, California. It operates in 645 cities in the United States and 10 cities in Canada.

Related Article: Lyft, Uber Cut Back on New Hiring, But Promise No Layoffs
At my boarding prep school in the early 1960s, we boys used to conduct macabre debates in the dormitory after lights out, speaking in whispers to avoid detection by any passing master or matron.

Topics for discussion might include: 'What is the most painful method of torture?'; 'Would you rather be hanged, shot by firing squad or executed in the electric chair?'; or 'Who among us would you eat first if we were shipwrecked on a raft without food?'

But I remember in particular one favourite, which would come up regularly: 'Which would you prefer to be  totally blind or totally deaf?'

The most painful method of torture? I'd put noisy pubs and restaurants in my top tenBut perhaps the worst aspect of my encroaching deafness is that it has sucked much of the fun out of social gatherings, which I used to enjoy above every other pleasure of my trade

This was a subject on which I professed to speak with some authority, since my own dear father  a victim of infantile glaucoma  was completely blind from the age of nine, while a war wound had left a close family friend with extreme hearing difficulties.

In these whispered debates, I would always argue that it was preferable to be blind, influenced as I was by the serene resignation with which my father accepted his affliction as the will of God, about which it was pointless to complain.

Indeed, he seemed to enjoy life enormously, often laughing until his shoulders shook, and his blindness appeared to bother him hardly at all.

Apart from his dazzling intellect, the thing I remember best about him is his rich chuckle.

Certainly, his disability caused him occasional embarrassments which lesser men might have found humiliating. For example, there was the time when he was the guest speaker at a Conservative Association meeting (he was one of the founding fathers of Thatcherism)  and rose to begin his speech facing the wall behind him, with his back to the audience in the hall.

That was until the chairwoman of the association stood up, grabbed him by the shoulders and turned him round.

Then there were the mornings when he was working at The Spectator magazine, at its old offices in Bloomsbury, and my mother used to put him on the bus to work. She would ask the conductor to help him off at Gower Street, where his secretary was supposed to meet him at the bus stop.

The trouble was the girl was habitually late. Well-meaning passers-by would see this blind man standing by the roadside and assume he wanted to cross. No matter how strongly he protested, they would take his arm and lead him across the road  until someone else would spot him and lead him back again. I remember him telling me that this sometimes happened several times in a single morning before his secretary finally turned up.

But he would laugh off all such experiences, treating them as part of the heaven-sent comedy of the human condition which kept him happy, I like to think, until the end.

It was a different matter with our deaf friend, Stevie. Though he was one of the nicest men I've met, he always seemed to be ill-at-ease at our family gatherings, isolated by his disability from our conversation and laughter.

Often we would try to involve him, raising our voices to repeat a joke or explain the subject under discussion. But he would look at us with a plaintive smile, still unable to catch what we were saying.

That look seemed to say: 'It's all right. Leave me out of this. I'm happier just to sit here and watch the rest of you enjoying yourselves.'

As the years have passed and my own hearing has become progressively less acute, I feel I've come to experience at least a taste of Stevie's suffering.

I hasten to say that I don't claim for one second to be deaf: indeed, my hearing loss has never troubled me enough even to visit a specialist. But at the age of 68, I do find myself asking people to repeat things much more often than I did when I was younger.

I've also come to bless the subtitles button on the TV  an innovation that came too late for poor Stevie, who, of course, could get little pleasure from the radio, either.

As the years have passed and my own hearing has become progressively less acute

Meanwhile, Mrs U constantly accuses me of selective deafness, by which she means I pretend not to hear when I prefer not to listen.

In my turn, I accuse her of selective repetition  otherwise why, when I ask her to say something again, does she always repeat the bit that I heard, with perfect clarity, while dropping her voice when she gets to the one word I missed (which is often a rude one)? Other veterans of married life will know what I mean.

But perhaps the worst aspect of my encroaching deafness is that it has sucked much of the fun out of social gatherings, which I used to enjoy above every other pleasure of my trade (we hacks get asked to lots of parties).

In a crowded room, where the acoustics are bad, I find it increasingly exhausting to concentrate on what's being said. As often as not, I give up asking my fellow guests to repeat something and just chuckle if I think they've cracked a joke, while hoping they haven't told me they've been diagnosed with cancer.

I find the struggle to concentrate particularly tiring in pubs where loud music is playing, or restaurants in converted banks or warehouses, with high ceilings, bare floorboards, no curtains and stripped-pine tables without tablecloths.

In establishments like these, even drinkers and diners with perfect hearing have to raise their voices to be heard. And as others raise theirs, of course, so everyone else has to increase the volume.

Thus the noise levels go up and up, until people like me have to give up any hope of conversation.

It's just like the wage-price spiral, which is causing so much misery today. As prices go up, workers demand higher pay  which in turn pushes business costs and prices even higher.

All of which brings me, at last, to the news that has prompted these reflections. I mean this week's report that restaurants in my home city of London are the noisiest in Europe, beaten only in the world's decibel league tables by those in San Francisco.

Released by SoundPrint, an app that rates the world's restaurants, cafes and bars according to users' recordings of sound levels, the figures claim to show that more than half of the capital's eateries are too noisy for holding a conversation comfortably, with decibel levels of 76-plus, or as noisy as a lawn mower.

Among the worst offenders, levels of more than 90 dBA have been recorded, or about the same as a bin lorry. To put this in context, the Health and Safety Executive requires employers to provide staff with hearing protection if they are regularly exposed to noise levels of 85 dBA or more.

Now, of course, I realise that some people  most of them decades younger than me  actively enjoy loud music and the ear-shattering thunder of raised voices in establishments with the acoustics of sheet-metal boxes. As a believer in individual choice and freedom, I would be the last to suggest legislating to curb the noise, unless it disturbs the neighbours.

But at the same time, I would remind the owners of pubs and restaurants that there's money to be made from the grey pound. They should consider that many of us over-60s would eat out more frequently, and enjoy the experience far more, if they took steps to dampen the din.

As for whether it's preferable to be totally blind or totally deaf, I no longer feel the certainty I expressed in those whispered dormitory debates. I'm just grateful that I'm neither.

But on one of those other topics we discussed  'What is the most painful method of torture?'  I reckon a fair few of us, of a certain age, would put noisy bars and restaurants in the top ten.
As he splashed into the pool of his Rwandan hotel for a pre-dawn swim yesterday, Boris Johnson knew it was going to be a difficult day.

By the time he was towelling himself dry 20 minutes later it had already got worse.

An early call from London had confirmed that by-elections in Wakefield, and in Tiverton and Honiton had both been lost, the latter on a massive swing to the Liberal Democrats that would send shivers through the ranks of southern Tory MPs.

For a PM whose big selling point with colleagues has always been his incredible ability to win elections it was a serious blow.

No 10 aides conceded the PM had been blindsided by the attack from Mr Dowden, who 48 hours earlier had been helping him prepare for his weekly joust with Keir Starmer

Now his previously loyal party chairman Oliver Dowden was calling to resign. His resignation letter was quietly damning. Mr Dowden did not directly mention Partygate, but said he shared the distress and disappointment of Tory members at recent events.

We cannot carry on with business as usual, he wrote. Someone has to take responsibility.

A few minutes later Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the treasurer of the 1922 Committee, was dialling in on a crackly phone line from the Cotswolds to tell BBC Radio 4s Today programme that the party might have to take steps to have a new prime minister.

No 10 aides conceded the PM had been blindsided by the attack from Mr Dowden, who 48 hours earlier had been helping him prepare for his weekly joust with Keir Starmer at Prime Ministers Questions.

But if he was surprised he could not afford to dwell on it.

Moments later he picked up the phone to Rishi Sunak, who is known to be close to Mr Dowden, to ensure he did not follow him out of the Cabinet.

Further calls to Cabinet colleagues followed throughout the morning as preparations for a potentially tense meeting with Prince Charles at the Commonwealth summit were punctuated with efforts to shore up his own position 4,000 miles away in London.

By mid-morning, the situation was stabilising.

The Chancellor, after an apparent wobble, had issued a lukewarm tweet which failed to offer the PM direct support, but did at least confirm he wasnt quitting.

The PM is due to be out of the country for eight days, with the Commonwealth summit followed by a G7 event in Germany ahead of a Nato summit in Madrid.

Some allies fear he is courting danger by remaining out of the country for so long at such a febrile time, but a Tory source said it would be an abdication of responsibility to return to the UK early

Some allies fear he is courting danger by remaining out of the country for so long at such a febrile time, but a Tory source said it would be an abdication of responsibility to return to the UK early.

The source also laid the blame for the prime ministers current woes on the media, saying that the endless reportage and Kremlinology of Partygate is nonsense.

For his part, the PM used a TV clip to promise to listen to voters concerns and to make the point that mid-term by-election defeats are nothing new.

If governments crumbled in the face of by-elections we wouldnt have had many post-war governments, he told reporters at a press conference in the Rwandan capital Kigali.

It was a fair point  up to a point.

Labours win in Wakefield, where the former Tory MP has been jailed for sexually assaulting a teenage boy, was not enough to put Keir Starmer on a clear path to No 10.

While the Tory vote collapsed by more than 17 per cent, Labours picked up by just 8 per cent, suggesting there is still a lack of enthusiasm for Sir Keirs lifeless brand of socialism in parts of Labours former Red Wall.

Many Conservative supporters appear to have switched instead to independent candidate Akef Akbar, a former Tory councillor who quit the party in March branding the PM an idiot. In Tiverton, the Liberal Democrats engineered a monster swing by successfully persuading Labour supporters to vote tactically. Labour, which had come in second in 2019, lost its deposit.

Allies of the PM were quick to point out that Margaret Thatcher came back from any number of terrible mid-term by-elections in the 1980s, with Dominic Raab correctly pointing out that the choice at a general election is very different.

But, whether it was the result of an informal Lib/Lab pact or just greater tactical awareness, there are fears these results signal that a potentially serious anti-Conservative alliance is taking hold.

Polling guru Sir John Curtice put it like this: Many opposition voters are now seemingly willing to vote for whichever candidate seems best able to defeat Conservatives.

If that continues, winning the next general election could begin to look a lot more difficult.

Mr Johnson also has to deal with the fact that internal opposition to his leadership continues to break out all over.

Michael Howard yesterday became the most senior Brexiteer to join the calls for him to go.

The party and more importantly the country would be better off under new leadership, the former Conservative leader said, before urging the Cabinet to rise up against him.

But if Cabinet ministers were less than effusive about the PMs continued leadership there was also little sign of a stampede against him.

Indeed, some think their backbench colleagues have lost their minds and are in danger of wrecking the partys remaining hope of clinging on to power. One Cabinet loyalist said: Im sticking with the PM because when you boil it down hes still our best chance of winning the next election.

With him weve got maybe a 30 per cent chance; with anyone else its more like 5 per cent.

I think when more colleagues make that cold calculation things will stabilise  theyve got to, or its all over.

But one former senior minister branded the Cabinet spineless, adding: Do they really think we are going to win back seats like Wakefield, and if not, how are we going to win?

Some rebels have given up waiting for the Cabinet and are looking to change the leadership rules so that they can take another shot at the prime minister themselves.

One southern Tory who faces a Lib Dem insurgency of his own said: Its clear the Cabinet are not going to act so we will have to knock the c*** out of him ourselves. If we dont, we are finished.

Leading plotter Andrew Bridgen yesterday declared he will stand for election to the executive of the 1922 Committee on a platform of changing the rules.

Tory whips are alive to the threat and are already mobilising support for more friendly candidates when the elections take place next month.

But even if they succeed for now, the episode will keep the Government bogged down in debilitating internal battles at a time when it desperately needs to show the public it is acting on the cost of living.

Mr Johnson talked the talk on tax cuts again yesterday, insisting the Government believes in cutting taxes despite having repeatedly put them up.

But even supportive MPs complain they have heard it all before.

As one minister put it yesterday: He is lucky in his enemies  Starmer is a dud and his opponents in the party are disorganised.

Hes still got time to turn things around and I hope he does.

But Im not sure he knows how to do it any more.
You might not give much thought to the way your potatoes have been grown when you're doing the weekly shop.

But with costs rising for farmers and shoppers alike, what goes on behind the scenes across farms and production lines can have a big impact not only on the cost of the food in our basket, but also on our future food security.

As well as short term support to help UK producers manage the costs of essentials like feed, fuel and fertiliser, urgent investment is needed in innovations that can safeguard food security and sustainability in the long term.

'It's clear that the food system faces a lot of challenges, from the ongoing war in Ukraine to the effects of climate change. As the UK's leading food retailer we know we have a significant role to play,' says Giles Bolton, Responsible Sourcing Director at Tesco.

If we want to safeguard our future food security, urgent investment is needed in greener solutions that can be applied across the entire food system, from farm to fork

The war in Ukraine has caused the cost of inputs like fertiliser to increase dramatically for farmers, while the impact of climate change on global temperatures and weather patterns is adding to the pressure on food supply chains.

The food industry globally is still responsible for one third of greenhouse gas emissions. Finding ways to produce the food we need more sustainably, will help to protect farmers and their businesses in the future.

'That makes it one of our biggest opportunities to make a difference. By finding ways to feed the nation sustainably and affordably, using fewer resources, we can improve the health of people and the planet,' says Giles.

To help find solutions to these challenges, Tesco and WWF have launched Innovation Connections, a new accelerator programme which pairs sustainability start-ups with Tesco suppliers to fast-track innovation in the food supply chain.

Revealed: The valuable substances hidden in waste CO2: This comes from industrial power generation. Carbon dioxide reacts with ammonia to form stable nitrogen  a key ingredient in fertiliser. Ammonia and phosphates: These act as a nitrogen source for plants and can be captured from waste water from homes and farms. Fibrous materials: These can be recovered from farms, food waste and sewage, and are a significant component of fertiliser.

The aim is to use the supermarket's network of suppliers to rapidly scale up these green technologies so they can make a significant contribution to cutting the environmental impact of the average shopping basket and protecting the UK's food security.

'We have many of the biggest and best supplier partners in the country, so it's a powerful match,' says Giles.

Innovation Connections received more than 70 applications, which was whittled down to five winners that were each paired with Tesco suppliers and awarded funding to scale up their innovations in the supply chain.

One of the winners was CCm Technologies, a Swindon-based clean tech company which extracts useful compounds from waste, and combines these with CO2 from power generation, so they can be turned into fertiliser.

The company will be working alongside startups Andermatt, which also makes low carbon fertiliser, and Farm Carbon Toolkit, which will measure the results of the trial to provide data on the potential to scale up the solution.

Together, they've been partnered with Tesco's potato supplier, Branston, to help reduce the environmental impact of our favourite spuds.

'The technology uses captured carbon dioxide from industrial power generation and materials from agriculture and industrial processes that are normally considered wastes, such as ammonia and phosphates, to create new farming fertilisers,' says CCm chief executive Pawel Kisielewski.

The process used by CCm to create its fertilisers 'almost completely avoids using new material' according to chief executive Pawel Kisielewski

'These fertiliser-from-waste pellets have significantly lower than normal carbon and resource footprints and offer businesses a way of sustainably handling their waste.'

Regular fertiliser production uses large amounts of raw materials and is one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions related to potato farming. And with fertiliser costs increasing rapidly for farmers, alternatives like CCm's could be part of the solution to helping keep prices down in the future.

CCm says that by using fertilisers generated through its own process instead, Tesco could cut the carbon footprint of the products on its shelves.

'Our process almost completely avoids using new materials, and instead manages to create fertilisers that generate only a fraction of the carbon dioxide emissions,' says Pawel.

CCm Technologies is a Swindon based clean tech company which extracts useful compounds from waste so they can be turned into fertiliser

'The result is a slow-release pellet that ticks all three principles of the circular economy - eliminating waste and pollution, keeping materials in use and helping to regenerate soils.'

To help scale up the technology, Tesco has now linked CCm with its potato supplier, Branston. 'We're delighted to be given a huge opportunity to reduce the impact of emissions from the food system without costing farmers more,' Pawel adds.

Reducing costs for inputs like fertiliser isn't the only way Innovation Connections is helping find future solutions. Protecting nature is also about ensuring that pollinators like bees and birds can thrive, and pollinate the crops that produce our food.

The company's fertiliser-from-waste pellets have significantly lower than normal carbon and resource footprint

Another start-up that has received funding is AgriSound, which uses sensors to monitor the number of bees and other pollinators on farms so action can be taken in areas where there are not enough. It has partnered with Tesco fruit supplier AM Fresh.

Meanwhile, Future by Insects uses food waste to grow insects that can be used to feed fish. It has been paired with one of Tescos fish and meat suppliers, Hilton.

Innovation Connections is part of a long-term partnership between Tesco and WWF which aims to halve the environmental impact of the average shopping basket.

Kate Norgrove, from WWF, says: 'The way we farm doesn't have to destroy nature or force us to choose between affordable food production and a stable climate.

'We can reduce carbon emissions, cut food loss and waste, and restore nature, while at the same time supporting farmers and producers in the UK and abroad to grow enough food for us all.

'The need for change is urgent and it has to start now.'

To increase the pace of change, Tesco is calling on the UK government not only to provide more support to British agriculture through current challenges, but to also remove the barriers holding back innovation in the food supply chain.

That includes asking the Government to set out timelines for updating outdated regulations that hinder the scaling up of late-stage innovations, including low-carbon fertilisers.

'If not confronted and managed, we know the challenges of today can create and feed the systemic issues of tomorrow, so we must continue to trial and scale transformative innovation in our supply chains to create a thriving, resilient food system that protects customers, farmers and the environment,' says Giles.
Elon Musk's The Boring Company (TBC) plans to dig a tunnel under Tesla's Gigafactory Texas in Austin. Musk's company filed the application to the city of Austin on June 21.

However, as of writing, the company does not divulge yet what Tesla intends to do with the tunnel.

The application does not specifically mention Giga Texas, however, the address on the filing is listed as 12733 Tesla Road. The said address is located at the north end of the complex.

The Boring Company's New Tunnel Will be Called "Colorado River Connector Tunnel"

Since moving to Texas, there had been discussions between The Boring Company, and the state and municipal governments for several projects. But according to Electrek, until now, the company haven't moved forward with any of them.

Yet now, The Boring Company has applied to build a tunnel on the Tesla Gigafactory Texas property with the city of Austin.

According to TechCrunch, the project, called the "Colorado River Connector Tunnel," involves a "private access tunnel along with associated improvements."

There are no concrete data yet but this hints that perhaps Musk wants a secret road to enter his giant factory.

TBC recently moved its headquarters to Pflugerville, just northeast of Austin, after raising a $675 million funding round. Since then, it has been reported that the company has been in talks about certain projects in Texas.

The application to dig a tunnel, however, is the first time the company has filed a building permit application.

There is very little information that can be found in the filing contains. However, it hinted that that the tunnel length will be about two miles.

The filing also suggested that the tunnel will be located "in an area that's outside Austin's city limits but where the city can still regulate activities," according to TechCrunch.

In May, the city of Kyle, which is located in south of Austin, approved TBC's request to start conducting feasibility studies on an underground pedestrian tunnel. The said pedestrian tunnel would link a retail development with a housing development.

Read Also: Elon Musk Is a 'Great Leader!' Script for Tesla Drivers in Las Vegas Loop Leaked!

The Boring Company Got Approval to Expand Tunnel in Another U.S. City

Earlier this month, TBC has received unanimous approval from the Las Vegas City Council for the expansion of the Vegas Loop to City Limits in downtown Las Vegas.

The Vegas Loop, once finished, will range 29 miles and have 51 stops.

The Vegas Loop will build off the company's "loop" in Vegas. This is a system of tunnels in which, to avoid surface traffic, Teslas move people between stations. The system is like a subway.

According to an iTechPost report, the proposed expansion of the tunnel system would benefit the public for it would further give the Vegas Loop's operations more areas to cover.

As the expansion would cover more ground, there will be more transportation options in the area plus more stations below the surface.

The Vegas Loop is already being utilized by shuttle attendees to go to various events at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

The Loop will extend into downtown with the expansion. "This will include the Strip, the Fremont Street Experience, and the City of Las Vegas," according to iTechPost.

Related Article: Elon Musk's Boring Company Receives Approval to Expand Its Tunnels in Las Vegas
Boris Johnson ousted by his fellow Tories, an economy in free fall, the lingering effects of the pandemic and a Russian state attempting to hack our computer systems.

New drama The Undeclared War feels so prescient that Ian Katz, Channel 4's Chief Content Officer, was worried before he put out a trailer that features a fictional news bulletin as 'people might think it was real'.

The chilling events in this six-part international cyberwar thriller could very easily happen, insists its creator Peter Kosminsky, and when you know that, watching civilisation quickly unravel is utterly terrifying. 'The Undeclared War is a cautionary tale,' says Peter, the man behind the TV adaptation of Wolf Hall and ISIS drama The State, who spent five years creating the series.

'There is nothing in this show that either hasn't happened or is not being wargamed by the people here and in other countries who are trying to prepare for these things. There are no techniques shown or strategies described that aren't happening.'

New drama The Undeclared War, starring Simon Pegg and Adrian Lester, pictured, is set during the 2024 election campaign, with the economy on a downward curve, Covid still around and fictional Tory MP Andrew Makinde (Adrian Lester), who's ousted Boris Johnson as Prime Minister, hoping for re-election

The story is set during the 2024 election campaign, with the economy on a downward curve, Covid still around and fictional Tory MP Andrew Makinde (Adrian Lester), who's ousted Boris Johnson as Prime Minister, hoping for re-election. It centres on Saara Parvin (Hannah Khalique-Brown), a young student who's doing work experience at GCHQ and joins the intelligence centre's department fighting cyber threats.

On the day she starts, catastrophe strikes. A highly sophisticated bug infiltrates GCHQ's systems just as it's testing the strength of Britain's communications. Soon the entire internet  bizarrely excluding social media  is down.

Saara, an outsider in a largely white, male organisation, is applauded at first when she spots something the other coders have missed, but very quickly it emerges that the team, led by Danny Patrick (Simon Pegg) and John Yeabsley (Mark Rylance), a GCHQ old hand who is brought back into the fold to support his former colleagues, are facing a threat much bigger than they could have imagined.

As planes are grounded, hospitals are engulfed in chaos, supermarkets run out of stock and communications black out, GCHQ is instructed to fight back and a tit-for-tat war begins. The series was born out of a dinner conversation Peter had with the show's producer Colin Callender in the wake of the 2016 US election, when it was rumoured that Russia had influenced voters via the internet.

'I realised there was something going on and I felt it was my job to cast some light on it,' says Peter, who spoke to leading cyber intelligence officials to learn more about the preparations being made for this sort of invisible war.

'The more I researched, the more I was shocked by the fragility of our internet-dependent society. It's really serious, and if we're not careful, this sort of war will escalate to the point where it threatens our civilisation.'

It's a show about a war between computer programmers, but it's terrifyingly tense. Though coding isn't the sexiest of jobs, the drama portrays Saara metaphorically as a sort of action hero, using hammers, scalpels and crowbars, which are all coding terms, to crash through doors and plunge down manholes in search of the tiniest clues in her battle with the enemy.

'It's hard to represent coding so we use this surreal landscape which is a manifestation of what's going on in her mind,' says Hannah. 'Before I started the job, I taught myself two programming languages.

The story centres on Saara Parvin (Hannah Khalique-Brown), a young student who's doing work experience at GCHQ and joins the intelligence centre's department fighting cyber threats. On the day she starts, a cyber attack occurs and she has to help the team solve it

There is nothing in this show that either hasn't happened or isn't being prepared for

'There's a moment where the penny drops, and from that I could understand what Saara is doing. She's using every tool available. She's a very talented coder who thinks differently to everyone around her.'

Meticulous research went into the drama to make it authentic. The coding  which to most of us just looks like a jumble of numbers and letters  was written by global cyber security experts at the NCC Group.

'I worked with the NCC for five years on this,' says Peter. 'Every piece of code you see has been written with its particular function in mind. Some of it is malicious software, which has been adjusted so that it can't be copied and used.'

Peter gave each of his actors reams of notes about their character's backgrounds. 'I was flattered to be sent the script as it's not the kind of role people assume I'm interested in,' says Simon Pegg, better known for comedy roles and the Mission: Impossible films.

'I was gripped by the story and Peter is exhaustive when it comes to building his characters. 'So I knew all about Danny's family, the fact that he was adopted and lived in foster homes and that he was a big rugby player, which is why I chose to make his stress ball a rugby ball.

'I'm a big believer that acting is just pretending  like we do as kids. But this felt like something different for me. It wasn't just the quality but also the significance  it feels like an important piece of television.'

The Undeclared War starts on Thursday at 9pm on Channel 4.
Many of us spend all year looking forward to holidays, and naturally everyone wants to capture the best snaps of their travels so they can look back on the happy memories.

But poor weather, cheeky animals and lack of photographic skill can make for a very underwhelming holiday album.

TravelerDoor has shared a funny selection of some of the worst travel photo fails from around the world, including a man who went all the way to California from Texas to enjoy the beach, only to find it was raining.

Elsewhere a tourist somehow managed to capture a photo of the Leaning Tower of Pisa looking more of less upright, while one was horrified to find Notre Dame in flames on her first trip to Paris.

Meanwhile, a mother took a photo of her sons visiting Mount Rushmore, and failed to get any of the presidential carvings in.

Here Femail reveals the hapless tourists who should have just left the camera at home.

Epic fail! One visitor managed to take a photo of Pisa's famous Leaning Tower at an angle that made it look more of less straight

Having a giraffe! Feeling like she wanted to get involved, this zoo resident decided to photobomb this picture and made everyone laugh

Can't see you! This man wanted a photo of his trip to Machu Picchu in Peru for posterity, but his dad managed to ruin it by putting his finger over the lens

Gate crasher! In an online gallery collated by TravelerDoor , some of the most chaotic holiday snaps were shared, along with the biggest fails. These women were interrupted by a manta ray in their photo, leaving them terrified

Shocked! This woman saw the Notre Dame Cathedral on fire during her first visit to Paris and her reaction was caught on camera

Can't see a thing! Eager tourists held up their cameras to get a picture of the Mona Lisa and blocked another visitor from seeing the painting

What baby? This family tried to take a picture with their baby but were blocked by this woman who stood right in front of them at the White Temple in Chiang Rai

You had one job! A hapless mother tasked with capturing a snap of the family trip to Mount Rushmore failed to get the carvings of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln into the picture

Not so crafty! Someone else travelled to see one of Rembrandt's works, The Night Watch. But in fact the painting was undergoing restoration at the time

Where are you hiding Big Ben? A London tourist was very disappointment to find the famous landmark under wraps during repairs

California dreaming? More like a nightmare. A Texas resident who was excited about visiting the beach in the sunshine state was disappointed to arrive on a rare rainy day

Grand Canyon? This family had travelled for ages to see the famous landmark but it was a bit murky!
It has become as much a part of the British summer as Wimbledon, Henley and fickle weather.

And yesterday Glastonbury was back for the first time in three years. Little seemed to have changed since the last music festival in 2019 as the crowd of 200,000 gathered at Worthy Farm in Somerset.

Certainly there was no sign that rail union strikers had managed to frustrate fans efforts to get to the site.

Among the 101 bars, 100 stages and 500 marquees, there were typically long queues for the loo, yoga workshops and naturists with little more than body paint or bag straps to cover their modesty.

One groom-to-be, clad in a bucket hat, surprised his partner by dropping to one knee while revellers clapped and smiled at the opening of Glastonbury

After the bride-to-be accepted the proposal, the pair hugged while onlookers gave them a round of applause

Another couple were all smiles as they got engaged after the groom-to-be wore a T shirt with the words 'Will you marry me' written on the front, while surprised loved ones looked on

Lucy Barnes and Ben O'Hara got engaged right in the centre of a crowd who filmed the special moment on their phones as Lucy said 'yes'

People in the crowd punched the air and cheered for Lucy and Ben as she accepted his proposal

And there was an outbreak of engagement fever, with at least four men popping the question, including two who got down on one knee in front of the Glastonbury sign and triggered raucous cheers as their partners said yes.

Lucy Barnes accepted Ben OHaras marriage proposal on Wednesday evening as the sun set in front of a watching crowd.

Another man, Liam, proposed to partner Fern early in the festival so he didnt have to carry around the ring box, friends said.

Glastonbury co-organiser Emily Eavis, whose father Michael founded the festival, said: I genuinely think the best people in the world come here.

Bands always say this audience is the most generous, respectful and up-for-it crowd there is.

Miss Eavis added: Weve definitely been through some financial struggles. Its been very hairy. People forget that were still an independent festival.

Its a long road for us to recover from the last two years, but the important thing is that were back.

Glastonbury organisers revealed yesterday that 138,000 revellers bought tickets and 67,000 staff were in attendance.

Last night Mr Eavis, 86, performed on stage with his band  following on from a DJ set by former Spice Girl Mel C.

Headline acts of this years music extravaganza include Billie Eilish, rapper Kendrick Lamar and Sir Paul McCartney, with Diana Ross filling the Sunday Teatime Legends slot.

One man Liam proposed to his partner Fern right at the beginning of the festival - saying he did so early on so he didn't have to carry the engagement ring around with him for the next five days

Luckily for Liam, Fern accepted the proposal, meaning he no longer had to worry about keeping an eye on the ring for the rest of the festival

The couple shared a kiss for the camera after the bride-to-be accepted the proposal

After the happy couple confirmed their engagement loved ones rushed to congratulate them

Happy revellers embraced after the engagement of their loved ones was confirmed, with smiles and happy tears all round

After accepting the proposal, the bride-to-be donned a T shirt that appeared to ask Mel C to make an appearance on her wedding day

Sir Paul will hold a warm-up gig in nearby Frome before his headline performance on the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury on Saturday night, it was announced yesterday.

Fans queued around the car park at the Cheese and Grain venue in the hope of securing tickets after it was announced they could only be bought in person.

The ex-Beatle will become Glastonburys oldest-ever solo headliner when he takes to the stage only a week after celebrating his 80th birthday.

But British band Wolf Alice, who were due to perform on the Pyramid Stage today, will not make it after their flights from Los Angeles were cancelled.

Glastonbury last took place in 2019, with the 50th anniversary festival in 2020 cancelled due to Covid. The last time it took a break that long was back in the 1970s.
She's know for flying the flag for sustainable fashion, even wearing a rented wedding dress to marry Boris Johnson.

And today, Carrie Johnson opted for another rented number as she arrived with the Prime Minister for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting opening ceremony.

Her wardrobe is heavily influenced by royal style, so it was not suprising to see Mrs Johnson opt for an elegant yellow midi dress by Claire Mischevani, whose designs are a firm favourite with Princess Beatrice and Zara Tindall.

The vibrant Poppy dress would cost 795 to buy but can be rented from 15 a day.

Carrie Johnson brought the sunshine in Kigali this morning as she attended the opening of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting with her husband Boris

Mrs Johnson wore her blonde hair in curls cascading around her shoulders as she arrived for the event in Rwanda's capital Kigali

The mother-of-two wore a Claire Mischevani dress, rented from MyWardrobeHQ, teamed withc olourful LK Bennett wedges

In keeping with the mother-of-two's eco-friendly ethos, she rented the frock from MyWardrobeHQ and teamed it with colourful LK Bennett wedges - a brand favoured by the Duchess of Cambridge.

The checked linen wedges are currently on sale for 115, reduced from 175.

In another Kate Middleton nod, Mrs Johnson wore her blonde hair in curls cascading around her shoulders as she arrived for the event in Rwanda's capital Kigali.

She showed no hint of stress, despite a bad night for her husband who has vowed to keep going' today despite Tory chair Oliver Dowden dramatically quitting after the party suffered a double by-election pummelling.

Mrs Johnson's vibrant Poppy dress would cost 795 to buy but can be rented from 15 a day.

The PM said he would 'listen' after seismic results in Tiverton and Wakefield, but tried to play down the huge blows as a difficult 'patch' for the government.

However, Mr Johnson is facing a fresh threat to his position after Mr Dowden walked out saying he shared the 'distress' of activists about the run of bad results.

There's also a potentially awkward meeting with Prince Charles ahead with the pair set to sit down for tea together - the first conversation since the royal reportedly branded the government's Rwanda asylum policy 'appaling'.

However, there were no hard feelings between Mrs Johnson and the Duchess of Cornwall yesterday as they teamed up at an event for the campaign group Violence Against Women and Girls in Rwanda.

Camilla beamed as she was greeted with a kiss on the cheek by the wife of the Prime Minister.

So-stylish Carrie dazzles with her three eye-catching outfits in a day: The fashion verdict on Prime Minister's wife in Rwanda

By Dinah Van Tulleken for the Daily Mail

As all public figures know, the first outfit you wear when stepping off the plane for an official visit sets the tone for the trip.

And for Carrie Johnson in Rwanda, that tone was glorious hot pink.

From head to elegantly heeled toe, the 34-year-old was dressed in the shade of the moment  Valentinos latest catwalk was entirely hot pink  wearing a pink suit, shirt and shoes in a classic example of tonal dressing.

Dressed in pink from head-to-toe, Carrie Johnson, 34, steps off a plane in Rwanda with her husband, Boris Johnson. Her double-breasted blazer (79.99), and matching trousers (49.99) are from high-street store Zara

It means wearing one colour only and its currently big news in the fashion world.

Carries double-breasted blazer, 79.99, and matching wide-leg, high-waisted trousers, 49.99, are from high-street favourite Zara and fit her beautifully.

But the matching blouse is where this outfit really comes into its own.

Because the key to mastering the tonal dressing trend is to break up the block colour with different textures.

Carrie then changed into a striking yellow top from J Crew as she attended a Violence Against Women and Girls event at the Kigali Convention Centre in Kigali, Rwanda. She teamed the sleeveless polka-dot blouse with a full skirt in a playful blue and green print and simple nude court shoes

PICTURED: Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie Johnson arriving at a welcome reception and state banquet hosted by the President of Rwanda on day four of the 2022 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM)

With her striking pink leopard-print silk shirt from British brand Tabitha Webb, 325, Carrie provides just enough difference to stop her blouse and suit becoming utterly overwhelming.

And her pointed-toe shoes from Dune, 90, cleverly match the slightly darker tones in the shirt to really pull this look together.

Clearly enjoying this seasons trend for block-bright hues, Carrie then changed into a striking yellow top from J Crew (now sold out).

She teamed the sleeveless polka-dot blouse with a full skirt in a playful blue and green print and simple nude court shoes.

Completing the look with a personal touch, the mother of two wore a beaded bracelet spelling out her daughter Romys name.
Prince Andrew can no longer use his HRH status and has no formal role within the Royal Family, but he will still be 'looked after' financially, royal experts have claimed.

Speaking to True Royalty TV's The Royal Beat, Newsweek Royal Correspondent Jack Royston and Ingrid Seward, Editor in Chief, Majesty Magazine, agreed that there is no way back for Prince Andrew to public life.

However, Seward said that Andrew will not be cast out completely because that could create even more of a headache if they Duke is forced to find some source of income.

'He will be more trouble and start talking and giving TV interviews and writing books,' she explained.

However, she added that it's unlikely Andrew will be able to hang on to his Royal Lodge home on the Windsor estate, with no way of financing refurbishments and upkeep that are a condition of the lease.

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Prince Charles and Prince William may want to exclude Prince Andrew from public life, but they will not leave him hanging financially, a royal expert has claimed

Discussing Prince Andrew missing last week's Garter Day procession, Newsweek Royal Correspondent said: 'When the Queen is no longer here, Charles will not have any truck with Andrew attempting a comeback.

'That will be game over for him. It might be game over already.'

Ingrid Seward agreed, but said she believes the Duke of York will still be looked after financially.

'They're not going to cast him out because he will be more trouble and start talking and giving TV interviews and writing books,' she said.

The Monarch is keen to keep Andrew, 62, around, because he is 'intensely loyal,' royal biographer Andrew Morton told The Mirror's royal podcast, Pod Save the Queen. (pictured together at the memorial service for the Duke of Edinburgh on March 29)

'They don't want that again. He will be financially secure, but I would be very surprised if he kept the Royal Lodge.'

Andrew moved into the 30million grace-and-favour home in Windsor in 2003.

The Duke forked out 1million for a 75-year lease in 2003 when he took over the property previously inhabited by his grandmother.

Earlier this year, Andrew agreed a multi-million-pound settlement with Virginia Giuffre, a victim of the serial paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, who had accused him of sexually abusing her on three occasions, including once when she was 17.

The Duke has repeatedly and vehemently denied her claims and any wrongdoing.

Questions have since arisen over how Andrew could afford to continue to live at the Grade II listed property with no obvious income apart from a modest Naval pension to fund the upkeep and any further repairs.

It comes amid reports that the Queen is still supportive of Prince Andrew, despite Prince Charles and Andrew wanting him to stay well away from public view.

The Monarch is keen to keep Andrew, 62, around, because he is 'intensely loyal,' royal biographer Andrew Morton told The Mirror's royal podcast, Pod Save the Queen.

The writer, who penned Diana: Her True Story in 1992, said The Queen deeply 'appreciates' Andrew's loyalty to his mother, as well as his actions during the Falklands War and the 1992 Fire at Windsor Castle.

'He will never hear a word said against her, he has always been intensely loyal,' Morton said.

He added that Andrew's military action also impressed his mother.

'She has admired the fact that during the Falklands War in 1982, he was an Exocet decoy which means his job was to protect HMS Invincible (the aircraft carrier) as the Argentines wanted to sink that,' the expert went on.

Morton said the Duke of York was instrumental on making sure the enemy forces weren't hitting their targets.

He added Andrew, who was a prime target for the Argentines during the conflict, showed a lot of bravery.

The writer added that doing so had taken a lot of courage from Andrew and the Queen had appreciated his actions.

And the writer added that the Queen was equally impressed when Andrew 'organised the retrieval of works of art during the famous fire at Windsor Castle in 1992.'

The writer said these actions demonstrated a loyalty to the Queen that the monarch was not likely to forget.

In March, the Duke of York raised eyebrows as he walked his mother to her seat during the emotional memorial service for the Duke of Edinburgh at Westminster Abbey.

At that point in time, it had not been two months since Andrew and his accuser Virginia Giuffre had reached an out-of-court settlement in their civil sex claim filed in New York.

The Queen picked Andrew to walk her to her seat during the memorial service for Prince Philip at Westminster Abbey

Reflecting on the memorial service, Morton said the Queen had used this family occasion, which was not an official state engagement, to show her support for her son.

While he may benefit from his mother's good graces, Prince Andrew is furious with the heirs to the throne Prince Charles and Prince William for preventing his return to public life at the Order of the Garter ceremony earlier this month, it has been claimed.

The Duke of York had reportedly intended to participate in the full service, presided over by his mother the Queen at Windsor castle, but was restricted from some parts of the Knights of the Garter ceremony after Princes Charles and William voiced their displeasure.

Meanwhile, disgraced Prince Andrew, pictured during the Falklands War, is reportedly furious at his brother Prince Charles and his nephew Prince William for keeping him out of the Royal Garter ceremony last week

Andrew helped to save works of art from the flame during the Windsor Castle Fire of 1992, pictured

The disgraced Royal was then prevented from attending the festivities at Ascot this weekend and is said to be enraged at the meddling of The Queen's heirs.

There are fears the friction between the trio could trigger a fallout among the Royal Family during their upcoming summer retreat at Balmoral.

'Andrew is desperate to rebuild his life and wants his titles back,' a source told The Sun.

'But he is fuming with Charles and William for stopping his plans.'

The Queen decided to strip Andrew of his royal titles and right to use his HRH status amid the controversy brought about by his links to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.

Buckingham Palace said that the Duke of York's absence from the Windsor Castle procession and Order of the Garter service was a 'family decision', but it is believed it came about after the Prince of Wales and Duke of Cambridge lobbied the Queen about his participation.

Andrew was still allowed to join the Queen at the formal investiture of new members of the Order of the Garter - including the Duchess of Cornwall and ex PM Tony Blair - and as well as the lunch afterwards.
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Critics have panned a new portrait of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, claiming it makes Kate Middleton look 'frumpy'.

After the couple's first official portrait was unveiled for the first time, art critic A.N. Wilson said it failed to capture her vibrant personality.

Writing in The Daily Mail he said: 'The figure in this painting is wistful, slightly petulant and actually unrecognisable as Our Kate.'

The portrait, commissioned to mark Prince William's 40th birthday, isn't the only royal depiction to come under fire.

Notoriously difficult to get right, multiple paintings of the Royal Family over the years have fallen somewhat short of the mark.

Femail has taken a look back on some of the more memorable paintings of our favourite royals - which haven't necessarily been remembered for the right reasons.

From a bare-chested Prince Philip to an abstract depiction of Prince William as a bloody-faced hunter, some artists have created works that will be imprinted in our minds forever.

This slightly abstract depiction of the monarch is called Dreams and Nightmares of the Queen by George Condo, While you can tell who the subject is, it's perhaps not the most flattering portrayal

Pizza the action! This painting by Canadian artist Andre Durand which represents Diana as Pulchinella, the Neopolitan character in the commedia dell'arte.. It was commissioned to hang in Da Mario's restaurant in Kensington, one of the late royal's favourite spots, and shows the owner presenting her with a pizza

This highly unusual painting of the late Duke of Edinburgh, by Stuart Pearson Wright, shows him bare-chested with strands of cress growing from his finger

This painting of Prince Harry by American artist Elizabeth Peyton is one of many she has produced of the Duke of Sussex and his older brother William

Peyton's depictions of a young Prince Harry show him with bright orange hair, ruby-red lips and dark blue eyes, while his skin tone remains incredibly fair

The depiction of Kate Middleton in a portrait by Jamie Coreth has been slammed for making her look 'frumpy' and 'petulant'

Another painting of the Duchess of Cambridge that divided opinion was this portrait by Paul Emsley, which many thought was an unflattering depiction (left). Artist Stella Vine found fame when Charles Saatchi bought her portrait of Princess Diana, although the late royal's slightly wonky face may have raised eyebrows among fans (right)

Off with his head! A bizarre painting by artist Stephen Lewis Gilmore, which depicts the Prince of Wales as Henry the VIII, shows a beheaded Princess of Wales, and a chain bearing a picture of Camila Parker-Bowles

The Duke of Cambridge has not escaped from the unusual paintings of himself after this portrait was released by artist John Wonnacott ahead of the Queen Mother's 100th birthday

Another of John Wonnacott's paintings, also commissioned for the Queen Mother's 100th birthday, shows the whole family in Buckingham Palace with the corgis - but appears to have lost a little perspective

This painting, by modern artist Peter Sigasby, attracted criticism when it was unveiled in 1991 for being disrespectful to Her Majesty (left). A portrait of the late Diana Princess Of Wales , which was unveiled by Paul Meyer of the National Hospital Development Foundation at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London in March 2000. Perhaps not the worst of the bunch, but not doing her justice either

Not such a masterpiece! Artist Terry Duffy recreated Botticelli's 'The Birth Of Venus' replacing the heads with Prince Charles, Camilla Parker Bowles, Princess Diana, The Queen and Dodi Al Fayed

Who on earth is that? This representation of the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh by Tai-Shan Schierenberg in 1997 is barely recognisable

Another funny image of the Duke of Cambridge as a youngster appears to depict him as a medieval prince with cuts on his face and a white horse at his aid after shooting a stag. The painting, by Andre Durand, also depicts Bamoral in the background. Durand has previously been branded 'the worst painter in the world' by art critic Brian Sewell

This painting, by Kenyan artist Joackim Onyangeo Nedalo, was not particularly well regarded - but had been created from magazine photos and took three months to complete. After the artist, a royal superfan, had finished his masterpiece, he travelled all the way to the Ugandan capital of Kampala, where the Queen was on a state visit, to present the painting

The Queen unveiled this portrait alongside then-deputy first minister of Northern Ireland, Martin McGuinness, in 2016

Lucian Freud created this portrait of Queen Elizabeth II as part of the exhibition The Queen: Portraits of a Monarch at Windsor Castle

This black and white portrait of the Queen Mother was unveiled on her 89th birthday after being painted by Glaswegian student Alison Watt. It divided opinion on its release due to the subject's outfit and glum expression. Watt put her own stamp by including her trademark - her own teacup, pictured just next to the Queen Mother

Nigerian artist Chinwe Chukwuogo-Roys painted this depiction of the Queen which was commissioned to mark the Golden Jubilee in 2002

This depiction of the Queen was painted by Dan Llywelyn Hall in commemoration of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrating 60 years on the throne. It is now displayed at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff (left). MUMMY: A painting of Diana, Princess of Wales by the Canadian artist Andre Durand is a rather maudlin reprensentation of the late royal with the white lilies placed on her coffin by her sons

The Queen has been present at the unveiling of dozens of portraits of herself, and has always remained polite and respectful - no matter what she has been presented with

This portrait of the monarch, by Nicky Philipps, was commissioned by the Royal Mail and used on First Class stamps to honour the Diamond Jubilee

Another depiction of the Queen by Nicky Philipps shows her standing at the top of the stairs in Archers' Hall. In the portrait, the monarch is wearing the robes of The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle

The Queen attended the unveiling of her 90th birthday official portrait, painted by Nicky Philipps (pictured right)

A portrait of the late Princess Diana was painted by an unlikely source - Manchester City player Jim Whitley. The portrait was auctioned off to raise money for the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund at the Queen of Hearts Charity Ball in Manchester

Artist John Ward painted Princess Diana in her wedding dress in 1984, in a portrait that was displayed at the 'Princes as Patrons' exhibition in Cardiff 14 years later
This is the adorable moment a playful baby elephant ripped a models skirt by clambering all over her.

Megan Milan was visiting Chia Lai Orchid, a sanctuary that rescues elephants in Chiang Mai, Thailand, earlier in June when a three-week-old elephant took a shine to her.

Hilarious footage  which has been viewed more than 12million times on social media - shows the boisterous baby getting close to Megan bumping her to the ground before rolling on top of her.

Megan Milan was visiting Chia Lai Orchid, a sanctuary that rescues elephants in Chiang Mai, Thailand, earlier in June when a three-week-old elephant pulled down her skirt, pictured

The baby took a shine to Megan as she was taking pictures with the herd. Soon, they were tumbling on the ground together

In the footage, Megan, who was not alarmed, can be heard laughing as the baby elephant comes up to her repeatedly and playfully tugs at her skirt.

But the youngster was stronger than he seemed and managed to Megans skirt off by stepping on the hem.

The model then took a tumble, struggling to put up her skirt to cover her modesty as the elephant came back for more playtime.

Eventually, the animal's older sister came running over to pull the playful nelly away as Megan gathered herself and her ripped skirt.

Megan said she's always wanted to go to Thailand and jumped at the opportunity to meet the elephants

The baby stomped on the model's skirt, left, forcing Megan to step away. He later pursued her and kept tugging playfully at her skirt

The other elephants looked on as the three-week-old baby kept playful rough with model Megan

Megan said: 'Im used to being around elephants but I had never been around one so young, hes only three-weeks-old. So I asked to go see him.

'He was definitely a little heavy and strong.

'Im known for immersing myself in other cultures and going on wild adventures. Whether its hanging off trains in Sri Lanka or playing with baby elephants in Thailand, Im always down for a thrill.

'When Im not modelling or reading scripts, I travel the world for a living. Ive always wanted to go to Thailand.

In spite of the elephant's hands-on approach, Megan was not alarmed for her life and was laughing throughout the incident

'I found a non-profit organisation, Daughters Rising Thailand, who empower at-risk and rescued indigenous girls and women through education, employment and outreach to prevent trafficking and exploitation in their communities.

'Coupled with the rescued elephants at Chai Lai, these are two things that I am extremely passionate about so of course I jumped at the opportunity.'

The model was able to find the funny side of her story as she shared the video of the elephant on her Twitter, joking the animal's big sister had to come and get the baby off her back.

When people voiced their concerns that the elephant was violent, Megan defended the animal, saying: 'Hes literally 3 weeks. Elephants dont just go around hurting people. They are one of the only animals with empathy. That lady helped his fam get poached! Elephants dont forget.'
The father of murdered Ana Kriegel has passed away four years after his daughter was brutally murdered.

Patrick Kriegel 'died peacefully' at the family home in Leixlip in County Kildare, Ireland last weekend and was laid to rest yesterday.

Ana was found dead aged 14 after being sexually assaulted and bludgeoned with a concrete block by Ireland's youngest killers, who were 13-years-old at the time.

At Patrick's funeral at Newlands Cross Crematorium, his wife Geraldine said the dad 'couldn't bear the pain of losing his little girl', The Irish Sun reports, although his cause of death has not been revealed.

Ana, who had been adopted by the couple from Russia when she was two years old, sparked a frantic search after her parents reported her missing in May 2018.

Patrick Kriegel (pictured leaving the Central Criminal Court in Dublin, 2019 with his wife Geraldine) 'couldn't bear the pain' of losing his daughter Ana

Ana Kriegel, 14, was found dead in an abandoned farmhouse in Luca, Co. Dublin, in May 2018 following a three-day search after her parents reported her missing

Fourteen-year-old Ana had been sexually assaulted and bludgeoned to death with a concrete rock. Two 13-year-old boys were arrested over her murder

Her naked body was found three days later in an abandoned farmhouse in Lucan, County Dublin.

The following year two boys, who can only be identified as Boy A and Boy B, were found guilty of her murder. Boy A was also convicted of sexual assault.

In a statement at the sentencing in October 2019, Geraldine Kriegel said she and Partrick were haunted at the 'torture and sadistic violation' the killers had put their daughter through.

In a pre-recorded message to mourners at Patrick's funeral, the widow said: 'My darling Patrick couldnt bear the pain of losing his little girl.'

Despite his pain, Geraldine talked of how her 'best friend and soulmate', who was originally from Paris, could 'fill your heart with joy' when he laughed.

He was described by loved ones as a traditional Frenchman who had a sharp Irish sense of humour.

Recalling how she adopted Ana, she said the teen and her brother Aaron had turned the couple's lives into a 'whirlwind adventure'.

After Ana was heartlessly taken from the parents, Geraldine described how she and Patrick leaned on each other and shared their grief.

She described how the pair suffered through the agony of losing Ana, and how Patrick, who worked as a university lecturer, never quite got over it.

The funeral celebrant described how the teen's murder 'extinguished' a light in her father's heart.

Ana had been adopted from Russia by her parents Patrick and Geraldine when she was two years old. She was raised in County Kildare, Ireland

The teenager's death sparked outrage in the community as her killers, known as Boy A and Boy B, became the youngest people ever to be convicted of murder in Ireland

Patrick and Geraldine Kriegel (pictured at Central Criminal Court after the boys were sentenced) said they were haunted by what their daughter went through in the final moments of her life

In a touching tribute to Patrick, a recording of him singing one of his favourite French songs, LInvitation Au Voyage, was played to mourners.

A montage of family photos, including of Patrick and Ana, was displayed as messages were read out to the crowd.

Ana's tragic death rocked the community as the two boys convicted of her murder became the youngest murderers Ireland had ever seen.

During the six-week trial, the court heard how Boy A had a book containing a 'satanic pledge' in his house.

After being found guilty of the brutal murder, Boy A was detained for 15 years with a review after 12 years, and sentenced to another 12 years for sexually assaulting Ana, to run concurrently.

Boy B, also found guilty of murder, was sentenced to 15 years' detention with the possibility for parole after eight years.
An American woman who began suffering from a miscarriage while on vacation in Malta and is now fearing for her life because doctors have refused to terminate the pregnancy has admitted that she wanted her husband to punch her in the stomach to stop the fetus' 'viable' heartbeat and end her 'suffering.'

Andrea Prudente, 38, and her husband, Jay Weeldreyer, 45, from Seattle, Washington, were visiting the European island in an attempt to spend some quality time together before welcoming a daughter, when she suddenly developed heavy bleeding and was rushed to the hospital.

The expecting mother, who was 16 week pregnant at the time, thought she had suffered from a miscarriage, and an ultrasound showed a ruptured membrane, detached placenta, and no amniotic fluid in the womb - however, the fetus still had a heartbeat.

Medical professionals at Mater Dei Hospital, where she was admitted, are now refusing to terminate the pregnancy since abortion is illegal in Malta - despite her being at risk for a possible infection, which could enter her bloodstream and kill her, and despite the fetus having a 'zero per cent chance' of survival.

But Andrea considered taking matters in her own hand, with her husband revealing to the Today show in a new interview that she asked him to hit her 'as hard as he could' in her stomach to stop the fetus' heartbeat.

A woman who suffered from a miscarriage in Malta and could now die because doctors refused to abort the baby has admitted she wanted her husband to punch her in the stomach

Andrea Prudente, 38, and her husband, Jay Weeldreyer, 45, from Washington, were visiting the European island when she suddenly developed heavy bleeding and was rushed to the hospital

An ultrasound showed that Andrea, who was 16 weeks pregnant, had a ruptured membrane, detached placenta, and no amniotic fluid in the womb - however, the fetus still had a heartbeat

'There was a moment when Andrea told me she was seriously considering asking me to punch her as hard as I can in the stomach, to start labor or stop the heart,' he told the outlet.

'You are looking at your partner and she's asking you to do everything that goes against your nature - hurting her, hurting the baby you want - but at the same time it might be the path to save her

'You're pleading and pleading, and there's no way to get the help you want.'

Jay recalled feeling 'elation' when they found out that they were expecting their first child together. But when he was told their baby 'wasn't going to survive,' their excitement soon turned to pain.

'I was gutted. Heartbroken. I thought, "What's next? Is Andrea safe?" he explained. 'There was an awareness that this wasn't over yet, and we really don't get to grieve until it is.'

Infection can easily enter Andrea's body through the ruptured membrane and could get into her uterus - or even her bloodstream, potentially leading to death.

On top of that, she also has an umbilical cord protruding from her cervix, which puts her at an 'extreme risk' of hemorrhaging.

Andrea reportedly asked doctors to terminate the pregnancy, but her request was denied as abortion is currently illegal in Malta - which is located in the Mediterranean sea near Italy.

Medical professionals at Mater Dei Hospital, where she was admitted, are now refusing to terminate the pregnancy since abortion is illegal in Malta (pictured)

Doctors refused to abort the baby, despite Andrea being at risk for a possible infection, which could enter her bloodstream and kill her, and despite the fetus having no chance of survival

Andrea considered taking matters in her own hand, with her husband telling the Today show that she asked him to hit her 'as hard as he could' in her stomach to stop the fetus' heartbeat

Doctors for Choice Malta - a non-profit organization made up of pro-choice professionals fighting the abortion ban on the island - reported on its website that women who have abortions in Malta could face a maximum of three years in prison.

Doctors who help carry out the abortions could also face jailtime and a permanent revocation of their license, with the company adding, 'There are no exceptions in the law to allow an abortion even when the woman's health is at risk, in cases of severe fetal malformation, or in cases of rape or incest.'

'It wasn't until a couple days later that we realized the details of the legal restrictions, and that made the behavior of the medical professionals make a lot more sense. It hammered home just how bad our situation was,' Jay told the Today show.

The couple was given two options - sit and wait for the pregnancy to end on its own and hope that nothing happens to Andrea in the meantime, or take an 'extremely risky' flight to a nearby country where abortion is allowed.

They spent days trying to get her medically evacuated, and according to the couple, Mater Dei Hospital didn't make the process any easier for them.

Andrea told the Guardian that the hospital was 'uncooperative in their attempts to leave and in sharing medical records with her insurance company.'

'I just want to get out of here alive,' she told the outlet earlier this week, from her hospital room in Maltas capital, Valletta. 'I couldnt in my wildest dreams have thought up a nightmare like this.'

Women who have abortions in Malta could face a maximum of three years in prison. Activists are seen protesting Malta's abortion law earlier this month

Desperate for a solution, Andrea and Jay are going to have her medically evacuated to Spain where she can get an abortion. Activists are seen protesting Malta's abortion law

Jay, called the hospital's actions an 'inconceivable form of emotional and psychological torture.' Activists are seen protesting Malta's abortion law

Jay called the hospital's actions an 'inconceivable form of emotional and psychological torture,' while Andrea added that she feels like she is being 'traumatized.'

While speaking to the Today show, Jay further slammed the hospital for 'prolonging his wife's suffering.'

'There's a kind of torture that happens, psychologically, when you've been attaching to a pregnancy, seeing her on the ultrasound and making plans, only to learn you can't have her,' he said.

'And then you encounter a medical system that puts you in the situation we're in now - probably the worst situation imaginable.

'They have the capacity to provide the help. It's right there and available. But not only will they not help, but they're doing things to prolong suffering. We wanted this baby girl, and without water she's now compressed.'

On top of being terrified for his wife's health, he is also worried about the cost of her medical treatment, admitting that it has 'wrecked their finances.'

'Insurance is arranging this, but we're responsible for everything above and beyond what they cover,' he said.

Thankfully, the pair was able to secure an emergency flight to Spain, which will happen in the coming days. They are now sharing her story with the world in the hopes of raising awareness and 'avoiding a tragedy.'

'I dont want this to happen to more people,' Andrea added to the Guardian.
Princess Beatrice has been snapped looking casual at Glastonbury with her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi.

The royal, 33, donned a khaki green dress, with distinctive gold buttons and a large belt buckle for the music festival.

She accessorised the outfit with a black crossbody bag, featuring matching gold hardware, and black framed sunglasses.

Her long red tresses were styled into a casual half-up, half-down do, and she sported a fresh-faced look.

Princess Beatrice, 33, was snapped at Glastonbury music festival earlier today, with her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi (right)

The royal showed off her legs in a khaki green minidress, featuring gold and brown hardware and buttons

The pair appeared somewhat coordinated in their outfits, both wearing similar white trainers, and incorporating khaki tones into their ensembles

Meanwhile, her husband Edoardo donned black, slim-fitting jeans, with white trainers, a fresh white t-shirt, a dark shacket, and shades.

It is not known whether the couple brought their daughter, nine-month-old Sienna Elizabeth Mapelli Mozzi, with them to the festival at Worthy Farm.

Today's outing to Glastonbury follows the couple attending a high profile party at the National Gallery in London last night.

Edoardo, who married Beatrice on July 17 2020 in an intimate ceremony at Windsor, has become more involved with royal life in recent times, often attending events with his wife.

Beatrice and Edoardo seemed to be keeping a low profile, as they wore casual outfits for their day out at the music festival

The royal couple looked stylish in their festival outfits, donning casual clothing and shades as they strode around the festival ground

Edoardo was snapped clutching his large mobile phone, as he wandered through Worthy Farm, with a number of wristbands visible on his arm

Despite the weather conditions being less than ideal, with the sky looking overcast at times, the couple protected their eyes with dark glasses

Casual: Beatrice's dress was perfect festival wear, looking both stylish and practical. She added white sneakers for comfort

Yesterday's soiree, called The Alchemist's Feast, was the inaugural summer party and fundraiser for the National Gallery's Bicentenary campaign.

The couple looked dapper as they wore matching coordinating black and white outfits.

Beatrice wore a white sequined gown, with a contrasting black belt, and a matching hair band in her long red tresses.

Edoardo donned a classic black suit, which he matched with black patent shoes, a white shirt, and black bowtie.

Beatrice (right) and Edoardo (left) looked stylish and coordinated during their appearance at the Alchemist's Feast inaugural summer party and fundraiser for the National Gallery's Bicentenary campaign

Edoardo (left) has become more of a public figure in recent times, despite being more private and reserved when he got into a relationship with Beatrice (right)

Beatrice, 33, looked striking at the event, donning an elegant, sparkling floor-length gown for the inaugural fundraising do

Princess Beatrice was photographed with her husband Edoardo (left) at the party, as well as with jewellery designer Sabine Getty (right)

A close-up of Beatrice's sequinned frock shows off some of the elaborate detail that went into creating the lavish design

The royal couple's appearance at the gallery is the most recent in a string of high-profile outings the royal has made with her Italian property developer husband in recent weeks.

The Italian developer, 38, initially kept a low profile when he and Beatrice started dating in late 2018, and after his September 26, 2019 proposal, eventually tying the knot on July 17 2020 in an intimate ceremony at Windsor, due to Covid-19 regulations in place at the time.

However, in recent times, he has become more open, sharing posts on social media as well as attending real-life events.

Among the couple's public appearances in recent weeks, are days out at Royal Ascot, and a string of outings during the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations earlier this month.
The Chinese government announces an ordinance that bans 31 behaviors, including showing off luxurious lifestyles.

Three influencers were banned from using social media platforms after evading tax obligations, while another famous personality's recent stream ended quickly after showing a tank-shaped ice cream.

China's Newly Published Regulation Forbids Streamers From Showing 31 Conducts

China recently issued a live-streaming industry ordinance listing 31 banned behaviors, extending the benchmark for influencers to talk about specific topics in the government's latest effort to regulate the booming digital economy. This is after the reports of the Chinese government drafted a provision that tightens its cybercensorship.

On Wednesday, June 22, the National Radio and Television Administration and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism published an 18-point guideline. The issued policy demands Chinese influencers to have relevant qualifications to discuss on their platforms. The topics stated in the guideline should regard law, finance, medicine, and education. Yet, those in command did not give specific qualifications needed.

Publishing content that may weaken or deform the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, the socialist system, or the country's reforms and opening-up are part of the 31 banned behaviors in live-streaming sessions. Aside from the said conducts, using deepfake technologies to tamper with the images of party or state leaders and deliberately "hyping up" sensitive issues and attracting public attention are also prohibited behaviors.

The guideline also said that live-streamers are outlawed from displaying lavish lifestyles, such as luxury products and cash. This new regulation has been anchored as the live-streaming e-commerce industry is undergoing rapid shifts amid constricted critical examination and economic headwinds.

Read Also: Samsung Unveils Its 200-Megapixel Camera Sensor - the Smallest One With Improved Autofocus?

Chinese Known Influencers Banned From Using Media Platforms After Breaking Protocols

Some of the most popular live-streamers on Alibaba Group Holding's live-streaming e-commerce platform, known as Taobao Live and the owner of South China Morning Post, have slipped from favor on several bases. This has left brands racing to look for new methods to sell their products.

China's renowned "lipstick king," Austin Li Jiaqi, who gained prominence after selling 15,000 tubes of lipstick in just five minutes, shortly ended a live-streaming program on June 3. It is after he reportedly exhibited a tank-shaped ice cream.

The tank image is a frequent target of Chinese censors because of its affiliation with the lethal Tiananmen Square crackdown by the country's troops against pro-democracy protesters in Beijing back on June 4, 1989.

The 'lips stick man' has more than 64 million followers, who suddenly disappeared and was absent at an organized sales session on Sunday for Taobao Live, which has left millions of fans watching online clueless about what happened.

The Chinese social media celebrity's no-show on his most expected virtual shows may risk the live-streaming sales drive of Taobao Marketplace amidst the country's annual 618 shopping festival.

Additionally, other Chinese influencers are also facing career dilemmas. Another Chinese influencer Huang Wei, widely known as Viya, paid a penalty of 1.3 billion yuan (US$210 million) for tax evasion late last year. After such a case, Wei has never had another public view.

Before Huang Wei got into tax issues, other celebrities such as Zhu Chenhui and Lin Shanshan, two top influencers, were fined tens of millions of yuan in November for tax evasion each. Both of them also saw their social media accounts and e-commerce stores disappear. Regarding this, the new set of policies released on Wednesday also highlights that live-streamers should report their income honestly and meet their tax responsibilities under regulations.

Also, according to the rules, those public figures who have violated the law or gone unethical must be forbidden by the media from having the opportunity to communicate their opinions publicly, hold public undertakings, make a new account or switch to another platform.

Related Article: China Boosts Cyber Censorship, Requires Sites to Recruit Content Moderators
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Michelle Obama and Amy Schumer are leading the furious public criticism of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade today - with the former First Lady slamming the move as 'horrifying' while warning that it will have 'devastating consequences' for women across the US.

Dozens of celebrities have spoken out to share their horror over the landmark decision, including Kim Kardashian, Taylor Swift, Busy Philipps, Bette Midler, Hailey Bieber, and Sophie Turner - with many of them choosing to share Obama's statement as well as their own thoughts on the issue.

58-year-old Obama was one of the first high-profile people to react to the decision, taking to Instagram to post a lengthy statement slamming the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the minutes after it was announced, describing herself as 'heartbroken' while blasting the Supreme Court for ridding women of their 'fundamental right to make informed decisions about their own bodies'.

'I am heartbroken that we may now be destined to learn the painful lessons of a time before Roe was made law of the land - a time when women risked losing their lives getting illegal abortions,' she wrote.

'A time when the government denied women control over their reproductive functions, forced them to move forward with pregnancies they didn't want, and then abandoned them once their babies were born.

'That is what our mothers and grandmothers and great-grandmothers lived through, and now we are here again.'

Michelle Obama and Amy Schumer led the furious public criticism of SCOTUS' decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on Friday

Obama braded the decision 'horrifying' and warning that it will have 'devastating consequences for women across the US'

She urged pro-choice supporters to 'channel their frustration and anger into action by getting involved', before highlighting organizations like Planned Parenthood and The United State of Women

Obama was one of dozens of high-profile figures to speak out against the decision on Friday - with Schumer, 41, accusing the Supreme Court of determining women's rights by following the 'intentions of a bunch of slave-owning rapists who've been dead for hundreds of years'.

She then appeared to take aim at Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who in 2018 and 2019 was accused of sexual assault by several women, writing on her Instagram Stories: 'And women's bodily autonomy should not be determined by men who've been accused of sexual assault.'

Both Obama and Schumer then urged pro-choice supporters to take action by fighting back against the decision, with former President Barack Obama's wife urging her followers to 'channel their frustration and anger into action' by supporting organizations like Planned Parenthood and The United State of Women.

'This moment is difficult, but our story does not end here,' the mother-of-two said. 'It may not feel like we are able to do much right now, but we can. And we must.

'If you're like me and you want to get started right now, I encourage you to channel your frustration and anger into action by getting involved. Organizations like Planned Parenthood and The United State of Women, among many others, have resources you can look to if you want to help others or if you need help yourself.

'Our hearts may be broken today, but tomorrow, we've got to get up and find the courage to keep working towards creating the more just America we all deserve. We have so much left to push for, to rally for, to speak for - and I know we can do this together.'

Schumer said that the decision equated to SCOTUS determining women's rights by 'interpreting the intentions of a bunch of slave-owning rapists who've been dead for hundreds of years'

The comedian posted in support of Bans Off Our Bodies (left), urged pro-choice supporters to join a rally in New York on Friday (center), and then made a stark comparison between gun laws and abortion rights in the US (right)

Kim Kardashian joined the many people pointing out the contrasts between gun control laws and abortion rights, posting on her Instagram Stories that 'guns have more rights than women'

Kim's younger sister Kendall Jenner branded the decision 'disturbing, disappointing, and devastating'

Bette Midler unleashed a furious tirade against Donald Trump, accusing the former President - who nominated three Supreme Court Justices - of 'undoubtedly paying for a hundred [abortions] himself'

She also accused Justice Samuel Alito of 'leaking' the draft of the decision to overturn Roe

Schumer meanwhile, who is a mother-of-one, urged her followers to support Bans Off Our Bodies, a 'national campaign led by abortion rights supporters' which 'collectively mobilizes against abortion bans'.

She also shared information about a planned 'All out for abortion rights' rally, which is taking place in New York City's Washington Square Park on Friday evening.

The comedian went on to highlight the stark contrast between the lack of gun control laws in the US and the rules governing abortion rights, writing on Instagram that 'late term abortions via school shootings are still available', while re-posting a tweet about SCOTUS eliminating the constitutional right to abortion.

British actress Jameela Jamil - who is now based in the US - also drew comparisons between abortion rights and gun control laws, while branding the Supreme Court Justices who voted in favor of overruling Roe v. Wade 'f***ing evil bastards' and accusing pro-life supporters of using dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale as a 'manifesto'.

'Oh my god. Roe v. Wade is gone. My heart is completely broken. What happened to this country?' she wrote in an Instagram image, adding in the caption: 'The past six years has been terrifying and somehow keeps getting worse. These f***ing evil bastards know that this never ends abortion, it only ends safe abortion. We need to VOTE. No wonder they are banning Handmaid's Tale in Texas. They are using it as a manifesto

'PRO LIFE, but only saying abortion has to be decided state by state, but gun laws are protected nationwide f***ing hundreds of mass shootings this year and its only June.'

In a second post, she highlighted the economic ramifications of the decision, questioning who will 'pay for all these unwanted babies', and asking: 'Who is going to better fund the adoption system?'

'Who is giving out free healthcare to people forced to follow through on pregnancies?' she continued. 'Who is going to pay for the food, shelter and educations of these forced children? Or the therapy of the rape victims and children forced to carry pregnancies to term?

Jameela Jamil (left), Busy Philipps (center), and Hailey Bieber (right) were also among the celebrities who spoke out to slam the overturning of Roe v. Wade

British actress Jameela Jamil - who now lives in the US - raised questions about the economic ramifications of the decision, asking: 'Who is gonna pay for all these unwanted babies?'

Hailey Bieber, 25, said she was 'speechless' over the decision, describing it as 'really really scary'

Busy Philipps urged her followers to attend a rally in New York on Friday, while furiously blasting the Supreme Court, adding: 'I have no words. This is total devastation'

Taylor Swift (left), Cynthia Nixon (center), and Padma Lakshmi (right) voiced their upset and outrage over the landmark decision on Friday

Many celebrities - including Hunger Games star Elizabeth Banks - noted the 'devastation' that this will cause for so many women and families across the US, with many also contrasting abortion rights with gun control laws

'Cant even f***ing feed, treat or shelter the people already here. AmeriCANT. These f***ing dinosaurs will be dead before they see the devastating impact on our society.'

Taylor Swift, 32, said the move has left her 'terrified' about the state of the country, writing on her Twitter account: 'I'm absolutely terrified that this is where we are - after so many decades of people fighting for women's rights to their own bodies, today's decision has stripped us of that.'

Model Hailey Bieber, 25, described the landmark decision as 'really really scary' in her own post about it, writing: 'Wow... I'm speechless. What an extreme loss and disappointment. This is really really scary.'

Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner shared her horror over the decision in an Instagram Stories video, in which she insisted that overturning Roe v. Wade 'is not about saving lives, it's about controlling a woman's body'

Actress and TV host Busy Philipps joined Schumer in encouraging her followers to attend the Washington Square rally, sharing a flyer for the event on her Instagram, while writing: 'I have no words. This is total devastation. See you tonight New York and I hope you show the f**k up wherever you live.'

She added on Twitter: 'It doesnt end here. F**k this sham. F**k these people. If youre a single issue voter and your issue is your taxes, f**k you too. This Supreme Court is on you.'

Game of Thrones actress Sophie Turner - who is currently pregnant with her second child with husband Joe Jonas - shared her thoughts on Roe being overturned in an Instagram Stories video, in which she stated that the decision will likely 'set us back by 50 years'.

'Overturning Roe v. Wade is setting us back 50 years,' she said. 'This isn't going to save any lives. It's going to kill and endanger millions of women who are going to end up getting dangerous backstreet abortions and end up dying from it.

'If this was actually about saving lives, if anyone cared about saving lives, then after any of the mass shootings that have happened here in the United States, we would have gun control. It's not about saving lives, it's about controlling a woman's body and controlling a woman's right to choose and it's absolutely f***ing disgusting.'

Actress and former politician Cynthia Nixon, 56 - who wed her wife Christine Marinoni in 2012 - called attention to the 'devastating' timing of the decision being announced during Pride Month - particularly because the ruling issued by the Supreme Court also casts doubt over the future of other legislation, which protects the the rights of those within the LGBTQ community, including the right to same-sex marriages.

She posted the concurring judgement of Justice Clarence Thomas, in which he wrote: 'For that reason, in future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court's substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell'.

'This ruling today at the height of Pride Month is particularly devastating,' Nixon wrote on Twitter. 'The foundation upon which Roe rested is the same that has protected so many of our rights as LGBTQ+ people. Clarence Thomas says as much. Were all in this together.'

Riverdale stars Camila Mendes (left) and Lili Reinhart (right) both shared horrified reactions to Roe v. Wade being overturned

Thomas was also the subject of a tweet posted by Kathy Griffin, who looked back on the sexual harassment allegations made against him by Anita Hill back in 1991.

'Thinking about Anita Hill today. Thinking about what she went through. Believe women. Please,' Griffin, 61, tweeted.

Hill quietly accused Thomas of sexual harassment in a private interview with the FBI - however the resulting report was publicly leaked in 1991 when Thomas was nominated to the Supreme Court by then-President George H. W. Bush, resulting in his confirmation hearings being reopened - with Hill called to publicly testify about her allegations.

She told Congress that Thomas had repeatedly harassed her while she was working as his advisor on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, claiming that he asked her out on a number of occasions - and then began making lude comments when she refused his advances.

Despite her testimony - which was backed up by a polygraph test - Thomas was ultimately confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice.

The Supreme Court overruled the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision Friday morning by upholding Mississippi's restrictive 15-week abortion ban.

'The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives,' the decision said.

Tensions over the future of abortion rights in the country have been running high since a draft opinion of Dobbs was leaked - and showed that the high court's conservative majority was poised to push whether abortion was legal back to the states.

The 6-3 conservative majority made good on what the draft said, with liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer dissenting. Chief Justice John Roberts concurred. Conservative Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas also filed concurring opinion.

'Guided by the history and tradition that map the essential components of the Nation's concept of ordered liberty, the Court finds the Fourteenth Amendment clearly does not protect the right to an abortion,' the decision, penned by conservative Justice Samuel Alito, said.

There are 18 states that have near-total bans on their books, while four more have time-limit band and four others are likely to pass new bans if Roe is overturned

Abortion was automatically outlawed in 18 US states as soon as Roe v. Wade was overturned, thanks to specially-devised 'trigger laws' and historic bans that were automatically reenacted after Friday's ruling.

Thirteen states prepared trigger laws which would automatically outlaw terminations in the event of a ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade, which was widely-anticipated.

They are: Arkansas; Idaho; Kentucky; Louisiana; Mississippi; Missouri; North Dakota; Oklahoma; South Dakota; Tennessee; Texas; Utah and Wyoming.

Abortion bans in those states will now become law within 30 days.

Five other states have also now banned terminations, after historic laws superseded by the 1973 Roe ruling automatically came back into place.

Among those five are two Democrat-governed states - Michigan and Wisconsin.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers have both sought to overturn those bans in the court. But they remain in place for now, and Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin announced Friday afternoon that it was suspending terminations while awaiting clarification on the law.

Other states with newly-re-enacted historic bans are Alabama, Arizona and West Virginia.

Eight other states are also set to enact new anti-abortion laws. Georgia, Iowa and South Carolina all attempted to ban abortion after the six week mark.

Those laws were branded unconstitutional, but will likely be revisited now Roe has ended. And Florida, Indiana, Montana as well as Nebraska are all working on plans to ban or restrict terminations.
Young Italian men and their doting mothers have always had an unusually close relationship.

She does his laundry, makes his bed and picks up after him while he lounges about like a pampered little signore.

She will never hear a bad word against him but, naturally, has a lot  not all of it good  to say about his romantic partners.

But, most of all, she cooks for him: marvellous, mouth-watering food. From dawn to dusk, it seems, shes chopping, simmering, sauteing, basting and boiling.

All of which means that, when the cosseted chap finally leaves home, the outside world can come as a bit of a shock. Take Giuseppe Corsaro, who arrived in London from Sicily 22 years ago. He was 17 years old, spoke no English and was crippled by homesickness  but was determined to stay here.

I missed my family, my home, and most of all my mamma, he says. I lost more than 7 kg (15 lb) in six months because I was pining. And the food  it was so horrible!

Giuseppe set up La Mia Mamma, a rather different style of Italian restaurant here in Britain, where the consultant chefs have no official training and have never even worked in a professional kitchen

Of course, my mamma sent me food boxes, but they ran out very quickly and I was missing so much her food  I still remember it.

Which is why, nearly two decades on, he set up La Mia Mamma, a rather different style of Italian restaurant here in Britain, where the consultant chefs have no official training and have never even worked in a professional kitchen.

Instead, they have different qualifications: they are Italian mums in their 50s, 60s and 70s who just want to cook and cook  if not for their own sons, then for someone elses.

Everyone misses their mammas cooking, says Mamma Fabiana, 57, who hails from the Marche region in the east of Italy, is constantly laughing, and claims to make the best tiramisu in the world.

I made shoes for 25 years, but that was my job. Cooking for my family was my love because food holds the family together. It makes me happy. Here, I am happy to share my cooking with other people.

This concept is such a winning formula that the first restaurant on the Kings Road in Londons Chelsea, has been joined by another nearby, with a third  currently closed for refurbishment  in chi-chi Notting Hill, and a fourth due to open in Fulham at the end of the summer.

To see how it all works, I joined Fabiana for a masterclass, during which she patiently showed me how to make fresh cavatelli pasta  rolling and shaping each individual shell on a ridged wooden spatula into the shape of a small cava, or cave  with pistachio and ricotta pesto.

Good food belongs to the Italians. Its part of their DNA.

But the mammas dont just cook in the front window of the restaurant. They welcome customers in with great friendly whoops. They haul huge, steaming pans of pasta from table to table. They dish up. They chat to young Italians who could be their children  or grandchildren  listen to their woes and bombard them with home-cooked food. They will even sing and play the tambourine, if thats your thing.

Theyre everywhere and extremely noisy  laughing and shouting and waving their arms about, a lot.

And, at the end of the night, they hug and clutch customers to their soothing bosoms and kiss and wave them goodbye  even mopping up tears. We have a lot of tears, says Mamma Sara  at 41, by far the youngest and most glamorous mamma. People can get very emotional. Many are homesick, but for the food as much as anything else. They need their mamma.

Gosh, what a bunch of ridiculous mammoni (mummies boys)!

All this means that Italian men (and women, to be fair) are flocking across London to La Mia Mamma.

And that includes Hollywood star and foodie Stanley Tucci, who loved the mammas and their home-cooked fare so much he filmed a section of his forthcoming TV series Searching For Italy here. Oh we love, love, love Stanley, cries Mamma Sara. We thought he was just an American actor, but he was so passionate about food  he just really understood.

The mamma concept was hatched in 2017. By then, Giuseppe was managing Made In Italy, a small chain of Italian restaurants in London. Life was good, but he was still pining for something more authentic.

British food was great  it had transformed, he says. But something was still missing. It was restaurant food  never my mothers food.

So, egged on by a pal over a glass or two of wine, he phoned his 63-year-old mamma Anna, who helped out in his fathers estate agency, and asked if shed consider flying over from Sicily and cooking for him and his friends in a pop-up restaurant.

She went very quiet, which was a bit worrying, so I asked if she was still there and she said: Im just on Google. Ive found a flight on Wednesday  Ill see you then!

That was nearly five years ago  and shes been here ever since, still doggedly using the trusty old paring knife she brought from home.

In the beginning she was quite scared. It was a new life, a new adventure, Giuseppe says.

Giuseppes father followed her to the UK soon after.

But however good Anna was, one real mamma was never going to be enough for all the motherless Italians in London, so Giuseppe decided to branch out.

He started by putting a message on social media saying he was on the hunt for mammas  not trained chefs  to cook in a restaurant in London. If theyd come for at least three months, hed pay their travel, a transport allowance while here and even put them up in a Mammas House in London.

He was inundated. It went totally out of control. I started with Sicily, but I had messages from all over Italy  many of them put forward by their children!

One was the mamma of one of his best friends from school  her cooking was amazing, we all wanted to go to his house  so, despite speaking only Italian, she was straight in.

One was a teacher. Another had worked for the council. Some had barely travelled; the Underground proved quite a shock.

Mamma Marilena, from Emilia-Romagna  the richly gastronomic region in the north of Italy  was 60 years old and had never left the country, or spent any time apart from her husband since their wedding. But when she saw an advert in a local newspaper, she said: I want to go!

She came with her son  he worked on the bar  and stayed for four months.

She loved it. She was so happy. We all cried when she left, says Mamma Sara.

After a telephone interview, all the mammas were then invited to London  armed with signature recipes from their regions, passed down through generations, which they would have to cook during the interview process.

Hollywood star and foodie Stanley Tucci loved the mammas and their home-cooked fare so much he filmed a section of his forthcoming TV series Searching For Italy there

Mamma Maria comes from Bari and likes nothing more than stuffing customers with panzerotti (savoury turnovers), orecchiette alle cime di rapa (pasta ears with Italian broccoli) and handmade bigne (tiny, deep-fried pastries).

And Mamma Fabianas recipes  along with her tiramisu  include ragu marchigaiano (chicken, pork and beef slow-cooked in tomato sauce) and rabbit in tomato sauce. They all came from her mother-in-law.

I divorced my husband ten years ago, but I took the recipes! They were the best things I got from that marriage! she laughs.

None of them failed the cooking test. What else would you expect? Good food belongs to the Italians. Its part of their DNA.

Its not just about eating. Its about preparing. Being together. It holds a family together. Its part of us. When you smell the tomato pan, you have memories of summer-time with your family, says Mamma Sara.

And when you think of all those famous Italian chefs, forever banging on about their mammas, it seems that Giuseppe might be on to something.

Giorgio Locatelli may be festooned in Michelin stars, but he learnt how to cook from his mother and grandmother.

And Gennaro Contaldo loves to eulogise about his mothers slow-cooked ragu and bread  which she baked on Thursdays because, she said, that was the day I was born  and the three-course lunches that, for years, she delivered to him by train.

But back to the very noisy kitchen of La Mia Mamma, where the mammas may be miles from home but are lacking in neither confidence nor chat, particularly when supervising the cooking of their signature dishes. They are all very, very bossy. Very firm. They will not change a thing! says Giuseppe.

Which means theres a lot of shouting. A lot of No, no, no! You dont do it like this. Why you want to do it like that? My mamma did it just like this!

Not only is La Mia Mamma one of the liveliest and most brilliantly chaotic restaurants around, the foods fantastic  and good value. A two-course menu that kicks off with an Aperol Spritz, followed by a selection of starters to share and a pasta course will set you back 35 per person.

Add a main, and its 45.

I recommend the pistachio pesto with cavatelli pasta. And if, by chance, you are on the hunt for an unattached Italian man, this could be your lucky place. But dont forget youll always come second to his beloved mamma.
Aldi Australia has revealed the reason customers can't call their local store to inquire about whether certain items are in stock.

According to the retailer's website, it 'streamlines' its stores in order to keep prices low so don't employ phone-based customer service staff.

Aldi has an Australia-wide customer support number however an automated voice instructs callers to refer to the website and there's no way to get through to a person.

There is currently no way for customers to contact Aldi Australia by phone. The retailer's website reveals the reason why shoppers can only inquire about what items are in stock online.

'Thanks for calling Aldi Australia. All of our enquiries are now managed online, so we can more efficiently get you the right information,' it says.

On social media, Aldi shoppers have expressed their frustration at the supermarket's lack of phone service.

'No way to contact any actual stores to find out if the grocery products I want are in stock,' one woman wrote.

'Now if you want information that isn't in one of the canned answers on your website, it get's kind of frustrating. At least have a chat option or something similar,' complained another.

According to the retailer's website, it 'streamlines' its stores in order to keep prices low so don't employ phone-based customer service staff

Aldi's website has a contact form for shoppers to get in touch with inquiries or complaints and features a stock checker for customers to see which stores a particular item is available in.

'Providing such great products at such low prices means streamlining our stores; and that includes not being able to provide special buys availabilities over the phone,' the website confirms.

'To be sure you dont miss out, we recommend visiting ALDI as early as possible when a new Special Buys range goes on sale everyday Wednesday or Saturday to avoid disappointment.'

Aldi operates on limited staff with more than 13,500 people employed across their 570 Australian stores.
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Parents are struggling to find out whether their child's polio vaccinations are up to date, it emerged today amid fears the eradicated disease is spreading in Britain again.

Health bosses issued a national alert after the paralysis-causing virus was detected in sewage samples in London, meaning it may be circulating domestically for the first time in almost 40 years. A call went out to British parents to check their youngsters' innoculation records were up to date.

But some parents said they tried up to 30 times to get through to their GP receptionist and access their child's medical records and were told to call back the next day or get in touch with schools instead.

There was further confusion as it emerged parents have to get permission from a GP to allow them to access their family medical records on the NHS app, meaning the only way for some people to find out their family's vaccination status was to call their local doctor's surgery directly.

Deborah Siddoway, who feared her 16-year-old son had missed his teenage booster polio shot because of the first Covid lockdown, revealed her GP had 'absolutely no idea' if he was jabbed and told her to phone his school, who initially didn't know either. The mother, from Hexham, Northumberland, said she was left on hold for 45 minutes to 'various NHS people'.

Polio vaccine coverage in England has been dwindling for years but dropped further during the pandemic, linked to a lull in appointments, school closures and a rise in vaccine hesitancy.

With just a third of teens fully inoculated in some parts of the capital, fears of an outbreak are rife.

The extent of the current outbreak is not yet known but health experts are concerned doctors no longer recognise the symptoms of polio because it has been eradicated in Britain since 2003.

While the virus can lead to permanent paralysis in rare cases, it typically causes flu-like symptoms that could easily be misdiagnosed as other more common infections, like Covid.

The above map, based on UKHSA data, looks at the share of Year 9s who had all three polio jabs in the 2020/2021 academic year. The final polio booster is offered to all children by the age of 14 as part of the NHS school vaccination programme

The polio vaccine is given at age eight, 12 and 16 weeks as part of the six-in-one vaccine and then again at three years as part of a pre-school booster. The final course is given at age 14. The World Health Organization has set the threshold of a successful school jabs programme at 95 per cent uptake, which England is failing to hit by all accounts

The virus was detected at the Beckton sewage treatment works, which covers a population of four million in north and east London

How the world is STILL vulnerable to polio: Vaccine uptake map reveals how DOZENS of countries including US and UK are below key threshold needed to contain virus More than 100 countries fail to meet key polio vaccination uptake targets and are vulnerable to the paralysis-causing virus, official figures suggest. Data from the World Health Organization shows 114 of 160 nations have not hit its threshold of 95 per cent coverage in one-year-olds. UK health chiefs yesterday revealed that the country could be seeing a resurgence of the disease for the first time in decades after strains were detected in sewage. Experts deem having more than nine in 10 people in every community vaccinated crucial to prevent the highly contagious virus from spreading. Being vaccinated is even more important for children than adults because they are more likely to catch and therefore fall ill with the disease. While the majority will experience mild or no symptoms at all, for as many as one in 100, it can cause permanent paralysis or death. Among the vulnerable countries are the UK and US, where overall uptake nationally is as low as 93 per cent. But in parts of Africa, as few as four in 10 are immunised. And 35 nations, including France, Germany and Portugal, have not shared their polio uptake data  meaning even lower numbers could be protected in some places. Advertisement

The NHS currently offers the polio jab as part of a child's routine vaccination schedule. The polio vaccine is included in the six-in-one vaccination, which is given to children when they are eight, 12 and 16 weeks old.

Protection against polio is further boosted through top-up jabs given youngers before youngsters go to school, as part of the four-in-one booster, and when they are 14, in the three-in-one teenage booster. All of the jabs are needed to be fully vaccinated against polio.

The NHS points patients to their red book to find out if their child has been vaccinated against polio.

The book, also known as a personal child health record, is given to parents around the time their child is born and logs their vaccination status and other health information.

Ms Siddoway was concerned that her son may have missed his booster at 14 because of the first Covid lockdown in spring 2020.

When she contacted her GP to check his records on Thursday they had 'absolutely no idea' and told her to contact his school instead, where youngsters are often given the jab.

And the local School Age Immunisation Service (SAIS), which dishes out jabs at schools, struggled to find her child's record.

Ms Siddoway told the Telegraph: 'I've spent about 45 minutes on hold to various different NHS people to try and find out if my son is vaccinated, and if not, can we please have an appointment to get him vaccinated, and I am no further forward.'

She was eventually told by SAIS that a catch-up clinic was taking place the following week where her son could get jabbed. But because he finishes school after his final exam this week, it is unclear whether he and other final year students can attend.

Getting answers and the number of people she had to go through was 'crazy', Ms Siddoway said.

Other Britons have taken to Twitter to hit out at their struggles accessing their records on the NHS app, as some surgeries are said to require patients to fill in a form before linking their data with the app.

Some parents said they had tried 'thirty' times to get through to their GP receptionist and were told to call back the next day.

One mother, from Cheshire, took to Twitter to complain that her children are behind on their vaccinations but her local GP does not offer the jabs. The surgery pointed her to a child immunisation centre in a neighbouring county, where her children attend school.

But when she tried to book her youngsters in for immunisation, they told her to contact her doctor.

Official figures show that eight local authorities in England  mostly in London  had 50 per cent or lower uptake among Year 9s last year.

Just 35 per cent of 13 and 14-year-olds had received their final booster last year in Hillingdon, West London, which has the worst coverage in the country, followed by Brent, where a third were fully vaccinated.

Nottingham (50.4 per cent) and Middlesbrough (45.6 per cent) now also have some of the poorest rates, meanwhile coverage is below 60 per cent in Torbay, Leicester, Sandwell, Plymouth, Luton and Devon.

Rates are higher among younger children, with more than nine in 10 five-year-olds jabbed nationally.

Data from the World Health Organization shows 114 of 160 nations have not hit its threshold of 95 per cent coverage in one-year-olds. UK health chiefs yesterday revealed that the country could be seeing a resurgence of the disease for the first time in decades after strains were detected in sewage

Figures from Our World in Data show that 95 per cent of one-year-olds in Britain are vaccinated against polio, dropping to 90 per cent in South-East Asia, 87 per cent in the US and 74 per cent in Africa. The world average is 86 per cent

WHY ARE POLIO VACCINE RATES DWINDLING? Uptake of all 13 routine childhood vaccinations is falling in England. In 2019 the UK lost its 'measles-free' status after a spate of cases, following years of falling MMR jab coverage. Now it appears polio - officially eradicated in Britain in 2003 - has crept back in. So, why are vaccination rates falling across the board? Complacency Many experts believe we have simply 'forgotten' the horrors of now-eradicated diseases that were once devastating to society. Some parents have become complacent and no longer view the disease as a 'concern' to their child, according to Professor David Heymann, an infectious disease expert at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Polio hasn't caused an outbreak in the UK since the 1970s, which means millions of Britons have never encountered the virus. And the last time someone was paralysed by the disease was 20 years ago. School closures Childhood vaccination rates took a backslide during the pandemic, which has been partly attributed to school closures. Youngsters in the UK are offered jabs in school as part of the NHS vaccination programme. Boris Johnson closed England's 24,000 schools for the first time in March 2020, with some children returning briefly from June that year. Classes were then shut again in January 2021 at the start of the Alpha wave before reopening on March 1. Overall, schools in England were shut for longer than in any other European country. It is not a UK-only phenomenon either. Globally, 23million children missed out on basic vaccines through routine immunisation services in 2020  3.7 million more than in 2019, according to the World Health Organization. Stay at home Covid messaging Experts have also warned that telling the British public to stay at home during Covid contributed to a fall in uptake. A team at Imperial College London raised concerns as early as June 2020 that fewer families were going to their GP for vaccines - either for fear of catching Covid or burdening the health service. Rise in vaccine hesitancy There was a rise in the anti-vaxx movement before Covid but the push to get everyone vaccinated against that virus has fuelled the problem. Conspiracy theories and fake news about vaccines were proliferated on social media throughout the pandemic, gaining more traction than ever before. Scepticism about the Covid vaccines is believed to have eroded confidence in other traditional jabs. Advertisement

Steve Russell, NHS England's national director for vaccinations, said: 'While almost 95 per cent of children under the age of five are vaccinated against polio and the risk is low, it can cause lifelong problems.

'So the NHS is doing everything it can to ensure everyone eligible takes up their offer  from local NHS teams contacting those who are eligible for vaccination in affected areas to jab clinics in schools.

'The NHS is asking families to check that all their children's vaccines are up to date through their Redbook and to speak to their local health teams or GP if they have questions about getting them protected or booking an appointment.'

Local NHS teams are expected to start contacting parents of eligible under-fives who are unvaccinated to encourage them to come forward. The health service said the polio vaccine is dished out at GP surgeries and in schools.

Doctors have been tasked with ensuring migrants and refugees arriving in the UK are fully-jabbed against the virus, with health chiefs concerned they could be unprotected.

Professor David Heymann, an infectious disease expert at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said vaccination rates were high but 'not high enough'.

He told the BBC Today programme yesterday: 'They must be high enough to stop transmission of this virus and thats only if parents are concerned about their children and take them for vaccination.'

He added: 'There is a suggestion of that because its been picked up in the sewage for the last two or three months.

'So what that means is it likely is circulating throughout a population in the UK or in the London area and thats why mothers should get their children vaccinated.'

Health chiefs have yet to detect a case of polio in the population. But they have found 'several closely-related' polio viruses in sewage samples taken between February and May.

UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) bosses think a traveller, possibly from Pakistan, Afghanistan or Nigeria, shed the virus in their faeces after getting a live oral vaccine, which is used in some countries with current outbreaks as it has a rapid effect.

The oral vaccine, given via droplets to the mouth, has not been used in the UK since 2004. Britain uses an inactivated polio vaccine, which is given as part of a combined jab to babies, toddlers and teenagers as part of the NHS routine childhood vaccination schedule.

Sewage samples show that the weakened version of the virus in the vaccine has mutated to the point that it is acting like the wild-type of the virus - called vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (VDPV2).

There were nearly 1,000 cases of VDPV2 globally in 2020.

The virus has been spotted multiple times over the last three months, which suggests the virus has spread between closely linked people - such as a family or extended family - who are shedding the virus in their faces.

But despite clear signs of transmission, no human cases have yet been identified and officials say the risk to the public remains extremely low because of high vaccination rates.

UKHSA teams are working to find out if there has been any community transmission.

Lord Kamall, Minister for Life Sciences, told the House of Lords yesterday that the source could be traced back to a single house or street.

He said 'world-beating' tactics learned during the Covid pandemic were being deployed to track down 'patient zero'. He revealed the investigation will see officials 'go along the pipes' to locate where the virus came from.

'In theory it might be possible to find individual households and streets but it is too early,' Lord Kamall said.

It comes as World Health Organization (WHO) data shows that more than 114 of 160 countries have failed to meet its key polio vaccination uptake target of 95 per cent and are vulnerable to the virus.

Experts deem having more than nine in 10 people in every community vaccinated crucial to prevent the highly contagious virus from spreading.

Being vaccinated is even more important for children than adults because they are more likely to catch and therefore fall ill with the disease.

While the majority will experience mild or no symptoms at all, for as many as one in 100, it can cause permanent paralysis or death.

Among the vulnerable countries are the UK and US, where overall uptake nationally is as low as 93 per cent. But in parts of Africa, as few as four in 10 are immunised.

And 35 nations, including France, Germany and Portugal, have not shared their polio uptake data  meaning even lower numbers could be protected in some places.

How long does the polio vaccine last? What are the virus' symptoms? How many people are infected in the UK? EVERYTHING you need to know amid fears paralysis-causing virus is spreading

Parents are being urged to ensure their children's polio vaccinations are up to date, particularly after the pandemic when school immunisation schemes were disrupted and uptake fell. Pictured, a girl gets her four-in-one pre-school jab offered by the NHS

WHAT IS POLIO? Polio is a serious viral infection that used to be common all over the world. The virus lives in the throat and intestines for up to six weeks, with patients most infectious from seven to 10 days before and after the onset of symptoms. But it can spread to the spinal cord causing muscle weakness and paralysis. The virus is more common in infants and young children and occurs under conditions of poor hygiene. How deadly is it? Most people show no signs of infection at all but about one in 20 people have minor symptoms such as fever, muscle weakness, headache, nausea and vomiting. Around one in 50 patients develop severe muscle pain and stiffness in the neck and back. Less than one per cent of polio cases result in paralysis and one in 10 of those result in death. Of those who develop symptoms, these tend to appear three-to-21 days after infection and include: High temperature

Sore throat

Headache

Abdominal pain

Aching muscles

Nausea and vomiting How does it spread? People can catch polio via droplets in the air when someone coughs or sneezes, or if they come into contacted with the faeces of an infected person. This includes food, water, clothing or toys. Are there different strains? There are three strains of 'wild' polio, which has been largely eradicated throughout Europe, the Americas, Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific. Types 2 and 3 were eliminated thanks to a global mass vaccine campaign, with the last cases detected in 1999 and 2012 respectively. The remaining, type 1, wild polio remains endemic in only two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Wild polio has been eliminated in almost every country in the world thanks to vaccines. But the global rollout has spawned new types of strains known as vaccine-derived polioviruses. These are strains that were initially used in live vaccines but spilled out into the community and evolved to behave more like the wild version. Is polio still around in the UK? The last polio outbreak was in the 1970s. The last case of person-to-person transmission in the UK was in 1984, which also marked the last wild polio case. But there have been several dozen cases of vaccine-derived polioviruses, although they have been one-offs, with no onward transmission. Am I vaccinated against polio? The polio vaccine is offered as part of the NHS routine childhood vaccination programme. It is given at age eight, 12 and 16 weeks as part of the six-in-one vaccine and then again at three years as part of a pre-school booster. The final course is given at age 14. Uptake has fallen slightly nationally during the Covid pandemic but remains above 90 per cent nationally. Rates are lower in London and in poor and ethnic minority communities. Just 86.7 per cent of one-year-olds in London have had their first dose dose of polio vaccine compared to the UK average of 92.6 per cent. There are concerns vaccine hesitancy has risen during the Covid crisis due to misinformation spread about jabs for that virus and school closures. Advertisement

Wasn't polio eradicated?

There are three versions of wild polio  type one, two and three.

Type two was eradicated in 1999 and no cases of type three have been detected since November 2012, when it was spotted in Nigeria.

Both of these strains have been certified as globally eradicated.

But type one still circulates in two countries  Pakistan and Afghanistan.

These versions of polio have been almost driven to extinction because of vaccines.

But the global rollout has spawned new types of strains known as vaccine-derived polioviruses.

These are strains that were initially used in live vaccines but spilled out into the community and evolved to behave more like the wild version.

How many people are infected?

Health chiefs haven't yet detected an actual case.

Instead, they have only spotted the virus in sewage samples.

But they said several closely-related polio viruses were found in sewage samples taken in North and East London between February and May.

This suggests there has 'likely' been spread between linked individuals who are now shedding the strain in their faeces.

The UK Health Security Agency is investigating if any community transmission is occurring.

It is hoped that the cases will be confined to a single household, or extended family.

How does it spread?

It is spreads between people through contact with food, water, or objects that have been contaminated with the faeces of someone infected.

Places with a high population, poor sanitation and high rates of diarrhoea-type illnesses are particularly at risk of seeing polio spread.

Unvaccinated people are at a high risk of catching the infection.

There is some concern that the virus appears to be spreading in London, which has poorer polio vaccine uptake than the rest of the country.

How is polio diagnosed?

Doctors can spot polio based on their symptoms.

If a person is in the first week of an illness, a throat swabs is taken, or a faeces or blood sample can be taken up to four weeks after symptoms began.

The sample is then sent to a laboratory, with tests then confirming whether the virus is present.

What does a national incident mean?

UKHSA guidelines set out that when a vaccine-derived polio virus is spotted in Britain.

This instructs health chiefs to set up a national response to manage and coordinate how it responds.

It includes joining up local public health teams.

While the polio samples have only been spotted in London, health chiefs say it is vital to ensure other parts of the country are aware and taking necessary action to protect people in their area.

How is polio treated?

There is no cure for polio, although vaccines can prevent it.

Treatment can only alleviate its symptoms and lower the risk of long-term problem.

Mild cases  which are the majority  often pass with painkillers and rest.

But more serious cases may require a hospital stay to be hooked up to machines to help their breathing and be helped with regular stretches and exercises to prevent long-term problems with muscles and joints.

In the 1920s, the iron lung  a respirator that resembled a 'coffin on legs'  was used to treat polio.

It was first used that decade to save a child infected with the virus who needed help breathing.

Paul Alexander, 76, from Texas, is still in the machine today, 70 years later, after contracting polio at the age of six in 1952.

I missed out on a vaccine as a child, can I still get it?

Health chiefs have encouraged everyone who is unvaccinated against polio to contact their GP to catch up.

However, they warned vaccination efforts in London will focus initially on reaching out to parents of under-fives that have not had or missed their jabs, amid fears it is spreading in the capital.

The NHS currently offers the polio jab as part of a child's routine vaccination schedule. The polio vaccine is included in the six-in-one vaccination, which is given to children when they are eight, 12 and 16 weeks old.

When polio weakened muscles used in breathing, patients used to be treated using an 'iron lung'. Pictured: A female patient in her iron lung at Fanzakerley hospital in Liverpool, now called Aintree University Hospital

British children getting their oral vaccine for polio in 1965  which used a live version of the virus  12 years after the first vaccine was invented

WHAT JABS SHOULD I HAVE HAD BY AGE 18 Vaccinations for various unpleasant and deadly diseases are given free on the NHS to children and teenagers. Here is a list of all the jabs someone should have by the age of 18 to make sure they and others across the country are protected: Eight weeks old 6-in-1 vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), and hepatitis B.

Pneumococcal (PCV)

Rotavirus

Meningitis B 12 weeks old Second doses of 6-in-1 and Rotavirus 16 weeks old Third dose of 6-in-1

Second doses of PCV and men. B One year old Hib/meningitis C

Measles, mumps and rubella (MMR)

Third dose of PCV and meningitis B Two to eight years old Annual children's flu vaccine Three years, four months old Second dose of MMR

4-in-1 pre-school booster for diptheria, tetanus, polio and whooping cough 12-13 years old (girls) HPV (two doses within a year) 14 years old 3-in-1 teenage booster for diptheria, tetanus and polio

MenACWY Source: NHS Choices Advertisement

Protection against polio is boosted in top-up jabs when youngers are three-years-and-four-months old and when they are 14.

Most Londoners are fully jabbed against polio. But uptake is not 100 per cent.

How long does protection from the polio vaccine last?

Scientists do not know how long people who received the inactivated polio vaccine, the one used in the UK, lasts for.

But they expect it provide immunity for years after getting jabbed.

Two doses are 90 per cent effective, while three doses are 100 per cent effective.

Can it kill?

Polio can kill in rare cases. But it is more famous for causing paralysis, which can lead to permanent disability and death.

Up to a tenth of people who are paralysed by the virus die, as the virus affects the muscles that help them breathe.

What are polio's symptoms?

Three-quarters of people infected with polio do not have any visible symptoms.

Around one-quarter will have flu-like symptoms, such as a sore throat, fever, tiredness, nausea, a headache and stomach pain. These symptoms usually last up to 10 days then go away on their own.

But up to one in 200 will develop more serious symptoms that can affect the brain and spinal cord. This includes paraesthesia  pins and needles in the leg  and paralysis, which is when a person can't move parts of the body.

This is not usually permanent and movement will slowly come back over the next few weeks or months.

However, even youngsters who appear to fully recover from polio can develop muscle pain, weakness or paralysis as an adult  15 to 40 years after they were infected.

Do vaccines cause polio?

Although extremely rare, cases of vaccine-derived polio have been reported.

They do not make the vaccinated person ill but rather cause them to shed tiny pieces of the virus, which can then infect other, unvaccinated people.

This is only the case with the oral polio vaccine, which uses a live and weakened version of the virus to stimulate an immune response.

But, over time, the strain can mutate to behave more like wild versions of polio.

How did polio end up in the UK?

The polio spotted in Britain was detected in sewage, which is monitored by health chiefs, rather than in a person.

This suggests the virus has been imported from a country where the live polio vaccine is still being used.

Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious disease expert at the University of East Anglia, said: 'Such vaccine derived transmission events are well described and most ultimately fizzle out without causing any harm but that depends on vaccination coverage being improved.'

Polio used to paralyse millions of children around the world every year in the 1940s and 1950s but has been eliminated in virtually every country thanks to vaccines

The remaining, type 1, wild polio remains endemic in only two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan but parts of Africa still suffer flare-ups

Could this trigger an outbreak?

Uptake of the polio vaccine is around 90 per cent across the UK so it is unlikely to cause a massive outbreak.

But it has dipped further over the last year due to the knock-on effects of the pandemic.

There are concerns vaccine hesitancy has risen during the Covid crisis due to misinformation spread about jabs for that virus and school closures.

Experts say the best way to prevent the virus from spreading is for Britons to ensure their vaccinations are up to date, especially for children.

Dr Kathleen O'Reilly, an associate professor in statistics for infectious disease and expert in polio eradication, said that all countries are at risk of an outbreak until all polio cases are stopped globally.

This 'highlights the need for polio eradication, and continued global support for such an endeavour', she added.

When was last time Britain saw a case of polio?

The last time someone caught polio within the UK was in 1984 and Britain was declared polio-free in 2003.

But there have been dozens of imported cases since then, which are often detected in sewage surveillance.

However, these have always been one-off findings that were not detected again and occurred when a person vaccinated overseas with the live oral polio vaccine travelled to the UK and shed traces of the virus in their faeces.

Now, UK health officials have detected several closely-related viruses in sewage samples taken between February and May. This finding suggests there has been spread between close contacts in North and East London, where the samples were collected.

Where did polio originate?

Polio epidemics, when the virus is constantly spreading within a community, did not start happening until the late 1800s.

But scientists say that it is an ancient disease that first struck people in Egypt as early as 1570 BC. This is based on depictions of paralysis and weak limbs from that time.

A doctor in London was the first to publish a clear description of polio in infants in a medical textbook in 1789.

Polio dates back to 1500 BC, crippled rulers in Ancient Egypt and paralysed thousands of children for decades before being almost entirely wiped out by a vaccine that used a weakened version of virus: The disease's history laid bare

You could be forgiven for thinking polio was a disease resigned to history.

The paralysis-causing disease was officially eradicated in the UK in 2003 and the last domestic outbreak was in the 1980s. But dwindling vaccination rates, in part due to complacency, appear to have allowed polio to creep back in decades later.

The archaic disease has existed as long as human civilisation itself, with the earliest records dating back to ancient Egypt.

But it was until the 1800s that outbreaks began to really take off.

Millions of Brits will remember the devastation polio caused in the early 1950s and why it was one of the most feared infections in the world. The UK was rocked by a series of polio epidemics in the mid-20th century that saw thousands crippled by the virus each year.

Mary Berry, the ex-Great British Bake Off judge, was hospitalised after contracting polio aged 13, leaving her with a twisted spine and damaged left hand.

Despite being eradicated in most of the world, it still spreads in two countries  Afghanistan and Pakistan  while parts of Africa suffer flare-ups of vaccine-derived versions of the virus.

Here, MailOnline takes a look at the history of the virus:

1500 BC

Polio epidemics, when the virus is constantly spreading within a community, did not start happening until the late 1800s.

But records suggest it dates back to as early as 1570 BC in ancient Egypt.

This is based on a drawing on a stele  a stone slab  which shows a priest with a withered leg and using a cane to help him walk.

And an Egyptian ruler called Siptah, who died in 1188 BC, is thought to have had polio based on his deformed left leg and foot, spotted by archaeologists who found his mummy in 1905.

1700s

But apart from these two incidents, polio largely vanished from the record books until it was logged in in 1789 by London-based Dr Michael Underwood.

He published the first clear description of polio in infants, who are particularly vulnerable to the disease, in a medical textbook, calling it 'debility of the lower extremities'.

Records show polio dates back to as early as 1570 BC in ancient Egypt. This is based on a drawing on a stele - a stone slab (pictured) - which shows a priest with a withered leg and using a cane to help him walk

1800s

In the early 1800s, a handful of polio cases were sporadically reported in medical journals.

But scientists believe people were commonly exposed to the virus in the typical unhygienic environments of the time, especially when they were young.

However, polioviruses started causing problems in Europe and North America at the end of the 1800s. This was, bizarrely, blamed on sanitation improving.

Polio spreads through consuming an infected person's faecal matter  which can happen as a result of poor hand hygiene.

While better water and sewage systems saw the demise of typhoid and cholera, outbreaks of polio became more common.

Three-quarter of those who become infected don't have symptoms. But around a quarter suffer a flu-like illness, including a sore throat, fever and tiredness.

Up to one in 200 will develop more serious symptoms that affect their brain and spinal cord, including paralysis.

Professor Ian Jones, a virologist at Reading University, explained the virus 'wasnt a problem until hygiene improved'.

Previously, low levels of infection would have given immunity to people but the unforeseen circumstance of better living conditions was that this declined and polio 'took off', he said.

Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious disease expert at the University of East Anglia, told MailOnline that although polio has been around for centuries or millennia, it was only during the early part of the 20th century that big epidemics of paralytic polio took off.

He explained: 'When every child got infected with poliovirus in the first couple of years of life you still saw some paralysis but it was only when infections were delayed until older age that such paralysis became more common.

'Young children who contract poliovirus infection generally suffer only mild symptoms, but delay those infections to teens and adulthood and paralysis becomes more common.'

The first epidemic struck more than a dozen people in Norway in 1868, while the second, which occurred 13 years later, caused a similar number of confirmed cases in Sweden. An outbreak in the US in 1894 saw 132 people infected.

Early 1900s

It was in 1916 that the first large-scale epidemic took hold in Brooklyn, New York, with more than 9,000 cases and 2,000 deaths.

The outbreak spread to the rest of the US and led to more than 27,000 cases and 6,000 polio deaths that year.

Newspapers published the names and addresses of infected people, 'keep out' notices were nailed to their doors and their families were quarantined.

Parents were urged to keep their children away from public spaces, such as swimming pools, parks and beaches, over virus fears.

The outbreak triggered concern across the world and sped up research into the illness.

Scientists had already made some progress in understanding and treating the virus.

In 1840, German orthopaedic Dr Jacob von Heine had become the first to produce a robust study on polio. He suggested that the disease may be contagious.

By 1908, Austrian physicians Karl Landsteiner and Erwin Popper said that polio may be caused by a virus.

Early treatments of the disease included tying the paralysed limbs of infected patients to splints, in a bid to stop their muscles from tightening.

But by 1928, an invention called the iron lung was rolled out to revolutionise how the disease was treated. The contraption  a respirator that resembled a 'coffin on legs'  was developed for patients whose lungs were so paralysed that they could no longer breathe unaided. Paul Alexander, 76, from Texas, is still in the machine today  70 years after contracting polio at the age of six in 1952

But by 1928, an invention called the iron lung was rolled out to revolutionise how the disease was treated.

The contraption  a respirator that resembled a 'coffin on legs'  was developed for patients whose lungs were so paralysed that they could no longer breathe unaided.

It was first used that decade to save an American child infected with the virus who needed help breathing. The majority patients stayed inside the chamber for short spells until their lungs recovered.

But some struck down by permanent paralysis stayed inside the machines for the rest of their lives.

Paul Alexander, 76, from Texas, is still in the machine today  70 years after getting polio at the age of six in 1952.

And by 1930, Elizabeth Kenny, a self-trained nurse from Queensland, Australia, developed a treatment applying hot packs to muscles and exercise to keep stimulating nerve cells and avoid long-term muscle damage. The methods are still used today.

As part of the increased focus on research, Australian virologists Sir Macfarlane Burnet and Dame Jean MacNamara identified for the first time that there were three types of the polio virus in 1931.

The fight against the virus was further boosted when a team of scientists at Harvard Medical School, led by Dr Jonas Salk, in the 1940s used blood samples of infected patients to extract and grow the virus in live cells.

Late 1900s

By 1955 the team, with the support of funds from the March of Dimes non-profit organisation, developed the first effective vaccine  an injectable inactive (killed) polio vaccine (IPV).

Nearly 2million children in the US were jabbed as part of the largest medical trials ever seen at the time.

They proved successful and 450million doses of the jab were dished out across the country. Cases subsequently fell from 18 per 100,000 people to two per 100,000.

The following decade, a team at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, led by medical researcher Dr Albert Sabin, developed a second vaccine using a live version of the virus that could be given in drops through the mouth.

This vaccine was much more effective and became the most popular throughout the world.

Politicians in the US didn't support Dr Sabin's oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV), so he tested it in the former Soviet Union.

The USSR rolled out the jab and polio subsequently declined. Drops in cases were also seen in nearby Eastern Europe and Japan.

The US licensed the jabbed in 1961 and it became the main vaccine used worldwide.

The fight against polio was further boosted when a team of scientists at Harvard Medical School, led by Dr Jonas Salk, in the 1940s used blood samples of infected patients to extract and grow the virus in live cells. Pictured: Dr Salk at the Municipal Hospital laboratory in April 1955 after announcement of the successful vaccine results

Great Britain was pronounced clear of polio in 2003 with the last case coming in 1984. A young girl is pictured getting her polio jab in May 1956

By 1955 researchers at Harvard Medical School, with the support of funds from the March of Dimes non-profit organisation, developed the first effective vaccine against polio  an injectable inactive (killed) polio vaccine (IPV). Pictured: children getting a lump of sugar while getting a polio vaccine at a mobile unit in Blackburn in Lancashire, England in 1965

Professor Jonathan Ball, a virologist from the University of Nottingham, told MailOnline that polio had a 'devastating effect' worldwide and the introduction of the two jabs was 'immense'.

Studies throughout the 1970s and 1980s revealed the virus was widespread in many richer nations, which pushed leaders to introduce routine vaccination using the OPV in national immunisations programmes.

The jabs saw polio vanish in developed countries. In the UK, cases fell from a peak of 8,000 a year to just a few hundred before being eradicated.

In the US, infections dropped from a peak of 58,000 to zero just a few years after the jab was dished out.

Kathleen O'Reilly, an associate professor in statistics for infectious disease and expert in polio eradication, told MailOnline: 'After the second world war cases of paralytic polio in England and Wales rose considerably, reaching several thousand cases each year.

'Vaccines were developed in response to these worrying outbreaks, and were introduced in the late 1950s.

'The number of polio cases quickly declined, and since the 1970s only a small number of cases were reported each year. There has not been a single case of polio in the UK since 1984.'

But in poorer nations, where the virus caused fewer outbreaks, uptake was much lower.

The World Health Organization (WHO) launched an worldwide immunisation rollout in 1974, in an attempt to vaccinate all children against polio.

By 1988, the UN health agency set the target of eradicating the virus globally by 2000. Two years later, a global virus surveillance system is set up to detect the virus.

The US logged its last case in 1991, in a three-year-old boy called Luis Fermin Tenorio living in Junin, northern Peru.

The WHO certified the region as polio-free three years later  the duration set by the agency before a nation can be deemed to have eradicated the virus.

A team at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, led by medical researcher Dr Albert Sabin, developed a second vaccine using a live version of the virus that could be given in drops through the mouth. This vaccine was much more effective than the inactivated one, and became the most popular throughout the world. Pictured: a health worker giving a oral polio vaccine to a child in Karachi, Pakistan

There was also success in ridding the world of two wild types of the virus, with type two eradicated in 2015 and type three stamped out by 2019. However, the WHO global goal of eradicating the virus by 2000 has still not been met. Polio is endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Pictured: a child in Kabul, Afghanistan being given the oral vaccine in November 2021

2000

Nearly every country in the world used the oral polio vaccine in their rollout. But after infections were brought under control in the US and the UK, both countries stopped using this vaccine  in 2000 and 2004, respectively. Other nations followed suit.

While the oral version provides higher levels of protection against infection  meaning it is more effective at limiting spread in endemic countries  the weakened live virus in the vaccine can mutate on very rare occasions and cause paralysis.

It can also spread to others and cause an outbreak of vaccine-derived polio.

Professor Hunter explained that the live vaccine does a better job at stopping infection 'but can very rarely cause paralysis'.

Meanwhile, the inactivated vaccine 'doesnt cause infection and is still excellent at stopping paralysis but not quite as good at preventing infection', he said.

Only a handful still use the oral vaccine.

In 2002, Europe was certified as polio-free. Its final case was logged in a 33-month-old child in Turkey in 1999.

The Western Pacific was labelled polio-free in 2000, with the last confirmed infection being in a 15-month-old girl called Mum Chanty in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. And the WHO confirmed South East Asia is virus free in 2014.

There was also success in ridding the world of two wild types of the virus, with type two eradicated in 2015 and type three stamped out by 2019.

However, the WHO global goal of eradicating the virus by 2000 has still not been met. Polio is endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Travellers from these two nations frequently spread the virus to other countries.

2010

China lost its polio-free status in 2011 after the infection spread to the country from Pakistan. However, it regained it after the outbreak fizzled out.

Professor Ball explained: 'The live vaccine has proven to be incredibly effective at eliminating the virus.

'But on rare occasions it can revert to wild-type and cause the disease; that's why countries that do get rid of the virus switch to using killed vaccine to keep their populations safe.'

Professor Jones said the dilemma around polio is now around eradication. 'Is it worth the cost in terms of money and lives lost to eradicate the last few cases or is it better to maintain where we are?

'Lastly, another dilemma, if it is eradicated how long do you continue to vaccinate and with what?'

UK health chiefs revealed polio could be spreading in the community for the first time in four decades after the virus was spotted in sewage samples in parts of London on June 22, 2022. It is a vaccine-derived strain.

But there are signs it is spreading between people as officials have picked up several samples from different people, each with new mutations.

Professor Hunter added: 'Whilst most of the world has moved away from live attenuated vaccine some countries still use it and there is a risk that you can get secondary infections (generally a family member) which very rarely can be associated with paralysis in someone who has not been immunised.

'The concern here is that even a vaccine derived virus if it continues to spread could eventually recover its full virulence over a year or two and then cause an outbreak of paralytic polio in people who have not been vaccinated and that would be a disaster.

'So probably the current situation does not pose an immediate threat to public health but if transmission goes on long enough and the virus recovers its virulence it could become a public health disaster.'
The parents of a five-year-old girl battling a rare cancer are appealing to the public to help raise 500,000 for potentially life-saving treatment abroad.

Like many girls her age, Florence Bark loves princesses and enjoys dressing up as her favourite Disney characters. She also told MailOnline she is also a big fan of 'doggies' and other animals.

But her world was shattered last month after being diagnosed with a rare form of the blood cancer leukaemia, called acute myeloid leukaemia.

Florence, from Corby in Northamptonshire, is waiting for a bone marrow transplant that is funded by the NHS.

But she has a rare gene mutation, found in only 10 per cent of cases, which means the treatment is predicted to fail.

If the transplant doesn't work, Florence's only chance will be for a pioneering procedure called CAR-T therapy that teaches her own immune system to fight off the disease.

But the NHS won't pay for the procedure as it not approved in the UK for her type of cancer, forcing her family to turn to crowdfunding in preparation of getting her the treatment privately in either Singapore or the US.

This is the same treatment that cured Oscar Saxelby-Lee, the British boy who won the nation's heart after his leukaemia battle went viral in 2018.

Five-old-old Florence Bark is like any other child her age and big fan of animated films and animals

Florence who loves to dress up like Elsa from Disney film Frozen has been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia

Despite going through various treatments including chemotherapy Florence (standing) has bonded with Elaiya (lying down) another girl with the same cancer who is also from Northamptonshire and looking for a donor

Florence, pictured here on special trip to see Frozen a few weeks before her diagnosis. Her mother Stacey said medics originally suspected Florence had a range of childhood infections before the shock blood cancer diagnosis

Strangers raised half a million pounds for Oscar's treatment, and the Barks hope they can also count on the public's generosity.

They said they will do everything in their power to help save their 'beautiful princess'.

CAR-T therapy is personalised and involves reprogramming a patient's immune system cells to directly attack cancerous tissue.

The therapy is available on the NHS for children and some adults with more common types of blood cancer.

What is acute myeloid leukaemia Leukaemia is cancer of the white blood cells with aggressive forms of the cancer referred to as acute. Acute myeloid leukaemia affects a type of white blood cell called a myeloid which fights off infections and prevents the spread of tissue damage. Symptoms of acute myeloid leukaemia include: looking pale or "washed out"

feeling tired or weak

breathlessness

frequent infections

unusual and frequent bruising or bleeding, such as bleeding gums or nosebleeds

losing weight without trying to The cause of acute myeloid leukaemia is unknown but it is most commonly diagnosed in people over 75. It is treated with chemotherapy and in some cases medics may also recommend a stem cell transplant. About 3,100 people diagnosed with it each year in the UK. Advertisement

Florence is one of just around 100 children diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia every year.

This cancer affects cells in the bone marrow, causing them to make too many white blood cells too quickly and releasing them underdeveloped into the bloodstream.

These underdeveloped white blood cells can then cause problems in the rest of the body.

This cancer is treated is with bone marrow transplant from a donor whose genetic markers are as close as possible to the patient's after a course of chemotherapy.

Unfortunately, Florence has a rare gene rearrangement that affects less than 10 per cent of children with this type of cancer.

Medics have warned the family this makes her prognosis very poor even if a matching donor is found.

Her mother Stacey said Florence first started feeling unwell around the start of May, which she said was unusual as she tends to tough illnesses out.

'Florence never ever complains about being poorly, she's really got a high pain threshold,' she said.

'She started having a little bit of a cough which turned quite bad so we ended up taking her to urgent care.'

The 32-year-old mother was originally told it was likely to be croup but her daughter's condition worsened.

Mrs Bark and Florence were sent back and forth by medics who suspected the five-year-old had everything from tonsillitis to an ear infection.

Then 15 days after originally seeking medical help, Mrs Bark, who works as a healthcare assistant, decided she had had enough.

'She was just rolling around in pain in bed and I said, "I'm not having this there's something not right",' she said.

Mrs Bark then took Florence to hospital on May 13 and refused to leave until medics did a blood test.

Adding to their woes, genetic testing confirmed Florence has rare gene rearrangement that affects less than 10 per cent of children with the cancer and meaning a stem cell transplant is less likely to be successful

The family have been advised to fundraise now in anticipation the transplant won't cure her cancer so they can afford to get Florence CAR-T therapy, that the NHS won't fund, overseas

Florence with her dad Andrew. The family say they will do everything in our power to help save their beautiful princess

While undergoing cancer treatment, Florence decided to donate her hair to the Little Princess Trust a charity that makes wigs for children and young people who lose their hair due to cancer

The Bark family at Christmas time. Florence in the centre sitting with her mother Stacey, eight year-old brother Freddie, and her dad Andrew

This test revealed that Florence had acute myeloid leukaemia.

Florence is scheduled to have a bone marrow transplant in the next five to six weeks though Mrs Bark said this is with stem cells from donated umbilical cord blood which is not a perfect match.

'We want a really good match because her risk factors are so high...it's not going to give her the best chance,' she said.

'Us doing this search is really the only hope we have for a successful bone marrow transplant.'

WHAT IS CAR-T CELL THERAPY? CAR-T cell therapies are available on the NHS for children and people up to 25 with B cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. The treatments involve taking a specific immune cell - known as T cells - from a patient's blood. T cells help the body fight infection by seeking out viruses and other pathogens, before killing them. These cells are then engineered in the lab to express a gene that codes for a specific receptor that binds to a protein on the patient's cancer. Once these cells are re-infused into a patient's blood, their immune system is 'reprogrammed' to recognise and fight off tumours. CAR-T  chimeric antigen receptor T-cell  therapy is therefore customised to each patient. It is suitable for those with advanced or worsening blood cancers that are not responding to treatment or have relapsed. NICE - which provides guidance for the NHS - also recommends CAR-T therapy for adults with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma. The FDA in the US approved two CAR-T cell therapies in 2017. Advertisement

Mrs Bark and her husband Andrew, who works as a primary school head teacher, were also advised to start fundraising for treatment overseas now in anticipation that the transplant won't work.

'We were advised that our best option because of Florence's prognosis is to start fundraising for the possibility that we will need to go,' she said.

'Her genetics give her a really high chance that the stem cells are going to fail'.

This prompted the family to set up a crowdfunding page now which has already raised over 121,000 so far.

While the family stated they originally wanted to keep Florence's situation private, they were committed to doing everything they could to save their daughter.

'We will do everything in our power to help save our beautiful princess and what we need to do now is ask for the kindness of others,' they said.

If Florence's transplant is successful and she is deemed to not be at risk of relapse, the family said the funds will be used for any ongoing care she needs or donated to cancer research or another family in similar circumstances.

They are also encouraging Britons to sign up to be a transplant donor to help not only Florence but all children who have this cancer.

Mrs Bark said: 'People don't realise how easy it is, it is just a cheek swab.'

If people are found to be match, they can be called to have an operation to gather bone marrow material for transplant with people needing to spend two days in hospital.

But Mrs Bark said this was a small price to potentially save a child's life.

'It's a little bit of discomfort for a couple of days but you could save a life,' she said.

People interested in becoming donors can do so by visiting the charity DKMS if they are over 30 or Anthony Nolan if they are under 30.

Generally, only 15 per cent of people diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia survive longer than five years, although survival rates are higher in younger patients.

Florence's case echoes that of Oscar Saxelby-Lee, another British child whose family turned to fundraising to him the 500,000 needed for the CAR-T therapy in Singapore.

The family raised the money they needed in just three weeks and thankfully the treatment was successful with Oscar being declared cancer free in January 2020.

There are about 9,907 new cases of leukaemia of all types diagnosed in the UK each year, with 4,730 annual deaths from disease.

In the US there are about 60,650 new leukaemia cases per year, as well as 24,000 deaths.
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Another COVID-19 vaccine could soon hit markets in the United States, after European pharma giants Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) revealed Friday that their jab candidate was more than 70 percent effective at preventing infection from the highly infectious Omicron variant.

The companies have not yet applied for authorization in the U.S., but is expected that they will make a bid to have their shots join the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Novavax vaccine in the arsenal of available shots in America - and across the world.

It comes as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) both face criticism for approving the Pfizer and Moderna shots for children aged six months to four years old.

The news comes as America's Covid situation remains stable are 99,984 cases per day, but deaths have made a sharp 20 percent jump over the past week to 385 daily.

The so-called bivalent vaccine targets the Beta variant - first identified in South Africa - as well as the original Wuhan strain of the virus.

In a trial involving 13,000 adults, the vaccine demonstrated an efficacy rate of 64.7 percent against symptomatic Covid, and 72 percent efficacy against infections specifically caused by the Omicron variant.

When used in people who previously had Covid, the results were stronger. The vaccine generated an efficacy rate of 75.1 percent against symptomatic COVID and 93.2 percent in Omicron-confirmed symptomatic cases, the companies said.

GSK and Sanofi have partnered for a COVID-19 vaccine candidate that is over 70% effective at preventing infection from the Omicron variant (file photo)

'Sanofi-GSK's vaccine is the first candidate to demonstrate efficacy in a placebo-controlled trial in an environment of high Omicron variant circulation,' Sanofi said in a statement.

Sanofi's Paris-listed shares and GSK's London-listed shares were both up more than 1% in morning trading.

Earlier this month, the bivalent vaccine showed potential in two trials to protect against the virus' main variants of concern - the Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 strains - when used as a booster shot.

Sanofi and GSK, two of the world's biggest vaccine makers, are hoping to gain a foothold in the market for next-generation variant-focused Covid shots, after falling behind competitors including Moderna, AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech, in the original race to contain the pandemic.

The new data supporting the bivalent vaccine will be submitted to regulatory authorities with the hope of making the shot available later this year, the companies said on Friday.

Sanofi and GSK's original Covid vaccine is already under review by the European Medicines Agency.

The companies have bet that this bivalent vaccine molded on the now-supplanted Beta variant will confer broad protection against future viral strains on the basis that Beta expresses similar mutations across multiple variants of concern, including Omicron.

Health officials have been under fire recently for their approval of Covid vaccines for children aged six months old to five as well, another move that has been criticized for not providing much value.

Dr Vinay Prasad, an associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco, said that their was little evidence that the shots were needed in a YouTube video he uploaded Wednesday morning, and slammed officials and other media figures for not being 'honest' about the shots.

All your lying and exaggerating, its gonna be the same thing. The 20 percent [of parents] that wants to [vaccinate their children] will do it, and youre not flipping any votes,' he said.

'Youre not persuading anybody. Youre laying it on a little thick and in the process youre discrediting yourself

He also had strong criticism for the data being used by mainstream media outlets like the New York Times in order to promote the vaccine.

Prasad points to a claim that the Moderna vaccine is 38 percent effective against the virus. He says that when data was adjusted by the firm to account for at-home testing - in which some cases do not get recorded properly - the effectiveness drops all the way to 27 percent.

He also said that there is little data available backing the claim that Pfizer's vaccine is 80 percent effective at preventing infection.

We need to be honest about these,' he said.

Dr Marty Makary, a public health expert from Johns Hopkins University, shared similar thoughts in an email to DailyMail.com, saying:

'The studies were too small to achieve statistical significance when evaluating efficacy against mild or severe Covid-19 infection. As a result, the FDA allowed both companies to extrapolate effectiveness by measuring antibody levels, pointing to data from older children and adults.

'They study had a confidence statistic so wide, you could drive an aircraft carrier through it. (They reported the largest confidence interval I have ever seen in my 20-year research career).'
An American man was left with a ruptured testicle after he lost control of his motorbike and ploughed into a wall.

The 48-year-old, from New Jersey, went to hospital later that afternoon after his right testicle became so swollen he couldn't sit down without suffering excruciating pain.

He told doctors that most of the impact from the motorbike crash 'was to his scrotal region'.

Medics who examined the man's right testicle found it was unusually hard and caused pain when touched.

An ultrasound scan found the testicle had ruptured causing blood to pool inside the tissue from the artery that normally fed the reproductive organ.

Surgeons managed to save his testicle by inserting a special gel-foam into the ruptured blood vessel, only the third time such a procedure has been performed.

Medics from St. Joseph's University Medical Center in Paterson reported the case in a medical journal

A motorcycle accident in states left one American with a ruptured testicle and caused blood to pool inside his scrotum

What causes testicular pain? Pain in one or both testicles can be caused by a variety of things. Sudden, severe testicle pain can be caused by twisting of the testicle, called testicular torsion. This is a serious problem that can lead to the loss of the testicle if it's not treated quickly. The NHS advises people to go to A&E if they experience a sudden severe pain in a testicle. Less serious causes of testicle pain can include: an infection, physical injury, a hernia, a build up of fluid and swollen veins. Pain, by itself, is not usually a sign of testicular cancer Advertisement

The man, who is not named, told medics that earlier that day he had lost control of his motorbike, colliding with a wall.

He said he did not fall off his bike and had not lost consciousness after the crash. But most of the impact from the collision was to his groin.

The man drove himself home after the accident and only sought medical help as the pain and swelling in his scrotum got worse and he started urinating blood.

Medics opted to use a novel minimally invasive surgical technique which involved using tiny gel-beads to block the blood vessel that was leaking into the man's scrotum.

Using an X-ray camera, the surgeons used a tiny incision to insert the gel, an approach they said carried less risks and needed fewer blood transfusions for the patient than traditional open surgery.

This man left hospital the next day reporting no pain or swelling in his right testicle.

Detailing the incident in the journal Radiology Case Reports the authors noted it was rare for a motorcycle crash to result in this kind of specific injury.

However, they added that motorcycle accidents are the most common cause of blunt trauma to the scrotum or testicles.

The medics said quick surgical intervention to salvage as much tissue as possible.

According to Government data 4,429 motorcyclists were seriously injured in accidents in the UK in 2020 and 8,890 were slightly injured.

In the United States, there are about 89,000 motorcycle crashes annually.
Access to legal abortion is likely to be restricted in half of U.S. states after a landmark Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v Wade, likely pushing many women back to getting illegal, unsafe, abortions.

Before the 1973 case, which guaranteed a constitutionally protected right to abortion to all Americans women no longer the state they lived in, some women resorted to dire means to terminate their pregnancies - and some lost their lives in the process.

Back-alley 'coat hanger' abortions, intentionally throwing one's self down the stairs and even ingesting poison were all dangerous tactics employed by some to stop an unwanted pregnancy.

Experts have warned that if abortion rights become restricted once again, that the number of abortions will not decrease, but instead they will just become more dangerous.

On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court officially overturned Roe v Wade by a 6-3 vote, with the six conservative justices voting to repeal the ruling and the three liberals dissenting.

Dr Karissa Haugeberg, a history professor at Tulane University, explained the dangers of the decision to NPR in 2019.

'Scholars estimate that between 20 percent and 25 percent of all pregnancies ended in abortion before Roe v Wade,' she said, explaining the prevalence of abortions even before the landmark case.

Norma McCorvey, known as 'Jane Roe', is pictured in January 1983. A decade earlier she had won a landmark abortion case - but the baby she wished to abort, Shelley Lynn Thornton, was born before the case concluded

She said that around 200 women would die every year from unsanctioned abortions before the ruling went into effect.

Abortion was limited in the U.S. before the landmark ruling in 1973, which protected legal abortion in all 50 states.

The case was filed in 1971 by Norma McCorvey, a 22-year-old living in Texas who was unmarried and seeking a termination of her unwanted pregnancy.

She married at the age of 16, but separated shortly after while she was pregnant. She gave custody of her daughter to her mother.

She gave a second child up for adoption, but when she got pregnant a third time she decided to have an abortion.

She said she couldnt afford to travel to one of the handful of states where it would have been legal. Because of state legislation preventing abortions unless the mother's life is at risk, she was unable to undergo the procedure in a safe and legal environment.

McCorvey sued Henry Wade, the Dallas county district attorney, in 1970. The case went on to the Supreme Court, under the filing Roe vs Wade, to protect McCorvey's privacy.

In 1973, the court ruled in favor of the woman, establishing a new precedent in the U.S.

Before then, though, many women would have to resort to unsafe means to get the procedure.

'Historically, the most commonplace method that women have used when they haven't been able to obtain legal abortions is self-induction,' Haugeberg said.

Dr Karissa Haugeberg, a history professor at Tulane University, warned that 200 Americans women died from an unsafe abortion every year after the passage of Roe v Wade

'Those are the horror stories that you hear of women trying to fall down stairs or ingesting poisons or using instruments to try to induce an abortion.'

'Another method that women commonly used was turning to the unregulated market. And some women were able to find providers who were willing to perform abortions safely but criminally at great risk to their professional careers and at risk of being imprisoned themselves.'

Common dangers of unsafe abortions include severe hemorrhage, suffering from sepsis, poisoning from drugs used and more.

That could become a reality once more for women in 18 U.S. states where already signed into law abortion bans are set to trigger in the near future - many in the deep South, Midwest and Great Plains regions.

Four states, Georgia, Iowa, Ohio and South Carolina, will also soon apply laws that will significantly restrict abortion.

Some women will be able to travel out of state to receive an abortion, though many will be either unable to afford to or have other barriers that prevent travel.

When speaking in 2019 - before many of these abortion restrictions went into place - Haugeberg feared that access to the procedure would become regionalized, just like it was pre-Roe.

'So when we look at the provision of abortion in the immediate pre-Roe period, I think it's actually very instructive,' she said.

'We had a patchwork system where women in certain places, like New York, and in certain areas - for example, cities - had much better ability to be able to get to a licensed provider and to afford a provider than women who lived in rural areas.

'So even in 1971, a woman who lived in rural Louisiana had very little ability, often, to be able to afford to get to New York.

'And I think that's one thing that I see coming back - is that we're returning to this period where geography matters tremendously, that women in certain states will have the ability to exercise the right to abortion while it's quickly disappearing and diminishing for women in rural states and in states that have a higher proportion of African-Americans.'

There is some respite for women in red states, though. The two-dose 'abortion pill', a combination of the drugs mifepristone and misoprostol which empty out a woman's uterus, are now widely available.

Medication abortions like such now make up more than half of the 600,000 annual abortions in America.

Some blue states like California, Illinois and Oregon have also laid out plans to help women in other states travel into the state in order to receive safe access to an abortion.
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New York City health chiefs were blasted for their 'last minute' roll out of monkeypox vaccines just two days before the city's Pride weekend Friday  as scores of walk-ins were turned away on the second day of inoculations.

Yesterday the city became the first in the U.S. to start offering the jab to the most 'at risk' gay or bisexual men.

But within three hours of launching the drive it was forced to suspend walk-ins due to 'high demand', and all appointments were booked solid until Monday.

At least 100 men queued for the jab this morning, with many not having bookings arriving up to two hours before the clinic opened. But all walk-ins were turned away and told to check online for new slots.

Chris LeBron, a Democrat candidate for the New York State Assembly, slammed the 'pop-up' inoculation and slammed the city's health commissioner Dr Ashwin Vasan for failing to turn up to monitor the vaccinations.

Men waiting to get inoculated today said it was 'ridiculous' that only 1,000 doses were available in a city of eight million. Others slammed health officials for giving 'contradictory' information on how to get jabbed.

Many of those who got the vaccine today expressed their relief, saying they would now be able to enjoy the Pride weekend safely  which is expected to draw crowds numbering more than two million. One man even left the clinic telling a friend, 'we can make out tonight!'

New York City is America's monkeypox hotspot with more than 39 cases detected so far, with almost all among gay and bisexual men. Nationwide the tally has hit 179 cases, with fears mounting the rash-causing virus is spreading undetected.

More than a hundred men lined up outside the Chelsea Sexual Health Clinic in Manhattan today to get a dose of the monkeypox vaccine. The clinic only admitted people who had got appointments, and turned away all others

Two lines had formed this morning outside the clinic. One was for people hoping to get a walk-in jab - who had been there since at least 9am - and the second was for those with appointments. New York City suspended walk-ins yesterday just three hours after the clinic opened due to 'high demand'

Attendees were first screened at a pop-up clinic (pictured) to ensure they were eligible for the jab. They were then sent inside to one of seven booths where the vaccine was being administered by a nurse. Recipients had to wait about 10 minutes after they were inoculated to ensure they suffered no side-effects. Men who have sex with men, and had multiple sexual partners over the past two weeks are eligible for the jab

Pictured above are men embracing each other while they wait in the queue for the Jynneous vaccine. The jab is designed to fight off smallpox infections, but scientists say it also works against monkeypox because the two viruses are similar

Chris LeBron, the Democrat candidate for the 75th district  which includes the Chelsea area of Manhattan  blasted New York City's health officials for their last minute and 'random' roll out of the vaccines. He said more should be available

Derek Brant, 33, a sales manager (left), said it was 'ridiculous' that only 1,000 monkeypox vaccines were available in a city of more than eight million. Yougourten Ayouni, 24, an advertising technology consultant said he had been turned away twice. He slammed New York City's health officials for inviting people to get the vaccine while having so few doses available

The above map shows the spread of monkeypox across the U.S. The chart on the right shows the tallies in terms of states, with the red figures showing the number of cases recorded over the last 24 hours

Men pictured queuing for the vaccine against monkeypox today in Manhattan, New York City. The jab is being rolled out via appointment between 11am and 7pm

New York City is offering gay or bisexual men who have multiple sexual partners within two weeks the monkeypox vaccine at the Chelsea Sexual Health Clinic in Manhattan.

Today marked the second day the vaccine has been administered in the city, with a line of men in their 20s and 30s forming outside the clinic.

It has the capacity to vaccinate up to 170 people a day at present, with seven nurses jabbing one person every 20 minutes. After getting the jab, recipients are required to wait for a further 10 minutes to ensure they have not suffered any side-effects  like with the Covid jabs.

New York City says it will be open from 11am to 7pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. It is yet to open up bookings for appointments this Monday.

It is rolling out the Jynneous jab  which is 85 percent effective against infection  which is administered as two doses four weeks apart. Experts say recipients gain immunity from monkeypox days after getting the first jab.

Chicago to put special emphasis on warning Pride attendees over monkeypox cases this weekend Chicago will put a 'special emphasis' on warning Pride attendees of the risks of catching monkeypox this weekend, while San Francisco's parade will be punctuated by regular announcements over the disease amid fears the events could spark an uptick in cases. The Windy City's Department of Public Health told DailyMail.com they would put out guidance on social media and print fliers to be handed out at events. In San Francisco, California, which is also due to host a parade this Sunday, announcements will be made on 'best practice' when in crowds. America is gearing up to celebrate Pride this weekend in major cities  with crowds expected to exceed two million in New York alone. But it comes amid a growing outbreak of the rash-causing virus with 179 cases detected so far, many among gay and bisexual men. Several cases are not linked to international travel or other known infections suggesting it is already spreading undetected. New York City became the first to offer jabs against monkeypox to the most 'at risk' men this weekend. But it has been slammed for rolling out so few doses. Advertisement

Experts say vaccinated people have protection shortly afterwards. Dr Amesh Adalja, an infectious diseases expert at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, said for people exposed to monkeypox it gives protection 'immediately' providing it is administered within the first four days of contact with a case.

Blasting the Department today and health commissioner for the city, LeBron told DailyMail.com: 'Do I think enough is being done? No.

'The fact that these vaccines just popped up and a random announcement was made is actually detrimental to individuals faith in Government when dealing with a health crisis like this. It does nobody any good.

'I do believe the Health commissioner of New York City should be here, present, to assess what's happening right now.

'There is a line of individuals waiting for canceled appointments, and there is a high need clearly for this vaccine.

'He needs to come here, he needs to assess, he needs to apply proper policy and planning to ensure that these individuals get the service they deserve.'

People began lining up for the vaccine  even if they didn't have an appointment  from 9am this morning, in either the appointments or walk-ins lines.

By the time the clinic opened its doors at 11am, more than 100 people were queuing up for the jab and the line stretched around the side of the vaccination center.

Among those turned away was Yougourten Ayouni, 24, an advertising technology consultant who came back today after queuing for two hours yesterday and being sent away.

He told DailyMail.com that staff working the clinic kept 'contradicting' each other, with some saying they were not taking walk-ins and others saying they would but only after five or six hours when they see how many appointments were missed.

Slamming the Department, he said: 'Everybody is not on the same page and they have only a thousand vaccines and there website is already booked up.

'I don't understand why even start telling people to just wait and get an appointment etcetera. They are just not being honest, they are not being forward, and everybody is not on the same page.'

Derek Brant, 33, a sales manager and one of the few to get vaccinated today, said it was an 'incredible' stroke of luck to get the jab but also 'ridiculous' that New York City had so few shots available.

'It's kind of ridiculous that there are only 1,000 doses,' he told DailyMail.com. 'I feel very lucky to have got one, I'm trying to count my blessings about it.'

He heard about the clinic yesterday via a friend who sent him a link to the vaccination clinic.

Another furious couple leaving the clinic, who asked not to be named, said it was a 'disgrace' that these jabs were being handed out just a day before the city's Pride weekend.

New York City announced yesterday that it was rolling out the monkeypox vaccine to the most at risk men. Pictured above is the queue to get the vaccine that formed today

Pictured above are men queuing to get a dose of the monkeypox vaccine. They will need to return for a second jab in the next four weeks, and are being invited via email

Men began queuing from 9am this morning to get the vaccine. Pictured above are several waiting in the queue

Recipients told DailyMail.com the jab did not hurt to get. Many were given a plaster afterwards (pictured)

A health worker talks to a man waiting in line for the vaccine to protect against monkeypox

Timeline of monkeypox cases in the U.S. April 2003: A total of 47 people are found to have been infected with the virus after coming into contact with animals. This was linked to a shipment of 800 rodents  including squirrels  from Ghana to Texas. Some of the infected animals were then moved to Illinois and housed near Prairie dogs. They passed on the virus to these animals, which then gave it to humans when they were rehomed. July 2021: An individual in Texas is found to have been infected with monkeypox after returning to the U.S. from Nigeria. A total of 200 people were monitored for infection, but after 21 days none had developed symptoms. November 2021: An individual tested positive for the virus after returning to Maryland from Nigeria. They did not pass the virus on to others. May 2022: A man is found to have been infected with the virus after returning to Massachusetts from Canada. In this outbreak more than 170 cases have been spotted across almost 25 states. Advertisement

New York City has been sent 1,000 doses of the Jynneous vaccine to date  which is enough to jab just 500 residents.

As well as rolling out doses through the clinic, it has also offered some to close contacts of known monkeypox cases to head off their infection. Other cities are also dishing out the jabs to close contacts.

America has more than 74,000 doses of Jynneous and more than a million shots of ACAM2000  which is also at least 85 percent effective against infection  in its arsenal, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a briefing on June 10.

DailyMail.com has asked the CDC how many have been offered to each state, and how many have been rolled out to date.

Another 300,000 Jynneous doses are expected to arrive in the U.S. within weeks, along with a further 500,000 before the end of the year.

Both jabs are designed to trigger immunity against smallpox, but scientists say they will also work against monkeypox because the two viruses are very similar.

Gay or bisexual men who got their monkeypox vaccines today emerged from the clinic jubilant and feeling 'lucky' to be among the few to get inoculated. One even exited telling a friend: 'We can make out tonight!'

Marcello Santiago, 35, who owns a pet grooming store, was among those to get the vaccine today. He told DailyMail.com that he now felt protected and safe after getting the shot ahead of Pride.

Caesar, 30, a fashion designer who did not give his last name was also among those to get the shot today. He said it 'felt great' to be inoculated and that he was looking forward to having a 'Prideful weekend'.

Another couple, who asked not to be named, told DailyMail.com they came to get the vaccine because it seemed like the 'prudent' thing to do. They said they had been concerned about attending large events in Brooklyn this weekend without being jabbed.

America has now recorded more than 170 cases of monkeypox, with New York City having the most infections out of any major city.

Breaking down the figures by state, California has the most cases (48), followed by New York state (30) and Illinois (19).

Today's roll out comes ahead of a weekend of Pride celebrations in the city, where the health department plans to hand out fliers at events to warn people over the risks of contracting the disease.
PSYCHOLOGY

HOW MINDS CHANGE

by David McRaney (Oneworld 18.99, 352pp)

If you have ever had an argument with someone about one of the live issues of the day  and you surely have  you will know how difficult it is to change anyone's mind.

Brexiteers and Remainers, Trump supporters and Trump loathers, Corbynistas and normal people . . . the arguments roll on, but no compromise is ever reached. 'We shall have to agree to disagree,' are words that we all find ourselves saying, usually when attempting to debate something with some pig-headed dimwit of the other side. But David McRaney might differ.

This self-styled 'self-delusion expert and psychology nerd' from Mississippi once wrote a book called You Are Not So Smart, which was all about the ways in which we delude ourselves, and here he sets out to discover not just what it takes to influence others, but why we believe things in the first place.

Along the way he meets Charlie Veitch, a 9-11 'truther' who believed that it was all a put-up job planned and executed by villainous Americans. Until one day he simply changed his mind, and was immediately excommunicated by all his fellow conspiracy theorists, who would not listen to anything he said and simply assumed he had been 'got at' by the malefactors.

You can't change anyone's mind. You can only change your own, and that's pretty hard, according to David McRaney (stock image)

Veitch had been a rising star in the conspiracy world, who had become friend and collaborator with the American basket-case Alex Jones and our own David Icke, who still believes the world is being run by interdimensional lizard humanoids (the Duke of Edinburgh having been one of them).

He was recruited onto a BBC reality series, Conspiracy Road Trip, in which the comedian Andrew Maxwell would load several extremists onto a bus, take them to people who know better and try to persuade them that they were wrong.

At the end of each show Maxwell would sit down with his road-trippers and see if the facts presented had changed their minds in any way. But they never budged. Nothing could persuade them that what they had already decided, however ridiculous, wasn't true.

For the 9-11 episode of the show, a group of 'truthers' walked the crash sites, met experts in demolition, explosives, air travel and construction, met family members of the victims, met the person who was national operations manager of the Federal Aviation Administration at the time of the attacks and even took flying lessons over New York City.

McRaney talks to several people who changed theirs and suffered exclusion from tight-knit little groups of maniacs and loons (stock image)

They weren't having any of it. They assumed the people they met were paid actors, that experts were mistaken and that facts weren't facts but suppositions or just lies. But for Veitch, the flight school, the architecture firm, the demolition experts had all chipped away at his certainty and exposed the possibility that he might be wrong. And it was the grieving family members who confirmed it. Back at the hotel he found out that he was the only person who felt this way.

He eventually put up a video on YouTube telling people of his epiphany. The backlash was swift and brutal. Within days one conspiracy theorist was saying a producer friend had told him Veitch had been manipulated by a psychologist who had worked closely with mentalist Derren Brown.

Rumours spread he was an agent sent by the FBI or the CIA to infiltrate the truther movement and discredit them. (Something you might have thought they were doing an excellent job of themselves.)

Someone found his mother's email address and sent her images of child pornography with the heads of Veitch's children superimposed on them. Alex Jones made a video in which he said that he had known Veitch was a double agent all along. That was it for Veitch. He changed his identity and now makes a good living selling property around the world.

You can't change anyone's mind. You can only change your own, and that's pretty hard. McRaney talks to several people who changed theirs and suffered exclusion from tight-knit little groups of maniacs and loons. It's a dense book but, at times, a fascinating one. Much recommended to conspiracy theorists, flat-Earthers, climate change deniers and Trump supporters, none of whom will read it.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 soundtrack includes Michael Jackson's music, composed for the Sega Genesis gaming title, no less than the Sonic creator, Yuji Naka, confirms.

But does the remastered bundle Sonic Origins Sonic 3 still have the same music written by the King of Pop? The Sonic creator also spilled the tea on that.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Michael Jackson's Music

As per a news story by Kotaku, there is a long-running rumor saying that Jackson was involved in the music of Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

The news outlet also notes that the legend was not far-fetched as Jackson has worked with the Japanese gaming firm a few times. The King of Pop worked hand in hand with the musical game Space Channel 5.

Aside from that, the gaming publisher reportedly hired Jackson to stitch some music for Sonic 3. But the music icon allegedly abandoned the project and was rumored to have been uncredited for his work.

The composer and musical director of the King of Pop, Brad Buxer, spoke about it back in 2009. He claims that Jackson left the project because "he was not happy with the resulting sound coming out of the console."

But for decades, the myth almost died without confirmation from the official of Sega or anyone close to the matter - not until today.

Read Also: 'Sonic the Hedgehog' Official Prototype Discovered by Hidden Palace; Streamed on Twitch

Yuji Naka Confirms Michael Jackson's Music on Sonic the Hedgehog 3

The creator of the massive Sonic franchise, Naka, revealed in his tweet that the myth between the King of Pop and the 1994 Sega Genesis game is true after all.

As such, the decades-old legend suggesting the involvement of the music icon in the soundtrack of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 has finally been settled after numerous years.

According to a recent report by Consequence Sound, the revelation comes in time for the 30th anniversary of the first Sonic the Hedgehog.

A recent tweet from none other than the creator of Sonic randomly spits the question, asking the Twitterverse if the "Sonic Origins Sonic 3 has a different song?"

Naka, who goes by the Twitter username "nakayuji," answered the question himself.

The Sonic creator blurts out that the new remastered Sonic 3 has replaced the original tunes from the Sega Genesis version of the gaming title.

Here's when the Sonic creator confirmed that the Sega version flaunts music from the music icon, Michael Jackson, himself.

He precisely says that "Sega Official uses Michael Jackson's music."

https://twitter.com/nakayuji/status/1539897464274112512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1539897464274112512%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fkotaku.com%2Fembed%2Finset%2Fiframe%3Fid%3Dtwitter-1539897464274112512autosize%3D1

So, while it appears that the original Sega version of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 included music composed by the King of Pop, the new Sonic Origins Sonic 3 have ditched it.

Related Article: Sonic Origins Leak: Key Art, Rating Released - Hints at Nearing Release Date?
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A rare BMW classic car that hasn't seen the light of day for 43 years is set to go to auction later this year, with experts predicting it could fetch more than $2million.

The highly-collectible 1957 507 Series II Roadster, one of just 252 built, has been kept in a garage in Philadelphia since 1979, meaning it hasn't been used since Jimmy Carter was President and Margaret Thatcher became the UK's first female Prime Minister.

Having been wheeled out of its four-decade slumber, the German motor is going to be offered to the highest bidder at Bonhams' Audrain Concours Auction in Newport, Rhode Island, on September 30 and is predicted to sell for between $1.8million and $2.2million (1.5million and 1.8million).

Hidden treasure: This 1957 BMW 507 Series II Roadster has been kept in garage for over 40 years. In that time it has become one of the most sought-after classic models from the German brand, meaning it could sell later this year for over $2million

The auction house says the 507 is one of the most desirable models for car collectors around the world, as it prepared to ramp up interest in the little-used vehicle in the weeks before it goes to the block.

BMW launched the V8-engined 507 in 1956 with the intention of producing 1,000 units per year for the US market. However, its high price made it too expensive for many - and the German manufacturer made a loss on each one it made.

In the late fifties, the roadster was so exclusive that ownership was usually reserved for A-listers only, with owners ranging from the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley, to King Constantine II of Greece.

'The 507 remains arguably the most collectible and coveted BMW to date,' says Bonhams.

The car is one of just 252 built between 1956 and 1960. It will be available at the Bonhams Audrain Concours Auction in Newport, Rhode Island, on September 30

The fifties Beemer has been kept in a garage in Philadelphia since 1979, meaning it hasn't been used since Jimmy Carter was President and Margaret Thatcher became the UK's first female Prime Minister

Images of the vehicle show where it has been stored for the last four decades, where it has been kept alongside a plethora of old motorcycles in the unit attached to the side of a house

Bonhams says the 507 is one of the most desirable models for car collectors around the world today, having been one of the exclusive motors of the fifties, owned by A-listers including Elvis Presley

This matching numbers example - chassis number 70059 - was delivered new to Caracas, Venezuela.

It later made its way to Montreal, Canada, where it was acquired by the late father of the vendor in 1979, meaning it has been kept in the same family for over four decades.

Unusually for such a glamorous statement car, this 507 was driven straight into a modest garage in an unassuming part of Philadelphia, where it has been kept for 43 years without turning a wheel  only being started up from time to time.

Bonhams said: 'This treasure of a garage find, which has been squirreled away for more than 40 years, offers a spectacular opportunity to the serious collector'

The images of the vehicle being wheeled out of the garage for the first time in 40 years shows the bodywork has only a light layer of dust

There's plenty of dust inside too, which you would expect from a motor that hasn't been used for over four decades

BMW 507 specification Production: 1956-1960 Units: 252 Engine: 3.2-litre V8 petrol Doors: 2 Seats: 2 Length: 4,380mm Width: 1,650mm Height: 1,257mm Wheelbase: 2,480mm Kerb weight: 1,330kg Maximum power: 150bhp @5000rpm Maximum torque: 235 Nm @5000rpm Acceleration (0-62mph): 11.1 seconds Top speed: 122mph Drive: Rear-wheel drive Transmission: 4-speed manual gearbox

The images show the vehicle, which is coated only in a light layer of dust, stored amongst a plethora of old motorcycles in the unit attached to the side of a house.

And it would appear that the car has been preserved alongside other examples for years, while prices have appreciated exponentially.

This motor is just one of a fleet of 507s kept by the family over the past 50 years or so.

The matching numbers example was delivered new to Caracas, Venezuela. It later made its way to Montreal, Canada where it was acquired by the late father of the vendor in 1979, meaning it has been kept in the same family for over four decades

The current mileage of the car has not been disclosed by Bonhams, which confirmed it will be sold without reserve when the hammer drops

As you can see, the garage in which the collectible - and ultra-expensive - BMW was kept isn't part of a luxury home

A largely originally car, it was the subject of a typically 1970s makeover with a repaint in Pontiac Bright Blue Metallic prior to the current ownership.

Adding to its value is the fact it is one of the 252 units fitted with the sought-after Rudge wheels and optional hard top when it left the production line some 65 years ago.

Inside, the original leather interior remains, though looks to be well worn, and the rest of the cabin is present and correct - and appears in good working order.

As you can see from this image, the leather seats are certainly well worn. However, the cabin looks to be in good working order, with the switchgear present and correct and panels all in tact

Adding to its value is the fact it is one of the 252 units fitted with the sought-after Rudge wheels and optional hard top when it left the production line some 65 years ago

The auction house says it expects the winning bid to be in the region of $1.8million and $2.2million, with the car selling without reserve

The current mileage of the car has not been disclosed by Bonhams, which confirmed it will be sold without reserve when the hammer drops.

Commenting on the car's availability in September, Eric Minoff, the auction house's senior motor cars specialist, said: 'This treasure of a garage find, which has been squirreled away for more than 40 years, offers a spectacular opportunity to the serious collector  and its offered at no reserve.

'The new owner has the choice of sympathetically refurbishing or fully restoring this recently discovered gem.'
Cashing in on their home's value funded 3billion of spending by over-55s last year, as they used the money to top-up their income and cover day-to-day costs.

It is estimated that last year, one in every 90 spent by retired people domestically was a result of equity release, according to new figures from Legal & General and the Centre for Economics and Business Research.

As the cost of living crisis puts more pressure on pension pots the trend towards equity release, where owners can borrow against their home's value, looks set to continue.

Market analysis by mortgage broker, Henry Dannell, shows that UK homeowners have already released equity to the tune of 1.4billion so far in 2022, with this figure estimated to hit almost 5.6billion by the end of the year.

Demand for later in life loans is increasing as the cost of living crisis puts pressure on pension pots.

During the first three months of this year, over 12,500 homeowners opted for a later life mortgages - a 21.4 per cent increase on the first quarter of 2021.

Equity release loans, also known as later in life mortgages, unlock the value built up in a home, allowing them to access it as tax-free cash.

They allow homeowners aged 55 and over to get a loan secured on their home, worth up to 60 per cent of its value, while still remaining the sole owner. They can use the money for anything they like.

The loan and interest accrued is then repaid through the sale of the property when the last surviving borrower dies or go into long-term care.

However, as the interest accumulates it can become a substantial part of a home's value and so some deals offer the ability to pay off interest to protect inheritances.

While the majority of the cash released, 1.9billion, has been used to pay for occasional big purchases such as home improvements, furniture or even a new car, a significant amount, 1.3billion, is being used to cover the cost of day-to-day expenses including food, clothes and transport.

The remaining equity, around 480million, is expected to be spent on international holidays and financial planning.

Maintaining living standards in retirement (16 per cent) and paying off personal debt (16 per cent), are also cited as reasons for turning to the release.

Retirees are turning to later in life mortgages to pay for everything from home improvements and holidays to day-to-day expenses including groceries and clothes.

Craig Brown, chief executive of Legal & General Home Finance, said: 'Our report highlights that homeowners are increasingly planning to use equity release or other ways of accessing property wealth to help fund later life.

'This shift reflects the boom in property values, which have made our homes such an important asset, but it also demonstrates how far the equity release market has come through the introduction of product innovations and how it has become a more suitable solution for a wider range of people.'

In total the growing later life lending market in the UK is worth up to 153.9billion, according to AKG Financial Analytics.

This includes standard, retirement interest-only or equity release mortgages for borrowers over the age of 55.

Furthermore, around 50 per cent of advisers have seen an increase in demand for advice on later life lending in the past year and 58 per cent expect a rise in demand over the next 12 months.

Geoff Garrett, director of Henry Dannell commented: 'Later life mortgages have continued to grow in popularity amongst the nation's homeowners, many of whom are now making the most of the considerable increase in value that their property has yielded over the last two years.

'For some, it's become a safety net to overcome the rising cost of living, but we're also seeing this increased activity being driven by those at the top end of the market, who may not be facing the same financial struggles as the average homeowner.

Equity release: How it works and advice To help readers considering equity release, This is Money has partnered with Age Partnership+, independent advisers who specialise in retirement mortgages and equity release. Age Partnership+ compares deals across the whole of the market and their advisers can help you work out whether equity release is right for you - or whether there are better options, such as downsizing. Age Partnership+ advisers can also see if those with existing equity release deals can save money by switching. You can compare equity release rates and work out how much you could potentially borrow with This is Money's new calculator powered by broker Age Partnership+.* * Partner link

This is down to a number of factors - greater product choice and flexibility means that later life mortgages are no longer the rigid, complex instrument that they were and a competitive lending market has also helped to drive down the cost of drawing equity from a property.'

However, equity release products are not without their drawbacks.

The debt held against your house increases through the accrued interest and can add up to a significant proportion of the overall value of the property. And while the loan and interest can be paid off on death, the repayment will reduce the value of an inheritance.

Some equity release products do offer the option to pay off the interest as you go.

Or you can take out a series of smaller lifetime mortgages over the years. This way you will not be paying interest on the total sum for the whole period of time, so you will end up owing less.

It is also import to note that once you take out an equity release loan you are unlikely to be able to use your home as security for any other borrowing.

And there is an argument that your money is better off left invested in your home than sitting as cash in your bank account. Furthermore, the cash released through later in life mortgages may impact you eligibility to claim means-tested benefits such as pension credit or council tax credit.

Currently 5 per cent of homeowners use equity release to fund retirement, but this is expected to almost double to 10 per cent based on the anticipated plans of younger homeowners.
Plumbing and heating products supplier Ferguson has begun the latest tranche of a $2billion share buyback programme.

The US-focused business, formerly known as Wolseley, said it had entered into an agreement with brokers from JP Morgan to acquire up to 375million of its shares from now until no later than 10 October.

It added that it was set to request a further share repurchase scheme when its annual general meeting is held either in November or December.

Buyback: The US-focused business, formerly known as Wolseley, said it had entered into an agreement with brokers from JP Morgan to acquire up to 375million of its shares

Last week, the firm revealed that it had bought just over $500million of shares in the three months to the end of April, taking the amount it has acquired during the current financial year to $918million.

Ferguson, whose corporate headquarters are based in Wokingham, had initially planned on a $1billion buyback programme before hiking the amount by another $1billion as a surge in sales continued to strengthen its financial position.

Loosening lockdown restrictions over the past year have led to a strong rebound in housebuilding activity in the US, where the New York-listed business earns the overwhelming majority of its revenues.

Demand for the group's products from non-residential customers has also grown, helping drive its overall net sales up by 23.1 per cent year-on-year to $7.28billion in the most recent quarter.

Combined with modest increases in costs that helped the growth in earnings outstrip revenues, the company's total operating profit jumped by over a third from $520million to $712million.

Thanks to a robust performance and expectations of healthy short-term demand, the group raised its adjusted operating earnings forecast for the year to between $2.85billion and $2.95billion.

Move to America: Last month, Ferguson lost its place on London's blue-chip FTSE 100 Index when it transferred its primary listing to the New York Stock Exchange

Commenting on the outlook, Ferguson chief executive Kevin Murphy said: 'While we are mindful of broader macroeconomic headwinds, our balanced business mix, agile business model and strong balance sheet position us well for the future.'

Founded as a sheep shearing machine manufacturer in the late 19th century by Frederick York Wolseley, Ferguson eventually moved into supplying building, heating and plumbing products during the post-war era.

Four decades ago, the firm completed its first ever overseas acquisition when it bought Ferguson Enterprises, which is now one of the largest distributors of heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment in the US.

THIS IS MONEY PODCAST Is scrapping a mortgage stress test as rates rise a wise move?

By the time the company decided to rebrand from Wolseley in 2017, the American division - known as Ferguson Enterprises - was responsible for around 90 per cent of total trading profit.

It kept using the Wolseley name in the UK and Canada before selling its British arm to private equity house Clayton, Dubilier & Rice for about 308million early last year in order to focus on its North American operations.

And just last month, the group lost its place on London's blue-chip FTSE 100 Index when it transferred its primary listing to the New York Stock Exchange.

Ferguson plc shares were up 5.5 per cent at 92.02 during the late afternoon on Friday, although their value has fallen by around a third since the start of the year.
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Abortion was automatically outlawed in 18 US states as soon as Roe v. Wade was overturned, thanks to specially-devised 'trigger laws' and historic bans that were automatically reenacted after Friday's ruling.

Thirteen states prepared trigger laws which would automatically outlaw terminations in the event of a ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade, which was widely-anticipated.

They are: Arkansas; Idaho; Kentucky; Louisiana; Mississippi; Missouri; North Dakota; Oklahoma; South Dakota; Tennessee; Texas; Utah and Wyoming.

Abortion bans in those states will now become law within 30 days.

Five other states have also now banned terminations, after historic laws superseded by the 1973 Roe ruling automatically came back into place.

Among those five are two Democrat-governed states - Michigan and Wisconsin.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers have both sought to overturn those bans in the court. But they remain in place for now, and Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin announced Friday afternoon that it was suspending terminations while awaiting clarification on the law.

Other states with newly-re-enacted historic bans are Alabama, Arizona and West Virginia.

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey has announced the historic ban will be superseded by a recent law banning terminations after 15 weeks.

But that edict hasn't been enshrined in state law, and pro-lifers could end up battling Ducey to keep the historic ban on all terminations, leaving abortion providers uncertain of whether they can operate in the meantime.

Eight other states are also set to enact new anti-abortion laws. Georgia, Iowa and South Carolina all attempted to ban abortion after the six week mark.

Those laws were branded unconstitutional, but will likely be revisited now Roe has ended. And Florida, Indiana, Montana as well as Nebraska are all working on plans to ban or restrict terminations.

Hours after Roe v. Wade was announced, GOP Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin announced he'd asked four Republican lawmakers to begin drawing up legislation banning abortion after 15 weeks.

But Youngkin's party faces a very slim majority in both state house and senate, with many of his fellow Republicans likely to be undecided on whether to back an abortion ban.

And Kansas - which hasn't enforced any sort of abortion crackdown - will hold a referendum in August on whether to ban abortion there.

More than half of all US states have some kind of abortion ban law that will likely now take effect following Friday's news that Roe v Wade has been overturned by the United States Supreme Court.

THE 26 STATES TO OUTLAW ABORTION NOW THAT ROE V. WADE HAS BEEN FORMALLY OVERTURNED Alabama Arizona Arkansas Idaho Kentucky Louisiana Michigan Mississippi Missouri North Dakota South Dakota Oklahoma Tennessee Texas Utah West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Georgia Iowa Ohio South Carolina Advertisement

In Wisconsin, Gov. Tony Evers said his administration is looking at every option to fight abortion bans in the state.

'We're going to do everything we can in my power, whether it's executive action or working with others on other opportunities, to fight this as long and hard as we can,' Evers told WISN. 'This is really important.

'Think about what was done today to the women of Wisconsin and women of this country. Essentially, politicians now are in charge of their reproductive health. I mean honest to God, how could anything be more scary for our women for the state of Wisconsin?'

Meanwhile, in Ohio, where abortions are currently banned after six weeks, state Attorney General Dave Yost announced that his office was filing a motion to dissolve the state's halt on its controversial 'Hearbeat Law.'

The bill was signed in 2019 by Gov. Mike DeWine, but a federal judge blocked the law quickly, which is likely to go through now that Roe V. Wade has been overturned.

In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that immediately protects patients and health providers in California from civil lawsuits based on other states' laws, KCRA reported.

State Attorney General Rob Bonta joined Newsom in condemning the Supreme Court's decision and vowed to protect people under the new California law.

'This is a dark day for our little girls and all our children, who will now come of age in a nation with fewer rights, fewer freedoms and fewer protections than the generation before them,' Bonta said in a statement.

'That is not progress. But on days like this, I'm more determined than ever to fight like hell for my daughters and yours, for all pregnant persons all those who deserve a future with more rights, more freedom, not fewer.'

Like in Ohio, Alabama leaders rushed to restrict abortion laws, with its court immediately moving to dissolve an injuction on the state's abortion ban.

Alabama's Human Life Protection Act makes it unlawful 'for any person to intentionally perform or attempt to perform an abortion' unless 'an abortion is necessary in order to prevent a serious health risk to the unborn child's mother.'

The controversial law was halted following a lawsuit claiming it violated the Fourteenth Amendment, which the state court agreed with, but State Attorney General Steve Marshall filed a motion that the law should go through, which was immediately granted by U.S. District Judge Myron H. Thompson, ABC 3340 reported.

'The State of Alabama's emergency motion to lift the injunction and reinstate Alabama's 2019 law, which prohibits abortions in most instances, has been granted,' Marshall wrote in a statement. 'Both the federal district court and the plaintiffs recognized that there is no basis for a continued stay of the duly-enacted law in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision.'

Anyone who takes an unborn life in violation of the law will be prosecuted, with penalties ranging from 10 to 99 years for abortion providers.'

Utah's trigger law is also now in effect, banning abortion in the Beehive State with execptions if the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest, or if it brings serious health risks to the mother or unborb child.

The law, established in 2020, was contingent on the Supreme Court ruling, and those who violate it could face up to 15 years in prison, and abortion clinics and physicians who conduct the service would risk losing their licenses.

Karrie Galloway, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Association and Planned Planned Parenthood Action Council of Utah, said in a news conference that the law created a 'dark day' for Americans.

'As soon as it's certified, we will have to stop performing any abortions here in Utah,' Galloway said of the trigger law, 'and we will have to direct anyone who needs comprehensive reproductive health care to a friendlier state in the union, of which we have many, to be able to live their lives as they want.'

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that immediately protects patients and health providers in California from civil lawsuits based on other states' laws as she slammed the Supreme Court's decision

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said his administration is looking at every option to fight abortion bans in the state

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced that his office filed a motion to dissolve the stay on the state's controversial 'Hearbeat Law,' which bans abortions after 6 weeks

A court immediately approved Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall's motion to lift the stay on the state's abortion ban

Last month, a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion written by Samuel Alito and published by POLITICO revealed that the court voted to strike down the landmark 1973 ruling, which legalized abortion in the United States.

Alito wrote in part, 'Roe was egregiously wrong from the start.' The George W. Bush-appointed justice goes on to say that the issue of abortion should be returned to the 'people's elected representatives' to decide.

The opinion was drafted in February 2022.

Republican-appointed justices  Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett voted with Alito.

And states across the country have been laying the groundwork for what comes after the more than 40-year-old ruling is nullified.

According to the pro-reproductive rights group The Guttmacher Institute, at least 22 states have laws on the books that would come into effect once the decision is officially adopted.

The organization also identified four more states that it expects to pass new abortion bans in the near future, marking a total of 26 states that appear set to ban the procedures

The 18 states that have near-total bans on abortion already on the books are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

In addition, Georgia, Iowa, Ohio, and South Carolina all have laws that ban abortions after the six-week mark.

At the time of writing, those six-week bans have been ruled unconstitutional.

On the same day as the Alito opinion was made public, The Washington Post reported that Republican lawmakers were plotting with pro life activists for a federal ban on abortions if Roe was overturned and the GOP won back the house.

The institute also says that four other states: Florida, Indiana, Montana and Nebraska, are likely to pass bills when Roe v Wade is overturned.

Florida already has a 15-week abortion ban that will go into effect in July 2022. The law does not make any exceptions for cases of rape or incest. There is an exception if the health of the patient is in danger.

In signing the law into effect, Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a statement, 'Life is a sacred gift worthy of our protection, and I am proud to sign this great piece of legislation which represents the most significant protections for life in the state's modern history.'

Republican appointed-Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett (circled) all voted to strike down Roe along with Samuel Alito

Protesters gather, chant and hold signs outside the Supreme Court in Washington last month

There were smaller gatherings of anti-abortion protesters at the event as well

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis passed a 15-week abortion law in April 2022. The law goes into effect in July

Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia and Wisconsin's bans all have pre-Roe v Wade laws that became unenforceable after the Supreme Court's 1973 decision - that would kick into effect if the federal legal precedent established in Roe were overturned.

Alabama, Arizona, Michigan, Mississippi, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Wisconsin's laws allow for abortions if the patient's life is in danger.

Alabama also allows for abortions in order to preserve the health of the patient.

Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Texas have further bans that will come into effect if the law was overturned. These were passed post-Roe v Wade.

They're joined by Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and Wyoming, in passing such laws.

The Oklahoma legislature just passed a six-week abortion ban, similar to Texas, in April 2022. Similar to the Texas law, it allows for the state to file lawsuits against those who are found to have helped someone to get an abortion after the six-week period.

Pro-Life and pro-choice activists gather outside the U.S. Supreme Court on May 2. According to Politico's reporting, Alito's draft is not final and could change

Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt said in September 2021 tweet, 'I promised Oklahomans I would sign every piece of pro-life legislation that came across my desk.'

The states that will limit abortions based on the length of time a patient has been pregnant are Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, North Dakota and Ohio.

There are four states that have laws that believe that abortion is not a constitutionally protected right are Alabama, Louisiana, Texas and West Virginia.

On the other side of the spectrum, 16 states and the District of Columbia have laws that protect a person's right to an abortion.

The Guttmacher report notes that there are over 40 million women who live in states with laws considered hostile to those seeking abortions.
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The Supreme Court has struck down the right to abortion in the United States, according to a bombshell decision in that has overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling.

Friday's 6-3 decision comes over a month after a 98-page draft revealed by Politico in May that calls the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision - which held that access to abortion in the US is a constitutional right - 'egregiously wrong from the start'.

Abortion rights have been under threat in recent months as Republican-led states move to tighten rules - with some seeking to ban all abortions after six weeks, before many women even know they are pregnant.

These include Arizona, where the Republican Governor in March signed a bill banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy; and Idaho where the governor signed a six-week abortion ban that allows family members of the fetus to sue providers who perform abortions past that point, similar to a Texas law enacted last year.

Before this ruling was overturned, in the US, an abortion can take place until about 24 weeks into pregnancy - but the exact period varies between states. For example, Texas bans abortion after about six weeks but Florida has a 15-week abortion ban.

The draft majority opinion was written by Justice Samuel Alito and has been circulating inside the conservative-dominated court since February. The leak while the case is still pending is seen as an extraordinary breach.

Here, DailyMail.com looks at the history of abortion laws in the US:

Pro-abortion and pro-choice demonstrators gathered outside the Supreme Court in Washington DC overnight

WHAT IS ROE V. WADE?

The Roe v. Wade decision nearly 50 years ago recognized that the right to personal privacy under the US Constitution protects a woman's ability to terminate her pregnancy.

On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court decided that the constitutional right to privacy applied to abortion.

Roe was 'Jane Roe,' a pseudonym for Norma McCorvey, a single mother pregnant for the third time, who wanted an abortion.

She sued the Dallas attorney general Henry Wade over a Texas law that made it a crime to terminate a pregnancy except in cases of rape or incest, or when the mother's life was in danger.

Roe's lawyers said she was unable to travel out of the state to obtain an abortion and argued that the law was too vague and infringed on her constitutional rights.

Norma McCorvey, known as 'Jane Roe', is pictured in January 1983 (left) and July 2011 (right). In the 1970s she won a landmark abortion case - but the baby she wished to abort, Shelley Lynn Thornton, was born before the case concluded

Filing a complaint alongside her was Texas doctor James Hallford, who argued the law's medical provision was vague, and that he was unable to reliably determine which of his patients fell into the allowed category.

The 'Does', another couple who were childless, also filed a companion complaint, saying that medical risks made it unsafe but not life-threatening for the wife to carry a pregnancy to term, and arguing they should be able to obtain a safe, legal abortion should she become pregnant.

The trio of complaints - from a woman who wanted an abortion, a doctor who wanted to perform them and a non-pregnant woman who wanted the right if the need arose - ultimately reached the nation's top court.

The court heard arguments twice, and then waited until after Republican president Richard Nixon's re-election, in November 1972.

Only the following January did it offer its historic seven-to-two decision - overturning the Texas laws and setting a legal precedent that has had ramifications in all 50 states.

Pro-choice activists gather at the US Supreme Court in Washington DC overnight amid a huge public backlash at the news

WHAT HAS THE SUPREME COURT DECIDED NOW?

The US Supreme Court has decided to overturn Roe v. Wade.

A document labelled 'Opinion of the Court' shows a majority of the court's justices earlier this year threw support behind overturning the 1973 case that legalized abortion across the country.

According to Politico - who published the 'leaked document' - the draft opinion shows the court voted to strike down the landmark case.

The paper was labelled '1st Draft' of the 'Opinion of the Court' and was said to be referring to a case challenging Mississippi's ban on abortion after 15 weeks - a case known as Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization.

The draft is signed by Justice Samuel Alito, a member of the court's 6-3 conservative majority, who was appointed by former President George W Bush.

'Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,' the draft opinion states.

It in effect states there is no constitutional right to abortion services and would allow individual states to more heavily regulate or outright ban the procedure.

HAVE THERE BEEN OTHER RULINGS SINCE 1973?

On the same day as the Roe v. Wade decision, the justices also ruled in the separate 'Doe v. Bolton' case, which authorized each state to add restrictions to abortion rights for later-term pregnancies.

The constitutional right to abortion was later confirmed in a number of decisions, including 'Webster v. Reproductive Health Services' in 1989 and 'Planned Parenthood v. Casey' in 1992.

In the latter, the court guaranteed a woman's right to an abortion until the fetus is viable outside the womb, which is typically around 22 to 24 weeks of gestation.

The Planned Parenthood v Casey ruling also affirmed Roe's finding of a constitutional right to abortion services, but allowed states to place some constraints on the practice.

WHICH STATES COULD MAKE ABORTION ILLEGAL NOW THAT ROE V. WADE IS OVERTURNED?

Now that Roe has been overturned, abortion is still likely to remain legal in liberal states. More than a dozen states currently have laws protecting abortion rights.

Numerous Republican-led states have passed various abortion restrictions in defiance of the Roe precedent in recent years.

Republicans could try to enact a nationwide abortion ban, while Democrats could also seek to protect abortion rights at the national level.

Twenty-six states are certain or likely to ban abortion now that Roe v. Wade is overturned, according to the pro-abortion rights think tank the Guttmacher Institute.

Of those, 22 states already have total or near-total bans on the books that were previously blocked by Roe, aside from Texas.

There are 18 states that have near-total bans on their books, while four more have time-limit band and four others are likely to pass new bans if Roe v. Wade is overturned

The state's law banning it after six weeks has already been allowed to go into effect by the Supreme Court due to its unusual civil enforcement structure. Four more states are considered likely to quickly pass bans if Roe is overturned.

Sixteen states and the District of Columbia, meanwhile, have protected access to abortion in state law.

This year, anticipating a decision overturning or gutting Roe, eight conservative states have already moved to restrict abortion rights.

Oklahoma, for example, passed several bills in recent weeks, including one that goes into effect this summer making it a felony to perform an abortion.

CAN WOMEN GET AN ABORTION IN A DIFFERENT STATE?

Yes - the variation in abortion laws around America already means that some women have to travel to a different state to access a procedure.

For example in Texas - which has passed a law banning almost all abortions in the state - an average of 1,400 women from the state travelling each month between September and December 2021 and sought out procedures at 34 facilities in other states such as Louisiana and Kansas.

Research by the University of Texas established that more than a quarter of Texans seeking an abortion (27 per cent) went to obtain the procedure in New Mexico, a state which has seven facilities.

WHAT DOES ROE V. WADE BEING OVERTURNED MEAN FOR WOMEN?

Abortion does not become illegal everywhere in the US now that Roe v. Wade is overturned, with individual states still able to choose whether and when they would be permitted.

As it stood, abortion was legal in every state - but with varying restrictions.

Abortion would likely become illegal in about half of the states in the US now that the ruling is overturned - with 24 states expected to ban abortion if they are able to do so.

These are: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

WHO IS LIKELY TO BE MOST AFFECTED BY AN ABORTION BAN?

Younger women, poorer women and African-American women are likely be most disproportionately affected by an abortion ban in the US.

Most women who have abortions in America are aged between 20 and 29, with 57 per cent of reported terminations in 2019 performed on people within this age group.

Rachel Jones, a senior researcher at pro-choice research group the Guttmacher Institute, told BBC News: "The typical abortion patient is in their 20s, doesn't have a lot of money and has one or more children."

Some 75 per cent of women in the US having an abortion are deemed low income or poor, based on the countrys official poverty definitions.

And while black people make up only 13 per cent of the US population, black women undergo more than a third of the country's reported abortions.

In 2019, there were about 630,000 abortions reported in the US, which was significantly down on 765,000 in 2010. Two suggested reasons for this are more access to contraceptives and lower sexual activity.

Baby Roe: Shelley Lynn Thornton, a 51-year-old mother of three, spoke out for the first time last year. Her biological mother Norma McCorvey was Jane Roe, whose landmark lawsuit Roe v. Wade won women across America the right to have abortions

WHAT RESTRICTIONS HAVE INDIVIDUAL STATES PUT IN PLACE ALREADY THIS YEAR?

Now that the US Supreme Court has voted to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision, conservative states will have more confidence that their new limits on abortion will stand while liberal states will feel more urgency to protect and expand abortion rights. Here are some restrictions and protections state legislatures have taken up in 2022:

ABORTION RESTRICTIONS

ARIZONA : Republican Governor Doug Ducey in March signed a bill banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The measure makes exceptions for medical emergencies, but not for rape or incest. It will take effect later this year if not blocked in court.

: Republican Governor Doug Ducey in March signed a bill banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The measure makes exceptions for medical emergencies, but not for rape or incest. It will take effect later this year if not blocked in court. FLORIDA : Republican Governor Ron DeSantis in April signed a 15-week abortion ban, which allows exceptions for medical emergencies or if the foetus has a fatal abnormality. The exceptions do not allow for abortion past 15 weeks in case of rape, incest or human trafficking. The ban is due to take effect on July 1.

: Republican Governor Ron DeSantis in April signed a 15-week abortion ban, which allows exceptions for medical emergencies or if the foetus has a fatal abnormality. The exceptions do not allow for abortion past 15 weeks in case of rape, incest or human trafficking. The ban is due to take effect on July 1. IDAHO : Republican Governor Brad Little signed a six-week abortion ban in March that allows family members of the foetus to sue providers who perform abortions past that point, similar to a Texas law enacted last year. The Idaho law was due to take effect in April, but has been blocked by the state Supreme Court pending legal review.

: Republican Governor Brad Little signed a six-week abortion ban in March that allows family members of the foetus to sue providers who perform abortions past that point, similar to a Texas law enacted last year. The Idaho law was due to take effect in April, but has been blocked by the state Supreme Court pending legal review. KENTUCKY : The legislature in April overrode Democratic Governor Andy Beshear's veto to enact several abortion restrictions, including a 15-week ban, a requirement that fetal remains be cremated or interred, and a requirement that a combination birth-death or stillbirth certificate be issued for each abortion. The law took immediate effect, suspending clinics' ability to provide abortions for eight days until a U.S. judge temporarily blocked its enforcement.

: The legislature in April overrode Democratic Governor Andy Beshear's veto to enact several abortion restrictions, including a 15-week ban, a requirement that fetal remains be cremated or interred, and a requirement that a combination birth-death or stillbirth certificate be issued for each abortion. The law took immediate effect, suspending clinics' ability to provide abortions for eight days until a U.S. judge temporarily blocked its enforcement. OKLAHOMA : The Senate in April passed a ban on all abortions except in cases of medical emergency, rape or incest. It relies on private citizens to sue providers and any person who 'aids or abets' abortions to be enforced. The House must approve the Senate's amendments before it heads to Republican Governor Kevin Stitt for signing. With the governor's approval, it would take effect immediately. Also in April, Oklahoma's legislature approved a ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, which relies on the same lawsuit enforcement mechanism. It will take immediate effect if signed by Stitt. Mr Stitt signed a bill in April banning abortion except in medical emergencies and penalizing providers who violate the law with up to $100,000 in fines and 10 years in prison. The law is due to take effect in August if not blocked in court.

: The Senate in April passed a ban on all abortions except in cases of medical emergency, rape or incest. It relies on private citizens to sue providers and any person who 'aids or abets' abortions to be enforced. The House must approve the Senate's amendments before it heads to Republican Governor Kevin Stitt for signing. With the governor's approval, it would take effect immediately. Also in April, Oklahoma's legislature approved a ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, which relies on the same lawsuit enforcement mechanism. It will take immediate effect if signed by Stitt. Mr Stitt signed a bill in April banning abortion except in medical emergencies and penalizing providers who violate the law with up to $100,000 in fines and 10 years in prison. The law is due to take effect in August if not blocked in court. SOUTH DAKOTA : Republican Governor Kristi Noem signed a bill in March requiring women to make three in-person doctor's visits to complete a medication abortion. The legislation's implementation depends on the outcome of a federal court case.

ABORTION PROTECTIONS

COLORADO : Governor Jared Polis, a Democrat, signed a bill on April 4 codifying the right to have an abortion. The measure immediately took effect.

: Governor Jared Polis, a Democrat, signed a bill on April 4 codifying the right to have an abortion. The measure immediately took effect. CONNECTICUT : The legislature passed a bill in April that protects anyone who provides abortions, has an abortion or assists someone having an abortion from other states' restrictions. Among other provisions, the measure bars state agencies from assisting in interstate investigations seeking to hold someone civilly or criminally liable for getting or aiding an abortion. The bill awaits Democratic Governor Ned Lamont's signature.

: The legislature passed a bill in April that protects anyone who provides abortions, has an abortion or assists someone having an abortion from other states' restrictions. Among other provisions, the measure bars state agencies from assisting in interstate investigations seeking to hold someone civilly or criminally liable for getting or aiding an abortion. The bill awaits Democratic Governor Ned Lamont's signature. MARYLAND : The legislature passed a bill that expands the definition of who can provide abortions to include any 'qualified provider,' establishes a state-funded abortion provider training program and requires most insurance plans to cover the cost of abortions. Republican Governor Larry Hogan vetoed the bill, but the state's Democratic-controlled legislature overrode his veto on April 9 and the law is due to take effect on July 1.

: The legislature passed a bill that expands the definition of who can provide abortions to include any 'qualified provider,' establishes a state-funded abortion provider training program and requires most insurance plans to cover the cost of abortions. Republican Governor Larry Hogan vetoed the bill, but the state's Democratic-controlled legislature overrode his veto on April 9 and the law is due to take effect on July 1. VERMONT : The Democratic-led legislature in February passed a constitutional amendment that guarantees the right to abortion. It will be on the ballot for voters to approve in November.

WHAT IS THE SITUATION IN OTHER COUNTRIES AROUND THE WORLD?

As new limits on abortion rights are pursued in the United States and other countries, here is a look at global abortion statistics and some of the world's strictest abortion laws.

Data has been provided by the UN World Health Organization as well as from the Guttmacher Institute research group and the Center for Reproductive Rights legal advocacy group, both of which support abortion rights.

Approximately 73 million abortions occur worldwide annually, with 61 per cent of all unintended pregnancies and 29 per cent of all pregnancies ending in abortion, according to the World Health Organization.

It said about 45 per cent of all abortions are unsafe, of which 97 per cent occur in developing countries. A WHO fact sheet said 'Unsafe abortion is a leading - but preventable - cause of maternal deaths and morbidities.'

There are 16 countries where abortion is prohibited altogether, a list that includes Egypt, Iraq, the Philippines, Laos, Senegal, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights.

About three dozen other countries allow it only to save the life of the mother, a list that includes Nigeria, Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, Iran, Afghanistan and Myanmar. Around 40 per cent of women of reproductive age live in places where abortion access is illegal or limited.

In England, Scotland and Wales, anyone can legally have an abortion at up to 23 weeks and six days of pregnancy, which is in line with the Abortion Act of 1967. Here is the situation in a number of countries:

Poland in January 2021 put into effect a constitutional court decision prohibiting abortions performed due to fetal defects, banning the most common of the few legal grounds for terminating a pregnancy in the largely Catholic country.

in January 2021 put into effect a constitutional court decision prohibiting abortions performed due to fetal defects, banning the most common of the few legal grounds for terminating a pregnancy in the largely Catholic country. El Salvador has some of the world's strictest abortion laws, with the procedure banned without exception since 1998. More than 180 women who experienced obstetric emergencies were prosecuted for abortion or aggravated homicide in the past 20 years.

has some of the world's strictest abortion laws, with the procedure banned without exception since 1998. More than 180 women who experienced obstetric emergencies were prosecuted for abortion or aggravated homicide in the past 20 years. Women in Malta are denied access to abortion, even if their lives are at risk. It is the only EU member state that completely prohibits the procedure. Women face up to three years in jail.

are denied access to abortion, even if their lives are at risk. It is the only EU member state that completely prohibits the procedure. Women face up to three years in jail. Senegal prohibits abortion but its code of medical ethics allows it if three doctors agree it is needed to save a woman's life. A 2014 study showed the rules force women to seek clandestine abortions and, as a last resort, kill their own infants.

prohibits abortion but its code of medical ethics allows it if three doctors agree it is needed to save a woman's life. A 2014 study showed the rules force women to seek clandestine abortions and, as a last resort, kill their own infants. In the United Arab Emirates , abortion is illegal except if the pregnancy endangers the woman's life or there is evidence the baby will not survive. Women could face up to one year in prison and a hefty fine. Women who seek hospital treatment for a miscarriage may be accused of attempted abortion.

, abortion is illegal except if the pregnancy endangers the woman's life or there is evidence the baby will not survive. Women could face up to one year in prison and a hefty fine. Women who seek hospital treatment for a miscarriage may be accused of attempted abortion. Anti-abortion laws in the Philippines derive from its time as a colony of Spain. Abortion has been prohibited for more than a century. About 1,000 Filipino women die each year from complications. Spain is among more than 50 countries that have liberalized abortion laws over the past quarter century.

WOULD IT LEAD TO A RISE IN THE NUMBER OF ORPHANGES?

This would seem very unlikely in the modern age, with traditional orphanages now being extinct in the US - but there is an interesting case study going back more than 50 years that provides an insight.

In 1966, a complete ban on abortion and access to contraception was imposed in Romania, with the target of increasing its population.

This worked in the short-term as the average number of children born to Romanian women increased from 1.9 to 3.7 - but it then fell again as people discovered ways of getting round the ban such as bribing doctors.

It also meant that hundreds of thousands of children ended up state orphanages where they were beaten, abused and lived in filthy conditions - with an estimated 170,000 housed in these facilities when communism fell in 1989.

For children in America nowadays there is an emphasis on the foster and adoption system, rather than orphanages, which aims to match children with families who can appropriately care for them. There are also residential and group homes for children who are unable to properly integrate into a foster home.
Norma McCorvey, known as 'Jane Roe', is pictured in January 1983. A decade earlier she had won a landmark abortion case - but the baby she wished to abort, Shelley Lynn Thornton, was born before the case concluded

The Supreme Court has voted to strike down Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that legalized abortion in the United States.

Friday's decision was first outlined in a majority draft opinion that was leaked to the public last month, repudiates both Roe v Wade and the 1992 Planned Parenthood vs Casey Decision.

The history of the Roe v Wade, which has proved controversial since it was made in 1973, dates back half a century.

The case was filed in 1971 by Norma McCorvey, a 22-year-old living in Texas who was unmarried and seeking a termination of her unwanted pregnancy.

She married at the age of 16, but separated shortly after while she was pregnant. She gave custody of her daughter to her mother.

She gave a second child up for adoption, but when she got pregnant a third time she decided to have an abortion.

She said she couldnt afford to travel to one of the handful of states where it would have been legal. Because of state legislation preventing abortions unless the mother's life is at risk, she was unable to undergo the procedure in a safe and legal environment.

McCorvey sued Henry Wade, the Dallas county district attorney, in 1970. The case went on to the Supreme Court, under the filing Roe vs Wade, to protect McCorvey's privacy.

Sarah Weddington and a former classmate, Linda Coffee, brought a class-action lawsuit on behalf of a pregnant woman challenging a state law that largely banned abortions.

She had been among only five women out of a class of 1,600 to graduate with a law degree from the University of Texas in 1967.

Now that the leaked draft has been made final, the decision removes the federal right to abortion in America, leaving it up to elected officials in each state to decide whether or not women should have access to abortions. Twenty-six states are likely to ban it if Roe v. Wade is formally overturned, essentially outlawing abortion in more than half of the country. Eighteen states already have restrictive abortion laws in place.

McCorvey is pictured in July 2011. She died in 2017 without ever meeting Shelley in person. The pair spoke on the phone in 1989

Norma McCorvey aka 'Jane Roe' (left) and her attorney Gloria Allred at the Supreme Court in 1989, the year she made her identity known. After winning Roe vs Wade, Norma went on to be a face for women's rights before switching to be pro-life years later. She admitted before she died that she made the change in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars

The Supreme Court handed down the watershed 7-2 decision that a woman's right to make her own medical decisions, including the choice to have an abortion, is protected under the 14th Amendment. In particular, that the Due Process Clause of the the 14th Amendment provides a fundamental 'right to privacy' that protects a woman's liberty to choose whether or not to have an abortion.

In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized a woman's constitutional right to an abortion in Roe v. Wade. The landmark ruling legalized abortion nationwide but divided public opinion and has been under attack ever since.

The landmark ruling saw abortions decriminalized in 46 states, but under certain specific conditions which individual states could decide on. For example, states could decide whether abortions were allowed only during the first and second trimester but not the third (typically beyond 28 weeks).

Among pro-choice campaigners, the decision was hailed as a victory which would mean fewer women would become seriously - or even fatally - ill from abortions carried out by unqualified or unlicensed practitioners. Moreover, the freedom of choice was considered a significant step in the equality fight for women in the country. Victims of rape or incest would be able to have the pregnancy terminated and not feel coerced into motherhood.

However, pro-lifers contended it was tantamount to murder and that every life, no matter how it was conceived, is precious. Though the decision has never been overturned, anti-abortionists have prompted hundreds of states laws since then narrowing the scope of the ruling.

Baby Roe: Shelley Lynn Thornton, a 51-year-old mother of three, has spoken out for the first time on camera. Her biological mother Norma McCorvey was Jane Roe, whose landmark lawsuit Roe vs Wade won women across America the right to have abortions

Shelley said she is neither pro-life or pro-choice. 'I don't understand why it's a government concern,' she said. She has three kids of her own and when she first became pregnant at 20, decided abortion was not 'part of who' she was

Roe vs Wade: How the landmark ruling protected a woman's right to choose The Roe v. Wade decision nearly 50 years ago recognized that the right to personal privacy under the US Constitution protects a woman's ability to terminate her pregnancy. On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court decided that the constitutional right to privacy applied to abortion. Roe was 'Jane Roe,' a pseudonym for Norma McCorvey, a single mother pregnant for the third time, who wanted an abortion. She sued the Dallas attorney general Henry Wade over a Texas law that made it a crime to terminate a pregnancy except in cases of rape or incest, or when the mother's life was in danger. Roe's lawyers said she was unable to travel out of the state to obtain an abortion and argued that the law was too vague and infringed on her constitutional rights. Filing a complaint alongside her was Texas doctor James Hallford, who argued the law's medical provision was vague and that he was unable to reliably determine which of his patients fell into the allowed category. The 'Does', another couple who were childless, also filed a companion complaint, saying that medical risks made it unsafe but not life-threatening for the wife to carry a pregnancy to term, and arguing they should be able to obtain a safe, legal abortion should she become pregnant. The trio of complaints - from a woman who wanted an abortion, a doctor who wanted to perform them and a non-pregnant woman who wanted the right if the need arose - ultimately reached the nation's top court. The court heard arguments twice, and then waited until after Republican president Richard Nixon's re-election, in November 1972. Only the following January did it offer its historic seven-to-two decision - overturning the Texas laws and setting a legal precedent that has had ramifications in all 50 states. Advertisement

Following the ruling, McCorvey lived a quiet life until the 1980s when she revealed herself to be Jane Roe.

McCorvey became a leading, outspoken pro-abortion voice in American discourse, even working at a women's clinic where abortions were performed.

However, she performed an unlikely U-turn in 1995, becoming a born-again Christian and began traveling the country speaking out against the procedure.

In 2003, a she filed a motion to overturn her original 1973 ruling with the U.S. district court in Dallas. The motion moved through the courts until it was ultimately denied by the Supreme Court in 2005.

McCorvey died at an assisted living home in Texas in February 2017, aged 69. She admitted before she died that she made the change in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

'This is my deathbed confession,' she said. 'I took their money and they took me out in front of the cameras and told me what to say. Thats what Id say.'

In the interview, McCorvey refered to herself as 'the Big Fish' in the eyes of evangelical leaders who were eager to have her publicly switch sides and take up their cause.

In addressing her activism for the religious right, McCorvey boasts: 'I'm a good actress.'

Shelley Lynn Thornton, now 51, is the biological daughter of Norma McCorvey and spoke on the record for the first time in 2021.

Thornton was two-and-a-half when Roe v Wade was decided. She had been adopted by Ruth Schmidt and Billy Thornton as a baby.

Thornton appeared on Good Morning America for her first ever TV interview. Her identity was only made public in September by The Atlantic.

'A lot of people didn't know I existed,' she said, adding she fears the world blames her for abortion being legal.

'It doesn't revolve around me, I wasn't the one who created this law. I'm not the one who created this movement. I had nothing to do with it. I was just a little itty-bitty thing and, you know, circumstances prevailed.

'My whole thinking is that, "oh God everybody is going to hate me because everyone is going to blame me for abortion being legal,"' she said.

Thornton, who never met her birth mother in person before her death in 2017, told journalist Joshua Prager she had decided to speak out after more than half a century because she wanted to free herself from the 'secrets and lies.'

Shelley Thorton was adopted as a baby and raised by Ruth and Billy Thornton, a married couple. She is their only child. She was two-and-a-half when Roe v Wade was decided

Norma McCorvey (left) holds a pro-choice sign with former attorney Gloria Allred (right) in front of the US Supreme Court building on April 26, 1989

'Secrets and lies are, like, the two worst things in the whole world. I'm keeping a secret, but I hate it,' she said, in an adapted excerpt from Prager's new book 'The Family Roe: An American Story', published in The Atlantic.

'I want everyone to understand that this is something I've chosen to do.'

She says she has never forgiven McCorvey for trying to 'use her for publicity' when she was a teenager and discovered who she was after being confronted by National Enquirer reporters her biological mother had enlisted.

'They'd asked me if I'd ever heard of her before and I said no. And they said, 'Well, she is the woman who they used to do the Roe versus Wade case. She was Jane Roe.'"

She said she'd grown up with the idea that 'if a family member had a baby, they couldn't take care of it, then somebody else in the family took it and took care of it.'

Norma McCorvey aka 'Jane Roe' (left) and her attorney Gloria Allred at the Supreme Court in 1989, the year she made her identity known. After winning Roe vs Wade, Norma went on to be a face for women's rights before switching to be pro-life years later. She admitted before she died that she made the change in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars

The reporters told her who her biological mother was then asked her if she was 'pro life or pro choice' which she said she didn't understand.

'And that's really hard to grasp when you're in that kind of a situation and you're just kind of like learning all of this stuff,' she said.

Schmidt ended the meeting and the pair left. They asked the Enquirer not to reveal Thornton's identity and the magazine respected her wishes.

Afterwards, Thornton spoke to McCorvey on the phone.

She didn't deserve to meet me. She never did anything in her life to get that privilege back. She never expressed genuine feeling for me or genuine remorse for doing the things that she did, saying the things that she did over and over and over again

'It became apparent to me really quickly that the only reason why she wanted to reach out to me and find me was because she wanted to use me for publicity.

'She didn't deserve to meet me,' Thornton said. 'She never did anything in her life to get that privilege back.'

'She never expressed genuine feeling for me or genuine remorse for doing the things that she did, saying the things that she did over and over and over again.

'She wasn't sorry, about giving me away or anything,' she said.

Thornton said last year she will never forgive McCorvey 'mostly because I feel that she could have handled things a lot better.'

She said she wished she had been 'upfront' about craving media attention over a real relationship with her.

'I can deal with that. I can't deal with lies and treachery and things like that. To me, that's like no, sorry, not playing that game with you. And that's all it was. It was a game. It was a game. I was just a pawn, and I wasn't going to let her do it.'

McCorvey is pictured in 1998. Shelley Lynn Thornton, 51, has come forward to reveal that she is the youngest daughter of McCorvey - the woman known as Jane Roe

The Enquirer published an article in 1989 revealing the so-called 'Roe baby' had been found but, at her request, did not reveal Thornton's identity.

Two years after the Enquirer article and as an unmarried 20-year-old, Thornton discovered she was pregnant.

She was already planning to marry her partner Doug but said she was 'not at all' eager to become a mother.

Doug had suggested they consider an abortion, but Thornton said her ties to the Roe v. Wade case had caused her to rethink her views on abortion.

When the Enquirer had tracked her down, Thornton's adoptive mom, Schmidt, told the journalist 'we don't believe in abortion,' she said.

The publication had then described her as pro-life because she had told the journalist 'she couldn't see herself having an abortion.'

Thornton said she was unhappy with this description because she regarded pro-life as 'a bunch of religious fanatics going around and doing protests.'

Shelley Thornton (pictured during childhood) knew she was adopted but didn't know who her birth mother was until 1989 when she was contacted by reporters from The National Enquirer

After the Roe v. Wade ruling, McCorvey lived quietly for several years before revealing herself as Jane Roe in the 1980s. She also confessed to lying when she said the pregnancy was the result of rape.

Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, she remained an ardent supporter of abortion rights and worked for a time at a Dallas women's clinic where abortions were performed.

But she did an about-face and later spoke out on behalf of anti-abortion campaigners after befriending The Rev. Philip 'Flip' Benham when his anti-abortion group moved next door to the clinic where she was working.

She was baptized an evangelical Christian before network TV cameras by Benham, who was the leader of Operation Rescue, now known as Operation Save America.

Her religious conversion led her to give up her female lover, Connie Gonzales. She said the relationship turned platonic in the early 1990s and that once she became a Christian she believed homosexuality was wrong.

A short time later, she underwent another religious conversion and became a Roman Catholic and left Operation Rescue. Though she was still against abortion, she said she had reservations about the group's confrontational style.

McCorvey formed her own group, Roe No More Ministry, in 1997 and traveled around the U.S. speaking out against abortion. In testimony for a Senate subcommittee in 1998, McCorvey said: 'I am dedicated to spending the rest of my life undoing the law that bears my name.'

In 2005, the Supreme Court rejected a challenge by McCorvey to the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.

McCorvey was baptized an evangelical Christian in the 1990s before network TV cameras by Benham, who was the leader of Operation Rescue, now known as Operation Save America

Norma McCorvey stands with her friend Meredith Champion, 9, at an Operation Rescue rally in downtown Dallas in January 1997

McCorvey had written two autobiographies in her lifetime - one about pro-abortion and later about her change in stance.

The first, 'I Am Roe' in 1994, included abortion-rights sentiments along with details of her early life of dysfunctional parents, reform school, petty crime, drug abuse, alcoholism, an abusive husband, an attempted suicide and lesbianism.

McCorvey was born in Louisiana in 1947 and spent part of her childhood there until her family moved to Dallas.

In her book, she recounted stealing money at the age of 10 from the gas station where she worked afternoons and weekends and running away to Oklahoma City before being returned home by police.

She was eventually sent to a state reform school for girls in the northern Texas town of Gainesville, living there from the age of 11 to 15.

She married Elwood McCorvey at the age of 16, but separated shortly after while she was pregnant. With her drug and alcohol problems, she gave custody of her daughter, Melissa Mills, to her mother who eventually adopted the girl.

McCorvey fell pregnant to a different man and gave the baby up for adoption in 1967.

It was her third pregnancy that catapulted her into the abortion rights struggle.

Her first child was the only one of her three children who was a part of her mother's life. Mills was with McCorvey when she died.

Before Shelley, Norma McCorvey had two other daughters who she put up for adoption. Melissa Mills is one of them (pictured in 2021). Her first child was the only one of her three children who was a part of her mother's life. Mills was with McCorvey when she died

Politico reported Monday night that Justice Samuel Alito, one of six justices appointed by Republican presidents on the nine-member court, wrote a majority draft opinion in February repudiating both Roe and the 1992 Planned Parenthood vs. Casey decision.

'Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,' Alito writes in the opinion, which was reportedly circulated among the court members. 'We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,' he continues in the document, titled 'Opinion of the Court.'

'It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people's elected representatives.'

The news sent shock waves throughout Washington D.C. with Democrats vowing to codify the legal right to an abortion into law and Republicans celebrating the news.

Now that Roe v. Wade is overturned, abortion is likely to remain legal in liberal states as more than a dozen states currently have laws protecting abortion rights.

However, abortion rights have been under threat in recent months as Republican-led states move to tighten rules - with some seeking to ban all abortions after six weeks, before many women even know they are pregnant - and have passed various abortion restrictions in defiance of the Roe precedent in recent years.

There are 18 states that have near-total bans on their books, while four more have time-limit band and four others are likely to pass new bans if Roe v. Wade is overturned

Republican appointed-Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett all voted to strike down Roe with Samuel Alito, Politico noted

Republicans could try to enact a nationwide abortion ban, while Democrats could also seek to protect abortion rights at the national level.

Twenty-six states are certain or likely to ban abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned, according to the pro-abortion rights think tank the Guttmacher Institute.

Of those, 22 states already have total or near-total bans on the books that are currently blocked by Roe, aside from Texas.

The state's law banning it after six weeks has already been allowed to go into effect by the Supreme Court due to its unusual civil enforcement structure. Four more states are considered likely to quickly pass bans now that Roe is overturned.

Sixteen states and the District of Columbia, meanwhile, have protected access to abortion in state law.

This year, eight conservative states have already moved to restrict abortion rights.

Oklahoma, for example, passed several bills in recent weeks, including one that goes into effect this summer making it a felony to perform an abortion.
As a chronicler of heroes such as Scott of the Antarctic and Ernest Shackleton, Joanna Grochowicz knows a thing or two about machismo.

But modern society is 'shying away from manliness', she warned this week.

'I find it very troubling that we're moving towards this gender-neutral society where sex-specific qualities are not valued,' she said.

'In the same way we are shying away from manliness, I think we are shying away from femininity as well.'

An army soldier prepares his gun as he guards a road from the top of an armored tank in Tocancipa, Cundinamarca deparment, Colombia, on June 18, 2022

ATS 'attracted wrong sort of girl' It is the branch of the Army that the Queen joined in the Second World War along with Churchill's daughter Mary. But the Auxiliary Territorial Service  created for women  had hitherto suffered from an 'image problem', historian Tessa Dunlop said yesterday. She told the Chalke Valley History Festival there had been concerns that 'it attracted the 'wrong sort of girl' because they were interacting with men and seen as promiscuous. 'To prove the women's services weren't disreputable they counted the number of illegitimate pregnancies in the services versus civilian illegitimate pregnancies to prove that military women were actually well-behaved,' Dr Dunlop said. Advertisement

She was speaking in a discussion with Major General Patrick Cordingley, who commanded the 7th Armoured Brigade  dubbed the Desert Rats  during the first Gulf War, about 'the lost virtue of manliness' before an audience at the Chalke Valley History Festival.

He spoke about Joan Rhodes, who found fame as a strongwoman in the 1950s. She was able to bend iron bars and lift anvils, but was also 'very attractive' and had a 22-inch waist.

After being abandoned by her parents, she lived on the streets of London at 14 with buskers who taught her 'to be strong'.

Major General Cordingley said: 'She was also a kind lady. She had this appallingly bad upbringing which fixed her whole idea of what she had to do in the world.

'Is that manly?' Ms Grochowicz replied: 'I have nothing against a woman being called manly. I think Joan is a classic example of somebody that embodies both [manliness and femininity]. And why can't we celebrate that? She was straddling two worlds and actually being incredibly successful.

'You don't have to be overtly muscular to be manly, you just need to have self-confidence, to be able to hold your space, to be able to express your opinions openly.'
New York governor Kathy Hochul is looking for creative ways preserve restrictions against carrying a handgun in public after the US Supreme Court struck down key portions of the state's gun-licensing and concealed carry laws.

State and New York City officials are zeroing in on specifying 'sensitive locations' where concealed weapons could be forbidden, including a concept that would essentially extend those zones to the entire metropolis.

Other options under consideration include adding new conditions to get a handgun permit, such as requiring weapons training.

Hochul, a Democrat, vowed to call the Democrat-led legislature back for a special session to pass new rules.

'We have a whole lot of ideas,' she said, adding that she discussed policy options Thursday with the mayors of the state's six largest cities.

New York City mayor Eric Adams supported expressed support for Hocul's efforts, saying 'We cannot allow New York to become the Wild West.'

New York governor Kathy Hochul speaking on June 23 about the US Supreme Court's ruling against the state's current concealed carry laws

A Capitol Police Officer works by the anti-scaling fencing outside the Supreme Court, Thursday, June 23, 2022, in Washington

New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, also a Democrat, said state lawmakers should ban people from carrying handguns in any place containing more than 10,000 people per square mile, or anywhere within 1,000 feet of mass transit systems, hospitals, parks, government buildings, schools, churches, cemeteries, banks, theaters bars, libraries, homeless shelters and courts.

That would effectively include the whole city.

While it's not yet clear what might come of the discussions, what was clear was the sense of urgency that New York's Democratic leadership feels about retaining some curbs on guns in public places.

The officials argue that such restrictions are life-saving: statistics show the state, and its biggest city, consistently have among the nation's lowest firearm death rates.

'We are prepared to set an example that will lead the country as to: how do we fight back on this decision?' said New York Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat and a former police officer and gun owner.

Salesman John Licata demonstrates a competition shooting gun at SP firearms on Thursday, June 23, 2022, in Hempstead, New York

New York, like many other U.S. cities, has contended with rising concern about violent crime, though New York City police statistics show shootings have declined about 12 per cent and murders 13 per cent so far this year, compared with the same period last year. But murders remain at their second-highest level since 2012.

The high court opinion comes shortly after New York state tightened semi-automatic rifle regulations following a May 14 shooting in Buffalo, where a white gunman with such a weapon killed 10 Black people in a racist attack. Officials said the gun was purchased legally, but New York doesn't allow sales of the ammunition magazines that were used.

As state leaders reacted to Thursday's ruling, Republican Chairman Nick Langworthy said it was 'disgusting yet highly predictable' that Hochul and other Democrats 'are trying to gin up fear and division over a legal gun owner's right to protect themselves and their family.'

Rep. Lee Zeldin, a Republican candidate for governor, tweeted that Hochul 'better not make her next move on this another assault on law-abiding NYers.'

John Deloca, owner of Seneca Sporting Range, pockets his 9mm semi-automatic handgun as he prepares a shooting demonstration at his gun range, Thursday, June 23, 2022, in New York. Deloca said he welcomes the Supreme Court ruling that Americans have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defense, striking down a New York gun law

A customer checks out a hand gun that is for sale and on display at SP firearms on Thursday, June 23, 2022, in Hempstead, New York

New York state's law dates to 1913. It requires people to demonstrate 'proper cause' - an actual need to carry the weapon - to get a license to carry a handgun outside their homes.

There are similar standards in a handful of other states, including California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland and Hawaii.

New York's law did not define what proper cause meant, and it gave local authorities - often police - discretion on whether to issue a license. In practice, that meant most applicants had to show a need that went beyond routine public safety concerns, such as being in a profession that put them at special risk.

In New York City, few people beyond retired law enforcement officers and armed guards could get such a license.

In Thursday's ruling, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, a Supreme Court majority said the New York rules prevented 'law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their right to keep and bear arms in public.'

In a concurring opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh noted that the decision didn't bar states from imposing handgun licensing requirements, such as fingerprinting, mental health records checks, firearms training or prohibitions on carrying the weapons in sensitive places, such as schools and government buildings.

But the majority opinion suggested there were limits to how sweeping the place-based restrictions could be: 'There is no historical basis for New York to effectively declare the island of Manhattan a `sensitive place simply because it is crowded' and policed, Thomas wrote.

Brooklyn Law School professor Bill Araiza said the court 'seemed to suggest that it's certainly OK for governments to restrict carrying guns in sensitive places,' but 'poured cold water' on the idea of expansive gun-free zones.

Tom King, President Tom King, president of the plaintiff New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, speaks in his office, in East Greenbush, N.Y., Thursday, June 23, 2022. In a major expansion of gun rights, the Supreme Court said Thursday that Americans have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defense

A customer checks out a hand gun that is for sale and on display at SP firearms on Thursday, June 23, 2022, in Hempstead, New York

New York City officials insisted that nothing would change immediately, noting that the high court sent the case back to a lower court for further proceedings that could iron out implementation details.

But the decision instantly raised fears among supporters of New York's handgun limits, saying that loosening the rules could create a marketplace for handguns that now barely exists in the state.

New York has among the nation's lowest rates of firearm deaths, including from suicides: 3.9 deaths per 100,000 people in 2019 and 5.3 deaths per 100,000 people in 2020.

Manhattan, a symbol of urban America, had the lowest rate of gun deaths in the state with 1.7 deaths per 100,000 in 2019, according to the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions.

Columbia Law School professor Jeffrey Fagan, an expert on gun laws, said research indicates that the firearms homicide rate immediately rises in places where restrictions are lifted.

Adams raised the specter of everyday disputes turning into shootouts in New York's crowded streets and subways. He suggested that police officers would face greater danger, as well as a greater burden of distinguishing between legal and illegal guns in public places.

Some business groups are also concerned. Andrew Rigie of the New York City Hospitality Alliance, a restaurant and nightclub owners' group, said small businesses should be able to decide what is allowed in their establishments.
He recently revealed he has quit alcohol and tobacco following his messy split from Angelina Jolie, but chain-smoking Brad Pitt was every inch the handsome hunk as he puffed on his final cigarettes in Los Angeles.

The Hollywood star, 58, spoke to GQ in the latest edition of the magazine, announcing he has embraced a life of abstinence that began shortly after his divorce was initiated in 2016.

The actor spent 18-months attending regular Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, where he adopted the group's core principles of abstinence from all mind-altering substances.

'I had a really cool men's group here that was really private and selective, so it was safe,' he explained.

Exclusive photos of Brad Pitt chain-smoking at the height of the pandemic show he wasn't kidding when he said he struggled with moderation when it comes to tobacco

Pitt - once named People magazine's sexiest man alive - was snapped indulging in a couple cigarettes while volunteering in South Central Los Angeles in November 2020

The 58-year-old has since kicked the bad habit, but was every inch the rugged hunk as he puffed away on his cigarettes

Opening up: Pitt has given a bleak assessment of the human condition as he moves on from the collapse of his five year marriage to actress Angelina Jolie

A lifelong smoker, Pitt also made the decision to cut cigarettes out of his life, opting instead to substitute tobacco with nicotine flavored gum.

'I don't have that ability to do just one or two a day,' he said of his past smoking habit.

'It's not in my makeup. I'm all in. And I'm going to drive into the ground. I've lost my privileges.'

Exclusive photos of the Fight Club star chain-smoking at the height of the pandemic show he wasn't kidding when he said he struggled with moderation when it came to tobacco.

Pitt - once named People magazine's sexiest man alive - was snapped indulging in a couple cigarettes while volunteering in South Central Los Angeles in November 2020.

He was dressed down in ripped jeans, white shoes and a red and black flannel shirt, took multiple smoke breaks and didn't shirk from lifting heavy boxes of food supplies from delivery trucks.

He wore a blue face mask to protect himself from Covid-19.

At the time, a witness told DailyMail.com how the Oscar winner had lit one cigarette after the other as he handed out boxes of groceries to low-income families in the Los Angeles Housing Projects.

Pitt recently revealed he made the decision to give up cigarettes while completing an alcohol recovery program during the pandemic

The actor was snapped taking multiple smoke breaks while helping out low-income families in South Central LA

He was dressed down in ripped jeans, white shoes and a red and black flannel shirt

An eyewitness said: 'Brad really did seem like a hero, the man did not stop all day. Just seeing him driving a big truck in South Central LA during Covid times was in itself amazing'

Many of those who received groceries didn't realize they were in the presence of one of the world's most famous actors, because of his casual style and the mask he was wearing to protect himself from COVID-19

'Brad was practically devouring the smokes, he must have gotten through half a pack at least in only a few hours. He was even smoking in between bites of his lunch,' the witness said.

In between smokes, the onlooker added, Pitt was 'completely committed' to the cause, and was 'involved as much as or probably more than anyone else there.'

Pitt recently spoke about moving on from the collapse of the five-year marriage to Angelina Jolie

'He was there between three and four hours and he would only stop every hour or so to have a quick three-minute break to smoke a cigarette and then he was back at it.'

During his volunteer day he was also seen enjoying a modest fast food lunch, which he ate from a regular to-go container with a plastic knife and fork.

At the time, Pitt had just recently ended his relationship with ex-girlfriend Nicole Poturalski, 27, after a few months of dating, and had been locked in a bitter custody battle with ex-wife Angelina Jolie over their six children.

In his interview with GQ, Pitt spoke about moving on from the collapse of the five-year marriage and his newfound positivity tempered by the belief that pain and turmoil are inevitable parts of growth.

'I think all our hearts are broken,' he said. 'I always felt very alone in my life, alone growing up as a kid, alone even out here, and it's really not till recently that I have had a greater embrace of my friends and family.

Brad and Angelina split in 2016, with Jolie requesting primary custody of their six children (pictured)

'What's that line? It was either Rilke or Einstein, believe it or not, but it was something about when you can walk with the paradox, when you carry real pain and real joy simultaneously, this is maturity, this is growth.'

Despite the overriding sense of isolation, Pitt admits he's found community and friendship through his decision to give up alcohol in 2016.

The actor's self-awareness regarding his own characteristic flaws are a far cry from the hazy past, when he freely admitted to smoking marijuana on a daily basis, including throughout his first marriage to Jennifer Aniston.

'I spent most of the '90s hiding out and smoking pot,' he told New York Times recently. 'I was too uncomfortable with all the attention.'
Greece's state TV was mocked on Thursday over a segment that showed viewers how to siphon gasoline from cars as fuel prices soar.

'It's not something terribly complicated... you don't even need a special tube, even a hose for balconies will do,' the station's reporter Costas Stamou said during ERT's morning news programme Syndeseis on Wednesday.

After demonstrating the method, a car repairman then points out where a car's fuel tank can alternatively be pierced to steal the contents.

After demonstrating the method, a car repairman then points out where a car's fuel tank can alternatively be pierced to steal the contents

'Are you guys in your right mind? Giving people tips on stealing gasoline?' commented one user on Twitter.

'After the tutorial on two ways to easily steal gasoline, ERT is now preparing new how-to's on how to open locks and steal wallets,' jibed another.

A video mixed by Greek satirical website Luben had been viewed over 170,000 times by Thursday. Another 32,500 saw the original segment on Twitter.

Fuel prices have steadily climbed in Greece in recent months, with simple unleaded at over 2.37 euros ($2.50) per litre on average in Athens on Wednesday, and over 2.50 euros on Rhodes and neighbouring islands.

Greek authorities have resisted calls to cut tax on fuel, opting instead for 30-50 euro subsidies to less well-off car and motorcycle owners.
Tesla's new virtual power plant program for Powerwall users in California launches in partnership with the gas and electric firm PG&E.

The latest program seeks to find an end to blackouts in California, allowing Powerwall owners to participate in making it possible.

Tesla's New Virtual Power Plant for Powerwall Users in California

As per a news story by The Verge, the giant electric vehicle (EV) maker owned by Elon Musk teamed up with PG&E, which supplies electricity in California, to debut the virtual power plant program.

The partnership between the two firms vows to prevent blackouts even when there is some sort of energy shortage.

According to a recent report by Electrek, the virtual power plant program began its test in California in 2021.

But during that time, the only way Powerwall users could join is to volunteer. So, they give away their electricity straight from the battery packs to the grid during looming blackouts without getting anything in return.

This time around, Tesla debuts its virtual power plant program, which now compensates Powerwall owners for the electricity they provide in times of emergencies to keep the lights on.

Tesla Virtual Power Plant: How Much It Pays Powerwall Owners

To be more precise, the program now pays participating Powerwall owners $2 per kilowatt-hour that they provide when the grid starts scrambling for power.

The Verge notes that the compensation potentially begins when the grid operator of California, CAISO, issues a warning, emergency, or energy alert.

Tesla touts that its participating customers could possibly "help form the largest distributed battery in the world - potentially over 50,000 Powerwalls."

The Verge notes that the giant EV maker is also saying that the virtual power plant could potentially replace the gas-fired power plants. The latter serves as a backup when the power supply fails to keep up with the raging demand.

Aside from the monetary incentives, which may attract numerous Powerwall users, Tesla lays out other benefits for joining the program.

The automaker says that it helps stabilize the grid of California. And at the same time, it also cleans the grid, forcing it to use clean energy in times of emergency.

Read Also: Tesla Model X, Model S's NEW Swivel Screen Arrives - Here's a Close Look

Tesla Virtual Power Plant

It is worth noting that this is not the first rodeo of Tesla to set up a virtual power plant program.

In fact, The Verge reports that the Musk-led firm has been working on a similar program in Australia for some time now.

The virtual power plant project is now establishing its foothold in the United States, kicking off in California with plans to bring it to Texas.

Related Article: Elon Musk Tesla Solar Panel-Powerwall Bundle Update: New Powerwall+ Specs, Design Leaked!
Yasmin Boland is a journalist-turned-astrologer and best-selling author

If you gaze up into the early morning sky this month, you may witness one of the rarest astronomical events of your life.

For the first time since 2004, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are aligned in heavens and visible to the naked eye.

Moreover, this extraordinary planetary parade won't occur again for nearly 20 years.

While professional and amateur astronomers are excited about going outside with their binoculars and telescopes to see if they can tick off all five planets, astrologers will see it all from a very different point of view.

As the planets fall into line like beautiful soldiers on parade, the astrological meaning of this line-up is largely about getting our lives back into alignment.

Astrology is the ancient study of the Sun, Moon and stars and how their alignments impact human life.

The word has two Greek roots: Astra, which means a star, and Logos, which means a logic or reason.

Effectively, astrology is the study of the stars.

For more than 2,000 years, astrologers have made notes about how celestial events correlate with what is happening on planet Earth.

In fact, it was the mysterious so-called Father of Astrology, Hermes Trismegistus who coined the phrase 'as above, so below'.

Astrologers claim that  for example  the rare Jupiter/Saturn/Pluto alignments in 2020 had a lot to do with the global chaos of the last few years. But of course, no one was listening!

As the planets fall into line, like beautiful soldiers on parade, the astrological meaning of this line-up is largely about getting our lives back into alignment

Astrology is practiced mainly by looking at the stars, and comparing their current positions to an individual's birth chart, which is a map of the heavens set for the moment and place that they were born.

Two people born at the same time on opposite sides of the earth will have very different horoscope charts. And no chart  including your birth chart  will be repeated for 26,000 years.

Your birth chart is as unique as you!

But while we are all different -- there are still common signs to take from this celestial event.

To understand this, let's break down the meaning of each planet involved.

MERCURY  THE MESSENGER OF THE GODS

The planet Mercury, named for the Roman God, is the planet of communications.

In Greece, he was known as Hermes, the messenger of Mt. Olympus, the home of the Gods.

As such, Mercury is often known as the messenger of the Gods and Goddesses.

It's the planet that we employ when we talk or listen. And right now, it's in the zodiacal constellation of Gemini.

Mercury in Gemini as a part of this planetary parade exhorts us to: communicate, express ourselves clearly, stay mentally agile, listen as much as we talk and let others have their say.

The Solar System - (Left to right) Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune & Pluto

VENUS  LOVE AND ABUNDANCE

Next in the line-up is Venus, the planet of love and abundance.

Venus was the Roman Goddess of love. The Greek Goddess Aphrodite is her counterpart.

Astrologically, Venus represents our ability to love ourselves and others, to relate to people, to cuddle and caress, to make peace and to see the beauty in life.

Venus will be joining Mercury in the communicative sign of Gemini around the time of this alignment.

This suggests two things; one, this is time for talks; for peace talks on the world stage and for peace talks in our private lives, where they are needed, and two, wherever we have the sign of Gemini in our horoscope is where there is a chance to get over the past and move forwards with a happier heart.

Astrologically, Venus represents our ability to love ourselves and others, to relate to people, to cuddle and caress, to make peace and to see the beauty in life

Jupiter, Venus, Mars, and Saturn almost exact distances apart in a diagonal line above the Djoser pyramid at the Saqqara Necropolis in Giza, Egypt

MARS AND SATURN  WAR AND TRUTH

There is an auspicious alignment (known as a sextile) lining up between Mars and Saturn just after this astrological event.

A sextile occurs when the planets appear 60 degrees away from each other.

As with all planetary connections, it means something different for everyone but overall, here's what you need to know:

The planet is named for the Roman God of War, Mars.

It is the planet of anger and drive, of blood and war and hunting down prey.

Saturn is the planet of hard lessons, facts that we'd rather avoid, and truth.

Saturn is also often associated with the Crone, the older woman who won't take any nonsense from anyone anymore.

This association comes partly because around when we turn 58-years-old, we experience what's known as our 'second Saturn Return'.

(Left) Mars captured by the comet-chasing Rosetta spacecraft on February 24, 2007. (Right) NASA's Hubble Space Telescope delivers epic new views of Saturn

For the first time since 2004, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are aligned in heavens and visible to the naked eye

That's when Saturn, (which takes around 29 years to go around the Sun), returns to the place it was at our birth for the second time, and marks the start of the rest of our life, so to speak.

The second Saturn return could be called the Getting of Wisdom, and sometimes that means facing hard facts.

When Mars and Saturn align harmoniously, as they are doing this week, under the rare planetary line up, there is a chance for us all to use our energy more wisely, to chase the truth, to come to agreement, to make strides ahead, for the facts to come out, for the government to serve the people better and to finish what you started.

To make the most of this alignment, think about where you are in your life.

Is there someone or something in your life which you need to go after a little harder? Where are your efforts best spent now?

This energy is not about being aggressive or meddling with someone else's rights to peace.

Rather it's about adjusting your life so that you conscientiously pursue the right outcome for all concerned, in whatever is worrying you.

It's about righting wrongs and bringing whatever has warped back into alignment as it should be.

JUPITER  THE LUCKY PLANET

The week ends on a very happy note as Venus and lucky Jupiter align.

Jupiter is an overall positive planet, mainly known for bringing good luck and good times with him.

This is largely to do to the fact that Jupiter lives large and thus endows confidence, which breeds success.

You might ask how 'lucky' Jupiter could have been involved in the turmoil of 2020 -- if that's the case.

Jupiter is an overall positive planet, mainly known for bringing good luck and good times with him

(Above) Jupiter and Venus in conjunction rise before sunrise behind Rocca Calascio castle, Italy, on April 30, 2022

Jupiter is also the amplification planet -- think of a good time which goes too far.

When Jupiter made a rare alignment with Saturn (lessons) then Pluto (healing crisis) at the start of 2020, it seems there were a lot of lessons for humanity to learn, and a lot of healing crises around the world, with some people being luckier than others.

Jupiter has a feeling of spinning the wheel of fortune, so you might decide to do that a little yourself this week when it comes to love or abundance  but don't risk more than you mean to!

Overall, as the planets show off to us this week, expect good things, because you just might get them!
Polygamous cult leader Warren Jeffs looks unamused in his new mug shot as he continues to serve his life sentence for aggravated sexual assault

Polygamous cult leader Warren Jeffs looks unamused in his new mugshot as he continues to serve his life sentence for aggravated sexual assault.

The Texas Department Of Criminal Justice released a new mug shot of Jeffs, 66, on Thursday, just two weeks after the Netflix documentary dropped about his crimes. The documentary is currently spending its second week in the top 10 globally, pulling in almost 30million viewing hours.

Jeffs was sentenced to life in prison in 2011 after being convicted of sexual assaulting two children, ages 12 and 15.

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) leader has also been accused of sexually abusing his own children, as well as his niece and nephew, who have come forward with allegations.

The FLDS, a radical Mormon denomination, was founded in 1929 after The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints abandoned polygamy in 1890 and excommunicated members who refused to give up the practice of plural marriage.

Jeffs grew up outside of Salt Lake City, Utah, in a polygamous household. His father, Rulon Jeffs, had around 75 wives and 65 children. Jeffs is estimated at having 85 wives.

The FLDS holds polygamy as a fundamental belief, and its men take multiple wives in what are termed 'celestial marriages,' each performed in a ceremony called a 'sealing.'

The church, which has an estimated 6,000 to 10,000 members, believes polygamy brings exaltation in heaven and a number of the marriages arranged in the community involved underage girls.

He appeared fresher and less tired in his older mug shot (left) and pictures (right)

Jeffs' wives are pictured next to a photo of him on the wall in the polygamist cult

A photo from Netflix's new popular document showing Jeffs with his wives

Rulon became the spiritual leader of the religious sect in 1986 and was considered a prophet of God. Jeffs positioned himself as his successor before officially taking over as prophet following his father's death in 2002.

The new documentary exposes the horrific sexual and physical abuse that took place inside an extremist Mormon cult. Jeffs is reportedly still running the cult from behind bars.

FLDS was created in the early 20th century by a group of Mormons who got ostracized from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because they refused to give up polygamy - the act of marrying multiple women.

Polygamy was renounced from the Mormon religion in 1904, when the then-president of the church said it would no longer be allowed in a declaration known as the Second Manifesto.

However, some members of the community didn't want to stop the practice since they believed that 'the more wives and children you have, the higher in Heaven you'll be,' according to the documentary.

The documentary sheds some light on the heinous abuse that Jeffs' victims suffered, with one survivor recalling in the clip how she was forced to marry an adult man when she was just 14 years old.

Another ex-member revealed they were told the abuse they were subjected to was all being done 'for their salvation,' recalling: 'We did whatever it took, even if it was wrong.'

'Young girls were like a commodity owned by the church,' another person added.

Throughout the years that he ran FLDS - which has bases in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, collectively known as Short Creek, as well as one in Eldorado, Texas, which is called the Yearning for Zion Ranch - Jeffs brainwashed, imprisoned, and abused multiple women and children, earning him a spot on the FBI's Top 10 Most Wanted List.

The Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey documentary dropped on Netflix on June 8 and is currently in the top 10 shows globally

In 2005, he was charged with sexual assault of a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual misconduct with a minor after he allegedly forced a then-14-year-old girl to marry her 19-year-old cousin.

During the trial, the young girl claimed that her husband raped and impregnated her numerous times, however, the charges were eventually dismissed.

According to CNN, the case was dropped in 2010 by the prosecutor, after Jeffs was arrested for 'much more serious charges.'

In 2006, he was also charged with felony accomplice to the rape of a teenage girl. He was found guilty, however, the conviction was later overturned by the Utah Supreme Court, who claimed there was a mistake in jury instructions.

Police stormed the Zion Ranch in 2008 and arrested Jeffs for a third time, after they found over 400 children and evidence of 'sexual, physical, and psychological abuse,' Rolling Stone reported.

Jeffs grew up outside of Salt Lake City, Utah, in a polygamous household. His father, Rulon Jeffs (pictured together), had around 75 wives and 65 children

Jeffs son, Wendel Jefferson - who changed his last name - and his mother and sister have since left the church

In 2011, he was sent away for life after he was convicted of two felony counts of child sexual assault for having sex with two girls aged 12 and 14.

He is currently serving a life sentence plus 20 years for the charges, however, it's been reported that Jeffs has continued to preach to FLDS' remaining members from his prison cell.

He is eligible for parole in July 22, 2038.

As of 2018, the Guardian reported that there were still around 10,000 active members of the church.

Many of Jeffs' former victims - most of whom have since left the cult but still live in Short Creek - have now spoken out and shared their stories for the upcoming four-part docuseries, which was directed by Rachel Dretzin.

'The first time I traveled to Short Creek, Utah, I had the same first impression as most,' Dretzin said in a statement to Rolling Stone.

'With their pleated hair, prairie dresses, and diffident, skittish manner, it was easy to see the young girls and women of the FLDS as odd, even alien creatures.

'It was almost impossible to believe that a society so repressive, isolated, and extreme could exist in plain sight in 21st century America.

'And then I began interviewing survivors. The stories they told - of the process of systematic coercion and mind control exercised by the man they thought of as a religious prophet, Warren Jeffs - were far from alienating.

'After many months spent reporting this story, it was clear to me that these women could have been my daughter, my mother, or me.

'And it was also abundantly clear that they showed incredible courage and strength in leaving this religion-turned-criminal cult.'

Dretzin described the women as 'bada**' and 'fierce,' adding that she was 'proud' to tell their story.

'The women in our film managed to leave the FLDS with no real education or skills, no money, no support whatsoever,' she explained.

'For their whole lives they had been valued solely as plural wives and as breeders of children.

'To leave meant saying goodbye to everything and everyone they loved to start over in a society they didn't understand. Bada** doesn't begin to describe how fierce they are.'

According to the Daily Beast, Dretzin tells Jeffs' story 'with virtually no dramatic recreations, instead relying on a haunting collection of archival photos, home videos, courtroom footage, and recorded evidence to convey the unnerving strangeness of FLDS life.'

Jeffs with one of his 85 wives. Many of wives were in their early teens

Jeffs (pictured in 2006) is up for parole in July 2038 and is currently spending life in prison in Texas

Like father, like son: Rulon became the spiritual leader of the religious sect in 1986 and was considered a prophet of God and had dozens of wives, much like Jeffs would go on to do

The outlet added, 'That material culminates with clandestine photographs and audio tapes made by Jeffs of his sexual encounters with his victims, which are so predictably disgusting that it's no surprise they landed him behind bars, where he continues to create 'revelations' that are disseminated to his followers.'

One woman, whose identity is unknown, could be heard saying in the trailer, 'In our minds, the police, even the president of the United States had no authority over us.

'Warren Jeffs was our president. He was the Prophet. And how could you place a human over God?'

Another person stated, 'To stand up against a multi-million-dollar church, you're going up against a lifetime of conditioning and fear. Warren Jeffs took over this religion and turned it into money and power and sex.'
Spiralling flu numbers have sparked an urgent warning from one of the nation's top doctors that Australians need to treat the disease as seriously as Covid.

An influenza epidemic is ripping through the country after Covid lockdowns and precautions kept the disease at bay for more than two years.

But now, with mask mandates lifted and no natural immunity after years of isolation and protection from flu outbreaks, the disease is making a devastating comeback.

Spiralling flu numbers have sparked an urgent warning from Queensland's Chief Health Officer Dr John Gerrard that Australians need to treat the disease as seriously as Covid

In Queensland, there are almost twice as many seriously ill patients in intensive care with the flu as there are with Covid.

And in NSW, flu numbers are continuing to rise, with more than 200 rushed to hospital last week - with one in seven of those in children under four.

Almost 1300 people in NSW have been admitted to hospital with the flu this year, with nearly 9,500 turning up at A&E struggling to breathe with flu-like symptoms.

'The number of full respiratory virus infections we've seen so far this year has been unprecedented,' Queensland's Chief Health Officer Dr John Gerrard said.

'We have not been exposed to this virus for the last two and a half years.'

He said Australians 'absolutely' need to treat the disease in the same way they do Covid, both in trying to avoid it and stopping its spread.

He stressed that anyone struck down by the flu need to stay at home while they recover.

'That will be the way we go moving forward,' he said.

'The days of going to work stoically coughing and sneezing with a sore throat and fever because you're a good soldier, those days are gone.'

An influenza epidemic is ripping through the country after Covid lockdowns and precautions kept the disease at bay for more than two years

However he stopped short of advocating a return to mask mandates, but encouraged people to get a flu shot as soon as possible.

Take-up of flu shots has been critically low among teenagers, he warned.

'I think Queenslanders are beginning to get the message but it's critical if you haven't had your influenza vaccine yet, get it now,' he said.

In NSW, chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant echoed that message.

'Influenza immunisation rates arent where they need to be,' she said. 'Only about one in three people in NSW have received their influenza vaccine this year.

'We really need to see that number go up, especially among vulnerable groups such as young children and older people who are most at risk of severe illness.'

Nationwide, just over 9million have been vaccinated against the flu, but that still leaves around two-thirds of the country at risk.

NSW is the most vaccinated state, with more than 2.8million jabbed, but Victoria is close behind on 2.5million. Queensland has less than 1.8million vaccinated.

Almost 1300 people in NSW have been admitted to hospital with the flu this year, with nearly 9,500 turning up at A&E struggling to breath with flu-like symptoms

Northern Territory has the lowest take-up with just 63,000 jabbed, with 190,000 vaccinated in the ACT, 232,000 in Tasmania, 748,000 in South Australia and 855,000 in WA.

Dr Chant warned the worst has yet to come of the current 'Influenza A' strain outbreak.

'We are anticipating a surge in influenza activity right through winter and into spring,' she said.

The vaccine is the best way to protect yourself, your loved ones and your community from the harmful effects of influenza.

'I want to thank everyone who has already come forward to get their jab, but theres still work to be done.

'The flu vaccine remains free for all NSW residents for another seven days, so please book in now to take advantage of this important initiative to boost immunity levels.'
Former President Donald Trump reacted to the fourth January 6 committee hearing Thursday by resharing a letter sent to him last summer by a Pennsylvania official who was trying to get his endorsement for governor.

The June 2021 letter, from former Pennsylvania gubernatorial hopeful Bill McSwain, suggests election fraud wasn't fully investigated in the commonwealth thanks to former Attorney General Bill Barr.

'On Election Day and afterwards, our Office received various allegations of voter fraud and election irregularities,' said McSwain, who was then serving as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Former President Donald Trump (left) reacted to the fourth January 6 committee hearing Thursday by resharing a letter sent to him in June 2021 by former U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain (right) of Pennsylvania alleging that 'election irregularities' weren't investigated

Former President Donald Trump included a copy of the letter in a statement Thursday saying: 'To the Unselect Committee - Have you seen this letter? Why wouldn't the Justice Department act?'

McSwain said he wanted to 'investigate fully any allegations' but charged that was put to a stop by Barr, who referred him to the state's Attorney General Josh Shapiro - a Democrat who's now the party's 2022 nominee for governor.

Barr, McSwain alleged, 'instructed me not to make any public statements or put out any press releases regarding possible election irregularities.'

'I disagreed with that decision but those were my orders,' McSwain said. 'As a Marine infantry officer, I was trained to follow the chain of command and to respect the orders of my superiors, even when I disagreed with them.'

McSwain then transitions to making the pitch to Trump as to why he should be the ex-president's choice for Pennsylvania governor.

The letter goes on to ask former President Donald Trump for his endorsement as Bill McSwain was campaigning to be governor. In April, Trump gave McSwain an anti-endorsement telling Republicans not to vote for him because he didn't do enough to prop up the 'big lie'

'I would be honored to have your support,' McSwain said.

The ex-president sent out a copy of the letter along with the statement - 'To the Unselect Committee - Have you seen this letter? Why wouldnt the Justice Department act?' - as the hearing was winding down Thursday.

Barr previously said in an interview that McSwain wasn't being truthful.

'Any suggestion that McSwain was told to stand down from investigating allegations of election fraud is false. Its just false,' Barr said in July 2021, after Trump released the letter publicly.

The claims 'appeared to have been made to mollify President Trump to gain his support for McSwains planned run for governor,' Barr said.

Previous January 6 committee testimony had Barr saying that the Justice Department did look into election fraud claims and found nothing that would have overturned the results of the 2020 election, including in Pennsylvania.

In Barr testimony that was shown at Thursday's hearing, Barr explained why it was important for the DOJ to look into those allegations.

In a taped deposition, Barr said he was 'not sure we would have had a transition at all' - suggesting he feared Trump would have refused to leave office.

In a taped deposition, former Attorney General Bill Barr said he was 'not sure we would have had a transition at all' - suggesting he feared Trump would have refused to leave office

'I sort of shudder to think what the situation would have been if the position of the department was: We're not even going to look at this until after Biden's in office,' Barr said.

Overall, Thursday's hearing included blockbuster testimony about Trump's campaign to pressure DOJ officials into reversing President Joe Biden's win in key swing states.

As for McSwain, the letter Trump reshared Thursday didn't do enough to earn the ex-president's endorsement.

In April, the former U.S. attorney earned an anti-endorsement from Trump for not doing enough to help him win Pennsylvania in 2020.

'Do not vote for Bill McSwain, a coward, who let our country down,' Trump said in a statement then.

Trump went on to endorse state Sen. Doug Mastriano just days before Pennsylvania's May primary, with Mastriano - who peddled the 'big lie' - already poised to win, which he did.
A top health bureaucrat who struggled to give the definition of a woman when questioned by a Liberal senator has finally given an answer two months later.

Health secretary Dr Brendan Murphy stumbled over his words when he was asked to define a woman by Liberal Senator Alex Antic during Senate Estimates in April.

'Perhaps to give a more fulsome answer, we should take that on notice,' he said.

Dr Murphy remained silent on the topic before responding in a statement released by the Department of Health this week, 2GB reported.

The definition runs for a lengthy 78 words includes the phrase: 'The Department of Health does not adopt a single definition'.

Health secretary Dr Brendan Murphy (pictured) stumbled over his words when he was asked to define a woman by Liberal Senator Alex Antic during Senate Estimates in April

Dr Murphy had remained silent on the topic since the hearing before finally giving his definition through a statement released by the Department of Health on Friday (stock image)

'The frameworks adopted to define a person's gender include chromosomal makeup... the gender assigned at birth and the gender with which a person identifies,' the statement reads.

THE AUSTRALIAN DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH DEFINITION OF 'WOMAN' The frameworks adopted to define a person's gender include chromosomal makeup, the gender assigned at birth, and the gender with which a person identifies. The Department of Health does not adopt a single definition. Health policies and access to health programs are based on clinical evidence and clinical need for all Australians, regardless of gender identity, biological characteristics, or genetic variations. Our programs are designed to be inclusive and to provide better health and wellbeing for all Australians. Advertisement

'Health policies and access to health programs are based on clinical evidence and clinical need for all Australians. That is regardless of gender identity, biological characteristics, or genetic variations'.

'Our programs are designed to be inclusive and to provide better health and wellbeing for all Australians'.

Mr Antic called the response 'absolute drivel'.

The Liberal senator had initially asked for the definition of a woman and posed the question to several Department of Health bosses before the room fell silent.

'Can someone please provide me with what a definition of a woman is?' he asked.

'Department of Health - (what is the) definition of a man, definition of a woman, anyone? Basic stuff.'

He then directed the question to Dr Murphy, who laughed as he struggled to find the right words.

'I think there are a variety of definitions,' he said.

Mr Antic then requested a simple answer.

'Perhaps to give a more fulsome answer, we should take that on notice.'

Mr Antic then questioned why the health secretary needed to take notice on such a simple question.

'It's a very ... uh ... it's a very contested space at the moment,' Dr Murphy continued.

Liberal Senator Alex Antic asked the Australian Department of Health for the definition of a woman in April

'There are definitions in how people identify themselves, so we are happy to provide our working definitions on those.'

The Senator labelled his response 'hilarious' and said it was 'the best thing I've seen thus far' in the hearings.

The Senator speculated whether authorities were afraid to provide a definition for fear they may offend some people and cop backlash.

'People who five years ago would have been quite comfortable answering a simple question now seem to almost look over their shoulder and wonder who's coming for them. It's extraordinary,' he added.

Mr Antic said he was looking forward to hearing back what the health department's definition was, while 2GB host Ben Fordham said his primary school aged children could have easily answered the question.

'I've got kids in primary school I'm pretty sure if I asked them tonight they'd know the answer, but anyway, apparently our health secretary needs a month to come up with an answer,' the radio presenter said.
Massachusetts' highest court ruled the descendant of two enslaved African Americans whose images were used by a Harvard professor to promote racist theories can sue the school for emotional distress.

The state's Supreme Judicial Court said the Ivy League school engaged in 'extreme and outrageous' conduct when it refused to consider Tamar Lanier's claim that she suffered emotional damage by the public display of her ancestors, the Boston Globe reported.

Lanier had sued the university in 2019 for ownership of the daguerreotype portraits of her great-great-great-grandfather, Renty Taylor, and his daughter, Delia.

Although the court ruled that Harvard retains ownership of the images, a unanimous 7-0 vote said Lanier could sue for negligent infliction of emotional distress.

In a joint statement with her lawyers, Ben Crump and Josh Koskoff, Lanier said that she would fight for her family's justice.

'We are gratified by the Massachusetts Supreme Court's historic ruling in Tamara Lanier's case against Harvard University for the horrible exploitation of her Black ancestors, as this ruling will give Ms. Lanier her day in court to advocate for the memory of Renty.

'It is with great pride that we continue this legal and moral battle for justice against Harvard, as we look to repair the damage and degradation that they have caused Tamara Lanier, her ancestors, and all other people of color exploited by their institution.'

The Massachusset's Supreme Court ruled Tamara Lanier, from Norwich, Connecticut, (pictured) can sue the elite Ivy League school for emotional distress as they slammed Harvard for its treatment of Lanier's complaint about her ancestor's daguerreotypes

This July 17, 2018 copy photo shows a daguerreotype of Renty Taylor, which was commissioned by a Harvard biologist whose ideas were used to support white supremacy and the enslavement of Africans in the America

The images are believed to be the earliest known photos of American slaves. Delia is photographed shirtless

RENTY AND DELIA TAYLOR: PORTRAITS OF AFRICAN- AMERICAN SLAVES Renty Taylor, of the Congo, was enslaved in the early 1800s with his daughter, Delia, at a plantation in Columbia, South Carolina. According to his descendents, Renty taught himself to read and held secret Bible readings on the plantation, as laws prohibited enslaved Africans to be literate. In 1850, Harvard biology professor Louis Agassiz arrived at the plantation in search of racially 'pure' Africans and commissioned daguerreotypes, an early type of photo. Renty was one of five men chosen, and Delia one two women, whose images were captured for the purpose of spreading Agassiz' racist claims that black people were inferior. Both were posed shirtless and photographed from several angles. According to the US Slave blogsite, documenting the daguerreotypes journey, Agassiz never reproduced the images for publication, instead filing them away. The images were rediscovered in 1976 in the attic of the Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The museum has allowed the images to be shared digitally, as the original are fragile, and are permitted to be used for academic purposes. Advertisement

Although the state Supreme Court said the university does hold the rights to the images, the justices slammed Harvard's handling of Lanier's complaint.

'Given the university's horrific, historic role in the coerced creation of the degrading daguerreotypes, once Lanier approached Harvard as a descendant of the individuals depicted in these daguerreotypes, provided documentation to that effect, and requested further information, a duty to respond to her requests with due care was triggered,' Justice Scott Kafker wrote.

'Harvard should have known that its conduct toward the plaintiff would likely result in emotional distress and that its conduct was the factual and legal cause of her distress.'

Chief Justice Kimberly Budd also condemned the Ivy League school's actions amid the school's own report that it had ties to slavery and items stolen from enslaved African Americans.

'Harvard's refusal even to discuss respectfully with Lanier her request to possess the daguerreotypes of Renty and Delia flies in the face of its aspirational report,' Budd wrote.

'It brushed her off, publicly dismissed her ancestral claim, and continued to display and profit from the daguerreotypes without Lanier's input or involvement.'

At the center of the case is a series of 1850 daguerreotypes, an early type of photo, taken of the two South Carolina slaves.

Both were posed shirtless and photographed from several angles. The images are believed to be the earliest known photos of American slaves.

They were commissioned by Harvard professor Louis Agassiz, whose theories on racial difference were used to support slavery in the U.S. through claims that Afrian's were biologically inferior.

The lawsuit says Agassiz came across the Congolese Renty and his daughter, Delia, while touring plantations in search of racially 'pure' slaves born in Africa.

'To Agassiz, Renty and Delia were nothing more than research specimens,' the suit says. 'The violence of compelling them to participate in a degrading exercise designed to prove their own subhuman status would not have occurred to him, let alone mattered.'

Harvard biologist Louis Agassiz (right), whose theories on racial difference were used to support slavery in the US, commissioned the photos of Renty and his daughter. The images were never used and were rediscovered in 1976

The images were allowed to be reproduced digitally for academic use, but the descendents of Renty argued that the rights to the pictures should be given to them

Lanier (center) plans to go forward with the lawsuit with her attorneys, famed civil rights lawyer Ben Crump (left) and Josh Koskoff (right)

Among other demands, the suit asks Harvard to acknowledge that it bears responsibility for the humiliation of Renty and Delia, and that Harvard 'was complicit in perpetuating and justifying the institution of slavery.'

A researcher at a Harvard museum rediscovered the photos in storage in 1976.

But Lanier's case argues Agassiz never legally owned the photos because he didn't have his subjects' consent and offered them no compensation, and that he didn't have the right to pass them to Harvard.

Lanier says she grew up hearing stories about Renty passed down from her mother. While enslaved in Columbia, South Carolina, the suit says, Renty taught himself to read and later held secret Bible readings on the plantation. He is described as 'small in stature but towering in the minds of those who knew him.'

The suit says Lanier has verified her genealogical ties to Renty, whom she calls 'Papa Renty.' She says he is her great-great-great-grandfather.

'My mother made sure that not only her children and her grandchildren, but everyone, knew the stories,' Lanier told The Associated Press.

Asked what she would do if given the photos, Lanier said she wants the opportunity to tell 'the true story of who Renty was.'
A New York City detective has been wounded in a daylight shooting in Brooklyn after a bullet smashed through his cruiser window.

The 26-year-old was taken to Kings County Hospital in stable condition with a shoulder injury after being involved in a shooting near Pitkin Avenue and Legion Street in Brownsville around 4.30pm on Thursday.

The cop was also transported to the hospital, both with non-life-threatening injuries.

The five-year veteran of the force was reportedly stopped at a traffic light when 'at least one round' shattered the window by a man on foot.

It is unclear if the bullet hit the officer or if he was hurt from the glass window shards.

Police said at a press coreference on Thursday evening that it appeared the gunman was not aiming for the cop, but another white car heading northbound on the street.

Two cops reportedly ran after the gunman following the shooting. The gunman is still at large and he ducked in a nearby courtyard, the NYPD assistant police chief said.

The 9mm gun was also recovered at the scene and the officer was reportedly working as a neighborhood coordination officer for the 73rd precinct.

A New York City detective was wounded in a daylight shooting in Brooklyn after a bullet smashed through his cruiser window (pictured)

Police on the scene of the shooting on Pitkin Avenue and Legion Street in Brownsville around 4.30pm on Thursday

A 9mm gun was found at the scene (pictured), but the gunman remains at large

Locals said they were wary of the shooting, but not surprised by it.

A local named Dallas told the New York Post he was playing dominos with a friend when he heard the loud gunshots ring out.

'We heard shots  about six shots. It was rapid fire,' he told the outlet. Another man said he 'hit the floor' when he heard the shots.

Both men said they saw police running after the assailant.

'A female cop and a male cop ran down the block behind him. That's what happened. The cop car was parked right at the light when it went off,' the unidentified man told the Post.

'What are you going to do? I've been in this neighborhood all my life. It's nothing new,' he said.

Dallas agreed, telling the outlet: 'It's our neighborhood. Happens all the time in this neighborhood.'

Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell called the shooting an 'outrage and unacceptable,' while Mayor Eric Adams slammed the Supreme Court for shutting down the state's gun legislation.

'Our job is going to get a harder,' he said on Thursday evening. '[There's] too many guns in the street, with too many bad people returning to our streets to do bad things to innocent people.'

'More and more, we need every arm of the criminal justice system to participate in this fight and we feel as though it's not,' he bluntly said about the Supreme Court.

NYC Mayor Eric Adams (pictured) said there are 'too many guns on the streets' and vowed not to 'surrender our streets to violence'

He also said the gunman had 'no regard for the innocent people of this community,' and the officers are lucky to be suffering from minor injuries.

The mayor also highlighted an ongoing trend he is seeing in the hospitals after officers are injured of relatives being retired members of the force.

'There are a generation of families that are the good guys and we're finding ourselves fighting the bad guys,' Adams said. 'We are not going to surrender our streets to violence.'

Paul Digiacomo, the president of the Detectives' Endowment Association (DEA) called for a Special Firearm Prosecutor and said he's been asking the NY Governor for 'two years now' to do it, as the state - especially the city - deals with an ongoing gun problem.

Patrick Lynch, the president of the Police Benevolent Association, also spoke at the press conference, calling the situation a 'crisis.'

'We're in a crisis now,' he began. 'This crisis didn't start this summer, this crisis started a number of years ago...we're all together, realizing there's a crisis.

'We need the city council, the assembly, the senate, and the governor's office to realize we're in a crisis, and give us the tools and support that we need to do the job,' He said. 'Change and reform the laws that they took away from us.'

The press conference was heavily weighed down by the Supreme Court's decision to strike down New York's 108-year gun law that that severely restricted licenses to carry a concealed weapon.

The 6-3 ruling on Thursday reversed a lower court's opinion, which had upheld the 108-year-old New York law restricting licenses to carry concealed weapons in public only to those demonstrating 'proper cause'.

Justice Clarence Thomas delivered the majority opinion, writing that the New York law prevented law-abiding citizens from exercising their Second Amendment rights.

Overall crime is up 38 percent in NYC, despite shooting victims being down 8.1 percent

New York is not alone in severely limiting who can get a license to carry concealed in public, and the new ruling will likely make it easier to legally carry a gun in major cities including Los Angeles, Boston and Baltimore.

The court decision came shortly before the Senate voted to advance a bipartisan gun-control bill, in what could be the first new federal gun legislation in decades.

Adams - who himself has a concealed carry permit and was elected on a platform of cracking down on crime -- said that the ruling 'will put New Yorkers at further risk of gun violence.'

'We have been preparing for this decision and will continue to do everything possible to work with our federal, state, and local partners to protect our city,' Adams wrote in a tweet.

'Today's Supreme Court decision may have opened an additional river that is going to feed the sea of gun violence in our city and in our nation,' Adams added at a press conference.

Adams insisted that despite the ruling, 'nothing changes today' and that the city would be reviewing its procedures to ensure that only those who are 'fully qualified' can obtain a concealed carry permit.

The 6-3 ruling on Thursday came along ideological lines, with the court's conservative majority all voting in favor of striking down the New York law

'We cannot allow New York to become the wild, wild West. That is unacceptable,' said Adams.

Adams said the city has and will continue efforts to mitigate risks of gun violence in the city, including reviewing license application processes and defining 'sensitive locations' where guns are banned.

New York City's police commissioner, Keechant Sewell, said the ruling did not change the facts on the ground, at least immediately.

'If you carry a gun illegally in New York City, you will be arrested,' she said.
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Johnny Depp's lawyer, Camille Vasquez, flashed a big smile for cameras as she was spotted in New York City on Tuesday.

Vasquez, 37, who has gained a celebrity status of her own since she defended Depp, 59, to victory in the blockbuster defamation trial against Amber Heard, 36, was seen stepping out of a black SUV and entering the UBS building in Midtown Manhattan for a meeting.

Vasquez was all smiles as a member of her security opened the car door for her, and held her hand as she stepped out onto the sidewalk.

It comes the day before Depp's team and Amber Heard's lawyers sit down to thrash out the final details of his $8million defamation win against the actress.

Johnny Depp's lawyer, Camille Vasquez, flashed a big smile for cameras as she was spotted in New York City on Tuesday

Vasquez sported a pin-striped, double-breasted black blazer over a white blouse, and a sash tied around her neck

On her feet she wore a pair of black high-heels with a row of studs along the tops of the toes

Vasquez sported a pin-striped, double-breasted black blazer over a white blouse, and a sash tied around her neck. She wore a pair of black straight-leg suit-pants that draped low over her ankles.

On her feet she wore a pair of black high-heels with a row of studs along the tops of the toes. On top of it all she wore her long brown hair parted down the middle in her signature wavy curls.

Meanwhile on her arm was draped a white patterned handbag, and on her wrist a simple golden bracelet.

She wore a pair of black straight-leg suit-pants that draped low over her ankles, atop black high-heels

Her bodyguard accompanying her wore a magnificent mullet and mustache, and kept an umbrella at the ready amidst the overcast day

She strode confidently across the sidewalk, looking back at photographers and waving and smiling as she went.

Her bodyguard accompanying her donned a mullet and mustache, and kept an umbrella at the ready amid the overcast day.

The sighting comes as the deadline for Depp and Heard to reach a settlement in their defamation case nears. Lawyers for the celebrities will meet in court on Friday to see if a settlement can be reached.

If they can't find an agreement tomorrow, trial Judge Penney Azcarate will file the jury's June 1 verdict and Depp and Heard will have to pay each other their ordered damages.

Both celebrities were found to have defamed each other in the June verdict, but the cards fell considerably in Depp's favor.

He was awarded $10.35million in damages from Heard, while she was awarded just $2million in damages from Depp. All told, Heard was left owing Depp a whopping $8.35million.

On top of it all she wore her long brown hair parted down the middle in her signature wavy curls

On her arm she carried a white patterned handbag, and on her wrist a simple golden bracelet

Heard later admitted through her lawyer that she couldn't afford those millions in damages, and a day after the verdict her representation said that she would appeal the verdict.

Her tune on the matter has been mixed since then, however, with reports swirling that she plans to write a 'tell-all' book to earn money to pay the damages.

A source close to Heard claimed she was 'broke' and not 'in a position to turn down money.'

They said she 'considers her career in Hollywood over' and 'has nothing to lose' following a disastrous few months.

Vasquez was seen stepping out of a black SUV and entering the UBS building in Midtown Manhattan for a meeting

Vasquez, who has gained a celebrity status of her own since she defended Depp to victory in the blockbuster defamation trial against Amber Heard

An attorney for Depp, Benjamin Chew, indicated that there could be a settlement option on the table.

Speaking on Good Morning America earlier this month, Chew said that Depp might agree to waive the damages against Heard in return for her not appealing the case.

'We obviously can't disclose any attorney-client communications, but as Mr. Depp testified, and as we both made clear in our respective closings, this was never about money for Mr. Depp,' said Chew.

'This was about restoring his reputation, and he's done that.'
An apocalyptic 'cult' led by an eccentric misogynist accused of sexual abuse of young men has taken over a division of Google, a whistleblower has claimed.

Kevin Lloyd, 34, claims that he was fired from his job as a video developer at Google last year because he began questioning the influence of the cult.

In August, Lloyd filed a discrimination case in California Superior Court, alleging he was fired for digging into Fellowship of Friends - a group based in the small Californian town of Oregon House, and whose members made up a large percentage of employees in his division.

'Plaintiff's preliminary research into Oregon House and the Fellowship of Friends described the Fellowship as a destructive cult, with a pedophilic leader who makes false prophecies about the end of the world,' the lawsuit claims.

'Plaintiff became alarmed that Google was involved with and/or financially supporting such an organization.'

Earlier this month, Lloyd wrote a lengthy description of his case on Medium, and spoke to The New York Times - who corroborated many of the lawsuit's claims through interviews with eight current and former employees of the Google business unit.

Kevin Lloyd, 34, claims he lost his job at Google because he raised concerns about how many people within the Google Developer Studio were affiliated with Fellowship of Friends

Google's campus in Mountain View is 180 miles from the small town of Oregon House, population 1,250 - yet half of the people Lloyd met were from Oregon House, he said

Lloyd said he began work at Google in 2017, as part of Google Developer Studio (GDS) - the tech giant's internal production company, making adverts and video content.

He said it slowly dawned on him that many of the people he met at GDS were from the same small Californian town, 180 miles north of Google's Silicon Valley home, in Mountain View.

The town of Oregon House is home to 1,250 people, and yet Lloyd said he realized that half of the 25 people he met at GDS were from the same town.

Lloyd said he noticed that many of the outside vendors, such as caterers and entertainers at corporate events, were also from Oregon House.

In 2018, Lloyd said, he was speaking to a freelancer who was working with them that day, and was from a town near Oregon House.

Lloyd recalls the freelancer telling him: 'Oregon House isn't a town. It's a cult.'

He began investigating the freelancer's claim, and said he was shocked by what he found.

'There are online support groups for former Fellowship of Friends members to help them process the trauma endured during their membership, as well as problems that arise after leaving,' Lloyd's lawsuit states.

Fellowship of Friends, which is based in Oregon House, was founded in 1970 by Robert Earl Burton, a former school teacher in the San Francisco Bay area.

'From its inception the vision of the Fellowship was, and remains, to establish a practical spiritual organization and to make it available to anyone interested in pursuing the spiritual work of awakening,' they state on their website.

Robert Earl Burton, now believed to be around 83, founded Fellowship of Friends in 1970. He has been accused in multiple lawsuits of sexual abuse

Burton is seen with a European artwork purchased with the organization's cash. Members must give 10 percent of their earnings to the group

Burton, believed to be now aged in his early 80s, sought to create a center celebrating the fine arts - with opera, ballet, works of art and literature the focus.

He based his organization in Oregon House, and created a winery where his devotees worked, when not studying the arts.

Google even purchased wine, the lawsuit claims, from the Grant Marie Winery, an allegedly cult-affiliated vineyard run by a Fellowship member in Oregon House.

But critics claimed that he had sexually abused new members of his group - in particular young boys.

In 1984 a former member filed a $2.75 million lawsuit claiming that young men who joined the organization 'had been forcefully and unlawfully sexually seduced by Burton,' according to documents obtained by The New York Times.

In 1996, another former member accused Burton in a law suit of sexual misconduct with him while he was minor. Both suits were settled out of court.

Some accusers, Lloyd alleged, had been flown to the country under false pretenses and then abused.

Members of Fellowship of Friends are seen with Burton (left, in pale blue suit) holding a meeting

What is Fellowship of Friends? Founded on January 1, 1970 by San Francisco school teacher Robert Earl Burton, Fellowship of Friends is a non-profit religious organization, headquartered in Oregon House, California. Burton based his faith system on a philosophy called the Fourth Way, founded by an Armenian philosopher and mystic, George Gurdjieff, who lived from 1866 to 1949. Burton adopted Gurdjieff's believe that people are in a hypnotic 'waking sleep', and need to work on themselves through studying art, music and literature. He named his 1,200-acre headquarters Apollo, and his 1,800 followers gave 10 percent of their earnings to the organization - which spent the money on art, fine wine and culture. Critics have filed lawsuits claiming sexual abuse. Advertisement

Other critics said that the group was strongly anti-women, and celebrated white European men above all.

In September, investigative journalist Jennings Brown published a six-part podcast produced for Spotify, entitled Revelations.

Brown had spent three years from 2018 digging into the group, and documented allegations of sexual abuse in what he termed a 'doomsday cult'.

Lloyd said he was aghast that GDS was so strongly linked to the Fellowship, with GDS's director, Peter Lubbers, described as a longtime member of the group, who joined shortly after he moved to the U.S. from the Netherlands.

Lubbers introduced a video producer named Gabe Pannell to the Fellowship: Pannell was pictured with Burton in 2015, and described as a 'new student', The New York Times report.

Lloyd's lawsuit states: 'Mr Lubbers gained status and praise relative to the increase of money flowing to the Fellowship through his efforts at Google that put (and kept) other Fellowship members  directly or indirectly  on Google's payroll.'

Lubbers insisted faith had nothing to do with his hiring.

'My personal religious beliefs are a deeply held private matter,' Lubbers told The New York Times.

'In all my years in tech, they have never played a role in hiring. I have always performed my role by bringing in the right talent for the situation  bringing in the right vendors for the jobs.'

Pannell told the paper that those hired were brought in from 'a circle of trusted friends and families with extremely qualified backgrounds'.

Lloyd, in his Medium post - which does not name Lubbers or Pannell - said that anxiety about the Fellowship, and its reputation, sparked a panic attack, for which he was admitted to ER.

He said in his court documents that he worried events he produced 'could somehow be used to funnel money back into the Fellowship of Friends.'

Burton is seen in a 1981 photo at Oregon House. In 1984, a former member filed a $2.75 million lawsuit claiming that young men who joined the organization 'had been forcefully and unlawfully sexually seduced by Burton,' according to documents obtained by The New York Times. The suit was settled out of court

Fired in February 2021, he has retained a lawyer who previously represented a woman at Lubbers' previous company, Kelly Services, and sued in 2008 in a similar case.

Lynn Noyes claimed that Kelly Services had failed to promote her because she was not a member of the Fellowship.

A California court awarded her $6.5 million in damages.

'Anyone outside of the Fellowship is seen as somehow inferior and at times adversarial,' Lloyd's lawsuit says.

'Those that express serious concerns, criticism or question the group may be eventually perceived as enemies.'

Google told The New York Times that they were barred by law from inquiring about someone's religious practices during the hiring process.

'We have longstanding employee and supplier policies in place to prevent discrimination and conflicts of interest, and we take those seriously,' a Google spokeswoman, Courtenay Mencini, said in a statement.

'It's against the law to ask for the religious affiliations of those who work for us or for our suppliers, but we'll of course thoroughly look into these allegations for any irregularities or improper contracting practices.

'If we find evidence of policy violations, we will take action.'

Fellowship of Friends was approached for comment.
Commonwealth Secretary General Baroness Scotland faces losing her job in a vote by member nations today.

Sources indicated the former Labour attorney general  nicknamed Baroness Brazen following a series of scandals  will be voted out, making her the first secretary general not to be re-elected for a second term.

They said she had failed to provide effective and unified leadership ahead of the vote at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Rwanda.

Commonwealth Secretary General Baroness Scotland faces losing her job in a vote by member nations today

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told MPs on Tuesday that the UK supports Mrs Johnson Smith

She will be competing for the role against the Jamaican foreign minister Kamina Johnson Smith.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told MPs on Tuesday that the UK supports Mrs Johnson Smith.

Mrs Johnson Smith has rejected claims that she is being used as a puppet by the British Government in a power struggle for the leadership of the Commonwealth. She welcomed Boris Johnsons backing, but told The Times that any suggestion that she was as much a proxy candidate for the UK as Jamaicas choice was offensive.

Baroness Scotland has been accused of withholding a report on the financing of the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth secretariat, the body which she leads, received the review containing recommendations on its future funding earlier this month.

It followed a decision by the Commonwealths biggest funders to temporarily reduce support in 2020 following allegations of cronyism. A Commonwealth spokesman denied that publication of the report was deliberately delayed until after the leadership vote.
Preparations for 5th CIIE in steady progress

09:15, June 24, 2022 By Qiu Haifeng ( People's Daily

The 5th China International Import Expo (CIIE) is expected to be held as scheduled from Nov. 5 to 10 in Shanghai. Preparations for the trade fair are in steady progress despite the impacts of COVID-19.

Photo taken on July 18 shows a bird's-eye view of the Lin-gang Special Area of China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone. (People's Daily Online/Wang Chu)

According to statistics released by China's Ministry of Commerce, the contracted area has exceeded 75 percent of the planned exhibition area, and more than 250 Fortune 500 companies and leading enterprises have confirmed their participation in the event.

The CIIE has moved a number of its promotional activities online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and they received enthusiastic responses from enterprises.

Since April, nearly 30 online promotional activities have been held to promote the 5th CIIE and to introduce the different exhibition areas.

An Argentina-oriented promotional event of the 5th CIIE was recently held. It was attended by representatives from more than 100 Argentine companies.

Due to the enormous opportunities brought about by Chinas growth, Argentina has seen more diversified and higher-value-added exports to China, said Guillermo Merediz, secretary of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurs at the Ministry of Productive Development of Argentina.

During the past four editions of the CIIE, Argentine companies, including many SMEs, had been expanding their exhibition space. Displaying specialties from their country, such as beef, wine, fruits, and dairy products, they reached a great number of deals.

According to Merediz, 452 SMEs in Argentina exported $1.296 billion worth of products to China in 2021, up 18 percent year on year. He said the Argentine Ministry of Productive Development is currently planning to implement an agenda that provides financial support to its SMEs so as to boost their exports to China and strengthen connections with Chinese cities.

The CIIE Bureau recently released several favorable measures to help exhibitors of the 5th CIIEs business exhibition overcome difficulties in production and operation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors.

Exhibitors that set up their own booths will be entitled to a 300-yuan subsidy for each square meter of their exhibition space, and the registration deadline for the 5th CIIE has also been extended till July 31, 2022.

Vietnamese hosts introduce Vietnamese coffee on a livestream platform to Chinese consumers at the Hongqiao Import Commodity Exhibition and Trade Center in Shanghai, Jan. 10, 2022. People's Daily Online/Wang Chu)

The 5th CIIE will provide two-way information disclosure for purchasers and exhibitors for the first time. At present, over 50 exhibits or services have their information published, and more than 400,000 purchasers who took part in the previous four CIIEs have received precisely targeted exhibit information via email and instant message.

Preparations for country exhibitions are also in smooth progress, with many countries having confirmed their participation in the event. Preparations for the Hongqiao Forum, cultural exchange activities, and on-site service guarantee are also underway.

Liu Guoping, chairman of ORIX China, noted that the multinational financial group has witnessed the development of China and the increasing attraction of the Chinese market. ORIX officially joined the CIIE in 2020 when non-bank financial institutions were included for the first time in the finance section of the event. Ever since, the group has experienced accelerated development in China.

All businesses of ORIX have achieved steady growth in the Chinese market. We are always optimistic about the market and will keep working in it, Liu said.

At the 1st CIIE, exhibitors established the CIIE Exhibitors Alliance. As the rotating chair of the alliance, LOreal, the worlds largest cosmetics and beauty company, recently announced that it has founded its first investment company in Shanghai, becoming the first Fortune 500 company in Shanghai to invest in China after the city has recovered from the latest COVID-19 resurgence.

The CIIE, China International Consumer Products Expo and other platforms are a signal of Chinas expanding opening up, and further release the consumption potential of the Chinese market, said Fabrice Megarbane, LOreals president for north Asia zone and chief executive officer of LOreal China. He added that LOreal is benefiting from the opportunities brought by such platforms and their expanding spillover effect.

A promotional event for the commercial vehicle section of the 5th China International Import Expo (CIIE) is held online on June 8, 2022. Daimler Trucks and Buses (China) Ltd. signed an agreement with the CIIE Bureau to participate in the 5th CIIE during the event. (Photo from the official website of the CIIE)

China is the largest market of the groups seven major brands, and is likely to become the largest market globally for the entire group in the future, Megarbane said.

He told Peoples Daily that LOreal is a witness to Chinas development and opening up, and it shares Chinese opportunities through the CIIE. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the group is always optimistic about Shanghai and Chinas economy, he said.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
The SLS rocket is heading for space soon.

NASA recently announced that the fourth wet dress rehearsal is the last and that the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket will soon be prepped for launch in August.

The SLS rocket went through three failed wet dress rehearsals due to leaks and faulty valves. It was only until the SLS received repairs that the fourth test succeeded, with some minor imperfections.

Artemis I Launch Details

NASA mentioned in a blog post that the SLS' fourth wet dress rehearsal is a success, with the previously noted errors being corrected after it underwent repairs in the space agency's vehicle assembly building (VAB).

The rocket was unable to complete the first three wet dress rehearsals due to a liquid nitrogen leak at the service mast umbilical and a faulty interim cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS) gaseous helium system check valve and support hardware.

The space agency validated the test's success through the authentication of the timelines and procedures for the mock launch, such as lading propellant into the rocket's tanks, performing the launch countdown through the handover to the automated launch sequencer, and draining the tanks again.

After determining that Artemis I's SLS rocket is ready for its first unmanned mission, NASA mentioned that the rocket and its Orion spacecraft will be sent back to the VAB to prepare both of them for their first unmanned launch.

NASA mentioned that a hydrogen leak was detected during the fourth wet dress rehearsal and that it needs to be repaired for a seamless launch.

Read More: eBay Acquires NFT Marrketplace Known origin, For Tech-led Reimagination

Additionally, the space agency revealed that it would set a specific target launch date in late August.

This specific launch date could be revealed in the upcoming media teleconference NASA will hold on June 24 at 11 AM EDT, wherein it will discuss the next steps for the Artemis I mission.

The space agency will also discuss the rocket and spacecraft's return to the VAB, the repair work for the hydrogen leak, and the mission's launch plans, according to Space.com.

Tom Whitmeyer, NASA Headquarter's deputy associate administrator for Common Exploration Systems Development, Phil Weber, NASA Kennedy's senior technical integration manager for its Exploration Ground Systems Program, and John Blevins, the chief engineer of the Space Launch System Program for NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, will be in attendance for the media teleconference.

Cliff Lanham, NASA Kennedy's senior vehicle operations manager for its Exploration Ground Systems Program, will also be present.

Interested people can watch or listen to the teleconference on a livestream broadcast on NASA's website on that day.

Artemis Mission Details

The Artemis mission is set to take humanity back to the moon, with it being the mission to put the first woman and first person of color to the surface of the moon, per NASA's Artemis webpage.

The Artemis missions also aim to establish a base camp on the moon that includes a modern lunar cabin, a rover, and a mobile home to serve as astronauts' base of operations to conduct scientific and astronomical experiments and discoveries.

Related Article: NASA's Artemis I Completes Wet Dress Rehearsal  Will it Proceed To Launch?
New Covid-19 subvariants have led to rising case numbers and hospitalisations from the virus, prompting fresh warnings from experts.

The BA.2 strain of Omicron is still the most dominant in Australia, but an increasing number of infections are of the BA.4 or BA.5 strain - which is on the rise in the UK and the US.

The new strains have been shown to lead to re-infection of those who previously recovered from Covid.

'We are seeing reinfection, we know that Omicron, having had a previous dose of one of the other variants of Covid-19, did escape that immune protection from both a previous dose and from only two doses of vaccine,' Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly told Sky News.

'Sub-variants of Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 have now become the dominant strain in the UK (and are) growing particularly on the east coast of Australia.'

Experts are renewing calls for people to get their Covid-19 booster dose in the wake of rising infections and hospitalisations for new strains of Omicron (pictured, a woman is vaccinated in Melbourne)

Only 70 per cent of the eligible population has received their Covid-19 booster dose (pictured, women in Melbourne)

But while the variants are more transmissible, there has not been any uptick in the severity of the disease, the chief medical officer said.

'We will see reinfections over the coming weeks and months, unfortunately with that one, but what we're not seeing is a large increase in severe disease,' he said.

'That's really due to the vaccine protection which can be boosted with a third and fourth dose.'

Treatments and the availability of COVID-19 antivirals have also aided in the response to serious cases of the virus, Prof Kelly said.

Australia's Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly says there are continuing reinfections from the Omicron variant that are escaping immune responses bolstered by vaccinations

Epidemiologists are also warning of a rise in reinfection and people developing severe bouts of the disease.

Deakin University epidemiology chairwoman Catherine Bennett said the broader community would be at greater risk of infection in weeks to come.

'We are seeing what we feared might happen, particularly the convergence of a troubling flu season after having had a couple of years of respite,' she told Sky News on Thursday.

'With COVID, we're also seeing the numbers stay high and that's partly because Omicron now has that possibility of having reinfection in ways we haven't seen before, particularly with these new variants.'

NSW health authorities said Omicron variants were likely to become the dominant virus strains in coming weeks, warning of a rise in infections even among those who have already had COVID-19.

Deakin University epidemiology professor Catherine Bennett warns the broader community will be at greater risk of infection in weeks to come

Professor Bennett said each new variant would be more transmissible, making it more difficult for people to avoid catching the virus when out in public.

She said some of the people who received their booster early in the rollout may have their protection from the virus starting to wane.

Only 70 per cent of the eligible population has received their booster dose.

'The message is, if you haven't had your booster, have it,' Prof Bennett said.

'It's really important that people get tested early and are made aware whether they're candidates or not for antivirals, so that might help with high infection rates.'

Victoria will lift some of its restrictions at midnight on Friday, with positive cases from Saturday able to drive a member of their household to or from education or work without leaving their vehicle.

Mandates for third vaccine doses will also be lifted for workers in education, food distribution and quarantine settings, with vaccine policies up to individual workplaces.

Opposition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston said while cases were rising in parts of the country, emergency pandemic measures across states and territories should be lifted.

'Australians really are asking their premiers and their chief ministers to let them get on with their lives,' she told Sky News.

'We actually have to learn to live with this virus, and the way to learn to live with it is to allow people to make their decisions.'
One of Sydney's most feared violent thugs and career criminals is a haunted man, paranoid of being killed every day in a revealing and bizarre new interview.

Graham 'Abo' Henry was a self-confessed bank robber and notorious standover man who admits having shot and stabbed countless people in the 1970s and 1980s.

But now 70, with seven grandchildren, Henry still worries when he starts his car and nervously scans the number plate of every car in his street.

Henry is best-known as a key figure in a crime gang run by Neddy Smith, who was convicted of drug trafficking, theft, rape, armed robbery, and murder (Pictured Henry at left with Smith)

Henry, who has survived 20 attempts on his life, is still in fighting shape at 70

Henry is best-known as a key figure in a crime gang run by Neddy Smith, who was convicted of drug trafficking, theft, rape, armed robbery and murder.

Both were immortalised in the classic 1995 miniseries Blue Murder, though Henry is the last man standing - also the title of his latest book.

'There's none left in my gang, they're all gone, either shot dead or died [from illness],' he told The Felon Show in a wild hour-long interview.

Henry, who has spoken of having psychic abilities, still relies every day on 'an awareness' that has saved him from dying in 20 attempts on his life.

'I still start my car with caution, I still look up and down the street everywhere I go and check out every number plate.'

Six of those attempts have come since Henry wrote his no-holds barred memoir in 2005, he said.

It could explain why Henry still appears in fighting shape, and is shown landing impressive combinations on a heavy punching bag in a short video on the YouTube program.

Henry is a father to three children and now has seven grandchildren (Pictured, Henry with his partner and baby during the 1970s)

Henry claimed to have 'seen my own soul' while meditating in Goulburn jail and also confessed to having summoned the ghosts of his 'enemies' to sit at the end of his bed

The strangest part of the interview came when Henry talked about supernatural abilities.

Henry claimed to have 'seen my own soul' while meditating in Goulburn jail and also confessed to having summoned the ghosts of his 'enemies' to sit at the end of his bed.

He claimed he can 'call on them' and after 'a couple of weeks' the spirits come to him.

The ghosts typically only hang around 'fleetingly' but they communicate with him in that time.

During the wide-ranging interview, an unapologetic Henry talked about his violent career and how it was preceded by an abusive childhood surrounded by a traumatised family.

He claimed to have been sexually abused while locked up at the notorious Albion Street boys' prison.

Known as the Metropolitan Boys Shelter it was connected to the Sydney children's court in Surry Hills.

Henry has talked widely about his violent father, a World War II veteran and 'brutal motherf***er' who beat his one-legged mother.

He turned to crime before he was even a teenager and at 16 made a living as a pimp, organising prostitutes to work out of a van

His uncle came home from that war having been 'castrated' while being held in Japanese prisoner of war camp, Changi.

He fought his father and eventually ran away from home, sleeping rough and turned to fighting on the streets before becoming an accomplished boxer.

Henry turned to crime before he was even a teenager and at 16 made a living as a pimp, organising prostitutes to work out of a van he drove around Sydney, charging clients every time an egg timer ran out.

He did his first armed robbery at 15 to see if he 'had the nuts' and claimed to have been a 'prolific' armed robber but said he'd never done jail for any of the heists.

Despite confessing to a life of crime, Henry said he'd only spent 14 years behind bars, with six years in 1991 being his longest stint.

Henry claimed to have been sexually abused while locked up at the notorious Albion Street boys' prison and said it was a major reason he became violent

He managed to avoid jail terms for most of his violent offences because police corruption allowed him to 'pay my way out'.

The only thing he regretted was his 'silly rage' that would build up inside leading him to shoot or stab victims 'just on the spot'.

Henry believes his violent tendencies came from his upbringing at home and from the sexual abuse he suffered in the boys' prison, even though he 'blocked them out'.

He claimed to have been abused for up to eight days straight at Albion Street as a boy.
They could be any other Aussie school kids but the beaming smiles on the faces of Kopika and Tharnicaa Nadesalingam reflected a special joy at attending their first day of school.

It's the type of normalcy that is a far cry from the two years they spent with their parents Nades and Priya as the only occupants of the reopened Christmas Island detention centre.

Tharnicaa, 5, tightly grips the straps of her oversized pink school bag, which come with an attached toy pink unicorn while Kopika, 7, stands straight showing off her impressive hair plaits in a pic tweeted by Seven News journalist Ebony Abblitt.

Tharnicaa, five, and Nadesalingam, seven, are all smiles on their first day at school in the Queensland town of Biloela in another sign the family is beginning to enjoy a normal life after their high-profile four-year battle against being deported to Sri Lanka

'And they loved it' replied an account run by family friend and local social worker Angela Fredericks, who has led the fight to let the family stay.

The might have many more years of schooling ahead of them if their mother gets her way.

I hope they go to study, they go to university  I hope their future is [to become] doctors, she told The Guardian after the family returned to the outback Queensland town of Biloela.

The photo is another sign the Nadesalingams are beginning to enjoy a typical Australian family life that for so long seemed out of reach as they and their advocates fought a protracted and dramatic four-year battle to stay in the country.

Tharnicaa's fifth birthday welcomed the family back to Biloela and here she is seen adjusting her outfit watched by her parents Priya (left) and Nades (right)

The girls are attending a private Christian denomination school in Biloela after the Albanese Government granted their parents Nades and Priya a bridging visa.

They were welcomed back to the Queensland outback town of Biloela with a fifth birthday party for Tharnicaa on June 12.

That balloon-festooned occasion saw the girls dressed in pink dresses and wearing tiaras while cutting into huge pink-iced cakes, one of which had a koala on it symbolising their hope to stay in Australia permanently.

This 2019 photo shows the Nadesalingams thanking their supporters after they were sent to the Christmas Island detention centre where they spent two years fighting deportation

Ms Fredericks said the family was 'getting more and more relaxed each day' and were 'so incredibly grateful' for the love and support they were receiving from the Biloela community.

Priya and Nades met in Australia after arriving by boat in Australia as asylum seekers fleeing the civil war in Sri Lanka and they married in 2014.

Both their girls were born in Australia.

They were granted a bridging visa and settled in Biloela but were denied refugee status and in March 2018, the Morrison Government attempted to deport them and they were sent to a Melbourne detention centre.

This led to a high-profile campaign to let the family stay in Australia with a series of legal battles that often polarised public opinion.

An 11th-hour court injunction saw the plane that was meant to take them back to Sri Lanka ordered to land in Darwin in August 2019.

The family then spent two years in the Christmas Island detention centre, which was reopened solely for them.

Tharnicaa was forced to spend her fourth birthday in Perth Children's Hospital after being medically evacuated from Christmas Island to be treated for sepsis caused by untreated pneumonia.

After that they were moved to community detention in Perth before they were given bridging visas by the Albanese Government in one of its first acts in coming to power.

The family are seeking permanent residency, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese seeing 'no impediment' to it being granted.

Earlier this month conservative commentator Peta Credlin said in an opinion column that the family should have returned to Sri Lanka after they lost a High Court challenge against deportation, and that being allowed to stay in Australia would encourage more arrivals from countries such as Sri Lanka.
The Prince of Wales was told to 'keep his oar out' of politics today as the Tories intensified their attacks on the heir to the throne over his opposition to its Rwanda migrant programme.

Ahead of a meeting between Charles and Boris Johnson in Kigali today the backbencher suggested the future king emulate his mother the Queen and keep a dignified silence.

It came as the Prime Minister urged Charles to keep an 'open mind' about the Rwanda asylum plan.

The Prime Minister said he was ready to defend his 120million policy after Charles was reported to have privately criticised it as 'appalling'.

Clarence House is understood to be unhappy that public debate over Charles's remarks about Britain's policy of removing asylum seekers to Rwanda is overshadowing his well-received trip to the East African nation.

Speaking to LBC radio from a by-election in Wakefield today Ms Jenkyns said: 'He certainly needs to learn a lot from our fantastic Queen and keep his oar out, most definitely.'

Ahead of a meeting between Charles and Boris Johnson in Kigali today Ms Jenkyns suggested the future king emulate his mother the Queen and keep a dignified silence.

It came as the Prime Minister urged Charles to keep an 'open mind' about the Rwanda asylum plan.

Clarence House is understood to be unhappy that public debate over Charles's remarks about Britain's policy of removing asylum seekers to Rwanda is overshadowing his well-received trip to the East African nation.

The prince and Mr Johnson are in Rwanda for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). Mr Johnson suggested yesterday he would make a point about the migration policy's 'obvious merits' when he met Charles over a cup of tea this morning.

He said: 'I am delighted that Prince Charles and everybody is here today to see a country that has undergone a complete, or a very substantial transformation.'

Mr Johnson told ITV: 'People need to keep an open mind about the (Rwanda) policy, the critics need to keep an open mind about the policy. A lot of people can see its obvious merits. So yeah, of course, if I am seeing the prince tomorrow, I am going to be making that point.'

It was revealed earlier this month that Charles had been overheard describing the Rwanda scheme as 'appalling'. Last week Mr Johnson dismissed criticism of the policy from 'slightly unexpected quarters' in an apparent dig at the prince and Church of England bishops, who attacked it as 'immoral'.

The three topics on the agenda for the PM's meeting with Charles are sustainability, youth, and the history and values of the Commonwealth and Charles's passion for it. Royal sources said it was 'unlikely' the two men would discuss the Rwanda scheme.

Downing Street later repeated the same line in what appeared to be a co-ordinated attempt to play down the prospects of a showdown between the PM and the prince, but a spokesman did not rule out the possibility of Mr Johnson raising it.

Defending the policy during a school visit in Kigali, Mr Johnson said: 'This is a plan that I think is absolutely necessary and right to fix the problem of illegal cross-Channel trafficking of people whose lives are being put at risk by the gangs.

'You have to break the business model of the gangs  it is totally the right thing to do.

'What people need to understand, what the critics of the policy need to understand  and I have seen loads and loads of criticism  is that Rwanda has undergone an absolute transformation in the last couple of decades.'

He said the UK and Rwanda had done an 'immense amount of due diligence on the way things work, both in the UK and in Rwanda, so that everything we do is in conformity with human rights'.

The trip to Rwanda is seen as hugely significant for Charles. He and Camilla are the first British royals to visit the country, and it is the first CHOGM he has attended since he was chosen to take over as head of the Commonwealth after the Queen.

There has been 'clear unhappiness' in the royal camp that comments by Mr Johnson on Wednesday, saying he hoped his trip to Rwanda would help others 'shed some of their condescending attitudes' toward the country, had overshadowed the prince's important day of visits focusing on the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

After meeting Rwandan president Paul Kagame yesterday, Mr Johnson said the leader 'cares passionately' about the UK's policy, having been a refugee in neighbouring Uganda.

Charles is being accompanied by the Queen's private secretary Sir Edward Young, who is the monarch's main point of contact with No 10. He is there because the Queen remains head of the Commonwealth. It is thought likely that Sir Edward has been involved in discussions behind the scenes to resolve the issue between Charles and the PM.

The first flight removing asylum seekers from Britain to Rwanda was due to take off last week, but it was grounded by successful challenges to the European Court of Human Rights ahead of a full hearing on the scheme's legality in UK courts.

The policy is one element of a 120million economic deal with Kigali, but has been widely criticised in part because of concerns about Rwanda's human rights record. Last night, a Rwandan government spokesman said Britain had paid the money in full, and some of it had been spent, making it unlikely that anything will be clawed back should the policy falter.

After meeting Rwandan president Paul Kagame yesterday, Mr Johnson said Mr Kagame 'cares passionately' about the UK's policy having been a refugee in neighbouring Uganda. Mr Kagame has been lauded for his role in ending the 1994 genocide that saw ethnic Hutu extremists slaughter 800,000 people. But his regime has since been accused of political repression, assassinations and the imprisonment of critics.
Children could be banned from buying tea and coffee to children in Wales as part of a clampdown on caffeinated drinks.

The proposal put forward by the devolved Labour government would prohibit their sale to youngsters under the age of 16.

It has been put out for consultation as part of a wider plan to end sales of energy drinks to children.

The consultation asks whether the ban should be widened to consider other drinks typically high in caffeine, such as tea and coffee.

The Welsh government is looking to ban energy drinks as part of its healthy eating and anti-obesity strategy.

However, it admits there are difficulties demonstrating links between such products and poor health outcomes.

Children could be banned from buying tea and coffee to children in Wales (stock image)

The UK government consulted on an energy drinks sales ban for under-16s in England in 2018 and announced it would enact measures the year after, but they have yet to be implemented.

That consultation made it clear that tea and coffee would remain exempt.

The Welsh consultation states energy drinks contain, on average, similar levels of caffeine to a double shot of espresso.

Under current rules all drinks except tea and coffee which contain more than 150mg of caffeine must carry a warning.

More than one in five UK retailers have imposed voluntary restrictions on energy drinks for under-16s.

Wales deputy minister for mental health, Lynne Neagle, said the consultation sought ideas on how to support the nation to be healthier.

Some energy drinks have 21 teaspoons of sugar, as many calories as a Mars bar and the same amount of caffeine as three cups of coffee.

Previous research suggests children who drink sugary energy drinks regularly are more likely to suffer headaches and sleep and mood problems.

But there have not been any similar links made between coffee or tea consumption among youngsters.

On the contrary, research suggests that coffee - without sugar - actually has a wide range of health benefits.

Between 3 and 32 per cent of children consume energy drinks on at least one day per week in the UK, figures suggest.

Last year, medics writing in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) warned of the dangers of energy drinks after a student who drank too many developed heart failure.

The 21-year-old university student spent 58 days in hospital after consuming four 500ml energy drinks every day for two years.

He was admitted to intensive care and was so ill that doctors were considering whether he needed an organ transplant.
A New York man arrested on suspicion of murdering the longtime delivery driver of a local Chinese restaurant, in a dispute over duck sauce, has managed to raise $500,000 with the intention of posting bail early next week.

Glenn Hirsch, 51, from Queens, was arrested earlier this month and charged with murder and the criminal possession of a firearm in the deadly shooting of Zhiwen Yan, 45, on April 30.

On Thursday, Glenn attended a bail hearing together with his brother, Lee, who told DailyMail.com that he had a check for half-a-million dollars ready to present to the court in a bid to secure his release while awaiting trial.

Lee Hirsch, brother to suspect Glenn Hirsch, leaves Judge Daniel Lewis' courtroom in Queens Supreme Court on Thursday having attended a bail hearing

Lee Hirsch, pictured, is said to have a check for $500,000 ready to present to the judge in a bid to have his brother released on bail

Alleged kiiler Glen Hirsch, appears for a bail hearing that was set by Judge Kenneth Holder in Queens Supreme Court earlier in June

Hirsch was charged with the shooting murder of a Chinese food deliveryman

Attorney Michael Moore representing Glenn Hirsch is pictured speaking with DailyMail.com

The hearing saw Judge Daniel Lewis setting bail conditions for Hirsch which include surrendering his passport and having an ankle monitor placed on him.

A second judge, Justice Kenneth Holder is to make a final determination on Monday on whether to release Hirsch following presentation of the bail bond.

Hirsch has nine prior arrests and while he has been in custody, a police search was conducted at the home of his wife, who he doesn't live with, during which eight guns were recovered.

Over at Hirsch's Briarwood home, cops discovered his refrigerator packed with sweet and sour duck sauce.

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 The Great Wall Chinese restaurant in Queen for more than a decade, known as the Great Wall

At Hirsch's home, cops apparently found his refrigerator packed to the gills with the Great Wall's sweet and sour duck sauce

'His whole refrigerator was filled with duck sauce,' a police source told the New York Daily News. 'And other condiments.'

'He's a hoarder. And when you open the refrigerator, it's like, condiments - there's duck sauce, soy sauce, ketchup.'

The source suggested the piles of condiments at his apartment on 141st Street were all a part of what was going on in Hirsch's brain that may have lead him to kill.

'I guess in some pathology people like that take that stuff very seriously - you didn't give him enough duck sauce,' they said.

Hirsch, who had nine prior arrests on his record, has pleaded not guilty.

Hirsch has not yet been charged with a hate crime in the case, a source of contention for some of the protesters outside Queens Supreme Court Tuesday, June 7th

Both Hirsch's mother and brother are pictured at Queens Supreme Court earlier this month

Supporters of Zhiwen Yan, who was allegedly killed by Glenn Hirsch, 51, hold a demonstration outside Queens Supreme Court

The marchers held signs suggesting police did a poor job at protecting Yan, as well as photos of the victim

The marchers held signs suggesting police did a poor job at protecting Yan, as well as photos of the victim, as well as a sign that said: 'This was a HATE CRIME. Don't ignore that.'

There were also protests against gun violence and anti-Asian discrimination.

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.

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

A witness nearby later told investigators that Hirsch fled the scene.

Police 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 his arrest after the grand jury's proceeding. However, he added that the Queens District Attorney's office 'decided not to honor my professional courtesy to bring [Hirsch] 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.

Hirsch 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.'

Michael Horn, attorney for Glenn Hirsch, spoke to DailyMail.com outside court earlier in June

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 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.'

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.'

According to a colleague of Yan's at Great Wall restaurant, pictured, Hirsch had 'multiple' disputes with the Forest Hills eatery, and pulled a gun on staffers last January

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 was created by Kunying Zhao - Yan's wife.

'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 $216,194 as of Thursday night.
Terrorists could hijack remote cars and use them as weapons while 'maintaining emotional distance from their victims', the Law Commission has warned.

The Law Commission of England and Wales has published a paper on how vehicles on public roads could be controlled by an individual who is potentially several miles away.

Remote driving technology is already in use for moving vehicles in controlled environments such as warehouses, farms and mines.

The commission said: 'An allied concern is that a driver might find it easier to use a vehicle as a terrorist weapon if they are remote.

'This is because they would not be involved in the crash and would be able to maintain some emotional distance from their victims.'

The paper highlights safety challenges such as the consequences of connectivity between driver and vehicle being lost, how drivers can be aware of a vehicle's surroundings, and how unauthorised takeover of vehicles can be prevented.

Remote driving technology is already in use for moving vehicles in controlled environments such as warehouses

The commission said cyber security of remote vehicles was 'of acute public concern', The Telegraph reports.

Under current road traffic law, there is no express legal requirement for a driver to be within their vehicle, but a number of regulations are 'problematic' to remote driving, according to the commission.

The Department for Transport asked the commission to review the legal status of remote driving.

Public Law Commissioner Nicholas Paines QC said: 'Remote driving technology is already capable of being used on our roads.

'We hope our issues paper can contribute to a healthy debate about the appropriate regulation of this technology and what can be done to maximise protection of road users while encouraging innovation.

Bond drives a remote-controlled BMW in the film Tomorrow Never Dies

'We look forward to hearing views on the challenges and possible ways to solve them.'

Jack Cousens, head of roads policy for the AA, said remote driving 'could see the novelty of controlling a child's toy evolve into a legal form of transport'.

He went on: 'James Bond gave the world a peek into the future in 1997. The real world has finally caught up with those silver screen ambitions.'

Bond drives a remote-controlled BMW in the film Tomorrow Never Dies. Mr Cousens added: 'While trials of remote driving are currently under way in Milton Keynes, extending the capability to potentially allow all drivers to sit miles away and 'drive' a car will need extensive testing, tough regulation and a conversation that brings the public along for the journey.

'While not wishing to stand in the way of progress, most drivers just want the basics solved, such as keeping roads pothole-free.'
Furious citizens have slammed a Sydney council after it revealed plans to introduce a 40km/h speed limit on all its roads.

The Inner West Council claims that the speed limit would improve road safety, particularly near schools.

It would be the first such move to affect an entire local government area - Inner West has 186,000 residents and sits in the heart of Sydney.

The speed limit would mean drivers using arterial roads through the area would slow to a crawl.

The limits would mean drivers doing just 60km/h would be fined $481 and lose four points from their licenses.

Anti-car councillor Pauline Lockie is behind the plan, with her motion receiving unanimous support at council last week.

Councillor Pauline Lockie is behind a plan to impose 40km/h speed limits in Sydney's Inner West

The local government area is in the heart of Sydney - meaning drivers using arterial roads through Inner West would slow to a crawl

Ms Lockie was one of the leaders in the campaign to stop one of Sydney's biggest infrastructure projects in the last generation, the controversial WestConnex, which has cut congestion and improved travel times, but has also been criticised for being too expensive.

In the new speed limit motion, she also proposed a clause that would see speed limits of 30km/h near schools and areas that are popular with cyclists.

The council is now asking NSW Metropolitan Roads Minister Natalie Ward to implement 40km/h limits on priority streets by the end of the year, 40km/h speed limits on the remaining local roads as soon as possible, and 30km/h limits on some streets.

However, residents reacted with fury after Ms Lockie shared the plans on Facebook.

'This is insanity. 40kph is already too slow  maybe defensible past schools during school start/finish but 30kph?!? Have we lost our minds.

'Why not just literally wrap ourselves in cotton wool to minimise impact damage rather than just metaphorically,' said one man.

'Great - let's block up the inner west even more and make it even harder to get around, what a joke,' said another.

'May as well make it a no car zone, complained a third. 'Walking only muppet.'

She also proposed a clause that would see speed limits of 30km/h near schools and areas that are popular with cyclists

The council is now asking NSW Metropolitan Roads Minister Natalie Ward to implement 40km/h limits on priority streets by the end of the year, 40km/h speed limits on the remaining local roads as soon as possible, and 30km/h limits on some streets

'Jeez everyone should wrap themselves up in cotton wool and not leave the house in case they get hurt,' said one exasperated man.

'How about keeping pedestrians off the roads? I mean seriously, we are now at 50km/h, 40km/h through school zones, is that enough,' said another.

'40 is absolutely ridiculous for any road, 100 per cent revenue raising,' said a man concerned about speeding tickets.

'I reckon all speed limits should be 5km/h then there will be no deaths at all,' was one sarcastic comment.

Only Transport for NSW can implement the speed limit changes. Ms Lockie said it has yet to make the change - although it had expressed support.

She said she was told a lack of funds for new signs was to blame for the slow progress.

Some have supported her efforts to lower the speed limit.

Residents reacted with fury after Ms Lockie shared the plans on Facebook

Bridget Foley, spokesperson for Safe-Streets-to-School Inner West told City Hub Sydney: 'Kids and parents want to be able to get to school by walking, scooting or bike riding in the Inner West, especially with their friends. To make this possible, we need safe speed limits on our streets.'

'A car travelling 30km/h and 1s reaction time will come to stop after 13 meters. A car travelling 50km/h with the same reaction time will still travel 50km/h at that point and needs another 27 meters to stop.'

WalkSydney, an organisation pushing for 30km/hr speed limits across Sydney to improve pedestrian safety, wants the council to go further.

'Research shows that a fatal injury to a pedestrian is at least twice as likely to occur in a crash at 40km/h than at 30km/h, and at slower speeds, drivers have more time to react to the unexpected' WalkSydney said.

'The international evidence is overwhelming that 30km/h speed limits are safer, make neighbourhoods more walkable and pleasant, and only marginally increase travel times.'

It comes after it was revealed that a Melbourne speed camera has locals living in fear as it collects revenue in fines totalling more than $20,000 in value each day - most to drivers who were travelling no faster than 50km/h.

A group of concerned locals, spearheaded by a Mount Eliza mother, have begun their campaign against the rogue speed camera dubbed the 'Frankston flasher'.

They claim the camera is 'out of control' and nabbing people who have done nothing wrong at the intersection of Nepean Highway and Davey Street in Frankston in Melbourne's southeastern suburbs.

The Frankston Flasher sits on the intersection of Davey Street and the Nepean Highway in Melbourne (pictured) where locals say it has been wreaking havoc since it was turned on

Maria Davoren (pictured) has taken matters into her own hands and is keeping track of the amount of money locals have been fined as a result of the camera

Some members of the group claim the camera has flashed at them when they're doing far less than the speed limit, or are even at a complete stop.

The council reduced the speed limit along the patch of the highway from 50km/h to 40km/h in order to facilitate a 'temporary outdoor dining zone' along the road in October 2021.

The camera has made more than $370,000 since it was adjusted to enforce the new limit in May. Over 830 people have added their fines to the locals' running tally.

When speed limits are changed speed cameras are turned off for a short period of time and reconfigured.

Signs informing drivers of the new speed limit were installed when the limit changed, according to the office of Victorian Road Safety Minister Ben Carroll.

Six flashing signs along the highway designed to warn drivers the 40km/h zone continues from the restaurant strip through to the Davey Street intersection have yet to be connected to power, locals claim.

The signs will be connected to power in coming weeks, according to Mr Carroll's office.

The electronic signs warning drivers they are still in a 40km/h zone (pictured) have not yet been connected to power

The camera has been indiscriminately booking commuters and celebrities alike - Real Housewives of Melbourne star Gamble Breaux was caught out by the speed camera on three different occasions

Maria Davoren, who created the group and a database of complaints against the camera, has since made media appearances to publicise her campaign.

The Mount Eliza mum wanted to make sure those in her group did not come across as 'hoons'.

'It is great that this is getting attention as our numbers grow.

'I set up the group on May 30th, since then I have tallied nearly $400,000 in fines. This figure is very conservative,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

Locals and travellers use the group to share their experiences with the Frankston Flasher.

Real Housewives of Melbourne star, Gamble Breaux, is among those to have posted in the group, claiming the camera had also flashed her three times.

'The Frankston Flasher camera is out of control, and that's coming from someone who has done 10 years of reality TV.

'I became aware of Frankston's Camera Shark ... flashing, waiting at the intersection on the opposite side of the road,' she wrote.
Three men have been arrested after allegedly using a jukebox to smuggle $20 million worth of cocaine into Australia.

The 45kg consignment from Greece was detected by Australian Border Force officers and tracked to a home at Sunshine North in Melbourne's west.

A 39-year-old Spotswood man, a 26-year-old Reservoir man, and a 66-year-old Greek foreign national were arrested by Victoria Police and Australian Federal Police officers on Tuesday.

Three men have been arrested after $20 million worth of cocaine was allegedly smuggled into Australia inside a jukebox (pictured)

Police searched the Sunshine North property as well as homes in Spotswood and Reservoir and commercial premises in Toorak and Kingsville.

Two Mercedes-Benz vehicles, a Harley Davidson motorbike, luxury watches, jewellery, clothing, drugs, and a significant amount of cash were seized.

The Spotswood and Reservoir men were each charged with importing a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug, and attempting to possess a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug.

They faced court on Wednesday and have been remanded in custody. The Greek man was released pending further inquiries.

A 39-year-old Spotswood man, a 26-year-old Reservoir man, and a 66-year-old Greek foreign national were arrested by Victoria Police and Australian Federal Police officers on Tuesday (pictured, cocaine found inside the jukebox)

AFP Detective Inspector Mark McKiernan said the men are believed to be significant members of a crime syndicate (pictured, items seized by police)

The men are believed to be significant members of a crime syndicate, AFP Detective Inspector Mark McKiernan said.

'We also know drug trafficking can lead to drug wars in our streets and in source countries, and often law-abiding citizens can be the collateral damage to that violence,' Det McKiernan said.

'Illicit drug trafficking can also bankroll other abhorrent crimes, such as human trafficking and sexual servitude.'

The arrests highlighted continued local demand for drugs, Victoria Police Acting Detective Superintendent Andrew Stamper said.

'Our aim is to ensure we disrupt the organised crime syndicates responsible for these imports, so to charge two people as well as effecting these seizures is extremely satisfying,' he said.

The arrests formed part of a four-month joint taskforce investigation into cocaine imports in Melbourne.
Ukraine could give up territory to secure peace with Russia, a senior cleric has suggested.

Rt Rev Nick Baines, Bishop of Leeds, made the claims in a paper published yesterday, writing that the overall objective of western allies 'remains unclear' and Vladimir Putin may be convinced to return land in return for easing sanctions.

He added: 'Is the aim to punish Russia or to change Russia's behaviour or even its regime?

'The lack of clarity creates ambiguity, invites mission creep and risks strategic miscalculation.'

Rt Rev Nick Baines, Bishop of Leeds, made the claims in a paper published yesterday

He also warned that 'imposing punitive measures which affect all Russians, whatever their view, risks provoking resentment and fuelling nationalism.'

In response, the Church of England said that this was not its 'view' and 'the territorial integrity of Ukraine is without question'.

A spokesman told the Telegraph: 'This is not policy. This is a discussion paper for Synod that notes potential long-term scenarios highlighted in some quarters regarding Ukraine.

'The territorial integrity of Ukraine is without question. As the paper says clearly, the long-term goal should be that Ukraine controls all its territory.'

The Church of England previously courted controversy when the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, called the UK's asylum plan to send migrants to Rwanda 'ungodly' in his Easter sermon.

The Church of England previously courted controversy when the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, called the UK's asylum plan to send migrants to Rwanda 'ungodly' in his Easter sermon

It comes as Boris Johnson warned Nato allies it would be a 'disaster' to pressure Ukraine into accepting a 'bad peace' deal that would see swathes of territory surrendered to Putin.

The Prime Minister said there is little hope of sending the Navy to rescue grain from the Russian president's blockade as he set sights on talks with Turkey to prevent famine being a consequence of the invasion.

There are concerns in Kyiv that Germany and France will push President Volodymyr Zelensky to accept a ceasefire deal that would see him concede land to Moscow.

Boris Johnson warned Nato allies it would be a 'disaster' to pressure Ukraine into accepting a 'bad peace' deal that would see swathes of territory surrendered to Putin

There are concerns in Kyiv that Germany and France will push President Volodymyr Zelensky to accept a ceasefire deal that would see him concede land to Moscow

Mr Johnson, who is at a summit of Commonwealth leaders in Rwanda before talks with G7 and Nato allies in Europe in the coming days, warned there is 'no question there is a lot of Ukraine fatigue now in the world'.

'But I think they are going to win. I know they are going to win. It is their country. They are fighting for it desperately hard,' he told reporters travelling with him in Kigali.

'But they need to be properly supported. So, my message to colleagues at the G7 and at Nato in particular is going to be now is not the time to settle and encourage the Ukrainians to settle for a bad peace, for a peace by which they are invited to give up chunks of their territory in return for a ceasefire.

'I think that would be a disaster. It would be a trigger for further escalation by Putin whenever he wanted. That would do much further economic damage to the world.'
Toyota's bZ4X electric vehicles have been called for recall to fix a wheel safety issue.

A little over one and a half months after the bZ4X electric crossover SUV was made available to the public, Toyota initiated a worldwide recall of the car.

Toyota announced on Thursday that they would be recalling their newly released EVS, bZ4X.

The recall would affect 2,700 of its first mass-produced electric cars (EVs) for the international market.

The manufacturer of the vehicle has stated that the hub bolts on the wheel have the potential to result in the entire wheel coming off.

With that, the car manufacturer is advising owners not to drive their cars until the issue has been resolved.

Toyota bZ2X EV Recall

Toyota is taking accountability by fixing the root cause and is said to be in an ongoing investigation into the loose hub bolts.

Reuters reported that Toyota bZ4X will recall 2,200 of the vehicles intended for distribution in Europe; 260 for the United States; 10 for Canada; and 110 for Japan.

The well-known car company apologized to its customers for the inconvenience it has caused.

Toyota stated, "We would have repaired it as soon as possible, but we are investigating the details."

Customers are urged to contact their Toyota authorized dealer to arrange the vehicle and pick up the customer's bZ4X for service at no additional cost.

Although it is the most recent electric vehicle (EV) to be subjected to a recall, the bZ4X appears to have one of the most serious problems given its circumstances.

The recall of the bZ4X SUVs was requested through Japan's Ministry of Transportation by the company that has the most sales of any manufacturer in the world.

A spokesperson from the company stated that there will be no recall in Japan since most of the Toyota bZ4X EVs are still in store and have not been delivered to any customers.

Currently, it is stated that the electric vehicle is intended to only be displayed and for a drive test.

The recall is a blow for the world's largest manufacturer, which has committed to spending $17.6 billion to bring out 30 battery-electric cars by 2030.

Read Also: 2023 Ford Ranger Raptor USA Release Date, Engine, Specs: Just How Powerful Is the "Most Powerful Ranger"?

Recalls of Electric Vehicles

Toyoa bZ4X is not the only electric vehicle that has been halted for a recall. Numerous car companies are also affected by their car recalls.

Other electric vehicles have also been called off the road because of a variety of software glitches and other minor problems.

Engadget also reports that Subaru is recalling around 2,600 of its Solterra EV vehicles.

The Toyota bZ4X and these electric vehicles are built on the same assembly lines at Toyota's Motomachi facility because they are functionally equivalent.

According to a spokesperson for Subaru, the majority of the automobiles were intended for dealerships, and none were sold to individual buyers in the United States.

Additionally, The Verge also reports the recall for Ford's 49,000 Mustang Mach-E SUVs.

The Mustang company argued that despite the fact that the recall was issued, the issue could be resolved with an over-the-air software update.

The recall is taking place at a time when the demand for electric vehicles is rapidly rising.

The demand is also soaring high due to the increasing price of gas all over the world.

Although manufacturing electric vehicles, whatever car company it may be, is also in a serious state of threat nowadays due to the increasing prices of lithium-ion batteries.

Related Article: Toyota Tundra 2022 Design Flaws: Users Worry About Door-Lock and Waste Gate Issues, Are These Fixed Now?
The United Australia Party's only elected politician has moaned about taking a 'pay cut' to become a senator.

Ralph Babet, who runs a Melbourne real estate business with his brother Matt, has declared he is making a 'sacrifice' by turning to politics even though he will get a $217,060 salary plus expenses.

'This is a sacrifice for me I'm doing it to serve my country,' he tweeted on Wednesday.

The United Australia Party's only elected politician has moaned about taking a 'pay cut' to become a senator

Ralph Babet, who runs a Melbourne real estate business with his brother Matt, has declared he is making a 'sacrifice'

'It's a pay cut. If you think 200k for the amount of work I will have to do and the amount of suffering I will endure is a good deal, then you're wrong.

'I'd be happier running my business. I'm doing this for Australia.'

The tweet was a response to another Twitter user who said he should give away half his salary to prove he's opposed to big government.

Mr Babet's comments received furious backlash online, with commenters calling him a 'sook', a 'grifter', and much worse.

Over his six-year term he will earn more than $1.3million, paid for by taxpayers.

The real estate agent was officially confirmed as the winner of the sixth Victorian spot, ahead of Liberal Greg Mirabella, on Monday.

Despite spending big on outdoor, digital, TV and newspaper advertising, the UAP failed to win any lower house seats and billionaire chairman Clive Palmer failed to return himself to Parliament via a Queensland senate spot.

After the election, Mr Babet deleted all his social media accounts.

Mr Babet's Twitter account shows pictures of him sipping champagne, posing next to the Australian flag and meeting supporters (above)

The real estate agent was officially confirmed as the winner of the sixth Victorian spot, ahead of Liberal Greg Mirabella, on Monday.

His new account shows pictures of him sipping champagne, posing next to the Australian flag and meeting supporters.

Before the election Mr Babet had promoted conspiracy theories including that the World Economic Forum is attempting to destroy capitalism through its Great Reset.

Mr Babet suggested the forum's boss Klaus Schwab was now effectively prime minister, writing: 'I would like to congratulate the prime minister of Australia on an excellent campaign. Well done Klaus Schwab.'

He is strongly anti lockdowns and anti vaccine mandates and has described the Greens' ideology as 'cancerous'.

The tally of the Senate's 76 seats includes 32 for the coalition, 26 for Labor, 12 for the Greens, two for both One Nation and the Jacqui Lambie Network, and one each for the United Australia Party and independent David Pocock.

Labor will need the support of the Greens and one other senator to pass laws opposed by the coalition.

Teal independent David Pocock is most likely to back the new Government and Jacqui Lambie is also open to working with Mr Albanese, meaning Mr Babet's vote is unlikely to make a difference on most laws.
A speech by the Chinese ambassador to Australia has been spectacularly disrupted by protestors objecting to his country's occupation of Tibet.

In a trainwreck speech to the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology in Sydney, Xiao Qian found his opening remarks derailed four times after protestors stood up holding pieces of paper protesting China's role in Tibet.

The first protestor, a well-dressed middle-aged man, was silent and bowed to the crowd as he was shuffled to the exit by security.

But two more female protestors yelled loudly as they drew attention to China's 'oppression' of Tibetans while many in attendance approached them taking photos and video on their phones.

Chinese ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian appeared shaken after protestors disrupted his speech to the Australia-China Relations Institute at least four time in Sydney

In all five or six protestors were removed from the room, objecting to issues from China's occupation of Tibet to its crackdown on Hong Kong's autonomy

Anti Chinese Communist Party protestor Drew Pavlou is removed from the room where the Chinese ambassador to Australia delivered his speech

The first protestor, a well-dressed middle-aged man, was silent and bowed to the crowd as he was shuffled to the exit by security

In all it's believed there were about five or six protestors removed from the room. Some are believed to have also been protesting China's crackdown on Hong Kong's autonomy while other accused the superpower of committing genocide against minority Uyghurs.

Mr Xiao appeared shaken by the protests, stopping his speech as the protestors were moved from the venue.

'Well... I think I should continue. I think I should continue,' he eventually said.

In a question-and-answer session following the ambassador's short speech, moderator James Laurenceson briefly addressed the uproar.

'It is a shame our friends are not still with us because if they hung around I feel quite confident that after this question and answer session, they too would have agreed that this discussion we are going to have is not just a series of Dorothy Dix questions,' Mr Laurenceson said.

In a question-and-answer session following the ambassador's short speech, moderator James Laurenceson (left) briefly addressed the uproar

One of the protestors was former University of Queensland student Drew Pavlou, a trenchant Australian critic of the Chinese regime.

'Representatives of the Chinese dictatorship should not be accepted by polite society,' he tweeted after the speech.

'They should not be treated with deference and respect - they represent a regime committing atrocious genocide and crimes against humanity. We will protest the Ambassador wherever he goes.'

Anti Chinese Communist Party protestor Drew Pavlou after he was arrested at a protest in May

In May Mr Pavlou was arrested for holding up a sign saying 'f*** Xi Jinping' during an anti-Communist Party rally at Eastwood in Sydney's northwest.

He also stood as a Senate candidate at the last Federal election.

The ambassador's speech continued the thawing of relations between China and Australia, which substantially deteriorated after the Morrison government called for an inquiry into the Wuhan origins of the Covid-19 virus.

Mr Xiao said China seeks 'friendship' with Australia and envisages the relationship as 'back on the right track at an early date'.

China has occupied Tibet since 1951 where it has been accused by opponents of its presence of conducting 'cultural genocide'.

Ambassador Xiao is the 15th Chinese ambassador to Australia and only assumed his role based in Canberra in January this year.
Sean Hannity didn't live up to his promise to vape on air after the risk of arrest dissolved.

On the Wednesday night edition of his Fox News show, he vowed to proudly vape his e-cig live on air in a segment discussing a possible FDA ban on Juul products.

But on Thursday night, he teased fans by unwrapping a brand new one and raised it towards his lips, yet stopped short of taking a puff.

He jokingly said he was skipping the act because the law didn't take effect until 'next Wednesday.'

'All right, that took away my desire to hit the Juul on air since they won't be coming to arrest me,' he joked. 'Darn, such a good opportunity. I know the liberal media mob is probably devastated.'

Sean Hannity (pictured on Thursday) didn't live up to his promise to vape on air after the risk of arrest dissolved as the ban doesn't go into effect until Wednesday, but he still took the opportunity to slam the Biden Administration for only regulating one company

Hannity (pictured on Wednesday) promised to vape on-air on Thursday in protest of the ban

Despite the missed opportunity to wear a bright orange jumpsuit and grace the public with a Hannity mug shot, the host didn't miss the mark on calling out his favorite president, whose administration banned the product.

'Why not raise the age, if you're concerned about kids, to 21 and make it simple like buying a beer,' he said on Thursday. 'Here comes the Biden administration with the so-called safe smoking kits with crack pipes? But somehow they want to ban this? A Juul?'

He said Biden should be focusing the 'securing the border' as he claimed that '90 percent of the heroin in this country, fentanyl, methamphetamine come into this country from our southern border.'

'We are losing 300 Americans a week in overdose deaths,' he said. '[But] in other words, it's illegal for me to have this, it's illegal for me to smoke [a Juul], it's legal for me to do whatever I want but as of next Wednesday, as I understand, they have to take Juul off the store shelves and to stop retail distribution.'

Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was a guest on Thursday's show, said she worried the ban would lead to kids buying it on the 'black market' and it being 'laced with fentanyl.'

'If you can buy illegally, be careful if you are buying it on the street, it will be laced most likely with something else and you can be hurt,' Bondi said.

'This is scary, you really think when people go to the black market you suspect that people that buy, they are not looking for weed, they're just looking for nicotine, you suspect they are going lease these with fentanyl?' he questioned.

'I saw it when I was attorney general, adults buying Adderall, Xanax on the street, it was being laced with fentanyl and people were dropping dead. They still are.

Guest and former Florida AG Pam Bondi (pictured) said she worried the ban would lead teens to the 'black market' and find Juul pods 'laced with fentanyl'

That is why you should never buy anything on the street, even if it is an Adderall or a Xanax,' Bondi said.

Hannity also suggests the Biden Administration isn't regulating cigarettes because the government makes $12billion a year off taxes.

On yesterday's show, reporter Trace Gallagher told Hannity that 'Juul has been trying to get on the right side of regulators by limiting its marketing and banning mango, mint, other sweet flavors. The company even suggested a vaping device that can only be unlocked if you're 21.'

He noted that while Juul has the right to appeal a ban, those appeals can take a long time and are expensive.

That's when Hannity chimed in to say: 'They ban it, and I'll do it live on TV and they can come and arrest me. How about that?'

It was banned less than 24 hours later.

The ban forbids the sale of Juul products but does not ban personal use of the product.

The FDA threatened un-specified action against stores that continue to sell Juul products.

Hannity's comments were met with laughter from Gallagher as Hannity then pivoted straight to the next segment saying: 'While the Biden FDA wants people to stop vaping, many Democratic-run cities and states, they have no problem decriminalizing even hard drugs, even as overdose deaths are spiking.'

So far, Oregon is the only state where the voters democratically voted to decriminalize small amounts of hard drugs.

The ban was also brought up on Hannity's lead-in show, 'Tonight with Tucker Carlson.' On his show yesterday, Carlson argued that the ban on e-cigarettes would lead to weight gain and low testosterone.

The ban on Juul e-cigarettes was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The ban not mention a full ban on all e-cigarettes but rather a ban on Juul products.

The FDA has been analyzing Juul's data for two years and the ban is likely due to the regulating body feeling as though the company is still marketing to America's youth.

Juul applied to the FDA in an attempt to stay on the market and sell their tobacco and menthol flavored products.

During the Wednesday's show, Hannity took aim at the Biden administration's 'Build Back Better' program calling it more like: 'Settle for less and shut your mouth.'

If Hannity had followed through on his pledge, it wouldn't be the first time that the host vaped on his show. In March 2021, Hannity was caught grabbing a quick drag between segments.

When he realized he was on camera, Hannity could be heard saying: 'Uh oh' as he snatched the vape from his mouth.'

Laura Ingraham, whose show comes on after Hannity's, told her colleague after the gaffe: 'It happens to the best of us, Hannity. I mean, those little moments are cute. Those are in the forever reel of the real Hannity. We wanna know you!'

VAPE GOD: FOX News anchor Sean Hannity loses track of time on a commercial break and gets caught smoking his Juul



pic.twitter.com/VvljKrYT1p  HARD FACTOR (@HardFactorNews) March 19, 2021

Sean Hannity being caught on camera while vaping in 2021

The Wall Street Journal which first reported the FDA's ban does not mention all e-cigarettes, just Juul products

In May 2017, a similar video leaked showing Hannity puffing on an e-cig during his show. The host wrote on Twitter following that video's release saying that he had recently given up smoking cigars.

During Donald Trump's presidency, when Hannity was considered a key advisor to the 45th president, the host was quoted as saying: 'If you were hearing what I'm hearing, you'd be vaping, too.'

The quote appeared in CNN host Brian Stelter's 2020 book: 'Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth.' According to Stelter, Hannity also described Trump as 'bats**t crazy.'

Juul rocketed to popularity in the US in the 2010s, as its fruit flavored nicotine products became trendy among younger smokers - leading to the company also shouldering blame for increases in teen smoking.

Hannity made comments that compared the Biden administration banning Juul products while 'legalizing hard drugs'

To limit rises in teen smoking, the FDA banned fruit flavored e-cigarette devices, and forced each company to apply individually to allow their products to remain on shelves. Juul was expected to have its application approved.

The report comes a day after the Biden Administration laid out plans to reduce the amount of nicotine in cigarettes to 'non-addictive' levels, as part of a greater push to curb smoking in America.

Juul has branded its products as devices that can help those addicted to nicotine slowly ween themselves off safely - as vape devices do not have many of the same downsides as smoking tobacco cigarettes do.

Instead, though, the fruity and mint flavors in many of its devices have led to many children and teens picking up smoking - when they likely would not have otherwise.

This has placed Juul, and the e-cigarette market in general, in the FDA's crosshairs in recent years.

Juul has branded its products as devices that can help those addicted to nicotine slowly ween themselves off safely

In April 2021, the agency banned menthol flavored cigarettes, while also banning all types of flavored cigars.

Refillable cartridge e-cigarettes that contain fruit or mint flavors were banned as well, though cartridges that are meant to be disposed of are still allowed for sale.

Flavored products in particular are often the target of regulations because they are easier to use as a gateway for people that do not smoke already, since one of the primary deterrents to picking up tobacco is the taste.

It especially plays a role for younger smokers who use vape devices like a Juul.

While they may not enjoy the taste of nicotine, it is much easier to get hooked on the fruity, tasteful, flavors.

'[The bans last April] will help save lives, particularly among those disproportionately affected by these deadly products,' the FDA wrote in a statement last year.

'With these actions, the FDA will help significantly reduce youth initiation, increase the chances of smoking cessation.'

Under the new rules, a company hoping to market a fruit or mint flavored refillable device must first receive approval from the FDA - which rejected hundreds of them.

To get around these orders, many companies started to use synthetic forms of the drug in their devices to circumvent regulators. That loophole was closed in April.

Disposable e-cigarettes and refillable cartridges account for over 80% of teen tobacco product usage in America

The CDC reports that more than 2.5 million students in the US were 'current' users of tobacco products in 2021. This includes 13% of high schoolers and 4% of middle schoolers

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also published a study in March finding that more than 2.5 million US students had used a tobacco product of some sort in 2021 - a definition that includes nicotine devices that do not disperse tobacco.

Officials reported that 80 percent of tobacco use was attributable to disposable e-cigarettes and cartridge products - like a Juul.

In the study, around 2.06 million high schoolers - 13 percent of the study population - and four percent of middle schoolers - 470,000 participants - reported 'current' tobacco use.
The jury has been discharged in the trial of an openly gay man accused of raping his female friend after they were unable to reach a majority verdict.

The group of seven men and five women deliberated for 10 hours in the Brisbane District Court on whether Dominic Edmund Hansson, 28, is guilty of one count of rape on December 7, 2019.

Police allege Hansson - who has been labelled a 'narcissist' - arrived at the woman's inner city apartment without invitation about 1.30am on the morning in question, drunk and determined to spend the night.

The complainant was asleep but allowed Hansson to sleep on the couch, before he convinced her to let him in bed by reminding her he was gay and in a committed, four-year relationship.

It's alleged Hansson began 'spooning' the woman about 2.30am before 'flipping her onto her stomach' and raping her.

Both the prosecution and defence made strong closing submissions, with Hansson's legal team arguing there was 'no way' for the jury to deem the complainant a credible and reliable witness.

The jury indicated on Thursday they would not be able to reach a verdict but were instructed to try to come to a decision. About 11.45am on Friday, it was clear that would be impossible.

The matter will now return to court on July 14 where it will be determined if Hansson will face a retrial.

The prosecution argues Hansson 'took what he already knew about her sex life as an entitlement to treat her like an object', holding her face down on her bed and telling her he knew 'she liked it rough' when she pleaded with him to stop.

He sat stony-faced, supported by his father, as his legal team argued the sex was consensual and his alleged victim had a 'vendetta' that prompted her to press charges.

The group of seven men and five women deliberated for 10 hours in the Brisbane District Court on whether Dominic Edmund Hansson, 28, is guilty of one count of rape on December 7, 201

The matter will now return to court on July 14 where it will be determined if Hansson will face a retrial

The defence

Hansson's barrister Michael Bonasia hoped to convince the jury it was impossible to consider the complainant an honest or reliable witness.

She said she wanted to explore sexual relationships, she was manipulative and slept with her gay friend who was in a serious relationship. This is a woman who said she can lie to get what she wants, he said in his closing submissions on Wednesday.

This is not a rape trial, its a trial of shame and vengeance.

Throughout his closing arguments, Mr Bonasia honed in on the supposed unreliability of the complainant and the steps needed to find his client guilty.

You may decide there is simply nothing reliable about the witness, and youll have to find him not guilty, he said.

You might think maybe he is guilty. That there is a possibility. That is enough for someone to be charged, but it is not beyond reasonable doubt. If you find yourself saying it possibly happened, you must find him not guilty.

Even if you find he probably did it, youre duty bound to find him not guilty.

Mr Bonasia urged the jury not to be swayed by emotive terminology like sick or narcissist, adding this is a court of law, not of morals.

He also referenced things that are happening in parliament and Hollywood including the Johnny Depp vs Amber Heard trial.

This is not entertainment. This is not a popularity contest. You cant decide this case based on the fact you dont like that Dominic cheated on his boyfriend of four years. You cant convict him of rape because you dont like the tone of some messages he sent... or that he was engaging in recreational drug use.

Hansson told her he would take his own life if his long term, live-in partner at the time, Tony Rickards (pictured together), were to ever learn of the indiscretion. The pair have since split

The explosive messages

The woman - who cannot be named - went to police and filed a report on April 21, more than four months after the alleged assault.

Hansson's defence argues she made a false report because she was insulted that the 28-year-old described her as an escort. They also cited a separate altercation between the pair over marijuana.

The incident in question occurred hours before the complainant went to police.

In Facebook messages tendered to court, Hansson told the alleged victim: 'You need to be careful with the aromas that come out of your apartment. From what I can tell it is marijuana; constantly. Please stop.'

The woman took issue with the message because she claimed he often came to her apartment to ask for marijuana.

A heated Facebook exchange between the woman and Hansson (digital mock up above based on court hearing) is part of the reason she reported the alleged assault to police, the defence argues

She responded: 'Don't you dare come into my apartment asking for the same thing you're complaining about. I tell you I don't have any and then you b**ch about the smell of weed in the building?'

Hansson denied he 'did either of those things'.

The complainant told police Hansson was at her apartment hours before sending those messages but she felt uncomfortable and did not give him what he was asking for.

She also denied working as an escort, as Hansson had claimed. She expressed an interest in the BDSM community and confided in Hansson about being a 'sugar baby' and having an active OnlyFans account.

'She was doing this sugar daddy thing,' the court heard. 'She was doing things you the jury might not be into, or Hansson mightn't be into, but that doesn't mean she doesn't need to consent.'

Hansson's barrister Michael Bonasia hoped to convince the jury it was impossible to consider the complainant an honest or reliable witness

The 'toxic narcissist'

The jury heard Hansson 'manipulated' the victim in a 'toxic' attempt to erode confidence in herself and her recollection of the events.

Hansson told her he would take his own life if his long term, live-in partner at the time, Tony Rickards, were to ever learn of the indiscretion and allegedly demanded she send messages stating nothing untoward had happened between the pair.

In his closing argument, Crown prosecutor Chris Cook asked the jury to consider whether Hansson is a narcissist.

'You might conclude he's a narcissist who can talk his way out of anything. Only interested in himself. He lies to his partner, lied to the victim. He engaged in secret messages to the victim. He lied to police... He's a secretive man.'

Hansson's legal team argued narcissism is a psychiatric disorder and that their client was not diagnosed with such a condition.

They said the phrase was used simply because it elicits emotion and in an attempt to sway the jury.

He sat stony-faced, supported by his father and now-ex, as his legal team argued the sex was consensual and his alleged victim had a 'vendetta' that prompted her to press charges

The complainant who 'enjoyed manipulating men'

The complainant's lawyer made a case that she wasnt a perfect witness but was honest and open when she took the stand earlier in the week, citing her bravery for coming forward and enduring two years of proceedings.

Meanwhile the defence has encouraged the jury to consider several key factors in the testimony of the woman and her reliability as a witness.

Psychologist notes dredged up from mid 2018 - 18 months before the alleged offence took place - reveal the victim considers herself 'manipulative'.

In the session, the woman admitted she could 'lie to others to get what she wants'.

But Hansson's legal team drew attention to a counselling session just five days after the alleged assault in which she reportedly opened up about the morning of December 7, 2019.

In it, the complainant told her counsellor she was 'ashamed' that she'd 'had sex with her gay friend' but 'enjoyed manipulating men,' the court heard.

When the concept of manipulating men was put to her, the woman said she was referring to her work as a sugar baby.

The defence also argues she maintained a friendship with Hansson for four months after the alleged rape before contacting police or confiding in her counsellor.

Her legal team claims this is because he manipulated her into doing so, and that she was scared to come forward.

Hansson (pictured with his parents) told police in his initial interview 'there was no point while we were having sex where she told me to stop, or indicated that she didn't want sex any more'

The night in question

Hansson told police in his initial interview 'there was no point while we were having sex where she told me to stop, or indicated that she didn't want sex any more'.

'I said 'Do you want to have sex?' and she said 'Of course I do',' he said in the May 31, 2020, formal interview.

The complainant argued this is not how a young woman would broach the topic of engaging in sex.

Hansson alleged the woman initiated flirting on the evening in question and became progressively more 'touchy feely' as the night went on.

The 28-year-old arrived at her inner city apartment about 1.30am after a night out.

When he arrived, the pair allegedly ate pizza on the couch. Six-and-a-half hours before he arrived, the complainant ate half of a weed brownie which she said did not make her high, but was effective enough to help her sleep.

Hansson claims the complainant was drinking a cider and that he'd only consumed two glasses of champagne earlier in the evening.

Bank statements show he spent $143 in total at the Waterloo Hotel in Fortitude Valley between the night of December 6 and early December 7.

While Hansson now admits to sexual intercourse, he initially told the complainant to send him a message denying they'd even touched so that he could 'show his boyfriend' nothing had happened

While Hansson now admits to sexual intercourse, he allegedly initially told the complainant to send him a message denying they'd even touched so that he could 'show his boyfriend' nothing had happened.

When Mr Rickard, Hansson's ex, took the stand, he could not recall ever asking for proof or seeing those messages.

When prompted as to why he engaged in sex with a woman if he was gay, Hansson said: 'Curiosity. I was just curious and having the sort of emotional bond we had at the time, it made me much more curious, you know, I was wondering whether I was in fact actually gay.'

The complainant considered Hansson a good friend up until December 7 and had confided in him about her depression, mental health issues and interests as a 'sugar baby'.

Hansson maintained his composure as the entirety of the submissions were recounted to the jury. He had several supporters in court who listened intently and delivered him lunch during the break.
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Joe Biden has accidentally revealed a cheat sheet giving him basic commands about where to sit and what to do during a meeting with wind industry executives at the White House.

The President mistakenly showed photographers the list of instructions that said 'take YOUR seat', 'YOU give brief comments' and 'YOU depart'.

The 79-year-old was also instructed to speak to specific attendees, ask them questions and thank them before leaving.

It is not the first time Biden appears to have been caught using a cheat sheet, after he was spotted with ready-made answers for the media during a talk on Ukraine earlier this year.

Thursday's mess up was the latest in a series of gaffes that have included him losing his balance and falling over in public as well as saying what he should not.

They have sparked major concerns for the President's welfare and mental capacity as he approaches 80 despite the White House shooting down questions over his health.

The President mistakenly showed photographers the list of instructions that said 'take YOUR seat', 'YOU give brief comments' and 'YOU depart'

The 79-year-old was also instructed to speak to specific attendees, ask them questions and thank them before leaving the room

During the meeting with wind-industry executives in the Roosevelt Room at the White House, Biden flashed the eight-point plan for how to conduct himself to photographers.



Rather than refer to 'The President' by name, whoever typed up the note had clearly intended it to be for presidential eyes only and instead referred to Biden as 'YOU', in bold, upper case lettering.

The detailed instructions were titled 'Offshore Wind Drop-By Sequence of Events' and told Biden to 'enter the Roosevelt Room and say hello to participants.'

The strip of paper told him to sit down: 'YOU take YOUR seat', it instructed. The note then told the president to speak once the reporters had been brought into the room: 'YOU give brief comments (2 minutes).'

After the reporters departed, Biden was told to speak to some of those present at the meeting. 'YOU ask Liz Shuler, President, AFL-CIO, a question' and then 'YOU thank participants' and 'YOU depart.'

The meeting went down without further incident but afterwards eagle-eyed photographers quickly realized what the President had revealed.

President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, on Thursday, with governors, labor leaders, and private companies launching the Federal-State Offshore Wind Implementation Partnership

Biden points to a wind turbine size comparison chart during a meeting about the Federal-State Offshore Wind Implementation Partnership in the Roosevelt Room of the White House

Biden has continued to use such notes throughout his presidency and they are sometimes handed to him during very public moments.

Last July, an aide handed him note stating: 'Sir, there is something on your chin.' It alerted the president there had been something on his face for roughly the first 10 minutes of his virtual meeting.

He had a yellow dot below his mouth, but he carried on talking. He was then handed a note, prompting him to wipe his chin and look at his hand.

Biden again held the note so that it was available for all reporters and photographers to read. The note was only visible because Biden used the same notecard to scribble notes during the meeting.



Earlier this year, Biden was mocked for using a printed 'cheat sheet' of answers to expected questions when he faced the media to discuss the Ukraine war.

The notes read: 'If you weren't advocating for regime change, what did you mean? Can you clarify?' Another read: 'Is this now threatening to splinter unity with your NATO allies?'

Biden already had an answer prepared on the printed card: 'No. NATO has never been more united.' He regularly uses cue cards, and was photographed frequently with them during the campaign trail before taking office.

He would often take from his pocket the daily totals of Covid cases, which he referenced regularly. He also used them to give precise details at a Town Hall before the election, as he fielded a question about taxes.

'I carry this card with me,' Biden said, referencing the card. He used several cheat sheets during his first presidential press conference, including one with the headshots and names of reporters he planned to call on.

Biden also utilized notes during a 2021 summit with Putin, while touring the damage of Hurricane Ida in Louisiana and while calling on reporters at the G20 summit in Rome.

President Biden was prompted to wipe a yellow mark from his face during a Zoom meeting with state governors on Friday after a staffer handed him a note saying: 'Sir, there is something on your chin'

He showed up the note to the camera during the Zoom conference last July

Images taken during President Joe Biden's first press conference in March 2021 showed him using cheat sheets including one that showed the headshots (pictured) of journalists he planned to call on

President Joe Biden holds notes in hand as he speaks during his first formal press conference of his presidency in March 2021

Meanwhile earlier this month his welfare was again called into question when he went tumbling off a bicycle in Rehoboth Beach in Delaware.

He told press 'I'm good' after falling over and taking his bike with him. Biden told reporters that he had trouble removing his shoes from the bikes' pedals, causing the fall.

He had come over to say hello to a crowd that had gathered near the Gordon's Pond State Park bike trail, with people yelling 'Happy Father's Day' to the president.

Upon trying to dismount the bike, his shoes caught and he fell over sideways, causing a mad scramble of Secret Service and press trying to help him up.

He has repeatedly been on the end of other numerous gaffes such as tripping up the steps to Air Force One as well as losing his trail of thought during speeches.

Meanwhile earlier this month his welfare was again called into question when he went tumbling off a bicycle in Rehoboth Beach in Delaware

He told press 'I'm good' after falling over and taking his bike with him. Biden told reporters that he had trouble removing his shoes from the bikes' pedals, causing the fall

Biden's talk with wind-industry executives today resulted in him launching a formal partnership with 11 East Coast governors to boost the growing offshore wind industry, a key element of his plan for climate change.

Biden, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and other top administration officials met with governors, wind industry officials and labor leaders Thursday at the White House.

The session focused on ways to expand important segments of the offshore industry, including manufacturing facilities, ports and workforce training and development.

'Together were stepping up. Were about to build a better America,' Biden said. 'It's not just about the future. Its about right now.'

The partnership comprises governors of both parties from Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.

Missing from the compact is Virginia, where Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin has moved to withdraw the state from a regional carbon-limiting initiative meant to combat climate change.

Spokesperson Macaulay Porter said Youngkin supports the offshore wind industry, and his administration has participated in calls with the White House on the topic.

'The commonwealth is already a leader in offshore wind, and the Youngkin administration is focused on ... this emerging sector in a way that is consistent with promoting jobs for Virginia and its right-to-work philosophy,' Porter said, referring to a state policy that promotes a workers right not to be required to join a labor union.

Youngkin is 'fully committed to Virginias current offshore wind project' and will continue to support any future project 'that meets Virginias economic needs and protects ratepayers from high energy costs,' Porter said.

In working with states and the private sector, the White House said it will 'provide Americans with cleaner and cheaper energy, create good-paying jobs and invest billions in new American energy supply chains,'' including construction of wind turbines, shipbuilding and servicing.

Biden has set a goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2030, enough to provide electricity to 10 million homes, support 77,000 jobs and spur $12 billion per year in private investment in offshore wind.

Offshore wind is a key component in the Democratic president's plan to make the nations electric grid carbon free by 2035.

Offshore wind is a key component in the Democratic president's plan to make the nations electric grid carbon free by 2035

Biden, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and other top administration officials met with governors, wind industry officials and labor leaders Thursday at the White House

The White House is launching a formal partnership with 12 East Coast governors to boost the growing offshore wind industry. It's a key element of President Joe Biden's plan for climate change

The Biden administration has approved two large-scale wind projects, Vineyard Wind in Massachusetts and South Fork Wind off New York and Rhode Island. Both are under construction with union labor (file photo)

The Biden administration has approved two large-scale wind projects, Vineyard Wind in Massachusetts and South Fork Wind off New York and Rhode Island. Both are under construction with union labor.

The Interior Department has begun reviews of another 10 offshore projects that, if approved, would produce 22 gigawatts of clean energy.

Danish wind developer Orsted signed a project labor agreement last month with a national union representing 3 million people in the building trades to construct the companys U.S. offshore wind farms with an American union workforce. Orsted currently has six offshore projects in five states.

A national agreement signed with North Americas Building Trades Unions covers contractors working on those projects and future ones, with no termination date on the project labor agreement.

It sets the terms and conditions for union workers to build offshore wind farms, with targets to ensure a diverse workforce.

It contains provisions for training to ensure they can construct the complex infrastructure, which costs billions of dollars.

'We recognize that states are huge players here,' said David Hayes, a White House climate adviser. With a formal partnership, the Biden administration can 'work with the governors on policies going forward and help ensure that there is an American-made supply chain for this brand-new industry,' Hayes said.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, said he and other East Coast governors 'are united with our regional and federal partners not just by geography but by a shared commitment to clean and affordable energy, economic opportunity and a future in which all community members are shielded from the worsening impacts of climate change.''

The federal-state collaboration comes as the Biden administration has announced a plan to conduct up to seven offshore wind auctions by 2025, including one held last month off North Carolina and earlier this year in a coastal area known as the New York Bight.

Other sales are expected in the Gulf of Maine, the central Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, as well as offshore in California and Oregon.

Environmental and clean energy groups hailed the federal-state collaboration.

'Today, there are just seven offshore wind turbines in the United States, and were going to need a lot more, done responsibly, to meet our clean energy goals,' said Diane Hoskins, campaign director for the conservation group Oceana. She called for 'strong safeguards for marine life to avoid, minimize and mitigate the impacts of offshore wind.'

Heather Zichal, CEO of the American Clean Power Association, an industry group, said wind energy developers support the federal-state initiative. 'Clear and predictable permitting for offshore wind is essential to recognizing its potential, and there is still work to do,' Zichal said.
The Senate on Thursday night passed gun control legislation, clearing the way for final congressional approval of what will be the most significant firearms legislation in decades.

The 65-33 vote came after a month of negotiations that eventually found a compromise on one of the country's most contentious political issues.

Yet the nation's divisions were on clear display on a day when the Supreme Court expanded gun rights by ruling Americans have a constitutional right to carry handguns in public for self-defense.

The legislation provides about $15 billion in funding to help states implement red-flag laws to keep guns from high-risk owners and expand background checks.

The Democratic-led House is expected to take up the bill in quick succession, and President Joe Biden has made clear that he will sign the bill as soon as possible.

It passed after 15 Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, ignored former President Donald Trump's demand that they vote against it.

After the vote, McConnell said the measures would have no impact on Americans' Second Amendment rights.

'Bipartisan talks had started up after horrifying mass murder incidents in the past, but collapsed when Senate Democrats insisted on attacking the Second Amendment,' he said.

'This time was different because Democrats finally moved our way and accepted the reality that Americans do not have to choose between their constitutional rights and safer communities. They can have both.'

Some of his colleagues disagreed.

Senator Roger Marshall said: 'Kansans expect me to protect their Constitutional freedoms in the U.S. Senate, and I will not sacrifice those freedoms for this gun grabbing scheme.'

The Senate voted 65 to 34 to end a Republican-led filibuster on the gun reform package, clearing another important hurdle, with final Senate passage coming as early as later Thursday

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell voted in favor of breaking the filibuster on the bipartisan gun control package Thursday afternoon

Earlier the Senate voted 65 to 34 to end a Republican-led filibuster on the gun reform package, clearing the way to the final vote.

Biden said Monday he was ready to sign the gun bill, but he's flying to Germany and then onto Spain Saturday morning for G7 and NATO meetings, so it's unclear if he'll have time to sign the legislation before he departs.

The vote comes after an initial 64-34 procedural vote taken in the Senate Tuesday night, with 14 Republicans joining all 50 Democrats in voting in the affirmative.

Sen. Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican, wasn't present for the vote due to suffering a 'severe' hand injury after trying to remove a boulder in his yard.

Among those voting for the bill was Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

McConnell said it was a 'commonsense package of popular steps that will help make these horrifying incidents less likely while fully upholding the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.'

Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn was one of the chief negotiators, as there were fresh calls for stricter gun control laws in the aftermath of the Uvalde, Texas elementary school shooting.

The same group of Republicans voted in favor of breaking the filibuster Thursday, with the addition of Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, who wasn't on hand for the first vote.

Other Republicans who voted yea include Sens. Roy Blunt, Richard Burr, Shelley Moore Capito, Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, Joni Ernst, Lindsey Graham, Lisa Murkowski, Rob Portman, Mitt Romney, Thom Tillis and Todd Young.

The 80-page compromise legislation would toughen background checks for younger gun buyers, bolster background check requirements and beef up penalties for gun traffickers.

The bill would also prohibit romantic partners convicted of domestic abuse who are not married to their victims from getting firearms.

Convicted abusers who are married to, live with or had children with their victims are already barred from having guns.

Additionally, $750million would be provided to the 19 states that have 'red flag' laws making it easier to temporarily take firearms from people adjudged dangerous, and to other states with violence prevention programs.

States with 'red flag' laws that receive the funds would have to have legal processes for the gun owner to fight the firearm's removal.

The bill would disburse money to states and communities to improve school safety and mental health initiatives.

On Wednesday, Republican leaders in the House of Representatives encouraged colleagues to vote against it.

'This legislation takes the wrong approach in attempting to curb violent crimes. House Republicans are committed to identifying and solving the root causes of violent crimes, but doing so must not infringe upon' Second Amendment rights,' House Minority Whip Steve Scalise said in a notice telling House GOP members to vote against the legislation.

Still, some moderate House Republicans are expected to vote in favor of the bill.

In a statement Tuesday, the National Rifle Association came out against the bill saying it 'falls short at every level.'

'It does little to truly address violent crime while opening the door to unnecessary burdens on the exercise of Second Amendment freedom by law-abiding gun owners,' the statement said. 'This legislation can be abused to restrict lawful gun purchases, infringe upon the rights of law-abiding Americans, and use federal dollars to fund gun control measures being adopted by state and local politicians.'

Former President Donald Trump has also come out against the bill, hammering McConnell - who he had a falling out with once McConnell wasn't supportive of the 'big lie' - for his support.

'Mitch McConnell's push for Republican Senators to vote for Gun Control will be the final straw,' Trump posted to Truth Social Thursday. 'Just like he gave away the ebt Ceiling and got NOTHING in return, or handed the Dems a great sound bite and victory with the Infrastructure Bill, which is actually all about the Green New Deal, he is now forcing approval of the FIRST STEP IN TAKING AWAY YOUR GUNS!'

'Republican Senators SHOULD NOT VOTE FOR THIS CAREER ENDING BILL!!!' Trump wrote.

Trump also referred to Cornyn as a 'RINO,' a Republican in name only.

The Senate vote took place just hours after the Supreme Court struck down a New York state law that made people give 'proper cause' if they wanted to carry a handgun in public.

The fresh ruling opens to door to permitting all law-abiding Americans to carry concealed and loaded handguns in public.
Zara Aleena, 35, (left) died from severe head injuries after she was attacked in the street while walking to her mother's house in Cranbrook Road, Ilford, (right and inset) after a night out with friends in central London in the early hours of Sunday. Her death has left her family heartbroken and sparked a 36-hour manhunt that ended yesterday afternoon in the arrest of a 29-year-old man from the area on suspicion of her murder. He remains in custody today. Her close friend Lisa has revealed that they were meant to be together over the weekend - but they had rearranged to meet next weekend. Zara had texted on Friday to say: 'Miss your beautiful face this weekend xx can't wait to see you next weekend xxx'. Lisa said today: 'I am completely broken. My bestest friend (for the past 17 years) Zara Aleena was murdered by a complete stranger. I am shocked. I am angry. I feel sick to my stomach . We spent most weekends together. We were meant to be together this weekend but I had to cancel and arranged to meet next weekend. I wish I had met her this weekend. She got f***ing murdered walking home'. Police were handed CCTV of the attack by a resident who lived across the street. He told The Times: 'The guy came from the back, he was following her. It happened on the main road. He punched her a few times.' Investigators believe the perpetrator did not use any weapons, just his fists. Zara's murder is feared to have been sexually motivated but police would not comment on whether she was raped or sexually assaulted. The unprovoked attack on Miss Aleena is already being compared to the murders of teacher Sabina Nessa, 28, and marketing manager Sarah Everard, 33, who were both attacked while out alone in London. Both their killers were opportunistic and chose them at random.
Qantas boss Alan Joyce and WA Premier Mark McGowan were all smiles as they insisted they had 'kissed and made up' after an earlier war of words but the politician still managed to get in a last dig at the airline chief.

During a joint press conference Mr McGowan addressed the stand-off the pair had when Mr Joyce likened WA to the isolated hardline communist state of North Korea for not opening its borders in February.

There might have been no love lost between them earlier in the year but it was all smiles when WA Premier Mark McGowan and Qantas boss Allan Joyce hosted a joint press conference

'Allan and I have kissed and made up, haven't we?' said a jovial Mr McGowan, addressing the question to Mr Joyce standing behind him.

'We have, the hatchet is well and truly buried,' Mr Joyce said.

'The hatchet is so far buried we can't even find it,' replied Mr McGowan.

Prompted by a reporter as to whether they had discussed North Korea, Mr McGowan seized the opportunity to make his own unflattering comparison.

They insisted they had 'kissed and made up' and the 'hatchet had been buried' following frosty exchanges when Mr Joyce likened Mr McGowan's state to North Korea

'We did have a discussion on North Korea,' Mr McGowan said.

'I was sort of saying how Alan's glasses and hairstyle is very similar to Kim Jong-un.'

Mr Joyce did not appear to take umbrage to being physically likened to the North Korean dictator, whose notoriety was magnified by an austere style of dress with flat-top haircuts and heavy black-rimmed glasses.

'And I said 'I thought we were going to be eating at a Korean restaurant',' Mr Joyce interjected while Mr McGowan was still at the microphone.

This 2017 image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un showcases a personal style that the leader became famous for

Mr Joyce likened WA to North Korea after the state delayed opening its border in February for nearly a month to keep out Covid, missing a date it had set for re-opening.

Mr McGowan said at the time he did not 'get' the comparison.

'Comparing us to North Korea, I think, might be a bit over the top,' he said.

'A repressive dictatorship that murders hundreds of thousands of people compared with a successful democracy, full of freedoms and the best economy in the world. I think that's an unfair comparison.'

Qantas is preparing to launch three more major international services flying out of Perth.

A non-stop one to Rome is beginning on Saturday and starting in November there will be non-stop flights to Johannesburg and Jakarta.

The routes are being supported by the WA Government, which has committed $195 million to its Reconnect WA package.
Former Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bossert Clark, who tried to help President Donald Trump overturn his 2020 election loss, had his house searched by U.S. law enforcement agents on Wednesday, an experience which he has described as 'Stasi-like.'

In an interview with Tucker Carlson on Fox News, Clark shared his dismay at what he had been subjected to as he was forced to stand outside his home in his pajamas while a search by armed federal agents took place.

He said: 'There was loud banging outside my door. I quickly figured out there were agents there. I asked for the courtesy to put some pants on and was told 'no'.

'They swept the house. Twelve agents and two police Fairfax County Police Officers searched it for more than three hours.

'An electronic sniffing dog came too. All the electronics from my house was removed.'

Federal agents searched the home of Jeffrey Clark, the former U.S. Justice Dept. official who tried to help President Donald Trump overturn his 2020 election loss

Appearing on Tucker Carlson on Thursday night, Clark described the search as 'Stasi-like'

'I just think we're living in an era that I don't recognize and increasingly, Tucker, I don't recognize the country anymore with these Stasi-like things happening,' Clark said.

'Yeah, this is Stalinist,' responded Carlson. 'At some point, somebody's gonna fight back and it's going to get super ugly. I pray that it doesn't happen but I think it probably will.'

The Stasi was one of the most hated and feared institutions of the East German communist government between 1950 and 1990.

One of the Stasi's main tasks was spying on the population, primarily through a vast network of citizens-turned-informants, and fighting any opposition by overt and covert measures.

Clark, a former Justice Department official and fervent Trump, explained how federal agents searched his home for three-and-a-half hours.

Federal agents searched the home of Jeffrey Clark, a former Department of Justice lawyer who former President Donald Trump considered installing as attorney general in the days before the January 6 Capitol riot, as part of an effort to overturn the election

An ally, Russ Vought, who headed the Office of Management and Budget in the Trump White House, said Clark had to stand in the street in his pajamas.

The raid occurred as part of the department's probe into the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The U.S. law enforcement agents searched his Virginia home on Wednesday in the Lorton, Virginia, suburb of Washington.

At the time of the search, a U.S. congressional panel investigating the deadly January 6 attack was preparing to hold its fifth hearing about Trump's failed efforts to pressure the Justice Department to help overturn his 2020 defeat.

Clark would have been a key figure in Trump's plan to remain in power after he lost the 2020 election.

In the days running up to the January 6 violence, Trump considered a proposal to appoint Clark as acting attorney general.

'At what point can we say the Department of Justice, where you once served, is a political instrument, it's completely out of control?' Carlson asked during Thursday night's interview.

'Yeah, I think this is highly politicized and it's also part, Tucker if you didn't know it, of a nationwide effort yesterday,' Clark explained.

'There were multiple states where multiple people were roughly simultaneously raided for their electronic devices. And that obviously requires a high level of coordination.'

Congress was informed that at one stage Clark pressured others in his department to send a letter to lawmakers in Georgia falsely claiming the Justice Department had 'significant concerns' about the legitimacy of Biden's victory in the state, echoing then President Trump's false claims of voting fraud.

Emails previously released by the January 6 committee, reveal how Clark proposed to send a letter to officials in Georgia claiming falsely that the Department of Justice had evidence of voter fraud that could reverse Joe Biden's victory in the state

Emails previously released by the January 6 committee, reveal how Clark proposed to send a letter to officials in Georgia claiming falsely that the Department of Justice had evidence of voter fraud that could reverse Joe Biden's victory in the state.

In fact, Biden won the state with no widespread evidence of voter fraud uncovered.

His letter to Governor Brian Kemp, a Republican, urged him to call a special session of the Georgia legislature to create a separate slate of electors backing Trump.

'History is calling,' Clark, a relatively junior official, told the president at the White House on January 3 according to a deposition given by Richard Donoghue, deputy attorney general, and excerpted in a court filing.

Trump supporters are pictured gathering outside the Capitol building on January 6, 2021 before storming the Capitol in Washington D.C.

Protestors are pictured storming inside the US Capitol on January 06 2021

'This is our opportunity. We can get this done.'

In the event, Trump decided not to promote Clark amid warnings that hundreds of DOJ officials would resign if he did so.

Carlson made no mention of this fact during the segment in which Clark appeared instead describing it as follows: 'What he did wrong was simply call for an investigation into voter fraud.'

Clark was subpoenaed and appeared twice before the panel, but his lawyer later told the panel that Clark intended to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Clark faces an investigation by the Justice Department's inspector general and an ethics probe by the D.C. Office of Disciplinary Counsel, an office that investigates attorney misconduct.

Clark previously served as assistant attorney general for the department's Environment and Natural Resources Division and briefly as head of the civil division toward the end of Trump's presidency.

In a fiery speech outside the White House On January 6, Trump urged his supporters to help overturn his election defeat. Pictured here on January 6, 2021

In a fiery speech outside the White House On January 6, Trump urged his supporters to help overturn his election defeat.

They later stormed the Capitol, sending lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence fleeing for their lives.

Four people died, one shot by police and the others of natural causes.

More than 800 people have since been arrested in connection with the violence.
Troubled actor Ezra Miller is living with a Hawaii-based mother of three and her young children at his Vermont farmhouse, surrounded by guns and large quantities of marijuana, according to a report.

Miller, whose meteoric career is now hanging in the balance, is accused by the children's father of putting them in danger.

'I got a bad feeling in my stomach,' the father told Rolling Stone.

He said the 25-year-old mother left their island home with Miller, who uses the pronoun 'they', in April, and took the children without his consent.

The father told the magazine that he was concerned for the wellbeing of the youngsters, aged between one and five.

'I do want to go get my kids, they mean the f****** world to me,' he said.

The 29-year-old Miller, who identifies as queer and uses they/them pronouns, is seen in an April 29 mugshot taken in Hawaii. Miller left Hawaii with the mother and her three children

Miller played The Flash in the DC Cinematic Universe

Miller's farm in Stamford, Vermont (pictured) is now home to the Hawaii mother and her three children, aged one to five

Two other sources told Rolling Stone they were concerned for the children, and said the property was awash with guns and marijuana plants. One claimed that the infant was seen playing with a bullet, and placing it in its mouth.

Video from April, obtained by Rolling Stone, reportedly showed at least eight assault weapons, rifles, and handguns lying around the living room.

The magazine said some of the firearms were lying next to a pile of stuffed animals.

The actor is known for his appreciation of weapons.

In 2018, Miller offered to show a reporter from The Hollywood Reporter the crossbow from the film We Need to Talk About Kevin, in which the teen actor portrayed a high school killer.

'You wanna see the real bow and arrow from Kevin, man? 'Cause I got it right back there. I really do,' they told the journalist.

'People usually don't want to see it when I ask them. They usually say, 'No, I prefer to not see that bow and arrow.' And I say, 'OK. It's up to you.''

Miller also defended gun rights.

'People need to protect themselves,' the actor said, noting they didn't have any problem with people owning semi-automatic weapons.

Miller is seen in January 2020 attending a Grammy after-party in Hollywood

The New Jersey-born actor attends the London premier of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald, in November 2018

The mother, however, insisted that she left Hawaii with Miller to escape an abusive relationship, and said she and the children were thriving in rural Vermont.

She said the New Jersey-born 29-year-old assisted her in fleeing a 'violent and abusive ex.'

She said they had 'helped me finally have a safe environment for my three very young children.'

'Ezra's home ranch has been a healing haven for us,' she told Rolling Stone.

'They may have firearms for self-defense purposes and they are stored in a part of the house that the children never go in.

'My kids are able to relax more into their healing because of the safety and nurturing Ezra has been providing for them.'

The controversy is just the latest to ensnare the actor, whose roles in Fantastic Beasts, We Need to Talk About Kevin and The Perks of Being a Wallflower have made them a pop culture icon.

Earlier this month a restraining order was taken out by a Massachusetts mother, who told a court the actor rubbed up against her non-binary 12-year-old child and, arriving at their home in a bulletproof vest, threatened her with a gun, after accusing her of cultural appropriation.

Miller offered to buy horses for the child, so the youngster could visit the Vermont farm - an offer which troubled the child's relatives.

Miller is also accused of abducting and seducing an 18-year-old activist from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, whose anguished parents have filed legal papers seeking a protection order for their daughter against Miller.

The parents claim in a lawsuit lawsuit that the actor plied their underage daughter, Tokata Iron Eyes, with drugs including LSD.

Tokata is a well-known activist, pictured here with Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in September 2019

Actress Shailene Woodley, Tokata and actor Mark Ruffalo are pictured together attending Stand With Standing Rock Benefit in New York City in December 2016

Tokata is pictured standing next to Leonardo DiCaprio during the People's Climate March in 2017

Tokata's mother Sara tweeted about the alleged abuse her daughter is facing at the hands of Ezra Miller

They alleged that Miller disrupted her Massachusetts private schooling to such an extent that she dropped out from Bard College at Simon's Rock in December.

When they flew to Miller's home in Stamford, Vermont, in January to retrieve Tokata, they allegedly found bruises on her body and she no longer had a driver license, car keys or a bank card.

And when the teenager was returned to her parents' home, she fled again to New York to reunite with Miller and they have since allegedly been traveling together to Vermont, Hawaii and Los Angeles.

While in Hawaii, Miller was arrested after attacking a group of people in a karaoke bar.

A married couple took out a restraining order against him, after Miller burst into their bedroom and threatened to kill them, then left stealing her passport and his wallet.

Miller's behavior sparked a crisis meeting with Warner Bros executives, who decided to postpone the release of The Flash until 2023.

In April Miller met the mother of the children, in the town of Hilo, on Big Island.

Since the spring, she has been living with Miller, while he and his friend Whitney Suters work on their 'Rebel Alliance Cannabis' company, Rolling Stone reported.

Suters posted multiple photos on social media, showing marijuana cultivation far in excess of the two mature plants or four immature plants that private citizens can legally own in Vermont.

Miller is seen in November 2019, at Time 100 Next gala in New York City

Suters reportedly said there were at least 28 different strains growing for a fall 2021 harvest.

The father told the magazine that, concerned about the guns and drug use, he asked Vermont child services to intervene.

They visited the property on May 16, and in a text to the father - seen by Rolling Stone - said the children 'looked good'.

The social worker said they had 'more work to do,' but it was unclear whether there were follow up visits, the father said.

Miller's representatives have not responded to DailyMail.com's request for comment.
In another round of job cuts, Netflix had laid off around 300 employees.

This is the second time this year that the streaming platform cut jobs as it also laid off 150 employees in May, along with dozens of contractors and part-time workers. Worldwide, Netflix has around 11,000 employees.

A Netflix spokesperson said: "Today we sadly let go of around 300 employees. While we continue to invest significantly in the business, we made these adjustments so that our costs are growing in line with our slower revenue growth.

Netflix said that it is "grateful for everything they have done for Netflix and are working hard to support them through this difficult transition."

Netflix Attributes Layoff to Slow Revenue Growth

The latest layoffs were due to slowing revenue growth, following a steep decrease in Netflix's share price. Since the beginning of the year, its share price has fallen by around 70 percent.

Netflix's stock opened at $180.08 per share on Thursday. Just after 11 a.m. ET, it was trading at $180.93.

For the first time, the company's subscriber count dropped in the first quarter of 2022. It fell by 200,000 in large part. Netflix has lost 700,000 subscribers since it pulled out of Russia.

Netflix said in its latest earnings report that in the current quarter, it expects to lose as many as 2 million subscribers.

In addition to the cost cutting, the streaming platform is looking at more ways of generating revenue. Measure that Netflix is exploring includes ad-supported plans. It also wants to look at adding extra fees for those who share their accounts with people living in different households.

Netflix is hiring on other fronts. Despite the slow revenue growth, it still plans to invest heavily in content. For that purpose, this year, it has earmarked around $17 billion.

"News of the layoffs comes the week after Netflix announced a reality competition series based on its all-conquering drama, Squid Game," according to Engadget. The winner of the reality competition will take home $4.56 million.

Read Also: Netflix Chooses 'Artistic Expression' Over Woke Culture, Tells Employees to Either Buy In or Get Out

Stiff Competition in the Streaming Services Hits Netflix

Amid the onslaught of new and revamped competitors, Netflix has finally started to take a hit. This comes after years of easily winning the streaming services wars.

Among its competitors are Disney's Disney+, Comcast's Peacock, Paramount Global's Paramount+ and Warner Bros. Discovery's HBO Max.

With more new platforms for customers to choose from, it has been building pressure for Netflix to attract and retain subscribers. Splashy and high-budget titles available on those services add up to pressure it has been experiencing.

Netflix has been "losing valuable library content to companies bringing their content back home for their own streamers," according to Variety.

To make matters worse, the media sector, is being battered by recession fears that have plunged the market.

Amid the Wall Street chaos, Netflix is not the sole Hollywood company implementing layoffs.

Recently, Warner Bros. Discovery has also laid off key staffers, "as it looks to reduce costs and its debt load following the completion of the merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery that led to the new company's creation this spring," as reported by Variety.

Related Article: Netflix Lays Off 150 Employees - Tudum Website Staffers Trimmed Down Too?
Thousands of unvaccinated staff will be free to to return to work after several Australian states made major changes to vaccine mandates this week.

Here's a breakdown of the rule changes by state and what it means for your workplace.

Vaccine mandates have kept thousands of Aussies out of work, including those in critical jobs such as teaching. Pictured are two nurses getting a Covid jab

Queensland

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced today Queenslanders will soon no longer need to be double vaccinated against Covid-19 to work in schools, childcare, prisons and airports or to visit jails, aged care and disability facilities.

She says the changes will come into effect from 1am next Thursday, June 30.

'Restrictions that have protected us have eased in sensible stages, and today I announce with the advice of the Chief Health Officer, we are removing some of the last remaining Covid restrictions,' she told parliament on Friday.

Ms Palaszczuk said individual employers will still be allowed to continue mandates in schools, daycare, prisons and airports.

She said mandates will remain in force for workers in healthcare, hospital, aged care and disability care facilities.

Queensland will also dump pre-arrival testing for travellers arriving in the state from overseas.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk (pictured) announced the state will scrap Covid-19 vaccine mandates for workers in schools, prisons and airports and visitors to aged care and disability care facilities today

While Australia was through the worst of the pandemic, the health minister said there was still a large number of cases across the country

Victoria

Earlier this week, Victoria's premier Dan Andrews announced the third vaccine mandate for workers in education, quarantine accommodation, food distribution and meat and seafood processing will be lifted on Saturday morning.

However employees in health and care sectors will still be required to have at least one booster shot - three vaccine doses.

Teachers who had two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, but refused a third shot had been placed on leave without pay. This change now means they can return to work at their last school.

Meanwhile, staff who refused to have a single dose of the vaccine were officially sacked in April this year.

Those teachers will be free to apply for a job at their old school or at another school, but have no right of return.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews (pictured) announced unvaccinated teachers will be allowed to return to classrooms from next week

The Andrews Government also announced on Saturday masks will no longer be required in airport terminals from 11.59pm on June 24.

Masks will remain mandatory on domestic flights, public transport, rideshare vehicle, hospitals and care facilities.

New South Wales

In New South Wales, unvaccinated NSW teachers could be welcomed back into classrooms from next term as the education department reveals its plan to end vaccine mandates.

Teachers could go back to class and departmental corporate staff return to the office under the plan, after consulting with stakeholders on Friday about finalising it within the next two weeks.

When school returns on July 18, only staff working in specific purpose schools for children with disabilities or who help students at those schools get to class would need to be triple vaccinated.

Casual unvaccinated staff would be allowed back while teachers who resigned or were dismissed would be able to apply for advertised roles.

Education department secretary Georgina Harrisson said the plan was subject to an independent workplace risk assessment.

Unvaccinated teachers could be welcomed back into classrooms from next term as the education department reveals plans to scrap vaccine mandates for most staff. Pictured is NSW premier Dom Perrottet

'We have taken the time that was needed in coming to this position to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our staff and students would not be compromised' Ms Harrisson said.

Premier Dominic Perrottet revealed in April he had asked ministers to make sure relevant departments conducted risk assessments for potential changes to vaccine mandates.

Close to 1,000 active casuals could return to classrooms on the first day of term 3, Ms Harrisson said, but it was unlikely to have much impact on current staff shortages, which were attributed to increased sick leave being taken.

Teachers were off sick for a combined 430,351 days in the first six months of the year, up 145,491 compared to pre-pandemic and 100,324 on the same period last year.

Enhanced cleaning and ventilation measures would be retained and rapid antigen tests supplied.

For NSW Health staff, the requirement for health care workers to have at least two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine continues to apply.
NSW train drivers will drive slower and refuse to operate foreign-built trains as part of four days of industrial action next week.

The Rail, Tram and Bus Union says the action comes after the government cancelled a planned meeting on Friday.

RTBU secretary Alex Claassens said he was contacted late on Thursday night and told the meeting with transport officials and government ministers was cancelled, after already being postponed multiple times.

NSW train drivers will drive slower and refuse to operate foreign-built trains as part of four days of industrial action next week

'It's beyond disappointing that the NSW government is continuing to play political games at the expense of workers and commuters,' Mr Claassens said.

He said workers have been acting with good faith during the long-running negotiations for a new enterprise bargaining agreement after the old one expired over a year ago.

'All we want is for the government to deliver on the basic safety and workforce issues that we've been talking about for many months,' Mr Claassens said.

The industrial action is slated to begin Tuesday with a go-slow movement where drivers will not exceed 60 km/h.

On Wednesday, members would be indefinitely banned from moving back to the rail operations centre, and would only work from their current depot on Thursday, while also placing an indefinite ban on work relating to Sydney Metro.

On Friday members would refuse to drive foreign built trains, taking new trains introduced since 2011 out of service.

Mr Claassens said the breakdown in negotiations with the state government had forced the statewide action.

'We never want to have to take industrial action, but the NSW government  in particular some ministers  seem intent on forcing us into that position,' he said.

Unions have been resorting to smaller-scale industrial action to try and push along negotiations

The Rail, Tram and Bus Union says the action comes after the government cancelled a planned meeting on Friday

'The single most important issue for us is action to get the trains fixed. We want safe trains.'

The demonstration comes after cleaners on NSW trains refused to clean up hazardous waste across the network as they began last Thursday an 'indefinitely' long strike.

The union slammed NSW transport authorities for not allowing workers to access all the necessary equipment to safely deal with dangerous messes left on trains.

Cleaners want an extra $2.60 an hour as an allowance to compensate for dealing with the dangerous waste and rubbish.

The union told Daily Mail Australia hazardous waste includes toxic materials, needles, bio-waste, and other dangerous and unsanitary by-products including vomit, blood, faeces and urine.
Federal prosecutors have called on Nicki Minaj's husband to face 15 months in jail for his failure to register as a sex offender in California.

According to court documents, Kenneth Petty, 44, has failed to register as a sex offender since moving to the Golden State with Minaj in 2019, Insider reported.

The law dictates he must register whenever he moves following an attempted rape conviction of a 16-year-old girl he attacked in 1994 New York City.

'Having previously been convicted of attempted rape, defendant knowingly failed to register as a sex offender upon moving to California,' prosecutors said in a recent filing.

'The timing of [the] defendant's lapse in registration is concerning, given that it occurred when [the] defendant began dating his wife, quit his job, moved to Los Angeles, and adopted an affluent lifestyle.'

Petty is due to appear at a sentencing hearing on July 6, where prosecutors also argued that he should pay a $55,000 fine.

Federal prosecutors are calling for Nicki Minaj's (right) husband, Kenneth Petty (left), to serve 15 months in prison and pay a $55,000 fine for failling to register as a sex offender. The couple moved to California in 2019 and had a child the following year

Petty needed to register when moving to California in 2020 for a 1995 attempted rape conviction of then-16-year-old Jennifer Hough (pictured). The victim is suing Petty for allegedly trying to bribe and harass her to recant her testimony

Minaj has repeatedly insisted that Petty had been wrongfully convicted and claimed that the victim, Jennifer Hough, now 43, had planned to write a letter to a judge recanting her statements.

Hough denied the claims and filed a lawsuit against the couple, saying they tried to pay her $500,000 to take back her 1995 testimony and allegedly threatened her and her family when she refused.

The suit, which Minaj was dropped from in January, seeks unspecified damages, and alleges Petty carried out harassment, witness intimidation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Tyrone Blackburn, a lawyer representing Hough, did not immediately reply to DailyMail.com's request for comment.

Nor did representatives for Minaj and Petty.

Petty was arrested in March 2020 for failing to register as a sex offender in California

Like Petty and Minaj, Jennifer grew up in the South Jamaica neighborhood in Queens, where she was raised by a woman who adopted her as an infant, she told Daily Beast.

She was 16 when the alleged assault occurred after Petty approached her while she was walking to school on September 16, 1994.

Petty allegedly came up behind her, pressed an object into her back and told her to 'keep walking' as he led her to his home, according to court records obtained by The Blast.

Once they arrived, Petty forced her upstairs and began to rape her at knifepoint before she managed to escape after striking him with a bottle, the records state.

Jennifer immediately reported the incident and went to a hospital for examination. When she returned home she said her adoptive mother told her: 'Sorry you got raped, but you should have screamed.'

Petty denied Jennifer's allegations when he was arrested, telling investigators: 'I didn't do anything.'

His parents told Jennifer's mother that the teens were dating, she said, even though she insists that they weren't.

'I think I kind of always just felt like people wanted me to be a liar,' Jennifer told the Daily Beast in March.

Petty was ultimately convicted in 1995 on four counts: first-degree attempted rape in the first degree, second-degree assault, second-degree unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a weapon.

He was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

The victim first came forward with her alarming allegations in an interview with the Daily Beast in March, using only her first name, Jennifer

Minaj and her husband Kenneth Petty, pictured in February 2020 before his arrest in California, were accused of harassing the woman Petty attempted to rape in 1995

Minaj has repeatedly insisted that her husband was wrongfully convicted. They denied claims that they tried to bribe and threaten Hough

Minaj reportedly started dating Petty after he got out of prison, when he was 21 and she was just 16.

He landed back behind bars in 2006 after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the shooting death of Lamont Robinson. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and served seven before being released in 2013.

In 2019, he married Minaj, and the couple moved to California. They had a child together the following year.

Federal prosecutors said Petty has constantly been informed about the need to register as a sex offender ever since he was released from prison in 1999.

'Defendant has been completing sex offender registration documents for nearly 20 years,' prosecutors wrote in the recent filing.

'Over the course of two decades, he was repeatedly warned that if he moved to another state, it was his responsibility to follow any local, city, state, federal, or international laws regarding registration.'
A bus driver won a Fair Work unfair dismissal case following abuse she copped from a passenger after she she told him to wear his mask properly.

Amie Logsdon, 55, was vindicated by Fair Work Commissioner Bernie Riordan last month after her employer, Surfside Buslines, dismissed her days after she tried to eject the customer for abusive language.

Ms Logsdon told Commissioner Riordan the commuter had got on the Gold Coast bus without paying, sat in a disabled spot and wore a mask down below his chin.

After she asked him to cover his nose and mouth with the mask she said he replied, 'F*** off, Karen'.

Bus driver Amie Logsdon (pictured) won an uphill battle against her employer last month after she was shown the door when she tried to eject an abusive man who wouldn't wear his mask properly

The company said Translink regulation states bus drivers are required to wear masks but they are not required to enforce the mandate for passengers, adding Ms Logsdon could have avoided the clash

The passenger had told her he had an exemption and she asked him why he was even wearing a mask on his chin if that was the case.

The man said he had been seeing a friend in hospital.

After he swore at her she asked him to leave, which he refused to do.

She then called the bus control room and the police were notified before she asked all her passengers to get off the bus, arranging another service to pick them up.

The Queenslander admitted at the beginning of the pandemic tensions and anxieties were high, but she said she took those measures to protect her customers.

To her it was about 'looking after everyone'.

The Fair Work Commissioner Bernie Riordan said Ms Logsdon (pictured) was unfairly dismissed by Surfside Buslines and ordered her reinstatement to her job

'The vast majority of my passengers were wonderful people  the elderly who caught the bus every day, school kids who you want to look after  it's just a real slice of life at every stop,' Ms Logsdon told the Gold Coast Bulletin.

'Driving a bus really is a frontline job and you're on your own.

'It's tough when you're dealing with abuse or disrespect, but I actually really loved my job.'

Days later she was dismissed by the bus company for going beyond her job description by enforcing mask mandates, the Fair Work Commission hearing heard.

She was told her behaviour was not consistent with the company's policies and she should not have enforced the mandates on her bus route, citing she could have avoided the clash.

Bus staff are required to wear masks at work but they are not called on to enforce them with their passengers.

A complaint was made about her behaviour towards the customer and the bus service said she was let go for serious misconduct.

But the commissioner said there was no enforcement of mask wearing that day, instead Ms Logsdon was concerned for the health and safety of the commuters.

It was noted the bus driver had wanted to eject the customer over his abusive language and not for not wearing a mask properly.

The company was ordered to reinstate Ms Logsdon with ongoing work and backpay.

Translink and Surfside Buslines were contacted by Daily Mail for comment.
A howler of a Photoshop error has capped off a big week for Lisa Wilkinson's family after her daughter's news platform mixed up the German and Aboriginal flags.

Billi FitzSimons, the daughter of Wilkinson and Peter FitzSimons, has been editor of the 'social media first' outlet The Daily Aus since March.

And the 24-year-old faced her first big hurdle in the top job this week after The Guardian's media correspondent Amanda Meade reported that the website had Photoshopped the German flag on the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, rather than the Aboriginal flag.

Meanwhile - in what could only be dubbed suspicious timing - just a day later Ms FitzSimons posted a job listing looking for a fact checker who has 'meticulous attention to detail'.

A staffer at The Daily Aus Photoshopped the German flag for a story about the Aboriginal flag becoming a permanent addition to the Sydney Harbour Bridge

Lisa Wilkinson (left) and daughter Billi FitzSimons (right) have both worked as editors

The post was about the government's decision to fork out $25million to install the Aboriginal flag on top of the Sydney landmark.

In a statement, co-founder Sam Koslowski told Daily Mail Australia: 'It was a simple screw-up.

'One of our web designers was mocking up some new designs and inadvertently put a mock design up live.

'This was a design testing error and nothing to do with our editorial team. It was meant for internal design review only and was published in error.

'We have reviewed our internal design and testing processes so it doesnt happen again.'

In the wake of the error, Ms FitzSimons took to Twitter and LinkedIn on Thursday to publish the job listing.

It sought for a detail-oriented person that could 'critically examine sources'.

The Daily Aus describes itself as a site 'offering young Australians a digestible and engaging way to access the news'.

'Our objective is to provide the context to a news story making the rounds,' the site explains.

Ms FitzSimons took to Twitter to find a fact-checker with 'meticulous attention to detail' in the wake of the flag post

A blunder by Ms FitzSimon's mother Lisa was at the centre of national debate this week after The Project host's Logies-winning speech led to the trial of Brittany Higgins' accused rapist being delayed. Mr Lehrmann has denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty.

There were calls for Wilkinson to be charged with contempt of court after she mentioned alleged rape victim Higgins in her speech for winning the Outstanding News Coverage Logie award over her one-of-one interview with the former ministerial staffer in 2021.

The trial of the accused, Bruce Lehrmann, was pushed back until October, after ACT Chief Justice Lucy McCallum expressed concern Wilkinson's comments could prejudice jurors.

The trial relates to an alleged rape that Ms Higgins says occurred in Parliament House in 2019, which is denied by Lehrmann.

Justice McCallum decided to delay the trial 'regrettably and with gritted teeth' because 'somewhere in this debate, the distinction between an untested allegation and the fact of guilt has been lost'.

She noted public interest in the case needed to die down before Lehrmann would have access to a fair jury.

It has been a tough week for The Project star's family after Lisa found herself in legal trouble following her Logies acceptance speech

Network 10 announced that it hired high-profile lawyer Matthew Collins on behalf of the Network and Wilkinson just hours after Dr Collins criticised Wilkinson's speech on rival Chanel Seven's Sunrise morning show.

'It's certainly possible that the authorities will be looking at the speech she made to the Logies and assessing (whether) that speech went against the standard which applies in this branch of the law,' Dr Collins said.

'That standard is, did anything that she did have a tendency to interfere with the administration of justice?'

Network Ten said it 'fully supports Lisa Wilkinson' and confirmed Dr Collins was hired to represent it and Wilkinson.

'Both Network 10 and Lisa Wilkinson take their legal obligations very seriously, including in the preparation and delivery of her speech given at the Logies event.'

'In light of the continuing proceedings, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.'

Ten also fired a warning shot at news outlets reporting about the legal drama. 'This reporting is now causing significant harm and we ask these organisations to cease this harassment to allow Lisa the best opportunity to give her evidence in court and to enable the trial to go ahead in a fair and timely manner,' a spokesperson for the network said.

'We are closely monitoring all coverage of this issue and Lisa and Network 10 reserve their rights in respect of any future defamation claims.'

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Ms FitzSimons for comment.
The phrase a 'fixer-upper's dream' barely does justice to a derelict Sydney house that still comes with a potential $5million price-tag.

The four-bedroom house in the inner-city suburb of Annandale goes under the hammer in July with an auction guide price of $4.8million.

This is despite the insides looking more like a squalid squatter's haven then a multi-millionaire's refuge.

Despite its decaying condition this house in Sydney's inner-west is being sold for $4.8million

The front door at 137 Annandale St opens to reveal a dimly lit hallway with crumbling archways, mould-blackened stairs and doors.

One of the walls looks like it has been sand-blasted, an aesthetic duplicated in the upper levels of the house.

The walls of the house looks like they've been sand-blasted in this ultimate fixer-upper

The bathroom is not spacious but it has an interesting mismatched tile colour scheme

The brown lino appears to be lifting off the kitchen floor while some of the cupboards already appear to be half ripped out.

The cramped, cheap, motel-style bathroom has mismatched tiles on the shower base.

Cracks are apparent in the ceilings and walls, as is water damage.

The living room opens to the kitchen if you are game to walk over the carpets

The grubbiness of the walls and doors is matched by the grimy state of the worn carpets throughout.

Directly adjoining the back wall is a self-contained one-bedroom and extra living room extension, which has the jerry-rigged look of an old mining town hut.

Although its insides are nothing to rave about the house presents fairly well to the street

Along the back fence is a rusted roof corrugated iron shed that serves as the property's garage.

In fairness the Federation-style house presents with a reasonable front facade and is located in one of the most sought-after suburbs in Sydney's inner-west, where the median house price sale is currently $2.4million.

The extension at the back contains an extra bedroom and living room

The website listing describes it as a 'character-rich residence' with 'untapped possibilities and transformative scope' that 'will excite renovators'.

Selling agent Chris Nunn argued that the property's prime location and size justified the big asking price.

'For something to come up on one of the best streets in Annandale at 664sq m  it's a complete rarity,' Mr Nunn he told the Daily Telegraph.

He argued that the back structure could be knocked down and turned into a further extension or a studio apartment.

'Whoever buys that block, so long as they have the money to develop it, would want for nothing in terms of a bespoke family residence.' Mr Nunn said.

There is also the potential to subdivide the property, pending council approval.

The main house, however, which was likely built in the 1900s, will need to be preserved as it falls under a conservation area.
Dave Chappelle has purchased a block of land in the small Ohio town where he lives in an attempt to stop a building firm from constructing a $39million development in the area.

The new development would potentially have reached right up to the border of Chappelle's property, according to zoning plans.

But now it appears the comedian has purchased around 19 acres of land in Yellow Springs, which had previously been owned by Oberer Land Developers, Ltd.

Oberer's grand plans that would have occupied some 52 acres.

It's believed Chappelle owns the southern portion of the block of land in order to create some distance between his own property and any new construction that may arise.

Dave Chappelle has purchased a block of land in the small Ohio town where he lives in an attempt to block a building firm from constructing a $39million development in the area

Chappelle has now bought 19 acres of land in the small Ohio village of Yellow Springs where he lives and plans to build his own restaurant and comedy venue

In February, Dave Chappelle was emotional as he spoke at the Yellow Springs Village Council opposing a plan that he believes would be bad for the community, and also neighboring his own home

Chappelle's publicist told YSNews that Chappelle has bought some land, however they did not clarify how many acres in total the entertainer had purchased.

Some clues exist on the Greene County Auditor's Geographic Information Systems website which confirms 19 acres of land previously a part of Oberer's development plans are now instead linked to Iron Table Holdings LLC, Chappelle's company.

The website lists the price of the 15 parcels as $1,715,000. This is the price Oberer paid for the entire 52 acres in November 2020 from the previous owner.

It is not known how much Chappelle paid for his slice.

The remaining 33 acres is still held by Oberer, although it is now unclear exactly what the developer will have in mind for what is a greatly reduced plot of land.

In February Chapelle made clear of his strong opposition to the new housing development and threatened to pull millions of his investments from the village of 3,700 people, if the project moved forward.

But now it appears an agreement has been reached that has seen Chapelle purchase 19 acres of the land for himself in order to stop any future development on the plots closest to his own estate according to TMZ.

Although the local council had approved the development by Oberer to go ahead, Chappelle's purchase has now either blocked or at the very least curtailed some of those plans.

The new development would have potentially reached the border of Chappelle's property, according to zoning plans. Chappelle has now purchased the southern portion of this land

Chappelle, who is worth an estimated $50 million, lives on the outskirts of Yellow Springs on a 39-acre farm in a three-bedroom home which he bought for $690,000 in 2015.

The new development would have potentially reached the border of Chappelle's property, according to zoning plans.

Chappelle, meanwhile, has his own plan to covert an old fire station into a restaurant, called Firehouse Eatery, and comedy club, called Live from YS. He bought both properties for a combined $1.1 million in 2020.

Chappelle's company, Iron Table Holdings LLC, is spearheading the project.

WYSO, the National Public Radio affiliate located in Yellow Springs, also plans to move into offices in the former Union Schoolhouse, which Iron Table Holdings owns, in 2023.

An artists impression of the model neighborhood proposed for the Ohio village of 3,700

The development project he had opposed involved more than 100 homes priced from around $250,000 to $600,000, a massive project for the village and one that opponents say does not cater to those currently living there.

The plans would have consisted of 64 single-family homes, 52 duplexes and 24 townhomes with an additional 1.75 acres to be donated to the community for affordable housing to be built later, according to the Dayton Daily News.

Chappelle himself has not articulated the reason for his opposition to the development, but his ally in town has previously said that the project is designed to serve people from elsewhere in the county, rather than Yellow Springs.

'It's clearly not designed for the benefit of the villagers,' architect Max Crome, who works with Chappelle on his business interests in the village, told the Dayton Daily News

'The developers rushed the project, and got a sweetheart deal with council that was not properly vetted,' the person said. 'It doesn't even include affordable housing.'

Affordable housing should cost an average household one-third or less of its total income. The average household in Yellow Springs earns about $61,522-a-year and the average house price is about $215,000.

Chappelle has his own plans to convert a former fire station in town into a restaurant dubbed Firehouse Eatery and attached comedy club, Live From YS

The nightlife complex is being build on the site of an old fire station, but Chappelle was threatening to pull his investment if the housing plan went forward

The source close to Chappelle said that he opposed both of the plans, and argued that the underlying zoning rules were 'complex', and that the project would not necessarily be able to move forward along the original plan.

But he had previously spoken out saying that he was 'adamantly opposed' to the project as originally planned.

'I have invested millions of dollars in town. If you push this thing through, what I'm investing in is no longer applicable,' Chappelle said at a city council meeting last December.

He added that the average age in Yellow Springs is 49, and since there is no school in the area, it would be difficult to attract young families.

'The changes are inevitable, but we do have a decision on what they will or could be,' he said.

Chappelle's ties to Ohio go back to his father, who graduated from Antioch College, in Yellow Springs, and later was a professor there.

Chappelle lives with his family on 39 acres of secluded farmland outside the village and also owns homes in nearby Xenia.

In October last year, Chappelle faced backlash over transphobic comments he made in his October Netflix comedy special The Closer.

Chappelle courted controversy with his jokes in which he asserts 'gender is a fact,' and criticizes what he says is the thin skin of the trans community.

In the contentious special, Chappelle also jokes that women today view transwomen the same way black people might view white women wearing blackface, and remarked that women are entitled to feel anger toward transwomen, since Caitlyn Jenner won Glamour magazine's 2015 Woman of the Year award.

'I'd be mad as sh*t if I was a woman,' Chappelle says in the show.

The star also jokes about the anatomy of transwomen in the special, joking that they lacked real female reproductive organs and that they did not have blood but 'beet juice.

His comments and Netflix's refusal to pull the comedy special, The Closer, led to protests on the streets of Hollywood.

Netflix CEO, Ted Sarandos, initially defended Chappelle and said that it did not 'cross the line' on hate speech, despite various organizations including GLAAD and National Black Justice Coalition condemning the comedian's comments along with a number of trans Netflix employees.

By November, Chappelle had shrugged the controversy off, telling a sold-out 18,000-strong audience at a screening of his Untitled documentary at the Chase Center in San Francisco that 'it's been a hell of a few weeks'.

'Man, I love being canceled. It's a huge relief!' he joked.

He explained that he was able to ignore the controversy in part because 'I'm rich and famous.'

He added: 'When you're in the eye of the storm, it all just swirls around you.'
Democratic states with more restrictive gun laws were scrambling on Friday to begin the process of fighting back after a Supreme Court decision a day earlier that overturned New York's concealed carry laws.

The decision leaves them trying to figure out what concealed-carry controls they might still be able to impose, while also preparing to defend other gun control policies.

The Supreme Court delivered its opinion on a day that highlighted the deep divides in U.S. society about how to police firearms after the latest round of mass shootings.

Late on Thursday evening, the Senate passed a bipartisan bill with the most significant package of gun control measures in decades. It is expected to be passed by the Democratic-controlled House and signed into law in rapid style.

However, the language in the Supreme Court's majority opinion heightened concern that other state laws, from setting an age limit on gun purchases to banning high-capacity ammunition magazines, may now be in jeopardy.

The Supreme Court on Thursday delivered a decision welcomed by the gun rights lobby, striking down a New York law that imposed restrictions on 'concealed carry' firearms

Hunting and competition shooting guns are displayed for sale at SP firearms on Thursday, June 23, 2022, in Hempstead, New York. (AP Photo/Brittainy Newman)

'The court has basically invited open season on our gun laws, and so I expect litigation across the board,' said New Jersey acting Attorney General Matt Platkin, a Democrat.

'We're going to defend our gun laws tooth-and-nail because these gun laws save lives.'

The court ruling issued Thursday specifically overturned a New York law that had been in place since 1913 and required that people applying for a concealed carry permit demonstrate a specific need to have a gun in public, such as showing an imminent threat to their safety.

The court's conservative majority said that violated the Second Amendment, which they interpreted as protecting people's right to carry a gun for self-defense outside the home.

President Joe Biden said he was 'deeply disappointed' by the ruling, saying in a statement that it 'contradicts both common sense and the Constitution, and should deeply trouble us all.'

'I think it's a bad decision, I'm disappointed,' he told reporters in brief comments at the White House.

While the ruling does not address any other laws, the majority opinion opens the door for gun rights advocates to challenge them in the future, said Alex McCourt, the director of legal research for the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions.

Pro-firearms groups in several states said they plan to do just that.

Attorney Chuck Michel, president of the California Rifle and Pistol Association, said the group is preparing to expand its legal challenges based on the high court changing the legal standard used to assess whether gun control laws are constitutional.

Courts must now consider only whether a gun control regulation is consistent with the Second Amendment's actual text and its historical understanding, according to Thursday's ruling.

Salesman John Licata demonstrates a competition shooting gun at SP firearms on Thursday, June 23, 2022, in Hempstead, New York. (AP Photo/Brittainy Newman)

Before that, judges also could consider a state's social justification for passing a gun control law.

Michel said the standard will affect three prominent California laws. Legal challenges to the state's limits on assault weapons, its requirement for background checks for buying ammunition and its ban on online ammunition sales are pending before a federal appellate court.

'All of these laws should be struck down under this new Supreme Court standard,' he said.

The Supreme Court also is considering whether to take up California's law banning ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 bullets, as well as a similar law in New Jersey.

He expects the court may consider those laws under the new standard.

The new restrictive landscape for gun laws outlined in Thursday's majority opinion is not without escape routes for states, especially those that may want to impose some limits on concealed carry permits.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, said states still can require people to get a license to carry a gun and condition that on such things as background checks and mental health records. They also can limit where guns are allowed, suggesting that states can prohibit firearms in 'sensitive places' such as schools, courthouses or polling places.

That leaves an opening for governors and state lawmakers in New York and the six other states with similar concealed carry laws: California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island.

In California, lawmakers are amending legislation to expand the qualifications people must have to obtain a concealed carry permit and to define the places where guns would be off-limits.

The revised bill will get its first hearing Tuesday, and lawmakers hope to send it quickly to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who called Thursday's Supreme Court decision shameful.

Other Democratic governors, lawmakers and state attorneys general also vowed to defend or amend their gun laws.

Most state legislatures are finishing their sessions or have already ended for the year, so any response would likely have to wait until next year. Rhode Island Democratic state Rep. Robert Craven, an attorney, said he would study the opinion in the New York case to determine whether or not it creates a concern that Rhode Islands requirements could be challenged, and whether that can be remedied by legislation.

He questioned whether the high court will now employ a strict interpretation of the Second Amendment - that the right to bear arms is absolute - and apply it to other laws, such as those banning military-style weapons.

'I see the court headed in that direction,' Craven said.

John Parkin, co-owner of Coyote Point Armory displays a handgun at his store in Burlingame, Calif., Thursday, June 23, 2022. California's top law enforcement official said that he is working with the governor and legislative leaders on legislation to keep dangerous people from carrying concealed weapons in public, despite a U.S. Supreme Court decision that imperils the state's current law. (AP Photo/Haven Daley)

Tom Tomimbang, managing partner at the 808 Gun Club, shows off several small handguns inside his shop, Thursday, June, 23, 2022 in Honolulu. In a major expansion of gun rights after a series of mass shootings, the Supreme Court said Thursday that Americans have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defense. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)

In Hawaii, Democratic state Sen. Chris Lee said lawmakers will try to determine how else they can ensure public safety and will look at screening, training requirements and ways to keep guns out of certain public spaces - provisions the justices said would be permitted.

'Bottom line is Hawaii is about to become a more dangerous place,' said state Sen. Karl Rhoads, a Democrat.

'Hawaii will go from a place where the right to carry in public is the exception to a place where not having the right to carry on the street is an exception. I see no restriction on the type of firearm.'

Gun rights groups in Hawaii and elsewhere applauded the ruling. In Maryland, Mark Pennak, president of a gun rights group challenging that state's concealed carry law, said he's 'absolutely ecstatic' about the high courts decision because theres 'simply no way' the law can be defended any longer.

The Democratic leaders of the Maryland General Assembly said that if necessary, they will pass legislation that complies with the new precedent but still protects residents.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, criticized the court's opinion for limiting how states can address the proliferation of firearms in public, but vowed to protect the state's gun control measures. He said his administration believes the state can still regulate who can carry concealed weapons and where they can take them.

He vowed that his administration 'will do everything in our power to protect our residents.'
The mother of a 21-year old who was allegedly murdered by her ex has made a plea for people to stop avoiding her, saying their attempts to stay away only 'makes it worse'.

Tabitha Acret, from Newcastle, was holidaying in Cairns in March when she was told her daughter Mackenzie Anderson had allegedly been stabbed to death by her ex-partner.

Ms Acret said one of the most difficult things she had endured in the three months since her daughter died was the way other people reacted.

'By profession, I'm a dental hygienist and a professional speaker. I used to get swamped with people, now I see them walk in the opposite direction,' Ms Acret told MamaMia.

'I'm still a person after this. Don't avoid me. I know you may feel sad or worried about what to say, but keeping your distance makes it worse.'

Tabitha Acret (left) pleaded for people to stop distancing themselves from her following the death of her daughter Mackenzie Anderson (right)

Ms Anderson was allegedly murdered by her ex-boyfriend Tyrone Thompson at her unit on Crebert Street in Mayfield, Newcastle, at 10.40pm on March 25.

Police allege Thompson stabbed her more than 20 times.

Her two-year-old son was found nearby, unharmed but covered in her blood.

Ms Anderson was allegedly murdered by her ex-boyfriend Tyrone Thompson at her unit in Newcastle. Police allege he stabbed her more than 20 times

Less than a week after her daughter's alleged murder, Ms Acret opened up about her 'new reality' and the 'overwhelming sadness' she was experiencing.

'We tragically lost our beautiful little girl,' Ms Acret wrote on Instagram on March 30.

'No parent should have to bury a child and this is sadly our new reality... It's been an overwhelming sadness that is in our hearts at the moment.'

Ms Acret (right) was holidaying in Cairns when she found out her daughter had died

In a previous interview with Daily Mail Australia, the boy's godmother said Mackenzie's boy was being cared for by family and getting lots of cuddles.

'He is safe,' Alice McEvoy said.

'He's asking for mumma but he's safe and getting lots of cuddles.'

Thompson has been charged with Mackenzie's murder, aggravated enter dwelling with intent and breach AVO.

On the day of Ms Anderson's death, it's understood she spent several hours drinking and socialising with Thompson.

He is reported to have left the home but returned some hours later, allegedly entering Ms Anderson's unit 'without her permission'.

Ms Anderson called cops to notify them that Thompson was allegedly breaching the AVO, but by the time they arrived - only minutes later - she had allegedly been stabbed 20 times and died at the scene.

Police allege Thompson was still at the scene and had cuts and damage to his hands.

He was arrested and taken to John Hunter Hospital.
The father of the 18-year-old killed after a Bronx man plowed into a crowd in Times Square, injuring 22 others, slammed the jury's verdict that the man was not responsible for his crime by reason of insanity.

Thomas Elsman, father of Alyssa, called Richard Rojas, 31, a 'clown' who knew what he was doing when he drove into the New York City crowd on May 18, 2017, killing Alyssa.

'This jury saw a different trial than I witnessed,' Thomas told DailyMail.com. 'This clown knew exactly what he was doing hence why he lied about being on PCP.

'He knew he was going to be in trouble and was looking for a scapegoat for his behavior. That's intent, that's malice.

'I hope someone in Rikers does the right thing before he is transferred to his new cozy room. What a piece of s**t.'

Rojas, who suffers from schizophrenia, learned of his fate in Manhattan's Supreme Court on June 22.

Rojas, a US Navy veteran and native of The Bronx, had pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, 18 counts of attempted murder and 38 counts of assault.

The jury deliberated for six hours in the case before accepting Rojas' lawyer, Enrico Demarco's, argument that his client was so mentally disturbed he didn't understand what he was doing.

The several week long trial revolved around Rojas' mental state at the time of the horrific incident where he killed 18-year-old Alyssa Elsman and injured 22 others when he blowed into a street full of people in Times Square in 2017

Alyssa (pictured) was on vacation in New York City at the time of her death. Her father, Thomas, slammed the jury's decision that Rojas was not not responsible for his crime by reason of insanity and called for justice for his late daughter

Alyssa Elsman, 18 (front left) pictured with her family in Times Square. She was killed when Rojas ran her over and maimed her little sister

Demarco described the verdict saying: 'The verdict, whether it would have been not guilty or guilty, it's not going to bring that poor young woman back so.'

He continued: 'This, I think, is the right, humane verdict.'

Judge Daniel Conviser said that Rojas will undergo further psychiatric examinations before he is sentenced to an institution. He could have faced life in prison.

The judge said that Rojas qualifies for an extended 'involuntary mental commitment.' A further hearing on the terms of his confinement will be held on June 23.

The several weeks long trial revolved around Rojas' mental state at the time of the horrific incident.

Avoiding jail time due to mental health issues is extremely rare in the United States. Often, suspects are found to be mentally ill but still forced to undergo a regular criminal trial.

In most cases, a person found not responsible due to mental defect, will be ordered to a facility for the same amount of time as their likely prison sentence.

In most cases, a person found not responsible due to mental defect, will be ordered to a facility for the same amount of time as their likely prison sentence

Rojas' attorney Enrico Demarco said that the verdict was 'right and humane'

In the aftermath of the verdict, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement: 'Our condolences continue to be with the family, friends and loved ones of Alyssa Elsman, who suffered a terrible and tragic loss, and all of the victims of this horrific incident.'

Elsman was with her family on vacation from Michigan when Rojas committed his horrific act. Her sister, Ava, suffered serious injuries including a broken pelvis and collapsed lung.

Prior to the verdict, Elsman's father, told the CW7 in Michigan what he thought about Rojas' insanity defense.

He said: 'I don't buy it. I just don't. We all have bad days buy you don't get permission to take your car and do a U-turn over three lanes of traffic and ride three blocks through Times Square.'

Thomas =continued: 'That was calculated, he knew exactly what the hell he was doing, end of story.'

In a separate interview with the New York Post, Thomas Elsman said: 'You killed my daughter and my other daughter has scars for the rest of her life, let alone she doesn't have her sister with her so that's it, that's it.'

A breakdown of the Rojas' attack and his victims from the New York City district attorney's office

A breakdown of the Rojas' attack and his victims from the New York City district attorney's office. Rojas killed an 18-year-old girl and injured 22 others during the attack

Prosecutor Alfred Peterson said during the trial that it was 'impossible' for Rojas not to know what he was doing when he plowed his car into the crowd.

Peterson said, despite this, 'He didn't stop.'

In his closing statement to the judge, Peterson said that he accepted Rojas was in the middle of psychotic episode when the crash occurred, but that the video proved he was in control of his actions as he maneuvered his vehicle on the sidewalk.

Peterson added: 'The defendant made a decision that day,' the prosecutor, Peterson, said. 'He made a choice.  He went to the 'crossroads of the world,' a high profile place where everyone knows there's lots and lots of people.'

Rojas' lawyer had earlier showed jurors videos showing Rojas emerging from the car after the incident saying: 'What happened? Oh my God, what happened?'

During the trial, Rojas' brother, Wilmer Varas testified that the killer began developing mental health issues at the age of 11, fifteen years before the attack in Times Square at the age of 26.

Varas said that Rojas would speak in tongues and complained of hearing voices in his head.

A psychiatrist who evaluated Rojas during the investigation said in the trial that the former Navy sailor gave the name 'James' to the voice in his head.

Following the attack, Rojas told a traffic cop: 'You were supposed to shoot me! I wanted to kill them all.'

Another startling testimony in the trial came from Ava Elsman, who told the jury: 'I just looked up and I saw the car turn and that was the last thing I saw.'

'I was in and out of consciousness,' Ava said, according to the New York Post. 'Someone told me to put my leg down or I would bleed out.'

She suffered broken ribs, a collapsed lung, a fractured pelvis and compound fractures in her leg. She remembered 'just trying to lay there [and] not die.'

One of Rojas' victims, New Jersey then-high school student Jessica Williams, was cutting class at the time of his rampage. Williams was left 'basically cut in half' by his car, prosecutors.

Shocking photos show the moment the SUV plowed into pedestrians on the sidewalk in Times Square in 2017, killing an 18-year-old and injuring 22 others

A smashed car sits on the corner of Broadway and 45th Street in New York's Times Square after an SUV barreled into the crowded area in 2017

Richard Rojas pictured during his arraignment in July 2017

Prosecutors say Rojas drove his car from the Bronx, where he lived with his mother, through Times Square on May 18, 2017, then made a U-turn.

He then steered his car onto a sidewalk, and roared back up the sidewalk for three blocks before he crashed his car into protective barriers.

Photographers snapped pictures of a wild-eyed Rojas after he climbed from the wrecked car and ran through the street waving his arms.

At the time, the U.S. Navy veteran told police after his arrest that he had been smoking marijuana laced with the hallucinogenic drug PCP before the incident, authorities said.

In 2012, he was arrested and accused of beating a cab driver whom he said had disrespected him by trying to charge too much, according to the arrest report. The arresting officer said Rojas screamed, 'My life is over!' as he was being detained. After his arrest, Rojas told the officer he was going to kill all police and military police he might see after his release from jail, the Jacksonville sheriff's office report stated.

Alan Ceballos, an attorney who represented Rojas in that case, said the state charges were dropped after the military stepped in to take jurisdiction over the criminal case.

Navy records show that in 2013 Rojas spent two months at a naval prison in Charleston, South Carolina. He was discharged in 2014 as the result of a special court martial, a Navy official said.

Rojas enlisted in the Navy in 2011 and served for part of 2012 aboard the USS Carney, a destroyer. Rojas spent his final months in the Navy at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida.




South Korea posted a record current account surplus with the United States and Southeast Asia in 2021 on brisk demand for semiconductors and other key products, but its shortfall with the Middle East widened sharply on soaring oil prices, the central bank said Friday.







The current account surplus with the U.S. totaled $44.96 billion last year, compared with a $32.8 billion surplus the previous year, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK), surpassing the previous record of $41.5 billion in 2014.







The country's overall current account surplus rose to $88.3 billion in 2021 from $75.9 billion a year earlier.







South Korea also registered a record current account surplus of $102.5 billion with Southeast Asian nations last year, up sharply from the previous year's $79.2 billion.







Seoul's current account surplus with China, its top export market, expanded to $23.61 billion in 2021 from $17.25 billion.







The current account balance with the European Union swung to a $1.27 billion surplus from a $5.9 billion shortfall thanks to brisk exports of chemicals, ships and autos.







Meanwhile, South Korea's current account deficit with the Middle East ballooned to $48 billion last year from $28.26 billion a year earlier on surging crude prices; with its shortfall with Japan rising to $22.14 billion from $20.22 billion, according to the BOK. (Yonhap)






The judge overseeing Christopher Michael Dawson's murder trial has questioned how he should use a multitude of evidence in the case that implied a violent and abusive marriage.

On Friday, Justice Ian Harrison mentioned that testimony and statements in the case claimed Lynette Dawson had been seen with bruises or black eyes, but did not actually point to who caused those injuries.

'In my perception, there are no bright lights shining in this area. It's all a bit dark and dingy and I might need some particular help,' he said.

Even if 53 witnesses came forward saying Mrs Dawson had bruises but could not say who caused them, the judge asked what he needed to consider to determine that Dawson was actually the culprit.

'It's a very, very troubling issue,' he said.

Chris Dawson (left) leaves the NSW Supreme Court in Sydney on Friday. He has pleaded not guilty to killing his wife in 1982

Lynnette, 33, vanished from her home in Bayview on Sydney's northern beaches

Crown prosecutor Craig Everson SC dodged answering the question, saying the judge instead had to look at the murder charge and whether the evidence presented proved the elements of this offence.

The prosecution has brought forward a parade of witnesses in the NSW Supreme Court alleging Dawson had a tendency to act violently or aggressively towards his wife, although this has been disputed in testimony by family members.

Although a body has never been found, Dawson, now 73, is accused of murdering his wife and disposing of her body in January 1982 so he could have an unfettered relationship with a woman known as JC who was his babysitter and former high school student.

He has pleaded not guilty and denies any involvement in his wife's disappearance.

Also on Friday, the court heard more evidence of an alleged conversation in which Dawson asked fellow rugby league player Robert Silkman if he knew someone to get rid of his wife in 1975.

The discussion allegedly took place on a crowded plane flight from the Gold Coast to Sydney when Silkman was seated next to friend Ray Lee.

Silkman, who has a number of convictions for theft and one for arson, previously gave evidence of the conversation.

He claims Dawson talked to him whilst kneeling down in the aisle of the plane after the Newtown Jets' Gold Coast holiday where they had watched Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in the fight billed as the Thrilla in Manila.

Mr Lee, who was born in 1955, said on Friday that he did not remember the purported discussion, despite Silkman claiming he was seated next to him at the time, but said he discussed the topic with his friend later while in his 20s.

Dawson's solicitor Greg Walsh suggested a conversation in which someone asks about getting rid of their wife would be something one would never forget.

'Yeah, you would think so,' Mr Lee replied.



Dawson, 73, is accused of murdering his wife Lynette and disposing of her body in January 1982 so he could have an unfettered relationship with a woman known as JC who was his babysitter and former high school student

The court also heard on Friday that a witness couldn't recall if he heard Dawson ask if he knew someone who could 'get rid of' Lynette

Detective Senior Constable Mark O'Reilly met security guard Silkman while they were both working at the Qudos Bank Arena. He told the court that in September 2018 Silkman told him about the alleged plane conversation.

He said he had not discussed the topic of a reward for information, which was $200,000 in January 2014, with Silkman at any time.

Silkman has previously been accused by Dawson's legal counsel of making the story up to receive the reward money.

Mr Lee admitted Silkman was a scallywag but denied suggestions his friend was a 'big-noter', or someone who exaggerates their stories.

Author Rebecca Hazel returned to the witness box on Friday afternoon and cross-examined about interviews she had done with former detective Damian Loone in 2012.

In those interviews Mr Loone, who investigated Mrs Dawson's disappearance from 1998 to 2015, said that after he had spoken to JC, he was sure that Dawson was a murderer and that his gut instincts were never wrong.

'As I get older, I'm more determined. Everyone knows me. Everyone knows I'm after him,' she quoted him as saying.

In February 2019, Ms Hazel published a book on Chris and Lynette Dawson and JC titled, The Schoolgirl, Her Teacher And His Wife.

The trial continues on Monday.
A massive Russian Il-76 cargo plane has crashed en route to Ukraine, killing four crew, as it exploded into a huge fireball in the sky.

The Ilyushin-76 was attempting an emergency landing in Ryazan shortly after refuelling in the city.

But the plane erupted in flames as it flew overhead while on a flight to supply Vladimir Putin's war effort.

A massive Russian Il-76 cargo plane has crashed en route to Ukraine, killing four crew, as it exploded into a huge fireball in the sky

The Ilyushin-76 (file image) was attempting an emergency landing in Ryazan shortly after refuelling in the city

A dramatic video shows a burning Russian military transport plane crash-landing on

As it landed behind residential tower blocks it explodes in flames and smoke, killing at least four of the nine crew.

Others remain in a 'grave' situation in hospital.

Voices filming the stricken plane are heard saying: 'Its all in flames, look.'

And: 'It's flying at us So scary, it's flying at us It's going to hit the houses, look

'This is it (the plane hits the ground).'

As it landed behind residential tower blocks it explodes in flames and smoke, killing at least four of the nine crew

The plane erupted in flames as it flew overhead while on a flight to supply Vladimir Putin's war effort

The Ilyushin was en route from Orenburg to Belgorod, close to the war zone, when it crashed.

Reports say it suffered engine failure following the refuelling stop but a full investigation is underway.

Belgorod is the capital of a Russian region of the same name bordering Ukraine.

The three who died at the crash site were named as Vladimir Petrushin, Nikolai Gorbunov, and Dmitry Andreev.

One more crew member died in hospital.

Such Ilyushin aircraft have been used in recent months for transporting military equipment to the war zone.

Ryazan is 125 miles southeast of Moscow and not close to the war zone.

The three who died at the crash site were named as Vladimir Petrushin, Nikolai Gorbunov, and Dmitry Andreev, while another died in hospital

The city is a key base for Russian paratroopers, who have suffered significant losses in the war in Ukraine.

The crash site field was near shops and residential buildings but there were understood to be no casualties on the ground.

The cause of the crash was under investigation early today.

It comes as Ukrainian forces will retreat from Severodonetsk in the face of a brutal Russian offensive that is reducing the battleground city to rubble, a senior Ukrainian official said today.

The news came shortly after the European Union made a strong show of support for Ukraine, granting the former Soviet republic candidate status, although there is still a long path ahead to membership.

Capturing Severodonetsk, in the Donbas region, has become a key goal of the Russians as they focus their offensive on eastern Ukraine after being repelled from Kyiv following their February invasion.

The strategically important industrial hub has been the scene of weeks of street battles as the outgunned Ukrainians put up a fierce defence.

An aerial view of destroyed houses near Hostomel Avenue as the war between Russia and Ukraine continues in Irpin

But Sergiy Gaiday - governor of Lugansk, which includes the city - said the Ukrainian military would have to retreat.

'They have received an order to do so,' he said on Telegram.

'Remaining in positions that have been relentlessly shelled for months just doesn't make sense.'

The city has been 'nearly turned to rubble' by continual bombardment, he added.

'All critical infrastructure has been destroyed. Ninety percent of the city is damaged, 80 percent (of) houses will have to be demolished,' he said.

The Ukrainians had already been pushed back from much of the city, leaving them in control of only industrial areas.

Capturing Severodonetsk and its twin city of Lysychansk would give the Russians control of Lugansk, and allow them to push further into the wider Donbas.

Gaiday said the Russians were now advancing on Lysychansk, which has been facing increasingly heavy Russian bombardment.

AFP journalists driving out of the city Thursday twice had to jump out of cars and lie on the ground as Russian forces shelled the city's main supply road.

They saw dark smoke rising over the road ahead, and heard artillery fire and saw flashes of light, while the road was strewn with trees felled by shelling.

Russia continued its massive assault in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region today on the four-month anniversary of Putin launching his savage invasion

A woman walks past a shell crater in front of a damaged residential building in the town of Siversk, Donetsk

The situation for those that remain in the city was increasingly bleak.

Liliya Nesterenko said her house had no gas, water or electricity and she and her mother were cooking on a campfire. She was cycling along the street, and had come out to feed a friend's pets.

But the 39-year-old was upbeat about the city's defences: 'I believe in our Ukrainian army, they should (be able to) cope.

'They've prepared already.'

A representative of pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine earlier told AFP the resistance of Ukrainian forces trying to defend Lysychansk and Severodonetsk was 'pointless and futile'.

'At the rate our soldiers are going, very soon the whole territory of the Lugansk People's Republic will be liberated,' said Andrei Marochko, a spokesman for the Moscow-backed army of Lugansk.

With Ukraine pleading for accelerated weapon deliveries, the United States announced it was sending another $450 million in fresh armaments, including Himars rocket systems.

The systems can simultaneously launch multiple precision missiles at an extended range.

At a Brussels summit Thursday, EU leaders granted candidate status to Ukraine, as well as Moldova.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the news as 'a unique and historic moment', adding: 'Ukraine's future is within the EU.'

French President Emmanuel Macron said the decision by EU leaders sent a 'very strong signal' to Russia that Europeans support the pro-Western aspirations of Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin had declared Ukraine to be part of Moscow's sphere and insisted he was acting due to attempts to bring the country into NATO, the Western alliance that comes with security guarantees.

European powers before the invasion had distanced themselves from US support for Ukraine's NATO aspirations, and EU membership is at least years away.

Ukraine and Moldova will have to go through protracted negotiations and the European Union has laid out steps that Kyiv must take even before that, including bolstering the rule of law and fighting corruption.

Western officials have also accused Russia of weaponising its key exports of gas as well as grain from Ukraine, contributing to global inflation and rising hunger in the world.

A US official warned of new retaliatory measures against Russia at the Group of Seven summit being attended by President Joe Biden in Germany starting Sunday.

Germany ratcheted up an emergency gas plan to its second alert level, just one short of the maximum that could require rationing in Europe's largest economy, after Russia slashed supplies.

'Gas is now a scarce commodity,' German Economy Minister Robert Habeck told reporters, urging households to cut back on use.

Demand for gas is lower in the summer but shortages could cause problems with heating in the winter.

A Kremlin spokesman reiterated its claim that the supply cuts were due to maintenance and that necessary equipment from abroad had not arrived.
JK Rowling has backed a young British man in a freedom of speech row after Twitter deleted his account of how he was 'castrated' during gender reassignment surgery that has prompted him to sue the NHS over the operation in a historic legal action.

The man has claimed that doctors did not warn him of the drastic outcome of the body-altering surgery which has left him infertile, incontinent, with no sensation in his crotch and feeling like a sexual eunuch.

He said on Twitter: The minute I woke up from surgery, I knew I had made the biggest mistake of my life.

I cannot believe they [the NHS] were allowed to do this to me. I was not even asked if I wanted to freeze my sperm, or have kids in the future. He does not want to be named because he is ashamed of how he looks. Instead, he tweets under the pseudonym TullipR.

Campaigners say that it is the first medical negligence case over NHS transgender care in this country. The NHS trust involved has not been named.

Many of his tweets describing his ordeal were deleted - but in a show of support JK Rowling shared them with her 13.9million followers on Twitter.

Sharing the harrowing details of the case, Ms Rowling claimed they were removed after reports from other Twitter users. The author's intervention gained thanks from TullipR, whose case has been taken on by lawyers in Liverpool.

MailOnline has attempted to contact the social media firm to confirm why the tweets were deleted in the first place.

The unnamed man is suing the NHS alleging that doctors did not warn him of the drastic outcome of the body-altering surgery which has left him infertile, incontinent and feeling like a sexual eunuch

JK Rowling shared his thread of tweets describing his ordeal that were deleted

Ms Rowling has come under fire for her public views on trans and gender issues

Stephanie Davies-Arai, founder of Transgender Trend, a group advising parents on transgender children and young adults, said: It is hoped this will force a re-think by the NHS about this kind of barbaric surgery on patients who are told by medics it will help them.

He has a very real case for compensation against the heath service. We believe he has suffered harm.

The case centres on whether the NHS and its gender clinics adequately counselled him before the operation five years ago. The patient, in his thirties, was brought up in the North of England and has de-transitioned from being a woman to live as a man again.

The man says he is gay and his sexuality should have been discussed before the radical, irreversible gender surgery. I have been castrated. That is the correct term, he says on his Twitter feed, which has 19,000 followers.

Yesterday, he posted a picture of his huge bundle of medical notes which will be used by his lawyers to bring the case against the NHS.

TullipR says he transitioned at 25, more than a decade ago, and started taking female hormones to feminise his body. This was followed by surgery when he underwent an NHS operation called penile inversion with scrotal graft which removes male genitalia and uses the tissue to construct a false vagina.

Stephanie Davies-Arai, founder of Transgender Trend (pictured) says the anonymous man 'has a very real case for compensation against the heath service'

He says he grew up in the North East of England. I knew deep down from a young age I was gay and was deeply terrified of it, he says in his tweets describing his past. Everyone in the family joked and expressed disgust and disapproval of gay people.

He withdrew into an online world where he felt at peace. There, at 23, he found discussions about gender dysphoria, the fear of living in the wrong sexual body. Thats me, I thought.

He found an internet forum called Angels which was directed at trans women  men who wish to be women.

They urged him to transition now, before it was too late. He says that he latched on to the idea with zeal.

He took female hormone drugs prescribed by his GP and an adult NHS gender clinic, to suppress his male characteristics and look feminine. But when a NHS psychiatrist asked him if he wanted gender reassignment surgery (GRS), he delayed for two years because he had doubts.

Worried that if he refused he would be denied NHS treatment for his gender problems, he finally agreed.

His tweets explain: Eventually I found myself on the operating table. Immediately on waking up from surgery, I knew I had made the biggest mistake of my life.

My sex had been lobotomised.

After surgery, he confronted his GP about his doubts.

Campaigners say that it is the first medical negligence case over NHS transgender care in this country (Stock image)

He claims they shrugged and said there was no guidance for those who regretted the surgery and treatment. The tweets go on: I have no sensation in my crotch region at all. You could stab me with a knife. I wouldnt know. The entire region is numb. No one ever told me that the base area of your penis is left. It cant be removed. It means you have a stump inside which twitches.

TullipR says his sex drive died about six months after he began taking female hormones.

I was glad to be rid of it, but now... I realise what I am missing and I wont get back.

He describes the living nightmare of waking up and forgetting that he has lost his penis and scrotum. I expect something that was there for three decades, and its not. My heart skips a beat, every damn time.

In the tweets, he describes how the operation has left him struggling to relieve himself. It takes me about 10 minutes to empty my bladder. It is extremely slow, painful, and because it dribbles... it will then go all over the entire area, leaving me soaking.

I find moments later my underwear is wet. It slowly drips out for more than an hour. I never knew that I would risk smelling of p*** everywhere I go.

According to the NHS last year, 13,500 people were waiting for an initial appointment for gender identity treatment which can lead to reassignment surgery.

The clinic with the shortest waiting time for a first appointment was the flagship Tavistock and Portman Clinic in north-west London which was, at the time, nearly three years.
The fiancee of Katie Price's ex-husband told a court today how a 'vile and nasty' message from the former glamour model left her 'scared and vulnerable'.

Price faced the prospect of jail today after admitting breaching a restraining order by sending a text to Kieran Hayler, branding Michelle Penticost a 'gutter s**g'.

The 44-year-old former I'm A Celeb star was banned from contacting Miss Penticost directly or indirectly for five years in June 2019 after hurling a foul-mouthed 'tirade of abuse' at her during a row in a school playground.

The message read: 'Tell your c***ing w***e piece of s**t girlfriend not to start on me.

'She has a restraining order so shouldn't try antagonise me as she is in breach and I'm sure she doesn't want people knowing that she was having an affair with you behind my back. That gutter s**g.'

Today, Price was back at Lewes Crown Court for sentencing, after pleading guilty to the charge at a previous hearing.

In a victim impact statement read to the court today, Ms Penticost said the impact of the restraining order breach by Price had a 'devastating effect' on her mental wellbeing.

She said: 'The impact of what Katie has done is very upsetting, I feel threatened and intimidated.

'I feel demoralised and not wanting to go out. The language used made me feel scared. I felt it was an attack on me.

'The consequences are I feel she will attack me. I felt by having a restraining order it would make me feel safe but by someone breaching it it has made me feel very vulnerable.'

Nicholas Hamblin, representing Price, said his client had pleaded guilty to the breach but she had been under a 'misunderstanding' that the restraining order 'worked both ways'.

He added: 'She has shown signs of remorse, she accepts an indirect breach.'

Katie Price (pictured arriving at court with fiancee Carl Woods) could finally be sent to prison today after breaching a restraining order by sending a 'vile and nasty' message to her ex-husband, while serving a suspended sentence for drink-driving

The 44-year-old former glamour model was arrested by police after she allegedly sent a message to Kieran Hayler branding his new fiancee, Michelle Penticost (pictured together), a 'gutter s**g'

Mr Hamblin said that Price had sought help for her emotional problems at the Priory Clinic.

He said she suffered from a 'depressive disorder and anxiety', and added: 'Miss Price is learning to cope with her emotional problems and to not react in the way she has in this case.'

He continued: 'She has two different personalities, the public one and the vulnerable one of being in the public eye and every day in the public eye no matter what she does.

'It's perhaps a case of building someone up only to knock them down.'

He added that 'there was a lot of good to be said' for Price and she was considered in a probation report to be at 'low risk of reoffending'.

Price was arrested at her home by officers at around 5.45pm on January 21 and taken to Worthing police station.

After a 12-hour interrogation she was released, though not before officers confiscated her phone, which they examined for evidence.

At an earlier hearing Crawley Magistrates Court was told Price sent the 'vile and nasty' message after Michelle Penticost uploaded an Instagram post about how to deal with people who were treating you badly.

The court heard there was a history of 'clear antagonism' between Miss Price and Miss Penticost.

Last year Price was handed a 16 week suspended sentence after crashing her BMW X5 while drunk last September.

Price then dodged a potential jail term in January after 7,358 fines she owed for driving offences were paid at the last minute.

She now faces a fresh allegation of speeding which is due to be heard before magistrates in July.

Earlier this year Price again avoided jail after striking a last-minute deal to pay off her bankruptcy debts.

The 44-year-old was scheduled to appear before the High Court to explain why she hadn't paid back 2.3m she owed after being declared bankrupt in 2019.

But the former model had her bankruptcy hearing postponed for a second time after agreeing an 11th-hour deal to pay back the money.

It comes after Price was pictured cutting a solemn figure as she left her make-up masterclass in London after a low turnout last night.

The former glamour model has been hosting masterclasses for fans around the country as of late, also taking part in a class in Leicester on Wednesday afternoon.

She was picked up from former Big Brother star Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace's Fakin' It salon by fiance Carl Woods, 33, after the class.

Heading home: Katie Price, 44, cut a solemn figure as she left her make-up masterclass in London after a low turnout on Thursday

On tour: The former glamour model has been hosting masterclasses for fans around the country as of late, also taking part in a class in Leicester on Wednesday afternoon

Ready to roll: She was picked up from former Big Brother star Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace's Fakin' It salon by fiance Carl Woods, 33, after the class

Tutorial: Some fans were seen posing for pictures outside the salon before the event on Thursday

Hidden: Former I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! campmate Katie appeared to have only a handful of attendees for her London outing, with Aisleyne keeping her covered before she left

Price was seen laden with pink and red gift bags and a beige featured handbag as she left the shop.

She wore a brown tracksuit with a short-sleeved top and a pair of pink trainers with white souls.

The former Celebrity Big Brother winner shielded her eyes behind a pair of sunglasses as she made her way to Woods' car.

The former I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! campmate appeared to have only a handful of attendees for her London outing, with some fans posing for pictures outside the salon before the event.

She was seen gathering her belongings inside the salon after hosting the masterclass.

Price admitted earlier this year she 'hit rock bottom' after her horrific drink and drug- fuelled crash.

In scenes from her Channel 4 series Katie Price's Mucky Mansion, the star breaks her silence on the crash, which saw her handed a 16-week suspended sentence and two-year driving ban.

Katie tells the camera that she 'could have killed someone or myself' when she flipped her uninsured BMW X5 into a hedge, while disqualified and under the influence on a country lane near the Sussex home that features in her new series.

Price was arrested after crashing her car near Partridge Green in West Sussex last September

It needs some work: The reality star took centre stage in the three-part series broadcast just five days after she was arrested on suspicion of breaching her restraining order (her mansion is pictured ahead of the renovations)

In the upcoming scenes, Katie is seen returning to her home to resume the makeover after the September crash, as the voiceover reveals she has competed 30 days in a mental health facility.

She tells the camera: 'I mean I can deal with a lot of things, stress, pressure, I breathe that. Behind closed doors there's drama, no ones life is perfect.

'When it hits me personally, that's what I can't deal with. I regret getting in the car, I could have killed someone. I could have killed myself. My kids might not have had a mum. It's awful.

'I was rock bottom at that point. It was a wake up call. I don't want to be in that situation again. In fact I don't want to be in a situation where I feel that sad inside that I need to just go and do something, be destructive and hurt people around me because I don't know how to cope with it.

'I have now decided to see a therapist every week for the rest of my life and put my hand up and say yeah I need help, help me.'
The father of a young murder victim was caught on camera charging through an Ohio courtroom in a bid to attack the man accused of killing his son.

Footage shows Antonio Hughes walking from the back row of the Hamilton County courtroom up to the defense table where murder suspect Desean Brown, 22, was sitting.

Brown is accused of stabbing Nyteisha Lattimore, 29, to death in December 2020 before throwing her son Nylo, three, into the Ohio River and leaving him to drown. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

Hughes has not been charged but was escorted out of the courtroom by police.

The father of a young murder victim was caught on camera charging through an Ohio courtroom in a bid to attack the man accused of killing his son

Hughes approaches Brown from behind and starts to grab him as Brown's lawyers begin to notice

Once Hughes had crept up behind Brown he smacked him in the face with a right hook and didn't stop punching him until two deputies wrestled him to the ground

It took four officers to tackle him to the ground and stop him from assaulting the suspected child killer

Cincinnati police detectives told a judge earlier this month Brown killed Lattimore because she had a miscarriage of a baby he thought was his

Brown is accused of stabbing Nyteisha Lattimore, 29, to death in December 2020 before throwing her son Nylo (pictured), three, into the Ohio River and leaving him to drown. He could face the death penalty if convicted

Footage shows Antonio Hughes walking from the back row of the Hamilton County courtroom up to the defense table where murder suspect Desean Brown, 22, was sitting

Hughes creeps up behind Brown and smacks him in the face with a right hook

Once Hughes had crept up behind Brown he smacked him in the face with a right hook and didn't stop punching him until two deputies wrestled him to the ground.

And even after he had been handcuffed Hughes continued to lunge at the alleged murderer.

It took four officers to tackle him to the ground and stop him from assaulting the suspected child killer.

Brown is believed to have planned the murder of Lattimore for months, according to the Cincinnati Inquirer.

Hughes didn't stop punching him until two deputies wrestled him to the ground

And even after he had been handcuffed Hughes continued to lunge at the alleged murderer

He is then accused of waiting days before putting her dead body in a bag and getting an Uber to drive him to the Ohio River, telling the driver he was just hauling clothes across town.

Lattimores body was found near the Purple People Bridge on December 12, 2020, the newspaper reported.

Cops said Nylo's blood was found on a Paw Patrol blanket.

Cincinnati police detectives told a judge earlier this month Brown killed Lattimore because she had a miscarriage of a baby he thought was his, WCPO 9 reported.

Nylos body has not been recovered.
An unrepentant mother of two threw up her arms in celebration and enjoyed drinks in the pub - just minutes after escaping jail for a drunken foul-mouthed tirade against police.

Amy Newall, 30, from Liverpool, was pictured punching the air in delight before downing pints of lager after her lawyer persuaded a judge to free her by claiming she was 'sorry' for her behaviour and she claimed to have given up drinking.

The jailbird was arrested in March over an expletive-laden and homophobic rant against an officer while being taken to a police station before abusing the rest of the officers when being brought to the cells.

During her rampage, Ms Newall headbutted the clear plastic Perspex of a police van and spat on the floor telling one PC: 'I am going to smash your head off, you f***ing grass, you f***ing grassing b*****d. 'You are f***ing dead you little f****t.'

Inquiries revealed she had a string of previous convictions and had previously been to jail for assaulting a police officer.

Amy Newall, 30, and friends enjoyed pints at a pub across the road from the court after she avoided jail for her drunken abuse to police officers. The court heard she was part of an 'alcohol rehabilitation programme'

Ms Newall throws her arms in the air as she leaves court, having told the court she was 'sorry' for her actions. Her lawyer said the decision not to jail her was her 'last chance'

At Sefton Magistrates Court Ms Newall of Bootle, Liverpool faced up to six months jail after she pleaded guilty to two charges of using threatening, abusive, insulting words or behaviour to cause harassment alarm or distress.

But she was given a 18-month community order including a six-month alcohol rehabilitation programme after saying she had a 'multiplicity of problems' and was getting treatment for her heavy drinking.

Prosecutors argued that because of her background and the fact she was drunk at the time and the abuse was homophobic her sentence should be increased.

Ms Newall was seen drinking with friends outside the Merton Inn pub just across the road from the court after her goal-scoring type celebration.

The incident occurred on March 11 at 5:50pm, when officers cautioned and arrest the defendant for unrelated matters.

Miss Amie Gouldson, prosecuting, said: 'Due to her aggressive behaviour a caged vehicle was requested. Once inside she began to make threats.

Ms Newall has a string of similar offences on her record, including a racially or religiously-aggravated offence and assaulting a police officer

The judge at Sefton Magistrates Court noted Amy Newall's apology and her 'remorse' for abusing police

'She head butted the clear plastic Perspex and said, 'I am going to smash your head off, you f***ing grass, you f***ing grassing b*****d.'

'She continued to make threats banging her head on the Perspex and spat on the floor saying: ''You f***ing m**g and little snitch'.

'She kicked the air vent and said 'You are f***ing dead you little f****t.' She called him 'a f****t' two more times.'

Miss Gouldson said the abuse carried on after the defendant noticed that the constable was wearing a silver wedding ring.

'You are definitely gay and a f****t', she said.'

The prosecutor said that Ms Newall was arrested and cautioned for the homophobic abuse. After arriving at St Anne Police Station, she continued to be abusive.

'She was abusive to all of the officers,' Miss Gouldson said, 'She called Constable Maddox a f****t. She was again cautioned and arrested.'

Ms Newall, whose father is a convicted drug dealer, has 19 offences on her record including a public order offence from May of last year, and a racially or religiously aggravated matter.

She was last in court in March for drunk and disorderliness and criminal damage, and she has previously been to prison for burglary. In 2016 a flat where she was a tenant in Bootle was dubbed 'Gang HQ' after it was linked to shootings, stabbings and drug dealing. Police later successfully applied for a three-month closure order after a handgun belonging to her father was seized at the property.

In mitigation for Ms Newall, solicitor Rory McCormack said: 'What may be significant is that after the defendant had sobered up in the cells, she was apologetic to the officers. She does express remorse and is very sorry for her actions when the alcohol had worn off.'

Mr McCormack told the court Ms Newall had been misusing drink on a regular basis for a long time, to such an extent that she has been hospitalised for seizures.

He added: 'She is now prescribed Librium in relation to alcohol addiction and there is some talk of a place being made available for her at a detox unit. She tells me that she is cooperating with probation as best as she can, given her multiplicity of problems.'

'She is cooperating with addiction support services and there's optimism that she will continue to cooperate with the various services. To incarcerate her now would only be a step backwards and not a step forward.

'You may feel with regard to her record and the uplift that the matter has crossed the custody threshold but if the court were to come to that particular conclusion my suggestion is that it should only impose an immediate custodial sentence if there was not an available alternative to deal with the multiplicity of problems that she has.

'Effectively, it's her last chance.'

Ms Newall was fined 100 and ordered to pay 200 in compensation plus 180 in costs and a victim surcharge.

District Judge James Clarke said: 'These offences were aggravated by being in drink, your her previous conviction for a racially or religiously aggravated matter and having had a suspended prison sentence for assaulting a police officer which was breached. However I note your apology to police, your expressed remorse and steps you have taken to deal with your alcohol issues.

'Although you say you have abstained from alcohol since May, the alcohol rehabilitation requirement will supplement the work with the support service meetings and the prescribed medication.

'This is an opportunity. If you throw this away you only have yourself to blame.'
A Chinese electric car has flown out of the third floor of its skyscraper headquarters in Shanghai, killing two test drivers.

Carmaker Nio said a member of staff and a person from a partner company died after the ET5 model fell from the testing facility.

The shocking incident took place on Wednesday at 5.20pm and the Tesla rival has launched an immediate investigation along with government officials.

A Chinese electric car has flown out of the third floor of its skyscraper headquarters in Shanghai, killing two test drivers

Carmaker Nio said a member of staff and a person from a partner company died after the ET5 model fell from the testing facility

Authorities attended the scene but were unable to save the two people inside the car.

One employee told Xin Huanghe: 'It's not a braking problem, (the driver) had hoped to put it in reverse gear, but instead put it in forward gear.'

Nio said: 'Our company has collaborated with public security department to launch the investigation and analysis of the cause of the accident. Based on the analysis of the situation at the scene, we can initially confirm that this was an accident not caused by the vehicle.

'We feel very sad about this accident and would like to express our deepest condolences to our colleague and partner employee who lost their lives. A team has been set up to help the families.'

The shocking incident took place on Wednesday at 5.20pm and the Tesla rival has launched an immediate investigation along with government officials

Many on Chinese social media site Weibo have slammed the company for claiming the crash was not caused by the vehicle.

One said it 'shows the cold blood of capitalism'.

Another wrote: 'The last sentence is so indifferent. They [test drivers] came to test the vehicle, but you say [the accident] has nothing to do with the vehicle?'

The company later published an amended statement in which they still referred to it as an accident but added parentheses around the controversial words.

Nio is a Chinese leader in interchangeable batteries in its cars and is part of a major government push to dominate the electric car industry.

The company has been referred to as China's 'Tesla killer' because of its threat to Elon Musk's electric car brand which has a huge factory in Shanghai.

The ET5 was unveiled in December and serves as the rival to the Tesla Model 3.

It comes with a 75 kWh standard range battery which lasts 342 miles, a 100 kWh long range battery that covers 435 miles, or a huge 150 khW Ultralong battery that lasts 621 miles.

The 40,000 car boasts 483 horsepower and can hit 62mph in 4.3 seconds.
Labour's David Lammy has finally announced the party's stance on Brexit, insisting they will not going into the next election pledging to re-join the European Union.

The Shadow Foreign Secretary insists Labour does not want to scrap Boris Johnson's deal with the EU, but rather make limited changes to try and 'improve' it.

He claimed the party would not look to re-enter the single market, bringing about the return of free trade and free movement of people.

Mr Lammy told an event hosted by the UK In A Changing Europe think tank there 'cannot be a rehash of arguments' made in Remainer constituencies like his in north London.

'The British people have made a decision and we have to honour it,' he added.

However, the stance is likely to risk further internal battles between those who voted to stay in the bloc and those who voted to leave.

Labour minister David Lammy has finally announced the party's stance on Brexit, insisting it will not going into the next election pledging to re-join the European Union

The Shadow Foreign Secretary insists Labour does not want to scrap Boris Johnson's deal with the EU, but rather make limited changes to try and 'improve' it

At the same event, ex-Brexit minister Lord Frost admitted it might never be clear whether Britain's decision to leave the EU was an economic success or failure.

Speaking on the sixth anniversary of the referendum yesterday, the former Cabinet minister stressed there was 'so much else is going on' that it made it 'extremely difficult' to judge the impact of Brexit.

But the Tory peer insisted there was 'no cause for regrets' so far over Britain quitting the EU.

He also put pressure on the Prime Minister to not go 'backwards' on Brexit but instead focus on 'completing the process'.

Lord Frost served as Britain's chief negotiator - and struck the Brexit deal with the EU - until December last year, when he quit the Government due to his worries about the direction of Boris Johnson's administration.

Meanwhile, Mr Lammy said LAbour would look to secure 'practical solutions to reduce any checks to their absolute minimum' by pursuing an agreement on food and agricultural standards, sharing trade data and using a 'risk based approach' for goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain.

'Both the EU and the UK would have to compromise to make this happen,' he said.

'But the last Labour government was able to broker the Good Friday Agreement.

'We are confident that with trust and goodwill, we would be able to achieve it.'

At the same event, ex-Brexit minister Lord Frost admitted it might never be clear whether Britain's decision to leave the EU was an economic success or failure

The Government has proposed a Bill to unilaterally change parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol, arguing this is the only solution after months of stalled negotiations.

But Mr Lammy attacked the Bill as 'a charter for lawlessness' that undermined international law and 'risks emboldening dictators and authoritarian states around the world'.

He also accused the Government of being 'stuck in a fever dream of 2016' and 'picking petty fights with our closest neighbours' by introducing plans to tear up the Protocol.

He said: 'The Government's position is that the situation in Ukraine is so serious that their lawbreaking Prime Minister must remain in office, but apparently not serious enough to stop us starting a diplomatic fight with some of our closest allies.'
Experts today cast doubt on Keir Starmer's claim that Wakefield will be the 'birthplace' of the next Labour government.

Sir Keir headed to the Yorkshire constituency just a few hours after the dramatic by-election result was announced, posing with his new MP Simon Lightwood.

He claimed Boris Johnson was 'imploding' after reclaiming the Red Wall seat, pointing to the resignation of Tory chair Oliver Dowden.

However, election guru Sir John Curtice pointed out that the Conservative vote had dropped more than Labour support rose.

He said Ed Miliband recorded similar results before going on to lose the 2015 general election, suggesting there was limited evidence of 'enthusiasm' for Sir Keir's offer.

Renowned analyst Professor Michael Thrasher told Sky News that the results looked likely to produce a hung parliament, which would mean Labour needing support from the Lib Dems or SNP to govern.

Despite the question marks, the result will come as a relief to Sir Keir, who has been facing a mounting revolt over his fence-sitting on rail strikes.

A slew of frontbenchers and MPs have been pictured on picket lines as the action brought the country to a standstill this week, despite the leader's pleas to be more low-key.

Surrounded by Labour campaigners at Ossett Market this morning, Sir Keir said: 'What a judgment this is on the Tories and Boris Johnson  out of touch, out of ideas, and if they had any decency they would get out the way for the sake of the country.

Sir Keir was in the Yorkshire constituency just a few hours after the dramatic result was announced, posing with his new MP Simon Lightwood

Surrounded by Labour campaigners at Ossett Market this morning, Sir Keir said: 'What a judgment this is on the Tories and Boris Johnson.'

'When we do form that next Labour government, and we're going to do it, Wakefield will go down as the birthplace of that.'

Mr Lightwood overturned a majority of just under 3,500 to retake Wakefield, a seat that was solidly Labour between the 1930s and 2019.

It voted Leave and turned blue as part of Mr Johnson's massive majority at the 2019 general election, when he vowed to 'Get Brexit Done'.

But Mr Lightwood took 13,166 votes to Tory Nadeem Ahmed's 8,241 on a 52 per cent turnout. It gave him a majority of 4,925 on a swing of 12.7 percentage points from the Tories to Labour.

Extrapolating from by-elections is always tricky, and the scale of tactical voting in the latest two ballots mean that percentage swings from the previous incumbent party to the winner offers limited insight.

Election analyst Professor Michael Thrasher told Sky News that the results looked likely to produce a hung parliament where Labour and the Lib Dems could govern together.

'We're heading towards a hung parliament,' he said.

Sir John Curtice suggested that a national swing similar to the Wakefield result might be enough for a small Labour majority.

He told the BBC that 'many opposition voters are now seemingly willing to vote for whichever candidate seems best able to defeat the Conservatives locally'.

But Sir John warned it was far from certain Labour were on track for power, and there still did not seem to great 'enthusiasm' for Sir Keir's team.

'It's Labour's best performance in this Parliament so give credit where credit is due,' he told the Standard.

'But Ed Miliband managed to get eight points or more increase ten times between 2010 and 2015 and it did not get him into 10 Downing Street.

'A significant section of the public are disaffected with the Tories, and some of them are now sufficiently disaffected that they will vote for anybody who will manage to beat them.

'But it's not clear that this yet converts into enthusiasm for Labour.'

He pointed out that the Tories had now lose four out of the last five by-elections they have tried to defend, with support dropping on average by 20 percentage points.

'We have to go back to John Major's government to find an electoral record that matches that, in fact Major's record was even worse,' he added.

Mr Johnson vowed to 'keep going' today despite Tory chair Oliver Dowden dramatically quitting after the party suffered a double by-election pummelling.

The PM said he would 'listen' after seismic results in Tiverton and Wakefield, but tried to play down the huge blows as a difficult 'patch' for the government.

However, Mr Johnson - who is more than 4,000 miles away on a visit to Rwanda - is facing a fresh threat to his position after Mr Dowden walked out saying he shared the 'distress' of activists about the run of bad results.

The outgoing minister delivered what appeared to be a coded attack on the PM, saying the party cannot continue with 'business as usual'.

Rather than stating his continuing loyalty to the premier in his resignation letter, Mr Dowden said he 'remains loyal to the Conservative Party'. Aides did not respond to questions about whether he still supports Mr Johnson as leader.

Allies of the PM mobilised to shore him up, with his deputy Dominic Raab insisting the party must 'relentlessly focus' on policy and Priti Patel saying the government is 'cracking on with the task'.

But the move - which came minutes before Mr Dowden was due to start broadcast interviews and at the least paves the way for a reshuffle - followed the bombshell results in West Yorkshire and Devon. The contests were lost by large margins after months of sleaze and economic woe that have bedevilled Mr Johnson's premiership.

The Conservatives gave up the previously ultra-safe, Brexit-backing seat of Tiverton and Honiton to the Liberal Democrats, with Richard Foord winning by more than 6,000 votes in a seat where the party came third in 2019. It is believed to be the largest majority ever overturned in a by-election.

Some 270 miles to the north east, Mr Johnson's party had moments earlier ceded Wakefield to Labour after holding the Red Wall seat for just three years, with Simon Lightwood winning a near-5,000 majority in a vote called after the previous Tory MP, Imran Ahmad Khan, was jailed for child sex offences.

A Tory MP close to Mr Dowden told MailOnline that he had 'done the right thing for the party'. 'Somebody needed to leave the Cabinet,' they said. The senior MP said the outgoing minister had recognised he could not 'polish a t***', adding: 'I'm afraid we have got a turd of a government.'

Veteran MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, who is on the executive of the powerful 1922 Committee, said his colleagues would wait to see if there was a 'satisfactory' response from Mr Johnson, or whether they needed to take 'steps' to replace him.

Another Conservative, Roger Gale - a serial critic of the PM - said Mr Dowden 'can no longer defend the indefensible'.

In worrying signs for the Tories, the electoral blows were facilitated by an effective electoral pact between the opposition parties. Labour barely campaigned in Tiverton and gained so few votes it lost its deposit, and the same was true for the Lib Dems in Wakefield.

Speaking to broadcasters in Kigali, Mr Johnson thanked Mr Dowden for his work and said: 'It's absolutely true we've had some tough by-election results, they've been, I think, a reflection of a lot of things, but we've got to recognise voters are going through a tough time at the moment.

'I think, as a Government, I've got to listen to what people are saying, in particular to the difficulties people are facing over the cost of living, which, I think, for most people is the number one issue.

'We're now facing pressures on the cost of living, we're seeing spikes in fuel prices, energy costs, food costs  that's hitting people.

'We've got to recognise there is more we've got to do and we certainly will, we will keep going, addressing the concerns of people until we get through this patch.'
A consultant working in a NHS hospital refused to remove a vital organ from a 15-year-old allegedly trafficked to London from the streets of Lagos by the former deputy president of the Nigerian Senate and his wife, a court has heard.

The doctor at the Royal Free in Camden became suspicious about whether the alleged victim was aware he was the donor of the kidney and whether he was 41 as his passport claimed.

Ike Ekweremadu, 60, and Beatrice Ekweremadu, 55, are accused of taking the homeless youngster to the UK from Nigeria to transplant his organs into their daughter who is suffering from kidney failure.

The 15-year-old was given the passport of a 41-year-old in order to get into the UK, but did not know he was there to donate a kidney until he went a hospital appointment in London, a court heard yesterday.

After he arrived in the capital in February he had a string of medical appointments about kidney donation, but a consultant at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, North London, became concerned about the boy's real age and if he knew he was there to donate an organ, it is alleged.

Mr Ekweremadu has been an elected senator at the Abuja-based parliament since 2003 after moving into politics after years as a lawyer. His wife, five years his junior, is an academic and doctor and also a major public figure in Nigeria. They are believed to have four adult children. Both deny trafficking the boy.

Prosecutor Damla Ayas told Uxbridge Magistrates Court yesterday: 'The victim was 15. In Nigeria he was approached by both defendants. He was homeless on the streets of Lagos. They deceived him and promised him a better life in the UK. He was given a passport for a 41-year-old. The passport was illegally obtained by these defendants.

Ike Ekweremadu, 60, a People's Democratic Party politician in Nigeria and his wife Nwanneka Ekweremadu, 55, have been held on suspicion of plotting to harvest the organs of a child in the UK

Ekweremadu has been in the UK for at least the past fortnight having met with members of the Nigerian community in Britain in Lincoln (pictured right) and received a copy of the Magna Carta

A NHS consultant at the Royal Free in north London (pictured) blew the whistle on the former deputy president of the Nigerian Senate and his wife

'He was provided with a medical travel visa saying the purpose of the travel was to provide medical treatment for the defendants' daughter who was undergoing dialysis in relation to a number of health issues.

'It was premeditated, it was planned. Blood tests were obtained in Nigeria and he travelled to the UK in February this year.

Ekweremadu has been an elected senator at the Abuja-based parliament since 2003 after moving into politics after years as a lawyer

'He was taken to several medical appointments in particular a medical appointment at the Royal Free Hospital and was spoken to by a consultant about the organ harvesting for a kidney transplant.

'The consultant was concerned about his actual age and was concerned he was not aware he was the donor of the kidney. He only found out that the purpose of his visit was for an organ transplant when he visited the hospital'.

Police were alerted to potential offences under modern slavery laws last month.

Ekweremadu has been in the UK for at least the past fortnight having met with members of the Nigerian community in Britain in Lincoln around ten days ago.

He tweeted: 'It was a pleasure and an honour to receive a letter of appointment by the University of Lincoln, UK, as Visiting Professor of Corporate and International Linkages. I also got a highly treasured gift - a copy of the Magna Carta. It was created in 1215, about 807 years ago'.

They arrested the couple two days ago at Heathrow Airport as they attempted to board a plane to Turkey - where it was suggested that the procedure could take place - the court heard.

Ekweremadu, 60, is said to have had 20,000 on him on at the time of his arrest, according to prosecutors.

The child is now under the care of safeguarding authorities and the Metropolitan Police, officials say.

The couple are two of the most famous faces in the West African state, and had been visiting the UK whe they were arrested

Ekweremadu and accountant wife Beatrice, 55, are charged with conspiracy to arrange or facilitate travel of another person with a view to exploitation, namely organ harvesting.

The senator was wearing a grey sweater while his wife was wearing a black and white knitted cardigan at Uxbridge Magistrates' Court yesterday.

Prosecutor Damla Ayas said: 'It is conspiracy in relation to human trafficking offences for the purposes of organ harvesting. The victim in this case is 15 years old

'They the couple were interviewed at the police station. Both of the defendants have provided a prepared statement.

'Mr Ekweremadu in his prepared statement denied allegations of human trafficking.

'He said at no stage has he arranged transport for anyone with intention to exploit them.'

His wife similarly denied the allegations in her prepared statement, the court heard.

Gavin Irwin, representing Ekweremadu, said: 'There is no question this is a serious allegation. Mr Ekweremadu is a member of the senate in Nigeria.

'He has previously held an even more senior role as deputy president of the senate.

'He is a member of the bar in Nigeria. He is a principal in a law firm that bears his name.

'Those issues taken together go way beyond him being a person of good characterrather that he has led a blameless life as a public servant.'

Mr Irwin added that the allegations were 'nothing short of preposterous'.

Antonia Gray, for Mrs Ekweremadu, said: 'She has never been complicit or involved in any alleged illegal trafficking of any young person.

'She is a financial accountantwith an unblemished record.'

The couple have an address they could stay at in Willesden, northwest London, the court heard.

The prosecutor made an application to adjourn matters for 14 days.

Ms Ayas said: 'In respect of these offences Attorney General consent is required and the Crown require 14 days for that to be obtained.'

Magistrate Lois Sheard said: 'These are serious allegations and these matters are now adjourned until 7 July back here at Uxbridge.'

Ms Sheard remanded both defendants into custody ahead of their hearing next month.

The Ekweremadus are charged with 'conspiring to arrange or facilitate travel of another person with a view to exploitation....between 1 August 2021 and 5 May 2022 within the jurisdiction of Central Criminal Court'.

The investigation was launched by the Met's Specialist Crime team after detectives were alerted to potential offences under modern slavery legislation in May 2022.

The Met Police has confirmed that the boy is safe and being looked after. Mr Ekweremadu was held with Nwanneka Ekweremadu in Britain this month.

Mr Ekweremadu has been an elected senator at the Abuja-based parliament since 2003 after moving into politics after years as a lawyer.

His wife, five years his junior, is an academic and doctor and also a major public figure in Nigeria. They are believed to have four adult children.

The Metropolitan Police has said the child, who is under the age of 18, at the centre of the alleged plot is in care.

Organ harvesting involves removing parts of the body, often for cash and against the victim's will.

The investigation was launched after detectives were alerted to potential offences under modern slavery legislation in May 2022, the force said.

Beatrice Nwanneka Ekweremadu, 55, and Ike Ekweremadu, 60, both from Nigeria , have been remanded in custody appeared at Uxbridge Magistrates' Court (pictured)

In 2017 a former Nigerian government minister claimed that migrants from his country were having their organs harvested after being sold into slavery.

Femi Fani-Kayode, a onetime aviation minister in Nigeria, claimed that 75 per cent of slaves who have their organs harvested in North Africa are from his country.

The Cambridge University-educated lawyer added that the victims have their 'bodies mutilated' and are 'roasted like suya [shish kebabs]'. He went on: 'Roasted alive! This is what Libyans do to sub-Saharan Africans who are looking for a transit point to Europe.

'They sell them into slavery and either murder, mutilate, torture or work them to death.'
A monitor installed at a terminal of Incheon International Airport warns passengers about the monkeypox virus, Thursday. Yonhap



Explosive spread of monkeypox unlikely: experts



By Lee Hyo-jin



After Korea identified its first case of the monkeypox virus, health experts say that it is unlikely to cause an explosive spread as the country experienced with the coronavirus, considering the differences between the two viruses.



But at the same time, they called on the government to implement preemptive measures such as the swift introduction of third-generation vaccines and the enhancement of detection capacity.



The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) confirmed the first case of monkeypox, Wednesday, involving a 30-something individual who entered Korea from Germany on the previous day. Without providing further details of the individual, the authorities said the patient is receiving treatment at an isolation ward at Incheon Medical Center.



The agency raised the alert level for the infectious disease to "caution," the second level in the government's four-tier system.



"There are still many uncertainties about the virus, but based on what we know so far, there's little reason to panic about the new outbreak," Song Chang-seon, head of the Korean Society for Zoonoses, told The Korea Times.



"Unlike the coronavirus which is easily transmitted through respiratory droplets, monkeypox spreads through direct skin-to-skin contact with an infected person. So I don't expect the number of infections to go up rapidly as it did with COVID-19," he said.



He also said that although there are no vaccines and treatments specifically for monkeypox, antiviral drugs and vaccines developed against smallpox, a genetically similar disease, can be used to prevent the spread of monkeypox.



According to the KDCA, Korea has 35 million doses of smallpox vaccine developed by local manufacturer HK inno.N, which are classified as second-generation vaccines. The authorities are planning to introduce Jynneos, a third-generation vaccine developed by Danish company Bavarian Nordic.





A medical worker enters a negative pressure isolation ward at Incheon Medical Center, Wednesday. Yonhap
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Prince Charles today described his 'personal sorrow' over slavery and addressed the future of the Queen as head of state of Commonwealth nations in a landmark speech in Rwanda.

Amid tensions in the Caribbean where several islands want to become republics, the future king said that the British Royal Family would never stand in the way of those taking that path.

The Commonwealth countries looking to dump the Queen as head of state There are 54 former British colonies that form the Commonwealth. At least six Caribbean countries are planning to become republics and cut ties with the British monarchy. These are; Belize The Bahamas Jamaica Grenada Antigua and Barbuda St. Kitts and Nevis The eight remaining countries with the Queen as head of state are Australia Canada New Zealand Papua New Guinea Solomon Islands St. Lucia St. Vincent and the Grenadines Tuvalu Advertisement

He also told delegates in Kigali he could not 'describe the depths of my personal sorrow at the suffering of so many' during the slave trade. But there was no apology from the heir to the throne for the royal family's involvement in the transportation and selling of people for profit.

Charles described how he was on a personal journey of discovery and was continuing to 'deepen my own understanding of slavery's enduring impact', in a speech at the opening of a Commonwealth summit in Rwanda.

He recognised the roots of the family of nations 'run deep into the most painful period of our history' and acknowledging the wrongs of the past was a 'conversation whose time has come'.

For centuries, successive monarchs and other royals participated in the trade, either supporting and facilitating the activity or making money from it.

Charles told the gathering of prime ministers and presidents, who included Boris Johnson, he could not 'describe the depths of my personal sorrow at the suffering of so many' during slavery.

The Prince of Wales has told Commonwealth leaders the potential of the family of the nations for good cannot be realised until we all 'acknowledge the wrongs which have shaped our past'.

Charles described how he was on a personal journey of discovery and was continuing to 'deepen my own understanding of slavery's enduring impact', in a speech at the opening of a Commonwealth summit in Rwanda.

He recognised the roots of the family of nations 'run deep into the most painful period of our history' and acknowledging the wrongs of the past was a 'conversation whose time has come'.

But there was no apology from the heir to the throne for the royal family's involvement in the transportation and selling of people for profit.

For centuries, successive monarchs and other royals participated in the trade, either supporting and facilitating the activity or making money from it.

Charles told the gathering of prime ministers and presidents, who included Boris Johnson, he could not 'describe the depths of my personal sorrow at the suffering of so many' during slavery.

Britain's Prince Charles addresses the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting - where he touched on slavery and the future of the alliance under the British monarchy

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting during their visit to Rwanda representing Her Majesty the Queen

The royal and the PM then met in a side room at the Kigali Convention Centre and smiled wryly as they were photographed

The Prince of Wales shakes hands with Prime Minister Boris Johnson as they attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) opening ceremony at Kigali Convention Centre today ahead of a private meeting where Mr Johnson's plan to send migrants to Africa is expected to come up

Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, Secretary-General of the Commonwealth of Nations Patricia Scotland, President of Rwanda Paul Kagame and Prime Minister Boris Johnson attend the CHOGM opening ceremony

The prince is representing the Queen at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm), but his visit to the Rwandan capital Kigali has been overshadowed by a row over reported comments he made criticising the Government's scheme to send asylum seekers to the east African nation.

Charles and Boris hold awkward 15 minute private meeting amid Rwanda row Charles and Boris held a short meeting - but are unlikely to have discussed their private differences over migrants The Prime Minister and the future king had an awkward cup of tea after an apparent difference of opinion over sending migrants to Rwanda. Prince Charles is said to have said privately he is 'appalled' by the idea. The much-anticipated meeting between Charles and Boris Johnson lasted 15 minutes. Boris Johnson has rowed back on earlier comments that he would tell the Prince of Wales to be open-minded about his Rwanda asylum policy if Charles raises criticism in their meeting. The Prime Minister told broadcasters in Rwanda: 'I wouldn't comment on anything that I say to the Queen or the Queen says to me, nor would I say what the heir to the throne might say to me or what I may say to him. 'Prime ministers never talk about that. What I will say is as people come to Rwanda, like you have today, there are a lot of prejudices about Rwanda need to be blown away. 'So, actually, the achievements of the government of Rwanda over the last couple of decades have been remarkable.' Advertisement

Mr Johnson had suggested he would tell Charles to be open-minded about his Rwanda asylum policy when the two men meet later, but he has stepped back from these comments saying he would not discuss conversations with the Queen or the heir to the throne.

The prince told the world leaders the family of nations was 'uniquely positioned to achieve such positive change in our world', adding: 'To achieve this potential for good, however, and to unlock the power of our common future, we must also acknowledge the wrongs which have shaped our past.

'Many of those wrongs belong to an earlier age with different - and, in some ways lesser - values. By working together, we are building a new and enduring friendship.'

Charles, who will succeed the Queen as head of the Commonwealth, went on to say: 'For while we strive together for peace, prosperity and democracy, I want to acknowledge that the roots of our contemporary association run deep into the most painful period of our history.

'I cannot describe the depths of my personal sorrow at the suffering of so many, as I continue to deepen my own understanding of slavery's enduring impact.

'If we are to forge a common future that benefits all our citizens, we too must find new ways to acknowledge our past. Quite simply, this is a conversation whose time has come.'

Carrie Johnson and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, are also on the Rwanda trip with their husbands and greeted each other warmly at the Kigali Convention Centre this morning.

The handshake between the PM and the future king at the start of the session came hours after Mr Johnson rowed back on earlier comments that he would tell the Prince of Wales to be 'open-minded' about his Rwanda asylum policy if Charles raised criticism in their meeting.

The Queen's son reportedly called the policy 'appalling' in comments made in private and Boris said he would tell the royal about the 'obvious merits' of the scheme.

But taking a step backwards today, the Prime Minister told broadcasters in Rwanda: 'I wouldn't comment on anything that I say to the Queen or the Queen says to me, nor would I say what the heir to the throne might say to me or what I may say to him.

'Prime ministers never talk about that. What I will say is as people come to Rwanda, like you have today, there are a lot of prejudices about Rwanda need to be blown away.

'So, actually, the achievements of the government of Rwanda over the last couple of decades have been remarkable.'

The Prince of Wales was told yesterday to 'keep his oar out' of politics as the Tories intensified their attacks on the heir to the throne over his opposition to its Rwanda migrant programme.

Ahead of a meeting between Charles and Boris Johnson in Kigali, backbencher Andrea Jenkyns suggested the future king emulate his mother the Queen and keep a dignified silence.

Despite his woes in Tiverton and Wakefield overnight, Boris looked animated as he greeted a fellow delegate

After taking his seat the PM looked at the floor and then coughed as he waited for the event to begin

Mr Johnson and Prince flanked the current Commnwealth leaders ahead of their own private meeting

Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, greets Carrie Johnson and shares a kiss with the PM's wife this morning

Mrs Johnson is accompanying her husband on the trip amid turmoil at home after the Tories took a beating in two by elections

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie Johnson arrive for the summit

Prince Charles and Hassanal Bolkiah, Sultan of Brunei, at the CHOGM Opening Ceremony at Kigali Convention Centre

In a series of earlier interviews, Mr Johnson struck out at 'condescending' opponents of his stalled scheme to forcibly remove migrants who arrive through unauthorised means to Rwanda.

And he clearly said he would defend the policy to the heir to the throne if he raised it in their meeting, the first time they will have spoken since the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.

'People need to keep an open mind about the policy, the critics need to keep an open mind about the policy. A lot of people can see its obvious merits. So yeah, of course, if I am seeing the prince tomorrow, I am going to be making that point,' Mr Johnson said.

Mr Johnson will be meeting Charles on the fringes of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm).

The first flight removing people to Rwanda was due to take off last week, but was grounded by successful legal challenges ahead of a full hearing on the scheme's legality in UK courts.

The policy is one element of a 120 million economic deal with Kigali, but has been widely criticised in part because of concerns about Rwanda's human rights record.

The Prime Minister said he was ready to defend his 120million policy after Charles was reported to have privately criticised it as 'appalling'.

Clarence House is understood to be unhappy that public debate over Charles's remarks about Britain's policy of removing asylum seekers to Rwanda is overshadowing his well-received trip to the East African nation.

Speaking to LBC radio from a by-election in Wakefield today Ms Jenkyns said: 'He certainly needs to learn a lot from our fantastic Queen and keep his oar out, most definitely.'

The prince and Mr Johnson are in Rwanda for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). Mr Johnson suggested yesterday he would make a point about the migration policy's 'obvious merits' when he met Charles over a cup of tea this morning.

Ahead of a meeting between Charles and Boris Johnson in Kigali today Ms Jenkyns suggested the future king emulate his mother the Queen and keep a dignified silence.

He said: 'I am delighted that Prince Charles and everybody is here today to see a country that has undergone a complete, or a very substantial transformation.'

Mr Johnson told ITV: 'People need to keep an open mind about the (Rwanda) policy, the critics need to keep an open mind about the policy. A lot of people can see its obvious merits. So yeah, of course, if I am seeing the prince tomorrow, I am going to be making that point.'

It was revealed earlier this month that Charles had been overheard describing the Rwanda scheme as 'appalling'. Last week Mr Johnson dismissed criticism of the policy from 'slightly unexpected quarters' in an apparent dig at the prince and Church of England bishops, who attacked it as 'immoral'.

The three topics on the agenda for the PM's meeting with Charles are sustainability, youth, and the history and values of the Commonwealth and Charles's passion for it. Royal sources said it was 'unlikely' the two men would discuss the Rwanda scheme.

Downing Street later repeated the same line in what appeared to be a co-ordinated attempt to play down the prospects of a showdown between the PM and the prince, but a spokesman did not rule out the possibility of Mr Johnson raising it.

Defending the policy during a school visit in Kigali, Mr Johnson said: 'This is a plan that I think is absolutely necessary and right to fix the problem of illegal cross-Channel trafficking of people whose lives are being put at risk by the gangs.

'You have to break the business model of the gangs  it is totally the right thing to do.

'What people need to understand, what the critics of the policy need to understand  and I have seen loads and loads of criticism  is that Rwanda has undergone an absolute transformation in the last couple of decades.'

He said the UK and Rwanda had done an 'immense amount of due diligence on the way things work, both in the UK and in Rwanda, so that everything we do is in conformity with human rights'.

The trip to Rwanda is seen as hugely significant for Charles. He and Camilla are the first British royals to visit the country, and it is the first CHOGM he has attended since he was chosen to take over as head of the Commonwealth after the Queen.

There has been 'clear unhappiness' in the royal camp that comments by Mr Johnson on Wednesday, saying he hoped his trip to Rwanda would help others 'shed some of their condescending attitudes' toward the country, had overshadowed the prince's important day of visits focusing on the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Charles is being accompanied by the Queen's private secretary Sir Edward Young, who is the monarch's main point of contact with No 10. He is there because the Queen remains head of the Commonwealth. It is thought likely that Sir Edward has been involved in discussions behind the scenes to resolve the issue between Charles and the PM.

The first flight removing asylum seekers from Britain to Rwanda was due to take off last week, but it was grounded by successful challenges to the European Court of Human Rights ahead of a full hearing on the scheme's legality in UK courts.

The policy is one element of a 120million economic deal with Kigali, but has been widely criticised in part because of concerns about Rwanda's human rights record. Last night, a Rwandan government spokesman said Britain had paid the money in full, and some of it had been spent, making it unlikely that anything will be clawed back should the policy falter.

After meeting Rwandan president Paul Kagame yesterday, Mr Johnson said Mr Kagame 'cares passionately' about the UK's policy having been a refugee in neighbouring Uganda. Mr Kagame has been lauded for his role in ending the 1994 genocide that saw ethnic Hutu extremists slaughter 800,000 people. But his regime has since been accused of political repression, assassinations and the imprisonment of critics.

Cabinet allies rush to shore up Boris as it emerges he went SWIMMING in Rwanda after Tories suffered crippling double by-election blow and was 'blindsided' by party chair Oliver Dowden's decision to quit... as No10 says he WON'T cut short foreign tour

Cabinet allies scrambled to shore up Boris Johnson today as he vowed to 'keep going' despite Tory chair Oliver Dowden dramatically quitting in the wake of the party's double by-election pummelling.

The PM said he would 'listen' after seismic results in Tiverton and Wakefield, but tried to play down the huge blows as a difficult 'patch' for the government.

However, Mr Johnson - who is more than 4,000 miles away at a Commonwealth summit in Rwanda - is facing a fresh threat to his position after Mr Dowden walked out saying he shared the 'distress' of activists about the run of bad results.

It has emerged that the premier went swimming at his hotel in Kigali immediately after learning of the defeats, with sources admitting he was then 'blindsided' by the outgoing minister's decision.

Mr Dowden delivered what appeared to be a coded attack on the PM, saying the party cannot continue with 'business as usual'.

Rather than stating his continuing loyalty to the premier in his resignation letter, Mr Dowden said he 'remains loyal to the Conservative Party'. Aides did not respond to questions about whether he still supports Mr Johnson as leader.

Senior figures mobilised to limit the damage this morning, with deputy PM Dominic Raab insisting the party must 'relentlessly focus' on policy and Priti Patel saying the government is 'cracking on with the task'. No10 made clear Mr Johnson will not be cutting short his nine-day foreign tour, which is also slated to include G7 meetings in Germany and a Nato gathering in Spain, to deal with the crisis.

But Mr Dowden's exit - which came just minutes before he was due to start broadcast interviews and at the least paves the way for a reshuffle - ratchets up pressure following the bombshell results in West Yorkshire and Devon. The contests were lost by large margins after months of sleaze and economic woe that have bedevilled Mr Johnson's premiership.

The Conservatives gave up the previously ultra-safe, Brexit-backing seat of Tiverton and Honiton to the Liberal Democrats, with Richard Foord winning by more than 6,000 votes in a seat where the party came third in 2019. It is believed to be the largest majority ever overturned in a by-election.

Some 270 miles to the north east, Mr Johnson's party had moments earlier ceded Wakefield to Labour after holding the Red Wall seat for just three years, with Simon Lightwood winning a near-5,000 majority in a vote called after the previous Tory MP, Imran Ahmad Khan, was jailed for child sex offences.

A Tory MP close to Mr Dowden told MailOnline that he had 'done the right thing for the party'. 'Somebody needed to leave the Cabinet,' they said. The senior MP said the outgoing minister had recognised he could not 'polish a t***', adding: 'I'm afraid we have got a t*** of a government.'

Veteran MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, who is on the executive of the powerful 1922 Committee, said his colleagues would wait to see if there was a 'satisfactory' response from Mr Johnson, or whether they needed to take 'steps' to replace him.

Another Conservative, Roger Gale - a serial critic of the PM - said Mr Dowden 'can no longer defend the indefensible'.

In worrying signs for the Tories, the electoral blows were facilitated by an effective electoral pact between the opposition parties. Labour barely campaigned in Tiverton and gained so few votes it lost its deposit, and the same was true for the Lib Dems in Wakefield.

On another day of high drama in British politics:

Keir Starmer joined newly-elected MP Simon Lightwood in Wakefield, saying it was the 'birthplace' of a new Labour government and the Tories are 'imploding';

Helen Hurford, the Tory candidate in Tiverton, locked herself in a room previously reserved for media interviews at the constituency's election count in a sports centre in Crediton, when the scale of her defeat became clear;

Elections guru Sir John Curtice rejected the idea that the Tory performance was merely down to mid-term disaffection;

Only 40 Tory MPs have bigger majorities than that lost by the party in Tiverton overnight.

In a letter hours after seismic results in Tiverton and Wakefield, Oliver Dowden said he shared the 'distress' of activists about the run of bad results

Tory MPs came out to support Mr Dowden after he dramatically fell on his sword today

Mr Johnson will not be around to field the political flack - as he is on tour abroad for the next week in Africa and Europe with his wife Carrie (pictured today at the Commonwealth summit in Rwanda)

In seismic results in the early hours of this morning, the Conservatives lost two seats in West Yorkshire and Devon by large margins after months of sleaze and economic woe that have bedevilled Mr Johnson's premiership.

Oliver Dowden's resignation letter Dear Prime Minister, It is with great sadness that I must resign as chair of the Conservative Party with immediate effect. Yesterday's Parliamentary by-elections are the latest in a run of very poor results for our party'. 'Our supporters are distressed and disappointed by recent events, and I share their feelings. 'We cannot carry on with business as usual. Somebody must take responsibility and I have concluded that, in these circumstances, it would not be right for me to remain in office. 'It has been an honour to serve in your Cabinets as party chairman, Culture Secretary and minister for the Cabinet Office. 'In particular I want to take this opportunity to pay tribute to our excellent Conservative volunteers and staffers who work so tirelessly for our cause. 'They are the backbone of our great party and they deserve better than this. 'Finally I want to emphasise that this is a deeply personal decision that I have taken alone. 'I will, as always, remain loyal to the Conservative Party.' Yours sincerely, Oliver Dowden Advertisement

Speaking to broadcasters in Kigali, Mr Johnson thanked Mr Dowden for his work and said: 'It's absolutely true we've had some tough by-election results, they've been, I think, a reflection of a lot of things, but we've got to recognise voters are going through a tough time at the moment.

'I think, as a Government, I've got to listen to what people are saying, in particular to the difficulties people are facing over the cost of living, which, I think, for most people is the number one issue.

'We're now facing pressures on the cost of living, we're seeing spikes in fuel prices, energy costs, food costs  that's hitting people.

'We've got to recognise there is more we've got to do and we certainly will, we will keep going, addressing the concerns of people until we get through this patch.'

Mr Johnson tried to defend his record by highlighting how the Tories won Hartlepool from Labour in May 2021.

Speaking to Channel 4 News, he said: 'Without in any way wishing to minimise the lesson from by-elections  it was only a little over a year ago we won a Labour seat.'

Renowned expert Professor Michael Thrasher said on the basis of the outcomes the country was headed for a hung parliament at the next general election.

But Prof Curtice suggested that a swing similar to the Wakefield result might even be enough for a small Labour majority.

In his resignation letter to the PM, Mr Dowden said the by-elections 'are the latest in a run of very poor results for our party'.

'Our supporters are distressed and disappointed by recent events, and I share their feelings,' he wrote.

'We cannot carry on with business as usual. Somebody must take responsibility and I have concluded that, in these circumstances, it would not be right for me to remain in office.'

The MP ended his letter by saying: 'I want to emphasise that this is a deeply personal decision that I have taken alone.

'I will, as always, remain loyal to the Conservative Party.'

In his response letter, Mr Johnson said he 'completely' understood Mr Dowden's disappointment.

'Thank you for your letter and I am sad to see you leave Government,' he wrote.

'Whilst I completely understand your disappointment with the by-election results, this Government was elected with a historic mandate just over two years ago to unite and level up. I look forward to continuing to work together on that.'

A Tory party source revealed that Mr Johnson spoke to Chancellor Rishi Sunak and chief whip Chris Heaton-Harris by phone after Mr Dowden's resignation.

The source said Mr Johnson was swimming in his hotel pool by 6am Kigali-time and then received the warning call from Mr Dowden before his 7am meeting.

Mr Johnson was said to be surprised by the resignation and believes there is 'no rush' in replacing him as party co-chairman.

The source was attributing some blame for the electoral losses on the 'nonsense' of the media's 'endless reportage and Kremlinology of partygate'.

Asked if he feared Mr Dowden was acting as an outrider for a possible leadership challenge from someone like the Chancellor, the source said: 'What do I know, but I'd be astonished if it was the Chancellor.

'The PM spoke to the Chancellor this morning as he does almost every morning.'

The Tory source added: 'He's not going to be leaving, this is too important, he's going onto the G7 on the basis that the biggest challenge is to get the UK and families through extremely tough economic times.

'To not be at the G7 would be an abdication of responsibility for any prime minister.'

Sir Keir met Labour campaigners at Ossett Market on Friday, alongside his newly-elected Wakefield MP.

The Labour leader told supporters: 'What a judgment this is on the Tories and Boris Johnson  out of touch, out of ideas, and if they had any decency they would get out the way for the sake of the country.

'When we do form that next Labour government, and we're going to do it, Wakefield will go down as the birthplace of that.'
Lame Duck French president Emmanuel Macron today broke his silence about the parliamentary crisis enveloping his administration, saying I cant ignore the political gridlock and divisions in our country.

The head of state addressed his nation on live TV on Wednesday evening  three days after losing his majority in the National Assembly  and appeared to rule out a National Unity government made up of all parties.

Expressing his frustration about the result of Sundays parliamentary election  when his Together coalition was 44 seats under the necessary 289 figure for a majority  Mr Macron said: Unfortunately not everyone went out to vote, and now I cant ignore the political gridlock and divisions in our country.

The fractures are very clear  in our inner city areas, and in rural areas. We have 577 seats in our parliament and now we must make a choice about how we are going to form a majority.

We have to learn how to legislate differently  thats what you have asked for. We dont have to stay in a situation of inertia.

French President Emmanuel Macron at a European Union leaders summit in Brussels today. Mr Macron expressed his frustration about the result of Sundays parliamentary election, saying on Wednesday: Unfortunately not everyone went out to vote, and now I cant ignore the political gridlock and divisions in our country'

An ecstatic French far-right leader Marine Le Pen celebrates her party's victory with the newly elected parliament members at the National Assembly on Wednesday

Leader of left-wing coalition Nupes (Nouvelle Union Populaire Ecologique et Sociale - New Ecologic and Social People's Union) Jean-Luc Melenchon arrives at the National Assembly, two days after the legislative elections

I see the country is asking for change, because its my role as the person in charge of institutions, Im the person who can look for this compromise in the National Assembly.

Despite such words, Mr Macron said that neither the far-Right National Rally (NR), nor the Left Wing Nupes alliance, had shown much enthusiasm for a government of National Unity.

He has spent the last two days talking to party leaders, including the NRs Marine Le Pen, and Nupess Jean-Luc Melenchon.

We have seen that everybody wants to make sure that everything is not blocked, said Mr Macron.

Jean-Luc Melenchon poses for a family photo with newly-elected members of parliament in front the National Assembly in Paris on Tuesday

Marine Le Pen, centre, and National Rally party newly elected parliament members pose at the National Assembly on Wednesday

Excited newly-elected members of the French Parliament arrive at the National Assembly arrive (Pictured: French far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party President and European Parlement member Jordan Bardella)

Macron's centrist alliance took a pounding in the latest election, losing 105 seats from 2017. The centre-right Republicans also lost seats, while Le Pen's National Rally gained a huge 81 seats. In 2017, Melenchon only led his own party, winning 17 seats, but this team he gathered together a left-wing alliance which won 131 seats, making them the largest opposition group

The majority of leaders have spoken about the fact that people do not think the country is ready of a National Unity government.

Instead, Mr Macron said options included coalition building, possibly over every piece of proposed legislation in a 'bill-by-bill case'.

Measures that the President hopes to get through include raising the retirement age in France from 62 to 65, but this is likely to be blocked by the opposition.

We need a large and clear majority, he said. I was convinced from the start that we need more compromise  to go beyond quarrels and division. Clarity is essential.

You want us to be responsible, credible and well financed. We need to take some urgent decisions for the future of the country and to make sure that your everybodys lives can be lived without having to worry about more debt and more stress.

If the parliamentary crisis deepens further then Mr Macron, who came to power in 2017 and who is currently in his second term of office, may have to call another snap parliamentary election.

The electorate turned against Macron's 'arrogance', a government source said, with Le Pen's National Rally growing from eight to 89 seats, and the Nupes alliance winning 131 seats to become the main opposition force.

Macron's centrist alliance won the most seats - 245 - but fell 44 seats short of a straight majority.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has called for Boris Johnson to go after the prime minister suffered an embarrassing defeat in the Tiverton and Honiton by-election.

The Conservatives lost the previously ultra-safe, Brexit-backing seat to the Lib Dems, with Richard Foord winning by more than 6,000 votes in a seat where the party came third in 2019.

The 24,000 deficit is believed to be the largest majority ever overturned in a by-election.

Speaking after the historic result, Mr Davey told Sky News: 'It's a huge victory for the Liberal Democrats, we're very excited, but it's a big issue for our country.

'I think the people of Tiverton and Honiton have spoken for the British people and I think they've said loud and clear that Boris Johnson must go.

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has called for Boris Johnson to go after the prime minister suffered an embarrassing defeat in the Tiverton and Honiton by-election

The Liberal Democrat leader said the vote shows the public disaffection with the current government

Liberal Democrat Chief Whip Wendy Chamberlain (left) and leader Sir Ed Davey celebrate with Richard Foord in front of their new prop blue door

'When we were talking to people on the doorsteps, they do see him as a lying lawbreaker and they see him as someone who doesn't have a plan for our country that's suffering in the chaos and the cost of living crisis, with an NHS that isn't getting properly supported.

'So Liberal Democrats put our positive message to people, they backed us in their droves and I think they want me to come on to your programme and say to the government, Boris Johnson must go.'

Mr Johnson has acknowledged that the results are 'tough' but vowed to 'keep going' - despite the losses dealing another blow to his authority.

Some 270 miles to the north east from Tiverton, the Tories also ceded Wakefield to Labour after holding the Red Wall seat for just three years, with Simon Lightwood winning a near-5,000 majority in a vote called after the previous Tory MP, Imran Ahmad Khan, was jailed for child sex offences.

Cabinet allies are scrambling to shore up Johnson today as he vowed to 'keep going' despite Tory chair Oliver Dowden dramatically quitting.

In a letter hours after seismic results in Tiverton and Wakefield, Oliver Dowden said he shared the 'distress' of activists about the run of bad results

The prime minister is more than 4,000 miles away at a Commonwealth summit in Rwanda.

It has emerged that he went swimming at his hotel in Kigali immediately after learning of the defeats, with sources admitting he was then 'blindsided' by the outgoing minister's decision.

Mr Dowden delivered what appeared to be a coded attack on the PM, saying the party cannot continue with 'business as usual'.

Rather than stating his continuing loyalty to the premier in his resignation letter, Mr Dowden said he 'remains loyal to the Conservative Party'. Aides did not respond to questions about whether he still supports Mr Johnson as leader.

Senior figures mobilised to limit the damage this morning, with deputy PM Dominic Raab insisting the party must 'relentlessly focus' on policy and Priti Patel saying the government is 'cracking on with the task'.

No10 made clear Mr Johnson will not be cutting short his nine-day foreign tour, which is also slated to include G7 meetings in Germany and a Nato gathering in Spain, to deal with the crisis.

In seismic results in the early hours of this morning, the Conservatives lost two seats in West Yorkshire and Devon by large margins after months of sleaze and economic woe that have bedevilled Mr Johnson's premiership.

But Mr Dowden's exit - which came just minutes before he was due to start broadcast interviews and at the least paves the way for a reshuffle - ratchets up pressure following the bombshell results in West Yorkshire and Devon.

The contests were lost by large margins after months of sleaze and economic woe that have bedevilled Mr Johnson's premiership.

A Tory MP close to Mr Dowden told MailOnline that he had 'done the right thing for the party'. 'Somebody needed to leave the Cabinet,' they said. The senior MP said the outgoing minister had recognised he could not 'polish a t***', adding: 'I'm afraid we have got a t*** of a government.'

Veteran MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, who is on the executive of the powerful 1922 Committee, said his colleagues would wait to see if there was a 'satisfactory' response from Mr Johnson, or whether they needed to take 'steps' to replace him.

Another Conservative, Roger Gale - a serial critic of the PM - said Mr Dowden 'can no longer defend the indefensible'.

In worrying signs for the Tories, the electoral blows were facilitated by an effective electoral pact between the opposition parties. Labour barely campaigned in Tiverton and gained so few votes it lost its deposit, and the same was true for the Lib Dems in Wakefield.
A retired US Army helicopter pilot who became a civilian defense contractor pleaded guilty on Thursday to selling classified aviation technology secrets to China for up to $32,000.

Shapour Moinian, 67, of San Diego, admitted in federal court to acting as an agent for the Chinese government and providing President Xi Jinping's regime secret aviation-related information from his defense-contractor employers.

Moinian also pleaded guilty to making related false statements during national security background checks.

The former US Army helicopter pilot now faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for acting as an agent of a foreign government, and up to five years and a $250,000 for the false statements count.

Shapour Moinian, 67, of San Diego, admitted in federal court to acting as an agent for the Chinese government and providing President Xi Jinping's regime secret aviation-related information from his defense-contractor employers. Stock picture

Sentencing is scheduled for August 29. As part of the plea agreement, federal prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence of no more than 20 months.

Monion travelled to Hong Kong in 2017 where he allegedly agreed to provide information related to multiple types of aircraft designed in the US in exchange for approximately $10,000.

At that meeting and all subsequent meetings Monian knew that those attending were employed by the Chinese government, according to his plea agreement.

When he returned to the US he began gathering aviation-related materials, transferring it to a memory stick.

Then in September that year he met with Chinese government officials and gave them the hard drive, which included proprietary information from a CDC.

He then arranged for payment through the South Korean bank account of his stepdaughter.

Moinian also pleaded guilty to making related false statements during national security background checks. Stock picture

Moinian told his stepdaughter that these funds were payment for his consulting work overseas and instructed her to transfer the funds to him in multiple transactions.

Moinian also received a cell phone and other equipment from these individuals to communicate with them and aid in the electronic transfer of materials and information.

At the end of March 2018, Moinian traveled to Bali and met with these same officials again. Later that year, he began working at another CDC. During this timeframe, the same people in China transferred thousands of dollars into the South Korean bank account of Moinian's stepdaughter, who subsequently wired the funds to Moinian in multiple transactions.

In August 2019, Moinian traveled again to Hong Kong and met with these same officials where he was again paid approximately $22,000 in cash for his services. Moinian and his wife smuggled this cash back into the United States.

According to his plea agreement, Moinian also admitted that he lied on his government background questionnaires in July 2017 and March 2020, when he falsely stated that did not have any close or continuing contacts with foreign nationals and that no foreign national had offered him a job.

Moinian served in the Army in the United States, Germany, and South Korea from approximately 1977 through 2000.

Sentencing is scheduled for August 29. As part of the plea agreement, federal prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence of no more than 20 months. Stock picture

After his service, he worked for various cleared defense contractors in the United States  including in San Diego  as well as the Department of Defense.

'Cleared' is a term that indicates a contractor is permitted to work on projects that involve classified information.

According to his plea agreement, while Moinian was working for a cleared defense contractor, or CDC, on various aviation projects used by the U.S. military and U.S. intelligence agencies, he was contacted by an individual in China who claimed to be working for a technical recruiting company. This person offered Moinian the opportunity to consult for the aviation industry in China.

'Moinian was a paid agent of the Chinese government who sold American aviation-related technology,' said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department's National Security Division.

'The Department of Justice has no tolerance for those who help foreign governments break the law to undermine American competitiveness and innovation.'

'This defendant took the aviation materials of his American employers and sold them to China,' said U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman for the Southern District of California.

'This conduct was an outrageous breach of trust by a former member of the U.S. military. The United States will aggressively investigate and prosecute anyone who works at the direction of foreign governments to steal American technology and intellectual property.'

'The People's Republic of China remains determined to acquire our information and technology. In this case, we witnessed a former U.S. Government employee acting as an agent of the government of China and Chinese intelligence officers' extensive use of social media to identify willing targets,' said Assistant Director Alan E. Kohler Jr. of the FBI's of the Counterintelligence Division.

'The FBI is committed not only to leveraging risk and consequences upon the defendant, but also to confronting the behavior and policies of the Chinese government that threaten our national security and freedom.'

'The defendant admitted to being an unregistered agent of a foreign power, lying on his background check paperwork to obtain his security clearance, knowingly providing proprietary information to people controlled by the Chinese government, and willingly receiving payments from them. This is another example of how the Chinese government enhances its defense capabilities through the illicit exploitation of U.S. technology,' said Special Agent in Charge Stacey Moy of the FBI's San Diego Field Office.

'When someone holds a security clearance, they know what information should be reported to security officials. In this case, the defendant betrayed his sacred oath, knew his actions were wrong, and subsequently lied about it. The FBI and our partners on the Counterintelligence Task Force will pursue anyone who abuses their placement and access to obtain proprietary information on behalf of a foreign government. I specifically want to thank the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) for their continued partnership on this case.'

'Mr. Moinian sold information to the Chinese government, and lied repeatedly to cover up his crimes,' said Special Agent in Charge Michelle Kramer of the NCIS Office of Special Projects. 'Now he is being held to account for his actions. NCIS and our partners remain unwavering in our commitment to protecting the U.S. military and rooting out criminality that threatens the superiority of the U.S. warfighter.'

This case was investigated by the FBI and the NCIS and is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California and the Department of Justice's National Security Division.
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Five migrants were killed and dozens were injured after a huge crowd tried to cross from Morocco into Spain 's Melilla enclave today.

Some 2,000 migrants made approached the EU's only land border with Africa at dawn over 500 managed to enter a border control area after cutting a fence with shears, the Spanish government's local delegation said in a statement.

Of these 130 sub-Saharan African migrants, 'all of them men and apparently adults', managed to enter Melilla, it added.

A Moroccan official from the nearby border town of Nador said 'five deaths were recorded after they stormed the border and some fell from the top of the barrier' separating the two sides. He said 140 security personnel and 76 migrants were injured during the attempt to cross, the first such mass incursion since Spain and Morocco mended diplomatic relations last month.

The Spanish government's local delegation said only that 49 Spanish police officers were lightly injured while 57 migrants suffered injuries of varying degrees, including three who were hospitalised.

Morocco had deployed a 'large' number of forces to try to repel the assault on the border, who 'cooperated actively' with Spain's security forces, it said earlier in a statement.

Images on Spanish media showed exhausted migrants laying on the sidewalk in Melilla, some with bloodied hands and torn clothes.

Speaking in Brussels, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez condemned the 'violent assault' which he blamed on 'mafias who traffic in human beings'.

Video showed the migrants cheering and raising their arms in celebration as they ran through the streets of Melilla after storming the fence.

There are fears that drought in Africa and surging food prices - even before the war made shipping Ukrainian grain to Somalia, Egypt and other poor nations impossible - could drive up the number of migrants fleeing to Europe.

Migrants climb the fences separating the Spanish enclave of Melilla from Morocco in Melilla, Spain, on Friday

Migrants run on Spanish soil after crossing the fences separating the Spanish enclave of Melilla from Morocco in Melilla

Migrants run on Spanish soil after crossing the fences separating the Spanish enclave of Melilla from Morocco in Melilla, as border guards can be seen in the background trying to stop the migrants from entering

Chaotic scenes at the EU's only land border with Africa showed thousands of migrants, from sub-Saharan Africa, running across a field before storming the border fence on Friday morning

Some 2,000 migrants made their way to the border at dawn and over 500 managed to enter the border control area after cutting a fence with shears, the Spanish government's local delegation said

A migrant, left, is detained by a police officer on Spanish soil after crossing the fences separating the Spanish enclave of Melilla from Morocco in Melilla on Friday

Video showed the migrants - the vast majority of them being men - cheering and raising their arms in celebration as they ran through the streets of Melilla after storming the fence

At least 130 migrants managed to enter Melilla, the Spanish government's local delegation said

Melilla and Ceuta, Spain's other tiny North African enclave, have the European Union's only land borders with Africa, making them a magnet for migrants

AMDH Nador, a Moroccan human rights watchdog, said the incursion came a day after migrants clashed with Moroccan security personnel attempting to clear camps they had set up in a forest near Melilla.

The watchdog's head, Omar Naji, told Reuters that clash was part of an 'intense crackdown' on migrants since Spanish and Moroccan forces resumed joint patrols and reinforced security measures in the area around the enclave.

Morocco deployed a 'large' amount of forces to try to repel the assault on the border on Friday, who 'cooperated actively' with Spain's security forces, the local delegation said earlier in a separate statement.

But a 'significant number' managed to get in to Melilla, it said, adding that the migrants were 'perfectly organised and violent'.

Images on Spanish media showed exhausted migrants laying on the sidewalk in Melilla, some with bloodied hands and torn clothes.

Those who succeeded in crossing went to a local migrant center, where authorities were evaluating their circumstances.

A spokesperson for the Spanish government's office in Melilla, who could not be identified by name in keeping with government rules, said several hundred people remained gathered on the Moroccan side.

People fleeing poverty and violence sometimes make mass attempts to reach Melilla and the other Spanish territory on the North African coast, Ceuta, as a springboard to continental Europe.

Spain normally relies on Morocco to keep migrants away from the border.

At the beginning of March, more than 3,500 people tried to scale the 20-foot (6-metre) barrier that perimeters Melilla, and nearly 1,000 making it across, according to Spanish authorities.

Friday's crossings were the first attempt since relations between Spain and Morocco improved in March after a year-long dispute centered on the Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony annexed by Morocco in 1976.

After ending the year-long diplomatic crisis, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez then visited Rabat, and the two governments hailed a 'new stage' in relations.

The row began when Madrid allowed Brahim Ghali, leader of Western Sahara's pro-independence Polisario Front, to be treated for Covid-19 in a Spanish hospital in April 2021.

Thousands of migrants can be seen facing a smaller group of border guards after they crossed the fence separating Melilla from Morocco

Migrants climb the fences separating the Spanish enclave of Melilla from Morocco in Melilla on Friday

A migrant is detained by police officers on Spanish soil after crossing the fences separating the Spanish enclave of Melilla from Morocco in Melilla

A police officer is seen leaning over after migrants stormed the fence and entered Melilla on Friday

A migrant runs on Spanish soil after crossing the fences separating the Spanish enclave of Melilla from Morocco

Migrants can be seen running together after they crossed the fence in Melilla on Friday

A group of 2,000 migrants stormed the border fence at 8:40 am Friday and a 'significant number' managed to get in

More than 2,000 migrants stormed the border separating Spain's Melilla enclave from Morocco on Friday, the first such attempted mass crossing into the territory since the two nations mended diplomatic ties in March

Migrants on their way to a Centre for Temporary Residence of Immigrants (CETI) in Melilla, Spanish enclave in northern Africa, on Friday after storming the border

An injured migrant, who managed to storm the border fence, is helped by his friends as he walks towards a migrant centre in Melilla

The row began when Madrid allowed Brahim Ghali, leader of Western Sahrara's pro-independence Polisario Front, to be treated for Covid-19 in a Spanish hospital in April 2021.

A month later, some 10,000 migrants surged across the Moroccan border into Spain's Ceuta enclave as border guards looked the other way, in what was widely seen as a punitive gesture by Rabat.

Rabat calls for the Western Sahara to have an autonomous status under Moroccan sovereignty but the Polisario wants a UN-supervised referendum on self-determination as agreed in a 1991 ceasefire agreement.

In the days just before Morocco and Spain patched up their ties, there were several attempted mass crossings of migrants in Melilla, including one involving 2,500 people, the largest such attempt on record. Nearly 500 made it across.

Patching up relationship with Morocco, the departure point for many migrants, has meant a drop in arrivals, notably in Spain's Atlantic Canary Islands.

The number of migrants who reached the Canary Islands in April was 70 percent lower than in February, government figures show.

Riot police officers, left, cordon off the area after migrants arrived on Spanish soil in Melilla on Friday

Morocco deployed a 'large' amount of forces to try to repel the assault on the border, who 'cooperated actively' with Spain's security forces, the delegation said

A few migrants broke free from the riot police and ran across the sparse grassland in Melilla on Friday

Sanchez earlier this month warned that 'Spain will not tolerate any use of the tragedy of illegal immigration as a means of pressure.'

Spain will seek to have 'irregular migration' listed as one of the security threats on the NATO's southern flank when the alliance gathers for a summit in Madrid on June 29-30.

Over the years, thousands of migrants have attempted to cross the 12-kilometre (7.5-mile) border between Melilla and Morocco, or Ceuta's eight-kilometre border, by climbing the fences, swimming along the coast or hiding in vehicles.

The two territories are protected by fences fortified with barbed wire, video cameras and watchtowers.

The attempts include violent clashes between those crossing and the agents charged to stop them.

Migrants sometimes use hooks and sticks to try to climb the border fence, and throw stones at police.

Claimed by Morocco, the two cities have long been a flashpoint in diplomatic relations between Rabat and Madrid, which insists both are integral parts of Spain.

Earlier this month, five European Union nations on the Mediterranean who fear possible waves of refugees driven by hunger out of Africa called Saturday for an end to the EU's 'voluntary' solidarity on migrants and a better way to redistribute the burden of caring for them.

The Interior ministers from Italy, Cyprus, Greece, Malta and Spain wrapped up two days of talks in Venice amid worries that the blockade of Ukraine grain exports due to Russia's invasion could see huge numbers of refugees from Africa flooding southern Europe.

Cypriot Interior Minister Nicos Nouris told reporters that robust, common EU policy is needed on migration. 'Solidarity is not a slogan, nor can it be void of substance,' Nouris said.

Past EU policies in which member countries could offer to receive some of the hundreds of thousands of migrants landing in Italy, Greece and other southern shores proved grossly inadequate.

Many EU countries didn't step forward. Others, even with they did pledge to receive modest numbers of some of the hundreds of thousands of migrants rescued from smugglers' unseaworthy boats, didn't follow through.

'Solidarity in our mind cannot be voluntary, Nouris said.

He noted that after several years of Cyprus taking in migrants, now 5% of the eastern Mediterranean island nation's population consists of asylum-seekers.

The meeting did not address the millions of Ukrainian refugees who recently flooded into northern EU nations like Poland, Hungary and Romania.

How Europe handles large numbers of migrants takes on particular urgency now, amid fears that drought in Africa and surging food prices even before the war made shipping Ukrainian grain to Somalia, Egypt and other poor nations impossible could drive up the already alarmingly numbers of hungry people.

In the Sahel, the part of Africa just below the Sahara desert, an estimated 18 million people are facing severe hunger as farmers endure their worst production season in more than a decade.

Italian Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese cited the blocking of grain in Ukraine as just another reason for the EU to develop a 'adequate mechanism of distributing migrants' among its members.

She also pressed for more repatriation agreements with countries whose people are seeking a better life in Europe but had their asylum bids rejected since they are fleeing poverty, not war or persecution.

Meanwhile, the UK is facing a migrant crisis, with thousands of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats to reach Britain each month.

On Thursday, 138 people made the perilous journey in three boats, bringing the total number of migrants crossing the Channel in 2022 to 11,928 - almost double the 5,906 migrants who arrived in the same period last year.

Despite forecasts of stormy weather at sea, the first group of between 45 and 50 people were brought into Dover, Kent on board Border Force cutter Defender around 8am. Among them were a small number of women and children.

A second group of approximately 50 people were brought into the harbour on board Border Force vessel Ranger around 1pm. They could be seen wrapped in blue blankets and wearing red hats after battling cold conditions at sea.

Border Force boat Ranger escorted 40 migrants back to Dover this morning after they were picked up in the English Channel on Thursday

On Thursday, 138 people made the perilous journey across the Channel in three boats, bringing the total number of migrants crossing the Channel in 2022 to 11,928 - almost double the 5,906 migrants who arrived in the same period last year

Border Force boat Ranger escorts 60 migrants back to Dover on Thursday after they were picked up in the English Channel

How UK's Rwanda plan aims to deter migrants The UK and Rwanda have struck a deal for asylum seekers to be sent to the African country. Under the agreement, they are expected to be flown to a private terminal at Kigali's international airport, and taken straight to accommodation at Hope Hostel. That facility can only sleep around 100 people, although plans for expansion could see another block built on the site. Within 24 hours of arrival, migrants will get a three-month residency in Rwanda while their immigration status is decided. The new arrivals will not need to submit an asylum claim, but those who do will have this considered in the first instance. Anyone without an asylum claim, or one that is rejected, will then be considered under wider immigration rules with a view to provide a right to residency and to work. The Rwandan government says it has boosted staff numbers and resources to make the process as efficient as possible and hopes to consider claims within three months. While their immigration status is determined, migrants will take part in an 'orientation' programme to help them adjust to their new life in Rwanda - if they choose to stay - with information about the country such as the weather and geography as well as a tour of the area. Food and accommodation will be provided and paid for. Migrants will also be given a monthly allowance of 100,000RWF a month (roughly 90) to help pay for essentials. Meanwhile they will be given access to language classes and translation services as well as legal advice. Advertisement

It came as Prime Minister Boris Johnson and wife Carrie flew to Rwanda on an official visit amid controversial plans to send migrants to the African nation.

Mr Johnson has emphatically defended Britain's plan, arguing that it is a legitimate way to protect lives and thwart the criminal gangs that smuggle migrants across the English Channel in small boats. Britain in recent years has seen an illegal influx of migrants from such places as Syria, Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan, Iraq and Yemen.

But last week, Britain was forced to cancel a flight that was scheduled to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda after the European Court of Human Rights intervened, saying the plan carried 'a real risk of irreversible harm.'

The decision to scrap the flight capped three days of frantic court challenges from immigrant rights lawyers who launched a flurry of case-by-case appeals seeking to block the deportation of everyone on the government's list.

British government officials had said earlier in the day that the plane would take off no matter how many people were on board. But after the appeals, no one remained.

After the flight was canceled, Home Secretary Priti Patel said she was disappointed but would not be 'deterred from doing the right thing.' She added: 'Our legal team are reviewing every decision made on this flight and preparation for the next flight begins now.'

So far this month 2,364 people have reached the UK in 59 dinghies and other small craft.

The busiest day was on June 14 when 444 people made the treacherous journey across the 21-mile Dover Straits.

According to official government figures, 28,526 people made the crossing in 2021 - compared to 8,410 who arrived in 2020.

Dover MP Natalie Elphicke has said: 'These shocking figures underline yet again why urgent action is needed.

'It's disappointing that the efforts being made by the Government to save lives and stop the people traffickers are being undermined by people who should know better.

'They should think again and support the action being taken to bring these treacherous journeys to an end.

'Let's not forget that these criminal smuggling gangs have a callous disregard for everyone.

'Too many lives have been lost in doomed attempts to cross the English Channel. It needs to end.'
British journalists have rallied around their Channel 4 News colleague after she was told to 'go back to your country' by a furious Republican firebrand politician.

Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene lashed out at reporter Siobhan Kennedy after she questioned her over American gun laws and the validity of the Second Amendment at a press conference in the US.

Producers at the UK news channel have called the Washington Correspondent 'brilliant' for the way she handled the heated debate on gun control laws.

Producer Zahra Warsame shared the footage of the heated exchange posted by Channel 4 news and added: 'We don't have guns but we don't have mass shootings either.... a fair point from Siobhan Kennedy'.

Health and Social Care Editor Victoria Macdonald wrote: 'My brilliant colleague Siobhan Kennedy pushing back against Marjorie Taylor Greene.'

Presenter & Investigations Editor for the broadcaster Cathy Newman added: 'Brilliant from Siobhan Kennedy.'

Siobhan also told MailOnline that she wanted to hold the Republican politician to account for her statements.

Greene, 48, had stepped away from the microphone when the Siobhan pointed out that the UK doesn't 'have mass shootings' or the Second Amendment.

Republican Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene told a Channel 4 journalist Siobhan Kennedy (pictured) to 'go back to your country' after she questioned her over American gun laws and the validity of the Second Amendment at a press conference in the US

Greene, 48, had stepped away from the microphone when Kennedy (pictured today) pointed out that the UK doesn't 'have mass shootings' or the Second Amendment

Marjorie Taylor Greene told a Channel 4 journalist Siobhan Kennedy to 'go back to your country' after she questioned her over American gun laws

Siobhan Kennedy's new colleagues rallied round her to support her hitting back at the fiery Republican. They supported her by sharing the footage originally posted by Channel 4 News of the incident

Channel 4's Washington Correspondent Siobhan Kennedy questioned the firebrand Republican over her views on gun laws. She had been attending a press conference in the US over the Second Amendment caucus

She became verbally aggressive and barked that its 'our job to defend the Second Amendment', which gives US citizens the right to own a gun.

Kennedy said: 'We don't have guns in the UK, that is true, but we don't have mass shootings either. And our children aren't scared to go to school.'

The controversial politician loudly shot back: 'You have mass stabbings, lady. You have all kinds of murder and you've got laws against that.'

Channel 4's Washington Correspondent hit back: 'Not like the rates here.'

Greene waved off the statement, replying: 'Well, you can go back to your country and worry about your no guns.'

WHO IS SIOBHAN KENNEDY? Siobhan joined Channel 4 News in 2008 after working at the Times as a Politics and Business correspondent based in Westminster. She is now their Washington Correspondent, based in DC, and was awarded Capital Association's award for best national newspaper journalist in 2007. Before joining the Times' team in Westminster, Siobhan worked for their Businesses section as Mergers and Private Equity Correspondent. Prior to The Times, Siobhan worked for Reuters heading the team covering mergers, banking and the City. Siobhan was also one of the first reporters on the scene for Reuters during the 9/11 terror attacks and won plaudits for her range of stories in the aftermath of the crisis. Advertisement

Brazen Greene shared the clip on her Twitter page writing: 'When British press wants to argue about our God-given American gun rights, my answer is: ''Go back to your own country.''

Hitting back online Siobhan said: 'Marjorie Taylor Greene isn't happy with me for pointing out that the proposed gun legislation is not about taking her guns away!

'Nor is knife crime in the UK in any way comparable with gun crime here. There are no 'mass stabbings' in the UK. 'Yet here kids are frightened to go to school?'

Speaking to MailOnline, Siobhan added that the Republican was 'doubling down' on her opinions by reposting the footage online.

She said: 'It was a press conference of the 2nd Amendment caucus - in other words a group of very conservative Republicans who reject any type of gun control, like the legislation going through Congress right now which looks very likely to pass.

'It was a big back and forth after I asked her and the other members of group essentially what they were scared of- that no one was threatening to take their guns away

'It's important to call these politicians out and hold them to account'

The conference comes just a day after a bipartisan gun control bill was agreed upon in the Senate on Tuesday, aimed at toughening up background checks for younger gun purchasers.

It would also beef up penalties for gun trafficker's, and stop romantic partners convicted of domestic abuse who are not married to their victims from getting firearms.

In the Senate 14 Republicans joined 48 Democrats along with two independents on the bill.

Despite this, Greene defiantly told the British journalist: 'We like our [guns] here.'

The Second Amendment has been a hot button topic for decades in the US, as well as gun control.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, 48, became verbally aggressive toward the journalist at a press conference yesterday after the female reporter pointed out the UK doesn't 'have mass shootings' nor the Second Amendment.

The outspoken Republican told the unidentified journalist to 'go back to your country' after the reported brought up that the UK does not have mass shootings like the US. Green hit back saying that the UK has 'all kinds of murder'.

Greene also named dropped several Republicans she said failed the GOP, including Mitch McConnell (left) and Mitt Romney (right). 'I don't mind naming their names, because people all over our country are furious at them,' she bluntly claimed

It comes after several mass shootings in American, including an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, in which 19 students and two teachers died.

A total of 66 mass shootings have taken place since the May 24 tragedy, according to the Gun Violence Archive - which defines a mass shooting as four or more injured or killed.

Lawmakers have been pushed to come to a conclusion on the ever pressing issue as children have claimed to be scared to return to school and educators are once again bestowed the complicated task of revamping classrooms to protect the youth.

HOW DO UK AND US MURDER RATES COMPARE? In 2021 the United States murder rate was estimated to be more than 22,000, which is around 6.9 murders per 100,000 people. The UK had a murder rate of 0.99 per 100,000 people in 2021, with ONS statistics revealing that 691 people were killed that year. In 2021 35 people were killed in the UK by using a gun, while 223 people were stabbed to death. The previous year, 2020, saw 30 people killed in a shooting and 262 killed with a bladed article. The most recent data suggests that there were 30 homicides committed by shooting in the year ending 31 March 2020  4% of all homicides. Of these 30 victims, 20 per cent were female and 80 per cent were male. In the US Chicago Police reported that 2021 was the deadliest year in a quarter-century, with 797 homicides recorded  up 25 from 2020. Minneapolis Police reported 96 murders, just one killing short of surpassing 1995's homicide record, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Murders in Los Angeles last year reached 397, the highest that number has been in 15 years, according to the Los Angeles Times. The NYPD reported the highest number of murders in ten years, with 488 reported in 2021  the highest it's been since 2011, when 515 people were killed, statistics show. Advertisement

The bill also provides $750million to 19 states that have 'red flag laws,' making it easier to temporarily take firearms from people adjudged dangerous, and to other states with violence prevention programs.

States with 'red flag' laws that receive the funds would have to have legal processes for the gun owner to fight the firearm's removal.

The bill would disburse money to states and communities to improve school safety and mental health initiatives.

Senate bargainers reached the agreement Tuesday potentially teeing up final passage by week's end.

Lawmakers released the 80-page bill nine days after agreeing to a framework for the plan and 29 years after Congress last enacted major firearms curbs.

Greene later claimed in the press conference that the 'Senate gun bill is a complete failure.'

She also boldly listed off the politicians she said failed the Republican party, which includes Mitch McConnell and Mitt Romney, because they voted in favor of gun control.

She also said when President Joe Biden, 79, was a senator, he made her school down a 'gun-free zone' and said he 'left American students like sitting ducks [or] targets for anyone that wants to go kill them.'

She said his now 'friends' - the Republicans who voted in favor of harsher gun laws - are now what 'Republican voters do not support anymore.'

'I don't mind naming their names, because people all over our country are furious at them,' she bluntly said.

'We have to change our Republican party and it needs to happen right here, because if we don't start defending Americans' freedoms and rights, and putting Americans first, our voters aren't going to want to put us in charge.'

However, 65 percent of voters have expressed support toward gun reform since the Uvalde shooting, according to a Morning Consult/Politico survey, conducted in May.

Of those polled, 44 percent of Republicans, 66 percent of Independents, and 86 percent of Democrats supported the change.

It comes as the Supreme Court today struck down a New York law severely restricting licenses to carry a concealed weapon, in the high court's biggest Second Amendment ruling in a decade.

The 6-3 ruling on Thursday reversed a lower court's opinion, which had upheld the 108-year-old New York law restricting licenses to carry concealed weapons in public to those demonstrating a specific need or threat.

New York is not alone in severely limiting who can get a license to carry concealed in public, and the new ruling will likely make it easier to legally carry a gun in major cities including Los Angeles, Boston and Baltimore.

The Senate introduced the bipartisan gun reform bill on Tuesday, which 14 Republican joined Democrats on. The renewed called for gun reform came after 19 children and two teachers died in Uvalde, Texas, after a mass shooter entered the school and killed them (pictured: one of the Uvlade funerals)

Salvador Ramos, 18, (pictured) had recently purchased an AR-15 to use in the shooting, where one of his relatives attended. After the shooting, 65 percent of voters polled said they supported run reform - 44 percent of Republicans polled agreed

Just what the Big Apple needs! Supreme Court strikes down New York gun law restricting concealed carry in major Second Amendment case

BY KEITH GRIFFITH

The Supreme Court has struck down a New York law severely restricting licenses to carry a concealed weapon, in the high court's biggest Second Amendment ruling in a decade.

The 6-3 ruling on Thursday reversed a lower court's opinion, which had upheld the 108-year-old New York law restricting licenses to carry concealed weapons in public to those demonstrating a specific need or threat.

New York is not alone in severely limiting who can get a license to carry concealed in public, and the new ruling will likely make it easier to legally carry a gun in major cities including Los Angeles, Boston and Baltimore.

Justice Clarence Thomas delivered the majority opinion, writing that the New York law prevents law-abiding citizens from exercising their Second Amendment rights.

The court decision comes as the Senate was poised on Thursday for a vote to advance a bipartisan gun-control bill, in what could be the first new federal gun legislation in decades.

The 6-3 ruling on Thursday came along ideological lines, with the court's conservative majority all voting in favor of striking down the New York law

New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, reacted with fury to the court ruling and said she would consider calling a special session of the legislature to respond

A right-wing firebrand who has lit up the Republican Party: Who is Marjorie Taylor Greene? An advocate for social conservatism and gun rights, Marjorie Taylor Greene, 48, has emerged as one of the most controversial and outspoken politicians from the right-wing of the Republic Party. She was first elected to Congress in 2021, where she represents Georgia's 14th Congressional district in the House of Representatives. Born in Milledgeville, Georgia, in 1974, Greene and her husband Perry bought her father's general contracting company in 2002, where she worked for four years as its chief financial officer. From 2013 to 2017, she and business partner Travis Mayer ran a cross-gym business which has since closed. She first became politically engaged in 2016, during the Republican Party presidential primaries when Donald Trump won the party's nomination for President. After this, Greene wrote some 59 articles for the now-defunct website American Truth Seekers, since regarded as a conspiracy theorist website. An advocate for social conservatism and gun rights, Marjorie Taylor Greene, 48, (pictured) has emerged as one of the most controversial and outspoken politicians from the right-wing of the Republic Party In September 2020, she shared a meme on Facebook of herself holding a rifle alongside to pictures of Democrat congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaid. Greene wrote that it was time for 'strong conservative Christians to go on the offense against these socialists who want to rip our country apart.' She was later strongly criticised fo the post by house speaker Nancy Pelosi. In her victory speech, she referred to Pelosi as a 'b****' and 'anti-American'. When she was sworn in in January 2021, Greene appeared in the house floor with a face mask stating 'Trump won'. She later denied encouraging the Capitol riots that month and called for an end to violence; while still supporting Trump's claims. Advertisement

New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, reacted with fury to the court ruling, saying that it flew in the face of efforts to restrict gun rights following several high-profile mass shootings.

'It is outrageous that at a moment of national reckoning on gun violence, the Supreme Court has recklessly struck down a New York law that limits those who can carry concealed weapons,' Hochul wrote in a tweet.

'In response to this ruling, we are closely reviewing our options  including calling a special session of the legislature,' the governor added.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg also slammed the ruling, saying in a statement: 'This decision severely undermines public safety not just in New York City, but around the country.'

Bragg said that his office was analyzing the ruling and would work to craft new legislation within the bounds of the court's decision.

'The Supreme Court may have made our work harder, but we will only redouble our efforts to develop new solutions to end the epidemic of gun violence and ensure lasting public safety,' he said.

The new ruling will have far-reaching implications in a number of states with similar laws.

California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island all have similar laws. The Biden administration had urged the justices to uphold New Yorks law.

Thursday's court ruling is expected to ultimately allow more people to legally carry guns on the streets of the nations largest cities - including New York, Los Angeles and Boston - and elsewhere.

About a quarter of the U.S. population lives in states expected to be affected by the ruling, the high courts first major gun decision in more than a decade.

The ruling comes as Congress is actively working on gun legislation following recent mass shootings in Texas, New York and California.

Justice Thomas wrote for the majority that the Constitution protects 'an individuals right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home.'

In their decision, the justices struck down a New York law requiring people to demonstrate a particular need for carrying a gun in order to get a license to carry one in public.

The justices said the requirement violates the Second Amendment right to 'keep and bear arms.'

In a dissent joined by his liberal colleagues, Justice Stephen Breyer focused on the toll taken by gun violence. 'Since the start of this year alone (2022), there have already been 277 reported mass shootings-an average of more than one per day,' Breyer wrote.

Backers of New York's law had argued that striking it down would ultimately lead to more guns on the streets and higher rates of violent crime.

The decision comes at a time when gun violence already on the rise during the coronavirus pandemic has spiked anew.

In most of the country, gun owners have little difficulty legally carrying their weapons in public.

But that had been harder to do in New York and the handful of states with similar laws.

New York's law, which has been in place since 1913, says that to carry a concealed handgun in public, a person applying for a license has to show 'proper cause,' a specific need to carry the weapon.

The state issues unrestricted licenses where a person can carry their gun anywhere and restricted licenses that allow a person to carry the weapon but just for specific purposes such as hunting and target shooting or to and from their place of business.

The Supreme Court last issued a major gun decision in 2010. In that decision and a ruling from 2008 the justices established a nationwide right to keep a gun at home for self-defense.

The question for the court this time was about carrying one outside the home.
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A child killer has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 15 years for the murder of six-year-old Rikki Neave in 1994.

James Watson was 13 when he lured schoolboy Rikki to woods near his home in Peterborough and strangled him to fulfil a 'morbid fantasy' he had told his mother about three days before.

He stripped Rikki and posed his naked body in a star shape for sexual gratification, deliberately 'exhibiting' him near a children's woodland den.

His sentence was determined largely by the age he was at the time he struck.

The judge, Mrs Justice McGowan, said: 'Rikki was a child too willing to trust and engage with strangers.

'He never had the chance to be happy and lead a normal and fulfilling life. That opportunity was denied to him by his murder.'

Watson showed no emotion as he was sentenced.

The judge said he would only ever be released after serving the minimum term of 15 years - minus two years and four months already spent on remand - and once the Parole Board was satisfied he would no longer present a risk to the public.

Giving evidence to the jury, Watson (pictured left and, right, as a child) denied having a sexual interest in children and denied any involvement in Rikki's murder or disappearance. However he was found guilty by majority verdict of 10 to two today. Judge Mrs Justice McGowan is now expected to adjourn before sentencing Watson on a later date

Rikki (pictured left) was found in woodland in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, on November 29, 1994. His mother, Ruth Neave (right), was cleared by a jury at Northampton Crown Court of her son's murder

The majority verdict comes after 41-year-old Watson (pictured here in a court sketch) - who would have been 13 at the time of the killing - stood trial at the Old Bailey in London

A court artist sketch of Mrs Justice McGowan sentencing James Watson at the Old Bailey for the murder of six-year-old schoolboy Rikki Neave

Rikki's murder was among the most high-profile cold cases on police files until Watson's DNA was identified on the victim's clothes following a re-examination of the case two decades later.

Mother-of-four Ruth Neave was cleared of her son's murder in 1996 but was jailed for seven years after admitting child cruelty - a conviction she is reported to be considering challenging, many years after her release.

She did not attend court for the sentencing hearing.

In a witness statement, read on her behalf, she said: 'Like stones dropping in a pond, it (the murder) has rippled out far and wide.

'Rikki's murder left a massive hole in our lives and in our hearts. I miss him so much that it feels like I have had my heart ripped out.'

Rebecca Maria Harvey, Rikki's eldest sister, broke down as she addressed the court.

She said: 'Although I was the eldest, it wasn't like that as he would look after me. Losing Rikki was like losing the other half of me.'

Addressing Watson, but not using his name, she said: 'After all these years of living your life you finally get your comeuppance, and Rikki Lee Harvey finally gets justice.'

Rochelle Orr, the sister of murdered schoolboy Rikki Neave, arrives at the Old Bailey today in London for the sentencing of James Watson

Sheradyn (left) and Rochelle Neave, two of the sisters of murdered schoolboy Rikki Neave

A mother's pain: Ruth Neave's parting words to her son's killer sentenced to life behind bars Ruth Neave (pictured) was cleared of her son's murder and today addressed killer James Watson 'The monster James Watson not only murdered my precious son Rikki but set in motion a chain of events that has ruined my life and those of my children. Like stones dropping in a pond, it has rippled out far and wide. 'Rikki's murder left a massive hole in our lives and in our hearts. James Watson, you have no idea what you have done. But you do of course. 'You are pure evil, with no conscience. You never were nor will you ever be a match to my Rikki; he was delightful and beautiful both inside and out. 'How did you feel killing a six-year-old boy? 'Thanks to you, James Watson, Rikki will never grow up to be a nice young man or have kids or be an uncle. 'I miss my little Rikki; I miss all his giggles and laughter and he was my little hero and looking out for others. He was thoughtful, kind and funny. 'Our lives have never been the same since Rikki was murdered. 'Thanks to you, James Watson, I had my children snatched out of my arms in the middle of the night because the police were so adamant that I had killed Rikki and would then kill my daughters. 'We all lost each other and broke away and our lives fell apart. 'I lost my children and my liberty and then I had to start all over again still being labelled and called a murderer including by Rikki's siblings. That's what brain washing can do. 'My family was destroyed completely. I have not seen my daughters for over 26 years. 'I have missed them growing up, leaving school, their first boyfriends and now my grandchildren. 'I only have one family member and that is my husband. 'Because of my son's murder and what people have been led to believe neither my husband or I have any contact with our children or any of our other family members. 'I have been living under a cloud from the day you - James Watson - murdered my son. Until today. 'James Watson, you have been walking without a care in the world enjoying your life doing what you do. 'Justice has now caught up with you. The same justice I have been fighting to get. 'I have had to fight back when people have accused me of murdering Rikki. 'I have had little luck except for meeting my husband Gary and the journalist, John Elworthy. Both Gary and John have always believed in me. 'In 2008 we started on this road which has now ended here, and with you found guilty of my son's murder. 'It has not just affected me it has affected Rikki's sisters all of their lives. It has deeply affected my husband and John was once confronted and attacked for pursuing the truth so doggedly. 'Thanks to you, Watson, I cannot hold, cuddle or kiss my Rikki. I miss him so much that it feels like I have had my heart ripped out. 'Thanks to you I have suffered a lot of illnesses, requiring a large amount of medication, because of what you did. 'And the pain, mental and physical, is with me daily. 'Thanks to you, Watson, I have suffered severe depression and anxiety. I have had years of counselling for these emotional and psychological conditions. 'From the first day until today I have felt exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally from anyone who believed that I had murdered my son. The son you murdered. 'Thanks to you, James Watson, I was labelled a murderer. 'I was also accused of neglect and cruelty of my children, and thanks to poor legal advice was advised to admit that and deny murder for fear, as the lawyers told me, I would be more likely to be found guilty of both. 'The truth about the neglect charges has not come out but it will. And you're welcome to speak to me and find out how we now propose to tackle the injustices surrounding it,' she said. 'Today has been about James Watson. 'And thanks to Paul Fulwood and the extraordinary team he brought together to solve this case. Paul asked for compelling evidence to persuade him to re-open the case that other senior officers had turned a blind eye to in the preceding years. We like to think we offered enough to re-open the case and bring the murderer James Watson to justice. 'Paul was, and is, an honest decent policeman and I can never thank him and his team enough.' Advertisement

Mrs Justice McGowan added: 'Rikki's body was found by a police officer in the woods.

'After his death he was stripped naked and the body was laid out on the ground spreadeagled.

'A button was missing from his school uniform shirt. A matching button was found on a leaf near the body, showing clearly that he had been undressed at that location.

'Rikki was only six years old.'

She went on to say that Rikki's childhood was a sad one and that on occasions he was subject to 'cruel behaviour'.

Watson also had a difficult childhood, she continued.

'I cannot be sure that the two boys ever met before the time around the date of the killing.

'I am sure that in the period before the murder James Watson was thinking about, planning and even talking about the placing of a naked body of a strangled child in those woods.

'I am also sure at the time that James Watson had a sexual interest in little boys.

'The account given in 1993 by a young boy to his mother about a sexual assault demonstrates that clearly.

'I am equally sure that a warped interest in strangulation in sexual activity is demonstrates in the evidence of a teenage girlfriend of James Watson.'

The judge said there was no sexual activity directly linked to Rikki, but that the stripping and posing of the body pointed to a sexual interest.

'The bizarre stripping...was undoubtedly seen as a manifestation of that sexual interest.'

She spoke of how Watson changed his account over the years in anticipation of new DNA evidence.

Watson, now 41, was found guilty of murder in April by a jury who deliberated for 36 hours and 31 minutes to reach a majority verdict after an 11-week trial.

Back in 1994, it was thought that Rikki could have been killed in a similar case to that of tragic James Bulger, who was abducted, tortured and murdered, aged 2, by 10-year-old boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, in Kirkby, Merseyside, in 1993.

But Rikki's mother Ms Neave then became the key suspect, and was charged with her son's murder in 1996.

The trial hinged on the evidence of a policeman who searched the woods where Rikki would later be found.

At the time he found nothing, with prosecutors claiming the officer had initially missed the body because it was dark.

It was claimed the body had been washed of vital evidence in the time it took to find it.

A judge ordered a jury to acquit Ms Neave if they believed his testimony, because it meant she would not have time to have moved the body after that point because the police were already with her.

After being found not guilty of murder at trial, she later admitted cruelty towards her son.

Earlier in Watson's trial the court heard Ms Neave say she had been 'bullied into' pleading guilty to the abuse charge and 'did not know' what she was pleading guilty to.

The prosecution heard that Watson, a child from a broken home, had murdered Rikki in the woods before midday on November 29.

Rikki had been heading to his school, Welland Primary School, that morning, alone, having had a bowl of Weetabix earlier this morning.

Watson, the court heard, who was living at Woodgate's Children's Home at the time of the killing, was likely to be bunking off from Walton School in Peterborough on the same day.

The court heard that Watson knew the Walton estate well as he had spent time there as a young child and his father still lived there.

It is believed he and Watson met on that day, with witnesses telling the jury they saw the pair walking in the direction of the woods, where Rikki would later be murdered. Watson then returned to Woodgates Children's Home that afternoon.

John Price QC told jurors at his Old Bailey trial: 'We suggest the evidence has been placed before you to enable you to finally resolve who it was who did it.

'We ask you to declare by your verdict that it was James Watson who murdered Rikki Neave.'

The prosecutor said that while the case was 'circumstantial', there was 'no 'only' about it', adding: 'Circumstances do not lie.'

Mr Price suggested that Rikki's last meal of Weetabix put his time of death at around midday on November 28, shortly after he was seen with Watson.

Mud on Rikki's Clarks shoes indicated he walked into the woods and did not walk out again, the prosecutor said.

Mr Price gave jurors a detailed analysis of alleged 'ghost sightings' of Rikki later that day, saying those witnesses were 'mistaken'.

Watson was interviewed during the original investigation into the murder but 'did not mention' to police that he had physically 'picked up' Rikki on the day he died.

At the time the cold case inquiry was opened, prosecutors initially felt there was still insufficient evidence to prosecute, but reversed their decision after Ms Neave and Rikki's sisters called for a victims' right to review.

Key evidence included Rikki's last meal, of Weetabix, which fixed his time of death at about noon.

It meant Rikki was killed shortly after being seen with Watson heading to the woods where he used to play.

Rikki's muddy Clarks shoes also indicated his walk into the woods was a one-way trip.

Watson's sexual interest in younger boys was known to police, who interviewed him over an allegation that he molested a five-year-old in 1993.

An ex-girlfriend later said he had strangled her during sex in woods and killed a bird and spread its wings, in a sinister reconstruction of Rikki's murder.

The judge said there was no evidence of sexual activity with Rikki's body, although Watson had 'a sexual interest in little boys'.

In a police interview in 2016, Watson attempted to explain his DNA's presence on Rikki's clothes by claiming he picked him up to look at diggers through a hole in a fence.

Watson, who has a long criminal record for convictions including stealing cars, fled to Portugal while on bail on suspicion of murder, but was extradited back to Britain.

Ruth Neave - seen with her husband, Gary Rodgers - brutally mistreated her son in the miserable years leading up to the six-year-old's slaying in 1994, but was cleared of murdering him after a jury trial two years later

When Neave (pictured left with her son in the late 1980s and right at his funeral) was found not guilty of her son's murder in 1996, the question of who did kill Rikki would remain unanswered for more than 25 years

Rikki is pictured left with his father Trevor Harvey. Harvey ended his relationship with Rikki's mother when his son was aged three. Right: A beaming Rikki during his short life

Clare Forsdike, a senior crown prosecutor at the CPS, said: 'The life sentence given to James Watson today brings to an end the horrific case of the murder of six-year-old Rikki Neave in 1994.

'I am very proud of the hard work done by the Crown Prosecution Service and Cambridgeshire Police to catch and prosecute James Watson, who has never accepted responsibility for what he did.

'Rikki's family continue to live with his tragic loss and all our thoughts remain with them.'

The horrific murder sparked national outrage at the time, less than two years after the abduction, torture and brutal killing of two-year-old James Bulger in Merseyside.

Watson's web of lies and constantly changing alibis which helped him evade justice for 28 years mean much about the murder still remains unclear - including whether he knew Rikki prior to the killing.

However jury members heard how Watson's DNA was found on adhesive tapings on Rikki's clothes, and that Watson's posing of the six-year-old's naked body was an act carried out for his own sexual gratification.

The decision also came 26 years after Rikki's mother Ruth Neave was cleared of her son's murder by a jury at Northampton Crown Court following a high-profile 16-day trial

She later admitted child cruelty in relation to a number of incidents throughout Rikki's short life, including grabbing Rikki around the throat, pushing him against a wall and lifting him up.

Ms Neave was jailed for seven years in October 1996. After Watson's guilty verdict, she described her son's murderer as a 'monster'.

In a statement following the verdict, Ms Neave said: 'The only thing now is to close this chapter in my life and open a new one.

'I wonder what Rikki would be like today, married, children? Who knows?

'But this monster has taken that all from me and my daughters.'

She praised jurors for making the 'right decision' and thanked 'people that believed in me and Rikki'.

Ms Neave was jailed for seven years in October 1996. Speaking after the verdict, she described her son's murderer as a 'monster'.

Meanwhile, a statement on behalf of Rikki's late father, Trevor, sister Rebecca and extended paternal family, said: 'We would like to sincerely thank everyone involved who have worked tirelessly, patiently and with commitment to ensure the conviction of James Watson for the murder of our Rikki.

'This is a day we feared would never come, 27 years is a long time to grieve without closure. Taking its toll on the whole family then and now.

'Sadly, Rikki's dad Trevor passed away not knowing what happened to his 'Best Boy in the World', now they can finally both be at peace together.'

Clare Forsdike, a senior crown prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service, said the verdict had finally brought 'just for Rikki', almost three decades after his death.

'The conviction of James Watson for killing Rikki Neave concludes an appalling unsolved crime almost 30 years after it happened. It brings justice for Rikki.

'It has been like a jigsaw puzzle with each piece of evidence not enough by itself but when put together creating a clear and compelling picture of why James Watson had to be the killer.

'Ultimately a combination of evidence from DNA, post mortem, soil samples, eyewitness testimony, and his changing accounts proved overwhelming.

'Only James Watson knows why he did it. He remained silent for two decades and then put Rikki's family through the agony of a trial. I hope the verdict gives some consolation to all those who love and miss Rikki Neave.'

Former Assistant Chief Constable Paul Fullwood speaks to the media outside the Old Bailey, London, after James Watson was jailed for life with a minimum term of 15 years for the murder of six-year-old schoolboy Rikki Neave

Watson's barrister Jenni Dempster insisted that the murder was 'not planned and not sexually motivated.'

Speaking outside court, former assistant chief constable Paul Fullwood, who led the cold case inquiry, said: 'It has taken a significant period of time to get to this point but we made a promise that we would find the person responsible for Rikki's death and it is a promise that we have kept.

'Rikki was a six-year-old little boy. He was a kind and cheeky chap who was cruelly taken under the most horrendous of circumstances.

'His memory lives on through his family who have to deal with his loss for the rest of their lives. But now they finally know. They know what happened. We really really hope this gives them some peace.

'For years James Watson had hidden away knowing he was responsible for Rikki's murder and thinking he had gotten away with it.

'But this is no longer the case. He will spend years behind bars and the truth has finally come out.'

Asked about the original investigation into Ruth Neave, Mr Fullwood said Cambridgeshire Constabulary led a 'tunnel vision investigation'.

'Absolutely they charged the wrong person.'

He added that the original investigation occurred shortly after the Jamie Bulger murder and that the constabulary were under a lot of pressure. Mr Fullwood has personally apologised to Ms Neave.

Asked if he believed Watson had ever shown any remorse, he said: 'I have seen someone who was a fantasist, a compulsive liar and a sexual predator.

'I have not seen any evidence of James Watson showing any remorse for the dreadful, dreadful murder of Rikki Neave.'

During the trial, prosecutor John Price QC set out a detailed version of the events of November 28, 1994 that would end with Rikki's savage murder.

He told jurors that the pair were seen walking from the city's Welland Estate.

'It was a sunny late autumn day and they were going to a place both of them knew well and both had visited many times before, at least during daylight  they were going to the woods,' he said.

'Some time after the two boys arrived in the wood, from behind and without warning James Watson ambushed Rikki Neave and strangled him to death using a ligature, whether it was the collar of the jacket Rikki was wearing or something applied on the collar.

'Rikki was wearing the jacket when he died and it was still zipped up because the zip left a telltale mark on his neck.

'James Watson then stripped the child's body. He had an abiding sexual interest in small children which he had already acted on in the previous year, an interest reinforced with a morbid fantasy about the death of a child known to have been on his mind as recently as three days earlier.'

Mr Price said one of Rikki's shirt buttons came off and was placed on a nearby leaf as Watson 'did whatever he was doing'.

Watson then posed Rikki's body 'much as he did with a dead bird' he killed months later, jurors heard.

He then took Rikki's clothes and dumped them in the bin, the court was told.

Afterwards, Watson became 'fascinated by the consequences of his own act', copying newspaper stories on Rikki's death, Mr Price said.

But when he talked to teachers he did not reveal he had been with Rikki that day, only mentioning it to police when they called days later, the court was told.

His account was not questioned or challenged for more than two decades, during which time Watson acquired a 'considerable amount of forensic experience', Mr Price said.

Before police told him about the DNA link to Rikki's clothes, Watson had prepared an explanation  that he had picked him up to look through a hole in a fence, Mr Price suggested.

The prosecutor said: 'He would tell them how, all these years later, the memory of the little boy peering through the hole in the fence still made him chuckle when it came to his mind.'

That was, Mr Price said, Watson's 'really big mistake because it never occurred to him all these years later it would be possible to conclusively prove that the high fence was not there' on the day Rikki was murdered.

The court had heard how Watson had come from a broken home in Peterborough and was treated by social services as a 'vulnerable child' from March 1993.

That year, he was interviewed about a complaint that he had sexually assaulted a five-year-old boy.

Then aged 12, Watson denied it and no further action was taken, although years later he admitted it was 'just two boys playing with each other's penises'.

In April 1994, Watson told a family member he was physically assaulted by his father, James Watson senior, who he lived with on the Welland Estate.

On being taken into care, he stayed with foster mother Molly Donald, who he formed an attachment to.

She found him with a shotgun and felt she could not cope so Watson was sent away again, this time to Woodgate's children's home in March, some 20 miles from Peterborough.

Watson frequently played truant from school and would change into civilian clothes, jurors heard.

From enrolling at Walton School in Peterborough to the day of the murder, Watson was marked present on the register 18 times out of a possible 38 school days.

At the age of 13, he became obsessed with the fantasy of strangling a little boy, even telling his mother he had heard a news report about it on the radio.

Cards and toys that Rikki Neave had in his pockets at the time of his death.A man who strangled six-year-old Rikki Neave has today been found guilty of murder

Pictured: A policeman leaving flowers at Welland County Primary School in Peterborough, the school of murdered six-year-old Rikki Neave in 1994

The Daily Mail's original report of when Ruth Neave was found not guilty of her son's murder. It noted how care workers involved in the case had been suspended

Three days later, the fantasy came true when he murdered six-year-old Rikki Neave at around midday on November 28 1994, the prosecution said.

He stripped him naked for his own sexual gratification, 'exhibiting' the posed body to be found near a children's den in the woods, prosecutor John Price QC said.

Afterwards, Watson became 'fascinated' by his own actions and made copious copies of newspaper stories, jurors were told.

He even told teachers that he knew Rikki as the brother of a friend, one of a multitude of lies.

Watson 'cursed' the fact he been seen with Rikki by an elderly lady, leaving him no option but to admit an encounter when police called on December 5 1994.

Watson's account was peppered with lies but went unchallenged for more than 20 years as police wrongly pursued Rikki's mother Ruth.

Meanwhile, care workers noted his bizarre behaviour, masturbating over a children's clothes catalogue, keeping a dead pheasant in his room, and once allegedly throttling a member of staff with a stocking.

He moved to another care home, and despite knowing he was gay from an early age, formed a relationship with a girl, aged 15.

In 2016, she told police Watson once killed and posed a bird and would strangle her when they had sex in woods.

Police at the scene where the body of six-year-old murder victim, Rikki Neave, was found in undergrowth less than 500 yards from his home

Watson clocked up a long list of convictions for petty crimes, including setting fire to a British Transport Police station in Peterborough.

In his evidence, Watson said he would steal cars for 'fun' and claimed he felt aggrieved at police because of their role in taking him away from his family.

He also claimed his late father had been a police officer, although Cambridgeshire Police say there is no record of it.

Mr Price told jurors that in the years before his arrest for Rikki's murder, Watson became forensically aware and adept at dealing with police.

So even before police confirmed his DNA had been identified on Rikki's clothes, Watson was prepared with another lie, which was to prove his undoing.

Watson, who maintained his connection with Peterborough through his sister Clair and mother Shirley, concocted a fictitious story about lifting Rikki up to look through a hole in a fence to watch diggers.

Pictured: Parents in 1994 escorting their children to Welland County Primary School, Peterborough, where six-year-old Rikki Neave was a pupil

He did not factor in the determination of police, who established the fence was not there in 1994.

When Watson fled the country, his sister Clair Perna tried to get him travel documents but insisted they were only to help him return to Britain.

Ms Perna told jurors their late father had been a lorry driver, but quickly added that she thought he was a police officer before she was born.

She said her brother would never hurt a child, but was in the dark about his admitted sexual activity with a five-year-old.

Unbeknownst to her, for 27 years Watson had also lived with the biggest secret of all - Rikki's murder.

How Rikki Neave's killer almost got away with it: Murder-obsessed teenager kept dead pheasants in his room and masturbated over children's clothes and then fled to Europe as net closed after police found his DNA in cold case review in 2015

By Rory Tingle, Home Affairs Correspondent for MailOnline

A petty criminal who lied about being a policeman's son was today found guilty of murdering schoolboy Rikki Neave, finally bringing the killer to justice after nearly 30 years.

James Watson, 40, a convicted arsonist with 'morbid fantasies' and a 'sexual interest' in small children, strangled Rikki, six, before leaving his naked body in a star shape in woodland in Peterborough in 1994.

Watson had long evaded the authorities before a cold case review in 2015 used new scientific techniques to identify his DNA on Rikki's clothes, which had been dumped in a wheelie bin near the murder scene.

It gave a chilling new context to disturbing behaviour that had included keeping a dead pheasant in his room and being caught pleasuring himself over kids' clothing.

After he had murdered him, Watson made photocopies of the Peterborough Evening Telegraph with the front page dominated by a picture of a smiling Rikki as sick trophies.

When police questioned him following the breakthrough Watson - who the trial was told was gay and HIV positive - implicated himself by mistake.

He tried to explain away the DNA being there by claiming he had helped Rikki up to peer over a fence at some diggers - but detectives knew there had never been a fence at the time of the murder.

After the appalling killing between November 1998 and October 2008 Watson was convicted of a series of crimes, including carrying a loaded air rifle in public, engaging in sexual activity in a public lavatory, and stealing from his father's house while his dad was in hospital.

He also had theft and burglary convictions  17 for theft, eleven for burglary.

In 2009, he forced entry to an unmanned British Transport Police station, stole equipment and set it on fire.

The killer, who grew up in care, absconded following his arrest over Rikki's death in 2016 by taking a ferry to the Continent, and would go on to taunt police by sharing a string of holiday photos from Portugal showing him drinking beer, sun-bathing and even posing nude.

James Watson, 40, was today found guilty of murdering schoolboy Rikki Neave nearly 30 years ago. He is pictured in 2016 after fleeing to Europe following his arrest

Watson fled the UK in a mobile home, boasting to a friend: 'The best thing is I don't even have a passport. I just walked out of our country'

Watson boasted in one message: 'The best thing is I don't even have a passport. I just walked out of our country.

'Me and a mate left the UK in a mobile home. Booked it on the ferry, drove on and that was that. No checks, nothing.'

But his plans to flee to Thailand soon collapsed, and he sent emails to his probation officer begging to be helped back home after he ended up homeless and wandering the streets of Portugal.

On July 14, he contacted his probation officer by email telling them he wanted to return to the UK.

The next day, Watson's probation officer replied: 'Whereabouts are you? How can we support you getting back to the UK?'

Watson wrote back: 'I am in a world of sh**, I left with that Collin under the assumption that he was going to Thailand and I could see a bit of Europe for a few days.

'It never turned out like that.

'Now I am homeless and living on the streets in Europe.

Watson strangled Rikki, six, before leaving his naked body in a star shape in woodland in Peterborough in 1994

'I stayed in a room with some people I met but that was not long term now I don't know what my next plan should be?

The probation officer referred the matter to the police.

Detective Sergeant Gan Thayanithy sent an email to Watson that same day.

On August 2, Watson was arrested in Lisbon at the Consulate building, he consented to the extradition and he returned to the UK ten days later.

Two years later in April 2018, Watson was convicted of a sexual assault in which he briefly touched the penis of a man over his clothing while he was asleep.

Watson said he intended to do this, but he woke up 'completely disgusted with myself'.

Watson's trial heard disturbing details about his fascination with murder and dead animals, with a former girlfriend telling how he once killed a sparrow with a stone.

Watson had long evaded the authorities before a cold case review in 2015 used new scientific techniques to identify his DNA on Rikki's clothes, including this jacket

Rikki's clothes and shoes (pictured) had been dumped in a wheelie bin near the murder scene

A white shirt worn by Rikki, who was stripped naked and deliberately posed in a star shape after his death

A small pair of sock worn by the six-year-old schoolboy, who was killed in a 'swiftly executed' attack

The muddy trousers recovered from the scene after being dumped into a wheelie bin a short distance from Rikki's body

Watson's half-brother, Andrew Bailey, was friends with Rikki's stepfather Dean Neave, and took Watson to visit the Neave family home 'a couple of times' when he was aged 11 or 12.

Mr Bailey went on to 'distance' himself from Watson after he told him he was gay at the age of 11.

In 2016, Watson admitted to sexually assaulting a five-year-old boy in April 1993, when he was 12.

Asked why he kept a dead carcass of a pheasant at the children's home, he said he was 'against animal cruelty' but found the iridescence of pheasant feathers 'fascinating'.

Watson's defence depended on casting doubt on the evidence he murdered Rikki and suggesting the child's abusive mother, Ruth, had been responsible instead.

However, Ruth was cleared of her son's murder 26 years ago, and today the jury in Watson's case found there was enough evidence to convict him.

Prosecutor John Price QC set out a detailed version of the events of November 28, 1994 that would end with Rikki's sexually motivated murder.

Mr Price told jurors that the pair were seen walking from the city's Welland Estate.

'It was a sunny late autumn day and they were going to a place both of them knew well and both had visited many times before, at least during daylight  they were going to the woods,' he said.

Watson's defence had depended on casting doubt on the evidence he murdered Rikki and suggesting the child's abusive mother, Ruth, had been responsible instead

Watson's trial heard disturbing details about his fascination with murder and dead animals, with a former girlfriend telling how he once killed a sparrow with a stone

The killer - who grew up in care and was described as 'vulnerable' - is pictured as a child

'Some time after the two boys arrived in the wood, from behind and without warning James Watson ambushed Rikki Neave and strangled him to death using a ligature, whether it was the collar of the jacket Rikki was wearing or something applied on the collar.

'Rikki was wearing the jacket when he died and it was still zipped up because the zip left a telltale mark on his neck.

'James Watson then stripped the child's body. He had an abiding sexual interest in small children which he had already acted on in the previous year, an interest reinforced with a morbid fantasy about the death of a child known to have been on his mind as recently as three days earlier.'

Mr Price said one of Rikki's shirt buttons came off and was placed on a nearby leaf as Watson 'did whatever he was doing'.

Watson then posed Rikki's body 'much as he did with a dead bird' he killed months later, before taking Rikki's clothes and dumping them in a bin.

Afterwards, Watson became 'fascinated by the consequences of his own act', copying newspaper stories on Rikki's death, Mr Price said.

But when he talked to teachers he did not reveal he had been with Rikki that day, only mentioning it to police when they called days later, the court was told.

Rikki was murdered near his home in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire on December 5, 1994 and his body was dumped in some nearby woods, circled

His account was not questioned or challenged for more than two decades, during which time Watson acquired a 'considerable amount of forensic experience', Mr Price said.

Before police told him about the DNA link to Rikki's clothes, Watson had prepared an explanation  that he had picked him up to look through a hole in a fence, Mr Price suggested.

The prosecutor said: 'He would tell them how, all these years later, the memory of the little boy peering through the hole in the fence still made him chuckle when it came to his mind.'

That was, Mr Price said, Watson's 'really big mistake because it never occurred to him all these years later it would be possible to conclusively prove that the high fence was not there' on the day Rikki was murdered.

In a police interview in April 2016, Watson admitted to sexually assaulting a five-year-old boy in April 1993, when he was 12.

Asked about the admission at his murder trial, the killer pleaded ignorance. Later, he broke down and tearfully told the court: 'I'm a complete a***hole'.
A holiday home company has been met with fury after changing a Welsh language name to 'Sandy Retreat'.

Developers boasted that they 'renamed' a holiday home from the Welsh language to a quaint English name on the island of Anglesey.

The title was previously called Gwel-yr-Wyddfa - which translates roughly as 'Snowdon View'. Mount Snowdon, known as Wyddfa in Welsh, overlooks the area.

They said: 'We've renamed our Gwel-yr-Wyddfa property!

'It is now known as 9 Sandy Retreat  available for 8 guests, pet friendly, and in the beautiful village of Llanfaelog. Ready to book your stay?'

Anglesey Homes has re named its Gwel-yr-Wfddfa property which overlooks Mount Snowdon in North Wales. The firm changed the name to the more English friendly Sandy Retreat

The decision was slammed by local Plaid Cymru Welsh Senedd member Rhun ap Iorwerth who called it 'shocking disrespect'

The title was previously called Gwel-yr-Wyddfa - which translates roughly as 'Snowdon View'. Mount Snowdon, known as Wyddfa in Welsh, overlooks the area

Mount Snowdon, pictured, is known as Wfddfa in the Welsh language. The Anglesey area has a large number of Welsh language speakers

But the decision was slammed by local Plaid Cymru Welsh Senedd member Rhun ap Iorwerth who called it 'shocking disrespect'.

He tweeted the company saying: 'Hi Anglesey Homes. Perhaps you could explain what's happening here.

'This is a property at 9 Gwel yr Wyddfa, which you've now changed to 9 Sandy Retreat, yes? Is erasing the Welsh language/culture a part of your business plan?'

Outraged locals took to social media to protest. Sion Meredith said: 'Why change the name, and boast about it too? It's wrong, but also shortsighted.

'More and more discerning tourists take an interest in Welsh. Our language and culture is a distinctive that attracts them to Wales. How about doing the right thing? Reverse your decision.'

Lowri Llewelyn commented: 'Extremely disrespectful to the Welsh community who live here year-round  yet another developer prioritising those who descend on 'the island' for just a few weeks in summer.'

Outraged locals took to social media to protest. Sion Meredith said: 'Why change the name, and boast about it too? It's wrong, but also shortsighted'

Richard Martin wrote: 'Embarrassing folks. This isn't a good idea, it's a bad idea'

Richard Martin wrote: 'Embarrassing folks. This isn't a good idea, it's a bad idea.'

Angharad Walters said: 'Not a good look folks.'

Lisa Parry added: 'I genuinely don't get why you'd do this. The disrespect aside, a lot of English people I know are now refusing to book cottages in Wales with English names because they assume they've been changed and they hate it too.

'We were going to book with you soon. And now we won't.'

The detached home was described on the firm's website as: 'A newly built property on a new estate, just outside Rhosneigr on the Isle of Anglesey, is 9 Gwel-y-Wyddfa, a detached and contemporary property, ideal for a family or large group wanting to explore Anglesey's coastline.'

The company has previously sparked controversy in North Wales for appearing to market properties for second-home owners rather than local people.

Anglesey Homes said the owners of the home decided to add the name before it was rented out.

A spokesman said: 'The owners of the property have independently decided to attach a plaque to their house, 'Sandy Retreat',' it added.

'They feel their house is a retreat to them - as an owner they are entitled, like anyone else, to put a plaque on their property,' Anglesey Homes said in a statement.

'But this does not have any effect on the address of the development and road which is proudly named and will remain named Gwel Yr Wyddfa.'
A mayor has admitted to drinking 'several' glasses of wine before she smashed her car into a tree just hours after releasing her council's budget.

Karen Williams, Mayor of Redland City Council in Brisbane's south east, said she had a lapse in judgement when she crashed her car on Thursday night.

Police were called to an intersection in the suburb of Cleveland where they found the road-safety warrior and breath-tested her.

The 55-year-old was later taken to hospital and was treated for minor injuries and subjected to further breath-testing.

In a sorrowful statement, the mayor said: 'Last night I made a serious error in judgement and drove after drinking several glasses of wine.

Karen Williams, Mayor of Redlands city council in Brisbane's south east, said she had a lapse in judgement when she crashed her car on Thursday night after drinking 'several glasses of wine'

'I am deeply sorry for my actions and am incredibly thankful no one else was involved or injured.

'I will be seeking counselling and will continue to assist police in their inquiries.'

Charges have not been laid as investigations continue.

Cr Williams had been in the media earlier in June after launching a petition for safer roads following a 'lenient' sentence for a drink-driving teen who killed a couple and their unborn son.

The 18-year-old was convicted of manslaughter this year for the horror 2021 Australia Day deaths of Matthew Field, Kate Leadbetter and their unborn son Miles.

The driver, who was 17 at the time, was affected by drugs and alcohol when he got behind the wheel and crashed into the couple who were walking their dogs in Alexandra Hills.

Cr Williams had been in the media earlier in June after launching a petition for safer roads following a 'lenient' sentence for a drink-driving teen who killed Kate Leadbetter, Matt Field and their unborn son.

The teenager who can't be named because he was convicted as a juvenile was handed a 10-year prison sentence on a dozen charges.

The judge, however, has ordered for his release after serving six years considering his 'genuine remorse', early guilty plea, and steps toward rehabilitation.

Cr Williams was the principal petitioner calling for his sentence to be appealed.

The petition labelled a six-year sentence 'manifestly inadequate' for the teen.

Her Facebook page has been removed, though she reportedly used the platform to share her road safety messages.

Cr Williams has been the Mayor of Redland Council since 2012, elected as a councillor in 2004. Before politics she was the owner of floral studio Fleurtatious.
Former human rights lawyer Phil Shiner is facing fraud charges linked to claims made against Iraq War veterans.

Mr Shiner, from Birmingham, is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on June 27 to face three counts of fraud.

The charges follow a five-year investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA).

The 65-year-old was struck off by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) in 2017 for pursuing false torture and murder allegations against British troops.

Mr Shiner had 12 charges of misconduct proved against him by an SRA panel.

An NCA spokesman said: 'Following an NCA investigation and CPS authorisation, Philip Shiner, 65 from Birmingham, will appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on Monday to answer charges in respect of fraud offences relating to legal aid claims made in 2007 and information provided to the Solicitors Regulation Authority in 2015.'

Phil Shiner, 65, (pictured in 2020) is facing two charges of dishonestly failing to disclose information

Mr Shiner is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on Monday June 27 to face the charges

British soldiers pictured in Basra, Iraq. British troops were stationed in Iraq from 2003 to 2011

WHO IS PHIL SHINER? Philip Joseph Shiner was born in a semi-detached home in Coventry on Christmas Day 1956. He was the second of four children of Peter Shiner, a draughtsman, and his wife, Patricia, a teacher.

He started work for a firm dealing with insurance claims but found it dull. He joined a practice focusing on environmental law.

For a time, he worked for the Birkenhead Labour MP Frank Field.

In 1999, shortly before the Human Rights Act came into force, he set up PIL in Birmingham.

He has fought many battles for the Left's celebrated causes, including acting for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

Shiner forged strong links with Matrix Chambers, the legal home of Cherie Booth QC, the wife of Tony Blair.

In 2004, he was awarded Human Rights Lawyer of the Year by Liberty.

Mr Shiner, who has been married twice and has five children, claims Catholicism remains an essential part of his life and most years he attends a religious retreat on Iona Advertisement

Shiner is alleged to have committed fraud by false representation in April 2015 in response to a question from the SRA, which he 'knew was untrue and misleading', so he could continue to practise as a solicitor, according to court papers.

He was allegedly 'engaged in the cold calling of clients in Iraq in relation to alleged killings of Iraqi civilians by British Army personnel at the battle of "Danny Boy".'

Claims were made against British soldiers who took part in the 'Danny Boy' battle and were ordered to take the bodies of Iraqi dead from the battlefield and back to a nearby camp, along with nine prisoners of war.

The detainees, part of the Shia militia Mahdi Army, claimed they had been mistreated and heard the torture and murder of their compatriots.

Among the dead was 19-year-old Hamid Al-Sweady, who gave his name to a public inquiry after his uncle Khuder Al-Sweady claimed he had been murdered at the British camp.

Shiner is facing two charges of dishonestly failing to disclose information relating to Khuder Al-Sweady's legal aid claim over an application for a judicial review of the Ministry of Defence decision not to hold an independent inquiry into his nephew's death.

Between September 18 and 20, 2007, Shiner is alleged to have failed to disclose that he 'had been engaging in cold calling and the payment of referral fees'.

And in a letter challenging the decision to refuse funding of the legal aid application, between October 11 and 13 2007, he is said to have enclosed a statement that 'had been obtained through cold calling'.




By Nam Hyun-woo





A delegation from the Ukrainian parliament will likely visit Korea's National Assembly next month to meet their counterparts, the conservative ruling People Power Party (PPP) said, Friday.







According to PPP officials, the party is in talks with the Ukrainian Embassy to arrange the delegation's visit to Seoul and meetings with leaders of Korea's major parties possibly by July 4.







The envisaged trip will come after a PPP delegation led by Chairman Lee Jun-seok made a weeklong visit to Kyiv and other cities earlier this month. During the visit, the delegation met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss support for the war-torn country.







The Ukrainian delegation is expected to be led by diplomat-turned-lawmaker Andriy Nikolayenko, who is known for his close relations with his Korean counterparts and role in the PPP delegation's visit to Kyiv.







PPP Rep. Tae Yong-ho, the party's international affairs committee head, is in charge of arranging the Ukrainian delegation's visit to Korea.







During the visit, they are expected to discuss the Korean government's humanitarian aid for Ukraine. Earlier this week, the Korean government approved an additional $50 million (65 billion won) in humanitarian aid, pushing up the country's total contributions to Ukraine to $100 million.







So far, Korea has been supporting the country with medical and food supplies but remains reluctant in providing lethal weapons, with the foreign ministry reiterating that "our principle is to support Ukraine with humanitarian aid."







If the delegation visits Seoul, chances are also high that it will pay a visit to President Yoon Suk-yeol, but PPP officials said that nothing has been confirmed regarding the itinerary.


A 15-year-old is in critical condition after a subway surfing incident left the teen bloodied and with severe head trauma during the illegal stunt atop a moving train in Queens.

The teen was found unconscious on the roof of an elevated 7 train at the 111th Street station on Roosevelt Avenue in Richmond Hill around 6:08 p.m. on Thursday night, police said.

Grim video footage from the scene shows the teen splayed out on top of the train as a concerned friend scrambles over to him in an attempt to help. Blood could be seen streaming down the side of the train from the teen's head injury.

Emergency workers were seen on video hoisting the teen from the top of the train and laying him on the platform while straphangers looked on in horror. The teen continued to bleed profusely on the platform.

The teen was rushed to Elmhurst Hospital in critical condition. Police confirmed to DailyMail.com that the teen is still critical as of Friday morning. His identity has not been released.

Subway-surfing has hit the headlines in recent weeks as Big Apple youngsters attempt the highly-dangerous activity, which sees them clamber on top of the curved rooves of moving train cars.

A 15-year-old is in critical condition after a subway surfing stunt in Queens left the teen with severe head trauma. Grim footage shows his friend and other straphangers trying to help

The teen's friend rushes to his aid after he struck his head while subway surfing on Thursday

An unknown individual approaches the teen to help as blood streams down the subway car in Queens. The teen knocked unconscious while subway surfing on Thursday night

The 7 train was delayed in both directions Thursday night.

The MTA released a statement following the incident.

'Riding on top of a subway car is reckless, extremely dangerous and inconsiderate as it causes significant delays for other New Yorkers,' said Pat Warren, MTA Chief Safety and Security Officer.

'Seeking a thrill that promises heartache for family and friends is foolhardy; choose other avenues to have some fun, ones that demonstrate respect for those you care about.'

Thursday's subway incident is just the latest in a spate of subway surfing stunts - the second in less than two weeks.

Footage captures paramedics pulling the teen off the train roof and laying him down on the platform where he continued to bleed profusely from his head

Paramedics worked on the teen following the incident as horrified onlookers stood nearby

The teen continued to bleed as paramedics worked on him as he lay on the platform at the Queens subway station after hitting his head while subway surfing

Earlier this month, a group of at least eight people were caught on camera surfing subway cars while traversing Williamsburg Bridge in New York City amid a citywide increase in crime.

The shocking incident took place on a J-train as it was heading towards Marcy Avenue station in Brooklyn from Manhattan's Lower East Side, according to the New York Post.

Footage showed the group of subway surfers, mostly wearing black, sprinting in the same direction as the train, with some preferring to sit in between passengers cars.

A group of at least eight subway surfers were seen on the roof of a train on the J-line heading towards Brooklyn earlier this month

One of the group's members was seen break dancing on the train's roof while another briefly ran in the opposition direction to the train.

The NYPD said it has been informed of the incident and that the group of eight could face trespassing and reckless endangerment charges.

In October, a 32-year-old man fell to his death while subway surfing atop a J train at Essex Street and the Williamsburg Bridge in Manhattan.

Back in 2019, a teen was killed while subway surfing atop the 7 train near Queensboro Plaza. Reports of subway surfing increased that year by 15 percent form the year earlier, according to The City.

Subway cars in the Big Apple can go up to 50 miles per hour in between stations that are far apart, according to The Gothamist.

The average speed for trains on the J-line is 15.4 miles per hour compared to the overall subway system's 17.4 miles per hour, the local outlet further reported.

Earlier this month, police arrested a man who was seen on surveillance video tossing a 52-year-old woman onto the subway tracks in the Bronx in a random attack.

He is suspected of randomly shoving a woman onto subway tracks in The Bronx

Theodore Ellis, 30, of the Bronx, who faces charges of assault and reckless endangerment, told police that was drunk and he 'didn't realize his strength' when he threw woman onto subway tracks, ABC7 News reported.

The victim suffered a broken collarbone, and many cuts and bruises.

At the time of the incident, there was no train approaching the station, and other commuters were able to help the woman get back onto the platform.

The attack is the latest of many to have occurred in the New York subway system recently, despite Mayor Eric Adams promising to crack down on crime.

Transit crime in New York has sky rocketed in 2022 compared to 2021, with a 54 per cent increase. New York Mayor Eric Adams, who was an ex-cop elected on a promise to stop crime in the city, has been slammed along with the NYPD for their failure to do so.

According to NYPD data, while murders and shooting are down nearly 9 and 7 per cent, respectively, from last year, overall crime is up nearly 40 per cent so far in 2022.

That includes a whopping 39.5 per cent rise in robberies, a 19 per cent increase in felony assaults and a 16 per cent increase in rapes.
Hundreds of mourners lined the streets to pay their respects to four members of the same family who were murdered in their own home.

Samantha Drummonds, 27, her mother Tanysha Ofori-Akuffo, 45, her gran Dolet Hill, 64, and Dolets partner Denton Burke, 58, were all found stabbed to death at a property in Bermondsey, South London.

Police were called to the home following reports of a disturbance in the early hours of April 25, and Joshua Jacques, 28, Ms Drummonds partner, has been charged with four counts of murder.

The four family members were yesterday laid to rest in a joint ceremony NTCG Brixton Community Church, followed by a committal at Camberwell New Cemetery.

Each family member had their own funeral conductor and pall bearers, with the hearses following in a convoy to the church and cemetery.

Mourners lined the streets to pay their respects to the four family members who were brutally attacked at their home in South London in April

Tanysha Ofori-Akuffo, pictured, was also killed during the bloodbath at the family property in South London in April. Her daughter Samantha had been staying at the property while work was completed at her flat

Dolet Hill (in the multi-coloured dress), her daughter Tanysha Drummonds (with her arm around her) and her other daughter Tracey Henry (pictured in a white dress)

Denton Burke, pictured, had white lilies adorning his coffin as well as a photograph of him dressed in a white suit which was placed in the hearse

Two bouquets of cream flowers arranged to spell out the word mum were placed on top of the vehicles carrying Dolet and Tanysha, while a red and white arrangement reading dad paid tribute to Denton

Mourners wore badges with each of the four family members along with the words 'in loving memory' as they paid their respects during the funeral yesterday

Pictures of all four of the family members were placed atop of their coffins, with flowers adorning each of the vehicles.

Samanthas coffin was surrounded by lilac and pink flowers, while her mother had periwinkle blue flowers and white roses to match the image of her standing by a cruise shop wearing a glittery blue dress placed on her coffin.

Dolet and her partner Dentons coffins had white lilies adorning their respective hearses, to match the photo of the couple dressed in a white dress and white suit.

The grandmother, originally from Lyssons in Saint Thomas, Jamaica, was undergoing treatment for cancer, and worked at nearby Guy's Hospita when she was killedl.

Dozens of tributes were left outside of the family property in South London after the incident in April. Officers arrived and found a man in the bathroom of the propertyTanysha's heartbroken husband, Danny Ofori-Akuffo spoke about the loss of his wife, who he had been with for nearly 20-years

Samanthas coffin, pictured, was surrounded by lilac and pink flowers, while her mother had periwinkle blue flowers and white roses

Tanysha's heartbroken husband, Danny Ofori-Akuffo spoke about the loss of his wife in the days after the horror. The couple had been together for nearly 20-years

Heartbroken mourners also wore t-shirts with the faces of the four victims on them during the ceremony. They paid tribute to Denton and held a photograph of him at Camberwell New Cemetary

Grandmother Dolet Hill, 64, her daughter Tanysha Drummonds, her granddaughter Samantha Drummonds (pictured), and her partner Denton Burke, were stabbed to death in South East London

Two bouquets of cream flowers arranged to spell out the word mum were placed on top of the vehicles carrying Dolet and Tanysha, while a red and white arrangement reading dad paid tribute to Denton.

Emotional family and friends wearing t-shirts printed with photographs of the four victims looked on as the pall bearers carried the tragic family inside the church in white caskets.

One woman could be seen wearing a shirt printed with the words: Uncle, we may be miles apart but you will always be in our heart. Peace.

While another mourner had a badge with an image of the four victims accompanied by the words: In loving memory.

Matthew Uden of W.Uden & Sons Funeral Directors, who organised the ceremony, said: It was an honour to conduct this large funeral for Dolet, Denton, Tanysha and Samantha today, I hope that we did them proud.

Each family member had their own funeral conductor and pall bearers, with the hearses following in a convoy to the church and cemetery in Camberwell

Joshua Jerome Derriviere Jacques, 28, the boyfriend of one of the victims, Samantha Drummonds, was inside the property when police arrived. He will appear at the Old Bailey later this year in connection with the murders

Dolet Hill, pictured, and Denton Burke were both killed. The suspected knifeman was locked inside Dolet and Denton's three-bedroom home when he carried out the massacre

In the 145 years that our family have been conducting funerals we have never cared for four people from the same family in one ceremony.

It was an extremely sad occasion but also a celebration of their lives.

The loss of any life is really hard to deal with but to lose four members from the same family under such tragic circumstance is truly heartbreaking.

Id like to thank their loved ones for allowing our family to care for their family.

Jacques will next appear at the Old Bailey on July 19 in connection with the deaths.
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The Supreme Court overruled the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision Friday morning by upholding Mississippi's restrictive 15-week abortion ban.

'The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives,' the decision said.

President Joe Biden addressed the nation from the White House's Cross Hall calling it 'a very solemn moment' and a 'sad day for the court and the country.'

'Today, the Supreme Court of the United States expressly took away a Constitutional right from the American people, that it had already recognized. They didn't limit it, they simply took it away. That's never been done to a right so important to so many Americans,' Biden said. 'But they did it.'

'Now with Roe gone, let's be very clear, the health and life of women in this nation are now at risk,' the president said.

Biden pointed out how Republican-appointed justices, including by President Richard Nixon, decided Roe and upheld abortion rights in subsequent cases over the years.

'It was three justices named by one president - Donald Trump - who were at the core of today's decision to upend the scales of justice and eliminate a fundamental right for women in this country,' Biden said.

Biden said the laws going into effect in the states are 'so extreme' that a woman could be forced to bear their rapist's child or the child that is the 'consequence of incest.'

'The court literally taking America back 150 years,' Biden said, pointing out some of the statutes from the 1800s that were referenced in the Dobbs decision.

'It just stuns me,' he uttered.

The president called on Congress to restore the rights that were in Roe - and told supporters of abortion-rights to vote in the midterms on candidates that share that belief.

Biden also vowed that his government would ensure women aren't barred from traveling to states that still allow abortion - and would have access to medication that terminate pregnancies.

'I call on everyone, no matter how deeply they care about this decision to keep all protests peaceful, peaceful, peaceful - no intimidation,' Biden said.

'This decision must not be the final word,' the president also said. 'This is not over.'

Later Friday, First Lady Jill Biden chimed in.

'For nearly 50 years, women have had the right to make our own decisions about our bodies. Today, that right was stolen from us,' she said in a tweet. 'And while we may be devastated by this injustice, we will not be silent. We will not sit back as the progress we have already won slips away.'

Lawmakers - including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, and Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican - joined the throngs of pro and anti-abortion activists gathered outside the high court.

Ocasio-Cortez demanded that pro-abortion activists get 'into the streets' to demonstrate their opposition over the ruling and she joined a group chanting that 'this decision' is 'illegitimate'.

Tensions over the future of abortion rights in the country have been running high since a draft opinion of Dobbs was leaked last month  and showed that the high court's conservative majority was poised to push whether abortion was legal back to the states.

The 6-3 conservative majority made good on what the draft said, with liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer dissenting. Chief Justice John Roberts concurred. Conservative Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas also filed concurring opinion.

'Guided by the history and tradition that map the essential components of the Nation's concept of ordered liberty, the Court finds the Fourteenth Amendment clearly does not protect the right to an abortion,' the decision, penned by conservative Justice Samuel Alito, said.

The decision reflects the stunning change in the court's direction after Donald Trump's four-year term. The court switched from a 5-4 majority where Roberts was often the swing vote, to a 6-3 conservative court with the addition of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was confirmed by the GOP Senate following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Senate Republicans blocked President Barack Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to fill the seat of Antonin Scalia following the justice's death.

The opinion rejected the notion that stare decisis, or settled law, locked in the decades-old ruling, even after Trump's recent court nominees all stated a commitment to the concept.

'The doctrine of stare decisis does not counsel continued acceptance of Roe and Casey,' the majority argued, adding: 'But stare decisis is not an inexorable command,' it said.

Alito wrote in his majority opinion: 'No Justice of this Court has ever argued that the Court should never overrule a constitutional decision, but overruling a precedent is a serious matter.'

'It is not a step that should be taken lightly,' he admitted.

President Joe Biden addressed the nation from the White House's Cross Hall on Friday calling it 'a very solemn moment' and a 'sad day for the court and the country'

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez appeared outside the Supreme Court among the crowds in the aftermath of the Supreme Court releasing the Dobbs decision that ends abortion protections

Pro-life activists cheer outside the Supreme Court Friday morning after learning that the high court had overturned Roe v. Wade

Democratic members of Congress march out of the Capitol Building toward the Supreme Court to join pro-choice protesters outside the Supreme Court Friday morning

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the Supreme Court decision a 'slap in the face to women' at a press conference shortly after the decision was released

First Lady Jill Biden also chimed in saying that the right to an abortion 'was stolen from us'

A woman cries outside the Supreme Court Friday morning after the court rules that the 'Constitution does not confer a right to abortion'

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared outside the Supreme Court Friday morning after the Dobbs decision came down. In video filmed on her walk over she was giddy about the 6-3 decision overturning Roe

Pro-life supporters hug outside the Supreme Court Friday morning after the court ended the federal right to an abortion

bortion-rights activist Jamie McIntyre reacts to the 6-3 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturns Roe v. Wade

Tensions over the future of abortion rights in the country have been running high since a draft opinion of Dobbs was leaked - and showed that the high court's conservative majority was poised to push whether abortion was legal back to the states

There are 18 states that have near-total bans on their books, while four more have time-limit band and four others are likely to pass new bans if Roe is overturned

Security fences and a 'police line do not cross' sign are outside the Supreme Court Friday morning, as more decisions - including Dobbs - are expected to come out mid-morning

An anti-abortion protester stands in front of the Jackson Women's Health Organization in Jackson, Mississippi, which challenged the state's 15-week abortion ban

Biden said that the case of the Roe decision has been the topic of every Supreme Court Justice nomination proceedings he has participated in during his career on Capitol Hill.

'I've studied this case carefully,' he said during his Friday afternoon remarks.

'I believe Roe v. Wade was the correct decision as a matter of constitutional law and application of the fundamental right to privacy and liberty in matters of family and personal autonomy,' he added.

As a lifelong Catholic, Biden has made previous remarks that have led Democrats to question his true stance on the matter.

Biden insisted as recently as 2019 that he supports the Hyde Amendement, which prohibits the use of federal funding for abortion except in the case of rape, incest or threat to the mothers' life.

In 1994, Biden, who was a senator at the time, wrote a letter to a constituent that he would take the position that those who oppose abortion should not be compelled to pay for them.

The conservative justices likened Roe to Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld racial segregation as 'separate but equal.'

'Like the infamous decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, Roe was also egregiously wrong and on a collision course with the Constitution from the day it was decided,' the ruling said.

'Casey perpetuated its errors, calling both sides of the national controversy to resolve their debate, but in doing so, Casey necessarily declared a winning side,' it continued. 'Those on the losing side - those who sought to advance the State's interest in fetal life - could no longer seek to persuade their elected representatives to adopt policies consistent with their views.'

'The Court short-circuited the democratic process by closing it to the large number of Americans who disagreed with Roe,' the ruling added.

The blistering language pointed to the array of state laws that outright banned abortion during the 19th century, and accused the high court of acting like a legislature to sort through in which circumstances abortion would be allowed.

The decision also savages the Planned Parenthood v. Casey ruling, which preserved abortion rights with its prohibition on laws that impose an 'undue burden' on the mother. 'The decision provided no clear guidance about the difference between a 'due' and an 'undue' burden. But the three Justices who authored the controlling opinion 'call[ed] the contending sides of a national controversy to end their national division' by treating the Court's decision as the final settlement of the question of the constitutional right to abortion,' Alito wrote.

Alito wrote: 'Roe's failure even to note the overwhelming consensus of state laws in effect in 1868 is striking, and what it said about the common law was simply wrong. Then, after surveying history, the opinion spent many paragraphs conducting the sort of fact finding that might be undertaken by a legislative committee, and did not explain why the sources on which it relied shed light on the meaning of the Constitution.'

One line in the opinion addressed arguments by the government and critics including President Joe Biden that a ruling striking down Roe's privacy right could threaten other rights - from birth control to gay marriage.

The opinion states that this is not so. 'The Solicitor General suggests that overruling Roe and Casey would threaten the protection of other rights under the Due Process Clause. The Court emphasizes that this decision concerns the constitutional right to abortion and no other right. Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.'

The ruling gives a green light to state efforts to restrict abortions, which has already been underway during a decades-long effort, particularly in Republican-run states. But Alito writes that women are not powerless to try to stop the effort using political power (which they lacked before the 19th Amendment came into effect with an array of abortion restrictions on the books).

'Our decision returns the issue of abortion to those legislative bodies, and it allows women on both sides of the abortion issue to seek to affect the legislative process by influencing public opinion, lobbying legislators, voting, and running for office,' he writes. 'Women are not without electoral or political power. It is noteworthy that the percentage of women who register to vote and cast ballots is consistently higher than the percentage of men who do so,' according to the opinion.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, another Trump appointee who was confirmed after providing what Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said were assurances that Roe was settled law, issued his own concurring opinion. He voted with the majority, but took pains to describe the difficult nature of the decision. 'Many other Americans of good faith instead would prioritize the interests in protecting fetal lifeat least unless, for example, an abortion is necessary to save the life of the mother.

Of course, many Americans are conflicted or have nuanced views that may vary depending on the particular time in pregnancy, or the particular circumstances of a pregnancy,' he wrote.

He also addressed the matter of blowing up precedent. 'Adherence to precedent is the norm, and stare decisis imposes a high bar before this Court may overrule a precedent. This Court's history shows, however, that stare decisis is not absolute, and indeed cannot be absolute.'

Thomas wrote in his concurring opinion that other cases also relying on the right to medical privacy that was just overturned in Roe, should now also be reconsidered if they are brought before the Court in the future  including contraception and same-sex marriage.

'[I]n future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court's substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,' the Goeorge Bush Sr.-appointed justice noted.

One of the cases Thomas is referencing is Griswold v. Connecticut, which was a landmark ruling in 1965 that protects married couples' ability to buy and use contraceptives without government restriction.

Obergefell v. Hodges is a 2015 decision that gave same-sex couples the right to marry  it was protected by the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Retiring justice Stephen Breyer authored a blistering dissent for the court's outnumbered three-vote liberal minority.

Breyer wrote that the court 'discards' the Court's carefully crafted balance of rights. 'It says that from the very moment of fertilization, a woman has no rights to speak of. A State can force her to bring a pregnancy to term, even at the steepest personal and familial costs. An abortion restriction, the majority holds, is permissible whenever rational, the lowest level of scrutiny known to the law. And because, as the Court has often stated, protecting fetal life is rational, States will feel free to enact all manner of restrictions.

He wrote that Mississippi's 15-week ban could be just the beginning.

'Under the majority's ruling, though, another State's law could do so after ten weeks, or five or three or oneor, again, from the moment of fertilization.'

He pointed to state bans on all abortion procedures without exceptions for rape and incest.

'Under those laws, a woman will have to bear her rapist's child or a young girl her father's - no matter if doing so will destroy her life.' He said states may compel women to carry to term 'a fetus with severe physical anomalies.'

He cited the effect on poor women who can't afford to travel out of state for an abortion, and said new state and even interstate efforts would soon come.

'After this decision, some States may block women from traveling out of State to obtain abortions, or even from receiving abortion medications from out of State. Some may criminalize efforts, including the provision of information or funding, to help women gain access to other States' abortion services. Most threatening of all, no language in today's decision stops the Federal Government from prohibiting abortions nationwide, once again from the moment of conception and without exceptions for rape or incest. If that happens, 'the views of [an individual State's] citizens' will not matter.'

Breyer added: 'Whatever the exact scope of the coming laws, one result of today's decision is certain: the curtailment of women's rights, and of their status as free and equal citizens.'

Breyer also accuses the majority of trying to mask the ruling's implications for other rights, and for characterizing earlier abortion rulings as coming 'from nowhere,' when they are rooted in other rights 'giving individuals control over their bodies and their most personal and intimate associations.'

He blasted the court's 'cavalier' approach to overturning precedent.  and said there was no 'good reason' for change  merely a change in in the numbers on the more conservative court.

'The Court reverses course today for one reason and one reason only: because the composition of this Court has changed. Stare decisis, this Court has often said, 'contributes to the actual and perceived integrity of the judicial process' by ensuring that decisions are 'founded in the law rather than in the proclivities of individuals,' he continued. 'Today, the proclivities of individuals rule. The Court departs from its obligation to faithfully and impartially apply the law. We dissent.'

'People will die because of this decision,' Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warned in a tweet Friday

Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said the Dobbs decision will 'live in infamy' as a bad one

Reaction on both sides of the aisle in Washington was swift.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi immediately rebuked the decision, calling it a 'slap in the face to women.'

'The radical Supreme Court is eviscerating Americans' rights and endangering their health and safety,' the California Democrat said. 'Today the Republican-controlled Supreme Court has achieved their dark, extreme goal of ripping away a woman's right to make their own reproductive health decisions.'

'Because of Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, the Republican Party and their supermajority on the Supreme Court, American women today have less freedom than their mothers,' she continued. 'With Roe and their attempt to destroy it, radical Republicans are charging ahead with their crusade to criminalize health freedom.'

'In the Congress, be aware of this, Republicans are plotting a nationwide abortion ban,' Pelosi warned.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, called it 'one of the darkest days our country has ever seen.'

Former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton said the decision will 'live in infamy' as a bad one.

'Most Americans believe the decision to have a child is one of the most sacred decisions there is, and that such decisions should remain between patients and their doctors. Today's Supreme Court opinion will live in infamy as a step backward for women's rights and human rights,' Clinton tweeted.

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was filmed galloping toward the Supreme Court, a grin upon her face.

'This is so awesome, oh my gosh - I can't believe they just did it. This is so amazing,' the Georgia lawmaker said. 'I'm trying not to cry.'

AOC also tweeted: 'Overturning Roe and outlawing abortions will never make them go away. It only makes them more dangerous, especially for the poor + marginalized.'

'People will die because of this decision. And we will never stop until abortion rights are restored in the United States of America,' Ocasio-Cortez warned.

In a signal that the Biden administration was preparing for bad news, Vice President Kamala Harris convened seven state attorneys general at the White House Thursday to discuss strategies to combat any such ruling.

Harris was traveling to Illinois Friday as the news of the decision broke.

'I have asked these attorneys general to meet with us knowing that they have a pivotal role to play in defending women's reproductive freedom and their rights to make decisions about their own body,' Harris said at the top of the meeting.

She said the attorneys general may have to challenge any Supreme Court ruling.

'As reproductive rights are being restricted around our country and potentially by the Supreme Court soon I think we believe and we've started prelimianry discussions about how Attorneys General have the power, may have the power at the very least, to issue guidance to ensure that the people of their state know their rights, that they have the power to assess and potentially challenged the constitutionality of laws that are being passed in their states,' she said.

Harris has taken the lead for President Joe Biden's administration on defending abortion and reproductive rights.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the administration would also push Congress to codify Roe into law.

'If this happens, one of the things that I can say right now that we will do is call on Congress to restore Roe,' she said during an interview on ABC's The View.

Even with Democratic control of Congress it is unlikely an abortion-rights law would pass the 50-50 Senate, where any legislation needs the support of at least 10 Republican senators to move forward in the legislative process.

Vice President Kamala Harris met with state attorney generals on Thursday to talk defense should the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that made abortion legal in this country

'I have asked these attorneys general to meet with us knowing that they have a pivotal role to play in defending women's reproductive freedom,' Vice President Harris said

The meeting with Harris was attended by the attorneys general of Wisconsin, Nevada, Illinois, California, Delaware, New York and Washington state.

State attorney generals will likely be the front line of defense should abortion be outlawed.

They are the top legal officers in their states and could bring additional lawsuits regarding reproductive rights.

Biden is a lifelong Catholic who was opposed to Roe in the early days of his career and has only later come to embrace abortion rights.

He was critical of the leaked draft opinion.

Protesters on both sides of the contentious issue have been gathering outside the court daily.

The building is surrounded by a tall fence that went up after the draft leaked last month.

The political debate on abortion reignited last month when Politico published a draft majority opinion that showed Roe v. Wade being struck down. In it, conservative Justice Samuel Alito writes: 'Roe was egregiously wrong from the start' and must be overturned.

If judges haven't switched their positions since Alito authored the draft, it would result in the overturning of the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision which provides for abortion rights.

Currently, there are 18 states that have near-total bans on abortion already on the books.

They are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

On the other side of the spectrum, 16 states and the District of Columbia have laws that protect a person's right to an abortion.

With public attention focusing on the court, where conservatives hold a 6-3 majority, Congress passed legislation to provide security protection to justices, after an armed man was arrested outside Justice Brett Kavanaugh's home.

On Thursday, the court stuck down a New York law that required 'proper-cause' to carry a concelaed weapon, a ruling that could result in an increase in the number of guns in public places. It also ruled law enforcement officers cant be sued when they violate the rights of criminal suspects by failing to provide the familiar Miranda warning before questioning them.

Fencing has gone up around the Supreme Court and the justices have faced increased threats

The Supreme Court: Seated from left are Associate Justice Samuel Alito, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Associate Justice Stephen Breyer and Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Standing from left are Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Associate Justice Elena Kagan, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch and Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett
A Royal Mail postman has told how his life has been turned upside down since Barclays wrongly told him that his two bank accounts were nearly 1million overdrawn.

Azhar Bhutta, 38, who normally has around 1,000 in his current account saw the blunder when he logged on to his Barclays app on his mobile phone on Monday last week.

The app told him that his main account was overdrawn by 498,764.27 while his instant ISA savings account was 499,999.11 in the red.

Azhar, from Bracknell, Berkshire, pointed out the error and had his balances corrected a few hours later  but he found out yesterday that Barclays had cancelled all his monthly direct debits.

Azhar Bhutta, 38, (pictured) said that his life was turned upside down after the banking error which said both of his cards were nearly 500,000 overdrawn

The app told him that his main account was overdrawn by 498,764.27 while his instant ISA savings account was 499,999.11 in the red

He has been told that his account has been suspended while the banking giant investigates to see if he has been targeted by fraudsters.

Azhar has now been forced to open a new account at HSBC and has been warned that it might take up to ten days to set up new direct debits.

He now fears that he might inadvertently miss payments, meaning that his credit rating could be adversely affected through no fault of his own.

Worried Azhar said: The whole thing has been a nightmare. I feel like my life has been turned upside down when I have done nothing wrong.

It was the worst feeling in my life when I saw that each of my accounts were overdrawn by around 500,000.

But the effects of my account being suspended and all my direct debits being cancelled are even worse. It is causing me a major headache trying to sort everything out.

Azhar discovered his alleged giant overdraft after his wife Katarzyna, 42, asked him to transfer her some money when he was at work at around 6am on June 6.

In an exclusive interview with MailOnline, he said: I just logged on to my banking app as normal and saw these two huge overdraft figures.

I didnt know what to do and I couldnt think straight. It was an amount of money that I could never even dream of, and my app was saying that I owed it to the bank.

It was shocking because I have never been in debt before in my life, and I have never ever missed any payments on my mortgage or anything

The postman said it was the 'worst feeling' of his life when he saw the money had been drained out of his account

My boss told me to stop working because I was acting weird. I started to mumble and they told me to sit down and talk to the bank, and everything would be sorted out.

They were worried that I might have an accident as my anxiety and stress were sky high.

I called Barclays customers services and the lady on the phone seemed to be in shock as well.

She said that it looked like an error and it could not be right as I had an overdraft limit of 3,400.

I was put on hold so she could speak to someone else, then I got cut off and I had to call back. I ended up explaining everything again to a different lady.

She could not find any evidence of unauthorised debits and I could not see any payments going out so it was a mystery why the accounts were coming up as overdrawn by 500,000 each.

The lady said she was going to register my account as high risk and refer it to the fraud team.

It seems like it was just an oops moment for them, and I was told that somebody would come back to me.

Azhar saw that his account balances had been returned to normal around six hours later.

He said he anxiously carried on constantly checking his account every couple of hours over the next week to see if the problem returned.

But yesterday he received an email from his energy company Bulb, telling him that his monthly direct debit payment had been cancelled.

Azhar then found that he was locked out of his Barclays app which was telling him that his account details were not recognised, even after he deleted and reinstalled it.

He also could not access his account by telephone banking.

Azhar managed to get through to customer services again to try and ensure his money was secure, and was told that all his direct debits had been suspended.

In a later call, he was told that all his accounts had been suspended, pending a fraud investigation.

Azhar said: I kept saying I wanted to know how the error had happened, and the lady told me, We dont have to give you any explanation.

I decided that I had to get myself a new bank account so I could still pay all my direct debits for my mortgage, car insurance, phone and life insurance.

I sorted out a new account with HSBC in five minutes. I will be able to get my wages paid into the new account on Friday, but I was told it would take seven to ten days to set up new direct debits.

I am really worried that I am going to miss a payment to someone and mess up my credit rating.

I currently re-mortgage my house every two years to get the best deal, and I am worried that it could affect that.

It could also be an issue for me, if it goes on my record that I have had a bank account suspended for any reason.

It looks like Barclays are treating me as if I done something wrong and they are trying to hide an error in their system.

People should be warned that these things can happen. I just want to secure my credit history.

Barclays has been approached for comment.
Two members of the Rotherham grooming gangs who sexually abused and trafficked up to 1,400 girls have been quietly released from jail after serving just half of their sentences.

Qurban Ali and Tayab Dad, who were both handed 10 year sentences for their part in the abuse scandal, were automatically released on licence half-way through their sentence.

Under the current legal system, a prisoner serving a determinant sentence for a fixed length of time, will be released under the supervision of the probation service after serving half their term.

MailOnline can reveal that Ali, 59, jailed in February 2016, after being found guilty of conspiracy to rape, was released in 'early' 2021 and is currently on probation.

Similarly, Dad, 40, who was found guilty of one count of rape at a second trial in February 2017, was released from prison in the first few months of this year.

Both men are currently on license, with strict conditions, although it is not known whether this restricts their movement or prevents them from returning to the Rotherham area or south Yorkshire.

Because of the legal rules in place governing inmates' rights under determinant sentences, officials were unable to refer their cases to the Parole Board for assessment.

In cases where their is an indeterminate sentence - such as a life sentence for murder where the court thinks a person is a danger to the public - a prisoners' release follows a parole hearing.

The Parole Board has the power to grant a release under license or to reject the parole bid. In the case of being turned down, the board will summarise its findings in a report.

Qurban Ali, 59, jailed in February 2016, after being found guilty of conspiracy to rape, was released in 'early' 2021 and is currently on probation

Tayab Dad, 40, who was found guilty of one count of rape at a second trial in February 2017, was released from prison in the first few months of this year

The news that two members of the Rotherham grooming gangs are out on the streets just five-years after being sentenced for being part of the UK's worst child abuse scandal, will shock campaigners.

The Government is concerned about the rules around determinant sentences and automatic release and is considering legislation to make it harder to walk out of prison without fulfilling certain conditions.

Former Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has said he would like to introduce a system whereby prisoners will only be released at the halfway point if they have behaved in prison, and in effect earned their release.

He said this is in response to concerns amongst the public that sentences given in the UK are dishonest and misleading.

MailOnline's revelations that Ali and Dad are the first of the grooming gangs to be released, comes days after the publication of a report by the police watchdog the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

The long-awaited investigation - which took eight years to publish and cost 6m - found officers in South Yorkshire 'failed to protect vulnerable children' following a series of offences carried out between 1997 and 2013.

A total of 47 current and former officers were investigated by the IOPC - but none were fired, despite 265 separate allegations being made by more than 50 complainants.

The IOPC's investigation catalogued how children as young as 12 were seen as 'consenting' to their abuse by officers, who were told to prioritise other crimes.

The report came days after officials at Oldham Council and Greater Manchester Police apologised for failing to protect victims of grooming gangs in Rochdale around the same time.

The report was met with an outcry of fury from campaigners and current police chiefs, who admitted victims had been let down.

Sammy Woodhouse, 37, was left 'disgusted' that 'not one professional will be held to account'.

She was sexually abused as a teen by ringleader Arshid 'Ash' Hussain and bravely waived her anonymity as a rape victim to expose the paedophile gang.

Ms Woodhouse, who waived her anonymity, told the Sun: 'I'm disgusted that not one professional will be held to account.

'Thousands of children and families have had their lives ripped apart. This has left me feeling like I've been raped by the system.

'Life should be hard for rapists, not us. They get all the rights, we get none.'

(Top row left to right) Tayab Dad, Nasar Dad, Basharat Dad, (bottom row left to right) Matloob Hussain, Mohammed Sadiq and Amjad Ali who were all given jail sentences at Sheffield Crown Court for sex offences after they groomed two girls and sexually abused in Rotherham between 1999 and 2001

(Left to right top) brothers Arshid Hussain, Basharat Hussain and Bannaras Hussain and (left to right bottom) Karen MacGregor, Shelley Davies and Qurban Ali who sexually, physically and emotionally abused women in Sheffield when they were in their early teens

Meanwhile, the father of another survivor told the Mirror of his anger that there was no criminal proceedings launched against officers, even though he was previously arrested himself for breaching the peace as he tried to rescue his daughter.

He said: 'It is the biggest disgrace I've ever known. It's insulting to every single girl and family member.

'They've just turned a blind eye like everyone else. I find it very very sickening and absolutely atrocious that we have not seen any justice for this at all.'

South Yorkshire's Police and Crime Commissioner said yesterday's findings 'fail to identify any individual accountability', while the town's MP said the report 'lays bare the appalling systemic failures at South Yorkshire Police'.

Locals in the town also expressed their disgust, including sisters Danielle Holmes and Tammy Frail.

They told the BBC: 'The police didn't do a good enough job to protect people.

'We know a couple of the victims and we know they didn't get the full support that they probably should have received. I bet they feel like they were punished, not the police.

'If you're going to the police for help, they should help you. It doesn't make you feel safe when they only get a final written warning.'

The IOPC report detailed how one parent concerned about a missing daughter said they were told by an officer 'it was a 'fashion accessory' for girls in Rotherham to have an 'older Asian boyfriend' and that she would grow out of it'.

The document revealed how the watchdog upheld a total of 43 complaints made against the force. These blunders included:

Failing to investigate an older man who was found undressed in a bedroom with one of the victims;

Not acting when a criminal handed over a missing girl to them as part of a 'deal' not to arrest him;

Doing nothing after approaching a parked car which a victim and her sister were in - even though the abuser told them one of the girls had just performed a sex act on him;

Telling one girl's father nothing could be done because of 'racial tensions' surrounding the investigation;

Failing to safeguard a victim who was driven 180 miles to Bristol by two men.

IOPC director-general Michael Lockwood said in the report: 'We found that officers were not fully aware, or able to deal with, Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation (CSE) offences and showed insufficient empathy towards survivors who were vulnerable children and young people.

'We saw examples of SYP seeing children, and young people, as 'consenting' to their exploitation, and a police culture that did not always recognise survivors as victims, or understand that, often, neither did those being groomed or abused.'

The IOPC identified systemic problems within South Yorkshire Police at the time, detailing how CSE in Rotherham was dealt with by a small 'overwhelmed' unit, which had a number of other responsibilities.

The report criticised the force for prioritising other crimes, such as burglary and vehicle crime, at the expense of CSE and it found 'little evidence that SYP's leadership identified, and acted on, emerging concerns about (CSE)'.

Rotherham grooming gang survivor Sammy Woodhouse, 37, said she has been 'raped by the system'

IOPC director of major investigations Steve Noonan said: 'Our report shows how SYP failed to protect vulnerable children and young people.

'Like other agencies in Rotherham at that time, it was simply not equipped to deal with the abuse and organised grooming of young girls on the scale we encountered.'

Mr Noonan praised the survivors of CSE in Rotherham who came forward to help his investigators conduct the biggest inquiry the watchdog has undertaken apart from the Hillsborough disaster probe.

He said 51 people made complaints, including 44 survivors, involving 265 separate allegations.

Of the 47 officers investigated, eight were found to have a case to answer for misconduct and six had a case to answer for gross misconduct.

Five of these officers received sanctions ranging from management action up to a final written warning. Another faced a South Yorkshire Police misconduct hearing earlier this year, and the case was found not proven by an independent panel.

In many cases, officers had retired and could not face disciplinary proceedings, the IOPC said. Only two cases reached the point of a public adjudication hearing.

South Yorkshire's PCC Alan Billings said: 'I am disappointed that after eight years of very costly investigations, this report fails to make any significant recommendations over and above what South Yorkshire Police have already accepted and implemented from previous investigations some years ago.

'It repeats what past reports and reviews have shown - that there was unacceptable practice between 1997 and 2013 - but fails to identify any individual accountability.

'As a result, it lets down victims and survivors.'

Dr Billings said: 'A great deal of time and money has been spent for few new findings or accountability.'

He said it was unfair officers have had allegations of misconduct 'hanging over them for so long', but said the force was now 'on a path of continuous improvement'.

South Yorkshire's deputy chief constable Tim Forber said: 'We fully accept the findings of the IOPC report which closely reflects those highlighted by Professor Alexis Jay in 2014.

'The Jay Report brought a stark reality of our failings in handling CSE. We let victims of CSE down. We failed to recognise their vulnerability and failed to see them as victims, for that I am deeply sorry. They deserved better from us.

'The brave accounts of these girls caused a seismic change in policing crimes of this nature for South Yorkshire Police and the wider police service.'

Mr Forber said: 'Whilst I am confident we are a very different force today, I will not lose sight of the fact that we got it wrong and we let victims down.'

The town's Labour MP Sarah Champion said the report 'lays bare the appalling systemic failures at South Yorkshire Police'.

The town's Labour MP Sarah Champion said the report 'lays bare the appalling systemic failures at South Yorkshire Police'.

'It has taken eight long years, but the truth is now out for all to see,' she said.

David Greenwood, a solicitor representing 80 Rotherham CSE survivors said: 'It shows the British public the level of disregard shown by South Yorkshire Police to female victims of sexual exploitation, it explains that even by the pathetically low standards of the police service it was 'okay' to not investigate these crimes properly or at all, and it will demonstrate how the system of police complaints has provided zero accountability and needs reform.'

Sammy Woodhouse has spoken movingly and says her abuser treated her like a 'dead body on a slab in a morgue' and branded him an 'absolute monster'.

She was sexually abused as a 14-year-old by ringleader Arshid 'Ash' Hussain and bravely waived her anonymity as a rape victim to expose the paedophile gang.

She was subjected to horrendous abuse including rape, assaults and coercion with threats to kill her family at the hands of Hussain, and in 1999 at the age of 15, Sammy fell pregnant with the 25-year-old's baby.

Opening up about her experience on Crime+Investigation programme Survivors, she told how she was 'completely out of her depth' as a teenager and had no idea how 'dangerous' Hussain would be.

'I was pretty much his sex doll; he was an absolute monster. I just felt like a dead body on a slab in a morgue', Sammy said.

Hussain was part of a gang in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, who along with many other groups abused up to 1,400 children between 1997 and 2013. He was jailed for 35 years in 2016 for 23 offences involving nine women, including Sammy.

Qurban Ali, then 53, was found guilty of conspiracy to rape after a trial at Sheffield Crown Court in February 2016. He was cleared of three other charges including rape.

Ali appealed against his conviction and length of his sentence but it was refused.

He had been convicted alongside two nephews, brothers Arshid and Basharat Hussain.

Arshid Hussain was sentenced to 35 years and Basharat Hussain to 25 years.

A fourth defendant, Karen MacGregor, was sentenced to 13 years.

Defendant, Shelley Davies, was given an 18-month suspended sentence.

Tayab Dad, then 34, of St Lawrence Road, Sheffield, was one of six men jailed at Sheffield Crown Court in February 2017.

The gang was jailed for sexually abusing two girls they plied with alcohol and cannabis.

One girl was 11 when the assaults began and was made pregnant at 12. The second girl was 13.

The offences took place between 1999 and 2001 in Rotherham, South Yorkshire.

The Ministry of Justice refused to comment on the release of Ali and Dad.
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Controversial Georgia GOP Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said the end of Roe v Wade is 'a miracle', as Washington DC's police was 'fully-activated' in anticipation of a weekend of rioting and violence.

Speaking moments after the Supreme Court handed down its 6-3 opinion Friday, Greene said: 'I think its a miracle, I'm so thrilled. Ive cried about this, Ive prayed. Everybody out here is celebrating that the Supreme Court had the courage, they had the bravery, overturning Roe versus Wade.'

'Giving it back to the states and hopefully this can be the beginning to the end of abortion. I think we know that God is real, and I think we know that prayer works, and I'm just so overjoyed.

'God bless everyone that's done it. Abortion did not end today, that's not what happened. The Supreme Court overturned through the Dobbs decision Roe versus Wade. That means it goes back to the states and they have the right to make their own abortion laws. Whether they completely outlaw abortion to happen in their state, or whether they allow it to happen to some level.

Turning her attention to nearby pro-choice protesters, Greene continued: 'Everyone needs to understand it's not totally over. We have people over here, screaming, demanding to be able to murder babies but they still can do it.

'What they're demanding hasn't been taken away from them, they can still kill a baby in the womb. But what has happened is that we can allow states to choose. '

Greene spoke as protests erupted outside the Supreme Court after six of its nine justices voted to overturn Roe v Wade, which guarantees American women the right to an abortion.

Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene joined pro-lifers to celebrate Friday's news that Roe v Wade has been overturned

Washington DC police have issued this edict warning staff to brace for overtime because of anticipated protests against the end of Roe v. Wade

Her progressive colleague Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has since made an appearance outside the Supreme Court too, with the Democrat New York Representative sharing her anguish at the end of the law.

Pro-abortion protesters howled with outrage as the long-anticipated opinion was published shortly after 10am EST Friday, with hundreds gathered outside the court in Washington DC ahead of the widely-anticipated decision.

A message sent to cops, obtained by reporter Stephanie Ramirez, told officers their department was being 'fully activated to support expected First Amendment demonstrations' until June 28.

They have been warned that 'all members should be prepared to work extended tours as necessary.' Staff previously granted leave over the weekend will have it honored.

Commanders have been warned not to allow more than five per cent of their staff to take leave, with the department's light-touch sickness program temporarily suspended.

Anyone calling-in to work ill must now be formally evaluated before they're granted leave.

Many were visibly dejected at news of the landmark ruling, and embraced one another on learning that their protests at plans to end federal access to abortion had come to naught.

There were also cheers of delight from pro-life advocates, who gathered outside the United States' highest court ahead of the landmark ruling.

Some anti-abortionists were themselves overcome with news of the ruling, and were seen sobbing outside the United States' highest court as news of the 6-3 ruling began to filter through the assembled crowd.

Pro-life protesters celebrate with champagne on Friday moments after the Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v Wade, which guarantees women the right to an abortion

Two anti-abortion demonstrators embrace and hug outside the Supreme Court on on learning that Roe v Wade had been overturned

Another pro-life protester, left, appeared overcome on learning the news that Roe v Wade has ended, with many conservative states now set to ban women from terminating unwanted pregnancies

Pro-life protesters were also visibly emotional as the ruling was published. Anti-abortion activist Carrie McDonald, left, and two unnamed pro-lifers (right) began to sob as news of the landmark ruling filtered through a crowd gathered outside the Supreme Court in Washington DC

This group of pro-lifers appeared pleased by the decision, and smiled while reading the news on their phones

The landmark ruling means much of the US is now braced for a weekend of violence. Pro-abortion protesters vowed riots if last month's leak hinting an abortion ban was on the cards came to pass.

Hard-left progressives - many of them linked to Antifa - have already torched multiple pro-life centers across the US and scrawled warnings on buildings warning of further action against them.

They were seen showering one another with champagne while cheering.

They hit the streets Supreme Court has struck down Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that guarantees women across the US the right to an abortion.

Six of the court's nine justices signed the opinion, which was handed down on Friday morning, triggering instant and furious protests from pro-abortion advocates across the US.

A pro-choice protester looked visibly upset after learning that American women were no longer guaranteed the right to an abortion

There was clear anger and upset among pro-abortion protesters, who shouted into loudspeakers and waved placards suggesting Friday's ruling was misogynist

The anguish on the face of these pro-choice protesters was clear to see after it emerged that Roe v Wade had been overturned

Another pro-abortion protester was snapped with tears in her eyes as the gravity of Friday's ruling hit home

Two pro-life friends hug one another at news that Roe had ended, while a woman stood behind them began to protest animatedly at the news

A pro-choice protester sobbed on learning Roe v Wade had been struck down by the Supreme Court Friday

Tears ran down another woman's face on learning that Roe v Wade has been struck down

It said: 'The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives.'

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have both vociferously opposed any attempts to overturn Roe, and are widely-expected to condemn Friday's ruling.

But pro-life advocates are thrilled by the opinion, which means individual states can now enact their own abortion laws.

The landmark opinion can be credited in large part to former President Donald Trump, who managed to appoint three conservative justices during his single term in office.

That flipped the Supreme Court balance from having five conservatives and four liberals to six conservatives and three liberals, emboldening the right-wing justices to make landmark rulings on issues such as abortion.

A total of 26 states are expected to enact near-total bans on abortion after control over the issue was handed back to them, with many bringing in punitive new pro-choice laws in recent months in anticipation of the end of Roe.

The Supreme Court is pictured behind security barriers on June 24 ahead of the ruling on ending Roe v Wade

Liberal states including New York and California have vowed to become 'sanctuaries' that will welcome women who can no longer have a termination in their home states.

The ruling that ended Roe v. Wade and sent shockwaves across the US establishment was signed by conservative justices Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, as well as Chief Justice John Roberts.

Opposed were its three liberal justices: Sonia Sotomayer, Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer. Breyer is set to retire from his post in July, and will be replaced by recently-confirmed Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who is also a liberal.

Friday's monumental opinion did not come as a surprise, thanks to a leaked draft of the proposed ruling that was first shared with Politico in early May.

That leak - the first in the Supreme Court's 232 year history - roiled the court and is said to have sewn discord and distrust among its justices.

An anti-abortion activist, pictured right, points his finger close to pro-abortion protesters outside the Supreme Court on June 23

An investigation as to how the document was leaked is ongoing.

Speculation continues as to whether it was leaked by a liberal court worker hoping to stir enough outrage to derail the ruling - or a conservative hoping to galvanize any justices who were wavering about whether to back the landmark opinion.

Subsequent reporting by The Washington Post revealed that the five justices who signed the leaked draft had not changed their stances, despite the firestorm of controversy and protests it triggered.

Progressive pro-abortion protesters targeted the homes of conservative justices including Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

And a California man was even arrested over claims he planned to assassinate Kavanaugh for backing the plan to ditch Roe.
The Kremlin's propaganda machine has warned that London would be the first city bombed if a world war broke out, in Russia's latest sabre-rattling against the West.

Andrey Gurulyov, a State Duma politician who is a close ally of Vladimir Putin, made the threat to Britain on the state-run Rossiya 1 channel.

The doomsday warnings come amid renewed fears of the Ukraine war escalating into a global conflict due to NATO member Lithuania blocking sanctioned goods to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

Gurulyov said the only way to prevent the blockade in a Russian invasion of NATO countries, which would trigger clause five and likely spark World War Three.

He said: 'We'll destroy the entire group of enemy's space satellites during the first air operation.

Andrey Gurulyov, a State Duma politician who is a close ally of Vladimir Putin, has threatened London

'No one will care if they are American or British, we would see them all as NATO.

'Second, we'll mitigate the entire system of anti-missile defence, everywhere and 100 percent.

'Third, we certainly won't start from Warsaw, Paris or Berlin. The first to be hit will be London.'

The 54-year-old, who is a member of Russian parliament's defence committee, added: 'It's crystal clear that the threat to the world comes from the Anglo-Saxons.

'As part of the operation to destroy critically important sites, Western Europe will be cut off from power supplies and immobilised.

'All power supply sites will be destroyed. And in the third stage, I shall see what the USA will tell Western Europe on continuing their fight in the cold, without food and electricity.

NATO member Lithuania blocked sanctioned goods to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, angering Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin makes a toast as he takes part in a virtual format at the opening ceremony of the BRICS Business Forum today

'I wonder how they (the US) will manage to stay aside. This is the rough plan, and I deliberately leave out certain moments because they are not to be discussed on TV.'

The general dismissed plans advocated by other Russian experts to snatch a corridor through Lithuania, to supply Kaliningrad which is wedged between NATO states Poland and Lithuania.

The so-called 'Suvalkovsky Corridor' is from Belarus to Lithuania.

He sees such a strategy as a Western trap because Putin's army would be flanked on two sides by NATO troops.

'It's the desire of our Western partners that we clear the Suvalkovsky Corridor,' he said.

'If you look at the map, it would be a big mistake from our side to make the corridor just to end up with NATO troops to the right and left

The Kholmogory cargo ship is seen moored at the port of St. Petersburg amid Lithuania's blockade

'And we also need to pull Belarus into this

'Let's look at the map'

His strategy is to revert Lithuanian capital back to its former identity as Vilno, and Estonian capital Tallinn back to its tsarist identity as Reval.

'We calmly.turn Vilnius back into Vilno, remind ourselves what is Reval [the tsarist name for Tallinn], and free up the right Baltic flank, so we don't worry that we can be hit from the back,' he told state TV.

'From the military point of view it is impossible to get a clear corridor [through Lithuania],' he said.

'But if the West decides to block the Kaliningrad region, a decision to carry out a strategic operation to unblock it will be taken.

'But as a serviceman, I clearly understand that no-one will bother with just doing a corridor.

'If we start working, we will work properly.

'Everything will be cleared out, because why leave enemies behind your back?'

Gurulyov is a former deputy commander of Russia's southern military district.

He served with Russian forces in Syria.

He has been sanctioned by the US for his close links to Putin.

In February he was allegedly overheard on an intercepted call ordering subordinates to burn the homes of Ukrainians after throwing out families into the street.

Such action would be a war crime.
A married female physics teacher has been found guilty of kissing and dancing flirtatiously with a teenage male pupil at a local nightclub.

Ashley McConnell, who was 30 at the time, broke down in tears yesterday as she fought for her job during a hearing in front of the General Teaching Council for Scotland.

The physics teacher, who taught at Thurso High School in Caithness, was found to have kissed the 17-year-old pupil at a local nightclub, Skinandi's, in March 2018.

Also known as Ashley Swanson, the married teacher was also accused of touching his bottom and groin and holding hands with him during the night in question.

Miss McConnell, 34, previously admitted holding hands with the schoolboy - but denied kissing him.

However the teaching panel have now found her guilty after they believed there was enough evidence to prove that the married mother danced in a 'flirtatious' manner with him.

Physics teacher Ashley McConnell (pictured), was found guilty of kissing a teenage pupil at a local nightclub in Caithness, Scotland, after telling school bosses she 'couldn't remember' the incident

Miss McDonnell was found guilty of dancing 'flirtatiously' with the male pupil at local Skinandi's nightclub in March 2018, but the hearing said there wasn't enough evidence to prove she had touched the pupil on the bottom or groin area

McConnell told the GTCS that she had drunk an excessive amount of alcohol on the night in question and could not remember everything.

Miss McConnell admitted she told other pupils on that evening to 'f*** off' after they questioned her behaviour with the teenage boy.

She also admitted giving one female pupil the middle finger.

The GTCS found there was not enough evidence to prove allegations that Miss McConnell touched the pupil on the bottom or groin area.

The panel will now have to determine whether McConnell's fitness to teach is impaired and if she will be allowed to remain on the teaching register.

Yesterday, Miss McConnell claimed she had not touched alcohol since the night in question.

Fighting to remain on the teaching register, she said: 'I realised that my conduct had fallen short, I don't drink alcohol anymore, perhaps if I hadn't been drinking alcohol that night I wouldn't be in the situation we are in.

'I feel a great deal of remorse and shame.

'Behaviour of this nature will never be repeated, I hope you will see that my conduct at the time was in stark contrast to my typical character. The risk of repetition is non-existent.

'My conduct in work was never questioned, I've taken all the steps that I can. I have made lots and lots of changes.'

Miss McConnell refused to accept that she may have left the pupil with long lasting emotional damage after their kiss at the nightclub.

She said: 'Did I annoy him that night? Yes, and was he the one who allegedly stopped the events? yes, but no I don't think it caused him long lasting emotional damage.'

Miss McConnell burst into tears at the hearing as she spoke of how the night in question had taken its toll on her.

She said: 'It has already affected me, I have not been able to teach for the last four years.

'I could get another job but that doesn't fill me with joy, I don't feel excited or passionate about that [another job].

'I've been doing private tutoring but it's not the same.'

The GTCS also heard from teacher and friend of Miss McConnell, Leslie-Anne Wooles.

She said: 'The last time I saw her in person was at a wedding, it was a free bar with lots of alcohol and Ashley didn't touch a single drop.'

Earlier this week the panel heard from another colleague, Angela Sutherland, who was out with McConnell on the evening in March and couldn't believe she was still standing.

She said: 'The whole science department was in my house for my 50th birthday, we had a takeaway and drank some wines and beers.

'Ashley had a lot to drink at my house, that was before we had even gone out, when I left her she was really drunk, she was hardly stringing two words together.

'I was reasonably sober, because we were in my house.

'I didn't really feel drunk at any point that night and I was very aware of how drunk she was.

'She'd been drinking beers but I think Jack Daniels as well and when I left she gave me a big hug and was slurring her words saying 'I love you', I don't know how she was still standing.'

Miss McConnell faces being struck off the teaching register by the General Teaching Council for Scotland following an investigation over her alleged behaviour.

She was suspended from her job after concerned pupils approached school bosses with a video of the alleged incident.

Students who were at the nightclub said the teacher was dancing in a 'sexualised' and 'dirty' manner.

The Thurso High School pupil that Miss McConnell was accused of acting inappropriately with told school bosses he kissed her 'three or four times'.

The hearing continues.
Kellyanne Conway said that Donald Trump's former chief of staff Mark Meadows is 'responsible' for the Stop the Steal rally and protests in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021 and doubled-down that the former president really does think he won the 2020 election.

'I hold Mark Meadows responsible because you are not going to get all these different supplicants, showmen and charlatans, as I say in the book, around the resolute desk in the oval office without the approval, if not the invitation of the chief of staff,' Conway said in an upcoming episode of The Daily California with Steve Hilton exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com.

Conway served as senior counselor to Trump from the first day of his presidency until just five months before he vacated the White House. She was a frequent pundit for the president during the campaign and following his election to office.

She told Hilton in a podcast episode being released on Monday that Meadows allowing too many people access to Trump in the final weeks and months of his presidency was 'problematic' and 'crowded out all of the sun of the Trump presidency.'

Former White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway told Steve Hilton in an upcoming podcast episode that Donald Trump truly believes he won the 2020 election

'So Giuliani's in there, Jenna Ellis, his lawyer, Sidney Powell, they're all involved, but then there are people that we probably don't even know about,' Conway explained.

Trump spoke at a Stop the Steal rally outside the White House gates on January 6, 2021 before a group of his supporters descended on the Capitol to try and stop Congress from certifying the Electoral College results for Joe Biden.

The January 6 select committee attempted to prove in their public hearings this month that Trump knew he lost the 2020 presidential election, but still pushed the 'Big Lie' in an attempt to overturn the true results.

But Conway insists that Trump truly believed he won the election  reiterating what the former president said in his own defense as the panel tried to prove to the contrary.

The former senior counselor to Trump said that officials in different states are still calling the former president giving him hope that results could be overturned in their jurisdictions or that something new will come out to back his election fraud claims.

'I think that's incredibly unfair to the president,' Conway said.

'And I want to say this about the president: he absolutely believes he won that election,' she added. 'I disagree totally with what people who don't know him and who have never talked to him about the election, if ever, are saying about his state of mind.'

'Yes, people told him 'you came up short.' He believes he won that election and I think that ought to matter in circumstances of the January 6th committee,' she said.

She also said that she doesn't think Rudy Giuliani is responsible for the Stop the Steal disaster, claiming instead that she blames former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows (right) for the events on January 6, 2021

The nine-person Democratic-led panel held its fifth of at least eight hearings on Thursday  hearing from former Trump Justice Department officials who said they never saw any proof that there was widespread fraud that could have overturned the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Trump posted to his Truth Social account on Sunday that the committee's point in the hearing last Thursday was wrong in saying that he was aware he lost the election to Joe Biden.

'The highly partisan Unselects are trying to create a FAKE narrative, for whatever reason but only with evil intention, that 'He (me) knew he lost the Election.' This is completely false,' the former president posted.

'I felt the Election was RIGGED & STOLLEN, have from the very beginning, & have only gotten stronger in that belief with time & large amounts of additional evidence and proof,' he added. 'In my mind I have, & HAVE HAD, NO QUESTION, and MANY people would be willing to so attest, but the Unselects don't want to hear them'

The select committee announced this week that it will be holding another round of hearings in July after obtaining raw footage from a British documentary filmmaker who was given an immense amount of access to Trump, his adult children and Vice President Mike Pence in the final weeks of the 2020 campaign.

Alex Holder was able to capture dozens of hours of footage and interviews of then-President Trump, his children Ivanka, Don Jr., Eric, son-in-law Jared Kushner and Pence before and after the Capitol attack.

The panel subpoenaed that footage last week and held a private deposition with Holder on Thursday.
Joe Biden will sign the gun control package on Saturday after it breezed through the House of Representatives on Friday.

The President will also make a statement on the bill that seeks to crack down on weapon ownership across the US.

The House of Representatives passed the bipartisan gun control package Friday afternoon sending it to Biden's desk.

In a vote of 234 to 193, with the help of 14 Republicans, the House followed the Senate's lead in green-lighting the legislation - the most significant firearms bill passed in decades.

Cheers rang out from the House floor after it passed - with no Democrats voting against the legislation.

Biden is headed to Germany and then Spain early Saturday morning for G7 and NATO meetings.

The vote came amid protests and celebrations outside the Supreme Court due to the court's decision to overrule Roe v. Wade - with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle participating.

It received a 65-33 vote in the U.S. Senate late Thursday night, after a month of negotiations that eventually found a compromise on one of the country's most contentious political issues.

It passed after 15 Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, ignored former President Donald Trump's demand they vote against it.

'I don't think I could agree with Senator Mitch McConnell on where to go to have lunch,' remarked Rep. Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat, as he kicked off debate on the House floor Friday morning.

McGovern applauded the Senate Republicans, also name-dropping Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham, who voted for the bill - and asked House GOP members to follow their lead.

House GOP leadership has instructed members to vote against the legislation.

'I know I'm asking you to voite against your party's leadership. I know that's a tough spot to put some of my Republican friends in. But I think at the end of the day, you owe yourself to consider this one idea: what is this bill stops even one mass shooting from happening?' McGovern said.

Democratic Rep. Lucy McBath, whose late son was a victim of gun violence, chaired part of the debate, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi taking the gavel for the final vote.

Pelosi held an enrollment ceremony Friday afternoon, before the House leaves town for a two-week recess.

In a vote of 234 to 193, with the help of 14 Republicans, the House followed the Senate's lead in green-lighting the bipartisan gun control package

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stands with fellow Democrats holding photographs of the victims of the mass shootings in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas before the House voted on the gun control bill

Rep. Lucy McBath, a Georgia Democrat who lost her son to gun violence, chaired some of Friday's debate in advance of the House passing the bill

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi smiles as she chairs the House as lawmakers vote to approve the first gun control package in decades

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is embraced by a colleague at the conclusion of the vote Friday on the gun control package

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi held an enrollment ceremony for the bill before sending it to President Joe Biden Friday afternoon before the House left town for a two-week recess

'This is a very special occasion for us. We are honoring a promise in honor of all those who have lost loved ones to gun violence,' Pelosi said. 'The Congress sends to the president now our nation's first major gun safety legislation in three decades.'

Pelosi declared McBath 'our spiritual leader in all of this, our inspiration.'

'So now I'm honored to sign the legislation, to send it to the President  right away  for his signature, with gratitude for his leadership in gun violence prevention for decades,' Pelosi said.

House Republican leadership had officially come out against the bill Wednesday.

'This legislation takes the wrong approach in attempting to curb violent crimes. House Republicans are committed to identifying and solving the root causes of violent crimes, but doing so must not infringe upon Second Amendment rights,' House Minority Whip Steve Scalise said in a notice telling House GOP members to vote against the legislation.

The 14 GOP lawmakers to vote in favor of the bill included January 6 committee members - Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger - along with Reps. Tom Rice, John Katko, Maria Salazr, Chris Jacobs, Brian Fitzpatrick, Peter Meijer, Fred Upton, Steve Chabot, Mike Turner, David Joyce, Athony Gonzalez of Ohio and Tony Gonzalez.

McConnell had argued that the bipartisan compromise package would have no impact on Americans' Second Amendment rights.

'Bipartisan talks had started up after horrifying mass murder incidents in the past, but collapsed when Senate Democrats insisted on attacking the Second Amendment,' the Kentucky Republican said.

'This time was different because Democrats finally moved our way and accepted the reality that Americans do not have to choose between their constitutional rights and safer communities. They can have both,' McConnell said.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell voted in favor of the gun package, defying former President Donald Trump who said it was the 'FIRST STEP IN TAKING AWAY YOUR GUNS!'

The Senate voted 65 to 34 to end a Republican-led filibuster on the gun reform package, clearing another important hurdle. The Senate passed the bill later Thursday night

Some of his colleagues disagreed.

Senator Roger Marshall said: 'Kansans expect me to protect their Constitutional freedoms in the U.S. Senate, and I will not sacrifice those freedoms for this gun grabbing scheme.'

Earlier the Senate voted 65 to 34 to end a Republican-led filibuster on the gun reform package, clearing the way to the final vote.

The vote comes after an initial 64-34 procedural vote taken in the Senate Tuesday night, with 14 Republicans joining all 50 Democrats in voting in the affirmative.

Sen. Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican, wasn't present for the vote due to suffering a 'severe' hand injury after trying to remove a boulder in his yard.

Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn was one of the chief negotiators, as there were fresh calls for stricter gun control laws in the aftermath of the Uvalde, Texas elementary school shooting.

The same group of Republicans voted in favor of breaking the filibuster Thursday, with the addition of Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, who wasn't on hand for the first vote.

Other Republicans who voted yea include Sens. Roy Blunt, Richard Burr, Shelley Moore Capito, Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, Joni Ernst, Lindsey Graham, Lisa Murkowski, Rob Portman, Mitt Romney, Thom Tillis and Todd Young.

The 80-page compromise legislation would toughen background checks for younger gun buyers, bolster background check requirements and beef up penalties for gun traffickers.

The bill would also prohibit romantic partners convicted of domestic abuse who are not married to their victims from getting firearms.

Convicted abusers who are married to, live with or had children with their victims are already barred from having guns.

Additionally, $750million would be provided to the 19 states that have 'red flag' laws making it easier to temporarily take firearms from people adjudged dangerous, and to other states with violence prevention programs.

States with 'red flag' laws that receive the funds would have to have legal processes for the gun owner to fight the firearm's removal.

The bill would disburse money to states and communities to improve school safety and mental health initiatives.

In a statement Tuesday, the National Rifle Association came out against the bill saying it 'falls short at every level.'

'It does little to truly address violent crime while opening the door to unnecessary burdens on the exercise of Second Amendment freedom by law-abiding gun owners,' the statement said. 'This legislation can be abused to restrict lawful gun purchases, infringe upon the rights of law-abiding Americans, and use federal dollars to fund gun control measures being adopted by state and local politicians.'

Former President Donald Trump has also come out against the bill, hammering McConnell - who he had a falling out with once McConnell wasn't supportive of the 'big lie' - for his support.

'Mitch McConnell's push for Republican Senators to vote for Gun Control will be the final straw,' Trump posted to Truth Social Thursday. 'Just like he gave away the ebt Ceiling and got NOTHING in return, or handed the Dems a great sound bite and victory with the Infrastructure Bill, which is actually all about the Green New Deal, he is now forcing approval of the FIRST STEP IN TAKING AWAY YOUR GUNS!'

'Republican Senators SHOULD NOT VOTE FOR THIS CAREER ENDING BILL!!!' Trump wrote.

Trump also referred to Cornyn as a 'RINO,' a Republican in name only.

The Senate's votes took place just hours after the Supreme Court struck down a New York state law that made people give 'proper cause' if they wanted to carry a handgun in public.

The fresh ruling opens to door to permitting all law-abiding Americans to carry concealed and loaded handguns in public.
Koica President Sohn Hyuk-sang, left, poses with ESCAP Executive Secretary Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana during an MOU-signing ceremony in Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday. Courtesy of Koica



By Kang Seung-woo



The Korea International Cooperation Agency (Koica) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Thursday, at the U.N. Conference Centre in Bangkok, Thailand, on stimulating regional and multilateral cooperation in strengthening the capacity of Asia-Pacific countries for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).



Koica President Sohn Hyuk-sang and ESCAP Executive Secretary Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana attended the ceremony. The MOU seeks to boost cooperation between the two organizations and support sustainable development and the achievement of the SDGs in the Asia-Pacific region.



This MOU is a renewal of an nonbinding agreement between the two sides signed in February 2019, encompassing areas such as stimulating development related to low carbon and climate resilience through finance and technology, improving gender equality and strengthening the capacity and economic rights of girls and women, and supporting vulnerable groups and promoting inclusive and just societies and strengthening connectivity among ICT, transportation and energy. Cooperation related to monitoring and preventing air pollution has been newly added to the renewed MOU.



The renewed MOU reflects both sides' willingness to cooperate on overcoming air pollution in the Asia-Pacific region. Countries in the region have been experiencing severe air pollution due to slash-and-burn farming and coal-centered development, along with a lack of policy and regulation, resulting in damage to the regional economies and societies.



In response, Koica and ESCAP have been jointly carrying out various environmental projects to respond to climate change and reduce air pollution in the Asia-Pacific region, such as the East Asia Climate Partnership (EACP) established in 2011, the ASEAN climate response program and Building the Pan-Asia Partnership for Geospatial Air Pollution to reduce air pollution by monitoring the air pollution of 13 countries in Asia.



"Low carbon and climate resilience have emerged as global topics. Through this MOU, I hope we are able to better serve the public good that is the shared atmosphere of Asia-Pacific countries, which will provide a safe and clean environment for a wider population," Sohn said.



Alisjahbana said, "U.N. ESCAP and Koica have cooperated in various areas including ICT, statistics and disaster. I hope for continued cooperation projects that combine Korea's technology and U.N. ESCAP's network to overcome crises including COVID-19 and climate change in the Asia-Pacific region."






A mother has been forced to move into a tent away from her three children after struggling to find a house to rent for an entire year.

Grappling with the Gold Coast rental market where availability is the lowest in the country, Corinne Cook and her partner Dale Brown moved into the 10-man tent while her three kids live with relatives.

'I want my kids home and they want to be home but I can't have them here and when I do have them here they don't want to be here because it's not a homely feeling,' Ms Cook told Nine News.

Corrine Cook lives with her partner Dale Brown (both pictured) in a tent because they couldn't get a rental home in the Gold Coast

She said she gets to see her children whenever she wants, but it's not the same as living under the same roof.

Ms Cook said her family had been looking for a new home since June last year, when the owner of her previous rental house decided to sell.

The family had been living in caravan parks and family members' houses as application after application was rejected by prospective landlords.

The mother-of-three said she felt 'overwhelmed' when she went to look at new houses on the market due to the huge crowds that turned up.

'Go to have a look at the house and there's 30 other people there,' Ms Cook said, adding it was the 'worst situation' she'd ever been in.

Ms Cook can see her children whenever she wants but says it is 'not the same' as having her whole family living under one roof, her children stay with their relatives

Recent data shows the Gold Coast has the least available rental market in the country with vacancy rates dipping to as low as 0.4 per cent.

The Queensland state average is also low at 0.7 per cent.

The state is expecting a major influx of domestic migration from southern states over the next few years.

The Gold Coast's population alone is expected to grow by more than 145,000 people over the next decade.

For the 12 months ending in March this year, the city had the third highest growth rate after the Southern Highlands south of Sydney and the Hunter Valley.
James Packer has quit taking seven different 'mood-altering drugs' that doctors prescribed from him amid investigations into his casinos - with the billionaire revealing he's now the happiest he's been for years.

The 54-year-old former executive chair of Crown Resorts said he is now free of the drugs which were prescribed to help with his mental health challenges, including bipolar disorder.

Mr Packer is now hoping to 'rehabilitate' his reputation in Australia and embrace a life of health and wellbeing after shedding 25kg in just over two months.

'I got off all my antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs in March,' he told The Weekend Australian from his home in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

Former Crown owner James Packer (above) said he wants to 'rehabilitate' his reputation in Australia after selling his casino empire and coming off seven kinds of 'mood-altering drugs' that were prescribed by doctors

'In 10 years, and hopefully before then, I hope to have rehabilitated my reputation in Australia and elsewhere.'

Mr Packer sold Crown to private investment company Blackstone for $8.9billion in a deal that was finalised last week, with the businessman pocketing $3.3billion.

The sale marked the end of a major chapter in his life which at times was mired by controversy amid inquiries into the company and allegations of money laundering.

Despite the investigations, the billionaire credited his casinos in Melbourne, Perth and Sydney for changing the cities 'for the better'.

The father-of-three said he is now excited to begin his 'third act' and plans to ease back into public life in Australia.

Mr Packer, pictured last year, is now hoping to embrace a life of health and wellbeing after shedding 25kg in just over two months

Mr Packer's ex-wife Erica and their three children are seen in Bondi beach. The family will stay at the Crown Sydney next March

He's planning a return to Sydney next March to stay in his former company's new luxury skyscraper overlooking the harbour with his ex-wife Erica and three kids Indigo, 13, Jackson, 12 and Emmanuelle, 9.

Erica will renovate the $72million apartment which will serve as a home for whenever members of the family are in the NSW capital.

Mr Packer said he was looking forward to seeing Crown Sydney in its finished form, adding it 'hasn't been appropriate' for him to be in Australia in recent years.

The last time he saw the monumental building was in January 2020, and he was last seen publicly just eight months later where he appeared on video link from his $250million yacht during the inquiry investigating Crown's casino licence in NSW.

Packer said he will be visiting Crown Sydney (above) for the first time next March in his first Australian trip since January 2020

Mr Packer is seen with former flame Mariah Carey in 2016

Mr Packer said he was enjoying life more than he ever had, and was prioritising family and his wellbeing.

'The sale of Crown is the end of my Act 2 and the beginning of my Act 3. I want to learn from my mistakes and I'm hoping for a meaningful and successful Act 3,' he said.

His next goal is to trim down from 130kg to 100kg and jump into the water at Bondi Beach with his son this summer.

He also wants to become involved in public debate in Australia including on topics like China, mental health and artificial intelligence.

Mr Packer acknowledged he'd been 'incredibly lucky' in his life with a current estimated net worth of $5.72 billion, and is now hoping to help those 'a lot less fortunate than me'.
A 21-year-old woman who disappeared in May was found buried in a Missouri barn.

Jessi Wilfong was reported missing by her mother, Kathy Wilfong, on May 25 - nearly a week after she last saw her daughter at her Millersville residence on May 19.

Jessi allegedly met up with her uncle, Lawrence Schanda, and his girlfriend, Teresa L. Baumgartner, 59, on the evening she was last seen by her mom, Kathy revealed on The Lawless Files podcast.

Surveillance footage from a neighbor captured Jessi arriving at her uncle's home and never leaving, according to her mother.

Jessi's phone died the night she went missing, Kathy said. As time passed, she knew something was wrong when her daughter didn't update her social media platforms, which she found 'weird.'

Jessi Wilfong, 21, was reported missing by her mom, Kathy, on May 25. Kathy last saw her daughter on May 19 at her Millersville residence

Kathy alleges her daughter was never seen coming out of Lawrence Schanda and Baumgartner's (left) home

Teresa L. Baumgartner, 59, was arrested and charged with tampering with physical evidence in connection with Wilfong's disappearance

According to a probable-cause statement filed by Det. Jaime Holloway, undisclosed information led investigators at Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Office to a residence in the county belonging to Baumgartner and Schanda on June 15, The Southeast Missourian reported.

At the home investigators found that carpet from the living room had been removed, KFVS News reported.

'From the evidence collected and other information obtained from the investigative process, it was suspected that foul play was involved in the disappearance of Ms. Wilfong,' Sheriff Ruth Ann Dickerson wrote in a news release.

On June 18, deputies were led to a barn 'in close proximity' to the residence of Baumgartner. Investigators found a portion of the ground recently tampered - where Jessi's remains were later discovered.

Her death was ruled a homicide two days later.

Baumgartner was arrested on June 21 in connection with Jessi's disappearance and charged with tampering with physical evidence in a felony investigation. An auger rented by Baumgartner of May 24 was found in the barn.

Schanda, meanwhile, hasn't been arrested or charged in connection with the case. He did, however, tell officers on June 8 that he had gotten into a verbal altercation with his niece on May 19 after she allegedly provided law enforcement with information about his illegal drug activity.

The investigation is ongoing.
Travel mayhem stretched to the eighth day with thousands of flights delayed and over 500 cancelations in the US, sparking Fourth of July chaos fears.

As of Friday morning, over 2,104 flights were delayed within, into or out of the US, according to FlightAware. An additional 543 flights were canceled across the nation.

Some of the major airlines have been accused of making a bad situation worse as the crisis continues.

Multiple Twitter users accused Delta and American Airlines of leaving them on hold for hours, with one saying they'd been waiting for three days to check in on their over $1,200 Delta reimbursement claim filed nearly three weeks ago and went without response.

Another accused the airline of simply 'ghosting' them by refusing to continue to respond to their complaints in customer service.

Travel mayhem stretched to the eighth day with thousands of flights delayed and over 500 cancelations in the US, sparking Fourth of July chaos fears

American Airlines was criticized by traveler Brayden McMahan, who said his group was given hotel vouchers but they'd been declined at the hotel; he added that three others staying at the same hotel experience the same issue. McMahan's kids were forced to sleep on chairs.

Another flyer, Scott Lincicome, said Delta canceled his flight home because of the weather, then rebooked him for the next morning, saying he couldn't be refunded because of the weather-related cancelation. He saw other airlines in the area take off at around the same time, however.

Other Twitter users posted photos of lost bags piling up at baggage claims and dozens of people on standby, with no one attending their gates.

This comes as U.S. consumers lodged more than triple the number of complaints against U.S. airlines in April, compared with pre-pandemic levels, as on-time arrivals fell, according to a report by the Department of Transportation.

In April, major carriers posted an on-time arrival rate of 76 percent, down from 77.2 percent in March and below the 79.8 percent rate in April 2019, the report said.

Airlines operated 566,893 flights in April, about 87 percent of the flights flown during the same month in 2019.

The grim news foreshadows a potentially busy July 4 holiday, according to AAA, as over 47 million Americans are expected to travel over the holiday weekend, with 3.5 million of those travelers expected to travel by air.

An airline industry trade group on Friday said the Federal Aviation Administration must ensure adequate air traffic control staffing issues in the face of rising summer delays.

Trade group Airlines for America told U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a letter that staffing challenges are disrupting flights - even in good weather. The group noted that the Jacksonville Air Route Traffic Control Center in Florida had been 'understaffed for 27 of the last 30 days, which is crippling to the entire east coast traffic flows.'

In New Jersey, United Airlines will cut about 50 flights a day out of Newark in an attempt to reduce long delays that the airline blames on airport construction and other issues.

The cuts - about 12 percent of United flights in Newark - will start July 1 and last the rest of the summer. United is the main airline of Newark Liberty International Airport, which is just across the Hudson River from New York City, and gets heavy use from people living in and around the city.

Uniteds chief operations officer, Jon Roitman, told employees that the airline has enough planes, pilots and other workers to run its Newark schedule, but cutting flights 'should help minimize excessive delays and improve on-time performance.'

Only domestic flights will be reduced, a United spokeswoman said Thursday, adding that United will not drop any destinations from Newark. The airline got a waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration to reduce flights, she said.

Travelers are already facing a difficult summer as airlines expect record demand and as they rebuild staff levels after thousands of workers left the industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. As of early afternoon Friday, airlines had canceled 525 flights and delayed more than 1,800.

Airlines for America sought a meeting with transportation officials 'to discuss how we can work together to better understand FAAs controller staffing plan for the upcoming July 4th weekend and summer travel season.'

United announced Friday that they're cutting 12 percent of their flights out of Newark Airport as of July 1

The U.S. Department of Transportation and the FAA did not immediately comment.

The FAA said in early May it would boost air traffic control staff in Florida after bad weather and space launches had often snarled flights in recent months.

Last week, Buttigieg called the chief executives of major U.S airlines to a virtual meeting to discuss thousands of recent flight cancellations and delays over the Memorial Day holiday weekend. He urged airlines to ensure they can reliably operate planned summer schedules.

Airlines for America said in its Friday letter, which it released publicly, that carriers 'pulled down 15 percent of summer (June-August) flights relative to what they had planned for at the outset of 2022.'

The letter said one carrier estimated ATC-related issues 'were a factor in at least one-third of recent cancellations.' The group said ATC 'staffing challenges have led to traffic restrictions under blue sky conditions.'

The letter also said it was 'imperative' to ensure adequate staffing at New York Terminal Radar Approach Control. It urged the FAA 'to share its staffing plan with airlines' for the July 4 holiday period and to schedule space launch airspace closures 'to avoid high-volume air traffic times.'
A black bear died after getting trapped inside a 104f car while looking for food, as a stifling heat dome continues to cook much of the southern United States.

Temperatures in the vehicle, which was parked and unlocked outside a rental cabin in rural Tennessee, reportedly exceeded 140F.

The bear, officials said, climbed inside the unlocked green jeep Wednesday in search of food, but became trapped after accidentally shutting the door behind itself.

Photos released by Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency show the lifeless animal slumped inside the car, which had been parked outside a rental cabin in Sevierville, a city in the eastern part of the state - on a day where temperatures surpassed 95F.

The cars owner left the cabin in a different vehicle around 10 am, officials said, returning at 6:45 pm to find the bear dead inside.

He promptly reported the discovery to officials.

A black bear died after getting trapped inside a hot car in Tennessee Wednesday, officials said - as a stifling heat dome continues to cook much of the southern United States

Photos released by Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency show the lifeless animal slumped inside the car, which had been parked outside a rental cabin in Sevierville - on a day where temperatures surpassed 95F

Officials said the animal had been attracted to food that had been left behind in the parked car by the unidentified cabin dweller, and that the bear got inside the vehicle using its teeth or paws.

The door then shut behind the animal, trapping it inside, officials said - adding that temperatures likely climbed to more than 140 degrees, spurred by a recent heat wave that has effected much of the US South and Midwest.

'Here is a good example of how #garbagekillsbears,' Tennessee Wildlife workers wrote in a news release Thursday detailing the incident.

'It appears that the bear got inside the car by using its teeth or paws to open the unlocked door and was trapped inside after the door shut behind it,' they wrote.

'We believe that heat likely killed the bear as outside temperatures exceeded 95 degrees yesterday,' adding 'the vehicle's interior possibly reached over 140 degrees.'

They added that the bear was likely lured into the car by the smell of food, citing food wrappers seen in photos shared by the agency along with the news release.

'Notice the empty soda can and food package on the floorboard,' officials wrote, sharing a photo showing an empty bag of chips and soda can on the floor of the car's back seat - just below the bear's slumped head.

'Bears have noses 7 times better than a bloodhound,' officials wrote, adding that the animals 'can smell even the faintest odor of food inside a vehicle.'

The bear, officials said, climbed inside the unlocked vehicle in search of food, but became trapped after accidentally shutting the door behind itself

They added that even empty food containers, as well as candy wrappers, fast food bags, and air fresheners, can attract the omnivorous animals, and warned citizens to refrain from leaving such items in areas where the critters are known to reside.

'Please be #BearWise and help us keep bears wild and alive,' the statement said.

The discovery comes as a dome of extreme continues to move across the US, creating dangerous climate conditions for much of the country the past two weeks.

The grim discovery comes as a dome of extreme continues to move across the southern and midwestern US, creating dangerous, unprecedented climate conditions for the past two weeks

Americans in states Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, felt the brunt of the heat wave Thursday, with several cities in those states seeing temperatures climb well into the triple digits.

In the Southeast, an intense pulse of heat spurred by the heat dome - a weather phenomenon in which an area experiences stifling heat when a system of high pressure pushes warm air downward and keeps it trapped as if in a bubble - hit parts of Georgia and the Florida panhandle, causing absurdly high temperatures.

In the Southeast, an intense pulse of heat spurred by the heat dome - a weather phenomenon in which an area experiences stifling heat when a system of high pressure pushes warm air downward and keeps it trapped - hit parts of Georgia and the Florida, causing extreme heat

Georgia saw highs of 105 degrees in cities like Macon - while the Sunshine State lived up to its name with heat index values topping 110.

The 105 in Macon - seen on Wednesday, the day the bear was discovered - was its highest temperature ever observed so early in the year.

That day saw temperatures swell as high as 106 degrees in nine states in the US Southeast, including The Volunteer State - with Nashville recording blistering temps of 101F and Memphis recording an even more pronounced 102F, both record highs.

Other cities to see unprecedented temperatures for this time of year include Tuscaloosa, Alabama, with 101F; Charlotte, North Carolina, also 101F; nearby Raleigh, with 100F; and New Orleans, with 96F.

Forecasts indicate that the most dangerous part of the heat wave is over - but heat alerts still remain for over 40 million people in cities ranging from Texas to Florida, including Dallas, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Mobile, and Jacksonville.

Forecasts indicate that the most dangerous part of the heat wave is over - but heat alerts still remain for over 40 million people in cities ranging from Texas to Florida, including Dallas, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Mobile, and Jacksonville

With that said, a renewed surge of exceptional heat is expected to pummel the Great Plains and Mississippi valley into the weekend - adding to the record-setting temperatures seen earlier in the week.

In some areas, heat and humidity will combine to yield heat indexes that surpass 110F, creating conditions that put citizens at risk of heat exhaustion and heat stroke - especially those exerting themselves outdoors.

Dallas is expected to match its record high of 102F, matching a mark set more than 40 years ago, in 1980.

Elsewhere in the Lone Star State, Houston will too likely meet a previous high - hit this time in 2009 - of 101F.

To the east in Alabama, Mobile will is forecast to hit it record high of 101F, also last seen in 2009.

A renewed surge of exceptional heat is expected to pummel the Great Plains and Mississippi valley into the weekend - adding to the record-setting temperatures seen earlier in the week

Macon, meanwhile, is expected to surpass its all-time high of 101, set in 1988, with a forecast of 102 degrees.

Roughly 100 miles south, Albany is forecast to hit a sweltering 105 degrees - shattering a nearly 80-year-old record set in 1994, of 104F.

Further south, in Florida's Panhandle - the northernmost portion of the state that is expected to be slammed by the east-moving dome this weekend - temperatures in Tallahassee are forecast to hit 104F, one-upping the 103 set in 1944.

The city may even see its all-time temperature record of 105 shattered, experts say.

By Saturday, the heat dome will shift west, bringing readings ranging from 100 to 104 degrees to most of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi and away from western Alabama, western Tennessee, and southeastern Missouri.

Some meteorologists say the heat dome may ease or even dissipate by early next week - however, the National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center warns that the dome may remain, resulting in more above-average temperatures in the weeks to come.
Schoolteachers at an Oregon elementary school claim that eye-rolling directed at the principal is a form of aggression 'rooted in white supremacy.'

BIPOC teachers at Errol Hassell Elementary school sent an email to school administrators on May 27 after hearing that their principal, Cynthia Lam Moffett, may be removed from her position, Fox News reports.

BIPOC stands for black, indigenous, and people of color.

"We believe that much of the resistance to Principal Moffetts work is a result of bias and targeted aggression. As BIPOC educators we have observed, experienced, and witnessed similar micro and macro aggressions,' the teachers said in the email.

The email sent by the teachers claims that Principal Cynthia Lam Moffett is the victim of 'biased and targeted aggression' from other members of the staff

Included in the list of micro and macro aggressions provided was an example of staff members rolling their eyes 'during meetings while Principal Moffett was speaking.'

The teachers also claimed 'staff raised their voice and interrupted Principal Moffett during meetings, and spoke in a disrespectful and aggressive manner.'

'Aggressive emails' and 'behaviors' over the school radio directed 'towards BIPOC staff' were also mentioned in the extensive email, and the teachers complained they were being 'ignored and othered.'

The group of BIPOC teachers also said they knew of 'racial slurs' being 'directed at Principal Moffett by a staff member,' and claimed white staff at the school called a group of BIPOC staff 'a gang.'

The letter was signed 'the BIPOC Educators at Errol Hassell Elementary School' and listed the educators names. Pictured are Principal Cynthia Lam Moffett [far left], and the named educators, Miriam Ambriz [top left], Alejandra Rosales Vargas [top right], Stephanie Yelder [bottom left], and Bianca U [bottom right]

BIPOC teachers at Errol Hassell elementary school in Beaverton, Oregon, complain that white staff members called them a 'gang'

A list of issues that the teachers felt need to be resolved was provided, including 'staff opposing district policy relayed by Principal Moffett,' BIPOC school staff being called 'divisive for bringing up these issues and asking for support,' and Principal Moffett being 'held responsible for addressing and solving situations of racism in which she is a victim.'

In the email, the teachers say they have not been given 'any clear next steps to address all of these aggressions,' and 'feel that the actions we have witnessed and experienced this year have greatly harmed us.'

A list of demands was given at the end of the email, including a confirmation that Principal Moffett would not be terminated, an investigation into the 'biased and racial aggressions,' and a call to stop staff members from 'ignoring the chain of command by having direct access to the executive that supervise' Principal Moffett.

The story comes only a couple of months after President Joe Biden complained that teachers not be 'the target of the culture wars.'

The President, speaking at the 2022 Teacher of the Year ceremony in April, said 'today, there are too many politicians trying to score political points banning books, even math books.'

'They're all our children,' Biden said. 'They are not somebody's else children. They're like yours when they're in the classroom.'
A Japanese city has been left with more than a headache after admitting a contractor lost a USB containing personal data on all 460,000 residents during a night out.

The western city of Amagasaki said Thursday that a private contractor, whose name has not been disclosed, was carrying the memory stick during drinks after work.

The man, who was working on a municipal pandemic relief programme, spent hours drinking in a local restaurant before passing out on the street on Tuesday night, local media reported.

But when he eventually woke up, he realised that he had lost his bag containing the USB.

A Japanese city has been left with more than a headache after admitting a contractor lost a USB containing personal data on all 460,000 residents during a night out (file image)

'We deeply regret that we have profoundly harmed the public's trust in the administration of the city,' an Amagasaki official told a press conference.

The man, said to be in his 40s, had transferred the personal information of the entire city's residents onto the USB on Tuesday before meeting colleagues for a night out.

It included the names, genders, addresses, birthdays and other personal information of all the city's residents, as well as tax data and bank account information on some locals, the city said.

But there may be a silver lining, as the city says the data was encrypted and the USB locked with a password. So far, officials said, there was no sign the information had been accessed.

The loss has been reported to police, who are investigating.
A young and talented Army officer who was killed when he was hit by an armoured vehicle during a training exercise was a 'star who burned bright', his commanding officer said.

Second Lieutenant Max George, 26, died from head injuries after being hit by the Warrior army vehicle on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, on Tuesday morning.

The officer had won the Queen's Medal - awarded to best cadet - when he passed out from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in December 2021.

The 26-year-old, a former head pupil of the prestigious Durham School where his parents taught, was sadly pronounced dead at the scene earlier this week.

Police said the officer with the 5th Battalion The Rifles had been struck by the Warrior infantry fighting vehicle when he was on foot and suffered a serious head injury.

Tributes have been paid to Second Lieutenant Max George, 26, (pictured) who was struck by a Warrior infantry fighting vehicle when he was on foot and suffered a serious head injury. He died on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, on Tuesday morning

The Army soldier died after colliding with a Warrior armoured fighting vehicle (stock image) earlier this week

His commanding officer, Lt Col Jim Hadfield OBE, said: 'Max was a star that burned bright.

'Effortlessly impressive, he was a natural commander, who exuded fierce determination matched by selfless compassion. We loved him for it.

'He stood out, and still stands out; we are so much poorer for his loss. My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.'

Max's father Martin was a headteacher at Durham School where his mother Vivienne also taught, and his sister Claudia was a pupil.

They said in a statement: 'Max was killed in a training accident on Salisbury Plain early on Tuesday 21st June 2022 whilst serving with the 5th Battalion The Rifles, having fulfilled his life's ambition in joining the regular army.

'The whole family is very proud of his outstanding achievements and his loss is a devastating heartbreak for us all.'

After winning academic prizes at school, he studied Politics with Russian at Newcastle University where he was awarded a First.

He then obtained a Distinction in his Masters in Eastern European and Eurasian Studies with Russian at the University of Glasgow.

Kieran McLaughlin, current headteacher of Durham School, said: 'Durham is mourning the loss of a much-loved former pupil.

'Max was a bright, friendly, talented young man who had so much to give to the world.

'He led from the front in life, including his time here where he was Head of School in his final year.

'Our thoughts and prayers are with Max's family.'

Wiltshire Police said it was leading the investigation alongside the Army and the Health and Safety Executive.
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Joe Biden has today blasted the Supreme Court's 'un-American' anti-abortion ruling after senior judges scrapped the constitutional right to abortion in the US.

In an address at the White House, the President said today was 'a sad day for the court and the country' and called the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade - and making terminations illegal for millions of American women - 'wrong, extreme and out of touch'.

Accusing the court of 'expressly taking away a constitution right that is so fundamental to so many Americans', Biden vowed the fight over abortion rights 'is not over' and said his administration will do everything in its power to combat efforts to restrict women from travelling to other states to obtain abortions.

It comes as Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas called on fellow jurists to overturn laws protecting gay marriage and contraception.

The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that have been in place for nearly 50 years by deciding to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade ruling and hand back power to individual states to decide whether or not to permit the procedure.

The vote was 5-4 to scrap Roe, with Chief Justice John Roberts writing separately to say he would have upheld the Mississippi law but not taken the additional step of erasing the precedent altogether. At the same time, the court voted 6-3 to uphold a Mississippi law that bans abortions after 15 weeks, with very few medical exceptions.

The justices held that the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that allowed abortions performed before a fetus would be viable outside the womb - between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy - was wrongly decided because the U.S. Constitution makes no specific mention of abortion rights.

Roe v. Wade was centered around 'Jane Roe', a pseudonym for Norma McCorvey, a single mother pregnant for the third time, who wanted an abortion. She sued the Dallas attorney general Henry Wade over a Texas law that made it a crime to terminate a pregnancy except in cases of rape or incest, or when the mother's life was in danger - arguing that the law infringed on her constitutional rights.

'The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision,' Conservative Justice Samuel Alito, who was nominated to the court in 2006 by George W Bush, wrote in the ruling on Friday.

The ruling means that individual states now have the power to decide on whether to ban abortion. The Guttmacher Institute, a pro-choice research group, has said that 26 states are 'certain or likely' to ban abortion now.

A total of 13 states - Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming - have adopted so-called 'trigger laws' that will ban abortion virtually immediately.

The decision means that women with unwanted pregnancies in large swathes of America will now face the choice of traveling to another state where the procedure remains legal and available, buying abortion pills online or having a potentially dangerous illegal abortion.

The court's ruling, unthinkable just a few years ago, was the culmination of decades of efforts by abortion opponents, made possible by an emboldened right side of the court that has been fortified by three appointees of former President Donald Trump.

In a statement following the decision, Trump said it was 'the biggest WIN for LIFE in a generation' and that the decision only happened because he 'delivered' on 'everything' he promised.

Outside the Supreme Court, a crowd of abortion supporters swelled to the hundreds after the ruling was issued. One chanted into a bullhorn, 'legal abortion on demand' and 'this decision must not stand.' Some shouted 'the Supreme Court is illegitimate.'

As the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, it emerged today:

The White House has been preparing for this landmark moment since a draft of the decision leaked in May;

Biden's plans will be tested in terms of politics and policy as the US prepares for a future without Roe v Wade;

Biden said that his administration would defend a woman's right to cross state lines to seek an abortion;

Democrats will hope to use the outrage over the decision to rally voters in November's mid-term elections;

Victories at the state level could limit Republican efforts to ban the practice despite nationwide legislation;

Outside the Supreme Court, a crowd of abortion supporters swelled to hundreds after the ruling was issued.

President Joe Biden has called the US Supreme Court's abortion ruling a 'sad day for the court and for the country'

Pro-life protesters celebrate with champagne on Friday moments after the Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v Wade, which guarantees women the right to an abortion

Two anti-abortion demonstrators embrace and hug outside the Supreme Court on on learning that Roe v Wade had been overturned

Anti-abortion activist are overcome with emotion and hug each other following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v Wade on Friday

President Biden giving an address at the White House today after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade

An abortion rights demonstrator cries outside the US Supreme Court after the court overturned the landmark Roe v Wade case

Abortion-rights activists look forlorn outside the US Supreme Court following the decision to overturn Roe v Wade

Tensions over the future of abortion rights in the country have been running high since a draft opinion of Dobbs was leaked - and showed that the high court's conservative majority was poised to push whether abortion was legal back to the states

There are 18 states that have near-total bans on their books, while four more have time-limit band and four others are likely to pass new bans if Roe v. Wade is overturned

The Supreme Court: Seated from left are Associate Justice Samuel Alito, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Associate Justice Stephen Breyer and Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Standing from left are Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Associate Justice Elena Kagan, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch and Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene joined pro-lifers to celebrate Friday's news that Roe v Wade has been overturned

US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks to abortion rights activists outside the US Supreme Court in Washington

Rep. Maxine Waters for a photo as she joins abortion-rights activists outside the Supreme Court

The landmark ruling means much of the US is now braced for a weekend of violence. Pro-abortion protesters vowed riots if last month's leak hinting an abortion ban was on the cards came to pass.

Hard-left progressives - many of them linked to Antifa - have already torched multiple pro-life centers across the US and scrawled warnings on buildings warning of further action against them.

Police in the nation's capital are bringing in additional officers and mobilizing in anticipation of growing protests outside the U.S. Supreme Court.

U.S. Capitol Police says it has been working closely with other law enforcement agencies in order to prepare for demonstrations. A law enforcement official says the department is mobilizing its civil disturbance unit and also bringing on additional officers Friday.

Tensions over the future of abortion rights in the US have been running high since the stunning leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito in May, which indicated the court was prepared to allow states to make the decision on whether abortion was legal.

The 6-3 conservative majority made good on what the draft said, with liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer dissenting. Chief Justice John Roberts concurred.

An anti-abortion protester stands in front of the Jackson Women's Health Organization in Jackson, Mississippi, which challenged the state's 15-week abortion ban

Joining Alito were Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. The latter three justices are Trump appointees. Thomas first voted to overrule Roe 30 years ago.

Former President Donald Trump praised the U.S. Supreme Court's decision overruling a woman's right to an abortion. He said in an interview with Fox News that the decision 'will work out for everybody.'

'This is following the Constitution, and giving rights back when they should have been given long ago,' Trump said, according to the channel. 'I think, in the end, this is something that will work out for everybody.'

Roe v. Wade recognized that the right to personal privacy under the U.S. Constitution protects a woman's ability to terminate her pregnancy.

In Friday's ruling, Alito also wrote that Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 decision that reaffirmed the right to abortion, were wrong the day they were decided and must be overturned.

'Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division,' Alito added. 'We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled.'

By erasing abortion as a constitutional right, the ruling restores the ability of states to pass laws prohibiting it. Twenty-six states are seen as either certain or likely now to ban abortion.

Soon after the ruling was announced, protests erupted outside the Supreme Court on Friday.

Pro-abortion protesters howled with outrage as the long-anticipated opinion was published, with hundreds gathered outside the court in Washington DC ahead of the widely-anticipated decision.

Many were visibly dejected at news of the landmark ruling, and embraced one another on learning that their protests at plans to end federal access to abortion had come to naught.

There were also cheers of delight from pro-life advocates, who gathered outside the United States' highest court ahead of the landmark ruling.

Some anti-abortionists were themselves overcome with news of the ruling, and were seen sobbing outside the United States' highest court as news of the 6-3 ruling began to filter through the assembled crowd.

Abortion rights have been under threat in recent months as Republican-led states move to tighten rules - with some seeking to ban all abortions after six weeks, before many women even know they are pregnant.

These include Arizona, where the Republican Governor in March signed a bill banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy; and Idaho where the governor signed a six-week abortion ban that allows family members of the foetus to sue providers who perform abortions past that point, similar to a Texas law enacted last year.

As it stands in the US, abortion can take place until about 24 weeks into pregnancy - but the exact period varies between states. For example, Texas bans abortion after about six weeks but Florida has a 15-week abortion ban.

The 26 states where abortion will likely become illegal now Supreme Court has overturned Roe vs Wade The 26 states where abortion will likely become illegal if SCOTUS overturns Roe vs Wade after leaked draft opinion showed a majority of justices supported the move More than half of all US states have some kind of abortion ban law likely to take effect now that Roe v Wade has been overturned by the United States Supreme Court. According to the pro-reproductive rights group The Guttmacher Institute, there are 26 states that will likely make abortions illegal now that the Supreme Court has overturned the landmark 1973 ruling. 18 have existing abortion bans that have previously been ruled unconstitutional, four have time limit bans and four are likely to pass laws once Roe v Wade is overturned, the organization found. The 18 states that have near-total bans on abortion already on the books are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. In addition, Georgia, Iowa, Ohio, and South Carolina all have laws that ban abortions after the six-week mark. Florida, Indiana, Montana and Nebraska, are likely to pass bills when Roe v Wade is overturned, the Guttmacher Institute said. Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia and Wisconsin's bans all have pre-Roe v Wade laws that became unenforceable after the Supreme Court's 1973 decision - that would kick into effect now the federal legal precedent established in Roe has been overturned. Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Texas have further bans that will come into effect if the law was overturned. These were passed post-Roe v Wade. They're joined by Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and Wyoming, in passing such laws. The states that will limit abortions based on the length of time a patient has been pregnant are Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, North Dakota and Ohio. There are four states that have laws that state abortion is not a constitutionally protected right: Alabama, Louisiana, Texas and West Virginia. Advertisement

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez appeared outside the Supreme Court among the crowds in the aftermath of the Supreme Court releasing the Dobbs decision

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the Supreme Court decision a 'slap in the face to women' at a press conference shortly after the decision was released

Abortion-rights activist Jamie McIntyre reacts to the 6-3 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturns Roe v. Wade

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the ruling 'is outrageous and heart-wrenching' and fulfills the Republican Party's 'dark and extreme goal of ripping away women's right to make their own reproductive health decisions.'

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told reporters that he applauds the court decision.

'A lot of lives are going to be saved,' McCarthy told reporters. 'But it also goes back to people in the states to have a say in the process.'

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said of the ruling: 'It's a big step backwards, I've always believed in a woman's right to choose.'

The court's three liberal justices - Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan - issued a jointly authored dissent.

'With sorrow-for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection-we dissent,' they wrote.

'Whatever the exact scope of the coming laws, one result of today's decision is certain: the curtailment of women's rights, and of their status as free and equal citizens,' they added.

As a result of Friday's ruling, 'from the very moment of fertilization, a woman has no rights to speak of. A state can force her to bring a pregnancy to term, even at the steepest personal and familial costs,' the liberal justices added.

Mississippi's law had been blocked by lower courts as a violation of Supreme Court precedent on abortion rights.

Mary Ann Berning of Kettering reacts to the announcement of U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade

Another pro-life protester, left, appeared overcome on learning the news that Roe v Wade has ended, with many conservative states now set to ban women from terminating unwanted pregnancies

Pro-life protesters were also visibly emotional as the ruling was published. Anti-abortion activist Carrie McDonald, left, and two unnamed pro-lifers (right) began to sob as news of the landmark ruling filtered through a crowd gathered outside the Supreme Court in Washington DC

This group of pro-lifers appeared pleased by the decision, and smiled while reading the news on their phones

The ruling is expected to disproportionately affect minority women who already face limited access to health care, according to statistics analyzed by The Associated Press.

Thirteen states, mainly in the South and Midwest, already have laws on the books that ban abortion in the event Roe is overturned. Another half-dozen states have near-total bans or prohibitions after 6 weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.

In roughly a half-dozen other states, the fight will be over dormant abortion bans that were enacted before Roe was decided in 1973 or new proposals to sharply limit when abortions can be performed, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.

More than 90 per cent of abortions take place in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy, and more than half are now done with pills, not surgery, according to data compiled by Guttmacher.

The decision came against a backdrop of public opinion surveys that find a majority of Americans oppose overturning Roe and handing the question of whether to permit abortion entirely to the states.

Polls conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and others also have consistently shown about 1 in 10 Americans want abortion to be illegal in all cases. A majority are in favor of abortion being legal in all or most circumstances, but polls indicate many also support restrictions especially later in pregnancy.

The Biden administration and other defenders of abortion rights have warned that a decision overturning Roe also would threaten other high court decisions in favor of gay rights and even potentially, contraception.

The liberal justices made the same point in their joint dissent: The majority 'eliminates a 50-year-old constitutional right that safeguards women's freedom and equal station. It breaches a core rule-of-law principle, designed to promote constancy in the law. In doing all of that, it places in jeopardy other rights, from contraception to same-sex intimacy and marriage. And finally, it undermines the Court's legitimacy.'

But Alito contended that his analysis addresses abortion only. 'Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion,' he wrote.

Whatever the intentions of the person who leaked Alito's draft opinion, the conservatives held firm in overturning Roe and Casey.

In his draft, Alito dismissed the arguments in favour of retaining the two decisions, including that multiple generations of American women have partly relied on the right to abortion to gain economic and political power.

Demonstrators argue with law enforcement moments before the US Supreme Court ruling on Roe v Wade

Anti-abortion campaigners celebrate outside the US Supreme Court in Washington DC on Friday following the decision to overturn Roe v Wade

Abortion-rights activists react outside the Supreme Court in Washington on Friday following the court's decision

Anti-abortion campaigners celebrate outside the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, following the ruling

Changing the composition of the court has been central to the anti-abortion side's strategy. Mississippi and its allies made increasingly aggressive arguments as the case developed, and two high-court defenders of abortion rights retired or died. The state initially argued that its law could be upheld without overruling the court's abortion precedents.

Then-Gov. Phil Bryant signed the 15-week measure into law in March 2018, when Justices Anthony Kennedy and Ruth Bader Ginsburg were still members of a five-justice majority that was mainly protective of abortion rights.

By early summer, Kennedy had retired and was replaced by Justice Brett Kavanaugh a few months later. The Mississippi law was blocked in lower federal courts.

But the state always was headed to the nation's highest court. It did not even ask for a hearing before a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ultimately held the law invalid in December 2019.

By early September 2020, the Supreme Court was ready to consider the state's appeal.

The court scheduled the case for consideration at the justices' private conference on Sept. 29. But in the intervening weeks, Ginsburg died and Barrett was quickly nominated and confirmed without a single Democratic vote.

The stage now was set, although it took the court another half year to agree to hear the case.

By the time Mississippi filed its main written argument with the court in the summer, the thrust of its argument had changed and it was now calling for the wholesale overruling of Roe and Casey.

The first sign that the court might be receptive to wiping away the constitutional right to abortion came in late summer, when the justices divided 5-4 in allowing Texas to enforce a ban on the procedure at roughly six weeks, before some women even know they are pregnant. That dispute turned on the unique structure of the law, including its enforcement by private citizens rather than by state officials, and how it can be challenged in court.

But Justice Sonia Sotomayor noted in a searing dissent for the three liberal justices that their conservative colleagues refused to block 'a flagrantly unconstitutional law' that 'flouts nearly 50 years of federal precedents.' Roberts was also among the dissenters.

Then in December, after hearing additional arguments over whether to block the Texas law known as S.B. 8, the court again declined to do so, also by a 5-4 vote. 'The clear purpose and actual effect of S. B. 8 has been to nullify this Court's rulings,' Roberts wrote, in a partial dissent.

In their Senate hearings, Trump's three high-court picks carefully skirted questions about how they would vote in any cases, including about abortion.

But even as Democrats and abortion rights supporters predicted Kavanaugh and Gorsuch would vote to upend abortion rights if confirmed, the two left at least one Republican senator with a different impression. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine predicted Gorsuch and Kavanaugh wouldn't support overturning the abortion cases, based on private conversations she had with them when they were nominees to the Supreme Court.

Barrett was perhaps the most vocal opponent of abortion in her time as a law professor, before becoming a federal judge in 2017. She was a member of anti-abortion groups at Notre Dame University, where she taught law, and she signed a newspaper ad opposing 'abortion on demand' and defending 'the right to life from fertilization to natural death.' She promised to set aside her personal views when judging cases.

Trump, meanwhile, had predicted as a candidate that whoever he named to the court would 'automatically' vote to overrule Roe.

Q&A on SCOTUS decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and what it now means for women across America

ByMark Duelland Andrea Cavallier For Dailymail.Com

The Supreme Court has struck down the right to abortion in the United States, according to a bombshell decision in that has overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling.

Friday's 6-3 decision comes over a month after a 98-page draft revealed by Politico in May that calls the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision - which held that access to abortion in the US is a constitutional right - 'egregiously wrong from the start'.

Abortion rights have been under threat in recent months as Republican-led states move to tighten rules - with some seeking to ban all abortions after six weeks, before many women even know they are pregnant.

These include Arizona, where the Republican Governor in March signed a bill banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy; and Idaho where the governor signed a six-week abortion ban that allows family members of the fetus to sue providers who perform abortions past that point, similar to a Texas law enacted last year.

Before this ruling was overturned, in the US, an abortion can take place until about 24 weeks into pregnancy - but the exact period varies between states. For example, Texas bans abortion after about six weeks but Florida has a 15-week abortion ban.

The draft majority opinion was written by Justice Samuel Alito and has been circulating inside the conservative-dominated court since February. The leak while the case is still pending is seen as an extraordinary breach.

Here, DailyMail.com looks at the history of abortion laws in the US:

Pro-abortion and pro-choice demonstrators gathered outside the Supreme Court in Washington DC overnight

WHAT IS ROE V. WADE?

The Roe v. Wade decision nearly 50 years ago recognized that the right to personal privacy under the US Constitution protects a woman's ability to terminate her pregnancy.

On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court decided that the constitutional right to privacy applied to abortion.

Roe was 'Jane Roe,' a pseudonym for Norma McCorvey, a single mother pregnant for the third time, who wanted an abortion.

She sued the Dallas attorney general Henry Wade over a Texas law that made it a crime to terminate a pregnancy except in cases of rape or incest, or when the mother's life was in danger.

Roe's lawyers said she was unable to travel out of the state to obtain an abortion and argued that the law was too vague and infringed on her constitutional rights.

Norma McCorvey, known as 'Jane Roe', is pictured in January 1983 (left) and July 2011 (right). In the 1970s she won a landmark abortion case - but the baby she wished to abort, Shelley Lynn Thornton, was born before the case concluded

Filing a complaint alongside her was Texas doctor James Hallford, who argued the law's medical provision was vague, and that he was unable to reliably determine which of his patients fell into the allowed category.

The 'Does', another couple who were childless, also filed a companion complaint, saying that medical risks made it unsafe but not life-threatening for the wife to carry a pregnancy to term, and arguing they should be able to obtain a safe, legal abortion should she become pregnant.

The trio of complaints - from a woman who wanted an abortion, a doctor who wanted to perform them and a non-pregnant woman who wanted the right if the need arose - ultimately reached the nation's top court.

The court heard arguments twice, and then waited until after Republican president Richard Nixon's re-election, in November 1972.

Only the following January did it offer its historic seven-to-two decision - overturning the Texas laws and setting a legal precedent that has had ramifications in all 50 states.

Pro-choice activists gather at the US Supreme Court in Washington DC overnight amid a huge public backlash at the news

WHAT HAS THE SUPREME COURT DECIDED NOW?

The US Supreme Court has decided to overturn Roe v. Wade.

A document labelled 'Opinion of the Court' shows a majority of the court's justices earlier this year threw support behind overturning the 1973 case that legalized abortion across the country.

According to Politico - who published the 'leaked document' - the draft opinion shows the court voted to strike down the landmark case.

The paper was labelled '1st Draft' of the 'Opinion of the Court' and was said to be referring to a case challenging Mississippi's ban on abortion after 15 weeks - a case known as Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization.

The draft is signed by Justice Samuel Alito, a member of the court's 6-3 conservative majority, who was appointed by former President George W Bush.

'Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,' the draft opinion states.

It in effect states there is no constitutional right to abortion services and would allow individual states to more heavily regulate or outright ban the procedure.

HAVE THERE BEEN OTHER RULINGS SINCE 1973?

On the same day as the Roe v. Wade decision, the justices also ruled in the separate 'Doe v. Bolton' case, which authorized each state to add restrictions to abortion rights for later-term pregnancies.

The constitutional right to abortion was later confirmed in a number of decisions, including 'Webster v. Reproductive Health Services' in 1989 and 'Planned Parenthood v. Casey' in 1992.

In the latter, the court guaranteed a woman's right to an abortion until the fetus is viable outside the womb, which is typically around 22 to 24 weeks of gestation.

The Planned Parenthood v Casey ruling also affirmed Roe's finding of a constitutional right to abortion services, but allowed states to place some constraints on the practice.

WHICH STATES COULD MAKE ABORTION ILLEGAL NOW THAT ROE V. WADE IS OVERTURNED?

Now that Roe has been overturned, abortion is still likely to remain legal in liberal states. More than a dozen states currently have laws protecting abortion rights.

Numerous Republican-led states have passed various abortion restrictions in defiance of the Roe precedent in recent years.

Republicans could try to enact a nationwide abortion ban, while Democrats could also seek to protect abortion rights at the national level.

Twenty-six states are certain or likely to ban abortion now that Roe v. Wade is overturned, according to the pro-abortion rights think tank the Guttmacher Institute.

Of those, 22 states already have total or near-total bans on the books that were previously blocked by Roe, aside from Texas.

There are 18 states that have near-total bans on their books, while four more have time-limit band and four others are likely to pass new bans if Roe v. Wade is overturned

The state's law banning it after six weeks has already been allowed to go into effect by the Supreme Court due to its unusual civil enforcement structure. Four more states are considered likely to quickly pass bans if Roe is overturned.

Sixteen states and the District of Columbia, meanwhile, have protected access to abortion in state law.

This year, anticipating a decision overturning or gutting Roe, eight conservative states have already moved to restrict abortion rights.

Oklahoma, for example, passed several bills in recent weeks, including one that goes into effect this summer making it a felony to perform an abortion.

CAN WOMEN GET AN ABORTION IN A DIFFERENT STATE?

Yes - the variation in abortion laws around America already means that some women have to travel to a different state to access a procedure.

For example in Texas - which has passed a law banning almost all abortions in the state - an average of 1,400 women from the state travelling each month between September and December 2021 and sought out procedures at 34 facilities in other states such as Louisiana and Kansas.

Research by the University of Texas established that more than a quarter of Texans seeking an abortion (27 per cent) went to obtain the procedure in New Mexico, a state which has seven facilities.

WHAT DOES ROE V. WADE BEING OVERTURNED MEAN FOR WOMEN?

Abortion does not become illegal everywhere in the US now that Roe v. Wade is overturned, with individual states still able to choose whether and when they would be permitted.

As it stood, abortion was legal in every state - but with varying restrictions.

Abortion would likely become illegal in about half of the states in the US now that the ruling is overturned - with 24 states expected to ban abortion if they are able to do so.

These are: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

WHO IS LIKELY TO BE MOST AFFECTED BY AN ABORTION BAN?

Younger women, poorer women and African-American women are likely be most disproportionately affected by an abortion ban in the US.

Most women who have abortions in America are aged between 20 and 29, with 57 per cent of reported terminations in 2019 performed on people within this age group.

Rachel Jones, a senior researcher at pro-choice research group the Guttmacher Institute, told BBC News: 'The typical abortion patient is in their 20s, doesn't have a lot of money and has one or more children.'

Some 75 per cent of women in the US having an abortion are deemed low income or poor, based on the country's official poverty definitions.

And while black people make up only 13 per cent of the US population, black women undergo more than a third of the country's reported abortions.

In 2019, there were about 630,000 abortions reported in the US, which was significantly down on 765,000 in 2010. Two suggested reasons for this are more access to contraceptives and lower sexual activity.

Baby Roe: Shelley Lynn Thornton, a 51-year-old mother of three, spoke out for the first time last year. Her biological mother Norma McCorvey was Jane Roe, whose landmark lawsuit Roe v. Wade won women across America the right to have abortions

WHAT RESTRICTIONS HAVE INDIVIDUAL STATES PUT IN PLACE ALREADY THIS YEAR?

Now that the US Supreme Court has voted to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision, conservative states will have more confidence that their new limits on abortion will stand while liberal states will feel more urgency to protect and expand abortion rights. Here are some restrictions and protections state legislatures have taken up in 2022:

ABORTION RESTRICTIONS

ARIZONA : Republican Governor Doug Ducey in March signed a bill banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The measure makes exceptions for medical emergencies, but not for rape or incest. It will take effect later this year if not blocked in court.

: Republican Governor Doug Ducey in March signed a bill banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The measure makes exceptions for medical emergencies, but not for rape or incest. It will take effect later this year if not blocked in court. FLORIDA : Republican Governor Ron DeSantis in April signed a 15-week abortion ban, which allows exceptions for medical emergencies or if the foetus has a fatal abnormality. The exceptions do not allow for abortion past 15 weeks in case of rape, incest or human trafficking. The ban is due to take effect on July 1.

: Republican Governor Ron DeSantis in April signed a 15-week abortion ban, which allows exceptions for medical emergencies or if the foetus has a fatal abnormality. The exceptions do not allow for abortion past 15 weeks in case of rape, incest or human trafficking. The ban is due to take effect on July 1. IDAHO : Republican Governor Brad Little signed a six-week abortion ban in March that allows family members of the foetus to sue providers who perform abortions past that point, similar to a Texas law enacted last year. The Idaho law was due to take effect in April, but has been blocked by the state Supreme Court pending legal review.

: Republican Governor Brad Little signed a six-week abortion ban in March that allows family members of the foetus to sue providers who perform abortions past that point, similar to a Texas law enacted last year. The Idaho law was due to take effect in April, but has been blocked by the state Supreme Court pending legal review. KENTUCKY : The legislature in April overrode Democratic Governor Andy Beshear's veto to enact several abortion restrictions, including a 15-week ban, a requirement that fetal remains be cremated or interred, and a requirement that a combination birth-death or stillbirth certificate be issued for each abortion. The law took immediate effect, suspending clinics' ability to provide abortions for eight days until a U.S. judge temporarily blocked its enforcement.

: The legislature in April overrode Democratic Governor Andy Beshear's veto to enact several abortion restrictions, including a 15-week ban, a requirement that fetal remains be cremated or interred, and a requirement that a combination birth-death or stillbirth certificate be issued for each abortion. The law took immediate effect, suspending clinics' ability to provide abortions for eight days until a U.S. judge temporarily blocked its enforcement. OKLAHOMA : The Senate in April passed a ban on all abortions except in cases of medical emergency, rape or incest. It relies on private citizens to sue providers and any person who 'aids or abets' abortions to be enforced. The House must approve the Senate's amendments before it heads to Republican Governor Kevin Stitt for signing. With the governor's approval, it would take effect immediately. Also in April, Oklahoma's legislature approved a ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, which relies on the same lawsuit enforcement mechanism. It will take immediate effect if signed by Stitt. Mr Stitt signed a bill in April banning abortion except in medical emergencies and penalizing providers who violate the law with up to $100,000 in fines and 10 years in prison. The law is due to take effect in August if not blocked in court.

: The Senate in April passed a ban on all abortions except in cases of medical emergency, rape or incest. It relies on private citizens to sue providers and any person who 'aids or abets' abortions to be enforced. The House must approve the Senate's amendments before it heads to Republican Governor Kevin Stitt for signing. With the governor's approval, it would take effect immediately. Also in April, Oklahoma's legislature approved a ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, which relies on the same lawsuit enforcement mechanism. It will take immediate effect if signed by Stitt. Mr Stitt signed a bill in April banning abortion except in medical emergencies and penalizing providers who violate the law with up to $100,000 in fines and 10 years in prison. The law is due to take effect in August if not blocked in court. SOUTH DAKOTA : Republican Governor Kristi Noem signed a bill in March requiring women to make three in-person doctor's visits to complete a medication abortion. The legislation's implementation depends on the outcome of a federal court case.

ABORTION PROTECTIONS

COLORADO : Governor Jared Polis, a Democrat, signed a bill on April 4 codifying the right to have an abortion. The measure immediately took effect.

: Governor Jared Polis, a Democrat, signed a bill on April 4 codifying the right to have an abortion. The measure immediately took effect. CONNECTICUT : The legislature passed a bill in April that protects anyone who provides abortions, has an abortion or assists someone having an abortion from other states' restrictions. Among other provisions, the measure bars state agencies from assisting in interstate investigations seeking to hold someone civilly or criminally liable for getting or aiding an abortion. The bill awaits Democratic Governor Ned Lamont's signature.

: The legislature passed a bill in April that protects anyone who provides abortions, has an abortion or assists someone having an abortion from other states' restrictions. Among other provisions, the measure bars state agencies from assisting in interstate investigations seeking to hold someone civilly or criminally liable for getting or aiding an abortion. The bill awaits Democratic Governor Ned Lamont's signature. MARYLAND : The legislature passed a bill that expands the definition of who can provide abortions to include any 'qualified provider,' establishes a state-funded abortion provider training program and requires most insurance plans to cover the cost of abortions. Republican Governor Larry Hogan vetoed the bill, but the state's Democratic-controlled legislature overrode his veto on April 9 and the law is due to take effect on July 1.

: The legislature passed a bill that expands the definition of who can provide abortions to include any 'qualified provider,' establishes a state-funded abortion provider training program and requires most insurance plans to cover the cost of abortions. Republican Governor Larry Hogan vetoed the bill, but the state's Democratic-controlled legislature overrode his veto on April 9 and the law is due to take effect on July 1. VERMONT : The Democratic-led legislature in February passed a constitutional amendment that guarantees the right to abortion. It will be on the ballot for voters to approve in November.

WHAT IS THE SITUATION IN OTHER COUNTRIES AROUND THE WORLD?

As new limits on abortion rights are pursued in the United States and other countries, here is a look at global abortion statistics and some of the world's strictest abortion laws.

Data has been provided by the UN World Health Organization as well as from the Guttmacher Institute research group and the Center for Reproductive Rights legal advocacy group, both of which support abortion rights.

Approximately 73 million abortions occur worldwide annually, with 61 per cent of all unintended pregnancies and 29 per cent of all pregnancies ending in abortion, according to the World Health Organization.

It said about 45 per cent of all abortions are unsafe, of which 97 per cent occur in developing countries. A WHO fact sheet said 'Unsafe abortion is a leading - but preventable - cause of maternal deaths and morbidities.'

There are 16 countries where abortion is prohibited altogether, a list that includes Egypt, Iraq, the Philippines, Laos, Senegal, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights.

About three dozen other countries allow it only to save the life of the mother, a list that includes Nigeria, Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, Iran, Afghanistan and Myanmar. Around 40 per cent of women of reproductive age live in places where abortion access is illegal or limited.

In England, Scotland and Wales, anyone can legally have an abortion at up to 23 weeks and six days of pregnancy, which is in line with the Abortion Act of 1967. Here is the situation in a number of countries:

Poland in January 2021 put into effect a constitutional court decision prohibiting abortions performed due to fetal defects, banning the most common of the few legal grounds for terminating a pregnancy in the largely Catholic country.

in January 2021 put into effect a constitutional court decision prohibiting abortions performed due to fetal defects, banning the most common of the few legal grounds for terminating a pregnancy in the largely Catholic country. El Salvador has some of the world's strictest abortion laws, with the procedure banned without exception since 1998. More than 180 women who experienced obstetric emergencies were prosecuted for abortion or aggravated homicide in the past 20 years.

has some of the world's strictest abortion laws, with the procedure banned without exception since 1998. More than 180 women who experienced obstetric emergencies were prosecuted for abortion or aggravated homicide in the past 20 years. Women in Malta are denied access to abortion, even if their lives are at risk. It is the only EU member state that completely prohibits the procedure. Women face up to three years in jail.

are denied access to abortion, even if their lives are at risk. It is the only EU member state that completely prohibits the procedure. Women face up to three years in jail. Senegal prohibits abortion but its code of medical ethics allows it if three doctors agree it is needed to save a woman's life. A 2014 study showed the rules force women to seek clandestine abortions and, as a last resort, kill their own infants.

prohibits abortion but its code of medical ethics allows it if three doctors agree it is needed to save a woman's life. A 2014 study showed the rules force women to seek clandestine abortions and, as a last resort, kill their own infants. In the United Arab Emirates , abortion is illegal except if the pregnancy endangers the woman's life or there is evidence the baby will not survive. Women could face up to one year in prison and a hefty fine. Women who seek hospital treatment for a miscarriage may be accused of attempted abortion.

, abortion is illegal except if the pregnancy endangers the woman's life or there is evidence the baby will not survive. Women could face up to one year in prison and a hefty fine. Women who seek hospital treatment for a miscarriage may be accused of attempted abortion. Anti-abortion laws in the Philippines derive from its time as a colony of Spain. Abortion has been prohibited for more than a century. About 1,000 Filipino women die each year from complications. Spain is among more than 50 countries that have liberalized abortion laws over the past quarter century.

WOULD IT LEAD TO A RISE IN THE NUMBER OF ORPHANGES?

This would seem very unlikely in the modern age, with traditional orphanages now being extinct in the US - but there is an interesting case study going back more than 50 years that provides an insight.

In 1966, a complete ban on abortion and access to contraception was imposed in Romania, with the target of increasing its population.

This worked in the short-term as the average number of children born to Romanian women increased from 1.9 to 3.7 - but it then fell again as people discovered ways of getting round the ban such as bribing doctors.

It also meant that hundreds of thousands of children ended up state orphanages where they were beaten, abused and lived in filthy conditions - with an estimated 170,000 housed in these facilities when communism fell in 1989.

For children in America nowadays there is an emphasis on the foster and adoption system, rather than orphanages, which aims to match children with families who can appropriately care for them. There are also residential and group homes for children who are unable to properly integrate into a foster home.
Mayor Eric Adams said he will allow private businesses to restrict guns to prevent the already vulnerable city from turning into the 'Wild Wild West,' amid the U.S. Supreme Court's bombshell ruling overturning a century-old state gun law.

The 6-3 Supreme Court decision reversing the strict gun carrying law in New York, which has been in effect for the last 108 years, was made on Thursday.

The court's conservative majority said Americans should be allowed to carry firearms for self-defense, maintaining that New York's law is unconstitutional and violated the Second Amendment.

Adams dismissed the argument that New Yorkers should be allowed to defend themselves outside their homes, telling WNBC4 News 'this is not the Wild Wild West.'

Previously, permits to carry a concealed firearm were issued only to people demonstrating a specific need to be armed.

The new ruling will now make it easier for New Yorkers and Americans to obtain guns.

It comes at a dark time when New York City is already facing escalating violence on city streets and in the city's subway system.

'The decision has made every single one of us less safe from gun violence,' Adams said, blasting the Supreme Court's decision.

'The decision has made every single one of us less safe from gun violence,' Mayor Eric Adams said Thursday, blasting the Supreme Court's decision and sharing his concerns on the new controversial ruling

Previously, permits to carry a concealed firearm were issued only to people demonstrating a specific need to be armed. The new ruling will now make it easier for New Yorkers and Americans to obtain guns and comes at a dark time when New York City is already facing escalating violence on city streets and in the city's subway system

A picture of the U.S. Supreme Court where a decision was made on Thursday to reverse the strict gun-carrying law in New York, which has been in effect for the last 108 years. The court's 6-3 conservative majority said Americans should be allowed to carry firearms for self-defense, arguing New York's law is unconstitutional and violated the Second Amendment

The mayor called upon Justice Clarence Thomas, who wrote the court's majority opinion, asserting that 'even law-abiding citizens could become embroiled in gun disputes,' if current gun restrictions are lifted. He referred to the rising mental-health epidemic overwhelming the country. Adams continued: 'I think he needs to understand even innocent people with the right mindset, when they are placed in an area of dispute that area of dispute now can escalate to gun violence'

Adams vowed to 'undo the damage' and plans to fight the controversial decision by working with mayors and governors across the nation, and its federal, state and local partners.

The mayor said he already met with Gov. Kathy Hochul, who called the ruling 'reprehensible.'

On Friday, Hochul, appeared on CBS Morning and said she planned to convene the state Legislature to address the issue.

'We believe that the decision was shocking in its scale and also reprehensible given that we are experiencing a nationwide gun violence crisis,' she said.

Of the court's decision, Adams made note of the significance and historical connection that the country has with guns, but said it wasn't relevant to today's crisis.

'I believe gun advocates are not really understanding the gun crisis that has engulfed our entire country,' Adams said.

He added: 'When you are in an environment such as New York City  highly densely populated, 8.8 million people  simple disputes can elevate into gunplay.'

The mayor called upon Justice Clarence Thomas, who wrote the court's majority opinion, asserting that 'even law-abiding citizens could become embroiled in gun disputes,' if current gun restrictions are lifted.

He referred to the rising mental-health epidemic overwhelming the country.

Adams continued: 'I think he needs to understand even innocent people with the right mindset, when they are placed in an area of dispute that area of dispute now can escalate to gun violence.'

Adams said he was trying to identify locations - 'sensitive places,' - where guns could strictly be prohibited in a city of nearly 8.8 million.

The mayor also said he was trying to determine if it was possible to enforce firearm bans in government buildings and in schools.

'Based on the preliminary analysis, our legal counsel stated private areas can come up with their own form of restrictions, but it's clear the Supreme Court said you can't block out all of Manhattan,' the mayor said. 'That's problematic.'

'When you say you cannot create those public areas or government areas as sensitive locations, it just makes it extremely challenging for our city, our subway system, all of these places where large number of people congregate,' he added.

Adams said his administration is still analyzing the bill, but 'it's clear New Yorkers and Americans are unsafe due to gun violence because of that ruling.'

On Thursday, NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said the new Supreme Court decision would not go into immediate effect in the city, the New York Post reported.
NATO flag / gettyimagesbank



US, China clash over Korea's participation



By Nam Hyun-woo



The presidential office has dismissed China's apparent objection to President Yoon Suk-yeol's attendance at next week's North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Summit, saying his participation has nothing to do with any "anti-China policy."



"There is no change to our stance in regard to President Yoon's attendance at the summit," an official at the presidential office told The Korea Times when asked about China's objection, Friday. "As we stated earlier, Yoon's attendance has zero relation with suspicions that Seoul may veer toward anti-China or anti-Russia policies."





China's foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin speaks during a press conference, Thursday. Captured from China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs website



The comments came after China's foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin on Thursday expressed Beijing's objection to four Asia-Pacific countries  Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand  participating in the summit as partner nations.



"The Asia-Pacific is beyond the geographical scope of the North Atlantic," Wang said during a press conference. "Countries and people in the Asia-Pacific are strongly opposed to anything said or done to extend the military bloc to this region or stir up division and confrontation."



Wang said NATO has been "flexing its muscles" in the Asia-Pacific to replicate "the kind of bloc confrontation seen in Europe," adding the attempt is "highly dangerous."



Yoon will be the first Korean president to participate in the summit, slated for June 29 to 30. There, he will deliver a speech at a session between NATO member countries and the four observer nations. Also, four-way talks are anticipated between the leaders of the four countries and a trilateral meeting between Seoul, the U.S. and Japan on the sidelines of the meeting.



The upcoming NATO summit is largely described as an event to enhance the U.S. and its allies' countering of China's assertion, as the organization is poised to adopt a new strategic concept on containing Beijing's growing influence.



Due to this, there has been speculations that Yoon's NATO summit attendance may give a signal that Seoul may join the U.S.-led campaign to contain China.



However, the presidential office has been explaining that Yoon's attendance does not mean Korea is joining NATO, and the country seeks to promote its presence in the global community, rather than containing a certain country.



"We are not a NATO member country," another senior official at the presidential office said earlier this week. "NATO's concept of collective defense has no relation with us, while we are focusing on improving our partnerships with NATO members on broader ideas for comprehensive security, climate change, new technology and other values."



As the officials at the presidential office said, Yoon is anticipated to focus on having bilateral meetings with NATO member countries, rather than talking about China. The office is now preparing for about 10 bilateral meetings with European nations during Yoon's stay in Madrid, Spain.





U.S. National Security Council coordinator John Kirby responds to a question during a daily briefing in the White House briefing room, Thursday. UPI-Yonhap
Public figures have begun weighing in after the Supreme Court officially struck down Roe vs. Wade Friday morning, with conservatives celebrating the decision.

More than half of all US states have some kind of abortion ban law that will likely now take effect following Friday's news Roe v Wade has been overturned by the United States Supreme Court.

Last month, a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion written by Samuel Alito and published by POLITICO revealed that the court voted to strike down the landmark 1973 ruling, which legalized abortion in the United States.

Alito wrote in part, 'Roe was egregiously wrong from the start.' The George W. Bush-appointed justice goes on to say that the issue of abortion should be returned to the 'people's elected representatives' to decide.

The opinion was drafted in February 2022.

Public figures from both sides have been speaking out on the issue since the draft opinion went out and today was no exception, with conservatives celebrating the decision.

The Rev. Franklin Graham tweeted: 'The United States Supreme Court just announced one of the most significant rulings in my lifetime - officially voting to overturn the 1973 Roe v Wade decision because it was 'egregiously wrong from the start,' as stated by Justice Samuel Alito.

Sportswriter Clay Travis took a different tack: 'It's a 6-3 decision, which is massively important for the safety of the justices in the majority. It means one conservative justice's death won't change the outcome. John Roberts made the right decision to sign on here.'

Conservative writer Ben Shapiro wrote: 'Hundreds of thousands of children will now live who would otherwise have been killed in the womb. This is a victory for all human beings, who are created in the image of God.'

Commentator Steven Crowder pondered: 'Will there be fiery but 'mostly peaceful' protests?'

Former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany celebrated: 'America is no longer a pariah among nations when it comes to abortion law. Pre-Dobbs we were one of SEVEN countries allowing nationwide elective abortion after 20 weeks. It is no longer North Korea, the People's Republic of China and the United States of America. LIFE is restored!'

Christian author Lee Strobel called Roe v Wade 'an abomination' and said 'thank God it was overturned today by a courageous court. Pray for safety of pro-life centers that are already being attacked by domestic terrorists. Now this becomes a state-by-state struggle for the lives of the unborn.'

Donald Trump Jr. thanked his father for actions that led to this decision: 'Proud of my father for what he has accomplished today. He gave our movement 3 strong pro-life Supreme Court Justices despite the Dems and the leftwing media doing everything they could to stop their confirmations, especially with Kavanaugh, he never wavered!!!'

Liberals, on the other hand, were apoplectic in their dissent to the decision.

Busy Phillips, an actress and pro-choice activist who tweeted about having an abortion previously, wrote: It doesnt end here. F**k this sham. F**k these people. If youre a single issue voter and your issue is your taxes, f**k you too. This Supreme Court is on you.'

Actor and comedian Billy Eichner was furious, tweeting: 'GET YOUR FICITIONAL HATEFUL BIBLE STORIES AND FAKE FICTIONAL RELIGIOUS B******T OUT OF OUR F*****G LIVES. F**K YOU.'

March for Our Lives co-founder David Hogg shared a poll showing record low confidence in the court and added: 'The SCOTUS is destroying it's legitimacy. The court in a major legitimacy crisis.'

Comedian Amy Schumer shared a link to the pro-abortion organization Bans Off Our Bodies.

Actress Viola Davis added that she was 'gutted. Now more than ever we have to use our voice and power! WE the people.'

Republican-appointed justices  Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett voted with Alito.

THE 26 STATES TO OUTLAW ABORTION NOW THAT ROE V. WADE HAS BEEN FORMALLY OVERTURNED Alabama Arizona Arkansas Idaho Kentucky Louisiana Michigan Mississippi Missouri North Dakota South Dakota Oklahoma Tennessee Texas Utah West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Georgia, Iowa Ohio South Carolina Advertisement

And states across the country have been laying the groundwork for what comes after the more than 40-year-old ruling is nullified.

According to the pro-reproductive rights group The Guttmacher Institute, at least 22 states have laws on the books that would come into effect once the decision is officially adopted.

The organization also identified four more states that it expects to pass new abortion bans in the near future, marking a total of 26 states that appear set to ban the procedures

The 18 states that have near-total bans on abortion already on the books are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

In addition, Georgia, Iowa, Ohio, and South Carolina all have laws that ban abortions after the six-week mark.

At the time of writing, those six-week bans have been ruled unconstitutional.

On the same day as the Alito opinion was made public, The Washington Post reported that Republican lawmakers were plotting with pro life activists for a federal ban on abortions if Roe was overturned and the GOP won back the house.

The institute also says that four other states - Florida, Indiana, Montana and Nebraska - are likely to pass bills when Roe v Wade is overturned.

Florida already has a 15-week abortion ban that will go into effect in July 2022. The law does not make any exceptions for cases of rape or incest. There is an exception if the health of the patient is in danger.

In signing the law into effect, Gov. Ron DeSantis said, 'Life is a sacred gift worthy of our protection, and I am proud to sign this great piece of legislation which represents the most significant protections for life in the state's modern history.'

Republican-appointed Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett (circled) all voted to strike down Roe along with Samuel Alito

Protesters gather, chant and hold signs outside the Supreme Court in Washington last month

There were smaller gatherings of anti-abortion protesters at the event as well

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis passed a 15-week abortion law in April 2022. The law goes into effect in July

Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia and Wisconsin's bans all have pre-Roe v Wade laws that became unenforceable after the Supreme Court's 1973 decision - that would kick into effect if the federal legal precedent established in Roe were overturned.

Alabama, Arizona, Michigan, Mississippi, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Wisconsin's laws allow for abortions if the patient's life is in danger.

Alabama also allows for abortions in order to preserve the health of the patient.

Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Texas have further bans that will come into effect if the law was overturned. These were passed post-Roe v Wade.

They're joined by Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and Wyoming, in passing such laws.

The Oklahoma legislature just passed a six-week abortion ban, similar to Texas, in April 2022. Like the Texas law, it allows for the state to file lawsuits against those who are found to have helped someone get an abortion after the six-week period.

Pro-Life and pro-choice activists gather outside the U.S. Supreme Court on May 2. According to Politico's reporting, Alito's draft is not final and could change

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said in September 2021 tweet, 'I promised Oklahomans I would sign every piece of pro-life legislation that came across my desk.'

The states that will limit abortions based on the length of time a patient has been pregnant are Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, North Dakota and Ohio.

There are four states with laws that contend abortion is not a constitutionally protected right: Alabama, Louisiana, Texas and West Virginia.

On the other side of the spectrum, 16 states and the District of Columbia have laws that protect a person's right to an abortion.
This is the moving handwritten note that sparked a show of support from strangers after an unemployed father-of-two begged a utility company not to turn off the electricity of his home in the central Argentina province of San Luis.

Xavier Rubilar was in the middle of registering the meter readings for homes in the town of La Punta when he came across the heartbreaking note on June 17.

Please don't cut my power. I lost my job, I'm alone with my two daughters, wrote the resident, whose identity has not been disclosed. As soon as I can, I will pay the electricity. Please and thank you.

Rubilar, who works for energy company Edesal, told La Nacion that he broke down in tears upon reading the letter and had to cut his workday short.

An unemployed homeowner in La Punta, Argentina, who is raising his two daughters by himself found himself in a hole with his electricity bill four months in arrears. He owed about $265 and could not afford to pay it. So posted a handwritten note to his home's meter, in hopes that the energy company, Edesal, would not disconnect his service. The note, written in Spanish read: "Please don't cut my power. I lost my job, I'm alone with my two daughters. As soon as I can, I will pay the electricity. Please and thank you." The letter was shared on social media by Xavier Rubilar, who visited the man's home on June 17. His followers on Facebook raised enough money to cover the bill

An unemployed man in La Punta, Argentina, who is raising his two daughters by himself, posted the following letter to his home's meter and begged electricity service provider not to disconnect the service. A worker with the energy company came across the note on June 17 and shared it on Facebook, as his followers helped cover the $325 bill. The letter reads: "Please don't cut my power. I lost my job, I'm alone with my two daughters. As soon as I can, I will pay the electricity. Please and thank you"

Xavier Rubilar, who works for the Argentine energy company Edesal, said he started to cry after reading the homeowner's letter in which he asked for his electricity service not to be turned off because he was an unemployed father of two girls who couldn't afford to pay it

Two of the four bills that were covered by strangers moved by the heartbreaking note a father-of-two wrote and tagged to his Argentina home's electricity meter in which he begged for his service not to be disconnected because he was unemployed and did not have money to cover

With Fathers Day just around the corner, he decided to share the letter on his Facebook page in hopes of generating enough money to cover the bill.

Multiple people called offering to cover the outstanding balance of 32,999 Argentine pesos  about $265 - for four months of service that were already in arrears.

At first we wanted to help him anonymously Rubilar said. But when money is involved, everything must be done transparently. I contacted him and showed all the movements of money on social networks.

Within a matter of hours, his followers had donated 49,729 Argentine pesos  around $400  to ensure that the desperate parents electricity service remained connected.

Rubilar said that 17,730 pesos, about $134, was the difference that was left over and was deposited into the mans account.

It's amazing what can be done together, he said.
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Hillary Clinton attacked the Supreme Court's decision to overturn abortion rights on Friday, saying it was step backwards for human rights and an opinion that would 'live in infamy.'

The court's 6-3 decision - made along ideological lines - immediately divided the nation.

Republicans quickly hailed the outcome as a victory while Clinton and Barack Obama led Democrats in attacking the conservative majority's ruling.

'Most Americans believe the decision to have a child is one of the most sacred decisions there is, and that such decisions should remain between patients and their doctors,' tweeted Clinton.

'Today's Supreme Court opinion will live in infamy as a step backward for women's rights and human rights.'

Obama described it as an attack on citizens' freedoms.

'Today, the Supreme Court not only reversed nearly 50 years of precedent, it relegated the most intensely personal decision someone can make to the whims of politicians and ideologuesattacking the essential freedoms of millions of Americans,' the former president said in a thread of tweets.

'Across the country, states have already passed bills restricting choice.'

He offered activists a string of ways to get involved in fighting the decision.

'For more than a month, we've known this day was comingbut that doesn't make it any less devastating,' Obama added.

Hillary Clinton blasted the decision by the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v Wade. 'Today's Supreme Court opinion will live in infamy as a step backward for women's rights and human rights,' she said. Barack Obama also slammed the ruling, saying it was an attack on 'the essential freedoms of millions of Americans'

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 along ideological lines to overturn Roe v Wade, with an opinion that said there was no Constitutional right to an abortion. That set off a wave of reaction from left and right

Protesters gathered outside the Supreme Court after the ruling on Friday. Tensions have been running high ever since a leaked draft of the opinion was leaked in May, signalling that the court was preparing to overturn Roe v Wade

Democrats and Republicans quickly divided in their responses to the Supreme Court ruling on Friday morning

Republican and Democratic lawmakers immediately weighed in after the long-awaited Supreme Court decision.

The text, written by conservative Justice Samuel Alito struck closely to a leaked draft, which said the outcome of Roe v Wade was 'egregiously wrong.'

'The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives,' the decision said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the decision 'Trumpian' and said the conservative majority on the court had 'accomplished their dark and extreme goal' of overturning Roe v. Wade.

Meanwhile, Republicans lauded the decision.

Former Vice President Mike Pence said it heralded a new era in the 'defense of the unborn.'

'By overturning Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court of the United States has given the American people a new beginning for life, and I commend the justices in the majority for having the courage of their convictions,' he said.

'By returning the question of abortion to the states and to the people, this Supreme Court has righted a historic wrong and reaffirmed the right of the American people to govern themselves at the state level in a manner consistent with their values and aspirations.'

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said: 'Millions of Americans have spent half a century praying, marching, and working toward todays historic victories for the rule of law and for innocent life.

'I have been proud to stand with them throughout our long journey and I share their joy today.'

A string of Republican states immediately said trigger laws banning abortion had gone into effect.

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said: 'As noted in both my legal brief to the Supreme Court and the majoritys opinion: the Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision.'

But Kevin McCarthy, Republican leader in the House of Representatives, said the work was not over, signaling that more legislation banning abortion would come.

'American celebrate this historic victory because we know it will save the lives of millions of children. And it will give families hope,' he said.

'But as encouraging as today's decision is, our work is far from done.

'Americans remain one of only seven countries on earth that allow elective abortions in the third trimester of those seven countries that Americans one of them, there's two others China and North Korea.'

The stage is set for a series of legal tussles as states try to go their own way.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department will continue to work to 'protect and advance reproductive freedom.'

'The department strongly supports efforts by Congress to codify Americans' reproductive rights, which it retains the authority to do,' he said.

'We also support other legislative efforts to ensure access to comprehensive reproductive services.

'And we stand ready to work with other arms of the federal government that seek to use their lawful authorities to protect and preserve access to reproductive care.'

Michelle Obama described the decision as 'horrifying.'

'I am heartbroken that we may now be destined to learn the painful lessons of a time before Roe was made law of the land - a time when women risked losing their lives getting illegal abortions,' she wrote in an Instagram post.

'A time when the government denied women control over their reproductive functions, forced them to move forward with pregnancies they didn't want, and then abandoned them once their babies were born.

'That is what our mothers and grandmothers and great-grandmothers lived through, and now we are here again.'

Tensions over the future of abortion rights in the country have been running high since a draft opinion of the decision was leaked - and showed that the court's conservative majority was poised to push the decision on whether abortion was legal back to the states.

The conservative majority made good on what the draft said, with liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer dissenting. Chief Justice John Roberts concurred. Conservative Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas also filed concurring opinion.

'Guided by the history and tradition that map the essential components of the Nation's concept of ordered liberty, the Court finds the Fourteenth Amendment clearly does not protect the right to an abortion,' Alito wrote.

Tensions over the future of abortion rights in the country have been running high since a draft opinion of Dobbs was leaked - and showed that the high court's conservative majority was poised to push whether abortion was legal back to the states

There are 18 states that have near-total bans on their books, while four more have time-limit band and four others are likely to pass new bans if Roe is overturned

Security fences and a 'police line do not cross' sign have been in place outside the Supreme Court for weeks in anticipation of the ruling amid high tensions and expected protests

An anti-abortion protester stands in front of the Jackson Women's Health Organization in Jackson, Mississippi, which challenged the state's 15-week abortion ban

The decision reflects the stunning change in the court's direction after Donald Trump's four-year term. The court switched from a 5-4 majority where Roberts was often the swing vote, to a 6-3 conservative court with the addition of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was confirmed by the GOP Senate following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Senate Republicans blocked President Barack Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to fill the seat of the Antonin Scalia following the justice's death.

The opinion rejected the notion that stare decisis, or settled law, locked in the decades-old ruling, even after recent court nominees all stated a commitment to the concept.

'The doctrine of stare decisis does not counsel continued acceptance of Roe and Casey,' the majority argued, adding: 'But stare decisis is not an inexorable command,' it said.

The conservative justices likened Roe to Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld racial segregation as 'separate but equal.'

'Like the infamous decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, Roe was also egregiously wrong and on a collision course with the Constitution from the day it was decided,' the ruling said.

'Casey perpetuated its errors, calling both sides of the national controversy to resolve their debate, but in doing so, Casey necessarily declared a winning side,' it continued. 'Those on the losing side - those who sought to advance the State's interest in fetal life - could no longer seek to persuade their elected representatives to adopt policies consistent with their views.'

'The Court short-circuited the democratic process by closing it to the large number of Americans who disagreed with Roe,' the ruling added.

The blistering language pointed to the array of state laws that outright banned abortion during the 19th century, and accused the high court of acting like a legislature to sort through in which circumstances abortion would be allowed.

The decision also savages the Planned Parenthood v. Casey ruling, which preserved abortion rights with its prohibition on laws that impose an 'undue burden' on the mother. 'The decision provided no clear guidance about the difference between a 'due' and an 'undue' burden. But the three Justices who authored the controlling opinion 'call[ed] the contending sides of a national controversy to end their national division' by treating the Court's decision as the final settlement of the question of the constitutional right to abortion,' Alito wrote.

Alito wrote: 'Roe's failure even to note the overwhelming consensus of state laws in effect in 1868 is striking, and what it said about the common law was simply wrong. Then, after surveying history, the opinion spent many paragraphs conducting the sort of fact finding that might be undertaken by a legislative committee, and did not explain why the sources on which it relied shed light on the meaning of the Constitution.'

One line in the opinion addressed arguments by the government and critics including President Joe Biden that a ruling striking down Roe's privacy right could threaten other rights - from birth control to gay marriage.

The opinion states that this is not so. 'The Solicitor General suggests that overruling Roe and Casey would threaten the protection of other rights under the Due Process Clause. The Court emphasizes that this decision concerns the constitutional right to abortion and no other right. Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.'

The ruling gives a green light to state efforts to restrict abortions, which has already been underway during a decades-long effort, particularly in Republican-run states. But Alito writes that women are not powerless to try to stop the effort using political power (which they lacked before the 19th Amendment came into effect with an array of abortion restrictions on the books).

'Our decision returns the issue of abortion to those legislative bodies, and it allows women on both sides of the abortion issue to seek to affect the legislative process by influencing public opinion, lobbying legislators, voting, and running for office,' he writes. 'Women are not without electoral or political power. It is noteworthy that the percentage of women who register to vote and cast ballots is consistently higher than the percentage of men who do so,' according to the opinion.

In a signal that the Biden administration was at least preparing for bad news, Vice President Kamala Harris convened seven state attorneys general at the White House Thursday to discuss strategies to combat any such ruling.

'I have asked these attorneys general to meet with us knowing that they have a pivotal role to play in defending women's reproductive freedom and their rights to make decisions about their own body,' Harris said at the top of the meeting.

She said the attorneys general may have to challenge any Supreme Court ruling.

'As reproductive rights are being restricted around our country and potentially by the Supreme Court soon I think we believe and we've started prelimianry discussions about how Attorneys General have the power, may have the power at the very least, to issue guidance to ensure that the people of their state know their rights, that they have the power to assess and potentially challenged the constitutionality of laws that are being passed in their states,' she said.

Vice President Kamala Harris met with state attorney generals on Thursday to talk defense should the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that made abortion legal in this country

'I have asked these attorneys general to meet with us knowing that they have a pivotal role to play in defending women's reproductive freedom,' Vice President Harris said

Harris has taken the lead for President Joe Biden's administration on defending abortion and reproductive rights.

If the Court does strike down Roe, the administration will be forced to rely on law enforcement, potential executive actions, and other measures to try to ensure access to abortion rights in states that have been whittling away at the practice for years.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the administration would also push Congress to codify Roe into law.

'If this happens, one of the things that I can say right now that we will do is call on Congress to restore Roe,' she said during an interview on ABC's The View.

Even with Democratic control of Congress it is unlikely an abortion-rights law would pass the 50-50 Senate, where any legislation needs the support of at least 10 Republican senators to move forward in the legislative process.

The meeting with Harris was attended by the attorneys general of Wisconsin, Nevada, Illinois, California, Delaware, New York and Washington state.

State attorney generals will likely be the front line of defense should abortion be outlawed.

They are the top legal officers in their states and could bring additional lawsuits regarding reproductive rights.

Biden is a lifelong Catholic who was opposed to Roe in the early days of his career and has only later come to embrace abortion rights.

He was critical of the leaked draft opinion.

Protesters on both sides of the contentious issue have been gathering outside the court daily during the final days of the court's term, which usually ends in late June.

The building is surrounded by a tall fence that went up after the draft leaked last month.

The political debate on abortion reignited last month when Politico published a draft majority opinion that showed Roe v. Wade being struck down. In it, conservative Justice Samuel Alito writes: 'Roe was egregiously wrong from the start' and must be overturned.

If judges haven't switched their positions since Alito authored the draft, it would result in the overturning of the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision which provides for abortion rights.

Currently, there are 18 states that have near-total bans on abortion already on the books.

They are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

On the other side of the spectrum, 16 states and the District of Columbia have laws that protect a person's right to an abortion.

With public attention focusing on the court, where conservatives hold a 6-3 majority, Congress passed legislation to provide security protection to justices, after an armed man was arrested outside Justice Brett Kavanaugh's home.

On Thursday, the court stuck down a New York law that required 'proper-cause' to carry a concelaed weapon, a ruling that could result in an increase in the number of guns in public places. It also ruled law enforcement officers cant be sued when they violate the rights of criminal suspects by failing to provide the familiar Miranda warning before questioning them.

Fencing has gone up around the Supreme Court and the justices have faced increased threats
Boris Johnson made light of yet another election blow today as Commonwealth leaders defeated his bid to oust secretary-general Baroness Scotland.

The PM joked that it was a 'good day for democracy' as he was grilled on the failure of efforts to replace the former Labour Cabinet member - nicknamed 'Baroness Brazen' after a series of controversies.

The UK has criticised her leadership of the organisation, and supported Jamaican foreign minister Kamina Johnson Smith taking over instead.

Sources had been confident that the former Labour attorney general would be voted out at the gathering in Rwanda today, making her the first secretary-general not to be re-elected for a second term.

But in the end Lady Scotland emerged victorious by 27 votes to 24.

Mr Johnson told a press conference at the summit: 'What is the Commonwealth? It is an amazing group of 54 countries that share values and in particular, the idea of democracy and I work well with Baroness Scotland - have done for a very long time since I became foreign secretary, I think, and look forward to working well with her in the next couple of years.

'This is a crucial time for the Commonwealth. I think people are looking more and more to this institution, more and more countries want to join it, they see the value of it.'

The PM (left) had been spearheading efforts to replace Baroness Scotland - nicknamed 'Baroness Brazen' after a series of controversies

The UK supported Jamaican foreign minister Kamina Johnson Smith taking over instead

Ms Johnson Smith tweeted today: 'Thanking all the countries and people who supported me in this journey!

'As I said to many of you- if I didn't pull through, God wasn't ready for me to leave Jamaica yet!

'Much love always, I continue to serve, and of course, sincere congratulations to Baroness Scotland.'

Mr Johnson had already been hit with a double-whammy of Tory by-election defeats at home before the latest setback.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told MPs on Tuesday that the UK supports Ms Johnson Smith.

Ms Johnson Smith has rejected claims that she is being used as a puppet by the British Government in a power struggle for the leadership of the Commonwealth.

She welcomed Boris Johnson's backing, but told The Times that any suggestion that she was as much a proxy candidate for the UK as Jamaica's choice was 'offensive'.

Baroness Scotland has dismissed claims she withheld a report on the financing of the Commonwealth.

The Commonwealth secretariat, the body which she leads, received the review containing recommendations on its future funding earlier this month.

It followed a decision by the Commonwealth's biggest funders to temporarily reduce support in 2020 following allegations of cronyism.

A Commonwealth spokesman denied that publication of the report was deliberately delayed until after the leadership vote.
In a statement following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v Wade in a 6-3 vote, former President Donald Trump said that the June 24 decision was 'the biggest WIN for LIFE in a generation.'

Trump also said that the decision only happened because Trump 'delivered' on 'everything' he promised.

The former 'Apprentice' host appointed three conservatives, Neal Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, all of whom voted to overturn.

In the statement, Trump said it his 'great honor' to appoint conservative judges. He continued: 'I did not cave to the Radical Left Democrats, their partners in the Fake News Media, or the RINOs who are likewise the true, but silent, enemy of the people.'

Trump continued: 'These major Victories prove that even though the Radical Left is doing everything in their power to destroy our Country, your Rights are being protected, the Country is being defended, and there is still hope and time to Save America!'

He concluded: 'I will never stop fighting for the Great People of our Nation!'

Famously, despite not winning the popular vote, serving one term as president and being impeached twice, Trump was afforded three picks on the Supreme Court.

Since 1973, the landmark Roe v Wade decision permitted abortions during the first two trimesters of pregnancy.

The decision to overturn was based on conservative Justice Samuel Alito's opinion that was ratified by the court's five other conservatives.

Following Friday's vote, the issue of abortion will be decided on by the states.

The former president said in an interview with Fox News that 'God' made the decision to overturn Roe v Wade

Trump earlier told Fox News shortly after the results of the vote was made public: 'This is following the Constitution, and giving rights back when they should have been given long ago.'

When asked about how his reaction would go down among his pro-choice supporters, Trump said: 'I think, in the end, this is something that will work out for everybody. This brings everything back to the states where it has always belonged.'

Trump initially played down his influence on the June 2022 decision saying: 'God made the decision.'

Donald Trump Jr., congratulated his father on paving the way for the Supreme Court's decision

The president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., was also triumphant in a series of tweets that he posted the ruling.

Trump Jr. wrote: 'When nearly any other Republican President would have folded to the pressure from the left and the media, Donald J. Trump stood by Kavanaugh and refused to budge. And today, conservatives just got our biggest win from the Supreme Court in a generation.'

In another message, Trump Jr. said: 'Don't be gaslit by the leftwing media: The Democrat position on abortion is late-term abortion on demand with zero limits...They are FAR outside the mainstream.'

He later compared the outrage over the June 24 decision to Covid-19 vaccine mandates saying: 'The libs crying today about "my body, my choice" because they're big mad that they might not be able to kill babies on demand, are the same radicals who wanted a forced nationwide Covid vaccine mandate on all Americans to be able to get a job and provide for your family.'

Another of the president's sons, Eric Trump, did not mention the decision on his Instagram page but did post a photo of his wife, Lara, with their children, Carolina and Eric Jr.

The president's daughter, Ivanka Trump, who seldom posts on social media, has not made any reference to overturning Roe v Wade.

Ivanka similar to her father remained silent on Alito's opinion. In October 2020, she was widely quoted as saying that she was 'unapologetically pro-life.'

Anti-abortion protesters celebrate following Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, federally protected right to abortion, in the nation's capital

Famously, despite not winning the popular vote, serving one term as president and being impeached twice, Trump was afforded three picks on the Supreme Court

Considering the former president's track record of proudly discussing his accomplishments, Trump was largely silent following the leaking of Alito's opinion draft.

A search of Trump's Truth Social page reveals no mentions of Alito's opinion, abortion or Roe v Wade over the last two months. Trump broke his silence hours after the Supreme Court decision on Friday, releasing a statement on his social media platform Truth Social that took credit for the pro-life victory.

His last message on the platform dealt with the Supreme Court's decision to strike down a New York law about guns decreeing that decisions on the Second Amendment could not be made by the states.

'Elections have consequences. I promised to appoint Judges and Justices that would stand up for the Constitution. Today, the Supreme Court upheld the Second Amendment Right of all Americans,' he wrote.

According to a May 2022 Rolling Stone feature, Trump's silence on Roe v Wade is related to his worries that coming out too strongly against abortion could hurt him with suburban women voters in 2024.

Also in May, the former president was asked by the New York Times' Michael Bender about his silence on Alito's opinion with regard to the fact that Trump stacked the court in favor of conservatives.

He said: 'I never like to take credit for anything.'

On the campaign trail in 2016, Trump promised his supporters that he was committed to appointing 'pro-life' justices who would work to overturn Roe v Wade.

In his final presidential debate with Hillary Clinton in 2016, Trump said: 'The Supreme Court - it's what it's all about. It's just so, so imperative that we have the right justices. The justices that I am going to appoint will be pro-life, they will have a conservative bent.'

Infamously, Trump told MSNBC's Chris Matthews in April 2016 that there should be some kind of 'punishment' for women who had abortions.

The former president recanted shortly afterward telling CBS's John Dickerson: 'The laws are set. And I think we have to leave it that way.'

While on the campaign trail in 2016, Trump promised supporters that he would only appoint pro-life judges

In May, the former president was asked by the New York Times' Michael Bender about his silence on Alito's opinion. Trump said: 'I never like to take credit for anything'

According to a Snopes article, the persistent rumor that Trump has paid for his previous sexual partners to have abortions is 'unproven.'

Republican voters are overwhelmingly pro-life when polled. Although a National Institute for Reproductive Health October 2020 poll, found that over 60% of Republican voters in Arizona and Pennsylvania said that despite their personal pro-life views, they felt the final decision should be left to the mother, according to a New Yorker feature.
Pro-abortion 'terror group' Jane's Revenge  which has vowed a 'Night of Rage' over the repeal of Roe v. Wade  is most likely a loose-knit assembly of 'anarchist' cells, according to a security expert.

The shadowy group relies on inciting people to vandalize and torch pro-life clinics and facilities through calls to arms on its website, says Kyle Shideler, director and senior analyst for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism at the Center for Security Policy, a Washington, DC-based think tank.

Jane's Revenge has already firebombed crisis pregnancy centers in the wake of the the Supreme Court draft opinion leak last month that revealed the court planned to overturn a woman's constitutional right to have an abortion.

The organization used violent rhetoric in its calls for a 'Night of Rage' in a May 30 'communique', vowing to mobilize when the right was overturned, as it was formally announced Friday.

Pro-abortion 'terror group' Jane's Revenge warned 'anti-choice' organizations that the 'leash is off' and that it will make it 'as hard as possible for your campaign of oppressions to continue' in a June 15 communique

The Compass Care, a Christian crisis pregnancy center in Buffalo, New York was firebombed on June 7. The building was also vandalized with graffiti reading, 'Jane was here'

North Carolina-based Mountain Area Pregnancy Services, was also targeted in a series of vandalism attacks carried out by the pro-abortion extremists on June 7

Now pregnancy crisis centers and religious organizations have been attacked in its name in Wisconsin, Washington, Oregon, Texas, North Carolina, New York, Florida and Massachusetts.

'My suspicion in we are probably dealing with a number of anarchist cells rather than a strictly speaking hierarchical group,' said Shideler.

'I doubt there is a boss of Jane's Revenge. I don't expect that they have managers or leadership or logistics or anything like that.

'Rather that post on May 30 was a call for action, such that anybody who took action of the kind that they called for, could be considered members.'

Kyle Shideler, director and senior analyst for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism at the Center for Security Policy think tank in Washington, DC says predicting the group's actions will be challenging because of their loose structure

He added: 'In this sense it is more of a fourth-generation style terrorist type group that we see with groups like Antifa, where membership is determined by your actions on behalf of the group not by any sort of formal process.'

Jane's Revenge posted on May 30: 'On the night the final ruling is issued  a specific date we cannot yet predict, but we know is arriving imminently  we are asking for courageous hearts to come out after dark.

'Whoever you are and wherever you are, we are asking you to do what you can to make your anger known.

'We have selected a time of 8pm for actions nationwide to begin, but know that this is a general guideline. There may be other considerations involved in planning time and place.'

The latest attack appears to have been on The Lennon Pregnancy Center in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, on June 19. Three glass doors and 11 windows were smashed.

Additionally, the words 'if abortion isn't safe, neither are you' were painted on the building  a mantra that has been scrawled in red paint during attacks on other establishments.

One of the first attacks was against Wisconsin Family Action in Madison, which was firebombed with Molotov cocktails in early May.

Jane's Revenge claimed responsibility with the words: 'This was only a warning. We demand the disbanding of all anti-choice establishments, fake clinics and violent anti-choice groups within the next 30 days.

'We are not one group but many. We are in your city. We are in every city.'

In a letter dated June 14 and posted to the Jane's Revenge website on Wednesday, the group claimed responsibility for the attacks as they pointed to a supposed 30-day deadline for all pro-life groups to cease operations

The extremist group owned up to the first attack against a clinic in Madison, Wisconsin in early May

Some of the destruction (pictured here) of the Madison attack at the Wisconsin Family Center that was hit by the group Janes Revenge that claimed responsibility for the May 8, 2022 attack

Threatening graffiti which reads 'A 1312' is seen on the exterior of Wisconsin Family Action offices in Madison, Wis., on Sunday, May 8, 2022

Earlier this month, the extremists vandalized and firebombed Compass Care, a pro-life Christian pregnancy center in Buffalo, New York, inflicting significant damage to the building.

Jane's Revenge claimed responsibility for the attack  and one three days later at the Gresham Pregnancy Resource Centre near Salem, Washington. It was also firebombed when a Molotov Cocktail was hurled through a window early on June 10 and caused extensive damage.

Shideler believes the threatened 'Night of Rage'  if it comes  will be carried out by individuals and small groups taking spontaneous action which will be difficult to predict because of the loose structure.

'This kind of thing comes of out this insurrectionist anarchy tradition of just act, don't wait for instructions, don't expect anybody to do it for you. Simply take an action and it will be part of the effort,' he said.

However, he added: 'I believe there will be a tendency towards more and more direct action. I think the majority of actions are going to be what we've seen, low level vandalism, but you are going to see intensity at some levels.'

Asked if this could potentially result in deaths, Shideler, who is based in Washington DC, replied: 'We've already seen fire bombings and when you throw fire there is always that danger.

'It is certainly possible that they could escalate to violence against human beings. Language in their communique sort of hinted at that.

'It is possible they are willing to go to that level. But for the most part you don't see that from these types of anarchist groups, quite deliberately.

The Compass Care, a Christian pregnancy center in Buffalo, New York was firebombed on June 7. The windows in the reception room and nurses' office were broken and fires lit

Compass Care's Buffalo office exterior was charred by fire

'They try to maintain a low intensity violence, just below the level that will draw too much attention from authorities  or do something that they think will cause their base to turn against them.

He added: 'The point is always the propaganda in this kind of action. The target is specially selected to make a point. Often they don't want too much in the way of human casualties, because that will derail the point. They don't want to turn people against them.'

Florida Senator Marco Rubio is among Republicans who have demanded federal investigations and firm action against Jane's Revenge.

He sent a letter to US Attorney General Merrick Garland on June 15 demanding a stronger effort to tackle the group and their 'call for an open season against pro-life pregnancy centers and organizations'.

Naming Jane's Revenge in the correspondence, the senator wrote: 'Despite the damage that has already been done and even through these groups have kept their promise to raise the violent stakes, the DOJ has not been faithful to its promise of ensuring the public's safety against these violent, radical activists.

'To date there has not been a single charge brought against any individual or group despite the countless pro-life centers in America that have been vandalized and firebombed in recent months.'

Florida Senator Marco Rubio is among Republicans who have demanded federal investigations and firm action against Jane's Revenge

Six days later the FBI confirmed it was investigating the wave of attacks, saying it takes all such threats seriously and was continuing to work with law enforcement agencies around the country.

However, Shideler believes efforts to identify any members of Jane's Revenge stand a much better chance with investigations at a local level.

'We don't have any idea about the individuals driving this as much as we ought to,' he said.

'There are pre-existing anarchist cells in most major cities that are willing to engage in this kind of behavior, or recruit or support this kind of behavior.

Surge in attacks, vandalism of pro-life facilities and churches June 7: Buffalo, NY - Christian pregnancy center firebombed and vandalized June 7: Asheville, NC - Mountain Area Pregnancy Services vandalized, windows broken June 2: Des Moines, Iowa - Agape Pregnancy Center vandalized, windows broken May 27: Lynnwood, OR: Next Step Pregnancy Center spray-painted, windows broken May 26: Columbus, MS: Mt. Avery Missionary Baptist Church vandalized May 21: Olympia, WA: Four area-churches vandalized. Anarchist group, Puget Sound Anarchists, claim credit May 8: Madison, WI - Wisconsin Family Action office in Madison firebombed Advertisement

'Big areas for this kind of activity are the Pacific North West. It's not an accident that we saw a major action from Jane's Revenge in that region. That's the kind of people they are most likely recruiting from.'

He added: 'The people who took action against pregnancy crisis centers in Wisconsin are probably from Wisconsin and so on.

'They are part of local groups who already exist there and local law enforcement needs to know who those people are.

'They need to know who moves in what circles, that kind of thing. So when you have an incident such as an attack in the name of Jane's Revenge you know what and maybe who you are dealing with.'

In the letter, which claims that Jane's Revenge is 'not one group but many,' and has disseminated 'communiques in locations across the country, but mainly in the Pacific Northwest.

They've claimed responsibility for various attacks in Madison, Wisconsin; Ft. Collins, Colorado; Des Moines, Iowa; Hollywood, Florida; Denton, Texas; and Washington, D.C.

They also claimed to have attacked Portland, Eugene and Gresham in Oregon, along with Olympia, Lynwood and Vancouver in Washington state, and Reisterstown and Frederick in Maryland.

'From here forward, any anti-choice group who closes their doors, and stops operating will no longer be a target. But until you do, it's open season, and we know where your operations are,' the letter reads, with the group adding that it appeals to anyone 'with the urge to paint, to burn, to cut, to jam' to commit violence.

'The infrastructure of the enslavers will not survive. We will never stop, back down, slow down, or retreat. We did not want this; but it is upon us, and so we must deal with it proportionally. We exist in confluence and solidarity with all others in the struggle for complete liberation,' the letter reads.

'Our recourse now is to defend ourselves and to build robust, caring communities of mutual aid, so that we may heal ourselves without the need of the medical industry or any other intermediary. Through attacking, we find joy, courage, and strip the veneer of impenetrability held by these violent institutions.'
A federal appeals court has agreed to halt the FDA's ban on Juul products thanks to a lawsuit filed by the e-cigarette manufacturer.

Juul asked a federal court Friday to block a government order to stop selling its electronic cigarettes, and was told the application had succeeded.

The temporary freeze on the FDA order lasts at least until July 12, according to the court's scheduling order.

The pause gives Juul time to argue for why the order should be placed on hold for a longer amount of time pending the court's review of it. The D.C. Circuit can extend the pause on the agency's order, or it can let the order take effect while Juul's appeal is pending.

The e-cigarette maker had earlier asked the court to pause what it calls an 'extraordinary and unlawful action' by the Food and Drug Administration that would require it to immediately halt its business.

The company filed an emergency motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington as it prepares to appeal the FDAs decision.

Juul has asked a federal court on Friday to block a government order to stop selling its electronic cigarettes

The FDA said Thursday that Juul must stop selling its vaping device and its tobacco and menthol flavored cartridges.

The FDA said Juul failed to show the sale of its products would be appropriate for public health, following a nearly two-year-long review of data provided by the company.

Juul, partly owned by tobacco giant Altria Group Inc, said it disagreed with the agency's findings.

Juul had provided insufficient proof that its products were a less harmful alternative to traditional cigarettes, according to the FDA.

The action was part of a sweeping effort by the agency to bring scientific scrutiny to the multibillion-dollar vaping industry after years of regulatory delays.

To stay on the market, companies must show that their e-cigarettes benefit public health. In practice, that means proving that adult smokers who use them are likely to quit or reduce their smoking, while teens are unlikely to get hooked on them.

The once red-hot vape company has also been working with its legal advisers on options that include a possible bankruptcy filing if it is unable to get relief from the government's ban, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Federal health officials on Thursday ordered Juul to pull its electronic cigarettes from the U.S. market, the latest blow to the embattled company widely blamed for sparking a national surge in teen vaping.

The FDA said Juuls application left regulators with significant questions and didnt include enough information to evaluate any potential health risks. Juul said it submitted enough information and data to address all issues raised. The company said the FDA refused its request to put its order on hold to avoid a massive disruption to its business.

While Juul remains a top seller, its share of the U.S. e-cigarette market has dipped to about half. The company was widely blamed for a surge in underage vaping a few years ago, but a recent federal survey showed a drop in the teen vaping rate and a shift away from Juul's products.

The devices heat a nicotine solution into a vapor thats inhaled, bypassing many of the toxic chemicals produced by burning tobacco.

The company said in its Friday court filing that it submitted a 125,000-page application to the FDA nearly two years ago. It said the application included several studies to evaluate the health risks among Juul users.

Juul said that the FDA cannot argue that there was a 'critical and urgent public interest' in immediately removing its products from the market when the agency allowed them to be sold during its review.

The company noted that the FDA denied its application while authorizing those submitted by competitors with similar products.

The FDA has OK'd e-cigarettes from R.J. Reynolds, Logic and other companies, while rejecting many others.

In 2019, Juul was pressured into halting all advertising and eliminating its fruit and dessert flavors after they became popular among middle and high school students. The next year, the FDA limited flavors in small vaping devices to just tobacco and menthol.
A paedophile from the Rochdale grooming gang who is battling deportation invoked Winston Churchill at a tribunal today as he tried to stop himself being sent back to Pakistan.

Adil Khan, 51, was part of a gang convicted of a catalogue of serious sex offences in May 2012.

Khan was in his 40s when he got a 13-year-old girl pregnant, refusing to accept the child was his until a DNA test was done. He then met another girl, 15, and trafficked her to others, using violence when she complained. He was jailed for eight years in 2012.

At an Immigration Tribunal hearing today he said: 'We have come to the court for justice.

'In our childhood, we used to hear something about this country when there was the Second World War going on, at that time Sir Winston Churchill was the Prime Minister.

'My plea is also this: if our courts are furnishing justice, I don't have to say anything.'

Adil Khan, 51 (pictured), was a member of the notorious Rochdale grooming gang and got a 13-year-old girl pregnant

Khan and Qari Abdul Rauf, 52, are set to be deported for the public good because of their roles in the Rochdale grooming gang.

For two years, from 2008, a gang of men in Rochdale preyed on girls as young as 12, plying them with alcohol and drugs before they were gang-raped in rooms above takeaway shops and ferried to different flats in taxis where cash was paid to use them.

The gang groomed as many as 47 girls.

Since their release from jail, Khan and Rauf have fought a long legal battle against deportation, mounting multiple legal challenges and appeals, spanning several years, on the grounds that deportation would interfere with their human rights.

Khan, who is not legally represented and spoke through a Miripuri interpreter, was asked if he had anything to say in support of his case.

Earlier, Khan said he only knew 10 words of English so could not groom anyone and denied being part of the grooming gang, blaming racism for his prosecution.

Adil Khan, 51, and Qari Abdul Rauf, 52 (pictured), have been told they will be sent back to Pakistan for the good of the British public, after both were part of a gang convicted of a catalogue of serious sex offences in May 2012

Judge Charlotte Welsh told the hearing the tribunal must consider Khan and Rauf's level of integration into British life, both culturally and socially, and his contribution to society.

Father-of-five Rauf trafficked a 15-year-old girl for sex, driving her to secluded areas to have sex with her in his taxi and ferry her to a flat in Rochdale where he and others had sex with her.

Failure to deport any of the grooming gang has led to anger in Rochdale, where victims were living alongside their tormentors.

The appeal hearing against both men was adjourned until Monday next week.
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Thousands of protesters took to the streets on Friday night to express their anger at the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade - the 50-year law that guaranteed access to abortion in every state.

In New York City, a crowd thousands strong massed in Union Square and Washington Square Park, and then marched up Park Avenue. The crowd massed on Grand Central station, before walking past it and continuing through the Upper East Side.

In Washington DC, Union Square was the site of demonstrations, while protesters from Boston to Philadelphia, Atlanta, Detroit and Los Angeles marched in fury.

Protesters sang and chanted outside the home of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on Friday night, after he revealed he now has laws protecting gay marriage, gay sexual activity and contraception in his sights, after axing Roe v. Wade.

Outside Thomas's Virginia home, a crowd of several dozen people waved placards, drummed and waved flags.

'My body, my choice!' they yelled, holding aloft posters labelling Thomas a 'treasonous turd' and proclaiming: 'Reproductive rights = human rights.'

One woman wore the rainbow-colored tabard of abortion clinic workers, who protect the women seeking treatment and being threatened by pro-life activists outside.

There was no visible police presence, but it was likely there: on June 16, Joe Biden signed into law the Supreme Court Police Parity Act, providing security for the immediate families of the nine justices and other officers of the court.

An armed man was arrested on June 8 outside the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh and charged with attempted murder.

Following Friday's landmark decision, Thomas became a particular lightning rod for activists, after he called on his fellow jurists to overturn previous rulings that followed similar legal precedent.

The prospective law changes, released in a concurring opinion of the decision penned by Thomas, would see limits put on gay marriage, same-sex sexual activity, and citizens' access to birth control.

Protesters in Washington, D.C., shared arrangements to carpool together on Friday evening to Thomas's house.

'Enraged? Devastated? Pissed the f*** off? So are we,' tweeted Our Rights DC.

Pro-choice extremist group Jane's Revenge promised a 'night of rage'.

NEW YORK CITY: Washington Square Park, in lower Manhattan, was packed with protesters on Friday evening

NEW YORK CITY: Demonstrators came from across the city to the square in Manhattan to express their outrage

NEW YORK CITY: The pro-choice protesters marched from Union Square in Manhattan to Washington Square, and then up Park Avenue

NEW YORK CITY: A crowd gathered on Friday evening in Washington Square Park

NEW YORK CITY: Women bearing placards converged on Washington Square Park in Manhattan

NEW YORK CITY: Protesters on Friday night are pictured in Washington Square Park

FIRMS PAYING WORKERS' ABORTION EXPENSES Disney said it will cover the cost of travel for 'family planning' for any worker who cannot access care where they live, including 'pregnancy-related decisions' Buzzfeed will provide a stipend to employees to travel out of state to access legal abortion services Dick's Sporting Goods is reimbursing employees $4,000 in travel expenses Amazon will provide $4,000 for travel expenses outside of 100 miles of an employee's home Starbucks will reimburse all abortion travel expenses not available within 100 miles Yelp will reimburse travel costs for employees who can't access services in their home state Microsoft will reimburse employees for travel expenses related to an abortion Apple will cover all travel expenses Netflix will pay up to $10,000 for travel reimbursement for abortions Tesla pays for travel and lodging for employees who get an abortion outside their home state Levi Strauss & Co. said it would reimburse workers who travel out of state to get an abortion JPMorgan Chase said it would expand its health plan to cover travel expenses for employees getting an abortion Starbucks will reimburse travel expenses for an abortion or gender-affirming procedure that is not available within 100 miles of an employee's home Citigroup will provide abortion travel benefits Mastercard will pay for travel and lodging for employees who need to travel out of state for abortion services Lyft will cover travel costs for employees enrolled in the company health care plan who need to travel more than 100 miles for an abortion Zillow will reimburse employees up to $7,500 to travel significant distances for reproductive services, gender-affirming care and other procedures Advertisement

Eric Adams, the mayor of New York, spoke from the steps of City Hall on Friday and proclaimed that his city was ready to welcome those women who needed an abortion, but were unable to get one in their home state.

He also revealed that, when he was 15, his then-girlfriend needed and got an abortion.

He said he was just back from jail - he was arrested for trespassing because he entered a house to take possessions, feeling he hadn't been compensated for odd jobs - when his girlfriend told him.

'Linda came to me and said, 'Eric, I'm pregnant and look at your life,' Adams said.

'She said Eric, you're arrested, you're not going to school, what future is this baby going to have.'

'She made the decision that was smart for both of us, she made the right call because she was empowered, she was in control.'

Seven of Adams's top deputies  all women  took to the microphone to condemn the Supreme Court's decision.

Three of them said they had had an abortion.

'Being a mother is the best job I've ever had, and I've loved it so much,' said Anne Williams-Isom, the deputy mayor, who oversees public health and social services.

'But when I was 18 years old, I was not ready to be a mom.

'If I did not have access to a safe affordable abortion, I would not be here with you all today.

'I wouldn't have the life that I wanted to have. I wouldn't be the mother that I wanted to be.'

New York officials have long been preparing to welcome women seeking abortions.

Kathy Hochul, governor of New York, on Friday declared her state a 'safe harbor' for those seeking abortions.

Hochul, a Democrat and the state's first female governor, announced an advertising campaign and a new website that would inform women in New York and around the country about their rights to an abortion in the state and potential resources available to them.

'This is repulsive at every level,' Hochul said on Friday, speaking at a groundbreaking for the Stonewall National Monument's visitor center in Manhattan.

On Friday, multiple blue chip firms including Disney, JP Morgan and Meta announced they will pay the expenses of staff forced to travel out-of-state for an abortion.

Other firms including Netflix, Vogue publisher Conde Naste and Yelp have also signaled they'll cover expenses in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision.

Disney said on Friday that it would cover the cost of employees who need to travel to another location to access care, including abortions, in light of the Supreme Court's decision.

The company employs 195,000 worldwide, including roughly 80,000 in Florida, where Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill prohibiting abortions after 15 weeks of gestation.

Disney told employees on Friday that it recognizes the impact of the abortion ruling, but remains committed to providing comprehensive access to quality healthcare, including for abortions, according to a Disney spokesperson.

'We recognize the impact of the ruling and that we remain committed to providing comprehensive access to quality and affordable care for all of our employees, cast members and their families, including family planning and reproductive care, no matter where they live,' Disney said in a statement.

Yelp co-founder and Chief Executive Jeremy Stoppelman on Friday said the ruling 'puts women's health in jeopardy, denies them their human rights, and threatens to dismantle the progress we've made toward gender equality in the workplace since Roe.'

Meta will reimburse travel expenses for employees seeking out-of-state reproductive care, but the company was also 'assessing how best to do so given the legal complexities involved,' according to a spokesperson.

Netflix added travel reimbursement for abortions and gender-affirming care to its health care plan.

The policy, which also covers cancer treatment and transplants, pays up to $10,000 per service for each employee.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas called on fellow jurists to overturn previous landmark rulings after the court nixed Roe v. Wade on Friday

Protesters plan to target the street where Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife Ginni live

WASHINGTON DC: Capitol Police dressed in riot gear stand outside the Capitol on Friday evening as protests erupted

WASHINGTON DC: Capitol Police are seen on duty on Friday evening in Washington DC, as protests spread

BOSTON: Protesters march through Boston, Massachusetts on Friday evening to express their anger at the decision

NEW YORK CITY: Protesters in New York City gather at Union Square in Manhattan to show their anger at the decision

BOSTON: A protester in Boston on Friday holds out a coat hanger - a symbol of the brutal measures that women used to take to abort their unwanted babies

BOSTON: Protesters gather on Friday outside State House to show their anger

Tensions over abortion have spiraled ever since a draft opinion was leaked last month, signaling that the court was about to overturn protections.

The Department of Homeland Security, in a memo on Friday obtained by ABC News, said it expects violence could last 'for weeks' from domestic violent extremists (DVEs).

'We expect violence could occur for weeks following the release, particularly as DVEs may be mobilized to respond to changes in state laws and ballot measures on abortion stemming from the decision,' the bulletin said.

'We base this assessment on an observed increase in violent incidents across the United States following the unauthorized disclosure in May of a draft majority opinion on the case.'

As he condemned the court's decision on Friday, President Joe Biden urged protesters to remain peaceful.

'I call on everyone no matter how deeply they care about this decision to keep all protests peaceful, peaceful, peaceful, peaceful,' he said.

'No intimidation. Violence is never acceptable.

'Threats and intimidation are not speech. We must stand against violence in any form, regardless of your rationale.'

ATLANTA: Protesters in Georgia gathered in front of the state capitol in Atlanta

ATLANTA: A woman and a man in Georgia wear stickers proclaiming: 'Forced motherhood is female enslavement'

ATLANTA: Protesters gather downtown to express their anger at Friday's decision

ATLANTA: Activists hold up signs saying 'Abortions save lives' and 'Abortion = healthcare'

ATLANTA: Demonstrators are seen outside the Georgia State Capitol

LOS ANGELES: Protesters gather outside the First Street United States Courthouse in Los Angeles on Friday afternoon

WASHINGTON DC: Abortion rights activists show their anger outside the Supreme Court in Washington DC on Friday

WASHINGTON DC: Demonstrators in Washington DC took to the streets on Friday after the decision was announced

LOS ANGELES: Cari Schaffer (L) and Hailey Valdez hold signs as protesters gather outside the First Street United States Courthouse in Los Angeles on Friday

WASHINGTON DC: A woman cries outside the Supreme Court on Friday morning after the court rules that the 'Constitution does not confer a right to abortion'

WASHINGTON DC: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez appeared outside the Supreme Court among the crowds in the aftermath of the Supreme Court releasing the Dobbs decision that ends abortion protections

WASHINGTON DC: Pro-life activists cheer outside the Supreme Court Friday morning after learning that the high court had overturned Roe v. Wade

WASHINGTON DC: Democratic members of Congress march out of the Capitol Building toward the Supreme Court to join pro-choice protesters outside the Supreme Court Friday morning

BOSTON: Senator Elizabeth Warren joins the crowd in front of the Massachusetts State House after the Supreme Court ruled to overturn Roe v. Wade

Protesters on Friday afternoon gathered in Union Square in Washington DC, with members of Congress addressing the crowd of several hundred.

'In almost half of this country, states are ready to ban abortion,' said Ilhan Omar, a Democrat representing Minnesota.

'Outright ban abortion. That means if you are sick, if you are raped, there is incest, you are forced to have that baby or die.'

The Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge in the capital was briefly closed after a man climbed the 1,445ft structure to protest the decision.

In his separate opinion also released on Friday, Thomas - the court's longest-serving justice - welcomed the guidance, but noted how it falls short of addressing citizens rights' apart from abortion.

The 74-year-old justice, an appointee of President George H.W. Bush, went on to declare the court should reconsider other cases that fall under previous due process precedents.

Thomas' argument was entrenched in the belief that since the Constitution's Due Process Clause was found not to secure a right to an abortion in Friday's ruling, the court should apply that same logic to other landmark cases.

He cited three in particular - including 1965's Griswold v. Connecticut, which allowed for married couples to buy and use contraception, and 2015's Obergefell v. Hodges, which allowed same-sex couples to legally marry.

Thomas' argument was entrenched in the belief that since the Constitution's Due Process Clause was found not to secure a right to an abortion in Friday's ruling, the court should apply that same logic to other landmark cases

Thomas cited three in particular - including 1965's Griswold v. Connecticut, which allowed for married couples to buy and use contraception, and 2015's Obergefell v. Hodges, which allowed same-sex couples (pictured) to legally marry

President Joe Biden addressed the nation from the White House's Cross Hall on Friday calling it 'a very solemn moment' and a 'sad day for the court and the country.' He also warned: 'If the rationale of the decision as released were to be sustained, a whole range of rights are in question. A whole range of rights'

Perhaps most shockingly, though, the jurist suggested the court also reexamine Lawrence v. Texas, a 2003 judgement that ruled that nixed some states' century-old criminal sanctions on citizens who committed sodomy.

All have to do with Americans' fundamental privacy, due process, and equal protection rights - tenets also central to Fridays decision, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.

'For that reason,' Thomas, 74, wrote, 'in future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court's substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell.'

The justice, a known conservative, went on to declare that 'we have a duty to 'correct the error' established in those precedents.

Notably absent from the prior cases in Thomas' concurring opinion was the 1967 case Loving v. Virginia, which barred the state from prohibiting interracial marriage.

Thomas is in an interracial marriage, as the justice is black and his wife Ginni Thomas - a conservative activist who absorbed Trump's 'big lie' - is white.

The assertion from Thomas comes as members of the left had warned that such a ruling could lead to the reversal of other landmark cases, following Politico's leak of an initial draft of the court's decision in May.

Justice Clarence Thomas is pictured with his wife, Ginni - a controversial conservative activist, who was in touch with a key Trump adviser during the January 6 insurrection

Retiring liberal Justice Stephen Breyer warned in the dissenting opinion that the current court could also go after rulings that came before and after Roe that are based on the same legal reasoning including Griswold v. Connecticut and the landmark Obergefell, which legalized same-sex marriage

Biden - who called Friday's 5-4 vote to nix the 1973 decision 'a tragic error' - said of the draft opinion in May: 'If the rationale of the decision as released were to be sustained, a whole range of rights are in question. A whole range of rights.'

'The idea [that] we're letting the states make those decisions, localities make those decisions, would be a fundamental shift in what we've done,' the president added.

On Friday, Biden also pointed out that three justices appointed by previous Trump - Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett - were central to the overturning of Roe.

'It was three justices named by one president - Donald Trump - who were at the core of today's decision to upend the scales of justice and eliminate a fundamental right for women in this country,' Biden said.

'This fall, Roe is on the ballot.'

Kamala Harris, the vice president, declared that voters will have 'the final word'.

'This is not over,' Harris said on Friday, speaking at a conference in Plainfield, Illinois.

'You have the power to elect leaders who will defend and protect your rights.'

Harris continued: 'Millions of women in America will go to bed tonight without access to the health care and reproductive care that they had this morning.

'Without access to the same health care or reproductive health care that their mothers and grandmothers had for 50 years.'

Retiring liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, who penned the dissent signed on by Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, also predicted that the demise of Roe could have broader implications.

'And no one should be confident that this majority is done with its work,' Breyer wrote, after laying out how the decision suggests that a 'woman has not rights to speak of.'

'The right Roe and Casey recognized does not stand alone. To the contrary, the Court has linked it for decades to other settled freedoms involving bodily integrity, familial relationships, and procreation,' Breyer noted.

Breyer, like Thomas, points to Griswold v. Connecticut - which permitted married couples to use contraception without government interference - and then to Obergefell, the landmark same-sex marriage decision.

'They are all part of the same constitutional fabric, protecting autonomous decisionmaking over the most personal of life decisions,' Breyer said.

The majority opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, said the decision only pertained to abortion arguing that it was not 'deeply rooted in history.'

Breyer argued that's not possible.

'So one of two things must be true. Either the majority does not really believe in its own reasoning. Or if it does, all rights that have no history stretching back to the mid 19th century are insecure,' Breyer wrote.

'Either the mass of the majority's opinion is hypocrisy, or additional constitutional rights are under threat.

'It is one or the other.'

There are 18 states that have near-total bans on their books, while four more have time-limit band and four others are likely to pass new bans if Roe is overturned

Abortion was automatically outlawed in 18 US states as soon as Roe v. Wade was overturned, thanks to specially-devised 'trigger laws' and historic bans that were automatically reenacted after Friday's ruling.

Thirteen states prepared trigger laws which would automatically outlaw terminations in the event of a ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade, which was widely-anticipated.

They are: Arkansas; Idaho; Kentucky; Louisiana; Mississippi; Missouri; North Dakota; Oklahoma; South Dakota; Tennessee; Texas; Utah and Wyoming.

Abortion bans in those states will now become law within 30 days.

Five other states have also now banned terminations, after historic laws superseded by the 1973 Roe ruling automatically came back into place.

Among those five are two Democrat-governed states - Michigan and Wisconsin.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers have both sought to overturn those bans in the court. But they remain in place for now, and Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin announced Friday afternoon that it was suspending terminations while awaiting clarification on the law.

Other states with newly-re-enacted historic bans are Alabama, Arizona and West Virginia.

Eight other states are also set to enact new anti-abortion laws. Georgia, Iowa and South Carolina all attempted to ban abortion after the six-week mark.

Those laws were branded unconstitutional, but will likely be revisited now Roe has ended. And Florida, Indiana, Montana as well as Nebraska are all working on plans to ban or restrict terminations.

'This is a horrifying decision': 'Heartbroken' Michelle Obama leads furious criticism of SCOTUS overturning of Roe v. Wade - as Amy Schumer blasts justices for following 'intentions of slave-owning rapists who've been dead for hundreds for years'

Michelle Obama and Amy Schumer are leading the furious public criticism of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade today - with the former First Lady slamming the move as 'horrifying' while warning that it will have 'devastating consequences' for women across the US.

Dozens of celebrities have spoken out to share their horror over the landmark decision, including Kim Kardashian, Taylor Swift, Busy Philipps, Bette Midler, Hailey Bieber, and Sophie Turner - with many of them choosing to share Obama's statement as well as their own thoughts on the issue.

58-year-old Obama was one of the first high-profile people to react to the decision, taking to Instagram to post a lengthy statement slamming the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the minutes after it was announced, describing herself as 'heartbroken' while blasting the Supreme Court for ridding women of their 'fundamental right to make informed decisions about their own bodies'.

'I am heartbroken that we may now be destined to learn the painful lessons of a time before Roe was made law of the land - a time when women risked losing their lives getting illegal abortions,' she wrote.

'A time when the government denied women control over their reproductive functions, forced them to move forward with pregnancies they didn't want, and then abandoned them once their babies were born.

'That is what our mothers and grandmothers and great-grandmothers lived through, and now we are here again.'

Michelle Obama and Amy Schumer led the furious public criticism of SCOTUS' decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on Friday

Obama branded the decision 'horrifying' and warning that it will have 'devastating consequences for women across the US'

She urged pro-choice supporters to 'channel their frustration and anger into action by getting involved', before highlighting organizations like Planned Parenthood and The United State of Women

Obama was one of dozens of high-profile figures to speak out against the decision on Friday - with Schumer, 41, accusing the Supreme Court of determining women's rights by following the 'intentions of a bunch of slave-owning rapists who've been dead for hundreds of years'.

She then appeared to take aim at Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who in 2018 and 2019 was accused of sexual assault by several women, writing on her Instagram Stories: 'And women's bodily autonomy should not be determined by men who've been accused of sexual assault.'

Both Obama and Schumer then urged pro-choice supporters to take action by fighting back against the decision, with former president Barack Obama's wife urging her followers to 'channel their frustration and anger into action' by supporting organizations like Planned Parenthood and The United State of Women.

'This moment is difficult, but our story does not end here,' the mother-of-two said. 'It may not feel like we are able to do much right now, but we can. And we must.

'If you're like me and you want to get started right now, I encourage you to channel your frustration and anger into action by getting involved. Organizations like Planned Parenthood and The United State of Women, among many others, have resources you can look to if you want to help others or if you need help yourself.

'Our hearts may be broken today, but tomorrow, we've got to get up and find the courage to keep working towards creating the more just America we all deserve. We have so much left to push for, to rally for, to speak for - and I know we can do this together.'

Schumer said that the decision equated to SCOTUS determining women's rights by 'interpreting the intentions of a bunch of slave-owning rapists who've been dead for hundreds of years'

The comedian posted in support of Bans Off Our Bodies (left), urged pro-choice supporters to join a rally in New York on Friday (center), and then made a stark comparison between gun laws and abortion rights in the US (right)

Kim Kardashian joined the many people pointing out the contrasts between gun control laws and abortion rights, posting on her Instagram Stories that 'guns have more rights than women'

Kim's younger sister Kendall Jenner branded the decision 'disturbing, disappointing, and devastating'

Bette Midler unleashed a furious tirade against Donald Trump, accusing the former President - who nominated three Supreme Court Justices - of 'undoubtedly paying for a hundred [abortions] himself'

She also accused Justice Samuel Alito of 'leaking' the draft of the decision to overturn Roe

Schumer meanwhile, who is a mother-of-one, urged her followers to support Bans Off Our Bodies, a 'national campaign led by abortion rights supporters' which 'collectively mobilizes against abortion bans'.

She also shared information about a planned 'All out for abortion rights' rally, which is taking place in New York City's Washington Square Park on Friday evening.

The comedian went on to highlight the stark contrast between the lack of gun control laws in the US and the rules governing abortion rights, writing on Instagram that 'late term abortions via school shootings are still available', while re-posting a tweet about SCOTUS eliminating the constitutional right to abortion.

British actress Jameela Jamil - who is now based in the US - also drew comparisons between abortion rights and gun control laws, while branding the Supreme Court Justices who voted in favor of overruling Roe v. Wade 'f***ing evil bastards' and accusing pro-life supporters of using dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale as a 'manifesto'.

'Oh my god. Roe v. Wade is gone. My heart is completely broken. What happened to this country?' she wrote in an Instagram image, adding in the caption: 'The past six years has been terrifying and somehow keeps getting worse. These f***ing evil bastards know that this never ends abortion, it only ends safe abortion. We need to VOTE. No wonder they are banning Handmaid's Tale in Texas. They are using it as a manifesto

'PRO LIFE, but only saying abortion has to be decided state by state, but gun laws are protected nationwide f***ing hundreds of mass shootings this year and it's only June.'

In a second post, she highlighted the economic ramifications of the decision, questioning who will 'pay for all these unwanted babies', and asking: 'Who is going to better fund the adoption system?'

'Who is giving out free healthcare to people forced to follow through on pregnancies?' she continued. 'Who is going to pay for the food, shelter and educations of these forced children? Or the therapy of the rape victims and children forced to carry pregnancies to term?

Jameela Jamil (left), Busy Philipps (center), and Hailey Bieber (right) were also among the celebrities who spoke out to slam the overturning of Roe v. Wade

British actress Jameela Jamil - who now lives in the US - raised questions about the economic ramifications of the decision, asking: 'Who is gonna pay for all these unwanted babies?'

Hailey Bieber, 25, said she was 'speechless' over the decision, describing it as 'really really scary'

Busy Philipps urged her followers to attend a rally in New York on Friday, while furiously blasting the Supreme Court, adding: 'I have no words. This is total devastation'

Taylor Swift (left), Cynthia Nixon (center), and Padma Lakshmi (right) voiced their upset and outrage over the landmark decision on Friday

Many celebrities - including Hunger Games star Elizabeth Banks - noted the 'devastation' that this will cause for so many women and families across the US, with many also contrasting abortion rights with gun control laws

'Can't even f***ing feed, treat or shelter the people already here. AmeriCAN'T. These f***ing dinosaurs will be dead before they see the devastating impact on our society.'

Taylor Swift, 32, said the move has left her 'terrified' about the state of the country, writing on her Twitter account: 'I'm absolutely terrified that this is where we are - after so many decades of people fighting for women's rights to their own bodies, today's decision has stripped us of that.'

Model Hailey Bieber, 25, described the landmark decision as 'really really scary' in her own post about it, writing: 'Wow... I'm speechless. What an extreme loss and disappointment. This is really really scary.'

Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner shared her horror over the decision in an Instagram Stories video, in which she insisted that overturning Roe v. Wade 'is not about saving lives, it's about controlling a woman's body'

Actress and TV host Busy Philipps joined Schumer in encouraging her followers to attend the Washington Square rally, sharing a flyer for the event on her Instagram, while writing: 'I have no words. This is total devastation. See you tonight New York and I hope you show the f**k up wherever you live.'

She added on Twitter: 'It doesn't end here. F**k this sham. F**k these people. If you're a single issue voter and your issue is your taxes, f**k you too. This Supreme Court is on you.'

Game of Thrones actress Sophie Turner - who is currently pregnant with her second child with husband Joe Jonas - shared her thoughts on Roe being overturned in an Instagram Stories video, in which she stated that the decision will likely 'set us back by 50 years'.

'Overturning Roe v. Wade is setting us back 50 years,' she said. 'This isn't going to save any lives. It's going to kill and endanger millions of women who are going to end up getting dangerous backstreet abortions and end up dying from it.

'If this was actually about saving lives, if anyone cared about saving lives, then after any of the mass shootings that have happened here in the United States, we would have gun control. It's not about saving lives, it's about controlling a woman's body and controlling a woman's right to choose and it's absolutely f***ing disgusting.'

Actress and former politician Cynthia Nixon, 56 - who wed her wife Christine Marinoni in 2012 - called attention to the 'devastating' timing of the decision being announced during Pride Month - particularly because the ruling issued by the Supreme Court also casts doubt over the future of other legislation, which protects the the rights of those within the LGBTQ community, including the right to same-sex marriages.

She posted the concurring judgement of Justice Clarence Thomas, in which he wrote: 'For that reason, in future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court's substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell'.

'This ruling today at the height of Pride Month is particularly devastating,' Nixon wrote on Twitter. 'The foundation upon which Roe rested is the same that has protected so many of our rights as LGBTQ+ people. Clarence Thomas says as much. We're all in this together.'

Riverdale stars Camila Mendes (left) and Lili Reinhart (right) both shared horrified reactions to Roe v. Wade being overturned

Thomas was also the subject of a tweet posted by Kathy Griffin, who looked back on the sexual harassment allegations made against him by Anita Hill back in 1991.

'Thinking about Anita Hill today. Thinking about what she went through. Believe women. Please,' Griffin, 61, tweeted.

Hill quietly accused Thomas of sexual harassment in a private interview with the FBI - however the resulting report was publicly leaked in 1991 when Thomas was nominated to the Supreme Court by then-President George H. W. Bush, resulting in his confirmation hearings being reopened - with Hill called to publicly testify about her allegations.

She told Congress that Thomas had repeatedly harassed her while she was working as his advisor on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, claiming that he asked her out on a number of occasions - and then began making lude comments when she refused his advances.

Despite her testimony - which was backed up by a polygraph test - Thomas was ultimately confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice.

The Supreme Court overruled the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision Friday morning by upholding Mississippi's restrictive 15-week abortion ban.

'The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives,' the decision said.

Tensions over the future of abortion rights in the country have been running high since a draft opinion of Dobbs was leaked - and showed that the high court's conservative majority was poised to push whether abortion was legal back to the states.

The 6-3 conservative majority made good on what the draft said, with liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer dissenting. Chief Justice John Roberts concurred. Conservative Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas also filed concurring opinion.

'Guided by the history and tradition that map the essential components of the Nation's concept of ordered liberty, the Court finds the Fourteenth Amendment clearly does not protect the right to an abortion,' the decision, penned by conservative Justice Samuel Alito, said.
A man who refused to pay for sex with two prostitutes was caught on camera falling to the ground and running away after he jumped out the second-floor window of a brothel in Chile.

The individual joined the two women and another man for the alleged $500 sexual encounter when he decided to flee without paying last Sunday morning in the southern city of Punta Arenas, the online Chilean news site ADN reported.

The viral surveillance camera video shows the man landing on the right side of his body after he fell across the paved alleyway.

A surveillance camera recorded the bizarre moment a man in Chile came crashing to the ground after jumping out from the second floor window of a brothel on Sunday as he escaped without paying $500 for a sexual encounter with two prostitutes and another male individual

The two prostitutes came out running from the back exit door of the brothel in Punta Arenas, Chile, on Sunday morning moments after one of their customers fled without paying them $500

He miraculously avoided hitting his head and back on the concrete pavement before he grunted a Spanish expletive.

Subsequently, he got back on his feet and struggled as he walked out the property.

The man crashed on his side of the body and avoided hitting his back and head on the concrete pavement before he was able to walk out and flee the Chilean brothel without paying two prostitutes

A man walks out of a brothel in Chile moments after a male individual who joined him for sex with two prostitutes fled without paying the women $500

Several seconds passed when the security camera captures two women running out of back of the building and yelling at him to stop and come back with their money.

The other man who took part in the pay-for-sex act is seen on camera trotting down the alley wearing an old San Antonio Spurs of Kawhi Leonard and a towel covering the lower half of his body.

Major Carlos Sanhueza, chief of the first police precinct, told local media outlet La Prensa Austral that no reports over the stolen money were filed by either women involved.




President Yoon Suk-yeol will send a delegation to the inauguration of incoming Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and deliver his wish to work closely with the new government, a presidential official said Friday.







The delegation, headed by floor leader Rep. Kweon Seong-dong of the ruling People Power Party, will attend the inauguration ceremony June 30 and extend Yoon's congratulations.







"They plan to deliver his wishes to work closely with the new government in the Philippines to strengthen the traditionally friendly cooperative relationship between South Korea and the Philippines," the official told reporters.







"The delegation plans to deliver a letter from President Yoon to the new Philippine president," the official added. (Yonhap)


Former Vice President Mike Pence called for a national ban on abortion following the Supreme Court's 6-3 decision on Friday to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 constitutional right to abortion.

'Now that Roe v. Wade has been consigned to the ash heap of history, a new arena in the cause of life has emerged, and it is incumbent on all who cherish the sanctity of life to resolve that we will take the defense of the unborn and the support for women in crisis pregnancy centers to every state in America,' Pence told Breitbart News.

As of June 24, the decision to immediately ban or limit abortion procedures will be decided by state lawmakers. Pence, who has been outspoken in his pro-life views, wants to further abortion restrictions, like in California, where lawmakers have promised to be a sanctuary state for those seeking abortions.

The Supreme Court voted 6-3 to overturn the 1973 constitutional right to abortion law, Roe v. Wade

Former Vice President Mike Pence, who is a pro-life advocate, praised the Supreme Court's decision. With the right to access abortions now being left to the states to decide, Pence is calling for more restrictions

'Having been given this second chance for Life, we must not rest and must not relent until the sanctity of life is restored to the center of American law in every state in the land,' Pence said.

Following the Supreme Court decision, Pence released a three-minute video through his organization, Advancing American Freedom, praising the vote while highlighting his journey to fight abortion since elected into Congress in 2001.

Pence, who proposed the first bill to defund Planned Parenthood in 2007, has recently spent time visiting states with crisis pregnancy centers.

Pro-life and pro-choice advocates traveled to the country's capital following the vote to voice their views

The Roe v. Wade landmark has permitted abortions up to the first two trimesters of pregnancy for 50 years.

There are 13 states that plan on banning abortions immediately: Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.

Meanwhile, states on the West Coast, namely California, Oregon and Washington, seek to create a road map referred to as the 'West Coast Offensive,' which would allow continuous access to abortions for in-state and out-of-state residents.
Multiple blue chip firms including Disney, JP Morgan and Meta have announced they'll pay the expenses of staff forced to travel out-of-state for an abortion.

Other firms including Netflix, Vogue publisher Conde Naste and Yelp have also signaled they'll cover expenses in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed American women the right to an abortion.

Up to 26 states states are expected to further restrict or ban abortions following the ruling, making it difficult for female employees to terminate pregnancies unless they travel to states where the procedure is allowed.

Disney said on Friday that it would cover the cost of employees who need to travel to another location to access care, including abortions, in light of the Supreme Court's decision.

The company employs 195,000 worldwide, including roughly 80,000 in Florida, where Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill prohibiting abortions after 15 weeks of gestation.

Disney said on Friday that it would cover the cost of employees who need to travel to another location to access care, including abortions, in light of the Supreme Court's decision

America's largest bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co, has also joined the growing list of major companies that will cover expenses for U.S.-based employees who need to travel to get a legal abortion

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday took the dramatic step of overturning the landmark 1973 ruling that recognized a woman's constitutional right to an abortion

Disney told employees on Friday that it recognizes the impact of the abortion ruling, but remains committed to providing comprehensive access to quality healthcare, including for abortions, according to a Disney spokesperson.

'We recognize the impact of the ruling and that we remain committed to providing comprehensive access to quality and affordable care for all of our employees, cast members and their families, including family planning and reproductive care, no matter where they live,' Disney said in a statement.

The company's stance could again put it at odds with DeSantis, who stripped Disney of its self-governing status for Disney World in apparent retaliation to its opposition to Florida's Parental Rights in Education bill, which opponents branded as 'Don't Say Gay' legislation.

But Disney limited its communications on Roe v. Wade to an internal staff memo, and did not take public aim at Friday's ruling.

DeSantis has indicated that he will seek to ban abortions after 15 weeks in the Sunshine State.

America's largest bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co, has also joined the growing list of major companies that will cover expenses for U.S.-based employees who need to travel to get a legal abortion.

The announcements come as many states are expected to further restrict or ban abortions following Friday's ruling.

For example, in Oklahoma a bill signed in April bans abortion except in medical emergencies and penalizes providers who violate the law with up to $100,000 in fines and 10 years in prison.

The law is due to take effect in August. States offering abortion protections include New York and Maryland.

Companies that offer reimbursements for abortion-related travel could be vulnerable to lawsuits by pro-life groups and Republican-led states, and even potential criminal penalties.

Lawyers and other experts said employers could face claims that their policies violate state laws banning, facilitating or aiding and abetting abortions.

Netflix added travel reimbursement for abortions, gender-affirming care to health care plan

FIRMS PAYING WORKERS' ABORTION EXPENSES Disney said it will cover the cost of travel for 'family planning' for any worker who cannot access care where they live, including 'pregnancy-related decisions' Buzzfeed will provide a stipend to employees to travel out of state to access legal abortion services Dick's Sporting Goods is reimbursing employees $4,000 in travel expenses Amazon will provide $4,000 for travel expenses outside of 100 miles of an employee's home Starbucks will reimburse all abortion travel expenses not available within 100 miles Yelp will reimburse travel costs for employees who can't access services in their home state Microsoft will reimburse employees for travel expenses related to an abortion Apple will cover all travel expenses Netflix will pay up to $10,000 for travel reimbursement for abortions Tesla pays for travel and lodging for employees who get an abortion outside their home state Levi Strauss & Co. said it would reimburse workers who travel out of state to get an abortion JPMorgan Chase said it would expand its health plan to cover travel expenses for employees getting an abortion Starbucks will reimburse travel expenses for an abortion or gender-affirming procedure that is not available within 100 miles of an employee's home Citigroup will provide abortion travel benefits Mastercard will pay for travel and lodging for employees who need to travel out of state for abortion services Lyft will cover travel costs for employees enrolled in the company health care plan who need to travel more than 100 miles for an abortion Zillow will reimburse employees up to $7,500 to travel significant distances for reproductive services, gender-affirming care and other procedures Advertisement

A draft of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion was leaked in May.

At that time, many other companies including online review site Yelp and Microsoft Corp and Tesla said they will help cover the cost of travel for employees seeking reproductive services.

Yelp co-founder and Chief Executive Jeremy Stoppelman on Friday said the ruling 'puts women's health in jeopardy, denies them their human rights, and threatens to dismantle the progress we've made toward gender equality in the workplace since Roe.'

Meta will reimburse travel expenses for employees seeking out-of-state reproductive care, but the company was also 'assessing how best to do so given the legal complexities involved,' according to a spokesperson.

Netflix added travel reimbursement for abortions and gender-affirming care to its health care plan.

The policy, which also covers cancer treatment and transplants, pays up to $10,000 per service for each employee.

Alaska Air Group, parent of Alaska Airlines, said on Friday it is 'reimbursing travel for certain medical procedures and treatments if they are not available where you live. Today's Supreme Court decision does not change that.'

Zillow said Friday that it will reimburse employees up to $7,500 to travel significant distances for reproductive services, gender-affirming care and other procedures. The expanded benefits went into effect June 1, the Hill reported.

'We strongly support our employees' right to make health care choices that are right for them, and we will continue to do so,' Zillow said in a statement.

Buzzfeed will provide a stipend to employees to travel out of state to access legal abortion services, CEO Jonah Peretti said Friday.

'The decision is so regressive and horrific for women that it compels us to step up as a company to ensure that any of our employees who are impacted have funding and access to safe abortions as needed,' Peretti said.

Lyft announced in April that it would cover travel costs for employees enrolled in the company health care plan who need to travel more than 100 miles for an abortion.

Starbucks said in April that it would reimburse travel expenses for an abortion or gender-affirming procedure that is not available within 100 miles of an employee's home.

'Regardless of what the Supreme Court ends up deciding, we will always ensure our partners have access to quality healthcare,' Starbucks executive Sara Kelly told employees. 'And when actions impact your access to healthcare, we will work on a way to make sure you feel supported.'

Other companies offering the benefit include online dating sites OkCupid and Bumble Inc.

'OkCupid is horrified by the news of Roe being overturned. This is an issue of gender equality and an issue of human rights,' said. OkCupid Chief Marketing Officer Melissa Hobey.

Abortion was automatically outlawed in 18 US states as soon as Roe v. Wade was overturned, thanks to specially-devised 'trigger laws' and historic bans that were automatically reenacted after Friday's ruling.

Thirteen states prepared trigger laws which would automatically outlaw terminations in the event of a ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade, which was widely-anticipated.

They are: Arkansas; Idaho; Kentucky; Louisiana; Mississippi; Missouri; North Dakota; Oklahoma; South Dakota; Tennessee; Texas; Utah and Wyoming.

Abortion bans in those states will now become law within 30 days.

THE 26 STATES TO OUTLAW ABORTION NOW THAT ROE V. WADE HAS BEEN FORMALLY OVERTURNED Alabama Arizona Arkansas Idaho Kentucky Louisiana Michigan Mississippi Missouri North Dakota South Dakota Oklahoma Tennessee Texas Utah West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Georgia, Iowa Ohio South Carolina Advertisement

Five other states have also now banned terminations, after historic laws superseded by the 1973 Roe ruling automatically came back into place.

Among those five are two Democrat-governed states - Michigan and Wisconsin.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers have both sought to overturn those bans in the court. But they remain in place for now, and Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin announced Friday afternoon that it was suspending terminations while awaiting clarification on the law.

Other states with newly-re-enacted historic bans are Alabama, Arizona and West Virginia.

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey has announced the historic ban will be superseded by a recent law banning terminations after 15 weeks.

But that edict hasn't been enshrined in state law, and pro-lifers could end up battling Ducey to keep the historic ban on all terminations, leaving abortion providers uncertain of whether they can operate in the meantime.

Eight other states are also set to enact new anti-abortion laws. Georgia, Iowa and South Carolina all attempted to ban abortion after the six week mark.

Those laws were branded unconstitutional, but will likely be revisited now Roe has ended. And Florida, Indiana, Montana as well as Nebraska are all working on plans to ban or restrict terminations.

Hours after Roe v. Wade was announced, GOP Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin announced he'd asked four Republican lawmakers to begin drawing up legislation banning abortion after 15 weeks.

But Youngkin's party faces a very slim majority in both state house and senate, with many of his fellow Republicans likely to be undecided on whether to back an abortion ban.

And Kansas - which hasn't enforced any sort of abortion crackdown - will hold a referendum in August on whether to ban abortion there.

More than half of all US states have some kind of abortion ban law that will likely now take effect following Friday's news that Roe v Wade has been overturned by the United States Supreme Court.
ITV has joined the BBC in boycotting Bristol Council's mayoral briefings after the council banned a local reporter for asking the Labour politician if he saw the irony in flying to Canada to give a short speech on climate change.

Local Democracy Reporter (LDR) Alex Seabrook, whose who works for the BBC and the Bristol Live website, asked Mayor Rees whether he could instead have done the 14-minute TED talk via Zoom.

In a clip which has now gone viral, Mr Seabrook was interrupted by a press officer who questioned whether he should be allowed to ask this question.

Marvin Rees speaks to demonstrators on College Green in Bristol protesting in favour of the EU and against Brexit

He and other LDRs have since been banned by Bristol Council but other journalists and organisations have rallied behind him in support - with the BBC yesterday, June 23, deciding to boycott Bristol Council.

ITV West Country have now joined the BBC and have pledged not to attend or cover any of the mayoral briefings until this ban is lifted.

Ian Axton, Head of News at ITV West Country said: 'ITV News West Country stands by other media organisations on this issue.

'We will not attend the fortnightly press briefings held by the Mayor until the exclusion of Local Democracy Reporters is lifted.'

In the cringeworthy virtual press conference, Saskia Konynenburg, head of communications at Bristol City Council, said that she did not think the reporter's question on the mayor's 9,200-mile round trip in April to give a climate talk was 'legitimate'.

Interrupting the local reporter she said: 'My question is Marvin was fully-funded by TED to attend so I couldn't quite understand what the role as an LDR would be in asking that question. I think it is probably for a journalist from a newspaper but I can't quite see the link to LDR.'

Ms Konynenburg markets herself as an 'influential communications leader, focused strategist and innovative content creator' and was a reporter for three months in her career largely working for the public sector and charities, according to LinkedIn.

When Mr Seabrook said his job was to hold the mayor to account, she replied: 'I think it probably is from a journalist from a newspaper, but I can't quite see the link to LDR, but I'll leave it there.'

The Local Democracy Reporting Service is a news agency funded by the BBC, with reporters working on regional titles across the UK covering local authorities and other public-service bodies.

In the press briefing from June 8, Mr Seabrook asked: 'I want to say your TED talk was very interesting.

'I wondered, firstly, if you saw the irony in flying so far for climate change, and secondly, why you can't use Zoom instead?'

Reporter Alex Seabrook (left), who works with the BBC and the Bristol Live website, questioned Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees (right) about the 'irony' of his long flight to deliver a talk on climate change

In a toe-curling press conference, Saskia Konynenburg, head of communications at Bristol City Council, intervened saying she disagreed that Mr Seabrook's question was 'legitimate'.

Life in Bristol: Britain's wokest city Cider boycott Bristol's woke warriors attracted fresh ridicule by calling for the public to boycott a popular cider producer over its tenuous links to slave trader Edward Colston. The 'Countering Colston' group - which campaigns to cleanse Bristol of his legacy - were branded 'heartless bastards' for urging drinkers not to buy Thatchers Cider in February. Activists are angry about fourth generation cider maker Martin Thatcher's membership of the Society of Merchant Venturers, which is now a charitable organisation dedicated to education and the care of the elderly but in its previous incarnation had Colston as a member and was heavily involved in Transatlantic slavery. Jury clears 'Kill the Bill' rioter who stole PC's weapon and kicked his shield In May a jury cleared a Kill the Bill rioter after accepting he was acting in self-defence when he stole an officer's baton and kicked their shield - months after BLM activists who tore down a statue of Edward Colston also walked free. Kadeem Yarde, 24, was among hundreds of young people who marched on Bridewell police station in Bristol city centre on March 21 last year. More than 40 officers were injured during the 'mass disorder', in which the windows of the police station were smashed and several vehicles set alight. The demonstration was organised to show discontent towards the Government's Police, Sentencing and Courts Bill - with the riots subsequently dubbed 'Kill the Bill' protests. Feminist student loses negligence case against 'woke' Bristol University over claims bosses backed trans activists who threatened her In April a PhD student has lost her attempt to sue Bristol University after claiming they colluded with trans activists who wanted to 'cancel her' when she said only biological women can give birth. Raquel Rosario-Sanchez had alleged university chiefs had failed to protect her when the row blew up over the use of the word 'maternity'. Feminist Ms Rosario-Sanchez said Bristol - dubbed the country's 'wokest' university - did not tackle transgender activists who targeted her in a two-year hate campaign. Advertisement

Mr Rees said that he felt that there was 'no irony' because 'mayors need to be involved in shaping national and international policy.'

He added: 'We can't leave it to national politicians because they're failing us, we saw that at COP. Bill Gates was there.

'He was there to combat climate change. Elon Musk was there.

'So the question is, how do you get the biggest platform.

'Then it is how do you maximise the platform for that?

'With all the best will in the world, getting it on the Bristol Live website isn't going to give us that platform, is it?'

However, after he had finished speaking, Ms Konyenburg suggested the question was inappropriate for Mr Seabrook to ask in his role as an LDR.

She said: 'In terms of your role as an LDR, from my understanding, it would be to report and provide impartial coverage regarding the regular workings of local authorities and public sector bodies.

'My question is that Marvin was fully funded by TED to attend this conference, so I couldn't quite understand what the role is in an LDR asking those questions?'

The reporter replied: 'It's holding people who lead local authorities to account, obviously being the leader of Bristol City Council there were questions regarding the huge amount of carbon emissions from flying so far. So I think it is a legitimate question.'

Ms Konynenburg interjects: 'I think it probably is from a journalist from a newspaper, but I can't quite see the link to LDR, but I'll leave it there.'

The Bristol Post today agreed not to send Local Democracy Reporters (LDR) to events held by Bristol City Council's mayor, a spokesperson for the council said.

But they insisted that the LDR reporters were not barred.

It comes after a council boss blasted one of the reporters, part of a news service funded by the BBC, - because they were 'not a journalist from a newspaper'.

The question was put forward by Local Democracy Reporter Alex Seabrook, who works with the BBC and the local Bristol publications.

A spokesperson for Bristol City Council confirmed there had been a 'long-standing' agreement the reporters wouldn't be sent.

They said: 'There has been a long-standing mutual agreement between the Mayor's Office and the Post about personnel attending press conferences whenever they are announced and held, and that LDR's would not be sent due to the narrow definition of their role as an impartial service.'

However, this has been disputed by Bristol Live editor Pete Gavan, who said: 'In the past, we had agreed to send other reporters to the mayoral briefings when possible but reserved the right to send the LDRs.'

A BBC spokesperson said: 'We are deeply disappointed by the decision taken by the Mayor's Office to not allow the Bristol LDR into his fortnightly press conference.

'It is an essential ingredient of local democracy that journalists should be able to ask robust, challenging questions to people in power.

'We have informed the Mayor that the BBC won't be attending the fortnightly Mayoral briefings until this important issue is resolved. We will continue to report on the City Council and Mayor as normal by attending all other meetings.'
This new video recorded Friday morning on the streets of New York City shows a man openly smoking something out of a suspicious looking pipe.

The shocking clip was taken outside of a MedRite Urgent Care center along 6th avenue in one of New York City's most bourgeois neighborhoods, Chelsea.

As the clip begins, the man is in the midst of smoking whatever is in the pipe for nine seconds. A pedestrian walks by busy on his phone and apparently oblivious to the smoking man.

The man, clad in a skin tight Adidas sky blue zip-up sweater with a red shirt protruding underneath, skin tight yoga-style pants and of course, a witch's hat, waits two seconds before sucking on the pipe for the rest of the video.

The promotional picture behind the man seems to advertise that the urgent care clinic is a safe place to bring children.

In New York City, more than 2,060 people died of drug overdoses last year, the most since reporting began in 2000.

The shocking clip was taken outside of a MedRite Urgent Care center along 6th avenue in one of New York City's most bourgeois neighborhoods, Chelsea

As the clip begins, the man is in the midst of smoking whatever is in the pipe for nine seconds

A pedestrian who walked by was busy on his phone and apparently oblivious to the smoking man

New York City's famed Garment District, few blocks north of where the June 24 video was recorded, was referred to as a 'shooting gallery' for heroin, according to a September 2021 New York Post feature.

Former FBI Special Agent Manny Gomez told the Post that NYPD officers have been 'effectively ordered' not to arrest brazen drug users as possession offenses of even heroin are regarded as non-bail.

This means that offenders are back on the streets shortly after their arrest. Michael Alcazar, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice told the Post: 'New York City has become the city of the 'The Walking Dead.'

According to statistics from the NYPD's 10th precinct, that oversees Chelsea, it is one of the safest neighborhoods in the city.

There have been two murders and five rapes in the neighborhood this year. In 2021, there was one murder and five rapes during the entire year.

Robbery's have increased significantly in the area, as in 2021 there were just 50 for the whole year, in 2022, there have already been 70.

Felony assaults, burglaries and grand larceny are also on an upward swing.

In one of his final acts as the Mayor of New York City, the deeply unpopular Bill de Blasio opened the city's first supervised drug injection sites in November 2021.

The two sites are located far from the Chelsea neighborhood where Friday's video was recorded and where celebrities such as Nicole Kidman, Harrison Ford and Cameron Diaz all own homes.

The average rent in the neighborhood for a one-bedroom apartment is $5,370, according to Zumper.

The drug centers are in historically crime ridden areas East Harlem and Washington Heights. Both locations offer a space for drug addicts to use drugs while also providing HIV testing and counseling.

De Blasio said in a statement at the time: 'After exhaustive study, we know the right path forward to protect the most vulnerable people in our city. Overdose prevention centers are a safe and effective way to address the opioid crisis.'

In their first three months, the sites in upper Manhattan's East Harlem and Washington Heights neighborhoods halted more than 150 overdoses during about 9,500 visits  many of them repeat visits from some 800 people in all. The sites are planning to expand to round-the-clock service later this year.

The centers are operated by the nonprofit OnPoint NYC.

'It's a loving environment where people can use safely and stay alive,' says Sam Rivera, the executive director of OnPoint NYC. 'We're showing up for people who too many people view as disposable.'

CORNER Project at 500 West 180th in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City

Nyhre New York Harm Reduction Center in the East Harlem neighborhood, both centers were opened in one of Mayor Bill de Blasio's final acts in 2021

A man utilizes the narcotic consumption booths at a safe injection site at OnPoint NYC on Monday, Jan. 24, 2022 in New York

Brooklyn Republican Nicole Malliotakis has called on the DOJ to shut down New York City's drug centers

New York City's only Republican in Congress, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, has pressed the Justice Department to shutter what see sees as 'heroin shooting galleries that only encourage drug use and deteriorate our quality of life.'

While one homeless New Yorker who has battled addiction for 10 years and overdosed 18 times was quoted by Politico as saying: 'I think I would be dead if it wasnt for this facility.'

According to Drug and Alcohol Dependence, an academic publication on addiction research, drug use centers in Canada and Australia have reduced overdose deaths and led to a reduction in AIDS/HIV among addicts. Although, the centers have been accused of facilitating drug trafficking.

Similar centers have been proposed in cities such as San Francisco and Denver but have yet to come to fruition. In January 2021, the opening of such a center in Philadelphia was blocked by federal judges.

The U.S. has been contending for years with a boom in opioid use and deaths, fueled at first by increased prescribing, including newly available painkillers, in the 1990s and then by heroin and illicit fentanyl.

Nearly 500,000 people nationwide died of opioid overdoses from 1999-2019, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the epidemic only worsened last year.

The CDC estimates there were more than 93,300 overdose deaths in 2020, up nearly 30% from the prior years number.

Photos show the current situation in Portland, where homeless people and addicts are on full display in public shooting up drugs or passed out in broad daylight

Decriminalization of hard drugs in Oregon has led to Portland, shown here, becoming an 'open air drug market' and overdoses skyrocket

In 2020, the state of Oregon's voters democratically voted to decriminalized the possession of hard drugs. This has led open air drug use in cities such as Portland.

Those found in possession are subject to a $100 fine but that's get waived if they contact a hotline. According to a KATU-TV report, of the nearly 2,000 people who received citations in 2021, just 91 called the hotline.

Oregon's Secretary of State Shemia Fagan said at a 2022 hearing on the situation: 'In many communities in Oregon weve seen the problem with drug addiction get worse,' reports Oregon Live.
A man has been arrested after a car was abandoned at Gatwick Airport causing police to launch an evacuation.

The car was left in the drop-off parking area at the London airport's North Terminal at 5.30pm on Friday evening.

Sussex Police say a cordon was put in place and has declared the incident as 'ongoing'.

A spokesman for Sussex Police confirmed a man was arrested at the airport.

A man has been arrested after a car was abandoned at Gatwick Airport causing police to launch an evacuation. The car was left in the drop-off parking area at the North Terminal at 5.30pm on Friday (pictured)

The spokesman said: 'We are currently dealing with an incident at Gatwick Airport.

'A man has been detained.

'As a precaution, a cordon is in place at the drop-off parking area at the North Terminal.'

The car was left in the drop-off parking area at the London airport's North Terminal at 5.30pm on Friday evening. Pictured are emergency vehicles at the scene on Friday

The incident has caused traffic jams on the M23 westbound motorway, on Spur Rd, from just after Junction 9. Emergency vehicles pictured at Gatwick

The incident has caused traffic jams on the M23 westbound motorway, on Spur Rd, from just after Junction 9.

One passenger at the scene wrote on Twitter, asking Gatwick Airport to arrange some help: 'Chaos - any chance you could at least get staff on the ground with information? Currently pretty hopeless.'

Another wrote: 'Incident? No shuttles from south to north terminal ? Lots of concerned people queued up here, no officials in sight. Please inform us.'

One other person said: 'Abandoned car causes chaos at Gatwick Airport.'

One passenger at the scene wrote on Twitter, asking Gatwick Airport to arrange some help: 'Chaos - any chance you could at least get staff on the ground with information? Currently pretty hopeless' (pictured are passengers walking amongst the Gatwick grounds on Friday)

A statement from Gatwick Airport read: 'We have now stood down a cordon which was in place while we dealt with an incident at the drop-off parking area at Gatwick Airports North Terminal on Friday evening (24 June).

'A man has been detained in relation to the incident, which is not being treated as terror-related.

'We would like thank the public for their patience and understanding while we dealt with the matter.'
Embattled actor Chris Noth was spotted shopping at a jewelry store in the Berkshires, in Massachusetts a day after publicly expressing his support for his wife and her new play.

Noth and wife of 10 years, Tara Wilson, appear to be moving on from the slew of sexual assault allegations made against him late last year that effectively ended his career.

The scandal had sparked rumors of divorce or separation for the couple, after Wilson was spotted in public without her wedding ring, however, it seems the TV star's marriage is staying strong.

Exclusive DailyMail.com photos show Noth, 67, leaving Lennox Jewelers on the main street of the town of Great Barrington on Friday with a red gift bag in hand.

Chris Noth was spotted shopping at a jewelry store in the Berkshires a day after his wife's new play came to town

Exclusive DailyMail.com photos show the embattled actor leaving Lennox Jewelers in Great Barrington on Friday with a gift bag in hand

The former Sex and the City star, who later made his way to his car, looked casual in an orange graphic tee, black jeans, and laced boots

Noth and wife Tara Wilson, the mother of his two children, celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary on April 6. They are pictured together in 2016

His wedding ring on his left ring finger was also visible as he left the store.

Noth, who was alone during the outing, dressed casually in an orange graphic tee, black jeans, and laced boots.

It's possible the former Sex and the City star was picking up a congratulatory - or perhaps reconciliatory - present for his wife whose new play opened on Thursday in nearby Stockbridge.

The father-of-two took to social media on opening day to publicly congratulate Wilson and praise her play titled 'B.R.O.K.E.N code B.I.R.D switching,' which will run until July 9.

Noth posed for a photo with the couple's 14-year-old son Orion alongside a poster for the project at Berkshire Theatre Group's Unicorn Theatre in Stockbridge.

He captioned the snap: 'Orion and I are so proud of Tara's new play opening this Saturday in Stockbridge at @berkshiretheatregroup! Closes July 9th - come see this beautiful production!!! #berkshiretheatregroup'.

He also shared a post about the play from the official Berkshire Theatre Group account on his Instagram story.

'The family is over the moon w/ Tara's premiere of her new play at @berkshiretheatregroup,' he gushed.

Noth, whose marriage was rumored to be 'hanging by a thread' in the wake of the sexual misconduct allegations against him, was seen wearing his wedding ring on his left ring finger

It's possible the former Sex and the City star was picking up a congratulatory - or perhaps reconciliatory - present for his wife

Noth has only been pictured with his wife a handful of times since the sexual assault allegations came to light

Noth appears to be moving on from the slew of sexual assault allegations made against him late last year

The play follows 'a woman representing a black teenager accused of murder is forced to face truths about marriage, race and the choices she has made and the unspoken lies she told herself to conform.'

The former The Equalizer actor has only been pictured with his wife a handful of times since the sexual assault allegations came to light.

Noth, who also shares two-year-old son, Keats, with Tara, has been seen wearing his wedding ring while she has been pictured going without hers.

The Wisconsin-born, Connecticut-raised 67-year-old and the Canadian 42-year-old recently celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary on April 6.

The Hollywood star's latest social media activity comes as he continues to keep a low profile following sexual allegations claims which saw him cut out of the Sex and the City reboot.

His acting career hangs in the balance due to claims of improper conduct on set, dating back to 2004, when he is accused of sexually assaulting a woman in Los Angeles.

In an article published December 2021, two women, using the pseudonyms Zoe, now 40, and Lily, now 31, told the Hollywood Reporter that Noth raped them.

Family affair: The 67-year-old Sex and the City star posed with the couple's son Orion, 14, as they celebrated the upcoming run for the play written by Wilson, 39

Showing love: The Equalizer star shared a post on his Instagram grid and on Instagram Story as he urged fans to check out his wife's work

Both of those accusers in the report claimed that Noth had sex with them from behind while stood in front of a mirror, with the first attack allegedly taking place in 2004.

The second alleged incident reportedly occurred in 2015, three years after Noth married Tara.

Noth is famed playing John James Preston - also known as Mr. Big - on the original Sex and the City show, which ran from 1998 to 2004, and in both movies, in 2008 and 2010.

He was killed off the show after the allegations came to light, with his character dying of a heart attack in the first episode of the reboot, which debuted in December last year.
Kamala Harris said that the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade on Friday is causing a 'health care crisis' in the U.S. as she slammed the decision to hand back abortion rights to the states.

The vice president had to alter her comments during a trip to Plainfield, Illinois on Friday from focusing on the administration's expansion of maternal healthcare to reacting to the rendered opinion ending privacy rights that protected women's right to get an abortion.

'Here's what that decision means: For nearly 50 years, we have talked about what Roe v. Wade protects. Today, right now, as of this minute, we can only talk about what Roe v Wade protected. Past tense,' Harris said to a crowd gathered at the Plainfield YMCA.

'This is a health care crisis,' she said.

'Understand,' Harris added, 'millions of women in America will go to bed tonight without access to the healthcare and reproductive care that they had this morning. Without access to the same health care or reproductive healthcare that their mothers and grandmothers had for 50 years.'

Vice President Kamala Harris declared there is a 'health care crisis' in America after the Supreme Court ruled on Friday to overturn Roe v. Wade

Protesters on both sides of the argument immediately descended on the Supreme Court building on Friday after the opinion was handed down to no longer provide constitutional protects for abortion and to hand the issue back to the states

The vice president's remarks came shortly after President Joe Biden addressed the nation on the decision and placed the blame directly on his predecessor Donald Trump.

During remarks in the White House's Cross Hall, Biden called it 'a very solemn moment' and a 'sad day for the court and the country.'

'Today, the Supreme Court of the United States expressly took away a Constitutional right from the American people, that it had already recognized. They didn't limit it, they simply took it away. That's never been done to a right so important to so many Americans,' Biden said. 'But they did it.'

'Now with Roe gone, let's be very clear, the health and life of women in this nation are now at risk,' he added.

Biden pointed out how Republican-appointed justices, including by President Richard Nixon, decided Roe and upheld abortion rights in subsequent cases over the years.

'It was three justices named by one president - Donald Trump - who were at the core of today's decision to upend the scales of justice and eliminate a fundamental right for women in this country,' Biden said.

Biden said the laws going into effect in the states are 'so extreme' that a woman could be forced to bear their rapist's child or the child that is the 'consequence of incest.'

'The court literally taking America back 150 years,' Biden said, pointing out some of the statutes from the 1800s that were referenced in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision.

'It just stuns me,' he uttered.

President Joe Biden addressed the nation from the White House's Cross Hall on Friday calling it 'a very solemn moment' and a 'sad day for the court and the country'. He added: 'The court literally taking America back 150 years'

There are 18 states that have near-total bans on their books, while four more have time-limit band and four others are likely to pass new bans if Roe is overturned

Harris agreed with her No. 1, saying that the decision moves the country backward.

'The strength of our nation has always been that we move forward,' she said in her remarks.

'Today, I invite all people to stand together in defense of one of the most fundamental ideals and principles that for generations to stand for liberty, to stand for freedom, to stand for self determination and the right to privacy.'

Harris explained that the decision is not isolated to the issue of abortion, warning that other privacy issues could be at stake in the future.

'This opinion also says, when you read it, that abortion is not deeply rooted in our nation's history,' the vice president said. 'In holding that it is not deeply rooted in our history, today's decision on that theory then calls into question other rights that we thought were settled. Such as the right to use birth control, the right to same sex marriage, to interracial marriage'

'The great aspiration of our nation has been to expand freedom. But the expansion of freedom, clearly, is not inevitable. It is not something that just happens.'

Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his concurring opinion that other cases also relying on the right to medical privacy that was just overturned in Roe, should now also be reconsidered if they are brought before the Court in the future  including contraception and same-sex marriage.

'[I]n future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court's substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,' the Goeorge Bush Sr.-appointed justice noted.

One of the cases Thomas is referencing is Griswold v. Connecticut, which was a landmark ruling in 1965 that protects married couples' ability to buy and use contraceptives without government restriction.

Obergefell v. Hodges is a 2015 decision that gave same-sex couples the right to marry  it was protected by the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Labour and the Liberal Democrats must come clean over whether they have an electoral pact, a Cabinet minister said last night.

Sajid Javid issued the challenge after tactical voting on an industrial scale handed the Government a double by-election defeat.

Senior Conservatives said opposition parties needed to be honest with voters after the Lib Dems snatched Tiverton and Honiton and Labour retook Wakefield.

The two parties did little campaigning in the constituency they were not targeting  and both did so badly they lost their deposits there. Tory co-chairman Oliver Dowden resigned yesterday morning, saying someone had to take responsibility.

But Health Secretary Mr Javid said: Keir Starmer and the Lib Dems must come clean to the public about any electoral pact.

A Starmer-led government propped up by the Lib Dems and SNP would break up our Union, and take our economy backward when we can least afford it. We must not allow that to happen which is why we need to unite and drive forward our agenda to deliver for the British people.

Sajid Javid issued the challenge after tactical voting on an industrial scale handed the Government a double by-election defeat

Attorney general Suella Braverman told the BBC: Its disappointing to see that theres a dishonest electoral pact between the Lib Dems and Labour.

Her warning came as:

Cabinet colleagues warned Boris Johnson he must start delivering if he is to get the party out of its slump;

His supporters and opponents geared up for a battle over changing the Tory partys rules to allow another confidence vote in his leadership;

Mr Dowden used his resignation letter to say that Conservative supporters were distressed and disappointed  but pointedly failed to back the PM;

Experts warned Sir Keir that Labour was not on track to win an outright majority at the next election;

Former Tory leader William Hague urged Cabinet members to consider resigning and warned the party was potentially heading for a disaster;

Fellow ex-leader Michael Howard called on Mr Johnson to step down for the good of the party.

Last month The Mail on Sunday revealed suspicions from Mr Dowden that Sir Keir was standing down candidates in areas where Lib Dem support was strong to avoid splitting the anti-Tory vote.

He said Sir Ed Daveys party had returned the favour where Labour was dominant. The claims were dismissed by both Labour and the Lib Dems.

Senior Conservatives said opposition parties needed to be honest with voters after the Lib Dems snatched Tiverton and Honiton and Labour retook Wakefield

Luke Hall, a deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, said: Its clear that Labour and the Liberal Democrats have entered into a secret and dishonest electoral pact, trying to help each other with tactical voting rather than running on their own records.

This raises the prospect of a damaging coalition of chaos, with a weak Keir Starmer being propped up by the SNP and Lib Dems. They should come clean on their grubby backroom deals.

Matt Singh, from the Number Cruncher consultancy, said the results in Tiverton and Wakefield amounted to industrial-scale tactical voting.

The results, which were also blamed on voters staying at home, led to a day of Conservative recriminations.

Following an early-morning phone call with the PM, Chancellor Rishi Sunak insisted he would stay on, tweeting: We all take responsibility for the results and Im determined to continue working to tackle the cost of living.

But observers noticed that his statement included no mention of Mr Johnson.

The Prime Minister, in Rwanda for a Commonwealth summit, vowed to carry on, saying: No doubt people will continue to beat me up and say this or that and to attack me. Thats fine, thats quite right, that is the job of politicians.

The Prime Minister, in Rwanda for a Commonwealth summit, vowed to carry on, saying: No doubt people will continue to beat me up and say this or that and to attack me'

In the end voters, journalists, they have no one else to make their complaints to. I have to take that. But I also have to get on with the job of delivering for the people of this country and thats what I was elected to do.

But asked whether he had considered resigning at any point yesterday, Mr Johnson dodged the question.

Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab and former Brexit minister Lord Frost urged Mr Johnson to redouble his efforts to deliver policies that will tackle the cost of living crisis.

In his resignation letter, Mr Dowden said: We cannot carry on with business as usual. Somebody must take responsibility and I have concluded that, in these circumstances, it would not be right for me to remain in office.

A Cabinet source said he did not expect further major resignations. My instinct is the Cabinet are sanguine about this result, the source said. Rather than focusing on the leader, the focus needs to be on making sure we press ahead with our agenda.

Tactical voting is suspected in Tiverton and Honiton because the Lib Dems won the seat despite having only come third in 2019.

They surged from 14.8 per cent of the vote in the general election to 52.9 per cent of the vote on Thursday.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer meets with new Wakefield MP Simon Lightwood as the party reclaimed the West Yorkshire seat from the Conservatives in the Wakefield by-election

Labour meanwhile slumped from 19.5 per cent of the vote to just 3.7 per cent, indicating that people were switching tactically.

In Wakefield, Labour saw its vote share rise from 39.8 per cent in 2019 to 47.9 per cent on Thursday. The Lib Dems on the other hand saw their vote slump from 3.9 per cent to 1.8 per cent.

Naomi Smith, chief executive of the anti-Brexit Best for Britain campaign group, which is campaigning for an electoral pact between the two parties, said the majorities could not have been overturned without tactical voting and an unofficial electoral pact.

Urging Sir Keir and Sir Ed to make an official pact, she added: Labour and the Lib Dems mustnt rest on their laurels, repeating this success will be much more difficult in a general election.

Our polling proves they will need to collaborate to defeat the Government.

But Labour frontbencher Lisa Nandy denied any deal, saying: We didnt have an electoral pact in this election, nor would we. People vote with their feet.

Sir Ed added: I am being honest  there is no pact, there is no deal, but the Liberal Democrats are fighting in areas we believe we can win.
From the way she gently coaxes her little girl into smart new trainers, its clear that Chloe is a caring mother. And as someone who wants the best for her children, she has concerns about the development of both Jordon, six, and Mia, four.

Waving an exercise book at me, the pages covered in squiggles, Chloe, 24, a single mother who lives on the outskirts of Norwich, explains: Jordons teacher wants him to write a poem. But hes so far behind, he doesnt even know what a full stop is!

Then she glances down at her daughter, crouched at her feet, arms wrapped around her mothers calves. My youngest is so clingy, Im having to send her to reception with her dummy to keep her calm.

Once, dummies were the preserve of infants who would be weaned off them during the toddler years. But now they, along with nappies, bottles and other paraphernalia of babyhood, are increasingly a feature of the nations reception classes  and even beyond. Its a vivid illustration of the disastrous impact the pandemic has had on the cohort of babies and young children born just before and during Covid  consequences only truly emerging as they enter education.

Certainly, teachers are in no doubt: children are arriving for school less prepared than theyve ever been (File image)

Certainly, teachers are in no doubt: children are arriving for school less prepared than theyve ever been.

Once, most four-year-olds were toilet-trained and could, with help, get dressed, feed themselves and perhaps even make a fist of writing their name or basic numbers.

Now, says the Education Endowment Foundation, significant numbers of four and five-year-olds have speech and language problems, trouble with social interaction and confidence and delays in walking.

Before lockdown, about half the year group were not ready for school. Now its more like 80 to 90 per cent arrive in a pushchair, dummy in mouth and wearing nappies, unable to take off their coat or eat with a spoon, one head summarised.

Shockingly, one head teacher told a recent education commission of a mother who pushed her son to school in a shopping trolley. Locked up in a small flat during the pandemic, tablet no doubt firmly in hand, he had failed to develop the muscle tone to run about.

Some children have been so isolated that they adopt the funny voices of the cartoon characters they endlessly watch.

The teachers I spoke to are clear where the blame lies  with poor parenting during lockdown.

A primary school teacher from the North-West told me indignantly: The children are not potty-trained. Thats OK when youre dealing with one child but its a disaster when its all 30. It takes away from teaching time for the whole class.

Another confided: We find all manner of things in their pants  filthy nappies or even sanitary pads as makeshift nappies.

It shows us what the parents consider normal at home. They leave the child to play in wet or dirty pants. They send them to school like that.

Teaching staff feel that more than ever, parents now feel its OK to offload responsibility for parenting to schools.

The head teacher of an inner-city primary sighed as she told me: Some parents have the attitude, Youll do it for me. They think they have other more important things in their lives than to play with their child or potty-train them.

When, for example, she asked one mother how often she read to her five-year-old daughter, she got the reply:  I dont do that  as if it is a lifestyle choice!

She shook her head and added: A lot of parents are so needy themselves since the pandemic. Can you help me? they beg, and Im thinking: No, I am here to help your children!

The teachers I spoke to are clear where the blame lies  with poor parenting during lockdown (File image)

Parents, meanwhile, argue that schools fail to appreciate how lockdown changed the dynamic between parents and children.

Dorette is a single mother of a five-year-old boy living in South London. She blames her sons lack of independence squarely on the pandemic, which forced her into isolation with her child.

The exceptional circumstances threw them into total dependency. As she says: We didnt spend a minute apart. She admitted that when her son started reception, he could not take his coat or shoes off by himself and that shes partly to blame for his lack of independence.

Hes my only child and Im a protective mum. I didnt give him a chance to try himself. I am used to doing everything for him: cook for him, clean up after him. Thats my nature.

Still, a lack of services that should have helped her  such as regular health visitor appointments and mother-and-baby classes  meant that Dorette had no way of checking her childs milestones or discovering the level of development expected by his school when he started.

She did not even know her son could attend nursery school (a common misconception among the mothers I interviewed). I thought he went straight from me to primary school, she said.

Significantly, on his first day back, Dorette did not seize the chance of her first free time for over a year. Instead, she lingered outside the school. It was the only occasion wed ever been apart. It was very traumatic for him and me. I kept wondering how he was getting on. How was he being treated? It was a very hard transition for us both.

Chloe, the single mum in Norwich, had the same experience with her little girl, who missed out on nursery because of Covid.

Theres no transition, one minute shes at home with me 24/7; the next, in school for a full day. No wonder she threw a tantrum. Shes a real mummys girl and thought I wasnt ever coming back.

For little ones, used to spending all their time with mum, the separation can be unbearable and its a problem for many children, not just the less comfortably-off.

The teacher of a year one class in Clapham, an affluent area of London, admitted to me that many of her pupils are not slotting into school life.

She added: They havent played with other children, have no idea how to share, take turns or even make friends. They find it overwhelming and new, and their attachment to their mum is so strong after lockdown.

A nurse prepares a dose of a Covid-19 vaccine at University Hospital Coventry

She has twins in her class who throw up every morning.

It took me a long time to figure it out, but its a double whammy. Theyre in school all day, mummys back in her office. Its genuinely the shock of being separated from their mother. Its so confusing for children this age. They havent worked out what school means.

Theyve not yet made a secure attachment to me, their teacher, because Ive been off with Covid twice. Theyve had zero stability.

Teachers also complain about childrens lack of language skills. One head described to an education commission how a four-year-old in her school still uses bottles with teats. Bot-bot, he demands because thats his communication for Can I have a drink please?.

The early years are vital for learning how to communicate. According to the Centre for Social Justices report on improving child care  A Bright Start  on average, a childs vocabulary expands from 55 words at 16 months to 225 words at 23 months, then jumps to 573 words at 30 months  an overall increase of more than 900 per cent in just 14 months.

One mother explained to me what happened when her daughter started school last September.

For her age, shes really behind in her talking. She struggles to get her point across. She gets really frustrated because, as her teachers admitted to me, they dont understand her. Shell just walk away in a strop. Language really matters. A child who starts school with a good level of language is six times more likely to reach the expected level in literacy and 11 times more likely to reach the expected level in maths by the end of primary school.

Bev Morgan is chief executive of Koala North West, a charity that supports families in the area and does a lot of work with autistic children. As lockdown ended, they suddenly received lots of requests from families desperate for an assessment. But when staff visited families, it was striking how many children were actually within normal range. The pandemic has delayed speech and language to such a degree, it appears as if some children are on the autistic spectrum.

However, its not just poor parenting thats contributed to poor communication skills but another aspect of the pandemic: masks (File image)

As Bev points out: Parents thought the child was autistic because of the impact on young children of not being able to play and socialise with other children over the pandemic. It is quite devastating really.

Genes make a difference but so do parents who chat, read and play with their children.

However, its not just poor parenting thats contributed to poor communication skills but another aspect of the pandemic: masks.

Bev described what happened when her staff started to make home visits during the pandemic.

Babies react to what they see, she says. No matter how much staff and mum smiled and tried to interact with the babies, they got nothing back.

Thats because the babies couldnt see the mouth moving under the mask. And for babies speech and language development, it is really important that they see your lips. So that was huge around their speech development.

Its also clear that when a child does not have access to a rich and stimulating environment, it has consequences  not just for those first few years at school but for later in life, too.

Research has found that deprived children are almost five months academically behind richer classmates at the start of school.

This gap widens to 18 months by the age of 16. Covid has exacerbated this inequality.

Just compare the experiences of lockdown on two mothers and their children who I interviewed.

Olivia and her husband, who are both lawyers, spent lockdown in her aunts cottage on the south coast. Their four-year-old daughter, Maisie, had attention lavished on her, as well as lots of time outdoors.

Her vocabulary came on in leaps and bounds, says Olivia. Now, in her first year of primary school, she is well ahead of her peers.

Candice, meanwhile, was locked down on her own with a newborn and a one-year-old on the fourth floor of a house with no lift in Croydon, South London. She recalled one afternoon of good weather. She managed to get both children and the buggy down the four floors and out into a nearby park. She was sitting on a bench, enjoying the sunshine and breast-feeding her baby, when a policeman moved her on. I didnt go out after that, she said.

I asked if she ever played with or read to her children. She looked at me as if I was mad.

While teachers may lay the blame on parents, a number of mothers whose children had started school during lockdown pointed out to me that schools themselves must take some responsibility.

For many, school was not a consistent presence during the pandemic. Schools kept having to close and many failed to keep in touch or provide advice or adequate online learning.

One mother, Anya, from an estate in Greenwich, London, complained: My daughters routine kept on getting messed up. It was really stressful.

Now her six-year-old is in school, Anya feels the school is not doing enough to make up for lost time.

Her learning had fallen behind and it was doing little to help her catch up, she felt, focusing too much on helping the childrens emotional development.

While many children clearly need this help, parents like Anya worry that their children are losing out academically.

Shes not getting the instruction she needs, she told me.

Issues were often exacerbated for parents from poorer families because they were themselves victims of a school system that sees one in five pupils emerge at 18 with no qualifications.

Unlike middle-class parents, they felt inadequate and unable to help make up the shortfall in their childs development, however much they might want to.

One young father I met ached to read to his little girl. But he was self-conscious about his own lack of literacy and pronouncing the words correctly. When I looked into his daughters room, the three books she owned sat on top of a cupboard, out of reach.

Chloe in Norwich admitted she did attempt teaching her children, but without much success. I am not going to lie to you, I didnt have a clue. But then I was very naughty and got kicked out in Year 11 and didnt get any qualifications.

Most concerningly, while many parents know they are failing and want to do better, much of this outside support for them  most crucially health visitors  is still missing, months since the last lockdown finished.

The kind of children we raise today will reflect the kind of world we live in tomorrow. And unless we do more now, that tomorrow is looking bleak and uncertain.
Walking through Manhattan to see her personal trainer, Sarah Kellen appears to be enjoying a carefree life  certainly compared with her former bosses Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

One cheated justice by killing himself while awaiting trial on child sex charges, the other will next week learn how long she will spend behind bars for recruiting girls for the paedophile tycoon to abuse.

But as Maxwell, 60, faces being jailed for up to 55 years in New York on Tuesday, the contrast in her fortunes with those of her ex-right-hand woman Miss Kellen, 43, could not be starker.

She is now married to Nascar driver turned investor Brian Vickers and has rebranded herself as an interior designer under the name Sarah Kensington.

Walking through Manhattan to see her personal trainer, Sarah Kellen (above) appears to be enjoying a carefree life  certainly compared with her former bosses Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell

As Maxwell, 60, faces being jailed for up to 55 years in New York on Tuesday, the contrast in her fortunes with those of her ex-right-hand woman Miss Kellen, 43, could not be starker. She is now married to Nascar driver turned investor Brian Vickers and has rebranded herself as an interior designer under the name Sarah Kensington. (Above, Maxwell with Miss Kellen)

She and her husband live in a 4.3million penthouse in the trendy SoHo neighbourhood, and also own a 5.1million condominium in Miami. Last week they were seen strolling a short distance to their personal trainer's studio where lessons are thought to cost 120 an hour.

The couple wore gym clothes and were on their phones most of the way, looking relaxed on the warm summer's day.

It is a far cry from Miss Kellen's time working as a personal assistant to Maxwell and Epstein. She has been dubbed Epstein's 'lieutenant' for allegedly sourcing and booking underage girls for 'massages'.

This week prosecutors described her in court papers as the 'third knowing participant' in the sex trafficking operation, after Maxwell and Epstein.

But she has never faced justice over the scandal after becoming one of four women granted immunity from prosecution over Epstein's abuse. In 2008, his lawyers persuaded the authorities to sign an agreement giving 'potential co-conspirators' protection from future charges.

It is a far cry from Miss Kellen's time working as a personal assistant to Maxwell and Epstein. She has been dubbed Epstein's 'lieutenant' for allegedly sourcing and booking underage girls for 'massages'. (Above, Epstein with Maxwell)

Many serious charges against Epstein and 'co-conspirators' were wiped out in return for the billionaire pleading guilty to the lesser offence of soliciting an underage girl for prostitution.

After Epstein's prison suicide in 2019, attention turned to Maxwell, paving the way for her belated prosecution last year. And while Maxwell faces the possibility of dying in prison for trafficking underage girls for Epstein, Miss Kellen is free to get on with her life  much to the disdain of victims of the abuse.

Victims' lawyer David Boies told the Mail: 'It would be a serious miscarriage of justice for the prosecution to stop there,' adding that co-conspirators should be held to account.

Another US victims' attorney, Brad Edwards, said Miss Kellen should share evidence to help those 'still seeking justice' or should face prosecution next.

In their memo before Maxwell's sentencing, prosecutors said the former socialite had trained her to take over scheduling massage appointments.

Miss Kellen's lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.
Getty Images Bank







A 54-year-old woman was sentenced to six years in prison Friday for murdering her disabled daughter and attempting to kill herself afterward.







The Ansan branch of the Suwon District Court found the woman, whose identity is withheld, guilty of suffocating her 22-year-old daughter, who had intellectual and developmental disabilities, to death at their home in March.







The woman, who suffered from financial difficulties while raising her daughter alone, attempted suicide a day after the murder, the court said.







The woman committed the crime after thinking that her daughter, who did not have any independence, would not survive without any parental protection, the court said. (Yonhap)


Medical professionals at Planned Parenthood facilities in Wisconsin have halted abortion services immediately after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade.

The 6-3 vote by the Supreme Court, resulted in the Democrat-led state's 173-year-old ban on abortion to be re-enacted - prompting an immediate pause on the procedure.

A Planned Parenthood facility in Wisconsin had to immediately turn away patients waiting to receive an abortion when the Supreme Court ruling was released, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin President Tanya Atkinson told PBS Wisconsin.

'It was traumatic for some people,' Atkinson said while recalling the moments after the clinic was told to suspend abortion services for 70 women.

Wisconsin Planned Parenthoods were ordered to halt abortions on Friday, following the overturn of the 1973 abortion law, Roe v. Wade

Multiple states enacted abortion bans following the Supreme Court vote. The abortion bans will become law in 30 days.

'To not be able to access this care that they had contemplated and decided that they needed for their health or their future,' she added.

Despite the ban, Planned Parenthood plans on helping women find out-of-state abortion services, Atkinson said.

The state-wide abortion ban enforced in 1849 made the procedure illegal unless it's necessary to save the life of a mother.

The law is heavily supported by Republican lawmakers in the state despite Democratic Gov. Tony Ever's strong opposition.

'I will never stop fighting to make sure that every single Wisconsinite has the right to consult their family, their faith, and their doctor to make the reproductive healthcare decision right for them, and without interference from politicians or members of the Supreme Court who don't know anything about their life circumstances, values, or responsibilities,' Ever's said in a statement.

Ever's called a special session with state lawmakers on Wednesday in attempt to repeal the ban, but his efforts failed.

Democrat Gov. Tony Ever's attempted to repeal the 1849 Wisconsin abortion law days before the Roe v. Wade ruling, but failed

Ever's expressed his concerns of the abortion law overturn on Twitter. The governor insisted that he 'will never stop fighting' for the rights of the people

The Democrat-governed state of Michigan also immediately banned abortions along side 17 other states.

Prior to Roe v. Wade decision, thirteen of the states prepared triggers laws which would ban abortions if the law was overturned.

The states include: Arkansas; Idaho; Kentucky; Louisiana; Mississippi; Missouri; North Dakota; Oklahoma; South Dakota; Tennessee; Texas; Utah and Wyoming.

Five other states - including Wisconsin, Michigan, Alabama, Arizona, and West Virginia - banned abortions, after historic laws replaced by the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling became re-enforced.

Abortion bans in those states are set to become law in 30 days.

Eight other states are also expected to create anti-abortion laws, including Florida, Indiana, Montana and Nebraska. Georgia, Iowa and South Carolina are all seeking to ban abortions after the six-week mark.
Cabinet ministers last night told Boris Johnson he must deliver on the publics priorities as two ex-Tory leaders issued challenges to his leadership.

Senior colleagues including Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab and Home Secretary Priti Patel said the Government needed to listen after Thursdays by-election defeats.

Calling for the Government to concentrate on improving peoples lives, Mr Raab said: Were going to be relentlessly focused on delivery, not allow the distractions of recent times to take our eye off the ball. Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries added: Last night was a reminder that we must be relentless in cracking on with the job of delivering.

A bullish Mr Johnson vowed to keep going and told a press conference in Rwanda that people would continue to beat me up and say this or that about me to attack me.

A bullish Mr Johnson vowed to keep going at a press conference in Rwanda after two bruising by-election defeats

Senior colleagues including Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab and Home Secretary Priti Patel said the Government needed to listen after Thursdays by-election defeats

Thats fine, thats right. Thats the job of politicians, he added.

But former Conservative leader Michael Howard urged the PM to resign for the good of his party and country.

The Conservative peer told BBC Radio 4s World At One: The party and even more importantly the country would now be better off under new leadership. Members of the Cabinet should very carefully consider their positions.

Fellow former Tory leader William Hague also urged Cabinet members to consider resigning, telling Times Radio: There comes a point for a party where it is potentially heading towards a disaster and theres tremendous loss of faith among party activists as well as voters around the country.

There does come a point where Cabinet members need to steel themselves to do that.

Thats what I would do if I was in the Cabinet today.

Miss Patel said it was important and right the Conservatives had a moment of reflection after losing the seats, adding that the Government needed to listen.

Former Conservative leader Michael Howard urged the PM to resign for the good of his party and country

Mr Raab said the Government needed to be relentlessly focused after facing distractions such as Partygate. I think the Prime Minister put it well: we need to listen very carefully, we need to take that feedback, he added.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said we all take responsibility for the results  though he didnt mention the Prime Minister in his tweet.

Speaking from Rwanda  4,000 miles from Westminster  Mr Johnson vowed to listen to voters.

Mr Johnson learned the results of the by-elections in the early hours of yesterday morning before going for a 6am swim in his hotel pool in the capital Kigali.

He returned to his room to receive a call from Tory party chairman Oliver Dowden, who told him he was about to resign.

Fellow former Tory leader William Hague also urged Cabinet members to consider resigning

He is said to have been surprised by the news as the results were expected and sources say Mr Dowden had volunteered to do the media broadcast round. One source said: He was due to do the morning round in the event of us losing the by-elections, which was not a shock, so what changed from Wednesday morning?

The PM is unlikely to replace Mr Dowden imminently, with sources saying its not like he lost a home secretary or something like that which meant the Government cant function.

Party sources insisted that Mr Johnson was not worried about further departures. One said: The PM doesnt disagree that he needs to take responsibility. Hes taking responsibility for the overall direction of the Government. The source added of the by-election results: Its not the wheels coming off the bus, its a couple of nuts.
Labour is not on track to win an outright majority at the next election after the partys underwhelming victory in Wakefield, Sir Keir Starmer was warned last night.

A polling expert said yesterdays win in West Yorkshire masked a lack of enthusiasm for the party nationwide.

The party regained the traditionally Labour seat with a swing of more than 12 per cent to achieve its first by-election gain since Corby in Northamptonshire in 2012.

Labour leader Sir Keir claimed the result put Britain on track for a Labour government.

But Sir Keir barely outperformed the by-election swings achieved by his two predecessors, Jeremy Corbyn and Ed Miliband, both of whom were soundly beaten in subsequent general elections.

Pollster Sir John Curtice said voters hadnt yet bought into Labours vision, despite the Conservative Partys political struggles amid the cost of living squeeze.

Labour is not on track to win an outright majority at the next election after the partys underwhelming victory in Wakefield, Sir Keir Starmer was warned last night

Sir John told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: The Wakefield result does not suggest any great enthusiasm for the Labour Party.

'The Conservative vote is more than twice as big as the rise in the Labour vote, and it looks as if quite a lot of voters in Wakefield who were unhappy with the Conservatives took the opportunity to vote for an independent candidate, who was a Tory councillor who resigned in March in part over Partygate.

He got over 7 per cent of the vote, and a lot of that probably came from the Conservatives.

There still seems to be a question about the extent to which voters, many of whom are clearly unhappy with the Conservatives, have bought into Labour as an alternative.

Sir Keir insisted the Wakefield result indicated a historic by-election for his party, adding: This puts us now absolutely on track for a Labour government, which is absolutely coming.

That tells you that the next government is going to be a Labour government, and the sooner the better  because the country voted yesterday in both by-elections, no confidence in this out-of-touch, out-of-ideas Government.

Paul Stoner, 60, gives Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer a lemon during a visit to meet new Wakefield MP Simon Lightwood

But election analyst Professor Michael Thrasher told Sky News that the results suggested Britain was heading towards a hung parliament at the next election, with Labour and the Lib Dems governing together.

A lemon for a lemon: Greengrocers fruity jibe at idiot Starmer Sir Keir Starmers dream of becoming prime minister may never bear fruit. And greengrocer Paul Stoner will be delighted if it doesnt. He branded the Labour leader a lemon after the partys victory in the Wakefield by-election yesterday. Sir Keir was visiting the constituency market town of Ossett when Mr Stoner offered him an apple. The 60-year-old then gave Sir Keir a lemon to suggest he was a bit of a joke. If you call someone a lemon you think they are a bit of an idiot, a bit sour, the trader told The Daily Telegraph. He didnt even realise it wasnt an apple. He just looked confused and said thank you. Advertisement

Former health secretary Matt Hancock told Times Radio the results showed there is no possibility of a Labour outright majority at the next election and there was clearly no enthusiasm for Keir Starmer.

Matthew Goodwin, professor of politics and international relations at the University of Kent, said: Labour did well but should arguably have done better. After 12 years of Conservative rule, a cost of living crisis and Partygate, Labour managed just over a 12-point swing.

'This is broadly comparable to the swings Labour achieved at by-elections in the 2010-2015 Parliament, shortly before David Camerons majority at the next general election in 2015.

The results of the Wakefield by-election appear to indicate that many voters went away from the Tory party, rather than towards Labour.

Simon Lightwood, the new MP for Wakefield, earned 13,166 votes  down almost 5,000 on Labours total at the 2019 general election, when the party finished in second place.

The turnout of 39.1 per cent was almost 25 points down on the previous vote, with the Conservative Party losing more than 13,000 voters compared to last time out  60 per cent of their 2019 vote. Almost half of the Tory vote appeared to go to independent candidate Akef Akbar, who comfortably finished third.

His proportion of the vote, at 7.6 per cent, was just shy of the Labour percentage gain of the vote, at 8.1 per cent. Former Labour MP Thelma Walker said: Im not comforted by a Labour win of this nature in Wakefield.

Labour only secured 13,000 votes  the lowest Labour vote there since 1931, down from 18,000 votes in 2019 and 23,000 in 2017.

Non-voters were the clear majority yesterday.
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Brian Laundrie murdered girlfriend Gabby Petito in a 'mercy' killing because she was in 'extreme' pain after an accident on their van-life adventure in Wyoming, he claims in an astonishing notebook confession.

The apparent sensational twist to a story that has gripped America can now be revealed in images of the eight water logged pages handed to DailyMail.com by the Laundrie's attorney Steve Bertolino.

Laundrie, 23, writes that he strangled his 22-year-old fiance as the result of an 'unexpected tragedy' in Grand Teton National Park in which Gabby fell into a creek and injured herself on their road trip last summer.

And he began the notebook with a personal message addressed to Gabby, in which he claimed: 'I wish I could be at your side, I wish I could be talking to you right now.'

In self-pitying sentences written in smudged blue pen, Laundrie claims he battled to comfort Gabby who was deteriorating, crying in pain and shivering from constant cold.

But eventually he killed her, writing: 'I don't know the extent of Gabby's injuries, only that she was in extreme pain.

'I ended her life. I thought it was merciful, that it is what she wanted, but I see now all the mistake that I made. I panicked. I was in shock. But from the moment I decided, took away her pain.'

Pages from Brian Laundrie's notebook revealed that he killed girlfriend Gabby Petito (left) allegedly out of mercy after an accident on their van-life adventure in Wyoming. The infamous case triggered a manhunt for Laundrie after he returned to Florida alone and disappeared, with his body and the notebook found days later

Laundrie's notebook contained a letter written to the late Petito before he killed himself following a large manhunt for him, The notes revealed a confession from Laundrie, who claimed he killed Peito out of mercy after an accident during their cross-country trip

Laundrie wrote that he could not live without Petito after he killed her, writing his sucide note and plans to die by the Florida creek where his body was eventually found

Laundrie's remains were found north of the entrance to Myakkahatchee Creek, in the Big Slough Preserve, off an unpaved trail near a bridge where Brian's parents said he liked to visit. It is four miles north of their home in North Port, Florida

There is no indication of how Laundrie apparently cared for Gabby before he ended her life.

His notebook was found in a dry bag beside his body on October 20 last year after he fled to the alligator-infested Carlton Reserve near his home in North Port, Florida. He'd shot himself in the head.

In a desperate bid to explain his version of events, he writes: 'I am sorry to my family, this is a shock to them as well as a terrible greif (sic).

'Please do not make this harder for them, this occurred as an unexpected tragedy.'

The couple were at the national park after visiting Utah on their trip west in Gabby's 2012 white Ford Transit. They were cataloguing the trip on social media.

Laundrie writes in his notebook: 'Rushing back to our car, trying to cross the steam of spread creek before it got too dark to see, to (sic) cold. I hear a splash and a scream. I could barely see, I couldn't finder her for a moment, shouted her name.

'I found her breathing barely, gasping, any (indistinct as the ink is waterlogged) she was freezing cold, we had just come from the blazing hot national parks in Utah.

'The temperature had dropped to freezing and she was soaking wet. I carried her as far as I could down the stream towards the car, stumbling, exhausted in shock, when my (indistinct) and I knew I couldn't safely carry her.'

He continues in an occasionally confusing monologue: 'I started a fire and spooned her as close to the heat, she was so thin, had already been freezing too long. I couldn't at the time realize that I should've started a fire first but I wanted her out of the cold back to the car. From where I started the fire I had no idea where the car might be. Only knew it was across the creek.

'When I pulled Gabby out of the water she couldn't tell me what hurt. She had a small bump on her forehead that eventually got larger. Her feet hurt, her wrist hurt, but she was freezing, shaking violently, while carrying her she continually made sounds of pain.'

Then he begins his excuse for murdering his fiancee. He writes: 'Laying next to her she said little, lapsing between violent shakes, gasping in pain, begging for an end to her pain. She would fall asleep and I would shake her awake fearing she shouldn't close her eyes if she had a concussion.

'She would wake in pain, start her whole painful cycle again, furious that I was the one waking her. She wouldn't let me try to cross the creek, thought like me that the fire would go out in her sleep.'

It is then he claims he killed Gabby because it was 'merciful'.

Laudrie wrote that Petito's condition was worsening in the Utah wilderness and was begging 'for an end to her pain'

After killing his fiance, Laundrie said he rushed home and had thought about getting his friends to kill him to end his own pain

Brian Laundrie and Gabby Petito were engaged to be married prior to their deaths

The two were on a cross country trip in their van when Petito was killed. They were sharing images of their trip on Instagram

Police and FBI officials retrieved items belonging to Brian Laundrie, including a notebook, near where his body was found in the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park

He adds: 'I knew I couldn't go on without her.

'I rushed home to spend any time I had left with my family.

'I wanted to drive north and let James or TJ kill me, but I wouldn't want them to spend time in jail over my mistake, even though I'm sure they would have liked to.'

Of his own fate in the 25,000-acre swampland on Florida's west coast, he writes: 'I'm ending my life not because of fear of punishment, but rather because I can't stand to live another day without her.

'I've lost our whole entire future together, every moment we could have cherished. I'm sorry for everyone's loss. Please don't make life hard for my family, they lost a son and a daughter. The most wonderful (?) girl in the world I'm sorry.

'I have killed myself by this creek in the hope that animals may tear me apart that it might make some of her family happy.'

As an apparent after thought, and in larger writing, he finishes with the words: 'Please pick up all of my things. Gabby hated people who litter.'

Laundrie began the notebook with the personal message to Gabby, writing: 'I wish I could be at your side, I wish I could be talking to you right now. I'd be going through every memory getting even more xxx for the future. But we've lost our future.

'I can't be without you. I've lost every day we (indistinct) spent together I'll never get to play with (indistinct) again. Never go hiking with T.I can't bear to look at our photos, to recall great times because it is why I cannot go on.

'When I close my eyes I will think of laughing on the roof of the van, falling asleep to the sight of a (indistinct) at the crystal geyser. I will always love you.'

Attorney Bertolino passed on to the images to DailyMail.com after he and the Petitos' attorney Patrick Reilly met with the FBI in Tampa, Florida, today/Fri to take possession of Brian and Gabby's personal items.

The meeting came three days after Gabby's distraught mom cried in a courtroom listening to her lawyer blast the actions of killer Laundrie's parents as 'callous and shameful'.

Petito and Laundrie are seen on July 4 in Utah. They had set out two days previously on a road trip, planning to document their journey on social media, where Petito was known as a 'van-life girl'

The pair had been travelling on a cross-country trip together since July 2, when they left New York. Petito was reported missing on September 11

Resident in Blue Point, New York, set up a candlelight vigil on for their neighbor Gabby Petito

A memorial of stones arranged in a cross pattern was spotted Monday evening at the Spread Creek Dispersed Campsite east of the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. Petito's stepfather made a similar tribute at the exact spot where her body was found

Nicole Schmidt, 41, also toyed nervously with a necklace as she sat with former husband Joseph Petito, 42, the father of the van-life girl.

The devastated mother and father are suing Christopher and Roberta Laundrie, alleging they knew their son had murdered Gabby after he returned to their Florida home alone - and tried to help him flee authorities.

They claim the Laundries are guilty of 'inflicting intentional emotional distress' and that a statement issued by their lawyer hopeful of a successful end to the search for then-missing Gabby was 'outrageous' because they allegedly already knew she was dead.

Their attorney Reilly told Sarasota County Court, Florida: 'This is case not simply about the silence of Robert and Christopher Laundrie who knew their son had brutally murdered Gabby Petito.'

He said it also wasn't about their 'callous refusal despite pleas from the Petito family' to speak out about whether not Gabby was alive  or if she wasn't the location of her body.

'It's about a course of conduct that they committed from when they learned on August 28, 2021 that their son had brutally murdered Gabby Petito,' he said.

Reilly said this included the statement that was made by the attorney advising them at the time, Steve Bertolino, regarding their wish for a successful end to the search.

The Laundries were not in court, but were spotted the following day by DailyMail.com near their home in North Port.

Judge Hunter W. Carroll asked what duty did Christopher, 63, and Roberta, 56, have to do 'anything to help' Gabby's parents.

'It's about what they did with the information that they had,' Reilly replied. 'Not just not disclosing what they knew.'

He added the Laundries could have made an anonymous phone call to reveal the location of Gabby's body. The lawyer said they knew Gabby's parents were 'desperately searching' for information.

Nichole Schmidt (left) and Joseph Petito (right) were in court on Wednesday afternoon for a hearing on the lawsuit they filed against Roberta and Christopher Laundrie

Joe Petito called Chirs and Roberta Laundrie, pictured, cowards for avoiding his family

Gabby's remains were eventually discovered on September 19, 2021, in lonely spot in the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming. She and boyfriend, Brian, had lived with his parents in North Port, near Florida's west coast. The young couple set off on an adventure from New York State  where her mother lives - in early July, heading West

The hearing was to consider the Laundries' motion to dismiss the case. After hearing pleas from both sides, Judge Carroll said he hoped to issue a written decision in two weeks. If he dismisses the motion, the Laundries could face a jury trial next year.

It was the first time Gabby's parents had an opportunity to be in a court over the tragic death of their daughter. Laundrie shot himself after fleeing to a Florida swamp, denying them legal justice.

However, the hearing continued the couple's pain as they had to listen to arguments. Both sets of parents had been friendly before Gabby went missing, the court was told.

Gabby's remains were eventually discovered on September 19, 2021, in lonely spot in the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming.

She and boyfriend Brian had lived with his parents in North Port. The young couple set off on an adventure from New York State  where her mother lives - in early July, heading West.

However, on September 1, Brian arrived back at the Laundrie home on his own in Gabby's white Ford van. Eleven days later anxious Schmidt reported her daughter missing after last having contact in a phone call on August 25.

Hours after Gabby's mom raised the alarm, North Port Police hauled the white van off the Laundrie's driveway and took it off for forensic examination.

Officers asked to speak to Brian at the house, but were told by his parents he wasn't available. It is not known if the killer was inside at the time.

Laundrie then went missing in Carlton Reserve near his home, sparking a massive hunt involving local police, the FBI and at least two sheriff's departments.

His parents initially told police he vanished on September 14 to go hiking in the reserve, but later changed this to a day earlier. His body was eventually found in the swamp on October 20 after his parents broke cover and joined law enforcement there.

When Gabby was missing, attorney Bertolino issued a statement saying: 'On behalf of the Laundrie family, it is our hope that the search for Miss Petito is successful and that Miss Petito is reunited with her family.'

Attorney Reilly attacked that statement as a 'lie', alleging it was said to give 'false hope' to Gabby's parents that she may be still alive. He added they knew the 'fragile and emotional state' of the parents at the time  and that it was 'callous and shameful'.

He added: 'I guess it is OK to kick someone when they are down, according to the Laundries.'

Reilly alleged the only reason attorney Bertolino wasn't an additional defendant in the case was because he is not a citizen of the State of Florida.

A search party of about 50 officers have gathered to search the Carlton Reserves, in Florida, for Brian Laundrie, after he went missing when Petito's death was confirmed

North Port Police, FBI agents and other agencies are on the hunt for Laundrie at the Myakkahatchee Creek Environment Park, in Florida's Carlton Reserve, where his body would eventually turn up

Officers combed the forest as the search began on Saturday, September 18. Laundries body was found a month later

The extensive manhunt gripped the nation, who wanted answers over the disappearance and death of Petito

Laundrie's body was found in a creek by the swamplands of the park, along with his belongings and notebook

Matt Luka, attorney in court for the Laundries, spent a long time arguing the law in relation to remaining silent. He said remaining silent did not constitute inflicting emotional distress.

He added that the plaintiffs argued the Laundries had a duty to speak but 'the law imposes no such obligation to speak'.

Luka continued: 'Even if Brian Laundrie conveyed information to his parents they did not have a requirement to speak out.'

In Gabby's parents response to the Laundries' motion to dismiss the case, their attorneys write: 'It is believed and therefore averred that on or about August 28, 2021, Brian Laundrie advised his parents Christopher Laundrie and Roberta Laundrie that he had murdered Gabrielle Petito.

'On that same date, Christopher Laundrie and Roberta Laundrie spoke with Attorney Steve Bertolino and sent him a retainer on September 2, 2021.

'After this point in time, there was no contact between Joseph Petito and Nicole Schmidt on the one hand, and Christopher Laundrie and Roberta on the other.'

They say from August 27 to September 19 'when Gabrielle Petito's remains were found at the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area' that Gabby's parents were extremely distraught and trying to locate her.

'While Gabrielle Petito's family was suffering, the Laundrie family went on vacation to Fort DeSoto Park on September 6-7, 2021. They went on vacation knowing that Brian Laundrie murdered Gabrielle Petito, it is believed they knew where her body was located.

'In an effort to avoid any contact with Nichole Schmidt, on or about September 10, 2021, Roberta Laundrie blocked Nichole Schmidt on her cellular phone such that neither phone nor texts could be delivered, and she blocked her on Facebook.'

They add that 'with full knowledge' that Gabby 'had been murdered by their son' they issued the statement through their lawyer Bertolino.

'For the Laundries to express their 'hope' that Gabrielle Pet was located and reunited with her family, at a time when they knew she had been murdered by their son, was beyond outrageous,' they write.

In the Laundries' motion to dismiss paperwork, attorney Luka writes their 'inaction was not outrageous but legal permissible and constitutionally protected'.

'The amended complaint alleges that the Laundries failed to have any contact with the Plaintiffs when the Plaintiffs wanted the Laundries to speak or otherwise communicate' with them, the motion continues.

The lawyer adds: 'That allegation falls so far below the 'particularly high' standard for outrageous conduct that the Amended Complaint should never have been filed.'

He said the Laundries  who have never faced any criminal charges over the tragedy  are entitled to exercise their legal rights. 'There is no requirement that an individual face a formal criminal investigation in order to remain silent,' the lawyer added.

After the hearing Bertolino said the Laundries had 'no regrets' about their response to Gabby's murder  and had acted appropriately.

'What I knew, or what Chris and Roberta knew, we did not have to disclose, to any third party, and specifically to law enforcement, or the Petito family,' Bertolino told News Nation.

'I did everything the right way. We have no regrets. The parents did everything the right way, and they have no regrets.'

When asked specifically what the Laundries knew about Petito's death, Bertolino declined to answer, saying it 'wouldn't be appropriate for me to comment' given the pending lawsuit.

He did reiterate that he told the media months ago: 'I don't know exactly what Brian had said to his parents. I had said publicly that what Brian told me was privileged. I was not going to share it.

'I had conversations with Brian. I had conversations with Chris and Roberta. I had conversations with them separately and I had conversations with them together. So, it's not for me to comment at this point in time what Chris and Roberta knew.'
Elon Musk's car company Tesla will unveil its AI humanoid robot called 'Optimus' in just three months' time.

Speaking at Qatar Economic Forum on Tuesday, Musk said a prototype of the robot will be shown off at Tesla's 'AI Day' on September 30.

Optimus, which was first announced last August, will stand nearly six foot tall, be able to walk at five miles per hour, and deadlift 150 pounds.

It will be designed to handle 'dangerous and boring' tasks in a factory and other settings, although it will be 'friendly' and make a 'very good companion', like a pet.

It should be able to handle a range of jobs  from attaching bolts to cars with a wrench, to picking up groceries in shops.

Previously-released renderings suggest it could look a lot like the 'NS5' robots in the 2004 American science fiction action film 'I, Robot'.

Elon Musk announced the Tesla bot in August, which would be specifically designed to handle 'dangerous and boring' tasks in a factory, but the billionaire also foresees the humanoid as a companion

Pictured: Sonny, the NS5 robot from 2004 science fiction film 'I, Robot', starring Will Smith, that sees intelligent robots fill public service positions in a dystopian world

THE OPTIMUS BOT: SPECS Height: 5ft 8 Weight: 125lbs Carry capacity: 45lbs Deadlift: 150lbs Speed: 5mph Advertisement

'I hope that we will have an interesting prototype to show people,' Musk said, speaking to British journalist John Micklethwait from a live link-up at the forum, which is taking place in Doha.

'We have a very talented team at Tesla that I'm working with closely to have a prototype humanoid robot ready by the end of September.

'And I think we are tracking to that point.'

The Tesla bot is set to include the Autopilot computer used in the company's electric cars, which will allow the humanoid to recognise real-world objects, although the robot will have its own customised sensors and actuators.

Tesla's Autopilot cameras will be fitted in the front of the bot's head and its inner-workings will be powered by the company's Full Self-Driving computer.

Musk, who also owns SpaceX and is the richest person in the world, said there will be 'other exciting things' revealed at the AI Day, without giving further details.

He also touched on job cuts set to take place at Tesla, saying the firm will reduce 'its salaried workforce roughly 10 per cent over the next three months or so'.

Tesla first revealed details about Optimus at its AI Day in August last year, along with some digital renderings and specs of what it will look.

Last August, Musk (pictured) said the bot would be able to handle a range of jobs - from attaching bolts to cars with a wrench, to picking up groceries in shops

Musk described it as a factory worker but one that could also make an 'incredible buddy like R2D2 or C3PO' for the everyday user in the home.

'It could develop a personality over time that is unique. It's not like all the robots are the same,' the billionaire said on the Lex Fridman podcast in December.

'That personality could evolve to match the owner, or whatever you want to call it.'

Musk noted that, unlike killer robots, the Tesla bot could be overpowered by the average human.

He has previously said that Optimus could be launched in 2022 and could address global labour shortages.

The Tesla bot is set to include the Autopilot computer used in the company's electric cars, which will allow the humanoid to recognised real-world things. But the robot will have its own customised sensors and actuators

Musk pushed back the date of Tesla's AI Day from August 19 to September 30, to give more time for Optimus to be ready

AI Day is an event dedicated to displaying the artificial intelligence technologies being worked on at the company.

Musk told Qatar Economic Forum that Tesla holds such events to 'emphasise that Tesla is a lot more than a car company'.

'We are, in my view, the leading real-world AI company that exists.'

Musk, in one of his tweets in May, also said that the purpose of the AI day is to 'convince great AI/software/chip talent to join Tesla'.

Optimus could make an 'incredible buddy like R2D2 or C3PO' from Star Wars (pictured) for the everyday user in the home

Earlier this month, Musk pushed back the date of Tesla's AI Day from August 19 to September 30, to give more time for Optimus to be ready.

The Tesla founder has previously warned the world that robots could kill us all in five years  a statement Musk made in 2014.

He has also said artificial intelligence is the 'biggest risk we face as a civilisation'.
NASA has announced plans to put a nuclear reactor on the moon by 2030 as part of a vision to turn the lunar body into an orbiting power station.

The US space agency has chosen three design concept proposals for a fission power system that could be ready to launch by the end of the decade.

It would then be tested by astronauts returning to the lunar surface under the new Artemis programme, which will see the first woman and 13th man land on the moon by 2025.

The plan is for the 40-kilowatt class fission power system to last at least 10 years in the lunar environment, with the hope that it could one day support a permanent human presence on the moon, as well as support manned missions to Mars and beyond.

If NASA is to build a base on the lunar surface, one of the major problems to solve will be how such a proposed settlement would be powered.

Solar panels are great for powering rovers, but a human base would need a continuous and reliable source of power.

NASA has announced plans to put a nuclear reactor on the moon by 2030 as part of a vision to turn the lunar body into an orbiting fuel station. The vision is depicted in the image above

HOW DO NUCLEAR REACTORS WORK? A nuclear reactor creates energy by splitting atoms of uranium. The energy released from these atoms is then used to boil water. This, in turn, drives a turbine. A reactor core contains the uranium pellets and a 1000 megawatts (MWe) facility would have about 75 tonnes of enriched uranium. Uranium-235 is bombarded with neutrons to split the atom, which then creates different elements or another isotope of Uranium. Either way, it releases energy. These often also undergo radioactive decay and a chain reaction is triggered - contributing to the net energy output. Steam is produced, condensed and then recycled so the only waste products are often the radioactive compounds created from the fission. Control rods can be added or removed from the reactor core to either increase or decrease the rate of reaction. These are made of stable elements such as boron, silver, indium and cadmium that are capable of absorbing many neutrons without undergoing fission. Advertisement

NASA experts are looking into nuclear fission as the answer because the technology has been used extensively on Earth.

Relatively small and lightweight compared to other power systems, fission systems are reliable and could enable continuous power regardless of location, available sunlight, and other natural environmental conditions, the US space agency said.

If the demonstration of such a system on the moon was successful, it would pave the way for the fuelling of longer duration journeys through space.

'New technology drives our exploration of the Moon, Mars, and beyond,' said Jim Reuter, associate administrator for NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate.

'Developing these early designs will help us lay the groundwork for powering our long-term human presence on other worlds.'

The three design contracts, to be awarded through the US Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory, are each valued at approximately $5 million (4 million).

They have been awarded to Lockheed Martin, Westinghouse of Cranberry Township in Pennsylvania and IX of Houston, Texas, a joint venture of Intuitive Machines and X-Energy.

The latter will partner with Maxar and Boeing.

However, details of the individual design concept proposals have not yet been revealed to the public.

'The Fission Surface Power project is a very achievable first step toward the United States establishing nuclear power on the moon,' said Idaho National Laboratory director John Wagner.

'I look forward to seeing what each of these teams will accomplish.'

It is hoped that the development of these fission surface power technologies will also help NASA advance nuclear propulsion systems that rely on reactors to generate power. These could then be used for deep space exploration missions.

It would then be tested by astronauts returning to the lunar surface under the new Artemis programme, which will see the first woman and 13th man land on the moon by 2025. Pictured is the Artemis 1 mega rocket that will transport them there

It is hoped that the development of these fission surface power technologies will also help NASA advance nuclear propulsion systems (depicted in the artist's impression above) that rely on reactors to generate power. These could then be used for deep space exploration missions

NASA's original date for landing humans on the moon again was 2024, but last year it delayed the date, blaming litigation from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' firm Blue Origin.

In August this year, the US space agency plans to send manikins to space as part of the Artemis I mission.

Artemis I will pave the way for crewed flights  Artemis II, which will launch in May 2024 and fly by the moon without landing on it, and Artemis III, which will actually touch down on the lunar surface.

Artemis III, which will launch 'no earlier than 2025', will be the first to land humans on the moon in more than 50 years, since Apollo 17 in December 1972.
Google has warned of spyware being used by foreign governments to hack into Apple and Android phones and snoop on users' activities.

The offending 'spyware'  software that steals information from a device  was created by Milan-based company RCS Lab, Google and security firm Lookout have revealed.

RCS Lab spyware has allegedly been used by the Italian and Kazakhstani governments to spy on private messages and contacts stored on their citizens' smartphones.

However, the spyware is potentially capable of spying on a victim's browser, camera, address book, clipboard and chat apps too.

RCS Lab is an example of a 'lawful intercept' company that claims to only sell to customers with legitimate use for surveillance, such as intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

But in reality, such tools have often been abused under the guise of national security to spy on business executives, human rights activists, journalists, academics and government officials, security experts say.

Spyware is a specific type of malware that steals information from a computer and sends it to a third party, without the person's knowledge (file photo)

It's thought RCS Lab's spyware, nicknamed 'Hermit', is distributed via SMS messages that appear to come from legitimate sources.

SPYWARE AND MALWARE Spyware is a specific type of malware that steals information from a computer and sends it to a third party, without the person's knowledge. Spyware gathers your personal information and relays it to advertisers, data firms, or external users. Meanwhile, malware is a catch-all term for any type of malicious software, regardless of how it works, its intent, or how its distributed. The term includes adware, spyware, viruses, trojans and more. Source: Norton Security Advertisement

It tricks users by serving up what looks like legitimate webpages of high-profile brands as it kickstarts malicious activities in the background.

In some cases, citizens were sent SMS messages asking them to install an application to fix their slow mobile connectivity  when in fact, doing so installed the spyware.

In these cases, attackers managed to get the victim's internet service provider (ISP) to slow down their connectivity, Google said, to make it seem like a legitimate message.

In other cases, citizens were sent links to a webpage that was masquerading as a high profile tech company, such as Facebook.

As an example, Google posted a screenshot from one of the attacker controlled sites, www.fb-techsupport.com, intended to impersonate Facebook's support team (the webpage no longer exists).

In Italian, it told victims that their accounts had been suspended and they they needed to download an application to restore the account.

Google said it had taken steps to protect users of its Android operating system and alert them about the spyware.

Apple and the governments of Italy and Kazakhstan did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Screenshot posted by Google, which translates from Italian as: 'Suspended account reset. Download and install, following the instructions on the screen, the application for verifying and restoring your suspended account. At the end of the procedure you will receive an unlock confirmation SMS'

Google said the commercial spyware industry is 'thriving' and 'growing at a significant rate'  a trend that 'should be concerning to all internet users'.

HOW IS THE SPYWARE INSTALLED? In some cases, Google said it believed hackers using RCS spyware worked with the target's internet service provider (ISP). This method originated with a unique link sent to the target. Once clicked, the page attempted to get the user to download and install a malicious application on either Android or iOS. In some cases, actors likely worked with the targets ISP to disable the targets mobile data connectivity. Once disabled, the attacker would send a malicious link via SMS asking the target to install an application to recover their data connectivity. This is the reason why most of the applications masqueraded as mobile carrier applications. When ISP involvement was not possible, applications are masqueraded as messaging applications. Advertisement

'These vendors are enabling the proliferation of dangerous hacking tools and arming governments that would not be able to develop these capabilities in-house,' Benoit Sevens and Clement Lecigne from Google's Threat Analysis Group said in a blog post.

'While use of surveillance technologies may be legal under national or international laws, they are often found to be used by governments for purposes antithetical to democratic values  targeting dissidents, journalists, human rights workers and opposition party politicians.'

On its website, RCS Lab claims European law enforcement agencies as some of its clients and describes itself as a maker of 'lawful interception' technologies and services including voice, data collection and 'tracking systems'.

It says it handles 10,000 intercepted targets daily in Europe alone.

In response to Google's findings, RCS Lab said its products and services comply with European rules and help law enforcement agencies investigate crimes.

'RCS Lab personnel are not exposed, nor participate in any activities conducted by the relevant customers,' it told Reuters, adding that it condemned any abuse of its products.

Google published its blog post on Thursday, a few weeks after San Francisco-based Lookout detailed its own findings.

According to Lookout, the RCS Lab spyware has been used by the government of Kazakhstan within its borders and has been used by Italian authorities in an anti-corruption operation in 2019.

'We also found evidence suggesting that an unknown actor used it in northeastern Syria, a predominantly Kurdish region that has been the setting of numerous regional conflicts,' Lookout said.

Google also found RCS Lab had previously collaborated with the controversial, defunct Italian spy firm Hacking Team, which had similarly created surveillance software for foreign governments to tap into phones and computers.

Hacking Team went bust after it became a victim of a major hack in 2015 that led to a disclosure of numerous internal documents.

The new findings on RCS Lab comes as European and US regulators weigh potential new rules over the sale and import of spyware.

The global industry making spyware for governments has been growing, with more and more companies developing interception tools for law enforcement organisations.

Anti-surveillance activists accuse them of aiding governments that in some cases are using such tools to crack down on human rights and civil rights.

Concerns over spyware were fuelled by media outlets reporting last year that Israeli firm NSO's Pegasus tools were used by governments to spy on journalists, activists and dissidents.

Vendors of so-called 'lawful intercept' spyware, such as RCS Lab and NSO, usually claim to only sell to entities that have a legitimate use for surveillanceware such as police forces fighting organised crime or terrorism, Lookout says. However, there have been many reports, especially in recent years, of spyware being misused (file photo)

'They claim to only sell to customers with legitimate use for surveillanceware, such as intelligence and law enforcement agencies,' mobile cybersecurity specialist Lookout said of companies like NSO and RCS Lab.

'In reality, such tools have often been abused under the guise of national security to spy on business executives, human rights activists, journalists, academics and government officials.'

While RCS Lab's tool may not be as stealthy as Pegasus, it can still read messages and view passwords, said Bill Marczak, a security researcher with digital watchdog Citizen Lab.

'This shows that even though these devices are ubiquitous, there's still a long way to go in securing them against these powerful attacks,' Marczak said.
They may be considered a gourmet delicacy, but the demand for frogs' legs in France and Belgium is putting frog populations at risk, a new study has warned.

The EU imports about 4,070 tonnes of frogs' legs per year  equivalent to between 81 and 200 million frogs  the vast majority of which are captured from the wild.

This increasingly threatens frog populations in supplier countries including Indonesia, Turkey and Albania, according to German campaign group Pro Wildlife.

In Indonesia, Java frogs (Limnonectes macrodon), which were once widely traded have now largely disappeared.

Meanwhile, scientists warn that the edible frogs native to Turkey could be extinct by 2032 if the immense captures from the wild continue.

And in Albania, the EU's fourth largest supplier of frogs' legs, the Scutari water frog (Pelophylax shqipericus) is now highly endangered.

Pro Wildlife co-founder Dr. Sandra Altherr described it as 'a fatal domino effect for species protection'.

They may be considered a gourmet delicacy, but the demand for frogs' legs in France and Belgium is putting frog populations at risk

In Albania, the Scutari water frog (Pelophylax shqipericus) is now highly endangered

Belgium is technically the world's largest importer of frogs' legs, accounting for 70 per cent of the EU market, followed by France (17 per cent) and the Netherlands (7 per cent)

English were feasting on frogs' legs 8,000 years BEFORE the French Britons have long regarded the French love of eating frogs legs with a mixture of fascination and horror. But it seems they werent the first to fancy the delicacy, as archaeologists have discovered fragments of an 8,000 year-old charred toad leg one mile away from Stonehenge in Wiltshire. The remains, which were found alongside fish bones at the site, are the earliest evidence of a cooked toad or frog anywhere in the world, scientists say. Archaeologists unearthed the leg alongside small fish vertebrate bones of trout or salmon as well as burnt aurochs' bones (the predecessors of cows) at the Blick Mead dig site near Amesbury in 2013. Advertisement

Belgium is technically the world's largest importer of frogs' legs, accounting for 70 per cent of the EU market, followed by France (17 per cent), the Netherlands (7 per cent), Italy (4 per cent) and Spain (2 per cent).

However, Pro Wildlife's Deadly Dish report reveals that the majority of Belgiums frogs legs imports were re-exported to other EU Member States.

According to French customs statistics, France imported 30,015 tonnes of fresh, refrigerated or frozen frogs' legs between 2010 and 2019, which correlates to 600 to 1.5 million frogs.

Smaller volumes were also imported by the United Kingdom, Croatia, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania and Germany.

About 74 per cent of EU imports come from Indonesia, 4 per cent from Turkey and 0.7 per cent from Albania.

In the period 2010-2019, the EU imported more than 30,000 tonnes of frog legs from Indonesia alone.

Large-legged species such as the crab-eating frog (Fejervarya cancrivora) and the East Asian frog (Hoplobatrachus rugulosus) are in particular demand among gourmets.

'In the 1980s, India and Bangladesh initially delivered frog legs to Europe, but Indonesia has taken over as the largest supplier since the 1990s,' said Dr. Altherr.

'In the Southeast Asian country, as in Turkey and Albania, the large frog species are disappearing one after the other.'

Pro Wildlife said most frogs have their legs cut off with axes or scissors  without anaesthesia.

The upper half is then disposed of to die, while the legs are skinned and frozen for export.

Large-legged species such as the crab-eating frog (Fejervarya cancrivora) and the East Asian frog (Hoplobatrachus rugulosus) - pictured - are in particular demand among gourmets

Main suppliers, by total weight (left) and share (right) of the EU's imports of frogs' legs for the period 2010-2019

According to French customs statistics, France imported 30,015 tonnes of fresh, refrigerated or frozen frogs' legs between 2010 and 2019, which correlates to 600 to 1.5 million frogs

While the US also imports large quantities of frogs for consumption, these are primarily frogs that have been bred specifically for the trade, whereas the EU mostly imports wild-caught frogs.

Charlotte Nithart, President of the French organisation Robin des Bois said the frog leg trade not only has direct consequences for the frogs themselves, but also for nature conservation.

'Frogs play a central role in the ecosystem as insect killers  and where frogs disappear, the use of toxic pesticides increases,' she said.

Robin des Bois and Pro Wildlife are calling on the EU to end the over-exploitation of frog stocks for the local gourmet market.

They are also calling for international trade restrictions through the CITES Convention on the Protection of Species.

Amphibians are the most threatened group among vertebrates, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The EUs habitats directive prevents native wild frogs from being caught in member countries, but bloc does not restrict imports.

IUCN claims that at least 1,200 amphibian species  17 per cent of the total  are traded on the international market.
Elon Musk said that he's been 'banging the baby drum' for a while and warns that the US could face a fate similar to Japan's if plunging fertility rates don't improve.

'I'm always banging the baby drum,' Musk, who has fathered eight children with multiple wives, said. 'Where do you think people come from?'

Last year, Japan saw its population plunge by more than 600,000 due to declining fertility rates and a rapidly aging population.

'Some magical f**king people factory?' the Tesla CEO joked in a conversation with Tesla Owners Silicon Valley. 'The stork, the baby store?'

'The thing that tends to happen is that once the birth rate starts to go down, it accelerates.'

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Japan, which has seen its birthrate decline for many years, could potentially 'disappear' according to Musk. Above: Data from the Japan Bureau of Statistics reveals the decline of population and negative rate change since 2010 in Japan

'The current trend is not good. The number of humans is not trending well,' Musk said.

'Japan is a leading indicator. Last year they lost 600,000 people,' he continued.

The country's population dropped for the eleventh consecutive year and was down by 644,000, according to its Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

The overall population fell as deaths exceeded births by 609,000 and as people who moved out of the country outnumbered those who moved in by 35,000.

Worldwide, fertility rates and sperm counts have been dropping, potentially setting up some countries for population decline. Musk, who has fathered eight children, said he's always 'banging the baby drum' in a recent interview (above) with Tesla Owners Silicon Valley

The official data also showed that the proportion of people age 15 to 64 stood at a record low of 59.4 percent while that of those age 65 or older hit a record high of 28.9 percent.

'If that trend continues, Japan will flat-out disappear,' Musk warned. 'Hopefully it doesn't.'

'China will have a problem, too,' the SpaceX founder said, noting that country's policies around controlling family size.

According to one analysis, China's fertility rate has continued to decline, even as the country has allowed families to have up to three children after abandoning its longtime one-child policy.

Musk has long said that families need to have more children in order to keep populations from declining across the world. In the United States, fertility rates have been declining since the 1970s. Musk has the tweet pinned

'A lot of people are under the impression that the current number of humans is unsustainable on the planet,' Musk said.

'That is totally untrue. The population density is actually quite low,' the tech billionaire noted.

Musk also said that as societies tend to become wealthier and less religious, couples have fewer children.
Hubble's Space Telescope found evidence of a white dwarf star gobbling up rocks and icy bodies from its own system, which scientists say suggests that water and other volatile matter may exist in the farthest parts of the Milky Way galaxy.

The discovery of the icy bodies could portend that a 'water reservoir' may be common on the edges of the planetary system - making it possible that life as we know it may yet emerge elsewhere.

Researchers used data from Hubble and other observatories to analyze the material captured by the nearby dwarf star G238-44's atmosphere.

A white dwarf is basically the remnants of a star like our sun after is sheds its outer layers and stops burning fuel through nuclear fusion.

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This illustrated diagram depicts the planetary system G238-44. The tiny white dwarf star is at the center. A faint accretion disk is made of the pieces of shattered bodies falling onto the white dwarf. The other asteroids and planetary bodies comprise a reservoir of material surround the star

'Life as we know it requires a rocky planet covered with a variety of elements like carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen,' said Benjamin Zuckerman, UCLA professor and co-author.

'The abundances of the elements we see on this white dwarf appear to require both a rocky and a volatile-rich parent body  the first example we've found among studies of hundreds of white dwarfs.'

Although astronomers have examined more than 5,000 exoplanets, the only one where we have direct knowledge of its interior components is Earth.

The white dwarf cannibalism gives scientists a rare chance to deconstruct planets and figure out what they're made of.

The illustration depicts a white dwarf star siphoning off debris from shattered objects in a planetary system. Hubble's Space Telescope detected the signature of this vaporized debris, which revealed a mix of metallic rock and icy material. Those are the ingredients of planets

The Hubble Space Telescope, which was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation, found evidence of a white dwarf star engaged in 'cosmic cannibalism'

According to NASA, the team measured the presence of nitrogen, oxygen, magnesium, silicon and iron, among other elements.

Finding iron in very high amounts is evidence for metallic cores of planets such as Earth, Venus and Mars.

'The best fit for our data was a nearly two-to-one mix of Mercury-like material and comet-like material, which is made up of ice and dust,' Johnson said.

'Iron metal and nitrogen ice each suggest wildly different conditions of planetary formation. There is no known solar system object with so much of both.'

When our sun dies out in about 5 billion years, it will shed its mass by removing its outer layers.

As a consequence of that, objects like asteroids, comets and moons will be scattered like 'pinballs in an arcade game.' according to NASA scientists.

Earth might be totally vaporized at that point, however researchers believe that the orbits of asteroids in the main asteroid belt will be gravitationally perturbed by Jupiter and will eventually fall into the white dwarf that the sun will become.
New generation farmers active in Chinas construction of digital villages

09:24, June 24, 2022 By Li Jiabao ( People's Daily

As the construction of digital villages gains momentum across China, a good number of young Chinese with digital technologies and Internet thinking, who define farmers of the new generation, actively join the development of agriculture and rural areas.

Local young people promote their improved wheat variety via livestreaming at Zhoudian village, Dongchangfu district, Liaocheng city, east Chinas Shandong province, May 30, 2022. (Peoples Daily Online/Zhang Zhenxiang)

They host live streams in the fields and turn local specialties into best-selling goods on the Internet, employ Internet of Things (IoT) systems to improve field management, and remove obstacles hindering the transportation of farm produce through digital logistics platforms.

I sold 400,000 yuan ($59,681) worth of homemade fermented bean curb once during a livestreaming show, said Zeng Qinghuan, a young farmer from Xinhua county, Loudi city, central Chinas Hunan province.

Live streams recording the girl doing farm work, going to the fair, and selling local specialties have won the young vlogger six million followers on a Chinese short video sharing platform. Through her camera, the agricultural and sideline products from her hometown have found favor with a large number of her followers.

Zengs e-commerce demonstration base is located in an ordinary farmhouse. It has different settings for making videos, livestreaming studios for promoting products of characteristic local industries, warehousing, refrigeration, packaging and logistics workshops, and multifunctional training rooms.

A live streamer training program has been launched here, which provides a month of free training for farmers and helps them gain prosperity through digital technologies.

Xinhua county has established 412 online stores and 2,885 shops for poverty alleviation on e-commerce platforms. Promoting the application of digital technologies and e-commerce to agriculture has become an important driver of the countys economic growth, leverage for boosting rural vitalization, and a major force in promoting industrial development.

With keen Internet thinking and market-oriented insights, young farmers have explored new business forms in the agricultural sector, enhanced driving forces for rural development, and injected new vitality into the transformation of traditional agriculture.

A farmer picks tomatoes grown through soilless cultivation at an intelligent glass greenhouse in a modern agricultural technology industrial park in Madian village, Mengcheng county, Bozhou city, east Chinas Anhui province, June 18, 2022. (Peoples Daily Online/Hu Weiguo)

At an industrial park of Hu sheep, a species native to Huzhou city, east Chinas Zhejiang province, in Lyushan township, Changxing county, Huzhou, Wang Chenchen, a young shepherd born in the late 1990s, uses remote sensing technology to monitor in real-time the number of sheep, their feed, as well as environmental factors like humidity and temperature in the sheep barn, making it possible for one person to raise 3,000 sheep easily.

After repeated experiments, Hunan girl Mo Xiaoyu and the engineers in her team turned nearly 270 water outlets in an experimental cotton field in Yuli county, northwest Chinas Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, into intelligent electric irrigation outlets and equipped the field with advanced automatic fertilization and irrigation machines, realizing remote fertilization and irrigation at specific times and designated points.

During this years spring ploughing, Anren county, Hunan, a major grain-producing area in China, developed a program to integrate and match agricultural machinery resources with the needs of farmers, enabling grain growers in need of agricultural machinery to place orders and contact nearby providers online.

Big data, 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), IoT and other digital technologies have become indispensable farm tools for farmers in new generations, thanks to the rapid development of information infrastructure construction in rural areas.

Data from the China Internet Network Information Center suggest that all administrative villages in China had been connected to broadband Internet services as of the end of 2021, while 57.6 percent of the people living in rural areas had access to the Internet and the number of rural netizens had reached 284 million in China.

In February, Chinese authorities issued a circular on comprehensively pushing ahead with the key tasks for rural vitalization, which stressed that the country should vigorously promote digital village construction by advancing smart agriculture, driving the integrated application of information technology, agricultural machinery and agronomy technologies, and improving farmers skill on digital technologies.

People in rural areas are enthusiastic about making innovations and starting new businesses related to digital village construction, according to Hong Yong, an associate research fellow at the e-commerce institute of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, Ministry of Commerce.

An unmanned machine for seeding and mulching sows cotton in a high-standard demonstration field in a village of Yaha township, northwest Chinas Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, March 26, 2021. (Peoples Daily Online/Yuan Huanhuan)

New generation farmers have actively employed e-commerce, livestreaming and other business models to promote agricultural products, facilitated local employment and cultivated regional brands of farm products, contributing to the realization of rural vitalization and common prosperity, Hong noted.

To motivate more people to start businesses in rural areas, China will roll out targeted policies to encourage entrepreneurship and intensify support for training, according to Hong. By sending experts to rural areas to give lectures and organizing live-streamed classes, the country will provide its new generation farmers with easier access to professional expertise in Internet marketing, farming skills, etc., Hong said.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
People holding umbrellas cross the street in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, Friday. Yonhap



The government launched a task force to come up with policies efforts to tackle demographic challenges as the country is expected to suffer a serious fall in the working-age population in the coming years due to its chronically low birthrate, the finance ministry said Friday.



During the inaugural meeting of the task force, Deputy Finance Minister Bang Ki-seon stressed the government's utmost efforts to slow down the pace of Korea's population decline by offering more incentives for marriage, childbirth and childcare, according to the ministry.



South Korea became an aged society in 2017, in which the percentage of those aged 65 and older exceeded 14 percent of the total population, and it is widely expected to become a super-aged society in 2025, when the percentage of older adults will surpass 20 percent.



The government is also seeking to expand the participation of female and elderly citizens, as well as foreigners, in economic activities to boost manpower productivity.



Bang also vowed to reform the country's socioeconomic system in line with changing population structure by nurturing advanced technologies and increasing the effectiveness of personnel and facility management.



"We will seize demographic changes as a chance to develop through strengthening promising industries in aging societies, such as introducing robots," the official said.



Related ministries and civil experts will review current policy measures on demographic challenges and come up with new policies, which will start being announced in July, the ministry said.



According to Statistics Korea, the country's working-age population, or people aged 15 to 64, is expected to plunge 35 percent over the next 30 years to 24.19 million in 2050.



The estimate came as the country's total fertility rate  the average number of children a woman could bear in her lifetime  hit an all-time low of 0.81 last year, down from 0.84 a year earlier.



Experts say changing social norms and economic hardships, such as surging housing prices, have caused many young people to postpone or give up on getting married and having children. (Yonhap)




The perfect storm formed over Hollister, California this week that produced a rainbow and flashes of lighting at the same time.

Storm chaser William Justo. who caught the electrifying show on Wednesday, told DailyMail.com: I was chasing a stationary Area of storms in Hollister, CA around sunset and it so-happened that a rainbow appeared within the storm.

'I just used my iPhone 8 Plus hoping to capture a bolt with the rainbow and after a minute, it happened.'

The footage shows an ominous sky with shades of deep purple and blue hanging over an open area.

While a glorious rainbow peaks out from the dark clouds, bright flashes of lightning scatter from above, according to the video shared on Storyful.

The perfect storm formed over Hollister, California this week that produced a rainbow and flashes of lighting at the same time

'Ive seen a lot of pics and video online with lightning & rainbows together & I always dreamed of witnessing it in person & I finally saw it with my own eyes,' Justo told DailyMail.com.

'It was a surreal experience and I was filled with excitement and had an indescribable adrenaline rush.'

Lightning often occurs during heavy storms while rainbows are generally formed after the rain has stopped - making the display across the sky a seldom seen sight.

Rainbow lightning is a rare as the chances of lightning striking near a rainbow are slim, explained Randall Cerveny, a professor of meteorology at Arizona State University in Tempe.

Storm chaser William Justo caught the electrifying show on Wednesday evening, using just his smartphone and Nikon camera.

'Usually, you don't get those two things to line up at the same time,' he said in a 2015 Live Science piece.

Both use raindrops in different ways, with rainbows using them to scatter sunlight. Lightning, on the other hand, can be created when raindrops shuttle electrical charges.

But to capture both at the same time, it must be raining with enough sunlight for a rainbow to form and lightning strikes still sizzling.

People have to be standing in between the sun and the storm at the exact moment the sunlight hits the raindrops and electrical charges create lightning.

The rare weather phenomena was capture previously in November 2020 by another storm chaser, Jake Heitmann, overhead of Lewiston-Clarkson Valley in Idaho.

Social media users called the sight a 'Mother Nature's wonder' and said it was 'beautiful and scary' at the same time.

The footage shows an ominous sky with shades of deep purple and blue hanging over an open area. While a glorious rainbow peaks out from the dark clouds, bright flashes of lightning scatter from above

A similar occurrence happened in Oklahoma. Stormchaser Jake Heitman told Storyful that he captured the incredible moment on Tuesday just outside of Tulsa.

'I punched through the storm and went to the backside of it to find this amazing rainbow!' Heitman said.

Footage of the spectacle shows a rainbow clouded by the evening sky as strikes of lightning crackle overhead.

Lightning can be seen at least three times throughout the video.

Heitman said he captured the unusual shot just seconds after he began recording.

'I set up my cameras and not 30 seconds after I started recording, a beautiful spider bolt of lightning reached across the sky,' he said.

What shocked him the most was how the lightning appeared to strike from the middle of the rainbow.

'I have never seen anything like this before, a rainbow with lightning originating in the center of the rainbow! Doesn't get better than that!' said Heitman.
More than 22,600 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean lies a WWII US Navy destroyer that has been named the worlds deepest shipwreck.

The USS Destroyer Escort Samuel B. Roberts (DE-413), known as the Sammy B, was located on Wednesday in the Philippine Sea.

The vessel went down during the Battle Off Samar in the Philippine Sea in October 1944 after it was hit by Japanese fire.

The Sammy B, however, was not discovered by scientists, but by Texas billionaire Victor Vescovo, who owns a deep-diving submersible.

On October 15, the Japanese did one last hail Mary to engage Allied navy forces off the coast of the Philippines, which were on their way west and away from the enemy fire line

The Sammy B, however, was one of the last remaining US ships, and is known for its heroic stand against the Japanese, according to BBC.

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More than 22,600 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean lies a WWII US Navy destroyer that has been named the worlds deepest shipwreck

The ship was outnumbered against the Japanese fleet, but held its own until shells punctured through its walls and it began to sink.

There were 224 men aboard the Sammy, but 89 were killed when it sank and the rest floated in life rafts for 50 hours before being rescued.

Vescovo shared a video on his Twitter account showing Sammy B laying on the seafloor.

It appears her bow hit the seafloor with some force, causing some buckling, he shared in a tweet.

The USS Destroyer Escort Samuel B. Roberts (DE-413), known as the Sammy B, was located on Wednesday in the Philippine Sea

The ship was outnumbered against the Japanese fleet, but held its own until shells punctured through its walls and it began to sink. Pictured is the Sammy B before it sank

Her stern also separated about 5 meters on impact, but the whole wreck was together.'

This small ship took on the finest of the Japanese Navy, fighting them to the end.

Vescovo, the founder exploration company Caladan Oceanic, performed six dives before finding the Sammy B.

He and his team found the sunken vessel by first spotting debris, which was a three-torpedo launcher that was only unique to the Sammy B.

The Sammy B, however, was not discovered by scientists, but by Texas billionaire Victor Vescovo, who owns a deep-diving submersible

Vescovo, the founder exploration company Caladan Oceanic, performed six dives before finding the Sammy B

The Sammy B is a small vessel as military ships go, and we weren't really sure that we could find her in the vast and extremely deep ocean where she went down, Vescovo told CNN.

But with perseverance, some great historical analysis, and a whole lot of deep ocean technology and hard work, we were able to find her and provide a great opportunity to tell her amazing story.

The Sammy was the first ship named after coxswain Samuel Booker Roberts Jr, who enlisted in the Navy in 1939 and fought in WWII.

Roberts volunteered to help land several hundred Marines a few miles north of Lunga Point, where the US had hoped to take over a Japanese strongpoint.

He and his team found the sunken vessel by first spotting debris, which was a three-torpedo launcher that was only unique to the Sammy B, which was named after coxswain Samuel Booker Roberts Jr (right), who enlisted in the Navy in 1939 and fought in WWII

The Marines piled into a dozen of the wooden boats and headed up to a beach near the Matanikau River, but were forced to flee just a few days later when they met resistance.

Roberts, however, was hit in the neck with a bullet from a Japanese machine gun bullet and died over the night.

Roberts received the Navy Cross, but the greatest honor was having three Navy ships named after him: DE 413; DD 823, a destroyer that took part in the first air strikes from a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier; and USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG 58), the frigate that hit a mine during 1988s Operation Earnest Will.
The Supreme Court ruled to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision Friday morning and some of the research used in this decision was 'wrongly interpreted.'

The claim comes from Giandomenico Iannetti, a pain expert at the University College London, who accused US lawyers of misusing his work on the brain to support their anti-abortion stance

The claim comes from Giandomenico Iannetti, a pain expert at the University College London, who accused US lawyers of misusing his work on the brain to support their anti-abortion stance.

Iannetti's work focuses on pain in the brain, specifically how the brain responds to pain, and his 2010 research was 'misinterpreted' in a study paper on fetal pain published in the Journal of Medical Ethics in 2020 by Dr. Stuart Derbyshire, a British associate professor of psychology at the National University of Singapore.

Derbyshire's paper claims recent evidence suggests the cerebral cortex, the region responsible for high-level processes, is not needed to feel pain  and he cites Iannetti's brain research to support the theory.

The cerebral cortex does not develop in the brain before 24 weeks, so Derbyshire's work suggests the fetus can feel pain prior to it forming.

This research was used during Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the case that led to the end of Roe v. Wade.

Iannetti told BMJ that Derbyshire had 'changed the question' by conflating the 'pain matrix' activity a brain signal that was erroneously considered a correlate of pain experiencewith all cortical activity and that his experiment was not designed to answer the question 'does the cerebral cortex have an overall role in pain?

Other scientists have also stepped forward to refute Derbyshire's paper.

Dr. Vania Apkarian, director of the Centre for Translational Pain Research at the Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, told The Guardian: 'There is no rational basis for arguing a fetus can suffer pain before 24 weeks.

'The anatomy of the brain is not formed enough for that to be possible,' he said, also noting that evidence on fetal pain has not changed since what was shown in 1973.

The Supreme Court ruled to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision Friday morning and some of the research used to come to this decision was 'wrongly interpreted'

However, Iannetti's work was wrongfully used in the case that sought to ban abortions after 15 weeks gestation.

Maureen Condic, a professor at the University of Utah School of Medicine who teaches human embryology, field a brief in support of Mississippi's ban in which she argues that recent scientific evidence has cast doubt on the belief that fetuses are unable to feel pain before 24 weeks' gestation, according to BMJ.

And Derbyshire's paper is one of the sources she used to make her case.

Iannetti and several other researchers, however, signed their own brief to support the Jackson Women's Health Organization - the opposing side.

The briefing stated that until 24 weeks gestation, the pathway needed to transmit stimuli to the cortex and the cortex itself are not sufficiently developed to experience pain.

Iannetti and several other researchers signed a brief stating that until 24 weeks' gestation, the pathway needed to transmit stimuli to the cortex and the cortex itself are not sufficiently developed to experience pain.

However, these efforts did not stop the Supreme Court from overturning Roe v. Wade.

'The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives,' the decision said.

The ruling gives a green light to state efforts to restrict abortions, which has already been underway during a decades-long effort, particularly in Republican-run states.
A preserved baby mammoth that lived more than 30,000 years ago has been discovered in Yukon, Canada and experts say it is 'the most complete find' in North America.

The calf, named 'Nun cho ga', meaning 'big baby animal' in the Han language, was frozen in permafrost, resulting in its remains being mummified.

The baby mammoth was found by miners working in the Klondike gold fields within Trondek Hwechin Traditional Territory and images of the remains shows its skin still intact with bits of hair still clinging to the body.

A further analysis revealed the calf is female and lived alongside wild horses, cave lions and giant steppe bison that once roamed Yukon thousands of years ago.

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A preserved baby mammoth that lived more than 30,000 years ago has been discovered in Yukon, Canada and experts say it is 'the most complete find' in North America

Minister of Tourism and Culture Ranj Pillai said in a statement: 'The Yukon has always been an internationally renowned leader for ice age and Beringia research.

'We are thrilled about this significant discovery of a mummified woolly mammoth calf: Nun cho ga.

'Without strong partnerships between placer miners, Trondek Hwechin, and the Yukon government, discoveries like this could not happen.'

Nun cho ga is positioned with its arms and legs crossed and its eyes are closed shut.

The calf, named 'Nun cho ga', meaning 'big baby animal' in the Han language, was frozen in permafrost, resulting in its remains being mummified

Its once muscular trunk now lays limp and its body is caved in. Experts, however, are thrilled by how intact this specimen is  its hooves still have grooves from wear and tear

Its once muscular trunk now lays limp and its body is caved in.

Experts, however, are thrilled by how intact this specimen is  its hooves still have grooves from wear and tear.

Yukon Paleontologist Dr. Grant Zazula said in a statement: 'As an ice age palaeontologist, it has been one of my life long dreams to come face to face with a real woolly mammoth.

'That dream came true today. Nun cho ga is beautiful and one of the most incredible mummified ice age animals ever discovered in the world. I am excited to get to know her more.'

The baby mammoth was found by miners working in the Klondike gold fields within Trondek Hwechin Traditional Territory and images of the remains shows its skin still intact with bits of hair still clinging to the body

Experts quickly determined the calf was roughly the same size as the 42,000 year old infant mummy woolly mammoth 'Lyuba' discovered in Siberia in 2007.

Brian McCaughan, with Treadstone mining, the company that found the mammoth, shared: 'There will be one thing that stands out in a person's entire life and I can guarantee you this is my one thing.'

Woolly mammoths are known to have roamed Yukon, but research in 2021 shows they called the area home as recently as 5,000 years ago.

Scientists 30,000-year-old DNA of past environments in permafrost that included that of the woolly mammoth.

However, the samples were originally taken in 2010s, but have were placed in a freezer and forgotten.

Tyler Murchie, an archaeologist specializing in ancient DNA at McMaster University, told Gizmodo that when he saw the samples, he thought there may be 'cool stuff' inside them 'waiting for someone to study.'

Murchie and his team isolated and rebuilt the DNA, showing the fluctuating animal and plant communities at different time points during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, which was an unstable climatic period 11,000 to14,000 years ago when a several large species such as mammoths, mastodons and saber-toothed cats disappeared.

A further analysis revealed the calf is female and lived alongside wild horses, cave lions and giant steppe bison that once roamed Yukon thousands of years ago

The analysis also showed that mammoths and Yukon horses, which lived alongside mammoths, were already disappearing from the Earth before the climate instability.

However, the researchers note that they did not go extinct due to humans overhunting them as previously thought.

The evidence shows that both the woolly mammoth and ancient horse persisted until as recently as 5,000 years ago, bringing them into the mid-Holocene, the interval beginning roughly 11,000 years ago that we live in today.

During the early Holocene, the environment in Yukon was dramatically changed due to a shifting climate.

It was previously flowing with lush grasslands, known as the 'Mammoth Steppe', but became overrun with shrubs and mosses that were not seen as food for large grazing herds of mammoths, horses and bison.

Grasslands cannot survive in that part of North America and experts say that is because there are no longer the large grazing animals to manage them.

Woolly mammoths are known to have roamed Yukon, but research in 2021 shows they called the area home as recently as 5,000 years ago. Scientists 30,000-year-old DNA of past environments in permafrost that included that of the woolly mammoth

'The rich data provides a unique window into the population dynamics of megafuana and nuances the discussion around their extinction through more subtle reconstructions of past ecosystems' evolutionary geneticist Hendrik Poinar, a lead author on the paper and director of the McMaster Ancient DNA Centre, said in a statement.

McMaster scientists were able to better date the extinction of the ancient animals with the help of new technology that was not available when they proposed the creatures were living in the Yukon 9,700 years ago.

'Now that we have these technologies, we realize how much life-history information is stored in permafrost,' said Murchie.

'The amount of genetic data in permafrost is quite enormous and really allows for a scale of ecosystem and evolutionary reconstruction that is unparalleled with other methods to date' he says.

'Although mammoths are gone forever, horses are not' says Ross MacPhee of the American Museum of Natural History, another co-author.

'The horse that lived in the Yukon 5,000 years ago is directly related to the horse species we have today, Equus caballus.

'Biologically, this makes the horse a native North American mammal, and it should be treated as such.'
McDONALD & DODDS/SUSPECT SUNDAY, ITV/SUNDAY, CHANNEL 4

Rating:

TV schedules are a dangerous place. Primetime is littered with corpses, usually of attractive young women, and you can barely turn on the telly without encountering some crumpled, washed-up detective with personal issues.

And yet we can't seem to get enough of it: when it comes to ratings, crime pays. This week offered up two very different interpretations of the genre. The first, ITV's McDonald & Dodds, is a thoroughly engaging mash-up in the tradition of classic British series such as Midsomer Murders.

The second, Channel 4's Suspect, is a brooding affair reminiscent of Scandi-noir successes like Wallander and The Killing.

I confess I thoroughly enjoyed both. Suspect is a savoury experience and McDonald & Dodds more of a deliciously light and fluffy tiramisu, but together they made a satisfying serving of detective drama.

In Suspect, James Nesbitt (pictured) plays a man not so much broken as shattered to smithereens. The scene is set in the opening credits, as one by one the stellar cast  Joely Richardson, Ben Miller, Richard E Grant, Anne-Marie Duff  stare gloomily into the camera

Sarah (pictured) says Suspect and McDonald and Dodds are a satisfying serving of detective drama

In Suspect, James Nesbitt plays a man not so much broken as shattered to smithereens. The scene is set in the opening credits, as one by one the stellar cast  Joely Richardson, Ben Miller, Richard E Grant, Anne-Marie Duff  stare gloomily into the camera.

The message is clear: not a lorra laughs here. Soon Nesbitt is straining every emotion as his character, detective Danny Frater (above), discovers his estranged daughter on the mortician's slab during a routine ID check.

Who knew so many layers of pain could become visible all at once on one man's face: it's a superb piece of acting. There follows a slow unfolding of horrors, as the grieving father delves deeper into the life of his lost child.

It's tense, complex, confusing, and the direction is intense. The whole of the first episode, for example, takes place in a single location, the mortician's lab, father and daughter trapped below ground in a hell of their own making.

Sarah said McDonald & Dodds is a thoroughly engaging mash-up in the tradition of classic British series such as Midsomer Murders

So many layers of pain became visible at once on one man's face

It's clever and very compelling. I binged four episodes. Still, I needed something to take away the bitter aftertaste of Suspect, and McDonald & Dodds was just the thing.

Now in its third series, it stars Jason Watkins, an actor I've loved since he played an uppity vampire in BBC3's Being Human, as DS Dodds. His bookish persona is the perfect foil to Tala Gouveia's dynamic DCI McDonald (far left, with Dodds).

Like Suspect, it's cliched in its own way. 'What's he done now?' tuts a suspect's mother as the cops arrive. 'He's definitely hiding something,' says McDonald, stating the bleeding obvious. Yet I happily watched to the end, when the culprit was revealed in an Agatha Christie-style around-the-kitchen-table scenario. You know what they say: if it ain't broke

A couple of weeks ago I tuned in, as ever, to watch Antiques Roadshow and was a bit grumpy when I was served up Top Gear (Sunday, BBC1) instead. But I was pleasantly surprised. Turns out watching three blokes  Paddy McGuinness, Andrew Flintoff and someone called Chris who seems to act as their mum  driving around in vintage cop cars (the actual Jaguar Mark 2 from Morse, Magnum PIs Ferrari) is tremendous fun. By the time Freddie Flintoff was bowling over hillocks in a Ford Raptor before heading off to Norway to make a Sinclair C5 go more than 60mph, my inner ladette was hooked.

Go mud for it... at home!

Sarah Vine said she went to Glastonbury when it was not televised but says that now it can be watched this weekend with wall-to-wall coverage from the BBC

I went to Glastonbury once, about a million years ago. Back then it wasnt televised and there was no media (probably a blessing, all things considered), so you actually had to show up if you wanted to see your favourite bands. Now you can enjoy it from the comfort of your own sofa, thanks in no small part to the BBC, who this weekend are providing wall-to-wall coverage  and upgrading it to BBC1 for the first time ever. All the gain, none of the pain.

A SUNNY SLICE OF CARRIBEAN CULTURE

LENNY HENRYS CARIBBEAN BRITAIN WEDNESDAY, BBC 2

Rating:

Lenny Henry's new show educated Sarah on concepts such as the origins of the Notting Hill Carnival, rent parties and ska

Like many people who grew up with Lenny Henry as a comedy staple on screen, in recent years Ive had to get used to the new, slimmer  and much more serious  Henry. And you know something? After watching this, I think I quite like him.

I found this a real education (or heducation, as Henrys formidable mother might have put it, in the way she encouraged him to hintegrate growing up in 1970s Dudley), not least because it introduced me to so many wonderful characters and concepts Id never even heard of.

I knew about people like Lord Kitchener, the calypsonian who sang London is the place for me/London, this lovely city, but I had never heard of Cy Grant, who would set current affairs to music on the Tonight show in the 1950s, or Edric Connor, the first black actor to perform with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

I learnt about ska, rent parties, Lord Tropical the Soundmaster (a particularly brutal sound system), the origins of the Notting Hill Carnival (left), Carmen Munroe, Prince Buster, Paul Dash and many more.

Inevitably, there were some uncomfortable moments for those of us of a Caucasian persuasion  the Notting Hill race riots, footage of skinhead thugs  but there was far more celebration than rancour here, and the whole thing was shot through with typical Caribbean good humour  and, of course, that familiar raucous laugh.
Holly Willoughby has called on there to be mandatory screening for dyslexia at primary schools after suffering for years during her own childhood.

The TV presenter, 41, said she's 'proud' of her dyslexia, but was only diagnosed just before her GCSEs, which she said was too late.

She also previously candidly admitted to hating reading out loud and would get 'constantly embarrassed'.

Having her say: Holly Willoughby has called on there to be mandatory screening for dyslexia at primary schools after suffering for years during her own childhood

Now the This Morning star is urging the government to introduce screening at a much younger age and improve the education of teachers.

Writing on her wellbeing site Wylde Moon, she said: 'I'm calling on the government to require universal screening in primary schools, alongside better teaching and assessment for dyslexia.'

Fellow sufferer, former health secretary Matt Hancock, is trying to push through a dyslexia private members' bill demanding the same as Holly, which was read in the House of Commons last Wednesday.

Holly further wrote: 'Regardless of your opinion of Matt Hancock, his Dyslexia Screening Bill should be applauded, supported and passed!

Tough: The TV presenter, 41, said she's 'proud' of her dyslexia, but was only diagnosed just before her GCSEs, which she said was too late

'My own dyslexia was picked up fairly late and it wasn't until that moment that my years of frustration at school all made sense.

'It is a quiet scandal that an estimated 4/5 dyslexic children leave school with their dyslexia unidentified meaning their potential is unrealised, their confidence undermined and they don't achieve the qualifications they deserve.

'It does not have to be this way. Cheap and easy computer-based screening tools now exist to help to identify dyslexia.'

Stance: Writing on her wellbeing site Wylde Moon, she said: 'I'm calling on the government to require universal screening in primary schools, alongside better teaching and assessment for dyslexia'

Holly set up Wylde Moon last year, with her elder sister Kelly Foster, 44, and pal Vicky Staines, 36, which shares tips to 'nourish your body and soul through music, food, laughter, sex, passion, beautiful things, or all of the above'.

Holly has spoke movingly in the past about her dyslexia.

In November, she said her inspiration was a teacher called Mrs Williamson while she was at school.

Overcoming challenges: The television presenter previously said she was diagnosed with dyslexia 'quite late in life' and has praised her teachers with helping her overcome it at school

She said: 'My favourite teacher who was incredible was called Mrs Williamson. She was an English teacher and I did not get my dyslexia diagnosis until just before my GCSEs, which is late.

'So for a long time at school I hated reading out loud because I could not read very well, I would get mixed up and I was constantly embarrassed.'

'She always took me aside. She spent a lot of time with me and really took the time. Even in break times. She would never make me feel stupid. She was called Mrs Williamson.'

What is dyslexia? Dyslexia is a learning difficulty that can cause problems with reading, writing and spelling, but intelligence isn't affected. 1 in every 10 people struggle with the lifelong problem in the UK and the US. People with dyslexia often have good skills in other areas, such as problem solving and creative thinking. Signs of dyslexia include: Confusing the order of letters in words Reading and writing very slowly Finding difficulty in carrying out directions, planning and organising Having poor and/or inconsistent spelling Forming letters the wrong way round (e.g. writing 'b' instead of 'd') Finding it hard to understand written information Source: NHS Advertisement

When speaking to dyslexic Sir Richard Branson and Kate Griggs, founder of charity Made by Dyslexia, on the This Morning couch last year, she said that she's far from ashamed about her condition.

She explained: 'I don't see it as a disability at all, I see it as a real feather in my cap, I'm very proud of being dyslexic, I think it makes me who I am.'

Dyslexia is a learning difficulty that can cause problems with reading, writing and spelling. One in every ten people has the lifelong problem in the UK and the US.

As well as struggling with reading, writing and spelling, other signs of dyslexia are confusing the order of letters in words and finding difficulty in carrying out directions, planning and organising.

Famous sufferers include actor Orlando Bloom, businessman Richard Branson, TV musician Jessica Simpson and screen star Tom Cruise.

People with dyslexia often have good skills in other areas, such as problem solving and creative thinking.

Holly said she found her difficulties 'shameful' as a child during an episode of This Morning last year.

'For me, because I'm not very good at spelling, for years I felt shameful about that', the host reflected, before she revealed the turning point in her journey came when she went to college.

She opened up about how she struggled with her experience during her younger years, revealing: 'Dyslexia is such a broad spectrum, people have so many different forms of it.

'Yes, I'm dyslexic also and I had to find my own tool kit and for me it was finding somebody who understood this who could teach me how to access those tools because at school it wasn't really that well known then.

'I wouldn't write down in front of people because I didn't want them to see, but it doesn't bother me now that I can't spell.'

The media personality added that she was able to cope with the condition when she received advice in her late teens.
Southern Charm star Craig Conover admitted that his long-distance relationship with Paige DeSorbo has become more challenging.

'You know, long-distance is working for us. We're fortunate that we're on the East Coast, so it's only an hour flight, but it is getting harder and harder,' Conover told Page Six.

The reality TV star, 33 - who is based in South Carolina - has been dating the Summer House beauty, 29 - who lives in New York - since last fall.

Long distance: Southern Charm star Craig Conover, 33, admitted that his long-distance relationship with Paige DeSorbo, 29 has become more challenging

'She was just gone for 10 days in Italy, and that was tough,' he added.

'But we're starting to see the amount of time that we're spending chisel away to only a couple of days. So, you know, we'll see.'

Meanwhile his co-star Shep Rose, with whom he did the interview, joked about Conover's propensity for falling into relationships too fast.

Harder: 'Long-distance is working for us. We're fortunate that we're on the East Coast, so it's only an hour flight, but it is getting harder and harder,' Conover told Page Six; Pictured June 2022

'Well, Craig, every time Craig dates a girl for longer than two weeks, he starts talking about baby names,' Rose, 42, revealed.

Confirming what his friend said, Conover admitted that his current favorite names are Dash, Exit and Seven, but that Paige isn't on the same page.

'Paige is like, "You can name our dogs that,"' Conover stated.

DeSorbo seems to have a different take on the distance, because in March she stated that is wasn't an issue yet, and admitted that she enjoys her own space and living alone, on the Happy Hour with Lucy & Nikki podcast.

Different takes: In March, DeSorbo stated that distance wasn't an issue yet, and admitted that she enjoys living alone: 'The thought of living with someone actually makes me break out in hives'; Pictured June 2022

'I've never lived with a boyfriend and the thought of living with someone actually makes me break out in hives. I'm so nervous for the day that I actually have to live with my husband,' she said.

Craig and Page made their romance Instagram official back in December after months of rumors and speculation.

Meanwhile Conovers ex-girlfriend Naomie Olindo - who returned to the show this year after a brief break - has given her seal of approval for the relationship.

Ex approved: Conovers ex-girlfriend and co-star Naomie Olindo, 29, has given her seal of approval for the relationship: 'I think theyre great together'; Olindo and Conover pictured in a still from Southern Charm

'I think theyre great together. I think its really good to see him with someone where he can, like, fully be himself and hes comfortable. And she seems to totally just see him for who he is,' Olindo, 29, said.

'And I think thats really good. He doesnt have to pretend anything. He doesnt have to cover anything up. They can be a really good match.'

Olindo and Conover unveiled their relationship during Season 3 of the show, which aired in 2016, before splitting in 2017.

Season 8 of Southern Charm is set to premiere on Bravo on June 23, at 9 p.m. ET.
TV and radio presenter Kate Langbroek has given an update on her son Lewis' cancer battle.

Lewis, 18, was diagnosed with leukaemia when he was just six years old and still has regular check-ups at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne after undergoing years of treatment.

Speaking on The 3pm Pick-Up on Thursday, Kate, 56, recounted a conversation she had last year with a nurse who at one stage during Lewis' treatment was worried he 'might not make it'.

TV and radio presenter Kate Langbroek has given an update on her son Lewis' cancer battle

The nurse approached Kate and Lewis in the hospital cafe, having recognised the teenager from a previous visit to the hospital when he was 'really sick'.

The KIIS FM host recalled the woman saying: 'I looked after you when you were little and you were really sick. We never wanted to tell you this at the time, but we were so worried about you. We worried you might not make it.'

Kate continued: '[The nurse] had tears in her eyes. I had tears in my eyes. And Lewis is standing there just like a big doofus.'

Speaking on The 3pm Pick-Up on Thursday, Kate, 56, recounted a conversation she had last year with a nurse who at one stage during Lewis' treatment was worried he 'might not make it'. (Kate and son Lewis are seen here with her husband Peter Allen Lewis)

Kate also said on The 3pm Pick-Up that Lewis received some good news from his doctors during his latest check-up on Monday.

She revealed the doctor had told them: 'This is the last time we'll be seeing you at this hospital, because Lewis is transitioning to an adult hospital.'

She continued: 'I thought, "Oh my goodness, there were so many times where we thought this day may not come."

'You're confronted with what the course of his illness looked like, and there were times when we thought, "I dont see how we can make it through this."'

The nurse approached Kate and Lewis in the hospital cafe, having recognised the teenager from a previous visit to the hospital when he was 'really sick'

She concluded: 'And there we were  being dismissed by the beautiful doctors and being sent on our way!'

Kate spoke about her son's cancer battle on The Project last year during a discussion about a three-year-old boy from Melbourne who had stage 4 neuroblastoma.

Co-host Carrie Bickmore reached for Kate's hand during the exchange, both women clinging to one another and fighting back tears.

The KIIS FM host recalled the nurse saying, 'I looked after you when you were little and you were really sick. We never wanted to tell you this at the time, but we were so worried about you'

Kate spoke about her son's cancer battle on The Project last year during a discussion about a three-year-old boy from Melbourne who had stage 4 neuroblastoma. (Left: Carrie Bickmore)

'Childhood cancers are particularly difficult. My son was diagnosed with [leukaemia] - you remember, Carrie - and I remember when we were first in hospital, and I saw the other little bald children, all I saw was the baldness,' Kate said.

'And then after we had spent time there and my own son was bald, I learnt to see the child and once you see the child, you will do anything to help the child. It's very powerful.'

Lewis had leukaemia for three and a half years before making a full recovery in 2013. He now goes for annual check-ups.
Today host Karl Stefanovic has revealed he was left 'panicked' and 'feeling guilty' after his daughter Harper, two, was rushed to hospital earlier this week.

The 47-year-old explained on Friday how his daughter had 'the sniffles and a small cough' on Wednesday, which led to him and wife Jasmine, 38, taking her to the GP.

But her condition soon deteriorated, with her temperature reaching a dangerous 40C and her heart rate racing to 200bpm.

Today host Karl Stefanovic has revealed he was left 'panicked' and 'feeling guilty' after his daughter Harper, two, was rushed to hospital earlier this week

She was then rushed to hospital in an ambulance and diagnosed with a respiratory syncytial virus, which are common in children in the winter months.

'Two days ago, my daughter Harper had what's she had so many times this year, a sniffle and a small cough,' Karl told Today show viewers.

'Within a few hours we gave her Nurofen and Panadol like advised and put her down for a sleep.

'When she woke up she was breathing really quickly, wheezing, and her heart rate and temperature were through the roof.'

The 47-year-old explained on Friday how his daughter (right) had 'the sniffles and a small cough' on Wednesday, which led to him and wife Jasmine, 38, (centre) taking her to the GP

Karl went on to explain that things quickly went from bad to worse, with little Harper eventually ending up in hospital.

'So we took her to our GP who was brilliant,' he said.

'But within a couple of minutes her condition deteriorated, her temperature was more than 40 [degrees] and her heartbeat was climbing over 200bpm. We were really worried.'

The breakfast TV anchor explained how the 'incredible' GP was able to stabilise her with a nebuliser and called an ambulance.

Karl is seen here with Jasmine and Harper, plus his teenage daughter Willow, at Vivid Sydney

'From the ambulance, the ambulance officers were incredible,' he continued.

'At North Shore Hospital, more doctors worked on her and she was admitted after several hours to emergency.

'They did an incredible job and the hospital staff were unbelievable.'

Karl said he was sharing his family's ordeal to show solidarity with the 'thousands of parents in similar situations' during the winter flu season.

Karl also spoke to Associate Professor Margie Danchin (pictured), a paediatrician at Royal Children's Hospital, who explained parents are 'really dealing with it' at the moment

'We were lucky, and we are lucky, that it wasn't more serious. But this is a shared situation that's why we're doing it,' he added.

'The thing is you just panic when doctors start moving fast you panic.

'We felt guilty. We should have taken her straight to the hospital, we took her to the GP first.'

Karl also spoke to Associate Professor Margie Danchin, a paediatrician at Royal Children's Hospital, who explained parents are 'really dealing with it' at the moment.

'This is unfortunately a similar story,' Professor Danchin said.

'After the last two years with Covid being so scary, we've seen a huge increase in viral respiratory conditions.

'In the last month or so we've seen an increase in RSVs - parents are really dealing with it. We don't want parents going to the emergency department either.

'Our emergency departments are really overwhelmed.'

Professor Danchin said that if a child shows increased breathing, blueness around the lips, or if they're listless and pale, parents should take them to the emergency department.

Jasmine is seen carrying little Harper before a boat ride on Sydney Harbour earlier this month

Karl and Jasmine welcomed Harper, their first child together, in 2020.

The Channel Nine star has three older children with his ex-wife Cassandra Thorburn: sons River, 15, and Jackson, 22, and daughter Willow, 16.

Karl met the model-turned-shoe designer at a boat party in Sydney just months after his separation from Cassandra in 2016.

The Stefanovics married at the One&Only Palmilla resort in Los Cabos, Mexico, in December 2018.

In an interview with Stellar magazine in October 2020, Jasmine described Karl's parenting style as 'very hands-on', adding that he 'helps a lot'
Married At First Sight's Domenica Calarco has lashed out at rival bride Olivia Frazer yet again.

In a bizarre rant on her Sit With Us podcast this week, the 29-year-old claimed that Olivia, who is of Scottish heritage, 'can't handle Europeans'.

Domenica implied her Italian background may have been the reason why Olivia felt like she was 'yelling all the time'.

Married At First Sight's Domenica Calarco (pictured) has lashed out at Olivia Frazer yet again, this time claiming her rival 'can't handle Europeans'

'I just don't understand how she thinks that I'm yelling at her all the time,' Dom told co-host Ella Ding.

'She just took you talking as yelling,' Ella agreed.

'I just don't think she can handle Euros,' Dom responded. 'I don't think she can handle Europeans!'

Ella said she 'understood' Domenica because she'd grown up with outspoken Greeks and Italians in Melbourne.

Domenica (left) implied her Italian background may have been the reason why Olivia (right) felt like she was 'yelling all the time'

Domenica's observation was rather odd given that Olivia is also of European descent, and is currently travelling around Europe, surrounded by Europeans.

The two women butted heads during the latest season of Married At First Sight.

Their feud exploded when Domenica screamed at Olivia before smashing a wine glass in her direction at the couples' retreat.

A furious Olivia later retaliated by telling her castmates Domenica had a secret OnlyFans account.

Speaking on her podcast, Dom said she regretted smashing the glass and explained it was a way of her trying to 'protect herself from being hurt'.

'I regret smashing the glass with every being in me. And I wish I never did it. Not because of what happened afterwards, but because that is not who I am,' she said.

'Yes, it was my action. It was my behaviour, but it's not who I am to my core.

Domenica's observation was rather odd given that Olivia (pictured) is also of European descent, and is currently travelling around Europe, surrounded by Europeans

Domenica said she was initially 'triggered' by a 'petty' comment by Carolina Santos before she was sent over the edge by Olivia's comments.

'When it came to going to that level of being so petty, that is when I think the triggering of a lot of my past traumas really started to come out,' she said.

Domenica said she felt like she was back in high school with Year 7 bullies.

'I feel it really makes me emotional even to this day, because that is the actual crux of making a person feel on the outside of a group feeling like they are socially isolated.

The two women butted heads during the latest season of Married At First Sight. Their feud exploded when Domenica screamed at Olivia before smashing a wine glass in her direction

'I think that is what really triggered a lot in me. And then obviously, s**t hit the fan from there when Olivia said some pretty vile things about my voice and about that I scream at Jack [Millar],' she continued.

'I don't try to make excuses for that behaviour,' she said of the incident. 'I watched that back and I just saw my face change'.

'I just saw that hurt, years of going through therapy to try and be okay with who I am, come back,' Dom continued.

'I think in that moment, me smashing the glass was like, I'm trying to deflect, and I'm trying to protect myself from being hurt.'
The flag of the Korea Coast Guard flies at its headquarters in Yeonsu District, Friday. Yonhap





Top Coast Guard officials, including Commissioner General Jeong Bong-hun, offered to resign en masse Friday, days after the agency overturned its previous announcement that a fisheries official killed by North Korea in 2020 was attempting to defect to the North.







Last week, the Coast Guard and the defense ministry announced they had not found any circumstances backing the investigation results from two years ago, reversing their previous stance and apologizing to the bereaved family.







The 47-year-old official was fatally shot by the North's military, Sept. 22, 2020, near the inter-Korean sea border in the Yellow Sea, after going missing the previous day while on duty aboard a fisheries inspection boat. The Coast Guard and the defense ministry announced at the time he could have been attempting to defect to the North.







The commissioner general expressed his intention to step down during a video conference with top Coast Guard commanders shortly before noon. Earlier this week, Jeong publicly apologized for "causing a lot of misunderstanding in regard to the probe results."






Chelsea Handler has filed a $1.5 million lawsuit in California against the lingerie brand ThirdLove, claiming they failed to pay her in accordance with a contract they had.

Handler, 47, said in court docs filed Thursday in the Superior Court of California that ThirdLove didn't 'fairly compensate her for an advertising campaign it hired her to spearhead,' according to Page Six.

In legal docs, Handler said she agreed to a deal with ThirdLove for $1.06 million, as well as related expenses, late last year.

The latest: Chelsea Handler, 47, has filed a $1.5 million lawsuit in California against the lingerie brand ThirdLove, claiming they failed to pay her in accordance with a contract they had. She was snapped last year in LA

ThirdLove 'loved Handlers unique, active, body-positive image and brand' and hoped to make her the centerpiece of a TV advertising campaign, Handler said in legal docs.

The Livingston, New Jersey native said that she started a 'specialized exercise regimen' to prepare for her appearance in ads for the lingerie brand, and had 'multiple meetings' with reps from the company ahead of a scheduled shoot slated for late January.

Handler said in court docs that she declined other professional opportunities as part of her commitment to ThirdLove, TMZ reported.

The Chelsea Lately personality said she traveled to Whistler, Canada 'on her own dime' for a planned photoshoot around January 26, when the company canceled the shoot and contract, according to Page Six.

ThirdLove 'loved Handlers unique, active, body-positive image and brand' and hoped to make her the centerpiece of a TV advertising campaign, Handler said in legal docs

Handler, pictured in January, said that she started a 'specialized exercise regimen' to prepare for her appearance in ads for the lingerie brand

The comic was seen appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last fall

Attorneys for Handler said the comedian 'believes and is informed that despite the representations made to her, the ThirdLove creative team in charge of her campaign had never obtained approval from its Board of Directors.

'When the Board learned of the campaign at the eleventh hour, it instructed ThirdLoves officers to terminate the parties agreement.'

Handler said in legal docs that 'repeated requests' for the company to pay her for the shoot and contract violation went unfulfilled.

Handler's legal team also included promissory estoppel in its legal complaint, according to the outlet, which quoted experts who called the factor a litigant's ability to 'recover on the basis of a promise made when the partys reliance on that promise was reasonable.'

A lawyer for Handler told Page Six: 'We think the complaint speaks for itself. Nothing else from us at this time.'
The Southbury Child (Festival Theatre, Chichester)

Verdict: Facetious but touching

Rating:

Who wouldn't want to see The Crown's Alex Jennings playing a small-town vicar?

With his kind, patrician face, he looks heaven sent for the role of the Reverend David Highland.

Yet in Stephen Beresford's amusing, and eventually sad new play, we are also meant to imagine his Devonshire pastor as a troubled boozer and a sexual philanderer.

His even bigger problem, though, is the mother of a dead child who wants to have Disney balloons at her daughter's funeral. She longs to celebrate her daughter's short life; he feels death needs to be looked directly in the eye.

Either way, I couldn't believe such a benign old stick would choose to take Custer's Last Stand on an issue like this. Inevitably, his hard line turns the community against him  but it also struck me as too far out of character to be credible.

Who wouldn't want to see The Crown's Alex Jennings playing a small-town vicar? With his kind, patrician face, he looks heaven sent for the role of the Reverend David Highland

Beresford has been much feted since his Chekhovian drama The Last Of The Haussmans was staged at the National Theatre in 2012.

Had he revealed a higher-stakes personal dilemma lurking behind Highland's decision, or offered a more in-depth examination of the unhappy vicar's conscience, it might have worked.

Instead, his Alan Bennettish dialogue lets David off the hook, with oodles of very English irony and witticisms that defuse the tension (Bennett, by contrast, has always been wary of such overtly emotional material).

Jennings matches spiritual unease with flashes of anguish, despite reaching too often for a cheap Scotch or a wry remark. In particular, he rues his failure to observe the first rule of ecclesiastical law: 'Don't f*** the flock.'

Phoebe Nicholls has the patience of a saint as his wife, somehow holding the household together; while Jo Herbert, as his sexually frustrated teacher daughter, dutifully picks up the slack in his parish responsibilities.

It's left to David's adopted daughter (Racheal Ofori)  a black, militant atheist  to be more facetious, though at times (such as her gag about how she has the dress sense of a Lithuanian hooker) she sounds like an authorial voice.

Jack Greenlees, as the gay, pin-up curate, ticks the remaining boxes of church and sexual politics. The locals are chiefly represented by Josh Finan, as the cheerful thicko brother of the deceased child.

Amusingly, he is wont to ask deep, existential questions; yet he's also given to nasty troublemaking, for which he's never held to account.

Thanks to one of his pranks in the second half, Beresford's plot veers away from what should be the powerful story of the titular child. Indeed, Sarah Twomey as that child's mother, who should be the play's moral and emotional conscience, is reduced to an awkwardly poignant side show.

Despite these flaws, there's much to enjoy in this vision of a rural community, with its annual festival blessing the town's river for safety and fecundity (echoes of Jez Butterworth's Jerusalem).

Sir Nicholas Hytner's breezy production skips over the underlying pain. And Mark Thompson's set of a flagstone vicarage kitchen with a Norman church rearing up beyond is a great comfort to the eye.

But with fewer gags and a less facetious tone, it could have been a better play: capturing the very real pain of a Church and country which  as Beresford has spotted  are in the throes of extremely uncomfortable changes.

From July 1, after its run in Chichester, The Southbury Child will move to The Bridge Theatre in London SE1.

Vibrant history lesson in praise of girl power

Fantastically Great Women Who Changed The World (Theatre Royal, Stratford East)

Rating:

Verdict: Six for six-year-olds

This show is a celebration of girl power over the centuries  in neon colour. It's a Six for six-year-olds, a herstory lesson and a call to arms: don't be afraid to do what's right, don't be fragile like a flower but fragile like a bomb.

Talented playwright/lyricist Chris Bush puts a young girl at the centre of Kate Pankhurst's picture book. Jade is left behind on a school trip, alone in a museum hailing heroines from air, land and sea. She is taken up  in every sense  by aviator Amelia Earhart, persuaded to develop her sense and sensibility by Jane Austen, and thrown in the deep end by Olympic swimmer Gertrude Ederle.

Emmeline Pankhurst  a distant relative of the author  reminds her that with only half as many women as men in Parliament, the work is not finished.

I'm still singing thanks to Miranda Cooper who gives the show the poptastic sound of her hits for the Sugababes and Girls Aloud.

But it's not all upbeat. In a particularly poignant moment, Rosa Parks hugs Jade and Anne Frank, telling them that all she did was refuse to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. Yet it changed the world.

Georgina Brown

A Doll's House, Part 2 (Donmar Warehouse, London)

Rating:

Verdict: Insufferable

That Is Not Who I Am (Royal Court Theatre, London)

Rating:

Verdict: Hoax

A Doll's House, Part 2 is one of the most condescending theatrical homilies I have ever had the misfortune to endure. American writer Lucas Hnath has deigned to revisit Henrik Ibsen's 19th-century Norwegian melodrama about a woman who walks out on her husband and children, and treat it as an opportunity to pontificate on the institution of marriage.

He starts by having Ibsen's revered feminist heroine Nora (Noma Dumezweni), return to her husband Torvald (Brian F. O'Byrne) to demand that he sign off on the divorce he promised 15 years earlier.

But her ultimatum is not delivered until she has first lectured his bewildered housekeeper (June Watson) on how and why marriage destroys women's lives.

She then turns on her still traumatised husband and explains to him, all over again, why he is a hopeless human being and why their marriage was rotten to the core.

Any attempt to interrupt her expostulation is greeted with an incredulous scowl. Even her grown-up daughter (Patricia Allison) is patronised as a not-yet-fully-formed 'mini me'.

For millennia, drama has acquainted heroes and heroines with their shortcomings. Not here. This 95-minute helping of pedagogical self-fortification feels at least three times that length, thanks to Dumezweni's Nora.

Her ultimatum is not delivered until she has first lectured his bewildered housekeeper (June Watson) on how and why marriage destroys women's lives

She is so supremely self-important that not even the prospect of prison or penury affronts her. She is immune from theatrical prosecution.

Pompously reporting her byzantine love life, her condescending coup de grace is to reject the divorce she's been demanding all along on the grounds that she now considers it condescending!

Condescension, though, is structural to James Macdonald's production, from the moment the roof covering the stage is solemnly raised to reveal a set of a few chairs on a crusty orange floor.

The production also combines Hnath's tuneless modern profanities with starchy period costumes, so he can be sure to talk down to the benighted past in the language of four-letter enlightenment.

Personally, I could locate no interest in any of the story's potential outcomes bar one: getting home.

Meanwhile another haute-bourgeois theatrical salon, the Royal Court, has very nearly accomplished the difficult task of disappearing up its own fundament.

The occasion is a hoax of a new play by Lucy Kirkwood, which creates a frisson of danger by pretending to be a play by 'Dave Davison' about online identity theft.

Kirkwood seems to think it would be hilarious to present her fictional docu-drama about a young couple falling into a void of isolation and deep state paranoia as an undercover probe.

The play charts the course of the young couple from their meeting, in a restaurant in 2011, to moving in together and having a baby, before his conspiracy theory posts on YouTube during lockdown lead to them both beingmurdered.

The whole set-up is completely phoney and the most real thing in the show is a scene during lockdown in which the couple wash their groceries.

Jake Davies, as the mendacious young handyman, is inscrutably nonchalant, but the show's greatest asset is the always watchable Siena Kelly as the young geriatric nurse. She is a fizzy young actor who goes, via childbirth, from carefree flirt to radicalised neurotic.

Priyanga Burford gets the hollow task of playing the author-narrator who maintains the pretence that this is an important and dangerous investigation.

Sadly, the world is full of genuinely important and dangerous investigations that Kirkwood might better have pursued.

Having tricked us into the theatre, director Lucy Morrison takes the sensible precaution of not providing an interval in the two-hour deposition, to thwart the audience scarpering.

Patrick Marmion
Robert Irwin fought back tears as he paid tribute to his late father Steve during a live interview on the Australian Today show on Friday morning.

The 18-year-old became emotional when host Karl Stefanovic referenced a viral TikTok video Robert had posted in honour of Father's Day in the U.S.

With tears welling up in his eyes, Robert described the legendary Crocodile Hunter as a 'superhero' and 'the greatest dad on the planet'.

An emotional Robert Irwin (pictured) fought back tears as he paid tribute to his late father Steve during a live interview on the Australian Today show on Friday morning

The TikTok video included family home videos recorded before Steve died in 2006, when Robert was just two years old.

Robert said of compiling the footage: 'It was amazing. [It was] very, very emotional, even just looking through the old archives to find that footage.

'It's amazing for me because every time I see a piece of footage or a photo I haven't seen before, I get a story about dad someone tells me... it gives me a little piece of him back.'

The 18-year-old became emotional when host Karl Stefanovic referenced a viral video Robert had posted in honour of Father's Day in the U.S. (Robert is pictured as a toddler with his father)

Robert continued: 'It means the absolute world. He was a superhero in every aspect of the word. He was the greatest dad on the planet and it's the honour of my life to continue everything that he's started. Absolutely.'

Using Ed Sheeran's song Photograph as a soundtrack, the video captured the special father-and-son bond between Steve and Robert.

One clip saw the Australian conservationist gazing down at his boy as a newborn.

Robert said of compiling the footage: 'It's amazing for me because every time I see a piece of footage or a photo I haven't seen before, I get a story about dad someone tells me... it gives me a little piece of him back'

In another, Steve could be seen giving Robert a piggyback ride on his shoulders.

Also featured in the video was Bindi, now 23, Robert's older sister.

'Thinking of him and remembering nothing but fun times,' Robert said in his post.

Using Ed Sheeran's song Photograph as a soundtrack, the video captured the special father-and-son bond between Steve and Robert

The montage, posted in honour of Father's Day in the U.S., included family home videos recorded before Steve died in 2006 when Robert was just two years old

One clip saw the Australian conservationist gazing down at his boy as a newborn

Also featured in the video was Bindi, now 23, Robert's older sister

'I hope you all had a wonderful Father's Day in the U.S., sending love to those who couldn't celebrate with their dad.'

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.

Following his death, Steve's family, including his children Robert and Bindi, widow Terri, and son-in-law Chandler Powell, have continued his conservation work at Australia Zoo on the Sunshine Coast.

Steve Irwin (pictured with wife Terri), 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
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes (Switch, 49.99)

Rating:

Verdict: Still Fire Emblem, still good

Oil, meet water. Water, meet oil. On the one side, a gaming genre known as 'musou,' which is thick with fast action and has you swatting away hundreds of enemies with each sweep of your sword.

On the other, the Fire Emblem series, which features slow, strategic combat and equally slow conversations with all your brothers and sisters in arms.

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes isn't just a long name; it's also a Fire Emblem musou game, the second since the original experiment back in 2017. And the crazy thing is: it takes these seemingly immiscible ingredients, gives them a good stir, and creates something entirely coherent.

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes isn't just a long name; it's also a Fire Emblem musou game, the second since the original experiment back in 2017

It helps that Three Hopes borrows most of its story and characters from one of the most likeable mainline Fire Emblem games, called  keep up  Three Houses. Here you are, a mercenary with supernatural assistance, returned to the medieval-anime realm of Fodlan and its outlandish-sounding territories of Faerghus, Adrestia and, er Leicester.

And that's not all that Three Hopes imports. Its hyperspeed combat can, for instance, be paused so that you can direct your buddies towards different objectives on an overhead map. So while there's less chin-wagging than you'd normally expect from a Fire Emblem game, there's still a decent slug of the strategising.

What of that sword-swirling musou combat? I've never been particularly keen on (nor good at) it myself, preferring a pace that's a little more glacial. But what's served up in Three Hopes is varied, colourful and (crucially) accessible enough to sway even sceptics like me.

If only there were another kingdom called, say, 'Sheffield', or 'Coventry', or some such, this would be a five-star game.
Taskmaster: Champion Of Champions 2022

Rating:

The Undiscovered Tony Hancock

Rating:

Can there be any show on telly that is more wonderfully, joyfully pointless than Taskmaster (C4)?

Its even more pointless than Pointless. I mean, has there ever been a time when you thought to yourself: What the viewing public needs to see right now is Liza Tarbuck eating a grape that has been delivered by a rudimentary pulley system operated by Alex Horne pedalling an exercise bike while wearing a sailor hat?

If you happen to have thought this, you should get a job on the show. Or you could seek medical help.

Incidentally, Liza was wearing a very convincing goatee beard and moustache. I know, I know: Im just as baffled as you are.

Last night's episode of Taskmaster: Champion Of Champions 2022 saw Richard Herring defeat four other previous winners of the show. The show has been going for 13 series and four specials. PICTURED: Show hosts Greg Davies and Little Alex Horne

This is the magic of Taskmaster. It has no message to deliver and it does not take itself seriously  its just a group of comedians doing very silly tasks for no other reason than to make us laugh. How excellently old-fashioned.

Last nights episode was essentially the programmes Champions League final. Richard Herring defeated four other previous winners of the show.

He was in second place behind Liza until the final round, where he pulled off a spectacular victory.

Who knew that hed be so skilled at filling up a suitcase and placing it on a platform so that taskmaster Greg Davies could not tell whether it was filled with bricks or balloons? In fact, Richard was the only contestant who managed this.

The show has been going for 13 series and four specials. To come up with fresh challenges after all this time must require great ingenuity. But after this Champion Of Champions show, where does it go from here?

Apart from Taskmaster, last night Channel 4 offered Drawers Off: The Big Naked Painting Challenge and Naked Attraction. Anyone for Taskmaster In The Nude?

The Undiscovered Tony Hancock explored how Hancock (pictured) was a huge star in the UK during the 50s and 60s, but was desperate to succeed in America - Hollywood doesn't do failure

Elsewhere, we were reminded that it is 54 years this Saturday since the comedian Tony Hancock killed himself in Australia, where he had gone to revive his career.

The usual narrative is that Hancock was self-destructive and collapsed into depression and alcoholism.

But The Undiscovered Tony Hancock (Sky Arts) argued that the usual narrative is wrong: that Hancock, a huge star in the UK in the 1950s and 1960s, was desperate to succeed in America. But, unfortunately, Hollywood doesnt do failure.

Hancocks downbeat character didnt catch on, and his career never really recovered.

Presenter Victor Lewis-Smith guided us through home movie footage and some long-lost sketches; took us on a tour of the flat where Hancock lived with his first wife; and suggested that it was Hancock who paved the way for Alan Partridge and David Brent.

It is 54 years this Saturday since the comedian Tony Hancock killed himself in Australia, where he had gone to revive his career

Apparently, he did have a thing for the ladies. Carry On star Liz Fraser, who often shared a taxi with Hancock, recalled: I like to honour myself by saying that he fancied me.

He asked me several times whether Id like to go to a hotel or something. Im pleased to say I never did.

The programme also featured a Norwegian version of Hancocks most celebrated sketch, The Blood Donor.

Norwegians give blood in litres, and so the best line  A pint? Thats very nearly an armful  was translated as: A half-litre? You could drain a finger.

Not quite the same, is it?

Christopher Stevens is away.
Todd and Julie Chrisley opened up about their state of mind in the wake of their conviction on their Chrisley Confessions podcast on Wednesday, asking fans for their prayers.

Todd, 53, said he appreciated the outpouring of support from fans after he and Julie, 49, were found guilty on federal charges of bank fraud and tax evasion June 7 following a three-week trial by jury.

'I want you all to know that the messages that were receiving, the mail  the gifts that people are leaving at our doors, the flower arrangements  all of this stuff is just overwhelming and very much appreciated,' Todd said. 'We dont want you  wasting your money on things like that.

The latest: Todd and Julie Chrisley opened up about their state of mind in the wake of their conviction on their Chrisley Confessions podcast on Wednesday, asking fans for their prayers. The couple was snapped in 2019 in Nashville

He added that he and Julie 'dont need anything' and that 'the best gift you could give us is prayer,' to which Julie added, 'Amen.'

On their podcast last week, Todd said the family remains focused on faith amid the tumultuous time.

'We still hold steadfast in our faith, and we trust that God will do what he does best because Gods a miracle worker,' Todd said. 'Were alive and kicking, and we appreciate all the support we have received from everyone.'

The pair were first indicted in August 2019 and again this past February.

Todd, 53, said he appreciated the outpouring of support from fans after he and Julie, 49, were found guilty on federal charges of bank fraud and tax evasion June 7

(L-R) Faye Chrisley, Chase Chrisley, Todd Chrisley, Savannah Chrisley, Chloe Chrisley, Julie Chrisley and Grayson Chrisley were seen in a promotional shot for the series

The reality stars were convicted of conspiracy to take out more than $30 million in loans under fraudulent circumstances and Julie was convicted of obstruction of justice and wire fraud, U.S. Attorney Ryan Buchanan's office said, according to the AP.

Prosecutors said that the Chrisleys, seeking loans, gave banks false documents and that Julie had given a fake credit report and bank statements when she was seeking a home rental in California. Prosecutors said the Chrisleys hid income via a company they had in an effort to prevent the IRS from taking Todd Chrisley's delinquent tax totals.

In the wake of the conviction, the Chrisleys were placed under conditions of home detention and location monitoring by U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross, and must inform their probation officer of any purchases more than $1,000.

An accountant who worked with the couple, Peter Tarantino, is out on bond after a jury found him guilty of conspiracy and filing fraudulent tax returns, officials said.

The reality stars were convicted of conspiracy to take out more than $30 million in loans under fraudulent circumstances and Julie was convicted of obstruction of justice and wire fraud

Among those who testified in the trial was Mark Braddock, a one-time business partner of Todd's who told the court that he and Todd had an affair in the early 2000s, according to Business Insider.

Braddock, a married father and grandfather, last month testified that he and Chrisley had paid off a blackmailer to keep the affair a secret; and that he had helped Chrisley in many of the crimes he had committed.

Braddock, who was given immunity in exchange for his testimony, said he and Chrisley had a friendship they likened to a 'brotherhood' until a falling-out in 2012; and that he alerted the FBI to their ongoing tax issues.

Todd Chrisley's lawyer Bruce Morris said that he expected to appeal the case.

The Chrisleys and Tarantino are slated to be sentenced October 6.
Tommy Dorfman had all eyes on her when she led a special Pride Month screening of A24's new horror-comedy Bodies Bodies Bodies on Thursday.

The 30-year-old actress stood out at the special event in New York City thanks to a shining teal dress that light up the evening.

Joining her for the screening at the Crosby Hotel in Manhattan was the film's director, Halina Reijn, who was a vision in a white lace dress.

Horror fan: Tommy Dorfman, 30, stood out in a shimmering blue dress as she led a Pride Month screening of the slasher comedy Bodies Bodies Bodies in Manhattan on Thursday

Bodies Bodies Bodies stars Pete Davidson, Amandla Stenberg, Borat 2's Maria Bakalova, Industry star Myha'la Herrold, Chase Sui Wonders, Shiva Baby star Rachel Sennott and Lee Pace as a group of friends who ride out a hurricane while partying in an opulent mansion.

But after they decide to play a murdermystery game, they find that a real murder has occurred, leaving one of them as the culprit.

Tommy made a splash at the advance screening in her metallic teal dress, which featured voluminous sleeves and was tied over her toned midriff.

The look featured a skirt reaching down to her knees, and she contrasted it with white open-toe platform heels.

One of them: Bodies Bodies Bodies follows a group of friends (Pete Davidson, Amandla Stenberg, Borat 2's Maria Bakalova) who play a murdermystery game, only to find that someone has been murdered by one of their members

Blue mood: Tommy made a splash in her metallic teal dress, which featured voluminous sleeves and was tied over her toned midriff. She wore it with white open-toe platform heels

The 13 Reasons Why star wore her shoulder-length blond hair parted to the side, and she wore a golden pendant around her neck.

Joining Tommy was the film's director Halina Reijn. She contrasted the actress with her short white dress, which was covered in delicate floral lace designs.

The item featured prominent shoulder pads and frills running down her torso and at the end of her short sleeves.

She stood tall in round-toe black heels, and she wore her curly brunette hair down.

Woman in white: Joining Tommy was the film's director Halina Reijn. She contrasted the actress with her short white dress, which was covered in delicate floral lace designs

Strong start: Reijn is a Dutch actor-turned-director. Bodies Bodies Bodies is Reijn's second feature directorial effort following the Dutch film Instinct (2019)

Reijn is a Dutch actor-turned-director. Bodies Bodies Bodies is Reijn's second feature directorial effort following the Dutch film Instinct (2019).

So far, the film has an impressive 96 percent fresh rating from critics surveyed by Rotten Tomatoes.

Bodies Bodies Bodies is set to be released in theaters on August 5, 2022.
A popular influencer and YouTube star has lashed out at her critics after she was trolled over her budget wedding and 'tacky' reception.

Alex Pierce, best known online by the name of her successful jewellery line HRH Collection, became the target of vicious trolls after she shared photos from her wedding to second husband Jason Locke earlier this week.

The 38-year-old was relentlessly mocked for donning a recycled Zara dress at the reception, which was held in the parking lot of the Hitching Post bar and grill in Buellton, California.

YouTube star Alex Pierce (pictured) lashed out at her critics after she was trolled over her budget wedding and 'tacky' reception, which was held in the parking lot of a bar and grill

The happy couple had a tent erected in the parking lot of the eatery so they could enjoy their favourite steak with friends and family.

There were minimal decorations at the reception, although each table came with a cherry-scented ashtray candle with 'Mr & Mrs Locke' on the front in gothic gangster font.

Guests dined on fresh vegetables, garlic bread, corn quesadillas and other food from the Hitching Post's menu.

At one point, the lucky groom put on a camouflage Trump/Pence cap.

The 38-year-old and her husband Jason Locke are pictured in the tented parking lot of the Hitching Post bar and grill, where their wedding reception was held

Alex was mocked by trolls for donning a recycled Zara dress at her reception (pictured)

After the reception, the bride changed into yoga pants and headed to a local casino to gamble with her husband and some of their closest friends.

The ceremony was held at the Bethania Lutheran Church, with Alex wearing a bridal mini-dress with a plunging neckline and short hem.

Despite the small scale of the event, Alex chose to livestream the wedding on Instagram for a $25 fee.

Critics of the popular influencer branded it 'the tackiest wedding ever', with many taking to social media to mock her over the location and low budget.

Critics of the popular influencer branded it 'the tackiest wedding ever', with many taking to social media to mock her over the location and low budget

'You had a trailer park wedding!' wrote one, while another tweeted: 'I just know the reception stank.'

One troll was even cruel enough to create a line of wedding merchandise to mock the nuptials.

Alex responded to the backlash in a 32-minute video this week, explaining she wanted a low-key wedding with her nearest and dearest instead of opting for an extravagant 'to-do'.

She also said she 'never knew what love was' until she met her second husband, and that their wedding day was a celebration of that - which is why they chose their favourite restaurant, Hitching Post, for the reception.

One troll was even cruel enough to create a line of wedding merchandise to mock the nuptials

'Do you think I didn't know what my wedding was gonna be like? Like, I didn't plan my wedding?' she said.

'I don't like big to-dos. I'm the least to-do person ever. Because I'm an influencer you expect me, and you think I have money or whatever, you expect me to do these big to-dos.

'B***h, I could fly to the f**king Maldives with every damn f**king person in my damn family and pay for everyone and not have it impact me at all, you f**king idiot,' Alex continued.

'What are you stupid? You guys think I'm poor? This is what's annoying. Why can't I do... this wedding is not based on anything other than we love each other and we wanted to do what we like to do. We wanted to keep it casual and mellow.'

Alex responded to the backlash in a 32-minute video this week, explaining she wanted a low-key wedding with her nearest and dearest instead of opting for an extravagant 'to-do'

The jewellery designer is pictured with the cherry-scented ashtray candle that was given to guests at the reception

Spiralling into a rage, the star went on to say 'most weddings look like s**t' unless you spend '$500,000 to $1million' on them.

'What, are you gonna go get a banquet room at some stinky f**king hotel? Even at The Waldorf it's dumb. It's a banquet room. Last night someone had a f**king meeting in there with some f**king company. It's lame!'

Alex said she had zero regrets about her wedding, and that she and her groom planned their entire nuptials around being able to eat at the Hitching Post and to go gambling at the nearby casino afterwards.

'We got married at the Bethania Lutheran Church and it's an original 1920s, very typical, Lutheran church. Yes, a very plain, very cute, little church, you stupid little pagan f**k.'

Discussing her budget bridal wear, Alex said she picked the first wedding dress she tried on

'We got married at the Bethania Lutheran Church and it's an original 1920s, very typical, Lutheran church. Yes, a very plain, very cute, little church, you stupid little pagan f**k,' she raged after being criticised over the location

Discussing her budget bridal wear, Alex admitted she picked the first wedding dress she tried on and then grabbed an old Zara dress from her closet to wear at the reception.

'I tried on one wedding dress and I just bought it because I don't care,' she said.

'I thought my wedding dress was f**king beautiful and I wore my mum's original cap from when she got married in 1983. It was f**king gorgeous.

'You know what's funny too? All you little they/thems out there, you little lab rats, are all like environmentalists, but you guys are coming for me about wearing something from my closet.

'I did exactly what I wanted to do for my wedding and I would do it all exactly over again.'

Alex said she 'never knew what love was' until she met her second husband, and that their wedding day was a celebration of that

She finished: 'I'm happy, I'm in a really loving relationship. I basically have everything I want. I have my own business, a beautiful house, I have a husband.

'I'm really happy right now and you guys are so vicious and mean. I get it, because you're miserable and ugly. And you're a loser, I understand. Life isn't fair.'

Alex runs her own popular jewellery brand, HRH Collection.

She's also a huge star on social media, boasting 350,000 YouTube subscribers and 250,000 TikTok followers.

She often posts lengthy rants against woke culture, political correctness, and fashion trends she finds disgusting, such as beachy waves and designer handbags.
Robert Irwin has revealed how an American tourist who asked him for his phone number 'made his entire day'.

A TikTok video went viral last week of Megan Grass from Utah trying to get Robert's digits during a visit to Australia Zoo in Queensland.

The 18-year-old conservationist told Today hosts Karl Stefanovic and Ally Langdon on Friday the gesture 'meant the world' to him and went 'straight to his heart'.

Robert Irwin (pictured) revealed on Friday how an American tourist 'made his entire day' by asking for his phone number at Australia Zoo last week

'Honestly that made my entire day. It was so kind. [It] really meant the world,' he said.

'I can't just go out and give my number to everyone unfortunately, and it is hit and miss, you know. But it was really kind. It went straight to my heart. It was something that meant the world,' he added.

Robert went on to say his focus right now is continuing his late father Steve Irwin's legacy of wildlife conservation.

A TikTok video went viral last week of Megan Grass from Utah (pictured) trying to get Robert's digits during a visit to Australia Zoo in Queensland

'Honestly, I'm going out here trying to keep the legacy going and talk about wildlife and conservation and spread a positive message,' he said.

The viral video showed Robert walking towards a crowd at Australia Zoo before Megan asked him for his number.

'I think you are so cool and I was wondering if I can have your number?' she said.

The 18-year-old conservationist told Today hosts Karl Stefanovic and Ally Langdon on Friday the gesture 'meant the world' to him and went 'straight to his heart'

'Well, I'm very flattered,' he responded before asking Megan where she was from.

He added: 'The easiest way [to contact me] is on Instagram because then my people can monitor it and see when it comes through because my number is getting mixed.'

Megan told Robert she'd already sent him a DM on Instagram but he didn't reply.

'Well, I actually DM'd you last night to tell you I was coming here today,' she said.

'What's your name? I'll look it up!' Robert answered.

Megan appeared on the Today show last week and revealed Robert hadn't been in contact with her since her video made headlines.

She said she asked for his number because she thinks he's 'literally the sweetest person ever' and a 'great guy'.
Chris Pratt hit the red carpet with a stylish look while celebrating the premiere of his new film Thor: Love & Thunder.

The 43-year-old red carpet hit the red carpet at the highly-anticipated Marvel Studios sequel, held at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on Thursday evening.

The actor, who reprises his Marvel Cinematic Universe role as Star-Lord in Thor: Love and Thunder, did not hit the red carpet with his wife Katherine Schwarzenegger.

Red carpet ready: Chris Pratt hit the red carpet with a stylish look while celebrating the premiere of his new film Thor: Love & Thunder

Pratt stepped out with a black and grey plaid dress shirt under a stylish black suit coat and a black tie.

The actor sported a scruffy beard as he hit the red carpet, with a charcoal pocket square and a black watch.

He completed his look with black pants and shiny black shoes for his red carpet look.

Chris' look: Pratt stepped out with a black and grey plaid dress shirt under a stylish black suit coat and a black tie

Pratt returns as the beloved Star-Lord from the Guardians of the Galaxy movies in Thor: Love and Thunder.

The film is set in the aftermath of Avengers: Endgame, where Thor (Chris Hemsworth) has given up his superhero ways.

He enlists the help of Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) and other friends to help fight Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale).

Star-Lord returns: Pratt returns as the beloved Star-Lord from the Guardians of the Galaxy movies in Thor: Love and Thunder

The premiere marks Pratt's second red carpet in as many days, as he was attending the red carpet for his new Amazon series The Terminal List.

The actor opted for a grey suit at that event, held at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles.

The new series, based on the novel series by Jack Carr, debuts on Amazon Prime Video on July 1.

Red carpet vet: The premiere marks Pratt's second red carpet in as many days, as he was attending the red carpet for his new Amazon series The Terminal List

Pratt will return as Star-Lord in the highly-anticipated Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, debuting on Disney Plus sometime in December.

He also returns for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which is in post-production and slated for release in May 2023.

The actor is also set to voice two iconic characters - Mario for a new Super Mario Brothers movie and the beloved cartoon cat Garfield.

Return: Pratt will return as Star-Lord in the highly-anticipated Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, debuting on Disney Plus sometime in December
Lee Rae-jin, left, the elder brother of Lee Dae-joon, a fisheries ministry official shot to death by North Korean soldiers in September 2020, speaks during a meeting with the ruling People Power Party (PPP) at the National Assembly in Seoul, Friday, in this pool photo. Yonhap



The bereaved family of a fisheries official killed by North Korea in 2020 vowed Friday to reveal what former President Moon Jae-in did during the six hours after their loved one was found adrift at sea until he was ultimately shot to death.



The family of the late official, Lee Dae-jun, has accused Moon of failing to do enough to save him after he was found by North Korea's military in waters near the western sea border, Sept. 22, 2020, and concluding without enough evidence that he had attempted to defect to the North.



Last week, the Coast Guard and the defense ministry announced that they have not found any circumstances backing the investigation results from two years ago, reversing their previous stance and apologizing to the bereaved family.



The family has demanded access to classified presidential documents related to the death. But the Presidential Archives rejected a request by the family to disclose records on the case, citing a law governing information disclosure by the government.



"After many cries and efforts, the door of truth is opening little by little," said Lee Rae-jin, the older brother of the late official, at a meeting with lawmakers of the ruling People Power Party (PPP).



"We have requested the disclosure of information to find out what happened in those six hours of golden time and what the president was doing at the time ... but again we were denied (access to) the presidential archives," he said.






Julia Fox left little to the imagination when she stepped out to The Cock nightclub in Downtown New York City.

The model and actress turned more than a few heads when she strutted her way to the two-level bar in a revealing black leather ensemble.

The Cock was only a quick pitstop before she headed to the west side to check out a surprise performance by Madonna at a Women Of Power WOW event at the Terminal 5 music venue in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood.

Revealing: Julia Fox, 32, showcased her fit figure in a racy black ensemble outside of The Cock bar in Downtown New York City on Thursday

Fox's outfit consisted of a skimpy leather skirt and a top that showed off her bare hips and cleavage.

She added a pair of black stiletto boots that came all the way up to the middle of her thighs.

In an added touch of edgy style, she accessorized with a black ornament of sorts that went around her neck as she carried a small bag that held her s=essentials.

Eye-catcher: Her racy ensemble caught the attention of people waiting outside the nightclub

Quick pitstop: Her visit to the bar was only a pitstop before she headed t the west side to check out Madonna's surprise performance at Terminal 5

On this night, the Italian-American had her dark brown tresses styled long, straight and flowing several inches past her shoulders with a part in the middle.

After making the rounds at the bar, which typically has theme nights featuring DJs and go-go boys, Fox made her way back out to the bustling streets to make her way to the Madonna show.

But before leaving she struck several more poses, including a few of her gracefully coming down a staircase.

Later in the evening, Fox took to her Instagram page and posted a video of Madonna performing alongside several drag queens as part of the kick off to Pride 2022 weekend in New York City.

Edgy: The Uncut Gems star combined a short leather skirt with a top that looked like a shield

Hot: The Italian-American also donned a pair of stiletto boots that came up to her mid-thighs

As an actress, Fox is best known for her debut performance in the the film Uncut Gems (2019).

Before transitioning her focus to acting, Fox worked as a model and clothing designer, which included the launch of the women's knitwear luxe line, Franziska Fox, with her friend Briana Andalore.

Fox also made headlines across the world when she had a whirlwind romance with hip hop superstar Kanye West soon after meeting at a New Year's Eve party in Miami just over a year ago.

They reportedly enjoyed dates in New York City, Los Angeles and Paris before announcing they had split on Valentine's Day 2021.



Working it: The Milan, Italy native struck a number of poses for the admiring photographers

Night on the town: After making the rounds at The Cock bar Fox headed to the west side to check out Madonna's surprise performance at Terminal 5

Later in the evening, Fox posted a video of Madonna performing as part of the kick off to Pride 2022 weekend in New York City

Material Girl: The Material Girl appear alongside several drag queens at Terminal 5 as part of an event titled 'WoW, Finally Enough Love'

Pop superstar: 'This just happened,' the actress wrote across the short video clip
Chris Hemsworth's wife Elsa Pataky stole the show at the premiere of Thor: Love and Thunder in Los Angeles on Thursday night.

The Spanish actress shined on the red carpet at the El Capitan Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard in a white dress with a plunging neckline and daring thigh split.

After taking a moment to bask in the spotlight, the mother of three, 45, was joined by her husband, who plays the titular superhero in the new Marvel blockbuster.

Chris Hemsworth's wife Elsa Pataky, 45, stole the show at the premiere of Thor: Love and Thunder in Los Angeles on Thursday night

Elsa, a successful movie star in her own right whose credits include Snakes on a Plane and the Fast and Furious franchise, accessorised with three stunning jewellery pieces from Bulgari.

She wore a necklace made of rose gold, mother of pearl and diamond, as well as matching drop earrings and a statement ring.

The Interceptor star, who went braless for the ritzy screening, added a pair of gold ankle-strap heels and styled her glossy brunette locks in loose waves.

The Spanish actress shined on the red carpet at the El Capitan Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard in a white dress with a plunging neckline and daring thigh split

After taking a moment to bask in the spotlight, the mother of three was joined by her husband Chris (right), who plays the titular superhero in the new Marvel blockbuster

The former model, who hails from Madrid but now lives in Australia with her family, drew attention to her natural beauty by opting for a neutral palette of makeup

The former model, who hails from Madrid but now lives in Australia with her family, drew attention to her natural beauty by opting for a neutral palette of makeup.

Meanwhile, leading man Chris, 38, looked sharp in a light blue dress shirt, which he paired with a royal blue three-piece suit and brown loafers.

Thor: Love and Thunder also stars Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, Christian Bale and Matt Damon.

Elsa accessorised with three stunning pieces from Bulgari, including a necklace made of rose gold, mother of pearl and diamond, as well as matching drop earrings and a statement ring

Leading man Chris, 38, looked sharp in a light blue dress shirt, which he paired with a royal blue three-piece suit and brown loafers

It is the fourth film in the Thor franchise, and sees Thor go up against the villainous Gorr the God Butcher, played by Bale.

Chris is building the life he always dreamed of in coastal Australia, far from the bright lights of Hollywood.

The actor, who lives with Elsa and their children near Byron Bay, NSW, said earlier this month he wanted to spend more time filming in his home country.

'My focus ever since I had any sway was to shoot here in Australia due to, on a personal level, being at home with my family, but also because of the awareness that I had about what was possible here when it comes to the talent,' he said.

Chris is building the life he always dreamed of in coastal Australia, far from the bright lights of Hollywood

Chris made his latest film, the Netflix sci-fi drama Spiderhead, in Queensland.

His production company, Wild State Productions, brought Thor 3 and 4, Extraction 1 and 2, Spiderhead and Interceptor to film in Australia.

'Life is sweet. It is great and I couldn't be happier,' Chris added. 'If you had have said or asked me 10 years ago where I would like to be, this is it.'

'Life is sweet. It is great and I couldn't be happier,' Chris said earlier this month. 'If you had have said or asked me 10 years ago where I would like to be, this is it'

Chris and Elsa, who married in 2010, have three children, daughter India, 10, and twin sons Sasha and Tristan, eight.

They live in a $30million mansion in Broken Head.

Thor: Love and Thunder, directed by Taika Waititi, hits Australian and UK cinemas on July 7, and on July 8 in the United States.
Karen Gillan joined a cavalcade of celebrities at the glittering Hollywood premiere of Thor: Love And Thunder this Thursday.

The 34-year-old Scottish actress, who achieved her international breakthrough with Doctor Who, brought a touch of summery flair to this week's red carpet.

She features in the new film as Nebula, an antihero she has played several times in the Marvel Cinematic Universe beginning with Guardians Of The Galaxy.

Looking fab: Karen Gillan joined a cavalcade of celebrities at the glittering Hollywood premiere of Thor: Love And Thunder this Thursday

Karen slid into a sleek cocktail dress that emphasized her hourglass figure and was hemmed high enough to flaunt her shapely legs.

The outfit was covered in elaborate multicolored floral embroidery, including massive false flowers forming epaulets over her shoulders.

Sweeping her signature red hair back, she accentuated her features with naturalistic makeup and balanced on a pair of chrome heels.

Thor: Love And Thunder is directed by Taika Waititi, who is returning to the series after his triumphant turn on its previous instalment Thor: Ragnarok.

On the town: The 34-year-old Scottish actress, who achieved her international breakthrough with Doctor Who, brought a touch of summery flair to this week's red carpet

Chris Hemsworth returns as the burly superhero, along with other franchise mainstays such as Natalie Portman.

Christian Bale made his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut with the film - a fact he only discovered after signing on for the part.

'I'd read that, and people would go: "Oh, look at this! He's entered the MCU!" And I'd go: "I've done what? I haven't entered s***, thank you very much,"' he spilled to Total Film. 'I'm like: "The MCU?" I had to ask what that was.'

Meanwhile Karen's latest career coups include the cover of Women's Health, for which she posed up a storm in a field wearing no top over her bra.

The Scottish actress, 34, became an international success after playing Amy Pond in Doctor Who

Who's who: She features in the new film as Nebula, an antihero she has played several times in the Marvel Cinematic Universe beginning with Guardians Of The Galaxy

Side by side: Chris Hemsworth returns as the burly superhero, along with other franchise mainstays such as Natalie Portman

Inside the magazine, which was ringing in its self-care issue, she candidly discussed the way she copes with her occasionally overwhelming anxiety.

Although she allowed that 'our instinctive response is to suppress it,' she has found that burying the problem leaves her losing sleep.

However she has developed of a tack of being able to 'invite all of the anxiety in' and then still managing to get nine hours of shut-eye at night.
They're one of Hollywood's most famous acting families.

And the Hemsworths reunited for the world premiere of Chris' latest movie, Thor: Love and Thunder, at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on Thursday.

Chris, 38, was joined on the red carpet by his wife Elsa Pataky, 45; his brother Luke and sister-in-law Samantha, both 41; and his parents, Leonie, 61, and Craig, 67.

The Hemsworths reunited for the world premiere of Chris' latest movie, Thor: Love and Thunder, at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on Thursday. (From left: Samantha and Luke Hemsworth, Elsa Pataky, Chris Hemsworth, and parents Leonie and Craig Hemsworth)

One notable absence was the youngest Hemsworth brother, Liam, who couldn't make it because of filming commitments in Morocco.

Leading man Chris looked dapper in a navy three-piece suit, which he paired with a light blue shirt and brown loafers.

His Madrid-born wife stole the show in a plunging white gown with a daring leg split.

Proving style runs in the family, Samantha looked glamorous in a strapless black gown with a thigh-high split

Proving style runs in the family, Samantha looked glamorous in a strapless black gown with a thigh-high split.

She paired the evening dress with a AU$2,150 Dolce & Gabbana lambskin mini bag with a round-top handle and ornate embellishments.

Samantha added chunky gold jewellery and towering black heels to her look, and opted for black eyeshadow, pink lipstick and mascara.

The Hemsworths are one of Hollywood's most famous acting families

She oozed red carpet glamour by styling her blonde locks in loose waves.

Westworld star Luke also went with the Italian fashion house, teaming box-fresh white D&G sneakers with a black suit and white shirt.

Hemsworth matriarch Leonie proved beauty has no age limit by matching her daughter-in-law in an off-the-shoulder black dress.

Samantha oozed red carpet glamour by styling her blonde locks in loose waves

She paired the stylish LBD with open-toe strappy heels and wore her blonde hair out in beachy waves.

Craig made it clear where the Hemsworth boys got their good looks from.

Just like his sons, the silver fox opted to go without a tie, teaming a grey shirt with a black suit and shiny dress shoes.

In addition to Chris in the main role, Thor: Love and Thunder also stars Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, Christian Bale and Matt Damon.

Elsa shined on the red carpet at the El Capitan Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard in a white dress with a plunging neckline and daring thigh split

The fourth Thor film sees the hammer-wielding superhero go up against the villainous Gorr the God Butcher, played by Bale.

Chris is building the life he always dreamed of in coastal Australia, far from the bright lights of Hollywood.

The actor, who lives with Elsa and their children near Byron Bay, NSW, said earlier this month he wanted to spend more time filming in his home country.

'My focus ever since I had any sway was to shoot here in Australia due to, on a personal level, being at home with my family, but also because of the awareness that I had about what was possible here when it comes to the talent,' he said.

Chris, 38, looked sharp in a crisp light blue dress shirt, paired with a royal blue three-piece suit and brown loafers

Chris made his latest film, the Netflix sci-fi drama Spiderhead, in Queensland.

His production company, Wild State Productions, brought Thor 3 and 4, Extraction 1 and 2, Spiderhead and Interceptor to film in Australia.

'Life is sweet. It is great and I couldn't be happier,' Chris added. 'If you had have said or asked me 10 years ago where I would like to be, this is it.'

Chris and Elsa, who married in 2010, have three children, daughter India, 10, and twin sons Sasha and Tristan, eight.

They live in a $30million mansion in Broken Head.

Thor: Love and Thunder, directed by Taika Waititi, hits Australian and UK cinemas on July 7, and on July 8 in the United States.
Chris Pratt opened up on the discussion of his landing the role of Mario in the upcoming Super Mario Bros. film, as he's not of Italian heritage.

The Minnesota native, 43, spoke with Variety Wednesday about the notion some people could be put off by the accent he uses to play the famed video game plumber, as a number of people took to social media last fall skeptical of the casting decision.

'I worked really closely with the directors and trying out a few things and landed on something that Im really proud of,' Pratt said, 'and cant wait for people to see and hear.'

The latest: Chris Pratt, 43, opened up on the discussion of his landing the role of Mario in the upcoming Super Mario Bros. film, as he's not Italian. He was snapped Wednesday in LA

The Guardians Of The Galaxy leading man clarified that the film is 'not a live-action movie' but 'an animated voiceover narrative,' adding, 'Im not gonna be wearing a plumber suit running all over. '

The Jurassic World Dominion actor said he's 'providing a voice for an animated character, and it is updated and unlike anything youve heard in the Mario world before.'

One of the film's producers, Chris Meledandri, told TooFab last November, said of Pratt's performance: 'All I can tell you is the voice that he's doing for us, and Mario, is phenomenal. Yeah I can't wait for people to hear it.'

Meledandri said that 'as an Italian-American,' he understood 'the comments,' adding that 'Charlie Day, who's playing Luigi, actually comes from Italian heritage. Yeah so that's our nod.'

Pratt is slated to voice the role of Mario in the upcoming animated film

Pratt said of his work in the film, 'I worked really closely with the directors and trying out a few things and landed on something that Im really proud of and cant wait for people to see and hear'

Meledandri told the outlet that the accent issue would be covered 'in the movie,' adding, 'So you'll see we definitely nod to that.'

He said that Pratt would not be saying phrases such as 'It's a-me, Mario,' noting, 'That's not the tenor of the performance throughout the film.'

In addition to Pratt and Day, the film's cast will include Jack Black as Bowser, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, and Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong, among others.

Nintendo last fall released a promo for the upcoming motion picture
Young and the Restless star Melissa Ordway had her dream come true when she was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award... though she will not be able to attend.

The 39-year-old actress was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Performance in a Drama Series: Actress for playing Abby Newman in Young and the Restless.

She took to Twitter on Thursday evening, revealing she has tested positive for COVID-19 to her over 67K followers.

Dream: Young and the Restless star Melissa Ordway had her dream come true when she was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award... though she will not be able to attend.

'It has always been a dream of mine to be nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award and to bring my parents to the show. It was about to come true, until I tested positive for Covid yesterday afternoon', Ordway began.

'Im so disappointed that I wont be able to celebrate with everyone on Friday. Ive cried lots of tears,' she said, adding that, 'Thankfully, I'm asymptomatic.'

'I'm super grateful no one in our home is sick. What a blessing,' she continued, before addressing her fellow nominees.

Positive: 'It has always been a dream of mine to be nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award and to bring my parents to the show. It was about to come true, until I tested positive for Covid yesterday afternoon', Ordway began

'To my Daytime community, have the best time. Wish I could be there but Ill be watching from home and cheering on all of the nominees!' she said.

'Y&R bring home the gold! Love you all! And to everyone at CBS and Sony thank you for everything. So grateful to play Abby,' she added, before addressing her parents.

'To my amazing parents, Im so sorry that this weekend has fallen apart. I was so excited to attend the awards with you. This nomination was because you always believed in me. I love you,' she said.

Best time: 'To my Daytime community, have the best time. Wish I could be there but Ill be watching from home and cheering on all of the nominees!' she said

'To everyone whos cheered me on, sent me well wishes and love and support, it means more to me than youll ever know. I love Daytime and Im honored to be a part of this talented group! Cheering from my couch!' she concluded.

Ordway is nominated alongside Kimberlin Brown as Sheila Carter in The Bold and the Beautiful, Nancy Lee Grahn as Alexis Davis in General Hospital, Stacy Haiduk as Kristen DiMera in Days of Our Lives and Kelly Thiebaud as Dr. Britt Westbourne in General Hospital.

She has been married to actor Justin Gaston since 2012, and they share six-year-old adopted daughter Olivia Christine and four-year-old daughter Sophie Jolie.

Nominated: Ordway is nominated alongside Kimberlin Brown as Sheila Carter in The Bold and the Beautiful, Nancy Lee Grahn as Alexis Davis in General Hospital, Stacy Haiduk as Kristen DiMera in Days of Our Lives and Kelly Thiebaud as Dr. Britt Westbourne in General Hospital

Ordway had just returned back to the United States after a trip to Monaco, where she was promoting Young and the Restless.

She was joined by co-star Jason Thompson at the Monte Carlo TV Festival.

Her show also celebrated its 40th Anniversary earlier this month.
The new installment in the Thor film series - Thor: Love And Thunder - held its premiere event in Los Angeles on Thursday.

Christian Bale makes his debut as the newest Marvel villain as Gorr the God Butcher, a scarred galactic killer who seeks the extinction of the gods and wields a 'strange and terrifying' sword.

The star-studded cast who attended the red carpet event also included the likes of Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Natalie Portman (Jane Foster/Mighty Thor), Tessa Thompson (Valkyrie), Taika Waititi (Korg), Russell Crowe (Zeus) and Jaimie Alexander (Sif), among many others.

Marvel debut: Christian Bale, 48, and wife Sibi Blazic, 52, attended the premiere of Thor: Love And Thunder in Los Angeles on Thursday

Bale stepped out to the festive premiere with his wife of over 22 years, Sibi Blazic.

The Oscar-winning actor, 48, looked handsome in a black suit that he paired with a black dress shirt and matching shoes.

While on the red carpet, Bale held hands with his wife, who looked elegant in a black dress and matching heels.

On this night she wore her dark brown tresses long, wavy and flowing to about the middle of her back with a part in the middle.

Couple in black: The Oscar-winning actor looked handsome in a black suit while his wife stunned in a an elegant black dress and heels

While Bale has made headlines during his storied career with such riveting and transformative performances in American Psycho, The Machinist, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Fighter, among many others, he has also worked alongside his wife.

Blazic has worked in Hollywood as a stunt driver, with The Dark Knight Rises (2012) listed as one of her film credits.

'My wife was a stunt driver, she was chasing me through the city in Batman. She was driving one of the cop cars. She can do 180s and stunts and all that,' the British actor told the Wall Street Journal. 'She terrifies me. My wife terrifies me.'

The Chicago native is also credited with performances in Ford v Ferrari (2019) and George of the Jungle (1997).

The couple, who celebrated their 22nd wedding anniversary in January, are the proud parents of two children: daughter Emmeline, 17 and son Joesph, seven.

Tranformation: Bale makes his debut as the newest marvel villain as Gorr the God Butcher, a scarred galactic killer who seeks the extinction of the gods and wields a 'strange and terrifying' sword

This latest chapter in the Thor series follows the events of Avengers: Endgame (2019). Thor attempts to find inner peace, but must return to action and recruit Valkyrie, Korg and Jane Foster who has become the Mighty Thorto stop Gorr the God Butcher from eliminating all gods.

Hemsworth is back in the titular role, an Avenger and the former king of Asgard, who plays opposite Natalie Portman, his love interest Jane Foster/Mighty Thor

Cast members from the Guardians Of The Galaxy also make appearances in the film, which includes Chris Pratt, Pom Klementieff, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper.

Star-studded: Chris Hemsworth is back as Thor, an Avenger and the former king of Asgard alongside co-stars Tessa Thompson (Valkyrie), Natalie Portman (Jane Foster/Mighty Thor), Taika Waititi (Korg), Russell Crowe (Zeus) and Jaimie Alexander (Sif), among many others

On top of that, Jeff Goldblum reprises his role as Grandmaster from Thor: Ragnarok alongside Matt Damon, Sam Neil and Luke Hemsworth, as well as Melissa McCarthy, Akosia Sabet, Ben Falcone, Jenny Morris and Simon Russell Beale.

Development on the sequel began during production of the previous Thor movie, Ragnarok, which was also directed by New Zealand filmmaker Taika Waititi.

Thor: Love and Thunder is scheduled to make its widespread release in the U.S. on July 8, as part of Phase Four of the MCU.
Chrishell Stause looked every bit the glamour girl as she joined her stunning Selling Sunset co-stars Emma Hernan and Chelsea Lazkani at Netflix's Open House cocktail party in Beverly Hills on Thursday.

The 40-year-old real estate agent showed off her tanned and toned physique in a racy black mesh dress.

Chrishell's daring dress was taken up a notch with a matching corset that cinched in her waist.

Dolled up: Chrishell Stause looked every bit the glamour girl as she joined her stunning Selling Sunset co-stars Emma Hernan and Chelsea Lazkani at Netflix's Open House cocktail party in Beverly Hills on Thursday

Her honey toned tresses flowed down her chest in voluminous curls.

As for makeup, the Days Of Our Lives alum rocked a smokey eyeshadow look paired with a pale pink lip and lots of vibrant peach blusher.

She eagerly posed for snapshots with castmates Emma and Chelsea, who left little to the imagination in skimpy outfits of their own.

Sizzling: The 40-year-old real estate agent showed off her tanned and toned physique in a racy black mesh dress. Meanwhile, Emma displayed her ample cleavage in a bright red mini dress and Chelsea flashed her abs in a sparkly bra top

Mingling: After posing with Emma and Chelsea, Chrishell mingled with one of the stars of Netflix's Bling Empire, Kane Lim. The duo posed for photos together in front of giant Netflix sign

Emma displayed her ample cleavage in a bright red mini dress with a dramatic chest cut-out and a belted waist.

The Boston native styled the eye-catching number with a pair of strappy scarlet heels and some glitzy chandelier earrings.

Chelsea, who made quite the splash after joining the Selling Sunset cast in season five, flashed her washboard abs in a glittery mesh bra top and a matching sarong.

New addition: Chelsea made quite the splash after joining the Selling Sunset cast in season five; Chelsea seen with Alexandra Jarvis

Show-stopping: Amanza Smith showed a lot of leg in a vibrant pink mini dress with a pop of metallic fuchsia on the waist and bust. Davina Potratz risked a major wardrobe malfunction by showing off her ample chest in a strapless LBD

The UK native wore her silky brunette hair in a high ponytail and she accessorized with a pair of diamond drop earrings.

After posing with Emma and Chelsea, Chrishell mingled with one of the stars of Netflix's Bling Empire, Kane Lim. The duo posed for photos together in front of giant Netflix sign.

The rest of the Selling Sunset cast - except reigning villainess Christine Quinn - were in attendance to celebrate their hit reality show.

Stunning pair: Mary Fitzgerald stunned in a black one-shoulder blazer dress as she spent quality time with her husband Romain Bonnet during the nighttime shindig

Lovebirds: Vanessa Villela and her boyfriend Nick Hardy looked very much in love as they posed with their arms wrapped around one another for a snap

The men in charge: The brains behind the successful Oppenheim Group in Los Angeles, twins Jason Oppenheim and Brett Oppenheim, looked suave in white button-up shirts and their blue suits of choice

Amanza Smith showed a lot of leg in a vibrant pink mini dress with a pop of metallic fuchsia on the waist and bust.

Davina Potratz risked a major wardrobe malfunction by showing off her ample chest in a strapless LBD.

Mary Fitzgerald stunned in a black one-shoulder blazer dress as she spent quality time with her husband Romain Bonnet during the nighttime shindig.

Vanessa Villela and her boyfriend Nick Hardy looked very much in love as they posed with their arms wrapped around one another for a snap.

Family affair: Kyle Richards looked radiant in a black strapless dress as she attended the cocktail party with her husband Mauricio Umansky and their daughter Alexia Umansky

Supportive: The Halloween actress was supporting Mauricio and Alexia, who will be starring in Netflix's new real estate reality show, Buying Beverly Hills

Coming soon: Buying Beverly Hills follows Mauricio and the agents at his billion-dollar brokerage, according to Netflix . It's slated for a Fall 2022 release

The brains behind the successful Oppenheim Group in Los Angeles, twins Jason Oppenheim and Brett Oppenheim, looked suave in white button-up shirts and their blue suits of choice.

Kyle Richards looked radiant in a black strapless dress as she attended the cocktail party with her husband Mauricio Umansky and their daughter Alexia Umansky.

The Halloween actress was supporting Mauricio and Alexia, who will be starring in Netflix's new real estate reality show, Buying Beverly Hills.

Buying Beverly Hills follows Mauricio and the agents at his billion-dollar brokerage, according to Netflix. It's slated for a Fall 2022 release.

Back for more! Earlier in the day, it was revealed that Selling Sunset has officially been renewed for two more seasons on Netflix. But there's still a question mark over exactly who will be returning

Earlier in the day, it was revealed that Selling Sunset has officially been renewed for two more seasons on Netflix. But there's still a question mark over exactly who will be returning.

While the likes of Heather Rae El Moussa, Chrishell Stause and Amanza Smith all celebrated the news on social media... show villain Christine Quinn remained silent, and it was revealed yesterday that Maya Vander has now left.

Despite leaving her role at the Oppenheim Group, Christine vowed in May this year that she was 'not going anywhere' when it came to the hit show.
Comedian Nikki Osbourne has revealed she made $10,000 on her first day on adukt platform OnlyFans.

The Sunshine Coast based comedian, 40, set up a profile under her alter ego 'Bush Barbie', with proceeds going towards saving koalas in the Northern Rivers.

She said she decided to make the account after seeing an Instagram story of women desperately trying to relocate koalas that were being poisoned by toxic floodwater.

Comedian Nikki Osbourne (pictured) has revealed she made $10,000 on her first day on OnlyFans

'I think it's the new form of crowd-funding,' she told the Courier Mail.

The I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here star added that while insurance companies had people's backs, nobody 'seemed to piper up about the impact of wildlife' and that she 'wants to make sure the money goes to a hands-on company'.

'I don't want to waste my rig on a charity that burns the dough in administration and fancy shindigs,' she added.

The Sunshine Coast based comedian, 40, set up a profile under her alter ego 'Bush Barbie', with proceeds going towards saving koalas in the Northern Rivers

Nikki also said her goal is to raise $50,000 in the first week, with some of her requests so far being asked to take nude photos and being offer $1,000 to watch a sex act.

'It's all meant to be funny for a good cause. It's not like I've gone on MAFS to launch a career in porn  but good on them,' she joked. 'What's funny is koalas have a chlamydia problem so it's kind of poetic to raise funds via Only Fans.'

She plans to keep the account going for a month, and will hand over a cheque to her chosen charity on July 17.

Nikki went topless in a during her Channel 10 stand-up show in October - hours after facing backlash for comparing Covid vaccine mandates to rape

The comedian is no stranger to taking her kit off and in October appeared topless on Channel 10's stand-up comedy show Just For Laughs: Uncut.

Nikki, who hosts the late-night program, raised eyebrows as she closed the show with a 'nude' scene filmed in a bar - her bare breasts pixelated as she addressed the camera.

Standing with a whisky glass in one hand, the star declared: 'Well, I promised there'd be nudity... and this is why they pay me the big bucks.'

'We'll see you next time on Just For Laughs: Uncut,' she said, breaking into laughter.

Nikki faced backlash last year after she shared a tasteless meme on Instagram.

Standing with a whisky glass in one hand, the I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! star declared: 'Well, I promised there'd be nudity... and this is why they pay me the big bucks'

Her since-deleted post showed convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein next to actress Lindsay Lohan, alongside the caption: 'The original no jab, no job.'

The meme was in reference to Covid-19 vaccine mandates, and compared them to Weinstein's 'casting couch' crimes and the wider Hollywood practice of actresses having sex with influential producers in exchange for film roles.

The disgraced American film producer is serving a 23-year sentence after a jury found him guilty in March 2020 of rape and sexual assault.
Elizabeth Hurley wowed in a busty red dress as she attended a glittering bash in Berlin on Thursday.

The actress, 57, displayed her ample cleavage in a the sequin embellished plunging gown as she posed up a storm.

The outfit cinched in at her trim waist and flared into an elegant tulle skirt.

Wow: Elizabeth Hurley wowed in a busty red dress as she attended a glittering bash in Berlin on Thursday

She boosted her height with red heels and accessorised with a gold box clutch.

Liz wore her locks in soft waves and sported a rich palette of make-up.

Recently Elizabeth gave fans a blast from the past as she wore another version of that iconic safety pin dress.

Busty: The actress, 57, displayed her ample cleavage in a the sequin embellished plunging gown as she posed up a storm

She famously stole the show when she accompanied Hugh Grant to the premiere of Four Weddings and a Funeral in 1994 wearing THAT iconic Versace safety pin dress.

So it was a case of... if it ain't broke, when Elizabeth Hurley wore yet another version of the dress while posing for Instagram snaps on Sunday.

This one was pink and sparkly in design and the various cut-out sections were held together with gold discs rather than pins.

But it was clear to see the design was heavily inspired by the 1994 version which Elizabeth had worn very last minute.

Glamour: The outfit cinched in at her trim waist and flared into an elegant tulle skirt

Siren: She boosted her height with red heels and accessorised with a gold box clutch

Clearly noting the similarity, Elizabeth shared two pictures and wrote: 'Having a @versace moment @damianhurley1 @donatella_versace @stylistmikeadler.'

Damian, 20, posed alongside her for one of the shots, and was the perfect stand-in for Hugh, who had accompanied Elizabeth before.

Hugh spoke about the original dress in a BBC documentary - revealing she had only worn that dress because other fashion houses had declined to dress her on the night because she was not very well known at that point.

'Having a Versace moment: Elizabeth wore a pink dress inspired by THAT iconic safety pin number - 28 years later - and posted the results to Instagram on Sunday

He said: 'Poor Elizabeth rang some top designers and they all said: "No, who are you?" or "No, we're not lending you anything".'

'Then Versace said: "Yes, we'll lend you a dress", and they just sent one round which is that one with the safety pins.

'So she shoved it on and I raised my eyebrows a fraction and we set off.'

Elizabeth and Hugh met in 1987 and dated for 13 years.

She welcomed her son Damian with the late Steve Bing, a Hollywood mogul who died by suicide in 2020.
President Yoon Suk-yeol takes reporters' questions as he arrives at his office in Seoul, Friday, in this pool photo. Yonhap





President Yoon Suk-yeol spoke by phone with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Friday, and discussed responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, a presidential official said.







The two talked about efforts to overcome the pandemic and South Korea's role and contribution to global health cooperation.







"The president said now is an important time, as COVID-19 stabilizes, to reorganize the global health system and prepare for future health crises," the official told reporters.







Yoon said he expects to see ample room for cooperation with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which Gates co-chairs, in promoting research and development in the digital bio sector.







He also promised increased cooperation between the South Korean government and health organizations such as the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, which the Gates Foundation actively supports.







Meanwhile, Gates congratulated Yoon on his inauguration last month, and the president thanked the businessman for sending him a copy of his book, "How to Prevent the Next Pandemic." (Yonhap)


Today host Karl Stefanovic had a rare ratings victory this week.

Channel Nine's embattled breakfast show beat its top-rated rival Sunrise in Sydney and Brisbane reports TV Tonight.

The news comes at an ideal time for Today as next week will see the show celebrate 40 years on-air on Channel Nine.

Channel Nine's Today had a rare victory this week beating Channel Seven's Sunrise in the ratings. Pictured: Today's Karl Stefanovic and co-host Ally Langdon

Meanwhile the ratings spike offers a consolation to Today co-host Karl, 47, who was up for a Gold Logie last Sunday, but missed out to Hamish Blake.

Karl who co-hosts the show with Allison Langdon says that Today is having a comeback after a dreadful year struggling in the ratings.

The 14 year veteran of the show said: 'It's been a really positive last four weeks for us, on the east coast,'

'We're winning Brisbane by long way, Sydney again, so we're fighting our way back.'

The ratings spike offers a consolation to Today co-host Karl, 47, who was up for a Gold Logie last week, but missed out to Hamish Blake. Pictured: Karl at last Sunday's Logies

The popular star may have alluded to the federal election and the war in the Ukraine, as factors in the ratings battle, without naming either story in his comments.

'There's been some big news stories,' he said.

'I'm not sure that politics was something our audience particularly liked.'

The news of a ratings win comes at an ideal time for Today as next week will see the show celebrate 40 years on-air. Pictured: Karl and wife Jasmine at the Logies last Sunday

After rating as the number one breakfast show in 2021 for all key demographics in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, Today has been struggling to win audiences in 2022.

In one week last month it came third every day of the week, after rivals Channel Seven's Sunrise and ABC's News Breakfast.

Despite Sunrise winning the 18-year breakfast war battle Today wrapped on a high last year following the end of the ratings season.

Seven's Sunrise team is still dominating in the ratings having won the overall season last year. Pictured: Presenters Nat Barr and David Koch

According to a report in TV Tonight, ratings for Nine's popular breakfast program have greatly improved over the last year, as more Aussies have tuned in for the news coverage and light-hearted moments between the team.

'It's been a challenging year as the pandemic and repeated lockdowns have taken their toll on Australians of all ages,' said Nine's Director of Morning Television, Steven Burling.

'During this time of crisis more and more viewers have made their breakfast program of choice for their daily news updates, and some much-needed laughs along the way.'
Heather Graham flaunted her incredible figure as she shared sun-soaked snaps from her getaway to the Turks and Caicos Islands.

The actress, 52, showed off her toned physique and ample assets in black and white string bikinis as she enjoyed the day with a pal.

She looked sensational with her highlighted blonde tresses down in easy relaxed waves, sporting a pair of shades in some photos.

Stunner: Heather Graham, 52. flaunted her incredible figure as she shared sun-soaked snaps from her getaway to the Turks and Caicos Island

The Austin Powers star opted for a soft glam look with dark lashes and a berry lipstick.

She posed up a storm in the snaps, strutting her enviable figure as she emerged from the shore and took selfies with author Liz Plank, 35.

Heather also shared a clip of the two working out on exercise mats as they stretched out to enjoy some yoga.

Loving life! The actress showed off her toned physique and ample assets in black and white string bikinis as she enjoyed the day with a pal

Beach day: The Austin Powers star opted for a soft glam look with dark lashes and a berry lipstick

Fun in the sun: She posed up a storm in the snaps, strutting her enviable figure as she emerged from the shore and took selfies with author Liz Plank, 35

Sharing the carousel with her 439,000 Instagram followers, the Boogie Nights actress wrote a list of the things she 'loves', which included 'the beach', her 'friend @feministabulous' and 'yoga'.

She also took to her Stories to post a sweet snap of herself in flippers, teamed with an otherwise chic beach ensemble consisting of shorts and and a netted throw, captioned 'snorkeling my way through Turks and Caicos'.

Meanwhile April the stunner showed off her incredible figure as she enjoyed a relaxing dip in Utah's hot springs.

Holiday: She also took to her Stories to post a sweet snap of herself in flippers, teamed with an otherwise chic beach ensemble, captioned 'snorkeling my way through Turks and Caicos'

Favourites: Sharing the carousel with her 439,000 Instagram followers, the Boogie Nights actress wrote a list of the things she 'loves'

Radiant: Heather showed off her incredible figure in a skimpy black bikini as she went for a dip in Utah's hot springs in April

Heather slipped into a skimpy black bikini for her day out and flaunted her youthful looks on Instagram.

Looking simply sensational, she kicked back in the water and soaked up the stunning scenery with views of the surrounding mountains seen in the background.

Heather pulled her blonde locks back into a practical high bun and shielded her eyes with a pair of oversized cat eye sunglasses.

Relaxing: She pulled her blonde locks back into a practical high bun and shielded her eyes with a pair of oversized cat eye sunglasses

Fans posted a flurry of gushing messages as they took to the comments section to complement the star on her 'ageless' looks.

One follower penned: 'How old are you heather? 25? You look fantastic!!!'

Another added: 'You are like a fine wine.'

It comes after her film The Last Son, where she co-starred alongside Machine Gun Kelly and Sam Worthington, was released in January.

The Avatar star plays an outlaw who hunts down his children in an attempt to stop his own murder and defy a curse that had previously been placed on him.

Heather stars as 19th century prostitute Anna, who's the mother of 'psycho' gunslinging cowboy Cal (Kelly).

'A fine wine': Fans posted a flurry of gushing messages as they took to the comments section to complement the star on her 'ageless' looks

In December, the actress was asked about playing Kelly's mother during a recent appearance on LIVE with Kelly and Ryan.

Co-host Kelly Ripa said: 'Is that real that he plays your son, is Hollywood punking us? Or was it just the time way back in the day when they had children when they were nine years old?'

Heather replied: 'Oh you're sweet! I could be his mom. He's this groovy rock star. To be honest, I didn't know who he was.

Stars: It comes after her film The Last Son, where she co-starred alongside Machine Gun Kelly (pictured), was released in January (Pictured at the premiere in December 2021)

'My friend's kids knew who he was, but now of course I know who he is. He's awesome. He's a really good actor and he's really good in the movie.'

Heather did a funny impersonation of the musician (born Colson Baker), who told her on the Montana set: 'Yeah I know what I'm doing.'

'But he's sweet. We just had a premiere and they're like, "Say a few words,"' Heather recalled laughing.

'And I was like, "This is great to be here." And he's like, "Bang bang." That's what he said!'
Bono showed his support for another music superstar this week as he enjoyed Harry Styles' Dublin gig on Wednesday with his family.

The U2 frontman, 62, sat in VIP seats with his wife Ali Hewson and their two children Eve and John as they sang along to Harry's hits alongside thousands of other fans at the city's Aviva Stadium.

Bono's actress daughter Eve Hewson, 30, shared snaps from the family night out on her Instagram page.

Family fun: Bono showed his support for another music superstar this week as he enjoyed Harry Styles' Dublin gig on Wednesday with his wife Ali (far right) and children Eve and John

Sitting up in the stands in their VIP seats, Eve shared a snap with her family, with Bono seen grinning in the background. 'When the 1D tune drops' she captioned the post.

The actress then shared a snap with her brother John, 21, joking: 'He hates me.'

Sharing another selfie she added: 'Hates me so much'.

Eve was previously spotted hanging out with Harry and his girlfriend Olivia Wilde as she showed them the sights of her home town of Killiney ahead of Harry's gig.

On tour: The U2 frontman, 62, sat in VIP seats with his family as they sang along to Harry's hits alongside thousands of other fans at the city's Aviva Stadium

The trio headed to Vico Baths for a swim on Monday night, much to the surprise of locals.

Actress Eve, who has appeared in big screen movies such as Robin Hood, has been friends with actor turned director Olivia for years.

Harry has been wowing audiences across the world with his Love On Tour show, which will take him around the world until March 2023.

Bono meanwhile announced last month that he is set to release a memoir titled Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story this November.

Joker: Bono's actress daughter Eve Hewson, 30, shared snaps from the family night out on her Instagram page

Pals: Eve, who has appeared in big screen movies such as Robin Hood, has been friends with Harry Styles' director girlfriend Olivia Wilde for years

The book, named after a song on U2's 1983 album War, will be composed of 40 chapters - all named after the band's hits - and will each feature original drawings by the musician.

Bono, whose real name is Paul Hewson, will chronicle his childhood growing up in Dublin - including the death of his mother when he was 14 - as well as his rise to fame with U2 and his activism against HIV/AIDS and poverty.

In a statement, he said: 'When I started to write this book, I was hoping to draw in detail what I'd previously only sketched in songs.

'The people, places, and possibilities in my life. Surrender is a word freighted with meaning for me.

New venture: Bono meanwhile announced last month that he is set to release a memoir titled Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story this November

'Growing up in Ireland in the seventies with my fists up (musically speaking), it was not a natural concept.

'A word I only circled until I gathered my thoughts for the book. I am still grappling with this most humbling of commands. In the band, in my marriage, in my faith, in my life as an activist.

'Surrender is the story of one pilgrim's lack of progress . . . With a fair amount of fun along the way.'

Bono will also narrate the audio version of the book, which is being published by Alred A. Knopf on November 1.

Bono met his bandmates the Edge, Larry Mullen Jr. and Adam Clayton at school in Dublin.

Content: Bono, whose real name is Paul Hewson, will chronicle his childhood growing up in Dublin - including the death of his mother when he was 14 - as well as his rise to fame with U2 and his activism against HIV/AIDS and poverty

He wrote U2's first single on his 18th birthday and their debut album Boy was released two years later.

They achieved their first UK number one album with War in 1983 and their fifth album The Joshua Tree, released in 1987, brought them to worldwide prominence.

U2 is one of the most successful bands in history and has sold more than 157 million albums and won 22 Grammy Awards.
He shed shed 14 stone in one year after having gastric sleeve surgery.

And on Wednesday, James 'Arg' Argent showed off his slim frame as he sang for guests and danced with Sadie Wright at the opening of her husband Elliot's new Alicante restaurant, Eduardo's in Villamartin Plaza, Alicante.

The TOWIE favourite, 34, looked dapper for the special night, dressed in a navy and white Dior branded shirt, which he teamed with a pair of beige chinos.

Fun times: On Wednesday, James 'Arg' Argent, 34, danced with Sadie Wright at the opening of her husband Elliot's new Alicante restaurant, Eduardo's in Villamartin Plaza, Alicante

Talented: Arg showed off his slim frame as he sang for guests at the launch night

James couldn't hide his delight as he performed with confidence and swagger at the packed-out venue, before sharing a laugh with owner Elliot, 42.

Elliot's beautiful wife Sadie oozed glamour in a beige corset top and coordinating ruched mini skirt, which she wore with strappy skyscraper heels.

Elliot himself was equally stylish in a baby blue shirt, teamed with black trousers, while having a white blazer complete his launch night ensemble.

Loving life: James couldn't hide his delight as he performed with confidence and swagger at the packed-out venue, before sharing a laugh with owner Elliot, 42

Sensational: Elliot's beautiful wife Sadie oozed glamour in a beige corset top and coordinating ruched mini skirt, which she wore with strappy skyscraper heels

Fun times: Elliot and Arg burst out laughing as they shared a joke

Stylish: The TOWIE favourite, looked dapper for the special night, dressed in a navy and white Dior branded shirt, which he teamed with a pair of beige chinos

Blame it on the boogie: Arg partied up a storm with delighted guests

Speaking to MailOnline, he previously said his career will now be focused on his true passion and gigging with The Arg Band is where he feels happiest.

In an exclusive interview James, who last appeared on ITVBe show TOWIE in 2018, said: 'As much as I love doing all the stuff on TV, I'm really passionate about and my bread and butter is my band and all my singing gigs.'

The event comes after Arg said that he 'finally has a positive view of himself' and will wear whatever he wants in an empowering Instagram update.

Before and after: Arg was told he was putting his health at risk with his weight - tipping the scales at 27stone, before having gastric sleeve surgery last year (pictured before left)

Bromance: Elliot and Arg swung white napkins around to celebrate

Sweet: Arg sang a song to Elliot's stunning mother before she enjoyed a dance with her son

Let me take a selfie: Arg happily posed for photos with guests

Stylish: Sadie and Arg took a moment away from dancing to pose for a photograph

Shake it! Sadie and James flashed wide smiles as they boogied away

Family: Elliot posed with his mother as well as his wife

'I truly accept & trust myself, I really have a sense of control in my life. I know my strengths & weaknesses well, I finally have a positive view of myself.

'I like being different & I can handle criticism. Not everyone is going to like my style or the way I dress but I've lost 14 stone in weight so I'm entitled to wear whatever the hell I want.'

James has been open and honest regarding his battle with binge eating, having once weighed 27 stone before having bariatric surgery last year.

The star underwent a gastric sleeve operation which saw his stomach reduced to 20 per cent of its original size.

Close bond: Arg and Elliot shared an embrace during the evening

Proud: Sadie captured the atmosphere on the evening as she filmed on her phone

Mum and son: Elliot posed proudly at the entrance to his new restaurant with his mother

Close: Elliot and his mother shared a sweet moment on the dance floor
She may be an ex Spice Girl and award winning fashion designer but she still has to pick up after her dog like everyone else.

And Victoria Beckham, 48, took to her Instagram Stories on Friday to offer her followers some less than glamorous advice.

In the clip the fashion mogul was walking cocker spaniel Fig, joined on the journey by her ten-year-old daughter Harper when husband David, 47, seemingly came to the rescue.

'David's got my back!': Victoria Beckham offers fans poop bag advice as her famous husband comes to the rescue as she walks cocker spaniel Fig

Guided by the pooch Victoria said: 'So we are on the school walk this morning, getting our steps in'.

'And someone - David - has tied the poop bag around the lead' she continued as she showed off the green plastic sack - as well as her perfectly manicured nails.

Before adding: 'What a good idea, so you never forget them!'.

Love: Guided by the pooch Victoria said: 'So we are on the school walk this morning, getting our steps in' (pictured together earlier this year)

Handy David: 'And someone - David - has tied the poop bag around the lead' she continued as she showed off the green plastic sack - as well as her perfectly manicured nails

The Wannabe hitmaker, who is also mother to Brooklyn, 23, Romeo, 19, Cruz, 17, then gushed over the black pup.

She cried: ' Fig, Fiiigie, good morning!'.

Captioning the images: 'Top tip! @DavidBeckham ties ties the poop bags around the dog lead so you never forget them'.

Tips: Captioning the images: 'Top tip! @DavidBeckham ties ties the poop bags around the dog lead so you never forget them'

Family: The family also own cocker spaniels Olive and Sage before welcoming puppy Simba to the clan earlier this month

The proud mother also took to her Instagram on Friday to share a snap of her model son Romeo as he was seen on posters around Paris.

The 19-year-old posed up a storm in a black and white Saint Laurent commercial donning shades and a large fur coat.

Captioning a snap of the bus shelter poster Victoria wrote: 'Seen on the streets of Paris, Love this sooo much!'.

Proud posh: The proud mother also took to her Instagram on Friday to share a snap of her model son Romeo as he was seen on posters around Paris

It comes after the family welcomed a brand new addition to the family earlier this month in the form of an adorable pup named Simba .

And the arrival seems to be settling into family life, as Victoria shared a slew of sweet snaps to her Instagram dubbing him 'A real posh puppy'.

Showing that Simba is being showered with attention, the snaps included her husband David lying down for a cuddle.

Cute! Showing that Simba is being showered with attention, the snaps included David lying down for a cuddle

Kisses: While another showed Harper (left) and Romeo (right) embracing the cute pup

Flashing a smile to the camera, David locked Simba between his arms as they enjoyed the sweet embrace.

While another showed Harper, the youngest of the Beckham clan (prior to Simba!), planting a kiss on his head.

While Romeo, who was the first to announce the arrival of Simba, dubbing him 'my new baby', held the tiny pup by just one hand as he nestled into him.

Jesting that he had 'great taste' in the caption, Victoria also shared a shot of Simba with a 'Chewy Vuiton' dog toy, which featured a play on the iconic Louis Vuitton design.

Designer dog: Jesting that he had 'great taste' in the caption, Victoria also shared a shot of Simba with a 'Chew Vuiton' dog toy, which featured a play on the iconic Louis Vuitton design
Popular Triple M radio star Bob Peters died last week after a long illness.

And on Friday, Paddy Gerard and Rob Palmer of Central Coast's 107.7 Triple M gave Peters, who was 62, a touching send-off on their breakfast show, playing a highlight reel of his work.

Peters was a veteran of Central Coast radio and Paddy and Rob were both clearly shaken over the radio favourite's recent passing.

Radio presenter Bob Peters (pictured) has died following a long battle with illness. During his career on the airwaves, Peters notably worked as an announcer for 107.7 Triple M on the Central Coast

'Bob Peters served many years on air across the Central Coast, many of them on air on 107.7 FM,' the breakfast hosts of the Paddy and Rob Palmer Show, said in a shared statement.

'He started his career on 2GO (before it became Triple M) in 1980 and has never stayed far away from those studios,' they continued.

'Triple M was lucky to have known and worked with Bob for such a long time. Bob... will be missed and remembered everyday.

'Our thoughts are with all of his friends and family on this sad day.'

On Friday Paddy Gerard (right) and Rob Palmer (left) of Central Coast's 107.7 Triple M gave Peters, who was 62, a touching send-off on their breakfast show, playing a highlight reel of hisv best work

During his career on the airwaves, Peters notably worked as an announcer for 107.7 Triple M on the NSW Central Coast, reports Radio Today.

He was also employed by the Nine Network and ARN, and provided voice-overs for Channel 10 and Fox Sports.

Peters had battled ill health since his mid-forties when he was diagnosed with a chronic illness, polycystic kidney disease.

Peters was a veteran of Central Coast radio and Paddy and Rob were both clearly shaken over the radio favourite's recent passing

He had reportedly waited a decade for a kidney transplant, only for doctors to discover five years after the successful operation that Peters had terminal cancer.

After this prognosis, he quit work and travelled across Australia in an RV, going up the west coast to Darwin before returning to the Central Coast, reports Radio Info.

His funeral was held on Friday, June 24 at Mackay Family Funerals in Ourimbah.

'Triple M was lucky to have known and worked with Bob for such a long time. Bob... will be missed and remembered everyday' they said in their tribute. Pictured: Peters, Paddy and Rob at work at Triple M

It's the second loss for the radio world in a month, after Peter Harvie's recent death.

Harvie was a media and advertising executive best known for being the long-time former chairman of Austereo, which later became Southern Cross Austereo.

During his five decades in the industry, he mentored several generations of radio talent, including Hamish Blake, Andy Lee, Eddie McGuire and Kyle Sandilands.
Priscilla Presley, ex-wife of Elvis Presley, has given her verdict on the new epic biopic about her life with the King of Rock 'n' Roll.

And filmmaker Baz Luhrmann, 59, has revealed he can now breathe a sigh of relief, after the actor and entrepreneur gave him the thumbs up.

The outspoken director and showman told news.com.au that he was not in the room while Priscilla, 77, watched the $200million blockbuster.

Priscilla Presley, ex-wife of Elvis Presley has finally given her verdict on the new epic biopic about her life with the King of Rock 'n' Roll. Pictured: Priscilla Presley and Elvis' director Baz Luhrmann, who said he was very nervous about showing his film to the Priscilla

He said Priscilla sent her approval in writing a few days later.

'[Priscilla] wrote to me a few days later and she said, "Oh my god, all my life, every breath, every move. If my husband was here, he would say to Austin [Butler], "Hot damn, you are me!"' the director said.

Baz went on to describe seeing Priscilla in person after she saw the film.

'She was very emotional. She looked up and went something like, "I can't put it in". I thought she was going to say 'words' but she said, "I can't put a value on that" he said

Memories: Priscilla wed Elvis in 1967, later divorcing in 1973, when she was 27 - and just four years prior to his death. Pictured on their wedding day

'She was very emotional. She looked up and went something like, "I can't put it in". I thought she was going to say 'words' but she said, "I can't put a value on that."'

'It's a more humanised version of her father who has become wallpaper. That's meaningful to me' he added.

Priscilla wed Elvis in 1967, later divorcing in 1973, when she was 27 - and just four years prior to his death.

They welcomed their first child, Lisa Marie a year later.

'It's a more humanised version of her father who has become wallpaper. That's meaningful to me' Baz said. Austin Butler is pictured as Elvis in the film

In the movie Priscilla is played by Australian star Olivia DeJong (centre). Oscar great Tom Hanks plays Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis' manager

Elvis the movie, covers the rock legends poverty stricken beginnings to early fame and his romance with the teen age Priscilla.

It ends with the superstar's untimely death at the age of just 42 in 1977.

Luhrmann recently shared that Lisa Marie agreed with her mother's verdict of the new biopic, telling the director she was deeply moved after seeing it.

In the movie Priscilla is played by Australian star Olivia DeJong. Oscar great Tom Hanks plays Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis' manager.
Tammin Sursok was commanding attention on Thursday.

The former Pretty Little Liars star attended the premiere of the documentary Rowdy, about American race car driver Kyle Busch, in Nashville, Tennessee.

The 38-year-old opted for a flirty summer frock with a retro paisley pattern throughout.

Tammin Sursok (pictured) was commanding attention on Thursday. The star attended the premiere of the Kyle Busch documentary Rowdy in Nashville, Tennessee

The short length of the dress showed off the star's trim pins, and featured a buttoned sleeve with a puff detail, as well as a ruffled hem.

She added a pair of towering heels in a bronze tone, which were decorated with studs in a honeycomb pattern.

Tammin skipped the accessories but for a number of silver rings set with glittering jewels.

The 38-year-old opted for a flirty summer frock with a retro paisley pattern throughout

The short length of the dress showed off the star's trim pins, and featured a buttoned sleeve with a puff detail, as well as a ruffled hem. Pictured with Roxy Manning

For makeup, the star chose a fresh, porcelain look with rosy cheeks and a soft pink lipstick.

She wore her brunette locks down around her face in soft waves that sat over the cutouts on her frock.

It comes after Tammin revealed she is no longer in contact with many of her former co-stars from the hit series Pretty Little Liars.

It comes after Tammin revealed she is no longer in contact with many of her former co-stars from the hit series Pretty Little Liars

After a fan asked her on Instagram if she's still in contact with the Pretty Little Liars cast, Tammin curtly responded: 'Not really'.

Tammin starred on the series with Troian Bellisario, Ashley Benson, Holly Marie Combs and Lucy Hale.

The former Home and Away star played Jenna Marshall on the series from 2010 to 2017.
Sienna Miller put on a loved-up display with her toyboy boyfriend Oli Green as they attended the National Gallery's Summer party on Thursday evening.

The actress, 40, and the Burberry model, 25, cosied up at the event, the theme of which was the Alchemist's Feast.

The blonde beauty cut a glamorous figure in a chic cream strapless bridal-inspired gown, while Oli looked dapper in a tuxedo.

Couple: Sienna Miller put on a loved-up display with her toyboy boyfriend Oli Green as they attended the National Gallery's Summer party on Thursday evening

She looked radiant as she sported a bronzed makeup palette which accentuated her natural features, while her golden locks were styled in loose curls.

Sienna - who is 15 years his senior - stepped out with her new man Oli back in February at a New York Knicks game, seemingly confirming their romance.

The rising star has been modelling for much longer and was the face of a Burberry 2018 campaign and has also modelled for high street retailer GAP.

Beaming: The actress, 40, and the Burberry model, 25, cosied up at the event, the theme of which was the Alchemist's Feast

Sienna, who recently starred as a betrayed wife in the Netflix series Anatomy Of A Scandal, has suffered her fair share of tumultuous relationships in the past.

She was previously engaged to actor Jude Law in 2004 but they split two years later after he had an affair with his childrens nanny.

The star, known for her roles in Alfie and Factory Girl, went on to have a well-publicised affair with married actor Balthazar Getty in 2008.

Stunning: The blonde beauty cut a glamorous figure in a chic cream bridal-inspired strapless gown while flashing her dazzling white smile

She later got engaged to actor Tom Sturridge, with whom she has a nine-year-old daughter, but they broke up in 2015.

She split from her third fiance, art gallery heir Lucas Zwirner, in 2020  just nine months after they got engaged.

Last month, Sienna broke her silence on her split with her former fiance Lucas Zwirner, 30, after she called off plans to marry him last year.

Loved-up: Sienna - who is 15 years his senior - stepped out with her new man Oli back in February at a New York Knicks game, seemingly confirming their romance

Speaking candidly in an interview with DuJour magazine, she said: 'I obviously have a lot of experience of kind of becoming well-known at a time when the tabloids really had all the power and the individual had very little.

'Anybody could really write anything. It was a real frenzy. A fever pitch of craziness.'

Her new boyfriend Oli, who is also an actor, is from one of the British art worlds most prestigious families.

His grandfather Richard Green owns two galleries in Mayfair with a collection worth around 74million.
Cheryl Fergison looked sensational as she attended the Tatton Park Pop Up Festival in Knutsford, Cheshire on Friday wearing a glam dress.

The former EastEnders star, 56, looked worlds away from her former launderette assistant character Heather Trott as she showed off her weight loss.

She seemed in high spirits as she soaked up the festival atmosphere and styled her brunette tresses in their natural curls - and Heather's trademark straight fringe and alice band was nowhere in sight.

Wow: EastEnders' Cheryl Fergison (left) looked sensational as she showcased her weight loss at the Tatton Park Pop Up Festival in Knutsford, Cheshire on Friday

Cheryl opted for a radiant palette of makeup while keeping her look simple in a pair of flat beige sandals.

The star first appeared in EastEnders in 2007 and was involved in a number of storylines including her marriage to Minty Peterson and having a baby with Darren Miller.

Heather was later killed off in 2012 when Ben Mitchell hit her over the head with a photo frame.

Stunning: The former EastEnders star, 56, seemed in high spirits as she soaked up the festival atmosphere in a stunning patterned maxi dress

Earlier this year Cheryl insisted her toyboy husband Yassine el Jamouni isn't a 'gold digger', and that they are still happily married 11 years on.

She exchanged vows with the rarely-seen shop assistant, 35, back in 2011 - however their relationship has been plagued with doubts.

She went on to claim the naysayers are sexist and that they wouldn't question Mick Jagger, 78, for his union with ballerina Melanie Hamrick, 35.

Glamorous: Cheryl opted for a radiant palette of makeup while keeping her look simple in a pair of flat beige sandals

She told The Mirror: 'The world has become so cynical. People think it's got to be a con, it's got to be a problem. But I say, "It hasn't got to be anything. Just stop it!"

'It seems to be quite cool for the men, like Mick Jagger, to date younger. And it seems okay for them to have someone else two years later.

'Well we don't care. It really is absolutely water off a duck's back to us now. I just feel sorry for them, that they need to criticise our life.'

Amazing: The star first appeared in EastEnders in 2007 and was involved in a number of storylines including her marriage to Minty Peterson and having a baby with Darren Miller (pictured in 2011)

Despite her on-screen character Heather Trott being unlucky in love, the actress enjoyed a whirlwind romance with her second husband after meeting him online in 2010.

She soon jetted out to his hometown of Agadir and they got hitched by the following June.

Cheryl previously revealed she didn't reveal her identity to Moroccan for five months after they starting messaging online.

Talking to Loose Women in 2017, the soap star said she enjoyed an 'old-fashioned' courtship with her 30-year-old toyboy.

She said: 'We met online and wrote to one another on the computer and spoke on the computer. It was very old-fashioned.

'He didn't know what I did for a living. I didn't show him my picture. It was five months of chat before we met each other.

'I saw him and it was like "ping". I knew he was the man I was going to marry and I had been married once before.'

Addressing the 21-year age gap, Cheryl said that 'age doesn't matter' and 'no one blinks when a man does it.'

She continued: 'Thank goodness we're not all the same. I think do whatever you are comfortable with.'
Korea Coast Guard headquarters in Incheon's Yeonsu District, Friday / Yonhap





President Yoon Suk-yeol plans to turn down the resignations tendered by top Coast Guard officials to take responsibility for overturning a previous announcement that a fisheries official killed by North Korea in 2020 was attempting to defect to the North, Yoon's office said.







Nine top Coast Guard officials, including Commissioner General Jeong Bong-hun, offered to resign en masse earlier Friday, days after the Coast Guard and the defense ministry announced they had not found any circumstances backing the probe results from two years ago, reversing their previous stance and apologizing to the bereaved family.







"We respect their genuine intentions, but given that a fact-finding process is underway, including an inspection by the Board of Audit and Inspection, the mass resignation offers will be turned down," the presidential office said in a statement.







The 47-year-old official was fatally shot by the North's military on Sept. 22, 2020, near the inter-Korean sea border in the Yellow Sea, after going missing the previous day while on duty aboard a fishery inspection boat. The Coast Guard and the defense ministry announced at the time he could have been attempting to defect to the North.






Martha Kalifatidis is on holiday with her fiance Michael Brunelli.

After spending some time in Italy, the Married At First Sight star headed to Turkey with a load of luggage in tow.

The 34-year-old shared an image to Instagram Stories on Friday, in which her massive pile of suitcases stood outside her villa.

Martha Kalifatidis (pictured) is on holiday with her fiance Michael Brunelli . After spending some time in Italy, the Married At First Sight star headed to Turkey with a load of luggage

Among the bags was a high end designer Louis Vuitton carry-on as well as a number of black suitcases.

'We've packed light' the reality star and influencer joked in her caption on the photograph.

Earlier in the day Martha showed off her sleek white ensemble as she posed on a staircase in Bodrum, Turkey.

She shared an image to Instagram Stories on Friday, in which her massive pile of suitcases stood outside her villa. 'We've packed light' the reality star and influencer joked in her caption

Earlier in the day Martha showed off her sleek white ensemble as she posed on a staircase in Bodrum, Turkey

'Stairway to heaven' she captioned the images, in which she wore a skimpy white crop top, blazer and matching trousers.

On Monday Martha stripped down to a bikini for a swim in the Mediterranean Sea.

She showcased her incredible figure in a black string two-piece as she held up her hand to shield her eyes from the sun.

On Monday Martha stripped down to a bikini for a swim in the Mediterranean Sea

The 34-year-old, who is on holiday in Italy with her fiance Michael Brunelli (left), later changed into a floral bikini after hitting the hotel gym

She later changed into a floral bikini after hitting the hotel gym, and captioned the sizzling snap: 'My toxic trait is posting a bikini pic after a workout.'

Martha has been flooding her social media accounts with holiday spam in recent weeks, and recently admitted she'd 'packed 20 bikinis' for her Euro trip but ended up 'swimming in her underwear' most of the time.

The brunette stripped down to her undies earlier this week, telling fans she 'had no choice' because of the 40C heat.
Anna Maxwell Martin broke down in tears whilst appearing on Thursday evening's episode of Who Do You Think You Are?

The Line Of Duty actress, 45, learned of a family tragedy while appearing on the show - as it was revealed her grandfather, Maxwell, was abandoned at the age of five.

Getting emotional, Anna explained that the information about her grandfather, from whom she took her stage name, had hit her hard as 'he didn't have anybody'.

Emotional: Anna Maxwell Martin, 45, broke down in tears as she learned of a family tragedy whilst appearing on Who Do You Think You Are? on Thursday evening

As the genealogy series took her to Aberlour Orphanage in Moray, the actress discovered that her grandfather had spent five years there.

She learned that Maxwell was abandoned at the Scottish orphanage at the age of five alongside his four sisters, but due to strict gender rules, was separated from his siblings - Rachel, Rhoda, Nettie and Isaclena.

The actress explained: 'The reality is that the four girls had one another, he didn't have anybody, and he was five'.

Family: Anna's grandfather Maxwell (centre) with her mother Rosalind and auntie, Carol

Tragic: On the show, the Line Of Duty actress learned that her grandfather, Maxwell, was abandoned at the age of five

Orphanage: As the genealogy series took her to Aberlour Orphanage in Moray, the actress discovered that her grandfather had spent five years there

Sisters: Maxwell was abandoned at the Scottish orphanage at the age of five alongside his four sisters, but due to strict gender rules, was separated from his siblings - Rachel, Rhoda, Nettie and Isaclena (L-R) Rachel, Maxwell, Nettie, Isaclena, Rhoda

Continuing: 'He did go on to do well and be loving, really actively loving, his children felt loved, really looked after and safe. And I find that very moving, when little people are able to rise above.

'Even if he had an ok time and he was able to go outside, the reality is that he would've been terrified and alone and wetting that bed,' she said emotionally.

As Anna took a dive into her past, she learned that Maxwell and his siblings were put into care following the passing of their mother - who died at just 46.

Heartbreaking: She learned that Maxwell was abandoned at the Scottish orphanage at the age of five alongside his four sisters, but due to strict gender rules, was separated from his siblings - Rachel, Rhoda, Nettie and Isaclena

Tough: Getting emotional, the actress explained: 'The reality is that the four girls had one another, he didn't have anybody, and he was five'

Childhood: Anna with her parents and brother, Adam (L-R) Ivan Martin, Anna, Rosalind Lugassy Martin and Adam martin

'Terrified': 'Even if he had an ok time and he was able to go outside, the reality is that he would've been terrified and alone and wetting that bed,' she continued

The awful discovery was made that her great-grandfather, Joseph Youngson, was known as a drunk who was in and out of Aberdeenshire prisons throughout his life, being imprisoned for beating his wife.

He was deemed unfit to look after the children, as they were sent to the orphanage instead - with Anna looking visibly disgusted as she learned the story.

While the new information had been emotional for the actress to take in, she also appeared bursting with pride over her grandfather's ability to overcome his upbringing, and create a stable family for her to grow up in.

'I feel so proud to be associated with my grandad who I remember as being just a lovely, positive, vivacious, smiley person.'

Later in lifeL Maxwell went onto work as a stonemason at Iona Cathedral after his upbringing at the orphanage (pictured left)

Proud grandparents: Anna's grandfather, Maxwell, grandmother, Jesse, and brother, Adam

Delving deep: The actress appeared on the genealogy series to learn more about her family, as she was taken across Northern Ireland and the north of Scotland
She's expecting her first child, a baby girl, with boyfriend Jake Ankers later this year.

And Charlotte Crosby gave a glimpse of her growing baby bump on Friday as she headed to London's BBC Broadcasting House in a form-fitting ensemble.

The Geordie Shore star, 32, slipped into a brown playsuit which perfectly hugged her pregnancy curves as she made the most of the fine weather in the capital.

Mother-to-be: Charlotte Crosby gave a glimpse of her growing baby bump on Friday as she headed to London's BBC Broadcasting House in a form-fitting ensemble

Charlotte was joined by mother Letitia Crosby as they visited the BBC venue, no doubt to discuss her new 10-part series documenting her 'busy life' and preparations for childbirth.

And Charlotte was every inch the glowing mother-to-be as she strolled around with her mother.

She teamed her brown playsuit with coordinating Louis Vuitton sliders, while she stored her essentials in a cream designer backpack.

Expecting: The Geordie Shore star, 32, slipped into a brown playsuit which perfectly hugged her pregnancy curves as she made the most of the fine weather in the capital

The reality star left her brunette locks loose for the outing, while she opted for a minimal make-up palette.

Meanwhile, her mother Letitia looked chic in a white shirt, indigo jeans and stone coloured sliders which she teamed with a nude handbag.

The outing comes just days after Charlotte soaked up the sun on a romantic staycation with boyfriend Jake Ankers, 31.

The mother-to-be looked radiant in a abstract printed bikini as she flaunted her blossoming bump for the camera.

Lovely: Charlotte was joined by mother Letitia Crosby as they visited the BBC venue, no doubt to discuss her new 10-part series documenting her 'busy life' and preparations for childbirth

Maternity style: She teamed her brown playsuit with coordinating Louis Vuitton sliders, while she stored her essentials in a cream designer backpack

She posed up a storm in the skimpy two piece as she topped up her tan in the sunny British weather.

Charlotte captioned the stunning snaps: 'We have snuck away to the most heavenly idyllic spot for some quality time together and a little R+R'.

She continued: 'Ive never stayed anywhere quite like this in England! the weathers been 24 degrees and weve been in the sea, sunbathing and lighting up the barbie! Any guesses as to where we are?! Gunna [sic] show you guys some more of this place tomorrow honestly its an absolute hidden treasure'.

'We've snuck away': The outing comes just days after Charlotte soaked up the sun on a romantic staycation with boyfriend Jake Ankers, 31

Gorgeous: The mother-to-be looked radiant in a abstract printed bikini as she flaunted her blossoming bump for the camera

Later, she took to her Instagram Stories as she dined alfresco while she and Jake continued to enjoy the weather.

The trip comes after Charlotte revealed her baby's gender by enlisting the help of a skywriter to draw a heart in the sky.

It later flew back round to draw the letter 'G' in water vapour in the clear blue sky.

As the letter became clear, pink confetti was launched from a cannon above Charlotte, Jake and their friends at the lavish party.

Boom! The trip comes after Charlotte revealed her baby's gender by enlisting the help of a skywriter to draw a heart in the sky

Charlotte also invited many of her former Geordie Shore co-stars along to the bash, including newly married Holly Hagan and Sophie Kasaei.

Newlywed Holly stepped out with husband Jacob Blythe for the first time since they tied the knot in Ibiza last week.

Jay Gardner, James Tindale and Ricci Guarnaccio were all also there to celebrate Charlotte's baby news.

The party was captured for Charlotte's upcoming BBC Three and iPlayer series, Charlotte in Sunderland.

Party: The party was captured for Charlotte's upcoming BBC Three and iPlayer series, Charlotte in Sunderland
Chris Pratt showed his appreciation for military veterans while on the red carpet at the premiere of his new action thriller series The Terminal List on Wednesday night.

Per The Daily Wire, the 43-year-old actor shook hands with WWII veterans who attended the premiere and expressed his gratitude for their service to the country.

'This is a wonderful group of extraordinary men of the greatest generation,' Chris told the Associated Press.

Grateful: Chris Pratt showed his appreciation for military veterans while on the red carpet at the premiere of his new action thriller series The Terminal List on Wednesday night

The Jurassic Park: Dominion star continued, 'These are WWII veterans and every year they take a pilgrimage back to Normandy.'

'Thrilled to see them here. It was a surprise to me, I didn't know they were going to be here. And it was an opportunity to kind of just catch up with them.'

'I've been following their story. And I saw them and I was like, 'Oh my gosh, we got to spend time together,'' he added.

Honoring them: Per The Daily Wire, the 43-year-old actor shook hands with WWII veterans who attended the premiere and expressed his gratitude for their service to the country. (L-R) Nate Boyer, WWII Veteran Larry Stevens, David DiGilio, Chris Pratt, WWII Veteran Pete Corrao, Jack Carr, WWII Veteran Bruce Campbell, Jared Shaw, WWII Veteran Andre Chappaz, WWII Veteran Art Del Rey, and Taylor Kitsch

'You know, theres not enough time in the world. Certainly on a press line where everythings fifteen second bites. Id like to really sit down and really, really talk with them and honor them for their great sacrifice.'

In a clip shared by Variety, Chris was seen shaking hands with a uniformed veteran who told the performer that he had been a member of the U.S. Army who was stationed in the Pacific.

'You look fantastic, you look sharp,' the Guardians of the Galaxy star told him. 'You look fantastic sir, thank you.'

'This is a wonderful group of extraordinary men of the greatest generation,' Chris told the Associated Press

The Parks and Recreation alum also heaped praise on military veterans in an interview with Reuters.

Chris told the outlet that he had an 'absolute affinity for our Navy SEAL community, for our men and women in uniform and especially for our special operators and all the go through and all they sacrifice.'

While on the red carpet, the Minnesota native posed for photos with veterans including The Terminal List author and former Navy SEAL Jack Carr, United States Army Green Beret Nate Boyer and WWII veterans Larry Stevens, Pete Corrao, Bruce Campbell, Andre Chappaz, and Art Del Rey.

High praise: The Parks and Recreation alum also heaped praise on military veterans in an interview with Reuters

Based on Carr's 20 bestselling book of the same name, the Amazon Prime series follows Navy SEAL James Reece (Pratt), whose entire platoon is killed in an ambush during a high-stakes covert mission.

The soldier returns home to his family and finds himself with conflicting memories of the ambush. He struggles with guilt and questions about his culpability in their deaths until he ultimately discovers there are dark forces working against him that will do anything to keep the truth buried.

Directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by DiGilio, the show also stars Taylor Kitsch, Constance Wu, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Riley Keough and Patrick Schwarzenegger.

Adaptation: Based on Carr's 20 bestselling book of the same name, the Amazon Prime series follows Navy SEAL James Reece (Pratt), whose entire platoon is killed in an ambush during a high-stakes covert mission

In addition to starring, Chris also served as an executive producer on the film. DiGilio told Military.com that he along with the actor and Fuqua made it a priority to work with real Special Ops and Marines veterans on the series.

He explained, 'As we moved into the writers room, I made sure to have military veteran writers in the room.'

DiGilio added, 'Special hat tip to Max Adams, who's a former Army Ranger, current screenwriter and producer. As we moved into prep, Antoine Fuqua had a great friend who was a big help as a technical adviser. I don't think I'm allowed to use his name in interviews, so we should say redacted, I guess.'

Executive producer: In addition to starring, Chris also served as an executive producer on the film

The screenwriter said that former Navy SEAL Jack Shaw, who worked with Chris on Zero Dark Thirty, initially gave Carr's book to the actor, which led him to pursue an adaptation.

In the film, Shaw plays Ernest 'Boozer' Vickers and served as a co-producer and techical advisor.

'Jared Shaw, who had been so instrumental at the onset and the concept phase, came back in full bore,' DiGilio said. "Jared helped us get Ray Mendoza, who's a former SEAL and incredible technical adviser who's worked on huge movies like Lone Survivor.'

Real life experience: DiGilio told Military.com that he along with the actor and Fuqua made it a priority to work with real Special Ops and Marines veterans on the series. Chris pictured with members of the cast and crew

"On the stunt side, we had Keith Woulard, who's also a former Navy SEAL, who became our series stunt coordinator,' DiGilio said. 'Aside from the behind-the-scenes talent, we also really had a mandate to hire as many actors with military veteran backgrounds as possible.'

'When it was all told," he said, 'there were over 25 actors with military backgrounds in the show, including most of Alpha Platoon, who you meet in episode one.

'Then, in episode six, we have the FBI hostage rescue team pursuing James Reece, and I think everyone in the HRT also has a military background.'

The Terminal List will premiere on Amazon Prime Video on July 1.

Instrumental in the process: The screenwriter said that former Navy SEAL Jack Shaw, who worked with Chris on Zero Dark Thirty, initially gave Carr's book to the actor, which led him to pursue an adaptation. Chris seen with Jack in the series
She tied the knot with Iain Stirling in an intimate wedding ceremony at Dublin's City Hall in November 2020.

And Laura Whitmore has finally got the chance to enjoy a belated hen party with her friends three years after it was put on hold amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Love Island host, 37, has been sharing snaps from her Glastonbury hen party after arriving in style on Thursday via helicopter, and on Friday once again took to social media to share more fun posts.

Dancing queen: Laura Whitmore, 37, danced around in a neon pink wig and dressing gown as she enjoyed a belated hen party with pals at Glastonbury on Friday

Taking to her Instagram Stories, the Love Island host boogied in a neon pink wig and a cropped silk dressing gown as she prepared for a day of fun at the festival.

Laura completed the wild look with a sequinned hat emblazoned with the word bride and a pair of metallic cowboy boots.

Joined by her pals, the television personality beamed as she twerked and twirled in the campervan rented for the occasion.

Fun in the sun: Laura completed the wild look with a sequinned hat emblazoned with the word bride and a pair of metallic cowboy boots

Jamming: Joined by her pals the television personality beamed as she twerked and twirled in the campervan rented for the occasion

Wild: The group seemed to be having a great time with a rude inflatable man visible in the background

One female pal joined in the festivities donning a curly blonde wig as she too danced up a storm.

The gang then headed out to the field as they posed in the open caravan door, clearly having a ball.

Later Laura slipped into a bohemian style crotched cropped top and cut off denim shorts as she went to enjoy the music.

Fun times: The gang then headed out to the field as they posed in the open caravan door, clearly having a ball

Festival: Later Laura slipped into a bohemian style crotched cropped top and cut off denim shorts as she went to enjoy the music

Standing out! She flashed a hint of her abs in the fun crochet crop top, teamed with denim cut-off shorts and silver cowboy boots

She's a VIP! She teamed her outfit with a perfectly boho-inspired brown suede tasselled handbag as she joined a slew of stars at the first official day of the festival

Stylish: Laura was perfectly dressed for the three-day event at Worthy Farm, which has returned for the first time since 2019

Later Laura shared a snap as she met up with former Spice Girl Melanie C, the Irish host cuddled up to the pop star calling her 'iconic'.

The TV presenter wore her golden tresses in glamorous waves and accessorised her hairstyle with beaded pin braids spelling out 'love' and vibe'.

Alongside her array of snaps, she penned: 'Festival Hair! Beady safety pin braids handmade by @themanestyle Glastonbury Im coming for ya!! #crackon #festivalhair.'

Fan: Later Laura (right) shared a snap as she met up with former Spice Girl Melanie C (left) the Irish host cuddled up to the pop star calling her 'Iconic'

Day 2: Laura enjoyed the second day of fun and frolics with her pals after her hen do was cancelled due to COVID

Laura is currently busy hosting the eighth series of Love Island, but she has taken time out of her work schedule to enjoy a weekend at Glastonbury ahead of Sunday's episode of Love Island Aftersun, which she fronts.

Thousands of fans are set to descend on Glastonbury for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic.

Headline acts across the weekend include Billie Eilish, Sir Paul McCartney and Kendrick Lamar, while Diana Ross is fronting the Legends headlining slot on Sunday.

Hen party: The Love Island host, 37, took to Instagram on Thursday to document the fun-filled hen party, which saw her head to Glastonbury in style, arriving on a helicopter

Celebrations: She also took to her Instagram Stories to share a snap of her hen party themed wristband, which read 'Glasthenbury'

Couple: She tied the knot with Iain Stirling in an intimate wedding ceremony at Dublin's City Hall in November 2020

There are over 3,000 performers appearing at Glastonbury festival 2022, over seven main stages and 80 performance areas at Worthy Farm.

Also taking to the stage on Friday will be Sam Fender, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Wolf Alice, Crowded House, Rufus Wainwright and Ziggy Marley.

Elsewhere on the Friday will see Billy Bragg, Sugababes, Fatboy Slim, Carol Cox, The Undertones Arlo Parks, Primal Scream, Phoebe Bridges, Chempical Brothers, and Little Simz delight festival goers at various stages.

It was just announced that Eurovision 2022 winners Kalush Orchestra from Ukraine will play the Shangri-La's Truth Stage on Friday.

On Saturday, stars including Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, Megan Thee Stallion, Olivia Rodrigo, Glass Animals and Joy Crookes will put on sensational performances.

Pals: Laura sported a vibrant rainbow hat with 'bride' printed across it in sparkling jewels while she accessorised her ensemble with an array of gold heart-shaped necklaces

Fun and games: One amusing video showed Laura walking into a trailer fan to find a blow-up peacock, a giant blow-up wedding ring and balloons spelling out 'same penis forever'

Stylish: Laura sported a pair of beige cowboy boots and took to Instagram to share her hope that she wouldn't ruin the boots over the weekend

And the final day on Sunday will include appearances by Lorde, Elbow, Years & Years, Pet Shop Boys and Sea Girls.

Some have speculated Harry Styles may make a surprise appearance, with fans pointing to a gap in his touring schedule.

Others have speculated that Taylor Swift may perform after she was booked at the 2020 festival before it was cancelled due to Covid.

Festival: There are over 3,000 performers appearing at Glastonbury festival 2022, over seven main stages and 80 performance areas at Worthy Farm

Jovial: Laura appeared to be in excellent spirits after finding the trailer had been set up with balloons by her pals

The BBC has promised to deliver over 35 hours of coverage over the course of the festival, which also marks the first time the BBC has broadcast any music event in Ultra High Definition.

The BBC's coverage of Glastonbury 2022 will be led by a host of familiar faces, including Zoe Ball, Dermot O'Leary, Lauren Laverne and Jack Saunders.

The world-famous music extravaganza was last held in 2019, specifically between June 26 to June 30.

The Covid-19 pandemic meant the 2020 and 2021 Glastonbury festivals were unable to go ahead.
Heidi Klum looked to be in a great mood on Friday, and she wanted all of her 9.6 million Instagram followers to know it.

The 49-year-old supermodel left little to the imagination in a tiny black leather vest and matching skirt.

The vest was held together in the middle by thin straps that barely held in her ample chest. Her skirt had a similar design running down the side of her right leg.

Feeling herself: Heidi Klum was feeling herself and she wanted all of her 9.6 million followers to know it on Friday

The dress' spaghetti straps were off her shoulders, hanging down underneath her armpits.

The German-American megastar put a black and white filter with cartoon bubbles on the clip that floated and popped around her as she posed in the mirror.

As she stood in the bathroom, she ran her hands all over her messy blonde hair and up and down the sides of her body.

Baring some skin: The 49-year-old supermodel left little to the imagination in a tiny black leather vest and matching skirt

Barely contained: The vest was held together in the middle by thin straps that barely held in her ample chest

Filters: The German-American megastar put a black and white filter with cartoon bubbles on the clip that floated and popped around her as she posed in the mirror

She flicked her luscious mane from one side to the other, giving fans a look at the entirety of her chest.

The song Feeling Myself by Nicki Minaj, featuring Beyonce, played over the clip, and some of the more suggestive lyrics came on during the end.

'And I'm feelin' myself, jack rabbit/Feelin' myself, back off/'Cause I'm feelin' myself, j*ck off (Uh)/ He be thinking about me when he wh*cks off,' Minaj rapped over the clip while Klum ran her hand over the inside of her thigh and then up to her chest.

Klum captioned the snap, 'About last night ,' and she turned off comments on the post.

Playing with her hair: She flicked her luscious mane from one side to the other, giving fans a look at the entirety of her chest

Classic song: The song Feeling Myself by Nicki Minaj, featuring Beyonce, played over the clip, and some of the more suggestive lyrics came on during the end

Suggestive: 'And I'm feelin' myself, jack rabbit/Feelin' myself, back off/'Cause I'm feelin' myself, j*ck off (Uh)/ He be thinking about me when he wh*cks off,' Minaj rapped over the clip while Klum ran her hand over the inside of her thigh and then up to her chest

The 'Queen of Halloween's' post came just a day after she started prepping for her costume.

The America's Got Talent judge shared a time-lapse video of a Prosthetic Renaissance staffer holding some sort of body scanner as she sat in a chair with her hair in a stocking cap while clad in a bikini top.

Using the hashtag #heidihalloween2022, Heidi - who boasts 21.4M social media followers - captioned her Instagram post: '...and so it begins.'

'Queen of Halloween': Klum announced Thursday that she has officially started prepping her costume four months ahead of the spooky holiday

Last year, Klum - who canceled her last two parties due to COVID-19 - posted several spooky videos of herself recreating some of her favorite horror movie tropes including a shredded back.

In 2020, the Emmy-winning host - who relies on Oscar-nominated make-up artist Mike Marino - did two more subdued looks of herself blending into wall and a bedspread.

In 2019, Heidi debuted her most grisly costume - an alien with an exposed brain - for her 20th annual Halloween bash held at Cathedrale New York.

What could it be this year? The star shared a time-lapse video of a Prosthetic Renaissance staffer holding some sort of body scanner as she sat in a chair with her hair in a stocking cap while clad in a bikini top

Using the hashtag #heidihalloween2022, Heidi - who boasts 21.4M social media followers - captioned her Instagram post: '...and so it begins'

'I start thinking about it on November 1. I usually have two or three ideas that I'm playing with and then I decide on one thing,' Klum told DailyMail.com in 2019.

'So the next morning, I start thinking, "Maybe next year, I'm going to do that one that I didn't do this year." And then, obviously, throughout the year new ideas pop up because maybe I've seen a new or old movie, or was inspired by my travels.'

The America's Got Talent judge continued: 'I put a lot of pressure on myself to come up with something better and better every year. I don't want to let the costume lovers down.

'I put a lot of pressure on myself to come up with something better and better every year': Last year, Klum - who canceled her last two parties due to COVID-19 - posted several spooky videos of herself recreating some of her favorite horror movie tropes including a shredded back

Even in a pandemic! In 2020, the Emmy-winning host - who relies on Oscar-nominated make-up artist Mike Marino - did two more subdued looks of herself blending into wall and a bedspread

Gross: In 2019, Heidi debuted her most grisly costume - an alien with an exposed brain - for her 20th annual Halloween bash held at Cathedrale New York

'I know there are so many creative people out there and fans that are excited to see what I do each year.'

In 2018, Heidi dressed up as Princess Fiona while her third husband Tom Kaulitz dressed as Shrek.

In 2017, Klum transformed into the werewolf from Michael Jackson's iconic Thriller music video.
Sienna Miller brought back her bohemian sense of style as she stepped out at Glastonbury on Friday.

The actress, 40, who spearheaded the boho trend that dominated noughties, opted for a brown mini dress with a small slit to the front and a pair of black boots.

She later changed into pair of red, brown and black striped trousers along with a red coat over a black top as she walked arm-in-arm with boyfriend Oli Green.

In style: Sienna Miller brought back her bohemian style in a brown mini dress at Glastonbury with boyfriend Oli Green on Friday before changing into a pair of striped trousers and red coat

She completed her second look with a pair of black shoes and accessorised with a gold chain necklace and a pair of matching earrings.

Model Sienna's first ensemble left her naked arms and shoulders exposed to the warm summer afternoon air aside from some thin straps.

She wore a pair of brown-hued sunglasses to match her dress, with the garment finishing far above her knee to leave her long legs on display.

Stand-out style: The actress, 40, who spearheaded the boho trend that dominated noughties, opted for a brown mini dress with a small slit to the front and a pair of black boots

Summer fun: Model Sienna's first ensemble left her naked arms and shoulders exposed to the warm summer afternoon air aside from some thin straps

Festival chic: She wore a pair of brown-hued sunglasses to match her dress, with the garment finishing far above her knee to leave her long legs on display

Fashion focus: Sienna was known for her bohemian style in the noughties, with the star recently admitting she was 'saddened' to see her vintage finds reproduced for a mass market.

Leader: She told The Telegraph's Stella magazine : 'When I first became well-known, a lot of my beautiful vintage clothes that Id collected from a very young age were mimicked and remade'

Trailblazer: Sienna was known for leading the way with her boho style in the noughties (pictured at Glastonbury in 2004)

Sienna was known for her bohemian style in the noughties, with the star recently admitting she was 'saddened' to see her vintage finds reproduced for a mass market.

She previously told The Telegraph's Stella magazine: 'When I first became well-known, a lot of my beautiful vintage clothes that Id collected from a very young age were mimicked and remade.

'And that was  well, it was certainly not a heartbreak, but I remember feeling saddened, like, "Oh, these little, treasured pieces are replicable."'

Shocked: 'And that was  well, it was certainly not a heartbreak, but I remember feeling saddened, like, "Oh, these little, treasured pieces are replicable",' she added

Honest: She went on to describe some of her finds as 'really cool' while some of her ensembles she said were 'shambles'

Great finds: The star added: 'I have a restless attitude towards fashion. The only pieces that I never get tired of are my vintage pieces'

She went on to describe some of her finds as 'really cool' while some of her ensembles she said were 'shambles'.

The star added: 'I have a restless attitude towards fashion. The only pieces that I never get tired of are my vintage pieces. I treasure them in a way that I dont newer things.'

Sienna was spotted with her boyfriend Oli, 25, at Glastonbury on Friday, with the couple walking arm-in-arm.

Her favourite things: 'I treasure them in a way that I dont newer things,' she added the Stella magazine

Burberry model Oli opted for casual attire, wearing a white T-shirt and a pair of denim jeans.

He wore a lightweight blue jacket and a pair of brown walking boots.

Sienna - who is 15 years his senior - stepped out with Oli back in February at a New York Knicks game, seemingly confirming their romance.

Happy couple: She later changed into pair of red, brown and black striped trousers along with a red coat over a black top as she walked arm-in-arm with boyfriend Oli Green

In the detail: She completed her second look with a pair of black shoes and accessorised with a gold chain necklace and a pair of matching earrings

Commanding attention: The blonde bombshell later made a spectacular wardrobe change into an unmissable red coat and matching trousers featuring white stripes. She was joined by her younger boyfriend Oli Green, 25

Romance: Sienna - who is 15 years his senior - stepped out with Oli back in February at a New York Knicks game, seemingly confirming their romance

In love; Sienna was spotted with her boyfriend Oli, 25, at Glastonbury on Friday, with the couple walking arm-in-arm

Bumpy road: Screen star Sienna, who recently starred as a betrayed wife in the Netflix series Anatomy Of A Scandal, has suffered her fair share of tumultuous relationships in the past

Romance: Sienna - who is 15 years his senior - stepped out with Oli back in February at a New York Knicks game, seemingly confirming their romance

Screen star Sienna, who recently starred as a betrayed wife in the Netflix series Anatomy Of A Scandal, has suffered her fair share of tumultuous relationships in the past.

She was previously engaged to actor Jude Law in 2004 but they split two years later after he had an affair with his childrens nanny.

The star, known for her roles in Alfie and Factory Girl, went on to have a well-publicised affair with married actor Balthazar Getty in 2008.

Looking back: The star, known for her roles in Alfie and Factory Girl, went on to have a well-publicised affair with married actor Balthazar Getty in 2008

Bumpy road: Screen star Sienna, who recently starred as a betrayed wife in the Netflix series Anatomy Of A Scandal, has suffered her fair share of tumultuous relationships in the past

Looking back: The star, known for her roles in Alfie and Factory Girl, went on to have a well-publicised affair with married actor Balthazar Getty in 2008

She later got engaged to actor Tom Sturridge, with whom she has a nine-year-old daughter, but they broke up in 2015.

Sienna split from her third fiance, art gallery heir Lucas Zwirner, in 2020  just nine months after they got engaged.

Last month, Sienna broke her silence on her split with her former fiance Lucas Zwirner, 30, after she called off plans to marry him last year.

Love life: She later got engaged to actor Tom Sturridge, with whom she has a nine-year-old daughter, but they broke up in 2015

Keeping it casual: Burberry model Oli opted for casual attire, wearing a white T-shirt and a pair of denim jeans

Speaking candidly in an interview with DuJour magazine, she said: 'I obviously have a lot of experience of kind of becoming well-known at a time when the tabloids really had all the power and the individual had very little.

'Anybody could really write anything. It was a real frenzy. A fever pitch of craziness.'

Her new boyfriend Oli, who is also an actor, is from one of the British art worlds most prestigious families.

In the past: Sienna split from her third fiance, art gallery heir Lucas Zwirner, in 2020  just nine months after they got engaged

His grandfather Richard Green owns two galleries in Mayfair with a collection worth around 74million.

Glastonbury opened its gates for the first time in three years on Wednesday.

The world-famous music extravaganza's co-organiser, Emily Eavis, admitted it's 'a miracle' they are able to put on the festival at Worthy Farm in Somerset, South West England, for the first time since 2019, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Completing the look: Oli wore a lightweight blue jacket and a pair of brown walking boots to complete his outfit

Speaking out: Last month, Sienna broke her silence on her split with her former fiance Lucas Zwirner, 30, after she called off plans to marry him last year

Honest: She told DuJour: 'I obviously have a lot of experience of kind of becoming well-known at a time when the tabloids really had all the power and the individual had very little'

Family affair: Oli's grandfather Richard Green owns two galleries in Mayfair with a collection worth around 74million

Emily's father, Michael Eavis, beamed as he greeted festival-goers at the gates on Wednesday morning.

Speaking live from the festival to Lauren Laverne on BBC Radio 6, Emily - who curates the line-up with her father - said: 'To actually be able to see people there and welcome in, watch them streaming in and running to pitch their tents up its an amazing feeling.

'We were doing so much towards the 50th [anniversary], obviously some of that is still playing out this year and weve melded all these ideas into this one festival.

'I think every detail and part of the process has been devoured and savoured by everybody, its so precious.'

Open for business: Glastonbury organiser Michael Eavis beamed as he greeted festival-goers at the gates on Wednesday morning

Delighted: The world-famous music extravaganza's co-organiser, Michael's daughter Emily Eavis, admitted it's 'a miracle' Glastonbury is happening for the first time since 2019

She added: 'There were many moments where we were full of uncertainty and it was only in the last few months where we were sure we were going to make it through.

'Its a miracle, its happened, everybodys here.'

Headline acts Billie Eilish, Sir Paul McCartney and Kendrick Lamar will rock the Pyramid Stage.

Born to perform: Headline acts include Sir Paul McCartney, 80, who is to host a surprise warm-up gig in Frome

All stars: Pop star Billie Eilish, 20, is also set to take to the stage at the famous festival this weekend after it opened for the first time this year since 2019 due to the pandemic

Champions: Ukrainian Eurovision winners Kalush Orchestra are set to perform at Glastonbury after triumphing during the music competition this year

Motown legend Diana Ross is set to play the teatime Legends slot on Sunday.

Other acts performing include Olivia Rodrigo, Sam Fender, Haim, Foals and Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds.

As always, there will be some surprise sets and it was just announced that 'Eurovision' 2022 winners Kalush Orchestra will play the Shangri-La's Truth Stage on Friday.

Party ready: Revellers arrived at Glastonbury from Wednesday this week ahead of the event this year

Speaking of playing the legendary festival, the Ukrainian folk-rap ensemble's frontman Oleh Psiuk said: 'We are so excited to be playing at Glastonbury Festival alongside some of the biggest names in music from around the world.

'This is the perfect place for our first ever British performance and we hope it will be the start of many in the UK.

'We are very grateful for all the support we receive from the people of Britain, both for us and our country, and we are preparing a very special Ukrainian surprise for the fans at Glastonbury.'
Real Housewives of New Jersey's Melissa Gorga was every inch the doting mother while attending her son Gino's eighth grade graduation.

While preparing to watch her 14-year-old accept his middle school diploma on Friday, the reality star, 43, posed for a sweet snap with her tuxedo-clad teen.

'GINO is going to high school,' the TV personality captioned a slideshow of snaps ahead of the ceremony. 'Congratulations to my shy boy.'

Growing up: Real Housewives of New Jersey's Melissa Gorga was every inch the doting mother while attending her son Gino's eighth grade graduation

She continued: 'I know youre going to do amazing things! You impress me everyday.'

Melissa's husband Joe Gorga commented: 'So proud of you, I love you. Wish I was there.'

Her RHONJ costars, including Margaret Josephs and Dolores Catania, also shared congratulatory messages to Gino.

'GINO is going to high school,' the TV personality captioned a slideshow of snaps ahead of the ceremony. 'Congratulations to my shy boy'

Proud: Melissa's husband Joe Gorga commented: 'So proud of you, I love you. Wish I was there'

'Congrats to Gino and all the Gorgas!!!' Josephs, 55, wrote in the comment section, while Catania, 51, gushed: 'Congratulations gino you're an amazing young man .'

Real Housewives of New York City alum Dorinda Medley also dropped a red heart emoji.

Melissa shared additional photos of her teen with his friends, who also wore white suits with black bow ties.

Looking sharp! Melissa shared additional photos of her teen with his friends, who also wore white suits with black bow ties

Memories: In addition to snaps of the group of rising high school freshman lined up on the stars, Gino and two of his friends posed in a black Jeep

In addition to taking snaps of the rising high school freshman and two of his friends posed in a black Jeep and on the stairs of her home.

Melissa and Joe, who walked down the aisle together back in 2004, are also parents to daughter Antonia, 16, and son Joey, 12.

Last weekend, the mom-of-three penned a heartfelt Father's Day post for her spouse, in which she thanked him for giving her 'a beautiful family' and always placing her on a 'on a pedestal.'

'Thank you for doing exactly what you said you would. We love you @joeygorga,' she raved.
She's known for posing in an array of fashionable looks.

And Daisy Lowe was certainly festival-ready on Friday in a white crop top and black denim overalls as she joined her boyfriend Jordan Saul at Glastonbury on Friday.

The model, 33, flashed a hint of her midriff in her low-key outfit by Everlane, gushing she was back in 'her favourite place in the world' on Instagram after returning to Worthy Farm for the iconic music show.

Loved-up: Daisy Lowe, 33, was festival-ready on Friday in a white crop top and black denim overalls as she joined her boyfriend Jordan Saul at Glastonbury on Friday

Daisy showed off her toned tummy in the form-fitting white crop top along with unbottoned black overalls.

She was seen heading through Worth Farm hand-in-hand with her boyfriend Jordan, finished her look with chunky lace-up boots and a backpack for her essentials.

Clearly thrilled for Glastonbury to be back for the first time in three years, Daisy also took to Instagram to share a pair of snaps of her festival look.

Stylish: The model flashed a hint of her midriff in her low-key outfit by Everlane as she stepped out hand-in-hand with her estate agent beau

She penned the caption: 'Back in my favourite place in the world @glastofestWearing @everlane who make such gorgeous clothes & are also very conscious of the planet. I love collaborating with this gorgeous brand #ad.'

Daisy was seen heading through the festival with her estate agent beau, who she began dating in 2020.

On Wednesday morning, Glastonbury opened its gates at Worthy Farm in Somerset for the first time in three years.

Fashion star: She was seen heading through Worth Farm hand-in-hand with her boyfriend Jordan, finished her look with chunky lace-up boots and a backpack for her essentials

Stylish: Clearly thrilled for Glastonbury to be back for the first time in three years, Daisy also took to Instagram to share a pair of snaps of her festival look

Thousands of fans are set to descend on the festival for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic.

Glastonbury festival 2022 takes place between Wednesday June 22 and Sunday June 26.

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday the headline acts will close each evening in turn with a slot on the Pyramid Stage. There is also a headlining Legends slot, which is scheduled for Sunday teatime.

Billie Eilish, Sir Paul McCartney and Kendrick Lamar are among the headliners taking to the iconic stage.

Important: She penned the caption: 'Back in my favourite place in the world @glastofestWearing @everlane who make such gorgeous clothes'

Glastonbury 2022 will be broadcast live on BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds throughout the entire festival.

The BBC has promised to deliver over 35 hours of coverage over the course of the festival, which also marks the first time the BBC has broadcast any music event in Ultra High Definition.

The BBC's coverage of Glastonbury 2022 will be led by a host of familiar faces, including Zoe Ball, Dermot O'Leary, Lauren Laverne and Jack Saunders.

iPlayer's dedicated Glastonbury channel will launch on Thursday 23 June, streaming live performances, preview programmes and more across the four days.

It will also be possible to watch highlights from the festival from various sets via BBC Music's YouTube video.
Selling Sunset star, Maya Vander, released an official statement Thursday on her Instagram story following the sad news that she will not be returning to the Netflix reality series.

She opened up on social media about her main reasons for leaving not long after the show was renewed for not just one, but two more seasons.

A number of factors have caused the TV personality to leave, including a recent miscarriage and the start of her own company in Florida.

Final farewells: Maya Vander announced via her Instagram story that she will not be returning to the Netflix reality series, Selling Sunset

Shortly after the exciting news that the series was renewed for a sixth and seventh season, it was confirmed the 39-year-old will not be part of the returning agents to the Oppenheim Group.

Maya weighed in on her Instagram story why she will not be returning to sunny Beverly Hills, and expressed her gratefulness for the amazing journey.

The businesswoman, wife and mom of two has been flying back and forth from the east and west coast over the past few years.

She had a stillbirth at 38 weeks at the end of last year, followed by a miscarriage this month, which added to her decision to stay close to her family.

The Selling Sunset star has two children, Aiden and Elle, with husband, David Miller.

Fresh start: The TV personality announced she will stay in Miami to focus on her family and her new real estate company, the Maya Vander Group

Family first: Following a stillbirth at 38 weeks, and a recent miscarriage at 10 weeks, the TV star will be staying in Miami to focus on her husband, two kids, and new real estate company

On her story, Maya typed out in her statement, 'I decided not to go on with the show and it was not an easy decision!'

The star has been a part of the beloved Selling Sunset family for a total of five seasons.

'Being a part of such a successful hit is absolutely amazing and I am so grateful for!!'

She added her main reasons for making the choice to move on a different path. 'The last few months were not easy. Losing a baby at 38 weeks following a miscarriage is just too much to handle.'

The real estate agent added that she wants to be with her family and to focus, 'on growing my Maya Vander Group and joining Compass is the right decision for me to move forward.'

Hard at work: Although the star won't be on the Netflix series, she will still be working hard at her own company, Maya Vander Group, in Florida

She took the time to thank Netflix for the amazing opportunity she was given, and expressed how 'grateful' she is to her close family on Selling Sunset.

'I am so grateful for @netflix...Adam, Skyler, and of course Jason for such a great run! Now...let's get an Emmy.'

Maya not returning to the series will be hard to get used to, but she knows she must do what is best for her and her family.

According to Us Weekly, the star has transferred her license from the Oppenheim Group to Compass.

Compass is one of the top real estate brokerages in the United States since 2012.

Very grateful: Vander took the time to give her heartfelt thanks to everyone on Netflix and Selling Sunset for the opportunity she had on the show

Happy: Maya is seen smiling while filming Selling Sunset with one of the owners of the Oppenheim Group by her side

According to People, a source stated that the new seasons might have other real estate agents leaving with newcomers stepping in to fill their places.

'They're going to be adding some names people have heard of. Filming will reportedly begin in late July or August,' the source said.

Other big names on the show, such as Christine Quinn, also might not be returning.

The author told People in a separate interview that she terminated her contract with the brokerage to help with her husband's new company, RealOpen.

'I had to make a business decision that was for me, so I had to terminate the contract so I could move it over to my brokerage,' she explained to the publication.
Steps needed to dig out truth and punish responsible people



President Yoon Suk-yeol vented anger at the Korean National Police Agency (NPA) Thursday for having released an unapproved document to the press regarding the reshuffle of senior police officers. Yoon said the appointment "failed to get the approval from the president as well as the Ministry of the Interior and Safety." He described the incident as tantamount to "disruption of national discipline" or a "nonsensical mishap."



It is dumfounding that NPA chief Kim Chang-yong abruptly announced the transfer of 28 officials to other posts without waiting for endorsement from the president. This incident should not have happened in a normal government. The list of the officials up for promotion to senior superintendent general was released to the media at around 7 p.m. Tuesday. But a second list was released at 9:34 p.m. with seven officials subject to changed posts, in an unprecedented personnel bungle.



The recent incident is deplorable in that its shows a disruption to the personnel affairs system of the police and the ministry. The police blamed the incident on its official dispatched to the ministry who failed to communicate effectively with the ministry and released the document mistakenly without getting confirmation from the ministry. Yet, such justification is not enough to clear the suspicion surrounding the incident.



Relevant authorities should embark on investigations to dig out what happened in the process of the release of the list in advance and its reversal. The incident demonstrates the brewing conflict between the police and the ministry over the latter's plan to set up a department in charge of police affairs under its apparatus. It took place the same day when an advisory body recommended the interior minister to be able to ask for punishment of ranking police officials. This has triggered speculation that the government was trying to control the police.



The ministry has said the new organization will help promote democratic management of the police. Yet the police rebuffed the ministry's stance, asserting it was attempting to weaken the police. There has been growing concern over police becoming too powerful after the prosecution was stripped of its investigative power. Starting in September, the police will be equipped with investigative powers in most cases with the exception of corruption and economic crimes. Steps are needed to contain the police, preventing human rights infringements and inappropriate investigations. The ministry and the presidential office, for their part, should not attempt to meddle in the police investigations.



The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea raised the suspicion that some stalwart lawmakers of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) might have interfered with personnel matters in the police force. Strict investigations should be conducted to find out the truth and subject those at fault to due punishment. All details regarding the recent reshuffle should be clarified and made open to prevent further such incidents. The police and the ministry are responsible for protecting the safety of the people. They should not disappoint the people any longer.


Kyle Richards was very much the doting wife as she stepped out to support her husband Mauricio Umansky and their daughters Farrah Aldjufrie and Alexia Umansky.

The Umansky family has landed their own Netflix real estate reality show and Kyle, 53, beamed at an event in Beverly Hills for the streaming network on Thursday evening.

Mauricio, who owns luxury real estate firm The Agency, will star in Buying Beverly Hills alongside his girls who both work as agents.

So proud: Kyle Richards was very much the doting wife as she stepped out to support her husband Mauricio Umansky and their daughters Farrah Aldjufrie and Alexia Umansky at the launch party for their new Netflix series

Kyle was dressed to impress at the Netflix soiree in a strapless, midi length little back dress paired with black pumps that had a little dose of glam with a rhinestone toe buckle.

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star had her chestnut hair blown out sleek and straight and she sported a glowing tan and youthful makeup.

Her outing comes a week after Andy Cohen accidentally revealed she recently had a breast reduction during a very awkward moment on Watch What Happens Live.

While interviewing her live on air Andy, 54, casually asked her: 'How's the breast reduction working out?' and she replied tartly: 'Oh, thank you for letting everyone know, Andy, thank you.'

She was forced to admit to the secret procedure, saying: 'I had a breast reduction surgery. I never had implants. I had double Ds, no implants. I still don't have an implant but I went in and I said: "I want smaller boobs and I don't ever wanna wear a bra ever again in my life," and here I am!'

By Thursday night she had brushed off any embarrassment and was grinning from ear-to-ear posing with her husband, Mauricio, who looked sharp in jeans, a white Oxford shirt and a putty toned blazer.

Daughter Alexia, who will co-star in the new docusoap, made quite a bold statement with her look in a lime green mini dress with translucent sequins and matching woven leather slides by Bottega Veneta.

Exciting: The Umansky family has landed their own Netflix real estate reality show and Kyle, 53, beamed at an event in Beverly Hills for the streaming network on Thursday evening (L-R) Alexia Umansky, Mauricio Umansky, and Kyle Richards

Looking good: Kyle was dressed to impress at the Netflix soiree in a strapless, midi length little back dress paired with black pumps that had a little dose of glam with a rhinestone toe buckle

The burgeoning reality star had her glowing makeup similar to her mom's and pulled her tousled waves into an updo.

Per Netflix, the family's new series will also follow several additional agents at the Beverly Hills-based firm and their clients as they navigate the high-stakes world of luxury real estate in Los Angeles.

Mauricio and Kyle, who tied the knot in 1996, share Alexia as well as daughters Sophia, 22, and Portia, 14. Kyle shares Farrah with her ex-husband Guraish Aldjufrie, to whom she was married to from 1988 to 1992.

All of the members of Kyle's family have been made appearances on her Bravo reality show The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills over its 12-season run.

Celebration! Kyle struck a pose with Melissa Platt at the Netflix Open House Cocktail Party to honor the real estate shows being featured on the streaming platform

Additionally, Mauricio was featured on the spinoff The Real Housewives The Ultimate Girls Trip and appeared in an episode of Nick Lackey and Jessica Simpson's reality show Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica in 2005.

The Mexico-born broker took to his Instagram page on Thursday to share the news, posting an image of the show's poster.

In the caption, he wrote, 'Im beyond thrilled to share that @theagencyre is arriving on Netflix in Buying Beverly Hills, coming this fall.

'Ill be starring alongside my daughters, @farrahbritt and @alexiaumansky , and a talented group of agents from The Agency in Beverly Hills.

Tune in: Per Netflix, the family's new series will also follow several additional agents at the Beverly Hills-based firm and their clients as they navigate the high-stakes world of luxury real estate in Los Angeles

'Following our agents and clients, the docu-soap highlights the high-stakes world of luxury real estate in Los Angeles. Stay tuned for details!'

Farrah, who is listed as a founding agent/partner of The Agency in her Instagram bio, also uploaded the poster on her page with the caption: 'Walking into your TV screens this Fall @netflix.'

Alexia teased the big announcement in her Instagram Story, posting a photo of herself and her father sitting in a car. She wrote on the photo, 'Big day today', along with two black heart emojis.

She later added an image in which she was seen sitting with Mauricio in the Netflix 'Clubhouse'.

Filming: The Agency's official Instagram page shared several behind-the-scenes images from the show

The Agency's official Instagram page shared several behind-the-scenes images from the show, adding the caption: 'We are thrilled to share that The Agency is arriving on @netflix this fall in Buying Beverly Hills, a new real estate occu-soap following the agents and clients within Mauricio Umanskys The Agency in Beverly Hills, California.

'Mauricio, his daughters Farrah and Alexia, and the firms talented group of agents highlight the high-stakes world of luxury real estate in Los Angeles.

'We said No A**holes, but we never said No Drama. Stay tuned for details!'

Kyle also expressed her excitement over her husband and daughters' new project on her Instagram Story.

The series will also star agents Santiago Arana, Ben Belack, Joey Ben-Zvi, Jon Grauman, Brandon Graves, Allie Lutz Rosenberger, Melissa Platt and Sonika Vaid.
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Baz Luhrmann's Elvis movie is getting film critics all shook up as it has garnered mixed reviews upon release, with some slamming the film as a 'shameless comic-book biopic' while others have been left singing praise for lead star Austin Butler.

Not exactly known for his subtlety as a filmmaker, Luhrmann's extravagant approach to the King of Rock and Roll's life has left many critics complaining that its 159-minute runtime feels as bloated as Elvis himself was in his later years.

However, Butler - who plays the titular role - has been hailed in many of the write-ups, even the bad, as being a 'sensation' who manages to convince playing The King in every stage of his life, from a teen up until his untimely death at the age of 42 in 1977.

Meanwhile, Tom Hanks has received slightly less than sturdy praise playing Elvis' vilified money-grabbing manager Colonel Tom Parker, who pocketed up to half of Elvis's income and is said to have ruthlessly controlled his life.

Don't Be Cruel! Baz Luhrmann's Elvis movie gets VERY mixed reviews calling it a 'shameless comic-book biopic' with a 'campy' turn from Tom Hanks... but Austin Butler is hailed as an 'electrifying star'

In one of the more disparaging reviews, film critic Armond White for the National Review calls the movie a 'shameless comic-book biopic' writing that 'Luhrmann's style jumps from one exaggeration to another, zipping through poor-white class issues, past the European-based Army stint and the legendary acquisitive status.'

In a review for Empire Magazine, Olly Richards writes that Luhrmann 'races through the life of Elvis Presley' calling it 'one hell of a ride, but sometimes it's moving too fast for his audience to get more than a passing look at his characters.'

Richards adds: 'Trying to squeeze in so much, even over a 159-minute running time, its not surprising that much of it feels rushed.'

But lead star Butler once again is cited as a saving grace, with the film critic stating: 'Austin Butler is sensational as Presley. He convinces at every age, from teen to 42.'

Mixed response: Tom Hanks plays Colonel Tom Parker - born Andreas van Kuijk - an irrepressible, manipulative showman who managed Elvis from 1956 until his death in 1977

Kyle Smith for the Wall Street Journal criticizes Luhrmann's famously bombastic filmmaking style, writing: 'The editing is like a kaleidoscope fed through a food processor, the camera has less ability to sit still than a 4-year-old stuffed with birthday cake, and both lead actors veer into camp.'

'As "Colonel" Tom Parker, Presley's sleazy manager, Tom Hanks looks like he's playing the Penguin in a Batman movie and is so loathsome that it's inconceivable that anyone would allow him to manage a Woolworth's, let alone a superstar.'

Smith slams both Hanks and Butler's portrayals as 'caricatures' adding: 'As Presley, Austin Butler pours far too much energy into looking smoldering. I kept thinking of Ben Stiller's Zoolander doing his aggressively moronic Blue Steel stare.'

Reactions: While some film critics have been unimpressed, Priscilla Presley said that Olivia DeJonge - who plays Priscilla - came across as 'sensitive and caring' in the movie (pictured), adding that she was 'pleasantly surprised' by the flick

Star turn: Film critics Peter Travers said Austin Butler's performance as 'The King is a thing of beauty. A star is born right here.'

'These aren't portrayals; they're caricatures. Long before the song is performed, I shared the sentiment of "Suspicious Minds" - "Caught in a trap, I can't walk out.'

However, American film critic Peter Travers was far more positive, calling Butler an 'electrifying new star.'

'Nothing puts Butler in the shade, not even the glittering brilliance of the costumes and production design by Catherine Martin, Luhrmann's wife,' Travers enthuses, adding that he 'seizes the role of his career in "Elvis" and rides it to glory.'

He went on: 'Baz Luhrmann's bejeweled battering ram of a biopic is all over the place, which can be distracting, but the grit and grace of Austin Butler's performance as The King is a thing of beauty. A star is born right here.'

Though Travers, like others, was left unimpressed with Hanks, writing: 'Hanks, in a fat suit, facial padding and an accent Parker tried to pass off as Southern, gives his all to a role that the script sadly fails to develop.'

Out now! Baz Luhrmann's biopic Elvis features electrifying performance sequences

Pelvis paranoia: Elvis - played by Once Upon a Time in Hollywood actor Austin Butler - got into hot water in the early 1950s for his so-called scandalous hip-shaking performances

Transformed with prosthetics: Watching from the wings is Colonel Tom Parker - played by two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks - whom Presley signed a contract with in January 1955 and he went on to manage him for over two decades

Gripping: In one scene, the sex symbol is hauled away in a police car, as Parker says: 'In that moment, Elvis the man was sacrificed, and Elvis the god was born. He had no idea what he had done'

Colonel Tom Parker - born Andreas van Kuijk - was an irrepressible, manipulative showman who managed Elvis from 1956 until his death in 1977, and Kristy Puchko writes for Mashable that Hanks leads audiences down a 'dark and confounding path' in the role.

Puchko describes Hanks' voiceover in the movie as 'grating' and calls him 'insufferable' as Elvis's unreliable narrator.

She writes: 'Hanks's folksy charms are swallowed by a clumsy fat suit, prosthetic jowls, and a dizzyingly marble-mouthed accent.'

'The actual Colonel sounded nothing like what Hanks is doing here, making this bouncy collision of - let's say Southern American and Dutch - all the more inexplicable.'

Grew up in the church: Presley was controversial precisely because he commercialized what was called 'colored music' but, in today's woke light, would be considered cultural appropriation

'Tomorrow, all of America will be talking about my boy': This translated into sky-high ratings for NBC's Milton Berle Show, which booked the three-time Grammy winner for his first nationally broadcast TV appearances

Mama's boy: Elvis is seen visiting his beloved mother Gladys (Helen Thomson), scared authorities were going to put him in jail

Gladys reassures her son: 'The way you sing is God given, so there can't be nothing wrong with it'

She concludes of his performance: 'Worse yet, Hanks plays the part as cartoonishly villainous, always lurking, lying, and leering. Beyond being an eyesore of performance, it makes Elvis seem an absolute rube.'

Still, the film holds a curiously fresh 80% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, signifying the reaction as been much more positive.

Anthony Lane of the New Yorker wrote: 'Presleyologists will learn nothing here, and purists will find plenty against which to rail. Less knowing viewers, however, may well be sucked in by Luhrmann's lively telling of the tale.'

Film critic Anne Brodie wrote: 'Memorable and exciting if not what you might call deep; its a bit too whiz-bang, too full of itself and its mischievous glories to be taken seriously... Lurhman obviously put his heart and hormones into making Elvis, but relax, Baz!'

Elvis is in cinemas now both in the US and the UK.
Laura Whitmore showcased her bohemian sense of style at Glastonbury Festival in Somerset on Friday.

The presenter, 37, flashed a hint of her midriff in a cream crotched crop top with red-and-yellow square patterns which she teamed up with cut off denim shorts.

She is celebrating her belated hen party after tying the knot with husband Iain Stirling in November 2020.

Out of this world: Laura Whitmore flashed her midriff in a cream crocheted crop top with bohemian patterns at Glastonbury on Friday, while celebrating her belated hen party

Laura has finally had the chance to enjoy a belated hen party with her friends three years after it was put on hold amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Love Island host has been sharing snaps from her Glastonbury hen party after arriving in style on Thursday via helicopter, and on Friday once again took to Instagram to share more fun posts.

Taking to her Instagram Stories, the Love Island host boogied in a neon pink wig and a cropped silk dressing gown as she prepared for a day of fun at the festival.

Laura completed her edgy look with a pair of metallic cowboy boots and a suede tan handbag, while chatting away with a pal.

Better late than never! The presenter, 37, is celebrating her belated hen party after tying the knot with husband Iain Stirling in November 2020

Hot stuff: She continued her ensemble with cut off denim shorts and a pair of metallic cowboy boots

Buddy: Laura stored her essentials in a suede tan handbag, while chatting away with a pal

Happy: She exhibited her brilliantly white smile as she laughed out loud at one point

Chatting: She seemed to be in deep conversation with her companion

Joined by her pals, the television personality beamed as she twerked and twirled in the campervan rented for the occasion.

One female pal joined in the festivities donning a curly blonde wig as she too danced up a storm.

The gang then headed out to the field as they posed in the open caravan door, clearly having a ball.

Dancing queen: Laura danced around in a neon pink wig and dressing gown as she enjoyed a belated hen party with pals at the festival

Fun in the sun: Laura completed the wild look with a sequinned hat emblazoned with the word bride

Jamming: Joined by her pals the television personality beamed as she twerked and twirled in the campervan rented for the occasion

Wild: The group seemed to be having a great time with a rude inflatable man visible in the background

Later Laura slipped into a bohemian style crotched cropped top and cut off denim shorts as she went to enjoy the music.

Later Laura shared a snap as she met up with former Spice Girl Melanie C, the Irish host cuddled up to the pop star calling her 'iconic'.

The TV presenter wore her golden tresses in glamorous waves and accessorised her hairstyle with beaded pin braids spelling out 'love' and vibe'.

Fun times: The gang then headed out to the field as they posed in the open caravan door, clearly having a ball

Festival: Later Laura slipped into a bohemian style crotched cropped top and cut off denim shorts as she went to enjoy the music

Alongside her array of snaps, she penned: 'Festival Hair! Beady safety pin braids handmade by @themanestyle Glastonbury Im coming for ya!! #crackon #festivalhair.'

Laura is currently busy hosting the eighth series of Love Island, but she has taken time out of her work schedule to enjoy a weekend at Glastonbury ahead of Sunday's episode of Love Island Aftersun, which she fronts.

Thousands of fans are set to descend on Glastonbury for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic.

Fan: Later Laura (right) shared a snap as she met up with former Spice Girl Melanie C (left) the Irish host cuddled up to the pop star calling her 'Iconic'

Day 2: Laura enjoyed the second day of fun and frolics with her pals after her hen do was cancelled due to COVID

Headline acts across the weekend include Billie Eilish, Sir Paul McCartney and Kendrick Lamar, while Diana Ross is fronting the Legends headlining slot on Sunday.

There are over 3,000 performers appearing at Glastonbury festival 2022, over seven main stages and 80 performance areas at Worthy Farm.

Also taking to the stage on Friday will be Sam Fender, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Wolf Alice, Crowded House, Rufus Wainwright and Ziggy Marley.

Hen party: The Love Island host, 37, took to Instagram on Thursday to document the fun-filled hen party, which saw her head to Glastonbury in style, arriving on a helicopter

Celebrations: She also took to her Instagram Stories to share a snap of her hen party themed wristband, which read 'Glasthenbury'

Couple: She tied the knot with Iain Stirling in an intimate wedding ceremony at Dublin's City Hall in November 2020

Elsewhere on the Friday will see Billy Bragg, Sugababes, Fatboy Slim, Carol Cox, The Undertones Arlo Parks, Primal Scream, Phoebe Bridges, Chempical Brothers, and Little Simz delight festival goers at various stages.

It was just announced that Eurovision 2022 winners Kalush Orchestra from Ukraine will play the Shangri-La's Truth Stage on Friday.

On Saturday, stars including Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, Megan Thee Stallion, Olivia Rodrigo, Glass Animals and Joy Crookes will put on sensational performances.

Pals: Laura sported a vibrant rainbow hat with 'bride' printed across it in sparkling jewels while she accessorised her ensemble with an array of gold heart-shaped necklaces

Fun and games: One amusing video showed Laura walking into a trailer fan to find a blow-up peacock, a giant blow-up wedding ring and balloons spelling out 'same penis forever'

Stylish: Laura sported a pair of beige cowboy boots and took to Instagram to share her hope that she wouldn't ruin the boots over the weekend

And the final day on Sunday will include appearances by Lorde, Elbow, Years & Years, Pet Shop Boys and Sea Girls.

Some have speculated Harry Styles may make a surprise appearance, with fans pointing to a gap in his touring schedule.

Others have speculated that Taylor Swift may perform after she was booked at the 2020 festival before it was cancelled due to Covid.

Festival: There are over 3,000 performers appearing at Glastonbury festival 2022, over seven main stages and 80 performance areas at Worthy Farm

Jovial: Laura appeared to be in excellent spirits after finding the trailer had been set up with balloons by her pals

The BBC has promised to deliver over 35 hours of coverage over the course of the festival, which also marks the first time the BBC has broadcast any music event in Ultra High Definition.

The BBC's coverage of Glastonbury 2022 will be led by a host of familiar faces, including Zoe Ball, Dermot O'Leary, Lauren Laverne and Jack Saunders.

The world-famous music extravaganza was last held in 2019, specifically between June 26 to June 30.

The Covid-19 pandemic meant the 2020 and 2021 Glastonbury festivals were unable to go ahead.
She recently launched her new single to celebrate Pride Month.

So it was no surprise that Denise Van Outen was smiling as she headed home after filming BBC's The One Show on Friday.

The presenter, 48, put on a leggy display in a 60s-inspired pink gingham dress with an oversized collar as she exited the studio in London.

Lovely! Denise Van Outen, 48, put on a leggy display in a 60s-inspired pink gingham dress as she headed home after filming The One Show in London on Friday

Denise proudly showed off her tanned physique in the flirty pink dress with a gingham print as she headed to her car after recording The One Show.

The Celebrity Gogglebox star teamed the dress with eye-catching pink velvet platform boots as she left the studio.

It comes after Denise released a brand new single to mark LGBTQ+ Pride Month, performing a cover of the 1970s classic From New York To LA.

Denise's version of Patsy Gallant's From New York To L.A is out now, with the accompanying music video also being released in celebration of Pride month.

Happy! The presenter sported the fun frilled dress with a vintage-inspired print and an oversized collar as she exited the studio in London

The new single's music video features drag queens and a host of backup dancers, as they appeared alongside Denise in a lit-up bar.

Previously speaking about the venture, Denise explained that she wanted to create an 'inclusive' video as she has been a 'big supporter' of the LGBTQI+ community for 'decades'.

She said: 'I've always been a big supporter of Pride month and am proud to be an LGBTQ+ ally for decades now. I wanted to shoot a video that was inclusive and something that everyone could enjoy and sing along to.'

The star, who in 1998 released a cover of Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan's hit Especially For You with Johnny Vaughan and Steps, has worked with producer Steve Anderson on her new record and described it as a 'feel good' dance track.

She added: 'It was great to collaborate with Steve Anderson on this feel-good dance record. I hope everyone enjoys Pride 2022 and has an amazing time this Summer.'

Denise is set to perform her new single for the first time on Saturday at London club G-A-Y - just one day after the release.
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The Gabby Petito Story - which will follow the real life tragedy that played out last year - was seen filming for the first time in the mountains near Salt Lake City, Utah on Thursday.

Thora Birch - who will star in and will direct the film for Lifetime - was seen consulting with the actors who will portray Gabby Petito and boyfriend Brian Laundrie.

No doubt it was not an easy day on set as they filmed an intense scene centered around a fight between the couple at a campground.

Petito, 22, was strangled on a road trip with Laundrie in Wyoming last summer while her boyfriend was later found dead at a swamp near his parents' home in Florida from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head.

Tragedy: The Gabby Petito Story - which will follow the real life tragedy that played out last year - was seen filming for the first time in the mountains near Salt Lake City, Utah on Thursday

Interesting: No doubt it was not an easy day on set as they filmed an intense scene centered around a fight between the couple at a campground

The FBI later revealed that Laundrie had taken responsibility for the murder in a notebook that was found near his remains more than a month after he went missing.

Petito and Laundrie had been embarking on a cross country road trip which she had been documenting on social media.

They were traveling in a white van which could be seen in many of the posts as a similar one was seen on the Utah set of the film.

Interesting: Thora Birch - who will star in and will direct the film for Lifetime - was seen consulting with the actors who will portray Gabby Petito and boyfriend Brian Laundrie

Sad: Petito, 22, was strangled on a road trip with Laundrie in Wyoming last summer while her boyfriend was later found dead at a swamp near his parents' home in Florida from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head

The two actors who play Petito and Laundrie could also be seen embracing as they filmed the tense scene. Their names have not been publicized as of yet

Director Birch (seen in February 2019) will also be playing Petito's mother Nichole Schmidt (seen in September 2021) who has been at the forefront of the media coverage as she seeks justice for her murdered daughter

The two actors who play Petito and Laundrie could also be seen embracing as they filmed the tense scene. Their names have not been publicized as of yet.

The movie is part of Lifetime's Stop Violence Against Women public affairs initiative.

According to Deadline it will 'explore Gabby and her fiance Brian Laundries complicated relationship and what may have gone wrong during their cross-country trip that resulted in Gabbys tragic murder.'

Director Birch will also be playing Petito's mother Nichole Schmidt who has been at the forefront of the media coverage as she seeks justice for her murdered daughter.

They were traveling in a white van which could be seen in many of the posts as a similar one was seen on the Utah set of the film

The rear end of the van is pictured

The Gabby Petito Story will continue to film in Utah through the summer and the movie is set to premiere on Lifetime later this year.

Back in November 2021, the FBI said it was closing its investigation into Petito's death after concluding that Laundrie did admit to it by taking responsibility in the notebook that was found by his remains in the Cartlon Reserve swamp near his parents home in North Port, Florida on October 20.

The bureau did not say what specifically he wrote in the notebook claiming responsibility for Petito's murder.

The FBI opened its investigation into Petito's disappearance after she was reported missing by her parents on September 12. At the time, she and Laundrie has been on a cross-country road trip in her white van.

Petito and Laundrie had been embarking on a cross country road trip which she had been documenting on social media

It seemed to be a tense day on set

The Gabby Petito Story will continue to film in Utah through the summer and the movie is set to premiere on Lifetime later this year

A massive manhunt ensued, and Petito's remains were found on September 19 at the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area in the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming near where she and Laundrie had last been seen together - and three weeks after she had last spoken to her parents.

She died of blunt-force injuries to the head and neck and manual strangulation, according to the Teton County Coroner. She had been dead for three or four weeks before her body was discovered.

The search for Laundrie took more than a month, with a large group of police officials scouring the Carlton Reserve.

Back in November 2021, the FBI said it was closing its investigation into Petito's death after concluding that Laundrie did admit to it by taking responsibility in the notebook that was found by his remains in the Cartlon Reserve swamp near his parents home in North Port, Florida on October 20

His remains were found on October 20 after water had receded from the search area and the park was reopened. On that day, his parents, Chris and Roberta Laundrie, then informed law enforcement that they intended to return to the park to search for him. Images from Fox News show the Laundrie's at the reserve ahead of the search as well as the notebook found by law enforcement.

In a statement on Friday, the FBI said: 'Law enforcement officers were present when Mr. Laundrie's parents located an item in the park later determined to belong to Mr. Laundrie.

'Upon further search of the area, investigators found human remains later confirmed to be Mr. Laundrie, along with a backpack, notebook, and a revolver.

The FBI opened its investigation into Petito's disappearance after she was reported missing by her parents on September 12. At the time, she and Laundrie has been on a cross-country road trip in her white van

'A review of the notebook revealed written statements by Mr. Laundrie claiming responsibility for Ms. Petito's death.'

The search for Petito began after Laundrie had returned to his parent's Florida home from their trip without her on September 1.

On September 11, Gabby's family reported her missing and two days later, her boyfriend Brian Laundrie vanished from his parents' home.

The young couple had been on a cross-country van trip but it turned sour and in August, just a few weeks before she died.

A massive manhunt ensued, and Petito's remains were found on September 19 at the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area in the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming near where she and Laundrie had last been seen together - and three weeks after she had last spoken to her parents

Chris and Roberta Laundrie, Brian's parents, have been widely condemned for not talking with Petito's family or turning their son in to police when he returned home from his trip, especially after she was reported missing.

He left their home on September 13, two days after her family on Long Island, New York, reported her disappearance.

Petito's family criticized the Laundries for not helping them and have since filed a lawsuit against them.

Before Petito's disappearance, she and Laundrie were pulled over by Utah police officer in Moab on August 12, 2021 after they responded to a call from a witness who saw the couple involved in a domestic fight.

His remains were found on October 20 after water had receded from the search area and the park was reopened. On that day, his parents, Chris and Roberta Laundrie, then informed law enforcement that they intended to return to the park to search for him. Images from Fox News show the Laundrie's at the reserve ahead of the search as well as the notebook found by law enforcement

Officers Eric Pratt and Daniel Robbins had pulled the couple over after they responded to a call from a witness who saw the couple involved in a domestic fight.

Bodycam footage showed a visibly shaken Petito admitting to being the aggressor in the public argument. During the conversation, Pratt had noted that Petito should have been arrested for her actions as stated in the Utah state law.

The couple, however, managed to dispute the allegations and the officers let them go following a 75-minute conversation on the promise that they spend the night away from one another.

Petito's family criticized the Laundries for not helping them and have since filed a lawsuit against them, Gabby Petito's parents Joseph Petito (pictured left) and Nichole Schmidt (center) are seen earlier this week

After the bodycam footage emerged, the Price City Police Department launched its own independent investigation and said Wednesday that the officers should have pressed charges in the incident.

'I believe the officers responded to a domestic violence call and had probable cause an act of domestic violence had been committed,' Price Police Capt. Brandon Ratcliffe.

'This should have meant an arrest was made, either by citation or custody.'

Despite evidence pointing towards Petito as the aggressor, Ratcliffe noted that she had probably been the victim of violence in the relationship.

As a result of the investigation, Ratcliffe recommended that Pratt and Robbins be put on probation for how they handled the incident.

He also concluded that he couldn't be certain that the officers could have changed the outcome of Petito's fate if they acted accordingly.

Officers Eric Pratt and Daniel Robbins had pulled the couple over after they responded to a call from a witness who saw the couple involved in a domestic fight

Bodycam footage showed a visibly shaken Petito admitting to being the aggressor in the public argument. During the conversation, Pratt had noted that Petito should have been arrested for her actions as stated in the Utah state law

'Would Gabby be alive today if this case was handled differently?,' the report said, according to CNN. That is an impossible question to answer despite it being the answer many people want to know.

'Nobody knows and nobody will ever know the answer to that question.'

The city of Moab has not revealed any form of future disciplinary action for the officers but they intend to implement new measures such as legal and domestic violence training.

They noted, however, that the officers should have cited Petito made 'several unintentional mistakes' during the incident.

'Based on the report's findings, the City of Moab believes our officers showed kindness, respect and empathy in their handling of this incident,' a statement from the city read.

'The City of Moab sends our sincere condolences to the Petito family. Our hearts go out to them as they continue to deal with the tragic loss of their daughter.'
WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Poland is getting a loan of 450 million euros ($474 million) from a bank linked to a European human rights group to help it cope with the influx of refugees fleeing Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Poland and the Council of Europe Development Bank signed the loan agreement Friday.

The Council of Europe has 46 member countries, including EU nations, and aims to protect human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The Paris-based bank was founded in 1956 and finances projects with a social mission.

Some 4.3 million refugees crossed into Poland after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Poland is providing them with free shelter, social and medical care, education and job opportunities.

Many have moved on to other countries and some have decided to go back home, but an estimated half of the number remain in Poland.

On the sidelines of a EU summit Friday in Brussels, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said the bloc was slow to compensate Poland for the weapons and other military equipment Warsaw has given to neighboring Ukraine to support its defense against Russia. But he said he was confident the money would arrive eventually.

Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki arrives for an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, June 23, 2022. European Union leaders are expected to approve Thursday a proposal to grant Ukraine a EU candidate status, a first step on the long toward membership. (AP Photo/Olivier Matthys)

Morawiecki said there was no disagreement between Poland and the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, on the current financing of care for Ukrainian refugees. He said his government can transfer funds for that purpose from other areas of the state budget, but did not cite any figures.

"The Poles are helping Ukraine because Ukraine is fighting also for Poland ... for peace and security in all of Europe," Morawiecki said. "There is the tribute of blood on their side, on our side there is aid, in solidarity."

___

Follow AP's coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Daewoo E&C CEO Baek Jung-wan, right, paints the gate of an old house in Gwangjin District, Seoul, June 16. Courtesy of Daewoo E&C





By Kim Jae-heun







Daewoo Engineering & Construction has been working with Habitat for Humanity Korea to improve the residential environment for descendants of independence fighters, the company said on June 17.







The voluntary campaign organized by the non-profit organization aims to renovate the old homes of meritorious persons' children or grandchildren, many of whom live in poor housing conditions.







On June 16, Daewoo E&C CEO Baek Jung-wan and the company's new employees visited the house of Hong Seol-ji, an independence fighter's descendant, and replaced old windows and floorboards.







Hong's late grandfather Hong Ga-reuk was a member of the Korean Heroic Corps, a Korean independence organization based in China. He was arrested and jailed by Japanese colonial forces in Onyang, South Chungcheong Province, in May 1934. In 2009, he was posthumously awarded the Order of Merit for National Foundation.







The construction firm also donated 200 million won ($154,178) to Habitat for Humanity Korea.







Daewoo E&C has been repairing decrepit residences of people living in poverty since 2001.







In 2018, the company expanded its community service to collaborate with Habitat for Humanity Korea to help descendants of independence fighters and Vietnamese residents living in Korea.







"We will continue working with Habitat for Humanity Korea to improve the residential environment of independence activists' descendants. We hope they enjoy a comfortable life in a new cozy home," a Daewoo E&C official said.







Established in 1995, Habitat for Humanity Korea is an international non-governmental organization approved by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. It aims to support low-income earners by building new homes and fixing old homes for those in need.


Prime Minister Narendra Modi among other world leaders at the 3rd Session of the G-20 Summit, in Osaka, Japan, in 2019. (PIB/PTI file Photo)

SRINAGAR: The government has chosen scenic Jammu and Kashmir as the venue for hosting some of the events during the G20 leaders summit in 2023. India will hold the G20 presidency from December 1 this year and convene the G20 leaders' summit in 2023 for the first time.

India has been a member of G20, an influential grouping that brings together 19 of the world's leading economies, and the European Union, with its members accounting for more than 80 per cent of global GDP, 75 per cent of global trade and 60 per cent of the global population.

Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has been leading the countrys representation at G20 since 2014.

This will be the first major international summit event to be held in J&K after the Narendra Modi government scripted a historical change in the status of the erstwhile state.

Kashmir watchers say that India by holding the 2023 G20-related events in J&K wants to send a message to the outside world that the UT is transforming for a better tomorrow and showcase the situation on the ground has changed in the past three years and there is an atmosphere of peace in general now.

Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal was in September last year appointed India's Sherpa for the G20. India is part of the G20 Troika (preceding, current, and incoming G20 presidencies) from December 1, 2021, and will continue to hold this position till November 30, 2024.

After receiving a communication from the ministry of external affairs (MEA) about the G20 events, the J&K government has set up a five-member "high-level committee" for overall coordination for the proposed events.

The sources said that J&K will host some of the meetings and events during the presidency beginning on December 1, 2022. The modalities for these events and meetings would be worked out by the MEA.

Pakistan in all probability will object to holding of such international summit events in J&K on the premise that it is a disputed territory. The neighbouring countrys former high commission to India Abdul Basit on Friday gave an indication of Islamabads conceivable opposition when he in his kaleidoscope show on Youtube said that Islamabad must impress upon, at least, Turkiye, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia which are also members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to stay away from the G20 events held in J&K.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to reports, will be the first proposer during the nomination filling of the BJP-led NDA's presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu. The 64-year-old tribal leader from Odisha is pitted against former Union minister Yashwant Sinha, the candidate of the Opposition camp.

The NDA nominee, who met Mr Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday, is likely to file her nomination today. Her nomination papers were being prepared at the home of parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi.

With the backing from the majority of the electoral college, Ms Murmu will be the first tribal to be the President of India and the second woman to occupy the post.

After meeting Ms Murmu, the PM tweeted, "Met Droupadi Murmu Ji. Her presidential nomination has been appreciated across India by all sections of society. Her understanding of grassroots problems and vision for India's development is outstanding."

Mr Shah, after meeting the NDA presidential nominee, said, "The tribal society is feeling very proud by the announcement of her name."

Mrs Murmu will meet with a number of senior political leaders before embarking on a nationwide campaign to rally support from various political parties.

NDA ally JD(U) has announced their support for the NDA candidate.

Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik, who has appealed to all MLAs of the state to support the daughter of the soil in the July 18 presidential polls, said two of his cabinet colleagues will be present when Ms Murmu files her papers.

"BJP president Shri @JPNadda Ji spoke to me about the filing of the nomination of Smt #DraupadiMurmu Ji for #PresidentElections. My cabinet colleagues Shri @saraka_fan and Smt@TukuniSahu will sign nomination papers today and attend the event tomorrow," the BJD chief, who is currently on an official foreign tour to Italy, said on Twitter.

When she files her nomination paper for the country's top constitutional post, Ms Murmu will be accompanied by senior BJP leaders, including Union ministers and chief ministers of BJP-ruled states, as well as senior representatives of NDA allies.

Besides, at least 10 of the BJP's 22 MLAs in the Odisha assembly will also remain present during her nomination.

According to the Akhil Bhartiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (ABVKA), an RSS affiliate, the NDA's decision to nominate Ms Murmu, from the Santhal community, is "historic".

In a statement, it said the tribal society had suffered neglect for years despite being an integral part of Indian tradition and culture. The country is home to over 12 crore tribals. ABVKA stated that Ms Murmu's nomination as the NDA candidate is a move towards bringing social change and called on all parties to support her nomination and elect her unanimously.

Welcoming the NDAs decision to nominate Ms Murmu as the presidential candidate, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Bhopal said, "A tribal sister will be occupying the country's highest constitutional post. It is a matter of pride for all of us."

In a brief statement issued before she took her flight to Delhi, Ms Murmu said, "I thank all and seek cooperation from everyone for the presidential election. I will meet all voters (lawmakers) and seek their support before July 18."

She had reached the Odisha capital from her home in Rairangpur town in Mayurbhanj district on Wednesday night after covering a distance of 280 km by road amid cheers and greetings from people along the way.

"People of the country love my mother for her simplicity and soft-spoken nature. She has left to serve the country after handing over the responsibilities of the family to me," her daughter Itishree Murmu told reporters at the airport.

In Delhi, befitting her status as the NDA's nominee for president, several Delhi BJP leaders, including state president Adesh Gupta, party MPs Manoj Tiwari and Ramesh Bidhuri, Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, welcomed her at the airport.
Posco Center Building in Seoul / Courtesy of Posco



By Kim Hyun-bin



Posco has issued an apology based on the allegations that a female employee at its main plant in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, had been sexually assaulted by coworkers over more than three years.



Posco Vice Chairman Kim Hak-dong issued a statement on the case late Thursday. "We sincerely apologize to the victimized employee and her family for the recent unsavory sexual ethics violations within the company, and we are taking the matter seriously. We will fully cooperate with the police investigation, and do our best to ensure that there is no unfairness to the victim by conducting a thorough investigation on those involved and holding them accountable."



Earlier this month, a female employee filed a complaint with the police against four male colleagues in the same department, claiming that they sexually assaulted her multiple times. It is reported that she is the only woman in the department, which has more than 50 employees, and that the multiple sexual assaults occurred over a period of three years.



The company then dismissed the head of the department and decided to separate the victim from the accused until the police complete their investigation. However, Posco has been criticized for neglecting to protect the victim after she first reported the case to management last December.



"In order to prevent a situation like this from happening again, we invite external experts to provide additional group training on the topic of workplace sexual harassment for all employees and provide a better level of awareness training on in-house workplace sexual harassment issues. We will come up with a fundamental reform plan and implement it," Kim said.



Since making its declaration of ethical management in 2003, Posco has continuously carried out in-house ethical management campaigns such as sexual harassment training, sexual violence awareness education and workplace harassment prevention education. In addition, the ethical awareness of executives and employees has risen due to strict standards, although all the education was not enough to prevent the recent sexual assault case.


AIADMK co-coordinator O. Panneerselvam's supporters shout slogans as joint-coordinator Edappadi K Palaniswami's supporters hurl bottles after the former walked out of the party's General Council Meeting, in Chennai, Thursday, June 23, 2022. (PTI Photo)

CHENNAI: The General Council meeting of the AIADMK, to crown its joint coordinator Edappadi K. Palaniswami as the undisputed single leader, ended in an impasse less than an hour after it began on Thursday.

There was chaos, heckling, slogan shouting and intemperate behaviour by cadre without transacting any important business other than rejecting the 23 resolutions that were supposed to be passed.

It announced July 11 as the date for the next GC meeting in which the single leadership issue would be formalised. Though the plan was to

move a resolution on the need for single leadership in the party and

elect Palaniswami unanimously as the general secretary pushing

Panneerselvam to the fringes, the Madras High Court verdict issued at

around 5 am, a few hours ahead of the meeting, prevented them from doing it.

Party coordinator O. Panneerselvam faced hostility at the venue right

from the moment he landed there in a propaganda van, abruptly left the meeting along with his close associates after the contentious single leadership issue was discussed.
Designs of the BJP symbol of the lotus that will be erected at the party's national executive meeting venue and at the public meeting venue. (Image by arrangement)

HYDERABAD: The national executive meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party on July 2 and 3 in the city will not just be about the whos who of the ruling party at the Centre making a beeline to Hyderabad, but also about the party turning the event, as well as the public meeting on July 3 to be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, into a festival of party flags, the BJP symbol of lotuses, banners, buntings, hoardings, and of course balloons.

In a massive exercise to reflect the seriousness of the BJP in making its presence felt in the city, and to send a strong message to the rest of the Telangana that the party is here to stay and to challenge the TRS in the next Assembly elections, a publicity committee for the two-day event has made plans to turn Hyderabad into a virtual sea of saffron and green, the party colours, in the run up to the two-day political jamboree.

We will have around 10,000 banners, 200 hoardings, in addition to erecting flexis on 10,000 electric poles in the city about the party, and the event, Lankala Deepak Reddy, who heads the publicity committee, told Deccan Chronicle. Also, around 500 bus stops in the city will have the party flexis displayed on them, he said.

The highlights as far the decorations are concerned, will be massive cutouts of the lotus flower, the BJP symbol in saffron and green, that will be erected at Hitex in Madhapur, one of the venues for the partys national executive meeting, and at the entrance of the venue for the public meeting. They will be large enough to allow cars to pass through them, Deepak Reddy said.

Also planned are selfie points that will proclaim I Love BJP along with a cutout of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at all tourist spots in the city, and at several major traffic intersections, as there will be large balloons at several other locations.

Our team comprising P.M. Sai Prasad, BJYM national treasurer, Bukka Venugopal, senior party leader, Singayapalli Gopi, party state executive member, Mekala Sarangapani, BJP Mahankali Zilla general secretary, Raman Goud, party Hyderabad Central District vice president, and Nandan, a senior party leader will ensure that everyone notices and learns about the party, and its plans for the state, Deepak Reddy said.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's office in Wayanad district of Kerala was vandalised by activists of the Students Federation of India (SFI) on Friday. (Photo: Twitter)

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's office in Wayanad district of Kerala was vandalised by activists of the Students Federation of India (SFI), affiliated to the ruling CPM, on Friday.

SFI activists were protesting against Gandhi's alleged silence over the recent Supreme Court directive that national parks and wildlife sanctuaries must have an eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) of minimum one km from the demarcated boundary of a protected forest. Rahul Gandhi is MP from Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency.

However, Gandhi had recently written to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan urging him to convey to the Centre the concerns of the people of Kerala regarding the SC directive.

The SFI activists who barged into Gandhi's parliamentary party office in Kalpetta smashed windows, damaged furniture and beat up workers. The police, which arrived at the spot, used force to disperse the SFI mob.

Later, Congress workers led by Congress MLA T. Siddique took out a protest march to Wayanad SP office and demanded immediate arrest of SFI activists responsible for the attack. The Congress leadership alleged that the CPM had planned the attack to gratify Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP central leadership.

"We suspect a conspiracy behind the attack, said AICC general secretary K.C. Venugopal who also sought Chief Minister Vijayans reaction to the attack. The CM and his party workers want to please the Sangh Parivar, he said.

Vijayan condemned the attack as condemnable, in a statement. This is a country where there is freedom to organise protests and express views in a democratic manner. However, such protests taking a violent turn indicates a wrong trend. The government will take strong action against those behind the incident, the Chief Minister said.

The LDF leadership also distanced itself from the attack on Gandhis office. There is no need to take out a protest march to Rahul Gandhis office. I have no idea why the march was organised, said LDF convener E.P. Jayarajan.

He said Gandhi was being hounded by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). We are against the misuse of ED by the Central government against political leaders from the opposition parties, he said.
Eknath Shinde (L) along with party chief whip Sunil Prabhu pose for a photo at Shiv Sena Bhavan in Mumbai. (Photo: PTI file photo)

Mumbai: Shiv Sena on Thursday sought the disqualification of 12 legislators. The party has approached Maharashtra Assembly Deputy Speaker Narahari Zirwal regarding the same.

The demand was made by Shiv Sena chief whip Sunil Prabhu, who had called a meeting of MLAs on Wednesday by sending a letter to the party MLAs.

In this letter, Shiv Sena chief whip had warned to take action if the MLAs are not present at the meeting.

If the 12 legislators are disqualified, partys total strength will come down to 43 and Eknath Shinde will require support of 29 MLAs to form a separate group in the House. However, the disqualification will also bring the number of the Shinde camp down to 25. Shinde said he and his supporters will not be intimidated by disqualification threats.

"We also know the law. As per the 10th schedule of the Constitution, whip is applicable only for House proceeds," he posted on his Twitter handle.

Claiming that his group is real Shiv Sena, Shinde said that action will be taken against the MLAs who have not joined him for forming a separate group.
Former union minister Yashwant Sinha addresses a press conference, in New Delhi, Wednesday, June 22, 2022. Sinha has been unanimously chosen as the joint opposition candidate for upcoming presidential elections. (PTI Photo)

HYDERABAD: The TRS is planning a grand reception to joint Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha, when he arrives in the city to campaign for the Presidential election. Sinha is expected to undertake tours to various states for campaigning after filing his nomination papers on June 27.

Party sources said Sinha is expected to meet TRS, the Congress and MIM legislators separately to seek votes. There is uncertainty over NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu campaigning in Hyderabad as the TRS which has 103 MLAs and 16 MPs has decided to back Sinha.

The AIMIM has seven MLAs and an MP in Telangana, and another MP and more than half a dozen legislators in Maharashtra and Bihar. The Congress has six MLAs and three MPs in Telangana. Both are against the NDA. The BJP has three MLAs and four MPs in the state.

In 2017 Presidential poll, NDA's presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind had campaigned in Hyderabad since the TRS had supported the NDA. The TRS arranged a grand reception for Kovind which was attended by party president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, his Cabinet colleagues, party MLAs and MPs.

The opposition parties fielded former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar for the Presidential election but Rao refused to meet her as the TRS had extended support to the NDA.

However, an official announcement on TRS extending support to Yashwant Sinha is yet to come from the Chief Minister. He is expected to make an official announcement on this issue by June 29, the deadline to file nominations.
NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu while filing her nomination papers for presidential election, in New Delhi, Friday, June 24, 2022. (PTI Photo)

New Delhi: NDA presidential nominee Droupadi Murmu on Friday called up some key Opposition leaders, including Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, NCP's Sharad Pawar and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and sought their support for her candidature.

Sources said she called them up personally and spoke to them before filing her nomination for the July 18 presidential election.

All the three leaders expressed their best wishes to her, sources said.
A video that shows near-instant deterioration of Bengaluru roads that were newly asphalted to smoothen the travel of Prime Minister Narendra Modis convoy during his recent visit has gone viral. Embarrassed by this infrastructure failure, the Prime Ministers Office has sought a report from the Karnataka state government.

Modi was in the state capital as a part of his two-day Karnataka visit.

Officials from the PMO called the Chief Ministers Office on Thursday, and asked the CMO to submit a report of the incident immediately, sources in the CMO said. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, who was in the national capital in connection with the Presidential elections, directed the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to submit an explanation. The CM also directed BBMP Commissioner Tushar Girinath to take action against the officials responsible for the shoddy road works.

The civic body recently claimed that ahead of Modis visit, it had spent Rs 23 crore to redo 14 km of roads, including stretches of Mysuru Road and Ballari Road, in the city.

Also read: 'We don't own it': BBMP's U-turn on Chamarajpet Idgah

According to the BBMP, the seven km long road from Kengeri to Kommaghatta was asphalted at a cost of Rs 6 crore, and PM Modi travelled on this stretch during his visit.

However, visuals of this stretch, specifically Jnanabharti Main Road, peeling off like paint went viral on social media two days after his visit. The BBMP claimed that the stretch of the road caved in after a spell of overnight rain.

The state government is preparing to hold BBMP elections soon and the CM holds the portfolio of the Bengaluru Urban Development. With the objective to win BBMP elections, Modi was invited to the IT city to launch infrastructure projects worth Rs 30,000 crore, including the sub-urban railways.

The poor condition of infrastructure in Bengaluru city has also incurred public wrath, as well as industrialists condemnation. Even the Karnataka High Court pulled up the BBMP and directed the civic authority to fill up potholes at the earliest.
The death toll following a mass attempt by a huge crowd of African migrants to cross from Morocco into Spain's Melilla enclave climbed to 18 on Friday, according to a new Moroccan update.

Some 2,000 migrants approached Melilla at dawn and over 500 managed to enter a border control area after cutting a fence with shears, the Spanish government's local delegation said in a statement.

Moroccan officials said late Friday that 13 migrants had died of their injuries sustained in the incursion, in addition to five who were confirmed dead earlier in the day.

"Some fell from the top of the barrier" separating the two sides, a Moroccan official said, adding that 140 security personnel and 76 migrants were injured during the attempt to cross.

It was the first such mass incursion since Spain and Morocco mended diplomatic relations last month.

The Spanish government's local delegation said only that 49 Spanish police officers were lightly injured.

Morocco had deployed a "large" number of forces to try to repel the assault on the border, who "cooperated actively" with Spain's security forces, it said earlier in a statement.

Images on Spanish media showed exhausted migrants laying on the pavement in Melilla, some with bloodied hands and torn clothes.

Speaking in Brussels, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez condemned the "violent assault" which he blamed on "mafias who traffic in human beings".

Melilla and Ceuta, Spain's other tiny North African enclave, have the European Union's only land borders with Africa, making them a magnet for migrants.

On Thursday night migrants and security forces "clashed" on the Moroccan side of the border, Omar Naji of Moroccan rights group AMDH told AFP.

Several of them were hospitalised in Nador, he added.

In March this year, Spain ended a year-long diplomatic crisis by backing Morocco's autonomy plan for Western Sahara going back on its decades-long stance of neutrality.

Sanchez then visited Rabat, and the two governments hailed a "new stage" in relations.

The row began when Madrid allowed Brahim Ghali, leader of Western Sahara's pro-independence Polisario Front, to be treated for Covid-19 in a Spanish hospital in April 2021.

A month later, some 10,000 migrants surged across the Moroccan border into Spain's Ceuta enclave as border guards looked the other way, in what was widely seen as a punitive gesture by Rabat.

Rabat calls for the Western Sahara to have an autonomous status under Moroccan sovereignty but the Polisario wants a UN-supervised referendum on self-determination as agreed in a 1991 ceasefire agreement.

In the days just before Morocco and Spain patched up their ties, there were several attempted mass crossings of migrants into Melilla, including one involving 2,500 people, the largest such attempt on record. Nearly 500 made it across.

Patching up relations with Morocco -- the departure point for many migrants -- has meant a drop in arrivals, notably in Spain's Atlantic Canary Islands.

The number of migrants who reached the Canary Islands in April was 70 per cent lower than in February, government figures show.

Sanchez earlier this month warned that "Spain will not tolerate any use of the tragedy of illegal immigration as a means of pressure".

Spain will seek to have "irregular migration" listed as one of the security threats on the NATO's southern flank when the alliance gathers for a summit in Madrid on June 29-30.

Over the years, thousands of migrants have attempted to cross the 12-kilometre (7.5-mile) border between Melilla and Morocco, or Ceuta's eight-kilometre border, by climbing the fences, swimming along the coast or hiding in vehicles.

The two territories are protected by fences fortified with barbed wire, video cameras and watchtowers.

Migrants sometimes use hooks and sticks to try to climb the border fence, and throw stones at police.
An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan has awarded over 15 years jail term in a terror financing case to a main handler of deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks.

An anti-terrorism court in Lahore early this month had handed down over 15 years jail term to Sajid Majeed Mir, an activist of banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), on a terror financing case, a senior lawyer associated with terror financing cases of LeT and Jamaat-ud-Dawa leaders told PTI on Friday.

The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of the Punjab Police, which often issues conviction of the suspects in such cases to the media, did not notify Mirs conviction in a terror financing case.

Besides, since it was an in-camera proceeding at jail, the media was not allowed.

The lawyer further said convict Mir, who is in mid 40s, has been in the Kot Lakhpat jail since his arrest in this April. He said the court also imposed a fine of over Rs 400,000 to the convict.

Earlier, it was assumed that Mir was dead.

Before the last meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Pakistan reportedly told the agency that it had arrested and prosecuted Sajid Mir in order to seek its removal from the FATF Grey list.

Sajid Mir, who has a bounty of $5 Million is in Indias most wanted list for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks that left 166 people dead.

Mir was called "project manager" of the Mumbai attacks. Mir reportedly had visited India in 2005 using a fake passport in a fake name.

Mumbai terror attacks alleged mastermind and JuD chief Hafiz Saeed has already been sentenced for 68 years imprisonment in terror financing cases by the Lahore ATC.

The sentence is running concurrently, which means he will not have to spend many years in jail.

Mumbai attack operation commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi is also convicted for several years in jail. Both Saeed and Maki are also in Kot Lapkhapt jail in Lahore.

Saeed, a UN-designated terrorist on whom the US has placed a $10 million bounty, was arrested on July 2019 in the terror financing cases.

Saeed-led JuD is the front organisation for the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) which is responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attack that also left six Americans dead.

The US Department of the Treasury has designated Saeed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.

The global terror financing watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is instrumental in pushing Islamabad to take measures against terrorists roaming freely in Pakistan and using its territory to carry out attacks in India.

The FATF had placed Pakistan on the grey list in June 2018 and asked Islamabad to implement a plan of action to curb money laundering.
On the first day of Monsoon Session in the Bihar Assembly on Friday, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Left party leaders protested against the Central government on issue of the Agnipath scheme.

Bhai Virendra, the senior RJD leader and chief spokesperson said: "The leaders of every party will pass a proposal against the Agnipath scheme and send it to the Narendra Modi government."

Also Read: Agniveer lays bare the deepening India-Bharat divide

Mahboob Alam, the MLA from the Left party said: "Due to the arbitrariness of the Narendra Modi government, the futures of the youths are becoming darker. We have to secure the future of the youth of the country."

"The Center's inhibitory policies are putting pressure on the youths. Respective governments of the states have registered FIRs against the protesters and lodged them in jails.

"They were protesting for their future, but the Centre has applied pressure on states like Bihar having JD(U)-BJP combine government to suppress the agitation. They are thinking that the agitation against Agnipath scheme has ended, but I want to say that the protests have started now," Alam said.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who has led the Democrats in bipartisan Senate talks to rein in gun violence, pauses for questions from reporters, at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., June 22. The Senate on June 23 easily approved a bipartisan gun violence bill that seemed unthinkable just a month ago, clearing the way for final congressional approval of what will be lawmakers' farthest-reaching response in decades to the nation's run of brutal mass shootings. AP-Yonhap



A bipartisan gun violence bill that seemed unimaginable a month ago is on the verge of winning final congressional approval, a vote that will produce lawmakers' most sweeping answer in decades to brutal mass shootings that still shock yet no longer surprise Americans.



The House was set to vote on the $13 billion package Friday, a month after a gunman massacred 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. Just days before that, a white man motivated by racism allegedly killed 10 Black grocery shoppers in Buffalo, New York.



The two slaughters  days apart and victimizing helpless people for whom the public felt immediate empathy  prompted both parties to conclude that Congress had to act, especially in an election year. After weeks of closed-door talks, Senate bargainers from both parties produced a compromise taking mild but impactful steps toward making such mayhem less likely.



"Families in Uvalde and Buffalo, and too many tragic shootings before, have demanded action. And tonight, we acted," President Joe Biden said after passage. He said the House should send it to him quickly, adding, "Kids in schools and communities will be safer because of it."



The legislation would toughen background checks for the youngest gun buyers, keep firearms from more domestic violence offenders and help states put in place red flag laws that make it easier for authorities to take weapons from people adjudged dangerous. It would also fund local programs for school safety, mental health and violence prevention.



The Senate approved the measure Thursday by 65-33. Fifteen Republicans  a remarkably high number for a party that has derailed gun curbs for years  joined all 50 Democrats, including their two independent allies, in approving the bill.



Still, that meant that fewer than one-third of GOP senators backed the measure. And with Republicans in the House expected to solidly oppose it, the fate of future congressional action on guns seems dubious, even as the GOP is expected to win House and possibly Senate control in the November elections.



Top House Republicans urged a "no" vote in an email from the No. 2 GOP leader, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana. He called the bill "an effort to slowly chip away at law-abiding citizens' Second Amendment rights."



While the bill was noteworthy for its contrast with years of stalemate in Washington, it falls far short of more robust gun restrictions Democrats have sought and Republicans have thwarted for years. Those included bans on the assault-type weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines used in the slayings in Buffalo and Uvalde.



Yet the accord let both parties' Senate leaders declare victory and demonstrate to voters that they know how to compromise and make government work, while also leaving room for each side to appeal to its core supporters.






Pakistan on Friday said it would like to have a "result-oriented" dialogue with India but the environment for such parleys was not conducive.

Foreign Office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, responding to a query about National Security Adviser Ajit Dovals recent remarks, said: We would like to have normal relations but tolerance threshold for terrorism is very low. Can't have peace and war at the choice of our adversary, we will decide when, with whom and on what terms."

The spokesperson said that it was Pakistans official position to have friendly cooperative relations with neighbours including India and to resolve all issues through a dialogue which is result oriented and meaningful, which can lead to progress on outstanding issues, particularly the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.

We have said that the environment for such dialogue is not there, this is what the Foreign Minister (Bilawal Bhutto Zardari) also said recently. The environment has been vitiated by Indian actions, and the onus is therefore on India to take necessary steps to create an environment which will be conducive for dialogue, he said.

India has repeatedly told Pakistan that Jammu and Kashmir "was, is and shall forever" remain an integral part of the country.

India has said it desires normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan in an environment free of terror, hostility and violence.

Doval this week said that India would like to have normal ties with Pakistan but its tolerance threshold for terrorism is very low.

The FO spokesperson also alleged that India also uses the ploy of terrorism to undermine the legitimate struggle for self-determination of the Kashmiri people and to divert the attention of the international community from its human rights violations in Kashmir.

The spokesperson also said the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi on June 17 this year issued 495 visas to Sikh pilgrims from India to attend the rituals related to the annual death anniversary of Maharaja Ranjeet Singh from June 21-30.

During the visit, the pilgrims would, inter-alia, go to Panja Sahib, Nankana Sahib and Kartarpur Sahib, he added.

To another question, he said that the instrument of sanction should be used through the mechanisms that are internationally available, that is through the United Nations.

He said Pakistan's position on Ukraine was clear from the beginning that the situation is unfortunate and it has led to many consequences, which have serious impact on the international community, including particularly the developing countries.

Talking about remarks made in the Canadian Parliament recently by a member, he said Pakistan took up this issue with the Canadian government, underling that freedom of expression entails responsibility, and that Islamabad takes serious exception to the baseless and unsubstantiated remarks that have been made.

Pakistan and Canada have a multi-faceted relationship and we wish to deepen our bilateral ties based on mutual respect and trust and such incidents are not helpful in that context, he said.
The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) refusing to unequivocally support the Opposition candidate in the Presidential election and its decision to call a meeting on Saturday to finalise its stand after BJP nominated Droupadi Murmu, a tribal, has put the launch of Yashwant Sinhas campaign from his home state in disarray.

The Opposition is also waiting with bated breath about the stand of other non-NDA parties like JD(S) and Bharatiya Tribal Party. JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda has already described Murmu as a suitable and competent candidate.

Sources said Sinha was to reach Jharkhand on Thursday evening and launch his campaign by meeting the ruling JMM-Congress-RJD coalition MLAs on Friday but it has been put on hold, as the JMM indicated that it was inclined to support Murmu, a former Jharkhand Governor.

Read | Many pointers in Presidential battle

JMM General Secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya told DH that a decision on Presidential elections will be taken only at a meeting of its partys top leadership on Saturday.

Sinhas campaign managers said they will finalise his programme only on Friday. Without clarity on the JMM stand, it was felt that Sinha reaching Jharkhand would be counter-productive.

Sinha hails from Jharkhand but the BJP fielding Murmu has put the JMM in a dilemma. Voting against Murmu could pose a problem as it would be seen as going against tribals. A tribal nominated party, JMM has already indicated that they may support Murmu after it said she is a good choice.

Read | Did much more for tribals than Murmu: Yashwant Sinha

With BJD, who keeps equidistant from both NDA and Opposition though is friendly towards the BJP, offering support to the "daughter of Odisha" as well as YSR Congress doing so, Murmu has votes with a value of at least 6.17 lakh in an electoral college of 10.86 lakh, which is comfortably above the majority mark by at least 74,000. Sinha could get 4.37 lakh votes.

If one adds Opposition allies JMM and JD(S) to Murmus votes, it could touch 6.28 lakh. The BJP expects more parties to join them in electing the first tribal President of the country.

While JMM and JD(S) had attended a joint Opposition meeting on June 15 on the Presidential election and endorsed the need for a common candidate, both parties have indicated that they may not stand by the Opposition nominee after the BJP declared the name of Murmu.

Though he has not explicitly said that his party would support Murmu, Gowda on Wednesday said that she is a suitable and competent candidate. JD(S) has votes with a value of at least 3,630. Its two MLAs had cross voted and they are likely to vote in favour of BJP and Congress respectively.

On Tuesday night itself, BJD supremo and Odisha Chief Minister announced his support for Murmu. BJD has votes worth around 31,500.

The BJP expects that smaller parties like Bharatiya Tribal Party, which has a couple of MLAs, will support Murmu. There are 138 tribal Assembly seats in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand with around 85 from the Congress and the BJP expects that many of them may vote for Murmu.
The Taliban has projected New Delhis move to deploy a technical team at the Embassy of India in Kabul as a vindication of its claim that its government has established security in Afghanistan.

New Delhi on Friday sent more emergency relief assistance for quake-hit Paktika and Khost provinces of Afghanistan, but refrained from terming it as reestablishment of its diplomatic relations with the war-ravaged country, as it would have been tantamount to giving some degree of recognition to the Talibans government in Kabul.

The Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi rather invoked Indias historical and civilizational relationship with the people of Afghanistan while announcing deployment of the technical team at the Embassy of India in Kabul on Thursday. India stands in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan, it stated in another press-release issued in New Delhi on Friday.

Also Read: Afghans bury dead, dig for survivors of devastating earthquake

India remains firmly committed to provide immediate relief assistance for the people of Afghanistan, Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson of the MEA, said in New Delhi.

A military aircraft of the Indian Air Force and a civilian aircraft of the Kam Airways on Thursday and Friday carried altogether 27 tonnes of emergency relief assistance  family ridge tents, sleeping bags, blankets, sleeping mats and other essential items  from New Delhi to Kabul for distribution among the people of quake-hit areas in Afghanistan.

The earthquake on Wednesday killed hundreds and injured thousands in Paktika and Khost provinces of Afghanistan. It also rendered thousands homeless.

New Delhi has handed over the relief consignment to the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) and Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) in Kabul as it has not yet recognized the Talibans government in Afghanistan.

The Taliban, however, claimed that New Delhi had not only deployed the technical team but also the diplomats and had thus reopened its embassy in Kabul. The return of Indian diplomats to Afghanistan and reopening of (the) embassy demonstrates that security is established in the country and all political and diplomatic rights are respected, the government set up by the Sunni Islamist militia stated.

New Delhi had evacuated its envoy to Afghanistan, Rudrendra Tandon, and 175 other officials posted in the Embassy of India in Kabul on August 17, 2021  just two days after President Ashraf Ghanis government collapsed in the wake of a swift military campaign by the Taliban. India had also evacuated its officials posted in its consulates in other cities in Afghanistan weeks before the country was taken over by the Taliban.

New Delhi earlier this month sent a delegation of officials, led by its senior diplomat J P Singh, to Kabul to oversee the delivery operations of Indias humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. Singh and other officials had a meeting with Foreign Minister of the Talibans government in Afghanistan, Amir Khan Muttaqi, as well as other officials of the governance structure set up by the Sunni Islamist militia.

Singhs meeting with Muttaqi in Kabul was New Delhis second publicly acknowledged engagement with the leaders of the Taliban. New Delhis envoy to Doha, Deepak Mittal, had earlier held a meeting with Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, the head of the Talibans political office in the capital of Qatar, on August 31, 2021.

New Delhi, however, has been having back-channel contacts with the Taliban over the past few years as it had anticipated that the Sunni Islamist militia could eventually return to the governance structure in Kabul after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, thus giving its mentor Pakistan a strategic edge against India.

India over the past few months also sent food and medicines to Afghanistan as humanitarian assistance, which was distributed through the UN agencies.

After New Delhi sent its officials to meet the Taliban leaders in Kabul, Pakistan tacitly hit out at India, stating that it would not want to see any spoiler in Afghanistan.
Launching a scorching counter-attack on the rebels, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday dared them to win the elections "without using the name of Shiv Sena or the Thackerays", even as allies Nationalist Congress Party-Congress reiterated their commitment to save the Maha Vikas Aghadi government.

Addressing a meeting of Sena's district heads and others, Thackeray said that he has left the official residence 'Varsha', but not lost his "will to fight" for the party.

Slamming the rebels' leader Eknath Shinde, he recalled how he did a lot for him, yet Shinde was hurling a series of baseless allegations against the Sena and Thackeray.

Also Read: No national party in contact with us: Eknath Shinde

"I did everything possible for Shinde... I allotted him the Urban Development portfolio which I handled. His son (Dr Shrikant Shinde) is a two-time MP and now they are commenting on my son (Minister Aditya Thackeray), and levelling many allegations even against me," said Thackeray.

He challenged the rebels to show courage and go among the people without taking the names of Shiv Sena or the party founder, the late Balasaheb Thackeray.

The CM reiterated how he had become the CM against his wishes and had no desire to wield power.

"Now, those people who used to claim that they would give their lives rather than quit the Shiv Sena have fled from here. The rebels want to destroy the party... I never imagined in my dreams I would become the CM and have even offered to quit... I have vacated the 'Varsha' bungalow but not left the determination to fight out," Thaekeray asserted.

The Sena chief also threw the field open saying anybody in the party is free to leave and they can take away the MPs or others, but not the roots of the party which remains intact.

Simultaneously, the NCP-Congress have reaffirmed their resolve to fight out the political crisis unitedly and stand behind Thackeray till the end.
Deshapremi Sanghatanegala Okkuta has decided to lay siege to the event that would felicitate Rohith Chakrathirtha on June 25. The former chairman of the textbook revision committee would be lauded at a ceremony at Bhuvanendra Hall in Canara High School in Dongarkeri.

During the revision of textbooks, social reformers Narayana Guru, Kuvempu, Ambedkar and Kayyara Kinhanna Rai have been insulted. The Okkuta expressed displeasure with Mangalore University Vice-Chancellor Prof P S Yadapadithaya for agreeing to preside over the programme. The Okkuta and other organisations will take out a procession from City Centre mall to the venue of the programme, Democratic Youth Federation of India state president Muneer Katipalla said on Friday.

All India Democratic Students Organisation Karnataka (AIDSO) said that the textbooks revised by Rohith Chakrathirtha have a distorted history of great personalities like Basavanna, Ambedkar, Kuvempu among others. Lessons on Savitribai Phule, Kanakadasa, Purandara Dasa, Sri Narayan Guru have been dropped.

AIDSO Karnataka Secretary Ajay Kamath appealed to VC to decline the invitation.

At a time when there is opposition to his ideas and textbooks revised by him, the V-C of a prestigious university should not preside over the programme organised to felicitate him, Katipalla said.

DK Youth Congress General Secretary Ismail B S said a vice-chancellor must not back any political party. Being an educationist himself, we expect the V-C to remain absent during the programme. It is an insult to the district for organising a civic reception to Rohith Chakrathirta who had distorted history and insulted Nadageethe, he stated and urged the organisers to cancel the programme.


Concern has been expressed about a school on the edge of Derry's Bogside distributing a book celebrating the recent Jubilee of the Queen of England to its pupils.

Parents of children at the school in question, St Eugene's Primary School on Francis Street, pointed out it is adjacent to the area where 14 Derry people were murdered by members of the British Parachute Regiment on Bloody Sunday 1972.

Speaking to Derry Now, Derry City and Strabane District councillor, Emmet Doyle (Aontu) said he had been contacted by numerous parents sharing screenshots of pages relating to the lineage of the current British monarchy.

Cllr Doyle added: I have also received screenshots from parents from the book with the words of the British National anthem and entries on former British Prime Ministers.

Page from book distributed to Derry primary school pupils

I have since learned that more than one school distributed the book.

I know some schools contacted parents via text and gave them the option to pick up the book, others didnt and when children came home and opened their school bags, parents were furious to find what is at best inappropriate and at worst downright offensive to many.

How some schools management didnt think before sending children home with it in some areas in the city I will never know, said Cllr Doyle.

St Eugene's Primary School was contacted and Derry News and we are awaiting a reply.
On the grand scheme of things, very few musical artists truly achieve legendary status, fewer again can point to songs in their catalogue that are truly iconic. American Disco/pop/RnB legends Sister Sledge are one act that can do just that.

Having enjoyed a meteoric rise in the 1970s at the height of the Disco era, Sister Sledge blazed a trail with hit song after hit song that captured the zeitgeist of the seventies perfectly and which would stand the test of time to become truly timeless.

While the disco era would eventually burn out, the acts who were at the pinnacle of the movement would fleetingly fall away from the superstardom they enjoyed at their peaks, but the music remained and eventually acts like the Bee Gees and of course Sister Sledge would be rediscovered and heralded for the amazing music they produced. Music that time has proven, is iconic in any era.

It is now some 51 years since sisters Debbie, Joni, Kim and Kathy first took to the stage as Sister Sledge and while over the years they have enjoyed highs and lows like every act and have had to evolve with the times, such as when Kathy Sledge left the group in 1989 to pursue a solo career, Sister Sledges music remained ingrained in popular culture and became anthemic, particularly for members of the LBGTQ+ community.

Hits like We are Family, Hes The Greatest Dancer and Lost in Music are perennial floor fillers at discos, nightclubs, weddings and parties all around the world and despite over half a century in the industry, a recent family sized evolution within the band means that there are plenty more years in the tank for the family Sledge.

Live performances by Sister Sledge are still a family affair but this evolution now sees Debbie and Kim joined on stage by Debbies Son and Daughter, David and Camille Sledge and Jonis son Thaddeus Sledge, who have helped reinvigorate the groups live delivery and ensured that the Sledge legacy can last for a long time to come.

Before bringing their brilliantly evolved live show to headline Stendhal Festival in July, Debbie Sledge spoke with us about about what Festival goers at Ballymully Cottage Farm can expect from that performance, the importance of family throughout her personal and professional life and memories of previous visits to Ireland, North and South.

Its been a fantastic journey, says Debbie Sledge, very tough to sum up in just a sentence but if I had to it would simply be, love, joy and positivity.

She continued: The great thing about this new evolution of the band is the fact that within this new dynamic we all feel that there is so much more to be revealed in terms of the artistry, music, talent and performance elements within it.

The addition of the Sledgendary band and family members to the group has opened up new aspects and doors of artistry, given us new personalities with new ideas, all waiting to be shared and discovered.

Debbie added: It is definitely a bonus for us that some of our newest band members are family by blood but over the years we have learned that you can have family that isnt blood, what is truly important is relationships. My definition for family would include LOVE, respect, honour, positivity, teamwork and growth.

"These are traits that are not necessarily confined to blood related family, but rather, strong relationships period. Find your tribe and consider them family.

Stendhal Festival itself has a lot in common with Sister Sledge in that their existence has always revolved around family ties.

Debbie admitted that while this aspect of the band certainly brought with it its own difficulties, ultimately though, she says that rewards of working so closely with family massively outweigh any of the family matters that arose from time to time.

As a family there is certainly a unique working dynamic in any business but I suppose particularly the music business, Debbie laughed.

I dare say it may have been easier sometimes if we werent family but I would not trade the awesome experience we have shared and the bond it has generated between us for anything. The awards are priceless.

Looking back through their career, Debbie described many festival highlights, It feels like theres an extra special energy that is unique to festival performances, she said, so many people sharing this one experience together in a wide-open setting. It feels limitless and free, almost magical, just as it should feel. Just like the music we create and embrace.

She added: At festivals everyone is in party mode for real, they are always such fun.

There are a few standout moments for me personally, The Rumble in the Jungle in Zaire, still stands out to me, it was an incredible experience.

Zaire 74 was a concert which brought Black American artists together on Stage with African performers as part of the carnival surrounding the now legendary George Foreman, Mohammed Ali fight in 1974. Almost 80,000 people were in attendance as Sister Sledge were joined on the bill by such luminaries as BB King, James Brown, The Pointer Sisters and Bill Withers.

From Zaire in 1974 to Northern Ireland in 2022, Sister Sledge have been all around the world several times over and Debbie says that Ireland is one of the bands favourite places to play.

We love it in Ireland, she said, Its such a beautiful country, so much nature and beauty to discover and appreciate.

Weve had loads of great gigs there but one that stands out for us as part of our new band was our gig alongside Bruno Mars in Dublin when we all found out that Thaddeus has a big fan base over there, it was great fun.

In closing Debbie looked forward to the bands return to Northern Ireland and their headline set at Stendhal.

We are really excited to have been able to get back on stage after what the world has been through in these past two years.

"Its wonderful that the stages of the world have been opened back up to performers and audiences alike, so everyone coming to see us at Stendhal should be prepared for us to bust loose.

"All the band have their solo moments, of course we will be performing all the songs people know and love and we will also be playing our new single Free, which really feels apt at this time. We cant wait to see everyone at the festival.

For tickets and more information about Stendhal Festival, visit www.stendhalfestival.com
Googles Project Zero and Threat Analysis Group (TAG) has come forward with its findings on the activities of an Italian spyware maker named RCS Labs. This is not as big in scale or scope as Israeli NSO Group and its proprietary Pegasus spyware. Nonetheless, it has reportedly been around for quite a few years and has been used on people in Italy, Kazakhstan, and Syria. Even if your country's name isnt on the list, know that TAG is currently tracking more than 30 spyware vendors that have grown into a full-blown ecosystem and lends their services to world governments. So, lets understand how these things work.

How Do RCS Labs Android And iOS Spyware Work?

The spyware will be masked as a fake My Vodafone app that is pushed to the users through an SMS link and they are tricked into installing the app. Well, to convince them, the attackers have sometimes got the ISPs to disconnect the mobile data first and then ask them to install the particular My Vodafone app to restore the services.

The app would seem legit and the sideloading works because it was signed in through Apple's Enterprise Developer Program. Apple has however revoked all certificates and accounts related to this now.

Talking about sideloading, Apple said, Enterprise certificates are meant only for internal use by a company, and are not intended for general app distribution, as they can be used to circumvent App Store and iOS protections. Despite the programs tight controls and limited scale, bad actors have found unauthorized ways of accessing it, for instance by purchasing enterprise certificates on the black market.

Apple has also patched the exploits that were used by the bad actors to sneak into the victims iPhones.

According to Project Zero member Ian Beer, the exploits were successful in the first place, because of the new system-on-a-chip and coprocessors used in the recent iPhones, something which is used by Android phones too.

Meanwhile, TAG member Benoit Sevens remarked, The commercial surveillance industry benefits from and reuses research from the jailbreaking community. In this case, three out of six of the exploits are from public jailbreak exploits. We also see other surveillance vendors reusing techniques and infection vectors initially used and discovered by cyber crime groups. And like other attackers, surveillance vendors are not only using sophisticated exploits but are using social engineering attacks to lure their victims in.

Another TAG employee Clement Lecigne told WIRED that These vendors are enabling the proliferation of dangerous hacking tools, arming governments that would not be able to develop these capabilities in-house. But there is little or no transparency into this industry, that's why it's critical to share information about these vendors and their capabilities.

We agree and appreciate Google and other parties involved in discovering such vulnerabilities. Now if you own an iPhone or for that matter any computing device, you are advised to keep their software up to date.

As for other news, reviews, feature stories, buying guides, and everything else tech-related, keep reading Digit.in.
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SEATTLE  An apartment building at 10002 Des Moines Memorial Drive S. sold for $5.2 million, according to King County records.

The seller was a local investor who acquired the property in 2014 for about $2 million.





. . .
Protesters demonstrate in front of the European Council to demand the accession of Ukraine in the European Union, on the sidelines of an EU Summit in Brussels, Belgium, June 23. The EU's leaders have agreed to make Ukraine a candidate for EU membership, setting in motion a potentially years-long process that could draw the embattled country further away from Russia's influence and bind it more closely to the West. EPA-Yonhap



Ukraine became a candidate to join the European Union on Thursday, a bold geopolitical step triggered by Russia's invasion that Kyiv and Brussels hailed as a "historic moment."



Starting on the long path to EU membership will be a huge boost to morale in the embattled country, as Russian assaults on two cities in the eastern Donbas region move toward a "fearsome climax," according to a Ukrainian government adviser.



"Ukraine's future is in the EU," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter after the official announcement.



"A historic moment," European Council President Charles Michel tweeted, adding: "Our future is together."



The approval of the Kyiv government's application by EU leaders meeting in Brussels will anger Russia as it struggles to impose its will on Ukraine. Moldova also became an official candidate on Thursday, signaling the bloc's intention to reach deep into the former Soviet Union.



Friday will mark four months since Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops across the border in what he calls a "special military operation" sparked in part by what Russia considers Western encroachment into its sphere of influence.



The conflict, which the West sees as an unjustified war of aggression by Russia, has killed thousands, displaced millions and destroyed cities, while the curtailment of food and energy exports has affected countries around the world.



Russia has focused its campaign on southern and eastern Ukraine after its advance on the capital in the early stages of the conflict was thwarted by Ukrainian resistance.



The war of attrition in the Donbas  Ukraine's industrial heartland  is most critical in the twin cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk, which sit on opposite banks of the Siverskyi Donets River in Luhansk province.



The battle there is "entering a sort of fearsome climax," said Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Zelenskyy.



Hot summer






More trust urged for Sino-Indian relations

09:58, June 24, 2022 By ZHAO JIA ( China Daily

State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets with Pradeep Kumar Rawat, India's new ambassador to China in Beijing on Wednesday. [Photo/Xinhua]

State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China's and India's common interests far outweigh their differences and the two countries should support rather than undermine each other, as he met with Pradeep Kumar Rawat, India's new ambassador to Beijing.

Wang noted that the two neighbors should put the border issue in an appropriate position within bilateral ties and seek solutions through dialogue and consultation. To date, China and India have held 15 rounds of Corps Commander-level talks on the border issue.

China and India should meet each other halfway so as to steer bilateral relations back to the track of stable and sound development at an early date, said Wang during the meeting, which took place on Wednesday.

He said the two sides should strengthen cooperation rather than guard against each other, and enhance mutual trust rather than be suspicious of each other.

China and India should also give full play to their traditional advantages in people-to-people and cultural exchanges, continuously expand mutually beneficial cooperation, and work together to create a better future for mankind, he added.

Noting India will pursue an independent foreign policy, Rawat said India is willing to work with China to strengthen communication, properly resolve differences and enhance mutual trust to push forward bilateral cooperation. Rawat took office as India's envoy to China in March.

Wang Shida, deputy director of the Institute of South Asian Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said healthy China-India relations help promote democracy in international relations and tackle global challenges as the relations concern the well-being of 2.8 billion people in both countries and whether the world can truly achieve justice, equality and harmony.

'Eurocentrism' slammed

Speaking in an interview at the GLOBSEC Bratislava Forum, India's Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar slammed "Eurocentrism" and said his country is "perfectly" capable of managing its relations with China.

Wang Shida said India objects to external forces meddling in Sino-Indian relations, which reflects India's tradition of independence.

According to statistics from the General Administration of Customs, trade volume between China and India reached $125.66 billion last year, the first time that the number has exceeded $100 billion.

The meeting came ahead of the 14th BRICS Summit, which Wang said showed the two countries' cooperative posture to advance BRICS development.

Zhou Bo, a senior fellow at the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University, said in an article that China and India should not let the border issue hinder the healthy development of bilateral ties, so as to uphold peace and tranquillity on the border as well as achieve common development.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Russian President Vladimir Putin takes part in a virtual format at the opening ceremony of the BRICS Business Forum via videoconference in Moscow, June 23. AP-Yonhap





The Kremlin said Friday that the European Union's decision to grant official EU candidate status to Ukraine, where Russia is conducting a military campaign, and neighboring Moldova was a "domestic" matter.







"These are domestic European affairs. It is very important for us that all these processes do not bring more problems to us and more problems in the relations of these countries with us," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.







Speaking of Moscow's relations with the European Union, he said that it would be "very difficult to spoil them further."







Also on Friday, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Ukraine and Moldova joining the 27-nation bloc presented "no risks" for Russia, because the EU is not a military alliance.







However, he accused the EU and NATO of wanting to wage war on Russia, comparing them to the Axis powers in World War II.






Dundalk Chamber of Commerce in association with the Cross Border Partnership for Employment Services hosted a free Tax Breakfast on Tax Implications & HR Issues for Cross Border Workers & Employers in the Cross Border Region on Wednesday the 22nd June in the Ballymascanlon Hotel.

Attended by over 60 delegates the event covered topics such as redundancy payments, pensions lump sums, tax relief on pension contributions and tax requirements for the cross-border worker.

Also discussed at the event was the Implications and updates for employing cross border workers and the implications and updates for employers with staff members who work in both jurisictions.

Speakers also covered social insurance benefits and pensions in a cross border situation and staff retention and planning for future needs.

Speakers at the event were Brenda McGeeney Adviser for the Cross Border Partnership for Employment Services, Rose Tierney of Tierney Tax and Orla Rafferty of Orla Rafferty Ltd.

Paddy Malone PRO of Dundalk Chamber was delighted that the chamber was running this event in person for the first time in over two years.

For more information on the Cross Border Partnership Employment Services and how it can assist you log on to www.cbpes.com
South Korea's fertility rate  the average number of children a woman is expected to give birth to in her lifetime  came to 0.81 in 2021. This is the lowest figure since the country's statistics agency began compiling related data in 1970. gettyimagesbank



Similar culture attributed to falling birth rate



By Kim Bo-eun, Luna Sun



HONG KONG, BEIJING  Japan has long been suffering from the worst population crisis, but South Korea's fertility rate is now one of the lowest in the world, and China's is not much better.



Last year, in a nation of over 51 million people, the average number of children a woman in South Korea was expected to give birth to in her lifetime sat at 0.81  the lowest since Statistics Korea began compiling related data in 1970 when the figure stood at 4.53 and down from over 2 in 1983.



According to an estimate from a team of demographers, including Liang Jianzhang, Ren Zeping and He Yafu, as China did not release an official figure last year, for China's population of 1.4126 billion, the fertility rate in 2021 was 1.15, down from an official figure of 1.3 a year earlier.



Economies faced with an ageing population are paying close attention to fertility rates as they reflect a trend that enables governments to make projections for longer-term changes in population.



Lower fertility rates are expected in developed countries?due to things like wealth, education and urbanization, while the figure in undeveloped countries tends to be higher as families seek labor to earn money and care of their parents in old age.



In stark contrast to South Korea and China, the landlocked country of Niger in North Africa  which is one of the?least developed countries in the world  had one of the highest fertility rates last year with an average of close to 7.







Less births accelerating population aging in Korea



"My husband says having children will limit life choices. For me, there are a number of factors, such as uncertainty about whether my child will have a happy future considering the deteriorating natural and social environment, but also because it will be difficult to continue working with a child," said married 34-year-old South Korean interior designer Han Jia.



"Korea has improved its childcare leave system, and men are becoming more involved in the household, but there is still a long way to go."



South Korea's rapidly aging population, driven by an increasing reluctance to have children as well as longer life expectancy, is putting the country's economy in peril.



South Korea became an aged society in 2017, with more than 14 percent of the population 65 and older, having become an ageing society in 1999, when more than 7 per cent of the population fell within the bracket.



The figure is projected to reach 37 percent in 2045, which will make South Korea one of the oldest populations in the world.



Life expectancy at birth in South Korea also stood at 83.5 years in 2020, before the population started contracting for the first time the following year amid a falling birth rate.



This poses structural problems for the economy, as a smaller, aged population indicates a shrinking labor force and faltering domestic demand.





Children play at a kindergarten in Yantai, Shandong Province in China on May 31, 2021. AFP-Yonhap



Neighboring countries in similar situation



In Japan, concerns over its fertility rate started in the late 1980s. It eventually hit a low of 1.26 in 2005, and after marginally recovering to 1.45 in 2015, has slid for the last six years to 1.3 last year.



There were 811,604 births in Japan last year, the fewest since record keeping began in 1899, while deaths climbed to 1,439,809, leading to an overall population drop of 628,205 to 125 million.



China is now facing the same problem after the world's most populous country's birth rate dropped for a fifth consecutive year to a record low of 7.52 births for every 1,000 people in 2021, from 8.52 in 2020.



With one of the fastest ageing populations in the world, the productivity from China's vast labor force is also projected to fall.



"Children are not a must-have in my life and I don't have the confidence yet. Because raising children is a complicated challenge  economically speaking, it's a very costly process," said Felizia Yao, a 27-year-old single woman based in Shanghai.



"With my current financial situation, the burden of raising a child will mean sacrificing my own quality of life. So currently, I don't have a reason to have a child."





The view of Seoul from N Seoul Tower in the center of the city. High housing costs are among the factors for why young people are increasingly opting against getting married and having children in Korea. Newsis



Similarities in culture, society driving lower fertility rates



According to independent Chinese demographer He, women in East Asia may be less willing to have children because they are expected to be the main carer, which subjects them to disadvantages with regards to their careers.



"In East Asian culture, childbirth means more dedication and sacrifice from women, while men are less involved in childcare," He said.



"Married women who have children are vulnerable to discrimination in the job market. Many women are forced to choose to have fewer or no children in order to achieve career advancement."



Women in the region are "now more aware of gender inequalities," said Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs research fellow Lee Sang-lim, with a social system that lags in facilitating childcare meaning that women are increasingly opting not to get married and give birth.



"It is difficult to even maintain my career with one child," said 39-year-old medical professional Kim, who only wished to be identified by her surname. She is already raising a three-year-old daughter in South Korea's capital of Seoul.



"Women are expected to play a key role in children's upbringing, but where I work, women are also expected to deliver the same performance workwise."



The high costs of raising children in China and South Korea, where middle-class parents will often pay for their children to receive private education, is another common feature that is prompting people in the region to reconsider giving birth.



Lee Joo-yeon, 34, has been unable to return to a full-time office job after giving birth to her now four-year-old son and she finds herself working part-time at a shop in Pyeongtaek in Gyeonggi province.



"I did not entirely rule out having a second child, but after I took on a part-time job, I realized that it has become even more difficult to have another child, because I am tired after coming home from work but still need to take care of my son," said Lee Joo-yeon, who initially stopped working after she got married as she moved to a different city.



Yuan Xin, vice-president of the China Population Association and a demography professor at Nankai University in Tianjin, said Confucian culture is behind the low fertility phenomenon of the region.



"Countries in the East Asian cultural sphere are known for sparing no effort for their children's education," he said, referring to the ancient Chinese belief system.



"The cost of raising a child, whether it's a direct cost or an indirect cost, is very high compared to developed countries in the West, especially the indirect cost  which is the cost of time and care other than money, such as the time parents and families spend on cultivating the children, including tutoring."



South Korea and China also face similar fundamental problems that are deterring people from having children  a tough job market and expensive housing costs.



"The shortage of stable jobs and subsequent difficulty young people face in the job market, high housing prices and expensive private education costs are behind the phenomenon," research fellow Lee Sang-lim added.



Demographer He pointed out that the social stigma that conservative societies in East Asia impose on "unmarried mothers and illegitimate children" has resulted in a comparatively low proportion of children born out of wedlock.



He noted that in some developed countries in Europe, as well as the United States, the traditional model of marriage and childbirth is no longer the absolute mainstream.



"There are many economically independent women in these countries who do not want to be bound by marriage, but want to have their own children," he added.



"In recent years, the proportion of children born out of wedlock in France and the Nordic countries has exceeded half of all births."





A person walks by a wedding dress shop in northwestern Seoul, taken March 18, 2022. Newsis



Falling number of marriages contributing to falling births



South Korea's falling number of marriages is also contributing to the declining birth rate, with the figure having continued to fall over the past decade with only 192,500 taking place last year compared to 327,100 in 2012.



Last year, South Korea saw a 4.3 percent drop in births from the previous year  with mothers giving birth to just 260,500 babies, with a birth rate of 7.036.



This added up to a population decline from 51.84 million in 2020 to 51.75 million  a decrease of 0.18 percent.



In China last year, around 7.63 million marriages were registered, the lowest total since records began in 1986, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.



"Having children will seriously limit my own future potential," said Spike Jin, a 24-year-old Chinese man working in the blockchain industry.



"The financial burden [of having children] is part of the limitation, of course. Having more money means I have more options, namely more potential. Once you have a child, it would be much harder to refuse societal norms imposed on you. When you're alone, you could justly do whatever you want without burdens."



A growing portion of younger people also now value personal achievement and freedom over the traditional path of getting married and having children.



"I need time for myself to achieve my goals and fulfil myself first before raising a kid," said Reona Ding, a 33-year-old married woman in China.



The reluctance of its younger generation to have children will prove to be a core challenge for China after its natural population growth rate fell to 0.034 per cent last year, which was the lowest since the Great Chinese Famine from 1959-61.



Last year, China saw an 11.5 percent drop in births  with mothers giving birth to just 10.62 million babies, contributing to an overall population increase of just 480,000.



"A higher income may lead to a shift to spending more on self-development and pleasure, from spending on family and children," the China Population Association's Yuan added.





People are seen in a busy district in downtown Shanghai on May 10, 2021. Reuters-Yonhap
CORK-born author and podcaster Caroline ODonoghue, will deliver a creative writing workshop inspired by tarot and aimed at teenagers and young adults as the West Cork Literary Festival returns as a fully in-person event in Bantry next month.

Erstwhile columnist with the Irish Examiner, Caroline will introduce the audience to tarot and share how the archetypes which feature can be used as a means for storytelling, with participants given the chance to share their work and receive feedback.

The writer of young adult fantasy series  Hidden Gifts, Caroline also teams up with Mary Watson, author of  Blood to Poison, in a reading event for young adults.

Schull-based author Elizabeth Rose (ER) Murray joins poet and essayist Dave Lordan to host the popular  Words Allowed workshop for teenage writers.

Elizabeth, author of the Nine Lives trilogy and  Caramel Hearts, and Dave, now in his 13th year leading the literary festivals teen creativity programme, deliver a three-day workshop designed to build creative confidence in 14-17-year-olds and covering poetry, story, and essay-writing and the essentials of editing and performance.

Laureate na nOg Aine Ni Ghlinn, author of 28 childrens books, hosts a Crann Filiochta poetry workshop in Irish and English for children aged 10-12, with poetry inspired by the environment and nature hung at the end of the event on a poetry tree.

Author of the newly-published  The Shop of Impossible Ice Creams Shane Hegarty gives a reading for children aged seven-plus, while Beara resident Alex Barclay will read from her novel My Heart and Other Breakables at an event aimed at readers 11-plus.

West Cork writer and illustrator duo Niamh OMahony and Annabel Langrish, who created picture books  Why Are We Here? and  Fay Goes to Sea lead a storytelling workshop at which children aged six to nine get the chance to join in a hands-on writing/illustrating session and create their own book.

West Cork Literary Festival runs from July 8 to 15. See: westcorkmusic.ie

CELEBRATING PRIDE

Meanwhile Newmarket, County Cork, author Helen Corcoran is among the authors featured in a new Pride Reading Guide launched this week by Childrens Books Ireland and An Post.

Containing 100 books featuring LGBTQIA+ inclusive stories, the guide offers ways to encourage solidarity, allyship, and confidence in children and young people.

Queen of Coin and Whispers by Cork author Helen Corcoran.

With the Dublin Pride parade taking place tomorrow and Cork Pride from July 23 to 31, live events are back in full swing this year and the launch of the guide tomorrow will be accompanied by a Pride Book Clinic at the Pride Village in Merrion Square, Dublin.

The Pride Reading Guide features picture books, fiction, non-fiction, and graphic novels, for readers aged up to 18, with books from Irish authors and illustrators denoted with a shamrock symbol.

Positive representation on the page is so important: It is crucial that every member of the LGBTQIA+ community can feel seen and heard in the stories we tell, said Elaina Ryan, CEO of Childrens Books Ireland.

It is clear that there is still much work to do to build empathy, understanding, and allyship from an early age. Happily, the list of excellent books has grown since last year, and we hope it will continue to grow year after year.

Corcorcans debut novel  Queen of Coin and Whispers (OBrien Press 12.99) features among the guides young adult selection, telling the story of teenager Lia, who following the death of her uncle assumes the throne of Edar and determines to reform the profligacy of her predecessor.

Xania, her new spymaster, needs to keep her queen alive during political upheaval and the two young women, brought together by duty, attempt to protect their growing friendship and love. The developing romance between Lia and Xania, its tentative first steps and eventual blossoming, forms the pivotal interest in a tangled web of plot told through the first-person narratives of the two women.

Dublin-born author-illustrator Yasmeen Ismails picture book  Im a Girl! (Bloomsbury 9.80) challenges gender stereotypes, while  Only a Tree Knows How to be a Tree by Dublins Mary Murphy (Otter-Barry Books 11.20) highlights the uniqueness and commonality of living things.

 Our Big Day by Bob Johnston and Michael Emberley (OBrien Press 12.99) follows the young narrators Uncle David and Uncle Simon as they prepare for their wedding day in a picture book celebration of love, family, and marriage equality.  The Lotterys Plus One (Macmillan 9.80) is the debut childrens book from bestselling Dublin author Emma Donoghue and introduces Sumac, who lives with her two mothers, two fathers, and four siblings in a madcap mansion called Camelottery.

 The Deepest Breath by Donegal-based Meg Grehan (Little Island 9) concerns Stevies journey to self-discovery in a coming-out novel aimed at readers aged nine-plus.

See: childrensbooksireland.ie
A UCC academic has said preliminary data from Census 2022 is a warning signal that Cork will face even greater shortages of housing in the coming decades.

Preliminary figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that the population of Cork City and Cork County increased by 7.1% in the six years between 2016 and 2022.

There were 581,231 people living in Cork City and Cork County on census night on April 3, representing an increase of 38,363 people since 2016.

This was made up of a natural increase, for example births minus deaths of 17,471, and an estimated net inward migration, taking into account population change minus natural increase of 20,892.

Piaras Mac Einri, a lecturer in Geography and European Studies at the Department of Geography in UCC, told The Echo while the preliminary figures were a positive sign for Cork, they offered a warning signal that Cork is not prepared for projected population growth over the coming two decades.

If you look at the Governments 2018 document Ireland 2040, what it says is that Dublin is already big enough, and the future of growth in Ireland for the next 20 odd years is going to be the next biggest cities, Waterford, Galway, Limerick, and Cork. Mr Mac Einri said.

Youre looking already in that projection at something like a 50% increase in the population of Cork.

Expanding east

Mr Mac Einri said the city would likely expand to the east to accommodate that increased population, and it would be up to city officials to work out the best blueprint for that expansion, and to then put housing and infrastructure in place.

The question I would ask is whether they can do that by relying on the private sector to do all the housing construction, and I think the answer is very obviously no, Mr Mac Einri said.

Unless we go back to some kind of state intervention, state planning for housing construction, among other things, were not going to reach those targets, he said.

I would read the CSO data as a positive indication that there are more people who want to come and live here, and thats great, but unless we provide the houses and the infrastructure, the roads, the health system, everything else, its not going to be a success.

Vacant stock

The CSO figures show that the total housing stock in Cork City and County in April 2022 was 242,199, an increase of 12,704 (+5.5%) since 2016.

There were 17,280 vacant dwellings, which was 2,657 fewer dwellings than in 2016 (-13.3%). This does not include holiday homes, of which there were 7,280 throughout the city and county.

Reacting to the figures, the Green Party in Cork called on the Government to proceed with plans for a vacant properties tax.

Green Party councillor Oliver Moran said it was incredible to believe that houses could be left empty in the middle of a housing crisis.

The Government has committed to a vacant property tax in the next budget along with measures for landowners sitting on zoned land.

Property owners who are leaving houses empty need to realise the damage they are doing to society and the economy by hoarding property like this, he said.
Taoiseach Micheal Martin is set to launch the first-ever study of Brexits longer-term consequences for the Cork region at University College Cork (UCC) today.

The UCC report notes how Cork has managed and mediated the challenges and opportunities posed by Brexit.

It details the extent to which all-island economic, social and cultural opportunities, in the aftermath of Brexit, are being developed and advanced.

Mr Martin is set to launch the study at an event at UCC campus this evening.

The report was developed with local business, the tourism sector, higher education, and arts and culture across Cork, and recognises that the material effects of Brexit stretch beyond Northern Ireland and the border region and have had a differentiated regional impact across different parts of Ireland.

Welcoming the publication of the report, Mr Martin said: Brexit and the Protocol have posed undoubted challenges across these islands.

The all-island economy, however, which involves working together, North and South, to meet the major strategic challenges we all face has the potential to deepen cooperation in constructive and mutually beneficial ways.

This report highlights how such cooperation might be progressed and achieved here in Cork.

In addition to highlighting the sectors in the South-west of Ireland that were most impacted by Brexit, the report found that Corks long history of trade with Europe has helped to cushion the worst effects of Brexit for the city and the wider region.

UCC President Professor John OHalloran said that the report represents a work of considerable value by Dr Mary C Murphy, a recognised scholar of North-South relationships.

Not alone does it scope out existing links between Northern Ireland and the Cork region, it also includes ideas and recommendations about how to capture new opportunities for investment, cooperation and connection across the island in the context of the post-Brexit period, he said.
Peter Doyle

A predator who repeatedly raped his partners young sister when she was a schoolgirl has failed in his bid to have his 11-year jail term reduced.

John Giltrap (61), of Termonbarry, Hospital Hill, Bunclody, Co Wexford, had pleaded not guilty to 22 counts of raping Caroline Kavanagh at various locations in Bunclody between December 1978 and March 1982.

But a jury at the Central Criminal Court in Kilkenny found him guilty on 20 of the charges and in December 2020 he was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment on each count by Mr Justice Michael McGrath.

Ms Kavanagh, who has waived her right to anonymity, was aged between 10 and 15 when the offences took place.

An appeal against the conviction was dismissed by the Court of Appeal in January. Today, the same court rejected his plea to have his jail time reduced.

No error

Dismissing the appeal, Mr Justice John Edwards, presiding, said the court was satisfied there had been no error in principle in this case.

The sentencing judge in the first instance gave a most considered and detailed judgment, which had been generous in terms of mitigation afforded, added Mr Justice Edwards, sitting with Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy and Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy.

Earlier, Barra McGrory SC, for Giltrap, told the court his client was aged between 18 and 23 when the offences were committed. The relationship he had been in at the time had long since dissolved and he was now married with children.

Giltrap, counsel continued, had worked all his life, had rarely been idle, and his children were loyal to him.

His clients health was now poor, Mr McGrory added, and he suffered from very high blood pressure and was receiving counselling in prison.

Fiona Murphy SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, told the court that the sentencing judge had discounted Giltraps sentence by four years and this represented a significant reduction given that the appellant had failed to acknowledge his guilt.

In January, the same court said it had no hesitation in rejecting Giltraps appeal against conviction.
By Dana M Bergstrom, Euan Ritchie, Lesley Hughes and Michael Depledge

In 1992, 1,700 scientists warned that human beings and the natural world were on a collision course. Seventeen years later, scientists described planetary boundaries within which humans and other life could have a safe space to operate. These are environmental thresholds, such as the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and changes in land use.

Crossing such boundaries was considered a risk that would cause environmental changes so profound, they genuinely posed an existential threat to humanity.

This grave reality is what our major research paper, published Thursday, confronts.

In what may be the most comprehensive evaluation of the environmental state of play in Australia, we show major and iconic ecosystems are collapsing across the continent and into Antarctica. These systems sustain life, and evidence of their demise shows were exceeding planetary boundaries.

We found 19 Australian ecosystems met our criteria to be classified as collapsing. This includes the arid interior, savannas and mangroves of northern Australia, the Great Barrier Reef, Shark Bay, southern Australias kelp and alpine ash forests, tundra on Macquarie Island, and moss beds in Antarctica. We define collapse as the state where ecosystems have changed in a substantial, negative way from their original state  such as species or habitat loss, or reduced vegetation or coral cover  and are unlikely to recover.

The Good and Bad News Ecosystems consist of living and non-living components, and their interactions. They work like a super-complex engine: when some components are removed or stop working, knock-on consequences can lead to system failure. Our study is based on measured data and observations, not modeling or predictions for the future. Encouragingly, not all ecosystems we examined have collapsed across their entire range. We still have, for instance, some intact reefs on the Great Barrier Reef, especially in deeper waters. And northern Australia has some of the most intact and least-modified stretches of savanna woodlands on Earth. Still, collapses are happening, including in regions critical for growing food. This includes the Murray-Darling Basin, which covers around 14% of Australias landmass. Its rivers and other freshwater systems support more than 30% of Australias food production. The effects of floods, fires, heatwaves and storms do not stop at farm gates; theyre felt equally in agricultural areas and natural ecosystems. We shouldnt forget how towns ran out of drinking water during the recent drought. Drinking water is also at risk when ecosystems collapse in our water catchments. In Victoria, for example, the degradation of giant Mountain Ash forests greatly reduces the amount of water flowing through the Thompson catchment, threatening nearly five million peoples drinking water in Melbourne. This is a dire wake-up call  not just a warning. Put bluntly, current changes across the continent, and their potential outcomes, pose an existential threat to our survival, and other life we share environments with. In investigating patterns of collapse, we found most ecosystems experience multiple, concurrent pressures from both global climate change and regional human impacts (such as land clearing). Pressures are often additive and extreme. Take the last 11 years in Western Australia as an example. In the summer of 2010 and 2011, a heatwave spanning more than 300,000 square kilometers ravaged both marine and land ecosystems. The extreme heat devastated forests and woodlands, kelp forests, seagrass meadows and coral reefs. This catastrophe was followed by two cyclones. A record-breaking, marine heatwave in late 2019 dealt a further blow. And another marine heatwave is predicted for this April.
More than two dozen people have been killed by catastrophic flash flooding in central China in recent days.

At least a dozen people drowned in the subway in Zhengzhou, Henan province, and about 100,000 people have been evacuated. Social media videos showed extreme flooding that turned cars into bathtub toys  as well as the harrowing rescue of 150 children and teachers from a flooded kindergarten.

The city was deluged by 24.3 (617.1mm) of rain  96% of its annual average  in just three days from Saturday to Tuesday. The extreme rainfall, and the severe heatwaves that strained the provinces electrical grid just days prior, are both clear signals of the climate crisis, caused by the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels.

Such extreme weather events will likely become more frequent in the future, Johnny Chan, a professor of atmospheric science at City University of Hong Kong, told Reuters.

As reported by The Washington Post:

Experts and environmental organizations have connected the increase in severe weather events to climate change and Chinas rapid urbanization. The environmental advocacy organization Greenpeace warned last week that Chinas cities would face hotter summers and wetter rainy seasons because of climate change. Those conditions could cause more dangerous heat waves and heavier flooding in urban areas, Liu Junyan, the climate and energy project leader for Greenpeace in Beijing, told Al Jazeera.

The floods in Henan follow a string of unusually severe heat waves, floods and fires across the world in recent weeks. Flooding in Germany last week killed at least 165 people, and Canada and the Pacific Northwest have seen record-breaking heat and forest fires.

For a deeper dive:

Reuters, The New York Times, The Washington Post, BBC, The Guardian, France24, Al Jazeera, Bloomberg; Recent heatwaves: Bloomberg; Climate Signals background: Extreme precipitation increase; Extreme heat and heatwaves

For more climate change and clean energy news, you can follow Climate Nexus on Twitter and Facebook, sign up for daily Hot News, and visit their news site, Nexus Media News.
China is experiencing historic flooding that has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and swallowed homes and vehicles.

Two provinces in the south of the country increased flood warnings on Tuesday, as Reuters reported. While China sees flooding every summer during the rainy season, environmental advocates say that the rains have become heavier and more frequent because of the climate crisis.

Daily precipitation extremes have increased over parts of the region, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) wrote of East Asia in its Sixth Assessment Report. Heavy precipitation will increase in frequency and intensity (high confidence), leading to more frequent landslides in some mountain areas.

Guangdong Province increased its flood response to Level 1 on Tuesday, the state-affiliated Peoples Daily said.

South China's Guangdong Province upgraded its flood control emergency response to Level I at 7 p.m. Tuesday.



Persistent heavy rains have continued to batter the province, swelling rivers, triggering landslides and prompting the evacuation of residents in the past week. pic.twitter.com/10Kx02h4S0  People's Daily, China (@PDChina) June 22, 2022

On the same day, authorities in the province of Jiangxi issued a red alert, the Xinhua News Agency said, as Reuters reported. Xinhua said that 485,000 people were impacted by flooding in Jiangxi, 43,300 hectares of crops were damaged and losses totaled $70.21 million. In Guangdong, meanwhile, the emergency management department told Xinhua that flooding had impacted 479,600 people, devastated nearly 30 million hectares of farmland, destroyed more than 1,700 homes and caused $261 million in damages, The New York Times reported.

The destruction followed historic rainfall totals. In the provinces of Guangdong, Fujian and Guangxi, rainfall between early May and mid June reached its highest average since 1961, Chinas National Meteorological Center said, as BBC News reported. Between May 1 and June 15, rainfall for the three provinces was an average of 24.4 inches, according to CNN. Thats more than 90 percent of Chinas total rainfall average for 2021.

That rain has triggered both landslides and flooding. River levels reached 50-year highs, while the flow of the Beijiang River near Guangdongs capital of Guangzhou was expected to reach a flow that is only likely seen once every 100 years, the local water conservancy bureau told Chinese media, as Reuters reported.

In addition to displacing people and destroying homes, the flood alerts have led to the closure of schools, businesses and public transportation, The New York Times reported.

China is experiencing a one-two punch of extreme weather, as the north is battling heat waves. Temperatures in nine northern and central provinces reached 104 degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday. It got so hot in Henan province that the roads cracked.

Officials say that the flood conditions are likely to continue in the south, BBC News reported, as the rains move northward.
Frogs legs are most frequently associated with French cuisine, but records show that the culinary delicacy was commonly consumed in southern China from at least the first century AD. The earliest records of the French consuming frogs legs date from around the 12th century, when French monks began eating them during Lent, as they were not considered meat, reported The Guardian.

Frogs legs are still a popular dish in many countries, and, according to Deadly Dish, a new report by German animal conservation organization Pro Wildlife and French NGO Robin des Bois, the gastronomic popularity of frogs legs in the European Union (EU) has led to the depletion of frog species in Turkey, Albania and Indonesia, a Pro Wildlife press release said.

In the 1980s, India and Bangladesh initially delivered frog legs to Europe, but Indonesia has taken over as the largest supplier since the 1990s. In the Southeast Asian country, as in Turkey and Albania, the large frog species are disappearing one after the other  the whole thing is a fatal domino effect for species protection, co-founder of Pro Wildlife Dr. Sandra Altherr said in the press release.

At least 17 percent of amphibians  1,200 species  are internationally sold, according to Manager of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List Assessments Jennifer Luedtke, as The Guardian reported.

The Habitats Directive prohibits the catching of native wild frogs in the 27 EU member countries, but none of the countries impose a restriction on imports.

Pro Wildlife said 70 percent of imported frog meat goes to Belgium, which then sends most of their imports to France. France imports 16.7 percent themselves and the Netherlands brings in 6.4 percent.

Seventy-four percent of EU frog imports come from Indonesia, while Vietnam supplies 21 percent, Turkey four percent and Albania 0.7 percent.

As the biggest importer of frogs legs in the world, the EU brings in about 4,070 tons each year, or about 81 to 200 million mostly wild-caught frogs. Species with larger legs are especially sought-after, making them more vulnerable to being over-sourced.

The biggest edible water frog in Turkey, Pelophylax caralitanus, commonly known as the Anatolian frog, is currently listed as near-threatened by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. According to The Guardian, scientists have said the species could be extinct in Turkey as early as 2032. Other frog species imported to the EU from abroad are also threatened.

Albanias Scutari water frog (Pelophylax shqipericus) is currently a highly-endangered species, said Pro Wildlife.

If the plundering for the European market continues, its highly likely that we will see more serious declines of wild frog populations and, potentially, extinctions in the next decade, Altherr said, as The Guardian reported.

Consumption of frogs legs in other countries like China and Cambodia has led to IUCN classifications of vulnerable and near-threatened for some species. Less than 250 full-grown Togo slippery frogs are believed to exist, and the giant African bullfrog (Pyxicephalus adspersus) could already have become extinct.

The legs of most frogs are cut off with scissors or axes without anesthesia, said Pro Wildlife, as the Daily Mail reported.

Altherr called for the cessation of this and other inhumane practices, reported The Guardian.

Most frogs have their thighs severed with an ax or scissors in unison  without anesthesia. The upper half is disposed of while it is dying, the legs are skinned and deep-frozen for export, Altherr said in the press release.

Robin de Bois and Pro Wildlife would like EU countries to restrict their imports of frogs legs while making sure that frogs legs commodities are able to be traced, The Guardian reported. They would also like EU members to develop endangered species listing proposals for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

In addition to harming the frogs themselves, over-exploitation of the amphibians and the resultant declines in their numbers have a direct effect on the ecosystems in which they live.

Frogs play a central role in the ecosystem as insect killers  and where frogs disappear, the use of toxic pesticides increases. So the frog leg trade not only has direct consequences for the frogs themselves, but also for nature conservation, said President of Robin des Bois Charlotte Nithart, as the Pro Wildlife press release stated.
By Bill Ritter Jr.

Joe Biden is preparing to deal with climate change in a way no U.S. president has done before  by mobilizing his entire administration to take on the challenge from every angle in a strategic, integrated way.

The strategy is evident in the people Biden has chosen for his Cabinet and senior leadership roles: Most have track records for incorporating climate change concerns into a wide range of policies, and they have experience partnering across agencies and levels of government. Those skills are crucial, because slowing climate change will require a comprehensive and coordinated all hands on deck approach. We did that with energy when I was governor of Colorado, and I can tell you it isnt simple. Energy policy isnt just about electricity. Its about how homes are built, how they generate power and feed it into the grid and how the transportation, industrial and agriculture sectors evolve. Its about regulations, trade rules, government purchases and funding for research for innovation. Coordination and collaboration among agencies and different levels of government is crucial. A coordinated approach also helps ensure that vulnerable populations arent overlooked. Biden has committed to help disadvantaged communities that have too often borne the brunt of fossil fuel industry pollution, as well as those that have been losing fossil fuel jobs. The Biden-Harris teams depth of experience will be vital as they take over from a Trump administration that has been stripping government agencies of their expertise and eliminating environmental protections. With Democrats gaining control of both the House and Senate, the Biden administration may also have a better chance of overhauling laws, funding and tax incentives in ways that could fundamentally transform the U.S. approach to climate change. Here are some of the biggest challenges ahead and what all hands on deck might mean.

Dealing With All Those Climate Policy Rollbacks From its first days, the Trump administration began trying to nullify or weaken U.S. environmental regulations. It had rolled back 84 environmental rules by November 2020, including major climate policies, and more rollbacks were being pursued, according to a New York Times analysis of research from Harvard and Columbia law schools. Many of these rules had been designed to reduce climate-warming pollution from power plants, cars and trucks. Several reduced emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from oil and gas production. The Trump administration also moved to open more land to more drilling, mining and pipelines. Some rollbacks have been challenged in court and the rules then reinstated. Others are still being litigated. Many will require going through government rule-making processes that take years to reverse.

Pressuring Other Countries to Take Action Biden can quickly bring the U.S. back into the international Paris climate agreement, through which countries worldwide agreed to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions driving global warming. But reestablishing the nations leadership role with the international climate community is a much longer haul. Former Secretary of State John Kerry will lead this effort as special envoy for climate change, a new Cabinet-level position with a seat on the National Security Council. Other parts of the government can also pressure countries to take action. International development funding can encourage climate-friendly actions, and trade agreements and tariffs can establish rules of conduct. Cleaning Up the Power Sector The Biden-Harris climate plan aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector to net zero by 2035. While 62 major utilities in the U.S. have set their own emission reduction goals, most leaders in that sector would argue that requiring net zero emissions by 2035 is too much too fast. One problem is that states are often more involved in regulating the power sector than the federal government. And, when federal regulations are passed, they are often challenged in court, meaning they can take years to implement. Reducing greenhouse gases also requires modernizing the electricity transmission grid. The federal government can streamline the permitting process to allow more clean energy, like wind and solar power, onto the grid. Without that intervention, it could take a decade or more to permit a single transmission line. The Falling Costs of Renewable Energy A comparison of the average levelized cost of utility-scale power generation, without subsidies, shows how new solar and onshore wind became less expensive than coal generation. Costs are in U.S. dollars per megawatt-hour.

What to Do About Vehicles, Buildings and Ag The power sector may be the easiest sector to decarbonize. The transportation sector is another story. Transportation is now the nations leading emitter of carbon dioxide. Decarbonizing it will require a transition away from the internal combustion engine in a relatively short amount of time. Again, this is a challenge that requires many parts and levels of government working toward the same goal. It will require expanding carbon-free transportation, including more electric vehicles, charging stations, better battery technology and clean energy. That involves regulations and funding for research and development from multiple departments, as well as trade agreements, tax incentives for electric vehicles and a shift in how government agencies buy vehicles. The EPA can facilitate these efforts or hamstring them, as happened when the Trump EPA revoked Californias ability to set higher emissions standards  something the Biden administration is likely to quickly restore. The other hard to decarbonize sectors  buildings, industry and agriculture  will require sophistication and collaboration among all federal departments and agencies unlike any previous efforts across government.

A New Comprehensive Climate Bill The best way to tackle these sectors would be a comprehensive climate bill that uses some mechanism, like a clean energy standard, that sets a cap, or limit, on emissions and tightens it over time. Here, the problem lies more in the politics of the moment than anything else. Biden and his team will have to convince lawmakers from fossil fuel-producing states to work on these efforts. Democratic control of the Senate raises the chances that Congress could pass comprehensive climate legislation, but that isnt a given. Until that happens, Biden will have to rely on agencies issuing new rules, which are vulnerable to being revoked by future administrations. Its a little like playing chess without a queen or rooks. Years of delays have allowed global warming to progress so far that many of its impacts may soon become irreversible. To meet its ambitious goals, the administration will need everyone, progressives and conservatives, state and local leaders, and the private sector, to work with them. Bidens Core Climate Team President-elect Joe Bidens senior leadership picks have years of experience with climate policy. He and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris introduced these seven as their core climate team. Gina McCarthy, John Kerry and Ali Zaidi will not require Senate confirmation. The others will.

Bill Ritter Jr. is Director, Center for the New Energy Economy, Colorado State University.

Disclosure statement: Bill Ritter, Jr. is a former Governor of Colorado and is the Director of the Center for the New Energy Economy at Colorado State University. The Center is funded by various foundations.

Reposted with permission from The Conversation.
Heavy rains, scorching heat, silence from the administration and attempts at politicising the issue  nothing stopped the students of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies (RGUKT), popularly known as IIIT Basara, from protesting against the universitys administration over lack of permanent faculty and poor infrastructure in the campus.

The students finally called off their protest on Tuesday, June 21, after the state Education Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy agreed to their demands. One would be wondering how an all-students protest convinced the government to pay heed to their concerns in just seven days. The answer lies within the students itself.

Formation of SGC

It all started six months ago. The final year students of the Engineering batch of the university formed the Student Governing Council (SGC) on January 7, 2022, because they could never raise their voice against the faculty, the administration or any problems that they faced, said Lavanya Gundeti, Vice President of the SGC. The intention since the beginning was never to fight with or against anyone. We just raised our voiceand asked why we are not getting what we are supposed to get in the university, said Lavanya. The students protested against the abysmal conditions of the hostel rooms including food quality and infrastructure facilities.

The decision to protest, which is an extreme step, was not taken out of the blue. It was born out of multiple failed promises and reassurances by officials. Student representatives said that they followed proper protocol before reaching here. We have been through many phases with the local administration here and we understood that they cant help us out because there is no decision maker here, said Harshavardhan Gurram, from the SGC who was also involved in the protest.

The only excuse that was constantly cited was that the file is pending at the VCs office and he has additional responsibilities, said Harshavardhan. The representatives had also met the District Collector Musharraf Ali Farooqi for discussions. He, in fact, promised to visit the campus and solve problems. But again, none of it happened. They even took an appointment with the Vice-Chancellor but he also held his hand up in the air. The protest was so intense because of this six-month-long journey, added Harshavardhan.

Gathering support

It was all possible because of students unity, said Lavanya. One night before the protest on June 13, Class Representatives (CR) from each class were mobilised to inform them about the situation," said Lavanya. We told them that it is not some violent movement or fight with the government, we are just sitting and asking for our rights..for what we have to get, she said.

To go and sit in front of the administration block, without slogans and without noise was the memo given to the students since the beginning. If there was no response, then they must go and sit at the main gate. Every day. The students were not provoked nor were they forced to protest, said Harsha. They held internal discussions with students of every batch regularly and made them aware of the problems they have been facing for years.

Not just within the campus, the students of the University received support from other student organisations as well. Leaders of student unions like the Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC), Students Federation of India (SFI), All India Students Federation (AISF) and others reached the university to extend their support to the students. In fact, Opposition members visited the campus too.

Despite the political support, the students of the University never affiliated themselves with any political organization or outfit. We never tagged anyone online as well and even when Ministers accused us of politicising the movement, we clarified it with them, said Harsha. The only reason politicians supported us was because of our genuine demands, he added.

Role of social media

While at one hand students of the university were trying to communicate with the government, protests against the centres new Agnipath scheme had also erupted simultaneously across the country. This however, did not deter the students from their fight. They put their creative skills to the test with paintings, songs and other forms of art to draw attention to their protest.

Social media was filled with hashtags such as #IIITBasar, #VisitRGUKT and #ConsiderRGUKT. In fact, the SGC had a separate team that handled the social media aspects of the protests. Constantly updating when the protest started and ended, who came out in support and how many participated was the agenda of this team that was working day and night.

It was a step-by-step process that eventually worked out to be successful, said Lavanya. With the students support, the state governments delegation agreed to all the demands put forth by SGC. Reports said that the Education Minister said that she would return to campus to ensure that promises are fulfilled by the concerned officials. Because of students' unitywe made the government come to us, said Lavanya.




Aquaculture facilities in British Columbia, Canada, get two-year license renewal

Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has announced a two-year renewal of licenses for marine finfish aquaculture facilities outside the Discovery Islands in British Columbia, Canada.

The decision by the government impacts salmon farms run by Mowi, Grieg and Cermaq, and according to a release by the DFO, is part of a planned transition from open-net pen salmon aquaculture in BC. The decision is part of an ongoing government push to phase out all net-pen fish farming in the area  Canada's Liberal Party and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have called for a shift away from net-pen farming by 2025.

With the new ruling, salmon farms in the BC will be able to continue operating for two years as the DFO starts the process of transitioning away from open-net pen aquaculture. The DFO plans to share a draft framework for transitioning, and said the plan will rely on input from the "government of British Columbia, First Nations, industry, local governments, stakeholders and British Columbians" in consultations that will run until "early 2023."

Canadian Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard Joyce Murray said the decision to move away from open-net pen aquaculture is directly based on protecting wild stocks of salmon in the region.

"Wild Pacific salmon are an iconic keystone species in British Columbia that are facing historic threats. Our government is taking action to protect and return wild salmon to abundance and ensure Canada is a global leader in sustainable aquaculture," Murray said. "Working together with First Nations, the province, industry and British Columbians, we will transition the aquaculture industry to one which leads with new technology, while reducing or eliminating interactions with wild Pacific salmon. We recognise the urgent need for ecologically sustainable aquaculture technology, and we are prepared to work with all partners in a way that is transparent and provides stability in this transition."

The decision to renew the licenses was welcomed by the BC Salmon Farmers Association (BCSFA) and the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (CAIA), who also called for greater certainty.

"The renewal of licenses in British Columbia is a positive first step and confirms the voices of industry and First Nations, in whose territories we operate, have been heard," BC Salmon Farmers Association interim executive director Ruth Salmon said in a release. "This announcement will give us the opportunity to work with all levels of government, including First Nations, to secure a future that will benefit Indigenous and non-Indigenous coastal communities, meet the global demand for healthy, affordable seafood and support the continuation in protection and restoration of wild Pacific salmon."

The renewal of licenses for two years has highlighted a need for longer license periods, CAIA president and chief executive officer Timothy Kennedy said.

"While we are encouraged that licenses have been renewed, we genuinely needed a six-year license term that reflect[s] our production cycle," he said. "Longer license terms would have provided the confidence to further invest in innovation and technology, leading to continued operational and sustainable improvements, job creation for coastal communities and greater food security."

- SeafoodSource
Murphy A170 Vintage Radio Receiver The Murphy A170 is a vintage radio that was introduced in 1950 as a quality broadcast radio capable of covering the long, medium and short wave bands.

Murphy Vintage Radio Equipment Includes:

Murphy A170

Iconic radio receivers: Summary of iconic radio receivers

Radio receiver history Crystal radio sets Development of the superhet radio

The Murphy A170 is a not a radio that is widely seen in the second hand and vintage radio collectors markets, but nevertheless it is a radio of interest.

The Murphy A170 was aimed at the mid to higher end of the market as it offered a better quality of reproduction than some other radios of its day, and it also contained a number of capabilities and functions that were not normally found in other radios of its day.

Front view of a Murphy A170

Murphy Radio Company

Murphy radio was a British manufacturer of radios that was formed in 1929 by Frank Murphy and E J Power..

At this time many people were still using crystal radio sets, although many had progressed to tuned radio frequency radios.

By the time the 1920s had turned into the 1930s, the superhet radio was starting to appear on the British market.

The company later manufactured television sets and with Bush in 1962. However the name Murphy, still lives in in the form of some radios made in the Far East.

Murphy A170 performance specification

The Murphy A170 vintage radio is known for the good performance it provided. With its large loudspeaker and various other refinements, it was able to provide a good level of preformance, especially when compared to many other radios of its day.

The basic radio was designated the A170, but there was also a gramophone version referred to as the A170R. This had the same radio, speaker, etc, but it was housed in a much larger cabinet to provide space for the additional capability.

The A170 radio was manufactured at the Murphy manufacturing plant in Welwyn and their plant in Dublin, and the A170R gramophone was only manufactured in Dublin.

Murphy A170 Receiver Performance Summary

Parameter Details Murphy A170 summary Single conversion superheteroheterodyne broadcast radio providing coverage within the MF and HF bands using four valves within the radio, one as a tuning indicator (magic eye) and a final valve as the power supply full wave rectifier. Frequency bands Short: 16 - 52 metres

Medium: 190 - 560 metres

Long: 1000 - 2050 metres Intermediate frequency 465 kc/s Loudspeaker impedance 3  Extension loudspeaker 3 - 7  Power requirements A170: 200 - 250 VAC 50 - 100 c/s

A170R: 200 - 250 VAC 50 c/s Fuse Temperature fuse on mains input Scale lamps Two 6.3 V 0.3A MES style lamps Power consumption A170: 52 W

A170R Radio: 52 W

A170 gramophone: 81W Cabinet dimensions A170: 17 in high x 22 in wide x 8 in deep

A170R: 36 in high x 22 in wide x 17 in deep Weight A170: 25 lb

A170R: 72 lb Release date Welwyn manufactured A170: April 1950

Dublin manufactured A170: September 1950

Dublin manufactured A170R: October 1950 Cost at launch United Kingdom A170: 23 14s 7d plus purchase tax

Dublin A170: 34 15s 0d for A170

Dublin A170R: 61

A170 circuit

The radio followed a similar format to most other vintage radios that were used for broadcast reception.

The radio was a single conversion superhet, and although this followed the standard topology, it hd a number of nice features and the overall engineering and circuit design was such that it provided above average audio quality.

This vintage radio had a total of six valves which included the power supply rectifier and a "Magic Eye" tuning indicator.

Murphy A170 Valve Line-Up

Valve Ident Valve Type Circuit Function V1 6C9 - triode hexode RF amplifier, 1st oscillator & mixer V2 6F15 - RF pentode 1st IF amplifier V3 6M1 Magic eye Tuning indicator V4 6LD20 - double diode triode Detector and 1st audio amplifier V5 6P25 - output beam tetrode Audio output V6 UU9 - double diode rectifier Power supply rectifier

In terms of the circuit, the radio followed a fairly standard format for a broadcast superheterodyne radio of its era.

The radio had a single valve to provide the RF, mixer and local oscillator functions, a single IF amplifier, a diode detector, and amplifier.

Circuit block diagram of the Murphy A170 radio

The radio was designed to operate with an external long-wire antenna. Accordingly connections for the aerial and earth were provided at the back of the radio.

The signals entered the radio and apart from the standard RF tuning an additional rejector circuit was used on the input to remove any signals that might be picked up by the antenna on the same frequency as the intermediate frequency amplifier.

For the radios manufactured at the Welwyn site, a low impedance coupling winding was used on the medium wave section with a parallel; resonant rejector circuit placed in series with the antenna. For radios manufactured in Dublin a series resonant "acceptor" circuit was used across the main input. Either circuit worked equally well.

Once through the IF removal circuits, the main RF tuning was present which was tuned and then presented to the grid of the frequency changer or mixer circuit. This was based around the hexode section of V1, a 6C9.

The anode circuit of this section used a tuned IF transformer to couple it to the next stage.

The local oscillator was based around the triode section of V1 and the tuning was ganged with that of the RF section to provide tracking of the tuned circuits for tuning the radio.

The IF amplifier was based around a single 6F15 variable-mu pentode, V2. Again a tuned IF transformer was used by this had the additional interesting feature that the tine switch altered the selectivity of this stage so that when the tone was biassed towards the low end, the selectivity was narrowed as well. This meant that by altering the tone to remove the top end frequencies which might carry more of the interference, then the IF bandwidth was reduced.

The signal was demodulated using a 6LD20 double diode triode. Not only did this provide the demodulated audio using one of the diodes, but the AVC voltage was also derived from the other diode and applied to the IF and RF stages.

Associated with this stage was the magic eye tuning indicator. This was no normally included on many radios, but this added extra on this vintage radio shows that the designer were aiming to provide additional capability for the slightly higher end of the market.

Sadly tuning indicator valves are very difficult to obtain these days, which is a pity because they are rather attractive.

The first stage of the audio amplification was provided by the triode section of V4, the double diode triode, and then this was passed on to the output stage.

The final stage of this vintage radio was the 6P25 output tetrode. The anode of this circuit contained a number of capacitors and inductors across the output transformer. These combine to form what was termed a "whistle filter" and it was used to remove unwanted high frequency whistles that would often be heard on AM signals in a crowded band.

The output from the output transformer was passed tot he internal loudspeaker and there were also connections for an external loudspeaker as well.

It is worth noting that it was possible to use the radio as a gramophone amplifier. This was achieved by turning the band-switch to "Gram" and then connecting a gramophone input tot he connections at the rear of the radio.

The power supply used a transformer to ensure isolation from the mains for safety, and a temperature fuse was incorporated to cut the current in case of an over-current situation that might lead to a fire.

The output from the power transformer was rectified using the double diode rectifier, V6 which was a UU9. This was then filtered or smoothed using a pi-section filter. This consisted of tow capacitors and a series inductor for superior ripple removal.

Aerial filters

The service manual for the A170 provides information about suitable aerial filters.

The service manual states that if the radio receiver was installed close to a powerful medium wave transmitter, then an arial filter might be required to prevent overloading of the frequency changer valve and to minimise the generation of whistles during the reception of weaker stations.

They even go on to suggest figures useful for deciding whether a filter might be needed

Murphy A170 Transmitter Distances / Power

Transmitter Power (kW) Fit filter when distance is less than given miles 1 1 2 2 10 4 60 7 100 9

As the number of transmitters was increasing around this time, it was quite possible that people would live within the distances mentioned and a filter might be required.

Three filters are available as detailed in the table below.

Murphy A170 Transmitter Distances / Power

Filter Type Frequency Range A 1500 - 1000 kc/s (200 - 300 metres) B 1000 - 700 kc/s (300 - 428 metres) C 700 - 500 kc/s (428 - 600 metres)

Not only were fitting instructions provided, but specific fixing lugs were already available within the chassis for one of these filters.

In addition to this the adjustment process was described for one of the filters. It detailed that with the filter fitted, the radio should be tuned into the interfering local station, and then the core of the filter coil should be adjusted to reduce the strength of the signal. A monitor point for measuring the cathode voltage of V1 or V2 was provided so that the chassis did not need to be removed from the case for this adjustment to be made.

Memories

Although the Murphy A170 is not widely seen in the vintage radio fairs and second had sales, it is one that brings back personal memories for me.

My parents had one of these radios and t must have been bought soon after its launch.

The radio had the dark lacquered cabinet and an angled panel to take the black dial with te markings. The speaker had a hole in the grill that had been made by my younger sister when she was very small.

The Murphy A170 is not one of the most common vintage radios, but it is nevertheless a good example of a receiver that is higher performance than most.

Obviously, for me with my parents owning one, it has some fond memories and certainly it is one that I can remember performed well, giving good quality audio (for an AM broadcast radio of the time). For those who wanted a gramophone included, this option was also available at a much greater cost.

More History:

Radio history timeline History of the radio Ham radio history Coherer Crystal radio Magnetic detector Spark transmitter Morse telegraph Valve / tube history PN junction diode invention Transistor Integrated circuit Quartz crystals Classic radios

Return to History menu . . .
GM's Cruise has started charging passengers for fully driverless rides in San Francisco. The company secured a driverless deployment permit from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) earlier this month, making it the first in the industry to do so. That allows Cruise to charge for rides with no safety driver behind the wheel, though its vehicles are limited to select streets in the city. In addition, the company's paid passenger service can only operate from 10PM to 6AM, and its cars can only drive at a max speed of 30 mph.

Another limitation is that its driverless vehicles aren't allowed on highways and can't operate during times of heavy fog and rain. Still, it's a major milestone, not just for Cruise, but for the nascent robotaxi industry as a whole. Cruise's permit allows it to operate a commercial driverless ridehailing service with a fleet of up to 30 vehicles. It previously said that it will roll out fared rides gradually, and it reiterated that plan in its latest announcement, where it noted that it's "inviting more people" into its driverless vehicles every week. The goal is to eventually be able to offer fared rides all day across the entire city.

UPDATE: As of last night, fared rides are now rolling out to our customers in SF.



If youre waiting to take your first driverless ride, were inviting more people into our AVs each week, so sit tight itll be worth it!  https://t.co/UpjuQ9K81W pic.twitter.com/CwkD1LftnV  cruise (@Cruise) June 23, 2022

Cruise received permission to offer the public robotaxi rides last year, but it could only do so for free. The company, along with Waymo, was finally allowed to charge passengers this March, as long as they were rides with safety drivers behind the wheel. While Waymo can't charge for fully autonomous rides yet, it's still the only other company that's been granted a drivered deployment permit, based on CPUC's list.
Flo, one of the most widely used period tracking apps, says it intends to launch a new "anonymous mode" in an effort to address privacy concerns in the wake of the Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. We will soon be launching an Anonymous Mode that removes your personal identity from your Flo account, so that no one can identify you, the company said in a statement shared on Twitter.

Its not clear how this will work or when it might launch. Weve reached out to Flo for more details on "anonymous mode."

Period tracking apps have come under particular scrutiny ever since a draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked last month. Privacy advocates and legal experts have warned that data collected by period tracking apps, which is often shared with other entities, could be used to fuel investigations into people seeking abortion services. News of the Supreme Courts decision led to renewed calls on social media for people to delete period tracking apps from their phones and remove their personal details from the services.

You deserve the right to protect your data. pic.twitter.com/uA5HLHItCY  Flo Period Tracker (@flotracker) June 24, 2022

Notably, Flo itself has a messy history when it comes to protecting users privacy. The app came under fire in 2019 after The Wall Street Journal reported the app was sharing users sensitive information, including details about their menstrual cycles and if they were trying to get pregnant, with Facebook, Google and other third-parties.
Former Indy Racing League competitor Sam Schmidt is continuing to break new ground for accessible driving technology. The Arrow McLaren SP team co-owner has completed the signature hill climb at this year's Goodwood Festival of Speed using head movements and his breath to steer  the first time anyone has demonstrated the feature at the UK event. Schmidt drove a McLaren 720S Spider modified by Arrow Electronics to track his head using infrared cameras. He controlled acceleration and braking by inhaling and exhaling through a "sip-and-puff" device. The racer also wore a semi-autonomous exoskeleton concept, the SAM Suit, that helps him walk.

Schmidt became quadriplegic in 2000 when he injured his spinal cord in a practice lap crash. He has long been an advocate for paralysis treatment, and in 2014 partnered with Arrow to drive a Corvette using a combination of head tracking, sip-and-puff and voice controls. In 2016, became the first American with a license to use an autonomous vehicle on highways, using a Corvette to drive in Nevada.

While alternative mobility solutions can return some level of autonomy to those no longer able to operate a vehicle for one reason or another, it's not entirely clear what role Arrow's technology might play in the future. We've reached out to the company for details on where it sees projects like the SAM heading. Arrow will also be racing against self-driving tech, which is becoming closer to a practical reality, with Level 3 autonomy already reaching public roads. With that said, completely driverless cars (Level 5 autonomy) will take years to arrive.

Update 6/24/22 7:27pm ET: Reached for comment, an Arrow spokesperson told Engadget that while SAM "is not precisely open source" the tech may be "available for future development if Arrow approves."
Juul has asked a federal appeals court to temporarily block a Food and Drug Administration ban on sales of its vaping products in the US. The agency issued the order on Thursday, citing a lack of sufficient evidence provided by the company to show its devices are safe. The FDA acknowledged that it wasn't aware of "an immediate hazard" linked to Juul's vape pen or pods.

FDAs decision is arbitrary and capricious and lacks substantial evidence, Juul said in a filing with the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, according to The Wall Street Journal. The company called the ban extraordinary and unlawful. It requested an administrative stay until it can file a motion for an emergency review of the FDAs order.

Juul claimed that, without the stay, it would suffer significant and irreparable harm. The company makes the lion's share of its revenue in the US. If the stay is granted, Juul and retailers will be able to keep selling its products there. The company argued in the filing that the order marked a move away from the FDA's typical practices, which allow for a transition period.

"We respectfully disagree with the FDAs findings and decision and continue to believe we have provided sufficient information and data based on high-quality research to address all issues raised by the agency," Juul's chief regulatory officer Joe Murillo told Engadget after the FDA issued the order. "In our applications, which we submitted over two years ago, we believe that we appropriately characterized the toxicological profile of JUUL products, including comparisons to combustible cigarettes and other vapor products, and believe this data, along with the totality of the evidence, meets the statutory standard of being appropriate for the protection of the public health."

Murillo said Juul was exploring all of its options in the wake of the ruling. Among those, according to the Journal, is a possible bankruptcy filing if the company is unable to secure a stay or successfully appeal the ban.

In 2020, the FDA required makers of e-cigarettes to submit their products for review. It looked at the possible benefits of vaping as an alternative to cigarettes for adult smokers. It was weighing those up against concerns about the popularity of vaping among young people. The agency has authorized 23 "electronic nicotine delivery systems," including products from NJOY and Vuse parent Reynolds American.

The FDA slammed Juul in 2019 for telling students that its products are "totally safe." The Federal Trade Commission and state attorney generals have investigated Juul over claims it marketed its vape pens to underage users. In the last year, the company has agreed to pay at least $87 million to settle lawsuits in several states  including North Carolina, Washington state and Arizona  which alleged that it targeted young people with its marketing. It has faced similar suits in other states.

Update 6/24 12:51PM ET: Added a note about the possible bankruptcy filing.
When you hear the word "bacteria," you probably picture organisms that couldn't be seen unless they're placed under a microscope. A bacterium that has now been classified as the largest in the world ever discovered, however, needs no special tools to be visible to the naked eye. Thiomargarita magnifica, as it's called, takes on a filament-like appearance and can be as long as a human eyelash. As the BBC notes, that makes it bigger than some more complex organisms, such as tiny flies, mites and worms. It was first discovered by marine biologist Olivier Gros living on sunken mangrove tree leaves in the French Caribbean back in 2009.

Due to the organism's size, Gros first thought he was looking at a eukaryote rather than simpler prokaryotic organisms like bacteria. It wasn't until he got back to his laboratory that he found out that it wasn't the case at all. Years later, Jean-Marie Volland and his team at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California took a closer look at the bacterium using various techniques, such as transmission electron microscopy, to confirm that it is indeed a single-cell organism. They've recently published a paper describing the centimeter-long bacterium in Science.

Volland said T. magnifica is "5,000 times bigger than most bacteria" and is comparable to an average person "encountering another human as tall as Mount Everest." One other information Volland's team has discovered is that the bacterium keeps its DNA organized within a structure that has a membrane. In most bacteria, DNA materials just float freely in their cytoplasm. Further, it has around 6,000 billion bases of DNA. "For comparison, a diploid human genome is approximately six giga (billion) bases in size. So this means that our Thiomargarita stores several orders of magnitude more DNA in itself as compared to a human cell," said team member Tanja Woyke.

While the scientists know that T. magnifica grows on top of mangrove sediments in the Caribbean and that it creates energy to live using chemosynthesis, which is similar to photosynthesis in plants, there's still a lot about it that remains a mystery. And it'll likely take some time before the scientists can discover its secrets: They have yet to figure out how to grow the organism in the lab, so Gros has to gather samples every time they want to run an experiment. It doesn't help that the organism has an unpredictable life cycle. Gros told The New York Times that he couldn't even find any over the past two months.

Volland and his team now aim to find a way to grow T. magnifica in the lab. As for Gros, he now expects other teams to go off in search of even bigger bacteria, which like T. magnifica, may also be hiding in plain sight.
After the massive success of the high-octane spectacle, George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road, it was inevitable that the innovative director would have more gas in the tank. And then he announced the prequel Furiosa, which will give the early days backstory of a young Imperator Furiosa, the tough-as-nails War Rig driver played with unbending tenacity by Charlize Theron.

With The Queen's Gambit's Anya-Taylor Joy now in the driver's seat, Warner Bros. has finally shared the plot synopsis.

"As the world fell, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus.

"Sweeping through the Wasteland, they come across the Citadel presided over by The Immortan Joe. While the two Tyrants war for dominance, Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home."

But that's not all. In addition to this announcement, set pics were also posted on Twitter recently showing what looks like it could be the Green Place in the background.

First set images of George Millers Furiosa starring Anya Taylor-Joy filming in Australia. pic.twitter.com/dajxwYMfCL  Cinema Solace (@solacecinema) June 18, 2022

George Miller sat down with Deadline, having this to say about the production,

"I'll tell you how it's going when it's finished, but it has got off to a lovely start. All I can say about my excitement about doing it is that it's definitely exciting, because even though it's certainly of that world of Fury Road, it's also got a lot of the differences we've been talking about.

"Again, it's uniquely familiar. And probably the biggest difference is the timespan. Fury Road happened over three days and two nights and this one happens over 15 years. So, it's a saga."

Furiosa also stars Thor: Love and Thunder's Chris Hemsworth, Angus Sampson (The Lincoln Lawyer), Nathan Jones reprising the role of Rictus Erectus from Fury Road, and Tom Burke (Only God Forgives).

There is no official release date for Furiosa, though the film is expected to squeal into theaters May 24, 2024.
Karen McCloud sits at her desktop computer in her home office in front of the logo she designed for the Village of Essex Junction June 24. The logo has a blue background to clearly show the white outline of the "Essex Junction" text.
The war in Ukraine has underscored the heft as well as the limits of the EU. Putin decided to invade a neighboring country in order to prevent it from integrating, slowly but steadily, into the unions institutions and market. What is at stake is the much-debated power of attraction of the EU. Ukrainian refugees are seeking safety in the member states west of their countrys borders. In response to the invasion, Kyiv has lodged a formal membership application and is expecting to hear back from the European Council during the councils June 2324 meetings about whether the country will be granted candidate status. The EU is furthermore flexing its geopolitical muscles: providing weapons to Ukraine and sanctioning Russia to bring up the costs of Russias aggression.

At the same time, the EU is underperforming on other fronts. It is having a hard time convincing countries aspiring to join the union to adhere to its sanctions. Serbia is a case in point. Though Belgrade supported the UN General Assembly resolutions condemning Putins invasion and even introduced several symbolic measures targeting Russias ally Belarus and the family of former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, it has refused to discontinue flights by the national carrier, Air Serbia, to and from Moscow. As in 2014, the Serbian government is reluctant to implement trade and financial sanctions too. Cutting imports of Russian natural gas, a goal outlined by the European Commission, is not in the cards either, as Belgrade recently secured a new supply deal with Moscow. The situation is replicated in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the Serb leader Milorad Dodik, currently a member of the states tripartite presidency, has effectively vetoed any punitive measures against Russia. While Brussels is showing its teeth to the Kremlin, EU enlargement is falling flat when it comes to motivating the Western Balkans to follow Brusselss lead.

But there is more bad news too. Enlargement is supposed to anchor democracy and help entrench the rule of law in the EU. New member governments would implement reforms and be rewarded by the union. But the evidence that this is actually happeningor indeed that this has ever been the case, even at the peak of the EUs influence in the 2000sis scant. Hungary and Poland, two member states that joined in 2004, have been paragons of democratic backsliding: the progressive dismantlement of the rule of law, encroachment on media freedom, and harassment of civil society. In the Western Balkans, it is more appropriate to speak of democratic stagnation. Though the situation differs from country to country, international watchdogs that keep tabs on democracy record, in general, no major improvements or dramatic drops. The exception, of course, is Serbia, which was downgraded by Freedom House from free to partly free in 2019. EU accession negotiations, ongoing since 2014, do not appear to have affected the countrys domestic trajectory. The elections on April 3, 2022, saw President Aleksandar Vu?i? securing a new five-year presidential term, even though the opposition made gains in parliament and in the capital Belgrade. Still, Vu?i?s dominance over the political system remains near-complete.

So what has prevented successful EU enlargement? The most obvious explanation for the impasse is the EUs own lack of commitment to the Western Balkans. The region is firmly on the unions agenda but has never been a top item. Between the eurozone crisis in the early and mid-2010s, the crisis in Ukraine in 20142015, the refugee wave in 20152016, the coronavirus pandemic, and the more recent Russian aggression in Ukraine, there is always another priority that relegates Europes so-called inner courtyard further down on the unions to-do list. Furthermore, there are bilateral disputes involving member states and candidates, disputes that muddy the water even further. The quarrel between Bulgaria and North Macedonia about history and national identity is the most recent example, but there have been others in the past (for example, between Slovenia and Croatia and between Greece and North Macedonia). No doubt, such disputes will hijack enlargement policy in the future too. Moreover, in the Balkan corridors of power, there is a lot of lip service around enlargement, but there are few true believers. Joining the EU is and always has been an elite-driven process in these countries. Meanwhile, surveys indicate that public support for EU membership varies significantly across the region, with Albania and Kosovo usually scoring high and Serbia low. However, elsewhere in the Balkans, support for joining the EU is solid. The problem is that those pro-EU majorities do not generate sufficient electoral momentum to propel to power reformist leaders  or at least force incumbents to implement laws and policies narrowing the gap with the union.

On 9 May, known in the EU as Europe Day, French President Emmanuel Macron gave a speech where he rehashed proposals from the early 1990s for a European political community  that is, a Europe of concentric circles where the six Western Balkan countries are relegated to an outer circle together with Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, and possibly the UK. Though the Balkans could eventually join the EU, in the short to medium term they would stay out. On the positive side, they could be eligible for some of the benefits of integration into the single market and access to the EU budget. On the negative, they would not enjoy the privileges of membership, including access to decision-making power. To be sure, Macrons vision is not universally shared in the EU. However, it is symptomatic of the day and age we live in. To that end, in an Europe of concentric circles, the Western Balkan countries run the risk of being forever stuck in the waiting room.

It is not unreasonable to expect that the war in Ukraine will lead to an EU push in the Western Balkans. Faced with the Russian challenge, the union will take steps to consolidate its position and prevent disruption. The European Union Force (EUFOR), the peacekeeping mission in Bosnia, has been reinforced, as has the European Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX). Further, Serbia has been pushed to align with the EUs sanctions on Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. Starting accession talks with North Macedonia and Albania will be another logical step, but the current government in Bulgaria, an EU member state, would have to lift its veto on starting these talks. (Perhaps Bulgaria could be motivated in the interest of stability in Southeast Europe or through EU incentives like economic compensation to Bulgaria, commitments to let Bulgaria into the eurozone, or even constitutional amendments in North Macedonia as demanded by Sofia.) However, the EU opening membership negotiations is a largely symbolic step. It wont translate automatically to improvements on the ground on issues like the economy, the rule of law, or good governance. The EU is facing tough questions in the region, and there are no quick fixes. Its best bet is to forge a common cause with the bottom-up democratic movements in the Balkans. Yet this alliance wont materialize easily, and even if it did, it might not prove durable in the face of the formidable obstacles that EU policy has to reckon with.

Much depends on the EUs own evolution. A continued democratic retrenchment would cement the Western Balkans position on the outside of the union. Bosnia and Kosovo, still potential candidates, would suffer the most. Denied visa-free travel and excluded from membership in international bodies such as the Council of Europe, Kosovo is at risk of instability. But Serbia too will remain in limbo and will not be in a position to gain EU membership so long as there is no settlement of the Kosovo dispute. By contrast, a geopolitically minded EU welcoming into its ranks one or several Western Balkan countries in the coming decade could bring long-awaited change in the region. To be sure, democracy, prosperity, and the rule of law wont flow automatically from membership, and much will depend on domestic conditions and dynamics. But being integrated into the EU is a necessary condition to advance what the union itself considers its core mission: spreading its values and principles to countries and societies on its fringes in the interest of political stability and economic growth.

What Has Stopped EU Enlargement in the Western Balkans?  Article by Dimitar Bechev  Carnegie Europe.

The Article can be downloaded here
Palo Alto, CANegotiate Like a CEO: How to Get Ahead with Lessons Learned from Top Entrepreneurs and Executives by Jotham S. Stein won in the 'Career' category at the Firebird Book Awards.

Negotiate Like a CEO also won Best Business Book at the Los Angeles Book Festival and the Outstanding Creator Awards.

What does it mean to negotiate like a CEO? How important are employment agreements? How can you learn to protect yourself and your family if the worst does happen? These are all questions that Jotham S. Stein addresses in his book Negotiate Like a CEO, with the goal of equipping individuals with the tools they need to safeguard themselves in business and employment.

Negotiate Like a CEO isn't afraid to get into the weeds about what you need to do to help your career. Stein peppers each chapter with captivating stories of employees who have found themselves in tight situations with their employerstories that many readers will find familiar. He follows each example with insider insights on how to navigate the situation and save yourself from heartache.

"It's the concept to protect yourself, to read everything or get a good adviser to read everything, to negotiate with leverage, just like a CEO would negotiate with leverage. I wrote this book to help the people out there who have no idea how to help themselves in their employment relationships," says Stein. "Too many just don't know how or are too afraid to ask" Jotham Stein

Watch the book trailer at https://bit.ly/NegotiateLikeaCEOtrailer





A graduate of Stanford Law School and Princeton University, Stein has more than two decades of experience in executive law, representing individuals from all walks of life, including entrepreneurs, C-suite executives, and less senior employees of all size companies. In his career he has negotiated robust employment agreements, separation agreements, M & A agreements, change in control agreements, stock option agreements, restricted stock agreements, management carve out agreements, non-compete agreements, and much more.

"Jotham has helped me throughout my career, from setting up strong employment agreements to securing stock compensation to protecting the management team during the sale of my company. Jotham is a guy you want in your corner. His book should be required reading for anyone who thinks 'this could never happen to me'" Andy Cohen, founder and former CEO, Caring.com

As a hi-tech Silicon Valley attorney Stein is brutally honest in assessing a situation and advising his clients. In Negotiate Like a CEO you'll learn to be aware, to recognize potential employment pitfalls, and how to protect yourself. You'll also learn that you may have more leverage than you might think, either now or as you advance in your career. Grady Harp, Amazon Top 100 Hall of Fame Reviewer

"As a CEO and multi-time Silicon Valley executive, I was very fortunate to learn from Jotham early in my career the great importance of the protective employment offer letter. Employment law is very complex and with this book you can learn from the best" Bonnie Crater, co-founder and CEO, Full Circle Insights; former SVP salesforce.com; former SVP Genesys; former VP Oracle; former VP Netscape

About: Jotham S. Stein is the principal of the Law Offices of Jotham S. Stein P.C. He has more than two decades of experience representing entrepreneurs and C-Suite executives, board members, venture capitalists, private equity principals, and investment bankers as well as less senior employees of all size companies.

Stein is a graduate of Stanford Law School and Princeton University. He is admitted to practice in California, Illinois, New York, Colorado, and the District of Columbia as well as the United States Supreme Court, and several United States Courts of Appeals and United States District Courts. He is also a member of multiple bar associations, including the American Bar Association. Stein is the author of Executive Employment Law: Protecting Executives, Entrepreneurs and Employees, a how-to guide for practitioners.

Stein's new book, Negotiate Like a CEO, is an enthralling look at how top entrepreneurs and executives protect themselves and how you can too. You can find out more about Jotham Stein at NegotiateLikeaCEO.net.

Negotiate Like a CEOASIN: B09TG125BQ, Published by Political Animal Press, Feb. 24, 2022, 294 pages, available on Kindle and paperback on Amazon.

Media Contact: For a review copy of Negotiate Like a CEO or to arrange an interview with Jotham S. Stein, contact Scott Lorenz of Westwind Communications Book Marketing at scottlorenz@westwindcos.com or by phone at 248-705-2214. Reach Lorenz on twitter @abookpublicist
 Register today to adopt a needy childs letter to Santa. 

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 15, 2021  USPS Operation Santa opens to the public today for volunteer registration. BeAnElf.org offers an excellent guide to the program for families in need and for volunteers from the public who wish to adopt their sad letters to Santa. Support is also offered to companies to organize employees into teams to adopt childrens letters.

This year letters to the jolly man at the North Pole have been pouring in. Since November 1, postal workers have been looking for Santa letters from kids whose lists include basic necessities like a warm coat or new shoes, and from parents who describe their struggles with employment or health, and ask volunteers for help with getting their kids Christmas gifts. Some say their children are too little to write, and list their kids names, ages, and clothing sizes. Postal elves then upload the saddest letters to USPSoperationsanta.com.

In case any children reading this are wondering, of course the Elves at the Post Office always put the letters right back in the mail to Santa at the North Pole, so Santa will deliver his gifts, too.

Starting November 29th anyone may adopt the letters from home. Childrens family names and addresses are redacted from their letters, when a volunteer adopts a letter online, a barcoded shipping label prints out with each letter. Volunteers use it to mail gifts directly to the child or family who wrote to Santa.

Letters to Santa must be postmarked by December 10 to be selected for the website. The site closes for letter adoption on December 23rd.

The address to write to Santa is:

Santa Claus

123 Elf Road

North Pole 88888

Some people feel alone and sad over Christmas, and find comfort and inspiration volunteering for this program. They catch the true spirit of the holidays, knowing they will put smiles on kids faces on Christmas.

Be An Elf is a tax-exempt 501c3 charity and has recruited thousands of volunteers for USPS Operation Santa . The group also supports the program by offering a guide for needy families seeking help with Christmas, and tips for effective volunteering. The US Postal Service  has not missed a year since first offering the childrens letters in 1912.

Ho, ho, ho and Happy Holidays! To learn more, visit www.BeAnElf.org.
The Conservation Society of San Antonio has sold the Steves Homestead, a stately Victorian mansion along the San Antonio River in the King William neighborhood.

The historic three-story home at 509 King William St. was built in the mid-1870s for Edward Steves, a lumber entrepreneur and German immigrant who moved from Comfort with his wife, Johanna, and three sons.

The J.W. Plumfield Family Living Trust acquired it in early June.

We are delighted the house will once again be a residence in the King William neighborhood, the Conservation Society said in a statement.

On ExpressNews.com: Villa Finale to operate Steves Homestead

It declined further comment on the sale, citing a confidentiality agreement.

In a statement provided through their attorney, the new owners said they intend to preserve the property.

The Steves Homestead is an iconic home, kept well preserved by the San Antonio Conservation Society, the trustees said. As students of history and longtime residents of San Antonio, we are honored and excited to have the opportunity to carry forward the work started by the Society.

Our goal is to preserve the home and its outbuildings as much as possible, and continue the work of restoration for the benefit of future generations, they added.

Its unclear who the trustees are and what they paid for the property. The Bexar Appraisal District values it at $3.2 million.

The Conservation Society owned the home since 1952 and operated and maintained it as a museum until several months ago, when the organization closed it.

The design of the home is reflective of the Second Empire style of architecture that was popular in Europe and the U.S. Northeast at the time of its construction. Its built of limestone, with doors and floors made of pine that Steves imported from Florida.

The home was the first in San Antonio to convert to electric lighting, and it was the first to feature an indoor swimming pool.

On ExpressNews.com: A glimpse of modern life in late 1800s

After he retired from his lumber business, Edward Steves sought to beautify the downtown area. He had Commerce Street paved in mesquite blocks and suggested that telephone, telegraph and electric power roles be removed and cables buried, according to San Antonio Express-News archives.

Edward and Johanna Steves and their youngest son lived at the house, and their other two sons built homes across the street. Edward Steves died in 1890, but the business he started continues under the name Steves & Sons.

The home remained in the Steves family and was used as a rental property. It was donated it to the Conservation Society in 1952, and the organization renovated it and re-created period furnishings.

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 home, which is within the King William Historic District, was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1970.

Less than a half-mile northeast, another historic home owned by the Conservation Society is also up for sale.

The organization has been headquartered at the Anton Wulff House at 107 King William St. since the mid-1970s and listed the circa-1870 house for $3.98 million in November.

The Conservation Society has been searching for new space for several years, and the housing market is hot, executive director Vincent Michael said at the time.

The coronavirus pandemic dealt a blow to the organizations finances, with the postponement or cancellation of Conservation Society events such as A Night in Old San Antonio, a major fundraiser during the annual Fiesta San Antonio.

But Michael said the lost revenue is not really a factor in the sale.

madison.iszler@express-news.net
A boxy little penguin helped 10-year-old Langston Baker become San Antonios first Lego Mini Master Model Builder.

Now Baker is vying to become a national champion with his plastic brick ode to the Alamo City, complete with a Texas longhorn looming over a rustic squared-off landscape dotted with a mini Alamo, an oil derrick and a lasso-twirling cowboy on his horse.

Courtesy Lynette Baker

Baker is one of 14 contestants vying in a contest on Facebook for the title of Legos National Mini Master Model Builder. Legoland Discovery Centers across North America have posted photos of all 14 contestants with their builds on their respective Facebook pages. The public can vote by liking the picture of their favorite build. The contestant with the most likes wins.

Voting concludes at noon Monday, and the winner will be announced on social media Wednesday.

On ExpressNews.com: Viva brick fiesta! Legoland Discovery Center San Antonio opens to the public

You can vote for Baker by liking his photo at on the Facebook page of Legoland Discovery Center San Antonio(@LDCSanAntonio). Baker is the boy in the red shirt with a Lego longhorn display and is the first pic of the bunch. Hey, nothing like a little home court advantage.

Baker is quite invested in the Lego-verse, creating his own designs with a supply of plastic bricks stored in a huge overflowing tub.

Courtesy Lynette Baker

Earlier this month, Legoland Discovery Center San Antonio introduced Baker as its first Mini Master Model Builder with a Facebook post featuring Baker with his prized Lego penguin.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio crowns its first-ever LEGO master model builder

Baker said he would love to be a Lego Master Model Builder when hes an adult. Ironically, there is one profession hed like to avoid.

I would not want to be a construction worker because I realize how destructive they are, Baker said.

rguzman@express-news.net | Twitter: @reneguz
In the two years documentary filmmakers shadowed former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, the most jarring moment for them was in the kitchen of her Tucson, Arizona, home.

As cameras were rolling, she and her husband, Sen. Mark Kelly, nonchalantly opened the freezer. Kelly grabbed a plastic container and revealed it holds the piece of Giffords' skull that had to be removed after she was shot.

This stays in here next to the empanadas and the sliced mango, Kelly said.

Giffords' response was Sera, sera, referencing the song Que sera, sera or What will be, will be.

The scene from the film is emblematic of Giffords' openness to reflect on but not languish in the 2011 shooting that changed her life. That desire is what led her to allow cameras into her life for two years  all as a pandemic was progressing.

For me it has been really important to move ahead, to not look back, Giffords told The Associated Press while in Los Angeles to promote the film. I hope others are inspired to keep moving forward no matter what.

From the filmmakers behind Academy Award-nominated Ruth Bader Ginsburg documentary RBG, the film Gabby Giffords Won't Back Down is partly an intimate look at Giffords' recovery after the January 2011 shooting that left six people dead and 13 others wounded outside a Tucson supermarket. But the movie, which arrives in theaters July 15, is also an insider view of how she and Kelly navigated gun control campaigns and later a Senate campaign. The movie could not be any timelier with gun reform being debated in government, schools and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Its just a fascinating story about how Gabby came back from an injury that so many people just dont even survive, said Betsy West, a co-director. After meeting Gabby on Zoom, we saw just what a great communicator she is. And we had a sense that we might have a lot of fun despite the very difficult subject of gun violence.

At the same time, they wanted to strike the right balance of how much to look back at the shooting.

We certainly didn't want to shy away from January 8. Obviously, that's something that changed her life, said Julie Cohen, the film's other director. But Gabby is defined ultimately by everything that she's achieved before and after that. We wanted it to show that achievement.

The film also doesnt avoid discussing Jared Lee Loughner, the gunman in the Tucson shooting. Interviews with law enforcement, journalists and a video made by Loughner lay out how he was able to buy a semiautomatic weapon despite a history of mental illness. He was sentenced in 2012 to life in federal prison without parole.

We did not want to dwell on the shooter, but we also wanted to explain what had happened, West said. Gabby and Mark did not shy away from going to the sentencing hearing to make a very impassioned plea for life imprisonment. That was a very important part of the film.

Recent mass shootings including the deaths of 19 schoolchildren and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, and 10 supermarket shoppers  all Black  in Buffalo, New York, have put gun violence back at the forefront. The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a New York gun permitting law. The case involves a state law that makes it difficult for people to get a permit to carry a gun outside the home. The justices said that requirement violates the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

The House on Friday sent President Joe Biden the most wide-ranging gun violence bill Congress has passed in decades. It came a day after the U.S. Senate easily passed it. It took weeks of closed-door talks to lead to an incremental but landmark package in response to mass shootings.

Much like after Uvalde, the documentary recaps how gun control debates reached a fever pitch after 20 first graders and six educators were shot to death by a gunman at a Newtown, Connecticut, school. Giffords and other advocates, including some Newtown parents, were called props by National Rifle Association officials. Having spent time with Giffords and others impacted by gun violence, the film's directors say their voices are central to the discourse.

To say that somehow Gabby shouldn't be speaking about gun violence because she's experienced violence? It just doesn't make any sense, Cohen said.

A crucial element of the documentary came from videos Kelly had of Giffords in the Tucson hospital and at a rehab facility in Houston. These included then-President Barack Obama  who is interviewed in the film  and Michelle Obamas visit to an unconscious Giffords bedside. They also include the first few months of speech therapy.

The bullet penetrated the left hemisphere of Giffords' brain that services language ability, causing her to suffer from aphasia. You see in old videos Giffords sob out of frustration as she struggles to read and get stuck on saying chicken.

Giffords said watching those videos can make her sad, but she is determined to be upbeat.

I'm getting better. I'm getting (better) slowly but I'm getting (better) surely," Giffords said.

Giffords is the third movie West and Cohen have produced on a female icon. Last year, they released Julia, a documentary on the influence of TV chef and author Julia Child. RBG was a critical and commercial hit when it came out four years ago. The filmmakers say while Giffords and Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg, who died in 2020 at age 87, are very different personalities, they think viewers will see a lot of similarities. They both have toughness, persistence, optimism and are at the heart of feminist love stories.

Giffords often has to remind people that she still has a voice even if speaking doesn't come easily  whether it's on gun safety or other issues. She said she genuinely feels the climate is different now but people have to be patient because change is slow," and Washington, D.C., is "really slow.

She plans to refocus on making tougher federal background checks a reality through her Gun Owners for Safety coalition. The bill the Senate approved would only strengthen background checks for buyers age 18 to 20.

If there's one message she wants viewers to take from the documentary, it's fight, fight, fight every day," Giffords said.

___

This story has been updated to correct the number of students and educators killed in Newtown, Connecticut.
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District Attorney Joe Gonzales stood Friday morning in the shadow of both Bexar County courthouses and pledged to protect women and other vulnerable members of the community in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Courts reversal of Roe v. Wade.

With more than two dozen members of his staff behind him, Gonzales said he will champion rights for everyone, singling out women and the LGBTQ+ community. He said the latter group could have their right to marry stripped, saying that the reasoning justices applied in rescinding a womans right to have an abortion could be applied in other cases.

Personal health care decisions should not be punished. The right to marry should not be punished, he said. At a time when crime is high, we should all be focused on gun violence and supporting victims of crimes. Instead, the government wants to do the opposite and focus on those at their most vulnerable. This is unacceptable, and I promise to keep fighting for women in this county.

On ExpressNews.com: Key passages from the Supreme Court decision tossing Roe v. Wade

When asked about the possibility he could be removed from office for not following the states ban on abortion after the trigger law takes effect in 30 days, Gonzales said should cases be brought to his office by law enforcement agencies, he would handle each on a case-by-case basis.

Prosecutors have a responsibility to comply with the law, he said. I am entrusted with prosecutorial discretion, and I am going to exercise my own discretion, absent an extreme circumstance.

Saying the abortion process should be consensual, he cited a scenario as an extreme circumstance.

If someone is forced to have an abortion under duress, that is an extreme circumstance, he said, while absent an extreme circumstance, he plans not to pursue such prosecutions.

Gonzales added if someone is seeking a consensual procedure, they would have to be investigated by law enforcement and a case would have to be presented to his office, which does not initiate investigations.

On ExpressNews.com: Countdown for Texas trigger law begins as Supreme Court strikes down Roe v. Wade

I took an oath when I was sworn in not to prosecute, but seek justice, he said. There is no justice in prosecuting women for exercising their own personal choices. There is no justice in prosecuting those of the medical care community who are there to support and assist women in their most difficult time in making this sort of decision.

Makayla Montoya-Frazier, co-executive director of Buckle Bunnies, a nonprofit that raises money to help women across Texas receive access to abortions, followed Gonzales and said that she would continue fighting for women to have access to the procedure.

This is a very heavy and difficult day, she said. We are tired of our stories being ones of resilience. We know we can get through it, but why should we have to?

She said thousands of Texas women have sought illegal abortions  herself included  and that the states actions have devastated women, particularly those living in poverty.

At the end of the day, when we are coming down from this, she said, please remember that everybody loves somebody who has had abortions.

On ExpressNews.com: Texas trigger law: Will abortion be prosecuted after Roe v. Wade?

On the political front, Gonzales, a Democrat who identifies as a progressive prosecutor, believes in reformative justice, a womans right to choose and marriage equality.

This is consistent with what I believe in protecting the rights of individuals, the LGBTQ+ community, women and constituents, noting that those are components of the Democratic platform.

ezavala@express-news.net | Twitter: @elizabeth2863
Police are investigating the shooting death of a man found on the West Side early Friday.

Details are limited, but police said they responded to reports of a shooting at around 3:30 a.m. near the intersection of San Fernando Drive and San Dario Avenue.

When they arrived, they found a man lying unresponsive on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead on the scene by emergency personnel.

Police said they do not have a suspect or suspects. Authorities also said they have not found any witnesses.

timothy.fanning@express-news.net
Marvin Pfeiffer

A San Antonio man was sentenced to 28 years in prison Thursday after he pleaded guilty earlier this year to livestreaming himself sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl to an undercover law enforcement agent.

According to court documents, Jeremy Shawn Lopezieo, 35, did not know he was speaking with an undercover agent with the FBIs Child Exploitation Task Force, the U.S. Attorneys Office of the Western District of Texas said in a news release.
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An adult cousin of a 3-year-old boy who was fatally shot in 2017 while riding in a car with his family testified in court Thursday of the chaos that occurred in the moments after the shooting.

The testimony came in the capital murder trial of Eric Trevino, who was 22 when he was arrested in December 2017 and charged with capital murder-child under 10. He was arrested after an anonymous tip to a local TV station was turned over to San Antonio police. The tip had details that linked Trevino to the shooting. He has pleaded not guilty.

Testifying for the state, Jack Daniel Hernandez told the jury he was heading back to his aunts house on the Southwest Side around 11:30 p.m. on Nov. 4, 2017. He said he drove past his cousin Rene Blancas Sr., his wife, Melanie Santos and their two children, Rene Jr., and Kylie Rose. The Blancas had been at a family gathering all day, but left because Rene Jr. had a T-ball game the next day.

Facing opposite directions on Briggs Avenue, near New Laredo Highway, Hernandez and Blancas spoke for a few minutes until Hernandez had to drive off.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio man alleged to have shot, killed 3-year-old on trial

I saw somebody in back of me with the lights on. I told my primo (cousin), theres a (expletive in Spanish) in back of me, so I gotta go, and I started driving.

By the time he got back to his aunts home a few hundred yards away, relatives had already received the news that Rene Jr. had been wounded in a shooting.

I heard my aunt say, Rene was shot!  Hernandez told the jury. I said (expletive), I just saw him down the street!

Hernandez said he jumped back into his pickup and went to find the Blancas. He ended up at Southwest General Hospital, where the Blancas went to get their son immediate medical attention.

Testimony established that after Hernandez drove off, a Honda Civic made a U-Turn and pulled up behind the Blancas Lexus. Santos heard a popping noise before she saw that her son had been shot.

The toddler was airlifted from Southwest General to University Hospital that night. He died from his injuries in the wee hours of Nov. 5, 2017.

On ExpressNews.com: Affidavit details evidence that led police to man who allegedly killed S.A. 3-year-old

Under cross-examination from defense attorney Mark McKay, Hernandez told the jury that his pickup was too tall for him to see the make, model or color of the car that had pulled up behind him. He said that as he drove off, the driver of the car had turned his lights off.

Jurors also heard from Jorge Martinez, general manager of Texas National Auto Sales. He testified that he sold a Honda Civic to Trevinos mother on Oct. 13, 2017, and that she returned the car on Nov. 10. Martinez said the woman, Maria Yzaguirre, was listed as the sole owner on the paperwork.

Under direct questioning by prosecutor David Martin, Martinez identified Trevino as the man who drove the Honda to the lot to make a payment. He added that when the car was returned, it was rough and pretty messy. Trevino was not with his mother when she dropped off the car.

We just cleaned it up, put the bumper back on, and resold it, Martinez said.

He disputed McKays assertion that Yzaguirre was told the car had problems and needed an alignment that was going to cost $2,000 to $3,000.

She just didnt want the car, period, Martinez told the jury.

The trial is expected to resume Monday morning in the 437th District Court. If convicted, Trevino, now 27, faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. The Bexar County District Attorneys Office is not seeking the death penalty in this case.

ezavala@express-news.net | Twitter: @elizabeth2863
Ryan Hartman, the former San Marcos Police Department cop involved in an off-duty car crash in June 2020 that resulted in a womans death, will not get his job back despite appealing his termination earlier this year, an arbiter ruled this week.

Hartman was indefinitely suspended  the equivalent of termination  in January 2022 by San Marcos police Chief Stan Standridge. City officials said the reason was Hartmans failure to complete administrative paperwork, employee evaluations and other supervisory tasks since as far back as 2019.

Hartman appealed his termination and sought reinstatement and back pay under Chapter 143 of the Texas Local Government Code, which grants all Texas firefighters and police officers the right to appeal terminations.

During a two-day hearing in late April, an attorney for Hartman squared off against an attorney for the city of San Marcos before arbiter Bill Detwiler in a trial-like process that examined the reasons for Hartmans termination and called witnesses, Standridge, Hartman and other members of the police department.

Related: Fired San Marcos cop, seeking reinstatement, cites mental health struggles after he caused fatal wreck

During the hearing, Hartmans attorney said he had been made a pariah following the June 2020 car wreck that left a woman dead, and the bad press he and the department received over it was the true reason for his firing. The citys attorney countered that he had failed in his role as a supervisor and not upheld department standards and policies in completing basic administrative tasks, like employee reviews or investigation reports.

Detwiler handed down his ruling Thursday afternoon, siding with the city and upholding Hartmans termination.

Detwiler wrote that Hartmans case is unfortunate because his tragic accident has scarred his life and placed him in the care of mental health providers while undergoing public animus.

But, nonetheless, Hartmans indefinite suspension is sustained, he ruled.

The city of San Marcos said they were notified of the arbiters ruling Thursday afternoon.

The result of this decision is that Mr. Hartmans employment is permanently terminated, city spokeswoman Nadine Bonewitz said in an email to the Express-News.

Hartman could appeal

Hartman has been the subject of two controversial incidents during his 14-year tenure at the San Marcos Police Department.

On June 10, 2020, Hartman was off-duty and driving his personal Ford pickup. He has been accused of running a pair of stop signs at the intersection of Maple Street and Texas 130 in Lockhart. According to police reports, he slammed into the passenger side of a Honda Accord driven by 64-year-old Pam Watts.

Watts partner of eight months, 56-year-old Jennifer Miller, was in the passenger seat. She was gravely injured and died before a medevac helicopter could arrive. Watts survived but suffered long-term injuries.

A half-full beer can was found in Hartmans truck, but a blood test several hours after the accident found no evidence of alcohol in his system. Hartman was uninjured in the wreck. He was placed on paid administrative leave and reinstated to the police force after a grand jury declined in November 2020 to charge him with any crime in connection with the wreck.

Hill Country Headlines: Get top stories from the region sent to your inbox

Shortly after returning to duty in January 2021, Hartman was the supervisor on the scene of a high-speed car chase when he used his stun gun on a suspect who had his hands in the air and was complying with police commands. Standridge testified at the April hearing that this was against department policy.

The man who was stunned, Albian Levya, filed a civil lawsuit against Hartman and the city of San Marcos last week alleging that his constitutional rights were violated.

Hartman has a narrow opportunity to appeal the arbiters decision in a district court under very limited circumstances. He has 10 days to file an appeal if he chooses to do so.

Annie Blanks writes for the Express-News through Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms. ReportforAmerica.org. annie.blanks@express-news.net.
Since last summer, Elon Musks tunnel-digging company has been looking to collaborate with cities along the fast-growing Interstate 35 corridor to build an underground transportation loop connecting Austin and San Antonio.

The series of projects would rely heavily on tax dollars  yet The Boring Co. has been working with local officials largely in secret.

TBC and I are most useful operating in the background, not in the front of the parade, Brian Gettinger, the companys head of business development, said in an Aug. 17 email to Kyle City Manager Scott Sellers.

Gettinger outlined the companys master plan in the email, obtained by Hearst Newspapers through an open records request: It wants to build separate tunnel systems linking Austin, Kyle, San Marcos, New Braunfels and San Antonio, with several stations along the way.

He said the systems path likely would follow I-35s right of way.

The companys plan to ease transportation between the Austin and San Antonio metros  which are quickly coming together to form the nations next major mega-region, along the lines of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex  isnt the first for the corridor.

For two decades, transit advocates had looked to the Lone Star Rail District to create an alternative for commuters to the frequently clogged I-35. The Legislature created the district in 1997 to build a passenger rail line between San Antonio and Austin. But the project died in 2017 when it became clear that Union Pacific Railroad wouldnt agree to share its rail line between the two cities.

In an email sent from Gettinger to Sellers on Aug. 17, the Boring Co. executive said the company was looking at potentially resurrecting the Lone Star rail concept in a different form.

Gettinger told Sellers that with recent leaked articles in Austin and San Antonio about the companys potential plans, there is enough in public space for you to start having what if conversations with folks.

Just dont implicate me or TBC directly, Gettinger added.

He was apparently referring to an Aug. 6 column in the San Antonio Express-News that revealed the companys early talks with San Antonio and Austin officials about potential loop projects.

The Boring Co. is based in the Austin suburb of Pflugerville, not far from the headquarters of Tesla. Musk, the electric-vehicle makers chairman and CEO, moved Tesla to Austin from Californias Silicon Valley late last year. The publicly traded manufacturer operates a sprawling, $1.1 billion plant on about 2,500 acres near Austin that manufactures Model Y cars.

Another Musk concern, privately held commercial rocket company SpaceX, operates a bustling spaceport near Brownsville and a rocket-testing facility near Waco.

The Boring Co. is the youngest, smallest and most secretive of the three companies backed by the worlds richest man.

Since last summer, its progress along the I-35 corridor has been mixed. Yet its gotten a warm reception in San Antonio  at least with the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority, a Bexar County-created agency whose mission is to fund and develop area transportation projects.

Starting point?

The Boring Co. is in talks with the Alamo RMA about potentially building an underground loop between San Antonio International Airport and downtown. The company would shuttle passengers back and forth in electric Tesla sedans through single-lane tunnels.

The company estimates it would cost as much as $298 million, with most of the funding coming from an RMA-issued bond that would be repaid with revenue generated from the project. Musks company would kick in between $27 million and $45 million, according to an RMA document.

The Boring Co. first approached San Antonio officials a year ago, at about the same time it reached out to other cities along the I-35 corridor, to discuss a tunnel loop project.

While the Alamo RMA latched onto Boring Co.s airport-to-downtown plan, San Antonio city officials took a pass on the companys proposals.

We had an opportunity to explore the proposal last year and determined that this is not a priority for the city of San Antonio, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said in an emailed statement in March. We are always willing to consider innovative economic development opportunities, but our public transportation dollars should be focused on mass transit options.

The Boring Co. received a warmer reception in Kyle, an Austin suburb.

Responding to Gettingers Aug. 17 email, Sellers said the companys plans for a transportation loop system looks solid and that Kyle would love a connection to downtown Austin and Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

He also told Gettinger to keep him apprised of the overall plan and what the cost would be to Kyle for a station so the city could begin identifying a location and funding plan.

Please let us know what our next steps should be, Sellers wrote.

Neither Gettinger nor Sellers responded to multiple requests for comment. The city of Kyle is contesting a Hearst Newspapers records request for communications between city officials and Boring Co., appealing to the Texas attorney generals office.

Gettinger introduced Boring Co. officials to leaders in Kyle, San Marcos and New Braunfels a year ago. In an email, he pitched the companys expertise at constructing tunneled infrastructure for transportation (transit, vehicular and pedestrian), utilities (water, wastewater, stormwater, fiber) and freight.

Last month, Kyle council members chose the company over Florida-based Southland Contracting, a tunnel company with at least 13 completed pedestrian, rail and car tunnel projects across the United States, to build a $3 million pedestrian underpass as part of the citys 80-mile Vybe trail project.

Its unclear whether talks between Kyle officials and the company about a tunnel project, which could become a leg of an Austin-to-San Antonio loop, moved beyond early conversations.

The city of San Marcos also was initially enthusiastic about working with the company on a city project. According to emails between San Marcos Assistant City Manager Joe Pantalion and Gettinger, the parties discussed the possibility of digging a $2.5 million pedestrian tunnel between City Hall and the library last year.

Gettinger inquired about using the Texas Mobility Fund or other programs to foot the bill for the project.

But the city ultimately determined it was too expensive.

The city of San Marcos had preliminary discussions with the Boring Company, who approached the city to express interest in a pilot program that included building a tunnel, city spokeswoman Nadine Bonewitz said in an email. However, once preliminary costs were shared with the city, that concept was abandoned last summer and conversations have ceased.

Whats next?

Its unclear what the secretive Boring Co.s next steps will be. But the emails between Gettinger and city officials show that the company is looking for taxpayer funding, from state and local sources, to further its goal of constructing a tunnel transportation system in Central Texas.

In an introductory email a year ago, Gettinger said that Elon has challenged us to tunnel (10 times) faster (1 mile a week) and for less than $10 (million) a mile for a 12-foot diameter tunnel, and we have already delivered on this goal with a people mover system for the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Thats the only major transportation project the tunnel-maker has completed to date. Its a 1.7-mile, $52.5 million loop under the Las Vegas Convention Center that transports people in Teslas in a single underground lane. Thats in addition to two private test tunnels in California.

This month, the Las Vegas City Council approved Boring Co.s application to extend the convention center loop to downtown.

Musk founded Boring Co. in 2017 with the goal of building transportation tunnels across the U.S. It was his response to what he called Los Angeles soul-crushing traffic gridlock. But the companys planned tunnel project in Los Angeles has stalled.

Plans to build several other major tunnel loops  between New York City and Washington, D.C., between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, and from downtown Chicago to OHare International Airport  also have gone dark.
On the morning of one of the most consequential decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court, overturning Roe vs. Wade, Elaine Coronado touched down in San Antonio from Washington, D.C.

San Antonio is her second home and where her parents were waiting with tacos.

The long-time, top-notch event planner is also co-founder of a network of Latinas called Leonas.

Spanish for lionesses, the groups 800 members nationwide advocate for equity and inclusion, especially in Washington, especially in the White House, especially in the West Wing.

In spite of everything going on  including damning revelations about the insurrection coming out of the Jan. 6 select committee hearings  Leonas have remained steadfast.

Its members, who raised money for Bidens presidential campaign, are still unsatisfied with the number of his Latina appointments.

A year ago, when I first talked to Coronado and Leonas other co-founder, Maria Rita Jaramillo, they felt ghosted by the Biden White House and described his Latina appointments as Spanx slim.

Today, theyre celebrating the elevation of Julie Chavez Rodriguez, 44, to senior adviser and assistant to the president. Her promotion was announced last week. Shell hold on to her current post as director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.

She comes from a family with a civil rights legacy.

Her grandfather was labor leader Cesar Chavez, who founded the union that became the United Farm Workers.

As with so many national events, theres often a local connection.

Chavez Rodriguez is the daughter of native San Antonian Arturo Rodriguez, former UFW president, and the late Linda Chavez, another powerful figure in her life.

Rodriguez, now UFW president emeritus, continues to advocate for farm workers rights. Hes a graduate of St. Marys University and the long-shuttered Catholic boys school, La Salle High, on the citys South Side.

He lives in San Antonio with his second wife, Sonia Rodriguez, a past president of Communities Organized for Public Service, now COPS/Metro Alliance, for which she continues to do advocacy work.

Chavez Rodriguezs parents met in 1973 during the UFWs grape boycott in Detroit, Michigan. It was a tense time. Two farm workers had been killed during labor strikes in California. Teamsters had sided with growers.

Less than a year later, her parents decided to get married. His girlfriend said yes, but hed have to ask her father Cesar Chavez for her hand.

Can you imagine that? Sonia Rodriguez said, both of them laughing.

Chavez Rodriguez grew up within the UFW union. At 5, she knocked on doors in La Paz, UFWs headquarters. At about 8, she got a first-hand look at the judicial system after being arrested with her father during a boycott.

She heard death threats against her Tata first-hand, her father said.

At 10, she was at her grandfathers side during his last fast, a water-only fast. It lasted 36 days.

She and sister Olivia measured how much he drank, reporting it to his doctors.

Chavez Rodriguez is among the first few Latinas ever to serve in the West Wing.

Its great news, Coronado said. Leonas has been advocating for a Latina in the presidents circle.

We need more Julie Chavez Rodriguezes in this administration, Coronado said, pointing to data not well-known. In 2060, one-third of all females in this country will be Latinas.

Chavez Rodriguez will meet with the president alongside White House chief of staff Ron Klain, deputy chief of staff Jennifer OMalley Dillon and communications director Kate Bedingfield.

Theyll sit in the Oval Office, where a bronze bust of her grandfather sits behind the presidents desk  just one generation between them.

Its the kind of goose-bump story that makes you believe in the promise of democratic ideals.

Its what gave me hope amid the devastating news from Washington on Friday.

When Julie told us about her promotion, I wasnt surprised, Sonia Rodriguez said, tearing up. She has become such a role model for Latinas.

To pass her over would have been horrible.

Leonas would take that a little further. Given what the administration faces in November, it had better do a lot more.

eayala@express-news.net
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The Supreme Court on Friday overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion after almost a half century.

Abortion rights will be rolled back in nearly half of the states immediately. Heres what the historic ruling means for Texas women:

Texas' 2021 abortion law

Last year, Texas lawmakers passed the unprecedented Texas Heartbeat Act, which made it illegal for a physician to knowingly perform or induce an abortion if they detect a fetal heartbeat, starting in September 2021. A heartbeat is usually found around six weeks of pregnancy.

The law made legal abortions in Texas nearly impossible to obtain. The Supreme Court decision makes it even harder due to the Texas trigger law.

Timeline: Here is a thorough history of abortion in Texas.

What is the Texas trigger law?

Texas Republican leaders also passed the "trigger law" in 2021. It bans abortions within 30 days of a Supreme Court decision overturning the protections set in Roe. The prohibition would start at conception and make no exceptions for pregnancies that result from rape or incest.

But there's still some confusion over when exactly Texas will outlaw abortion or if it's already illegal here. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton clarified Friday that the trigger law takes effect after the Supreme Court issues a "judgment"  not an opinion, which justices released Friday morning. The judgment will be released in about a month, Paxton estimates, unless the court considers a motion for rehearing.

"So, while it is clear that the act will take effect, we cannot calculate exactly when until the court issues its judgment," he wrote in an advisory opinion.

Still, Paxton noted that some prosecutors may start pursuing charges against abortion providers immediately, based on Texas statutes that pre-dated Roe but were never repealed by the Legislature. Those laws prohibit all abortions except for the purpose of saving the life of the mother.

The trigger law will supersede that language when it takes effect.

In any case, it's unlikely that abortion providers will take the risk. Most, if not all, are expected to stop offering the procedure on Friday or soon after.

Are there exceptions?

The trigger law includes narrow exceptions for pregnant women at risk of dying or suffering substantial impairment. Pregnancies that result from rape or incest or that show severe fatal abnormalities are not exempt, meaning women in these circumstances could not have an abortion.

Felony charges for abortion

An abortion in Texas would be a felony for the person who performs the abortion, not the person who undergoes the procedure.

However, the district attorney in Bexar County said he would not prosecute abortion-related criminal charges. Other big-city district attorneys say they will not prosecute either.

District attorneys in other jurisdictions may take a different approach due to anti-abortion leanings or political pressure, the Texas Tribune reported.

Earlier this year, a woman in Starr County was charged with murder after a self-induced abortion. Advocates worry other cases could pop up, even though the trigger law prohibits prosecution of the person who got the abortion, the Tribune reported. And a state representative has promised to author a bill that would allow district attorneys to prosecute cases outside their counties.

What about other states?

The number of legal abortions in the state fell by half compared with the year before, the Express-News reported. Nearly 1,500 women, on average, traveled to seven surrounding states to obtain an abortion each month, 12 times as many as before.

As a result of Friday's ruling, most of the states neighboring Texas are also expected to outlaw abortion. New Mexico is the only exception and does not have significant restrictions and has made no plans to limit access to abortions.

Who will be most impacted?

Those most likely to seek out abortions are Black women, Hispanic women and other minorities who have long faced discrimination, according to research.

Original reporting by staff writers Jeremy Blackman and Cayla Harris were used in this report. The Texas Tribune contributed reporting.

timothy.fanning@express-news.net
Communicating with the public after a catastrophe is scary for many organizations.

Its also a powerful and necessary act that can unite or divide, build or destroy trust, answer or create questions, clarify or obscure, create lawsuits or spark change, and reveal people as heroes or villains.

Most call it crisis communications, and its how people in charge try to mitigate the damages of terrible news.

After the Uvalde massacre, state and local engagement with the public has been fragmented, delayed, incomplete and sometimes incorrect. The flawed communication response echoes the failed police response, and its another layer of pain for those already suffering.

A few years ago, I heard a lecture from crisis communication expert and professor Helio Fred Garcia during a seminar at the Defense Information School at Fort Meade, Md.

He presented a case study on the communication failures of BP in the aftermath of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. His findings boiled down to a simple idea: Entities ask the wrong questions in crises.

On ExpressNews.com: At a cemetery in Uvalde, an everlasting grief

The wrong question leaders worry about, he said, is, What should we say? The better question is, What would reasonable people appropriately expect a responsible organization to do in this circumstance?

The modifiers make it sound complicated, but they knock off extreme views. The core question is, What would people expect us to do?

Its a commonsense approach, and the reframed thought process, Garcia said, helps leaders get at the emotional reality of a situation. It also helps people think outside themselves and their political survival.

Local and state officials could have used this advice in the aftermath of the May 24 massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde that left 19 students and two teachers dead, and 17 others wounded.

Before May 24, reasonable people expected the systems, people and safeguards protecting our children to work.

On ExpressNews.com: For NRA conventioneers, Uvalde a world away

After Uvalde, reasonable people expected and deserved honesty and transparency as much as families and friends of those involved warranted sympathy, support and protection.

We expected a unified voice and timely responses from the responsible organizations  state and local politicians, the Texas Department of Public Safety, local police departments and the school district. We expected their answers to be true and accurate. We expected them to respect press freedoms.

We expected our politicians to put the welfare and will of all constituents over their own political survival or irrational allegiance to lax gun laws.

We expected tangible change to address gun violence in addition to more mental health and school security resources.

We expected accountability.

On ExpressNews.com: Voices of vets join chorus for gun safety

Our responsible organizations have failed to meet most of these reasonable expectations.

On Wednesday, Garcia and I spoke about Uvalde. We discussed the danger of ignoring small mistakes and how the risk of catastrophe skyrockets.

In Uvalde, the cascading failures led to tragedy.

And unlike natural disasters, the conversation after a tragedy involving firearms will always be skewed in America.

Its impossible to separate the aftermath of Uvalde from the national disagreement about firearms, he said. This isnt a Texas thing. It isnt a Uvalde thing on its own. It is in the context of this massive problem of gun violence that coincides with this massive division in American political life.

From his office in New York, Garcia hasnt been inundated with Uvalde news, but hes been suspicious of the DPS response since its first press conference.

They got themselves caught in some form of miscommunication or misinformation, and then they withdrew and said nothing for a while, and now they seem to be pointing fingers, he said. Its easy to point fingers at the less robust, less experienced police departments when theres been a massive failure like this.

Garcia said agencies often focus on the short-term benefits of releasing or not releasing information versus long-term credibility. The slow trickle of facts, shifting narratives, obfuscation and blame may help these agencies in the short term, but its causing more pain for the people of Uvalde.

The credibility and trust these agencies have lost since May 24 will take years, maybe decades, to rebuild.

Much of it will never return.

brandon.lingle@express-news.net
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In 2019, Texas lawmakers enacted school security measures that lacked teeth and adequate funding. The states lax gun laws allowed a deeply troubled 18-year-old to purchase assault weapons and ammo in May. Then law enforcement failed to save the 19 students and two teachers he brutally murdered.

There are so many failures at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde that it is natural to focus on the most egregious. But even the smallest decisions weigh heavy in mass shootings.

On ExpressNews.com: Editorial: A powerful man does nothing

Before the next shooting, schools must better fortify facilities and update active shooter protocols. No school official can claim a shooting could not happen in their district.

Uvalde Consolidated ISD had extensive school security protocols and training, yet it wasnt enough May 24. An effective lockdown could have saved more lives. Instead, the shooter easily walked through unlocked doors.

During Tuesdays Senate special committee hearing, Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath and others detailed renewed focus on incident response, facilities access control and behavioral threat assessment.

The alert system is critical. Part of the Uvalde school districts security effort is a silently activated mobile panic alarm. Houston-based Raptor Technologies, which serves more than 90 percent of Texas public schools and 35,000 schools across the U.S., provides the system.

The Uvalde shooting is believed to be the first time the alert system has been deployed in a mass shooting, but some Robb Elementary teachers have said they never received the alert or it was delayed. Some said they later found it in spam.

State Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, an emergency room doctor, asked during the Tuesday hearing why there wasnt a code system for announcements like in hospitals. Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, shared concerns from a fourth grade Robb Elementary teacher.

The teacher posted in a private Facebook group that she and some others heard gunshots before getting the lockdown notification. Although she later found the alert in her spam folder, some teachers said they never received it, she said.

That system failed us terribly, the teacher told me, saying she thought the intercom system would have made a difference.

Its unclear if Uvalde CISD protocol also called for an intercom announcement. School officials have not responded to my repeated requests for interviews and information.

In reply to the post, another teacher said she went into lockdown to the sound of gunshots: The system should be tossed out and never used again.

But David Rogers, spokesperson for Raptor Technologies, told me the emergency management alert app did what it is designed to do. He gave me a demo and provided a timeline: At 11:32 a.m., within one minute of the shooter entering the school, the principal pressed a red button on a phone app to initiate the alert to cellphones, computers and tablets.

Weve spent a really significant effort in terms of building a highly reliable platform that does what its supposed to do. And in this case, that is what happened, Rogers said, adding the district had no complaints.

During the hearing, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw recommended a more centralized alert system. Hes correct. Schools shouldnt only rely on the notification app. The app can be integrated with panic buttons, strobes and sirens, Rogers said.

Lockdown announcements via intercom are crucial. Technology can fail. Some teachers may not have their device settings correct. They are also busy and often discouraged from looking at their phones or computers during class.

Discontinuing the use of Raptors emergency alert product, which costs about $1,800 per year for districts, wouldnt be the best move. Many staff got the alerts. Schools must utilize every tool they can get, not just one or the other.

For lawmakers and school leaders, there is nothing more urgent than securing schools.

Nancy.Preyor-Johnson@express-news.net
And let me emphasize something that I know you all know. But the reality is, as horrible as what happened, it could have been worse. The reason it was not worse is because law enforcement officials did what they do.

They showed amazing courage by running toward gunfire for the singular purpose of trying to save lives. And it is a fact that because of their quick response, getting on the scene, being able to respond to the gunman and eliminate the gunman, they were able to save lives.

Gov. Greg Abbott, May 25, Uvalde press conference

How Texas Gov. Greg Abbott could be so misinformed the day after the second-deadliest school shooting in our nations history is a question that demands an honest answer.

But his words are as significant as they are hollow because they set forth a cascade of misinformation and obfuscation about the law enforcement response May 24 at Robb Elementary School, where an 18-year-old gunman murdered 19 children and two teachers.

Nearly five weeks later, we now know law enforcement officers did not show amazing courage by running toward gunfire to save lives. Instead, they waited in the school hallway for more than an hour, amassing equipment, as the gunman periodically fired shots and children desperately called 911, as a dying teacher spoke with her husband, a school police officer on the scene who was denied the chance to save her. A grieving public wonders how many lives might have been saved. For families of the children and teachers murdered, words are inadequate.

Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw testified Tuesday to a Senate committee, firmly casting blame: The only thing stopping a hallway of dedicated officers from entering room 111 and 112 was the on-scene commander, who decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children.

McCraws damning comments, aimed at Pedro Pete Arredondo, the embattled police chief of Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District who is now on administrative leave, may prove definitive in understanding the bumbling, tragic law enforcement response in Uvalde. But his scope is too narrow, his assigned blame too tidy. The failure here is widespread, not limited to Arredondo, who told the Texas Tribune, incredulously, he did not know he was in charge.

While McCraws testimony was powerful, he has been no point of light in this dark moment. He initially provided inaccurate information. His statement to senators that DPS troopers at the school did not have the authority by law to take command of the scene is painfully weak given the moral and humanitarian urgency.

While the law enforcement response has sparked our nations outrage and demands accountability, it is also just one layer of failure in this tragedy. For years, federal and state policymakers have failed to prevent mass shootings. In the aftermath of Uvalde, state and local officials have failed to provide accurate and timely information. And once again, Republican lawmakers have failed to tighten lax gun laws. At every turn in this tragedy, adults have failed Uvaldes children. We see five layers of failure.

A faltering of political will

The first is a failure to prevent mass shootings and other forms of gun violence. Before we turn our attention to the law enforcement response, lets reflect on what we are asking police to respond to.

Yes, the 1 hour, 14 minutes and 8 seconds it took for law enforcement to enter the adjoining classrooms and kill the shooter is horrific, but between 11:33 a.m. and 11:36 a.m., the killer fired more than 100 rounds. Wielding an AR-style rifle, purchased just after his 18th birthday, he slaughtered children and then overwhelmed officers who were on the scene within three minutes.

In a mass shooting, three minutes is an eternity. Before officers amassed in the hallway, before Arredondo fumbled for a key the Express-News reported he did not need to open the classroom door, so much of the carnage had occurred. If we banned these types of weapons or  at minimum  raised the purchase age, a tragedy like this is far less likely to happen.

But Republican Texas lawmakers have refused to consider such reforms, much less universal background checks, red flag laws and safe storage requirements. They allow bad actors to abuse the Second Amendment. This is the original failure. Dont lose sight of it.

When helpers dont help

Fred Rogers once said, When I was a boy, and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.

But here, the helpers failed. They waited for shields. They waited for SWAT. They waited for rifles. They waited as children called for help. This is the second failure.

It was an abject failure and antithetical to everything we have learned over the past two decades, McCraw said at the Senate hearing.

The guiding tactical response learned from the Columbine High School shooting in 1999 that killed 13 is that officers should not wait for SWAT. They go in, despite the risk of being outgunned, to stop the killing.

As Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar emailed deputies after the Uvalde massacre: In an Active Shooter scenario, end the threat FIRST!

In Uvalde, we know the killer entered the school at 11:33 a.m. and began firing shots. We know police, armed with rifles, were on the scene within three minutes. We know Arredondo arrived at 11:36 a.m. We know that as early as 11:41 a.m. officers could hear shots from within the classroom and that by 11:48 a.m. UCISD police officer Ruben Ruiz was on the scene, telling other officers his wife, Eva Mireles, had been shot. Police would detain Ruiz and take his gun.

We know that by 11:50 a.m. an officer can be heard saying, Chief is in charge, and we know that minutes later a DPS agent said, If theres kids in there, we need to go in there. But he was told that Arredondo would decide that.

No one would try to open the door. In a mass shooting, every second counts. It took law enforcement 4,448 seconds to breach the classroom door.

Misleading the public

Almost immediately, officials praised the law enforcement response, wrapping officers in the rhetoric of valor. This is the third failure: misleading the public.

It could have been worse, Abbott said during the May 25 press conference.

Such careless, flaccid language. Even more troubling was his certainty, at the time, that law enforcement officers capably intervened.

It was a fact that because of their quick response, he said, they were able to save lives.

But it was not a fact. Abbott would later say he was livid for being misled. But who misled him? Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin Jr. has asserted it was DPS, but a spokeswoman for Abbott would not elaborate.

Other major details have been corrected. No brave school resource officer approached and engaged the shooter outside the school, as McCraw said May 25. A teacher did not prop open a door, allowing the shooter access, as McCraw also asserted. In fact, the teacher closed the door  as she called 911  but it did not lock.

And then there is Arredondo, who said he was not in charge, has asserted classroom doors were locked and wasted precious time searching for a master key to gain entry. We have since learned the doors likely were unlocked, but no one tried to open them, and Arredondo was very much viewed as in command.

We teach children to speak with honesty and take responsibility for their actions. But we see none of this in the adults now shifting blame over Uvalde.

Hassling the press

This brings us to the fourth failure: intimidating the press and refusing to honor public records requests.

With media descended upon Uvalde, police and bikers from across the state obstructed and threatened reporters, including those from the Express-News.

At funerals, law enforcement officers ordered reporters off sidewalks and public streets, and they blocked photographers trying to take pictures from public places. Bikers got in their faces.

There was an obvious tension at play. As journalists questioned the official police-response narrative, law enforcement sought to shut them out and deny access. In doing so, they shut out the public from greater understanding. Intimate portraits of the children and teachers open our hearts, just as an accurate understanding of what happened informs potential policies.

The news reporters are about getting to the truth, and thats why theyre being obstructed and treated poorly, because there are some folks, apparently, who dont want the truth to come out, Kelley Shannon, executive director for the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, told us.

That pursuit continues with myriad records requests from journalists  including at least a dozen from the San Antonio Express-News and Houston Chronicle  yet to be fulfilled as the Uvalde County district attorney, the city of Uvalde and DPS play off one another to hold back records. State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a San Antonio Democrat who represents Uvalde, has sued DPS.

Weeks have come and gone, and yet families who lost their children have not been told by their government the basic information about who was on site as their children bled, what tools were at their disposal to stop the gunman, and exactly why they decided to wait instead of act, he said in a statement.

Grieving families deserved an immediate accurate timeline. So did the broader public. It is literally the least officials could have done.

Threatening the future

And so we arrive at the fifth failure: failing to prevent future mass shootings or respond at the state level with moral urgency. Rather than call a special session, Abbott has formed special committees. Rather than consider gun safety laws, he has emphasized mental health.

Even the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which we support and is the most robust federal gun safety reforms in decades, is, in many ways, modest. It offers enhanced background checks for would-be gun buyers who are younger than 21, closes the boyfriend loophole to include dating partners in prohibiting domestic abusers from owning a gun; provides incentives for states to adopt red flag laws; and goes big on mental health funding, especially for schools.

We view such reforms as a starting point, not a culmination. And yet at the recent Texas GOP convention, attendees booed Sen. John Cornyn, who led negotiations. For many, even these modest reforms, which will save lives, are anathema. What has become of us?

Taken together, these failures represent a crisis of governance. Abbott and other public officials failed to be accurate with the public about what happened in Uvalde, just as they continue to fail to be honest about the role guns play in gun violence.

It could have been worse, Abbott said. With each revelation, it is worse. Be livid.
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In a decision that has surprised no one but is still an earthquake for womens rights and threatens other precedents, the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down the constitutional right to an abortion.

The 6-3 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson overturns a half-century of precedent while threatening to undermine contraception and gay marriage.

The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives, Justice Samuel Alito Jr. wrote in the courts 6-3 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson.

And just like that, the protections established under Roe v. Wade in 1973 are gone. Rights can be won through hard-fought efforts, and, as we have witnessed, they can be lost.

Now, states will decide how to legislate abortion. And in Texas, nearly all abortions will be banned.

In a celebratory tweet, Gov. Greg Abbott wrote: The Supreme Court correctly overturns Roe v. Wade & reinstates the right of states to protect innocent, unborn children. Texas is a pro-life state. We will ALWAYS fight to save every child from the ravages of abortion.

Texas is not alone on this front. The Guttmacher Institute, which studies and promotes policies for sexual and reproductive health, said in a statement 26 states are certain or likely to ban abortion and the decision will invoke anti-abortion trigger laws in more than a dozen states, including Texas.

Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, a global advocacy group opposed to abortion restrictions, called it a wrecking ball to abortion rights.

We understand those who believe an abortion is the end of a life, and we, too, value life and respect this view. But we also value the privacy of women to make their own decisions based on their beliefs, circumstances and health needs; the government shouldnt make decisions about womens bodies.

Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett joined Alitos opinion, which was strikingly similar to a draft leaked to Politico in May.

Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division, Alito wrote.

In their joining dissent, Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan lamented that in Roe and Casey, the court had struck a balance that gave states a right to regulate some abortions: Today, the Court discards that balance. It says that from the very moment of fertilization, a woman has no rights to speak of. A State can force her to bring a pregnancy to term, even at the steepest personal and familial costs.

They wrote about states  like Texas  enacting laws that offer no exceptions for rape, incest or fetuses with severe medical issues. Even provisions for protecting women from death or physician harm could be prohibited in some states.

This decision creates vast disparities in terms of access to abortion depending on geography. And it does not end abortions, just legal and medically safe abortions.

In post-Roe America, abortions will continue, but they will be more dangerous for women, especially for those with lower incomes who may lack the means to travel out of state. And research has shown that women denied abortions suffer  and so do their babies.

In his statement, Abbott mentioned his efforts to boost womens health care and resources to help pregnant women choose life for their child, but our state has been anything but supportive of women and children.

And post-Roe America will remain fractious and divided. This decision threatens other rights many Americans celebrate and take for granted. While Alito wrote this opinion is only about abortion, Thomas offered a broader view.

In his concurring opinion, Thomas wrote the court should reconsider all of this Courts substantive due process precedents. He mentioned rulings that protect contraception access, same-sex relationships and same-sex marriage.

On ExpressNews.com: Editorial: Overturning Roe will have far-reaching consequences

Welcome to post-Roe America.
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The Supreme Court decision on Friday to overturn Roe v. Wade is an emphatic victory for opponents of abortion, but many believe theres more work to be done.

The decision had been anticipated since Politico published an initial draft majority opinion on May 2. Nevertheless, anti-abortion organizations and activists reacted joyfully to the news that the landmark 1973 decision establishing a constitutional right to abortion had been overturned.

This is a phenomenal moment that our movement has been working toward for almost 50 years, said John Seago, the legislative director of Texas Right to Life, a nonprofit anti-abortion advocacy group. Were excited, but there is definitely a weight of responsibility for our organization moving forward to build a pro-life state, and not just end abortion.

Justice Samuel Alito, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote in the 6-3 majority opinion that Roe v. Wade was "egregiously wrong from the start" and called its reasoning "exceptionally weak." The decision is a watershed moment that reverses one of the most consequential Supreme Court decisions from the last century.

Seago said many Texas Right to Life members have been with the organization since 1992, when the Supreme Court decision Planned Parenthood v. Casey reaffirmed the right to an abortion before fetal viability, but allowed states to impose restrictions that did not place an undue burden on women. As a result, many of the organizations members remained skeptical Roe v. Wade would be overturned, even after last month's leak.

Joe Pojman, the executive director of pro-life advocacy group Texas Alliance for Life, said he and other members of his organization were ecstatic after hearing the news.

Not sure I expected this would come down in my lifetime, but after 35 years in the movement, it has, he said.

The Supreme Court decision means all 50 states are responsible for drafting their own abortion laws. It also allows dozens of eager states, including Texas, to begin banning the procedure outright. Texas last spring passed a so-called trigger law," which will prohibits abortions 30 days after the Supreme Court's decision.

Kyleen Wright, the president of Texans for Life, said her organization will turn its focus to protecting the state law from any challenges. Wright said Texans for Life will also try to win more public support for the law.

That is likely to be an uphill climb: A University of Texas at Austin poll from last month found that 54 percent of Texans opposed automatically banning all abortions in the state if Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Texas had already taken significant steps to limit abortion access before Fridays decision. Senate Bill 8, which went into effect last September, prohibits abortion as soon as a fetal heartbeat is detected and created a mechanism through which private citizens can sue abortion providers and others who aided or abetted the procedure.

Wright, who first joined the movement against abortion while living in Houston in 1975, said members of her organization were pretty jubilant Friday morning.

Everyone is very clear that this is the beginning, not the end for us. We have a lot of work to do, she said. But everyone is certainly happy to pause and celebrate this big victory.

Abortion opponents said they need to turn their focus to creating an environment where women do not feel an abortion is necessary under any circumstance. While abortions will be prohibited in Texas, opponents dont want to see women traveling to other states where the procedure is legal.

Groups that support abortion access say that low-income and minority Texans are most likely to be harmed by a ban on the procedure. Seago said it will be important to take steps to increase support for women during pregnancy and provide medical care for at least one year after a child is born.

Medicaid and the states Alternatives to Abortion program do offer support to pregnant women, along with various pro-life nonprofits and church-based ministries.

Pojman believes Texas already has the infrastructure in place to help pregnant women; he said Alternatives to Abortion is designed to serve 150,000 women annually. Texas Health and Human Services statistics show 55,000 abortions were performed in the state in 2020, though that number only includes abortions that were performed legally.

Pojman also noted that SB8 increased Medicaid coverage for women after childbirth to six months, up from 60 days.

I dont think enough women in those circumstances even know that these agencies exist, Pojman said. Our goal for the foreseeable future is education.

Seago acknowledged it will be extremely difficult to change the minds of those who feel there should be a constitutional right to abortion. But he believes organizations like Texas Right to Life have a responsibility to continue the conversation.

Wright agreed, saying she understands that those who feel there should be a constitutional right to an abortion will be pained and potentially fearful after Fridays decision.

Im not unsympathetic to that. Weve spent many years in that particular valley, so we understand, she said. But we hope that after emotions settle down, that we can find common ground in helping moms and babies.
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9:18: p.m. More than 1,000 abortion-rights demonstrators flocked to Houstons downtown federal courthouse to protest the U.S. Supreme Courts decision on Friday to overturn Roe v. Wade, joining similar protests throughout the state and the country.

Chanting Stand Up, Fight Back, and holding signs support womens right to choose, the demonstrators expressed sadness, shock and anger at the decision, but agreed on one thing:

Friday would be the first night of protests, but it wouldnt be the last.

We need protests, walkouts, occupations and sit-ins so that we can push back against these attacks and win back the right to abortions, said Brian Harrison, who organized the protest as part of Socialist Alternative Houston.

7:22 p.m. Democratic Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke has joined abortion-rights demonstrators at the federal courthouse in downtown Houston. He was seen walking and taking photos with protesters.

6:41 p.m. Hundreds of abortion-rights demonstrators have gathered outside the Bob Casey United States Court House on Friday to protest the Supreme Courts ruling, writes reporter John Wayne Ferguson.

The demonstrators carried signs saying Fight back, Free Safe Legal Abortions Now! and Abortion is Healthcare. They chanted my body, my choice.

The downtown protest was organized by Socialist Alternative Houston.

We have to stand up and fight back, said protest organizer Brian Harrison. We need protests, walkouts, occupations and sit-ins so that we can push back against these attacks and win back the right to abortions.

The demonstration is planned to go until 8 p.m.

5:33 p.m. After the Supreme Court on Friday overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that protected the constitutional right to abortion, funds across Texas are facing a new legal uncertainty.

In the wake of the ruling, Attorney General Ken Paxton said that Texass never-repealed pre-Roe v. Wade abortion statutes are still the law, leaving some of these abortion groups to pause funding, cutting off support for Texans who cant afford an abortion or are seeking one in another state, writes Jhair Romero and Sam Kelly.

Today is a slap in the face to the lawyers, activists, & organizers who fought against this decision. But, WE WONT STOP. We will continue to fight until everyone is able to have the abortions they want and need - free from barriers, fear, stigma, or interference from others, reads a Twitter post from Fund Texas Choice, an abortion fund that reported a 600 percent spike last year in calls after Senate Bill 8, which bans abortions in Texas after six weeks, was passed .

3:28 p.m. Outdoor clothing company Patagonia announced that it will provide bail for both its part-time and full-time employees arrested while protesting after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to abortion, according to BNN. This marks the first time a company has publicly made a statement to do so.

3:15 p.m. U.S. Senator Collins spoke out following the release of the Supreme Court's decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization implying that she was misled in meetings with Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh. She issued the following statement:

The threshold question of whether abortion is legal needs to be consistent at a national level. States can account for regional differences with regulations like parental notification requirements, but the basic right needs to be the same for all American women. The Supreme Court has abandoned a fifty-year precedent at a time that the country is desperate for stability. This ill-considered action will further divide the country at a moment when, more than ever in modern times, we need the Court to show both consistency and restraint. Throwing out a precedent overnight that the country has relied upon for half a century is not conservative. It is a sudden and radical jolt to the country that will lead to political chaos, anger, and a further loss of confidence in our government.This decision is inconsistent with what Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh said in their testimony and their meetings with me, where they both were insistent on the importance of supporting long-standing precedents that the country has relied upon."

2:50 p.m. Publicly, former President Donald J. Trump was quiet after a draft of the Supreme Court's likely decision leaked in May, which the court ultimately delivered on Friday, ending federal abortion protections. But privately, Trump has told people repeatedly that he believes it will be bad for Republicans," according to the New York Times.

Trump reportedly told friends and advisers that the decision will anger suburban women, a group who helped tilt the 2020 presidential race to now President Joe Biden, and will lead to a backlash against Republicans in the November midterm elections.

He also has told people in other conversations that measures like the six-week abortion ban in Texas are so stupid, according to a person with direct knowledge of the discussions.

2:29 p.m. Whole Woman's Health, the largest abortion provider in the country, which has clinics in Austin, Fort Worth, McAllen, and McKinney, has stopped providing the service as of today.

We dont agree with Ken Paxton about the interpretation of the criminal abortion ban, but to protect our staff and to protect our patients from the hostile elected officials in Texas, we have ceased providing abortion care today, said Amy Hagstrom Miller, founder and CEO of Whole Womans Health, in a press conference Friday. Hagstrom Miller was referring to the Texas attorney general's statement earlier Friday saying he would support district attorneys who choose to prosecute immediately based on pre-Roe laws still on the books.

She said the clinic group is working with its legal team to figure out whether it can continue the services for patients in Texas in the future.

2:01 p.m. "In the wake of the chaos sure to follow Fridays explosive U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, Texans are going to need good information, legal help and creative  and courageous  prosecutors willing to use their discretion to avoid pregnant women and their health care providers targets of criminal charges," writes the Houston Chronicle Editorial Board.

"What other legal risks exist in a post-Roe world arent yet entirely clear, though legal aid groups are scrambling to help provide support and answers to pregnant women in Texas. What happens when a Texan orders abortion pills from another state? Or when a woman travels to another state for an abortion?"

Read more from the Houston Chronicle Editorial Board's take on the Roe reversal.

1:50 p.m. Officials at the Gulf Coast Planned Parenthood in Houston are already turning people away who are seeking abortions, the Houston Chronicle's Jeremy Blackman reports.

"We had to turn away several folks that were trying to get their abortion completed today, but unfortunately, we're not able to because of this decision," Dr. Bhavik Kumar, an abortion provider for Planned Parenthood, said. "So in this moment, there are real people that are impacted, and they continue to be impacted. So what we're trying to do is to inform them of this because it's very confusing, what a Supreme Court decision 1400 miles away from where we're trying to provide care means for real people."

1:42 p.m. Two very different scenes unfolded outside the steps of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. on Friday following the historic ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade.

Photos show hundreds of anti-abortion activists cheering after word of the ruling, toting signs that read "THE FUTURE IS ANTI-ABORTION" and "PEACE OUT ROE."

Nathan Howard/Getty Images OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images Anti-abortion campaigners celebrate in the streets of Washington, DC, on June 24, 2022. (Nathan Howard/Getty Images) (OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images) Anti-abortion campaigners celebrate in the streets of Washington, DC, on June 24, 2022. (Nathan Howard/Getty Images) (OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)

The reaction from supporters of abortion rights was the opposite, with many protesters bursting into tears, chanting and coming face to face with those from the other side.

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images Brandon Bell/Getty Images Abortion rights activists react to the Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on June 24, 2022 in Washington, DC. ( Brandon Bell/Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) Abortion rights activists react to the Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on June 24, 2022 in Washington, DC. ( Brandon Bell/Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

A rowdy crowd started forming outside the nation's capital early this morning and has grown in size throughout the afternoon. Here's a look at the reaction outside the Supreme Court so far, and how Americans are reacting to the news.

1:38 p.m. Anti-abortion organizations and activists reacted joyfully to the news that the landmark 1973 decision establishing a constitutional right to abortion had been overturned.

This is a phenomenal moment that our movement has been working toward for almost 50 years, said John Seago, the legislative director of Texas Right to Life, a nonprofit anti-abortion advocacy group. Were excited, but there is definitely a weight of responsibility for our organization moving forward to build a pro-life state, and not just end abortion.

1:33 p.m. The CEO of DICK'S Sporting Goods is responding to the historic Roe v. Wade reversal by offering to provide up to $4,000 in travel expense reimbursement for employees that live in a state with restricted abortion access.

"While we do not know what decision each state will make in response to this ruling, we at DICK'S Sporting Goods are prepared to ensure that all of our teammates have consistent and safe access to the benefits we provide, regardless of the state in which they live," Lauren Hobart, president and CEO of the company said in a LinkedIn post.

1:20 p.m. Lawyers for abortion providers vowed Friday to continue fighting despite the end of Roe v. Wade, but they warned it would be a difficult legal road ahead.

"The reality is that we are going to see some of those laws enacted, and they will be challenged, but the ultimate constitutionality of those laws will end up being decided through litigation by the courts," said Julie Rikelman, a lead attorney with the Center for Reproductive Rights.

1:15 p.m. All three Texas Planned Parenthood affiliates will reportedly pause abortions following the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe V. Wade Friday, officials announced in a press conference Friday.

"Planned Parenthood South Texas where I work and Planned Parenthood of greater Texas and Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast are independent organizations. We have our own separate boards, staff, patient populations and unique considerations," said Jeffrey Hons, president and CEO of PP South Texas.

"Yet we have all independently reached the same conclusion that we must pause abortion services at our separate organizations while our legal teams continue to review today's devastating ruling and how it impacts and triggers existing Texas laws."

1:02 p.m. Linda Coffee, the last living member of Roe v. Wades legal team, spoke about the ruling from her home in Mineola, east of Dallas, when reached by phone Friday.

She had been watching the news. After the U.S. Supreme Courts leak of its draft decision in May, she anticipated the protection she worked hard to institute would be overturned. But knowing that it would occur didnt make the outcome any less stinging.

We were really proud of what we did, Coffee, 79, said of the 1973 court case.

When they won, Coffee said she largely thought the fight was over. She felt it was a strong case, even as some argued later that Roe never established itself as constitutionally grounded law to begin with.

Now, Coffee is unsure what will come next.

12:43 p.m. The WNBA's Washington Mystics team issued a statement on Twitter condemning the Supreme Court's decision and standing in solidarity with all women and their right to choose.

"As professional athletes, we are the physical manifestation of the battles forged by women, people of color, and LGTBQIA+ individuals for us to have the opportunities that we have today. The right to choose is fundamental  we each have the right to choose who we are, who we love, how we live, and what we do with our bodies."

12:33 p.m. Tensions rose outside of the Supreme Court as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene walked through a rowdy crowd Friday.

12:22 p.m. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton told most of his agency's 4,000 employees to stop working at noon to "celebrate life and the protection of the unborn," according to an internal memo obtained by the Dallas Morning News.

12:07 p.m. Some states, like Texas, have trigger laws in place that swiftly ban nearly all abortions after Roe v. Wade's demise. Other states, like California, have protections in place that would prevent much from changing.

See in this map where abortion will be banned, restricted and protected without Roe v. Wade, according to each state's current laws.

12:00 p.m. U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters sounded off saying that women will defy the Supreme Court.

"You ain't seen nothing yet," she said to a crowd.

"Women are going to control their bodies no matter how they try and stop us. The hell with the Supreme Court. We will defy them."

11:50 a.m. President Joe Biden addressed the nation following the decision and said that Roe V. Wade should not have been overturned.

"This decision must not be the final word," he said at a press conference calling on Congress to act.

11:42 a.m. Longtime abortion rights advocate Cecile Richards said Fridays U.S. Supreme Court decision made today one of the darkest days in American history.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, said Richards, former president of Planned Parenthood and co-chair of the Democratic Political Action Committee American Bridge.

The Republican Party has made ending access to safe and legal abortion a litmus test and guiding principle for their party, she continued in a statement. Now that Roe has been overturned  this sets the precedent for all rights and protections that Americans hold dear to be taken away by right-wing extremists like the ones that sit on the Supreme Court.

This sick and cynical strategy is causing severe harm to women and families all over this country  particularly in marginalized communities. An overwhelming majority of Americans want abortion to be left up to a pregnant person and their doctor  this decision ends that guarantee. Republican politicians have put the government in charge of peoples personal medical decisions and we know they will not stop there.

11:40 a.m. Among the flood of local reactions on social media to the historic ruling is a tweet from Frances Poppy Northcutt, a pioneering engineer in NASA's Mission Control Center, who helped save Apollo 13.

Northcutt also went to law school and became an advocate for equal rights. She has been active for years in elections, serving as a Harris County election judge at polling stations.

She called it a really sad day to see women being turned away at a local clinic.

11:35 a.m. With the protections in Roe overturned, Texas' near-total abortion ban will take effect sometime in the next 30 days from Friday, according to AG Ken Paxton.

So is abortion still legal until then? Here's a refresher and commonly asked questions on what exactly Texas' abortion trigger is.

11:25 a.m. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo released an impassioned statement Friday afternoon, saying shes going to continue to fight for Texas women.

What a tragic trampling on the progress women have made, a sad day as long-standing rights are stripped, a dangerous moment for Texas women forced into underground abortions, Hidalgo tweeted. As the woman in charge of Texas largest county, Im further emboldened. Ill continue to fight for us all.

11:16 a.m. Across the state district attorneys are sounding off on how they will handle prosecuting abortion cases after the Supreme Court's ruling on Roe v. Wade.

In Fort Bend County, District Attorney Brian Middleton issued a statement detailing how his office will proceed going forward.

"As the elected District Attorney of Fort Bend County, I serve the people of Fort Bend County and I am sworn to uphold the Constitution, to seek justice and to ensure equal justice under the law," Middleton said. "As stated by Thomas Aquinas, 'Mercy without justice is the mother of all dissolution, and justice without mercy is cruelty.'"

Other Texas district attorneys in Travis, Bexar and Nueces counties also condemned efforts to criminalize abortion and pledged not to prosecute personal healthcare decisions.

10:57 a.m. Southern Baptist Church's new president, Bart Barber, rejoiced to the ruling in a statement lending his support of the pro-life movement.

10:47 a.m. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reacted to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling saying that outlawing abortions doesn't make them go away.

"It only makes them more dangerous, especially for the poor and marginalized," she tweeted Friday morning.

10:35 a.m. The crowd outside of the U.S. Supreme Court has grown significantly since the reversal of Roe v. Wade, according to a Dallas Morning News reporter.

"Women will decide their fate," the crowd is heard chanting on video.

10:17 a.m. Abortions are the sole revenue stream for many clinics who are now analyzing the decision and trying to figure out how they will survive, and continue to help women in whatever capacity the law allow.

Houston Womens Reproductive Services founder Kathy Kleinfeld said it would likely transition to a place where women could receive ultrasounds and referrals.

9:59 a.m. You may have heard it bandied about during confirmation hearings or seen the video super cut of the three newest members of the U.S. Supreme Court saying a curious Latin phrase over and over again in testimony before the Senate judiciary committee: "stare decisis."

It will be repeated many times today in news stories about the ruling to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that enshrined the right to abortion and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 ruling that narrowed the Roe framework, letting states restrict abortion beyond the first trimester of pregnancy.

What does it mean? Stare decisis means to stand by things decided. What it means in reality is that when justices or judges are taking up an issue that their predecessors have tackled, they will abide by the principle of standing by past practice. They will honor their colleagues' reasoning and conclusions. They won't flip the apple cart.

You don't mess with what the court considers a "super precedent," a finding that is so well established that it's understood, regardless of political leanings, that no justice should tinker with it.

Stare decisis is a big deal when it applies to major legal precedents like Brown v. Board of Education, which outlawed segregation in schools in 1954 or Plessy v. Fergusson, which facilitated Jim Crow laws when the court held in 1896 that "separate but equal" facilities were constitutional.

Respecting "stare decisis," the major precedents of previous courts, has come up repeatedly during confirmations since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, that protects the right to abortion across the U.S. The standard answer for most nominees is yes, they will honor "stare decisis." Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett all said they would.

The majority decision on Friday indicates that there's more nuance to their answers.

9:45 a.m The abortion trigger law does not go into effect in Texas for another 30 days, according to NPR. But for states like Kentucky, Louisiana and South Dakota, the bans went into effect immediately after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Though Fridays decision was based on a case in Mississippi, Texas has been leading the charge to outlaw abortion. Here's how the state's top leaders reacted to the Roe v. Wade reversal.

Read the full ruling below:

9:41 a.m. People are starting to gather outside of the U.S. Supreme Court, according to the Associated Press, shortly after SCOTUS overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case in a 5-4 decision.

9:37 a.m. Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg reacted to the ruling in a statement:

The criminalization of reproductive health will cause great harm to women in America; prosecutors and police have no role in matters between doctors and patients. As in every case, we will evaluate the facts and make decisions on a case-by-case basis.

9:31 a.m. In a concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas writes that the Supreme Court should also reconsider Grisworld, Lawrence and Obergefell, according to MSNBC.

9:30 a.m. Beto ORourke, the Democratic candidate for Texas governor, released a statement on Friday mornings Supreme Court ruling:

The only way to overcome todays decision is to win this race for governor. The Supreme Court has sent this back to the states, and our states current governor has outlawed abortion beginning at conception with no exception for rape or incest. If you care about protecting a womans freedom to make her own decisions about her own body, health care, and future, join this campaign and help us win.

9:25 a.m. Fox News reacted to the ruling calling it a victory for former President Donald Trump.

"I think that's one of the main reasons people remain loyal to him in terms of coming through on those pledges."

9:11 a.m. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on Friday morning in a staggering and starkly divided ruling that dismantles federal abortion protections in place for two generations and allows dozens of eager states to begin banning the procedure outright, including Texas.

The decision, which had been anticipated for weeks after a draft opinion was leaked, reverses one of the most consequential judicial decrees in the past century and threatens to strand tens of millions of women across much of the South and Midwest who are of reproductive age.

Texas abortion opponents have been fighting to cut off access to the procedure ever since the Supreme Courts landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. Heres a timeline of their efforts over the last 50 years before Friday court's ruling.
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The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on Friday in a staggering and starkly divided ruling that dismantles longstanding federal abortion protections and allows dozens of eager states to begin banning the procedure outright, including Texas.

The decision, which had been anticipated for weeks after a draft opinion was leaked, reverses one of the most consequential judicial decrees in the past century and threatens to strand tens of millions of women across much of the South and Midwest who are of reproductive age.

Texas is among more than a dozen states with a trigger law that will soon take effect and ban nearly all abortions. By Friday afternoon, two of the states largest abortion providers, Whole Womans Health and Planned Parenthood Texas, announced they were no longer providing the service.

It was an emphatic victory for opponents of abortion access, who have fought for decades against providers, elected officials and other supporters who frame abortion as health care and access to it as a form of reproductive justice. Those most likely to seek out abortions are Black women, Hispanic women and other minorities who have long faced discrimination, according to research.

Roe was egregiously wrong from the start," Justice Samuel Alito, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote for the majority. "Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences."

But the ramifications could be far broader, limiting access to certain medications and discouraging physicians in states that criminalize abortion from intervening when complications arise in wanted pregnancies, for fear of being sued or prosecuted.

IN-DEPTH: Compassionate abortions are already a crisis. If Roe v. Wade is overturned, it will be another blow

Such an explicit reversal of the nearly 50-year-old legal precedent once seemed unlikely, or at least not so immediate, just two years after former President Donald Trump appointed Amy Coney Barrett to the court, cementing its conservative shift. Legal scholars had speculated that the newly emboldened majority could move piecemeal, unraveling Roe gradually until it had little practical effect.

Instead the justices jumped at the chance, declining to intervene last fall after Texas Republicans passed an unprecedented six-week abortion ban enforced exclusively through lawsuits from private citizens. Nor did the court step in as other GOP-led states including Oklahoma, where many Texans have fled for abortions since Senate Bill 8, passed similar bans in recent weeks.

Upending Roe was the final blow, with six of the nine justices ruling that the 1973 decision, which established the constitutional right to abortion until fetal viability, or today at about 23 weeks of pregnancy, had short-circuited the democratic process by closing it to the large number of Americans who disagreed with Roe.

Unlike other rights, Alito argued, abortion is not rooted in the nation's history.

"Until a few years before Roe, no federal or state court had recognized such a right," he wrote. "Nor had any scholarly treatise. Indeed, abortion had long been a crime in every single state."

Alito was joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett  the last three of which were all appointed by Trump after 2016.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts also joined the majority, but said he would have taken a more measured course, not reversing the entirety of Roe.

Abortion itself is never mentioned in the Constitution, but supporters of access to the procedure and several past justices have determined that it is protected under the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which guaranteed a persons right to privacy.

"The people of the various states may evaluate those interests differently," Alito wrote. "The nations historical understanding of ordered liberty does not prevent the peoples elected representatives from deciding how abortion should be regulated."

In a scorching rebuke, the courts three liberal justices lamented the outcome and said a state can thus transform what, when freely undertaken, is a wonder into what, when forced, may be a nightmare.

"Some women, especially women of means, will find ways around the states assertion of power," Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer wrote. "Others  those without money or childcare or the ability to take time off from work  will not be so fortunate. Maybe they will try an unsafe method of abortion, and come to physical harm, or even die. Maybe they will undergo pregnancy and have a child, but at significant personal or familial cost. At the least, they will incur the cost of losing control of their lives."

With the protections outlined in Roe and subsequent rulings overturned, states were immediately free to restrict or criminalize abortions.

The Texas trigger ban is set to take effect 30 days from a final judgement on Roe, outlawing nearly all abortions starting at fertilization. It includes narrow exceptions for pregnant women at risk of dying or suffering substantial impairment. Pregnancies that result from rape or incest, or that show severe fetal abnormalities, are not exempted.

Some Texas providers had already stopped scheduling abortions in preparation for the decision. And most or all clinics may choose to suspend their abortion services indefinitely, given ambiguities over a separate state law from 1854 that also bans the procedure.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the trigger law takes effect after the Supreme Court issues a judgment  not an opinion, which justices released Friday morning. The judgment will be released in about a month, Paxton estimated, unless the court considers a motion for rehearing.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott quickly praised the Supreme Court decision, and said Texas is doing more than ever to help pregnant women so that they can choose life for their child.

"Texas will always fight for the innocent unborn, and I will continue working with the Texas legislature and all Texans to save every child from the ravages of abortion and help our expectant mothers in need," he said.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said he had closed his offices on Friday and would make June 24 an annual holiday for the agency in honor of the decision. Almost 70 million babies have been killed in the womb since Roe, he said. Never again should something like this happen in America.

Roe was decided 49 years ago in a 7-2 majority, with five conservatives joining. At the time, the procedure had been banned in several states and many women accessed the procedure through underground abortion providers or made dangerous attempts to end their pregnancies on their own.

Today the procedure is much safer, largely because of the prevalence of cheap abortion-inducing pills that can be accessed from other states and countries. Republican state leaders have worked to crack down on those networks, and some are already moving to prohibit women from obtaining abortions in states where they remain legal.

But the country is broadly supportive of at least limited access to abortion, including in restrictive states like Texas, according to recent and repeated polling. Abortion rights advocates said the decision Friday would upend health outcomes for millions of women.

"Utter chaos lies ahead, as some states race to the bottom with criminal abortion bans, forcing people to travel across multiple state lines and, for those without means to travel, carry their pregnancies to term  dictating their health, lives, and futures," said Nancy Northrup, who heads the Center for Reproductive Rights, which argued the case on behalf of abortion providers. "Todays decision will ignite a public health emergency."

Taylor Goldenstein contributed reporting.

jeremy.blackman@chron.com
Texas has a trigger law that automatically bans abortion 30 days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v Wade, but the procedure could be outlawed immediately under a nearly-century-old law that Attorney General Ken Paxton on Friday said never was repealed.

Paxton in an advisory said the 1925 law could be used by local prosecutors to seek charges on those that provide abortions following Fridays U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down the landmark Roe v Wade that legalized abortion nationwide. The ruling returns the power to regulate abortion to the states.

FIRST WORDS: Texas' top political leaders react to Roe v. Wade reversal

Whats more, some prosecutors may choose to immediately pursue criminal prosecutions based on violations of Texas abortion prohibitions predating Roe that were never repealed by the Texas Legislature, Paxton wrote. Although these statutes were unenforceable while Roe was on the books, they are still Texas law. Under these pre-Roe statutes, abortion providers could be criminally liable for providing abortions starting today.

It is not clear, though, whether state courts would allow such a prosecution. It is possible courts would find the law has been "impliedly repealed," since Texas went on to pass other forms of regulation after the Roe decision, said Dale Carpenter, a professor of constitutional law at Southern Methodist University. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals made such a determination in 2004 when Norma McCorvey, the plaintiff in Roe v. Wade, tried to get courts to reconsider the decision. Later in life, McCorvey advocated against abortion rights.

The 5th Circuit ruled the question was moot and the 1925 law effectively had been repealed by subsequent Texas regulations under Roe, although that precedent would not apply to state prosecutions in Texas, Carpenter said. An abortion provider charged today under the 1925 law could argue it effectively has been repealed.

"We're in uncharted territory," Carpenter said. "There are so many unanswered questions here that I don't think we can say with certainty what the state of current abortion law is, as of this hour... In 30 days or so, this is going to be a moot point."

The laws validity provides uncertainty for providers and those seeking abortions in Texas, as they try to navigate the states multiple laws restricting abortion. Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas and Whole Womans Health both have paused operations here while they try to get clarity on the legal situation.

Abortion services are currently not available at Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas health centers while we review this U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Planned Parenthood said.

DEEP DIVE: Key passages from the Supreme Court decision tossing Roe v. Wade

Amy Hagstrom Miller, founder and CEO of Whole Womans Health, said the organizations clinics  including four in Texas  had to cancel hundreds of abortion appointments Friday. Hagstrom Miller said she does not agree with Paxtons interpretation of the pre-Roe laws validity, but Whole Womens Health is stopping procedures to protect staff and patients.

Weve been navigating a six-week abortion ban for almost ten months now, so already thousands of people have been denied access to safe abortion in Texas and forced to migrate outside of the state to other parts of the country in order to get access to safe abortions, Hagstrom Miller said. That is even more stark today.

Texas passed two laws last year to restrict abortions in the state. The first, called the Texas Heartbeat Act or Senate Bill 8, bans abortions after six weeks, or when fetal cardiac activity first is detected. That law has been effective for nearly a year, and the Supreme Court declined to act on a challenge to it last year. The law delegates enforcement to private citizens, who can collect $10,000 bounties for lawsuits brought against people who help women get an abortion after six weeks.

The second, known as the Human Life Protection Act or the trigger law, is more restrictive. It bans abortions beginning at conception, with only narrow exceptions for those placed at risk of death or substantial impairment of a major bodily function unless their pregnancy is aborted. Neither of the two laws make exceptions for rape or incest.

The law is supposed to take effect 30 days after a Supreme Court ruling striking down Roe v. Wade. Paxton said that countdown will start once the Supreme Court issues its judgment in the case, the legal document that accompanies the opinion issued Friday. The judgment could come down in about a month or longer, Paxton says.

My office will publicly announce an effective date for the Act as soon as possible  and we look forward to doing so, Paxton said.

TRIGGER LAWS: Map shows where abortion will be banned, protected without Roe v. Wade

In his advisory, though, Paxton cited the 1925 law that banned nearly all abortions and sentenced people who performed the procedure to between two and five years in prison. The law had a carve-out for abortions procured by medical advice for the purposes of saving the life of the mother.

Paxton said that law still is on the Texas books, and local prosecutors may use it. That would mean the broader ban on abortions  applicable before six weeks  could be effective immediately.

Texas passed a separate law, unmentioned in Paxtons advisory, that banned the procedure in 1854. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito cited that law, among similar ones in three dozen other states, in his majority opinion issued Friday.

dylan.mcguinness@chron.com
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade, attended the Commonwealth Ministers Meeting on Small States (CMMSS) in the context of the ministerial sessions preceding the CHOGM Summit.

The focus of the meeting was on how best to support the Commonwealths 31 small states, which are disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change and natural disasters which reduce their resilience and exacerbate their unique vulnerabilities.

Minister Ganoo joined his colleagues in calling for strong global advocacy and action to strengthen the resilience of small states against external shocks.

Ministers highlighted the need to forge partnerships to mobilise global efforts on the issues affecting small states, such as the persistent environmental, health and economic shocks heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Amongst others, Ministers also discussed the UN-Commonwealth Advocacy Strategy on Small States, a new initiative between the Commonwealth Secretariat and the United Nations. The initiative calls for Commonwealth countries to act as Advocacy Champions whose role would be to mobilise international attention on the advocacy strategy.

Minister Ganoo registered the strong interest of Mauritius to be one of the Advocacy Champions. The meeting commended Mauritius for its longstanding commitment to the cause of SIDS.

The meeting also had an in-depth discussion on the development of the Commonwealth Universal Vulnerability Index (UVI). There was unanimous agreement on the inadequacy of the per capita income criteria as a means for accessing concessional funding and the need for additional indicators to measure vulnerabilities.

After the CMMSS, Minister Ganoo is actively participating in the Commonwealth Foreign Affairs Ministers Meeting (CFAMM) being held on the 23 june 2023.

In these deliberations, lan GANOO will expound on the position of Mauritius and ensure that it is duly reflected in the outcomes of these sessions.

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(The Center Square)  The U.S. Supreme Court sided with Republican leaders in the General Assembly on Thursday, ruling they can intervene to defend the state's voter identification law alongside Attorney General Josh Stein.

The nation's highest court ruled 8-1 to allow North Carolina Senate President Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, and House Speaker Timothy Moore, R-Cleveland, to intervene in a lawsuit filed by the North Carolina NAACP challenging a 2018 law, Senate Bill 824, that requires photo identification to vote.

Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the legislation and lawmakers overrode the veto and Stein is defending the State Board of Elections in the case. Republican lawmakers sought to intervene in the case due to Stein's vote against an earlier voter ID law as a state senator and his support for a legal challenge against it.

A U.S. District Court found legislative leaders' interests were adequately represented by Stein, dismissed legislators' motion to intervene and granted a preliminary injunction halting the law. An appeals court panel initially sided with lawmakers but a rehearing by the full court later upheld the District Court ruling, prompting Berger and Moore to appeal to the Supreme Court.

"The reasons why a state might choose to proceed this way (with both lawmakers and attorney general defending the case) are understandable enough," Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the majority opinion. "Sometimes leaders in different branches of government may see the state's interests at stake in litigation differently. Some states may judge that important public perspectives would be lost without a mechanism allowing multiple officials to respond.

"It seems North Carolina has some experience with just these sorts of issues. More than once a North Carolina attorney general has opposed laws enacted by the General Assembly and declined to defend them fully in federal litigation."

Gorsuch noted that North Carolina law explicitly authorizes legislative leaders to intervene and rejected an argument from the NAACP that courts should presume the attorney was providing adequate representation for the Board of Elections.

"When confronted with a motion for a preliminary injunction (to halt the voter ID law), the board (represented by Stein) declined to offer expert-witness affidavits in support of SB 824, even though its opponent offered many and the legislative leaders sought to supplement the record with their own," Gorsuch wrote. "That tactical choice, motivated by the board's overriding concern for stability and certainty, meant that the state could not enforce its new law during a statewide election. Throughout, board members have been appointed and potentially removable by a governor who vetoed SB 824 and who filed his own briefs in this litigation calling the law 'unconstitutional' and arguing that it 'should never go into effect.'"

Justice Sonia Sotomayor penned a dissent in the case, arguing Stein and legislative leaders "share the same interest: ensuring the validity and enforcement of SB 824."

Sotomayor argued "the difference in perspective the (Supreme Court majority) perceives boils down only to a disagreement over trial strategy."

Moore weighed in on the Supreme Court decision in a statement posted to Twitter.

"North Carolinians overwhelmingly support voter ID, and they deserve nothing less than the strongest representation from those who would uphold the will of the voters and out constitution, not a tepid defense by an attorney general who has a record of opposing voter ID," he wrote, noting Stein's history of opposing voter ID. "The U.S. Supreme Court has rightfully agreed with us that, without the participation of the General Assembly in defending voter ID, 'important state interests would not be represented.'"

Moore voted to "continue to fight to defend the will of the people for voter ID to become law as decided by the voters."

Voters approved a constitutional amendment to require photo ID to vote by an 11-point margin in 2018.

Berger also issued a statement that echoed Moore's position "North Carolinians deserve to have their laws vigorously defended in court" and alleged opposition from Stein and Cooper "has resulted in them intentionally sandbagging the defense."

Nazneen Ahmed, spokesperson for Stein, said the attorney general "has and will continue to vigorously defend state law" and alleged he did not oppose lawmakers' efforts to join the defense, The Associated Press reports.

The NAACP's challenge to the voter ID law, based on alleged racial discrimination, is pending in the U.S. District Court, while a state court struck down the law in a separate lawsuit. The North Carolina Supreme Court agreed to take up the state case, but no date has been set for oral arguments, the AP reports.
Fairfield, MT (59436)

Today

Sunshine to start, then a few afternoon clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 88F. NNW winds shifting to S at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Clear to partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 53F. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph.
Farmers and growers are being asked to send large white butterfly caterpillars to researchers to help studies into the control of crop pests.

Large white butterfly caterpillars are sometimes parasitised by a wasp, Cotesia glomeratus, who kill their caterpillar host.

This same species of wasp also appears to parasitise two major crop pests, the African armyworm and fall armyworm.

Researcher Ruth Carter hopes to collect wasps from infected UK caterpillars to start a lab colony of parasitised armyworms.

Armyworms are devastating pests, where just a handful of caterpillars can obliterate large areas of cereals or grazing land in a matter of weeks.

Ruth Carter, a scientist at Rothamsted Research said: "Theyre a real problem right across Africa in particular where they contribute to the continued poverty and misery of millions.

Our hope is that this tiny parasitic wasp might provide new insights, and possible new ways of controlling armyworm outbreaks, rather than the widespread use of pesticides.

As part of its life cycle, female wasps lay a clutch of eggs within a caterpillar and over the next two to three weeks these larvae feed on the host before finally killing it.

They then spin their characteristic yellow cocoons on or near the dead caterpillar, before finally emerging as adult wasps.

Ms Carter will be investigating the interaction between the wasps, the caterpillars, and the plants they feed on.

I'm trying to understand how plant smells change after the crop has been attacked by the armyworms. We know plants change their leaf chemistry and the chemicals they emit in response to being fed on.

"Im trying to understand how this affects parasitoids. For example, are the wasps attracted to these plant aromas  in other words, are the plants calling for help?

She is asking farmers and growers who comes across large white caterpillars carefully collect them, place them in a pot with leaves of the plant they were on, and then send them.

Large white caterpillars are fairly easy to identify, she said, as they mainly feed on plants within the cabbage family plus other common plants such as nasturtiums.

For more information on how to collect and send caterpillars, farmers should email Ruth.carter@rothamsted.ac.uk.
Production on Scottish farms is set to be scaled back as farmers respond to unprecedented price increases for key inputs, NFU Scotland has warned.

The union has released the results of its intentions survey, sent to farmers in early June to gauge the impact that the surge in input prices is having on agricultural output.

Farmers are currently seeing a combination of several factors, including the war in Ukraine, which has triggered fertiliser and energy prices to treble, as well as for fuel and animal feed.

NFU Scotland received a total of 340 responses. The impact of cost increases has been immediate, with 92% of farmers indicating that they had already altered production plans.

The survey included sector specific questions for those who farm spring and autumn cereals, dairy, beef, sheep, pigs, poultry, soft fruit, potatoes and vegetables.

For every sector, there were respondents who indicated that they were planning to reduce production or had already taken steps to do so.

According to the survey, the biggest reductions in output are likely to occur in livestock, pigs, poultry and horticulture.

For those with beef and sheep, 38% of respondents are cutting cow and ewe numbers; in the pig sector, 30% are reducing or have reduced sow numbers.

And in poultry, 23% of respondents were planning to reduce their laying flock, while for those growing potatoes, soft fruit and veg, 29% are cutting production.

NFU Scotland President Martin Kennedy said the results must serve as a wake-up call for government, and food security must sit at the top of the political agenda.

"Reductions in agricultural production on this scale, if replicated across our whole industry, will have significant ramifications for our food and drink sector and all those businesses upstream and downstream who rely on farmers and crofters," he warned.

"Tens of thousands of jobs in the food and drink industry in Scotland are reliant on us having a critical mass of production to feed into our processing and manufacturing sector.

The cost pressure on farmers and crofters is intense, causing high levels of uncertainty with any increases in farmgate prices for our produce failing to keep pace with the unprecedented surge in prices for all our key inputs."

The industry has welcomed the Scottish governments recent decision to bring forward the support payment schedule originally set for mid-October to September.

Mr Kennedy said payment in full into bank accounts at that time would provide farmers and crofters with some cash flow certainty and relief this autumn.

But he added: We also know that many businesses are having to reassess their finances at this time, with the majority of survey respondents giving consideration to a combination of extending overdraft facilities; seeking new loan arrangements; looking to diversified incomes or dipping into savings to keep the business going.

These are very challenging times financially and NFU Scotland has met twice with all major clearing banks in recent weeks to discuss.
A new 'food security unit' should be set up in Scotland as the issue gains greater domestic priority due to the shifts in global geopolitics and climate change, a taskforce has concluded.

The findings of the Food Security and Supply Taskforce, which was set up to respond to any potential disruption to food security and supply resulting the Ukraine war, have been published.

The first of its type to be set up in the UK, the taskforce found that - while there is greater strain on the food supply chain than has been seen for years - supplies of food and animal feed in Scotland are secure.

However, it makes a number of recommendations, including the establishment of a new food security unit within the Scottish government.

The unit would be a mechanism to monitor risks, identify ways to increase resilience in food production and supply, and respond rapidly to emerging issues.

The taskforce also called on the Scottish government to support improved cash flow for individual businesses and farmers.

Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon said food security was being given greater domestic priority as a result of climate change and an increasing understanding of the global nature of food supply.

Ms Gougeon said: The war in Ukraine has sent shockwaves through the global food system and the impacts are being felt by producers and consumers in Scotland.

This has compounded the challenging operating environment caused by the pandemic and the hard Brexit imposed on Scotland by the UK government, which has inflicted significant and lasting damage on our world class food and drink industries, rural and coastal communities."

She added: We have already taken steps to respond to the situation, including improving business cash flow via our payments strategy for 2022, to ensure farmers and crofters are paid as early as possible.

The rapid establishment of our taskforce and the creation of new food security structures should offer assurances that government and industry will be in a position to react as quickly as possible to any future shocks."

Chief executive of Scotland Food and Drink, James Withers welcomed the report, as he said food security would be a dominant global theme over the next decade.

New structures, embedded into government, working in close collaboration with industry will make food security central to our thinking in future.

The rapid response by Scottish Government in establishing this taskforce has been important. I sincerely hope we see the same focus emerge at UK level."

The taskforce was established in March 2022 with the purpose of recommending actions that might be taken to mitigate impacts, resolve supply issues and strengthen food security in Scotland.

What has the taskforce recommended?

The Food Security and Supply Taskforce's recommendations include:

 The creation of a dedicated food security unit within the Scottish government.

 Supporting improved cash flow for individual businesses and farmers.

 A digital gateway, specifically for the food and drink sector, highlighting support available to businesses.

 The Groceries Adjudicator should assess whether current behaviours in the food supply chain are working in the long-term interests of food security.

 To encourage UK government to look at how the "fair dealing" powers in their Agriculture Act 2020 might be used more broadly to ensure fair treatment of farmers.

 Given the ongoing global turbulence, consideration will be given to the taskforce meeting perhaps two more times this year, in a monitoring capacity.

 Urging UK government to support the sector which includes addressing critical infrastructure issues, combatting post-Brexit skills shortages and addressing calls for further action on the soaring price of fuel and energy.
The UK has signed up to a US-launched global coalition which aims to accelerate the transition to more a sustainable food system.

The UK has joined the Sustainable Productivity Growth Coalition (SPG), a body with an aim to improve agricultural productivity in an environmentally sustainable way.

The coalition, launched last year by the US at the UN's Food Systems Summit, is made up of countries, academic and research organisations and trade bodies.

Members include the US, European Union, Australia, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

It is also supported by numerous academic institutions and trade bodies representing industries including grain, dairy and livestock from all over the world.

Members share information about best practice, lessons learned and evidence-based way to boost productivity in a sustainable way, and promote them at public events and on public platforms.

Defra Secretary George Eustice said: "I am pleased to announce today that the UK will join the Sustainable Productivity Growth Coalition convened by the United States.

"I look forward to working with our international partners in this dialogue on innovation, science and sustainable agriculture."

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack said that more than 50 organisations and countries have declared their support.

We initiated this coalition because it is clear that increasing agricultural productivity is essential to meet the needs of a growing global population and ensure that food is affordable to hundreds of millions of people around the world, he said.

If we are going to end hunger, while minimizing environmental impacts, we must commit to developing and deploying new ways of doing things in agriculture.
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Les activites dans le cadre de cette journee internationale sont connues et elles vont debuter le 30 juin 2022 avec un depot de gerbes a Les Jardins de la Compagnie.

Cabinet has taken note of the activities being organised by the Cooperatives Division of the Ministry of Industrial Development, SMEs and Cooperatives to mark the International Day of Cooperatives, to be celebrated on 02 July 2022. The theme chosen for this year by the United Nations and the International Cooperative Alliance is: Cooperatives Build a Better World. The following activities would, inter alia, be organised:

(a) a wreath laying ceremony on 30 June 2022 at Les Jardins de la Compagnie, Port Louis together with the Mauritius Cooperative Alliance Ltd;

(b) a Gathering of Cooperators at the National Co-operative College, Bois Marchand on 02 July 2022;

(c) a training session on 30 June and 01 July 2022 on the preparation of selected Rodriguan dishes to be provided by six women cooperators from Rodrigues at the National Cooperative College;

(d) holding of a Cooperative market fair at Quatre Bornes on 04 July 2022; and

(e) radio talks on the cooperative movement in Mauritius and Rodrigues.
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U.S. to send Ukraine more rocket systems in new weapons package

Xinhua) 10:42, June 24, 2022

WASHINGTON, June 23 (Xinhua) -- The United States will provide Ukraine with an additional 450 million U.S. dollars' worth of security assistance, including four more advanced rocket systems, the Department of Defense announced Thursday.

Among the items that Washington pledged to Kiev in the latest weapons package were four High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, 18 patrol boats for monitoring coasts and rivers, more ammunition, as well as small arms such as grenade launchers and machine guns.

The package will be drawn from the Pentagon's existing stocks, marking the 13th time the administration has done so to arm Ukraine in its ongoing conflict with Russia.

The United States, according to a statement from the Pentagon, has now committed approximately 6.8 billion dollars in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of President Joe Biden's administration, including approximately 6.1 billion dollars since the beginning of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun)
To those unaware, Kichcha Sudeep and Salman Khan share a great camaraderie off-screen. Back in time, they were pitted against each other in Dabangg 3. However, that has never hampered their close friendship. So much so that Salman became a part of his murder mystery thriller Vikrant Rona in his own special way and was set to introduce its Hindi version. The film also stars Jacqueline Fernandez.The trailer of the film was launched yesterday and has garnered a good response. Salman shared the same on his social media, however, he wasn't clicked attending the event.In a conversation with ET Times, Kichcha Sudeep went on to reveal how Salman wanted to be a part of the promotions both in Bangalore and Mumbai, however with the recent threats he has received, it was safer for him to not attend the event and adhere to the protocols laid down. Salman has been advised to limit his public appearances till the investigation reaches a more conclusive outcome.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 23, 2022) - William Murray, a director of Keon Capital Inc. ("Keon" or the "Company"), announced today that he has acquired, directly and indirectly through a wholly-owned company, a total of 570,272 common shares ("Common Shares") of Keon in settlement of outstanding debts owed by the Company (the "Acquisition").

The Acquisition was part of a number of Keon shares-for-debt settlement transactions aggregating to $236,636 pursuant to which the Company issued a total of 946,544 Common Shares to certain of its creditors at a deemed price of $0.25 per share (the "Debt Settlements"), as reported by the Company in its press release dated June 23, 2022. The Debt Settlements, including the Acquisition, were completed coincident with Keon completing a private placement financing in which it issued an additional 2,000,000 common shares at $0.25 per share to arm's length subscribers for total proceeds of $500,000 (the "Private Placement") which, taken together with the Debt Settlements, resulted in Keon issuing 2,946,544 additional Common Shares, increasing its total number of issued and outstanding Common Shares to 4,862,272 shares.

Immediately after the completion of the Acquisition, William Murray, through a wholly-owned company, disposed of 545,272 Common Shares in a series of private transactions at a deemed price of $0.25 per share for total consideration of $136,318 (the "Disposition").

Prior to the Acquisition, the Disposition and the Private Placement, Mr. Murray held directly and indirectly, an aggregate of 286,098 Common Shares representing approximately 14.93% of the Company's 1,915,728 issued and outstanding Common Shares. As a result of the Acquisition and Disposition, Mr. Murray now holds, directly or indirectly, a total of 311,098 Common Shares, representing approximately 6.40% of the Company's 4,862,272 issued and outstanding Common Shares. Consequently, and with reference to subsection 5.2(3) of National Instrument 62-104 - Take-Over Bids and Issuer Bids, Mr. Murray's beneficial ownership of, or control or direction over, common shares of Keon has decreased to less than 10%.

Mr. Murray holds common shares of Keon for investment purposes and may increase or decrease his beneficial ownership in Keon as circumstances or market conditions warrant.

This news release is issued pursuant to National Instrument 62-103 - The Early Warning System and Related Take-Over Bid and Insider Reporting Issues. A copy of the related early warning report will be filed with the applicable securities commissions and be available under Keon's filer profile at www.sedar.com.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT:

William Murray

604-288-7813

4360 Candlewood Drive

Richmond, BC V7C 4E1.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/128814
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 23, 2022) - William McCartney announced today that he has acquired, indirectly through two wholly-owned companies, a total of 339,600 common shares ("Common Shares") of Keon Capital Inc. ("Keon" or the "Company") in settlement of $84,900 in outstanding debts owed by the Company (the "Acquisition").

The Acquisition was part of a number of Keon shares-for-debt settlement transactions aggregating to $236,636 pursuant to which the Company issued a total of 946,544 Common Shares to certain of its creditors at a deemed price of $0.25 per share (the "Debt Settlements"), as reported by the Company in its press release dated June 23, 2022. The Debt Settlements, including the Acquisition, were completed coincident with Keon completing a private placement financing in which it issued an additional 2,000,000 common shares at $0.25 per share to arm's length subscribers for total proceeds of $500,000 (the "Private Placement") which, taken together with the Debt Settlements, resulted in Keon issuing 2,946,544 additional Common Shares, increasing its total number of issued and outstanding Common Shares to 4,862,272 shares.

Immediately after the completion of the Acquisition, William McCartney, through a wholly-owned company, disposed of 179,728 Common Shares in a series of private transactions at a deemed price of $0.25 per share for total consideration of $44,932 (the "Disposition").

Prior to the Acquisition, the Disposition and the Private Placement, William McCartney, directly and indirectly, held 300,000 Common Shares representing approximately 15.66% of the Company's 1,915,728 issued and outstanding Common Shares. As a result of the Acquisition and Disposition, Mr. McCartney now holds, directly or indirectly, a total of 459,872 Common Shares, representing approximately 9.46% of the Company's 4,862,272 issued and outstanding Common Shares. Consequently, and with reference to subsection 5.2(3) of National Instrument 62-104 - Take-Over Bids and Issuer Bids, Mr. McCartney's beneficial ownership of, or control or direction over, common shares of Keon has decreased to less than 10%.

Mr. McCartney holds common shares of Keon for investment purposes and may increase or decrease his beneficial ownership in Keon as circumstances or market conditions warrant.

This news release is issued pursuant to National Instrument 62-103 - The Early Warning System and Related Take-Over Bid and Insider Reporting Issues. A copy of the related early warning report will be filed with the applicable securities commissions and be available under Keon's filer profile at www.sedar.com.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT:

William McCartney

604 307 8103

780 Riverside Drive North Vancouver, BC Y7H 1V5

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/128813
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 23, 2022) - John McCleery announced today that he has acquired a total of 500,000 common shares ("Common Shares") of Keon Capital Inc. ("Keon" or the "Company").

Mr. McCleery acquired 300,000 Common Shares pursuant to Keon's private placement financing of 2,000,000 Common Shares at a price of $0.25, which closed on June 22, 2022 (the "Private Placement"), and an additional 200,000 Common Shares pursuant to several private transactions immediately after the closing of the Private Placement (together, the "Acquisitions").

The Acquisition coincided with the closing of a number of Keon shares-for-debt settlement transactions aggregating to $236,636 pursuant to which the Company issued a total of 946,544 Common Shares to certain of its creditors at a deemed price of $0.25 per share (the "Debt Settlements").

Pursuant to the Debt Settlements and the Private Placement, Keon issued a total of 2,946,544 Common Shares, increasing its total number of issued and outstanding Common Shares to 4,862,272 shares.

Prior to the Acquisitions, Mr. McCleery held no Common Share. As a result of the Acquisitions, Mr. McCleery now holds, directly and indirectly, a total of 500,000 Common Shares, representing approximately 10.28% of the Company's 4,862,272 issued and outstanding Common Shares. Consequently, and with reference to subsection 5.2(1) of National Instrument 62-104 - Take-Over Bids and Issuer Bids, Mr. McCleery's beneficial ownership of, or control or direction over, Common Shares of Keon has increased to greater than 10%.

Following closing of the Private Placement and the Acquisitions, Mr. McCleery joined the board of directors of the Company to fill in the vacancy created by the resignation of John Watson.

Mr. McCleery holds common shares of Keon for investment purposes and may increase or decrease his beneficial ownership in Keon as circumstances or market conditions warrant.

This news release is issued pursuant to National Instrument 62-103 - The Early Warning System and Related Take-Over Bid and Insider Reporting Issues. A copy of the related early warning report will be filed with the applicable securities commissions and be available under Keon's filer profile at www.sedar.com.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT:

John McCleery

801-2222 Belleview Ave.

West Vancouver, BC V7V 1C7

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/128815
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 23, 2022) - C21 Investments Inc. (CSE: CXXI) (OTCQX: CXXIF) ("C21" or the "Company"), a vertically integrated cannabis company, is providing a default status report in accordance with the alternative information guidelines set out in National Policy 12-203 - Management Cease Trade Orders ("NP 12-203").

As previously announced on May 30, 2022 (the "Announcement"), the Company applied for a management cease trade order ("MCTO") from the British Columbia Securities Commission (the "BCSC") due to an expected delay in filing of the audited consolidated financial statement for the year ended January 31, 2022, annual management's discussion and analysis for the same period and management certifications of annual filings (collectively, the "Annual Filings") beyond the deadline of May 31, 2022 prescribed by Canadian securities laws. The MCTO was granted by the BCSC on June 1, 2022. The MCTO prohibits the Company's management from trading in the securities of the Company until such time as the Annual Filings are filed. The MCTO does not affect the ability of any other shareholders of the Company to trade securities of the Company.

C21 and its auditors continue to work diligently toward completing the Annual Filings as soon as possible. The ongoing auditor review is primarily addressing non-operational derivative accounting and certain other non-cash items for restatement of previous periods. Upon completion of the auditor's internal review process, the Annual Filings will be filed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com).

The Company confirms that since the date of the Announcement: (i) there has been no material change to the information set out in the Announcement that has not been generally disclosed; (ii) the Company is satisfying and confirms that it intends to continue to satisfy the provisions of the "alternative information guidelines" under NP 12-203 and issue bi-weekly default status reports for so long as the delay in filing the Annual Filings is continuing, each of which will be issued in the form of a news release; (iii) there has not been any other specified default by the Company under NP 12-203; (iv) the Company is not subject to any insolvency proceedings; and (v) there is no material information concerning the affairs of the Company that has not been generally disclosed.

Update on 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 April 30, 2022, the management's discussion and analysis for the same period and management certifications of interim filings (collectively, the "Interim Filings"), will be delayed beyond the filing deadline of June 29, 2022. The Company is working to complete the Interim Filings as soon as possible and expects the Interim Filings to be filed following the Company's filing of the Annual Filings.

For further inquiries, please contact:

Investor contact:

Investor Relations

info@cxxi.ca

+1 833 289-2994

Company contact:

Michael Kidd

Chief Financial Officer and Director

Michael.Kidd@cxxi.ca

About C21 Investments Inc.

C21 Investments is a vertically integrated cannabis company that cultivates, processes, and distributes quality cannabis and hemp-derived consumer products in the United States. The Company is focused on value creation through the disciplined acquisition and integration of core retail, manufacturing, and distribution assets in strategic markets, leveraging industry-leading retail revenues with high-growth potential multi-market branded consumer packaged goods. The Company owns Silver State Relief and Silver State Cultivation in Nevada, including legacy Oregon brands Phantom Farms, Hood Oil and Eco Firma Farms. These brands produce and distribute a broad range of THC and CBD products from cannabis flowers, pre-rolls, cannabis oil, vaporizer cartridges and edibles. Based in Vancouver, Canada, additional information on C21 Investments can be found at www.sedar.com and www.cxxi.ca.

Cautionary Statement:

Certain statements contained in this news release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, the Company's continued ability to satisfy the information guidelines set out in NP 12-203, the duration of the MCTO and the completion and anticipated timing of the Company making the Annual Filings and Interim Filings.

The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by the Company, including, without limitation, information based on the current state of the Annual Filings and Interim Filings; the Company's belief that its external auditor will complete its audit and release its audit opinion in a timely manner that will allow the Company to file the Annual Filings; that the unaudited financial statements prepared by management of the Company will not differ materially from audited financial statements once available; and the ability of the Company's management to execute its business strategy, objectives and plans. Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks. These include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties arising from any delay in filing the Annual Filings and Interim Filings; the Company's ability to satisfy the requirements of NP 12-203; the revocation of the MCTO and replacement with a cease trade order; general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Company's operations and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company

The forward-looking statements contained in this news release represent the Company's expectations as of the date hereof and are subject to change after such date. 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 under applicable securities regulations.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/128818
GUANGZHOU, China, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Global fast fashion franchise brand XIMIVOGUE has launched its new market in Morocco. So far, there are two new XIMIVOGUE stores opened in Morocco within only a month. It is expected to open more in Morocco and even the Arabic Middle East.

Morocco, as known as the fifth largest African economy, enjoys great influence in both Africa and the Arab. It is also a member of the Arab League, the Union for the Mediterranean, and the African Union.

Based on Morocco's position and with the expansion of its global markets, XIMIVOGUE has recently successfully entered the market of Morocco and has opened two new stores within only a month.

Let's get started with XIMIVOGUE's first store in Morocco.

Kenitra, a famous port city with beautiful scenic spots and historical relics, is the city where this new store is located. Ideally located in a famous shopping mall in the center of Kenitra, this new store has attracted great attention of a number of visitors and accumulated a certain amount of customers since its opening.

Thanks to XIMIVOGUE's online and offline promotion, this new store in Kenitra is quite welcomed by local residents and visitors. Wonderful music, appealing performance, and lovely costumes created a pleasant atmosphere on its opening day.

The following introduces the second new store briefly.

Near a busy business street, this new store in Beni Mellal owns great foot traffic and a great number of potential customers. The enjoyable interactive games, dances, and sound shopping environment greatly promoted its on-site atmosphere.

XIMIVOGUE now is planning to expand its business all over the world. With only a small amount of investment and several steps can you own a XIMIVOGUE store easily.

About XIMIVOGUE

As a global retailer offering a wide range of FMCGs in a cost-effective way, XIMIVOGUE serves its consumers with over 1700 stores in 93 countries. Its great shopping experience, trendy products, inexpensive price as well as pleasing design have made it a well-known fast fashion franchise brand globally.

For more information, please leave your message at:

Mail: ximivogue_official@ximiso.com

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1846722/ximivogue_stores_in_morocco.jpg
First zero-emission truck unveiled by Clean Logistics

Partnership milestone between Clean Logistics and REFIRE, jointly driving decarbonization of EU road freight sector

Demand for fyuriant already in thousands by launch day

already in thousands by launch day Clean Logistics to scale up production facilities to meet demand, supported by REFIRE at-scale manufacturing

Fuel cell beats diesel in world's first head-to-head drag race

HAMBURG, Germany, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Clean Logistics SE (ISIN DE000A1YDAZ7) presented fyuriant, its first hydrogen-powered zero-emission truck to the public at the Stade airfield in Lower Saxony.

The production model is powered by dual 120kW PRISMA fuel cell systems designed and manufactured by Shanghai REFIRE Technology Ltd. (REFIRE) providing class-leading performance for all driving conditions.

Fyuriant represents a milestone for the two companies who have today ushered in a new era of environmentally friendly road freight transportation.

The launch of the hydrogen fuel cell-powered truck follows Clean Logistics' summer 2021 introduction of Europe's first ever similarly retrofitted bus, known as pyuron, also powered by REFIRE's PRISMA fuel cell system.

Clean Logistics and REFIRE have together shown that replacing the traditional diesel powertrains in existing vehicles with fuel cell systems and electric motors is a viable fast-track to decarbonising commercial transport from mass transit to heavy duty trucking.

While OEM truck manufacturers typically require several years to design and produce a new model, fyuriant represents an immediate, clean alternative to diesel - something that Germany and the European Union hope to accelerate.

Clean Logistics' new truck incorporates much technological innovation. Onboard fuel tanks can carry up to 43 kg of compressed hydrogen giving it a range of over 400km and a refuelling time of less than 15 minutes. Electricity generated by the PRISMA fuel cell systems is delivered to wheel hub electric motors which provide a maximum torque of 17,000 Nm.

The impressive power and acceleration were on display in a world first when the new truck competed in a series of 6 drag races against a diesel truck with an identical chassis. Fyuriant easily reached the finish line on the Stade airfield runway first in every race, including when fully loaded with a typical freight box attached.

While REFIRE already has production capacity to supply tens of thousands of PRISMA systems per year, Clean Logistics is now gearing up for increasing demand with a new production workshop of over 10,000 square metres at its Winsen (Luhe) facility. The company expects to deliver up to 450 vehicles per year from 2023 Q4 onwards.

At the event, Dirk Graszt, CEO of Clean Logistics said: "We are very excited to present our fyuriant today. Our buses and trucks have met with a high response in the industry. This is because we are now already able to make zero-emission vehicles available to the market. REFIRE is a major partner of Clean Logistics, and as a key component of our products, their highly innovative and efficient PRISMA fuel cell system has enabled us to succeed."

Audrey Ma, Vice President Business Development, REFIRE commented: "It's a privilege to see fyuriant make its debut today and illustrate to the world just how competitive it is in driving performance. We are sincerely grateful to have been selected as Clean Logistics' product of choice and partner of choice, and we are looking forward to continuing to enable their success in European zero emissions commercial vehicle markets.

Our PRISMA system has been battle tested and is one of the most trusted and durable fuel cell systems on the planet. We're happy to be able to share our knowledge and experience in support of Germany's efforts to reach 30% zero emissions in trucking by 2030. We are ready to listen and understand the unique requirements of our EU customers."

The project has received funding from the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport as part of the implementation of the German Government's Mobility and Fuel Strategy (MFS). With a total of around EUR 3.3 million, the funding measure has been coordinated by NOW GmbH.

About REFIRE

Founded in 2014, REFIRE is an international clean mobility and power technology company specialising in R&D, design, prototyping, testing, application engineering, and manufacturing of fuel cell systems. The company has deployed systems powering over 3,000 commercial FCEVs (Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle) around the world. Cumulative mileage to 2022 Q4 exceeds 115 million kilometres, and represents a kerbside saving of around 65,000 tonnes of atmospheric carbon emissions.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1846746/02_Clean_Logistics_fyuriant_SPERRFRIST_HOLDBACKPERIOD_23_06_22_13h.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1846748/Audrey_Ma.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1846749/Hydrogen_fuel_cell_truck_vs_diesel_truck.jpg
Kinarus Therapeutics Holding AG / Key word(s): Conference/Research Update

Kinarus Therapeutics to host KOL event on Monday, June 27, to discuss therapies in wet Age-Related Macular Degeneration and potential advantages of KIN001



24-Jun-2022 / 07:01 CET/CEST

Release of an ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.





MEDIA RELEASE

Basel, Switzerland, 24 June 2022. Kinarus Therapeutics Holding AG (SIX: KNRS) ("Kinarus"), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of novel therapeutics for the treatment of viral, respiratory, and ophthalmic diseases, announced today that it will host a key opinion leader (KOL) event for investors in Zurich on Monday, June 27, starting at 12:15 pm CET.

Kinarus has received regulatory authorization to initiate Phase 2 testing of KIN001 to treat wet age-related macular degeneration (wAMD) as communicated previously on May 10, 2022. KIN001 has been shown to reduce pathological blood vessel growth (neovascularization) in the choroid of the eye in preclinical models of wAMD.

At the live webcast event, Prof. Christian Prunte, MD, an internationally recognized clinical expert focused on wAMD and ocular diseases, will discuss this leading cause of blindness in older people and current treatment strategies, putting into context the differentiation of Kinarus' KIN001 therapeutic candidate. Kinarus' CEO Alexander Bausch will present the KIN001 development plans in wAMD and other indications. Both speakers will be available to respond to questions from the live audience during the one-hour event. Investors can request to attend the KOL event in person or participate in the live video webcast of the KOL event.

Prof. Christian Prunte, MD, is Medical Director of the Eye Clinic at University Hospital Basel and Head of the Department of Ophthalmology at Kantonsspital Baselland in Liestal. He also is Head Clinical Trial Center Platform at the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel.

KIN001 is a proprietary patented combination of pamapimod, a highly selective investigational small molecule inhibitor of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38 MAPK), and pioglitazone, a marketed drug for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Several p38 MAPK inhibitors were studied by the pharmaceutical industry and largely abandoned after promising but only transient efficacy was observed. Kinarus discovered through its own research that the combination of pamapimod with pioglitazone (i.e., KIN001) produced synergistic efficacy and increased the durability of pamapimod's effects. KIN001 enjoys broad patent protection in the US, EU, China, and other countries through at least 2037.

In addition to the wAMD study, KIN001 is currently under evaluation in "KINETIC", a randomized placebo-controlled Phase 2 trial in hospitalized COVID-19 patients, which will report interim Phase 2 data in late Q3 2022. A second Phase 2 study in ambulatory COVID-19 patients, "KINFAST", is expected to start this summer. Kinarus recently reported KIN001's anti-viral efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 and variants of concern, supporting its potential benefit in the treatment of COVID-19. Kinarus is also preparing regulatory submissions to start a Phase 2 study of KIN001 to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).

Kinarus Therapeutics Holding AG (www.kinarus.com), was founded in 2017 by experienced pharmaceutical executives in Basel, Switzerland. The Kinarus team utilizes its knowledge and drug development competencies to in-license and develop late-stage clinical assets in which they have identified an increased probability of clinical and regulatory success with a rapid path to market. Pamapimod was the first drug Kinarus founders acquired. Kinarus possesses the exclusive worldwide rights to develop pamapimod in any indication.

Kinarus Therapeutics Holding AG

Dr. Alexander Bausch

Chief Executive Officer

+41 61 633 29 71

IR@kinarus.com Investors & Media

Chris Maggos

BioConfidant Sarl

+41 79 367 6254

maggos@bioconfidant.ch

Disclaimer: THIS PRESS RELEASE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO SELL NOR AN INTIMATION TO SUBMIT A PROPOSAL FOR THE ACQUISITION OF SECURITIES OF KINARUS THERAPEUTICS HOLDING AG. THIS PRESS RELEASE IS NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, INTO OR WITHIN ANY JURISDICTION WHERE IT IS UNLAWFUL TO BE DISTRIBUTED.
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.
CALGARY, AB / ACCESSWIRE / June 24, 2022 / Valeura Energy Inc. (TSX:VLE)(LSE:VLU) ("Valeura" or the "Corporation"), an upstream oil and gas company with assets in the Thrace Basin of Turkey and the Gulf of Thailand, is pleased to provide the voting results from its annual general meeting of shareholders held on June 23, 2022.

Shareholders voted on and approved the following proposals: (1) the appointment of KPMG LLP as the auditors of the Corporation, and (2) the election of the directors of the Corporation.

The voting results for the election of directors are as follows:

Total Votes % of Votes Cast Nominee For Withheld Total For Withheld Dr. W. Sean Guest 20,004,900 1,480,907 21,485,807 93.11% 6.89% Dr. Timothy R. Marchant 19,698,075 1,787,732 21,485,807 91.68% 8.32% James D. McFarland 20,050,088 1,235,719 21,485,807 94.25% 5.75% Ronald W. Royal 20,004,400 1,481,407 21,485,807 93.11% 6.89% Russell J. Hiscock 19,678,250 1,807,557 21,485,807 91.59% 8.41% Kimberley K. Wood 19,088,350 2,397,457 21,485,807 88.84% 11.16% Timothy N. Chapman 19,987,900 1,497,907 21,485,807 93.03% 6.97%

About the Corporation

Valeura is a Canada-based public company engaged in the exploration, development and production of petroleum and natural gas in Thailand and in Turkey.

Additional information relating to Valeura is also available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the Corporation's website at www.valeuraenergy.com.

For further information, please contact:

Valeura Energy Inc. (General Corporate Enquiries) +1 403 237 7102

Sean Guest, President and CEO

Heather Campbell, CFO

Contact@valeuraenergy.com

Valeura Energy Inc. (Capital Markets / Investor Enquiries) +1 403 975 6752

Robin James Martin, Investor Relations Manager +44 7392 940495

IR@valeuraenergy.com

Auctus Advisors LLP (Corporate Broker to Valeura) +44 (0) 7711 627 449

Jonathan Wright

Valeura@auctusadvisors.co.uk

CAMARCO (Public Relations, Media Adviser to Valeura) +44 (0) 20 3757 4980

Owen Roberts, Billy Clegg

Valeura@camarco.co.uk

This Announcement does not contain inside information.

This announcement does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities in any jurisdiction, including where such offer would be unlawful. This announcement is not for distribution or release, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States, Ireland, the Republic of South Africa or Japan or any other jurisdiction in which its publication or distribution would be unlawful.

Neither the Toronto Stock Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Toronto Stock Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.

SOURCE: Valeura Energy Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/706469/Valeura-Announces-Voting-Results
DGAP Post-admission Duties announcement: BP p.l.c. / Report on Payments to Govts

BP p.l.c.: Release of a capital market information



24.06.2022 / 09:00

Dissemination of a Post-admission Duties announcement transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG.

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.







BP p.l.c.

Report on payments to governments

Year ended 31 December 2021

Contents Introduction

2 Basis of preparation

2 Payments overview

5 Payments by country

6 Other sources

28 Introduction BP p.l.c. has prepared the following consolidated report ('Report') on payments to governments in accordance with the Reports on Payments to Governments Regulations 2014 (2014/3209), as amended by the Reports on Payments to Governments (Amendment) Regulations 2015 (2015/1928), (the 'Regulations'). The Report also addresses BP p.l.c.'s reporting obligations under DTR 4.3A of the Financial Conduct Authority Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules. The 'Basis of Preparation' section below contains information about the content of the Report, the types of payments included and the principles that have been applied in preparing the Report. bp's socioeconomic contribution bp makes a broader socioeconomic contribution to countries in which we operate in addition to the payments that are required to be reported under the Regulations. We also make payments to governments in connection with parts of our business other than extractive activities - for example in relation to the transportation, trading, manufacture and marketing of oil and gas. As well as government payments, bp contributes to the economies of the countries in which we operate by providing jobs for employees and contractors, purchasing materials from local suppliers and undertaking social investment activities. See the Other Resources section at the end of the report for more information on our socioeconomic contribution and our position on tax and financial transparency. bp's position on revenue transparency bp supports transparency in the flow of revenue from oil and gas activities to governments. This helps citizens hold public authorities to account for the way they use funds received through taxes and other agreements Basis of preparation Under the Regulations, the directors of BP p.l.c. are required to prepare a consolidated report on payments made to governments for each financial year in relation to relevant activities of both BP p.l.c. and any of its subsidiary undertakings included in the consolidated group accounts. The term 'bp' is used interchangeably within this report to indicate BP p.l.c. or any subsidiary undertaking within the scope of the Report. Activities within the scope of the Report Payments made to governments that relate to bp's activities involving the exploration, prospection, discovery, development, and extraction of minerals, oil, natural gas deposits or other materials ('extractive activities') are included in this Report. Payments made to governments that relate to trading, export (pipelines), refining and processing, renewables projects and other activities that are not within the scope of extractive activities as defined by the Regulations are not included in this report. Where a payment relates to activities that are reportable under the Regulations as well as to activities which are not reportable, bp reports the payment in its entirety if it is not possible to disaggregate it. Government Under the Regulations, a 'government' is defined as any national, regional or local authority of a country, and includes a department, agency or undertaking that is a subsidiary undertaking controlled by such an authority. In some countries, certain local indigenous organizations fall within this definition of government. Where this is the case, payments made to such organizations have been included in this Report. Where a state-owned enterprise undertakes activities outside of its home jurisdiction, then it is not considered to be a government. Cash basis Payments are reported on a cash basis, meaning that they are reported in the period in which they are paid, as opposed to being reported on an accruals basis (which would mean that they were reported in the period for which the liabilities arise). Refunds are also reported in the period they are received by bp and are shown as negative amounts in the Report. Where payments in kind are made to a government they are valued and footnotes are included to help explain the valuation method and any related volumes. Reporting principles The Regulations require payments to be reported where they are made to governments by BP p.l.c. and its subsidiary undertakings in respect of extractive activities. In preparing a report, the Regulations also require the disclosure of payments to reflect the substance of each payment and the relevant activity or project concerned. In light of these requirements, bp has assessed its reporting obligations to be as follows: Where bp has made a payment to a government, such payment is reported in full, whether made in bp's sole capacity or in bp's capacity as the operator of a joint venture. Payments made to governments in connection with joint ventures are included in the Report if, and to the extent that, bp makes the relevant payment. Typically, such circumstances will arise where bp is the operator of the joint venture.

Payments made by an incorporated joint venture which is not a subsidiary of bp are not included within this Report.

In some instances, bp is a partner in unincorporated joint ventures where the role of operator is performed through a non-typical operatorship model, whereby multiple entities contribute to an unincorporated body which has the role of operator. In relation to such joint ventures, payments actually made by bp to the government are reported and payments for which bp has direct responsibility to the government, but which are paid on its behalf, are also reported.

bp's equity-accounted investments for the financial year ended 31 December 2021 such as Rosneft, Pan American Energy Group and Aker bp are not bp subsidiaries and therefore in accordance with the Regulations, payments made by such entities are not included in this Report. Project definition The Regulations require payments to be reported by project (as a sub category within a country). They define a 'project' as the operational activities which are governed by a single contract, licence, lease, concession or similar legal agreement, and form the basis for payment liabilities with a government. If these agreements are substantially interconnected, then they can be treated as a single project. Under the Regulations 'substantially interconnected' means forming a set of operationally and geographically integrated contracts, licences, leases or concessions or related agreements with substantially similar terms that are signed with a government, giving rise to payment liabilities. These agreements may themselves be governed by a single contract, joint venture, production-sharing agreement, or other overarching legal agreement. Factors used to determine whether contracts or licences are operationally and geographically integrated may include their common management framework, proximity and use of common infrastructure. The number of projects will depend on the contractual arrangements within a country and not necessarily on the scale of activities. Moreover, a project will only appear in this report where relevant payments occurred during the year in relation to that project. The Regulations acknowledge that for some payments it may not be possible to attribute a payment to a single project and therefore such payments may be reported at the country level. Corporate income taxes, which are typically not levied at a project level, are an example of this. Materiality threshold The Regulations require that payments made as a single payment exceeding 86,000 or as part of a series of related payments within a financial year exceeding 86,000 be included in this Report. Reporting currency All payments have been reported in US dollars. Payments made in currencies other than US dollars are typically translated at the exchange rate at the date of payment. Payment types The Regulations define a "Payment" as an amount paid whether in money or in kind, for relevant activities where the payment is of any one of the types listed below: Production entitlements Under production-sharing agreements (PSAs) the production is shared between the host government and the other parties to the PSA. The host government typically receives its share or entitlement in kind rather than being paid in cash. In this Report such production entitlements volumes to the government are reported on a lifting basis, i.e. when the government takes possession of its share of production. A market value is applied, usually using the valuation method from the relevant PSA. For joint ventures in which bp is the operator, government production entitlements are reported in their entirety, in accordance with the notes above. Where the national oil company (NOC) is also a partner in the joint venture, their production entitlement is reported in addition to the government share of production. The NOC's entitlement as a partner will include both their share of production as investor's return as well as their entitlement for the reimbursement of their costs. Taxes The Report includes taxes levied on income, production or profits or withheld from dividends, royalties and interest received by bp. In addition, taxes paid on behalf of bp by the NOC out of production entitlements are reported. Taxes levied on consumption, personnel, sales, procurement (contractor's withholding taxes), environmental, property, customs and excise are not reportable under the Regulations. Royalties These may be paid in cash or in kind (valued in the same way as production entitlement). Fees In preparing this Report, bp has included licence fees, rental fees, entry fees and all other payments that are paid in consideration for new and existing licences and/or concessions. Fees paid to governments for administrative services are excluded. Bonuses Signature, discovery and production bonuses and other bonuses payable under licences or concession agreements are included in the Report. Infrastructure improvements Such payments include a road or a building provided by bp that forms part of the fundamental facilities and systems serving a community or area. These payments are included in the Report whether or not bp is contractually obliged to fund them, and are reported when the relevant assets are handed over to the government or the local community. Dividends These are dividends that are paid in lieu of production entitlements or royalties. Dividends paid by bp to a government as an ordinary shareholder are excluded. For the year ended 31 December 2021, there were no reportable dividend payments to a government. Other considerations The payments shown in this report are rounded to the nearest $0.1 million. Due to rounding, , some totals in the following tables may not agree exactly with the sum of their component parts. Amounts are shown to the nearest dollar in the data submitted and available on the UK Companies House website. Payments overview The table below shows the relevant payments to governments made by bp in the year ended 31 December 2021, by country and payment type. Of the seven payment types required by the UK regulations, bp did not pay any relevant dividends and therefore the category is not shown. $ million Production Infrastructure Country Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Algeria 115.2 0.1 115.4 Angola 1,212.7 292.6 6.4 0.2 1.3 1,513.2 Argentina 1.2 1.2 Australia 15.0 122.7 137.7 Azerbaijan 9,962.8 171.7 2.8 451.0 10,588.3 Brazil 61.0 61.0 Canada 3.0 3.0 Egypt 84.3 0.3 2.5 87.1 Gambia 30.9 30.9 India 2.9 2.9 Indonesia 401.1 187.7 588.8 Iraq 92.8 0.2 1.4 94.4 Mauritania 24.2 4.0 28.2 Mexico 3.5 2.7 6.1 Oman 1,446.0 235.0 0.5 1,681.5 Russia 90.4 90.4 Sao Tome and Principe 1.3 1.3 Senegal 0.6 0.6 Trinidad and Tobago 265.1 1.8 266.9 United Arab Emirates 3,221.7 6.1 3,227.9 United Kingdom 119.4 7.8 127.3 United States 161.2 883.7 7.3 19.2 1,071.4 Total 13,025.4 5,056.8 1,006.5 157.1 473.0 6.6 19,725.5 Payments by country Algeria $ million Production Infrastructure GOVERNMENTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Ministere des Finances - Direction Generale des Impots (a)115.2 115.2 Sonatrach 0.1 0.1 Total 115.2 0.1 115.4 Production Infrastructure PROJECTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total In Amenas (b)82.2 0.1 82.3 In Salah (c)33.0 33.0 Total 115.2 0.1 115.4 (a) Includes $101.1 million of taxes settled by Sonatrach on bp's behalf out of entitlement, pursuant to the relevant agreements. (b) Includes $68.1 million of taxes settled by Sonatrach on bp's behalf out of production entitlement, pursuant to the relevant agreements. (c) Pursuant to the relevant agreements, Sonatrach paid these taxes on bp's behalf out of revenue entitlements. Angola $ million Production Infrastructure GOVERNMENTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Adminstracao Geral Tributaria 4.1 4.1 Agencia Nacional 6.4 0.2 6.6 ANPG - Concessionaire (a)320.5 320.5 Ministry of Finance 284.4 284.4 Ministry of Petroleum 4.2 4.2 Rise Angola 1.3 1.3 Sonangol P&P (b)892.2 892.2 Total 1,212.7 292.6 6.4 0.2 1.3 1,513.2 Production Infrastructure PROJECTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Block 15 49.1 49.1 Block 17 138.0 138.0 Block 18 (c)510.8 38.0 0.6 549.4 Block 25 6.4 6.4 Block 29 0.2 0.2 Block 31 (d)701.9 67.6 0.6 770.1 Total 1,212.7 292.6 6.4 0.2 1.3 1,513.2 (a) Payments in kind for 4.5 million bbls of crude oil valued per the Production Sharing Agreement. (b) Payments in kind for 12.7 million bbls of crude oil valued per the Production Sharing Agreement. (c) Payments in kind for 7.1million bbls of crude oil valued per the Production Sharing Agreement. (d) Payments in kind for 10.1 million bbls of crude oil valued per the Production Sharing Agreement. Argentina $ million Production Infrastructure GOVERNMENTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Administracion Federal de Ingresos Publicos (AFIP) 1.2 1.2 Total 1.2 1.2 Production Infrastructure PROJECTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Payments not attributable to projects 1.2 1.2 Total 1.2 1.2 Australia $ million Production Infrastructure GOVERNMENTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Australian Taxation Office 15.0 15.0 Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety 122.7 122.7 Total 15.0 122.7 137.7 Production Infrastructure PROJECTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total North West Shelf 35.9 122.7 158.6 Payments not attributable to projects (20.9) (20.9) Total 15.0 122.7 137.7 Azerbaijan $ million Production Infrastructure GOVERNMENTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Azerbaijan (ACG) Ltd. (SOCAR subsidiary) (a)1,217.4 1,217.4 Azerbaijan (Shah Deniz) Ltd. (SOCAR subsidiary) (b)572.1 572.1 Ministry of Taxes 171.7 171.1 SGC Upstream LLC (c)381.6 381.6 State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) (d)251.6 251.6 State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) (e)7,540.1 2.8 451.0 7,993.9 Total 9,962.8 171.7 2.8 451.0 10,588.3 Production Infrastructure PROJECTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Azeri-Chirag-Deepwater Gunashli - PSA (f)8,043.8 171.7 450.0 8,665.5 Shafag-Asiman - PSA 2.1 2.1 Shah Deniz - PSA (g)1,919.0 1.0 1,920.0 Shallow Water Absheron Peninsula (SWAP) PSA 0.6 0.6 Total 9,962.8 171.7 2.8 451.0 10,588.3 (a) Payments in kind for 18.3 million bbls of crude oil valued at netback value per the Production Sharing Agreement. (b) Includes payments in kind of $191.6 million for 2.9 million bbls of crude oil valued at netback value per the Production Sharing Agreement and the remaining production entitlement was paid in cash. (c) Includes payments in kind of $127.8 million for 1.9 million bbls of crude oil valued at netback value per the Production Sharing Agreement and the remaining production entitlement was paid in cash. (d) Payments in kind for 3.2 billion cubic meters of associated residue natural gas valued on the basis of gas prices realized in a similar Azerbaijani project. (e) Includes payments in kind of $6,895.1 million for 100.9 million bbls of crude oil valued at netback value per the Production Sharing Agreement and the remaining production entitlement was paid in cash. (f) Includes payments in kind of $7,792.3 million for 114.6 million bbls of crude oil valued at netback value per the Production Sharing Agreement and payments in kind of $251.6 million for 3.2 billion cubic meters of associated residue natural gas valued on the basis of gas prices realized in a similar Azerbaijani project. (g) Includes payments in kind of $639.8 million for 9.4 million bbls of crude oil valued at netback value per the Production Sharing Agreement and the remaining production entitlement was paid in cash. Brazil $ million Production Infrastructure GOVERNMENTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Agencia Nacional do Petroleo, Gas Natural e Biocombustiveis (ANP) 0.9 0.9 Petrobras 60.1 60.1 Total 61.0 61.0 Production Infrastructure PROJECTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total BM-C-30 0.1 0.1 BM-C-35 0.3 0.3 CM-477 0.2 0.2 CM-755 0.3 0.3 CM-793 0.3 0.3 FOZ-127 6.7 6.7 FOZ-57 13.7 13.7 FOZ-59 28.9 28.9 FOZ-88 10.5 10.5 Total 61.0 61.0 Canada $ million Production Infrastructure GOVERNMENTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Canada Revenue Agency 1.6 1.6 Government of Alberta 0.3 0.3 Natural Resources Canada 1.1 1.1 Total 3.0 3.0 Production Infrastructure PROJECTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Newfoundland Exploration 0.8 0.8 Nova Scotia Exploration 2.0 2.0 Terre De Grace 0.3 0.3 Total 3.0 3.0 Egypt $ million Production Infrastructure GOVERNMENTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Egyptian General Petroleum 2.5 2.5 Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) 0.3 0.3 Egyptian Tax Authority 84.3 84.3 Total 84.3 0.3 2.5 87.1 Production Infrastructure PROJECTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Baltim 35.0 35.0 El Qaraa 19.9 19.9 North El Salum 0.2 0.2 North El Tabya Offshore 0.2 0.2 Ras El Bar 8.2 8.2 South Gharib 2.5 2.5 Temsah 9.5 9.5 Zohr 11.8 11.8 Total 84.3 0.3 2.5 87.1 Gambia $ million Production Infrastructure GOVERNMENTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Ministry of Petroleum and Energy 30.9 30.9 Total 30.9 30.9 Production Infrastructure PROJECTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total A1 30.9 30.9 Total 30.9 30.9 India $ million Production Infrastructure GOVERNMENTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas 2.9 2.9 Total 2.9 2.9 Production Infrastructure PROJECTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total KG D6 KG-DWN-98/3 2.9 2.9 Total 2.9 2.9 Indonesia $ million Production Infrastructure GOVERNMENTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Ministry of Finance (a)401.1 187.7 588.8 Total 401.1 187.7 588.8 Production Infrastructure PROJECTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Tangguh (a)401.1 187.7 588.8 Total 401.1 187.7 588.8 (a) Includes payments in kind of $52.1 million for 0.8 million bbls of condensates valued per the Production Sharing Agreement and the remaining production entitlement for LNG was paid in cash. Iraq $ million Production Infrastructure GOVERNMENTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Basra Governorate 1.4 1.4 General Commission for Taxes 92.8 92.8 Ministry of Oil 0.2 0.2 Total 92.8 0.2 1.4 94.4 Production Infrastructure PROJECTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Rumaila 92.8 0.2 1.4 94.4 Total 92.8 0.2 1.4 94.4 Mauritania $ million Production Infrastructure GOVERNMENTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Commission Environnementale 0.3 0.3 Ministry of Petroleum, Energy & Mines 23.5 4.0 27.5 Societe Mauritanienne des Hydrocarbures 0.3 0.3 Total 24.2 4.0 28.2 Production Infrastructure PROJECTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Block C12 0.3 0.3 Block C13 23.2 23.2 Block C8 0.7 0.7 Payments not attributable to projects 4.0 4.0 Total 24.2 4.0 28.2 Mexico $ million Production Infrastructure GOVERNMENTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Fondo Mexicano del Petroleo 2.7 2.7 Sistema de Administracion Tributaria 3.5 3.5 Total 3.5 2.7 6.1 Production Infrastructure PROJECTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Cuencas del Sureste 34 R3 0.8 0.6 1.4 Cuenca Salina 1 R1 2.6 2.0 4.6 Total 3.5 2.7 6.1 Oman $ million Production Infrastructure GOVERNMENTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Makarim Gas Development (MGD) (a)719.7 719.7 Ministry of Enrage and Minerals (MEM) (b)726.3 0.5 726.8 Ministry of Finance 235.0 235.0 Total 1,446.0 235.0 0.5 1,681.5 Production Infrastructure PROJECTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Khazzan (a)(b)1,446,0 235.0 0.5 1,681.5 Total 1,446.0 235.0 0.5 1,681.5 (a) Comprises payments in kind of $312.8 million for 4.9 million bbls of condensates valued at market prices; $406.3 million for 121.6 million mmBtu of gas valued per the Gas Sales Agreement and $0.6 million was paid in cash. (b) Comprises payments in kind of $394.4 million for 5.7 million bbls of condensates valued at market prices; $331.2 million for 99.4 million mmBtu of gas valued per the Gas Sales Agreement and $0.8 million was paid in cash. Russia $ million Production Infrastructure GOVERNMENTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Ministry of Finance 90.4 90.4 Total 90.4 90.4 Production Infrastructure PROJECTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Investment in Rosneft 72.5 72.5 Investment in TYNGD (Taas) 17.6 17.6 Payments not attributable to projects 0.3 0.3 Total 90.4 90.4 Sao Tome and Principe $ million Production Infrastructure GOVERNMENTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Agencia Nacional do Petroleo 1.3 1.3 Total 1.3 1.3 Production Infrastructure PROJECTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Block 10 0.6 0.6 Block 13 0.6 0.6 Total 1.3 1.3 Senegal $ million Production Infrastructure GOVERNMENTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Societe des petroles du Senegal 0.6 0.6 Total 0.6 0.6 Production Infrastructure PROJECTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Block Cayar Profond 0.3 0.3 Block St Louis Profond 0.3 0.3 Total 0.6 0.6 Trinidad and Tobago $ million Production Infrastructure GOVERNMENTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Board of Inland Revenue 66.4 66.4 Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries 198.7 1.8 200.5 Total 265.1 1.8 266.9 Production Infrastructure PROJECTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Block 5B 1.7 1.7 BPTT Blocks 265.1 0.1 265.2 Total 265.1 1.8 266.9 United Arab Emirates (UAE) $ million Production Infrastructure GOVERNMENTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Petroleum Operations Limited 2.4 2.4 Abu Dhabi National Oil Company Company 3.8 3.8 Department of Finance Abu Dhabi 3,221.7 3,221.7 Total 3,221,7 6.1 3,227.9 Production Infrastructure PROJECTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total ADNOC Onshore Concession 3,221.7 6.1 3,227.9 Total 3,221,7 6.1 3,227.9 United Kingdom (UK) $ million Production Infrastructure GOVERNMENTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Crown Estate 0.3 0.3 HM Revenue and Customs (a)(b)119.4 119.4 Oil and Gas Authority 7.5 7.5 Total 119.4 7.8 127.3 Production Infrastructure PROJECTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Andrew 0.4 0.4 Clair 0.6 0.6 Decommissioning (a)(46.4) (46.4) ETAP 0.5 0.5 Exploration 1.4 1.4 Foinaven 3.6 3.6 Murlach 0.2 0.2 Non-Operated (a)(12.0) 0.8 (11.2) Payments not attributable to projects (a)(b) 177.9 177.9 Pipelines 0.3 0.3 Total 119.4 7.8 127.3 (a) Net refunds result from the carry back of tax losses, resulting in a refund of taxes paid in prior years. (b) Settlement of tax which include interest over/under payments United States (US) $ million Production Infrastructure GOVERNMENTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total California State Controller's Office (a)0.3 0.3 Office of Natural Resources Revenue - BIA 5.9 5.9 Office of Natural Resources Revenue 777.0 6.6 19.2 802.9 State of Alaska (5.9) 23.4 17.5 State of Louisiana 35.4 (a)4.6 39.9 State of New Mexico 0.4 0.4 State of Texas 131.3 (a)72.5 0.7 204.6 Total 161.2 883.7 7.3 19.2 1,071.4 Production Infrastructure PROJECTS Entitlements Taxes Royalties Fees Bonuses Improvements Total Alaska (5.9) 23.4 17.5 California 0.3 0.3 Gulf of Mexico - Central 745.7 5.8 19.2 770.7 Gulf of Mexico - Western 31.4 0.8 32.1 Louisiana 35.4 4.6 39.9 New Mexico 0.4 0.4 Texas 131.3 72.5 0.7 204.6 Payments not attributable to projects 5.9 5.9 Total 161.2 883.7 7.3 19.2 1,071.4 (a) Payments to states where BP has no extractive activities relate to Escheatment of Royalties. Other resources bp payments to governments 2021 Detailed data filed with UK Registrar

extractives.companieshouse.gov.uk bp annual and sustainability reporting bp Sustainability Report

bp.com/sustainability bp Annual Report and Form 20-F

bp.com/annualreport Our positions on tax and transparency

bp.com/tax bp economic impact reports bp US Economic Impact Report

bp.com/economicimpact-us bp's Impact on the UK Economy

bp.com/economicimpact-uk Contacts

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+44 (0)20 7496 4708 Brett Clanton

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OSLO, Norway, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Yesterday, Enova announced that Glomfjord Hydrogen, where Nel owns 23 percent of the shares, will receive up to NOK 150 million in funding as one of five maritime hydrogen hubs along the Norwegian coastline.

"This is great news for Glomfjord Hydrogen and Nel. The funding from Enova is crucial for the realization of the project." says Nel's CEO Jon Andre Lkke.

Glomfjord Hydrogen plans to establish a 20 MW hydrogen plant in Glomfjord in Mely municipality for production of renewable hydrogen to customers in the maritime sector. The project, which is owned by Greenstat ASA, Mely commune and Troms Kraft ASA in addition to Nel, was initiated in June 2016.

"The 20 MW hydrogen plant in Glomfjord will, if realized, be the same size as Europe's currently largest hydrogen plant", says Lkke, referring to Iberdrola's hydrogen plant in Puertollano, Spain, where Nel also delivered the electrolysers.

"Glomfjord is a place with a long and proud industrial history in Norway, and until the 90s Glomfjord Industrial Park was the largest hydrogen production site in the world. It is therefore very gratifying that Glomfjord once again seems to become a new green hydrogen hub in Norway", says Lkke.

Enova, which is a state enterprise owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment, also announced that four additional hydrogen hubs will receive funding. These projects will be located in Rrvik, Hitra, Flor and Kristiansand.

"We are happy to see so many large and interesting projects developing on our own home turf in Norway, where we have our roots and a natural competitive advantage", says Lkke.

All in all, the five hydrogen hubs will receive up to NOK 669 million in support from Enova, which also announced that they will support seven game-changing hydrogen and ammonia driven vessels with more than NOK 451 million.

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 was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/nel-asa/r/nel-asa--enova-funding-provides-breakthrough-for-hydrogen-project-in-glomfjord,c3591110

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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. and MUMBAI, India, June 24, 2022 - (ACN Newswire) - CleverTap, the modern, integrated retention cloud, has been recognized by Great Place to Work(R) India as one of India's Great Mid-size Workplaces 2022. CleverTap is recognized for creating and sustaining a high-trust, high performance work culture.In its 6th edition this year for India, the list has grown to include the top 75 companies, up from the top 50 until last year. The rigorous methodology to assess workplace culture and identify India's Great Mid-size Workplaces 2022 is considered the gold standard globally.In the Great Place to Work(R) India study, they have observed that the Great Mid-size Workplaces have gone above and beyond to create and sustain aspirational organizations. Effective leadership is visible in these workplaces that are fostering a culture of fairness and originality, while offering flexibility to their employees in the current hybrid work environment. Organizations that succeed in establishing high-trust, high-performance cultures, and maximizing human potential by bridging experience gaps, will be Great Places to Work For All in the future."We're very excited to be recognized by Great Place to Work(R) India as one of India's Great Mid-size Workplaces. Even before the pandemic hit, we believed that an empathetic and flexible work culture is the essence of an organization's growth," says Sidharth Malik, Chief Executive Officer, CleverTap. "Our employees and their holistic well-being have always been the top priority for us. The recognition by Great Place to Work(R) India is a testament to our commitment of building a workplace that is inclusive and driven, and one that provides its people an environment to thrive and succeed in everything they do.""With homes becoming an extension of people's workplaces, this year companies around the world were challenged to put their people at the center of their strategies. But the organizations that invested in their culture and people before the pandemic have overcome these challenges effortlessly. Being recognized as one of India's Best Workplaces 2022 demonstrates these organizations' commitment to improving their culture and putting their people first, whatever challenges they face," says Yeshasvini Ramaswamy, CEO, Great Place to Work(R), India.As a global authority on workplace culture, Great Place to Work(R) has been studying employee experience and people practices across organizations for over three decades. Every year, more than 10,000 organizations from over 60 countries partner with Great Place to Work(R) Institute for assessment, benchmarking, and planning of actions to strengthen their workplace culture.About CleverTapCleverTap is the modern, integrated retention cloud that empowers digital consumer brands to increase customer retention and lifetime value. CleverTap drives contextual individualization with the help of a unified and deep data layer, AI/ML-powered insights,and automation enabling brands to offer hyper-personalized and delightful experiences to their customers. 1,200+ customers in 60+ countries and 10,000+ apps, including Gojek, ShopX, Canon, Mercedes Benz, Electronic Arts, TED, Jio, Premier League, TD Bank, Carousell, Papa John's, and Tesco, trust CleverTap to achieve their retention and engagement goals, growing their long-term revenue. Backed by leading venture capital firms, including Sequoia, Tiger Global Management, and Accel, the company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, with offices in Mumbai, Singapore, Sofia, S?o Paulo, Bogota, Amsterdam, Jakarta, and Dubai. For more information, visit clevertap.com or follow on LinkedIn and Twitter.Media Contact:Sony ShettyCleverTapsony@clevertap.comVishaal MudholkarConsultantArchetypevishaal.mudholkar@archetype.co+9724309069Forward-Looking StatementsSome of the statements in this press release may represent CleverTap's belief in connection with future events and may be forward-looking statements, or statements of future expectations based on currently available information. CleverTap cautions that such statements are naturally subject to risks and uncertainties that could amount in the actual result being absolutely different from the results anticipated by the statements mentioned in the press release. Factors such as the development of general economic conditions affecting our business, future market conditions, our ability to maintain cost advantages, uncertainty with respect to earnings, corporate actions, client concentration, reduced demand, liability or damages in our service contracts, unusual catastrophic loss events, war, political instability, changes in government policies or laws, legal restrictions impacting our business, impact of pandemic, epidemic, any natural calamity and other factors that are naturally beyond our control, changes in the capital markets and other circumstances may cause the actual events or results to be materially different, from those anticipated by such statements. CleverTap does not make any representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness or updated or revised status of such statements. Therefore, in no case whatsoever will CleverTap and its affiliate companies be liable to anyone for any decision made or action taken in conjunction with the information and/or statements in this press release or any related damages.Source: CleverTapCopyright 2022 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 24, 2022) - Foremost Lithium Resource & Technology Ltd. (CSE: FAT) (OTCQB: FRRSF) (FSE: F0R0) (WKN: A3DCC8) ("Foremost" or the "Company") (www.foremostlithium.com), is pleased to announce a non-brokered private placement for the sale of an aggregate of 1,992,814 flow through common shares of the Company (the "FT Shares") at a price of $0.34 per FT Share for gross proceeds of approximately C$677,556.76, (the "Offering"). The Company has received signed subscription agreements for the above targeted amount.

An amount equal to the gross proceeds from the Offering will be used for exploration expenses on the Company's mineral properties in Manitoba, which will qualify as "Canadian Exploration Expenses", will be either expenses that qualify for the "critical mineral exploration tax credit" or "flow-through mining expenditures", as those terms are defined in the Income Tax Act (Canada), and will be "flow-through mining expenditures", as defined in the Income Tax Act (Manitoba). These expenses will be renounced to the initial purchasers of the FT Shares with an effective date no later than December 31, 2022.

The FT Shares will be offered pursuant to available prospectus exemptions under NI 45-106 - Prospectus Exemptions in all the provinces of Canada and will be subject to a hold period in Canada of four months and one day following the closing date.

Closing of the Offering is subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions including, but not limited to, the receipt of all necessary regulatory and other approvals and compliance with the Policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange. Finder's fees of 7% cash consideration and 7% finder's warrants ("Finder's Warrants") may be paid to eligible arm's length finders in connection with the financing. Each Finder's Warrant will be exercisable to acquire one common share of the Company at a price of $0.20 per share for a period of 24 months from the date of issue.

About Foremost Lithium Resource & Technology Ltd.

Foremost Lithium is a resource exploration company driven to become one of the first North American Companies to provide lithium used to produce high quality battery-grade lithium hydroxide domestically to fuel the electric vehicle and battery storage market. Given the importance and global focus on increasing energy decarbonization, especially when it comes to vehicles, the company is hyper-focused in continued exploration and growth on its five lithium properties: Jean Lake, Grass River, Zoro and Jol located in Snow Lake, Manitoba, and Hidden Lake in the Northwest Territories. Foremost also holds its Winston Gold/Silver Project in New Mexico, USA

For further information please contact:

John Gravelle

President and CEO

Foremost Lithium Resource &Technology Ltd.

Email: info@foremostlithium.com

Phone: +1 (604) 330-8067

Follow us and contact us on social media:

Twitter: @foremostlithium

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/foremost-lithium-resource-technology/mycompany

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ForemostLithium

Forward looking statement:

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" and "forward looking information" (as defined under applicable securities laws), based on management's best estimates, assumptions, and current expectations. Such statements include but are not limited to, statements with respect to the plans for future exploration and development of the Company's properties and the acquisition of additional exploration projects. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "expects", "expected", "budgeted", "forecasts", "anticipates" "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "aims", "potential", "goal", "objective", "prospective", and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "can", "could" or "should" occur. These statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such statements, including but not limited to: risks related to the Company's projects; risks related to general economic conditions, actual results of current exploration activities, unanticipated reclamation expenses; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; fluctuations in prices of metals including gold; increases or decreases in market prices of mining consumables, possible variations in resource estimates, grade or recovery rates; failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; accidents, labour disputes, title disputes, claims and limitations on insurance coverage and other risks of the mining industry; delays in the completion of exploration, development or construction activities, changes in national and local government regulation of mining operations, tax rules and regulations, changes in applicable laws or stock exchange policies and receipt of any requires regulatory approvals and political and economic developments in areas in which the Company operates. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The forward-looking statements and forward-looking information are made as of the date hereof and are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The Company disclaims any obligation to revise or update any such factors or to publicly announce the result of any revisions to any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information contained herein to reflect future results, events or developments, except as require by law. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and information. Please refer to the Company's most recent filings under its profile at www.sedar.com for further information respecting the risks affecting the Company and its business.

UNITED STATES ADVISORY. The securities referred to herein have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), have been offered and sold outside the United States to eligible investors pursuant to Regulation S promulgated under the U.S. Securities Act, and may not be offered, sold, or resold in the United States or to, or for the account of or benefit of, a U.S. Person (as such term is defined in Regulation S under the United States Securities Act) unless the securities are registered under the U.S. Securities Act, or an exemption from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act is available. Hedging transactions involving the securities must not be conducted unless in accordance with the U.S. Securities Act. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of securities in the state in the United States in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/128823
HANOVER (dpa-AFX) - TUI AG (TUIFF.PK), a German leisure, travel, and tourism company, said on Friday that its Chief Executive Officer Fritz Joussen will step down with effect from September 30 as he is exercising a right of resignation granted in connection with the Covid-19 stabilization measures. Subsequently, the Presiding Committee of the Supervisory Board will propose to the Supervisory Board to appoint TUI's current Chief Financial Officer Sebastian Ebel as new CEO, effective from October 1 for a tenure of three years. In addition, the company also said it will appoint Mathias Kiep, currently the head of Group Director Controlling, Corporate Finance and Investor Relations, as the new CFO. The Presiding Committee will propose the CFO appointment with an appointment period of three years. Commenting on his decision to step down as CEO, Joussen said: 'When the pandemic in spring 2020 turned us into a company without a business virtually overnight, all our attention was focused on one goal: rescuing TUI. The immediate crisis management, which was about ensuring the Group's continued survival, has now been completed. We have a high level of liquidity, are no longer using state credit lines and the operating business is back: as announced, we expect a strong summer of travel almost at the level of 2019.' 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.
Shenzhen, China--(Newsfile Corp. - June 24, 2022) - ZOVOO 2022 Global Online Product Launch will kick off at 10 PM (GMT+8) on June 29. ZOVOO will climb to a new peak in the vaping field with the new experience that the disposable vaping products comprehensively surpasses, and define a new pattern of disposable vapes in the new era.

After ZOVOO officially released the invitation letter for 2022 global online product launch, some overseas media have also displayed the invitation letter on their social media recently. The event will be officially held on June 29 with the theme of "Peak Performance".





Peak Performance - ZOVOO 2022 Global Online Launch Will Be Held Soon

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8404/128703_a2a3e937d496c99a_001full.jpg

Users can watch the online event from ZOVOO official website, instagram, Facebook and Youtube. ZOVOO will officially release the self-developed new generation of GENE TREE ceramic core technology and release the revolutionary new product DRAGBAR R6000, which is known as the 1st Disposable Pod Mod in the industry. Everyone please pay attention to ZOVOO official instagram (@zovoo_official). 1000 new product testers will be selected to try the new products.

ZOVOO has been making big moves lately. ZOVOO made an amazing appearance at the Vaper Expo UK last month with DRAGBAR Star collection. With innovative and upgraded vaping technology and good brand reputation, ZOVOO won the "Best Newcomer" in the Vapouround Awards. Just six months after its listing, ZOVOO successfully emerged as a dark horse in the industry, won unanimous recognition and gained high attention from users.

ZOVOO has demonstrated part of GENE TREE technology at recent shows. Newly upgraded GENE TREE has further improved the reduction degree of ceramic cores, extended the life of ceramic cores, and brought users a more natural and pleasant vaping experience. The event will officially announce the technology, as well as more detailed data to show the revolutionary experience breakthrough it brings.

ZOVOO will be releasing four new disposable products, including the 1st disposable Pod Mod DRAGBAR R6000, a ceramic core product called DRAGBAR Z700 GT. In addition, there are two new products, DRAGBAR F8000 and VINCIBAR F2500. Please keep paying attention to ZOVOO new product launch, which will reveal the mystery of all new products.

ZOVOO will take the new product launch as an opportunity to invite users around the world to jointly create and witness the peak performance of ZOVOO in the new era of vaping on June 29. More surprises are worth our expectation!

About ZOVOO

ZOVOO, as a brand-new prefilled vape brand, was highly appraised by the industry as soon as it was launched at the end of 2021. So far, it has a complete product line that covers the user's using scenarios. ZOVOO takes affinity and vitality as the main tone of the brand, focusing on the needs of urban fashion users. Currently, ZOVOO's products are sold in more than 70 countries and regions in North America, Europe and Asia. ZOVOO will pursue long-term value and strengthen exchanges and cooperation in technology, brand, and supply chain, and promote the innovation and development of the vape industry. For more information, please visit https://www.izovoo.com/, and follow our Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.

Media contact: fiona.fan@voopootech.com

Business contact: sales@voopoo.com

Warning: This product may be used in conjunction with e-liquids containing nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.

Company: Shenzhen Woody Vapes Technology Co.,ltd

Contact Person: Fiona Fan

Email: fiona.fan@voopootech.com

Website: https: //www.izovoo.com/

City: Shenzhen

Address: 19/F, Block A, Coolpad Building, High-tech Industrial Park (North Zone), Nanshan District, Shenzhen.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/128703
YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Finance Ministers and Health Ministers of the world's 20 largest economies agree to establish a ground-breaking pandemic fund to help the world better prevent, prepare for and respond to future pandemics.

Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati co-chaired the 1st G20 Joint Finance and Health Ministers' Meeting (JFHMM), during which G20 member states agreed to the establishment of a Financial Intermediary Fund (FIF) for Pandemic Preparedness, Prevention, and Response (PPR) under the trusteeship of the World Bank and technical guidance of the WHO.

"I am pleased to announce a commitment of over USD 1.1 billion has been secured for the Financial Intermediary Fund for pandemic PPR." Minister Mulyani said. Indonesia commits to contribute USD 50 million, Singapore USD 10 million, the United States USD 450 million, the European Union USD 450 million, Germany Euro 50 million (USD 52.7 millions) and Wellcome Trust 10 million (USD 12.3 million). G20 member states also highlighted that the fund would be inclusive in nature and allow access middle to low income countries to utilize it.

The JFHMM conclusion will also be discussed at the next Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors' (FMCBG) Meeting next month and to be followed up at the next Joint Finance-Health Task Force (JFHTF) meeting.

Indonesian Health Minister Budi empasized that the G20 JFHTF has made progress in discussing further the idea of FIF establishment that was first introduced during 2021 Italian G20 presidency. "I am confident that we will achieve concrete results by October, which includes the establishment of the FIF and coordinating platform collaboration," Minister Budi said.

Two meetings also agree on the universal verification of COVID-19 vaccine certificates, health protocols to ease global mobility, and the expansion of the Global Manufacturing and Research Hub for PPR, especially the production of vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics to take place in developing countries.

WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, World Bank, GAVI, CEPI, The Global Fund and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation attended the meeting. Dr. Tedros said that FIF must also be coherent with other global health initiatives. "This platform should be built on the experience of the ACT Accelerator, the Pandemic Influenza Framework and other mechanisms. This is an important focus of the G20 health track under Minister Budi's leadership," he said.

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Peachland, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 24, 2022) - Craftport Cannabis Corp. (CSE: CFT) ("Craftport Cannabis" or the "Company") announces that it has entered into a loan agreement (the "Loan Agreement") with an arms'-length party (the "Lender") for the purpose of documenting numerous advances, for an aggregate principal amount of $1,450,000 (the "Loan"), previously received by the Company between January 2021 and December 2021. In addition, the Company has set December 31, 2023 as the maturity date in respect of the Loan (the "Maturity Date") and granted to the Lender a security interest in respect of the Loan.

The Loan is repayable in full on the Maturity Date. The Loan bears interest at a rate of 10% per annum in respect of each advance under the Loan, calculated from the date of each such Advance and payable on the Maturity Date. As security for the payment of the Company's obligations under the Loan Agreement, the Company has, concurrently with the Loan Agreement, granted the Lender a general security agreement; a guarantee from Potanicals Green Growers Inc. (the "Guarantor"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company; security interest in all personal property of the Company; and a mortgage by the Guarantor in the principal amount of $1,450,000, together with assignment of rents, of the lands located at 4715 Paradise Valley Drive, Peachland, BC.

The proceeds of the Loan were used by the Company to fund general working capital.

About Craftport Cannabis

Craftport Cannabis is a Canadian cannabis licensed producer operating out of Peachland, British Columbia. The Company's focus is on the Canadian premium craft cannabis recreational market, utilizing an outsourced cultivation model. The Company is leveraging legacy roots and know-how in order to introduce unique genetics and strains to the Canadian market.

For more information about Craftport Cannabis, please refer to information available under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and the CSE website.

Mike Cosic

Chief Executive Officer

Craftport Cannabis Corp.

mike.c@craftportcannabis.com

416-723-2103

The CSE has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this release.

No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/128822
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 24, 2022) - Pacific Ridge Exploration Ltd. (TSXV: PEX) (OTCQB: PEXZF) ("Pacific Ridge" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the following directors were elected at its Annual General Meeting held June 23, 2022: Gerald Carlson, Blaine Monaghan, Bruce Youngman (an independent director), Borden Putnam III (an independent director), and Gary Baschuk (an independent director). In addition, the shareholders re-appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Chartered Accountants, as auditor of the Company and approved the Company's rolling incentive stock option plan pursuant to which a maximum of 10% of the issued shares will be reserved for issuance under the plan. The plan is subject to TSX Venture Exchange acceptance.

The following officers were appointed after the Annual General Meeting: Gerald Carlson as Executive Chairman, Blaine Monaghan as President & CEO, Danette Schwab as Vice President Exploration, Salvador Miranda as Chief Financial Officer, and Arie Page as Corporate Secretary.

"Pacific Ridge has built a strong management team and board and I'm extremely confident in their ability to execute and oversee the Company's biggest exploration season in decades," said Blaine Monaghan, President & CEO. "Crews are mobilizing to the Kliyul copper-gold project and I expect that the fully funded 6,000 m diamond drill program will be underway in the first week of July. This will be the largest ever drill program to take place at Kliyul and will be focused on expanding mineralization at the Kliyul Main Zone laterally and to depth."

About Pacific Ridge

Our goal is to become British Columbia's leading copper-gold exploration company. Pacific Ridge's flagship project is the Kliyul copper-gold project, located in the prolific Quesnel Trough, approximately 50 km southeast of Centerra Gold Inc.'s Kemess mine. In addition to Kliyul, the Company's project portfolio includes the RDP copper-gold project (optioned to Antofagasta Minerals S.A.), the Chuchi copper-gold project, the Onjo copper-gold project, and the Redton copper-gold project, all located in British Columbia.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

"Blaine Monaghan"

Blaine Monaghan

President & CEO

Pacific Ridge Exploration Ltd.

Corporate Contact:

Blaine Monaghan

President & CEO

Tel: (604) 687-4951

www.pacificridgeexploration.com

https://www.linkedin.com/company/pacific-ridge-exploration-ltd-pex-

https://twitter.com/PacRidge_PEX

Investor Contact:

G2 Consultants Corp.

Telephone: +1 778-678-9050

Email: ir@pacificridgeexploration.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.

The technical information contained within this News Release has been reviewed and approved by Gerald G. Carlson, Ph.D., P.Eng., Executive Chairman of Pacific Ridge and Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 policy.

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 exploration drilling and other activities and events or developments that Pacific Ridge Exploration Ltd. ("Pacific Ridge") expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements in this news release include expectations that the fully funded 6,000 m diamond drill program will be underway in the first week of July. Although Pacific Ridge 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 forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this news release include the potential for Onjo to host an alkalic porphyry copper-gold deposit at depth and plans to launch an exploration program later this year with the objective of defining future drill targets. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward looking statements include market prices, exploration successes, and continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions. These statements are based on a number of assumptions including, among other things, assumptions regarding general business and economic conditions, that one of the options will be exercised, the ability of Pacific Ridge and other parties to satisfy stock exchange and other regulatory requirements in a timely manner, the availability of financing for Pacific Ridge's proposed programs on reasonable terms, and the ability of third party service providers to deliver services in a timely manner. 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. Pacific Ridge does not assume any obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/128828


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The European Union leaders have unanimously decided to grant Ukraine EU candidate status.



The two-day meeting of the European Council, which began in Brussels Thursday, also agreed to grant candidacy to Moldova.



The Council directed the European Commission to report to it on the fulfillment of the conditions specified in the Commission's opinions on the respective membership applications as part of its regular enlargement package. The Council will decide on further steps once all these conditions are fully met.



Granting candidate status sets in motion a lengthy and complex membership process that includes multiple-layer legislative approvals.



In addition to Ukraine and Moldova, the summit also considered the membership application from Georgia.



The European Council said it is ready to grant the status of candidate country to Georgia once the priorities specified in the Commission's opinion on Georgia's membership application have been addressed.



The progress of each country towards the European Union will depend on its own merit in meeting the Copenhagen criteria, taking into consideration the EU's capacity to absorb new members, the Council said in a statement.



Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed his gratitude to the apex council by declaring on Twitter, 'Ukraine's future is within the EU.'



European Council President Charles Michel termed it 'a historic moment.'



European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said all the three Black Sea countries have 'homework to do before moving to the next stage of the accession process, and move as swiftly as possible and work as hard as possible to implement the necessary reforms.'



The European Council pledged to work immediately on increasing military and financial assistance to Ukraine.



'The European Union remains strongly committed to providing further military support to help Ukraine exercise its inherent right of self-defense against the Russian aggression and defend its territorial integrity and sovereignty. To this end, the European Council calls on the Council to swiftly work on a further increase of military support,' the Council said in a press release issued after concluding business on Day One of the Summit.



Ukraine applied for EU membership on February 28, just four days after Russia invaded it. Georgia and Moldova both applied for EU membership on March 3.



Ukraine getting candidate status in a comparatively shorter period is seen as a moral victory for the war-torn country, but the nation is in deep trouble in the war front, losing control of eastern cities.







Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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VIENNA, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Development partners attending the OPEC Fund's Development Forum in Vienna this week demonstrated their resolve to address urgent global challenges by entering new commitments for financial support and signing cooperation agreements.

Signings and announcements included the following:

The OPEC Fund and the Republic of Kosovo signed a "Framework Agreement for Private Sector Operations," which aims to strengthen the private sector in Kosovo with a focus on infrastructure, connectivity, energy and water. OPEC Fund Director Dr. Abdulhamid Alkhalifa had visited Kosovo in June and expressed the ambition to deepen the partnership.

signed a "Framework Agreement for Private Sector Operations," which aims to strengthen the private sector in with a focus on infrastructure, connectivity, energy and water. OPEC Fund Director Dr. had visited in June and expressed the ambition to deepen the partnership. The Asian Development Bank and the OPEC Fund launched a trust fund to improve project readiness in developing countries. As a first contribution, the OPEC Fund is committing US$3 million to the fund, which will provide technical assistance to improve the delivery of investment projects through enhanced preparation, design, and procurement.

to the fund, which will provide technical assistance to improve the delivery of investment projects through enhanced preparation, design, and procurement. The OPEC Fund and the regional South American development bank FONPLATA signed a "Cooperation Agreement" to broaden and deepen the partnership through more co-financing of strategic projects in the Latin America and Caribbean region, where FONPLATA operates.

and region, where FONPLATA operates. The OPEC Fund is teaming up with the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) to design and deliver a new Climate Finance and Energy Innovation Hub, which is set to be launched at the UN climate conference COP27 in Egypt in November. Designed as a global end-to-end policy and finance platform, this hub will harness the power of financial innovation to source, unlock, de-risk and scale-up investments in energy access and transition. Recognizing the crucial role of clean cooking the OPEC Fund is earmarking US$100 million in support of relevant projects in DRC, Madagascar , Malawi , and Rwanda as part of the initiative.

in in November. Designed as a global end-to-end policy and finance platform, this hub will harness the power of financial innovation to source, unlock, de-risk and scale-up investments in energy access and transition. Recognizing the crucial role of clean cooking the OPEC Fund is earmarking in support of relevant projects in DRC, , , and as part of the initiative. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the OPEC Fund signed a Memorandum of Understanding to facilitate access to innovative financing solutions, unlock investment and support project development to advance renewable energy investment and enable access to sustainable finance in emerging and developing economies.

OPEC Fund Director-General Dr. Alkhalifa said: "These new commitments and signings are a declaration of our intent to join forces in the face of unprecedented challenges. One clear takeaway from our event was the need for urgent, targeted and joint action in areas such as climate change, energy access and food supply. We are very encouraged by the success and positive momentum generated at our Forum which provides the energy to move forward swiftly and forcefully."

The OPEC Fund Development Forum "Driving Resilience & Equity" gathered government leaders, ministers from OPEC Fund member and partner countries, heads of the Arab Coordination Group institutions, senior officials of multilateral development banks and international organizations as well as private sector representatives. The event included panels on "Climate Challenges vs Energy Needs - Development Perspectives," "Innovations that Enable a Smart Energy Future," and "Turning Public Ambition into Effective Action," and closed with a conversation on "South-South Co-ownership in Development Progress."

The date of the 2023 OPEC Fund Development Forum will be announced shortly.

About the OPEC Fund

The OPEC Fund for International Development (the OPEC Fund) is the only globally mandated development institution that provides financing from member countries to non-member countries exclusively. The organization works in cooperation with developing country partners and the international development community to stimulate economic growth and social progress in low- and middle-income countries around the world. The OPEC Fund was established by the member countries of OPEC in 1976 with a distinct purpose: to drive development, strengthen communities and empower people. Our work is people-centered, focusing on financing projects that meet essential needs, such as food, energy, infrastructure, employment (particularly relating to MSMEs), clean water and sanitation, healthcare and education. To date, the OPEC Fund has committed more than US$22 billion to development projects in over 125 countries with an estimated total project cost of US$187 billion. The OPEC Fund is rated AA+/Outlook Stable by Fitch and AA/Positive Outlook by S&P in 2021. Our vision is a world where sustainable development is a reality for all.

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JAKARTA, June 24, 2022 - (ACN Newswire) - Wintermar Offshore Marine (WINS:JK) has invested US$12 million to acquire 3 Platform Supply Vessels and 3 Anchor Handling Tug Supply Vessels since November 2021, to gear up for new drilling cycle.In the Public Expose on 24 June 2022, PT Wintermar Offshore Marine Tbk unveiled their growth strategy to position the Company for an anticipated upturn in drilling. As the global rig count has risen steadily over the past few months, Offshore Supply Vessel (OSV) utilization has improved globally and charter rates have started to pick up.To raise the yield of the fleet, the Company has improved the fleet composition through the sale and reinvestment of certain vessels. 95% of the fleet is now concentrated into higher value vessels. Wintermar now has seven Platform Supply Vessels, three of which are undergoing docking for reactivation and should be ready for operations by 2H2022. This is timed in anticipation of a stronger 2023 as there has been an increase in project approvals for offshore drilling and corresponding rise in demand for OSVs.Finance Director Janto Lili reported that the Company has succeeded in controlling costs while continuing to repay debt. The Company turned around in 2021 with a net profit after tax of US$0.2 million following several years of net losses. Net gearing was reduced to 14.7% by end of March 2022.Managing Director, Sugiman Layanto reiterated an optimistic view for the coming years, with OSV charter rates projected to rise. This is due to the demand for OSVs rising in line with the jump in offshore drilling projects, while the supply of operationally ready OSVs is still limited due to the industry downturn over the past years.In the longer term investments in renewable energy are expected to grow while investments in oil and gas are still projected to be stable to meet the energy needs of the world. As an OSV operator, Wintermar will benefit from higher demand for vessels initially from oil and gas industry but in the coming years additional upside in demand is expected from the offshore wind industry.For the future, Wintermar will focus on higher value vessels to improve fleet yields and continue to improve cost efficiency.As at end of May 2022, the Company's Contracts on hand amounted to US$64 million.About Wintermar Offshore Marine GroupWintermar Offshore Marine Group (WINS.JK), developed over nearly 50 years with a track record of quality that is both a source of pride and responsibility that we are dedicated to upholding, and sails a fleet of more than 48 Offshore Support Vessels ready for long term as well as spot charters. All vessels are operated by experienced Indonesian crew, tracked by satellite systems and monitored in real-time by shore-based Vessel Teams.Wintermar is the first shipping company in Indonesia to be certified with an Integrated Management System by Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance, and is currently certified with ISO 9001:2015 (Quality), ISO14001:2015 (Environment) and OHSAS 18001:2007 (Occupational Health and Safety). For more information, please visit www.wintermar.com.For further information, please contact:Ms. Pek Swan Layanto, CFAInvestor RelationsPT Wintermar Offshore Marine TbkTel: (62-21) 530 5201 Ext 401Email: investor_relations@wintermar.comSource: PT Wintermar Offshore Marine TbkCopyright 2022 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved.
The information contained in this release was correct as at 31 May 2022. Information on the Company's up to date net asset values can be found on the London Stock Exchange Website at:

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/news/market-news/market-news-home.html.

BLACKROCK THROGMORTON TRUST PLC (LEI: 5493003B7ETS1JEDPF59)



All information is at 31 May 2022 and unaudited .

Performance at month end is calculated on a cum income basis

One

Month

% Three

months

% One

year

% Three

years

% Five

years

% Net asset value -4.1 -12.7 -22.9 22.2 39.3 Share price -2.9 -16.6 -27.8 24.5 57.8 Benchmark* -1.7 -2.6 -11.7 20.8 17.6

Sources: BlackRock and Datastream

*With effect from 22 March 2018 the Numis Smaller Companies plus AIM (excluding Investment Companies) Index replaced the Numis Smaller Companies excluding AIM (excluding Investment Companies) Index as the Company's benchmark. The performance of the indices have been blended to reflect this.

At month end Net asset value capital only: 666.45p Net asset value incl. income: 672.58p Share price 635.00p Discount to cum income NAV 5.6% Net yield1: 1.7% Total Gross assets2: 690.2m Net market exposure as a % of net asset value3: 101.5% Ordinary shares in issue4: 102,615,194 2021 ongoing charges (excluding performance fees)5,6: 0.57% 2021 ongoing charges ratio (including performance

fees)5,6,7: 1.38%



1. Calculated using the 2021 interim dividend declared on 26 July 2021 and paid on 27 August 2021, together with the 2021 final dividend declared on 07 February 2022 and paid on 31 March 2022.

2. Includes current year revenue and excludes gross exposure through contracts for difference.

3. Long exposure less short exposure as a percentage of net asset value.

4. Excluding 594,670 shares held in treasury.

5. Calculated as a percentage of average net assets and using expenses, excluding performance fees and interest costs for the year ended 30 November 2021.

6. With effect from 1 August 2017 the base management fee was reduced from 0.70% to 0.35% of gross assets per annum.

7. Effective 1st December 2017 the annual performance fee is calculated using performance data on an annualised rolling two year basis (previously, one year) and the maximum annual performance fee payable is effectively reduced to 0.90% of two year rolling average month end gross assets (from 1% of average annual gross assets over one year). Additionally, the Company now accrues this fee at a rate of 15% of outperformance (previously 10%). The maximum annual total management fees (comprising the base management fee of 0.35% and a potential performance fee of 0.90%) are therefore 1.25% of average month end gross assets on a two-year rolling basis (from 1.70% of average annual gross assets).











Sector Weightings









% of Total Assets Industrials 28.0 Consumer Discretionary 22.8 Financials 18.8 Technology 7.1 Health Care 6.9 Consumer Staples 4.3 Telecommunications 3.4 Basic Materials 1.9 Energy 0.3 Net Current Assets 6.5 ----- Total 100.0 ===== Country Weightings % of Total Assets United Kingdom 93.3 United States 5.0 France 1.5 Australia 0.7 Germany -0.5 ----- Total 100.0 =====

Market Exposure (Quarterly) 31.08.21

% 30.11.21

% 28.02.22

% 31.05.22

% Long 119.4 121.3 121.8 104.8 Short 2.4 2.7 2.3 3.3 Gross exposure 121.8 123.9 124.1 108.1 Net exposure 117.0 118.6 119.5 101.5

Ten Largest Investments Company % of Total Gross Assets Gamma Communications 3.4 Electrocomponents 3.2 CVS Group 3.0 Watches of Switzerland 3.0 Auction Technology Group 2.8 Oxford Instruments 2.8 YouGov 2.7 WH Smith 2.5 Dechra Pharmaceuticals 2.3 Impax Asset Management 2.2

Commenting on the markets, Dan Whitestone, representing the Investment Manager noted:

The Company returned -4.1%1 during May, underperforming its benchmark, the Numis Smaller Companies + AIM ex Investment Companies, which returned -1.7%1. Many of the strongest areas of the market were either in energy related sectors, or those deemed to be the most defensive as investors continued to grapple with the fear of an economic slowdown.

Similar to the trend that we have highlighted in recent monthly updates, UK small & mid-caps continued to be aggressively sold during May, we feel largely regardless of their end exposure as companies. The largest detractor was IntegraFin, a UK wealth management platform for advisers, which did disappoint the market over their guidance for costs. The major feature of this business should be high levels of recurring (and growing) revenues and this has indeed been true. However, the company has felt it necessary to take a step up in operating spend to deliver best in class service and so margins will need to fall back from the mid 40% range. This should not really change the fundamental long term investment case, but it is a disappointment given previous statements on cost control, and we have reduced the position. Shares in Treatt, the ingredients manufacturer, fell after reporting a fall in profits compared to the same period last year despite reporting positive sales growth. SigmaRoc, another UK mid cap industrial that has been sold off although profits continue to grow and therefore, we continue to hold the position.

The top contributor was Auction Technology Group - a company which had been a detractor in recent months but released a strong set of results and an outlook statement that was better than expected, with the company indicating double digit revenue growth to continue this year. The shares therefore rebounded and we think are excellent value. Another share that rebounded this month was Baltic Classified Group however, this company is yet to report its results and we shall have to wait another month to see how trading has fared. Nevertheless, with its strong market position and margins over 70% we believe it should fare well. YouGov also rebounded during May, despite the company not reporting any results, and therefore we think the share price moves reflect the high quality, more defensive nature of the business.

Overall, this has been a very 'macro' month and year to date. When looking at individual company results and looking at the state of profit and loss and balance sheets, we are often struck by just how much protection and upside there is, which is why we have retained our exposure and remain modestly net long. Acknowledging the heightened levels of uncertainty and recognising that strong numbers aren't translating into instant share price recovery in this market back drop we reduced the gross exposure to c.115% and the net exposure to around 104%. We still believe many of our longs are already pricing in very bearish scenarios (indeed as some of our shorts have now been reduced) and we continue to believe in the ability of many of our long positions to grow double-digit over many years, names that our now trading on free cash flow yields of 4-5% and as such representing significant value for us. It would seem many of the Management teams agree judging by the size of share buyback programmes that have been commenced in recent weeks, and as we have articulated before, we own many companies where a sizeable percentage of market cap is in net cash. We understand that the year to date has been a painful period for our shareholders and we appreciate your ongoing support, and we can assure you that our confidence in the recovery in our long book is undiminished and we remain of the view there is significant upside to come in time.

1Source: BlackRock as at 31 May 2022

24 June 2022

ENDS

Latest information is available by typing www.blackrock.com/uk/thrg on the internet, "BLRKINDEX" on Reuters, "BLRK" on Bloomberg or "8800" on Topic 3 (ICV terminal). Neither the contents of the Manager's website nor the contents of any website accessible from hyperlinks on the Manager's website (or any other website) is incorporated into, or forms part of, this announcement.
The positive opinion is based on Phase 3 GLOW and Phase 2 CAPTIVATE study results, which investigated the efficacy and safety of ibrutinib plus venetoclax in patients with previously untreated CLL1,2

If approved, this will be the first all-oral, once daily, fixed-duration, combination regimen for first-line treatment of CLL

The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson Johnson today announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has issued a positive opinion recommending approval of a new treatment option with IMBRUVICA (ibrutinib) in an oral fixed-duration combination with venetoclax (I+V) for adults with previously untreated chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL).

Outcomes for patients with CLL have improved in the last decade with the advent of oral therapies that target the underlying disease biology.3 This provides the opportunity to combine these novel treatments for an effective and convenient approach that results in deep responses with time-limited therapy.1 If approved, I+V will be the first all-oral, once daily, fixed-duration combination treatment with a Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor for first-line treatment of patients with CLL.

"With this innovative treatment regimen, healthcare professionals would have the flexibility to use ibrutinib either in a fixed-duration combination or as a continuous therapy, helping them to better tailor frontline CLL therapy based on patients' individual needs," said Edmond Chan, MBChB, M.D. (Res), EMEA Therapeutic Area Lead Haematology, Janssen-Cilag Limited. "This recommendation brings us one step closer to European Commission (EC) approval and to providing patients with an all-oral, once daily, fixed-duration regimen, which until this point has not been available with the BTK inhibitor class of treatments."

The CHMP positive opinion is supported by data from the pivotal Phase 3 GLOW study (NCT03462719), which demonstrated that I+V was superior to chlorambucil-obinutuzumab with respect to the primary endpoint, progression-free survival (PFS), in elderly or unfit patients with CLL (PFS hazard ratio [HR]: 0.216; 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.131 to 0.357; P<0.001).1 It is also supported by the fixed-duration cohort of the Phase 2 CAPTIVATE study (NCT02910583) which evaluated I+V in 159 patients with previously untreated CLL who were 70 years or younger, including patients with high-risk CLL disease.2

Data from these studies were recently published in NEJM Evidence, and Blood, respectively,1,4 and featured as oral presentations at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2021 Congress. Secondary analyses from GLOW, with additional study follow-up, were presented at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) 2021 Annual Meeting, and additional data from the CAPTIVATE study including clinical outcomes at three years and evidence of immune restoration post-treatment were recently presented at the EHA 2022 Congress.

Updated data for both studies showed the safety profile of the I+V regimen was consistent with known safety profiles of ibrutinib and venetoclax.1,4 In the GLOW study, the most common treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) were diarrhoea (50.9 percent) and neutropenia (41.5 percent) in the ibrutinib-venetoclax arm, and neutropenia (58.1 percent) and infusion-related reactions (29.5 percent) in the chlorambucil-obinutuzumab arm.1 TEAEs of Grade 3 or greater occurred in 80 (75.5 percent) and 73 (69.5 percent) of patients in the ibrutinib-venetoclax and chlorambucil-obinutuzumab arms, respectively.1 In the CAPTIVATE fixed-duration cohort, the most common TEAEs were diarrhoea (62 percent), nausea (43 percent), neutropenia (42 percent), and arthralgia (33 percent) and primarily were Grade 1 or 2 in severity.4 The most common Grade 3/4 AEs were neutropenia (33 percent), hypertension (6 percent), and decreased neutrophil count (5 percent).4

"The promising data from GLOW and CAPTIVATE reinforce the distinct and complementary modes of action between ibrutinib and venetoclax, and the potential of this combination regimen to provide treatment-free remissions for patients," said Craig Tendler, M.D., Global Head of Late Development, Diagnostics Medical Affairs, Hematology Oncology, Janssen Research Development, LLC. "The positive CHMP opinion for I+V is testament to our commitment and continued leadership in developing innovative and convenient treatment regimens that may help improve outcomes for people living with complex blood cancers like CLL."

ENDS#

About Ibrutinib

Ibrutinib is a once-daily oral medication that is jointly developed and commercialised by Janssen Biotech, Inc. and Pharmacyclics LLC, an AbbVie company.5 Ibrutinib blocks the Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) protein, which is needed by normal and abnormal B-cells, including specific cancer cells, to multiply and spread.6 By blocking BTK, ibrutinib may help move abnormal B-cells out of their nourishing environments and inhibits their proliferation.7

Ibrutinib is approved in more than 100 countries and has been used to treat more than 250,000 patients worldwide.8 There are more than 50 company-sponsored clinical trials, including 18 Phase 3 studies, over 11 years evaluating the efficacy and safety of ibrutinib.1,9 In October 2021, ibrutinib was added to the World Health Organization's Model Lists of Essential Medicines (EML), which refer to medicines that address global health priorities and which should be available and affordable for all.10

Ibrutinib was first approved by the European Commission (EC) in 2014, and approved indications to date include:1

As a single agent or in combination with rituximab or obinutuzumab for the treatment of adult patients with previously untreated CLL

As a single agent or in combination with bendamustine and rituximab (BR) for the treatment of adult patients with CLL who have received at least one prior therapy

As a single agent for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory (RR) mantle cell lymphoma (MCL)

As a single agent for the treatment of adult patients with Waldenstrom's macroglobulinaemia (WM) who have received at least one prior therapy, or in first line treatment for patients unsuitable for chemo-immunotherapy, and in combination with rituximab for the treatment of adult patients with WM

For a full list of side effects and information on dosage and administration, contraindications and other precautions when using ibrutinib please refer to the Summary of Product Characteristics for further information.

About the CAPTIVATE study

The Phase 2 CAPTIVATE study evaluated previously untreated adult patients with CLL who were 70 years or younger, including patients with high-risk disease, in two cohorts: an MRD-guided cohort (N=164; median age, 58 years) and a fixed-duration cohort (N=159; median age, 60 years).4 Patients in the fixed-duration cohort received 3 cycles of ibrutinib lead-in then 12 cycles of ibrutinib plus venetoclax (oral ibrutinib [420 mg/d]; oral venetoclax [5-week ramp-up to 400 mg/d]) and the primary endpoint was complete response (CR) rate.4

About the GLOW study

The Phase 3 GLOW study (N=211; median age, 71 years) is a randomised, open-label trial which evaluated the efficacy and safety of first-line, fixed-duration I+V vs. Clb+O in elderly patients (=65 years of age) with CLL/SLL, or patients ages 18-64 with a cumulative illness rating scale (CIRS) score of greater than six or creatinine clearance less than 70 mL/min, without del(17p) or known TP53 mutations.1 Patients in the study were randomised to receive either I+V (n= 106) or Clb+O (n=105).1

About Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia

Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) is typically a slow-growing blood cancer of the white blood cells.11 The overall incidence of CLL in Europe is approximately 4.92 cases per 100,000 persons per year and is about 1.5 times more common in men than in women.12 CLL is predominantly a disease of the elderly, with a median age of 72 years at diagnosis.13

While patient outcomes have dramatically improved in the last few decades, the disease is still characterised by consecutive episodes of disease progression and the need for therapy.3 Patients are often prescribed multiple lines of therapy as they relapse or become resistant to treatments.14

About the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson Johnson

At Janssen, we're creating a future where disease is a thing of the past. We're the Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson Johnson, working tirelessly to make that future a reality for patients everywhere by fighting sickness with science, improving access with ingenuity, and healing hopelessness with heart. We focus on areas of medicine where we can make the biggest difference: Cardiovascular, Metabolism Retina; Immunology; Infectious Diseases Vaccines; Neuroscience; Oncology; and Pulmonary Hypertension.

Learn more at www.janssen.com/EMEA. Follow us at www.twitter.com/janssenEMEA for our latest news. Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, Janssen Biotech, Inc., Janssen-Cilag Limited and Janssen Research Development, LLC are part of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson Johnson.

Cautions Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding IMBRUVICA (ibrutinib). The reader is cautioned not to rely on these forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations of future events. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or known or unknown risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results could vary materially from the expectations and projections of Janssen Research Development, LLC, Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, Janssen-Cilag Limited, Janssen Biotech, Inc, any of the other Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies and/or Johnson Johnson. Risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: challenges and uncertainties inherent in product research and development, including the uncertainty of clinical success and of obtaining regulatory approvals; uncertainty of commercial success; manufacturing difficulties and delays; competition, including technological advances, new products and patents attained by competitors; challenges to patents; product efficacy or safety concerns resulting in product recalls or regulatory action; changes in behavior and spending patterns of purchasers of health care products and services; changes to applicable laws and regulations, including global health care reforms; and trends toward health care cost containment. A further list and descriptions of these risks, uncertainties and other factors can be found in Johnson Johnson's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 2, 2022, including in the sections captioned "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" and "Item 1A. Risk Factors," and in Johnson Johnson's subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Copies of these filings are available online at www.sec.govwww.jnj.com or on request from Johnson Johnson. None of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies nor Johnson Johnson undertakes to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information or future events or developments.

References

1 Kater AP, et al. Fixed-Duration Ibrutinib-Venetoclax in Patients with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia and Comorbidities. N Eng J Med Evidence. 2022.

2 Ghia P, et al. Fixed-Duration (FD) First-Line Treatment (tx) with Ibrutinib (I) Plus Venetoclax (V) For Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL)/Small Lymphocytic Lymphoma (SLL): Primary Analysis of the FD Cohort of the Phase 2 CAPTIVATE Study. 2021 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting. June 4-8, 2021.

3 Moreno C. Standard treatment approaches for relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia after frontline chemoimmunotherapy. Hematology Am Soc Hematol Educ Program. 2020;2020:33-40.

4 Tam et al. Fixed-duration ibrutinib plus venetoclax for first-line treatment of CLL: primary analysis of the CAPTIVATE FD cohort. Blood. 2022. 139(22):3278-3289.

5 Imbruvica Summary of Product Characteristics, January 2022. Available at: Imbruvica, INN-ibrutinib (europa.eu). Last accessed: June 2022.

6 Turetsky A, et al. Single cell imaging of Bruton's tyrosine kinase using an irreversible inhibitor. Sci Rep. 2014. 24;4:4782.

7 de Rooij MF, et al. The clinically active BTK inhibitor PCI-32765 targets B-cell receptor- and chemokine-controlled adhesion and migration in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Blood. 2012. 119(11):2590-2594.

8 Janssen Data on File (RF-152098). Global number of cumulative patients treated with Ibrutinib since launch. October 2021.

9 Pollyea DA, et al. A Phase I Dose Escalation Study of the Btk Inhibitor PCI-32765 in Relapsed and Refractory B Cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and Use of a Novel Fluorescent Probe Pharmacodynamic Assay. Blood. 2009. 114(22): 3713

10 World Health Organisation. WHO prioritizes access to diabetes and cancer treatments in new Essential Medicines Lists. Available at: https://www.who.int/news/item/01-10-2021-who-prioritizes-access-to-diabetes-and-cancer-treatments-in-new-essential-medicines-lists. Last accessed: June 2022.

11 American Cancer Society. What is chronic lymphocytic leukemia? Available at: https://www.cancer.org/cancer/chronic-lymphocytic-leukemia/about/what-is-cll.html. Last accessed: June 2022.

12 Sant M, et al. Incidence of hematologic malignancies in Europe by morphologic subtype: results of the HAEMACARE project. Blood. 2010. 116:3724-34.

13 Eichhorst et al. Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia: ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up Ann Oncol. 2021. 32(1):23-33.

14 Molica, S. Current Treatment Options in CLL. Cancers. 2021. 13:2468.

CP-320177

24 June 2022

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220623005663/en/

Contacts:

Media Enquiries:

Jenni Mildon

Mobile: +44 7920 418552

Email: jmildon@its.jnj.com

Investor Relations:

Raychel Kruper

Mobile: +1 732-524-6164

Email: rkruper@its.jnj.com
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 24, 2022) - TNR Gold Corp. (TSXV: TNR) ("TNR", "TNR Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that, further to the Company's news release dated May 9, 2022, McEwen Mining Inc. ("McEwen Mining") provided a financing update and progress report on the Los Azules Copper Project in San Juan, Argentina. TNR holds a 0.4% net smelter returns royalty ("NSR Royalty") (including a 0.04% NSR held on behalf of a shareholder) on the Los Azules Copper Project. The Los Azules Copper Project is held by McEwen Copper Inc., a subsidiary of McEwen Mining.

The news release issued by McEwen Mining on June 21, 2022, stated:

"McEwen Copper Inc., a subsidiary of McEwen Mining Inc., is pleased to announce the closing of the second tranche of the previously announced private placement offering (the "Offering") of up to 8,000,000 common shares of McEwen Copper Inc. priced at US$10.00 per common share. The second tranche is comprised of a $10 million investment by the Victor Smorgon Group advised by Arete Capital Partners, both of Australia, and $5 million from other investors, for total gross proceeds of $15.0 million. The amounts raised in the first and second tranches of the private placement now stand at $55.0 million. The Offering remains open until July 6, 2022."

The news release issued by McEwen Mining on June 23, 2022, stated:

"McEwen Copper: Los Azules Progress Report #3

Drilling returns:

330.0 m of 0.83% Cu including 103.4 m of 1.31% Cu (AZ22146)

298.0 m of 0.55% Cu including 54.0 m of 1.38% Cu (AZ22149)

176.0 m of 1.00% Cu including 44.0 m of 1.38% Cu (AZ22158)

McEwen Copper Inc., a subsidiary of McEwen Mining Inc., is pleased to provide its 3rdprogress report on the advancement of its large Los Azules copper project located in the San Juan province, Argentina.

Improving Our Knowledge & Confidence of This Copper Resource

The objectives of our 59,000-meter (m) drilling program at Los Azules are to:

upgrade the Inferred mineral resources to Indicated;

conduct metallurgical, hydrological and geotechnical drilling to accelerate our study work; and

selectively test high value exploration targets.

This program will almost double the historic database of 66,000 m of drilling from 202 holes. So far in 2022, some 13,500 m have been drilled in 29 holes and assays have been returned for 6,035 m of drilling from 15 holes, which are designed to improve confidence and increase our Indicated resource category. Figure 4 profiles the sections and hole locations relevant to this update.

The cross-sections in Figures 1 to 3 are displaying current inclined and historic vertical holes, with histograms of total copper content along their length, overlayed on a simplified interpretation of overburden, leached, enriched and primary mineral zones, and the 30-year pit shell (shown by blue line), as defined by the 2017 Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA).





Figure 1 - Cross-section B-B'



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2014/128792_41ebc984d49e7b65_003full.jpg

Section B-B', shown in Figure 1, includes hole AZ22146, which produced an attractive intercept of 0.83% Cu over 330.0 m, and included an interval of 103.4 m grading 1.31% Cu. This result correlates well with hole AZ22142 (Figure 2) on section A-A' which intersected 419.1 m of 0.79% Cu and includes 104.0 m of 1.00% Cu in the enriched supergene zone. This represents 200 m of continuity of mineralization, consistent with the lithological and structural features that control the distribution of copper and gold at Los Azules.

Holes AZ22145 (181.0 m of 0.18% Cu) and AZ22148 (239.0 m of 0.26% Cu) located on the southwest flank of the deposit returned grades within the expected ranges for the flanks of the deposit. Results from both holes compare favourably to AZ0618(228.4 m of 0.21% Cu) from an early drill program. It is notable that many of the holes ended in mineralization.





Figure 2 - Cross-section A-A'



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2014/128792_41ebc984d49e7b65_004full.jpg

Hole AZ22144 (Figure 2) was drilled in the area of Inferred mineralization, as classified in the 2017 Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) and returned 448.6 m of 0.30% Cu. The drill hole ended in visible copper mineralization 294 m below the 30-year pit limit from the 2017 study, indicating potential at depth. The grade and extent of mineralization compares well to historic hole AZ1297 (911.0 m of 0.34% Cu) and to previously released hole AZ22143 (310.5 m of 0.20% Cu).

Assay results are now being returned for Section C-C' (Figure 3) completed 400 m north of Section B. Hole AZ22149 drilled within an area classified as Indicated (2017 PEA) returned 298.0 m of 0.55% Cu and included 54.0 m of 1.38% Cu beginning at 376.0 m down-hole. Hole AZ22147, drilled along the far southwest flank of the deposit, returned low-grade mineralization in an area classified as Inferred mineralization in the 2017 PEA.

Partial assay results have been returned for hole AZ22158 (Figure 4). located 300 meters south of section A. It correlates well with the high-grade mineralization in hole AZ22142. Results to-date for this hole are 176.0 m grading 1.00% Cu in the enriched mineralization zone and includes an interval of 44 m grading 1.38% Cu.





Figure 3 - Cross-section C-C'



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2014/128792_41ebc984d49e7b65_005full.jpg







Figure 4 - Sections A-A', B-B', C-C' shown relative to the 2017 PEA pit shell and Indicated and Inferred Resources



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2014/128792_41ebc984d49e7b65_006full.jpg

Hyperspectral Scanning

Two geoLOGr hyperspectral rock analyzers are being used to guide and improve the robustness of the geological and metallurgical modelling and further our knowledge of the deposit and potentially revealing additional exploration targets.

Roads

Los Azules is no longer remote as a result of our work this year. We have constructed a lower altitude road access that provides us with the opportunity for year-round work at the site. The diagram below illustrates the important elevation difference between our exploration road (shown in blue) that allowed 5 to 6-month access to site and our new road access (shown in orange) that, in combination, will provide 12-month access. Having two roads into Los Azules represents an important development and safety feature for the project.





Figure 5 - Los Azules Road Access



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2014/128792_41ebc984d49e7b65_007full.jpg

Technical Information

The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Stephen McGibbon, P.Geo, SVP Exploration of McEwen Mining and a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101.

All samples were collected in accordance with generally accepted industry standards. Drill core samples usually taken at 2 m intervals are split and submitted to Alex Stewart International laboratory in Mendoza, Argentina for the following assays: gold determination using fire assay fusion and an atomic absorption spectroscopy finish (Au4-30); a 39 multi-element suite using ICP-OES analysis (ICP-AR 39); copper content determination using a sequential copper analysis (Cu-Sequential). An additional 19-element analysis (ICP-ORE) was performed for samples with high sulfide content.

The Company carries out a Quality Assurance / Quality Control program consistent with NI 43-101 and industry best practices utilising a combination of standards and blanks approximately one in every 25 samples. Results are monitored as the final certificates are received and any re-assay requests are sent back immediately. Pulp and prep duplicate sample analyses are also taken as part of the QAQC process. Approximately 5% of sample pulps are sent to a secondary laboratory for check assays. In addition, the assay lab performs its own internal QAQC checks with results available in the certificates for review by the Company."

Table 1 - Drill Results April-May 2022 at Los Azules

Hole-ID Section Predominant Mineral

Zone From

(m) To

(m) Length

(m) Cu

% Au

(g/t) Ag

(g/t) Comment AZ22144 A Total 58.0 506.6 448.6 0.30 0.02 0.84

incl

Enriched 58.0 204.0 146.0 0.31 0.01 0.52

and

Primary 204.0 506.6 302.6 0.29 0.02 1.00 incl 104.6m of 0.48% Cu AZ22145 B Total 76.0 257.0 181.0 0.18 0.02 1.90

incl

Enriched 76.0 194.0 118.0 0.16 0.03 2.25

and

Primary 194.0 257.0 63.0 0.21 0.01 1.26

AZ22146 B Total 91.0 421.5 330.0 0.83 0.11 2.30

incl

Enriched 91.0 394.0 303.0 0.86 0.11 2.26 incl. 103.4m of 1.31% Cu and

Primary 394.0 421.5 27.0 0.50 0.10 2.76

AZ22147 C Total 60.0 240.8 180.8 0.03 0.02 0.50

incl

Enriched 60.0 67.0 7.0 0.10 0.08 1.27

AZ22148 B Total 76.0 315.0 239.0 0.26 0.02 1.01

incl

Enriched 76.0 212.0 136.0 0.33 0.02 0.85

and

Primary 212.0 315.0 103.0 0.16 0.02 1.23

AZ22149 C Total 130.0 428.0 298.0 0.55 0.04 1.62

incl

Enriched 130.0 278.0 148.0 0.34 0.02 0.32

and

Primary 278.0 428.0 150.0 0.76 0.06 2.91 incl. 54m of 1.38% Cu from 376m AZ22150

Total 78.0 257.4 179.4 0.14 0.01 0.53

incl

Enriched 78.0 126.0 48.0 0.04 0.01 0.25

and

Primary 126.0 257.4 131.4 0.17 0.01 0.63

AZ22158

Enriched 76.0 252.0 176.0 1.00 0.09 1.46

incl



144.0 188.0 44.0 1.38 0.11 2.36



Table 2 - Hole Collar Locations and Lengths for April-May 2022 Drill Results at Los Azules

HOLE-ID Azimuth Dip Length Loc X Loc Y Loc Z AZ22144 250 -70 507 2382889 6559204 3688 AZ22145 250 -73 257 2382912 6559411 3628 AZ22146 250 -75 422 2383406 6559591 3644 AZ22147 250 -68 241 2382558 6559708 3642 AZ22148 250 -75 315 2383106 6559482 3647 AZ22149 70 -77 428 2382879 6559875 3618 AZ22150 70 -82 257 2382670 6559536 3661 AZ22158 250 -65 300 2383561 6559115 3627 Coordinates listed in Table 2 based on Gauss Kruger - Campo Inchauspe Zone 2





The McEwen Mining press release appears to be prepared by Qualified Persons (as that term is defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects) and the procedures, methodology and key assumptions disclosed therein are those adopted and consistently applied in the mining industry, but no Qualified Person engaged by TNR has done sufficient work to analyze, interpret, classify or verify McEwen Mining's information to determine the current mineral resource or other information referred to in its press releases. Accordingly, the reader is cautioned in placing any reliance on the disclosures therein.

"We are pleased to see these significant developments on the Los Azules Copper Project and continued support by Rob McEwen of the newly created McEwen Copper," stated Kirill Klip, TNR's Chief Executive Officer. "It's very encouraging to see that McEwen Copper raised additional US$15 million and these new positive results which demonstrate continued success of a major 53,000-metre drilling program on this copper, gold and silver project. The personal commitment from Rob McEwen and his investment of US$40 million enabled the rapid advancement for this deposit to this new phase of development in an appropriate corporate structure which will allow financing and further stages of development of the Los Azules Copper Project.

"TNR Gold does not have to contribute any capital for the development of Los Azules. The essence of our business model is to have industry leaders like McEwen Mining as operators on the projects that will potentially generate royalty cashflows to contribute significant value for our shareholders."

Private Placement Update

The Company also announces that, further to its news release dated April 4, 2022, the Company has closed the non-brokered private placement (the "Private Placement") of up to 5,000,000 units (each a "Unit"). On closing of the first tranche on May 19, 2022, the Company issued 1,250,000 Units at $0.05 per Unit for proceeds of $62,500. Each Unit consists of one common share of the Company and one half of a non-transferable common share purchase warrant (each a "Warrant") with each whole Warrant exercisable into one common share of the Company at an exercise price of $0.075 per share for two years from the date of issue. No further tranches will be issued.

The proceeds of the Private Placement will be used for exploration, maintenance of the Shotgun Gold project and for general working capital purposes. All Private Placement securities will be restricted from trading for a period of four months plus one day from the date of closing.

The Company paid cash finder's fee of 5% of the gross proceeds sourced by the finder.

Kirill Klip, Executive Chairman of the Company, a non-arms' length party, participated in this Private Placement. The issuance of private placement securities to a non-arms' length party constitutes related-party transactions under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). Because the Company's shares trade only on the TSX Venture Exchange, the issuance of securities is exempt from the formal valuation requirements of Section 5.4 of MI 61-101 pursuant to Subsection 5.5(b) of MI 61-101 and exempt from the minority approval requirements of Section 5.6 of MI 61-101 pursuant to Section 5.7(b). The Company did not file a material change report 21 days prior to the closing of the private placement as the details of the participation of insiders of the Company had not been confirmed at that time.

ABOUT TNR GOLD CORP.

TNR Gold Corp. is working to become the green energy metals royalty and gold company.

Over the past twenty-six years, TNR, through its lead generator business model, has been successful in generating high-quality exploration projects around the globe. With the Company's expertise, resources and industry network, it identified the potential of the Los Azules Copper Project in Argentina, which is being developed by McEwen Mining Inc. now. TNR Gold holds a 0.4% NSR Royalty on the Los Azules Copper Project, including a 0.04% held on behalf of a shareholder.

TNR retains a 2.0% NSR Royalty on the Mariana Lithium Project in Argentina with Ganfeng Lithium, including a 0.2% NSR held on behalf of a shareholder. Ganfeng's subsidiary, Litio Minera Argentina, has a right to repurchase 1.0% of the NSR Royalty on the Mariana Project, of which 0.9% relates to the Company's NSR Royalty interest. The Company would receive $900,000 on the completion of the repurchase. The project is currently being advanced by Ganfeng Lithium International Co. Ltd.

TNR also holds a 7% NPR holding on the Batidero I and II properties of the Josemaria Project, which is being developed by Lundin Mining. Lundin Mining is part of the Lundin Group, a portfolio of companies producing a variety of commodities in several countries worldwide.

TNR provides significant exposure to gold through its 90% holding in the Shotgun Gold porphyry project in Alaska. The project is located in Southwestern Alaska near the Donlin Gold project, which is being developed by Barrick Gold and Novagold Resources Inc.

The Company's strategy with Shotgun Gold Project is to attract a joint venture partnership with one of the gold major mining companies. The Company is actively introducing the project to interested parties.

At its core, TNR provides a wide scope of exposure to gold, copper, silver and lithium through its holdings in Alaska (the Shotgun Gold porphyry project) and Argentina (the Los Azules Copper and the Mariana Lithium projects) and is committed to the continued generation of in-demand projects, while diversifying its markets and building shareholder value.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

Kirill Klip

Chief Executive Officer

www.tnrgoldcorp.com

For further information concerning this news release please contact +1 604-229-8129

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 Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Except for statements of historical fact, this news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "will", "could" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "could" occur, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Specifically, forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, statements made in relation to: TNR's corporate objectives, changes in share capital, market conditions for energy commodities, the results of McEwen Mining's, Ganfeng Lithium's, Josemaria Resources' and Lundin Mining's preliminary economic assessments, Feasibility Study, or Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve estimations, life of mine estimates, and mine and mine closure plans and improvements in the financial performance of the Company. Such forward-looking information is based on a number of assumptions and subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to those discussed in the sections entitled "Risks" and "Forward-Looking Statements" in the Company's interim and annual Management's Discussion and Analysis which are available under the Company's profile on www.sedar.com. While management believes that the assumptions made and reflected in this news release are reasonable, 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 forward-looking information. In particular, there can be no assurance that: TNR will be able to repay its loans or complete any further royalty acquisitions or sales; debt or other financing will be available to TNR; or that TNR will be able to achieve any of its corporate objectives. TNR relies on the confirmation of its ownership for mining claims from the appropriate government agencies when paying rental payments for such mining claims requested by these agencies. There could be a risk in the future of the changing internal policies of such government agencies or risk related to the third parties challenging in the future the ownership of such mining claims. Given these uncertainties, readers are cautioned that forward-looking statements included herein are not guarantees of future performance, and such forward-looking statements should not be unduly relied on.

In formulating the forward-looking statements contained herein, management has assumed that business and economic conditions affecting TNR and its royalty partners, McEwen Mining Inc., Ganfeng Lithium, Josemaria Resources and Lundin Mining will continue substantially in the ordinary course, including without limitation with respect to general industry conditions, general levels of economic activity and regulations. These assumptions, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect.

Forward-looking information herein and all subsequent written and oral forward-looking information are based on estimates and opinions of management on the dates they are made and are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking information should circumstances or management's estimates or opinions change.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/128792
The International Solar Alliance (ISA) is overseeing bids from prospective contractors to supply, install and commission solar cold storage capacity in Senegal, Sudan, and Seychelles. Bidding is also open for two 2 MT systems in Djibouti.From pv magazine India India's NTPC, on behalf of the ISA, has started accepting bids from ISA member countries to execute solar-based cold storage projects in the African countries of Senegal, Djibouti, Sudan, and Seychelles. The prospective contractor will supply, install and commission 5 metric tons (MT) of solar cold storage capacity in Senegal, as well as ...

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 24, 2022) - Infinity Stone Ventures Corp. (CSE: GEMS) (OTC PINK: TLOOF) (FSE: B2I) (the "Company" or "Infinity Stone") is pleased to announce that it has entered into a letter of intent ("LOI" or "Letter of Intent") with Quartier Minerals Inc. ("Quartier") to option the Galaxy Pegmatite Project located near Mont-Laurier, Quebec (the "Project").

The Project is host to at least "30 pegmatite exposures which represent 30 pegmatite dikes". Blasting and pitting has shown these pegmatites to have widths of 15 to 18 metres in outcrop. Analysis of the pegmatites shows anomalous quantities of lithium, tantalum, molybdenum, uranium, and thorium.(1)

A historical report on the Project suggested that the observed presence of lepidolite - an important lithium-bearing mica ore mineral - in outcrop could indicate significant quantities at depth.(1)

Figure 1: Regional Property Location





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Figure 2: Local Property Location





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About Lithium-Cesium-Tantalum (LCT) Pegmatites in Quebec

The province of Quebec is host to an abundant amount of LCT-type pegmatite intrusions, most notably in regions such as northern Quebec between Eastmain and Nemiscau, and near Val d'Or and La Corne.

Lithium-cesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatites comprise a compositionally defined subset of granitic pegmatites. The major minerals are quartz, potassium feldspar, albite, and muscovite; typical accessory minerals include biotite, garnet, tourmaline, and apatite. The principal lithium ore minerals are spodumene, petalite, and lepidolite. Most LCT pegmatites are hosted in metamorphosed supracrustal rocks in the upper greenschist to lower amphibolite facies. Lithium-cesium-tantalum pegmatite intrusions generally are emplaced late during orogeny, with emplacement being controlled by pre-existing structures. These pegmatites tend to show a regional mineralogical and geochemical zoning pattern with respect to the inferred parental granite, with the greatest enrichment in the more distal pegmatites.(2)

Terms of LOI

The LOI contemplates the Company's and Quartier's entry into a definitive option agreement (the "Definitive Agreement") pursuant to which the Company will be entitled to earn up to a 100% interest in the Project upon the completion of the following within two years of execution:

(i) paying Quartier the sum of $50,000 on the date of the execution (the "Execution Date") of the Definitive Agreement;

(ii) paying Quartier the sum of $100,000 on the first anniversary of the Execution Date;

(iii) carrying out a minimum of $100,000 in exploration expenditures on the Project within one (1) year of the Execution Date;

(iv) carrying out a minimum of $200,000 in exploration expenditures on the Project within two (2) years of the Execution Date;

(v) issuing to Quartier 500,000 class A subordinate voting shares of the Company (each, a "Share") on the Execution Date; and

(vi) issuing to Quartier 500,000 Shares on the first anniversary of the Execution Date.

Upon earn-in under the Definitive Agreement, Quartier will retain a 2.5% net smelter royalty ("NSR") over the Project, 1% of which may be purchased by the Company for $1,500,000.

About The Galaxy Pegmatite Project

The Galaxy Pegmatite Project covers 22 mineral claims and 2 pending claim applications covering 1,411 hectares in southern Quebec, approximately 45 kilometres northwest of Mont-Laurier, Quebec and 140 kilometres north of the city of Gatineau, Quebec. There is excellent access to all parts of the Property from road La Verendrye 13, via the Trans-Canada Highway (Hwy QC-117), which traverses roughly through the middle of the Property. The Property is underlain by at least 30 pegmatite exposures representing 30 pegmatite dikes of Laurentian or more recent rocks of the Precambrian Grenvillian Series. The general strike of the formation is in a northwesterly direction with a near vertical dip. The five minerals associated with the pegmatites are lepidolite, columbite, samarskite, euxenite, and thorianite. The property is largely covered by quaternary till. (1)

Qualified Person

The technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Remi Charbonneau, P.Geo., a "Qualified Person" as defined under NI 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

Private Placement

The Company also announces a non-brokered private placement (the "Private Placement") of up to 3,000,000 units (the "Units") at a price of $0.15 per Unit, for gross proceeds of up to $450,000. Each Unit will be composed of one (1) Share and one-half of one (1/2) Share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant will entitle the holder to acquire one (1) additional Share at a price of $0.30 for a period of three (3) years from the date of issuance of the Units.

The Company plans to allocate the net proceeds from the Private placement to marketing, software development and other general working capital. The Company may pay finder's fees on a portion of the Private Placement in accordance with applicable securities laws and the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange. The securities issued through the Private Placement will be subject to a standard four month and one day resale restriction.

The Private Placement securities have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "1933 Act"), or under any state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold, directly or indirectly, or delivered within the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons (as defined in Regulation S under the 1933 Act) absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy such securities in the United States.

About Infinity Stone Ventures

Infinity Stone's mission is to be a diversified, single source supplier for the critical energy metals being used in the clean energy revolution alongside its established SaaS solution portfolio. The Company's primary business units include HealthCheck (Stratum Health Technologies LLC) and its energy metals portfolio. Infinity Stone is meeting the demand from battery and wind turbine manufacturers, nuclear and hydrogen energy producers, and energy metals speculators by acquiring 100% interest in critical mineral deposits and occurrences in stable mining-friendly jurisdictions, close to final use destinations in North American manufacturing hubs.

References:

(1) Corminboeuf, F., 1956. Preliminary Report on Petawaga Mining Corporation. Quebec SIGEOM Report GM04222.

(2) Bradley, D. & McCauley, A., 2016. A Preliminary Deposit Model for Lithium-Cesium-Tantalum (LCT) Pegmatites. USGS Open-File Report 2013-1008.

To register for investor updates please visit https://infinitystone.ventures.

Infinity Stone Ventures Corp.

Zayn Kalyan

CEO and Director

zayn@altuscapital.ca

Direct: 778-938-3367

The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed, approved or disapproved the content of this news release.

Forward-Looking Statements Disclaimer

This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "projects", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". 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, including statements respecting: the potential of the Project; the proposed terms of the Definitive Agreement; the Private Placement; and the expected use of proceeds from the Private Placement. Although forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based upon what management of 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 forward-looking statements may also be affected by risks and uncertainties in the business of the Company, including those described in the Company's public filings available on www.SEDAR.com. 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.

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWS WIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/128833
NEW YORK, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Global Medical Device Contract Manufacturing Market is expected to clock US$ ~178.3 billion by 2031 owing to the rising incidence of chronic diseases and the booming medical device market. According to a report published by Growth Plus Reports, titled "Medical Device Contract Manufacturing Market by Product Type [Diagnostic & Monitoring Devices and Therapeutic Devices], Services [Device Development & Manufacturing Services, Quality Management Services, and Final Goods Assembly Services], Application [Cardiovascular, Orthopedic, Diabetes, Pulmonary, Oncology, and Diagnostic Imaging] - Global Outlook & Forecast 2021-2031" the market was worth in ~US$ 60.6 billion in 2020 and will display a CAGR of 10.3% during the forecast period, 2021- 2031

Request a Sample Copy of the Research Report: https://growthplusreports.com/inquiry/request-sample/medical-device-contract-manufacturing-market/7660

Growth Factors

The rapid spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) across almost every country worldwide, has resulted in severe outcomes, across all regions. The first case of COVID-19 was found in Dec 2019, and by the end of Dec 2020, the count has surged to more than 90.3 million globally.

Therefore, several prominent players, government bodies and numerous organizations are making an effort to accelerate the identification of COVID-19-positive patients, predict symptoms and disease severity in patients, healthcare workers & other at-risk individuals in critical service sectors.

For instance, in Oct 2020, SteriPack Group, a leading global contract manufacturer of medical and diagnostic devices, was awarded $852,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The purpose of the grant was procurement of necessary equipment to fast-track production of critically required sterile nasal swabs for Covid-19 testing.

The global medical device contract manufacturing market has been analyzed from four different perspectives - Product Type, Services, Application, and Region.

Excerpts from 'By Application Segmentation'

The global medical device contract manufacturing market has been segmented majorly into seven distinct categories depending on the application, viz:-

Cardiovascular

Orthopedic

Diabetes

Pulmonary

Oncology

Diagnostic Imaging

Others (Urology, Gynecology, Etc.)

The cardiovascular segment is expected to be the fastest growing application segment during the forecast period. The growth of the segment can be attributed to growing prevalence of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) globally coupled with rising awareness among the people regarding regular monitoring of cardiac activity and early diagnosis of CVDs.

Excerpts from 'By Region Segmentation'

The global medical device contract manufacturing market has been segmented into

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

The Rest of the World (RoW)

North America is expected to command the largest share in the global medical device contract manufacturing market, followed by Asia Pacific, Europe & Rest of the World (RoW). Factors such as developed healthcare infrastructure, rising prevalence of chronic & acute diseases owing to changing lifestyle and significant investment & research in medical devices can be attributed for the growth of the market. Presence of prominent players in the region coupled with their continuous effort to launch technologically advanced products is also expected to propel the growth of the market.

Speak to Analyst: https://growthplusreports.com/inquiry/speak-analyst/medical-device-contract-manufacturing-market/7660

Excerpts from 'Competitive Landscape'

The prominent players operating in the global medical device contract manufacturing market are

 Gerresheimer AG

Integer Holdings Corporation

West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc

Benchmark

Plexus Corp

Celestica Inc

NIPRO PHARMA CORPORATION

Sanmina Corporation

TE Connectivity

FLEX LTD

Among others

Report Scope & Segmentation:

Report Coverage Details Market Size in 2020 USD ~60.6 billion Revenue forecast in 2031 USD ~178.3 billion Growth Rate CAGR of ~10.3% from 2021 to 2031 Base year for estimation 2020 Forecast period 2021-2031 Segments covered Product Type, Services, Application Regional scope North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Rest of the World (ROW)

Table of Contents

1.INTRODUCTION

i.Market Ecosystem

ii. Geographic Scope

iii.Timeline Under Consideration

a. Historical Years - 2018 & 2019

b. Base Year - 2020

c. Forecasted Years - 2021 to 2031

iv. Currency Used in the Report

2.RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

i. Research Approach

ii. Data Collection Methodology

iii. Data Sources

a. Secondary Sources

b. Primary Sources

iv. Market Estimation Approach

a. Bottom Up

b. Top Down

v. Market Forecasting Model

vi. Limitations and Assumptions

3.PREMIUM INSIGHTS

i. Current Market Trend (COVID-19 Perspective)

ii. Key Players & Their Competitive Positioning (2020)

4.MARKET DYNAMICS

i. Drivers

ii. Restraints/Challenges

iii. Opportunities

VALUE PROPOSITIONS RELATED TO THE REPORT:

Powered with Complimentary Analyst Hours and Expert Interviews with Each Report

Comprehensive quantitative and qualitative insights at segment and sub-segment level

Covid 19 impact trends and perspective

Granular insights at global/regional/country level

Deep-rooted insights on market dynamics (drivers, restraints, opportunities) and business environment

Blanket coverage on competitive landscape

Winning imperatives

Exhaustive coverage on 'Strategic Developments' registered by leading players of the market

CUSTOMIZATION OPTIONS:

Distributor Landscape Assessment

Pricing Intelligence

Customer Base Assessment

Investment & Initiatives Analysis

'Business Profile' of Key Players

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About Us:

Growth+Reports is part of GRG Health, a global healthcare knowledge service company. We are proud members of EPhMRA (European Pharmaceutical Marketing Research Association).

Growth+ portfolio of services draws on our core capabilities of secondary & primary research, market modelling & forecasting, benchmarking, analysis and strategy formulation to help clients create scalable, ground-breaking solutions that prepare them for future growth and success.

We were awarded by the prestigious CEO Magazine as "Most Innovative Healthcare Market Research Company in 2020.

Contact:

Manan Sethi

Director, Market Insights

Email: enquire@growthplusreports.com

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Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 24, 2022) - Gold Tree Resources Ltd. (CSE: GTX) ("Gold Tree" or the "Company") announces that it has signed a binding letter of intent dated June 23, 2022 (the "LOI") with 1314836 BC Ltd. ("BCCo") in respect of a proposed transaction (the "Proposed Transaction"), whereby the Company would acquire all of the issued and outstanding securities of BCCo by way of a share exchange agreement. BCCo's principal asset and undertaking is its wholly owned subsidiary Lithium Valley Holdings Corp., which owns the McDermitt Lithium Property located in Nevada, USA (the "Property"). The Property is comprised of 315 lode claims located in Humboldt County, Nevada, USA. The project is underlain by intera-caldera tuffaceous sediments of the McDermitt Caldera commonly referred to as "moat sediments" which are known to host elevated lithium values. The equivalent sedimentary unit is host to the McDermitt Deposit owned by Jindalee Resources Limited, and the Thacker Pass deposit owned by Lithium Americas Corp.

The Company sees the potential for the Property to host large-scale, long-life sources of lithium, occurring near-surface and falling within the lower end of the global cost curve. Additionally, the project is located in a mining friendly jurisdiction with significant domestic lithium demand currently satisfied by imported material. The Company also recognizes the opportunity to rapidly advance the project through the exploration stage to create significant value for the Company.

The Proposed Transaction

Pursuant to the Proposed Transaction, the Company will issue common shares in its capital (the "Consideration Shares") to the holders of common shares in the capital of BCCo at a deemed price per Consideration Share issued with the maximum discount to market that is allowed pursuant to the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange (the "CSE"), representing aggregate consideration to be determined and mutually agreed upon by the parties with reference to a pending assessment report of BCCo.

The Proposed Transaction will be completed pursuant to available prospectus exemptions in accordance with applicable securities legislation.

The Company and BCCo have agreed to negotiate in good faith the terms of a definitive agreement with respect to the Proposed Transaction within 30 days from the LOI.

The Proposed Transaction is subject to receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals, including, as applicable, approval of the CSE, completion of due diligence reasonable or customary in a transaction of a similar nature, and entering into a definitive agreement, among other conditions. The Proposed Transaction would be an arms-length transaction for the Company and would not constitute a fundamental change or result in a change of control of the Company, within the meaning of the policies of the CSE.

About Gold Tree Resources Ltd.

Gold Tree Resources Ltd. (CSE: GTX) is a Canadian based exploration company focused on the development of gold projects within prolific placer gold camps by seeking to identify the large-scale source areas of the placer gold. Gold Tree owns 100% interest in the SkyGold Project, in the British Columbia's Cariboo Placer Gold Region, the highest producing placer gold camp in British Columbia, Canada. For further information, please visit http://www.goldtreeresources.com .

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Adrian Smith, CEO

T: 604-687-2038

The CSE and Information Service Provider have not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the accuracy or adequacy of this release.

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: assumptions that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties, including assumptions that all conditions to the closing of the Proposed Transaction will be satisfied and that the Proposed Transaction will be completed on the terms set forth in the LOI. The forward-looking information reflects management's 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. Such risk factors may include, among others, the risk that required approvals and the satisfaction of material conditions are not obtained in connection with the Proposed Transaction, the risk that the Proposed Transaction is not approved or completed on the terms set out in the LOI or that a definitive agreement will be entered into in connection therewith. 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 time frames or at all. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include: (i) adverse market conditions; and (ii) other factors beyond the control of the Company. New risk factors emerge from time to time, and it is impossible for the Company's management to predict all risk factors, nor can the Company assess the impact of all factors on Company's 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. Additional information identifying risks and uncertainties that could affect financial results is contained in the Company's filings with Canadian securities regulators, which are available at www.sedar.com.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/128829
Director of Exploration, Francis Agezo, Discusses Kukuom Property's Prospects Relative to Asante Gold's Recent Purchases of Neighboring Producing Gold Mines, Bibiani and Chirano.

SAN JOSE, CA / ACCESSWIRE / June 24, 2022 / Guskin Gold Corp ( OTCQB:GKIN ) ("Guskin Gold" or the "Company"), operating the Kukuom Gold Project located in the highly prospective Swefi gold belt, today issued an update to shareholders from its Director of Exploration, Francis Lovebridge Agezo.

Francis Agezo

Dear Shareholders,

At the request of the CEO and Chair, Mrs. Naana Asante in response to investor interest in the Kukuom Gold Project, I am pleased to provide shareholders opinions and commentary on the recent acquisitions of the Chirano and Bibani Mines by Asante Gold Corporation (no relation to Mrs. Asante).

Kukuom Gold Project Background

The Kukuom Gold Project is located in Asunafo South District, Ahafo Region, and is a Joint Venture Partnership with Danampco Company whereby Guskin Gold has an exclusive seventy (70%) percent ownership interest.

The licence area is 156 square kilometres and the Kukuom Gold Project is highly prospective, spatially related to major mines including Newmont's Ahafo Gold Mine (23Moz) located approximately 30km north of the Kukuom property, and Asante Gold's Chirano Gold Mine (5Moz) located approximately 45km south-southeast of Kukuom and their Bibiani Gold Mine (7Moz) located approximately 25km southeast.

As previously released, the proposed exploration program is designed to assess subsurface gold mineralization on the Kukuom concession, with the goal to locate and develop an economic gold resource and undertake mining of that resource. The purpose is to identify and characterize zones of gold-bearing veins of suitable size to allow for their mining, and it is envisioned that several or numerous zones may be identified that will provide sufficient material for mining operations for many years.

Recent Acquisitions of Neighboring Gold Mines Chirano and Bibiani

Notably on April 25, 2022, Kinross Gold Corp. (NYSE: KGC) announced the sale of the Chirano Gold Mine for $225 Million to Canadian Asante Gold Corp. (CSE: ASE); Asante Gold having previously acquired the Bibiani Gold Mine for $90 Million from Australian Resolute Mining (ASX, LON: RSG) in August 2021.

Relevance of the Chirano Gold Mine and Bibani Gold Mine

Notably, and in my current position as Guskin Gold's Director of Exploration, I, Francis Lovebridge Agezo, am credited as a contributor to the discovery and development of the Chirano Mine deposits.

Subject to funding and the upcoming work programs, the Company plans to develop Kukuom as a custom milling and direct shipping operation as it is in close proximity to major mining operations with an appreciable milling infrastructure.

The geology and gold mineralization in the Chirano mine area has always looked very promising. The Chirano deposits occur along the section of the Chirano Shear which marks the contact zone of the Tarkwaian clastics and the Birimian metavolcanic units. The gold mineralization is closely associated with quartz stockwork systems hosted mainly in granitoids. High-grade mineralization occurs in sheared metavolcanic units near the Chirano Shear zone, as to the main granitoid-hosted deposits along the Tarkwaian clastic/Birimian metavolcanic contact zone. The Chirano deposits form excellent examples of the Birimian lode systems related to major regional shear system.

As the second most relevant gold-bearing belt in Ghana, the Sefwi Belt hosts over 30 million ounces of gold. The Bibiani mine was the only producing mine along the eastern margin of the Swefi Belt. Although this major gold prospective shear zone also hosts the other deposits, it was significant when the Chirano mine came on the scene in 2004.

Asante Gold Corp. could take advantage of its consolidated position to explore the highly prospective gold projects in this segment of the Sefwi Belt. The existence proximal concessions with evidence of permissive geology and structural features, could add significant landholding to the current Asante Gold Corp's landholding. Thus, making the general area an emerging gold mining district in Southwestern Ghana.

These projects, although early stage, appear to have brownfield prospects and it will be a strategic decision to direct exploration funds to this additional ground and further add to Asante's landholding, as well the Kukuom Property, could be considered highly prospective.

Outlook for Kukuom Gold Project

Guskin Gold's Kukuom Project area geologically lies in the middle of the Sefwi Belt; it is situated 45-48km north-northeast of Chirano and lies 20km southwest of a string of gold occurrences along the 9km belt-bounding trend (Manfo trend). With multiple structures thought to be associated with a regional north to north-northeast trending fault corridor/zone, this structure does not appear to be a direct extension of the main Chirano-Bibiani mineralized corridor/structure. These mark the Belt-Basin margin in the Chirano and Bibiani areas and it may well be a subparallel feature, that splays off the main Chirano-Bibiani structure/fault system and runs N-NNE just north of Bibiani for several kilometres across the Manfo area where it marks the regional granitoid-volcano-sedimentary package in the belt interior.

Results from recent exploration works suggests that the geological environment in the Kukuom project area is quite like many other districts in Ghana. Ashanti-type gold deposits are known to occur and work on Kukuom shows evidence of permissive geology, structural features and appears to have brownfield prospect.

Guskin intends to roll out aggressive exploration programs using multidisciplinary exploration tools, much like what was undertook at the Chirano and Bibiani deposits. In 2021, efforts were focused on the Kukuom project and directed at expanding their understanding of the lithological and structural details in the prospect and the utilisation of this information to study and determine these details on gold mineralization on a prospect-scale.

We believe these exploration efforts will make Kukuom a high-quality gold project worth evaluating, and hopefully an attractive partner to major producers like Asante Gold or Newmont. Kukuom may help Asante Gold build a strategic district position in view of its close proximity to Chirano and Bibiani and its brownfield prospect

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

Mr. Francis Lovebridge Agezo P.Geo

Director of Exploration

Guskin Gold

Qualified Person Statement

Guskin Gold's disclosure of a technical or scientific nature in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Francis Agezo, P.Geo, the Company's Director of Exploration, and a qualified person under the definition of National Instrument 43-101.

During his career, Mr. Agezo worked for 8 years as a Geologist with the Geological Survey of Ghana, 12 years as a Senior Exploration Geologist with the UK-based Cluff Resources Ltd. and 5 years as Tenement and Geology Manager with the Red Back Mining Inc., now Kinross Gold Corp. Mr. Agezo was the co-author of West Africa's premier mineral deposit volumes "Gold Deposits of Ghana "published by the Ghana Minerals Commission and "Mineral Occurrences and Exploration Potential of Northern Ghana ".

This news release was written for the Purpose of reporting on the receipt of the Company's permitting and further project advancement. The Company accepts no responsibility or liability for any use of this report or any reliance upon this report by any person, other than the use of the whole of this report by the Client consistent with the Purpose. The full report, while unpublished in this press release, must always be considered in its entirety.

About Guskin Gold Corp.

Guskin Gold Corp. (OTCQB:GKIN) is a mining company publicly traded in the United States, with its head office in Santa Clara, California. Guskin is focused on gold exploration and mining in Ghana, the number one gold producer in Africa and seventh largest gold producing country in the world. The Company's leadership team is world-class. Many are native to Ghana, all offer specialised expertise in the business of gold exploration, mining, public markets, and finance. And all are passionately committed to the success of the Company, our partners, and investors. For additional information please visit www.guskingold.com.

Company Contact Information

Mrs. Naana Asante

Chief Executive Officer

naana.asante@guskingold.com

www.guskingold.com

Investor Relations and Financial Media

Integrity Media Inc.

team@integritymedia.com

Toll Free: (888) 216-3595

www.IntegrityMedia.com

Forward-Looking Statements and Disclosure

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" which are not purely historical and may include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Such forward-looking statements include, among other things, the development, costs and results of new business opportunities and words such as "anticipate", "seek", intend", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "project", "plan", or similar phrases may be deemed "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. Such factors include, among others, the inherent uncertainties associated with the exploration and exploitation of the Kukuom Concession, new mineral and/or gold projects, securing necessary financing, the future of the U.S. and global economies, the impact of competition, and the Company's reliance on existing regulations pertaining to the mining and exploration of mineral properties in Ghana and internationally. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and we assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Although we believe that any beliefs, plans, expectations and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that any such beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions will prove to be accurate. Investors should consult all of the information set forth herein and should also refer to the risk factors disclosure outlined in our annual report on Form 10-K, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and other periodic reports filed from time-to-time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. For more information, please visit www.sec.gov .

SOURCE: Guskin Gold Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/706475/Guskin-Gold-Corp-OTCQBGKIN-Updates-Shareholders-on-Outlook-of-Kukuom-Gold-Property
This circular (the "Circular") has not been reviewed by the Central Bank of Ireland (the "Central Bank") and it is possible that changes thereto may be necessary to meet the Central Bank's requirements. The Directors accept responsibility for the information contained in this Circular.

This Circular is important and requires your immediate attention. If you are in doubt as to the action

you should take you should seek advice from your stockbroker, bank manager, solicitor, accountant

or other independent financial adviser. If you have sold or transferred all of your shares in the Fund referred to below, please pass this Circular at once to the purchaser or transferee or to the stockbroker, bank or other agent through whom the sale or transfer was effected for transmission to the purchaser or transferee as soon as possible.

Dear Shareholder,

We refer to EUR Accumulation Shares of Tabula EUR Itraxx Crossover Credit Short UCITS ETF with ISIN number IE00BH05CB83 (the "Shares").

Further to our Circular dated 23/05/2022 concerning the closure of these share classes on 15/06/2022, we write to inform you that the payment date will be on or before the 29/06/22, with a final Net Asset Value per share of 91.8659

Yours sincerely,

For and on behalf of

Tabula ICAV
Fantom continues to attract investors as billionaire investor and founder of HyperChain Capital Stelian Balta adds another $15 million. HyperChain has a considerable investment track record in the past few years, a practice that enables them to keep doing well as other funds implode in the crypto winter.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates--(Newsfile Corp. - June 24, 2022) - As the cryptocurrency ecosystem undergoes its regular, cyclical bear market that has come to be known as the crypto winter, the top investing firm HyperChain Capital is showing no signs of wavering in its support for Fantom, following an additional $15 million investment in the protocol.





Fantom continues to attract investors as billionaire Stelian Balta invests another $15 million



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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This latest eight-figure investment follows two previous investment rounds including an initial investment of $2.5 million made in 2018 when Fantom was founded and a $15 million investment in April of 2021.

The Fantom network is a high-performance, scalable, and secure smart-contract platform designed to facilitate decentralized, scalable and secure applications.

According to data from the Fantom Foundation, there have been more than 178,000 smart contracts launched on the Fantom network to date, which process more than 850,000 transactions per day on average. There are currently more than 2.85 million unique wallets, with thousands more being added every day. As Fantom offers absolute finality, transactions can never be reversed and it offers institutional-grade security to distributed networks.

HyperChain's most recent investment comes at a time when the crypto industry is undergoing a shake-up as major funds fold and spark contagion effects across the crypto landscape.

Thanks to a well-laid-out investment strategy that includes in-depth risk analysis and risk management, HyperChain has managed to avoid being exposed to the firms that are currently sparking a contagion effect across the ecosystem, including Three Arrows Capital or Celsius.

According to HyperChain Capital founder Stelian Balta, "Fantom has the strongest technology stack out there. They can process multiple transactions simultaneously, dramatically increasing network throughput. I am extremely confident in their technology roadmap with further improvements to consensus and the launch of the Fantom Virtual Machine."

Media Contacts

Fantom Foundation,

support@fantom.foundation

https://fantom.foundation

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/128850
Jakarta, Indonesia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 24, 2022) - Cakap, one of the biggest edtech companies in Indonesia, just released an impact report regarding the edtech landscape and how the industry drives the education development through foreign language learning and vocational training. The results have led to significant growth in the equal access of quality education as well as better capability of human resources in Indonesia. With more than 2 million users, 1 million hours of live learning, and more than 1,000 qualified teachers, Cakap continuously contributes to the development of education in the 34 provinces of Indonesia through the online platform and its cutting-edge curriculum.





Impact Report 2021

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Students of Oekamusa Elementary School in Timor Tengah Selatan Regency (part of remote and frontier regency), East Nusa Tenggara, learn English online through their gadgets

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Throughout 2021, we are humble that Cakap has provided impacts for several parties. Cakap has reached students in 95 cities across 34 provinces in Indonesia. Various upskill classes and initiatives have also reached 350 underprivileged households, as well as those in frontier, remote and disadvantaged areas (3T). From the employment side, well-equipped students from the learning process in Cakap are able to achieve financial success and better position at work. 78% of adult students stated that they have better career opportunities, meanwhile 55% of business owners also agreed learning with Cakap has helped them to improve their profit.

Through the Cakap Teachers Academy (CTA) program, many professional teachers from all corners of Indonesia have participated in the English teaching scholarship program. Some graduates from this program have succeeded in becoming teachers and joining Cakap's teaching partners. In addition, Cakap also provides flexible space for teaching partners, so that apart from earning a higher income.





Screenshot of online Mandarin course for tourism worker in Bali

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In addition, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Kemlu), last year Cakap provided foreign language training (French, German, Korean) to 100 state civil servants (ASN) and diplomats through 8,750 program hours equivalent to 125 online course sessions in total. The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (Kominfo) also collaborated with Cakap by providing skills and foreign language training for 200 workers in the tourism sector spread across five priority destinations.

Cakap continues to support the government's program in order to accelerate economic recovery in the post-pandemic era, especially in the tourism, migrant workers, and small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sectors. In fact, out of 64 million in total, only 17 million of Indonesia's SMEs have gone digital, meaning 70% of them have not. This opportunity will be utilized by Cakap through its upskilling program. Moreover, in the first quarter of this year, Cakap, together with related stakeholders, provided an English language training scholarship program that targeted 5,000 tourism workers. Last year as many as 8,494 modules were delivered to the students, with high demand vocational courses coming from hospitality, tourism, and marketing.

***

Contact Person:

Ferry Prihardiputra

Public Relations Manager

Ph: (+62) 8175268638

Email: ferry.prihardiputra@cakap.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/128827
Test your DrinkiQ and make it AHolidayToRemember

LONDON, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Passengers flying out of Heathrow Terminal 5 this summer can check in at Lounge 0.0%, a brand-new immersive passenger activation from Tanqueray 0.0% - the new alcohol-free spirit alternative now available in travel retail.

Designed to challenge passengers to test their DrinkiQ, the activation empowers travellers with the knowledge to choose positive drinking choices and make it a holiday to remember.

Located in the World Duty Free store in Heathrow's Terminal 5, Lounge 0.0% passengers are offered a bespoke boarding pass with a QR code directing them to the quiz by a dedicated flight assistant, before being escorted to the interactive pop-up bar to complete the quiz on their mobile devices or dedicated iPads installed on the bar top.

Once completed, visitors can show off their quiz score to enjoy a sample of Tanqueray 0.0% and tonic; offering the same delicious taste of Tanqueray London Dry Gin - yet zero alcohol.

Dafydd Pugh Williams, Marketing and Innovation Director, at Diageo Global Travel said, "We're delighted to welcome passengers to Lounge 0.0%. At Diageo, we want to change the way the world interacts with alcohol for the better by celebrating moderation.

Our iconic brands are best enjoyed responsibly, and this is why we have committed to reaching 1 billion alcohol consumers from across the globe with positive drinking messages by 2030.

Thanks to our collaboration with partners World Duty Free and Heathrow Airport, this activation will help us achieve this goal, engaging with passengers pre-flight, capitalising on their dwell time and driving completion of the DrinkiQ quiz.

Our hope for Lounge 0.0% is that we can inspire and educate travellers as they embark on their journey to choose balanced choices and make it a holiday to remember."

On departure, passengers are gifted a bespoke reusable water bottle, encouraging them to stay hydrated with H20 throughout their travels. The water bottle also features the QR code to the DrinkiQ quiz , so passengers can attempt to beat their best score or challenge family and friends.

Travellers can also capture their experience, by selecting an unforgettable holiday backdrop on the interactive photo wall, snap a selfie before sharing on their socials using AHolidayToRemember

Paul Martin, World Duty Free's Category Manager for Liquor added; "Diageo is a key partner for us and we are delighted to be able to support their latest campaign activation in our World Duty Free store in Heathrow Terminal 5. As a leading travel retailer, we are committed to helping our customers drink responsibly and with the creation of Lounge 0.0% and an engaging quiz concept, Diageo has introduced an innovative way to remind travellers of the importance of responsible alcohol consumption."

Fraser Brown, Retail & Property Director at Heathrow Airport concluded; "Heathrow takes a proactive approach in promoting responsible drinking and maintaining a safe and enjoyable environment for all as part of our continued commitment through the One Too Many campaign. We're delighted to partner with Diageo and World Duty Free to bring these brand new immersive experiences to the airport, and to remind our passengers of the importance of always remaining fit to fly for a trip to remember."

The activation is live in Heathrow Terminal 5 departures until the end of July 2022.

Notes to Editors

About Tanqueray 0.0%:

The launch of Tanqueray 0.0% in travel retail was announced by Diageo Global Travel in October 2021, providing travellers with a new alcohol-free alternative in duty-free. The exciting new addition is an alternative drink option for those not willing to compromise on taste.

Crafted using the same distinct blend of quality botanicals used in the making of Tanqueray London Dry gin, including piney juniper, peppery coriander, aromatic angelica and sweet liquorice, Tanqueray 0.0% provides all the taste, yet zero alcohol.

About Diageo:

Diageo is a global leader in beverage alcohol with an outstanding collection of brands across spirits and beer categories. These brands include Johnnie Walker, Crown Royal, JeB and Buchanan's whiskies, Smirnoff, Ciroc and Ketel One vodkas, Captain Morgan, Baileys, Don Julio, Tanqueray and Guinness.

Diageo is a global company, and our products are sold in more than 180 countries around the world. The company is listed on both the London Stock Exchange (DGE) and the New York Stock Exchange (DEO). For more information about Diageo, our people, our brands and performance, visit us at www.diageo.com. Visit Diageo's global responsible drinking resource, www.DRINKiQ.com, for information, initiatives and ways to share best practice.

Celebrating life, every day, everywhere.

Please drink responsibly. Visit drinkiq.com for the facts.

Photo- https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1847196/Welcome_to_Lounge.jpg

Photo- https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1847195/Scan_to_test.jpg
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The United States will release the latest tranche of military assistance to Ukraine worth $450 million, including additional long-range rocket systems, to help it fight the Russian attacks. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he is authorizing the thirteenth drawdown of arms and equipment from U.S. Department of Defense inventories for Ukraine's defense since August 2021. This will bring total U.S. security assistance to Ukraine to more than $6.1 billion since Russia's invasion of that country on February 24. Capabilities in this package include four High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems; 36,000 rounds of 105 mm ammunition; 18 tactical vehicles to tow 155 mm artillery; 1,200 grenade launchers; 2,000 machine guns; and 18 coastal and riverine patrol boats. The steady flow of U.S. security assistance, and that from our coalition of more than 40 Allies and partners, continues to bolster Ukraine's defenses, improves its ability to defend its sovereign territory, and secures hard-fought victories on the battlefield, Blinken said in a statement. Meanwhile, Russia has intensified attack on Severodonetsk, forcing Ukrainian forces to withdraw from the embattled eastern city after months of bloody combat. 'The Ukrainian armed forces are performing a professional, tactical retrograde in order to consolidate their forces in positions that they can better defend themselves,' a U.S .Defense official told reporters in a background call. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed his country's gratitude to US President Biden and the American people for the latest package of military aid. 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.
Harris Williams, a global investment bank specializing in M&A advisory services, announces Keensight Capital's (Keensight) investment in Lisam Systems (Lisam). Lisam serves more than 2,000 clients operating across various industries worldwide, including chemicals, detergents, paints and coatings, industrial and specialty gases, and fragrances. The transaction, led by Julien Oussadon, Brian Titterington, and Luke Clifford of the Harris Williams Technology Group, extends the firm's experience in the environmental, health, and safety (EH&S) software sector.

"As a leader in EH&S compliance management software, Lisam is recognized for its innovative offerings and provides a wide range of mission-critical solutions to its clients across the globe," said Julien Oussadon, a managing director at Harris Williams. "We are excited about our momentum in the EH&S space, and we believe Keensight is the ideal partner for Lisam as it embarks on its next chapter."

Gregory Agez, a partner at Keensight, added, "Harris Williams has a deep understanding of the EH&S software sector, and their transaction expertise was integral to our successful outcome. We look forward to supporting Lisam as it executes on its growth and expansion strategies in the years ahead."

Founded in 1999, Lisam is a global provider of EH&S compliance management software solutions and services, operating worldwide. Since its creation, Lisam has been actively working at bringing innovative, affordable, and timely solutions to solve the challenges faced by manufacturers, distributors, and users of chemical products when dealing with the ever-changing regulatory standards. Today, thousands of actors in the chemical supply chain rely on Lisam's software and services to manage the authoring and distribution of all their safety documents, from safety data sheets and labels to safety instruction cards or exposure scenarios.

Keensight, one of the leading European growth buyout firms, is committed to supporting entrepreneurs as they implement their growth strategies. For 20 years, Keensight's team of seasoned professionals has leveraged their knowledge of investment and growth industries to invest for the long term in profitable companies with high growth potential and revenues in the range of 10 million to 400 million. Drawing on its expertise in the technology and healthcare sectors, Keensight identifies the best investment opportunities in Europe and works closely with management teams to develop and achieve their strategic vision. Keensight's success has earned it a Gold Award from the Private Equity Exchange Awards each year for the last five consecutive years, and it has also been recognized as the Best European Growth Private Equity Fund.

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 Technology Group advises leading private and public companies, founders, and private equity, growth equity and venture capital firms on mergers and acquisitions and capital-raising transactions worldwide. The Technology Group has deep domain expertise in software and technology-enabled services and dedicated focus areas across a variety of vertical software applications and end markets. For more information on the Technology Group and its recent transactions, visit the Technology Group's 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: hwgermany@harriswilliams.com). 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/20220624005358/en/

Contacts:

For media inquiries, please contact Julia Moore at media@harriswilliams.com.
Result of the Annual General Meeting ('AGM') of Invesco Bond Income Plus Limited (the 'Company') held on 24 June 2022.

The Company confirms that all resolutions set out in the Notice of Meeting for the AGM of the Company held on 24 June 2022 were duly passed by shareholders on a poll.

The results of the poll for each resolution were as follows:

VOTES

FOR (including votes at the discretion of the Chair) % VOTES

AGAINST % VOTES

TOTAL % of ISC VOTED VOTES

WITHHELD Resolution 1 34,145,243 99.91% 29,336 0.09% 34,174,579 20.27% 67,825 Resolution 2 25,552,828 84.32% 4,751,987 15.68% 30,304,815 17.98% 3,937,589 Resolution 3 34,198,057 99.99% 2,918 0.01% 34,200,975 20.29% 41,429 Resolution 4 33,968,622 99.42% 198,326 0.58% 34,166,948 20.27% 75,456 Resolution 5 31,373,035 91.79% 2,805,814 8.21% 34,178,849 20.27% 63,555 Resolution 6 33,486,174 98.08% 653,813 1.92% 34,139,987 20.25% 102,417 Resolution 7 33,450,230 98.06% 662,531 1.94% 34,112,761 20.24% 129,643 Resolution 8 33,484,246 98.08% 653,818 1.92% 34,138,064 20.25% 104,340 Resolution 9 33,449,076 97.98% 688,685 2.02% 34,137,761 20.25% 104,643 Resolution 10 33,481,776 98.05% 665,485 1.95% 34,147,261 20.26% 95,143 Resolution 11 33,475,635 98.07% 659,692 1.93% 34,135,327 20.25% 107,077 Resolution 12 33,899,675 99.52% 163,963 0.48% 34,063,638 20.21% 178,766 Resolution 13 33,903,061 99.20% 274,978 0.80% 34,178,039 20.27% 64,365 Resolution 14 34,090,918 99.67% 112,227 0.33% 34,203,145 20.29% 39,259 Resolution 15 33,756,305 98.78% 417,315 1.22% 34,173,620 20.27% 68,784

The full text of the resolutions passed was as follows:

Ordinary Resolutions:

1. To receive the annual financial report for the year ended 31 December 2021.

2. To approve the Report on Directors' Remuneration and Interests.

3. To approve the Company's Dividend Payment Policy to pay four quarterly dividends to shareholders in May, August, November and February in respect of each accounting year.

4. To re-appoint PricewaterhouseCoopers CI LLP as the Company's auditor.

5. To authorise the Audit Committee to determine the remuneration of the auditor.

6. To re-elect Tim Scholefield a Director of the Company.

7. To re-elect Heather MacCallum a Director of the Company.

8. To re-elect Tom Quigley a Director of the Company.

9. To re-elect Caroline Dutot a Director of the Company.

10. To elect Kate Bolsover a Director of the Company.

11. To elect Christine Johnson a Director of the Company.

Special Business:

Ordinary Resolution

12. THAT, in accordance with Article 158 of the Company's Articles of Association, the Directors of the Company be and they are hereby released from their obligation pursuant to such Article to convene a general meeting of the Company within six months of the AGM at which a special resolution would be proposed to wind up the Company.

Special Resolutions

13. THAT, pursuant to Article 14.1 of the Company's Articles of Association, the Directors be and are hereby empowered to issue shares, up to 10% of the existing shares in issue at the time of the AGM, without pre-emption.

14. THAT, pursuant to Article 8.2 of the Company's Articles of Association and Article 57 of the Companies (Jersey) Law 1991 as amended (the Law), the Company be generally and unconditionally authorised:

(a) to make purchases of its issued ordinary shares of no par value (Shares) to be cancelled or held as treasury shares provided that:

(i) the maximum number of Shares hereby authorised to be purchased shall be 14.99% of the Company's issued ordinary shares, this being 25,269,781;

(ii) the minimum price which may be paid for a Share is 1p;

(iii) the maximum price which may be paid for a share must not be more than the higher of:

(i) 5 per cent. above the average of the mid-market values of the Shares for the five business days before the purchase is made; and

(ii) the higher of the price of the last independent trade in the shares and the highest then current independent bid for the Shares on the London Stock Exchange;

(iv) any purchase of shares will be made in the market for cash prices below the prevailing net asset value per share (as determined by the Directors);

(v) the authority hereby conferred shall expire on the earlier of the conclusion of the next AGM of the Company held after passing of this resolution or 15 months from the date of the passing of this resolution, whichever is the earlier.

15. THAT, the period of notice required for general meetings of the Company (other than AGMs) shall not be less than 14 days.

The Company has 168,577,596 ordinary shares of no par value in issue. On a poll these carry one vote per share and accordingly the total voting rights are 168,577,596. The above table represents the number of votes registered.

A copy of the poll results for the AGM will also be available on the Company's website:

www.invesco.co.uk/bips

In accordance with Listing Rule 9.6.2, copies of the resolutions that were passed at the annual general meeting, which do not constitute ordinary business will shortly be available for inspection via the National Storage Mechanism:

https://data.fca.org.uk/#/nsm/nationalstoragemechanism



24 June 2022

Contact:

Hilary Jones

JTC Fund Solutions (Jersey) Limited

Telephone: 01534 700000
Regulatory News:

Ontex Group NV (BSE:ONTEX), a leading international provider of personal hygiene solutions, will release its Q2 and H1 2022 results at 07:00 CET 06:00 GMT on Friday, July 29, 2022. Management will host a webcast for investors and analysts on the same day at 11:00 CET 10:00 GMT. Click on the link below to attend the presentation from your laptop, tablet or mobile device.

https://channel.royalcast.com/landingpage/ontexgroup/20220729_1

A replay of the webcast will be available at the same link shortly after the conclusion of the live presentation, and remain available on the same link for one year.

Following its strategic review announced end of 2021, Ontex has aligned its 2022 reporting structure and has restated 2021 financial data accordingly. "Core Markets" encompass Europe, North America and some smaller partner and healthcare brand businesses elsewhere. These businesses form the core of Ontex's activities and will be reported as continuing operations. "Emerging Markets" are primarily driven by own brands and essentially groups the Central and South American activities, as well as those in the Middle East and Africa. Ontex has announced it will pursue divestment opportunities for these and will thereby report these as assets held for sale and discontinued operations.

Unaudited restated revenue and adjusted EBITDA figures for the quarters of 2021 were disclosed earlier in the year. Additional P&L elements for the half years are presented below.

2021 Condensed P&L Restated As published in million H1 H2 FY H1 H2 FY Revenue 686.9 721.8 1,408.7 980.6 1,045.8 2,026.4 Cost of sales (479.7) (529.6) (1,009.3) (711.5) (798.9) (1,510.4) Gross Profit 207.2 192.2 399.4 269.1 247.0 516.0 Operating expenses (122.6) (120.6) (243.2) (168.1) (175.7) (343.8) Adjusted EBITDA 84.6 71.6 156.3 101.0 71.3 172.2 Adjusted EBITDA margin 12.3% 9.9% 11.1% 10.3% 6.8% 8.5% Non-recurring income expenses (20.1) (39.6) (59.7) (23.1) (61.6) (84.7) Depreciations Amortization (33.0) (32.7) (65.7) (43.9) (43.8) (87.7) Operating profit (loss) 31.5 (0.6) 30.9 33.9 (34.2) (0.2) Net finance cost (21.6) (20.0) (41.5) (23.7) (19.0) (42.7) Income tax expense 2.8 (8.4) (5.6) (3.1) (16.0) (19.0) Profit (loss) from continuing operations 12.8 (29.0) (16.2) 7.2 (69.1) (61.9) Adjusted profit (loss) from continuing operations 27.1 (0.2) 26.9 24.2 (19.0) 5.3 Profit (loss) from discontinued operations (5.6) (40.1) (45.7) Profit (loss) for the period 7.2 (69.1) (61.9) 7.2 (69.1) (61.9) Basic EPS from continuing operations (in ) 0.16 (0.36) (0.20) 0.09 (0.85) (0.76) Adjusted basic EPS from continuing operations (in ) 0.34 0.33 0.30 (0.23) 0.07 Basic EPS (in ) 0.09 (0.85) (0.76) 0.09 (0.85) (0.76)

About Ontex

Ontex is a leading international provider of personal hygiene solutions, with expertise in baby care, feminine care and adult care. Ontex's innovative products are distributed in more than 110 countries through leading retailer brands, lifestyle brands and Ontex brands. Employing some 9,000 people all over the world, Ontex has a presence in 21 countries, with its headquarters in Aalst, Belgium. Ontex is listed on Euronext Brussels and is part of the Bel Mid. To keep up with the latest news, visit ontex.com or follow Ontex on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220624005377/en/

Contacts:

Enquiries

Investors

Geoffroy Raskin

+32 53 33 37 30

investor.relations@ontexglobal.com

Media

Caroline De Wolf

+32 478 93 43 93

corporate.communications@ontexglobal.com
Finsbury Growth & Income Trust Plc - Transaction in Own Shares

For immediate release

24 June 2022

FINSBURY GROWTH & INCOME TRUST PLC

(the "Company")

MARKET PURCHASE OF COMPANY'S OWN SHARES

The Company announces that it has today purchased 125,000 of its own shares ("Ordinary Shares") at a price of 782.06p per Ordinary Share. Such shares will be held in treasury by the Company.

The transaction was made pursuant to the authority granted at the Annual General Meeting of the Company held on 9 February 2022.

Following this transaction, the total number of Ordinary Shares held by the Company in treasury is 4,418,772; the total number of Ordinary Shares that the Company has in issue, less the total number of Ordinary Shares held by the Company in treasury following such purchase, and therefore, the total number of voting rights in the Company is 220,572,531.

The figure of 220,572,531 may be used by shareholders as the denominator for calculations of interests in the Company's voting rights in accordance with the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

For and on behalf of

Frostrow Capital LLP

Company Secretary

For further information, please contact:

Victoria Hale

Frostrow Capital LLP

Tel: 020 3 170 8732
TIANJIN, China, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The online opening ceremony of the 6th World Intelligence Congress (WIC) cum Summit on Innovative Development was held at National Convention & Exhibition Center (Tianjin) on June 24.

Wan Gang, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and president of China Association for Science and Technology, delivered a keynote speech at the opening ceremony. Xiao Yaqing, minister of industry and information technology, Li Xiaohong, president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and Li Hongzhong, secretary of CPC Tianjin Committee, gave speeches. Zhang Gong, acting mayor of Tianjin, presided over the event.

Wan said China has seen fast development of new-generation artificial intelligence which is characterized by technology integration and function expansion in singular intelligence, multi-source heterogeneous data and connotation extension in swarm intelligence, application scenario-driven interdisciplinary integration and efficient security guarantee. He also said that, after five years' development, the WIC has become a platform and a bridge that showcase and link the latest outcomes in the global AI community, an iconic event in Tianjin, and a window for a glimpse of China's AI industry.

Li Hongzhong said Tianjin has been endeavoring to be a pioneer in AI development and made a series of achievements over the past five years, including increasing passion for scientific explorations, enhanced vigor and concentrated resources for innovation, a thriving AI industry and wide application of digital and AI technologies in industries and everyday life. He said Tianjin will spare no effort to build an innovation cluster, make manufacturing a main driver for the city's development, deepen the reform of the local science and technology management system, and quicken the pace of building a "smart port".

As a representative of the Guest Country of Honor, Tom Duke, deputy HM trade commissioner for China at the Department for International Trade of British Embassy Beijing, spoke on site. Yuval Waks, deputy chief of mission at the Israel Embassy in China, spoke via video. They both agreed that the success of the WIC has shown that China, especially Tianjin, is demonstrating great strength and playing an important role in the technology-driven world today, and hoped the WIC could help further enhance the ties between China and their countries in science and technology development and trade.

Following the WIC opening ceremony was the Summit on Innovative Development, which was presided over by Gong Ke, former president of World Federation of Engineering Organizations and executive director of the Chinese Institute of New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Strategies.

Twelve guests delivered speeches on site or via video. Among them are Zhou Ji, honorary chairman of Governing Board of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Yin Qi, co-founder and CEO of MEGVII, Liu Liehong, chairman of China Unicom, Yang Yuanqing, chairman and CEO of Lenovo, Zeng Yi, director and general manager of China Electronics Corporation, Nabil Habayeb, senior vice president of GE and president and CEO of GE International Markets, Zhou Hongyi, founder of 360 Group, Thomas J. Sargent, winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences and a professor of economics and business at New York University, Chen Xudong, general manager of IBM Greater China, Liu Jiren, founding chairman of Neusoft, Wang Yusuo, chairman of ENN Group, and Wang Jian, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and founder of Alibaba Cloud.

Contact: Fan Yingming

Tel: 0086-13702005832

Email: wic@wiccongress.org

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1847297/World_Intelligence_Congress_1.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1847298/World_Intelligence_Congress_2.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1847302/World_Intelligence_Congress_Logo.jpg
Columbus, Ohio--(Newsfile Corp. - June 24, 2022) - Better For You Wellness, Inc. (OTCQB: BFYW) ("Better For You Wellness" or the "Company"), an Ohio-based company focused on the rapidly-growing $1.5T wellness industry, announces that Dr. Nicola Finley, MD has resigned as a Director of the Company effective June 18, 2022 due to time constraints and professional bandwidth. Alongside Dr. Finley's resignation from the Company's Board of Directors (the "Board"), she notified the Board of her willingness to voluntarily relinquish the compensatory options referenced in her Director Agreement dated August 29, 2021.

Furthermore, the Company is pleased to announce that on June 20, 2022, its Board of Directors has unanimously appointed Melisse Gelula as a non-executive independent director, effective immediately. Ms. Gelula is Co-Founder and former Chief Creative Officer for Well+Good, a wellness-focused media company that was acquired by Leaf Group Ltd. in 2018. Gelula was honored by Inc. Magazine as one of the 9 Most Creative Entrepreneurs of 2018 and by AdWeek (June 2018), recognized as 10 Writers and Editors Who Are Changing the National Conversation. Gelula is also the former editor-in-chief of SpaFinderLifestyle.com, beauty director at Luxury SpaFinder Magazine, and travel editor at Fodor's Travel Publications. She is an advisory board member of the Global Wellness Institute and a member of its Mental Wellness Initiative. Gelula earned her B.A. from the University of Iowa and an M.A. from the University of Toronto.

"Dr. Finley served the Company during a critical growth period for the Company and helped us pave the path for our next stages of growth and evolution, and for that, we are incredibly grateful. We appreciate her continued support and guidance as a friend of Better For You Wellness, and wish her continued success in all that she does," said Ian James, Chief Executive Officer of Better For You Wellness.

"I'm thrilled to be joining the Board of a rapidly growing company like Better For You Wellness with such a strong pipeline of brands, products, and pending transactions that I've witnessed first-hand while serving on the Company's advisory board," commented Ms. Gelula. "Wellness products lacking functionality are not wellness products at all. In applying my years of experience within the wellness sector to Better For You Wellness, I'm excited to improve the experience for consumers in creating and acquiring brands that can truly enhance their lives."

About Better For You Wellness, Inc.

Better For You Wellness, Inc. (OTCQB: BFYW) is a Columbus, Ohio-based Company pursuing a dual buy-and-build model within the wellness industry. Better For You Wellness, Inc., through its wholly-owned subsidiary, builds and operates digitally-native, mission-driven brands within the clean beauty sector, including Better Suds. Better For You Wellness, Inc. is also under LOI to acquire multiple companies within the clean and natural beauty category. Learn more at https://BFYW.com.

Contact:

Better For You Wellness, Inc.

Ian James, CEO

investors@bfyw.com

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements relate to future events or our future financial performance. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology including "could," "may," "will," "should," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential" and the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. While these forward-looking statements, and any assumptions upon which they are based, are made in good faith and reflect our current judgment regarding the direction of our business, actual results will almost always vary, sometimes materially, from any estimates, predictions, projections, assumptions or other future performance suggested in this report. Except as required by applicable law, we do not intend to update any of the forward-looking statements so as to conform these statements to actual results. Investors should refer to the risks disclosed in the Company's reports filed with SEC (https://www.sec.gov/).

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/128971
Herzliya, Israel and Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - June 24, 2022) - Innocan Pharma Corporation (CSE: INNO) (FSE: IP4) (OTCQB: INNPF) (the "Company" or "Innocan") is pleased to announce successful preclinical trials in dogs with osteoarthritis. A case entailing the clinical condition of Goody, an 8-year-old male mixed-breed dog, who was rescued in a terrible condition after he was found tied up with a very short leash, cachectic and wounded, was published. Goody suffers from severe osteoarthritis in most of his joints, and severe muscle atrophy, mostly surrounding the pelvic limbs. Goody was already treated with joint supplements, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and hydrotherapy. The liposomal CBD was administered on top of these treatments.





Figure 1 Goody before LPT injection



To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6922/128972_bce1ad1604b988f6_003full.jpg





Figure 2 Goody after LPT injection



To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6922/128972_bce1ad1604b988f6_002full.jpg

Link to the Video- https://youtu.be/F7fWqD6BQPU

Goody's (the dog) owners said, "We adopted Goody as a dog that has a lot of joint problems. During July 2021 his condition became worse making him incapable of rising without performing on him joint warmup and massage. It was sad seeing him unable to enjoy life. After Goody received the liposomal CBD injections, it was as if a new dog came into our lives. He gets up all the time and enjoys life more than ever. We even complain sometimes that he gets up too much. He has this smile all the time as if he is enjoying himself and we could not be happier."

"The global pain management drugs market reached a value of US$ 65.4 Billion in 2021. Looking forward, IMARC Group expects the market to reach US$ 82.1 Billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 3.8% during 2022-2027". (Market Research, May 2022)

"Putting an end to the misery of patients is life's ultimate calling," said Iris Bincovich, CEO of Innocan, and added "We couldn't be more honored to prove our clinical standing, together with our R&D labs, and to move and major step towards the market."

Innocan's Unique Solution

By administering CBD encapsulated in liposomes (the LPT platform), Innocan seeks to achieve long-lasting and significant levels of CBD in the body, which Innocan believes will create a far more effective and continuous therapeutic effect.

Innocan carried out a series of experiments of its LPT platform on animals. These experiments have demonstrated initial positive results, validating the viability of Innocan's intention to make CBD available to humans and animals for extended periods upon a single dosage.

Innocan's unique delivery method allows for the controlled release of CBD into the bloodstream with improved pharmacokinetic (PK) performance. The research was conducted in collaboration with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and indicates potential for the Company's technology to deliver cannabinoids to the blood stream in an effective manner.

Innocan's relationship with The Hebrew University

Innocan Pharma Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, has entered into a worldwide exclusive research and license agreement with Yissum Research and Development Company ("Yissum"), the commercial arm of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, with respect to the design, preparation, characterization and evaluation of sustained release products of CBD (or other cannabinoids). The research and development initiative is led by Professor Chezy Barenholz, head of the Membrane and Liposome Research Department at The Hebrew University, which is the inventor of over fifty-five patent families, two of which underlie Doxil, an FDA-approved drug for breast cancer treatment. This unique liposome platform technology may have a wide range of applications, such as epilepsy, pain relief, inflammation and central nervous system disorders. A patent was filed covering this technology on October 7, 2019.

About Innocan

Innocan is a pharmaceutical technology company that focuses on the development of several drug delivery platforms containing CBD. Innocan Pharma and Ramot at Tel Aviv University are collaborating on a new, revolutionary exosome-based technology that targets both central nervous system (CNS) indications and the Covid-19 Corona Virus using CBD. CBD-loaded exosomes hold the potential to help in the recovery of infected lung cells. This product, which is expected to be administered by inhalation, will be tested against a variety of lung infections.

Innocan Pharma signed a worldwide exclusive license agreement with Yissum, the commercial arm of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, to develop a CBD drug delivery platform based on a unique-controlled release liposome to be administered by injection. Innocan Israel plans, together with Professor Barenholz, to test the liposome platform on several potential conditions. Innocan Israel is also working on a dermal product that integrates CBD with other pharmaceutical ingredients as well as the development and sale of CBD-integrated pharmaceuticals, including, but not limited to, topical treatments for the relief of psoriasis symptoms as well as the treatment of muscle pain and rheumatic pain. The founders and officers of Innocan Pharma Ltd. each have commercially successful track records in the pharmaceutical and technology sectors in Israel and globally.

For further information, please contact:

For Innocan Pharma Corporation:

Iris Bincovich, CEO

+972-54-3012842

info@innocanpharma.com

NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER HAVE REVIEWED OR ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

Caution regarding forward-looking information

Certain information set forth in this news release, including, without limitation, information regarding research and development, collaborations, the filing of potential applications with the FDA and other regulatory authorities, the potential achievement of future regulatory milestones, the potential for treatment of conditions and other therapeutic effects resulting from research activities and/or the Company's products, requisite regulatory approvals and the timing for market entry, is forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. By its nature, forward-looking information is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, some of which are beyond Innocan's control. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by Innocan, including expectations and assumptions concerning the anticipated benefits of the products, satisfaction of regulatory requirements in various jurisdictions and satisfactory completion of requisite production and distribution arrangements.

Forward-looking information is subject to various risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results and experience to differ materially from the anticipated results or expectations expressed in this news release. The key risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to: general global and local (national) economic, market and business conditions; governmental and regulatory requirements and actions by governmental authorities; and relationships with suppliers, manufacturers, customers, business partners and competitors. There are also risks that are inherent in the nature of product distribution, including import / export matters and the failure to obtain any required regulatory and other approvals (or to do so in a timely manner) and availability in each market of product inputs and finished products. The anticipated timeline for entry to markets may change for a number of reasons, including the inability to secure necessary regulatory requirements, or the need for additional time to conclude and/or satisfy the manufacturing and distribution arrangements. As a result of the foregoing, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking information contained in this news release concerning the timing of launch of product distribution. A comprehensive discussion of other risks that impact Innocan can also be found in Innocan's public reports and filings which are available under Innocan's profile at www.sedar.com.

Readers are cautioned that undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking information as actual results may vary materially from the forward-looking information. Innocan does not undertake to update, correct or revise any forward-looking information as a result of any new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/128972
BURBANK (dpa-AFX) - Several major U.S. companies, including Walt Disney, Netflix, Meta and JPMorgan Chase, have assured their employees that they will cover travel costs to states that allow legal abortions. The decision was made in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade on Friday. The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday issued a decision overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that established a woman's constitutional right to have an abortion for nearly fifty years. The 6-3 decision comes roughly two months after a leaked draft of an opinion indicated the court's conservative majority's intent to overturn Roe v. Wade. Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito notes the U.S. Constitution makes no reference to abortion and argues no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In an internal memo to employees, JPMorgan told its workers that from July they will be able to access additional covered benefits under the U.S. Medical Plan. Those changes include 'family-building benefits, such as cryopreservation,' and enhanced benefits for LGBT+ workers, the bank said. Video streaming giant Netflix said it will offer a $10,000 lifetime allowance for travel reimbursement for cancer treatment, transplants, gender affirming care, or abortion. Disney has told employees that a benefit for those who may be unable to access care in their location covers travel to another location, including for pregnancy-related decisions. Meta, Facebook's parent company, will 'offer travel expense reimbursements, to the extent permitted by law, for employees who will need them to access out-of-state health care and reproductive services.' Paramount, Comcast, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Sony all issued similar statements expanding employee healthcare. 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.
Welcomes Robert Gorrie as VP of Development; founder Phuong Dinh to focus on board and chair responsibilities

Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - June 24, 2022) - Mijem Newcomm Tech Inc. (CSE: MJEM) ("Mijem" or the "Company"), the Canada-based social media and technology company, announces that effective June 30, 2022, Phuong Dinh will step down from his role as CSPO in the Company's day-to-day operations as part of a strategic realignment of its executive resources. Mr. Dinh has been with Mijem since its founding and will continue to serve the Company as a director and chair of the Mijem Board.

"Having worked with our new management team for the past months, I am pleased with the progress that the team is making. In making this change, I now look forward to supporting the team and the Company's growth in my role as a director and chair of the board," said Mr. Dinh.

Mijem is also pleased to welcome Mr. Robert Gorrie as Vice President of Development. Mr. Gorrie has been working with Mijem to develop and enhance the product roadmap, architecture, and specifications to bring increased value to Mijem's application. Mr. Gorrie is responsible for the continued development and expansion of the product roadmap and optimizing the technical team and systems to ensure the roadmap is delivered on a timely and efficient basis.

Mr. Gorrie succeeds Chief Technology Officer Igor Rosenblit, who departed the Company on June 17, 2022. Mr. Rosenblit's departure coincided with the successful release of two major features: 1) the addition of a BSV cryptocurrency loyalty program; and 2) a re-design of the in-app payments system. The Company thanks Mr. Rosenblit for his commitment and contribution to Mijem in the development of these new features.

Laurie Freudenberg

Chief Executive Officer

Mijem Newcomm Tech Inc.

media@mijem.com

Sean Peasgood

Investor Relations

sean@sophiccapital.com

437-253-9222

About Mijem Newcomm Tech Inc.

Mijem is a Canadian-based social media and technology company that provides innovative solutions to create a vibrant social marketplace for Generation Z to connect and to efficiently buy, sell and trade goods and services. Mijem's patent-pending flagship technology currently permits thousands of university and college students across the United States and Canada to both connect on-line and engage in consumer-to-consumer commerce.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements contained herein that are not clearly historical in nature may constitute forward-looking statements. Generally, such forward-looking information or forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or may contain statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "will continue", "will occur" or "will be achieved".

Forward-looking information in this news release is based on certain assumptions and expected future events. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list is not exhaustive. Readers are further cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are placed will occur. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated.

Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement and reflect the Company's expectations as of the date hereof and are subject to change thereafter. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, estimates or opinions, future events or results or otherwise or to explain any material difference between subsequent actual events and such forward-looking information, except as required by applicable law.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities, in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/128734
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 24, 2022) - West Vault Mining Inc. (TSXV: WVM) (OTCQX:WVMDF) ("West Vault" or the "Company") is pleased to announce positive results from its Annual General Meeting (the "Annual Meeting") held on June 23, 2022, in Vancouver, British Columbia.

The Annual Meeting had a turnout of shareholders representing 74.37% of its issued shares eligible to vote at the meeting. Shareholders strongly supported the appointment of the Board and the resolutions proposed.

On a show of hands the shareholders elected management's four nominees for directors. Details of the proxy voting are as follows:

DIRECTOR

NUMBER

OF SHARES PERCENTAGE

OF VOTES CAST FOR FOR WITHHELD Peter Palmedo 41,991,134 97.20% 2.80% Pierre Lebel 41,991,134 97.20% 2.80% Priscila Costa Lima 41,991,132 97.20% 2.80% Stephen Quin 41,991,134 97.20% 2.80%



Significant shareholder support was received for the Approval of the new Share Compensation Plan for the Company with 97.19% of the shares voted in favour of this resolution. Shareholders also voted 100.00% in favour of re-appointing Deloitte LLP as auditors of the Company for the ensuing year at a remuneration to be fixed by the directors.

Following the Annual Meeting, the directors appointed Sandy McVey as Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer, and Frank Hallam as Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary of the Company for the ensuing year.

For more information on these matters, please refer to West Vault's information circular, available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com or visit our website at www.westvaultmining.com.

About West Vault Mining Inc.

The Company owns the Hasbrouck Gold Project, a heap-leach project in Nevada. The Hasbrouck Gold Project is fully-permitted and shovel-ready, and there are no known technical, environmental, economic, or social obstacles preventing immediate construction and mining.

On behalf of the Board of

West Vault Mining Inc.

"Frank Hallam"

Chief Financial Officer

For further information please see the Company's website at www.westvaultmining.com or contact us by email at info@westvaultmining.com.

Investor Relations:

Sandy McVey

(604) 685 8311 / info@westvaultmining.com

Disclaimer for Forward-Looking Information

This press release may contain forward-looking information or forward-looking statements (collectively "forward-looking information") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. 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. All statements that are not statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. Although West Vault believes that such information as set out in this press release is reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations and estimates will prove to be correct. 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. The reader is referred to the Company's public filings for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects which may be accessed through the Company's profile on SEDAR 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) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/128963
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - United Airlines' pilots are set to receive larger paychecks soon. The union representing United Airlines has approved a contract that would increase the pay of pilots at the carrier by more than 14% over the next 18 months. United Airlines would become the first major U.S. carrier to reach a deal since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The deal comes at a time when the industry is facing a shortage of pilots, which has forced carriers to cancel and trim flight scheduled worldwide. Under the agreement approved Friday, pilots would get more than 14.5% in pay increases within 18 months, according to the Air Line Pilots Association, which represents about 14,000 United pilots. The two-year deal also includes eight weeks of paid maternity leave, a first for the carrier's pilots The contract would need to be ratified by rank-and-file pilots to take effect. Voting will run through July 15. 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.
Singapore, Singapore--(Newsfile Corp. - June 24, 2022) - "With the upcoming hard fork, Beam is poised to fix a fundamental void in DeFi Privacy," explains Beam in its news update.

Beam Successful Hard Fork

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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DeFi enables trustless banking powered by blockchain and smart contracts, eliminating the need for centralized entities. DeFi ensures that the owner of a digital asset is its true custodian, rather than an intermediary that holds the asset on the owner's behalf. e.g. user funds stored on exchanges are actually stored on that exchange's wallet.

However, while DeFi provides private ownership and permissionless banking, it does not provide users privacy. All transactions are listed publicly on a blockchain like Ethereum. This means anyone can see what is being done by various wallets, and of course, take advantage of that knowledge.

On public blockchains like Ethereum, pending transactions that have not been executed are stored in a mempool, which can also be monitored to gain an advantage by front running other transactions by paying a higher gas fee.

Beam addresses these problems in the latest hard fork providing much-needed privacy missing from DeFi enabled blockchains. The hard fork took place on June 24th at block height 1,820,000.

The update included an integration with IPFS storage to efficiently handle large amounts of data such like NFTs and the new High-Frequency Transaction (HFTX) schema.

Following a Beam Improvement Proposal (BIP) and community-voting, the cost of minting confidential assets (CA) was significantly decreased from 500 $BEAM to just 10 $BEAM. This change will come into effect with the hard fork upgrade.

Prior to the hard fork, users were advised to update to the latest version of Beam wallet.

With the hard fork, Beam is committed to increasing programmable, custom logic that can be executed on-chain.

Beam background

Beam's privacy focus stems from its aim to create a platform and cryptocurrency that can be viably used in the real world.

In arguing for its platform, the team explains that no business or individual wants all their transactions on a public ledger for anyone to view or monitor.

In addition, when referencing other privacy coins, it points out that they do not offer programmability.

As a result, Beam has turned to the Mimblewimble and LelantusMW protocols, which offer privacy for transactions.

Mimblewimble is technology allowing for complete privacy of transactions with its own security framework.

With the use of this protocol, Beam is able to support different custom transaction methods, such as time-locked swaps, atomic swaps, and escrows.

A hard fork for privacy

As part of the hard fork's effort to bring privacy to DeFi, Beam is implementing an upgrade to their own form of smart contracts, Beam shader.

Beam shader runs within the Beam Virtual Machine and implements the custom contract logic.

The integration with the Beam Virtual Machine is key to these improvements and the expanded use by developers.

Both of these updates allow developers to build and deploy DeFi applications such as confidential assets, AMM pools, lending, stable coins, and others.

Overall, this hard fork aims to improve the scope of financial assets and dApps users can create and use while still keeping them private and secure.

BeamX DAO: A transition to complete decentralization

The Beam Foundation is a non-profit that aims to foster research and develop the Beam private-by-default ecosystem. The team are active advocates of privacy, transparency and decentralized community decision making.

The current vision for Beam protocol is to transition governance over from Beam Foundation to the BeamX DAO, making the platform fully decentralized. $BEAMX holders can influence the roadmap of the BeamX DeFi ecosystem by voting, incentivizing sustainable and decentralized community governance.

"The endgame goal is to transfer the process completely into the community's hands, providing a sufficient level of stability has been achieved," explains Beam in their news update.

About Beam:

Beam is a layer-one maximum confidentiality & privacy-by-default blockchain based on a suite of privacy-centric technology protocols such as mimblewimble, Lelantus and Dandelion, which completely conceals the value and metadata of transactions.

About BeamX:

BeamX is a DeFi ecosystem, governance token and decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) under one umbrella. Built on the world's most confidential blockchain, BeamX paves the way for an unparalleled private DeFi infrastructure with a core focus on scalability, interoperability and fully decentralized community governance.

Name: Beam Foundation

Company name: Beam Foundation

Email: info@beam.mw

Website: www.beam.mw

City: Singapore

Beam social media:

Download Beam Wallet for desktop, iOS, Android, Web

Learn more about Beam on our website and blog

Subscribe to our YouTube channel

Read about Shaders and BVM

Telegram: t.me/BeamPrivacy

QQ Beam: https://jq.qq.com/?_wv=1027&k=5Mbs8N4

Reddit: reddit.com/r/beamprivacy/

Twitter: twitter.com/beamprivacy

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/128705
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 24, 2022) - Maple Gold Mines Ltd. (TSXV: MGM) (OTCQB: MGMLF) (FSE: M3G) ("Maple Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the voting results at its Annual General and Special Meeting of shareholders held on Friday, June 24, 2022 (the "Meeting").

The Company's shareholders voted in favour of all matters brought before the Meeting, at which a total of 157,067,753 common shares were represented in person or by proxy, representing 46.8% of the Company's issued and outstanding common shares. All director nominees set out in the Management Information Circular dated May 16, 2022 were elected as directors to serve until the next meeting of shareholders of the Company. Details of voting are as follows:

Nominee Votes For % Votes For Votes Withheld % Votes Withheld Michelle Roth 110,433,268 81.77% 24,624,291 18.23% B. Matthew Hornor 120,380,290 89.13% 14,577,269 10.87% Sean Charland 103,012,749 76.27% 32,044,810 23.73% Dr. Gerald Riverin 110,252,342 81.62% 24,805,217 18.37% Maurice A. Tagami 105,145,793 77.85% 29,911,767 22.15%

At the Meeting, the shareholders of the Company also approved:

The re-appointment of Deloitte LLP as the auditor of the Company for the ensuing year and authorized the directors to fix their remuneration; and

The Company's Amended and Restated Equity Incentive Plan as described in the information circular dated May 16, 2022.

Details of votes on all matters of business considered at the Meeting are available in the Company's report of voting results on SEDAR (www.sedar.com).

About Maple Gold

Maple Gold Mines Ltd. is a Canadian advanced exploration company in a 50/50 joint venture with Agnico Eagle Mines Limited to jointly advance the district-scale Douay and Joutel gold projects located in Quebec's prolific Abitibi Greenstone Gold Belt. The projects benefit from exceptional infrastructure access and boast ~400 km2 of highly prospective ground including an established gold resource at Douay (SLR 2022) that holds significant expansion potential as well as the past-producing Eagle, Telbel and Eagle West mines at Joutel. In addition, the Company holds an exclusive option to acquire 100% of the Eagle Mine Property.

The district-scale property package also hosts a significant number of regional exploration targets along a 55 km strike length of the Casa Berardi Deformation Zone that have yet to be tested through drilling, making the project ripe for new gold and polymetallic discoveries. The Company is well capitalized and is currently focused on carrying out exploration and drill programs to grow resources and make new discoveries to establish an exciting new gold district in the heart of the Abitibi. For more information, please visit www.maplegoldmines.com.

ON BEHALF OF MAPLE GOLD MINES LTD.

"Matthew Hornor"

B. Matthew Hornor, President & CEO

For Further Information Please Contact:

Mr. Joness Lang

Executive Vice-President

Cell: 778.686.6836

Email: jlang@maplegoldmines.com

Mr. Kiran Patankar

SVP, Growth Strategy

Cell: 604.935.9577

Email: kpatankar@maplegoldmines.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 PRESS RELEASE.

Forward Looking Statements:

This press release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively referred to as "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation in Canada, including statements about exploration work and results from current and future work programs. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions, uncertainties and management's best estimate of future events. Actual events or results could differ materially from the Company's expectations and projections. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. For a more detailed discussion of such risks and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, refer to Maple Gold Mines Ltd.'s filings with Canadian securities regulators available on www.sedar.com or the Company's website at www.maplegoldmines.com. The Company does not intend, and 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, except as required by law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/128983
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - June 24, 2022) - High Fusion Inc. (CSE: FUZN) (OTC Pink: SPLIF) ("High Fusion" or the "Company") announces today that it has made an application to the Ontario Securities Commission to approve a temporary management cease trade order ("MCTO") under National Policy 12-203 - Management Cease Trade Orders ("NP 12-203"), which, if granted, will prohibit trading in securities of the Company by its Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and certain other insiders of the Company, whether direct or indirect, so long as the Q3 2022 Filings (as defined below) remain outstanding. The issuance of an MCTO would generally not affect the ability of persons who are not, or who have not been, directors, officers or other insiders of the Company to trade in the Company's securities.

The Company has determined that it is not able to meet the June 30, 2022 filing deadline (the "Filing Deadline") for its third quarter interim financial statements, the management's discussion and analysis and the related CEO and CFO certification relating to the third quarter 2022 financial statements (collectively, the "Q3 2022 Filings").

Although the Company remains confident in its ability to complete the Q 3 2022 Filings, it requires an extension and has therefore applied for an MCTO. In particular, the Company is coordinating specific tasks to be completed on a daily basis and will use its best efforts to complete the process within this timeline. The Company anticipates that, subject to current conditions remaining the same, it will require approximately four additional weeks to complete the process and in either event will use its best efforts to complete the process within the timeline indicated.

The Company intends to satisfy the provisions of the alternative information guidelines set out in Sections 9 and 10 of NP 12-203 so long as the Q3 2022 Filings are outstanding.

About High Fusion Inc.

High Fusion Inc. (formerly Nutritional High International Inc.) is focused on developing and manufacturing branded products in the cannabis industry with a specific focus on flower, pro-rolls, vapes, edibles and oil extracts for medical and adult recreational use. The Company operates and controls licenses in California, Colorado and Oregon.

High Fusion has manufacturing, retail and grow operations in California through its acquisition of the business of OutCo and owns and operates oil extraction and edible manufacturing facilities in Colorado and Oregon. The Company's brand portfolio includes its award winning FLI edibles and vape product, along with a number of new brands including Red Octopus and Dubbi Brothers in addition to the OutCo and Thrive brands recently acquired.

For updates on the Company's activities and highlights of the Company's press releases and other media coverage, please visit www.high-fusion.com.

For further information, please contact:

Robert Wilson

Chief Financial Officer

High Fusion Inc.

416-666-4005

Email: rwilson@nutritionalhigh.com

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information:

NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR OTC MARKETS GROUP INC., NOR THEIR REGULATIONS SERVICES PROVIDERS HAVE REVIEWED OR ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

This news release may contain forward-looking statements and information based on current expectations. These statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by such statements. Risks that may have an impact on the ability for these events to be achieved include completion of the Q3 2022 Filings. Although such statements are based on management's reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that such assumptions will prove to be correct. We assume no responsibility to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances.

The Company's securities have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or applicable state securities laws, and 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 under the U.S. Securities Act, absent registration or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in the United States or any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

Additionally, there are known and unknown risk factors which could cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information contained herein. All forward-looking information herein is qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement, and the Company disclaims any obligation to revise or update any such forward-looking information or to publicly announce the result of any revisions to any of the forward-looking information contained herein to reflect future results, events or developments, except as required by law. Some of the risks and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking information expressed in this press release include, but are not limited to: obtaining and maintaining regulatory approvals including acquiring and renewing U.S. state, local or other licenses, the uncertainty of existing protection from U.S. federal or other prosecution, regulatory or political change such as changes in applicable laws and regulations, including U.S. state-law legalization, market and general economic conditions of the cannabis sector or otherwise.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/128986
Apptronik, an Austin, TX-based robotics company specializing in the development of versatile, mobile robotic systems that can work alongside humans, raised $14.6m in Seed funding.

Backers included Capital Factory, Grit Ventures, Perot Jain and other strategic investors.

The company intends to use the funds to fulfill current customer orders while accelerating the commercialization of a mass-produced humanoid robot capable of working alongside humans.

Led by Jeff Cardenas, CEO, Apptronik is a robotics company that has built a platform to deliver and scale a variety of general-purpose robots. Founded in 2016 out of the Human Centered Robotics Lab at the University of Texas at Austin, the company aims to introduce robots for unstructured environments across enterprises. Already, the company has delivered many human-centered robots to the marketplace, several of which currently operate inside Fortune 50 enterprises including manufacturing, automotive, supply chain, defense and more.

FinSMEs

24/06/2022
Brave group, a Tokyo, Japan-based provider of a virtual IP, raised $10M in funding.

Backers included Dawn Capital and Osaka Gas Co., Ltd., foreign investment funds and individual investors. This brings the total raised capital to US$18m.

The company intends to use the funds to strengthen its existing business operations and global expansion, expand its solution services for clients in the metaverse marketing business, develop additional Brave Engine products and other new businesses, and strengthen its management structure.

Led by CEO Keito Noguchi, Brave group develops and operates virtual IP such as RIOT MUSIC and other virtual artists, and also provides solutions about metaverse marketing.

Brave groups recent business moves intended to strengthen alliances for global development include collaboration with MyAnimeList, which operates one of the worlds largest animation communities, and a business alliance with Billboard Indonesia, the Indonesian version of Billboard, formed in May 2022. In addition, in the metaverse marketing business launched last year, Brave group has developed a series of solution services for corporate clients and are steadily building a track record.

The companys content has been viewed by users in more than 150 countries, with a total of more than 1 million followers on social networking sites, and a total of more than 100 million views on YouTube.

FinSMEs

24/06/2022
designstripe, a Montreal, Canada-based startup that provides visual communication and creative tools for everyone, raised $10M in funding.

The round was led by Insight Partners, with participation from Silicon Valley Bank.

The company will use the funding to enhance and expand its design tools in all creative categories including photo, motion and video.

Founded in 2020 by serial entrepreneur and investor Francois Arbour, who sold his first business PremiumBeat to Shutterstock in 2015, designstripe currently offers a combination of customizable content and intuitive tools for non-designers across consumer and enterprise clients. It owns a large repository of customizable assets and illustrations with the ability to export to a variety of file types. Since the launch of its initial product, the company has achieved significant growth in new clients and daily users.

FinSMEs

24/06/2022
Malta is one of the best countries for people looking to do business in the Mediterranean region. It has a unilateral tax relief system and double taxation treaties with almost every country in the world. This is one of the main reasons why Malta is a favourite for companies involved in international trade.

Malta has a solid telecommunication and financial services infrastructure. Even though its not the biggest country, it offers skilled labour at competitive costs. Its politically stable, modern, and has a fair legal system.

Here well go through the various market opportunities available in Malta, the visa requirements for citizenship, opening a company, and moving your company there:

Market Opportunities

The country has terrific information and communications technology connections with the rest of Europe through fibre-optic cables and satellite technology. This makes it a great location for any cryptocurrency, blockchain, initial coin offering, or iGaming business. These industries also get the backing of Maltas legislative framework which is among the most advanced in the world.

The largest industries in Malta are insurance, communications, banking, and software development. Ship registration and repair as well as aircraft maintenance industries have also seen a sizeable increase. The registration and certification of medicines industry has picked up too after Brexit.

Visa Requirements

Any US citizen travelling to Malta does not need to get a visa thanks to the US Visa Waiver Program. But if they intend on staying more than three months, they will need one.

If youre planning on working in Malta, you will need to get a work visa. Its easily available at the immigration department of the Malta police department on submission of a few basic documents.

There are also some programs you could consider like the citizenship through investment program. These programs are a shortcut to Malta citizenship which brings with it all the benefits of being a citizen of an EU member country.

Opening a Company

There is a straightforward process for setting up a company in Malta thanks to its business-friendly approach. There are numerous ways of incorporating your company in Malta including partnerships, limited liability, holding companies, or cooperatives. The most common type of company incorporated is the Private Limited company.

To open a company in Malta, youll need to have a physical address in the country. This could be an office space or the office of your accountants or lawyers.

The authorised share capital for opening a private limited company in Malta is roughly $1,325. This low capital requirement is another reason why Malta is such a preferred location to open a company.

You will not be able to have more than 50 shareholders in your private limited company incorporated in Malta. You will also need to have a minimum of one director and one company secretary. These usually cant be the same person but there are some exclusions for single-member companies.

The company will also need to open a bank account in Malta to complete the incorporation. The bank will have to grant a certification required by Maltas financial authority before the incorporation formalities are complete.

Moving Your Company to Malta

Malta also supports moving your company, also called re-domiciliation, as long as your current jurisdiction allows for it. Some of the supporting documents required to complete this process include:

The company needs to pass a resolution by shareholders and directors approving the decision to migrate to Malta.

All constitutive documents will need to comply with Maltas legislation. This can also be done through amendment.

The company will need to get a certificate of good standing which proves the company has complied with all requirements of incorporation in its present jurisdiction.

A declaration from company directors confirming: the current name of the company; its primary jurisdiction; the decision to move to Malta; that there are no legal procedures pending against the company; and that it does not have solvency issues.

A comprehensive list of directors and secretaries of the company.

Once all these documents have been collected, an application needs to be submitted to the Registry of Companies in Malta. Once it is approved, you will get a provisional certificate. At this time the company will still remain registered in its original jurisdiction and will be subject to all legal proceedings and obligations in its original jurisdiction. After six months, the final registration certificate will be issued.

There are a number of reasons why applications can be denied including criminal or civil proceedings pending or creditors limiting the rights of the company. Any companies blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force will not be approved either.

If youre looking for a way to avoid high taxation, Malta can be a great place to move your company from the USA. It is an easy-to-understand process, and most companies should not face any trouble completing all formalities in a matter of weeks.

You now have more than enough reasons why moving your company to Malta would be a good decision and you also have sufficient clarity on what will be required from your company to complete the process. All thats left now is to complete your application and start reaping the benefits of your new jurisdiction.
On June 3, 2022 local time, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with Foreign Minister of Papua New Guinea (PNG) Soroi Eoe in Port Moresby.

Wang Yi said, as the largest Pacific Island Country, PNG exerts an important influence on the Asia-Pacific region. President Xi Jinping paid a successful state visit to PNG in 2018, pushing bilateral relations into a new stage of high-level development. The two sides have grasped the strategic positioning of mutual respect and common development, firmly supported each other's core interests, carried out practical cooperation with sincerity, and taken a clear stand in upholding international justice. Facts have proved that sound China-PNG relations not only bring huge benefits to the two countries and two peoples, but also help improve the overall relations between China and the Pacific Island Countries (PICs) having diplomatic ties with China, maintain the solidarity of developing countries, and promote regional peace and development. PNG is an important strategic cooperative partner of China in the South Pacific region. China is ready to work with PNG, from a higher level and a broader perspective, to strengthen strategic planning, enhance strategic mutual trust, and make China-PNG relations the "locomotive" driving China's relations with PICs.

Wang Yi said, China appreciates PNG's adherence to the one-China principle and support for China's legitimate propositions. China also firmly supports PNG in safeguarding national sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, pursuing an independent development path and achieving national prosperity. PNG is China's largest trading partner, investment destination and project-contracting market in the South Pacific region. The outcomes of bilateral cooperation, which can be seen everywhere, have brought tangible benefits to the people of PNG. China will work to upgrade bilateral cooperation to generate a scale effect and deliver more dividends. China is ready to share its development experience and technology and build more landmark cooperation projects.

Eoe welcomed Wang Yi's second visit to PNG, and congratulated China and Fiji on successfully co-hosting the second China-Pacific Island Countries Foreign Ministers' Meeting. Eoe said, PNG truly feels the importance China attaches to PICs, and the Chinese delegation's visit will not only enhance cooperation between PICs and China, but also help PICs accelerate development and safeguard common interests.

Eoe said, PNG and China enjoy robust and vigorous relations, with mutually beneficial cooperation yielding fruitful results. PNG appreciates China's commitment to the philosophy of mutual respect, treating each other as equals, mutually beneficial cooperation, and not leaving any country or individual behind. PNG appreciates China's valuable support for its efforts to speed up development and improve people's well-being. No matter how the situation at home and abroad may change, PNG will, as always, adhere to the one-China principle, which is the cornerstone of bilateral relations, firmly support China's legitimate position on issues relating to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and other internal issues, and stand ready to deepen practical cooperation with China in various fields to benefit the people of PNG.

The two sides agreed to seek greater synergy between the Belt and Road Initiative and the Connect PNG Infrastructure Development Program 2020-2040, complete the feasibility study of the free trade agreement at an early date, and strengthen experience-sharing on the development of special economic zones.

The two sides agreed to deepen cooperation in energy, fisheries, communications, health and other fields, and continue to well implement the China-Aided JUNCAO Technology and Upland Rice Technology Cooperation Project. The two sides will tap the potential of cooperation in fields such as law enforcement and at sub-national levels. Efforts will be made to strengthen downstream processing cooperation in agriculture, forestry and fisheries to help PNG speed up industrialization and enhance its capacity for self-driven development.

After the talks, the two sides attended the signing ceremony of cooperation documents on pandemic response, disaster prevention and mitigation, and green development, among others. The two sides also witnessed the inauguration of the China-aided Center of Minimally Invasive Surgery in Port Moresby General Hospital, and jointly met the press and answered questions.
CCTV: The 14th BRICS Summit was held yesterday. President Xi Jinping chaired the meeting via video link and delivered important remarks. Can you share more information?



Wang Wenbin: Yesterday evening, Chinese President Xi Jinping chaired the 14th BRICS Summit in Beijing via video link. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the summit. The summit marked the climax of the BRICS China Year and attracted wide attention. We have put out relevant readouts.

President Xi Jinping delivered an important speech, and pointed out the importance of fostering a more comprehensive, close, practical and inclusive high-quality partnership and jointly embarking on a new journey of BRICS cooperation. He stressed the need to uphold solidarity and safeguard world peace and tranquility, pursue cooperation and development and jointly tackle risks and challenges, embrace the spirit of innovation and unleash the potential and vitality of cooperation, and stay open and inclusive and forge collective wisdom and strength. President Xis remarks charted the course for the future development of BRICS mechanism, identified the pathway for upgrading BRICS cooperation, and broadened the prospects for BRICS to play a greater role and make bigger contribution in international affairs. His proposals received recognition and positive response from other leaders attending the summit. Just as Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu said in his press briefing last night, the summit is a milestone that will inspire the future.

The leaders believed that with the world facing uncertainties, BRICS countries should strengthen solidarity and elevate BRICS cooperation to a new level so that BRICS can play a bigger role in international affairs. The five leaders reached multiple important common understandings on deepening BRICS cooperation, upholding multilateralism, promoting world economic recovery, jointly responding to COVID-19, opposing unilateral economic sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction, strengthening people-to-people exchange and other issues of mutual interest. The five leaders agreed on the need to continue BRICS Plus cooperation and advance the BRICS membership expansion process. These common understandings and outcomes are noted in The XIV BRICS Summit Beijing Declaration adopted and released at the event.

Parties commended and thanked China for hosting the summit and its efforts to advance BRICS cooperation. They believe that under President Xis leadership and Chinas chairship of BRICS, BRICS cooperation has achieved fruitful outcomes and the influence of BRICS countries has been further enhanced. This is a major contribution to maintaining world peace and promoting global development.

President Xi Jinping will also chair the High-level Dialogue on Global Development today. We can all look forward to a productive dialogue. We believe that with the joint efforts of all sides, BRICS cooperation will enjoy an even more promising future, gather tremendous synergy for growth and usher in a better future for global development.

AFP: The Philippines has said it has terminated talks with China on a joint energy project in the South China Sea. What led to the breakdown in talks and how does China react to this decision?

Wang Wenbin: Joint offshore oil and gas development is the right way for China and the Philippines to manage maritime differences and achieve win-win results without prejudicing either sides maritime positions and claims. Leaders of the two countries reached important common understanding on this. The two governments signed the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation on Oil and Gas Development and have actively pursued negotiations and made important progress within this framework. China stands ready to work in concert with the new Philippine government to advance negotiations on joint development and strive to take early substantive steps so as to deliver tangible benefits to both countries and peoples.

CCTV: According to reports, the earthquake in Afghanistan has killed more than 1,500 people. The supreme leader of the Afghan Taliban called on the international community to assist the quake-affected Afghans. What kind of help does China plan to provide?

Wang Wenbin: True friendship can stand the test of adversity-- this is a shared proverb in both Chinese and Pashto. The earthquake in Afghanistan pulls at the heartstrings of the Chinese people. State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi has sent a message of condolences to Acting Foreign Minister of the Afghan interim government Amir Khan Muttaqi. He mourned deeply for the victims and extended sincere sympathy to the bereaved families and the injured, and stressed that China will provide emergency humanitarian assistance to the best of its capacity to respond to Afghanistans needs.

On top of the assistance China has previously provided, we will provide another batch of emergency humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan for earthquake relief. China is also working around the clock through multiple channels including sub-national governments, the Red Cross Society of China and the business community to raise money, tents, quilts and other humanitarian supplies which will be delivered to earthquake-stricken areas as quickly as we can. The grain assistance that China pledged previously has all arrived in Afghanistan recently. It is being rapidly distributed to the local people and will help with Afghanistans response to the disaster. China will step up disaster prevention and mitigation cooperation with Afghanistan, especially in disaster monitoring and forecasting.

We believe that with the concerted efforts of the Afghan interim government and all social sectors and with the help of the international community, people in the disaster-stricken areas in Afghanistan will tide over difficulties and resume normal life and work at an early date.

TASS: I have a follow-up question on the High-level Dialogue on Global Development. I wonder if you have any updated information about the list of the countries which will take part in this dialogue?

Wang Wenbin: As I said earlier, President Xi Jinping will chair the High-level Dialogue on Global Development in Beijing tonight. The Dialogue will be held in virtual format under the theme of Foster a Global Development Partnership for the New Era to Jointly Implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Leaders of the five BRICS countries and some emerging markets and developing countries will attend the event.

Reuters: You mentioned Chinese organizations such as the Red Cross are looking to raise money for Afghanistan. Roughly how much money is China planning on donating and when roughly will China donate this cash?

Wang Wenbin: As I just said, on top of the assistance China has previously provided, we will provide additional emergency humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan for quake relief. China is also working through multiple channels to raise money and supplies to provide as much humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan as possible. We will release timely information on that. Please stay tuned.

Bloomberg: Did China and the other BRICS countries agree to expand the grouping and are there any other candidate countries involved and any more details to add to that?

Wang Wenbin: BRICS is an important mechanism for cooperation among emerging markets and developing countries and an important platform for South-South cooperation. Over the past 16 years since its inception, BRICS has maintained sound momentum of development and made substantive and solid progress in practical cooperation across the board. BRICS has become a positive, stable and constructive force on the international stage, and its international influence and appeal have kept growing.

Since its inception, the BRICS mechanism has tied its future to that of emerging markets and developing countries. The New Development Bank (NDB) has accomplished its first membership expansion, which will provide financial support for more developing countries in their development and increase the say and influence of the NDB in the international financial system. In a world facing drastic changes and a pandemic unseen in a century as well as international hotspot issues, BRICS countries have agreed on the importance to strengthen cooperation with other emerging markets and developing countries, enhance the representation of the BRICS mechanism, raise BRICS voice on major international and regional issues to jointly meet challenges and safeguard the common interests and development space of emerging markets and developing countries.

As the BRICS chair for this year, China actively supports the BRICS in starting the membership expansion process and expanding the BRICS Plus cooperation. As I just said, at yesterdays summit, all BRICS leaders agreed to move ahead on BRICS Plus cooperation and advance the BRICS membership expansion process. Relevant consensus is also reflected in the XIV BRICS Summit Beijing Declaration. This fully demonstrates that BRICS cooperation is open and inclusive. China will encourage BRICS parties to continue in-depth discussions on the issue of membership expansion and work out standards and procedures for this process on the basis of consensus. We look forward to having more partners sharing our commitment join the BRICS family.

Reuters: Again on Afghanistan. So just on the point about Taiwan vowing to donate money to Afghanistan. Weve seen that there, rather like with Ukraine, Taiwan has been quite speedy in its announcements of pledges of support. Is the Chinese government supportive about this?

Wang Wenbin: Im not aware of what you mentioned.

Let me stress again that Taiwan is part of China and the one-China principle is a widely-recognized basic norm as far as international relations are concerned. The Taiwan authorities political motive to expand international space in the name of providing assistance or under any other pretext will not materialize.

AFP: Chinese Ambassador to Australia was interrupted several times while making a speech at the University of Technology in Sydney. Whats Chinas reaction to this?

Wang Wenbin: Im not aware of the particular situation you mentioned. We hope that the individuals concerned would observe the basic diplomatic etiquette.

Reuters: You just mentioned that the five BRICS countries leaders have agreed to cooperation on the expansion of BRICS. During the meeting yesterday, did any of the other BRICS leaders say they werent quite ready for BRICS expansion at the moment? How does China feel about that if thats the case?

Wang Wenbin: As I said just now, at yesterdays summit, all BRICS leaders agreed to move ahead on BRICS Plus cooperation and advance the BRICS membership expansion process. Relevant consensus is also reflected in the XIV BRICS Summit Beijing Declaration adopted and released at the summit.
On June 22, 2022, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with ROK Ambassador to China Jang Ha-sung, who is leaving his post and returning to his country.

Wang Yi thanked Jang Ha-sung for his great efforts and important contributions to deepening China-ROK relations during his tenure. Wang Yi said, people often say that China and the ROK are and will remain close neighbors and inseparable cooperation partners. We should grasp the profound truth and connotation therein. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties 30 years ago, with the joint efforts of the two governments and all sectors of society, China-ROK relations have achieved leapfrog development and yielded important and positive results. Bilateral trade has continued to exceed 300 billion U.S. dollars, mutual investment has totaled nearly 100 billion U.S. dollars and mutual visits have reached 10 million. These important achievements serve the fundamental interests of the two countries and two peoples and should be cherished and safeguarded by both sides.

Wang Yi said that the most important thing in state-to-state relations is to maintain the stability and continuity of mutual policies. China's friendly policy toward the ROK remains unchanged and China will continue to place the ROK in an important position in its neighborhood diplomacy. He hopes that the new ROK administration will also continue and adhere to the friendly policy toward China. The two sides should take the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties as an opportunity to push the China-ROK strategic cooperative partnership to a new level. In the face of challenges such as the backlash against globalization and the Cold War mentality, China and the ROK should strengthen communication and coordination, jointly safeguard regional peace and stability and work for global development and prosperity.

Jang Ha-sung said, during my three-year-serving as the Ambassador of ROK to China, I have witnessed the rapid development of China and the major achievements of ROK-China relations. I believe that China will maintain strong momentum of development and the ROK-China friendship and practical cooperation will be further deepened.
Paul Rusesabagina is a human rights defender and the real-life hero of the movie Hotel Rwanda. He received the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom for his bravery during the genocide. He was illegally arrested, tortured, and arbitrarily detained in Rwanda.

Paul is a voice for the voiceless, telling the world about human rights abuses in Rwanda and other countries while working for democracy, peace, truth, and reconciliation in Rwanda and the region. He was caught in the net of a Rwandan regime that does not tolerate any criticism and is being used as an example of what can happen to other critics. Paul was lured to Rwanda to face a sham trial that was politically motivated. He was sentenced to 25 years in one of the worst prison systems in the world. For a 67-year-old man with various health issues, this is a life sentence.

Through his family's tireless advocacy, the international community has called for his release and condemned the illegal detention. The U.N. Arbitrary Group on Wrongful Detention declared that the Rwandan government abducted and has arbitrarily detained Paul. The UNWGAD requested his immediate, unconditional release and an independent investigation of his abduction. The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, the European Union Parliament, and the Belgian Parliament have all called for his release as well through resolutions.

The American Bar Association and Clooney Foundation for Justice, who monitored the trial, many international Bar Councils, and human rights organizations all considered it a politically motivated show trial that made a mockery of due process.

The Belgian and US governments, along with the world, need to act immediately to #FreeRusesabagina. Paul is 67 years old and his health is deteriorating. He needs to come home, now.

Help us #FreeRusesabagina today.

#FreeRusesabagina

Website:www.hrrfoundation.com

Twitter:@freethehero

Facebook:@FreePaulRusesabagina

Instagram:#FreeRusesabagina

TikTok:#FreeRusesabagina

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FreeRusesabagina

To donate to the #FreeRusesabagina legal defense fund https://casefund.org/case/hotel-rwanda-hero-paul-rusesabagina/

*Photo Credit: Kevin Gass *
Galveston, TX (77553)

Today

Thunderstorms with locally heavy downpours. Low near 80F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected..

Tonight

Thunderstorms with locally heavy downpours. Low near 80F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected.
FOUR Citizen Coalition for Change (CCC) activists will spend the weekend behind bars following their arrest in connection with political violence that occurred at the funeral of slain opposition activist, Moreblessing Ali, in Nyatsime, Chitungwiza.

Chauya Shopa (41), Zephania Chinembiri(43), Zecks Makoni(53) and Roan Tsoka (39) were remanded to Monday for bail ruling when they appeared before Harare Magistrate Yeukai Dzuda today.

They are represented by Noble Chinhanu from Zimbabwe Human Rights Lawyers (ZLHR).

State prosecutor told the court that on June 14, 2022, the activists in the company of three other accomplices who are also on remand conspired to engaged in violence to revenge Alis murder.

It is alleged that they used their vehicles to transport people from different locations to Nyatsime where they later engaged in public violence, targetting property belonging to Zanu PF supporters.

It is alleged that they proceeded to Chibhanguza Shopping Centre where they torched down a gazebo, damaged windows of 13 shops, 4 beer halls before looting groceries and electrical gadgets.

Anesu Chirenje prosecuted. Newsday
Linn County might end up being a trendsetter in putting a proposed ban on therapeutic psilocybin facilities before voters in November.

During the Albany City Council meeting on Wednesday, June 22, Councilor Bessie Johnson asked city attorney Sean Kidd whether Hub City could follow a similar path.

Kidd said that was possible. Its very similar to how recreational marijuana was at the time, Kidd said, alluding to how pot became legal statewide, but cities could prohibit the sale of marijuana and cannabis-based businesses from operating.

The conversation wasnt on the meeting agenda, but came during the informal business from the council segment, where members talk about a variety of topics.

In a brief interview after the meeting, Johnson said she wanted the council to discuss the matter at length, though she acknowledged that she didnt know if she had the support from other councilors to put a ban on therapeutic psilocybin facilities before the electorate.

Johnson added that the discussion occurred because of an article about Linn County that she read.

The Linn County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously during its meeting on Tuesday, June 21 to put a proposed ban on psilocybin production, manufacturing and service centers in the county under the Oregon Psilocybin Services Act.

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.

Psilocybin mushrooms, commonly known as psychedelic mushrooms, have been shown in some studies to be an effective treatment for mental health conditions, including addiction, depression, anxiety and end-of-life distress.

Oregon voters approved the use of therapeutic psilocybin and related regulations in November 2020, but Linn County voted against the measure.

On Wednesday, Kidd didnt immediately know how Albany residents voted on the issue.

Reporter Joanna Mann contributed to this story.

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Editors note: This editorial was written by the editorial board of the Star Tribune. Guest editorials in this space are intended to provide our readers with a sampling of opinion from other publications and do not necessarily represent the views of the Mid-Valley Media editorial board.

In a supreme bit of irony, the day after U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg met with airline leaders about the massive number of recent flight disruptions and cancellations, his own flight was canceled, forcing him to drive from Washington, D.C., to New York.

That underscores the frustration airline passengers have experienced. Ready and eager to travel at last as COVID-19 fears have ebbed, passengers are finding themselves the victims of overbooking, delays and cancellations as airlines attempt to recoup lost revenue despite often severe staffing shortages magnifying the disruptions.

As Buttigieg told The Associated Press, "This is happening to a lot of people, and that is exactly why we are paying close attention here to what can be done and how to make sure that the airlines are delivering."

The options, unfortunately, appear limited, although Buttigieg has said he is prepared to take enforcement action against airlines that underperform on customer service.

After a Memorial Day weekend marked by thousands of flight cancellations across the country  including fully 9% of Delta's total flight operations  Delta official Allison Ausband explained that "weather and air traffic control, vendor staffing, increased COVID case rates contributing to higher-than-planned unscheduled absences  are resulting in an operation that isn't consistently up to the standards Delta has set  ."

We get it. Everything has been more challenging since the pandemic began. Airlines have been hit hard by a shortage of pilots, who can be especially difficult to replace given high training demands. It takes months to hire and train a pilot to meet federal safety standards.

Buttigieg has urged airlines to hire more customer service workers to rebook flights. But that does little good if there are no flights available for rebooking.

Pilots earlier this month held several protests over being forced to work record amounts of overtime, with some holding signs that read, "If I look tired, it's because I am."

We recognize the predicament airlines are in. Strapped for revenue during the worst of the pandemic, they urged many pilots to take early retirement. Now they lack the personnel to handle the surge in consumer demand.

Nevertheless, it's time to take stock when disruptions become the norm instead of the exception. Passengers in European Union countries have had broad consumer protections in place since 2004. They include compensation when airlines delay or cancel a flight, and meals and hotel stays for overnight delays.

By contrast, the shabby treatment of airline passengers in the U.S. is an old story that gets worse. As far back as 2010, Sen. Amy Klobuchar co-sponsored a Passenger Bill of Rights that called for protections so basic one would have hardly thought they needed to be stated. The new rules required airlines to provide passengers with food, water and toilet facilities during prolonged delays on the tarmac and limited the time they could be forced to occupy a plane to three hours. That came about after a series of horrific stories of passengers trapped on planes for hours while waiting for clearance to take off.

Airlines can't control the weather, but what prevents them from booking a hotel for passengers otherwise stranded? Earlier this month, dozens of Delta passengers were stranded at the Atlanta airport, including a disabled U.S. Army veteran who said he had to sleep on the airport floor overnight and a young mother whose 11-month-old daughter was running out of diapers and formula.

Consumers continue to have too few rights when it comes to air travel. As transportation secretary, Buttigieg can fine airlines that continue to have massive disruptions. But before doing so, he said he wants to see what happens the July 4th weekend and the rest of the summer.

We urge Buttigieg to keep the pressure on airline executives to do better.

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Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2021.
Australian PM to meet with Macron in France to "reset" relations

Xinhua) 11:07, June 24, 2022

CANBERRA, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed he will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron in a bid to "reset" relations.

Albanese said Thursday night that he has accepted Macron's invitation to visit France.

It comes weeks after Albanese announced his new government had agreed to pay French shipbuilder Naval Group around 830 million Australian dollars (about 573 million U.S. dollars) in compensation for a canceled submarine contract.

The relationship between Australia and France deteriorated when former Prime Minister Scott Morrison scrapped the deal.

Albanese, who defeated Morrison in the general election on May 21, said he expected a welcome in France.

"I've been invited by President Macron to meet with him in France and I'll be doing that in a week's time. We do need to reset, we've already had very constructive discussions," he told Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV.

"What we can offer is a relationship between our respective leaders that won't be leaked, in order to make an opportunistic headline in the newspaper. One of respect and honesty in the way that we deal with each other," he said.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun)
Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) is looking for the biological parents of two children who were rescued by police officers in Mudzi from their alleged kidnappers two years ago.

The two aged 6 and 7 are being kept at a childrens home in Harare.

The Zimbabwe Republic Police is appealing for information which may lead to the identification of biological parents of a girl (7) and a boy (6) who are currently living at a childrens home in Harare. The two infants were rescued by the police at Chakufuna Village, Mudzi in 2020 after they were kidnapped by the suspects, Gift Chemhuru and his wife Miriam Bwanali.

The suspects are also linked to another case of kidnapping involving a minor which occurred in Harare in 2020. The minor was positively identified by her mother. Chemhuru was arrested while Bwanali is on the run.

Anyone with information can contact National Complaints Desk on 0242 703631 or WhatsApp 0712800197 or report to any nearest police station, national police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said. Herald
MILLERS are reportedly pushing for permission to sell bread exclusively in United States dollars days after they met the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) over the pricing of the product.

After the meeting held on Monday, the RBZ issued a statement saying an agreement had been reached to reduce the price of bread.

The price of bread recently shot to $629 per loaf or US$1,89 using the official exchange rate.

A survey by NewsDay Weekender, however, revealed that the price of bread has not gone down.

Sources in the milling and baking industry accused their principal representative, Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ) chairperson Tafadzwa Musarara of failing to push for US dollar pricing of bread.

We met and agreed that Musarara was supposed to advise authorities that we should commence the sale of flour and bread in US dollar just as has been done with fuel so that we can be self-sufficient. However, it appears he was sweet-talked and came with nothing, a source said.

Efforts to get comment from Musarara were fruitless as he was said to be out of the country .

It has also emerged that the countrys wheat reserves have significantly dropped over the past weeks with top millers said to have already stopped milling. Newsday
Portland, OR, June 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to the report published by Allied Market Research, the global natural gas liquids market generated $16.9 billion in 2020, and is projected to reach $28.5 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 5.4% 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.

Extensive use of natural gas liquids to produce ethylene, in order to further turn it into plastics for various applications, significant surge in energy demand across the globe, wide application of natural gas liquids in petrochemical plants, space heating and cooking purposes, automotive, and others are expected to drive the growth of the global natural gas liquids market. On the other hand, availability of substitute fuels is expected to hinder the growth to some extent. However, increase in the usage of natural gas liquid products in residential applications due to the rise in standard of living among people are expected to create tremendous opportunities for the industry.

Download Report Sample (270 Pages PDF with Insights) @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/1845

COVID-19 Scenario

The outbreak of COVID-19 has had a negative impact on the growth of the global natural gas liquids market, owing to the occurrence of lockdowns in various countries across the globe. Lockdowns resulted in the closure of various end-use industries where natural gas liquids were widely used. This was due to the stringent social distancing restrictions imposed by the government so as to curb the spread of the virus.

Besides, there was a record decline in the prices of crude oil which further aggravated the impact on the market.

However, the market is expected to recoup soon.

The report offers a detailed segmentation on the global natural gas liquids market based on product, application and region.

Based on product, the ethane segment held the largest market share in 2020, garnering nearly two-fifths of the total market. In addition, the same segment is predicted to cite the fastest CAGR of 5.7% during the forecast period. The other segments analyzed in the market include propane, isobutene, natural Gasoline, and others.

Get detailed COVID-19 impact analysis on the Natural Gas Liquids Market Request Here

Based on application, the industrial segment held the majority share in 2020, holding two-fifths of the total market. The commercial segment, on the other hand, is anticipated to exhibit the fastest CAGR of 5.5% during the forecast period.

Based on region, the North America region held the lions share in 2020, garnering more than two-fifths of the total market. The Europe region, on the other hand, is anticipated to cite the fastest CAGR of 5.8% during the forecast period.

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The key payers analyzed in the global natural gas liquids market report include BP P.L.C., Chevron Corporation, ConocoPhillips Company, Devon Energy Corporation, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Lukoil, Occidental Petroleum Corporation, Range Resources Corporation, Saudi Arabian Oil Co. and Shell Plc.

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New Delhi, June 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The rise in the demand for safer, eco-friendly, aesthetically pleasing, and healthier forms of packaging is helping the industry grow at a high CAGR



Over the projected period, the Asia-Pacific Glass Packaging Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.0 % (2022-2028). The COVID-19 has had a mixed influence on the glass packaging sector. Glass packaging technology is continually expanding, with designs ranging from robust and lightweight to rigid and tough, all of which are customised to match the needs of customers or products. Piramal Glass Company targeted digital automation as a means of unlocking hidden margins and increasing efficiency in March 2021. It teamed up with a blockchain platform for businesses. The project's first phase had four main goals: to validate the use of blockchain in Piramal Glass' supply chain and export operations, to increase transparency while protecting sensitive data and customer integrity, to understand if the technology could enable multiple stakeholders to collaborate on initiatives like sustainability, and to determine if blockchain delivers business value in terms of efficiency improvement and ease.

The demand for healthier and safer packaging is propelling the glass packaging industry forward in a variety of ways. Packaging is becoming more appealing to end-users thanks to new shaping, aesthetic finishing, and embossing processes. Glass packaging is growing due to the need for biodegradable and environment-friendly products, as well as the rise of the Food and Beverage markets. It is one of the most dependable types of packaging because it is environmentally beneficial, and safe for health. It's also deemed premium due to its high-end designs or finishes, as well as its capacity to keep the goods fresh and safe. It's mostly used in a variety of end-user industries. Due to its recyclable nature, glass packaging is also the most desired eco-friendly packaging choice. The most notable recent invention is lightweight glass, which provides the same resistance as prior glass types while being more stable and emitting less CO2.





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The increase in population in the China boosts market growth and potential. Because of the availability of disposable income, the Asia Pacific region contributes far too much to the market growth. China's alcohol use has risen dramatically in recent years. According to Banco do Nordeste, a Brazilian bank, China's alcoholic beverage consumption would reach 54.12 billion litres by 2021. Due to its recyclable nature, glass packaging is also the most desired eco-friendly packaging choice. The most notable recent invention is lightweight glass, which provides the same resistance as prior glass types while being more stable and emitting less CO2. Many alcoholic beverage firms are looking to expand in the country to take advantage of the growing market. China's pharmaceutical and healthcare industry is one of the world's largest, owing to the country's ageing population. Foreign pharmaceutical businesses are having difficulty doing business in the country due to recent legislative changes, particularly when it comes to market access and pricing regulation.

As a result, local players may see an increase in demand for glass bottles and containers from these companies, creating a potential growth opportunity. Furthermore, the Asian region's development in alcoholic beverages expands the market. The Asian region followed by the European region, with Europe being the second-largest market contributing to the expansion. Eastern European countries such as Turkey and Russia contribute to the market's growth and size. In Germany, increased beer consumption boosts the packaging business. The presence of a growing geriatric population necessitates and propels the pharmaceutical industries forward. The pharmaceutical section of the glass packaging business experiences considerable demand primarily in North America and Europe. Furthermore, due to the rapid expansion of therapies that the populace prefers, this region is in high demand. Also, the Canadian and American regions are in great demand because the people prefer to use food containers.

The glass packaging sector saw a surge in demand during the pandemic. This was due to an increase in demand in the pharmaceutical and food industries. Due to the high demand for Food and Beverages units during the pandemic, glass demand surged, which boosted the usage of pharmaceutical bottles, food jars, and a rise in demand for beverage bottles.

Please Visit Press Release of the Asia Pacific Glass Packaging Market: https://www.blueweaveconsulting.com/press-release/asia-pacific-glass-packaging-market-to-grow-at-5-through-2028

The market is divided into five segments based on product size. They are 20-50 mL, 51-100 mL, 101-250 mL, 251-500 mL, and over 500 mL. The market has been divided into categories based on application, such as alcoholic beverage packaging, non-alcoholic beverage packaging, food product packaging, cosmetics packaging, and so on. China, Japan, India, and South Korea are just a few of the Asia Pacific's significant countries. Due to rising demand for glass vials for the delivery of covid-19 vaccines, availability of raw materials, and higher personal disposable income, China will dominate the glass packaging market in the Asia-Pacific region during the forecast period.

The etching of artistic designs on the packaging of glass bottles is now possible due to advanced technology. Technology has enabled embossing and the purchase of bottles in a variety of shapes. The lightweight glass has been innovated in an established style, providing the same resistance on the bottles, due to technological advancements. The amount of carbon dioxide emitted was lowered, while the volume of raw materials was reduced.

Competitive Landscape -

The Asia Pacific Glass Packaging Market is moderately fragmented. Amcor, AptarGroup, Bemis, Piramal Glass Company, MTS Medication Technologies, and Sonoco Products Company are upscaling the market with significant research and development investments in the industry's sustainability and digitization. Amcor introduced an improved heat-seal coated glass packaging solution for medical-grade packaging applications in June 2021. For healthcare applications, this technology provides better performance features. It will be manufactured in several sites throughout the world to provide clients more options. Gerresheimer announced the growth of its production output in Asia in January 2020. The company manufactures speciality packaging from glass and plastic at over 35 locations across Europe, America, and Asia. The company launched two more factories in China and India in December 2019.

Recent Developments

In March 2021, AGI Glaspac spent INR 550 million in the company's Bhongir factory in Telangana to construct a new 154 TPD AGI Speciality Glass Division furnace. It was part of the INR 2.2 billion investment raised by parent company HSIL recently.

Owens-Illinois announced an innovation called O-I: EXPRESSIONS in September 2020 that will employ digital printing to alter glass bottle design and allow customisation and personalization by shaping glass bottles into multi-dimensional works of art.

Scope of the Report

Attributes Details Years Considered Historical data  2018-2021 Base Year  2021 Estimated Year - 2022 Forecast  2022  2028 Facts Covered Revenue in USD Billion Market Coverage China, Japan, India, South Korea and Others Product Service/Segmentation By Type (type I, type II, type III, and others), By Jar Size (20-50 mL, 51-100 mL, 101-250 mL, 251-500 mL, and over 500 mL), By Packaging Materials (coloring material, cullet, selenium, dolomite, cobalt oxide, limestone, and others), By application (alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, food, medicines, personal care, and cosmetic goods, others), Key Players Saint-Gobain, Ardagh Group S.A., Owens-Illinois, Inc., Amcor plc, Bormioli Rocco S.p.A., HEINZ-GLAS GmbH & Co. KGaA, BA GLASS GROUP, KOA GLASS CO., LTD.,Gerresheimer AG, Hindustan National Glass & Industries Limited., Nihon Yamamura Glass Co., Ltd., Oror DBMR.

By Type

Type I

Type II

Type III

Others

By Jar Size

20-50 mL

51-100 mL

101-250 mL

251-500 mL

> 500 mL

By Packaging Materials

Coloring material

Cullet

Selenium

Dolomite

Cobalt oxide,

Limestone

By Application

Alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages

Food

Medicines

Personal care

Cosmetic goods

Others

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YERINGTON, Nev., June 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nevada Copper (TSX: NCU) (OTC: NEVDF) (FSE: ZYTA) (Nevada Copper or the Company) is pleased to announce the results from its 2022 Annual General Meeting of shareholders (the Meeting), held today in Toronto. Shareholders holding a total of 225,979,047 common shares of the Company (Common Shares) were represented by proxy at the Meeting, representing approximately 50.39% of the total 448,452,759 Common Shares outstanding as of the record date. Shareholders voted in favour of all items of business before the Meeting.



Voting Details

The following seven persons were elected as directors of the Company until the next annual shareholder meeting of the Company or until their successors are elected or appointed, with the voting results shown below:

Director Votes For % For Votes

Withheld % Withheld Tom Albanese 210,572,760 99.47% 1,128,966 0.53% Michael Brown 210,505,815 99.44% 1,195,911 0.56% Raffaele (Lucio) Genovese 207,071,423 97.81% 4,630,303 2.19% Stephen Gill 210,424,535 99.40% 1,277,191 0.60% Evgenij Iorich 207,184,409 97.87% 4,517,317 2.13% G. Ernest (Ernie) Nutter 207,450,889 97.99% 4,250,837 2.01% Kate Southwell 210,269,394 99.32% 1,432,332 0.68%

At the Meeting, the shareholders of the Company also (i) fixed the number of directors at seven for the ensuing year, and (ii) voted to appoint PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the Companys auditor and authorized the directors to fix their remuneration.

About Nevada Copper

Nevada Copper (TSX: NCU) is a copper producer and owner of the Pumpkin Hollow copper project. Located in Nevada, USA, Pumpkin Hollow has substantial reserves and resources including copper, gold and silver. Its two fully permitted projects include the high-grade Underground Mine and processing facility, which is now in the production stage, and a large-scale open pit project, which is advancing towards feasibility status.

Randy Buffington

President & CEO

For additional information, please see the Companys website at www.nevadacopper.com, or contact:

Tracey Thom | Vice President, IR and Community Relations

tthom@nevadacopper.com

+1 775 391 9029
OREGON CITY, Ore., June 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Six winners of the Softwood Lumber Board (SLB) and USDA Forest Service (USDA) $2,000,000 2022 Mass Timber Competition: Building to Net-Zero Carbon were announced today. The winning projects demonstrate mass timber's innovative applications in architectural design, and highlight its significant role in reducing the carbon footprint of the built environment.

"One aspect of managing healthy, resilient forests is sustainable harvesting. Our overstocked forests are vulnerable to a number of issues, namely wildfires. As wildfires become more prevalent across the United States, mass timber supports not just forest health but low carbon buildings - both vital tools in mitigating the impacts of climate change," said John Crockett, USDA Forest Service Associate Deputy Chief of State and Private Forestry.

"The SLB is gratified to see the breadth of concepts and building typologies entered in the competition. With nearly 60 submissions, we saw excellent examples of the innovative designs mass timber makes possible," said SLB Chief Marketing Officer Ryan Flom. "These six winning designs will serve to advance not just our body of knowledge for mass timber construction, they will inform the growing shift towards building for occupancy well-being, resilience and a minimal carbon footprint."

The Building to Net-Zero Carbon winning proposals include:

WoodWorks, a non-profit staffed with structural engineers, architects, and construction experts, managed all aspects of the competition, including project evaluation by an independent judging committee. Expert judges representing architecture, engineering, construction, real estate development, forestry, and sustainability selected the winners. They included Joe Allbright, Senior Director, Corporate Real Estate, Walmart; Ted Black, Chief Deputy Utah State Fire Marshal, Utah State; Kathryn Fernholz, President/CEO, Dovetail Partners; Julia Gisewite, Chief Sustainability Officer, Turner Construction Company; Tim Gokhman, Managing Director, New Land Enterprises; Jordan Komp, P.E., S.E., Vice President and MKE Office Director, Thornton Tomasetti; Anne Schopf, FAIA, Partner, Mahlum; Wil V. Srubar III, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of Colorado Boulder; and Joe Vaughn, Key Account Manager, Natural Capital Exchange, NCX.

Winning proposals exemplified capabilities to design and construct mass timber buildings in the U.S. that are repeatable and scalable. Lessons learned from the competition projects will be shared with the broader design and construction community to help support future projects, including cost analyses, life cycle assessments, and other research results. The timber sourced for each project demonstrated sustainable forest management that contributes to forest and watershed health. Preference was provided for projects that committed to using domestically harvested and manufactured mass timber.

Competition winners will provide quarterly updates to inform stakeholders of their progress, and payouts of competition funds will correspond to reported progress. For images and more information on the winning projects, contact info@thinkwood.com.

###

About the Softwood Lumber Board

The Softwood Lumber Board (SLB) is an industry funded initiative established to promote the uses as well as the environmental and economic benefits of softwood lumber products. Programs and initiatives supported by the SLB, including American Wood Council, Think Wood and WoodWorks, focus on increasing the demand for lumber products in the United States. For more information visit www.softwoodlumberboard.org.

About the USDA Forest Service

USDA touches the lives of all Americans each day in so many positive ways. In the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA is transforming America's food system with a greater focus on more resilient local and regional food production, ensuring access to healthy and nutritious food in all communities, building new markets and streams of income for farmers and producers using climate smart food and forestry practices, making historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy capabilities in rural America, and committing to equity across the Department by removing systemic barriers and building a workforce more representative of America. To learn more, visit www.usda.gov.

About WoodWorks

WoodWorks - Wood Products Council is a non-profit that provides education and free technical support related to the design, engineering, and construction of commercial and multi-family wood buildings in the U.S. Staffed with architects, structural engineers, and construction experts, WoodWorks has the expertise to assist with all aspects of wood building design. Major funding comes from the Softwood Lumber Board (SLB), USDA Forest Service, and Forestry Innovation Investment. For assistance with a project, visit www.woodworks.org/project-assistance or email help@woodworks.org.

Media Contact:

Samantha Hanson

samantha@giantvoices.com

(218) 576-7236

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Las Vegas, NV, June 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cirrus Aviation is the largest private jet management and charter company in Nevada. Cirrus operates worldwide with a growing fleet of over 30 light to extended long range aircraft, providing an excellent upgrade career path for their crews. Their primary base is Harry Reid International (KLAS) in Las Vegas, with secondary bases in California and Florida and several other bases expected soon.

Cirrus Aviation Services is currently expanding and looking for outstanding aviation professionals to join their team. They are actively recruiting pilots, mechanics, customer service agents and other positions. If you are a highly skilled candidate with motivation and experience, you can apply here.

Why Fly with Cirrus Aviation?

Cirrus Aviation is a family-owned business that stresses ethical behavior, an exceptional work environment and quality of life. They want employees to see each other as friends and equals as well as coworkers. Together, their team values customer service based on professionalism, positivity, inclusion and respect.

They were founded with a single aircraft in 2009 and are proud to have grown to be one of the top 10 largest private jet charter airlines in the United States. The company's success is based on dedication to ethics, performance, service and safety.

Cirrus Aviation offers an attractive lifestyle for pilots, who fly familiar aircraft, work with a trusted ground crew and enjoy favorable schedules. While flexibility is key, it's common for pilots to be back home in their own beds at the end of the day. They encourage personal time and want pilots to value their families and outside interests. Cirrus Aviation also believes in developing the pilots of the future with ongoing education, nurturing and mentoring. They actively invest in training and will cover the cost of ATP licenses for First Officers looking to rise through the ranks.

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

Cirrus recruits only top tier staff and offers a very competitive compensation program thats well above industry standards.

Benefits include 4% matching on 401(k) plans and subsidized medical, dental and vision coverage. Compensation is reviewed annually to ensure pay remains ahead of industry trends.

Cirrus prefers to promote from within and expects all team members to be continually learning and improving. They strive for excellence and reward pilots and other employees who seek a long-term future with the company. Their leadership team believes in developing the pilots of the future with ongoing education, nurturing and mentoring. Cirrus actively invests in training and will cover the cost of securing commercial pilot certificates and ATP licenses for First Officers looking to rise through the ranks and be promoted to Captains. They operate thousands of flights and have the hours in the sky to offer.

LOW-COST LIVING

For a city of its size, Las Vegas has some of the best cost-of-living standards in the country. Homes are affordable, including new builds with state-of-the-art designs and convenient locations in growing neighborhoods. Gas prices are much lower than in next-door California and theres no Nevada state income tax. That leaves you with more spending money to enjoy for a family vacation or a little fun on the Strip.

HARRY REID INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Cirrus Aviation is based at the Atlantic Aviation executive terminal, just steps from the Strip at Harry Reid International Airport, formally known as McCarran International Airport. The centralized location makes it easy to reach from most parts of Las Vegas in just 20 minutes or less. Harry Reid International Airport is one of the top 10 busiest airports in the country with direct flights throughout the United States. That makes it easy, efficient, and affordable for friends and family members to come visit. Looking to take a vacation yourself? You and your family are never more than a couple hours away from the beaches of California, the big sky of Montana or the ski slopes of Utah, Idaho, and Colorado. The convenience of Harry Reid International Airport is especially attractive to former commercial pilots who still enjoy flight privileges with major airlines.

View their current openings here: Employment Listings - Cirrus Aviation

ADDRESS: Cirrus Aviation Services 275 E Tropicana Ave, Las Vegas, NV 89169, United States

Website: Las Vegas Premier Private Jet Management and Jet Charter Company (cirrusav.com)

Attachments
LOS ANGELES, June 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Majarian Law Group, a Los Angeles employment law firm that represents employees who have been wrongfully terminated, has shared insights on the California Supreme Court ruling regarding the burden of proof required by plaintiffs and defendants in whistleblower retaliation lawsuits. According to the firm, the ruling in Lawson v. PPG Architectural Finishes helps provide clarity on which standard to use for retaliation cases.

The previous standard applied during section 1102.6 retaliation claims was the McDonnell-Douglas test. Prior to the ruling in Lawson, an employer was simply required to show that a legitimate, non-retaliatory reason existed for the adverse employment action, at which point the burden would shift to the employee to show that the employer's stated reason was pretextual.

With the ruling in Lawson, when litigating Labor Code section 1102.6 retaliation claims, employers in California are now required to prove by "clear and convincing evidence" that they would have retaliated against an employee "even had the plaintiff not engaged in protected activity".

In the lawsuit, the court considered the case of Wallen Lawson, who worked at PPG Architectural Finishes. Lawson was a territory manager for the company from 2015 to 2017. In 2017, he was put on a performance review plan for failing to meet his sales quotas. Around the same time, he alleged, his supervisor asked him to intentionally mishandle products that were not selling well so that his employer could avoid having to buy them back from retailers.

When Lawson refused to follow this order, he made two calls to the company's ethics hotline. The second call resulted in an investigation, and soon after, Lawson received a poor performance review and was fired. He sued PPG Architectural Finishes, claiming his employer had retaliated against him for reporting the illegal order.

Employment attorney Garen Majarian applauded the court's decision. "Companies must take measures to ensure they treat their employees fairly. That includes employees who insist that their employers live up to ethical principles," said Majarian, who serves as a wrongful termination lawyer in Los Angeles.

To learn more, please visit https://majarianlawgroup.com.

About Majarian Law Group

Majarian Law Group, APC is a Los Angeles employment law firm that represents employees in individual and class action disputes against employers.

Contact Information

Majarian Law Group, APC

(818) 646-5686

18250 Ventura Blvd

Tarzana, CA, 91356

USA

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Highlights:



Headcount reduction by 40% resulting in over $4m in cost savings per year

Agreement to sell non-core asset for aggregate gross proceeds of $3.4m

TORONTO, June 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Flowr Corporation (TSX.V: FLWR; OTC: FLWPF) (Flowr or the Company) herein announces the completion of a significant corporate headcount reduction resulting in over $4m in cost savings per year as well as an agreement to sell a non-core asset for aggregate gross proceeds of $3.4m.

Headcount Reduction

The Company has completed a headcount reduction necessary in order to flatten its organizational structure and right-size SG&A with revenue. The Company has eliminated 40% of its workforce, largely in senior and middle management, resulting in an anticipated annual savings of over $4m.

Agreement to Sell Flowr Forest

The Company has entered into an agreement for the sale of 17 acres of agricultural property located adjacent to its primary facility known as Flowr Forest for aggregate gross proceeds of $3.4m. Flowr Forest is not core to the Companys operations and the proceeds of the sale will provide the Company with increased operating capital. Closing of the sale is anticipated for mid-August and is subject to certain conditions, including the completion of a satisfactory due diligence review by the purchaser.

Tom Flow, Interim Chief Executive Officer of Flowr commented, These cost cutting measures and sale of non-core assets are vital to getting the company to profitability. Flowr is a brand synonymous with quality and we continue to believe that our model to provide premium cannabis products to the market while reducing overall costs will lead to success.

About The Flowr Corporation

The Flowr Corporation is a Canadian cannabis company with its operating campus, located in Kelowna, British Columbia. Flowr aims to support improving outcomes through responsible cannabis use and, as an established expert in cannabis cultivation, strives to be the brand of choice for consumers and patients seeking the highest-quality craftsmanship and product consistency across a portfolio of differentiated cannabis products.

For more information, please visit flowrcorp.com or follow Flowr on Twitter: @FlowrCanada and LinkedIn: The Flowr Corporation.

On behalf of The Flowr Corporation:

Tom Flow

Interim Chief Executive Officer

CONTACT INFORMATION:

INVESTORS & MEDIA:

investors@flowrcorp.com

Forward-Looking Information:

Certain statements made in this press release may constitute forward-looking information, future oriented financial information or financial outlooks (collectively, forward-looking information) within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information may relate to anticipated events or results including, but not limited to: the Companys expectation that it will build on its achievements as it continues to invest in sales and marketing; the Companys expectations for sales of product in Quebec; Flowrs business, production and products; Flowrs plans to provide premium quality cannabis to adult use recreational and medical markets; EU-GMP certification opening the medicinal cannabis opportunity for the Company in global markets; the Company being well positioned to distribute EU-GMP compliant product into underserviced markets;; the Companys ability to obtain licensing from Health Canada and other regulatory authorities with respect to its properties and facilities; future legislative and regulatory developments in Canada and elsewhere; the cannabis industry in Canada generally; the ability of Flowr to implement its business strategies; and the ability of Flowr to produce or sell premium quality cannabis. Particularly, information regarding our expectations of future results, targets, performance achievements, prospects or opportunities is forward-looking information. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as may, will, expect, believe, estimate, plan, could, should, would, outlook, forecast, anticipate, foresee, continue or the negative of these terms or variations of them or similar terminology. Forward-looking information is current as of the date it is made and is based on reasonable estimates and assumptions made by us at the relevant time in light of our experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that we believe are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances. To the extent any forward-looking information in this press release constitutes future oriented financial information or financial outlooks, within the meaning of applicable securities laws, the purpose of such information being provided is to demonstrate the potential of the Company and readers are cautioned that this information may not be appropriate for any other purpose. However, we do not undertake to update any such forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable securities laws in Canada. There can be no assurance that such estimates and assumptions will prove to be correct. Many factors could cause our actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements or future events or developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking information as discussed in the Companys other publicly filed documents, which can be accessed under the Companys profile on the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) at www.sedar.com, Readers are urged to consider the risks, uncertainties and assumptions carefully in evaluating the forward-looking information and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such information.

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.
DUBLIN, Calif., June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (OTCQB: GIGA) -- Giga-tronics Incorporated (the Company), a provider of advanced test and measurement capabilities for electronic warfare and radar applications, announced today that its high-performance RADAR filter division Microsource has received an initial $660,000 production order from a Fortune 500 Aerospace customer.



Microsource produces custom Yttrium-Iron-Garnet based microwave components designed specifically for the intended operational application of each customer. Additionally, Microsource produces a line of tunable, synthesized Band Reject Filters that solve interference problems in RADAR/Electronic Warfare applications, as well as low noise oscillators used on shipboard and land-based self-protection systems.

Giga-tronics will provide the customer with RADAR filters for fighter jets. This initial order for 12 jets is the first installment of an expected follow-on order during the next 90 days. The Company expects to recognize some of the revenue from the initial contract within the current quarter.

John Regazzi, the Companys Chief Executive Officer, stated, I am pleased to have the continued confidence of this globally recognized customer using Giga-tronics as its sole source supplier of these high-performance filters. We are proud that our Microsource products have been used in over 1,000 fighter jets to date. We remain committed to meeting the high standards for quality, reliability and on-time delivery of our customers.

About Microsource:

The Microsource division of Giga-tronics was founded in 1982 to supply innovative, microwave components to the defense and test & measurement industries. Initially, these components used Yttrium Iron Garnet (YIG) or crystal technology. Today, Microsource utilize many other technologies in addition to YIGs in order to meet the demanding requirements of modern microwave components. Microsources parent company, Giga-tronics, has been designing and manufacturing microwave instrumentation and switching solutions for over 35 years. By utilizing Giga-tronics expertise in these different divisions, Microsource is able to provide optimal solutions to unique microwave challenges.

About Giga-tronics Incorporated

Giga-tronics produces RADAR filters and Microwave Integrated Components for use in military defense applications as well as sophisticated RADAR/EW test products primarily used in electronic warfare test & emulation applications. Giga-tronics is a publicly held company, traded on the OTCQB Capital Market under the symbol "GIGA".

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements in this press release, other than statements of historical facts, are forward-looking statements. Generally, forward- looking statements and information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as expects or anticipates, or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, should, or will occur. Forward-looking statements include, among others, those concerning future product developments, future prospects, future operating results (including, for example, future revenue, growth, expenses, margin and profitability), growth in market share, product competitiveness and expected and potential sales to customers. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Company and its management, are inherently uncertain. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include the Companys ability to successfully manufacture its RADAR/EW test products; to identify customer needs and to design and implement new features; the timely receipt of components from third-party suppliers; the receipt or timing of future orders for products or services and cancellations or deferrals of existing or future orders; the adequacy of the Companys capital resources; the Companys ability to manage expenses; the results of pending or threatened litigation; the Companys ability to successfully implement its business plan; the Companys need to modify its business plan as a result of these or other risks; the volatility in the market price of the Companys common stock; and the circumstances relating to the COVID-19 pandemic and governmental responses. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which are made as of the date of this press release. The Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly any of these forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, new information or future events, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting forward-looking statements. For further discussion, see the Companys most recent annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 27, 2021, Part I, under the heading "Risk Factors" and Part II, under the heading "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" and those in other public filings the Company may make with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Dublin, June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Saudi Arabia Air Compressor Market Outlook: Market Forecast By Types, By Technology (Rotary, Centrifugal, Reciprocating), By Lubrication, By Applications, By Regions And Competitive Landscape" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Saudi Arabia Air Compressor Market size is projected to grow at a CAGR of 3.6% during 2021-2027F.



The report provides an unbiased and detailed analysis of the on-going Saudi Arabia air compressor market trends, opportunities/high growth areas and market drivers which would help the stakeholders to devise and align their market strategies according to the current and future market dynamics.



Saudi Arabia Air Compressor Market Synopsis



In the recent past, Saudi Arabia air compressor market showed a decent growth on back of projects in oil & gas sector, industrial development, and growing construction sector over the years. Additionally, government reforms and mega developmental projects announced by the government in sectors such as educational institutions, hotels and office spaces are propelling the demand for air compressors in Saudi Arabia.

Moreover, reviving economic conditions due to changing government policies, establishment of special economic zones would further drive the demand for air compressors in the country over the coming years. However, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in decline in the market revenues during the year 2020 as a result of the falling demand from the construction and manufacturing sector due to halt in the business operations owing to the stringent lockdown imposed across the country.

Moreover, the supply chain across countries got disrupted due to the locked borders of exporting countries. Despite of the decline in market revenues during 2020, recovery is expected in market revenues by 2021, with gradual opening of economic activities and restart of construction projects.



Saudi Vision 2030 is one of government mega initiatives which aims at developing and strengthening public service sectors such as healthcare, education, and infrastructure. The fulfilment of these initiatives would require the application of air compressors on large scale, and this would further spur the market growth for air compressors in the country.

The Eastern region occupies maximum share of air compressor market due to the presence of major oil companies such as ARAMCO and SABIC. Moreover, ongoing and upcoming infrastructural advancement are escalating the growth of air compressor market in Saudi Arabia.



Market by Applications Analysis



In terms of Applications, Oil & gas sector in Saudi Arabia is expected to exhibit strong growth during the forecast period (2021-27) on account of various upcoming petrochemical and oil and gas projects. Additionally, upcoming projects such as SABIC - Oil-To-Chemicals Plant worth $30 Billion would be the primary reasons behind the dominance of oil & gas sector in the air compressor market in the country.



Market by Technology Analysis



In terms of Technology, Rotary air compressor is anticipated to witness healthy growth in the forecast period. Further, petrochemical projects such as Jizan Refinery Project and COTC (a crude-oil-to-chemicals project) along with upcoming construction projects in commercial, residential, and healthcare sectors, would surge the demand for centrifugal air compressors in the country in the forecast period (2021-27).

Key Highlights of the Report

Historical & Forecast data of Saudi Arabia Air Compressor Market Revenues & Volume for the Period 2017-2027F

Saudi Arabia Air Compressor Market Overview

Saudi Arabia Air Compressor Market Outlook

Saudi Arabia Air Compressor Market Forecast

Market Drivers and Restraints

Industry Life Cycle & Porter's Five Forces

Opportunity Assessment and Competitive Benchmarking

Saudi Arabia Air Compressor Market Share, By Technology

Recent Market Trends

Recommendations

Market Scope and Segmentation

Company Profiles

Atlas Copco AB

Ingersoll Rand Inc.

Doosan Portable Power

Sullair LLC

Kaeser Kompressoren FZE

Gardner Denver FZE

Elgi Gulf FZE

BOGE Kompressoren Otto Boge GmbH & Co. KG

Hokuetsu Industries Co. Ltd.

FS-Elliott Saudi Arabia Ltd

The report provides a detailed analysis of the following market segments:



By Types

Portable

Stationary

By Technology

Rotary Up to 75kW 76-160kW Above 160kW

Centrifugal Up to 500kW Above 500kW

Reciprocating Up to 10kW Above 10kW



By Lubrication

Oil Injected

Oil Free

By Applications

Oil & Gas

Construction

Industrial

Food & Beverages

Others

By Regions

Central

Western

Eastern

Southern

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/5oottz
Dublin, June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Teleoperation of Automated Vehicles Growth Opportunities" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Transformational Growth will Push Market Revenue to $531 Million by 2028

The teleoperation market will open by 2024 with the launch of robotaxis and shuttles for commercial operations, thereby creating huge opportunity in the global teleoperations space.

Globally, regulators and local authorities are considering mandating teleoperations, thus helping the industry with the deployment and commercial operation of L4 vehicles.

Level 4 (L4) automated driving will redefine how people and goods use road transport systems. With no driver involved, L4 automated driving technology, which is currently in the nascent stage of development, will face multiple challenging situations, which are referred to in the industry as edge cases. For smoother and safer operation of these vehicles in mixed traffic and densely populated areas, the industry must have a way to both monitor and operate them remotely. The solution is teleoperation.



While many of the automated driving software developers, such as Waymo, Mobileye, and Argo AI, have developed teleoperation systems in-house to test and deploy their vehicles on public roads, many start-ups have sprung up to offer teleoperation technology and services for clientele including OEMs, taxi aggregators, tier suppliers, and logistics companies.

Applications for these teleoperations include robotaxis, shuttles, automated valet parking (AVP), freight, agriculture, mining, shipping, and last-mile vehicles.



Key Topics Covered:



1. Strategic Imperatives

Why Is It Increasingly Difficult to Grow?

The Strategic Imperative

Impact of the Top 3 Strategic Imperatives on the Teleoperation of Autonomous Vehicles Industry

Growth Opportunities Fuel the Growth Pipeline Engine

2. Growth Opportunity Analysis

Scope of Analysis

SAE* International Definition for Levels of Driving Automation

Market Segmentation - Automated Driving Features by Level of Autonomy

Key Competitors

Key Growth Metrics

Growth Drivers

Growth Restraints

Forecast Assumptions

Revenue and Total Addressable Market Forecast

Revenue Forecast by Application

Total Addressable Market Forecast by Application

Competitive Environment

3. Market Overview

Challenges AVs Face

Need for Teleoperation in AD

How Does Teleoperation Work?

Essential Requirements for Teleoperation

Teleoperation Software Strategy by AD Developers

Importance of Teleoperation Connectivity

Evolution of the Teleoperation Business Model

Applications of AD Teleoperation

Teleoperation Players' Generic Business Models

Bill of Materials (BOM) and Pricing for Teleoperation Services

4. Main Company Profiles

Ottopia - Company Profile

Ottopia - Partners and Use Cases

DriveU.Auto - Company Profile, Partners and Use Cases

DriveU.Auto - DriveU Connectivity Platform

Phantom Auto - Company Profile

Fernride - Company Profile

Designated Driver - Company Profile

5. Use Cases

Motional-Ottopia

Nissan's Seamless Autonomous Mobility (SAM)

6. Growth Opportunity Universe

Growth Opportunity 1 - Cellular Connectivity and Public Wi-Fi Network Infrastructure

Growth Opportunity 2 - Teleoperation in the Robotaxi and Shuttle Market

Growth Opportunity 3 - Teleoperation in the AV Parking Market

7. Next Steps

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/kfm1mw
Dublin, June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Frozen Waffles Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis by Type, Category, and Distribution Channel" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Companies Mentioned

Kellogg Company

Dely Wafels

Kodiak Cakes, LLC

Julian's Recipe, LLC.

Vans Foods

DELIGOUT

Nature's Path Foods

Avieta S.A.

MAKE EACH DAY DELICIOUS LLC

B BOYS LLC DBA BELGIAN BOY

The frozen waffles market is expected to grow from US$ 2,776.21 million in 2021 to US$ 4,021.29 million by 2028. It is estimated to rise at a CAGR of 5.4% from 2021 to 2028.The rising demand for convenience food and beverages due to consumers' hectic lifestyles is expected to support the frozen waffles market over the forecast period.



Based on distribution channel, the frozen waffles market is segmented into supermarkets & hypermarkets, convenience stores, online retail, and others. The supermarkets & hypermarkets segment led the global market in 2020. These stores are large retail establishments that offer various products, such as groceries, beverages, and other household goods. Products from several brands are available at reasonable prices in these stores, allowing shoppers to find the right product quickly



Furthermore, these stores offer attractive discounts, multiple payment options, and a pleasant customer experience. Supermarkets and hypermarkets focus on maximizing product sales to increase their profit. Manufacturers of frozen waffles usually prefer to sell their products through supermarkets and hypermarkets owing to their large customer base.



Key Topics Covered:



1. Introduction

1.1 Study Scope

1.2 Report Guidance

1.3 Market Segmentation



2. Key Takeaways



3. Research Methodology

3.1 Scope of the Study

3.2 Research Methodology

3.2.1 Data Collection:

3.2.2 Primary Interviews:

3.2.3 Hypothesis Formulation:

3.2.4 Macro-economic Factor Analysis:

3.2.5 Developing Base Number:

3.2.6 Data Triangulation:

3.2.7 Country Level Data:



4. Frozen Waffles Market Landscape



5. Frozen Waffles Market - Key Market Dynamics

5.1 Market Drivers

5.1.1 Surging Demand for Frozen and Convenience Food Worldwide

5.1.2 Rising Trend of In-Home Consumption

5.2 Market Restraints

5.2.1 High Preference for Traditional Breakfast Products in Selected Countries

5.3 Market Opportunities

5.3.1 Product Innovation

5.4 Future Trends

5.4.1 Rising Growth of E-commerce

5.5 Impact Analysis of Drivers and Restraints



6. Frozen Waffles - Global Market Analysis

6.1 Frozen waffles Market Overview

6.2 Frozen Waffles Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million)

6.3 Competitive Positioning



7. Frozen Waffles Market Analysis - By Type

7.1 Overview

7.2 Frozen Waffles Market, By Type (2020 and 2028)

7.3 Flavoured

7.3.1 Overview

7.3.2 Flavored: Frozen Waffles Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million)

7.4 Unflavored/Plain

7.4.1 Overview

7.4.2 Unflavored/Plain: Frozen Waffles Market - Revenue and Forecast to 2028 (US$ Million)



8. Frozen Waffles Market Analysis - By Category



9. Frozen Waffles Market Analysis - By Distribution Channel



10. Frozen Waffles Market - Geographic Analysis

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/2wtssr

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New York, June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Latin America Data Center Colocation Market - Industry Outlook and Forecast 2022-2027" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06288151/?utm_source=GNW

 COVID-19 Driving Data Center Demand



KEY HIGHLIGHTS OF THE LATIN AMERICA DATA CENTER COLOCATION MARKET

 Some of the primary drivers of the Latin America data center colocation market growth include increased digitalization across several countries, hyperscale cloud service providers colocation data centers, and growth in connectivity.

 Some colocation data centers are developing wholesale colocation space in their facilities across several countries to support growing colocation demand from cloud service providers such as Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, Google, Huawei, AWS, and government entities.

 The computing power in data centers has grown significantly due to an increase in the demand for cloud services, big data, and IoT, which has led to an increase in rack power density. The increase in data bandwidth and high-performance computing will drive the data center operators to procure efficient infrastructure to manage any downtime.

 COVID-19 has been a boon across the industry, accelerating digital transformation initiatives across Latin America, increasing data center service demand, and driving the utilization of capacity among colocation facilities

 The market attracts investments from cloud service providers such as Google, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, and Tencent. These providers will continue to fuel the colocation demand across the region in the forecast period.

 Governments across the region are aiding the growth in the data center construction by offering several kinds of tax benefits.

 The region is witnessing significant initiatives for connectivity with growth in submarine cable deployments. In Latin America, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Argentina, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, Mexico, Ecuador, and other Latin American countries have submarine cable connectivity, connecting Europe, Africa, and the US.



SEGMENTATION ANALYSIS



In 2021, local and global operators dominated the market through retail colocation and construction activities. However, the presence of cloud service providers is gaining traction and is expected to boost the wholesale colocation in the region. Brazil, Chile, and Mexico are witnessing growth in demand from cloud service providers; hence the wholesale colocation market is flourishing in these countries.



The Latin America data center colocation market is witnessing significant growth in the procurement of lithium-ion UPS systems. Most edge facility deployment will include single-phase lithium-ion UPS and monitored and switched PDUs. Therefore, the emergence of edge facilities will be a significant boost to the market growth.



Data centers invest more in power infrastructure with a minimum of N+1 redundancy. Most facilities are installed with N+N or 2N redundancy for power infrastructure with more redundancy for UPS and generator systems. AECOM, Aceco TI, Constructora Sudamericana, Fluor Corporation, Holder Construction, Jacobs Engineering Group, Quark, and ZFB Group are some construction contractors building data centers in Latin America



Segmentation by Colocation Service

 Retail Colocation

 Wholesale Colocation



Segmentation by Infrastructure

 Electrical Infrastructure

 Mechanical Infrastructure

 General Construction



Segmentation by Electrical Infrastructure

 UPS Systems

 Generators

 Transfer Switches & Switchgear

 Power Distribution Units

 Other Electrical Infrastructure



Segmentation by Mechanical Infrastructure

 Cooling Systems

 Racks

 Other Mechanical Infrastructure



Segmentation by Cooling Systems

 CRAC & CRAH Units

 Chiller Units

 Cooling Towers, Condensers & Dry Coolers

 Economizers & Evaporative Coolers

 Other Cooling Units



Segmentation by General Construction

 Core & Shell Development

 Installation & Commissioning Services

 Engineering & Building Design

 Fire Detection & Suppression

 Physical Security

 DCIM/BMS



Segmentation by Tier Standard

 Tier II

 Tier III

 Tier IV



KEY TRENDS IN THE INDUSTRY

Focus on Automation, and AI in Data Centers is Gaining Traction

 In Latin America, almost 80% of large businesses use AI technology. It is expected that by 2022, AI will be implemented across 21%-40% of businesses. Many countries in Latin America developed or are developing national AI plans, but political volatility is interrupting the strategy

 The adoption of AI technology is significant in various industries, including data centers. The infrastructure maintenance demands preventing operational failure by automating data center facilities. UPS systems waste power for energy storage by converting AC to DC and vice versa



GEOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS

 Latin America data center colocation market has been attracting significant investments in recent years, led by countries such as Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico, with emerging locations such as Uruguay, Bolivia, Argentina, and Peru.

 In 2021, Brazil was the major shareholder in terms of market share as per investments with around 58%, followed by Mexico with a share of about 28% 2021.

 Mexico data center colocation market will witness area addition with an absolute growth rate of 41% between 2022 and 2027. In 2021, Mexico had an industry share of around 27% in terms of power capacity addition.

 In terms of revenue, the primary revenue generation was witnessed in Brazil due to several local and global data center operators such as Equinix, Ascenty, ODATA, and Scala Data Centers.

 The significant demand came from sectors such as telecommunication and internet service providers for the regions colocation of data center facilities.

 Global colocation providers are entering the competition through strategic partnerships with local enterprises, government, and telecom service providers. For instance, global colocation data center operator Equinix entered the Mexico market after acquiring Axtels business.



Segmentation by Region

 Brazil

 Mexico

 Chile

 Other Latin American Countries



VENDOR ANALYSIS

 Some major colocation operators in the Latin American colocation market include Ascenty, Claro, Equinix, HostDime, ODATA, Scala Data Centers, Millicom (Tigo), and others.

 Vendors are increasing their presence in Latin American countries, which is likely to boost revenue growth, mainly due to the increased construction of large data centers in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico.

 The market is expected to witness more mega data center constructions to cope with the demand for wholesale colocation by cloud service providers, which is likely to add revenue opportunities for infrastructure providers under their respective operating segments.

 Many operators are also adopting units from different vendors to provide efficient cooling solutions for the facility.

 Several data center operators depend on local resellers and skilled local expertise for installation, commissioning, and maintenance services. Several infrastructure providers in the market offer specific products or a complete range of infrastructure solutions suitable for Latin American data centers.

 The construction of data centers is increasing significantly, and greenfield data center development is growing YOY and witnessing a strong contribution from the Latin America modular data center market.

 The region has the presence of both global and local construction contractors, engineering, and architectural firms. The growth in the data center market will provide opportunities for local sub-contracts in construction, engineering, and architectural verticals.



Prominent Support Infrastructure Vendors

 ABB

 Alfa Laval

 Assa Abloy

 Axis Communication

 Bosch Security Systems( Robert Bosch)

 Caterpillar

 Cummins

 Delta Electronics

 Daikin Applied ( Daikin Industries)

 Eaton

 Generac Power Systems

 Honeywell International

 Johnson Controls

 Legrand

 Mitsubishi Electric

 Munters

 Piller Power Systems

 Panduit

 Rittal

 Rolls-Royce

 Schneider Electric

 Stulz

 Siemens

 Vertiv



Prominent Construction Contractors

 Aecom

 Aceco TI

 Constructora Sudamericana

 Fluor Corporation

 Gensler

 HDOS

 Holder Construction

 Jacobs Engineering Group

 PQC

 QUARK

 ZFB Group

 Zeittec



Prominent Data Center Investors

 Ascenty

 AVA Telecom

 CLARO

 Edgeconnex

 Hostdime

 Globenet

 GTD Peru

 Internexa

 IPXON Networks

 Lumen Technologies

 NABIAX

 ODATA

 Onex

 Scala Data Centers

 Telmex

 Millicom(TIGO)

 Quantico



KEY QUESTIONS ANSWERED

1. How big is the Latin America data center colocation market?

2. What is the Latin America data center colocation market growth rate?

3. What is the value of Latin America data center colocation market size by power capacity?

4. Which Country occupied the largest Latin America data center colocation market share in 2021?

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06288151/?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.



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Dublin, June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Intelligent Electronic Devices Market (2022-2027) by Type, Application, Vertical, Geography, Competitive Analysis and the Impact of Covid-19 with Ansoff Analysis" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The Global Intelligent Electronic Devices Market is estimated to be USD 13.64 Bn in 2022 and is projected to reach USD 20.24 Bn by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 8.21%.



Market dynamics are forces that impact the prices and behaviors of the Global Intelligent Electronic Devices 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 Corp, Cisco Systems Inc, Crompton Greaves, Eaton Corp plc, General Electric, Honeywell International Inc, Landis Gyr Inc, NovaTech LLC, Schneider Electric, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories Inc, Siemens AG, Toshiba Corp, etc.



Countries Studied

America (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, United States, Rest of Americas)

Europe (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Rest of Europe)

Middle-East and Africa (Egypt, Israel, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Rest of MEA)

Asia-Pacific (Australia, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Taiwan, Rest of Asia-Pacific)

Competitive Quadrant

The report includes Competitive Quadrant, a proprietary tool to analyze and evaluate the position of companies based on their Industry Position score and Market Performance score. The tool uses various factors for categorizing the players into four categories. Some of these factors considered for analysis are financial performance over the last 3 years, growth strategies, innovation score, new product launches, investments, growth in market share, etc.



Ansoff Analysis

The report presents a detailed Ansoff matrix analysis for the Global Intelligent Electronic Devices 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 Intelligent Electronic Devices Market using the Ansoff Matrix to provide the best approaches a company can take to improve its market position.



Based on the SWOT analysis conducted on the industry and industry players, The analyst has devised suitable strategies for market growth.



Why buy this report?

The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the Global Intelligent Electronic Devices 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 Increasing Performance of Ieds in Monitoring, Protection and Control, Communication, and Metering Applications

4.1.2 Demand for IEDs in Various Applications

4.2 Restraints

4.2.1 High Maintenance Cost

4.3 Opportunities

4.3.1 Surging Demand for Smart Devices

4.3.2 Grid Modernization in Emerging Economies

4.4 Challenges

4.4.1 Huge Amount of Capital for Substations



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 Intelligent Electronic Devices Market, By Type

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Protective Relaying Device

6.3 On-Load Tap Changer Controller

6.4 Circuit Breaker Controller

6.5 Capacitor Bank Switch

6.6 Recloser Controller

6.7 Voltage Regulator

6.8 Digital Relay

6.9 Others



7 Global Intelligent Electronic Devices Market, By Application

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Mass Transit System

7.3 Traction Signaling & Control System

7.4 Water Supply & Management System

7.5 Automation

7.6 Condition Monitoring



8 Global Intelligent Electronic Devices Market, By Vertical

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Oil & Gas

8.3 Food & Beverage

8.4 Automotive

8.5 Energy & Power

8.6 Pharmaceutical

8.7 Chemicals

8.8 Others



9 Americas' Global Intelligent Electronic Devices 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 Global Intelligent Electronic Devices 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 Global Intelligent Electronic Devices 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 Global Intelligent Electronic Devices 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 ABB Ltd

14.2 Black & Veatch Corp

14.3 Cisco Systems Inc

14.4 Crompton Greaves

14.5 Eaton Corp plc

14.6 General Electric

14.7 Honeywell International Inc

14.8 Landis Gyr Inc

14.9 NovaTech LLC

14.10 Schneider Electric

14.11 Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories Inc

14.12 Siemens AG

14.13 Toshiba Corp



15 Appendix



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/eokpwo

Attachment
New York, June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Middle-East Smart Grid Network Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06288098/?utm_source=GNW

Factors such as incresing renewable energy deployment and increasing installations of smart grid meters are expected to drive the market. However, cyber security is a major concern in the smart grid network market and is expected to act as a restraint in the coming years as more and more data comes online.



Key Highlights

Software component has dominated the market in the past and is expected to follow similar trend during the forecast period.

The increasing investments in the EV charging infrastructure to reduce carbon emissions from the transportation sector and support the increasing adaption of EVs are likely to act as an opportunity for the smart grid market in the Middle East region during the forecast period.?

Saudi Arabia is expected to dominate the growth of smart grids in the Middle-East region during the forecast period.



Key Market Trends



Software Component Expected to Dominate the Market



Smart grid software solutions leverage digital solutions to facilitate the two-way transfer of energy and data between providers and consumers. Digitizing the power grid helps reduction in carbon emissions, reduces operational and management costs and outage downtime, and improves security and integrations with renewable energy systems and conventional energy sources. ?

For instance, smart metering software provides metering programming is changing utility environment, where the software provider or the utility company can remotely program a smart-grid meter for two-way communication between provider and consumer. In addition, some companies provide smart meter programs, which include meter data management, automatic meter reading, and advanced metering infrastructure. ?

As the smart grid sits on the digital platform, there are risks of cyberthreat associated with all aspects of smart grid domains, including smart grid devices and communication technologies that are the heart of the smart grid. In addition, digital services companies for grid technologies provide cybersecurity software, which offers safe communication and reduces the exposure to potential attackers and unintentional errors.?

In a smart grid, substation plays a significant role in distributing quality power to customers, and the intelligence of substation equipment has been expanding to accommodate changes in the smart grid. The companies provide customized smart grid technology for substation automation system, which ensures the grid stay reliable under any operating condition and increases the operating life of crucial assets, and provide smart grid software for substation operation, which features such as protection relays, and monitoring solutions.?

In 2020, Qatar Electricity and Water Corporation (KAHRAMAA) and Vodafone Corporation partnered to install about 600,000 smart meters in the country. The smart meters would be delivered on Vodafones Internet of Things (IoT) SIM platform, providing real-time data to KAHRAMAA. The smart meter would be operated on the Vodafone Managed IoT Connectivity platform, a secure self-service platform that simplifies IoT management and gives the state-owned utility company complete visibility and control of the smart meter systems.

Overall, the Middle Eastern software smart grid network market is expected to increase in the forecast period as the number of renewable energy systems increases, which directly aids the smart grid system, coupled with the upgradation of existing aging grids in the region. ?



Saudi Arabia Expected to Dominate the Market



Fossil fuels dominate electricity generation in Saudi Arabia. The country has been focusing on reducing the dependency on oil for power generation by developing alternate energy infrastructure, including solar power sources.?

The yearly increase in the electricity demand affects the countrys oil export volume and earnings. To reduce the consumption of oil in power generation, Saudi Arabia is in the process of restructuring the power sector.?

The electricity generation from renewable sources till 2016 was negligible. Still, it is expected to play a significant role in meeting the growing demand and diversification of electricity generation. In 2016, after the failure of its previous renewables program under the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy, the government established the Renewable Energy Project Development Office (REPDO) to deliver the 9.5 GW clean energy target set out in Vision 2030.?

Further, Saudi Arabia has set a new renewable target of developing and installing 27.3 GW of clean energy by 2024 and 58.7 GW by 2030, of which Solar PV includes 40GW of the target. This is expected to increase the demand for integrating renewable sources with the countrys transmission infrastructure and smart grid networks.?

According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Saudi Arabia had a total installed solar PV capacity of 439 MW in 2021, up from 109 MW in 2020. Solar PV accounted for more than 87% of the installed renewable capacity in 2021, most of which came from large-scale solar power projects. The rapid growth is a part of the countrys efforts toward its ambitious clean energy target and plans to generate 50% of its energy from renewables by 2030. ?

Saudi Arabia has been witnessing a growth in adopting smart grid technologies. For instance, in 2021, the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) announced installing 10 million smart electricity meters. SEC managed to replace 10 million analog meters across all its service regions. Of the 10 million units installed, the utility claims that 4 million were manufactured locally as part of efforts by Saudi Arabia to reduce its reliance on technology imports and create jobs locally. The Smart Metering Project (SMP) is the SECs most important project for digital transformation in the country.?

Moreover, with the stringent global emission standards coming into force, the automotive industry has been transitioning toward adopting EVs. The country has been partnering with EV manufacturers to diversify its automotive industry beyond the use of fossil fuels like oil. Most recently, Saudi Arabia signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the United Kingdom to minimize carbon emissions and support Saudi Vision 2030. The MoU states both countries cooperate and share expertise to develop technologies, including smart grids and EVs. These developments are expected to pave the way for the development of EV charging infrastructure and the adoption of smart grid networks.?

In May 2022, Electromin, a wholly-owned e-mobility turn-key solutions provider under Petromin, announced the rollout of electric vehicle charging points across Saudi Arabia. The network includes 100 locations across the country, powered by a customer-centric mobile application. Electromins charging network will offer a complete spectrum of services from AC home/office chargers, DC fast chargers, all the way through to DC ultra-fast chargers, catering to all customer segments.?

Thus, owing to the developments in renewable sources creating a need for upgrading the electricity grid networks, along with the government initiatives and the rising adoption of e-mobility infrastructure, the smart grid network is expected to grow in the Saudi Arabia market during the forecast period.?



Competitive Landscape



Middle-East Smart Grid Network Market is moderately fragmented. The key players for the market include Honeywell International Inc., Hitachi Energy Ltd., Siemens AG, Landis+Gyr, and General Electric Company.



Additional Benefits:



The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format

3 months of analyst support

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06288098/?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.



__________________________
LOUISVILLE, Ky., June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HSG, a national healthcare consulting firm, has expanded its performance improvement services to address healthcare worker shortages, burnout, and growing pains from physician practice acquisitions. These factors, coupled with billing delays and credentialing errors, can cause health care organizations severe losses and revenue cycle issues. By growing its network of experienced healthcare project managers and interim leaders, HSG is able to quickly send in seasoned experts to address systemic operational issues and special projects for healthcare organizations across the country.

National surveys continue to show increasing numbers of employed physicians despite the fact that, according to a study published by the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), U.S. hospitals and health systems are reporting substantial operating losses from medical practices they own or operate. The root causes of these operating losses are often unclear to management. Still, it's common for specific operational impacts to surface shortly after a merger is complete, from revealing issues within the corporate culture to improper billing and practices that cost hospitals and healthcare systems millions of dollars. Often, it requires an outside perspective from an experienced healthcare executive to discover the root of the problem and develop a plan for course correction.

"As employed physician networks grow, the infrastructure needed to support physicians often lags behind," stated Davis Creech, Director at HSG. "Multiply lagging operational infrastructure by healthcare worker burnout and shortages, and you have an equation for mounting operating losses. This confluence of circumstances drove our decision to enhance our interim and temporary project management solutions for hospitals and healthcare systems. Many organizations really need an experienced boost right now to effectively get out of the weeds," Creech added.

There are several red flags organizations can look for to see if an interim leader or temporary project manager should be considered. Revenue cycle issues are usually at the top of the list, closely followed by organizational growth that has exceeded middle management's capabilities. Other circumstances that often cue a decision to bring in HSG's stable of experts include new physician practices being added to the organization, high turnover rates, and strained corporate cultures.

HSG partners with hospitals and healthcare systems to discover the root cause of issues and create plans to solve the problem. From implementing HOPDs and provider-based billing evaluation and training to payor credentialing and onboarding of newly acquired private practices, HSG's veteran onsite project management team can be an interim answer to completing prioritized organizational projects and developing solutions to systemic problems. For more information on this expanded performance improvement service, visit HSGAdvisors.com or contact Davis Creech at 502-814-1183 or DCreech@hsgadvisors.com

About HSG

HSG is a national healthcare consulting firm headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky. The practice empowers leaders to build differentiated health system strategies and high-performing employed physician networks by pairing data intelligence with experienced advice. The firm's comprehensive approach to leveraging market facts to inform healthcare strategies allows leaders to understand opportunities and deliver the right care to their communities. For more information about HSG, visit www.HSGAdvisors.com, LinkedIn, email info@hsgadvisors.com, or call (502) 814-1180.

Media Contact: Karolyn Raphael, Winger Marketing

(312) 494-0422, karolyn@wingermarketing.com

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Davis Creech, Director at HSG supports the company's expanded performance improvement services to address healthcare worker shortages, burnout, and growing pains from physician practice acquisitions.









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New York, NY, June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Grammy winner, multiple Billboard Hot 100 chart-topping artist, and international reggae legend Buju Banton is set to release his latest single Madda Badda, produced by J August. This new single, which is a mix of classic dancehall rhythm mixed with contemporary sounds, highlights the hardcore dancehall lyricism and flow that brought Buju Banton to prominence in the 90s.

Madda Badda is released in collaboration with Ghetto Youths International and Gargamel Music. Scheduled for release Friday, June 24th, this exciting new single by Buju Banton is a reminder and a reclaiming of the dancehall space with the authentic sound and cadence the genre was popularized for.

The first single to propel Buju into stardom was The Ruler at age 16. Now several years later, his songs are still making statements. His debut album Stamina Daddy with the title track as the first single in 1992 was his breakout. Singles like Wanna Be Loved, Hills and Valley, Murderer, Not An Easy Road, and many more. Following the success of his Long Walk To Freedom tour, Buju Banton released his Grammy-nominated album Upside Down in 2020. Hosting twenty tracks, featuring Stephen Marley, John Legend, Pharrell Williams, and Stefflon Don, the press lauded his return declaring him A national hero according to FADER.

Now with the release of this latest single, Madda Badda, Buju Banton is calling to our collective minds, the dancehall that Jamaica is known for. This track comes as a respite amid public concerns that the quality of dancehall music has waned. Not one to make long speeches, Buju has seemingly responded where it matters most, in song. This complex lyrical track is masterful not just in its instrumentation, but also the simplicity of the song structure. With this single Buju Banton is proving that dancehall songs can be simple and meaningful, dispelling the idea that artists must compromise one for the other. This new single is available for listening pleasure everywhere music is streamed globally on June 24th https://onerpm.link/maddabadda.

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BALTIMORE, June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Protenus, the leading healthcare compliance analytics platform empowering healthcare to eliminate risk, received the highest overall performance score for its drug diversion surveillance solution in the recently published KLAS Drug Diversion Monitoring 2022 report. Clinical drug diversion creates huge risks for hospitals and health systems reputations and finances and the safety of their patients, workforces, and communities at-large. KLAS' report grades several vendors on their ability to consistently deliver guidance, analytics, and insight that helps their customers identify and prevent drug diversion.

Based on the report findings, Protenus also ranked the highest for delivery of new technology and proactive diversion monitoring capabilities as their solution assigns a suspicion score that identifies potential diversion events extremely well, leading the market in functionality and innovation. Customers described Protenus' support as proactive and appreciated the quarterly updates that incorporate customers' development suggestions.

Survey respondents rated Protenus above market average across the board on six customer experience pillars and see Protenus as a partner that regularly meets with customers and provides helpful implementation support. Along with proactive diversion insights that guide customer investigations, Protenus' solution delivers actionable analytics empowering customers to take a preventative approach to drug diversion.

Per one respondent commenting on Protenus solutions in the report, "We have readily available information that is actionable. If we want to be preventative, we need the information right away. We can't wait 24 hours to find out we were missing something or that something went wrong. The fact that we can monitor things in a live environment gives us the ability to see things as they happen. If we see the information later, that is not proactive. We can just visit the vendor's website, and with one click, we get a report of what is really going on. It takes a few minutes to resolve the case. What we have now compared to what we had before is a huge difference."

Protenus Co-Founder and CEO Nick Culbertson remarked, "Being proactive is key to mitigating the risks drug diversion poses. We're determined to help our customers quickly identify and address incidents as they happen using cohesive, actionable data in order to strengthen policy compliance and safety at their organizations."

About Protenus

Protenus harnesses the power of AI to provide healthcare organizations with scalable risk-reduction solutions that drive the safest patient outcomes while protecting the reputation of the organizations. We are committed to innovation, determined to reduce risk, and focused on supporting our community of employees, customers, and ultimately, patients. Empowering healthcare to eliminate risk is at the heart of all we do. Founded in 2014, Protenus is a three-time winner of Forbes' America's Best Startup Employers, is a Great Place to Work-Certified company, and was named one of 2021 CBInsights Digital Health 150, one of The Best Places to Work in Healthcare by Modern Healthcare, and one of the Best Places to Work in Baltimore by the Baltimore Business Journal and the Baltimore Sun. Learn more at Protenus.com and follow us on Twitter @Protenus.

About KLAS

KLAS is a research and insights firm on a global mission to improve healthcare delivery by amplifying the provider's voice. Working with thousands of healthcare professionals and clinicians, KLAS gathers data and insights on software, services and medical equipment to deliver timely reports, trends and statistical overviews. The research directly represents the provider voice and acts as a catalyst for improving vendor performance. For more information on KLAS Research, visit www.klasresearch.com.

Media Contact

Amanda Rogers

Marketing Content Writer

amanda.rogers@protenus.com

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SYRACUSE, N.Y., June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Terakeet, the leading enterprise search engine technology company, today announced that its CEO & Co-Founder Mac Cummings has been named a winner in Ernst & Young LLP (EY US)'s Entrepreneur Of The Year 2022 New York Award program.

Entrepreneur Of The Year is one of the preeminent competitive business awards for entrepreneurs and leaders of high-growth companies who think big to succeed. An independent panel of judges selected Mac based on his entrepreneurial spirit, purpose, growth and impact, among other core contributions and attributes.

Twenty-nine finalists were selected, and twelve were named winners. Cummings was the only entrepreneur with a headquarters outside of Downstate New York honored in the program.

Cummings co-founded Terakeet with CTO & Co-Founder Patrick Danial in 2001 as a college student and has since overseen the significant growth of Terakeet's employee, customer, and financial base. In the past year alone, Terakeet's business has grown by 91%. This was all while Cummings led the creation of several innovative programs to ensure Terakeet delivers valuable impact for both customers, employees, and the community.

"I'm thrilled to be recognized as a winner for this award and am grateful to EY for continuing to celebrate equity, innovation, and entrepreneurship," says Cummings. "Seeing all the ways that Terakeet has grown over the years has been one of the biggest honors of my life. I'm incredibly grateful to my business partner of 23 years, Pat Danial, and the Terakeet team who continue to help bring this shared vision to life."

As a New York award winner, Mac will now be considered by the National independent panel of judges for the Entrepreneur Of The Year 2022 National Awards.

The Entrepreneur Of The Year program has honored the inspirational leadership of entrepreneurs such as James Park of Fitbit, Howard Schultz of Starbucks Coffee Company, and Reid Hoffman and Jeff Weiner of LinkedIn Corporation.

About Terakeet: Terakeet is the preferred enterprise partner for Fortune 500 brands and executives who seek online revenue growth, increased market share, and reputation protection and repair. We combine custom strategies, proprietary technology, and expert execution to align our work with our customers' broader marketing strategies and business goals, providing results that make an impact on the bottom line.

Further information is available at terakeet.com.

Contact:

RJ Licata, Director of Marketing

rlicata@terakeet.com

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Mac Cummings accepts his Entrepreneur of the Year award.









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MONTREAL and SAN FRANCISCO, June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Coveo Solutions Inc, (TSX:CVO), a leader in AI-powered relevance platforms that transform search, recommendations, and personalization within digital experiences, today announced that it has been named a Salesforce Commerce Cloud Partner of the Year for Best Early Salesforce Commerce Win 2022 and Best Personalization 2022.



The Salesforce Commerce Cloud Partner Awards recognize the outstanding performance of digital transformation commerce partners in the Salesforce ecosystem, taking into account the number of new customers and overall growth.

We are honored to be named Salesforce Commerce Cloud Partner of the Year, said Brian McGlynn, GM Commerce Solutions at Coveo. Todays shoppers and buyers demand meaningful digital experiences that speak directly to their individual needs. Together, our platforms help retailers, distributors, brands, and manufacturers exceed their goals and customer expectations with the power of AI.

The Coveo Relevance Cloud platform delivers AI-powered search, navigation, personalization, and recommendations directly inside Salesforces Service, Sales, Community, and Commerce experiences.

Coveo for Salesforce Commerce Cloud is currently available on the AppExchange .

For more information visit Coveo for Salesforce .

Salesforce, Commerce Cloud, AppExchange and others are trademarks of Salesforce.com, Inc.

About Coveo Solutions

We believe that relevance and personalization are critical for businesses to win in the new digital experience economy, to serve people the way they expect, and that applied AI is an imperative. Coveo is a market-leading AI-powered relevance platform. Our SaaS-native, multi-tenant platform injects search, recommendations, and personalization into digital experiences. We provide solutions for commerce, service, websites, and workplace applications. Our solutions are designed to provide tangible value to our customers by helping drive conversion and revenue growth, increase profitability, reduce customer support costs, increase customer satisfaction and website engagement, and improve employee proficiency and satisfaction.

Stay up to date on the latest Coveo news and content by subscribing to the Coveo blog, and following Coveo on LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.

Highwire PR

Coveo

media@coveo.com

+1 418-263-1111

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/338aa85e-bfb1-4b5c-84f2-07bc57a9b08c
New York, June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Europe E-Signature Market" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06288341/?utm_source=GNW

9%. This is due to the favorable government legislations, growth in the popularity of remote working, increase in the number of online documentation procedures, and cost-effectiveness of e-signatures.



To gain a prominent foothold in the Europe e-signature market, players have been busy releasing new solutions. These market players are Dropbox Inc., OneSpan Inc., PandaDoc Inc., Citrix Systems Inc., Foxit Corporation, airSlate Inc., Formstack LLC, Entrust Corporation, Adobe Inc., Thales Group, and DocuSign Inc.



Key Findings of Europe E-Signature Market Report

 Foxit Corporation, a developer of advanced PDF products and services, introduced the Foxit eSign platform in May 2022. This service provides a complete, secure e-sign process and is legally binding.



 PandaDoc Inc. released PandaDoc Developers in September 2021, allowing developers to create and connect unique document processes and e-signature features into their services, products, and websites with ease.



 In 2021, the U.K. dominated the market with around 20% share. This was mostly due to the growing usage of e-signatures for online identification in the country, which is becoming extremely important as more services move online.



 The PKI category accounts for over 40% share of the Europe e-signature market. This is because it is a standard-based solution that lets developers pick their preferred trust providers and does not require a third-party authentication server to be active.



 In the coming years, the European e-signature service market is predicted to grow at a significant CAGR. This may be attributed to the advantages related services provide to firms, such as reducing the procedure time from days to hours.



 The government sector is the second-largest vertical category in the market. This is because government agencies have been employing e-signature software and tools to make their operations digital.



The BFSI category holds over 40% share in the Europe e-signature market, and it is expected to maintain its position in the future. The BFSI vertical emphasizes analyzing digital preferences, consumer behavior, and choices due to the growing need for customer-centric business solutions. BFSI organizations benefit from these signatures since they improve security and speed up customer onboarding.



Documentation procedures in companies and institutions are becoming rapidly digitized as a result of the strong government support for digitalization. Furthermore, as cloud computing has become more widely adopted, businesses and consumers have been able to perform online tasks, thus creating the requirement for identification and authorization from both sides.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06288341/?utm_source=GNW



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__________________________
English French

PRESS RELEASE

Neuilly-sur-Seine, France  June 24, 2022

ORDINARY SHAREHOLDERS' MEETING OF JUNE 24, 2022:

All submitted resolutions were adopted

The Ordinary Shareholders Meeting (the "Shareholders Meeting") of Bureau Veritas (the "Company"), chaired by Mr. Aldo Cardoso, Chairman of the Board of Directors, was held today at the Companys head office.

All the resolutions submitted to the Shareholders Meeting were adopted, including:

The approval of the statutory and consolidated financial statements for the financial year ending on December 31, 2021, and the approval of a dividend distribution of 0.53 per share to be paid in cash on July 7, 2022 (ex-date on July 5, 2022) on positions closed on July 6, 2022

The reappointments of Mr. Aldo Cardoso and Mr. Pascal Lebard as Directors for a 4-year period

The appointment of Mr. Jean-Francois Palus as Director for a 4-year period

The approval of the report on Corporate Officers compensation

The approval of fixed, variable and exceptional components of total compensation and benefits-in-kind paid or awarded for the 2021 financial year to the Chairman of the Board of Directors and to the Chief Executive Officer

The approval of the components of the compensation policy applicable to the Directors, the Chairman of the Board of Directors and to the Chief Executive Officer for the 2022 financial year

The reappointments of the Statutory Auditors for a six-year period

The renewal of the authorization granted to the Board of Directors to trade in the Companys shares

During the Shareholders Meeting, Mr. Didier Michaud-Daniel, Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Francois Chabas, Executive Vice-President Finance, presented the highlights & results of the 2021 financial year, detailing the Groups revenue, adjusted operating profit, earnings per share, cash flow statement and financial position.

Mr. Didier Michaud-Daniel then presented the business review, first quarter revenue and outlook for 2022. He also presented the Groups corporate social responsibility strategy.

Mr. Aldo Cardoso presented the reports of the Board of Directors and Corporate Governance. Mr. Pascal Lebard, Chairman of the Nomination and Compensation Committee, presented the compensation components of the Directors, the Chairman of the Board of Directors and the Chief Executive Officer in 2021, as well as the compensation policy for the 2022 financial year.

The Board of Directors renewed Aldo Cardoso's mandate as Chairman of the Board of Directors and Pascal Lebard's mandate as Chairman of the Nomination and Compensation Committee. The Board also decided to appoint Jean-Francois Palus to the Audit and Risk Committee.

Aldo Cardoso, Chairman of the Board of Directors, said:

"I would like to thank the shareholders for the confidence they have just shown in Bureau Veritas and its management team, and I would like to reiterate the Board's trust in the Group's development perspectives.

Let me welcome Jean-Francois Palus. Through his knowledge of key geographical areas, such as China and the United States, and of the consumer goods sector, Jean-Francois Palus will strengthen the skills of the Board of Directors."

The recording of the Shareholders Meeting, the presentation made during the Shareholders Meeting and the complete results of the vote of the resolutions will be available on the Company's website (https://group.bureauveritas.com/investors/financial-information/shareholders-meeting).

About Bureau Veritas

Bureau Veritas is a world leader in laboratory testing, inspection and certification services. Created in 1828, the Group has more than 80,000 employees located in more than 1,600 offices and laboratories around the globe. Bureau Veritas helps its 400,000 clients improve their performance by offering services and innovative solutions in order to ensure that their assets, products, infrastructure and processes meet standards and regulations in terms of quality, health and safety, environmental protection and social responsibility.

Bureau Veritas is listed on Euronext Paris and belongs to the CAC 40 ESG, CAC Next 20 & SBF 120 indices.

Compartment A, ISIN code FR 0006174348, stock symbol: BVI.

For more information, visit www.bureauveritas.com, and follow us on Twitter (@bureauveritas) and LinkedIn.

Our information is certified with blockchain technology.

Check that this press release is genuine at www.wiztrust.com.





ANALYST/INVESTOR CONTACTS MEDIA CONTACTS Laurent Brunelle Caroline Ponsi Khider +33 (0)1 55 24 76 09 +33 (0)7 52 60 89 78 laurent.brunelle@bureauveritas.com



caroline.ponsi-khider@bureauveritas.com Colin Verbrugghe Primatice +33 (0)1 55 24 77 80 thomasdeclimens@primatice.com colin.verbrugghe@bureauveritas.com armandrigaudy@primatice.com



Etienne Linquier etienne.linquier@bureauveritas.com





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LOS ANGELES , June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Foley & Mansfield Partner Ann I. Park has been installed as President of the Los Angeles County Bar Association (LACBA). Park was previously President-Elect and has been actively involved with the organization for over thirty years. Park is the first Asian-American president in LACBAs 144-year history.



LACBA is one of the countrys largest voluntary metropolitan bar associations with over 18,000 members, 28 law practice sections, 21 committees and 18 affiliated geographic and identity bar associations. It serves attorneys, judges and other legal professionals through sections, committees, networking events, live and on demand CLE programs, pro bono opportunities, resources and information. It is the only bar association in California with a Vice President for Diversity, Inclusion, and Outreach.

We congratulate Ann for her long-time commitment to LACBA, her dedicated service to bar members and the community and her outstanding leadership skills. Her service is a model for others  including LACBA and Foley & Mansfield, said Kyle B. Mansfield, Foley & Mansfield Managing Partner. Ann is also an important step forward for representation at LACBA as its first Asian-American president.

Park is a skilled litigator who regularly defends complex, high-risk toxic tort, asbestos products liability and premises liability actions. She is skilled at effectively understanding and conveying in clear terms to judges and juries complex medical and scientific data  leading to favorable client verdicts and the trust of some of the nations largest industrial and insurance companies.

In addition to her presidency, Park has a long record of leadership with LACBA, including serving on its Board of Trustees. In 2009, she was honored with the organizations Patricia Phillips Outstanding Committee Service Award. She is also past president of Korean American Bar Association of Southern California.

Recognized by her peers, Park is a 12-time Super Lawyers Southern California Super Lawyer and recipient of the State Bar of Californias Presidential Recognition Award and its Diversity Award. In 2021, she was recognized as a Recent Trailblazer in the Law by the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Los Angeles County.

Park is a graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles (J.D., 1987) and Harvard University (A.B., cum laude, 1984).

About Foley & Mansfield

Foley & Mansfield is a national defense law firm with more than 110 attorneys in 14 offices across the U.S. representing business entities and business professionals, either directly or through their insurance carriers. With a deep bench of trial-ready attorneys  in fields including toxic tort and mass tort, product liability, commercial litigation, construction, hospitality and real estate  Foley & Mansfield is well-equipped to protect and defend business interests no matter how complex. The firm is committed to a value-based business model, delivering results-oriented and cost-effective legal solutions that best meet client needs. Foley & Mansfield is also dedicated to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in the legal field, underscored by its role as a Mansfield Rule participating law firm.
GENEVA, June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On the sidelines of the 50th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Dr. Wesam Basindowah's Yemen Coalition of Independent Women, with co-organizer The Washington Outsider, whose Editor-in-Chief Irina Tsukerman participated in the seminar, and along with other international human rights organizations, revealed the humanitarian disaster in Yemen unleashed by the widespread use of land mines by the Iran-backed Houthis.

Irina Tsukerman started the discussion by explaining that the Houthis are considered some of the most prolific offensive land mine users in the world, having planted between a million and a half and over 2 million land mines all over the country from the Northern provinces to the borders with Saudi Arabia since the civil broke out with the start of the Houthi uprising in 2014. As other participants also noted, many of these land mines are illegal anti-personnel land mines planted in civilian areas, disguised as rocks, toys, or other civilian objects which maximizes the number of civilian casualties in violation of international laws, and complicates the demining process.

Tsukerman had interviewed demining experts from MASAM, a civilian project with Saudi Arabia's King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre, which had removed hundreds of thousands of mines since 2018. From the start of the war, KSA has contributed approximately $20 billion to humanitarian aid in Yemen.

Tsukerman explained that Houthis fought numerous wars with Yemen's government before the current civil war and grew in sophistication thanks to training from Iran's and Hezbullah's military advisers. Iran, Tsukerman asserted, views Yemen as a gateway to Saudi Arabia; controlling the Two Holy Mosques is at the epicenter of the Islamic Republic's goal to export the Islamic Revolution, becoming the only recognized religious authority. The land mines would help clear the way.

The land mines progressed from old Soviet mines and locally made simple IEDs to sophisticated technology imported from Iran or developed on the ground, similar to ordnances recovered after use by Iran's proxies in Iraq, Bahrain, and Lebanon. Since the start of the current war over 9000 Yemenis were reported killed from IED blasts with hundreds injured each year. Even if the war comes to an end, due to lack of cooperation from the Houthis in mapping the land mine sites, the humanitarian disaster may persist for decades, Tsukerman added.

The panel recommended sanctioning Houthis, increasing international demining cooperation, building more hospitals and artificial limb centers in remote areas, providing psychological care and rehabilitation for victims, especially for children, providing safety training for volunteers, disrupting Iran's efforts in providing land mine materials, providing safe passage and humanitarian assistance to communities where facilities have become inaccessible, and increasing coordination among demining groups.

Media Contact: Irina Tsukerman

917-755-5977

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Image 1: Panel discussion on Houthi use of land mines in Yemen





Yemen Coalition of Independent Women, The Washington Outsider seminar in Geneva on the sidles of the 50th session of UNHRC.









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TORONTO and TAMPA, Fla., June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Voxtur Analytics Corp. (TSXV: VXTR; OTCQB: VXTRF) ("Voxtur" or the "Company"), a North American technology company creating a more transparent and accessible real estate lending ecosystem, today announced the results of its Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders held on June 14, 2022 (the Meeting).



At the Meeting, the shareholders of the Company approved setting the number of directors of the Company at nine, and elected the following persons to serve as directors of the Company (the "Board"), each for a term of one year or until their successor is duly elected or appointed: James Albertelli, Michael Harris, James Kelsey, Grant Moon, Joseph Murin, Christy Soukhamneut, Mark Volosov, Ray Williams, and Gary Yeoman. The election of the Board reflects the Companys continued commitment to growth and innovation.

The shareholders also approved the following actions at the Meeting: appointment of Marcum LLP as the Company's auditor; approval of an amendment to the Companys by-laws to remove certain Canadian residency requirements of its elected directors; approval of a share consolidation, subject to TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV") approval, to be effected by the Board in its discretion, of the outstanding common shares of the Company at a consolidation ratio of up to 20:1; and approval of a Long-Term Incentive Plan (the LTIP).

The LTIP provides for broad-based equity awards to directors, officers, consultants and employees. The LTIP permits the granting of options, performance share units, restricted share units and/or deferred share units. The aggregate number of common shares of the Company to be reserved and set aside for issuance under the LTIP, together with all other established security-based compensation arrangements of the Company, will not exceed 10% of the issued and outstanding common shares of the Company at the time of granting the award (on a non-diluted basis). The LTIP is subject to final approval by the TSXV. A complete copy of the LTIP is available in the Management Information Circular for the Meeting, which is available at www.sedar.com.

Following the Meeting, the Board of Directors re-appointed the following officers of the Company: Gary Yeoman was appointed Executive Chairman, James Albertelli was appointed Chief Executive Officer, Angela Little was appointed Chief Financial Officer, and Stacy Mestayer was appointed Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary.

About Voxtur

Voxtur is a transformational real estate technology company that is redefining industry standards in a dynamic lending environment. The Company offers targeted data analytics to simplify tax solutions, property valuation and settlement services throughout the lending lifecycle for investors, lenders, government agencies and servicers. Voxturs proprietary data hub and workflow platforms more accurately and efficiently value assets, originate and service loans, securitize portfolios and evaluate tax assessments. The Company serves the property lending and property tax sectors, both public and private, in the United States and Canada. For more information, visit www.voxtur.com.

Neither TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, forward-looking information). Any information contained herein that is not based on historical facts may be deemed to constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian and United States securities laws. Forward-looking information may be based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release, and may be identified by the words may, would, could, should, will, intend, plan, anticipate, believe, estimate, expect or similar expressions. Forward-looking information may include, but is not limited to: retention of the Company's officers and directors, approval of the LTIP and/or share consolidation by the TSXV; effects relating to the Company's common shares following consolidation; expectations for the effects of certain milestones or the ability of the Company to successfully achieve certain business objectives; the effects of unexpected costs, liabilities or delays; success of software activities; expectations for other economic, business, environmental, regulatory and/or competitive factors related to the Company, or the real estate industry generally; anticipated future production costs; and other events or conditions that may occur in the future. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking information is not based on historical facts but instead reflects estimates or projections concerning future results or events based on the opinions, assumptions and estimates of management considered reasonable at the date the information is provided. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking information are reasonable, such information involves risks and uncertainties, and undue reliance should not be placed on such information, as unknown or unpredictable factors could have material adverse effects on future results, performance, or achievements of the Company. Among the key factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information include but are not limited to: turnover of the Company's officers and directors; approval requirements of the TSXV; opposition to consolidate the common shares of the Company; additional costs related to acquisitions; changing global financial conditions, especially in light of the COVID-19 global pandemic; reliance on specific key employees and customers to maintain business operations; competition within the Companys industry; a risk in technological failure or failure to implement technological upgrades; the Companys dependence on maintaining intellectual property; operating losses and negative cash flows; and currency fluctuations. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information contained herein.

This forward-looking information is provided as of the date of this news release and, accordingly, is subject to change after such date. The Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise this information to reflect new events or circumstances except as required in accordance with applicable laws.

Contact:

Jordan Ross

Chief Investment Officer

Tel: (416) 708-9764

jordan@voxtur.com
CLEVELAND and PHILADELPHIA, June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The investment fraud lawyers at Rosca Scarlato LLC law firm are investigating potential claims for compensation on behalf of certain investors in the alleged fraudulent scheme perpetrated by the real estate development company National Realty Investment Advisors (NRIA), affiliated funds, and some of its principals, following recent fraud allegations by state and federal securities regulators.



The New Jersey Bureau of Securities recently issued a Cease & Desist Order accusing the NRIA and its principals of perpetrating a massive securities fraud by selling over $600 million in real estate investments to 1,800 investors through misrepresentations and omissions, and misusing much of the investors money. The alleged fraud was perpetrated through a series of funds, according to records under review by investor rights attorney Alan Rosca.

The NRIA and its affiliated funds recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The New Jersey regulators described numerous alleged irregularities in NRIAs use of investor money, in a recent Cease and Desist Order. In addition, NRIA is reportedly under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and other state regulators, and one of the NRIA control persons, Thomas Nick Salzano was charged last year with fraud in connection with an investment in NRIA.

What NRIA Investors May Do

Investment fraud attorneys Alan Rosca and Paul Scarlato have been investigating the NRIA matter on behalf of victimized investors and are evaluating certain potential recovery options for some of the investors in the alleged fraud. NRIA investors who invested through a registered investment professional or through an investment vehicle (feeder fund), as well as individuals with knowledge may contact attorneys Rosca or Scarlato for a free, no-obligation evaluation of their options at 888-998-0530, arosca@rscounsel.law or by leaving a message at the NRIA Investor Center page.

The Rosca Scarlato investor lawyers have substantial experience representing investors who lost money as a result of investment fraud and Ponzi schemes. They take most cases of this type on a contingency fee basis and advance the case costs. There are no fees or costs if no recovery.

Visit https://investorlawyers.org for more information about the firm and Rosca Scarlato attorneys' background and admissions to practice law. This release may be deemed to include Attorney Advertising. There has been no finding of liability as to the allegations herein.  Rosca Scarlato 2022.




STANFORD, Calif., June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ShopParty (Shop Party), a U.S.-based live commerce solution provider founded by Anna Vladymyrska at Stanford University in 2020 whose state-of-the-art tech solution is designed to provide a seamless experience of livestream shopping and shoppable videos, today announced a strategic alliance with former White House Senior Adviser and Attorney and Indian Magic CEO Petra Smeltzer Starke to bring live commerce and sustainable development to the field of eCommerce.

Petra Smeltzer Starke will work with ShopParty's CEO Anna Vladymyrska and executive team to bring world-class practice across multiple areas involving sustainable development, social and organizational engagements, and more.

About Petra Smeltzer Starke

Petra Smeltzer Starke's phenomenal career started from studying international business, trade and diplomacy at the Prague School of Economics while supporting herself as a model. Petra's passion for fashion translates into her modeling successes notwithstanding, Starke finished both undergraduate and graduate degrees at the top of her class and moved to the United States to attend law school at Georgetown University.

Starke was first in her class in law school & practiced law at the international law firm of O'Melveny & Myers, LLP representing many political nominees and appointees during the Bush Administration. Starke was subsequently recruited for the Obama Presidential Transition and later the Obama White House where she served as General Counsel to the White House Council of Economic Advisors and Senior Advisor to the President. Starke has counseled American Presidents, and global Diplomatic Leaders around the world, and established a phenomenal international network. Starke's expertise helped the Biden-Harris Transition Team on matters of ethics and avoiding conflicts of interest.

Petra says, "It is an honor for me to support Anna's vision for the future of shopping. I am proud as CEO of Indian Magic to have our health, beauty, and well-being line of products partnering and growing from ShopParty and its remarkable platform."

"The future of e-commerce will center around the use of advanced technologies that became available with the rise of high-speed internet, 5G, and we are focused on providing our clients with ways to the future in a consistent and fashion industry-friendly way," said Anna Vladymryska, ShopParty's's founder and CEO. "Furthermore, we at ShopParty, believe this alliance with Petra Smeltzer Starke will significantly improve business opportunities enabling ShopParty's Sustainable Development mission beyond borders on a global scale "



ShopParty Inc. is a United States-based private company that does not provide services to clients in restricted or sanctioned areas. Please see www.ShopParty.com to learn more about our global brands, technology and events.



Contact information:

media@shopparty.net

ShopParty.com

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Chicago, June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- [139 Pages Report] According to Arizton latest research report, the Latin America data center physical security market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.27% during 2022-2027. All data center providers prefer multiple layers of safety, and several data centers are implementing five-layer systems due to the increasing demand for colocation services, which is a major driver for the physical security market.



Latin America Data Center Physical Security Market Report Scope

Report Attributes Details MARKET SIZE (2027) $24.1 MILLION MARKET SIZE (2021) $12.7 MILLION CAGR (2022-2027) 11.27% BASE YEAR 2021 FORECAST YEAR 2022 MARKET SEGMENTS Product: Video Surveillance, Access Control, and Other Physical Security, Physical Security Layers: Perimeter Security, Building Security, Data Hall Security, and Cabinet Security, End Users: Colocation Data Centers and Enterprise Data Centers GEOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS Brazil, Mexico, Chile, and Rest of Latin America

Click Here to Download the Free Sample Report

In 2021, the data center market was mainly dominated by colocation providers, followed by internet and cloud service providers. There are also many cloud-based services providers that are dependent on the construction of facilities by colocation providers to colocate space on a wholesale basis. In terms of hyperscale construction, Apple, Facebook, Google, AWS, and Microsoft are investing billions of dollars in the market every year. Moreover, the government in many countries is fueling the growth of the digital economy.

Is Adoption of Anti-Climb Perimeter Security Impacting the Market Growth?

Physical security is one of the most important factors in protecting data centers from any physical damage. Anti-climb perimeter security systems work both tactilely and visually, with additional security that detects intruders approaching or breaking through the fence. The fence is installed along with the entrance and exit gates and is supported by security officers, cameras, sensors, and vehicle traps. Vendors are also innovating products for physical data center security in terms of perimeter security systems. As security is important in all data centers with significant cases of terrorist attacks need to procure anti-climb perimeter security systems. It is expected that during the forecast period, more and more data center operators will adopt perimeter fencing to ensure the safety of users data.

Key Highlights

In 2021, Brazil and Mexico were the major revenue contributors to the Latin America data center physical security market, contributing over 65% to the overall Latin America physical security investment.

The building security segment contributes major market share of about 40%, followed by perimeter security, and data hall security in Latin America.

There is a growing demand for multi-factor authentication and CCTV monitoring in data centers in the Latin America Market. For instance, HostDime's Bogota data center facility has installed 360-degree cameras, mantraps, biometric access, facial recognition, 24x7 security patrols, and K-9 units.

The adoption of Anti-climb perimeter security is also gaining traction among data center operators in the region. For instance, KIO Networks' MEX 5 data center facility is installed with a reinforced concrete perimeter wall along with video surveillance systems.

Cloud computing and edge processing will drive the adoption of advanced video content analytics in the coming years. IoT-based sensors are also increasingly being deployed along with camera-based surveillance solutions.



Key Offerings

Market Size & Forecast by Investment | 20212027

Market Dynamics  Leading trends, growth drivers, restraints, and investment opportunities

Market Segmentation  A detailed analysis by product, physical security layers, end-user, and geography

Competitive Landscape  22 Key Vendors Profiled in the report

Market Segmentation

Product

Video Surveillance

Access Control

Other Physical Security



Physical Security Layers

Perimeter Security

Building Security

Data Hall Security

Cabinet Security

End Users

Colocation Data Centers

Enterprise Data Centers

Regions

Mexico

Chile

Colombia

Rest Of Latin America

Over the past two years, the market has been driven by colocation providers as many enterprises are considering colocating spaces to expand their offerings in Latin America. Also, the market is aided by modular and prefabricated data center spaces inside office environments. The concept of edge computing will also be a strong growth enabler for the market in the upcoming years. However, vendor partnerships with modular data center service providers are key for their revenue growth. There is a significant growth in the development of colocation data centers across the region, which has been fueling the Latin America physical security market in future.

Key Vendors:

AMAG Technology

ASSA ABLOY

Axis Communications

ABB

Bayometric

Boon Edam

Bosch Security Systems

Convergint Technologies

Cisco Systems

Dahua Technology

Digitus Biometrics

Eagle Eye Networks

Gunnebo

Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology

Horton Automatics

Johnson Controls

Legrand

Pelco

Siemens

Schneider Electric

SUPREMA

Verkada

Explore our data center knowledge base profile to know more about the industry.

Click Here to Download the Free Sample Report

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About Arizton:

Arizton Advisory and Intelligence is an innovation and quality-driven firm, which offers cutting-edge research solutions to clients across the world. We excel in providing comprehensive market intelligence reports and advisory and consulting services.

We offer comprehensive market research reports on industries such as consumer goods & retail technology, automotive and mobility, smart tech, healthcare, and life sciences, industrial machinery, chemicals, and materials, IT and media, logistics and packaging. These reports contain detailed industry analysis, market size, share, growth drivers, and trend forecasts.

Arizton comprises a team of exuberant and well-experienced analysts who have mastered in generating incisive reports. Our specialist analysts possess exemplary skills in market research. We train our team in advanced research practices, techniques, and ethics to outperform in fabricating impregnable research reports.

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Oakland, California, June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The California State Court Judge overseeing the Ranitidine Products Cases JCCP NO. 5150 issued a pretrial order this week establishing a trial schedule for the Zantac litigation in California. In his order, the Honorable Judge Evelio M. Grillo for the California Superior Court of Alameda County confirmed the first four Zantac (ranitidine) bellwether trials in the California Zantac JCCP (Judicial Council Coordination Proceedings), with the first taking place on February 13, 2023 in Oakland.

This is welcome news for the thousands of claimants throughout California alleging that drug makers Boehringer Ingelheim, Sanofi, Pfizer, and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) failed to warn about the link between Zantac (generic: ranitidine) and cancer.

Pretrial Order No. 4 laid out some important dates in the California Zantac litigation:

January 25, 2023  Court hearing on Sargon. A Sargon hearing allows the legal teams for both sides of a legal dispute to present their expert witnesses and educate the court on the science that underpins their arguments. After carefully considering the expert opinions, Judge Grillo will decide whether the experts on both sides used sound logic and valid methodologies to arrive at their scientific opinions. If Judge Grillo determines that the experts used valid methodologies, then Zantac cases in the JCCP can proceed to trial and the experts will be allowed to provide evidence and testimony on whether Zantac causes cancer, and whether that propensity for inducing cancer caused a particular Zantac user to develop cancer.

February 13, 2023  First Zantac trial in the California JCCP. If plaintiffs experts pass muster in Sargon, the first bellwether trial will begin. A bellwether trial is essentially a test case in a mass tort litigation that sets a precedent for the hundreds or thousands of cases making the same or similar allegations. The first bellwether trial will be a good indicator for out-of-court settlement resolutions. If the plaintiffs win a jury verdict, it generally increases the likelihood that cases will end in settlement agreements.

May 1, 2023  Second Zantac bellwether trial in the California JCCP. Bellwether trials will continue unless a global settlement is reached, or the court appoints a mediator to negotiate resolutions.

August 7, 2023  Third Zantac bellwether trial in the California JCCP.

October 23, 2023  Fourth Zantac bellwether trial in the California JCCP.

What is the Zantac JCCP?

Complex cases filed in multiple California counties that stem from a common issue of fact or law may be transferred and consolidated into a single court under specific procedures and with the agreement of all of the parties. The consolidated cases form a JCCP, which stands for Judicial Council Coordination Proceedings. A JCCP provides unified management for the pretrial and trial phases of consolidated cases that make the same or similar allegations against a common defendant (or common defendants). Cases consolidated in a JCCP allow for pre-trial discovery, motions, and the first bellwether trials to happen in front of one presiding judge.

Baum Hedlund Zantac Lawyer R. Brent Wisner to Serve as Co-Lead Counsel in Zantac Trial

Zantac lawyers R. Brent Wisner of Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman and Jennifer Moore of the Moore Law Group will serve as lead trial attorneys in the first Zantac trial in the California JCCP. Attorneys Wisner and Moore currently serve on the Zantac JCCP leadership as Plaintiffs Liaisons. Both Wisner and Moore worked together on the Monsanto Roundup cancer litigation and obtained successful verdicts totaling more than $2.4 billion.

Thousands of people suffering from cancer after taking Zantac have been waiting and waiting to have their day in court, says attorney R. Brent Wisner. It is nice to be able to tell our clients that the litigation is picking up some steam, and that we will soon be able to show a jury that the makers of Zantac knew as far back as the early 1980s that the drug can cause cancer. They need to be held accountable for putting profit over people.

How to Qualify for Zantac Lawsuit

Zantac cancer lawsuits are being filed in the California JCCP on behalf of people who took ranitidine for at least one year and later developed the following cancers:

Bladder Cancer

Gastric/Stomach Cancer

Liver Cancer

Esophageal Cancer

Pancreatic Cancer

Breast Cancer

Prostate Cancer

Colon Cancer

Lung Cancer

Anyone diagnosed with the above cancers and meets certain requirements must timely submit a claim within a time limit called the statute of limitations. Anyone with a potential claim should consider speaking with an attorney as soon as possible to ensure that they file within the allowable time frame. Please keep in mind that Zantac cancer lawsuit eligibility may change at any time in accordance with court orders.

Baum Hedlund Zantac Lawyers

The trial attorneys at Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman are preparing for trial to hold the makers of Zantac (ranitidine) accountable for allegedly concealing the increased risk of cancer associated with the antacid medication.

Baum Hedlund has obtained some of the largest personally injury and verdicts and settlements in recent history. Across all areas of practice, the firm has won more than $4 billion in verdicts and settlements.*

The firm has also earned stellar awards, including Law360s California Powerhouse award and Product Liability Practice Group of the Year. The National Law Journal and The Trial Lawyer Magazine honored Baum Hedlund trial attorneys as 2020 Elite Trial Lawyers Mass Tort Law Firm of the Year finalists and 2019 Elite Trial Lawyers Mass Tort Trial Team of the Year winner for their work in the Monsanto Roundup litigation. The National Trial Lawyers Top 100 awarded the firms trial lawyers with the Trial Team of the Year 2019, and R. Brent Wisner was named the 2019 Civil Plaintiff Trial Lawyer of the Year. All of the firms award-winning attorneys who worked on the Monsanto Roundup litigation are now working on the Zantac cancer litigation.

Thousands of people throughout U.S. have retained Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman to mount Zantac legal claims on their behalf. The firm currently has cases pending in both the California Zantac JCCP and the federal Zantac MDL in Florida.

*Lawyer advertisement: Our past performance, verdicts, settlements, testimonials or endorsements do not constitute a guarantee, warranty, or prediction regarding the outcome of future cases.

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NorthWest Copper (NorthWest or the Company) (TSXV: NWST) (OTCQX: NWCCF) is pleased to announce the results of voting at its Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (AGM) held June 24, 2022.



Shareholders voted in favour of all items put forward by the Company. Directors Mark ODea, Peter Bell, Sean Tetzlaff, Lewis V. Lawrick, Teodora Dechev, and Richard Bailes, were all re-elected to the Board, and David Smith was elected to the Board. David Moore chose not to stand for re-election as a director. David Moore was with the Company for 18 years and was CEO of Serengeti for 17 of those years, prior to the merger with Sun Metals in 2021.

David Moore was instrumental in the discovery and delineation of the Kwanika project and is the architect of much of the portfolio that now constitutes the project pipeline of Northwest Copper, said Mark ODea, Chair and Director of the Company. On behalf of the Board and Executive Team, I would like to sincerely thank David for his commitment, vision and dedication to the Company over his 18-year tenure and look forward to his continuing contributions as a Technical Advisor.

Shareholders also voted in favour of (i) appointing KPMG LLP as auditors of the Company for the ensuing year and authorizing directors to fix their remuneration; and (ii) re-approving the Companys Stock Option Plan.

A total of 59,335,184 common shares were voted, representing 37.7% of total shares issued and outstanding as at the record date of the meeting.

About NorthWest Copper:

NorthWest Copper is a new copper-gold explorer and developer with an exciting pipeline of projects in British Columbia. With a robust portfolio in a tier one jurisdiction, Northwest Copper is well positioned to participate fully in a strengthening global copper market. We are committed to working collaboratively with First Nations to advance our work in a culturally and environmentally respectful manner. Additional information can be found on the Companys website at www.northwestcopper.ca.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors of NorthWest Copper Corp.

Peter Bell

President and Chief Executive Officer

For further information, please contact:

Peter Lekich, Director Investor Relations

Tel: 604-697-4962

Email: plekich@northwestcopper.ca

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Listing: TSX (Toronto Stock Exchange) Symbol: CMR

TORONTO, June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited (BlackRock Canada), an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK), today announced the final June 2022 cash distributions for the iShares Premium Money Market ETF. Unitholders of record on June 27, 2022 will receive cash distributions payable on June 30, 2022.



Details regarding the final per unit distribution amounts are as follows:

Fund Name Fund Ticker Cash Distribution Per Unit ($) iShares Premium Money Market ETF CMR 0.049

Further information on the iShares ETFs can be found at http://www.blackrock.com/ca .

About BlackRock

BlackRocks purpose is to help more and more people experience financial well-being. As a fiduciary to investors and a leading provider of financial technology, we help millions of people build savings that serve them throughout their lives by making investing easier and more affordable. For additional information on BlackRock, please visit www.blackrock.com/corporate | Twitter: @BlackRockCA

About iShares

iShares unlocks opportunity across markets to meet the evolving needs of investors. With more than twenty years of experience, a global line-up of 900+ exchange traded funds (ETFs) and US$3.15 trillion in assets under management as of March 31, 2022, iShares continues to drive progress for the financial industry. iShares funds are powered by the expert portfolio and risk management of BlackRock.

iShares ETFs are managed by BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited.

Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with investing in iShares ETFs. Please read the relevant prospectus before investing. The funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated. Tax, investment and all other decisions should be made, as appropriate, only with guidance from a qualified professional.
MONTREAL, June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AM Resources Corporation (AM or the Corporation) (TSXV: AMR) (Frankfurt: 76A) is providing an update to its previously disclosed management cease trade order (MCTO), initially announced on April 29, 2022, in respect of the audited annual financial statements and corresponding managements discussion and analysis for the year ended December 31, 2021, including the CEO and CFO certifications, as well as the interim financial statements and corresponding managements discussion and analysis for the period ended March 31, 2022, including the CEO and CFO certifications (collectively, the Financial Documents) that were not filed by their respective filing deadlines of April 30, 2022 and May 30, 2022 (the Filing Deadlines).



As previously disclosed, the Financial Documents were not filed on or before the Filing Deadlines due to the delay in the completion of the audit of the Corporations financial statements before the Filing Deadlines. The Corporation is working closely with the auditor to finalize the audit and expects to file the Financial Documents no later than July 2, 2022. The Corporation will provide updates as further information relating to the Financial Documents becomes available.

The MCTO will be in effect until the Financial Documents are filed.

Until the Financial Documents are filed, the Corporation intends to issue bi-weekly default status reports in accordance with National Policy 12-203  Management Cease Trade Orders. The Corporation intends to satisfy the provisions of the Alternative Information Guidelines during the period it remains in default of the filing requirements. The Corporation confirms that there is no other material information relating to its affairs that has not been generally disclosed.

About AM Resources

AM Resources Corporation (TSXV: AMR) is a mining exploration company with interests in coal and natural bitumen projects in Colombia. AM is betting on Colombia's excellent mineral potential and favourable climate to pursue its Colombian venture.

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.

For further information:

David Grondin

AM Resources Corporation

President and Chief Executive Officer

1-514-360-0576

www.am-resources.com




FSIS ISSUES PUBLIC HEALTH ALERT FOR INELIGIBLE SILURIFORMES PRODUCTS IMPORTED FROM KOREA





WASHINGTON, June 24, 2022  The U.S. Department of Agricultures Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is issuing a public health alert for Siluriformes products imported by Grand BK Corporation, a Carlstadt, N.J. firm. The products were imported from Korea, a country ineligible to export Siluriformes products to the United States. A recall was not requested because the products are no longer available for purchase.



The frozen, ready to cook Siluriformes stew products were imported on various dates from September 2021 through May 2022. The following products are subject to the public health alert [view labels]:

2.42-lb. plastic containers containing SPICY CATFISH STEW with IMPORTED BY GRAND BK CORP. on the label The product labels are written in the Korean language. The products do not bear an establishment number nor a USDA mark of inspection. These items were shipped to retail locations in Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, and sold through internet sales nationwide.



The problem was discovered during routine FSIS surveillance activity of imported product. Korea is not eligible to import Siluriformes products into the United States.



There have been no confirmed reports of adverse reactions due to consumption of these products. Anyone concerned about a reaction should contact a healthcare provider.



FSIS is concerned that consumers may still be in possession of the product. Consumers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume them. These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase.



Consumers with questions about the public health alert can contact Saehee Park, Sourcing Specialist at Hmart, at 201-636-8000, Ext. 8057 or saehee.park@hmart.com. Members of the media with questions about the public health alert can contact Hyerim (Lydia) Hong, Import Senior Specialist at Hmart, at 201-636-8000, Ext. 8041 or Lydia.hong@hmart.com.



Consumers with food safety questions can call the toll-free USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 888-MPHotline (888-674-6854) or live chat via Ask USDA from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Eastern Time) Monday through Friday. Consumers can also browse food safety messages at Ask USDA or send a question via email to MPHotline@usda.gov. For consumers that need to report a problem with a meat, poultry, or egg product, the online Electronic Consumer Complaint Monitoring System can be accessed 24 hours a day at https://foodcomplaint.fsis.usda.gov/eCCF/.



###


The Mercedes-Benz VISION EQXX has beat its own efficiency record (earlier post) in real-world driving with another 1,000 km+ (621 mile+) journey on a single battery charge. Following its initial record-breaking drive from Stuttgart to Cassis (France) in April, the research vehicle set the bar even higher, with a 1,202- kilometer (747 mile) road trip from Stuttgart to Silverstone in the UK.





After negotiating an autobahn closure and requesting cross-country diversion near Stuttgart, the VISION EQXX crossed the French border near Strasbourg then cruised across northern France at highway speeds to Calais, where it boarded the Eurotunnel. Continuing its journey in the UK, it took the M25 around London then stopped off at Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix in Brackley. Waiting to greet it there were the Formula 1 and Formula E experts who helped develop its advanced drivetrain.

The VISION EQXX then carried on to Silverstone, where it was welcomed by special guest driver Nyck de Vries. The Dutchman, who races for the Mercedes-EQ Formula E team, opted not to go easy on the research vehicle, taking it up to its maximum speed limit of 87 mph on the iconic British race track. Making the most of the occasion, he completed 11 laps, using the last of the charge on the pit lane.





Throughout the road trip, the VISION EQXX took advantage of its innovative thermal management system to achieve an average consumption of 8.3 kWh/100 km in the face of heavy traffic and summer temperatures.

Along with proving the effectiveness of Mercedes-Benz electric efficiency technologies in a wide range of real-life traffic scenarios, the VISION EQXXs long-distance journeys on public roads provide R&D experts with valuable data for the ongoing development program.

The record-breaking initial road trip saw the VISION EQXX cover 1,008 kilometers (626 miles) from Stuttgart to Cassis on the French Mediterranean coast. With temperatures ranging from a chilly 37.4 degrees to a warmer, spring-like 64 degrees Fahrenheit, it completed that journey with energy consumption of 8.7 kWh/100 km and a remaining range on arrival around 140 kilometers (87 miles).

This time, the route profile did not come with lower temperatures nor the demanding energy usage and recuperation scenarios presented by the Alps. The main challenges on this trip were summer temperatures of up to 86 degrees Fahrenheit, paired with increased traffic density around Stuttgart and in the southeast of England.

The exceptional efficiency of the electric drive unit means it generates only minimal waste heat. This helps keep the thermal management system extremely small and lightweight. The carefully engineered interaction of aero-shutters, coolant valves and pumps ensures the electric drive unit maintains the most efficient temperature balance at minimum energy cost.

The system encompasses a combination of innovative air-flow management and a cooling plate installed in the vehicle floor, enabling it to take advantage of the air flowing along the underside of the VISION EQXX. This is the most aerodynamically efficient way of keeping the electric drive unit cool under normal conditions, allowing an increase in range of around two percent in the most aerodynamic mode.

High ambient temperatures and stop-and-go highway traffic necessitated cooling of the electric drivetrain and passenger cabin. However, the on-demand cooling system took it all in stride with no significant impact on range. The multi-source heat pump in the VISION EQXX proved highly efficient at keeping the cabin temperature cool in the warm summer weather. During the 14 hours and 30 minutes of driving time, the air conditioning was operational for just over eight hours, yet had a minimal negative impact on overall energy consumption.
Both Castle Rock Ambulance Service and Sweetwater Medics will continue to be funded by Sweetwater County until the services can be combined into a countywide ambulance service, which could take place by the end of the year.

The Sweetwater County Board of County Commissioners voted to extend their agreement with Castle Rock Ambulance Service and renew their contract with Sweetwater Medics during Tuesdays meeting. The commissioners agreed to pay Castle Rock $348,000 annually during the next fiscal year, which will be paid out monthly. They also renewed Sweetwater Medics contract, which provides $1.4 million annually, and is also paid out monthly. Both ambulance services will receive the monthly payments until the transition takes place when Castle Rock takes over Sweetwater Medics to consolidate services. At that point, the current agreements will end and the commissioners contract with Castle Rock for a countywide service, which has already been agreed upon, will go into effect.

Castle Rock Director Bailie Dockter told the commissioners she believes they will be able to combine the services within the next six months.

Im really hopeful that we can, Dockter said, referring to finishing the transition in six months. Were making good progress on that so far.

Dockter explained Castle Rock originally requested $700,000 annually, which would be the same amount per call subsidy Sweetwater Medics receives. Sweetwater Medics gets $460 per call and gets about 3,000 calls a year, while Castle Rock receives about 1,500 calls a year, according to Dockter. Receiving $348,000 a year means Castle Rock will be getting about $230 per call.

Dockter also pointed out Sweetwater Medics requested and was given more funds from the county last year, which they asked for based on a decrease in funds do to a loss of transports, which were taken over by Castle Rock. Castle Rock does currently take the transports going to Salt Lake City, which is about one transport every day and a half, but Sweetwater Medics still takes transports from Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County to the Sweetwater County Regional Airport, which is about one transport per day, according to Dockter. She said the revenue each ambulance service currently receives from transports is roughly the same.

I feel its fair that you reimburse Green River the same amount per call that youre giving to Rock Springs, Dockter said, explaining why Castle Rock initially requested to be reimbursed at the same rate as Sweetwater Medics.

Despite the original request, Dockter said Castle Rock will be able to continue services at the rate of $348,000 a year, although they wouldnt be able to accept much less, especially due to needing to hire more personnel to help with transports and the transitions.

We can make it work, Dockter said.

The commissioners voted 3-2 to approve the agreement giving Castle Rock Ambulance Services $348,000 annually.

Commissioners Roy Lloyd and Lauren Schoenfeld voted against the agreement. Lloyd specified he supports ambulance service for the county, but believes services should be reimbursed equally.

Sweetwater Medics Director Ron Gatti also spoke to the commissioners regarding extending the contract providing Sweetwater Medics $1.4 million annually, which is the same contract that has been in place previously.

Gatti explained he needed the funding amount to stay the same in order to maintain his current staffing levels, especially since some staff members have left and its difficult to hire new staff. He said the funds will allow Sweetwater Medics to provide the same quality of service until the transition takes place.

The commissioners again voted 3-2 to accept the contract with Sweetwater Medics, with Commissioners Lloyd and Schoenfeld again voting against it.

Gatti assured the commissioners Sweetwater Medics is working with Castle Rock toward consolidation and will accept the contracts termination when it comes.

Doing this gives us an opportunity to ... focus all of our attention on developing the new system, Gatti said. Even though it means that as an organization we probably wont be an organization anymore, that we have a better system at the end of the day, thats what we really are concerned about.
What we want, and what we shall have, is the royal American privilege of living and dying in a country town, running a country newspaper, saying what we please when we please, how we please and to whom we please.  William Allen White

Those words are printed on the copy of Community Journalism Ive had since being a student at the University of Wyoming. The book was written by Bruce Kennedy, who once owned the Green River Star through his Sage Publishing Company. While Ive read through that book a few times over the years to remember bits of information Ive forgotten or get some insight on how to approach an issue, the words on the cover are whats on my mind these days as Im nearing the end of my time at the Star.

This is my last week as editor of this newspaper. Next month would have been my 10th year in the role, with November marking my 12th year at the Star. Green River is a fantastic place and having the opportunity to work here as long as I have was a treat.

Ive gotten to know a number of people over the years and have enjoyed watching Green River and Sweetwater County change and grow.

Im well aware not everyone appreciates the things Ive written over the years, especially on this page, but I hope to have at least provided something that intrigued, infuriated, galvanized or entertained readers.

Looking back at that quote by William Allen White, I think thats defined a good portion of how Ive approached writing on the Opinion Page.

It comes from the belief that our leaders, both elected and appointed, should be held to a higher standard, their decisions scrutinized more closely and criticized when appropriate. The residents of Green River and Sweetwater County deserve the absolute best representation from government employees and officials, and when that bar isnt met they should be called out on it.

Thats the philosophy behind some of the articles and editorials Ive written.

I love this place and I want to see the best possible outcome for Green River and the county at large. We deserve it.

In closing, Id like to thank everyone  friends, foes, readers, tipsters, advertisers and anyone else Ive interacted with over the years. Its those interactions that have made this job interesting and have given me memories I wont ever forget.
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The U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade has raised concerns that the court could reverse other decisions, including a landmark Connecticut case that affirmed the right to contraception, as well as interracial marriage and the right of same-sex couples to marry.

In a separate opinion concurrent with the majority, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas suggested that the courts decision on Roe v. Wade should have implications on same-sex marriage and the right to access contraception.

In future cases, we should reconsider all of this courts substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell, Thomas wrote.

State Sen. Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, said the courts Roe decision was probably the first domino to fall when it comes to long-established case law.

I view this as the first in a series of ways that Supreme Court will take away rights when it comes to same-sex marriage, voter rights, contraceptives, interracial marriage, gun rights and even the rule of law, which is what our democracy is based on, he said.

Almost a decade before Roe, the case Griswold v. Connecticut set the stage for a discussion of reproductive rights. The use of contraceptives was illegal in Connecticut in 1965, until attorney Tom Emerson successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court that a couple had the right to use contraception, if they so chose.

The courts 2003 ruling in Lawrence v. Texas said that individual states did not have the right to outlaw gay sex. Twelve years later, the court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that same-sex couples are guaranteed the same right to marry by two clauses in the Fourteenth Amendment, due process and equal protection.

Loving v. Virginia is another case referenced in the Roe opinion. In that 1967 ruling the court held that states do not have the right to prohibit interracial marriage.

In this Supreme Court, which has just overturned a 50-year-old protection for womens fundamental freedom, everything is on the table, Sen. Richard Blumenthal said during a Thursday press conference. Marriage equality, contraception rights, all of them could be on the cutting block. This Supreme Court is purely outcome-driven by an ideological bent that is going to take them down that road.

Attorney Gen. William Tong said in a release that we must be clear-eyed and realistic about what this catastrophic decision signals for every single major legal question before the court.

And we need to be ready to fight, because its crystal clear that marriage equality, access to birth control, interracial marriage, and the right to privacy and autonomy in so many more personal decisions will be tested, Tong said.

State Rep. Steve Meskers, D-Greenwich, said the court has shown itself to be a group of bizarre ideologues.

... Thomas said landmark high court rulings that established gay rights and contraception rights should be reconsidered now that the federal right to abortion has been revoked, he said.

Thomas, however, was the outlier among the court. Both the majority opinion, written by Associate Justice Samuel Alito, and a separate concurring opinion written by Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh -- as well as a dissent authored by justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor -- said the courts decision on Roe should not be extended to same-sex marriage or contraception.

We have stated unequivocally that Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion, Alito wrote, echoed by Kavanaugh: I emphasize what the court today states: Overruling Roe does not mean the overruling of those precedents, and does not threaten or cast doubt on those precedents.

The dissent, though, cast doubts that the court would not use the Roe decision, and the 1992 so-called Casey decision which upheld Roe, as a basis for similar decisions, specifically referring to Griswold.

No one should be confident that this majority is done with its work, the dissent says. The right Roe and Casey recognized does not stand alone. To the contrary, the court has linked it for decades to other settled freedoms involving bodily integrity, familial relationships, and procreation. Most obviously, the right to terminate a pregnancy arose straight out of the right to purchase and use contraception.

Duff said an expectation that the Roe ruling would not lead to further decisions is naive.

I dont think any of us are naive enough to think this isnt an opening of a Pandoras Box of an extreme fundamentalist agenda that theyve had for decades, he said.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, said she was not surprised by the decision and was concerned about what lies ahead.

This activist conservative Supreme Court that lambasts decisions it does not like as judicial activism has made a dangerous move, disregarding science and decades of legal precedent to strip away a womans fundamental and constitutional right to make her own health care decisions, DeLauro said.

Todd Fernow, a professor emeritus at the UConn School of Law, said he does not expect Griswold to be in danger, calling Thomas argument somewhat prosaic.

Alito and some of the majority have gone pretty far to explicitly limit its application to abortion cases, Fernow said. Theres no blood in the water when it comes to contraception.

He said Griswold overturned an archaic law when the court ruled in 1965.

This is an old debate, Fernow said. Thomas is on the losing side of it.

Fernow said the right to same-sex marriage, granted in the Obergefell ruling, is more likely to be overturned.

I would worry a little about the more controversial laws like Obergefell, he said. That could be really in jeopardy.

Not far behind, theres Loving v. Virginia, he said.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)  California legislators will consider a new law within days to keep dangerous people from carrying concealed weapons in public, Gov. Gavin Newsom and his top law enforcement official said Thursday after a U.S. Supreme Court decision invalidated the most populous states current law.

The high court struck down a New York law requiring that people seeking a license to carry a gun in public demonstrate a particular need, such as a direct threat to their safety. California is among a half-dozen states with a similar requirement.

Newsom in a tweet called the ruling a "dangerous decision from a court hell bent on pushing a radical ideological agenda and infringing on the rights of states to protect our citizens from being gunned down in our streets, schools, and churches.

Attorney General Rob Bonta said the high courts ruling still leaves states with the right to limit concealed carry permits to those who meet legal standards to safely possess firearms.

Lawmakers are amending legislation to expand the qualifications people must have to obtain a concealed carry permit, and to expand the places where no weapons may be carried. The revised bill will get its first hearing Tuesday, and lawmakers hope to send it quickly to Newsom for his signature.

Sam Paredes, executive director of Gun Owners of California, said he is 1,000% confident that based on the high courts ruling the new legislation will be thrown into the waste bin of unconstitutional laws.

Bonta conceded the ruling clearly overturns Californias law requiring people to give a good reason for carrying a concealed weapon. But he said the decision still allows the state to require things like an assessment of a person's dangerousness.

He said that will be robust, by examining things like arrests and criminal convictions, restraining orders and other publicly available information that might suggest that a person poses a danger to themselves or to others.

The state will require background checks, including with fingerprinting, as well as firearms training and a mental health assessment, Bonta said. Many of the precautions already are allowed under current law.

The Supreme Court decision has made it clear that states like California still have many venues to prevent senseless death and keep our families safe from gun violence, and were going to use those avenues in California, Bonta said.

Moreover, he said the decision still allows states to prohibit concealed weapons in certain sensitive areas like parks, amusement parks, sporting venues and other areas of significant public congregation.

Attorney Chuck Michel, president of the California Rifle and Pistol Association, predicted Democrats pushing the bill are going to declare every place they think of as a sensitive place.'"

These are the kind of games that theyre going to play to frustrate the spirit of the ruling, he said.

Paredes said he expects a flood of gun owners to apply for concealed carry permits, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area and greater Los Angeles region, and just dare the permitting authorities to go against this decision.

San Francisco Sheriff Paul Miyamoto said his office already saw a jump in applications  22 by Thursday afternoon, compared to two pending applications submitted since the beginning of the year. Miyamoto said his office hasnt issued any permits since January 2020, when he was sworn in.

Were going to see a consistent interest in applying for concealed weapon carry because of the current climate that were in and peoples perception that its unsafe in the community, he said. My only concern would be more guns out in the community doesnt mean its safer.

John Parkin, co-owner of Coyote Point Armory in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Burlingame, said the court's decision removes the sheriff's ability to subjectively determine whether someone has a valid reason for a concealed carry permit.

The people in San Francisco will now have the ability to go and apply for a license and actually not get rejected by a good cause statement that doesnt meet the criteria of the elected sheriff," he said, adding the ruling  will even out what happens between states that have more strict rules against states that have more normal Second Amendment federal rules that they use."

Nearly two-thirds of Californias 58 counties already make it relatively easy to obtain concealed carry permits but many are in rural areas. Michel's association plans to immediately update a lawsuit already under consideration by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals challenging Los Angeles County's concealed weapon permitting policy.

Deputy Grace Medrano, a spokesperson for Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, said in a statement he has already issued more permits as violent crime has risen within Los Angeles County."

"The Sheriff recognizes the threats to the residents have increased and has responded accordingly, Medrano said.

Officials in both San Francisco and the city of Los Angeles said they are reviewing the Supreme Courts decision and will seek a legal opinion from Bontas office.

Newsom and Bonta are backing a bill by Democratic state Sen. Anthony Portantino, who earlier this month amended pending legislation to update Californias concealed carry permit requirements. Bonta and Portantino said it will be further amended before Tuesdays hearing to conform with details in the Supreme Court ruling.

Bonta said the bill could go to Newsom by months end, before lawmakers adjourn for a monthlong summer recess. If two-thirds of lawmakers approve the bill it would take effect immediately instead of in January, but Bonta said those details still are being worked out.

Paredes said the bill will do nothing but complicate the process and increase the costs of obtaining a permit by law-abiding citizens.

____

Associated Press writers Stefanie Dazio in Los Angeles, Olga Rodriguez in San Francisco and Haven Daley in Burlingame contributed to this report.
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GREENWICH  Executive producer of CBSs 60 Minutes Bill Owens opened Greenwich High Schools commencement address Thursday evening by describing his two childrens graduations from GHS.

His son, a 2020 graduate, turned his tassel in the infamous drive-through graduation. In 2021, his daughter graduated on the schools practice fields while Cardinal Stadium was undergoing renovation.

Here you all are, the first class to be back in the stadium celebrating the graduation with your families. I really hope it's a sign of things to come, Owens said. Because your generation deserves blue skies and a lot of credit.

Speakers throughout the ceremony lauded Greenwich High Schools Class of 2022s ability to persevere through trying times.

Valedictorian Eleanor Viney said, these four years have been anything but normal, referring to the pandemic.

However, despite these setbacks, we have not let this pandemic taint our high school experience. Instead, we forged ahead with renewed zeal.

These experiences and being able to prevail in the face of adversity are testimony to our fortitude and perseverance, she said.

Student body president Kwame Boateng said the class faced more hurdles than the 22 academic credits required to graduate.

For some, these mountains were social anxiety associated with fitting into a friend group and appearing put together and all right, or even speaking in front of your class scares you right now  but you're sitting here today.

For others, these mountains were mental. Your self-respect and self-worth are still being nurtured and developed  but you're sitting here today.

For all of us, simultaneously navigating high school and a pandemic was an uphill battle. Nonetheless, we are sitting here today, he said.

School officials said they took notice of the classs tenacity.

I want to say that I am so encouraged by your generation, Superintendent Toni Jones said, noting the graduates care for the environment and civil involvement.

Jones referenced the annual Live Like Luke beach cleanup the GHS Environmental Action Club leads in honor of Luke Meyers, a GHS student and nature enthusiast who died in 2019.

Meyers was a member of the Class of 2022.

You are telling us to take care of our planet, treat everybody equally, and most of all, choose kindness, Jones said. You are wise beyond your years. You are a group of young people who are focused on all the right things.

Principal Ralph Mayo opened with a quote from former President John F. Kennedy: In a crisis, be aware of the danger but recognize the opportunity.

All of you have lived through 27 months of crises and we now all have the opportunity to make changes in our lives, our schools, our town and in our country. It is important to remember the obstacles you faced in obtaining this diploma but more importantly what you learned from it, Mayo said.

The graduates were resilient even when school events were canceled and class was held via webcam, he said.

Jones said the Class of 2022 took just as many Advanced Placement exams as classes did pre-COVID.

You remained connected to the school when it would have been easy to distance yourself, Mayo said.

The graduating class continued to serve and cared about each other and members of the community, he said.

Co-salutatorian Caroline CeCe Yu said the graduating class were like a family, one that took a trip to Tods Point to watch the sunrise on the first day of senior year.

In many ways the pandemic has an ugly legacy, but it luckily left our bookend years of high school intact so when we returned from that hiatus, we were itching to make memories and what happened from there was nothing short of magic, she said.

She spoke of laughter-filled moments, like classwide games that went viral on social media platform TikTok and driving to school to see a bouncy castle on the lawn.

Viney quoted Winston Churchill, saying, Now, this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end, but it is perhaps the end of the beginning.

Now we embark on the rest of our lives, whether that includes higher education, military service, employment, travel or some other journey, she said.

According to the published matriculation list, 89 percent of the Class of 2022 are continuing their education in college. Last year, 91 percent of GHS grads headed to college.

Of the 682 graduates, 26 students (or about 4 percent) are enrolled in Ivy League schools.

Owens gave advice to the new graduates as they interview for jobs and pursue careers. He said his success started with embracing an interest and putting in extra hours and learning more at his first job.

While I urge you not to be afraid of hard work, that doesn't mean you need to be hard on yourselves, he said. This pandemic has been relentless, so spend time with friends and family. Talk. Take a walk, breathe deeply.

Look for opportunities for laughs. Life is made up of experiences; you're about to get a whole lot of them.

annelise.hanshaw@hearstmediact.com
Osom is a privacy-focused tech company that was expected to launch the OV1 smartphone from the team of engineers that built the Essential PH-1. In a turn of events, the OV1 will now be a new blockchain-focused smartphone by Solana Mobile called the "Saga" and it will still be manufactured by Osom. The Solana Saga will be tightly integrated with Solanas blockchain, capable of making transaction in web3 and will support holding digital assets including tokens and NFTs.

The OV1 will now be the Solana Saga.  OSOMPrivacy (@OsomPrivacy) June 23, 2022

At an event in New York, the company also introduced the Solana Mobile Stack. This is a framework for Android allowing developers to create rich mobile experiences for wallets and apps on Solana. The Solana Mobile Stack SDK is already available for developers.

The announcement page also revealed some specs including a 6.67-inch OLED screen, 12GB of RAM, and 512GB of internal storage. The Saga will also equip the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset and is powered by a 4,100 mAh battery. Theres also wireless charging support, Bluetooth 5.0, and a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner. In the camera department, theres a 16MP selfie camera and dual main cameras. The first is a 50MP IMX766 f/1.8 and a secondary 12MP IMX373 f/2.2 120-degree ultrawide camera.

Osom's previously teased privacy cable - its future is uncertain

Interestingly, prospective buyers can pre-order a Solana Saga starting today for a refundable deposit of $100. The Saga will retail for $1000 and those who pre-order may receive a Saga Pass that includes an accompanying NFT and the first ticket to influencing the direction of the SMS platform. The device is expected to arrive in early 2023 and will initially launch in the US, Canada, EU, and UK.

Source
A CHamoru soldier from Guam has become the 16th regimental command sergeant major of the Armys Chemical Corps.

Command Sgt. Maj. Raymond Quitugua Jr. is the senior enlisted adviser in Chemical Corps, which protects the nation from weapons of mass destruction as well as chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats and hazards.

Quitugua credits his upbringing and island values for his successes in the military.

I am the first CHamoru and any person of Pacific Islander descent to have ever served in this position, he said.

It was never my intent to be a well-known representative of the island; however, I am humbled by the acknowledgment and believe that I have an inherent responsibility to continue to do so, Quitugua said.

Quitugua is stationed at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, but his oversight extends to all chemical units across the Army, National Guard and Army Reserves.

He said being from Guam actually contributed to his military success because the values of CHamoru culture correlate with the values of the Army.

I was raised to respect my elders, which easily translated to my superiors in the Army. I was raised to always take pride in everything I do, which drove me to excel in physical fitness and other forms of measured success, Quitugua said. Along the way, my work ethic, technical and tactical prowess was recognized and resulted in advanced promotions and selection for positions of increased authority and responsibility.

Throughout his 24 years in the Army, Quitugua has served in Germany, South Korea and Japan, as well as his stateside assignments in Hawaii, Kansas, Texas, Alabama and now, Missouri.

He also completed combat tours in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Being from Guam, and such a unique culture, made me appreciate and respect other cultures even more so, Quitugua said.

The change-of-command ceremony will be held Friday, Missouri time.

Quitugua said he also became the first CHamoru and Pacific Islander to be named garrison command sergeant major when he was stationed at Fort Rucker, Alabama.

In addition to his cultural heritage, he also acknowledges his familys support for getting him to where he is today.

I hope my success will inspire others from Guam to choose the same path, or at least not be afraid to try, Quitugua said. Guam may be small, but the hearts and tenacity of our people will be the single difference maker in any situation.

Quitugua, who enlisted in 1998, has a masters degree in organizational development and leadership from the University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, Texas, a bachelors degree in social science from Excelsior College, and an associates degree in military studies from Barton Community College.

He is married to the former Jacqueline Blas, also from Guam, and they have two children, AmayaRae and Gavin.
Suruhanu Frank San Nicolas was set to begin his second trial connected to criminal sexual conduct charges when a prosecuting attorney stormed out of the courtroom before the trial started.

On Friday afternoon, San Nicolas, his attorney, Joaquin Jay Arriola Jr., and Assistant Attorney General Richelle Canto appeared before Superior Court of Guam Judge Arthur Barcinas for the start of the trial.

However, after Barcinas ruled six witnesses would be excluded from giving testimony for the governments case because of hearsay, Canto said she was unable to go forward.

This is preposterous, your honor. There was no reason for these witnesses to be excluded. The witnesses had other non-hearsay statements that they would have testified to and (Arriola) just yelled louder and court listened to him, Canto said.

Now the people are not prepared to move forward because I dont know what to say in my opening statements anyway, when youve excluded most of my witnesses, so I need some time, added Canto.

Objection

As Barcinas was asking if Arriola would like to object to a delay in trial, Canto interjected, I dont think he should.

Is she asking for a continuance, your honor? Because if she is, I would like to respond to and object because my clients right to a speedy trial, said Arriola.

He stopped because Canto got up from her seat and walked out of the courtroom.

The record will reflect the prosecutor has just walked out of the courtroom, Arriola said before Barcinas suggested a recess.

Canto came back into court, packed up her binder and notepad, placed them in a bag and left the courtroom again.

Delay

About an hour later, Canto returned to the courtroom with Chief Prosecutor Basil OMallan, who, with Arriola, met with Barcinas in his chambers before returning to the courtroom.

Canto explained why she thought the trial should be moved to another day.

I am requesting a continuance. Counsel feels ill, said Canto.

She also said she needed more time to prepare for the case.

The people deserve a right to prosecute the case fairly and so in light of the new development, I am asking the court for continuance so we can decide how to prosecute the case.

Arriola again opposed the motion and asked about Cantos illness.

What is the illness? Are we just sick to our stomach and of the courts ruling? Or are we just upset? Is it a valid excuse to be upset, your honor? No, Arriola said.

This is not good faith. It reeks of bad faith and reeks of prosecutorial misconduct, Arriola said before OMallan objected.

Barcinas agreed there was no foundation for the statements.

Barcinas agreed to have the trial begin Monday. He said he understood Cantos trial strategy changed with the excluded witnesses.

San Nicolas faces charges of third-degree criminal sexual conduct as a second-degree felony and two counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct as misdemeanors after he was accused of sexual assault by a woman in May 2020.

He was acquitted of similar charges in a December 2021 trial.
China passes new law to strengthen black soil protection

Xinhua) 11:25, June 24, 2022

BEIJING, June 24 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislature on Friday passed a law on black soil conservation, as part of efforts to ensure the country's grain security and protect the ecosystem.

The law, adopted after a vote at the closing meeting of the 35th standing committee session of the 13th National People's Congress, addresses the country's need for measures designed to specifically protect the black soil.

The black soil, or chernozem soil, found in China's northeastern provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning and in some parts of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, produces about a quarter of the country's total grain output, making it crucial to China's food supply.

However, excessive reclamation has eroded the soil's nutrients and its chernozem layer is thinning out, posing a threat to the country's ecological security and sustainable agricultural development.

Consisting of 38 provisions, the law specifies the responsibilities of the government and "agricultural production operators" to protect the black soil.

The law will take effect on Aug. 1, 2022.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun)




Haiti - News : Zapping...





Assassination of the President, public holiday

Wednesday, June 22 in the Council of Ministers it was decided to declare July 7, 2022 a public holiday as part of the first anniversary of the assassination of President Jovenel Moise. https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34162-haiti-flash-president-jovenel-moise-assassinated-by-mercenaries-official-updated-7am-+-video.html



Former FAdH General Roland Chavannes passed away

Thursday, June 23, 2022, the former retired General of the Armed Forces of Haiti (FAd'H) Roland Chavannes and former head of the Directorate of Immigration and Emigration (2004 -2012) passed away.



CONATEL : Moussignac released

On the night of June 22, Jean Romel Moussignac, the Logistics Director of the National Telecommunications Council (CONATEL), kidnapped on Monday June 13 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-36922-haiti-news-zapping.html was released for ransom.



Courthouse or Ganghouse ?

The Federation of Bars of Haiti (FBH) denounces the inaction and silence of the State authorities in the face of the takeover of the Palace of Justice by the gang village de Dieu, since June 10, 2022 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-36930-haiti-flash-bandits-make-the-law-at-the-palace-of-justice-in-port-au-prince.html and calls on the population for general mobilization against the actions of armed bandits.



25 million Gdes of checks recovered

As part of the financial consolidation program initiated by the Government, the Ministry of Justice was able to recover 769 checks concerning 358 employees who had, for the most part, abandoned their posts for a long period for a total amount of 25 million 337 thousand Gourdes.



Women's friendly match, Haiti - Costa Rica

Our Grenadieres have been preparing for a week in Costa Rica for the final round of the qualifiers for the FIFA Women's World Cup, Australia / New Zealand 2023 to be held in Monterrey (Mexico) from July 4 to 18, 2022, will play a first friendly match against their hosts Costa Rica who are also preparing for the Concacaf women's championship.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















BRCC Community Ambassadors graduate

Blue Ridge Community College hosted a graduation ceremony honoring members of the Community Ambassador Program as part of the fourth and final session on Wednesday, June 22, at the Colleges conference hall.

The CAP was created to deepen the communitys support and understanding of the benefits of the College. Upon graduation from the program, each Community Ambassador will act as a Blue Ridge representative to help build relationships that encourage involvement and investment in higher education. The program was hosted by the Blue Ridge Community College Educational Foundation.

Throughout four sessions, the Community Ambassadors heard presentations about the Colleges campuses, divisions, and programs. After a welcome by Blue Ridge Trustee and Educational Foundation President Jim Rasmussen, Blue Ridge Vice President for Advancement Lisa Adkins and President Dr. Laura B. Leatherwood spoke at Wednesdays ceremony.

The Community Ambassador Program allows members of the community to obtain an in-depth look at Blue Ridge Community College and its lasting impact on the community, Adkins said.

The graduates included:

Shelia Carland

Victoria Dunkle

Brenda W. Gorsuch

Patrick Harper

Harriett King Hilton

Henry T. Johnson

Edward McCammon

Brett D. Miller

Emily Nicholson

Barbara Orolin

Dallas D. Owens

Michael H. Pressley

Diane D. Skillman

Terrance W. Stein

Victoria Todd

Participation in the CAP involves attending four half-day sessions, telling the story of and advocating for Blue Ridge Community College, nominating other Community Ambassadors, and staying involved by attending college events, serving on boards or committees or volunteering. For more information, contact the Blue Ridge Educational Foundation at (828) 694-1709.
Phocuswright Europe returns to Amsterdam 27-29 June 2022! Get ready to join 600+ of the most influential travel leaders in one platform for pointed one-on-one conversations, critical debate, the next wave of innovation and the best networking in travel.

We can't wait to to see you in person!

This event is organized by Phocuswright
London UK - In a presentation at the UK House of Lords hosted by Baroness Ros Altmann, Magnuson Hotels CEO Thomas Magnuson outlined the rapid decline in the number of UK hotels owned by independent private businesses.

Magnuson states that in 2010, UK independent hoteliers represented 78% of the UK hotel industry. He reports that publicly traded branded hotels combined with globalism powers have reduced the native share to 50% in 2022. Magnuson adds that at todays change rate, the UK independent hotelier share will fall to 22% by 2026.

Magnuson CEO at UK House of Lords: Protect endangered UK independent hotels to preserve British Hospitality Industry. Photo by Magnuson

In Magnusons presentation to the Travel Technology Initiative Organisation, Magnuson says that even though the UK hospitality industry is the second largest job creator in the UK and contributes over 100 Billion per year to the UK economy, it is overlooked that 72% of UK hotels have 50 rooms or less.

Not all hotels are the Savoy, Magnuson said. Most hotels in the UK are small, family owned. And endangered.

Citing Newquay as an example, Magnuson reported that in just the last ten years, 40% of Newquay independent hotels have closed. He adds that the power and scale of publicly traded global brands, with platforms and marketing budgets are hard to compete with.

Magnuson states that Airbnb, founded in 2008, already represents listings equalling 88% of the total UK hotel room supply. By 2026, it is estimated that Airbnb supply will be greater than the total UK hotel room inventory.

Magnuson reports that the UK hotel industry has yet to recognise Airbnb rooms as part of the industry. Hotel owners across the country maintain that because Airbnb rooms are not nationally registered as businesses, they are invisible competitors, and that these operators are not subject to the same regulations and costs as the rest of the UK hotel industry.

Magnuson CEO at UK House of Lords: Protect endangered UK independent hotels to preserve British Hospitality Industry. Photo by Magnuson

Magnusons presentation recommended ways to begin levelling the playing field for all UK hotel operators:

A nationwide business registration process to include all UK hotels; chains, UK independent hotels as well as Airbnb listings. With a better understanding of all UK hotel operators, more thought can be given toward planning that will benefit all.

Designation of protected status for those UK independent hotel entities that are privately held or non-public, and UK business based.

A national requirement of area impact studies for all proposed new hotels, as UK occupancy has already fallen from high 70% to low 60% in the provinces.

About Magnuson Hotels

Founded in 2003 as the world's first independent hotel chain, today hotel owners can affiliate with Magnuson as an independent or a franchised brand. With a footprint that includes North America and Europe, the company remains true to the original ethos; providing comprehensive personalised support and customised technology for hotel owners to succeed in their local markets without typical corporate franchise expense or requirements.

For more info: https://magnusonhotelsworldwide.com/.

Thomas Magnuson

Chief Executive Officer

+1 509 994 2048

Magnuson
Forming part of UNWTOs Centre Stage project and organized in partnership with the countrys Ministry of Tourism (MITUR), the one-day event saw around 200 female Dominican entrepreneurs share their experience and knowledge while also benefitting from expert insights into growing tourism businesses and making the sector a driver of gender equality and sustainable development.

Joining the entrepreneurs in a show of support, President of the Republic, Mr. Luis Abinader and the Minister of Tourism, Mr. David Collado, stressed the important role tourism is playing in the economic wellbeing of the country. The President singled out the opportunities being created in established tourism hubs like Punta Cana, as well as emerging destinations such as Pedregales.

As part of Centre Stage, MITUR has been working actively since November 2021 to implement policies that take into consideration the specific needs of women working in tourism. According to UNWTO research, women in tourism have been hit harder by the impacts of the pandemic than men working in the sector, emphasizing the need to incorporate a gender perspective into policymaking. The Centre Stage project is supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Development and Cooperation (BMZ), the Germany Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) and UN Women.

About The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) is the United Nations specialized agency fostering tourism as a vehicle for equal, inclusive and sustainable development. Working with its Member States, international organizations and the private sector, UNWTO promotes safe and seamless travel for all. UNWTO also works to make tourism the foundation of trust and international cooperation and a central pillar of recovery. As part of the wider UN system, UNWTO is at the forefront of global efforts to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including through its ability to create decent jobs, promote equality and preserve natural and cultural heritage.

Follow UNWTO on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin.

UNWTO Communications Department

+34 91 567 8100

UNWTO
Its safe to say that the past two years have significantly impacted how hotels must communicate with guests in all stages of the journey. As prices increase across travel, tourism, and hospitality outlets, travelers have grown more discerning than ever to ensure they get the best value for their money.

The evolution in guest expectations is one of the biggest challenges in the hotel industry today. After the past two years, guests demand a lot more from hotels: including seamless research and payment experiences, transparent pricing and fees, flexible refund and cancellation policies, clean and inviting appearance, and special perks and offers - to name just a few.

In this article, we ask the question: Is your Hotels Digital Marketing & Sales Mix your Own Worst Enemy? We also share some crucial areas you should focus on when tweaking your hotels digital marketing and sales strategies to reach more guests and get more direct bookings in 2022.

Hotel Digital Marketing & Sales - What Changed over the Past 2 Years?

A number of things changed over the past two years. After widespread lockdowns led to a flood of cancellations, flexibility became a key factor for guests booking travel and accommodation. Following customer dissatisfaction with unsatisfactory refund policies, more and more guests reached out to hotels directly for inquiries and bookings.

As international travel corredors closed, domestic leisure travel grew exponentially, and hotels across all market segments pivoted to this demand. Guests were also booking under short notice with mobile as the preferred device. Subsequently, mobile direct bookings also grew significantly over the past two years.

Most notably, through all of these rising trends, hotel direct bookings increased significantly and dominated all other channels in 2020 and 2021. Furthermore, direct more frequently converted into direct stays for hotels over the past two years.

As OTAs increase investment toward their marketing mix, Hoteliers are thinking about how best to continue strengthening their direct booking channels and maintain control of distribution, in the most cost-effective way for their business. To get started, Hoteliers must ask themselves this very important question:

Is your Hotels Digital Marketing & Sales Mix your Own Worst Enemy?

According to Guestcentrics ongoing Hotelier PULSE Report, which has surveyed thousands of hoteliers since April 2020 until the present, the majority of respondents continue to prioritize making their direct channels the dominant source of reservations and revenue over the coming year.

While these aspirations are all good and well in theory, its important to evaluate whether they are reflected in practice. Start by asking yourself the following questions:

Is it easy for guests to find and visit my hotel website?

Once visitors land on my hotel website, do they feel inspired to learn more about what my hotel has to offer?

Most importantly, how many guests are abandoning my website vs booking directly?

Now, consider the following areas in your hotels website and overall digital marketing mix:

1. Search Engine Optimization & Visibility - Is it Easy for Travelers to find your Hotel Website Online?

You can have the most visually appealing hotel website in the world, yet it will all be for nothing if it is invisible on search engines - and most notably Google. Thus, its important to ensure that your hotel website ticks all the boxes in terms of SEO best practices.

Visibility doesnt stop with SEO best practices. Its important to analyze where your prospective guests are and provide links to your hotel website within those spaces. Are prospects hanging out on social media? Publish special offers exclusively for direct bookers. Can you beat OTA prices and reach more travelers on Google? Get your hotel set up on Google Hotel Free Booking Links.

2. Look, feel, branding, and navigation - Does your hotel website invite guests to stay awhile, or is it driving them away?

The ultimate reason people visit your website is to get an idea of what it would be like to stay at your hotel. They also want to know where your hotel is located and its proximity to local attractions and amenities.

If your hotel website is cluttered, littered with photos taken by your well-meaning, yet amatuer cousin, and so messily designed that visitors are unable to get what they want quickly, the chances of them bouncing are very high. Are your hotels address, contact details, and other crucial information easy to access, or do you find yourself treasure-hunting?

The Fuel Report also shows that photos are the number 1 decision-making factor for guests who visit a hotel website. Furthermore, your hotel brand represents who you are, and can make or break consumer trust. Is your brand strongly represented on your hotel website? Would you trust your hotel brand as an online visitor?

3. Special Offers & Packages - Whats in it for your Guest when they book directly on your website?

44% of global travelers consider special offers important to the booking process. If you want to win direct bookings over the likes of major OTAs that offer an array of attractive packages and competitive rates, it is absolutely crucial that you shout about your special offers across ALL areas of your website:

Does your property have the most famous restaurant in town? Offer a discount on dining, only for direct bookers. Is your hotel spa top-notch? Show it off on your website, and clearly let visitors know they will receive a complimentary wellness perk for booking directly on your website.

Be sure to highlight your special offers across all areas of your hotel website: Home page scroll, special offers teasers, and descriptions, and booking engine loading area.

And of course, it goes without saying that price is an important factor in the decision-making process. So remember to highlight that your rates beat the competition, and are exclusive to visitors who book directly on your hotel website.

4. Cancellation & Refund Policies - Are they flexible to the needs of your Guests?

Although travel demand has exploded in recent months and currently outperforms pre-pandemic levels, its important to note that the pandemic increased customer need for flexibility. Thus, hotels must continue to reassure guests by communicating flexibility to accommodate their needs.

Can guests receive credit to claim a canceled booking at a later date? Do you have a free cancellation policy under a specified timeframe? Do you offer free late check-out during low seasons? If you answered yes, these policies should be visible and clearly communicated across your website and during the booking process.

5. Pricing - Are you giving guests the best deals in comparison to OTAs and other third-party channels?

Research by RateGain reveals that up to 98% of 4-star hotels offer their rooms cheaper on OTA sites rather than on their own. How can you expect customers to book directly with you at a higher price than carrying out the same process via an OTA?

An effective hotel pricing and channel management strategy is imperative for maintaining control of distribution while optimizing direct sales and revenue. Using a channel manager, hotels can more easily centralize their distribution channels, analyze channel reservations data, and use this information to implement smart pricing strategies across your hotel website and other direct channels.

Once youve established your pricing strategy, remember to highlight that your rates beat the competition, and are exclusive to visitors who book directly on your hotel website.

6. The Booking Process - Is it Easier for Guests to Book Direct or to Abandon your Hotel Website?

Research by Guestcentric shows that 97% of online visitors abandon a hotel website during the booking process. Although its crucial to ensure your hotel website is visible and allows guests to digitally experience your hotel before booking a stay, it will all be for nothing if you do not deliver a seamless booking process.

Hotel website best practices should also be reflected in your booking engine. This means your hotel booking engine should also offer efficient and straightforward navigation, allowing guests to seamlessly check availability, select nights, and book without hesitation.

Its also important to reiterate best offers and flexible policies at the time of booking, in order to eliminate any late-stage hesitancy. Furthermore, you should create a sense of urgency to book by including shopping activation and recovery widgets across your hotel booking engine. It is also imperative that your payment windows are secure, so that guests feel comfortable to complete the online transaction.

Last but not least, you should also ensure that your hotel booking engine is responsive on mobile devices, as more and more guests are booking via mobile since March 2020 up until the present day.

Hotel Digital Marketing & Sales must evolve in line with Consumer Behavior in order to grow Direct Bookings

Your hotels digital marketing and sales strategy should not be viewed as a set and forget project. In order for it to be effective, your hotel digital marketing and sales strategy must be current and align with the ever-changing trends and behaviors of travelers researching and booking online.

Reaching more guests and getting more direct bookings online is by no means an overnight process. It will take time before you generate the desired return on investment. Information is power, so be sure to consistently analyze your customers and measure your performance across all your booking channels and revenue sources in order to adapt accordingly.

Most importantly, a successful hotel digital marketing and sales strategy must clearly let guests know they will get the best offer when they book directly on your hotel website. Although your hotel may be competing against the OTA giants for visibility, you can always deliver a superior navigation and branding experience on your website. You can also reserve your best prices and offers for your hotel website, in order to increase conversions and direct bookings for your hotel.

*Published with Permission from Hotel Executive

About GuestCentric

GuestCentric is a leading provider of cloud-based digital marketing software and services that help extraordinary hoteliers promote their brand, drive direct bookings and connect with customers on all digital platforms. GuestCentric's all-in-one platform provides hotels with the only unified solution for managing their guests' online journey: award-winning, high impact websites; an integrated, easy-to-use booking engine; social media marketing and publishing tools; a GDS chain code and a channel manager to offer rooms on Amadeus, Booking.com, Expedia, Galileo, Google, Sabre, TripAdvisor and hundreds of other channels. GuestCentric is a proud provider of solutions that maximize direct bookings to hotel groups and independent hotels from collections such as Design Hotels, Great Hotels of the World, Leading Hotels of the World, Relais & Chateaux, Small Luxury Hotels and Small Danish Hotels. GuestCentric is featured on Skift Travel Tech 250, a list of the top 250 travel tech companies shaping the modern-day travel experience.

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WASHINGTON (AP)  The Supreme Court on Friday stripped away womens constitutional protections for abortion, a fundamental and deeply personal change for Americans' lives after nearly a half-century under Roe v. Wade. The courts overturning of the landmark court ruling is likely to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

The ruling, unthinkable just a few years ago, was the culmination of decades of efforts by abortion opponents, made possible by an emboldened right side of the court fortified by three appointees of former President Donald Trump.

Both sides predicted the fight over abortion would continue, in state capitals, in Washington and at the ballot box. Justice Clarence Thomas, part of Friday's majority, urged colleagues to overturn other high court rulings protecting same-sex marriage, gay sex and the use of contraceptives.

Pregnant women considering abortions already had been dealing with a near-complete ban in Oklahoma and a prohibition after roughly six weeks in Texas. Clinics in at least eight other states  Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, South Dakota, Wisconsin and West Virginia  stopped performing abortions after Friday's decision.

In Ohio, a ban on most abortions at the first detectable fetal heartbeat became the law when a federal judge dissolved an injunction that had kept the measure on hold for nearly three years. And Utah's law was triggered by the ruling, going into effect with narrow exceptions.

Abortion foes cheered the ruling, but abortion-rights supporters, including President Joe Biden, expressed dismay and pledged to fight to restore the rights.

Protests built into the evening in a number of cities, including thousands demonstrating against the decision outside the barricaded Supreme Court. Thousands more chanted We will rise up! in New York's Washington Square.

At the White House, Biden said, It's a sad day for the court and for the country. He urged voters to make it a defining issue in the November elections, declaring, This decision must not be the final word.

Outside the White House, Ansley Cole, a college student from Atlanta, said she was "scared because what are they going to come after next? ... The next election cycle is going to be brutal, like its terrifying. And if theyre going to do this, again, whats next?

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, agreed about the political stakes.

We are ready to go on offense for life in every single one of those legislative bodies, in each statehouse and the White House, Dannenfelser said in a statement.

Trump praised the ruling, telling Fox News that it will work out for everybody.

The decision is expected to disproportionately affect minority women who already face limited access to health care, according to statistics analyzed by The Associated Press.

It also puts the court at odds with a majority of Americans who favored preserving Roe, according to opinion polls.

Surveys conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and others have shown a majority in favor of abortion being legal in all or most circumstances. But many also support restrictions especially later in pregnancy. Surveys consistently show that about 1 in 10 Americans want abortion to be illegal in all cases.

The ruling came more than a month after the stunning leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito indicating the court was prepared to take this momentous step.

Alito, in the final opinion issued Friday, wrote that Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 decision that reaffirmed the right to abortion, were wrong had and to be be overturned.

We therefore hold that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. Roe and Casey must be overruled, and the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives, Alito wrote, in an opinion that was very similar to the leaked draft.

Joining Alito were Thomas and Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett. The last three justices are Trump appointees. Thomas first voted to overrule Roe 30 years ago.

Four justices would have left Roe and Casey in place.

The vote was 6-3 to uphold Mississippi's law banning most abortions after 15 weeks, but Chief Justice John Roberts didn't join his conservative colleagues in overturning Roe. He wrote that there was no need to overturn the broad precedents to rule in Mississippi's favor.

Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan  the diminished liberal wing of the court  were in dissent.

With sorrow  for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection  we dissent, they wrote, warning that abortion opponents now could pursue a nationwide ban from the moment of conception and without exceptions for rape or incest.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that the Justice Department will protect providers and those seeking abortions in states where it is legal and "work with other arms of the federal government that seek to use their lawful authorities to protect and preserve access to reproductive care.

In particular, Garland said the federal Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of Mifepristone for medication abortions.

More than 90% of abortions take place in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy, and more than half are now done with pills, not surgery, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.

Mississippis only abortion clinic, which was at the center of Friday's case, continued to see patients Friday. Outside, men used a bullhorn to tell people inside that they would burn in hell. Clinic escorts wearing colorful vests used large speakers to blast Tom Pettys I Wont Back Down at the protesters.

Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky and Missouri are among 13 states, mainly in the South and Midwest, that already have laws on the books to ban abortion in the event Roe was overturned. Another half-dozen states have near-total bans or prohibitions after 6 weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.

In roughly a half-dozen other states, including West Virginia and Wisconsin, the fight will be over dormant abortion bans that were enacted before Roe was decided in 1973 or new proposals to sharply limit when abortions can be performed, according to Guttmacher.

Outside the barricaded Supreme Court, a crowd of mostly young women grew into the hundreds within hours of the decision. Some shouted, The Supreme Court is illegitimate, while waves of others, wearing red shirts with The Pro-Life Generation Votes, celebrated, danced and thrust their arms into the air.

The Biden administration and other defenders of abortion rights have warned that a decision overturning Roe also would threaten other high court decisions in favor of gay rights and even potentially contraception.

The liberal justices made the same point in their joint dissent: The majority eliminates a 50-year-old constitutional right that safeguards womens freedom and equal station. It breaches a core rule-of-law principle, designed to promote constancy in the law. In doing all of that, it places in jeopardy other rights, from contraception to same-sex intimacy and marriage. And finally, it undermines the Courts legitimacy.

And Thomas, the member of the court most open to jettisoning prior decisions, wrote a separate opinion in which he explicitly called on his colleagues to put the Supreme Court's same-sex marriage, gay sex and contraception cases on the table.

But Alito contended that his analysis addresses abortion only. Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion, he wrote.

Whatever the intentions of the person who leaked Alitos draft opinion, the conservatives held firm in overturning Roe and Casey.

In his opinion, Alito dismissed the arguments in favor of retaining the two decisions, including that multiple generations of American women have partly relied on the right to abortion to gain economic and political power.

Changing the makeup of the court has been central to the anti-abortion sides strategy, as the dissenters archly noted. The Court reverses course today for one reason and one reason only: because the composition of this Court has changed, the liberal justices wrote.

Mississippi and its allies made increasingly aggressive arguments as the case developed, and two high-court defenders of abortion rights retired or died. The state initially argued that its law could be upheld without overruling the courts abortion precedents.

Justice Anthony Kennedy retired shortly after the Mississippi law took effect in 2018 and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in September 2020. Both had been members of a five-justice majority that was mainly protective of abortion rights.

In their Senate hearings, Trumps three high-court picks carefully skirted questions about how they would vote in any cases, including about abortion.

___

Associated Press writers Jessica Gresko, Fatima Hussein, photographer Jacquelyn Martin and video journalist Nathan Ellgren in Washington, Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston, Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi, Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, Leah Willingham in Charleston, West Virginia, Michael Hill in New York and Kantele Franko in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.

For APs full coverage of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, go to https://apnews.com/hub/abortion
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The Texas Supreme Court on Friday gave the go-ahead to beleaguered plan to build a bullet train connecting Houston and Dallas, ruling that companies behind the project have the power to acquire private property through eminent domain. .

In a 5-3 ruling issued Friday, the high court said that Texas Central Railroad and Texas Logistics could indeed be considered as an interurban electric railway companies under state law, even though they have yet to build a railroad, and may never do so.

The decision culminates a years-long legal battle, launched by landowners along the bullet trains route shortly after project was proposed. One of them, Leon County rancher James Fredrick Miles, filed suit in 2016, after Texas Central sought to survey the roughly 600 acres he owns along its preferred routeland which would be bisected if the bullet train is built.

The case turned on what it means to be a railroad company or interurban electric railway company, which have eminent domain authority under the state Transportation Code.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Critics say the idea of a Houston-Dallas bullet train could be over

Miles, along with other property owners argued that Texas Central didnt qualify because it wasnt operating a railroad and may never do so. Texas Central has yet to build any tracks or train stations, or acquire the Japanese Shinkansen railcars called for in the project proposal.

The projects proponents, however, argued that this line of reasoning yielded a chicken-and-egg problem that would make it impossible to ever build a rail line.

A trial court sided with Miles. A court of appeals in 2020 overturned that ruling, leading Miles to petition the Texas Supreme Court for review. Fridays ruling affirms the appellate courts ruling.

The Greater Houston Partnership, a business-financed economic development group, hailed the decision. Faster, safer, and more reliable connections between our region and other parts of Texas are vital to our continued economic growth, the group said in a statement.

But the bullet trains future is unclear. On June 14, Carlos Aguilar, who has served as the companys CEO since 2016, announced in a LinkedIn post that he would leave the company, writing, I could not align our current stakeholders on a common vision for a path forward. Opponents, including U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, interpreted Aguilars resignation as a sign the project was dead.

The Texas Supreme Courts ruling implicitly acknowledged the controversy surrounding the project, and the likelihood it will persist at least, if Texas Central does.

The case involves the interpretation of statutes relating to eminent domain, wrote Justice Debra H. Lehrmann. It does not ask us to opine about whether high-speed rail between Houston and Dallas is a good idea or whether the benefits of the proposed rail service outweigh its detriments.

erica.grieder@chron.com
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The immersive art experience machine has finally gotten it right. It's much more fun to sit inside of a happy painting than a depressed or intense one.

From June 24 through Aug. 14, "Immersive Monet & the Impressionists" is the European vacation few can afford and nearly everyone craves. For 35 blissful minutes, Lighthouse ArtSpace in west Houston transports ticket-holders to the French countryside and Italian coastline -- minus the outrageous airfare and hotel stay.

"We learned a few things after 'Frida,'" admits Leisha Bereson, Vice President of marketing for Impact Museums, the creative studio and investment/operating platform behind the "Immersive Monet."

Now Playing: LightHouse ArtSpace brings Immersive Monet & the Impressionists to Houston featuring works by Monet, Renoir, Degas and more, with an amazing soundtrack. Video: Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle

Lighthouse's previous experience, "Immersive Frida Kahlo: Her Life. Her Love. Her Art," earned a stamp of approval from the artist's family, though in the end, the show's subject matter proved too heavy to capture the hearts of audiences. Crowds didn't respond to the Mexico City-born feminist the way producers expected. Bereson thinks the content may have been too abstract; or, perhaps people just aren't as familiar with Kahlo's work.

For "Immersive Monet," Lighthouse Immersive's creative team went back to the basics. Creator Massimiliano Siccardi, digital artist behind the "Immersive Van Gogh" experience made famous by Netflix's "Emily in Paris," took a straightforward approach.

"You spend more time with the art," Bereson says. "It really envelops you. There's subtle movement and no mixed media. We wanted to show the full breadth of the artwork."

Producers scanned in 565 works for the show. In addition to Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas and Mary Cassatt are also featured; there are 18 pre- and post-Impressionist artists in total. Video mapping and digital animation bring their then-revolutionary vision to modern life.

"Immersive Monet" is the kind of experience that gives you goosebumps. The 35 minutes fly by -- you'll leave wanting more footage, and fortunately, Lighthouse Artspace Houston is designed for multiple viewings. There are chairs and benches for seating, though sitting on the floor is OK, too. Bereson enjoys watching kids dance around or bathe in the images.

"It's perfect for yoga," she suggests. The event venue offers those as well as sound meditation sessions.

Brett Coomer/Staff photographer

The experiences are broken into mini-chapters. "A progression, starting with the greatest hits," Bereson says.

Monet's "Water Lilies" creates a particularly magical moment. The delicate flowers first appear on the floor, then slowly climb the walls. Degas' dancers and bathing beauties are also delightful. Full disclosure, a bit of tasteful nudity flashes for several seconds.

When the projections switch to rolling newspaper print, the room feels like it's moving. Jazz music hums in the background as excerpts from Louis Leroy's brutal review of the Impressionists' first exhibition in 1874 weave in and out. Leroy is credited with coining the term "Impressionism." It's a trippy section and awfully fun.

Siccardi gives Gaspard-Felix Tournachon, best known as Nadar, the last laugh. The French photographer loaned his photo studio to Monet, Degas, Renoir, Camille Pissarro and Berthe Morisot for that inaugural display. A hot air balloon floats through "Immersive Monet" in tribute to the group's history-making host; Nadar captured the first aerial views of Paris in 1858 via hot air balloon.

The experience is a fully-realized journey through time and place, from the streets of Paris and the Moulin Rouge, to the Italian coastline and out to sea. Scenes range from classic cafe culture and en plein air idylls. A familiar soundtrack of Vivaldi and Chopin swells in the background.

Buy a ticket and bask in the French masters. No passport or packing required.

amber.elliott@chron.com
In the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark case protecting the right to an abortion, a death wish has been made on women, especially women of color.

Friday's decision by the Supreme Court won't stop abortion. Anyone with compassion for women's reproductive rights knows that. But it will mean that women who are faced with the decision to end a pregnancy for whatever reason may risk the possibility of a botched procedure  or even death.

It's the turning back of time, like it was before women had rights, with bootleg operating rooms in back alleys, dorm rooms and living rooms. But it's even worse because we know what that was like then. We know better.

In Texas, one of the most restrictive states, women might decide to travel to other states, such as New Mexico, Colorado or New York, to terminate pregnancies. Those are women with means, but what about those without?

People of color make up 60 percent of the state but account for nearly 73 percent of abortion procedures. Experts say it's due to lack of access to health care, including birth control. Women of color in Texas also are less likely to have health insurance. Black women are three times as likely to die of pregnancy complications. What about us?

"This ruling only demonstrates the importance of our programs in the state," said Elizabeth Gregory, director of University of Houston's Institute for Research on Women, Gender & Sexuality. "Anti-abortion is pro-poverty. Lack of access promotes a lower-skilled workforce, not just among those denied abortions who are pushed off education and career paths, but among all Americans. People of color will suffer disproportionately, but everyone loses."

Under the Texas trigger law, our daughters will be forced to bear the child of any man who attacks her, whether on a college campus, a city street or in their own home by a relative. Women in domestic violence situations already have a burden to carry and are often subjected to reproductive coercion, so they have no escape. Parents who feel their families are large enough but find themselves pregnant will be forced to sink deeper into poverty to care for them.

Let's not forget the issues of pay disparity and access to affordable child care, which add even more weight to the discussion since poor women are faced more disproportionately with having to make hard decisions about how they put food on their tables and who cares for their children while they work for minimal wages. An unwanted pregnancy is one more hardship.

The abortion debate is fueled with emotion and self righteousness of people who claim to care for the unborn child. I'm not writing this to convince or sway opinion. Save your attacks.

Those who tout pro-family beliefs should take a hard look at our foster care system, in which children languish in a network not set up to see them succeed. There are social workers who are doing all they can to give these children a fair shot but need the support of real, substantive changes and funding on the state level so that the agency itself isn't faced with negligence.

If the concern is for the welfare of our children, why not ensure all children have access to fair and equitable education and health care? That they all can go to college and be who they want to be.

How about providing women easy access to free, long-term birth control? But helping women make sound decisions about their bodies is not the goal here.

The light in all of this is that women  and the men who support them  still have the ability to use their vote.

"I feel that this ruling is pushback against the positive changes toward greater equity that have occurred over the past 50 years  on many fronts," Gregory said. "While it will harm people starting now, it will also rile people up. The courts authority will, as Justice Roberts fears, be undermined in the nation  and the 87 percent of Americans who disagree with this ruling will roar."

Overturning Roe v. Wade is about control of a woman's body and restricting her ability to make decisions about it. It's arguably its own form of assault.
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The author of a book once pulled from Katy ISD libraries will visit a local bookstore next week for a conversation and book signing.

Award-winning children's author Jerry Craft will host an in-store conversation at Brown Sugar Cafe and Books on July 1 from 6 to 8 p.m. Located at 5330 Fry Road, Brown Sugar has previously focused on banned books and bringing Black authors to the community.

Craft's critically acclaimed graphic novels were at the center of controversy last fall when Katy ISD postponed his scheduled speaking engagement and pulled his books from district libraries after a small group of parents claimed his works promote "critical race theory."

The engagement was later rescheduled and his books were reinstated, but the dissent kicked off a maelstrom within the district about book banning and censorship that continues to permeate school board meetings.

Since Brown Sugar owner Raven White opened her store, she knew she wanted to spotlight banned authors. As a parent of Katy ISD students, White says she was horrified when the district pulled Craft's books.

IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS: Texas has seen a surge in requests to pull books from schools. Here are Houston's numbers so far.

Next Friday's discussion will be moderated by the children in attendance, and the experience will be "positive and uplifting," White said. "There won't be anything negative. No politics. Just an author sharing his work with the children that love his work."

White was among the parents who launched a counter-initiative against parents who supported the ban, speaking out against the district's actions and pleading for the reinstatement of Craft's work.

When Craft reached out to White to thank her, she showed him the petitions she started that had thousands of signatures in his support, White said.

EDITORIAL: The phony 'critical race theory' crusade strikes again  and Katy ISD fell for it

"It gave me a chance to show him that, 'We're not sure what's going on with Katy and banning books, but our children read your books. This is the new modern day coming-of-age books that we believe that middle schooler, regardless of color, would enjoy,'" White said.

White said Craft was touched by the support from the Katy parents who stood up to the banning advocates, and when White opened her bookstore a few months later, she began discussions with Craft to bring the author out to Katy.

While Craft's work may have been swept up in controversy, the author isn't coming to Katy to address the allegations levied against him, White said. She says he's instead coming to show appreciation to the community that supported him, even after the district banned his work.
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WASHINGTON (AP)  The White House on Thursday launched a formal partnership with 11 East Coast governors to boost the growing offshore wind industry, a key element of President Joe Biden's plan for climate change.

Biden, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and other top administration officials met with governors, wind industry officials and labor leaders Thursday at the White House. The session focused on ways to expand important segments of the offshore industry, including manufacturing facilities, ports and workforce training and development.

Together were stepping up. Were about to build a better America,'' Biden said. It's not just about the future. Its about right now.''

The partnership comprises governors of both parties from Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.

Missing from the compact is Virginia, where Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin has moved to withdraw the state from a regional carbon-limiting initiative meant to combat climate change.

Spokesperson Macaulay Porter said Youngkin supports the offshore wind industry, and his administration has participated in calls with the White House on the topic.

The commonwealth is already a leader in offshore wind, and the Youngkin administration is focused on ... this emerging sector in a way that is consistent with promoting jobs for Virginia and its right-to-work philosophy,'' Porter said, referring to a state policy that promotes a workers right not to be required to join a labor union.

Youngkin is fully committed to Virginias current offshore wind project" and will continue to support any future project "that meets Virginias economic needs and protects ratepayers from high energy costs,'' Porter said.

In working with states and the private sector, the White House said it will provide Americans with cleaner and cheaper energy, create good-paying jobs and invest billions in new American energy supply chains,'' including construction of wind turbines, shipbuilding and servicing.

Biden has set a goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2030, enough to provide electricity to 10 million homes, support 77,000 jobs and spur $12 billion per year in private investment in offshore wind. Offshore wind is a key component in the Democratic president's plan to make the nations electric grid carbon free by 2035.

The Biden administration has approved two large-scale wind projects, Vineyard Wind in Massachusetts and South Fork Wind off New York and Rhode Island. Both are under construction with union labor. The Interior Department has begun reviews of another 10 offshore projects that, if approved, would produce 22 gigawatts of clean energy.

Danish wind developer Orsted signed a project labor agreement last month with a national union representing 3 million people in the building trades to construct the companys U.S. offshore wind farms with an American union workforce. Orsted currently has six offshore projects in five states.

A national agreement signed with North Americas Building Trades Unions covers contractors working on those projects and future ones, with no termination date on the project labor agreement. It sets the terms and conditions for union workers to build offshore wind farms, with targets to ensure a diverse workforce. It contains provisions for training to ensure they can construct the complex infrastructure, which costs billions of dollars.

We recognize that states are huge players here,'' said David Hayes, a White House climate adviser. With a formal partnership, the Biden administration can work with the governors on policies going forward and help ensure that there is an American-made supply chain for this brand-new industry,'' Hayes said.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, said he and other East Coast governors are united with our regional and federal partners not just by geography but by a shared commitment to clean and affordable energy, economic opportunity and a future in which all community members are shielded from the worsening impacts of climate change.''

The federal-state collaboration comes as the Biden administration has announced a plan to conduct up to seven offshore wind auctions by 2025, including one held last month off North Carolina and earlier this year in a coastal area known as the New York Bight. Other sales are expected in the Gulf of Maine, the central Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, as well as offshore in California and Oregon.

Environmental and clean energy groups hailed the federal-state collaboration.

Today, there are just seven offshore wind turbines in the United States, and were going to need a lot more, done responsibly, to meet our clean energy goals,'' said Diane Hoskins, campaign director for the conservation group Oceana. She called for "strong safeguards for marine life to avoid, minimize and mitigate the impacts of offshore wind.''

Heather Zichal, CEO of the American Clean Power Association, an industry group, said wind energy developers support the federal-state initiative. Clear and predictable permitting for offshore wind is essential to recognizing its potential, and there is still work to do,'' Zichal said.

___

Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani in Washington and Sarah Rankin in Richmond, Va., contributed to this story.
ALAMOGORDO, N.M. (AP)  Some national forests in Arizona and New Mexico are relaxing fire restrictions and reopening, thanks to a strong start to the annual rainy season in the southwest U.S.

The monsoon has delivered much-needed moisture to the parched region and relief from scorching temperatures. Forecasters say Arizona has a good chance of getting above-average rain through the season that runs through September. New Mexico has equal chances of above, below and normal rainfall.
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Houston police are seeking the publics help in finding a 7-month-old girl and her mother, the agency said Friday.



The child, Kodi Davis, and her mother, 18-year-old Kennedy Greene, were last seen on June 14, police said Friday. At that time, they were seen at the 8100 block of Fannin Street across from NRG Center. The child has health issues that require immediate medical attention, police said.



On HoustonChronicle.com: Threats prompt former Marine to step down as Friendswood parade marshal

Kodi has brown hair and brown eyes and weighs about 11 pounds. Green is about 5 feet, 9 inches tall, and has black hair and brown eyes. She weighs about 165 pounds.



Greene is believed to be driving a 2017 Honda 4D, with Texas license plate JDS5615, VIN 1HGCR2F57HA106714. The vehicle may also have an unknown paper tag, police said.



Anyone who sees them should contact the Houston Police Department Missing Persons Unit at 832-394-1840.
A Fort Bend Sheriff's Office deputy fatally shot a man during a traffic stop in Fresno, according to authorities.

The deputy stopped the 21-year-old man around 10:17 p.m. at the 2400 block of Naill Road. The man became "noncompliant and evaded and assaulted the deputy," according to a Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office news release.

More on HoustonChronicle.com: Texas AG Ken Paxton declares employee holiday after abortion ruling

The deputy was taken to Memorial Hermann Pearland where he was treated for unspecified injuries and released, the news release stated.

No other information is available at this time. The Texas Rangers and Fort Bend County District Attorney's Office are investigating.

The death comes four months after another deputy at the sheriff's office killed a man.

In that shooting, the deputy shot and killed a man who wielded a knife during a confrontation following a highway wreck, according to officials.

Joel.Umanzor@chron.com
John Meyer on Thursday night tried to reassure a group of several dozen residents from around Channelview that the fraught, years-long process to clean up the hazardous material buried near their homes will lead to a plan that will protect them.

Those gathered werent totally buying it.

The residents in the community room had just realized that the long-awaited work that is expected to get underway this fall on part of whats known as the San Jacinto Waste Pits is still going to leave some toxic material in the ground. That was not what people here wanted.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Companies must stick to cleanup schedule

A paper mill buried its waste along the San Jacinto River east of downtown Houston in the 1960s, before the rivers path shifted over a portion of it. That waste now contains dangerous dioxins, which can cause cancer. (Its covered with a fallible, temporary cap.)

Meyer, who works for the Environmental Protection Agency, said he was amazed at the plans the agency had been reviewing and working on so far. They do expect workers to get all the waste out from the pits north of I-10 that are underwater, an almost unprecedented goal, he said.

Mark Mulligan, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

If they do pull off that portion of the plan  the nearly complete report for how International Paper Company and McGinnes Industrial Maintenance Corporation plan to do it is due Sunday  its going to take years and a feat of engineering.

Walls will be built around a portion of contaminated earth at a time, in between hurricane seasons, to keep the river water out. The waste will either be removed through the water within the wall or dug up from a drained section, as theyve envisioned it.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Cleanup on hazardous San Jacinto waste pits could finally start

There is much more hazardous material than planners originally realized and some new concern about a phenomenon known as hydraulic heave, in which water and sand can seep up through the ground if the area is drained before it is excavated. That would make an even bigger mess for workers.

But south of I-10, workers will only be removing and taking away dirt up to 10 feet deep. Experts believe that will be safe enough. Meyer said no one should encounter the contaminated material that far below ground, and the agency always checks in on sites regularly after theyre cleaned up.

This part of the project was the relatively easy part  and the heated exchange from distrustful residents made it clear just how complicated the process has been. Several asked repeatedly how they could know EPA understood where the pollution was and how they could trust their families will be safe.

Weve heard you, Meyer promised those in the room, loud and strong.

emily.foxhall@chron.com
The Supreme Courts decision to strike down Roe v. Wade leaves many Texans with unanswered questions about the current state of reproductive health care.

Texas already imposes civil penalties for anyone who aids and abets an abortion after about six weeks gestation and threatens a felony for providing abortion-inducing medication after seven weeks of pregnancy. Now, the states trigger law, which could go into effect within weeks, creates additional criminal penalties for anyone who performs an abortion unless the pregnant women is dying or at risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function.

So what does all of that mean for you? We seek to answer your most common questions:

Can I order abortion medication out of state and have it mailed to me in Texas?

Last year, Texas imposed penalties of jail time and a hefty fine for anyone who prescribes pills for medication abortions through telehealth or the mail.

But the enforcement mechanism is unclear, said Seema Mohapatra, an expert in health law and bioethics at the SMU Dedman School of Law.

The practical enforceability for any restrictions on medical abortion that a state puts together is going to be difficult, unless you have the post office going confiscating mail, which, with this (White House administration), is not going to happen, she said.

Even without a practical enforcement mechanism, many providers may still fear prosecution and refuse to prescribe the medication, Mohapatra said.

What is going to happen to Plan B?

The Supreme Court decision does not affect contraceptives such as Plan B and birth control devices such as IUDs. Planned Parenthood clinics in Texas continue to provide those, even though clinics have paused abortion procedures, said Dr. Bhavik Kumar, staff physician at Planned Parenthood Center for Choice in Houston.

But there is some doubt about the future of access to birth control. In a separate opinion on the Roe ruling, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said Griswold v. Connecticut, a 1965 decision that declared that married couples had a right to contraception, should be reconsidered.

When does a fetus have a heartbeat? When does it become illegal to terminate a pregnancy?

The current Texas law makes it illegal to terminate a pregnancy at the first sign of detectable fetal heartbeat, which usually begins around six weeks.

At that stage, the woman is still carrying an embryo, not a fetus. Often, she has just missed her first period and may not know she is pregnant. Thats why abortion has been effectively banned in Texas since the law took effect last year.

What if I want to get an abortion before the Texas trigger law takes effect in 30 days?

The answer is murky. Though the Texas trigger law doesnt immediately take effect, abortion clinics are uncertain whether laws already on the books will allow prosecutors to enforce criminal penalties immediately, said Kumar.

Thats why Planned Parenthood clinics, as well as Whole Womens Health, have already paused all abortions.

Its a very scary moment, because weve already seen states start to move toward criminalizing (abortion), said Kumar. Some attorneys general tend to be very relentless, erratic and ruthless when it comes to enforcing policies against people getting access to this care.

If I have abortion medication on hand, how long is it good for? Can you use it after the expiration date?

The abortion pill  the common name for two medications, Mifepristone and Misoprostol, usually taken in tandem  can be used up to 11 weeks after the date of the persons last period, according to Planned Parenthood. The World Health Organization recently issued guidance saying the medication can safely be used up to 12 weeks.

The medications usually carry a two-year shelf life. The potential harmful effects of using them beyond that window are unclear, said Kumar. Climate and temperature may affect their effectiveness, he said. In general, the medication should be used before the expiration date to work as intended, he said.

Whats the closest trip out of state for an abortion clinic?

Sixteen states and Washington, D.C., have laws protecting the right to an abortion, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Seventeen other states have no laws protecting or banning the procedure.

Right now, the closest options for Texans to receive a legal abortion include New Mexico, which does not have any restrictions on the procedure. Texans can receive an abortion up to 22 weeks in Kansas. Colorado also expressly protects the right to an abortion at any stage of pregnancy.

julian.gill@chron.com
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Delagha Askerzada was at the Kabul International Airport last August, where he saw children being trampled in the crowd of desperate Afghans, trying to get on one of the evacuation flights that eventually brought more than 76,000 Afghans to the United States.

If he didnt make it, the 33-year-old knew that as a former interpreter for the U.S. military, his family would be hunted down by the Taliban. Outside the airport gates, he was denied entry at first. Eventually a U.S. military officer reviewed his paperwork  which his wife had strategically concealed under her clothes  and allowed Askerzada and his family into the airport.

MINUTE BY MINUTE: Meet the staff working around the clock to resettle the crush of Afghan newcomers

Ten months later, Askerzada described their chaotic escape at the southwest Houston apartment where he lives with his wife, three sons and brother-in-law.

I personally thank every individual American citizen, Askerzada said. He remembers crying when Americans welcomed him and his family at a Virginia airport after they were evacuated.

Little did he know, Askerzadas immigration case to stay legally in the United States had just begun.

Askerzada and many of the 5,500 evacuated Afghans resettled in the Houston area  after persisting through a bungled U.S. evacuation and rushed resettlement process  are now staring down the barrel of a tedious and overwhelmed immigration legal bureaucracy.

Thats due to the fact that the vast majority of evacuated Afghans were brought to the U.S. not on visas, but through a temporary designation called humanitarian parole.

People (Afghans) were generally paroled for two years in the U.S., said Sunil Varghese, policy director at the International Refugee Assistance Project, which provides legal support to refugees. Theres no U.S. government program for what happens after the two years. Further, those who dont gain legal status within that time period could lose the chance to ever reunite with family left in Afghanistan.

Mark Mulligan, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

A ticking clock

That two-year clock has already started ticking for Afghans in Houston, and tens of thousands of others across the country, to get their immigration cases straightened away.

If they dont, and Congress fails to pass immigration protections, they could end up barred from becoming legal permanent residents - or even undocumented, making them vulnerable for deportation.

It's really tough. We're very mindful of the fact that the clock is ticking, said Shala Gafary, who manages Afghan legal assistance for Human Rights First.

HAITIAN ODYSSEY: 10,000 miles in search of home

For evacuated Afghans, the good news is that they have two strong immigration pathways to getting green cards (permanent residency): asylum and a Special Immigrant Visa.

The bad news is these legal processes are complicated, especially for newly arrived families with limited experience with U.S. bureaucracy.

Even though Afghan asylum cases are being fast-tracked and have a nearly 100 percent approval rate, applying requires extensive documentation. The Special Immigrant Visa process has been riddled with complications in the past  and few immigration attorneys in Houston or other parts of the country are familiar with that process, since applications historically were made outside the United States. Afghans can also apply for Temporary Protected Status, though that doesnt offer any permanent immigration protections.

Askerzadas family is actually pursuing all three of those immigration options through Houston-area attorney Elizabeth Mendoza, who was connected to the family through her volunteer efforts with arriving Afghans.

He's eligible for all three. I'm doing all three and see which one we get first, said Mendoza, who has nearly three decades of experience working asylum cases and is confident about their chances, especially considering Askerzadas well-documented experience working with the U.S. military. Its straightforward proof the family would be persecuted by the Taliban-controlled government if they were to return to Afghanistan.

HELP WANTED: Houston is in a refugee resettlement crisis. Now, volunteer mentors for Afghan families are needed.

But by some measures, Askerzadas situation is a best-case scenario. He was lucky to be connected by chance with an experienced attorney like Mendoza. Finding attorneys to do time-intensive immigration applications with the Dari and Pashto-speaking population in Houston is no easy task.

Askerzada also spoke English before moving here, making it easier to solidify that connection and communicate about the immigration case.

Many recently arrived Afghans speak only Afghan languages. Mendoza said as a volunteer, shes noticed some Afghans have limited literacy in their native languages, and may have worked as a janitor or cook at the U.S. military base. They will experience major language and educational barriers to pursuing a legal case, and may not even know their own legal predicament.

Strong asylum cases also require a great deal of paperwork, according to Gafary, including an affidavit explaining what would happen if the person returned to his or her home country, biographical documents and other personal evidence.

If we take a typical case of an Afghan pilot, let's say, who was evacuated here, it would be helpful for him to include a copy of his ID badge, maybe an employment letter, maybe photos of him in his pilot gear, sitting in a plane, for example, any diplomas or certificates that he has received.

Beyond that, many families who are still orienting themselves to a dramatically different life in the United States may not even understand that they are required to pursue an immigration legal case in the first place.

When asked if he knew about his legal situation before his chance meeting with Mendoza, Askerzada said no.

I didn't think about it, he said.

Mark Mulligan, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

A simple (yet, not-so-simple) solution

A swift act by Congress could make this logistical legal nightmare go away for tens of thousands of Afghans and refugee resettlement agencies, who have had their hands full trying to connect Afghans with housing, medical care, educational services, jobs and transportation and now are looking for ways to support Afghan legal cases.

Afghan allies and advocates  and even President Joe Biden  have asked Congress to pass an Afghan Adjustment Act, legislation that would allow evacuated Afghans to become legal permanent residents after one year in the United States. If passed, the law would essentially eliminate the need for Afghans to go through the complicated asylum or Special Immigrant Visa process, which would also ease the burden on immigration agents already dealing with a long backlog of other cases.

Mendoza said an Afghan Adjustment Act would reduce the time required for a case by more than 90 percent  and an attorney wouldnt even be necessary to adjust status under this kind of legislation.

ADAPTING TO CHANGE: New book collection helps Afghan children process their new lives in Houston

But Congress has so far failed to act, despite a historical precedent for these types of protections for Southeast Asian refugees and Cubans. In 1977, an amendment to the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act created an expedited pathway for Vietnamese refugees, many who were living (and still live) in Houston, to get green cards after two years in the country.

Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn did not respond to the Houston Chronicle when asked if they support, or would vote for, an Afghan Adjustment Act.

Delagha Askerzada and his family hope to continue their lives in Houston and are already taking steps to adapt to their new lives in in Houston. His wife has added pasta salad to her cooking repertoire and is learning English. His kids are enrolled in school and Askerzada has a job as an interpreter with Catholic Charities.

The summer heat doesnt bother them  although they could do without the cockroaches.

Their legal future in the country is likely secure, thanks to their personal connection with Mendoza, the immigration attorney. In the likely case they are allotted green cards, it will open up other doors  they could start to petition for other family members to join them in the United States.

THE AMERICAN DREAM: Afghans arriving in Houston quickly contribute to local economy

But for the less savvy and connected Afghans, without an Afghan Adjustment Act, if they fail to become legal permanent residents, it may end their chances of ever reuniting with their spouses, children and other family in Afghanistan.

Unless you file for asylum and in a timely manner, you actually will never be eligible for a green card, said Gafary, who believes this could end up disproportionately hurting the women and children stuck in Afghanistan under Taliban rule, who were unable to make it on the evacuation planes last August.

It'll actually be really devastating, the impact on families, she said.

elizabeth.trovall@chron.com
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More than 1,000 abortion-rights demonstrators flocked to Houstons downtown federal courthouse to protest the U.S. Supreme Courts decision on Friday to overturn Roe v. Wade, joining similar protests throughout the state and the country.

Chanting Stand Up, Fight Back, and holding signs support womens right to choose, the demonstrators expressed sadness, shock and anger at the decision, but agreed on one thing:

Friday would be the first night of protests, but it wouldnt be the last.

We need protests, walkouts, occupations and sit-ins so that we can push back against these attacks and win back the right to abortions, said Brian Harrison, who organized the protest as part of Socialist Alternative Houston.

Q&A: Can I still legally get an abortion in Texas? What to know about access after Supreme Court ruling.

Texas last year had already imposed one of the strictest abortion laws in the country. But Fridays ruling, which lets states decide how to regulate the procedure, will open the door to additional criminal penalties for healthcare providers across the state, on top of the civil liabilities under the current law.

Brett Coomer/Staff photographer

It wasnt just abortion-rights demonstrators who braved the 95-degree afternoon heat. Up to 60 abortion opponents celebrated a victory for them outside a fenced-off Planned Parenthood clinic in Houston, where they prayed and sang songs that included Amazing Grace.

But among the hundreds outside the federal courthouse, the outrage and anguish were palpable. Police efforts to keep the crowd on the sidewalk quickly failed, and demonstrators spilled out on to Rusk Street, chanting and cheering. The protest was loud but peaceful. Police said they made no arrests.

Its infuriating that the Supreme Court is able to make decisions on whether or not the states can regulate guns or not. They said no to that, yet womens autonomy is being denied, said Brianna Rankin, who had the numbers of two attorneys written in marker on her arms. Weve seen what happened in similar protests in this city.

THE RULING: What does overturning Roe v. Wade mean for Texas?

Rankin drove from Pearland to attend the demonstration. Others came from farther away.

Cynthia Lebeau and her friend Katelyn Conner drove two hours from Lufkin, buying markers and poster board on the trip down. Lebeau jumped in the car soon after learning of the decision and planned to hold a protest Saturday in her city.

I dont have a uterus anymore, Lebeau said of the decision. Were going backwards

In her hands, she held a sign that read, Ready for war.

Brett Coomer/Staff photographer

Sara Ellis, of Houston, wandered around the back of the protest dressed in the red dress and white bonnet made famous by The Handmaids Tale.

This morning completely made me nauseated, Ellis said. Its going to take years before we get things back.

Demonstrators gathered at other locations around Houston before the protest at the federal courthouse took shape. Kathleen Ruhleder initially showed up to Water Works at Buffalo Bayou for a protest planned there.

I see that a lot of the social progress that has been made in my lifetime is now being eroded, she said at the park. This is one of the big ones here. This is going to make life much more difficult for my children.

Ruhleder anticipates there will be more opportunities to protest in Houston in the coming months.

Hopefully, well get people out for the election, she said.

WHAT'S NEXT? Could same-sex marriage be next to go?

Later, at the courthouse, Kingwood resident Mary Paquette handed out more than 20 voter registration cards  the most powerful sign here  among attendees.

Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto ORourke made an unexpected appearance, wading in from the back of the crowd and stopping to taking photos as people recognized him.

ORourke didnt speak, and some of the crowd urged him to turn attention back to the speakers, as they shared personal stories of about abortions. At one point, the crowd chanted Democrats we call your bluff; voting blue in is not enough.

Brett Coomer/Staff photographer

An advertisement for a Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights, one of the groups that called for protests Friday, urged people to participate in nonviolent mass resistance and to bring bring the gears of society to a grinding halt.

Jamilah Hoffman, an organizer for Rise Up, said the group has been inspired by protests in Argentina and Mexico and other nations that recently legalized or decriminalized abortion. Rise Up protesters were encouraged to wear green clothing, in the same fashion as the protesters abroad.

Im still processing what has happened and what it means going forward for women,  she said, adding, Its a time to mobilize and work together to create a society that benefits all of us and not just a narrow few.

J.R. Gonzales and Ryan Nickerson contributed.

john.ferguson@chron.com, julian.gill@chron.com
Follow us down a bleak rabbit hole  a thought exercise confronting the most harrowing details and implications of recent testimony before the House select committee on the January 6 insurrection.

What if Vice President Mike Pence hadnt been there to stop an attempted coup on American democracy?

What if some other second-in-command had been in place, someone who allowed himself to become beaten down by the incessant, months-long pressure campaign from President Trump to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 election? What if he  or perhaps by then, a she  woke up on the morning of Jan. 6 and succumbed to Trumps 1 a.m. Twitter post demanding from him extreme courage? What if he acquiesced to a disturbing phone call later that morning in which the president berated him and called him a nasty euphemism for wimp, for refusing to violate the Constitution to help him stay in office?

Would another vice president have buckled at the sight of a noose and gallows erected outside the Capitol and hordes of Trump supporters calling for a hanging? Would mortal fear, or loyalty, or blind partisanship have been enough to persuade our hypothetical VP to shrug off principle and duty and instead, use his ceremonial role in certifying electoral votes to reject them, voiding a free and fair election?

Worse still, what if he never had the chance to throw the election because the seditious mob of Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol spotted him fleeing to an underground loading dock, overwhelmed his Secret Service detail and acted on their murderous threats?

The coup may have succeeded.

What if Rusty Bowers hadnt been the Arizona House speaker when Trump began urging Republican state officials to break their oaths and defy the Constitution in the name of party loyalty?

Would another official who voted and campaigned for Trump, just as Bowers did, have yielded to the repeated overtures from the president and his attorney John Eastman, happily going along with their absurdly illegal scheme to replace the states electors with a group more favorable to the president?

Would another state House speaker have folded under the weight of tens of thousands of emails, text messages and voicemails threatening his life? Would this other official have watched the caravans of Trump supporters descending on his neighborhood, the very same that terrified Bowers own gravely ill daughter, and finally agreed to just give the president what he wanted? What if someone else had caved when his own congressman, Andy Biggs, called in a last-ditch attempt to pressure him?

The coup may have succeeded.

What if Trump and his supporters had been successful in their campaign to scapegoat and vilify rank-and-file election workers because those workers didnt have near the resolve that Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss in Fulton County, Ga., had?

How would another mother-daughter election worker team, just trying to do their civic duty, respond to the specious lies being propagated about them by Trump and Rudy Giuliani, his top campaign lawyer? Could another mother have maintained her courage while the president alleged she was a professional vote scammer and hustler, as Trump called Freeman? Or when Giuliani alleged that a video showed her handing her daughter a flash drive containing fake votes when all she really gave her was ginger mints?

For Moss, simply doing her job led Trump supporters to invade her grandmothers house; Freeman was advised by the FBI to leave her home for her own safety.

What if honest election workers stopped showing up for duty once they realized the risks? The coup may have succeeded.

Four days of House hearings have made it clear that the collapse of our union on Jan. 6 was not buttressed by the sturdiness of our institutions alone, but by the individual actions of a handful of politicians and the unwavering civic duty of election officials and workers dutifully counting ballots and assessing vote totals under severe duress.

Testimonies from compelling witnesses such as Bowers and Greg Jacob, a top White House lawyer for Pence, have lain bare the stark contrast between those who viewed their oath to defend the Constitution as a sacred public contract, and a president who viewed it as a cheap trading card.

Its clear now, if it wasnt before, that the threat to our democracy did not end when Biden placed his hand on the Bible weeks after the Capitol riots. As eager as many Republicans and Democrats are to put Jan. 6 in our rearview and treat it as an anomaly  a spontaneous, dastardly attempt by a disgraced president and a mob of violent sycophants to subvert the peaceful transfer of power, Americans cannot become complacent.

Heed the words of J. Michael Luttig, a former federal judge and legal adviser to Pence, who punctuated his June 13 testimony before the House committee with an ominous warning.

To this very day, the former president, his allies, and supporters pledge that, in the presidential election of 2024, if the former president or his anointed successor, as the Republican Party presidential candidate, were to lose that election, that they would attempt to overturn that 2024 election in the same way that they attempted to overturn the 2020 election, but succeed in 2024 where they failed in 2020, Luttig said.

Indeed, the claim that Trump actually won in 2020 is now a key pillar of many Republican political campaigns  local, state and federal. Its a noxious refrain that has earwormed its way into the hearts and minds of many Trump supporters only too eager to believe it.

Republican voters have nominated at least 108 candidates for statewide office or Congress this year who have repeated Trumps lies about the 2020 election, according to a Washington Post analysis. The majority are likely to win in their Republican-leaning districts or states. And Trump, of course, remains a front-runner for the 2024 nomination. We struggle to understand how, even Bowers, our apparent guardian of democracy, unequivocally stated Wednesday that he would again vote for Trump if he was the GOP nominee.

What if Trump is again nominated, again loses, again blames fraud, and again incites followers and fellow partisans to stop the steal?

We know the answer. We saw it with our own eyes on Jan. 6. If weve learned anything from several weeks of hearings, its just how quickly the germ of a lie can metastasize into a cancer that kills American democracy. If those of us who cherish the ideals of our republic let our guard down, the next coup attempt may well succeed.
Millions of women in America lost the constitutional right to control their own bodies today, and in the process, we lost something else deeply precious to who we are as a nation: trust in the U.S. Supreme Court.

How free is a country whose liberties can be gutted by the courts at whim, for reasons of personal ideology or shifting political winds? It is not free at all, not stable, and not the kind of America we know, or that we want to pass on to our children.

Consider the very first sentence of the 1992 U.S. Supreme Court opinion that reaffirmed the landmark 1973 Texas abortion rights case Roe v Wade: Liberty finds no refuge in a jurisprudence of doubt. It meant that although Roe had flaws the justices would address, the court would honor its own basic precedent, would essentially keep its own word and protect the right that had already been granted.

This rule, stare decisis, promotes confidence in our courts. It has been overridden to expand rights, but never, as it was Friday, to deprive a fundamental right that was guaranteed and reaffirmed for nearly half a century.

On Friday, liberty lost its refuge. American women lost a fundamental right to control their reproductive destinies. People from all walks of life lost a firm constitutional guarantee to privacy that ensures such rights as birth control and gay marriage.

And the highest court in the land lost a key pillar of its legitimacy, with a majority of its members, three appointed by former President Trump, choosing a path of activist gratuitous affirmation over judicial restraint.

The decision by the courts conservative majority to cast aside its own nearly 50-year-old precedent and overturn a womans constitutionally protected right to choose was expected, given that a draft opinion had been leaked months earlier, but no less tectonic in its impact. No less bewildering for millions of American women who have never lived in a time when health care and doctors could be criminalized, when the life and health of a mother are subordinate considerations, when women and girls could be forced to bear a rapists child.

And surely, it was no less duplicitous on the part of the Trump-appointed justices who assured Congress and the nation in their confirmation hearings that they would respect Roe as the law of the land, and the case that reaffirmed it, Planned Parenthood v Casey, as an even stronger precedent on a precedent, as Justice Brett Kavanaugh put it in 2018.

All three of those justices signed on to an opinion that comes to a very different conclusion. We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled, the decision by Justice Samuel Alito reads. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision.

Respect for precedent? None can be found in a decision that abruptly, proactively, upends Americas reproductive health care landscape far beyond even what the plaintiff in the case, Dobbs v. Jackson, initially asked for. In fact, Mississippi explained at length how its law banning abortions before viability could be upheld without overturning Roe, but changed its tune once the Trump-enabled conservative super-majority took over the high court. Chief Justice John Roberts was right to say by taking their bait, the Supreme Court rewarded Mississippis gambit.

Yes, many Americans who oppose abortion rights, including those motivated by sincere religious beliefs and those led by less-sincere activism for political gain, are cheering the decision. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton closed his office, declaring a holiday in celebration of a long-awaited ruling to protect life.

But whose life? The abortion of viable babies has long been banned, as were many second-trimester abortions in states such as Texas. We support reasonable restrictions.

Fridays decision, meanwhile, allows any state to deem its interest in protecting a first-trimester fetus the size of a lentil as equal, or even superior, to protecting the life and health of an adult woman, whose reasons for seeking an abortion may well include her ability to provide for the children she already has.

Having overturned Roe, Alito writes that the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives.

The people. It almost sounds righteous. Until we remember that, in our own state of Texas, the will of the people is essentially, due to gerrymandered political districts and increasingly eroded voter access, the will of around 10 percent of the states voters who show up for the Republican primary.

They nominate the legislative candidates who win in November and make the laws in Austin every two years.

Thats why, in Texas, despite a majority of those polled saying they didnt want Roe overturned, Fridays ruling will mean that nearly all abortions will promptly be banned, at the moment of fertilization, with the only rare exception being to prevent the death or serious injury of the mother.

Paxton also reminded Texans that the old, pre-Roe laws are still on the books so district attorneys could ideally begin criminal prosecutions of physician violators immediately. Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, for her part, sent a statement Friday indicating she had other priorities.

As for the Supreme Courts priorities, they no longer seem to dwell on the business of upholding long-affirmed constitutional rights or safeguarding its own reputation as a trusted umpire of American liberty.

There was another way, a less-divisive, a less-traumatic, but still conservative, way forward in the Mississippi case.

The chief justice said as much in his separate opinion. A strident conservative himself, Roberts joined the majoritys 6-3 decision upholding Mississippis law banning abortions after 15 weeks, but did not support the extra step of five of his colleagues to overturn Roe outright.

If it is not necessary to decide more to dispose of a case, then it is necessary not to decide more, Roberts wrote.

Roberts detailed his own disagreements with Roe and Casey, but wrote: None of this, however, requires that we also take the dramatic step of altogether eliminating the abortion right first recognized in Roe.

Any argument Alito and his cohorts, Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas, try to make that Roe was so divisive that the issue of abortion rights was best left to the political whims of 50 different states, is disingenuous.

Abortion will always be a complex, emotional, morally difficult issue upon which Americans will never agree. Thats why we needed the Constitution and the Supreme Court to show us the way. And it did, many times, for nearly half a century.

The court abandoning that responsibility now doesnt bring Americans together. Subjugating a womb to the jurisdiction of a map line doesnt resolve anything. It only drives the wedge down deeper. And the trust, lower still.
Regarding U.S. Sen. John Cornyn booed at Texas GOP convention over gun deal: Get off the stage!, (June 17): Former Attorney General William Barr described President Trump as detached from reality in his sworn testimony about the aftermath of the 2020 election. Maybe that condition is contagious.

Learning about the recent state Republican convention here in Houston, in which Sen. John Cornyn was booed for trying to do something about gun violence, and Rep. Dan Crenshaw was harassed, I have to ask: are the conventioneers detached from reality too?

Do they just acquiesce in random mass shootings? Do they really believe, after numerous settled lawsuits, that somehow the 2020 election was rigged  and the rigging benefited only one person? Wildest of all, in a state where over five million Texans voted for Joseph Biden, do they believe all Texans are fervent Trump supporters?

Its terrifying that someone detached from reality headed our government for two and a half months in 2020-2021. Its even more terrifying that others detached from reality want to put him back into office.

Reality may be an uncomfortable place. But its safe. Unreality isnt.

Nancy Perich Daly, Houston

I feel that it is a sad day for the GOP in Texas to behave in the manner they did when so many lives are lost to gun violence. I also heard Sen. Cruzs speech on how he would protect the Second Amendment at all costs. What happened to civility and the duty of our elected officials to represent all of us? Why are we the major democracy that does not take a stand on gun violence when the majority of Americans are calling for gun reform? Addressing gun violence is not a popularity contest and our government can no longer be held hostage by those who I feel have lost touch with reality. As a health care professional, I have never witnessed a positive outcome from a gun. I am certain I would have received the same reception as Sen. Cornyn received, which made national news. Texas is no longer the ultra-conservative state that many feel it is. I deserve to have my views heard in the U.S. Senate and, at this point in time, Texas has only one truly representative senator.

Deborah Zygmunt, Missouri City

The so-called compromise Sen. Cornyn worked out with his Senate colleagues puts heavy emphasis on mental health support and nothing substantial on the control of guns. One might hope that the increased availability of mental health services would be extended to help those with gun addictions. Apparently, they were in strong attendance at the Texas Republican Convention as they shouted, No gun control. Gun addiction, in my opinion, is a huge public health problem in our country where it has made us the laughingstock of people living in more civilized nations.

John James, Houston

As my mother would say, He is as weak as pond water. How can we  only a few weeks since 21 Texans were murdered  turn our backs on the need to reform our gun laws? Cornyn is the best example of a GOP do-nothing who, no matter what has happened, still loves money more than the lives of Americans. These power-hungry politicians must be voted out. We need fresh open-minded leaders. These senators who have been there since they had peach fuzz and now have gray beards need to be replaced.

Barclay C. Fisher, Kingwood

Many attendees at the state GOP convention last Friday jeered Sen. John Cornyn for attempting to work with Democrats and come up with some common-sense gun control legislation. They seem to not care one whit that their rights to own and play with military-style weapons is paid for, again and again, with the lives of schoolchildren. What part of well-regulated do they not understand?

Ralph Stivison, Houston

Regarding GOP wants Texans to vote on secession from U.S.  plus 6 other takeaways from the party's convention, (June 20): Im up late tonight, doing paperwork. Im moving my savings out of Texas-based banking institutions. In academic language its called Disintermediation. I suspect the Texas Republican Party doesnt know what the word means.

Given what the Texas Republican Party has to say about secession, I dont want to have a bunch of arrogant men change my U.S. dollar savings into a Texas dollar or some other name for currency in a newly-founded Texas republic.

I am not sitting around waiting to see what happens.

Jennifer Washburn Shaw, Rockport
Hong Kong: 1.8k arrested in anti-crime exercise

Police have arrested over 1,800 people and seized dangerous drugs and illicit goods worth more than $100 million during an anti-crime operation by Hong Kong, Guangdong and Macau authorities.

The intelligence-led enforcement exercise codenamed THUNDERBOLT 2022, which began on May 20, aims to curb the illegal activities of triad societies and organised crime syndicates, neutralising cross-boundary crimes, and interdicting the criminals source of income.

Police, together with the Immigration, Customs & Excise, Fire Services and Food & Environmental Hygiene departments, conducted searches at 2,548 locations including bars, amusement game centres, cyber cafes, party rooms and residential units during the operation.

As at last Friday, 1,837 people aged 11 to 90 were arrested, 73 were from the Mainland and 119 were non-ethnic Chinese. The suspects were arrested for triad-related offences and drug offences, wounding, criminal damage, blackmail, possession of offensive weapons, operating an illegal gambling establishment and operating a vice establishment.

Dangerous drugs and psychotropic drugs worth around $80 million, including cannabis, ketamine, cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and midazolam were also seized.

As THUNDERBOLT 2022 is ongoing, citizens are encouraged to come forward with intelligence regarding triad societies and organised crime syndicates, the force added.

This story has been published on: 2022-06-24. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Chinese envoy calls for more int'l support for Afghanistan

Xinhua) 13:30, June 24, 2022

UNITED NATIONS, June 23 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Thursday called on the international community to step up support for Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is at a critical stage of transition from chaos to governance. Since the Taliban takeover in August 2021, the situation in Afghanistan has remained stable on the whole while the humanitarian and economic fields are facing the most daunting challenges, said Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations.

Afghanistan still has a long way to go to achieve peace and development. The Afghan people should not be forgotten. And it is incumbent upon the international community to provide more support and assistance, he told the Security Council.

It is important to strengthen constructive engagement to support Afghanistan in realizing autonomous and effective state governance, he said.

The lessons of the past 20 years have proved that military interventions and foreign models will not work in Afghanistan. All parties should uphold the Afghan-owned and Afghan-led principle, strengthen engagement with the interim Afghan government in a pragmatic manner, patiently guide and support national reconciliation and domestic unity in Afghanistan, and explore a governance model suited to Afghanistan's national conditions. This should be an internally driven and progressive process that requires a forward-looking attitude and necessary patience, said Zhang.

It is necessary to increase resource inputs to help Afghanistan get out of economic and livelihood difficulties, he said.

The humanitarian and economic situation in Afghanistan took an abrupt turn for the worse in the wake of the precipitous withdrawal of foreign troops, Zhang said, adding that so far, only 30 percent of the UN humanitarian response plan for Afghanistan is funded -- a shortfall of 3 billion U.S. dollars and other geopolitical developments have shifted the attention of major donor countries from Afghanistan.

"This trend is extremely dangerous, which may turn the current crisis into a greater catastrophe," he said.

In April, dozens of independent UN human rights experts jointly issued a statement, pointing out that the freezing of Afghanistan's overseas assets by the United States has aggravated the plights of Afghanistan women and children, and calling for the release of the funds. Regrettably, there has been no progress on the issue, said Zhang.

"At a time when the Afghan people are most in need of resources, it is unreasonable, unjustifiable, and unacceptable to freeze their sizable overseas assets. The United States should respond to the appeals of the (UN) secretary-general, human rights experts, humanitarian agencies, and other parties by unconditionally returning Afghanistan's overseas assets as soon as possible," he said.

The security, counter-terrorism, drug control, and refugee problems faced by Afghanistan are intertwined. Therefore, a holistic approach is needed to address the root causes, said Zhang.

As a friendly neighbor of Afghanistan, China has always been committed to supporting its peace, stability and development. China is ready to work with the international community to contribute to a brighter future for Afghanistan, he added.

(Web editor: Liang Jun, Hongyu)
For the first time since the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade in 1973, the pro-life movement in America has achieved a watershed constitutional victory. States now have the opportunity to restrict abortions or ban them altogether.

Pro-lifers like me can celebrate but we should also acknowledge what weve done wrong to get here. We have too often ignored a nuanced moral framing of this now-realized victory and the path taken to get here. The type of analysis that historians make of morally complex events can help us on this issue, and we need this help. A proper understanding of the pro-life movements history is necessary if were going to keep fighting for every life to be valued and help to clean up the rubble weve left getting here.

Even the best of ends dont justify unjust means. Various religions and ethical systems hold firmly to this idea. Christians read this in the letter of St. Paul to the Romans, and just-war theorists emphasize jus ad bellum, jus in bello and jus post bellum. Yet in the heat of a political battle, or after its victorious end, its very tempting to retroactively justify everything that ones side is doing or did in order to get what it wants. After all, we tell ourselves, were on the right side, and isnt that all that matters?

History shows us that its not that simple. Legal emancipation of slaves in 1865 and Americas victory over fascist powers in 1945, both among this countrys finest moments, came after wars in which the United States military committed multiple atrocities, primarily the deliberate targeting of civilian populations for death and carnage. The firebombing of Tokyo and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki alone murdered hundreds of thousands of civilians. Even recognizing the full gravity of this, most would agree that the United States military was on the morally right side of those wars and was comprised of men and women who served and sacrificed with dignity and honor. Historians must grapple with these complex and often conflicting realities and communicate them to others  starting conversations and informing debates on how we collectively remember these events, what we should learn from them and how we teach them to our children.

The pro-life movement, much like abolitionist and anti-fascist crusades, pursues the highest of goals: humanizing and saving the lives of a dehumanized and endangered population. Yet much like the American military in the Civil War and World War II, it has repeatedly used the justness of its cause to attempt to justify the unconscionable. In the last few years alone, many in the movement have used the vision of an anti-Roe Supreme Court to excuse and even celebrate the unholy litany of lies, degradations and cruelties that were foundational to the candidacy and presidency of a predatory madman. Robert Jeffress, the pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, in October 2016 cited abortion as a primary reason for his and other evangelicals support for Donald Trump even in the wake of the Access Hollywood tape that included Trumps admission of sexually predatory behavior. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., called Trump a sexual predator in 2016 but openly endorsed him in 2020, despite maintaining the same moral assessment, because of the stances of the two political parties on abortion and other social issues.

The pro-life movements zeal also led many to dismiss, unexamined, an attempted-rape accusation against Brett Kavanaugh and to slander Christine Blasey Ford, jettisoning all standards of decency in the process and needlessly retraumatizing countless Americans who have experienced sexual harassment and assault. President of Samaritans Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Franklin Graham, who is also a vocal pro-life political activist, gave an interview to the Christian Broadcasting Network two days after the Washington Post published Fords accusation. In it, he devoted his time, not to refuting the allegation, but to asserting that it was not relevant even if true, since it simply involved two teenagers and occurred close to forty years ago. Graham also said that the whole situation was simply a tactic by the left to try to keep conservatives off the bench.

Even overturning Roe and saving the lives of countless pre-born children will not vindicate a single one of these evil tactics used to accomplish it.

Then how should those of us who are pro-life view the current situation, and how should we remember it looking back? Just as American atrocities during wartime didnt change what the right outcome would be, even if they hastened victory, neither do they do so here. Roe was a horrendously bad ruling that has sanctioned the deaths of untold innocents and formed a blood-red stain on our nations integrity for half a century. But we must take a lesson from historians and look back with a nuancing eye. We should celebrate the patience and sacrifice of the countless activists and donors who spoke out for the pre-born and sacrificially served to meet the needs of mothers and children. But we should also repent for and attempt to repair the damage from the times when our fight for dignity and justice for all was marked by tactics of dishonesty and dehumanization.

Many in the movement justified these tactics by arguing they would bring this conflict to a speedier end. As it turns out, they did, but this fact is irrelevant. Such tactics are antithetical to the fight for human life and dignity, and they never should have had a place in it. This is true even if that meant opening ourselves up to more political setbacks, such as fully investigating accusations of disqualifying behavior against preferred judicial appointments, waiting for political representatives who dignify life at all stages for all people and refusing to align ourselves with groups or people who, through words and actions, repudiate such ideas of universal dignity. Going forward, we must value principles over results and exorcise ourselves of the notion that victory must be won at any cost. Such a notion isnt political realism; its a Faustian bargain.

Joshua Sander is a PhD student in history at The University of Alabama researching the interaction of religion and law in twentieth-century America.
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The Supreme Court decision on Friday that overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case establishing a constitutional right to an abortion, is extremely similar to a draft version of the opinion that leaked early last month, legal experts said.

In the 6-3 majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, Justice Samuel Alito, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote that the Constitution does not make any reference to abortion. Roe v. Wade was "egregiously wrong from the start," he wrote, adding that the reasoning that abortion access should be protected is "exceptionally weak."

The overall substance of Alitos majority opinion is nearly identical to what he wrote in the draft majority opinion that Politico published on May 2, said Joanna Grossmana professor at Southern Methodist Universitys Dedman School of Law.

MORE ON FRIDAY'S RULING: Sewing: By overturning Roe v. Wade, Supreme Court has put a death wish on women of color

I dont think there are any differences that I would characterize as significant, Grossman said.

Charles W. Rocky Rhodes, a professor at South Texas College of Law, said he wasn't surprised the final opinion was largely unchanged. From the first draft, Alito included language that appeared to be designed to appeal to other judges, Rhodes said.

For example, both the leaked draft and the final majority opinion note that all 50 states and Washington, D.C. have safe haven laws that allow parents to voluntarily give up a newborn at a safe place, such as a hospital or fire station, without fear of criminal liability. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who joined in the majority opinion, focused on safe haven laws during oral arguments for the Dobbs case last year.

You could see, as you read that initial draft, his statements that were designed to attract the attention of those judges who he needed to join the [majority] opinion, Rhodes said.

The draft majority opinion that Politico published May 2 is 98 pages long. It includes a notation that it circulated among justices on Feb. 10.

The opinion released Friday is much longer at 213 pages. Of that, 109 pages are Alitos majority opinion. It also includes three concurring opinions from Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts, and a dissenting opinion from Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

Unlike the leaked draft, Alitos final majority opinion specifically references those concurring and dissenting opinions. For example, Alito writes on page 35 that the dissent is very candid in that it cannot show that a constitutional right to an abortion has any foundation, let alone a deeply rooted one.

Grossman noted that the leaked draft also addressed many of the arguments included in the dissent. However, its hard to say whether Alito anticipated those arguments, or whether draft versions of the concurring and dissenting opinions were already circulating among the justices when the draft majority opinion leaked.

MORE ON FRIDAY'S RULING: Abortion opponents 'ecstatic' after Roe v. Wade overturned, but feel there's more work to be done

Also included the opinion released Friday is a syllabus, or a headnote  a standard addition that is not part of the official decision but provides an outline of the case and summarizes the decision.

Grossman said she was surprised to see some aspects of Alitos majority opinion unchanged from the leaked draft. For example, critics noted after the leak that Alito cited 17th century English jurist Lord Matthew Hale on eight occasions. Hale is noted for believing men could not be prosecuted for raping their wives, and for presiding over a witchcraft trial where two women were sentenced to death, according to The Washington Post. The final majority opinion still includes references to Hale.

Theres a few things that you thought they would have toned down in response to crowdsourcing, that stayed exactly the same, Grossman said.

Because the Supreme Court process is so secretive, its hard to say how much, and how often, a majority opinion changes between its first and final drafts, Grossman said. While biographies about Supreme Court justices that have discussed how majority opinions have evolved in specific cases, and some justices private papers have been turned over to the Library of Congress after they died, theres no way to tell how the process usually plays out, Grossman said.

We dont have access to the Supreme Courts decision-making in any way that is transparent or studyable, she said.

Rhodes, on the other hand, said that in some cases, legal scholars are aware of more significant changes made before an opinion was released. The fact Alito did not heavily alter the final majority opinion is likely an indication that he did not need to, Rhodes said.

He obviously had pretty firm commitments from those judges who joined him, Rhodes said.
Lawyers for abortion providers vowed Friday to continue fighting despite the end of Roe v. Wade, but they warned it would be a difficult legal road ahead.

Republican lawmakers in Texas and elsewhere have discussed laws that would attempt to prohibit women from obtaining abortions in states where it remains legal.

"The reality is that we are going to see some of those laws enacted, and they will be challenged, but the ultimate constitutionality of those laws will end up being decided through litigation by the courts," said Julie Rikelman, a lead attorney with the Center for Reproductive Rights.

The center, which argued on behalf of providers in the case decided Friday, said it would spend the coming days planning out what legal action it can take against states with pre-Roe abortion bans on the books and those with so-called trigger laws that ban access to the procedure when it's no longer federally protected.

That is now the case after the Supreme Court on Friday overturned the 1973 Roe decision, which had enshrined abortion access until fetal viability, or today at about 23 weeks of pregnancy.

Nancy Northrup, who heads the Center for Reproductive Rights, called the ruling "the biggest setback to women's rights, I would say in United States history."

The court on Friday did "something it's never done before, which is take away an individual, personal liberty," she said. "It has never done that in its history, and it can't be underestimated about what that means."

Citing the court's three liberal dissenters in the opinion, Northrup said overturning Roe effectively removes women from the balance that the justices had reached in 1973, between the right to privacy and the viability of a fetus. And she stressed that the new ruling opens the door to crackdown on other established rights, including the right to same-sex marriage and access to contraception.

Many clinics in Texas had already begun shuttered their operations in anticipation of the ruling, and all elective abortions will be criminalized within 30 days in Texas, under a law passed last year by Republican leaders. Women seeking the procedure will now have to travel hundreds if not thousands of miles to access clinics in other states.

"We know that half the people who seek abortions are living in poverty, and today's decision will fall hardest on them and others who already face economic and systemic barriers to health care, including communities of color, young people, LGBTQ-plus communities, immigrants, and those in rural areas," Northrup said.
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Juvenile Facing Charges in Searles School Fire

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.  A teenager will face arson-related charges in connection with a fire this past weekend at the vacant Searles School.

The youth, who is not being identified because he is under 17, will be summonsed to appear in Berkshire County Juvenile Court at a later date.

"Every fire has the potential to hurt someone," said Fire Chief Charles Burger. "We're fortunate that this particular incident didn't grow larger and put the community or the firefighters who serve them at risk."

Great Barrington firefighters responded to 79 Bridge St. just after 5 p.m. on Sunday, June 19, following a 911 call and observed smoke coming from the left side of the second floor. Upon entry, they encountered smoke and found combustible materials on fire, contained to one room with concrete walls and flooring. They quickly extinguished the fire.

The investigation into the fire's origin and cause was jointly conducted by the Fire and Police Departments, and the State Police Fire & Explosion Investigation Unit assigned to the State Fire Marshal's office. They determined that the point of origin was a piece of furniture that had been set on fire. Based on observations at the scene, witness interviews, and other evidence gathered in the course of an ongoing investigation, they identified the juvenile and made a charging decision late today.

Juvenile fire-setting is a serious issue that contributes to dozens of fires each year in Massachusetts, said officials. About half of these fires are started using smoking materials such as matches and lighters.

Chief Burger, Police Chief Paul Storti, and State Fire Marshal Peter Ostroskey said they are taking
The 70-year-old panels making up the Hoosic River flood control system have been failing for years.

Warren, Neal Looking Into North Adams Flood Control Chutes

Editor's note: Sen. Warren had to reschedule her visit to North Adams.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  The city's congressional delegation is taking notice of the 70-year-old flood chutes that contain the Hoosic River.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren will be in North Adams on Friday afternoon to view the failing panels in the Willow Dell section and U.S. Rep. Richard Neal has a $200,000 earmark in a House appropriations bill for a study on upgrading the system.

The city has requested the U.S. Army Corps to conduct a feasibility study on this system.

The Hoosic River Basin Flood Control System was constructed in the 1940s and 1950s by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to prevent the destruction and loss of life in North Adams after a number of devastating floods.

It took 11 years and $18.8 million to dredge and bank some 6 miles of river and contain more than a mile of it with concrete walls.

The concrete panels that bound the river were shorted on rebar, according to Neal, and after nearly 70 years, have passed their useful life and begun to fail and collapse into the river. The collapsing panels have allowed the river to flow behind the flood control system further undermining the structure.

One of the first panels collapsed in Willow Dell and others have been undermined where the river runs through the campus of Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.

The Hoosic River Revival found through a preliminary study nearly a decade ago that four sections had fallen and eight were tilting. Three of the fallen slabs were replaced and the city's public services department jury-rigged a steel brace for an area near the end of Building 6.

The nonprofit initiative has been working on ways to re-naturalize and integrate the river while maintaining flood control.

Neal had initially asked for $1.5 million as part of his Community Project Funding Request for Fiscal Year 2023. Only $200,000 was earmarked on Thursday by the Appropriations Committee in the $57 billion Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies funding.

The earmark is included in the House bill where it awaits further action.

Neal said the feasibility study is imperative as it must be conducted before any work can begin. The congressman says he has worked with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to give this project the coveted "new start" designation, allowing the Corps to begin receiving funding on its behalf and essentially jumpstart progress.

"As a former mayor, I know how important issues like these are," said Neal in a statement. "Not only will this feasibility study work toward enhancing protections along the Hoosic River Basin, but it will also rehabilitate infrastructure, support the ecosystem, create jobs, and, most importantly, reduce flood risk."
'Mary Ann Unger: To Shape a Moon from Bone' at WCMA

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) announced "Mary Ann Unger: To Shape a Moon from Bone," a project consisting of a retrospective survey on view from July 15 through December 22, 2022, as well as a publication.

Organized by Horace D. Ballard, former Curator of American Art at WCMA and currently the Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr. Associate Curator of American Art at Harvard Art Museums, the exhibition and catalog offer the first curatorial assessment of the entirety of Unger's practice and highlight key works as culminating examples of her material experimentation.

According to a press release, rising to prominence in the downtown New York art scene in the 1980s and 1990s, Mary Ann Unger (19451998) was skilled in graphic composition, watercolor, large-scale conceptual sculpture, and environmentally-responsive, site-specific interventions. An unabashed feminist, Unger was acknowledged as a pioneer of neo-expressionist sculptural form.

"To Shape a Moon from Bone" reexamines the formal and cultural intricacies of Unger's oeuvre, as well as the critical environmental themes suffusing her monumental installations. The exhibition repositions Unger within and against the male dominated New York sculpture scene in the last decades of the twentieth century.

"To Shape a Moon from Bone" is Unger's first solo museum presentation in more than twenty years since the McDonough Museum of Art at Youngstown State University (Ohio) presented a fifteen-year retrospective in 2000.

The artist's monumental homage to prehistoric migration, Across the Bering Strait (199294), will be on view in concert with previously unseen works on paper and other sculptural works from the Mary Ann Unger Estate, as well as special loans from the Whitney Museum of American Art and Munson Williams Proctor Arts Institute.

Works by Unger's daughter Eve Biddle, artist and co-founder of the Wassaic Project, bring two generations of a family of artistswhich includes Unger's husband, noted photographer Geoffrey Biddleinto conversation around memory and material evidence.
NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  A grand jury returned indictments related to a shooting in North Adams on Feb. 19, which injured two people, and a murder in Clarksburg on Feb. 23.

Paul Starbird and Keith Larrabee, both of North Adams, were indicted in the shooting. Starbird, 20, and Larrabee, 27, are currently being held without the right to bail on District Court charges. The court arraigned Larrabee on Thursday and will arraign Starbird on June 29.

Starbird is facing two counts of armed assault with intent to murder and single counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, illegal possession of a firearm, and illegal possession of a loaded firearm. Larrabee is facing two counts of armed assault with intent to murder and single counts of assault and battery, illegal possession of a firearm, illegal possession of a loaded firearm, and assault with a dangerous weapon, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

North Adams Police responded to Key West Lounge on State Street at approximately 1:24 that morning for a reported shooting. Police assisted two victims suffering from gunshot wounds and Northern Berkshire EMS transported the victims to Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield. Starbird and Larrabee were arrested in the following days with aid of state and local law enforcement.

William Gingerich was also indicted on charges related to the murder of Dennis Bernardi. The 27-year-old Gingerich faces charges of murder, kidnapping, assault and battery, and larceny of a motor vehicle.

Gingerich is also currently detained without the right to bail. Superior Court is expected to arraign Gingerich on June 30.

Clarksburg and North Adams Police responded to a Clarksburg address on Feb. 23 for a well-being check and discovered Bernardi, 71, deceased.

Authorities in Lewiston, N.Y., arrested Gingerich the following evening on an arrest warrant obtained by the Berkshire State Police Detective Unit.




iciHaiti - ReSACE : Presentation of checks of 10,000 US$ to 30 business projects





As part of the Fair of Employment and Entrepreneurship of Students in Haiti https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-36963-icihaiti-reminder-1st-student-job-and-entrepreneurship-fair-in-haiti.html Fabrizio Poretti, Charge d'Affaires of the Swiss Embassy in Haiti, presented several symbolic checks to new business projects at the end of the incubation workshop organized by the Solidarity Support Network for Business Creation program (ReSACE).



30 business projects with a strong social impact led by young students have been selected and will benefit from funding of 10,000 US dollars each and personalized technical support.



During his speech, the Charge d'Affaires welcomed the initiative and insisted on the relevance of promoting the inclusion of young people in Haiti in the economic sector and boosting their employability through entrepreneurship while reiterating the Swiss support in this process.



Let's recall that the ReSACE is carried by the Agence de la Francophonie (AUF - Caribbean) with the support of the Swiss Embassy in Haiti and other partners. Out of 600 files submitted as part of the program, 150 were selected and benefited from an incubation workshop https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-36303-haiti-economy-support-for-business-creation-2nd-cohort-list-of-beneficiaries.html .



ReSACE has a fund of more than 800,000 US dollars. The Swiss Embassy in Haiti will contribute $328,000; the AUF granted 309,000 dollars; the BRH for its part will have 100,000 dollars, the Fokal and the Sogebank Foundation will each contribute up to 40,000 dollars.



See also :

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-36963-icihaiti-reminder-1st-student-job-and-entrepreneurship-fair-in-haiti.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-36303-haiti-economy-support-for-business-creation-2nd-cohort-list-of-beneficiaries.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-36021-haiti-economy-concrete-local-and-international-solidarity-against-the-unemployment-of-young-haitians.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-35995-icihaiti-economy-launch-of-the-francophone-employability-center-of-port-au-prince.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34741-haiti-auf-14-million-euros-in-support-for-the-universities-of-haiti-in-the-great-south.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-31023-icihaiti-aufbrh-6-business-creation-projects-selected-in-haiti-will-be-funded.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-29582-haiti-economy-25-business-creation-projects-selected.html



IH/ iciHaiti


















Members of student press organisation LPM Lintas, at the State Institute for Islamic Studies (IAIN) Ambon, have faced ongoing threats and intimation after publishing an investigative story on sexual harassment. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate, the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) Indonesia, urge the universitys executive to end all forms of intimidation against the student journalists and respect press freedom.

On March 14, the Indonesian student press organisation, LPM Lintas at the State Institute for Islamic Studies Ambon, published an investigative story on sexual harassment at the university. Credit: LPM Lintas

On March 14, LPM Lintas published an investigative story on sexual harassment at the university from 2015 to 2021, in an article titled IAIN Ambon prone to sexual harassment. The piece gathered the stories of 32 victims of sexual assault, including 25 females and seven males, and mentioned allegations of sexual offences involving lecturers, staff, students, and alumni.

Following the publication, on March 15, Nurdin Kaisupy, a student journalist who was a part of the investigative team, and Muh. Febrianto, a layout designer, were punched at the LPM Lintas office on March 15, by assailants suspected of being family members of a lecturer. The assailants also smashed the offices windows. Police investigation on the assault had slow progress.

IAIN Ambon, located in the capital city of the Maluku province, also discontinued LPM Lintas activities after the university failed to verify all information relating to the piece in a meeting with the student journalists. The university accused the students of publishing false information and said it would change the structure of LPM Lintas to include those willing to cooperate with the university and protect its reputation.

The university also reported nine student journalists to the police, who received summon letters in May asking them to appear before the police for clarification. Intimidation and harassment against the student journalists is ongoing, with some students allegedly facing prejudice at the university since the investigative story was published.

The Indonesian Press Council published an assessment and stated that the investigative story by LPM Lintas should be awarded as it was in the public interest. Many universities in Indonesia have not taken firm action following reports of sexual harassment in the past.

AJI said: AJI demands the rector of IAIN Ambon to end all the forms of intimidation against student journalists and respect press freedom. We also ask the Minister of Religious Affairs to monitor the violations of academic freedom in IAIN Ambon.

The IFJ said: All journalists must be allowed operate independently and protect the identities of their sources. The IFJ urges the IAIN Ambon and the Indonesian authorities to protect freedom of the press and dismiss the charges against the student journalists.
When the cryptocurrency market experienced a boom during the pandemic, many NFT gaming projects found themselves lost without a platform and struggled to bring in the users needed to sustain themselves. This is where MetaverseGo comes in. The project's founder and CEO, Ash Mandhyan, is an ex-executive of ByteDance, a Beijing-based company that has been leading the charge in the blockchain industry. With a strong background in digital retail for over 14 years, Mandhyan returns to his roots as a startup builder.

MetaverseGo CEO, Ash Mandhyan speaking to a web3 community gathering

MetaverseGo is a decentralized blockchain platform that provides gamers and newbie players easy access to play-and-earn games, guild participation, NFT collection and access to other decentralized applications. The platform promises fast and easy access through a users mobile number.

MetaverseGo Web App Snapshot, from metaversego.gg

There are many different ways to interact with the platform, from the user's perspective. The user can track their holdings, send and receive digital assets, invest in NFT collections and play various NFT games. Web3 entrepreneurs can also use the platform as a way of reaching out to their stakeholders. Users can search for guilds and play games without the need for a hefty investment. In fact, all you need is a sim to get you started.

With Filipino mobile internet users reaching over 80M this 2022 and a third of this dabbling into play-to-earn platforms, MetaverseGo is expected to help propel the gaming community into the future.

MetaverseGo Early Access Registration snapshot, from metaversego.gg

MetaverseGo is now open for early access registration. Get a chance to win and own limited edition NFTs when you sign up. For more information, visit: https://metaversego.gg
The countrys largest fully integrated telco PLDT reinforces its lead among local carriers with the most number of Philippine-terminating cables as it activates the US-Transpacific Jupiter cable system by July this year. The project, which links the country to the landing station in Daet, Camarines Norte, is expected to further enhance customer experience.

The Jupiter Cable system is a joint project of global providers including PLDT which spans 14,000 kilometers from the US West Coast, Japan, and lands in Daet, Camarines Norte in the Philippines. This brings PLDTs total number of international cabling systems to 17.

The addition of the Jupiter cable system to PLDTs infrastructure greatly boosts the telcos extensive fiber network, providing greater capacity in multiple Terabits per second to customers as well as cable diversity to ensure ability to re-route traffic in the event of undersea cable cuts.

Investments on infrastructure like Jupiter allow PLDT to provide the vital connectivity that powers our digital economy, enabling us to help transform the country into a globally competitive and digitally-empowered nation, PLDT and Smart FVP and Head of Enterprise Business Group Jojo G. Gendrano said.

Specifically, this will fortify the Philippines position as the next strategic data center hub for global hyperscalers, Gendrano added.

Submarine fiber optic cables are among the most critical components of the internets infrastructure, as they serve as the global backbone connecting countries, carrying communications, and enabling e-commerce and the information age. PLDTs investment in the Jupiter cable system increases and reinforces the capacities and the resiliency of the telco leaders existing undersea fiber links, to deliver massive amounts of data traffic going in and out of the country to the US.

Jupiter uses an open cable model, which allows consortium members to increase their capacities as needed by investing in technologies that boost data throughput. This means that by integrating advanced submarine line terminal facility, PLDT can scale up Jupiters capacity even as global data traffic grows rapidly and exponentially.

Currently already the largest among Philippine telcos, Jupiter is anticipated to increase PLDTs international capacity of 20 Terabit/s to about 60 Terabit/s to US and Japan further establishing its lead, and ready to scale with the growing demands of digital services. These include the delivery of Cloud services, Fintech, and rich media content, which seamlessly complements PLDTs existing fixed and mobile services.

"The addition of Jupiter to PLDTs network will further accelerate the ability of our enterprise customers to execute their digital transformation initiatives, according to Gendrano.

It will also enable us to increase international capacity into our data centers -- now a major component of the countrys digital ecosystem -- and enhance the attractiveness of the country as an investment destination. Moreover, it will allow us to uplift the infrastructure we provide to BPO's to support their hyper-connectivity requirements, not only in Metro Manila but also in other parts of the country. Lastly, Jupiter will help us support and deliver more advanced digital services such as the increasing adoption of Cloud services and the roll out of 5G for the benefit of our customers, added Gendrano.

The Jupiter Cable system is a joint project of global providers spanning 14,000 kilometers from the US West Coast, Japan, and in Daet, Camarines Norte in the Philippines. This will bring PLDTs total number of international cabling systems to 17.

PLDT continues to expand and invest in new international cable infrastructures to further improve the capacity and resilience of the countrys international network and continue to deliver unparalleled internet service to its customers. Jupiter is key to enhancing our cable network resilience, increasing the PLDT Groups submarine cable route diversity, and helps assure our customers with sustained capacity availability in support of their growing demand for data and continuing digital transformation, said Mario G. Tamayo, Head of Technology at PLDT.

Currently, PLDT operates the countrys most extensive international submarine cable network and is set to expand further with the completion of two more major international cable systems namely Asia Direct Cable (ADC), and the APRICOT cable system set to be completed in the next two years.
The United States Supreme Court on Friday eliminated the constitutional right to obtain an abortion, casting aside nearly 50 years of precedent that began with the Roe v. Wade case. The highly-charged case, decided by the court's conservative majority, is sure to spill over into the workplace. Business owners who don't already know where they stand on the issue, are likely going to have to figure one out, especially if they want to help employees with covering the costs of getting legal abortions.

The 6-3 decision, which has been anticipated since a draft opinion leaked in May, will lead to near total bans on the procedure in about half of the states across the country. Twenty-two states already impose strict restrictions while 18 states are expected to ban abortion outright, or only allow it in limited circumstances. Thirteen states, including Texas, Mississippi, and Oklahoma, already have trigger laws in place that took effect automatically, while others are written to take effect about a month after the ruling, according to the New York Times.

The restriction of reproductive rights has prompted some businesses to help employees get abortions while some have already committed to doing so. A handful of companies have committed to covering travel expenses for employees who need to get abortions, including Starbucks, Tesla, Yelp, Airbnb, Netflix, Patagonia, Salesforce, DoorDash and OKCupid. In the long term, the decision will also necessitate more paid leave and more resources to ensure that women employees have equal opportunities for advancement. It may also require greater retention efforts on behalf of employers to keep women in the workplace, says Beth Silvers and Sarah Stewart Holland, workplace attorneys and co-hosts of political podcast Pantsuit Politics. It could also drive a greater wedge between big and small businesses. The implications for this decision--which directly touch a smaller company's ability to recruit diverse talent--cannot be understated.

"At least in the immediate future, the decision will likely result in an even more strained labor force, and it will cost employers more to attract and retain quality workers," says Silvers and Stewart Holland.

Here's what companies should consider as they navigate how (or whether) to help female employees access reproductive services should they need them.

What to know about covering travel expenses.

The U.S. currently harbors 27 "abortion deserts," or major cities where people must travel 100 miles or more to obtain abortion care, a number that will only increase due to the overturning of Roe.

When it comes to covering travel expenses, staying in the dark may be a company's best option. As an employer, you don't need to ask why an employee seeks medical travel, whether for an abortion or heart surgery. Assuming you have proof that travel or other expenses are medically related, you can have a reimbursement policy in place that covers expenses without requiring specifics.

The risk is that by doing so you might end up covering medical travel costs for services other than abortion. So if this is your policy, you have to be ready for anything. An employee could file a discrimination lawsuit under the American's With Disabilities Act on the basis that some employees are able to receive travel incentives for certain medical conditions and not others.

One way to restrain costs is to set up a Health Reimbursement Arrangement to support eligible expenses. With this arrangement, an employer can allot a set amount of money for employees to use on medical expenses they choose, in a tax-advantaged account-based health plan. That plan can include expenses such as travel, accommodation, meals, and lodging. Companies can also cover the costs of a legal abortion procedure (in a state where it remains legal) through the funds.

See if abortions are covered under your health insurance plan.

Whether your employees are able to access reproductive care through their insurance depends largely on their benefits package and whether your company offers fully insured or self-funded plans.

Companies with self-funded plans administered by third-party insurers can decide what they choose to cover. In that case, simply contact your health care representative. Many businesses are unaware that they already have it as part of their plans or that they can ask for it, Laurie Sobel, associate director for women's health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on health care, told Inc.

If your company has a fully-insured health insurance plan, which most small businesses are, it gets a little more complicated. Fully-insured health plans are subject to state insurance regulations, so employees won't have access to abortion care if the procedure is outlawed. Additionally, 10 states currently restrict insurance companies from covering abortion in state-regulated private plans; and nine of those 10 states permit abortion riders, or optional coverage features you can add to your life insurance policy for an additional cost.

However, four states--Arkansas, Ohio, West Virginia, and Utah--that now mostly ban abortions also require health insurances to cover fertility benefits, says Kathryn Bakich, the National Health Compliance Practice Leader at Segal, the employee benefits consulting firm. How employers navigate coverage in those states is still relatively unknown.

You can also pay for the procedure out of pocket. The median patient charge for an abortion from 2017 to 2020 was $560; it has since increased to $575 for abortions performed during the first-trimester and $895 during the second-trimester, according to an April 2022 study published in Health Affairs.

Know the state-specific laws; watch out for additional legislation.

Keep in mind that business owners need to stay up-to-date on additional restrictions such as aiding and abetting laws. These laws, such as those in Texas, allow individuals to sue anyone--even an Uber driver--for helping others get abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy, and they may be tricky to get around. Which is again, another reason to stay in the dark when it comes to covering costs.

There is also a Republican effort to create a nationwide ban on abortion travel, which is largely dependent on whether the Commerce Clause of the Constitution can be used to restrict people from crossing states lines to get abortions. That clause, granting Congress the right to regulate interstate commerce, is a potential tool for triggering something akin to a ban on abortion travel. Congress could, say, outlaw interstate travel for the purpose of performing an abortion, or obtaining one. Such legislation is likely to be upheld given the overturning of Roe, Seth Chandler, professor of law foundation at the University of Houston Law Center, told Inc. Of course, getting that passed in the current Democratically controlled Congress may be challenging.
On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to an abortion in its Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision.

This decision marks the end of 49 years of legal precedent for abortion access, which began with the Roe v. Wade decision, passed in 1973. After the court released its response Friday morning--which has been anticipated for weeks--entrepreneurs responded by voicing their own dissent.

Some founders have shared how they will continue to support their employee's access to an abortion, in spite of SCOTUS's decision. "In light of today's devastating Supreme Court decision surrounding Roe v. Wade, it's clear that the responsibility to uphold women's reproductive rights in this country falls increasingly on the private sector," says Alina Vandenberghe, co-founder and co-CEO of the remote, New York City-headquartered software company, Chili Piper, which has employees worldwide. Chili Piper has instituted a policy that will pay for temporary relocation, as well as all healthcare costs for any employees needing access to reproductive care in states that refuse to provide it, Vandenberghe shared.

Some large companies including Yelp, Salesforce, Citigroup, and Bumble have instituted similar plans, though there are some legal restrictions that businesses should carefully navigate. In January, after legal decisions in Texas and Mississippi restricted abortion access in those states, the New York City-based financial services company Alloy released a new policy, in addition to its typical healthcare benefits, to provide financial support for employees facing reduced abortion access. Legal expenses related to anti-abortion laws covered up to 50 percent, and they will receive $1,500 toward travel expenses for procedures taking them out of state. The company also provides $1,500 to cover out-of-pocket medical costs, co-founder Laura Spiekerman shared in a statement.

Kiki Freedman, CEO and founder of the Los Angeles-based medical abortion provider Hey Jane released a statement condemning the court's decision: "While this is a devastating blow to people across the country, especially Black and Brown people, low-income people, and young people, as a telemedicine provider of safe and effective medication abortion, Hey Jane will continue treating patients and providing high-quality abortion access." Hey Jane currently operates in six states: California, Colorado, Illinois, New Mexico, New York, and Washington. For people outside of these states, Hey Jane recommends the non-profit Plan C, which helps people in states that don't allow telehealth abortion to access abortion pills through workarounds like online pharmacies and mail forwarding.

The Roe v. Wade decision has implications for fertility-focused companies, too, notes Halle Tecco, founder of the fertility and pregnancy supplement company Natalist, which was acquired by Everly Health in 2021. In a statement she shared on social media, Tecco explained how SCOTUS's ruling may impact fertility treatments like IVF: "personhood laws," which proposed to give rights to fertilized eggs, were unconstitutional under Roe. After this decision, states may enact those laws. If fertilized eggs are considered legal humans, anything that puts them at risk may be considered a criminal violation. As a result, the decision can have serious consequences for fertility doctors, embryologists, and families seeking fertility care, Tecco explained.

Other entrepreneurs have taken to social media to share resources and information in the wake of the decision. Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code and the Marshall Plan for Moms shared a statement on Instagram, and pointed her followers towards actions they can take, including donating to abortion funds, referring people in need of abortions to the abortion-access resource ineedana.com, and educating themselves on medical abortion pills.

More than 330 business leaders, including Rent the Runway's Jennifer Hyman, have also signed the Don't Ban Equality statement, which was first created in 2019 in response to increased restrictions on reproductive healthcare. The statement affirms that businesses believe abortion bans "go against their company values and negatively affect efforts to promote equality in the workplace, putting businesses, communities, and the economy at risk."

Hyman adds: "We believe that reproductive rights are healthcare and we support equal access to healthcare." Rent the Runway, the entrepreneur affirms, will offer employees consistent access to healthcare benefits regardless of where they live. The company also covers the cost of traveling for access to any approved medical procedure, should that procedure not be available in the employee's state of residence.
Launches a consultation on the potential reclassification of the MSCI Nigeria Indexes from Frontier to Standalone Markets status

Notes the evolution of clearing and settlement cycles across global markets

Continues to monitor the market accessibility of the Sri Lankan equity market

Reminds of the ongoing restrictions impacting the accessibility of the Russian equity market

MSCI Inc. (NYSE: MSCI), a leading provider of critical decision support tools and services for the global investment community, announced today the results of the MSCI 2022 Market Classification Review.

A significant portion of the deteriorations in market accessibility ratings during this years review were caused by the negative developments in Russia, which led to a complete inaccessibility of its equity market to international institutional investors. This resulted in the reclassification of the MSCI Russia Indexes from Emerging Markets to Standalone Market status in March 2022, said Dr. Dimitris Melas, Global Head of Index Research and Product Development and Chairman of the MSCI Index Policy Committee.

Consultation on Potential Reclassification of the MSCI Nigeria Indexes to Standalone Markets Status

MSCI announced today the launch of a consultation on a proposal for potential reclassification of the MSCI Nigeria Indexes from Frontier Markets to Standalone Markets status.

Since March 2020, accessibility issues have persisted in the Nigerian equity market. The repatriation of funds from investments in the market remains extremely difficult for foreign investors due to low liquidity in the Nigerian foreign exchange market. As a result, market participants have continuously expressed concerns related to the investability and replicability of the MSCI Nigeria Indexes.

There has been a continual and severe deterioration in the ability to repatriate funds from Nigeria. As a result, since May 2020, a special treatment has been in place to reduce the number of potential changes in the relevant MSCI Equity Indexes, said Mr. Craig Feldman, Global Head of Index Management Research and member of the MSCI Index Policy Committee. Given the prolonged nature of the issues affecting the markets accessibility, we have put forth the consultation to reclassify the MSCI Nigeria Indexes from Frontier Markets to Standalone Markets status.

MSCI welcomes feedback from market participants on this reclassification proposal until August 31, 2022.

Recent Developments in Securities Settlement Cycles

In 2022, India began transitioning its settlement cycle from T+2 to T+1. Additionally, both the US and Canada announced last year their proposals to migrate to a shorter settlement cycle, from T+2 to T+1.

Across selected equity markets, we have been observing that clearing and settlement mechanisms are transitioning towards shorter cycles, said Mr. Feldman. While in principle, investors may benefit from shorter settlement cycles, it is important to assess whether the ramifications of such changes introduce any obstacles such as pre-funding requirements or additional operational costs.

MSCI continues to closely monitor these developments and their potential impact and will release further communications as warranted.

Market Accessibility in Sri Lanka

Amidst the ongoing economic crisis in Sri Lanka, and as a result of a lack of liquidity in the foreign exchange market, fund repatriation issues in the countrys equity market began to emerge this year. In response to these developments, in May 2022, MSCI introduced a special treatment to reduce the number of potential changes in the MSCI Sri Lanka Indexes.

MSCI continues to welcome feedback on the level of market accessibility of the Sri Lankan equity market and will consult with market participants to gather feedback if there are any further developments.

Deterioration in the Market Accessibility of the Russian Equity Market

A number of significant developments have led to a material deterioration in the accessibility of the Russian equity market. These included sanctions from several jurisdictions, restrictions on foreign investors ability to transact in securities on the Moscow Stock Exchange, and deterioration in the convertibility of the Russian Ruble into foreign currencies.

As a result, and following a consultation with the international investment community, MSCI reclassified the MSCI Russia Indexes from Emerging Markets to Standalone Markets status in March 2022.

MSCI will continue to monitor the developments in the Russian equity markets accessibility and will consult with market participants if there are any relevant changes in the markets conditions.

-Ends-

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The new vehicle evaluation program, Bharat NCAP, according to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday, proposes a system wherein vehicles in India would receive "Star Ratings" depending on how well they do in crash testing.

In a series of tweets, Gadkari claimed that the Bharat New Car Assessment Programme (Bharat NCAP) will act as a platform focused on the needs of consumers, allowing customers to choose safer cars based on their Star Ratings and encouraging original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in India to produce safer cars.

I now approve the draught GSR notification to launch Bharat NCAP (New Car Assessment Program), which would assign star ratings to cars in India depending on how well they perform in crash testing, the official added.

The Minister of Road Transport and Highways emphasized the need for Star Ratings for Indian automobiles based on crash testing, not only to assure passenger and structural safety but also to improve the export-worthiness of Indian automobiles.

According to Gadkari, the Bharat NCAP testing process would be in line with international crash-test methods while taking into account current Indian rules, allowing OEMs to have their cars evaluated at India's own in-house testing facilities.

According to him, Bharat NCAP would prove to be a crucial tool in developing our automotive sector and achieving our goal of making India the world's leading car center.
Lind Jensen Machinery (LJM), a manufacturer of hydraulic cylinders in Denmark, has leased 50,000 square feet of warehouse space from Chennai industrial park developer IndoSpace.

By adding LJM, IndoSpace has increased the number of tenants it has. According to a statement from IndoSpace, the business will establish its first facility in India at Oragadam II in Chennai, where it will make a hydraulic pitch, lock cylinders, and accumulators for the wind turbine sector.

Next month, the facility is anticipated to be operational. After China, it will be LJM's second production facility in Asia, the company announced. LJM intends to provide components for the wind energy industry in order to serve both domestic and foreign markets. According to IndoSpace, the initiative has already attracted a 2 million euro investment.

IndoSpace is the largest developer and owner of Grade A industrial real estate and logistics parks in the nation. It is jointly marketed by Everstone Group LLP, GLP, and Realterm. With 15 Grade A industrial and logistics parks spread out throughout the primary industrial area, IndoSpace has a significant presence in Tamil Nadu.

Given the long-term potential, not just in the wind turbine segment but also in other sectors, we see a tremendous chance to set up the unit here. According to Martin Anderson, CEO of LJM, this is the ideal moment for us to be here and we are certain that India will eventually become a center for exports to places like North America, South America, and Europe. In 10 locations, IndoSpace has a network of 44 logistics parks totaling 49 million square feet in completed and ongoing construction.
According to a government official who spoke to CNBC-TV18 on June 24, the government may own a 33 % share in the financially troubled cellular provider Vodafone Idea. Once Vodafone Idea's balance sheet improves, the government will reduce its stock investment in the firm, according to sources speaking to CNBC-TV18.

The final permission from capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is sought before the interest payments of Vodafone Idea worth Rs 16,000 crore be converted into government equity.

The government's investment in Vodafone Idea falls under public ownership, not promoter ownership. According to CNBC-TV18 sources, no government candidates would be given a board seat following a 33 percent ownership stake in Vodafone Idea.

According to the official speaking to CNBC-TV18, the government is confident in the turnaround and would act as a silent investor in Vodafone's Idea.

The government had previously agreed to Vodafone Idea's plan to convert over Rs 16,000 crore in interest payments that were past due from a prior AGR moratorium into approximately 33 percent of the firm.

In terms of adjusted gross income up to the financial year 201819, telecom providers owe the government more than Rs 1.65 lakh crore. According to a recent assessment, the AGR liability for Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea, Reliance Jio, BSNL, and MTNL up to the financial year 201819 was Rs 31,280 crore, Rs 59,236.63 crore, Rs 631 crore, and Rs 5,009.1 crore.

In a legal filing with the stock markets, Vodafone Idea stated that its board had authorized financing Rs 436.21 crore from Vodafone Group firm Euro Pacific Securities through the issuance of preferred shares at a unit price of Rs 10.2 each or warrants at the same price.
Macrotech Developers Limited has announced its entry into the Bengaluru housing market after completing a detailed evaluation which was ongoing for last 9 months. The key drivers of the decision are:

Fragmented market with top 5 players having market share of around 30%

Steady volumes of end use demand

Importance of the tech industry to the Indian economy and Bengaluru's position as the core hub for technology in India.

The company will focus on gradual growth in the Bengaluru market with following core principles:

Capital light joint development model.

Focus on profitable growth

Creating local capability with a dedicated team based in Bengaluru

To take forward this journey, the company has recruited Rajendra Joshi as CEO for the Bengaluru market. Joshi last served as head of residential business for Brigade group and prior to that, has worked with various developers including Mahindra Lifespaces.



The company's first project in Bengaluru has been signed through the JDA route by acquiring 100% equity shares of a company namely G Corp Homes Private Limited and is located adjacent to Manyata Tech Park. The project has GDV potential of ~Rs1200 crore and saleable area of ~1.3 million sq. ft. Project launch is expected in next 6-12 months.



The entry into Bengaluru does not change the debt reduction guidance for FY23. Bengaluru will be the third housing market where Lodha residential developments will be available for the consumers thereby covering nearly 2/3" (by value) of the housing market of top-7 Indian cities.



This follows the company's successful expansion in Pune where it now has two operating projects and several more to be launched in FY23. On the back of strong underlying housing demand as well as consolidation in the industry, the company expects to grow its pre-sales by over 20% CAGR in the medium term. Entry into Bengaluru market will be one of the drivers of sustainable, low-risk growth.



At around 11:12 AM, Macrotech Developers was trading at Rs1012.50 per share higher by 0.73% on the BSE.
Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) and Suzuki Motor Corporation (Suzuki) signed a memorandum of understanding for a business alliance in 2017. Since then, the two companies have been bringing together Toyotas strength in electrification technologies and Suzukis strength in technologies for compact vehicles for joint collaboration in production and in the widespread popularization of electrified vehicles.Toyota and Suzuki are promoting mutual supply of vehicles globally, which is one of the collaborations in the business partnership, and the two companies will now start production of a new SUV model developed by Suzuki at Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd. (TKM) from August. Maruti Suzuki India Limited and TKM will market the new model in India as Suzuki and Toyota models, respectively. Furthermore, the two companies are planning to export the new model to markets outside India including Africa.The powertrains of the new model to be on sale in India, will be equipped with mild hybrid developed by Suzuki and strong hybrid developed by Toyota. By bringing together strengths of both Toyota and Suzuki through the collaboration, the two companies will be able to provide a wide variety of vehicle electrification technologies to customers and contribute to the acceleration of electrification and the realization of a carbonneutral society in IndiaIncluding investment in expansion of collaboration in India, Toyota and Suzuki will remain committed to the achievement of the Make in India initiative promoted by the Indian government, and contribute to sustainable economic growth and to the vision of achieving net zero GHG emissions by 2070.Toyota President Akio Toyoda said: We are pleased to announce the new SUV with Suzuki, a company that has a long history of local involvement in the Indian business. Today, the automotive industry is facing various challenges such as electrification and carbon neutrality.By leveraging the respective strengths of Toyota and Suzuki to provide Indian customers with a variety of options, we hope to contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions and realize a society where no-one is left behind and everyone can move freely."Suzuki President Toshihiro Suzuki said: Production of the new SUV at TKM is a project that can contribute to the growth of India through providing eco-friendly mobility needed by customers. We recognize that it is a big milestone toward further deepening our collaboration in the future. We appreciate the support from Toyota, and at the same time, will explore new synergy and business opportunities through continuous collaboration.At around 11:39 AM, Maruti Suzuki India was trading at Rs8,281.25 per share up by Rs6.65 or 0.08% from its previous closing of Rs8,274.60 per share on the BSE.
On June 24th, Judge Penney Azcarate filed a judgment order finalizing the jury verdict previously reached in the Johnny Depp v Amber Heard trial.



After failing to negotiate a last-minute agreement on Friday, Johnny Depp's and Amber Heard's attorneys now face the possibility of a long and expensive appeals process.

Agencies

To jog your memory, on June 1, a Virginia jury ruled Ms. Heard defamed her former husband, Mr. Depp. The verdict effectively ended a six-week-long, highly-publicized trial.

Twitter

Additionally, it made decisions in Ms. Heard's favor in some parts of her countersuit against Mr. Depp.

The jury ruled that Mr. Depp had proven all three allegations against Ms. Heard and awarded him $15 million in damages. Due to state legal limitations, the amount was reduced to $10.35m.



Reuters

The hearing took place on Friday at 11 a.m. ET and went for roughly an hour. The actors were not required to be present in the courtroom.



Is this the end of the Depp-Heard feud?

AFP

According to attorney Lisa Bloom, the Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard trial is still underway and will probably go to appeal.

Amber Heard will be bound to pay the full $10.35 million judgment against her as a bail along with $480,000 in interest if she chooses to file an appeal.



Reuters

Following the verdict in the defamation case, Ms. Bloom spoke to BBC Newsnight on behalf of her clients, who also included Janice Dickinson (in her allegations against Bill Cosby), actor Mischa Barton (in a revenge porn lawsuit), and Harvey Weinstein (for whom Ms. Bloom served as an early advisor before resigning).



Reuters

In the case pitting Mr. Depp and Ms. Heard against one another in Fairfax, Virginia, jurors decided on Wednesday (1 June) that they had reached a verdict.

Agencies

They concluded that Ms. Heard had slandered Mr. Depp on three occasions and had herself been the victim of defamation is one of the three statements at the center of her countersuit. Mr. Depp was awarded $10.35 million in damages, while Ms. Heard was awarded $2 million.



Reuters

"I want to emphasize that this is not the end because most defamation cases are decided on appeal," Ms. Bloom told Newsnight, adding that she sees "a lot of issues on appeal" in the Depp v Heard case.



The Fairfax County Court has published Judge Azcarate's decision, reflecting the verdict made by the Jury on June 1.

Agencies

The decision is final. It also includes the complete verdict forms, which the jury used to convey its judgment on June 1st. The document is accessible online here.



(To get the latest updates from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment.)
On February 24, when Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to march into Ukraine for what he called a special military operation, many including Russia and some western governments estimated it to be a short affair.

Given how outnumbered and outgunned Ukraine were as compared to Russia, many did not even give them a chance.

AFP

Momentum swinging between Russia and Ukraine

But Ukraine has proven everyone wrong and the war has now stretched into its fifth month.

The war so far had its fair share of twists and turns, with the momentum shifting between the two sides.

In the initial days when Russia made it look like an easy task and even scared the world with its viral images and videos of a massive convoy stretching kilometers.

Reuters

However, this itself proved to be Russia's weakness in the war as the massive convoy which consisted of conscripts fast ran out of food, fuel, and other supplies, making them sitting ducks for the Ukrainian forces.

Ukrainians also took to social media to show how the invading forces are struggling including by towing away abandoned Russian tanks with tractors.

Backed by air, ground and navy fleets, Russians initially made some grounds and captured many areas.

AFP

But they could not hold on to them and were forced to leave Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy, leaving behind a trail of shocking destruction and alleged genocide.

Russia had to wait till May to capture Mariupol, the first major city to fall and the persistent bombing reduced it to a pile of rubble.

Russia in firm control of the war

After the initial setbacks, Russia regrouped and set its targets around Donbas instead of trying to capture Kyiv and overthrow the government.

This seems to have paid off as the Russian forces are poised to take control of Sievierodonetsk.

The battle is key for Russia to establish control over the last remaining Ukrainian-held sliver of Luhansk province, which along with Donetsk makes up the Donbas region, Ukraine's industrial heartland.

AFP

Sievierodonetsk's fall in a matter of when

Sievierodonetsk's fall would leave only Lysychansk - its sister city on the western bank of the Siverskyi Donets River - remaining in Ukrainian hands.

The fall of Sievierodonetsk is looking inevitable and according to a regional governor, Ukrainian forces have been asked to leave the city.

Though Ukraine has lost nearly one-fifth of its land to Russia, they are not yet ready to give up the fight.

Backed by arms and financial support of US, EU and UK, Ukraine still believes that if they can drag the war for a few more months, they can still turn their fortunes around.

For more on news, sports and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.
It takes some people years of hard work to reach goals, but for some, it's sheer luck. However, there are others like 59-year-old Dharambir Kamboj, whose life is a combination of both - hardships and a touch of luck!

Dharamveer Singh Kamboj has an extravagant rag-to-riches story, and it is all about perseverance which has made him a farmer-entrepreneur who now earns lakhs, annually.

Dharambir Kamboj, an innovator who encountered many hurdles on his road to success, life is all about winning over your weaknesses and continuing hard work. This multifaceted innovator wears many hats. Kamboj is best known for his multipurpose processing machine that enables farmers to process various farm products on a domestic level.

Who is Dharambir Kamboj?

Dharamveer Kamboj innovator of Multipurpose Food Processing Machine | Facebook

Born in 1963, Dharambir Kamboj belongs to Damla Village in Haryana. He was the youngest amongst five siblings. During his early teens, Dharambir was forced to stop studying to provide financial support to his family. Dharambir Kamboj, who struggled to meet basic ends at one time is now selling his patented machines to 15 countries and earns lakhs of money annually.

From rags to riches

In the early 80s, Dharambir Kamboj was among the thousands who left their villages and moved to Delhi in search of a better livelihood. Without a degree, his efforts were in vain, and he took up odd jobs to feed himself.

Dharamveer Kamboj innovator of Multipurpose Food Processing Machine | Facebook

After spending a year as a cycle rickshaw puller in Delhi, Dharambir found solace in a public library near the Old Delhi railway station. During his free time, he would read up on farming-related subjects like growing different types of exotic crops like broccoli, asparagus, lettuce, and bell peppers. According to him, Delhi was a learning experience for him. But after an accident in Delhi, he moved back to his native village in Haryana.

Once he recovered from his accident injuries, he decided to stay back in his village. He attended a training program in the village development society to learn more about improving agricultural practices for six months.

In 2004, he got an opportunity to visit Rajasthan through the Horticulture Department of Haryana. During the visit, Dharambir interacted with farmers to learn about the Aloe Vera crop & its extracts for obtaining medicinal value products.

Dharamveer Kamboj innovator of Multipurpose Food Processing Machine | Facebook

After returning to his Rajasthan visit, Dharambir was looking for ways to market the aloe vera and other processed products as lucrative ventures. In 2002, he met with a bank manager, who educated him about machinery required for processing food products, but quoted Rs 5 lakh for machines.

In his interview, Dharambir said that The pricing of the machine was exorbitant but, I didnt give up on the thought of developing machine-in-house. After an investment of Rs 25,000 & an effort of over eight months, my first prototype of Multipurpose Processing Machine was out.

Multi-Purpose Machine

Kamboj's multi-purpose machine is a portable machine which works on a single-phase motor and is useful in processing various fruits, herbs and seeds. It also works like a big pressure cooker with temperature control and an auto-cut-off facility.

The machine has a capacity of 400 liters. It can process 200 liters of aloe vera in an hour. The machine can be transported from one place to another easily and works on a single motor. It is a first-of-its-kind machine that can perform pulverising, mixing, steaming, pressure-cooking and juice/ oil/ gel extracting  all of these functions alone.

Awards & Recognition

Dharamveer Kamboj innovator of Multipurpose Food Processing Machine | Facebook

Dharambir's Multipurpose Processing Machine has gained widespread recognition. He also got a patent for this machine from the National Innovation Foundation.

Dharambir Kamboj sells these machines across 15 countries like the United States, Italy, Nepal, Australia, Kenya, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Uganda.

For his innovation of the multipurpose processing machine, NIF gave him the Haryana State award in its Fifth National Biennial Awards function in 2009.

Dharambir once said, "When I started my experiments, people used to tease me. They never took me seriously. Even my father thought that I was just wasting my time when I was working hard and carrying out various experiments."

His biggest assets were positive thinking, hard work and a desire to learn.

Sangharsh hi sabse badi kaamyaabi hai. Agar badhna hai to peeche mud kar nahi dekhna hai. (The capacity to struggle itself is a big effort. There is no looking back if one has to keep on moving forward) - Dharambir Kamboj said.

Despite facing criticism for his innovation, Dharambir is an inspiration for millions.

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Two Dutch lawmakers are reportedly proposing legislation to establish work-from-home as a legal right. This would make the Netherlands one of the first countries to grant remote working flexibility by law, as per a Bloomberg report.



The legislation will be introduced by Steven van Weyenberg, a member of the pro-European D-66 Party, and Senna Maatoug, a lawmaker for the Green Party, Weyenberg told Bloomberg on Wednesday (22nd June). The two Dutch lawmakers will submit the proposal to parliament before the house enters summer recess on July 3rd 2022.



We have the green light for this new law thanks to the support we received from both employees and employers unions, said Weyenberg. We are very hopeful it will pass before the summer.



Amidst this push to make work from home a legal right, it is noteworthy that the Netherlands already has the shortest average work week, with the Dutch working an average of 29.5 hours per week, as per OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). It is an intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries, that aimed to stimulate economic progress and world trade.



Earlier in April 2022, tech giant Dell had reportedly offered some of its staff in the Netherlands the option of a 4-day work week as part of a trial aimed at offering more flexible arrangements for employees.

Now it remains to be seen whether the proposal to make work from home a legal right goes through or not in the Netherlands.



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The Bloomberg report stated that the covid pandemic has fueled a shift in attitudes about work, with many workers seeking to maintain some of the flexibility theyve enjoyed over the last two years. But with companies seeking to respond to surging demand as the pandemic recedes, the topic is becoming an increasingly polarizing issue.



Earlier this month, Tesla CEO Elon Musk had issued an ultimatum for staff at the company to return to the office or quit. He had even announced a 10% staff layoff, which was confirmed by some employees on LinkedIn.



Also Read: Move Over Cash & Crypto, This London-based Firm Will Pay Employees Salary In Gold!

Other Countries Steps Towards 4-Day Work Week

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The 4 day work week culture has also begun to pace up across the globe. Earlier this month, the worlds biggest trial of a four-day work week had kicked off in the UK, with more than 70 companies and 3,300 employees participating. Thousands of workers across different sectors of the UK economy had signed up for this project to work for four days a week, while still receiving full pay.



Another country put forth four-day work week plans. Scotlands public sector workers were set to be offered a 4-day week but in exchange for pay cuts. This has been reported as an attempt to tackle a soaring taxpayer-funded pay bill.

As expected, the plan to cut pay in exchange for a reduced work week had provoked a backlash from campaigners and trade unions, who believe working fewer hours would lead to increases in productivity and that employees should not have to accept reduced salaries.

And as recently as this week, a new study by American experience management company Qualtrics revealed that 60% of employees in India prefer flexibility at work over a four-day work week.

For the latest and interesting financial news, keep reading Indiatimes Worth. Click here.


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A federal jury has awarded $650,000 in damages to a Massachusetts construction worker who said his employer retaliated against him after he was injured on the job by sparking an immigration investigation that led to his arrest.

The jury on Tuesday ordered Tara Construction to pay $50,000 in compensatory damages for emotional distress and the company and its owner to pay a total of $600,000 in punitive damages to Jose Martin Paz Flores, who is referred to as Paz in court documents.

The Trump Administrations Department of Labor sued on behalf of Paz in March 2019, alleging the company and owner Pedro Pirez retaliated against him in violation of federal law.

Even though Paz was allegedly in the U.S. illegally, federal labor law prohibits retaliation against employees for exercising their workplace rights, regardless of immigration status, the agency said.

Paz, a drywall taper, broke his leg when he fell off a ladder in March 2017, according to court records.

Pirez contacted Boston police, who with the help of federal immigration officials, initiated an investigation into Paz. About two months after the injury, Pirez asked Paz to come to his office to pick up some money, where he was arrested, according to court records.

Pirez was concerned because there was some confusion over Pazs name and didnt envision the arrest, his lawyer said Wednesday, noting that his client is also a Latino immigrant who cares deeply for people in Mr. Pazs situation.

He needed to know Pazs real name because the hospital was pressing for information, and he never foresaw what would ensue, Daniel Dwyer said in a statement. Later, ICE discovered information on its own that led to its decision to arrest.

Pirez feels he was misjudged by the jury and is considering an appeal, Dwyer said.

The case, heard in federal district court in Boston, is Acosta v. Tara Construction Inc. and Pedro Pirez.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Construction
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An independent insurance agency in Millinocket, Maine has lost three of its carrier partners and continues to face backlash on social media and in its community after posting a racially-charged sign on its door on Monday, the Juneteenth holiday.

Juneteenth ~its whatever Were closed. Enjoy your fried chicken & collard greens, stated the sign that was taped to the front door of Harry E. Reed Insurance Agency in Millinocket on Monday.

Juneteenth celebrates the freeing of Black slaves in the U.S. On June 19 in 1865, Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, to inform more than 250,000 enslaved Blacks in the state that they were finally free. The day is a federal holiday and, as of this year, also a state holiday in Maine.

According to the Bangor Daily News and numerous other media outlets, three insurers Progressive, Allstate and MMG Insurance have cancelled their contracts with the agency since being informed of the sign. National Public Radio also reported on insurer cancellations. The insurers said the sign is inconsistent with their values and codes of conduct.

MMG Insurance confirmed with Insurance Journal that it terminated the agencys contract.

Melanie Higgins, the agency employee who posted the sign, issued an apology on Facebook. She said she was sorry for any pain her sign caused and for the negative attention it has brought to her community and the agency. She said she is herself multiracial and is not a racist. She said she has frequently posted signs where she tries to make people smile by using humor, often about herself and about food. She stressed that the owner of the agency had nothing to do with the sign and she hoped people would not chastise the owner because of what she did.

Also several other agencies in the state and as far away as California that have Reed in their names said they are also facing backlash as the public is confusing them with the Millinocket agency.

The carriers issued statements on the incident and why they cancelled their contracts with the Maine agency.

Were committed to creating an environment where our people feel welcomed, valued and respected and expect that anyone representing Progressive to take part in this commitment, the statement from Progressive said. The sign is in direct violation of that commitment and doesnt align with our companys Core Values and Code of Conduct.

Allstate posted on Twitter: We terminated our contract with this independent agent. Our commitment to Inclusive Diversity and Equity is non-negotiable and we take action when individuals violate our code of conduct.

Larry M. Shaw, president and CEO of regional carrier MMG Insurance, posted a message on the companys website. At MMG Insurance, we believe in equity. We fully support that all people must be treated equally regardless of race, gender, religion, and sexual orientation. These values, in part, guide how we treat our workforce, interact with our Agents, and deliver on our promise to protect our Policyholders. The tragic events that transpired recently have caused a need for us to speak up and reaffirm our conviction, Shaw wrote in part.

The chairman of the town council in Millinocket also criticized the sign in a statement on Facebook. It is deeply saddening, disgraceful and unacceptable for any person, business, or organization to attempt to make light of Juneteenth and what it represents for millions of slaves and their living descendants. There is no place in the town of Millinocket for such a blatant disregard of human decency, Steve Golieb said in the statement.

Topics Carriers Maine
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New Yorks financial services regulator has fined Carnival Corp. $5 million for violations of the states cybersecurity regulations that the state says caused four cyber breaches and the exposure of personal data belonging to its customers, including New York consumers. The company has also surrendered its travel insurance licenses, according to the consent order.

The Department of Financial Services said its investigation uncovered evidence that the Carnival companies had been the subject of four cybersecurity events between 2019 and 2021, including two ransomware attacks. These events involved the unauthorized access of the companies information systems. According to DFS, the companies violated the DFS cybersecurity regulations by failing to implement multi-factor authentication, failing to promptly report the first cybersecurity event, and failing to conduct adequate cybersecurity training for the companies personnel.

At the time of the incidents, the Carnival Companies were licensed insurance producers in New York state, sold various travel insurance products, and thus were subject to DFSs cybersecurity regulation, according to the department. In connection with the settlement, the Carnival Companies surrendered the insurance producer licenses. As a result, the companies have ceased selling insurance in the state.

Carnival Corp. operates Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, Seabourn Cruise Line, and Costa Cruise Lines.

A data breach exposing personal data allows bad actors to, among other things, commit identity theft, which can have significant repercussions on an individuals financial health. It is critical that companies take appropriate action to protect consumers personal information, said DFS Superintendent Adrienne A. Harris.

The DFS cybersecurity regulation became effective in March 2017.

Topics Cyber New York Data Driven
U.S. based global insurance broker Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. reports it has purchased Wexford, Ireland-based INNOVU Group Holding Co. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded by Ronan Foley in 2018, INNOVU Insurance is a retail insurance broker offering commercial and personal insurance, as well as other financial services, from seven offices throughout Ireland.

The company said Foley and his associates will continue to operate from their current locations, reporting to Michael Rea, who runs Gallaghers retail property/casualty brokerage operations in the UK and Ireland.

J. Patrick Gallagher, Jr., president and CEO, said the deal gives his firm its first on-the-ground presence in Ireland and a fantastic opportunity to expand in this growing economic region.

Gallagher provides insurance brokerage, risk management and consulting services in 130 countries.

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions A.J. Gallagher
Canadas Brookfield Asset Management said on Wednesday it had raised $15 billion for its first impact fund focused on the global transition to a net-zero carbon economy.

The fundraise comes at a time when investors and lawmakers across the globe have been questioning businesses about their environmental and social impact amid calls for companies to lower their greenhouse gas emissions.

In the first five months of this year investors added $7.5 billion to U.S. sustainable funds including those focused on environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations, after putting a record $69.2 billion of net new deposits into such funds in 2021.

The Brookfield Global Transition Fund will target investments tied to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption, the company said.

Brookfield said the fund, in which it is the biggest investor, drew commitments from over 100 others, including sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies as well as public and private pension plans.

The fund has already deployed around $2.5 billion of capital, Brookfield said.

The fund will also focus on other sustainable investment opportunities, including those related to increasing low-carbon energy capacity, Brookfield added.

Our investment partners are looking for an experienced investor who can guide their contribution to what is both a critical requirement and a major global opportunity, said Connor Teskey, who co-heads the fund along with Mark Carney, Brookfields head of transition investing and a former governor of the Bank of England.

Brookfield Asset Management has $725 billion in assets under management, including $65 billion in its renewable power business, which is overseen by Teskey.

(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru and by Cole Horton in New York; Editing by Amy Caren Daniel and Marguerita Choy)

Topics Carriers Canada Funding
A hotel was among several businesses damaged as a fire swept through part of the downtown of a northern Oakland County, Michigan, village.

Dozens of firefighters from area departments battled the blaze which started about 4 p.m. Tuesday in Holly, about 53 miles northwest of Detroit.

About a half-dozen people, including five firefighters, required medical treatment due to the heat from the flames and hot weather as temperatures Tuesday topped 90 degrees.

The fire appears to have started near a building that housed an antiques and collectibles shop.

Jon Ruthenbeck, a member of the Oakland County Incident Management Team, told The Detroit News that about a half-dozen structures suffered flame or smoke damage.

Among those damaged were the Holly Hotel, a bar and grill and the Holly Moose Lodge.

This is every small villages worst nightmare, to have a fire in your historic downtown, Holly Village Manager Jerry Walker told WJRT-TV. The buildings that were all affected, theyre all 1800s buildings, as old as 1850.

The cause of the fire was under investigation Wednesday.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Michigan
A volunteer firefighter who was injured while fighting a blaze in Pleasanton, Kansas, earlier this week has died, officials said.

Joshua Haynes, 35, was injured Monday during a fire at the Carpenter Chiropractor Clinic.

He was flown to the University of Kansas Hospital, where he died Wednesday, KSHB-TV reported.

Haynes, who left behind three children, volunteered for the Linn County rural fire district.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says the preliminary investigation found no evidence of foul play.

Pleasanton is about 70 miles south of Kansas City.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Kansas
Acrisure, a fintech company that runs a global insurance broker, announced that it has acquired Columbus, Ohio-based QuickInsured, a tech-centered insurance agency.

Acrisure will now have use of QuickInsureds proprietary digital sales funnel, which customizes insurance offerings for customers, and will work with Acrisures real estate transactions, Acrisure officials said in a news release.

Acrisure, based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has grown by 10-fold in the last eight years, now with $3.5 billion in revenue. QuickInsured notes that it writes home, auto and business coverage from a number of national property insurers. Jerry Batt is CEO.

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Ohio
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Attorney Greg Gordon sat before a packed hotel ballroom of bankruptcy lawyers who had come to hear him hold court on his pioneering strategy for companies seeking to dodge billion-dollar lawsuits: the Texas two-step.

The tactic has made the Jones Day partner a polarizing figure. It involves splitting a company in two, dumping the legal liability into one of the entities, and then putting that new firm into bankruptcy. Companies love it. Plaintiffs attorneys hate it. Judges so far seem split on it.

Gordon, grinning at his audience, made a bold claim about his maneuver, which he contends benefits both companies and plaintiffs. The two-step, he said, is the greatest innovation in the history of bankruptcy.

The remark prompted laughter at the April bankruptcy conference in Washington. But the two-step is no joke: Gordons innovation could radically reshape corporate liability law, legal scholars say, by allowing companies to easily divert any lawsuits against them into bankruptcy court  without filing for bankruptcy themselves.

Gordon has executed the maneuver for four major companies since 2017: Georgia-Pacific, Saint-Gobain, Trane Technologies and Johnson & Johnson. Each faced tens of thousands of lawsuits alleging their products caused cancer and potentially billions of dollars in liability.

And all got the suits suspended by following Gordons two-step playbook: First, create a subsidiary to take on liability for the cases. Second, have that subsidiary quickly file for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy code  converting the plaintiffs into creditors and forcing them to seek settlements in bankruptcy court.

The upshot for the parent companies: all the benefits of bankruptcy protection with none of the usual financial and reputational wreckage.

Gordon and all four companies he has represented said in statements to Reuters or in court filings that the two-step is legally proper and the fairest way to compensate claimants. Otherwise, they argue, plaintiffs take their chances in trial courts, with a few getting unreasonably large jury awards but many getting nothing. At the conference, Gordon called the two-step process fair to everyone, and a superior alternative to the broken system for mass tort claims.

Plaintiffs lawyers have called the two-step a fraud in court actions seeking dismissals or other remedies. They argue the subsidiaries are essentially corporate shells, with no purpose beyond aiding their parent companies in abusing the bankruptcy system to escape accountability for wrongdoing.

Those arguments are now gaining traction in the bankruptcy case involving Saint-Gobain. The French construction-products giant used the tactic to shield its North American business from billions of dollars in potential liability for asbestos-related cancers. Lawyers for plaintiff-creditors in the Saint-Gobain case have seized on the testimony of a whistleblower  a company attorney who helped plan the bankruptcy.

The whistleblower, Amiel Gross, alleges Saint-Gobain fired him in 2020 in retaliation for sounding an internal alarm about an unrelated health hazard: alleged contamination of drinking water by Saint-Gobain. He became a key figure in the asbestos plaintiffs bankruptcy case when their lawyers deposed Gross last year about the planning and purpose of the Chapter 11 maneuver.

Gross testified that Saint-Gobain repeatedly misrepresented its intent in creating the subsidiary that eventually filed for bankruptcy, calling executives testimony and other statements misleading and not truthful. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Craig Whitley followed Grosss testimony last August with factual findings that included his own blistering critique of the executives statements as contrary to the evidence, saying the companys story strains credibility.

Saint-Gobains story closely mirrors the one told by executives at the three other companies to counter plaintiffs allegations. Accused of contriving a fraudulent bankruptcy as a liability shield, executives of three of the parent companies denied in depositions and filings that they ever directed the subsidiaries to file bankruptcy at all. All four parent firms said their newly created subsidiaries boards had decided independently to authorize their Chapter 11 filings, and only did so as a last resort to fairly compensate plaintiffs, after considering other options.

A Reuters examination of court records, deposition testimony and internal company documents casts doubt on these claims, which are central to the companies arguments for the legitimacy of the Texas two-step. The records, including Grosss previously unreported deposition testimony, provide the most detailed account to date of the secretive planning that underpins the revolutionary bankruptcy strategy that experts say could upend U.S. product-liability law.

Each of the four companies launched confidential internal projects  complete with codenames  to plan their two-step bankruptcies for months, according to court records and two people familiar with the matter. Saint-Gobain dubbed its effort Project Horizon. Georgia-Pacific, Trane and Johnson & Johnson called their projects Blue, Omega and Plato, respectively. Gordon and the companies he represented didnt respond to questions about why they planned their two-step bankruptcies in secret.

After creating subsidiaries using a unique Texas law, all four parent companies immediately moved the new firms to North Carolina, where bankruptcy precedents favor companies. (J&Js case was later transferred to New Jersey). All four subsidiaries declared bankruptcy within about three months of being created. The one created by J&J filed Chapter 11 in less than three days.

Each subsidiary started with fewer than 10 employees, all on loan from the parent company, according to court filings, along with a mountain of lawsuits they couldnt afford to settle. All the new firms have relatively few assets. The companies avoiding bankruptcy promise to eventually give the subsidiaries enough money to compensate plaintiffs  in exchange for an agreement by plaintiffs to sign away their right to sue the parent in trial courts.

Gross, the Saint-Gobain whistleblower, testified that contrary to their sworn statements, the French companys lawyers and executives knew from the start of Project Horizon that the resulting subsidiary would seek Chapter 11 protection. And the purpose was clear: to stop the financial bleeding from lawsuits while avoiding all the downsides of a traditional bankruptcy  to have your cake and eat it, too, as Gross put it in his deposition.

Saint-Gobain did not answer detailed questions about its two-step bankruptcy case. But in a statement, it said the strategy was aimed at permanently and equitably resolving all current and future asbestos-related claims through the creation of a trust to efficiently process and pay those claims. Grosss claims of being wrongfully terminated were without merit, the company said.

Judge Whitley is also overseeing the bankruptcy proceedings involving Trane Technologies, which declined to comment for this report.

In an August ruling in that case, the judge noted the remarkable similarities among the three Texas two-steps underway at the time in questioning those companies claims that they never preordained their subsidiaries bankruptcies.

It is no coincidence that this exact fact pattern and the same alleged options are found in preceding cases, the judge wrote, noting the companies have been represented by the same law firm.

The maneuver has become a lucrative specialty for Jones Day. So far, it has billed the four companies for more than $70 million in fees.

PLAINTIFFS BETTER OFF

Gordons maneuver is called a Texas two-step because the companies use that states divisional merger law to split the legally imperiled company into two new firms: One to absorb the liability, the other to continue with business as usual.

None of Gordons four two-step Chapter 11 filings have received final approval from a bankruptcy judge, but all have succeeded in giving the companies leverage in settlement talks with plaintiffs by suspending their lawsuits, some legal experts say. J&J faced a hail of litigation alleging the companys iconic Baby Powder and other talc products sickened people. The three other firms faced litigation over asbestos exposure linked to their construction products.

Although the judge in the Saint-Gobain case expressed deep skepticism of the tactic, the judge overseeing the Johnson & Johnson measure explicitly endorsed it. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan rejected the plaintiffs motion to dismiss the J&J subsidiarys bankruptcy in February, finding nothing inherently unlawful about the two-step. Plaintiffs appealed the ruling.

Bankruptcy proceedings, Kaplan said, are a preferred approach to best serve the interests of injured tort claimants and their families, suggesting that maybe the gates indeed should be opened to imitators of Gordon.

One potential imitator was a fellow panelist of Gordons at the April conference. Jeffrey Gleit, of ArentFox Schiff LLP, said he had initially considered the strategy a fraudulent transfer intended to put corporate assets beyond the reach of plaintiff-creditors. Now hes coming around to Gordons view  and considering the tactic for a client.

My thoughts on it have evolved, Gleit said during the panel discussion.

In an interview, he said the two-step can be legitimate if the healthy company adequately finances the subsidiary to compensate plaintiffs.

Companies have often turned to traditional bankruptcies when their finances are overwhelmed by lawsuits over defective products. But they have strong incentives to avoid it: Bankruptcies come at the cost of damage to reputations, credit ratings and relationships with suppliers, customers and employees. Gordons strategy offers a way out of those consequences while preserving the benefit of potentially lower legal costs and payouts to plaintiffs. The companies also avoid the reputational and financial fallout from jury verdicts that find wrongdoing and levy damages.

Some bankruptcy experts say the practice sets a dangerous precedent. Jared Ellias, a professor at the University of California Hastings College of the Law, said the practice invites companies to contrive Chapter 11 filings to limit victim compensation. He recalled the settlement of more than $20 billion that followed oil major BPs Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Now, if you have an oil spill, maybe the next thing you do is a Texas two-step, said Ellias, who filed a brief with other bankruptcy experts supporting plaintiffs request to dismiss the J&J subsidiarys Chapter 11 filing.

Congressional Democrats have proposed legislation that would severely restrict a companys ability to pursue the two-step strategy.

Gordon, at the April conference, pitched his two-step as a better option than trial courts for both companies and plaintiffs. The tort system doesnt work for mass tort claims, Gordon said. It just doesnt.

Gordon said companies are often settling cases quickly just to avoid the legal costs of going to trial. The Johnson & Johnson talc lawsuits presented the worst scenario for both the company and the plaintiffs, he said. Nearly 40,000 lawsuits were filed in five years  a rate expected to continue for a half century, Gordon said.

What do you do about that, as a company, no matter how big you are? Gordon asked.

The situation was also awful for plaintiffs, he said. Many got nothing, Gordon said, but a lucky few hit the lottery, including 22 plaintiffs who won a judgment for $4.69 billion. An appeals court later reduced the award to $2.1 billion, but the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear J&Js bid to reverse the verdict.

In a statement, J&J said the court overseeing its subsidiarys Chapter 11 filing correctly found its actions appropriate. The subsidiarys creation and subsequent bankruptcy filing were done in the right way, for the right reasons, and in the best interests of all parties, J&J said.

J&J said it continues to stand behind Johnsons Baby Powder, which is safe, does not contain asbestos and does not cause cancer.

Some legal experts agree that bankruptcy proceedings can offer plaintiffs more equitable compensation than trial courts. The process is overseen by one judge. In addition, plaintiffs get a say in the amount of compensation because, as creditors, they can block approval of a companys reorganization plan that contains the settlement agreement. In asbestos-related Chapter 11 filings, 75% of creditors must approve a reorganization plan, a higher threshold than in most bankruptcies.

Voting down a company settlement offer, however, means plaintiffs continue to go unpaid in bankruptcy  and unable to pursue their cases individually in trial courts.

In a Texas two-step bankruptcy, Gordon said, the company can negotiate reasonable settlements with all plaintiffs. He rejected the criticism that his strategy aims primarily to restrict plaintiff compensation, saying the only limit is the financial reserves of the healthy company funding the bankrupt subsidiary.

None of these companies sought to avoid its liability; to the contrary, each is seeking to resolve the entirety of it, Gordon said in his statement to Reuters. Bankruptcy offers the only forum where mass tort liability can be fully resolved.

Georgia-Pacific and Johnson & Johnson have offered to give their subsidiaries $1 billion and $2 billion, respectively, to be put in trusts to settle all claims; neither offer has been accepted by plaintiff-creditors. The Saint-Gobain and Trane subsidiaries have yet to make public settlement offers.

At the conference, Gordon said the two-step leaves most plaintiffs better off.

Many plaintiffs, along with their relatives and attorneys, beg to differ.

One plaintiff was William Germont, who filed one of the more than 60,000 lawsuits that were pending before the bankruptcy against Saint-Gobains North American building-product business, CertainTeed. Five days before Saint-Gobains subsidiary filed for Chapter 11, Germont died at 84, after suffering for more than three years from lung disease, according to court records.

His lungs showed numerous asbestos bodies and a mesothelioma mass, according to a plaintiffs medical expert report filed in court. Germont testified that he was routinely exposed to the carcinogenic material while working as a machine operator at a CertainTeed pipe factory near Philadelphia in the 1960s. In a deposition shortly before he died, a company lawyer questioned Germont about his health and lifestyle, including a history of smoking.

His wife, Theresa Germont, said the news that the bankruptcy maneuver would halt the lawsuit was hard to take, just days after her husbands funeral.

I was so upset, after I saw what my husband went through, she said. Why is this happening? Theres no reason for it.

Neither Gordon nor Saint-Gobain responded to questions about Germonts case.

DEFENDING THE KOCH BROTHERS

Gordon joined Cleveland-based Jones Day in the 1980s. From the firms Dallas office, the career bankruptcy lawyer has spent more than three decades representing companies facing asbestos litigation and environmental liabilities in cases that generally avoided the kind of high-profile controversy the Texas two-steps have engendered. Gordon also handled a notable case in the retail sector, the 2015 restructuring of RadioShack.

Gordon launched his first Texas two-step in 2017 on behalf of a longtime, controversial Jones Day client: Koch Industries. The companys chairman, Charles Koch, and his late brother David Koch have been prominent Republican political donors and supported an array of pro-business lobbying efforts, including those seeking to limit damage awards in injury lawsuits.

One Koch company, Georgia-Pacific, faced thousands of lawsuits accusing company executives of concealing knowledge about the dangers of asbestos in its building products. A New York state appeals court in 2013 found Georgia-Pacific sponsored supposedly objective scientific studies that supported the companys defense and falsely stated that the company did not influence the research. In fact, the company participated in designing some studies and its lawyers reviewed the research before publication, the court found.

Georgia Pacific argued in court filings that any changes to the research were ministerial and that the company acted properly. Representatives for Koch Industries and Georgia-Pacific declined to comment for this story.

By 2017, Georgia-Pacific was paying up to about $200 million a year to defend or settle the cases, the company said in court filings. Jones Days Gordon had a novel solution.

Georgia-Pacific formed a new Texas company, Bestwall, that took on all the asbestos liability and declared bankruptcy about three months after its founding. Most of its assets went to another newly created entity, called New Georgia-Pacific. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Laura Beyer has rejected plaintiffs attempts to dismiss the bankruptcy.

More than four years later, Bestwall remains mired in bankruptcy, and the litigation against Georgia-Pacific remains suspended. The bankruptcy stanched the companys financial bleeding from those cases, which had exceeded $800 million in the previous five years.

The new Georgia-Pacific created in the divisional merger has meanwhile paid nearly $3 billion in dividends to Koch Industries that it likely could not have paid if it filed bankruptcy itself. Thats triple the amount Bestwall has offered to plaintiffs to settle all the cases.

Plaintiffs have not accepted the offer, and theres been no settlement. Meanwhile, all six cancer victims who were appointed to a creditors committee when the Bestwall case began have since died.

Gordons early success with Georgia-Pacific caught the attention of lawyers at Saint-Gobain. But they didnt count on Amiel Gross.

THE INSIDER

Gross, the whistleblower in the Saint-Gobain case, is the only corporate insider in the two-step bankruptcies to directly contradict his colleagues testimony about a companys confidential planning process.

Gross was in a position to know. After joining the company as an attorney in 2014, he was tasked with trying to control the cash drain of defending asbestos cases. French executives in Paris, Gross testified, received weekly cost reports on the litigation.

Saint-Gobain had been fighting lawsuits since the 1970s from consumers and workers over asbestos in the piping and roofing products of its North American business, CertainTeed. The company said it stopped selling asbestos pipe in 1993.

Initially, the company did not face a flood of litigation, as plaintiffs lawyers primarily focused on firms whose businesses were more concentrated in asbestos products, such as insulation. But CertainTeed and other companies selling products containing asbestos became prime targets in the early 2000s because of an earlier bankruptcy innovation by one of the biggest companies inundated by the lawsuits.

Johns Manville in 1988 created a new kind of bankruptcy trust  one that would handle all future asbestos claims, in addition to current lawsuits. Other major asbestos-product manufacturers followed suit after Congress codified the practice for firms facing asbestos liabilities in 1994.

The companies argued the trusts were an essential tool to manage an ever-expanding torrent of torts, many of which they regarded as dubious. Plaintiffs lawyers called the practice an abuse of the system, alleging the underfunded trusts shortchanged the sick and dying, paying many a fraction of their claims value.

As more major asbestos-products firms filed for bankruptcy, and the money in their trusts ran short, plaintiffs lawyers started targeting a wider set of companies, including Saint-Gobains CertainTeed. Since 2002, the firm has spent about $2 billion on legal fees, judgments and settlements in more than 300,000 cases, court records show.

In Gordons two-step, Saint-Gobains bankrupt subsidiary would ultimately create a trust that, like Manvilles, would absorb all future claims. The key difference: The company accused of sickening workers never has to declare bankruptcy.

Like the other firms executing Texas two-steps, Saint-Gobain was hardly on the brink of financial ruin. Saint-Gobain was founded more than 350 years ago by King Louis XIV to produce glass for the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles. Today, the global construction-products conglomerate operates in 75 countries, with 166,000 employees and a market capitalization of nearly $25 billion.

Gross testified that skepticism from the companys French leadership was one of the biggest obstacles to Saint-Gobain moving forward with the Texas two-step strategy. He added that a senior U.S. lawyer for Saint-Gobain told him company executives were extremely resistant to any bankruptcy because of the stigma it carries in France.

French views towards bankruptcy are rooted in the European history of debtors prisons and public shaming, said Henri Chriqui, a longtime administrator of corporate bankruptcies in France. He noted the French word for bankruptcy, faillite, also means failure.

Saint-Gobains French leadership, however, took notice after Gordons work on Bestwall blazed a trail, Gross testified. The company started seriously considering the same strategy.

That process picked up steam in 2019, when Saint-Gobain personnel, from the chairman of its North American business to Gross, were asked to sign a nondisclosure agreement to work on Project Horizon, according to several court filings. It is critical that the existence of Project Horizon and all information concerning Project Horizon not be disclosed to anyone, said the agreement, which was reviewed by Reuters.

In August of that year, Saint-Gobain lawyers, including Gross, gathered at a boardroom table inside the construction giants offices in suburban Philadelphia to hash out details of the plan. Gordon sat across from them with other Jones Day lawyers, according to the testimony of Gross, who attended. At around this time, company lawyers started drawing up the bankruptcy papers for a subsidiary that didnt yet exist, Gross said.

It became clear in that meeting, he said, that the skeptical French executives were being socialized to the idea of this particular kind of bankruptcy. Gordon was a key emissary in convincing the Paris leadership, Gross testified.

Executives created the subsidiary in October 2019, calling it DBMP. That same month, Gross traveled to Charleston, South Carolina, where a senior Saint-Gobain lawyer led a presentation on the official company story surrounding Project Horizon, Gross testified. One key talking point the lawyer advised: The subsidiary was not created to file bankruptcy, but rather to create flexibility for handling the asbestos litigation, with bankruptcy being only one option.

The subsidiarys skeletal staff comprised five people on secondments from the parent company, Judge Whitley found. Gross, the whistleblower, was one of them. Just one of the employees worked full-time: a chief legal officer.

The staff essentially functioned as an in-house legal team for a company with no other workers or operations, Whitley later found. Three months after DBMPs founding, the subsidiarys board voted to file for bankruptcy.

FIRED, THEN DEPOSED

In October 2020, as the bankruptcy case moved forward, Saint-Gobain fired Gross. The lawyer said in a complaint filed with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) alleging he had been sacked for expressing his concerns that the company may have contaminated drinking water with chemicals.

Saint-Gobain faces litigation alleging water contamination by facilities in the northeastern United States, and has settled some of the cases. Gross unsuccessfully pushed executives to probe and rule out water contamination from other sites that may have used the same chemicals.

The company said it fired Gross for different reasons. Saint-Gobain terminated the lawyer shortly after telling him he was under investigation for insubordination and questioning him about disparaging words he allegedly used regarding a colleague, according to his OSHA complaint.

Saint-Gobain later told media outlets that Gross violated the companys harassment prevention policy, without elaborating, an assertion Gross called false in legal papers filed with regulators. Grosss OSHA complaint is still pending.

In the 43-page complaint, Gross briefly mentioned his knowledge of Project Horizon. Grosss complaint, and his environmental allegations about Saint-Gobain, generated news stories. The episode caught the attention of plaintiffs in Saint-Gobains subsidiary bankruptcy, and led to his deposition in June 2021.

Executives at Saint-Gobain and its subsidiary had earlier stated that the parent company had not preordained the bankruptcy. Gross said those claims were misleading and not truthful. Gross also called inaccurate the testimony of Mark Rayfield, Saint-Gobains North American CEO, who had asserted that Project Horizon aimed only to provide flexibility and optionality to reduce the burden of asbestos litigation. Gross also testified that the bankruptcy filing required approval of the companys French leadership, contradicting Rayfields statement that Paris executives had no role in authorizing it.

Saint-Gobain said Rayfields statements are accurate and speak for themselves.

DBMP, in a court filing, disputed Grosss account and called his testimony nothing more than the miscellaneous musings of a dismissed former employee based largely on what he claims to have understood or surmised, rather than what he observed.

Judge Whitley, in factual findings issued two months later, systematically deconstructed the companys account of the bankruptcys planning and purpose. Saint-Gobains representations of the subsidiarys flexibility and independence in deciding how to handle the lawsuits are rejected, the judge wrote, adding that he would disregard the self-serving witness testimony by company executives.

Whitley found that the plan to create DBMP, from its inception, aimed to shield Saint-Gobain from asbestos lawsuit exposure  and was driven not by business people, but by lawyers.

Project Horizon was a closely guarded corporate secret, Whitley wrote.

The decision to put the newly formed company into bankruptcy, the judge wrote, was made long before the subsidiary existed. Whitley said the subsidiarys structure made the intent clear: That DBMP was created with no employees and no operations reflects its single purpose, the judge wrote, as a vessel designed to ferry  asbestos liabilities into bankruptcy.

The judge noted that Saint-Gobain would retain control over the amount of any settlements because it would set the amount given to the subsidiary to pay for them. And any funding, Whitley said, is conditioned on plaintiffs and the bankruptcy court agreeing to give the company immunity from the asbestos lawsuits, whether it is entitled to it or not.

NOT LOSING ANY SLEEP

Whether Whitleys findings have any consequences for Saint-Gobain remains to be seen. The judge has allowed plaintiff-creditors attorneys to pursue company documents and question additional witnesses under oath in an attempt to corroborate Grosss testimony.

Those inquiries are part of multiple legal actions creditors launched in August and January to attack the companys maneuver. One asks Whitley to include all of Saint-Gobains North American assets in the subsidiarys bankruptcy, which would defeat the point of its Texas two-step. In that scenario, asbestos plaintiff-creditors could make direct claims on the business they sued in the first place, just as if it had filed bankruptcy itself.

Plaintiffs have also asked the judge to declare the bankruptcy maneuver a fraud, which could result in a separate award of damages to the plaintiffs, in addition to any money they might collect from illness-related claims. Lawyers for Saint-Gobains subsidiary argued for dismissal of the fraud case in a court filing, saying there was nothing improper or illegal about the Texas two-step.

Gordon, at the April conference, brushed aside the Saint-Gobain plaintiffs requests to include the healthy companys assets in the subsidiary bankruptcy. Plaintiffs lawyers in the Trane Technologies two-step are taking the same legal action. Gordon said they would be unable to show his clients abused the bankruptcy system.

I dont lose sleep over those lawsuits, he said.

In March, Whitley held a hearing in the Trane matter, the other Texas two-step case he is overseeing. A company lawyer argued for the legitimacy of the Texas two-step by citing Judge Kaplans February refusal to dismiss the Johnson & Johnson subsidiary bankruptcy.

Whitley said that neither he, nor Kaplan, would be the final word  the matter would likely go to a higher court, or to Congress.

In the interim, he urged both sides in the case to focus on reaching a settlement. At the end of the day, theres some folks who need some money here, he said, the ones who are the victims.

Topics Lawsuits InsurTech
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Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. agreed to pay $105 million to settle a long-running class-action lawsuit accusing it of misleading shareholders about how rising generic drug prices and reimbursement pressures would hurt its pharmacy business.

The preliminary all-cash settlement was filed on Thursday in a federal court in Chicago following six months of mediation, and requires a judges approval.

Walgreens denied wrongdoing, but settled to avoid the uncertainty, burden and cost of further litigation, settlement papers show. The company did not immediately respond on Friday to requests for additional comment

Shareholders said Walgreens inflated its stock price in 2014 by concealing bad news about drug prices and reimbursement rates, so investors could focus on its then-pending merger with Switzerlands Alliance Boots GmbH.

The challenged statements concerned Walgreens outlook for its 2016 fiscal year, the first full year after the Deerfield, Illinois-based company expected to complete the merger.

Walgreen Co, as the company was then known, lowered its forecast for that year on Aug. 6, 2014. The merger closed at the end of 2014, and the lawsuit was filed in April 2015.

Thursdays settlement covers Walgreen shareholders from April 17 to Aug. 5, 2014. The lead plaintiff is Industriens Pensionsforsikring A/S, a Danish pension fund. Walgreens rivals include CVS Health Corp. and Rite Aid Corp.

A related shareholder lawsuit accusing Walgreen officers and directors of poor oversight has been on hold pending a resolution of the class action. Lawyers for the plaintiffs in that case did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The case is Washtenaw County Employees Retirement System et al v Walgreen Co et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, No. 15-03187.
A Houston dredging company has been ordered to pay a $1 million fine for an oil spill that occurred when a subcontractor cut through an oil pipeline during barrier island restoration work off Louisiana in 2016.

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company, which describes itself as the nations largest dredging company, was sentenced last Thursday for violating the Clean Water Act, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorneys Office in New Orleans.

Great Lakes recklessly violated regulations designed to protect the environment and then tried to hide their actions, Kimberly Bahney, special agent in charge of the Environmental Protection Agencys criminal enforcement program in Louisiana, said in that news release.

The spill occurred when a marsh buggy hit a pipeline while digging and moving sediment to create part of the islands new outline, releasing an estimated 5,300 gallons of crude oil and oiling about 200 birds.

The restoration at Chenier Ronquille, a barrier island east of Grand Isle, was paid for by money from the 2010 BP oil spill.

Great Lakes, which was headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois, in 2016 but has since moved to Houston, pleaded guilty in June 2021. As part of the plea, it said it violated state and federal laws by failing to tell companies about continuing work near their pipelines. A statement filed with the guilty plea also said Great Lakes failure to properly supervise James Tassin, whose marsh buggy punctured the pipeline on Sept. 5, 2016, was a cause of the spill.

Tassin, a Shallow Water Equipment LLC employee, pleaded guilty in March 2021 to violating the Clean Water Act. His sentencing is scheduled Aug. 16, according to online court documents.

A Great Lakes employee told him to dig near pipelines even though that area wasnt in the plan approved by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, according to the news release.

It said Great Lakes had not gotten pipeline companies word that it was safe to dig, and Tassin said a Great Lakes employee told him not to tell anyone that Tassin had been digging near the site of the spill. The two Houston companies that owned the pipeline, Harvest Pipeline Company and Arrowhead Gulf Coast Pipeline, LLC, sued for damages including cleanup costs. Prosecutors said Great Lakes agreed to pay nearly $3.2 million and Tassins employer agreed to pay it nearly $1.7 million.

U.S. District Judge Greg Guidry last week rejected prosecutors request to make Great Lakes pay a total of at least $6 million in restitution for the spill, The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reported.

The investigation would be too unwieldly, while unnecessarily stalling an end to the Chenier Ronquille incident, he wrote. Besides, he said, the figure probably wouldnt be far from the figure settled on for the damage suit.

Money to pay the fine is already in a court account. Great Lakes deposited $2 million for possible restitution when it pleaded guilty, and will get the rest back, according to court documents.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Louisiana Energy Oil Gas
The owner of seven Louisiana nursing homes who sent more than 800 of his elderly residents to a crowded, ill-equipped warehouse to ride out Hurricane Ida last year was arrested Wednesday on fraud and cruelty charges arising from the squalid conditions.

Bob Glynn Dean Jr., 68, had already lost state licenses and federal funding for crowding his residents into a facility in the town of Independence, roughly 70 miles northwest of New Orleans. There, authorities said they found ill and elderly bedridden people on mattresses on the wet floor, some crying for help, some lying in their own waste. Some had arrived without their medicine, according to one doctor. Civil suits against Deans corporation said the ceiling leaked, toilets overflowed at the sweltering warehouse and there was too little food and water.

On Wednesday, Dean was in custody in Tangipahoa Parish, facing charges of Medicaid fraud, cruelty to the infirm and obstruction of justice.

Deans attorney, John McClindon, said Dean was informed earlier this week of the warrant against him. A Georgia resident, Dean flew to Louisiana and turned himself in on Wednesday. McClindon said Dean was to be released on a $350,000 bond.

Attorney General Jeff Landry said the criminal charges stem from allegations that Dean billed Medicaid for dates his residents were not receiving proper care at the warehouse and engaged in conduct intended to intimidate or obstruct public health officials and law enforcement.

McClindon said he could not comment on all the charges because he had not yet read the entire warrant. But he said during a brief interview, I dont think Bob Dean did anything that rose to the level of criminal.

In the days after Ida hit Aug. 29, the state reported the deaths of seven people who had been evacuated to the warehouse in the town of Independence. Five were classified as storm-related deaths.

Dean later lost the state licenses for his seven facilities. In May, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced it was prohibiting Dean from receiving federal funding, including Medicare and Medicaid. At the time, McLindon, told The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate that Dean is appealing the state license revocations and would be reinstated for the federal programs if the appeals are successful.

Ida blasted ashore last August as one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the U.S., knocking out power to all of New Orleans, blowing roofs off buildings and reversing the flow of the Mississippi River as it rushed from the coast into a major industrial corridor. Idas landfall with 150 mph-winds also marked the first time in recorded historythat a state got back-to-back years of 150 mph winds or more.

At the warehouse where Deans residents were taken, state officials said conditions had deteriorated quickly in the storm. Generators used to provide power failed at times. Residents were in close quarters at a time when the state was urging social distancing due to the coronavirus pandemic. Some went without food for hours.

Deans nursing homes were River Palms Nursing and Rehab and Maison Orleans Healthcare Center in New Orleans; South Lafourche Nursing and Rehab in Lafourche Parish; Park Place Healthcare Nursing Home, West Jefferson Health Care Center and Maison DeVille Nursing home of Harvey, in Jefferson Parish; and Maison DeVille Nursing Home in Terrebonne Parish.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Homeowners
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A safety mandate to reduce or eliminate space between elevator doors and landing doors inside North Carolina vacation cottages and other short-term rentals needs one more affirmative vote to receive final General Assembly approval.

The requirement is contained in the measure called Westons Law, named in memory of a 7-year-old Ohio boy who died last summer when he became trapped between the elevator car and elevator shaft at a rental home on the northern Outer Banks.

The Senate voted unanimously this week for the bill, Senate Bill 777, which would require that the gap between landing and car doors be no more than 4 inches (10.2 centimeters). That can be addressed by installing a space guard on the landing door.

The bill also sets minimum force requirements on elevator car doors and gates. The cottage landlord must send paperwork to the state Insurance Department documenting the safety improvements. The elevator must be turned off without them. The bill also would direct the state building code to require such safety measures in new short-term rental construction.

The House, which approved an earlier version of the bill last year, must decide whether to accept the Senate changes. A final bill ultimately would go to Gov. Roy Coopers desk.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics North Carolina
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Citizens Property Insurance Corp. could spend $100 million this year on attorneys who defend claims litigation against the insurer, a significant increase from previous years.

The Miami Herald reported that the insurer of last resorts claims committee met Thursday and examined the legal costs. The Citizens Board of Governors in December approved $50 million for outside attorneys to work the thousands of claims lawsuits that Citizens, like other Florida property insurers, face each year. The committee on Thursday recommended adding another $50 million.

During the first third of this year, Citizens was hit with more than 3,800 lawsuits, the committee members were told.

Those are some pretty crazy numbers, committee member Jon Palmquist said, according to the Herald.

Citizens, soon to be the largest property insurer in the state, contracts with 91 outside law firms to defend claims disputes. In 2020, the state-created corporation spent $82 million on legal fees, followed by $79 million last year. Since 2017, Citizens defense spending has topped $405 million.

Its because people are suing us, and we have to defend the lawsuits, Citizens board member Scott Thomas said at the meeting.

At the Florida Legislatures special session in May, at least two state representatives urged Citizens to consider hiring more in-house attorneys to handle the claims litigation.

Other Florida insurers have reported huge legal costs. R Street, a think tank that has studied the Florida market, reported this year that Florida insurers spend about six times what insurers in other states spend on legal defense costs.

The litigation front is expected to improve in coming months, after lawmakers at the special session approved two bills designed to reduce litigation, roof claims and plaintiffs attorney fees.

And CaseGlide, a software firm that tracks claims litigation in Florida, reported that the largest carriers in the state reported a 14% drop in litigated claims, from April to May. The number of suits dropped from 4,702 in April to 4,047 in May for the 16 largest P&C insurers, although notices of intent to sue increased.

Topics Florida
Noguchi & Associates is partnering with ori-gen Agency Insurance Services to launch a Hawaii-based division.

The new ori-gen Hawaii division will be led by Noguchi & Associates President Mitchell Noguchi. ori-gen will join with the Hawaii-based staff to support expansion in the Islands and further foster relationships between the state, the continental U.S. and internationally.

ori-gen was founded in 2021 by Alliance 360 Insurance Solutions and The J. Morey Company, Inc. Insurance Agents & Brokers.

Noguchi & Associates will continue to operate under its respective name.
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Read our full Opinion Policies here. Updated on 10/7/2020


Set in Denver in 1978, The Black Phone (16s) opens with the citys children terrified that they will be the next victim of The Grabber (Ethan Hawke), who has already abducted a number of children before he swoops down on Finney (Mason Thames).

Locked in a soundproofed basement, Finney has no way of communicating with the outside world: the disconnected phone on the wall seems to have left there simply to tantalise The Grabbers victims. But then the phone rings, and Finney hears the whispering voice of a dead child offering him advice about how he might be able to escape 

The supernatural aspects of Scott Derricksons horror are strongly redolent of Stephen King, so its no surprise to learn that the movie is based on a short story by Kings son, Joe Hill.

Its a seductive blend, in theory at least. The reality of child abduction is chilling enough, but the voices from beyond the grave lend the story a ghostly quality that diverts the viewers attention away from the whys and wherefores of child abduction: The Grabber, despite his loquacity as he waxes lyrical from behind a series of spooky masks, never offers a clue as to why he is compelled to murder children.

What is interesting, however, is that the threats Finney is subjected to in the basement strongly echo how he and his sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) are treated by their alcoholic and abusive father Terrence (Jeremy Davies), which suggests that Finney is only in marginally more danger when he finds himself at the mercy of The Grabber.

Hawke spends most of the movie hidden behind those masks, but Mason Thames is brilliant at capturing the vulnerability of the petrified Finney, while Madeleine McGraw steals the show as the feisty, foul-mouthed Gwen who refuses to give up on her big brother.

(cinema release)
Members of a vigilante paedophile-hunting group set up a ruse to let a 45-year-old Monkstown man believe he was about to meet a child for the purpose of sexual exploitation and on Thursday he faced sentencing.

When Tim Bowen attempted to contact a person he believed to be a 14-year-old girl for the purpose of sexual exploitation, the vigilante group made recordings of him which they posted online and alerted gardai.

Detective Sergeant Gary Duggan arrested Tim Bowen, 45, with an address at Cottage View, Monkstown, Co Cork, and charged him with two counts.

The first charge alleges that between July 4 and July 26, 2019, he did attempt to communicate with a child by way of communication technology for the purpose of facilitating the sexual exploitation of that child.

The second charge states that at Costa Coffee in Bishopstown on July 26, 2019, he did attempt to intentionally meet the child for the purpose of doing something that constituted sexual exploitation of the child, namely sexual assault.

Bowen later pleaded guilty to both counts and the case had been adjourned until Thursday for Bowen to be sentenced.

Det Sgt Duggan was present at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to give evidence on the details of the case to Judge Sarah Berkeley.

However, defence barrister Sinead Behan raised some preliminary issues at the outset: I do have a concern. He did have a diagnosis of bi-polar when he was young. But we do not have a psychiatric report.

Before hearing the background to the case, Judge Berkeley then asked about the age of the girl mentioned in the charges. Ms Behan BL said it was an unusual offence of attempting to get in contact with a girl who was 14 but where the contacts were online and then the arrangement was made to meet with her.

In fact, it was members of a vigilante paedophile-hunting group. He was approached by this group. The guards were called. So there is no actual victim as such. It was a ruse used by this group.

He has no previous convictions. He is 45. He was working full time up to when this occurred. His marriage has ended as a result of this. He is in another relationship, Ms Behan said.

The accused is working part-time in a job that does not entail contact of any kind with children.

Judge Berkely said: I am trying to ascertain the seriousness of it because the penalties are very high.

'Suicide attempts'

Ms Behan said: He has had suicide attempts since this. There have been times when he has not been able to face the day. This all happened at a time when his marriage had broken down.

He had been involved in online conversations that led to sexual activity  none of which were children, Ms Behan said.

The judge asked Ms Behan if the defence was happy for the judge to proceed to sentencing in the absence of psychological or psychiatric reports.

I would always have some type of report on these types of cases, Judge Berkeley said.

After further engagement with the defence counsel on the issue, Judge Berkeley directed preparation of a psychiatrists report and a forensic psychologists report and she also recommended that the accused take part in the Safer Lives Programme.

The judge said the background evidence in the case could be given by the investigating officer on the adjourned date. Mr Bowen was remanded on continuing bail until November 11.

Bail conditions require Mr Bowen to sign on twice a week at Togher Garda Station, notify gardai of any change of address, surrender his passport and to be contactable by Det Sgt Duggan by mobile phone at all times.
Four men are to appear in court this morning after gardai disrupted two separate drug smuggling routes  one involving liquid cocaine concealed in wine and champagne - that they suspect are linked to the Kinahan crime cartel.

In one of the operations, gardai arrested six individuals, described as significant players of the Kinahan cartels national distribution network.

In the other operation, involving the confiscation of liquid cocaine, gardai arrested a man who has since been charged and due to appear before the Criminal Courts of Justice today.

A garda spokesperson said: "Gardai from the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, supported by a Special Crime Task Force, who are investigating the seizure of cannabis, cocaine and heroin with an estimated street value of over 2 million along with cash in excess of 864,000, on Wednesday June 22 2022, have charged four of the men arrested.

"All four men are expected to appear before the Criminal Courts of Justice, Dublin, at 10.30am on Friday, June 24."

One man remains in Garda custody and investigations are ongoing.

During one of the operations, several suspects attempted to evade gardai by jumping into the River Liffey and swimming away before being apprehended.

Gardai seized an estimated 2m-plus worth of drugs in the two operations and up to 1m in cash.

In the first operation, the Garda National Drugs and Organised Bureau (DOCB) confiscated champagne and wine infused with liquid cocaine in a house in Beaumont, north Dublin.

This is one of a number of seizures of liquid cocaine in wine bottles in recent months, both by Gardai and Customs, in what is suspected to be a new method to conceal cocaine.

The Kinahan cartel has long had extensive connections with South American trafficking gangs.

Gangs that smuggle liquid cocaine, either in liquids or, more traditionally, in clothing, fly chemists in to extract the liquid cocaine and convert it into powder cocaine.

Gardai suspect that this new concealment method - inside alcohol bottles - was created during Covid-19 in response to the dramatic drop-off in people travelling.

The South American cartels infuse the cocaine into wine and champagne bottles that continued to be ordered and shipped worldwide during the pandemic, sources suspect.

Gardai estimate that over 2kgs of liquid cocaine was contained in the alcohol, with an estimated street value of around 150,000.

Officers said they suspect that a North Dublin organised crime group linked to the Kinahan cartel was involved in the Irish end of the operation.

This Dublin group is led by a major drug figure that has previously been linked to the murder of Real IRA boss Alan Ryan in 2012.

In the second operation, also on Wednesday, the DOCB, assisted by the Special Crime Task Force, intercepted a car on the M50.

Six males fled and a number jumped into the River Liffey and tried to escape. A number of gardai jumped in after them and managed to make arrests.

A total of five were taken into custody and the sixth male was picked up on Thursday.

Sources have described this group as significant players in the Kinahan crime gangs national distribution network. Two of those arrested are brothers from the north inner city.

The investigation team also searched premises located in Palmerstown, west Dublin and Dublins south east inner city.

Gardai seized cannabis, cocaine and heroin, with an estimated street sale value in excess of 2m.

A substantial quantity of cash, suspected to amount to close to 1m was also seized, along with equipment used for the purpose of money counting and vacuum-packing money and drugs along with communications devices and a substantial quantity of relevant documentation.

European police and drug agencies have detailed in recent years how international traffickers were using different methods to conceal cocaine and identified an increase in cocaine-processing laboratories in Europe.

In July 2021, gardai took delivery of 2,000 bags of charcoal, that had been infused with an estimated 500kgs of cocaine, from Dutch authorities.

The shipment had arrived in Rotterdam but was bound for Ireland.

In June 2002, Customs officers discovered, for the first time, liquid cocaine that had been impregnated into clothing. The 5kgs of cocaine had been soaked into a pair of jeans, smuggled into the country by a Brazilian national.

Two years later, gardai made a similar discovery in Kilkenny, where a South American chemist was arrested.
A man charged with the robbery at Lordship Credit Union in which Detective Gda Adrian Donohoe was shot dead has been refused bail by the Special Criminal Court.

Brendan Treanor's (34) lawyers had argued that it was an offence to his dignity to keep him in custody away from his newborn son in circumstances where his trial has been put back to January of next year.

Delivering the ruling of the three-judge court on Friday morning, Mr Justice Michael MacGrath said he is satisfied that there is a real risk of interference with witnesses if Mr Treanor is granted bail. He said the court is also satisfied in regards to an objection to bail by gardai under S.2 of the Bail Act.

The Act allows an objection based on fears that the applicant will commit a further serious offence if released on bail. Evidence in relation to that was given by Chief Superintendent Alan McGovern at a previous hearing but the court ordered that no details of the objection should be published.

Mr Treanor (34), is charged with participating in a robbery that occurred at the Lordship Credit Union, Bellurgan, Co. Louth, on January 25, 2013. He was due to go on trial at the Special Criminal Court in October.

His trial has been put back to January next year as the DPP wants to try Mr Treanor alongside James Flynn for the same robbery. Mr Flynn, (31), originally from south Armagh, is currently awaiting an appeal against his extradition from the UK to Ireland to face the robbery charge.

Aaron Brady (30) was found guilty of the murder of Det. Gda Donohoe by an 11-to-one majority jury verdict at the Central Criminal Court on August 11 2020. The father-of-one, with a last address at New Road, Crossmaglen, Co. Armagh, was sentenced to the mandatory term for murder of life imprisonment.

As he had been found guilty of murdering a garda acting in accordance with his duty, the judge ordered that he serve a minimum of 40 years. Brady was also sentenced to 14 years for the robbery of 7,000 - a sentence that will run concurrently with the life sentence - at Lordship Credit Union.
Traditions are changing in the military family, with some generational shifts away from army to navy.

One of the highest-ranking officers in the Defence Forces (an army man) has congratulated his daughter for becoming an officer  in the Naval Service  while another young officer has become the first in five generations to switch allegiance from land to sea.

Assistant Chief of Staff, Brigadier General Rossa Mulcahy watched proudly as his daughter, Laoise, 20, was one of four cadets who passed out as commissioned officers at the Naval Service headquarters in Haulbowline, Co Cork.

Simon Coveney congratulates Ensign Laoise Mulcahy at the passing out of newly commissioned officers at the Naval base in Haulbowline. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

Laoise, from Naas, Co Kildare, also had a grandfather in the army.

She said in recent years she wanted a seafaring life, so her decision to join the Naval Service probably didnt come as a shock to her parents.

A family tradition of army service was also broken by Philip Hyland. He is the fifth generation of his family to serve in the Defence Forces, but the first to join the Naval Service and the first to become an officer. His family has continuous service in the Defence Forces since the foundation of the State.

The 20-year-old from Co Meath previously worked as a coach with Shelbourne FC womens team and his favourite part of the cadetship was gunnery and shooting, achieving marksmanship on the Steyr rifle while in the Curragh.

I decided the Naval Service would be a more exciting career, he said.

Kieran Coughlan is another with coaching experience. The 24-year-old from Newport, Co Tipperary, has a degree in exercise and health fitness from the University of Limerick and worked with the Irish Rugby Football Union in various fitness coaching roles prior joining the Naval Service.

His favourite part of his cadetship was being selected on the wing in the Defence Forces rugby team, which scored a notable 16 -13 victory last March over the Royal Air Force.

As a child, Harry ORourke, 26, from Crosshaven, Co Cork, always wanted to join the navy, but hes already clocked up more nautical miles than most, having worked as a Third Officer on six Princess Line cruise ships.

Ive been lucky to visit South America, the Caribbean, Japan and Alaska and other places during my four and a half years with them, he said.

That might seem like a lap-of-luxury job, but he is a grafter and worked as a labourer on building sites before going on to study at the National Maritime College of Ireland. He graduated in 2018 with a degree in nautical science.

The four were the 60th cadet class inducted into the service and had to overcome a difficult period of training due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Interview Military is Weaker Since Coup and Momentum is With the Armed Resistance

Anti-regime resistance fighters in Kayah State. / KNDF-B05

Ye Myo Hein, the executive director of the Tagaung Institute of Political Studies and a public policy fellow with the Woodrow Wilson International Centers Asia Program, recently published a research report: One Year On: The Momentum of Myanmars Armed Rebellion.

The report explores the development of conflict in Myanmar, its trends and potential outlook.

People staged peaceful protests when the military seized power. After violent crackdowns, those peaceful protests transformed into armed rebellion. Peoples Defense Forces (PDF) emerged and the National Unity Government (NUG) declared a defensive war. Conflict theaters emerged and serious armed conflicts broke out, writes Ye Myo Hein in the report.

He recently talked to The Irrawaddy about his research.

What do you think is the most significant development in Myanmar since the February 2021 coup?

The most significant thing is that, according to our data, there were firefights and clashes in 266 townships out of the 330 townships in Myanmar. The number and magnitude of clashes may vary from place to place. But, on the whole, the armed rebellion is happening countrywide.

The magnitude of the ongoing armed rebellion is quite large. And it has gained considerable momentum over the past year, which is totally unexpected.

Previously, observers said the military will win in the end. But they have changed their tune lately and now say that there is a possibility that the Myanmar military might lose. The defensive war has gained momentum in the year since the coup. That might be the most significant development.

Your report names Anyar [central Myanmar] as the most crucial region where armed revolution is taking place. Why?

The Anyar theater covers the plains including Sagaing, Magwe and Mandalay regions. It is a long time since armed conflict tool place in Anyar, where the majority of people are Bamar. Since the Communist Party of Burmas base in Bago was destroyed in 1975, armed conflicts have only taken place in the borderlands that are home to ethnic minorities.

Previously, the Myanmar military was referred to as a Bamar army by the ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) it was fighting. But now Anyar Thar [ethnic Bamar people living in central Myanmar] are fighting the military in a region where the Bamar people make up the majority of residents. This means all the countrys ethnic groups are rebelling against the military and the coup. Historically, Anyar has always been the main source of recruits for the military. Now its a stronghold of the armed resistance to the junta. That fact makes the Spring Revolution different from previous conflicts in Myanmar.

Anyar is also strategically important from a military point of view. Some observers say Anyar is an important place that can link the Kachin and Chin theaters with Rakhine State. A corridor of resistance will emerge in northwest and west Myanmar if all those regions are linked.

Some analysts compare such a corridor with the Ho Chi Minh Trail [a military supply route running from North Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia to South Vietnam] in the Vietnam War. These are the reasons I gave priority to Anyar in my study of the different conflict regions in Myanmar.

Initially, the PDFs were armed with homemade and traditional weapons. Now they have modern arms and are waging more effective guerilla war. Is that because of the support of EAOs?

Before answering your question, we need to talk about PDFs and their weaponry first. At present, there are the PDFs which are under the command of the NUG. Then there are resistance groups that are known by the Burmese acronym Pa Ka Pha, as well as Local Defense Forces (LDF), which operate independently.

There are 259 PDF battalions nationwide, as well as 250 Pa Ka Pha groups in 330 townships, according to the NUGs defense minister. We are making a list of LDFs, but they are springing up across the country and it is difficult to count them. The NUGs defense ministry says that there are 401 LDFs, 354 of them with links to the NUG. The NUG says that it has been able to transform 100 of them into PDFs and placed them under its command.

The NUG defense minister said there are between 50,000 and 100,000 PDF fighters countrywide. According to the data we have gathered, there are around 100,000 resistance fighters around the country. But only 15,000, or less than 20 per cent of them, have been armed.

Driven by the need for arms, the resistance has tried to manufacture its own weapons. But they still cant manufacture advanced weapons. So domestic arms production is already in place but, overall, less than 40 per cent of armed groups have been armed.

Some groups are supplied by the NUG. Some purchased arms with donations made by the people or their own money. And some are armed by EAOs. Resistance groups have undergone military training provided by EAOs. And they also go on joint operations together. Thanks to those joint operations, newly-formed armed groups have grown strong and their military capability has improved.

EAOs can be divided into three groups. The first group belongs to those that support the ongoing armed revolution and are fighting the military dictatorship, in particular, the Kachin Independence Army, the Karen National Union, the Chin National Front and the Karenni National Progressive Party.

The second group belongs to those that are getting close to the regime, in particular, the Restoration Council of Shan State, the New Mon State Party and other groups that recently met the junta leader. Most of them are signatories to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement.

The third group belongs to those that take neither side. They are groups that are pushing for their own political objectives and interests, especially the United Wa State Army and the Arakan Army. It is difficult to say if they support the NUG. They meet the regime, but they dont take sides with it. These are groups that are pushing their political objectives forward in the space between the NUG and the regime.

But under the current situation, those groups are the strongest now. Their position significantly affects the ongoing armed revolution. It will tremendously affect the armed revolution if or when they take a side in the conflict.

What stage is the armed resistance movement at now?

Speaking of the stages of armed struggle, there are basically three stages based on the principles of Che Guevara. The first stage is strategic defense. The second is achieving equilibrium with the enemy and the third is confronting and crushing the enemy.

Guerilla warfare was launched and based in rural areas and, in my view, it has gained momentum.

The NUG said the PDFs and EAOs, if combined, now have control over 50 per cent of the country, especially rural areas. It is difficult to say if they actually have control over 50 per cent of the country, but we found that the military regime cant exert authority over half of the country.

So guerilla warfare is based in rural areas and it has gained strength. Especially in Chin State, revolutionary forces now have considerable control over rural areas. But to answer your question of what stage the revolution has reached, it is still in the first stage of strategic defense.

How do you foresee the future? Will the PDFs continue to grow and become a professional army, a federal army, under a unified chain of command?

In my view, the armed struggle will gather momentum and the fighting will intensify in the future. Secondly, the resistance who are now building the strategic defense will perhaps be able to reach an equilibrium with the enemy in the upcoming rainy season.

Perhaps the PDFs backed by the NUG will be able to further strength their defense. To what extent they will be able to build properly, we will have to wait and see.

According to theories, the first stage is the gathering of revolutionary forces, the second is fighting guerilla warfare and the third stage is forming an army and annihilating the enemy. At present, the PDFs and revolutionary forces have passed the first stage.

Mao Zedong said that if revolutionary forces have passed the first stage and also won 15 to 25 per cent of public support, it is quite difficult to quash their revolt. His assumption was based on historical events.

Now revolutionary forces have passed the first stage and they also enjoy a certain level of public support. On Resistance Day [Armed Forces Day], the regime vowed to crush the PDFs. From a theoretical point of view, it has been very difficult for the regime to crush the PDFs.

Among the other important factors for PDFs are public support and political strength. Their leadership is also immensely important. The capability of resistance group members, the type of training they receive and their organizational structures also matter.

It is also important to strengthen the chain of command. Combat effectiveness, availability of weapons, knowledge of terrain and mobility also matter a lot.

The resistance has gained certain momentum over the past year, but not by forming and fighting as large battalions. It has gained momentum with resistance groups operating as a network. In some places, resistance groups were not operating as part of a network. They were fighting separately, but they have now grown as there are a large number of them fighting at the same time. To move to the next level, the chain of command is crucially important. A lot of research indicates that an armed revolution that has a chain of command has a higher chance of success than an armed revolution carried out by a network of groups.

For the revolution to reach the next stage, there are three major factors that we need to examine. How much more public support will the resistance be able to win? What sort of political strength will they be able to build? How strong a chain of command will they be able to build? I think those three factors are crucially important.

The resistance is still in the process of building a central command and coordination committee (C3C). When C3C is stronger, the NUGs three military regions will be able to launch offensives.

For the C3C to get stronger and reach the stage of a federal army, political consensus is important. I think much more remains to be done in that regard.

Some observers assess that both the morale and military capability of the junta forces are declining, citing heavy casualties and desertions. Can the military be defeated?

My view is that the military currently faces seven huge challenges. The military was said to be a strong institution. In fact, that was because it has been involved in politics for many years. The basic institution of the military is rotten inside. And that was clearly exposed when it was faced with a real challenge.

Also, the military is under an unprecedented level of international pressure. It has not yet won legitimacy on international stage.

The third challenge is that they also have to fight with the people after the coup [as well as the EAOs]. Subsequently, they are overstretched. This is the fourth challenge. It has become a burden for them as they have to fight on multiple fronts. They cant use large numbers of troops in a single place, but have to spread their forces across various regions. This has become a big challenge for the military.

The fifth challenge is that some soldiers are already questioning the leadership of the junta chief [Senior General Min Aung Hlaing].

A sixth challenge is that, since the coup, the military has continuously committed mistakes including brutal crackdowns on anti-coup protesters and violence against civilians. The way they have treated the people negatively affects their military objectives.

The seventh challenge is something we didnt expect. PDFs have sprung up strongly and, at the same time, EAOs have grown stronger. As those things constitute strong challenges, it is now difficult for the regime to put the entire country under its control.

As the regime becomes weaker, it has become crueler. Throughout history, the Myanmar military had committed cruel acts whenever its military objectives cant be fulfilled. From its ongoing brutal violence, we can conclude that the military has become weaker.
Burma Arakan Army Detains Myanmar Naval Officer

Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State / The Irrawaddy

The Arakan Army (AA) seized a captain from the Myanmar militarys Danyawaddy naval base in Rakhine States capital, Sittwe, on Thursday, according to town residents.

The captain was detained near the naval base and was reportedly in uniform and armed when abducted by the AA.

Junta soldiers searched houses following the abduction of their captain. Soldiers are driving around the town and checking road users. Some shops have closed, a Sittwe resident told The Irrawaddy on Thursday.

A large number of junta soldiers and police reportedly carried out checks in Sittwe central market, Mingan Ward and Sanpya Ward near the naval base, and also detained several residents.

The regime has also detained dozens of residents in Mrauk-U after the AA abducted four of the towns military security affairs officers on Tuesday. Schools and the central market are closed as junta troops carry out checks at intersections.

In Kyauktaw the AA abducted three policemen on Monday evening. The following day, junta troops searched houses and detained political activist Ko Zaw Win. Several others were also detained.

On June 11, the AA abducted two junta soldiers from a military checkpoint near Kisspanadi bridge in Kyauktaw. It also detained a Light Infantry Battalion 550 soldier in Ponnagyun on June 16. The regime has since detained seven civilians in Ponnagyun.

The AA detained a police sergeant from Tein Nyo Village in Mrauk-U on June 17. The ethnic armed group has detained 12 junta personnel, including eight soldiers and four police officers, since June 11.

At a June 14 press conference, AA spokesman Khaing Thukha said the groups abduction of junta soldiers was in response to regime detentions of its members. He did not say how many AA members have been abducted.

Military tensions have been running high in Rakhine State for months as the regime takes steps to thwart the AAs efforts to consolidate its control in the region.

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Burma Myanmar Resistance Claims 25 Junta Soldiers Killed

Tamu People's Defense Force. / Tamu PDF

A total of 25 Myanmar junta troops and allied militia members were killed by the peoples defense forces (PDFs) at a village in Tamu Township, Sagaing Region, on Wednesday.

Tamu PDF and the Special Task Force a resistance group attacked regime forces and pro-regime Pyu Saw Htee militia stationed at Pann Thar village in the south of the township.

Tamu PDF said the raid was in response to a junta attack that left 12 resistance fighters dead and three others in custody in Pwintbyu Township, Magwe Region, on early Wednesday.

The group called the raid Operation Swun Ye to honor resistance fighter Swun Ye who was killed at the village during a clash with regime forces last year.

A Tamu PDF representative told The Irrawaddy on Friday that 11 regime soldiers and 14 pro-regime militia members were confirmed killed in the five-hour clash. Five resistance fighters were injured.

The resistance retreated as junta reinforcement arrived and troops at a nearby village began shelling them.

On Thursday evening, resistance groups in Tamu ambushed a junta convoy of more than 12 vehicles near Yan Linn Phine village on the Kale-Tamu highway.

Tamu PDF said they only targeted junta vehicles and avoided civilians.

Two vehicles were damaged but the regime casualties are unknown. The convoy was heading to Tamu after burning houses and detaining three villagers.

On Friday, residents found their bodies after being shot by soldiers, according to the Tamu PDF.

The junta faces daily attacks from PDFs and ethnic armed organizations across the country.

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County in NW Chinas Shaanxi promotes integration of apple industry, e-commerce

People's Daily Online) 13:45, June 24, 2022

June is usually lean for apple sales in Luochuan county, Yanan city, northwest Chinas Shaanxi Province, but Zhang Xiuxiu, a local woman, sells nearly 5 tonnes of apples each day to customers across the country through her online store.

Farmers pick apples in an orchard in Luochuan county, Shaanxi Province on Aug. 28, 2019. (Photo/Xinhua)

Many locals like Zhang sell apples through e-commerce channels. Since 2013, Luochuan county has gone all out to develop its e-commerce sector with a focus on apples while promoting the transformation and upgrading of its industries. The online sales volume of apples in the county had increased from 4 million yuan (about $595,540) to more than 1.25 billion yuan in 2021.

Zong Shuanlong is one of the first groups of locals to run an online store selling apples in Luochuan. In the first year since he opened his store on Chinese online shopping site Taobao under e-commerce giant Alibaba, he received 10,000 orders of Luochuan apples, earning a net income of 30,000 yuan.

Zhang Jidong, secretary of the Communist Party of China Luochuan county committee, said e-commerce platforms have helped upgrade the countys apple industry in addition to raising the brand visibility of Luochuan apples.

Zhao Hengliang, who returned to his hometown of Luochuan 10 years ago, is now the boss of a leading e-commerce enterprise with annual sales of 100 million yuan. Zhaos livestreamers regularly hold live-streaming sessions at an apple base, where automatic sorting lines separate high-quality apples from low-quality ones. Luochuan has strengthened scientific and technological support for its apple industry as well as promoting intelligent sorting capabilities and cold-chain storage capabilities, the livestreamers introduced.

While cooperating with e-commerce platforms to formulate standards for high-quality Luochuan apples, the county launched a traceability system to ensure the quality of its apples. So far, the brand value of Luochuan apples exceeds 68.7 billion yuan.

Luochuan is home to over 700 e-commerce companies and self-employed households. There are more than 5,000 online stores in the county. The thriving e-commerce sector helps improve farmers income generated from each mu (about 0.07 hectares) of land. According to statistics, the per capita net income of apple growers in Luochuan reached 15,900 yuan in 2021. Meanwhile, the total output value of the countys apple industry surpassed 11 billion yuan last year.

Luochuan will continue to seek deeper cooperation with e-commerce platforms to achieve full integration between the digital and real economies and improve the quality and brand image of Luochuan apples, said Zhang Jing, mayor of Luochuan, adding that the county plans to increase the brand value of Luochuan apples to reach 100 billion yuan in five years.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
Burma Sagaing Civilians Killed in Random Myanmar Junta Shelling

Mortar casings shot at residential areas of Chaung-U.

Two civilians from Chaung-U in Sagaing Region were killed and four others injured by Myanmar junta artillery on Thursday.

Junta artillery hit three houses in Kyaung Yor and Aanout Maote wards in the south of the town.

The township is a resistance stronghold.

A woman in her 50s and her daughter, 25, in Kyaung Yor were killed. The womans husband in his 50s was injured in his leg.

The man was discharged from hospital this morning because he had to bury his wife and daughter, said a rescuer.

Two women aged 53 and 35 and a 32-year-old man from Aanout Maote were injured, according to the rescue team. Two of the injuries were serious. The injured civilians were treated at the militarys Northwestern Command Hospital in Monywa.

A witness told The Irrawaddy that one of the women had died in hospital but that has not been confirmed.

Soldiers shell the town at random despite the lack of any fighting. It is inhumane, said a Chaung-U resident.

The regime has been shelling villages around the town at night this week but this was the first attack on an urban area, said the resident.

The regime told residents not to go outside.

Chaung-U Township is a resistance stronghold where junta troops have conducted massive offensives since May.

Soldiers have been raiding and torching numerous villages.

Data for Myanmar, an independent group monitoring junta atrocities, reported on June 3 that an estimated 13,840 houses in Sagaing Region had been burned down since the coup.

Large numbers of civilian deaths have been reported and thousands have been displaced.

The junta on Monday shelled Yinmabin Township and injured two civilians. Three Khin-U Township civilians, including a one-year-old, were seriously injured by junta shells on Thursday.
Burma Son of Slain Villager Recalls Myanmar Junta Massacre in Sagaing

Regime troops detained Mon Taing Pin villagers at the village monastery before they were killed. / Supplied

When nearly 200 regime soldiers left Mon Taing Pin Village in Sagaing Region on May 12, Ko Thurein found his father, brother-in-law and eight other relatives who had been missing for two days.

But all ten of his family members were dead, slaughtered by junta forces along with 19 other villagers during a May 10-11 raid on the village in Ye-U Township.

Residents found 29 charred bodies in burned-out houses, as well as discovering the corpses of two resistance fighters outside the village, after the troops left. Some residents said the resistance fighters were killed while preparing explosives.

I will be holding a grudge [against the regime] until the world ends, said the twentysomething Ko Thurein, as he recalled losing his father U Aung Htoo, 50, and nine other relatives.

Military regime troops arrived in Mon Taing Pin on May 10, opening fire as they marched into the village.

When we saw soldiers advancing into our village, we were all forced to flee, said Ko Thurein.

However, around 100 villagers including women were trapped in the village monastery and were captured by the regime soldiers.

Junta troops selected male villagers under the age of 60 to be killed, tying their hands behind their backs, while releasing the women detainees and eight men aged over 60, said Ko Thurein.

All the men under 60 were slain as the soldiers thought they could be helping local Peoples Defense Forces or be members of armed resistance groups, added Ko Thurein, citing the accounts of freed detainees.

Ko Thurein said the 29 villagers were split into small groups, killed and their bodies were burned by the soldiers before they left the village on May 11. Junta troops also torched over two dozen houses in the village.

Evidence of the regimes massacre in Mon Taing Pin came to light on June 18 when Radio Free Asia and other media outlets published images and a video retrieved from the cell phone of a junta soldier who took part in the atrocity.

The photos show around thirty male villagers detained in the grounds of a monastery with their hands tied behind their backs.

Another photo shows five of the detainees, all blindfolded with their hands tied, lying on blood-stained ground in front of a group of regime troops. All five of the victims appear to have been shot or to have had their throats cut, according to the image. However, it is not clear if they are from the group detained at the Mon Taing Pin monastery.

The soldier who owned the phone is seen in the video bragging with two other soldiers about how many people they have killed and how they slaughtered them.

Another soldier in the video claims to have killed 26 people, slitting the throats of many of his victims.

I killed a man who I caught, said the soldier in the video. I buried him after chopping him into three pieces as the battalion commander ordered me to do.

The name of the source in this story has been changed for his safety.
Burma Suu Kyi's Solitary Confinement Will Backfire on Myanmar Junta: HRW

Anti-regime protesters in Pathein, Ayeyarwady Region, call for the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021. / The Irrawaddy

Human Rights Watch says the moving of detained 77-year-old State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi into solitary confinement in Naypyitaw Prison is an attempt to break her will which will backfire.

What we are seeing is the Myanmar junta moving towards a much more punitive phase, towards Aung San Suu Kyi, said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for the New York-based NGO. They are obviously trying to intimidate her and her supporters.

According to sources, the ousted leader predicted she would be transferred to prison and arranged to leave behind all her possessions not required for her trial.

Agence France-Presse reported that she remained in strong spirits after being moved from house arrest on Wednesday, quoting a legal source.

Robertson told AFP that the junta may think it is showing its strength but it will backfire and boost the resistance movement.

Ko Bo Kyi of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners told The Irrawaddy: They may think the prison is safer and maybe that it will trouble her more mentally and physically and disconnect her more from the environment.

The regime has held Daw Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest since last years coup in which her government was ousted. It followed her resounding victory in the November 2020 general election.

She has won in every election by a landslide she and her party have contested.

The junta moved her to an unknown location in Naypyitaw in April 2021 where she was accompanied by a few of her staff and her dog.

In solitary confinement, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will have three female prison staff.

The Nobel peace laureate faces numerous charges, carrying a combined sentence of over 100 years.

She remains hugely popular with the electorate.

On Sunday resistance fighters, striking civil servants, anti-regime protesters, political prisoners and expats marked her 77th birthday and called for her release.

Three days later, the state counselor was moved into solitary confinement.

Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told reporters on Thursday that the global body was very concerned for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

The juntas move goes against everything weve been calling for, which was her release and the release of all of the other political prisoners, Dujarric said.

Since the coup, the junta has detained more than 14,000 people, including elected leaders, lawmakers, activists, students, peaceful protesters and striking civil servants.
Commentary Can Aung San Suu Kyi Survive Myanmar Juntas Latest Attack?

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi

Three days after her 77th birthday, Myanmars leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi found herself in a prison of one of the most ruthless regimes in the world.

Its hard for anyone to imagine themselves in her shoesfrom a pro-democracy fighter to a prisoner, from a prisoner to the countrys elected leader, from the elected leader to a prisoner again.

At this age, she must be the unluckiest person or politician in the world to be subject to solitary confinement in prison. Worse, she is a prisoner of a brutal and wicked regime.

Thats her choice, however. Life is a choice.

If its a fault, then it has been her fault since the start. Consciously, she chose this life.

Since 1988, she has taken up the cause to fight for the countrys second independence struggle, in her own words, for her country and its people to be free from dictatorship.

She must have known that one day her life was likely to end this way.

At least, it must have occurred to her on Feb. 1, 2021 when she became a prisoner again when the military seized power after overthrowing her elected government.

As a sensible and mindful person, she must since then have prepared to spend time alone in prison.

Perhaps this time the 77-year-old was prepared for worse things, or even the worstto face death behind barsgiven the regimes lengthy sentences against her.

No doubt that is the final mission of her captors.

She should have known that the junta and its chief Min Aung Hlaing himself were planning to end the political life shes chosen, and her own life too, the one her mother brought into this world.

She has been the biggest thorn in the side of the ruling generals ever since she first shook their grip on power.

Thus, the generals tried to keep her away from politics with the punishments below:

Detaining her under house arrest for 15 years over the past three decades. Annulling the electoral victories of her party. Overthrowing her elected government. Crippling her popular party. Slaying her supporters. Sentencing her to lengthy imprisonment terms. Keeping her under house arrest until recently.

All these punishments were not enough.

Sending her to prison on Wednesday was a part of their final mission.

This time, the generals seriously intend to get rid of her, unlike before. A lucky thing for them now is her age.

Min Aung Hlaing, his deputy generals and his former senior generals as mentors will feel lucky that soon they can rest assured she will draw her very last breath in prison.

But for the people of Myanmar, they have lost their leader again after losing her repeatedly in the past following her multiple arrests.

They cant help appreciating her selfless efforts for their country. They can feel her true feeling for them. They respect her and love her. They voted for her whenever they got the chance to exercise their democratic right at polling stations.

She and her party repeatedly won landslide victories over the past three decades.She is their sole representative. She is more representative than other elected leaders around the world.

By sending their leader to prison it seems that the generals were punishing the people for voting for her.

Whatever the junta did to her was done to the Myanmar people too.

Annulling the 2020 election result was itself the juntas attack on the people who voted for her party. The junta is waging a war against the people.

The leader suffers and the people suffer too.

To err is human, and she is no exception.

She was wrong to believe in reconciliation with the military leaders. Totally wrong. But she was not alone. At that time, many believed that working with the military was the only option.

That was a general idea or concept at that timeto try, as the best option, to rebuild the country together with the countrys most powerful institution.

That notion lasted until the coup in 2021 but is now a relic of the past. The coup destroyed that political idea. People in Myanmar no longer accept it.

Another thing she was wrong about was the generals genocidal intent.

She didnt think the generals had genocidal intent when their troops committed atrocities against the Rohingya in Rakhine State in 2017.

In fact, Myanmars generals have not been professional military officers for a very long time. They long ago became a bunch of thugs killing innocent people, willing to destroy any ethnic people or any political group or party.

After the coup last year, the genocidal intent with which they killed many people indiscriminately was shown again.

The generals also proved that they are no more than a bunch of thugs. Thats what the people believe too.

So most people have given up on the idea of negotiating with these thugs at all. What they all seek is to uproot the military and found a new army to serve the people.

Thats what the people want their leader to understand too. No more reconciliation with that bunch of thugs. She must be with the people. Otherwise, she cant represent the people. But history has proved that she is always a leader of the people.

Because she is the one the thuggish generals fear most. Thats why she has been arrested and attacked much more than any other leading activist or politician in the country. She is the biggest enemy for them, as most people support her.

That means she is on the right side of the people. She has continued to fight together with the people for what the people want.

Thats why on her birthday on Sunday, even young protesters in urban areas and young resistance fighters in their military outfits celebrated her birthday as their leader.

Lets see if the ruthless generals will accomplish their final mission, which is against the peoples will. Previously, she has always survived the regimes arrests, attempts to assassinate her and all of their wicked plots against her.

She is thin but strong. She is old but determined. She is alone but mindful. She is locked up but peaceful.

Naing Khit is a commentator on political affairs.

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Six months after Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levin Cava rescinded a proposed private-public revitalization plan for the Rickenbacker Causeway over procedural concerns, and called for a restart of the procurement process (RFP), Miami Mayor Francis Suarez formally pushed on Thursday for the county to bring it back to the table.

Plan Z would've allowed a private owner, in a partnership with the count, to design, build, finance, operate and maintain the Rickenbacker Causeway, a 5.4 mile toll road that connects mainland motorists to the Miami Seaquarium, Virginia Key Beach, Miami Marine Stadium, the Basin of Biscayne Bay, Crandon Park and Crandon Park Marina and the Village of Key Biscayne.

The proposal also called for replacing the Bear Cut Bridge and upgrading bike lanes to shield the safety of cyclists.

In December, Cava wrote a memo saying that rescinding the Plan Z proposal would give the county time to determine if federal funding is available for the project, develop the proposal further, engage stakeholders more thoroughly, and complete the NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) process.

During Thursday's City of Miami Commission meeting, Suarez sponsored a resolution calling for the city to support Plan Z, and to encourage the county to restore the original plan.

The proposal also called for the Plan Z developers to consult with the city for their feedback on the projects design. Miami owns land along the causeway, including Virginia Key Beach and Miami Marine Stadium.

Suarezs proposal was deferred by the commission until July. No reason was given. Calls to the Mayor's office, City of Miami Commissioner Chairwoman King and Commissioners Carollo and Commissioner Russell seeking comment were not returned.

The Rickenbacker Causeway is regularly used by cyclists. The Plan Z proposal included a 30 foot lane for bicycles. It also called for bridges to be replaced and with a wider causeway, an observation deck and other amenities.

Architect Bernard Zyscovich designed and championed the $500 million no-bid deal in exchange for ownership of the causeway and its contracts and its tools.

Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado, whose district covers the causeway, recommended canceling the procurement process and starting over. Before Suarezs proposal was shelved for a month, she submitted a note saying the process needed a refresh, and she proposed creating a working group of key stakeholders in Key Biscayne, Miami and Miami-Dade County to set out the priorities and develop a detailed survey of all the elements to be considered in the project."

Regalado said Miami-Dade County, Key Biscayne and Miami are all interested in improving safety for all users of the Rickenbacker Causeway.

"The challenge with the unsolicited proposal was not the details of it as we never really got into those, but the process, which effectively shut down useful conversations about what we do and dont want to see happen," Regalado said in her note. "My recommendation has been to bring the major stakeholders to the table to talk about our priorities and evaluate all options.

No matter what we eventually do on the Rickenbacker, she added, we need an active partnership with the municipalities on both sides of the causeway. I welcome the citys interest in that conversation."
It was a dying rocket developed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk that was to blame for the bizarre blue spiral of light that appeared in the skies over New Zealand on Sunday, contrary to what some people thought that its source to be extraterrestrial.

Space X Rocket

Following a SpaceX launch on Sunday, New Zealander Clare Rehill noticed a bizarre blue spiral above her home, according to Space.com. On the South Island of New Zealand, she took pictures of the spiral in the sky above Queenstown. On Monday morning, she uploaded the image to Twitter and speculated that it has something to do with SpaceX.

Taken in Queenstown NZ about 30 minute's ago. Any ideas what it is? Some speculating it's got something to do with SpaceX @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/lvA2amDzGM  Clare Rehill   (@ClareRehill) June 19, 2022

And it is indeed caused by a SpaceX rocket. More specifically, the upper stage of the Falcon 9 produced the spiral. The rocket took off on Sunday at 12:27 a.m. from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station EDT, bringing into orbit a communications satellite for the Globalstar company.

Why Does the Rocket Create a Spiral Bizarre shape?

The upper stage of the Falcon 9 released remaining fuel as it dropped naturally into the Pacific Ocean, which is what caused the spiral that was seen in New Zealand.

"The upper stage was probably spinning on its longest axis to stabilize flight orientation, hence the spiral shape," Space.com reported (via Spaceweather.com). "Similar spirals have been seen after previous Falcon 9 launches."

Meanwhile, a report by the New York Post, citing the Facebook post by the New Plymouth Astronomical Society, said that a "fuel dump" or "exhaust plume" was theorized as the origin of the alien-like light phenomenon.

Read More: NASA Has Chosen the Companies That Will Help Bring Nuclear Power to the Moon

Other Instances When Rocket Launch Produce Patterns in the Sky

Other beautiful sky patterns have also been created by SpaceX launches. A "space jellyfish" appeared in the dawn sky over Florida's Space Coast on May 6 following a Falcon 9 launch of SpaceX Starlink internet satellites.

Watched an awe inspiring rocket launch this morning. Found out this phenomenon is called a space jellyfish. Pretty incredible stuff. #SpaceX pic.twitter.com/sZKW27cOpN  Andrea Hall (@amhall814) May 7, 2022

A separate Space.com report noted that the exhaust from the Falcon 9 and the timing of the launch come together to produce an effect known as a "space jellyfish."

SPACE JELLYFISH



From todays SpaceX launch. Beautiful pic.twitter.com/98mzIGHDOm  Chris Combs (@DrChrisCombs) May 6, 2022

SpaceX Conducts 3 Launches and 3 Landings in Just 3 Days

In a previous report, SpaceX has successfully completed three launches of Falcon 9 rockets and three landings in just three days. What's more amazing is that the missions were finished in less than 36 hours. This was the private spaceflight company's record for the fastest succession of launches.

The first-stage booster safely landed upright on a droneship that was waiting in the Atlantic Ocean. At 10:19 a.m. ET on June 18, the second mission officially began. Meanwhile, the launch of the Globalstar FM15 communications satellite to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral in Florida on Sunday completed the three-header. The third launch is what caused the bizarre spiral shape in the sky that we have discussed earlier.

Related Article: Giant Comet Will Make Its Closest Approach to Earth - Here's How To Watch It!
If you've ever been shopping or received packages or been in a warehouse chances are youve already seen a Zebra Technologies device. The company provides enterprise mobile computers - small handhelds - for business, scanning, retail, healthcare, and more. It is the device and software that allows staff to walk around a store helping customers with price checks, for example.

Yet, it's much more, and Zebra's Workforce Connect software - which can run on all kinds of handhelds, not only Zebras devices - puts the full power of a PABX into the hands of your factory and floor workers, as well as your drivers, delivery people, and anyone and everyone.

Daniel Park speaks about the software here and provides a great demonstration of how your teams can stay connected, can assign tasks, and also can remain protected with built-in emergency functionality.

The software makes it super simple for your workers to pick up a handheld, sign in, and be productive wherever they might be. There is a raft of accessories too to suit different needs, such as an earpiece and push-to-talk button for floor workers, or Bluetooth car kits for delivery drivers.

Customers include leading supermarkets and retailers so next time youre shopping take a look at the devices the staff use and you may well see Zebra in action for yourself. Ultimately, the Zebra Technologies ecosystem provides an efficient workflow for your staff to keep in touch, resolve issues, maximise customer service, and more - all from wherever they are. It makes communication free-flowing and can close the communication gap in all kinds of industries.

Zebra Technologies' Workforce Connect is a SaaS product meaning you continually receive updates. Speak with your local Zebra dealer for more information.

See Dan's demonstration here:
Seventeen telco service providers whose stakeholders comprise the majority of Australian families have taken action against domestic and family violence.

Telstra, Optus, TPG Telecom, Vocus, and Aussie Broadband worked with Telco Together Foundation as part of the Industry Impact Hub to develop the Action Framework, released last April 2022.

ATN/Axicom, Uniti, MoreTelecom, TangerineTelecom, C9 Communications, Globe Telecom, Corp Centre, Emutel, Hungry Lab, Lightning Broadband, Multipli and Real World Technology Solutions have joined.

"There is no simple solution to the growing domestic and family violence crisis society is facing, but a telco industry framework is a step towards lasting change. We all deserve to live in a community that is equal and free, and Telstra is committed to ensuring anyone experiencing domestic and family violence has access to safe and secure communications, said Telstra CEO Andy Penn.

The Action Framework has received support from growing telcos too.

This issue is relevant to us all, as people and organisations. This Framework is a great help. It gives us a process to follow, and covers the subject from many angles. We want to support our customers and employees well and now have the means to continually improve how we do that, said Lightning Broadband CEO Jeremy Rich.

Telco CEOs have also signed the Telco Industry DFV Pledge to support customers and employees who are either DFV victim-survivors or are supporting someone who is.

This commitment includes their creation of a DFV Action Plan using the Telco Industry DFV Action Framework to inform their approach.

The Action Plan is one of four commitments the CEO of each company has made by signing the DFV Pledge.

The other three being: dedicating resources, continuing to learn and review (particularly in relation to technology-facilitated-abuse) and collaborating, to further build best practice.

The DFV Action Framework brings together guidance and expertise from government, industry and DFV front-line agencies, into one practical and easy to follow process for continually improving support for customer and employee DFV victim-survivors.

The Adapt, Embed, Tailor and Influence Action Plan templates within the Framework enable telcos across Australia to better-support their customers and employees regardless of the telcos current knowledge of the subject, company size or business structure.

Telco Together Foundation executive director Renee Bowker explained the motivation behind the development of the framework.

Telcos are often one of the first ports of call for people experiencing DFV, looking to ensure continuation of service and appropriate privacy measures. This complex insidious social issue is often not visible, and technology-facilitated abuse is ever-adapting. It is essential that telcos and their employees understand the influence they can potentially have on reducing instances of DFV and supporting victims/survivors, Bowker says.

It was important for us to acknowledge and reference the extensive work already done in this area by Communications Alliance, eSafety, the TIO, Wesnet and others, but to add a framework that make it easier for telcos of any size to be able to understand the difference they can make in this important issue.

Telco Together Foundation general manager Warren Sainsbury explained the approach of the foundations Impact Hub.

Our members are unanimous that industry-wide approaches can be undertaken to create positive leadership to support victim-survivors and reduce incidents of domestic and family violence. This DFV Action Framework is the result of two years collaboration, consultation and research, to arrive at a tool that provides support to telcos, their customers and employees, Sainsbury said.

This first appeared in the subscription newsletter CommsWire on 23 June 2022.
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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.
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Sherri Delynn Cook, 43, was an inmate at the Duffield Regional Jail when she died May 20. A medical examiner's report states that Cook's death was an accident caused by "subdural hemorrhage with methamphetamine toxicity contributing."
One of the problems we have in particular in this war, is that Russia is the aggressor and that obviously no war crimes or violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) would have happened without the Russian aggression. But nevertheless, International Humanitarian Law has the same application to both sides, says Marco Sassoli, a Professor of International Law at the University of Geneva in Switzerland and one of three independent experts who submitted a report to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

This OSCE report is the first independent one published on Violations of International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law, War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity committed in Ukraine since February 24, when the Russian Federation launched its aggression.

The OSCE mission found clear patterns of IHL violations by the Russian forces on many of the issues investigated, says the report. This concerns in particular their conduct of hostilities, it continues. It is not conceivable that so many civilians would have been killed and injured and so many civilian objects, including houses, hospitals, cultural property, schools, multi-story residential buildings, administrative buildings, penitentiary institutions, police stations, water stations and electricity systems would have been damaged or destroyed if Russia had respected its IHL obligations in terms of distinction, proportionality and precautions in conducting hostilities in Ukraine.

The report says that some violations and problems were also identified regarding practices of Ukraine. The mission says it is in particular concerned about the treatment of prisoners of war, originally considered criminals, and treated in ways that are incompatible with Geneva Convention III [on prisoners of war].

Prisoners of War

The report raises serious concerns about treatment of prisoners of war on both the Russian and Ukrainian side. These include lack of transparency on numbers and failure to grant access to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which, under International Humanitarian Law defined by the Geneva Conventions, should be the sole body for registering them, informing their families, and visiting them. Both Russia and Ukraine have signed the Geneva Conventions.

The ICRC said on June 3 that while we have been able to visit some prisoners of war, the parties are yet to give us access to them all. And some is not enough.

With regard to Ukrainian violations of IHL and possible war crimes, the OSCE report cites in particular the parading of Russian prisoners on social media in the early days of the war, and a video apparently showing Ukrainian forces shooting captured Russian soldiers in the legs, also denounced by Human Rights Watch. Even more serious were subsequent media reports including Al Jazeeras and the New York Times of captured Russian soldiers apparently being executed by Ukrainian forces.

With regard to the parading of Russian prisoners on social media, Sassoli says that there were all kinds of pictures on social media and they said we are prisoners, and I'm sorry, and Putin is a criminal and dear mother, please fight against him and all these things, which obviously can put a person into danger and also the family. Human Rights Watch said that Ukrainian authorities should stop and prevent posting on social media and messaging apps videos of captured Russian soldiers, in particular those that show them being humiliated or intimidated.

Sassoli says exposing prisoners of war to public curiosity is a violation of IHL, but not a war crime. War crimes fall under IHL, Sassoli explains, but not all violations of IHL are war crimes. For example, keeping prisoners under the auspices of the Prosecutor as if they were all criminals, rather than in military-controlled camps, is a violation of IHL but not a war crime. Even not providing a canteen in a camp is a violation of IHL, for which States could be sanctioned internationally, but not individuals, he says.

However, maiming, torturing or executing captured soldiers would be a war crime if proven and if individual responsibility can be established, he told Justice Info. There is also command responsibility, but that is often even more difficult to prove in a court of law.

Treatment of prisoners of war is governed by the Third Geneva Convention and is effective from the moment of capture. It includes obligations to treat them humanely at all times. Wilfully killing, mistreating or torturing them is a war crime, as is wilfully causing great suffering or injury to health. No torture or other form of coercion may be inflicted on them to obtain information.

Ukraine promises to investigate

Videos posted online early on March 27, 2022 appear to show Ukrainian forces abusing captured Russian fighters or combatants, who have prisoner of war status, including shooting three of them in the leg, says Human Rights Watch. The incident appears to have taken place in a village near the city of Kharkiv, which Ukrainian officials had announced retaking two days earlier. A BBC investigation, while not conclusive, found indications that the video could not be dismissed as fake. The BBC quoted Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, as saying there would be an immediate investigation and reminding all our military, civilians and defence forces that abusing prisoners of war is a war crime".

However, Oleksander Pavlichenko, director of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, told Justice Info from Kyiv that he had received this video, checked it and found it to be fake, though he did not specify how he came to this conclusion. He said he had submitted it to the office of the national prosecutor and they came to the same conclusion. He said he had also asked the authorities if there were prisoners of war with corresponding leg wounds, and the answer was no.

But Nadia Volkova, founder and director of the Ukrainian Legal Advisory Group, is sceptical. They dont investigate, they never have, she told Justice Info from western Ukraine where she was forced to flee from Kyiv because of the war. On this issue, since 2015 [general prosecutors] always pretend that this part does not exist. There are investigations of the Russian side, but not a single one of the Ukrainian side.

Ukraine has been involved in a war with Russian separatists in the east of the country since 2014 and there have also been allegations of Ukrainian atrocities there. Volkova says former Deputy Prosecutor Gunduz Mamedov was well aware of the issue and that it was politically sensitive. He knew these investigations needed to be opened and he opened them. But they never reached trial stage. He resigned from his post in July 2021, citing "deliberately-created difficult working conditions".

The most serious incident, reported by the New York Times on April 6, involves apparent executions of captured Russian soldiers. The newspaper says it verified the video, which appears to show a group of Ukrainian soldiers killing captured Russian troops outside a village west of Kyiv on or around March 30. It writes that the video was filmed on a road just north of the village of Dmytrivka, around seven miles southwest of Bucha, where the discovery of hundreds of corpses of people in civilian clothes has prompted accusations that Russian troops killed civilians as they retreated. The paper quotes a Ukrainian soldier saying in the video that these are not even humans. The BBC also conducted an investigation into this video.

Again Ukraine promised to investigate. But while Ukraine has already held some war crimes trials of captured Russian soldiers, progress remains unclear on probes of its own forces. Pavlichenko told Justice Info he was not aware of that video. He said that any credible allegations of war crimes by Ukrainian forces should also be investigated and prosecuted.

Ukrainian Prosecutor General should do it

Sassoli stresses that the OSCE investigation in which he took part only went up to April 1. But, he says, by then Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova had already opened 4,000 investigations for war crimes. We specifically asked how many of them are against Ukrainians and we received the answer that there were some cases of Ukrainians who collaborated with the Russian troops but there was not one single case of Ukrainians who were fighting for Ukraine, he told Justice Info. This is regrettable, because obviously it would be much easier to prosecute them. In the general atmosphere, not only in Ukraine but also in Switzerland, when you say something about Russian victims you are seen as someone who somehow excuses Putin. We understand that you will not be very popular as Prosecutor in Ukraine if you start to prosecute Ukrainian soldiers. But she should do it.

He also thinks that Western states should emphasize this. A lot of Western states are helping the Ukrainian prosecutor in the investigations, including the United Kingdom, notes Sassoli. Once I had a meeting over Zoom with their team based in Poland. The Attorney General of the UK was there and everyone was speaking about these horrible Russian war crimes, and I told them perhaps you could also try to explain to the Ukrainian prosecutors that they should also prosecute Ukrainian war crimes. They did not react, but my impression was that they looked at me as if I was trying to defend Putins aggression.
British investigators have accused a former human rights lawyer of fraud in relation to war crime claims against UK soldiers during the Iraq conflict, the National Crime Agency said Friday.

British soldiers served alongside other countries' forces in the US-led invasion that began in 2003 and led to the fall of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Ex-lawyer Phil Shiner, 65, is facing fraud charges relating to legal aid claims made in 2007 and information provided to the Solicitors Regulation Authority in 2015, the NCA said in a statement.

He is due to appear in court in central London on Monday, it added.

British troops involved in the conflict faced accusations including rape, torture and mock executions.

A probe into the allegations in 2020 cleared thousands of soldiers and an investigation into the claims closed without a single prosecution, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said in October.

A British tribunal struck off Shiner after finding him guilty of misconduct and dishonesty in connection with the allegations in 2017.
A former Liberian army commander accused of murdering civilians has been arrested in the United States and charged with immigration fraud over lying about his activities during the country's first civil war.

The US Attorney's Office on Thursday said 69-year-old Moses Slanger Wright, a former commanding general of the Armed Forces of Liberia who has been residing in Philadelphia, had been charged with fraud and perjury in relation to his attempts to obtain US citizenship.

"The defendant, when applying for US citizenship, was not truthful about his activities during Liberia's First Civil War," it said in a statement.

The indictment accuses Wright of either personally committing or ordering soldiers to commit "numerous atrocities", including murdering, assaulting, persecuting, falsely arresting and imprisoning civilians.

Wright was arrested Thursday and made his first appearance in federal court the same day, a spokeswoman for the US Attorney's Office said.

If convicted, he faces a maximum possible sentence of 165 years in prison and a $7,000,000 fine.

Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission has accused Wright and others of massacring 27 Mano and Gio civilians in June 1990.

Liberia's first civil war raged from 1989 to 1997 and, together with the second civil war from 1999 to 2003, claimed around a quarter of a million lives.

The Liberian army fought various rebel groups, including Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia.

Despite regular appeals to establish a war crimes court, very few people have faced trial for war crimes or crimes against humanity committed in Liberia.

"Those who took innocent people's lives during the civil war -- those who heartlessly killed kids, tortured the elderly ones -- need to face justice," Adama Dempster, a Liberian rights campaigner, told AFP after the news of Wright's arrest.

The former army commander was granted asylum in the United States in 2000, and in 2013 applied for citizenship.

According to the US Attorney's Office, his application included false denials, including over whether he had ever persecuted any person because of race, religion or political opinion, and whether he had ever commited a crime or offence for which he was not arrested.

"Wright sought to escape to the United States and start anew, where he lied about his appalling wartime conduct on federal immigration forms and to the faces of US officials," United States Attorney Jacqueline Romero said.

His case is the fourth public criminal prosecution in Philadelphia in connection with the Liberian civil wars, according to rights group Civitas Maxima.
While some of the richest personalities like Elon Musk and Bill Gates became successful despite being university dropouts, these stars left school to pursue their passion. From Jeon Jong Seo to Lee Yi Kyung and more, here are Korean celebrities who made it big in the industry despite being a dropout.

Jeon Jeong Seo

She has been labeled as the industry's rising star but Jeon Jeong Seo has already formed a reputation for herself since her debut in 2018.

The actress was among the lead stars of the thriller-mystery movie "Burning," alongside Yoo Ah In and "Walking Dead's" Steven Yeun. All eyes were on Jeon Jong Seo after her big-screen debut made it to the Cannes Film Festival.

After four years and several awards as an actress, the 27-year-old beauty will be headlining one of 2022's much-awaited remakes. She will portray the feisty gang member Tokyo in "Money Heist: Korea," joining Yoo Ji Tae, Park Hae Soo, and more.

However, Jeon Jong Seo was a university dropout before solidifying her name in the industry.

Born in Seoul, she was raised in Canada, where she spent most of her early years in school at Maple Country. She returned to her homeland to finish high school at the prestigious Anyang Arts High School.

After high school, she entered Sejong University and took film and theater as her major.

As mentioned by the Korean Film Council website, "she eventually decided to stop after a year as she didn't feel particularly interested in the kind of lectures that were offered there".

Instead, she had private classes in acting to hone her skills.

Lee Yi Kyung

Best known for his remarkable role in "School 201," "Welcome to Waikiki," and being the one of the funniest actors in the industry, Lee Yi Kyung once shared why he quit school at a young age.

During his 2019 appearance in JTBC's "Please Take Care of My Refrigerator," the actor recalled the time when he chose to leave school.

According to a report, he revealed that it was his father's recommendation to drop out from school due to an injury,

"My father recommended I drop out. I used to play a sport but had to quit after an injury. I suffered from a mental illness after losing my dream," he said.

Lee Yi Kyung had to stop studying to focus on his recovery because, at the time, he was also suffering from depression. His father, the CEO of LG Innotek Lee Ung Beom, then encouraged him to live the way he wanted and allowed him to quit school.

Kim Sae Ron

One of the successful child stars of her generation is Kim Sae Ron.

She snagged her first-ever acting trophy, Best New Actress, at the 8th Korean Film Awards for her performance in "The Man from Nowhere." In 2018, she shared that she dropped out of school to "try something different."

As cited by a media outlet, the actress explained that she went to an art school and wanted to transfer to the Department of Theater and Film for college.

"If I did that, I would be studying acting for 6-7 years," she said, adding, "I wanted to study something different during my high school days, so I decided to drop out."

Unfortunately, the actress was recently involved in a controversy involving DUI charges.

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Written by Geca Wills
Choi Sooyoung set the internet into a frenzy after she dyed her hair blonde. In the latest fashion brand event in Seoul, the idol-actress ensnared the attention of many with her look!

Keep on reading for all the details.

Choi Sooyoung Exudes Elegance During Bottega Veneta Event

SNSD's Sooyoung attended the newly launched collection of the famous Italian luxury fashion brand Bottega Veneta. The event happened at Shinsegae Department Store in Gangnam on the afternoon of June 23.

Clad in a simple sleeveless black dress, Choi Sooyoung became the star of the night as her blonde hair complemented her outfit, making the actress look classy.

The "Run On" star shared pieces of snaps taken on the fashion event. Sooyoung confidently flaunted her natural beauty.

Hundreds of compliments poured into the comment section of her Instagram post. In less than 24 hours, the images have now surpassed more than 200,000 likes.

Fans also got overly excited for Sooyoung's new hair color as it hints at the upcoming comeback of the legendary girl group Girls' Generation this August.

SNSD Sooyoung to Reportedly Lead New Webtoon-Based Drama 'NamNam'

On June 22, media outlets announced that Choi Sooyoung, alongside Jeon Hye Jin, is courted to lead the forthcoming drama adaptation of the webtoon-based story "NamNam." It focuses on the relationship between a mother and a daughter.

In addition, the actresses' respective agencies confirmed that Sooyoung and Hye Jin are considering the project offer. Once the casting has been finalized, the production will officially start filming the series.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: SNSD's Sooyoung Offered To Lead New Webtoon-Based Drama

Adding to her next small-screen project is the healing and based on a true story series, "If You Say Your Wish." The model-actress will transform into a nurse named Seo Yeon Joo, who takes care of the patients at the hospice.

Korean heartthrob Ji Chang Wook and veteran actor Sung Dong Il are also confirmed to share the same frame with Choi Sooyoung for the first time.

Where To Watch SNSD Sooyoung

While waiting for her much-awaited comeback, you can check out and watch the celebrity's past works, such as "Dating Agency: Cyrano," "My Blooming Days," "Squad 38," "A Man Who Sets the Table," "A Person You May Know," "So I Married an Anti-Fan," and more.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: Is It True? Jung Kyung Ho Preparing To Marry SNSD's Sooyoung

Before her back-to-back projects to release in August, K-drama and K-pop fans can get the latest updates from SNSD's Sooyoung on her Instagram @sooyoungchoi.

What are your thoughts about Choi Sooyoung's new blonde hair? Tell us in the comments!

For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity updates, follow and subscrine to KDramastars.

KDramastars owns this article.

Shai Collins wrote this.
"Eve" episode 8 showcased an intense confrontation between Seo Ye Ji and Yoo Sun's characters. In addition, the tvN revenge series hit its all-time highest rating as the drama reached the second half. Keep on reading for all the details.

'Eve' Viewership Rating

Seo Ye Ji's new drama concluded the first season with soaring viewership ratings.

According to Nielsen Korea, "Eve" episode 8 garnered an average nationwide rating of 4.141 percent, making it the drama's highest since it premiered.

The ratings will increase as the Kdrama reaches its second half, featuring unexpected twists and turns with the story.

'Eve' Episode 8 Highlights: Lee Ra El Gets the Upper Hand Over Han So Ra

Han So Ra is at the edge of her sanity after discovering that her husband, Kang Yoon Kyum, is having an affair. Following the car chase, she made Chairman Kang and her father not only disappointed but furious as she put their name in shame.

With this, she is even more determined to figure out who the is mistress and make her pay.

In "Eve" episode 8, her father's men, including his right hand, Vice President Kim Jung Cheol, abducted the female bodyguard that Chairman Kang asked to protect Kim Sun Bin or Lee Ra El. They beat her up, thinking she would spill the woman's identity.

Kim Jung Cheol saw her phone and handed it to Han So Ra. Here, she discovers that a certain "V.I.P" is her husband's mistress.

The "V.I.P" which happens to be Lee Ra El, asks Han So Ra to feed the female bodyguard. In return, she will show up at Han So Ra's daughter's birthday.

Kim Sun Bin Reveals Her Identity

In the eighth episode, Kim Sun Bin revealed that she was the mistress. After her grand entrance, Han So Ra thought that he "V.I.P" was a coward and decided not to reveal herself.

To her surprise, the mistress is none other than Kim Sun Bin. Because the two are in a public place, Han So Ra tries to calm down Sun Bin despite wanting to beat her.

Interestingly, she also reveals Chairman Kang knew who she was and that she was the third party in their relationship.

With this, Sun Bin explained that it would be his last time to see her. However, for Lee Ra El, it only meant something big was happening.

Despite their relationship being exposed, Kang Yoon Kyum still wanted to stand by Kim Sun Bin as he fell head over heels with her charm, not knowing it was all part of her plan.

Viewers get to see more of the revenge drama as "Eve" episode 9 will air on June 29 via tvN and subtitles through Viki.

KDramastars owns this article

Written by Geca Wills
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The U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade Friday morning, now empowering an 1849 Wisconsin law banning abortion in most circumstances.

The Wisconsin abortion ban makes it a felony for doctors to perform an abortion unless the mothers life is in danger, with no exceptions for rape or incest. According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS), 6,430 people in the state had an abortion in 2020.

The controversial announcement received mixed reactions from local and state leaders and organizations, with some celebrating it as a landmark decision defending the right to life and others criticizing it as a step backward for womens rights. In Wisconsin, some health experts warned of unfortunate consequences from the states 1849 abortion ban law.

State Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine, compared the original Roe v. Wade decision to the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation, and praised the new ruling.

Like millions of Americans, I believe Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided 50 years ago, Wanggaard said. It took the Court some time to recognize and correct their error, but in both cases the Supreme Court eventually came to the correct result. As a result, the issue of abortion has returned to the states, were it belongs. I, for one, am proud that Wisconsin has recognized the sanctity of life since its founding.

State Sen. Bob Wirch, D-Somers, called the current Supreme Court radically right-wing for choosing to throw out 50 years of precedent and settled law.

This is a sad day and I dont believe that government should get in between women and their doctors when it comes to decisions, Wirch said. This is an arbitrary decision by the Supreme Court that the voters will remember in November.

State Rep. Tod Ohnstad, D-Kenosha, criticized the Republican-controlled state legislature for gaveling in and out during a special session called by Gov. Tony Evers to repeal the 1849 abortion ban. He said he would continue to fight for womens rights.

The decision to overturn Roe v. Wade turns the clock in Wisconsin back over 150 years, with all abortions criminalized in our state  with no exceptions to rape or incest, Ohnstad said. All these cases are now at risk with this decision. This decision is more than just an attack on Roe, it is the beginning of the attack on all kinds of our rights.

Thomas suggests other rights be reconsidered

In addition to the majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that court rulings establishing gay rights and contraception rights should also be reconsidered, writing that they were demonstrably erroneous decisions.

Rep. Tip McGuire, D-Kenosha, said the Supreme Court decision stuck against the promise of this nations founding that its citizens would have freedom from government. McGuire also criticized the state legislature for not repealing the Wisconsin abortion ban.

Today is a dark day for our nation, and in particular, for our state, which is suddenly thrust into the laws of 1849 against the will of our people, McGuire said. This flies in the face of the well-established freedoms of Wisconsinites, and against our states motto: Forward. We can and must protect the fundamental right of women to make intimate decisions and choose their own futures as the Constitution intended.

U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Janesville, whose district includes all of Racine and Kenosha counties said the decision was a great victory for life.

Im proudly pro-life. Todays decision will bring this important issue back to the states, Steil said.

Tanya McClean, executive director of Leaders of Kenosha, was highly critical of the decision and warned it would disproportionately affect Black and brown people.

It saddens me to see protections rolled back so far. Were going back to the 1850s, McClean said. All the blood, sweat and tears people have put in to make sure women have protections has been wasted.

Despite the setback, McClean said she and many others will continue to advocate for reproductive rights.

Were going to continue to fight for whats right, and make sure women receive the services they need, McClean said. This fight is not over, this is our lives.

Many consequences

Health experts warned about the various consequences the decision would have in Wisconsin, where an 1849 abortion ban that they described as vague went into effect, ending all abortion clinic services as of Friday.

UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health Professor Jenny Higgins, speaking in her capacity as a social scientist, said that performing an abortion was a felony under the 1849 law.

Its unclear to what degree this law is enforceable, Higgins said.

Whether the person receiving an abortion, or someone who performs a self-managed abortion such as with pills, is also liable to be charged is uncertain, and Higgins predicted the issue will be fought in courts for years.

The Wisconsin law does not prohibit residents from travelling to other states to receive an abortion, but Higgins warned that Illinois services wouldnt be an adequate substitute, with Illinois clinics already seeing long wait times before the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

And for people of color and non-white communities, which Higgins said typically have higher abortion rates than white communities and historically less access to reproductive care, the ban will be especially damaging.

Denial of desired abortion care has negative health impacts, Higgins said.

According to one study, Higgins said, carrying an unwanted pregnancy to birth was 18 times as risky for the parent compared to a first trimester abortion.

UW-Madison Assistant Professor Laura Jacques, an OB-GYN, warned that the Wisconsin law would impact all pregnant people, not just those seeking abortions. The ban allows abortions only in cases where the pregnancy puts the mothers life at risk.

There are many conditions which pose a threat to a patients life, Jacques said. The question is now, if the threat is imminent enough to stop potential prosecution.

Doctors and nurses who care for pregnant people, Jacques said, will now have to make decisions with the underlying worry of prosecution or even imprisonment.

Every decision we make for the first 22 weeks of pregnancy, we will have to make with this law in mind, Jacques said. When is it okay to intervene to help that patient? When theyre at deaths door? Or earlier?

Michael Phegely, an attorney and a associate professor at Carthage College, said that some of the blame should lie in the federal government and Democrats over the past decades who failed to codify the rights of Roe into federal law despite clear efforts to undermine and ultimately overturn the decision.

Nobody did anything, Phegely said. This falls on both parties.

To Phegely, the new decision was technically legally correct, but the suddenness of the reversal has left some states, where abortion laws have been left largely unchanged for decades or even centuries, in a legal limbo overnight.

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While Jehovahs Witnesses have chosen to temporarily suspend their door-to-door ministry because of the pandemic, their activity was almost permanently banned by one U.S. village in the late 1990s, until a historic 8-1 U.S. Supreme Court decision on June 17, 2002 declared the ordinance unconstitutional.

Kenosha residents reflected on what an unfavorable ruling might have meant for them, if one of their neighbors had not knocked on their door and shared a life-changing message with them.

I had been diagnosed with an illness and was searching for answers, Kenosha resident Mark LeServe said. Then, in 2007, Jehovahs Witnesses knocked on his door and answered his questions from the book he wanted answers from, the Bible.

Constitutional scholars marvel at the outsized impact the decision has had on the protection of free speech for all, agreeing with Justice Antonin Scalias opinion in the case, The free-speech claim exempts everybody, thanks to Jehovahs Witnesses.

Looking back on the two decades since the decision, its clear to see the wide-ranging impact that Watchtower v. Stratton has had on free speech for all, said Josh McDaniel, director of the Religious Freedom Clinic at the Harvard Law School. This is just the latest of some 50 Supreme Court victories by Jehovahs Witnesses that have helped establish and broaden First Amendment jurisprudence throughout the last century.

The 2002 Supreme Court decision in Watchtower v. Village of Stratton affirmed that a local village ordinance in Stratton, Ohio, requiring a permit to knock on doors violated the rights of any person who wanted to engage in free speech with their neighbor, including Jehovahs Witnesses who practice door-to-door evangelizing.

The Court overturned two lower court rulings that upheld the ordinance, and thus paved the way for all citizens to maintain open dialogue with their neighbors on any number of issues, including environmental, civic, political or educational ones.

Center of controversyThe Village of Stratton became a center of controversy in 1998 after the mayor personally confronted four Jehovahs Witnesses as they were driving out of the village after visiting a resident. Subsequently, the village enacted the ordinance Regulating Uninvited Peddling and Solicitation Upon Private Property, which required anyone wishing to engage in door-to-door activity to obtain a permit from the mayor or face imprisonment.

Jehovahs Witnesses viewed this ordinance as an infringement of freedom of speech, free exercise of religion and freedom of press, and brought a lawsuit in federal court after the village refused to change their enforcement of the ordinance.

Our motive for initiating the case was clear: We wanted to remove any obstacle that would prevent us from carrying out our scriptural obligation to preach the good news of the Kingdom, said Robert Hendriks, U.S. spokesperson for Jehovahs Witnesses. Making it a criminal offense to talk with a neighbor without seeking government approval is offensive to many people, but particularly to God who commanded Christians to preach the gospel.

While LeServe continues to engage in a productive ministry through letter writing, phone calling and virtual visits, he looks forward to knocking on doors again to give people the same opportunity Jehovah gave me, he said.

We are thankful that we have the legal right to practice our ministry from door-to-door, Hendriks said. When the time is right and conditions are safe, we hope to visit our neighbors in person once again.

The legal victory is one of more than 250 rulings in cases brought by Jehovahs Witnesses in high courts around the world that have expanded the rights of people of all religious faiths.

Its hard to point to any organization, let alone a religious organization, that has had such a profound impact on the shaping of constitutional law over many decades in the Supreme Court, Harvards Professor Josh McDaniel said.

More information on the Stratton case can be found on the Jehovahs Witness website, at jw.org, by searching Stratton.

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President Joe Bidens May trip to Northeast Asia rightly received extensive media coverage. By contrast, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austins June journey to Southeast Asia has received much less.

Too bad. Asia has enormous strategic importance. President Richard Nixon deserves special credit for achieving direct U.S. ties with China.

Singapore, a main Austin stop, hosted the nineteenth in a series of conferences there sponsored by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). Established in 1958 by the Ford Foundation, IISS is respected for providing reliable information on military developments worldwide, plus in-depth analyses of international security and strategic challenges

Chinas defense minister also attended the conference, along with leaders from the Indo-Pacific region. Early this month, President Biden hosted a U.S. ASEAN (Association of Southeast Nations) meeting in Washington D.C.

In Singapore, Austin met with Indonesia Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto. A fortunate meeting, because that nation provides powerful evidence regarding Asias future course.

Indonesia held the largest one-day free elections in the world in April 2019. President Joko Widodo enjoyed reelection for a second term by a majority.

In 2018, a Gallup Poll found that an unprecedented 75 percent of Indonesians believed elections are honest. This is the highest percentage ever, in a long-term upward trend in public confidence, following a troubled national history.

Gruesome earlier events provide graphic, important context. In May 2018, the Islamic State conducted bloody terrorist attacks in Surabaya, Indonesias second largest city.

Terrorism is persistent though not frequent in Indonesia. In a 2016 attack, four people died. In 2002, the worst attack killed 202 people on Bali, including many foreign tourists.

Indonesias election took place in the worlds largest nation with a Muslim majority. Trade routes and commodities provide Indonesia with great strategic significance.

Washington has the opportunity to highlight Indonesia, and neighboring nations, as success stories of expanding political stability, modernization and the rule of law. In 1998, opponents forced Indonesias long-time autocratic president and former general Muhammad Suharto from power. Since then, the nation has had representative government.

Indonesias international conflicts today are largely technical and legal, notably the maritime disputes that involve the nations of East and Southeast Asia. Dictatorship has ended, though corruption remains a problem.

During the height of the Cold War, Indonesia enjoyed status as a pivotal power among Third World nations. Flamboyant nationalist President Sukarno played the Soviet Union and the United States off against one another. CIA efforts to bring Sukarno down were frustrated, and boomeranged.

During the 1960s, cooperation between Indonesia and the Soviet Union expanded exponentially. This development, vital in the massive U.S. military intervention in Vietnam in 1965, is rarely mentioned today.

British forces, with Australian and New Zealand allies, defeated Indonesian attacks on Malaysia. Earlier, Britain defeated an aggressive, virulent Communist insurgency in Malaya, which today is part of Malaysia.

Britains military avoided massive firepower, in contrast to the U.S. in Vietnam, especially from 1965. To be sure, the British military employed air strikes and artillery, but relatively selectively. Officials rightly regarded heavy bombing as counterproductive. Given American preferences for firepower and technology, we should keep this fundamental lesson always in mind.

With todays firm foundation, the United States has promising opportunities. Stronger Indonesia ties can leverage influence and investment throughout the enormous Asia regions. Meanwhile, our veterans, especially of the Vietnam War, should feel pride in this long-term success.

We can continue that success if we demonstrate discipline  and maturity.

Arthur I. Cyr is the author of After the Cold War (Macmillan/Palgrave and NYU) and other books. His column appears weekly. Contact acyr@carthage.edu

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China delivers 2nd Type 054A/P frigate to Pakistan

13:52, June 24, 2022 By Liu Xuanzun ( Global Times

The PNS Taimur, the second of four Type 054A/P frigates China built for Pakistan, is commissioned at the Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard in Shanghai on June 23, 2022. Photo: Courtesy of the Pakistan Navy

China delivered the second of four powerful Type 054A/P frigates to the Pakistan Navy on Thursday, highlighting the friendship between the two neighboring countries, which serves as a pillar of peace and stability in the region.

The PNS Taimur was commissioned at the Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard in Shanghai, the Global Times learned from the Pakistan Navy on Thursday.

The PNS Taimur is the second of four Type 054 A/P frigates China built for the Pakistan Navy. The first Type 054A/P frigate, the PNS Tughril, joined the Pakistan Navy Fleet in January. The other two are under construction in China.

As a technologically advanced and highly capable sea asset, the PNS Taimur has high-tech weapons and sensors, and the latest combat management and electronic warfare systems to fight in multi-threat environments, according to a press release the Pakistan Navy sent to the Global Times.

The ships will give a sustainable boost to the combat capability of the Pakistan Navy and enable it to meet emerging challenges in the domain of maritime security and regional peace, read the press release.

Zhang Junshe, a senior research fellow at the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Naval Military Studies Research Institute, told the Global Times that the Type 054A, on which the Type 054A/P is based, is China's most advanced frigate.

The induction of state-of-the-art Type 054 A/P frigates will significantly enhance the Pakistan Navy's capabilities in strengthening the defense of sea frontiers, said Commodore Rashid Mehmood Sheikh, head of the Pakistan Navy Mission in China, who attended the commissioning ceremony as chief guest.

He praised the concerted efforts made by the Chinese shipbuilding industry and the PLA Navy for the landmark achievement of prompt delivery of the well-equipped and potent frigate.

It was also highlighted in the ceremony that China and Pakistan are cognizant of the changing geopolitical environment and are taking effective measures to deal with the added responsibilities and evolving challenges together, and that friendship between the two countries is a pillar of peace and stability in the region, the press release said.

When the Pakistan Navy inducted the first Type 054A/P frigate, the President of Pakistan Dr Arif Alvi said that the Type 054A/Ps will not only serve to reinforce the security architecture of Pakistan's maritime zones across the country's maritime border, but also help safeguard the sea routes of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Admiral Muhammad Amjad Khan Niazi, the Pakistani Chief of the Naval Staff, said at the time that the Pakistan Navy's responsibilities have grown manyfold since the inception of the CPEC and the development of its associated maritime infrastructure and Gwadar Port.

(Web editor: Liang Jun, Hongyu)
Irish Water is asking people served by the Bennettsbridge water supply to be mindful of their water usage in the coming weeks as increased demand during the warmer weather and lower-than-average rainfall levels have caused levels to drop in local water sources.

Irish Water and Kilkenny County Council are closely monitoring the water levels and taking remedial measures to maintain normal supplies but the public is being asked to assist by taking some simple steps to reduce their water use.

James OToole of Irish Water said that the company is appealing to residents and businesses in the Bennettsbridge area to be mindful of how they use their water, as we have had a very dry period recently.

"It can sometimes be difficult to know where to start, but even small changes can make a significant difference  and we can all play our part," he said.

Irish Water have developed an easy-to-use conservation calculator so they can work out how much water they are currently saving and how they can conserve even more.

The free calculator is available on 'www.water.ie/calculator' where you can also find lots of useful water saving tips.

The Irish Water customer care helpline is open 24/7 on 1800 278 278 and customers can also contact us on Twitter @IWCare with any queries.
Conakry, Guinea (PANA) - The Guinean Prime Minister, Mohamed Beavogui, has postponed Friday's meeting between the government, coalitions of political parties, civil society organisations and trade unions on the transition in the country, to Monday
Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - Several participants at the 50th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, including experts from the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), congratulated the Kingdom of Morocco for actions taken by King Mohammed VI to improve women's rights
John Deloca, owner of Seneca Sporting Range, prepares to load bullets in his 9mm semi-automatic handgun for a shooting demonstration at his gun range in New York, June 23. Deloca said he welcomes the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Americans have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defense, striking down a New York gun law. AP-Yonhap





In a major expansion of gun rights, the U.S. Supreme Court said Thursday that Americans have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defense, a ruling likely to lead to more people being legally armed in cities and beyond. The ruling came with recent mass shootings fresh in Americans' minds and gun control being debated in Congress and states.







About a quarter of the U.S. population lives in states expected to be affected by the ruling, which struck down a New York gun law. The high court's first major gun decision in more than a decade came on a 6-3 split with the court's conservatives in the majority and liberals in dissent.







Meanwhile, across the street at the Capitol, Congress sped toward passage of its own gun legislation following the mass shootings in Texas, New York and California. Senators cleared the way for its measure, modest in scope but still the farthest-reaching in decades.







Also Thursday, underscoring the nation's deep divisions over the issue, the sister of a nine-year-old girl killed in the school shootings in Uvalde, Texas, pleaded with state lawmakers in Austin to pass gun legislation, which would go against the Republican-controlled body's easing of restrictions in recent years.







President Joe Biden said in a statement he was "deeply disappointed'' by the Supreme Court ruling, which he said "contradicts both common sense and the Constitution, and should deeply trouble us all.''







He urged states to pass new laws and said, "I call on Americans across the country to make their voices heard on gun safety. Lives are on the line.''







The court's decision struck down a New York law requiring people to demonstrate a particular need for carrying a gun in order to get a license to carry one in public. The justices said that requirement violates the Second Amendment right to "keep and bear arms.''







Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the majority that the Constitution protects "an individual's right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home.'' That right is not a "second-class right," Thomas wrote. "We know of no other constitutional right that an individual may exercise only after demonstrating to government officers some special need.''






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(The Center Square)  The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that prevented states from banning abortion.

The court ruled 6-3 in Dobbs v. Jackson that there is no Constitutional right to an abortion and that it is therefore up to each state to decide how to handle the issue. About half of U.S. states have laws on the books that will place tighter restrictions on abortion than what Roe allowed.

"The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives," a syllabus of the ruling reads.

The high court called the Roe v. Wade ruling "egregiously wrong."

"Like the infamous decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, Roe was also egregiously wrong and on a collision course with the Constitution from the day it was decided," the majority opinion from Justice Samuel Alito said. "Casey perpetuated its errors, calling both sides of the national controversy to resolve their debate, but in doing so, Casey necessarily declared a winning side. Those on the losing side  those who sought to advance the States interest in fetal life  could no longer seek to persuade their elected representatives to adopt policies consistent with their views. The Court short-circuited the democratic process by closing it to the large number of Americans who disagreed with Roe."

Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan vehemently opposed the ruling in their joint dissent.

"With sorrow  for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection  we dissent," they wrote.

President Joe Biden said from the White House Friday that the fight for abortion rights nationwide is not over.

I believe Roe v. Wade was the correct decision as a matter of constitutional law and application of the fundamental right to privacy and liberty and matters of family and personal autonomy, Biden said. Its a sad day for our country but it doesnt mean the fight is over.

The decision sparked massive protests at the the Supreme Court and elsewhere around the country.

Several states have already lined up legislation to restrict abortion in anticipation of this ruling.

Finally, the Court considers whether a right to obtain an abortion is part of a broader entrenched right that is supported by other precedents, the ruling said. The Court concludes the right to obtain an abortion cannot be justified as a component of such a right. Attempts to justify abortion through appeals to a broader right to autonomy and to define ones concept of existence prove too much.

The case in question began with a legal challenge to a Mississippi law banning abortions after 15 weeks. Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch last year requested that the Supreme Court use that case to overturn Roe v. Wade.

The ruling comes after the court last year allowed a Texas law to stand that banned abortions after six weeks, when a babys heartbeat is detectable.

A leak from the Supreme Court in the spring indicated Roe v. Wade could be overturned, sparking controversy and leading to protests outside multiple Justices homes and a failed assassination attempt against Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Fencing and barricades were erected around the court, and law enforcement presence increased after the leak. Demonstrators on both sides gathered outside the court all week along with law enforcement in anticipation of the ruling.

Pro-life advocates celebrated the ruling.

"Laws across the country can now affirm that life is a human right and ensure women have greater access to the support and resources they need and deserve," Alliance Defending Freedom General Counsel Kristen Waggoner said.

Now, the energy on abortion will likely ramp up at the state level, where each state government can now decide how to handle the controversial issue.

"We now turn to the states to ensure that unborn children and their mothers are protected from the gruesome reality of abortion, and that they receive the care and resources they need to flourish," Waggoner said. "Mississippi asked the court to overturn Roe because that case was egregiously wrong and had no basis in constitutional text, structure, or history. Additionally, Roes changing standards have long been unworkable, which is why so many pro-life laws ended up in court. It also failed to account for changing science, which demonstrates that life begins at conception. Today is a day of celebration, but the battle continues, as states either respect or shirk their responsibility to protect the life and health of women and children.
Did someone say "ending fanwars"? BLACKPINK Lisa, (G)I-DLE Minnie, and TWICE members Jihyo and Mina shut down any rumors of feuds between their respective groups by showing off their friendship!

Continue reading to know what the girls recently did together.

BLACKPINK Lisa, (G)I-DLE Minnie, TWICE Jihyo & Mina Spark Frenzy-Here's Why

On June 22, (G)I-DLE member Minnie uploaded a series of pictures and clips taken at a photo booth with BLACKPINK Lisa and TWICE members Jihyo and Mina. Minnie wrote in the caption, "SoHwakHwaeng," a Korean acronym for the phrase "small but certain happiness."

Shortly after, the photos quickly spread on social media, with many fans expressing their surprise and delight in seeing the girls together.

Like any normal friends, the female artists appeared to be having the time of their lives. In the first images, they wear different headgears and display their goofy sides.

There's also a clip showing how Lisa, Minnie, Jihyo, and Mina pose for the camera.

The following shots were more adorable as the girls wore cute headbands. In another clip, the girl group members show off their closeness, not to mention the warm hug they did at the end.

Although they are part of different groups, these four female idols all share one common denominator: they were all born in 1997.

It took a short time before (G)I-DLE Minnie's post was flooded with comments from thrilled fans, who couldn't get enough of the interactions between members of three of the biggest girl groups in K-pop.

Some of the comments are:

"I didn't expect to see Jihyo and Mina with Lisa and Minnie in one frame." "I never imagined seeing a pic with Lisa and Mina in it." "OMG 97 LINERS!!!!!" "Oh my! Epic interaction." "The crossover we never thought we needed." "This is the most powerful picture on earth." "The best moment I want to see now has come true."

As of this writing, Lisa, Minnie, Jihyo, and Mina's photos have garnered 1.6 million likes and over 27,000 comments.

Jihyo talking about her photos that came out with Blackpink Lisa, G-idle Minnie, and Mina!  pic.twitter.com/p3H3V4VyfZ  val  (@twicethedubu) June 22, 2022

After their group picture went viral, TWICE Jihyo took to Bubble to share with ONCEs that they had been friends for a long time, but there wasn't any chance for them to reveal it. She added that they speak casually since they're friends.

What can you say about the close friendship between the four girl group members?

BLACKPINK Lisa, (G)I-DLE Minnie, TWICE Jihyo & Mina Showcase Love for Each Other

Although this is the first time that Lisa, Minnie, Jihyo, and Mina are seen in one frame, the four idols have already shown off their love for one another over the years.

(G)I-DLE Minnie, Miyeon, Shuhua and Blackpink Lisa attended TWICEs concert together today!



Minnie posted a video of them holding TWICEs concert tickets and banner  pic.twitter.com/Fybu01eHkO  misa  (@misayeon) December 26, 2021

At the end of 2021, Lisa and Minnie were spotted at TWICE's concert in Seoul, which was the first stop of the JYP girl group's fourth world tour, "III." On her Instagram story, Minnie posted a photo showing her TWICE photo cards.

This past June 18, Lisa, Jihyo, and Mina (along with Sana) all attended the second day of (G)I-DLE's concert in Seoul, which marks the beginning of the CUBE girl group's world tour "[JUST ME ( )I-DLE]."

For more K-Pop news, follow and subscribe to KpopStarz.

KpopStarz owns this article

Written by Maria Scott
On the latest broadcast of Mnet's "TMI SHOW," the stars who wore next-level items were revealed. These stars include BLACKPINK Lisa, GOT7 BamBam, and more. They didn't only wear items from luxury brands, but their PRICES will also shock you. In fact, some idol's work items on the list even cost a whopping billion won!

Here Are 4 K-pop Idols Who Wore the Most Expensive Items:

IVE Jang Wonyoung

IVE Jang Wonyoung ranked 10th among the stars who wore "another-level" items.

In particular, she became a hot topic for her elegant look when she attended the 2021 Asia Artists Awards as the MC. The accessories she wore at the time cost 284 million won (218.7k USD)!

The products actually came from the Italian luxury brand Bvlgari. The bracelet alone cost 58 million won (44.6k USD), while her earrings cost 38 million won (29.2 USD).

Bae Suzy

Idol-turned-actress Suzy ranked 8th. The "sold-out icon" showed one of her most expensive items at the 2019 Baeksang Arts Awards.

The accessories she wore for the first part of the ceremony came from the luxury brand Chaumet. The earrings along are worth 37 million won (28.4k USD), 120 million won (92.2k USD) for her necklace, and 48 million won (36.9k USD) for her bracelets and rings. Her dress from Mikael D. is known to be 30 million won (23k USD).

For the second part of the ceremony, Bae Suzy flaunted jewelry worth 440 million won (338.1k USD), whereas the earrings alone cost 196 million won (150.6k USD).

The overall price of Suzy's outfit she wore for about three hours amounted to 733.3 million won (563.5k USD)! This is excluding her second dress whose price was unconfirmed.

BLACKPINK Lisa

BLACKPINK Lisa proved her status as a "human luxury" idol after she ranked 6th. As a matter of fact, she is currently the global ambassador of the world's top 10 jewelry brand Bvlgari.

During a pictorial for the brand, Lisa wore a diamond "Serpenti" necklace from Bvlgari. The accessory, which was adorned with more than 200 carats of diamonds, totaled 920,000 USD (1.167 billion won)!

Lisa was also once spotted in casual wear, sporting the Audemars Piguet watch. The acessory is known to cost about 57,899 USD (73 million won).

The necklace and watch combined reached a total cost of 1.24 billion won (952.4 USD). The price is equivalent to an apartment's price.

GOT7 BamBam

Lastly, BamBam of the boy group GOT7 lives up to his nickname the "Prince of Thailand" after ranking fifth on the list.

During a KBS event where he appeared as MC, BamBam showed off a rare watch from the Swiss luxury company Patek Philippe Geneva with about 1,675 diamonds. It's estimated worth is more than 500 million won (384.3k USD).

The brand's earrings and bracelets he wore on the same day were priced at more than 90 million won (69.1k USD).

The watch worn as a personal item is 180 million won (138.3k USD), and even the watch he flaunted, known as Rain and Cha Eun Woo's item, is known to be 39.8 million won (30.6k USD).

Wearing a watch worth more than 1.45 billion won (1.1 million USD) in total, he showed a true Thai prince-like flex!

READ MORE: Here Are The Top Female Idols Who Wore The Most Expensive Jewelries and Accessories

For more K-Pop news, follow and subscribe to KpopStarz.

KpopStarz owns this article.

Written by Eunice Dawson
In January 2022, DIA lost another member with Somyi terminating her contract with PocketDol Studio. The reason she left the group is due to her health. However, many believe that it's not the real reason. It has been five months since then, so if you're wondering where she is now, we have the answer for you!

Somyi's Activities Before Leaving DIA

DIA debuted in September 2015 as a seven-member girl group and underwent multiple changes in their lineup. A year after Seunghee left in April 2016, Somyi and Jueun were added to DIA. The two made their official debut on April 19, 2017 with the group's second studio album "YOLO."

Somyi went on to participate in DIA's comebacks until their fifth EP "Newtro'' in March 2019. In 2020, she was absent from the production of the group's sixth EP "Flower 4 Seasons," as well as the promotions (along with Chaeyeon).

DIA's leader Huihyeon explained that they decided to have the members choose to take part by volunteering. Somyi and Chaeyeon seemed to need more personal time, so they respected their decisions and agreed to promote as a five-piece group in the meantime.

Since then, DIA did not make a group comeback, meaning Somyi has been on hiatus in the music industry for more than two years. She eventually left the team on Jan. 9, 2022.

Although PocketDol Studio said that Somyi departed from the company and the group due to health reasons, fans speculate that the exact reason behind her sudden contract termination is because of her current job, which began in November 2021.

Where Is Somyi Now? Current Job of Former DIA Member Who Left Due to Health Reasons

During her hiatus in the music industry Somyi emerged as a PandaTV broadcasting jockey (BJ) under the name "Chomyi." She became a BJ while she was still a member of DIA. This is her job even at present.

As mentioned above, her current work is allegedly the main reason for the termination of her contract. It is because PandaTV is not just a regular online live streaming platform; in fact, it is notorious among Korean netizens for its adult content.

The streaming site features thousands of BJs, mostly female, who wear sexy outfits to catch the attention of online users. PandaTV is becoming one of the sources of income in South Korea, which is probably why many former female idols decided to pursue this career as a BJ.

Besides former DIA Somyi, former GLAM Dahee, Crayon Pop Ellin, and "Produce 48" contestant Kim Hyunah are just a few of the other former female idols who have turned to broadcast jockeying.

Because of the negative stigma connected with PandaTV, plus the female BJ's overtly sexual presentations, some fans are disappointed in former DIA Somyi's new job considering her history as an idol and her young age (21 years old at the time of her debut as a BJ). In contrast, others say that she is allowed to do whatever she wants since it's her life and she's no longer a K-pop idol.

Based on her PandaTV account, Somyi is currently taking a short break from broadcast jockeying as she needs to focus on her health first. That explains why she looks skinnier now than the time she was still a DIA member.

Meanwhile, Somyi updates her personal Instagram account, which has more than 84,000 followers, from time to time. Her latest photos feature her underneath a tree full of pink blossoms. In the past, she shared pictures of her on the beach, at a camping site, at a restaurant, and more.

For more K-Pop news and updates, keep your tabs open here at KpopStarz.

KpopStarz owns this article

Written by Maria Scott
According to 567 Gen Zs, THESE 20 idols are the most fashionable in K-pop! Are you curious about the idols who made it to the list? Keep on reading!

Teenagers Select 10 Most Fashionable Male Idols: BTS V, ASTRO Cha Eun Woo, More

On June 23, SMART, a school uniform brand popular in Korea, released the results of the "Teen Fashion Trends" survey they conducted among teenagers/Gen Z.

The survey was held to find out about fashion trends of teenagers, including fashion that students usually prefer, and to form a consensus.

For two weeks from June 1, 567 Generation Z students participated in the survey through the official SNS channel for SMART school uniforms. Through the platform, they freely expressed their opinions on questions, such as frequent shopping malls, the average monthly amount spent on fashion, preferred fashion, and virtual models.

For the question, "Who's the male celebrity that Generation Z prefers as the virtual model in the metaverse?," students voted for the ten most fashionable male idols.

BTS V topped the rankings with 164 votes (27.4%). Indeed, the male idol is not only recognized for his CG-like visuals and body proportion, but he is also lauded for his incredible fashion style.

Following him is Cha Eun Woo of ASTRO, who ranked second with 118 votes (20.8%). The male idol is known for his nickname, "Face Genius." He is loved, especially by teenagers, for his looks, clean reputation, idol skills, and kind personality.

BTS Jimin secured the third spot with 62 votes (10.9%). Alongside BTS V, Jimin also represents the luxury brand Louis Vuitton.

Full List of Most Fashionable Male Idols:

1. V (BTS): 28.4%, 161 people

2. Cha Eunwoo (ASTRO): 20.8%, 118 people

3. Jimin (BTS): 10.9%, 62 people

4. G-Dragon (BIGBANG): 9.2%, 52 people

5. Hwang Minhyun (NU'EST): 8.5%, 48

6. Choi Minho (SHINee): 6.7%, 38 people

7. Kang Daniel ( former Wanna One): 5.3%, 30 people

8. Baekhyun (EXO): 4.1%, 23 people

9. Jaehyun (NCT): 3.7%, 21 people

10. Others: 2.5%, 14 people

Gen Z Ranks 10 Most Fashionable Female Idols: IVE Wonyoung, aespa Karina, More

In the female category, Jang Wonyoung of IVE was crowned No. 1 with 198 votes (34.9%). The "Fourth-Gen It Girl" is recognized for her height and beauty. She is also a model for various brands like Miu Miu.

Second place goes to aespa Karina, who received 116 votes (20.5%). Upon her debut, the "Next Level" songstress quickly rose to fame as a "Hot Icon" for her beauty that seemingly came out straight of a cartoon, her impressive dance, rap skills, and leadership.

Lastly, ITZY Yuna completed the top 3 after amassing 65 votes (11.5%). Yuna is especially famous for her "stan attractor" features. These include her height, visual, body proportion, and abilities that even non-K-pop fans admire.

Full List of Most Fashionable Female Idols:

1. Jang Wonyoung (IVE): 34.9%, 198 people

2. Karina (aespa): 20.5%, 116 people

3. Yuna (ITZY): 11.5%, 65 people

4. Sullyoon (NMIXX): 9.7%, 55 people

5. Kang Yeseo (Kep1er): 8.3%, 47 people

6. Seeun (STAYC): 6.9%, 39 people

7. Others: 2.5%, 14 people

8. Yeonhee (Rocket Punch): 2.3%, 13 people

9. Wooyeon (woo!ah!): 1.9%, 11 people

10. Zoa (Weeekly): 1.6%, 9 people

For more K-pop news, follow and subscribe to KpopStarz.

KpopStarz owns this article.

Written by Eunice Dawson
Hakimo's Abhijeet Shenoi accepted into Forbes Technology Council

Abhijeet Shenoi, Founding Engineer and Head of Machine Learning of Hakimo, a prominent technology company developing artificial intelligence software for the physical security industry, has been accepted into Forbes Technology Council, an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs, and technology executives.

Abhijeet Shenoi was vetted and selected by a review committee based on the depth and diversity of his achievements. Criteria for acceptance include a track record of successfully impacting business growth metrics, as well as personal and professional achievements and honors.

We are honored to welcome Abhijeet Shenoi into the community, said Scott Gerber, founder of Forbes Councils, the collective that includes Forbes Technology Council. Our mission with Forbes Councils is to bring together proven leaders from every industry, creating a curated, social capital-driven network that helps every member grow professionally and make an even greater impact on the business world.

As an accepted member of the Council, Shenoi has access to a variety of exclusive opportunities designed to allow him to continue to exert professional influence and advance the industry. He will connect and collaborate with other respected local leaders in a private forum. Shenoi will also be invited to work with a professional editorial team to share his expert insights in original business articles on Forbes.com, and to contribute to published Q&A panels alongside other experts.

Finally, Shenoi will benefit from exclusive access to vetted business service partners, membership-branded marketing collateral, and the high-touch support of the Forbes Councils member concierge team.

Im excited to join the Forbes Technology Council community, said Abhijeet Shenoi. With members and their organizations selected based on their deep knowledge and diverse experience in the industry, I look forward to sharing ideas and best practices. It is an honor to be a part of the council, alongside leaders such as Sagnik Nandy, CTO at Okta, Adrian McDermott, CTO at Zendesk, Hari Govind, SVP of Engineering at Target Corporation and many more.

ABOUT FORBES COUNCILS

Forbes Councils is a collective of invitation-only communities created in partnership with Forbes and the expert community builders who founded Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC). In Forbes Councils, exceptional business owners and leaders come together with the people and resources that can help them thrive. For more information about Forbes Technology Council, visit https://forbestechcouncil.com/forbestechcouncil.com. To learn more about Forbes Councils, visit forbescouncils.com.

ABOUT HAKIMO

Hakimo is a technology company that builds a smart monitoring platform powered by artificial intelligence for enterprise physical security teams. Hakimo was founded by AI researchers from Stanford University and is funded by top Silicon Valley venture capital firms. For more information, visit hakimo.ai or follow Hakimo on LinkedIn and Twitter.
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
Guangxi harnesses unique geographical advantages to drive regional opening-up, BRI connectivity

People's Daily Online) 14:10, June 24, 2022

Guided by the instructions of Chinese President Xi Jinping, south Chinas Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has implemented a more proactive development strategy driven by further opening-up, including by adopting an all-round opening-up and development pattern centering on the high-level construction of the Belt and Road Initiative and the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor (ILSTC).

Aerial photo taken on July 30, 2020 shows a view of the Qinzhou terminal of the Beibu Gulf Port in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Xu Zhiyan)

Guangxi has unique geographical advantages as it is situated near the sea, rivers, and an international border. Its six international ports are open to ten ASEAN countries and high-quality ports are scattered along its 1,600 kilometers of coastlines.

Back on April 19, 2017, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, came to the Tieshan Port Public Wharf in Beihai city, Guangxi to inspect the operation of the wharf. He was pleased to learn that the annual cargo throughput of the Tieshan port had surged from more than 1 million tons to over 20 million tons within just a few years.

Noting that port construction and the port economy play a major role in the construction of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, Xi stressed the necessity to excel in building, managing and operating ports at the Beibu Gulf to facilitate the development of Guangxi, the construction of the Belt and Road, and promote further opening-up and cooperation with the support of first-class facilities, technologies, management and services.

The Belt and Road Initiative accords with the will of the people, and we should advance opening-up and development under the framework, Xi told workers at the port.

Under Xis guidance, Guangxi has grasped the opportunity to advance the high-level construction of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor (ILSTC).

With the new transportation artery, southwestern provincial-level regions in China, such as Chongqing and Guizhou, will become more closely connected with ASEAN countries through the coastal and border ports of Guangxi while being linked with Central Asia and Europe to the north via China-Europe freight trains, forming a complete Belt and Road loop.

The sea-rail intermodal train routes of the ILSTC now cover 14 provincial-level regions throughout China, compared with only four in 2017, while the annual number of train trips has moreover risen from 178 to 6,117, with an average annual increase of 142 percent.

In April 2017, Xi also inspected the China-ASEAN Information Harbor (CAIH) in Nanning city, Guangxi, said Lu Dongliang, chairman of CAIH.

In September 2017, the construction of the Chinese-ASEAN Commerce and Trade Platform was initiated, which has expanded to cover 13 border trade sites in three cities in Guangxi  namely, Chongzuo, Dongxing and Baise  along with 16 port service centers, nine settlement banks and two third-party payment companies, with the platform having witnessed a transaction volume of over 100 billion yuan ($14.91 billion).

We are endeavoring to build an international information and communications hub and computing power center oriented towards ASEAN to promote digital interconnectivity and advance the construction of the Digital Silk Road, Lu said.

The Beibu Gulf Port has significantly improved customs clearance efficiency as well as management and operations. The number of container liner routes at the port has increased to 67; and its annual container throughput has climbed to 6.01 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), with a double-digit growth rate, said Huang Wuhai, executive deputy director of the Beibu Gulf Economic Zone Planning and Construction Management Office.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji)
The pro-life community has been looking forward to it. Pro-choice groups have been loathing it. Now, it's happened.

Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide, was officially overturned by the Supreme Court Friday morning in the decision of Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization.

The legality of abortion is now up to the states.

In Wisconsin, abortion is a felony except in an incredibly limited exception when the mother's life is in danger and two physicians concur that her life is in danger, an exception so narrow that medical experts say still leaves the mother's life at risk in emergency situations where decisions need to be made quick.

There are no exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest.

It remains legal to travel to other states to perform or receive an abortion. Abortion remains legal in Illinois.

Here's how Wisconsin elected officials and organizations are responding:

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester: Safeguarding the lives of unborn children shouldnt be controversial. Todays decision reaffirms their lives are precious and worthy of protection. I agree with the justices in their opinion when they say, The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives. I urge those who disagree with the decision to remain peaceful.

U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, a Janesville Republican whose district includes all of Racine and Kenosha counties: Im proudly pro-life. Todays decision will bring this important issue back to the states. This is a great victory for life.

Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, D-Racine: Lets call this what it is: a brazen, political act that rolls back essential human rights. By striking down a precedent of nearly 50 years, the U.S. Supreme Court has sent our country back to the 1970s and Wisconsin back to the 1840s. During Governor Evers special session on protecting reproductive care, we had an opportunity to protect Wisconsinites access to abortion, but legislative Republicans ignored the call and the will of the people of Wisconsin. Republicans unwillingness to act is inexcusable, and they will be directly responsible for the negative outcomes of this decision. The Supreme Courts decision to throw out historically enshrined protections and the GOPs inaction will have significant consequences for our friends, families, neighbors, and communities. Let me be clear: we will not stop fighting for access to comprehensive healthcare, including abortion. While today hurts, we will not be deterred in our pursuit of reproductive rights.

State Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine: "Like millions of Americans, I believe Roe v Wade was wrongly decided 50 years ago. Just as Plessy v. Ferguson was wrongly decided in 1896, it took the Court some time to recognize and correct their error, but it both cases the Supreme Court eventually came to the correct result. As a result, the issue of abortion has returned to the states, were it belongs. I, for one, am proud that Wisconsin has recognized the sanctity of life since its founding."

Dr. Wendy Molaska, president of the Wisconsin Medical Society: Todays decision raises concerns that could result in significant interference with the physician-patient relationship  the sanctity of which is the bedrock of our healthcare system. Defaulting to a law first created in 1849 is not the best path forward. Inevitable confusion over the continued validity of that 19th century law makes proactive legislative action prudent.

The Wisconsin Medical Society supports legislation that would acknowledge the right of a physician to perform and give advice on this medical procedure  or refuse to do so according to the physicians training, experience and conscience.

The health and safety of our patients is our top priority. Wisconsin law should reflect that priority and ensure physicians can have full and frank discussions with patients about their health care without fear of imprisonment.

Archdiocese of Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki: "As a Church that advances the Culture of Life and as members of a civil society, we welcome the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in the Dobbs case. While no doubt we all feel a renewed hope for the future, let us also remember that our struggle to preserve the sanctity of human life is only just beginning. Abortion laws now return to the individual states. Our challenge is to continue to promote that human life begins at conception and needs to be protected at all times.

"The Church will continue to support all women  especially those experiencing unplanned pregnancies where abortion seems like the only or easy solution  by providing the spiritual, emotional and financial support necessary through our parishes, support networks and pregnancy centers. I appeal to all in our society to work together to make the thought of abortion not only unthinkable, but also unnecessary. More than 63 million children lost their lives to the scourge of abortion. May their souls, and all the souls of the faithful departed, rest in peace."

Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, who has called on Congress to codify the right to abortion services, said Friday he would never stop fighting to make sure that every single Wisconsinite has the right to make their own health care decisions. But Evers has few powers beyond his veto pen.

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.: "Today is a victory for life and for those who have fought for decades to protect the unborn. For almost 50 years the decision of nine unelected Justices prevented a democratically derived consensus on the profound moral issue of abortion. This decision will now allow that democratic process to unfold in each state to determine at what point does society have the responsibility to protect life. Hopefully, the debate will be conducted with sincerity, compassion, and respect for the broad range of views that people hold."

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.: "An activist majority of the Supreme Court has overturned Roe and nearly 50 years of precedent, taking away the constitutional rights of American women to make their own personal choices about their body, their health, and their family. Republicans have taken Wisconsin women back to 1849 and it is Republicans who want to keep us there with support for having politicians interfere in the freedoms of women who will now have fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers have had for decades. I ask people to join this fight with their voices and their votes because we will not be taken back, we will move forward."

State Sen. Bob Wirch, a Somers Democrat whose district includes part of Racine County: This is a sad day and I dont believe that government should get in between women and their doctors when it comes to decisions. This is an arbitrary decision by the Supreme Court that the voters will remember in November.

State Rep. Tip McGuire, a Kenosha Democrat whose district includes part of Racine: If conservatives on the Supreme Court get their way, reproductive healthcare in this state will get sent back to the Dark Ages. Now is the time to take action so that our state does not mandate forced pregnancies, particularly in cases of rape and incest.

State Rep. Chuck Wichgers, a Muskego Republican whose district includes Waterford: Today, the U. S. Supreme Court corrected a judicial ruling that has hung darkly over our nation for far too long. It is the job of government to protect life. We are a nation founded on the inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. When the most basic right to life is denied to innocent, unborn babies, it is not long before all human life is degraded. We have seen this happen in our country even as women made incredible gains in equal rights. Abortion does not empower women, it trades one set of problems for another. There are tremendous resources available to women facing unplanned pregnancies; not only basic things like diapers, formula, and clothing, but adoption support, housing options, counseling, and education. Now more than ever, Wisconsinites will come alongside those faced with unplanned pregnancies instead of offering a false solution like killing an unborn child.

Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito said, Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division.

Since Roe v. Wade was decided, over 62 million unborn babies in America lost their lives to someone elses choice. According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, there have been 585,624 abortions in our state since 1974. That is 34 children who died by abortion every single day, 365 days a year, for the past 47 years. These are heartbreaking numbers. Today is an historic day in America.

Matt Sande, Pro-Life Wisconsin legislative director: "Abortion is no longer a constitutional right in America, and never really was. The shackles of the 'Roe/Casey' legal regime have been thrown off and now Wisconsin and every other state in our nation is free to ban abortion without exception."

Dan Miller, Pro-Life Wisconsin state director: "We have longed for the day when no more babies die and no more mothers cry. The blood of the more than 550,000 aborted Wisconsin babies cries to heaven for justice. Nothing will stand in our way to see that abortion ends in Wisconsin! Victory for the rights of the preborn is quite literally in the hands of our state legislature and governor. Please pray for them."

Planned Parenthood: "Today will be remembered as one of the darkest days in the history of SCOTUSwomen will die as a result of this destructive decision by these Trumpian justices.

"The court has failed us all  but this is far from over.

"We know what politicians want because it's already happening: to ban abortion state by state& eventually a national ban. But, like generations before us, we'll fight for each other. If you or someone you know needs an abortion, reach out: 1-800-230-Plan & http://AbortionFinder.org"

Rebecca Kleefisch, former Wisconsin lieutenant governor and current Republican gubernatorial candidate: "A victory for unborn babies!"

Tim Michels, Republican Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate: "It is important that we continue to compassionately work on winning hearts and minds. We need to build a world that is safer for all, a world where better education is provided, and an economy that allows for all to prosper. Life must always be protected. We should not demonize those who don't believe that, but rather redouble our efforts to show how they can provide a high quality of life for their children.

"The pro-life movement does not end with todays victory. In fact, its vital that we grow stronger."

State Rep. Tod Ohnstad, D-Kenosha: The decision to overturn Roe v. Wade now turns the clock in Wisconsin back over 150 years, with all abortions criminalized in our state  with no exceptions to rape or incest. The Legislature had the opportunity to repeal Wisconsins 1849 abortion ban through Governor Evers Special Session; however, Republicans gaveled in and out in under 30 seconds, refusing to even debate the issue.

Mandela Barnes, Wisconsin lieutenant governor and Democratic candidate to represent Wisconsin in U.S. Senate: "The Supreme Court just struck down Roe v. Wade. There is no reason to put women in danger and take us back in time. Congress needs to act now, enough wasting time. Everything is on the line this November. Anti-abortion politicians like Ron Johnson need to go. In the Senate, I'll fight hard to protect women and make Roe the law of the land."

Tom Nelson, Democratic candidate to represent Wisconsin in U.S. Senate: June 24, 2022, is a day of infamy for women, for the Supreme Court and for the U.S. Constitution. Never in our lifetimes did we think that we would live in a nation where freedoms would decrease instead of increase. The Supreme Courts extremist majority showed its true colors  trading away basic rights and freedoms for a backwards, dystopian vision that the majority of Americans DONT want.

"I know that so many folks in our community are grieving, outraged and shaken. I want you to know that I will NEVER stop fighting to protect the right to choose for women across our state and our country.

"In the post-Roe America that is now our reality, the Senate is the frontline for abortion rights. We are just one Senate vote away from codifying a womans right to choose into national law  and ensuring every American can make their own decisions about their body and their future.

"With Wisconsins 1849 criminal abortion ban still on the books, we need bold, immediate action in the U.S. Senate to protect womens lives. Democrats must end the filibuster, codify a national right to a safe and legal abortion and expand the Supreme Court. Im the only candidate in this Senate race to advocate for this position.

U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Wis.: Todays landmark ruling is a historic victory for human rights. This decision paves the way for us to protect all life.

Alex Lasry, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate: "Today will be remembered as one of the darkest days in the history of SCOTUS  women will die as a result of this destructive decision by these Trumpian justices."

Larry Dupuis, legal director at the ACLU of Wisconsin: "While today is an undeniably bleak day in our countrys history, we can not allow ourselves to give up the fight. Feelings of hopelessness and despair are understandable given the magnitude of the crisis we now find ourselves in. But even in moments like this one  where we may feel completely powerless in the face of grave injustice  we must remind ourselves that we still do have power. Everyones rights are on the line now, so its important for all of us to make our voices heard, and to get involved. We need the officials who represent us in local, state, and federal government  as well those we elect to the judiciary  to be firmly committed to defending bodily autonomy, reproductive freedom, and the other civil liberties we hold dear.

Melinda Brennan, ACLU of Wisconsin executive director: We encourage everyone to channel the righteous anger you may be feeling right now into action. There are elections set for this August and November, as well as a crucial state supreme court race next April. You can also talk with your neighbors, contact your legislators, get engaged and organize within your community.

Adam Rogan of The Journal Times and Joe States of Lee Newspapers contributed to this report.
Lake Geneva officials have officially agreed to contribute an additional $50,000 toward a traffic-signal installation project near the intersection of North Edwards Boulevard/Highway 120 and Bloomfield Road in the Town of Bloomfield again.

Members of the Lake Geneva City Council approved, June 13, to contribute the additional $50,000 toward the project by a 5-3 vote with aldermen Richard, Hedlund, Joan Yunker and Tim Dunn voting no.

The aldermen also approved, 5-3, to use money from the citys contingency fund to help pay for the additional contribution with Hedlund, Yunker and Dunn voting no again.

This is the second time city aldermen have agreed to contribute an additional $50,000 for the traffic signal installation.

Members of the city council approved, May 9, to contribute the additional funding, but during the May 23 council meeting the aldermen approved to reconsider.

The City of Lake Geneva is sharing the cost of the project with the Lake Geneva-Genoa City Union High School District and Lake Geneva Joint No. 1 School District.

City officials initially agreed to pay $150,000 toward the project, but with the additional $50,000, they will now contribute $200,000. Both school districts are contributing $283,197.

The project initially was set to cost about $527,728 but increased to about $716,395 because of potential supply order changes, design fee costs and construction oversight costs.

Hedlund said he realizes the traffic signals are needed but feels the residents who live in the surrounding communities who have children who attend Lake Geneva schools should help pay the cost through the school districts taxes.

He also argued that the city has already agreed to contribute $150,000 toward the project.

If the school districts pay for this, then everyone who has children who go to those schools will contribute to it as opposed to just the citizens of Lake Geneva, Hedlund said. It does benefit their children as well as the children who live within the City of Lake Geneva. I think its a fairer way to do it.

Dunn said the intersection of North Edwards Boulevard and Bloomfield Road is not located in the City of Lake Geneva, and the additional $50,000 could be used to install traffic signals at well-traveled intersections within the city.

The money that could go to those projects are going to go to property that is not in our city, Dunn said. I think we should take care of what is our responsibility instead of going around and finding places that arent in our city.

Yunker said she feels the additional funding should be used to install traffic signals near the intersection of North Edwards Boulevard and Townline Road, which is located within the City of Lake Geneva.

When we have to put up a light on Townline Road, who is going to come up with that money?, Yunker said. So the $50,000 from our contingency fund, I think, should be put away for the next traffic light to be put in.

Alderwoman Mary Jo Fesenmaier said the intersection is near Lake Geneva Middle School, and most of the students who attend that school live within the city limits.

Fesenmaier said, several years ago, the city approved to eliminate impact fees, which could have been used to pay for projects such as traffic signal installation. She said the city also has approved an additional 600 homes during the past few years, which has increased traffic.

We do have a commitment. We do have a responsibility for those reasons, Fesenmaier said. I would urge you to vote yes for the additional $50,000. This is good use of contingency.

Alderwoman Cindy Yager said the city has already agreed to contribute the additional $50,000, and they should honor that commitment.

To say Sorry, weve changed our minds, I dont think thats good business, Yager said.

Alderman John Halverson said the intersection is located within a hundred feet of the citys limits and feels the city should contribute the additional funding.

Were probably nitpicking to worry about a hundred feet, Halverson said. To turn it down to use it somewhere else, it doesnt seem very practical.

The traffic signals are in the process of being installed, and the project is set to be completed by the end of the summer.

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I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.  American naturalist John Burroughs, 1872-1921

In her 2017 book Every Day Spirit: A Daybook of Wisdom, Joy and Peace, author Mary Davis noted that a walk in nature walks the soul back home.

And as a fan of taking long, ambling walks in the piney Northwoods prior to my relocation south in February, Ive been missing the soul-connecting qualities of contemplative walks in the great outdoors.

As a Milwaukee native with a Rockford-born wife, Ive spent more than my share of time behind the wheel driving the I-43 corridor between the two cities, so much time in fact that I remember its days as State Highway 15.

And growing up with the Milwaukee Road, Chicago & Northwestern and Soo Line railways that criss-crossed hometown Milwaukees northwest side back in the day, Ive been a railfan as long as I can remember, counting colorful passing railcars at crossings, marveling at the kinetic visual delights of C&NWs old wig-wag crossing signals, and falling asleep to the soundtrack of train horns and bells, thrumming locomotives, and railcars clickety-clacking over the rails.

So it was that I watched with interest over the years as a Darien-Clinton section of Milwaukee Road track paralleling I-43 in Walworth and Rock counties made the transition from active freight corridor to abandoned railroad right-of-way to successfully repurposed rails-to-trails recreational corridor.

Now making a daily commute along I-43 between Rockford and Lake Geneva, Ive taken a renewed interest in the multi-purpose recreational rail-trail as I pass it each day, envying the occasional hikers, bikers, joggers and horseback riders and admiring the bucolic country views, handsome trail shelters and the retro-nostalgic sighting of the occasional tell-tale telegraph pole hearkening back to the routes railroading heydays.

Itching to have nature walk my soul back home, I recently sought out the trail with my cell phones mapping app and soon enough found myself leisurely ambling the Pelishek-Tiffany Nature Trail (PTNT), which is owned and administered by Rock County. The rail-trail spans the Walworth-Rock County line, one quarter in Walworth and the remainder in Rock.

As a fan of both nature and railroading, the PTNT checked both my fanboy boxes and walked my soul back home as I traversed the 5.8-mile trail, serenaded by the tut, peak, whinny and Cheerio. Cheery-me. Cheerio. Cheery-me of the trail-bobbing robins and the trilling conk-la-REE of the red-winged blackbirds that darted to and fro.

With a right-of-way ranging from 100-194 feet in width between the parks western trailhead at Farmers Park Gateway on Mill Street in downtown Clinton in Rock County, and the PTNTs eastern trailhead at North Road in the unincorporated hamlet of Allens Grove near Darien in Walworth County, the Rock County park clocks in at a linear 64.3 acres, making for a substantive, ambitious stroll, particularly when factoring in the round-trip return to the car.

PMTTs main trailhead in Clinton features a parking area, restroom facility, picnic tables, a gazebo-styled pavilion and a small covered bridge walkway connecting the parking lot to the trail. The simple western trailhead at Allens Grove features a small grassy area for roadside parking.

A rich historyThe old single-track rail line, built 1852-1856 by the Racine & Mississippi Railroad, became part of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railway in 1879. The 11,000-mile Milwaukee Road would run freight on the PTNT corridor, part of the railroads old Southwestern Division, until the lines abandonment in February 1983, running more than 700 carloads of field crops, fertilizer and packaged vegetables on the line as late as 1980. Passenger trains last ran on the line in 1965.

Not included in the PTNT, east of North Road, just south of Hill Street, is a densely forested 0.8-mile squidge of Milwaukee Road corridor that once connected at a diamond interchange junction at unincorporated Bardwell with another Milwaukee Road line, now part of the Wisconsin & Southern Railroad. With the bankrupt Milwaukee Roads abandonment of its 6.2-mile line from Bardwell to Clinton, the whitewashed clapboard interlocking station at Bardwell in the Town of Darien was eventually razed.

In the early 1990s, trail namesake Gerald W. Gerry Pelishek of Darien took out a bank loan and purchased a 5.8-mile section of abandoned rail corridor from Chicago-based CMC Real Estate Holdings Corp., which liquidated Milwaukee Road real estate not acquired by successor Soo Line. The cost to Pelishek was under $50,000.

Wisconsin was at the forefront of the now-national rails-to-trails movement repurposing idled and abandoned rail corridors, starting in 1965 with the famed 32.5-mile granddaddy Elroy-Sparta State Trail, abandoned in 1964 by the Chicago & Northwestern.

Nationwide, there are now more than 1,900 rail-trails spanning more than 24,000 miles and serving tens of millions of users annually according to the Washington, D.C.-based Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. Counted among them is the 5.8-mile PTNT.

The former Milwaukee Road right-of-way was held by Pelishek until Rock County obtained sufficient grants from the state stewardship and snowmobile trail programs to fully fund purchase of the corridor from Pelishek for a linear county park and trail on Sept. 26, 1995.

The other trail namesake, Clarence V. Pete Tiffany of Clinton, was a longtime trail maintenance volunteer.

Both trail namesakes recently passed away, Tiffany at age 83 in February 2021 and Pelishek at age 94 in August 2021. Their legacies live on.

Thanks to Pelisheks foresight and the devoted efforts of Tiffany and a host of like-minded volunteers over the years, the PTNT today accommodates a variety of users year-round, including winter snowmobilers and cross-country skiers and warm-weather hikers, bikers, horseback riders, joggers and bird-watchers.

Rock County Parks manager John Traynor considers the Pelishek-Tiffany Nature Trail one of the countys crown jewels, noting it enjoys incredible snowmobile traffic in the winter by sledders riding Corridor 42E between Clinton and Allens Grove, and is pretty fairly used in the warm weather months by outdoor recreational enthusiasts. Traynor said the PTNT also sees significant spring and fall use by area middle and high school students for running.

Its definitely a great asset to have in our parks department, Traynor said of the multi-use recreational trail. Its a great asset for us to have and be able to provide to the community. Its a nice, peaceful trail. With the old railroad artifacts that you find along the way, its kind of cool to walk it and see the different kinds of things that were left behind when the railroad left.

Hiking the trail

For the observant, the Pelishek-Tiffany Nature Trail offers a wide variety of visual delights, with most of the right-of-way paralleling the trail given over to the inexorable march of time and nature, the flat grassy trail overlaying the roadbed flanked by a wide variety of growth on the old railroad embankments, including trees, bushes and wildflowers.

Naturalized over the past four decades, the rail-trail corridor is shaded by a melange of trees including poplar, sugar maple, cottonwood, American elm, green ash, honey locust, black locust, weeping willow, white mulberry, river birch, box elder, cedar, apple and black walnut.

Greenery closer to the ground under the tree canopy includes a mix of species  Virginia creeper, ground ivy, riverbank grapes, wild asparagus, milkweed, cleavers, parsnip, creeping thistle, black raspberries, hedge bedstraw, smooth Solomons seal, motherwort, cattails, wild rhubarb and common burdock.

Lining the trail is a colorful array of wildflowers, among them purple and white dames rocket, white campion, four oclocks, treacle mustard, Ohio spiderwort, common yarrow, Carolina rose, Canadian anemone, common blue violets, wild phlox, wild roses, oxeye daisy, cow parsley, hoary alyssum, sulfur cinquefoil, white and purple clover and eastern daisy fleabane.

It greatly added to the experience to have a plant identification app on my smartphone, as much for identifying the plants I was admiring as it turns out to chuckle at some of their lesser-known aliases  worm-seed wallflower, stickyweed, nosebleed plant and cuckoo-button among them.

Between the two trailheads are interspersed a much-appreciated variety of rest areas, benches and shelters and points of interest, as well as bucolic scenic vistas of rolling Wisconsin farm fields.

The trails nearly 130-year legacy as a rail corridor is still evident here and there in a peek-a-boo fashion for the eagle-eyed.

At the Allens Grove trailhead, a short section of rail still embedded in its crushed limestone ballast gamely makes its way west toward its truncated terminus at North Road.

Elsewhere, signs of the trail corridors railroading past are hidden in the profusion of greenery, waiting to be discovered by the appreciative railfan  drainage culverts, old signal boxes, concrete signal pedestals, and scores of old telegraph poles, some still sporting glass and ceramic insulators and the occasional enduring strands of wire that once energized signals and sent telegraphed communications up and down the line.

One pole still bears its black-and-white 54 mile marker as part of the much-larger Southwestern Division line that ran from Racine to Beloit and, eventually, on to the Mississippi River at Savannah, Ill., and down to Kansas City.

Rock County Parks brochure on the PMTT urges users to leave only the sound of your footsteps and take only memories and photos.

If anything, I left my hike on the PMTT with much more  in the words of Burroughs with my soul soothed and healed and my senses put in order.

Thanks to the rail-trail groundwork laid by Pelishek, Tiffany and others, my walk in nature had, indeed, walked my soul back home.

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A woman died Tuesday afternoon, June 19, in a two-vehicle motor vehicle accident involving a dump truck at Sweet Road and County Hwy. K in the Town of Darien, in rural Walworth County.

The woman has been identified as Mary J. Brusa, 89, of the Town of Delavan, the Walworth County Medical Examiner's Office confirmed on Friday, June 22.

Walworth County Sheriff's Office Patrol Capt. Robert Hall said the 12:28 p.m. incident involved a crash between a dump truck and a passenger vehicle.

"The dump truck driver was uninjured," Hall said. "The driver and sole occupant of the automobile was pronounced deceased at the scene by a doctor from MD-1 Mercy Hospital. The Medical Examiner's Office was called to the scene."

Hall said responding agencies to the incident scene included the Walworth County Sheriff's Office, City of Delavan Police Department, Darien Fire Department, Shared Paramedics, MD-1 from Mercy Hospital, and Wisconsin State Patrol Motor Carrier Enforcement.

Hall reported that the Walworth County Highway Department set up barricades to close the accident scene to traffic. Roads reopened shortly after 3 p.m.

Hall said the cause of the accident was under investigation by the Walworth County Sheriff's Office Crash Investigation Team.

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Wisconsin's 1849 abortion ban

940.04 Abortion.

(1) Any person, other than the mother, who intentionally destroys the life of an unborn child is guilty of a Class H felony.

(2) Any person, other than the mother, who does either of the following is guilty of a Class E felony:

(a) Intentionally destroys the life of an unborn quick child; or

(b) Causes the death of the mother by an act done with intent to destroy the life of an unborn child. It is unnecessary to prove that the fetus was alive when the act so causing the mother's death was committed.

(5) This section does not apply to a therapeutic abortion which:

(a) Is performed by a physician; and

(b) Is necessary, or is advised by 2 other physicians as necessary, to save the life of the mother; and

(c) Unless an emergency prevents, is performed in a licensed maternity hospital.

(6) In this section unborn child" means a human being from the time of conception until it is born alive.
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], June 24 (ANI): The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Friday it has imposed a monetary penalty of Rs 57.50 lakh on Indian Overseas Bank for non-compliance with certain directions of the central bank.

Indian Overseas Bank has been penalised for non-compliance with certain directions issued by the central bank on 'Reserve Bank of India (Frauds classification and reporting by commercial banks and select FIs) directions 2016', 'Creation of a Central Repository of Large Common Exposures - Across Banks' read with 'Central Repository of Information on Large Credits (CRILC) - Revision in Reporting' and 'Prudential Framework for Resolution of Stressed Assets', and 'External Benchmark Based Lending'.

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This penalty has been imposed in exercise of powers vested in RBI under the provisions of section 47 A (1) (c) read with sections 46 (4) (i) and 51 (1) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 (the Act), the RBI said.

"This action is based on the deficiencies in regulatory compliance and is not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the bank with its customers," the RBI said in a statement.

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The Statutory Inspection for Supervisory Evaluation of the bank was conducted by the RBI with reference to its financial position as on March 31, 2020, and the examination of the Risk Assessment Report, Inspection Report and all related correspondence pertaining to the same, revealed non-compliance with the directions issued by RBI.

The non-compliance includes: the bank (i) failed to report certain instances of frauds involving ATM card cloning/skimming, to the RBI within three weeks from the date of detection, (ii) failed to ensure integrity and quality of data when it did not report credit information in CRILC on certain borrowers having aggregate exposure of Rs 5 crore and above, and (iii) linked certain floating rate loans to Micro and Small Enterprises, extended by it on or after October 01, 2019, to MCLR/Base Rate instead of an external benchmark.

In furtherance to the same, a notice was issued to the bank advising it to show cause as to why a penalty should not be imposed on it for failure to comply with the directions issued by RBI, as stated therein.

After considering the bank's reply to the notice and examination of additional submissions made by it, RBI came to the conclusion that the charge of non-compliance with the aforesaid RBI directions was substantiated and warranted imposition of monetary penalty, to the extent of non-compliance with such directions, the RBI said. (ANI)

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Abu Dhabi [UAE], June 24 (ANI/PRNewswire): Abu Dhabi has unveiled the concept of teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi - a multi-sensory art experience that will be a 'home for infinite curiosity', featuring original and constantly transforming artistic installations unique to Abu Dhabi.

To view the Multimedia News Release, please click:

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https://www.multivu.com/players/uk/9062051-teamlab-phenomena-abu-dhabi-revealed-worlds-new-home-infinite-curiosity/

teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi is set to be an immersive, inspirational space where the intersection of art and technology will ignite curiosity, imagination and creativity in all who visit. Slated to be completed in 2024, it is the latest offering of the Saadiyat Cultural District. The 17,000sqm (GFA) teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi building has been conceived with unparalleled installations that will be unique to Abu Dhabi, created through an extensive experimentation process.

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The Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) has partnered with Miral, the emirate's leading creator of destinations and experiences, to develop the concept, architecture and facilities, alongside teamLab, the globally acclaimed, interdisciplinary Tokyo-based art collective, known for their unique artistic vision

Strengthening Abu Dhabi's position as a leading cultural centre, teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi will sit alongside Louvre Abu Dhabi, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi and other major landmarks comprising the Saadiyat Cultural District, adding to the area's creative offering by creating a bridge between history, culture and creativity and immersing visitors in an innovative art experience.

Visitors will be invited to open their minds and embark on a journey through teamLab's new concept of environmental phenomena, which offers a new perspective on the world around us. The featured artworks are created and shaped by the environment which produces the various phenomena. The adapted and unique architecture, conceptualised by teamLab and realised by Abu Dhabi-based MZ Architects, plays an important role in providing the artworks with an environment to evolve freely and organically, as if they were life-forms themselves. The experience will be unique to each visitor, changing with each visit, as they discover a place in which to endlessly explore and transcend the limits of their imagination.

Having created art that is part of the collection of global institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, amongst many others, teamLab's artists, programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathematicians and architects are creating an original concept and unique teamlab Phenomena Abu Dhabi experience for the UAE capital.

HE Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of DCT Abu Dhabi, said: "Curiosity and imagination are at the core of who we are as human beings, sparking all our discoveries, inventions and innovations through the millennia. Sitting at the intersection of art, technology, nature and high-tech fantasy, teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi will offer a world of boundless wonder and creativity to all who visit, encouraging the new perspectives that are so essential to a thriving future. Adding yet another outstanding experience to our world-leading cultural destination, the teamLab Phenomena experience will be unique to Abu Dhabi, reinforcing the emirate's position as a destination of distinction. Providing a journey which will trigger the senses, nurture curiosity, spark imagination, and awaken a thirst for knowledge, teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi fully supports our commitment to inspire a new generation of innovators and creators in the emirate and beyond."

Toshiyuki Inoko, Founder of teamLab, said: "It is a great honour for us to be able to open teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi in the Saadiyat Cultural District of Abu Dhabi, a world-leading, future-focussed city. At teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi, visitors will be immersed into a world that organically changes and evolves through the participation and actions of the people in it, and it is precisely this physical experience that can expand our senses of value. The future is built upon the grand sum of people's creations. Curiosity drives people towards a deeper understanding of the world and leads to creativity. We believe that imagination decides the direction of this creativity. Our hope is for teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi to create opportunities for curiosity and imagination to be born.

Commenting on the philosophy behind the project, Inoko continued: "teamLab PhenomenaAbu Dhabi is based on teamLab's new concept in which the existence of the artworks are created by the phenomena produced by their environment. The artworks in teamLab PhenomenaAbu Dhabi do not exist independently but are created by the environment which produces the various phenomena. Objects like stones and man-made creations maintain a stable structure on their own. Unlike these, the existence of the artworks in teamLab PhenomenaAbu Dhabi are dependent on their environment. The environment produces phenomena and stabilises their structure - these stabilised phenomena are what create the existence of the artworks.

"Environmental phenomena are released from the material substances that have been responsible for maintaining structures of existence. Elements like air, water, and light that permeate our daily lives are transformed by their environment into unique phenomena that become works of art. The boundaries of their existence are ambiguous and continuous. Even if people destroy the work, the work will remain in existence as long as its environment is maintained. On the contrary, the work will disappear if the environment is not maintained. In time, people's consciousness will expand from existence itself to the environment. A stone can continue to exist in a closed box, sealed off from the outside world, but life cannot sustain its existence in such a box because it is created by its environment. Life is a miraculous phenomenon that emerges from a flow in a continuous world."

To celebrate the official launch of the project, DCT Abu Dhabi has also announced a preview activation for visitors to experience immersive artworks that embody the concept of 'infinite curiosity' ahead of the opening, taking them on a journey of wonder and sensory exploration. This event will take place at Mamsha Al Saadiyat from 24 June to 17 July.

The teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi launch reaffirms Abu Dhabi's vision to enrich the emirate's cultural landscape and foster its Culture and Creative Industries (CCI), positioning the UAE capital as a centre for creativity and innovation. With culture a major driver of social and economic development, the emirate is fast becoming a globally known centre of talent and a leading producer of creative content.

Abu Dhabi seeks to broaden artistic and cultural expression by providing its community and visitors with a diverse cultural programme curated to inspire creativity and knowledge development, creating a culturally active and artistically conscious city with strong links to the wider region and the world.

The emirate continues its support and development of cultural institutions, including museums such as the upcoming Zayed National Museum, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi and the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi. The emirate's performing arts, media and gaming sectors will also see further investment in their diverse array of programmes and initiatives.

The Saadiyat Cultural District is an ambitious undertaking that, will be one of the world's pre-eminent cultural destinations. Through its museums, cultural centres, and educational institutions, the District will boast one of the highest concentrations of cultural experience in the world.

The area is already home to Louvre Abu Dhabi, the globally celebrated universal museum, and Manarat Al Saadiyat, a cultural centre that contributes to the region's vibrant arts scene with internationally relevant exhibitions and events, workshops and creative programming.

The Saadiyat Cultural District will soon also include the Zayed National Museum, the national museum of the UAE; Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, focusing on global Modern and Contemporary art; and the Abrahamic Family House, which will comprise three religious spaces in one complex - a mosque, a synagogue and a church - to inspire and nurture acceptance and peaceful coexistence among people of all faiths.

This story is provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PRNewswire)

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New Delhi, Jun 24 (PTI) With the upcoming G7 summit set to discuss cutting dependency on Russian fossil fuels, India on Friday said its sourcing of crude oil is totally driven by its national interests and that its position on the issue is "very well understood" by various countries.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is attending the annual summit of the G7 club of wealthy nations to be held in Alpine castle of Schloss Elmau in southern Germany on June 26 and 27.

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Slashing of Europe's dependency on Russian energy sources in view of Moscow's attack on Ukraine is likely to be discussed at the summit.

US President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are among the top leaders attending the G7 summit.

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"Whatever the trading arrangements that India puts in place with regard to the purchase of crude oil all over the world are determined purely from the consideration of energy security of India and there is no other consideration," Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said.

He was responding to a question on whether India would be under pressure from the G7 countries to restrict its procurement of crude oil from Russia.

"I think that consideration is very well understood. I would even say appreciated across the countries. I do not see any point of assuming any pressure on that issue. India has continued its oil trade and purchases from wherever we need to do it," he said.

India's crude oil imports from Russia have jumped over 50 times since April and now make up for 10 per cent of all crude bought from overseas, a senior government official said on Thursday.

Russian oil made up for just 0.2 per cent of all oil imported by India prior to the Ukraine war.

Kwatra said India's crude oil import is purely determined, governed and motivated by India's energy security considerations, noting that it is one of the key aspects in terms of the country's national economic interests.

The Western countries are gradually bringing down their energy purchases from Russia following its attack on Ukraine.

Asked about the growing food crisis arising out of the Ukraine crisis, Kwatra said India has taken a very "proactive" stance to ensure food security of the vulnerable countries. Ukraine is a major producer of wheat and the halt in its exports of the staple food has triggered its shortage.

"I think the Russia-Ukraine situation has generated a certain amount of food security crisis all over the world and as a responsible nation, India has taken a very and proactive stance to ensure that the food security of the vulnerable countries are addressed in a manner that their needs are addressed," he said.

At the same time, he emphasised on India's approach that the food security within the country is absolutely not at all impacted.

"I think, there has been a widespread appreciation of the manner in which India has taken forward this position," Kwatra said.

On the crisis in Ukraine, he said India's position has always been very clear as it has been asking for cessation of hostilities right from the beginning of the conflict and clearly said that the path to the resolution of the problem is through diplomacy and dialogue.

The G7 comprises the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US.

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Thane, Jun 24 (PTI) A special court in Maharashtra's Thane district has sentenced a driver to seven years of rigorous imprisonment for allegedly kidnapping and raping a 17-year-old girl in Bhiwandi four years back.

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In the order passed on June 21, special judge V V Virkar, hearing cases related to offences linked to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on the 30-year-old convict Chandbabu alias Sahil Mustakeem Ali Shah.

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Special public prosecutor Rekha Hiwrale told the court that the accused and the victim, then aged 17 years, lived in the same locality at Nagaon of Bhiwandi.

The accused lived in the house opposite that of the girl's and used to play loud music, which the victim's mother used to object to. On July 9, 2018, he kidnapped the victim and took her away in his car and later sexually assaulted her, the prosecution said.

The accused was convicted under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 363 (kidnapping), 366 (kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage), 376 (rape) and also under the POCSO Act.

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New Delhi, Jun 24 (PTI) The Central Advisory Board on Disability has asked all states and Union territories to assess by July end public buildings that are to be made accessible for the differently-abled people in the "shortest possible time", under the Accessible India Campaign.

The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, had given the governments five years time ending June 14 to make all existing public buildings accessible for the community, but so far, only 585 state and 1,030 central government buildings have been made barrier-free.

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An official said the board, which met on Friday, has asked the states to draw an action plan to make such buildings accessible within the shortest possible time and that the ones providing education, health and other public utility services need to be upgraded on priority.

The states and Union territories were advised to assess the public buildings by July 31 and submit the proposal seeking extension of time, if needed, to the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities with justification and a detailed action plan, the official said.

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Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Virendra Kumar urged the states to speed up implementation of the Accessible India Campaign, also called 'Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan'.

The board also deliberated upon various important issues in the disability sector, such as the implementation of various schemes and welfare measures for the community.

Kumar said around 75 lakh unique disability cards have been generated across the country.

The board also took note of the initiatives taken by the central government during the last two years, according to a statement.

The Central Advisory Board urged all the states and Union territories to expeditiously notify the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Rules, constitute state advisory boards, district level committees, designate district level courts, appoint independent commissioners for persons with disabilities.

They were advised to upscale the pace of implementation of Unique Disability ID project so as to achieve saturation by August, the statement said.

They were also advised by the board to enhance the quantum of disability pension so as to enable 'Divyangjans' live a dignified life.

Ministers from 12 states and Union territories and officers from all the states, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Ladakh and Lakshadweep, representatives from the central ministries and departments concerned, national institutes and other central government organisations and nominated members representing persons with disabilities and their associations, participated in the meeting.

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New Delhi [India], June 24 (ANI): The presidential candidate nominated by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA, Droupadi Murmu on Friday filed her nomination papers at the Parliament Library Building in the national capital.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed her name for the nomination, which was seconded by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

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The second set of proposers were the chief ministers of BJP-ruled states, the third proposers were MLAs and MPs from Himachal and Haryana and the fourth set were MLAs and MPs from Gujarat.

PM Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP National President JP Nadda, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh Union Minister Piyush Goyal, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda, Union ministers and BJP leaders Gen VK Singh (Retd), Bhupender Yadav and Giriraj Singh were present at the Parliament during her nomination filing.

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The Chief Ministers of all BJP-ruled states including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Assam Chief Minister and Himanta Biswa Sarma among others were present during her nomination filing.

Besides, the NDA partners, Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) leader V Vijayasai Reddy and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) Tukuni Sahu, BJJD MP Dr Sasmit Patra and Jagannath Saraka also present.

Draupadi Murmu, the first woman tribal leader to file her nomination for the top constitutional post of the country, is a seasoned politician from Odisha coupled with an extensive background in the field of academics reflects that she will uplift the tribal sections of the country.

Droupadi Murmu, who was declared BJP-led NDA's presidential candidate, is a former Governor of Jharkhand and a former Odisha minister.

She will face opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha in the presidential contest on July 18. If elected, she will be the first tribal President of India and the country's second female President.

Droupadi Murmu is the first presidential candidate from Odisha of a major political party or alliance. She continues to break barriers and was the first woman governor of Jharkhand. She served as Jharkhand Governor from 2015 to 2021.

Born in a poor tribal family in a village of Mayurbhanj, a backward district in Odisha, Droupadi Murmu completed her studies despite challenging circumstances. She taught at Shri Aurobindo Integral Education Centre, Rairangpur.

Born on June 20, 1958, she pursued BA at Ramadevi Women's College Bhubaneswar.

She started her political career as Rairangpur NAC vice-chairman. Droupadi Murmu was a member of the Odisha Legislative Assembly from Rairangpur between 2000 and 2004. As a minister, she held portfolios of Transport and Commerce, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries. She again served as MLA in the Odisha assembly from 2004 to 2009.

In 2007, the Odisha assembly honoured her with the 'Nilakantha Award' for best MLA.

She served as a junior assistant in Irrigation and Power Department between 1979 and 1983.

She has held several organisational posts in BJP and was vice president of state ST Morcha in 1997.

Droupadi Murmu was a national executive member of BJP's ST Morcha from 2013 to 2015 and served as BJP district chief of Mayurbhanj (West) in 2010 and 2013.

Between 2006 and 2009, she was chief of BJP's ST Morcha in Odisha. She was a member of the national executive of BJP ST Morcha from 2002 to 2009. (ANI)

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Chandigarh, Jun 24 (PTI) The National Investigation Agency Friday conducted searches at six locations in Punjab's Ferozepur, Fazilka and Tarn Taran in connection with a blast in Jalalabad last year.

?The case relates to an explosion that took place on a Bajaj Platina bike near Punjab National Bank, Jalalabad city in Fazilka, an NIA spokesperson said.

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The accused were in touch with Pakistan-based terrorists and smugglers, and were recruited for executing the conspiracy for carrying out terrorist attacks using arms and explosive, the NIA said.

The case, initially registered in September last year in Jalalabad, was re-registered by the NIA in October last year.

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During the searches, digital devices (mobile phones, SIM cards, memory cards, DVRs), ammunition and other incriminating documents/materials have been seized, the NIA said, adding that further investigation in the case continues.

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Mumbai, Jun 24 (PTI) In the wake of Shiv Sena minister Eknath Shinde's rebellion, MP Sanjay Raut on Friday admitted that the party's numbers in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly have dwindled, but expressed confidence that the rebel MLAs will support the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) combine during the floor test, saying that "figures can change any time".

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He said the rebel MLAs will face the real test of their loyalty towards the party when they return to Mumbai.

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Raut also attacked BJP leader Narayan Rane, without naming him, for "threatening" NCP chief Sharad Pawar.

Shinde is currently camping with 37 rebel MLAs of the Sena and nine independents in a Guwahati hotel.

Talking to reporters, Raut, who is Sena's chief spokesperson, admitted that his party's numbers in the Assembly have gone down due to the revolt.

"The rebel group claims to have the required figures and democracy runs on numbers. But figures can change anytime. When the rebels return, it will be a test of their loyalty towards Balasaheb Thackeray and the Shiv Sena," he said.

This is a legal battle. There are some rules and Supreme Court directives, the Sena MP said.

"MVA (comprising Sena, NCP and Congress) is together...We are confident that the rebels will support the MVA during the floor test," he added.

Earlier, talking to PTI, Raut said the party was waiting for the rebels to return to Mumbai.

"Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray is confident most of the rebels will return to the party fold. The rebels will have to be back in Mumbai to meet the Governor, followed by a head count and the trust vote," he said.

Taking to Twitter, Raut slammed Union minister Narayan Rane for "threatening" Sharad Pawar.

"Does the BJP approve of such language. Governments will come and go. But Maharashtra will not tolerate such language against Sharad Pawar," he said.

Rane on Thursday took on Pawar, alleging that the latter was threatening rebel Shiv Sena MLAs, and said if anything happened to them in the Maharashtra Assembly, then consequences will have to be faced.

In a series of tweets in Marathi issued in the evening, Rane said, "Sharad Pawar is threatening the (rebel) MLAs that they should come to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly. They will definitely come and vote as per their will. If any harm comes to them, it will be difficult to go home."

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New Delhi, June 24: Dish TV Managing Director Jawahar Goel has stepped down from the post after the shareholders of the DTH operator rejected the proposal to reappoint him in the extraordinary general meeting.

"The proposal for reappointment of Jawahar Lal Goel as Managing Director of the company has not received requisite majority at the EGM held on June 24, 2022," said Dish TV in a regulatory filing. However, Goel "continues as a Non-Executive Director", the regulatory filing said. Dish TV to Shift 50% of Its Set-Top Box Production to India by First Quarter of 2021.

"We wish to inform you that on the basis of the votes cast by the shareholders at the EEGM of Company held on June 24, 2022", Jawahar Lal Goel "vacates the office of Managing Director of the Company," said Dish TV.

Moreover, the proposal to reappoint Anil Kumar Dua as a whole-time director of the company and appointment of its former chief executive officer Rajagopal Chakravarthi Venkatesh as a non-executive independent director have "not received requisite majority at the EGM held on June 24, 2022."

Following this "Anil Kumar Dua vacates the office of the Whole Time Director of the Company. He continues as Chief Executive Officer of the Company," said Dish TV.

Besides, R C Venkateish vacates office of Director of the Company," it added. Dish TV on Friday held the EGM of the equity shareholders through video conferencing and other audio-visual means.

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New Delhi, Jun 24 (PTI) Tata Motors on Friday announced a partnership with Amity University, Lucknow campus to provide M-Tech degree in Electric Vehicle (EV) technology to employees working at its Lucknow plant.

The programme aims at enhancing employees' technical skills, thereby bridging skill gaps that prevail in the automotive industry and creating a future-ready organisation, Tata Motors said in a statement.

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Sponsored by the company, the M-Tech degree programme will impart knowledge and skills requisite for the automotive manufacturing industry, it added.

The programme has two parts  technical orientation delivered through theoretical and practical sessions to be conducted at Tata Motors campus and Amity University, Lucknow campus, respectively, it said.

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The course comprises four semesters, spread over two years, which will culminate in a six month comprehensive industrial project, it added.

Tata Motors President and CHRO Ravindra Kumar GP said, "This association with Amity University, Uttar Pradesh Lucknow campus will not only provide our employees a pathway for career growth and skills development but will help us build a future-ready workforce."

With Tata Motors making significant investments in EVs, this course will enable employees to keep up with the pace of technological advancement and have a deeper grasp of EV technology transition and other cutting-edge technologies, he added.

Sunil Dhaneshwar, Pro Vice Chancellor and Professor, Amity University, Uttar Pradesh Lucknow campus, said, "This mutually beneficial initiative will lead to a rich exchange of knowledge and will allow students to align with the latest industry practices. This programme will help us develop a talent pool that would have an edge, equipped with advanced knowledge and a narrowing skills gap."

(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 24 (PTI) Japanese auto majors Toyota and Suzuki on Friday said they will deepen their collaboration in the fields of development and production in India.

Under the initiative, the two companies will start production of a new SUV developed by Suzuki at Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) from August this year, they said in a joint statement.

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Suzuki's Indian arm, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd and TKM will market the new model in India as Suzuki and Toyota models, respectively, it added.

"Furthermore, the two companies are planning to export the new model to markets outside India including Africa," the statement said.

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Commenting on the development, Toyota President Akio Toyoda said,"We are pleased to announce the new SUV with Suzuki, a company that has a long history of local involvement in the Indian business."

Today, he said the automotive industry is facing various challenges such as electrification and carbon neutrality.

"By leveraging the respective strengths of Toyota and Suzuki to provide Indian customers with a variety of options, we hope to contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions and realize a society where 'no-one is left behind' and 'everyone can move freely'," he added.

Similarly, Suzuki President Toshihiro Suzuki said, production of the new SUV at TKM is a project that can contribute to the growth of India through providing eco-friendly mobility needed by customers.

He further said,"We recognise that it is a big milestone toward further deepening our collaboration in the future. We appreciate the support from Toyota, and at the same time, will explore new synergy and business opportunities through continuous collaboration."

The powertrains of the new model to be on sale in India, will be equipped with mild hybrid developed by Suzuki and strong hybrid developed by Toyota, the statement said.

"By bringing together the strengths of both Toyota and Suzuki through the collaboration, the two companies will be able to provide a wide variety of vehicle electrification technologies to customers and contribute to the acceleration of electrification and the realization of a carbon-neutral society in India," they said.

Including investment in expansion of collaboration in India, Toyota and Suzuki said they will remain committed to the achievement of the 'Make in India' initiative promoted by the Indian government, and contribute to sustainable economic growth and to the vision of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2070.

Toyota Motor Corporation and Suzuki Motor Corporation had signed a memorandum of understanding for a business alliance in 2017.

"Since then, the two companies have been bringing together Toyota's strength in electrification technologies and Suzuki's strength in technologies for compact vehicles for joint collaboration in production and in the widespread popularization of electrified vehicles," they said.

Under the partnership, at present TKM sells Suzuki's premium hatchback Baleno as Glanza and compact SUV Brezza as Urban Cruiser in India.

(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 24: China last week blocked a joint proposal by India and the US to list Pakistan-based terrorist Abdul Rehman Makki as a global terrorist under the Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the Security Council.

India and the US earlier in June proposed to list Pakistan-based terrorist Abdul Rehman Makki under the UN Security Council's Al-Qaeda and ISIL Sanctions Committee, also known as the UNSC 1267 Committee, sources said.

Both India and the US have already listed Makki as a terrorist under their domestic laws. He has been involved in raising funds, recruiting and radicalizing youth to violence and planning attacks in India, especially in Jammu and Kashmir.

Makki is the brother-in-law of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief and 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed. He has occupied various leadership roles within LeT, a US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). He has also played a role in raising funds for LeT operations. Pakistan To Face More Difficult Times, Says PM Shehbaz Sharif.

In 2020, a Pakistani anti-terrorism court convicted Makki on one count of terrorism financing and sentenced him to prison, acccording to the US State Department. The United States continues to seek information on Makki because the Pakistani judicial system has released convicted LeT leaders and operatives in the past.

Interestingly, it is learned that the proposal to list Makki under the UN Security Council sanctions regime was circulated to all members of the 1267 Committee under a no-objection procedure till June 16.

However, China later placed a "technical hold" on the proposal to list Makki. Sources said Beijing's decision is extremely unfortunate and runs counter to claims of combating terrorism.

Notably, this is not the first time that China has placed hurdles for the listing of known terrorists. In the past, it had repeatedly blocked proposals to designate Maulana Masood Azhar, chief of Pakistan-based and UN-proscribed terrorist entity, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).

But why are China and Pakistan protecting Abdul Rehman Makki?

Writing for Bitter Winter, Massimo Introvigne argued that in protecting Makki at the United Nations as a member of the Security Council with veto power, China in this sense acted as a proxy for Pakistan.

"At the same time, the veto sends a signal that within the framework of the current international situation anti-Western (and anti-Indian) feelings so much colour Beijing's moves to the point that China is prepared to contradict its rhetoric of fighting international terrorism and may in fact protect it," he said.

It's about time China should reflect on its response that signals double standards in combating terrorism. Protecting well-known terrorists from sanctioning in this manner will only undermine its credibility and risk exposing even itself more to the growing threat of terrorism.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Buenos Aires, Jun 24 (AP) Authorities in Argentina and Paraguay are trying to shine light on the jumbo-jet sized mystery surrounding a cargo plane with Iranian and Venezuelan crew that has been grounded outside Buenos Aires more than two weeks.

Prosecutors in the two South American countries have launched investigations to figure out whether the crew members  14 Venezuelans and five Iranians  have any ties to international terrorism or other illicit activity.

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Cecilia Incardona, the prosecutor leading the case in Argentina, is focusing her inquiries on the Iranian pilot, Gholamreza Ghasemi, and his possible ties to international terrorism.

The FBI said in a report to Argentine federal judge Federico Villena, who is in charge of the case, that Ghasemi is CEO of Qeshm Fars Air, which the US Treasury Department says provides material support to the Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard and Iranian airline Mahan Air, according to a document issued by Incardona's office this week.

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During the preliminary investigation into the plane, numerous traces have emerged that make it necessary to move forward with the investigation of Ghasemi, the rest of the plane's crew and its cargo, Incardona said in the document.

Incardona went on to say the irregular circumstances surrounding the plane created the need to investigate if the true objective of the airplane's arrival in our country was exclusively to transport auto parts or whether it was really preparation to provide goods or money that could be used for terrorist activity, its financing or organization.

The plane is operated by Venezuela's state-owned Emtrasur line, a subsidiary of Conviasa, which is under U.S. sanctions.

Before it was sold to Emtrasur a year ago, the plane was owned by Mahan Air of Iran, which the U.S. government has sanctioned for allegedly aiding the Quds Force and terrorist activities.

Incardona said the investigation now has to determine whether Mahan Air continues to have a link to the Boeing 747-300.

Mahan Air has publicly denied any ties to the aircraft and Venezuela has demanded that Argentine authorities release it.

The plane was carrying cargo for several Argentine auto parts companies that it loaded in Mexico before stopping in Caracas and arriving in Argentina on June 6.

The plane has been grounded in a hangar in Ezeiza just outside Buenos Aires since June 8, when Argentine authorities seized the passports of the crew members.

The crew is also under investigation in Paraguay, where the plane landed last month, said general prosecutor Sandra Quinonez. The investigation was opened after Rene Fernandez, a former prosecutor who leads Paraguay's National Anticorruption Secretariat, called for a probe into the plane, which spent three days in Ciudad del Este, near the border with Argentina.

There are suspicions the plane's cargo was a facade that hid the real reason for its time in Paraguay, Fernandez told a local television network.

Esteban Aquino, head of Paraguay's intelligence agency, told an Argentine radio station Monday that they were particularly concerned when they learned the plane turned off its transponder in several segments of its flights.

The plane's unusually large crew also raised suspicions in Paraguay but it was only after the plane left the country to transport cigarettes to Aruba that officials learned it belonged to an Iranian company that is suspended with sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department, Paraguay's Interior Minister Federico Gonzalez said earlier this month.

The Israeli Embassy in Uruguay expressed its concern Wednesday about the plane that until recently was used by the Iranian company Mahan Air.

In a news release, the embassy said some of the Iranian crew members were involved directly in the trafficking of weapons to Syria and the terrorist organization Hezbollah of Lebanon. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
As the political crisis entered the fourth day, the rebel Shiv Sena Minister Eknath Shinde claimed the support of "40-plus MLAs", besides around 12 independents and smaller parties, on Friday.

Speaking to the media from Guwahati, Shinde also dismissed the 'warning' issued by Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar that the rebel legislators would have to come to Mumbai before the Governor or the Legislature to prove their strength.

"We are not scared by such threats... Whatever we are doing is absolutely legal. We have the affidavits of all the MLAs that they have joined us voluntarily. The majority numbers are with us, more than 40 Sena MLAs plus 12 independents and others," Shinde asserted.

A day after telling his supporters that they would join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the breakaway group leader on Friday denied meeting any BJP leaders in Guwahati.

The Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress has accused the BJP of instigating the revolt to topple the 30-month-old Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) as the three alliance partners decided to stick together till the end.

State Congress Minister Dr. Nitin Raut on Friday accused the BJP of "murdering democracy" by engineering the rebellion in the Sena ranks.
Naypyidaw [Myanmar], June 24 (ANI): One of the most significant aspects of the 2021 military coup in Myanmar was China's immediate assistance to the military by providing advisers and subsequently, military equipment. It must be said that China's links with the Tatmadaw in Myanmar are historical. The government of the National League for Democracy (NLD) was only an interlude in this relationship.

The strategic perspective of the current relationship is a clear anti-India stance. China has used Myanmar's Army to harm India's interests, both in terms of security and economic cooperation. These developments can be viewed against the backdrop of a recent statement by China that it pledges to support the military regime "no matter how the situation changes" in Myanmar over the coming months and years.

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In a statement issued on April 4, China also affirmed that it had always placed Myanmar in an important position in its diplomacy and wants to "deepen exchanges and cooperation to forge a China-Myanmar community with a shared future."

China's statement marks the most unambiguous signal of support for Myanmar's military, which continues to face fierce resistance from a broad coalition of resistance groups, pro-democracy activists and ethnic armed organizations. Associated Press reports, Foreign Minister Wang Yi having told his Myanmar counterpart Wunna Maung Lwin that, China "has always placed Myanmar in an important position in its neighbourly diplomacy" and wants to "deepen exchanges and cooperation."

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China's unequivocal support at this juncture for the military government reflects its assessment that the Tatmadaw will continue to prevail over the anti-coup resistance. They also assess that outside support for the resistance movement will only prolong the inevitable, and that the military regime offers the most likely path to stability which is necessary for advancement of China's economic and strategic interests.

The essence of this Chinese commitment to Myanmar's Army is to create an overland transport and communications corridor running from China's Yunnan province to Myanmar's Indian Ocean coast, which is part of the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC), a sub-pillar of the Belt and Road Initiative.

It is important to note that China had been initially reluctant to back the military regime and its leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. But attacks on Chinese companies and investment, including factories in Yangon's industrial zone, marked a major turning point for China, raising concerns about instability in the country. Protests outside China's Yangon embassy and a rise in anti-China sentiment in the wake of the military takeover only increased their concerns.

Resultantly, by August 2021, the same month that Senior General Min Aung Hlaing crowned himself Prime Minister, Chinese officials had begun to restore ties with the military administration. Chinese authorities and business lobbies in Yangon also began to engage publicly with junta officials and promote commercial opportunities. In December, China delivered to Myanmar's Navy a refurbished Ming-class submarine, renamed the UMS Minye Kyaw Htin, making Myanmar the first country in Southeast Asia to take delivery of a China-manufactured submarine.

Since the coup, Chinese officials and business lobby groups in Yangon have begun to engage publicly with junta officials and to promote commercial opportunities. Since the early 2000s, Myanmar has sought to acquire a fleet of submarines to keep up with its Southeast Asian neighbours, but it has few options to buy them due to its atrocious human rights record and the arms embargo imposed by the European Union.

Along with Russia, China has also provided the military regime with fighter jets and armoured vehicles. China is continuing to pursue what it calls an independent foreign policy of peace that generally prioritizes its own narrow interests, with little or no consideration for a country's human rights record or other internal controversies.

The current state of play is that three strategic areas of collaboration and cooperation between the two countries define the relationship. First, in its incipient stage, is the Chinese digital Renminbi (RMB). Along with the recent agreement establishing the RMB as the official settlement currency for trade with China, the digital RMB could help Myanmar in its attempts to reduce its dependence on the US dollar in trade and mitigate against potential restrictions to access to the SWIFT international payments system.

The second area is Myanmar's retail sector, which is now a strategic front of China's private sector. The e-Commerce platform shop.com.mm, which is owned by China's Alibaba, has already captured the lion's share of the Myanmar market, particularly by allowing digital payments during the 2021 cash crisis.

Third, China has transferred to Myanmar the technology to manufacture a China-made Covid-19 vaccine under the brand name Myancopharm. With few competitors, China's Covid-19 diplomacy in Myanmar has been a relative success that has opened the way for new Chinese pharmaceutical companies to invest in Myanmar's generic drugs market, which is still dominated by imports from India.

Although it may take some time to gain the market share, entrepreneurs are already looking for an alternative source of generic drugs. Myanmar has a very high demand for generic drugs, but the steep US dollar-Kyat exchange rate had made imports more expensive.

China has also signed a deal to provide USD 6.1 million to Myanmar for 21 development projects. Furthermore, the government has approved a US$ 2.5 billion China-financed liquefied natural gas power project in Mee Lin Gyaing in Ayeyarwady Region.

Investments from China provide a facade of legitimacy to the military-led government, which is otherwise bereft of investments from any other source. While the coup has boosted China's presence in Myanmar, it has significantly undermined India's economic and security interests in Southeast Asia. The civil war has made progress on India's economic and logistics projects in the country, which are central to India's Act East policy, all but impossible.

Furthermore, fighting between the Myanmar military and People's Defence Force (PDFs) has brought intense conflict to western and north western Myanmar, which border India. China's blind support for the brutal and autocratic government will only aggravate the situation in Myanmar further. China's self-aggrandizing ambition is a threat to the people of Myanmar and their democratic aspirations. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Beijing [China], June 24 (ANI): After recent violence by a group of men beat four women outside a restaurant, the Chinese city Tangshan has been stripped of its honorary "civilized" status. The assault against the women has sparked public outrage with many demanding for justice.

Footage from the barbecue restaurant's cameras on June 10 showed a man slapping and dragging a woman to the street by her hair after she appeared to reject his advances. Other men then joined in, assaulting her female companions and leaving two women sprawled on the side of the street.

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Two of the women remain hospitalized in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), officials said this week, while authorities said they had arrested nine people in relation to the attack.

The violent attack which is widely condemned was caught on CCTV. This has also renewed a national discussion about violence against women in China.

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After this assault on women in the northern Hebei province of Chinese city Tangshan, a hashtag on the social media site Weibo started doing rounds. The hashtag signalled at the incident. Soon after it grabbed the attention of netizens, reported NBC News.

The video has been viewed hundreds of millions of times. Hundreds of thousands of people commented after videos of the attack were posted online. It is worthy to note that many of these online voices were calling for justice for the women and seeking action against the perpetrators.

The Civilization Office of the Central Communist Party Committee on Wednesday removed the city from the nation's honorary list of "civilized cities."

According to the office's official website, the "National civilized cities" are selected on eight criteria including good social order and a healthy and upward-moving social atmosphere.

Tangshan has been awarded the status four times since 2011, most recently in 2020. The committee's decision is the latest in a series of official responses to the attack and to the waves of anger it has provoked online.

Following the attack, the Hebei provincial security authority on Tuesday launched a disciplinary review and investigation into the Tangshan police bureau's response to the incident. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Kigali, Jun 24 (AP) Leaders of Commonwealth nations were meeting in Rwanda's capital Friday to tackle climate change, tropical diseases and other challenges deepened by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The summit for Commonwealth heads of state in Kigali is the culmination of a series of meetings this week that officials said yielded some success in efforts to improve the lives of people in the 54-nation association that is home to 2.5 billion people.

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The Commonwealth's member states range from vast India to tiny Tuvalu. The African nations of Togo and Gabon have asked to join the Commonwealth despite having no colonial history with Britain.

The group of nations comprises mostly former British colonies, and its titular head is Queen Elizabeth II. But countries such as Mozambique and Rwanda  a former Belgian colony with an Anglophile leader  previously launched successful bids to join.

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Prince Charles is representing his mother, who at 96 is restricting her official duties. The summit is taking place at an uncertain time for the British monarchy as well as the Commonwealth, whose relevance is sometimes questioned.

The bloc faces a new challenge as some member nations discuss removing the queen as their head of state. She is the head of state of 14 Commonwealth realms, but Barbados cut ties with the monarchy in November, and several other Caribbean countries, including Jamaica, say they plan to follow suit.

In his remarks Friday, Charles said free nations can make such decisions calmly and without rancour.

The heir to the throne also spoke of slavery and its legacy for Indigenous communities and others, saying the Commonwealth must find ways, new ways, to acknowledge our past.

Quite simply, this is a conversation whose time has come, he said.

Rwanda's hosting of the summit is contentious to some who cite the East African country's poor human rights record under Paul Kagame, an authoritarian leader who has been de facto leader or president since a 1994 genocide.

Other critics are unhappy with what they see as an illegal and cruel deal with Britain to transfer migrants thousands of miles to Rwanda. That agreement faces legal hurdles, and the first group of migrants has yet to arrive in Africa.

World leaders attending the summit range from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose leadership of the Conservative party suffered a heavy blow overnight as voters rejected the party's candidates in two special parliamentary elections, is also in Rwanda.

Some meetings on the margins of the summit reported successes in efforts to address pressing issues such as managing climate change and deadly diseases.

More than $4 billion was pledged Thursday toward global efforts to accelerate the fight against malaria and other neglected tropical diseases. The money will come from governments, philanthropists and others in the private sector. In addition, pharmaceutical companies donated 18 billion tablets to prevent and treat those diseases.

Observers said the fundraising marks a significant breakthrough as malaria is a leading killer in Africa.

Dr. Francisca Olamiju, the head of a non-governmental organization in Nigeria that advocates for the poor, told The Associated Press of her high expectations for such a big gathering to bolster campaigns against tropical diseases.

World leaders must walk the talk and mobilise more resources for the cause, she said.

Summit participants also are urging increased action to curb global warming ahead of a United Nations climate change summit scheduled to take place in Egypt in November.

Commonwealth governments have been asked to submit their targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by Sept. 23.

At the summit, Commonwealth leaders are expected to adopt a plan to address climate change, land degradation and biodiversity loss.

The Living Lands Charter charter aims to achieve climate goals through a mixture of policy influence, financing, technical assistance, governance and sharing knowledge across nations.

Some 32 of the Commonwealth's members are small states, with 25 of them small islands and developing states classified as vulnerable to climate change. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Kabul [Afghanistan], June 24 (ANI): In the wake of the tragic earthquake that struck Afghanistan on June 22, Ministry of External Affairs Joint Secretary (PAI), JP Singh handed over India's humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan on Friday in the presence of Taliban officials.

The first consignment of India's earthquake relief assistance reached Kabul on Thursday followed by the second consignment of relief assistance that reached Friday morning to support the people of Afghanistan in quake-affected regions.

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The relief assistance consists of essential items including family ridge tents, sleeping bags, blankets, sleeping mats, etc.

The Taliban have welcomed India's decision to return its technical team to continue humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan.

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"Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (lEA) welcomes decision by India to return diplomats and technical team to their embassy in Kabul to continue their relations with the Afghan people and their humanitarian assistance," Taliban spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi said in a statement on Thursday.

Major relief efforts are ongoing following a major magnitude earthquake which struck Paktika province in the early hours of Wednesday morning. To date, around 1000 people are estimated to have been killed across Barmal and Giyan districts in Paktika province, and Spera district in Khost province.

In addition, at least 1,455 people have been injured across three of the six most affected districts of Barmal, Giyan, and Spera - many of them seriously.Further, nearly 1,500 homes have now been verified as destroyed and damaged in Giyan district, Paktika province.

Over this incident, India expressed condolences to the victims and their families impacted by the tragic earthquake in Afghanistan. India said it remains committed to providing assistance and support in this hour of need.

The disaster comes as Afghanistan continues to struggle with a severe economic crisis since the Taliban took over, as US-led international forces withdrew following two decades of war.

A UN agency said Afghanistan had asked humanitarian agencies to help with rescue efforts, and teams were being dispatched to the quake-hit area. (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 24 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be travelling to United Arab Emirates (UAE) on June 28 to pay his personal condolences on the passing away of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the former UAE President and Abu Dhabi Ruler. He will also congratulate Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on his election as the new President of UAE.

Addressing a briefing ahead of PM Modi's visit to Germany and UAE, Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said security, education and investment are among areas of discussion between India and UAE and bilateral relations are "dynamic, robust, and widespread".

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"Energy security is an important pillar of our relations. People-to-people connect is another aspect. Security, environment, education and investment are other areas of discussion between the two countries," he said.

Answering a query about controversial remarks of a suspended BJP leader, he said, "as far as Prophet issue is concerned, almost all Middle East countries have an understanding of India's position. We've communicated our stand on various platforms. I don't think that will be taken forward anymore."

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This will be PM Modi's first meeting with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan since his election as the new President of the UAE and the Ruler of Abu Dhabi.

The Prime Minister will visit UAE after attending the G7 Summit in Germany.

Kwatra said India's regular participation at G7 Summits clearly points to increasing acceptance and recognition that India needs to be a part of every sustained effort to find a solution to solve challenges, global challenges in particular, which are being faced by world.

PM Modi will be visiting Schloss Elmau, Germany for the G7 Summit under the German Presidency on June 26 and 27.

During the Summit, Prime Minister is expected to speak in two sessions that include environment, energy, climate, food security, health, gender equality and democracy.

In an effort to strengthen international collaboration on these important issues, other democracies such as Argentina, Indonesia, Senegal and South Africa have also been invited.

On the sidelines of the Summit, Prime Minister will hold bilateral meetings with leaders of some of the participating countries.

The invitation to G7 Summit is in keeping with the tradition of strong and close partnership and high-level political contacts between India and Germany. Prime Minister's last visit to Germany was on May 2, 2022 for the sixth edition of the India-Germany Inter-Governmental Consultations (IGC). (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Washington, Jun 24 (PTI) An Indian-American Muslim body on Thursday praised Congresswoman Ilhan Omar for introducing a resolution in the US House of Representative that condemns India for the alleged human rights violation against the minorities in particular the Muslims.

Co-sponsored by lawmakers Rashida Talib and Juan Vargas, the resolution urges the State Department to act on the recommendations of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and designate India as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) under the International Religious Freedom Act.

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The USCIRF's recommendations are not binding on the State Department and for the past several years successive American administrations have ignored its recommendations in this regard.

In a statement, Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) commended Omar and two of her Congressional colleagues to introduce the resolution in this regard in the House early this week.

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It is indeed sad to see the country that we love and adore, discriminate and criminalize its most vulnerable citizens and head down the path of bigotry, intolerance and authoritarianism, said Syed Afzal Ali, president of IAMC.

However, the rsolution like this is very unlikely to see the light of the day, given the vindictive approach being adopted by Congresswoman Omar. She has openly sided with Pakistani officials on the issue of India.

Omar, who visited Pakistan in last April and met top Pakistani leaders, including former Prime Minister Imran Khan, and travelled to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), is yet to disclose the nature, including the funding, of the visit.

India had condemned the US Congresswoman's visit to PoK, saying her travel to the region violated the country's sovereignty and it reflected her "narrow-minded" politics.

"If such a politician wishes to practice her narrow-minded politics at home, that may be her business. But violating our territorial integrity and sovereignty in its pursuit makes it ours. This visit is condemnable," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had said.

During several Congressional hearings related to India, Omar has repeatedly shown her bias against India.

The news about the resolution was first reported, in advance, by a senior official from Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, which also slammed a senior State Department official.

Omar's resolution condemns alleged human rights violations and violations of international religious freedom in India, including those "targeting" Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Dalits, Adivasis, and other religious and cultural minorities. It expressed grave concern about the "worsening treatment" of religious minorities in India.

India had rejected the criticism against it in the US State Department report on religious freedom, saying it is unfortunate that "vote bank politics" is being practised in international relations.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had said the observation on India in the report is based on "motivated inputs and biased views".

"It is unfortunate that vote bank politics is being practised in international relations. We would urge that assessments based on motivated inputs and biased views be avoided.

"As a naturally pluralistic society, India values religious freedom and human rights. In our discussions with the US, we have regularly highlighted issues of concern there, including racially and ethnically motivated attacks, hate crimes and gun violence," he said.

The resolution that also calls on the House to express, grave concern about the worsening treatment of religious minorities in India, has been sent to the House Foreign Affairs Committee for necessary action.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Antananarivo [Madagascar], June 23 (ANI): The Indian embassy in Antananarivo on Thursday began free Hindi language classes for all language enthusiasts in Madagascar, Indian Ambassador to Madagascar, Abhay Kumar said.

"It is a truly a historic day that for the first time Hindi is being taught in Madagascar. I am delighted with the response it has received. Over 100 students and professionals have expressed interest in learning Hindi within a few days of the announcement of the course, adding that it is truly encouraging and heartwarming," Ambassador Abhay Kumar said in Hindi while launching the first class at the embassy premises here.

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Hindi is among one of the most popular languages in the world. With the rise of Indian influence, the interest in learning Hindi has also seen an increase among people in other countries. With developments in technology, learning Hindi has become more accessible and affordable.

Meanwhile, according to information put out by the Indian embassy here, several Hindi films will also be included in the learning process, keeping in view the interest and keenness exhibited by local Malagasy nationals in learning the Hindi language.

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The Hindi classes will be held five times a week, from Monday to Friday in two slots: from 2 pm to 3 pm and from 3 pm to 4 pm. The classes will be conducted by the newly appointed Hindi teacher Manisha Pandey. People of all ages will be invited to take part in the classes, the embassy said.

Ties between India and Madagascar ties are on an upswing and several MoUs in key areas such as health, education, culture, information, and travel have been signed between the two countries.

Madagascar has a large Indian diaspora from Gujarat and is the largest and most populous island in the Indian Ocean. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
By Sahil Pandey

New Delhi [India], June 24 (ANI): India's trading arrangements for crude oil procurement are determined purely on national energy security consideration, Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said on Friday.

Also Read | Poliovirus in UK: Pakistan Under Scrutiny as Virus Detected in London Sewage Samples.

At a media briefing here today ahead of PM Modi's visit to Germany for the G7 Summit, the foreign secretary when asked what India's approach will be if it faces flak for its procurement of Russian crude oil at the summit, said that India's consideration for crude oil purchases is appreciated across the countries.

"Whatever are the trading arrangements that India puts in place with regard to the purchase of crude oil all over the world is determined purely from the consideration of energy security of India. India's consideration for crude oil purchases very well understood. It is appreciated across the countries. I don't see that as any point of assuming any pressure," the foreign secretary said.

Also Read | Iran: 4-Year-Old Girl Dies After Parents Leave Her in Hot Car To Attend Funeral in Ramhormoz.

PM Modi will visit Germany for the G7 Summit on June 26-27 and will also travel to UAE on his return to India. At the invitation of the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the PM will be travelling to Schloss on the midnight of June 25, he said.

PM Modi will hold bilateral meetings and discussions with the leaders of G7 as also the guest countries on the sidelines of the G7 Summit.

The foreign secretary said that India's regular participation at G7 Summits clearly points to increasing acceptance and recognition that India needs to be a part of every sustained effort to find a solution to solve global challenges.

During the G7 Summit, Prime Minister Modi is expected to speak in two sessions that include Environment, Energy, Climate, Food Security, Health, Gender Equality and Democracy. In an effort to strengthen international collaboration on these important issues, other democracies such as Argentina, Indonesia, Senegal and South Africa have also been invited.

From Germany, PM Modi will travel to the United Arab Emirates on June 28.

Responding to a query on whether the row over the Prophet remark could crop up during PM Modi's visit to UAE, the foreign secretary at the said that Gulf nations have a clear understanding on New Delhi's position and he does not think there will be any further talk on this matter.

"Gulf nations have a clear understanding over India's position and situation, and we have clarified it on various occasions. I do not think there will be any further talk on this," Kwatra said in the media briefing.

"This will be PM's first meeting at the same time with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan since his election as the new President of the UAE and the Ruler of Abu Dhabi," the Foreign Secretary 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)
Jerusalem, Jun 24 (PTI) With India at the cusp of a digital healthcare revolution, the Israeli experience in managing its health services, especially in times of crisis, can be very helpful in the efficient and successful management of healthcare systems addressing today's challenges with innovative thinking and technology, a leading expert from AIIMS Delhi has said.

In Israel to attend a two week international course on 'Management of Health Services in Times of Crisis' organized by MASHAV Carmel Training Center in Haifa, Dr Angel Rajan Singh, Addl Prof of Health Management at AIIMS Delhi, at the conclusion of the programme told PTI that "this country has gone through so much crisis that emergency services are not just focussed, but very well organised".

Also Read | 'Pakistan To Face More Difficult Times', Says PM Shehbaz Sharif.

"They address these challenges in a way that it looks like it all comes so naturally to them and their preparation for all possible disasters is demonstrable for the benefit of others", Dr Singh said.

The AIIMS expert and Dr Rakesh Nath Prasad, Chief Medical Officer of Municipal Corporation of Delhi, are among a group of doctors from 12 countries attending the course organised by MASHAV - Israel's Agency for International Development Cooperation, a part of its Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Also Read | BRICS Nations Call for Comprehensive Reform of UN To Make It More Effective.

"Israel has gone digital in a big way managing electronic health records of its population so seamlessly. With us at the cusp of a digital healthcare revolution through our Ayushman Bharat Health Account - ABHA, which is an initiative launched by the government under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), we can definitely learn and adopt several things from how they have integrated various aspects of healthcare management", Dr Singh noted.

"The Israeli PHC (primary health care) system with such meticulous focus on the needs of mother and child, perfection in emergency care with even so well organised ambulance services, disaster management systems, digitalisation of different aspects of healthcare, use of health care funds in a way that it also promotes innovation - the seamless integration of all related aspects of management of health services - can be an important learning for us as we work on developing our own systems in India," he emphasised.

When asked about the mismatch in population size between the two countries, the AIIMS expert said in terms of footfall it is quite comparable, especially in times of crisis, and the Israeli healthcare system is better prepared given its distinct experience.

"We were very proud to have two Indian participants in the course. MASHAV in general and MCTC in particular have strong ties with India and we are always looking forward to sharing experiences with this beautiful country", Anna Andrachnik, Programme Director at The Golda Meir MASHAV Carmel International Training Centre told PTI.

"Both Indian experts shared their experience with the international group and enriched our programme with their knowledge", she added.

Israel is recognised worldwide for its success in meeting challenges in the field of healthcare - relying on a combination of innovative thinking, technology, and national commitment, including policies and funding, as well as on highly professional and well trained human resources.

"The course aims to expose participants to Israel's models of health care services; to spread awareness and provide tools and skills for key management functions in healthcare systems, including hospitals; to exchange experiences and ideas on concepts, programs, and methodologies applied in the participants' respective countries, as well as in Israel", a brochure released for the study programme said.

The June 13th to 24th extensive study programme covered important areas such as health care systems in Israel, health care strategic management  policy and politics, financial management and health basket, political and economic aspects of universal health coverage, governance challenges in global health, health care in times of crisis and digital health management.

The head of MASHAV, Ambassador Eynat Shlein, earlier this month visited India to deepen cooperation between the two countries in various areas. The seven day visit focussed mainly on cooperation in the field of agriculture and water management.

"We are keen to continue and expand our cooperation with all our partners in India as we continue enhancing the strategic partnership between our two nations", she said.

(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 24 (ANI): While being admitted to Pakistan's Karachi Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre on Tuesday prominent Pashtun leader Ali Wazir has claimed that his life is in danger adding that he had been attacked twice at the hospital, local media reported.

Wazir, who is the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) lawmaker from South Waziristan is currently facing sedition charges and is in prison at the Karachi Central Jail since December 31, 2021.

Also Read | 'Pakistan To Face More Difficult Times', Says PM Shehbaz Sharif.

He claimed that while addressing the PTM workers outside the hospital late on Wednesday night he had been attacked twice at the hospital. Wazir said that he was first attacked on his first day at the hospital and later again on Wednesday night.

Following the alleged attacks on him, the Pashtun leader demanded that he should be taken to Islamabad to attend the budget session. "I should be taken to Islamabad to attend the budget session [in the NA and] raise the problems of my constituency," Wazir said, reported Dawn.

Also Read | BRICS Nations Call for Comprehensive Reform of UN To Make It More Effective.

Wazir said that "I demand that I should be sent back to the jail as I feel insecure here." The NA speaker had issued a production order for the PTM lawmaker on Tuesday to attend the ongoing budget session, but Wazir has so far not been shifted to Islamabad.

Wazir complained that this was the second time that he was not being allowed to attend the budget session. He also recalled that a production order for him was issued to attend a previous budget session when he was imprisoned in Haripur jail in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Speaking about that the PTM lawmaker said that he was not taken to Islamabad to attend the session at the time. Furthermore, Wazir also claimed that he had submitted an application with jail authorities for his medical treatment three years ago, but he was never shifted to a hospital until Tuesday.

Now that he is shifted in the hospital, he said that he could be barred from attending the budget session. "This is a session during which lawmakers raise problems being faced by the people of their constituencies," he said, adding that his demand of being shifted from the hospital was not "illegal".

Even when not involved in any act of terrorism or committed corruption, the PTM leader said that he is barred from attending the budget session.

While speaking to Pakistan's local media outlet, the Dawn, the PTM leader Muhammed Sher Mehsud said that Wazir sat outside the hospital in protest as he was not allowed to meet relatives, friends and his party's workers there. "He started his protest at 4 pm on Wednesday," Mehsud said, adding that for Wazir, the "atmosphere at the hospital was suffocating as he had been asked to stay bed-ridden".

Mehsud said later that officials from court police and police held talks with Wazir till 2 am on Thursday and agreed to shift him back to the prison today. Wazir was shifted to the hospital for physiotherapy," Mehsud added, as per the media outlet.

The PTM leader was charged with treason and hate speech against the state. However, Wazir denied such allegations and blamed the state for a biased attitude towards minorities. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
BepiColombo, a joint endeavor between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), captured beautiful views of the planet Mercury on June 23, 2022 as the spacecraft flew past the planet for its second gravity assist maneuver.

BepiColombo blasted off from Europes Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on October 20, 2018.

It is the first European mission to Mercury and is the first to send two spacecraft to make complementary measurements of the planet and its dynamic environment at the same time.

BepiColombo consists of two individual orbiters: ESAs Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and JAXAs Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO, or Mio).

It will need nine gravity assist flybys  one at Earth, two at Venus and six at Mercury  before entering orbit around Mercury in 2025.

BepiColombo performed its first gravity assist of Mercury on October 1, 2021.

Mercury flyby 1 images were good, but flyby 2 images are even better, said Dr. David Rothery, a researcher at the Open University.

The images highlight many of the science goals that we can address when BepiColombo gets into orbit. I want to understand the volcanic and tectonic history of this amazing planet.

The closest approach during the second gravity assist maneuver took place at 09:44 UTC on June 23, 2022, about 200 km above the surface of Mercury.

Images from the spacecrafts three monitoring cameras (MCAM), along with scientific data from a number of instruments, were collected during the encounter.

We have completed our second of six Mercury flybys and will be back this time next year for our third before arriving in Mercury orbit in 2025, said BepiColombo deputy spacecraft operations manager Dr. Emanuela Bordoni, a researcher at ESA.

Because BepiColombos closest approach was on the planets nightside, the first images in which Mercury is illuminated were taken at around five minutes after close approach, at a distance of about 800 km.

Images were taken for about 40 minutes after the close approach as the spacecraft moved away from the planet again.

As BepiColombo flew from the nightside to dayside, the Sun seemingly rose over the cratered surface of the planet, casting shadows along the terminator  the boundary between night and day  and highlighting the topography of the terrain in dramatic fashion.

The new images show beautiful details of Mercury, including one of my favourite craters, Heaney, for which I suggested the name a few years ago, said MCAM team member Dr. Jack Wright, a researcher at ESAs European Space Astronomy Centre.

The 125-km-wide Heaney crater hosts a rare example of a candidate volcano on Mercury, which will be an important target for BepiColombos high resolution imaging suite once in orbit.

Just a few minutes after closest approach and with the Sun shining from above, Mercurys largest impact feature, the 1,550 km-wide Caloris basin swung into view for the first time, its highly-reflective lavas on its floor making it stand out against the darker background.

The volcanic lavas in and around Caloris are thought to post-date the formation of the basin itself by a hundred million years or so, and measuring and understanding the compositional differences between these is an important goal for BepiColombo.
Mogadishu [Somalia], June 24 (ANI/Xinhua): Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud confirmed Friday he tested positive for COVID-19 after returning from a two-day working visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Mohamud said in a tweet that he has no symptoms but he will continue to self-isolate and serve the people of Somalia from his home.

Also Read | Japanese City Worker on a Night Out Loses Pen Drive With 4.6 Lakh Residents Data.

"My fellow citizens, I would like to inform you that today I tested positive for COVID-19," said the president.

The president who was elected on May 15 called on all Somalis to keep each other safe by following public health advice and guidelines aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19.

Also Read | Russia Denies Claims of Oil Deal With Pakistan.

Some members of the President's delegation had earlier tested positive for COVID-19 during their stay in Dubai, UAE.

However, President Mohamud's status was confirmed when he landed in the Somali capital, Mogadishu on Friday. (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)
Beijing, June 24: For the third day on Friday, Chinese President Xi Jinping sharply criticised the US, EU sanctions against Russia in the ongoing Ukraine war as well as the formation of new alliances to contain China. Addressing a high-level dialogue on global development in virtual format, Xi also lashed out at the US protectionist policies.

The protectionist policies will boomerang, he said without directly naming the US. Anyone attempting to form exclusive blocs will end up isolating himself; maximum sanctions serve nobody's interest, and practices of decoupling and supply disruption are neither feasible nor sustainable,"the Chinese president stressed. Chinese President Xi Jinping Hits Out at US, EU Sanctions Against Russia at BRICS Business Forum.

He also said development is being politicised and marginalised by some countries that are forming "small yards with high fences", imposing maximum sanctions and deliberately creating division and confrontation.

His criticism against the US and EU sanctions was the dominant theme of his speeches at the BRICS Business Forum on Wednesday and the 14th BRICS summit on Thursday.

In his address to the 14th BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) summit on Thursday, Xi called on the five-member bloc to jointly safeguard world peace and tranquillity, asking them to oppose the "abuse" of unilateral sanctions and reject the formation of "small circles", in an apparent jibe at the US.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa took part in the annual summit hosted by President Xi.

In a veiled attack on the US and EU, he said certain countries, in attempts to expand military alliances to pursue absolute security, have coerced others to pick sides and created confrontation.

"They ignored other countries' rights and interests while seeking supremacy," Xi said, adding that the world will become even more "volatile and unstable if we allow the dangerous trend to continue". China asserts that the eastward expansion of NATO by the US and EU was the root cause of Russia's offensive against Ukraine.

BRICS countries should support each other on issues concerning their respective core interests, practice true multi-lateralism, uphold justice, fairness and unity, and oppose hegemony, bullying and division, Xi said.

"The BRICS mechanism has demonstrated resilience and vitality. BRICS cooperation has achieved sound progress and results," he said. But at the same time, he called on the BRICS nations to reject the Cold War mentality and bloc confrontation, oppose unilateral sanctions and abuse of sanctions, in an apparent reference to the sanctions by the US, EU and their allies against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

"We need to encourage the international community to practice true multi-lateralism and uphold the international system with the UN at its core and the international order underpinned by international law," he said.

China has been critical of the Quad (US, India, Japan and Australia) and AUKUS (US, UK, Australia) alliances, alleging they were aimed at containing its rise. Addressing the BRICS Business Forum on Wednesday, Xi hit out at Washington and its allies for imposing sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, saying the act of wilfully imposing curbs will harm people around the world.

Without naming the Quad and the AUKUS, the Chinese president lashed out at group politics and bloc confrontation, emphasising that they bring no peace or security and only lead to wars and conflicts. History has shown that hegemony, group politics and bloc confrontations bring neither peace nor stability, but rather war and conflict, Xi said.

"The Ukraine crisis is another wake-up call for all in the world. It reminds us that blind faith in the so-called 'position of strength' and attempts to expand military alliances and seek one's own security at the expense of others will only land oneself in a security dilemma," he said.

Criticising the sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, Xi said the act of wilfully imposing sanctions will bring disasters to people around the world.

Putin ordered a "special military operation" against Ukraine on February 24. The US-led Western nations have imposed crippling sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. China, a close ally of Russia, has declined to condemn Moscow for the invasion against Ukraine and maintained close political and business links.

Latest reports said China's crude oil imports from Russia has climbed to over 55 per cent from a year earlier last month, displacing Saudi Arabia as Beijing's top supplier.

Describing sanctions as boomerangs and double-edged swords, Xi said those who politicise, leverage and weaponise the global economy and wilfully impose sanctions by taking advantage of dominance in international financial and monetary systems will eventually harm others and themselves and bring disasters to people around the world.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Students who were evacuated from war-torn Ukraine staged a demonstration here on Friday, seeking admission to medical colleges across the country.
New accusations have come to light regarding Ezra Miller, blaming the actor for having a young mother and her three minor children living in a farm house full of dangerous weapons. The children's father also made the accusations towards the actor who was previously accused of acting inappropriately towards a 12 year old girl and grooming a teenage girl.
In a rare case, Brazilian scientists used breast milk to treat COVID-19 in a woman with a rare genetic disease that makes her immune system unable to combat viruses and other pathogens.
Digital disease management solutions may help tackle the rising populations of patients suffering from chronic diseases in #India, according to a report. pic.twitter.com/2TCncuPpna IANS (@ians_india) June 24, 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.)
Amid the ongoing political crisis in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena supporters staged a protests against MLA Eknath Shinde in Nashik. They threw black ink and eggs at a poster showing a picture of rebel MLA Eknath Shinde and also raised slogans against him. According to reports, Shinde has left Guwahati and is on his way back to Mumbai.

Check tweet:

#WATCH Shiv Sena supporters throw black ink and eggs at a poster showing a picture of rebel MLA Eknath Shinde, also raise slogans against him, in Nashik pic.twitter.com/DUtKE2R2S5  ANI (@ANI) June 24, 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.)
Mumbai, June 24: In what could be termed as a historic development, the United States Senate approved the bipartisan legislation which is aimed at keeping firearms out of the hands of dangerous people.

In order to pass the US Gun Control Bill, the Senate voted 65-33 to approve the gun-safety legislation. The decision by the US Senate is been seen as the lawmakers' most far-reaching response in decades to the nation's run of brutal mass shootings. US Gun Control Bill: Senate Approves Bipartisan Gun Violence Bill, House Passage is Next.

The US Gun Control Bill comes amid the backdrop of the recent mass killings at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, in which a total of 31 people were killed last month. Interestingly, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act was backed by 50 Democratic senators and 15 Republicans.

Check tweets:

BREAKING: The Senate has voted 65-33 to pass the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act  the most sweeping gun bill in decades designed to prevent gun violence.  Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 24, 2022

 Senate votes 65-33 to pass the most significant gun violence prevention bill in decades, marking a victory for the gun-safety movement and a rare defeat for the NRA on the Hill. The bill now goes to the House, which is expected to pass it. President Biden says he will sign it.  Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) June 24, 2022

The bill aims to enhance background checks for buyers under the age of 21. It will also provide $11 billion in funding for mental health and $2 billion for school safety programmes. More importantly, the US Gun Control Bill will also provide funding to incentivise states in order to implement "red flag" laws to remove firearms from people who are considered a threat.

The bipartisan gun-safety legislation comes the same day after the Supreme Court struck down a New York law that required people to show a special need to carry a handgun in public. The SC in its ruling said that the Second Amendment protects gun rights outside the home. US Senate Passes Gun Control Bill.

While the bill has been passed by the US Senate, it has to now pass in the House of Representatives before President Joe Biden can sign it into law. The apex court also observed that Americans have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defense. Justice Clarence Thomas noted, "Nothing in the Second Amendments text draws a home/public distinction with respect to the right to keep and bear arms."

After the bill was passed by the US Senate, the White House in a statement of support said, "By passing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, Congress will be taking meaningful action to save lives." It further added, "This legislation would be one of the most significant steps Congress has taken to reduce gun violence in decades, giving our law enforcement and prosecutors new tools to prosecute gun traffickers."

Check tweet:

Today's Supreme Court ruling on guns is deeply troubling as it defies commonsense and the Constitution. Lives are at stake. Congress should pass the bipartisan gun safety proposal immediately and continue to do more to protect our communities.  Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) June 23, 2022

The US Gun Control Bill also closes the "boyfriend loophole" which is aimed at barring convicted dating partners from buying guns. Hence, the bill blocks sales of guns to those convicted of abusing unmarried intimate partners. What makes the bill much more significant is the fact that for the first time in decades, the proposed reform has received this level of support from both Democrats and Republicans.

"Tonight, the United States Senate is doing something many believed was impossible even a few weeks ago: we are passing the first significant gun safety bill in nearly 30 years," Senate Democratic majority leader Chuck Schumer said. While the bill was welcomed by many, some still believed that it would help.

Check tweet:

For the first time in nearly 30 years, the Senate just passed a bipartisan bill to address gun violence. This is a historic moment  and a critical step forward in the fight to end the scourge of gun violence once and for all. https://t.co/wj9xgkZbpS  Chuck Schumer (@chuckschumer) June 24, 2022

Opposing the bill, the National Rifle Association (NRA) said that the legislation will not stop the violence. It must be noted that the last significant federal gun control legislation was passed in 1994. Back then, the bill banned the manufacture for civilian use of assault rifles and large capacity magazines, however, the expired a decade later.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 24, 2022 11:22 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
SNAP Benefits 2022: Florida has issued a schedule on when the payments will be distributed to their respective recipients. SNAP benefits payments distribution in Florida depend on the recipients' case number's 9th and 8th digits.

Go Banking Rates reported that the SNAP benefits payments in Florida are available from the first day up to the 28th of the month.

Florida also has the SUNCAP program, which is a food assistance program for individuals who receive Supplementary Security Income.

Florida has a work requirement provision and a child support provision tied to SNAP and food assistance benefits.

READ NEXT: SNAP Benefits 2022: Texas, California, Florida, Other States Payment Updates

SNAP Benefits 2022 Proposed Requirements

Republican Sen. Rick Scott introduced legislation that would alter the requirements to receive the federal SNAP benefits. The measure is named the "Let's Get to Work Act of 2022," which proposes the changes to provisions in the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 and the Families First Coronavirus Response Act of 2021.

The age requirements for able-bodied adults to receive SNAP benefits allow those aged 50 or older to apply, even if they do not have dependents.

Scott proposed adding work requirements for SNAP recipients who are able-bodied and do not have dependents, according to another Go Banking Rates report. Scott also suggested to end "no-good-cause" exemptions from the SNAP ABAWD work requirement that allows states to bypass SNAP work requirements.

The proposed alterations would also address the marriage penalty and increase the grace period for parents. One spouse would be exempt from work requirements if the other fulfills them. There will also be an increase in the "grace window" for those parents with dependents who fail to meet the work requirement.

Scott said in the op-ed that government-run programs like SNAP and public housing are "meant as safety nets for those in need." The Republican lawmakers said that these programs are needed, but it should not "create a system that discourages work."

More than 2.8 million Floridians received SNAP assistance in May. It was 15.9% lower than the same period last year. However, the number of beneficiaries increased by 0.4% month-over-month based on data provided by the Florida Department of Children and Families.

SNAP Benefits Payments

SNAP benefits can be used at grocery stores, which can range from big-box versions such as Safeway and Kroger's to local mom-and-pop shops or event specialty grocery shops. Recipients should ensure to check that the items they are buying are eligible for SNAP.

Farmers' markets also accept SNAP benefits. It is the best place to buy fresh produce such as fruits and veggies, as Go Banking Rates reported.

Fast food chains also accept SNAP, with some 300 fast-food restaurants around the country accepting EBT or Electronic Benefits Transfer.

Some of the well-known fast-food chains that accept SNAP include Burger King, McDonald's, Del Taco, Taco Bell, Dairy Queen, and Papa Murphy's Pizza, among others.

Pharmacies also accept SNAP benefits as payment only when recipients use it to purchase snacks, food, and beverages.

READ MORE: SNAP Benefits 2022: Scammers Are Stealing Your SNAP Numbers and Money | Here's What You Can Do

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Rick Scott: 'Joe Biden And The Democrats Have A War Against Work' - from Forbes Breaking News


The best option to select at the moment, for the good of the country, would be to form an all-party government, and persuade the people and the political parties to make a concerted effort to overcome the crisis and orientate the country towards a reform program that will bring about a profound change in the system

by Victor Ivan

The crisis facing Sri Lanka is now at a critical juncture. At this stage if it is not managed properly, the country is in danger of falling into a deeper and worse abyss than it is now. If, for some reason, it falls into the next stage of the abyss, Sri Lanka may even be compelled to live in a primitive stage for a long time. What Sri Lanka should consider important at the moment is not to find fault with those who alleged to have plummeted the country into this situation and punish them, but to find a suitable way to overcome the present predicament by preventing it from falling into the next level of the abyss.

In an attempt to overcome this crisis, it is important that the people and the political parties are brought into a common platform where they should work in consensus. But so far, a new party or new leader capable of bringing all the people together has not emerged. Therefore, the best way to unite the people in one common front at this juncture would be to unite all political parties represented in Parliament and coax them to work together as an all-party government. The formation of a new government consisting of new leaders who are free of corruption and acceptable to the people may be considered the best possible way to overcome this crisis, but it is contrary to the reality that prevails on the ground.

If the ruling party must be removed, it must happen within a constitutional framework. Hence the Peoples Movement for Reforms has included an early election in the agenda of its reform program to give the people the right to make a quick decision about the current ruling party. However, it must be stressed that any attempt to overthrow the ruling party in an unconstitutional manner could disrupt the countrys ability to resolve the crisis, and it might plunge the country into a state of anarchy of the worst type.

Taking all these factors into consideration the best option to select at the moment, for the good of the country, would be to form an all-party government, and persuade the people and the political parties to make a concerted effort to overcome the crisis and orientate the country towards a reform program that will bring about a profound change in the system.

As evident from the discussions we, the Peoples Movement for Reforms had with the political parties regarding a reform program and the essential need of forming an all-party government for a profound change in the system, it appears that it is not simple or easy task to bring them all together; but it is not an impossible task either. It is difficult but a winnable hurdle. Despite the fact that there has been adequate dialogue on the reforms the country needs, there is still not enough concern, hardly any dialogue at all, on the need for a national program that includes policies to better manage the countrys crisis until the balance of payments problem is resolved. The object of this article is to share my views on it.

1. The public may possess very positive ideas about what could be done to overcome this crisis. The Government can immediately initiate a public website to receive the opinions of the public. Then not only the Government authorities but also the public will get the opportunity to be aware of the proposals submitted.

2. It is a welcome sign that the ban imposed on several organisations related to the Tamil Diaspora has been lifted. The Tamil areas in the north and east must be allowed to be developed with their support. It could turn out to be an important source of foreign exchange for the country. At the same time, all lands acquired by the security forces from the people of the north and east should be returned to their owners. Therefore, the rest of the people of the country should realise that if there is a special development in those areas, it will be for the good of the whole country and not of the people living in the north and east only.

3. The country is heading towards a complete collapse in this crisis. The entire system of institutions, both government and non-government, is in a state of collapse, if not all of them. The country does not have the capacity to protect all institutions that are on the verge of collapse at this moment. The best thing that can be done in the strategic sense would be to identify the institutions that are essential for the survival of the country and to act on a policy that gives prominence for their protection. (a) The number of employees in the public sector that includes public and semi-government institutions, is twice as large as the number required to maintain the public sector. It is a significant factor influencing the failure of Sri Lanka. The present crisis situation should be used as an opportunity to rectify this error. A partial compensation scheme could be introduced for those who lose their jobs in the process and a program could be initiated to allocate government land to those who wish to turn to agriculture. This will help reduce the number of public servants and make the public sector more sustainable.

4. A management policy that limits the consumption of petrol and diesel and increases the productivity of fuel use must be introduced. A policy that promotes public transport and discourages private transport must be introduced. Also, a policy that discourages the use of high-fuel luxury vehicles for private use should be introduced. A system should be devised to assess the nature of the functional use of petroleum products obtained by consumers, calculate the amount of fuel requirement for a period of one week, and issue that quantity on a ration system. In doing so, there should be a policy that gives priority for sectors such as public health, production and distribution (farmers, fishermen and manufacturers).

Also, there should be a policy that provides fuel only for one vehicle for households who use more than one vehicle. As in India, Sri Lanka should move towards a policy of manufacturing and consumption of Biodiesel. (Used vegetable and animal oils, kasippu and caustic soda are the basic raw materials required for the production of biodiesel). The United States and the European Union have acknowledged that blending of 15% ethanol with gasoline is an acceptable and viable combination, and it has been recognised in those countries that the combination is environmentally friendly as well. Ethanol can be produced from rice and corn, as well as from pumpkin or garbage. About 50% of the countrys import bill is spent on petroleum imports.

Emulating the research done on the subject internationally, the Industrial Development Board and the Universities could develop a methodology to produce biodiesel and ethanol of an acceptable standard at home level at a low investment cost and adopt it as a system of consumption for vehicle use. It can be made a strong new economic source of wealth that generates wealth for the country and also a popular way of life that will bring ample income to hundreds of thousands of rural people. It will also contribute to significantly reducing the cost of importing petroleum. I wrote about this about a year ago but it did not receive the attention of the authorities or intellectuals.

5. The Government estimates indicate that the damage caused to agriculture by wild animals is 40%. Normally, no country will allow the damage caused to agriculture by wild animals to exceed 10%. The extent of backwardness of Sri Lankas in this regard is understandable. By giving the farmers the right to hunt wild animals (parrots, monkeys, wild boar, peacocks) that harm the agriculture and allowing them to keep, transport and sell the meat could make a big difference to rural agriculture and make hunting a good source of income.

6. A land reform program can be launched to grant the permanent ownership to all those who have received land under Government Licensing Program and also to grant land to those interested in cultivating land and wish to engage in modern agriculture. A policy could be adopted in which the land granted to the plantation companies under the privatisation, but remain uncultivated, to be leased to the families of estate workers and also to the rural families living in the villages adjacent to the estates.

7. Changing the policy that Sri Lanka follows with regard to the beef industry alone, which hinders its growth directly and indirectly could lead to improve the livelihood of the people who live on cattle farming and Sri Lanka will be able produce the milk it needs locally, while contributing to double the income of the people who live on it. Cattle farming will not be economically viable unless it is pursued for producing both milk and meat. A policy that promotes the beef industry will certainly contribute towards making the country self-sufficient in milk as well.

8. The compensation we in Sri Lanka have to pay for not following a policy that relies on solar power instead of relying on thermal power in generating electricity is enormous. This error must be rectified. It can be suggested that all temples, churches, shrines and kovils should be solar powered. Many institutions that fall into this category possess necessary funds for that and even those that do not have adequate funds could find the funds they need, easily.

Sri Lankans living abroad could be asked to convert their local homes into solar powered units, targeting 200,000 homes. It will be possible to introduce a system in which a high quality solar panel set could be obtained at a reasonable price payable in full or by instalments. If such a program could be popularised, it would serve as an important source for Sri Lanka to earn much-needed dollars at the moment, as well as greatly reduce its dependence on thermal power for electricity.
With cases of monkeypox rising in the United States, the Biden administration has started shipping monkeypox tests to commercial laboratories. This is part of the effort to speed up diagnoses and identify infected individuals more quickly.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is sending the tests to various labs across the United States. The list includes Aegis Science, Labcorp, Mayo Clinic Laboratories, Quest Diagnostics, and Sonic Healthcare. The act would expand the American health system's ability to test for the disease significantly, as previously, only public health labs were able to.

U.S. Trying to Avoid Mistakes Made During COVID-19 Outbreak

According to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Americans should be concerned about monkeypox. He added that they have the right tools to fight and treat these cases, and expanding the number of testing locations will make it easier for anyone to get tested.

The Biden Administration expanded testing for the disease for fears of undercounting the cases.

The Hill reports that some public health experts have warned the U.S. that it risks repeating the mistakes made at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. That mistake was not enough testing to detect how widely the virus was actually spreading in the country.

A Washington Post Op-ed by Jennifer Nuzzo of Brown University and Jay Varma of Cornell University pointed out the lack of testing in the United States. However, experts are also saying that this outbreak of monkeypox won't be a repeat of COVID-19. This is mainly because the disease does not spread as easily as COVID-19. While the virus, which affected the entire planet, was airborne, monkeypox spreads through direct contact with rashes, as well as through surfaces like clothes and prolonged face-to-face contact, according to the CDC.

READ NEXT: COVID-19 Vaccine for Children Gets Approval from FDA Advisers | Are the Pfizer, Moderna Shots Effective?

CDC Confirms 142 Cases of Monkeypox as of June 21

While most of the monkeypox cases have been recorded in Europe, the number of cases in the United States has now reached the three-digit mark, with 142 cases as of June 21, according to the Associated Press.

Monkeypox cases have risen around the world as well, as 1,880 infections have been reported in over 30 countries, many of which are countries where the disease is not typically found.

The CDC states that possible symptoms monkeypox include fever, headaches, muscle and back pain, swollen lymph nodes, exhaustion, experiencing the chills, and the most well known of the symptoms, lesions. These lesions would often show up as pustules on the skin. In many cases, it starts out with flu-like symptoms before rashes are seen on the skin, before the lesions develop.

Health officials are also encouraging doctors to consider testing for monkeypox if lesions or rashes are found in patients.

READ MORE: CDC Releases Bizarre Tips on How to Have Sex With People Infected With Monkeypox

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Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: CDC expanding monkeypox testing in the US - 11ALive
In the January 6 hearing on Thursday, the six House Republican lawmakers, who asked former President Donald Trump for pardons for their roles in voting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential elections in certain states, have been named.

Some former aides to Trump had testified before the committee investigating the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol and revealed the names of the six lawmakers.

According to the testimony of Trump's aides, the lawmakers who sought pardons from Trump include Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Louie Gohmert (Texas), Mo Brooks (Ala.), Andy Biggs (Ariz.), and Scott Perry (PA.).

An aide also testified that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) contacted the White House Counsel's office to seek a pardon. The named lawmakers have objected to the Electoral College votes from Arizona and Pennsylvannia in an effort to help overturn the 2020 election results, which saw Trump losing to Joe Biden.

READ NEXT: January 6 Hearings: Mike Pence Chose Constitution Over Trump Despite Pressure

January 6 Hearing: Mo Brooks Email Presented as Evidence to Congressmen Asking for Pardons

The Hill reported that Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), one of the few Republican members of the panel, presented an email from Mo Brooks.

It was dated January 11, 2021, which meant that Brooks sent the email after the Capitol insurrection. The email revealed that Brooks asked Trump for a pardon not just for himself but for other lawmakers as well.

In the email, Brooks recommended that Trump should give general all-purpose pardons to "every Congressman and Senator who voted to reject the electoral vote submission of Arizona and Pennsylvania."

A Brooks' spokesman forwarded a full copy of the email, which included a concern that Democrats will "abuse" the judicial system by targeting many Republicans with "sham charges."

Former Donald Trump Aide Talks About Congressmen Asking for Pardons

The January 6 panel also played a video of former special assistant to the president Cassidy Hutchinson talking about House GOP lawmakers approaching her about pardons.

In the video, Hutchinson noted that both Gaetz and Brooks advocated for a blanket pardon for the lawmakers who took part in the December 21, 2020 meeting that focused on ways to overturn the elections.

Hutchinson also singled Gaetz out, saying that the Florida representative was pushing a pardon as early as December 2020, before the January 6 Capitol insurrection.

She said Gaetz reached out to her, asking for a meeting with Trump's Chief-of-Staff Mark Meadows and talking about receiving a presidential pardon.

She also named Biggs, Gohmert, and Perry among those asking for pardons. However, she did not elaborate on the details.

Hutchinson also spoke about another Trump ally, Jim Jordan (R-Oh), who also talked to her about pardons. However, she noted that he has never asked for one, just talked about the matter.

As for Greene, Hutchinson testified that the Georgia congresswoman has asked the White House counsel's office for a pardon. According to NPR, no pardon was given to her.

The named congressmen pushed back on the testimony, with Greene calling the committee a "witch hunt" and Gaetz calling it a "political sideshow."

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Perry called the accusations a "laughable, ludicrous, and a thoroughly soulless lie." During the panel, Kinzinger would address his fellow Republicans, stating that the only reason they sought out a pardon was that they thought they had committed a crime.

READ MORE: January 6 Committee Says Mike Pence and Ginni Thomas Could Be Subpoenaed

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Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Matt Gaetz Among Lawmakers Who Asked for Pardons From Trump, January 6 Hearing Told - The Independent
Sergio Roberto de Carvalho, dubbed the "Pablo Escobar of Brazil," appeared in a court in Europe to fight attempts to extradite him to his home country.

Infobae reported that the "Pablo Escobar of Brazil" was arrested in Hungary's capital Budapest on Tuesday. The Brazilian police described him as one of the "biggest international traffickers today."

In a hearing in a Budapest court on Thursday, the judge said the Brazilian drug kingpin was arrested following an Interpol red notice signed by a court in Brazil in November 2020.

According to the notice, Carvalho was allegedly involved in distributing 45 tons of cocaine from Brazil to Europe between 2017 and 2019. He was also accused of laundering millions of dollars through several front companies.

The "Pablo Escobar of Brazil," who was allegedly in charge of a cocaine-trafficking organization in Europe, claimed in court that the case against him was politically motivated. His lawyer added that his client would not receive a fair trial in Brazil.

The judge then left the final decision on whether or not to extradite Carvalho to Justice Minister Judit Varga and ordered him to remain in custody until August 2.

READ NEXT: Colombia Seizes 10 Tons of Cocaine Worth Over $300 Million, the Largest Drug Bust This Year

Sergio Roberto de Carvalho: 'Pablo Escobar of Brazil' Used Fake ID Documents to Evade Arrest

The Hungarian police said Wednesday that it was their international partners who told them that Sergio Roberto de Carvalho was in the country. However, the investigation was stalled as the Brazilian drug kingpin has 10 different ID documents.

According to Insight Crime, Sergio Roberto de Carvalho was reported to have been living in Hungary using a fake Mexican passport.

He was arrested in Spain under the fake identity of a Surinamese national named Paul Wouter in 2020. According to reports, Spanish authorities did not know they were dealing with Carvalho.

After paying his bail, Carvalho, a former Brazilian military police officer, disappeared without a trace. The "Pablo Escobar of Brazil" has allegedly faked his own death.

He sent a certificate to Spanish authorities that stated that Wouter died from COVID-19. According to Vice, the death certificate was dated August 29, 2020, and signed by a doctor.

The certificate noted that he had apparently been cremated. Since fleeing from Spain, the drug kingpin was rumored to have spent time in Portugal, Ukraine, and Dubai.

Sergio Roberto de Carvalho eventually switched to different identities. His fake Mexican passport was under the name of Guillermo Flores Diaz, and he had been living in Hungary for the past two years using the name.

The Arrest of the 'Pablo Escobar of Brazil'

Brazilian authorities have notified Spain that Wouter was really Sergio Roberto de Carvalho, and they found numerous assets in his name in Portugal.

After months of investigations, police confiscated a van containing 12 million euros in cash parked in a Lisbon garage. Authorities believed this money was Carvalho's drug trafficking earnings from having lived up to two years in Portugal before Marbella in Spain.

He also allegedly bought a private charter flight company, Airjetsul, while in Portugal. He then tried to buy another to move cocaine and cash.

Much of Carvalho's finances were reportedly run from Dubai, where his alleged right-hand man, Marcelo Maghenzani, maintained an office. Maghenzani, who was believed to have booked flights and kept credit cards for the drug kingpin, was arrested in May 2021.

The Brazilian Pablo Escobar was a Major in the Brazilian military until 1997 when he was arrested and sentenced to 15 years for trafficking cocaine. He was freed in 2010.

Over the years, Insight Crime reported that 163 properties connected to Carvalho had been seized in Brazil and others in Portugal, Spain, and Dubai. A total of 70 cars, 37 planes, and millions of euros in cash had also been seized on both sides of the Atlantic.

READ MORE: Colombia's Most-Wanted Drug Lord Dairo Antonio Usuga Arrested; Pres. Ivan Duque Likened It to Capture of Pablo Escobar

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Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Narcotraficante Conhecido Como "Pablo Escobar Brasileiro" e Preso Na Hungria - From CidadeAlertaRecord
An Oklahoma grandmother is facing a murder charge after her three-year-old granddaughter was found dead in a trash can early this week.

In a press release, the Oklahoma City Police Department said officers arrived at the home of 60-year-old Becky Ann Vreeland on Tuesday afternoon.

The police department noted that upon arrival, officers were told that there was a dead child at the house on Southwest 151st Street.

The cops then found the body of three-year-old Riley Nolan in a trash receptacle outside their home. The police department said the girl had "obvious signs of trauma to her body," People reported.

Police told KFOR that officers went to Vreeland's home after receiving a 911 call from inside the house, and two other children were present at the time. MSgt. Gary Knight also told the outlet that the girl found dead in the trash bin "had been dead for a period of time at least."

Authorities were investigating what motivated the attack and when Nolan was placed into the trash bin. Vreeland recently took custody of the child. She was arrested at the scene.

READ NEXT: Mexican Murderers' El Chino,' 'Monsters of Ecatepec' Among Most Notorious Serial Killers in Mexico

Oklahoma Grandmother Charged With Murder

Online records showed that Becky Ann Vreeland, who has been charged with first-degree murder and child neglect, is being held without bond.

The Oklahoma grandmother has yet to enter a plea. According to court documents, Vreeland told police she woke up Saturday morning, and Nolan was not in her bed.

The grandmother then claimed that she went to the backyard and found her granddaughter dead in a trash can, KOCO News reported.

Court documents noted that Vreeland did not call 911 or tell anyone about Nolan's death until Monday. Nolan's grandfather found out about the incident and called 911 on Tuesday afternoon.

Police also interviewed the three-year-old girl's siblings. They said they saw Nolan in bed on Saturday morning with a purple eye and a bruised head. Nolan's siblings said she would not wake up.

The court documents revealed that the Oklahoma grandmother used a "whopping stick" made from a wooden bed leg on her grandchildren.

Police also reported finding blood stains in a utility room and in Vreeland's bathroom. The Medical Examiner noted that the girl had three separate skull fractures.

Girl's Murder Shocked the Oklahoma Grandmother's Neighborhood

Jack Cribbs, a neighbor, told KFOR that it was shocking that something like this happened, and it was just 200 yards away from his home. Cribbs noted that he never met the Oklahoma grandmother and only saw the children once or twice outside.

"I didn't really know the people. [But] I hate to see anything like that happen to any child, or even anybody," he added.

Another neighbor, Marsha Brannum, told the outlet that she wished she had done more to prevent the situation.

"I could have been some more assistance for her if she was having trouble... She seemed like a very hardworking grandmother, and I could hear her play with the children in the backyard. I wish I had paid more attention," Brannum said.

A man was renting a room in the house of Vreeland. He was mentioned in the court documents but was not named. He was also questioned by police but was not charged.

Becky Ann Vreeland was reportedly booked into the Cleveland County jail after she was arrested and interviewed by the police officers.

READ MORE: Brian Laundrie Manhunt: Parents of Gabby Petito's Fiance Change the Date of Florida Fugitive's Disappearance

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WATCH: Police Arrest Grandmother After 3-Year-Old Girl Found Dead at Oklahoma City Home - From KOCO 5 News
A Florida judge invoked the high-profile case between Johnny Depp and his ex-wife, Amber Heard, during a hearing on a civil lawsuit filed by Gabby Petito's parents against Brian Laundrie's parents.

Johnny Depp and Amber Heard have battled over a 2018 op-ed the actress wrote for the Washington Post, calling herself a domestic violence survivor.

The piece did not mention Depp by name, but the actor claimed he was booted from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise due to the "clear implication" that he was the abuser in his ex-wife's op-ed.

Depp also alleged that Heard was the actual "perpetrator" of the violent encounters that damaged their relationship. He asked for $50 million in damages.

The "Aquaman" actress countersued for $100 million, claiming Depp's attorney defamed her by calling her abuse allegations a hoax.

While the jury sided with Johnny Depp in the majority of the cases in the civil lawsuit, they did hand Amber Heard one victory, which is the one based on the comments made by one of the actor's lawyers.

Could Brian Laundrie's Parents Be Liable for the Remark of Their Attorney Like Johnny Depp?

During Wednesday's hearing, Judge Hunter Carroll, who is overseeing the civil lawsuit filed by Gabby Petito's parents against the elder Laundries, talked about the Laundries' silence on the issues, invoking the Fifth Amendment.

Carroll questioned both camps whether an early statement by Laundries' lawyer, Steve Bertolino, amounted to speech on their behalf, Fox News reported.

The judge asked the lawyers if a crime needed to be present for a person to invoke Fifth Amendment, which addresses an individual's constitutional right to remain silent.

Carroll reportedly wanted to know how the parents could be considered not speaking if someone was talking on their behalf as they remained quiet about the case.

The judge noted that Johnny Depp had been found liable for defaming Amber Heard due to his lawyer's remark. The civil lawsuit alleged that the Laundries knew Gabby Petito was already dead and misled her family.

A part of Bertolino's statement, which came up in court and is being questioned, said: "On behalf of the Laundrie family, it is our hope that the search for Miss Petito is successful and that Miss Petito is reunited with her family."

It added: "On the advice of counsel, the Laundrie family is remaining in the background at this juncture and will have no further comment."

Bertolino released the statement on September 14 in response to the public's interest in Petito's disappearance. The camp of Gabby Petito's parents said the statement was "outrageous."

When the judge asked Pat Reilly, an attorney for Joseph Petito and Nichole Schmidt, what made the statement outrageous, he said it was "a lie" and implied that Petito was still alive even though they knew she was already dead.

Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani, now a Los Angeles-based trial attorney, told Fox News that Laundrie's parents were "civilly liable for Bertolino's statements that they authorized" and the lawyer made on their behalf. He said this was "a basic tenet of principal-agent relationships under the law."

Chris and Roberta Laundrie did not attend the first court hearing of the civil lawsuit. According to reports, they were not legally required to attend the hearing that will determine if the case goes to trial. However, Joseph Petito and Nichole Schmidt were in attendance, E! News reported.

Carroll said he would decide on whether or not the case will go to trial within the next two weeks. Laundrie's parents have asked to dismiss the case. But should the judge choose to proceed with the trial, the elder Laundries might be compelled to talk about their side of the story.

READ NEXT: Amber Heard Unveils Years of 'Therapist Notes' Detailing Alleged Abuse of Ex-husband Johnny Depp

Gabby Petito's Parents Filed Civil Lawsuit Against Brian Laundrie's Parents

Gabby Petito's parents filed the civil lawsuit against Brian Laundrie's parents in Florida on March 10. The lawsuit claimed that the elder Laundries knew their son killed Petito and sought to help him flee the country.

It further noted that Chris and Roberta also knew of the mental suffering and anguish that the Petito family was experiencing but still refused to respond to them.

The Petito family is seeking damages of at least $100,000 for the "pain and mental anguish" they experienced as a result of the "willfulness and maliciousness" of Laundrie's parents.

The elder Laundries filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on March 30, arguing that they had fundamental constitutional rights to silence. They added that there are also no facts to support their claims of "intentional infliction of emotional distress."

Petito's mother, Nichole Schmidt, has also filed a wrongful death lawsuit last month against the curator of Laundrie's estate. The lawsuit seeks wrongful death damages of $30,000 as it claimed that Laundrie intentionally killed Petito.

As a direct result of Laundrie's conduct, the lawsuit noted that Petito's mom and dad "incurred funeral and burial expenses, and they have suffered a loss of care and comfort, and suffered a loss of probable future companionship, society and comfort."

The complaint was filed against Barry Spivey, who was identified in the suit as the court-appointed curator of Brian Laundrie's estate. In this lawsuit, Gabby Petito's mom also demanded a trial by jury and judgment for compensatory damages.

Petito's body was found at the Spread Creek Dispersed Campground near Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming on September 19. A Teton County, Wyoming coroner said she was strangled to death by a "human being," and the manner of death was homicide.

On the other hand, Laundrie's skeletal remains were discovered at the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park in Florida on October 20. His autopsy report showed that he died of a gunshot wound to the head, and the manner of death was suicide.

Last January, the FBI revealed that Laundrie confessed to killing Petito in a message left in his notebook. In its final report on the case, the FBI said a review of the notebook revealed written statements by Laundrie claiming responsibility for Petito's death.

The FBI noted that its investigation has concluded that Brian Laundrie was the only person responsible for Gabby Petito's "tragic death."

Apart from the notebook, the FBI confirmed that they also found a "backpack" and a "revolver" upon further search of the area where Laundrie's remains were found.

READ MORE: Bill Cosby Sexually Abused Teenager At the Playboy Mansion In 1975 - L.A. Court

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Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Gabby Petito Murder Case Lawsuit: Petito Family v. Laundrie Family Hearing - From Law&Crime Network
Bell Geospace, the world leaders in gravity gradiometry, has conducted the first aerial mapping of petroleum resources in Sri Lanka in Q4 of 2021, and will be presenting these insights  together with Wintermoon Geophysics- at the prestigious SEAPEX (South East Asia Petroleum Exploration Society) Asia Pacific Conference in London on Thursday the 30th of June.

The mapping project was conducted during the last quarter of 2021 as part of a collaboration between Bell Geospace and the Government of Sri Lanka, with the aim to explore offshore oil and gas potential in the seas off the North and Northwest of the island., official sources said.

This entailed the acquisition, processing and interpretation of data from Airborne 3D Full Tensor Gravity Gradiometry (FTG), Gravity Gradiometry, and Magnetic Surveys that were employed to gather data on hydrocarbon potential below the surfaces around the Cauvery Basin off the Northern peninsula and the Mannar Basin off the West coast.

Data and interpretation from this survey has revealed new insights into the structure, tectonic history, and hydrocarbon potential of Sri Lankas Mannar Basin M1, M2, and the Cauvery Basin C1 blocks.

With Sri Lanka outlaying US$ 6-7 billion annually to purchase fuel, and the domestic hydrocarbon potential estimated at several billion barrels of oil and 9 trillion cubic feet of gas, this is a potential multibillion-dollar revenue stream for the Government of Sri Lanka.

Especially taking into consideration that Cairn India, which explored the Mannar M2 block, invested US$200 million in the region 10 years ago.

Additionally, with Bell Geospaces modern geophysical data and interpretation, the publicity created at a major Oil and Gas conference such as SEAPEX in London holds the potential for Sri Lanka to attract a new round of foreign investors bringing in US$ to the country.

US-based Bell Geospace is the leading provider of high-quality airborne Full Tensor Gravity Gradiometry (FTG) data for the mining industry.

This data is used to map geology and thus define the shape and scale of existing mineral deposits as well as highlight potential new areas of exploration.

Wintermoon Geophysics is a premier consulting firm for integrated exploration applications of Gravity, Magnetics, GIS, and Remote Sensing.
A drunk-driver who rammed two patrol cars while leading gardai in a high-speed chase through two counties has been given a suspended sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

The court heard that Mark Fox (29), The Millicent, Clane, Kildare, was driving with only three tyres while the fourth wheel had no tyre, causing sparks to fly from the rims as he was pursued by several patrol cars and a garda helicopter on May 9, 2021.

Gardai described Fox throwing bags of white powder which they suspected was cocaine from his open car door as he drove at speeds of over 100kmph from Dublin city centre before being finally stopped at Clane Road, Celbridge in County Kildare.

Fox initially resisted arrest and told gardai. I wanted to crash and kill myself and take youse with me, but later apologised and cooperated fully with the investigation.

He pleaded guilty to eight charges including two counts of endangerment, three counts of dangerous driving, drink driving, driving without a licence and resisting arrest.

Garda Sonya Skelly told Edward Doocey BL, prosecuting, that garda attention was first drawn to the sound of steel impacting on cement and sparks emanating from the wheel rim of a Nissan Qashqai in Dublin city centre.

When the car broke a red light at Dame Street, an unmarked patrol car pursued it around College Green and activated the blue light, indicating to the car to pull in.

Fox pulled in at Westmoreland Street but didn't open his door and suddenly accelerated away, proceeding at speed south down the quays where he broke a number of red lights and snapped off a taxi-driver's wing mirror.

A second patrol car joined the chase at Kilmainham and observed Fox emptying white powder out the door, throwing his mobile phone out the window and crossing over and back between lanes. A garda helicopter joined them as the Qashqai rammed vertically into a garda Ford Mondeo.

Gda Skelly said Fox drove into the path of oncoming traffic and around a roundabout the wrong way before ramming a second garda car on Clane Road heading towards Barberstown Castle, where both vehicles stopped.

The entire incident lasted 30 minutes and spanned 28 kilometres, the court heard.

Fox was tested and found to have almost three times the legal limit of blood alcohol in his system. The court heard the Qashqai was considered dangerous and defective as it was driving on three wheels.

Fox had five previous convictions from the District Court, including threatening and abusive behaviour and driving without insurance. He had been disqualified from driving at the time of the offence and had only a learner permit at the time.

Gda Skelly told Pieter Le Vert BL, defending, that a few days later Fox could not remember some of what had happened and was taken aback when told.

Mr Le Vert said his client had suffered long term mental health issues after he was subjected to sustained periods of attacks from a family member when he was aged five to 12 years old. The court heard that charges were directed against this family member who passed away before the process concluded.

Mr Le Vert said that after this offence, Fox's long term partner gave him an ultimatum, and that he has been sober and clean of drugs ever since.

Multiple testimonials were provided to the court, including a letter showing that Fox works full time with Dublin City Council as a general operative where he is doing very well, and that he helps his mother who has ill-health.

Another letter from a community officer praised Fox for the great support he has given to local children, in particular one child who had suffered major trauma.

He is able not only to heal his own issues but to save someone in crisis themselves, said Mr Le Vert, adding that Fox has not come to any adverse attention since this offence.

Judge Martin Nolan handed down a sentence of three and a half years, which he suspended in full by reason of Fox's mental health problems and what caused them.

He said Fox had expressed remorse and shame and was a good community man with a good work history. Fox was disqualified from driving for five years.
A man who pleaded guilty to possessing over 63,000 as the proceeds of crime has walked free from court with a suspended sentence.

Iheanyichukwu Banna (35) of Beechfield Close, Clonee, Dublin admitted that the money was transferred into his bank account on July 12, 2018, but told gardai he had no idea where it came from.

Passing sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, Judge Martin Nolan said the offence could not have been carried out without Bannas complicity and that the court could infer that he was up to his neck in it.

Detective Garda Nora Cuddy told Aoife OLeary BL, prosecuting, that gardai were contacted on July 16, 2018 by a company called Asgard Cleanroom Solutions based in Kilkenny.

The companys financial controller said he had received an email a week earlier from one of their sub-contractors, Dawson Modular Installations, stating that they had changed their bank account.

The email included a letter on Dawsons headed paper, signed off by the companys director, giving details for its new account with Permanent TSB.

Asgard was in regular business with Dawson and believed the document to be genuine and on July 11, Asgards financial controller transferred the sum of 63,043 into the PTSB account for three recently completed jobs.

On July 16, Asgard got a phone call from Dawson querying where the payment was as none had been received. It transpired that the email was bogus and a garda investigation showed that all the money had gone into Bannas account on July 12.

Bank statements showed that within an hour of the money going into Bannas account, 5,000 had been transferred to a UK bank account in the name of Bannas brother and a further 25,000 had been transferred into Bannas savings account.

Further amounts were then transferred to Bannas brother, while several ATM withdrawals were made from Bannas account, and a phone was bought.

Records also showed the account was used to pay for lunch in Bannas workplace. Gardai managed to freeze some of the money and in total, 42,000 has now been recovered.

However Asgard Cleanroom Solutions remains at an outstanding loss of 21,000.

Banna was arrested and initially said he didnt recognise the number of the bank account where the money had been transferred to, but later acknowledged it was his.

He told gardai he had no idea how the money got there. He said, A man called Kelvin told me his business was about to collapse and asked me could he use by bank account.

Banna said he trusted Kelvin and that the first he knew anything was going on was when his bank phoned him and said his card had been used in a phone shop.

He couldnt explain the transactions to his brothers account in England.

Counsel for Banna said his client had pleaded guilty on the basis of recklessness and the court could not imply the level of knowledge that the judge suggested.

Judge Nolan said the recklessness bordered on wilful blindness and that Banna should have known what was involved.

Counsel for the defence said Banna is a hard-working citizen and the breadwinner in his family who made a very foolish error on the day.

The court heard that Banna has no previous convictions and is in full-time employment, working 40 hours a week. He studied computer science in Griffith College before dropping out in his final year.

Judge Nolan said Banna, who is originally from Nigeria and has a partner and child, was doing well in this country and was a good worker with a good record.

He sentenced him to three years but suspended it fully on condition that Banna be of good behaviour for the duration of his sentence.
Laois Offaly is now officially under represented in Dail Eireann according to the newly published Census figures which also reveal that Laois now has enough people living in it to justify have three TDs in Leinster house.

could force the of the Electoral Commission to tinker once again with the five seat constituency.

Census figures show that the population across the two counties justified more TDs than current make up when Laois and Offaly.

Election rules dictate that there should be one TD for every 30,000 people. The Census of Population 2022 - Preliminary Results shows that the number of people living in the existing two county constituency has risen by nearly 7% from 150,804 in 2016 to 161,245 in 2022.

This means that the number of people per TD in the two counties has risen from 30,161 to 32,249 in 2022.

The deficit in representation would be higher if the heavily populated town of Portarlington and surrounds were included. The Electoral Commission relocated that area to Kildare South for the 2020 General Election because it had a deficit. Some 9,450 people were plucked from Laois and 2,404 from Offaly and 3,226 population from Kildare North were added to Kildare South.

A the time the Commission also reunited Laois and Offaly but this resulted in the loss of a seat to Kildare. Laois and Offaly were two separate three seat constituencies for the first time in 2016 because the 2011 Census showed the two counties were under represented. A chunk of Tipperary was included in Offaly to bring up its number while Monasterevin was put into Laois to bring up its numbers.

Now however, Laois has a population of more than 90,000 within the county boundary due to a more than 8% increase in population. It could become revert to a three seat constituency. Offaly's population has increased by 6% to 82,668 which is 8,000 short of justifying three seats.

At present three of the Laois Offaly TDs are based in Laois and two in Offaly. One of the Kildare South TDs claims a base in Portarlington.

If the Electoral Commission is facing problems trying to sort out Laois and Offaly similar problems lay in store right around Ireland because the number of TDs are capped.

Based on the preliminary population count of 5,123,536 persons nationally, the current total of 160 TDs, the average number of persons per TD for the country was 32,022.

The preliminary census results show that 38 of the 39 Dail constituencies had more than 30,000 persons per TD.

Among the constituencies, those with the highest number of persons per TD were Dublin Fingal with 34,138 persons per TD, Dublin Rathdown with 33,718 persons and Kildare North with 33,589 persons.

With 29,826 persons per TD, Limerick County had the lowest number of persons per TD. It was the only constituency that fell below 30,000 persons per TD.

The fastest-growing Dail constituency was Meath East which increased by 11,493 persons or 13% over the six years between 2016 and 2022. The slowest growing constituencies were Dublin Bay South (5%), Limerick County (4%) and Donegal (4%). None of the 39 constituencies showed a fall in population.

After Census 2016, the Electoral Commission recommended that the number of members of Dail Eireann would be 160. It said that this the maximum number of members that the Commission can recommend having regard to its terms of reference, set out in the Electoral Act 1997.
A new same day clinic for women is being set up at Portlaoise hospital to provide services to Laois and the Midlands.

The development of the clinic at the Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise was welcomed in a Senate speech by Laois Offaly based Minister of State Pippa Hackett.

Ambulatory gynaecology care involves assessment, treatment and discharge of the gynaecology patient on the same day in an outpatient setting. It's described as a one-stop-see-and-treat clinics that can improve access to gynaecology, reducing waiting times and improving clinical outcomes for women.

Minister Hackett welcomed the development of clinics in the Midlands and elsewhere, saying they will improve access to gynaecology services, reduce the requirement for multiple gynaecology appointments, ensure sustainability of service provision into the future given the very significant waiting lists for this specialty and importantly, help improve clinical outcomes.

"The Ambulatory Gynaecology Model of Care means one-stop see and treat ambulatory gynaecology clinics. An estimated 70% of general gynaecology referrals are suitable for management in the ambulatory setting, and is, therefore, considered to be a more efficient and effective use of resources than the traditional outpatient model. Investigations available include pelvic ultrasound, diagnostic hysteroscopy, and endometrial biopsy," she said.

She commented that Nenaghs recently opened regional hub for womens health, which includes a specialist menopause clinic, is the first ambulatory gynaecology clinic to be operational for women in the Midlands counties.

"I am conscious however that Nenagh is a considerable distance from much of the rest of the Midlands, - even my own home in north Offaly is over an hour by car from Nenagh.

"I was delighted to report, therefore, that work is already underway on the recruitment, refurbishment and equipping of an ambulatory gynaecology clinic in Portlaoise, which is expected to be operational this year. Funding has also been provided for further ambulatory gynaecology clinics, including one in Mullingar and one in Kilkenny, thereby completing the implementation of the Ambulatory Gynaecology Model of Care, bringing the total number of these clinics to 20 nationally. 

The above developments will contribute to greatly improved access to and quality of care for women who need to avail of it, and I look forward to hearing from Midlands women about their experiences of these services on the ground over the coming months and years," said the Minister of State.

The Government has said it wants to accelerate the roll out of such clinics as part of its strategy to improve health services for women.
Fears that Laois and Offaly are being overwhelmed due to the war in Ukraine are not borne out by the latest official figures which show the flow of refugees into the two counties almost stopping.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has been tracking the arrival of Ukrainian refugees to Ireland since May. It has published three sets of figures the latest of which were released on June 24.

While concerns were raised in the Dail about the impact on the housing situation, the figures show that the pressure is easing somewhat.

The first set of figures showed that 487 people were registered in Laois by May 27. There were 333 in Offaly by the same date.

The second set of data published on June showed a rise to a total of 511 in Laois by June 10. Offaly was accommodating a total of 350 mainly women and children by the same date.

The CSO's third analysis covers the period since the war began up to June 24. This showed no change for Laois with 511 people who have fled the Russians finding a refuge in the county. The number living in Offaly had risen slightly to 353 by late June.

The June 24 figures show that Ukrainian arrivals in Laois represent nearly 2% of the population while just 1.3% of the number of people living in Offaly have fled the Russians.

The CSO also provides details on school enrolments. A total of 78 Ukrainian children are going to primary school in Laois while 37 children attend secondary school in the county. In Offaly, 44 children are in primary education with just 15 in secondary schools.

The figures show that the majority of the refugees are living in the big towns in both counties. This is particularly evident in Offaly where 270 live in the Tullamore Municipal District. There is a more even spread in Laois. Nevertheless, 273 live in the Portlaoise Municipal District.

Nationally, the CSO reported that there were 38,700 arrivals from Ukraine in Ireland by the week ending 19 June 2022, an increase of just under 3,000 in two weeks.

Women aged 20 and over account for 47% of arrivals to date, while individuals aged 0-19 (both male and female) account for 37%. The highest percentage of those arriving (41% or 15,850 individuals) were categorised as 'One parent with children' under the broad relationship classification headings used.

The CSO notes that spouses/partners may have stayed in Ukraine.

As of 07 June 2022, of the 6,890 children who arrived from Ukraine and enrolled in school, 71% were in primary education while 29% were in secondary education.

Based on administrative data currently available to the CSO, of the arrivals from Ukraine aged 18 and older, 89% showed activity in administrative data after the 15 May 2022.

Commenting on the release, Karola Graupner, Statistician, said: This Arrivals from Ukraine in Ireland release is the third in a series of releases by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) providing insights into Irelands response to the Ukrainian crisis. This release includes an analysis of Ukrainian arrivals who are availing of support and services from the Department of Social Protection, as well as providing insights into primary and secondary school enrolments overseen by the Department of Education. Also included is an experimental measure of arrivals from Ukraine that where still administratively active after the 15th May, incorporating PAYE Modernisation (PMOD) data.

"Based on the local post office address as per the process through which refugees were seeking assistance from the Department of Social Protection, we also show two maps in this release based on mapping 35,370 individuals, or 91% of arrivals, to a local post office: the first map is a count of arrivals by Local Electoral Area (LEA), and the second is the rate of arrivals by LEA (per 100 of the Census 2016 population). Using the local post office address as a proxy for place of residence, arrivals from Ukraine are present in all LEAs and North Inner City in Dublin had the highest number of associated arrivals from Ukraine at 1,245.

"Our analysis also shows that the rate per 100 of the population ranges across all LEAs in the country from 0.01% to 7.28%. The LEA with the highest rate is Ennistimon in Clare," said the Statistician.

The European Temporary Protection Directive was activated on the 04 March 2022 by EU Council Decision to provide immediate protection in EU countries for people displaced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began on the 24 February 2022.
Laois is getting the least amount of money to welcome and integrating migrants out of the four midland counties.

Under the Communities Integration Fund 2022, the Laois Integration Network is the only successful applicant for funding it Laois. It is getting 5,000 to deliver a range of intercultural events to celebrate and advance integration and full civic participation in the county.

However, through this same Fund, Offaly is getting 22,800 and Westmeath 99,900. Longford is getting 15,000 to play a greater role in welcoming and integrating migrants and refugees. The money is going to a range of projects in these counties.

Nationally, a total of 124 community will get a share of 566,492.60 to support local community-based organisations across Ireland to play a greater role in welcoming and integrating migrants and refugees.

Laois Offaly Minister of State, Pippa Hackett welcomed the announcement of funding. A total of 5,000 is going to a Ukraine response project in Geashill.

"Meaningful integration initiatives are more important than ever in this time of increased migration. I am very grateful to those local communities of the Midlands who are working so hard to promote the integration and rights of migrants and refugees. I know that the projects funded today will play an important role in making people feel welcome and I am particularly delighted to see a fun event planned for my village of Geashill, she said.

The Communities Integration Fund has been in place since 2017 and arises from Action 51 of the Migrant Integration Strategy.

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A tiny kitten who travelled over 100km from Portlaoise to Waterford in the engine bay of a van on Thursday has been named Laois.

The distressed kitten was only discovered by the van driver when they stopped near the Toll Plaza in Waterford and heard a noise from the engine.

Thankfully the kitten was saved by Waterford Animal Rescue, who posted pictures of the kitten on their social media page. They said the kitten was showing no sign of injury from her ordeal.

They said: This poor little kitten travelled all the way from Portlaoise yesterday in the engine compartment of a van. While stopped near the Toll Plaza on the City Bypass yesterday the driver heard the distressed kitten. Now safe and well at Suirside Veterinary Clinic we will be seeking a home for her next week.

Chairman of Waterford Animal Rescue, Andrew Quinn, said they were called to assist with the kitten when she was discovered. He said she was "absolutely fine, no injuries."

He urged people to check their cars before going on journeys particularly if there are kittens nearby. "Sometimes the mothers will relocate them to an engine compartment," he explained.

Mr Quinn said "if you are in a carpark and you hear a kitten make sure you leave a note on the vehicle." He hoped this fortunate kitten would be adopted soon and he said they would call her Laois.
Gardai say they are stil in the process of confirming the identity of a driver who died in a Laois crash in which the vehicle went on fire after the impact.

A statement issued by Garda HQ in Dublin said gardai attended the scene of a single vehicle, fatal road traffic collision that occurred on the Athy Road in Stradbally on Friday afternoon June 24 at about 2.45pm.

"A car collided with a wall on the Athy Road and subsequently went on fire. The driver and sole occupant of the vehicle (details currently unknown) was fatally injured as a result of the collision," said Gardai.



The body of the deceased was taken to Midland Regional Hospital, Portlaoise where a post-mortem will take place.

Gardai also confirmed that the Athy Road (R428) was closed on Friday evening as Garda Forensic Collision Investigators conducted a technical examination of the scene. The road has since reopened.

Garda HQ reiterated an appeal issued earlier by Laois Garda for any witnesses to this collision to come forward.

They asked that any road users who may have camera footage (including dash-cam) and were travelling on the Athy Road (R428) or surrounding areas between 2.30pm and 3.15pm are asked to make this footage available to Gardai.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact Portlaoise Garda Station on 057 867 4100, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111, or any Garda Station.
A young woman from Naas has become a commissioned officer in the Navy at a ceremony in Cork today.

Laoise Mulcahy is the daughter of the Assistant Chief of Staff, Brigadier General Rossa Mulcahy.

Raised in Naas, by her parents Rossa and Lorna with her sister Caoimhe, Laoise joined the Naval Service after completing secondary school in 2020, and will be third generation Defence Forces.

Laoise has always been keen on participating in sports, especially Camogie.

Laoise was involved in the Defence Forces womens 5 aside tournament along with various other moments spent with class members throughout the cadetship.

The class also included natives of Cork, Meath and Tipperary.

The ceremony took place in Haulbowline Naval Base in Cork at 12pm and was attended by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defence, Simon Coveney and the Defence Forces Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Sean Clancy.

It was a very important and proud day for the members of the 60th Naval Service Cadet Class as they were awarded their Commissions.

The four Cadets of the 60th Naval Cadet Class have successfully completed 22 months of intensive training preparing them to become Commissioned Officers.

They will continue their training and education to prepare them for qualification as Naval Watch keepers onboard Naval Service warships.

This specialised training will include Navigation, Ship Handling, Above Water Warfare and Gunnery, Seamanship, Communications, Leadership and Management.
The Irish Derby takes centre-stage this weekend and the action kicks off with an excellent card on Friday evening. The racing gets underway at 5.00pm and concludes at 8.28pm with a competitive card throughout.

The going is currently Good, Good to firm in places and there is watering taking place at the track to maintain the ground. There is also rain forecast on Friday. We have previewed the action and you can find more odds at BonusCodeBets

The undoubted highlight on the card is the 120,000 Group Two Curragh Cup over 14 furlongs. Aidan OBrien has three runners in the race which are headed by Wordsworth who was seventh in the Queen Alexandra Stakes at Royal Ascot last week. This is a quick turnaround but he warrants attention.

He is joined in the race by Sussex who was sixth in a Group Three event at the Curragh in May and Temple Of Artemis who showed a willing attitude to land a handicap over an extended 12 furlongs at Chester in May.

Joseph OBrien is doubly represented with Gear Up and Master Of Reality. The former impressed when powering to success at Gowran Park last time out and has to enter calculations along with Master Of Reality who was a good fourth in Listed company at the Curragh in May and is open to more improvement. Sunchart, Manu Et Corde and Camorra complete the eight runners in the event.

The opening Maiden over six furlongs at 5.00pm sees Aidan OBrien saddle 115,000gns purchase Victoria Road who was fourth on debut at Roscommon and looks open to more improvement. St Kitts is a son of Irish Oaks winner Bracelet and he makes his debut in this event.

Yosemite Valley is a fascinating runner for Donnacha OBrien being a half-brother to Piz Badile, whilst Spirit Genie also has to be high on the shortlist for Jessica Harrington. Second at Fairyhouse in May, he is joined by 75,000 purchase National Emblem who makes his debut in this event.

Amo Racing also have an interesting newcomer Indestructible who cost 150,000 and looks a smart type on paper.

The Fillies Maiden at 5.35pm is also an interesting event with Aidan OBrien saddling Never Ending Story who is a daughter of US Grade One scorer Athena and shaped with plenty of promise when third at the Curragh on debut. Dower House also represents OBrien and is a fascinating debutant behind a sister of the brilliant English and Irish 2000 Guineas winner Churchill.

68,000 purchase Gypsy Woman is another to appeal on debut along with Sandy Creek who is related to Stone Age. Johnny Murtagh also has two interesting newcomers in 72,000 purchase Signora Bellissima and Sea The Moon who was bred by the Aga Khan.

Curragh Selections

5.00pm - Victoria Road

5.35pm - Never Ending Story

6.08pm - All In The Mind

6.43pm - Wordsworth

7.18pm - Tudor City

7.53pm - Morning Approach

8.28pm - Kazakdaria
A man who forced a curtain pole into the anus of his mother's lover in a vile, sadistic, vicious, cruel and barbaric attack has had his jail term increased by the Court of Appeal today.

Nathan Doherty (24), from Legan, Co Longford, attacked Derek Murphy with the broken pole in the bedroom of a house at Lisnacreeva, Colehill, Co Longford, after arriving at the property in the early hours and discovering his mother Sharon Doherty naked in bed with Mr Murphy.

During the assault, Doherty repeatedly hit Mr Murphy over the back with the curtain pole until it snapped in two. He then took one half of the broken pole and forced it inside Mr Murphys anus at least twice and left it there.

Doherty pleaded guilty to one count of intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm and one count of producing an article capable of causing serious harm and was sentenced to six years imprisonment for the attack, with the final three years suspended for 10 years.

He was also ordered to pay his victim compensation of 30,000, with payments of 5,000 per year to be made when he has served his sentence.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) appealed the suspended portion of the sentence imposed by Judge Keenan Johnson at Mullingar Circuit Criminal Court in January 2021.

Today, Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy read out the decision of the three-judge court which increased Doherty's sentence from three to five years' imprisonment.



Mr Justice McCarthy said the attack was an "extremely violent" one but said that the headline sentence identified by the trial judge was "appropriate". He said the trial judge halved the jail sentence to "foster rehabilitation" for "first-time offender" Doherty and added that the financial restitution element to the sentence was "understandable".



However, Mr Justice McCarthy then said the court would quash the existing sentence on grounds of "deterrence" and sever the financial aspect from the jail term by making a separate order under Section 6 of the Criminal Procedures Act. This, said the judge, would mean there was no specific linkage of the financial restitution to the custodial sentence.

After quashing the existing sentence, Mr Justice McCarthy re-sentenced Doherty to six years' imprisonment with the final year suspended for two years. Doherty is also to now pay compensation of 25,000 to Mr Murphy in annual instalments of 5,000 starting 10 months after his release.

The court previously heard that Mr Murphy suffered severe internal injuries and was forced to use a colostomy bag for several months as a result of the attack on June 3, 2018. He has also suffered psychological trauma.



He later told a court the pain inflicted on him by Doherty had been excruciating and that he thought he was going to die during the assault.

The State appealed on the grounds that the 50 per cent reduction in the time Doherty would spend in prison represented a substantial departure from other sentences handed down for similar egregious offences.

Shane Geraghty BL, for the DPP, told the Court of Appeal that Judge Johnson had described the assault as vile, sadistic, vicious, cruel and barbaric, and I dont think we should depart from that.

Mr Geraghty said rehabilitation had been a central factor when Judge Johnson sentenced Doherty.

He said Doherty had entered the property uninvited and forcibly and had even struck his own mother before assaulting Mr Doherty.

In the circumstances, a three-year jail term was an insufficient censure and insufficient in the context of deterrents, Mr Geraghty said. Desmond Dockery SC, for Doherty, told the court that his client was a dutiful son who had been goaded by his

father into using the broken implement to attack Mr Murphy.

Last month, Derek Doherty (52), of Vicarstown, Ballymahon, Co Longford, was sentenced to 80 months in prison with the final 17 months suspended at Longford Circuit Criminal Court for his role in the attack.

His father led this, Mr Dockery said, adding that the parent had instructed his son to do the bastard during the 3am attack.

There were other wide-ranging mitigating factors in the case, counsel said, including his clients early guilty plea which had been tendered at height of the pandemic when there had been a backlog of cases.

He said Judge Johnson had been entitled to a certain latitude to go that extra mile to help a first-time offender towards rehabilitation, and asked the court not to interfere with the sentence handed down by a very experienced and thoughtful judge.
A LIMERICK-based carer and her former triathlon running patient, now in a wheelchair, have set sail on an intense fundraising challenge for people living with a spinal injury.

Killaloe resident Paula McInerney, Director of Bluebird Care Limerick, is going the extra mile by doing the Spinal Injuries Tall Ships Challenge with her client Conor ODea.

She first met Conor, from Clanmaurice Road, Limerick, in the National Rehabilitation Hospital in 2018 prior to his discharge home to the community in 2019.

Conor has been a huge help to me too when I dabbled in Triathlon. Hes a former Ironman triathlete and helped me with advice on my training and preparation for my event, which was brilliant, she said.

The pair set sail on June 18 aboard the SV Tenacious Tall Ship to lead a crew of 40 people of all abilities on the voyage of a lifetime.

Paula is going as a PA/nurse with Conor and is doing this in a voluntary capacity.

Conor has a spinal injury and is in a wheelchair after suffering a traumatic accident. Prior to his injury he used to train and do triathlons and iron man competitions.

On a personal level Conor has been an inspiration to me and to all the Bluebird Care team.

His resilience has been an inspiration to everyone that has worked with him since his discharge home to the community, she told the Limerick Leader.

Paula hopes this adventure will positively impact and develop his recovery and rehabilitation further.

They will sail from the port town of Poole on the South Coast of England, veer south towards Jersey and the North coast of France, before docking into Dublin, for a celebratory finish on June 25.

The crew are made up of eight people with a spinal cord injuries, as well as their personal assistants.

The challenge is a fundraiser for Spinal Injuries Ireland, which is Ireland's only dedicated support service for more than 2,100 people living with a spinal injury and their 20,000 family members.

This amazing charity relies on public support for up to 60% of its income and is a very important organisation to support, Paula concluded.
LIMERICK-based researchers have broken new ground, examining for the first time the relationship between Travellers and the Irish criminal justice system.

The research documents for the first time Travellers perceptions and experiences of the criminal justice process in Ireland, particularly with the judiciary and An Garda Siochana.

The Irish Travellers Access to Justice (ITAJ) report by the research team at University of Limerick was officially launched on Thursday, June 23.

The research finds that Travellers trust in the Irish criminal justice system is extremely low.

Professor Amanda Haynes, Department of Sociology, UL said: To be able to use the legal process to protect your rights, you must first trust that system enough to engage with it.

In the course of conducting the 18 months of study, the UL researchers spoke with one in every 100 Travellers in Ireland from 25 of the 26 counties.

The research findings reflect a need for radical changes in the way in which criminal justice institutions engage with, perceive, and address Travellers.

It highlights fears of wrongful arrest, excessive use of force, wrongful conviction, disproportionately high sentences and wrongful imprisonment as key convers of the Travelling community.

The study found that the levels of trust that Travellers have in the gardai is approximately half that of the general population.

Dr Sindy Joyce, Lecturer in Traveller Studies in ULs Department of Sociology said she was not surprised at the results of the research.

She stressed that these Travellers experiences and perceptions of the criminal justice process are unequivocally linked to their identity as a traditionally nomadic community.

Drawing on the findings, the research makes extensive evidence-based recommendations.

The introduction of an ethnic identifier throughout the criminal process from the point of reporting to the point of sentencing, as well as a criminal justice strategy for the Traveller community.

It also called for the establishment of an independent complaints body with no ties to any of the criminal justice agencies.

Sinead Gibney, Chief Commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, concluded:

This report needs to be read and shared widely and to be used as an evidential grounding for reforms, to make our criminal justice system accessible by all.
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K-pop superstars BTS have committed to playing a live concert in support of Busan as host city of the 2030 World Expo. The group has also been appointed as ambassadors for the bid.

Bang Si-Hyuk, chairman of BTS management agency HYBE, and the companys CEO Park Jiwon on Friday (local time) signed an agreement with Busan Metropolitan City mayor Park Heong-joon.

The deal commits the band to the concert and a range of related tasks. No date was given for the show.

BTS will hold other activities to appeal to the members of the Bureau International des Expositions, which organizes the international contest to hold the Expo. The group will personally introduce the proposed site for the BIE enquiry missions, serve as the ambassadors at South Koreas presentation session, be present on the election day to support the bid, provide photos and videos for the citys digital campaigns and spread promotional videos via official social media channels.

Given the importance of its bid as a nation to host the World Expo 2030 in Busan, BTS and HYBE will do our best to successfully bring the World Expo to Busan. This will be a great opportunity to contribute to further development of K-Culture as well as its local pop cultures in Busan, said Bang in a prepared statement.

The groups support as ambassadors will be incredibly helpful in stepping up our efforts to bring the World Expo to Busan, said Park.

Busan is South Koreas second largest city and the countrys major port. It has featured prominently in films including Ode to My Father, Haeundae and in Marvels Black Panther. It is home to Asias leading film festival and, in an effort to decentralize government, the Korean authorities have moved several film industry functions to Busan and away from the capital Seoul. These include the Korean Film Council and the Korea Media Rating Board.

The news came just a few days after BTS told the world that they will be taking a break from the band to focus on their solo projects. The news caused a major stir and dented HYBEs share price. The company subsequently argued that the word hiatus had been mistranslated and said that the band would still be working as a team. On Thursday night, band member Jungkook released a new single in collaboration with Charlie Puth.

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Christian Bale says he hasnt watched The Batman yet.

I still havent seen it. I will see it, Bale told Variety during Thursdays Thor: Love and Thunder premiere at El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood. Listen mate, its amazing how few films I see. Every director I work with, Ive seen a couple of their films and theyre always looking at me going, Are you kidding? I like to really savor films and I dont watch too many. But I will, I certainly will. Robert is an absolutely wonderful actor. We bumped into each other, talked a little bit about it ahead of time, and I heard wonderful things.

Bale famously played the Caped Crusader three times in Christopher Nolans Batman franchise. Pattinson took on the role last year in the first installment of Matt Reeves franchise reboot.

In Thor: Love and Thunder, Bale plays the terrifying Gorr the God Butcher, a name he joked means, You dont really have to ask, Whats he about and whats his motivation?' He stars in the Taika Waititi-directed Marvel film alongside Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman and Tessa Thompson, but admitted that the deciding factor in him taking on the role was his two kids.

I always just look at whos directing it, who are the people involved, is it a good story, am I gonna get something out of it, Bale said. With this one, it was my kids saying to me, By the way, youre doing this one, and I went, Am I really? And they said, Yes you are, and I went, OK, yes I am.'

He continued, Im there for Taika and for Chris and Natalie and Tessa and the whole crowd, and I originally thought, Yeah, thats not gonna work, and I stand corrected by my kids.

Thor: Love and Thunder is set for release in theaters on July 8.

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For a long time, if you said the name the Reverend Al Sharpton, you were guaranteed to get a response that seemed to erupt from the very gut fauna of mass-media outrage. Loudmouth, the fascinating new documentary about Sharpton, makes a convincing case that most of that moral high dudgeon was fatally overblown. In the 80s and 90s, Sharpton was at the molten center of every race-based news event in the greater New York area. Some would say, quite reasonably, that this made him a devoted activist. (No one ever pilloried the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. for showing up too much.) At rallies, at protest marches, on the courthouse steps, Sharpton spoke with a prickly ferocity and power, giving voice to those who didnt have it.

Was he a new version of King or Gandhi? Of course not. And he didnt need to be. : the showboat tactics of the contemporary media age. With his pouffy hair and mustache and a gleam that was at once doe-eyed and reptilian, he looked like Princes doughy brother, and a lot of people  almost all of them white commentators  viewed him with deep suspicion. Early on in Loudmouth, we see a clip of Lesley Stahl, on 60 Minutes, interviewing Sharpton for a segment and suggesting, with a smirk, that theres a clear contradiction between his activism and the fact that he lives in a fancy place. You listen to that and think: Really? Is that a contradiction, or is it a white double standard?

But Sharpton endured this sort of thing every day. In the documentary, theres footage from a protest march he led in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, to throw light on the murder of Yusef Hawkins, the teenager who was shot to death after he and his brother and two friends were attacked by a white mob. We see footage of neighborhood kids at the march grinning and shouting White power! into the news camera, and one young man says, Its all the medias fault! These things should be kept quiet! Al Sharpton, go home! The self-righteousness and, indeed, the virtual acknowledgement of guilt encoded in that statement are jaw-dropping. (What sort of defense is: This is an outrage! It should have been hushed up!) What were hearing is the voice of tribal racism.

If you really think about it, though, what that unabashedly racist kid was saying  that its all the medias fault!  is a crudely direct echo of the drumbeat of criticism that Al Sharpton endured for decades as an activist. The mantra was always the same. He was called a showman, a huckster, a one-man publicity machine, a sham crusader addicted to putting himself in the spotlight. Theres no point in denying that Sharpton, as he confronted cases of racial antagonism and racial murder, most of them in the outer boroughs of New York, did all he could to draw the media spotlight to those cases. With a bullhorn in hand, he was a natural-born speaker and, yes, a ham  a preacher-orator who liked to hear himself talk.

Yet just watch Loudmouth and listen to his words. The film includes a lot of footage of his earliest days, when he was the youth director for the 1972 Shirley Chisholm presidential campaign (he was all of 18), or when he worked for James Brown and Operation Breadbasket, or when he protested racial murder  notably by police officers  using the same hard, flat commanding rhetoric he used, decades later, to talk about George Floyd and Trayvon Martin. Sharpton sought the spotlight, but what he said was never a sham. His words brought heat and light. They were disciplined. They were focused on questioning the system. Which is why the system, in many ways, tried to write him off.

Loudmouth, directed by Josh Alexander, is a sprawling and searching and, in some ways, undisciplined movie. At a time in America when the spotlight has been newly focused on racial injustice, the film powerfully channels the racial tumult of the 1980s, giving you heaps of eye-opening news footage of the time. Cries of No justice, no peace! filled the air of the protests that Sharpton organized, yet getting the establishment to actually listen and respond was a daily uphill climb. Everything in the documentary thats set in that earlier era feels riveting and essential.

But half the movie is set in the present day, with Alexander following Sharpton around in his current role as svelte eminence grise of the racial-justice movement. Around the time he was running for the senate seat in New York, Sharpton underwent a dramatic transformation, shedding 175 pounds and toning down his incendiary surface. He became a cable-news pundit, a national icon, an elder statesman of the movement. This is all essential to show, and Sharpton, seated in the two-story wood-paneled book-lined parlor of his home, offers a fantastic deconstruction of how the media viewed him, and what the agendas driving that view were really about.

Yet the film, at two hours, still feels padded out with recent history. I would have liked, instead, to see some other dimension of Sharpton  who he is away from the protest marches. Loudmouth feels highly controlled, almost overly focused on Sharptons political identity at the expense of everything else. And theres one place where the film makes a serious compromise, one that echoes the compromise that Sharpton himself has made.

In the 80s and early 90s, he brought crucial attention to cases of racial violence, and the accusations of demagoguery leveled against him, like the ones hurled by New York Mayor Ed Koch, were paranoid and unjustified. But Sharpton, after a mostly spotless track record, handed his critics a grenade to use against him when he got involved with the case of Tawana Brawley, the teenager in upstate New York who claimed that four men, including a police officer and a district attorney, had abducted and raped her. She was found in a trash bag, her hair smeared with feces, racial epithets scrawled across her belly. It looked like a hideous atrocity, and Sharpton treated it as one more incident in line with the Howard Beach murder and the Bernard Goetz subway shooting. But in this case, the facts were not there. This video report from The New York Times offers a definitive encapsulation of what really happened in the Tawana Brawley case. Simply put, she lied.

Sharpton claims, to this day, that Tawana Brawley deserved her day in court, and hes right about that. Which is why he was right to sign on to the case. But once the realities began to come to light, he should have backed off. The Brawley case became a conspiracy theory, and the fact that Sharpton, interviewed in the present day, will not acknowledge that she lied  even though you can tell, from what he says, that he knows she did  amounts to a serious blemish on his legacy. He claims to stand for truth and justice. And he does. He should have been big enough to acknowledge his one defining mistake. If he had, it wouldnt define him as much.

Yet one blemish doesnt blot out the moral urgency of what Al Sharpton stands for. He took risks and paid a price, at one point getting stabbed in the chest with a kitchen knife by one of those Bensonhurst residents. In Loudmouth, Sharpton offers the best defense of his tactics in his eulogy for George Floyd. From a Minneapolis church podium, he declares, Critics would say that all Al Sharpton wants is publicity. Well, thats exactly what I want. Cause nobody calls me to keep a secret. People call me to blow up issues that nobody else would deal with. Im the blow-up man, and I dont apologize for that. But then he adds, with a rhetorical power that builds, George Floyds story has been the story of Black folks. Because ever since 401 years ago, the reason we could never be who we wanted and dreamed of being is that you kept your knee on our neck. Al Sharpton spent decades working to lift that knee off. If that isnt heroism, I dont know what is.

Reviewed online (Tribeca Film Festival), June 22, 2020. Running time: 123 MIN.

Production

A Bron Studios release of a Salmira Productions production, in association with Creative Wealth Media, Olive Hill Media, Hot Docs Partners, XRM. Producers: Josh Alexander, Daniel J. Chalfen, Mike Jackson, Kedar Massenburg. Executive producers: John Legend, Ty Stiklorius, Austyn Biggers, Salman Al-Rashid, Sam Frohman, Aaron L. Gilbert, Brenda Gilbert, Josh Miller, Jason Cloth, Michael Cho, Tim Lee, Jim Butterworth, Brenda Robinson.

Crew

Director, screenplay: Josh Alexander. Camera: Clemson Brown, Graham Willoughby. Editor: Armando Croda. Music: Joel Goodman, Jessie Montgomery.

With

The Reverend Al Sharpton.

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Netflix and Spencer director Pablo Larrain have gone into production on El Conde, a black comedy picturing bloody Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet as a 250-year-old vampire.

Larrain will share screenwriting credits with Guillermo Calderon, Chiles foremost playwright and Larrains writing partner on Neruda and Berlin Grand Jury Prize winner The Club, the movie which persuaded Natalie Portman to play the lead in the Larrain-directed Jackie.

El Conde is produced by Juan de Dios Larrain at Fabula, the Larrain brothers Chile-based film-TV production house whose credits include Spencer and Jackie, all Larrains Chilean movies, and Sebastian Lelios 2018 Academy Award winning A Fantastic Woman.

Moving from fest-winning straight-arrow arthouse fare such as Tony Manero to movies with a wider audience appeal from 2012 Cannes Directors Fortnight winner No, starring Gael Garcia Bernal and then into English-language titles from Jackie, Pablo Larrain has established himself in the vanguard of Latin American cinema.

Whatever the setting, his movies combine an acute sense of character and big ideas, on power dyanamics, the fate of women in traditional worlds, the lure and hell of fame and also the multiple hostages left to fortune by Augusto Pinochets far right and bloody dictatorship.

In a review of Jackie Varietys Guy Lodge hailed Larrain as the most daring and prodigious political filmmaker of his generation,

El Conde looks to drive deeper into some of the themes, mixing character analysis, drama and comedy and a trenchant analysis of the makings of the modern world  not only in Chile but in global terms.

The historical black comedy revolves around Augusto Pinochet who is not dead but an aged vampire who, after 250 years in this world, has decided to die once and for all, due to ailments brought about by his dishonor and family conflicts, Netflix announced Friday.

Set to be available exclusively on Netflix in 2023, the movie stars Jaime Vadell (Tres tristes tigres, No) and Gloria Munchmeyer (La luna en el espejo, 42 dias en la oscuridad) as well as Larrain regular Alfredo Castro (Tony Manero, Tengo Miedo Torero) and Paula Luchsinger (Ema, La Jauria).

We are very happy as Netflix is a place where directors whom I greatly admire have made really valuable movies, said Pablo Larrain.

He added: Using black comedy we want to observe, understand and analyze the events that have occurred in Chile and the world in the last 50 years. We have total confidence that well do a good job and it will undoubtedly be an adventure: a demanding shoot, but very inspiring and meaningful.

Finally we can work with Pablo Larrain as a director. Participating in his next movie is truly an honor for us and will undoubtedly bring huge satisfaction to our members in Chile and around the world, commented Francisco Ramos, Netflix vice president of content for Latin America.

Pablo is one of the most interesting and significant voices in Latin American cinema in the last 20 years; his view on Chile and Latin America are essential to understanding our continent, Ramos added. I have no doubt that El Conde will continue on the path Pablo has blazed with No and Neruda. Continuing to put our faith in Fabula is vital to our growth process in a country as rich and diverse as Chile.

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The Senate has approved a bipartisan gun violence bill in the wake of several mass shootings across the U.S., including one at an Uvalde, Texas elementary school that left 19 children and two teachers dead.

According to the Associated Press, the bill was passed by the Senate on Thursday evening with a 65-33 vote and now heads to the House of Representatives for approval. If passed through the House, the $13 billion bill would make background checks stricter for young gun buyers, help to restrict domestic violence offenders from purchasing guns, enact red flag laws to smooth the process of seizing firearms from dangerous people and fund programs for mental health and school safety across the nation.

Fifteen Republicans joined all 50 Senate Democrats in voting yes for the bill, which is the first major federal gun violence legislation in decades. The efforts were led by Senators Chris Murphy, D-Conn. (pictured above), Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., John Cornyn, R-Texas and Thom Tillis, R-N.C.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement to the AP: This is not a cure-all for the all the ways gun violence affects our nation. But it is a long overdue step in the right direction. Passing this gun safety bill is truly significant, and its going to save lives.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told the AP that the American people want their constitutional rights protected and their kids to be safe in school, referring to the second amendment. He added that Americans want both of those things at once, and that is just what the bill before the Senate will have accomplished.

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First reactions have poured in for Taika Waititis highly-anticipated Thor: Love and Thunder, which had its world premiere June 23 in Hollywood. Expectations for the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe entry are sky high considering Waititis last comic book outing, Thor: Ragnarok, is widely considered one of the best Marvel movies.

According to journalists and critics on social media, those expectations were met. Film critic Simon Thompson wrote, #ThorLoveAndThunder is a vivid and vibrant blast that delivers. Hemsworths Thor remains a jewel in Marvels crown. Bales Gorr is a killer boogeyman blending the campy and the creepy. Portmans Foster and Thompsons Valkyrie are a top notch pairing. Crowes Zeus is *chefs kiss.*

#ThorLoveAndThunder is a vivid and vibrant blast that delivers. Hemsworths Thor remains a jewel in Marvels crown. Bales Gorr is a killer boogeyman blending the campy and the creepy. Portmans Foster and Thompsons Valkyrie are a top notch pairing. Crowes Zeus is *chefs kiss* pic.twitter.com/PDb5SZRWOo  Simon Thompson (@ShowbizSimon) June 24, 2022

Insider correspondent Kirsten Acuna agreed and specifically praised Christian Bales performance as Gorr, writing that he is phenomenally menacing and one of the creepiest Marvel villains weve ever seen on screen.

Christian Bale is phenomenally menacing as #ThorLoveandThunders villain, Gorr the God Butcher. One of the creepiest Marvel villains weve ever seen on screen. Gave me some Dark Knight Ledger Joker vibes at one point. pic.twitter.com/zsg9SNXfqY  Kirsten (@KirstenAcuna) June 24, 2022

Critic Courtney Howard touted Taika Waititis directing, saying that he delivers a subversive, irreverent spectacle with great story, stakes and character-building.

#ThorLoveAndThunder has an Appetite For Destruction & laughs. Its totally rad! Taika Waititi delivers a subversive, irreverent spectacle. Great story, stakes & character-building. Chris Hemsworth & Natalie Portman, superb.Russell Crowe & Christian Bale slip easily into the world pic.twitter.com/W7PUUXIfM5  Courtney Howard (@Lulamaybelle) June 24, 2022

Some were more critical of the film, like Bro Bible senior writer Eric Italiano, who generally enjoyed Love and Thunder but said the plot felt flat and stakeless.

#ThorLoveAndThunder is the funniest film in the MCU. The jokes are excellent as is the cast delivering them. Christian Bale, obviously, is also terrifying as #Gorr BUT, the plot felt flat and stakeless. Not sure if that's a #Thor problem or an MCU-without-a-big-bad problem. pic.twitter.com/G6XP9EyL0Y  Eric Italiano (@ericitaIiano) June 24, 2022

Set after the events of Avengers: Endgame, the latest Thor sequel finds Chris Hemsworths superhero teaming up with Korg (voiced by Waititi), Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) to stop Gorr the God Butcher (Bale) from eliminating all gods. Portmans return to the MCU has generated the most buzz for Thor: Love and Thunder ahead of its release. Portman sat out Ragnarok and appears in the new film as Mighty Thor, which also finds her wielding the mystical hammer Mjolnir.

On Black Swan, I was asked to get as small as possible, Portman recently told Variety for a cover story. Here, I was asked to get as big as possible. Thats an amazing challenge  and also state of mind as a woman.

Ive seen her play the scientist character in Thor 1 and 2, and it just seemed pointless to do it again, Waititi added about bringing Portman back as a superhero. That character feels like just a love interest. Its an Earthwoman who runs around being mortal and not really consequential throughout.

Thor: Love and Thunder opens in theaters nationwide July 8. Check out more first reactions in the posts below.

Another classic Thor adventure! #ThorLoveAndThunder is everything I wanted it to be. Big, colorful, weird Guns N' Roses-fueled battles to go w/ a hopelessly romantic story about discovering love in unexpected places. Christian Bale & Russell Crowe are especially great. And Korg! pic.twitter.com/fu0gTUuMRj  Erik Davis (@ErikDavis) June 24, 2022

I saw #ThorLoveAndThunder. It can't quite match the visual or comedy bombast of Ragnarok, but Taika Waititi makes up for it with an emotionally mature Marvel movie. It's also very funny (Natalie's got jokes) and features one of the most stunning visual sequences in MCU history.  Jake (@jacobkleinman) June 24, 2022
Douglas Sacha/Getty Images

Laredo police officers will be on the lookout for suspected drunk drivers for the next two weeks.

Officers will be working an Impaired Driver Mobilization Grant funded by the Texas Department of Transportation. Officers will work overtime to enforce driving while intoxicated laws between June 24 and July 10.
All McDonalds restaurants in the Laredo area, as well as many around the state, will be donating 10% of all lunch proceeds collected between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Thursday, June 23 to the victims of the Uvalde massacre at Robb Elementary School which left 21 people dead, including 19 children, last month.

McDonald's announced the news on Wednesday.

While no amount of money can erase this tragedy, as local small business owners in Texas we feel its important we do our part to support the Uvalde community however we can, McDonalds owner Manuel Pacheco said. Together, we can make a difference.

In total, over 1,000 McDonalds locations around the state will reportedly be participating in the fundraiser.

The fundraiser aims to provide monies to all the victims of the mass shooting by helping to provide expenses many had at the San Antonio hospital where they were treated following their injuries. Additionally, costs also were accrued for many who spent money on funerals.

According to the company, customers can participate in the fundraiser by ordering lunch for dine-in, via carry-out, at the drive-thru, on the McDonalds app or through McDelivery, at participating restaurants.

"Our hearts still go out to all those affected by the unspeakable tragedy in Uvalde," McDonald's of Laredo said in a statement. "We invite you to come by any of our stores on June 23 to help us give back to this community in need. From 11 a.m.  2 p.m., proceeds from all sales will benefit the Robb School Memorial fund administered by the First State Bank of Uvalde and the Uvalde Fund at the Ronald McDonald House Charities of San Antonio, Texas to help those directly impacted by these tragic events."
Two Laredo residents have been sentenced to prison for aiding and abetting in the transmission of messages threatening to extort money from another, announced the U.S. Attorneys Office.

Hector Jose Lopez, 31, pleaded guilty Sept. 29 while Nancy Yvette Garcia, 33, entered a guilty plea on Oct. 14.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Marina Garcia Marmolejo sentenced Lopez to 96 months in prison while Garcia received 188 months. Lopez, also currently on supervised release for a 2018 conviction for conspiracy to transport migrants and received an additional four months to be served concurrently.

In handing down the prison terms, Judge Marmolejo noted that Lopez should make better choices if he wanted to live in the free world, further stating that he had no respect for the law or humanity, the U.S. Attorneys Office said.

Lopez and Garcia remained in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.

The FBI conducted the investigation with assistance from the Laredo Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Bajew prosecuted the case.

The case unfolded at about 8 p.m. Jan. 26, 2021, when a friend of a 16-year-old juvenile picked up the juvenile in a black sedan. At about midnight, a man called the juveniles mother using a Mexican phone number saying they had kidnapped her son because he had stolen drugs from them, according to court documents.

They wanted $30,000 for the juveniles release, states the arrest affidavit. Moments later, the mother got a short video clip on her cellphone from her sons Facebook messenger showing the juvenile with cuts and bruises, according to court documents.

Police said the kidnappers last made contact at about 2:30 a.m. on Jan. 27, 2021. At that time, the mother spoke to her son on the phone. She was told that her son would be killed if she did not come up with the money soon, court documents state.

The mother showed FBI special agents photos she had received on her Facebook Messenger showing her son face down and eyes closed. He had evident injuries to the back of his head. A caption in Spanish stated, This isnt a game, the affidavit states.

A second photo showed the conversation the mother had with a person along with the caption in Spanish: Dumba**es, you all left him abandoned and you all also took five bundles, but he is f***ed, the affidavit states.

The mother returned to the FBI office on Jan. 28, 2021, to continue negotiating with the extortionists. At about 5 p.m., the juvenile called his mother saying that he had escaped. FBI special agents and police picked up the juvenile in the 2300 block of Seymour Avenue.

The juvenile stated he was able to escape through a window in the back of the apartment where he was being held, court documents state. He stated the suspect was covered in tattoos and wore a blue, white and red striped short sleeve shirt, and an ankle monitor, states the affidavit.

He was then taken to a local hospital to be treated for various injuries. The investigation led authorities to an apartment complex where the juvenile was held in the 1400 block of Okane Street. FBI special agents obtained surveillance video from the area that showed a man matching the description of the suspect. Authorities would identify him as Lopez.

Lopez stated he received the juvenile at the location. Lopez held him there in exchange for $500. He added that on Jan. 26, 2021, a woman known as Nancy brought the juvenile with his hands bound, a hood over his head with duct tape over his eyes. She told Lopez he needed to watch the juvenile, according to court documents.

Authorities would identify Nancy as Garcia. Lopez held the juvenile in a bedroom closet and fed him sandwiches and water. He made the juvenile urinate into water bottles, court documents state. A search of Lopezs phone revealed a text message sent to Garcia asking her to bring duct tape, the affidavit states.
The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on Friday after 50 years of providing women constitutional abortion rights. National, state and local officials have released statements regarding their stance on the decision that will ultimately affect women and the governance over their body, as states can now ban abortions or exact their own restrictions.

In the wake of the decision, party leaders from both Laredo and the state of Texas shared their thoughts on the news.

Webb County Republican Party Chair Luis De La Garza Jr. said the decision is a banner day for conservatives.

"The 6-3 ruling obviously addresses Roe v. Wade and the 50-year rule in existence," he said. "From what I understand, the decision now leaves the voters of each state to decide whether to give legal protection to the unborn. ... Texas nine months ago passed the Texas Heartbeat Bill, so what the Supreme Court did is basically following what Texas has already done, and it's a bright day for conservatives."

As for the Webb County Democratic Party Chair, Sylvia Bruni, she said there were no words to describe the direction she believed the nation was headed toward after the decision.

"Its devastating," she said. "You are talking about a decision that has been in place for over 50 years, the decision literally has taken womens rights back decades. I am stunned for what the direction this Supreme Court has taken, and this is just the beginning. The next thing that is going to happen is our civil rights threatened. It's literally stunning. I dont know that I have words to describe it, thats how devastating I think is the direction they are taking, and this is something we are going to live with for decades. This move to strip people of their rights. I am just very sad for our country right now."

Also in Laredo, the Diocese of Laredo's Bishop James A. Tamayo also put out a statement on Friday supporting the news.

Today, the Supreme Court has overruled the constitutional right to abortion, which had been protected by Roe v. Wade," Tamayo said. "I am grateful that this decision has finally come, and I call on all people who respect human life to join with us in working toward a world where each unborn child is safe from harm. We are all called to cherish and defend life, as it is growing in the womb of the mother. We must protect life from the moment of conception to natural death.

Tamayo also shared a statement put out by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

As religious leaders, we pledge ourselves to continue our service to Gods great plan of love for the human person, and to work with our fellow citizens to fulfill Americas promise to guarantee the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all people," the statement reads.

According to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, he believes the overturning of the rule will protect the lives of unborn babies in America. He said "Texas is a pro-life state" and "will ALWAYS fight to save every child from the ravages of abortion."

Meanwhile, Abbott's upcoming opponent, Beto O'Rourke, expressed Democrats would need to make their voices heard in November's election to "overcome this decision."

"The only way to overcome today's decision is to win this race for governor," O'Rourke said. "The Supreme Court has sent this back to the states, and our state's current governor has outlawed abortion beginning at conception with no exception for rape or incest. If you care about protecting a woman's freedom to make her own decisions about her own body, health care and future, join this campaign and help us win."

Despite the news, the Republican Party of Texas said their battle toward banning abortions is not yet over. It targeted the City of Austin, which said on social media it continued to support women's rights over their own bodies and was "prepared to take steps necessary to implement further resolutions passed by Council to protect these rights."

"Just because SCOTUS overturned Roe doesn't mean our job abolishing abortion in Texas is over," a Twitter post reads. "As our Legislative Priority says we need 'to ensure the enforcement of our laws to protect life,' and once again Austin gives a prime example of why we need to."

As for the Texas Democratic party Co-Executive Director Hannah Roe Beck, the Supreme Courts decision was criticized in a statement.

"Nearly 50 years ago, the Supreme Court enshrined in Roe v. Wade the fundamental right to reproductive freedom for all Americans," the statement reads. "Today, our worst fear was realized: the Court has overturned that ruling, ending the federal constitutional protection of abortion rights and threatening the reproductive liberty of millions of Americans.

"No child or adult should be forced to carry a pregnancy to term against their will. By supporting this decision and enacting legislation like the trigger law, Greg Abbott and Texas Republicans have made it clear they are hellbent on doing just that. With the passage of Texass six-week abortion ban, these radical far-right conservatives have already made Texas an incredibly dangerous place to live for the millions who sought to exercise their previously protected right to abortion. Now, Texas has become exponentially more dangerous with the activation of this dystopian and extremist law."

However, not everyone in the Democratic party took the news badly. In fact, the Democrats For Life of America celebrated the decision.

"DFLA is excited about the political opportunities this decision creates for pro-life Democrats," said Kristen Day, Executive Director of Democrats for Life of America. "We have made significant contributions to advancing justice for the pre-born and their mothers, and will continue to do so. Today is a wonderful day, and we enthusiastically recommit ourselves to the mission of protecting all human life from womb to tomb."
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A man who led authorities on a chase in a stolen ambulance to later crash it into a Texas Department of Public Safety Unit in La Salle County has been sentenced to federal prison.

Adalberto Medina had pleaded guilty to high speed flight from immigration checkpoint on Aug. 9. 21. On June 17, Judge Diana Saldana sentenced Medina to 24 months in prison.

The sentence is to run concurrent if he is convicted on the state charges of unauthorized use of motor vehicle, evading arrest detention with vehicle, attempted capital murder of a peace officer and aggravated assault against public servant.

Special conditions included initial mental health evaluation, mental health treatment including anger management, intensive outpatient substance abuse treatment program among others.

The case unfolded at about 12:30 p.m. May 7, 2021, when Medina evaded the U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 35 in a stolen Angel Care ambulance. Medina avoided the inspection lanes and struck a traffic barrel located on the west perimeter as he attempted to maneuver through an area authorized only for Border Patrol vehicles.

Medina drove erratically as he almost collided with other vehicles traveling north on I-35. Moments later, an Encinal Police Department Officer attempted to pull over the ambulance for a traffic violation on mile marker 38 of I-35, where the suspect reached 89 mph in a 75 mph zone.

On mile marker 48, Medina drove the ambulance across the southbound lanes of I-35 and onto the west frontage road. He continued traveling north on the west frontage road. At least two occasions, Medina drove against the flow of traffic on South I-35.

Medina continued driving north on the southbound lanes of I-35, exiting via the mile marker 56 ramp at about 80 mph in La Salle County. Medina allegedly failed to control speed, lost control of the ambulance and intentionally struck the driver side door of a marked Texas Department of Public Safety unit.

EMS services responded to the location. Upon receiving medical assistance, DPS took custody of Medina. The trooper inside the unit was taken to a San Antonio hospital as a precautionary measure.
Courtesy/U.S. Border Patrol

Fifty-two migrants have died and more than 5,000 others have been rescued this fiscal year in their attempt to cross the border illegally, according to the Laredo Sector Border Patrol.

On Wednesday, Chief Patrol Agent Carl Landrum met with local media underneath the Gateway to the Americas International Bridge to talk about the dangers of crossing the border illegally.
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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP)  The family of an unarmed Arkansas teenager fatally shot by a sheriff's deputy during a traffic stop filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against the deputy and a county sheriff over the teen's death.

The family of Hunter Brittain filed the lawsuit against Michael Davis, a former sergeant with the Lonoke County sheriffs office, and Lonoke County Sheriff John Staley on the one-year anniversary of the 17-year-old's killing. Davis was convicted in March of negligent homicide, a misdemeanor, and sentenced to a year in jail in Brittain's death. He has appealed that ruling.

The lawsuit accuses Davis and Staley of violating the teen's constitutional rights and seeks unspecified damages.

Robert Newcomb, an attorney for Davis, said he had not seen the lawsuit but did not believe there was a strong case that Brittains civil rights had been violated.

The sheriff's office did not immediately return a message seeking comment on Thursday.

Brittain was killed outside an auto repair shop near Cabot, a city of about 26,000 people roughly 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of Little Rock.

Davis testified earlier this year that he fired at Brittain after the teen didnt comply with his commands to show his hands as he exited his truck and reached into the bed of the pickup. Brittain was holding a container  which his family members have said held antifreeze  and no evidence of firearms were found in or near the truck, investigators said.

A passenger who was with Brittain and another witness have testified they didnt hear any commands from the deputy before he shot the teen. Brittains family members have said he was grabbing the container to place behind the trucks wheel to stop it from rolling backward and hitting Davis' vehicle.

The failures of former deputy Davis and the Lonoke County Sheriff are extensive, disturbing, and directly caused the tragic and preventable death of Hunter Brittain," Ben Crump and Devon Jacob, attorneys for the family, said in a statement.

Davis was fired by Staley in July for not turning on his body camera until after the shooting. During his trial, Davis emotionally recounted the fatal shooting.

I didnt get into this job to kill people, he testified in March.

The fatal shooting of the white teenager had drawn the attention of civil rights activists nationally who said the killing highlighted the need for interracial support for police reforms. Davis is white. Brittain was eulogized last year by the Rev. Al Sharpton, as well as Crump and Jacob, who represented the family of George Floyd.

The plaintiffs in the case also include the father of the teenage passenger who was with Brittain the night of the shooting. The lawsuit accuses another deputy who responded of violating the teen's rights by holding him in custody in handcuffs for three hours.
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NEW YORK (AP)  New York's Democratic leaders aim to preserve as many restrictions as possible on carrying a handgun in public after the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down key portions of the state's gun-licensing law.

State and New York City officials are zeroing in on specifying sensitive locations where concealed weapons could be forbidden, including a concept that would essentially extend those zones to the entire metropolis. Other options under consideration include adding new conditions to get a handgun permit, such as requiring weapons training.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, vowed to call the Democrat-led Legislature back for a special session to pass new rules.

We have a whole lot of ideas," said Hochul, who said she discussed policy options Thursday with the mayors of the state's six largest cities.

New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, also a Democrat, said state lawmakers should ban people from carrying handguns in any place containing more than 10,000 people per square mile (259 hectares), or anywhere within 1,000 feet of mass transit systems, hospitals, parks, government buildings, schools, churches, cemeteries, banks, theaters bars, libraries, homeless shelters and courts. That would effectively include the whole city.

While it's not yet clear what might come of the discussions, what was clear was the sense of urgency that New York's Democratic leadership feels about retaining some curbs on guns in public places. The officials argue that such restrictions are life-saving: Statistics show the state, and its biggest city, consistently have among the nations lowest firearm death rates.

We are prepared to set an example that will lead the country as to: how do we fight back on this decision? said New York Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat and a former police officer and gun owner.

We cannot allow New York to become the Wild West, he said.

New York, like many other U.S. cities, has contended with rising concern about violent crime, though New York City police statistics show shootings have declined about 12% and murders 13% so far this year, compared with the same period last year. But murders remain at their second-highest level since 2012.

The high court opinion comes shortly after New York state tightened semi-automatic rifle regulations following a May 14 shooting in Buffalo, where a white gunman with such a weapon killed 10 Black people in a racist attack. Officials said the gun was purchased legally, but New York doesnt allow sales of the ammunition magazines that were used.

As state leaders reacted to Thursday's ruling, Republican Chairman Nick Langworthy said it was disgusting yet highly predictable that Hochul and other Democrats "are trying to gin up fear and division over a legal gun owners right to protect themselves and their family.

Rep. Lee Zeldin, a Republican candidate for governor, tweeted that Hochul better not make her next move on this another assault on law-abiding NYers.

New York states law dates to 1913. It requires people to demonstrate proper cause  an actual need to carry the weapon  to get a license to carry a handgun outside their homes.

There are similar standards in a handful of other states, including California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland and Hawaii.

New York's law did not define what proper cause meant, and it gave local authorities  often police  discretion on whether to issue a license. In practice, that meant most applicants had to show a need that went beyond routine public safety concerns, such as being in a profession that put them at special risk.

In New York City, few people beyond retired law enforcement officers and armed guards could get such a license.

In Thursday's ruling, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, a Supreme Court majority said the New York rules prevented law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their right to keep and bear arms in public."

In a concurring opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh noted that the decision didn't bar states from imposing handgun licensing requirements, such as fingerprinting, mental health records checks, firearms training or prohibitions on carrying the weapons in sensitive places, such as schools and government buildings.

But the majority opinion suggested there were limits to how sweeping the place-based restrictions could be: There is no historical basis for New York to effectively declare the island of Manhattan a sensitive place simply because it is crowded and policed, Thomas wrote.

Brooklyn Law School professor Bill Araiza said the court seemed to suggest that its certainly OK for governments to restrict carrying guns in sensitive places, but poured cold water" on the idea of expansive gun-free zones.

New York City officials insisted that nothing would change immediately, noting that the high court sent the case back to a lower court for further proceedings that could iron out implementation details.

But the decision instantly raised fears among supporters of New York's handgun limits, saying that loosening the rules could create a marketplace for handguns that now barely exists in the state.

New York has among the nations lowest rates of firearm deaths, including from suicides: 3.9 deaths per 100,000 people in 2019 and 5.3 deaths per 100,000 people in 2020.

Manhattan, a symbol of urban America, had the lowest rate of gun deaths in the state with 1.7 deaths per 100,000 in 2019, according to the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions.

Columbia Law School professor Jeffrey Fagan, an expert on gun laws, said research indicates that the firearms homicide rate immediately rises in places where restrictions are lifted.

Adams raised the specter of everyday disputes turning into shootouts in New Yorks crowded streets and subways. He suggested that police officers would face greater danger, as well as a greater burden of distinguishing between legal and illegal guns in public places.

Some business groups are also concerned. Andrew Rigie of the New York City Hospitality Alliance, a restaurant and nightclub owners group, said small businesses should be able to decide what is allowed in their establishments.

___

Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price, Michael Hill and Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report.
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WASHINGTON (AP)  The Supreme Court on Friday stripped away womens constitutional protections for abortion, a fundamental and deeply personal change for Americans' lives after nearly a half-century under Roe v. Wade. The courts overturning of the landmark court ruling is likely to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

The ruling, unthinkable just a few years ago, was the culmination of decades of efforts by abortion opponents, made possible by an emboldened right side of the court fortified by three appointees of former President Donald Trump.

Both sides predicted the fight over abortion would continue, in state capitals, in Washington and at the ballot box. Justice Clarence Thomas, part of Friday's majority, urged colleagues to overturn other high court rulings protecting same-sex marriage, gay sex and the use of contraceptives.

Pregnant women considering abortions already had been dealing with a near-complete ban in Oklahoma and a prohibition after roughly six weeks in Texas. Clinics in at least eight other states  Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, South Dakota, Wisconsin and West Virginia  stopped performing abortions after Friday's decision.

In Ohio, a ban on most abortions at the first detectable fetal heartbeat became the law when a federal judge dissolved an injunction that had kept the measure on hold for nearly three years. And Utah's law was triggered by the ruling, going into effect with narrow exceptions.

Abortion foes cheered the ruling, but abortion-rights supporters, including President Joe Biden, expressed dismay and pledged to fight to restore the rights.

Protests built into the evening in a number of cities, including thousands demonstrating against the decision outside the barricaded Supreme Court. Thousands more chanted We will rise up! in New York's Washington Square.

At the White House, Biden said, It's a sad day for the court and for the country. He urged voters to make it a defining issue in the November elections, declaring, This decision must not be the final word.

Outside the White House, Ansley Cole, a college student from Atlanta, said she was "scared because what are they going to come after next? ... The next election cycle is going to be brutal, like its terrifying. And if theyre going to do this, again, whats next?

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, agreed about the political stakes.

We are ready to go on offense for life in every single one of those legislative bodies, in each statehouse and the White House, Dannenfelser said in a statement.

Trump praised the ruling, telling Fox News that it will work out for everybody.

The decision is expected to disproportionately affect minority women who already face limited access to health care, according to statistics analyzed by The Associated Press.

It also puts the court at odds with a majority of Americans who favored preserving Roe, according to opinion polls.

Surveys conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and others have shown a majority in favor of abortion being legal in all or most circumstances. But many also support restrictions especially later in pregnancy. Surveys consistently show that about 1 in 10 Americans want abortion to be illegal in all cases.

The ruling came more than a month after the stunning leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito indicating the court was prepared to take this momentous step.

Alito, in the final opinion issued Friday, wrote that Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 decision that reaffirmed the right to abortion, were wrong had and to be be overturned.

We therefore hold that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. Roe and Casey must be overruled, and the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives, Alito wrote, in an opinion that was very similar to the leaked draft.

Joining Alito were Thomas and Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett. The last three justices are Trump appointees. Thomas first voted to overrule Roe 30 years ago.

Four justices would have left Roe and Casey in place.

The vote was 6-3 to uphold Mississippi's law banning most abortions after 15 weeks, but Chief Justice John Roberts didn't join his conservative colleagues in overturning Roe. He wrote that there was no need to overturn the broad precedents to rule in Mississippi's favor.

Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan  the diminished liberal wing of the court  were in dissent.

With sorrow  for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection  we dissent, they wrote, warning that abortion opponents now could pursue a nationwide ban from the moment of conception and without exceptions for rape or incest.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that the Justice Department will protect providers and those seeking abortions in states where it is legal and "work with other arms of the federal government that seek to use their lawful authorities to protect and preserve access to reproductive care.

In particular, Garland said the federal Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of Mifepristone for medication abortions.

More than 90% of abortions take place in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy, and more than half are now done with pills, not surgery, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.

Mississippis only abortion clinic, which was at the center of Friday's case, continued to see patients Friday. Outside, men used a bullhorn to tell people inside that they would burn in hell. Clinic escorts wearing colorful vests used large speakers to blast Tom Pettys I Wont Back Down at the protesters.

Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky and Missouri are among 13 states, mainly in the South and Midwest, that already have laws on the books to ban abortion in the event Roe was overturned. Another half-dozen states have near-total bans or prohibitions after 6 weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.

In roughly a half-dozen other states, including West Virginia and Wisconsin, the fight will be over dormant abortion bans that were enacted before Roe was decided in 1973 or new proposals to sharply limit when abortions can be performed, according to Guttmacher.

Outside the barricaded Supreme Court, a crowd of mostly young women grew into the hundreds within hours of the decision. Some shouted, The Supreme Court is illegitimate, while waves of others, wearing red shirts with The Pro-Life Generation Votes, celebrated, danced and thrust their arms into the air.

The Biden administration and other defenders of abortion rights have warned that a decision overturning Roe also would threaten other high court decisions in favor of gay rights and even potentially contraception.

The liberal justices made the same point in their joint dissent: The majority eliminates a 50-year-old constitutional right that safeguards womens freedom and equal station. It breaches a core rule-of-law principle, designed to promote constancy in the law. In doing all of that, it places in jeopardy other rights, from contraception to same-sex intimacy and marriage. And finally, it undermines the Courts legitimacy.

And Thomas, the member of the court most open to jettisoning prior decisions, wrote a separate opinion in which he explicitly called on his colleagues to put the Supreme Court's same-sex marriage, gay sex and contraception cases on the table.

But Alito contended that his analysis addresses abortion only. Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion, he wrote.

Whatever the intentions of the person who leaked Alitos draft opinion, the conservatives held firm in overturning Roe and Casey.

In his opinion, Alito dismissed the arguments in favor of retaining the two decisions, including that multiple generations of American women have partly relied on the right to abortion to gain economic and political power.

Changing the makeup of the court has been central to the anti-abortion sides strategy, as the dissenters archly noted. The Court reverses course today for one reason and one reason only: because the composition of this Court has changed, the liberal justices wrote.

Mississippi and its allies made increasingly aggressive arguments as the case developed, and two high-court defenders of abortion rights retired or died. The state initially argued that its law could be upheld without overruling the courts abortion precedents.

Justice Anthony Kennedy retired shortly after the Mississippi law took effect in 2018 and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in September 2020. Both had been members of a five-justice majority that was mainly protective of abortion rights.

In their Senate hearings, Trumps three high-court picks carefully skirted questions about how they would vote in any cases, including about abortion.

___

Associated Press writers Jessica Gresko, Fatima Hussein, photographer Jacquelyn Martin and video journalist Nathan Ellgren in Washington, Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston, Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi, Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, Leah Willingham in Charleston, West Virginia, Michael Hill in New York and Kantele Franko in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.

For APs full coverage of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, go to https://apnews.com/hub/abortion
KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  After weeks of ferocious fighting, Ukrainian forces have begun retreating from a besieged city in the country's east to move to stronger positions, a regional official said Friday, the four-month mark in Russia's invasion.

The planned withdrawal from Sievierodonetsk, the administrative center of the Luhansk region, comes after relentless Russian bombardment that has reduced most of the industrial city to rubble and cut its population from 100,0000 to 10,000. Ukrainian troops fought the Russians in house-to-house battles before retreating to the huge Azot chemical factory on the city's edge, where they remain holed up in its sprawling underground structures in which about 500 civilians also found refuge.

In recent days, Russian forces have made gains around Sievierodonetsk and the neighboring city of Lysychansk, on a steep bank across a river, in a bid to encircle Ukrainian forces.

Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk have been the focal point of the Russian offensive aimed at capturing all of the Donbas and destroying the Ukrainian military defending it  the most capable and battle-hardened segment of the countrys armed forces. The two cities and surrounding areas are the last major pockets of Ukrainian resistance in the Luhansk region  95% of which is under Russian and local separatist forces' control. The Russians and separatists also control about half of the Donetsk region, the second province in the Donbas.

Russia used its numerical advantages in troops and weapons to pummel Sievierodonetsk in what has become a war of attrition, while Ukraine clamored for better and more weapons from its Western allies. Bridges to the city were destroyed, slowing the Ukrainian military's ability to resupply, reinforce and evacuate the wounded and others. Much of the citys electricity, water and communications infrastructure has been destroyed.

Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said Ukrainian troops have been ordered to leave Sievierodonetsk to prevent bigger losses and move to better fortified positions. The head of the regional administration, Roman Vlasenko, said the withdrawal has already begun and will take several days.

As of now, the Ukrainian military still remains in Sievierodonetsk, Vlasenko told CNN. They are being withdrawn from the city at the moment. It started yesterday.

Ukraine's military spokesman declined to confirm the retreat order, saying government policy prevents comments on Ukrainian troop movements.

Regrettably, we will have to pull our troops out of Sievierodonetsk, Haidai told The Associated Press. It makes no sense to stay at the destroyed positions, and the number of killed in action has been growing.

A senior U.S. defense official, speaking in Washington on condition of anonymity, on Friday called the Ukrainians' move a tactical retrograde to consolidate forces into positions where they can better defend themselves. This will add to Ukraines effort to keep Russian forces pinned down longer in a small area, the official said.

Haidai noted that while the retreat is under way, some Ukrainian troops remain in Sievierodonetsk, facing Russian bombardment that has destroyed 80% of buildings.

As of today, the resistance in Sievierodonetsk is continuing, Haidai told the AP. The Russians are relentlessly shelling the Ukrainian positions, burning everything out.

Haidai said the Russians are also advancing toward Lysychansk  from Zolote and Toshkivka  adding that Russian reconnaissance units conducted forays on the city's edges but its defenders drove them out. The governor added that a bridge leading to Lysychansk was badly damaged in a Russian airstrike and is unusable for trucks. Ukrainian military analyst Oleg Zhdanov told the AP that some of the troops moving away from Sievierodonetsk are heading to the fight in Lysychansk.

In other battlefield reports, the Russian Defense Ministry declared Friday that four Ukrainian battalions and a unit of foreign mercenaries totaling about 2,000 soldiers have been fully blocked near Hirske and Zolote, south of Lysychansk. The claim couldnt be independently verified.

Following a botched attempt to capture Kyiv, Ukraines capital, in the early stage of the invasion that started Feb. 24, Russian forces have shifted their focus to the Donbas, where the Ukrainian forces have fought Moscow-backed separatists since 2014.

After repeated requests to its Western allies for heavier weaponry to counter Russias edge in firepower, four medium-range American rocket launchers have arrived, with four more on the way. The senior U.S. defense official said Friday that more Ukrainian forces are training outside Ukraine to use the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, and are expected back in their country with the weapons by mid-July.

The rockets can travel about 45 miles (70 kilometers). Also to be sent are 18 U.S. coastal and river patrol boats. The official said there is no evidence Russia has been successful in intercepting any of what has been a steady flow of military aid into Ukraine from the U.S. and other nations. Russia has repeatedly threatened to strike, or actually claimed to have hit, such shipments.

IN OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

The day after Ukraine was approved as a candidate to join the European Union, Zelenskyy urged Ukrainians not to focus on all that still must be done before the country is accepted into the EU but to quietly celebrate the moment and be proud of how far Ukraine has already come in moving away from its Soviet past.

Do not be happy that this is a slap in the face for Moscow but be proud that this is applause for Ukraine," he said in his nightly video address. "Let it inspire you. We deserve it. Please smile and let God bless us all with a quiet night. Then tomorrow, again into battle. With new strength, with new wings.

___

In Tbilisi, Georgia, another former Soviet republic that has applied to join the EU, thousands of people rallied on Friday to demand the resignation of the prime minister over his government's failure to implement the necessary reforms for Georgia to join Ukraine in being accepted as a candidate for EU membership. The European Council this week said Georgia had more work to do before it would be given candidate status.

Zelenskyy addressed the rally by video, expressing his support for Georgia and thanking the Georgians who have come to Ukraine to join the fight against Russia. Russia invaded Georgia in 2008 and now effectively controls two breakaway territories.

___

Zelenskyy urged music fans at the Glastonbury Festival to spread the truth about Russias war. Speaking to the crowd at the British music extravaganza by video on Friday before a set by The Libertines, Zelenskyy said, We in Ukraine would also like to live the life as we used to and enjoy freedom and this wonderful summer, but we cannot do that because the most terrible has happened  Russia has stolen our peace.

___

An official with the pro-Moscow administration in the southern city of Kherson, which was captured by Russian troops early in the invasion, was killed in an explosion Friday. The pro-Russian regional administration in Kherson said that Dmitry Savlyuchenko died when his vehicle exploded in what it described as a terror attack. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

___

Yuras Karmanau reported from Lviv.

___

Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
The chairman of the Log Cabin Republicans of Texas, a group of gay Texas GOP members, resigned from his post Thursday, KXAN reported.

Michael Cargills resignation as LCRs state leader comes after the state party ratified a new platform calling homosexuality an abnormal lifestyle choice at its Houston convention last week.

These are just crazy people, Michael Cargill told KXAN on Sunday. Its a small minority of people that are being un-Christian-like and spewing this hateful language.

LCR Texas Secretary and Austin Vice President David Garza and President of LCR San Antonio Mimi Planas also resigned from the state board alongside Cargill.

Cargill, who owns and operates a gun shop in Austin, will continue to serve as president of LCRs Austin chapter and pursue the groups interests through direct interactions with GOP leadership at the Texas Capitol, he wrote in his resignation letter.

LCR Texas leaderships resignations come amid backlash against the state GOPs new platformsome of it coming from high-ranking national party members. Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who helms the GOPs Senate elections committee, said he would not have supported the homophobic language on Wednesday.

Scott also confirmed that he accepts the results of the 2020 election as valid and the Biden administration as legitimate. Texas Republicans parroted former president Donald Trumps lie that widespread voter fraud cost him the election and declared President Biden an illegitimate leader in their new platform.

Former Ohio governor and 2016 Republican presidential candidate John Kasich called the Texas GOP convention a clown show on CNN Monday, adding that "I think even clowns were embarrassed by what they saw down there."
On Monday night, Politico dropped a bombshell report detailing a draft opinion Justice Samuel Alito saying the Supreme Court plans to overturn Roe v. Wade  a monumental court decision for abortion rights and women's health care. But if it is overturned, what does this mean for Texas, a state that is already teetering on a post-Roe reality with Senate Bill 8 in place?

If Roe is overturned, district attorneys in Texas will have the power to decide whether or not to pursue criminal charges against a person who underwent an abortion, the Texas Tribune reported late last month.
The Supreme Court said on June 15 that the US Department of Health and Human Services failed to follow the proper procedures in varying reimbursement rates in a drug program aimed at hospitals that typically serve larger shares of disadvantaged patients.
We Are China

Xi hosts 14th BRICS Summit

(People's Daily App) 14:28, June 24, 2022

President Xi Jinping hosts the 14th BRICS Summit on Thursday in virtual format.

Through high technology, five leaders take an online group photo.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Family Carers Irelands new Longford Westmeath Carer Support Centre on Castle Street in Mullingar was officially opened on Thursday by Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People, Fianna Fail TD Mary Butler, who was joined by party colleague and fellow Minister of State, Longford Westmeath TD Robert Troy.

The centre will offer services to family carers across Westmeath and Longford including information and advocacy regarding their rights and entitlements; training and workshops; support in accessing respite; group meetings and social events to help combat isolation; advice on care planning and crisis support.

Through its national network of carer support centres and National Freephone Careline 1800 24 07 24, Family Carers Ireland supports the 500,000+ people in Ireland who provide care for loved ones such as children or adults with additional needs, physical or intellectual disabilities, frail older people, those with palliative care needs or those living with chronic illnesses, mental health challenges, or addiction.

CAB chiefs to turn screw on Longford man A Longford man who is currently serving a three and a half year jail term for his involvement in a vicious feud related stabbing is facing fresh charges from Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) chiefs.

Paul Farrell, Family Carers Ireland Longford Westmeath Carer Supports Manager, said, Our new centre will provide vital supports and services to family carers right across Longford and Westmeath. I would encourage anyone locally who is caring for a loved one to pick up the phone or drop in for a chat and let us help you. This will be a welcoming space for family carers, and we are looking forward to resuming face-to-face activities including our peer support groups and social events which allow family carers to connect with others who understand their role.

Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People, Mary Butler TD said, I am very honoured to be in attendance here today in Mullingar for the opening of Family Carers Irelands new Carer Support Centre. I recognise the important role that family carers play in the provision of care in Ireland. Family carers are the backbone of care provision in our country and care for the most vulnerable in our society. Whether caring for a child or a parent with a disability or illness or an elderly family member, carers, through their selfless hard work, knowledge and compassion enhance the quality of life of the most vulnerable in our society on a daily basis. I also wish to acknowledge the hard work done by everybody in the opening of this new Support Centre.

"We will love and miss you forever, our beautiful princess"- parents in heartbreaking tribute to young Longford mother following cancer battle The parents of a young mother of three who lost her fight with cancer at the weekend have told of how their daughters legacy will forever be in our hearts.

Local TD and Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Robert Troy said, Today is an important day for family carers across Longford and Westmeath and it is a privilege for me to be here to mark the opening of the new Carer Support Centre in Mullingar. This centre will be an invaluable resource and support for those caring for family members in the community. I was delighted to work with Family Carers Ireland to ensure this vital advocacy and support network remained in Mullingar and want to acknowledge all who made this centre possible. The past two years have been extraordinarily challenging, and I want to pay tribute to the carers across Longford and Westmeath who are the backbone of the community, providing care for the most vulnerable our society. Often the care and support by family carers goes unseen but it is very much appreciated, and I hope this centre will enable them to connect with each other, share knowledge, and seek support as they need.
24th June 2022

Runtime 15:31





Katherine Roe, CEO at Wentworth Resources joined London South East to update investors on the proposed purchase of the Ruvuma gas development project in Tanzania from Scirocco Energy.

Katherine said she thought the deal, which will eventually pay out almost $16M when and if the Ruvuma field becomes successfully operational was a fair one for both parties. "We've worked well together to structure a deal which is right for Wentworth and right for Scirocco".

"We do think that it is strategically perfect for Wentworth" said Katherine. "Ruvuma, available as a gas appraisal and development licence, is adjacent to our gas producing asset in Mnazi Bay in Tanzania. There has been a discovery, we do think it is potentially a world class asset in the same way we have with Mnazi Bay. We want to be able to use all our experience, sub surface and above ground, using our stakeholder relations to develop the asset."

"We are a non-operated partner in Mnazi Bay and will become a non-operated partner in our working interest in Ruvuma, so we are used to working in that way and trying to add value to the JV. We are looking at similar volumes of gas to be produced, similar to the early days at Mnazi Bay certainly" added Katherine.

The bid process took two years and was far from plain sailing. The initial preferred bidder, was a private equity company who pulled out, leaving the way clear for Wentworth. "As a private equity company they can be more flexible how they finance a bid. We are in the public domain and must be very conscious of dilution for our existing shareholders, our funding capability, and we have ongoing capital requirements as well as a dividend" explained Katherine.

As to the structure of the deal: "From Wentworth's perspective, we need to see that field developed and perform in line with the way that we have modelled it and our expectations, and the flip side to that is it only right that Scirocco shareholders get a share of that upside when it materialises. The deferred and contingent stage payments are designed to achieve that as the project derisks."

And the loan arrangement with Scirocco? "Again that was important for both of us. We are lending Scirocco $6.25M, their share of cash calls throughout this work programme . That enables Scirocco to fund their cash calls, enables them to be able to meet their obligations and allows us to continue with the work programme without delays."

"I think the shareholder dilution required to fund that work programme organically 'by Scirocco] would be quite significant for existing shareholders. We have the cash and want to reinvest back into Tanzania in the domestic gas space, that is our core business."

"It's perhaps worth saying that we wouldn't be any good at developing a gas field in another jurisdiction - this is our business, this is what we do well, and we can make this successful. It's horses for courses."

"One of the great things about our equity markets is that investors have choices, and you can choose to invest in a number of different things, depending on your appetite. So I think this is a good transaction for everybody". #WEN #WentworthResources #KatherineRoe #Tanzania #Ruvuma #SCIR #Scirocco #MnaziBay #GAS #Deal #Vote #EM #Aminex
Energean PLC - gas exploration and production in Mediterranean - Chief Executive Mathios Rigas sells 5 million shares via Growthy Holdings Co Ltd at GBP11.06 each, worth GBP55.3 million, in London on Thursday. Growthy Holdings now holds around 15 million shares, an 8.5% stake. Energean says: "Rigas remains fully committed to the business and is confident in the outlook for Energean."

Separately, Chair Karen Simon buys 34,000 shares at GBP11.06 each, worth GBP376,040, on Thursday.

Current stock price: 1,093.00 pence on Friday, down 6.7%

12-month change: up 42%

By Sophie Rose; sophierose@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Portugal takes action against illegal communications equipment Portugal's communications regulator ANACOM reports it inspected 26 vessels with the Maritime Police



A translation of the ANACOM post reads:



ANACOM carried out, during May 2022, together with the National Maritime Authority (Maritime Police) and, in some cases, the Authority for Working Conditions (ACT), various inspection actions on vessels. In total, ANACOM supervised 26 vessels, including fishing grounds and tourist vessels.



On 26 and 27 May, the actions involved the three authorities and took place in the fishing ports of Nazare and Peniche, and the legality of the means of communication installed on board six coastal fishing vessels (two in Nazare and four in Peniche) was verified. The radio stations were installed and operating in accordance with the legislation in force.



Between 17 and 20 May, ANACOM carried out an action with the Maritime Police in the Autonomous Region of Madeira, and a total of fourteen vessels were inspected, including fishing vessels (five) and maritime-tourist vessels (nine). Nine of the fourteen vessels were first inspected. All vessels surveyed presented radio stations accordingly.



On May 10, an ANACOM inspection action was carried out with the Maritime Police in the Port of Leixoes, to six fishing vessels. In this case, an illicit transceiver of the land mobile service was seized.



These actions aim to verify the status, operability and correct use of radio communications equipment installed on board vessels.



If they are not being used in proper conditions, or malfunctioning or in inadequate spectrum ranges, this equipment may interfere with other services and may hinder the proper functioning of emergency communications.



Source ANACOM

https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1723282
Eqtec PLC - Cork, Ireland-based gasification company focused on turning waste into sustainable energy - Signs deal with Anaergia Inc for the construction and operation of a multi-technology, waste-to-energy facility at Southport Hybrid Energy park in Merseyside, UK. The company says the plant will accept 80,000 tonnes of pre-processed municipal solid waste annually. It will both recover organics produce refused-derived fuel and an Anaergia anaerobic digestion facility, which is designed to convert the recovered organics into six million cubic metres of biomethane every year, to be injected into the national gas transmission system.

Chief Executive Officer David Palumbo says: "Anaergia has been a great partner at our Deeside project, and we are very happy to be co-developing Southport with them as well. The future of renewable energy beyond fossil fuels will be a mixed economy, and the Deeside and Southport plants will demonstrate that. These projects are at the cutting edge of clean, waste-to-energy and hydrogen innovation in the UK."

Eqtec is co-developer and gasification technology provider to the Southport project. In September 2021, the company entered into a conditional Share Purchase Agreement to acquire full ownership of Shankley Biogas and the project from Rotunda.

Anaergia, based in Burlington, Canada, provides solutions for extracting organics from waste, implementing anaerobic digestion, and cleaning water.

The Southport project will directly address the challenges of waste reduction and the need for clean energy, while also creating local jobs.

The deal has been signed through Eqtec's wholly-owned subsidiary Southport WTV Ltd, and its partners Rotunda Group Ltd and Rotunda's subsidiary, Shankley Biogas Ltd.

Current stock price: up 0.9% at 0.57 pence

12-month change: down 60%

By Xindi Wei; xindiwei@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
(Sharecast News) - London stocks were set to rise at the open on Friday following heavy losses in the previous session, as investors digest the latest UK retail sales data.

The FTSE 100 was called to open 50 points higher at 7,070.

CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "Because of the positive US close, and positive Asia session, European markets are set to see a positive open, with today's focus on UK retail sales for May, and the latest German IFO survey for June."

Figures released earlier by the Office for National Statistics showed that retail sales fell in May as households cut spending on food amid the cost-of-living crisis.

Retail sales were down 0.5% following a 0.4% increase in April. This was due mainly to a 1.6% decline in food store sales.

In corporate news, the 2.6bn takeover of British defence manufacturer Ultra Electronics by a US private equity firm looks set to be waved on by the UK government after the Department for Business said it was minded to accept the deal.

Cobham last year launched a takeover of Ultra Electronics, which makes systems such as sonar and radio communications used by military and civilian aircraft. Cobham was itself controversially taken over and broken up by US private equity investor Advent over 2019 and 2020.

Elsewhere, Barclays Bank has agreed to acquire UK specialist mortgage lender Kensington Mortgage Company as part of a deal valued at approximately 2.3bn.

The bank said on Friday that the acquisition of Kensington Mortgage Company will be financed from existing resources and enable the bank to broaden its product offering and capabilities in the UK mortgage market. KMC, as well as a portfolio of UK mortgages, will be purchased from companies controlled by funds managed by Blackstone Tactical Opportunities Advisors and funds affiliated with Sixth Street Partners.
(Alliance News) - Lamprell PLC on Friday said it received a "discounted" cash takeover offer from a large shareholder and tat it was in discussions over a potential equity fundraise of USD150 million.

Lamprell said its net cash has decreased to USD8.4 million as of June 23, from USD52.9 million at the end of 2021.

Lamprell shares fell 77% to 5.19 pence each on Friday morning and down 90% over the past 12 months, giving it a market capitalisation of GBP22.5 million.

The company's shares closed on Thursday in London at 22.10 pence, giving the company a market capitalisation of just above GBP90 million.

The United Arab Emirates-based provider of oil field services provider noted the takeover offer from 25% shareholder Blofeld Investment Management, which comes at a deep discount to its current share price. Under regulatory law, Blofeld has until July 22 at 1700 BST to officially declare if it wants to buy - or not buy - Lamprell.

Lamprell said it was considering the possible offer in light of its liquidity position and the funding requirements of USD75 million over the next two months.

The firm said Blofeld's proposal is at a "very significant discount" to its current share price and any acceptable offer would need to include an interim funding solution or bridge financing. Further, the pair have been in discussions for more than two months but have not reached agreement on the price.

The oil field services provider said the board has been in "frequent discussions" over the last three months with its two largest shareholders, Lamprell Holdings Ltd and Blofeld, over a potential equity fundraise of up to USD150 million.

In addition, Lamprell said it ended talks, announced in March, for the sale of oil & gas business, which had yielded little progress.

"It became apparent during the course of negotiations that such a disposal on the terms proposed, would be highly problematic to execute and would ultimately leave the group without a viable business going forward. Furthermore, the board believes the proposal significantly undervalued the assets of the business," Lamprell explained.

Turning to current trading, Lamprell said its performance continues to be affected by the delivery of legacy, low margin projects and insufficient revenue levels, as it emerges from a prolonged period of low market activity due to the low energy prices and Covid-19.

"New awards for Lamprell in all of the Group's end markets over the past two years were below expectations, impacted by Covid-19 and due in part to client concerns regarding the liquidity constraints the Group faces and balance sheet strength in order to support large scale projects," it explained.

Lamprell expects 2022 revenue to be in the range of USD400 million to USD500 million, with USD340 million secured for 2022. It also said revenue recognition will be heavily weighted towards the second half of the year.

By Tom Budszus; tombudszus@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Britons will have to pay seven euros for a visa to visit European holiday destinations such as the Balearics from next year but if they do not or fail to follow the new procedures, they may be refused entry into Spain (the Balearics) and other top European destinations.

Since Brexit, UK citizens have not needed a visa to visit any EU member states and passengers have just been using their British passport.

But from the end of 2022, UK travellers will need an ETIAS visa waiver to enter EU countries.

Everyone visiting countries in the Schengen zone must apply for the document when the scheme is introduced.

The European Commission has confirmed that its Travel Information and Authorisation System will apply to UK visitors.

Once ETIAS is in place, non-EU citizens travelling to the Schengen area who are exempt from the visa requirement will need to register and obtain authorisation before travelling.

The system will cross-check travellers against EU information systems for internal security, borders and migration before their trip, helping to identify ahead of time people who may pose a risk to security or health, as well as compliance with migration rules.

The set-up of ETIAS forms part of the EUs ongoing work to put in place a state-of-the-art external border management system and making sure that information systems work together in an intelligent and targeted way.

ETIAS will not change which non-EU countries are subject to a visa requirement and will also not introduce a new visa requirement for nationals of countries that are visa-exempt, the Commission clarifies.

Visa-exempt non-EU nationals will only need a few minutes to fill in an online application which in a vast majority of cases (expected to be over 95 per cent) will result in automatic approval.

The process is claimed to be simple, fast and affordable: the ETIAS authorisation will cost 7, which will be a one-off fee, and will be valid for 3 years and for multiple entries.

But, British passport holders could be turned away at borders if their ETIAS application is not approved, once the scheme is implemented. And there are a number of reasons people could see their application denied.

According to Schengen Visa Info, applications may be turned down on the following grounds:

The person applying has used a travel document that is reported as lost, stolen, misappropriated or invalidated in the Schengen Information System  SIS II.

The applicant poses a security risk for the citizens and travellers of the Schengen Area.

The applicant poses an illegal immigration risk.

The applicant poses a high epidemic risk.

An applicant is a person for whom there is an existing alert in SIS for the purpose of refusing entry and stay.

The applicant fails to reply to a request for extra information or documentation within the deadline given.

The applicant fails to attend an extra interview when required.

A travel authorisation can also be rejected in cases where there are reasonable and serious doubts about the authenticity of the information given and the supporting documents submitted by the person applying.

The ETIAS plan was originally shelved in 2016, before the UK voted to leave the EU.

It is being brought in, in part, to avoid the need for more complex visas - though travellers who need visas to enter the EU will still require them.

There will also be questions on a persons criminal record and if they have ever been asked to leave an EU country by officials.

Airlines will be expected to check that a person has been authorised to travel to the EU under the ETIAS scheme.

Once accepted, it will allow British passengers entry into the Schengen area multiple times over a three-year period.

The scheme is expected to cover 60 countries, including the UK, Australia and the US.

ETIAS will not change which non-EU countries are subject to a visa requirement and will also not introduce a new visa requirement for nationals of countries that are visa-exempt, the proposal says.
BIG RAPIDS  Consistently, one of the most popular vendors at the Big Rapids farmers market is Happy Jacks Kettlecorn.

The original Happy Jacks Kettlecorn business opened 11 years ago with Jack Scott. After Scott passed away, the business was posted for sale on Facebooks Marketplace. In stepped John Monahan.

Monahan bought the business five years ago after meeting with Scotts family.

There were so many similarities between Jack's family and ours. Monahan said. My wife is Loura; his wife is Laurie. His name was Jack; my name is John. We had the same number of kids. We were the only ones of all the people that looked at the business that wanted to retain everything he did, and not just want to buy the name.

After buying the business, Monahan fell in love with the business and the social aspect of working at these farmers markets.

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I love to run my mouth, so it works out nice," Monahan said. "I get to chat with people at the one here in town and the one over in Mount Pleasant that we do by Central Michigan. We know a lot of people in both of those areas. We get to see people that we would normally only see a few times a year, several times a month. So, it's kind of a social thing for us as well.

It also gave the Monahans an opportunity to work with both their kids and grandkids on a family business. At points with larger events, four generations are working the tent, including Monahans mother, himself, his kids and his grandkids. The work stretches all the way down to his 6-year-old and 10-year-old grandsons.

"We were looking for something where we can help out, and what better way to get kids to learn at an early age what to do for business? Monahan said. So, we have a now 6-year-old, who helps us periodically. I've got a 10-year-old who helps us rather regularly every Saturday, I can count on him.

Value vs. price

Monahan and his wife, Loura, are both Ferris State graduates who worked in the financial division for over 30 years. When they retired, they chose to look for something to keep them busy. Happy Jacks has been the perfect business to fill that void, as often Monahan treats this as a job in itself, getting up at 4 a.m. to travel to various events, or staying up past midnight getting the corn ready to sell the next day.

Monahan described the process of making kettle corn.

It's all made in our kettle; our kettle is semi-unique. Monahan said. There are only four other ones in the area that I know of. They're hand hammered copper kettles; you don't find them anymore.

"We get the kettle warm with a certain quantity of oil in it. Once the oils are to a point, we pour it in. Once the popping starts, we get the sugars and stuff in and it's a nonstop stir from the time that the oil hits. Then we bag it, and it's ready to eat.

Pioneer Photo/Brendan Sanders

A small bag costs $4 while a large bag costs $7. There are over 140 potential flavors that Happy Jacks Kettlecorn can make, including kettlecorn, caramel corn, cheddar cheese and Chicago style. Certain events will see the Happy Jack crew bring flavors such as dill pickle, garlic parmesan, jalapeno, ranch and even fruit flavors. For the Fourth of July they make red, white and blue corn.

Monahan described why people should buy his kettlecorn.

Value isn't necessarily the price. It's what you get for it. Monahan said. I know I've got a good product. I tell them, You're more than happy to try it. I give them a sample, You're more than welcome to buy it. And if you're not happy, I'll give you your money back.

The business travels to multiple markets throughout the week, including South Haven, Mount Pleasant, Big Rapids, and many special events like the Barryton Lilac Festival or the RV and Boat Show in Ludington. Attendees can find Happy Jacks stand in Big Rapids on Fridays.

For more information and questions, visit @HappyJacksKettlecorn on Facebook.
Basel, Switzerland, 24 June 2022. Kinarus Therapeutics Holding AG (SIX: KNRS) (Kinarus), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of novel therapeutics for the treatment of viral, respiratory, and ophthalmic diseases, announced today that it will host a key opinion leader (KOL) event for investors in Zurich on Monday, June 27, starting at 12:15 pm CET.

Kinarus has received regulatory authorization to initiate Phase 2 testing of KIN001 to treat wet age-related macular degeneration (wAMD) as communicated previously on May 10, 2022. KIN001 has been shown to reduce pathological blood vessel growth (neovascularization) in the choroid of the eye in preclinical models of wAMD.

At the live webcast event, Prof. Christian Prunte, MD, an internationally recognized clinical expert focused on wAMD and ocular diseases, will discuss this leading cause of blindness in older people and current treatment strategies, putting into context the differentiation of Kinarus KIN001 therapeutic candidate. Kinarus CEO Alexander Bausch will present the KIN001 development plans in wAMD and other indications. Both speakers will be available to respond to questions from the live audience during the one-hour event. Investors can request to attend the KOL event in person or participate in the live video webcast of the KOL event.

Prof. Christian Prunte, MD, is Medical Director of the Eye Clinic at University Hospital Basel and Head of the Department of Ophthalmology at Kantonsspital Baselland in Liestal. He also is Head Clinical Trial Center Platform at the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel.

KIN001 is a proprietary patented combination of pamapimod, a highly selective investigational small molecule inhibitor of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38 MAPK), and pioglitazone, a marketed drug for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Several p38 MAPK inhibitors were studied by the pharmaceutical industry and largely abandoned after promising but only transient efficacy was observed. Kinarus discovered through its own research that the combination of pamapimod with pioglitazone (i.e., KIN001) produced synergistic efficacy and increased the durability of pamapimods effects. KIN001 enjoys broad patent protection in the US, EU, China, and other countries through at least 2037.

In addition to the wAMD study, KIN001 is currently under evaluation in KINETIC, a randomized placebo-controlled Phase 2 trial in hospitalized COVID-19 patients, which will report interim Phase 2 data in late Q3 2022. A second Phase 2 study in ambulatory COVID-19 patients, KINFAST, is expected to start this summer. Kinarus recently reported KIN001s anti-viral efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 and variants of concern, supporting its potential benefit in the treatment of COVID-19. Kinarus is also preparing regulatory submissions to start a Phase 2 study of KIN001 to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).

Kinarus Therapeutics Holding AG (www.kinarus.com), was founded in 2017 by experienced pharmaceutical executives in Basel, Switzerland. The Kinarus team utilizes its knowledge and drug development competencies to in-license and develop late-stage clinical assets in which they have identified an increased probability of clinical and regulatory success with a rapid path to market. Pamapimod was the first drug Kinarus founders acquired. Kinarus possesses the exclusive worldwide rights to develop pamapimod in any indication.
On Friday, millions of women across America have lost the right to decide over their own bodies after the Supreme Court overturned abortion rights in roughly half of the states. The United States are no longer a safe space for all those women who felt safe and had the option to simply decide to not have a baby if the conditions to bring another human into the world weren't ideal for them.

Political history of Supreme Court abortion cases

But everybody will be asking which states are the ones that will be affected by this Roe v. Wade ruling. Let's take a look at the specific conditions for each state that is affected by this decision made by the Supreme Court on Friday. A historic day in which conservatives and the Republican party triumph over women's rights to choose. As of now, it will take many of these women a four-hour drive to get a legal abortion.

States that will ban abortion.

In total, there are 13 states across the country with trigger laws and a total of 26 states that will ban abortions by the end of next month. Trigger laws are basically bans that prohibit abortion that take effect once Roe is overturned. Timing and mechanisms of these laws will vary depending on each state. Some will trigger effective immediately and others will undergo a process. However, all of them are set to soon ban access to legal abortion in a wide part of the country.

NY governor Kathy Hochul reacts to Roe decision

Said trigger laws are going to take effect immediately in three states: Kentucky, Louisiana and South Dakota. There are other states that will require attorneys general to certify the Supreme Court's ruling. Those are Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota and Oklahoma. Utah makes the decision through a legislative council. Wyoming has the Governor to play that role. Idaho, Tennessee and Texas will eliminate access to legal abortion in 30 days.

The states of Idaho, North Dakota, Mississippi and Wyoming have exceptions in their laws for rape. Michigan, Alabama, Arizona, West Virginia and Wisconsin don't have trigger laws. However, they all have abortions laws on their books that were set before the 1973 Roe decision and have never been repealed. The state of Georgia has a pre-Roe ban that was struck down partially through another 1973 case that was different from Roe.

Tears of rage, joy as Roe V. Wade overturned

It is believed that the states of Florida, Montana, Iowa and Kansas are on the same road to ban abortions. The states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New York, Rhode Island, Washington, Nevada, Maryland, Maine, Illinois, Hawaii, Delaware, Conneticut, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont, New Jersey and New Mexico, the right to abortion remains protected.
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WASHINGTON (AP)  Federal agents searched a former top Justice Department official's home and seized records from key Republicans in at least five states linked to Donald Trumps efforts to overturn the 2020 election, in what were clear signs that authorities are ramping up their investigation of associates of the former president.

Authorities on Wednesday searched the Virginia home of Jeffrey Clark, who was known at the Justice Department to champion Trump's false claims of election fraud. Agents in recent days also served subpoenas on the Republican Party chairmen of Arizona, Nevada and Georgia, three states that went for President Joe Biden and where Trump allies created slates of alternate electors intended to subvert the vote. And Republicans in two other states  Michigan and Pennsylvania  disclosed they had been interviewed by the FBI.

The Justice Department appears to be escalating its probe of pro-Trump efforts to overturn the 2020 election, which culminated in the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection. The disclosures of law enforcement activity came as the U.S. House committee investigating the riot said it had new evidence of Trump's efforts and his knowledge that he had no legal basis to try to overturn the election.

The committee's Thursday hearing focused on Trump's desire to install Clark atop the Justice Department in his administration's last days. The reason for the search of Clark's home was not immediately clear and it was not known what information agents were searching for. The person who confirmed the search was not authorized to discuss it by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

In an interview Thursday night on Fox News Channel, Clark alleged the timing of the search warrant was highly politicized and questioned why his home was searched one day before the congressional hearing.

It looks highly coincidental and ... I just don't believe in coincidences, he said.

Both the committee and federal authorities are probing the use of replacements for duly chosen electors in seven battleground states that voted for Biden. Trump and his allies furiously pressured authorities in those states to replace Biden's electors with ones for him on specious or nonexistent allegations that his victory was stolen.

The committee this week disclosed text messages that showed an aide to U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican and Trump ally, tried to hand-deliver fake elector certificates to an aide for former Vice President Mike Pence. The texts show Pence's aide refused to accept the votes.

Johnson told a Wisconsin conservative talk radio host on Thursday that the fake elector slates came from the office of Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania. A spokesman for Kelly responded that Johnson's claim was patently false.

Said the spokesman, Matt Knoedler, Mr. Kelly has not spoken to Sen. Johnson for the better part of a decade, and he has no knowledge of the claims Mr. Johnson is making related to the 2020 election.

Among those who have received subpoenas in recent days, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation, was Georgia Republican Party Chair David Shafer.

Nevada GOP Chair Michael McDonald turned over his phone to federal agents Wednesday when they approached him outside his car in Las Vegas and presented a warrant, according to another person familiar with the matter. McDonald in December 2020 stood outside Nevada's state capitol with other fake electors to swear a so-called oath of office," flanked by men in camouflage with semi-automatic rifles.

Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward, her husband, Michael Ward, and two other alternate electors also received subpoenas, according to a third person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss it publicly.

In Pennsylvania, FBI agents interviewed the chairman of the Allegheny County Republican Party at his home Thursday and gave him a subpoena for communications between him, Trump electors in the state and members of Trumps campaign and legal team, the party official, Sam DeMarco, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

DeMarco said in a statement that his conduct as an elector was open, above-board and predicated solely on protecting President Trumps legal rights should he prevail in court. That is why I agreed to serve as an elector solely in the event the president prevailed in his legal challenge to the Pennsylvania vote.

And in Michigan, Michele Lundgren told the Detroit News that someone from the FBI served her with a subpoena Thursday and that another Trump elector was served on Wednesday. Lundgren, 72, said her discussion with the agent was long and pleasant and that she let one of the agents go through her phone and computer.

They kept asking me questions and asking me questions, and I kept telling them answers, she said.

Clark's home was searched by federal agents shortly before a committee hearing in which he was the focus. Three other former Justice Department officials testified about an extraordinary Jan. 3, 2021, Oval Office meeting at which Trump contemplated naming Clark  who led the departments civil division  as acting attorney general in place of Jeffrey Rosen, who resisted Trumps efforts to involve the agency.

Trump relented only when other senior Justice Department officials warned Trump that they would resign if he followed through with his plan to replace Rosen with Clark.

A lawyer for Clark did not return an email and phone message seeking comment.

Chairman Bennie Thompson said he read about the raid on Clarks home moments before the hearing started. Were not privy to what the Department of Justices reasoning is for doing it," he said. "As you know, we demonstrated that he was recommended to lead the Department of Justice and people felt that he was absolutely unqualified to do so.

Russ Vought, president of the Center for Renewing America, which Clark recently joined as a senior fellow, tweeted that federal officers forced Clark into the streets while he was wearing pajamas and took his electronic devices.

All because Jeff saw fit to investigate voter fraud," Vought continued. "This is not America, folks. The weaponization of govt must end. Let me be very clear. We stand by Jeff and so must all patriots in this country.

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Associated Press writers Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, Sara Burnett in Chicago, Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Sam Metz in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Michelle L. Price in New York contributed to this report.

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For full coverage of the Jan. 6 hearings, go to https://www.apnews.com/capitol-siege.
(RNS)  On Tuesday (June 21), the Je Khenpo, the senior Buddhist authority in Bhutan, began ordaining a group of 144 women as bhikshunis, or female monks, at the Ramthangkha monastery in the tiny Himalayan country.

The ceremony is of historical importance for all women in Buddhism and brings Tibetan Buddhism into the 21st century, said Bhikshuni Jampa Tsedroen, a German Tibetan author. For these nuns, it is a major opportunity to demonstrate their abilities to contribute to Buddhism.

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This content is written and produced by Religion News Service and distributed by The Associated Press. RNS and AP partner on some religion news content. RNS is solely responsible for this story.

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Many of the new bhikshunis are Bhutanese, but some came to Bhutan from other countries in Asia. They are all being ordained in the Tibetan lineage.

A Facebook post on the central monastic body of Bhutan page posted the news, which was confirmed by Damcho Diana Finnegan, an ordained Buddhist nun and co-founder of the Dharmadatta Nuns Community in Virginia.

Asked about the ceremony, Finnegan called it a major step towards ending the institutionalized inequality between men and women in Tibetan Buddhism.

The ceremony is the culmination of a decades-long movement for full ordination for women in the Tibetan lineage, which has faced heavy resistance from top-level monks, scholars and political leaders across Asia. The bhikshuni movement has picked up steam in recent years as women worldwide have sought to restore a practice of ordaining women established, they say, by the Buddha himself, but which slowly disappeared from much of the Buddhist world until now.

After the death of the Buddha, female monks were commonly considered one of the key elements of the four-pronged ideal Buddhist community, consisting of lay men, lay women, male monks and female monks. However, over time, war, famine and disease took the lives of bhikshunis across Southeast Asia and Tibet.

Women have continued to live ascetic lives as nuns but have been barred from taking the next step to full ordination. Officially their status was held back by rules of the monastic code that require bhikshunis to be ordained by other bhikshunis, who didnt exist.

To break this bind, some women have taken other routes to full ordination. In 1996, a group of Sri Lankan nuns was ordained with help from Korean bhikshunis of the Mahayana lineage, which has never been broken. Since then, hundreds of bhikshunis have been ordained in Sri Lanka, in what Tsedroen describes as an ecumenical ceremony, essentially reviving the population.

But in Bhutan, a handful of monks have taken ordination into their own hands and provided ordination to nuns without the presence of bhikshunis. Typically, this ceremony is only granted to a small number of women, and never on the scale seen on Tuesday. According to Finnegan, an ordination this large guarantees a sangha, or bhikshuni community, that will persist well into the future.

All other lineages of Buddhism have had sanghas of women fully ordain as monks. This is the first time Tibetan Buddhist women are given that opportunity, she said.

The current Dalai Lama has long encouraged bhikshuni ordination vows, and Bhikkhu Bodhi, a prominent monk in the Theravada lineage, practiced across India and Southeast Asia, has appealed to his legion of supporters to advocate for the bhikshuni movement. Influential Tibetan scholar-monk Geshe Lharampa Bhikshu Rinchen Ngudrup made a strong case for bhikshuni ordination in 2007 during a talk at the first International Congress on Buddhist Womens Role in the Sangha after years of research.

In addition, lay people across Asia have called attention to the excellent behavior of nuns in comparison with male religious leaders. Scandals, such as fraud at Wat Dhammakaya in Thailand and an uptick in sexual assault charges against Tibetan lamas, have been rocking Buddhist communities around the world.

Thai journalist Sanitsuda Ekachai called attention to this dichotomy in her book Keeping the Faith: Thai Buddhism at the Crossroads, encouraging lay people to consider the future of the monastic order and how female monks could improve it.

Even with powerful voices and a clean track record behind the movement, gender equity in the Tibetan monastic order had yet to take off on the large scale that occurred today in Bhutan.

This historic ordination ceremony may well create further pressure on other Buddhist communities in different countries to make full ordination available to nuns within Tibetan Buddhism, said Susanne Mrozik, associate professor of religion at Mount Holyoke College.

For some Buddhists, the fact that the ordinations began on the summer solstice is an auspicious sign, as are, according to the Facebook announcement, the appearance in Bhutan of rainbows encircling the sun.
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KIGALI, Rwanda (AP)  Leaders of Commonwealth nations met in Rwanda's capital Friday to tackle climate change, tropical diseases and other challenges deepened by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The summit for Commonwealth heads of state in Kigali is the culmination of a series of meetings this week that officials said yielded some success in efforts to improve the lives of people in the 54-nation association that is home to 2.5 billion people.

The Commonwealths member states range from vast India to tiny Tuvalu. The African nations of Togo and Gabon have asked to join the Commonwealth despite having no colonial history with Britain.

The group of nations comprises mostly former British colonies, and its titular head is Queen Elizabeth II. But countries such as Mozambique and Rwanda  a former Belgian colony with an Anglophile leader  previously launched successful bids to join.

Prince Charles is representing his mother, who at 96 is restricting her official duties. The summit is taking place at an uncertain time for the British monarchy as well as the Commonwealth, whose relevance is sometimes questioned.

The bloc faces a new challenge as some member nations discuss removing the queen as their head of state. She is the head of state of 14 Commonwealth realms, but Barbados cut ties with the monarchy in November, and several other Caribbean countries, including Jamaica, say they plan to follow suit.

In his remarks Friday, Charles said free nations can make such decisions calmly and without rancor. The heir to the throne also spoke of his sorrow over slavery and its legacy for Indigenous communities and others, saying the Commonwealth must find ways, new ways, to acknowledge our past.

Quite simply, this is a conversation whose time has come, he said.

Commonwealth members reelected British diplomat Patricia Scotland as the groups secretary-general on Friday. The summit is set to wrap up Saturday with the issuing of a final policy communique.

Rwanda's hosting of the summit is contentious to some who cite the East African country's poor human rights record under Paul Kagame, an authoritarian leader who has been de facto leader or president since a 1994 genocide.

Other critics are unhappy with what they see as an illegal and cruel deal with Britain to transfer migrants thousands of miles to Rwanda. That agreement faces legal hurdles, and the first group of migrants has yet to arrive in Africa.

World leaders attending the summit range from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose leadership of the Conservative party suffered a heavy blow overnight as voters rejected the party's candidates in two special parliamentary elections, is also in Rwanda.

Some meetings on the margins of the summit reported successes in efforts to address pressing issues such as managing climate change and deadly diseases.

More than $4 billion was pledged Thursday toward global efforts to accelerate the fight against malaria and other neglected tropical diseases. The money will come from governments, philanthropists and others in the private sector. In addition, pharmaceutical companies donated 18 billion tablets to prevent and treat those diseases.

Observers said the fundraising marks a significant breakthrough as malaria is a leading killer in Africa.

Dr. Francisca Olamiju, the head of a non-governmental organization in Nigeria that advocates for the poor, told The Associated Press of her high expectations for such a big gathering to bolster campaigns against tropical diseases.

World leaders must walk the talk and mobilize more resources for the cause, she said.

Summit participants also are urging increased action to curb global warming ahead of a United Nations climate change summit scheduled to take place in Egypt in November. Commonwealth governments have been asked to submit their targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by Sept. 23.

At the summit, Commonwealth leaders are expected to adopt a plan to address climate change, land degradation and biodiversity loss. The Living Lands Charter charter aims to achieve climate goals through a mixture of policy influence, financing, technical assistance, governance and sharing knowledge across nations.

Some 32 of the Commonwealths members are small states, with 25 of them small islands and developing states classified as vulnerable to climate change.

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Associated Press writer Rodney Muhumuza contributed to this report from Kampala, Uganda.

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Follow AP's coverage of climate issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate
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GAYAN, Afghanistan (AP)  Tents, food and medical supplies rolled into the mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan where thousands were left homeless or injured by this weeks powerful earthquake, which state media said killed 1,150 people. A new aftershock Friday took five more lives and deepened the misery.

Among the dead from Wednesdays magnitude 6 quake are 121 children, but that figure is expected to climb, said Mohamed Ayoya, UNICEFs representative in Afghanistan. He said close to 70 children were injured.

Overstretched aid agencies said the disaster underscored the need for the international community to rethink its financial cut-off of Afghanistan since Taliban insurgents seized the country 10 months ago. That policy, halting billions in development aid and freezing vital reserves, has helped push the economy into collapse and plunge Afghanistan deeper into humanitarian crises and near famine.

The quake struck a remote, deeply impoverished region of small towns and villages tucked among rough mountains near the Pakistani border, collapsing stone and mud-brick homes and in some cases killing entire families. Nearly 3,000 homes were destroyed or badly damaged in Paktika and Khost provinces, state media reported.

The effort to help the victims has been slowed both by geography and by Afghanistans decimated condition.

Rutted roads through the mountains, already slow to drive on, were made worse by quake damage and rain. The International Red Cross has five hospitals in the region, but damage to the roads made it difficult for those in the worse-hit areas to reach them, said Lucien Christen, ICRC spokesman in Afghanistan.

Some of the injured had to be taken to a hospital in Ghazni, more than 130 kilometers (80 miles) away that the ICRC has kept running by paying salaries to staff over the past months, he said. Many health facilities around the country have shut down, unable to pay personnel or obtain supplies.

It shows if you dont have functional health system, people cannot access basic services they need, especially in these sorts of times, Christen said.

On Friday, Pakistans Meteorological Department reported a new, 4.2 magnitude quake. Afghanistans state-run Bakhtar News Agency said five people were killed and 11 injured in Gayan, a district of Paktika province that is one of the areas worst hit in Wednesdays quake.

Bakhtars Taliban director Abdul Wahid Rayan said Friday the death toll from Wednesday had risen to 1,150 people, with at least 1,600 people injured. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has put the death toll at 770 people. Its not clear how death toll counts are being reached, given the access difficulties. Either toll would make the quake Afghanistans deadliest in two decades.

At Urgan, the main city in Paktika province, U.N. World Health Organization medical supplies were unloaded at the main hospital. In quake-hit villages, UNICEF delivered blankets, basic supplies and tarps for the homeless to use as tents. Aid groups said they feared cholera could break out after damage to water and hygiene systems.

In main villages of Gayan District, residents crowded around trucks delivering aid, an Associated Press team saw Friday. People who had spent the past two nights sleeping outdoors in the rain erected tents in the yards of their wrecked houses. For more than 24 hours after the quake, many had been on their own, digging through the rubble by hand in search of survivors.

Still, help was slow to filter across the area. In one tiny hamlet seen by the AP, all 20 houses were flattened, and residents were still taking refuge in nearby forests.

Trucks of food and other necessities arrived from Pakistan, and planes full of humanitarian aid landed from Iran, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. But it was not clear how long it would take to reach devastated villages. Other countries sending aid have taken pains to make clear it would not go through the Taliban -- reflecting the widespread reluctance to deal with Afghanistans new rulers.

Aid groups said that while they are rushing to help the quake victims, keeping Afghanistan just above catastrophe through humanitarian programs is not sustainable. Some urged the world to end or find ways around the financial cutoff that has wrecked the economy.

We are basically letting 25 million Afghan people to starve, to die, not to be able to earn their own living if we keep on with this financial blockade, said Rossella Miccio, president of the aid organization Emergency that operates a network of healthcare facilities and surgical centers across Afghanistan.

Afghanistans economy had been reliant on international donor support even before the Taliban takeover last August as the U.S. and its NATO allies were withdrawing their forces, ending a 20-year war.

World governments halted billions in development aid and froze billions more in Afghanistans currency reserves, refusing to recognize the Taliban government and demanding they allow a more inclusive rule and respect human rights. The former insurgents have resisted the pressure, imposing restrictions on the freedoms of women and girls that recall their first time in power in the late 1990s.

The cut-off yanked the props out from under the economy. Now nearly half the population of 38 million cannot meet their basic food needs because of poverty. Most civil servants, including doctors, nurses and teachers, have not been paid for months, and salaries remain sporadic.

Many aid groups have left the country. U.N. agencies and other remaining organizations have kept Afghanistan away from the brink of starvation with a humanitarian program that has fed millions and kept the medical system alive.

But with international donors lagging, U.N. agencies face a $3 billion funding shortfall this year.

International sanctions on Afghan banks make it difficult to send funds into the country. Some aid groups have to physically carry in large bags of cash to pay local staff in an expensive process that incurs fees along the way for transport and security.

The International Rescue Agencys vice president for Asia, Adnan Junaid, said the international community must set a roadmap to resume development help and release Afghanistans frozen reserves.

Only a bold strategy that addresses the causes of this crisis will put an end to the spiral of misery being faced by its population, Junaid said.

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Associated Press writers Rahim Faiez in Islamabad, Pakistan, and Aya Batrawy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.
Val Tousignant, 66, and her husband, Tony, 64, own Mid-State Towing, LLC, located at 106 W. Isabella Road (M-20), just west of M-30. Theyve been married for 28 years. They have four kids and nine grandchildren. Val is a graduate of H.H. Dow High School.

Mid-State Towing has four employees. It provides roadside assistance, unlocks, flat tire service, fuel delivery, towing, accident response and impounds.

How long have you owned your business? Since July 2003, so 19 years. They said we couldnt do it, but we did.

What inspired you to start this business? When Tony left Midland Towing, he drove truck over the road for a while. This is what he does. Hes done this business since he was 15. I asked him, What if we started our own? He was gone six days a week. I was at Dow Corning. We started with two trucks. My son drove for a little bit. Its been a roller coaster. We did what we needed to do. We now have AAA. Took us 18 years to get that. Weve got some awesome employees and very, very good customers.

What makes Midland a great place to own a business? I grew up in a family of business people. My grandma (Alice Plantz) started one of the first styling salons in Midland. Grandpa (Fred Plantz) had the Midland Realty Company. Midland is a very, very clean town. Loyal community. Were old fashioned still. We still support local.

What are some ways your business is active in the local community? We work closely with the City of Midland Police Department, the Midland County Sheriffs Office, several of the businesses in town, when somebody needs us to be there. Weve supported the Special Olympics. We support other charities.

What are some of your interests and hobbies? Animals, love to rescue animals. My husbands is cars. We have four horses, a donkey, a house pig, three ducks, six chickens. I have a cow (not going to slaughter it). Four dogs. My vet called me about taking in the house pig. Hes now potty trained, goes out with our dogs. Also have a couple of barn cats, a husband, and four employees (laughs).

What are some local businesses you work with that help make your business a success? We work very closely with Midland Ford, Garber, and Feeny. We work with Bovee Auto, the State Farm reps in town, Scott MacGregor, Jessica Mishler, and Robb Boerner. Oil City Auto Salvage is now Michigan Auto Recyclers, owned by our son, Chris Roberge in Shepherd. Also Owens Auto Salvage.

Final thoughts to share with the community? I want to thank our employees and the community, everyone who has stuck by us. Our families, and our employees who are like family. If you believe in something, just stick with it.
FILER TWP.  A new gas station and convenience store is set to open in Manistee County this summer. Though redevelopment of the former Kmart gas station could be complete as early as July 15, it may take a while longer before it's open for business.

Thats according to Carson Berger, general manager and commodities risk manager for NUVU Fuels LLC, which is opening its third Michigan location in Filer Township.

Itll probably be the beginning of August once we get all the wrinkles worked out (and) get the store staffed up, Berger told the News Advocate.

A priority for NUVU Fuels is hiring a store manager with an active presence in the community.

One of the things that we pride ourselves on is that our stores in Rockford and Ionia are very active in the local community  and we certainly want to bring that to Manistee, Berger said. We prefer to not move someone to Manistee from one of our other stores. We want to hopefully find someone who is local to the community  instead of just being another business thats managed from afar.

A top candidate, Berger says, is someone involved with local organizations, schools and/or churches, and is a community-minded, career-oriented type of individual.

Interested candidates may send their resume to info@nuvufuels.com.

NUVU Fuels launched its first station in Ionia in 2017, with its second store in Rockford coming in the following year. Berger said the company is looking to expand and replicate the success of these two stations elsewhere in Michigan.

We've been looking to expand our business for a while, Berger said. The past couple of years we looked at a lot of different locations and found that there is a potential hole specifically in that spot on the west side of Highway 31. As you enter town theres not a lot of great fueling options, especially on our side of the road.

A primary goal of any convenience store is convenience, Berger said, and that means an accommodating location is super important.

Kmart opened the doors of its Filer Township location in June 1992, and the store along with its Big K Express station were closed in September 2016.

NUVU Properties Manistee, LLC was formed on July 29, 2021, according to a profile on michigan-company.com. Workers broke ground at the former Kmart gas station late last summer.

As a Michigan-based ethanol producer, NUVU Fuels is focused on offering higher-octane biofuel blends at its stations.

NUVU Fuels is the nation's first retailer to raise the base fuel offering to 88 octane in addition to offering E30, E50, E85 (and) EV charging, according to its Twitter page.

Berger said the biofuel blends are higher octane, cleaner burning and are produced in Michigan.

If theres anything that we can buy local, we do buy local, and that extends into our fuel, Berger said. Whether we're selling maple syrup or local dairy products or local coffee  we're also selling local fuels that we would say are higher quality and better for the environment, as well.

In addition to locally produced products and fuels, the new convenience store will offer pizza that Berger said has been well received in both Ionia and Rockford.

Our management team and ownership group went through a process of testing and developing a very good pizza, he said. We're very excited to bring that product to Manistee as well.

Visit nuvufuels.com for more information.
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In recent months, gas prices have continued to rise and supply chains shortages have impacted products ranging from baby formula to new vehicles. And now, staple pantry condiments such as mustard and Sriracha may also be facing shortages due to climate change affecting key ingredients.

Mustard seed yield in Canada, one of the worlds largest mustard seed producers, has decreased by 28% and the cost per ton has almost doubled to $1,700, according to the French news site France24. In particular, brown mustard seed, which is used for Dijon mustard, is down 50%, leading to low stock and rising prices of the popular French mustard, food and beverage trend site FoodIngredientsFirst reported.
The historic Roe v. Wade court case has officially been struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.

For nearly 50 years, the decision of the case allowed made abortions constitutionally legal across the country. Today, that constitutional right has been stripped and is now up to the individual states. All of the recent talks of overturning Roe v. Wade stemmed from a law passed in Mississippi.

Yet this may not be surprising for some as an opinion from the Supreme Court was leaked in May by news outlet Politico.

Social media is on fire on the abortion subject from both Republicans and Democrats, supporters and non-supporters. An immediate response came from former President Barack Obama.

"Today, the Supreme Court not only reversed nearly 50 years of precedent, it relegated the most intensely personal decision someone can make to the whims of politicians and ideologuesattacking the essential freedoms of millions of Americans," Obama said in the tweet.

Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley spoke out in favor of the decision.

The actions of the Supreme Court have prompted a number of actions across the country.

According to the Associated Press, Missouri legislators quickly took action to enforce a state law banning abortion.

Politicians from every state in the country voiced support or condemnation of the Supreme Court's actions.

President Joe Biden spoke to the nation Friday afternoon scolding the actions of the Supreme Court.

"The Supreme Court of the United States took away a constitutional right of the American people that is already recognized," he said. "They didn't limit it, they simply took it away. That's never been done, a right so important to so many Americans. But they did it. It's a sad day for the court and for the country."

Biden asked everyone who deeply cares about the decision to keep all protests peaceful.

"First, I call on everyone, no matter how deeply they care about this decision, to keep all protests peaceful," he said. "Peaceful, peaceful, peaceful. No intimidation. Violence is never acceptable."

Biden closed by urging the American people to use their voting power to support political candidates willing to recognize women's rights and the rights of the American people.

"With this decision, the conservative majority of the Supreme Court shows how extreme it is, how far removed they are from the majority of this country," he said. "It made the United States an outlier among developed nations in the world. But this decision must not be the final word. My administration will use all of its appropriate lawful powers but Congress must act. With your vote, you can act. You can have the final word. This is not over. Thank you very much."
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WASHINGTON (AP)  PHOENIX  Police fired tear gas from the windows of the Arizona Capitol building to disperse hundreds of people demonstrating outside, as lawmakers briefly huddled in a basement.

The lawmakers were working to complete their 2022 session as thousands of protesters gathered on the Capitol grounds in Phoenix on Friday night, divided into groups condemning and supporting the Supreme Courts Roe v. Wade decision.

SWAT team members with the Department of Public Safety fired tear gas from the building to disperse the protesters. KPHO-TV reported the officers opened fire when several anti-abortion protesters started banging on glass doors of the building.

It wasnt immediately known if there were injuries or arrests.

The incident sent Senate lawmakers into the basement of the building for about 20 minutes, said Democratic Sen. Martin Quezada. Stinging tear gas wafted through the Capitol afterward, forcing the Senate to move its proceedings to a hearing room instead of the Senate chamber.

Thousands of spirited demonstrators took to the streets Friday in cities nationwide to protest the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Most carried signs, chanted slogans and listened to speeches.

___

KEY DEVELOPMENTS:

 The U.S. Supreme Court ends nearly 50 years o f constitutional protection for abortion.

 Biden vows to fight for abortion rights, criticizes extreme court.

 Many states have already taken steps to curtail abortion.

 Fears are voiced over possible rollback of LGBTQ and other rights.

Follow APs coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on abortions: https://apnews.com/hub/abortion

___

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa __ A truck hit at least two protesters Friday night following an abortion rights rally in Iowa.

Lyz Lenz, a local journalist and author, told The Associated Press that she saw the driver swerve around another car and hit two women on a crosswalk in downtown Cedar Rapids around 7:15 p.m.

She said the truck drove over the foot of one of the protesters, and police took the woman to the hospital.

There was a moment where I said, I think Im going to see my friends die, said Lenz, who has written about numerous subjects including the white supremacist who drove his car into counterprotesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.

Lenz said the women struck Friday were chanting disparaging things about Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds. She said it was hard to know whether the truck driver was motivated by the chants or being blocked by protesters.

Cedar Rapids police had no immediate comment but planned to release a statement.

Thousands of spirited demonstrators took to the streets in cities nationwide to protest Fridays Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. Most carried signs, chanted slogans and listened to speeches. In Seattle, hundreds of people blocked a downtown intersection, while in Los Angeles, others briefly walked onto a freeway.

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SALT LAKE CITY  Utahs abortion ban has gone into effect, triggered by the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The move came Friday evening after the Legislatures general counsel certified that the states 2020 trigger law met legal requirements.

The ban contains narrow exceptions for rape and incest if those crimes are reported to law enforcement, and for serious risk to the life or health of the mother, as well as confirmed lethal birth defects.

Legislative leaders said they had no plans to expand restrictions on abortion until they better understood the effects of Utahs law.

State Sen. Dan McKay, the Republican who sponsored the trigger law, said it would be wrong for Utah women to pursue abortions in neighboring states but he had no immediate plans to press for limits on their ability to travel there.

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COLUMBUS, Ohio  A ban on most abortions at the first detectable fetal heartbeat became the law in Ohio on Friday following the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

Enforcement of Ohios 2019 heartbeat ban had been on hold for nearly three years under a federal court injunction. The state attorney general, Republican Dave Yost, asked for that to be dissolved because of the high courts ruling, and a federal judge agreed hours later.

Critics had argued that the measure essentially prohibits abortions because the first detectable fetal heartbeat can occur as early as six weeks into pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.

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GENEVA  The head of the World Health Organization says hes concerned and disappointed about the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on Twitter that the ruling was both reducing womens rights and access to health care.

He said there was irrefutable evidence that restricting legal abortions can drive women and girls to unsafe and sometimes deadly procedures.

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that abortion is a fundamental right for all women that must be protected.

The French Foreign Ministry urged U.S. federal authorities to do everything possible to ensure American women can have continued access to abortion, calling it a health and survival issue for young girls and women.

___

PHOENIX, Ariz.  Abortion providers across Arizona halted procedures Friday as they try to determine whether a law dating to pre-statehood days means their personnel could face prison time after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

The possibility of prosecutions was just too risky, said Brittany Forteno, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Arizona.

She said the states largest abortion provider is working with its attorneys to understand Arizonas tangled web of conflicting laws.

At least two other large providers in Tucson and Phoenix followed suit.

At issue is a law that dates to at least 1901, 11 years before Arizona became a state. It subjects anyone who provides abortion care to a possible two to five years in prison. Republicans in the state Senate believe the pre-Roe law is enforceable.

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MONTGOMERY, Ala.  Abortions swiftly came to a stop in Alabama as a 2019 state abortion ban took effect making it a felony to perform an abortion at any state of pregnancy, with no exceptions for rape or incest victims.

All three clinics in the state stopped providing services Friday morning after a federal judge granted the states request to lift an injunction and allow the state to enforce the ban, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

The only exception to the state's abortion ban is for the sake of the mothers health.

Gov. Kay Ivey praised the Supreme Court decision.

I could not be more proud as a governor, a Christian and a woman to see this misguided and detrimental decision overturned, Ivey said. Alabama will continue standing up for our unborn babies, our mothers and our families.

___

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.  The Arkansas Department of Health on Friday notified the states two abortion providers that its ban on the procedure had taken effect under a law triggered by the Supreme Court ruling. The law bans abortions except to protect the life of the mother in a medical emergency.

The notices advise the facilities that performing an abortion in violation of the law is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $100,000.

Planned Parenthood said it would no longer be able to offer abortions at its Little Rock facility.

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AUSTIN, Texas - Jeffrey Hons of Planned Parenthood South Texas said the groups abortion services in Texas have been paused statewide as they await guidance from their attorneys.

The announcement comes Friday, just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the right established in Roe v. Wade to terminate a pregnancy. The issue reverts to the states, many of which have taken steps to curtail or ban abortions.

A website affiliated with Planned Parenthood is advising that it is legal to travel out of state to get an abortion.

___

WASHINGTON - Mayor Muriel Bowser declared Friday that abortion remains legal in the nations capital despite the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

We are a pro-choice city, she said at news conference held at the local branch of Planned Parenthood. Nothing has changed in Washington, D.C.

But Bowser cautioned that the district is vulnerable because it is not a state and Congress retains oversight over it.

She pledged to continue fighting to make sure we remain a safe city for abortion care and a legal city for abortion care.

___

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The Democratic governors of California, Washington and Oregon on Friday vowed to protect reproductive rights and help women who travel to the West Coast seeking abortions following the Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

The three states issued a joint multi-state commitment saying they will work together to defend patients and medical professionals providing reproductive health care.

They also pledged to protect against judicial and local law enforcement cooperation with out of-state investigations, inquiries, and arrests regarding abortions performed in their states.

The liberal West Coast states anticipate an influx of people seeking abortions, especially as neighboring conservative states move to outlaw or greatly restrict the procedure.

___

NEW YORK  Former President Donald Trump is taking credit for the Supreme Courts decision that overturned a landmark case making abortion legal throughout the United States nearly 50 years ago.

In a statement, Trump called the ruling the biggest WIN for LIFE in a generation.

He says the rulings and others were only made possible because I delivered everything as promised, including nominating and getting three highly respected and strong Constitutionalists confirmed to the United States Supreme Court. It was my great honor to do so!

Three Trump appointees voted Friday to scrap Roe v. Wade: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

___

WASHINGTON  President Joe Biden says people should be peaceful when protesting the Supreme Court opinion Friday that would allow states to ban abortion.

Biden says he knows many Americans are frustrated and disillusioned by the court decision. But violence is never acceptable."

Threats and intimidation are not speech. We must stand against violence in any form, regardless of your rationale, he said.

Earlier this month, after a draft of the court opinion was leaked, a man carrying a gun, a knife and zip ties was arrested near Justice Brett Kavanaughs house in Maryland after threatening to kill the justice.

___

WASHINGTON  President Joe Biden is warning that the Supreme Court opinion overturning access to abortion could undermine contraception and gay marriage rights.

The president objects to a concurring opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas, who explicitly called on his colleagues to put the Supreme Courts same-sex marriage, gay sex and even contraception cases on the table.

Biden says, This is an extreme and dangerous path the court is now taking us on.

Thomas was part of the majority overturning Roe v Wade.

___

SANTA FE, N.M.  A top public prosecutor in New Mexico, where abortion is available with little or no restriction, is urging lawmakers to approve legislation that would protect women who travel to the state for abortion procedures.

Albuquerque-based District Attorney and Democratic nominee for attorney general Raul Torrez in a statement Friday urged lawmakers to take further steps to protect women and their access to abortions and reproductive health care, including visitors from other states.

Last year, New Mexico state lawmakers repealed a dormant 1969 statute that outlawed most abortion procedures. Democrats who control the New Mexico Legislature support access to abortion, as does the states Democratic governor.

___

CHARLESTON, W. Va.  The only abortion clinic in West Virginia is no longer performing abortions as of Friday.

The state has a law on the books that makes providing abortions a felony carrying three to 10 years of prison time. Its unclear how the state will proceed on enforcement in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Roe has never been enough, but in states like West Virginia, it was the only thing protecting abortion access, said Katie Quinonez, executive director of Womens Health Center of West Virginia.

She says West Virginians will be forced to travel hundreds or thousands of miles away from home to access health care and that marginalized communities will be hurt the most.

___

WASHINGTON  U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department will work to protect and advance reproductive freedom.

Merrick said in a statement that the agency would protect providers and those seeking abortions in states where it is legal. He also said he would stand by the approved use by the Food and Drug Administration of the drug Mifepristone for medication abortions.

More than 90% of abortions take place in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy, and more than half are now done with pills, not surgery, according to data compiled by the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.

__

BOSTON  Republican Gov. Charlie Baker signed an executive order in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision on abortion that he said is intended to protect access to reproductive health care services in Massachusetts.

The order prohibits state agencies from assisting another states investigation into a person or business for receiving or delivering reproductive health services that are legal in Massachusetts. Friday's outcome is expected to lead to abortion bans in about half the states.

The order also protects Massachusetts providers who deliver reproductive health care services from losing their professional licenses or receiving other professional discipline based on potential out-of-state charges.

___

RALEIGH, N.C.  North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper is an abortion rights supporter and this years chairman of the Democratic Governors Association. He said Friday, in response to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that sharply limits abortion, that North Carolina women will still be able to obtain reproductive health care in the state.

For 50 years, women have relied on their constitutional right to make their own medical decisions, but today that right has been tragically ripped away, Cooper said in a news release.

The North Carolina legislature is controlled by Republicans, but they lack veto-proof majorities should they attempt to pass additional abortion restrictions now. Cooper put out a fundraising appeal Friday citing the decision in urging assistance to prevent the GOP from obtaining veto-proof majorities in November.

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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.  The state of Missouri is acting quickly to enforce a state law banning abortion in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that effectively limits abortion rights for millions of women.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt said he was acting immediately to enforce a state law banning abortion except in cases of medical emergency.

The 2019 Missouri law included a trigger provision making effective upon notification by the attorney general that the Supreme Court had overruled Roe v. Wade.

___

Former President Barack Obama has condemned the U.S. Supreme Court ending constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years.

Obama said on Twitter that the decision is tantamount to an attack on freedoms for millions of Americans. The decision is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.
Connecticut State Police /contributed photo

CROMWELL  A driver was seriously injured when her van tire blew out, causing her to crash on Route 9 Thursday afternoon, state police said.

A 53-year-old Wethersfield woman suffered what appeared to be serious injuries from the one-car crash, state police said. He was taken to Saint Francis Hospital.
Charlotte Hungerford Hospital / Contributed photo

TORRINGTON  Arif Kamal, MD, chief patient officer of the American Cancer Society, Inc., and Madhavi Gorusu, MD, director of medical oncology at Charlotte Hungerford Hospital, will present a free, virtual education session on how the ACS is eliminating health disparities, the latest advances in lung cancer technology and treatment, and how it is working to ensure the right treatment for every patient, every time, according to a statement.

A live question and answer session with an expert panel will follow the presentation, and a lung cancer survivor will share her story. Patients, families, caregivers and providers are encouraged to attend.
A new general is poised to take command of U.S. and NATO forces in Europe after getting final approval from Congress as the United States works to buttress Ukraine in its war against Russian invaders.

On Thursday night by unanimous consent, the Senate confirmed Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli to become the new head of U.S. European Command, or EUCOM. Cavoli will also be dual-hatted as NATO's supreme allied commander.

Cavoli will take those roles over from Air Force Gen. Tod Wolters in a change-of-command ceremony July 1, EUCOM said in a news release Friday.

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Cavoli, who has served as commanding general of U.S. Army Europe and Africa since October 2020, will take charge of U.S. forces in Europe at a precarious time for the continent.

After faltering in its initial goal to quickly seize Kyiv, Russia has been making plodding but notable progress in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region using a near-constant barrage of artillery fire.

The United States has been trying to rush weapons to Ukraine to stave off Russia's advance. The most recent package of $450 million in weapons, including four more High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, was announced Thursday, bringing the total value of weapons sent to Ukraine since the war began in February to $6.1 billion.

U.S. troops, who were training Ukrainian forces inside of Ukraine until shortly before the war began, have also been training the Ukrainians on the more advanced weaponry in Germany since late April.

The number of U.S. forces in Europe has swelled to more than 100,000 in recent months to calm the nerves of NATO allies worried Russia won't stop at Ukraine.

In addition to managing U.S. efforts to support Ukraine, Cavoli will also have to deal with ripple effects in NATO from the invasion. For example, Sweden and Finland recently formally applied to join the alliance, but are facing resistance from NATO ally Turkey, which is seeking concessions from the United States, such as arms sales.

During his confirmation hearing, Cavoli touted the capabilities that Sweden and Finland would bring to NATO, calling Finland's army "well-equipped, very well-trained" and Sweden's navy in the Baltic Sea an "enormous military significance to the alliance."

Cavoli also hinted at the prospect of U.S. involvement in countering Russia's presence in the Black Sea, where it is blocking Ukrainian grain exports and raising fears of global famine. He did not expound on specifics of what U.S. forces could do to help the situation, but said, "Clearly, the current events in the Black Sea region are going to require us to go back and make sure that we adjust everything for the result of this conflict."

-- Rebecca Kheel can be reached at rebecca.kheel@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @reporterkheel.

Related: New Commander for US Forces in Europe Sailing to Senate Confirmation Amid Ukraine War
The Supreme Court's decision Friday to overturn constitutional protection for abortion will limit or outlaw the procedure in several states with large military populations, including Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, curtailing access for U.S. service members and possibly placing them at risk for arrest and prosecution.

The ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade, known as Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, immediately activated "trigger laws" in 13 states, all of which have military installations of various sizes.

In Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming, abortion has either been immediately banned or will be within 30 days of the state government affirming the Dobbs ruling.

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"This decision makes military service, for many, harder than it already is," said Rachel VanLandingham, a retired Air Force judge advocate general and professor at Southwestern Law School. "Women in uniform now have to fear not just the enemy in combat; they have to fear where they will be stationed in the U.S., given that access to abortion is or will be quite soon not just severely limited, but criminalized in many states with a large military presence."

According to data from the Department of Defense, these 13 states are home to more than 240,000 service members. Texas, which is home to more than 35,000 airmen and Space Force Guardians, as well as almost 72,000 soldiers, is the single largest location for those branches.

Shortly after the ruling, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued a statement saying he is "committed to taking care of our people and ensuring the readiness and resilience of our Force."

"The Department is examining this decision closely and evaluating our policies to ensure we continue to provide seamless access to reproductive health care as permitted by federal law," he added.

Female service members and dependents of U.S. troops seeking an abortion have long been required to get one through civilian clinics, usually at their own expense, since military physicians and DoD civilian providers are prohibited by law from performing the procedure. Tricare, the military health program, covers the cost of an abortion only in cases where the life of the mother is at risk or the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest.

Now, in at least 26 states, new restrictions on abortions will make it more challenging for service members or military family members to get the procedure, adding a financial burden and exposing them to legal problems, military law experts say.

VanLandingham noted that many enlisted service members and their families lack the financial means to travel out of state and often have little say in their choice of duty stations.

"I think there is going to be a reverberating effect. It's something that needs attention, and it needs care," she said.

Sean Timmons, a managing partner at the Texas-based law firm Tully Rinckey, said that, in addition to needing to go elsewhere for the procedure, access could be limited to prescriptions such as Plan B in some states with abortion bans.

"[Troops and spouses] may even have difficulty getting access to prescription medications because at some installations, such as Fort Hood, Texas has dual enforcement authority. ... The state could try to enforce, under current lease agreements, a ban on prescriptions. It's gonna be a mess resolving this," Timmons said.

It's not known exactly how many female service members seek abortion each year. Women make up roughly 20% of the active-duty U.S. military, 95% of whom are in their prime childbearing years.

When asked May 23 by Military.com for the data on the number of abortions provided under Tricare in the last five years, the Defense Health Agency promised to provide the numbers by the end of the month, but hadn't as of publication.

Data on the number of unintended pregnancies among U.S. service members is limited: Analysis of a self-reported survey in 2011 determined that 7% of active-duty women reported having an unintended pregnancy compared with 4.5% in the general U.S. population.

The analysis, conducted by Ibis Reproductive Health, determined there were roughly 13,860 unintended pregnancies in the military every year -- an estimate researchers say is likely lower than the actual figure when accounting for underreporting of abortion.

The new ruling also could affect service members' promotion potential if they require special

accommodations for leave, must seek permission from commanders or ask that they be stationed only in areas that support their reproductive decisions.

"Hopefully, they can avoid being stationed in places where they don't feel like they are stuck, but it may limit their career because certain assignments are only available in certain spots," Timmons said.

"Women in uniform already have to fear sexual assault by their fellow service members and a command culture that too often doesn't support them. Now, they have to go to that same command chain and ask for leave to travel out of state to seek an abortion," VanLandingham said.

A law known as the Hyde Amendment prohibits military medical facilities from performing abortion and also limits Tricare from covering the cost of abortions. Congress might lift the federal restriction as a workaround to state law, although Timmons said that states with dual jurisdiction over bases would have the option to enforce state laws.

"It's a complicated soup that is going to result in litigation," he said.

Democrats have introduced bills in both the House and the Senate that would allow the Defense Department to perform and pay for abortions in any situation.

But efforts to include such a measure in the annual defense policy bill -- typically the main legislative vehicle for any Pentagon policy changes -- appear to have stalled, even though Democrats narrowly control both chambers of Congress.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., had been expected to offer the abortion bill as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, when the Senate Armed Services Committee met behind closed doors last week.

But she told Military.com the day after the markup that, while senators debated her amendment, she withdrew it without having it voted on because she "did not believe it would be successful." The committee is split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, and tie votes fail, meaning even if every Democrat supported the amendment, it likely would not have passed.

Meanwhile, the House Armed Services Committee's consideration of its version of the NDAA this week proceeded without any direct debate about abortion rights for service members, though Republicans railed against abortion during debate over an amendment related to Tricare's coverage of contraception.

On Thursday, Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., told reporters she hadn't decided whether to bring up the abortion amendment when the NDAA comes to the House floor, but highlighted the difficult political math she'd face if she did. Typically, the NDAA needs Republican votes to pass, since progressive Democrats oppose the hundreds of billions in Pentagon funding the NDAA supports.

Speier also highlighted how even the contraception debate ignited GOP ire.

"We were doing something very straightforward, basically saying the dependents of service members should not be treated like second-class citizens of this country and should be able to get contraception without a copay, but Tricare charges a copay. And they got off on emergency contraception, calling it an abortifacient," Speier said, describing objection to some forms of contraception by Republican lawmakers who equate them with abortion. "So people aren't rational on this issue."

Separately, the House Appropriations Committee has included in its initial version of the fiscal 2023 defense spending bill a provision that seeks to ensure commanders grant leave to service members seeking abortions or supporting a spouse getting an abortion. The committee has not explained how such a law would be enforced or whether there would need to be documentation that a woman is seeking an abortion, which could potentially be used against them in state prosecutions.

Republican efforts to strip that provision from the spending bill this week failed. But with legislation needing 60 votes to advance in the Senate and Democrats holding only 50 seats, it's not expected to stay in the final spending bill signed into law.

VanLandingham said, however, that she hopes congressional intervention is not needed.

"I would hope the DoD wouldn't need Congress," she said. "You do see a few of the services working on their leave policies. This shouldn't be a service to service issue. It should be DoD-wide."

Military.com reached out to the individual branches with questions about continued access to abortion for impacted service members, like the ability to take leave to travel for the procedure. Those inquiries were not returned by publication or were directed to Austin's office.

In one of the most direct responses to the anticipated crackdown on reproductive rights, Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Grinston told lawmakers that his service is developing a policy in response.

"We are drafting policies to ensure we take care of our soldiers in an appropriate way," Grinston, the service's top enlisted leader, said on Capitol Hill in May. "There are drafts if it were to be overturned, but that would be a decision for the secretary of the Army to decide the policy."

The Army drafted a policy tweak that would allow soldiers to request a so-called "compassionate reassignment" to a new installation if they feel they are being discriminated against by local laws based on their gender, sexual orientation or pregnancy. It's unclear whether that is the policy Grinston was referencing.

That policy would need to be approved by Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, but has yet to be approved.

Congressional Democrats were planning on introducing an amendment to codify the Army's proposed rule into law for the entire Defense Department into the NDAA, which sets policy and funding priorities for the Pentagon. But that amendment was shelved at the last minute. It's unclear why Democrats dropped the effort.

Military.com has previously reported that the Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy say they have policies in place -- originally developed with victims or witnesses of abuse and sexual violence in mind -- that allow service members to request transfers if the laws in their state make them feel unsafe or discriminated against, although given the slow pace of most transfers it's unlikely that those mechanisms would serve to provide access to abortion.

"State law is not an articulated factor in the assignment process, however a service member can request a 'safety transfer,'" the Navy said in an emailed statement.

The Defense Health Agency is moving to broaden service members' and military dependents access to contraception -- a move that would reduce the need for beneficiaries to seek abortions.

The Women and Infant Clinical Community, a Defense Health Agency initiative aimed at improving the health and medical outcomes of servicewomen and Tricare beneficiaries, is seeking to ensure that contraception clinics are available at all military hospitals, offering long-acting contraception and short-term birth control on a walk-in, no appointment needed basis.

Studies have shown that long-acting contraceptives such as intrauterine devices and implants are 20 times more effective at preventing unintended pregnancy than pills or barrier methods.

In 2020, the number of abortions in the U.S. increased, reversing a 30-year downward trend. There were 930,160 abortions performed in the U.S. in 2020, up 8% from 862,320 in 2017, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

The Washington, D.C., National Guard had not received a request from the Defense Department to deploy troops ahead of what will likely be a weekend of protests at the Supreme Court. The Guard is frequently deployed in D.C. for large protests to secure key buildings and assist law enforcement with traffic flow.

As of the announcement of the decision, the following states have implemented abortion bans or near-bans:

Arkansas: Abortions banned except to save the life of a pregnant woman in a medical emergency; no exceptions for rape or incest

Louisiana: Abortions banned except to save the mother, if pregancy causes harm to a needed organ or if an infant is expected to die immediately after birth

Kentucky: Abortions banned except to protect life of the mother or preserve a necessary organ

Mississippi: Abortions banned after 15 weeks, except to preserve the life of a mother or in cases where the fetus is ruled unviable

Missouri: Banned except in cases of medical emergency

North Dakota: Ban would go into effect in 30 days following state government certification; exceptions include to save the life of the mother or cases of rape or incest

Oklahoma: All abortions banned from moment of conception except to save the life of the mother or if pregnancy was the result of a rape or incest reported to law enforcement

South Dakota: Abortions banned except to preserve the life of a mother

Tennessee: Ban after six weeks' gestation could go into effect in 30 days

Utah: Ban on abortions after state certifies ruling, with exceptions for rape, incest, fetal abnormalities or to preserve life of the mother

Wyoming: Ban to go into effect in 30 days; exceptions include risk of maternal death, rape and incest.

-- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Military.com. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime

-- Rebecca Kheel can be reached at Rebecca.Kheel@Military.com. Follow her on Twitter @reporterkheel

-- Konstantin Toropin can be reached at Konstantin.Toropin@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @ktoropin.

-- Steve Beynon can be reached at Steve.Beynon@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevenBeynon.

Related: Soldiers Facing Discrimination from State Laws Could Request Transfers Under Draft Army Policy
Oliver Stone is one of Hollywood's most accomplished filmmakers, writing, directing and producing more than 32 films and television shows over a career spanning some 50 years.

Before he began his silver screen career, however, he signed up for the U.S. Army and asked for a combat deployment to Vietnam, which the Army was more than happy to provide. His service in the Vietnam War would later color his onscreen work, especially the 1986 movie, "Platoon."

"Platoon" was a film based on Stone's own experience in Vietnam. When it was first released, his fellow Vietnam War veterans described it as the first "real" Vietnam War movie. John Wheeler, veteran and president of the Center for the Study of the Viet Nam Generation, said of the movie, "It is part of the healing process. It speaks to our generation. Those guys are us."

In October 2020, Stone released a memoir, "Chasing the Light: Writing, Directing, and Surviving Platoon, Midnight Express, Scarface, Salvador, and the Movie Game." In it, he talks about not just his filmmaking career, but also his military career -- including his Vietnam service.

Stone enlisted in the Army in 1967, and after requesting a combat assignment, he was sent to South Vietnam, arriving on Sept. 16, 1967, with the 3rd Battalion, 25th Infantry, near the country's border with Cambodia.

Soldiers of the 25th Infantry Division on patrol in 1968, in South Vietnam. (Department of Defense)

He would earn the Bronze Star with Valor with the 25th Infantry, operating in that area. His unit was ambushed on a patrol, and the ambush had killed its lieutenant, one of its NCOs and its scout dog, a German Shepherd. During the hailstorm of bullets, Stone moved on the enemy.

"Maybe I was just cold and angry about the dog's death or the futility of it all. Or maybe I just had a headache, and the sun was burning too hot in my eyes. ... All I knew was that this was my moment to act," he wrote.

The future director advanced on an enemy spider hole between two American platoons, one in which he "sensed" an enemy soldier was hiding. Stone lobbed a grenade into the hole from 15 yards away, a move he said was risky because missing the shot meant harming his fellow soldiers.

"But it was a perfect pitch," wrote Stone, "and the grenade sailed into the tiny hole like a long throw from an outfielder into a catcher's mitt, followed quickly by the concussed thump of the explosion. Wow. I'd done it!"

Oliver Stone in South Vietnam, sometime in 1967 or 1968. (Department of Defense/Courtesy of Oliver Stone)

He was then transferred to the 1st Cavalry Division and assigned to a Long Range Reconnaissance Platoon (LRRP). It was with this unit that he survived an all-night human wave attack.

He says such attacks were very rare in Vietnam because the enemy was not interested in a tactic that would cause so many casualties. But Stone says this particular event occurred because they were moving men and material along the Ho Chi Minh Trail while preparing for the Tet Offensive.

"Soldiers might say it was hell," Stone writes. "But I saw it as divine. As close a man would ever come to the Holy Spirit is to witness and survive this great destructive energy."

On the night of Jan. 1, 1968, the communists attacked Stone and his unit at dark and continued its assault through the night until the following sunrise.

"The battle was amazing," Stone said in a 2021 interview with BBC radio. "The power, the force of that battle was like being in a hurricane."

The Americans were being attacked by a massive force of North Vietnamese Army regulars, but early on in the fighting, Stone's position was struck by a friendly aircraft, an F-4 Phantom that dropped its ordnance on the incoming enemy.

"I jumped into the closest foxhole and buried myself as deep as I could in the earth, which trembled and shook as a 500-pound bomb dropped somewhere close," he recalled.

Stone says he was thrown into the air and concussed, but got up and walked back to the line, even though the NVA was already inside the perimeter. He didn't see the enemy for the entire night and never fired his rifle.

"Full daylight revealed charred bodies, dusty napalm and gray trees," he wrote in his biography. "Men who died grimacing, in frozen positions, some of them still standing or kneeling in rigor mortis, white chemical death on their faces. Dead, so dead. Some covered in white ash, some burned black. Their expressions, if they could be seen, were overtaken with anguish and horror."

There were 400 dead enemy troops littering the area. The Americans had lost 25 of their own. The day brought bulldozers for the Americans to help bury the enemy dead. Stone was among the troops gathering the North Vietnamese dead for burial.

"I think many people who are in combat will tell you late in their life they've always remembered those moments," he said. "Moments that stay with you forever."

-- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com. He can also be found on Twitter @blakestilwell or on Facebook.

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24.06.2022 LISTEN

The actress demanded only rich men should come her way after her surgery.

She has now revealed her apathy toward relationships, either rich or poor men.

Ghanaian socialite and actress, Kisa Gbekle, has retracted the statement she made some time ago that after going through surgery, her body has become expensive meant for big men only.

Kisa went for liposuction, which she said cost her 8,000.

Soon after that surgery, Kisa disclosed in an interview with Zion Felix, a Ghanaian blogger, that she had invested so much in her body and, for that matter, only rich men would be invited into her space as part of her plans to get her money back.

In her quest to have her money recovered, she added that she doesn't care if the rich man who will come to her is old or young; what she wants is to get her surgery money back.

Now my body is meant for men with heavy pockets. When I say heavy, heavy entails a lot. You are aware that I have just completed my entire body. And it isn't easy. It's a large sum of money. So I need someone who is wealthy and has a lot of money. It doesn't matter how old you are. I'm cool as long as the person is cool, calm, collected, and heavy," Kisa noted.

Kisa recently appeared on Abeiku Santanas Atuu Program which was aired Saturday, June 18 and said those she will not be serioud with her previous desires again because she is no longer interested in any kind of relationship not to talk of going for rich men.

She stressed that her insistence of not wishing to have a boyfriend is not because she is a lesbian but it's because she has already seen it all when it comes to men.

"I used to think my body is expensive so it should be for big men. Maybe I don't know what I was thinking. I'm not even interested in such things anymore. I'm no longer for any big man. I'm not even interested in men these days because I've seen it all. Men were chasing me all over but I don't want a relationship. I don't want a boyfriend. I'm not interested in women either. I'm not a lesbian," she emphasised.
Cancer prevalence in South Africa is increasing with each passing day. In 2020, 110,000 new cancer cases were diagnosed in South Africa. Moreover, 56,000 cancer-related deaths were also reported.

In November 2019, BBC News reported that many cancer patients travel to India yearly for cancer treatments. Medical tourism from Africa is around $1 billion every year. According to WHO, more than 95% of the African population travel to European or Asian countries for quality treatments.

It is crucial for patients to get quality care with the latest treatment process at an affordable cost. Hence, Cancer Treatment in countries like India is preferred due to high-quality care and affordable treatment cost.

Now, let us check the cost of cancer treatment.

Cost Of Cancer Treatment in South Africa

The cancer treatment cost in South Africa ranges between $630 - $63,100.

As per the American Institute of Cancer Research, cancer treatments cost around 895 billion $ annually. As cancer technologies advance with each passing day, so are the treatment and drug costs.

For you, we have listed a few reasons why cancer treatment costs are increasing rapidly.

Innovative surgical procedures

Advancing technologies,

Innovative cancer treatments.

Here is a cost comparison table for cancer treatment in South Africa and other countries across the globe. One of the main reasons to visit different countries from different regions is low-cost treatment and the use of the latest process treatment

Country Cost of Cancer Treatment South Africa $630 - $63,100 India $1,919 - $23,039 USA $2700-$6000 per visit Germany $839 - $32311

Cancer care in India is well-known; cancer hospitals in India provide the best treatments and assist their international patient with basic requirements. They provide them with all the necessary arrangements during the period of treatment. But for some patients who cannot travel, we have listed the best hospital for cancer in South Africa.

Best Cancer Hospitals In South Africa

Like other countries, even South Africa is well-equipped for treatment.

For you, we have listed some of the best cancer hospitals in South Africa.

1. Life Kingsbury Hospital

Life Kingsbury Hospital is one of the premier cancer institutes in Cape Town, South Africa. The hospital has 226 beds, 11 OT rooms, ICU, separate neonatal ICUs, and general wards. For accidents and emergencies, doctors are available on duty 24/7. This hospital provides extra facilities to their international patients like airport transfer, accommodation, and a choice of meals.

2. Lenmed Ahmed Kathrada Private Hospital

Ahmed Kathrada is another leading hospital in South Africa. The institute not only provides the best oncology treatments but is well equipped in providing 80+ procedures, including general surgery services, neurology, ophthalmology procedures like corneal transplants, cardiac treatments, and many others.

3. Life Healthcare Hospital Group

Life Healthcare Hospital Group is a multi-specialized institute, particularly for the privately insured patients, about 8 million individuals. The Institute has 7,655 beds, 664 ICUs, 40 emergency rooms, specialized mental health care facilities, renal dialysis, and life rehabilitation facilities.

Which Cancers Are Treated In South Africa?

The types of cancer treated in South Africa include

Breast Cancer

Lung Cancer

Pancreatic Cancer

Gastrointestinal Cancers

Endocrine And Neuroendocrine Cancers

Urological Cancers

Hepatobiliary cancers

Colorectal Cancers

Types Of Cancer Treatments In Africa

The most common types of cancer treatment offered in South Africa include surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy.

Other cancer treatments include

Brachytherapy (A type of radiation therapy that gives a higher total dose of radiation in a shorter time)

Stereotactic Radio (A non-surgical precisely-targeted radiation therapy used to treat small tumors and functional abnormalities of the brain).

Targeted therapy (A type of cancer therapy that attacks specific molecular targets in cancer cells).

These treatments can be alone or in combination, depending on the patient's condition, including type and stage of cancer. A fully-equipped team works to diagnose, prescribe, and deliver the proper cancer treatment to patients in South Africa. The group includes a professional medical and radiation oncologist, surgeon, and nursing staff.

There is constant advancement and science experiments for the betterment of treatments. Some of the technologies are also used in treating cancer in South Africa; lets know more about it.

Technology Of Treatment

South Africa has traditional cancer treatments like chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation therapies. But as the world progresses rapidly, new innovative technologies and medical treatments are arising daily.

Some of the innovative cancer technologies offered across the globe.

1. PET CT

PET CT is one of the latest cancer technologies that deeply detects the molecular activity of the growing cancer cells before opting for any surgical or radiation procedure. It consists of a high-definition PET, LSO crystal, and a high-resolution Pico-3D which helps extensively identify cancer's molecular activity.

2. Stem Cell Therapy

Cancers are now also treated with stem cells. This treatment has successfully reduced the damaging effect or even at times cured cancer. Treating cancer with stem cell therapy or stem cell transplant is a new technique that has shown high positive results. In countries like India, Stem cell therapy hospitals have shown remarkable results.

3. Somatom Scope 32 Slice CT Scanner

Somatom Scope 32 Slice CT Scanner boasts a high-performance Ultra-Fast Ceramics Detector material that visualizes crystal clear tumor images. Additionally, the imaging noise is reduced by up to 25%, which increases patient safety and compliance and delivers accurate dose and quality imaging.

4. Mammography

Proper breast imaging is the crucial step in treating breast cancers. The procedure delivers high-quality breast imaging and consists of a MammomatSelect, which provides an accurate and precise radiation dose, particularly for each patient. This makes setting the dose an easier task for the clinical personnel.

5. Linear Accelerator

This technology is equipped with a 3D imaging guidance that helps to deliver a precise dose to the tumor and also to monitor that nearby normal, and critical organs remain unaffected by the radiation dose.

Conclusion

South Africa has become a leading country with some of the best multi-specialized institutes offering cancer care. However, countries like India is equipped with innovative treatment procedures and technologies. This is the main reason why patients from South Africa prefer to get their treatment from India.
Fixon Dennis

22.06.2022 LISTEN

Fixon Dennis is a young man with great dreams and achievements. Dennis started off his career as part of the Marketing Team at Infinix Mobile and is currently the Marketing Manager of tech giant Huawei Technologies Ghana. He is a three times employee of the year award winner, Golden seeds award winner (Dubai), and a graduate from the University of Pennsylvania.

Under his leadership, Mr. Dennis has successfully launched more than 10 models including the Huawei Y9 series, Nova series, and the Mate series and has had the privilege to work with reputable brands as well as Ghanaian celebrities. He has also chalked a couple of recorded successes for the company on the Ghanaian market. Through his leadership style of creating an exciting working environment, he and his team of subordinates have been able to make the tech company the customers' favorite and the stop shop for tech needs.

Fixon as he is affectionately called is an award-winning Marketing professional with wide knowledge in the modern trend of marketing, he is known for his ability to find solutions to enormous marketing tasks hence the name Fixon. Dont be deceived however, as under this massive work of achievement in the corporate is space is an equally talented and versatile Creative. Dennis is an actor and an influencer with quite a large following in the digital space. His personality has given him the opportunity to serve as brand influencer for brands likes, Senyo Foli, Msports, 1Xbet, Surfline, and many more.

As mentioned earlier, Dennis combines his active 9-5 job with content creation. He currently has created some content online with one of Ghanas fast rising comedians, MJ the Comedian. It may seem like an impossible marriage, merging the corporate world with the creative space especially as both are equally stressful and demanding but Fixon Dennis has actually cracked the code for that and has seamlessly merged both without one interfering with the other.

It is safe to say that Dennis is living the dream most young people dream of at night, which we can boldly say can now become a reality for any other person through sheer dedication, passion and discipline.

Dennis is a change leader and that shows even outside of the walls of his office. He is a philanthropist and a man known for putting smiles on the faces of the less privileged in society. He has embarked on numerous philanthropical activities, recently among them is his The big Project where he collaborated with the Bossman foundation to donate books and stationery to schools under trees in Ghana.
Belgium and the United Nations are to blame for failing to prevent the assassination of Congolese independence hero Patrice Lumumba, an 89-year-old former friend has told AFP.

Jean Mayani will attend tributes next week to Lumumba, whose remains -- a single tooth -- Belgium has finally returned to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Mayani is hard of hearing, his hands shake, and he needs a walking stick or a helping hand to move around, but he speaks clearly and has a piercing gaze.

From time to time, he briefly loses his train of thought, but then gathers himself and details historical events.

In May 1960, the Congolese National Movement fielded him and Lumumba as its candidates for the north-eastern district of Stanleyville, now called Kisangani, in the municipal and parliamentary elections respectively. They both won.

On June 30 the same year, the country became independent and Lumumba was named prime minister.

Mayani very briefly replaced Lumumba in the National Assembly.

But by September 12, the anti-colonial icon had been toppled.

Separatists from the southern region of Katanga and Belgian mercenaries executed him and two close supporters, Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito, on January 17 the following year.

"All the nationalists had to be eliminated," Mayani recalled, bitterly.

Jean Mayani will attend tributes next week to Lumumba, whose remains -- a single tooth -- Belgium has finally returned to the Democratic Republic of Congo. By Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD (AFP)

He said the UN did nothing to prevent his friend from being killed.

"Before the Belgian mercenaries came to Congo, the Blue Helmets were here," he said, referring to UN peacekeepers deployed to the African country in July 1960, following independence.

"Why didn't the UN Secretary-General prevent these mercenaries from landing?

"He sat around doing nothing. He knew the mercenaries would destabilise Congo. He was complicit in the Belgian position and that of the United States, who through the CIA knew of these mercenaries' mission in Congo."

'They broke my teeth'

Mayani said he believed the Belgians had decided to rid themselves of Lumumba from early 1960, during a meeting in the Belgian capital Brussels.

He said Lumumba had been unafraid to repeat his call for his country's "immediate independence" in front of the Belgians.

Mayani said they were surprised and angered by his steadfastness, and "decided to eliminate him".

Belgium then "did everything to prevent Congolese nationalists from reaching state power, under the indifferent gaze of the UN," he said.

Mayani said this campaign continued even after Lumumba had been killed.

Mayani said his old friend Lumumba had been unafraid to repeat his call for his country's 'immediate independence' in front of the Belgians. By Junior KANNAH (AFP)

In a low voice, he described how in 1961 he was "arrested for having harboured two ministers from the central government who had escaped with Lumumba".

"During the torture, they broke twelve of my teeth," he said, removing a row of eight false teeth from his upper jaw. He said he wore another denture on his lower jaw to replace the other four he had lost.

The following year, Mayani was again arrested and held in Kinshasa's Makala prison until 1964, when former Katanga secessionist leader and premier at the time Moise Tshombe declared an amnesty.

Mayani said that today his friend's political legacy -- everything the independence icon stood for -- has been lost.

Today no one can "win elections without corruption", he said.

"People in the DRC have made the choice that, to be elected, graft is necessary," he added.

"In our time, corruption was absolutely out of the question."
Villagers in Sichuan shift into full gear to fashion together Chinese fountain palm-leaf fans

People's Daily Online) 14:47, June 24, 2022

Two villagers harvest the leaves of Chinese fountain palms. (Photo/Lan Zitao)

Villagers are busy making Chinese fountain palm-leaf fans these days to ensure that they will be delivered on time in Jinyinzui village, Yangjia township, Neijiang city, southwest China's Sichuan Province.

In recent years, the village has stepped up efforts to plant Chinese fountain palms and develop a local palm-leaf fan industry under a mode that incorporates a party branch, a cooperative, a planting base and villagers. Home to a planting base of Chinese fountain palms of more than 200 hectares, the village produces more than 5 million fans every year, which are then sold to many cities around China, such as Guangzhou and Shanghai.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
President Nana Akufo-Addo today, Thursday, 23rd June 2022, at the invitation of President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, participated in the ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of the BioNTech vaccine manufacturing plant in Kigali, Rwanda.

The event according to Nana Akufo-Addo signals to the rest of the world the commencement of end-to-end vaccine manufacturing in Africa, a Pan-African project involving Rwanda, Senegal and Ghana.

As I said in Marburg in Germany, some four months ago, the Pan-African Vaccine Manufacturing Project fits perfectly with Ghanas roadmap for domestic vaccine development and manufacturing. Ghana is ready to play her role, Mr Akufo-Addo said adding I reaffirm, once again, Ghanas determination to make the Project work successfully.

He noted that Ghanas research institutions are undergoing capacity-building to be ready for the discovery and development of vaccines and other biologicals, and a consortium of Ghanaian pharmaceutical companies, led by DEKS Vaccines Ltd., is working closely with BioNTech Rwanda, BioNTech Germany and kENUP to fill, finish and package the drug product in Ghana from the plant in Rwanda.

Source: Classfmonline.com
The Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana, Selorm Adadevoh, has reiterated MTNs commitment to deepening digital and financial inclusion as part of its Ambition 2025 strategic vision.

He stated during the Companys 2022 Media and Stakeholder Forum held on Monday June 20, 2022 that the company was on track to invest 1 Billion dollars in digital infrastructure by 2025. Mr. Adadevoh said the core of MTNs strategy is to leverage technology to build and enrich lives. He explained, MTN is positioned to lead digital solutions for Africas progress. At the heart our ambition is driving digital and financial inclusion to enhance the quality of life of Ghanaians.

Mr. Adadevoh also mentioned that the business was promoting mobile advertising and Ayoba which to date has over 10 million users in Africa with 20% of users being from Ghana is the platform to drive it. He revealed that Ayoba currently has 15 micro-apps with majority built by local developers. This is aimed at boosting local content.

The CEO assured customers that MTN was committed to improving customer experience and bringing services closer to the doorsteps of consumers. Consequently, he said, MTN had established 306 touchpoints across the country in collaboration with local partners within communities through the Lite Retail Scheme. The scheme will continue to roll out more touchpoints.

The MTN Media and Stakeholder Forum is an annual event held by the company to engage key stakeholders on the operations of the company. The theme for this years forum was Building platforms to deliver a Brighter future for Ghana and beyond. Various stakeholders and partners including representatives from government agencies, Telecoms Chamber and the media commended MTN for consistently fostering strong relations with its stakeholder community and making them a part of the MTN brand.
Before the Russian-Ukraine military hostilities, forces like climate change, COVID 19, and political conflicts contributed to an ongoing global food shortage. Today, the situation is much worse.

A report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reveals that around 193 million people in 53 countries or territories suffered acute food insecurity in 2021. This represents an increase of nearly 40 million people compared to the record numbers of 2020. FAO predicts a grim outlook for 2022.

So far, this forecast holds. The World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that up to 811 million people go to bed hungry every night and that the number of those facing acute food insecurity has more than doubled. What does that mean for Africa?

Before now, FAO anticipated food deterioration in Northern Nigeria, Yemen, Burkina Faso, Niger, Kenya, South Sudan, and Somalia. Even though the body attributes part of the blame to climate change, it also references the Putin-Zelensky brawl. However, as with every cloud with its silver lining, the bleak forecast could present light at the end of the tunnel for the global south.

There have been moves to find fast, sustainable solutions to fight the looming hunger hurricane. Unfortunately, this comes with consequences. For instance, a sharp rise in the demand for fertilizers has, naturally, led to prices going through the roof. Despite higher food prices, fertilizers are now at their least affordable worldwide.

As Russia and Ukraine, two of the worlds leading fertilizer exporting countries, engage in exchanging hostilities, countries like Nigeria have decided to seize the opportunity and quickly think outside the box.

For example, the countrys timely investment in a fertilizer plant inaugurated in March is expected to produce 3 million metric tons of granulated urea annually. A far cry from Russias annual 11 million tons, but it is a decent start compared to its African counterparts. This has set Nigeria as Africas leading fertilizer producer and will move the country up the charts of the worlds top fertilizer exporting countries. Currently, nations like Tunisia and South Africa have a developed fertilizer industry, while Morroco, Egypt, Algeria, and Nigeria contribute to 88.7% of globally exported fertilizers in value.

Some critics worry that the surge in global fertilizer prices may worsen food security, especially for local farmers who depend primarily on imports. In their arguments, the price shock may be buffered for farmers in some developing countries with fertilizer subsidy regimes in places like Ghana. However, those regimes will place tremendous fiscal pressure on budgets already stressed by substantial government outlays during the COVID-19.

The low income across African countries worsened by climate change has done nothing to allay their fears. Of a truth, these concerns barely hold water.

Countries like Nigeria, once title holder of the poverty capital of the world, are expected to end dependence on imported products soon to propel local fertilizer productions. Questions of increasing food insecurity in the presence of local productions need not be asked.

Instead, it must set successful solution models for other African countries to emulate.

While famine is inevitable, especially as the world plunges into political conflicts and natural catastrophes, creating local solutions that solve national and global crises is the key to wealth. Strengthening the resilience of African economies calls for exploring fertilizer and other resources export markets and investing in infrastructure development. This will optimize the production of resources to make the best of emerging economic opportunities and solve the looming food crisis.

Claire Mom is a Nigerian journalist. You can reach her via email at [email protected] or Twitter @speakclairely_
Tunisian police on Thursday arrested former prime minister Hamadi Jebali, an ex-senior figure in the Ennahdha party which is the nemesis of current President Kais Saied, Jebali's lawyer said.

He could not say why Jebali was detained.

"The police arrested Mr Jebali in his car in Soussa, then took him to Tunis," Zied Taher said.

For more than a month, Jebali has been under investigation over activities at his boiler factory in Soussa, a coastal city south of the capital, Taher said.

The arrest comes with civil society and Saied's opponents fearing a slide back to the authoritarianism seen under long-time dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, toppled in a 2011 revolution.

Ennahdha was the dominant force in a parliament dissolved by Saied after he sacked the government and seized wide-ranging powers last July.

Private radio station Mosaique FM said Jebali had been remanded in custody by anti-terrorist police "on suspicion of money-laundering".

Jebali led the Tunisian government from December 2011, a year after the start of the country's revolution, until his resignation in early 2013 following the murder of leftist activist Chokri Belaid.

In 2014 he quit politics and left Ennahdha.

A solar engineer and former journalist, Jebali was sentenced to 16 years behind bars under Ben Ali as anti-Islamist repression intensified.

He served a large part of his sentence in an isolation cell before being pardoned in 2006.
Open Forum on Agriculture Biotechnology (OFAB) Ghana, in collaboration with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has organised a days sensitization programme on Biotechnology and Genetically Modified Foods (GMOs) for some Muslim clergymen in the Kumasi.

It was aimed, among others, at equipping the Muslim clergymen with the requisite knowledge and understanding of biotechnology in farming and agriculture to help effectively educate the general public to adopt the technology to ensure sustainable national food security and improved livelihoods of farmers.

Biotechnology involves the exploitation of biological processes for industrial and other purposes, particularly the genetic manipulation of micro-organisms for the production of antibiotics and hormones, among others.

Owing to the misconception about the adoption of GMO technology, OFAB believes that the training would enable the clergymen to significantly educate policy makers on issues of agriculture through the provision of expert knowledge and facts.

According to OFAB, one tool, which is currently used to enhance biodiversity, is biotechnology. The technology covers varieties of techniques and applications that allow variation and enhancement in living organisms to provide desirable products for humanity.

The one-day sensitization programme, held with the Muslim clergymen in the Ashanti Region, was also to enable the clergymen to contribute significantly to neutralising the false impression, beliefs and mystery surrounding the adoption of the GMOs products. It brought together some high-profile Muslim personalities and researchers from Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (SARI).

Alhaji Professor Walter Alhassan a senior statesman and former Director General of CSIR mentioned to the clergymen that the GM technology can be considered Halal in the Muslim faith.

The former Director General who is also a staunch Muslim explained that GMO crops must be considered Halal meaning pure for consumption by Muslims.

Lets all help to promote the GM technology; it will help solve food security issues in Ghana and even beyond, he said.
The learning environment at the Grand Gedeh Community College is reportedly nothing to write home about given the harsh learning conditions that have been created allegedly by the President of the College, Dr. Solomon X. Y. Jallahyu.

This includes the imposition of high costs to enrollment requirements, denial from benefiting from President George Manneh Weahs tuition free at public institutions scheme; poor compensation for lecturers, untidy learning environment on the schools campus, inadequate sitting capacity for students, lack of qualified instructors for some departments, no capacity building opportunity for lecturers and administrators as well as poorly equipped computer lab.

The group of students under the banner: Concerned Students of the Grand Gedeh Community College said in a petition that since the pronouncement of the free tuition policy by President Weah more than four years ago, they have been exempt from the largesse while the previous tuition of L$4,500 to L$5,500 has been mercilessly increased by more than triple the initial amount.

The students disclosed that this led to more than 38% of their fellow students to drop from school and also dissuading many young people from seeking higher education at the college, which they say, undermines the original intent for the establishment of the institution in 2011.

The Concerned Students Group are asking the school administration headed by Dr. Jallahyu to implement the Government of Liberias tuition free policy or reduce the existing fees being charged to a considerable amount that the underprivileged young people can afford.

They are recommending about 50% reduction in the astronomical amount that is being paid now.

According to the Concerned Students, they have information that approximately 30% of lecturers at the school are not placed on payroll. As advocates of academic freedom and excellence, we strongly believe that the lack of compensation to some of our educators has the propensity of diverting and jeopardizing their focus from professionally discharging their duties. With that, we are not begging but asking you (Dr. Solomon X.Y Jallayu) to immediately place our lecturers on payroll for their services as you are also being paid for yours, the students emphasized in their statement issued on June 14, 2022 in Zwedru City.

The students complained about inadequate sitting capacities for students that is causing students to transport chairs on their heads from one class to another to attend classes. Students are also indicating the lack of computers in the lab and unavailability of internet facility to enhance their learning through research.

The students include Dorcas Dweh, Department of Health Science; Washington Beh, Department of Education; Abraham Korjor, Department of Agriculture; Ustine P. Noah, Department of Divinity; Emmanuel B. Waylee, Jr., Department of Science and Technology; Stanley Dulah, Department of Business; William J. Deah and Lexington Great-man, Chairman and student of the Department of Education signed the petition with a three weeks ultimatum for the President of the college to look into their concerns or risk being declared persona non grata and call for his resignation.

Responding to the students claims, the President of the Grand Gedeh Community College, Dr. Solomon X. Y Jallahyu said that's not true. There has been no increment in the student activities fees for the past four years and graduated three different sessions since that time.

Dr. Jallahyu disclosed that he is fully implementing President Weahs tuition free policy contrary to the students allegation.

We are implementing the tuition-free policy to the fullest. In fact , 75 percent of the students activities fees are paid by donors and it is not even coming forth.

"We do not have a sitting capacity problem. Try to contact the student Council government to balance what they are saying.

"We even bought a bus that takes students to school where they pay only 20LD from tuition free grant.

On the allegation of not employing lecturers, the GGCCC President indicated Teachers who were or are on other government payroll can not be accommodated on other government payroll like ours. So we have them with little compensation on our supplementary payroll that we pay from fees. We can only recommend to the Civil Service Agency for employment but the decision is not within my purview to make regarding putting employees on Governments payroll."

Yes, we have a computer Lab that is running for introductory computer courses in our curriculum that are taught. I can remember we got some computers from the states far back in the computer lab and GSA gave us some computers then in the computer Lab as well. As time went by, some of the computers spoiled.

"We will need money to keep replacing them. The money, we don't have as government is constrained financially as well as the college.

"We are also asking donors to help. Nobody give Dr. Jallayu Computer Money and he didn't buy a computer for the LAB, he added.
A summit of Commonwealth leaders opens Friday in Rwanda as the host nation comes under scrutiny over its rights record and a migrant deal with Britain threatens to overshadow the meeting.

A bitter contest is also looming for the leadership of the 54-nation club of mainly former British colonies as it grapples with its changing identity and future relevance.

The Commonwealth represents one-third of humanity spanning parts of Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas but some of its most prominent leaders are skipping the summit, sending envoys in their place.

Prince Charles, representing Queen Elizabeth II as head of the Commonwealth, made the first visit of any British royal to Rwanda for the gathering, which culminates in two days of leadership meetings.

He will meet on the sidelines on Friday with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has been promoting his much-criticised deal to expel migrants to Rwanda since arriving in Kigali Thursday.

The scheme involves Britain deporting asylum-seekers thousands of miles away to Rwanda and has been fiercely opposed by the church, rights groups and -- reportedly -- Charles himself.

Johnson -- who discussed the plan with its other architect Paul Kagame at a meeting with the Rwandan president on Thursday -- said he would defend the proposal to Charles and other critics.

"What the critics of the policy need to understand, and I have seen loads and loads of criticism, is that Rwanda has undergone an absolute transformation in the last couple of decades," the British leader said.

Rights scrutiny

Johnson has vowed to press ahead with the deal, which has faced legal challenges in British and international courts, and loomed large ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

A first flight of asylum-seekers from the UK to Rwanda was due to take off last week but was halted following an intervention by the European Court of Human Rights.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has praised Rwanda's achievements under President Paul Kagame. By Dan Kitwood (POOL/AFP)

Johnson also praised Kagame for the "leaps and bounds" achieved in Rwanda, despite widespread concerns over a lack of political freedom and civil liberties in the tiny African nation.

Rights groups have openly questioned the suitability of Rwanda hosting the Commonwealth, which has a charter that enshrines respect for democracy and human rights as core shared values.

More than 20 rights groups and civil society organisations have warned the Commonwealth risked credibility by staging the summit in Rwanda, where they said a "climate of fear" existed under long-ruling Kagame.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has also called on Britain to condemn Rwanda over its alleged "aggression" in the mineral-rich eastern Congo, where Kigali has been accused of stoking a rebellion.

Leadership rumblings

At least publicly these concerns have not been raised and a "ministerial action group" to scrutinise the behaviour of Commonwealth members released no statement after their meeting.

Britain's Prince Charles, pictured with Rwandan President Paul Kagame, has reportedly criticised the migrant deal. By Simon MAINA (AFP)

Forums ahead of the summit have addressed everything from trade and investment to malaria, climate change, and mental health.

The leaders' meetings over the next two days behind closed doors will miss some heavyweights, including Narendra Modi of India, South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa and Australia's Anthony Albanese.

Republican movements are taking root in some Commonwealth nations and there has been renewed discussion about the future role of the royal family in the club, and its broader purpose in a post-colonial world.

At the same time, the west African states of Togo and Gabon are set to become the latest members of the Commonwealth despite having no historic ties to Britain -- like host Rwanda, which joined in 2009.

Friday will also bring to a head a tussle for the leadership of the Commonwealth that has turned ugly at times.

Kamina Johnson Smith is challenging Patricia Scotland for the post as secretary-general, despite Commonwealth convention dictating the incumbent should stand unopposed for a second term.

Smith, who is Jamaica's foreign minister, has the backing of the UK, which has publicly expressed dissatisfaction with Scotland's stewardship of the organisation.
The President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has assured Rwandan President Paul Kagame that Ghana will collaborate with Rwanda on its Pan-African Vaccine Manufacturing Project.

As I said in Marburg, the Pan-African Vaccine Manufacturing Project fits perfectly with Ghanas roadmap for domestic vaccine development and manufacturing. Ghana is ready to play her role, and I reaffirm, once again, her determination to make the project work successfully, the president assured.

On Thursday, June 23, 2022, President Akufo-Addo attended the groundbreaking event of the Pan-African vaccine manufacturing project in Kigali, Rwanda.

President Akufo-Addo expressed his gratitude to President Paul Kagame for the invitation to participate in the event.

He indicated that the commencement of construction signals to the rest of the world the commencement of this end-to-end vaccine manufacturing facility, involving Rwanda, Senegal and my own country of Ghana.

The President added that the import of the Pan-African Project requires Ghana, Senegal, and Rwanda to collaborate, which is why the relationship between Ghana's and Rwanda's Food and Drugs Authorities (FDA) is being strengthened with the signing of a new Memorandum of Understanding on Friday, June 24.

Through this, FDA Ghana, which achieved WHO Global Benchmarking Maturity Level Three (3) in 2020, and is working hard to achieve Maturity Level Four (4) by the end of this year, will assist FDA Rwanda to attain WHO Maturity Level Three (3) as soon as possible. Both agencies will collaborate further in vaccine drug product manufacturing, fill, finish and lot release in their respective countries, he said.

He continued, Again, a collaboration between our two countries resulted recently in a team from Rwanda visiting research institutions in Ghana, to strengthen institutional development and partnership towards vaccine discovery and advancement."

The President stated that Ghana's research institutions are being strengthened to be ready for the discovery and development of vaccines and other biological.

A consortium of Ghanaian pharmaceutical companies, led by DEKS Vaccines Ltd., is working closely with BioNTech Rwanda, BioNTech Germany and kENUP to fill, finish and package the drug product in Ghana from the plant here in Rwanda," he stated.

He commended the BioNTech company in Germany for supporting the project.
Ex-President, John Agyekum Kufuor, urged the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to ensure that the election of a flagbearer for the party is devoid of machinations and acrimony.

He explains that the system to be used for the selection of the flagbearer should be one that will validate the choice of party faithful and Ghanaians.

The Ex-President also cautioned that the right mechanism must be employed to choose the next flagbearer of the party in order to 'Break the Eight'.

In the upcoming NPP Flagbearship race, in order to achieve party unity and sustain it thereafter for victory of the party in the 2024 elections, what President Kufuor expects from the party and political hierarchies are fair and un-engineered systems and processes that would lead to a fair selection of our next NPP flagbearer.

This should be devoid of coercion and machinations so that the eventual selected nominee, coming out of the uncompromised freewill of the voting delegates, can easily command the support and respect of all party faithful, and indeed other Ghanaians sympathetic to our cause, towards breaking the eight, the office of the Former President said in a statement.

John Agyekum Kufuor also said he has not endorsed any flagbearer aspirant in the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumias presence at a Fathers Day event at Peduase with Mr. Kufuor was misconstrued.

This office wants to emphatically deny that any such endorsement took place on the said occassion and bemaons the fact that what transpired has been seriously misconstrued.

The office also noted that Mr. Kufuor had always been open about his relationship with Dr. Bawumia.

He [Kufuor] had always been close to the Vice President and treated him like a true son. There was nothing political about his remarks or even the occasion, the statement said.

The former presidents office also noted that other NPP flagbearership candidates like John Alan Kyerematen, Boakye Agyarko, Joe Ghartey and Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto all have close relationships with Mr. Kufuor.

The former President believes that any of those mentioned, when, selected by the party to be the flagbearer, would be able to discharge the work of the flagbearer very firmly and effectively.

Find below the full statement

citinewsroom
24.06.2022 LISTEN

The Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet) has warned of an approaching storm today, stretching from the north.

This storm is expected to cause rain later in the day, June 24 between 2:00pm and 4:00pm.

The impact would be felt in the middle sector and the transition areas including Yeji, Dambai, Tamale, Ketakrachi, Akatsi, Hoehoe and Kpando among others.

Chief Forecaster at GMet Felicity Ahafianyo told Alfred Ocansey on 3FMs Sunrise on Friday, June 24 that pressures are not conducive hence outdoor activities are not encouraged and Friday night activities are likely to be affected.

Recent rain storms have caused havoc in parts of Ghana, leading to loss of life and properties resulting from floods.

3news.com
A truck carries lithium carbonate at a lithium mine in the Atacama Desert, Chile. - Source: Photographer: Cristobal Olivares/Bloomberg via Getty Images

24.06.2022 LISTEN

High-grade lithium has been discovered in Nigeria. In 2019 the total production volume of lithium, not high grade, in Nigeria reached 50 metric tons This is small compared to Zimbabwe which produced 1,200 metric tons the same year. The Conversation Africa's Wale Fatade asked geologist Ibrahim Garba for his insights.

What is lithium and why is it important?

The Geological Agency described the lithium as high grade because what's been found has between 1% - 13% oxide content. Normally exploration begins at levels as low as 0.4%. Grade (in %) is a measure of concentration of the lithium in the minerals and or rocks that contains it. Therefore, the higher the grade the more the economic viability. Higher grades are very rare for metals like lithium.

Lithium is a metallic mineral in very high demand by manufacturing industries. Seven years ago the bulk of demand for lithium was split between ceramics and glasses (35%) and greases, metallurgical powders, polymers, and other industrial uses (over 35%). Less than 30% was for batteries . But by 2030, batteries are expected to account for 95% of demand .

Lithium-ion batteries are generally more expensive but have better performance and are becoming the preferred technology. The different types are:

Lithium-cobalt oxide battery. It is used in consumer electronics and is finding application in electric vehicles. It is relatively cheap.

Lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt is a newer, higher performing range of battery chemistry. It is mainly developed for the electronic vehicle market but is finding a wider use because of its increasing cost effectiveness.

Lithium iron phosphate , the safest technology with relatively high performance but relatively expensive. It is very popular in China but is likely to become overtaken by Lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt over the longer term; and

Lithium-nickel-cobalt-aluminium oxide developed to reduce cobalt consumption and is known as a solid performer and of reasonable cost. It is also becoming popular outside China.

Lithium-ion batteries are used in mobile phones, computers, electronics, energy storage systems and electric vehicles. The forecast is that they will dominate the lithium market over the next decades. However, there are many different types of lithium-ion battery for different applications.

Lithium and most lithium minerals are mined along with other high-value metallic minerals such as tin, niobium-tantalum (columbite-tantalite) and uranium (in pyrochlore).

Greenbushes mine in Western Australia is the largest hard-rock lithium mine in the world. Tantalum is also mined there. In 2019, the mine's output capacity doubled to 1.34 million tonnes of lithium concentrates annually after a second processing plant was added.

Global lithium mine production hit a record high of 100,000 tonnes in 2021 , a 21% increase over 2020 (82,500 tonnes).

Due to the growing interest in clean energy, the demand for lithium has skyrocketed as most countries draw plans to phase out fossil fuel vehicles and switch to zero emission electric vehicles. The underlying demand for lithium is expected to rise proportionately to the production and sales of those vehicles. Lithium production globally grew from 28,100 metric tons in 2010 to 86,000 in 2019. The challenge will be in supplying the market with enough lithium.

Three countries , Australia (40,000 tonnes), Chile (20,600 tonnes) and China (14,000 tonnes) mine about 86% of the world's lithium. Others are Argentina (6,200 tonnes), Brazil (1,900 tonnes), Zimbabwe (1,200 tonnes), USA (900 tonnes) and Portugal (900 tonnes), according to 2020 data.

The largest importers of lithium are South Korea, China, Japan, US and Belgium.

Lithium price was averagely US$2,000 per metric ton in 2002 rising to US$18,000 in 2018.

For the moment the find in Nigeria simply points to the potential of Nigerian pegmatites for lithium resource. Full exploration will be necessary.

The lithium supply chain involves converting lithium minerals to lithium concentrates and lithium hydroxides.

What about the lithium find in Nigeria?

The first and most important point is that the discovery does not equate to a commercial find. In fact, it should be taken only as a first step in the long journey to be established as a commercially viable deposit that can be mined and extracted to a form that can be sold to the consumer.

In reality only one or two of hundreds of such 'discoveries' (finds) may end up being a mine after going through the many stages of exploration and development. Only then can a value be attached to such a 'discovery'.

It can take 5 - 10 years to fully explore a small to medium sized deposit and take it to production. This is provided there are no unforeseen technical, financial and other challenges.

Only in few very exceptional and highly viable situations we can expect a lesser time frame.

Quite a number of factors can make or mar the development journey. These include proving economic grades and volumes (or tonnages) of the mineral ores, favourable enabling fiscal and other regulatory environments, cost of extraction technology, market forces and other logistical and sociopolitical issues.

An economic amount of lithium metal is known to be associated with two minerals: spodumene and lepidolite. Lithium is an element and in nature tends to concentrate sufficiently in the two minerals, spodumene and lepidolite. Otherwise it will occur dispersed in minerals but not sufficient enough to be of economic consideration. They are usually found in specialised rocks called rare metal-bearing pegmatites and greisens.

The search for economic deposits of lithium has to be targeted in these rocks.

In Nigeria , lithium minerals (spodumene and lepidolite) are known to be associated with cassiterite, columbite-tantalite (coltan) and others in the extensive belt of rare metal-bearing rock types called pegmatite .

These rock pegmatites stretch from the Wamba area , Nasarawa State, north central; through Egbe-Isanlu, Kogi State; north central, Ondo-Ekiti States, south west; to the Ife-Ilesa, Osun State; south west.

Another belt in the western half of Nigeria, stretching from Zamfara and Kaduna States, north west; through Niger and Kwara States, north central; and Oyo State, south west; is known to host the rare metal-bearing pegmatites.

Some have also been found in Obudu , Cross River State, southern Nigeria.

Within these belts, dozens of occurrences of the rare metal-bearing pegmatites are recorded and some are known to have lithium-bearing minerals. However, there are not yet any commercially viable deposits established or developed. This is despite the recent wave of interest shown by many explorers in response to the global demand for lithium.

Are there environmental concerns?

All mineral mining, especially metallic minerals and hydrocarbons like petroleum , tar sands and coal are associated with environmental pollution. But there are measures that can be taken to minimise and mitigate these.

Measures include making sure that discharges and mine waster are well planned for. Another is the restoration of the ground (the physical, fauna and flora) affected by mining for future use.

There are also mining laws and regulations that mining operators are required to follow. They set down penalties operational breaches. However, in a country like Nigeria many of the regulations aren't followed and enforcement is weak.

Also environmental impact assessments have to be made before any mining can start.

Ibrahim Garba is affiliated with the Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society, NMGS, and the Nigerian Academy of Science, as a Fellow.

By Ibrahim Garba, Professor of Geology, Ahmadu Bello University
The Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu Constituency, Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has accused President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of blowing GHS4.1 million on his latest trip to Belgium and Rwanda.

H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has been out of the country since Sunday, June 19, 2022, to attend the 15th Edition of the European Development Days Forum in Brussels, Belgium, and the 26th Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations in Kigali, Rwanda.

Monitoring the cost of the President's foreign trips, Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has come out with his findings.

In a post on his Facebook page on Thursday night, the North Tongu MP says although the President appeared to have abandoned his ultra-luxurious charters after travelling commercial in his last two trips, he has returned to his old ways of flying in highly-expensive luxurious jets.

According to Mr. Ablakwa, President Akufo-Addo used the Airbus ACJ319 for his latest trip, a luxury monster jet that cost 20,000 an hour.

For President Akufo-Addos current trip to Belgium and Rwanda beginning Sunday the 19th of June, 2022 to attend the 15th Edition of the European Development Days Forum in Brussels, Belgium, and the 26th Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations in Kigali, Rwanda; we can confirm a conservative bill of 480,000.00.

The 480,000 Euros which is derived from 21 hours of total flight time plus other industry charges works out to some 4.1million Ghana Cedis at current exchange rate, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa shares in his post on Facebook.

The Parliamentarian say it is insulting and insensitive for President Akufo-Addo to be this wasteful and obstinate at a time Ghanaians are facing a cost of living crisis.

Read more from the post below:

Incorrigible President Akufo-Addo has done it again.

After pretending he was a changed man by flying commercial on his last two trips to the US and the UK, he has returned to his grossly insensitive and reckless ways of profligate traveling in ultra-luxurious charters.

Probably thinking he will escape our unimpeachable surveillance if he switched companies, President Akufo-Addo on this occasion decided to abandon his favourite LX-DIO operated by Global Jet Luxembourg and opted for German based private jet operator  K5-Aviation.

K5-Aviation has been licensed to operate their luxury fleet by the German National Aviation Authority (Luftfahrt-Bundesamt, LBA) since June 2011.

As usual, President Akufo-Addo ordered their top-of-the-range and most expensive aircraft in their collection  the Airbus ACJ319. It is registered D-Alex.

Its serial number is 5963, Type Code A319 and a Mode S of 3C70B8.

Being a more expensive luxury carrier, its oligarchic features include: Master bedroom with double bed and connecting bathroom with shower; 2 additional bedrooms; 3 washrooms; Master bathroom with walk-in shower; Air Humidification system; Airshow and 5 external cameras; Gogo 2Ku high speed Wi-Fi, up to 70 Mbit/sec for streaming and video calls (charged extra); Video on demand and DVD including a 55 screen; music streaming; PlayStation; external cameras with tailfin view; airshow and a satellite phone.

The 19-VVIP-passenger D-Alex is celebrated for its 5,600 nm = 10,400 km range; equipped with 5 auxiliary center tanks for intercontinental range and non-stop flights up to 12 hours; Maximum take-off weight 76,500 kg and an impressive Maximum altitude of 41,000 ft = 12,400m.

This luxury monster is costing the Ghanaian taxpayer 20,000 an hour.

For President Akufo-Addos current trip to Belgium and Rwanda beginning Sunday the 19th of June, 2022 to attend the 15th Edition of the European Development Days Forum in Brussels, Belgium, and the 26th Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations in Kigali, Rwanda; we can confirm a conservative bill of 480,000.00.

The 480,000 Euros which is derived from 21 hours of total flight time plus other industry charges works out to some 4.1million Ghana Cedis at current exchange rate.

I must, however, commend First Lady, Mrs. Rebecca Akufo-Addo for honourably flying to Kigali aboard Ghanas Presidential Jet which took her some 4hours and 49minutes. Her confidence in Ghanas Presidential Jet is refreshing and deeply admirable. Ghanaians are exceedingly proud of her.

It must definitely take a rare kind of insulting insensitivity for President Akufo-Addo to be this wasteful and obstinate at a time Ghanaians are facing a cost of living crisis.
North Tongu Member of Parliament (MP), Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has heaped praise on First Lady Mrs. Rebecca Akuffo-Addo for flying to Kigali, Rwanda, with Ghanas Presidential Jet.

The First Lady this week travelled to Kigali to join President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for the 26th Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations in Rwanda.

According to Mr. Ablakwa, the First Ladys confidence in the countrys Presidential jet is refreshing and deeply admirable.

I must, however, commend First Lady, Mrs. Rebecca Akufo-Addo for honourably flying to Kigali aboard Ghanas Presidential Jet which took her some 4hours and 49minutes.

Her confidence in Ghanas Presidential Jet is refreshing and deeply admirable. Ghanaians are exceedingly proud of her, a post on the Facebook page of Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has said.

Unlike the First Lady, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has revealed that President Akufo-Addo opted for a monster luxurious private jet that cost the taxpayer 20,000 an hour.

For President Akufo-Addos current trip to Belgium and Rwanda beginning Sunday the 19th of June, 2022 to attend the 15th Edition of the European Development Days Forum in Brussels, Belgium, and the 26th Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations in Kigali, Rwanda; we can confirm a conservative bill of 480,000.00.

The 480,000 Euros which is derived from 21 hours of total flight time plus other industry charges works out to some 4.1million Ghana Cedis at current exchange rate, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa shares in his post on Facebook.

The Parliamentarian insists that it is insulting and insensitive for President Akufo-Addo to be this wasteful and obstinate at a time Ghanaians are facing a cost of living crisis.

Read the full post on Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa's Facebook post below:

Incorrigible President Akufo-Addo has done it again.

After pretending he was a changed man by flying commercial on his last two trips to the US and the UK, he has returned to his grossly insensitive and reckless ways of profligate traveling in ultra-luxurious charters.

Probably thinking he will escape our unimpeachable surveillance if he switched companies, President Akufo-Addo on this occasion decided to abandon his favourite LX-DIO operated by Global Jet Luxembourg and opted for German based private jet operator  K5-Aviation.

K5-Aviation has been licensed to operate their luxury fleet by the German National Aviation Authority (Luftfahrt-Bundesamt, LBA) since June 2011.

As usual, President Akufo-Addo ordered their top-of-the-range and most expensive aircraft in their collection  the Airbus ACJ319. It is registered D-Alex.

Its serial number is 5963, Type Code A319 and a Mode S of 3C70B8.

Being a more expensive luxury carrier, its oligarchic features include: Master bedroom with double bed and connecting bathroom with shower; 2 additional bedrooms; 3 washrooms; Master bathroom with walk-in shower; Air Humidification system; Airshow and 5 external cameras; Gogo 2Ku high speed Wi-Fi, up to 70 Mbit/sec for streaming and video calls (charged extra); Video on demand and DVD including a 55 screen; music streaming; PlayStation; external cameras with tailfin view; airshow and a satellite phone.

The 19-VVIP-passenger D-Alex is celebrated for its 5,600 nm = 10,400 km range; equipped with 5 auxiliary center tanks for intercontinental range and non-stop flights up to 12 hours; Maximum take-off weight 76,500 kg and an impressive Maximum altitude of 41,000 ft = 12,400m.

This luxury monster is costing the Ghanaian taxpayer 20,000 an hour.

For President Akufo-Addos current trip to Belgium and Rwanda beginning Sunday the 19th of June, 2022 to attend the 15th Edition of the European Development Days Forum in Brussels, Belgium, and the 26th Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations in Kigali, Rwanda; we can confirm a conservative bill of 480,000.00.

The 480,000 Euros which is derived from 21 hours of total flight time plus other industry charges works out to some 4.1million Ghana Cedis at current exchange rate.

I must, however, commend First Lady, Mrs. Rebecca Akufo-Addo for honourably flying to Kigali aboard Ghanas Presidential Jet which took her some 4hours and 49minutes. Her confidence in Ghanas Presidential Jet is refreshing and deeply admirable. Ghanaians are exceedingly proud of her.

It must definitely take a rare kind of insulting insensitivity for President Akufo-Addo to be this wasteful and obstinate at a time Ghanaians are facing a cost of living crisis.
Mr. Isaac Adongo, Member of Parliament (MP) for the Bolgatanga Central constituency, has intimated that the errors in the finance ministers account are the reason Mr. Ofori Atta was avoiding Parliament.

He evealed that the finance ministers account of the COVID-19 fund does not tally with the President's initial report.

Speaking on the Maakye Show on the Accra-based Onua FM/TV, which was aired on Thursday, June 23, 2022, Mr. Adongo alleged that there is a missing 10 billion Ghana cedis from Mr. Ofori Attas account which he presented to Parliament on June 23.

The lawmaker stated that the finance minister was forced to appear before the house after the Speaker of Parliament Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin threatened to reject bills from his ministry.

His account justifies why he was running from Parliament. Does he think we wash our faces upwards? GH10billion is missing from the expenses.

The President told us the expenses were GH17.7biIlion and you also came to tell us GH18.1billion which is close. So why this amount today? Ive never seen a government much experienced in thievery as this. So it means he was dodging because of the missing GH10billion? It means if we didnt have the power to prevent him from taking further monies, he wouldnt have come, he bemoaned.

Did you take 17.7b or the 22b that youre now saying its 12b? Even that money, what did you use it for? Youve never mentioned GH12b but GH18.1b and GH22b so where is the remaining GH10b? he said.

Mr. Adongos allegations were a response to the finance minister, Mr. Ofori Attas account concerning the COVID-19 fund which the Minority claim was fraught with discrepancies.

Addressing Parliament, Ken Ofori-Atta stated, Mr. Speaker, to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on businesses and households, ensure that economic activities recover and minimize job losses, the government mobilised GH18.19 billion out of the programmed GH19.3 billion in 2020 from various funding sources.

Mr. Speaker, for the years 2020 and 2021, the programmed expenditure amounted to GH15,763.48 million for the COVID-19-related expenditures out of which the actual utilisation was GH12,036.41 million."

But Mr. Adongo, again, cited page 274 of the 2021 Budget Statement and Economic Policy, Appendix 12 (b), which contains the performance funding of COVID-19 sources. He stressed that the total expenditure that the Finance Minister could not account for was GH22.1 billion.
Head of the legal team of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Abraham Amaliba has shared that he believes Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Attas account of the Covid expenditure has created room for more interrogation.

The Finance Minister on Wednesday, June 24, 2022, finally visited Parliament to give an account of how the government through his ministry spent Covid funds.

After his presentation, the Minority in Parliament was dissatisfied and called for a further breakdown.

They claims the numbers don't add up.

Mr. Speaker Im also holding with me here message on the State of the Nation by HE Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo presented to this August house Wednesday 30th March 2022at Parliament House and Mr. Speaker I refer you to page and I quote In all data from the Ministry of Finance tells us that and amount of GHS17.7 billion or 4.6% of GDP has been spent in containing the pandemic since 2020. Then the Minister of Finance says GHS12 billion. Who should we believe? The President of the Minister?

So Mr. Speaker, for us, a probe and an open public inquiry into Covid expenditure beyond the headline numbers of the Minister of Finance is inevitable and an imperative. We are not looking for headline figures. I spent 12 billion, 12 billion on what? We need the expenditure returns and expenditure details of every amount, Minority Leader Hon. Haruna Iddrisu said on the floor of Parliament on Wednesday.

Sharing his thoughts on the call for a further probe, Abraham Amaliba says it is in order.

According to him, the account given by Ken Ofori-Atta opened room for interrogation.

The Finance Ministers presentation has not ended the matter. It rather creates room for more interrogation, Mr. Amaliba said while speaking to TV3 on the New Day programme.

Meanwhile, the Committees of Finance and Health have already been directed by the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin to inquire into the Covid expenditure.

The directive is for the Committee on Finance, supported by the Committee on Health to investigate and inquire further into the application and utilization of all the revenues received, referred to as Covid-19 fund, and to report to the House, the Speaker said last Wednesday.
24.06.2022 LISTEN

The Group Chairman of the Afro Arab Group of Companies Ambassador Alhaji Salamu Amadu has said Africa must not be begging for aid having over 840,000,000 energetic youth under 25 years.

Ambassador Alhaji Salamu believes His Excellency President Nana Addo's dream of Ghana beyond aid should include Africa beyond aid.

Speaking at the HIVE AFRICA Global Leaders Program at the Golden Tulip Westland Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya on the 22nd of June, 2022, Ambassador Salamu noted that it is time for the leaders of Africa to wake up from their sleep and do something for the youth on the African continent by giving them the opportunity to bring ideas to governing African nations.

"I don't believe why we are not there where we have over 840,000,000 youth under the age of 25 years which is more than the entire population of the continent of Europe, North America, Australia/Oceania, South America and Antarctica, human resources is everything human resources is a game-changer," he stated.

According to him, Africa should have been competing with the Asian tigers using all the natural resources the African continent has been blessed with.

"I think is Asia, China that we should be competing with, aside all the resources that we are blessed with human resources alone should be our weapons of mass destruction" he stated.

He added that even though Ghana is a special country he loves Nigeria. He indicated that Africa is the best place to live.

"Ghana is a special country, I love Nigeria and Africa is the place to live", he emphasised.
Okyenhene, Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin is urging government to take immediate steps to dualize the major road network across the country to reduce the constant road accidents.

The Okyenhene who expressed worries over the numerous accidents being recorded on the major roads due to their poor state blames the situation on the failure of the past governments to dualize them.

According to the Okyenhene, the accidents occurring on daily basis will be reduced when the roads across the country are in good shapes, hence there is an urgent need to dualize most of the major roads to save lives.

The Okyenhene was making the comments when the team from the NHIA led by Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye paid a courtesy visit to him to officially seek his support and advice since he was appointed as the CEO of the NHIA by the President.

Dr. Okoe Boye was accompanied by his two Deputy Chief Executives and other management members.

Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin explained that For 65 years I dont understand why we are unable to dualize the Accra to Kumasi road until social-economical President Akufo-Addo began the dualization from Nsawam to Apedwa.

He continues, and since the dualization began there has never been one vehicular accident, ask yourself why? And we are allowing people to just die, when we do the roads well it is not only for safety purposes but it is connecting disadvantaged people of their communities to the social-economic opportunity that will help all of us.

The Chief Executive Officer of the NHIA Dr. Okoe Boye said the Okyenhene has always been his backbone at any given time hence it is imperative to accord him the needed respect to officially seek his blessings and support following his appointment as the CEO of the NHIA and it doesnt come at any good time than the period when Okyeman is preparing to celebrate the Ohum festival.

Dr. Okoe Boye further revealed that as part of the government flagship programs and initiatives, NHIS is bringing on board new interventions to benefit the Ghanaian population.

He explained that Through Nana Akufo-Addo, we are coming up with new initiatives, today we have extended the health insurance to cover certain things at first it will not cover.

At first the insurance does not cover children who suffer from cancer but now from next month July children with cancer will be treated free once they have registered on the health insurance, he said.

The second one is about children with sickle cell, there is a special medicine called hydroxyzine urea that we have been able to get through the able leadership of Nana Akufo-Addo, and this medicine when given to a sickle cell patient it takes away the pains and gives them the quality of lives they deserve to live long without any suffering therefore from next month health insurance will take care of sickle cell patients.

He added that our law says if you are 70 years and above and you register for health insurance, you dont have to pay any premium, you only have to pay processing fees, GHC 5 for rural area dwellers and GHC7 for those in the cities and it takes one month before your card begins to work so we have realized that it is affecting most of the elderly in our society since they get stranded at most hospitals.

Because of that, my board chairman has given me the green light to announce to Ghanaians that from next month if you are 70 years and above and you have your NHIS card, there will be instant card activation for all such persons who fall within that category.

DGN online
An Accra Circuit Court has granted a GH100,000.00 bail with three sureties to a building technician who allegedly defrauded a lecturer of GH165,096.04 under the pretext of securing him 18 plots of land.

The Court, presided over by Mr Samuel B. Acquah, ordered that all the sureties should be residents within the jurisdiction of the Court, adding that one of the sureties should be justified with a landed property valued GH100,000.00 whilst the rest should be civil servants who earn not less than GH3,000.00.

Nii Armah Ashiboye also known as William Armah Boye, has pleaded not guilty to defrauding by false pretense, having no land title and having no authority to sell the pieces of land.

He is to make his next appearance on July 6, 2022.

Police Chief Inspector Agartha A. Asantewaa told the Court that Dr Kwabena Frimpong Manso Opuni, the complainant, is a lecturer at the University of Ghana Legon.

The accused person is a Building Technician/Surveyor at Tema and in April 2021, the complainant met the accused person at Saasabi near Appolonia City through his friend, who asked the accused person to pick coordinates of a piece of land the complainant had purchased.

She said during their encounter, Boye told the complainant that he had 18 plots of land he was offering for sale at the cost of GH600,000.00 at Saasabi which the complainant agreed to buy for a school project.

Prosecution said the complainant visited the land together with the accused person for inspection and as the complainant was performing due diligence on the land, the accused with intent to defraud, quickly requested for a part payment of GH300,000.00.

Chief Inspector Asantewaa said the complainant rather paid GH 165,096.04 in the form of GHC10,000.00 cash, cheques on various dates totaling GH149,096.04 and US$10,000.00.

The Court heard that the complainant later realized that the land in question did not belong to the accused person having conducted a search at the Lands Commission, thus, he confronted the accused person for his money but to no avail.

She said on November 17, 2021, the complainant reported the case to the Police and during investigation, the accused denied the allegation leveled against him and insisted that the said land belonged to him.

Police Chief Inspector Asantewaa said investigation at Saasabi where the land was located established that the land was a stool land, adding that Boye is a family member but could not sell the land without the knowledge of the Chief, Nii Ashitey Saasabi II.

The Chief, Nii Ashitey Saasabi II, a witness, told the Police that the said land had been under litigation with the people of Oyibi since 2006 and that in June 2015, he won the case and only four acres was apportioned to the accused but not 18 plots as he had sold, the Court heard.

Prosecution said the witness reiterated that he was not aware of any transaction between the accused and the complainant though he is a principal signatory to all documents in relation to lands at Saasabi.

Further investigation, Chief Inspector Asantewaa said, revealed that, currently there was a civil litigation ongoing on the said land between Apollonia City Development and the people of Saasabi pending at the Tema High Court.

She said investigation established that the accused person was aware of all these facts, yet he fraudulently sold the land to the complainant.

Prosecution said a search report from the Lands Commission also showed that the accused was not the owner of the land he sold and during Police investigation, the accused refunded GH13,000.00 to the Police.

GNA
The French government has launched an alert system to notify everyone with a mobile phone in the event of an emergency.

A full-screen notification, accompanied by a shrill sound called FR-Alert, has been deployed by the French authorities to issue a warning to anyone in the country with a smartphone.

On conventional phones, an SMS notification is received.

Several experiments have been carried out across France in recent months, with the exercises - which sometimes surprised the inhabitants of the towns which were participating in the tests - consisting, in one instance, of warning the population of a leak from a petrochemical site.

According to France's Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, FR-Alert will be fully operational for use in a real emergency situation by the end of the month.

The alerts will cover several types of emergencies: natural disasters, industrial, chemical or nuclear accidents, serious road accidents or terrorist attacks.

Technological advantage

The advantage of the FR-Alert system is that it targets a precise population area, to warn people in immediate danger..

The messages will mainly be used to specify the nature and location of the emergency, as well as instructions on what to do.

The warnings are sent using a technology called "cellular broadcasting" and based on a dedicated broadcast channel.

That means the notifications are not likely to be slowed down in case of mobile network congestion, unlike simple SMS messages.

The French government has assured that no personal or geolocation data will be collected by the authorities during the broadcast.

Notifications will appear on all 4G or 5G compatible smartphones, even if they are locked.

However, mobiles that are switched off or in aeroplane mode cannot be reached.

European obligation

The use of mobile networks and the functions integrated into smartphones makes it possible to reach a large part of the population, without requiring the installation of a specific application.

This is a significant advantage, after the failure of the SAIP application, launched by the government after the 2015 attacks, which was only installed by a handful of French people.

The application had also been criticised for its inefficiency.

During the Nice attack on 14 July 2016, it only issued alerts a few hours after the tragedy.

The FR-Alert system is far from new. It has been used for 15 years in Japan, for 13 years in Sri Lanka and for a decade in the United States.

Other countries such as Canada, Peru, Chile and New Zealand also use it.

However, because of its high cost - several tens of millions of euros - the technology was long rejected by France.

The rolling out of FR-Alert is in line with a European directive dating from 2018, which obliges all EU countries to deploy this technology by 21 June 2022 at the latest.

According to the Ministry of the Interior: "All the tests will be completed by 28 June. We are currently working to raise awareness among the population and the prefectures on this subject."
Prince Charles told Commonwealth leaders Friday that the choice to become a republic or abandon the queen as head of state was theirs alone, and expressed "personal sorrow" at Britain's legacy of slavery.

The British heir to the throne addressed the opening of a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Rwanda as the host nation faced scrutiny over its rights record and a much-criticised migrant deal with the UK.

Charles is representing Queen Elizabeth II as the 54-nation grouping of mostly former British colonies grapples with questions over its future relevance and modern profile.

Republican movements are taking root in a number of Commonwealth nations and some are seeking reparations for colonial-era injustices like slavery.

Charles acknowledged the change underfoot and said the Commonwealth -- which represents one-third of humanity -- would always be "a free association of independent, self-governing nations".

"The Commonwealth contains within it countries that have had constitutional relationships with my family, some that continue to do so, and increasingly those that have had none," he told an audience of presidents and prime ministers.

"I want to say clearly, as I have said before, that each member's constitutional arrangement, as republic or monarchy, is purely a matter for each member country to decide."

Prince Charles said the Commonwealth would always be "a free association of independent, self-governing nations". By Dan Kitwood (POOL/AFP)

He also acknowledged that the roots of the Commonwealth -- which includes as members nations from Europe to Africa, Asia and the Americas -- "run deep into the most painful period of our history".

"I cannot describe the depths of my personal sorrow at the suffering of so many, as I continue to deepen my own understanding of slavery's enduring impact," he said.

Migrant row

Charles earlier Friday met British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has been defending his controversial deal to expel migrants from the UK thousands of miles away to Rwanda.

The scheme, which has stalled in the face of legal challenges, has been fiercely opposed by the UN, church leaders, rights groups and -- reportedly -- Charles himself.

"What I will say is as people come to Rwanda, like you have today, there are a lot of prejudices about Rwanda need to be blown away," Johnson told British media in Kigali.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has praised Rwanda's achievements under President Paul Kagame. By Dan Kitwood (POOL/AFP)

He has also heaped praise on President Paul Kagame for the "leaps and bounds" achieved in Rwanda, despite widespread concerns over a lack of political freedom and civil liberties in the tiny African nation.

Rights groups have openly questioned the suitability of Rwanda hosting the Commonwealth, which has a charter that enshrines respect for democracy and human rights as core shared values.

More than 20 rights groups and civil society organisations issued an open letter before the summit saying a "climate of fear" exists under Kagame, whose party came to power after the horrors of the 1994 genocide.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has also called on Britain to condemn Rwanda over its alleged "aggression" in the mineral-rich eastern Congo, where Kigali has been accused of stoking a rebellion.

Johnson himself is facing a political crisis back home after his Conservatives suffered a crushing defeat in parliamentary by-elections.

Direction and purpose

The Commonwealth's closed-door summit meetings are missing some heavyweights, including Narendra Modi of India, South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa and Australia's Anthony Albanese who sent envoys in their place.

The Commonwealth represents about one-third of humanity. By Simon MAINA (AFP/File)

The body has come under scrutiny over its relevance but supporters say the expansion of membership to nations with no historic ties to Britain underscores its value and prestige.

The two newest members are Mozambique and host Rwanda. West African states Togo and Gabon are expected to join the club at this summit.

"More nations are seeking to join, which shows you everything you need to know about the health and vitality of our Commonwealth," said Johnson.

Friday will also bring to a head a tussle for the leadership of the Commonwealth that has turned ugly at times.

Jamaica's Foreign Minister Kamina Johnson Smith is challenging Patricia Scotland for the post as secretary-general, despite Commonwealth convention dictating the incumbent should stand unopposed for a second term.

Johnson Smith has the backing of the UK, which has publicly expressed dissatisfaction with Scotland's stewardship of the organisation.
24.06.2022 LISTEN

Overwhelming pressure is mounting against the planned construction of the Uganda-Tanzania Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) so that it doesnt proceed as originally intended. The pressure is exerted against the project partners including Chinese Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and the governments of Uganda and Tanzania but mainly against majority stakeholders, the French oil company, TotalEnergies. The development has taken a broad global dimension such that activists have involved the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis, the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres as well as French President, Emmanuel Macron. The leaders are asked to exert their influential positions on global climate change and stop the project. Based on previous trends, chances are high that the EACOP project risks failure.

Who is behind the war?

The answer is hypothetical, actually speculative so-to-say. But it can be perceived from probing questions as above. First, the anti-EACOP campaigners are not smart enough. Whereas they are well schooled in articulation they are inadequate in substance. Covering an area of 1,443-kilometres, upon completion, the project will become the worlds longest heated crude oil export pipeline. To this, campaigners warn of serious threats to protected wildlife and water sources for millions of people. They are worried about the projects low Sulphur content, which requires heating above 50C in order to flow, thereby emitting 33 million tons of CO2 annually and causing a disastrous atmospheric hazard to both humanity and biodiversity. Solution? Cancel the project! Kill it! But this is the extent to which only a deployed head can go. A free head goes beyond. True that there are a number of threats, even more than can be perceived today that are associated with EACOP. But man being man was created to harness nature for survival and not vice versa. Where other shorter heated pipelines exist, also do humanity and biodiversity. These have, however, coped with and or harnessed the negative impacts of heated pipelines. The anti EACOP group surely must know thisand advise EACOP partners accordingly as another of the many available options. Besides, where EACOP originates from in Hoima district, more developments are already underwayincluding the Tilenga and Kingfisher oil drilling fields together with the refinery, which is over 70% done. These projects too, generate extraordinary heat in the atmosphere, perhaps hotter than the pipeline will. Apparently, they are surrounded by people and biodiversity. If these projects are not targeted, why is EACOP?

Who benefits and how?

In case of total failure of EACOP, viable alternatives will be identified. Key among them is the international Consortium led by United States manufacturing giants, General Electric, who might, though turn down the offer, citing similar environmental issues. But that is where the benefits are. The consortium comprising of YAATRA Africa (Mauritius), Lion Works Group Ltd (Mauritius), Nuovo Pignone International SRL (a General Electric subsidiary in Italy) and SAIPEM SpA (Italy) is already on ground, developing the Ugandan oil refinery in the western city of Hoima. The failure of EACOP, therefore, offers it sufficient supply of crude oil from which to develop oil byproducts including liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), premium and regular gasoline, jet fuel, diesel, and low-Sulphur fuel oil. By this the consortium will gain leverage to dominate a wider African free-tariff market, thereby breaking the historical domination of these markets by traditional OPEC giants of the Gulf countries, a long dream of the United States. In its agreement with the Ugandan government, the consortium will build a product pipeline linking with South Sudan and this is open to be reviewed to accommodate eastern DRC, following Kinshasas recent accession to the East African Community bloc. As the market size expands, the Consortium will definitely consider maximizing crude oil supplies by expanding to tap into the estimated USD650b raw crude oil industry of the DRC.

TotalEnergies can retain ground, restore confidence

In this war, it is wasteful of resources for the French company to invest in counter arguments. The fears identified are real and devastative. Simply TotalEnergies should be open to all emerging and unforeseeable hazardous challenges related with the project. Best approach, therefore, is to borrow best practices. These exist. It means engaging experience, science and scientists. Create and maintain a world class experienced and manageable group of scientists exclusively mandated to mitigate hazards emerging from climate effects of EACOP. This describes responsibility. It enhances confidence and trust.

By Swaib K Nsereko

Dept of Mass Communication, Islamic University in Uganda
Lusaka, June 23, 2022  Zimbabwean police must immediately and thoroughly investigate threats made to journalist Simbarashe Sithole in retaliation for his corruption reporting and hold those responsible to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.

On June 4, Zimbabwean Minister of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Kazembe Kazembe sent a text message to Sithole threatening legal action after the freelance journalist published two articles about alleged corruption concerning Kazembes constituency, according to Sithole, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app, screenshots of the text message reviewed by CPJ, and a report by news website Bulawayo 24 News. Sitholes articles were published by Bulawayo 24 News and led to the suspension of several local officials.

On June 5, a man who identified himself as political activist Isheanesu Dzimbiti called and threatened to assault Sithole in retaliation for the same articles, according to multiple news reports, a statement by the Zimbabwean chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa, and a recording of the call reviewed by CPJ.

CPJ called and sent text messages to Kazembe and Dzimbiti but did not receive a reply.

Reported threats of physical harm to freelance journalist Simbarashe Sithole must be thoroughly investigated by police and the alleged perpetrators prosecuted, said Angela Quintal, CPJs Africa program coordinator, from Cape Town. With tensions high ahead of next years election, it is important for authorities to send a clear message that they will not condone intimidation and harassment of journalists and police will protect the right of journalists to work safely.

Journalist Simbarashe Sithole filed a police report on June 7, 2022, following threats of legal action and assault in retaliation for his corruption reporting. (Credit withheld)

Sithole filed a report at the police station in Mvurwi town, approximately 100 kilometers (57 miles) north of the capital Harare, on June 7 against Dzimbiti, according to those sources. Sithole told the police and CPJ that he fears for his life following the threats.

The case was transferred to police in the central town of Bindura for investigation, and Sithole gave a second statement on June 13, according to the journalist and news reports. On June 21, police asked Sithole to provide them with his cell phone, so they could extract the call recording, which he declined to do.

These guys are frustrating me because they cannot say [why] they havent summoned the suspect for the past two weeks, and now they want my phone, Sithole told CPJ. Thats too muchJustice delayed is justice denied.

Zimbabwe police spokesperson Paul Nyathi told CPJ via phone call that Sitholes matter was ably being handled at a regional level in Bindura.
24.06.2022 LISTEN

The outgoing President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Mr. Roland Affail Monney has admonished the next administration to prioritise the training and safety of journalists in the country.

The veteran media practitioner is bringing his work as the GJA president to an end this week with elections ongoing today to elect new executives for the association.

Speaking to the media on expectations of the incoming administration, Mr. Affail Monney stressed that he hopes special attention will be given to the welfare and safety of journalists.

He proposes that regular training workshops are held for journalists to help improve their practice by building their capacities.

Without training, you will not achieve what is expected of you as journalists. So training should receive the top-most attention in the next administration. Then safety issues are dominant now.

We do recall the several threats against certain journalists and these threats have the tendency to have a chilling effect on press freedom. So when you are shackled by fear it will diminish your journalism output. These things should be the priority of the next administration, Mr. Affail Monney said.

The GJA election in the Greater Accra Region started early in the morning at 08:00GMT. The voting is expected to end at 15:00GMT.

All eyes are on the Presidential position which is highly contested by Mr. Dave Agbenu, Mr. Gayheart Mensah and Mr. Albert Kwabena Dwumfuor.

Registered journalists in good standing are encouraged to visit any of the voting centres at GBC, Graphic, GNA, and the international press centre to cast their ballot.
Members of Parliaments Committee on Health have expressed deep concerns about some major challenges confronting the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) and called for urgent government intervention to address them.

The Committee maintains that the hospital, which is a teaching facility and major referral center must be given all the attention needed to boost the countrys healthcare delivery.

A major block of the hospital, popularly called the GEE BLOCK, is currently experiencing structural defects, with authorities warning of a looming danger.

We have spoken about the nature of the GEE block. It is very weak, and our attention has been drawn to the fact that authorities have told the Minister responsible for health, says Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, Ranking Member for Parliament Committee on Health.

The hospital has for years grappled with congestion at its emergency and key units and department- a situation that is affecting medical care delivery.

But Kwabena Mintah Akandoh wants the issues to be addressed urgently to avert any possible disaster.

Our plea is that, now that the attention of the committee and the minister has been drawn, we shouldnt wait for a disaster to happen before we pretend to be responding to it. Much must be done because KATH deserves much better than we are seeing, he emphasised.

---citinewsroom
A Research Fellow at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, Accra (NMIMR), Dr. Joseph Kofi Humphrey Bonney has warned that if the country does not return to strict enforcement of the Covid-19 protocols, the Covid situation will overburden the country.

Mr Bonney said that in his estimation, the President of Ghana has technocrats and advisors who are competent to offer cogent advice to him but from his professional view, he thinks Ghana should go back to the protocols and it should be strictly adhered to.

He told Alfred Ocansey on 3FM Sunrise Morning Show, Thursday 23 June, 2022 that although relatively, Covid-19 cases in Ghana are on the low, there is a need for the government to take steps to ensure that the situation does not get worse hence the need to go back to the protocols.

Let's go back to those protocols that we were holding on to so dearly when the cases were going up and we were able to bring it down by observing the protocols. We should aggressively go back to what we were doing he insisted

He observes that some countries are going on lockdown and their cases are even rising, however people in Ghana after the relaxation of the protocols do not care about wearing of the nose mask especially children and it is part of the reason why we are recording cases among children 0  15 years now.

Ghana's Covid-19 statistics currently stands at; Confirmed Cases 163,191, Deaths 1,445, Active Cases 1,026 and New Cases 120. According to the Ghana Health Service through the Director-General, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye Currently, of the Accra cases, about 18.1% on average are among children aged between 0-15, obviously these are unvaccinated .

The health expert with Noguchi also opines there is enough data that gives us a cause to vaccinate children because the more we broaden the coverage of the vaccination, the more we can attain herd immunity. There is enough proof that the vaccine preserves lives no matter the severity of Covid-19

Dr. Bonney cautions that Covid-19 has not gone yet for Ghanaians to be careless with the protocols and not even take the vaccine.

I know the Ghana Health Service (GHS) are doing well with the campaign to get people to take the vaccine but I don't know why they are not going for the vaccine. You know Covid-19 starts with small numbers and then it goes up so we have to be more careful and don't have to wait for it to get there before we go back to the protocols that worked for us he concluded.

---3news.com
24.06.2022 LISTEN

An Accra High Court hearing the trial of Dr Stephen Opuni, former CEO of COCOBOD and two others Wednesday dismissed a motion to stay proceedings, pending an interlocutory appeal at the Court of Appeal.

The Court presided over by Justice Clemence Honyenugah, a Supreme Court Justice, sitting as an additional High Court Judge, said upon a perusal of the documents filed, l do not think the grounds for appeal has any chance of success.

He said the applicant had not demonstrated any exceptional circumstances to warrant the grant of stay of proceedings in his favour.

Dr Opuni and Mr Seidu Agongo are facing 27 charges, including defrauding by false pretences, wilfully causing financial loss to the state, money laundering, corruption by public officer and contravention of the Public Procurement Act.

They have both pleaded not guilty to the charges and are on a GHS300,000.00 self-recognisance bail each.

The Judge said it was interesting to note how the applicant, who was alleged to have self-isolated, signed affidavit in support.

He said the applicant never sent a medical excuse to the Court but rather what he sent was dated June 5, 2022, was a laboratory report that showed that he tested positive to COVID-19.

The Trial judge said the Court had never bridged the applicant's right to fair hearing.

Mr Samuel Codjoe, Defence Counsel, said the application for stay was filed under 19(2) and 19(3) of the 1992 constitution and under the inherent jurisdiction of the Court.

He said they relied on all the averment contained in the affidavit together with the exhibits which they filed in the Court.

The Counsel referred to the case of Merchant bank Ghana Limited Vrs Similar Waste Ghana limited reported in 2012 (1) Supreme Court of Ghana Law Report at page 442.

In that case, the Supreme Court held that if a stay, suspension was another remedy; even though these cases were civil, the principles initiated in the matter were applicable.

He said, we are falling on your lordship to stay proceedings as contained in our affidavit in support the inherent jurisdiction has been given constitutional effect.

Mr Codjoe, therefore called upon the Court to stay and or suspend proceedings under its inherent jurisdiction and under 19(2) & (3) pending the determination of their appeal.

He said the condition under 19(3) was that the constitution required the presence of an accused person before a trial could go ahead unless the accused person refused to make himself available and/ or misconduct himself during the trial.

The Counsel said that was moot because he was here and present.

The applicant also referred to 19(2(g)) which required that the Dr Opuni to be afforded the opportunity to be examined in person.

He said on a true and proper interpretation of Article 19(2)(g), the Court erred when it stated that we called our witnesses out of turn and that the prosecution did not have this condition imposed on it when it was conducting its case.

He said this was because there were instances where the Court adjourned the case to enable their witnesses who were not present in court to appear before the Court.

Mr Codjoe said the case being a criminal trial, their right to a fair trial would be breached if we are ordered to call our witnesses out of turn.

He said it was important that a witness completed its evidence before another was called and it was very possible that based on the evidence of the witness in the box, they might not need to call a further witness.

The Codjoe said in any case, they would suffer irreparable hardship if a stay and /or suspension was not granted and the issue of calling their witness out of turn was not moot.

We, therefore, pray accordingly and we rely on the case of J.H Mensah Vrs A-G which is reported in 1996/7 Supreme Court of Ghana Law report, he added

Mrs Stelle Ohene Appiah, Principle State Attorney, said the Prosecution was opposed to the grant of the application and we rely on our affidavit in opposition filed on June 20, 2022.

She said the grant of stay of proceedings was at the discretion of the Court and the applicant must show that there was the existence of an exceptional or exceptional circumstance raising out of the trial.

She said they had been told by the applicant that calling witnesses out of ten was inconveniencing to the applicant and because of that it affected his right.

We submit that when the Court ordered for the third defence witness to be called whiles the second defence witness reported ill and the further order for the applicant to call another witness whiles the fourth witness is yet to conclude his evidence via video call, it is well within the jurisdiction of this court, she added.

She said the Judge acted within the power allowed it by the laws of this land, indicating that the applicant had already indicated to the Court the number of witnesses he intended calling and had subpoenas issued out to some of the witnesses.

Mrs Ohene Appiah said it was not the case that the applicant was now going round to look for his witnesses and therefore the Court order to him to call a witness out of turn was such a grave order that would jeopardize his defence.

She said the applicant had not demonstrated any exceptional circumstance to the Court in any way, how this court order to him to call his witness out of turn constitute a ground for which the Court should grant them stay.

We therefore submit that the application should be refused, and this trial be continued since the Court order does not in any way err in law, she added.

GNA
Ghanas Chief Justice, Kwasi Anin Yeboah has implored new Lawyers called to the BAR to look beyond the monetary gains in their practice of law.

In an advise, the Chief Justice charged the new lawyers to hasten slowly as they practice law and see to it that they do not take the legal profession as a gold mine with focus only on amassing wealth.

I wish to remind you from the outset that the distinguished profession you are joining is a demanding one which requires a firm commitment to excellence underpinned by an unbending at the Bar zeal for hard work.

Your success cannot be perceived in purely monetary and material terms only and I say this with great emphasis because the legal profession is not a gold mine, Chief Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah said.

The Chief Justice continued, So hasten slowly and learn, bearing in mind that those who work well while abiding by the ethics of the profession reap the rewards of a good harvest.

more enduring success is one that derives from professional values and work that impacts positively on society as a whole, particularly, on the lives of the underprivileged, the poor and the voiceless.

Chief Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah offered this advise at a ceremony in Accra during a mini call to the BAR of some 95 newly qualified lawyers.

Chief Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah further urged the new lawyers to make it a point to seek training and additional education when the opportunity presents itself.

it is imperative that you avail yourselves to every opportunity for regular and continuous legal education as this is the only way to keep abreast of the changes in law.

It would also be beneficial if you should take advantage of any training programmes in procedural and substantive law for legal practitioners, the CJ added.
A Magistrate Court at La in the Greater Accra Region has sentenced three persons to a fine of one thousand eight hundred Ghana cedis (Ghc1,800) each or in default serve two months imprisonment for flouting sanitation by-law by dumping refuse indiscriminately within the municipality.

The presiding judge His Lordship Mr. Jojo Amoah Hagan passed the sentence upon the facts presented before him by the sanitation prosecutor for Korle Klottey Municipal Assembly (KoKMA), Mr. Edward Okai.

Presenting the facts before the La magistrate court, the prosecutor Mr. Edward Okai told the court that the accused persons were among a group of residents who picks refuse from homes, shops, restaurants, chop bars and dumps them on the streets within the municipality, especially along the Cocoa Marketing Board (CMB) enclave which is part of the Central Business District (CBD).

According to Mr. Okai, on 19th day of June between the hours of 3pm and 5pm a special task force from the Korle Klottey Municipal Assembly spotted the accused persons dumping refuse along the Kwame Nkrumah Avenue at the junction of Farrar Avenue. He added that immediately they were arrested and after investigation they were charged to appear before the court at La, hence their convicted for flouting the sanitation by-law of the assembly.

Prosecutor Mr. Edward Okai also warned residents who gives out their refuse to these "guys on the street/junkies should stop doing so since they risk been prosecuted for receiving service from unapproved service providers.

Municipal Chief Executive honourable Nii Adjei Tawiah commended the Environmental Health Unit for a yeoman's job and promise to resource their outfits in order to intensify education on the campaign 'Operation Clean your Frontage' within all the electoral areas in the municipality.
24.06.2022 LISTEN

A Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) in special consultative status Reseau Unite pour le Developpement de Mauritanie has called on the Human Rights Council of the United Nations to take steps to resolve the conflict in Western Sahara and stop the source of terrorism in Sahel and Saharan region.

The NGO, in a statement to the UN Human Right Council noted that the conflict in the region had become a burden on the international community despite clear signals of possible diplomatic solutions.

Additionally, the NGO noted that this long-lasting conflict is a threat to peace and stability in both North Africa and the Sahel and Sahara region.

The statement noted that the residents of the Western Sahara region were looking for a peaceful solution that protects them from the isolation and division they have been experiencing due to the camps and the separation wall.

The Saharawi families, since 1976, have been living in division and scattering due to the insistence of the parties to the conflict not to provide concrete solutions to lift the siege on their victims.

The residents of the camps have been greatly affected by the repercussions of the covid pandemic, without support from any government.

The political decision in the Tindouf camps may not be in the hands of the Polisario as it is believed that Algeria plays a role in controlling and dominating the choices of the Sahrawis.

The NGO therefore drew the attention of the independent Commission for Human Rights to the concern that Algeria may take destructive decisions for the future of these victims if not engaged early.

The statement said the Tindouf camps have become incubating structures that support and nourish terrorism and organized crime and thus exploit the youth.

The NGO called on the Council to end the conflict and help take effective steps to urge Algeria to accept a peaceful and realistic solution, which Morocco has positively done to resolve the conflict by proposing autonomy since 2007.

It added that the opportunity was ripe to allow the Polisario leaders to accept autonomy as a solution to the conflict, especially since there was increasing international recognition for considering autonomy as the credible and rational solution to resolving the conflict in Western Sahara.

Additionally, the American recognition of Moroccos sovereignty over Western Sahara is a strong signal that the population received with satisfaction and acceptance, and it must be exploited in order to push for the adoption of autonomy based on respect for human rights and to enable the Sahrawis to enjoy their full economic, civil and political rights, preserve their culture and benefit from the natural resources of the Western Sahara region.

It therefore called for respect for human rights in the Western Sahara region by both Morocco and Algeria and under all circumstances and consider that autonomy provides an important opportunity for the Sahrawis to enjoy a decent and peaceful life.

The NGO further rejected the exploitation of Sahrawi children and their recruitment into the Western Sahara conflict; called on the international community not to remain silent and to ensure that those responsible for recruiting children in the camps do not go unpunished.

Also, it urged the UNHCR in Tindouf camps to take all preventive measures to protect Sahrawi children from exploitation and recruitment in military activities.
Somalia's new President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said on Friday he is isolating after testing positive for Covid-19, shortly after returning from a trip to the United Arab Emirates.

"So far, I have no symptoms but I will continue to self-isolate and serve the people of Somalia from home," he said on Twitter.

"I ask we all keep each other safe by following public health advice and guidelines."

The 66-year-old president returned Friday from the United Arab Emirates where he had made his first official trip abroad since his election on May 15.

Mohamud is a former academic and peace activist who was previously president from 2012 to 2017 but whose first administration was dogged by claims of corruption and infighting.

The troubled Horn of Africa nation has recorded 26,748 coronavirus cases of which 1,361 have been fatal, according to the World Health Organization.
The National Bank of Bahrain (NBB) has been honoured with the Best Retail Bank Award at the Mena Banking Excellence Awards 2022 instituted by MEED (Middle East Economic Digest). The accolade recognises NBBs commitment to providing best-in-class products and services to its customers in line with its brand promise of being Closer to You.

With its history and leading position in the banking sector, NBB received this prestigious award in recognition of its achievements in the Retail Banking sector. The bank was acknowledged for its continuous efforts in providing tailored products and services to meet the needs of its customers as part of a diverse line-up of digital banking services.

NBB honours its commitment toward integrating ESG initiatives through its offerings. The bank continues to offer eco-friendly and sustainable financing plans by partnering with a range of organisations in the kingdom. Over the course of the year, the bank has provided its customers with special rates when purchasing hybrid/electric cars as well as the installation of solar energy panels.

Retail banking NBBs pillar

Commenting on the award, Jean-Christophe Durand, CEO of NBB, said: Retail Banking is a pillar of NBBs activities and this award underscores our efforts and dedication towards our customers and community as we continue to offer products and services that aim to enrich our customers lives and facilitate their banking transactions.

NBB strives to work towards positioning itself as the Bank of Choice in this rapidly changing industry. We look forward to embedding a culture of social responsibility and strong governance both within and outside of the organisation.

Subah Abdullatif Al Zayani, Chief Executive  Retail Banking at NBB, stated: Winning the Mena Banking Excellence Awards 2022 fortifies our leading position in the retail banking segment. We have taken great strides over the past few years and significantly improved our products and services by listening to our customers needs and prioritising their requirements, placing them at the centre of our operations. We endeavour to position the bank as a market leader through its various initiatives and digital innovations.

Standard for digital transformation

Commenting on NBBs achievements, MEED Mena Banking Excellence Awards Judging Panel said: The National Bank of Bahrain has set the standard for digital transformation and led the kingdoms digital revolution achieving stellar year-on-year results across key business metrics. Clear leadership complements sound strategy which is fully responsive to changing customer demands. Leveraging technology expertly, the bank looks set for ongoing success."

NBB has been resilient in its growth journey, taking the lead as the preferred bank of choice, both locally and regionally. NBB aims to further develop its business practices and continues to honour its promise of being Closer to You'.-- TradeArabia News Service
24.06.2022 LISTEN

On Wednesday the 22nd of June, the General Secretary of the NPP, Mr John Boadu visited the Oti region for the very second time since the creation of the region.

The first visit was during the regional annual delegates conference in 2021.

Wednesdays visit was supposed to be a campaign tour ahead of the July 2022 national election of which he is seeking re-election as GS.

The supposed campaign tour unfortunately turned out to be an attack tour when the GS, the Adwenkese3 of our time, rather dedicated his entire tour to attack his opponent.

As a General Secretary of a party like the NPP, seeking to be re-elected to serve the party again, the revered delegates of Oti were very expectant of the Adwenkese3 to come and tell them what he has done over the years as GS and his good strategies and policies he intends to implement to ensure the party breaks the 8 years jinx.

To the surprise of the Oti delegates, no one can really remember exactly the message Adwenkese3 brought to Oti except the needles attacks on his opponents particularly Lawyer Justin Frimpong Kodua (JFK) and the wonton display of opulence and arrogance.

The General Secretary is currently touring the regions with the Bono regional chairman, Chairman Abrony3 DC as hes popularly called. Chairman Abrony3s assigned role in the team is to attack JFK and that is exactly what he has successfully done in the Oti Region.

Most of the attacks would not be pleasant to be shared here since the sanctity of our government must be protected at all times regardless of our level of desperation.

One thing they have shamefully forgotten is that, anytime you attack any government institution, you would rather be exposing our government as being incompetent and not the said agency or the individual heading that agency.

For instance, Chairman Abrony3 accuses the CEO of YEA for still keeping NDC members as staff of Zoomlion.

Is that how desperate we have become that we can even falsely incite our own people against our own government?

Since when has Zoomlion become a state agency for government to determine who is employed there?

What at all would make someone like Chairman Abrony3 to attack fine gentleman like JFK because he thinks JFK should have issued a directive for all Zoomlion staff to be sacked and replaced with NPP loyalists? Like seriously!

Why are we failing to tell ourselves the truth just because we are so desperate for power?

For purposes of education, let me state it clearly here, that Zoomlion is a wholy private company that determines how many staff they want to employ, at what time and to do what work. They run their own budget and certainly would not entertain any direct or indirect interference from any government including our government.

That the government is the majority client of Zoomlion Ltd, does not make the company a public organization.

Again, the only relationship between Zoomlion Ghana Ltd and YEA is that, Zoomlion manages just one module of the YEA, that is the Youth in Sanitation module. And by this, my very respected friend Chairman Abrony3 thinks is enough justification for the CEO of YEA to determine who is employed as a staff of zoomlion?

What about the Metropolitan, Municipal and district Assemblys that have numerous contacts with Zoomlion?

Why cant they sack Zoomlion staff in their districts?

When you award a contract to a private company, do you determine who they employ to execute the contract?

JBs team also underscored the need for YEA to have created so many jobs for the youth of our party but the CEO failed.

What they deliberately failed to acknowledge and appreciate, is the fact that YEA is not a profit making agency hence depends solely on the government to fund its operations including recruitment. Here again, desperation wouldnt allow JB who sits in cabinet, to appreciate that the CEO would only employ party youth when the government provides funds. Do they have an idea the agitations generated each time the government delays in releasing funds for the payment of YEA beneficiaries allowances?

As General Secretary who sits in cabinet, one would have expected JB to follow these attacks of the CEO of YEA with efforts he as GS has made as someone who sits in cabinet to protect the interest of the party towards ensuring that adequate funds were made available to YEA for which the CEO failed to employ party people.

You can never sit on a tree and try to cut the very branch you are sited on.

Why are all these attacks coming now? Is it because the CEO of YEA is in a contest with JB?

Is it also to suggest that there are other supposed wicked CEOs out there who are denying party youth jobs but are being spared because they are not in a contest against JB?

Why is JFK being singled out for attacks? Why not the other aspirants for GS? Does it not suggest to all that only the tree with ripe fruits receive the most stones?

Lets not in our desperation for power, create a monster that we all would have to struggle to kill.

Whatever we say against YEA today, would expose all the good things we said about the same agency ahead of the 2020 election. We shall again use the same agency as a platform to tell Ghanaians the number of jobs we have created because we said similar things before.

Go back to all the SONA the president has addressed to parliament and you would appreciate how many jobs the president has captured YEA to have created.

Must we discredit our own achievements just because someone must be GS at all costs?

Lets also remember that our main opponents, the NDC are watching us keenly and would use these same stones we are busily gathering against us tomorrow.

What shall it profit us when we win our respective positions and loose power in 2024 because we have given enough ammunition to our opponents to kill us?

Breaking the 8 should be the focus and anything that distracts our focus must be eschewed.

The Party's interest must be placed above all personal interests.

I challenge JB and his team not to disappoint the delegates next time.

Delegates want to know what he has done all this while as General Secretary.

Delegates want to know what he has in stock for them.

They want to know why all party cards have expired and not being replaced.

They want to know how we can retrieve our lost seats and break the 8.

Delegates want to know how they can access the GS and at which office, whether party headquarters or private office. They want to know which particular number they can reach their GS on whenever they want to contact him to share very important information.

They would want to know plans for their welfare as party executives.

They also want to know how you would help improve the poor partygovernment relationship.

They want to know how resources would be adequately and timely deployed for party work.

They want to know how your sittings at cabinet inured to the benefit of the party and how the Party's interest was protected and not your personal interest.

Let us change the current attack tour into a campaign tour of issues and not the attacks on individuals we are witnessing now.

King David Nkanbonam Oti region.
The Ghana Immigration Service says rivalry among border agencies in the discharge of their duties has made security and management daunting tasks.

Mr Yaw Sarkodie Adu, Chief Superintendent, Border Management Department, Ghana Immigration Service, said, border management and security in Ghana is currently plagued with challenges such as lack of unified approach, collaboration and the uncoordinated process leading to rivalry among border agencies.

Speaking at the Migration Coordination Platform Bi-annual meeting, he said, though the National Border Security Strategy (NBSS) came into being since January 2020, to set clear directions and outline efforts required to achieve desirable results, the challenges continue to persist.

Historically, in Ghana, migration is said to be an integral part of lives and livelihoods and in recent times, changing migration dynamics have presented specific sets of challenges and opportunities for Ghana's development.

Experts say that the opportunities migration provides for Ghana if managed and harnessed efficiently would contribute to its socio-economic development.

One of the arguments made during the meeting was that though Ghana has several legal and policy frameworks that provide guidance on migration governance and with available personnel, it does not have a robust system at the land, sea, and air borders to provide the much-needed results.

Mr Sarkodie Adu, however, said activities and goals had been set at various stages of the Strategy among border agencies through the signing of a Memoranda of Agreement (MOA) to overcome the challenges.

He called for periodic review every six months to help drive consistent progress for a holistic security of Ghana's land, air and sea borders.

Prof Mariama Awumbila, at the Center for Migration Studies, University of Ghana, in a presentation, said, there were gaps in data generation, analysis, reports and dissemination on migration issues in Ghana.

Alluding to the lack of coordination and synergy, she said the agencies also had technological deficiencies where there were not enough equipment to deal with the trend of issues.

Actualizing the migration potential in stimulating national development requires quality database which recognises key migration issues in each agency, she said.

Prof Awumbila called for an urgent need for accurate, timely and disaggregated data and other forms of information on migrants and the migration process.

GNA
He believes President Mahama is the only saviour for Ghanas economic woes

According to Baah Acheamfuor, Ofori Atta has failed Akufo-Addo and the entire nation

The president is waiting for Ofori Atta to fix the mess he created, Baah Acheamfuor affirmed

Mr. Baah Acheamfour, an activist for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) says there is still hope for Ghana's economy, but certainly not under the current NPP government.

Mr. Acheamfuor further stated that former President Mahama is the only person who can save Ghana's economy if re-elected in 2024.

There is hope but not in the NPP. Because the NPP has proven that there is no hope. Today. The only hope Ghana has is calling back John Mahama in 2024," he noted.

The NPP activist revealed on XYZ TV, an Accra-based television station monitored by Modernghana News, that a former Akufo-Addo appointee confided in him that the President has lost faith in Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, the Finance Minister.

I spoke to a former appointee of the President and I am telling you that the president himself is disappointed in Ken Ofori-Atta. He is so disappointed in Ken Ofori-Atta.

"Akufo-Addo thought that Ken will deliver... Akufo Addo thought that should the party need some funds, Ken Ofori-Atta will conjure some magic to get the funds. He taught Ken was a genius and will be conjuring magic and he (Akufo-Addo) is disappointed at the current state of Ghana's economy," he said while speaking in a local dialect, Twi.

According to Mr. Acheamfuor, the reason President Akufo-Addo has not sacked the Finance Minister is to allow him time to solve the mess he has created with the economy of the country inorder to redeem his (Ken Ofori Atta) image as an economic guru.

"But he (Akufo-Addo) has no reason to sack him (Ofori-Atta) till he fixes the mess he has created. But can he fix it? No. So, in the NPP there is no hope, he emphasised.
After a rest in his native village, the coffin of the former Belgian Congo's first post-independence prime minister Friday pursued its memorial pilgrimage to the northeastern city of Kisangani.

As in Onalua village in the centre of today's Democratic Republic of Congo, where Lumumba was born in 1925, officials, dancers and tam-tams in Kisangani awaited the remains of the independence hero, executed in January 1961, four months after the end of his brief term in office.

A single tooth is all that remains of the young scholar and nationalist politician whose life and career were cut short in a dark struggle for leadership and control of resources in the central African country.

His body was dissolved in acid after he was killed, but a Belgian police officer kept the tooth as a trophy. Belgian authorities in 2016 seized the relic from his daughter.

Belgium finally returned it on Monday to Lumumba's family members during a ceremony in Brussels.

It was then placed inside a coffin for the funeral tour, 61 years late.

 'I protect Lumumba's chair' 

In a small room inside a brick building known as "1925" in Kisangani, the shelves are stacked with records and works of the colonial administration in Stanleyville, as Kisangani used to be called.

Titles ranged from "Congo Codes and Laws, 1954" and "Legal Review of the Belgian Congo" to "Palm groves in relation to ethnology".

In a photo released in December 1960, Congolese in Stanleyville, as Kisangani used to be called, support Lumumba as King Baudouin of Belgium visits the former colony. By (AFP)

Patrice Emery Lumumba worked here as a librarian for the Indigenous Labour Administration. He was also in charge of mail at the Post Office.

Joseph Lifaefi, head of an office that watches over the property, says he has heard talk of "a tourist site, but nothing concrete".

"I protect Lubumba's table and chair, the writings with his signature, his demands," he told AFP, showing the wooden chair and old grey table.

He voiced concern for precious documents, some of which date back to the 19th century, that he said should be digitised.

"This makes me feel ashamed," Lifaefi said. "There should be a museum here."

Lumumba was just 20 when he arrived in Stanleyville, a junior civil servant appointed to handle postal cheques. He went on to become the commercial director of a large brewery.

"My father was the first to welcome him," said Pauline Kimbulu, daughter of Paul Kimbulu, one of the few qualified nurses from colonial days.

"He came to eat here," Kimbulu added in front of a small home with cement walls and a tin roof.

"Let someone restore this house."

 'Extreme ambition' 

As years passed, Lumumba gained confidence and "strength of conviction" matched with eloquence and easy charm, according to Belgian cultural historian and journalist David Van Reybrouck in his prize-winning work "Congo, the Epic History of a People".

He lived until the late 1950s in Commercial District Five, where little tarmac remains on his street and the electricity supply died two years ago.

Lumumba possessed what Belgian writer David Van Reybrouck described as "extreme ambition". By - (BELGA/AFP)

He held meetings at the mythical "Circle of State of Mangobo", a hall that is now a ramshackle depot for furniture and coffins for sale.

Leader of a trade union branch, head of a local association of "evolved" minds, author of political analyses and newspaper columns, Lumumba also possessed what Van Reybrouck described as "extreme ambition".

In 1958 he launched a political party, the Congolese National Movement (MNC), which won national elections in May 1960, a month before independence.

Blaise Tresor Badjoko, a neighbour, says that his father came to live in Lumumba's home after his assassination, and died under the same roof. Badjoko believes that Lumumba's remains should rest in Kisangani, rather than in the capital Kinshasa.

From Kisangani, the coffin will be taken on Sunday to Katanga in the southeast, where a secessionist movement raged after independence and where Lumumba and his aides were tortured to death.

The burial ceremony in Kinshasa is planned for June 30, which is Independence Day.
Jubilee House has rubbished claims made by North Tongu Member of Parliament (MP) Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa against President Akufo-Addos latest trip to Belgium and Rwanda.

The MP in a post on his Facebook page on Thursday said the Presidents current trip to Belgium and Rwanda beginning Sunday the 19th of June, 2022 to attend the 15th Edition of the European Development Days Forum in Brussels, Belgium, and the 26th Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations in Kigali, Rwanda has cost the taxpayer 480,000.00 [equivalent to GHS4.1 million].

In his post, Mr. Ablakwa alleged that President Akufo-Addo travelled out of Ghana aboard a monster luxurious Airbus ACJ319 private jet.

Insisting that the claims by the North Tongu MP are false, Jubilee House has issued a press release to set the records straight.

According to the Presidency, the President travelled to Belgium onboard an Air France Commercial Flight (AF0584), which departed Accra on Sunday at 7:20pm, made a stop-over in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and then continued to Paris.

The release adds that all of President Akufo-Addos 12-member delegation travelled commercial.

Upon arrival in Paris, President Akufo-Addo and his delegation travelled via train to Brussels to attend the European Development Days event, where, on Tuesday, 21st June 2022, he was a keynote speaker, and later held meetings with the President of the European Investment Bank on two key subject areas  the financial assistance to Ghana for the Development Bank Ghana and for the construction of a vaccine manufacturing Plant in Ghana.

He also held a meeting with His Excellency Charles Michel, President of the European Council, on matters of mutual interest, especially the ongoing terrorist activities in the Sahel, the Jubilee House press release explains.

Read the full release from the Jubilee House below for more details:

For Immediate Release

RESPONSE TO HON. SAMUEL OKUDZETO ABLAKWAS CLAIMS ON PRESIDENT AKUFO-ADDOS TRIP TO BELGIUM AND RWANDA

My attention has been drawn to a Facebook post by Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Member of Parliament for North Tongu, stating categorically that for President Akufo-Addos current trip to Belgium and Rwanda beginning Sunday the 19th of June, 2022 to attend the 15th Edition of the European Development Days Forum in Brussels, Belgium, and the 26th Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations in Kigali, Rwanda; we can confirm a conservative bill of 480,000.00.

According to Hon. Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa, the Presidents trips to Belgium, and subsequently to Rwanda were aboard an Airbus ACJ319, registered D-Alex. He further adds that the 480,000 Euros which is derived from 21 hours of total flight time plus other industry charges works out to some 4.1million Ghana Cedis at current exchange rate.

These claims by the North Tongu MP are not accurate, and as a Member of Parliament, I was hoping he would have been factual and truthful in his claims, and resisted the urge to engage in propaganda.

The facts of the matter are as follows.

President Akufo-Addo left Ghana on Sunday, 19th June 2022, to attend the 15th edition of the European Development Days Forum in Brussels, Belgium. It is public knowledge that President Akufo-Addo DID NOT travel to Belgium aboard a chartered Airbus ACJ319, as is being claimed by the North Tongu MP. The President travelled to Belgium onboard an Air France Commercial Flight (AF0584), which departed Accra on Sunday at 7:20pm, made a stop-over in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and then continued to Paris. In fact, all of President Akufo-Addos 12-member delegation travelled commercial.

Upon arrival in Paris, President Akufo-Addo and his delegation travelled via train to Brussels to attend the European Development Days event, where, on Tuesday, 21st June 2022, he was a keynote speaker, and later held meetings with the President of the European Investment Bank on two key subject areas  the financial assistance to Ghana for the Development Bank Ghana and for the construction of a vaccine manufacturing Plant in Ghana. He also held a meeting with His Excellency Charles Michel, President of the European Council, on matters of mutual interest, especially the ongoing terrorist activities in the Sahel.

Indeed, prior to the Presidents departure from Accra to Brussels on Sunday, 19th June, Ghanas Mission in Brussels had sent notice of an impending strike in the aviation sector in Belgium to the Presidency and to the Foreign Ministry. Indeed, on 17th June, unionised Brussels Airline workers, including pilots and crew, had announced their decision to embark on a strike beginning Thursday, 23rd June, to Saturday, 25th June. This was going to result in the cancellation of over three hundred (300) flights, including those from Brussels to Kigali. In furtherance of this, Belgiums largest airport, Brussels Airport, was compelled to cancel all outgoing flights on Monday, 20th June, the day President Akufo-Addo arrived in Brussels, because employees at the airport had joined in an aviation sector strike.

With the Presidency having been given prior information regarding the strike action before the Presidents trip to Brussels, the option to travel using a direct commercial flight from Brussels to Kigali was not available. Thus, the decision was taken to charter a flight for President Akufo-Addo and his entourage to make the eight hour and forty-minute flight (8h 40min) flight from Brussels to Kigali on Wednesday, 22nd June. This was done to ensure that the President made it to Kigali on time to participate in the ground-breaking ceremony on Thursday, 23rd June, for commencement of work on the Pan-African Vaccine Manufacturing Project, involving Ghana, Rwanda, Senegal and BioNTech SE, the German biotechnology company, as well as attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, which also is being held in Kigali, Rwanda.

I do not think the Member of Parliament for North Tongu is suggesting, in any shape of form, that the President, in view of these challenges in Brussels and also in view of the Presidents security, should have travelled from Brussels to Amsterdam or London, for example, in the forlorn hope of trying to get a flight to Rwanda. Indeed, travel to Kigali for CHOGM has been problematic, resulting in RwandAir, the national airline of Rwanda, for example, organizing a special flight to convey Commonwealth High Commissioners, from London to Kigali, to enable them participate in the Summit.

The First Lady arrived in Kigali on Wednesday, 22nd June, using the Presidential Jet, because the plan has always been that the President and some members of his delegation, together with the First Lady, will use the Presidential Jet to make the 4-hour forty-five-minute (4hr 45mins) return flight from Kigali to Accra on Saturday, 25th June 2022. Indeed, for trips within Africa, and for trips that do not last for more than six (6) hours, the President continues to use the Presidential Jet for those trips.

One such trip to be undertaken by the President, where the Presidential Jet is to be used, will be on Sunday, 26th June, where he will travel to Lisbon, Portugal, to attend the 2022 UN Ocean Conference, and return home on Wednesday, 29th June.

Eugene Arhin

Director of Communications

Office of the President
The Presidency, Jubilee House has insisted that President Akufo-Addo only charted a private jet from Brussels, Belgium to Kigali, Rwanda, because flights are not working in the European country due to strike action.

This is contained in a press release issued by the Communications Bureau of Jubilee House following what it has described as false allegations made by North Tongu Member of Parliament (MP), Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa.

In a post on his Facebook page on Thursday night, the North Tongu MP alleged that President Akufo-Addo chartered the luxurious Airbus ACJ319 jet for his latest trip to Belgium and Rwanda at a cost of 20,000 an hour.

For President Akufo-Addos current trip to Belgium and Rwanda beginning Sunday the 19th of June, 2022 to attend the 15th Edition of the European Development Days Forum in Brussels, Belgium, and the 26th Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations in Kigali, Rwanda; we can confirm a conservative bill of 480,000.00.

The 480,000 Euros which is derived from 21 hours of total flight time plus other industry charges works out to some 4.1million Ghana Cedis at current exchange rate, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa shared in his post on Facebook.

Insisting that the claims by the North Tongu MP are false, the Presidency has issued a press release to set the records straight.

According to the Presidency, the President travelled to Belgium onboard an Air France Commercial Flight (AF0584), which departed Accra on Sunday at 7:20pm, made a stop-over in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and then continued to Paris.

The release adds that all of President Akufo-Addos 12-member delegation travelled commercial.

Upon arrival in Paris, President Akufo-Addo and his delegation travelled via train to Brussels to attend the European Development Days event, where, on Tuesday, 21st June 2022, he was a keynote speaker, and later held meetings with the President of the European Investment Bank on two key subject areas  the financial assistance to Ghana for the Development Bank Ghana and for the construction of a vaccine manufacturing Plant in Ghana.

He also held a meeting with His Excellency Charles Michel, President of the European Council, on matters of mutual interest, especially the ongoing terrorist activities in the Sahel, the Jubilee House press release has explained.

The Presidency explains that even though President Akufo-Addo had to charter a flight from Belgium to Rwanda, it was only because it was an emergency.

With the Presidency having been given prior information regarding the strike action before the Presidents trip to Brussels, the option to travel using a direct commercial flight from Brussels to Kigali was not available.

Thus, the decision was taken to charter a flight for President Akufo-Addo and his entourage to make the eight hour and forty-minute flight (8h 40min) flight from Brussels to Kigali on Wednesday, 22nd June, the Jubilee House press release signed by Eugene Arhin who is director of Communications read.
24.06.2022 LISTEN

Accra, the capital of Ghana, recently hosted the 2022 annual meetings of the African Development Bank (AfDB) from May 23rd to 27th, 2022. The forum, entitled: Achieving climate resilience and a just energy transition for Africa, marked a return to in-person sessions after two years of virtual meetings. The gathering provided an opportunity for the AfDB to release its growth forecasts for the continent.

The annual meetings of the African Development Bank (AfDB) coincided with the release of the banks yearly growth forecasts for economies on the continent. The forecast entitled, 2022 Economic Outlook Report, released on May 25th, reviewed the impact of the pandemic on different sectors of Africas economy before outlining the principal trends that could impact 2022.

AfDB predicted Sub-Saharan Africas GDP growth to be around 3.8 per cent in 2022 with Ghanas economy expected to grow by 5.3 per cent. Ghana, which is one of the largest economies on the continent, is gradually bouncing back from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The country recorded a 5 per cent increase in GDP for 2021, up significantly from the sluggish development of circa 0.4 per cent recorded in 2020.

The AfDB attributed last years growth rate to the countrys COVID-19 pandemic Alleviation and Revitalisation of Enterprises Support Programme. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank predicted growth for 2022 to be around 5.2 per cent and 5.5 per cent respectively. According to experts, this was a sign of the renewed dynamism of Ghana's economy, driven by an increase in the private sectors active economic participation, particularly in the services and agriculture sectors.

Agriculture as a key contributor to Ghanas GDP growth rate

Ghanas economic growth in 2021 was largely driven by the services and agriculture sectors, which contributed 9.4 and 8.4 per cent respectively to the countrys GDP in 2021. The agricultural sector has been one of Ghanas government development agendas. The government launched various programmes including Ghanas Agricultural Sector Investment Program, which aims to provide a framework for the long-term engagement and financing of investments in the agricultural sector.

Other projects include the Modernisation of Agriculture in Ghanas programme or the recently launched Ghana Shea Landscape Emission Reductions Project. Ghanas Shea farming attracted a lot of investment in recent years from private businesses such as Prang Agro Resources, a subsidiary of Agri Resources Group (the agricultural arm of Monaco Resources Group ). The company, also present in other strategic locations in West Africa and a member of the Global Shea Alliance, is a key contributor to the ongoing momentum towards a more sustainable production of Shea butter, whose market potential is expected to hit about $3 billion by 2027.

Cocoa cultivation, which represents a central part of the country's export resources, has also benefited from numerous investments and interventions including the implementation of a joint initiative between Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire.

Ghana currently enjoys political stability under the governance of the ruling party, the New Patriotic Party. It is expected that the Russia-Ukraine conflict, along with rising trends in global commodity prices, particularly oil and gold, which constitute the countrys major exports, will support Ghana's exports and boost the countrys earnings. The 2022 African Economic Outlook by AfDB proposed a series of policy recommendations to build back better and engender resilient economies in Africa, reduce poverty and increase Africas GDP.
Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has commended the management of Gzata Cement Limited for the bold initiative to enter the cement manufacturing industry which has been a monopoly in the country.

Thus far we are most impressed with what we have seen, and the efforts being made to expand the cement factory to make it the biggest in the sub-region.

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said this after Parliament's Joint Committee on Trade and Industry, and Works and Housing toured the Dzata Cement Limited, a wholly owned Ghanaian cement manufacturing company at Tema.

The visit by the committee members was to enable them familiarise themselves with the operations of the company.

The Majority Leader also lauded the company for employing more than 400 direct workers and about 3,000 indirect employees, which included agents and distributors across the country.

He stressed the need for Parliament to assist the company overcome the teething problems they were facing by helping them with some exemptions they may need to import equipment.

He said the government should also extend some facilities under the One District, One Factory (1D1F) to the company.

I know that some existing companies have applied to the 1D1F by way of trying to expand their outfit. what can be done by Parliament to assist the company to expand to employ Ghanaians and to also offer the economy greater resilient, he added.

Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu in his comment described the company as wealthy Ghanaian business initiative that exemplify Ghanaian enterprise and success of potential indigenous Ghanaian businesses.

He said, what it does is to wake up the political elites of Ghana to grow above petty partisanship and grow indeed truly Ghanaian indigenous business regardless of his political affiliation.

He said the opportunities of Ghana must be to the benefit of everybody, saying if there was any Ghanaian businessperson who could show promise and working to succeed, we should together support that person.

Mr Ibrahim Mahama, Executive Director of Dzata Cement Limited, briefing the Parliamentary delegation on the operations of the company disclosed that the first phase of the factory which was complete cost US$90 million.

He said the second phase which involved the building of additional plant would cost US$32 million whilst the third phase which entailed the construction of 10 silos with a capacity of 4,000 tons each would also cost US$48 million.

He revealed that the company had plans to source raw materials such as limestone locally for production from areas including Nawule and Afram Plains.

GNA
In the Uxbridge Magistrates' Court in west London, the Metropolitan Police stated that Senator Ike Ekweremadu, and his wife, Beatrice Ekweremadu, conspired to bring a child to the U.K. in order to harvest their organs. The police specifically used the word "child."

Londons Metropolitan Police told the court that the offence was "with a view to exploitation, namely organ harvesting."

The Specialist Crime team at Scotland Yard, which deals with serious offenses in the English capital, Cops began their inquiry in May, after being alerted to possible crimes being committed under British modern slavery legislation of 2015.

The child, whose details cannot be revealed to the public due to child protection laws, has been "safeguarded," the police said.

The media has it that the boy is a child from Nigeria. The boy was believed to be a 15-year-old boy to be used for organ harvesting, which the Senator and his wife, claimed was 21 years old.

In a letter from Ekweremadu, dated December 28, 2021, titled, "Re: Medical Visa Application," he wrote, "I am writing in support of the visa application made by Mr. Ukpo Nwamini David, who is currently having medical investigations for a kidney donation to Ms. Sonia Ekweremadu.

Apparently, the doctor at the Royal Free hospital assigned to perform the transplant suspended it after learning that the boy identified was a minor.

It is likely the hospital or concerned people reported that matter to the police as required by law when issues revolve around a minor.

At which time the police launched an investigation after they were alerted to potential modern slavery offenses.

What Nigerians need to know about the case is that they are accused of conspiracy to arrange and/or facilitate the travel of another person with a view to exploitation.

Whether the victim is a child, or an adult is not the point, but possible enslavement for exploitative purposes.

Nigerians need to become familiar with a 2021 Interpol report titled "Trafficking of Human Beings for the purpose of Organ Removal in North and West Africa". It specifically flagged Nigeria as a country of origin, transit, and destination, for trafficking in persons for organ removal. The report pointed out that organ trafficking exists in all regions of the world, it is of particular concern in North and West Africa, where impoverished communities and displaced populations are at greater risk of exploitation.

The senator is a barrister who should know better. The Nigerian population needs to know that in the 2015 United Kingdoms Modern Slavery Act, a section specifically stated that "Under S2, an individual commits an offence if they arrange or facilitate the travel of another with a view to that person being exploited." It is immaterial whether that person consents to the trip or whether they are a child or an adult.

The Nigeria laws, and the criminal justice system, which include the police and the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), and the law-making body in Nigeria, called the National Assembly, lack specific rules and regulations relating to organ harvesting.

So, Nigeria, where multiple incidents of troubling organ harvesting are taking place in the guise of being seen as ritual murders, remains rampant across the country.

While it is unfortunate that this is happening in the name of Nigeria, a greater lesson for the legislative and executive branches of Nigeria is to learn from the legislation in the U.K. about organ harvesting, which is a surgical procedure that removes organs or tissues for reuse, typically for organ transplantation.

While details about the victim of Ekweremadu remain sketchy, it will be interesting to know more of his actual social, economic, and educational background, as well as his family background, since it is not uncommon for a place like Nigeria with economic hardship to see illegal organ trafficking and coercion.

With Nigeria not having a regulatory body for organ harvesting, in terms of transplantation, and preservation, average citizens, doctors, brokers, and hospitals are involved in the illegal organ trade.

Like the British laws that attacked the Ekweremadu, Nigeria needs specific laws relating to human trafficking offences for the purposes of organ harvesting.

Such laws will stop illegal trading in human organs in hospitals and medical training institutions, and Nigerians will be educated that for transplantations between a living donor and a recipient to take place, they must be guided by laws, and not based on money deals. Lagos State is gradually making headway in developing a legal framework to combat and prevent the illegal removal and transplantation of human organs and tissues. The nation needs laws, policies, training, judicial, and law enforcement instruments to assist in the investigation and prosecution of trafficking in human organs.

I want to believe that Ekweremadu, a lawmaker and lawyer, and a former Deputy Senate President, is not, along with his wife, involved in plotting to get a child to the UK to harvest organs, since the physical, psychological, and emotional effects on the child can be very harmful.

The current moment regarding the legal respect of human life and the legal approach to organ use brings me to Ekweremadus current relations with the people due to the Obi phenomenon.

I hope Ekweremadu is not confronting his nemesis that is the will of Nigeriansthe strongly desired Peter Obi, as Obi represents the new Nigeria. To be against him is to be against the new nation. Through his condescending recent words to Obi, where he noted that voting Obi in the coming presidential election is more like throwing away, he has admitted to being the nemesis of the nation.

Many Nigerians see that as disturbing and going too far. Any Nigerian who works against a new nation could be seen as an adversary to a new nation, which many see can only come via Obi at this time. Ekweremadu is currently on the vendetta list of forward-looking Nigerians. They want to end the old era of the drivers of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) and replace them with a new hope. Lets wish the husband and wife well, lets wish Obi well and hope for a new Nigeria where the rule of law prevails.

Prof. Oshodi wrote in via [email protected]
The Upper West Regional branch of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) has added its voice to calls on government to grant a 20% increment in the salaries of public sector workers.

According to the group, their members can no longer cope with the current economic situation in the country, hence the need for the government to grant the 20% increment to help mitigate the rising cost of living in Ghana.

Various labour unions have been agitating for a 20 percent pay rise for public sector workers, citing the hikes in the prices of goods and services in the country as their reason.

It will be recalled that at this years National May Day celebration, which took place at the black star square in Accra, the General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress, Dr. Yaw Baah appealed to the government to grant the 20% cost of living allowance.

Prior to the request, the leadership of NAGRAT, GNAT, CCT, and TEWU made similar ones in November 2021.

Again, on the 7th of June 2022, the Vice President of NAGRAT reiterated their call for the 20% cost of living allowance, saying their members can no longer bear the excruciating economic conditions in the country.

However, it appears the demands have fallen on deaf ears, since the government is yet to grant the increment.

The Upper West Regional Chairman of NAGRAT, Harrun Ussif Kadiri, addressing journalists at a press conference on Friday, June 24, 2022, decried that their members could no longer meet their economic obligations due to the rising cost of fuel and other goods and services.

Prices of goods and services continue to rise day by day in addition to the introduction of new taxes. This has worsened the already bad situation, and yet the teacher's salary remains the same. In the face of all these challenges, labour unions pleaded with the government to cushion the Ghanaian worker by granting the cost of living allowance to help mitigate the mass suffering of the Ghanaian worker but the calls seem to be falling on deaf ears.

The chairman has thus given the government an ultimatum to grant the 20% cost of living allowance, or they will embark an industrial strike to press home their demands.

We have come to our wits end. We can no longer bear the pain. We, the Upper West NAGRAT, therefore, demand of our national leadership that if at the end of June 2022 our call for the cost of living allowance is not headed to, we will lay down our tools.

The group says it is working with other teacher unions to compel the government to adhere to their demands.

---citinewsroom
VP pays homage to PV Narasimha Rao on his birth anniversary 28 Jun 2022 | 1:22 PM New Delhi, June 28 (UNI) Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday paid rich tributes to former prime minister PV Narasimha Rao on his birth anniversary and said he will always be remembered for his contribution to nation-building. see more..

India logs 11,793 new Covid cases 28 Jun 2022 | 11:36 AM New Delhi, June 28 (UNI) India registered 11,793 new Covid-19 cases, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday. see more..

PM Modi holds bilateral talks with Indonesian President Joko Widodo 28 Jun 2022 | 12:50 AM Munich/New Delhi, June 27 (UNI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday held bilateral talks with Indonesian President Joko Widodo on the sidelines of the G7 summit at Schloss Elmau. The two leaders discussed improving trade and cultural ties and boosting the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. see more..

PM Modi holds bilateral with Canadian PM Trudeau, after four years 28 Jun 2022 | 12:42 AM Munich/New Delhi, June 27 (UNI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday held fruitful bilateral talks with his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau, a meeting taking place after over four years, and marking an uptick in relations that had turned cold. see more..
French President Emmanuel Macron  badly bruised during parliamentary elections that took away the absolute majority of his party group Ensemble  will focus on international politics during the last days of France's presidency of the European Union.

The week ended with the EU Council meeting, the last chaired by France. On Sunday, the G7 gathers in southern Germany. On Monday, Nato members meet in Brussels and June ends with the Lisbon Ocean meeting.

Ukraine topped the agenda at the EU meeting.

According to a 29 point conclusion written up by the "France22" presidency, the Brussels grouping repeated its "resolute condemnation" of Russia's invasion, said anti-Russian sanctions will continue while providing military support and macro-financial assistance to Ukraine.

But the most anticipated outcome was the EU granting the largely symbolic "status of (EU) candidate" for Ukraine and Moldova.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the decision. But angry Balkan leaders criticised Brussels over their stalled bids to join.

The Albanian Prime Minister, Edi Rama, warned against any unreasonable hopes for a speedy process.

"North Macedonia is a candidate for 17 years if I have not lost count, Albania since eight, so welcome to Ukraine," Rama said.

The Kremlin downplayed the decision. Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called it a domestic European affair.

"It is very important for us that all these processes do not bring more problems to us and more problems in the relations of these countries with us," he said.

Macron said that the decision by EU leaders sent a very strong signal to Russia that Europeans support Ukraine's pro-western aspirations.

Georgia has not received the honour yet.

According to an EU memo, the country suffers from a long list of shortcomings, including too much political polarisation, state institutions which are not sufficiently independent and accountable as well as corruption. A process called "de-oligarchisation" has not made enough headway, says the memo.

Powerful signal

Macron, as the leader of one of the world's seven most industrialised nations, will join EU leaders Charles Michel and Ursula von der Leyen at Schlos Elmau in Bavaria for a yearly G7 meeting, which this time is hosted by Germany.

A G7 communique says the group must send out a powerful signal of unity in suuch turbulent times. "Solidarity and close cooperation are needed to mitigate the impacts of Russia's war against Ukraine," the communique added.

Argentina, India, Indonesia, Senegal and South Africa are invited as well.

Apart from the Ukraine situation, G7 members also appear concerned about the rise of China.

Much of the meeting will focus on promoting partnerships for infrastructure and investment to counter China's Belt and Road Initiative, and "cooperation on foreign and security policy" which may include more assertive cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.

Climate, food security and the fight against cyber crime in the shape of "a rules-based digital governance" will also be discussed.

The group of industrialised nations that now constitute the G7 was created during the oil crisis in 1973 with the US, West Germany, France, the UK and Japan. This "Group of Five" then expanded with Italy in 1975 and Canada in 1976.

In 1997, Russia was included in what the became the G8. But after its takeover of the Crimea peninsula in 2014, it was expelled from the group.

'Right to self defence'

Most of the G7 leaders will then join the Nato summit in Madrid, between 28 and 30 June.

The Ukraine crisis seems to have accelerated the alliance's determination to strengthen itself once more.

"Strong military and financial support" is provided "to help Ukraine uphold its right to self-defence," according to a statement on Nato's website, stressing that this is "enshrined in the United Nations Charter.

"This builds on years of Nato training and assistance since Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014," the statement adds.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, formerly neutral countries such as Finland and Sweden have announced their willingness to join the alliance.

Nato will also launch its key Strategic Concept which is reviewed every decade or so.

The last Strategic Concept was adopted at the Lisbon Summit in 2010. The new one will build on elements of the 2010 Concept that are still relevant and show adjustments to Europe's new strategic order.

Meanwhile, Macron has been trying to navigate France through a maelstrom of geopolitical pitfalls.

Apart from the Ukraine crisis, there is the growing concern about China's increasing influence in the Pacific, which directly affects French interests in New Caledonia and French Polynesia. There are also tensions with Australia, and plans to build a stronger Europe-based defence force that is less dependent on Nato.

'Main counterpart'

In a June essay published by the prestigious Montaigne Institute, former top diplomat Michel Duclot points out that the Ukraine conflict has led to a split within the EU, with Macron more in favour of a dialogue with Russia against the harder line of the Baltic States and Poland.

Duclot suggests Macron should position himself more strongly against Russia, while stressing Nato's central role as Europe's defence mechanism.

France should also try and limit the effects of the sanctions for developing countries, which see the Ukraine problem as merely a western problem.

In a televised meeting with African Union leaders on 20 June, Zelensky struggled to generate interest of the few African leaders that showed up.

They worried more about the increasingly dire food situation that is developing in Africa as a direct result of the war between two of the world's largest grain suppliers.

France can play a role here, says Duclot. "It should listen better to the concerns of countries hit by the effects of the war and the sanctions, he added.

Regardless of whether France has the EU presidency or not, Macron is Europe's main counterpart of US President Joe Biden, according to Duclot.

This means they must discuss sharing responsibilities in America's increasingly strong focus on the Indo-Pacific region  where France has significant interests as well in the shape of New Caledonia and French Polynesia, islands surrounded by vast stretches of French-claimed ocean.

France's relations with the US and Australia suffered a severe blow with the creation, in September 2021 of the AUKUS security pact between Australia, the UK and the US which resulted in the cancellation of a billion dollar submarine deal with the French ship builder Naval Group.

But ties are being mended as Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is to meet Macron in France next week.

Plastic pollution and marine life

The last of the summits Macron will attend concerns nature. The UN Ocean Conference (27 June  1 July) in Lisbon is co-hosted by the governments of Kenya and Portugal.

It was launched in 2017 and offers a platform for heads of state and government, civil society representatives, business people, academics and scientists to discuss the disastrous impact of global warming, pollution and over-fishing on the ocean's eco-structure.

The French government's Biodiversity Office intends to take the lead, with the launch of a Marine protected areas, biodiversity and climate change partnership.

In February, Macron hosted the One Ocean Summit in Brest in north-western France, where ideas were presented for an international treaty to combat plastic pollution, protect the French Antarctic, and develop marine protected places on the high seas outside of any one country's jurisdiction.
Five migrant were killed and dozens were injured when a huge crowd tried to cross from Morocco into Spain's Melilla enclave on Friday, the latest migrant tragedy at the doors of Europe.

Some 2,000 migrants made approached Melilla at dawn over 500 managed to enter a border control area after cutting a fence with shears, the Spanish government's local delegation said in a statement.

Of these 130 sub-Saharan African migrants, "all of them men and apparently adults", managed to enter Melilla, it added.

A Moroccan official from the nearby border town of Nador said "five deaths were recorded after they stormed the border and some fell from the top of the barrier" separating the two sides.

He said 140 security personnel and 76 migrants were injured during the attempt to cross, the first such mass incursion since Spain and Morocco mended diplomatic relations last month.

The Spanish government's local delegation said only that 49 Spanish police officers were lightly injured while 57 migrants suffered injuries of varying degrees, including three who were hospitalised.

Morocco had deployed a "large" number of forces to try to repel the assault on the border, who "cooperated actively" with Spain's security forces, it said earlier in a statement.

Images on Spanish media showed exhausted migrants laying on the sidewalk in Melilla, some with bloodied hands and torn clothes.

Speaking in Brussels, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez condemned the "violent assault" which he blamed on "mafias who traffic in human beings".

Migrant magnet

Melilla and Ceuta, Spain's other tiny North African enclave, have the European Union's only land borders with Africa, making them a magnet for migrants.

On Thursday night migrants and security forces "clashed" on the Moroccan side of the border, Omar Naji of Moroccan rights group AMDH told AFP.

Several of them were hospitalised in Nador, he added.

In March this year, Spain ended a year-long diplomatic crisis by backing Morocco's autonomy plan for Western Sahara going back on its decades-long stance of neutrality.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez then visited Rabat, and the two governments hailed a "new stage" in relations.

The row began when Madrid allowed Brahim Ghali, leader of Western Sahara's pro-independence Polisario Front, to be treated for Covid-19 in a Spanish hospital in April 2021.

A month later, some 10,000 migrants surged across the Moroccan border into Spain's Ceuta enclave as border guards looked the other way, in what was widely seen as a punitive gesture by Rabat.

Rabat calls for the Western Sahara to have an autonomous status under Moroccan sovereignty but the Polisario wants a UN-supervised referendum on self-determination as agreed in a 1991 ceasefire agreement.

In the days just before Morocco and Spain patched up their ties, there were several attempted mass crossings of migrants into Melilla, including one involving 2,500 people, the largest such attempt on record. Nearly 500 made it across.

'Means of pressure'

Patching up relationship with Morocco, the departure point for many migrants, has meant a drop in arrivals, notably in Spain's Atlantic Canary Islands.

The number of migrants who reached the Canary Islands in April was 70 percent lower than in February, government figures show.

Sanchez earlier this month warned that "Spain will not tolerate any use of the tragedy of illegal immigration as a means of pressure."

Spain will seek to have "irregular migration" listed as one of the security threats on the NATO's southern flank when the alliance gathers for a summit in Madrid on June 29-30.

Over the years, thousands of migrants have attempted to cross the 12-kilometre (7.5-mile) border between Melilla and Morocco, or Ceuta's eight-kilometre border, by climbing the fences, swimming along the coast or hiding in vehicles.

The two territories are protected by fences fortified with barbed wire, video cameras and watchtowers.

Migrants sometimes use hooks and sticks to try to climb the border fence, and throw stones at police.
Nana Akosua Duaah Asor-Sika Brayie II, Paramount Queen Mother of Sunyani Traditional Area, has advised Hon. Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central to allow his honesty and benevolence reflect his presidential ambition.

She expressed optimism that the MP, who had declared his intention to contest the New Patriotic Party's (NPP's) upcoming presidential primaries to lead the party in Election 2024 would succeed in his endeavour.

Nana Brayie II gave the advice when Mr. Agyapong, also a business mogul, called on the Sunyani Traditional Council on Friday to announce his participation as the principal speaker of 'Guidance Conference in Sunyani.

The conference is a day's youth-oriented programme organised by stakeholders including the Sunyani Youth Development Association on the theme ''The Youth: Our Future Hope.

Mr. Agyapong was accompanied by his wife Christiana, friends and some members of his campaign team.

Nana Brayie II urged him not to focus on the youth alone, but channel some of the support to queen mothers because women are the makers in the society.

He encouraged Mrs. Agyapong to support her husband to attain his political desire.

Mr Agyapong said the Guidance Conference was geared towards instilling hope in the youth by using his life as an example for them to emulate.

He observed after education, most of the youth focused on getting white-collar jobs, but added, I have come to engage them to disabuse those thoughts, saying, if I had not become an MP, I would not have done any government work.

Mr Agyapong indicated not all the youth would pick up the concept, but the few who would understand would derive the benefits."

He then used the opportunity to announce to the Traditional Council his intention to contest the 2024 NPP presidential race and sought their support and blessing.

Nana Kwaku Sarbeng II, the Akwamuhene of Sunyani Traditional Area, told Mr Agyapong his name would continue to reign in Ghanaian politics because of his truthfulness, courage and selflessness.

He appealed to the MP to extend some of his benevolence to the people of Sunyani, saying he must identify avenues of support to the youth of the Sunyani Traditional Area.

GNA
Nana Akosua Duaah Asor-Sika Brayie II, the Paramount Queen of Sunyani Traditional Area has commended Hon. Kennedy Ohene Agyapong for his role in exposing some fake pastors deceiving innocent Ghanaians on his Net 2 television channel.

She encouraged Mr. Agyapong, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central to continue the good works he is doing for the people of this country, saying, the Sunyani Traditional Council is strongly behind him.

Nana Brayie II gave the commendation when Mr. Agyapong paid a courtesy call on the members of the Council on Friday to announce his participation as a principal speaker of the Guidance Conference, a day's youth-oriented programme organised by stakeholders including the Sunyani Youth Development Association on the theme ''The Youth: Our Future Hope.

The Sunyanimanhemaa lauded the astute and out-spoken politician for being born in month of June, saying, I'm happy we are both June-born because people born in this month are legends.'

Accompanied by his wife, Christiana, friends and some members of his campaign team, Mr. Agyapong said the Guidance Conference was geared toward instilling hope in the youth by using his life as an example for them to emulate.

Mr Agyapong expressed his desire to do something in honour of the chiefs and people of Dumasua, a community of about eight kilometres from Sunyani on the Sunyani-Berekum road in the Sunyani West Municipality.

He said living in the United States of America some years back, he was strongly supported by a family from Dumasua and he owed allegiance to that family, hence his intention to reciprocate in that regard.

GNA
A rejoinder from Achimota Bright Future Academy located at Tabora-Alhaji has come to my attention purporting to give it version about a phone theft by a pupil of the school.

In the rejoinder, my name is copiously referenced as the central character of the issue. This is the reason I am writing to set the record straight in as far as I am concerned about the blatant lies and untruths which were written about me.

First and foremost, I find it rather disingenuous that in replying to a story titled ACHIMOTA BRIGHT FUTURE ACADEMY TEACHER ARRESTED FOR STEALING MOBILE PHONES in which the story source is not named, the rejoinder from the school will name me in place under unnamed source so I do not admit I am the source of the story.

However, I acknowledge that the issue has to do with theft of my phones by a beneficiary of benevolence of my family-Millicent Appiah. Millicent Appiah has been living with us since 2015 as a foster child while imposing herself on the generosity of my father who gave her shelter as a way of rescuing her from the life of poverty. She has been thanking the family back with insolence, disrespect and thievery.

The first time she stole from us was in 2016 when she pilfered GHc800. As a consequence of that act, she caused anger in the family and made herself unworthy of the family's benevolence. However, her grandmother and mother would call occasionally to apologize and plead that she should not be sent back. It is sad to say, but since then, Millicent Appiah has not reformed from her bad ways. It is in one of her latest episode of theft that she took three phones which belong to me. To ensure that the theft accusation was not baseless, she has given one of the phones to a barber, Ransford Kofi Ayeh, who lives in our area and also given one to her class teacher, Newlove Aboagye. I have since caused the arrest of the barber who has been self-confessed of abetment that he received one of the phones from Millicent. It was in the vein of the investigating for the phones that evidence led to the teacher, Newlove Aboagye.

It is important to note that in respect of the complicity of officials of the school and the theft of the phones, I have had occasioned in the past to confront the Director of Achimota Bright Future Academy, Bismark Awadzi also known as Bismark Gagan over the suspicion that he was allegedly having amorous affairs with Millicent.

It is interesting that this same Director is the source of the rejoinder which claims that I have burnt the belongings and stationery of Millicent. For me, his claims are unfounded because Millicent even confessed in front of the police that I never burnt her belongings or stationery, adding that she didn't say such a thing to the Director of the school, Bismark Awadzi. Also for him to also claim in his rejoinder that Millicent is 16 years is very telling, given that the age her parents gave us with evidence is 19 years (4th December, 2002).

The rejoinder also claims that I follow Millicent to the school to force her to come home and do chores and that I am trying to eject her from the house without evidence. Even though this is not the case, Bismark Gagans interest and sense of Millicent domestic affairs which smacks of something sinister because if even it is true that Millicent is facing domestic difficulties that she has told the Director of the school about, the right thing for the Director to do was to consult the family or crosscheck with the family. How could he jump to conclusion that whatever domestic difficulties Millicent claims to be facing were true when he had not confirmed from the family?

Now, this claim is all untrue and it flies in face of common sense for anybody to say I have burnt books of Millicent when I was the one who sought admission for her at the school and I and my sister are the ones who have been buying her textbooks.

In regard to the claim that I as a complainant at the police station have since not been following up my own case and that my father has called to apologize, I want the school to know that I am going through with the police with the case and my father has not told me anywhere that he has gone to the school to apologize on my behalf.

In any case, I have dared the school to go to court if the theft case I have lodged with the police command against Millicent in which the teacher, Newlove Aboagye of the school is a suspect of abetment to commit crime is baseless. The shameless Director of the school, Bismark Awadzi aka Bismark Gagan has his phone records and I am sure he can still access my WhatsApp message to him to go to court if he thinks he has a cause. I am still open to having a day in court with him and the school if they are up to it. But as regards the substantive case of the theft of my phones, I am not backing down until they buy me my mobile phones or I take further legal steps about this criminal matter.

Finally, I will petition the National Identification Authority (NIA) to probe into the information given by the Director of Achimota Bright Future Academy to NIA officials who were in the school to register pupils.

This is because I have evidence that Millicent Appiah's information provided to the NIA officials by the Director of the school are nothing but false. Millicent Appiah is not 16 years old. I strongly believe the information about other pupils in the school that was given by the Director to officials of NIA could be forged and this calls for further probe by NIA officials.

Sincerely,

SIGNED.

RAPHAEL APETORGBOR

Accra

24th June, 2022
24.06.2022 LISTEN

Dear His Excellency the President of Ghana,

Sir, as you are aware, the United Nations recommended a ratio of one Policeman to 500 citizenry (people) and the ratio was found not good in Ghana in 1970, so in order to deal with the shortage of manpower strength in order to ensure efficient and effective peace and security (in private spaces and some public spaces) which are ingredients for stability for national development, Section 38 of the Police Services Act 1970 (Act 350) was promulgated to permit the Minister of Interior by legislative instrument to make Regulations for (a) the establishment and operations of a private security organization, (b) Requiring the registration of private security organizations, (c) regulating the conditions of employment of persons in a private security organization, (d) regulating the use of uniforms by a private security organization, (e) prescribing fees and forms for any of the above purposes.

Section 38 of the Police Services Act 1970 (Act 350) defined private security organization as includes an organization which undertakes private investigations as to facts (evidence or the character of a person, or which performs services of watching, guarding, patrolling or carriage for the purpose of providing protection against crime, but does not include the Police Service, Military, Police Service or the Prisons Service.

Section 38 of the Police Services Act 1970 (Act 350) was later on supported by the Police Service Regulation 1992 (LI 1571). Hence, the current legislation governing the establishment and operations of private security organization is the Police Service Regulation 1992 (LI 1571). The oversight responsibility of PSOs is shared by the Minister for Interior through issuance and renewal of licenses and by the Ghana Police (of course under the same Minister) through a partial monitoring of their operations through a Directorate for Private Security Operations or Organization. At the Police HQ with Regional Officers for monitoring operations within the Region

PSOs security duties by the current law include (a) the services or provisions of protection of private residential areas, institutions, protection of private persons and assets. These are executed by physical security by visible presence or deterrent, through Guarding, Watching/monitoring, Access Control or denial, Patrolling and Investigation. Additional duties of PSOs, include Enforcement of Procedural Security or Site policies and use of Electronic Security (securing of Data Storage or information security, monitoring Surveillance and Notification systems), emergency responses, provision of private security consultancy/risk assessments or surveys/security training, manufacturing or importing and distributing of security monitoring devices, works of locksmiths, event management, bullion/Cash shipment (armored car businesses) or transporting services, guard dog services. These roles by PSOs have freed the Public Police to concentrate on core functions of maintenance of law and order in public spaces and afford opportunity for the Pubic Police to increase their effectiveness and efficiency.

Mr President, the operations of Private Security Organizations are characterized as proactive (the physically hold the ground or in defence posture and thus demo visible presence or deterrent etc), a very large workforce, some are better equipped than the Police (especially with good communication and surveillance gadgets for their operations) as against the operations of the Police which is reactive, have with low manpower strength and maybe poorly equipped/tooled. So, considering, the exponential growth of unemployment and other reasons, a school of thought recommends the need to create more jobs for the youth by the State considering some additional space that can be outsourced/utilized by Private Security Organizations due to the deficiency in the Police Services.

They claimed that a careful policy interventions may identify further non-core areas of the Police like control of traffic/Street as done by the MMTU of the Ghana Police, background verification of employment applicants (background checks, or Police verification) and some security functions of the Ghana Prisons like monitoring and guarding, outer periphery of prisons that could be outsourced to the PSOs. Some even went far to suggest that in order to reduce overcrowding in the Prisons, the State should outsource the holding in prisons of prisoners with low crime cases to PSOs for a fee from the State and usage of the personnel at non-security service required by the public for nominal fees payable to the State.

Mr President, the growth of the Market of the Private Security Industry is dynamic and viable due to the rapid growth of the population and in infrastructure (both public and private), including the massive growth of residential houses/Gated communities, Corporate Bodies/Commercial Houses, Institutions (Financial, Agencies, Embassies, Hospitals, Schools, the Hospitality industry, betting etc), human activities or event managements. These have made it necessary for a very huge demand for security cover by PSOs for both private spaces and some public spaces like Markets, beaches, parks etc, the distribution/installation and manning of electronic systems, info security, consultancy etc and thus making operation of PSOs to be a complex one, hence the current definition of PSOs by our laws Section 38 of the Police Services Act 1970 (Act 350)/ the LI1571 is deficient or outmoded.

So, there is the urgent need for an updated definition of Private Security Organizations or operations in a new law (Act of Parliament) since the operations of PSOs globally has changed drastically from the traditional security duties of watching or guarding monitoring, patrolling, investigation to new developments in the security industry. These new developments include the need for fast requirements for pre-screening reports by the Citizenry/Corporate Institutions, which has made it necessary for some countries to outsource pre-screening or background checks to PSOs. Also the works of locksmiths, the distribution and installation of security electronic systems have made the sector to be a complex one.

Mr President, the structure of the Private Security Industry is made of two areas namely Contract Security Service Providers and In-House personnel of Corporate bodies or Proprietary Security personnel, who are operating in a very huge Market. Hence, a careful study of the dynamic growth of the Private Security Industry may reveal that the Private Security Industry may be the number two if not number one employer in the Country. So, the State besides making it affordable to all the segments of the populace and corporate bodies, must be concerned with the welfare of the guards, especially minimum wages to make the sector as part of sustainable national development with the view to reducing the huge unemployment numbers which is growing at an exponential rate.

Hence, a new law is recommended to help ensure the welfare of the personnel and the sector is capable of attracting graduates etc. There is also the need for accountability or minimum standards in the Industry (contract rate range, recruitment, vetting, training, integrity, honesty, professionalism, complaints channel etc), use of force and limitations Powers of PSOs, offences and fees. As stated these require a new law or an Act of Parliament and not an amendment of L1571 of 1992.

Mr President, the dynamic growth of the Private Security Industry and the nature of the Market of the sector also demands a new legal framework and a solid Regulating or Controlling Authority under the Minister of Interior to see that the sector performs in line with the dogma of Probity, Transparency and Accountability (honesty, fairness, integrity, Professionalism, accessibility or within reach of the segments of the populace) as required by the 1992 Constitution. Other areas of the law should include on the licensing of PSOs/certification of the personnel.

Furthermore, the new law is needed to ensure minimum standards especially in line with the dogma of Probity, Transparency and Accountability, to prevent use of personnel with illegal or criminal behaviours, abuse of Human Rights or prevent PSOs from damaging social cohesion above all not becoming a service that only the wealthy can afford.

So, the new law should deal on the roles of PSOs/relationship between PSOs and State Security Agencies on Public and private security provision (a distinction between private and public operators operating in the security sector). Also on minimum standards for the accountability of operations of PSOs on matters on internal systems of governance (company structures, Staff recruitment, screening, training and code of conduct, financial and contractual matters, etc), Powers of PSOs or limitations on the use of force and firearms otherwise use of non-lethal weapons in accordance with international best practice, welfare of the personnel, , prohibition of Political affiliation (that is no direct relationships between Political parties and PSO as a Corporate entity).

Mr President according to a School of Thought, PSOs are well grounded in both in the matters of corporate law and in aspects of human rights through the adherence of the constitutional requirements and International conventions on use of force especially the Voluntary Principles of Human Rights and Security which are the concerns of their Shareholders, so it appears therefore that PSOs, only need an Act of Parliament with good regulations on minimum standards to be adopted in respect to establishment of PSO, recruitment, training, operations and may be a consideration of possession of simple firearms or non-lethal weapons and placement under the control by a Controlling Authority with a small Staff which should also be under a Private Security Organizations Council or Regulatory or Supervisory Board chaired by the Minister of Interior.

It is envisaged that a well-established and well-controlled PSOs have the potential to enhance the efforts of the National Security Agencies as well as absorbing the huge numbers of unemployment in the Country hence need to support their operations by good laws, spelling out among others, a proper Regulating Authority with directions and guidelines so that PSOs do not undermine National Security and public safety. Hence need to get the PSOs to promote honesty, integrity, professionalism the industry in line with probity, transparency and accountability as per the dogma of the 1992 Constitution.

PSOs are sometimes the only job opportunity available to former national security operatives especially from the Military, Police, and the State Agencies for Intelligence (NIB etc). So, if the PSOs sector is not strongly regulated with a new law, that is well managed and functioning on the basis of a clear legal framework, or if laws are not enforced, there is a risk that the high incidence of former police and military personnel working for PSOs may lead to undue influence, favours and obligations between current policemen and their former colleagues working for PSOs.

The current situation in which the Police is made as the oversight institution for PSOs and thus controls PSOs is prone to a possible conflict between PSOs and National (Public) Police especially when they are in competition for the same contract say Bank duties, or if they are working in the same area or during the same event. Hence, a conflict of interest may arise when the police is tasked with the oversight of the PSOs. So, an Act of Parliament or Legislation may help address possible conflicts and issues of conflict of interests in areas of operations, deal with arms (handling and distribution) which Article 85 of the 1992 Constitution negates.

Mr President to drive my point home for a new law, I wish cite the state of affairs in the private security industry in South Africa, UK and Nigeria. In South Africa It is regulated by the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSIRA) under the provisions of the Private Security Industry Regulation Act. Private security companies in South Africa are required to be registered by law with the PSIRA.

The primary objective of the PSIRA of South Africa is to regulate the Private Security industry and exercise effective controls over the practices of security service providers for the interest of national security and in the interest of the private security industry as well. The authority also outlines minimum standards in terms of industry operations, training of security service providers, fair and transparent registration processes, protection and enforcement of related regulations. The authority is governed and controlled by a Council developed as per the provisions of the Private Security Industry Regulation Act. This Council comprises a chairperson, vice-chairperson and three additional councilors. The Council is appointed by the Minister of safety and security equivalent to our Minister of Interior, in consultation with the cabinet. The act also lays down regulations in terms of the appointment and operations of the Council.

Mr President, in the United Kingdom (U.K), a special security authority was established to oversee the PSOs industry. As part of major reforms to make the Private Security as player in Peace, Security and sustainable National Development, the Nigeria Government established, the PSOs by an Act of Parliament, licensed by the Minister, and provided the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps with an Operational Commander with staff under the Minister of Interior for recommending registration, the powers or areas of operations and the regulations of the operations of PSOs.

An Act of Parliament will spell out how oversight is exercise including submission of relevant documents, inspections, quarterly and yearly reports, fling of Complaints like the work of Police PIPS. Another aspect of control is the need for sanction regimes (varying from fines, temporary or permanent withdrawal of licenses to imprisonment or both against defaulters or offenders or when wrongdoing is detected. So, the lack of a coherent national regulatory framework hampers oversight.

Mr President to sum up, the Private security industry plays an important role in peace security and sustainable national development due to the Police inability to provide effective and efficient day-to-day security by effective holding the ground of many public and private facilities, hence armed PSOs should be used for the protection of Critical infrastructure by both the private and public. Pardon me to cite an example of an incident to drive this point home. In March 2019, a school of thought had the view that if the 125 MW Osagyefo barge, a gas turbine electric power station at Effasu was placed under the protection of a responsible Private Security Organization, armed or not armed Ghana would not have suffered the damages or the loss of the Barge for power generation as occurred or detected when it was under the protection of Ghana Police. The then District Commander for the area then DSP Zengey MarCathy in March 2019 arrested four Policemen for the losses on the barge.

The following recommendations are hereby submitted;

Legal Aspect and Governance-(Controlling Authority and Inspections)

Mr President, pardon me to reiterate that due to issues of the exponential growth of PSOs as a viable industry working in complex areas and with issues of likely conflicts or conflict of interest (since PSOs may be competing for jobs with the Police), PSOs should be regulated by a regulatory framework with a Controlling Authority under a Regulating Board, both independent from the Police. Also need for a new definition of PSOs, calls for a new law or an Act of Parliament, so that the regulations on PSOs are no more a subsidiary legislation of the Police Act, which made PSOs under the Police. The law should deal with matters on licenses as per current arrangement but a requirement that one of the Directors to be an ex-security operative who was with the rank of not below Major in the Ghana Army or its equivalent in other Security Agencies. There is also the need to ensure the certification of the personnel at a recommended fee of GHC40.00. It is worth stating that in Jan 2019, the Ministry of the Interior initiated a process to license all private security personnel working for the various private security companies in the country. This is yet to be followed to the letter.

The law should come out with why, who, when and where and how to use fire Arms if allowed. It should also deal with compliances or standards and fines against offences.

The Controlling Authority/Inspectorate to report to the Board/Minister. He or she should have adequate Office and well-staffed with enough resources and the office as the Inspectorate of the Regulatory body for regulating, inspection, monitoring the PSOs to promote stability, promote and encourage trustworthiness of management of PSO, to ensure the industry is characterized by probity, transparency, accountability, professionalism, equity and accessibility To submit routine reports especially annual report. Also to determine and enforce minimum standard of code of services, promote high standard, protect the interests of Clients or users of services of PSOs

Controlling Authority to be responsible for the scrutiny of annual reports, put in place public complaints mechanisms, to encourage positive relations between the police and PSOs in order to ensure the operate within the limits of their activities, noting that the latter may assist the former in preventing crime.

Controlling Authority should also be responsible to scrutinize the Character of the Directors of PSOs and Character of employees to prevent employment of personnel with criminal or dubious background

The Controlling Authority or Controller will check and validate or otherwise the documents of PSOs for the issuance/renewal of licenses by the Minister of Interior. Hence the granting of licenses and renewal licenses is the responsibility of the Minister for Interior and this should be done on the advice by Board through the Control Authority. For accounting and better record, validity of licenses should be for a calendar year from 01 January to 31 December.

The Controlling Authority or Controller and inspectors may enter the premises of the PSOs for inspection of the place of business, records, accounts and other documents connected with the license. They may also conduct post inspection, to be required to publish reports and submits a copy of it to the security service provider and the original to the authority.

The Control Authority should work under a PSOs Supervisory Board. The Board among others to advice Minister of Interior on the issuance and renewal of licenses, vetting of Directors, use of uniform, accoutrements, welfare of personnel, Vetting of Directors, for vetting of employees but the identification and inspection of offices and sites should be by the Controlling Authority.

The Board through the Controlling Authority and Inspectors will be responsible for the protecting the interest of the Clients or the public, and will ensure compliance of the approved standards of conduct, the minimum training/training subjects and levels of supervision for adoption by PSOs. The Authority may do anything that it considers is calculated to facilitate, or is incidental or conducive to, the carrying out of any of its functions.

The Regulating Board with the Interior Minister as Chairman and with Membership of the Board as the Rep of the National Security Coordinator, the Ministry of Interior or Rep (Controlling Authority), Rep from Ministry of Defence , Rep from the Ghana Police, Rep from NIB, Rep from Association of Ghana Industries, Rep from CSOs, Rep from Ghana Chamber of Mines, Rep from APSOG , Rep from labour Department., Rep from Attorney General Department, Rep from Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The Board or the Chairman should appoint a Controller or PSOs Operations Commander and staff members especially inspectors of the authority.

There is a school of thought with the view that foreigners should not be allowed as Directors and major shareholders or be in key management positions, because they do not owe allegiance to Ghana. I do not agree with them, as the name denotes, PSOs are service providers, mostly in the private spaces and limited public spaces like markets, parks open to all. PSOs do not work in sensitive areas of Notational Security nor have access to State secrets and service agreements or contracts are drafted in manner to prevent disclosure without duly approved by any of the parties or as required by the signed agreement. Another point which supports my assertion is that the 1992 Constitution only prevents the appointment of the IGP, CDS and Service Commanders as Dual Citizenship holders, hence does it not bar dual citizen holders from being members of the State Security Agencies like the Police and Military from a private soldier to the rank of Colonel or equivalent in other security agencies. The Supreme Court of Ghana ruling on section 16(2) of the Citizenship Act, 2000 (Act 591) as unconstitutional in Asare Vrs Attorney General (J1 6 of 2011) [2012] GHASC 31 (22 May 2012.

Permissible accoutrements for PSOs

Whistle, Handcuffs, Batons or truncheons, Flashlight, Pepper spray, Electronic gadgets (Handheld Radios, PCs, CCTV systems, Sensors, and electric Shock batons), Security Dogs among others should be the permissible accoutrements,

Powers and Limitation

As citizens, the personnel of PSOs are already accountable to the 1992 Constitution and Laws of Ghana, the criminal code for any of their actions. So, the PSOs staff are restricted to citizen arrest in public spaces but permissible to effect arrest on their Sites or premises and handed over to the Management for consideration of not handing over to the Police, if the crime is not Stealing or first degree felony, rape, murder, subversion against the State

Like a citizen, guards are allowed to Use Force per the use of force continuum or escalation of force (EOF) In the military, which is a standard that provides law enforcement officers and civilians with guidelines as to how much force may be used against a resisting subject in a given situation, particularly in the defence of life/ own property or under the Heat of the Moment, . Ghana in 2014 acted as a signatory to the Voluntary Principles of Human Rights and Security (VPHRS) and PSOs do abide by the VPHRS and this is normally stipulated in their service agreements with Clients.

Political Affiliation and Association

Efforts must be made to prevent the introduction of political parties dimensions into the industry. So, PSOs as corporate bodies should be prohibited by law from having connections with political parties other than Clientele relationship. In America individual Military personnel are allowed to attend a functions of political parties of their choice when in mufti and not in uniform and also not to hold positions of the party and not to make contributions in public, so in line with the human rights requirements as enshrined in section (1) (e) of Article 21 (of the 1992 Constitution, the staff or the personnel should be allowed to be members of their political party of their choices but not to wear uniform or badges etc to the events. They should join trade unions of their choice. A fine for infringement

Minimum and maximum Ages requirements for PSC employees

A minimum age of 18 years and maximum age of 75 years depending on physical ability and health and the absence of serious criminal offences.

Finances of Authority

The Authority should be financed from (a) money that is appropriated by Parliament, (b) registration fees, (c) levies or moneys from any legitimate source including defaulters fine which may accrue to the Authority in terms of this Act or any other law. (2) The Authority to comply with the Public Finance Management law hence must be audited by the Auditor-General. The Authority will Account for money received or paid on account of the Authority; and (b) cause the necessary accounting and other related records to be kept.)

Categorization of Clients and guards with contract rate and wages rate

It should be noted that PSOs are profit oriented and not NGOs, hence, the factor in cost on relievers to afford relief operations for guards to take rest or able to attend private obligations, cost on logistics, cost on mobile patrolling, cost on bussing personnel, withholding tax and other overhead cost, risks etc. Hence, the cost on the operations including the Compensation for guards, cost on relievers, overhead charges and profit margin are borne by the Client and hence the monthly take home pay is contingent on the payments by Clients.

The Categorization of Clients and guards with contract rate and wages rate must be done in a manner to ensure the sector is patronized by all segments of the populace, and not only for the rich clients and also to ensure the sector attracts all segments of the populace as staff/employees or manpower and not only for school drop outs or SHS certificate holders or personnel. Thus graduates can also enter into the Sector to at least acquire work experience (integrity, professionalism or discipline/work ethics) SSNIT numbers/contributions, pocket money etc), the contract rate should be made to be affordable and the guards or Staff wages should be made to attract better talent, enhance the quality of services provided by the sector and above all reduce attrition.

For the above reasons, the Private Security Industrys Market should be categorized into three risk areas with recommended contract rates and guards compensations as (a). Low Risks Areas (low residential areas/shops) contract rate between GHC968.68 and GHC 1,000.71 including VAT, (b). Medium Risks Areas (medium Residential areas/Shops/ low risk Corporate Bodies) with a Contract rate between GHC1,200.00 and GHC1,500.00 including VAT and (c). High Risks Areas (High risk Corporate Bodies, Institutions and residential areas). Contract rate not below GHC2,000.00 including VAT.

It is recommended that six grades for the personnel should be instituted with a take home pay of the guards with grade 6 at Low Risk Residential/Client areas with at Contract rate between GHC968.68 and GHC 1,000.71 including VAT, receives a monthly take home pay of not less than GHC480.00 from a total compensation or gross salary not less than GHC576.47 (GHC576.47 include payment of the take home pay + PAYE + payment of TIER ONE SSNIT contributions + TIER 2 + payment of provident Fund to an Insurance Company herein I recommend MiLife Insurance Company under Westom Insurance Brokers Ltd) currently patronized by the member companies of the Associations of Private Security Companies in Ghana as their Fund Manager for a Welfare/Provident Fund at a monthly contribution with the lowest rate as GHC20.00 per guard. This should be made compulsory otherwise payment of penalty or revoking (withdrawal) of licenses of the Company and or cancelling the certification of the guard, since we should not joke with issues of welfare. The Categorization of guards and their minimum take home wages are tabulated below.

Low Risks Area - GHC968.68 to GHC 1,000.71 including VAT

SRL CATEGORY TAKE HOME PAY GHC REMARKS 1 Grade 6 ( on recruitment ) Ghc480.00 Minimum based on Client Payments 2 Grade 5, (two years to three service) GHC580.00 Depending or service or KPI 3 Grade 4 ( four years to six service) GHC680.00 Depending or service or KPI

Medium Risk Area Contract rate GHC990.00 to GHC1,200.00 including VAT

SERIAL CATEGORY TAKE HOME PAY GHC REMARKS 1 Grade 3 (seven to nine years) 780.00 Minimum based on Client Payments Grade 2, (ten to twelve years 880.00 Depending or service or KPI

c). High Risk area Contract rate not below GHC2,000 including VAT

SERIAL CATEGORY TAKE HOME PAY GHC REMARKS 1 Junior Grade 1 1,300.00 Minimum based on Client Payments Senior Grade 1 1,500.00 Depending or service or KPI Supervisor 1,600.00

Major Mohammed Bogobiri (rtd)

KUMASI
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June 24, 2022 Ukraine SitRep - Zolote Cauldron Closes - Lysichansk Blocked (Corrected twice) [Corrected (twice) below] In the last situation report about the war in Ukraine I discussed the situation near Lysichansk. The Ukrainian leadership is still sending new units into the Lysichansk cauldron in the east. The Russians do not mind that. Their job is to "demilitarize" Ukraine. To enclose more troops in one swoop makes that easier.

bigger The distance between the red Russian held area at the the top to the one at the bottom at the most narrow gap is a mere 15 kilometer or some 9 miles. There is only one open road running through it from west to east which is used for pushing resupplies to the Ukrainian troops in Lysichansk. The map has since changed significantly: Jun 16



Source: LiveUAmap - bigger What developed was first a smaller cauldron around Zolote at the bottom of the map. Jun 18



bigger This was a classic move done by the book. Jun 20



bigger Then a battalion of Ukrainian troops that was supposed to hold the villages in the upper area of the pocket retreated. Some say they were ordered to leave, others claim they mutinited. The later is more likely as these were amateur infantry from the Territorial Defense Forces who, without sufficient support, had been send to replace better troops that were ordered back. Jun 22



bigger The Russians on the eastern wing moved west to take 5 villages in one day along the pocket's northern border. Jun 24



bigger That put the lid onto the cauldron which immediately began to cook the estimated 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers who were inside. The above maps are quite rough. A more detailed one from the Russian side shows that several towns within the Zolote cauldron have not yet been cleared. Jun 24



bigger In today's report the Russian Defense Ministry claims: Successful offensive of Russian units towards Lugansk within 5 days has resulted in the liberation of Loskutovka, Podlesnoye, Mirnaya Dolina, Shchebkaryer, Vrubovka, Nyrkovo, Nikiolayevka, Novoivanovka, Ustinovka and Ray-Aleksandrovka. Group of Ukrainian units has been completely isolated near Gorskoye and Zolotoye. This pocket has encircled four battalions: 3rd Mechanised Battalion of 24th Mechanised Brigade, 15th Mountain Assault Battalion of 128th Mountain Assault Brigade, 42nd Mechanised Infantry Battalion of 57th Mechanised Infantry Brigade, 70th Battalion of 101st Territorial Defence Brigade, as well as an artillery group of 57th Mechanised Infantry Brigade, a group of Nazis from Right Sector organisation and a detachment of foreign mercenaries. In total, the Gorskoye pocket has isolated up to 2 thousand people: about 1,800 servicemen, 120 Nazis from Right Sector, up to 80 foreign mercenaries, as well as over 40 armoured combat vehicles and about 80 guns and mortars. 41 servicemen abandoned their resistance and surrendered voluntarily just over the past 24 hours. According to the prisoners, the encircled Ukrainian units are exhausted. The units are currently manned by less than 40%. Higher Ukrainian command has lost control over these units. Armament, munitions, fuel and other logistic supply is completely stopped. Russian troops are straitening the Gorskoye encirclement by launching uninterrupted attacks at the enemy. Half of Zolotoye had been taken under control over yesterday. Since this morning some 600 have additionally surrendered. The others will likely follow later today or tomorrow. Also this morning the Ukrainian deputy commander for Luhansk province announced that the soldiers and foreign mercenaries who held out in the industrial area of Sevierodonetzk east of Lysichansk were told to retreat to Lysichansk. In fact a full retreat from Lysichansk further west seemed to be likely. But that was no longer really possible for the 10-15,000 soldiers in and around the city as a bridge on the single road that leads to the west has been dropped overnight onto the railway tracks below. Correction (19:00 utc) This sections was wrong and has been corrected. A bridge was bombed to cut the escape route from Lysichansk but it was a different one than I first wrote. That does not change the conclusion Bridge marked in red - This map is of a different bridge.



bigger This map is of the bridge that was actually destroyed. It is at the north-west of the Lysichansk refinery I discussed in the previous situation report. Bridge marked in red



bigger A Russian helicopter performed that mission and it now seems that there was a bigger landing of airborne troops west of the refinery. Here is how the bridge is now said to be looking. Correction (17:30 utc): The picture does not show the bridge on the map. Correction (19:00 utc) The picture is of the destroyed bridge but it was geo-located wrongly. But that the bridge on the map is now damaged was reported by a source that is usually correct. I still assume that it is in fact so. Again the map was wrong, not the picture of the bridge. Sorry for this 'fog of war' confusion. The tactical effects of the incident mentioned below stays the same. [end of both corrections]

bigger There are still side roads and dirt tracks that can be used but the whole area west of Luhansk is under Russian fire control. The long convoy that would be needed for a retreat can not pass without being severely molested. The big Lysichansk cauldron has thereby also been closed. Despite the still necessary cleanup of the city and two or three small villages one can state that the former Ukrainian province Luhansk, now the Luhansk People's Republic, has been liberated from Ukraine. On the Russian side some 30-40 Battalion Tactical Groups (BTG) have been involved in the whole operation. Most of them can now resupply and rest to later be used elsewhere. Posted by b on June 24, 2022 at 14:37 UTC | Permalink Comments next page  next page 


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PHOENIX (AP)  Hundreds of blue, green and grey tents are pitched under the suns searing rays in downtown Phoenix, a jumble of flimsy canvas and plastic along dusty sidewalks. Here, in the hottest big city in America, thousands of homeless people swelter as the summers triple digit temperatures arrive.

The stifling tent city has ballooned amid pandemic-era evictions and surging rents that have dumped hundreds more people onto the sizzling streets that grow eerily quiet when temperatures peak in the midafternoon. A heat wave earlier this month brought temperatures of up to 114 degrees (45.5 Celsius) - and its only June. Highs reached 118 degrees (47.7 Celsius) last year.

During the summer, its pretty hard to find a place at night thats cool enough to sleep without the police running you off, said Chris Medlock, a homeless Phoenix man known on the streets as T-Bone" who carries everything he owns in a small backpack and often beds down in a park or a nearby desert preserve to avoid the crowds.

If a kind soul could just offer a place on their couch indoors maybe more people would live, Medlock said at a dining room where homeless people can get some shade and a free meal.

Excessive heat causes more weather-related deaths in the United States than hurricanes, flooding and tornadoes combined.

Around the country, heat contributes to some 1,500 deaths annually, and advocates estimate about half of those people are homeless.

Temperatures are rising nearly everywhere because of global warming, combining with brutal drought in some places to create more intense, frequent and longer heat waves. The past few summers have been some of the hottest on record.

Just in the county that includes Phoenix, at least 130 homeless people were among the 339 individuals who died from heat-associated causes in 2021.

If 130 homeless people were dying in any other way it would be considered a mass casualty event, said Kristie L. Ebi, a professor of global health at the University of Washington.

Its a problem that stretches across the United States, and now, with rising global temperatures, heat is no longer a danger just in places like Phoenix.

This summer will likely bring above-normal temperatures over most land areas worldwide, according to the latest seasonal forecast map produced by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society at Columbia University.

Last summer, a heat wave blasted the normally temperate U.S. Northwest and had Seattle residents sleeping in their yards and on roofs, or fleeing to hotels with air conditioning. Across the state, several people presumed to be homeless died outdoors, including a man slumped behind a gas station.

In Oregon, officials opened 24-hour cooling centers for the first time. Volunteer teams fanned out with water and popsicles to homeless encampments on Portlands outskirts.

A quick scientific analysis concluded last years Pacific Northwest heat wave was virtually impossible without human-caused climate change adding several degrees and toppling previous records.

Even Boston is exploring ways to protect diverse neighborhoods like its Chinatown, where population density and few shade trees help drive temperatures up to 106 degrees (41 Celsius) some summer days. The city plans strategies like increasing tree canopy and other kinds of shade, using cooler materials for roofs, and expanding its network of cooling centers during heat waves.

Its not just a U.S. problem. An Associated Press analysis last year of a dataset published by the Columbia Universitys climate school found exposure to extreme heat has tripled and now affects about a quarter of the worlds population.

This spring, an extreme heat wave gripped much of Pakistan and India, where homelessness is widespread due to discrimination and insufficient housing. The high in Jacobabad, Pakistan near the border with India hit 122 degrees (50 Celsius) in May.

Dr. Dileep Mavalankar, who heads the Indian Institute of Public Health in the western Indian city Gandhinagar, said because of poor reporting its unknown how many die in the country from heat exposure.

Summertime cooling centers for homeless, elderly and other vulnerable populations have opened in several European countries each summer since a heat wave killed 70,000 people across Europe in 2003.

Emergency service workers on bicycles patrol Madrids streets, distributing ice packs and water in the hot months. Still, some 1,300 people, most of them elderly, continue to die in Spain each summer because of health complications exacerbated by excess heat.

Spain and southern France last week sweltered through unusually hot weather for mid-June, with temperatures hitting 104 degrees (40 Celsius) in some areas.

Climate scientist David Hondula, who heads Phoenix's new office for heat mitigation, says that with such extreme weather now seen around the world, more solutions are needed to protect the vulnerable, especially homeless people who are about 200 times more likely than sheltered individuals to die from heat-associated causes.

As temperatures continue to rise across the U.S. and the world, cities like Seattle, Minneapolis, New York or Kansas City that dont have the experience or infrastructure for dealing with heat have to adjust as well.

In Phoenix, officials and advocates hope a vacant building recently converted into a 200-bed shelter for homeless people will help save lives this summer.

Mac Mais, 34, was among the first to move in.

It can be rough. I stay in the shelters or anywhere I can find, said Mais who has been homeless on and off since he was a teen. Here, I can stay out actually rest, work on job applications, stay out of the heat.

In Las Vegas, teams deliver bottled water to homeless people living in encampments around the county and inside a network of underground storm drains under the Las Vegas strip.

Ahmedabad, India, population 8.4 million, was the first South Asian city to design a heat action plan in 2013.

Through its warning system, nongovernmental groups reach out to vulnerable people and send text messages to mobile phones. Water tankers are dispatched to slums, while bus stops, temples and libraries become shelters for people to escape the blistering rays.

Still, the deaths pile up.

Kimberly Rae Haws, a 62-year-old homeless woman, was severely burned in October 2020 while sprawled for an unknown amount of time on a sizzling Phoenix blacktop. The cause of her subsequent death was never investigated.

A young man nicknamed Twitch died from heat exposure as he sat on a curb near a Phoenix soup kitchen in the hours before it opened one weekend in 2018.

He was supposed to move into permanent housing the next Monday, said Jim Baker, who oversees that dining room for the St. Vincent de Paul charity. His mother was devastated.

Many such deaths are never confirmed as heat related and aren't always noticed because of the stigma of homelessness and lack of connection to family.

When a 62-year-old mentally ill woman named Shawna Wright died last summer in a hot alley in Salt Lake City, her death only became known when her family published an obituary saying the system failed to protect her during the hottest July on record, when temperatures reached the triple digits.

Her sister, Tricia Wright, said making it easier for homeless people to get permanent housing would go a long way toward protecting them from extreme summertime temperatures.

We always thought she was tough, that she could get through it," Tricia Wright said of her sister. But no one is tough enough for that kind of heat."

___

AP Science Writer Aniruddha Ghosal in New Delhi and AP writers Frances DEmilio in Rome and Ciaran Giles in Madrid contributed to this report.

Follow Snow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/asnowreports

___

Read more of APs climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/Climate
The following is a political reaction to the Supreme Court decision announced Friday that, according to Bloomberg, overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and wiped out the constitutional right to abortion.

This is a day that the pro-life movement has prayed for and worked toward for 50 years. Every life is precious. I will continue pushing to protect and defend unborn children. Nothing can be more important.

- Rep. August Pfluger (R-San Angelo)

Today the United States Supreme Court has overturned a landmark decision for pro-life advocates. The Texas Legislature has worked tirelessly to protect the unborn and today the federal case law aligns with the opinions of a majority of Texans.



- State Rep. Tom Craddick (R-Midland)

The SCOTUS ruling today is both a blessing to the most vulnerable, as well as a reassurance in the integrity of our judicial system. The court recognized that the right to an abortion is not protected under our constitution, fixing a mistake it made over 50 years ago. This decision will now be sent down to be determined by each individual state, the way our Constitution intended. I am very thankful as this will result in an untold number of lives being saved. This now allows us to focus on the needs of the living, providing support for both mothers and their babies.

- Kevin Sparks, GOP nominee for Texas Senate District 31

"The U.S. Supreme Court correctly overturned Roe v. Wade and reinstated the right of states to protect innocent, unborn children. Texas is a pro-life state, and we have taken significant action to protect the sanctity of life. Texas has also prioritized supporting women's healthcare and expectant mothers in need to give them the necessary resources so that they can choose life for their child. I signed laws that extended Medicaid health care coverage to six months post-partum, appropriated $345 million for women's health programs, and invested more than $100 million toward our Alternatives to Abortion program. This critical program provides counseling, mentoring, care coordination, and material assistance, such as car seats, diapers, and housing to mothers in need.



Texas will always fight for the innocent unborn, and I will continue working with the Texas legislature and all Texans to save every child from the ravages of abortion and help our expectant mothers in need."

- Gov. Greg Abbott

"Today is a tremendous day for life. The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization adheres to the constitution and returns the decision on abortion back to the states. Because of our trigger bill that we passed last year, in 30 days, abortion will be banned in Texas. I thank God for delivering us this day, and I am so proud that Texas has taken the lead to ensure that such evil can no longer live in our state.



"Since I first took office in 2007, protecting life has been my top priority. In 2011, I authored the Sonogram Law, and in 2021, I was proud to lead the Texas Senate in passing the Heartbeat Act, which dramatically reduced the number of abortions that occur in Texas.



"Media estimates report that as many as 62 million innocent lives have been ended since the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade in 1973. Words cannot do that unfathomable number justice. The left will surely fight to keep the abortion industry alive in Texas, but they will fail.



"The Supreme Court's ruling is an acknowledgement of the truth: when an abortion is performed, a human life is ended. This watershed victory is not just a victory for innocent life, but a victory for all of humanity."



- Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick

"Today the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992), thus bringing an end to a half century of the unconstitutional and unconscionable national right to abortion. Attorney General Paxton also released an official advisory setting forth Texas law in light of the Supreme Courts decision. Additionally, he announced the statewide closure of his agencys offices today in honor of the nearly 70 million unborn babies killed in the womb since 1973. June 24th will be an annual Office of the Attorney General holiday in recognition of this momentous decisionand the many lives lost before it.



Roe v. Wade and its successor case Planned Parenthood v. Casey have absolutely no basis in the U.S. Constitution, said Attorney General Paxton. Nevertheless, for half a century, Americans have had to live under these illegitimate, illegal, and unconstitutional dictates of a partisan, willful Supreme Court. No more. Today, the question of abortion returns to the states. And in Texas, that question has already been answered: abortion is illegal here. I look forward to defending the pro-life laws of Texas and the lives of all unborn children moving forward.



Further, added Attorney General Paxton, we cannot forget the extraordinary violence that Roe and Casey unleashed on our nation. Because of those decisions, almost 70 million babies have been killed in the womb. And so, today at noon, I am closing all my offices as a memorial to these babies. Our hearts and prayers go out to all of them. Never again should something like this happen in America.

- Attorney General Ken Paxton

The Supreme Courts decision in the Dobbs case, reversing Roe v. Wade, is nothing short of a massive victory for life, and it will save the lives of millions of innocent babies. The decision reverses one of the most egregious departures from the Constitution and legal precedent the United States has ever seen, and one that has resulted in the deaths of 63 million American children.

Roe was wrong the day it was decided, and it has been wrong every day since then. If you search for the word abortion in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, you wont find it. The Court at the time acknowledged that, and yet Roe created a brand new constitutional right out of whole cloth.

And while the left manically argues that the Dobbs decision makes abortion illegal throughout the country, that is false. What this decision does is leave abortion policy up to the states and returns power to the American peoplewhich is exactly how questions of abortion were handled before Roe.

This is a momentous day, and yet the fight for life doesnt end with the Dobbs decision. It simply begins a new chapter. Ive been proud to stand for life in the U.S. Senate, and I will continue to do so as we navigate the path ahead.



- Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas)

Nearly 50 years ago, the Supreme Court enshrined in Roe v. Wade the fundamental right to reproductive freedom for all Americans. Today, our worst fear was realized: the Court has overturned that ruling, ending the federal constitutional protection of abortion rights and threatening the reproductive liberty of millions of Americans.



No child or adult should be forced to carry a pregnancy to term against their will. By supporting this decision and enacting legislation like the trigger law, Greg Abbott and Texas Republicans have made it clear they are hellbent on doing just that. With the passage of Texass six-week abortion ban, these radical far-right conservatives have already made Texas an incredibly dangerous place to live for the millions who sought to exercise their previously-protected right to abortion. Now, Texas has become exponentially more dangerous with the activation of this dystopian and extremist law.



Nevertheless, we cannot and will not stop fighting. Make no mistake: Texas Democrats will not sit idly by as Republicans threaten the lives and liberty of millions of Texans.



Todays decision is a blaring, five-alarm call to action. It is more important than ever that we send to Washington true, fearless leaders who are ready to fight to codify abortion at the federal level. It is more important than ever that we elect Beto ORourke as governor, flip the Texas Legislature, and elect Democrats up and down the ticket who will overturn Greg Abbotts draconian and brutal laws imposing the will of a tiny minority on the entirety of our state.



- Texas Democratic Party Co-Executive Director Hannah Roe Beck

Today is a historic day which Republicans and Pro-Life advocates have waited for a generation. It will be remembered in history as the day the United States of America reversed one of the most unjust, damaging and plainly incorrect judicial decisions in its history. Thankfully, the lefts egregious attack on our government institutions failed, and justice was done. We also are grateful for the work of Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, Sen. Angela Paxton, and the Republican and Democrat legislators who passed the law which will now protect the lives of all unborn children in Texas.

The Republican Party of Texas continues to support facilitating adoptions and providing assistance to mothers in need both during and after their pregnancies. During the 87th Texas Legislature funding was greatly increased for the Alternatives to Abortion program, which received a total of $100 million for the biennium. This program gives mothers access to needed resources during and after their pregnancy. The program assists new mothers and their children by providing items like diapers, formula, car seats, and classes on pregnancy and parenting. Additionally, private nonprofit crisis pregnancy centers like Birth Choice in Dallas, the Trotter House in Austin, and Houston Pregnancy Help Center in Houston provide services to assist mothers both during and after pregnancy.



- Republican Party of Texas Chairman Matt Rinaldi
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KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  The European Union's decision to make Ukraine a candidate for EU membership offered war-weary Ukrainians a morale boost and hope of a more secure future Friday as the country's military ordered its fighters to retreat from a key city in the eastern Donbas region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailed the decision of EU leaders as vindication of his nation's four-month fight against Russia's aggression and said he was determined to ensure Ukraine retained the ability to decide if it belonged in Europe or under Moscow's influence.

This war began just when Ukraine declared its right to freedom. To its choice of its future. We saw it in the European Union," Zelenskyy told the nation in a televised address late Thursday. That is why this decision of the EU is so important, motivates us and shows all this is needed not only by us."

Others recalled the 2014 revolution that ousted Ukraine's pro-Moscow president, sparked in part by his decision not to complete an association agreement with the EU. Russian President Vladimir Putin opposed that agreement, just as he demanded before he sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 that NATO never accept Ukraine as an alliance member.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk, an opposition leader who became prime minister after the revolution, expressed joy at the country's candidate status but also bitterness" over the terrible price that Ukraine pays for the desire to be a free, independent European state."

Thank you to our soldiers - they won this decision," Yatsenyuk tweeted. "Ukraine is a great country that will inevitably become a member of the EU and, just as inevitably, a member of NATO.

Ukraine applied for membership less than a week after Russia invaded the country and must undergo a complicated process of many months to be eligible to join the 27-nation bloc.

The EU also granted candidate status to the small nation of Moldova, another former Soviet republic that borders Ukraine and also has territory controlled by pro-Russia separatists.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the European Union - and its potential expansion - do not pose a threat or risk" to Russia because the bloc is not a military alliance like NATO. But he said the Kremlin thinks the EU's stance and outlook have become more anti-Russian.

We are well aware that the EU evolved over the past few years, getting an aggressive ideological background, first of all a Russophobic background, Lavrov said.

In Pokrovsk, a small town close to the four-month-old war's frontline in eastern Ukraine, few residents wanted to discuss the EU candidacy as they hurried to collect their daily aid handouts. Some of those who shared their thoughts said the decision would send a strong message to the Russians trying to seize cities and villages a few miles away.

The next stop is NATO. There is no way back now. I was born during the USSR, but there is no return (to that), Pokrovsk resident Valerii Terentyev said. Ukraine wanted a different thing, and in my opinion it is the right thing.

The chairman of Ukraines parliament said that a path toward EU membership would remind the country's soldiers that their fight, which has won international admiration, is worth the hardship.

This is a powerful political message. It will be heard by soldiers in the trenches, every family that was forced to flee the war abroad, everyone who helps bring our victory closer. But it will also be heard in the bunker, Ruslan Stefanchuk said.

Encouragement aside, the reality remains that the European Union sometimes is long on words of solidarity and support but short on the kind of concerted action that might deter outside threats, even though a treaty obligates EU countries to assist a fellow member facing armed aggression.

To gain EU membership, countries must meet a detailed host of economic and political conditions, including a commitment to the rule of law and other democratic principles. The EU's executive arm has indicated that Ukraine also will have to curb entrenched corruption and adopt other government reforms.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said the EUs embrace of Ukraine was an important symbolic signal, but its the beginning of the beginning.

Some Ukrainians understood that their country still has much to do in order to meet the tough membership criteria.

We still need to grow, said Yevhen Zaitsev, another Pokrovsk resident. There is much corruption. There are a lot of lies."

While the EU fast-tracked its consideration of Ukraine's application for membership, the ongoing war could complicate the country's ability to fulfill the entry criteria. Russian forces in recent weeks have slowly advanced in their offensive to capture the Donbas region, where pro-Russia separatists have controlled much of the territory for eight years.

Ukrainian forces were ordered to retreat from the besieged city of Sievierodonetsk, one of the last Ukrainian-held areas of Luhansk province, to avoid being completely surrounded.

The city has faced relentless Russian bombardment while Ukrainian troops fought the Russians in house-to-house battles before retreating to a huge chemical factory on the citys edge.

Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said the retreat order was given to prevent encirclement by Russian forces that made gains around Sievierodonetsk and the neighboring city of Lysychansk in recent days.

___

Ebel reported from Pokrovsk, Ukraine.

___

Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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PALMA DE MALLORCA, Spain (AP)  A pregnant American woman who suffered an incomplete miscarriage while vacationing in Malta was receiving treatment Friday in a hospital on the Spanish island of Mallorca because Maltese law prohibits abortion, the womans partner said.

Jay Weeldreyer told The Associated Press that doctors at the Son Espases University Hospital in Palma de Mallorca were preparing his partner, Andrea Prudente, for a procedure to remove the remaining fetal tissue because she was at risk of a life-threatening infection.

A medical evacuation flight transported the couple from Malta to Mallorca late Thursday.

Weeldreyer told the AP in a video interview Friday that Prudente was exhausted, but relieved. Her physical condition is stable. So, shes safe.

The next step is she has to terminate the pregnancy, he said. From a medical standpoint, thatll basically be the end of it.

Prudente, 38, experienced heavy bleeding on June 12, followed by a premature rupture of the amniotic sac and the separation of the placenta, Weeldreyer, 45, told the AP on Thursday.

The Malta hospital where she was treated carefully monitored her for any sign of infection but it could not perform the surgery to complete the miscarriage, he said.

Malta is the only European Union member nation that outlaws abortions for any reason.

The couple from Issaquah, Washington, a town near Seattle, arrived in Malta on June 5 for what they had planned as a babymoon vacation. A week into the trip, Prudente started bleeding and they encountered the worst of all possible worlds, where there is no good choice, Weeldreyer said. He indicated she was 16 weeks pregnant at the time.

After the Supreme Court ruled Friday to end constitutional protections for abortion in the United States, Weeldreyer said he and Prudente just looked at each other."

We were just thinking about the women who are going to suffer in states where politicians will choose to do something like Malta for a political gain, he told the AP by telephone from the hospital in Spain. Women are going to suffer.

Under Spanish law, abortion is permitted upon request through the 14th week of pregnancy and up to the 22nd week when a womans life or health is in danger.

The Womens Rights Foundation in Malta filed a legal protest in court last week that demanded the legalization of abortion in the tiny island nation.

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Ciaran Giles in Madrid and Frances D'Emilio in Rome contributed to this report.
Big Bend National Park

Hector Flores Jr., 48, of Fort Stockton was convicted this week by a federal jury of one count of endangerment of a child, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of Texas.

On Feb. 5, 2022, Big Bend National Park Rangers and U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel initiated a search for Flores and a his 9-year-old daughter after they found his vehicle abandoned in a very remote part of the national park, about 20 miles from the Mexican border. Birth certificates for Flores and for the 9-year-old were found in the vehicle, according to the press release. Evidence in the area suggested the 9-year-old was with Flores.
The Midland Police Department is asking the public for help locating a missing person last seen in Midland.

Nancy Holland, 85, was last seen in Midland on Tuesday, according to the MPD's Facebook page. Holland was following her son from Idaho, driving an RV. He lost sight of her around the area of Midkiff Road and Wall Street.
Rotary CLub of Midland

The Rotary Club of Midland is initiating a humanitarian project in a region of central Ethiopia, with 5 million people and no local dialysis services. The projects goal is to raise $100,000 in pledges for Rotary International pursuant to a Global Grant. Upon funding and approving the project, Rotary International would then collect the pledges and match contributions at a rate of 80%. People in the region who have end-stage renal disease are currently referred nearly 78 miles north to add their names to a six-month waiting list. Most of them ask instead for medical treatment to ease them along until death.

Initiated last fall, the project plans of the Rotary Club of Midland and Rotarians and doctors of Ethiopia and Midland-based Watch and Pray Ministries are developed through Zoom meetings. Asella, Ethiopia, is the regional hub city with 103,000 people. Its public teaching and referral hospital requests seven dialysis machines to start and will pay tuition to train two new nephrologists. After the two-year training, the new nephrologists could supervise more machines. A request for such additional machines is anticipated from the hospital and will require additional funds. Until the training is complete, existing nephrologists from Adis Ababa will take turns rotating in to Asella for a couple months at a time to train hospital staff and initiate dialysis service.
Sitel Agrees to Buy CXM Specialist Majorel

Customer experience products and solutions company Sitel Group has agreed the acquisition for an undisclosed sum of Luxembourg-based competitor Majorel Group. The merger would form a combined entity with over 240,000 employees across 55 countries.



Majorel's services span the entire customer lifecycle, including digital consumer engagement, CX consulting and a suite of digital solutions. The firm combines clients' quantitative and qualitative data to obtain a 'holistic' view of their customer experience and provide a better understanding of clients' needs and expectations; including the prediction of prospective clients' behaviour based on previous customer actions. With a footprint spanning more than 41 countries across five continents, the company employs more than 75,000.



If the deal goes ahead, Majorel will be integrated into the Sitel Group, and on completion the combined entity, headquartered in Luxembourg, will announce its new name and brand identity. The combined organization will be led by Sitel founder, President and CEO Laurent Uberti (pictured) as CEO, while Majorel CEO Thomas Mackenbrock will take the role of Chief Investment Officer and CEO - EMEA. The pair will be supported by Olivier Camino, Sitel's Global COO and co-founder.



Uberti comments: 'With Majorel, we have found the perfect partner to accelerate our strategy delivery. We realized early on that we share the same DNA as Majorel and are excited to jointly write the next chapter in our growth while delivering best-in-class customer experience solutions around the globe'.



Websites: www.sitel.com and www.majorel.com .




China, Mongolia to jointly translate classics in next 5 yrs

Xinhua) 16:16, June 24, 2022

BEIJING, June 24 (Xinhua) -- China and Mongolia signed a memorandum to jointly translate and publish 50 classic books from both countries in the coming five years, to provide more excellent cultural products for the two peoples.

Officials from cultural authorities of the two countries signed the memorandum on Friday, a move to further boost cultural exchanges and mutual learning between the two countries.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
SHREVEPORT, La. - Two men from Shreveport were sentenced Tuesday by Chief U.S. District Judge S. Maurice Hicks, Jr. for illegally possessing firearms, U.S. Attorney Brandon B. Brown said in a news release.

Damontra Vonravious Mandigo, 22, was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release, for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.

Mandigo was arrested in March 2021 after Shreveport Police Department officers on patrol came in contact with him and searched his vehicle, finding a Zastava 7.62x39mm pistol. Officers were aware that Mandigo was a convicted felon and prohibited from possessing any firearms or ammunition. He was arrested and later admitted to agents that the firearm was his.

Mandigos prior felony convictions were for illegal use of a weapon in 2011 and attempted possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in 2018.

Tramarciea Jovan Ruffins, also known as JJ, 29, was sentenced to just over four years in prison for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. Ruffins was indicted by a federal grand jury on Oct. 13 and he pleaded guilty on Feb. 28.

He was also was arrested in March 2021 when Shreveport police and agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) attempted to make contact with him and another man on Cooper Road. They led officers on a chase that ended with a crash.

Ruffins and the other man ran, but a K-9 found them hidden in a closet in a house on Tulsa Street. Officers searched the area and found firearms loaded with ammunition against the side wall of the residence where they were hiding.

Ruffins admitted to law enforcement officers that he had been in possession of the Smith and Wesson .45-caliber pistol.

Ruffins was previously convicted of aggravated battery in 2014 and felon in possession of a firearm in 2018.
CHICAGO (AP)  In the twilight of his music directorship of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Riccardo Muti candidly outlined his legacy and implored musicians to remember his instruction on Giuseppe Verdis operas: use the 19th century scores without altered notes.

He urged them to reject modern directorial concepts seeking relevance.

In 20 to 30 years, when everything will collapse, you will say maybe Muti was right, the 80-year-old Italian conductor told the orchestra before Wednesday's rehearsal.

Muti is leading three concert performances of Un Ballo in Maschera (A Masked Ball) at Orchestra Hall through Tuesday, the culmination of a Verdi project that included the Requiem, Otello, Macbeth, Falstaff and Aida.

The problem today is that these operas are in the hands many times of stage directors who with some exceptions are destroying the opera, he said during an interview with The Associated Press after Wednesdays rehearsal, going on to fault the podium work of those who dont study Verdis details.

From the first opera going to `Falstaff and the Four Sacred Pieces is an entire arc without interruption, Muti said. In every opera, you find all the elements that will become important for the next opera. And the early Verdi, the famous Verdi of um-pa-pa, um-pa-pa, um-pa-pa, he didnt mean to write um-pa-pa. Its been always played in this way by dilettantes or conductors that dont know.

Muti, whose Chicago contract runs through the 2022-23 season, considers himself the descendant of strong Italian conductors reaching back to Arturo Toscanini and Tulio Serafin. Hes not a fan of most contemporary directors.

Many of them  most of them dont read music. Some are absolutely deaf, he said. Im sure that after a long experiment in this direction, that now has become old, too. Theres nothing new to have the opera transposed to today. At the end, when everybody will be tired, people will start to think  maybe two generations from now  why dont we try to see and to experiment again what was that world?

He used the unpublished critical edition from the complete works of Verdi, a joint project of the University of Chicago Press and Casa Ricordi started in the 1970s and still decades from completion. General editor Francesco Izzo traveled from Britain to be in the audience,

Muti insists reading the score is not enough. One must understand the motivation and purpose of each note and jettison additions to scores resulting from traditional habits. Jay Friedman, the 83-year-old principal trombone, credits Mutis attention to dynamics.

Muti is probably the most consistent music director, interpreter, that weve had, said Friedman, who joined the orchestra in 1962 and has played under Fritz Reiner, Jean Martinon, Georg Solti, Daniel Barenboim and Bernard Haitink. Lets be honest, great orchestras can many times be on what I call autopilot, which is all the notes are there, very virtuosic. But it takes a conductor with a real imagination and a real sense of what is possible from a great orchestra to turn that autopilot into something really special.

A standout cast Thursday included Lebanese soprano Joyce El-Khoury who gave a shimmering performance in her role debut as Amelia. Russian Yulia Matochkina displayed a portentous mezzo-soprano as the sorceress Ulrica, Italian soprano Damiana Mizzi had ebullient coloratura as the page Oscar and tenor Francesco Meli was a dashing if somewhat flagging Riccardo. Muti drew seldom-heard unheard colors, intonation and tension.

Baritone Luca Salsi, a menacing Renato, arrived in Chicago on Sunday for four days of rehearsals after singing the role last month at Milans Teatro alla Scala. Muti first conducted Ballo at Florences Maggio Musicale in 1972 with Richard Tucker, then in a 1975 EMI recording with Placido Domingo followed by a 2001 staging at La Scala with Salvatore Licitra.

Hes the last of the greatest, Salsi said. His magic is to explain the simplicity of the score. Sometimes, with some conductors, they try to find something strange or different, but Verdi, he wrote everything. You just have to be able to explain why.

Muti did not alter the libretto in which a white Judge sings a racist insult toward Ulrica, a Black fortune teller accused of witchcraft: dellimmondo sangue de negri (she has Black blood). Muti says Verdi meant the line to highlight the Judges intolerance.

In many theaters in this country and abroad, for the story of politically correct they change the phrase, he told the orchestra. We should not change so that the next generations must know the abomination that has been done for centuries. If you dont change, you dont solve the problem.

Fidelity to original intent causes him to reject switches such as having Otello portrayed as white and Desdemona as Black, and having Carmen kill Don Jose instead of the other way around, arguing there is nothing in the score or libretto to support such reverses.

We cannot change the history, because if we want to change the history, we should change everything, starting from the Greeks, from the Phoenicians, from the Romans," he said. "We have to keep the horrible things of the past, to tell the young people that it was wrong.

Mutis career has included tenures with Italys Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (1968-80), Londons Philharmonia Orchestra (1972-82), the Philadelphia Orchestra (1980-92), Milans Teatro alla Scala (1986-2005).

By presenting his CSO operas without a staging, he tries to have the audience focus on the music. And with the CSO, he avoids opera houses that he told the post-concert reception are full of really bad traditions.

Verdi has been for years and years, has been performed like a sort of parody of the verismo, like a bad Puccini, he said.

More than any other of Mutis interpresetations, Verdi will be his legacy.

I wanted to thank the orchestra and the chorus in this long voyage that we have gone on Verdi in all these years, he said. I will treasure the memories of this wonderful music-making with you, the orchestra and the chorus, and I feel it is a gift from God that I received in the end of my life to do these operas with you and this time with this wonderful group of singers.
Greg Heun retired from the Navy in 1991 and it took him many years to find himself after a career spent serving his county.

"They teach how to kill but, when discharged, they don't teach how to live," Heun said. "I spent nine years trying to find myself."

When he joined AmVets Post 61 in Louisville, Kentucky, his life took a turn and he was able to start living again  in 2002.

Heun, now AmVets' national commander, is touring posts nationwide with a message to deliver.

"Suicide prevention is a good thing," he said during a stop Thursday at Jacksonville AmVets Post 100, adding that he has lost two friends to suicide. "So far, I have been to 27 states."

Suicide among women veterans is on the rise and soon could pass suicide among male veterans, Heun said.

His strategy to raise awareness about suicide among veterans is twofold. He's working through AmVets to let veterans know what services are available to them and also has become an integral part of Rolling to Remember, a program that used to be known as Rolling Thunder.

"We've added suicide" to the Rolling to Remember mission, he said.

Bikers participating in Rolling to Remember meet in Washington D.C. on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend and ride around the National Monument. The ride was supposed to happen under the group's new name in 2020, but the pandemic pushed the inuagural ride back to 2021, he said.

"Oh, man, we get a police escort, the roads are shut down and seeing all the people waving and saluting is something," Heun said. "Thousands and thousands and thousands of people lined the streets."

During its first run, upward of 15,000 riders showed up, something Heun said was a low turnout.

"The weather was bad," Heun said. "But, when we started riding, it was like God took his hand and cleared the skies."

This year's event had upward of 50,000 riders show up.

"I expect over 100,000 next year," Heun said of 2023.

Although Heun's role as national commander ends this year, he still will be part of AmVets' mission  to support veterans with the idea of veterans serving veterans  from helping them through the Veterans Affairs system to helping those struggling with PTSD or suicidal thoughts.

"They will help them step-by-step," he said of AmVets' Heal Team.

Heun now is a member of AmVets Post 95 in Greenup, Kentucky, where he plans to retire with his wife in two years.
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CANBERRA, Australia (AP)  Australia had fired the first shot in its deteriorating relations with China four years ago when the then-government banned Chinese-owned telecommunications giant Huawei from rolling out the countrys 5G network due to security concerns, a Chinese ambassador said on Friday.

Xiao Qian, Chinas ambassador to Australia since January, gave a rare public address at University Technology Sydney that was repeatedly interrupted by human rights protesters holding signs that read Free Tibet and Hong Kong independence.

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said he was not aware of the human rights protesters at Xiaos speech, but we hope the relevant people will observe basic diplomatic protocol.

The address comes as China shows signs of thawing a diplomatic deepfreeze of Australian ministers following the election of a new government last month.

Bilateral relations plummeted in early 2020 after the previous Australian government called for an independent investigation into the origins of and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

But Xiao highlighted the governments 2018 decision to block Huawei from Australias 5G rollout as a turning point in the relationship.

That perhaps could be described as the first shot that has really damaged our normal business relations, Xiao said.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang wrote to congratulate Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese days after his election victory in a gesture seen by some as China seeking to reset the relationship.

Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Wei Fenghe had an hourlong meeting with his Australian counterpart Richard Marles on the sidelines of a regional security summit in Singapore this month in the first minister-to-minister talks between the two countries in more than two years.

Albanese has acknowledged some improvements in the bilateral relationship, but is demanding China lift a series of formal and informal sanctions on Australian exports as a gesture of goodwill.

China, already there have been some improvements. But theres a long way to go. It will be a problematic relationship, Albanese told Australian Broadcasting Corp on Thursday.

Xiao said there was still time for the two countries to mend relations so that both could celebrate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties on Dec. 21.

Personally, I am still optimistic, Xiao said.
Temperatures arent the only thing rising this summer in Illinois.

The number of serious road rage incidents is climbing to a level that led the director of the Illinois State Police to warn the public this week not to engage in aggressive driving behavior. The warning came on the heels of a shooting incident earlier this month on Interstate 90 in Cook County.

"Getting ahead or getting even with another driver is not worth the risk of a deadly crash or violence," Brendan F. Kelly said. "Keep calm and stay alive."

Jacksonville Police Chief Adam Mefford agreed.

"A little patience goes a long way when traveling," he said.

The ingredients for confrontation are never far away.

"Something as simple as using a turn signal when changing lanes can let another driver know you see them," said Master Sgt. Delila Garcia of the state police. "We want motorists to be aware of their own driving behavior. We all share the roadways and want everyone to get home safely."

Aggressive driving and road rage are not the same, Garcia said, although aggressive driving contributes to road rage. Road rage takes things one step further, into more violent and potentially dangerous territory. A major factor contributing to road rage is congested traffic on interstates.

Behavior commonly associated with road rage includes tailgating, speeding in heavy traffic, cutting off another driver, running red lights, weaving in and out of traffic, making rude gestures, intentionally hitting another vehicle and using headlights or brakes to intimidate or harass other drivers.

"Our concern is that this could grow beyond Chicagoland and throughout the rest of Illinois," Garcia said.

"We in more rural Illinois are different from Chicago," Mefford said. "It is less congested here and traffic is lighter, so there is a smaller pool of drivers to draw from."

In Illinois, road rage isn't specifically prohibited by law. Instead, Illinois has laws that prohibit the underlying conduct in road rage incidents that have the potential to become felonies.

"The biggest thing is, if you feel if you are a victim, call the police and let us handle it," Mefford said. "Two wrongs dont make a right. I think thats what road rage is  two people who are wrong who both think they are right."

Mefford said his department handles a few reports each year of harassment or chasing because of a driving incident. On June 15, a driver reported to police that a woman was following her in a car and yelling at her on South Diamond Street. On May 23, police investigated an incident on South Clay Avenue that was resolved.

"I dont think its a huge problem here, but I also think road rage is underreported locally," Mefford said. "Something may end up in a brief argument or hand gestures, but people are not likely to report it."

Jacksonville officers patrol to serve as a visual deterrent to drivers before an incident happens, he said.

"We do routine patrols to enforce traffic violations," he said. "Warm weather brings out motorcycles, more drivers and younger drivers because they are out of school. We are trying to be vigilant and address issues as they come up."

If confronted with an aggressive driver, the best course of action is to ignore the driver and distance your vehicle from theirs, Garcia said.

"Motorists should never engage or make eye contact with the aggressive driver," she said. "Follow the rules of the road at all times and be courteous to your fellow drivers."

If someone believes they are endangered  and because most people have a phone  the best course is to call 911 when in a safe location, Mefford said.

"Drive to a safe place, such as a convenience store or gas station," he said. "Weve also had people drive straight to the police station to de-escalate the situation."

From January through mid-June, about 35% of expressway shootings to which state police responded in the Chicago area were classified as road rage incidents. Thats up from roughly 12% in 2021, Kelly said.

Aggressive driving is a factor in 54% of all fatal motor vehicle crashes, according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. In a separate years-long study conducted by AAA, road rage episodes result in about 30 deaths and 1,800 injuries each year.

Gender is a major contributing factor in most road rage cases, with men more likely to exhibit road rage than women, according to statistics from Bankrate.com.

Age is another factor that seems to contribute to road rage. Drivers between the ages of 25 to 39 were the most likely to exhibit road rage behaviors, according to AAA. People between 19 and 24 were most likely to prevent another driver from changing lanes or bump or ram another vehicle.
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CAIRO (AP)  Qatars emir arrived in Cairo late Friday for talks with Egypt's president, his first visit to the country following years of frayed ties and a boycott of Doha by four Arab states, including Egypt.

With Qatari and Egyptian flags flowing over the tarmac, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani was greeted at the airport by President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, a courtesy only granted to leaders of heavyweight allies.

The visit comes ahead of President Joe Bidens anticipated trip to the Middle East next month. The two leaders are expected to discuss ways to further improve bilateral relations as well as common regional and international concerns, according to a statement released by the Egyptian presidents office.

The emirs visit came less than two months after his government announced that it would invest $5 billion in Egypt, another lifeline to the countrys economy which has been dealt a blow following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The announcement came during a March visit by Qatar Foreign Minister Mohammad bin Abdulrahman.

Egyptian-Qatari relations deteriorated in 2013, when Egypts military removed from power the Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, who was backed by Qatar, and cracked down on his Muslim Brotherhood.

Doha, Qatars capital, eventually became a haven for fleeing Egyptian Islamists, and the state-owed Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera Television took a decided stance against el-Sissis government.

In 2017, Egypt joined Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in a boycott of Qatar in an effort to force Doha to change its policies. With a wide-ranging trade embargo, a ban on Qatar-bound flights from their airspace and a media blitz, they called on Doha to end close relations with Turkey, Iran and Islamists across the region.

Qatar rejected the quartets demands, which included that it shutter its Al Jazeera news network, expel a small contingency of Turkish troops from its territory and cut ties with the Muslim Brotherhood. It also denied claims by the quartet that it supports extremists.

The boycott pushed the gas-rich nation in closer alliance with Turkey and Iran while Doha also continued to strengthen ties with Washington.

The rift finally ended in 2021, when Qatar signed a declaration with the four to normalize relations. Since then, ties have improved and top officials have exchanged visits.

El-Sissi also met with the emir in November, on the sidelines of the climate change summit in Glasgow, and most recently in February, when they both attended the opening of the Winter Olympics in Beijing. Photographs of the two from the events warmly shaking hands came as early signs of renewed rapport.
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WINCHESTER  A Scott County 4-H club has used a grant to brighten a pavilion at the county's nursing home.

The Neighborhood Guys and Gals 4-H group received a $500 community improvement grant from Farm Credit Illinois. Club members turned the money into materials to paint and spruce up the outdoor pavilion at Scott County Nursing Center, as well as to build new benches for outdoor seating.
In our book 100% Democracy: The Case for Universal Voting, E.J. Dionne and I make a case for universal voting  that voting should be a required civic duty for every American citizen.

Universal voting could be enacted federally or  more likely  by states or municipalities. If adopted, it would dramatically increase voting participation; make the voting electorate a complete reflection of our population; make government more responsive to everyone; improve the nature of our political campaigns; and lessen our toxic polarization, at least to a degree.

Universal voting has not been seriously discussed in this country, but it is hardly a new or radical idea. First, the system is used in 26 democratic countries worldwide, including Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Greece, Luxembourg, Peru and Uruguay. The processes and practices vary; Australia is probably the best example for us. Mandatory participation has been in place since 1924, nearly 100 years. It is a widely accepted part of the countrys democratic process, and there have been no serious attempts to repeal it.

So how does it work?

The Australian Electoral Commission  a non-partisan, well-funded and professional agency  makes every effort to register voters, and conducts energetic public education about coming elections, as do the political parties and civil society organizations. Citizens are well aware of the elections as they get closer and of their responsibility to vote.

As of December, 96.3% of Australians were registered, and in the election of 2019 (the figures are not yet published for the most recent election in May), 91.9% of those registered voted. It is important to note that Australians are not required to vote for any candidate; blank ballots and ballots with comments or cartoons, called donkey ballots, are acceptable.

After the election, the rolls are examined, and people who do not vote receive a notice asking for the reason. Almost all reasons are accepted, but if there is no response from the non-voter after two attempts, a fine of $20 in Aussie currency ($15 in the U.S.), is assessed. Less than 1% of potential voters were fined; the requirement is a recognized part of the civic culture.

And speaking of culture, elections are held on Saturday and have a celebratory nature, complete with ubiquitous democracy sausage stands at almost all polling places.

For another reason, closer to home, that voting as a civic duty is not a radical idea, think of jury service. Everyone is required to serve on juries as a matter of civic responsibility. This has been the case for more than 100 years, and we accept it as entirely reasonable, even if we may wince when the summons arrives.

The reason for doing this is clear; we want the pool of jurors to be fully reflective of our society as the surest means of a fair outcome. We think the same reasoning applies to voting: we want, or should want, the public policies that affect our lives, and the choices of who will be in office to make them, to be made by all of us, fully represented. And universal voting will bring that to us.

Evidence also shows that in countries with universal voting, policies that help lessen inequality get stronger governmental support, and in our view, that would be a significant benefit.

We have been gratified that the initial response to our book and the idea has had far more expressions of interest in universal voting as a potentially game-changing idea and far less of the skepticism that naturally greets any big new proposal.

Universal voting is an idea that can move American democracy a long way to our stated ideals of a fully inclusive democracy. We are putting the idea of 100% Democracy forward as a North Star goal, and we are eager for the conversation to begin.
A handful of countries, most notably Australia, impose mandatory voting, with citizens facing fines and punishments if they dont appear at the polls. And every few years, somebody proposes bringing this practice to the United States as a good-government reform that would allegedly improve the health of our democracy.

Luckily, Americans remain unimpressed by the idea. A report advocating mandatory voting by the Brookings Institution and Harvard Kennedy Schools Ash Center acknowledged as much. When polled, they found only 26% of Americans favored the idea, with 64% opposed.

The claimed benefits of mandatory voting are highly dubious. All available evidence is that it would have little effect on election outcomes since non-voters tend to break down about the same as for voters in their partisan preferences. The main effect visible in Australia is the frequency of the so-called donkey ballot, where voters randomly pick a candidate or party without giving it any thought, often simply choosing the option listed first on the ballot. Others return a blank ballot, clearly going through the motions only to avoid punishment.

Beyond the lack of clear, practical benefit, mandatory voting sits uneasily with American principles. The First Amendment protects not only freedom of speech but also freedom from compelled speech. And even if a coerced voter shows up and casts a spoiled ballot, participating in an election is a speech act. It implies affirmation of the legitimacy and desirability of the electoral system and our current constitutional order. That might be a correct opinion, in my view, but it is not one Americans should be forced to affirm.

There is a long history in the United States of principled abstention from voting, including groups such as the Quakers and Jehovahs Witnesses, who are motivated by a thoroughgoing religious faith in strict pacifism. Others, such as anarchists ranging from libertarians to socialists, reject the moral legitimacy of all governments and do not want to lend their endorsement to the state. Faced with the need to accommodate such groups or at least some of them, compulsory voting faces two bad options. Either any person can invoke a religious or philosophical exemption, rendering the whole exercise pointless, or must put the government in the untenable position of judging which reasons are good enough.

Even if the First Amendment argument doesnt convince you, the last thing our bloated criminal justice system needs is yet another reason to impose fines and enforcement actions on Americans, especially when such burdens will fall disproportionately on minorities and the poor. Every law must be enforced, and the police in our country already have more than enough laws to enforce.

Even if the political will could be mustered to pass a compulsory voting law, the courts are unlikely to permit it under longstanding First Amendment principles. During World War II, the court faced another attempt at coercing civic affirmation: mandatory recital of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools. Again, Jehovahs Witnesses refused, believing that this was an act of flag-worship akin to idolatry.

Justice Robert H. Jackson, writing for a 6-3 court, offered one of the most stirring articulations of Americas radical free speech jurisprudence: If there is any fixed star in our constitutional firmament, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion or other matters of opinion.

Showing up to vote may well be a laudable act, one to be encouraged, an admirable exercise of civic duty and participation in our system of government. But as a matter of opinion, it is not the governments role to impose that view as compulsory orthodoxy.

If you dont want to vote, its your right not to vote.
Suspects charged over puzzling needle attacks in France View Photo

PARIS (AP)  Several suspects around France have been detained or given preliminary charges in recent days for allegedly pricking people with a needle in nightclubs or at concerts, following a surge in needle attacks that have confounded authorities and seeded panic among young club-goers.

The French Interior Ministry, prosecutors, the national anti-drug agency, public health authorities and doctors have not determined a motive for the attacks, or whether the victims were injected with drugs, viruses or any substance at all.

Since January, 1,004 people have filed formal complaints with French authorities about such needle pricks, an Interior Ministry official told The Associated Press.

In the cases so far that resulted in charges, medical tests did not reveal any signs of harmful substances, including so-called date rape drug GHB, authorities said. The suspects have denied all allegations.

The targeted individuals, who are mostly women, show visible marks of injection, often bruises, and report symptoms like feeling groggy. The ministry official urged caution in assuming a link between the needle pricks and GHB.

After months of fruitless investigations, authorities in the Mediterranean city of Toulon arrested a 20-year-old man suspected of pricking three women with a needle on the night of June 3-4, during the recording of a concert for TV. He was the first suspect given preliminary charges, for aggravated violence with a weapon (a syringe) with premeditation.

A teenage girl and a woman reported that a man tried to attack them with a syringe and was violent toward them as they waited in line for the event.

The third victim, a female security agent, encountered the same man at the concert. She then fainted, and an injection mark was spotted on her hand, and she was hospitalized. The Toulon prosecutor is awaiting the results of her blood tests.

The prosecutor, Samuel Finielz, told The Associated Press that the suspect denies all allegations and is still presumed innocent. No syringe was found in his apartment. He remains in custody.

Later in the same region, in the beach town of Six-Four-Les-Plages, police arrested two suspects who received preliminary charges for the suspected administration of a harmful substance on the night of June 10-11, the prosecutor said on regional broadcaster France-3.

A 25-year-old woman reported being pricked with a needle and passing out in a club that night. The woman told police she felt dizzy after she was stuck and the week after but then recovered.

Syringes and injectable, prescription drugs were found in the apartment of one suspect. The man denied all allegations, arguing that the syringes and drugs belonged to his wife, who is a nurse, according to the prosecutor.

Fear of needle attacks have grown among young people in France, who are sharing advice about avoiding getting pricked  as well as unconfirmed rumors  on social media. The anxiety intensified this week around Tuesdays World Music Day as crowds gathered for concerts.

Another eight people were arrested on World Music Day after individuals reported being pricked with needles, according to the Interior Ministry. Some were later released. At least one, in Nancy in eastern France, has been given preliminary charges on accusations that he pricked at least two people.

The suspect denied wrongdoing, and said he was heavily drunk and didnt recall the events, according to Nancy Prosecutor Francois Perain. The suspect, a homeless man identified as Damien J., had syringes in his belongings, Perain said in a statement.

He was detained after two people said that they were pricked at a Music Day event. Two additional potential victims were identified and investigations are ongoing, the prosecutor said. The suspect told investigators the syringes were for his personal drug use, Perain said.

One victim went to the emergency room, and showed a medical certificate reporting an injection mark, the prosecutor said. Urgent toxicology analyses were conducted on two victims, but for now nothing tells us that something was injected, Perain stressed.

The suspect told investigators that he didnt see himself committing such acts and would be ashamed if he did, according to the prosecutor. Born in 1987, Damien J. had prior run-ins with police for driving under the influence of drugs without a license, and threatening people of public authority.

Police, doctors and medico-legal services are working together to support victims. The Interior Ministry and national police are working to raise awareness among club-goers and club owners.

Britains government also has been studying a spate of needle spiking, while police in Belgium and the Netherlands have reported scattered cases, too.

By JADE LE DELEY

Associated Press
Morocco: 18 migrants dead in stampede to enter Melilla View Photo

RABAT, Morocco (AP)  Eighteen Africans seeking to cross into Spain were killed and scores of migrants and police were injured in what Moroccan authorities called a stampede of people surging across Moroccos border fence with the Spanish North African enclave of Melilla on Friday.

A total of 133 migrants breached the border between the Moroccan city of Nador and Melilla on Friday, the first such mass crossing since Spain and Morocco mended diplomatic relations last month. A spokesperson for the Spanish governments office in Melilla said about 2,000 people attempted to cross, but many were stopped by Spanish Civil Guard police and Moroccan forces on either side of the border fence.

Moroccos Interior Ministry said in a statement that the casualties occurred when people tried to climb the iron fence. It said five migrants were killed and 76 injured, and 140 Moroccan security officers were injured.

Thirteen of the injured migrants later died in the hospital, raising the death toll to 18, according to Moroccos official news agency MAP., which cited local authorities. The Moroccan Human Rights Association reported 27 dead but the figure could immediately be confirmed.

Spanish officials said 49 Civil Guards sustained minor injuries. Four police vehicles were damaged by rocks thrown by some migrants.

Those who succeeded in crossing went to a local migrant center, where authorities were evaluating their circumstances.

People fleeing poverty and violence sometimes make mass attempts to reach Melilla and the other Spanish territory on the North African coast, Ceuta, as a springboard to continental Europe.

Spain normally relies on Morocco to keep migrants away from the border.

Over two days at the beginning of March, more than 3,500 people tried to scale the six-meter (20-foot) barrier that surrounds Melilla and nearly 1,000 made it across, according to Spanish authorities.

Fridays crossings were the first attempt since relations between Spain and Morocco improved in March after a year-long dispute centered on the Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony annexed by Morocco in 1976.

Morocco loosened its controls around Ceuta last year, allowing thousands of migrants to cross into Spain. The move was viewed as retaliation for Spains decision to allow the leader of Western Saharas pro-independence movement to be treated for COVID-19 at a Spanish hospital.

Tensions between the two countries began to thaw earlier this year after Spain backed Moroccos plan to grant more autonomy to Western Sahara, where activists are seeking full independence.

___

Ciaran Giles reported from Madrid.

___

Follow APs coverage of migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migration

By CIARAN GILES and TARIK EL-BARAKAH

Associated Press
Hong Kongers reflect on Taiwan, an imperfect exile View Photo

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP)  For Lam Wing-kee, a Hong Kong bookstore owner who was detained by police in China for five months for selling sensitive books about the Communist Party, coming to Taiwan was a logical step.

An island just 640 kilometers (400 miles) from Hong Kong, Taiwan is close not just geographically but also linguistically and culturally. It offered the freedoms that many Hong Kongers were used to and saw disappearing in their hometown.

Lams move to Taiwan in 2019, where he reopened his bookstore in Taipei, the capital, presaged a wave of emigration from Hong Kong as the former British colony came under the tighter grip of China s central government and its long-ruling Communist Party.

Its not that Hong Kong doesnt have any democracy, it doesnt even have any freedom, Lam said in a recent interview. When the English were ruling Hong Kong, they didnt give us true democracy or the power to vote, but the British gave Hong Kongers a very large space to be free.

Hong Kong and Chinese leaders will mark next week the 25th anniversary of its return to China. At the time, some people were willing to give China a chance. China had promised to rule the city within the one country, two systems framework for 50 years. That meant Hong Kong would retain its own legal and political system and freedom of speech that does not exist in mainland China.

But in the ensuing decades, a growing tension between the citys Western-style liberal values and mainland Chinas authoritarian political system culminated in explosive pro-democracy protests in 2019. In the aftermath, China imposed a national security law that has left activists and others living in fear of arrest for speaking out.

Hong Kong still looked the same. The malls were open, the skyscrapers were gleaming. But well-known artist Kacey Wong, who moved to Taiwan last year, said he constantly worried about his own arrest or those of his friends, some of whom are now in jail.

On the outside its still beautiful, the sunset at the harbor view. But its an illusion that makes you think youre still free, he said. In reality youre not, the government is watching you and secretly following you.

Though Wong feels safe in Taiwan, life as an exile is not easy. Despite its similarities to Hong Kong, Wong found his new home an alien place. He does not speak Taiwanese, a widely spoken Fujianese dialect. And the laid-back island contrasts strongly with the fast-paced financial capital that was Hong Kong.

The first six months were hard, Wong said, noting that traveling as a tourist to Taiwan is completely different than living on the island in self-imposed exile.

I havent established the relationship with the place, with the streets, with the people, with the language, with the shop downstairs, he said.

Other, less prominent exiles than Wong or Lam have also had to navigate a system that does not have established laws or mechanisms for refugees and asylum seekers, and has not always been welcoming. That issue is further complicated by Taiwans increasing wariness of security risks posed by China, which claims the island as its renegade province, and of Beijings growing influence in Hong Kong.

For example, some individuals such as public school teachers and doctors have been denied permanent residency in Taiwan because they had worked for the Hong Kong government, said Sky Fung, the secretary general of Hong Kong Outlanders, a group that advocates for Hong Kongers in Taiwan. Others struggle with the tighter requirements and slow processing of investment visas.

In the past year or so, some have chosen to leave Taiwan, citing a clearer immigration path in the U.K. and Canada, despite the bigger gulf in language and culture.

Wong said that Taiwan has missed a golden opportunity to keep talented people from Hong Kong. The policies and actions, and what the  government is doing is not proactive enough and caused uncertainty in these people, thats why theyre leaving, he said.

The islands Mainland Affairs Council has defended its record, saying it found that some migrants from Hong Kong hired immigration companies who took illegal methods, such as not carrying through on investments and hiring locals they had promised on paper.

We in Taiwan, also have national security needs, Chiu Chui-cheng, deputy minister at the Mainland Affairs Council, said on a TV program last week. Of course we also want to help Hong Kong, we have always supported Hong Kongers in their support for freedom, democracy and rule of law.

Some 11,000 Hong Kongers got residence permits in Taiwan last year, according to Taiwans National Immigration Agency, and 1,600 were able to get permanent residency. The U.K. granted 97,000 applications to Hong Kong holders of British National Overseas passports last year in response to Chinas crackdown.

However imperfect, Taiwan gives the activists a chance to continue to carry out their work, even if the direct actions of the past were no longer possible.

Lam was one of five Hong Kong booksellers whose seizure by Chinese security agents in 2016 drew global concern.

He often lends his presence to protests against China, most recently attending a June 4 memorial in Taipei to mark the anniversary of a bloody crackdown on democracy protesters in Beijings Tiananmen Square in 1989. Similar protests in Hong Kong and Macao, until recently the only places in China allowed to commemorate the Tiananmen massacre, are no longer allowed.

As a Hong Konger, I actually havent stopped my resistance. I have always continued to do what I needed to do in Taiwan, and participated in my events. I have not given up fighting, Lam said.

By JOHNSON LAI and HUIZHONG WU

Associated Press
MEXICO CITY (AP)  Four police officers were shot to death after being drawn into an ambush in western Mexico, and as many as eight suspected attackers were killed in a gunbattle with other police who rushed to the site, authorites said Thursday.

Luis Joaquin Mendez, chief prosecutor of the western state of Jalisco, said four municipal policemen in the city of El Salto responded to a call late Wednesday about armed men at a house.

Once they arrived, a woman answered the door and told them nothing was wrong. But gunmen inside then opened fire on the officers, some of whom were dragged into the home and killed, the prosecutor said.

Gov. Enrique Alfaro wrote that police reinforcements showed up and engaged in a shootout with the suspects, killing eight and wounding three.

Later, the prosecutors office said nine bodies were found at the house  the four police officers and five suspected gunmen. Three more bodies  two men and a woman  were found at a property nearby, they said

Prosecutors said the dead were probably members of a gang that apparently held kidnap victims at one of the properties. Investigators also found the hacked up remains of another man in plastic bags.

Ricardo Santillan, police chief of El Salto, called the ambush a cowardly act.

The Roman Catholic Mexican Council of Bishops issued an open letter Thursday calling on the government to change course on security, commenting three days after two Jesuits priests were allegedly killed by a drug gang leader inside their church in a remote town in northern Mexico.

It is time to revise the security policies that are failing, the bishops wrote, calling for a national dialogue to find solutions.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has declared his government is no longer focused on detaining drug cartel leaders, and in 2019 he ordered the release of a captured leader of the Sinaloa cartel to avoid bloodshed.

Lopez Obrador has implemented a strategy he calls hugs, not bullets and has sometimes appeared to tolerate the gangs, even praising them at one point for not interfering in elections.

Asked at his daily morning news briefing if he intended to change strategies, Lopez Obrador said, No, rather the reverse, this is the right path.

He faced questions about the fact that there have been more killings in his 3 1/2 years in office than in all six years under President Felipe Calderon in 2006-2012, whom Lopez Obrador frequently accuses of being responsible for unnecessary bloodshed.

Its just that we received a homicide rate that was at its peak, way up, and Calderon wasnt handed the country like that. He ratched it up, Lopez Obrador said.
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP)  Brazilian prosecutors said Thursday that a raped 11-year-old girl had received a legal abortion after a judge blocked her for weeks from ending her pregnancy.

Federal prosecutors in the state of Santa Catarina said in a statement that Polydoro Ernani de Sao Thiago hospital had taken measures to interrupt the minors pregnancy after a formal request made on behalf of the girls family.

The hospital said in a statement that it could not comment on the case because it is under the secrecy of Brazils judiciary system.

Doctors had earlier refused to perform the procedure because the child was in her 22nd week of pregnancy.

Some anti-abortion activists argue Health Ministry recommendations urge a 20- to 22-week limit on the procedure. But Daniela Felix, a lawyer for the family of the child, and other legal experts said Brazilian law makes no mention of a limit in the case of rape victims or when a womans life is in danger.

The 11-year-old, who was 10 when she was raped, was in her 29th week when the abortion was finally carried Wednesday night, amid outrage against judge Joana Ribeiro Zimmer for her actions in the case.

Earlier this week, Brazils judicial watchdog agency said it would investigate Zimmer for asking the child at a filmed hearing May 9 whether she understood how pregnancies happen and suggesting the girl should hold on a little more to save the fetus.

The girl repeatedly said she did not want to give birth.

Brazilian law allows abortions in three instances: rape; risk to the mothers life; and cases of anencephaly, in which a fetus has no functioning brain.

The case has sparked a debate between supporters of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro and those of leftist former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Bolsonaro, who is in a bid for reelection against da Silva, tweeted after news of the girls abortion emerged: A baby of a seven month pregnancy.

We dont discuss the way it was conceived, whether the law allows it or not. It is inadmissible taking the life of this defenseless being! he wrote.

Da Silva said in April that anyone should be allowed to have an abortion, but within days he pulled back, saying that he opposes abortions although he believes that women should be allowed the choice as a matter of public health.

The case, reported by the website The Intercept Brasil last week, prompted associations of magistrates and human rights groups to ask that Zimmer be removed from her post.

Zimmer said in a statement Wednesday that she will not speak about parts of the hearing, which were illegally leaked. She also said she will remain silent about the case to assure the due and full protection to the child.

The probe on Zimmers methods will be conducted by the same Santa Catarina court system in southern Brazil and its decision with be referred to her own court in the southern Brazil state, and then taken for the national watchdog to make its final decision. ___

Savarese reported from Sao Paulo.

By DEBORA ALVARES and MAURICIO SAVARESE

Associated Press
1 dead, dozens hurt in 12th day of protesting in Ecuador View Photo

QUITO, Ecuador (AP)  One man was killed and dozens injured Thursday during the 12th day of protests led by Indigenous people demanding that Ecuadors government cut fuel prices, put price controls on food and spend more on education.

After several days of increasing violence, demonstrations clashed with soldiers and riot police in Quito and other cities in the Andean country.

The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities, which has organized the national strike, said a demonstrator died of pellet wounds in the chest and abdomen while protesting near the National Assembly.

Authorities acknowledged there was one death, and Interior Minister Patricio Carrillo said they were dismayed. He said that the government had not provided any pellet guns to police personnel and that on Thursday they were carrying only gas to disperse protesters.

Christian Rivera, a volunteer paramedic, told The Associated that 100 or so people had been treated at the site, including protesters, soldiers and police.

The demonstrations are part of a national strike that the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities began June 14 to demand that gasoline prices be cut 45 cents a gallon to $2.10, price controls be put on agricultural products and a larger budget be adopted for education. Protests have been especially violent in six provinces in north-central Ecuador.

Indigenous leader Leonidas Iza on Tuesday demanded that the government lift the state of emergency in those provinces and remove the military and police presence around places where protesters have gathered in Quito. But the government rejected the demands Wednesday, saying meeting them would leave the capital defenseless.

Quito is experiencing food and fuel shortages because of protester roadblocks and other disruptions from the unrest.
Ecuador president: Indigenous leader is trying to stage coup View Photo

QUITO, Ecuador (AP)  Ecuadors president charged Friday that the Indigenous leader heading a nationwide strike is seeking to stage a coup and warned he will use all legal tools to contain the violence unleashed by the demonstrations.

In televised remarks, President Guillermo Lasso said Leonidas Iza, leader of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities, intends to overthrow the government. But Lasso added that he was willing to engage in talks on ending protests that were in their 13th day.

It is proven that the true intention of the violent (people) is to generate a coup and that is why we call on the international community to warn of this attempt to destabilize democracy in Ecuador, Lasso said.  Mr. Iza can no longer control the situation. The violence perpetrated by infiltrated criminals has got out of hand.

The demonstrations are part of a national strike that the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities began June 14 to demand that gasoline prices be cut by 45 cents a gallon to $2.10, price controls be imposed on agricultural products and a larger budget be set for education. Protests have been especially violent in six provinces in the north-central part of the South American country.

The confederation on Thursday said a demonstrator died of pellet wounds in the chest and abdomen while protesting near the National Assembly in Quito, where about 100 other people suffered a variety of injuries. Police tweeted that officers were also injured by pellets.

Marlon Santi, the coordinator of the confederations political wing known as Pachaktik, demanded in a video on social media that the government meet the Indigenous demands because we are convinced this is the spirit of our struggle.

He called on protesters to return to places of peace and safety so as not to put their lives in danger. They have the power, the power of arms and economic power; we have the power of reason and dignity.

Lawmakers from the Union por la Esperanza caucus, which is linked to former President Rafael Correa, on Friday began a legislative process seeking Lassos removal, but it does not have the necessary votes as other caucuses have rejected the move. It would take the votes of at least 92 lawmakers to remove Lasso, while Union has only 47 seats.

In Quito, protesters blocking roads have brought the city to a near halt and people are experiencing food and fuel shortages. Production Minister Julio Jose Prado said nearly 600 private vehicles and food-carrying trucks are trapped in Nanegalito, a community about 40 miles (65 kilometers) northwest of Quito.

Groups of protesters have roamed the city attacking vehicles and civilians and forcing the closure of businesses, some of which were looted. They have also punctured the tires of buses, forcing passengers to walk.

Lasso urged Indigenous people and peasants who have been brought to Quito with deception to return to their communities for their own safety. He added that human rights groups should scrutinize the situation, which he said has violated the rights of security forces, citizens and journalists.

Human Rights International said four of its staff members were physically attacked and robbed Thursday while carrying out research and verification work on the protests in Quito.

We reject these actions, and we call for dialogue, the group tweeted.

The situation prompted several embassies, including those of Germany, Britain, Canada and the U.S., to issue a public statement expressing concerns about the fundamental rights of all citizens. It called for the parties to negotiate and reach concrete agreements.

The U.S. State Department issued an advisory Wednesday warning travelers about the widespread protests.
Groveland fire in 120/old 120/Yosemite springs area View Photos

Update at 4:25 p.m.: A new fire that ignited in the Groveland area near 2nd Garotte Road, west of Old Highway 120, has been dubbed the Garotte Fire. According to CAL Fire spokesperson Emily Kilgore, all three fires, including those in Jamestown and Chinese Camp, have been contained. They began shortly after the stormy weather blew through Tuolumne County. The Twist Fire in the 14800 block of Twist Road in Jamestown was contained to a quarter of an acre and a single tree also caught on fire. In Chinse Camp, the Shawmut Fire on Shawmut Road off Highway 49 was extinguished at a 20 by 20 spot. The Garrotte Fire was also contained at that size. Regarding a fire reported along Jacksonville Road, Kilgore said crews were unable to locate that blaze.

Original post at 3:35 p.m.: Tuolumne County, CA  Just after stormy weather blew through Tuolumne County, CAL Fire noted multiple reports of smoke in the Jamestown, Chinese Camp, and Jacksonville Road areas.

CAL Fire reports that crews are making access to the eighth of an acre vegetation fire near the 14800 block of Twist Road in Jamestown, dubbed the Twist Fire. Also, CAL Fire received several calls reporting smoke on Jacksonville Road in the Jamestown area, but there are no further details on this blaze. In Chinese Camp, near Highway 49 and Shawmut Road, titled the Shawmut Fire. CAL Fire spokesperson Emily Kilgore reports crews are actively working that fire, but she has no details on its size. An update will be provided as soon as new information comes into the newsroom.
Governor Gavin Newsom View Photo

Sacramento, CA  A defiant Governor Gavin Newsom spoke out against this mornings Supreme Court ruling, striking down a 1913 New York law that restricted who could obtain a permit to carry a gun in public.

Newsom criticized the decision, stating, While this reckless decision erases a commonsense gun safety law that existed for decades, California anticipated this moment. Our Administration has been working closely with the Attorney General and the legislature for months. Our state is ready with a bill that will be heard next week to update and strengthen our public-carry law and make it consistent with the Supreme Court ruling, just as Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Kavanaugh said states like California are free to do.

Newsom went on to call the ruling a radical decision. He noted, Todays Court thinks that gun regulations should be frozen in time and that if there wasnt a similar law in existence in the 1700s or 1800s, then a state cant pass it now, no matter how important it is to protect people from the modern horror of gun violence.

Under the New York law, residents needed to show proper cause, or an actual need, to carry a concealed handgun in public for self-defense. The justices said that the law conflicts with the Second Amendments right to bear arms. That has left half a dozen states, like California, with similar laws to figure out their next steps.

Our state will continue to lead in the fight to keep our people safe. Next week, I will have 16 new gun safety bills on my desk, including a bill that will allow individuals to sue gun makers and distributors for violating certain gun laws. I look forward to signing all of those bills, advised Newsom.

He praised the state for proven, common-sense gun laws that save lives, stating, We will continue to stand up to those in political power who enable and coddle the gun industry.

Gun rights groups have vowed to continue pushing back against what they view as restrictive gun control laws.
CDC Covid Community Levels June 24 View Photo

Tuolumne County Public Health reports the death of a man in his 80s and a woman in her 80s due to Coivd-19. There are 210 new lab-confirmed community cases and 12 Sierra Conservation Center (SCC) inmate cases, with eight hospitalizations from Saturday, June 18th to today, Friday, June 24th. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation reports 23 active cases at SCC. There are 260 active community cases up from 129 last week.

Tuolumne County Public Health Reports Due to a reporting lag from the LHI testing site for antigen test results, 23 of this weeks cases were from dates prior to the past 10 days.

The newly reported Covid-19 community cases this week include 22 cases age 17 and younger and 75 cases age 60 or older. The new Covid cases demographics: 7 girls and 11 boys age 0 to 11, 1 girl and 3 boys age 12 to 17, 10 women and 17 men age 18 to 29, 16 women and 11 men in their 30s, 14 women and 12 men in their 40s, 22 women and 9 men in their 50s, 22 women and 13 men in their 60s, 10 women and 12 men in their 70s, 7 women and 8 men in their 80s, and 3 women age 90 or older.

The total current case rate, a 14-day average for Tuolumne County increased to 38.5 from 33.7 per 100,000 population. A total of 74 more are counted as released from isolation, in all 11,538 have been released from isolation. The 7-day test positivity rate is 24.2% up from 19.6%.

Monkeypox Tuolumne Public health says, We continue to monitor and coordinate on the monkeypox disease situation. More than 3,300 cases have now been reported from more than 42 countries and there are currently 39 probable and confirmed cases in California, none so far in Tuolumne County. The risk to the general public is considered low at this time and we will continue to provide updates as the situation evolves. Click here for more about monkeypox, including prevention information.

Calaveras Public Health updates weekly on Tuesdays. They report two deaths, a man in his 50s and a man in his 90s have died due to Covid-19. There are 77 new lab-confirmed cases from June 15th to the 21st. The number of cases is up from 68 new lab-confirmed cases among residents the week before. They report 22 active cases, last week there were 39 active cases. There are no active Covid hospitalizations to report.

CDC Covid tracker map reports Mariposa, Amador and Tuolumne have moved to the high (orange) Community Covid level (of a three-tier system.) The level is determined by the higher of new hospital admissions and inpatient beds metrics, based on the current level of new cases per 100,000 population in the past 7 days. There are 392 high (orange) level counties in the U.S., and there are 25 in California up from 19 last week, 10 California counties are green this week. When evaluating just community transmission level, all but four California counties are in the highest (red) community transmission level including Tuolumne and Calaveras. A total of 82% of U.S. counties are in the highest community transmission level.

COVID-19 Testing If you test positive or have been exposed to COVID-19  Isolation instructions (click here) To make an appointment for testing at the testing site visit: https://lhi.care/covidtesting

The regular hours of the Mother Lode testing site are: Monday, Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. The State testing site at the Mother Lode Fairgrounds launched Test to Treat operations as detailed here.

The site will be closed due to the Mother Lode Fair and Independence Day holiday from Wednesday, June 29th through Monday, July 4th. They will reopen on Tuesday, July 5th and will be open Wednesday, July 6th for an additional day of operation.

At-home test kits can be ordered for free at https://www.covid.gov/tests.

Families with school-age children may obtain free kits by contacting the Tuolumne County Superintendent of Schools office.

A limited number of free at-home kits are available at the Public Health Department (note, as a healthcare facility, masks are required at all times in our lobby).

At-home test kits are also available for purchase at pharmacies.

Testing sites at other locations near the area can be found by visiting: https://myturn.ca.gov/testing.html

COVID-19 Vaccine children aged 6 months to 5 years are now eligible for COVID vaccination. The Tuolumne Public Health team has added vaccinations for this age group to our clinic schedule beginning next week or families can check with their childs healthcare provider. Appointments for June 27, June 29, or July 1 at the health department on Cedar Road in Sonora are available at myturn.ca.gov. For more information click here: https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/coronavirus-covid-19-update-fda-authorizes-moderna-and-pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccines-children

More information about Covid Vaccine booster shots can be found at: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/clinical-considerations/covid-19-vaccines-us.html. Appointments in Tuolumne and Calaveras can be made through myturn.ca.gov or by calling 833-422-4255 or through local pharmacies, more details are here.

County

Date

New

Active (Hospital)

Est. Total 2022 All Cases (All Deaths) Amador

6/14 to 6/20 65 92 (2) 2,187 6,364

(78) Calaveras 6/15 to 6/21 77 22 (0) 2,930 7,687

(127) Mariposa 6/17 to 6/23 86 29 (3) 1,830 3,615

(35) Mono

6/18 to 6/24 0 N/A 1,094 3,066

(9) Tuolumne 6/18 to 6/24 222 260 (8) 6,403 14,696 (185) Colors indicate CDC Community Level: Green-low, Yellow-medium, Orange-high
US: Afghan national freed from Guantanamo Bay after 15 years View Photo

ISLAMABAD (AP)  An Afghan prisoner held in U.S. custody for nearly 15 years has been released from the Guantanamo Bay detention center after a federal court ruled that he was unlawfully detained, the U.S. Department of Defense said Friday.

Asadullah Haroon Guls release was first announced earlier in the day by the Taliban in Afghanistan and an international human rights group.

From Kabul, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban-appointed deputy culture and information minister, tweeted that Gul was one of the last two Afghan prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay.

Photographs of Gul being greeted by senior Taliban officials in Doha, Qatar, were posted on Twitter later in the day. Mujahid thanked Qatar for facilitating Guls release, without elaborating.

The United States opened the detention center under President George W. Bush in January 2002 after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the invasion of Afghanistan to capture al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. It was intended at the time to hold and interrogate those suspected of having links to al-Qaida or the Taliban, who had sheltered bin Laden.

However, scores of suspects from multiple countries were later sent there and the detention center became notorious after reports emerged of detainees being humiliated and tortured.

Gul was greeted upon landing in Doha by top Taliban official Suhail Shaheen, who said he would soon fly home to Afghanistan.

In a statement, the Department of Defense said Guls release was in accord with district court in Washingtons decision that the United States no longer has a legal basis to justify the continued detention of Gul. It thanked Qatar for its assistance without providing any details.

Earlier Friday, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, criticized the Biden administration for allowing Guls transfer.

The terrorist organization that now controls Afghanistan cannot and will not ensure Gul, or any future detainees who are released, will not return to the battlefield and potentially kill Americans or other innocent civilians, Rubio said, referring to the Taliban who seized power in Afghanistan last August.

Mujahid said Gul was handed over to the Taliban as a result of their talks with U.S. authorities, which he described as a direct and positive interaction with the United States.

Shaheen told The Associated Press that Guls freedom came following direct engagement with the U.S. He said Gul was detained by American forces in the city of Jalalabad in 2007 and was held for 15 years without trial.

The remaining Afghan at Guantanamo Bay is Muhammad Rahim al-Afghani, who is accused of working with bin Laden as a procurement specialist. Al-Afghani was captured by Pakistani authorities and later handed over to the CIA, which transferred him to the detention center.

The Britain-based rights group Reprieve said Guls family feared him dead for many years and for the first nine years of his captivity, he did not have access to a lawyer, despite multiple attempts to obtain legal representation.

Reprieve and the law firm Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss filed a petition on his behalf in 2016 and demanded his release, it added. After years of litigation, in October 2021, they prevailed when a Washington court ruled that Gul was not part of al-Qaida and ordered his release.

According to the statement, Gul suffered severe physical and psychological torture during his detention, including being beaten, hung by his wrists, deprived of food and water, and prevented from praying. He has been subjected to sleep deprivation, extreme cold temperatures and solitary confinement.

Commenting on Guls release, his lawyer at Reprieve, Mark Maher, said Gul missed his daughters entire childhood and he will never get back what has been taken from him, but he is now at least able to rebuild his life with his family, who have waited so long to see him.

____

Associated Press writer Nomaan Merchant in Washington contributed to this story.

By MUNIR AHMED

Associated Press
Lawsuit filed over deputys fatal shooting of Arkansas teen View Photo

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP)  The family of an unarmed Arkansas teenager fatally shot by a sheriffs deputy during a traffic stop filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against the deputy and a county sheriff over the teens death.

The family of Hunter Brittain filed the lawsuit against Michael Davis, a former sergeant with the Lonoke County sheriffs office, and Lonoke County Sheriff John Staley on the one-year anniversary of the 17-year-olds killing. Davis was convicted in March of negligent homicide, a misdemeanor, and sentenced to a year in jail in Brittains death. He has appealed that ruling.

The lawsuit accuses Davis and Staley of violating the teens constitutional rights and seeks unspecified damages.

Robert Newcomb, an attorney for Davis, said he had not seen the lawsuit but did not believe there was a strong case that Brittains civil rights had been violated.

The sheriffs office did not immediately return a message seeking comment on Thursday.

Brittain was killed outside an auto repair shop near Cabot, a city of about 26,000 people roughly 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of Little Rock.

Davis testified earlier this year that he fired at Brittain after the teen didnt comply with his commands to show his hands as he exited his truck and reached into the bed of the pickup. Brittain was holding a container  which his family members have said held antifreeze  and no evidence of firearms were found in or near the truck, investigators said.

A passenger who was with Brittain and another witness have testified they didnt hear any commands from the deputy before he shot the teen. Brittains family members have said he was grabbing the container to place behind the trucks wheel to stop it from rolling backward and hitting Davis vehicle.

The failures of former deputy Davis and the Lonoke County Sheriff are extensive, disturbing, and directly caused the tragic and preventable death of Hunter Brittain, Ben Crump and Devon Jacob, attorneys for the family, said in a statement.

Davis was fired by Staley in July for not turning on his body camera until after the shooting. During his trial, Davis emotionally recounted the fatal shooting.

I didnt get into this job to kill people, he testified in March.

The fatal shooting of the white teenager had drawn the attention of civil rights activists nationally who said the killing highlighted the need for interracial support for police reforms. Davis is white. Brittain was eulogized last year by the Rev. Al Sharpton, as well as Crump and Jacob, who represented the family of George Floyd.

The plaintiffs in the case also include the father of the teenage passenger who was with Brittain the night of the shooting. The lawsuit accuses another deputy who responded of violating the teens rights by holding him in custody in handcuffs for three hours.

By ANDREW DeMILLO

Associated Press
Takeaways: Trump risked provoking constitutional crisis View Photo

WASHINGTON (AP)  The House Jan. 6 committee used Thursdays hearing to show how Donald Trump tried to install a loyalist atop the Justice Department who would pursue his false claims of voter fraud and stop the certification of the 2020 election that Democrat Joe Biden won.

Its the latest account of how perilously close the United States could have come to a constitutional crisis if the department leaders had not threatened to resign over the scheme and the defeated Trump had been able to orchestrate a plan for the U.S. government to overturn election results in several pivotal states.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., led the hearing, saying it would show how close we came to losing it all.

The committee investigating the causes of the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has been trying to make the case that Trumps efforts to reverse his loss resulted in the deadly siege after he sent supporters to the Capitol as Congress was certifying Bidens victory. Here are some important takeaways from this months fifth hearing.

TRUMPS JUSTICE DEPARTMENT IN TURMOIL

Day after day, Trump pressured the department leaders to dig into false claims of election fraud after the November 2020 election.

Former Attorney General William Barr had described the swirl of false voter fraud theories coming from Trumps orbit as wack-a-mole.

The department declined Trumps overtures because we did not think they were appropriate, testified Jeffrey Rosen, who became acting attorney general after Barr stepped down.

Over and over, the officials explained to Trump that the states conduct their own elections, free from federal interference. They tried to show him there was no voter fraud on a scale that could have tipped the election in his favor.

Trump, however, only pressed harder and started looking for alternatives.

At point in late December 2020, Trump asked what Rosen found to be a peculiar question: Do you know Jeff Clark?

Trump was eyeing Clark to take over at the department.

___

WHO IS JEFF CLARK?

Clark led the civil division and particularly handled environmental cases. He was introduced to Trump by a Republican congressman from Pennsylvania, a leader of the Houses conservative Freedom Caucus.

Clark had been circulating a proposal that would have the legislatures from battleground states not certify their election results. It was similar to a plan from Trump lawyer John Eastman for alternative slates of electors loyal to Trump, rather than Biden, when Congress met Jan. 6, 2021, to certify results.

Clarks ideas alarmed his colleagues, as did his sudden rise into Trumps orbit as a potential new acting attorney general.

It may well had spiraled us into a constitutional crisis, testified Richard Donoghue, the former acting deputy attorney general.

___

WHAT DO I HAVE TO LOSE?

During a meeting at the White House days before the riot, Justice Department leaders told Trump they would resign if he tried to install Clark and put his scheme in motion to reject electors.

Trump had called the officials to an unexpected Sunday meeting to lay out his plan. Donoghue described how he was dressed inappropriately in jeans, muddy boots and an Army shirt. Trump had him sit between Rosen and Clark. The president asked Donoghue: What if I replace Rosen with Clark?

What have I got to lose? Trump said, as Donoghue recalled.

Donoghue told Trump that the president would have everything to lose: mass resignations at the Justice Department, starting with those arrayed before him at the meeting.

Clark would be left to run a graveyard at the department, one of the officials said. Trumps plan to reject the state electors with those loyal to Trump would never work. It was a murder-suicide pact, as his own White House counsel told him, they testified.

Donoghue made the point that Jeff Clark wasnt even competent to serve as attorney general.

When Clark shot back that he had worked on complicated civil and environmental matters, Donoghue retorted: How about you go back to your office and well call you when theres an oil spill?

___

BLANKET PARDONS FOR JAN. 6 

At least five Republican members of Congress, including Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, who had connected Trump and Clark, sought pardons from the president that would shield them from criminal prosecution, according to testimony Thursday.

Perry and Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Matt Gaetz of Florida and Louie Gohmert of Texas all had been involved in efforts to reject the electoral tally or submit fake electors. All sought pardons, according to Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to Trumps chief of staff, Mark Meadows. Hutchinson testified previously in video shown at the hearing.

Blanket pardons for all those involved in Jan. 6 were also discussed, according to another White House aide, John McEntee.

Gaetz tweeted that the hearing is a political sideshow.

Kinzinger said the only reason to ask for a pardon is if you think youve committed a crime.

___

 AND SUBPOENAS SERVED ON FAKE ELECTORS

The hearing was gaveled in as the department escalated its own investigation, searching Clarks Virginia home this week as federal agents also served subpoenas across the country related to the scheme by Trump allies to create sets of fake electors with the intention of invalidating Bidens win.

The purpose of the searches was not immediately clear, but they came as the House committee has pressured the department to step up its investigation.

Among those being investigated are Republican officials in key states, including those working on the fake electors in the run-up to Jan. 6, when Congress would be tallying the election results.

___

TRUMP VS. McCARTHY

Trump has decried the proceedings as a witch hunt and blamed House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy for declining to have Republicans on the committee who could defend Trump.

Trump recently told a conservative talk radio host that McCarthy, R-Calif., had made a bad decision, very foolish decision, by withdrawing the Republicans from the committee.

The only two Republicans on the committee are Kinzinger and Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, both Trump critics.

McCarthy has stood by his choice not to seat Republicans after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., rejected two of his choices because they had voted to decertify the results of the presidential election.

Rather than picking alternatives acceptable to Pelosi, McCarthy withdrew the others, refusing to play by Pelosis rules and trying to portray the the committee as unfair and illegitimate.

I do not regret not appointing anybody at all, McCarthy told reporters Thursday, saying he had said as much in a call with Trump. The decision is right.

__ Associated Press writer Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report.

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For full coverage of the Jan. 6 hearings, go to https://www.apnews.com/capitol-siege

By LISA MASCARO and MARY CLARE JALONICK

Associated Press
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)  Democratic leaders across the nation vowed Friday to help women who travel to seek abortions and to shield patients and medical professionals from being pursued by authorities in states where the procedure becomes outlawed after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

On the West Coast, the Democratic governors of California, Washington and Oregon issued a joint multi-state commitment, saying they will work together to defend patients and care providers.

In North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper, also a Democrat, emphasized the importance of the November election in the state where the GOP controls the General Assembly but lacks veto-proof majorities to severely restrict or outlaw abortion.

Democratic governors are the last line of defense against these types of extreme bills, he said.

It was a strategy echoed by President Joe Biden, who told the nation Friday that Democratic victories at the state level in November could thwart efforts to ban abortion.

Congress must act, and with your vote, you can act, Biden said.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the West Coast plan in a video statement with Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee.

No matter who you are or where you come from, Oregon doesnt turn away anyone seeking health care, Brown said.

All three states anticipate an influx of people seeking abortions, especially as neighboring conservative states move to outlaw or greatly restrict the procedure.

The governors also pledged to protect against judicial and local law enforcement cooperation with out-of-state investigations, inquiries and arrests regarding abortions performed in their states.

Elsewhere, some companies reiterated or announced plans to help pay for employees to travel to other states to get reproductive care.

For example, Seattle-based Starbucks said it will reimburse abortion travel expenses for employees enrolled in its health care plan if a legal provider isnt available in their home state or within 100 miles of their home.

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson also said he will work to ensure his state welcomes any individual who comes here to access the fundamental right to reproductive justice, adding that he is already working to protect medical professionals who are prosecuted in other states for providing essential health care services that are legal and protected in Washington.

Ferguson says he has a team of 20 staffers working on abortion-access issues.

In Sacramento, California, Newsom warned that conservative Supreme Court justices and Republican politicians are coming after you on issues beyond the abortion decision and another ruling this week that said Americans have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defense.

Conservative leaders have telegraphed their intent to roll back laws and legal decisions on LGBTQ rights, on contraception, the environment and in other areas, Newsom said.

This is not just about women. This is not just about choice. Its not just about reproductive freedom  theyre coming after you, he said.

Newsom signed into law a bill intended to shield abortion providers and volunteers in California from legal decisions in other states that limit reproductive rights, part of a package of more than a dozen bills intended to make California a sanctuary for those seeking abortions.

He said the states budget will include $20 million over three years to help pay for women from other states to get abortions in California. The money will go to nonprofits that help women pay for expenses such as travel, lodging and child care.

Oregon has codified the right to an abortion. State law was updated in 2017 and allows for late-term abortions and requires private medical insurance and state Medicaid to cover the procedure. A $15 million fund established by state lawmakers this year covers costs for abortion providers and patients without insurance coverage or traveling from out of state.

The fund also seeks to expand abortion access in Oregons rural communities.

Washington and Oregon border Idaho, which following Fridays ruling will ban abortions except in cases of reported rape or incest, or to protect the mothers life.

Abortion has been legal in Washington state since a 1970 statewide ballot referendum. Another ballot measure approved by voters in 1991 affirmed a womans right to choose physician-performed abortion prior to fetal viability and further expanded and protected access to abortion in the state if Roe v. Wade was overturned.

In California, abortion was outlawed in 1850, except when the life of the mother was in danger. The law changed in 1967 to include abortions in the case of rape, incest or if a womans mental health were in danger.

In 1969, the California Supreme Court declared the states original abortion law to be unconstitutional but left the 1967 law in place. In 1972  one year before the Roe v. Wade decision  California voters added a right to privacy to the state constitution. Since then, the state Supreme Court has interpreted that right to privacy as a right to access abortion.

Local governments in the states said they were also ready to help protect and provide abortion access. Washington states most populous county will devote $1 million in emergency funding to help women traveling to the Seattle area seeking abortions following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

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Beam reported from Sacramento, California.

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Rush is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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For APs full coverage of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, go to https://apnews.com/hub/abortion
In her first week on the job at a Philadelphia abortion clinic, Amanda Kifferly was taught how to search for bombs. About a year later, protesters blocked the entrances and exits of The Womens Centers, at one point pulling Kifferly into something resembling a mosh pit, where they surrounded her and shoved her around.

And on the night of last winter's arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in a case that could end the nationwide right to abortion, people gathered outside a clinic in New Jersey with lawn chairs, a cooler and a flaming torch  a sight that brought to mind lynchings and other horrors of the country's racist past, says Kifferly, who now serves as vice president for abortion access.

Such scenes have become familiar for providers and patients across the country over the decades since the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion. At times the violence has been far more severe, including bombings, arson and murders  from the 1993 killing of Dr. David Gunn outside a Florida abortion clinic to the 2015 fatal shooting of three people inside a Colorado Planned Parenthood.

Now providers and some in law enforcement worry what will come next. They're preparing for an increase in violence once the Supreme Court rules, saying there has historically been a spike when the issue of abortion gets widespread public attention, such as after a state approves new restrictions. If the decision ends Roe v. Wade  as a leaked draft opinion indicates may happen  they also anticipate protests, harassment and other violence to be more concentrated and intensify in states where abortion remains legal.

We know from experience, its not like the people protesting clinics in banned states just pack up and go home," said Melissa Fowler, chief program officer for the National Abortion Federation.

The group and the hundreds of abortion clinics it represents have been on heightened alert since the opinion leaked, Fowler said. The organization has staff who specialize in security on call around the clock. They go out to clinics to do drills with employees and volunteers on scenarios such as bomb threats or active shooters and advise them on things like where to position security cameras. They also conduct safety assessments at the homes of physicians, monitor online threats and consult with local law enforcement.

In some places, local police are working with clinics to try to tamp down the potential for violence. In Jacksonville, Florida, the sheriff's office said last month they would station an officer outside the clinic, and police in Little Rock, Arkansas, installed a camera atop a crane near an abortion clinic that has been the site of protests, hoping to deter bad actors.

Immediately following the leak and for days afterward, police in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, initiated extra patrols around The Women's Center location, Kifferly said.

But the relationship between clinics and local police isn't always positive, and clinics must weigh whether having a heavy police presence will frighten patients, Fowler said. In Kifferly's experience, how well clinics and police departments work together varies by city and state. She recalled asking an officer for help as she was assaulted outside the Philadelphia clinic, and the officer responding that she should call 911.

A report released Friday by the foundation, which collects monthly data from more than 500 members on harassment and violence, showed a spike in some incidents last year, including invasions of clinics, vandalism, assaults, burglaries, stalking, and hate emails or internet harassment. Picketing and other types of incidents declined compared to 2020, but the number of incidents in all categories in 2021 exceeded the number in 2016, the year Donald Trump was elected president.

Threats of death or harm were nearly five times as common last year as in 2016, according to the new report; assaults at or outside clinics tripled, and reports of trespassing skyrocketed, the group said.

After Trump became president, extremists felt like it was OK for them not to be in the shadows, Fowler said. The coronavirus pandemic seemed to exacerbate things, Kifferly said, and in all four states where The Womens Centers operates  New Jersey, Connecticut, Georgia and Pennsylvania  we were besieged by protesters angry that abortion clinics were open while their churches or businesses were closed.

Providers in the United States, Canada, Colombia and Mexico City reported nine bomb threats last year, up from five in 2020, and the same number as in 2016, according to the federations data. But reports of suspicious packages or hoax devices jumped from 29 in 2016 to 71 last year. More than 90% of the providers reporting were in the U.S., the federation said.

Abortion opponents also have been targets of violence, and say they've also seen an increase in incidents since the draft opinion leaked, though the FBI in a 2020 memo described the incidents as historically rare.

Shortly after the draft opinion became public, the Department of Homeland Securitys Office of Intelligence and Analysis said the draft had made extremist violence  by people on either side of the issue  more likely.

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America said there were more than 40 incidents of violence, intimidation and vandalism at pregnancy centers and churches in recent weeks.

In early June, a man with a gun, knife, zip ties and other items was arrested near Justice Brett Kavanaugh's home in the middle of the night. He told police he wanted to kill the justice because he was upset about the draft opinion as well as the fatal mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

The court is expected to issue its ruling in the coming days or weeks.

As for what might occur next for abortion providers, much focus has been on how to provide care to people seeking it, should abortion be banned in more states. But Fowler said another concern is also front of mind: We also need to focus on safety.

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Associated Press writer John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, contributed to this report.
BURLEY, Idaho (AP)  An Idaho woman has been sentenced to up to 12 years in prison for attempted murder after prosecutors said she put a plastic bag over her husband's head while he slept.

Fifth District Judge Michael Tribe said Mildred Nineth Rivero would be eligible for parole after serving at least four years of the sentence, The Times-News reported on Monday.
DALLAS (AP)  The largest pilots union has approved a contract that would boost the pay of pilots at United Airlines by more than 14% over the next 18 months, potentially clearing the way for similar wage hikes throughout the industry.

The deal reflects the leverage currently held by unions, with the industry facing a pilot shortage that has resulted in cancellations worldwide and fewer flights.

The Air Line Pilots Association said Friday that the council overseeing relations with United approved a tentative two-year agreement that covers about 14,000 of the airline's pilots.

The contract would need to be ratified by rank-and-file pilots to take effect. Voting will run through July 15.

United CEO Scott Kirby called the deal an industry-leading contract that would help both the union and the airline.

United, based in Chicago, is the first major U.S. airline to reach an agreement with its pilots since negotiations across the industry were put on hold because of the pandemic. Union groups at other big airlines have been watching the United contract talks closely as a potential guide in their own negotiations.

Federal law creates a long and difficult process before airline workers can legally go on strike, but pilots at the big airlines have picketed airports and other locations to pressure management into bigger pay hikes. Pilots have complained that thinly staffed airlines are asking them to work too many flights, with more pilots reporting fatigue.

The United contract, which the union valued at $1.3 billion over two years, would be retroactive to the start of 2022 and give three pay raises totaling more than 14.5% through the end of next year. The union said it includes better overtime and premium pay, a new retirement plan, a new 8-week paid maternity leave benefit and improved scheduling provisions.

The deal is likely to raise concern on Wall Street about rising expenses. Airlines have already seen their costs per seat rise more sharply as travel has rebounded from the worst of the pandemic.

JPMorgan airline analyst Jamie Baker said the deal probably exceeds United's previous expectations for rising costs. He said pilots at Alaska, American, Delta and Southwest will use the United tentative agreement in their negotiations, and that other work groups at United will seek similar increases to those of the pilots.
Longtime Plainview ISD Band Director Anthony Gonzales announced his retirement from the district this week.

Gonzales made the announcement publicly Tuesday evening on the Plainview High School Band Facebook group, which is a private page dedicated to PHS band activities.

Gonzales spent 29 years teaching in Texas with 21 of those spent at Plainview ISD. He took over as band director in April 2009.

The Powerhouse of the Plains Marching Band has indeed been what its name implies  a powerhouse. The band has a longstanding tradition of consistently advancing in competitions each year showcasing the talents of its members as well as its directors and Gonzales was a part of that.

His departure was officially announced to the Plainview ISD School Board during a regular meeting Thursday night.

He is moving to Clovis (New Mexico) to take care of his aging parents, said Superintendent H.T. Sanchez.

Gonzales, recognized by his students as Mr. G, retired in Texas but will continue to teach in New Mexico, he said.

In his post, Gonzales said he has accepted a position as assistant band director for Clovis High School.

Gonzales grew up in Clovis so this move is like returning home.

Sanchez said Tim Kelley will step up as the new PHS Band Director. He is a former Wayland Baptist University band leader and is anticipated to bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to continue the PHS Bands tradition of excellence.
This story was originally published Dec. 1, 2021, and updated June 24, 2022.

With the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson, the longstanding precedent that has given Americans the constitutional right to an abortion has been struck down.

What that means for the availability of abortion in America is that the rules around obtaining one will soon vary widely from state-to-state, almost certainly including outright bans or near bans in a number of states, Texas among them.

Part of how that will be achieved, and quickly, is through trigger lawson the books in Texas and 12 other statesthat are set up to automatically go into effect after the overturning of the 1973 precedent set in Roe v. Wade.

Last year, Texas enacted House Bill 1280, a measure that would automatically ban all abortions should a ruling such as the one in Dobbs v. Jackson come down. Due to the architecture of the law, the ensuing ban can take place without Texas legislators having to call a special session. Under HB 1280, doctors could be sentenced to life in prison or face $100,000 fines for performing abortions. Exceptions under the bill are only made for women who face death or a "substantial impairment of major bodily function" if an abortion is not performed.

The law is written to go into effect 30 days after "the issuance of a United States Supreme Court judgment decision overruling, wholly or partly, Roe v. Wade... thereby allowing the states of the United States to prohibit abortion." Elizabeth Sepper, a University of Texas at Austin law professor who specializes in religious liberty, health law and equality, said in an interview late last year that the measure raises many questions, especially on whether weakening Roe would also trigger it.

"What does it mean to partly overrule Roe v. Wade?" Sepper asks. "Say the Supreme Court said Mississippi gets to ban abortion after the 15-week mark, does that mean that the Texas criminal prohibition goes into effect from 15 weeks on? The statutory language here is not at all clear so it's very difficult to know what it would mean for the court to at least partially overturn Roe v. Wade."

Due to its ambiguous wording, Sepper said the trigger law, like other abortion measures introduced in Texas, was likely not carefully drafted. "I think that a lot of abortion laws in the recent past have been mostly theatre," she says. "State legislatures just expected that courts would strike them down or they would end up having no practical meaning so careful drafting wasn't necessarily very important."

Sepper said in December that Dobbs v. Jackson presented the "most significant threat to access to abortion since 1992," when the court upheld Roe v. Wade in its hearing of Planned Parenthood v. Casey, ruling states cannot impose an "undue burden" on abortion rights. Since the enacting of Senate Bill 8 in September, abortions after six weeks of pregnancy have been outlawed in the Lone Star State, with no exceptions for cases of rape or incest. In many ways, Texas is already experiencing a post-Roe v. Wade world, according to Sepper.

"The difference between the trigger ban law and our current reality is a matter of degree," Sepper said. "There couldn't be any abortions performed legally unless they involve a threat to life or a very serious threat to health to the health of a pregnant person. Another difference is that there are criminal penalties that would make performing an abortion a crime."

Sepper also pointed to hospitals currently turning away patients with ectopic pregnancies, which occurs when a fertilized eggs implants and grows outside of the uterus. In some cases, people undergoing fertility treatments are also affected, she adds.

"Typically when people have fertilized eggs implanted when they're trying to get pregnant with assisted reproductive technology, they have multiple eggs implanted in order to ensure a successful pregnancy," Sepper said. "If more than two of those eggs implant, typically doctors do a selective reduction, which is an abortion, because it is much more likely a person will have a baby born if they reduce from three or four planted eggs down to one or two."

Once the trigger law goes into effect, those seeking an abortion will likely have to travel hundreds of miles to a nearby state that allows them, which would not easy, given that Louisiana and Oklahoma are among the states with trigger laws, and Oklahoma effectively banned abortion already. An October study from the Guttmacher Institute, an organization that researches reproductive rights, shows that under a total abortion ban, a person in Texas would need to drive an average of 525 miles, one way, to reach a provider.
DALLAS (AP)  Delta Air Lines will be able to continue operating flights at Dallas Love Field for another six years, under a settlement approved by the city council.

The agreement, which passed without debate this week, appears to end a long court fight over gates at the city-owned airport near downtown Dallas that is dominated by Southwest Airlines.

Delta has shared one of the airports 20 gates with Southwest since 2014, and currently uses it for up to five daily flights between Dallas and Atlanta. Southwest, which subleased the gate from United Airlines, has tried to remove rival Delta for several years. Southwest controls 17 other gates.

Airlines have fought over Love Field because it is more convenient for many travelers than DFW Airport, 16 miles away, and because a law passed by Congress in 2006 capped Love Field at 20 gates.

Dallas officials commissioned a study that suggested expanding Love Field, KXAS-TV in Dallas reported. People in nearby residential neighborhoods are objecting to expansion, which was presented to a city council committee earlier this week.

The lawsuit settlement approved by the council Wednesday will let Delta use one of two gates controlled by Alaska Airlines and pay Alaska $200,000 a year through September 2028, an idea proposed by the city, according to The Dallas Morning News. Alaska obtained the gates when it bought Virgin America in 2016, but currently uses them for only two flights a day.

The settlement would resolve a lawsuit that the city filed in 2015. In effect, city officials threw up their hands and asked a federal court to sort out an impasse that involved two federal agencies and six airlines.
SAM YEH/AFP via Getty Images

It looks like an e-bike retailer founded in New York is parking its second Texas bike store here in San Antonio on the Far Westside.

Fly E-Bike is planning a store at Potranco Corners shopping center at Potranco and Ingram roads off of Highway 151, according to a recent filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. The store, of course, sells electronic bicycles, but it also offers a selection of electronic motorcycles and scooters, according to its website.
Michael Kovac/Getty Images for the Critics Cho

His face probably isn't the one you want to see if you're on the deceptive end of a relationship, but San Antonians were excited to see Nev Schulman from MTV's Catfish enjoying himself around the St. Mary's Strip on Thursday night, June 23.

The MTV star hopped around town, hitting up Action Pawn on Marbach and St. Mary's Strip staples like Rumble and Brass Monkey during his trip. Analisa Rodriguez, who spotted the reality TV star at Rumble, tells MySA that Schulman was the "absolute sweetest."
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Duncan Henderson, an Oscar-nominated producer and longtime member of the Director Guild of Americas national board, died Tuesday in Valencia, Calif. of pancreatic cancer, DGA representatives confirmed to Variety. He was 72.

Henderson worked as a unit production manager, assistant director and producer on several notable films, receiving an Oscar nomination for producing Peter Weirs 2004 Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Other films he had production credits on include Dead Poets Society, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Deep Blue Sea, The Perfect Storm, Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone, G-Force, The Way Back, Battleship, Oblivion, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil and Space Jam: A New Legacy.

A DGA member for over 40 years, Duncans level of passion, service and commitment was beyond exemplary, DGA president Lesli Linka Glatter said in a statement. It is difficult to overstate how much Duncan meant to the DGA and his fellow members. His love for his Guild and its members shone brightly.

Henderson joined the DGA in 1980 after graduating from DGA-Producer Assistant Directors Training Program; he would later become a trustee for the program in 2004. He served 10 terms on the Guilds Western AD/UPM Council starting in 2002, including a term as the council chair. He was elected onto the guilds national board in 2005 and served eight consecutive terms. He served on the DGAs Negotiations Committee for the 2005, 2008, 2014, 2017 and 2020 negotiation cycles, and as a delegate for the DGA Biennial Conventions. In 2020, he was awarded the DGAs Frank Capra Achievement Award, which is given to an assistant director or unit production manager for exemplary service to the guild and achievement in the industry.

He also served as an assistant director on films like Halloween II, Big Trouble and Rocky IV. As a DGA trainee, he worked on the films American Gigolo and Heavens Gate.

Henderson is survived by his wife Michelle and four children.

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Eileen Clark Sawyer

Howdy partner, I didn't see you moseying on over here. Did you hear the news circulating through the saloon? Turns out this town is big enough for another farmers market. Maybe there's room on the ranch that is Bexar County because we haven't really added a new market to the repertoire, our numbers remain the same. The kicker is that one of San Antone's locally beloved and well tread outdoor produce and artisan markets, the one at the Huebner Oaks shopping center, just got a re-brand and a relocation.

That's what this cowboy likes to call a good old fashion "sprucing up."
Courtesy, Katy Bryant

If youre looking to add a four-legged friend to your family, its the perfect time to do just that. More than a dozen San Antonio-area animal rescue groups are coming together for the Rescue United Adoption Event this weekend.

The event is free and will be held Saturday, June 25 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the San Antonio Shrine Auditorium located off North Loop 1604 West, between Stone Oak Parkway and Blanco Road.
B. Kay Richter for MySA

A San Antonio rally and protest against the Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade will be held Friday evening, June 24, according to a news release from the Mujeres Marcharan Coalition. The rally will be at 6:30 p.m. at the Federal Courthouse at 214 West Nueva.

The Supreme Court ended constitutional protections for abortions that had been in place for almost 50 years by overturning Roe v. Wade on Friday. Effective today, trigger bans that will make abortion illegal in the first and second trimesters will go into effect in almost every state along the southeast border of the country, including here in Texas.
The country's highest court has issued more than 10 decisions since Tuesday, June 21, ranging from abortion and gun rights to death row inmates' rights. Here is a breakdown of the Supreme Court opinions released this week:

On Friday, June 24, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a historic reversal of Roe v. Wade, ending constitutional protections and giving states the power to outlaw abortion. The reversal came from the court's deliberation on Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization. Justices voted 6-3 to overturn the 50-year-old precedent set by Roe v. Wade.

In his opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas said the court should reconsider other rulings that protect rights to contraception, same-sex relationships, and same-sex marriages.

Texas Leaders and nonprofits are reacting to the news with split opinions, and San Antonians are planning a rally and protest against the ruling Friday night. A number of mutual-aid organization and nonprofits work to provide safe access to abortions.

Texas was already home to the nation's strictest abortion law, Senate Bill 8, also known as the Heartbeat Bill. The ruling also set off a number of Trigger Laws around the country, including in Texas.

Medicare payments

After the Roe v. Wade decision, SCOTUS issued an opinion in Becerra v. Empire Health Foundation related to medicare payments being made to hospitals serving low-income patients. Empire Health Foundation sued, arguing the calculations by HHS were depriving "disproportionate share hospitals" that serve a high number of low-income patients, of more than $600 million.

The conflict was centered on how the payments are calculated. Currently, the calculation is based on a formula set by a Medicare status. The court voted 5-4 in favor of allowing the Department of Health and Human Services to continue using the preferred method of calculating payments for hospitals that take on a disproportionate number of low-income patients.

Gun rights

The Supreme Court issued its biggest gun rights ruling in more than a decade on Thursday, June 23. The 6-3 ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn., Inc. v. Bruen strikes down a New York law that requires gun owners to have "proper cause" requirements.

The requirement puts a condition on obtaining a license to carry in pubic by requiring the gun owner to demonstrate an actual need to be armed. The decision does not mandate open carry.

More Information mysa photo with id 22633416, call out type: Photo , published: yes photo with id 22633416,, published: yes Pro-choice and pro-life signs are seen outside the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on June 24, 2022. - The US Supreme Court on Friday ended the right to abortion in a seismic ruling that shreds half a century of constitutional protections on one of the most divisive and bitterly fought issues in American political life. The conservative-dominated court overturned the landmark 1973 "Roe v Wade" decision that enshrined a woman's right to an abortion and said individual states can permit or restrict the procedure themselves. (Photo by Olivier DOULIERY / AFP) (Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images) The U.S. Supreme Court has been busy this week. Here's a look at the major decisions made this week. Abortion On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a historic reversal of Roe v. Wade, ending constitutional protections and giving states the power to outlaw abortion. The ruling set off a number of Trigger Laws around the country, including in Texas. In his opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas said the court should reconsider other rulings that protect rights to contraception, same-sex relationships and same-sex marriages. Texas Leaders and nonprofits are reacting to the news with split opinions, and San Antonians are planning a rally and protest against the ruling Friday night. A number of mutual-aid organization and nonprofits work to provide safe access to abortions. Texas was already home to the nation's strictest abortion law, Senate Bill 8 also known as the Heartbeat Bill, and paves the way for a total ban. Medicare payments After the Roe v. Wade decision, SCOTUS issued an opinion in Becerra v. Empire Health Foundation related to medicare payments being made to hospitals serving low-income patients. Empire Health Foundation sued, arguing the calculations by HHS were depriving "disproportionate share hospitals," hospitals that serve a high number of low-income patients, of more than $600 million. The conflict was centered on how the payments to are calculated. Currently, the calculation is based on a formula set by a Medicare status. The court voted 5-4 in favor of the allowing the Department of Health and Human Services to continue using the preferred method of calculating payments for hospitals that take on a disproportionate number of low-income patients. Gun rights The Supreme Court has issued its biggest gun rights ruling in more than a decade on Thursday. The ruling strikes down a New York law that requires gun owners to have "proper cause" requirements. The requirement puts a condition on obtaining a license to carry in pubic by requiring the gun owner to demonstrate an actual need to be armed. The decision does not mandate open carry. "Nothing in the Second Amendment's text draws a home/public distinction with respect to the right to keep and bear arms," Justice Thomas said in his opinion. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in his opinion that states are still allowed to require people to obtain a license before carrying a gun with conditions including "fingerprinting, a background check, a mental health records check, and training in firearms handling and in laws regarding the use of force, among other possible requirements." Miranda Rights Thursday also saw a ruling stating that police cannot be sued when they violate the rights of criminal suspects by failing to provide the familiar Miranda warning before questioning them. "Allowing the victim of a Miranda violation to sue a police officer for damages," Associate Justice Samuel Alito wrote, "would have little additional deterrent value, and permitting such claims would cause many problems." Miranda Rights are warnings that must be read by police that criminal suspects have the right to remain silent, that anything suspects say can and will be used against them in court, right to an attorney and that if the suspect can not afford one, an attorney will be provided by the state. Voter ID laws The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that lawmakers in North Carolina could intervene and defend state voter ID laws, and the decision will make it easier for state government officials to step into lawsuits where the state lawmakers are divided. The court voted 8-1 on the opinion with Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissenting. "States are entitled to structure themselves as they wish and to decide who should represent their interests in federal litigation," Sotomayor wrote. 'State law may not, however, override the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure by requiring federal courts to allow intervention by multiple state representatives who all seek to represent the same state interest that an existing state party is already capably defending." Texas lawmakers were famously split last summer over voter ID laws. Texas Democrats left the state to break quorum in an effort to kill a number of voting laws, including limits on early voting, increase restrictions on vote-by-mail and stop some voting options like drive-thru voting. See More Collapse

Nothing in the Second Amendments text draws a home/public distinction with respect to the right to keep and bear arms," Justice Thomas said in his opinion.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in his opinion that states are still allowed to require people to obtain a license before carrying a gun with conditions including "fingerprinting, a background check, a mental health records check, and training in firearms handling and in laws regarding the use of force, among other possible requirements."

Miranda Rights

Thursday also saw a ruling in Vega v. Tekoh stating that police cannot be sued when they violate the rights of criminal suspects by failing to provide the familiar Miranda warning before questioning them. The justices voted 6-3.

Allowing the victim of a Miranda violation to sue a police officer for damages, Associate Justice Samuel Alito wrote, would have little additional deterrent value, and permitting such claims would cause many problems.

Miranda Rights are warnings that must be read by police that criminal suspects have the right to remain silent, that anything suspects say can and will be used against them in court, right to an attorney and that if the suspect can not afford one, an attorney will be provided by the state.

Death row execution methods

SCOTUS delivered an opinion on Nance v. Ward that allows state death row inmates to ask to be executed in a method not approved in their state.

The court ruled 5-4 in favor of Georgia death row inmate Michael Nance who asked to be executed by firing squad instead of lethal injection, which is the most common method of execution in the 27 states that have death row. Of those, 15 states authorize death by legal injection only.

Nance was sentenced to death after he was convicted of murder for killing a bystander after a bank robbery.

Voter ID laws

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that lawmakers in North Carolina could intervene and defend state voter ID laws, and the decision will make it easier for state government officials to step into lawsuits where the state lawmakers are divided. The decision was made in Berger v. North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP. The court voted 8-1 on the opinion with Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissenting.

"States are entitled to structure themselves as they wish and to decide who should represent their interests in federal litigation," Sotomayor wrote. "State law may not, however, override the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure by requiring federal courts to allow intervention by multiple state representatives who all seek to represent the same state interest that an existing state party is already capably defending."

Texas lawmakers were famously split last summer over voter ID laws. Texas Democrats left the state to break quorum in an effort to kill a number of voting laws, including limits on early voting, increase restrictions on vote-by-mail, and stop some voting options like drive-thru voting.

Medicare Secondary Payer Statute

On Tuesday, June 21, Justices ruled 5-2 in Marietta Memorial Hospital Employee Health Benefit Plan v. DaVita Inc.

The ruling was against DaVita, one of two major dialysis providers in the country, after the company sued Marietta Memorial Hospital over the company's health insurance plan. DaVita argued the employee health plans limited coverage for outpatient dialysis violated both constraints on group health plans under the Medicare Secondary Payer Statute.

The decision made in favor of the hospital states that the health plan did not violate the two constraints imposed by the Medicare Secondary Payer Statute. The rule that says the plan must not differentiate benefits between individuals with end stage renal disease and other individuals on the plan, and the second constraint says the plan cannot take into account an individuals eligibility for Medicare due to end-stage renal disease.

Separation of Church and State

Justices issued an opinion Tuesday in Carson v. Makin that states Maine must fund religious education through the school voucher program.

The 6-3 decision focuses on a requirement in the state that says students in rural areas receiving school vouchers must attend "nonsectarian" (read: not religious) schools. Justices ruled the requirement violates the First Amendment Rights of the "parents who live in school districts that do not operate a secondary school of their own."

Hobbs Act

Justices voted 7-2 in United States v. Taylor on Tuesday in favor of criminal defendant Justin Taylor.

Taylor was convicted of Hobbs Act conspiracy and a crime of violence in 2003 after he planned a robbery of a drug dealer in 2003 that was killed by his accomplice. The Hobbs Act is a federal law prohibiting extortion or robbery by wrongful use of force or fear, or the attempt of these crimes, affecting interstate or foreign commerce.

He was sentenced to 20 years on the conspiracy charge and another 10 years for the crime of violence charge.

The court ruled that an attempted Hobbs Act robbery does not qualify as a crime of violence because no element of the offense requires proof that the defendant used, attempted to use, or threatened to use force.

Workers Comp

SCOTUS ruled 9-0 Tuesday in United States v. Washington against the state's workers' compensation law passed in 2018, stating it is unconstitutional under the supremacy clause. The court said the state could not lower the bar of qualifying for compensation for federal contractors because of their work at the Hanford site that was once used by the Federal Government to develop and produce nuclear weapons which is currently undergoing a "complex decontamination process."

The contested law was passed after news reports broke that facility employees had become ill and were denied workers compensation.

The court struck the law down on the basis that it is unconstitutional under the supremacy clause, "it facially discriminates against the federal government and does not fall within the scope of the federal waiver of immunity," Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in the unanimous opinion.

Breyer wrote it was determined the statute both makes it easier for the federal contractors to "establish their entitlement to workers compensation" and also "creates a causal presumption that certain diseases and illnesses are caused by the cleanup work at Hanford."

Prisoners rights to search for new evidence

On Tuesday, Justices ruled 5-4 in Shoop v. Twyford about the federal courts' authority in transporting state prisoners for forensic testing relating to their investigation as well as the federal habeas corpus appeals, which is a procedure in which a federal court may review the legality of a prisoner's incarceration.

The case focuses on a transportation order compelling the state to transfer Raymond Twyford to a medical facility for neurological testing. The ruling states that following these orders "is not necessary ... when the prisoner has not shown that the desired evidence would be admissible in connection with a particular claim for relief."
Friday's decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that theres no constitutional right to abortion will radically change the reproductive health landscape in Texas.

The state's Republican leadership has long sought to ban abortions, but Roe v. Wade has kept lawmakers from doing so. With that 49-year-old case now overturned, a trigger law will go into effect in 30 days that bans all abortions from the moment of fertilization, except in rare cases to save the life of a pregnant patient or prevent substantial impairment of major bodily function.

The Texas Tribune has been covering the fight over abortion rights for years. Heres what you need to know about the ruling and how it will affect Texans:

Here's what you need to know

The overturning of Roe v. Wade will virtually eliminate abortion access in Texas.

law passed last year already significantly cut access to abortion in Texas

Tens of thousands of people got abortions in Texas each year

Some big-city district attorneys say they will not prosecute abortion doctors

Some Texans have already begun traveling to Mexico to obtain abortion drugs

Some womens health care providers worry that an abortion ban will hurt maternal care

Texans have been at the forefront of the anti-abortion movement

The overturning of Roe v. Wade will virtually eliminate abortion access in Texas.

Sam Owens /San Antonio Express-News

Last year, the Legislature passed a so-called trigger law that would go into effect 30 days after the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, making performing abortion a felony.

The law would make an exception only to save the life of the pregnant patient or if they risk substantial impairment of major bodily function. Doctors could face life in prison and fines up to $100,000 if they perform abortions in violation of the law. People who had abortions would not be prosecuted under the law.

A law passed last year already significantly cut access to abortion in Texas

Last year, the Texas Legislature passed a law, Senate Bill 8, that banned the procedure at around the sixth week of pregnancy. The law used a unique enforcement mechanism that relied on private citizens to enforce it, since Roe v. Wade was still in effect when it passed.

When the law went into effect, abortions plummeted by half.

Tens of thousands of people got abortions in Texas each year

Around 50,000 to 55,000 Texans obtained abortions each year from 2014-21. Before that, more than 60,000 abortions were obtained yearly. These totals account only for abortions performed legally in Texas and dont include people who went out of state or obtained abortion-inducing medication without a prescription.

Some big-city district attorneys say they will not prosecute abortion doctors

The end of Roe v. Wade could turn district attorneys offices into the next abortion battlegrounds. Five Texas district attorneys  from Dallas, Travis, Bexar, Nueces and Fort Bend counties  have publicly promised that they will not pursue abortion-related criminal charges if Roe v. Wade is overturned. Others are expected to quietly decline to take these cases.

In other jurisdictions, though, district attorneys may take an opposite approach, either due to personal anti-abortion leanings or political pressure. Earlier this year, a woman in Starr County was charged with murder after a self-induced abortion. Advocates worry other cases could pop up, even though the trigger law prohibits prosecution of the person who got the abortion. And a state representative has promised to author a bill that would allow district attorneys to prosecute cases outside their counties.

Some Texans have already begun traveling to Mexico to obtain abortion drugs

Cheap regulated and unregulated medication is available over the counter at Mexican pharmacies, just a short walk away on the other side of the border. Rio Grande Valley residents and people from all corners of the state often cross into Mexico to get dental work or stock up on anything from daily vitamins and epinephrine to Valium and Xanax.

And then theres misoprostol, a medication taken orally to prevent stomach ulcers  or terminate pregnancies.

Texas regulates abortion-inducing drugs like misoprostol more strictly than federal regulations require; they can be prescribed and dispensed only in-person by a doctor through the first seven weeks of pregnancy.

Just over the border, though, its a different story.

With the constitutional protection for abortion on the line in the U.S., reproductive rights advocates expect to see more Texans traveling to Mexico to get abortion-inducing drugs they cant obtain legally at home. The Tribune spoke with one person who did earlier this year.

Some womens health care providers worry that an abortion ban will hurt maternal care

New state abortion restrictions, including Senate Bill 8, have made pregnancy care more challenging than ever, providers say. They worry that a total ban will make it worse.

Advocates and experts also warn that the state isnt prepared to support an increase in need for low-income mothers and children. Pregnant women in Texas are more likely to be uninsured and less likely to seek early prenatal care than the rest of the country. Theyll give birth in one of the worst states for maternal mortality and morbidity. Teens are already more likely to give birth more than once here than in any other state. And low-income new parents will be kicked off of Medicaid sooner than in many other states.

When you say social safety net in Texas, it sounds like a joke, said DAndra Willis of the Afiya Center, a North Texas reproductive justice group. Everything they could have set up or increased to protect people if they really cared, theyre not doing it here.
Readers may recall that last month we broke the story of CalPERS gross negligence on the workplace safety front. The short version is that despite having a persistent high level of Covid cases, CalPERS has refused to reinstate telework policies, when other similarly afflicted California agencies. So it appears that maintaining the Cult of Marcie Frost outranks employees health and complying with Covid-related regulations.

As well explain, CalPERS flagrant disregard for the well-being of its workers has persisted despite pushback from the union representing the workers at the CalPERS headquarters complex in Sacramento, complaints first at at least one stakeholder session in May and then the Board of Administration meeting in June, and the Sacramento Bee reporting on this continuing scandal.

The stakes are even higher than CalPERS and the Bee have acknowledged. A new study, admittedly now at the preprint stage but from a highly respected team using the high-quality Veterans Administration database, supports an idea weve suggested from the get-go: that every Covid infection has a health cost, and those costs accumulate. Some reactions from top experts:

Extremely important paper on: Outcomes of Covid Reinfection Compared to those with first infection, reinfection led to increased risk at 6 months of: mortality by 2.38%, hospitalization 9.5% and post covid medical events 19.6%. 1/https://t.co/UZGraPtF29 pic.twitter.com/g65XlY39tn  Yaneer Bar-Yam (@yaneerbaryam) June 20, 2022

Great summary  of a VERY important study showing that reinfection with COVID has a CUMULATIVE weakening impact on your immune system; progressively increasing your chances of death/hospitalization/multi-system damage every time youre reinfected. HUGE implications for policy. https://t.co/ZBALB9ScFN  Gil McGowan (@gilmcgowan) June 21, 2022

Lets return to the state of play. First, some background from our May 31 post:

A Covid outbreak at the CalPERS headquarters buildings in Sacramento has become so severe that the SEIU Local 1000 District Labor Council 781 President Hoang-Van Nguyen, who represents staff in the three-building compound, has published an Emergency Telework Petition on Action Network, which weve embedded below. As you can see, Nguyen charges CalPERS with violating Department of Industrial Relations in not providing her with case counts and close contact data as required. As well discuss below, the likely reason for CalPERS violating employee notification requirements is that they are also violating OSHA and Cal-OSHA rules by not engaging in contact tracing. Note that Nguyen also states that that five Divisions1 have Covid cases, which qualifies as a major outbreak, and strongly implies that CalPERS is also violating regulatory requirements by not evaluating whether to stop some or all in-office activities. As well see soon, sources indicate that CalPERS is not engaging in required contact tracing but merely notifying staffers in the work area with a positive case that they may have been exposed and need to take protective measures, like masking up. So they arent looking into, let alone making proper notifications, of exposures via its cafeteria, its meeting rooms, the fitness room, bathrooms, or usual workplace interactions, like someone visiting a colleague who works in another part of the campus to discuss a current project. A CalPERS employee last week who has a track record of high accuracy, sent me the following e-mail: I have first-hand knowledge that CalPERS HQ has been experiencing COVID outbreaks in the office, and in my opinion, grossly mismanaging them. I do not know the total count, but I would imagine it is significant. When there are COVID outbreaks, management is only notifying staff that work directly in the same area as those reporting the infection, and instructing them to work from home for the next two weeks. But obviously the infected individuals have frequented communal areas  bathrooms, conference rooms, break rooms, the cafeteria, and fitness center  and on a daily basis coming into contact with people from all over the complex.

As well soon see, the picture is even worse than this employee suggested. Well show that an different employee reported in public comments, as if this was a common practice, that employees whove had someone in their immediate workplace contract Covid are expected to keep coming to work!

But first to the overview, in public comments at the June 15 Board of Administration meeting, from Hoang-Van Nguyen:

MS. NGUYEN: I have come to speak to you today to express the grave concerns we have as employees working here at CalPERS. In March, we were directed to come back to work in office for three days per week. And since then, COVID infection rates have increased exponentially. Even in the last week, our infection rates have increased by 10 percent. Last week, our represented employees, we delivered a petition to President Taylor, as

well as CEO Marcie Frost expressing some specific demands. The first is that when there are multiple outbreaks in multiple divisions, that we are all sent home for telework for our health and safety. The second is that our divisions are treated equally and the same, and lastly, that we have better information shared with me as the authorized union representative here at CalPERS. These demands are incredibly important, because as COVID infection rates rise, our infection rates at CalPERS are increasing more than they are in Sacramento County.

A June 20 Sacramento Bee article summarized Nguyens concerns:

Nguyen recently delivered to CalPERS CEO Marcie Frost and Board President Theresa Taylor a petition with more than 500 signatures and three demands: a return to full-time telework until infections drop; a uniform policy for all the departments divisions, and more detailed communications to the union regarding infections. CalPERS requires most workers  with the exception of call center employees  to work from the office three days a week under a policy implemented in March. Department representatives have cited the need to make sure employees were assigned and performed full-time work. The department is broken up into 32 divisions in three buildings on Q Street in Sacramento Seven of the divisions are in outbreak status under Cal/OSHA rules, spokesman Brad Pacheco said in an email, meaning theyve had three infections in the last two weeks But departments approaches have diverged since then, with some continuing to allow full-time remote work and others requiring office appearances one to three days per week. The surge has forced departments to re-evaluate. Some departments, including the 5,600-employee Franchise Tax Board, have softened in-office requirements. The FTB is down from two days a week to one and managers have discretion to expand telework through Sept. 2. SEIU Local 1000 also organized a petition there Nguyen said the variability among divisions increases the risk of exposure. The risks are serious, she said, citing a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finding that about one in five people who had COVID-19 have lingering symptoms, known as long covid.

CalPERS Is Continuing to Lie About Compliance and May Be Understating Cases

It appears that CalPERS is playing fast and loose with data, or even worse, that Nguyen has a better handle on Covid cases than CalPERS does by virtue of getting the scoop from employees.

CalPERS is required to report weekly to CalHR about its Covid cases. The data from CalHR shows a higher case count than CalPERS spokesman Brad Pacheco gave to the press. In addition, the information I received from CalHR seems inconsistent with Nyugens statement that cases at CalPERS are rising exponentially, suggesting that CalPERS is finding creative ways to undercount its Covid cases. You can infer CalPERS is playing fast and loose in the way Pacheco responded to the Sacramento Bee:

Since April 1, 69 of the departments roughly 2,800 employees have contracted cases that CalPERS has confirmed originated at work, Pacheco said. For the same time period, the department is aware of 195 infections in total among employees, he said.

On May 23, I had asked Brad Pacheco to comment on a report I had gotten from a CalPERS insider that CalPERS had had 90 Covid cases at its headquarters compound since April 1. Pacheco denied that and said CalPERS had had only 47 cases. On May 27, Pacheco told the participants at a retiree roundtable that CalPERS had had 62 cases. If he was accurate in both instances, thats an awfully big jump in a few days.

On May 23, I also wrote CalHR for either CalPERS case data, or if they were unable to provide that, to treat my e-mail as a Public Records Act request and provide all of CalPERS weekly Covid-related reports from 1/1/2022 to present.1 When that didnt arrive, I sent a stern note, since CalHR in the past has been very punctual and professional.

I didnt get the records, since CalHR instead went to the trouble of making a spreadsheet to summarize the data. Since I am entitled to the records, I have (now nicely) asked to please send those along.

Note that even though CalHR responded to my request for reports from 1/1/2022, they sent data that started only as of the week of 5/28. That strongly suggests that CalPES did not provide the legally required reports before then, and started only as a result of our query to CalHR.

Theres no way, until I get the documents I requested from CalHR, tp reach much in the way of conclusions, since there are too many differences in the basis for reporting (the CalHR report shows only 2500ish employees, presumably headquarters-only, when Pacheco gives CalPERS-wide totals; the CalHR data includes absences not due to infection; quarantine rules means absences can extend over a work week for a single infection). Nevertheless, even with making some effort, the Pacheco report of 195 cases since April 1 doesnt square well with the CalHR data plus the previous report of 47 cases as of May 23. But the spreadsheet does present an ongoing high case level and Nguyens alarm says CalPERS isnt fully capturing infections.

Despite CalPERS claiming that if it had four cases in one division, that constituted an outbreak and the division would go on telework if possible, the very first caller in public comments reported that four people in his unit tested positive, yet it hadnt been put on outbreak status! Either CalPERS is flat out lying about its procedures or is doing a piss-poor job of keeping on top of cases. Neither picture is good.

In addition to shirking notification and safety requirements like contact tracing, particularly involving high risk areas like the cafeteria and the fitness center, CalPERS is falling back elsewhere on the lazy, uncaring approach of doing the bare minimum required.

For instance, despite having what clearly looks like too many employees back at work (remember that absence levels are still high even with a few divisions being in telework mode), CalPERS isnt even mandating masking, much the stressing the importance under Omicron of wearing good masks.

CalPERS employees who are clearly trying to do the right thing by masking up are being badly served by not being informed that only an N95 adequately protects other staffers, and even N95s do not offer full workday protection against contagion unless everyone is wearing them.

See this chart, published in the Wall Street Journal in early January, and does not reflect the much higher contagiousness of Omicron:

Ive seem more recent versions of this table, which I am unable to find again given the state of Google, that cuts all of the estimates of mask protection under Omicron by 50%, so now the protection a N95 wearer gets from exposure to someone not wearing a mask is reduced from 2.5 hours to 1.25 hours.

I dont mean to criticize Tony Cuny, a CalPERS employee who was brave enough to speak up in the public comments about the need for CalPERS to do more to protect workers, since any misunderstandings on his part reflect poor guidance by CalPERS. He may indeed have been wearing an N95. But his statement as it reads perpetuates the notion that merely wearing a mask protects others, when it has to be an N95 to do so for anything other than brief exposures. From the transcript of the Board of Administration meeting on June 15:

MR. CUNY: Im here to share with you the perspective of an employee thats contracted COVID. Luckily, I did not have significant health impacts from it and I did contract COVID from outside the workplace. However, due to our office policy, I exposed my fellow co-workers. Again, luckily I was wearing a mask, so I did not transmit it to them. And then go into an 11-day self-isolation period where my wife had to take responsibility for caring for our child. Just in May, I got a close exposure notice, which sent me back home, which rebegan the cycle of concern that I may be spreading this to my family or to my office workers. And then just last week, I was notified that four people in my area tested positive for COVID. Were still coming back into the office.

If CalPERS insists on staying open, despite its own data showing it hasnt stopped this Covid outbreak, and keep employees from incurring long-term health damage and the risk of shorter lifespans from Covid, the most important thing they could do is a strict masking policy, requiring the use of N95s supplied by CalPERS.2 Another helpful and low-cost measure is installing Corsi-Rosenthal boxes in bullpens and bringing them into conference rooms when holding meetings.

Instead, we have this plea from Jen Comy, the wife of a CalPERS employee who is also a supervisor at another state agency:

Ms. Comy: We, like many, have been incredibly diligent throughout this pandemic to be safe and his return to work has been the biggest risk to our family. CalPERS supported telework when it was mandatory. And although the Governor seems to support a majority telework agreement, CalPERS has dehumanized their staff by demanding they return to an office environment to get back to work. Two years ago, the benefits of telework were health and safety, work-life balance, less commute, and better for the environment. What has changed in your mission as an employer that all those benefits are trumped by a need for you to physically have staff on-site? It is laughable and disheartening that your actions contradict

the image CalPERS is trying to market as a forward-thinking employer who cares about the health and well-being of employees.

Such blatant disregard of employee well-being comes at a cost. Since Marcie Frost became CEO, weve regularly gotten e-mails from current and recently ex CalPERS staffers describing the accelerating exodus of employees with good educational backgrounds and reputations. But the board seems perfectly happy to have Frost sink the good ship CalPERS as long as she enables them to pretend that everything is fine.

____

1 Note that under California transparency laws, state agencies are NOT required to provide information. They ARE required to produce records. So my e-mail essentially amounted to, Please send me the data I am interested in as a response to a press inquiry, or if you cant do that, please treat this e-mail as a Public Records Act request and send me these reports. After the month delay and then the prodding, CalHR decided to treat this as a Public Records Act request.

2 Rob Feckner was worried that if CalPERS imposed a mask mandate, theyd get an employee petition protesting it. That position is an insult to intelligence. CalPERS is ignoring the petition from SEIU Local 1000 District Labor Council 781 over telework, even though about 1/5 of the staff signed it and more would if they were not afraid of repercussions (Ive had two e-mails from CalPERS employees afraid to sign this is a real issue). CalPERS is perfectly willing to ignore employee wishes when it suits them. And CalPERS could break a sweat like posting the table above or similar ones about mask efficacy and send some of the many articles around explaining why cloth and even procedure masks are of limited value with Omicron.
The World Bank and its partners claim that investing in digital ID systems is paving the road to an equitable digital future. But instead they may well be paving a digital road to hell.

Governments around the world are quickly but quietly designing, assembling and piloting digital identity systems, often with biometric components. They include the European Union, which itself comprises 27 member countries, the UK, Australia, Canada and dozens of countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The spread of these systems across the Global South is being spurred by a new development consensus that asserts that digital identification can foster inclusive and sustainable development and is a prerequisite for the realization of human rights.

As the World Bank noted in 2017, over 1.1 billion people in the world are unable to prove their identity and therefore lack access to vital services including healthcare, social protection, education and finance. Most live in Africa and Asia and more than a third of them are children. In an ostensible bid to address this problem, the World Bank launched the Identification for Development (ID4D) program in 2014 with catalytic contributions from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as well as the governments of the UK, France, Norway and the Omidyar Network.

A Dangerous New Road

The program provides loans to help countries in the Global South realize the transformational potential of digital identity, and has been rolled out in dozens of countries, mainly in Africa but also in Asia and Latin America. The program is wrapped up in cosy buzz words such as digital development and financial inclusion, but it has led to the promotion of a dangerous new approach to digital identity systems. Thats the damning conclusion of a new 100-page study by the NYU School of Laws Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ), titled Paving the Digital Road to Hell: A Primer on the Role of the World Bank and Global Networks in Promoting Digital ID:

Through the embrace of digital technologies, the World Bank and a broader global

network of actors has been promoting a new paradigm for ID systems that prioritizes what

we refer to as economic identity. These systems focus on fueling digital transactions and

transforming individuals into traceable data. They often ignore the ability of identification

systems to recognize not only that an individual is unique, but that they have a legal status

with associated rights. Still, proponents have cloaked this new paradigm in the language of human rights and inclusion, arguing that such systems will help to achieve multiple Sustainable Development Goals. Like physical roads, national digital identification systems with biometric components (digital ID systems) are presented as the public infrastructure

of the digital future

The problem, notes the paper, is that this emerging infrastructure has been linked to severe and large-scale human rights violations in a range of countries around the world, affecting social, civil, and political rights. Whats more, the benefits remain ill-defined and poorly documented:

Those who stand to benefit the most may not be those left behind, but a small group of companies and security-minded governments. The World Bank and the network argue that investing in digital ID systems is paving the road to an equitable digital future. But, despite undoubted good intentions on the part of some, they may well be paving a digital road to hell.

Three Core Functions of Digital ID

The report identifies three core functions of digital identity: identification (the process of establishing the identity of an individual); authentication (the process of asserting an identity previously established during identification) and lastly, authorization (the process of determining which actions may be performed or services accessed on the basis of asserted and authenticated identity).

The reports authors are well positioned to comment on digital identity programs having participated in global policy discussions around digital ID, including in public consultations and events with the World Bank and its ID4D Initiative as well as with other international organizations, governments, foundations, and private technology vendors. The project team members have jointly organized workshops with civil society organizations (CSOs) to discuss the impact of digital ID systems on human rights across the African continent. They have also taught on the subject in law school courses as well as partnered with national human rights organizations to research specific digital ID systems.

Digital identity programs have the potential to impact a cross-section of basic human rights including the right to food, the right to health, the right to privacy and data protection, the right to equal treatment and protection from discrimination, the right to dignity, the right to free expression and association, the right to education, the right to freedom of movement and the right to housing. Based on their research, the CHRGJs project team lists a litany of ways in which digital ID systems can infringe on basic human rights:

One thing is clear about digital ID systems: they can lead to serious human rights

problems and are prone to implementation failure. Even those promoting the identification for development agenda acknowledge these significant risks. However, the gathering of evidence and monitoring of human rights impacts remains sorely lacking. Documenting these impacts has often fallen to activists, journalists, and researchersincluding our own project. In India, the significant impacts of Aadhaar on people living in poverty only became

known through the efforts of scholars, journalists, and civil society organizations. This

patchwork of evidence has shown that digital ID systems can lead to a wide range of urgent human rights issues, including but not limited to: the violation of the right to nationality; limiting access to health care, food, and social security; a multitude of concerns about privacy and data protection, surveillance, and cybersecurity; and fundamental changes to models of democracy, participation, and citizen-state relationships. The human rights consequences can be severe and irreversible. In India, for instance, exclusion from the Aadhaar system has resulted in numerous starvation deaths and countless other examples of deprivation, exclusion, and harm. Some of these negative impacts are not necessarily linked to the digital aspects of

such systems, but instead are manifestations of underlying dynamics of social exclusion,

economic inequality, and marginalization. Any form of identification system has the

potential to be used in beneficial and harmful ways. Digitalized identification systems may

alter or augment these effects and can also reverse hard-won progress on human rights.

Still other negative impacts appear to result directly from the introduction of new digital

technologies and new forms of ID system design and implementation. This includes the use of digitized biometrics, as well as the concentration or centralization of data to be used in platforms for public and private use. At the most basic level, for instance, the widespread use of biometrics creates new dependencies on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and electrical infrastructures, which may often be lacking. Many new or upgraded digital systems are also designed in ways that encourage function creep, as they are intended to be used for multiple purposes that are unforeseen when the system is first designed. This means that harm can quickly spread and intensify, as digital ID systems become insurmountable barriers to a wide range of services and rights.

We saw a perfect example of this in action a couple of weeks ago when local authorities in Central China used the countrys COVID-19 health app to prevent account holders from seeking access to funds that had been frozen by their banks. According to Asia Times, more than 400,000 depositors of six rural banks in Henan Province have been unable to withdraw their money since April. Yet when some of those depositors tried to travel to the banks headquarters on Monday 12 to take part in protests, they suddenly found that the health code on their app had turned red, making them ineligible for travel.

As I warn in my book, Scanned: Why Vaccine Passports and Digital Identity Will Mean the End of Privacy and Personal Freedom, once vaccine passport and digital identity systems are established, mission creep is all but guaranteed:

One of the companies involved in the development of the UKs COVID-19 vaccine passport, the US IT firm Entrust, said that the vaccine passport could also be redeployed as a nation ID card. This is despite the fact that a previous digital ID card scheme was scrapped in 2011 following a public outcry against the intrusion and potential for human rights violations it would entail. In a blog written shortly before Entrust was awarded a 250,000 contract in May 2021 to provide the cloud software for the UKs vaccine certification, the companys product marketing manager Jenn Markey noted that: Vaccine credentials can become part of the infrastructure of the new normal Why not redeploy this effort into a national citizen ID program that can be used for multiple purposes, including the secure delivery of government services, secure cross-border travel and documentation of vaccination?

Since the publication of Scanned, in mid-March, the UK government has unveiled a plan for a national digital identity scheme, which will include some of the features proposed by Entrust.

The Global ID Network

The World Bank is, of course, just one of many organizations promoting digital identity as a development tool. But it has played a crucial role by manufacturing consensus in the newly framed field of identification for development as well as serving as a conduit for financing the projects. As the report points out, it has carved out a niche for itself as a central node in what CHRGI describes as an emerging network of global actors promoting a new paradigm for digital ID systems.

The network includes donor governments such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Australia, Israel and France; global foundations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and Omidyar Network; governments whose digital ID systems have been promoted as success stories, such as Estonia, India, Peru, and Pakistan; UN agencies; regional development banks, including the Asian Development Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank; private biometrics corporations such as Idemia, Thales, and Gemalto; card companies like MasterCard; new networks such as the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA) and ID4Africa; and other global organizations.

All of these actors are guided by different interests and hold different perspectives on how best to implement digital ID systems. For example, new digital initiatives have served as lucrative sites for international firms profits, and also, notoriously, for the extraction of rents by local decision-makers. Local governments on the receiving end of ID4D funds also get to build and reap the benefits of a much more efficient system of population control. The report notes that a key guiding motivation is often national security and counter-terrorism, as embodied by 2017 UN Security Council Resolution 2396, which called on Member States to collect biometric data to identify terrorists.

For donor governments in the North such as France, Germany and the UK, foundational digital identity programs in Africa offer the possibility of more effectively curbing and controling inward migration and bolstering security efforts while also opening new markets for corporate constituents, including biometrics companies. Indeed, as the report notes, national embassies have played a role in helping to secure contracts for biometrics companies.

An Economic or Transactional Approach to Identity

The ID4D network insists that digital identity is helping to improve lives in developing and emerging economies, but such claims seem to be based on flimsy evidence. They include a regularly cited assertion that the Aadhaar unique identification system in India generated over $11 billion dollars in potential savings. According to knowledgeable observers consulted by CHRGJ, serious problems exist not only with the specific methodologies used by the Bank, but also the persistent lack of investment in quality impact evaluations, particularly for multisectoral work, and the lack of robust cost-benefit analyses.

An even more serious problem is the World Bank and its partners dogged insistence on an economic or transactional approach to identity. The goal, according to CHRGJ, is to achieve a collective paradigmatic shift by pouring investments into new forms of systems at the expense of more traditional approaches such as civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS), which have been the preferred way of providing rights-based legal identity:

Instead of providing a birth certificate, these new systems will help to create digital public infrastructure as part of a digital stack to enable paperless, cashless, remote, and data-empowered transactions These systems seem attractive because the question of who is granted citizenship and accompanying rights is made downstream from the identification system. This differs from birth registration, where according to human rights frameworks, nationality should be determined as close to birth as possible. The Bank, however, has a long and complicated relationship to politics and human rights, and seems more comfortable keeping such concerns at arms length. A model in which the government is perceived as

merely building the digital public infrastructure on top of which private enterprise can

flourish, also seems to align with long-held neoliberal preferences at the Bank about the

role of government vis-a-vis the private sector. Therefore, the focus on foundational ID

fits well within existing Bank policies. Significant evidence has shown that there are many problems with this model. The economic approach to identity may lead to new forms of coercion and exploitation of

poor populations and their data by the public and private sectoras critics of the Aadhaar

system have pointed out Meanwhile, governments in the Global South are taking on large debts and spending millions in public funds on contracts with private vendors to build biometric systems that can all too easily become systems of exclusion, surveillance, and repression. The Bank takes great pains to state that biometrics are not required. But by emphasizing their benefits throughout its documentation, the ID4D Initiative has helped to normalize the extensive use of biometrics in digital ID systems.

Paving a Digital Road to Hell is a document not just intended as a primer on the risks posed by digital ID systems and their promotion by the World Bank and the network. It is meant as a call to action to the global human rights ecosystem  including human rights organizations and other civil society organizations, experts, and activists.

Digital ID systems will, in many ways, determine the shape and form of digital governments and societies of the future. These are not marginal issues that should only be discussed and contested by those with technical expertise on biometrics or database design, but fundamental concerns that should be on the agenda of any individual or institution working on human rights and development Given the severity of the actual and potential human rights violations arising from this model of digital ID, we are not merely sounding the alarm, but also reflecting on what can be done.

CHRGJ proposes a range of actions for tackling the threats and risks posed by digital ID programs, including slowing down processes so that more care is taken; making discussions around digital ID systems more public; and building a broad coalition of diverse actors who have an interest in a human-rights focused society  which may mean not having a single national digital ID system at all.
(Natural News) Government and Big Pharma companies Pfizer and Moderna are insisting that the mRNA vaccines are safe and effective in preventing Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) infections. However, data suggests that these products are not really vaccines, at least not in the traditional sense.

Traditional vaccines use either a part of a whole virus or bacteria combined with immune adjuvants or very powerful immune stimulant compounds. The mRNA vaccine, on the other hand, releases dangerous spike protein into your body.

What is an mRNA vaccine?

The mRNA vaccines were first developed in the 1980s. These vaccines use a complex technique that involves an artificially constructed mRNA molecule to make the RNA produce the desired antigen.

COVID-19 vaccines produce the spike protein of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus that causes infection. Additionally, the part of the virus that harms people also acts as a neurotoxic molecule.

But injecting mRNA by itself wont work because your body contains an enzyme that would quickly destroy it.

To avoid this, Malone created a nanolipid carrier that is like a nanosized sac containing the mRNA and resembles an artificial exosome. This special carrier sac is minuscule and almost the size of the virus.

Vaccines contain compounds that allow mRNA to produce more spike protein

A spike protein helps a virus to enter the cell. Illustrations of SARS-CoV-2 show the virus with many protruding structures on its extremities. These spike proteins join ACE2 receptors on the surface of a cell and force the viral genome inside.

Once the viral genome has entered the cell, it hijacks the mechanisms to reproduce itself, which then makes you sick.

Allegedly, the carrier sac or the nanolipid carrier is destroyed within a few days following vaccination to prevent your body from continuously producing the deadly spike protein.

Note that the main way the virus itself causes damage is through its spike protein, which is the same one reproduced in large amounts all over your body by the mRNA in a vaccine.

The makers of these biological agents also add polyethylene glycol to protect the nanolipid carrier so it can last much longer in your body to allow the mRNA to produce more spike protein and for a much longer period. Unfortunately, its unknown know how long the nanolipid/mRNA package lasts.

The generated spike proteins may last months, years or even the rest of your life.

COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna are made of artificially synthesized mRNA enclosed in a protective sac or the nanolipid carrier. The mRNA within the sac produces and releases an increasing amount of the destructive spike protein into your body wherever the nanolipid carrier is deposited.

This is the confusing part. Big Pharma claimed that this sac of mRNA remains at the injection site in the vaccinated persons arm, continuously producing the spike protein. This suggests that your body can then produce antibodies against the spike protein that will allegedly help protect you from coronavirus infection.

However, Malone and other experts discovered that Pfizer had secretly conducted a biodistribution study to find out where the nanolipid carrier went after being injected into the limb of person who was vaccinated.

Experts used a Freedom of Information lawsuit to acquire a copy of the study that Pfizer secretly performed. Its no surprise that the results were quite revealing and shocking. (Related: South African doctor: Severe COVID an allergic reaction to SPIKE PROTEIN nanoparticles.)

The results of the Pfizer study showed that instead of remaining at the site of the injection, like the arm-deltoid region, mRNA-containing nanolipid carriers rapidly entered the bloodstream of vaccinated people and were distributed all over the body, including the brain.

Data showed that:

The highest concentration of the injected nanolipid carriers was found in the ovaries of women.

The second-highest concentration was within the bone marrow.

High concentrations of the injected nanolipid carriers were also observed in the liver, lymph nodes and spleen.

The studies revealed that the nanolipid carriers were distributed among various tissues and organs such as:

The blood vessel lining

The brain

The heart

The kidneys

The lungs

The muscles

The spinal cord

If the world ever goes through another pandemic, dont always believe what Big Pharma tells you. Vaccines arent always safe, as the Pfizer study on COVID-19 vaccines has proven.

Go to VaccineDamage.news to learn more about the negative side effects of COVID-19 vaccines.

Watch the video below to learn more about inflammation, COVID-19 vaccines and the spike protein.

This video is from the Roobs Flyers channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Could a molecule found in broccoli help the brain REPAIR spike protein damage?

BIOWEAPON: New study reveals spike protein in coronavirus vaccines responsible for adverse reactions.

Dr. David Martin: COVID-19 an intentional weaponization of the spike protein  Brighteon.TV.

Sources include:

Expose-News.com

CosmosMagazine.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) For weapons expert Mark Steele, 5G constitutes a heinous crime. He said 5G is a compartmentalized weapons deployment system that masquerades as a benign technological advancement for enhanced communications and faster downloads.

Steele said 5G has the capability to target, acquire and attack vaccinated individuals through the nano-metamaterial antenna in Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines. The Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) will need 5G networks to maintain geo-position and navigate their environment to the target because these weapons cannot rely simply on satellite communications, which can be affected by inclement weather events and signal latency.

A weapon can be a device, tool or action fashioned to cause physical or psychological harm. People in the United Kingdom have been concerned about its dangers and conspiracy theorists, as the media tried to paint it, have been accused of attacking cellphone towers in an attempt to stop 5G rollout.

The compartmentalization of weapons systems development has played a crucial role in not alerting those within the regulatory authorities and telecommunications industry to the real purpose and intentions of those ultimately driving and funding the deployment of 5G and biological chemical weapons masquerading as COVID-19 vaccines for a planned control and command kill grid, Steele wrote in his report about 5G.

He also said the world is blindly following the plans of the technocratic elite and the military-industrial-pharma complex to terminate large numbers within populations across the world.

Steele said 5G is a weapon system and a crime against humanity. The prima facie evidence of this globalist depopulation agenda is unequivocal and should be tested in the courts so that the conspirators involved in this murderous plan can be brought to justice. (Related: Activating 5G towers could KILL people who took COVID-19 vaccines, analysts warn.)

Aviation industry concerned about 5G interference during flights

The aviation industry, including Boeing and Airbus, raised concerns regarding the use of 5G because it can endanger passenger aircraft. Airbus America and Boeing bosses, Jeff Knittel and David Calhoun, co-signed a letter to U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg detailing their concerns over the implementation of 5G in the United States.

Their letters indicated that they have been working with other aviation industry stakeholders in the U.S. to understand the potential of 5G to interfere with radio altimeters, which measure aircraft height above ground.

Leading telecom operators Verizon and AT&T postponed the launch of their new frequency bands after the U.S. aviation regulator expressed concerns over the possible interference of 5G with the altimeters.

Steele explained that the 5G antenna design uses a larger input and directs the output to deliver focused and high-power data compression signals. He also said passenger aircraft do not have military mitigation technologies in a civilian setting to protect their pilots or their plane flight control systems against directed energy emissions.

Ceragon Networks, the leading solutions provider of 5G wireless transport system, stated that about 38 percent of all global telecom sites will be connected to the rest of the network via wireless backhaul by 2025. (Related: Bidens DHS labels misinformation about 5G to be a domestic terror threat.)

Steele emphasized in his report that it is now even more important to differentiate the availability of the backhaul because simulations have shown that there is an ever-increasing capacity demand for wireless connections.

The deployment of 5G technology is already underway by governments across the world in all towns and cities with no obligatory prior environmental impact analysis or public insurance for instruments of harm.

Electromagnetic frequencies and their harmful effects

The World Health Organization estimated in 2019 that around 30 percent of the population in first-world countries are exposed to high levels of electromagnetic frequencies or EMFs, and therefore vulnerable to their harmful effects.

The telecoms industry and other regulatory bodies have continually denied the real purpose and existence of the radiation dangers posed by the deployment of 5G technologies and have actively misled the public by issuing false press releases through media and in courts in various attempts at discrediting experts, including Steele himself.

Follow 5GAlert.com for more news about weaponizing wireless connections.

Watch the video below to learn more about the hidden dangers of 5G connections.

This video is from Themoreuknow channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Speech Nazi Jack Dorsey to block 5G conspiracy theories from Twitter as harmful activity.

Botched 5G rollout by Biden regime leads to mass rescheduling of flights, deemed most utterly irresponsible act in aviation.

Doctor use Bluetooth applications to detect MAC address network signals in people vaccinated for covid.

5G Danger: Hundreds of respected scientists sound the alarm about health effects as 5G networks go up nationwide.

Fighting a losing battle: Telecom companies struggle to convince consumers that 5G is harmless.

Sources include:

Expose-News.com

TheGuardian.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Prominent doctors are literally begging parents not to give their children the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines because doing so could lead to their deaths.

One of those prominent doctors is Dr. Syed Haider, a board-certified specialist in internal medicine. Haider spoke with Kristi Leigh of InfoWars on The War Room to talk about how outraged he feels about parents giving their children the experimental and deadly COVID-19 vaccines. (Related: Giving COVID-19 vaccines to INFANTS is unprecedented, despite mainstream media claims to the contrary.)

I have never felt this outraged and upset with whats happening in our country, said Haider. I literally feel like I have to beg people, Dont give this to your babies. You will regret it, okay? This is the worst possible thing you can inject into them. Youre injecting a poison into innocent babies who, you know  they could die, right?

Haider added that even if the vaccinated children dont immediately die due to the vaccines, they will very likely have to deal with lifelong effects.

It could affect their fertility, it could cause autoimmune diseases, it [could] cause cancer, it could cause heart disease, said Haider. We know all of this already from the adult trials. We know the risks of these things.

Government still distributing COVID-19 vaccines for children under five

Despite the concerns of many doctors and parents around the country, the federal government is still pushing through with the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines for children as young as six months old.

President Joe Bidens administration has already made 10 million vaccine doses for children available in hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and community health centers across the country, and will likely purchase millions more.

Biden called this moment a monumental step forward, and bragged about how America is now the first country in the world to offer safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines for children as young as six months old.

Health workers already started giving vaccinations to this age group. Fortunately, data on the ground strongly suggests that not as many parents are interested in giving their kids the vaccine.

A poll conducted in April showed that less than 20 percent of parents with children under five were eager to give their kids vaccine doses right away. These early adopters were the outliers, as 27 percent of parents said they will definitely not get their kids vaccinated.

These parents believe there is not enough information about the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines to justify giving them to their children.

Many other families believe that they can live with the coronavirus, especially since many of them think America has already achieved herd immunity and many of their children have already been infected, with most experiencing only mild symptoms.

Jen Wilkerson, 28, of West St. Paul, Minnesota, said she did not plan to get her four-year-old son vaccinated.

Her son, Jaxson, developed lumps in his leg following two other vaccines for different diseases. Furthermore, the boy experienced an asymptomatic case of COVID-19 when Jen herself contracted it last year.

Hes a little window licker, she said. With how strong his immune system is, I dont feel the need for him to get vaccinated.

Learn more about how the COVID-19 vaccines affect children at Vaccines.news.

Watch this episode of The War Room on InfoWars as host Kristi Leigh talks to Dr. Syed Haider about the consequences of giving COVID-19 vaccines to children.

This video is from the InfoWars channel on Brighteon.com.

More related articles:

VAERS: COVID-19 vaccines have injured over 50,000 children.

GENOCIDE: FDA officially authorizes COVID vaccines for children as young as 6 months.

Overwhelming evidence suggests giving children COVID-19 vaccines will only harm them.

Fully vaccinated children suffer multisystem inflammatory syndrome.

Study: COVID vaccination causes vaccine-associated enhanced disease in children.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

WhiteHouse.gov

NYTimes.com

KFF.org
(Natural News) Hot dog toppings may look a bit different this year as global mustard shortage looms.

The shortage is a consequence of an inadequate production year. Yields in Canada, the second biggest mustard seed producer in the world, dropped 28 percent  thanks to droughts during the last growing season. (Related: Drought-stricken Texas finally gets some rain, but it may not be enough to save crops and cattle.)

In France, harvests were even worse and fell by 50 percent last year as a result of unfavorable weather conditions, according to a report by the Guardian.

Major French mustard producer Reine de Dijon blamed the deficient harvests on the climate.

Were in a crisis we havent seen for 25 years. The price of seeds has gone up three or four times, and maybe five times soon. And, on top of that, there is no supply, Reine de Dijon Sales Director Christophe Planes told France24.

Also contributing to the mustard shortage is the war between Russia and Ukraine. Both countries are huge producers of mustard seeds, but importing them to compensate for the discrepancy in France and Canada isnt possible because of supply chains interrupted by the war.

In France, mustard prices are already up 10 percent as a result of these production issues. Expenses for transportation, jars, lids and other supplies are also increasing. Prices are expected to keep rising as the costs of packaging materials get out of control, as well.

Mustard isnt the only popular condiment that is becoming more difficult to find.

In April, Huy Fong Foods Inc. informed customers that it was ceasing production of the cult-favorite hot sauce Sriracha due to a severe shortage of chili. The company added that it was facing an unprecedented shortage of chili peppers as a result of droughts in Mexico, where they are grown.

Currently, due to weather conditions affecting the quality of chili peppers, we now face a more severe shortage of chili. Unfortunately, this is out of our control and without this essential ingredient we are unable to produce any of our products, Huy Fond said in an email to its consumers.

The company added that orders placed after April 19, will not fulfilled until after September 6.

Just last year, ketchup was beset by related issues as restaurants grappled to get a hold of personal serving packets. That shortage was mostly a result of supply chain hiccups and raised demand as businesses turned into single-use items and fast food consumption soared.

French mustard seed production in 2021 down by 50 percent

French mustard producers stated that seed production in 2021 was down 50 percent after their low harvests. Frances Burgundy region, one of the biggest mustard seed production regions in the world, had remarkably wet winters and cold springs for three consecutive years, slicing both seed and overall production by 50 percent.

Meanwhile, the Black Sea region will remain a force in the mustard market in 2022-23 according to a processor of the crop.

Scott Cunningham, chief operating officer of Schluter & Maack Canada, said Russian growers raised acres by 30 percent this year in response to soaring prices.

There could be some problems getting that product to market because of international sanctions, but exporters surely will find a way. We anticipate its going to be a discounted price just because theyre going to want to turn their product into U.S. dollars, Cunningham said.

He expects some of the products will be routed through neighboring nations like Kazakhstan and sold as mustard originating from there.

Follow FoodSupply.news for more news related to food shortages.

Watch this video that talks about the shortage of ketchup sachets last year.

This video is from the DoseofSarcasm channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Shortage of key fertilizer ingredient threatens Aussie food supply chain.

Bank of England governor warns of coming apocalyptic global food shortage.

Floods delay plantings in Northern Plains, could trigger food shortage.

America Unhinged: Victory Gardens for Life class helps Americans prepare for looming food crisis  Brighteon.TV.

Food shortage around the world may have been engineered to control populations.

Sources include:

Yahoo.com

TheGuardian.com

Producer.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Historian and book author Larry Schweikart wants the American public to know that slavery does not exist in the U.S. Constitution.

I think its important to recognize [that] slavery does not exist in our Constitution. Constitution refers to unfree persons  it talks about unfree persons or persons in servitude, but the key word there is persons, Schweikart told host Dr. John Diamond during the June 21 episode of America Unhinged on Brighteon.TV.

According to Schweikart, James Oakes mentioned it in his book Freedom National.

He goes through the early abolitionists, an anti-slavery movement, and how they caught on to this notion that slavery isnt even in the Constitution, said Schweikart, who noted that the North saw slaves as persons who were temporarily in a condition of servitude while the South saw slaves as property no different than a chair or a cow. (Related: Lawyer Brad Geyer tells Dr. Bryan Ardis: US Constitution, Bill of Rights are being trampled on  Brighteon.TV)

Oakes showed in his book that the Whigs and Republicans were trying to develop a strategy to get rid of slavery that was based on this idea of emphasizing personhood. The Whigs are the counterparts of modern-day conservatives in the United Kingdom.

Diamond pointed out that slavery has existed throughout the whole world since the dawn of man. He mentioned that in the book of Exodus, the Hebrews became slaves of the Egyptians. He added that every nation or country up to the time America came around had slavery that was legal and he took note that America was once a British colony.

America is one of the first three countries to ban slavery

The Brighteon.TV host said that the U.S., France and England were the first three countries to ban slavery.

Diamond also mentioned that the Declaration of Independences original draft written by Thomas Jefferson had rebuked the king of England for capturing and bringing people across the sea and enslaving them.

Schweikart said Jefferson captured the essence of mankind when he said that all men are created equal, which was echoed by former South African President Nelson Mandela, who said that all people are created equal.

The historian also talked about what he calls the four pillars of American exceptionalism.

He said the first pillar was the fact that America was founded with a Christian, mostly Protestant, religious tradition; the second was common law; the third was private property with written titles and deeds; and the fourth was a free market economy.

No nation in the history of the world to this date other than the United States has had those four pillars because England was an Anglican nation and the Church of England was taught down, the same way with Greek Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church, Shintoism, and so on, so forth. So were the only nation in the entire history of the world to have those four pillars of exceptionalism, Schweikart explained.

American exceptionalism has been historically mentioned as the belief that America differs qualitatively from other developed nations due to its national credo, historical evolution or distinctive political and religious institutions.

Follow Freedom.news for more news about fighting against slavery.
(Natural News) Former President Donald Trump urged Republicans to fight for Western Civilization and American culture.

(Article by Matt Lamb republished from LifeSiteNews.com)

Trump made his comments on Friday at the Faith & Freedom Coalitions Road to Majority Policy Conference.

The entire Republican Party needs to get tough and take the Radical Lefts crusade against our culture head on, Trump said.

President Trump spot on ?: The entire Rep. party needs to get tough & take the Radical Lefts crusade against our culture HEAD ON. These people are at war  civilization, with science. Theyre at war with truth, reason & common sense & they are at war with morality itself. pic.twitter.com/RLGHrCxytn  VeBee???? (@VeBo1991) June 20, 2022

These people are at war with Western Civilization, theyre at war with science, they are at war with truth, reason, and common sense, the former president said.

And in a very, very real way, they are at war with morality itself. Not moral what theyre doing, its just destroying everything, every fiber of our country, Trump said.

His comments came after he discussed how he left office with a strong military, a booming economy, a secure border, and energy independence, which he said President Joe Biden ruined.

He also criticized Biden for targeting conservatives, instead of going after criminal gang members. The comment is in apparent reference to Attorney General Merrick Garlands ordering of federal oversight into parents and other education activists who spoke out at school board meetings against COVID policies and transgender bathrooms.

He said Republicans need to do something about leftist extremism.

Trump noted that he created the 1776 Commission to promote an understanding of Americans founding and culture while also banning Critical Race Theory (CRT) in the federal government. But, Trump noted, Biden repealed those executive orders then aggressively pushed woke, left-wing racism into every part government, from the Department of Education to the U.S. military where I had just ended it.

He said that a Republican Congress and president must stop CRT and woke politics.

Biden has pushed liberal politics into the military, as Trump noted. He recently fulfilled an LGBT agenda item to let HIV+ individuals continue to serve in the military and deploy.

The Department of Defense also created training documents that identify opposition to abortion and the LGBTQ agenda as characteristics of a possible extremist. The military also identified traditionally Catholic views on gender and feminism as signs of extremism.

Biden also reversed the prohibition on gender-confused individuals serving in the military just days after taking office.

Read more at: LifeSiteNews.com
(Natural News) The Right Side host Doug Billings recently discussed with whistleblower and former Pfizer employee Karen Kingston the email he sent out to the media in May about the global patent for the mRNA lipid nanoparticle (LNP) vaccines.

I believe they will conclude that the [Wuhan coronavirus] COVID-19 injections are bioweapons that contain gain-of-function chimeric viruses and toxins under the guise of mRNA therapeutic vaccines combined with a diagnostic therapeutic lipid nanoparticle platform for the patent, Billings said during the June 21 episode of his program on Brighteon.TV.

The World International Patent Office (WIPO) granted the patent to Moderna back in August 2020.

In his email, Billings insisted to have an expert on autoimmune disease review the patent and other documents he mentioned  including the original 2004 studies from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where the researchers weaponized coronaviruses.

The LNP can target specific organs and systems in the body, including reproductive, cardiovascular and pulmonary organs, as well as the central nervous system. It can cross the blood-brain barrier.

Billings noted that he presented the email with enough documentation pointing to specific page numbers, but didnt get a response.

There was also an issue in 2017 surrounding a vaccine nanotechnology found with embodiments of small toxic molecules that kill cells  or people. A toxin from a biochemical weapon or a hazardous environmental agent can cause disabilities, diseases and death in children and adults alike.

This was found in COVID vaccines, so Billings raised an important question: What does this mean for Pfizer, which is known to have a contract with the government? This could mean that they will be immune from punishment or prosecution for crimes against humanity.

Kingston said: At the end of the day, if youre going to unleash on the population a product that you know can only cause disease, disabilities and death, then that contract is nothing more than ever is evidence of conspiring to commit crimes against humanity.

SADS may be linked to COVID-19 vaccines

There is also the matter of sudden arrhythmic death syndrome or SADS, where perfectly healthy people just die in their sleep.

Democratic Congressman Sean Casten had a daughter who died of SADS at the age of 17 while in her sleep. She was perfectly healthy, sociable with no history of drug or alcohol use and was not suffering from any disease. She just went to bed and did not wake up the next morning.

Candace Owens, a conservative commentator who has been vocal about her opposition to COVID-19 vaccines, shared a story with her 54 million Facebook followers and said she wanted to publicly state that my children are and will remain completely unvaccinated and that I truly wish my parents had made different decisions for me.

She added: In other news  have you read about how young adults are dying suddenly and its a complete mystery to doctors as to why thats happening?

Conservative commentator Mindy Robinson, who frequently posted claims about COVID-19 vaccines, also posted the same story on Facebook. Young people are dropping dead and dying in their sleep for no reason, according to experts just like weve said theyve been doing since the unrolling out of that experimental injection (that cannot be mentioned by name negatively on Facebook), Robinson wrote.

Indiana State Representative John Jacob, who won his seat in 2020 and has been critical of the COVID-19 vaccination mandates, also shared a link to the same story and emphasized the headline. Other posts on the issue also spread on social media, with claims made in different languages, including Swedish, Dutch and Polish.

Still, fact-checking organizations insist that there is no evidence suggesting that the vaccines cause people to develop SADS conditions or make their conditions more severe. (Related: Are vaccines to blame for Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood?)

Follow VaccineDamage.news for more updates about the adverse effects of vaccines on the body.

Watch the full June 21 episode of The Right Side below. The Right Side with Doug Billings airs every Friday from 4-5 p.m. on Brighteon.TV.

More related stories:
(Natural News) A 66-year-old Scottish man who has donated blood for nearly 50 years was turned away from the clinic recently after he refused to participate in an exercise of gender insanity.

Leslie Sinclair says he was given a new pre-donation questionnaire during his most recent visit that asked him whether or not he is pregnant. Shocked at the stupidity of such a question for a male donor, Sinclair complained to the clinic staff, only to be told that his blood was no longer wanted.

The new questionnaire is part of a National Health Service (NHS) England inclusivity campaign that aims to make transgender men feel included as males, even though they were born with female genitalia, which makes them women (Related: Calvin Klein recently ran an ad featuring a pregnant man).

Sinclair is a natural-born man and has never attempted to become anything else, which is why the question threw him off-kilter. He felt  and rightly so  that being asked to answer such a ridiculous question as a man was inappropriate, and for being politically incorrect his blood was denied.

According to reports, Sinclair immediately walked away after being told that his blood was no longer needed, calling this a nonsensical decision, especially since there are people out there in need of healthy donor blood.

I am angry because I have been giving blood since I was 18 and have regularly gone along, the father of two is quoted as saying. Im very happy to do so without any problem.

There is always a form to fill in and thats fine  they tend to ask about medical conditions or diseases  and clearly thats because the blood needs to be safe. This time around, there was a question I hadnt seen before: Are you pregnant, or have you been in the last six months? Which required a yes or no answer.

I pointed out to the staff that it was impossible for me to be in that position, but I was told that I would need to answer, otherwise I couldnt give blood. I told them that was stupid and that if I had to leave, I wouldnt be back, and that was it, I got on my bike and cycled away.

Sinclairs wife was also appalled at what transpired, saying she just cannot understand how things got this way in society.

Its really simple: Only biological females can get pregnant and have babies

In a statement, the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Center (SNBTS), which is behind the ridiculous new questionnaire, thanked Sinclair for his commitment over a long number of years, adding that while pregnancy is only a relevant question for biological females, sex assigned at birth is not always visually clear to staff.

As a public body we take cognizance of changes in society around how such questions may be asked without discrimination and have a duty to promote inclusiveness  therefore all donors are now asked the same questions, said Prof. Marc Turner, director of SNBTS.

A reader at Natural News commented about the pregnant man delusion that this is Satanism, plain and simple. The Baphomet depiction shows a creature with both male and female body parts, the suggestion being that the new human made in Satans image rather than Gods image is a transgender abomination.

Satans only wish is to destroy all of humanity and to destroy all of human morality through the complete destruction of natural law as created by God, this person added.

Come out of her, my children, so that you be not partakers in her sins. Babylon WILL fall. Get right with God.

More stories like this one can be found at Wokies.news.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Dr. Jane Ruby has blamed Congress for allowing powerful individuals push their genocidal agenda without facing consequences.

The U.S. Congress legalized and funded the overthrow of the Constitution, the government and the American people through a massive domestic bioterrorism program, she remarked on the June 20 episode of Live with Dr. Jane Ruby on Brighteon.TV.

Ruby added that the act of bioterrorism, disguised as a public health program, is conducted by the health secretary on behalf of the World Health Organization and its financial backers. (Related: WHO attempts to take control of future plandemics in a totalitarian power grab move.)

She cited a Substack piece by paralegal analyst and writer Katherine Watt, who asked how the legislative and executive branches made the bioterrorism program possible.

According to Ruby, every president for the last three decades has signed legislation and executive orders that have turned American laws into a mass genocide problem. She pointed out that a lot of things that were once federal and state crimes and civil rights violations have been legalized, mainly by changing the law.

These crimes have been legalized by Congress through a series of legislative statutory revisions to the United States Code signed by U.S. presidents, literally every one of them for the last 30 years, and implemented at the administrative regulatory level by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through the Code of Federal Regulation, said Ruby.

According to the Brighteon.TV host, criminal conspirators such as Dr. Anthony Fauci and Bill Gates have one basic goal: to set up legal conditions in which all governing power in America could be automatically transferred from the citizens and the three constitutional branches into the hands of the HHS secretary. The latter would have the power to declare a public health emergency, legally transforming free citizens into enslaved subjects.

Moreover, former President Ronald Reagan signed the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, which Ruby said paved the way for pharmaceutical firms to have legal immunity. It also established a child vaccine injury compensation program, which was funded by the taxpayers and not by pharmaceutical companies.

Legislative and executive departments created medical countermeasures

Both the legislative and executive departments created a bucket called medical countermeasures where anything they can throw in is exempted. Ruby said once a medical countermeasure is not considered a clinical investigation, it is off the hook for everything.

The veteran medical professional noted that emergency use authorization (EUA) products being exempted from laws that should regulate them are a very clever creation of a perfect crime that does not wait for the conditions to come along. She mentioned that the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act and all its amendments were part of how they were able to do it.

The PREP Act authorizes the health secretary to issue a PREP Act declaration. The declaration is specifically for the purpose of providing immunity from liability and is different from, and not dependent on, other emergency declarations issued by the secretary.

Ruby added that people will see individuals administering EUA products that have no informed consent obligation.

There will also be no informed consent rights; no institutional review boards; no safety and efficacy standards for EUA products; no clinical investigators studying the effects of EUA products on human subjects; no coordinated public federal government monitoring for safety; and no safety inspection of the manufacturing plants because of this law.

This is the reason why the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is not doing what it normally does, which is to go to the manufacturing plants and make sure that there isnt contamination, dirt or garbage on the vials as they are being filled, sealed and packaged.

Follow MedicalMartialLaw.com for more stories about government tyranny under the guise of public health.

Watch the full June 20 episode of Live with Dr. Jane Ruby below. Live with Dr. Jane Ruby airs every Monday at 7-8 p.m. and every Saturday at 3-4 p.m. on Brighteon.TV.

More related stories:

Instead of red flag laws, why wont lawmakers investigate psychiatric drugs and their links to violence?

Congress refuses to investigate FDAs failure to look into claims that Pfizer falsified COVID vaccine trial data.

PRE-PLANNED: Weeks before covid appeared in U.S., Congress redefined the word vaccine to include mRNA injections.

Fauci accused of misleading Congress about taxpayers money given to Wuhan lab.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

ASPR.HHS.gov
(Natural News) International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Fatih Birol has warned the European Union (EU) to be prepared for the likelihood of a total shutdown of Russian gas exports this coming winter.

Europe (sic) should be ready in case Russian gas is completely cut off. The nearer we are coming to winter, the more we understand Russias intentions, Birol stated. He called on the blocs members to broaden the span of measures in preparation for this situation.

According to Birol, the decision of Gazprom to cut 60 percent of gas supplies flowing through the Nord Stream pipeline was geared toward avoiding Europe filling storage and increasing Russias leverage in the winter months. The Russian natural gas company meanwhile emphasized the cuts are purely technical in nature. (Related: Russias Gazprom has cut natural gas flows to Germany by 60%  Western Europe is about to get the green energy nightmare it always wanted.)

The IEA has nevertheless blaming Russia of manipulating gas prices since last year, when the cost of gas in Europe peaked to all-time highs.

Birol commented that emergency measures taken by European countries this week, such as firing up old coal-fired power stations, were justified by the scale of the crisis despite concerns about rising carbon emissions. He added that the return to fossil fuels will be temporary in order to help conserve gas supplies for the forthcoming heating season.

I believe there will be more and deeper demand measures [taken by governments in Europe] as winter approaches, Birol stated. The IEA head also brought up the probability of gas being rationed.

Germany, Austria, Italy and the Netherlands declared their plans to step up use of coal for power generation, while Sweden and Denmark announced they would also begin emergency measures to control the use of natural gas.

Earlier this week, Russia declared that it is cutting off gas supplies to five EU countries including Germany  which is the largest power importer.

Aside from Germany, Russia has already halted gas transfers to Poland, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, France and the Netherlands. Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia are also suffering from critical supply cuts. Of these, Germany and Italy were hit enormously due to their maximum dependence on Russian gas supplies.

The EU has sanctioned Russian oil and coal, but has stayed away from banning gas imports, attributable in part to its excessive dependence on supplies from Moscow.

Russia redirecting energy exports to BRICS countries

With Western countries severing ties with Russian trade and oil, Russia is said to be in the process of redirecting its energy exports toward nations from the BRICS group of emerging economies. The group is made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Russia is trying to forge closer ties with Asia in order to overcome the Wests sanctions and replace the markets it lost in the dispute with the EU and the United States.

In a video address to BRICS Business Forum participants, President Vladimir Putin said Russia was talking about expanding the presence of Chinese cars in the Russian market along with the opening of Indian supermarket chains.

In its turn, Russias presence in the BRICS countries is growing. There has been a noticeable increase in exports of Russian oil to China and India, Putin stated.

Based on data from the Chinese General Administration of Customs, Chinas crude oil imports from Russia rose to 55 percent from a year earlier to a record level in May, dislodging Saudi Arabia as Chinas top supplier, as refiners cashed-in on discounted supplies.

Putin added that Russia was developing alternative systems for international financial settlements jointly with its BRICS partners.

The Russian Financial Messaging System is open for connection with the banks of the BRICS countries. The Russian MIR payment system is expanding its presence. We are exploring the possibility of creating an international reserve currency based on the basket of BRICS currencies, he said.

Follow FuelRationing.news for more about the EU facing fuel shortages.

Watch the video below to know more about how Europe seeks legal ways to purchase Russian gas amid high prices.

This video is from The Prisoner channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Gazprom cuts off gas supply to several EU members in response to sanction threats.

EUs embargo on Russian oil will cause oil prices to skyrocket  but Russia will be largely unharmed.

IT BEGINS: Russian gas giant halts shipments to Europe through key pipeline after German CEO warns of impending economic catastrophe.

Hungary says no to EUs Russian oil embargo sanction.

European Union caves to Putin: Green nations starving for energy now buying Russian gas in rubles, euros.

Sources include:

InfoWars.com

RepublicWorld.com

ABC.net.au
(Natural News) Dr. Robert Malone, the inventor of mRNA vaccine technology, warned the public that hospitals have been sending their patients private medical data to Facebooks parent company Meta.

Patients should demand that their data not be entered into such systems, Malone wrote in a June 22 op-ed piece on LifeSiteNews. Clearly, we the people cannot rely on the U.S. government. Therefore, we have to protect ourselves.

He referenced a June 16 Markup article that elaborated on the issue. According to the piece, a tracking tool installed on hospitals web pages for scheduling appointments is responsible for this data harvesting scheme. The tool called Meta Pixel collects information such as medical conditions, prescriptions and doctors appointments and subsequently sends this to the Big Tech firm led by Mark Zuckerberg.

Markup scrutinized the websites of Americas top 100 hospitals, and found Meta Pixel installed on 33 hospital websites. It found that the tool sends a packet containing the medical information to Meta whenever someone clicks on a button to schedule a doctors appointment.

The hospitals with Meta Pixel installed on their appointment scheduling pages may have violated the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)  according to former regulators, health data security experts and privacy advocates. The HIPAA prohibits entities such as hospitals from sharing personally identifiable health information with third parties such as Meta, unless an individual has explicitly given consent or done so under certain agreements.

Neither the Big Tech company nor the hospitals involved said they had such contracts in place. Furthermore, Markup found no evidence that either of the two entities were asking patients if they wanted their data to be harvested.

If Metas signals filtering systems detect that a business is sending potentially sensitive health data from their app or website through their use of Meta Business Tools, which in some cases can happen in error, that potentially sensitive data will be removed before it can be stored in our ads systems, Meta spokesman Dale Hogan stated in an email. (Related: Facebook has secretly been spying on your medical internet searches.)

Following the Markup story, only seven of the 33 hospitals named in the report removed the Meta Pixel tool from their appointment scheduling pages.

Malone: Hospitals using data entry systems corrupted by Big Tech

University of Michigan law professor Nicholson Price denounced Metas intrusion into otherwise private hospital data systems. This is an extreme example of exactly how far the tentacles of Big Tech reach into what we think of as a protected data space. I think this is creepy, problematic and potentially illegal, he said.

Electronic Privacy Information Center Executive Director Alan Butler meanwhile remarked: The evil genius of Facebooks system is that they create this little piece of code that does the snooping for them. They just put it out into the universe, and Facebook can try to claim plausible deniability. He added that the fact that Meta Pixel is on the websites of hospitals serves as evidence of how broken the rules are.

According to privacy lawyer Iliana Peters, patients whose health information have been compromised have the right to file HIPAA complaints with their respective medical providers. While the medical providers themselves are required to investigate the complaints, she hoped that institutions would respond quickly to those types of complaints so that they arent escalated to a state or federal regulator.

Malone put in his two cents on the issue. The medical providers must understand that patients should be given a choice to opt out of the system. The right to privacy extends to healthcare in its entirety, he said.

Our doctors and hospitals are being encouraged to buy cloud-based software solutions. These medical providers also need to be educated [that] these large cloud systems-based solutions have been corrupted. A movement to return to data entry systems that are not corrupted by Meta, Facebook, or Google needs to be jump-started.

Watch this news report about hospitals sending sensitive medical data to Meta.

This video is from the GalacticStorm channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Facebook-owned apps can track and harvest your data even if you arent actively using them.

Google will soon obtain private genetic data on hundreds of thousands of medical patients without their consent.

Study: Many health apps share sensitive medical data with third parties, leaving patients at risk of potential privacy loss.

More Zuckerberg crimes EXPOSED: Internal documents prove that Facebook is a lawless, data-mining criminal operation.

Sources include:

LifeSiteNews.com

TheMarkup.org

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Clarification: In this article I write that under the neoconservative Wolfowitz Doctrine of US hegemony, the Kremlin has two choices. Russia can surrender its sovereignty or Russia can destroy the West. Russia has no other alternative. The entire world needs to understand this. I am not advocating that Russia destroy the West. I am simply pointing out that for three decades the West has confronted Russia with this limited choice. Putin himself has complained about it over and over. I find it astonishing that the Western foreign policy community, whatever that is, has permitted a policy that corners a powerful nuclear power such as Russia in this way. And it continues. Now we have Lithuania blocking Russias access to part of Russia. This is insanity. This is confirming Russian conclusions that only force can constrain the West.

(Article republished from PaulCraigRoberts.org)

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NATO Engaged in Direct Aggression Against Russia

A wider war is Washingtons goal

Paul Craig Roberts

As I have many times written, the Kremlins Ukraine operation cannot be limited. Washington will not permit it to be limited. Washington has already widened the conflict, and is now widening the conflict further. The insane Jewish neoconservatives who have control over US foreign policy have prevailed on tiny, helpless Lithuania to violate the agreement with Russia for the provision of Kaliningrad and has received a Russian ultimatum. The moronic State Department spokesman Ned Price dismissed the ultimatum as bluster. The White House idiot says Washington backs Lithuania. In other words, Washington is egging on a wider war.

The conflict in Donbass has gone slowly, because it is a war in the midst of Russian people attached to Ukraine by Soviet leaders. The Russian troops are fighting under restrictions to minimize death and destruction in the Donbass region, from which Ukrainian forces are being driven out and destroyed. A wider war will not be fought among Russian populations. The world has never seen such recklessness as Washington and NATO are demonstrating. The sordid and utterly corrupt Democrats desperately need a war in order to rally Americans to the government and prevent a Democrat wipeout in the election. In their effort to hold on to power, the Democrats and whore media are widening the war. This is dangerous beyond belief. The Russian government declared some time ago that Russia will never again fight a war on her own territory.

It is astounding that the Kremlin believed that their intervention in Donbass could be limited. How the Kremlin managed to misread the West after such a total rebuffing of the Kremlins efforts to reach a mutual security agreement with the West is inexplicable. Apparently, the Kremlin has not taken the Wolfowitz Doctrine seriously. The Kremlin and the dumbshit Russian Atlanticist Integrationists need to learn it by heart and repeat it every morning upon awakening as it is the operative doctrine. Under this doctrine the Kremlin has two choices. Russia can surrender its sovereignty or Russia can destroy the West. Russia has no other alternative. The entire world needs to understand this.

https://www.rt.com/russia/557466-nato-engaged-direct-aggression-russia/

Again I ask: Is the West pushing Russia too far? Read these high level Russian statements and answer the question for yourself:

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov noted on Monday that Vilniuss decision was unprecedented and a violation of anything and everything.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated that Vilniuss provocative actions are a violation of the countrys international legal obligations to allow the transit of cargo between Russia and Kaliningrad. She said that Russia sees this move as openly hostile and that unless Lithuania immediately lifts these restrictions, Russia reserves the right to defend its national interests.

The head of Russias commission for the defense of state sovereignty, Andrey Klimov, has argued that Lithuanias move was an act of direct aggression against Moscow and that unless the EU brought its member state to heel, Russia would have a free hand to solve the problem of the Kaliningrad transit created by Lithuania by ANY means chosen by us.

Washington and its European puppets are intentionally provoking conflict between Lithuania and Russia: https://www.lewrockwell.com/2022/06/tyler-durden/russia-demands-lithuania-lift-openly-hostile-blockade-panic-buying-ensues/

Russian attitudes are hardening

The insane neoconservatives who control US foreign policy are leading us to nuclear war

Russia will never trust the West again  Kremlin

https://www.rt.com/russia/557570-russia-never-trust-west/

https://www.rt.com/russia/557547-putin-nuclear-missile-sarmat-deployment/

https://www.rt.com/russia/557539-putin-deployment-s-500-defense-systems/

I know of no reason other than delusions of power for Washington to expect Russia and China to subordinate their sovereignty and their interests to Washington. This totally unreal expectation of the neoconservatives is leading to Armageddon.

Putins Speech: Are the Russian People Being Prepared to Do Their Duty and Destroy the Depraved and Evil West?

https://www.unz.com/aanglin/putin-gives-historic-speech-calls-sanctions-stupid-says-russia-a-thousand-year-old-empire-that-wont-crack/

Read more at: PaulCraigRoberts.org
(Natural News) Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla claimed that annual Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines for Americans were almost certain. He added that such yearly doses are necessary, given the continual emergence of new variants.

Bourla made the statement during a June 22 appearance on MSNBC program Morning Joe, in response to a question if Americans should expect yearly COVID-19 boosters.

Im almost certain about it. I say almost certain because, of course, regulators have the final say in all of that, he said.

The Pfizer CEO lauded the beauty of mRNA technology used in his companys COVID-19 vaccine, adding that even a very minor change can result in a huge difference.

According to Bourla, vaccines can be adapted to address different SARS-CoV-2 variants just by changing the sequencing during the manufacturing process. This, he said, makes a difference in the vaccines safety, efficacy and response to the viral pathogen.

For this reason, Im very confident that well be able to respond very, very fast to every new variant, he remarked.

Bourla had earlier called for the development of an annual COVID-19 vaccine back in April 2022, arguing that it allows for greater compliance with vaccine mandates.

What the world really needs is a vaccine that can last a year. A vaccine that will be taken once a year is way [easier] to administer and [to] have the population be compliant with it, he said during an April 15 press briefing. (Related: VAXXED FOR LIFE: Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla calls for greater compliance with annual COVID vaccines.)

The CEO of the New York-based drug company lamented peoples lukewarm reception toward booster doses, citing the dwindling number of recipients for subsequent doses after the second. This, he explained, is one of the main reasons why Pfizer is working to create an annual vaccine.

The issue is that right now, we are  in many, many countries  in the fourth dose, and that creates fatigue. Way more people got the second [dose] than the third, [and] I think the compliance with the fourth dose will not be as high. [We] realized that people will not comply with the fourth or fifth vaccination. This is why we need to come [up with] scientific innovations that will allow us to have a vaccine that is annual.

Medical tyrant Fauci also insinuating the need for annual boosters

White House Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci also shared Bourlas thoughts on yearly COVID-19 vaccine boosters. According to the infectious disease expert, Americans should expect to get injected with vaccine boosters on an annual basis.

We know that immunity wanes over time. Depending upon what this virus does, there is certainly a reasonably good chance that we will have the same sort of situation that we have with influenza  where every year, you have to re-boost people to keep that protection up, Fauci said in an interview with WPIX 11.

The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) added that COVID-19 is here to stay and the world will be dealing with this virus on a chronic basis. He nevertheless expressed hope that it will reach a level low enough that it doesnt disrupt us to the extent that it has over the past couple of years.

In December 2021, Fauci insinuated the necessity of annual boosters against COVID-19 when he appeared on the ABC program This Week.

If it becomes necessary to get yet another boost, then well just have to deal with it when that occurs, he told program host George Stephanopoulos in response to the latter asking whether people should expect yearly COVID-19 booster doses.

Ironically, Fauci caught COVID-19 and experienced mild symptoms even though he received multiple doses of the vaccine. In a June 15 press release, the NIAID confirmed that he tested positive for the pathogen.

The press release stated that the infectious disease expert is fully vaccinated and has been boosted twice, which means that he received a total of four COVID-19 vaccine doses. It added that Fauci will isolate and continue to work from his home and return  when he tests negative.

Visit VaccineWars.com for more stories about COVID-19 vaccines.

Watch Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla below expressing optimism toward injecting children aged two to five with the COVID-19 vaccine.

This video is from The Prisoner channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

BioNTech CEO: Third dose of coronavirus vaccine necessary after a year, followed by annual booster shots.

BioNTech co-founder echoes Pfizer CEO, expects people to get vaccinated against coronavirus annually.

Pfizer CEO wants Americans to be forced to take an annual COVID-19 vaccine for greater compliance.

No surprise here: Fauci now insists FOURTH Covid vaccine doses are very LIKELY to be needed.

Medical tyrant Anthony Fauci tells Americans to expect YEARLY COVID boosters.

Sources include:

InfoWars.com

LifeSiteNews.com

OregonLive.com

TheGatewayPundit.com

NIAID.NIH.gov

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) The Supreme Court has struck down a longtime gun control law that barred most people from carrying a firearm concealed. And MSNBC talking-head Keith Olbermann is enraged.

On Twitter, Olbermann called for an insurrection against the Supreme Court, including its total abolishment. If that does not work, then Olbermann wants people to just ignore the court entirely and pretend as though it does not exist.

It has become necessary to dissolve the Supreme Court of the United States, Olbermann declared on Twitter with about 2,700 likes, as of this writing. The first step is for a state the court has now forced guns upon, to ignore this ruling.

In other words, Olbermann wants law enforcement to continue prosecuting anyone in New York who is caught with a concealed firearm, even though the Supreme Court has decided that carrying concealed in New York is fully constitutional and in alignment with the Second Amendment.

Great. Youre a court? Why and how do you think you can enforce your rulings? Olbermann further added, along with the hashtag #IgnoreTheCourt.

Olbermann curses every Supreme Court justice who ruled in favor of the Second Amendment

Olbermann did not stop there, though. In two additional tweets, he taunted SCOTUS over the decision, mocking the courts apparent inability, according to him, to actually enforce the new ruling.

Hey SCOTUS, send the SCOTUS army here to enforce your ruling, you House of Lords radicals pretending to be a court, Olbermann jested, unable to see the irony in his own statement.

The irony, in case you missed it too, is that it will be much harder to continue enforcing the concealed carry ban than it will be to just let it go. Perhaps Olbermann is planning to walk around the Big Apple strip-searching people himself in pursuit of hidden guns?

In a third tweet, Olbermann resorted to a foul-mouthed curse on Supreme Court Justices Alito, Thomas, Roberts, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh, and the paralegal Coney Barrett for voting to restore New Yorkers Second Amendment rights.

The 6-3 decision will also reportedly allow more people in other states to legally carry guns on the streets, including in larger cities such as Los Angeles and Boston where similar gun control measures were enacted.

The Second and Fourteenth Amendments protect an individuals right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home, said Justice Thomas about the decision.

Olbermann obviously disagrees and wants a full insurrection on the highest court in the land in order to remedy the situation to his liking. Remember, this is the same guy who repeatedly condemned the insurrectionists for entering the Capitol building through the velvet ropes and wide-open doors on Jan. 6, 2021.

I think its time for the dissolution of Keith Olbermann! joked one commenter.

This sounds kind of  seditious? wrote another.

Someone else pointed out that at no point has the Supreme Court decided to force guns onto anyone, as Olbermann falsely suggested in his deranged rant.

Holy howitzers and bazookas, Batman! this person wrote.

As for Twitter, its revealing about the people who have been thrown off of the platform, including President Trump. But its even MORE revealing about those whom Twitter has allowed to remain on it, in good standing.

Others pointed out the hypocrisy of the Left in simultaneously demanding the right to murder unborn and even newborn children while also demanding an end to the Second Amendment because think of the children!

Look at all the stories with the same bu****it talking point: Supreme Court expands gun rights  more like restored a constitutional right, added another.

More related news coverage about the war on guns can be found at SecondAmendment.news.

Sources for this article include:

CitizenFreePress.com

CitizenFreePress.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Twitter has suspended a prominent doctor for sharing a study that showed Pfizers Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine made men infertile.

The latest casualty in Twitters COVID-19 censorship is Dr. Andrew Bostom, an expert epidemiologist and an associate professor of medicine at the Brown University Center for Primary Care and Prevention.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Bostom has been regarded as a significant dissenting figure for his opposition to COVID-19 mask and vaccine mandates. He even qualified as an expert witness in epidemiology in a lawsuit filed by parents against Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKees executive order requiring children to wear masks in schools.

Bostoms testimony noted that constant mask-wearing affected the physical and psychological wellbeing of children, leading to social isolation and childhood depression. This testimony helped convince plaintiffs that McKee did not have the authority to force children to wear masks.

On June 19, Bostom shared an Israeli study published online ahead of publication in the peer-reviewed medical journal Andrology, which found that the COVID-19 vaccine impairs sperm count and motility. (Related: Pfizer, government regulators hid smoking gun data showing that COVID jabs cause birth defects and infertility.)

Twitter immediately informed Bostom that the post violated the sites policy against spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19, and the Big Tech platform suspended his account.

As of press time, Bostoms Twitter account is still suspended. It is unclear how long this deplatforming will last.

Bostom deplatformed for questioning effect of boosters on fertility

In an interview with the Epoch Times, Bostom said that Twitter suspending his account fit into the whole pattern of silencing open discussion.

In the offending post, Bostom merely quoted the Israeli study by saying that Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine temporarily impairs semen concentration and total motile count among semen donors, with apparent rebound [within] five months, but no data on boostering effect.

The Israeli study authors claim the effects on male infertility resolve themselves within 150 days following vaccination, but the figures they presented in their paper actually suggested that was not the case. The authors also noted that they excluded men who have received booster vaccines.

Does boostering yield another decline? said Bostom in his interview with The Epoch Times. I kind of understood what they really showed, which is that some of the metrics, whether it was the counts or the motility, were still depressed. And I used their terminology  I didnt do anything to exaggerate their findings.

Bostom explained that he just wanted to point out that if the men were affected by the first series of vaccinations, studies should be conducted to figure out how booster vaccinations further destroy the fertility of men.

Maybe if they take these guys and have data on people that were semen donors and they had boosted them, when they followed them after the booster, youd see another round of depression, and maybe it would be depressed  who knows  would it be depressed more? Would it be depressed less? Would the effect last longer? We just dont have any data on that, he said.

Bostom wants to know why questioning the effect of boosters on male fertility would be grounds for suspension on social media platforms like Twitter. I dont know why any of that was such a big deal.

Several people have come forward to Bostoms defense. Phil Kerpen, president of the pro-free market Committee to Unleash Prosperity and the organization American Commitment, said Twitter was targeting him for COVID wrongthink.

Cardiologist and COVID-19 expert Dr. Peter McCullough similarly took to Twitter to defend Bostom. He shared pictures of the Israeli studys results and highlighted how men still had exceptionally low sperm counts and concentration when measured 150 days or more after getting vaccinated.

Indiscriminate use of targeted, risk-stratified [emergency use authorization] rollout has led to a myriad of concerns. Never broadly apply a brand new experimental biologic agent on a large population without assessment of risk stratification, wrote McCullough. Over-used and now uninvited concerns in young men.

Learn more about Big Techs censorship on matters concerning COVID-19 vaccines at Censorship.news.

Watch this episode of the Health Ranger Report as Health Ranger Mike Adams talks about how the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines make children permanently infertile.

This video is from the Health Ranger Report channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Study: COVID vaccines are devastating mens sperm counts.

MSN quietly deleted a story revealing that severe COVID-19 is rarely found in the unvaccinated.

Infertility: A Diabolical Agenda film exposes WHO for engaging in vaccine population control experiment.

VACCINE WARNING: mRNA spike proteins linked to infertility in next generation via engineered ovarian failure.

Dr. Peter McCullough: Covid vaccines are killing babies in the first trimester at an astonishing rate an atrocity to vaccinate expectant mothers.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

ReclaimTheNet.org

OnlineLibrary.Wiley.com

Twitter.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) The government of Denmark made an oopsie when it decided to mass-inject children throughout the country for the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19), officials now admit.

Sren Brostrm, director of the Danish National Board of Health, told the media that we did not get much out of having children vaccinated against coronavirus last year. If bureaucrats could do things all over again, he claims, childrens immune systems would have been let alone.

Untold millions of children there now have to live with that oopsie for the rest of their lives, but somehow this admission by Brostrm makes everything a-okay, according to one article, because public confidence in the Danish National Board of Health has been preserved.

It is always interesting to see how some people gauge what constitutes a trustworthy government. One can apparently commit mass genocide, then later say oh, sorry, we just didnt know and everything goes away. If a person did that, he would be tried for crimes against humanity.

Still, it is more than we can say for United States government agencies, which not only never admit they are wrong, but also almost always are wrong.

Can you imagine if Tony Fauci or Rochelle Walensky got up in front of the podium and said look America, we made a mistake and injected your children with death poison  were really sorry! First of all, that will never happen. Secondly, would it even suffice?

Is Denmark trying to get ahead of the narrative by apologizing early?

It almost seems as though the Danish government wants to beat the rush out the door by getting this out of the way sooner rather than later. As the world learns the truth about these shots, increasingly more people are demanding answers.

Perhaps it is just because we dwell within this corner of the internet that it seems like the whole narrative is falling apart now at warp speed. Or perhaps it really is falling apart and the powers that be know it.

Whatever the case may be, the truth is flowing, and it is undeniably obvious that the establishment is scrambling to come up with excuses as to why these experimental injections are killing people left and right.

This is all happening at the same time that this same establishment is aggressively pushing the shots on children young as six months, now. If ever chaos theory was on fully display, this is it.

In Denmark, the government claimed that all children five and up needed to get jabbed not because the shots would protect them, but supposedly to ensure epidemic control throughout the country.

Where they came up with that crazy idea remains unknown, and Brostrm of course failed to address it. His only answer when pressed was to say that with what we knew then, it somehow made sense to push the shots on kids.

Christine Stabell Benn, a clinical professor at the University of Southern Denmark and a longtime critic of the jabs, publicly asked why, then, the Danish National Board of Health put so much pressure on the parents to get their children injected at that time.

In addition, children were made responsible for the health of their parents and grandparents, Benn added in a statement. That, I think, is unreasonable.

I think there are a lot of parents left out there who say, What was this all about?' she went on to state. There are many parents who have really struggled to get their children dragged down to the vaccination center, but to what use?

The latest news about Fauci Flu shots and their death toll can be found at ChemicalViolence.com.

Sources for this article include:

Boriquagato.substack.com

NaturalNews.com
Residents of Hezhe ethnic group living in NE Chinas Heilongjiang embrace better life through rural vitalization drive

People's Daily Online) 17:11, June 24, 2022

At dawn, Lu Zhenyu, a resident at Zhuaji village in the easternmost part of China, where the majority of the population are of the Hezhe ethnic group, began fishing in the Wusuli River while his wife livestreamed him with a mobile phone.

The aerial photo shows Zhuaji village in Fuyuan county, Heilongjiang Province. (Photo/Xinhua)

Local people in Zhuaji, Wusu township, Fuyuan city, northeast Chinas Heilongjiang province, have depended on fishing for their livelihood for generations. By livestreaming his fishing activities, Lu has become a social media influencer with over 2 million followers and a front runner in the village that has embraced prosperity through livestreaming.

I can earn over 100,000 yuan ($14,923) during the one-month fishing season, the young man said, adding that he also uses his platform to show off the living environment and folk culture of the village during the off season.

Zhuaji village has become an Instagram-worthy tourist destination, with flat and wide paved roads, rows of new houses built with Hezhe ethnic characteristics, and B&Bs of a modern style dotted around the mountains and rivers in the locality.

It is hard to believe that over one decade ago, it was still so backward and isolated from the outside world. Despite long having rich tourism and fishing resources, locals had nonetheless lived a poor life.

Guided by recent government policies and based on local realities, the Communist Party of China (CPC) committee of Wusu township has actively encouraged local fishermen to develop the tourism, fruit and vegetable industries as well as a unique Hezhe cultural industry by making use of the townships advantages in geography, resources and ethnically-inspired catering services.

In 2014, under the support of the government, 167 households bid farewell to their decades-old, flood-stricken mud houses and moved into new ones with electricity, water, Internet connectivity and central heating systems. Meanwhile, many people in the village have opened family hotels and restaurants featuring fish dishes, gradually exploring a new path towards prosperity.

Villagers in the Sipai Hezhe ethnic township, Raohe county, Shuangyashan city, Heilongjiang, never thought that tourism could become a major income source for them. In fact, since the villagers had always been engaged in farm work over the years, many often felt reluctant at first to make a significant shift towards developing tourism businesses instead.

To ease villagers concerns over the prospects of a local tourism industry, the Party committee and government of the township invited experts from the Academy of Agricultural Planning and Engineering, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, to offer advice on local tourism development. Finally, the township decided on a tourism development roadmap themed on folk customs, ecology as well as ice and snow, and has since vigorously developed tourism along the river in the border region with Russia, along with eco-tourism, ethnic tourism products, ice and snow tourism and other projects all aimed at cultivating new entry points for growing the local economy.

The Sipai Hezhe ethnic township has nine homestay operators working in the tourism industry, with the annual output value generated by local tourism reaching 2 million yuan. The township has successfully embarked on a development model that integrates agriculture, tourism and culture in an attempt to further drive rural vitalization in and around the locality.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
(Natural News) Washington Governor Jay Inslee sent out an email to his supporters warning about climate change and upcoming electricity blackouts. The force-mask, force-vax, lock-down-loving governor became infamous during the Summer of 2020, when he stood by and supported left-wing riots and the denigration of law enforcement. Now, Jay Inslee is projecting a summer of blackouts, destruction, and death for 2022 and beyond. In a leaked email, Inslee warned his supporters about electricity shortages coming this summer.

As the climate crisis worsens, were facing the most extreme weather in history, the email reads. While Washington state faced the wettest start to the summer in over 70 years, other states are preparing for sweltering temperatures that will catastrophically disrupt our fragile electrical grid.

That means blackouts, destruction, and death. Just look at the headlines, Inslee iterated. Its shaping up to be a deadly summer.

Governor Inslee warns of blackout after agreeing to destroy 8% of Washingtons energy grid

Governor Inslee sent the letter after agreeing to unleash four dams along the Snake River. These four dams account for approximately 8 percent of the states electricity generation. Together, the dams provide 8.3 million megawatt-hours of clean electricity. According to Todd Meyers, Environmental Director of Washington Policy Center, this amount of discarded electricity is equivalent to the energy provided by all wind and solar facilities across the state.

Environmental groups are pressuring Inslee and government leaders to unleash the dams to save the Snake River salmon, which is on the Endangered Species List. However, these groups are not taking into account the significant, life-altering costs of cutting 8 percent of the states electricity grid.

Governor Inslee and Senator Patty Murry (D-Washington) put out a draft in early June, agreeing that a takedown of the dams is the most efficient way to save the Snake River salmon. If implemented, this plan would cost the state taxpayers upwards of 27.2 billion, as the state finds alternative ways to irrigate and provide electricity for the people. There are no guarantees that the people of Washington State will have reliable electricity. Rates will likely jump and rolling blackouts may occur as the government rations an intentionally-manipulated energy supply. As with any Democratic idea, there is no plan to make an efficient transition, and the peoples livelihoods hang in the balance.

Democrats are planning blackouts in desperate bid to control the population

Jay Inslees email blames rising temperatures for catastrophically disrupting electric grids and causing death nationwide. It seems that the Democrats are planning and/or weaponizing energy grids to cause a series of rolling blackouts just to prove that climate change is real and that they can control the population a little more. These are the same maniacal tactics that are currently being used by Democrats to collapse the domestic oil supply, to force the population onto a centrally-managed electric vehicle grid.

In a desperate bid to control the population, Democrats want to convince everyone that big government can save us all from an abstract enemy called climate change. In order to get more people to submit and believe, Democrats must continue to instill fear, create crises, and exploit the population. Throughout this process, Democrats rob the people and condition them to give up their rights and freedoms.

With this email, the Democrats are unveiling (projecting) their next diabolical plan to submit the population to more government control and oppression. Everyone should prepare accordingly because as history has shown throughout 2020-2022, Democrats will go as low as they can to get people to denounce their faith and put their hope in the false savior of an all-powerful government and all of its insidious decrees.

Sources include:

ThePostMillenial.com

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com
Because of invading mouse species, albatross numbers are falling. New research published in the Journal of Applied Ecology shows long-lived animals may be more vulnerable to predation than previously assumed.

Using a Population Model to Simulate the Decline

Researchers used a sophisticated population model that is not limited to evaluating only breeding pairs to shed light on decades of uncertainty regarding the impact of invading mice on the critically endangered Tristan albatross. Because this new study is not limited to breeding pairs, it exposes previously unknown population decreases.

Conservation groups are sometimes hampered by a lack of funding, making it difficult to aid all vulnerable species actively. Decisions on where to deploy resources and spend money are thus a typical issue.

The rate at which a species' population declines is frequently a useful measure of how urgent intervention is required. However, new research published this week reveals that a population may decline long before this pattern is visible in prior population surveys for long-lived species.

Albatrosses are the world's largest flying birds and may live to be quite elderly, with one female named Wisdom, who was tagged over 65 years ago, still reproducing today. Albatrosses live so long because they reproduce so slowly-it might take 5-15 years to start breeding.

A breeding couple of the biggest species can only raise one chick every two years since it takes about 12 months to develop mature enough to fly, and parents require a considerable rest between rearing chicks.

While being among the biggest birds, Albatrosses are endangered by some of the tiniest mammals-mice. Non-native house mice (Mus musculus) devour albatross chicks and adults on various islands, including Gough (UK Overseas Territory of Tristan da Cunha), Marion (South Africa), and Midway (USA). Many chicks are lost to predators, resulting in very low breeding success for albatross species nesting on these islands.

Although this problem has been known for two decades, the repercussions of mouse predation have been difficult to assess due to the albatrosses' extended lifetime. In population studies, as in many seabird species, a subset of the whole population, often the breeding adults, is considered.

Also Read: Fish Leather: Sustainable Leather Made from Invasive Species May Become the Next Big Thing

Losing Chicks

Since monitoring began in 2004, the severely endangered Tristan albatross (Diomedea dabbenena) has lost half of its chicks to mouse predation. During the same time, however, the breeding population has remained relatively steady at around 1500 pairs each year.

Conservationists are perplexed by the impact of mouse predation on albatross populations. Eliminating mice from Gough Island, the principal breeding place for albatross, would be an impressive operation, but the question remains: What advantages would such a project give to albatross populations?

This week's new article published in the Journal of Applied Ecology gives a strong response. A group of scientists supported by the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels employed a sophisticated population model that no longer limits the study to breeding individuals.

Extrapolating 30 years ahead, the researchers predicted that removing mice from their main breeding island would result in a Tristan albatross population that was 2-8 times greater in 2050 than if the mice stayed.

However, the population forecasts are uncertain, owing to the difficulty in determining whether baby albatrosses are still alive. Albatrosses spend 2-20 years at sea after fledging, where they are unaccounted for. This uncertainty makes population size estimates fairly imprecise, and when extending the population 30 years into the future, the range of error covers several thousand birds. Nonetheless, the latest estimates are the most robust yet, giving a wealth of new data to help guide management decisions.

Importance of the Study for Conservation

The Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels' Information Officer, John Cooper, emphasized the necessity of incorporating these results into future conservation efforts.

Overall, the study's findings support that investing in mouse eradication on islands where mice kill albatrosses is likely to be a very effective method for restoring albatross populations.

Related Article: Island Now Thriving After Sucessfully Purging More Than 300,000 Invasive Rats

For the most recent updates from the animal kingdom, don't forget to follow Nature World News!
On Wednesday, officials reopened a portion of the iconic Yellowstone National Park. Still, people in one adjacent city are concerned that too much damage has been done to ensure a successful summer tourism season.

The Yellowstone Wildlife Sanctuary near Red Lodge, Montana, is a haven for creatures such as foxes, coyotes, and black bears who can no longer survive on their own in the wild.

Historic Flooding

After a major flooding storm at Yellowstone National Park, this past week forced the temporary closure of all entries, the sanctuary itself is now in need of rescue. This contains the northeast entrance, the route to which Red Lodge is located. Since the beginning of June, the Yellowstone area has gotten four times the typical amount of rainfall, with one month's worth of rain dropping on Sunday, June 12. The next day, the situation deteriorated, so 10,000 people were compelled to flee the park.

The park's southern loop reopened on Wednesday, and the northern loop is anticipated to reopen within two weeks when cleanup and repairs are completed. On June 19, National Park Service Director Chuck Sams announced a $50 million emergency funding plan to begin recovery efforts following what was described as a "once in a 500-year event," which prevented tourists from passing through the park area, as well as the quaint Red Lodge community and its wildlife sanctuary.

"We rely entirely on tourists," Eden Wondra, the sanctuary's education manager, told AccuWeather National Reporter Jillian Angeline. In addition to harboring a variety of species that require living help. The sanctuary also hosts a range of educational sessions for local students to foster a "culture of caring that will restore the human-nature link."

Also Read: Sections of the Yellowstone May Remain Close During the Entire Summer Season Because of Severe Flooding

Blocked Off

Red Lodge, which has a population of just more than 2,000 people, has been blocked off from tourists since the disaster and is preparing for a summer season that may reduce tourism. Yellowstone expected at least 1 million visitors for its 150th anniversary, but that plan has been canceled due to the destructive rains.

"We are going to take a financial blow without the number of tourists we regularly have in the summer," Wondra said.

Aside from the prospect of a significant decline in tourists, the Red Lodge area also deals with the aftermath of the flood. The town's most recent challenges follow a reduction in tourists over the previous several years owing to the COVID-19 epidemic and destructive forest fires.

A Difficult Challenge

According to local officials, the flooding incident was a one-of-a-kind challenge that brought the community together.

Another key concern in the aftermath of the floods was the absence of flood insurance among the many devastated homeowners and business owners, making the rebuilding process much more difficult. Many local properties were not in a flood plain, causing homeowners to forego flood insurance and creating a cash shortage to assist with adequate property repair.

Working Together

In response, the community foundation established the Carbon County Disaster Relief Fund for county residents, including Red Lodge and nearby communities. The fund assists residents by "stabilizing the immediate flooding damage and shifting towards recovery initiatives."

Donations to the fund can be made through the foundation's website, and the local Bank of Red Lodge will match them dollar for dollar up to $25,000 in total. Goods donations are being arranged in collaboration with the American Red Cross.

Volunteering is also an option for people who live nearby or are ready to go to southern Montana. Volunteering can be arranged through the Carbon County Alert website.

Related Article: Exposure to Major Disasters Can Cause Long-Term Mental Health Problems

For more climate and weather updates, don't forget to follow Nature World News!
Salmonella contamination poses a risk to dogs who consume the four-and-a-half-pound bag of Freshpet Select Fresh From The Kitchen Home Cooked Chicken Recipe as well as to anyone who handles the product. This has prompted the company concerned to issue a pet food recall.

Company Announcement

A single lot of Freshpet Select Fresh From The Kitchen Home Cooked Chicken Recipe is being voluntarily recalled, according to Freshpet Inc. The particular pet food item is the 4.5 lb bag with an expiration date of October 29, 2022. According to the company, possible salmonella contamination is what prompted the recall.

Salmonella and Symptoms

When handling contaminated products, especially if they have not thoroughly washed their hands after coming into contact with the products or surfaces exposed to these products, humans, particularly children, the elderly, and the immunocompromised, are at risk of contracting salmonella.

Healthy individuals who have contracted Salmonella should keep an eye out for symptoms such as nausea, cramping in the abdomen, vomiting, diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, and fever. Eye irritation, arterial infections, arthritis, endocarditis, muscle pain, and symptoms of the urinary tract are just a few of the more severe conditions that salmonella can cause.

After coming into contact with this product, customers who exhibit these symptoms should speak with their doctor.

Salmonella infections in dogs can cause fatigue, fever, vomiting, bloody diarrhea, and diarrhea. Only a fever, a loss of appetite, and abdominal pain may be present in some dogs. Dogs that are sick but are otherwise healthy can spread the infection to other animals or people. Please contact your veterinarian if your dog has consumed the recalled product and exhibits these symptoms.

Pet owners should stop feeding their dogs any products that fit the following description and sell-by date, and they should throw them away right away.

Dog owners who have the recalled product are urged to get in touch with Freshpet Inc. On the bottom and back of each bag, pet owners will find the sell date and UPC.

Read also: New Technology Has Detected More Strains of High-risk Salmonella to Poultry

Mistaken Dispatch

A small amount of the lot was accidentally shipped to retailers in a few select geographic markets in the past two weeks, according to the company, even though their Freshpet Team had designated this particular lot for destruction.

According to Freshpet, there have been no reports of illness, harm, or negative reactions to date. In Georgia and Alabama, there may have been a few Walmart locations that sold the lot. There may also have been a few Target locations and other niche retailers in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Puerto Rico, Vermont, and West Virginia.

Assistance from Freshpet Inc.

Freshpet Inc. affirms that they value the faith that has been placed in them and that the safety of pets and pet parents, as well as the quality of their products, are of the utmost importance.

Pet owners are advised to call 1.800.285.0563 from Monday through Friday, 9 am to 9 pm (EDT), and Saturday through Sunday, 9 am to 1 pm (EDT), for any questions or to report an adverse reaction to their pet.

Freshpet Inc., in cooperation with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, is conducting this product recall. No other Freshpet goods or lot codes are affected by this recall, according to Freshpet Inc.

Related article: Company Forced to Recall Pet Food After Testing Positive of Salmonella Contamination
Wild animal assaults are uncommon, but deadly interactions occasionally occur, particularly when people disregard or are uninformed of wildlife observing guidelines and etiquette.

Over Memorial Day weekend, a bison in Yellowstone gored an Ohio lady who had approached the animal within 10 feet, falling well short of the national park's requirement of at least 25 yards (or 75 feet). The burly beast threw the guest 10 feet in the air and punctured him, among other injuries.

How To Behave Around Wildlife

Nature provides several emotional and physical health advantages. However, it is vital to remember that our natural spaces aren't just for our enjoyment; they also offer a habitat for various species, including predators such as bears, wolves, and cougars. To avoid an uncomfortable encounter with a wild animal, follow these expert guidelines.

1. Learn about the wildlife in the area you intend to visit.

Bart Melton, wildlife program director of the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), a D.C.-based charity, says the primary rule of thumb while visiting conservations and national parks is to know what species makes the site home. Learn to recognize the locals (grizzlies have distinct shoulder humps, whereas black bears have not) and keep track of their routines.

For example, ungulates like bison and coyotes are crepuscular, meaning they are most active between dusk and morning, but alligators are diurnal and nocturnal.

2. Follow the marked pathways and observation platforms at all times. Try not to startle the wildlife.

Be predictable; it is usually best to avoid heavily used paths when dealing with creatures such as bears and moose. Visitors may see the giant reptiles from a tram or along a wooden boardwalk in Shark Valley in Florida's Everglades National Park, which is home to over 200,000 alligators.

"They're not going to climb up and grab you," said Barmeyer. Meredith Budd, regional policy director for the Florida Wildlife Federation, cautions against loitering near the water's edge, especially in retention ponds and if you have a small dog. "If there's a body of water in Florida, there's probably an alligator in it," she remarked.

3. Remove any traces of food. Remove all of your trash and clean away any crumbs.

If you're going camping, keep your food in a bear-proof container. In most circumstances, wildlife wants to avoid people. Still, if you leave the aluminum foil with burger drippings from last night's picnic, you make it difficult for animals to ignore you, according to Hofberg. Never leave a food-filled bag sitting around, even to take a picture of a view or tie your shoe.

Keep an eye out for scents that may smell like a medicine closet to you but a Las Vegas buffet to a wild animal. Melton, for example, advises campers not to bring toothpaste or deodorant inside their tents before lights out. Also, if you cook burgers in your hiking clothing, don't sleep in them. Respect others. It should go without saying that you should never feed, tease, or mistreat animals.

Related Article: Green Vacation: 4 Tips on How to Travel Sustainably

For more Travel news, don't forget to follow Nature World News!
A licensed monkeypox vaccine is produced by a pharmaceutical company with locations in Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, and the USA. Aside from 27 European countries, the US ordered a bulk of the vaccine.

In recent months, thousands of people worldwide, particularly in Europe, have contracted monkeypox, a disease that typically only spreads in West and Central Africa. The illness's name comes from the fact that it was first identified in research monkeys decades ago. However, the precise etiology of the virus is still being studied.

As of Wednesday this week, the United States reported that there were 3,308 confirmed cases of monkeypox in 42 different nations. Hundreds more cases are reported daily, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The U.K. is currently among the top three nations in terms of cases with a count of 793. Spain has 520 and Germany has 521. 155 cases have been reported in the United States.

Bavarian Nordic

Rolf Sass Sorensen, vice president of Danish company Bavarian Nordic, said that despite being surprised by this year's sudden outbreak, his company could easily supply the global market in light of the rising number of cases.

Sorensen observed that the U.S. approval his company received in 2019 when they were only selling a few hundred doses, quickly became extremely important for global health.

Revenue predictions are now between 1,900M to 2,100M Danish kroner or about 267M to 295M USD, up from the previous 1,800M KR and 2,000M KR just weeks ago.

The smallpox vaccine produced by Bavarian Nordic, which also protects against monkeypox, is sold under the brand names Imvamune in Canada, Imvanex in Europe, and Jynneos in the United States.

Vaccine

Notably, as long as the vaccine is administered within a few days of exposure to the virus, people can still be protected.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first gave the shot approval in the United States in 2019, even though it has been licensed in Europe since 2013, Newsweek reports.

Orders for the vaccine have poured in; the U.S. purchased half a million doses this month, and the European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority purchased approximately 110,000 doses for 27 EU countries.

Read also: Debunked: Can Monkeypox Spread Through Sexual Transmission?

Monkeypox Virus

The same-named virus that causes monkeypox can spread between people and between humans and animals. The CDC states that it can be transmitted through bites or scratches from an infected animal, direct contact with an infectious rash or bodily fluids, extended face-to-face or intimate contact, touching objects that have come into contact with an infectious rash or fluids or using meat or products from such an animal.

Monkeypox is frequently observed in central and western Africa, which are home to tropical rainforests and a variety of animals that could harbor the virus. Occasionally, after traveling from areas where monkeypox is endemic, people with the disease are found in nations outside of central and west Africa.

In May 2022, cases of monkeypox were reported in several non-endemic nations. Over ten nations in non-endemic regions have reported cases as of May 19, 2022. Investigations are ongoing in additional cases.

Related article: Monkeypox Warning: CDC Raises Alert Level as Cases Spike to Over 1,000 Affecting 29 Countries Worldwide
An enormous alligator snapping turtle, estimated to weigh 200 pounds, was reeled in by a fisherman on a fishing trip to Lake Cherokee in East Texas.

The fisherman who caught the behemoth turtle, Justin Broomhall, initially had no idea that it was a protected species in Texas, so he later released it back into the lake.

The alligator snapping turtle is regarded as a threatened species in Texas, according to Kirk Clendening, a game warden for Rusk County in Texas. The turtle cannot be taken or owned because it is a protected species.

Two wardens from Rusk County came out to talk to them about their catch, but they were unable to determine the turtle's weight because they lacked a scale at the time, according to a Facebook post by a family friend named Kristina Ritter.

Alligator Snapping Turtles

In the southeast of the United States, freshwater lakes and rivers are home to alligator snapping turtles. Males of the turtle species have larger body sizes than females. The turtle species typically weigh around 155 to 175 pounds but can grow to as heavy as 220 pounds. A human finger could easily be severed from their powerful jaws' 1000 lb. bite force.

The Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that there are currently 360,000 of them spread across 12 states; however, without protection, that number could drop to just 5% of that in 30 to 50 years.

Alligator snapping turtle populations are currently in decline, primarily as a result of habitat degradation and overharvesting for sport and food. In every state where they are found, they are a protected species, but scientists have pushed for the turtles to be formally listed as threatened.

The nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity triumphed in a court case against the United States in 2016. Fish and Wildlife Service to decide by 2020 whether to list the alligator snapping turtle as an endangered species under the ESA.

Read also: Predicting Disaster? Sea Turtle Swam For 47 Days After Sensing Devastating Volcanic Outburst

Protected to Threatened

In late 2021, a proposal to protect the alligator snapping turtle under the Endangered Species Act as a threatened species was submitted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The said proposal is still being processed.

Alligator snappers are among the most ferocious and wild creatures in the Southeast, but overfishing and habitat destruction have endangered them, according to Elise Bennett, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, who made this statement in November 2021. She went on to say that the Endangered Species Act and its life-saving protections will give these freshwater giants a real chance at survival and recovery.

Humane Acts

Broomhall made sure the turtle was free of all hooks and fishing equipment before letting it swim away after taking a few pictures with the beast. Broomhall has witnessed several individuals drop hooks and rope into the water, where fish and even snakes have perished as a result.

Broomhall insists that the turtle in her photo was the largest one she has ever seen, despite Facebook and TikTok users alleging otherwise, Newsweek reports.

Related article: People Making 'Turtle Soup' Endanger Population of Alligator Snapping Turtle
A terrifying "vampire" predator that prowled the oceans of Earth for over 160 million years most likely did consume its prey.

Vampyronassa rhodanica, a small cephalopod- a mollusk, that is connected to modern vampire squids but is neither a vampire nor a squid, has fossils that have been preserved exceedingly well, and a recent analysis of these fossils has demonstrated the existence of muscular suckers, which the creature probably used to trap and manipulate prey.

Vampire Squid

The animal's modern relatives, Vampyroteuthis infernalis, on the other hand, have suckers that appear to be largely ineffective and use sticky cells on a pair of thread-like tentacles to accumulate drifting flakes of organic material, as per Science Alert.

According to Alison Rowe, French paleontologist of Sorbonne University and the leader of the group of researchers, the distinction in trophic niches between the two taxa is consistent with the idea that these forms divided up in coastal water conditions preceding the looks of adaptive responses in the Oligocene, resulting to their modern deep-sea mode of life.

Cephalopods, which are mushy animals, are relatively rare in the geologic record.

Fossil evidence, especially good ones, is extremely uncommon because soft tissues don't decompose naturally as quickly or effectively as bones do.

Rowe and her associates were able to examine three V. rhodanica fossil evidence from a sedimentary deposit in La Voulte-sur-Rhone, France, that dates back more than 160 million years, proving that rarely doesn't necessarily mean nonexistent.

Soft tissue fossil evidence in particular is remarkably well preserved in this single category with a very fine sedimentary fossil bed.

Even soft tissue that has been preserved in that way is not simple to understand.

Rowe and her group transported the fossil evidence to the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in France for non-invasive 3D imaging to comprehend the anatomy of V. rhodanica.

The scan results among V. rhodanica and V. infernalis, the only remaining member of a Vampyromorph order, showed some intriguing distinctions.

Both have oval bodies surrounded by two tiny fins, and the former is only 10 cm in length or 4 inches long.

Both also have cirri, or small fleshy protrusions, coming from their arms.

However, none of the fossils of V. rhodanica showed evidence of a thread-like food trap; instead, they all showed an elongated set of arms with an unusual configuration of suckers.

According to Rowe, they think that V. rhodanica had enhanced suction and sensory possibility over the modern form due to the morphology and placing of its suckers, as well as cirri in the distinguishable arm crown, which assisted it to modify and retain prey.

With more responsive sensory organs and the capacity to catch prey, V. rhodanica thus possesses the tools necessary to become an active predator in the oceanic seas.

Also Read: A New Species of Extinct Vampire-squid-Like Mollusk Has 10 Functioning Limbs, Making It the First of Its Type

Vampire Squid and its features

The vampire squid does have an intimidating appearance despite its small size, which gave it its unusual name.

Although the term "vampire squid" alone will make you shiver, the animal's scientific term is far more intriguing, as per American oceans.

The name of the squid, Vampyroteuthis infernalis, translates literally to "the vampire squid from hell."

Particularly, the vampire squid's skin is recognizable. The squid is in a dark color, generally ranging from light red to black, like the dark shades frequently associated with vampires.

Vampire squid has a distinctive webbing among their arms in addition to their color. On the base part of the squid, the excess skin forms a shape resembling a vampire cloak.

This cloak serves to both protect the squid and link them to their name. For instance, when attacked, vampire squid often encloses themselves in their arms.

The cloak's dual functions of protection and concealment are applicable here. The vampire squid can merge in with the murky water because the inside of its cloak is black.

The webbing also enlarges the squid once it is turned inside out and reveals harmless-looking but dangerous spines.

Despite their frighteningly vampire-like appearance, squid is not actual predators.

As was already mentioned, the squid can defend itself and flee from predators thanks to these physical features.

Deep-sea fishes, and marine mammals like whales and sea lions, recognized vampire squid predators.

Vampire squid feeds themselves on remnants and dead organisms.

With the help of tiny hairs on their eating filaments, squid can detect their food. Once caught, the detritus is blended with mucus that will help them to create balls of food.

Related Article: Experts Unearthed Vampire Squid Ancestor Suffocated Together Underwater With Its Last Dinner!
Extreme heat continues to put several areas in Central US, the Eastern Seaboard, and Southern US into a standstill.

The National Weather Service (NWS) called the weather phenomenon as a "dangerous heat wave," paving the way for the issuance of excessive heat warnings in a number of locations, including from Georgia, Florida, and to Texas.

Dangerous Heat Wave

For several times, the NWS' Weather Prediction Center (WPC) in College Park, Maryland, has considered the ongoing heat wave or heat dome to pose life-threatening and disruptive risks across the US.

In its short-range forecast on Thursday, June 23, the WPC said heat will continue to persist across the South, while increased temperatures are expected in most parts of the Great Plains and the Upper Midwest in the coming weekend.

The latest US weather forecast is valid from Friday to Sunday, June 24 to June 26.

During this period, the dome of heat could still affect not only the aforementioned regions, but also its adjacent areas, including the drought-stricken Southwest US, Western US, and even Southeast US.

Also Read: Heat Wave Update: NWS Issues Heat Alerts for Over 60 Million Americans from California to Louisiana

US Heat Wave Casualties

This week, the heat dome has caused scorching temperatures across the Central US.

It has spread since then from the Upper Midwest and even to the Deep South, according to The New York Times.

Existing all-time high temperatures on record in some cities, towns, or areas were surpassed as heat reaches up to or at least 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

The intense heat is part of a so-called "second heat wave" which struck the country for the first time in many weeks.

The first two weeks of the unofficial start of the summer season from June, leading to a series of heat-related deaths and illnesses, affecting both animals and humans.

These incidents have been recorded in multiple regions of the US.

Last week, four people in Georgia and another person in Tennessee have been reported dead, which were believed to be related to heat.

In Kansas, thousands of fat cattle died in the southwest part of the state before mid-June, Local authorities blamed it on heat stress caused by the heat dome.

In Illinois, three women died inside a senior housing facility in the city of Chicago amid sweltering heat in early June.

East Coast Heat Alerts

Over 20 million Americans in 16 states were under heat alerts as of Wednesday, June 22.

In the East Coast, the said temperature record holders had either been tied or surpassed by the latest heat wave.

At least a dozen sites were challenged by the extreme weather, according to CNN.

The NWS reported that the city of Atlanta, Georgia, recorded 98 degrees Fahrenheit on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the city of Macon in central Georgia incurred a new heat record of 105 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the NWS, as cited by CNN.

In Tennessee, the city of Nashville recorded 100 degree Fahrenheit temperature for the first time in almost a decade, the US media agency adds.

Related Article: Heat Wave to Hit the Midwest and Southern United States Next Week, Reaching 100 Degrees Fahrenheit
The Southern Plains, the Mississippi Valley, the Great Lakes, and the Deep South are all experiencing scorching temperatures for the third week in a row, which has affected most of the country.

Heatwave in the central US

11 major cities set daily heat records to begin the week, with Minneapolis setting the record on Monday with a high of 101 degrees Fahrenheit.

88 degrees, the 1993 record high, was the previous high for that day.

In the Ohio Valley and the Southeast on Wednesday, 21 heat records were shattered. Both Nashville and Charlotte, North Carolina, broke previous records by reaching 101 degrees.

Meanwhile, Macon, Georgia, hit 105 degrees, breaking the previous record set in 1988 by four degrees.

The National Weather Service has issued heat advisories for nearly 25 million people from Texas to southern Georgia as of Thursday morning.

This week, the Great Lakes area had daytime highs that were over 20 degrees above normal for the time of year, reaching the mid-90s.

This week's top temperature in Chicago was 99 degrees, while on Tuesday, Detroit tied a day record set in 1933 by reaching 96 degrees.

According to Alex Lamers, a meteorologist with the Weather Service, Rockford, Illinois, which is located approximately 80 miles northwest of Chicago, and Toledo, Ohio, both reached 100 degrees on Tuesday, tying records established in 1988.

This week's sweltering temperatures are a result of what meteorologists refer to as a "heat dome," a high-pressure phenomenon that functions as a pot lid.

According to Brian Hurley, a meteorologist with the Weather Service, it was concentrated in those states early in the week: Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio.

Atlanta had a high of 95 on Tuesday, three degrees short of a record set in 1933.

Moist air often keeps temperatures out of the extreme range (even if the humidity seems severe).

On Wednesday, when it hit 98 degrees, the city also matched its previous record for heat from 1964.

On Wednesday, heat advisories were issued for a large portion of Sacramento and the Bay Area in Northern California. Highs were in the high 90s further away from the coast but did not exceed 100 degrees.

Northeastern states have mostly avoided the heat. However, other towns, including Philadelphia and Newark, are expected to warm up into the low 90s this weekend.

Also Read: Heatwave 2022: Scorching Temperatures Recorded in India and Pakistan for April

Wildfires in Alaska break records

In Alaska, a record amount of acres have burnt this month, displacing Native Americans from their homes, deteriorating the air quality, and taxing available firefighting resources.

Officials said this weekend that more than 1 million acres have already burned, becoming last weekend the earliest time in history that the state has achieved that milestone.

More than 300 wildfires have started in recent weeks as a result of the unusually warm and dry weather that has been exacerbated by human-caused climate change.

The East Fork Fire, which has scorched more than 165,000 acres and is now the state's fifth-largest tundra fire on record, is one of the more than 100 that are currently raging.

Because longer growing seasons thicken tundra flora and have led to an increase in wildfire spread in recent years, the blazes are a reflection of some of the changes the state is going through as a result of climate change.

According to the International Arctic Research Center, there were more than 2.5 times as many acres burnt between 2001 and 2020 as there were during the preceding two decades.

The 600-person Indigenous Yup'ik town of Saint Mary's, which is only accessible by boat or bush aircraft and is located close to the mouth of the Yukon River, was under threat from the fire this month.

Officials decided to provide the option of evacuation to vulnerable residents as it grew close to the town.

Related article: Alaska Declares Disaster Emergency Due to Flooding Caused by Ice Jam in Manley Hot Springs
Aging involves the biological process of cell development and cell death throughout the span of an organism's life.

For centuries, aging has become a mystery as an imminent or unavoidable occurrence governed by a so-called "cell clock" or "body clock" measured in years since the time of birth.

Scientific advancement only allowed researchers to understand the mechanisms behind aging but is still in the dark when it comes to fully grasping the fundamental theoretical and real-world processes of the cell aging and cell destruction.

However, a new study by an international team of over 100 scientists could address the knowledge gap regarding the matter.

The study was led by the Pennsylvania State University and Northeastern Illinois University in the United States.

For the first time in history, the scientists conducted the largest study on aging and longevity, with a specific focus on amphibians and reptiles, including crocodiles, salamanders, and turtles.

The novel research hopes to further understand the mystery once and for all.

Addressing the Aging Mystery

Published in the journal Science on Thursday, June 23, a new paper focuses on the diverse aging rates in ectothermic tetrapods, which are animals that rely on environmental heat to control their body temperature.

The said animal group in focus was chosen by the scientific team to gain insights in the evolution of aging and longevity.

The aspect of emphasis on the study will be on longevity since it involves the prolonged lifespan of a particular animal species.

For instance, the study cited the 190-year-old "Jonathan the giant tortoise" in Seychelles, who is considered to be the oldest living land animal on Earth.

In the study, the team focused on turtles, crocodiles, and salamanders, with a specific interest in their "low aging rates" and "extended lifespans."

The research acknowledged the anecdotal evidence that some amphibians and reptiles age slowly and have long lifespans.

However, no individual or group has conducted a large-scale study involving multiple species worldwide, according to David Miller, the study's senior author and professor at Penn State, as cited by Phys.org.

Also Read: Aging to Your 70s and Above Makes a "Catastrophic Change" in Your Body, Says Research

Aging and Longevity

The latest and concrete evidence to the contributors of longevity was found on turtles.

This comes after the team found protective phenotypes found on shells of most turtle species.

The phenotypes were said to be responsible for contributing to slower aging, which the scientists attributed as "negligible aging" or lack of "biological aging."

The discovery also debunked the long-held notions that metabolism between cold-blooded vs. warm-blooded animals have something to do with aging.

Miller emphasized that there is no evidence that having a lower metabolic rate is equivalent to slow aging.

Furthermore, there was also no evidence found that having a higher metabolic rate seen in warm-blooded animals is the reason why they age very fast.

The National Institute on Aging stated that while biology studies and experimentations have centered using laboratory animals, it has already extended to the human populace.

While there is still no universal theory for aging, the institute mentions that aging can be slowed, bringing potential benefits to humans in terms of numerous diseases and physical ailments associated with aging cells and cell death.

Related Article: Scientists Reverse Aging and Extend Lifespan of Mice in a New Study
Global water supplies are under tremendous stress as a result of climate change, and experts have found that the Tibetan Plateau is experiencing a severe water imbalance that might fuel further international conflicts.

The Tibetan Plateau and the nearby Himalayas, sometimes known as "The Third Pole," contain the greatest worldwide reservoir of frozen water outside of the North and South Polar Regions.

This area, often referred to as the Asian Water Tower (AWT), serves as a sophisticated water delivery system that supplies vital liquid to several nations, including portions of Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and China.

However, the region cannot sustainably support the continuous expansion of the emerging nations that rely on it owing to the increased melting of snow and upstream glaciers.

Water imbalance conflict in the Tibetan plateau

Lonnie Thompson, distinguished university professor of earth sciences at the Ohio State University and senior research scientist at the Byrd Polar Research Center, said that as the population grows, so does the need for water, as per ScienceDaily.

These issues can, and in the past have, raised the likelihood of international and even intranational conflicts.

The dangerous hydrological situation in the area is well known to Thompson, who has spent over 50 years studying climate change.

Thompson joined the first Western team deployed to study the glaciers in China and Tibet in 1984.

Since then, he and a group of international collaborators have spent years researching climate records collected from ice cores, the fast-melting ice in the region, and its effects.

Thompson is a co-author of the team's most recent work, which was released in the magazine Nature Reviews Earth and Environment.

Their research showed that the AWT's average temperature has risen at a pace of around 0.42 degrees Celsius each decade, which is almost double the rate of global warming, using temperature change data from 1980 to 2018 to track regional warming.

According to Thompson, this has significant effects on glaciers, particularly those in the Himalayas.

They are generally losing more water than we are getting off the plateau, by around 50%.

The northern portions of Tibet frequently have a surplus of water resources due to increased precipitation brought on by increasing westerlies, but the southern river basins and water supplies are shrinking as a result of drought and rising temperatures.

The study suggested employing more thorough water monitoring systems in data-limited regions to address this issue, emphasizing that improved atmospheric and hydrologic models are required to assist forecast what would happen to the area's water supply.

Then, according to Thompson, lawmakers can utilize these findings to create workable regulations for sustainable water management.

These new policies might be utilized to create AWT adaption strategies through cooperation between upstream and downstream nations if politicians choose to heed the advice of the experts.

Also Read: How Previous El Ninos Revealed Crucial Information About Climate Change

Water pollution and its imbalance

The sources that feed streams, lakes, and rivers have an impact on the quality of their water.

Unfortunately, when fertilizer, animal and human waste, plastics, and hazardous industrial chemicals reach these sources, water contamination is produced, as per The Balance.

It harms the ecology, fisheries, tourism, public health, and the economy.

By establishing water-quality regulations to limit consumption, governments attempt to contain the harm.

The biological health of many of our rivers is poor.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimated that water pollution has polluted 46% of U.S. streams, 21% of lakes, 18% of coastal waterways, and 32% of the country's wetlands.

Bacteria and heavy metals like mercury, phosphate, and nitrogen are the most frequent pollutants.

Farm runoff and pollutants inhaled from the air are the main contributors.

Governmental organizations struggle to regulate polluters. This is because the majority of this pollution is "nonpoint" pollution, or runoff from farms, septic tanks, and roads.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, around 80% of the pollution in the ocean originates from land-based sources that enter water systems directly.

Related article: Ocean Predators Become Hungrier Due to Climate Change and Global Warming
Cisco has announced plans to formally exit Russia, winding down its business operations in Russia and Belarus in response to the invasion of Ukraine earlier this year.

The networking company first made a statement on March 3, declaring that it would be halting all business operations in Russia and Belarus "for the foreseeable future." On Thursday the company released another statement, noting that it had continued to "closely monitor" the war in Ukraine and as a result, a decision had been made to "begin an orderly wind-down of our business in Russia and Belarus."

"Cisco remains committed to using all its resources to help our employees, the institutions and people of Ukraine, and our customers and partners during this challenging time," the statement said.

On an earnings call in April, Ciscos CFO Scott Herren told analysts that historically, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine collectively have represented approximately 1% of the companys total revenue.

However, he noted that the decision to stop business operations in both Russia and Belarus did have a negative impact on revenue, costing the company "approximately $200 million or two percentage points of growth."

What are other companies doing?

In the days after Russias initial invasion, a long list of Western technology companies suspending operations in Russia began to grow.

SAP and Oracle were two of the first tech organizations to publicly pull out of the country after Ukrainian vice prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov publicly posted letters to appeal to both companies on Twitter.

In early March, Microsoft also announced it would suspend new sales of Microsoft products in Russia, "in compliance with governmental sanctions decisions."

However, at the time, the statement was criticized by Ukrainian vice prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who said that simply suspending sales in Russia did not go far enough and that the company should block access to its products.

This week, Russian news agency TASS reported that attempts to install Windows 10 and Windows 11 in Russia had been blocked. Microsoft has yet to make any comment as to whether this is a technical error or part of the companys plan to further withdraw from Russia.
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Mary Schenk is a reporter covering police, courts and breaking news at The News-Gazette. Her email is mschenk@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@schenk).
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).
In Illinois, Roe v. Wade is still the law, and it will remain the law as long as we have a pro-choice legislature and a pro-choice governor, J.B. Pritzker said Friday.
Human populations have waxed and waned over the millennia, with some cultures exploding and migrating to new areas or new continents, others dropping to such low numbers that their genetic diversity plummeted. In some small populations, inbreeding causes once rare genetic diseases to become common, despite their deleterious effects.

A new analysis of more than 4,000 ancient and contemporary human genomes shows how common such "founder events" were in our history. A founder event is when a small number of ancestral individuals gives rise to a large fraction of the population, often because war, famine or disease drastically reduced the population, but also because of geographic isolation -; on islands, for example -; or cultural practices, as among Ashkenazi Jews or the Amish.

More than half of the 460 groups represented by these individuals had experienced a population bottleneck somewhere in their past that decreased their genetic diversity and likely increased the incidence of recessive hereditary diseases.

The analysis by population geneticists at the University of California, Berkeley, is the first comprehensive look at founder events across a broad swath of human populations over the past 10,000 years or so of human history and pinpoints when these events occurred.

According to the authors, the findings will be useful not only to archeologists and historians tracking the movement and mixing of populations around the world, but also to scientists and doctors studying human genetic variation. The genetic diseases of inbred populations have helped scientists find many disease-causing mutations in the human genome and discover the causes of numerous genetic and inherited diseases.

Genomic data is really powerful because it not only tells us about where we come from, it tells us about our history at various different time scales, and you can look at how closely related different individuals are to each other. But also, it tells us about bits of DNA that are functionally important and can cause diseases. So, they become quite important to study from a biomedical perspective." Priya Moorjani, senior author, assistant professor of molecular and cell biology, UC Berkeley

Many of the populations represented by individuals in the sample were or are much more inbred than ethnic Ashkenazi Jews, who some scientists have estimated once dwindled to a population of less than a couple of thousand individuals about 1,000 years ago. The Onge, a group in the Andaman Islands of the Indian Ocean, underwent a population bottleneck 10 times more extreme than that of Ashkenazi Jews, and today it numbers only about 100 individuals.

The researchers found that many Native American populations and groups from Oceania and South Asia also suffered severe population bottlenecks. Some coincide with known historical events -; for instance, the residents of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) underwent a founder event about 260 years ago, coincident with the migration of Europeans to the island.

Others correlate well with the known movement of peoples into an area and with changing cultural artifacts and practices. For example, Anatolian farmers and Eurasian steppe pastoralists moved into Europe between about 4,000 and 10,000 years ago, and the groups intermingled with existing European hunter-gatherers.

"The first surprise was that over half the groups we surveyed had evidence for founder events," Moorjani said. "So, it's not just Ashkenazi Jews or Finns that have a unique history, but many populations living today have had strong founder events -; in fact, stronger founder events than these two groups, like several contemporary South Asian groups, hunter-gatherers or populations living on islands. And many of these groups would be really important for prioritizing functional studies. We have learned so much about genetic variation from groups like Ashkenazi Jews and Finns that the potential for discovery is really high if we can expand these studies to other worldwide populations."

Moorjani, former UC Berkeley undergraduate Gillian Chu and first author Remi Tournebize, now a postdoctoral fellow at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia in Oeiras, Portugal, published their findings today (June 23) in the journal PLOS Genetics.

Working with incomplete ancient DNA

The analysis was made possible by a genomics analysis program called ASCEND (Allele Sharing Correlation for the Estimation of Non-equilibrium Demography), which was created by Tournebize and Moorjani specifically to analyze partial genome sequences -; in particular, ancient DNA. This DNA is generally sequenced from bones or teeth that are hundreds to thousands of years old and represent not only our Homo sapiens ancestors, but other human groups, like Neanderthals and Denisovans.

Such DNA is typically damaged so that only a portion of the individual's genome can be sequenced. But since human genomes contain about 3 billion base pairs of DNA, even a mere 100,000 base pairs can provide information about that person's heritage, Moorjani said. Many genome analysis programs today work only with nearly complete genome sequences, primarily from contemporaneous peoples.

"While ancient DNA is really powerful, one of the challenges is that it has much lower quality compared to data from living people, because once an individual dies, the DNA starts degrading, and it's very hard to recover very high quality data compared to present-day individuals," Moorjani said. "But the majority of the demographic inference methods are built thinking that you can get large numbers of samples from populations and high-quality data across the genome. Our methods were developed to leverage this low-coverage, highly degraded DNA to really understand our evolutionary history."

ASCEND measures the sharing of DNA between individuals within and across populations. When a population undergoes a founder event, its size dwindles to a few individuals. The offspring of these founder individuals, in turn, share long blocks in their genome that are inherited "identical by descent" from these few ancestors. As time passes, these blocks will become smaller due to crossover events that occur during meiosis, when chromosomes duplicate and mix before segregating to egg and sperm cells. The rate of crossovers is well characterized and provides a kind of molecular clock. The ASCEND program compares how large the shared blocks are within individuals in a population to infer when the individuals might have shared a common ancestor, i.e., when a founder event occurred in the population's history. A large-scale, pair-wise statistical comparison of genomic DNA allows an estimation of when and how intense the bottleneck was.

The genome data came from the Allen Ancient DNA Resource, a database created by David Reich and collaborators at Harvard University, with whom Moorjani earned her Ph.D. The public database currently includes available present-day and ancient genomes from more than 14,000 individuals and more than a million common mutations or variants -; single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs -; within those DNA sequences. At the time Moorjani started her study, the database held fewer ancient and modern genomes. She and Tournebize focused on the genomes of 2,310 present-day individuals from 184 groups, then expanded their study to look at an additional 1,947 individuals representing 164 worldwide ancient populations.

"Applying this method, we uncovered founder events that had not been identified previously, for instance, in populations from ancient Morocco or Siberia," Tournebize said. "As a French guy, I was really surprised to discover a founder event in Basque people, dated around the 1st century BCE and possibly related to Roman colonization of this region. We'll need more genetic data, especially from ancient samples, and collaboration with social scientists to understand the detailed historical events that might be associated with this bottleneck."

To test the ASCEND program in other species, Moorjani and Tournebize turned to dogs. The genome sequences of about 40 modern dog breeds are available, so the researchers ran them through the program to determine how long ago founder events occurred in breeds ranging from African village dogs -; the least inbred -; to breeds like boxers, dobermans and rottweilers, the most inbred. Consistent with the establishment of many dog breeds during Victorian times, they confirmed extreme founder events in most breeds within the last 25 generations, that is, 75 to 125 years.

"Dogs are so interesting that it was exciting to expand the analysis to another species, but it was really sad to see how strong the founder events are," she said. "Most dogs these days have so many more problems than village dogs. Their rates of cancers and congenital diseases are pretty high. And that's largely because of these very severe founder events in their history during breed formation."

Population mixing

In another recent paper, Moorjani and her colleagues described a different genomics analysis program that analyzes a single individual's genome, whether complete or partial, and estimates the amount of admixture of other populations over time. The researchers used this program, called DATES (Distribution of Ancestry Tracts of Evolutionary Signals), to analyze about 1,100 ancient genomes and reconstruct major gene flow events in Europe since about 10,000 BCE.

One surprising finding was that the genomes of Anatolian farmers, who lived in what is today Turkey, show admixture of genes from Iranian Neolithic farmers long before the advent of agriculture in Anatolia. This suggests that farming did not originate in Anatolia, as many archeologists have suggested.

"We had samples of Anatolian hunter-gatherers who don't have Iranian ancestry and samples of Anatolian early farmers who have Iranian ancestry, but we didn't know when this mixture occurred," she said. "In our case, we were able to actually figure out the key time point when this group formed, which predates agriculture in the region. And based on that, we are able to tell that farming must have spread through cultural diffusion, rather than having originated in Anatolia."

Another discovery was the timing for the formation of Bronze Age steppe pastoralists. These groups made a large impact, both genetically and demographically, in Eurasia during the Bronze Age and, according to some studies, are responsible for the spread of Indo-European languages. Archeological studies suggest these groups inhabited regions of the steppe in present day Russia and Ukraine from 3,300 to 2,600 BCE. Using the genetic dating method, the researchers found these groups were genetically formed between 4,400 and 4,000 BCE, predating previous findings by over a half a millennium.

"Our study emphasizes the power of dating population mixtures and formation, rather than just using temporal sampling and tracking the presence or absence of a particular ancestry in ancient samples, which is highly dependent on sampling choice and density," said UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow Manjusha Chintalapati, first author of the paper.

Moorjani plans to use ASCEND and DATES to take a closer look at many ancient populations, in particular those in India, that have strong founder events that suggest the possibility of many unrecognized recessive diseases that could help to reduce disease burden in the group and shed light on the basic functions of human genes.

"In our analysis, we find that 64% of South Asian populations have very strong founder events, so we are trying to do targeted sample collection in these groups to characterize some of the deleterious variants due to the founder events," she said.

DATES, for example, suggests that each isolated population in South Asia has admixtures of local indigenous hunter-gatherers, Near Eastern farmers and Steppe pastoralists or herders, but in different proportions that remained the same for many hundreds of generations. Strikingly, most European populations also derive ancestry from similar three groups, though the groups have continued to freely mix with each other after the initial mixture.

"It's really exciting to do this work at Berkeley, where Allan Wilson's lab came up with the idea of a molecular clock, and to continue on his path to use genomic data for learning about the timing of different evolutionary events," Moorjani said, referring to the late biochemist and pioneer of molecular evolution, who died in 1991.

The two studies were funded by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, a Sloan Research Fellowship and the National Institutes of Health (R35GM142978).
When diagnostic tests for the heart were first created, scientists at the time did not fully consider that no two bodies are the same, especially between the sexes.

According to University of Florida College of Nursing associate professor Jennifer Dungan, many of the current symptom profiles and lab tests for heart disease do not accurately reflect known differences in women's heart disease. This oversight has led to increased gaps in health care equity.

Because of this disparity, women are more likely than men to report heart disease symptoms that appear out of the norm, experience delayed treatment for heart disease and even have undiagnosed heart attacks. For reasons that remain uncertain, women can experience heart disease differently than men. This can lead to inequities for women that need to be addressed." Jennifer Dungan, Associate Professor, University of Florida College of Nursing

Dungan said cardiac researchers believe that some of these differences in symptoms and outcomes may be due to genetic variation between men and women. She has identified a specific gene she believes may be responsible, named RAP1GAP2.

"RAP1GAP2 is a strong candidate for sex-linked effects on women's heart disease outcomes," Dungan said. "Certain DNA markers in this gene are thought to manage the activity of platelets, colorless blood cells that help our blood clot. This also presents a heart attack risk. An overactive gene could cause too many platelets to respond to the clot, which could block the flow of blood and oxygen to the heart muscle and lead to a heart attack."

Since RAP1GAP2 was not linked to poor heart outcomes among men in her team's study, she believes this gene may work differently in women. Her team included faculty from UF's colleges of Medicine, Pharmacy, and Public Health and Health Professions. Their findings were recently published in American Heart Journal Plus.

Even less is known about such differences among races and ethnicities. Black women and some Hispanic women are at an even greater risk of poor heart disease outcomes, due to many factors that Dungan believes may include genetics.

Unfortunately, the traditional ways that racial and ethnic groups are studied tends to produce results that are not relevant, Dungan said.

"The goal is not to find biological differences between groups of people. Our goal instead is to find the gene markers most accurately linked to heart disease for all women," she said. "And to do that, we need to consider genetic variation within women, too."

To discover how the gene may impact cardiac disease risks among women of different backgrounds, Dungan's newest project, supported by a two-year grant from the National Institute on Aging, a division of the National Institutes of Health, aims to find the specific RAP1GAP2 gene markers that most strongly correlate with disease symptoms, heart attacks and death in women from different racial and ethnic groups.

Using health data from 17,000 postmenopausal women, Dungan and her team will use statistical genetics methods to analyze if there is a link between certain DNA markers on RAP1GAP2 and heart disease. Her team will also use genetic ancestry markers rather than arbitrary racial categories to account for natural diversity in our genetic code. According to Dungan, this will assure that her team finds gene markers that reflect all women's heart disease risk, not just for certain groups.

"At the end of the study, if RAP1GAP2 gene markers accurately reflect women's heart symptoms and predict their likelihood of a future heart attack, stroke or death, then those gene markers could help us be more confident in their diagnosis and future prognosis," she said. "Having more accurate biomarkers for women would save lives and improve health equity for all women."
With the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic ongoing, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, in collaboration with the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI), will continue a national study to evaluate the safety of COVID-19 vaccinations during pregnancy, and monitor immune response for mother and baby following vaccinations.

Published research has found that pregnant people are particularly vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 infection and at higher risk of developing a more serious or complicated disease course, including approximately a 70 percent increased risk of death. Infection in pregnancy also increases the risk for preterm delivery and other adverse pregnancy outcomes, including stillbirth.

"Pregnant people are considered a priority population for COVID-19 vaccination. However, only about a third of pregnant persons have chosen vaccination," said Christina Chambers, PhD, MPH, principal investigator on the Vaccines and Medications in Pregnancy Surveillance System (VAMPSS) coordinated by AAAAI, professor in the Department of Pediatrics at UC San Diego School of Medicine and director of the Organization of Teratology Information Specialists (OTIS) MotherToBaby Pregnancy Studies.

"As pregnant persons were not included in the original clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccinations, there is a critical need to do this work to help provide concrete information about the safety and benefits of these vaccines for both mother and baby."

The continuation of study efforts is made possible by a $10 million, four-year grant and involves evaluating the safety of COVID-19 vaccinations among 1,800 participants.

Using the established U.S. MotherToBaby pregnancy cohort study at UC San Diego, researchers will follow-up with 900 individuals who received one or more doses of any COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy and 900 who did not. They will evaluate pregnancy outcomes, including major birth defects, miscarriage, stillbirth, preterm delivery and postpartum growth of infants through one year of age.

In a subset of 180 women in the study, researchers will also collect blood samples after vaccination in different trimesters of pregnancy to measure the cellular immune response to SARS-CoV-2.

The investigators will study the expansion of T lymphocytes that recognize spike and non-spike regions of the virus. The development of T cell memory, critical to determine long-lasting protection from infection, will be also defined together with the measurement of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in both mother and baby after delivery.

The results of this sub-study will provide essential efficacy information that can support COVID-19 vaccine-related public health recommendations in this special population." Alessandra Franco, MD, PhD, co-investigator on the study, immunologist and associate professor in Department of Pediatrics at UC San Diego School of Medicine

"We feel confident that this study will provide important information in support of best clinical practice for obstetric providers and their patients," said Michael Schatz, MD, lead AAAAI study coordinator.

The study will continue enrolling pregnant persons through 2024, with final results expected in 2026.

Individuals interested in participating can contact MotherToBaby Pregnancy Studies at mothertobaby.org/pregnancy-studies or by calling 877-311-8972.
Techniques used in weather forecasting can be repurposed to provide individuals with a personalized assessment of their risk of exposure to COVID-19 or other viruses, according to new research published by Caltech scientists.

The technique has the potential to be more effective and less intrusive than blanket lockdowns for combatting the spread of disease, says Tapio Schneider, the Theodore Y. Wu Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering; senior research scientist at JPL, which Caltech manages for NASA; and the lead author of a study on the new research that was published by PLOS Computational Biology on June 23.

For this pandemic, it may be too late, but this is not going to be the last epidemic that we will face. This is useful for tracking other infectious diseases, too." Tapio Schneider, the Theodore Y. Wu Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering, senior research scientist at JPL

In principle, the idea is simple: Weather forecasting models ingest a lot of data-;for example, measurements of wind speed and direction, temperature, and humidity from local weather stations, in addition to satellite data. They use the data to assess what the current state of the atmosphere is, forecast the weather evolution into the future, and then repeat the cycle by blending the forecast atmospheric state with new data. In the same way, disease risk assessment also harnesses various types of available data to make an assessment about an individual's risk of exposure to or infection with disease, forecasts the spread of disease across a network of human contacts using an epidemiological model, and then repeats the cycle by blending the forecast with new data. Such assessments might use the results of an institution's surveillance testing, data from wearable sensors, self-reported symptoms and close contacts as recorded by smartphones, and municipalities' disease-reporting dashboards.

The research presented in PLOS Computational Biology is proof of concept. However, its end result would be a smart phone app that would provide an individual with a frequently updated numerical assessment (i.e., a percentage) that reflects their likelihood of having been exposed to or infected with a particular infectious disease agent, such as COVID-19.

Such an app would be similar to existing COVID-19 exposure notification apps but more sophisticated and effective in its use of data, Schneider and his colleagues say. Those apps provide a binary exposure assessment ("yes, you have been exposed," or, in the case of no exposure, radio silence); the new app described in the study would provide a more nuanced understanding of continually changing risks of exposure and infection as individuals come close to others and as data about infections is propagated across a continually evolving contact network.

The idea was born in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when colleagues and partners Schneider and Chiara Daraio, the G. Bradford Jones Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Physics and Heritage Medical Research Institute Investigator, abruptly found themselves isolating at home and wondering how to use their scientific and engineering expertise to help the world deal with this new threat.

One pre-pandemic focus of Daraio's research was the development of low-cost body temperature trackers. And that raised the question: Would the widespread use of such trackers allow for better tracking and understanding of COVID-19's spread?

"We were envisioning something like a weather forecasting app, harnessing information from sensors, infection data, and proximity tracking, which people could use to adjust their behavior to mitigate individual risks," says Daraio, co-author of the PLOS Computational Biology paper.

Schneider is a climate scientist who helms the Climate Modeling Alliance (CliMA), which is leveraging recent advances in the computational and data sciences to develop a wholly new climate model. He reached out to longtime acquaintance Jeffrey Shaman of Columbia University. Shaman's research on how climate change affects the spread of infectious diseases led Shaman to an interest in epidemiology and the adaptation of similar weather-forecasting methods for disease modeling on the community level.

"Over the last decade, the field of infectious-disease modeling, and forecasting in particular, has exploded. Many disease-forecasting approaches leverage ensemble and inference methods commonly used in weather prediction," says Shaman, co-author of the PLOS Computational Biology paper.

The team had two key challenges: adapting weather-prediction methods for this purpose and developing a realistic test bed to gauge how well it works.

"Conceptually it is a very appealing idea, as methods to forecast weather have been so effective in predicting the chaotic atmosphere, a famously challenging task," says Caltech research scientist Oliver Dunbar. "But there is no direct translation. An epidemic-forecasting app has very little data to work with and only on a partial population of users. We fortunately found success by coupling this sparse data with the latest smart-device technologies and a mathematical viral spreading model."

To test it, the team turned to Lucas Bottcher of the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management in Germany. Bottcher built a computer model of an imaginary city-;a downscaled and idealized version of New York City-;with 100,000 "nodes," or fictional people, and then studied how well the adapted weather-forecasting methods predicted the spread of a disease through the population.

The results were encouraging: in the simulations, the model identified up to twice as many potential exposures than would be caught by traditional contact tracing or exposure-notification apps when both use the same data.

"The methods developed in our study are relevant not only in the context of infectious disease management, but they also open up new ways of combining observation data with high-dimensional mechanistic models arising in computational biology," says Bottcher, co-author of the PLOS Computational Biology paper.

Despite these promising results, the implementation of this technology in the real world requires suitable levels of smart-device users, and effective testing campaigns to make the risk-assessment software work for managing and controlling epidemics. If approximately 75 percent of a given population provide relevant information (for example, whether they have tested positive for a disease) and self-isolate when they may have been exposed, the risk-assessment software is accurate enough to manage and control the COVID epidemic through the entire population. And yet, as is evident by COVID-19 vaccination rates, buy-in by such a large fraction of the population is difficult to achieve.

Nevertheless, a promising scenario is deployment by smaller community user bases-;for example, the population of a college campus-;that can readily provide the software with more than enough data to provide accurate risk assessments that will locally reduce the spread of disease.

"The challenge in making this system a reality is managing privacy concerns, for example, about transferring data about close contacts to a central data-processing facility," Schneider says. "That being said, only anonymized information is needed. Location information is already routinely collected for commercial use, and we envision ways to harden the system against exploitation by bad actors."
Jerisha Morton didn't realize she was pregnant until about six weeks into her pregnancy. She soon started feeling waves of intense nausea.

"I cant smell anything. Youre so weak that you have to lay down all the time. It's rough," Morton, 27, said recently as she sat in a Planned Parenthood clinic in Atlanta.

Morton was diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum, or severe nausea during pregnancy. She thought she couldn't handle nine months of being sick, she said, so she chose to have an abortion.

At the clinic, as she picked up the pills for her medication abortion, Morton estimated she was eight weeks into her pregnancy. A Georgia law currently on hold  but likely to take effect soon  outlaws the procedure at about six weeks, with few exceptions.

"It's making people not have a choice. Its taking their choice away before they even find out," Morton said.

Women in Georgia, like those in many other parts of the country, could soon have less access to abortion now that the U.S. Supreme Court has released its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. Like the draft ruling leaked in May, it strikes down the abortion protections laid out in the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case and gives states the authority to regulate the procedure.

Patients and providers will have to figure out how to navigate the new legal landscape. Changes to the laws in Georgia will be felt across the region, because the state has served as a destination for people seeking an abortion.

In 2019, more abortions were performed for out-of-state residents in Georgia than in any other Southern state  and in nearly every other state in the country, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That year, 6,500 abortions performed in Georgia were obtained by people who didn't live there.

Abortion access is already a campaign issue in Georgia. And it's one of many states where the Dobbs decision will set in motion a cascade of legal and legislative action restricting abortion access, said Elizabeth Nash, a policy analyst with the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.

The state's conservative political leadership has made abortion a target. In 2019, Georgia legislators passed a bill that bans most abortions after embryonic or fetal cardiac activity can be detected in the womb, which can be as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. The law also includes so-called "personhood" language, which gives embryos legal status when cardiac activity can be detected. That language could have broad implications, Nash said, and could affect every part of Georgia's legal code about a person's rights.

"We dont know how far states will go, but it's clear that they're not stopping with abortion," said Nash.

A legal challenge has kept the law from taking effect. Late last year, a federal appeals court paused its review of the case while it waited for a ruling in Dobbs.

Some states have established protections for abortion rights. But, according to a Guttmacher analysis, in several states, such as Kentucky, abortion will be outlawed immediately, with few exceptions, as so-called trigger bans take effect. These measures, passed in advance of the Dobbs decision, severely limit access to abortion if Roe no longer applies. In other states, such as Tennessee, such bans will take effect after 30 days.

"A big problem is that patients may see a decision has been issued by the Supreme Court and automatically assume that abortion is banned," said Nash.

Even though people seeking abortions may still have access, she said, they will likely have a hard time understanding what laws are in place. That could limit the number of procedures performed.

The decision could also motivate abortion opponents, Nash said, who plan to seek even further restrictions on the procedure and other kinds of reproductive care.

Abortion will come up in many races for statewide and local office, said Andra Gillespie, an associate professor of political science at Emory University.

Democrats are using the issue to mobilize their base voters, Gillespie said, to try to counteract some of the headwinds they face in the midterm elections, when the party in control of the White House generally experiences losses. Republicans, she said, may have to find new causes to motivate single-issue anti-abortion voters now that Roe has been overturned.

Georgia's shifting politics and demographics raise questions about what voters will want abortion policy to look like.

A majority of Georgia voters support access to abortion, according to a January 2022 poll from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the University of Georgia's School of Public and International Affairs. Roughly two-thirds of respondents said they did not want to see the U.S. Supreme Court overturn the abortion protections laid out in Roe.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams has said she plans to make abortion a leading issue in her campaign. Shortly after the Dobbs draft opinion was leaked, she asked potential donors to give money to reproductive rights groups, instead of her campaign. In a video posted to Twitter on Friday, Abrams said she was "appalled" by the Dobbs ruling. "As Georgias governor, I will work every day to ensure access to affordable and safe health care for all, including access to abortion," she said.

Her opponent, incumbent Republican Brian Kemp, has continued to voice his support for Georgia's current abortion law. In a statement on Twitter, he called Friday's decision in Dobbs "a historic victory for life" and said he looks forward to its impact on the legal proceedings surrounding Georgia's six-week ban. Passing the law was one of Kemp's first legislative priorities after he took office in 2019.

With a ruling in Dobbs, the law could be in place within weeks or months, said Ron Carlson, an emeritus professor at the University of Georgia School of Law. The federal appeals court reviewing the measure could allow the law to take effect or send the case back to a lower court that would likely make the same decision, he said. "As legal time goes, it will be relatively short," he said. "They'll move in a fairly prompt manner."

The Feminist Women's Health Center, a clinic in Atlanta, wants to take advantage of what little time it may have to provide abortions, said executive director Kwajelyn Jackson.

Jackson said she has been in conversation with other clinics across the South in hopes of taking on their patients. "One reality that we are trying to prepare for is how we might be able to realistically and thoughtfully absorb some of the need from neighboring states," Jackson said. Her clinic already serves patients from rural parts of Georgia, Jackson said, as well as those from Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee.

Distance is only one factor that influences where patients decide to seek care, said Lauren Frazier with Planned Parenthood Southeast, which runs clinics in Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi. Price, appointment availability, and social networks also play roles, she said. "For folks who may have family support systems somewhere in New York or California, it will make more sense for them to go where they have the level of support that they need," Frazier said.

Meanwhile, some anti-abortion activists see the decision as a chance to make accessing abortion harder for people in Georgia. "Our work really is just going to start," said Zemmie Fleck, executive director of Georgia Right to Life.

Georgia's abortion law doesn't go far enough, Fleck said, because her group opposes abortion at any point, with no exceptions. She said she would like to see the "personhood" language in the law enshrined in the state constitution, effectively outlawing abortion.

Mike Griffin, a public affairs representative with the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, said his group, an organization of Baptist churches in the state, wants to restrict the distribution of abortion medication and require in-person consultations for people considering abortion.

Doctors, meanwhile, continue to weigh what care they'll be able to give patients.

Dr. Joy Baker, an OB-GYN in LaGrange, Georgia, expressed concerns about the decision limiting the scope of her practice and ultimately cutting off more people from care  especially if doctors start to face legal consequences.

Baker pointed to the dozens of counties in Georgia that don't have OB-GYNs, mirroring a national shortage.

"If they just decide to lock us all up, whos going to take care of the patients?" Baker asked.
I've been pregnant five times. I have one child. A son, Sam, who was born on his due date, weighing 6 pounds and 14 ounces, in 1997.

My four other pregnancies didn't go so well. After Sam, carrying a baby past the first trimester proved impossible. I had one miscarriage early in the first trimester; a second in which the baby's heart stopped beating between the ninth and 10th week; and then two ectopic pregnancies, a condition in which an embryo implants outside the uterus. If not treated, ectopic pregnancies can be deadly.

In one of those four pregnancies, I underwent a D&C (dilation and curettage) - a procedure commonly used to terminate a pregnancy in the first trimester. And in two others I was treated with a drug called methotrexate, sometimes used in medication abortions.

I fear what will happen to women who find themselves in similar circumstances, with Roe v. Wade overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday. Texas already has enacted a law restricting abortion and the use of that drug. In all, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks reproductive health policy, 26 states are likely to ban or severely restrict abortion.

Both ectopic pregnancies sneaked up on me. I was 39 when I stopped using birth control and left the rest to chance.

A few months later, I was spotting for more than a week and shrugged it off to an unusual period.

I also had a sharp pain on my lower left side when I extended my leg to get out of the car, or sometimes when I jogged or turned my hips a certain way.

"Have you taken a pregnancy test?" a friend asked after I described my symptoms.

It was positive. I drove to urgent care where a doctor confirmed my pregnancy with a blood test and performed a transvaginal ultrasound. But there was nothing in my uterus - no sign of a fetus.

The doctor told me I was miscarrying. I asked her if it was possible this might be a "tubal" pregnancy, the term my friend had used when I called her that day. I did not know at the time the medical term was "ectopic."

"No," the doctor said. "We didn't see anything in your fallopian tubes," referring to the thin passageways that deliver the fertilized egg from the ovary to the womb, or uterus.

She sent me home and told me to call my gynecologist for a follow-up.

I did. The nurse said my doctor wouldn't see me until I finished miscarrying. Wait until I stop bleeding, in other words.

Over the next many days, the bleeding got worse, and so did the pain. I took another pregnancy test. It was still positive. I called my doctor's office. The doctor still wouldnt see me - I was still miscarrying.

A few days passed and nothing changed. I searched "ectopic" on the internet.

I decided to drive myself to the emergency room.

A blood test showed I was still pregnant. A doctor ordered another transvaginal ultrasound. It was extremely painful. The technician performing the procedure told me it wasn't supposed to hurt.

"But it does," I told her.

When it was over, the emergency room doctor confirmed what I already knew - there was no baby in my uterus. And the pain on the left side? The technician couldn't get a good look at the left tube or the area around it because there was so much gas in my abdomen.

The doctor sent me home.

It was now two weeks since that first home pregnancy test. I was still pregnant. No baby in my uterus. Still bleeding. Still in pain. I lay in bed that Saturday morning and cried. I asked my husband to call my gynecologist's office. The doctor looked at my chart - at the lab results from the two blood tests I had over a period of two weeks. Most significantly, my human chorionic gonadotropin (pregnancy hormone) levels had increased over time, meaning I wasn't miscarrying. The embryo was growing somewhere outside of the uterus. "Get her to the emergency room," the doctor said. "She has an ectopic pregnancy."

The most common spot for an ectopic pregnancy to occur is in one of the fallopian tubes. As the embryo divides and grows, if the fragile tube ruptures, a woman could bleed to death. It's the most common cause of pregnancy death in the first trimester.

In the emergency room, I was given a shot of methotrexate. It's an old drug, originally prescribed to treat cancer. It targets fast-growing cells and is sometimes used in conjunction with misoprostol for early stage abortions. It's the gold standard for treating many ectopic pregnancies that have not ruptured  yet.

After the shot, I went home and went to bed. I slept the entire day. For the next week, I had my blood drawn and my HCG levels tested every three days. The shot is working if the levels decline by at least 15% between Day Four and Day Seven. In my case, that didn't happen. My HCG levels stayed about the same. The fetus wasn't growing, but the pregnancy hadn't ended either.

My feelings were so complicated and, even now, nearly two decades later, I have trouble articulating them. On one hand, I felt as though I was slowly killing my baby. I knew logically that this was a pregnancy that could never reach full term. And if left untreated, it could have killed me. I was afraid. I felt like a walking time bomb. Every time I stretched out my left leg, I felt a sharp pain. What if some sudden movement caused the tube to rupture? I desperately wanted my HCG number to decline to save myself, and that made me feel incredibly guilty.

I changed doctors by the end of that first week when my gynecologist was still unable to see me. My new doctor told me I needed another shot of methotrexate. Again, I had to have my blood drawn every three days. This time, my HCG levels declined. By early August, about two months after I first discovered I was pregnant, my levels were finally close enough to zero that I was no longer considered pregnant.

More than two years passed. I was 41. I'd given up on having another baby, but I had all the early signs. My breasts were sore, I was tired, and, instead of having a regular period, I was spotting. And I felt that pain on my lower left side. I took a pregnancy test. It was positive. I went to the emergency room. I told the triage nurse I had the same symptoms as before.

Once you've had one ectopic, you're at greater risk of having a second.

The hospital ran blood tests and confirmed I was pregnant. My HCG number was low - it turns out, there is such a thing as being only a little pregnant.

I had a transvaginal ultrasound that again was painful. There was no fetus in my uterus, but this time the technician saw something near my left ovary and fallopian tube. Still, it wasn't definitive.

The ER doctor told me it could be a corpus luteum cyst - a common growth that sometimes appears on a woman's ovary after ovulation.

Perhaps I was simply in the very early stages of pregnancy, the doctor said, and it wasn't ectopic. I could give it a little more time, she suggested, and see what happens. She left the decision up to me.

I found myself alone in the emergency room, crying hysterically. I called my sister.

"I don't know what to do," I told her.

"What does your gut say?" she asked.

I told the doctor I wanted the methotrexate.

On Monday morning, my regular gynecologist called with a more decisive diagnosis. She believed I had a second ectopic pregnancy. As it turns out, one doctor's corpus luteum cyst is another doctor's ectopic pregnancy. This time, I needed only a single shot of methotrexate. My HCG levels continued to decline, and within weeks I was no longer pregnant.

For the next decade, I lived in fear of becoming pregnant. I felt like a baby killer. I asked my doctor to tie my tubes, but she discouraged me, saying it wouldn't be 100% effective against another ectopic pregnancy. My husband wouldn't get a vasectomy, and I had a Mirena IUD inserted - it releases a small amount of hormone and is 99% effective in preventing pregnancy. I kept pregnancy tests under my bathroom sink until I was 53 - I must have taken 50.

A few years ago, I saw a tweet about an Ohio legislator who introduced a bill that would require doctors to implant an ectopic pregnancy inside a woman's uterus or face charges of "abortion murder." Such a procedure is medically impossible. How dare he. It sent me down a rabbit hole where I discovered a world of anti-abortion advocates questioning the need to end an ectopic pregnancy.

Ectopic pregnancies are considered rare. But rare is a relative term. Especially if it happens to you, not once, but twice. Nearly 6 million women got pregnant in 2017. Ectopic pregnancy occurs in as many as 2% of those cases - that's more than 100,000 women. What's more, diagnosing ectopic pregnancies is not straightforward; the science says so, as does my own experience.

Ectopic pregnancies can resolve on their own - or they may not. They may also rupture and lead to death. I dont know what would have happened to me had I not been prescribed methotrexate in both instances. But I'm confident my odds of surviving would have been substantially lower without the protection of Roe v. Wade.

Joanne Faryon is a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and an independent journalist and producer.
A University of Texas at Arlington bioengineer is leading a project that will develop biodegradable nanomaterials that will take pictures and deliver medicine to combat peripheral arterial disease (PAD).

Kytai Nguyen, a UT Arlington bioengineering professor, is the principal investigator in the four-year, $2.1 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant. She's collaborating with Jian Yang, a Penn State University bioengineering professor and former UTA faculty member, and Ralph Mason, a professor of radiology at UT Southwestern.

What's important in this project is that the technology carries fluorescent and ultrasound imaging capabilities, which will provide patients and doctors with more detailed information. It also gives patients more targeted medicine, making it more efficient." Kytai Nguyen, UT Arlington bioengineering professor

PAD, more commonly known as either atherosclerosis or hardening of the arteries, is a condition commonly found in the elderly. It affects more than 200 million people worldwide and is associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality.

The research aims to develop novel biodegradable nanoparticles to deliver therapeutic agents that specifically protect cells under stress conditions, facilitate the formation of blood vessels under hypoxia and allow noninvasive multimodal imaging methods.

One impact of the research is to use these new nanoparticle platforms to deliver any therapeutics locally, treat the disease effectively and monitor the treatment noninvasively by imaging. The overall goal is to reduce complications and improve the quality of life for PAD patients, Nguyen said.

Michael Cho, chair of the UT Arlington Bioengineering Department, said Nguyen's innovative research could greatly help those who live with PAD.

"This cutting-edge technology has a chance to change our protocols on how to deal with atherosclerosis," Cho said. "When you are able to target localized lesions for treatment, that is so much better for the patients and much less invasive than current treatment."

Nguyen, who has been at UT Arlington since 2005, received Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas grants in 2010, 2016, and 2021. She also has received funding through the NIH, National Science Foundation, American Heart Association, and U.S. departments of Education and Defense, among others.

She is a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors, a fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society, a member of the UTA Academy of Distinguished Scholars, a fellow of the American Institute for Medical & Biological Engineering and a fellow of the American Heart Association.
In a recent study posted to the medRxiv* preprint server, researchers characterized the persistence and infectivity of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron among children.

Background

Since the first reports of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), our understanding of SARS-CoV-2 transmission has evolved with the emergence of newer variants. In July 2020, the United States (US) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended a 10-day isolation period for SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals without the need for an associated negative result.

The Florida Department of Health (FDOH) in September 2021 ruled that infected children could return to schools earlier than ten days, provided that they test negative for SARS-CoV-2 and show no symptoms.

In January 2022, the CDC updated the guidelines, reducing the isolation period to five days and permitting infected adults/children to return to workplaces/schools if afebrile; nonetheless, masking was mandatory for five more days. Furthermore, in February 2022, the FDOH permitted the return of infected children after five days of isolation without taking tests or using masks.

About the study

In the present study, researchers characterized the prevalence and infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron among children. Those with a positive SARS-CoV-2 result in a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or rapid antigen test (RAT) were identified from the University of Florida (UF) Health pediatric clinics or referred by school nurses at a local public school.

They enrolled kids who showed symptoms for five days or longer with sampling between December 20, 2021, and February 21, 2022. Parents samples were also collected when multiple children from the same family were enrolled in the study. After enrolment, nasal swab samples were obtained from 31 children (16 years or younger) and eight from three parents.

The team collected two specimens from each participant. One sample was immediately tested with a BinaxNOW RAT, and the other was frozen until subsequent reverse-transcriptase quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR), culture tests, determination of viral load, and genome sequencing.

Those with a positive test result during the first follow-up returned on days 7, 10, or until a negative result was recorded. Different cell lines were used for viral cultures, such as LLC-MK2, Vero E6, A549, and HEK293T cells. They observed cells for a month, and the presence of the virus was verified by an RT-PCR test when cytopathic effects (CPE) became evident.

Findings

Two-thirds of the children were boys, and the median age was seven. Ten had negative RAT results at enrolment that corresponded to their fourth day (or later) of symptom onset or after initial positive result (from UF Health or school referrals). They observed at least one positive RAT for the remaining children; subsequently, 14 tested negative.

Assuming that all children would be SARS-CoV-2-positive before their last positive result, the authors calculated that more than a third of them would be SARS-CoV-2-positive on day 5, and 48% would still test positive on RAT by day 7. Next, the team estimated the duration of children being positive over time by fitting a parametric survival model.

The model predicted that children would remain positive for 7.74 mean days, with a 10% drop in the probability of being positive by day 12. SARS-CoV-2 cultures were performed on 23 samples. Virus cultures were positive for 16 samples, and all were RAT-positive. Seven culture-negative samples were also RAT-negative. Moreover, a significant correlation was noted between RAT and culture results.

Forty samples were RAT-positive, and all tested positive in RT-qPCR tests. Of the 25 RAT-negative samples, nine were RT-qPCR-positive; four of these samples were cultured and produced negative results. Sequencing revealed that all positive samples were of Omicron BA.1 variant. The phylogenetic analysis did not find much variability, consistent with the circulation of a single SARS-CoV-2 clade.

Conclusions

The authors reported that nearly half the infected children would have been SARS-CoV-2-positive for a minimum of two days had they returned to schools based on the CDCs January 2022 guidelines. Although masks would have reduced the transmission, masking practice was controversial in Florida, given the FDOHs February 2022 recommendations.

From a public health perspective, limiting SARS-CoV-2 transmission by infected children in schools is essential. Thus, extending the five-day isolation period before returning to school should be considered with the requirement of a negative RAT result.

*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.
A few minutes west of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport sits a brick, one-story building with opaque windows. From the nearby freeways, most drivers wouldn't recognize it as the location of one of the few clinics in the state that provides abortions.

Should they approach its entrance, just off an Interstate 35 on-ramp, they might see anti-abortion placards propped against the pine trees that border the parking lot. Those who arrived on a recent Wednesday confronted declarations that included "Demand to see your ultrasound," "Pregnant? We will help you," and "Abortion kills a human being."

Inside, theyd find Whole Woman's Health of Minnesota, a clinic that opened in late February as uncertainties lingered surrounding the future of Roe v. Wade and abortion rights nationwide. The nonprofit Whole Womans Health Alliance  which also operates clinics in Indiana, Virginia, and Texas  opened the Bloomington location, in part, to make abortion care available to out-of-state residents migrating from places that already significantly restricted access.

It's the kind of resource reallocation that has become commonplace in recent months: increasing available abortion capacity in states that providers and advocates believe will preserve access after the U.S. Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to an abortion on June 24, turning control over abortion access back to states.

In Minnesota, abortion is protected by the state's constitution and is legal up to the point of viability, which is generally thought to begin at about 24 weeks, when the fetus can survive outside the womb. Abortions after the point of fetal viability are allowed only to preserve the life or health of the mother. Minnesota also is one of 16 states where Medicaid covers the procedure beyond limited circumstances allowed by federal law, a policy designed to boost access for low-income women.

Yet the reality of obtaining an abortion in Minnesota is complicated. Minnesota has just eight clinics that provide abortions. Most are in or near the Twin Cities and offer abortions only through the first trimester. One, a Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Paul, provides abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Those who work with Minnesotans who seek abortions say barriers, both legal and practical, forced some to travel to Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, Washington, D.C., and Wisconsin even prior to the Supreme Court's decision.

"It's not a haven," said Shayla Walker, executive director of the Minneapolis-based abortion assistance fund Our Justice. The nonprofit helps patients cover the cost of the care, which can exceed $1,000, and related expenses like lodging. "Just because other people have worse laws doesn't mean our laws are good."

Clinicians and abortion rights advocates say Minnesota patients regularly wait at least two weeks for appointments at state clinics  a delay that could push people past the window when an abortion is an option.

"Even over this year working with abortion funds and clinics here, they're sending people from Minnesota out to other states because there are not enough appointments," particularly for those in the second trimester, said Megan Peterson, executive director of Gender Justice, a nonprofit that advocates for gender equity.

As abortion bans expand, she said, "I don't think states like Minnesota are prepared for that influx."

A capacity problem

Minnesota lawmakers, like some of their counterparts elsewhere, have spent the past five decades installing restrictions on abortions. In the 1970s, the state enacted a law that only physicians can provide abortion services. In the 1980s, lawmakers instituted a parental notification requirement for minors. And in 2003, they mandated that anyone seeking an abortion receive information about risks associated with abortions and their pregnancy, then wait at least 24 hours before the procedure.

The physician restriction is problematic for people who need medication abortions and don't live near a provider, said Walker of Our Justice, which is a plaintiff in an ongoing lawsuit filed against the state in 2019 to challenge such rules.

It forces patients living outside the Twin Cities who may have developed a relationship with a midwife in their community to travel sometimes hours-long distances to see a physician, she said, one who could essentially do the same thing that your midwife could do.

Medication abortion is an option during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy and involves taking two pills. Its use has risen dramatically. According to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights, pills were used in 54% of U.S. abortions in 2020, the first year medication abortion accounted for most of the abortions performed.

Mirroring national trends, most Minnesota abortions occur in the first trimester  91% in 2020, according to the Minnesota Department of Health's most recent report to the state legislature. According to the report, 91% were for Minnesota residents but patients also reported living in Iowa, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, along with other states.

Dr. Julie Amaon, medical director of Just the Pill, a telehealth clinic that provides medication abortions for $350, said one factor limiting access to second-trimester services in the state is that "there's just not enough docs to go around."

Just the Pill began seeing patients in Minnesota in October 2020 and expanded last year into Montana and Wyoming. The organization saw roughly 1,300 patients in 2021; in the first five months of this year, it had already logged 1,000 patients.

Until recently, Amaon was its sole physician. She's able to mail medication abortions to 60 to 70 people a week.

The FDA's decision in late 2021 that allowed patients to receive abortion pills by mail "has opened up a lot of doors for people," she said. Yet "we still need our brick-and-mortar clinics," for patients who need abortion care later in pregnancy.

Even with Roe v. Wade intact, those clinics struggled to meet demand.

Emily Mohrbacher, director of client services for the Midwest Access Coalition, said that each week one to two of its clients travel to a Minnesota clinic for an abortion. Most are from rural parts of the state, which lack facilities. But as abortion restrictions have expanded across the nation's midsection, people are coming from Iowa, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Texas, and Wisconsin, they said. Those states collectively reported 69,295 abortions in 2020, according to health department reports.

North Dakota, South Dakota, and Texas have so-called trigger laws that ban nearly all abortions after the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. In Iowa, the state's Supreme Court on June 17 overturned abortion protections affirmed by a 2018 state court decision, and Wisconsin has an 1849 law criminalizing the procedure in nearly all cases.

The coalition, which coordinates and pays for lodging, food, transportation, and other expenses for people seeking abortion, has seen demand for its services grow across the Midwest. Last year, it helped roughly 60 individuals per month; this year that has grown to 80 to 130 people monthly.

Mohrbacher said any influx of patients to Minnesota will "put a lot of pressure on clinics."

Mounting pressure

Anticipating a surge in demand, abortion providers are hiring.

Emily Bisek, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood North Central States, said it predicts a 10% to 25% increase in abortion in Minnesota. "But we also know that there will be some people who cannot get to Minnesota and who have very limited options for what they do with their pregnancy," she said.

The Planned Parenthood affiliate operates clinics in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. It provided 7,491 abortions in Minnesota in 2020  or more than three-quarters of the state's recorded abortions. In 1980, Minnesota documented more than 19,000 abortions. The big drop is partly due to better and widely available birth control. Nonetheless, resources are being strained as people seeking abortion migrate from states that have reduced or eliminated access.

Since opening the Bloomington clinic, Whole Woman's Health Alliance has seen Minnesota patients and travelers, including from Texas and the Dakotas.

"Just being 10 minutes from the airport and able to, in some cases, get patients in and out that same day where they can fly home in the evening and in time to go to work the next day, it has been huge," said Sean Mehl, the organization's associate director of clinical services who oversees the Minnesota location. That clinic provides abortions up to 18 weeks from a woman's last menstrual period but has plans to increase the window to 24 weeks "in the coming months."

Though the clinic does not yet accept insurance, Mehl said it works with state and national abortion funds to help patients afford the procedure. Its fees are in line with other providers  from $400 for a medication abortion to $1,450 for an in-clinic second-trimester abortion procedure.

Its team of five doctors generally has maintained a one-week wait time for appointments. One challenge is Minnesota's requirement that clinics provide state-mandated information to patients by phone or in person at least 24 hours before an abortion, Mehl said.

"If they miss that phone call and we're not able to connect, that can potentially push their appointments," he said.

Just the Pill is also working to expand access by launching mobile clinics that would provide medication abortion and first-trimester procedures.

But Amaon and other abortion rights supporters worry the increases in capacity won't meet demand.

"We've already seen a crazy increase in the need," Amaon said before the Supreme Court decision. "It's pretty devastating."
The Supreme Court formally overturned the nearly 50-year-old right to abortion. Bolstered by the three justices appointed by former President Donald Trump, the 6-3 vote wiped from the books the two cases that had established and reaffirmed abortion rights; 1973's Roe v. Wade and 1992's Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey.

Panelists for this special podcast to discuss what the justices did and what the immediate ramifications might be are Julie Rovner of KHN, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Sarah Varney of KHN, and Laurie Sobel, associate director for women's health policy at KFF.

Among the takeaways from this episode:

The court decision was quickly followed by a handful of states announcing that abortion bans are going into effect quickly.

Justice Samuel Alito's opinion quoted findings by the Mississippi legislature during its consideration of the abortion bill. But many of the details he quoted are incorrect and don't align with medical science.

Justice Clarence Thomas' concurring opinion suggested that the court could use the same logic in this decision to review earlier court rulings dealing with contraception and same-sex marriage. No other justice endorsed that view, but Thomas' opinion may provide a road map to groups hoping to make changes in those rulings.

President Joe Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland pledged to help women continue to find abortion services if their states deny the right. They said people will be allowed to go to other states for abortion care and they would work to ensure that pills used in medication abortions could still be delivered by mail.

The decision could have an impact beyond abortion, including access to certain types of contraception, in vitro fertilization, and what type of rights a state grants to a fetus and family.

Biden urged abortion rights supporters to use the power of the vote to make changes in their states and elect a Congress that would enact a law to protect abortion. But it's not clear yet whether the issue will galvanize voters in the fall.

Further reading on this subject:

KHN's "Conservatives on Supreme Court, as Expected, End Nationwide Right to Abortion," by Julie Rovner

KHN's "Misinformation Clouds America's Most Popular Emergency Contraception," by Sarah Varney

KFF's "16 States and DC Have State Laws Protecting the Right to Abortion if Roe v. Wade Is Overturned," by Laurie Sobel and Amrutha Ramaswamy

KFF's "The Availability and Use of Medication Abortion"
The original SARS-CoV-2 viral strain that emerged in early 2020 was able to latch on to sugars known as sialic acids, found on the surface of human cells, an ability that later strains did not retain.

This binding was found using a combination of magnetic resonance and extremely precise high-resolution imaging, conducted at the Rosalind Franklin Institute and University of Oxford, and published in the journal Science this week.

This unique ability in the early strain also raises the possibility that this is how the virus first transferred from animals to humans.

Subsequent variants of concern, such as Delta and Omicron, do not have this ability to grab sialic acid and rely on receptors on their crown spikes to attach to proteins called ACE2 on human cells.

An international team led by scientists at the Rosalind Franklin Institute used magnetic resonance and complex imaging techniques to investigate further. Using a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy technique called saturation transfer difference, they developed a new, sophisticated analysis method to address the complex problem. They have called the technique universal saturation transfer analysis (uSTA).

Two of the ongoing mysteries of the coronavirus pandemic are the mechanisms behind viral transmission and the origins of the zoonotic leap. There is evidence that some influenza viruses can grab sialic acid on the surface of human host cells, and this has been seen in Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), which is a coronavirus. Although SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern had not shown this mechanism, our research finds that the viral strain that emerged in early 2020 could use this as a way of getting into human cells." Ben Davis, Study Senior Author and Professor, Rosalind Franklin Institute

The binding mechanism is found on the end of the N-terminal domain, which is a part of the virus that evolves more rapidly. The domain has previously been implicated in sialic acid binding but until the Rosalind Franklin Institute team applied high-resolution precision imaging and analysis this was unproven.

As to why the virus has discarded the sugar binding feature as it has evolved into new variants, Professor Davis hypothesizes that it may be necessary for the initial zoonotic leap into humans from animals but can then be hidden until it is required again  particularly if the feature is broadly detrimental to the virus's mission of replication and infection within humans.

The finding correlates with evidence from the first wave in Italy. The Italian Genomics Consortium saw a correlation between severity of COVID-19 illness and genetics, as patients with a particular gene mutation  one that affects the type of sialic acid on cells - were underrepresented in intensive care units. This suggested the virus was finding it easier to infect some genotypes compared to others.

Professor James Naismith, Director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute says: "With our ultra-high precision imaging and new method of analysis we can see a previously unknown structure at the very end of the SARS-CoV-2 spike. The amazing thing is that our finding correlates with what the Italian researchers noted in the first wave, suggesting that this was a key role in early infection.

"The new technique can be used by others to shed light on other viral structures and answer extremely detailed questions. This work is an example of the unique technologies the Rosalind Franklin Institute was set-up to develop."
In a recent study published in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, researchers investigated long coronavirus disease (COVID) symptoms among severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-infected Danish children below 14 years of age.

Background

Children are at an increased risk of COVID 2019 (COVID-19) and post-COVID-19 (long COVID) syndrome due to the lack of authorized vaccines for children, scare recommendations for pediatric vaccinations, low vaccine uptake, and social distancing difficulties among children. Knowledge of long COVID among children is vital to guide the identification and management of COVID-19 and long COVID by setting up multi-disciplinary long COVID clinics.

About the study

In the present cross-sectional and nationwide LongCOVIDKidsDK study, researchers investigated the long COVID symptomatology and its impact on quality of life and absence from schools and daycare facilities among SARS-CoV-2-infected children aged <14 years in Denmark.

The study comprised a 1:4 ratio of SARS-CoV-2 infected Danish children (cases) with diagnoses confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) between 1 January 2020 and 12 July 2021 (cases) and age- and sex-matched controls. The cases were identified from the Danish COVID-19 database, and the controls were identified from the Danish Civil Registration System.

Proxy reports were obtained by surveys filled out by mothers/fathers/legal guardians of children below 14 years of age. They included the childrens somatic symptoms inventory-24 (CSSI-24) and pediatric quality of life inventory (PedsQL) to obtain data on child well-being and overall health. Additionally, the survey forms included ancillary questions on 23 long COVID symptoms most commonly reported in the long COVID kids' rapid survey conducted in January 2021.

The symptoms included chest pain, stomach ache, fatigue, mood swings, headache, muscular or joint pain, concentration and/or recall difficulties, appetite loss, cough, dizziness, sore throat, rashes, fever, nausea, breathing difficulties, palpitations, and extreme pallor. Other symptoms such as skin discoloration, sensitivity to light, dark circles under the eyes, and chapping of lips were also included.

Quality of life was assessed for dimensions such as emotional, physical, social, emotional, and school or daycare functioning over the previous month. Only participants with a recall period of >2 months were included in the study. Data were analyzed using logistic regression and descriptive statistics. The differences were considered clinically significant if the Hedges g scores were >0.2.

The PubMed database was searched on 4 January 2021 for studies investigating long COVID among children, resulting in one paper including a case description of five children in Sweden. Further, Google Scholar was searched, and one preprint study from Italy, including 75 long COVID children without controls, was found.

Furthermore, the ClinicalTrials.gov website mentioned ongoing studies which reported a high prevalence of long-lasting symptoms. Still, the studies were small, did not include the youngest age groups, and lacked control groups and laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 reports. Few studies reported symptoms to be also highly prevalent among controls. Moreover, most studies used a cutoff of four weeks for long COVID, whereas the World Health Organization (WHO), in October 2021, defined long COVID to be lasting eight weeks.

Results

A total of 10997 responses (28.8%) and 33016 responses (22.4%) were obtained for cases and controls, respectively, between 20 July 2021 and 15 September 2021. The mean age of the cases and controls was ten years and 10.6 years, respectively. Long COVID was present in 31% (n = 427) children aged 0 to 3 years, 26.5% (n=1505) children aged 4 to 11 years, and 325% (n = 1077) of children aged 12 to 14 years.

The most commonly reported symptoms in the 0 to 3 years age group were rashes, mood swings, stomach aches, appetite loss, and cough. In the 4 to 11 years age group, concentration difficulties, recall difficulties, rashes, and mood swings, were most frequent. In the 12 to 14 years age group, mood swings, concentration difficulties, recall difficulties, and fatigue were most frequently reported. With an increase in symptom duration, the number of children with the symptoms reduced.

The odds of >1 symptom lasting for >2 months were greater among cases than controls for children below three years of age [odds ratio (OR) 1.8], for those aged between four and 11 years (OR 1.2) and for those aged between 12 and 14 years (OR 1.2). Significant differences were noted in the CSSI-24 scores between the case group children and the controls; however, the differences were not relevant clinically.

Contrastingly, differences with clinical relevance were noted in the PedsQL scores for the emotional dimension among cases and controls for children four to 11 years of age (scores were 80 and 75 for cases and controls, respectively) and for children aged 12 to 14 years (scores were 90 and 85 for cases and controls, respectively). Likewise, PedsQL scores for the social dimension were greater for cases (median scores were 100 and 95 for cases and controls, respectively) for children aged 12 to 14 years.

Among children aged 13 months to three years, the number of children reported having 16 days of sick leave among cases (28.4%) was higher among cases compared to controls (18.4%). The corresponding proportions of children reporting 16 days of absence from school or daycare were also higher among cases (23.9%) compared to controls (14.1%).

Similar results were observed for children aged four to 11 years (cases vs. controls 7.0% vs. 3.8% for 16 days sick leave; and 6.1% vs. 3.3% for 16 days of school or daycare absence). The corresponding proportions for the 12 to 14 years age group were 9.0% vs 5.2%; and 6.5% vs 5.0%, respectively. The findings indicated that across all ages, cases reported more sick leave and a greater number of absent days for schools or daycare facilities in the previous year compared to controls.

Conclusion

Overall, the study findings showed that long-term symptoms were more prevalent among SARS-CoV-2-positive children compared to controls aged below 14 years, with better quality-of-life scores in relation to social and emotional functioning among cases of older age (four to 11 years and 12 to 14 years). However, the clinical differences on a population level seemed to be small.
Thought Leaders Patricia Maguire Professor of Biochemistry University College Dublin

As part of our SLAS Europe 2022 coverage, we speak to Professor Patricia Maguire from the University College Dublin about their AI_PREMie technology and how it can help to save mothers and babies lives.

Please could you introduce yourself and tell us what inspired your career in artificial intelligence (AI)?

My name is Patricia Maguire, and I am a professor of biochemistry at University College, Dublin (UCD). Four years ago, I was appointed director of the UCD Institute for Discovery, a major university research institute in UCD, and our focus is cultivating interdisciplinary research. In that role, I first became excited by the possibilities of integrating AI into my research.

AI has seen increased attention in recent years, especially concerning its adoption in healthcare settings. Despite this, obstacles still need to be overcome before it is commonplace within research. What do you believe to be some of the biggest challenges surrounding the adoption of AI in clinical settings?

I think there are two major obstacles to adopting AI in healthcare. The first is that when it comes to the actual deployment of that AI in a clinical setting in the real world, there is a significant gap from that lab-based tech development to getting it deployed in the clinic and operationalized there. The second is that once that AI is operationalized, the frontline staff may have difficulty adopting it. Staff are going to be really busy, and their time is valuable. We need to offer them practical solutions that give them reliable results that augments their clinical decision-making.

Image Credit: Jsnow my wolrd/Shutterstock.com

You are currently the director of the ConwaySPHERE research group at University College Dublin. Please could you tell us more about this research group and its missions?

I co-direct the UCD Conway SPHERE Research Group with my hematology colleagues, Professor Fionnuala Ni Ainle and Dr. Barry Kevane. Our mission is to understand and help diagnose inflammatory diseases, and we work together as a group of clinicians, academic staff, and scientists, collaborating both nationally and internationally.

For AI_PREMie it is a truly transdisciplinary team that we have brought together  encompassing clinicians and frontline staff from the three Dublin maternity hospitals. In doing so, we have covered 50% of all births in Ireland. We have brought these hospitals together with a host of scientists from across University College Dublin and data scientists from industry, namely the SAS Institute and Microsoft. The whole AI_PREMie team's mission is to get this prototype test to every woman who needs it worldwide because we believe we will save lives.

You are giving a talk at SLAS Europe 2022 titled 'AI_PREMie: saving lives of mothers and babies using AI.' What will you be discussing in this talk, and what can people expect?

I will discuss our project AI PREMie, which brings together cutting-edge biochemical, clinical, and machine learning expertise. By bringing them together, we have developed a new prototype test for risk stratification in preeclampsia.

AI-PREMie Play

As demonstrated in your latest research, AI_PREMie can accurately help to diagnose preeclampsia, a serious complication affecting one in ten pregnancies. What are the benefits of accurately diagnosing preeclampsia not only for the women and their babies but also for healthcare settings?

Fifty thousand women and 500,000 babies are lost to preeclampsia every year, and an additional 5 million babies are born prematurely - sometimes very prematurely - because of preeclampsia. It is easy to see how devastating preeclampsia is as a disorder: it affects our most vulnerable in society, their whole families, and their whole communities.

If we can diagnose preeclampsia in a much timelier manner, we can deliver efficient, effective healthcare that can have a massive impact on the societal good. Not only will this allow us to prevent premature births, but we can also save lives.

What are some of the benefits of using AI tools such as AI_PREMie in diagnosis compared to current diagnostic methods?

There have been no significant advances in preeclampsia diagnosis. We are still using screening tests that were introduced decades ago. We look at high blood pressure, and we look at protein in the urine when we are screening these women, and sometimes these metrics do not predict the outcome.

There is simply no test available to tell a clinician that a woman has preeclampsia. There is also no test to predict how that preeclampsia will progress. This means there is no test to tell a clinician or a midwife when to deliver that baby. AI PREMie, our prototype test, will hopefully be able to not only diagnose preeclampsia but also predict the future in a sense and tell the clinician the best time to deliver that baby - because every day in utero for that baby counts.

Are you hopeful that with continued innovation within the artificial intelligence space, we will see more clinical practices turning to this technology to help aid healthcare? What would this mean for global health?

The field of AI is moving so fast, and healthcare is trying to keep up with it. I do see a future where our healthcare information will be available to us much like our banking information is: securely, maybe even on our mobile phones, and that way, we can move global health to treat disease to a status where we predict disease and prevent disease.

Image Credit: Chompoo Suriyo/Shutterstock.com

Do you believe that AI_PREMie could also be applied to other clinical diagnoses? What further research would need to be carried out before this could be possible?

The patented biomarkers underlying AI PREMie are derived from the information stored within the platelet of sick, pregnant women, and we have studied that information or that cargo stored within the platelet. We know that this is a marker  a form of a barcode - of the health status of an individual. In our lab, we are currently looking at this cargo in other diseases involving inflammation and vascular dysfunction concerning the platelet. Right now, we have projects ongoing on multiple sclerosis, cancer-associated thrombosis, and also COVID-19 to look to see if we can find new biomarkers in the platelets for these diseases.

Are there any particular areas where you are excited to see AI incorporated within the life sciences sector?

We have shown in our project that incorporating AI into data-driven life sciences projects has the potential to be truly transformative. If you look at what is available now, eye diseases can be detected using neural networks of three-dimensional retinal scans, but also in critical care, there are now sepsis warnings based on AI, which has dramatically reduced the number of deaths from sepsis in these hospitals. The potential is just so exciting.

Image Credit: elenabsl/Shutterstock.com

What's next for you and the ConwaySPHERE research group?

Next year, excitingly, we are planning to take AI PREMie across Ireland - so we want to increase the recruitment and data collection across Ireland and grow the group even more.

Where can readers find more information?

Websites:

Twitter: @maguirepatr @AIPREMie #AI_PREMie

Instagram: AI_PREMie

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/patricia-maguire-UCD

About Professor Patricia Maguire

Patricia Maguire is an interdisciplinary scientist and inventor who is passionate about the intersection of Artificial Intelligence with Biomedical Science. She is Professor of Biochemistry at University College Dublin and Director of the UCD Institute for Discovery. This institute recently launched the UCD AI Healthcare hub (AIHH), with the ambition to transform healthcare at the individual to the systemic level.

Patricia's own research is focused on platelets and extracellular vesicles in several inflammatory diseases including preeclampsia, multiple sclerosis, arterial and venous thrombosis, cancer-associated thrombosis and covid19. She has published widely including the journals Nature Communications, Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences, Proteomics, and Blood.

Through her unique expertise, she has developed a bespoke diagnostics platform PALADIN (PlAteLet bAsed DIagNostics) that combines the power of platelets in blood to sense their environment with advanced omics technologies and Artificial Intelligence to uncover secrets of health and disease.

Patricia has used PALADIN to uncover patented diagnostics that can diagnose preeclampsia in sick pregnant women; the multi award-winning AI_PREMie project. She also has a pipeline of potential new disruptive diagnostics from other projects in her lab. She collaborates with industry across multiple sectors including Bayer AG, Sanofi, Mallinckrodt pharmaceuticals, Microsoft, Google and SAS.

Patricia is an advocate and mentor of women in STEM. In 2018, she won a UCD Values in Action award for her work in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion across UCD and bringing the values of creativity, collegiality, and engagement to life.

She lives in Dublin, Ireland where she is married and is (a swim) Mum to three teenage girls.
(Newser)  Update: The Supreme Court has narrowly ruled in favor of a condemned Georgia inmate who has requested death by firing squad because he has a medical condition that would make lethal injection a long and extremely painful process. In a 5-4 decision, the court ruled that Michael Nance could proceed with a civil rights lawsuit challenging the execution method, Fox reports. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who wrote the dissent, argued that because firing squads aren't currently a legal execution method in Georgia, Nance's lawsuit "implies the invalidity of his lethal injection sentence." Our original story from Jan. 11, 2020 follows:

Michael Wade Nance wants to die like convicts used to. The condemned killer, who's sitting on death row in Georgia, is asking for a firing squad. "Execution by firing squad is both swift and virtually painless," says his federal lawsuit, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Evidence and recent experience strongly suggest that the firing squad is significantly more reliable than lethal injection." What's more, Nance says, his medical conditions could make injection unusually painful. He claims that his scarred and thin-walled veins are hard to locate and could leak during the procedure, per CNN, causing a "prolonged execution that will produce excruciating pain."

He also says his back-pain drug has changed his brain chemistry and could weaken the effect pentobarbital, a sedative in the lethal-injection "cocktail." Gwinnett District Attorney Danny Porter doesn't seem to object: "If he needs a firing squad, then let him have it," he says. "It's certainly a unique request." But Georgia officially stopped using firing squads in 1924, when it switched to the electric chair; a 2001 state Supreme Court ruling then forced the use of lethal injection. And no one's been executed by firing squad in America since 2010 in Utah, per CBS 42. Nance was condemned to death in 2002 for fatally shooting a man after committing a bank robbery. (Read more firing squad stories.)
(Newser)  Update: A tomahawk that once belonged to Chief Standing Bear is back with his tribe. A museum at Harvard University turned over the artifact to members of the Nebraska and Oklahoma Ponca tribes in a ceremony on June 3, the AP reports. The tomahawk had been in Harvard's possession since 1982. "This is a good homecoming and a good step in the many steps we have to do to get back to our identity, to our ways of our people," said Angie Starkel of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska who attended the ceremony. The director of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology said it "directly benefited from collecting practices that we acknowledge today ignored the wishes and values of families and communities." The tribes plan to put the tomahawk on exhibit. Our original story from May 2021 follows:

An Oklahoma lawyer who's a descendant of Chief Standing Bear of the Ponca Tribe has called on a Harvard University museum to return a relic it has on display, arguing that it lacks a moral right to possess it. "Standing Bear's tomahawk in your possession is an item of patrimony," Brett Chapman wrote to the museum in an email, the Guardian reports. "You must understand that you will only benefit by repatriating it." The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology answered with what Chapman considers a brush-off; he tweeted the response and suggestion of dialogue. Chapman has hope because the museum, after being accused of breaking the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, recently apologized for causing pain when it refused to return other Native American objects.

Standing Bear was one of the first Native Americans to be accorded civil rights under US law, after suing, per the Hill. He was arrested in 1879 after walking off the government reservation in Oklahoma, on his way to bury his son. Standing Bear won a milestone case declaring an Indian as a person and gave the tomahawk to one of his pro bono lawyers in gratitude. If there had been no forced removal of the tribes, Chapman said, Standing Bear wouldn't have given his lawyer the tomahawk, which eventually found its way to the museum. "Youre holding something that belonged to this man who did something great," Chapman told the museum, which issued no comment. "And were still here today and we can still have a physical touch with that past." (Read more Native Americans stories.)
(Newser)  If you're looking for a place where you can live your healthiest life, you don't necessarily have to narrow it down to a specific city. US News & World Report has ranked counties in America in this regard, examining almost 3,000 of them across nearly 90 metrics. Those metrics fall under 10 broad categories that affect the health of a community in one way or another: population health, equity, education, economy, housing, food and nutrition, environment, public safety, community vitality, and infrastructure. Los Alamos County in Mexico comes out on top of the list. Here, the full top 10:



Los Alamos County, NM Falls Church city, Va. (operates as independent municipality) Douglas County, Colo. Morgan County, Utah Carver County, Minn. Sioux County, Iowa Ozaukee County, Wis. Hamilton County, Ind. Broomfield County, Colo. Delaware County, Ohio

See other rankings here . (Read more healthy living stories.)
(Newser)  Justice Department officials told the Jan. 6 committee Thursday of President Trump's efforts to enlist them in overthrowing the results of the 2020 presidential election in his last weeks in office, including a plan to install an election denier atop the agency and pressure them to declare the vote corrupt. Trump wanted to make Jeff Clark, an environmental lawyer who had never tried a case before a jury, acting attorney general, the Hill reports. Clark had promised to have the department investigate the election if he was in charge. Richard Donoghue, who was acting deputy attorney general at the time, testified that he told the president that would prompt "hundreds and hundreds of resignations" in the Justice Departmentincluding his.

According to Donoghue's notes of a phone call, he emphasized to Trump that the Justice Department had found no widespread voter fraud, per the Washington Post. "Just say that the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen," Donoghue said Trump told him. "That's an exact quote from the president," Donoghue added. Jeff Rosen, who was acting attorney general, said he talked to Trump every day from Dec. 23 and Jan. 3 except for Christmas Day, with the president expressing "his dissatisfaction" with the department. Among Trump's proposals were seizing voting machines, appointing a special counsel for election fraud, and the department writing to state legislatures to declare the election fraudulent. "The Justice Department declined all of those requests  because we did not think that they were appropriate based on the facts and the law as we understood them," Rosen said.

Republican members of Congress asked for preemptive presidential pardons for their part in the battle against certifying President Biden's election victory, the committee was told Thursday. Former White House aides said Reps. Matt Gaetz, Mo Brooks, Andy Biggs, Louie Gohmert, and Scott Perry made requests. Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger displayed to the hearing a Jan. 11 email written by Brooks seeking general pardons for "every Congressman and Senator who voted to reject the electoral vote submission of Arizona and Pennsylvania." Kinzinger said, "The only reason I know to ask for a pardon is because you think you've committed a crime." (Read more Jan. 6 hearings stories.)
(Newser)  A fast-food dispute between an angry customer and a manager escalated into gunfire, though maybe not the way you'd expect. Police in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, say it was the manager who pulled a gun and opened fire, reports WKRN. Nobody was injured in the incident at a Checkers restaurant. Police say two brothers ordered food about 1pm Wednesday, but one of them began arguing with employees about how long it was taking, per NewsChannel9.

At some point, the dispute moved to the parking lot, where (and police don't really explain this part), an unidentified person started throwing rocks at the two brothers. When manager Sherrika Starnes, 36, went outside and ordered everyone to leave, police say that one of the brothers threw a drink at her and that she retaliated by firing a round from her handgun. Nobody was hit. The brothers called police, and Starnes left the restaurant but later turned herself in to police. She faces charges of aggravated assault, per the Charlotte Observer. (Read more shooting stories.)
(Newser)  Thursday's Jan. 6 committee hearing focused on former President Trump's extraordinary attempts to use the Justice Department to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election. Former officials testified that the pressure was relentless and only the threat of hundreds of resignations prevented Trump from installing Jeffrey Clark, a supporter of his election fraud claims, as acting attorney general. Four takeaways from the hearing:

Lines were erased. Presidential interference in the inner workings of the Justice Department has "long been frowned upon in the American tradition," but testimony Thursday showed that line was erased under Trump, with the then-president calling or meeting with top officials almost every day to pressure them to investigate his claims, NPR reports. "When you damage our fundamental institutions, its not easy to repair them," testified Jeffrey Rosen, who became acting attorney general after Bill Barr's December 2020 resignation. "So I thought this was a really important issue, to try to make sure that the Justice Department was able to stay on the right course."

New details on pardon requests . Thursday's testimony shed light on requests for pardons from Republican members of Congress, CNN reports. In a deposition, Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, said lawmakers including Reps. Andy Biggs, Mo Brooks, Matt Gaetz, Louie Gohmert, and Scott Perry had requested pardons. In email, Brooks sought general pardons for "every congressman and senator who voted to reject the electoral college vote submissions of Arizona and Pennsylvania."

. Thursday's testimony shed light on requests for pardons from Republican members of Congress, CNN reports. In a deposition, Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, said lawmakers including Reps. Andy Biggs, Mo Brooks, Matt Gaetz, Louie Gohmert, and Scott Perry had requested pardons. In email, Brooks sought general pardons for "every congressman and senator who voted to reject the electoral college vote submissions of Arizona and Pennsylvania." Bizarre requests. The requests made of the Justice Department as Trump's desperation to overturn the election result grew "ranged from bizarre to inappropriate," with Trump seeking to install his campaign attorney, Sidney Powell, as special counsel to probe election fraud, the Hill reports. One theory that was put forth, which former deputy acting attorney general Richard Donoghue described as "pure insanity," suggested Italian satellites had been hacked to switch votes from Trump to Biden. Former acting defense secretary Christopher Miller testified that he was also asked to look into the satellite claim. Donoghue said Trump also asked Rosen to "just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the R. Congressmen."

A bridge between Trump legal team and Justice Department. Testimony Thursday suggested there was more of a link than previously known between Trump's legal team and supporters of Trump's election fraud claims inside the DOJ. Committee member Rep. Liz Cheney said emails showed attorney Kenneth Klukowski, who joined the department on Dec. 15, 2020, was simultaneously working with attorney John Eastman, the architect of Trump's legal efforts to overturn the election. "Thats particularly remarkable, given how much this effort within the Justice Department wasnt sanctioned by superiors and how it would amount to government lawyers working with political aides to subvert democracy," writes Aaron Blake at the Washington Post.

(Read more Jan. 6 hearings stories.)
(Newser)  Pope Francis has ordered the online publication of 170 volumes of its so-called Jewish files from the recently opened Pope Pius XII archives, the Vatican announced Thursday, amid renewed debate about the legacy of its World War II-era pope. The documentation contains 2,700 files of requests for Vatican help from Jewish groups and families, many of them baptized Catholics (so not actually practicing Jews anymore). The files were held in the Secretariat of State's archives and contain requests for papal intervention to avoid Nazi deportation, to obtain liberation from concentration camps, or to help find family members, per the AP. The online publication of the files comes amid renewed debate about Pius' legacy following the 2020 opening to scholars of his archives, of which the "Jews" files are but a small part.

The Vatican has long defended Pius against criticism from some Jewish groups that he remained silent in the face of the Holocaust, with the Vatican saying he used quiet diplomacy to save lives. One recent book that cites the newly opened archives, The Pope at War, by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Kertzer, suggests that the people the Vatican was most concerned about saving were Jews who'd converted to Catholicism, the offspring of Catholic-Jewish mixed marriages or otherwise related to Catholics. Kertzer asserts that Pius was loath to intervene on behalf of Jews, or make public denunciations of Nazi atrocities against them, to avoid antagonizing Adolf Hitler or fascist Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

In an article for the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's foreign minister, Paul Gallagher, said the files contained requests for help, but without much information on outcomes. "Each of these requests constituted a case, which, once processed, was destined for storage in a documentary series entitled 'Jews,'" he wrote. "The requests would arrive at the Secretariat of State, where diplomatic channels would try to provide all the help possible, taking into account the complexity of the political situation in the global context," Gallagher wrote. He added that it was hoped that the digital release of the "Jews" files would help scholars with research, but also descendants of those who'd requested Vatican help to "find traces of their loved ones from any part of the world."

(Read more Pope Francis stories.)
(Newser)  Nearly 20 million lives were saved by COVID-19 vaccines during their first year, but even more deaths could have been prevented if international targets for the shots had been reached, researchers reported Thursday. On Dec. 8, 2020, a retired shop clerk in England received the first shot in what would become a global vaccination campaign. Over the next 12 months, more than 4.3 billion people around the world lined up for the vaccines. The effort, though marred by persisting inequities, prevented deaths on an unimaginable scale, said Oliver Watson of Imperial College London, who led the new modeling study published Thursday in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.

"Catastrophic would be the first word that comes to mind," Watson said of the outcome if vaccines hadn't been available to fight the coronavirus. The findings "quantify just how much worse the pandemic could have been if we did not have these vaccines." The researchers used data from 185 countries to estimate that vaccines prevented 4.2 million COVID-19 deaths in India, 1.9 million in the United States, 1 million in Brazil, 631,000 in France, and 507,000 in the United Kingdom. An additional 600,000 deaths would have been prevented if the World Health Organization target of 40% vaccination coverage by the end of 2021 had been met, according to the study.

The main finding19.8 million COVID-19 deaths were preventedis based on estimates of how many more deaths than usual occurred during the time period, the AP reports. Using only reported COVID-19 deaths, the same model yielded 14.4 million deaths averted by vaccines. The London scientists excluded China because of uncertainty around the pandemics effect on deaths there and its huge population.

(Read more COVID-19 stories.)
(Newser)  After weeks of ferocious fighting, Ukrainian forces will retreat from a besieged city in the country's east to avoid encirclement, a regional governor said Friday. The city of Sievierodonetsk, the administrative center of the Luhansk region, has faced relentless Russian bombardment. Ukrainian troops fought the Russians in house-to-house battles before retreating to a huge chemical factory on the city's edge, where they holed up in its sprawling underground structures. In recent days, Russian forces have made gains around Sievierodonetsk and the neighboring city of Lysychansk, on a steep bank across the river, in a bid to encircle Ukrainian forces.

Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said that the Ukrainian troops have been given the order to leave Sievierodonetsk to prevent encirclement, the AP reports. "We will have to pull back our guys," he said. "It makes no sense to stay at the destroyed positions, because the number of casualties in poorly fortified areas will grow every day." Haidai said the Ukrainian forces have "received the order to retreat to new positions and continue fighting there" but didn't give further details. He said the Russians were also advancing toward Lysychansk from Zolote and Toshkivka, adding that Russian reconnaissance units conducted forays on the city edges but were driven out by its defenders.

The governor said a bridge on a highway leading to Lysychansk was badly damaged in a Russian airstrike and became unusable for trucks. The Russian Defense Ministry declared Friday that four Ukrainian battalions and a unit of "foreign mercenaries" totaling about 2,000 soldiers have been "fully blocked" near Hirske and Zolote, south of Lysychansk. Following a botched attempt to capture Kyiv in the early stage of the invasion that started Feb. 24, Russian forces have shifted focus to the Donbas region, where the Ukrainian forces have fought Moscow-backed separatists since 2014. The Russian military now controls about 95% of Luhansk province and about half of neighboring Donetsk province, the two areas that make up the Donbas. (Read more Russia-Ukraine conflict stories.)
(Newser)  A clarification has been issued on a floating Hong Kong restaurant that appeared to have met its demise earlier this week while being towed to Cambodia for refurbishingthough the clarification isn't terribly clear, either. Aberdeen Restaurant Enterprises Limited, owner of the 46-year-old Jumbo Floating Restaurant, now suggests the restaurant isn't totally sunk and beyond salvage, as had been insinuated Monday when it put out its initial statement noting the boat had "capsized." It's now reemphasizing that it used the word "capsized," not "sunk," and noting in a statement that the structure is "still in the waters" in the South China Sea, per CNN. But the news outlet notes that doesn't indicate whether the restaurant is still actually afloat.

An Aberdeen spokesman adds that the initial statement from earlier this week was merely meant to address "the depth of the waters where [the incident] took place"reportedly 3,300 feetthough he wouldn't confirm what state the restaurant is currently in. Social media had lit up with complaints after news of the supposed sinking of a Hong Kong icon started circulating, causing Hong Kong lawmakers to call for a full investigation. Per the Hong Kong Free Press, the tugboat towing the Jumbo had been involved in another incident last year in which the vessel it was towing capsized. Now, "we need to know if the tugboat company [was] involved in any malpractice or human error at sea when they towed away" the Jumbo, one lawmaker tells CNN. (Read more Hong Kong stories.)
(Newser)  If you're a resident of the Japanese city of Amagasaki and find out over the next few months you're the victim of identity theft, you can allegedly blame a worker who had a little too much to drink. CNN reports that the city's government has put out a rather embarrassing statement, in which it reveals that a man who had a USB flash drive on him with the details of every one of Amagasaki's residents ended up losing that drive after tying one on too tight. Per the statement, the 40-something manwho works for a firm that doles out benefit payments to tax-exempt householdshad gone Tuesday to a city administrative hub and accessed the names, addresses, and birthdates for the city's 465,000-plus people, which city officials say he was allowed to do.

He then transferred all of that datawhich also included bank account names and numbers, as well as info on public assistance payments and tax detailsonto his flash drive and left the building, which he apparently wasn't allowed to do. Public broadcaster NHK notes he then capped off a hard day's work with a meal and some drinks at a local restaurant, where "some drinks" turned into "too many drinks," leading him to fall asleep in the street outside the establishment. When the man woke up, his bag with the flash drive inside it had vanished. He filed a lost-property report with police the next day, and when they found out about the missing flash drive, they sent out an alert to the city, the statement notes.

Authorities are now trying to assure the city's population that the flash drive is encrypted and that, so far, there've been no reports of any data leaks. "We will thoroughly ensure security management when handling electronic data," the city's statement notes, per the Japan Times. "We will work to regain our residents' trust by heightening awareness of the importance of protecting personal information." City officials say residents will still receive their benefit payments without any holdups, and that an investigation is ongoing. The Asahi Shimbun notes a hotline has been set up for people worried that their sensitive info may have been breached. (Read more strange stuff stories.)
(Newser)  Police in Long Island say advances in DNA technology helped them crack a case that horrified residents in 1968. Nassau County Police Detective Capt. Stephen Fitzpatrick says the killer of 23-year-old Diane Cusick has been identified as Richard Cottingham, a serial killer already linked to 11 other murders, CBS reports. Cusick, a children's dance teacher, was found dead in her car in the parking lot of the Green Acres Mall in Nassau County. Fitzpatrick says she was "brutally beaten, murdered, and raped in that car." He says investigators believe that after Cusick bought shoes at the mall, Cottingham posed as a security guard and overpowered her after accusing her of shoplifting.

Cottingham, 75, was arraigned on a second-degree murder charge Wednesday and pleaded not guilty via videolink from a hospital bed in New Jersey. "He is a violent predator and no matter how he looks today in a hospital bed he was not always a feeble older man," Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly tells the AP. "He was a young 22-year-old when he committed the murder of Ms. Cusick. He was strong, stronger than these women were, and he was violent." Cottingham, known as the "Torso Killer" because he dismembered some of his victims, has been behind bars since 1980. He claims to have killed up to 100 people across the US.

Cottingham's other known victims were either killed in Bergen County, New Jersey, where he lived with his wife and children, or in Manhattan, where he worked as a computer operator. Donnelly says that now there is evidence the killer was active in Nassau County, authorities are "diligently reviewing" unsolved murders of women between 1967 and 1980 and have submitted DNA from at least five cases for testing, the New York Times reports. Cusick's daughter, 58-year-old Darlene Altman, was three years old when her mother was murdered, reports the Times. "I never thought Id see this day," she said Wednesday. (A New Jersey detective with a hunch spent years getting confessions from Cottingham.)
/

We've Never Had a Day Like That on Guns Before

Both sides in debate score landmark wins, but pro-gun advocates seen as the bigger winners
(Newser)  In the Mississippi abortion case that led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court voted 6-3 to side with the state. But the bigger-picture decision to overturn the 1973 law received the support of only five justices, notes the Wall Street Journal. That's because while Chief Justice John Roberts agreed with his conservative colleagues on the particulars of the Mississippi case, he complained in a separate opinion that they went too far in ditching Roe.

Narrower: "The Court's decision to overrule Roe and Casey is a serious jolt to the legal systemregardless of how you view those cases," Roberts wrote, per Insider. (Casey refers to a 1992 case that affirmed the Roe decision.) "A narrower decision rejecting the misguided viability line would be markedly less unsettling, and nothing more is needed to decide this case."

"The Court's decision to overrule Roe and Casey is a serious jolt to the legal systemregardless of how you view those cases," Roberts wrote, per Insider. (Casey refers to a 1992 case that affirmed the Roe decision.) "A narrower decision rejecting the misguided viability line would be markedly less unsettling, and nothing more is needed to decide this case." Too 'dramatic': "The Court's opinion is thoughtful and thorough, but those virtues cannot compensate for the fact that its dramatic and consequential ruling is unnecessary to decide the case before us," wrote Roberts, per the Washington Post. While he agrees that the court made a mistake in its 1973 ruling, he said today's justices did not need to gut the decision "all the way down to the studs," per Insider.

"The Court's opinion is thoughtful and thorough, but those virtues cannot compensate for the fact that its dramatic and consequential ruling is unnecessary to decide the case before us," wrote Roberts, per the Washington Post. While he agrees that the court made a mistake in its 1973 ruling, he said today's justices did not need to gut the decision "all the way down to the studs," per Insider. Elaborating: Roberts made clear he would have voted to uphold Mississippi's ban on abortion after 15 weeks, but he would have stopped there. "My point is that Roe adopted two distinct rules of constitutional law: one, that a woman has the right to choose to terminate a pregnancy; two, that such right may be overridden by the State's legitimate interests when the fetus is viable outside the womb," he wrote, per the Washington Times. "The latter is obviously distinct from the former. I would abandon that timing rule, but see no need in this case to consider the basic right."

(Read more John Roberts stories.)
78 years to the day: Descendants of woman who saved the lives of three paratroopers on D-Day share familys story
Xi's global governance philosophy helps address challenges, promote shared growth

Xinhua) 18:37, June 24, 2022

The continued spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical conflicts have fueled overlapping crises in today's world. Concerns for the future of humanity and deficits in global governance continue to pile up and demand utmost attention.

Pointing out that humanity is standing at the crossroads of history, Chinese President Xi Jinping calls on the international community to embrace a global governance philosophy that emphasizes extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits.

At the 14th BRICS Summit held on Thursday, Xi offered his fresh insights about what China believes the world should do to tackle global challenges and stimulate common development, calling for building a community with a shared future for mankind and jointly creating a bright future for humanity.

Noting that the BRICS countries are representatives of emerging markets and developing countries, Xi said "we must make the right decision and take responsible actions at this critical juncture of history. What we do will have a significant impact on the world."

VISION OF GLOBAL SECURITY

While meeting with the heads of state of Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa in virtual format, Xi raised his concerns for global security over such issues as the outdated yet still hovering Cold War mentality, power politics as well constantly emerging traditional and non-traditional security threats. And he also shared his perspectives on how to meet those challenges.

"I put forward the Global Security Initiative (GSI), which advocates a vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, follows the philosophy that humanity is an indivisible security community, and aims to create a new path to security that features dialogue over confrontation, partnership over alliance and win-win over zero-sum," Xi said.

The Chinese leader first proposed the GSI at the Boao Forum for Asia earlier this year for the purpose of fostering a new type of security that replaces confrontation, alliance and a zero-sum approach with dialogue, partnership and win-win results.

In the face of rising unilateralism that is endangering world development, peace and stability, Xi said Wednesday at the opening ceremony of the BRICS Business Forum that "we in the international community should reject zero-sum games and jointly oppose hegemonism and power politics."

"We should build a new type of international relations based on mutual respect, fairness, justice and win-win cooperation. We should be clear that we are a community in which all countries share a common stake, and we should see that the light of peace will reach all corners of the world," he added.

"The China-proposed Global Security Initiative is crucial as it comes at a critical time when the world is grappling with multiple crises," said David Monyae, director of the Center for Africa-China Studies at the University of Johannesburg.

The GSI, which emphasizes the need for common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable security, provides the right guiding philosophy to ensure global peace and security, Monyae said.

PURSUING COMMON DEVELOPMENT

Under Xi's guidance, China has been committed to improving global governance and building a world of common prosperity and enduring peace. To address global challenges, the president underlined the importance of development as the key to solving various difficult problems.

"Inclusiveness, shared benefits and win-win outcomes is what we should pursue," Xi said at the BRICS Business Forum on Wednesday, adding "we should promote extensive consultation and joint contribution to deliver shared benefits, enhance global economic governance, and increase the representation and say of emerging markets and developing countries. This will ensure that all countries enjoy equal rights, follow the rules as equals, and share equal opportunities."

To this end, the Global Development Initiative (GDI) proposed by the Chinese president at the opening of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly last year is expected to consolidate consensus and pool strength worldwide to promote sustainable global development.

The GDI aims to "re-energize the implementation of the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and build a global community of development," Xi said Thursday, adding that "China stands ready to work with BRICS partners to add more substance to the GDI and contribute to stronger, greener and healthier global development."

And under Xi's guidance, China has been striving to involve more countries, especially from the Global South, to jointly improve global governance.

"We should advance democracy in international relations and reject dominance by just one or several countries. All countries should jointly shape the future of the world, write international rules, manage global affairs and ensure that development outcomes are shared by all," Xi said in a keynote speech at the United Nations Office at Geneva in 2017.

In that same year, when China hosted the 9th BRICS Summit held in the southeast coastal city of Xiamen, Xi proposed the "BRICS Plus" cooperation approach to broaden the group's "circle of friends" in a collective pursuit of shared development and prosperity for all.

Over the past five years, "BRICS Plus" cooperation has been deepened and expanded, setting an example of South-South cooperation and seeking strength through unity among emerging markets and developing countries.

The approach will further unleash the potential of the BRICS cooperation mechanism, thus pushing ahead with economic development in the world, said Rosalia Varfalovskaya, a leading researcher of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

From setting forth initiatives to promoting the role of emerging markets and developing countries, China has been building platforms for international cooperation by making bigger the "pie" of mutual benefit.

"Only when countries develop together can there be true development; only when countries prosper together can there be true prosperity," Xi said while addressing via video link the opening ceremony of the Second UN Global Sustainable Transport Conference late last year.

The GDI and GSI presented by China are of immense benefit to the international community, said Sudheendra Kulkarni, former chairman of the Mumbai-based think-tank Observer Research Foundation.

"These initiatives are noble ones because they are in the interest of the whole mankind" and look for "the contribution of all countries in order to sustain peace and stability in the world and in order to work all together for the common interest," said Algerian Ambassador to China Hassane Rabehi.

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TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

The pass percentage and performance of secondary school students for the academic year 2022-2022 have reached 97.3%, said the Minister of Education, Dr Majid Al Nuami.

The pass percentage of technical and vocational students is 87.9%, and Intermediate students 98.34%.

The minister congratulated the students, their parents and teachers for the high success rate and praised their efforts throughout the academic year. The number of students who scored more than 95% at the secondary-school level is 2,977 (2154 girls and 823 boys).

In Technical and Vocational education, 56 students scored more than 95% in their exams. The current academic year, the minister said, witnessed concerted modernisation efforts to provide education in exceptional health conditions, powered by King Hamad Schools of the Future Project and Digital Empowerment Project.

Education Ministry portal witnessed more than 134 million visits by students, parents and teachers since the beginning of the pandemic in 2019, the minister revealed. 18 new schools He revealed that the next school year will feature the development of school curricula and professional development programmes, as well as the construction of 18 new schools and 24 academic buildings, in addition to the maintenance of a number of schools.

The minister also pointed out that many activities aimed at promoting the values of tolerance, respect and human rights, as well as supporting gifted students will be implemented during the next school year.

He also revealed that private education teachers will be involved in the professional development programmes through the Bahrain Teachers College. Dr. Al-Nuaimi indicated that the Education Ministrys restructuring had made nurseries and kindergartens one stage, followed by subsequent educational stages, noting that work is currently underway with UNESCO and international expert houses to develop care services in this field.

Regarding higher education, the minister indicated that the Board of Trustees of the Higher Education Council is keen on implementing strategies aimed at supporting academic programmes and encouraging investments so that the Kingdom becomes an attractive centre for higher education.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

The husband of a Bahrain resident, who committed suicide while simultaneously killing his 11-year-old son, took the extreme step after suffering huge losses in a dance institute project in Bahrain, according to sources.

It is learnt that he had invested thousands of Bahraini dinars in the project, which did not reap any profits. The relationship with his wife, who is a dance teacher, soured during the past few years, mainly owing to the project failure.

"The couple came to Bahrain about five years ago to set up an institute offering lessons in Indian classical dance forms. Here, they found a business partner with whom they started the project. Over the years, their relationship turned sour and the wife opted to stay away from her husband, putting him in great mental distress," a source told The Daily Tribune.

In a tragic incident on Tuesday, Prakash Devarajan, 48, purposefully rammed his car into a tanker lorry. The couples son Sivadev was also in the car. They were killed instantly.

They belonged to the Thiruvananthapuram district in the South Indian state of Kerala. The man committed suicide after posing pictures of his wife, a Bahrain resident and her friends on social media, claiming to be responsible for the deaths. According to news sources, the car collided with the tanker lorry carrying diesel.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Police have arrested a woman, a Gulf national, and another person for allegedly committing indecent acts in public. The suspects landed in police custody after a video clip of their acts went viral on social media platforms.

The head of the Capital Governorate Prosecution said the Public Prosecution had completed an investigation into the incident and has referred two suspects to the Lower Criminal Court. The Public Prosecution has charged them with committing indecent acts and misusing social media platforms for exploitation.

Capital Governorate prosecution head said they opened an investigation soon after receiving a report on the clip. The woman confessed during interrogation that she herself published the video clip. Police said they also took into custody the person who sold the clothes the accused was wearing in the video. The accused is now in pretrial detention pending further investigation.
A Japanese high court on Thursday rejected an appeal by a former brokerage manager alleging on-the-job harassment and unlawful dismissal after he took parental leave while working at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley.

The case of Glen Wood, a Canadian who has lived in Japan for more than three decades, has come to symbolize concerns over paternity harassment, or patahara. Wood's is a rare case, for Japan, of a father seeking to take parental leave. Maternity harassment is more common.

Wood began his fight in 2017, alleging he was harassed and forced from his job after taking parental leave when his son was born in 2015.

The company rejected Wood's request for parental leave. His son was born prematurely and he rushed to see him though the company told him to just keep working, according to the lawsuit.

When Wood returned to work in 2016, he was stripped of some of his responsibilities and excluded from business meetings, according to court testimony. The company dismissed him in 2018.

In a 21-page ruling, the Tokyo High Court rejected the harassment claims. It defended the companys acts as inevitable. ...continue reading
Japan by Food - Jun 27

Japan is well known for its high-quality fish, but most of us only encounter it in the grocery store or served in a restaurant. Today, Shizuka is going right to the source and visiting the Japanese port town of Katsuura, to see how they bring in high-quality katsuo, aka bonito fish every day.
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BOSTON (AP)  He was the uncle I never met. But in my family's origin story, Emmanuel Manny Yap always loomed large.

The life of great potential cut short. The cautionary tale. But also the reminder of doing what was right, no matter the cost.

A rising leader in the youth-led opposition to President Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines, Manny Yap joined his parents and siblings for lunch at his mothers favorite Chinese restaurant in their hometown of Quezon City.

It was Valentines Day in 1976, a few years into martial law, the moment in the countrys history when Marcos Sr. suspended civil government and effectively ruled as a dictator. After the meal, the 23-year-old grad student went off to meet a friend.

Days later, an anonymous caller delivered the news his family had dreaded: Manny had been picked up by the military and detained.

My uncle was never seen again.

Now his story is flooding back: The son of the man my family has held responsible for his death all those decades ago is set to become president of the Philippines.

___

We were on the good side, the honor side, Janette Marcelo, my mother and Manny's younger sister, says to me by phone recently. Her voice is trembling but resolute. You need to know that.

Even now, nearly a half century later, her memories are vivid when she recalls her parents' anguish as the days after his disappearance rolled into weeks, months, years.

Her mother, desperately trying to pass messages along to the nuns and priests granted entry to the notorious prison camp where they believed he was being held. Her father, eying each arriving and departing bus, hoping he might catch a glimpse of his eldest son.

But Mannys body was never recovered. His heartbroken parents were never able to properly lay him to rest. The only markers of their loss are the monuments scattered across Metro Manila where his name is etched along with the more than 2,300 killed or disappeared during Marcos two-decade reign.

My mother is emphatic as she recounts the story my siblings and I heard countless times growing up.

You had an uncle who believed so much in something that he was willing to die for it, and it was a great loss, she says. Not just for us, but for the country and the world. He could have done so much. I truly believe that.

Next week, Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr. will be inaugurated following his landslide victory in Mays Philippine presidential election, completing a stunning return to power for the Marcos clan, which ruled the country for more than two decades until being ousted by the largely peaceful People Power uprising in 1986.

The moment has been a reckoning for my family, our painful past and the values we forged. But given everything else going on in the world, I've wondered how much it truly resonated among other Filipino Americans.

So I decided to ask.

____

In conversations with Filipinos across the country in recent weeks, I found outlooks ranging from my moms simmering fury to unbridled excitement about the future.

Its not entirely surprising. In the U.S.  where more than 4 million Filipinos represent the third largest Asian group, after Chinese and Indians  Marcos Jr.s victory was much narrower than in the Philippines.

He claimed nearly 47% of the more than 75,000 ballots cast by dual citizens and other Philippine nationals in the U.S., compared to 43% by his main opponent, outgoing Philippine Vice President Maria Leonor Leni Robredo, according to election results.

One of the first people I spoke with was Rochelle Solanoy, a 53-year-old state worker in Juneau, Alaska. She voted for Marcos Jr., because she believes he can bring a return to the golden years when the country was a rising force in Asia and its charismatic first family was the envy of rivals.

Solanoy, who left the Philippines in 1981, said she marched as a youth against the Marcos dictatorship but now feels like she was lied to.

When the revolution ousted Marcos, thats when things went downhill. Thats when the corruption happened, she said by phone. Now, Im learning these things that I didnt know when I was younger. Our minds had been poisoned the whole time.

In California, Susan Tagle, 62, of Sacramento, said the election made her question everything she went through as a young university activist, when she was imprisoned for months by the Marcos regime.

Marcos Sr. died in exile in Hawaii in 1989. His widow, Imelda, whose vast shoe collection became the symbol of the familys excess during the dictatorship, has served for years in the Philippine Congress while her children have served as governors and senators.

We basked in the idea of ousting a dictator, said Tagle, who voted for Robredo. Then we went about our lives. We went back to school, started families, built careers and thought the worst was over.

Constantino Coco Alinsug, who earlier this year became the first Filipino American elected city councilor in New England, says hes willing to give Marcos Jr. a chance, even if he has strong reservations.

The 50-year-old Lynn, Massachusetts resident, who came to the U.S. in his 20s, marched against the Marcos dictatorship as a youth. But he's also an ardent supporter of outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte, whose bloody crackdown on illegal drugs has sparked its own international human rights concerns. Duterte's daughter, Sara, will serve as Marcos Jr.s vice president.

I want to give this guy a chance, but I honestly have no idea what hes about, said Alinsug, who wasnt able to vote because he isnt a dual citizen. He didnt debate. He didnt campaign. He just let his machine and money do the work.

Brendan Flores, chairman and president of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations, was similarly guarded.

Im well aware of what the history books say. Theres lots of baggage, no doubt, said the 37-year-old Sarasota, Florida resident. The key difference this time is that the world is watching. Were not going to sit idly by if things go wrong.

___

I wish I could say my mom is as hopeful.

For her, theres new urgency in the lessons she has tried to impart for all these years. As she sees it, the past has been rewritten to cast the villains of her childhood as todays saviors.

After the elder Marcos was deposed, my grandfather, Pedro Yap, joined the Philippine government commission tasked with recouping the ill-gotten assets of the former first family.

He worked to freeze Swiss bank accounts and seize properties in Los Angeles, New York City and elsewhere in order to repatriate wealth back to his impoverished nation. The family, still reeling from the loss of our uncle and fearing Marcos retribution, begged him to quit.

Grandpa, who also served on the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, eventually did  when he was appointed to the nations Supreme Court and briefly served as chief justice until retirement.

I ask my mom: Does seeing the Marcos family back in power mean grandpa's work and Uncle Manny's death were in vain? She doesn't hesitate.

All I can say is there were good people who tried and there still are good people who will continue to try, she says. But its futile. Its never going to change.

___

Philip Marcelo is a reporter in the AP's Boston bureau. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/philmarcelo
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WASHINGTON (AP)  The Senate easily approved a bipartisan gun violence bill Thursday that seemed unthinkable a month ago, setting up final approval of what will be Congress' most far-reaching response in decades to the nation's run of brutal mass shootings.

After years futile Democratic efforts to curb firearms, 15 Republicans joined with them as both sides decided inaction was untenable after last months rampages in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas. It took weeks of closed-door talks but senators emerged with a compromise embodying incremental but impactful movement to curb bloodshed that has come to regularly shock  yet no longer surprise  the nation.

The $13 billion measure would toughen background checks for the youngest gun buyers, keep firearms from more domestic violence offenders and help states put in place red flag laws that make it easier for authorities to take weapons from people adjudged dangerous. It would also fund local programs for school safety, mental health and violence prevention.

Families in Uvalde and Buffalo, and too many tragic shootings before, have demanded action. And tonight, we acted," President Joe Biden said after passage. He said the House should send it to him quickly, adding, Kids in schools and communities will be safer because of it."

The election-year package fell far short of more robust gun restrictions Democrats have sought and Republicans have thwarted for years, including bans on the assault-type weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines used in the slayings in Buffaloand Uvalde. Yet the accord let leaders of both parties declare victory and demonstrate to voters that they know how to compromise and make government work, while also leaving room for each side to appeal to its core supporters.

This is not a cure-all for the all the ways gun violence affects our nation, said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., whose party has made gun restrictions a goal for decades. But it is a long overdue step in the right direction."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in a nod to the Second Amendment right to bear arms that drives many conservative voters, said the American people want their constitutional rights protected and their kids to be safe in school. He said they want both of those things at once, and that is just what the bill before the Senate will have accomplished.

The day proved bittersweet for advocates of curtailing gun violence. Underscoring the enduring potency of conservative cIout, the right-leaning Supreme Court issued a decision expanding the right of Americans to carry arms in public by striking down a New York law requiring people to prove a need for carrying a weapon before they get a license to do so.

McConnell hailed the justices' decision and Senate passage of the guns bill as complementary victories that will make our country freer and safer at the same time.

The Senate vote on final passage was 65-33. A cluster of House Democrats who watched the vote in the chambers rear included Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Ga., whose 17-year old son was shot to death in 2012 by a man complaining his music was too loud.

In the key roll call hours earlier, senators voted 65-34 to end a filibuster by conservative GOP senators. That was five more than the 60-vote threshold needed. The House planned to vote Friday and approval seemed certain.

On both votes, 15 Senate Republicans joined all 50 Democrats, including their two allied independents, in backing the legislation.

Yet the votes highlighted the risks Republicans face by defying the party's pro-gun voters and firearms groups like the National Rifle Association. Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Todd Young of Indiana were the only two of the 15 up for reelection this fall. Of the rest, four are retiring and eight don't face voters until 2026.

Tellingly, GOP senators voting no included potential 2024 presidential contenders like Ted Cruz of Texas, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Tim Scott of South Carolina. Some of the party's most conservative members voted no as well, including Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah.

Cruz said the legislation would disarm law-abiding citizens rather than take serious measures to protect our children."

John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, hailed senators who supported the measure for "coming together and putting the safety of the American people ahead of gun lobby priorities.

While the Senate measure was a clear breakthrough, the outlook for continued congressional movement on gun curbs is dim.

Less than one-third of the Senate's 50 GOP senators backed the measure and solid Republican opposition is certain in the House. Top House Republicans urged a no vote in an email from the No. 2 GOP leader, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, that called the bill an effort to slowly chip away at law-abiding citizens 2nd Amendment rights.

Both chambers  now narrowly controlled by Democrats  could well be run by the GOP after November's midterm elections.

Senate action came one month after a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers in Uvalde. Just days before that, a white man was accused of being motivated by racism as he killed 10 Black grocery shoppers in Buffalo. Both shooters were 18 years old, a youthful profile shared by many mass shooters, and the close timing of the two slaughters and victims with whom many could identify stirred a demand by voters for action, lawmakers of both parties said.

The talks were led by Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C. Murphy represented Newtown, Connecticut, when an assailant killed 20 students and six staffers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, while Cornyn has been involved in past gun talks following mass shootings in his state and is close to McConnell.

Murphy said the measure would save thousands of lives and was a chance to prove to a weary American public that democracy is not so broken that it is unable to rise to the moment.

I don't believe in doing nothing in the face of what we saw in Uvalde and elsewhere, Cornyn said.

The bill would make the local juvenile records of people age 18 to 20 available during required federal background checks when they attempt to buy guns. Those examinations, currently limited to three days, would last up to a maximum of 10 days to give federal and local officials time to search records.

People convicted of domestic abuse who are current or former romantic partners of the victim would be prohibited from acquiring firearms, closing the so-called boyfriend loophole."

That ban currently only applies to people married to, living with or who have had children with the victim. The compromise bill would extend that to those considered to have had a continuing serious relationship."

There would be money to help states enforce red flag laws and for other states without them that for violence prevention programs. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have such laws.

The measure expands the use of background checks by rewriting the definition of the federally licensed gun dealers required to conduct them. Penalties for gun trafficking are strengthened, billions of dollars are provided for behavioral health clinics and school mental health programs and there's money for school safety initiatives, though not for personnel to use a dangerous weapon."
The following is a timeline of events in the murder of Maryann Measles and subsequent court actions.







Early October, 1997



Maryann Measles, 13, tells her mother, Cindi Measles, she had sex with two local men, 19 and 21.







Oct. 9, 1997



Cindi Measles signs statutory rape charges against one of the men but Maryann won't give police a statement. There is no arrest.







Oct. 19, 1997



Cindi Measles meets her daughter at a New Milford shopping center. While her mother is in the store, Maryann goes missing.







Oct. 21, 1997 through July 15, 1998



The Measles family posts hundreds of missing person flyers through town. New Milford police said they spent 700 hours searching for Maryann, conducted more than 80 interviews and tracked 60 possible leads to locate her.







July 15, 1998



A decomposed body is found wrapped in a blanket and chains near a Lake Lillinonah boat launch in Bridgewater. Dental records identify the body as that of Maryann Measles.







Dec. 1, 1998



Gov. John G. Rowland authorizes a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer.







Oct. 10, 2002



State police report new leads, evidence and sources.







Oct. 15, 2002



Police arrest seven suspects in connection with Maryann Measles' disappearance and murder.







Oct. 16, 2002



Seven suspects are arraigned in Litchfield Superior Court. Police place the eighth suspect under arrest in Texas.







February 2004



A.J. Walter, Jr., the man prosecutors pegged as the crime's ring leader, accepts a plea bargain that gives him life in prison. He is formally sentenced two months later.







March 2004



Maggie Mae Bennett reaches a plea deal. She receives 30 years in prison, can get out in 15 to 20 years.







September 2004



Jeffrey Boyette, Jr., is sentenced to 50 years in prison. He can get out in 25 years.







Dorothy Hallas accepts a plea bargain that calls for 50 years in prison. She is eligible for release after 25 years.







January 2005



Deaneric Dupas accepts a plea bargain and is sentenced to 47 years in prison.







Ronald Rajcok is sentenced to 36 years in prison.







April 2006



Keith Foster's case goes to trial. Foster says he wasn't there, but others convicted in the case testify against him.







April 28, 2006



The jury begins deliberations.







May 3, 2006



One juror cracks under the pressure of deliberations and is dismissed from serving. He is replaced with an alternate the next day.







One of the accused, June Bates Seger, still awaits trial.
/ Consortium

NEW MILFORD  Three businesses in town were fined recently after police said they sold vaping products to underage buyers.

The businesses are Aladdin Smoke Shop at 166 Danbury Road, Royal Tobacco at 243 Danbury Road and Valero at 315 Danbury Road, police said in a statement.
DANBURY  Four people have been arrested after police say they determined a series of smoke and vape shops in the city were illegally selling marijuana-based products.

The departments Special Investigations Division began investigating after police received a growing number of complaints related to these establishments, including calls regarding larceny, assault, illegal drug sales, underage sale of tobacco products and intoxicated people, Detective Lt. Mark Williams said.

Police determined three shops were selling marijuana-based products illegally, Williams said.

On Thursday, along with officials from the Department of Mental Health and Human Services, police executed search-and-seizure warrants at Cloud House Tobacco and Vape Shop, located at 60 Newtown Road.; Cloud House II, located at 101 Mill Plain Road.; and Star Rose, located at 2-4 Mill Ridge Road, Williams said.

As a result of the execution of the search-and-seizure warrants and undercover purchases of vape and THC products, four people were arrested, and several pounds of THC products were seized as evidence. This includes pounds of raw marijuana, marijuana packaged for sale, edible THC products, THC vape products, and several thousand dollars in cash, Williams said. The seized products have an estimated value of tens of thousands of dollars.

Two men, ages 20 and 23, were arrested at Cloud House Tobacco and Vape Shop, Williams said. They were charged with possession of marijuana with intent to sell. One of them was also charged with sale of marijuana and sale of an e-cigarette to an underage person.

A 31-year-old Danbury resident was arrested at Cloud House II, Williams said. He was charged with illegal sale of untaxed cigarettes, sale of marijuana, possession with intent to sell and sell of e-cigarette to an underage person.

A 29-year-old Virginia resident was arrested at Star Rose, Williams said. He was charged with sale of marijuana and possession with intent to sell.

All four men were released on written promises to appear in court at a later date, Williams said.

william.lambert@hearstmediact.com
The $50 million carve-out will build upon the various investments and initiatives undertaken by the Government of Canada to support Black Canadians facing housing needs, as well as an additional $40 million in joint funding by the Government of Canada and Habitat for Humanity Canada to support homeownership for Black families across the country.

Black-led organizations can now apply for the carve-out funding. Please refer to the product highlight sheet for eligibility requirements on this webpage.

Through the National Housing Strategy's National Housing Co-Investment Fund, the Government of Canada is assisting those in greatest need by creating a new generation of housing in Canada. This investment in another step in the federal government's work to alleviate inequities faced by Black Canadians and supporting Black Canadians in housing need.

Quotes:

Everyone deserves a safe and affordable place to call home. We have heard loud and clear from Black Canadian communities that more support was needed in the housing sector, and that is why we are making this unique investment through the NHCF for Black-led projects and projects serving Black Canadians. This is the National Housing Strategy at work." The Honourable Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion

Quick facts:

The $50 million carve-out for Black households within the National Housing Co-Investment Fund (NHCF) seeks to encourage more applications for Black-led projects and projects serving Black households under this program.

carve-out for Black households within the National Housing Co-Investment Fund (NHCF) seeks to encourage more applications for Black-led projects and projects serving Black households under this program. Under the dedicated funding, Black-led organizations may be eligible for contributions to go towards the total project cost. These contributions can help attract funding from other sources and help remove barriers to Black-led housing projects.

The funding will provide contributions of up to 40% for project costs to build affordable rental housing that will benefit Black Canadians. Contribution Only applications can be fast-tracked through a simpler process and result in shorter turnarounds.

The current NHCF application process applies, with reduced turnaround times and simpler process for contribution only files.

About the National Housing Co-Investment Fund (NHCF)

With the $13.2 billion NHCF, the Government plans to:

NHCF, the Government plans to: Create up to 60,000 new homes



Repair up to 240,000 homes



Create or repair at least 4,000 shelter spaces for victims of family violence



Create at least 7,000 new homes for seniors



Create at least 2,400 new homes for people with developmental disabilities

As of March 31, 2022 , over $5.3 billion has been committed to:

, over has been committed to: Create over 21,400 new homes



Repair over 92,000 homes



Create or repair over 2,700 shelter spaces for victims of family violence



Create over 4,900 new homes for seniors



Create over 600 new homes for people with developmental disabilities

To ensure these investments go even further, the Fund will support projects that attract additional funding from other levels of government, not-for-profit and co-operative housing providers, and the private sector.

Through the NHCF, homes will be more accessible for people with disabilities, more affordable for Canadians and will contribute to improved energy efficiency because of prioritized projects that meet and exceed minimum requirements.

We are working with partners to ensure that existing rental housing is not lost to disrepair and that new, permanent, affordable housing is built close to where it is needed, such as public transit, jobs, daycares, schools, and healthcare.

Through a combination of contributions and low-cost loans, this Fund invests in the growth of livable communities and contributes to the resilience of the community housing sector.

The NHCF will provide up to $4.52 billion in contributions and $8.65 billion in low loans over ten years.

in contributions and in low loans over ten years. The Fund will increase support for more shelter spaces for survivors of violence, transitional and supportive housing, and new ways to make homeownership more affordable.

Related links:

As Canada's authority on housing, CMHC contributes to the stability of the housing market and financial system, provides support for Canadians in housing need, and offers unbiased housing research and advice to all levels of Canadian government, consumers and the housing industry. CMHC's aim is that by 2030, everyone in Canada has a home they can afford and that meets their needs. For more information, please visit cmhc.ca or follow us on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook.

authority on housing, CMHC contributes to the stability of the housing market and financial system, provides support for Canadians in housing need, and offers unbiased housing research and advice to all levels of Canadian government, consumers and the housing industry. CMHC's aim is that by 2030, everyone in has a home they can afford and that meets their needs. For more information, please visit cmhc.ca or follow us on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook. To find out more about the National Housing Strategy, please visit www.placetocallhome.ca.

SOURCE Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

For further information: Information on this news release: Arevig Afarian, Office of the Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion, [email protected]; Media Relations, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, [email protected]
TSXV: MKT OTC: MKTDF FRA: DEP

BloomX to Introduce Asia-based Carbon Credit Projects to DeepMarkit's Subsidiary, First Carbon Corp., through its MintCarbon.io Platform

CALGARY, AB, June 22, 2022 /CNW/ - DeepMarkit Corp., ("DeepMarkit" or the "Company") (TSXV: MKT) (OTC: MKTDF) (FRA: DEP), a company focused on transitioning the global carbon offset market to the more accessible digital economy by minting credits into non-fungible tokens ("NFTs"), is pleased to announce that it has signed a letter of intent ("LOI") with Bloom X Alliance Inc. ("BloomX") to form a referral arrangement (the "Arrangement"). Pursuant to the key terms in the LOI, DeepMarkit and BloomX are working to form the Arrangement through which BloomX will introduce and onboard carbon credit projects onto the blockchain through DeepMarkit's proprietary minting platform, MintCarbon.io. Based in Japan, BloomX is a blockchain-based products and services company seeking to reduce cost and improve efficiency of international asset transfers. It looks to participate and invest in blockchain-based products and services as well as other technology-enabled and related growth opportunities.

Through the Arrangement, DeepMarkit is expected to benefit from extensive and diverse exposure to numerous new carbon projects, as well as an increased level of validation in the ASEAN carbon offset community. MintCarbon.io is expected to receive increased transaction volume as a result of any and all users referred by BloomX that mint existing credits into NFTs. Pursuant to the Arrangement, BloomX will receive a fee for referring carbon projects to DeepMarkit, which will be payable by DeepMarkit in cash, or at DeepMarkit's discretion (subject to applicable laws), common shares of DeepMarkit. Under the terms of the LOI, DeepMarkit and BloomX will conduct necessary due diligence and negotiate the terms of a definitive agreement to govern the terms of the Arrangement. The ultimate structure of the Arrangement will be subject to applicable regulations as well as applicable securities, corporate and tax laws. The definitive agreement, and any transaction completed in connection therewith, may be subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval.

Currently, carbon emissions are traded over the counter in Japan. The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Japan Exchange Group plan to create the country's first market for trading carbon emissions, launching a demonstration project in September 2022. The mechanism is planned to become fully operational in the fiscal year starting April 2023. With its new policy, the country aims to improve transparency in prices, encourage more companies to participate in the market and foster decarbonisation in its economy.1 As an example of a leader in the field, Hitachi has committed to achieving carbon neutrality in its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality in its Scope 3 emissions by 2050. In order to achieve this goal, Hitachi introduced an internal carbon price in 2019 and raised the price from the initial 5,000 yen (US$37) per tonne to 14,000 yen (US$104) per tonne in 2021.2

BloomX has an extensive network in the cryptocurrency community as its CEO is a member of the Crypto Valley Association, which is an independent, government-supported and world-leading blockchain organization based in Zug, Switzerland, which is helping it to build and expand blockchain-based services, such as NFTs and security tokens. In addition, an advisor of BloomX, Mr. Ken Mazzio, is well known as a risk and compliance executive in the cryptocurrency industry for obtaining virtual currency licensing and building strong, regulatory-compliant control environments for Japanese and Filipino crypto-exchanges. He was also a member of the V20 (Virtual Asset Service Providers) Summit held in Osaka, Japan in 2019.

Management Commentary

"BloomX is excited to be working with DeepMarkit to bring their robust and proprietary carbon credit minting platform, MintCarbon.io, to Japan. DeepMarkit, aligned with Gold Standard and Verra, has demonstrated its thorough understanding in the intricacies of carbon markets. By providing improved transparency in carbon credit pricing and transactions, we believe MintCarbon.io will make a notable impact on Japan's push toward becoming 'Net Zero by 2050' and encourage more companies to participate in the carbon market, thus accelerating decarbonization in Japan," said Rico Numano, CEO, Toshiro Azumi, Chairman and Ken Mazzio, Advisor, of BloomX Alliance Inc.

"The expected Arrangement with BloomX will work continue to open new doors for DeepMarkit in the vast Asian market. Asia-based Radiance Asset Berhad's support of MintCarbon.io has been critical, now supplemented by BloomX, DeepMarkit's footprint in the Asian markets is expected to expand at a faster pace. We look forward to working with BloomX to grow the MintCarbon.io platform's increasing presence in the Asian markets," said Ranjeet Sundher, CEO of DeepMarkit.

ABOUT DEEPMARKIT

DeepMarkit Corp. is a company focused on democratizing access to the voluntary carbon offset market by minting credits into NFTs. Its common shares are listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the "MKT" stock symbol. DeepMarkit's wholly owned subsidiary, First Carbon Corp. ("FCC"), is a software infrastructure company operating in the tokenization vertical of the blockchain. FCC's primary asset, MintCarbon.io, is a web-based, software-as-a-service platform that facilitates the minting of carbon credits into NFTs (based on the ERC-1155 standard) or other secure tokens (based on the ERC-20 standard). MintCarbon.io is currently undergoing testing and FCC anticipates an official launch of the platform in the near future.

On behalf of:

DEEPMARKIT CORP.

"Ranjeet Sundher"

Ranjeet Sundher, CEO

Web: www.deepmarkit.com

Twitter: @DeepMarkit

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT

Statements in this news release may contain forward-looking information. Any statements that are contained in this news release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements, including statements with respect to DeepMarkit entering into a definitive agreement with BloomX and completing the transactions described hereunder, statements with respect to the benefits expected to be received from DeepMarkit from the Arrangement and statements relating to the Company's business and corporate plans. The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of DeepMarkit, including, without limitation, failure to obtain necessary final regulatory approvals for the Arrangement, if required, or any other transactions described hereunder, failure to enter into a definitive agreement, the decision by BloomX or DeepMarkit to not complete the transactions as a result of due diligence investigations or as a result of regulatory or other legal considerations. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information.

The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this news release and DeepMarkit does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the included forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by securities law.

ENDNOTES:

" Japan plans to create a pilot emission trading scheme in September 2022 ", Enerdata, May 16, 2022 , accessed on June 15 , 2022, https://www.enerdata.net/publications/daily-energy-news/japan-plans-create-pilot-emission-trading-scheme-september-2022.html "Achieving Carbon Neutrality for a Sustainable Society: Hitachi's Environment Strategy and its Work in Mobility", Hitachi, 2021, accessed on June 15 , 2022, https://www.hitachi.com/rev/archive/2021/r2021_06/concept/index.html

SOURCE DeepMarkit Corp.

For further information: Ranjeet Sundher, CEO, Tel: 403-537-0067, Email: [email protected]
Last month, the retailer announced a series of other leadership changes .

"This announcement speaks to our bench strength of talent," said Horacio Barbeito, President and CEO, Walmart Canada. "It's a very exciting time for Walmart Canada and through AnnMarie and Rob's dynamic leadership, I'm confident we will continue to build upon our transformational journey for both our associates and customers."

AnnMarie Mercer is Walmart Canada's new Chief People Officer leading human resources for one of Canada's largest employers with over 100,000 associates supporting more than 400 stores, distribution centres and fleet hubs nationwide and a growing e-commerce business.

AnnMarie joined Walmart Canada in 2015 and has been instrumental in charting the retailer's path forward on strategic initiatives driving the talent agenda, organizational design and future ways of working. Her ability to translate strategy into action and collaborate across the organization. AnnMarie is known as a developer of talent, motivating others to strive to their full potential, capitalizing on their unique capabilities and demonstrating how their actions translate to our 'bigger picture'. AnnMarie's strengths will position Walmart Canada well in the next phase of its transformational journey, ensuring it continues to be associate-centred.

Prior to joining Walmart, AnnMarie held several senior leadership roles in both human resources and communications leading major corporate and global initiatives, including mergers and acquisitions around the world, driving the talent agenda forward.

Rob Nicol is Walmart Canada's Vice President Communications and Corporate Affairs overseeing environmental social governance, government affairs, corporate events, translation, and internal and external communications.

Rob joined Walmart Canada in 2017. In his five years at Walmart, Rob has led the complete transformation of the Corporate Affairs team. Through his leadership, the team has strengthened Walmart Canada's external reputation as a regenerative business, fostered positive and strategic relationships with government and helped position Walmart Canada as a top place to work through a more proactive approach to telling the Walmart Canada story.

Rob has extensive expertise and senior corporate affairs experience spanning sectors and government including, a leading consulting firm, 407 ETR and Canadian Tire Corporation. He has also served as Director of Communications to a Premier of Ontario as well as a Prime Minister of Canada.

About Walmart Canada

Walmart Canada operates a chain of more than 400 stores nationwide serving 1.5 million customers each day. Walmart Canada's flagship online store, Walmart.ca is visited by more than 1.5 million customers daily. With more than 100,000 associates, Walmart Canada is one of Canada's largest employers and is ranked one of the country's top 10 most influential brands. Walmart Canada was recently recognized as a LinkedIn Top Company of 2021 and was also named one of Canada's most popular brands (based on Google searches). Walmart Canada's extensive philanthropy program is focused on supporting Canadian families in need, and since 1994 Walmart Canada has raised and donated more than $500 million to Canadian charities. Additional information can be found at walmartcanada.ca and on Walmart Canada's social media pages  Facebook , Twitter , Instagram and LinkedIn .

SOURCE Walmart Canada Corp.

For further information: Felicia Fefer, Corporate Affairs, Walmart Canada, [email protected]
The additional personnel were deployed for a simulated drill, according to Ranchi Range DIG Anish Gupta, and barricades have been up in at least 25 important locations.

Police forces have been placed on high alert to prevent any potential law and order issues this week in the aftermath of vehement demonstrations by members of the minority community after the Friday namaz.

The district administrations in Uttar Pradesh are in touch with religious authorities and are pleading with the populace to keep the calm. Section 144, which forbids public meetings, has been strictly enforced in various districts, including Lucknow, Kanpur, and Prayagraj.

The district administration has increased security at religious sites in Ranchi, which had violent riots on June 10.

130 companies of the Provincial Armed Constabulary, 10 companies of the Rapid Action Force, and more than 1.25 lakh civil police officers would be deployed, according to a senior official of the UP Police, to uphold peace and order across the state.

The additional personnel were deployed for a simulated drill, according to Ranchi Range DIG Anish Gupta, and barricades have been up in at least 25 important locations.
India is very concerned about the recent events in Afghanistan, particularly the deteriorating humanitarian situation, according to Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador TS Tirumurti.

India is very concerned about the recent events in Afghanistan, particularly the deteriorating humanitarian situation, according to Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador TS Tirumurti.

India conveyed its sincere sympathies to the victims and their families who were affected by the terrible earthquake in Afghanistan at the UN Security Council (UNSC) briefing on the country and pledged to offer aid and support in this time of need.

In his presentation to the Council, Ambassador TS Tirumurti, the Permanent Representative to the UN, said: I want to start by sending my sincere sympathies to the victims, their families, and everyone else affected by the terrible earthquake in Afghanistan. India is prepared to help and support the Afghan people in their time of need and shares their anguish.

Mr. Tirumurti pointed out that India has direct interests in ensuring that peace and stability return to Afghanistan as a neighbouring country and a long-standing ally.

Given our close ties to the Afghan people across history and civilization, he continued, We are profoundly concerned about the current developments in Afghanistan, especially the deteriorating humanitarian situation.

India has sent out multiple supplies of humanitarian aid, including 30,000 MTs of wheat, 13 tonnes of medications, 500,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, and winter clothes, in response to the needs of the Afghan people.

These humanitarian shipments were given to the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations World Food Programme, as well as the Indira Gandhi Childrens Hospital in Kabul (UNWFP).

The Government of India signed a contract with the UNWFP for the distribution of 50,000 MT of wheat within Afghanistan in order to ensure a fair and just distribution of Indias wheat assistance. This wheat has already started its journey to Afghanistan.
Draupadi Murmu, a candidate for the NDA led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), announced her candidacy for president today. All of the major BJP figures, including Prime Minister Modi, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, and Home Minister Amit Shah, were present throughout this. Prime Minister Narendra Modi (PM Modi) acted as the proposer in the nomination of Draupadi Murmu, and Rajnath Singh acted as the seconder.

The whole NDA, including the BJP, appeared united at the nomination of Draupadi Murmu. The Chief Ministers of the BJP-controlled states attended this occasion to support Draupadi Murmus candidature. Draupadi Murmu has received the backing of BJD leader Naveen Patnaik and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy. Following this, Draupadi Murmu is likely to be elected president.

On July 18, the nation will elect its next president. However, the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly will be unable to vote in the national elections for the highest constitutional position. mainly because Jammu and Kashmir was split into two union territories in 2019. The Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly has not been established since that time. Let us inform you that although the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is granted an assembly under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, elections were unable to be held there.

Five Lok Sabha members from the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir will, nevertheless, cast ballots in the presidential election, including Farooq Abdullah, Hasnain Masoodi, Akbar Lone, Jugal Kishore Sharma, and Jitendra Singh.
SC rejected the plea by Zakia Jafri, the wife of Ehsan Jafri, one of the 68 people slain in what became known as the Gulbarg Society massacre.

The Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the wife of a Congress MP killed in the riots plea against Prime Minister Narendra Modis exoneration in a case involving the 2002 Gujarat riots is devoid of merits.

The highest court rejected the plea brought by Zakia Jafri, the wife of Ehsan Jafri, one of the 68 people slain in what became known as the Gulbarg Society massacre, upholding the clearance given to the then chief minister of the state by a Special Investigation Team.

The incident was among the bloodiest of the riots that broke out after 59 people were killed when a train transporting pilgrims was burned in Godhra a day earlier.

Hearing Jafris appeal against the Gujarat High Court order upholding the Ahmedabad Metropolitan Magistrate Courts choice to accept the SITs closure report, which gave the then-chief minister of Gujarat and 63 other individuals a clean bill of health in riot-related cases, was a bench led by Justice A M Khanwilkar and also including Justices Dinesh Maheswhwari and C T Ravikumar.
Draupadi Murmu, the NDAs presidential candidate, will file her nomination papers today in front of prominent BJP leaders. She came to the nations capital on Wednesday from Bhubaneswar. According to sources, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshis home is where her nomination papers are being prepared. Her proposers would include BJP president J P Nadda, senior ministers Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

At Joshis home, senior BJP members and ministers are registering as proposers and seconders. Sasmit Patra of the BJD, whose organisation has supported her nomination, was also there to sign the documents at Joshis residence.

Adesh Gupta, the state president of the Delhi BJP, Manoj Tiwari, a party legislator, and Ramesh Bidhuri, the leader of the opposition in the Delhi Assembly, welcomed Murmu at the airport. The prime minister is likely to receive a call from Murmu, who is staying at the Odisha Bhavan. The BJP has invited its allies and the Biju Janata Dal, which has declared support for Murmu, to the nomination filing in order to make it a great occasion.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi complimented Draupadi Murmu, the NDAs presidential candidate, for having a knowledge of the problems on the ground and for having a amazing vision for Indias development. Following his meeting with Murmu in New Delhi, the Prime Minister made the comments. Following the prime minister, the NDAs presidential candidate met with Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Read Also: Presidential Elections 2022: Draupadi Murmu to file nomination tomorrow

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Eknath Shinde was named as their leader in a letter addressed to the Governor and signed by 34 MLAs that was delivered late on Wednesday.

The Shiv Sena today made a significant backpedal as the rebel faction led by Eknath Shinde gathered more strength and indicated it would only consider leaving the Maharashtra alliance with Sharad Pawars NCP and Congress if the rebels returned in 24 hours.

Here are the main developments in this important story:
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP)  The judge in the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial made a jury's award official Friday with a written order for Heard to pay Depp $10.35 million for damaging his reputation by describing herself as a domestic abuse victim in an op-ed piece she wrote.

Judge Penney Azcarate entered a judgment order into the court record after a brief hearing in Fairfax County Circuit Court. She also ordered Depp to pay Heard $2 million, the jury's award on her counterclaim that Heard was defamed by one of Depp's lawyers.
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WEST HAVEN  More than six months after the most recent municipal election, Superior Court Judge Robin Wilson ruled that the result of West Havens mayoral election will not be overturned.

Mayor Nancy Rossi, who is now more than 25 percent into her third elected term as mayor, was brought to court by opponent Barry Lee Cohen after she triumphed by a narrow margin of 32 votes in November 2021. The mayor, a Democrat, received fewer votes than Republican Cohen on machines on Election Day, but received a larger total when absentee ballots were counted.

Cohen filed a lawsuit challenging the results, alleging there had been multiple violations of election law  including that absentee ballots were handled improperly. In his lawsuit, Cohen called for the citys absentee ballots to be voided and for him to be named the winner of the election or for the city to be ordered to hold a special election to re-do the race.

Wilson ruled in favor of Rossi and city election officials Friday, determining that the results of the election should stand as Cohen had not provided sufficient evidence that any violations would change whether Rossi received more votes.

However, although Wilson ruled that Cohen had failed to prove that the results would be different if the violations had not occurred, she said Cohen met his burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that substantial violations of election statutes occurred.

Indeed, the evidence presented shows a concerning lack of overall compliance with statutory guidelines by election officials in the city of West Haven, Wilson said in her decision.

Wilson said Cohen proved in court that seven absentee ballots that were counted should not have been and that two absentee ballots marked as returned were unaccounted for, but those nine votes were not enough to change the outcome of the election.

Again, the failure of West Haven election officials to strictly comply with statutory requirements when presiding over this election is concerning. But their failures do not warrant disenfranchising the hundreds of West Haven absentee ballot voters who did nothing wrong. Nor do the election officials shortcomings justify giving the plaintiff a second bite at the electoral apple, Wilson wrote.

Cohen, in an emailed statement, said he was pleased that the court agreed that substantial violations of election statutes occurred.

He said the lack of overall compliance by multiple election officials was shocking and disrespectful to all voters who cast ballots appropriately. However, we respectfully disagree with the ruling of the court as regards the number of ballots cast and the final vote count.

Rossi said she was pleased by the judges ruling, although she noted she had not been accused of any violations in the lawsuit.

I dont think anybody did anything maliciously, she said. Rossi said she believes Wilsons ruling underlines that there should be retraining of city election officials before the 2022 election.

West Haven Corporation Counsel Lee Tiernan, who represented five city elections officials named as defendants in Cohens lawsuit, said he was reviewing the decision Friday afternoon.

What I have reviewed, the main focus is disenfranchisement of voters, he said. I think its very difficult if youre going to say to somebody through no fault of their own that they dont have a right to vote. We werent perfect on our side and well try to get closer to perfect for the next election.

brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com
MERIDEN  Police charged a 19-year-old man and a juvenile earlier this week in connection with a March shooting at Lourdes Court that sent one person to the hospital.

Jherquez Slater, 19, was charged with first-degree assault, criminal use of a firearm and carrying a pistol without a permit. His bond was set at $500,000, according to the Meriden Police Department.

The juvenile, whose age was not specified, was charged with carrying a pistol without a permit, unlawful discharge of a firearm, reckless endangerment and weapons in a motor vehicle. The juvenile was taken to the Hartford Detention Center.

While taking the two into custody, police said they seized two handguns.

The charges stem from a shooting at Lourdes Court and Andrews Street at around 9:20 p.m. on March 7. At the time, officers did not find any victims, but did discover multiple vehicles and numerous homes with bullet holes in the area.

Police determined more than 20 shots were fired.

Shortly after, personnel at an area hospital alerted police to a man in his early 20s who had arrived with a gunshot wound in his back. Police learned that the man was shot while walking in the area by someone driving nearby in a vehicle. The man told police that the car contained multiple people, but it wasnt clear if more than one person in the vehicle fired a gun.

The victim was treated for injuries that were not life-threatening.

Police had said they believed the violence may have resulted from an ongoing dispute between certain groups of young males who frequent the Meriden community, Lt. Darrin McKay said previously.

Police continue to investigate the incident. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Pellegrini at 203-630-56297 or at BPellegrini@MeridenCT.gov.
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NEW HAVEN  Scott X. Esdaile has seen it before.

Esdaile, president of the state conference of the NAACP and a member of that groups national board of directors from New Haven, said the treatment of Richard Cox shows that not much has changed in the city over the past few years.

When the George Floyd protests happened, you saw the various protests, Esdaile said Friday. The mayor guaranteed then that things would change. Shame on the mayor. Shame on the New Haven police.

Mayor Justin Elicker in response Friday said what happened to Cox was terrible and unacceptable but said the action doesnt represent the whole of the New Haven Police Department and the high standards we hold ourselves to.

Esdaile disagreed.

If they dont represent New Haven, who do they represent? Who gave them their shields and guns? he said.

Cox, 36, was seriously injured and potentially paralyzed Sunday while in the custody of the New Haven police after being arrested on a weapons complaint. Cox, who has a felony conviction and is barred from possessing a firearm, was found with a pistol in his waistband, and was being transported to a detention facility in the back of a police van.

While driving to the detention center on Union Avenue, the officer driving the vehicle had to make an evasive maneuver to avoid a motor vehicle accident, according to Acting Chief Regina Rush-Kittle.

Video subsequently released by the city shows Cox, who was seated on a bench that lacked seat belts, flew forward and slammed head first into the vans front wall.

Upon arrival at the detention center, officers told Cox to move his arm and leg and roll onto his back, then pulled him from the van and placed him in a wheelchair.

Of New Havens three transport vans, only one was equipped with seat belts. A second had them installed Tuesday. The third is out of service until it can have seat belts installed.

The department has placed five officers on administrative leave in the incident, including Officer Oscar Diaz and Sgt. Betsy Segui, who arrested and transported Cox, and officers Ronald Pressley, Jocelyn Lavandier and Luis Rivera, who were present in the detention area and involved in the handling of Cox, city officials said.

LaToya Boomer, Coxs sister, said her brother remains in the hospital under sedation.

Richard had neck and spine surgery late Sunday, and had another back operation Thursday night, she said. Before sedation he was able to breathe and talk, and could move his eyes and left arm a little.

Doctors have not given the family a prognosis, she said.

Boomer, who was vacationing in Florida at the time of the incident, said she had seen the video and was horrified.

At the time of the actual incident, he was sitting quietly like they wanted him to, she said.

After hitting the vans front wall, Boomer said it was hard to watch her brother laying motionless on the floor.

It was horrible. You can hear him say I think my neck is broken, she said. Then they drag him out. You can see his body collapsing. They throw him in a wheelchair and hes slumped and sliding out. At no point does anybody say maybe hes really hurt? Maybe hes not pretending? Maybe something is medically very wrong? It makes no sense.

Esdaile said the NAACP is planning a community meeting Tuesday at 6:30 at Stetson library with civil rights attorney Ben Crump.

Elicker said the city is committed to doing everything we can to ensure that something like this never happens again.

The state police have taken over the investigation into the case and the citys internal affairs investigation has been put on hold until the state police probe is complete.

Were working to change our standard operating procedures around transport and updating training as well, Elicker said. A class of 20 recruits will graduate July 6, the first to receive de-escalation training called Integrating Communications, Assessment and Tactics.

Over the past several years, weve been working very hard to reimagine what policing and public safety means, Elicker said. Weve held officers accountable when there have been issues.

As for supporting the Black and other underserved communities in New Haven, Elicker said, Weve significantly increased funds to youth programming, job training and other opportunities for the community. Its clear we have more work to do. Weve made progress and were committed to doing more.

Ben Lambert and Liz Hardaway contributed reporting to this story.
In 2018, then-gubernatorial candidate Ned Lamont, a wealthy Greenwich businessman, emerged as the favorite among labor unions in a crowded Democratic field - a constituency that was key to his success that November.

Now, four years later, Gov. Lamont does not have to worry about union support, but rather, how strongly labor will come out for him.

Inside a large ballroom Thursday at Foxwoods Resort Casino where Connecticut AFL-CIO is holding its two-day political convention, union delegates showed signs of dissatisfaction with the incumbent governor, who now has a political record to run on.

Introducing Lamont, AFL-CIO president Ed Hawthorne noted his support of paid family and medical leave, a $15 minimum wage and a ban on captive audience meetings, which unions see as an aggressive tactic to hinder organizing efforts drawing applause from the crowd.

As Lamont stood at the podium for his candidate interview before the large crowd, one-by-one delegates stepped up to the microphone and thanked him for his support of essential workers during the pandemic and for the recent labor contracts that provide bonuses and pay raises to unionized state workers.

But they also drew attention to lingering issues such as the staffing shortages plaguing a wide range of jobs from health care to transportation.

We are working our nurses to death. They are working 16 hours day, five and six days a week. They cant keep it up. These are the people who are keeping you safe, keeping you healthy and keeping you alive, said Jean Morningstar with University Health Professionals Local 3837.

She urged Lamont to follow Californias lead, which is the only state in the country to require a minimum number of nurses-to-patients in hospitals.

Another delegate, Darnell Ford, of SEIU 1199, said his workplace, Albert J. Solnit Psychiatric Center-South Campus in Middletown, CT is a children's psychiatric facility, already suffered from staffing shortages prior to the COVID pandemic. The pandemic exacerbated the problem he said and resulted in a cut to services.

Most of these jobs and services that are being provided are from people who look like, me, Black and brown, middle-class individuals, Ford said.

The wave of retirements expected across the state workforce will only worsen the problem, he added. Workers are looking for a leader who will commit to filling open jobs and ensure adequate staffing.

Several delegates referenced the hazard pay they were promised for risking their health and safety during the pandemic. The state has set aside $35 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds for pandemic pay but theres been debate about who will get it. Lamont has said he views the bonuses and raises recently awarded to state workers as a form of pandemic pay.

For his part, Lamont continues to position himself as a close ally of labor - a theme he played up on Thursday.

I believe in the union movement. I believe in what each and every one of you have done, he said. I know that union movement fights for the middle class and fights for each and every one of us.

While the enthusiasm of four years ago may have waned, Lamont is expected to get the endorsement of the states largest labor organization when its 257 delegates vote on the slate of candidates to support Friday afternoon.

There is little, if any support, among the delegates for Lamonts opponent, Republican Bob Stefanowski, who did not fill out the candidate questionnaire circulated by AFL-CIO or address the convention. Many delegates expressed concern that Stefanowski represented a threat to bargaining rights for public-sector workers and that Connecticut would turn into a right to work state overnight, if he were elected.

Republicans including gubernatorial candidate Tom Foley have addressed delegates at past conventions, but many assume its a lost cause because the endorsements usually favor Democrats. State Rep. Tom Delnicki, R-South Windsor, was the only GOP candidate to fill out AFL-CIOs questionnaire this year, according to a spokesman for the labor organization.

On Thursday, delegates also interviewed candidates for lieutenant governor, comptroller and treasurer. On Friday, they will hear from candidates for U.S. Senate, Secretary of the State, and Attorney General.

Once the endorsements are decided, the states largest labor organization will turn its focus to turning out the labor vote in November through door-to-door canvassing, phone banks, mailings, and engaging members in the workplace.

The 2018 gubernatorial race was close with Lamont beating Stefanowski by 3.2 percentage points, or about 44,372, so how strongly labor comes out for Lamont in November could be a key factor in who ultimately wins the race.

Making his closing pitch to delegates Thursday, Lamont said: Im sticking with you. Im fighting with you. I think you know who I am. I think you know where my heart is. I think you know where my commitments are.

julia.bergman@hearstmediact.com
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Hearst Connecticut Media file photo Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Torrington Police Department / Show More Show Less 3 of 3





TORRINGTON  An 84-year-old city man has been arrested after police say he robbed the Litchfield Bancorp bank on East Main Street this week.

James Thompson was charged Thursday with first-degree robbery and third-degree larceny, Torrington Police Detective Kevin Tieman said.
Ben Lambert / Hearst Connecticut Media /

NEW HAVEN  A city man pleaded guilty Friday after he was found with a ghost gun, heroin and crack cocaine in a stolen vehicle he was using, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for Connecticut.

Shavarius Smith, 22, pleaded guilty to one count of possession of ammunition by a felon and one count of possession with intent to distribute heroin and cocaine base, the federal prosecutors said.
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LAS VEGAS (AP)  Elected officials in one rural Nevada county decided Thursday to postpone until Friday certifying results of the 317 ballots cast in their jurisdiction during the states June 14 primary election.

The decision in Esmeralda County, the least populous county in the state, comes a week after lawmakers in a Republican-leaning rural New Mexico county initially refused to certify their primary election results.

Esmeralda County Commission Chairman De Winsor and Vice-Chairman Timothy Hipp responded to complaints about the voting process with a promise to recount the votes themselves before an end-of-day Friday deadline set in state election law.

The grassroots effort starts right here, Winsor said midway through a contentious 90-minute meeting at which the three-member commission in the Republican-leaning county met to sign off on the results of the vote. This is where we proved we do it right.

Hipp was out of town and participated in the meeting by teleconference. He said he could be back in the county seat, Goldfield, by 2 p.m. Friday to begin counting ballots. Audio of the meeting was streamed on the internet.

County District Attorney Robert Glennen III advised Winsor and Hipp that they could suspend the meeting to reconvene Friday at 2 p.m. He said they have until 11:59 p.m. under state election law to finish.

The third commissioner, Ralph Keyes, said he was already willing to accept the count of the vote conducted by county officials  including a hand-count on Wednesday by county employees of the 177 paper ballots and paper records of 140 ballots that county Clerk-Treasurer LaCinda Elgan said were cast by machine.

In a telephone interview, Elgan noted that a deputy clerk, Michelle Garcia, administered the primary because Elgan was on the Republican ballot for reelection. She drew 57.5% of the vote.

Elgan called the primary in Esmeralda absolutely safe and fair.

One vote cast on one ballot was unintelligible, she said, but all ballots were tallied and reported. None was rejected.

It did not appear the number of votes in question could affect results of primary contests that chose candidates for federal and state offices including U.S. Senate, Congress, governor, state attorney general and the top elections official in Nevada, the secretary of state.

State attorney generals office spokesman John Sadler confirmed that Nevada law sets 11:59 p.m. Friday as the deadline to certify results of the June 14 primary, and said any hand-count of ballots before then would be considered part of the county canvass process. Sadler said that to his knowledge, no Nevada county had ever refused to certify results.

State law makes county lawmakers roles ministerial only, Attorney General Aaron Ford said in a Wednesday statement responding to questions from AP. If county commissioners or elections officials refused based on posturing designed to undermine faith in our democratic process, the statement said, the state will proceed with legal options.

Facing the Friday deadline, eight rural Nevada counties have certified the primary vote, including Lyon County on Thursday afternoon. Canvassing is scheduled Friday in Esmeralda and eight others including Clark, covering the Las Vegas area; Washoe covering the Reno area; and Nye, a Republican-leaning county including Pahrump and Tonopah.

The results from Nevada's 17 counties go to the secretary of state, who cannot reject or otherwise not accept the results, said Jennifer Russell, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican.

If a Nevada county refuses to certify, we would work with the (state attorney generals) office to determine a path forward, Russell said.

The standoff in Nevada bore echoes of concerns raised in rural New Mexicos Republican-leaning Otero County, where commissioners stalled before splitting their vote and approving election results. Officials there cited unspecified concerns with Dominion voting systems, a target of widespread conspiracy theories since the 2020 presidential election.

New Mexico's Democratic secretary of state appealed to that states Supreme Court to intervene before two commissioners relented  complaining that they felt they were little more than rubber-stamps.

The three commissioners in Esmeralda voted in April to join commissioners in neighboring Nye County calling for elections to be conducted using paper ballots  and without Dominion machines. Elgan and the elected county clerk in Nye County, Sam Merlino, both said they did not believe it was feasible to stop using electronic voting machines this year.

In email and in-person comments protesting the Esmeralda County primary vote, resident Mary Jane Zakas made no reference to New Mexico.

But she alleged that hot dog tongs could have breached ballot boxes that she said didnt meet security standards; that partisan workers drove ballots from a remote polling place to Goldfield; and that a Dominion representative provided assistance to an election worker. Zakas said that showed the poll worker wasn't properly trained.

Elgan and Garcia responded that the worker was trained, but the Dominion representative was there to help. The county clerk said no computer malfunctioned.

Zakas also alleged in her email that the vote could have been flipped or tampered with during the five minutes she said a poll worker carried a thumb drive from a vote tally computer out of a room.

In audio streamed from the meeting, Elgan and Garcia responded that a printer was in the other room. Elgan said a printer will be installed in the counting room for the general election.

Weve got a problem. People dont trust the system, Zakas told the commissioners. Weve got a situation where a lot of people are really concerned about the safety of their votes.

Esmeralda County, a former mining boom area, is about halfway between Las Vegas and Reno. It is home to fewer than 1,000 residents. Nearly 54% of the county's 621 active registered voters are Republicans, according to the Nevada Secretary of State, and more than 25% are non-partisan.

President Donald Trump won 82% of the vote in Esmeralda County in 2020.

___

This story has been updated to correct that no computer malfunctioned. This story also was updated to correct that the last name of the county district attorney. He is Robert Glennen III, not Glennon.

____

Associated Press writer Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada, and Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed to this report.
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PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP)  The Supreme Courts decision overturning a gun-permitting law in New York has states with robust firearms restrictions scrambling to respond on two fronts  to figure out what concealed-carry measures they might be allowed to impose while also preparing to defend a wide range of other gun control policies.

The language in the courts majority opinion heightened concern that other state laws, from setting an age limit on gun purchases to banning high-capacity ammunition magazines, may now be in jeopardy.

The court has basically invited open season on our gun laws, and so I expect litigation across the board, said New Jersey acting Attorney General Matt Platkin, a Democrat. Were going to defend our gun laws tooth-and-nail because these gun laws save lives.

The court ruling issued Thursday specifically overturned a New York law that had been in place since 1913 and required that people applying for a concealed carry permit demonstrate a specific need to have a gun in public, such as showing an imminent threat to their safety. The courts conservative majority said that violated the Second Amendment, which they interpreted as protecting peoples right to carry a gun for self-defense outside the home.

While the ruling does not address any other laws, the majority opinion opens the door for gun rights advocates to challenge them in the future, said Alex McCourt, the director of legal research for the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions.

Pro-firearms groups in several states said they plan to do just that.

Attorney Chuck Michel, president of the California Rifle and Pistol Association, said the group is preparing to expand its legal challenges based on the high court changing the legal standard used to assess whether gun control laws are constitutional.

Courts must now consider only whether a gun control regulation is consistent with the Second Amendments actual text and its historical understanding, according to Thursday's ruling. Before that, judges also could consider a state's social justification for passing a gun control law.

Michel said the standard will affect three prominent California laws. Legal challenges to the states limits on assault weapons, its requirement for background checks for buying ammunition and its ban on online ammunition sales are pending before a federal appellate court.

All of these laws should be struck down under this new Supreme Court standard, he said.

The Supreme Court also is considering whether to take up Californias law banning ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 bullets, as well as a similar law in New Jersey. He expects the court may consider those laws under the new standard.

The new restrictive landscape for gun laws outlined in Thursday's majority opinion is not without escape routes for states, especially those that may want to impose some limits on concealed carry permits.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, said states still can require people to get a license to carry a gun and condition that on such things as background checks and mental health records. They also can limit where guns are allowed, suggesting that states can prohibit firearms in sensitive places such as schools, courthouses or polling places.

That leaves an opening for governors and state lawmakers in New York and the six other states with similar concealed carry laws: California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island.

In California, lawmakers are amending legislation to expand the qualifications people must have to obtain a concealed carry permit and to define the places where guns would be off-limits. The revised bill will get its first hearing Tuesday, and lawmakers hope to send it quickly to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who called Thursday's Supreme Court decision shameful.

Other Democratic governors, lawmakers and state attorneys general also vowed to defend or amend their gun laws.

Most state legislatures are finishing their sessions or have already ended for the year, so any response would likely have to wait until next year. Rhode Island Democratic state Rep. Robert Craven, an attorney, said he would study the opinion in the New York case to determine whether or not it creates a concern that Rhode Islands requirements could be challenged, and whether that can be remedied by legislation.

He questioned whether the high court will now employ a strict interpretation of the Second Amendment  that the right to bear arms is absolute  and apply it to other laws, such as those banning military-style weapons.

I see the court headed in that direction, Craven said.

In Hawaii, Democratic state Sen. Chris Lee said lawmakers will try to determine how else they can ensure public safety and will look at screening, training requirements and ways to keep guns out of certain public spaces  provisions the justices said would be permitted.

Bottom line is Hawaii is about to become a more dangerous place, said state Sen. Karl Rhoads, a Democrat. Hawaii will go from a place where the right to carry in public is the exception to a place where not having the right to carry on the street is an exception. I see no restriction on the type of firearm.

Gun rights groups in Hawaii and elsewhere applauded the ruling. In Maryland, Mark Pennak, president of a gun rights group challenging that state's concealed carry law, said he's absolutely ecstatic about the high courts decision because theres simply no way the law can be defended any longer.

The Democratic leaders of the Maryland General Assembly said that if necessary, they will pass legislation that complies with the new precedent but still protects residents.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, criticized the court's opinion for limiting how states can address the proliferation of firearms in public, but vowed to protect the state's gun control measures. He said his administration believes the state can still regulate who can carry concealed weapons and where they can take them.

He vowed that his administration will do everything in our power to protect our residents.

___

Associated Press writers Bobby Caina Calvan in New York; Mike Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey; Jennifer Kelleher in Honolulu; Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston; Don Thompson in Sacramento, California; Marina Villeneuve in Albany, New York; and Brian Witte in Annapolis, Maryland, contributed to this report.
GUILFORD  Beau Kellogg beamed with pride as he proceeded to the podium to receive his 2022 Guilford High School diploma.

As he left the podium, he held the green leatherbound diploma high above his head, waved his arms and ran down the center aisle of family, friends and well-wishers gathered for the ceremony.

There was clapping, cheering and a few tears as Special Education Coordinator Jaclyn Hamm guided him back to sit with his peers.

Kellogg was in the life skills program at GHS and had been practicing, I understand, to make a grand show as he got his diploma today, said principal Julia Chaffe.

We knew he was going to be very excited, she said. What we didnt realize was that he was going to run all the way down into the aisle where all of the parents were. It was wonderful to see him graduate today and see all of that joy.

The weather cleared up for the 6:30 p.m. ceremony, after a day of pouring rain. As the graduates gathered in the St. George Catholic Church parking lot the clouds parted and blue sky peeked through.

I am so delighted that we are on the green today, because it was not looking like that was going to happen, said Chaffe.

Kelly Goddard

For the class of 2022 I think it was a fitting end to their four years, she said, because they had so many ups and downs throughout and today it looked like it was going to be another disappointment, and then the skies cleared.

Dr. Paul Freeman, superintendent of schools, had a message for the students, culled from reading the book, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering The Wisdom of the Forest by Suzzanne Simard.

When you plant your roots and establish yourselves, wherever that may be, remember that you will do better, you will thrive more, you will grow faster and stronger when you surround yourselves with trees that are not all like yourself, he said.

Surround yourself with others not so much like you, he said. You will be stronger for it, and more likely to thrive for it.

Chaffe used wrestling as an analogy in talking about the graduates futures.

It occurred to me during one of the matches that the moves the wrestlers make in the ring under those giant spotlights are a lot like life, she said. Sometimes you have it all pinned down and you emerge victorious. Other times, life has you pinned, your face pressed mercilessly to the floor, your spine twisted in a most unnatural position, as you struggle to release yourself from the pressure.

Kelly Goddard

As a class, youve shown repeatedly that you dont get caught up in this kind of binary thinking about wins and losses, she said. Life is much more nuanced and interesting than that and youve already figured that out.

She encouraged the graduates to continue to resist the trap of binary thinking.

As you move into life after high school: improvise, adapt and learn, she said. No matter where life takes you next, be it college or university, the military, job training, a trade, an apprenticeship, the workforce, a gap year, or travel, no matter where your path leads, let go of the illusion that you are in competition with other people. In actuality, you are only in direct competition with one person  yourself.

Sarah Page Kyrcz can be reached at suzipage1@aol.com
NAUGATUCK  The chairman of the Board of Education is calling for a member to resign over what he described as a series of reprehensible, concerning and alarming social media posts.

In a statement, Jeff Litke, chairman of the Naugatuck school board, said member Aaron McCools posts were not representative of Naugatuck and the values that we stand for.

In my role as chair of the Board of Education, myself and Vice Chair Marilyn ODonnell met with Mr. McCool and asked for him to resign, which so far he has declined to do, Litke said Thursday.

I am well aware of the concerns of the parents and community members in the district and share their concerns, he said. I urge my fellow community leaders to denounce these posts and call on Mr. McCool to resign and not distract from the important work that we do to educate our students.

In a statement Thursday, McCool said in 2014 he reposted several distasteful and inappropriate pictures on Tumblr, a social media website.

This was wrong, and I am sorry for my past behavior, he said. However, this does not reflect who I am today.

In his statement, McCool claimed Litke threatened to share the posts with the public if he didnt resign.

He said if I didnt resign immediately this information would go public, he said. I will not be resigning from my position as a Board of Education member in Naugatuck.

Litke said he simply informed him [McCool] that community members that knew of the posts and had them would make them public.

Litke believes that community members also contacted police about the posts.

william.lambert@hearstmediact.com
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential running mate, Ifeanyi Okowa has said the All Progressives Congress, APC, and its presidentia...





The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential running mate, Ifeanyi Okowa has said the All Progressives Congress, APC, and its presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu are not smart.





Okowa said Tinubus decision to place his running mate, Kabiru Masari as a placeholder was an indication that the APC is not smart.





Featuring on Channels Televisions Politics Today, the Governor of Delta State, said making Masari a placeholder showed that APC was not organized and not ready for election.





According to Okowa: You can find that the APC is finding it difficult to get who would be their vice presidential candidate, we are hearing something we have not heard before, somebody on placement to be replaced.





They are actually not smart, that makes us believe they are not even ready for the election, there seems to be a lot of confusion in the APC, unlike us, right from day one, weve made our decision and I believe were on the right path.





The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had set a date for the submission of presidential running mates.





Ahead of the date, Tinubu submitted Masaris name as his running mate.





Its widely believed that Tinubu submitted Masaris name as a placeholder.





But, the spokesman of the APC presidential candidate, Tunde Rahman had insisted that his principal submitted Masaris name as his running mate.





He, however, disclosed that Tinubu is consulting with President Muhammadu Buhari, the APC leadership, and Masari over a final decision on the issue of his running mate.





Rahman said Masari may step down in the interest of the party.
Unknown gunmen in the early hours of Friday attacked the Okehi Police Area Command killing an inspector on duty. It was gathered that the gu...





Unknown gunmen in the early hours of Friday attacked the Okehi Police Area Command killing an inspector on duty.





It was gathered that the gunmen, who were fully armed, attacked the police command at about 12:30 am on Friday.





It was also learnt that part of the area command office was razed by dynamite used by the attackers.





The Kogi State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, William Ovye Aya confirmed the incident in a statement sent to newsmen on Friday.





Aya said consequent upon the attacks at Okehi Area Command in the early hours of Friday, the Commissioner of Police, CP Edward Egbuka, had visited the scene for an on-the-spot assessment.





He said the Commissioner of Police has equally ordered the deployment of additional operational assets consisting of operatives of the Police Mobile Force, Counter Terrorism Unit, Quick Response Unit, and State Intelligence Bureau in synergy with other security agencies to restore normalcy in the area.





A Police Inspector died in the exchange of fire with the hoodlums, before the Area Commander and a detachment of Military in the area reinforced to the scene of incident, and the attackers fled, he added.





Aya assured that the command is committed to working in synergy with other security agencies as well as patriotic stakeholders to make the state a safe and secure place for all and sundry.





He said the Commissioner of Police has further tasked his Deputy in charge of the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) to commence investigations into the unfortunate incident.





The latest attack is coming a few months after gunmen attacked a police formation in the Adavi Local Government Area and killed three police officers on duty.
Apostle Johnson Suleman of Omega Fire Ministries has reacted to the controversy involving a former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu. ...





Apostle Johnson Suleman of Omega Fire Ministries has reacted to the controversy involving a former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu.





Suleman prayed that God would see Ekweremadu through his current travail.





The London Metropolitan police had accused Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice of involvement in alleged organ harvesting.





Ekweremadu and his wife were arrested and charged before a UK court.





They were accused of bringing a minor into the UK with the aim of harvesting his kidney for a transplant.





The transplant was aimed at Ekweremadus daughter, Sonia, who is suffering from a kidney problem.





Reacting, Apostle Suleman prayed that God would protect Ekweremadus daughter.





In a series of tweets, the clergyman wrote: Heard about the travails of the former deputy Senate President, may God see him through. May God protect their child and spare her life.





Thank GOD for preserving the life of that minor who was to be used.





May God help them to do the right thing. This too shall pass!





I just made a prayer for all those involved in the issue of the former deputy senate president and I see reactions.





Since you have become the law court, take your hate somewhere else and dont join those I have blocked. Even a confirmed thief on the cross, Jesus prayed for him.
The Supreme Court has dismissed a suit brought against the National Assembly challenging the legality of the controversial section 84 (12)...

The Supreme Court has dismissed a suit brought against the National Assembly challenging the legality of the controversial section 84 (12) of the Electoral Act 2022.

The Apex Court held that Buhari, having assented to the Electoral Bill on February 25, 2022, has no power to turn around to challenge the legality of the Electoral Act.

In a judgment prepared and just delivered by Justice Emmanuel Akomaye Agim, the action of Buhari in instituting the case was declared as a gross abuse of court.

The Apex Court said that the President by the suit sought to approbate and reprobate at the same time and that such must not be allowed.

Besides, the court held that Buhari had no power under any law to dictate to the National Assembly on law making.

The unanimous verdict held that Buhari having participated in the making of the Electoral Act by his assent, lacked Constitutional Powers to come up to challenge same.

More to come
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has said no arm of government should be allowed to lord over ot...

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has said no arm of government should be allowed to lord over others.

Atiku was reacting to the Supreme Court judgement which struck out the suit by President Muhammadu Buhari seeking to void the provision of section 84 (12) of the Electoral Amendment Act 2022.

The Supreme Court said the President lacked the power to direct the National Assembly to amend or enact an act, adding that it violated the principle of separation of power.

According to the judgement, there is no part of the Constitution that makes the exercise of legislative power subject to the directive of the President.

Reacting, Atiku tweeted: The ruling of the Supreme Court on Section 84 (12) is commendable.

It affirms my position of the independence of the judiciary and the other arms of government, namely the legislature and the executive, which is the bedrock for the development of any nation.

Under no circumstance must one arm lord over another arm of government. -AA
Jigawa State Command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has arrested 679 suspects of drug abuse and made seizures of 325.06kg of il...





Jigawa State Command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has arrested 679 suspects of drug abuse and made seizures of 325.06kg of illicit drugs from June 2021 to June this year.





The Agencys State Commandant, Ibrahim Braji disclosed this during a press briefing ahead of the activities to commemorate this years United Nations International Day against drug abuse and illicit drug trafficking on June 26th.





He said the theme of this year is Addressing Drug Challenges in Health and Humanitarian Crises.





Braji said eight of the 671 suspects arrested were female.





He said the command also seizured 325.6kg of illicit drugs, convicted 177 people and counseled 503 clients from June 2021 to June 2022.





He said with the support of Jigawa State Government and other security agencies, the command had expanded its operation to all the 27 local government areas across the State.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) says the federal government did not invite the union to any meeting on Thursday. On ...

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) says the federal government did not invite the union to any meeting on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment, said the federal government will soon resolve issues on the strike by ASUU.

He had also said concerns over payment platforms will be addressed with the union and other stakeholders in the next meeting fixed for Thursday.

But speaking on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme, on Friday, Emmanuel Osodeke, ASUU president, said the union did not receive any letter of invitation from the minister.

He said Ngige should remove himself from the ongoing negotiation because the minister has worsen the situation.

We were not invited to any meeting. None of our members were invited. We have a secretariat but we never got any invitation from them, he said.

The problem we have with this government, especially with the minister of labour, is that if you can tell the world that you have fixed a meeting which you didnt, how do you expect us to believe other things you have said?

He should confirm to the world that he sent an invitation to ASUU for a meeting on Thursday.

The minister of labour should leave us to deal with the minister of education. He was the one that made this matter worse to this extent. He was the one that decided to use hunger as a weapon, when he said no work no pay.

ASUU, on February 14, declared a one-month warning strike to protest the non-implementation of its demands by the federal government.

But on March 14, the union extended the action by eight weeks, citing the governments failure to fully address its demands.

On May 6, Ngige promised that the federal government would resume negotiations with ASUU with the aim of ending the strike.

However, three days after his promise, the union extended the strike by another 12 weeks.
A collapsed bridge that links Kwara and Oyo States from the Okolowo junction of Ilorin in Kwara has cut off the two states. Residents of the...





A collapsed bridge that links Kwara and Oyo States from the Okolowo junction of Ilorin in Kwara has cut off the two states.





Residents of the state, as well as transporters, are now facing severe hardship in accessing both sides of the state, especially the transport workers and farmers who use the road on a daily basis.





The affected residents have appealed to the Federal Ministry of Works, Federal Road Safety Commission and especially the Minister of Works, Babatunde Raji Fashola to come to their aid in the rehabilitation of the Ohan bridge which is very close to Alapa village in Asa local government area of Kwara state.





They appealed to the Works Minister to save their souls as there is no other source of income than driving and farming, insisting they have elderly parents, wives and children who depend on income made from the road.





The Sector Commander represented by the (DCC)Admin and Human Resources Deputy Corps Commander, Akinwumi O Fasakin, and Sector Public Enlightenment Officer, Mr O.B Basambo, visited the scene for an assessment of the situation.





He pleaded with the union to be patient with the government and assured that the FRSC will make a presentation to relevant agencies on the matter.
Former Kogi West Senator, Dino Melaye has expressed his support for ex-Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu amid controversy of alleged...

Former Kogi West Senator, Dino Melaye has expressed his support for ex-Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu amid controversy of alleged organ harvesting.

Melaye said he stands with Ekweremadu because there was no wrongdoing by the Senator.

Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice were arrested in London for allegedly plotting to harvest the kidney of a Nigerian minor.

The UK metropolitan police had arrested and charged Ekweremadu and his wife to court, but the duo pleaded not guilty to the charges at the Uxbridge Magistrates Court.

These are serious allegations and these matters are now adjourned until 7 July back here at Uxbridge, Magistrate Lois Sheard said.

Ms Sheard remanded both defendants in custody ahead of their hearing next month.

Sharing Ekweremadus letter via his Twitter handle, Melaye wrote: Sen. Ike Ekweremadu notified the British authorities on his trip with the said boy. I stand with Ike.
Hoodlums reportedly disrupted collection of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) by people in Ilesa West Local Government Area of Osun State on Th...









Hoodlums reportedly disrupted collection of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) by people in Ilesa West Local Government Area of Osun State on Thursday.









A source confirmed to newsmen that the hoodlums identified to be political thugs came in their numbers to disrupt the collection of PVCs.









The hoodlums were also alleged to have invaded the secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the area.









Confirming the incident, the Osun Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Public Relations Officer, Assistant Superintendent of Corps II (ASC II), Olabisi Atanda said the hoodlums ransacked some wards in Ilesa West, which included Ward 1, 3 and 7.









The hoodlums did not let people obtain Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs). No arrest yet but we are on hunt for the hoodlums.









There are no casualties as at this time you gave me the call.









We (the Police and the Civil Defence Corps) are in in a meeting as we speak with the INEC to know how to curb the situation.









I am not aware there was an attack on the PDP Secretariat in Ilesa West Local Government, they only told me about the PVC,  she said.
The attorney general of the England and Wales will decide within 14 days if Ike Ekweremadu, former deputy senate president, and his wife, ...

The attorney general of the England and Wales will decide within 14 days if Ike Ekweremadu, former deputy senate president, and his wife, Beatrice, will face trial in the UK over allegations of human trafficking.

The Ekweremadus were charged to the Uxbridge Magistrates Court on Thursday and remanded in custody until July 7 pending further investigation.

Damla Ayas, the crown prosecutor, told on the court that part of the allegations against the couple took place in Nigeria.

He said the case was unique and would require a decision by Sue-Ellen Braverman (pictured), the attorney general, on where the trial will be held.

On Thursday, the London metropolitan police announced that the Ekweremadus were charged to court over the allegation of bringing a child to the UK for organ harvesting.

The London metropolitan police said they were charged following an investigation by the police specialist crime team.

The police added that the investigation was launched after detectives were alerted to potential offences under modern slavery legislation in May 2022.

WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR

Ekweremadu had in December 2021 written a letter to the British high commission in Nigeria backing the visa application of a potential kidney donor to his daughter.

He said the donor and his daughter will be at the Royal Free Hospital London, adding that he would be providing the necessary funding.

Although the donor is said to be 21 on his international passport, the Met police said he claims to be 15 and is thus regarded as a minor.

The prosecution told the court that an appointment was made for the teenager at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead but the consultant refused to proceed because he had concerns about the 15-year-old boy.

He returned to the address of the Ekweremadus in London before reporting to a police station.
The United States Supreme Court has ruled there is no constitutional right to abortion in the country. In a 6-3 decision on Friday, ...

The United States Supreme Court has ruled there is no constitutional right to abortion in the country.

In a 6-3 decision on Friday, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the historic 1973 ruling that affirmed the constitutional right to abortion in the US.

Courtesy of the reversal of the law, US states will now be allowed to determine their own abortion laws as they deem fit.

Not less than 26 states are expected to outlaw or restrict abortion.

The decision of the court comes weeks after a leaked document suggested that it would overturn the ruling.

The leaked draft majority opinion was written by Samuel Alito, one of the supreme court justices.

The draft stated that the Roe v. Wade decision that allowed abortions performed between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy  before a fetus would be viable outside the womb  was wrongly decided because the US constitution makes no specific mention of abortion rights.

Abortion presents a profound moral question. The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each state from regulating or prohibiting abortion, the draft reads.

Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division. It is time to heed the constitution and return the issue of abortion to the peoples elected representatives.

We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled.

Outrage and condemnation from pro-abortion groups and individuals trailed the leak of the document.
The Apapa Special Area Command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA has disclosed that it had recorded numerous seizures of ...

The Apapa Special Area Command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA has disclosed that it had recorded numerous seizures of illicit drugs worth N6 billion illicit drugs in one week in Apapa area of the state.





The seizure which included 1,518kgs of Tafrodol brand of Tramadol (120grms) and Tramadol (225mg &250mg) weighing 3,553 kilograms, according to the Area Commander, Mr Ameh Inalegwu, was a demonstration of the resolve of the command to bring down non-cooperating entity within the maritime space within the commands jurisdiction.





Inalegwu who made the disclosure at a press briefing to flag off the commemoration of the 2022 International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking at the Apapa Command Headquarters, ENL Terminal, Wharf, Lagos, said additional seizures of 14, 0800 kilograms of Cough Syrup with Codeine was made in January 2022.

Furthermore, he said another 40.25 Kilograms of the same Cough syrup with Codeine was seized in February and 12 kilograms of another Cough Syrup with Codeine in March, while 350 grams of Cocaine and 150 grams of Heroin were also recovered in March 2022.

In summary, the command, according to him, recorded a total seizure of 19,703.25kg of assorted illicit drugs between January and June 2022.

Available records, according to him, showed that drug use accounted for most of the health problems and also aggravates conflicts, crime and criminalities as well as insecurity, generally.





To checkmate this, he hinted that the command would embark on some activities that would increase awareness and knowledge of the potential health, social and legal consequences of illicit drug use and provide accurate information on illicit drug habituation.





According to the Area Commander, June 26 of every year has been designated by the United Nations to commemorate the drug day and all segments of society are urged to adopt actions that sensitize their immediate communities aimed at achieving a World free of Drug use and trafficking.





The theme for this years commemoration Addressing Drug Challenges in Health and Humanitarian Crises is not only as topical as it is thought provoking but consistent with the spirit and letter of the War against Drug Abuse,WADA which is the theoretical framework of the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd.)





The theme urges us to critically interrogate the mechanisms for mitigating the availability, accessibility and affordability of drugs if we must guaranty sound health and favourable human conditions in our communities





Working in alignment with the initiative of the National Headquarters of the Agency, this Command will in the next seven days be reaching out to all categories within the Port and the host communities of Apapa, Ijora and Amuwo-Odofin where the maritime operations are concentrated





Events lined up by the command included a Walk against Drugs through the streets of Apapa; anti-drug sensitization for parents at the Apapa Local Government secretariat and Student Forum/Symposium on drug prevention.





In deference to the faith based approach, the command urged all the worship centres within the communities to devote their sermons to the consequences of drug use and illicit drug trafficking in yesterdays Jumaat and church services tomorrow.on Friday and Sunday within the week.





These activities will be crowned with a Town Hall meeting on Monday, with , all stakeholders within the communities,  in order to chisel out workable mechanisms to keep drug merchants at bay and prevent drug use among the populace, he stated.





While noting that operating within the maritime corridor saddled the command with the responsibility of maintaining the momentum of the Drug War as rekindled by Marwa , Inalegwu said, we are not unmindful of the status of the Sea Port as the gate way and the almost limitless opportunities it offers unscrupulous maritime operators to ship in drugs in a volume that far outstrips what can be smuggled in through land or air transportation. Hence, making the Port impregnable is a task that must be done. And by doing so, we need to mobilize all and sundry using the whole society and joined hand approach.





The commemoration of the Anti-Drug Day will no doubt help to consolidate the gains of the stakeholder engagements that the Command has embarked upon in the last two months. Our operational antenna will continue to remain high up in our readiness to bring down any non-co-operating entity within maritime space, Inalegwu stated
Watertown, NY (13601)

Today

Morning clouds will give way to afternoon sunshine. High 71F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Clear to partly cloudy. Low 56F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended its support for religious schools, ruling that parents who send their children to such institutions have a right to tuition aid if the state provides it to other similar private schools.

You voted:
As the film industry continues to flourish in Louisiana, students from New Orleans Charter Science and Math High School may well be a part of its future. Recently, a team of its student filmmakers took home the Grand Prize Audience Choice Award at Film Prize Junior 2022, the South's largest student film festival.

The short film, "Afterparty," was written, directed and edited by Sci High senior Noel Celestine

The crew included assistant director and editor Nola Szilagi and director of photography Jonas Minor, along with assistants Chilia Hicks, Nelly Gonzales, Alena Irvin and Kira Dupree. Joining Celestine as cast members were Tianna Murray, Rendell Jones, Jeanique Jackson, Deshawn Joseph, Edward Dykes, Amire Tyler, Hassaan Dubuclet, and Alena Irvin.

The film was named as winner of the Audience Choice Award by a combination of audience votes and a decision by the judges, Louisiana Film Prize finalists and former Film Prize Junior staff.

In winning, Sci High received a $1,000 film equipment grant, $500 to celebrate the students achievement, and a $500 cash award for the teacher/sponsor, Donte Smallwood.

The nine-minute "Afterparty" tells the story of a high school student who, after a very long day, has a crazy dream in which he attends his crushs party. Everything is great until the arrival of some unwanted guests, and the dream starts to become a nightmare.

Celstine, 18, describes the rom-com as both a learning experience and a labor of love. He wrote the script after watching hours of how-to videos on YouTube, and then he began a three-month journey to bring his vision to life.

When he started the project, the school was just coming out of the pandemic, so staffing and resources were scarce.

COVID shut down our productions our junior year, and several of the teachers left, so I kind of just took things on my own, Celestine said.

He signed up other students for this afterschool project and did the casting call with minimum support. But when Donte Smallwood was hired to teach digital media midyear, the project came to life. Smallwood, a recent graduate of the Dillard University Film Program, became Celestines adviser and mentor.

Mr. Smallwood helped me plan better and let me use his camera and some of his equipment, Celestine said. It would have been a whole different process without him.

None of the students involved in the film were enrolled in Smallwoods classes, but he volunteered to lend his expertise and, more importantly, his time. Within weeks, the crew was working, rehearsing and learning the filmmaking process.

Smallwood called Celestine the driving force.

Noel is passionate and a go-getter, Smallwood said. If it wasnt for him, it wouldnt have happened. He manifested what he envisioned, knew what he wanted, and did what he needed to do to make it happen.

Celestine said his goal was to complete the project  even if it meant improvising scenes to make the story work.

The worst thing you can do is not complete something. Im glad we won, but I made this from a sole passion of what my vision was and how to pursue it. What I really learned through it all was persistence.

Celestine will attend LSU this fall to study film. He hopes to continue working both in front of and behind the camera like his comedic inspirations, the Wayans Brothers.

In addition to preparing for another year in his digital media classroom, Smallwood is working on a film of his own  a documentary about his college concert choir director at Dillard, Dr. S. Carver Davenport.

He has created such a legacy of music and culture, I just want to honor him and give him his flowers while he is still here, Smallwood said.

He shared this advice with Celestine and his other young filmmakers: Plan. Plan. Plan. Thats the most important part. The more you plan for every detail, the better you can execute in production and post production.

He also encourages his students to be well-rounded. Know all the parts. Be a jack of all trades and be great at what you do.

There is one other thing to remember, he said: the importance of a deadline."

Sci High CEO Dr. Monique Cola congratulated Celestine, Smallwood and the crew for their success and noted that the school also took home the Grand Prize at Film Prize Junior in 2019.

We are so proud of our talented students in our Career and Technical Education Department and their continued success, she said.

Open to all middle and high schools students from across Louisiana, the Film Prize Junior competition is a way for young people to learn the creative and collaborative craft of narrative storytelling. The process also instills lessons of teamwork, organization and communication.

Celestine said he is grateful for the opportunity and proud of his teams effort.

Attending Film Prize Junior was such a great experience, said Celestine. This was an extremely tough competition, and we were proud to take home the trophy.
Do you know a teen who's nuts for Nintendo? The Nora Navra Library is hosting a video game day for teens ages 11-17, and a number of Nintendo Switch games will be available to choose from. Consoles will be provided as well.

The event takes place from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, June 29 at the library, 1902 St. Bernard Ave.

On June 30, Nora Navra is offering a variety of events perfect for animal-lovers. Stop by from 11 a.m. to noon to meet special animal guests and educators from Audubon Zoo. (Zoo educators will also visit Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, 1611 Fats Domino Ave., the following Wednesday, July 6, at 11 a.m.)

If fish are more your thing, check out the librarys Fish Painting and Fish Facts workshops Thursday, June 30 at Robert E. Smith Library, 6301 Canal Blvd.

Biologists with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries will be at 11 a.m. and at Algiers Regional Library at 1 p.m. to teach children ages 6-12 about the different life stages of fish.

Attendees will get the opportunity to look at real-life specimens and create fish art.

PARENTING CLASSES: The Parenting Center at Children's Hospital has teamed up with the library and the Broadmoor Improvement Association to host classes on active parenting.

The second session will be held Thursday, June 30 at 4:45 p.m. at Rosa F. Keller Library & Community Center, 4300 S. Broad St.

Participants will learn how early experiences can impact development and how parents can build strong relationships with their children.

While parents attend classes, children are welcome to do arts and crafts with Little Rainbows Nola from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the multi-purpose room at the Broadmoor Arts & Wellness Center, 3900 Gen. Taylor Ave. Snacks will be provided. For more information, contact Natori Green, Broadmoor Improvement Association, at (504) 233-2213.

FREE LEGAL ADVICE: Attorneys from the Khan Law Firm will be available for free one-on-one sessions at Main Librarys Ask-a-Lawyer program Saturday, July 2, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Services are limited to civil matters and will be provided on a first-come, first-serve basis. Each session will last up to 20 minutes and can cover issues including bankruptcy, evictions, foreclosures, divorce and more.

ESL: The library has partnered with The New Neighbor Project to host free English as a second language classes at Algiers Regional Library, Saturdays from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Students do not need to sign up in advance. For more information, visit www.thenewneighborproject.org, email thenewneighborproject@gmail.com, or call (504) 475-4658.

WHAT IF?: The librarys monthly What If? speculative fiction short-story club will meet Saturday, July 2, at 11:30 a.m. on Zoom.

Speculative fiction is an umbrella term covering a wide range of fiction from sci-fi and fantasy to ghost stories and fairy tales.

This month, the group will discuss "The Brief Life Story of Lila" by Danny Cherry Jr. and"The Day Before the Revolution" by Ursula K. Le Guin. The stories will be available either in the library catalog or in free online literary magazines.

New members are always welcome. Contact maddison@nolalibrary.org for more information.

Jane LeGros is the director of marketing and communications for the New Orleans Public Library.
Back in spring of 2020, the hysteria over Hamilton remained at a fever pitch, even as Broadway went dark due to the raging pandemic.

By then, the hip-hop musical about Americas lesser-known founding father had been on stage for almost five years, redefining musical theater with its diverse cast and contemporary score, and sparking a fervent fandom unlike anything on Broadway in decades. Even during the shutdown, Hamilton remained relevant, as Disney released a much-anticipated live stage recording featuring the shows original cast, led by creator Lin-Manuel Miranda in the title role.

But the pandemic persevered, and as the months turned to years, the momentum was impossible to maintain. Miranda had other irons in the fire  including the film adaption of his first big musical In the Heights, and his work on the animated Disney hit Encanto  and the reopening of Hamilton in late 2021 stalled again when a spike in cases forced more cancellations.

Now, fingers crossed, live theater is back, not only in New York City but around the world, as Hamilton resumes its Broadway run, alongside residencies in London and Australia and multiple simultaneous North American tours.

A new Broadway staple

The Angelica tour (as opposed to the Philip tour currently playing in Connecticut or the And Peggy tour now criss-crossing Canada) landed at the Saenger Theatre in New Orleans this week, settling in for an extended run with shows through July 10.

While the post-pandemic productions might lack the lightning-in-a-bottle buzz that launched Hamilton into the cultural consciousness years ago, the touring show still offers a well-oiled machine of blockbuster proportions, as Hamilton evolves from Broadways latest craze to its newest staple, complementing a slate of long-running hits like The Lion King and Wicked.

The first act of Hamilton is dominated by the American Revolution, as Alexander Hamilton, an immigrant from the Caribbean who is newly arrived in New York, seeks fame, fortune, and glory in his fight for Americas independence from the tyranny of the British Crown.

Along the way, Hamilton falls in with a group of revolution-minded friends, makes the acquaintance of the wealthy Schuyler sisters, first encounters lifelong rival Aaron Burr, and serves at the right hand of General George Washington.

Its a highly-charged, dynamic piece of theater, punctuated by the bombast of songs like My Shot and Right Hand Man, tunes influenced equally by Broadway musical tradition and classic New York hip-hop.

Challenging roles

On Wednesday night, the role of Alexander Hamilton was played by Deejay Young, an understudy on the tour who, in just the last few weeks, has also stepped in to play Aaron Burr in Greenville, South Carolina, and the dual roles of Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in Durham, North Carolina. Its difficult to imagine the challenge of taking on these roles on short notice, especially since Mirandas Hamilton clocks in at over 20,000 words (compared to classic shows like Oklahoma! or Pirates of Penzance that average around 5,000 words), often delivered in fast-paced raps.

Young filled in admirably, fitting right into the action. The touring production relies on the same direction and choreography as the original (by Thomas Kail and Andy Blankenbuehler respectively), and the same set design (David Korins) that gracefully incorporates a turntable stage to imbue the production with a sense of constant motion.

While all of the pieces were in place, what Wednesday nights production lacked were the fierce portrayals of the original cast, captured in the Disney film as the shows definitive version. As Young went toe-to-toe with Aaron Burr (Josh Tower) and George Washington (Paul Oakley Stovall), the emphatic exchanges swirled in the frenetic energy of the production but often failed to really explode and rise to the level of standout showmanship.

But this bug becomes a feature as Youngs more nuanced, less raucous performance amplified the hurt and heartbreak of the shows second act, which reveals the disintegration of Hamiltons home life.

Substance and polish

I had previously considered the second act of Hamilton to be a sometimes trudging follow-up to the fast-paced heroics of the first, but this production revealed more emotion on the back end, due to heartfelt performances like Dear Theodosia, Burr and Hamiltons ode to fatherhood, and Burn, in which Hamiltons wife, Eliza Schuyler (played beautifully by Zoe Jensen), faces the fallout of her husbands adultery.

The anguish culminates in one of the shows most affecting numbers, Its Quiet Uptown, a rumination on love and loss that segues into Hamiltons eventual death-by-duel at the hands of Aaron Burr.

A strong supporting cast keeps Hamilton afloat through secondary, but no less essential, characters, played here with aplomb. The performers in the double roles of Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson (David Park), Hercules Mulligan/James Madison (Tyler Belo), and John Laurens/Phillip Hamilton (Jon Viktor Corpuz) provide a strong foundation for the productions leading characters, as does Stephanie Umoh as Angelica Schulyer, whose early number Satisfied transcended the battle gore of the first act to deliver unexpected grace.

While Hamilton emerged from the pandemic years a little less shiny and new, the revolutionary musical still soldiers on as a tightly packed, multi-faceted work that rewards audiences with both substance and polish.

As it continues what will surely be a long, long run on Broadway and on tour, it will be interesting to see the ways in which individual performances affect the shows impact, whether for better or worse, since Mirandas score requires a demanding skill set that can make or break a performance, but also offers performers  and audiences  the opportunity to find something new in the increasingly familiar.

Brad Rhines writes about theater. He can be reached at bradfordrhines@gmail.com.
Forty-nine years ago, on the night of June 24, 1973, I had a front-row view of tragedy and history as part of a team of Times-Picayune reporters covering the Up Stairs Lounge fire. The images, smells and sounds of the inferno that killed 32 people and injured more than a dozen others will forever haunt me.

An even bigger story began to unfold in the fires aftermath. Its a tale of official indifference, to the point of cruelty. Every corner of the New Orleans Establishment turned its back on the gay community at a time when that community most needed to have its profound grief acknowledged.

City Hall, the Archdiocese of New Orleans, NOPD, and yes, the local media, including my then-employer The Times-Picayune  they all turned away in choreographed disinterest, as if to force the dead, the dying and the mourning back into the closet.

Over time, however, that indifference had the opposite effect. The Up Stairs fire and its painful aftermath inspired a few brave men to become gay activists, even as the story of the fire faded from official memory.

Thankfully, that story has been meticulously chronicled by journalist and author Robert Fieseler in his book Tinderbox, which recounts not only the murderous blaze but also the citys code of silence toward the gay community.

Every social movement in American history has a body count, Fieseler notes in his preface. He goes on to explain that it is routinely through death that we reckon with violations of our basic liberties.

On June 23, the New Orleans City Council officially apologized for the citys failure to acknowledge the Up Stairs fire as a human tragedy. Representatives of NOPD joined in. This time, Fieseler and others from the LGBTQ community choreographed an emotion-packed presentation on the fire and the open wound that remains. I was honored to be asked to share my memories of the fire  and the long silence that ensued  as part of that presentation.

The presentations most poignant moment was a statement from Rose Little, whose brother Clarence Joseph McCloskey Jr. was among the 32 people killed in the fire.

What made everything worse was the response of the City of New Orleans and the community, Ms. Littles statement said. Instead of City officials leading the mourning of its citizens, it distanced itself. The investigation was not made a priority; it was botched, and the families and friends never saw the arsonist brought to justice. The awful things people shouted about how he/they deserved to die haunt us. We could not have a Catholic funeral for Clarence.

Ms. Little could not muster the strength to sit at the presenters table, such was her grief and pain all these years later. Fieseler read it for her as she sat in the front row of the Council Chamber, tears welling in her eyes and in the eyes of many others in attendance.

After the council unanimously adopted a resolution containing the apology, council members presented Ms. Little with a framed copy of the resolution. At long last, some of those in power showed up to dry her tears.

Its time for others to do the same.
Amber Encalde pointed her phone at a row of easels in the Jean Lafitte Auditorium on Thursday to snap a photo of a computer-generated rendering of a two-bedroom house on stilts.

Like countless others in and around the town of Jean Lafitte, Encaldes parents lost everything to Hurricane Ida in August. For months, theyve lived in a cramped travel trailer.

However, a new initiative from the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity aims to get residents of this storm-battered town back into something resembling a home. The nonprofit pledged Thursday to spend $4.5 million over the next two years to help build more than 40 homes in Lafitte for residents devastated by Ida, the fifth most expensive hurricane in U.S. history.

This means hope, Encalde said, snapping photos of the renderings to show her mother, who couldnt attend after being hospitalized for a heart procedure and broken back.

Like some other lower Jefferson Parish communities, the Lafitte area was battered not only by the fierce storm's winds but also the storm surge. It left homes and businesses flooded for days after the Aug. 29 hurricane had passed.

More than 90% of the homes were damaged by Hurricane Ida, Habitat for Humanity officials said.

Dozens of residents showed up at Thursdays event to learn more about how to apply for the program.

This is our only option, said Melba Frickey, 81. If not, were going to live in a FEMA trailer our entire lives.

New construction, same sites

Under the program, Habitat for Humanity will work with property owners to design, build and pay for the homes, which will be new construction on the same land where their previous homes stood.

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The nonprofit will provide homebuyers with a no-interest loan. The average monthly house note will be about $500, officials said.

We know the benefit of living in this community.  We know why you would never want to leave here, said Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng, calling the Habitat for Humanity program a true gift.

Anniversary eyed

Construction on the first home will begin soon, and officials hope it will be completed by Aug. 29 the first anniversary of Ida and 17th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The nonprofit is partnering with Rural Studio, an Auburn University affiliate, to design the homes.

"The sounds of construction are the sounds of hope, Jean Lafitte Mayor Tim Kerner Jr. said. This program will serve some of the Hurricane Ida survivors [who] need help the most and will do so in a way that is sustainable and affordable. We hope this progress and optimism inspires all residents to rebuild and return."

The first home will go to Darrell and Corrine Percle, whose home took on two feet of water from Ida.

It means the world, Darrell Percle said, adding that life has been rough since the storm. He used to unload shrimp boats, but his employer didnt return following Ida.

Nobody ever did anything for me like this, Corinne Percle said.

Habitat for Humanity is planning to construct another development of 152 homes near Terrytown.
Forty-nine years after 32 people died in a suspected arson attack at the French Quarter gay bar the Up Stairs Lounge, the New Orleans City Council formally apologized Thursday for the citys botched and callous response to the tragedy.

After 90 minutes of presentations and emotional reflections, the seven council members voted unanimously to acknowledge official failures almost a half-century ago.

This devastating loss, because the victims were gay men, was shrouded with shame and silence instead of support and love, council President Helena Moreno said. The victims should have received the solemn recognition they deserved, and their families should have received an outpouring of support.

While it was not done then, we want to take the opportunity to correct that wrong.

In the summer of 1973, the Up Stairs Lounge occupied the second floor of 604 Iberville St. More than just a barroom, it served as a multi-purpose social center for members of a marginalized community that often faced discrimination and outright hostility. Gay men who might have otherwise lived much of their lives in secret could be themselves there.

On the night of June 24, the lounge became a place of unspeakable horror.

Shortly after 8 p.m., a fire erupted in the stairwell leading up to the lounge. Dozens of patrons were trapped. Metal bars prevented escape from second-story windows. Charred bodies were later found piled up near the windows.

The deadliest fire in modern New Orleans history was also the deadliest incident involving the LGBTQ community until the 2016 mass shooting at the Pulse Nightclub in Florida claimed 49 lives.

'Do the right thing'

Robert Fieseler, author of the 2018 book Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation, spearheaded the effort to elicit an apology from the City Council. He initially worked with council Vice-president JP Morrells office.

New Orleans is a city that pays homage to its dead by telling their stories and by respecting the deceased, Fieseler said during Thursdays meeting. Council members, youve heard this story. Now its time that we all do the right thing. Forty-nine years later, this is your historic moment.

To put that moment in perspective, Fieseler narrated a detailed Power Point presentation on the fire and its victims and aftermath. In that aftermath, city and state leaders offered no public expressions of sympathy. Victims were not allowed to have funerals in Catholic churches. Police did not follow up on leads that pointed at a suspect. The story soon disappeared in the media.

The day before the 49th anniversary of the fire, Morrell made the case for a contemporary apology.

You hear people complain about history, about why are we still reliving it?, " he said.

The city we are today is not the city we were then. With that being said, the failure of the city to acknowledge what happened inherently prevents the city from learning from it.

Indifference expected, accepted

The citys indifferent response 49 years ago wasnt even controversial, Morrell continued. It was almost expected and accepted. The city wanted to bury and forget this horrific murder and to cover up any culpability by the city in not pursuing it.

I dont have words to describe how human beings could react to a tragedy of this magnitude by so thoroughly dehumanizing the people that it occurred to.

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Gambit political editor Clancy DuBos recalled reporting on the fire as an 18-year-old University of New Orleans student only six weeks into an internship at The Times-Picayune.

A man, with much of his flesh burned off, hanging from his arms, sat on the curb across Chartres Street from the Up Stairs Lounge, DuBos said during Thursdays presentation. He was weeping and begging for help.

Another man, later identified as the Metropolitan Community Churchs Rev. Bill Larson, was pressed against the bars of a window, his hair and flesh nearly burned off, one arm hanging out through the metal bars that had prevented his escape, DuBos said.

He described the emotional detachment reporters rely on when covering tragic stories.

I was just learning that skill set in June 1973. But I have never been able to detach emotionally from the Up Stairs fire story.

A double tragedy

Council member Joe Giarrusso said hed never seen the council chambers as quiet as during Fieselers presentation.

You held up a mirror to what the past looked like and reminded us of this ugly history, Giarrusso said. I think its important that we take this time to be uncomfortableThe apology is the bare minimum we can do at this point.

The fire was a double tragedy, Moreno said, because of the lives lost and also the lack of attention, and even lack of acknowledgment, from city leadership and other powerful organizations in our city, like the Archdiocese.

Fire victims acknowledged Thursday included World War II veteran Ferris LeBlanc. LeBlancs body was identified, but his family in California did not learn of his death until years later. His remains still rest in an unmarked grave in New Orleans.

Rose Little, whose brother, Clarence McCloskey Jr., died in the fire, attended Thursdays meeting.

No one was ever charged with setting the fire. Witnesses said that earlier that evening, an unruly Up Stairs Lounge patron threatened to burn the bar down as he was being thrown out.

That police made little effort to investigate the fire was among the systemic failures at the time, Morrell said. You had witnesses on the scene who told (police) who did it. Not only was that NOPD not concerned with solving the crime, they actively did not want to solve it.

Police officers who attended Thursdays council meeting were part of this healing process, Morrell said. When the city accepts responsibility for what went wrong, that includes every branch of this city.

Morrell also criticized the medias coverage of the disaster: Once the sensationalism of a dead man being burnt in a window exhausted itself, they moved on.

The media, Morrell said, also engaged in an active effort to shield the politically powerful from the repercussions of what happened and what was done.
Even with the reversal of Roe v. Wade's Friday banning virtually all abortions in Louisiana, Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams said his office will not "shift priorities" to prosecute cases related to the procedure.

Meanwhile, the district attorneys in neighboring Jefferson and St. Tammany parishes were taking more of a wait-and-see stance.

The comments from local top prosecutors came after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that allowed abortions in the United States. Friday's historic ruling, in turn, kicked in a "trigger law" banning abortions in most cases in Louisiana. Physicians who perform abortions could face jail time or fines.

Abortion banned in Louisiana after Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade The ruling will force the closure of the three remaining abortion clinics in the state.

In a statement released Friday afternoon, Williams said the Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office would continue to focus on the most serious crimes committed in the community: murder, shootings, rape, armed robberies and carjackings.

It would not be wise or prudent to shift our priority from tackling senseless violence happening in our city to investigating the choices women make with regard to their own bodies, Williams said.

He called the Supreme Courts decision a complete disregard for the long-established constitutional tenets of our democracy" and "a cruel and irresponsible stripping of a womans agency.

On the north shore, District Attorney Warren Montgomery, who has jurisdiction over St. Tammany and Washington parishes, said he doesn't see his office encountering such prosecutions.

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"To the best of my knowledge, there are no abortion clinics in my jurisdiction [so] there's nothing to prosecute," Montgomery said. "I will prosecute anything at any time and any place, but it has to be in my jurisdiction."

Indeed, with Louisiana's trigger law, abortion clinics will effectively be closed.

Meanwhile, Senate Bill 342, which the state Legislature adopted this session and was recently signed into law by Gov. John Bel Edwards, also bans abortions from the moment of fertilization. There are no exceptions for rape, incest or the age of the pregnant woman. That bill carries stiff penalties for anyone found guilty of performing abortions.

Another bill the Legislature adopted this spring, Senate Bill 388, makes it illegal for anyone to send abortion pills to Louisiana residents by mail.

When asked about prosecutions related to abortion pills being mailed to St. Tammany residences, Montgomery said, "I have not examined that statute. All of this is so new. With my budget cut, I haven't had time to evaluate the repercussions."

Jefferson Parish District Attorney Paul Connick did not comment on the ruling or the prospect of related criminal prosecutions. The office released the following statement Friday:

"At this time it would be premature to comment on any potential prosecutorial decisions that the Jefferson Parish DAs Office may face in the future.

Michelle Hunter, Sara Pagones and Matt Sledge contributed to this story.
New Orleans' only abortion clinic closed its doors Friday in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned nearly 50 years of abortion protections and significantly restricted abortion access across the country.

By 11 a.m., the Uptown clinic was shuttered without any official announcement or fanfare. In Baton Rouge, a second clinic quickly followed. The state's third and final clinic in Shreveport remained open Friday, but only to aid and comfort about 50 patients who had gathered there for consults and afternoon procedures.

Related: Abortion is now banned in Louisiana. Here's what you need to know.

Louisianas so-called trigger law set the closures into motion, mandating that if the landmark Roe v. Wade decision was overturned, abortions would be immediately banned in the state.

On Friday, the administrator for the New Orleans clinic, Shemka Brown, said workers there were heartbroken, but that they had been preparing themselves for the moment since a draft of the highest courts highly anticipated decision was leaked by Politico and other media on May 2.

Activists and protesters gathered at the facility in the hours after the U.S. Supreme Court decision was released  some outraged at the ruling, others feeling joyous and victorious.

One woman arrived at the clinic for regularly scheduled prayer, and was surprised to discover there would be no one for which to pray.

I guess were not praying here today, said Janet Bacon, a member of Raven Ministries in Gretna. Our prayers have already been answered.

State Rep. Mandie Landry, who represents a variety of New Orleans neighborhoods, was among one of the first people to reach the clinic. Landry said she broke down in tears on her drive, and expressed fear for women who find themselves with unwanted pregnancies.

More women are going to die, she said, referencing those who would still seek out abortions, even outside of professional medical settings. Those coat hanger stories are real, she said.

Dressed in a T-shirt with the words Pro Roe, a Tulane Law School student shook her head in disappointment. Its just devastating and horrifying, said the student, Rebecca Goldstein.

But others found cause to rejoice: Bill Shanks, pastor of New Covenant Fellowship in Metairie, said he had been praying for this day for 36 years. When he began his ministry decades ago, he said, New Orleans had multiple abortion clinics. On Friday, he was thrilled to see the last one finally shut down.

No more little boys and girls will be killed in this city, he said, smiling.

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Shanks and a supporter, Christine Harper, yelled at the workers as they drove out of the clinics parking lot.

The babies are free from your murderous hands, Harper shouted.

+6 Abortion is now banned in Louisiana. Heres what you need to know. The U.S. Supreme Court voted Friday to uphold a Mississippi law, overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that recognized that the rig

In Baton Rouge, the clinic closed quietly, and was dark and empty when a group of more than a dozen people gathered to pray outside the building for about an hour. The clinic had prepared for the expected decision by ceasing to book new patients weeks ago, according to WWNO.

The clinic in Shreveport, however, had a waitlist more than 400 women strong, according to its administrator, Kathaleen Pittman. While the clinic on Friday had ceased providing abortion procedures, Pittman said it would remain open to answer what staff anticipated would be a deluge of questions from patients in coming days.

A lot of tears have been shed, and theres a lot of anger, Pittman said. Its been difficult to explain to a building full of patients today what is going on. But we wont abandon them.

Pittman said the clinic had struggled in the last several months to meet the demand of patients from Louisiana and out of state, including many from Texas. That state's abortion ban took effect last year, making most illegal after the detection of any cardiac activity.

A Louisiana doctor who provided some of the first abortions in the state said Friday she now has the distinction of providing some of the last.

Its a sad day for American women, said the doctor, who worked at two clinics in Louisiana and did not want to be identified out of fear of threats.

As the effects of the ruling ripple across the U.S., the physician said it will be very hard for Louisiana residents to get abortions for a period of time, unless some sort of underground network falls into place. She said the women she saw were typically poor, without the means to travel to other states for medical services.

Some people can barely get the money together to do it locally, she said.

Its not clear what will happen next, but the 82-year-old doctor, who has provided abortions in Louisiana for more than 50 years, said she did not expect her career to end like this.

I expected to be carried out feet first. I expected to work until I physically could never work again.

Staff writers Emily Woodruff and Carlie Wells contributed to this report.
After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its Roe v. Wade decision on Friday, activists gathered outside New Orleans only abortion clinic as workers locked its doors for the last time.

Their reactions were visceral: A Tulane Law student worried that womens rights were being systematically stripped away as a pastor praised the day that babies lives were saved.

And by 11 a.m., it was quiet again.

Related: Abortion is now banned in Louisiana. Heres what you need to know.

The Supreme Courts decision ended constitutional protections for abortion that had existed for nearly 50 years. It is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half of the states, including Louisiana. The states three abortion clinics, including in Uptown New Orleans, were forced to shutter Friday.

"It was a very heartbreaking thing for everyone," said Shemka Brown, the clinic's administrator. "But weve been preparing ourselves for this moment."

A Louisiana doctor who provided some of the first abortions in the state said she now has the distinction of providing some of the last.

Its a sad day for American women, said the doctor, who works at two clinics in Louisiana and did not want to be identified out of fear of threats from anti-abortion groups.

Next steps unclear

As the effects of overturning Roe ripple across the U.S., the doctor said it will be very hard for Louisiana residents to get abortions for a period of time, unless some sort of underground network falls into place. The women she sees in clinic are typically poor with no way to get to other states.

Some people can barely get the money together to do it locally, said the doctor, who is 82. They cant even go to Baton Rouge to have it done.

Its not clear what will happen next, but the doctor, who has provided abortions in Louisiana since the 70s, did not expect this would be how her career ended.

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I expected to be carried out feet first, said the doctor. I expected to work until I physically could never work again.

State Rep. Mandie Landry, speaking to journalists outside of the closed clinic, said she started sobbing in the car as she drove up. Louisianas three clinics had been overwhelmed in recent weeks, she said, with women seeking abortions ahead of the ban, and from those traveling from out of state to take advantage of the clinics before they closed.

She said she worried for women who would seek abortions regardless of the states decision to ban them. Those coat hanger stories are real, Landry said.

Prayers, arguments

Janet Bacon, a member of Raven Ministries in Gretna, arrived to the clinic Friday morning as she does each week to pray for the women and workers inside. I guess were not praying here today, she said. Our prayers have already been answered.

Shortly after, Rebecca Goldstein, a student at Tulane Law School, said the highest courts decision was devastating and horrible, adding that it most deeply hurt minority women and those living in poverty. Rich white women will always have access to abortions, Goldstein said.

Bill Shanks, pastor of New Covenant Fellowship in Metairie, said he had been praying for this day for 36 years. He said there were 10 abortion clinics three decades ago when he began his outreach.

No little boys and girls will be killed in this city anymore, he said.

Moments later, a woman who lives near to the clinic walked by and heard Shanks words. Your definition of what you want to call a child is not the same as others, the neighbor, Pamela Girod, said. And thats not something youre willing to acknowledge.

If your mama would have had an abortion, you wouldnt be here, Shanks shot back.

As the last clinic workers drove from the parking lot, Shanks and a friend, Christine Harper, yelled at them. The babies are free of your murderous hands, Harper shouted gleefully.

Staff writers Emily Woodruff and Carlie Wells contributed to this story.
Two men were arrested Thursday in the June 8 Little Woods shooting that killed 26-year-old Derrell Brooks, New Orleans police say.

Travis Scott, 40, and Charles Penn, 30, were booked at the Orleans Parish Justice Center with second-degree murder, obstruction of justice and being felons with guns.

Brooks was shot in the 8000 block of Trapier Avenue. His mother, Shantel Mitchell, told WVUE television she was able to talk to her son by phone as he lay dying, thanks to a passerby who helped Brooks dial her number as they waited for help.

Authorities did not say what evidence led them to arrest Scott and Penn.
A Kenner police officer shot someone armed with a gun during a chase Thursday night in River Ridge, authorities said.

The person was shot in the leg and taken into custody. The Jefferson Parish's Sheriff's office is investigating the officer-involved shooting, according a written statement released by the agency.

The Sheriff's Office declined to provide additional information later Friday.

Kenner police officers tried to stop a vehicle around 10:30 Thursday night in the Susan Park area. The driver refused to stop and led officers on a chase, authorities said. The Sheriff's Office did not say why officers tried to pull the vehicle over.

The chase continued into the 600 block of South Cumberland Street, where the driver stopped. The driver and a passenger got out of the vehicle and ran, with the police officers chasing, the Sheriff's Office said.

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During the foot chase, one person pulled out a handgun, the Sheriff's Office said.

The Sheriff's Office said a Kenner police officer then fired, hitting the person with the gun in the leg. The injured person was taken into custody, and the other person who was being chased was captured nearby.

Both are expected to face several charges, the Sheriff's Office said, including aggravated flight from an officer, aggravated assault on a peace officer and various traffic-related offenses.

Authorities have not released their names, genders or ages.
The U.S. Supreme Court voted Friday to uphold a Mississippi law, overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that recognized that the right to liberty in the Constitution, which protects personal privacy, includes a woman's right to decide whether to continue a pregnancy. The 6-3 ruling returns decisions on abortions to the states.

As one of over a dozen states with a so-called trigger law on the book, Louisiana has been poised to ban abortion since 2006.

Abortion banned in Louisiana after Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade The ruling will force the closure of the three remaining abortion clinics in the state.

What changes in Louisiana with this decision?

Louisiana's trigger law, signed by former Gov. Kathleen Blanco, goes into effect once Roe v. Wade is overturned. The law bans most abortions and criminalizes the act of providing an abortion, except in some instances.

It is unclear if Louisianas three abortion clinics must close their doors immediately. Some providers in Louisiana have said they would stop providing abortions as soon as the decision was announced.

SB342, a bill by state Sen. Katrina Jackson, was also passed in the recent legislative session and signed by Gov. John Bel Edwards. It bans all abortions from the moment of fertilization," and penalizes people who provide abortions with jail time and fines.

Does Louisiana allow exceptions for rape or incest?

There are no exceptions for rape or incest in the 2006 law or SB342, regardless of the age of the pregnant woman.

Can pregnancy be terminated for medical reasons when the mother's life is in danger? What if the fetus is not viable?

Yes, there are exceptions if there is substantial risk of death or impairment if the woman continues with the pregnancy. However, the law stipulates that the physician must make a reasonable effort to save both the life of the mother and fetus. SB342 also specifically states that abortions are allowed for ectopic pregnancies.

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SB342 also allows for exceptions if the the fetus is medically futile. That diagnosis must come from two physicians and requires them to submit a report.

Is the abortion pill legal?

Louisiana lawmakers recently voted to criminalize the online and mail-order distribution of abortion pills, making it illegal for anyone to send abortion pills to Louisiana residents by mail. Those who do face one to five years in prison and fines up to $50,000.

Providers in the state who currently prescribe pills will no longer be able to do so unless the life of the mother is at risk or the fetus is not viable.

Is emergency contraception like Plan B or birth control illegal?

Birth control and Plan B remain legal.

Can Louisiana residents go to other states for an abortion?

Yes. But many of the surrounding states have trigger laws that have also taken effect. The median driving distance to an abortion provider for Louisiana residents will now be over 600 miles, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

As of the day of the ruling, Florida has not yet banned abortion and allows it up to 24 weeks. On July 1, that will change to 15 weeks in Florida. The nearest states that allow abortion may be North Carolina, Illinois, Kansas and New Mexico.

How many women get abortions in Louisiana?

Louisiana has approximately 1.1 million female residents of reproductive age. In 2021, 7,444 abortions were performed in the state.
When Michael Zummer took what he regarded as a principled stand, federal judge Kurt Engelhardt shared his legitimate concerns that the U.S. Justice Department is unable or unwilling to self-police lapses of ethics, professionalism in its ranks. It was all, Engelhardt said, troubling, to say the least.

But that was the only encouragement Zummer received, and now the federal appeals court in New Orleans has dealt what may be the final blow to his yearslong crusade to regain his job as an FBI agent and extract damages from his old bosses.

The big question he raised, however, remains unanswered. It is whether former St. Charles Parish District Attorney Harry Morel got an improper sweetheart deal when he was allowed to plead guilty in 2016 to a solitary obstruction charge, which carried a maximum sentence of three years.

This came after federal authorities described Morel as a sexual predator who traded his official influence for sex with women in trouble. That went on for most of the 34 years Morel spent in charge of prosecutions in St. Charles Parish, and investigators identified about 30 victims.

Nobody knows more about the investigation than Zummer, who led it. He said Wednesday that agents had collected evidence that could have put Morel in prison for decades.

When the case broke, the U.S. Attorney in New Orleans was an interim appointee, Dana Boente, who took no action. After Kenneth Polite was named to the job in 2013, Zummer got his hopes up when the Justice Department approved charging Morel with racketeering. Instead, Polite, citing the death of a witness, the statute of limitations and other evidentiary problems, approved the plea deal.

Zummer hit the roof over what he saw as the latest evidence of unmerited leniency from corrupt prosecutors. He must believe passionately in his cause, for he has suffered mightily for his efforts to advance it.

A passionate belief does not necessarily make anyone right, and Polite's decision seemed justified to other FBI agents, but Zummer was full of crusading zeal. He sought permission to explain his concerns, as a private citizen exercising a First Amendment right, in a letter to Engelhardt, who was presiding over the case.

Failing to get permission, Zummer wrote to Engelhardt anyway and refused to withdraw his letter when asked to do so. The FBI responded by canceling his security clearance, which meant he could not work or get paid, although he was still officially an employee. Thus he needed permission to take a job elsewhere. He never got it and was without a livelihood for three years before he was formally fired and set free, which does sound like mean-spirited retaliation.

Zummer was never accused of divulging classified information, but the FBI explained that he had to go because of (his) position that information (an agent) personally gathers in the performance of his duties may be disclosed (in his capacity] as a private citizen..

That was indeed a far-fetched argument. The FBI did finally allow him to publish his letters unredacted, but his complaints about the revocation of his security clearance were ruled outside court jurisdiction.

He had an unblemished academic and law enforcement record before the Morel case made him mad, and is a Marine Corps veteran of the war in Iraq.

He talks of an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, but that's always a long shot, even with a stronger case than his.

Email James Gill at gill504nola@gmail.com.
Lets face the facts: Not all Black people who can vote actually vote. For that matter, not all people in Louisiana who can vote do vote.

But those of us who do vote should feel like we are represented at the community level, at the parish level, in state representative and state senate districts  and in our U.S. Congress.

We want our voices heard, and we want people who know us, appreciate us, and know what we need and want to represent us. We want to be listened to when we have something to say.

But a lot of us are used to not being listened to, not being heard. Were used to being ignored.

I wrote in April 2021 that I wasnt confident that this state Legislature would do the right thing and update our congressional maps to include two majority-Black districts, giving us a chance to have better representation in a state with a Black population of about 33%. Im sad to say it, but I was right. It feels like they smiled at us, said hello, shook our hands and didn't even ask how we were doing before moving on.

The Legislature had multiple chances to get it right. They couldve been clear that  without promising  a second, majority-Black congressional district was at least a possibility during each redistricting road show.

They couldve gone into this years first special session with a stated intention to make the obvious right thing happen. Instead, they went into the session saying they would listen to the various constituencies and come up with something fair and reasonable. Im all for that approach  when its clear that theres no obvious change that needs to be made.

They couldve responded to the governor's veto by agreeing to change the existing maps. Instead, they overrode his veto.

A federal judge ordered legislators to return to Baton Rouge to add a second majority-Black district because the Legislature-approved map violates the U.S. Voting Rights Act. They couldve entered the second redistricting session with a desire to create a more reasonable set of maps. Legislative leaders said they couldnt do it before they tried. Then, like children attempting to follow the letter of a parental directive and with no intention of fulfilling the intended desire, they ended the special session with no new maps.

So, here we go again. A group of White people limiting who can be represented, and whose votes can count.

Not long after the nation was founded, the U.S. Constitution officially granted the right to vote to White men who were property owners or those who paid taxes. They were about 6% of the nations population. Was that fair representation?

It wasnt until the 1828 presidential election that White men who didnt own property could vote. In a few states, free Black men who owned property could vote, but women, people of the Jewish faith and others couldnt vote. Our country even had the nerve to decide that only married people could vote. Some groups gained voting rights, then our government took them away. Was that fair representation?

In a few days, on June 29, U. S. District Judge Shelly Dick is holding a hearing to consider how best to add a second majority-Black district. Theres a Fifth Circuit appeals court hearing July 8. A new set of maps may or may not have an impact on the upcoming elections, but qualifying is July 20. Thats not much time.

Just as the special session was ending, several Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus members wanted to weigh in on the matter. One was able to speak. Mysteriously, his comments were not broadcast. Someone cut off the feed.

That felt like a slap. It felt like we werent being listening to, we werent being heard and we were intentionally being ignored.

To be clear, most of us want someone who looks like us to represent us, but weve shown plenty of times that if the right non-Black person is available, well make that choice. Just give us a chance. Dont turn off the mic.
Ukrainian forces to withdraw from Severodonetsk: regional governor

Xinhua) 18:44, June 24, 2022

Ukrainian forces were ordered to withdraw from Severodonetsk, the administrative center of the Ukraine-controlled part of the eastern Lugansk region, a regional governor said on Friday.

"The soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the National Guard were ordered to withdraw to new positions, to new fortified areas, and carry out full-fledged combat operations from those positions," Serhiy Haidai, head of the Lugansk regional military administration, said on Telegram.

About 90 percent of buildings in Severodonetsk were damaged in military actions, Haidai said.

On June 20, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said that Russian military forces aimed to capture Luhansk by June 26.

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OSLO, Norway, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Yesterday, Enova announced that Glomfjord Hydrogen, where Nel owns 23 percent of the shares, will receive up to NOK 150 million in funding as one of five maritime hydrogen hubs along the Norwegian coastline.

"This is great news for Glomfjord Hydrogen and Nel. The funding from Enova is crucial for the realization of the project." says Nel's CEO Jon Andre Lkke.

Glomfjord Hydrogen plans to establish a 20 MW hydrogen plant in Glomfjord in Mely municipality for production of renewable hydrogen to customers in the maritime sector. The project, which is owned by Greenstat ASA, Mely commune and Troms Kraft ASA in addition to Nel, was initiated in June 2016.

"The 20 MW hydrogen plant in Glomfjord will, if realized, be the same size as Europe's currently largest hydrogen plant", says Lkke, referring to Iberdrola's hydrogen plant in Puertollano, Spain, where Nel also delivered the electrolysers.

"Glomfjord is a place with a long and proud industrial history in Norway, and until the 90s Glomfjord Industrial Park was the largest hydrogen production site in the world. It is therefore very gratifying that Glomfjord once again seems to become a new green hydrogen hub in Norway", says Lkke.

Enova, which is a state enterprise owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment, also announced that four additional hydrogen hubs will receive funding. These projects will be located in Rrvik, Hitra, Flor and Kristiansand.

"We are happy to see so many large and interesting projects developing on our own home turf in Norway, where we have our roots and a natural competitive advantage", says Lkke.

All in all, the five hydrogen hubs will receive up to NOK 669 million in support from Enova, which also announced that they will support seven game-changing hydrogen and ammonia driven vessels with more than NOK 451 million.

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 was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/nel-asa/r/nel-asa--enova-funding-provides-breakthrough-for-hydrogen-project-in-glomfjord,c3591110

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The Japan Meteorological Agency releases its three-month weather forecast, saying that temperatures are expected to be high for the July through September period.
CROWN POINT  The Foamation Project will release a special craft beer this weekend to raise money and awareness for suicide prevention.

The experimental craft brewery operates out of Crown Brewing at 211 S. East St. in downtown Crown Point. It's run by brewer and owner Thom Klekot and PR and sales manager Rachel Klekot.

They put out special releases of craft beer, including the Mind Your Colonel Copper Lager and Coffee Lager that come out this weekend on tap and in four-packs of 12-ounce cans. The fundraiser will take place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday. It also includes a bake sale and T-shirt sales with proceeds going to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

The Mind Your Colonel Copper Lager has an ABV of 5.4%. Klekot compared the taste to "toasted bread with a balanced semi-sweet caramel nose with a touch of lemon from the dry hop," describing it as having a "medium body with the right amount of bitterness for supreme drinkability."

It's the second year The Foamation Project released the Mind Your Colonel Lager but the first it has come out with the Mind Your Colonel Coffee Copper Lager.

"Talk about a crisp breakfast beer, we teamed up with fellow nerds over at Smugglers Coffee for seriously the perfect blend in this beer. We use their +1 for Charisma single-origin Mexican light roast coffee," Klekot said. "This is our second annual fundraiser in the name of our dear friend Gary 'The Colonel' DeYoung who lost his fight to cancer. As he did in life, we are using his spirit to help others."

The fundraising event also honors another friend they lost.

"The loss of The Colonel unfortunately overlapped with the devastating loss of another  Ian Krajewski, who lost his battle with depression. We are honoring him in reminding all that you're not alone," Klekot said. "Suicide is an epidemic. Undoubtedly we've all been touched and affected by the loss of someone struggling in silence. We want to assist in the effort of ending that silence. Mental health is not a scary phrase and there should be no barriers in asking for help."

The local chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention will be on hand with educational materials and a sympathetic ear.

"We've teamed with Big Mike's Crew, a local nonprofit that raises funds for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention due to the ripple effect of their own personal loss," Klekot said. "They will be with us on Saturday providing information and answering any questions anyone may have."

The craft brewery has other projects in the works.

"The Foamation Project has been getting a great response and has gathered a following after branching out to being consistently on tap and available around the region," Klekot said. "We are currently buttoning up some details on running a weekly event with Crown Brewing, which will be unique for the Region. We'll give you details on that when we get the green light."

It's also looking for a brick-and-mortar location.

"We're also on the hunt for a small production space of our own," he said. "We have just started this endeavor so there is not much to say as of right now. It will be production-based to start, no taproom or bottle shop."

For more information, visit https://foamationproject.square.site/ or find The Foamation Project on Instagram.

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VALPARAISO  Several students at Purdue University Northwest organized an event to honor local veterans Wednesday.

Operation Honor was meant to connect veterans with resources, such as Southshore Friends of the Veterans and the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, along with other veterans.

Kayla Vasilko, who was one of the main organizers, thought it would be important to connect veterans to resources, as many come out of the military lacking the support they need to be successful.

Its not too often people just get together to say thank you to veterans for their service, Vasilko said.

The outing, held at Gabis Arboretum in Valparaiso, was open to veterans and offered food, pamphlets, supporters and materials to make care packages or handle stress. Several area organizations such as Domino's and Culver's provided food.

Vasilko said it is important for veterans to connect with others who went through the same experience, as it is one that is unique and not many people can understand it.

We are always stronger when we are partnering with others, Vasilko said.

Several veterans were able to share their stories with others and discuss how they got to where they were.

Veteran Mike Wooden said he was glad to be there. He was in the U.S. Army fom 1972 to '76 and is now a member of American Legion, a nonprofit organization that tries to help connect veterans to benefits.

Lonnie McDade, a veteran who was in the U.S. Army from 1981 to 2004 who participated in several campaigns where he was in combat, said he takes a lot of pride in serving the country. He is District 1 commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

McDade was part of the Desert Storm campaign and Iraqi Freedom campaign.

This is always nice to help find out what veterans can get, McDade said. He said at VFW they are trying to combat the stereotypes people have of veterans and are trying to push toward being more family-oriented.

He said a lot of veterans are younger now and are still active workers, rather than people who were in the military the majority of their lives.

Tony Sindone, a professor in the College of Business at PNW and veteran, said he was grateful for the event. Sindone joined the U.S. Air Force in 1973 and stayed for six years.

He found himself very successful in his technical training for the military and it made him realize he could actually go to college.

I remember arguing with my dad about even finishing high school. He wanted me to go straight into working, Sindone said.

After he left active duty, Sindone was able to pursue his bachelor's degree and then went to graduate school at Notre Dame.

I met some amazing people at Notre Dame, people from all around the world, Sindone said.

He said he doesn't think he would be where he was now if he did not have the confidence to go to school if not for his military training.

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MICHIGAN CITY  Explicit images and videos of child pornography were uncovered in the possession of a Michigan City man, who was arrested

Scott A. Dailey, 50, faces a charge of a Level 5 felony count of possession of child pornography, according to LaPorte Superior Court.

The Indiana State Police Cyber Crimes Unit served a search warrant Wednesday in the 2700 block of Wozniak Road in Michigan City, ISP said.

Authorities said an extensive investigation by the Indiana State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force revealed Dailey had explicit videos and images of children.

The investigation was launched following a tip was that was received from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, alleging illegal activity on Dailey's social media account.

Investigators found Dailey had 16 uploaded files of child pornography, including an explicit video of a man sexually assaulting a girl who was around the ages of 7 or 8 years old, according to court records. Other media files saved to his phone included children who were between the ages of 5 and 13 years old.

Court reports alleged Dailey admitted to possessing the files and he said he has an addiction to pornography that turned into viewing child pornography.

Dailey was taken into custody without incident Wednesday and he was booked into the LaPorte County Jail where he will remain until his initial hearing.

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CROWN POINT  A judge allowed Lake County prosecutors to add firearm enhancements Thursday to charges filed against a man accused of attempting to murder a Gary police sergeant earlier this year.

Kameron T. Cooks Jr., 22, of Gary, is accused of firing more than 45 rounds from a semi-automatic rifle and a handgun altered to function as a fully automatic weapon at Detective Sgt. William "Bill" Fazekas on Feb. 7 during a traffic stop in the 400 block of Johnson Street.

Fazekas was shot twice in the left shoulder and lost half of the blood in his body before other officers came to his aid and he was transported to a Chicago hospital for surgery, police said.

If convicted of attempted murder, Cooks could face 20 to 40 years in prison. A firearm enhancement could add another five to 20 years to any possible sentence.

Lake Criminal Court Judge Salvador Vasquez granted Lake County Supervisory Deputy Prosecutor Michelle Jatkiewicz's motion to amend charging documents in the case.

Defense attorney Michael Lambert told the judge he had advised Cooks of the enhancements, said discovery in the case was ongoing and requested another hearing be scheduled in about two months.

Jatkiewicz said she was waiting for ballistics and crime scene reports to be completed before turning them over to Lambert as discovery.

Vasquez set Cooks' next hearing for Aug. 25. Cooks is currently scheduled to stand trial the week of Nov. 14.

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Abortion still is legal in Indiana. But maybe not for much longer.

The Republican-controlled General Assembly is scheduled to convene in special session July 6, ostensibly to approve Republican Gov. Eric Holcombs plan to return a portion of the states bulging budget reserves to Hoosier taxpayers.

However, following Fridays U.S. Supreme Court ruling repealing the right to abortion established by its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, Indiana lawmakers are almost certain next month to enact severe restrictions on abortion access, or outright ban the procedure in the Hoosier State.

GOP legislative leaders were mum in the immediate aftermath of the high court ruling on exactly how far the House and Senate plan to go toward eliminating the approximately 7,000 abortions performed each year in Indiana, and whether any abortion ban will include exceptions for rape, incest, or the life or health of the mother.

Its also not yet known if the Legislature will take action to criminalize women who obtain an illegal abortion, prohibit Hoosier women from seeking an abortion in another state, or punish individuals who aid women in finding the two-dose abortion pill or another abortion method.

But Senate President Rod Bray, R-Martinsville, made clear in a statement the upcoming special session has become an abortion session.

"Indiana has a strong record as a pro-life state, and I am pleased the Supreme Court ruled to return power to the states with regard to this important issue. With the final decision in hand, we can begin to formulate a policy that is right for Indiana that protects unborn children and cares for the health and lives of mothers and their babies. I expect we will be able to work on that in the upcoming special session, Bray said.

"We certainly realize this is an extremely contentious and potentially polarizing issue," he said. "We will proceed with this conversation in a civil and substantive way so that all sides have the opportunity to be heard as we chart a course for Hoosiers.

House Speaker Todd Huston, R-Fishers, anticipates any legislative action limiting abortion access will be paired with the state expanding resources and services to support pregnant mothers and care for their babies.

It's my expectation for state lawmakers to take action to further protect life when we return to the Statehouse for a special session, Huston said.

We recognize the passion from all sides on this issue," he said, "and that's why I expect the General Assembly to thoughtfully vet any legislation through the full legislative process, including committee hearings and public testimony."

Holcomb also said he expects the Legislature to act on abortion in the special session now that the U.S. Supreme Court has given the go-ahead for each state to set its own abortion policies.

"The Supreme Courts decision is clear, and it is now up to the states to address this important issue. Well do that in short order in Indiana. Ive already called the General Assembly back on July 6, and I expect members to take up this matter as well, Holcomb said.

I have been clear in stating I am pro-life. We have an opportunity to make progress in protecting the sanctity of life, and thats exactly what we will do," he said.

Records show the governor never has failed to enact any abortion restriction approved by the Legislature during his six years in office, even when the statutes were plainly unconstitutional and later struck down in federal court.

State Sen. Liz Brown, R-Fort Wayne, a leading anti-abortion legislator who stood outside the U.S. Supreme Court during oral arguments in the abortion case decided Friday, said shes ready to act in Indianapolis.

By overturning Roe, the justices are returning abortion policy making to the states. Hoosier elected officials are better positioned to set abortion policy than unelected judges, as we are answerable to voters and they are not, Brown said.

As someone who strongly believes in the sanctity of life, I regret unborn babies will continue losing their lives in states with liberal abortion laws," she said. "In Indiana, we affirm the dignity of mother and child. We must seize this opportunity to empower women and protect unborn human life.

State Rep. Julie Olthoff, R-Crown Point, echoed that sentiment.

"This is a huge win for Indiana, and we'll now have the opportunity to save thousands of innocent lives. I strongly believe we'll couple any action to protect life with expanding resources and services to help pregnant mothers and their newborn babies," Olthoff said.

State Reps. Hal Slager, R-Schererville, and Jim Pressel, R-Rolling Prairie, were less certain of the final form Indiana's abortion legislation will take. But they're grateful for the opportunity as state legislators to set the abortion policy that will prevail in Indiana.

"The Supreme Court's ruling rightfully returns the question of abortion back to the people of each state. Weve been clear that once this decision was official we wanted to come back to the Statehouse to pass meaningful legislation to further protect life and build on our strong pro-life track record," Slager said.

U.S Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., and U.S. Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., who both supported the U.S. Supreme Court justices nominated by Republican former President Donald Trump that tipped the high court toward overturning Roe, including Justice Amy Coney Barrett of South Bend, said theyre hopeful Indiana legislators will quickly limit abortion access.

Today is a monumental day for the protection of life in America and a defining moment for our nation. Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided, and the Supreme Court has corrected a historic injustice, Young said.

The American people will now have the opportunity, through their state elected officials, to decide our laws when it comes to protecting life and protecting women. Its now time to work on solutions that affirm the right to life and support pregnant women and mothers.

Braun similarly cheered that after 50 years, the right to life has finally been returned to the people and their elected representatives.

Im excited to see the states take the lead to protect the unborn, and I look forward to crafting solutions that will defend the unborn and save lives, Braun said.

Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita, a Munster native, said hes long devoted his efforts to defending Indianas pro-life laws against the gross injustice of abortion, and Rokita vowed to continue doing so in the months and years ahead.

With todays Supreme Court ruling, pro-life states such as Indiana should find it easier to legislate and enforce strong laws that protect lives, Rokita said. But our fight for unborn children continues in earnest. We will continue working vigorously to protect those little ones and the physical, mental and emotional well-being of their mothers.

Meanwhile, Democratic members of the Indiana House and Senate said they stand ready to oppose GOP efforts to deny Hoosier women autonomy over their bodies and the right to choose whether and when to bear a child.

Having control over your body, whether its your reproductive health, or the best decisions for your life and your family, are fundamental human rights, said House Democratic Caucus Chairwoman Terri Austin, D-Anderson, and House Floor Leader Cherrish Pryor, D-Indianapolis.

They are personal decisions that need to be made by a woman and her physician, not a room of 150 legislators in Indianapolis. Women who can control decisions about their bodies and their reproductive health have the ability to influence the outcome of their future and their familys future.

Democrats, however, are very much a minority at the Statehouse with limited influence over public policy since Republicans control 71 of 100 House seats and 39 of 50 Senate seats.

Nevertheless, Senate Democratic Leader Greg Taylor, D-Indianapolis, said his members will work to protect women whose lives are literally on the line as Republicans decide Indianas abortion policies.

Due to decades of underinvestment in key social infrastructure, Indiana does not have the ability to support a forced-birth society. We already have a critical health care provider and OB/GYN shortage, the Department of Child Services is underfunded, and we have the second highest rate of child abuse and the highest rate of child deaths from abuse in the nation, Taylor said.

We will be fighting to promote life for women, expand maternal health coverage and support, and invest in key infrastructure in Indiana like child care, education, DCS and public health," he said. "All of these efforts will be critical if were about to start forcing girls and women to have babies in a state that currently ranks 3rd in the country for maternal mortality.

Planned Parenthood, the leading abortion provider in Indiana with an abortion clinic in Merrillville, said it also will continue the battle for care  no matter what.

Make no mistake  this decision goes beyond abortion. This is about who has power over you, who has the authority to make decisions for you, and who can control your future, said Jennifer Allen, CEO of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates.

This is a dark day for our country, but our fight is far from over," Allen said. "The people of Indiana should know that Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates will always fight for you, and we will not back down. Generations before us have fought tirelessly to gain and protect our rights. Now its our turn to pick up the mantle.

Its not known at this time how the abortion ruling, and subsequent legislative action, will play with Indiana voters. The most recent, publicly available polling on the subject  the 2019 Hoosier Poll conducted by Ball State University  found just 17% of Indiana adults favor a total abortion ban.

That potentially could boost the campaign of Thomas McDermott Jr., the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate and a five-term Hammond mayor, who described the Supreme Courts abortion ruling as a travesty and said Young is to blame for confirming in the Senate three of the six justices who voted to overturn Roe.

Today, 50 years of constitutional protections, under Roe v. Wade, has ended. Due to the Supreme Courts holding, American women lost their most basic fundamental right, the right to make their own medical decisions, McDermott said.

I am 100% pro-woman and 100% pro-choice ... I think these women, recently stripped of their civil liberties, need to send a message and fire Todd Young, he said.

The abortion issue also potentially could scramble existing political party coalitions as voters with a single-minded focus on ending abortion may realize the Republican Party does not represent their interests on whatever their second-most important issue is.

U.S. Rep. Frank J. Mrvan, D-Highland, said he believes the Supreme Court ruling reinforces the importance of elections and the need for the government to stay out of the most intimate parts of peoples' lives.

Todays lamentable decision by the Supreme Court reflects the very real consequences of our elections. The decision to become a parent is one of the most important decisions any person can make, and it should be made by women, their families, their faith, and medical professionals, not the government or elected politicians," Mrvan said. "I stand with every woman today, and will continue to fight for a country in which all women, including my two daughters, have the legal right to access safe reproductive care."

"There is a clear choice in this election between a candidate who supports the right for women to control their own bodies, and my opponent, who wants politicians to be able to make womens health decisions.

Jennifer-Ruth Green, the Republican challenging Mrvan at the Nov. 8 general election for the right to represent the 1st Congressional District of Lake, Porter and northwest LaPorte counties in the U.S. House, said she viewed Roe v. Wade as a stain on the country because it took power away from the people and their elected representatives to decide issues of abortion.

I am pro-life. I look forward to creating a culture of life with Hoosiers. We must stop the radical Democrat agenda to do the opposite. Respect for human life overall is a key ingredient to our countrys success, Green said. "The American people want their voices heard and they dont support abortion on demand, up to the moment of birth, at taxpayer expense."

U.S. Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Elkhart, whose 2nd District includes part of LaPorte County, confirmed shes already looking to restrict access to the abortion pill at the federal level, even as shes hopeful Indiana lawmakers soon will do the same at the state level.

Our prayers have been answered. By rightfully restoring power to the states, the Supreme Court has affirmed the inalienable right to life," Walorski said. As one of the most pro-life states in the nation, Indiana will lead the way in defending the vulnerable, uplifting women and families, and ensuring every child has the chance to achieve the American Dream. Our enduring commitment to life will prevail.

Following the high court decision, U.S. Rep. Jim Baird, R-Greencastle, whose 4th District includes Newton and Jasper counties tweeted simply: Life wins.

Democratic Gary Mayor Jerome Prince, on the other hand, said he sees the Supreme Court ruling as overturning a generation of progress and a a true setback for everyone who upholds a womans right to make decisions about her body and her life.

There will be years of work ahead as states, including Indiana, deal with the next steps. I urge everyone to contact your state lawmakers, voice your opposition to the Supreme Courts decision and insist on state laws that treat families with fairness and dignity. I also encourage you to get involved in activities that will help ensure every womans right to her own decisions, Prince said.

We need to be kind and supportive of women who are facing the toughest decisions of their lives in dealing with unexpected pregnancies, and we must do everything we can to ensure our laws protect them, too.

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ST. JOHN  At the start of this week, St. John residents used a collective 7 million gallons of water in one day, up from the town's average of 2.5 million gallons, Town Manager Joe Wiszowaty said.

With the heat wave that has spread across the Midwest and the South continuing into the start of summer, lawns across the Region are drying out. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, Northwest Indiana is currently experiencing "abnormally dry" conditions, though the area is not in an official drought.

As residents ramp-up lawn irrigation, St. John has seen water levels drop at the Hack Street water tower. To maintain the water budget, the town instituted a sprinkling management plan, on Wednesday.

"We want to make sure we have enough water in our system in case there is a critical issue, in case there is a water main break or a fire," Wiszowaty said.

Going forward, residents should follow an even/odd water schedule  residents with even-numbered addresses should water their lawns on even days; residents with odd-numbered address should water on odd days. The town is also asking residents to refrain from watering between 3 and 7 p.m.

According to the town's website, the management plan is temporary. Residents will be notified when the restrictions are lifted.

Using a water monitoring technology called Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, or SCADA, the town can tell most sprinkler systems are used on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Similarly, the heaviest water use is between 4 and 8 a.m.

"A lot of people are home from work around that time and there is a demand on the system," Wiszowaty said.

St. John officials had to institute a similar plan in the summer of 2020 after the town experienced "a severe water shortage."

The town does not receive any water directly from Lake Michigan; instead it relies on five wells, purchasing additional water from Schererville largely during the summer months when water-use is higher.

Just this week, St. John received approval from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to add two wells. The town also has plans to complete a study analyzing additional water capacity and storage needs.

To increase water storage, Wiszowaty said he would ultimately like to add a ground reservoir to St. John.

"It is not like we are running out of water, we just have to be smart and conserve our water and our resources and we are asking the residents to help us out," Wiszowaty said.

[Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the fact that St. John's heaviest water use is from 4 to 8 a.m., not p.m.]

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A school boards decision in 2019 to remove a mural of George Washington that includes depictions of enslaved Black people and Native Americans set off a national debate about how American historical figures should be represented in educational settings.

The mural, inside a San Francisco high school, will remain on display after the citys school board voted 4 to 3 on Wednesday in favor of rescinding a previous effort to remove it from view. The decision came several months after a February recall vote changed the makeup of the school board, which many parents had accused of prioritizing cultural debates over the challenges of educating students during the pandemic.

The school boards original goal of removing the 1,600-square-foot painting, titled Life of Washington, also faced an uphill battle in the courts. Last year, a state judge ruled in a lawsuit that officials had violated California law by neglecting to conduct an environmental review of their plan.
It shows there is a great deal of work to do for opera companies to more consistently reflect our nation and their communities, Marc A. Scorca, the president and chief executive of Opera America, said in an interview. For opera to truly be the connected, contemporary cultural expression that we want it to be, we have to reflect this country.

The study showed some signs of progress: Women now hold 61 percent of positions in administration in opera, and they account for 54 percent of leadership posts.

And opera companies have taken steps in recent years to bring more racial diversity to the stage.

The Metropolitan Opera, the nations largest performing arts organization, last year staged Terence Blanchards Fire Shut Up in My Bones, the first opera by a Black composer in its history. The Houston Grand Opera last year premiered The Snowy Day, based on the 1962 book, one of the first mainstream childrens books to feature a Black protagonist.

Wayne S. Brown, a chair of the Opera America board and the president and chief executive of the Detroit Opera, which this year staged Anthony Daviss X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, said it was important that companies worked to attract people of different backgrounds to administrative posts, through mentoring programs and other efforts.
Describe your ideal reading experience (when, where, what, how).

Same as most people, I expect: rope hammock, dappled sunlight, snapping palms. The big caveat is that my iPhone must be dead, or secured in a lockbox of some sort, so that when I reach for it every five minutes  robotically, pathetically, as if its a phantom limb  it wont be there to hijack me.

Whats your favorite book no one else has heard of?

My mother is from Melbourne, so I grew up reading certain Australian books nobody in the U.S. had heard of. One that left a strong impression was The Magic Pudding, by Norman Lindsay, which was published in 1918 and concerns a koala named Bunyip Bluegum, who has adventures with a sailor and a penguin and a fourth character who is a bowl of pudding with arms and legs. Whenever the other characters get hungry, they eat the pudding (he has no problem with this  he loves being eaten) and when they are done, whatever portion of the pudding has been consumed is magically reconstituted. The unflattering truth is that many of my favorite stories involve the endless replenishment of food. Strega Nona was another touchstone growing up, one I loved sharing with my own children. Same goes for the movie Big Night.

Which writers  novelists, playwrights, journalists, critics, poets  working today do you admire most?

One surreal thing about writing for The New Yorker is that some of the writers I most admire happen to be my colleagues: people like Rachel Aviv or Larissa MacFarquhar. In our old building, in Times Square, I could just wander into the next office and ask David Grann, one of the great nonfiction writers working today, for his advice on how to handle some narrative problem. It is not lost on me what an over-the-top, I-happen-to-have-Marshall-McLuhan-right-here privilege that is. But there are so many other writers whose work I envy and learn from: Robert Caro, Isabel Wilkerson, Lauren Redniss, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, Michael Lewis, Clint Smith, Jennifer Egan, the late John le Carre, Colson Whitehead, Katie Kitamura, the playwright Jez Butterworth, the podcaster Dan Taberski. The Coen brothers. Michaela Coel. The folks who write Succession. The folks who wrote Veep.

What do you read when youre working on a book? And what kind of reading do you avoid while writing?

I have a larger problem which is that all reading becomes fodder for work. In college I studied with Simon Schama, and I remember him talking about gutting a book, tearing into it quickly and extracting what you need. Because I have a tendency to do this, and because I read so widely for work, I can sometimes forget to read for pleasure and relaxation. But when Im really going on a project, I get obsessive, and any outside reading feels superfluous.
Zelensky faced an uphill battle, lobbying leaders who have close ties to President Vladimir Putin of Russia. Many African governments have shied away from condemning Russia, abstaining from U.N. votes condemning the invasion and characterizing it as a war that does not directly affect the continent.

Zelensky zeroed in on economic ramifications for Africa: high food prices caused by the conflict between two of the worlds largest grain producers, which have worsened food insecurity.

Africa is actually taken hostage, Zelensky said, according to The Associated Press.

Drought in Somalia and growing food insecurity in the Sahel region have brought into stark focus the consequences of rising food prices, particularly wheat. The rising cost of fuel has further squeezed the continents nascent middle class and urban poor.

They are trying to use you and the suffering of the people to put pressure on the democracies that have imposed sanctions on Russia, Zelensky said in a video speech.

The response was subdued. Moussa Faki Mahamat, the African Union chairman, reiterated the call for dialogue in a tweet posted after the meeting.

It was in stark contrast to the enthusiastic audience afforded to Putin earlier this month. Pinned to Fakis Twitter timeline is a photograph of him and President Macky Sall of Senegal meeting with Putin in Sochi. Speaking as the rotating political head of the African Union, Sall called for an end to sanctions against Russia, referring to Putin as his dear friend Vladimir.
The E.U. gives Ukraine candidate status

The E.U. officially made Ukraine a candidate for membership yesterday, a step that even weeks ago seemed impossible. While it could take a decade or more for Ukraine to actually become a member, the E.U.s decision sends a powerful message of solidarity to Kyiv and a rebuke to Moscow.

Candidate status signals that a nation may begin a painstaking, time-consuming process of internal changes and negotiations with the E.U., with a view to eventually joining. The country must align itself institutionally, democratically, economically and legally with E.U. laws and norms, a process that has taken some countries about 10 years. Others, like Turkey, have been candidates for much longer and have yet to join.

Ukraines candidacy is bound to irritate Russia, which has described Kyivs aspirations to align itself with institutions like NATO and the E.U. as Western attempts to interfere in its rightful sphere of influence. The move signals a belief on the part of E.U. states that Ukraines future lies in an embrace of the democratic West.
New Yorks leaders pledged Thursday to pass legislation broadly restricting the carrying of handguns as soon as possible and blasted the United States Supreme Court for striking down a previous measure in a decision that will affect five other states and tens of millions of Americans.

Gov. Kathy Hochul said she would call a special legislative session as soon as July and outlined proposals that could let the state maintain some of the nations most restrictive gun laws. Democratic leaders in the Legislature promised to work with the governor.

Ms. Hochul was visibly angry at a Manhattan news conference where she was preparing to sign a school safety measure named for a teenager killed in the 2018 mass shooting in Parkland, Fla. She called the Supreme Courts decision shocking, absolutely shocking and said it would make New Yorkers less safe.
The Working Families Party has always been my home, Ms. Niou said in a statement.

Alongside WFP, I have fought to protect our community from the constant attacks of a far-right Republican Party, and stood up to the complacency of corporate Democrats who fail to recognize the crisis our country faces, she said. Together, we will build a more just and fair democracy that works for all of us.

Ms. Niou had been challenging a fellow Democrat for a State Senate seat when the new court-ordered congressional maps came down and prompted her to quickly change course. The new House seat contains all of the territory she already represents in Albany, including Chinatown, the Lower East Side and the Financial District.

Her liberal politics and Taiwanese American roots could also position her well in the districts Brooklyn section, which includes affluent brownstone communities and a sizable Asian population in Sunset Park.

In her campaign for Congress, Ms. Niou has already sketched out an ambitious, left-leaning agenda. She supports universal, single-payer health care; fellow New Yorker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezs Green New Deal and the elimination of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
I could describe Brian Watkinss Epiphany, which opened Thursday night at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, as an existential dinner-party play. Or a satire of academics, armchair psychologists and the general intelligentsia, always trying to find a common language for our ways of living in the world. It could be called a critique of our modern society of self-interest. A statement on grief. Or a ghost story.

I could even call it a kind of poem, making music out of abstractions while traversing the past and the present, the real and the surreal. That this heady work, in a Lincoln Center Theater production directed by Tyne Rafaeli, evades any one definition is a testament to its grand ambitions. In one hour and 50 minutes, Epiphany astutely captures a wide swath of ideas without losing its grasp on the hilarious and heartbreaking experience of being a person in the world.

On a January evening in a secluded old house in the middle of nowhere, Morkan (Marylouise Burke, perfect as a jittery sexagenarian) hastily prepares for the holiday known as Epiphany, her itinerary packed with drinks, speeches, poems, songs, dancing and a goose feast. Which would be fine if anyone had read the full dossier Morkan sent along beforehand  or if anyone, Morkan included, actually understood what this archaic, forgotten ritual is.
The state is seeking to improve detection of pythons in the wild, because they are skilled at camouflaging and settling in remote areas, Ms. Spencer said.

We need to try multiple methods, multiple ways to try to control these animals, she said.

Burmese pythons were introduced to the Everglades in the 1980s by the exotic pet trade industry, but their sale was outlawed in 2012, said Stephen Leatherman, an earth and environment professor at Florida International University in Miami.

People who held the pythons did not always know what to do with them when they became too big to manage, and many released them into the wild. The Burmese python has since taken the spot of the alligator, which is native to Florida, as the top predator in the Everglades.

Burmese pythons are endangered in parts of Southeast Asia, Mr. Leatherman said, but those that have made their home in Florida cant simply be returned because they have become genetically adapted to their new environment. The populations of raccoons, rabbits, possums, birds and alligators in the wetlands have all decreased along with the deer and panthers as the pythons have claimed more territory.

Theyre fascinating animals, but theyre just the worst thing for the Everglades, he said.

The Everglades region, which takes up 1.5 million acres in South and Southwest Florida, is a one-of-a-kind freshwater ecosystem surrounded by sawgrass, with a slow-moving river in the wet season, according to the National Park System. Its habitats include cypress swamps, wet prairie and mangroves, with diverse species of birds, mammals, reptiles and plants, according to the National Wildlife Federation.

The Burmese python is only one of the threats that endanger that natural resource, said Steve A. Johnson, a wildlife, ecology and conservation professor at the University of Florida. Water pollution, rising sea levels and urban development, in addition to other invasive species such as the tegu lizard and cane toad, take a toll on the wetlands.
Jeffrey A. Rosen led the Justice Department during the final month of the Trump administration, when President Donald J. Trump and his allies most aggressively pressed federal and state officials to undo his loss in the 2020 presidential election.

Mr. Rosen, who served as acting attorney general, is expected to help the Jan. 6 committee paint a more detailed picture of efforts by Mr. Trump and his allies to weaponize the Justice Department in their efforts to overturn the election.

He is also expected to speak to the dramatic showdown that took place in the Oval Office on Jan. 3, 2021, when top Justice Department officials said they and others in the department would quit en masse if Mr. Trump replaced Mr. Rosen with Jeffrey Clark, who ran the departments civil division and who was willing to help Mr. Trump in his efforts to undo the election.
The former governor has denied all wrongdoing, and on Thursday his campaign pointed to a previous statement provided to The New York Times by Tim Parlatore, a lawyer for the candidate. The alleged abusive behavior never happened, Parlatore said.

At a court hearing on Thursday, a lawyer for Sheena Greitens, Helen Wade, said that her client had received death threats this week after the former governor released a violent new political video that shows him armed with a shotgun and storming a home in search of RINOs, or Republicans in name only, along with what appears to be a SWAT team wielding military-style rifles. Wade did not respond to multiple messages seeking comment on Thursday.

The kingmaker: Rex Sinquefield

For now, Greitens is ahead of his nearest opponent, Eric Schmitt, the Missouri attorney general, by about 3.5 percentage points, polling averages of the race show.

Schmitt has the backing of Save Missouri Values, a super PAC bankrolled by Rex Sinquefield, a wealthy retired investor who is a dominant player in state politics.

Sinquefield, who is also the primary funder of Show Me Values, the new anti-Greitens super PAC, is best known for his devotion to three idiosyncratic passions, according to a critical 2014 profile in Politico Magazine: promoting chess, dismantling the traditional public school system and eliminating income taxes.

Until now in the Senate primary campaign, not one television ad has aired laying out Sheena Greitenss most recent allegations. One of the new ads from Show Me Values will focus on her accusations, saying that Eric Greitens has faced scandal after scandal, according to two people familiar with its contents.
Trump would not give up on his claims of fraud.

Time after time, the White House brought baseless and sometimes preposterous claims of election fraud  including internet conspiracy theories  to Justice Department officials so that they could use the nations law enforcement powers to investigate them. And time after time, the department and the F.B.I. found the claims had no validity.

The pattern became so extraordinary that at one point the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, sent a YouTube video to department officials from Representative Scott Perry, Republican of Pennsylvania, that claimed an Italian defense contractor uploaded software to a satellite that switched votes from Mr. Trump.

A top Defense Department official, Kashyap Patel, followed up with Mr. Donoghue about the claim, and the acting defense secretary, Christopher C. Miller, reached out to a defense attache in Italy to discuss the claim, which was never substantiated.

About 90 minutes after Mr. Donoghue had helped persuade Mr. Trump not to install Mr. Clark as acting attorney general, Mr. Trump would still not let go, calling Mr. Donoghue on his cellphone with another request: to look into a report that an immigration and customs agent in Georgia had seized a truck full of shredded ballots. There turned out to be nothing to it, Mr. Donoghue testified.

Trump considered naming a loyalist lawyer as a special counsel.

As Mr. Trump searched for any way to substantiate the false fraud claims, he tried to install a loyalist as a special counsel to investigate them. One of Mr. Trumps personal lawyers, Sidney Powell  who had become a public face of Mr. Trumps attempts to overturn the election  said in testimony played by the committee that Mr. Trump discussed with her the possibility of taking on that position in December.

The committee also played testimony of William P. Barr, who was attorney general until the middle of December 2020, saying that there was no basis to appoint a special counsel. And the committee suggested that the idea was part of the larger effort to cast doubt on the legitimacy of Mr. Bidens victory and open the door to Congress considering alternate slates of Trump electors from swing states.
In a statement, Mr. Perry denied seeking a pardon. I stand by my statement that I never sought a presidential pardon for myself or other members of Congress, he said. At no time did I speak with Miss Hutchinson, a White House scheduler, nor any White House staff about a pardon for myself or any other member of Congress  this never happened.

Ms. Greene posted a clip of Ms. Hutchinson on Twitter and added: Saying I heard means you dont know. Spreading gossip and lies is exactly what the January 6th Witch Hunt Committee is all about. Mr. Gohmert also denied making such a request, and condemned the committee for how it has comported itself. Mr. Biggs similarly said that Ms. Hutchinson was mistaken, and that her testimony was edited deceptively.

Mr. Gaetz did not respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Brooks confirmed seeking a pardon, but said it was because he believed the Justice Department would be abused by the Biden administration. He released the letter he sent the White House, in which he said he was putting the request in writing at the instruction of Mr. Trump.

The fact that it had evidence that pardons were under discussion was previewed by the committee at an earlier hearing. And the panel previously revealed that a key figure in Mr. Trumps efforts to subvert the results of the election, the conservative lawyer John Eastman, had emailed another Trump lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, after the Capitol riot, asking to be on the pardon list, if that is still in the works.

Mr. Eastman appeared before the committee and invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination repeatedly.

It is unclear whether Mr. Gaetzs reported request for a blanket pardon was driven by concerns about his attempts to overturn the election or other potential criminality. At the time Mr. Gaetz made the request, he had just come under Justice Department investigation for sex-trafficking a minor. He has not been charged.
Incentives for states to implement red flag laws

The bill would provide $750 million in federal money to states that create so-called red flag laws, which allow guns to be temporarily confiscated from people deemed dangerous by a judge. The funding, meant to incentivize the enactment of such measures, would also support the creation of crisis intervention court programs.

What was left out: Democrats wanted to go further than providing incentives to states and enact a federal red flag measure, passed in the House, that would allow guns to be taken from anyone deemed by a federal judge to be dangerous.

Closing the boyfriend loophole

One of the bills last sticking points was a provision to toughen federal law to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers. It would expand current law that bars people convicted of domestic violence or subject to a domestic violence restraining order from buying a gun. The current law applies only to people who are married to or lived with the victim, or had a child with them.

The legislation would include other intimate partners, closing what has come to be known as the boyfriend loophole.

What was left out: Democrats wanted a blanket prohibition, but in negotiations with Republicans, they agreed to allow some offenders to regain the ability to purchase a gun. If a person is a first-time offender and the crime is a violent misdemeanor, the ban would disappear five years after the end of their criminal sentence, so long as they did not commit further violent crimes. Negotiators also agreed not to make the provision retroactive, bowing to another demand by Republicans.

Funding for mental health and school safety

The bill would allocate billions of dollars to schools and communities for expanding mental health programs. The funding also aims to boost school safety. The bill grants $300 million over five years for school safety programs targeting violence that would fund school resource officers and beef up security in schools. In addition, funding would go to training school personnel and adults who interact with minors to respond to mental health issues.
Dr. Jhas remarks came as the Biden administration is focused on rolling out coronavirus shots for newly eligible children as young as 6 months old. He said that the White House had so far delivered more than four million doses of pediatric vaccine for children in that age group, but that the administration would not know how many doses had been administered until next week. The Pfizer-BioNTech protocol for the very young requires three shots, while Modernas requires two.

One concern is whether the vaccines, which have often been administered in pharmacies, will be as readily accessible to the very youngest children as they were to other age groups. A federal law, the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act, was amended to authorize pharmacists to administer Covid vaccines only to those age 3 or older.

At the same time, many parents may be reluctant to have their young children vaccinated at pharmacies, said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They want to take their younger kids to where they routinely get vaccinated, whether its their local community health center or their local pediatrician, she added.

For those reasons, administration officials say they have gone to great lengths to enlist pediatricians in the childhood vaccination program.
By the time he reached college, he had been through various addiction treatment programs. He had become so paranoid that he thought the mob was after him and his college was a base for the F.B.I., Ms. Stack said. At one point, after he moved out of his childhood home, he threatened to kill the family dog unless his parents gave him money. His mother later discovered that Johnny had obtained his own medical marijuana card when he turned 18 and had begun dealing to younger kids.

After several stays at mental hospitals, the doctors determined that Johnny had a severe case of THC abuse, Ms. Stack said. He was prescribed an anti-psychotic medication, which helped  but then he stopped taking it. In 2019, Johnny died after jumping from a six-story building. He was 19. A few days before his death, Ms. Stack said, Johnny had apologized to her, saying that weed had ruined his mind and his life, adding, Im sorry, and I love you.

A recent study found that people who used marijuana had a greater likelihood of suicidal ideation, plan and attempt than those who did not use the drug at all. Ms. Stack now runs a nonprofit called Johnnys Ambassadors that educates communities about high-THC cannabis and its effect on the adolescent brain.

Theres no known safe limit.

It can be difficult to pinpoint exactly how much THC enters someones brain when theyre using cannabis. Thats because its not just the frequency of use and THC concentration that affect dosage, its also how fast the chemicals are delivered to the brain. In vaporizers, the speed of delivery can change depending on the base the THC is dissolved in, the strength of the devices battery and how warm the product becomes when its heated up.

Higher doses of THC are more likely to produce anxiety, agitation, paranoia and psychosis.

The younger you are, the more vulnerable your brain is to developing these problems, Dr. Levy said.

Youths are also more likely to become addicted when they start using marijuana before the age of 18, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
WASHINGTON  Congress is poised to force the Pentagon to study how it assesses allies will to fight, amid criticism from lawmakers that the U.S. government has regularly failed to make such assessments accurately.

A provision approved for inclusion in the Senate version of the annual defense policy bill would mandate a study by the Defense Department of how it judges the willingness of foreign militaries to fight their enemies.

In Ukraine, U.S. officials initially forecast that the Russians would take Kyiv, the capital, within a few days. In Afghanistan, some U.S. officials thought the Afghan military could hold together and continue to fight the Taliban after the American withdrawal. Both predictions were wrong.
BERLIN  Austria, the only Western nation to introduce a general vaccine mandate against the coronavirus, is abandoning the policy a few months after it decided to hold off enforcement, the countrys health minister said Thursday.

The government will remove the law from its books in the coming weeks, putting an end to a mandate that led to protests and was suspended in mid-March, just before enforcement was set to begin.

The health minister, Johannes Rauch, said the mandate had not led to an increase in vaccinations, but had widened rifts in the population.
WASHINGTON  The White House authorized on Thursday an additional $450 million in military aid for Ukraine, which is set to receive four more rocket artillery launchers that the government in Kyiv has said are needed to repulse Russian troops in Donbas.

The National Security Council spokesman, John F. Kirby, announced the new drawdown of goods from the Pentagons stockpiles Thursday afternoon.

The latest announcement brings the total amount of military aid from the United States to Ukraine to $6.8 billion since the beginning of the Biden administration  the vast majority of which has been committed since Russias invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, according to a Pentagon statement emailed to reporters shortly after the White House briefing.
BRUSSELS  The European Union officially made Ukraine a candidate for membership on Thursday, signaling in the face of a devastating Russian military onslaught that it sees Ukraines future as lying in an embrace of the democratic West.

While Ukraines accession into the bloc could take a decade or more, the decision sends a powerful message of solidarity to Kyiv and a rebuke to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who has worked for years to keep Ukraine from building Western ties.

Before Mr. Putin launched the invasion in February, insisting that Ukraine rightly belonged in Russias orbit, E.U. leaders would not have seriously considered starting Ukraine, with its history of oligarchy and corruption, on the path to membership.
The dancers  three men and three women, all in white unitards  begin in a circle at the center of the stage, linking hands around a bright white spotlight. They repeatedly disperse from this arrangement, into other pools of light, and flock back to it, their foundation.

Against the echo of tolling bells, angular poses and plunging plies conjure their own urgent rhythm. And as much as the dancers reach out for one another  with a splayed hand shooting forward, or bourrees contracting backward  we also see their wholeness as individuals. At the intersection of two corridors of light, Jonathan Batista pirouettes with breathtaking equanimity. Juliet Prine delivers every move with precise assurance, and Amanda Morgans long limbs bloom out from her center, communicating both freedom and devotion. When, in the end, the dancers find themselves each in separate spotlights, they are isolated but still together.
For the Tokyo gallery A Lighthouse called Kanata, simplicity can be deep and nuanced, and is, in essence, what defines Japanese art. It can also be reinterpreted, since simplicity is uncluttered and inviting.

Such is the gallerys inspiration behind Simple Forms Revisited, its presentation at Masterpiece London, which runs from Thursday through July 6. It is both an homage and a reinterpretation of a similarly titled exhibition, Simple Forms, from 2014-15 at the Centre Pompidou-Metz in northeastern France, and later in 2015 at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo.

Seven years later, the success of that exhibition, which was attended by more than 5,000 people each day during its Tokyo run, inspired the idea to feature Japanese artists exclusively in a reimagining for Masterpiece London. The pursuit of simple forms, which has always been a defining element of Japanese art, is in many ways an open canvas for fresh works and new audiences, the gallery said.
Her work is conceptually driven, but it is beautiful, too, said Mr. Tagore, who has galleries in New York, London and Singapore. (His fair booth will also feature work by other artists he represents, including Miya Ando.)

The idea behind This Is Not a Refuge, Ms. Agha said, was specific to the condition of the refugees that were trying to reach safety both in Europe and the southern border of the United States over the last few years.

Once we approach it, we realize its not really a refuge, she said, referring to the pieces effects. It looks beautiful from a distance. Its more like a mirage.

Perceived dualities and opposites, including those around gender, frequently animate her work. I think my work is very feminist, she said.

A Beautiful Despair in particular is centered on the place of women. It is doubly lit, creating a sense of being underwater.
Why are many of the monkeypox cases in men who have sex with men?

Its an epidemiological accident of history. This is not a gay disease; it has been circulating in West and Central Africa for many years. We have viral zoonoses that jump from animals to humans all the time.

What likely happened in this case is that somebody who had monkeypox had a lesion and showed up at a gay rave in Europe, and it spread to those in that social and sexual network. And because the virus prefers close physical contact as a means of transmission, it found a very suitable environment for which to propagate itself.

Is monkeypox sexually transmitted?

Not as far as we know right now, in terms of being transmitted by vaginal or seminal fluid. But sex involves close bodily contact. So its hard to pick apart whats going on until we have more studies of the cases that have emerged so far across the world.

How should I think about my risk?

Monkeypox has found a foothold  not in all gay men  but in a certain subset of gay, bisexual and trans men who have been associated with these parties. That being said, the potential for it to move into other populations within the L.G.B.T.Q. community or further afield is possible.
Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority, echoed much of what was leaked in a draft opinion in May.

Abortion presents a profound moral question, Alito wrote. The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives. Our reporters annotated the full opinion.

Thirteen states have trigger laws that will ban the procedure either immediately or in the coming days. Abortion bans went into effect today in nine states  Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah and Wisconsin  in response to the court decision. The procedure is likely to be banned in another 11 states. Abortion clinics in Montgomery, Ala. and Sioux Falls shut down immediately.
Romania is one country trying to help fill the gap, my colleague Patrician Cohen writes.

In many ways, it is well positioned. Romanias port in Constanta, on the western coast of the Black Sea, has provided a tiny but critical transit point for Ukrainian grain since the war began.

Romanias own farm output is dominated by Ukraines, but it is one of the largest grain exporters in the E.U. Last year, the country sent 60 percent of its wheat abroad, mostly to Egypt and the rest of the Middle East. This year, the government has allocated 500 million euros ($527 million) to support farming and keep production up.

But the Eastern European nation faces many challenges.

Although its farmers benefit from higher prices, they are dealing with spiraling costs of diesel, pesticides and fertilizer. Transportation infrastructure across the country and at its ports is neglected and outdated, slowing the transit of its own exports and stymieing efforts to help Ukraine get its agricultural products out.

During a visit to Kyiv last week, Romanias president, Klaus Iohannis, said that since the beginning of the invasion, more than a million tons of Ukrainian grain had passed through Constanta to locations around the world.

But logistical problems prevent more grain from making the journey. Ukraines rail gauges are wider than those elsewhere in Europe. Shipments have to be transferred at the border to Romanian trains, or each railway car has to be lifted off a Ukrainian undercarriage to one that can be used on Romanian tracks.

Over the past couple of months, the Romanian government has plowed money into clearing hundreds of rusted wagons from rail lines and refurbishing tracks that were abandoned when the Communist regime fell in 1989.
The fact that Congress is on the verge of passing a gun bill at all is notable, and its efforts come just weeks after two horrific mass shootings  at a supermarket in Buffalo and an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas  helped prompt lawmakers to pursue legislation.

So many times over the last couple decades, weve seen Congress fail to act after a devastating shooting, even when lawmakers and advocates vowed again and again that it would be different, Emily Cochrane, a Times congressional reporter, told us. It finally was different.

But the legislation doesnt include the toughest gun control measures that advocates sought, reflecting the realities of an evenly divided Senate. One provision would make it harder for people under 21 to buy a gun by requiring law enforcement to check purchasers juvenile and mental-health records. But that provision would expire after 10 years, a caveat Republicans insisted on.

Another provision would close the so-called boyfriend loophole, adding intimate partners to the list of domestic abusers who are barred from buying a gun. But the ban would expire after a few years for first-time misdemeanor offenders who maintained a clean record, and Republicans demanded it not be retroactive.

A third measure sets aside $750 million to help states implement red flag laws, which let judges temporarily confiscate guns from people who threaten themselves or others, as well as other crisis intervention programs. But the bill stops short of creating a federal red flag law.

Republicans have blamed mass shootings on mental-health problems. The bill includes hundreds of millions of dollars to train medical workers and school personnel to respond to mental-health crises and funding for school safety programs and school resource officers.
Heres what other companies had to say:

Warner Brothers said it would cover travel expenses for abortions. In light of the Supreme Courts recent decision, we immediately expanded our health care benefits options to cover transportation expenses for employees and their covered family members who need to travel to access abortion and reproductive care, said a company spokesperson.

Disney said it would cover travel expenses as well: We recognize the impact that todays Supreme Court ruling could have on many Americans, wrote Paul Richardson, the companys head of human resources, and Pascale Thomas, a vice president.

A spokesperson for Meta said: We intend to offer travel expense reimbursements, to the extent permitted by law, for employees who will need them to access out-of-state health care and reproductive services. We are in the process of assessing how best to do so given the legal complexities involved.

Bank of America said: We have expanded the list of medical treatments that are eligible for travel expense reimbursement. This list will now includes cancer treatment, organ transplants at centers of excellence, reproductive health care including abortion, and hospital admissions for mental health conditions.

Intuit said Friday it would cover employee travel expenses to get abortions. We support our employees access to comprehensive health care  no matter where they live, the company said. We will continue to do what we can to best support employees ongoing access to the full range of health care that they believe is right for them.

Conde Nast said it would cover travel and lodging for employees to get abortions. It is a crushing blow to reproductive rights that have been protected for nearly half a century, said Roger Lynch, Conde Nasts chief executive.

Zillow said it would reimburse its employees up to $7,500 when significant travel is required for medical procedures including abortions. We strongly support our employees right to make health care choices that are right for them, and we will continue to do so, a Zillow spokesperson said.

Box, which had already said it would cover employee travel expenses for abortions, said it was disappointed by the U.S. Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Salesforce said it would relocate employees concerned about their ability to get abortions in Texas. We will continue to offer our longstanding travel and relocation benefits to ensure employees and their families have access to critical health care services, a spokesperson said.

Patagonia reaffirmed its commitment to covering employee travel expenses for abortions: Caring for employees extends beyond basic health insurance, the company said on LinkedIn. It means supporting employees choices around if or when they have a child.

Dicks Sporting Goods said it would provide up to $4,000 in travel reimbursement for employees who live in states that restrict abortion access and that the policy would apply to any spouse or dependent covered by the companys medical plan.

Lyft, which had previously said it would cover travel expenses for abortions, said the Supreme Courts decision will hurt millions of women by taking away access to safe, and private reproductive health care services. It also said it was expanding its legal defense commitment to protecting drivers who may be sued for taking people to clinics. No driver should have to ask a rider where they are going and why, Lyft said.

Uber emphasized the companys insurance coverage for a range of reproductive health benefits, including pregnancy termination and its commitment to covering travel expenses for employees accessing health care services. We will also continue to stand behind drivers, reimbursing legal expenses if any driver is sued under state law for providing transportation on our platform to a clinic, the company said.

BuzzFeeds chief executive, Jonah Peretti, told staff on Friday that the company would now provide stipends for employees who need to travel for abortions. The decision is so regressive and horrific for women that it compels us to step up as a company to ensure that any of our employees who are impacted have funding and access to safe abortions as needed, he said.

Jeremy Stoppelman, Yelps co-founder and chief executive, called the decision a threat to gender equality in the workplace. Business leaders must step up to support the health and safety of their employees by speaking out against the wave of abortion bans that will be triggered as a result of this decision and call on Congress to codify Roe into law, he said. Yelp had earlier pledged to cover travel expenses for abortion.

H&M said it would cover travel and transportation expenses for employees living in states where abortion is prohibited or restricted: Not only is supporting access to comprehensive reproductive care for our colleagues pivotal in supporting our women-led work force, but also crucial to our commitment toward full gender parity and equal opportunity in the workplace and broader society, the clothing company said.

Vox Media said the company would cover travel expenses for employee abortions, and will also expand its pregnancy loss leave to cover people who get abortions. This ruling will have a disproportionate impact on access to care depending on where people live, Jim Bankoff, the companys chief executive, wrote in a memo. It puts families, communities and the economy at risk, threatening the gains that women have made in the workplace over the past 50 years.

Adobe, which had previously said its health care policy covered travel expenses for abortions, said: We have and will always prioritize inclusive benefits to create a world-class culture for our employees.

Google, which covers travel expenses for employee abortions, told its employees they could also apply to relocate without justification.

Starbucks announced earlier this year that it would cover employee travel expenses for abortions, and the companys senior vice president, Sara Kelly, said in an interview on Friday that employees would be able to access this benefit confidentially. It doesnt matter what you believe, it doesnt matter where you live, its about access to health care, Ms. Kelly said.
Stopping at the edge of a vast field of barley on his farm in Prundu, 30 miles outside Romanias capital city of Bucharest, Catalin Corbea pinched off a spiky flowered head from a stalk, rolled it between his hands, and then popped a seed in his mouth and bit down.

Another 10 days to two weeks, he said, explaining how much time was needed before the crop was ready for harvest.

Mr. Corbea, a farmer for nearly three decades, has rarely been through a season like this one. The Russians bloody creep into Ukraine, a breadbasket for the world, has caused an upheaval in global grain markets. Coastal blockades have trapped millions of tons of wheat and corn inside Ukraine. With famine stalking Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere in Asia, a frenetic scramble for new suppliers and alternate shipping routes is underway.
Sengupta: Speaking of individual action, I sometimes hear climate advocates gloating about the personal choices theyve made, like buying an electric car and not paying high gas prices. What do you make of that?

Hayhoe: Its almost become a form of religion with its own green Ten Commandments. That if I do this and this and this, Im a good person. But this and this is not available to everyone. Focusing on personal action as the primary pathway to climate solutions enhances rather than diminishes the inequality of lifestyles thats being exacerbated by climate change.

The system has to change such that the easiest, most affordable option is the sustainable one. When public transportation and electric cars are cheaper than internal combustion engine cars. Plant-based meals. Insulated homes. Clean blue skies. Walkable cities. We want all of that to be the default rather than only if you can afford it.

Sengupta: Do you eat meat?

Hayhoe: Carefully. We only eat locally grown meat, which is more expensive and harder to find. So we eat less of it.

Sengupta: What do you say to the What-can-I-do question?

Hayhoe: Do something. Anything. Talk about it. Have a conversation. Start a conversation by saying Hey, I tried this. Or start a conversation by saying, Hey that school did this. Maybe we should too.

Do something and talk about it.

Theres little functional difference between dismissives who reject climate change and doomers who decide we cant fix it.
While heat waves are shaped by complex local factors such as urbanization and land use, scientists no longer have much doubt about whether climate change is making them worse. Soon, the worlds most devastating heat waves may simply have no historical analogue from the time shortly before humans starting pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, some scientists argue, rendering obsolete the question of whether climate change is a main driver.

The warming of recent decades has already made it hard for scientists to know what to call a heat wave and what to treat as simply a new normal for hot weather, said Andrew Dessler, a climate scientist at Texas A&M University.

If the threshold for a heat wave is just the mercury exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit for days in a row, for instance, then its not at all unexpected, Dr. Dessler said, to see them occurring more regularly in several regions at once. As time goes on, more and more of the planet will be experiencing those temperatures, until eventually, with enough global warming, every land area in the mid-latitude Northern Hemisphere would be above 100 degrees, he said.

Yet even when scientists look at how often temperatures exceed a certain level relative to a moving average, they still find a big increase in the frequency of simultaneous heat waves.

One recent study that did this found that the average number of days between May and September with at least one large heat wave in the Northern Hemisphere doubled between the 1980s and the 2010s, to around 152 from 73. But the number of days with two or more heat waves was seven times higher, growing to roughly 143 from 20. Thats nearly every single day from May to September.
In its emergency filing for a stay, Juul argued that the F.D.A.s decision to ban sales was motivated by political forces that sought to blame the company for the youth vaping crisis. The F.D.A. issued the ruling against Juul after immense political pressure from Congress, the filing reads, even though several of its competitors now have a larger market share and much higher underage-use rates.

However, the F.D.A. did not cite underage use in its decision to ban Juul from the market. Rather, the agency said Juul had not provided sufficient evidence that its product prevents leaching of chemicals from the device to the nicotine vapor that users inhale.

Will Juul users still be able to buy the companys pods and e-cigarettes?

As long as the stay is in force, consumers will be able to buy Juul cartridges and its tobacco and menthol-flavored pods. The F.D.A. had warned that retailers selling Juul products would be subject to enforcement action at some point but not while a stay is in place.

In its court filing, Juul pointed out that the agencys decision had already had its intended effect, indicating that some retailers had stopped selling Juul products.
Because last months picks took a deep dive into depravity, this time Im (mostly) sticking to low-gore, less-scary horror movies that wont keep you up at night.

Dashcam

Rent or buy on most major platforms.

Ill start with the most unhinged, low-budget and controversial movie on my list. Its directed by Rob Savage, whose terrifying Host, about a bonkers supernatural Zoom call, was one of my favorite films released within the first year of the pandemic. (Dont confuse this Dashcam with another recent and terrific film of the same name.)

Here, the musician Annie Hardy stars as Annie, a MAGA, antivaxxer host of a livestream show. She travels from Los Angeles to London to visit her ex-bandmate and winds up livestreaming a maelstrom of carnage and demonic possession. Shot in an explosive found footage style, the film slowly builds until its first moment of violence, and then never slows down. Its a raucous counterpoint to the stillness that made Host so effectively disturbing.
Last month, in a much-celebrated moment of public disciplining during a talk back with the cast of Company, a woman in the audience who was told to please put her mask back on refused and then, mocking the directive, waved it in the air and placed it over her eyes. Up onstage, Patti LuPone was not having it and told her to get out. As if incubated in a lab manufacturing legend-resistant organisms  and unlike almost anyone else on the west side of Manhattan  this was a person immune to the ire of Patti LuPone. Yelling back defiantly, she proclaimed, I pay your salary. A member of the theaters Covid safety staff proceeded to escort her out of the building.

In the actresss view, the woman should have been ejected as soon as it was clear that she was not going to wear a mask. It shouldnt have been up to me, Ms. LuPone said. I called her earlier this week to gauge her feelings on the theater worlds changing Covid protocols. On Tuesday, the Broadway League, a trade association, announced that owners and operators of all Broadways 41 theaters would put a mask-optional policy into effect beginning on July 1, just as the 2022-23 season was kicking off.

In a written statement, the Leagues president, Charlotte St. Martin, did not even pretend to ground the decision in statistics. Millions of people enjoyed the unique magic of Broadway by watching the 75th Tony Award Ceremony recently, she began, overlooking the fact that watching typically takes place at home.
Members of the early Christian church within the ancient Roman world rescued abandoned infants (often those who were female or otherwise deemed inferior) from certain death. In the 19th century, a newspaper created by prominent suffragists, The Revolution, published articles that called abortion infanticide and child-murder. The pro-life movement in America before Roe was dominated by Catholics who then generally skewed Democrat, and who fought for legal protections for the unborn and expansions of the social safety net.

Roe and its legacy radicalized those of us in the current movement. Legalized elective abortion was the consolation prize given to women in 1973 for the centuries of inequality and oppression that stemmed from their sin of not being men. While every mother and every father should want their children, our status as human beings at any stage of life should not depend on who wants us or whether we are wanted at all.

It is only when we inject into the issue questions of subjectivity (like wantedness) or religions (like ensoulment), existential ones (like sentience), theological ones (like human dignity) or sociological ones (like quality of life), that we find ample room for uncertainty and disagreement. These are important, enduring questions. But they are not questions upon which the basic, inalienable right of an individual life should depend.

The judicial fiat of Roe v. Wade jump-started the culture wars that have poisoned our political process and brought us to a place of polarization and unbridgeable division. Indeed, this division has been capitalized on by far too many pundits and politicians, for whom a position on abortion does not appear to be a sincerely held belief, but merely an issue they can (and do) leverage for votes or monetize for financial gain. Such betrayal casts a shadow on the overturning of Roe, which has been for me and many others a long-awaited event.

Even so, making abortion unthinkable might start with the law, but it wont end there. For it is not only the supply of abortion that matters but also the demand. I lament the impoverishment of a social imagination that cannot conceive of a world in which women can flourish without abortion.

I think we will imagine it someday. Of course abortion, like all violence, abuse and injustice, will always be with us. But laws dont only prevent  laws teach and form the ways in which we envision our world and the ways in which we can and should live with one another.
Even if we knew it was coming, the shock reverberates.

For the first time in history, the Supreme Court has eliminated an established constitutional right involving the most fundamental of human concerns: the dignity and autonomy to decide what happens to your body. As of June 24, 2022, about 64 million American women of childbearing age have less power to decide what happens in their own bodies than they did the day before, less power than their mothers and even some of their grandmothers did. That is the first and most important consequence of the Supreme Courts decision on Friday morning to overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

The right-wing majority in Fridays ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization  which involved a Mississippi law that banned most abortions after 15 weeks, well before the line of viability established in Roe and Casey  stated, It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the peoples elected representatives.

The implications of this reversal will be devastating, throwing America into a new era of struggle over abortion laws  an era that will be marked by chaos, confusion and human suffering. About half the states in the United States are expected to enact laws that restrict or make abortion illegal in all or most cases. Many women may be forced by law to carry pregnancies to term, even, in some cases, those caused by rape or incest. Some will likely die, especially those with pregnancy complications that must be treated with abortion or those who resort to unsafe means of abortion because they cant afford to travel to states where the procedure remains legal. Even those who are able to travel to other states could face the risk of criminal prosecution. Some could go to prison, as could the doctors who care for them. Miscarriages could be investigated as murders, which has already happened in several states, and may become only more common. Without full control over their bodies, women will lose their ability to function as equal members of American society.
As wonderfully miraculous as my son was (and is), I couldnt get sterilized fast enough. I was never going to go through that again. That, of course, is something Justice Samuel Alito and his ilk could never experience. Who is he or any other person who can never experience the risks and consequences of pregnancy to force any woman to endure them?

Sara R. Nichols

Los Angeles

To the Editor:

The Supreme Courts reversal of Roe v. Wade will have minimal to no impact on the ability of wealthy women to obtain an abortion. However, women who reside in states where abortion is outlawed and who do not have the financial means to travel to states where the procedure is legal will have limited to no choice. The courts decision is the new American separate and unequal.

Alan Guttman

Baltimore

To the Editor:

What voters must remember, and what historians will surely highlight, is that this most consequential decision was made by a hijacked Supreme Court. But for the Republicans chicanery in denying President Obama his right to appoint a justice and the precedent-shattering rush to allow President Trump to name Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburgs successor, there would not have been an ultraconservative majority of justices willing to destroy a super-precedent and to return women to the health hazards and diminished status of 50 years ago.

This unconscionable decision by an illegitimate court mandates a remedy that should include altering the structure of the court or imposing term limits on justices. It should also impel voters to ensure that, going forward, there will be a Senate majority committed to upholding the rule of law.

Gerald Harris

New York

The writer is a retired New York City Criminal Court judge.

To the Editor:

Im greatly relieved that the Supreme Court has overturned the unjust Roe v. Wade decision. Its a victory for the pro-life movement and for faithful Catholics.

Im hopeful that the courts latest ruling may save the lives of many unborn children, even though abortion will remain legal and perhaps unrestricted in certain states.
To the Editor:

Re Justices Nullify New Yorks Limits on Guns in Public (front page, June 24):

Just a few weeks after the slaughter of schoolchildren and teachers in Uvalde, Texas, a majority of the Supreme Court has gutted the power of states to regulate the carrying of deadly weapons in public.

To do so, the majority  despite its avowed dedication to the text of the Constitution  ignored the plain meaning of the Second Amendment, which is based on the principle that a well regulated Militia is necessary to the security of a free State.

At least as worrisome, the majority also ignored the reality of modern weapons and how they are used. (The originalists on the court might have been forgiven if they had proclaimed that the Second Amendment provides that the right to keep and bear muzzleloading flintlocks shall not be infringed.)
Pride in Ukraine had, in fact, come a long way. The first Kyiv Pride, in 2012, had to be canceled because authorities said they could not guarantee the safety of marchers. The following year, about 100 people marched, protected by police from a much larger number of counterprotesters. But last year, 7,000 people marched peacefully through the Ukrainian capital, led and protected by the police. The countrys hate crimes law would likely have been expanded this year to protect L.G.B.T.Q. people, too. This, of course, has been postponed indefinitely.

While I was in Riga, I met Lenny Emson, a Ukrainian activist who is directing this years Kyiv Pride and has been involved with the organization since its founding. The organization now functions largely as a service-provision organization to help queer Ukrainians who have been displaced by the war.

Many enlisted Ukrainian troops have come out on social media over the past few months; these stories reveal the way that the wars outcome and L.G.B.T.Q. rights are intertwined in Ukraine. Emson noted that while this new visibility could have a positive effect on the way queer Ukrainians were perceived by their compatriots, ultraright-wing homophobes were also joining up and becoming heroes. Things are in the balance, Emson said. After Kyiv Pride began a campaign this month featuring an exhibition of 12 L.G.B.T.Q. Ukrainians contributing to the war effort, Emson added, a right-wing social media effort countered that Putin was invading Ukraine because of the gays.

If Ukraine joins the European Union, this will have a significant effect on L.G.B.T.Q. rights in the country: New members would be party to the E.U. Charter of Fundamental Rights, which guarantees equality on the basis of sexual orientation. But there was a strong risk, Emson said, that an E.U.-affiliated Ukraine could go the route of Poland or Hungary  where, even as they receive E.U. subsidies, right-wing leaders campaign against what they call L.G.B.T.Q. ideology as a way of maintaining church support and defining a nationalist agenda against the perceived onslaught of Western Europe.

The playbook for this strategy was invented in the West, specifically in the United States, by the generation of anti-L.G.B.T.Q. laws touched off by Anita Bryants Save Our Children campaign in the 1970s. In the gathering culture wars, Republican political operatives used homophobia to mobilize voters, in the name of traditional values and individual freedom, against what they saw as a secular liberal hegemony. Such moral panic is being rekindled in the United States  most prominently in Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Dont Say Gay legislation  after being used over the past decade in Eastern Europe, most prominently by Putin.

In 2013, Putins government enacted anti-gay propaganda legislation that bans the promotion of nontraditional sexual relations (read: homosexuality) to minors. This was specifically done to cement his relationship with the Russian Orthodox Church, as a way of mobilizing support against the growing opposition in the cities to his rule-for-life strategy. Since then, Putin has used such politics primarily to promote a wholesome and traditional Russia  one in which heterosexuals increase the Russian population through procreation  against what he paints as a decadent and dying West, symbolized by homosexuals and trans folk. It is that decadent West that he has said he is fighting in Ukraine.
Over the past couple of decades, however, the animal research on sleep deprivation has become more nuanced, precise and, possibly, applicable to humans, according to Dr. Sigrid Veasey, a neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania, and Zachary Zamore, a researcher in Dr. Veaseys lab, the authors of the new review.

After surveying past studies of sleep-deprived mice, many of which Dr. Veasey conducted, the researchers found that when the animals were kept awake for just a couple of hours more than usual each day, two key parts of the brain were notably affected: the locus coeruleus, which manages feelings of alertness and arousal, and the hippocampus, which plays an important role in memory formation and learning. These regions, which, in humans, are central to sustaining conscious experience, slowed down the animals production of antioxidants, which protect neurons from unstable molecules that are constantly being produced, like exhaust fumes, by functioning cells. When antioxidant levels are low, these molecules can build up and attack the brain from inside, breaking down proteins, fats and DNA.

Wakefulness in the brain, even under normal circumstances, incurs penalties, Dr. Fernandez said. But when youre awake for too long, then the system gets overloaded. At some point, you cant beat a dead horse. If youre asking your cells to remain active for 30 percent more time each day, cells die.

In the brains of mice, sleep deprivation led to cell death after a few days of sleep restriction  a much lower threshold for brain damage than previously thought. It also caused inflammation in the prefrontal cortex and increased levels of tau and amyloid proteins, which have been linked to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimers and Parkinsons, in the locus coeruleus and hippocampus.

After a full year of regular sleep, the mice that previously had been sleep-deprived still suffered from neural damage and brain inflammation. To Dr. Veasey and Mr. Zamore, this suggested that the effects were long-lasting and perhaps permanent.

Nevertheless, many scientists said that the new research should not be cause for panic. It is possible that sleep deprivation damages rat and mouse brains, but that doesnt mean that you should get stressed about not getting enough sleep, said Jerome Siegel, a sleep scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who did not contribute to the review.
They did. But when they learned of his new girlfriend, they were a little shocked, he said.

The couple met as sophomores, on the day that Ms. Burks had arrived in Chicago after transferring from Pace University in New York. She and her new roommate were leaving a cafeteria on campus when Ms. Burks, not looking where she was going, walked into Mr. Misiak.

It turned out that Mr. Misiak, from Des Plaines, Ill., was a high school classmate of her roommates, so the group began chatting. When it came up that she grew up in Reno, Nev., he told her that he had been there and the two commiserated about their mutual disregard for the place. Mr. Misiak left the conversation smitten with Ms. Burks, and spent the next 10 days hoping to run into her again (maybe less literally).

Unfortunately, when that moment came, it was late at night and he was in a stupor, as he put it, during a shift working at the library. Worse, he wasnt wearing his glasses.

I didnt even realize it was her, he said. When he put his glasses on and recognized his blunder, he turned to Facebook to find her and ask her out.
Ken Knowlton, an engineer, computer scientist and artist who helped pioneer the science and art of computer graphics and made many of the first computer-generated pictures, portraits and movies, died on June 16 in Sarasota, Florida. He was 91.

His son, Rick Knowlton, said the cause of death, at a hospice facility, was unclear.

In 1962, after finishing a Ph.D. in electrical engineering, Dr. Knowlton joined Bell Labs in Murray Hill, N.J., a future-focused division of the Bell telephone conglomerate that was among the worlds leading research labs. After learning that the lab had installed a new machine that could print images onto film, he resolved to make movies using computer-generated graphics.

You could make pictures with letters on the screen or spots on the screen or lines on the screen, he said in a 2016 interview, recalling his arrival at Bell Labs. How about a movie?
Our reporters are speaking with women across the United States as they react to Fridays Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Here is a selection of what they have heard from women who support maintaining access to abortion.

Thinking of the next generation of young women

Nicole Stipp, 37, a co-owner of Trouble Bar in Louisville and a volunteer for the Kentucky Health Justice Networks abortion hotline, said one of the first things she did after hearing the ruling was text her little sister and her sister-in-law, who are both in their 20s.

Theyre so vulnerable, said Ms. Stipp, who has had abortions herself. Its crazy to think that my little sister has less rights than me as of this morning. Ive lived my whole life with access to abortion. That doesnt mean it hasnt been complicated and barricaded by legislatures, but now my sister whos 25 does not have that right, and thats really haunting.
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland called the Supreme Court decision to strike down the right to an abortion a devastating blow to reproductive freedom, and he vowed to use the Justice Departments authority to protect the right to the procedure.

In a detailed statement, Mr. Garland said that the decision undermines stare decisis, a longstanding doctrine that the court should respect precedents. That principle has helped to uphold the rule of law by keeping the courts work consistent and preserving the publics faith that it act as a neutral arbiter.

Mr. Garland called on Congress to pass a federal law that protects the right to an abortion, which he said has safeguarded womens ability to participate fully and equally in society. His plea comes as Republicans, energized by the Supreme Courts decision, are encouraging state legislatures to ban abortions in every state in the country.
Under anti-trafficking legislation passed with bipartisan support by Congress, the children, known by the government as unaccompanied minors, must remain in the custody of the U.S. government until a sponsor, usually a family member, has provided requisite paperwork and passed vetting.

The number of these children has soared since Mr. Biden took office, in part because they are not subject to the pandemic-related public health restrictions that have limited the arrival of other migrants.

In the first eight months of this fiscal year, agents have encountered about 100,000 underage migrants traveling alone, compared with nearly 150,000 in the 2021 fiscal year, a record that could be exceeded this year.

Like adults who enter the country without a visa, underage migrants are placed in deportation proceedings. Lawyers help them apply for asylum or other forms of legal protection that can result in permanent residency in the United States.

Where are the migrant children going and why?

By law, children can remain no longer than 72 hours in border processing centers, which are often crowded, rudimentary facilities where migrants sleep on the floor in cells.

Government officials say the young migrants must be taken to places where they can be properly cared for before they are eventually released to a guardian.
The end of the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling was the culmination of decades of work by Republicans and social conservatives  one that came to pass only after a former Democrat from New York who had once supported abortion rights helped muscle through three Supreme Court justices.

Publicly, former President Donald J. Trump heralded the Supreme Courts ruling on Friday ending federal abortion protections as a victory. Yet, as he faces possible prosecution over his efforts to subvert the 2020 election and prepares for a likely 2024 presidential campaign, Mr. Trump has privately told friends and advisers the ruling will be bad for Republicans.

When a draft copy of the decision leaked in May, Mr. Trump began telling friends and advisers that it would anger suburban women, a group who helped tilt the 2020 race to President Biden, and would lead to a backlash against Republicans in the November midterm elections.
The United States on Friday complied with a federal court order and released a former Afghan militiaman from detention in Guantanamo Bay, in a case that reflects the changing political realities of Afghanistan.

Assadullah Haroon Gul, who is in his 40s, was held for 15 years at the military prison under the name Haroon al-Afghani and was never charged with any war crimes.

A U.S. Air Force plane carrying Mr. Haroon departed from Guantanamo Bay on Thursday and delivered him to Qatar, which has long served as a go-between on United States interests with the Taliban. Qatari officials then handed Mr. Haroon over to Taliban government representatives in Doha, according to a senior U.S. official.
Some senators asked about the differences between the two reports, according to multiple people briefed on the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the secret session. Mr. Cohen told lawmakers that the C.I.A. was aware of the panels findings when its interim report was written and argued the efforts were not contradictory. The panel of experts was looking at plausible means of injury, and the C.I.A. was looking for evidence of what, and who, was responsible.

Mark Lenzi, a State Department official injured in China, said the investigation continued to be inadequate. State and C.I.A. will continue to give Congress an incomplete and misleading picture of what the U.S. government knows about the pulsed microwave attacks that injured me, my family and my American Foreign Service neighbor and her family members in China, he said.

In a rare bipartisan action, Congress approved the Havana Act last year, legislation originally drafted by Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, to provide compensation for government officials debilitated by Havana syndrome.

Under the State Departments rules, victims must show they have a brain injury in connection with war, insurgency, hostile act, terrorist activity, or other incidents designated by the Secretary of State to qualify for the aid. The injury cannot have occurred because of misconduct by the individual, and must have occurred after Jan. 1, 2016. Victims must also show that they have had active treatment for injuries for at least 12 months.

Victims said Friday that they were studying the rules. Marc Polymeropoulos, a former senior C.I.A. official who suffered from headaches and vertigo following an incident in Moscow in 2017, said that the implementing rules should be consistent across the government and should not exclude people who have been injured.

We must ensure that the criteria is expansive enough to ensure that all injured U.S. government personnel receive compensation, and that some are not left out in the cold, he said.
Many people are showing what seems to look like remission, she said.

The clinicians leading the studies said they were trying to keep their enthusiasm in check as they build on a body of scientific research.

Were taking vulnerable people, particularly people with severe mental illness, PTSD, substance abuse disorders, and were putting them in a vulnerable state of mind, a very suggestible state of mind, said Dr. Christopher Stauffer, a psychiatrist at the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System in Portland, who is leading two psychedelic studies. We have to be super careful about bias in all directions, from the researchers to the participants.

Still, Dr. Stauffer said it was imperative to innovate and take considered risks.

We have a mental health crisis right now and our current mental health system is not able to adequately manage it, he said.

Some of the V.A. studies are being partly funded and supported by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a nonprofit organization that has been pressing the federal government to legalize medicinal psychedelics for years. Its executive director, Rick Doblin, said the government could have saved lives by recognizing the therapeutic value of hallucinogens decades ago.

Im hopeful that the treatment will eventually be widely available throughout the system, he said. Yet I shudder to think of how many vets died of PTSD, often through suicide, during those years.
Protestors continued to gather in front of the US Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.

A new and rapidly shifting reality took hold across America on Saturday as abortion, a basic legal right for nearly a half century, was outlawed in some states, and the initial bursts of elation and shock from the overturning of Roe v. Wade gave way to action.

At abortion clinics across the country, providers hastily canceled appointments out of fear of prosecution, and stunned women abruptly made plans to cross state lines into places where abortion was still allowed  traveling from Missouri to Illinois, from Wisconsin to Minnesota.

In Arkansas, where a trigger law banning abortions went into effect on Friday, 17 patients had been scheduled for abortions on Friday at Little Rock Family Planning Services, but none were performed before the Supreme Courts decision shut down operations. About 30 more patients had been scheduled for an ultrasound and consultation that was required under Arkansas previous law before women could get an abortion.

The Yellowhammer Fund, which is based in Alabama and provides financial support to women seeking abortions, has received an influx of calls in the last day from people confused about the changing laws and seeking guidance and money to travel elsewhere for abortions.

People who had appointments for next week no longer have appointments, said Laurie Bertram Roberts, the executive director of the fund. The person who runs the call line is very overwhelmed.

Image Lauren Feist and Luke Feist, 5, work on posters before a rally and march for abortion rights in Los Angeles. Credit... Morgan Lieberman for The New York Times

Legal experts confronted a quickly changing landscape of abortion laws. In the newly redrawn map of the United States that was taking shape on Saturday, abortion was banned in at least nine states, prompting vows of swift enforcement from officials in conservative states. Prosecutors in liberal states and counties responded with defiance, saying they would not violate their own values by pursuing criminal cases against doctors who had performed abortions.

Demonstrations continued to roil cities across the country. Americans said they were steeling themselves for a fight in the wake of the courts decision, whether that meant pushing for still more restrictions on abortion, or working to elect politicians in the midterm elections who favor abortion rights.

I fear for my child. I worry that she isnt going to have choice, said Abbye Putterman, 36, who stood outside an abortion clinic in Overland Park, Kan., on Saturday and spoke of the impact the decision could have on her 12-year-old daughter. I feel like a whole bunch of white men are trying to decide what my daughter should do. Those men dont know anything about what its like to carry a child  what pregnancy does to your body.

Abortion is still legal in Kansas but was banned in neighboring Missouri on Friday. In August, a ballot initiative will ask voters in Kansas to decide whether the State Constitution should continue to protect the right to an abortion.

Ms. Putterman was at the clinic to show support to the women receiving services there, while anti-abortion protesters gathered outside.

We dont believe in moral compromise, and we dont want them to be guilty of murder, said Valley Scharping, 26, who stood on the sidewalk. He held a sign that read Love your preborn neighbor as yourself.

On Saturday, President Biden spoke of the Roe decision. Jill and I know how painful and devastating the decision is for so many Americans, he said, adding that the administration would focus on states and how they administer it and whether or not they violate other laws.

Image President Joe Biden departs from the White House on Saturday. Credit... T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times

Some states imposed new abortion restrictions on Saturday, and others tried to accelerate timelines for the bans to take place.

After the Supreme Court handed control over abortion restrictions back to the states, at least nine states that are home to roughly 40 million people quickly put bans in place. Other abortion prohibitions that had been passed in anticipation of a post-Roe legal landscape were working their way through the courts.

In Idaho, North Dakota and Texas, officials said they would wait the 30 days stipulated in their laws for their so-called trigger laws to take effect, banning abortion.

In Ohio, a law outlawing abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy took effect after a federal judge lifted an injunction that had blocked the law for the past three years. Gov. Mike DeWine reiterated his opposition to abortion on Friday, saying he believed that the life of a human being is at stake and we have an obligation to protect that innocent life.

Planned Parenthood Association of Utah and the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah filed a lawsuit in state court on Saturday seeking to block the states ban on abortion, which went into effect on Friday. The lawsuit argues that the ban violates several protections in the states constitution, including the right to determine family composition. Planned Parenthood in the state said that it had to stop performing abortions immediately after the ban went into effect and that it would have to cancel 55 abortion appointments scheduled for next week unless temporary relief was granted.

In many states, residents were left to grapple with a confusing array of pronouncements as local and state officials clashed over the legalities of abortion restrictions and how they would be enforced.

In Tennessee, Herbert Slatery, the attorney general, filed an emergency motion on Friday asking a court to lift an injunction and allow a ban on abortions after six weeks to be made law.

After nearly 50 years, todays decision gives the people of Tennessee a say on what the Court called a profound moral issue, he said in a statement.

But Glenn Funk, the district attorney in Nashville, said in a statement that he would not prosecute doctors performing abortions or women who choose such a procedure.

I will use my constitutional powers to protect women, health providers and those making personal health decisions, he said.

Officials of Mississippis only abortion clinic, which was the center of the case decided on Friday by the Supreme Court, predicted that conservative activists would soon seek limits to rights related to birth control and same-sex marriage.

Diane Derzis, who owns the clinic, the Jackson Womens Health Organization, said it would most likely remain open for 10 days after the Supreme Courts decision, before shutting its doors when a new law is expected to take effect in that state.

It has begun, she said. In the next few days, weeks and year, you will see half of the states have no abortion services. We are continuing to do services. We are not laying down.

In states where abortion remains legal, leaders promised to reinforce protections.

Image An anti-abortion protestor tried to balance his wooden cross in front of the US Supreme Court. Credit... Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

Governors in California, Oregon and Washington issued a joint commitment to reproductive freedom, saying they would welcome people who sought abortions in their states and push back on efforts by other state governments to prosecute people who did so.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, a Democrat, called for a special session for lawmakers to strengthen abortion rights, anticipating that women from other states would be flocking to Illinois for abortion services.

At a Planned Parenthood clinic in Waukegan, Ill., just miles from the Wisconsin border, a group of about 20 anti-abortion protesters stood with signs and prayed on Saturday.

The clinic was opened in 2020 in anticipation that Roe would be overturned and Wisconsin would ban abortions, said Mary Jane Maharry, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Illinois. We do have enough staff to meet the needs today and we are working at increasing our staff to meet the anticipated surge of 20,000 to 30,000 additional out-of-state patients per year, she said.

In Charleston, W. Va., the states lone abortion clinic ended all appointments, fearing that an abortion ban from the 19th century was suddenly enforceable again after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

One of the appointments had just been made on Thursday by a 21-year-old pregnant woman in West Virginia who had weighed whether she was ready to have a child and decided that she was not.

On Friday, a clinic employee called to tell the woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she feared her parents would disown her if they knew she was planning to have an abortion, that her appointment would be canceled.

When I went to bed, I had my appointment and everything was set, she said, and then today its like pre-1973.

Reporting was contributed by Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs , Aurelien Breeden , Robert Chiarito , Emily Cochrane , Jimmie E. Gates, Carey Gillam , Victoria Kim and Erica Sweeney .
In Maryland, Bill Ferguson, who leads the State Senate, and Adrienne Jones, who leads the House of Delegates, wrote in a joint statement that they would review the opinion and, if necessary, pass legislation that protects Marylanders and complies with this brand-new precedent.

Attorney General Maura Healey of Massachusetts said she and 19 other attorneys general argued to the Supreme Court last year that the Second Amendment does not bar states and localities from regulating the carrying of guns in public, as they have done for hundreds of years.

The default right now is that you can bring a lawfully carried firearm into private property unless you are explicitly told not to, said Eric Ruben, assistant professor of law at the S.M.U. Dedman School of Law. States might consider whether this default should be flipped in a world where more Americans are carrying concealed guns.

Exactly how much harder or easier it will become to get a concealed-carry permit in these states will be determined only by the legislative responses, said Darrell Miller, a law professor at Duke University and a co-director of the Duke Center for Firearms Law.

What is clear is that these states will have to change their laws in a way where the licensing authority has less discretion to deny a permit, Mr. Miller said.

The ruling will generate challenges to much more than concealed-carry permit laws because it explicitly rejects a legal standard  nicknamed the two-step test  that federal courts have used to evaluate Second Amendment challenges since a major Supreme Court ruling on gun rights in 2008.
The Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and give individual states the choice of banning or allowing abortions will most immediately affect the 13 states that have trigger laws.

These statutes were implemented in anticipation of Fridays ruling and are written to automatically go into effect following the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Some laws are expected to take effect almost immediately, while others are written to take effect about a month after the ruling.

These are the 13 states with trigger laws that are expected to go into effect, or that already have:

Arkansas

In Arkansas, a trigger law is expected to take effect within days and ban almost all abortions, with an exception for saving the life of a pregnant woman in a medical emergency. Performing an abortion, or attempting to perform one, could lead to 10 years in prison or a fine of up to $100,000.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.  The Supreme Courts decision overturning Roe v. Wade on Friday catapulted the explosive battle over abortion rights into the center of several marquee midterm races, turning the fight over key governors contests and coveted Senate seats into heated debates about personal freedom and public health.

Devastated Democrats, facing staggering political challenges amid high inflation and President Bidens low approval ratings, hoped the decision might reinvigorate disaffected base voters. They also saw the moment as a fresh chance to hold on to the moderate, suburban swing voters who have helped them win recent elections.

Republicans, for their part, publicly celebrated the ruling as the realization of a decades-long effort, even as some strategists  and former President Donald J. Trump  privately acknowledged that the issue created at least some risk for a party that has enjoyed months of political momentum. Many argued that competitive races would ultimately be decided by other issues.

From the grass-roots perspective, theres a lot of joy, said Scott Jennings, a Republican who is a former top campaign aide to Senator Mitch McConnell, the minority leader. This is why we fight. And at the same time, this election is going to be decided on a couple of issues: Joe Bidens approval rating, inflation, the economy, crime, quality of life.

For years, the prospect of overturning Roe v. Wade was an abstract concept for many Americans  a distressing but distant worry for some and a long-term goal rather than an imminent possibility to others. The Supreme Courts opinion eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion ended that era of disbelief, opening a new chapter of concrete consequences, in which races for governor, state legislature and attorney general, and even state courts might determine whether millions of Americans have access to the procedure.

This fall, Roe is on the ballot, Mr. Biden said on Friday. Personal freedoms are on the ballot.

Both parties agree that the high stakes will be galvanizing, to some degree, to their respective bases. But the critical question remains whether swing voters  in particular, independent women from the diverse suburbs, who are currently focused on economic uncertainty  will turn their attention to the fight over access to abortion.

Image Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan after a discussion of abortion rights in Grand Rapids. Credit... Emily Elconin for The New York Times

There are a lot of independent women, I think there are a lot of women who havent been participating in elections, and are going to engage, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan said in an interview earlier this week, after hosting an emotional round table focused on abortion rights at a brewery in Grand Rapids. But Im not going to assume it. Were going to have to make sure that were doing the work of education and persuasion and activation.

Already this year, Democratic campaigns and supportive outside groups have spent nearly $18 million in advertising on abortion issues, while Republicans and affiliated outside groups have spent nearly $21 million, according to the media tracking firm AdImpact. Both figures may balloon.

Activists and party strategists, who have been preparing for months to mobilize around this issue, are focusing in particular on governors races in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, three states currently led by Democratic governors, and places where the outcomes this fall could directly impact the future of abortion rights after the Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization decision handed control over abortion protections back to the states.

Democrats also are planning to use the issue to play offense in other governors races, while making the case that Senate and House candidates across the country, too, have embraced positions on abortion that are far outside the mainstream.

An early test of energy around this issue will come in August, as Kansans vote on whether to remove the right to an abortion from the state constitution.

In a fund-raising email on Friday, Gov. Laura Kelly of Kansas, a Democrat, declared that I could be the only Kansas leader standing in the way of new abortion restrictions. Her likely opponent, the state attorney general, Derek Schmidt, said that he would support the ballot initiative.

Image The Kansas Senate debated an amendment to the state constitution that would regulate abortion rights last year. Credit... Evert Nelson/The Topeka Capital-Journal, via Associated Press

Democrats had been preparing to try to direct the expected outpouring of shock and anger into electoral action once the opinion was handed down, with party committees and state parties conferring on national messaging and mobilization plans, as well as launching a website on Friday to direct organizing efforts.

Candidates and organizations have employed focus groups and polling to assess the issue; there are sprawling fund-raising efforts; and the abortion rights groups Planned Parenthood Action Fund, NARAL Pro-Choice America and Emilys List have said they intend to spend $150 million on the midterm elections. American Bridge 21st Century, a Democratic-aligned super PAC, says it has tapped social media influencers to communicate about abortion rights and Republican records on that issue to Americans who may be only casually political.

We will see, state by state by state, pre-existing bans go into effect, state legislatures rush to pass abortion bans, said Cecile Richards, the former president of Planned Parenthood who is now a chair of American Bridge. Its a different conversation now because its become real.

Despite all the mobilization, many party strategists do not anticipate that even Fridays seismic decision will fundamentally change voters focus on cost-of-living worries. But some see it as reinforcing their core argument against Republicans: that the right wing of the party is in control, out of step with public opinion, and focused above all else on cultural battles. Senate Democrats and strategists are particularly focused on highlighting the Republican candidates who support near-total bans on abortion.

Economic issues are always going to outweigh abortion for a lot of voters, said Celinda Lake, a veteran Democratic strategist. But its very, very important for Democrats  to win these swing voters  to make this a choice, not a referendum. Abortion, she said, is going to be a major factor in that, because it is a very clear distinction.

Image Abortion rights supporters protested the Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on Friday at the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta. Credit... Kendrick Brinson for The New York Times

Polling shows that Americans strongly oppose completely overturning Roe v. Wade  in a Washington Post-ABC poll conducted in late April, 54 percent of Americans thought the Roe decision should be upheld, while 28 percent believed it should be overturned. But views on abortion vary depending on a states political tilt.

That is one reason Republicans messaging on the issue has been less unified. On Friday, as some candidates, lawmakers and the Republican National Committee rushed to celebrate the ruling, others sought to quickly return their focus to pocketbook issues.

Adam Laxalt, the Republican Senate candidate in Nevada  a state with a history of supporting abortion rights  on Friday cheered the historic victory for the sanctity of life, but stressed that access to abortion was already settled law in Nevada.

It wont distract voters from unaffordable prices, rising crime or the border crisis, he said.

When asked for comment, Jesse Hunt, a spokesman for the Republican Governors Association, responded in a statement that the persuadable voters that will determine the outcome in competitive races are deeply concerned with the damage being done to their financial security by Democrats.

Even Mr. Trump, the former president who put conservatives on the court, has privately told people that he believes the courts decision will be bad for Republicans. In a public statement on Friday, Mr. Trump called the decision the biggest WIN for LIFE in a generation.

Abortion rights opponents are working to capitalize on conservatives enthusiasm.

The anti-abortion rights group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America launched a field program last year, with plans to engage eight million voters in critical battleground states. The group is focusing on those people that are in play, that could go either way based on this particular issue, said Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the organization.

Its not just some theoretical vote about somebody who says theyre pro-life, she said. Its now an opportunity to actually do something about it.

Penny Nance, the president of Concerned Women for America, an organization that opposes abortion rights, said the group was planning a summit that would focus on the role of state activism in a post-Roe nation.

Some state officials have basically said, We dont really have the ability to change the law because of the Supreme Court decision, she said.

Now, she continued, it changes everything.

That new focus on state laws has already intensified the debate in statehouses and governors races in politically divided states. In Pennsylvania, the next governor and a Republican-led statehouse will likely determine access.

Image Doug Mastriano, the Republican candidate for governor of Pennsylvania, with supporters in Portersville in May. Credit... Keith Srakocic/Associated Press

Roe v. Wade is rightly relegated to the ash heap of history, said Doug Mastriano, the far-right Republican nominee for governor in Pennsylvania. Josh Shapiro, the state attorney general and the Democratic nominee for governor, wrote on Twitter on Friday that without Roe, the only thing stopping them is the veto pen of our next Governor.

In Michigan and Wisconsin, old laws on the books call for near-total bans on abortion and Democratic governors up for re-election have vowed to fight to protect access.

In Michigan, abortion rights supporters are working to secure a constitutional amendment protecting the right to an abortion. Ms. Whitmer has also filed a lawsuit asking the Michigan Supreme Court to immediately resolve whether the State Constitution protects the right to an abortion.

At her roundtable discussion this week, Ms. Whitmer spoke with women about whether they thought voters had yet grasped the significance of what overturning Roe v. Wade would mean.

So many people, one attendee told her, didnt realize it was this serious.
I spoke to four of the government researchers leading studies into the use of MDMA, often called Ecstasy, and psilocybin, to treat mental illnesses that have been resistant to current therapies for many veterans. The researchers addressed their motivations, misgivings and hope for the future of medicinal psychedelics.

Digging through memories like an archaeologist

Dr. Shannon Remick, 34, has the military in her blood  having been raised by an Army mother, a Marine father and a Navy stepfather. That familiarity with the armed forces is part of what drove her to become a psychiatrist at the V.A., where she found that a significant number of combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder were not responding to conventional treatments.

Last October she likely became the first clinician since the 1960s to administer psychedelics as medicine to a patient at a V.A. clinic. The 10 patients in her study at the Veterans Affairs clinic in Loma Linda, Calif., are combat veterans with PTSD who volunteered to undergo three sessions with MDMA in hopes of exploring the underlying roots of their distress.

Dr. Remick said its crucial to build rapport and trust with patients during conventional therapy sessions ahead of the MDMA trips. Before a patient takes the pill, she sets a calming mood by doing a breathing exercise, reading a poem or having a veteran hold a personally meaningful object. The MDMA sessions themselves, she said, are often self-directed, with the therapist doing more listening than talking.
KIGALI, Rwanda  Presidents, princes and prime ministers from across the world gathered on Friday in Kigali, the hilly capital of Rwanda, to examine some of the pressing issues facing their nations and the association that unites them: the Commonwealth.

But as the meeting whose agenda included topics like health care, climate change and the effects of the war in Ukraine got underway, nearly everyone  except, it seemed, the Commonwealth leaders themselves  focused instead on Rwandas human rights record.

For years, the country and its government, led by President Paul Kagame, has been accused of cracking down on dissent, muzzling the news media and destabilizing neighboring countries. Those moves, according to many of those who have gathered for the meeting in Kigali, are contrary to the values of democracy, free expression and peace espoused by the Commonwealth, a 54-nation organization that was born out of the dying embers of the British Empire and includes countries as far-flung as Canada, Malaysia and Nigeria.
While the earthquake was considered moderate in magnitude, it wreaked havoc in southeastern Afghanistan, where many houses are made of masonry or even mud and were unable to withstand the force of the tremors. More than 2,100 homes were estimated to have been damaged in Khost and Paktika, according to the World Food Program, with the worst damage centered in Paktika.

In Geyan alone, one of the districts in the province that was pummeled by the quake, the World Food Program said that 1,500 houses had been damaged or destroyed. The Afghan disaster management ministry said that the damage was even more extensive, estimating that more than 10,000 houses had been affected.

The disaster could hardly have come at a worse time for Afghanistan, a nation of 39 million that has been in the throes of economic collapse since the Taliban stormed to power in August and toppled a government that had been sustained for two decades by support from Western governments and a military coalition led by the United States.

Before the Taliban took over, foreign aid funded 75 percent of the Afghan governments budget. The Taliban has since struggled to attract foreign money as Western donors have balked at edicts barring girls from attending school and restricting womens rights, among other concerns.
SYDNEY, Australia  Four years after Australias ties with China entered a downward spiral, with Australia emerging as an energetic counterweight to Beijings growing might, the two countries have begun to explore whether they can patch things up.

Since Australias new, center-left government came to power last month, leaders in both countries have signaled that they want to ease the tensions of recent years. Their disputes over technology, trade barriers, accusations of illicit Chinese influence in Australian politics, and each countrys military plans, have sometimes erupted in vitriol.

Chinas ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, said on Friday that the change of leadership in Canberra was an opportunity of possible improvement of our bilateral relations.
In recent weeks, the junta has threatened to execute democracy activists detained for opposing the regime, including U Kyaw Min Yu, better known as Ko Jimmy, and the opposition lawmaker U Phyo Zayar Thaw, a former hip-hop artist. Both were sentenced to death in January under Myanmars counterterrorism law during trials that were closed to the public.

Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmars independence hero, Gen. Aung San, spent more than 15 years under house arrest before her release in 2010. During that time, she was locked up for brief periods at the notorious Insein Prison.

Since the coup, she had been held under house arrest in undisclosed locations near Naypyidaw, the capital, until Wednesday, when she was transferred to a prison in the city. The move came after workers finished building a new courtroom inside the prison.

She was transferred from house arrest to the prison on June 22, according to the law, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, a junta spokesman, said in a statement Thursday. She is being treated well and is in solitary confinement in prison.

A person close to Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution, said that she was in good health but was compelled to leave behind her beloved dog, Taichito, a gift from her younger son.

Prison officials said Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi was expected to wear a prison uniform and to follow prison rules.
PEKERKHAL, Bangladesh  Rohima Begum was cooking breakfast last week when the floodwaters flowed into her tin-and-bamboo home and began racing across the floor.

Ms. Begum, her three children and her mother made a quick escape in a small boat. When they looked back, the house and their possessions had been swept away.

Im having a tough time here, and I dont know what comes next, Ms. Begum, 28, said this week at a school building in Bangladeshs landlocked northeast where hundreds of flood victims have been sheltering.
The Australia Letter is a weekly newsletter from our Australia bureau. Sign up to get it by email.

When Brittany Higgins, a former government staff member, came forward with her allegations of rape, which she said took place inside Australias Parliament building, the entire country was transfixed. Her claim that she had been assaulted by a colleague in the defense ministers office while she was sleeping after a night of drinking prompted protests across Australia by women demanding changes in a male-dominated political culture.

But this week, journalists and the broader public in Australia got a stern reminder to be extremely careful about how to report on and talk about the case.

A prominent TV journalist won an award for her interview last year with Ms. Higgins, and in her acceptance speech praised Ms. Higgins for her courage. That promoted the judge in the case to order a delay to the trial, which had been about to start. The journalists remarks, the judge said, risked swaying the jury, because their implication was that Ms. Higgins was truthful.
South Africa: Be vigilant of monkeypox: SAMA

The South African Medical Association (SAMA) has recommended vigilance among its members and the public after the discovery of the first monkeypox case in South Africa on Thursday.

While the case has been confirmed in Gauteng, SAMA cautioned other provinces to be on the lookout for the virus.

According to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), the case reported in South Africa involves a 30-year-old male with no recent travel history.

In a statement, SAMA said the virus is transmitted through person-to-person close, direct contact with infected person/s or contaminated materials (e.g. bed linen, clothes and other household items).

The virus is said to be not highly transmissible, unlike the influenza or SARS-CoV-2 virus. The symptoms to look out for are acute illness typified by fever, general flu-like symptoms, followed by blister-like rash on the skin and/or swelling of the lymph nodes,

It is also noted that the disease is rarely fatal. Cases can resolve within two to four weeks. Isolation of cases is recommended to limit the spread of infection, SAMA said.

SAMA further recommends that its members exercise vigilance and is in support of the adoption of contact tracing and monitoring of the cases, as per the guidance of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the NICD.

WHO and the NICD do not recommend embarking on a vaccination programme for monkeypox, however, the NICD has published a contact tracing procedure for monkeypox which can be accessed here: https://www.nicd.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Standard-Operating-Proecedure-for-Monkeypox-contact-tracing.pdf.

Continue to observe COVID-19 rules in healthcare settings

Meanwhile, SAMA has welcomed the repeal of the COVID-19 regulations by the Minister of Health and further recognises that there has been a decline in hospitalisation and reported cases of COVID-19 in the country.

SAMA said that the recent COVID-19 statistics clearly demonstrates the extent of the impact of the pandemic.

SAMA welcomes the removal of the regulation measures as they pertain to the wearing of masks indoors, the number of gatherings and international travel entry. SAMA notes that the virus is still present, though not as prevalent. SAMA members as they are in the forefront of the health system are however faced with patients who may or may not present symptoms of the virus and other viral diseases, SAMA said.

SAMA stated that the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends a No Regret Policy when it comes to taking measures to protect patients and healthcare professionals during COVID-19.

The Occupational Health Act of 2003 also requires the employer to bring about and maintain, as far as reasonably practicable, a work environment that is safe and without risk to the health of workers in the delivery of health services.

Due to the close proximity between healthcare workers, patients and/or patient biological materials, SAMA has urged its members to continue to observe non-pharmaceutical COVID-19 measures in all healthcare settings.

This includes the continued wearing of face masks and implementation of sanitisation measures for patients and healthcare professionals in medical settings. The wearing of face masks for patients and healthcare workers who are symptomatic should become the norm beyond the health care facilities, SAMA said.

SAMA maintains that vaccination is still the most powerful weapon that society has against COVID-19.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2022-06-24. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Jessica Harrison-Hall: Telling a China story at the British Museum

18:54, June 24, 2022 By Shi Muyang ,Yu Ying ( People's Daily Online

Jessica Harrison-Hall is Head of the China Section, Curator of the Sir Percival David Collections of Chinese Ceramics, and Decorative Arts at the British Museum. In her 30 years career at the British Museum, Harrison-Hall has delivered a wide range of exhibitions, publications, and lectures to present Chinas stories in a global context through visual and material culture.

From 2012 to 2016, Harrison-Hall was the principal investigator for a project exploring China's global connections during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Working with over 30 organisations around the world, she delivered a book and a temporary exhibition at the British Museum titled Ming: 50 years that changed China, attracting over 140,000 visitors. She is also the author of China: A History in Objects (2017), which is now published in six languages, and various other books on Chinese history and fine arts.

Alongside Professor Julia Lovell of London University, Harrison-Hall is leading an international team to investigate Cultural Creativity and Resilience in Qing China 1796-1912 and will deliver a series of three books and one special exhibition at the British Museum in 2023.

Jessica Harrison-Hall (Photo/Fraser Watson)

From Yuan Painting to Chinese Ceramics

Peoples Daily Online: You have been interested in Chinese Arts in as early as the 1980s, could you share with us how your journey in the subject began?

Harrison-Hall: My interest really in Chinese art began with Yuan Dynasty painting, and I did my dissertation on artists of the Yuan Dynasty. I wasnt really aware of Chinese ceramics in university. That came much later, but I did an amazing amount of travelling in China.

I first went to China when I was 19 years old in 1984 as part of a small group from Edinburgh University studying Chinese and Chinese fine art in Jinan in Shandong Province. We really went all the way, from Beijing to Kashgar and then down to Hainan Island. And people were very welcoming in the eighties because China was really opening up then.

Peoples Daily Online: After your return to the UK, under what occasion did you start working for the British Museum?

Harrison-Hall: My first contact with the British Museum was through being a volunteer for Jessica Rawson, who was at the time the Keeper of the Department of Oriental Antiquities, at the Japan Festival, and after a month I was given a contract to work at the British Museum initially when we opened the Sir Joseph Hotung Gallery back in 1992.

And then a job became vacant as somebody moved to another museum. It was very competitive. But luckily, I think I had the experience of looking after the ceramics as well as the experience of being in the museum. I would say Im probably one of the last generation of curators that learned through doing, through actually looking at objects with people who knew about them and learning from them.

Peoples Daily Online: You have written many books and catalogues on Chinese ceramics, what is so special about working with them at the British Museum?

Harrison-Hall: Well, I've been incredibly lucky to work with such an extraordinary collection. Chinese ceramics have a place throughout the museum. We have them within the main China gallery and the successful David Gallery, but they also appear in the Islamic gallery, the Japanese gallery, the European gallery, and the Kings Library. I would say that China had connections with all sorts of different departments and material cultures, and that the British Museum is one of the best places to be able to study that. The kind of dialogue through things is very difficult to see in other places.

Jessica Harrison-Hall (Photo/Fraser Watson)

Thirty Years of Commitment and Innovation

Peoples Daily Online: Having participated in both the opening and refurbishment of the Hotung Gallery in 1992 and 2017, how has the presentation of the Gallery changed over the years?

Harrison-Hall: Its all about building our knowledge about China, a constant evolutionary process of adding new knowledge from new excavations, libraries, and other resources. You cant do the whole of Chinese history in one room, but you can give a taster of ideas throughout history.

What weve done with the gallery is weve used the architecture from the Edwardian era in 1914 to build these three-sided rooms which show you material goods that reflect that particular era for China and then for its contacts with other regions, either within China or with the rest of the world. We made these arrangements to give the visitors the idea of China being interconnected from the Neolithic period all the way to the present.

Peoples Daily Online: From a volunteer to a senior member of the Museum, how do you feel about the responsibilities that have been passed onto you?

Harrison-Hall: I feel a complete sense of privilege that I am standing in line with all these extraordinary people of the past who have hopefully done a little bit to help people understand a bit more about Chinese culture. The British Museum has been open since 1753. Back then Chinese objects were displayed as a kind of curiosity: silk purses, little shoes, fur-bound feet, and figures of popular gods. And one person commented in a guidebook which said that if an Englishman had turned out his pockets and put them on a table in China, they would have as much idea about British culture as British people could have of China by these exhibits.

Now weve got a much better picture of the history of China on display in the gallery. We could have a professor bringing his class of students to look at a particular type of object, or you could have a family visit who wants to entertain their children by giving them a bit of a cultural tour. We have an enormous range of different visitors and what we hope we provide is something of a little something for everybody through means such as putting pictures within the labels for people who dont necessarily read English. I feel a great sense of privilege that the collections are beautiful and inspiring, and an endless source of ideas for people. Not just the professionals but for anybody that comes into the building.

Peoples Daily Online: Weve been mostly talking about the permanent galleries of Chinese objects in the Museum, but you also curate many temporary exhibitions. What other responsibilities does your job as a curator involve?

Harrison-Hall: The wonderful thing about being at the British Museum and looking after the China collection is there is no routine ever. I think of my career not as a block of time but as a series of projects on different books, exhibitions, loans and sometimes lecture series.

Before reopening the Hotung Gallery to the Queen, I worked on the temporary exhibition Ming: 50 years that Changed China with ten museums from China, and we worked with 40 lenders altogether for the exhibition and had 140,000 visitors to the show, all of whom would have come away with a different impression of China in the early 15th century and so on.

Temporary exhibitions are a bit like theatrical performances. You start with an idea of what you want to do. You then decide who you want to work with and build the team around that. You then develop your ideas both through the objects and through reading and talking to people. And gradually this amazing thing builds and grows and then it takes on different forms going in lots of different directions. Its simply impossible not to find a temporary exhibition an exciting prospect.

One can go back through different projects looking at what youve done with different people, and thats really changed. Things that were about to do now, we couldnt possibly have done 30 years ago. Its completely different and Im very lucky to be able to experience all of that.

Jessica Harrison-Hall (Photo/Fraser Watson)

To Show the Resilience and Creativity of the Chinese People

Peoples Daily Online: In addition to the galleries, these kinds of temporary exhibitions have been truly instrumental in promoting bilateral cultural exchanges between China and the UK. Are there any upcoming projects that you can share with us?

Harrison-Hall: I can give you a little flavor of our exhibition that's going to be on display next year. This came out of an arts and humanities research council project for three to four years. And at the heart of it you have myself and Professor Julia Lovell of London University, and we're building a project around China in the 19th century as a special exhibition in May 2023.

One of the things we wanted to do when we were working on the Ming exhibition was to bring everyday people to life. It was very difficult because you don't have so many traces of ordinary people from Ming Dynasty, whereas in the 19th century there are a few more traces. The remarkable thing about the British Museum is because it's not an art museum, we have all of these different types of materials here, some of which were collected even in the late 19th century.

As a result, within the exhibition well have lots of different kinds of mediums from paintings and costumes to arms and armour. We are also hoping to bring beautiful calligraphy, paintings and, of course, court arts of the Palace Museum from China for this exhibition. As an example of one of the unusual things in the exhibition, I would like to mention a fantastic straw cape thats made to keep off the rain and the wind for a person who probably didnt have a great deal of money in the 19th century. My colleagues are spending probably about 80 hours on that one individual object, restoring it and bringing it back to its original form.

This project will also produce three books, one of which is about 100 people in the 19th century written by 100 authors from 15 countries.

Peoples Daily Online: You have mentioned that temporary exhibitions are often things of their own time, what are the connections between the exhibition on 19th century China and the contemporary world?

Harrison-Hall: I think this exhibition is incredibly relevant for today. We've all lived through the past couple of years of the COVID pandemic. People want to know how you get through these difficult times. And the 19th century is a perfect example. Looking at the period overall, it's a period of a series of domestic and foreign wars and conflicts.

But out of it come the most extraordinary artworks, the building up of new cities, and new kinds of finance within China. You have an end of the imperial examination system. But you have the birth of the new universities and a whole new education system. And you still have great new designs in glass, ceramics, and so on.

The idea of this exhibition is to present the historical events of the 19th century, but also to look at the creativity and the resilience of Chinese people throughout this time.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Du Mingming)
Wars are not won by retreats. But it is also possible to win the battle and lose the war.

The two military axioms  the first from Winston Churchill after the retreat from Dunkirk, and the second from more than 2,000 years ago when the Greek king Pyrrhus strode into the Roman Empire, triumphant but unable to secure the territory he wanted because of heavy losses suffered in the campaign to get there  both resonate as Russia grinds its way to battlefield advances in eastern Ukraine.

Depending on the prism it is viewed through, the fall of Sievierodonetsk and the Ukrainians desperate bid to hold on to Lysychansk reveal different aspects of the four-month-old war.

First, in the brutal war of attrition in the east, the Russians have shown that with their vastly superior firepower and willingness to scorch the earth to claim land, they can grind out territorial and tactical gains. And they can inflict heavy losses on Ukrainian forces. The Ukrainian government has said that over the past month, thousands of its soldiers have been killed.
Other lawmakers also opposed the repeal. A womans right to sexual self-determination also includes taking responsibility for ensuring that she does not become pregnant if she does not want to, Thomas Seitz of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, said in Parliament on Friday.

But the new government, led by Chancellor Olaf Scholzs Social Democrats, had promised a repeal of the ban in its coalition agreement, a sort of political road map that it had presented last November.

Today is a tremendous day, Lisa Paus, the federal minister for families, seniors women and youth, told lawmakers before the vote. For the physicians and above all for all women in this country.

Germanys action also highlights the ideological split on the issue within the Europe Union. In neighboring Poland, whose border is just an hours drive from Berlin, all abortions are banned.

But while neighboring Belgium and the Netherlands both have obligatory waiting periods, and France requires women seeking abortions to go through two consultations, no other European country had banned the transmission of information about the procedure the way Germany had.

The fact that we prohibit highly qualified doctors who perform such procedures from providing factual information under criminal penalty is absurd, it is out of touch with the times, it is unjust and that is why we are ending this state of affairs, Marco Buschmann, the justice minister, told lawmakers during the session.
Ms. Gutmann worried that both Germans and Americans overestimated how enduring democracies are  theyre not, unless you fight for them, she said, adding, Everything we do makes a difference. And everything we dont do makes a difference.

For all her eagerness to visit Feuchtwangen, the night before she traveled there, Ms. Gutmann barely slept.

I was worried sick that I would go there and feel they hadnt really come to terms with the past, she recalled, that I would be disappointed and I wouldnt have been able to hide it  and it would have been just a terrible moment.

By the time she left the town, she was reassured.

Addressing the small photograph of her father in her hands, she said, You would be so proud of not only your daughter, but of your country, the United States, which became your country, and the country that you had to leave  and what they have become: Two of the greatest allies still fighting what you would tell me is a fight that could never end.
Peter Nielsen, a Danish colonel commanding a NATO unit in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, said that he had seen no signs in recent days that Russia is preparing any new military action against Lithuania. I didnt sleep well in the month up to the Ukraine invasion; now I sleep very well, he said in an interview. Touch wood.

What Russia might ultimately do, he added, will depend on the mind of Mr. Putin, and we cant look into that. But the Russian presidents capacity to act, short of initiating a nuclear war, is severely limited, he said. We are tracking what they do, not what they say, he said.

Around half of the Russian troops and hardware that was previously based in Kaliningrad, for example, has now been redeployed to Ukraine. The United States, in contrast, has boosted NATO forces in Lithuania, with around 700 American soldiers now on rotation in the country to supplement a regular contingent of 1,150 German, 250 Dutch and 200 Norwegian troops.

This, said Col. Nielsen, makes a Russian military strike against Lithuania highly unlikely  even if they are crazy.
ROME  Written between 1938 and 1944, and previously unreleased to the general public, the letters reveal desperation and fear. They reflect the humiliation, discrimination and confinement Jews were subjected to during a dark moment in European history.

In one, a Milanese lawyer asks the Vatican to intervene in favor of his Jewish clients; another is from nuns entreating the Vatican to help a family of Jews travel to the United States. There are requests for travel documents, and appeals to be freed from a concentration camp.

The missives are all part of a trove of thousands of letters written by Jewish people across Europe begging Pope Pius XII and other Roman Catholic officials for help during the Nazi-Fascist persecutions. This week, on Pope Francis orders, part of the cache was made available on the internet. In total, 170 volumes, containing around 2,700 individual appeals, will be published online in an archival series titled Jews, the Vatican announced on Thursday.
Before the Ukraine war, the park out front had been neglected, becoming a campground for the homeless.

But starting in March, Ukrainian teens discovered it. The volleyball court is always busy. Theres a skate park where shirtless Ukrainian kids clatter on their boards and wipe out noisily. Young women sit under the trees and take it all in.

Mark said that in the park, people dont talk about the war.

If you want friends, he said, you dont talk politics. Because everyone has a different view of the situation.

And while its hard being without his parents, he said, and not knowing what lies ahead, he also feels a sense of possibility, of having a future that is yet to be carved.

Lifes not bad, he said. Warsaw is a beautiful city. I go around by myself, sightseeing.
Elsie Eiler is the sole resident of Monowi, Neb.

In the mornings, she walks along the empty main street to open its one remaining business, the Monowi Tavern, which her family has run since 1971. She operates it 12 hours every day of the week except Monday.

Half a dozen dusty pickup trucks emerge from the rural expanse of surrounding Boyd County as Mrs. Eiler, 88, turns on the lights and restocks the beer coolers.

The regulars pour their own coffee, set down a dollar and join the conversation. The farmers want to know whos selling hay and whos buying it. Everyone is concerned about a nearby wildfire made worse by powerful winds and a prolonged drought.

Theres gossip, too  whos getting married or divorced, who has been born and who has died.

On the bulletin board near the kitchen, layers of photographs knit together past and present generations who have called the rolling prairie home.

The tavern serves as one of the last gathering places for the remaining residents of the county. But the Monowi Tavern wont last forever. One day not long from now, Mrs. Eiler will be gone, and with no one else to take it over, Monowi is likely to be wiped from the map.

The bar is the town, and Im the town, she said. Were all so intermeshed, you cant quite imagine one without the other.

Population loss has decimated other towns in Boyd County, a 550-square-mile region south of the Missouri River. About 2,000 people still live in the county, down from a peak of 8,800 in 1910. The decline is part of a trend playing out across the state.

Farm sizes have steadily grown in recent years, as larger, more efficient operations became better suited to survive the industrys shift to a global market. Small family farms  once the backbone of the local economy  had to expand their operations or get out. Many got out. And without a way to make a living, generations of young people left for jobs in cities. Towns and businesses disappeared in their absence.

I have visited Monowi nearly a dozen times since 2005, most recently in March. I usually drove from Omaha, 200 miles to the southeast. On my way out of the city, I could see recently developed shopping malls, subdivisions and expanding urban sprawl  all signs of migration away from rural life.

Beyond the city, rows of corn and soy stretch past the horizon. Agricultural land blankets 92 percent of Nebraska. The road to Monowi is dotted with cows grazing alongside shuttered gas stations and not much else.

The areas remaining residents must drive dozens of miles up and down the highway to fill their gas tanks, visit the bank, shop for clothes or eat at a restaurant.

At Mrs. Eilers bar, I heard former farmers tell about the calamities that drove them out of business. A barn fire killed one mans two dozen hogs, then lightning struck his cattle. After enduring years of drought, another watched as torrential spring rain washed out freshly planted seeds. Many of the young people leaving the area are just in search of an easier way to make a living.

About one in three of the nations rural counties is experiencing sustained population loss, according to a study from the University of New Hampshire. A third fewer residents live in those counties today than in 1950. And while some states, including Nebraska, have created initiatives targeting population loss, those programs have not reached places as far gone as Monowi. The town continues to exist only because Mrs. Eiler files the required county and state paperwork every year. On top of bartending and cooking, she is the towns mayor and tax collector.

Once a community loses key businesses like a post office or grain elevator, there is a point of no return, said Cheryl Burkhart-Kriesel, a professor of agricultural economics at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

When a community center closes, youre just chipping away at that social capital, she said. And then it becomes very hard to get anybody to move into town.

The Monowi Tavern is a place for those who remain to come together  for birthdays, Sunday night euchre tournaments, family reunions, funeral wakes. Mrs. Eiler keeps the collective memory of the town together, when connections to neighbors and traditions are disappearing.

You have to be big, or you cant make it.

Monowi owes its existence to a 208-mile Chicago & North Western train line that connected farmland to growing cities in South Dakota and Nebraska.

Established in 1902, the town reached its peak population of around 140 in the 1930s, the decade when Mrs. Eiler was born the youngest of five Piklapp siblings. Growing up half a mile west of town in a two-story farmhouse, she raised chickens, pigs and cows and harvested corn and oats.

We dont have an industry, Mrs. Eiler said. We just farm.

The countryside was full of little 180-acre farms like theirs, but not anymore.

You have to be big, or you cant make it, Mrs. Eiler said.

In 1954, Mrs. Eiler was married to Rudy Eiler, whom she had met in Monowis one-room schoolhouse. They spent several years working on her fathers farm, but when the Monowi Tavern came up for sale in 1971, the Eilers bargained that the bar could provide a more reliable living.

Business was steady for a time, but by the end of the 1970s, the last train had passed through town. The local railroad workers and their families left. Not even the train tracks remain.

At the turn of the century, the Eilers were the last two residents in town.

They all mourn with you.

Lung cancer took her husband a few months short of their 50th wedding anniversary in 2004. She survived her own bout of colon cancer in 2011. But three years ago, her son, Jack, died of throat cancer at 62. She had hoped he would take over the bar someday.

She wears a locket with Jacks photo. If Im kind of blue or lonesome, I feel like maybe hes more with me, she said.

Even in grief, Mrs. Eiler is never truly alone. The bar has been a throughline in times of joy and sorrow.

When somebody needs it, or you lose somebody, the whole works is just like one big family, she said. They all mourn with you.

Grant Nielsen, a fifth-generation rancher, grew up with Mrs. Eiler. His ancestors are buried near hers in the cemetery southwest of town. He remembers visiting the bar with his grandfather during harvest in the 1980s.

It is the community, because thats where you go see neighbors, Mr. Nielsen said. Elsie is the heart of the community.

They dont see that its real people, and its real connections to the people and the land and that place that keep her there.

Monowis rarefied status as a one-person town has brought Mrs. Eiler some fame. Arbys featured her in a commercial in 2018, and she has had visitors from all 50 states and more than 60 countries.

Strangers, assuming that an older woman living on her own must be lonely, have asked Mrs. Eiler to be their pen pal. She has declined those offers, owing to the fact that she already has plenty of friends.

They dont see the camaraderie of when the group comes around the table and has their coffee in the morning or their beer at 5 oclock, Rene Lassise, Mrs. Eilers daughter, said. They dont see that its real people, and its real connections to the people and the land and that place that keep her there.

Mrs. Lassise lives in Tucson, Ariz., but returns to Monowi to help during busy times, like last June, when friends and family from across the country came to celebrate Mrs. Eilers half century at the tavern.

Before the 50th, I made the remark, Oh, God, this is coming up 50 years. I think its about time to hang it up, Mrs. Eiler said. Oh, my goodness, did I get a reaction out of that.

Knowing it could be one of the last chances to gather at the bar with Mrs. Eiler, the community pitched in to throw a big party. Some brought picnic tables from nearby towns. Others kept the beer cold. The Boyd and Knox County sheriffs departments grilled burgers and served cake.

Four generations of Eilers and Piklapps mixed with visitors from near and far. Mrs. Eilers great-grandchildren played hide-and-seek among long-silent buildings. Her grandchildren staffed the bar, and her daughter ran the kitchen.

Mrs. Eiler perched at the locals table as visitors passed through to wish her well, often with a hug. She had known some of them their entire lives. Visitors gleefully shook her hand as though they were meeting a celebrity. A family drove five hours from Iowa to give her balloons celebrating her achievement.

This is my home, she said. All my friends are around. Why would I want to leave?

I cant imagine what itd be like if Monowi wasnt there.

When a town dies, its history ends along with its future. Connections to the land disappear, and locals who moved away no longer have a hometown to return to.

Youre not going to just show up at somebodys place, Mr. Nielsen, the rancher, said. Its going to be lost.

When the bar is closed on Mondays, Mrs. Eilers regulars get a window into what life will be like once she is gone. They might drive seven miles west of Monowi to the town of Lynch, which has a bar and a bowling alley. But with the limited options, they might just stay home. Allen Holz, who is at the tavern almost every day, said his $2 Budweiser just doesnt taste the same anywhere else.

Without a seat at Mrs. Eilers table, people like Mr. Holz and Mr. Nielsen are bracing for the loss of chance meetings with neighbors and the absence of personal contact with the world beyond their own.

Mrs. Eiler has had some recent health problems, which have given her regulars a new sense of urgency, compelling them to visit the bar frequently, sometimes twice in one day. On Tuesday mornings, vehicles are already idling in the parking lot by the time Mrs. Eiler arrives to open.

She has owned the bar longer than many laws governing restaurants have existed. Changing ownership would require bringing several parts of the building to state restaurant code, which the business is currently exempt from doing.

The bar has an outhouse instead of a bathroom with running water. There is no sprinkler system in the bar nor ventilation above the stove. The building, which was pieced together from others, has foundation problems.

Keeping the bar alive is possible  someone could build a new structure  but it would be expensive. Though some customers, including Rocky Wilson, who sometimes helps Mrs. Eiler with the lunch and dinner rush, have discussed saving the bar, no one has the money to do it.

I cant imagine what itd be like if Monowi wasnt there, Mr. Wilson said.

Neither can Mrs. Eiler.

If I let myself sit and think about it, I feel sad that the time is going to come that I cant be in there, she said.

Her daughter learned to ride a bike on the dirt road outside the front door. Her son installed the light switches she turns on and off every day.

I dont know what the future holds for here, but Id like to see it keep going, Mrs. Eiler said. Otherwise, its just going to be another bunch of shambled buildings on the side of the road.
Michelle Goldberg, Opinion Columnist

Sure. I've often said that the question for me in abortion is not whether a fetus is a person, it's whether a woman is a person and a womans desire for equality. The fact that the state does not support dependency is one reason that women get abortions, but it is by no means the only reason.

I'm sure I would agree with Leah that no woman should have to get an abortion because she can't afford a wanted pregnancy. Although obviously today's decision does nothing to support the women who will now be forced to go forward with pregnancies that they either can't afford or desperately don't want.

But there is just something so deeply invasive, degrading and dehumanizing about being forced to be pregnant against your will, about being forced to give birth, which is an experience of pain unlike any that most people will ever experience in their lives  it's a degree of pain that would be considered torture in any other circumstance  that the state can force you to do that, that it can force you to give up your body in a way that it would never force you to give up your house, in a way that it would never force you to give up an organ.

You know, the state can't compel you to donate a kidney to save someone's life. It can't compel you to donate your blood, but it can compel you  it can take from you your bodily autonomy. It is just an invasion and there is no way around it. I support all of the same policies that I'm sure Leah does, but none of those will ever change the fact that forced pregnancy and forced birth puts women in a position of second-class citizenship.

And then there's a second-order concern, which is just that the regime necessary to sustain an abortion ban is invasive at best, and totalitarian at worst, because it's just going to require a massive amount of surveillance of women and their choices.

In countries that ban abortion  and I've been to many of them  you constantly see miscarriages investigated and in some cases, criminalized, because the line between a miscarriage and an abortion is not clear. And so this is dangerous, not just for women who are going to affirmatively try to end unwanted pregnancies. It is dangerous for any woman who might get pregnant, period. I'm past that, but I mourn the world that I'm leaving for my daughter.
Pastor Lethebo Rabalago of Mount Zion General Assembly, in Limpopo, South Africa, has recently been accused of endangering his congregates lives by spraying them with insect repellent, as a healing method.

This bizarre practice first made news headlines in South Africa after photos showing Pastor Lethebo Rabalago spraying what looked like Doom bug spray in the faces of various congregates, were posted on the Facebook account of the Mount Zion General Assembly. One photo of a woman was captioned: Mrs Mitala. The Prophet called sick people to come forward. She went to the forth and told the Prophet that she suffers from ulcer. The Prophet sprayed doom on her and she received her healing and deliverance. We give God the glory!

Doom is a popular brand of insect repellent with serious adverse effects if inhaled (vomiting, seizures, or the loss of consciousness) or if it comes in contact withe the eyes, but Pastor Rabalago doesnt seem too concerned about it. In a telephone interview with enca, the controversial holy man admitted to spraying his sick congregates with Doom bug spray as a way to heal them, adding that so far none of them have reported any side-effects following the ritual.

But the really interesting part is that spraying people with bug spray is only part of the cleansing method. Rabalago claims to have the power to control demons, which he commands to enter the body of the sufferer. He then speaks to the demons, telling them to deal with the health problems of his congregates (be it cancer, HIV, or virtually any other condition), before using the insect repellent to drive out the demon, leaving the person in perfect health. To his credit, Rabalogo said that its not him performing these feats, but God.

During the interview with enca, the South-African pastor said that its not the bug spray doing the healing, but a divine power, adding that he could use anything from water to oil with the same effect. Asked why he doesnt just use water or oil instead of a hazardous chemical products, Rabalago said that it was because  you guessed it  God told him to use Doom.

Regarding the outrage expressed both by the general public and other religious figures about his unconventional healing practice, Rabalago said that they are not on his level and they simply don not understand the power of God. Well, they do say He works in mysterious ways, so

Interestingly, this is not the first time weve covered the holy work of Pastor Lethebo Rabalago. In August, we posted a story about a young woman who died after Rabalago made her lie down and placed a giant speaker on her body before climbing on top of it. He was trying to show the congregation that if Jesus could walk on water, he too could perform incredible miracles. It was only after removing the speaker and asking the woman to rise that he realized she had become unconscious. She later died due to internal bleeding.

If he managed to stay out of jail and keep preaching his nonsense after that first incident, I imagine this bug spray controversy wont affect him at all. I have a feeling that well be hearing about this guy again soon.

Photos: Mount Zion General Assembly/Facebook

Sources: enca, Times Live


Nat'l Institutes of Health Gathers PR Talent Tue., Jun. 21, 2022 The National Institutes of Health is looking to create a pool of PR, media relations, communications, social media and event promotion talent to be used on an as-needed basis.
THE new President of the High Court has very strong links to Birr in County Offaly.

Hon. Mr Justice David Barniville was nominated by the Government last week for appointment as President of the High Court by the President of Ireland.

Mr Justice Barniville is a son of Geraldine (nee Houlihan, Birr) and the late Harry Barniville, and grandson of Desmond A. Houlihan, founder of Birr firm D.A. Houlihan LLP.

The President of the High Court is the third most senior judicial appointment in Ireland.

A vacancy for the role of President of the High Court will arise following the retirement of the current President, the Hon. Ms Justice Mary Irvine, on or around July 14th, 2022.

The Government has taken the necessary steps to formally advise President Higgins of the nomination in accordance with constitutional practice.

David Barniville was educated at University College Dublin and the Honourable Society of Kings Inns. He was called to the Bar in July 1990 and called to the Inner Bar in October 2006. He is an accredited CEDR mediator since 2007.

David was chairman of the Bar Council between 2014-2016.

He was appointed as a Judge of the High Court on December 1st, 2017. He served as President of the Association of Judges of Ireland (AJI) 2019-2021.

He was appointed as a Judge of the Court of Appeal on August 30th, 2021.

He is an Adjunct Professor of Commercial Law at University of Limerick.

He has acted for the State in many high profile court cases and also represented Ireland in several European court cases, including the States successful appeal over a European Commission finding that Ireland granted illegal tax benefits to tech giant Apple.

While on the High Court bench, Mr Justice Barniville managed that courts Commercial Court list and also ran the Strategic Infrastructural Development list for a time.

David is married with three children and is regarded as a very fair minded judge, who give everyone a fair crack of the whip.

The President of the High Court is the most senior judicial role in the State after Chief Justice and President of the Court of Appeal.
A TIPPERARY astro-photographer has been chosen for the next stage of the prestigious Reach for the Stars astrophotography competition, run by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS). A photograph taken by Kevin Molloy from Roscrea, Co. Tipperary has been shortlisted in the Out of this World category in the competition, which aims to find the best astro-photographs taken in Ireland over the past year.

Entitled Horsehead and Flame Nebulas, the photograph was taken in Rathcabbin.

Kevin said I captured the image of the Horsehead and Flame Nebulas with with my 100mmF5.8 Omegon apochromatic refractor mounted on a Slywatcher EQ6 GOTO mount and Omegon veTEC 571 C Color camera @ 300 gain.

While a high-profile judging panel will select the overall winning entries in the coming weeks, an online vote was launched last Tuesday, so members of the public can also have their say.

All shortlisted images  including Kevin Molloys photograph  can now be viewed on the Reach for the Stars website, www.reachforthestars.ie, where members of the public can also cast their vote for their favourite image.

Over 160 images were submitted to the competition in total this year, with 40 selected for the shortlist and public vote. There are two categories in the competition: Out of this World and Back on Earth. The Out of this World category features images depicting elements of astronomical interest. The Back on Earth category features astro-landscape images that depict an element of astronomical interest and elements such as nature, cityscapes, land or water. The winning images selected by the judging panel and the public vote will be announced in July, and an outdoor exhibition will be staged by DIAS in August to showcase the best images.

Alongside the Public Choice Award for the winner of the online public vote, an overall winner and runners-up will be chosen by the judging panel for Reach for the Stars, which includes: Professor Peter Gallagher, Head of Astrophysics at DIAS; Brenda Fitzsimons, Picture Editor of The Irish Times; John Flannery, Vice-President of the Irish Astronomical Society; and Niamh Breathnach, Director, Alice PR & Events.

This year will also see the inclusion of a special prize to mark the 75th anniversary of the School of Cosmic Physics. One photograph that depicts the work of one or more of the research areas carried out at the School will be selected for the prize.

Professor Peter Gallagher of DIAS said: Im delighted to return for a second year of judging for the Reach for the Stars competition. The standard of entries has been excellent again this year. Its amazing what the photographers have been able to capture, from stars and galaxies that are millions of light years away to stunning scenery back on earth.

Im particularly excited to be involved in selecting this years special prize to mark the 75th anniversary of DIASs School of Cosmic Physics. Ill be looking for an image that depicts the work of one or more of the research areas carried out at the School. This includes research on everything from solar and stellar physics and space weather to planetary science, geological formations and star formations.

We hope the people of Tipperary will get involved again this year in the public vote and cast their vote for their favourite image.

Dr Eucharia Meehan, CEO and Registrar of DIAS, said: The online public vote to select the winner of the Public Choice Award is a great way to introduce people to the world of astrophotography. Some of the entries capture very complex astronomical features, while others depict stunning Irish landscapes to showcase different aspects of astronomy. It will be a difficult task for people to choose a favourite in the online public vote  and for the judging panel to select an overall winner. Im so impressed by the level of creativity and skill we have amongst photographers in Tipperary and right across the country.

Votes for the Public Choice Award are restricted to one vote per person, and voting will close at midnight on Sunday, July 3rd 2022.

DIASs Reach for the Stars competition is being run in partnership with The Irish Times and is sponsored by Alice PR & Events. The Irish Astronomical Society are initiative supporters.

Further information, including the online gallery and background information on the competition, is available at https://reachforthestars.ie/exhibition/ .
HUNDREDS of positions will be on offer at a job fair next week organised by Tullamore and District Chamber of Commerce.

The first ever Offaly Job Fair takes place in the Tullamore Court Hotel on Saturday, July 2 next from 10am to 6pm

Up to 35 firms from a host of different sectors will take place and organisers believe that up to 500 jobs will be available to prospective employees.

Firms from sectors such as construction, retail, finance, hospitality, pharmaceutical, manufacturing and engineering are set to take part in the job fair.

The job fair is aimed at a wide range of job-seekers  from the school leaver hoping to find an apprenticeship or further their education, to the commuter looking to work closer to home and enjoy a better work/life balance, to those looking to further their careers and to those financially stretched wanting to live outside the major cities where the cost of living is more affordable.

Those planning to attend are asked to pre-register at www.tullamorechamberofcommerce.com

Tullamore Chamber President Anthony Hanniffy said Offaly and Tullamore were great places to work and live in.

Mr Hanniffy stressed the Chamber has worked to support its members through some very difficult times in the recent past.

As we come out of the Covid landscape we consulted with local businesses on the type of supports that would benefit the local business community the most. We expected recent events to have negatively impacted businesses but were pleasantly surprised at the strength and resilience of our community, with most businesses looking to push forward and grow despite these challenging times. One issue that raised its head again and again during our conversations was the difficulty in getting staff, and it is from these seeds that the Offaly Job Fair have grown.

The Chamber President said the event wouldn't have been possible without the support of Offaly Local Development, Offaly Local Enterprise Office, LOETB and the Technical University of the Shannon.

I would like to thank them for the tremendous time and effort they have put in to help us to make this event a reality, added Mr Hanniffy.

He said the job fair was expecting to welcome Ukrainian job seekers who have fled to safety in Ireland and Offaly following the Russian invasion.

We all feel a great sorrow for recent events and sympathise with what you have gone through and what some of your families are still going through. We welcome you with open arms into our communities and will endeavour to assist you as best we can, stressed the Chamber President.

Mr Hanniffy said he was very upbeat about the future of business in Offaly.

We have a strong generation coming through into adulthood, our businesses are remaining strong and growing, our community spirit is high and these all make the county a wonderful place to live and work, he pointed out.

Among the firms taking part in the inaugural Offaly Job Fair are

Enva

Tullamore Credit Union

Supermac's

Lidl

the HSE

Grove Remote.ie

Tullamore Court Hotel

FRS Recruitment

Cardinal Health

Integra

Palladio Group

Spectrum Plastics

Zoetis

Nua Healthcare

Choice People

Bord na Mona

Glass Innovations, Ferbane

Acoustic Interiors

Simpli Baked

All Pro Recruitment

Banagher Concrete

Salutem Advisory

More details on the Offaly Job Fair can be found at www.tullamorechamberofcommerce.com or on the Offaly Job Fair Facebook page.
TIPPERARY Education and Training Board (ETB) held their annual retirement presentations in the Anner Hotel, Thurles recently. The event acknowledged the service given by staff members who retired between September 2019 and April 2021.

Ms Bernadette Cullen, Chief Executive of Tipperary ETB, opened the function by welcoming all including the Chairperson of Tipperary ETB, Cllr Roger Kennedy, Board Members, Staff and the recipients of the presentations along with their families and friends. Ms Cullen thanked all the retirees for being dedicated, committed members of staff to providing quality learning experiences to students and learners. It was not possible to hold the retirement function in 2020 or 2021 so TETB will hold two functions in 2022.

Cllr Roger Kennedy remarked on their outstanding service given to Tipperary ETB and how their work could be seen through the achievements of the students in the schools and centres. Their service to Tipperary ETB is valued and was acknowledged by a commemorative vase commissioned by Tipperary ETB, which each retiree received. The fifteen staff members who were in attendance were from the following TETB schools/centres: Borrisokane Community College (2), Back to Education Initiative (1), Colaiste Phobal Ros Cre (1), Colaiste Dun Iascaigh, Cahir (4), Comeragh College, Carrick-on-Suir (1), Community Education (1), Raheen College, Clonmel (2), St Ailbes School, Tipperary Town (1), Youthreach, Cappawhite (1), Youthreach, Roscrea (1).

Bernadette again thanked each of the retirees for their service and wished them all health and happiness on their retirement. She remarked that colleagues and students alike will miss them but this is their time to commence a new chapter where the clock will not be so central. The evening provided opportunities for the retirees to network and discuss future plans.
Dominic Mark Phillips was a British freelance journalist. He wrote for The Guardian and The Washington Post, and contributed to The Times, the Financial Times and Bloomberg News.
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The annual Sussex-based motor show is back with a BMW M-themed central sculpture



The Goodwood Festival of Speed returns this year and were expecting the event to be as jam-packed as ever, with a plethora of reveals and debuts on the cards.



The event, which runs from Thursday 23 June to Sunday 26 June, will give us a first look at some of 2022's most exciting cars and showcase the huge diversity of today's car parc.



Heres our guide to the festivals biggest unveilings.



*BMW M3 Touring*



Weve still not officially seen the long-awaited, estate-bodied BMW M3 Touring, but the German car maker has confirmed that the car will make an appearance at this years Festival of Speed as part of the 50th anniversary of its M performance division. It will feature the same turbocharged six-cylinder petrol engine as the M3 saloon which boasts 473bhp  or 503bhp in top-flight Competition form  and will therefore be one of the most potent and fastest estate cars in the world.



*BMW M4 CSL *



The M3 Touring isnt the only highly anticipated performance model expected from the German brand. The limited-run BMW M4 CSL will also take to the German firm's stand, showing off its stripped-back mechanicals and pumped-up powertrain. With 542bhp and 479lb ft, its the most powerful BMW M3 or M4 model ever built, and arrives exactly 50 years after the legendary 3.0 CSL was launched.



*Fisker Ocean*



Following a public debut in Barcelona back in February, the electric Fisker Ocean SUV will rival the Audi Q4 E-tron and BMW iX3 when it goes on sale from the end of 2023. Fisker claims a range of up to 350 miles with a 0-62mph sprint of 3.6sec in its most powerful guise.



*Ford Ranger Raptor*



The new Ford Ranger Raptor has received a huge power boost, with the 2.0-litre turbocharged diesel engine in the previous model being replaced by a powerful 3.0-litre petrol V6. Power now stands at 284bhp and 362lb ft, while it has also received an extensive redesign heavily influenced by the US-only Ford F-150 Raptor.



*Genesis Electrified GV70 *



We first saw the Genesis Electrified G70 at the Guangzhou motor show in November last year, but it will appear on the ground in the UK for the first time at this years festival of speed. Based on the standard Genesis GV70, the all-electric version claims a range of around 310 miles with 482bhp on tap.



*Kia EV6 GT*



The new Kia EV6 GT is the brands most powerful model yet, and it will be a true grand tourer with a high degree of versatility, according to the firms development guru. Taking to the hillclimb as it makes its UK debut, the new range-topping version of the Korean firms Kia EV6 crossover features a twin motor electric powertrain with a combined output of 577bhp and 546lb ft of torque, resulting in a 0-62mph time of 3.5 seconds and a top speed of 161mph.



*Land Rover Defender 130 *



Solihulls take on the limo-SUV is an eight-seater with luxury appeal and go-anywhere ability. Measuring 5358mm long overall, it is primed to take on the largest luxury SUVs on sale and is actually slightly longer than the BMW X7 and Mercedes-Benz G-Class. It will be on display alongside the new Range Rover and Range Rover Sport at Goodwood Festival of Speed next week, as Land Rover showcases its luxurious new range-topping 4x4 models.



*Lexus LFA *



This is a big one: Lexus is set to publicly debut its all-electric supercar, which will serve as a successor to the Lexus LFA. With a 2030 launch planned, production is still distant - but the Japanese luxury car maker has promised a concept version will be on full display. We might hear some technical figures too.



*Lucid Air*



Lucids Tesla Model S rival, priced from around 40,000, will be making its first UK appearance at Goodwood. It has a range of more than 500 miles, but its party piece is its acceleration: the Air can cover a quarter-mile sprint in as little as 9.9sec, making it the first electric saloon to break the 10-second barrier, and adds that it can achieve this feat on a consistent, repeatable basis.



*Mercedes-AMG GT63 S E Performance*



Another German performance model receiving a UK debut is the tongue-twisting Mercedes-AMG GT63 S E Performance. Its AMGs first plug-in hybrid, with a mouth-watering 831bhp on tap. But thats not all - torque has been seriously uprated to a ground-shaking 1082lb ft.



*Mercedes-AMG One*



Touted as a Formula 1 car for the road, the 1049bhp Mercedes-AMG One is propelled by a turbocharged 1.6-litre grand prix engine mated to four electric motors. Its the firms fastest ever production car with a top speed of 219mph, overtaking the 214mph Mercedes CLK GTR from 24 years ago. Could we see it on display in West Sussex?



*Polestar 5 *



The radical Precept luxury saloon concept has evolved into the 5, which  confusingly  is bigger than the 2 but sits lower than the upcoming 3 and 4. The 5 is an evolution of 2020's imposing Precept concept. As such, it will arrive in dealerships with familiar coupe-esque proportions and a lengthy wheelbase that line it up as a rival to the Mercedes-Benz EQS. A prototype will make the journey down from Polestars MIRA engineering base to show what it can do on the hillclimb.



*Porsche Cayman GT4 E-Performance *



Another phonemically powerful electric racer, the Porsche Cayman GT4 E-Performance produces a staggering 1072bhp from four electric motors. Its based on the chassis of a Porsche Cayman GT4 RS, with other parts sourced from the Porsche 911 RSR GTE.



*Porsche 911 Sport Classic*



The Porsche 911 Classic is the latest revival into the firms heritage design collection, with retro design cues which pay homage to one of the companys most famous and history models - the 1972 Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7. Its appearance at Goodwood will be an international public premiere.



*Porsche 928 by Nardone Automotive *



French restoration firm Nardone Automotive will publically debut its take on the Porsche 928 at this year's festival of speed. Powered by a 400bhp V8 engine mated to a six-speed manual gearbox, the restomod also features carbon fibre bodywork and a plush interior with a premium sound system, Alcantara, Foglizzo leather and Apple CarPlay.



*Prodrive P25*



Banbury-based Prodrive will hand a public debut to the P25, a performance restomod based on the 22B generation Subaru Impreza. Weve only seen a sketch of it so far, which shows it looks almost identical to its inspiration. Most of the key changes come under the bonnet, which is home to a 2.5-litre flat-four engine producing 400bhp.



*Range Rover Sport*



Making its first public appearance just a few weeks after its official unveiling, the new Range Rover Sport is as radical an evolution as its full-sized sibling. Straight-six, long-range PHEV and V8 power are on the roster for now, but an EV is just two years away. JLR design chief Gerry McGovern said the latest model redefines sporting luxury and described it as modern, relevant and progressive. The range-topping model is the twin-turbocharged 525bhp 4.4-litre BMW-derived petrol V8, which can accelerate from 0-62mph in 4.5sec.
With growing Roe v. Wade protests outside the Supreme Court and Capitol ... police there are taking an all-hands-on-deck approach. Sources within the Capitol Police tell TMZ ... cops were anticipating the landmark SCOTUS decision and they've been
Two localities in the German state of Brandenburg had to be evacuated as a large forest fire rages on the border with neighboring Saxony. Efforts to dampen the flames werre hampered because of old munitions in the area.
A US Navy warship has fired a warning flare at an Iranian speedboat during a tense encounter in the Strait of Hormuz.
The war is now centered on Ukraine's industrial Donbas region in the east, with the fighting there "entering a fearsome climax," according to a Ukrainian official. DW has the latest.
Zakia Jafri challenged the SIT's clean chit to 64 people including Narendra Modi who was the Gujarat Chief Minister during the riots in the State.
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Aid is beginning to trickle into the war-torn country, as poor road conditions hamper rescuers trying to reach survivors of Wednesday's deadly quake.
The UN's human rights body has found that Israeli security forces fired the shot that killed Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in May. Israel has yet to respond to the findings.
Bulgaria's parliament voted on Friday in favour of lifting the country's veto on the opening of negotiations for the accession of North Macedonia to the European Union
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Washington (AFP) June 23, 2022



It was 1776, the American colonies had just declared their independence from England, and as war raged the founding fathers were deep in debate: should Americans have the right to own firearms as individuals, or just as members of local militia? As a landmark Supreme Court decision expanded gun rights Thursday, just weeks after a mass killing of 19 children in their Texas school, the debate
Under auspices of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and China holding the 14th Summit, it provides the platform to address emerging global and thorny regional problems. The BRICS member countries collectively represent about 26% of the worlds geographic area and are home to 2.88 billion people, about 42% of...
Irans 1979 revolution changed the face and the old order of the Middle East forever with American and European still trying to have a cohesive policy vis-a-vis the Islamic dictatorship that replaced that of the shah.



Over four decades after the religious mullahs regime took control of a strategically located country...
Vladimir Putin warns again that while the conflict in Ukraine rages on Moscow may launch its RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), also known as "Satan 2," before the end of the year.
The Eurovision Song Contest's organisers confirmed Thursday that the 2023 edition cannot be held in Ukraine due to the Russian war, despite angry protests from Kyiv.
Newsy 26 Jun 2022

Watch VideoPresident Joe Biden is out to sustain the global alliance punishing Russia for its invasion of Ukraine as he embarks on..
After weeks of ferocious fighting, Ukrainian forces will retreat from the besieged city of Severodonetsk in the country's east to avoid encirclement, a regional governor said Friday.
Ukrainians who were held in Russia detail their detention, hoping to help find a teacher still missing. She is one of more than 200 civilians that U.N. human rights workers say Russia has disappeared.
As of June 24, the U.S. Supreme Court has eliminated the constitutional right to abortion.



The news is a not-surprising..

Mashable 24 Jun 2022
Opalesque Industry Update - Aaro Capital, the DLT and cryptoassets investment specialist, announced the appointment of three senior hires to its London office. Stuart Macdonald is joining Aaro Capital's London-based team as Chairman alongside Peter Rigg, who joins as Head of Investment Research, and Olga Romanova, who will serve as the firm's Head of Operational Due Diligence. As Chairman, Stuart is working to set the strategic direction of the firm, as well as focus on capital raising, brand building and product development. He is working closely with Aaro Capital's CEO Peter Habermacher and CIO Ankush Jain to deliver on Aaro Capital's aim of opening up the exciting and rapidly evolving DLT and cryptoassets growth story to sophisticated investors. Stuart brings a wealth of industry experience with over 30 years across top-tier global investment companies. He has deep expertise in capital raising and commercialisation across alternative investment management and bankable technologies, latterly as Managing Partner at Bride Valley Partners. He previously worked as Director of Hedge Funds at Henderson Global Investors, Managing Director at Aquila Capital, and Head of Marketing at West Merchant Bank. His industry awards include one for Best Investor Relations and two for Outstanding Industry Contribution. He frequently Chairs leading Alternative Investment Conferences including GAIM and the Quant Conference. Stuart also presents the award-winning alternative investment radio show, the Naked Short Club and has been a Visiting Lecturer at London University. Peter Rigg, who joins as Head of Investment Research, is responsible for sourcing DLT and cryptoassets funds, conducting IDD reviews on new investment managers, as well as monitoring and reviewing existing manager portfolio. Reporting to CIO Ankush Jain, Peter is working closely with the underlying funds to identify the best and most sustainable sources of outperformance amongst DLT and cryptoassets funds. Peter has 25 years of experience in alternative investments, having spent 21 years at HSBC, the last eight of which as the Head and CEO of HSBC Alternative Investment Group. In this position, he was responsible for HSBC's 100-person alternative investment team managing over $30bn of institutional and high net worth capital around the world. Prior to heading up the business, Peter was Global Head of Hedge Fund Research from 2004 to 2007, based in New York. From 1999 to 2004, Peter was portfolio manager of HSBC's fund of hedge fund range. He also currently serves as Partner and Board Member at Crossbow Partners AG, a Swiss investment advisory firm. Olga Romanova, in her capacity as Head of Operational Due Diligence, is undertaking ODD reviews on new investment managers, as well as monitoring the existing portfolio of investment managers. She is also responsible for managing and enhancing the operations of underlying DLT and cryptoassets funds. Olga brings 25 years of experience in due diligence and audit, specialising in hedge funds. She was most recently the Head of ODD at International Asset Management Limited in London for five years. Prior to that, Olga was part of the ODD teams at AXA Investment Managers and GAM, focusing on hedge funds and alternative credit vehicles. Olga started her career with Ernst & Young as an auditor and is a CFA Charterholder, as well as an American CPA. Peter Habermacher, CEO and Co-founder at Aaro Capital, said: "I am delighted to welcome Stuart, Peter and Olga to the team. Their deep sector knowledge and experience within the hedge fund industry, combined with Aaro Capital's rigorous due diligence and ongoing monitoring of active fund managers, provides a unique combination of multi-asset investment and fund selection capability and brings a rare level of professionalism and rigour to the DLT and cryptoassets investment space." Commenting on the appointment, Stuart MacDonald, Chairman at Aaro Capital, said: "Aaro Capital is one of the first truly institutional investment specialists in the fast-evolving DLT and cryptoassets space. I am delighted to join the amazing team that brings together younger investors with direct experience of crypto investments and senior hedge fund industry practitioners. I look forward to working with colleagues and partners to help Aaro Capital deliver on its aim of opening up this exciting new asset class for institutional and other sophisticated investors as the market matures and becomes increasingly active."
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SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP)  Bulgarias parliament voted Friday to lift a veto that has long blocked European Union membership negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania, raising fresh hopes that the bloc can now press on with its expansion plans in the Western Balkans amid Russias war in Ukraine.

France, which currently holds the EUs rotating presidency, made a proposal this week to resolve an ethnic and cultural dispute between Bulgaria and North Macedonia that was the source of the veto.

Under the French proposal, North Macedonia would have to recognize in the preamble of its constitution that Bulgarians are one of the countrys constitutive ethnicities. North Macedonia said Friday that three main topics needed clarification before it would agree to the deal.

While North Macedonias prime minister opposed the French proposal Thursday and a no-confidence vote toppled Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov a day earlier, the French plan ultimately altered the dynamics among enough Bulgarian lawmakers. The vote to lift the veto passed 170-37, with 21 abstentions.

Parliament took a historic decision today, giving a green light to the proposal for the EU accession of North Macedonia, said Petkov, who had been working to settle the dispute before the no-confidence motion brought down his government.

North Macedonia has been a candidate for EU membership for 17 years. The country received a green light in 2020 to begin eligibility talks, but no date was set for the start of the negotiations.

Some have feared that keeping Western Balkans nations out of the EU would allow Russia to strengthen its influence in the region, which experienced wars in the 1990s during the breakup of Yugoslavia. North Macedonia away from the 27-nation bloc, Russias grip on the Balkans will be strengthened.

Bulgaria has used its power as an EU member to block North Macedonia's accession, since all enlargement decisions require unanimous approval from the 27-nation bloc. The Bulgarian government insisted that North Macedonia formally recognize that its language has Bulgarian roots, acknowledge in its constitution a Bulgarian minority and quash hate speech against Bulgaria.

Its stance inadvertently also stalled Albanias progress toward EU membership because the bloc is treating the pair as a political package. All three countries are NATO members.

The European Commission has made repeated promises to six Western Balkan nations saying that their futures lie within the EU. As well as North Macedonia and Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Serbia have also been afflicted by delays amid divisions among member states and some bilateral issues.

Clement Beaune, the French minister for European affairs, said this week that the proximity of Russias war in Ukraine has put the onus on the bloc to reinvigorate its expansion in the Balkans.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the vote in Bulgaria's parliament was a very good signal, adding that technical work required to pave the way for a final deal in the coming days would.

There is still work to be done, I dont want to claim victory too early, but its an important step forward, he said.

On Thursday, North Macedonian Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski told reporters in Brussels that the French proposal "in its current form is unacceptable to me, for the president, the government, the coalition partners and people of the Republic of North Macedonia.

Kovachevski added that Skopje needed strong guarantees that Bulgaria would not add new requirements to the EU's negotiating framework.

North Macedonia's foreign minister, Bujar Osmani, said Friday that the country's language and history must not be part of the framework and that the EU membership talks needed to start before the countrys constitution is amended to reference a Bulgarian minority.

If we receive a proposal that takes into account our positions, an agreement can be reached in the coming days, Osmani said, adding that his government did not yet know the contents of the version adopted by Bulgarian lawmakers.

We will be in communication with France in the coming days and we will see how things will go, he added.

Ruslan Stefanov, program director at the Center for the Study of Democracy, a Sofia-based think tank, said Fridays vote externally and politically removes the pressure on Bulgaria.

Things dont look the same in North Macedonia, though, he told The Associated Press. It seems there has been quite sizeable public outcry as to not liking the proposal of the French presidency, so it might be a little bit more difficult for the government there.

___

McGrath reported from Sighisoara, Romania and Petrequin from Brussels. Konstantin Testorides in Skopje, North Macedonia, contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP's coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)  A proposal aimed at removing the last remnant of slavery from California law failed to pass the state Senate on Thursday after Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration warned it could cost taxpayers billions of dollars by forcing the state to pay prisoners a $15-per-hour minimum wage.

The U.S. Constitution bans slavery but says it's OK for the government to force people to work  known as involuntary servitude  as punishment for a crime. Many state constitutions say the same thing, including California's.

Some state lawmakers wanted to change California's Constitution to ban all forms of involuntary servitude. They wrote an amendment and planned to put it on the ballot this fall for voters to approve. But Thursday, the California Senate rejected the amendment over concerns of how it would impact the state prison system, which requires inmates to work and often pays them less than $1 per hour.

Lawmakers could try again next week. But if the amendment doesnt pass by June 30, it wont be on the ballot this year.

The CA State Senate just reaffirmed its commitment to keeping slavery and involuntary servitude in the states constitution. Way to go, Confederates, tweeted Democratic state Sen. Sydney Kamlager, who supported the amendment and said she will bring it up for another vote next week.

The Newsom administration has warned that the amendment could require the state to pay inmates a minimum wage, which in California is $15 per hour. That would cost taxpayers about $1.5 billion per year, according to Aaron Edwards, an analyst with the California Department of Finance.

In 2018, Colorado was the first state to ban involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime. Since then, inmates have filed lawsuits seeking to be paid a minimum wage and alleging they were pressured into working despite health concerns. Its unclear if those lawsuit have been resolved.

An American Civil Liberties Union report this month called for "far-reaching reforms to ensure prison labor is truly voluntary and that incarcerated workers are paid fairly, properly trained, and able to gain transferable skills. Two-thirds of state and federal prisoners nationwide are required to work, the report said, most without adequate protections against labor exploitation.

Local governments could also be impacted. If the courts interpret the constitutional change to bar community service in lieu of incarceration, those individuals might go to jail instead, at a much higher cost, Edwards said.

Democratic state Sen. Steve Glazer said slavery was an evil that will forever be a stain on the history of our great nation. But he said the proposed amendment was not about slavery, but whether California "should require felons in state prison to work.

Banning the work requirement in our prisons would undermine our rehabilitation programs, Glazer said. Inmates will sue claiming their wages are too low, their hours are too high or that it is unconstitutional to link goodtime credit and early release to their willingness to work.

Glazer said the state should change the amendment to make it clear that involuntary servitude does not include any rehabilitative activity required of people in prison. But it appeared Kamlager would not support that.

I don't want to negotiate what involuntary servitude means, she said, adding: I believe even if we are incarcerated, we still should have dignity.

For decades, California used that involuntary servitude exception to make money from its prison population by leasing inmates  mostly Black men  to private companies for work.

That convict lease system doesnt exist anymore. But California prison inmates are required to either work or participate in education or rehabilitative programs. Inmate jobs  which include things like clerks, painters and carpenters  pay salaries as low of 8 cents per hour.

Samual Brown spent 24 years in prison on an attempted murder conviction. He was released in December. While in prison, he said he worked a number of jobs, including porter, dishwasher and hospital janitor  the latter of which paid 75 cents per hour.

He said 55% of his salary went to pay for administrative costs, restitution and court fees. When he was released from prison, despite working for decades, he said he barely made a dent in his court-ordered restitution.

This is really nothing more than slavery just reconditioned and remixed," he said. They had an opportunity to stand on the right side of history ... and they took the coward's way out.
The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriffs Office and the Midland Police Department. Compiled by reporter Tereasa Nims.

Thursday, June 23

11:51 p.m. - Deputies responded to a residence in Homer Township in reference to a report of a domestic verbal dispute between a 25-year-old woman and her 28-year-old boyfriend. Deputies spoke with both parties and the parties were separated for the night. No further assistance was requested from the Sheriff's Office.

11:39 p.m. - Deputies were dispatched to a Hope Township location reference an unknown traffic crash. Deputies contacted the 31-year-old man driver who was subsequently arrested for operating while intoxicated. No injuries were sustained in the crash. The man was transported and lodged at the Midland County Jail without incident. Deputies completed a UD-10. A report is being sent to the prosecutor.

9:28 p.m. - Deputies were dispatched to a Larkin Township residence in reference to a domestic assault between a 26-year-old man and his 46-year-old father. A report is being sent to the prosecutor for further review.

8:49 p.m. - A Deputy was sent to a Lee Township. home for a report of loose dogs being aggressive. Contact was made with the caller who wanted the dog owners spoken to and a report on file. Contact was made with the dog owner.

8:14 p.m. - Deputies were dispatched to a Lee Township residence to assist a 22-year-old man with a civil standby. The man was able to grab his belongings without issue.

7:27 p.m.  Police responded to the 6200 block of Elliott Court for a larceny/malicious destruction of property.

7:21 p.m.  Police were called to the 2300 block of Rockwell Drive for a private property crash.

6:07 p.m.  Police responded to West Indian and Jerome streets for a private property crash.

4:20 p.m. - A 40-year-old man was having a property line dispute with his neighbor. Both parties were advised to handle the matter through civil court.

3:28 p.m. - Deputy dispatched to a Larkin Township location to assist EMS with a 60-year-old woman driver having a diabetic reaction. The woman was treated at the scene and released to family. An OC-88 drivers license reevaluation form was completed and sent to the secretary of state for review.

3:57 p.m. - Deputies were dispatched to a single car injury crash. UD-10 completed. Driver was transported to Hospital for evaluation.

2:28 p.m. - Deputy dispatched to the Law Enforcement Center regarding some possible drug paraphernalia being found. The possible paraphernalia was destroyed and disposed of.

2:38 p.m. - A 36-year-old man reported that his 47-year-old man neighbor yelled at him through the fence.

2:05 p.m. - Deputies were flagged down at a Warren Township business to turn in some found property. Deputies were able to contact the owner and returned the property.

12:56 p.m. - Animal Control Deputy received a call reference two dogs running loose from a home in Homer Township. Contact was made with the dog owner. A verbal warning was issued at this time.

10:32 a.m. - Deputies responded to a Porter Township location reference an assault that took place. A 31-year-old woman assaulted her 62-year-old caretaker. The caretaker did not want any charges pressed.

10:08 a.m.  Police were called to Bayliss Street and E. Patrick Road for an injury crash.

10 a.m.  Police responded to the 200 block of Ellsworth Street for an obstructing justice complaint.

9:30 a.m. - Deputies were dispatched to a Lee Township business for report of a disorderly 39-year-old homeless man that assaulted an employee. The man was gone on Deputies arrival. This incident was forwarded to the PAO for review.

5:41 a.m.  Police were called to Orchard Drive and Valley Drive for a property damage accident.
The question of abortion's legality is now for the states to answer after the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade on Friday, upending nearly 50 years of judicial precedent.

The ruling comes more than a month after the leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito made national headlines indicating the court was prepared to take the step to ban abortion at the federal level. The Supreme Court draft opinion becoming public was the first in the modern history of the court to be disclosed publicly while a case was still pending.

The decision, unthinkable just a few years ago, was the culmination of decades of efforts by abortion opponents, made possible by an emboldened right side of the court that has been fortified by three appointees of former President Donald Trump, according to reporting by The Associated Press.

It puts the court at odds with a majority of Americans who favored preserving Roe, according to opinion polls.

In 2020, AP VoteCast found that 69% of votes in the presidential election said the Supreme Court should leave the Roe v. Wade decision as it is; just 29% said the court should overturn the decision. AP-NORC polling finds that generally, the majority of the public favors abortion being legal in most or all cases.

Alito, in the final opinion issued Friday, wrote that Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 decision that reaffirmed the right to abortion, were wrong the day they were decided and must be overturned. Authority to regulate abortion rests with the political branches, not the courts, Alito wrote.

Joining Alito were Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. The latter three justices are Trump appointees. Thomas first voted to overrule Roe 30 years ago, according to the AP.

Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan  the diminished liberal wing of the court  were in dissent.

With sorrowfor this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protectionwe dissent, they wrote.

The number and rate of U.S. abortions increased from 2017 to 2020 after a long decline. Thats according to new figures released Wednesday by a research group that supports abortion rights.

Fridays outcome is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

Michigan women and doctors will not be prosecuted for obtaining or providing an abortion despite Roe v. Wade being overturned, Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a statement Friday.

"I will not use the resources of the Attorney Generals office to enforce an unconstitutional law that will allow the state into our bedrooms and doctors appointments, interfering with our fundamental reproductive rights," Nessel said in the statement. "As long as Im in office, I will not prosecute women, girls or their doctors for seeking or providing abortion services. Nor will my staff seek licensure discipline against medical professionals who safely perform these procedures."

Nessel pointed out that Michigan is among the 26 states with a law on the books, dating back to 1931, that criminalizes abortion and makes it a felony to perform one, and has no exceptions for rape or incest.

The law could be interpreted so that anyone, from the receptionist who schedules the appointment to a billing administrator, could be charged with "aiding and abetting" the termination of a pregnancy. She added that that would have a chilling effect on all reproductive care in Michigan, putting women at risk of injury and death.

In the statement, Nessel also urged voters who want to maintain their reproductive rights to make their voices heard at the ballot box in November. Nessels opponent for attorney general, Republican Matt DePerno, has said repeatedly that he's against abortion even in cases of rape, incest or a dire medical emergency  no exceptions, according to Nessel's office.

"The impact of todays ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization cannot be overstated," Nessel added. "This opinion is an unraveling of our country as we know it. It claws back the hard-won agency women have over their bodies and lives, and it eliminates settled law relied upon by generations of Americans. It's time to vote like your life depends on it  because it does."

A sizeable majority of Michiganders agree that abortion is a decision for a woman to make in consultation with a medical professional she trusts. According to a poll from January 2022, 67.3% of Michiganders support Roe, and 65.7% support repealing Michigans 1931 trigger ban on abortion. Over 77%, believe abortion should be a womans decision.

The Right to Life of Michigan President, Barbara Listing, said Friday's ruling gives states "the ability to restore legal rights to the unborn hopefully, in turn, ceasing the unjust slaughtering of the innocent in our country."

"We urge the public and pro-abortion activists to accept this decision without violence and retaliation," Listing continued in a statement. "The overturning of Roe v. Wade was made possible by working with the legal system and following laws. We know that one day Michigans 1931 abortion law will be enforced again, and the unborn will be protected against ableism, sexism and racism."

Republican Rep. Jack Bergman issued a statement on Twitter.

"The Supreme Court got it right," he said. "The ruling today on Roe properly returns power to the states and ends decades of bad precedent. Since coming to DC, Ive constantly advocated for Life, and todays ruling is a major step to protect the lives of the most vulnerable among us."

And Republican Rep. John Moolenaar echoed Bergman's sentiments.

"This is one of the most wonderful days in the history of our country and todays ruling will save millions of lives," Moolenaar said in a statement. "Now, the American people and their elected representatives at all levels of government will have the opportunity to make new laws on this critical issue with the benefit of scientific research that has shown us that precious unborn children have a heartbeat at six weeks and major organs after 15 weeks. There is still important work ahead including increasing support for adoption and pregnancy resource centers that help parents in need."

Senator Debbie Stabenow released the following statement on the courts decision that bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, roughly two months earlier than what has been allowed under Supreme Court precedent dating back to Roe.



"In 1973, Roe v. Wade gave American women the fundamental freedom to make our own reproductive health care decisions," Stabenow said. "Now, 50 years later, the Supreme Court has ripped away this basic right. The fundamental question is who gets to make health care decisions for a woman? The woman herself, based on her own faith, with her family and her doctor, or a bunch of judges and politicians?"



"This Supreme Court decision will literally put womens lives at risk," she continued. "Twenty-six states are poised to move quickly to ban abortionincluding 13 states with laws that can go into effect right now. It is hard to look past the anger that I and so many women across the country feel right now. From the President to the Congress to our local State Legislatures, elections matter now more than ever."

Michigan's Chief Medical Executive Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian issued the following statement.

"As a physician, I know that the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States to overturn nearly half a century of precedent protecting safe, legal abortion violates the trusted relationship between a patient and their doctor," she said. "This ruling completely supersedes and overrides a woman's ability to dictate her health care in consultation with her physician. And it clears a path for draconian laws like Michigans 1931 criminal abortion ban to take full effect."

"I am concerned about how this decision will negatively impact health outcomes for women and children, particularly women and children of color as they have greater disparities in health outcomes in general," Bagdasarian continued. "A woman may choose to have an abortion for a wide variety of reasons  none of them are anyones business but hers. If women and doctors are under threat of prosecution and jail time due to Michigans abortion ban, women will have a more difficult time accessing critical health care. And with abortion not legally available, women are more likely to undergo unregulated procedures that can jeopardize their future reproductive health and in some cases be life-threatening."
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (AP)  The family of a student who died from alcohol poisoning while pledging a fraternity sued Bowling Green State University on Thursday, alleging the Ohio school knew about but didnt stop hazing in Greek life there and should be held responsible.

The university characterized the death of 20-year-old Stone Foltz as a tragedy but called the family's lawsuit meritless. In a written statement, BGSU spokesperson Alex Solis suggested the suit in the Ohio Court of Claims undermines the school's efforts to eradicate hazing.
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Midland's music community has lost a beloved teacher and musician. Eluned Mair Alsgaard, 90, died June 17.

Mair was born Dec. 24, 1931, in Cardiff, Wales, the only child of David and Eluned (Phillips) Godwin. She grew up in the coal mining village of Six Bells, Abertillery where she developed an interest in music. She took piano lessons and participated in competitions, winning many awards.

Jim Hohmeyer of Midland, a friend of Mairs, recalls stories she shared about her piano competitions. The contestants were required to memorize a piece of music; although Alsgaard had memorized the music, she could not perform it unless the music was nearby. Fortunately, she found a workaround.

She could not play the piece without the music close to her, Hohmeyer said. She would put the music on the bench and then she would sit on the bench so the judges couldnt see it.

Mair attended Weymouth College where she earned a degree in music. While she was in college, she travelled to Saginaw to visit relatives. During her visit, her aunt set her up on a blind date with Richard Alsgaard, a graduate of the University of Michigan. The two continued to correspond by mail after Mair returned to Wales and while Richard served in the U.S. Army. Two years later, Richard proposed to Mair over the phone; she moved to Saginaw and the couple was married on Oct. 9, 1954.

Mairs daughter, Sheila Nye of Saginaw, said her moms greatest quality was her strength.

Moving from Wales to the U.S. at an early age was not easy, Im sure, Nye said. When they first started out, they didnt have a lot of money.

The Alsgaards first son, David, was born sickly, so Richard and Mair had him treated at Henry Ford Hospital. Richard worked for Dow Corning, but the company didnt provide health insurance for newborns. To help pay the medical bills, Mair got a job as a social worker covering nearby rural areas.

Eluned Mair Alsgaard Eluned Mair Alsgaard, 90, died June 17. She is survived by her four children, David (Kelly) Alsgaard, the Rev. Erik (Sheila) George, Ian (Victoria) Alsgaard and Sheila (Lenny) Nye; six grandchildren and five great-grandsons. Her husband died in 2018. A celebration of life for Mair is set for 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 20 at the Midland County Club. Arrangements are by Ware-Smith-Woolever Funeral Directors. See More Collapse

After a couple of years, she started teaching piano out of her home and continued for over 60 years. Mair provided piano lessons until this spring, connecting with her students over Zoom during the pandemic.

She influenced a ton of kids with her love of music, said David Alsgaard, her son.

Mairs dedication to music continued as she served as the music director for Blessed Sacrament Church for 19 years, was the music and liturgy Director for St. Brigid Church and music resource coordinator for the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw. After her retirement, Mair was the organist and music director at St. John's Episcopal Church for many years until spring 2022.

Amon Eady, director of music at St. Johns, worked with Mair for the last five years. He spoke of Mairs devotion to her work and how he enjoyed her dry sense of humor.

She was up at the church every single day until she physically couldnt, Eady said.

One of Eadys favorite memories was going over to Mairs house during the pandemic to remotely broadcast Sunday church services. They would rotate who would provide bagels, donuts or breakfast sandwiches.

As non-ideal as it was, it was so much fun, Eady said.

Hohmeyer first met Maier when he was the Music Society director at Midland Center for the Arts. She encouraged him to join the Michigan Music Teachers Association; today, he is deeply involved with the organization and oversees the organizations Student Achievement Test.

She was very good at getting people involved in musical organizations, Hohmeyer said.

Mair continued to pursue her passion for music by joining the Saginaw Valley chapter of the American Guild of Organists, served as the chair of the Midland Symphony Board and was president of the Symphony League, twice. She was also involved with the Board of Community Concerts, Midland Historical Society, the steering committee for Matrix Midland and Friends of the Grace A. Dow Memorial Library.

She was very fair and giving. She always cared more about other people than she did about herself. She always loved to give back and felt that was a higher calling, David said. Mom had the inability to say no. If somebody asked her for help or to volunteer for this or substitute for that, she was right there.

Mair received several accolades for her contributions to the music community. In 1975, the Midland Jaycee Auxiliary named Mair the Woman of the Year. The following year, she was named the Midland Musician of the Year by the Midland Symphony Orchestra Society. Her latest honor was being named the Music Teacher of the Year by the Michigan Music Teachers Association in October 2019.

I think about how many lives she touched, not only as a wife and mother, but as a choir director, organist, social worker, friend and teacher, Nye said. She always taught me to be kind to people.

Mair is survived by her four children, David (Kelly) Alsgaard, the Rev. Erik (Sheila) George, Ian (Victoria) Alsgaard and Sheila (Lenny) Nye; six grandchildren and five great-grandsons. Her husband died in 2018.

A celebration of life for Mair is set for 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 20 at the Midland County Club. Arrangements are by Ware-Smith-Woolever Funeral Directors.
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BOSTON (AP)  NASA wants its moon dust and cockroaches back.

The space agency has asked Boston-based RR Auction to halt the sale of moon dust collected during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission that had subsequently been fed to cockroaches during an experiment to determine if the lunar rock contained any sort of pathogen that posed a threat to terrestrial life.

The material, a NASA lawyer said in a letter to the auctioneer, still belongs to the federal government.

The material from the experiment, including a vial with about 40 milligrams of moon dust and three cockroach carcasses, was expected to sell for at least $400,000, but has been pulled from the auction block, RR said Thursday.

All Apollo samples, as stipulated in this collection of items, belong to NASA and no person, university, or other entity has ever been given permission to keep them after analysis, destruction, or other use for any purpose, especially for sale or individual display, said NASA's letter dated June 15.

It went on: We are requesting that you no longer facilitate the sale of any and all items containing the Apollo 11 Lunar Soil Experiment (the cockroaches, slides, and post-destructive testing specimen) by immediately stopping the bidding process," NASA wrote.

In another letter dated June 22, NASA's lawyer asked RR Auction to work with the current owner of the material to return it to the federal government.

The Apollo 11 mission brought more than 47 pounds (21.3 kilograms) of lunar rock back to Earth. Some was fed to insects, fish and other small creatures to see if it would kill them.

The cockroaches that were fed moon dust were brought to the University of Minnesota where entomologist Marion Brooks dissected and studied them.

I found no evidence of infectious agents," Brooks, who died in 2007, told the Minneapolis Tribune for an October 1969 story. She found no evidence that the moon material was toxic or caused any other ill effects in the insects, according to the article.

But the moon rock and the cockroaches were never returned to NASA, instead displayed at Brooks' home. Her daughter sold them in 2010, and now they are up for sale again by a consignor who RR did not disclose.

It's not unusual for a third party to lay claim to something that is being auctioned, said Mark Zaid, an attorney for RR Auction.

NASA has a track record of pursuing items related to the early space programs," although they have been inconsistent in doing so, Zaid said. By its own admission, NASA acknowledged in one of its letters that it did not know about the previous auction of the cockroach experiment items.

We have worked with NASA before and have always cooperated with the U.S. government when they lay claims to items," Zaid said. At the end of the day, we want to act appropriately and lawfully."

RR Auction is holding on to the lot for now, but ultimately, it's up to the consignor to work something out with NASA, he said.
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PARIS (AP)  Emmanuel Macron may be weakened at home after parliamentary elections forced him into political maneuvering, but on the international stage the French president has the resources to remain one of the most influential world leaders.

Frances foreign allies closely watched Sundays elections where Macrons alliance won the most seats but lost its majority in the National Assembly, Frances most powerful house of parliament.

The outcome has made the 44-year-old centrists life significantly harder at home, rendering the implementation of his agenda  such as pension changes and tax cuts  more difficult. Yet it is not expected to derail his international agenda in the immediate future.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, Macron has been at the epicenter of international diplomacy surrounding the war. Despite a historic shift in French politics and growing polarization, experts don't expect that to change.

There will be much more contrast between the pressure he might have at home compared to his freer rein abroad, said Laurie Dundon, a France-based senior associate fellow with the European Leadership Network.

Macron, who is in Brussels for a two-day European Council summit, plans to be in Germany for a weekend Group of Seven meeting and in Spain for a NATO summit next week.

I think that Europe does have a leadership," Macron said Friday in response to a question that referred to the situation at the French parliament. He noted that many nations in the EU are led by coalition or minority governments.

I wouldn't oppose the political complexity of our countries ... and European leadership. On the contrary, I think they reinforce each other. It just gives us more work" to find compromises, he said.

The French president holds substantial powers over foreign policy, European affairs and defense. He is also the commander-in-chief of the countrys armed forces.

France has provided significant financial and military aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded its neighbor. The French government also sent its troops to bolster Europes defenses on its eastern flank.

During France's presidential campaign, Macrons popularity rose because of his leadership role in efforts to end the war: He championed tougher sanctions against Moscow while keeping an open line with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and has maintained near-constant contact with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Macron, who won a second term against far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in April, traveled to Kyiv earlier this month, between the two rounds of the parliamentary election, along with other European leaders.

Frances support for Ukraine has wide domestic popularity, according to opinion polls, and opposition leaders have carefully avoided criticizing it.

The platform of the leftist coalition led by Jean-Luc Melenchon, which has become Frances main opposition force, is explicitly in favor of Ukraines sovereignty and territorial integrity. On the far right, Le Pen, who long had ties to Russia, says she supports a free Ukraine while expressing reservations over arms deliveries.

Foreign policy is not a realm where either Le Pen or Melenchon want to expend their energy when they have so many domestic issues to challenge Macron on, Dundon said.

Neither one of them wants to get involved in the messiness of the diplomacy on Russia and Ukraine, she said.

First elected in 2017, the staunchly pro-European Macron has never hidden his ambition for a leadership role in global diplomacy. His reelection in April bolstered his standing as a senior player in Europe as it faces the war in Ukraine and its consequences for the continent and beyond.

Frances strong presidential powers are a legacy from Gen. Charles de Gaulles will to have a stable political system throughout the Fifth Republic he established in 1958, after the post-World War II period experienced successions of short-lived, inefficient governments.

The president represents the country abroad, meeting with foreign heads of states and governments. Its the prime minister, appointed by the president, who is accountable to parliament.

The National Assembly has negligible power over the presidents foreign agenda although it keeps control of government spending.

Parliament has not been asked to give its opinion on the dispatch of arms to Ukraine, nor on Frances external operations, notably in the Sahel, in the Middle East as part of the anti-ISIS coalition, or in Afghanistan, Nicolas Tenzer, Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, wrote.

Parliament must, however, give its authorization for an extension of these operations after four months, he stressed.

The emboldened opposition, both on the left and on the right, could seek to use parliaments power to force a debate. Every week, lawmakers are entitled to question government members  but not the president  including about foreign policy. Its an opportunity to raise criticism on key issues.

But the debate in France is widely expected to remain focused on domestic policies.

In a sign that the presidents attention might be shifting at least temporarily to political realignment at home, Macron hardly mentioned his international agenda on Wednesday when he delivered his first speech since the parliamentary elections. He only briefly referred to the European meeting focusing on Ukraine.

I will have only one compass: that we move forward for the common good, he told the French.

___

Surk reported from Nice, France.
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.
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Conakry, Guinea (PANA) - The cutting and transporting of timber have been banned throughout Guinea for three months, from 1 July until 30 September, as part of the implementation of the biological rest in forest areas
Conakry, Guinea (PANA) - The Compagnie des bauxites de Guinee (CBG), one of the world leaders in the bauxite industry, on Wednesday launched a reforestation campaign covering 254 hectares at the Sangaredi commune mine, which is home to one of the world's largest bauxite deposits, an official statement said
Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - Addressing the first meeting of the World Health Organisations Emergency Committee on Thursday over the global Monkeypox outbreak, the WHO chief told members that person-to-person transmission was ongoing, and likely underestimated
Photo: (Photo : NATALIE BEHRING/AFP via Getty Images)

An ongoing baby formula shortage is placing a spotlight on formula alternatives in the United States. One substitute that is becoming increasingly available in Wisconsin is donated human milk.

Mothers' Milk Bank of the Western Great Lakes has collected milk from moms wishing to donate their surplus supply since 2016. The nonprofit organization screens its milk for pathogens before pasteurizing it and distributing it to milk bank dispensaries and hospitals around Illinois and Wisconsin.

According to Susan Urbanski, project manager for the milk bank, which collects donations at "depot" sites across the two states, around three-quarters of the donated milk goes to infants who are receiving care in neonatal intensive care units, while the rest of the supply goes toward families in need of supplemental milk.

Donated milk is a safe and nutritious formula alternative

The milk bank's rising profile has coincided with a nationwide shortage of baby formula that has now stretched for months in the United States. Urbanski told Here & Now that they have seen an increase in demand and supply, so while they have more patients that are currently looking for milk, they have more donor mothers who have answered the call and who are coming forward to be able to provide that milk to families in need.

According to Dr. Anne Eglash, a clinical professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, donated milk is a safe and nutritious formula alternative for families who cannot supply their own milk for their babies.

Eglash has long been a proponent of mothers breastfeeding their kids through her medical practice at UW Health, where she leads the healthcare system's lactation clinic. Her advocacy for breastfeeding started in the early 1990s and eventually led her to help organize donations of surplus milk in Wisconsin. Donations were first routed through a milk bank in Ohio before the more recent formation of Mothers' Milk Bank of the Western Great Lakes.

Read Also: Baby Formula Makers Still Have to Wait Longer to Get FDA Approval Despite Nationwide Formula Shortage

Human milk has many health benefits

The milk bank's main facilities are in the Chicago suburbs, but Eglash said a preexisting network of milk depots in Wisconsin was crucial to the initial success of the nonprofit organization.

In addition to the milk depots, where donations are dropped off, the milk bank hosts a growing number of dispensaries around Wisconsin where families in need can pick up donated milk after it has been pasteurized, including in Green Bay, Eau Claire, Sturgeon Bay, Madison, and the Milwaukee suburbs.

Eglash serves as the medical director of the milk bank, and she said the health benefits of human milk are clear, particularly for infants born prematurely. According to a study posted in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), human milk helps prevent a type of gut inflammation commonly affecting premature infants called necrotizing enterocolitis.

Related Article: Many Baby Formula Plants Not Inspected in the US Because of COVID Pandemic
Photo: (Photo : JIM WATSON/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

A Texas mom will spend the rest of her life in federal prison after admitting to her guilt of orchestrating a murder-for-hire plot where she not only targetted her husband but also fooled her high school sweetheart into committing the crime.

Jennifer Faith, 50, was crying as Judge Jane Boyle handed down her sentencing of life imprisonment without parole on Tuesday, June 21, 2022, for the death of Jamie Faith in 2020. The woman also involved and lied to her lover, Darrin Ruben Lopez, a disabled war veteran, who was the triggerman.

Boyle did not hold back when she read Jennifer's sentence and told the mother that what she did to her husband was pure evil and a disgusting betrayal, per the Department of Justice.

Read Also: Judge Rules Mom of Boy With Autism, Frozen to Death By Cop Dad, May Sue Child Protective Services

A Convincing Grieving Widow

Jaime was killed on the morning of the couple's 15th wedding anniversary while walking the family dog. Jennifer appeared on the local news to appeal for any leads to the killer. She also talked to the police as a convincing grieving widow.

The couple met in 2005 on a blind date in Phoenix. Jennifer was a single mother raising Amber, then eight years old, while Jamie did not have plans to get tied down. But friends told CBS News that their attraction toward each other was instant. They could not even believe Jamie embraced the fact that he was an instant dad to Amber.

When Amber turned 18 years old, Jamie legally adopted her. In 2017, the family moved to Dallas, where neighbors regarded the Faiths as a fun-loving couple who regularly invited other families and their kids for a pool party at their home.

Jamie's violent death was a shock, but Jennifer received immense support from both their Dallas and Phoenix communities, as fundraisers were established for the grieving widow via GoFundMe. But those who knew the couple were even more devastated when investigations slowly pieced the puzzle of the murder.

Discovering the Truth

It was standard procedure for the police to investigate the wife. Three months after the murder, they discovered cellphone records between Jennifer and Lopez that implicated them in the crime.

Lopez was convinced that Jamie was physically and sexually abusing his wife. So, he made it his mission to save her one day. Investigators believed that Jennifer "weaponized" her high school sweetheart because she went as far as to pose as Jamie or his friends in several emails to taunt Lopez.

These communications allowed the prosecutors to build a case against Jennifer, who was charged with the murder plot in September 2021. She pleaded guilty in February 2022. She also admitted in court that she was aware of Lopez's traumatic brain injury as an army veteran and exploited this so she could manipulate him, per People.

On the other hand, Lopez is still incarcerated in Dallas and awaiting his trial for the murder. He did not know about Jennifer's lies until she was arrested.

At her sentencing hearing, prosecutors introduced into evidence a video of Ms. Faith describing the killing to a @DallasPD homicide detective the morning of her husbands death. pic.twitter.com/C8lO6p8VsQ  US Attorney N. Texas (@NDTXnews) June 21, 2022

After Jennifer's arrest, Amber decided to move out of Texas and took the family dog. However, she still talks to her mother in prison at least thrice weekly. According to the police, it's not a surprise because Jennifer is the only mother figure in her life. Still, friends of the family are hoping that Amber will do something special to honor the memory of her stepfather.

Related Article: Mapson Sisters from Oklahoma to go to Prison For Plotting to Kill Child's Dad
Photo: (Photo : STR/AFP via Getty Images)

It was not Stefano Giacobbe, 8, who burned Dominick Krankall, 6, the Connecticut boy who figured in the news in April because his family said a neighborhood bully lit his face on fire.

Stefano's mom, Laura Giacobbe, has gotten hold of a video evidence to prove that her son was not the bully. CCTV cameras from the apartment yard where the kids live showed Dominick, Stefano, and a few other boys grabbing hold of a can of gasoline.

Though the boys were not directly on the camera's vantage point, Dominick later appeared in the frame with his hair and face on fire. The police released the video as they concluded that there was nothing to suggest any wrongdoing by the alleged bully.

Read Also: Chicago Mom Wants Principal Fired After Her Son Was Bullied and Unprotected by the School

The Bully Becomes the Victim

In an exclusive interview with Daily Mail, Stefano said that the gasoline they were playing with splashed on Dominick when he got hold of it. There was a cup on fire on the ground that Dominick wanted to step on.

The 8-year-old said they tried to stop Dominick from stomping on the cup, but the younger boy did not listen and headed towards it. The cup exploded, causing the boy, whose clothes were splattered with gasoline, to burn himself.

Stefano said he was sad about Dominick's accident. He cried when he learned that his friend's family pinned the blame on him. Because of this, Laura said that Stefano had been shunned by his own friends, and he's hurting as well because of the judgment he received from social media when the story of a Connecticut boy who a bully burned went viral.

Speaking with the New York Post, Laura said that Dominick's mother, Maria Rua, should be in jail for slandering her son and their family. Rua was the first to tell the cops that it was Stefano who burned Dominick.

"[Maria] put my son through hell," Laura said. "She put me in hell. I want her arrested for false statements."

The relatives of Dominick immediately opened a GoFundMe page to help with his treatment for second and third-degree burns. Their version of the incident sparked outrage for the bully and an outpouring of support for the Connecticut boy. Even the mayor of their city sympathized with Dominick.

Video Evidence Edited?

Meanwhile, Dominick's mother is sticking by the story that Stefano threw a fireball at her son, leading to his injury. She said the video evidence might have been edited because it took some weeks before it was released.

However, Laura noted that many people knew that Stefano was innocent though they were not yet allowed to release the video until it got a clearance from the police.

Laura told Fox News that she's still considering legal action even if there's footage that clears her son.

The story of the Connecticut boy became so big around the world that Laura may have to go the legal route to completely clear Stefano from any accountability for what happened to Dominick.

Related Article: Connecticut 6-year-old Boy Bullied and Brutally Burned by Another Child, Family Claims
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Airports Council International Europe has announced the winners of its 2022 Best Airport Awards.

The awards recognize excellence and outstanding achievement across the entire portfolio of airport activities. ACI Europe said that this years awards had been characterized by the many ways in which airports are recovering after the Covid-19 pandemic and the increasing focus on sustainability-related achievements.

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This years judging panel comprised representatives from the European Commission, EUROCONTROL, SESAR Joint Undertaking, the International Transport Forum and ECAC. Eco-Innovation Award submissions were held to scrutiny by the Advisory Board of Airport Carbon Accreditation.

Under five million passengers category

The award for the under five million passengers category went to both La Palma Airport, Canary Islands, for resilience not only during the Covid-19 crisis but also during the Cumbre Vieja volcanic eruption, and Torino Airport, Italy, for its significant recovery post-pandemic and the work on innovation and sustainability.

5-10 million passengers category

The 5-10 million passengers award went to Valencia Airport, Spain. The jury especially highlighted the significant operations put in place to cope with the pandemic measures, including cargo traffic and medical flights. Valencia Airport is also a SAF pioneer, being a test airport for Aenas collaboration with BP. Eindhoven Airport, Netherlands, was also highly commended in this category.

10-25 million passengers category

This years award in the 10-25 million passengers category was given to Porto Airport, Portugal. The airport was praised for its impressive recovery from the pandemic and its plan focusing on fighting climate change, which engaged both the airport and its stakeholders. Very committed to the local community and the region, the airport has implemented initiatives such as rainwater collection, the reduction in water footprint and organic waste collection to a nearby waste park.

25-40 million passengers category

The winner of the 25-40 million passengers category was Vienna International Airport, Austria. The airport took the opportunity, initially forced by the pandemic, to modernize and innovate. Terminal 2 was redesigned and reopened, and the Vienna Lounge was renovated, introducing smart lounges and sleeping pods available for passengers inside the airport. The airports commitments on sustainability also received praise, as Vienna airport plans to become carbon neutral by 2023 and net zero by 2035. Athens Airport, Greece, was also highly commended in this category.

Over 40 million passengers category

This years award in the over 40 million passengers category went to Rome Fiumicino Airport, Italy, in recognition of its leadership position among the continents hubs. Rome Fiumicino has led on the innovation plan this year, with the opening of a new APOC, but also a new SAF facility, making it the first Italian airport to offer SAF. The Roman hub is also the leader on sustainability, being the first European airport to achieve Level 4+ of the Airport Carbon Accreditation program. iGA Istanbul Grand Airport, Turkey, was also highly commended for this award.

Digital transformation award

ACI Europe partnered with the SESAR Joint Undertaking to set up the Digital Transformation Award. This years winner is London City Airport, UK, recognized as a pioneer for deploying the Digital ATC Tower, a SESAR solution, in such a large airport. The project has been achieved in the course of only four years. It has been possible thanks to the airports close collaboration with NATS and SAAB, but also UK CAA, airlines and local communities. A true example of a successful common effort.

Eco-innovation award

The Eco-Innovation Award recognizes airports outstanding environmental initiatives and is presented in association with Airport Carbon Accreditation. This years Eco-Innovation Award went jointly to Bristol Airport, UK, and iGA Istanbul Grand Airport, which both submitted their projects in the category of Climate Change.

Bristol Airports project was the Low Emission Turnaround trial with easyJet as part of its Strategic Sustainability Partnership. Bristols objective to show carbon savings can be achieved without compromising operational efficiency was a notable starting point, given the challenge of reducing scope 3 emissions.

Simon Earles, sustainability and corporate affairs director, Bristol Airport said, We are delighted to be recognized by ACI and winning the Eco-Innovation award. This award supports our long-term sustainability strategy and is another example of demonstrating our commitment to addressing climate change.

This award is such an incredible achievement and is recognition to the teams and partners collaborating and making a significance change to aircraft ground operations. The teams at easyJet, Bristol Airport and our partners, including DHL, TCR, ITW, and Up and Away, worked tirelessly to get this initiative from inception to reality and reduced aircraft turnaround emissions. I am extremely proud of our efforts, and we are receiving this award on behalf of all teams involved. Its another step on our way to becoming one of the UKs most sustainable airports. Sustainability is at the heart of Bristol Airport and everyones collective involvement and is testament to our teams commitment and recognition in managing, reducing and offsetting carbon dioxide emissions under our control.

iGA Istanbul Grand Airport on the other hand submitted a project of IoT technology as a tool in managing and optimizing processes and decision-making. Environmental co-benefits included the real-time data referring to airport-wide sustainability.

Human resources excellence award

The ACI Europe Human Resources Excellence Award was created to recognize both individuals and human resources departments who have demonstrated excellent leadership and human resources management. The objective of this annual award  now in its third year  is to give exposure to innovative examples that will help the airport community to better assess and implement the new procedures and skills needed to develop the industrys workforce.

This years Human Resources Excellence Award went to iGA Istanbul Grand Airport, for the overall strategy and many initiatives implemented during the second year of Covid-19 pandemic and its recovery. A cornerstone of the strategy was regular employee meetings and listening carefully to their feedback and their needs. A Pandemic Board has also been established, in close collaboration with the board of directors, to produce fast and effective solutions for urgent incidents.

World business partner award

This award recognizes an ACI Europe World Business Partner, either individual or company, who has made a significant contribution to the airport industry. This work comes through active participation in committees, sharing of best practices and experience, research and special initiatives.

This years winner is David Feldman, managing partner at Exambela Consulting. The winner has been an active member of ACI Europe since 2010, showing over the years particular engagement within activities such as committee meetings, conferences and policy advice.

Special award

The special award was given to Emanuel Fleuti, head of sustainability and environment at Zurich Airport. The judges praised his outstanding leadership in advancing Airport Carbon Accreditation and airport sustainability.
Last Friday TSMC announced that their next-gen 3nm processors is going into volume production in H2 2022. Their 3NE, a 3nm Enhanced version of the chip will introduce their revolutionary FinFlex Architecture. TSMC stated that their 3nm processors would be going into volume production in H2 2022.

While wed like to think that this will translate into powering the iPhone 14, MacRumors, citing an April DigiTimes report, claimed that it will be the iPhone 15 that will be powered by the new 3nm processor. Then again, TSMCs chip update announcements made last week, hinted otherwise.

If TSMCs 3nm processors dont make to market until 2023, then Samsung could be first to introduce a 3nm processor in their next-gen Galaxy smartphones. Yesterday, Samsung announced that theyll begin mass production of their 3nm processors based on the new gate all round (GAA) transistor structure next week.

According to Business Korea, GAA is a new technology that improves performance while reducing chip size and power consumption compared to the conventional fin field-effect transistor (FinFET) technology.

Analysts say that if Samsung Electronics starts mass production of 3-nm chips, it will be able to show corporate customers that it is ahead of TSMC in technology, thus strengthening its position in the foundry market. Samsung is determined to undermine TSMCs foundry market dominance with its advanced ultra-micro fabrication technology.

Samsung believes that mass production of 3-nm chips will provide it with strong momentum to attain its goal of becoming the worlds top player in the field of system semiconductors.

If TSMC delivers their next-gen 3nm processors in time for the iPhone 14, then Samsung having a slight lead ahead of TSMC really wont matter. However, if Apple cant take advantage of 3nm chips for the iPhone 14, then Samsung will have bragging rights for their next-gen Galaxy smartphones as well as other Android phones adopting Samsung's 3nm chips. Of course, only time will tell if Samsungs 3nm chip will actually deliver clear advantages that matter.

For more, read the full Business Korea report.
Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, the Minister of Finance, says the government will continue to implement programmes that seek to enhance the skills and welfare of workers.



He said, we are ensuring skills development that meets the demands of the Ghanaian labour market and promotes decent work.



Mr Ofori-Atta was speaking at the launch of the training and retraining programme component of the National Unemployment Insurance Scheme (NUIS) under Ghana Cares Obaatanpa Programme in Accra.



The programme aimed at preserving and upgrading the human capital and skills of the current cohort of workers, who lost their employment because of the pandemic. It is intended to facilitate their re-entry into productive employment at higher levels of performance.



The Programme will be implemented in two phases, the first phase of the Programme will cover workers in the sectors that were mostly affected by the pandemic, namely the Private Education Sector and the Tourism and Hospitality Sector.



The second phase of the Training and Retraining Programme will cover other sectors of the economy with emphasis on vocational and technical training.



The training and re-training programme is focused on skills upgrading, work ethics, productivity, and attitudinal change.



The Minister said the governments resolve to invest in the people of Ghana, particularly the youth, had been adequately matched with the implementation of programmes that ensure strategic workforce development, including interventions to enhance employability and improve productivity.



He said even under difficult times, when the economy was facing challenges largely on account of global shocks and domestic developments, we prioritise the Programme as we believe the medium to long term benefits are enormous for the worker output enhancement for the economy.



Mr Ofori-Atta said an implementation Committee with membership from the Government, Organised Labour, and Employers had been constituted to see to the effective implementation of the Programme.



The Minister said Programme was developed through extensive consultations between the government and key stakeholders comprising representatives from the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Employment & Labour Relations.



Others are Organised Labour and Ghana Employers Association and other stakeholders such as the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Ghana Education Service, Ghana Tourism Authority, Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Ghana National Association of Private Schools, Ghana National Council of Private Schools, and Ghana Tourism Federation.



He said the government was funding the cost of the training and retraining programme by paying the fees of workers, who enroll in the Programme.



Dr Patrick Nomo, the Chairman of NUIS and Training and Re-training Programme, said Re-Skilling, Training and Retraining was essential to building and sustaining competencies for the ever-changing labour market.



He said the outbreak of the COVID-19 in 2020 led to massive job losses and under-employment globally and domestically, which necessitated the need for government to establish a NUIS with a training and retraining component to support workers, who involuntarily become unemployed.



He said the government, together with Social Partners, was partnering with credible service providers to roll out the first phase of the Training and Retraining Programme to eligible beneficiary workers in the Tourism and Hospitality Sector and the Private Education Sector.



Dr Nomo, who is also the Chief Director of the Ministry of Finance, said they had made great strides towards the implementation of the programme.



The team tasked to oversee the implementation of the programme has over the past year engaged relevant stakeholders in the two sectors and relevant course modules and all the other processes for the roll-out of the Programme have been completed.



Mr Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, the Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, said going forward the government would expand the programme to include more sectors.



I believe that if we are able to implement this programme successfully, unemployment will be a thing of the past, he added.



Dr Yaw Baah, the Secretary-General of the Trades Union Congress, commended the government and the social partners for the initiative.







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.

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The Center for Political Research and Advocacy (CePRA) has predicted a massive win for Albert Kwabena Dwumfour, one of the contestants in Fridays Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) national elections.



In a report released on Thursday, a day before the elections, CePRA said 60% of respondents said Dwumfour will win the GJA presidential elections while 30.5% said Gayheart Mensah will win the election while a paltry 14% went for Dave Agbenu



Below is the full report:



The Center for Political Research and Advocacy has in quasi-opinion polls predicted a win for Albert Kwabena Dwumfour in the upcoming GJA elections.



The Center conducted a Regional opinion poll among Journalists from about 8 regions and sampled about 400 views from Journalists 90% of whom are delegates in the upcoming elections.



Three candidates including Mr.Dave Agbenu, Gayheart Mensah, and Mr.Albert K. Dwumfour have put themselves up to be elected as the next GJA President.



About 60% of Respondents chose Mr.Dwumfuor, with about 30.5% opting for Mr.Gayheart and 14% for Mr.Agbenu, and the remaining 5.5% were not sure who to vote for.



Some of the reasons given by respondents for their choices include the following;



1. Respondents feel Mr.Gayheart Mensah cannot double as PRO for the Speaker and as GJA President.



2. Most respondents at the regional levels believe Mr.Dwumfour has been very thorough by reaching out to them on the ground.



3. Some said Mr.Agbenu should wait for a while.



4. Some also said Mr. Gayheart left the GJA and went to corporate practice and never supported the Association for 15 years when he was practicing in the corporate world.



5. Some also said Mr. Dwumfour has the ability to unite the GJA in these difficult times.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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BIC, a world leader in stationery, lighters, and shavers, announced today the kick-off of its flagship art competition, Art Master Africa, in its fifth edition.



The competition invites talent across Africa and the Middle East to express their creativity by producing artwork using the infamous BIC ballpoint pen. This years competition theme is Celebrating Africa, inviting artists to present their identity as well as their different perceptions of the African continent and cultures.



Art Master Africa is an annual competition that is open to artists and creatives across the Middle East and Africa region. The competition was incepted in 2017 in South Africa. Following its success, Art Master Africa expanded into the Africa region in 2019 and into the Middle East in 2021.



Artists can enter the competition by submitting up to three original artworks of what Celebrating Africa means to them. Submissions will then be reviewed and shortlisted by a panel of judges including artists, art professors, art collectors, as well as winners from the 2019 and 2021 competitions  Gayi Eric and Oscar Ukonu. The submission phase will run from 15-06-2022 until 31-08-2022. Once the judging phase is completed in September, winners will be announced and celebrated by the 15th of October 2022.



Commenting on the occasion, Peter Van den Broeck, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Middle East and Africa at BIC, said: We are ecstatic to announce the kick-off of the fifth edition of the Art Master Africa competition. Our flagship competition speaks to our belief in the importance and power of creativity and self-expression. Through Art Master Africa we have touched and impacted many across the region, and we plan to continue to motivate and encourage the younger generation and creative community to express themselves innovatively, as we build on and elevate our campaign year-on-year.



First, second, and third-place regional winners will be named Africas Art Masters, will be celebrated in their respective countries, and will receive cash prizes of USD 2,000, USD 1,000, and USD 500 respectively. The first-place regional winner will also get their online personal gallery, as well as the opportunity to join the BIC Art Collection, exhibited in Paris, France. National winners will receive a prize of USD 500 each. To find out more about the Art Master Africa competition, visit the website here.



BIC's connection to art spans more than 60 years. The brand regularly celebrates the creativity and originality of artists who find great inspiration in creating masterpieces using BICs products. BICs Art Collection includes over 250 works of art by 80 international artists. BIC has several established partnerships with art institutes around the world and has its products displayed in renowned museums around the world.







Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Energy Minister, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh has responded to claims by the Institute of Energy Security (IES) that he has failed to provide a single strategic option to lift the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR).



In a statement, the minister rubbished the claims after insisting his leadership is on the right path to revamping TOR.



Read below the statement



RE: Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh has Failed to Provide a Single Strategic Option to Lift TOR, among others- Institute of Energy Security



The attention of the Ministry of Energy has been drawn to a news item on various media platforms in which Institute of Energy Security (IES), an energy think tank, is reported to have issued a statement on their petition to H.E. the President to save the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) from imminent collapse.



The IES is also reported to have alleged that the Energy Minister, Hon. Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, has failed to provide the necessary leadership aimed at finding a strategic partner towards the revamping of the refinery, among other allegations.



The Ministry refutes this assertion in the strongest possible terms and wishes to state as follows;



1. On 11th March 2021, four (4) days after assuming office as Energy Minister, Dr. Prempeh undertook a working visit of TOR to familiarize himself with the situation on the ground.



2. In meetings with the IMC, Board, Management and worker unions, Dr. Prempeh has always indicated the Presidents keen interest in the revitalization of the refinery, creating jobs and positioning itself as market leader on the African continent by seeking a strategic partner for the refinery.



3. On June 15, 2021, Dr. Prempeh swore-in a three (3)- member Interim Management Committee (IMC) whose terms of reference were to ensure the smooth transfer from the previous Directors, undertake technical and human resource audits as well as receive and assess viable partnerships for TOR.



4. As part of its handing over notes, the IMC made recommendations to the incoming board regarding a strategic partner and sought the necessary approvals from the Public Procurement Authority (PPA).



5. In February and March 2022, a new Managing Director and Board took office respectively, with a clear mandate to work towards securing a strategic partner for the revamping of the refinery.



6. The Hon. Minister subsequently wrote to request an evaluation of all the processes involving interested parties and submit same for the attention of an inter-ministerial committee including the Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Public Enterprise, State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) and TOR. This was to enable the committee to make the necessary recommendations to the President.



7. On 20th May 2022, Government granted approval to TOR to begin negotiations with a strategic partner.



8. Subsequent to this, on 10th June 2022, the Hon Minister wrote to the Managing Director of TOR to provide guidelines and advice as the refinery prepares, together with its prospective transactional advisor, to enter into negotiations with a strategic partner. Among others, he directed further that TORs indebtedness and workers pension funds must be included in the negotiations with the strategic partner.



9. In the said letter, the Minister emphasized that whatever agreement that may be reached between the refinery and the strategic partner is not final until it has been subjected to further scrutiny by the Ministry of Energy and the Office of the President.



It is evident from the foregoing that Dr. Prempeh has demonstrated clear leadership, vision and focus in working towards the revamping of TOR, and that the claims made by the IES is borne either out of ignorance of these facts or a deliberate attempt to tarnish the Ministers image.



One would expect that the IES would be circumspect in its public pronouncements on issues in the energy sector and at least seek information and facts before going public. This is in view of the weight that is likely to be accorded its position.



The Ministry wishes to assure Ghanaians that Dr. Prempeh is resolutely committed to ensuring that TOR is put on a sound footing to support Ghanas industrialization drive, and will continue to provide strategic leadership and direction in this regard.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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General Corporal Isaac Opoku Asumam has become the second Police officer to benefit from the 6.1 Million Cedis Police Emergency Medical Intervention Fund (PEMIF) after he was flown to New Delhi, India for medical attention.



The PEMIF, an initiative of the Police Administration which was approved and launched in January 2022 by President Akufo-Addo is aimed at providing full funding for the medical care of Police officers who sustain injuries in the line of duty.



Corporal Isaac Opoku Asumans support comes after Chief Inspector Mac-Victor Anako, who was the first beneficiary, had undergone a similar treatment in Germany.



A Police statement said: Corporal Isaac Opoku Asuman was flown to New Delhi, India on May 22, 2022, accompanied by an Orthopedic Surgeon at the Police Hospital, to fix a new prosthesis leg. The Corporal returned to Ghana on June 15, 2022, after a successful surgery.



The Corporal was knocked down by a taxi driver on April 26, 2021, while on an anti-robbery duty within the Accra Metropolis. He was taken to the Police Hospital and was admitted for treatment. During the course of the treatment, his left leg was amputated due to the severity of the injury.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Ghanaian media has been challenged to increase its reportage on the trawl sector in order to help reduce reported incidence of abuse, violence and inhuman treatment of Ghanaian crew members on such vessels in the country.

This was part of recommendations made in a new study conducted on the Ghanaian trawl sector by Dr Vanessa Jaiteh of the University of Nottingham Rights Lab in UK.



Recommendations



The study which looked at the working conditions of Ghanaian crew members on fishing vessels mostly controlled and co-owned by foreigners indicated that many Ghanaian nationals were ill-treated on such vessels, with many dying in the process.



Presenting the findings of the study at a media training workshop in Accra via Zoom on Wednesday, June 22, 2022, Dr Jaiteh called for increased transparency on beneficial ownership of vessels, vessel inspection protocols and standards, recruitment processes and fines and sanctions imposed for labour rights violations.



She said there was the need to tighten controls around foreign involvement in the trawl sector to protect industrial fishers and observers, protect artisanal livelihoods and to support the recovery of fish stocks.



The University of Nottingham Rights Lab researcher further called on state actors to strengthen capacity to protect fish workers by enforcing already existing laws and treaties such as the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA).



For Dr Jaiteh, enhancing effectiveness of interagency cooperation as well as addressing systemic exploitation of fish workers on vessels would help to protect the rights of Ghanaian crew members on fishing vessels.



She said her study discovered that many of the Ghanaian crew members live in unsanitary conditions on the vessels whilst the operators of the vessels looked on.



Forty-five per cent of industrial fishers mentioned the need for unions to represent their interests and defend their rights, she noted, saying the media can help bring awareness of the human cost of seafood production to consumers, who hold great power for change.



Media support



On his part, the Deputy Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Mr Moses Anim, encouraged the Ghanaian media to be more interested in the fisheries sector since their role could help to manage the sector sustainably.



He said the media had a critical role in helping the Ministry and other regulatory bodies as well as the players in the sector to conform to good fisheries governance and management practices.



He said the fisheries sector had been underreported for many years and needed to be highlighted by the media due to its complexities in job creation, food security and poverty eradication.



Time to act



The Executive Director of Journalists for Responsible Fisheries and Environment, Mr Kingsley Nana Buadu, pledged the commitment of Ghanaian journalists particularly those reporting on the fisheries sector of sustaining their efforts to bring down all IUU fishing practices in the country.



He said Ghanaian journalists would continue to prioritise the interests of Ghanaian nationals in the fisheries sector, including those on board fishing vessels so as to ensure their safety and wellbeing.



He expressed the concern that it was heartbreaking that Ghanaian nationals onboard fishing vessels were ill-treated by the owners of such vessels without recourse to any human rights.



Mr Buadu also encouraged the Fisheries Commission and the Fisheries Ministry to severely punish owners of fishing vessels whose operators abuse the rights and dignity of their Ghanaian crew members.



He said Ghanaian nationals should no longer suffer abuses and violations of their human rights in their own country by foreign nationals who are working in the country.









Source: graphiconline.com









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A 12-year-old girl, Maame Yaa, met her untimely death when a building collapsed on her at Shama Junction in the Shama District of the Western region.



The sad incident occurred in the early hours of Wednesday, June 22, 2022, around 0700 hours.



Uncle Atta, the father of the deceased told the Ghana News Agency (GNA), that the collapsed building was closed to his house.



I heard an unusual sound and was informed by one of my sons who was in the same room that a piece of wood fell from the top of the roof to hit her sister, he explained.



With the help of the neighbours, the girl was rescued with blood oozing from the girls ears and nose.



She was rushed to the St Benedict Hospital at Inchaban but could not survive.



In an interview with GNA, Mr Philip Boateng, the Assembly member of the area, confirmed the incident and added that a team from the National Disaster Management Organisation visited the scene to assess the extent of the destruction.



He encouraged the family of the deceased to remain steadfast despite the unexpected calamity and look up to God for renewed strength.



Mr Boateng appealed to the benevolent organisations to come to the aid of the affected families to relieve them from the psychological pain.



The body of the deceased had since been deposited at the St Edward morgue at Apimanyin pending an autopsy.

Source: GNA









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The Judicial Service of Ghana has opened a new District Magistrate Court at Nadowli in the Nadowli-Kaleo District of the Upper West Region.

The new District Magistrate Court, which was opened last Monday, brings to five the number of district courts in the region but one of the only two that are housed in their own permanent buildings.



While the other permanent one is at Nandom, the remaining three at Wa, Jirapa and Tumu are operating on rented premises.



The new court, which is complete with the necessary staff, was funded by the Nadowli- Kaleo District Assembly. A judge is, however, yet to be posted to the facility.



Before the opening of the new court, citizens had to travel all the way to Wa to seek justice for all manner of cases and issues.



Justice at doorsteps

Speaking on behalf of the Chief Justice, Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah, the Regional Supervising High Court Judge, Yusif Asibey, described the opening of the court as a memorable occasion for the people, saying it was in line with the Judiciarys avowed goal of bringing justice to their doorsteps.



Justice Anin Yeboah said now the people had a court in their backyard, where they could have cases in civil matters like land disputes, criminal matters like stealing and juvenile and family tribunal involving juveniles, marital and maintenance issues being settled.



He stated that fees, property rates, levies and failure to comply with the assemblys bye-laws could also be heard at the court.



The Chief Justice, however, recommended alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and admonished people litigating over the ownership of land to work with it to avert the huge sums of money spent and the long spell of time wasted.



He noted that there were many land cases which had stretched for over 20 years with colossal sums of money spent in the process.



Justice Anin Yeboah said that the ADR provided a cheaper and quicker process in resolving such cases, adding that judgments of the ADR was enforceable just like the judgment of any court.



He, therefore, urged the traditional rulers and elders to impress upon litigants that there was a cheaper, affordable and less time-consuming alternative in the ADR, which was available at the courts.



Firm and decisive

The Upper West Regional Minister, Dr Hafiz Bin Salih, advised that the judgment of the court should be firm and decisive, with equal treatment to all parties involved in any litigation. Dr Bin Salih charged all the other district assemblies to construct courts in their jurisdiction to avoid the high cost people incurred in travelling long distances to seek justice.



The District Chief Executive of Nadowli- Kaleo, Katherine T. Lankono, commended the chiefs and elders for donating the land that had enabled them to put up the building.









Source: graphiconline.com









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A Private Legal Practitioner has described the presentation in Parliament by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta, on how government utilized the COVID-19 funds as more or less a practical joke gone horribly wrong.



Lawyer Edudzi Tamakloe believes the finance minister lied to the House and Ghanaians because they have already expended the funds for their personal gains.



Speaking on Okay Fm's Ade Akye Abia programme, Edudzi, who is an aide to former President John Dramani Mahama, explained that both the president and the vice president have been giving varying figures about how COVID 19 funds were utilized.



"The finance minister turned up in parliament because he feared the ramifications of his actions if he totally refused to honour the invitation of the House. What the finance minister did in parliament does not account for an audit. The NPP, when they were in opposition clamored for probity and accountability and even accused the former president of being the worse corrupt government in the history of the country.



"The party that upheld the principle of probity and accountability has refused to apply same in accounting for the donated COVID 19 funds," he stated.



The NDC activist further stated that he was surprised the finance minister could go to parliament and massage figures on how the COVID 19 funds was spent since a vice chairperson of the ruling party had already expose their activities by publicly disclosing that funds raised during the pandemic was shared among party members.



"In the 2021 mid year budget review appendix 4b, the finance minister narrated how he spent COVID 19 money without giving a proper breakdown of how for example a 100 million covid-19 cash was given out for the reopening of schools. So is he trying to tell us he never questioned how the monies were used?



"The people of Ghana deserve a better presentation of how the COVID 19 monies were expended by the finance minister. You can not go to parliament and give vague figures without a proper breakdown of how COVID 19 cash was used," Edudzi Tamakloe fumed.



Watch video Below





The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, has explained that claims that the government had not been transparent with its COVID-19 expenditure are not the case, as widely perceived by Members of Parliament from the minority caucus.Addressing Parliament, the Minister said all programmed, mobilised and utilised funds pertaining to the coronavirus pandemic had been dully reported in line with governments commitment to accountability and transparency.His justification comes on the back of the Minority MPs demand for an audit into all COVID-19 related expenses in view of what they claim as discrepancies in the governments expenditure data.Responding to questions, Mr Ofori-Atta categorically stated that government was transparent in its expenditure items, and would continue to operate an open-door policy.Mr. Speaker, at this juncture, I wish to dispel the notion that there have been inconsistencies in government data on COVID-19. His Excellency, the President intimated during the State of the Nation Address on March 30, 2022, that we had mobilised about Gh17.7 billion since 2020 to fight the pandemic.

Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline/[email protected]









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Chinese neuroscientist receives 2022 L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award

Xinhua) 19:35, June 24, 2022

Chinese neuroscientist Hu Hailan and four other woman scientists received the 2022 L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award at the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris on Thursday evening.

Hu, professor and executive director of the Neuroscience Center of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, won the award "for her major discoveries in neuroscience, in particular her work on depression, which has informed the development of next generation drugs for depression," noted the UN body.

The other four winners are Maria Guzman from Cuba, Katalin Kariko from the United States, Agnes Binagwaho from Rwanda and Angela Nieto from Spain, UNESCO said.

Guzman was awarded for her pioneering work to better understand and treat dengue fever or "tropical flu," Kariko for her contribution to the development of messenger RNA technology which has led to the breakthrough in the development of vaccines against COVID-19, Binagwaho for her role in establishing a new public health care system for the most vulnerable in Africa and Nieto for her discoveries on the cell differentiation during embryonic development that improved the treatment of cancer and its spread to other tissues.

UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said at the awarding ceremony that the world needs science, science needs women and science must be more and better open to women at critical moments in their careers.

"UNESCO is working on eliminating gender stereotypes in science, through educational and mentoring programs," she said.

UNESCO did not hold any offline ceremonies for the awards over the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ten winners of the 2020 and 2021 awards were also present at Thursday's ceremony.

For more than 20 years, UNESCO and the L'Oreal Foundation have yearly rewarded five outstanding woman scientists to promote gender balance in science and inspire younger generations of women to pursue science as a career.

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A founding member of the New Patriotic Party, Dr. Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe, has issued a warning to the Agric Minister, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, and former Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko, not to contest in the partys upcoming flagbearership race.



In an interview with Accra-based TV3, Nyaho-Tamakloe explained that the Agric Minister has failed in the implementation of government policies under his watch.



He advised him to have an independent assessment of his performance as Minister before deciding on whether to contest or not.



On the former Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko, Dr. Nyaho-Tamakloe maintained that he has been unable to offer explanations leading to his dismissal as a minister.



I can mention those who shouldnt dare come close. One is Akoto. He has failed abysmally. He shouldnt think of it. Recently I saw his billboard somewhere in the Volta Region. I mean he has failed.



He should know that he has failed. The policy he came out with, if he is convinced that he has been able to administer them properly, then he can come or show his face for the leadership of the party, he stated.



Then former Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko. I dont understand them. Agyarko for what? Himself has he come out as a man to tell the people of this country that for a, b, c reasons I have been sacked? That is what will be done in a civilized country, Dr. Nyaho-Tamakloe emphasized.



The NPP is yet to announce the presidential primary date.



Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and Trade and Industry Minister Alan Kyerematen are reportedly lacing up their boots to slug it out.



Other names that have come up include Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto (Agric Minister), Boakye Agyarko (Former Energy Minister), Kennedy Agyapong (Assin Central MP), and Joe Ghartey, former Railways Minister.











Source: ghanaweb.com









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North Tongu Member of Parliament, Samuel Okudjeto Ablakwa is on President Akufo-Addo's case again over another private jet trip.



President Akufo-Addo left Ghana on Sunday, June 19 to Belgium and then later to Rwanda for the 15th Edition of the European Development Days Forum and the 26th Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations respectively.



It may be recalled that the President flew commercial on his last trips but according to Ablakwa he "has returned to his grossly insensitive and reckless ways of profligate traveling in ultra-luxurious charters".



In an article on his Facebook page titled: "Incorrigible President Akufo-Addo has done it again", he indicated that "for President Akufo-Addos current trip to Belgium and Rwanda beginning Sunday the 19th of June, 2022 to attend the 15th Edition of the European Development Days Forum in Brussels, Belgium, and the 26th Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations in Kigali, Rwanda; we can confirm a conservative bill of 480,000.00.



The 480,000 Euros which is derived from 21 hours of total flight time plus other industry charges works out to some 4.1million Ghana Cedis at current exchange rate".



He has however, commended First Lady, Rebecca Akufo-Addo for "honourably flying to Kigali aboard Ghanas Presidential Jet which took her some 4hours and 49minutes. Her confidence in Ghanas Presidential Jet is refreshing and deeply admirable. Ghanaians are exceedingly proud of her".



Read full article below



Incorrigible President Akufo-Addo has done it again



After pretending he was a changed man by flying commercial on his last two trips to the US and the UK, he has returned to his grossly insensitive and reckless ways of profligate traveling in ultra-luxurious charters.



Probably thinking he will escape our unimpeachable surveillance if he switched companies, President Akufo-Addo on this occasion decided to abandon his favourite LX-DIO operated by Global Jet Luxembourg and opted for German based private jet operator  K5-Aviation.



K5-Aviation has been licensed to operate their luxury fleet by the German National Aviation Authority (Luftfahrt-Bundesamt, LBA) since June 2011.



As usual, President Akufo-Addo ordered their top-of-the-range and most expensive aircraft in their collection  the Airbus ACJ319. It is registered D-Alex.



Its serial number is 5963, Type Code A319 and a Mode S of 3C70B8.



Being a more expensive luxury carrier, its oligarchic features include: Master bedroom with double bed and connecting bathroom with shower; 2 additional bedrooms; 3 washrooms; Master bathroom with walk-in shower; Air Humidification system; Airshow and 5 external cameras; Gogo 2Ku high speed Wi-Fi, up to 70 Mbit/sec for streaming and video calls (charged extra); Video on demand and DVD including a 55 screen; music streaming; PlayStation; external cameras with tailfin view; airshow and a satellite phone.



The 19-VVIP-passenger D-Alex is celebrated for its 5,600 nm = 10,400 km range; equipped with 5 auxiliary center tanks for intercontinental range and non-stop flights up to 12 hours; Maximum take-off weight 76,500 kg and an impressive Maximum altitude of 41,000 ft = 12,400m.



This luxury monster is costing the Ghanaian taxpayer 20,000 an hour.



For President Akufo-Addos current trip to Belgium and Rwanda beginning Sunday the 19th of June, 2022 to attend the 15th Edition of the European Development Days Forum in Brussels, Belgium, and the 26th Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations in Kigali, Rwanda; we can confirm a conservative bill of 480,000.00.



The 480,000 Euros which is derived from 21 hours of total flight time plus other industry charges works out to some 4.1million Ghana Cedis at current exchange rate.



I must, however, commend First Lady, Mrs. Rebecca Akufo-Addo for honourably flying to Kigali aboard Ghanas Presidential Jet which took her some 4hours and 49minutes. Her confidence in Ghanas Presidential Jet is refreshing and deeply admirable. Ghanaians are exceedingly proud of her.



It must definitely take a rare kind of insulting insensitivity for President Akufo-Addo to be this wasteful and obstinate at a time Ghanaians are facing a cost of living crisis.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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The Presidency has rubbished claims by Samuel Okudjeto Ablakwa that President Akufo-Addo chartered another private jet operator  K5-Aviation on his recent trips to Belgium and Rwanda.



The North Tongu Member of Parliament (MP) in a post on Facebook alleged that "President Akufo-Addos current trip to Belgium and Rwanda beginning Sunday the 19th of June, 2022 to attend the 15th Edition of the European Development Days Forum in Brussels, Belgium, and the 26th Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations in Kigali, Rwanda; we can confirm a conservative bill of 480,000.00. The 480,000 Euros which is derived from 21 hours of total flight time plus other industry charges works out to some 4.1million Ghana Cedis at current exchange rate".



According to him, President Akufo-Addo "has returned to his grossly insensitive and reckless ways of profligate traveling in ultra-luxurious charters" after taking two commercial flights on previous trips.



However, the Director of Communications at the Presidency, Eugene Arhin in a statement described Ablakwa's claims as "inaccurate".



These claims by the North Tongu MP are not accurate, and as a Member of Parliament, I was hoping he would have been factual and truthful in his claims, and resisted the urge to engage in propaganda, Mr Arhin stated adding the President travelled to Belgium onboard an Air France Commercial Flight (AF0584).



Chartered Flight



Explaining further on the reason for the chartered flight, Mr Arhin said prior to President Akufo-Addos departure from Accra on Sunday, June 19, Ghanas Mission in Brussels had sent a notice about an impending strike in the aviation sector in Belgium.



This was going to result in the cancellation of over three hundred (300) flights, including those from Brussels to Kigali.



In furtherance of this, Belgiums largest airport, Brussels Airport, was compelled to cancel all outgoing flights on Monday, 20th June, the day President Akufo-Addo arrived in Brussels, because employees at the airport had joined in an aviation strike.



With the Presidency having been given prior information regarding the strike action before the Presidents trip to Brussels, the option to travel using direct commercial flight from Brussels to Kigali was not available he added.



Read full statement below

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Source: Peacefmonline.com









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Ten players came into today and after seven and a half hours of play, it was Phil Hui making an impressive comeback to win his third WSOP bracelet in Event #45: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-handed for $311,782. A field of 1,438 created a total prizepool worth $1,918,385 for this event, part of the 2022 World Series of Poker schedule.

Hui began the day in the middle of the pack and after a heads-up match between Hui and Daniel Tordjman that lasted just under two hours, it was Hui shaking his opponent's hand collecting his third WSOP bracelet.

I have a good life, the Event #45 champ said after his win I like winning bracelets, I like winning trophies, I have my whole life. Im happy with everything. The Florida resident was surrounded by a rail of his friends and his wife, WSOP bracelet winner Loni Hui. The more important thing is that I broke the tie with my wife, Hui joked, before this, we both had two, now I have three.

Event #45: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-handed Final Table Results

Place Player Country Payout 1st Phil Hui United States $311,782 2nd Daniel Tordjman France $192,674 3rd David Prociak United States $140,783 4th Charles Coultas United States $103,979 5th Shane Nardiello United States $77,635 6th David Williams United States $58,606 7th Paul Fehlig United States $44,735 8th Dylan Weisman United States $34,532

Phil Hui and his rail

Final Day Action

It only took one hand for the players to come down to the official final table as Kao Saechao got all of his chips in the middle with three threes against Shane Nardiellos three nines. The river saw Saechao unable to fill up and he exited the tournament in tenth place for $21,293, bringing the field down to the unofficial final table.

After that it was start of day short stack Dylan Smith who got all of his chips in with ace-ten-nine-four one suit against Nardiellos kings with a suit. Smith mustered a pair of fours on the flop and no further help was provided as he exited the tournament in ninth place for $26,961.

WSOP bracelet winner Dylan Weisman started the day as one of the chip leaders, but after losing a large pot to Tordjman, a large pot to Hui he found himself as one of the shorter stacks at the table. He got the remainder of his chips in with a set of queens against David Prociaks set of kings and left the tourney in eighth place for $34,532.

Paul Fehlig was eliminated in seventh place for $44,735. He began the day as one of the shortest stacks, but managed to ladder up multiple times before ultimately getting in his queens against Nardiellos aces and failing to improve.

David Williams

It took some time to see the next player leave, but WSOP bracelet winner David Williams ended up going all in with his pair of jacks against Huis flopped straight. The turn and river did not give Williams any help and he ended his tournament in sixth place for $55,606.

Shortly after, it was the beginning of final table chip leader Nardiello to hit the rail. Nardiello lost a key pot against Charles Coultas and he ended up getting in his jacks and nines in on the turn against Prociaks straight. The board ran out as no favor to him and he hit the rail in fifth place for $77,635.

Coultas saw a few fortunate runouts to double throughout the final table. In the end, however, he had flopped a flush draw, overcard combo against Tordjmans trips. Both players got it in on the flop, but no help was brought to Coultas who finished his tournament run in fourth place for $103,979

David Prociak

WSOP bracelet winner Prociak came into three-handed with a significant chip lead, but a massive hand against Tordjman where they both held full houses saw him tumble down the chip counts. It ultimately was Hui who did him in when they got all in on a king-high flop, Hui held a pair of kings and a gutshot, and Prociaks straight did not come home. He ended his run in third place for $140,783.

Heads-up play began, with things seeming to go in Tordjmans direction, at one point having Hui down over six to one in chips. A timely straight on the river for Hui and a few pots going his direction saw things even up by the first break in heads up. After the first break, Hui and Tordjman battled it out for the chip lead, both players holding it for a decent amount of time.

A key turning point was when both players got it in on a flop containing a jack and two sevens. Hui held three sevens and Tordjman held a flush draw and a wrap straight draw combination. The board runout only saw Hui fill up and Tordjman was left with a five to one chip deficit. A few hands later, Tordjman got in in preflop with king high and pair of tens in his hand while Hui had an ace high with a jack, eight, seven. The board ran out with an eight and a seven on it and Tordjman ended his impressive run in second place for $192,674.

Congratulations to Phil Hui for winning his third WSOP bracelet in Event #45: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha at Ballys and Paris in Las Vegas Nevada. Thanks to all who entered this tournament and stay tuned to PokerNews for all updates on the World Series of Poker.
After Day 3 has concluded in Event #46: $5,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold'em and it's American Stephen Song who leads the way, looking for his second World Series of Poker bracelet after this event played down from 46 players to just five.

Song holds a commanding lead going into the final day's action, but his four talented opponents are not quite ready to give up the fight just yet.

Event #46: $5,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold'em Final Five

Seat Player Country Chip Count Big Blinds 1 Stephen Song United States 23,320,000 58 2 Jonathan Pastore France 5,950,000 15 3 Tamer Alkamli Canada 8,710,000 22 4 Paraskevas Tsokaridis Greece 2,590,000 6 5 Elio Fox United States 5,635,000 14

Many notable players came back for Day 3, including four-time bracelet winner Robert Mizrachi, the 2009 Main Event champion Joe Cada, four-time bracelet winner Anthony Zinno and fan favorite Jimmy D'Ambrosio.

The field lost multiple bracelet winners as they played down from the last three tables of 18 players. Sandeep Pulusani (18th), Robert Mizrachi (14th), Anthony Spinella (13th), Jonas Lauck (9th) and Day 2 chip leader Ezequiel Waigel (7th).

The fairytale story of the day didn't have a happy ending for the player. Jimmy D'Ambrosio had gone down to his last big blind, a single 25,000 chip, with 18 left. He ended up busting in 15th after he had ran his stack up to 900,000 chips. D'Ambrosio was super animated after he won four all-ins in a row. People were starting to think it would be a repeat of the Yuliyan Kolev run in the Event #37: $1,500 MILLIONAIRE MAKER No-Limit Hold'em. It was not meant to be though.

Jimmy D'Ambrosio

The official final table bubble boy was British player Patrick Sekinger who was one of the shortest stacks at the table. Sekingere got his two pair in against the straight of Tamer Alkamli and did not improve.

Song will come into the final five with a commanding chip lead (23,320,000) with only Elio Fox, the only other bracelet winner left. All other players are vying for their first WSOP gold. The other players left trying to stop Song are Jonathan Pastore (5,950,000), Alkamli (8,710,000), Fox (5,635,000) and Paraskevas Tsokaridis (2,590,000).

They have 25 minutes left on level 30 with blinds at 200,000 / 400,000. The final five players will return to contend for a bracelet and $771,765 live from the grand stage at Bally's Convention Centre from 2:00 p.m. local time on June 24. The stream will be available for viewing through YouTube live stream on the PokerGo channel. Join us on PokerNews for all the live updates on the final five as this event plays down to a winner.
South Carolina Republicans celebrated and South Carolina Democrats mourned Friday morning when the Supreme Court issued an opinion striking down its previous opinions in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

Justice Samuel Alito wrote the opinion that returns the decisions on regulating abortion to the states, as was the case before the 1973 Roe decision.

S.C. Rep. Melissa Oremus, R-Graniteville, who is a member of the S.C. House committee appointed to study the effects of a decision overturning Roe, said she was ecstatic Friday.

"Finally, the outcome it should have always been," Oremus said. "Praise be to God and all those who have never stopped fighting."

S.C. Rep. Bill Hixon, R-North Augusta, said Friday was a great day in South Carolina and America.

"It's a good thing what the Supreme Court did today," Hixon said. "At least, it allows the states to make our decisions. It's plainly shown in our legislature that we are a pro-life state, and we're against abortion."

He added he was against abortion except in cases of rape or incest. Hixon said he hoped the justices would be protected.

S.C. Rep. Bill Taylor, R-Aiken, said that one aspect of the decision that could be overlooked is that the six justices who voted to overturn Roe had endorsed federalism, the idea that the federal government has specific, limited powers and not the powers it has assumed.

S.C. Rep. Bart Blackwell, R-Aiken, said the decision returned authority for abortion policy to the states where it belongs.

"My colleagues and I in the General Assembly can now continue our pursuit of a conservative, pro-life agenda, aligned with our constituents wishes, without interference from Washington," Blackwell said.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, said the decision is a long overdue constitutional correction allowing for elected officials in the states to decide issues of life.

Roe was constitutionally unsound from its inception as the flawed legal theory behind the decision gives unlimited power to five unelected Supreme Court justices," Graham said in a news release. "I believe it was one of the largest power grabs in the history of the Supreme Court. Under the Roe theory, almost anything could be a constitutional right depending on the views of five justices on substantive due process."

Graham said the issue of life will now be decided by elected officials in the states, the same way the issue was handled until 1973.

"Simply stated, this decision represents a constitutional reset," Graham continued. "Finally, all these decades of toiling in the vineyards fighting for conservative judges has paid off. I am glad to have done my part in this cause. I also appreciate President (Donald) Trumps leadership in nominating conservative justices."

Graham was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee when Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed to the Supreme Court.

On this historic day, I cannot help but think of dear old friends like former Congressman Henry Hyde," Graham said. "He and many others worked so hard to protect the unborn, and today their dream came true.

U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-South Carolina, said the court had taken an important step to protect the God-given right to life for millions of Americans by returning the power back to the people and the states, where it belongs.

A nation in which abortion is the first and best answer for moms in challenging circumstances is a nation that has sacrificed its moral clarity and courage," Scott said in an emailed statement. "Americas fundamental promises include the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Our support for babies and their mothers re-establishes those shared values that began to erode over the last several decades."

Scott also said he commended the justices for their courage in the face of unprecedented threats and violence.

"Their commitment to the Constitution and refusal to bend to intimidation gives me hope for the future of our nation," Scott said.

S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster called the decision a resounding victory for the Constitution and for people who have worked to protect the most vulnerable.

"By the end of the day, we will file motions so that the Fetal Heartbeat Act will go into effect in South Carolina and immediately begin working with members of the General Assembly to determine the best solution for protecting the lives of unborn South Carolinians," McMaster continued.

In 2021, South Carolina passed the Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act that requires doctors to use an ultrasound to try to detect a fetal heartbeat if they think a pregnant woman is at least eight weeks along. If they find a heartbeat, they can only perform an abortion if the womans life is in danger, or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. The law is currently tied up in a federal lawsuit.

S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson thanked the Supreme Court for returning decision-making power to the people of each state.

"For almost 50 years, our countrys abortion policy was controlled by nine unelected judges," Wilson said. "I have always thought Roe v. Wade was bad policy, was wrongly decided, and not supported by the Constitution."

Wilson added that the ruling does not outlaw abortion, it returns the decisions on regulating abortion to the states.

"This office will continue to defend any law the General Assembly enacts in response to this decision," Wilson said. "This ruling is a victory for life, the rule of law, and local decision-making. Human life is the most precious thing we have; and our founders sought to protect life, not destroy it.

Congressman Jeff Duncan, R-Edgefield, Greenwood and Anderson, called the decision an answered prayer for the nation.

"Roe was an egregiously wrongly decided decision that has tragically led to the death of over 60 million children in the womb since 1973, Duncan said in a news release. Overturning Roe is one of the most significant civil rights victories in our nations history and will result in countless lives being saved.

He said the very purpose of government is to protect God-given rights, and the most fundamental of those is the right to life.

With Roe being overturned, states have new opportunities to expand protections for the unborn," Duncan said. "I encourage every state legislature, especially in South Carolina, to immediately move forward with pro-life legislation that will protect all children in the womb.

Duncan also called for continued vigilance against Democratic attempts to undermine the court's decision by enacting federal legislation that would legalize abortion.

A Democratic effort to create a federal right to an abortion failed in May when Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, joined all 50 Republicans in the Senate to block the attempt.

"I will continue to fight for the rights of the unborn and protect the sanctity of life, Duncan said.

Former Congressman and Democratic gubernatorial nominee Joe Cunningham called the decision a dark day in American history.

The four walls of a doctors office simply arent big enough for a woman, her partner, her doctor, and the government," Cunningham said in a news release. "But the government has decided to force themselves in anyway."

He also said that McMaster and the Republicans in the South Carolina General Assembly have already pledged to ban all abortions in South Carolina with no exceptions for rape, incest, or life of the mother.

"The only thing standing in the way of this draconian reality is my veto pen," Cunningham said. "As governor, I won't hesitate to use that pen to stand up for women and their right to control their own bodies.

S.C. House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, said the decision would enable "extremists" in the General Assembly to pass an abortion ban without exceptions for rape, incest, or to protect the life of the mother.

"Theres already a committee in place to make this happen," Rutherford said. "We will be called back into session this year to vote on an abortion ban, and with Republicans in control, it will likely pass. The current reality is grim, but Democrats will continue to fight like hell to protect a woman's right to a legal, safe abortion."

Rutherford added that conservatives believe freedom and life begin at conception, and under their vision for America, it ends there as well.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Aiken, SC (29801)

Today

Cloudy early with scattered thunderstorms developing this afternoon. High 82F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low 69F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
Aiken, SC (29801)

Today

Cloudy skies during the morning hours followed by scattered showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. High 84F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Variably cloudy with scattered thunderstorms. Low 69F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Thunderstorms - some may contain locally heavy rain, especially during the morning hours. High 83F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall may reach one inch..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms early, then mainly cloudy overnight with thunderstorms likely. Low 73F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
COLUMBIA  For years, staffers and volunteers representing two groups on opposite ends of the abortion debate have stood outside the Columbia Planned Parenthood clinic vying for the attention of patients.

The days were much the same outside a plain brick building located inside a quiet business park off Forest Drive. Pro-life supporters trying convince patients of their options other having an abortion and Planned Parenthood backers helping women get inside the clinic.

On June 24, the dynamic changed.

The U.S. Supreme Court released an opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade, a decades-old ruling that made abortions legal nationwide.

Abortions remain legal in South Carolina with restrictions. However, the state Legislature plans to return for a special session in which it will consider a total ban.

"This is a moment we've been waiting for," said Mark Baumgartner, executive director of pro-life group A Moment of Hope while standing with members outside the Columbia clinic on June 24. "It's a huge deal."

In the meantime, the Columbia clinic will continue to normal operations, which include other women's health offerings besides abortions, Planned Parenthood South Atlantic spokeswoman Vicki Ringer said.

The clinic only had morning appointments June 24, so staff went home that afternoon to "digest the Supreme Court ruling," Ringer said.

The clinic will resume providing abortions next week and will do so for four days instead of the usual two in response to the opinion.

The Columbia clinic is one of three in the state that performs abortions. The others are in Charleston and Greenville.

The opinion did not come as a surprise, Ringer said, since Politico published a leaked draft of the ruling in May.

"We didn't expect it to go any other way," she said.

Baumgartner said "there were shouts of joy" in his house when the court's opinion was announced.

Members of his organization, wearing bright green safety vests with a sign that reads "Hope," stood outside the Planned Parenthood clinic near downtown and waved down cars to hand out bags with informational packets.

A Moment of Hope volunteers will continue showing up until the Columbia location no longer performs abortions for good, program manager Valerie Berry said.

"I think for women that are in a tough place and struggling or confused, they may feel like this is a let down, but we've seen over and over again that abortion doesn't bring the solution that it promises," Berry said. "I hope that (women) will turn to organizations like ours and others across the state  there are many, so many  that offer practical help."

Ringer encouraged people to reach out to their legislators and ask them to keep abortion legal, especially since S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson said he planned to ask federal courts to lift an injunction blocking a state law that would prevent abortions after a fetal heartbeat has been detected, which could be as early as six weeks.

"Don't expect a doomsday reaction from legislators, Ringer said. We have voices and votes, and we can demand better from our legislators."

The evening of June 24, people gathered outside the Statehouse to talk about doing just that. Chants of, "Our body, our choice," rang out over Gervais Street. Cars honked as they drove past.

The Supreme Court decision ruined Mike and Barbara Brothers' days when they heard it this morning as they sat on their back porch watching the birds. Barbara Brothers graduated high school in 1973, the same year the Supreme Court originally ruled on Roe v. Wade.

"It's really sad to see that, 50 years later, we're turning back the clock," Barbara Brothers said.

Jessica Bernier was on the phone with friends when the decision was announced. They were all devastated, but as a veteran, she was particularly infuriated.

"I fought for my rights, and I served in the military for this country, and now I have to fight this country for rights to my own body," Bernier said.

Lahari Shetty, Jillian Claire and Sarah Dobbs, all obstetrician-gynecologist residents and abortion providers, were still wearing their lab coats at the rally. Claire's was dotted with pins, a syringe and a uterus joined by the distinctive collar of former Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who supported abortion.

"This ruling is going to seriously impact the care we provide our patients," Claire said.

Kate Roy brought her two daughters, 3-year-old Aarti and 9-month-old Rupi, with her. Aarti held a sign that read, "Mother by choice!"

"You don't have to be directly impacted by something for it to matter," Roy said.

Several attendees and speakers said they were worried about what this might mean for other Supreme Court decisions related to a person's right to privacy. In a concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas asked the court to revisit cases that give rights to contraception, same-sex relationships and same-sex marriage.

"That's the start of a trickle that turns into a waterfall," said Allison Turner. "It opens that door."
COLUMBIA  Gov. Henry McMaster has asked the state Office of the Inspector General to investigate Richland County School District Two after hearing concerns about the Northeast Columbia school system's administration and board.

McMaster wrote in a letter to Inspector General Brian Lamkin that parents contacted his office, alleging "organizational or institutional dysfunction or other mismanagement" by Richland Two.

The governor said that he received word of concerns over the school district's finances, but the letter to the inspector general offered no specific details.

The governor's call for a probe of the state's fifth-largest school district came less than a week after he signed a law allowing the inspector general to investigate school districts on suspicion of wrongdoing.

McMaster's request also came less than two months after he'd signed another law  one giving the governor power to remove school board members for malfeasance, misconduct in office, conflicts of interest or neglecting duties.

Brian Symmes, a spokesman for the governor's office, said McMaster could use his new authority at Richland Two depending on the findings of the inspector general's investigation.

Rifts among leadership of the 28,000-student district have been ongoing for months.

Board member Monica Scott called for putting Superintendent Baron Davis and his wife, a district employee, on paid leave after Davis was involved in a heated confrontation with critics during a January board meeting.

The school board's infighting continued through February, when members attended a team-building retreat guided by a leadership consultant in an attempt to work better with each other.

In April, another board member, Lashonda McFadden, was heard on an audio recording threatening to beat up board chairwoman Theresa Holmes during a closed-door meeting.

McFadden turned herself in to authorities two weeks later and was arrested and charged with threatening the life of a public employee. She still serves on the board despite calls for her resignation. The governor weighed removing McFadden from office but now is waiting for completion of the investigation to make that call, Symmes said.

Richland Two spokeswoman Libby Roof said the district was not notified about the governor's request for an investigation until June 23, after someone posted a copy of the letter to the inspector general  dated June 22  on social media.

After seeing the post, Roof said she told the superintendent and general counsel. The district's general counsel then reached out to the inspector general, who sent them a copy of the letter from McMaster.

The district pledged full cooperation with the investigation, Roof wrote in a statement to Richland Two students and employees. Efforts to reach Richland Two school board members in June 24 were unsuccessful.
The future of abortion in South Carolina is up for debate following the U.S. Supreme Court's June 24 ruling to overturn a nearly half-century-old legal decision making it a national right.

The ruling sets off a fierce battle on whether to turn existing restrictions into an outright ban.

A South Carolina law banning abortions once a fetal heartbeat has been detected, which could be as early as six weeks, is expected to soon take effect. That law has been blocked by federal courts since Gov. Henry McMaster signed it last year.

But with the highest court throwing out the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and leaving the legality for states to decide, the challenge becomes moot. Attorney General Alan Wilson will ask the court to lift the injunction, spokesman Robert Kittle said.

"Todays Supreme Court ruling is a resounding victory for the Constitution and for those who have worked for so many years to protect the lives of the most vulnerable among us," McMaster said in a statement minutes after the ruling. "By the end of the day, we will file motions so that the Fetal Heartbeat Act will go into effect in South Carolina."

Unlike in other GOP-controlled states, South Carolina does not have a so-called trigger law like 13 other states have in place that automatically bans abortion following the Supreme Court ruling.

But South Carolina legislators will return for a special session to consider a total abortion ban. A law passed before the regular session ended allows the chambers' leaders to call them back any time after July 1 to respond to the high court's ruling on Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban.

Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, promised last month senators will not act in haste and will hold public hearings on the contentious issue.

What's next?

The process will start in the House, where GOP leaders introduced a bill May 12  the last day of the regular session  as a placeholder for whatever a special committee created by House Speaker Murrell Smith proposes. In one of his first acts as the newly elected speaker, the Sumter Republican tasked the 12-member committee with taking public testimony and making recommendations.

But the only real question about what that committee comes up with is what exemptions it allows to a ban. Four of its members are women  two from each party. The appointed chairman is Rep. John McCravy, R-Greenwood, one of the chamber's most ardent abortion foes. McCravy, along with the majority of his committee, are members of the conservative Family Caucus, which counts restricting abortions a top priority.

"Our No. 1 agenda item has always been life," McCravy said June 15 at a news conference touting measures pushed by the Family Caucus that became law, starting with the "fetal heartbeat" ban.

"We look for good things to happen out of that committee," he said about the meetings he will lead.

When they'll start will be announced next week, Smith's office said after the June 24 ruling.

There are three clinics that provide abortions in the state  in Charleston, Columbia and Greenville. State restrictions they operate under include a ban on prescribing abortion medication through telehealth, a mandatory 24-hour delay after women receive information about the procedure and fetal development and a 60-minute wait between an ultrasound and the abortion.

Planned Parenthood operates the clinics in Charleston and Columbia, where abortions will continue. However, new clients will be turned away temporarily in the ruling's wake, said regional spokeswoman Vicki Ringer, who encouraged opponents of a ban to contact their legislators.

"Don't expect a doomsday reaction from legislators," she said. "We have voices and votes, and we can demand better from our legislators."

The Columbia clinic closed early to allow staff to go home but will be open again next week with abortions available on four days instead of the usual two, Ringer said.

Reactions in S.C.

SC leaders react to the US Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade People and politicians across South Carolina are sounding off on the U.S. Supreme Court's June 24 decision overturning the national right to 

The ruling brought swift reaction from those who had long prayed for it and those who had feared it would come.

This is a moment we've been waiting for. It's a huge deal, said Mark Baumgartner, executive director of A Moment of Hope, an anti-abortion group, as he stood outside the Planned Parenthood clinic in Columbia.

Aly Artz, 30, stood in disbelief outside the Planned Parenthood clinic in Charleston among an early group protesting the decision. She moved here when she was 6 from Los Angeles. Now, she isn't sure she wants to stay in the South.

Its not the kind of place I want to live, Artz said.

Later in the day, more than 100 people gathered outside Charlestons City Hall to denounce the Supreme Courts decision and discuss ways to defend womens access to abortion services.

Their message was clear: Though they were deeply disappointed, the courts decision to strike down Roe v. Wade had energized them.

As Planned Parenthood representatives and attendees spoke about their experiences with abortion and sexual violence, others brandished signs that read Womens bodies are more regulated than guns and My body my choice while shouting We wont go back!

People driving along Broad Street honked their horns, rolled down their windows and shouted as people spoke off and on for two hours. One of the early speakers was Democratic candidate for governor Joe Cunningham, who told the crowd that he stood with them.

Moncks Corner resident Eon Green, 14, came downtown to participate with their mother and younger sibling. Green, who said they suffer from a heart condition, fears the decision could have fatal implications.

If I got sexually assaulted and couldnt get an abortion I would die because of my heart condition," Green said. "Its something that happens everyday for people to get sexually assaulted, and its scary to think that because of this law I could die.

To be sure, not everyone in downtown Charleston was upset about the courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Several cars driving down Broad Street heckled the protestors, and later in the evening, about 20 men and women gathered for a prayer vigil nearby.

They included Charleston County resident Denise Kroninger, who has been going to the local Planned Parenthood for the past 25 years to urge women seeking abortion services to reconsider.

Abortion is an act of violence that kills a baby and wounds a mother every time, Kroninger said. We are here celebrating that we are taking another step to restore the civil rights of the unborn.

Abortion is wrong  You cant have any rights if youre not alive, Michael Ewards, pastor of the local Orange Grove Church of God of Prophecy, said.

One woman at the prayer vigil, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation from her ex-husband, said she was coerced into an abortion nearly 20 years ago.

I lost a piece of myself that day, she said. The move to overturn Roe v. Wade is the first step in righting these wrongs.

At moments, the abortion rights activists and pro-choice group clashed, shouting over each other using megaphones.

After about 2 hours, both groups had cleared out.

At the S.C. Statehouse in Columbia on the evening of June 24, pro-choice protestors gathered chanting "Our body, our choice" as cars honked while driving past on Gervais Street.

Jessica Bernier said as a veteran that she was particularly infuriated.

"I fought for my rights, and I served in the military for this country, and now I have to fight this country for rights to my own body," Bernier said.

Lahari Shetty, Jillian Claire and Sarah Dobbs, all obstetrician-gynecologist residents and abortion providers, were still wearing their lab coats at the rally. Claire's was dotted with pins, a syringe and a uterus joined by the distinctive collar of former Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who supported abortion.

"This ruling is going to seriously impact the care we provide our patients," Claire said.

Kate Roy brought her two daughters, 3-year-old Aarti and 9-month-old Rupi, with her. Aarti held a sign that read, "Mother by choice!"

"You don't have to be directly impacted by something for it to matter," Roy said.

Though McMaster said last month after an early draft of the opinion was leaked that he would support a ban without exceptions, even many GOP legislators in South Carolina are unwilling to go that far. The law McMaster signed last year includes exceptions for rape, incest and the health of the mother. Attempts by the most strident abortion foes to remove the exclusions  chiefly, Sen. Richard Cash of Powdersville, who argued the fetus shouldn't be punished for the crimes of the father  were repeatedly rejected.

Since 2016, South Carolina has banned abortions beyond 20 weeks fertilization, officially. But since the moment of conception is scientifically impossible to pinpoint, the ban is actually past what doctors consider a gestational age of 22 weeks. That law only affected abortions performed at hospitals  which abortion rights activists stressed are cases where the woman wants a child but the pregnancy has gone horribly wrong  since the three clinics already did not provide abortions beyond 15 weeks.

SC laws restricting abortions South Carolina legislators regularly debate GOP-led proposals to restrict abortions. Here's a look at laws passed in the last 15 years:  2008: Law requires women to wait at least 60 minutes after an ultrasound before getting an abortion. It also requires doctors to ask women if they want to see the ultrasound, either on the screen or on a printout, and women must sign a document verifying theyve been informed of that right. The compromise followed debate over whether women could be mandated to see the images.  2010: Law requires women to wait at least 24 hours after receiving information about the types of abortion procedures, the stages of fetal development, and other options such as adoption. The information is available at health facilities as well as on the public health agencys website to download with a time stamp to prove the required delay. That was a compromise on what critics called the "two-trip bill." Opponents argued the initial proposal, which required two trips to the clinic at least a day apart, created a burden, especially for poor, rural women who may have to take two days off work and may have difficulty arranging transportation for even one visit.  2012: The Born Alive Infant Protection Act says a fetus surviving an abortion attempt cannot be treated as medical waste. It defined a person as anyone who is breathing and has a beating heart after birth, whether by labor, cesarean section, or abortion, copying a 2002 federal law enforceable on federal property.  2016: Law bans most abortions beyond 20 weeks fertilization. The only exceptions are if the mothers life is in jeopardy or a doctor determines the fetus cant survive outside the womb. The law ties the fetus age to conception, rather than womens monthly cycle. But since this date cannot be scientifically pinpointed, the ban actually refers to what doctors consider a gestational age of 22 weeks. It affected abortions performed at hospitals only, since clinics already didn't perform abortions past 15 weeks.  2021: Law bans an abortion once an ultrasound detects a fetal heartbeat, which can occur as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, though opponents dispute whether the sound is an actual heartbeat. The law provides exceptions for cases of rape, incest, or when the mother's health is at risk. The law was immediately challenged and blocked by federal courts. But it could soon take effect.

Some abortion rights supporters fear the Supreme Courts decision opens the door for South Carolina lawmakers to not only ban abortion but impact other medical care for women.

Its very frightening because we know the consequences would be sweeping in that the courts decision could have devastating ripple effects, said Dr. Dawn Bingham of Greenville, vice chair of the state chapter of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. "This decision will take us backwards and further harm women."

Bingham, a Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for the state Senate in 2020, contends that could include treatment of miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies, infertility treatments and even contraception.

This year, however, McMaster signed a law expanding access to birth control, making hormonal contraceptives available at a pharmacy without a prescription, starting later this year. Emergency contraception, known as "morning-after pills" or "Plan B," are already accessible over the counter.

Abortion stats

Abortion in South Carolina might be different than many imagine, according to state and federal statistics.

In 2020, more than two-thirds of abortions in South Carolina were done by prescription pills, not surgery, according to the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.

Most South Carolinians who had an abortion in 2019 had at least one child, and 65 percent had never had an abortion before, according to the latest statistics from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The number of abortions has increased by 18 percent in the last few years, following years of decline, according to DHEC figures. In 2020, there were 5,468, up slightly from 5,101 the prior year, and from 4,646 in 2018  which was an all-time low in reported abortions since the post-Roe v. Wade peak of 14,133 in 1988.

With Roe overturned and the "fetal heartbeat" law taking effect, many abortions will still be legal. In 2020, nearly 45 percent of abortions in South Carolina occurred at or before six weeks post-fertilization. The majority occurred between seven and 13 weeks, according to data from DHEC.

Should abortion be banned in South Carolina, Georgia is also likely to ban it so the nearest facilities providing abortion would be in North Carolina, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

For the states 1.2 million women of reproductive age, that would increase an average drive of 23 miles to 88 miles to seek that service elsewhere, according to the group.

Under a state ban, the nearest clinic to Charleston would be in Wilmington, N.C., more than 170 miles away. From Columbia, it would in Charlotte, nearly 90 miles away, and from Greenville the nearest facility would be in Asheville, more than 62 miles away.

Skylar Laird and Nick Reynolds in Columbia, and Briah Lumpkins, Ema Schumer and Kailey Cota in Charleston have contributed to this report.
Pop-Up Picks is a recurring series in The Post and Couriers Food Section that previews an upcoming pop-up breakfast, lunch or dinner and the chefs behind it.

Vined The Vegan Experience has been serving up plant-based takes on Southern classics for one year, bringing more vegan options to the North Charleston area.

The restaurant  one of four stops on KJ Kearneys Soul Stroll event during the Charleston Wine + Food Festival  will celebrate its first year in business with a family-friendly pop-up from 3-7 p.m. July 1.

We definitely want to do a community event and show our appreciation," said Vined The Vegan Experience owner Christian Keith.

Before opening Vined, Keith was in finance for nearly a decade. She began experimenting with plant-based foods about five years ago after she discovered she was allergic to pork and beef. She and her family have been vegan ever since.

Keith said shes always loved to cook, but decided to make the career jump official after the pandemic hit and her sons daycare closed.

A video game truck, jump castle and local face painting business will set up shop in Vineds parking lot for the July 1 celebration. Cocktails and other vegan treats will be available on-site, and DJ SCrib will provide the music.

The gathering is a big event for a small restaurant, but theres a lot to celebrate at Vined, where several favorites have emerged since its opening. At the Soul Stroll, attendees sampled Vineds signature fried cauliflower vings alongside red rice. The crispy bites are served plain or with one of six sauces, like Carolina Gold and Jamaican Jerk.

Alongside other favorites like the plant-based breakfast burrito, Keith recently debuted two new menu items: A fully loaded vegan burger and quinoa-based Life Bowl.

Both have been a hit, and support for the restaurant remains high, Keith said.

It has been awesome, to say the least, she said. We have people that come in, most of them arent even vegan; they just want something good to eat.
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of people delayed regular screenings for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

And Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston, which has hosted free HIV testing events every year since 2000 through its HIV/AIDS Care Team Ministry, stopped holding them after 2019.

Now, the ministry is hosting its first free confidential HIV testing event since the start of the pandemic.

Marchelle Eichelberger-Brown is a retired registered nurse and heads the ministry.

She said the focus of the event, which will be held June 25 from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at Mount Moriah, is to get people tested. The ministry will also provide education on the newest treatment options and raise awareness to reduce stigma around the disease.

Now entering the endemic phase of COVID-19, HIV testing is beginning to ramp back up. But Eichelberger-Brown is worried that there are more positive cases than currently documented.

Palmetto Community Care, a Charleston organization that provides routine care for those living with HIV and AIDS, partnered with Mount Moriah to put on the event and has done similar events with churches across the state.

PCC, like many health care organizations across South Carolina, saw a decrease in the number of people getting tested for HIV when the pandemic hit. Officials from the organization said those numbers are climbing higher now that COVID restrictions have tampered down, but they are still not up to pre-pandemic numbers.

And with more than 50 percent of new cases still occurring in Black men and women, the team at Mount Moriah and PCC are trying to get as many people tested as possible.

The good news for people who test positive is that treatments for the virus are available. There are also medications to prevent exposure and possible infection such as PrEP, pre-exposure prophylaxis that prevents people from contracting the infection using antiretroviral medication.

In recent years, scientists found that people living with HIV or AIDS who achieve and maintain an undetectable viral load cannot sexually transmit the virus to others.

This was the case for Betty Saucer, member of Mount Moriah's HIV/AIDS ministry who was diagnosed with AIDS in 2000. It was her first time being tested for the virus. At the time, Saucer was 56 years old.

"I was no spring chicken," she said.

Now at 79, Saucer said she's been living undetectable for the last 19 years and is feeling good.

Stigma around HIV and AIDS persists even though advancements in treatment options are readily available and living with the disease is much easier than it was a few decades ago. But treatments can only help once a person has been tested.

"Don't be afraid to get the test because it can't do anything to you but help you move forward," Saucer said. "Without it, you're going to die."

Officials from PCC say the organization is also offering home tests for people who can't make it to the event. The test will be mailed to them with instructions included.

For more information on at-home HIV testing, visit https://palmettocare.org/at-home-hiv-testing-program.
MYRTLE BEACH  The mastermind of a multistate child sex trafficking conspiracy was sentenced to federal prison on June 23 along with three related conspirators.

The 26-year-old ringleader, Hart William Grow of Surprise, Arizona, was convicted of running a trafficking scheme that involved at least two minors from South Carolina. He is also alleged to have been in contact with at least 23 confirmed minors since 2016, Assistant U.S. Attorney Derek A. Shoemake said.

The conviction has been in the making since Grow was arrested in March 2021.

Authorities first became aware of the crimes when Grows alleged middleman, 37-year-old Theodore Woolings Bye III, of Myrtle Beach, was arrested in January 2021, Shoemake said.

Grow began communicating with a then-15-year-old from Myrtle Beach in 2020 by allegedly claiming that he was a 17-year-old female named Hannah living in Columbia, records show.

After gaining her trust and collecting sexually explicit videos, Grow forced the minor victim into sex trafficking, a June 24 press release from the U.S. Attorneys Office states.

The Myrtle Beach victim was forced to have sex with men and women  the only known successful completion of Grows twisted mission, according to Shoemake.

What he was trying to do is get this person to be sexually solicited and send them out to have sex with other people for his viewing pleasure, Shoemake said.

Bye, who authorities arrested first, was allegedly one of the first customers who took up Grows offer to film sex with the minor, the press release states.

He then became a middleman for Grow, facilitating other interactions with the minor, Shoemake said.

Sexual intercourse, physical and verbal abuse and physical mutilation of the victims genitalia took place during the encounters with the Myrtle Beach minor, records show.

Some of these sex acts even took place while her parents were asleep down the hall, according to the release.

Grow and Bye were sentenced for sexual exploitation of a minor. Grow, who is also charged with child sex trafficking, is sentenced to 27 years in prison; Bye is sentenced to 24 years in prison.

Bye allegedly posted internet ads of the minor, to which Charles Joseph Spillane, 44, of Myrtle Beach and Sanadin Mohamed Elrayes, 28, of Surfside Beach, responded, according to the release.

Spillane and Elrayes allegedly engaged in sexually explicit conduct with the minor, which was filmed and sent to Grow, the release states. The two were sentenced for transferring obscene material in the form of them allegedly having sex with a minor and are both sentenced to five years in prison.

This was vile behavior, and the children of South Carolina are safer with these predators off the streets, U.S. Attorney Corey F. Ellis said in the release. Parents and guardians need to be vigilant and monitor their childrens online activity. This case highlights that through technology, any child, anywhere, can become a victim.

After his relationship with the Myrtle Beach minor was established, Grow allegedly became involved with a minor from the Midlands.

He allegedly also used a false persona to build a relationship with her and forced her to produce sexually explicit videos for him that were often unknowingly and covertly filmed near her parents or other family members, according to the release.

The other three men are not known to have had relationships with the minor from the Midlands, Shoemake said.

The defendants used social media applications, including Snapchat, Wattpad and Kik to communicate with the victims and with each other, court records show.

These were girls who were well-taken care of, Shoemake said. It doesnt matter how rich you are, it doesnt matter how poor you are, it doesnt matter how educated you are. This is something that affects any person that has a child with access to the internet.

Following the completion of their sentences, District Judge Sherri A. Lydon sentenced Grow and Bye to a lifetime of court-ordered supervision. They will also be required to register as sex offenders.

Spillane and Elrayes are sentenced to three years of court-ordered supervision after completing their sentences.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, according to the release.

Homeland Security Investigations, the State Law Enforcement Division, the Horry County Sheriffs Office and the Myrtle Beach Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Shoemake and Amy Bower prosecuted the case.

"We as a community have no greater responsibility than to protect our children and law enforcement will always stand up for those that need help, Myrtle Beach Police Chief Amy Prock said in the release.

Grow's attorney, Michael Meetze, declined to comment. Efforts to reach attorneys for Bye, Spillane and Elrayes were unsuccessful.

Victims of human trafficking seeking assistance in South Carolina can call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 888-373-7888, or text HELP or INFO to 233733.

Additional information about human trafficking can be found by visiting polarisproject.org or humantrafficking.scag.gov.
The Georgetown County man charged with assaulting two men aboard a fishing vessel off the South Carolina coast will remain behind bars until trial.

Magistrate Judge Mary Gordon Baker found probable cause at a June 23 pretrial hearing in U.S. District Court in Charleston to believe the federal government's case that Matthew Donald Kelly committed assault with intent to commit murder and assault with a dangerous weapon.

Kelly, 49, is accused of attacking two men with fishing equipment the morning of June 17 while sailing 50 miles off the coast of Charleston.

Kelly is facing federal charges because the distance of the boat from the U.S. coastline placed the men in federal waters during the alleged assaults, the arrest warrant affidavit explains.

If convicted, Kelly could spend up to 30 years in prison.

The sole witness to testify at the hearing, Coast Guard Special Agent Christopher Whitaker, offered the most detailed account yet of the events that transpired aboard the vessel called "Grouper Snooper."

Whitaker conducted interviews with Kelly and the victims as well as reviewed body camera footage recorded by North Charleston police, who arrived at the vessel in addition to the Coast Guard.

Whitaker, who was called to testify by the prosecution, said that Kelly boarded the boat in McClellanville on June 10 on a fishing trip with fishermen and Murrells Inlet residents Garrett Winesett and William Edward Ball.

Winesett and Ball, who was hospitalized after the alleged incident with a collapsed lung, both appeared in the court but did not testify.

Kelly brought two .75-liter bottles of cranberry vodka aboard the vessel and drank both by the fifth day at sea, according to Whitaker. The agent said the victims told him that after Kelly finished the alcohol he began acting irrationally; Kelly started talking to himself, bragged about "getting revenge," and jumped into the ocean in the middle of the night to go swimming.

The defense tried to poke holes in Whitakers narrative, saying that Kelly allegedly finished the alcohol on June 15  two days before the alleged assaults occurred.

Whitaker said that Ball was fixing the anchor line over the side of the vessel on the morning of June 17 when Kelly picked up a "fish bat"  a wooden stick with a nail at the top used for stabbing caught fish  and struck Ball on his left side, puncturing his skin.

Winesett, who had been steering the vessel, came around to the back and grabbed Kellys body to prevent Kelly from stabbing him with two of the fish gaffs, Whitaker said. The two men struggled, and Winesett grabbed the "fish bats," while Kelly retrieved two knives. The captain used a hose that he found inside the cabin to spray Kelly and shut the cabin door with him and Ball on the inside and Kelly on the outside.

Kelly allegedly threatened to kill the two men.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Allessandra Stewart repeatedly asked Whitaker questions about Kellys demeanor.

Whitaker said Kelly told him in an interview that he had acted in self-defense. Kelly alleged that Ball and Winesett were trying to kill him and that they had thrown him overboard and left him in the ocean for seven hours.

Whitaker said that 15 minutes before Winesett reported to emergency responders using marine radio that there was a violent person on their boat, Kelly had also made a call using the ships radio that he wanted to get off the boat to see his daughter for Easter.

Stewart noted that Kelly did not report that he had been hurt or was in danger during the call.

"I never got a clear cut picture of what he was alleging," Whitaker told the court.

Stewart introduced photographs into evidence that depicted the lacerations on the victims, the weapons aboard the Grouper Snooper, and the layout of the vessel. She argued the photo evidence were consistent with Whitaker's account based off of interviews with the victims.

She argued there is "significant evidence he assaulted not one but two victims and he did it unprovoked."

Baker, the federal judge, agreed, calling the evidence "credible and reliable."

Kelly previously owned Lumpys Bar and Grill on Pawleys Island. In 2013, he was charged with arson and burglary associated with a fire that burned a law office on the island, according to The Post and Courier's archives.

In an interview after the hearing, Ball, who was visibly holding his left side while seated in court, struck an understanding chord about Kelly.

"Someone failed in helping him." Asked who had failed Kelly, Ball said, "the system."
WASHINGTON  House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn made a straightforward appeal to Democratic National Committee members when he explained why his home state of South Carolina should keep its influential first-in-the-South position in the party's presidential nominating calendar.

"I believe very strongly that if the process is not broken, it doesn't need to be fixed," South Carolina's most powerful Democrat concluded. "If there is a weak link, we need to strengthen it. If there's a weak link in this process of ours, strengthen the link  don't throw out the baby with the bathwater."

His comment had been all but foreshadowed in the first slide of the South Carolina Democratic Party's presentation to the DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee on June 24. It had declared, in all-caps, "SOUTH CAROLINA DEMOCRATS PICK WINNERS."

Clyburn was one of three Democrats from the Palmetto State who sought to make the case for South Carolina to remain an early presidential primary state.

It was also the final pitch heard by DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee this week as part of a three-day meeting, where the group heard presentations from 16 states and Puerto Rico about why they would be the best proving grounds for presidential candidates.

The panel will be responsible for deciding how to reorder the early states in a way that better reflects the party's racial diversity, eliminates caucuses and puts their party's presidential candidates at a competitive advantage as they look toward a general election fight against the Republican nominee. The committee could select up to five possible early Democratic slots.

Democrats are considering a shakeup to their nominating calendar after Iowa's disastrous Democratic caucuses in 2020, when the first-in-the-nation caucus struggled for days to report timely results due to technical glitches. The embarrassing display led to a larger reckoning within the party, with members calling for a new leadoff state that is not only more racially diverse but is better equipped to report election results for high-stakes contests where momentum matters.

That's why this spring the DNC adopted a new plan that effectively tossed out the traditional presidential nominating calendar for Democrats, which has historically put the Iowa caucuses first, followed by primaries in New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. This year, any state that wants to hold an early contest before the rest of the country in 2024 had to apply and, in the case of South Carolina, reapply.

The Republican National Committee has already decided to keep Iowa first in its presidential nominating process. Already, early 2024 presidential hopefuls are flocking to the state, including former S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley and U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C.

After national Democrats whittled down the list of contenders, South Carolina was one of the states invited to Washington, D.C., to make their case as to why the Palmetto State should remain an early proving ground for presidential candidates.

While representatives from other states have been passing out gift bags to committee members and openly jockeying for the leadoff position, state Democratic Party Chairman Trav Robertson reminded party bosses of why they picked South Carolina in the first place: its size, the ease of setting its presidential nominating date, the diversity of its electorate, its affordability and its accessibility to candidates.

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Then, he highlighted some other reasons why they should stick with South Carolina, including the state's new two-week, no-excuse early voting period. In a graph, he pointed to how even South Carolina's most expensive media market  Greenville  was more than $100,000 cheaper than Charlotte and almost $270,000 cheaper than Atlanta.

With a heat map, Robertson also showed how the state's Black population is spread throughout the state rather than being concentrated solely around urban centers.

"It's not one county or one metro area. It is 62 percent of the African American voter being spread throughout rural South Carolina. That is something that forces our campaigns to do retail politics," Robertson said.

When Robertson and Carol Fowler, a DNC member from South Carolina who also serves on the committee, were asked if the presidential primaries had helped encourage more Black women to run for office, Robertson and Fowler did not hesitate in saying yes.

South Carolina's population is 27 percent Black compared with Iowas 4 percent, and it is also where Bidens campaign was revived in 2020 after he struggled in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Two other Southern states are angling for an early calendar position: Texas and neighboring Georgia.

But Robertson noted up high that there are five Southern states that want to see South Carolina hold onto its first-in-the-South position. He thanked North Carolina, West Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas and Louisiana for their letters of submission in support of South Carolina keeping its influential spot on the presidential primary calendar.

South Carolina has been an early presidential primary state for Democrats since 2006. Members plan to vote in August, with a full Democratic National Committee vote expected in September.
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On Tuesday, the Supreme Court decided Carson v. Makin on a 6-3 vote, with the liberal bloc dissenting. The case related to a program in Maine, whereby the state will pay for specified educational alternatives for parents who live in districts where there is no secondary school. Public and private schools are eligible as long as they are accredited and meet other requirements, except that only nonsectarian schools can participate. So the program nakedly discriminates against religion, per se. The Court ruled that Maine need not have included private schools in the program, but having done so, it cannot discriminate against schools merely on the ground that they are religious.

This is in line with Supreme Court jurisprudence in other areas, but it nevertheless prompted an outbreak of hate from the left. Thus, Maines Attorney General suggested that religious institutions are bigoted:

The states attorney general, Aaron Frey, released a statement expressing his disappointment with the ruling in Carson v. Makin and indicated in a later interview with the Portland Press Herald that the state might end the tuition assistance program to avoid funding religious schools.

This seems like a question for the legislature, not the Attorney General. But it is remarkable that the Attorney General, at least, might rather terminate the entire program rather than assist a handful of kids in going to Christian schools.

Mr. Frey said in his statement that the courts ruling might mandate Maine to pay for a religious education that is inimical to public education. He was apparently referring to the two schools which the petitioners sought to send their children to  Temple Academy and Bangor Christian Schools. They promote a single religion to the exclusion of all others, refuse to admit gay and transgender children, and openly discriminate in hiring teachers and staff, Mr. Frey said. One school teaches children that the husband is to be the leader of the household. Mr. Frey called upon the governor and the state legislature to amend the town tuitioning program to ensure that public money is not used to promote discrimination, intolerance, and bigotry.

This is the conventional liberalism of 2022everyone must subscribe to a set of beliefs about gender that in large part did not exist ten years ago, or be condemned (and discriminated against) for intolerance and bigotry. For what it is worth, I think Maines legislature probably can rework the program to effectively exclude Christian schools by adding criteria that do not isolate religion per se as grounds for exclusion.

Then we have this reaction from a left-wing extremist in Minnesota. It sums up several aspects of current liberal dogma:

This guy, Scott Burns, thinks that 1) parents are generally not good judges of what is best for their children (unlike him, apparently); 2) many churches and religions are bigoted; and 3) religion-sponsored schools are worse on average than public schools. Its a triple whammy of anti-religious and anti-parent bias. Burns is also out of touch with reality if he seriously thinks that public schools in Minnesota, which are in the midst of a crisis of declining quality, are better than parochial alternatives.

One more thingthis out of touch leftist is a member of the Star Tribune editorial board, whose fecklessness Scott has criticized more than once. [UPDATE: A reader says that Burns is on the Stribs corporate Board of Directors, not the Editorial Board. I think this is right; the link shows the Stribs Management Team. If he is on the corporations board, it is even worse.] His tweets provide a window into the thinking of that body.

UPDATE: My friend Mitch Berg replied to Mr. Burnss tweet in a civil manner:

Star Tribune Board member Scott Burns responded by blocking Mitch, and all 49 people who liked Mitchs tweet, including my wife. Also, we are told, by deleting the reference to the Star Tribune in his Twitter profile. What a hapless dope.
I am scheduled to join Drew Lee, producer Robbie Rosenhaus, and my friend Howard Root for the weekly Justice & Drew round table this morning from 6:00-9:00 a.m. (Central). Because Jon Justice is in the hospital recovering from open-heart surgery, Howard and I will be Drews guests for the whole show this morning. The show is broadcast weekdays on Twin Cities News Talk AM 1130 and 103.5 FM. It is also available via live stream here and in podcast form here.

Howard is an attorney and entrepreneur who built up Vascular Solutions into a billion-dollar medical device company in the Twin Cities. When he was charged with vicarious criminal liability for his companys sale of a product for an allegedly unapproved use (wrong!), he went to the mat with the government and won. He announced his resignation from Vascular Solutions in the Wall Street Journal column Sally Yatess Legacy of Injustice at the Department of Justice. He told his story in Cardiac Arrest and in the best Power Point presentation I have ever seen. It is riveting.

Justice & Drew covers local and national news with a sense of humor and an upbeat twist. Entertaining while it educates, the show provides a crucial counterpoint to the editorial cowardice and stupidity of the Star Tribune. I hope to be able to make that point today in connection with the Minnesota Supreme Court decision on Minneapoliss failure to staff the police department at the legally required minimum.

I am a huge fan of the show. It is certainly the most important news show in the Twin Cities. Listeners can call in at (651) 989-5855. Please tune in and call if the spirit moves you.
A Pakistani journalist known for criticising the countrys powerful military has gone missing after he was allegedly picked up by paramilitary forces in Karachi.

More than a dozen paramilitary rangers raided the home of the journalist, Arslan Khan, and took him away in the early hours of Friday morning, his family said.

The rangers pointed guns at us and took him away. We still have no clue about his whereabouts, Mr Khans wife told dpa from Karachi.

I was told that Khan was being detained due to his social media posts, she said.

The news that the journalist had allegedly been abducted had caused an outcry on social media.

Meanwhile, the issue became one of the top trending topics in Pakistan as thousands took to Twitter to demand his release.

Rights group Amnesty International said it was deeply concerned about the abduction.

Pakistan must end this abhorrent practice of punishing dissent by wrenching people away from their loved ones.

The newly-appointed Inter-Ministerial Committee on Missing Persons must take note of the jarring disconnect between what they are saying and what is actually happening on the ground, Amnesty said.

Earlier in May, a journalist working for AAJ TV, an Urdu language news channel, was picked up in broad daylight close to his home in Karachi. He was released within 24 hours.

Several journalists had been murdered, kidnapped, tortured and intimidated in Pakistan in recent years.

However, those responsible have never been brought to justice.

(dpa/NAN)
The Supreme Court on Friday struck out a suit filed by President Muhammad Buhari and his attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, to challenge the controversial section 84(12) of the Electoral Act.

A seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court, led by Musa Dattijo-Muhammad, unanimously struck out the suit, describing it as an abuse of court process.

Aokmaye Agim, who delivered the lead judgement, held that Mr Buhari, having earlier assented to section 84 (12) of the Electoral Act 2022, cannot turn around to approach the court to strike it down.

There is no provision in the constitution that vests the president the power to challenge the constitutionaility or desirability of a legislation after he has assented or denied his assent. In this case, the president gave his assent, Mr Agim ruled.

He added that the request by Mr Buhari to the National Assembly to delete the provision amounted to constitutional violation.

Mr Agim described the suit as a ploy by Mr Buhari to get the court to validate the violation.

The president has no power to request or compel the national assembly to amend any part of the Act of the National Assembly in which he has participated in its making, he added.

Mr Agim said, This suit cannot be entertained by this court under section 1(1) (a) of the Additional Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court Act. 

Other members of the panel consented to the lead judgement. They are Dattijo-Muhammad, John Okoro, Amina Augie, Lawal Garba and Ibrahim Saulawa.

Mr Buhari had signed the the Electoral Act 2022 into law on February 25, 2022.

But he later wrote the National Assembly to delete section 84(12) of the law on the grounds that it was unconstitutional and was made in excess of the powers of the National Assembly.

The National Assembly rejected the request.

The legal provision bars political appointees at any level from being a voting delegate or be voted for primary election purposes.

The controversial clause in the Electoral Amendment Act 2022, provides that No political appointee at any level shall be a voting delegate or be voted for at the convention or congress of any political party for the purpose of the nomination of candidates for any election.

Following the refusal of the National Assembly to delete the provision, Mr Buhari, along with Mr Malami, filed the suit against the provision at the Supreme Court.

They joined the National Assembly as the sole defendant, but the Rivers State government and the Nigerian Bar Association later sought and obtained the courts leave to be joined as defendants to oppose the suit.

In the suit marked SC/CV/504/2022 and filed on April 29, 2022, Messrs Buhari and Malami sought an order of the Supreme Court striking out the section of the Electoral Act, which they argue was inconsistent with the nations constitution.

The plaintiffs contended that the Section 84 (12) of the Electoral (Amendment) Act, 2022 is inconsistent with the provisions of sections 42, 65, 66, 106, 107, 131, 137, 147, 151, 177, 182, 192 and 196 of the Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, (as amended), as well Article 2 of the African Charter on Human and People and Peoples Rights.

The plaintiffs also contended that the Nigerian constitution already provides qualification and disqualification for the offices of the President and Vice President, Governor and Deputy Governor, Senate and House of Representatives, House of Assembly, Ministers, Commissioners and Special Advisers.
The presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso, will meet the Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, in Port Harcourt this afternoon in continuation of his search for a running mate for the 2023 election.

Mr Kwankwaso had been holding talks with Peter Obi of the Labour Party exploring the possibility of the two parties merging or forming an alliance for the election.

But the talks are believed to have been bogged down, especially by the knotty issue of who between the two presidential candidates would step down to become the running mate of the other.

Mr Kwankwasos scheduled meeting with Mr Wike may, however, be an indication that the former Kano State governor is looking for alternatives.

Aides of Messrs Kwankwaso and Wike confirmed that the two politicians were scheduled to meet in Port Harcourt from about 2.30 p.m. on Friday.

The two sides also said discussions between the politicians at the meeting would likely focus on the 2023 presidential election.

The two have remained in contact even after Mr Kwankwaso defected from the PDP.

It would be recalled that the NNPP candidate helped Mr Wike to win substantial votes from Kano delegates at the PDP primary last month.

Associates of the former governor are in control of the leadership of the PDP in Kano, despite his defection with many of his supporters from the party.

However, it is not clear whether Mr Wike would be persuaded to dump the PDP too and be Mr Kwankwasos running mate.

Although the period for the nomination of candidates has closed, a presidential or governorship candidate can substitute their running mate who withdraws before July 15.

But Mr Wikes people have said they have no intention of moving out of the PDP, despite his recent disappointment over the choice of the partys vice-presidential candidate.

They said Mr Wike would work for the victory of the partys candidates in the state but would not commit his resources and energy to other causes whose fruits other persons stand to reap.

After beating Mr Wike to the PDP presidential ticket last month, former vice president Atiku Abubakar had considered the Rivers governor for nomination as his running mate but eventually picked Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa.

Mr Wike has not congratulated Mr Okowa or spoken in public on the choice. He has since met with political leaders from other parties, including Ebonyi State Governor David Umahi of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Mr Obi of the LP.

Ekiti PDP candidates pledge support to Wike

Meanwhile, the nine senatorial and House of Representatives candidates of the PDP in Ekiti have declared that they would go anywhere Mr Wike choses to go.

They stated this in a letter they wrote to the Rivers governor and signed on their behalf by Oluyinka Akerele, the House of Reps candidate of the party for Ekiti North 2 federal constituency.

In the letter, the candidates accused the leadership of the party of failing in its responsibilities to the PDP in last weeks governorship election in Ekiti, in which the candidate of the party returned third.

We are not unmindful of the fact that our support for your legitimate aspiration based on principle of rotational presidency, is not unconnected with the conspiracies against our leader and your good-self. We however wish to state that we will continue to champion very strongly, whatever decision you take publicly without apologies, the candidates said in the letter.

Read the full text of the letter below:

Thank you Governor Wike On Your Mandate We Stand

Your Excellency sir,

Our leader and benefactor, this short note is nothing but appreciation for your support for our party in Ekiti, our leader Ayo Fayose and his followers. You stood so firmly with us, despite the conspiracy against you and our leader.

You came through so strongly for us. Even when for reasons best known to them, those in charge of the party failed in their responsibility (details for another day), you never did

Notwithstanding the outcome, you were still there to show concern as a statesman and a party man that you are.

Having found this immeasurable and exemplary leadership in you, we will remain with you in this struggle. Wherever you go we go, whatever you do we will support

We are not unmindful of the fact that our support for your legitimate aspiration based on principle of rotational presidency, is not unconnected with the conspiracies against our leader and your good-self. We however wish to state that we will continue to champion very strongly, whatever decision you take publicly without apologies.

We will respond strongly and decisively to any attempt at undermining or disrespecting your person and leadership. We will not beg for retevance with them.

Like our leader will say, they have the yem and the knife, whichever way they dice it, we will cook it at the market square for them.

Most importantly, nobody should act as if the election has been won. They may wish away Ekiti: votes but not wish away the voice of Governor Wike and Fayose.

Again, for us, on your mandate we stand.

Thank you sir.

Signed:

Senator Biodun Olujimi, Senatorial Candidate, Ekiti South

Alhaji Lateef Ajijola, Senatorial Candidate, Ekiti Central

Mr Funsho Ayeni, Senatorial Candidate, Ekiti North

Joju Fayose, House of Reps Candidate, Ekiti Central 1

Lere Olayinka, House of Reps candidate, Ekiti Central 2

Henrich Akomolafe, House of Reps Candidate, Ekiti South 1

Jennifer Adenike Emiola, House of Reps Candidate, Ekiti South 2

Babatunde Ajayi- House of Reps Candidate, Ekiti North 1

Otunba Oluyinka Akerele  House of Reps Candidate, Ekiti North 2
The Police Command in Benue confirmed the killing of two policemen on the Makurdi-Lafia road by gunmen on Friday.

The police spokesperson, Sewuese Anene, confirmed this to journalists on Friday in Makurdi.

I received information that two policemen died in an operation on Makurdi-Lafia road, but I am yet to receive details, please, Mr Anene said.

One of the residents in Yelwata, Guma Local Government Area of the state, who pleaded anonymity, said the gunmen killed the policemen and stole their guns.

(NAN)
Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraines minister of foreign affairs said Thursday that there are at least three reasons for African countries to stand by Ukraine.

Speaking at a special press briefing organised by Africa Regional Media Hub, Mr Kuleba made reference to Africas colonial history by saying Africa should understand very well how it feels to be attacked by a power that cannot abandon the idea of its supremacy over our nation and its colonial, imperialistic ambitions

Another reason, according to Mr Kuleba, is that if Russia succeeds in Ukraine, it will be a clear message to the entire international community and to all countries who want to attack their neighbours that there is no world order that can protect them.

That the mighty can do whatever it wants to impose its will on the others part, Mr Kuleba said.

The third argument, according to him, is the ongoing food security challenge. According to him, the longer the war lasts, the more difficult it would be to get agricultural produce to Africa.

He accused Russia of intentionally blocking its (Ukraine) seaports to foster a new wave of colonisation aimed at reconfiguring the global food system and making it more Russia-dependent than ever.

According to the World Economic Forum, 14 African countries depend on Russia and Ukraine for more than half of their wheat imports, while almost half the continent depends on imports for more than a third of their wheat.

Apart from the looming supply constraints, this crisis has already pushed food grain prices up by more than 25 per cent.

Mr Kuleba added that Russias attack on Ukraines agricultural infrastructure to inflict maximum damage on its food-producing capacity is deliberately inflicting damage on African states that rely on Ukrainian agricultural exports.

I urge the world and all African states to work together and pressure Russia to allow a safe sea route for our food exports,  he said, adding that African states have a crucial role in this.

African capitals matter and they do influence Russias position, the ogival said.

By preventing Ukraine from exporting its agricultural produce, Russia is trying to squeeze Ukraine out of its traditional markets in African countries, he added.

Thousands of people have been killed and millions of others displaced since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

The invasion has been condemned by many countries as a violation of Ukraines sovereignty and the international order.

Russia called the invasion a special military operation to rid Ukraine of neo-Nazis and protect Russia from NATOs expansion to its borders.

Most of the countries that have condemned the invasion and declared support for Ukraine are Western countries and U.S. allies. Most African countries have been largely neutral on the matter preferring to call for peace rather than condemn Russias actions.
Bandits on Thursday burnt down a police outpost, shops and three houses in Zugu village of Bukkuyum Local Government Area of Zamfara State.

However, a youth leader in Bukkuyum, Abubakar Garba, said nobody was killed during the attack.

He said after the attack, many residents deserted the community to Bukkuyum and other villages in neighbouring Gummi Local Government to seek refuge.

Zugu is the second biggest community in Bukkuyum Local Government.

Bandits from Gando forest carried out the attack. What I was informed by some of the residents who fled to Bukkuyum town was that the three of the houses were those adjacent to the police outpost.

Residents said that the bandits had passed the community but returned around to attack it.

What we believe is that the bandits returned into Zugu to neutralise the policemen in the outpost located in the village. The bandits know that the policemen would respond to distress call so they decided to attack the outpost first, he said.

Mr Garba said the shops were looted before they were set on fire.

He said many of the wounded sustained gunshot wounds while others were injured in the stampede that ensued as people tried to escape from the gunmen.

I was in Gummi when I received a call that bandits have stormed Zugu and would be moving to other areas in the western part of the area. No one was killed and all the policemen on duty fled to safety before the bandits could reach the outpost, said a monarch in the area, who asked not to be named.

The monarch said the displaced are being taken care of at Bukkuyum.

The police spokesman in the state, Mohammed Shehu didnt respond to calls and SMS sent to him on the attack.

Bandits have been terrorising North-west and parts of North-central Nigeria, killing and displacing hundreds of people and rustling domestic animals.

Farmers have been chased from their farmlands while hundreds of students abducted. Hundreds of people have been killed and displaced from their homes.
The presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso, on Thursday, met with the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, in Port Harcourt, in continuation of his search for a running mate for the 2023 election.

The meeting held behind closed doors was attended by Mr Kwankwasos delegation and associates of the host governor.

However, aides of the two politicians told PREMIUM TIMES that details of the talk would remain under wraps for the moment.

Below are pictures from the event.
The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdulahi Adamu, has told the campaign council for the July 15 governorship election in Osun State that he has zero tolerance for failure.

Mr Adamu stated this while inaugurating the 86-member council at the party secretariat in Abuja on Thursday.

The council, co-chaired by Governors Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State and Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State, has been mandated to secure the re-election of Governor Gboyega Oyetola.

Mr Oyetola faces a tough challenge from Demola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and other candidates.

Mr Adamu, in his speech, said the council should not come back home crying, adding that crying should be left for the opponents.

He asked the council to do everything legally possible to ensure victory for the party.

Nobody should come back to us crying, failure is not our own by the grace of God. Whatever it takes within the laws of the land, I said go for it, win the election.

Let them go complain. Let them go wherever. Lets win the election. We have no apologies whatsoever for this posture because these two elections are for the best to the national election coming up in 2003.

It will go in our credentials that we have the winning track record. This National Working Committee that you elected we have a commitment. So, we must be prepared to face him eyeball to eyeball, he said.

Briefing journalists after the inauguration, Mr Ganduje said the council will start with reconciliation of all aggrieved members of the party.

To win the election is absolutely necessary but following due process, following all democratic ideals.

But we assure you, we must start with reconciliation to ensure that the party is intact and the machinery is on the right footing. We know all that led to the election being inconclusive. But this time around, it will be conclusive, Mr Ganduje said
Police in Kaduna State have killed one bandit and recovered one AK49 gun and one locally fabricated.

The spokesperson, Mohammed Jalige, confirmed the incident.

Mr Jalige, a deputy superintendent of police, said the tactical operation followed a distress call that some bandits were sighted on the Galadimawa-Kidandan Road in Giwa Local Government Area of the state.

Their movement was strongly suspected to be for their usual heinous mission.

In a bid to truncate such mission police operatives were deployed to the location for a possible engagement and restoration of safety.

The operatives engaged the hoodlums with clinical precision and succeeded in countering the bandits mission as they were compelled to retreat into the forest.

Some sustained bullet injuries while one was gunned down; his AK49 assault rifle and operational motorcycle were recovered.

Equally, a locally fabricated long-range revolver with its 12 polymer cased cartridges were recovered when a search was conducted in the area, he added.

He said the command had been making efforts to restore public confidence through rigorous patrol and surveillance to prevent further attacks on communities or commuters.

He applauded the commitment of the operatives and tasked them to sustain recent gains to ensure safety and security in the state.

(NAN)
The police in Lagos have arrested two men, Olushola Owoade, 45, and Sherif Salaudeen, 33, who allegedly specialised in duping people by forging vehicle registration documents.

The Commands Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed the arrest in a statement on Thursday in Lagos.

He said the suspects posed as officials of the Vehicle Licensing Office, collected money from people and issued them fake vehicle registration documents.

The duo was arrested following credible intelligence that they duped innocent Nigerians by producing fake vehicle documents and impersonating officials of the Lagos State Vehicle Licensing Office.

Salaudeen, a security man at the Lagos State Electricity Board, Ikeja, was arrested for aiding and abetting by allowing Owoade use his security post to run his illicit business.

Investigation reveals that the suspects have been in the business since February 2021.

Items recovered from the suspects include one laptop, one printer, fake Inspector General of Police letterheads, fake tint permits, and fake vehicle particulars, he said.

Mr Hundeyin said that the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Alabi, has directed that the suspects be arraigned at the conclusion of investigations.
Governor Gboyega Oyetola on Thursday submitted a letter to the House of Assembly requesting the re-confirmation and re-appointment of Commissioners and Special Advisers to fill vacant positions in the State Executive Council.

The governor nominated six commissioners- and special adviser-designates in the letter.

Among the nominees were four ex-commissioners who resigned from the governors cabinet to contest National Assembly tickets but lost during the primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Giwa Latifat resigned as Human Resources Commissioner to contest for the Osun West Senatorial ticket.

Olubukola Olaboopo resigned as Commissioner for Women and Children affairs to contest for the ticket of Ifelodun/Boripe and Odo-Otin Federal constituency.

Solagbade Oladepo resigned as Environment Commissioner to contest for House of Representatives for Osogbo/Olorunda/Orolu/Irepodun.

Henry Olanipekun resigned from Commerce, Cooperatives and Industry ministry for Ila Federal Constituency.

Mr Oyetola also disclosed the nomination of Bakare Aleem and Olanike Omoworare.

In line with the provisions of Section 192(2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as Amended, I hereby present the under listed nominees for consideration and confirmation by the House of Assembly into the Position of Commissioners/Special Advisers in the state of Osun with a view to filling the vacant positions in the State Executive Council, Mr Oyetola wrote.

The Commissioners and Special Advisers-designates would submit 35 copies of their resumes to the House on or before June 27.

The House of Assembly constituted a seven-man committee headed by the Deputy Speaker, Simeon Popoola, to screen the nominees.

The Speaker, State of Osun House of Assembly, Timothy Owoeye, at plenary on Thursday also announced the request of the governor to extend the tenure of the Caretaker Management Committee in the Local Government Councils and Local Government Development Area Councils.

The request of the governor on the confirmation of the Caretaker Committee Management held that it is in tandem with Section 3(A)(i) (ii) (III) of the State of Osun Local Government Administration and Amendment 7 Law,(2021).

This is to bring to your notice that the six months term of the Caretaker Management Committee in the Local Government, Councils, Local Government Development Area Councils will Expire on the 12th of July, 2022.

I hereby request the Distinguish State House of Assembly, Osun State to confirm the Appointment of the Caretaker Management to run the affairs of the Councils for another period of six months, the letter read.
Ukrainian forces were ordered to withdraw from Severodonetsk, the administrative centre of the Ukraine-controlled part of the eastern Lugansk region, a regional governor said on Friday.

The soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the National Guard were ordered to withdraw to new positions, to new fortified areas, and carry out full-fledged combat operations from those positions, Serhiy Haidai said.

Serhiy Haidai is the head of the Lugansk regional military administration, said on Telegram.

About 90 per cent of buildings in Severodonetsk were damaged in military actions, Mr Haidai said.

On June 20, Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said that Russian military forces aimed to capture Luhansk by June 26.

(Xinhua/NAN)
A 2022 UN Women and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) tracker report has shown that 388 million women globally will live in extreme poverty before the end of 2022.

The report also shows that there are 19.7 million fewer paid jobs for women globally than there were before March 2020, compared to 10.2 million fewer jobs for men.

According to the report, the calamitous reversals in womens economic opportunities will expand an already cavernous gender poverty gap.

The report stated that countries must do more to acknowledge the value of domestic work women do, developing improved social protection for those with care responsibilities as a backbone of a more integrated, resilient economy.

The trackers analysis of nearly 5,000 measures demonstrates that countries tend to work within their existing systems and structures when crises hit.

This new report presents a clarion opportunity to champion improved, gender-responsive social protection and to ensure meaningful participation of women to identify solutions to acute and chronic challenges that leave no one behind, the report stated.

Women in leadership

The report further stated that countries with greater womens leadership, universal social protection and care systems, and space for feminist organizations to participate in democratic decision-making are more effective at responding to crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

It recommended that governments should ensure their economic recovery and emergency preparedness strategies are gender-responsive, integrated, and resilient. It stated that the overlapping impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical conflicts threaten gender equality and womens rights.

ALSO READ: Nigerian elected into International Council of Women board

The international body said that countries with higher proportions of women in elected office, irrespective of national income, adopted more policies and budgeting that integrated gender considerations.

Countries with strong democracies, powerful feminist movements or high shares of women in parliament adopted an average of five more gender-sensitive measures than countries without them, the UN Women said in a statement.

Even in countries with less-than-equal representation, however, women political leaders demanded their voices be heard.

The research

According to the UN Women, the UNDP-UN Women examined nearly 5,000 policies over a two-year period COVID-19 Global Gender Response Tracker, the most comprehensive global repository of gender-sensitive government responses to the pandemic.

The body noted that the tool identifies how global decision-makers reacted to the pandemics economic and social impacts, which continue to fall disproportionately on women.

In 196 of the 226 countries surveyed, at least one gender-sensitive measure was adopted, according to the new report released today, 22 June 2022 Government responses to COVID-19: Lessons on gender equality for a world in turmoil, the body stated.

Including women

On her part, the Executive Director, UN Women, Sima Bahous, said the world must build on the many policy innovations seen in every region during the pandemic and redouble efforts to ensure that women are included in decision-making in crises.

She said countries with stronger social protection systems and public services do better on gender equality and have correspondingly been better able to weather the storms of recent years. But the world remains in turmoil.

This report shows that when women lead, everyone benefits from a more inclusive and effective crisis response, and more resilient economies and societies, today and in the future, Mrs Bahous said.

Also speaking, the UNDP Administrator, Achim Steiner, said the report shows what governments can achieve in their crisis response when they prioritise gender equality.

Ms Steiner said adding to the economic consequences of the pandemic for women everywhere is the greater burden of unpaid labour.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, women worldwide were doing more than three times the amount of unpaid care and domestic work as men. Now, the increased inequity in time spent in caring for children, elders and other family members is forcing many women to leave the paid workforce, she said.
The Editor-in-Chief of PREMIUM TIMES, Musikilu Mojeed, on Thursday, took journalists through ways of sustaining media businesses.

Mr Mojeed spoke to 20 pioneer beneficiaries of the MTN Media Innovation Programme (MIP) who are currently undergoing training at the School of Media and Communication (SMC), Pan-Atlantic University (PAU), Lagos.

The six-month programme being funded by MTN Nigeria would equip the fellows with the requisite knowledge in storytelling, entrepreneurship and management principles, 5G, and blockchain technology, business and media ethics, strategic planning skills, among others.

Speaking on the theme, Income Streams for Modern Media, Mr Mojeed, a multiple award-winning investigative journalist, said running a viable media outlet will require multiple streams of income.

He noted that great content is key to survival of media houses, adding journalists must refrain from brown envelope'  a culture of financial gratification popular amongst journalists in Nigeria.

Citing the case of PREMIUM TIMES- Nigerias leading online investigative media outlet, Mr Mojeed highlighted ethical values of credibility, diligence, fairness and consistency, as some of the reasons for staying afloat in Nigerias competitive media industry.

We must have multiple streams of revenue; advertising alone cannot save us from the hangman, he told the fellows, who are being trained on entrepreneurial skills at the university.

The media manager enumerated revenue sources to include: partnerships, book publishing, innovative advertising, training, donations, and special publications, amongst others.

You must diversify your sources of revenue, because if you continue to depend on traditional advertising, your journalism will be diluted, Mr Mojeed advised the cohort.

He explained that good journalism is expensive, saying collaborative efforts of journalists across newsrooms in Nigeria would birth journalism of accountability.

The only way media houses can survive is to innovate, Mr Mojeed admonished the fellows who sought insights on media sustainability.

A fellow, Abidemi Dairo of Channels Television suggested the use of short codes as a way of encouraging Nigerian media audiences to make donations towards enhancing good journalism.

About the programme

PREMIUM TIMES had reported that in-person sessions for the fellowship commenced on May 23, 2022, to run till December 10, 2022.

As part of the programme, fellows will also travel to South Africa to study the media business, Pan-Africanism and the role of development media through a programme with the University of Witwatersrand, one of Africas leading universities in media training.

Furthermore, the cohort will execute practical group projects that will be presented at the end of the programme; where an outstanding storyteller will be awarded a grant to participate in and cover MTN Foundations key initiative, What Can We Do Together?

According to the organisers, at the end of the training, the fellows will also have access to professional resources and mentorship from the universitys faculty

PAU celebrates 20th anniversary

Meanwhile, the Pan-Atlantic University, on Wednesday, organised a media briefing as part of activities commemorating 20 years of its existence.

The institutions vice-chancellor, Enase Okonedo, a professor, spoke on the evolution of the university which she noted began with one school but now has six main units and a museum.

Ms Okonedo described the School of Science and Technology as the latest addition in the university.

PAU has a strong Christian identity. The truths Pan-Atlantic University shares as an institution are not only common to Christianity but other religions, she said.

She added that the university has a strong pluralism and aims to approach the education for students in freedom and with freedom.

The objective of education in Pan-Atlantic University is the well-rounded formation of the human person. The University aims at nurturing individuals who are professionally competent, creative and enterprising, zealous for the common good and able to make free and morally right decisions and who thus act as positive agents of change in service to society, the Vice Chancellor explained.
The House of Representatives has queried the $49 million contract for integrity test on Nigerian refineries awarded to Tecnimont company by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in 2019.

Ganiyu Johnson, the chairman of the House ad hoc committee investigating the state of the refineries, issued the query during a meeting with the company and NNPC officials on Thursday in Abuja.

Mr Johnson said the company had failed to execute the contract properly as the state of the refineries were not verified.

He also blamed the NNPC for failing to undertake regular turn around maintenance on the refineries leading to their current poor state.

He asked the company and the NNPC to submit the contract documents, especially the approval by the Federal Executive Council and payment proofs including the level of work done to the committee for scrutiny

Nigeria has four refineries, owned by the government, but imports basically its refined petroleum products.

The refineries are located in Port Harcourt, Warrington and Kaduna.

In 2019, Tecnimont was awarded contract by the NNPC to carry out a complete integrity check and equipment inspections of the Port Harcourt refinery complex.

The Phase 1 Rehabilitation contract is worth approximately $50 million and entails a six-month assessment at sitete with relevant engineering and planning activities for the complex.

The complex is composed of two refineries totaling an overall capacity of approximately 210,000 bpd (barrel per day).

.(NAN)
The Defence Headquarters says troops and other security agencies have recorded significant successes against criminals across theatres in the last few days.

The Director, Defence Media Operations, Bernard Onyeuko, a major general, said this in a statement on Thursday in Abuja.

Mr Onyeuko said the troops of Operation Hadarin Daji had on June 21 engaged terrorists at Rafin Dankura in Bakura Local Government Area of Zamfara who abducted some civilians.

He said the encounter led to the rescue of six kidnapped civilians and killing of two bandits in the process.

According to him, items recovered include two AK47, 36 hand grenades, two cell phones and the sum of N211,915.

The defence spokesperson said that troops also killed two terrorists at Maigora in Faskari Local Government Area of Katsina State on the same day and recovered a cache of weapons.

He also disclosed that troops of Operation Whirl Stroke on June 20, arrested a notorious gun runner, Ardo Maranewo, who had been on the wanted list of security agencies.

According to him, the suspect specialises in selling and leasing arms and ammunition to bandits and kidnappers in Taraba State.

Furthermore, troops on patrol along Udei-Markurdi-Lafia road arrested seven rail track vandals with a trailer registered ABJ KWALI 846 XBJ loaded with cut to size vandalised rail tracks and sleepers.

They are Terswoo John (40), Donald Kperuv (30), Abraham Tinde (25), Jamilu Danlami (20), James Yandela (29), Idris Usman Imam (32) and Abubakar Adamu (30).

Also on June 21, troops raided a kidnappers enclave at Maraba in Ukyonugu Ityuluv Ward in Ukum Local Government Area of Benue State and arrested one Ichen Igbaka (65), a bandits collaborator and his wife, Salomi Igbaka.

Their house was used by a late bandit leader, Mr Azu, as a hideout.

Suspects and items recovered are in custody for further interrogation, he said.

Mr Onyeuko further said that troops of 151 Task Force Battalion under Operation Hadin Kai on June 20, eliminated two terrorists in conjunction with Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) along Bama-Pulka road in Borno State.

He added that troops also arrested a Boko Haram member, Abacha Usman, at Benishek and a terrorists logistics supplier, Ibrahim Gira along Damboa-Biu road in Borno on June 21.

In the Niger Delta region, Mr Onyeuko said the NNS Delta on June 19, discovered an illegal refining site around Opumami Creek in Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State.

He added that two metal storage tanks, five ovens, seven dug out pits, with 120,300 litres of stolen crude oil were recovered from the site.

Similarly on the same day, troops located two illegal refining sites at Atumakiri with 10 ovens and 15 metal storage tanks with 450,000 litres of AGO and 350,000 litres of stolen crude oil.

The Military high command congratulates the troops in various operations for their exploits, he said.

(NAN)
The gunmen who abducted 29 people returning to Zamfara State from Sokoto State where they had gone to attend the wedding of colleagues have released them after the payment of an unspecified ransom.

The victims, who were mostly dealers of mobile phones and phone accessories at Bebeji Communication Market (Bebeji Plaza) in Gusau, the capital of Zamfara State were abducted in Sokoto 13 days ago.

Secretary of the GSM Dealers Association in the state, Ashiru Zurmi, confirmed the release of the victims but didnt give details.

One of the victims reportedly died in captivity.

Though the amount paid as ransom to secure the release of the hostages has not been revealed, Abdullahi Lawal, whose brother was among those abducted, said their relatives were asked to make donations. He said his family raised N33,000 while the phone sellers association provided the remaining money.

Every family was told to gather N400,000 while the members of the plaza and their colleagues in the state provided the remaining money. Some family members were able to raise the money in full, but we couldnt. I took the money to the plaza and I was told that they were still negotiating with the bandits he said.

He said he didnt know how much was given to the bandits but Im happy that my brother is okay, he said.

From N5m to N700,000

A phone accessories seller, Sharhabilu Muhammad, told PREMIUM TIMES over the phone that the officials of the phone dealers association negotiated with the bandits to reduce the ransom they originally demanded to release the captives.

You know that the initial money they said was N5m for each of the captives but our officials kept negotiating with them (bandits) until they reduced the money to N700k, he said.

When asked about the person who reportedly died in captivity, Mr Muhammed said his identity has not been revealed.

We dont know because even the bandits didnt tell but well surely find out when they (captives) arrive at Gusau tonight, he added.

The police command spokesman, Mohammed Shehu, didnt respond to calls and SMS sent to him on the development.

Backstory

PREMIUM TIMES reported that the wedding guests were abducted when bandits opened fire on the two buses they were travelling in a few kilometres after Bimasa in the Dogon Awo junction, Sokoto State.

They were returning from Tambuwal town in Sokoto State where they had attended the wedding of a colleague, Jamil Umar.

The captives were travelling on a Toyota Coaster bus belonging to the Universal Basic Education Commission UBEC and another bus owned by Gusau Local Government.

The bandits had demanded a ransom of N145 million to release the 29 hostages.

Bandits have been terrorising North-west states and a part of North-central Nigeria, killing and displacing hundreds of people and rustling domestic animals.

Travelling on federal and local highways is becoming dangerous as bandits block roads, abduct and kill motorists.

Major federal highways including Abuja-Kaduna, Gusau-Sokoto-Birnin Kebbi, and Birnin Gwari-Kaduna have become travellers nightmares with attacks and abduction or killing of travellers becoming a daily occurrence.
The Director-General, National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Fatima Waziri-Azi, says there is more internal trafficking than external trafficking.

Mrs Waziri-Azi disclosed this on Thursday in Benin at a meeting she held with stakeholders and partners of the agency in Edo.

She explained that this was because 83 per cent of trafficking in Nigeria happened within states, within communities, and across state lines, adding that only 12 per cent accounts for trans-border trafficking.

Simply because the media spotlight on people in Italy and all that, we think we have more of trans-border trafficking.

No. Internal trafficking is happening before our eyes. Domestic servitude is a crisis in Nigeria, and forced labour too.

Human trafficking is, therefore, a national crisis. Every state is affected, though each state has its own peculiarity, she said.

She sued for more sensitisation of the public against human trafficking, noting that there was huge ignorance of the public on issues relating to human trafficking.

Mrs Waziri-Azi urged the participants to focus on sensitisation.

Gone are the days when we think human trafficking is offline, its now online. So we have an increase in fake jobs advertorials and fake scholarships.

These are the modern trends human traffickers use in luring their victims, with Dubai, India and Cyprus the trending destinations,  she said.

The director-general, who described human trafficking as a 150-billion-dollar criminal enterprise and the second trans-national organised crime after drug trafficking, said human trafficking was an enterprise for professional criminals.

She explained that this was because there were two sides to the crime, as there was the professional criminal enterprise that trafficked people for the sole purpose of killing them and harvesting their organs.

She added that this was because there was at present a global shortage of organs for transplant.

She disclosed that the flip side of human trafficking was recruiters who actively target vulnerable communities to recruit their victims.

Mrs Waziri-Azi, however, said that some Nigerians fell prey to the human traffickers because of misinformation and disinformation.

She called for a robust continued synergy among all stakeholders to stem the tide of human trafficking.

Earlier, Nduka Nwanwenne, Zonal Commander, Benin Zonal Command, in his opening remarks, disclosed that since the creation of the zonal command, no fewer than 774 suspected human traffickers had been arrested in the zone.

He also said that the zone had secured 80 convictions of arraigned human traffickers since the creation of the zone.

He said 2,695 survivors, comprising 144 males and 2,551 females, had passed through NAPTIP shelter.

Mr Nwanwenne noted that partnership was a key element in the fight against human trafficking.

He pledged to continue to carry out the mandate of the agency with support from stakeholders.

We can change the narrative on human trafficking, he pointed out.

(NAN)
The Nigerian government says it will work towards reducing the number of out-of-school children in the country by at least 70 per cent within the next eight years.

The goal is captured in the governments Human Capital Development strategy document launched Thursday by the National Economic Council (NEC).

Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children in sub-Saharan Africa, estimated at 10.2 million children.

The report titled  Strategy for accelerating Human Capital Development (HCD) in Nigeria and launched in Abuja on Thursday, highlights the key targets the Nigerian government is planning to achieve in three strategic areasHealth and nutrition, Education and Labour force by 2030.

According to the document, the HCD is envisioned to Provide equitable access to affordable and quality

healthcare for every Nigerian, Promote a quality,inclusive and functional education system and empower youth to have the capacity and skills to create or seek employment.

Amidst efforts to reduce poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth by 2030, the HCD programme was launched in March 2018 by the National Economic Council (NEC) at a special meeting convened for the purpose.

The NEC, which is led by the countrys vice president, Mr Osinbajo, and made up of the 36 states governors of the federation and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, conceptualised the initiative as part of efforts to demonstrate the significance of human capital development in addressing poverty and ensuring participatory and sustainable economic growth.

The programme is also proposed to increase investments in the Nigerian people and improve the human development indices of the country. Some of the key targets the Nigerian government aimed to achieve by 2030 include health and nutrition, education, and labour force.

Health & Nutrition

Within eight years under the Health and nutrition sector the Nigerian government hope to improve nutrition and reduce childhood stunting by half, from 44 per cent to 22 per cent; Reduce under five mortality rate by half, from 120/1000 under five (years) population to 60/1000; and Reduce maternal mortality by half, from 576 deaths/100.000 live births to 288 by 2030.

Education

In the education sector, the government said it is targeting to double primary school enrolment rates from 46 per cent to 90 per cent; Double female enrolment; double secondary school completion rates from 42 per cent to 80 per cent; Reduce out-of-school children (~10m) by at least 70 per cent; And also achieve 80 per cent pass rate for students that reach curricular objectives at end of primary school (reading and mathematics national learning assessment) by 2030.

Labour force

Under the countrys labour demography, the government said it is targeting to double youth participation in the labour force from 23 per cent to 46 per cent and also double female labour force participation from 21 per cent to 41 per cent by 2030.

The government pegged its overall target at 24 million additional healthy (under-five year old children surviving and not stunted), educated (completing secondary school) and productive (youth entering the labour force) Nigerians by 2030

Key reactions

Nigerias Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo in his remarks during the launch said Nigeria must invest in relevant skills and provide good paying jobs and opportunities for its youthful population.

Idle youthful populations portend an increased risk of social instability, he added.

The Vice president explained that by 2050, West Africa will have 650 million people. Of this figure, he said almost 400 million will be young people.

We must provide quality basic education, healthcare and nutrition for them, he said.

This, he said, is because inadequate nourishment results in suboptimal learning outcomes and a lifetime of disadvantage, especially in what is becoming a fiercely competitive Knowledge economy.

Our most important targets and objectives, nationally and regionally, must be on the improvement of the quality of lives, living standards and livelihoods of our peopleThe happiness, security and general welfare of our populations. Clearly nothing else is as important, Mr Osinbajo said.

Finda Koroma, Vice president of ECOWAS Commission, in her submission said the development of the regional human capital development strategy has been participatory and inclusive.

She said the strategy has been validated by sectoral experts and ministers prior to its adoption by states and governments.

In his remarks, World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri, said there is no more important task for all of us than to invest in human capital.

This, he said entails investing in people, young youth, women and girls of Nigeria and across the region.

In Nigeria I think we have had close to 14 billion programmes of support for the government and almost 40 per cent is in these areas; primary healthcare, keeping girls and children in school and social assistance, Mr Chaudhuri said.

In a similar manner, Adeyeye Ogunwusi, Ooni of Ife, in his address appreciated the NEC working group for carrying Traditional rulers along in the implementation of the HCD programme.

However, the traditional ruler said it is time to work the talk.

We are very far from realities from our various communities and streets. So let us look at our Ecosystem within the confines of our country how well even we that are here are helping what is called human capital development, Mr Ogunwusi said.

He said, We are very used to giving handouts, teaching people how to fish is what should be very paramount to our dear lives and every day-to-day activities and not giving people fish.

The event had in attendance Kebbi state governor, Atiku Bagudu, Kano state governor Abdullahi Ganduje, Nasarawa State governor, Abdullahi Sule, Akwa Ibom state deputy governor, Moses Ekpo, representatives from the 36 states of the country, diplomats, donors and traditional rulers.
A lawmaker representing Kano Municipal in the House of Representatives, Shaaban Sharada, on Thursday, asked a Federal High Court in Kano to disqualify the Kano State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Nasiru Gawuna, over alleged violation of the Electoral Act 2022.

Mr Sharada, who is the chairman House Committee on National Security and Intelligence, was the only challenger in the Kano APC governorship primary last month. He scored only 30 votes while Mr Gawuna scored 2,289 votes.

The state chapter of APC and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were joined in the suit as co-defendants

The plaintiff raised concern over the conduct that allowed the political appointees of the state government to vote during the primary. He alleged that the action contradicted section 84 (13) of the electoral Act which disqualified their participation in the primary.

The Judge, Liman M. granted leave to two motions filed by the plaintiff, one of which was the permission to serve Mr Gawuna a notice of the suit by substituted means.

The plaintiffs lawyer alleged that Mr Gawuna deliberately refused to collect a notice of the suit when sent to him.

Mr Gawuna is the incumbent deputy governor of the state.

The court also granted the plaintiff an order of abridgement of the hearing from 30 days to 15 days to enable the court to expedite the process.

Subsequently, upon granting the orders, the court asked the defendants to file their appearances and enter defence in the suit within 15 days.

The parties are expected to agree on a date for a hearing on the substantive argument.
Some members of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) in the South-east say they will no longer guarantee the supply of products at the approved pump prices.

The marketers spoke in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Awka on Thursday.

They said they could not sustain the availability of the petroleum products, when they exhaust their current stock.

A NAN correspondent, who monitored the supply of premium motor spirit, popularly called petrol, in Awka, reported that most outlets now sell the product for between N180 and N195 per litre.

Also, Automotive Gas Oil sells for between N850 and N900 per litre.

A marketer, Emeka Nnoli, said they were sacrificing a lot to ensure the availability of the product at the government approved pump price.

Mr Nnoli said they could no longer procure products at the NNPC depots at the offical price, and now relied on private depots which sell the products at outrageous prices.

He also said that the transportation cost had skyrocketed.

According to him, marketers are owed petroleum price differentials running into millions of naira for some years now.

It has become impossible for us to continue to sustain the current price of products in the zone.

As we speak, ex-depot price of petrol is about N168 per litre with over N15 on transport per litre with all the risk.

You can see that it does not make meaning selling below N200.

Federal Government has left marketers at the mercy of private depot owners.

The sacrifice we are making is just to protect our people, Mr Nnoli said.

Another marketer said the South-east may soon run out of products because of challenges associated with procuring products in Lagos.

The marketer said the cost of running the business, including transportation and power, may cause increased pump prices, if nothing was done to address the problem.

If our colleagues in Lagos, who are at the source of procurement, can complain, who are we not to complain?

What we are doing at the moment is to protect our people from the harsh effects of the ugly development, he said.

Chinedu Anyaso, the chairman of IPMAN at Enugu Depot, which is in charge of Anambra, Ebonyi and Enugu, said, Marketers cannot lose their trading capital because they want to control prices they did not have influence over.

Mr Anyaso called on members to sell the products according to the cost without necessarily exploiting the people nor harming themselves.

He said tank farm owners have constituted themselves into a powerful monopoly, arbitrarily dictating the price of products.

He, therefore, called on the federal government to extend its monitoring to tank farm owners or grant licence to more people to go into the business.

At the moment, the Enugu zone is wet with product, but it will be difficult to guarantee continued supply and competitive price by the time our members run out of stock, especially with what is happening at the source, Mr Anyaso said.

(NAN)
The Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has expressed support for former deputy president of the Nigerian Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, over his arrest in the UK.

The London Metropolitan Police charged Mr Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice, with conspiracy to traffic a child to the UK in order to harvest his organs, the law enforcement said on Thursday.

The lawmaker and his wife were denied bail after the London Metropolitan Police arraigned them at the Uxbridge Magistrates Court in London.

Reacting, Mr Obi, Friday, prayed for justice for the lawmaker as well as the healing of his ailing daughter.

My family and I are with the Ekweremadus over their travail. We join all men of good will in praying for the healing of their daughter and commit them into Gods hand for justice to be done, he said via his Twitter handle.

Mr Ekweremadu and his wife were being charged for bringing a 15-year-old boy from Nigeria to the UK with the claim that he was to be given a better life in the UK but was actually to harvest his organ.

The prosecutors reportedly informed the court that Mr Ekweremadu procured a passport for the boy and claimed he was 21 years old, whereas he is 15.

The couple has a daughter with a kidney-related disease and has been on dialysis.

The persecutors said they believe the plan was to use an organ from the boy on their daughter who appears to need a kidney transplant.

The lawmaker and his wife were said to have prayed the court, through their separate legal representations, to release them on bail but their prayer was dismissed by the Magistrate.

The couple has surrendered their passports to the UK government.

PREMIUM TIMES has obtained a late 2021 letter from sources close to Mr Ekweremadu purporting that the lawmaker had written the British High Commission in Nigeria in support of a visa application of a male.

In the letter, Mr Ekweremadu disclosed that the applicant was travelling to the UK for medical examination to possibly donate a kidney to his daughter Sonia.

He said the examination would be carried out at the London Royal Free Hospital.

The letter did not disclose the age of the male but UK prosecutors alleged that the victim is a minor and that Mr Ekweremadu had falsified his age to 21.

The Magistrate ordered they be remanded in custody until July 7, 2022, for the next hearing on the case.
Nollywood actress, Tonto Dikeh, has been nominated as the running mate to Tonte Ibraye, the 2023 governorship candidate of the African Democratic Party (ADC) in Rivers State.

Ms Dikeh disclosed this on Friday via a post on her Instagram page.

The actress said the ADC would invest massively in social protection in Rivers State if they are elected.

We are looking forward to investing massively in social protection, creating a social value system for young people, increasing women inclusion in our governance system, supporting small businesses and strengthening our traditional institutions to be active players in the drive to bring sustainable development to the good people of Rivers State, she said in her post.

She thanked Mr Ibraye for her nomination and urged the people to get their Permanent Voters Card (PVC) and join the movement.

Ms Dikehs post on Instagram has garnered over 12, 000 likes and 1,700 comments from her fans who have been congratulating her for the nomination.

Mr Ibraye is the vice chairman of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Abuja Chapter.

He emerged the governorship candidate of ADC on June 7 after securing 187 of the 188 votes.

He defeated Joyce Barida and Warmeth Wright in a governorship primary of the party that was monitored by the Independent National Electoral Commission in Port Harcourt, according to a report in the Guardian newspaper.

He reportedly told delegates he will sustain the election to the end and will go to the international community to ensure visa ban on those responsible if the election is rigged.

Mr Ibraye is an accomplished humanitarian with over 10 years of experience in social development.

He is the director of conflict resolution and the national coordinator of a non-governmental organisation  White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood, according to his profile on Linkedin.
A lawmaker in Cross River State, Hilary Bisong, has donated N900,000 as palliative to the University of Calabar lecturers.

Mr Bisong represents Boki 2 State Constituency in the Cross River House of Assembly.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the beneficiaries were members of Mr Bisongs constituency.

Handing over the money to the lecturers on Friday in Calabar, Mr Bisong said the gesture was meant to cushion the effect of the stoppage of their salaries for the past four months because of the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

According to him, the lecturers, who are members of ASUU, deserved some support and care during this period.

These lecturers have families to feed and bills to pay, including medication and other utility bills.

Theres a need for us to support them during this period.

The beneficiaries, who are lecturers from UNICAL, are members of my constituency.

My prayer is that the ongoing negotiations between ASUU and the Federal Government yields the expected result so that lecturers can go back to the classroom, Mr Bisong said.

One beneficiary, Paul Bukie, lauded the lawmaker for remembering them during their period of struggle.

Mr Bukie said the donation would go a long way to assist them in meeting some of their basic needs.

Another beneficiary, Jerry Etta, prayed God to bless the lawmaker for extending goodwill to them.

ASUU embarked on strike in February over the Federal Governments inability to honour an agreement it reached with the union in 1999.

The Federal Government thereafter invoked the no-work, no-pay policy, which left the lecturers without salaries since February.

(NAN)
The United Nations says it has strong evidence that the Al Jazeera journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, killed in the West Bank in May, was hit by a bullet from an Israeli soldier.

This emerged from an analysis of video footage and the questioning of witnesses and experts, a spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Commission said on Friday.

We have found no information suggesting that there was activity by armed Palestinians in the immediate vicinity of the journalists, a spokeswoman for the UN Human Rights Commission said after the analysis of video footage and questioning of witnesses and experts.

The journalist was killed during an Israeli military operation in Jenin in the northern West Bank.

Her death and ensuing police violence at her funeral in Jerusalem caused international outrage.

According to the Israeli army, it is not clear where the fatal shot came from.

UN Human Rights Commissioner, Michelle Bachelet, called on the Israeli authorities to conduct a full and thorough investigation into the incident, the spokesperson said.

She added that this also applied to the total of 58 Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers since the beginning of the year, according to the UNs count.

Perpetrators must be held to account, she said.

(dpa/NAN)
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) said on Friday that the Abuja house recently raided by its operatives and from which high-valued assets were recovered belongs to a military contractor.

Media reports had suggested that the house belonged to a former Chief of Army Staff and current Nigerian ambassador, Tukur Buratai.

Reacting to the claim in a statement by its spokesperson, Azuka Ogugwa, on Friday, ICPC confirmed that its operatives raided the house in Wuse 2, Abuja, on June 16, but described the media reports as inaccurate and concocted.

The attention of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has been drawn to some inaccurate and concocted reports in the media about the seizure of multibillion-naira cash, dollars, Rolex watches stockpiled in an Abuja property, the statement said.

The commission, which said the operation was conducted as part of an investigation into a suspected money laundering case said the property is owned by the owner of K Salam Construction Company, a military contractor.

It explained that the Managing Director of the company, Kabiru Sallau, was arrested during the operation conducted between 5:00 p.m. and 12:00 a.m. on June 16 in the Wuse 2 Area of Abuja.

Recovered assets

The media reports the ICPC reacted to indicated that over a billion naira with over 50 luxury watches, including at least two Rolex varieties, were recovered from Mr Buratais house during the operations.

But the ICPC confirmed recovering the sums of N175,706,500 and $220,965 along with cars and several designer wrist watches, including three Rolexes.

The commission recovered money and other items from the property viz. N175,706,500; $220,965; G-Wagon; 2022 editions of BMW and Mercedes Benz cars; customized mobile phones; several designer wrist watches, including three Rolexes, and some property documents, the ICPC statement reads.

ICPC says investigations are ongoing.

It was reported that some officials of the ICPC stormed the house beside the National Open University of Nigeria Campus in Abuja last week after it received a tip-off from a whistleblower.

It was also said that the huge cash was part of the billions of naira earmarked for the purchase of arms and ammunition by the Muhammadu Buhari-led government.

READ FULL STATEMENT

ICPC CLEARS THE AIR ON MEDIA REPORT OF ABUJA PROPERTYS RAID AND SEIZURE

The attention of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has been drawn to some inaccurate and concocted reports in the media about the seizure of multibillion-naira cash, dollars, Rolex watches stockpiled in an Abuja property.

2. The Commission wishes to state that ICPC operatives raided a property in Wuse 2 of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, on Thursday, 16th June, 2022 between 5:00pm and 12:00am in suspicion of money laundering . Facts available for the time being indicates that the property is owned by owner of K Salam Construction Company, a military contractor.

3. The Commission recovered money and other items from the property viz. N175,706,500; $220,965; G-Wagon; 2022 editions of BMW and Mercedes Benz cars; customized mobile phones; several designer wrist watches, including three Rolexes, and some property documents.

4. The Commission arrested the Managing Director of K Salam Construction Company Nigeria Limited, Mr. Kabiru Sallau and investigation is ongoing.

5. The Commission is yet to conclude its investigation and prefers not to preempt its outcome and also avoid the frenzy of a media trial.

Signed:

Azuka Ogugua

Spokesperson, ICPC
Two quite unlikely persons will be taking over the Colombian presidency on August 7. Gustavo Petro, 62, a former guerrilla fighter of the M-19 revolutionary group who suffered incarceration and torture, won the presidential election rerun this Sunday June 19, 2022 with 50.5 per-cent of the votes. It was his third presidential race. His right wing opponent, Rodolfo Hernandez, a construction magnate had 47.3 per cent of the votes. The vote difference was more than 700,000.

It will be the first time in the countrys 210-year post-independence history that a leftist would make it to the presidency.

Just like Petro, the credentials of vice president-elect, Francia Marquez, 40, do not fit the usual bill. She is a radical, one-time mine labourer, former housemaid, environmentalist, a single mother and a Black from the minority Afro-Colombian population which is also the poorest and least educated group in the country.

Twenty four years ago, she was a pregnant 16-year old dirt poor teenager who had to work in the mines to feed herself and her child. From the mines, she graduated to being a live-in housemaid. Marquez is not elitist and never held political office before. She is a symbol of the poor, and hope that the Colombian system can change for the benefit of the battered populace.

The economic challenges, exploitation and want, forced many Colombians into the streets in a 2021 national strike in which 46 unarmed protesters were killed mainly by the police. It was an indication of the frustration with the establishment and signalled a shift from conservative politics to the left-wing.

Colombia, is a long suffering country witha history of death squads, paramilitary squads and self-defence forces who carry out extra judicial executions,forced disappearances, ethnic cleansing and genocide. Those groups also run the drug cartels, rackets and forced land acquisitions by corporate organisations.

Colombia also produced a Che Guevera-like romantic revolutionary figure, Reverend Father Camilo Torres, a Catholic priest ordained in 1954 who married Catholicism with revolutionary Marxism and was a precursor of Liberation Theology. He famously said: If Jesus were alive today, He would be a guerrilla Torres who was also a lecturer at the National University of Colombia, joined the guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army, ELN. He was killed in his first combat against the Colombian military and became like a patron saint of guerrillas in Latin America.

The M-19, an urban guerrilla movement was established by students and social activists in 1970 following electoral fraud. Its aim was an armed overthrow of the government. One of its biggest battles was the 1985 siege of Colombias national judicial building in which 94 people died.

However, the M-19 gave up armed struggle in 1990 to participate in writing a new constitution and electoral politics. Petro who joined the group when he was a 17-year old student of Economics, explained that: The M-19 was born in arms to build a democracy.

In contrast, the larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, did not switch from guerrilla struggle until 2016 when it signed a peace deal with the government.

Petro, a former Mayor of Bogota said: What we have today is the result of what I call the depletion of the model. The end result is a brutal poverty. He plans to impose higher taxes on the rich, increase royalties on extractive industries, expand social programmes, shift emphasis from oil to developing other industries, check rising violence and the deforestation of the Colombian Amazon. Internationally, his administration is likely to reassess Colombias subservient relationship with the US while improving those with neigbours like Venezuela, a country with which it shares more than 1,000 miles of border. Constitutionally, he has only one four-year term to implement his radical programmes.

Victorious Petro told the world: This story that we are writing today is a new story for Colombia, for Latin America, for the world. We are not going to betray this electorate.

Latin America has for centuries been the backyard playground of Western powers particularly the US. It was a region where governments were replaced at will, those who resisted, massacred and the countries run down. The Financial institutions like the World Bank and World Trade Organisation had tested on them, unworkable, ruinous and neo-liberal programmes like structural adjustment backed by invisible market forces that drove the people into unimaginable poverty. This is why some organised human caravans headed for the US Eldorado.

Over the decades when the people protested, Latin Americans were massacred, and country after country, established death squads to eliminate opponents especially youths who turned left and reached for the gun.

However, in the last four years, at least six Latin American countries have through open and democratic elections, turned left in a search for alternatives to exploitation, conflicts, poverty and insecurity.

Colombia is just the latest. One of the most outstanding left victories was by the 36-year old Chilean protest leader, Gabriel Boric who became President on March 11, 2022. He leads a country traumatised by one of the worst dictators in history, General Augusto Pinochet.

Mexico, the US neighbour has produced President Andres Manuel Lopez. Bolivia suffered a setback when popular leader Evo Morales was overthrown in a military coup on November 10, 2019, but the left bounced back on November 8, 2020 with the election of President Luis Arce.

Another country that suffered a similar setback was Honduras where President Manuel Zelaya was overthrown in a 2009 coup. But a dozen years later, his wife Xiomara Castro swept the polls and was sworn into office on January 27, 2022.

In Peru, Pedro Castillo, a primary school teacher with no experience in office, was elected President in 2021.

Another major contest between conservative right wingers and the left is scheduled for Brazil in October 2022. It is another country where the conservative pro-poverty politicians ousted a left-leaning President Dilma Roussef on August 31, 2016 and paved the way for a Trumpian President Jair Bolsonaro. He is locked in the Presidential contest with former labour leader and ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva who has sprung from the prison he was rail-roaded into, to once again lead the Brazilian masses.

These countries join Cuba whose 1959 left-wing revolution subsists despite a six-decade stranglehold by the US, Nicaragua led by former revolutionary Daniel Ortega, and Venezuela whose Bolivarian Movement now under former labour leader, Nicholas Maduro, continues to sweep the polls.

Tragically, unlike Latin America, most African countries are still under the heels of visionless, clumsy and kleptocratic leaders who do the biddings of Western powers and are so useless that they cannot even provide basic security against ragtag bandits. Patriots in Africa have a lot to learn from the pro-people movement in Latin America.

Owei Lakemfa, a former secretary general of African workers, is a human rights activist, journalist and author.
Noor Takaful Insurance Limited, the pioneer composite Takaful Insurance firm in Nigeria, has distributed a total of One Hundred and Nine Million, Eight Hundred and Forty-Six Naira (N109,846,000.00) as surplus to participants (policyholders) who did not make claims on their insurance during the 2020 financial year.

This surplus amount was announced on Tuesday, June 21, 2022, during the Surplus Distribution event held at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos, and well attended by the participant (policyholders), Insurance Industry stakeholders, Brokers, Agents as well as the media.

The surplus payment, which comes as a result of the Win-Win insurance model operated by Noor Takaful  an indigenous insurance company licensed by the National Insurance Commission in 2016, thrives on the pool of funds provided by the participants.

Speaking during the event, the Chairman, Noor Takaful Insurance Limited, Muhtar Bakare, explained that out of the total sum of N109,846,000.00, the General Takaful participants are to get the sum of N74,121,000.00 while Family Takaful participants will receive N35,725,000.00.

Bakare described the distribution as an affirmation of the efficacy of offering modern financial services to Nigerians who were previously excluded from the formal economy, stating that this would help them achieve reasonable economic stability in their lives and businesses.

Bakare assured the participants that the company remains committed to proactively taking all the necessary steps, including raising adequate capital,prudent underwriting and putting in appropriate covenants required to cover their risks.

We have all the resources we need and the corporate governance structure to ensure that we continue to meet all our obligations as they fall due. It is pertinent to note that in 2021, we paid over N1.9 billion in claims, with a Claims Ratio of 22%  one of the best, if not the best, in the entire insurance industry, he said.

He then commended the regulator, NAICOM, for providing the right kind of oversight required to deepen, grow, and sustain the industry stating that their diligent approval processes, especially their insistence on prudence, probity, and best practice, have continued to help the company.

Also speaking, the Vice-Chairman, Noor Takaful Insurance Limited, Aminu Tukur, stated that the surplus distribution comes as the redemption of its pledge to policyholders noting that Takaful insurance has become highly receptive among Nigerians over the last few years.

Tukur assured stakeholders that the company would continue to provide innovation and leadership in the Takaful Insurance industry while maintaining the highest ethical and professional standards.

In her remarks, the Managing Director, Lotus Capital Limited, Hajara Adeola, stated that Takaful insurance, a non-interest finance, remains the best alternative insurance for the generality of Nigerians as it helps to promote financial inclusion.

The tenets of non-interest finance should attract anyone and should not offend anyone. It means being fair, avoiding ambiguity in the contract, avoiding gambling and many other businesses that are considered harmful to the society, Adeola said.

She commended Noor Takaful for their diligence in deepening the penetration of insurance and non-interest finance in Nigeria.

Non-interest finance such as Takaful insurance is a positive force spreading across the globe, empowering people, communities and building cities. It is a financial model that is simple, elegant, and emphasizes justice, fairness, and transparency, she added.

In his goodwill message, the Senior Pastor, The Covenant Nation, Poju Oyemade, commended the management of Noor Takaful Insurance Limited for keeping to their promises by giving out surplus payments to all participants.

What I heard here today is something I have not heard anywhere or in any organization regarding insurance. It also signifies that this organization will last a very long time. What kills many organizations is the inability to listen to feedback. So, when you have an organization with good listening and deep consideration for the people, you are bound to have a compassionate side to their business approach. I want to congratulate the organization and look forward to a more fruitful business endeavor, Oyemade said.

The event was attended by stakeholders, including regulators and relevant professional bodies such as NIA, CIIN and CIFM.

Participants, including individuals, private and public organizations, banks, and higher institutions of learning, received this surplus payment. Some of the customers who received surplus distribution include Lotus Capital Limited, Jaiz Bank Plc, Sterling Bank Plc, Vanguard Pharmacy ltd, Ansar-Ud-Deen Society of Nigeria, Federal Polytechnic Ilaro, Inverness Wealth Management, Global Synergy Limited, and Crescent Schools.

About Noor Takaful

Noor Takaful Insurance Ltd., a takaful insurance firm, was established and duly licensed by NAICOM in April 2016 as the first full-fledge composite takaful insurance operator in Nigeria with a 100 percent indigenous Nigerian shareholding. The company currently plays the pioneering and leading role in unlocking takaful insurance potential for Nigeria. Its operational framework is regulated by NAICOM and is also subject to the Insurance Act 2003.
Ifeanyi Ejiofor, the lead counsel to the leader of outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has faulted President Muhammadu Buharis comments on Mr Kanus court trial.

The lawyer disclosed this in a statement on Friday.

Mr Buhari, during a bilateral meeting with Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister on the margins of the 26th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Kigali, Rwanda, on Thursday, reiterated his earlier position that Mr Kanu jumped bail in 2017 while he was being tried in court.

He also suggested that the IPOB leader would still jump bail if he was to be granted bail again, insisting that he must defend himself in the court.

Mr Ejiofor described Mr Buharis comments as careless, mischievous, and utterly false.

He said the comments have confirmed the presidents alleged partisan stance on the matter.

The lawyer insisted that Mr Kanu did not jump bail but was compelled to flee the country after his Afara-ukwu residence was invaded by the Nigerian security forces in September, 2017.

Mr Kanu is billed to appear in court on June 28 for continuation of his trial.

Mr Ejiofor said the Presidents comment, coming barely a week to the court sitting, was intended to influence the court ruling in favour of the Nigerian government.

What really was the raison d etre for the statement? Is it a veiled warning to the court? Does it preempt an already settled position? Is there a nexus between this statement and the ultimate decision that would eventuate on the application? he said.

Mr Ejiofor said it was unfortunate that the President made the comments despite declaring at different events that he would not interfere in the judicial proceedings, after rejecting appeals by some Igbo leaders to intervene for Mr Kanu through a political solution.

He accused Mr Buhari of usurping the judicial powers of the court noting that his statement was capable of preempting the ruling of the court and prejudicing the entire proceedings.

It is our apt observation that President Buhari, with greatest respect to his office, stands in grave contempt of the court proceedings by this singular declaration, and should be made to appear in Court to answer to this contemptuous statement, Mr Ejiofor said.

The lawyer called on international communities to take note of the presidents comments, just as he urged the court to remain firm in the discharge of her judicial functions and uphold justice without bowing to pressure.

IPOB

IPOB, a separatist group led by Mr Kanu, is agitating for an independent state of Biafra to be carved out from the South-east and some parts of the South-south Nigeria.

Mr Kanu is being detained by Nigerias secret police, SSS, in Abuja where standing trial for terrorism.

He was intercepted in Kenya and brought back to Nigeria in June, 2021, under controversial circumstances, for the continuation of his trial.
Families and friends of Segun Sango Adefemi, who died on May 23, attended a memorial to honour him in Lagos on Friday.

The deceased, described as a revolutionary socialist, was a human rights lawyer. He was until his death the national chairperson of the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN).

He was also the founding general secretary of the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM), a platform he was said to have used to liberate Nigerian students and youths.

Tributes

His colleague, Femi Falana, said its not a time to mourn his death but to intensify efforts to take Nigeria from imperialism and the political criminals.

He said the deceased defended workers in the private and public sectors. He was highly principled and committed to the struggle he added.

Rashidat Adeshina recalled how the deceased defended her and some university mates from being expelled from the University of Ilorin pro bono.

He was an embodiment of courage, dedication, and sacrifice, she said.

However, Labiaka from the Trade Union Congress (TUC) said Sango was a passionate man. He will rest in the bosom of the lord. Segun Sango, adieu, rest in peace, my brother.

According to Dodunrin Akinbiyi and Adeniyi Sulaimon, Segun Sango as he was popularly called, paid the price of courage and commitment to the cause of the Nigeria people, he had been detained severally for fighting for the just cause to defend cheated Nigerians.

He organised and participated in mass rallies, student activism, peaceful demonstrations and protests for good governance.

After the tribute, those present at the event moved to lay him to rest at the Atan Cemetery in Yaba.
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On 29 June, online attendees can access rich, interactive content and global live streaming, and on 30 June, attendees have access to exclusive content, networking rooms, one-on-one conversations with specialists, and the opportunity to exchange knowledge with IT professionals who leverage digital transformation in their companies.

Based upon three pillars, the event:

Shares knowledge about best practice and strategies for integrations, APIs, Microservices and technology

Inspires delegates with digital stories that reveal how APIs and Microservices deliver business results, from leveraging the Ecosystem innovation to unlocking valuable data and preparing more pluggable enterprises

Hears from leaders who discuss the future of a more open and connected world and what's needed to embrace more agile business models and ecosystems.

UK speakers include:

Michelle Kearns , Boots Ireland, covering the role of technology in the healthcare sector

, Boots Ireland, covering the role of technology in the healthcare sector Isabel Pitt , Zopa Bank, Bronwyn Boyle , Mambu, and Claire Barrett , APIs First, discussing women in IT

, Zopa Bank, , Mambu, and , APIs First, discussing women in IT Tadas Bakutis , Connect Pay, Elliott Locke , Abroaden, and Patricia Haynes , Zopa, explaining how fintechs are shaping the future of finance

, Connect Pay, , Abroaden, and , Zopa, explaining how fintechs are shaping the future of finance Yuri Poletto , the Open & Embedded Insurance Observatory, explaining why every company will be an insurtech.

There are also UK sessions on Open Education and digital transformation in higher education and Open Finance powering the financial future.

This year's expert line up is available on the events page. Register here

"APIX gives attendees the opportunity to learn about the latest API technologies and best practices to enhance openness, flexibility and agility in their organisations," comments Lucas Tempestini, Sensedia's head of marketing.

APIX

Launched in Brazil in 2015, each year APIX gains more global support. In 2021, over 1600 people from different nations participated.

Sensedia

Sensedia has offices in Brazil, the UK, Ireland, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and Lithuania. www.sensedia.com

Photo- https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1846374/Lucas_Tempestini.jpg

SOURCE Sensedia
Based on Morocco's position and with the expansion of its global markets, XIMIVOGUE has recently successfully entered the market of Morocco and has opened two new stores within only a month.

Let's get started with XIMIVOGUE's first store in Morocco.

Kenitra, a famous port city with beautiful scenic spots and historical relics, is the city where this new store is located. Ideally located in a famous shopping mall in the center of Kenitra, this new store has attracted great attention of a number of visitors and accumulated a certain amount of customers since its opening.

Thanks to XIMIVOGUE's online and offline promotion, this new store in Kenitra is quite welcomed by local residents and visitors. Wonderful music, appealing performance, and lovely costumes created a pleasant atmosphere on its opening day.

The following introduces the second new store briefly.

Near a busy business street, this new store in Beni Mellal owns great foot traffic and a great number of potential customers. The enjoyable interactive games, dances, and sound shopping environment greatly promoted its on-site atmosphere.

XIMIVOGUE now is planning to expand its business all over the world. With only a small amount of investment and several steps can you own a XIMIVOGUE store easily.

About XIMIVOGUE

As a global retailer offering a wide range of FMCGs in a cost-effective way, XIMIVOGUE serves its consumers with over 1700 stores in 93 countries. Its great shopping experience, trendy products, inexpensive price as well as pleasing design have made it a well-known fast fashion franchise brand globally.

For more information, please leave your message at:

Mail: ximivogue_official@ximiso.com

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1846722/ximivogue_stores_in_morocco.jpg

SOURCE XIMIVOGUE
DENVER, June 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - (TSX: CWEB) (OTCQX: CWBHF) Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc. ("Charlotte's Web" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the results from its 2022 annual general meeting of shareholders held on June 22, 2022 via live audio webcast (the "Meeting"). Each of the matters voted upon at the Meeting is discussed in detail in the Company's Proxy Statement dated April 28, 2022, a copy of which is available on the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov.

The total number of votes cast at the Meeting was 47,203,015, representing 32.51% of the total number of votes attached to the outstanding voting shares of the Company. According to the proxies received, the results of the vote for the election of directors were as follows:

Nominee # Votes For % Votes For # Votes Withheld % Votes Withheld John Held 18,090,259 93.04 % 1,351,211 6.96 % Jacques Tortoroli 18,394,916 94.61 % 1,046,554 5.39 % Jean Birch 18,261,129 93.92 % 1,180,341 6.08 % Susan Vogt 18,145,747 93.33 % 1,295,723 6.67 % Tim Saunders 18,247,008 93.85 % 1,194,462 6.15 %

Detailed results of the matters considered at the Meeting are reported in the Report of Voting Results as filed on the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.

About Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc.

Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc., a Certified B Corporation headquartered in Denver, is the market leader in innovative hemp extract wellness products under a family of brands which includes Charlotte's Web, CBD Medic, CBD Clinic, and Harmony Hemp. Charlotte's Web branded premium quality products start with proprietary hemp genetics that are 100-percent American farm -grown using organic and regenerative cultivation practices. The Company's hemp extracts have naturally occurring botanical compounds including cannabidiol ("CBD"), CBC, CBG, terpenes, flavonoids, and other beneficial compounds. Charlotte's Web product categories include full-spectrum hemp CBD oil tinctures (liquid products), CBD gummies (sleep, stress, exercise recovery), CBD capsules, CBD topical creams and lotions, as well as CBD pet products for dogs. Through its vertically integrated business model, Charlotte's Web maintains stringent control over product quality and consistency with 20+ product lot testing for quality assurance. Charlotte's Web products are distributed to more than 15,000 retail, over 8,000 health care practitioners, and online through the Company's website at www.CharlottesWeb.com.

Forward-Looking Information

Certain information in this news release constitutes forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking information"). In some cases, but not necessarily in all cases, forward looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "targets", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "an opportunity exists", "is positioned", "estimates", "intends", "assumes", "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", "will" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances contain forward-looking information. 

Statements containing forward-looking information are not historical facts but instead represent management's current expectations, estimates and projections regarding the future of our business, future plans, strategies, projections, anticipated events and trends, the economy and other future conditions. Forward-looking information is necessarily based on a number of opinions, assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the Company as of the date of this news release, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Important factors that could cause actual results and financial condition to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking information include, among others, the factors discussed throughout the "Risk Factors" section of the Company's most recently filed annual information form available on www.SEDAR.com and in the Company's most recently filed Form 10, as amended, and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission available on www.SEC.com. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking information, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc.

THE WORLD'S MOST TRUSTED HEMP EXTRACT

SOURCE Charlotte's Web Holdings, Inc.
ChenMed Healthcare Allies Respecting Individuality and Sexuality for Members and Associates (CHARISMA) Employee Resource Group Encourages Employees to Recognize Equality Observances

MIAMI, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ChenMed, one of the largest providers of primary care for Medicare eligible seniors, is celebrating "Equality for All" month during June, acknowledging two marginalized groups in U.S. history  Black Americans and LGBTQ+ members.

In honor of Juneteenth, ChenMed Employee Resource Group AWARE2 (All Working Together to Achieve Racial Equity and Equality) encouraged team members to wear representative apparel and colors and invited them to share their perspectives and feelings about the significance of this day. They were provided with Juneteenth branded index cards on which they could write what Juneteenth means to them, which were then posted next to a special Juneteenth banner in ChenMed medical centers and Home Office. Leaders of the medical centers were encouraged to provide team members with a meal sourced from Black-owned businesses. In addition, managers were supplied with a montage video featuring ChenMed family of company employees singing the Black National Anthem ("Lift Every Voice and Sing") and asked to play it at a team meeting. AWARE2 advocates for racial equality and social justice in the workplace and the communities ChenMed serves through education and outreach.

"We believe in creating an inclusive culture at ChenMed and celebrating Juneteenth and honoring LGBTQ+ pride month are some of the ways we do that," said Stephanie Chen, chief legal and culture officer at ChenMed. "If we act with respect, kindness and love  for everyone  we believe it can move us forward as a company and as a nation."

To acknowledge the Stonewall Riots, ChenMed is partnering with its employee resource group CHARISMA (ChenMed Healthcare Allies Respecting Individuality and Sexuality for Members and Associates). This employee resource group supports ChenMed LGBTQ+ team members as they strive for inclusion, serve our patients, and support our communities. CHARISMA, in collaboration with the Culture Team, is encouraging ChenMed employees to wear attire that commemorates equality and recognizes the role the Stonewall Riots played in the development of the Gay Rights Movement.

ABOUT CHENMED

ChenMed, headquartered in Miami, is a privately owned medical, management and technology company that delivers the high-touch and personalized primary care Medicare-eligible seniors need to enjoy better health. The company operates nearly 100 senior medical centers in 12 states. Named a Fortune 2020 "Change the World" company , a "Most Loved Workplace" by Newsweek Magazine, and a certified Best Place to Work by the Best Place to Work Institute, ChenMed brings concierge-style medicine and better health outcomes to the neediest populations. ChenMed brands include Chen Senior Medical Center, Dedicated Senior Medical Center and JenCare Senior Medical Center. Thanks to its nimble and growing software entity, Curity, ChenMed also was recently named "A Best Place to Work in IT" by IDG's Insider Pro and ComputerWorld.

SOURCE ChenMed
BEIJING, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- China Online Education Group ("51Talk" or the "Company") (NYSE: COE), a global online education platform with core expertise in English education, today announced that it has entered into a definitive share purchase agreement, dated June 24, 2022 (the "Share Purchase Agreement"), with Dasheng Holding (HK) Limited ("Dasheng"), an entity controlled by Mr. Jiajia Jack Huang, chairman of the board of directors (the "Board") and chief executive officer of the Company, pursuant to which Mr. Jiajia Jack Huang, through Dasheng, will acquire all of the Company's online English tutoring businesses in the China mainland, including all associated liabilities and assets (the "China Mainland Business"), for US$1.

The China Mainland Business is conducted by the subsidiaries of and variable interest entities controlled by China Online Education (HK) limited ("COE HK"), which is in turn a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company. Pursuant to the Share Purchase Agreement, Dasheng will acquire all of the equity interests of COE HK from the Company (the "Transaction"). After the closing of the Transaction (the "Closing"), Dasheng will grant a right to the Company to purchase certain newly issued shares of up to 99% of the outstanding shares of the entities holding the China Mainland Business with an exercise price of US$1 (the "Warrant"). The Warrant may be exercised within five years from the Closing, subject to applicable laws of China and requirements of the competent government authorities.

The Board, acting upon the unanimous recommendation of a committee of two independent and disinterested directors established by the Board (the "Special Committee"), approved the Share Purchase Agreement and the Transaction. The Special Committee negotiated the terms of the Share Purchase Agreement with the assistance of financial and legal advisors.

The Closing is subject to certain customary conditions and is expected to take place on or around June 30, 2022.

The Company's overseas business outside the China mainland and its associated assets and liabilities are not part of the Transaction and will be the Company's strategic focus going forward. Upon the Closing, the Company expects to shift from a negative net assets position to a positive net assets position.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains statements that may constitute "forward-looking" statements which are made pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "aims," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "likely to," and similar statements. 51Talk may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its periodic reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about 51Talk's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in 51Talk's filings with the SEC. All information provided in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and 51Talk does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law.

About China Online Education Group

China Online Education Group (NYSE: COE) is a global online education platform with core expertise in English education. The Company's mission is to make quality education accessible and affordable. The Company's online and mobile education platforms enable students to take live interactive English lessons on demand. The Company connects its students with a large pool of highly qualified teachers that it assembled using a shared economy approach, and employs student and teacher feedback and data analytics to deliver a personalized learning experience to its students.

For further information: China Online Education Group, Investor Relations, [email protected].

SOURCE China Online Education Group
BOSTON, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Virtual Reality (VR) headsets are edging toward becoming commonplace. However, social acceptability is still some way off and the user experience is not entirely comfortable. Essential to solving these problems are the lenses that magnify and focus headsets' displays. Until recently, this field was relatively static, with headsets using optics based on Fresnel lenses, but a flurry of innovation is now in progress.

Schematic of path of light through a pancake lens. Source: IDTechEx (PRNewsfoto/IDTechEx)

On July 20th 2022, Meta demonstrated multiple prototype VR headsets and components which demonstrate its development roadmap. Within this, emerging VR lenses were shown off, which fit into the categories of 'compact lenses' and 'focus tunable lenses', as outlined in IDTechEx's recent report, "Optics for Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality 2022-2032: Technologies, Players and Markets".

Phase 1: Compact Optics and the 'Holocake' Lens

Pancake lenses can shrink VR headsets by using polarizers, waveplates, and reflective surfaces to fold the optical path through two glass or plastic lens elements, reducing the distance between the display and lens. This also avoids some optical aberrations associated with the incumbent Fresnel lens technology.

Meta's 'Holocake' lens takes the principles of pancake lenses and replaces each element with a holographically optical element (HOE)  a holographic recording of a lens - flattening the optics to the thickness of the holographic film. HOEs are a well-recognized technology in the closely related AR industry: their uses here are covered in detail in IDTechEx's report, along with forecasts for technology uptake and associated photopolymer materials. The VR industry has paid little attention in comparison - Meta hinted at some of the potential reasons for this when discussing the Holocake prototype.

Holograms are recorded with laser light and need to be lit by laser to be properly viewable. The same is true of HOEs, and Meta's prototype Holocake 2 headset uses a laser-backlit LCD to meet this requirement: this represents one factor keeping these optics a while away from commercial viability.

Furthermore, pancake/holocake setups have a low transmission efficiency (generally around 10%). This requires very bright displays and large batteries, with existing commercial pancake-lensed headsets from other manufacturers requiring tethered power  moving towards new display types, such as microLED, could help mitigate this issue.

Phase 2: Solving the vergence-accommodation conflict with varifocal lenses

"I don't like VR  it makes me sick". This is a common complaint about virtual reality headsets. According to Professor Thomas Stoffregen, who researches motion sickness at the University of Minnesota, 40 to 70% of VR users experience this unpleasant effect within just 15 minutes. One factor contributing to this is the mismatch between perceived and focal distance in stereoscopic 3D images, known as the vergence-accommodation conflict.

Eliminating this issue might just open a whole new segment of customers to purchasing a new VR device. Meta's Half Dome project has been working on varifocal lenses for VR since at least 2018. Varifocal lenses, coupled with eye tracking sensors and software, can solve the vergence-accommodation conflict by adjusting the lens' focus depending on where in the virtual scene the user is looking. The Half Dome project's latest iteration uses arrays of geometric phase (also known as Pancharatnam-Berry phase) lenses to achieve this goal with no moving parts, all in a package a few mm thick.

Patent activity and Meta's December 2021 acquisition of holographic optics firm ImagineOptix have previously indicated Meta's work in this area, with others including Apple and Valve having intellectual property around the technology. This motivated the in-depth coverage of geometric phase lenses and their manufacturing processes in "Optics for Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality 2022-2032: Technologies, Players and Markets".

Mark Zuckerberg estimated that varifocal optics could find their way into commercial headsets from around 2027 onward, demonstrating that this technology is closer to market readiness than many previously assumed.

Technical and commercial analysis of emerging optical technologies for AR/VR, including ten year forecasting and technology benchmarking, can be found in IDTechEx's recently released report "Optics for Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality 2022-2032: Technologies, Players and Markets".

Images download:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/933f9jq4rgfanbj/AABtWQ5rLT_Oxal0xP4H0RVua?dl=0

About IDTechEx



IDTechEx guides your strategic business decisions through its Research, Subscription and Consultancy products, helping you profit from emerging technologies. For more information, contact [email protected] or visit www.IDTechEx.com .

Media Contact:



Natalie Moreton

Digital Marketing Manager

[email protected]

+44(0)1223 812300



Social Media Links:



Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/IDTechEx

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/idtechex/

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SOURCE IDTechEx
VANCOUVER, BC, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - NexGen Energy Ltd. ("NexGen" or the "Company") (TSX: NXE) (NYSE: NXE) (ASX: NXG) is pleased to announce the voting results from its Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders ("Meeting"), held on June 23, 2022.

Shareholders voted in favour of all matters of business before the Meeting. Each of those matters is set out in detail in the Management Information Circular published in connection with the Meeting, which is available at www.nexgenenergy.ca

A total 307,271,016 common shares, representing approximately 64.10% of the Company's outstanding common shares, were voted in person and by proxy at the Meeting. Shareholders voted in favour of (a) reappointing KPMG LLP as auditors of the Company (99.92% in favour), and (b) setting the number of directors at nine (99.92% in favour).

Shareholders also voted on the following matters at the Meeting.

Election of Directors

The following nominees listed in the Management Information Circular were elected as directors of the Company until the next annual meeting of shareholders or until their successors are elected or appointed, with the voting results being as follows:

Nominee Votes For % For Votes Withheld % Withheld Leigh Curyer 283,778,735 98.38 % 4,687,302 1.62 % Christopher McFadden 235,786,874 81.74 % 52,679,163 18.26 % Richard Patricio 216,683,585 75.12 % 71,782,452 24.88 % Trevor Thiele 232,035,591 80.44 % 56,430,446 19.56 % Warren Gilman 226,545,165 78.53 % 61,920,872 21.47 % Sybil Veenman 232,061,114 80.45 % 56,404,923 19.55 % Karri Howlett 284,084,600 98.48 % 4,381,437 1.52 % Brad Wall 275,086,918 95.36 % 13,379,119 4.64 % Don Roberts 275,155,190 95.39 % 13,310,847 4.61 %

Continuation of the Company's Stock Option Plan

The continuation of the Company's existing stock option plan, providing for the issuance of stock options in respect of a maximum number of common shares equal to 20% of the issued and outstanding common shares of the Company, was approved, with the voting results being as follows:

Votes For % For Votes Against % Against 190,219,069 65.94 % 98,246,967 34.06 %

About NexGen

NexGen is a British Columbia corporation focused on the development of the Rook I Project located in the southwestern Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan, Canada, into production. The Rook I Project is supported by a NI 43-101 compliant Feasibility Study which outlines elite environmental performance as well as industry leading economics. Rook I hosts the Arrow Deposit that hosts Measured Mineral Resources of 209.6 M lbs of U 3 O 8 contained in 2.18 M tonnes grading 4.35% U 3 O 8 , Indicated Mineral Resources of 47.1 M lbs of U 3 O 8 contained in 1.57 M tonnes grading 1.36% U 3 O 8 , and Inferred Mineral Resources of 80.7 M lbs of U 3 O 8 contained in 4.40 M tonnes grading 0.83% U 3 O 8 .

NexGen has a highly experienced team of uranium industry professionals with a successful track record in the discovery of uranium deposits and in developing projects through discovery to production. The Company is the recipient of the 2018 PDAC Bill Dennis Award for Canadian mineral discovery and the 2019 PDAC Environmental and Social Responsibility Award.

Technical Disclosure

All technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Anthony ( Tony) George , P.Eng., NexGen's Chief Project Officer, a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101.

A technical report in respect of the FS is filed on SEDAR ( www.sedar.com) and EDGAR (www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml) and is available for review on NexGen Energy's website (www.nexgenenergy.ca).

Cautionary Note to U.S. Investors

This news release includes Mineral Reserves and Mineral Resources classification terms that comply with reporting standards in Canada and the Mineral Reserves and the Mineral Resources estimates are made in accordance with NI 43-101. NI 43-101 is a rule developed by the Canadian Securities Administrators that establishes standards for all public disclosure an issuer makes of scientific and technical information concerning mineral projects. These standards differ from the requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") set by the SEC's rules that are applicable to domestic United States reporting companies. Consequently, Mineral Reserves and Mineral Resources information included in this news release is not comparable to similar information that would generally be disclosed by domestic U.S. reporting companies subject to the reporting and disclosure requirements of the SEC Accordingly, information concerning mineral deposits set forth herein may not be comparable with information made public by companies that report in accordance with U.S. standards.

Forward-Looking Information

The information contained herein contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable United States securities laws and regulations and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. "Forward-looking information" includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to mineral reserve and mineral resource estimates, the 2021 Arrow Deposit, Rook I Project and estimates of uranium production, grade and long-term average uranium prices, anticipated effects of completed drill results on the Rook I Project, planned work programs, completion of further site investigations and engineering work to support basic engineering of the project and expected outcomes. Generally, but not always, forward-looking information and statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes" or the negative connotation thereof 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" or the negative connotation thereof. Statements relating to "mineral resources" are deemed to be forward-looking information, as they involve the implied assessment that, based on certain estimates and assumptions, the mineral resources described can be profitably produced in the future.

Forward-looking information and statements are based on the then current expectations, beliefs, assumptions, estimates and forecasts about NexGen's business and the industry and markets in which it operates. Forward-looking information and statements are made based upon numerous assumptions, including among others, that the mineral reserve and resources estimates and the key assumptions and parameters on which such estimates are based are as set out in this news release and the technical report for the property , the results of planned exploration activities are as anticipated, the price and market supply of uranium, the cost of planned exploration activities, that financing will be available if and when needed and on reasonable terms, that third party contractors, equipment, supplies and governmental and other approvals required to conduct NexGen's planned exploration activities will be available on reasonable terms and in a timely manner and that general business and economic conditions will not change in a material adverse manner. Although the assumptions made by the Company in providing forward looking information or making forward looking statements are considered reasonable by management at the time, there can be no assurance that such assumptions will prove to be accurate in the future.

Forward-looking information and statements also involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual results, performances and achievements of NexGen to differ materially from any projections of results, performances and achievements of NexGen expressed or implied by such forward-looking information or statements, including, among others, the existence of negative operating cash flow and dependence on third party financing, uncertainty of the availability of additional financing, the risk that pending assay results will not confirm previously announced preliminary results, conclusions of economic valuations, the risk that actual results of exploration activities will be different than anticipated, the cost of labour, equipment or materials will increase more than expected, that the future price of uranium will decline or otherwise not rise to an economic level, the appeal of alternate sources of energy to uranium-produced energy, that the Canadian dollar will strengthen against the U.S. dollar, that mineral resources and reserves are not as estimated, that actual costs or actual results of reclamation activities are greater than expected, that changes in project parameters and plans continue to be refined and may result in increased costs, of unexpected variations in mineral resources and reserves, grade or recovery rates or other risks generally associated with mining, unanticipated delays in obtaining governmental, regulatory or First Nations approvals, risks related to First Nations title and consultation, reliance upon key management and other personnel, deficiencies in the Company's title to its properties, uninsurable risks, failure to manage conflicts of interest, failure to obtain or maintain required permits and licences, risks related to changes in laws, regulations, policy and public perception, as well as those factors or other risks as more fully described in NexGen's Annual Information Form dated February 25, 2022 filed with the securities commissions of all of the provinces of Canada except Quebec and in NexGen's 40-F filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and Edgar at www.sec.gov.

Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information or statements or implied by forward-looking information or statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information or statements due to the inherent uncertainty thereof.

There can be no assurance that forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or reissue forward-looking information as a result of new information or events except as required by applicable securities laws.

SOURCE NexGen Energy Ltd.
WEST CHESTER, Pa., June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- PrimePay (the "Company"), a national payroll, human capital management (HCM), and benefit services company, today announced that it has appointed Scott Johnson as Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately.

Mr. Johnson brings decades of experience leading and building private equity-backed software companies and positioning them for long-term success. Most recently, he served as CEO of AbacusNext, a high-growth SaaS solutions provider to the accounting and legal technology industries, where he was successful in integrating a payments exchange and executing a number of accretive transactions. Prior to AbacusNext, Mr. Johnson was CEO of Zephyr, a provider of continuous testing software; and CEO of Social Solutions, a Vista Equity Partners-backed software solutions provider to nonprofits, coalitions and government agencies. He holds a bachelor's degree in Marketing from Lehigh University.

"PrimePay is an incredible company with solutions that anticipate and meet the needs of businesses of all sizes in the human capital management space," said Scott Johnson, CEO of PrimePay. "The turbulent post-COVID labor market is an excellent opportunity for PrimePay to demonstrate its value to HR and human capital leaders, providing them with the tools they need to hire and retain great talent, manage and pay their workforce, and optimize their business. I am excited to take on this role and look forward to working with the amazing PrimePay team to unlock the next chapter of growth for this company."

"Scott is a proven business leader whose philosophies and business beliefs align well with our culture. He brings the requisite expertise and knowledge base needed to help PrimePay capitalize on the strong momentum in the HCM industry," said William Pellicano, a Founder and Executive Board Chair of PrimePay. "I am confident that he is the right person to lead PrimePay in its next chapter of growth and I look forward to working with him to continue to enhance the business."

PrimePay is backed by Aquiline Capital Partners, a private investment firm based in New York and London with $8.7 billion in assets under management that invests in businesses globally across financial services and technology.

About PrimePay

PrimePay, founded in 1986, is a payroll service and human capital management (HCM) provider, offering solutions that empower businesses to focus on what matters most. We deliver highly configurable HR and payroll solutions designed to create efficiencies and to maximize compliance for our clients across our nationwide presence. To learn more, visit primepay.com.

Media Contacts

Prosek Partners

Josh Clarkson / Maria Jose Gonzalez

[email protected] / [email protected]

SOURCE PrimePay
TOKYO, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- From June 21-23, at the historic First Meeting of States Parties (1MSP) to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), held in Vienna, Austria, the Soka Gakkai International (SGI) joined civil society groups calling for universalization of the Treaty; cohosting workshops highlighting perspectives of affected communities and youth.

Hirotsugu Terasaki, SGI Director General of Peace and Global Issues, commented, "At this time of existential threat, all who gathered here have categorically asserted that nuclear weapons are morally and legally unacceptable. We welcome the Vienna Declaration and Action Plan and are determined to continue our efforts to strengthen the effectiveness of this groundbreaking Treaty."

The voices of hibakusha were a galvanizing force throughout the discussions. On June 21, the SGI cosponsored a side event addressing victim assistance, environmental remediation and international cooperation in line with Articles 6 & 7 of the Treaty with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, Permanent Mission of Kiribati to the United Nations and Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

Speakers included survivors of nuclear testing in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan, and a youth activist from the Marshall Islands, site of 67 nuclear tests. Rebecca Jovin, Chief of Office, United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) at Vienna, speaking on behalf of Izumi Nakamitsu, UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, highlighted the profoundly harmful effects of over 2000 nuclear tests conducted since 1945 stating, "The in-person participation of communities affected by nuclear testing serves as a real-life reminder as to why we must pursue the complete elimination of nuclear weapons."

Also on June 21, at the Youth MSP, the SGI and the Italian Senzatomica anti-nuclear campaign held a workshop on grassroots educational movements. Youth discussed reshaping the discourse around nuclear weapons and alternative educational approaches that empower learners. Watch youth interviews: https://twitter.com/sgi_info/status/1540163711448797185

Participant Sanya Rajpal of SGI-UK commented, "We have to break down the logic which leads to nuclear weapons and all forms of structural violence, and empower individuals to transform this in their own lives and then the world." The SGI and the International Disarmament Institute of Pace University also coauthored a working paper* on peace and disarmament education highlighting the critical role of education in universalizing the TPNW.

* https://reachingcriticalwill.org/images/documents/Disarmament-fora/nuclear-weapon-ban/1msp/documents/NGO.32.pdf

A Joint Interfaith Statement*, introduced by Olivia Baro, youth representative of the Pacific Conference of Churches, in a session on June 22, also urged wider ratification of the Treaty. It was signed by the SGI and a total of 144 organizations from diverse faith traditions.

* https://cdn2.assets-servd.host/un-sgi/production/assets/downloads/TPNW-MSP-Joint-Interfaith-Statement.pdf

The Soka Gakkai International (SGI) is an NGO in consultative status with the United Nations ECOSOC. The Soka Gakkai is a global community-based Buddhist organization with 12 million members that promotes peace, culture and education and has worked for the abolition of nuclear weapons for over 60 years.

Contact:

Joan Anderson

International Office of Public Information

Soka Gakkai

+81-80-5957-4711

anderson[at]soka.jp

SOURCE Soka Gakkai
Historically high temperatures threaten to impact vulnerable communities

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Salvation Army has activated new services and evolved existing services across the country to help provide hydration and shade for homeless individuals, senior citizens, and other vulnerable populations at risk of suffering from heat stroke and other heat-related conditions.

The life-threatening heat wave currently impacting approximately 35 million Americans marks the beginning of what experts predict will be a "hotter-than-usual" summer.

In fact, extreme heat is deadlier than hurricanes, tornadoes, or floods annually, with approximately 1,500 people dying per year in the United States. In some areas, unsheltered individuals account for nearly half of these deaths. Communities in nearly every part of the country are under heat advisories following unseasonably intense spikes in temperature. Unsheltered individuals in these areas face dehydration, sunburn, heat stroke, and infections from sweat-soaked clothing that goes unwashed.

"Most Americans don't know how serious of a threat these soaring temperatures can be to unsheltered people and other vulnerable populations," said Commissioner Kenneth G. Hodder, national commander of The Salvation Army. "Because of the generous support of our donors, we are able to offer heat relief at many of our 7,200 locations across the country, which can be lifesaving amid a hotter-than-usual summer."

Examples of some of The Salvation Army's services across the country:

Dallas, Texas : The Carr P. Collins Social Service Center is being utilized as a cooling station, and more than 13 other locations nearby are also offering shelter, hydration, and snacks.

The Carr P. Collins Social Service Center is being utilized as a cooling station, and more than 13 other locations nearby are also offering shelter, hydration, and snacks. Macon, Ga. : As temperatures in Middle Georgia are expected to skyrocket, The Salvation Army in Macon has opened its facility to stay cool and has encouraged the community to donate items like water or snacks for guests.

As temperatures in Middle Georgia are expected to skyrocket, The Salvation Army in has opened its facility to stay cool and has encouraged the community to donate items like water or snacks for guests. Phoenix metro area, Ariz.: Eight heat-relief stations and a mobile hydration unit are being activated on any day the National Weather Service issues an excessive heat warning. Locations include Apache Junction , Avondale , Chandler , Glendale , Mesa , Phoenix , Surprise , and Tempe.

Eight heat-relief stations and a mobile hydration unit are being activated on any day the National Weather Service issues an excessive heat warning. Locations include , , , , , , , and Tempe. Las Vegas, Nev. : The Salvation Army is reopening one of its facilities to provide residents relief from the heat. Those at the shelter will be able to take showers, do laundry, and stay hydrated while also having the chance to work with case managers for additional services and referrals.

The Salvation Army is reopening one of its facilities to provide residents relief from the heat. Those at the shelter will be able to take showers, do laundry, and stay hydrated while also having the chance to work with case managers for additional services and referrals. St. Louis, Mo. : In addition to opening a cooling center for unsheltered individuals, The Salvation Army has distributed more than 100 air conditioning units to local families in need.

In addition to opening a cooling center for unsheltered individuals, The Salvation Army has distributed more than 100 air conditioning units to local families in need. Portsmouth, Ohio : Opened their corps lobby as a cooling center for people to hydrate and receive shade.

Across the country, The Salvation Army is opening cooling centers for those who need water and shade, as well as providing utility support for the elderly or other vulnerable individuals in affected communities.

The best way to support these efforts is by making a financial contribution, which allows The Salvation Army to meet immediate and long-term needs. To learn more about The Salvation Army's response, visit SalvationArmyUSA.org.

To learn more about staying safe in extreme heat, click here.

Those who are able to donate can do so through a variety of convenient and safe methods:

Visit HelpSalvationArmy.org

Call 1-800-SAL-ARMY

Make a contribution through Amazon Alexa by saying, "Alexa, make a donation to The Salvation Army"

About The Salvation Army USA

The Salvation Army annually helps more than 25 million Americans overcome poverty, addiction, and economic hardships through a range of social services. By providing food for the hungry, emergency relief for disaster survivors, rehabilitation for those suffering from drug and alcohol abuse, and clothing and shelter for people in need, The Salvation Army is doing the most good at 7,200 centers of operation around the country. In 2021, The Salvation Army was ranked No. 2 on the list of "America's Favorite Charities" by The Chronicle of Philanthropy. For more information, visit SalvationArmyUSA.org. Follow us on Twitter @SalvationArmyUS and #DoingTheMostGood.

Contact:

Salvation Army Media Relations

[email protected]

(972) 854-1586

SOURCE The Salvation Army
A successful sale of value-add property at Northern Arizona University highlights the historical resilience of the student housing category in a post-pandemic economy

ALISO VIEJO, Calif., June 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Versity Invest, LLC, (Versity) a nationally recognized real estate investment firm specializing in student housing and conventional multifamily housing, has sold a 194-door property located half a mile from Northern Arizona University, generating 86.5% total return for investors.

"We're very proud of what we were able to accomplish with the Commons at Sawmill. We created a strategy early on and were fortunate enough to implement that strategy by overcoming a variety of hurdles along the way. Ultimately, it proves once again that a strategic value-add plan has the potential to be very effective in student housing, in the right hands of the operator," said Blake Wettengel, CEO of Versity Invest.

The property known as The Commons at Sawmill is located at 901 South O'Leary Street in Flagstaff, Arizona. The Commons at Sawmill is situated half a mile from Northern Arizona University and includes 194 doors with 392 beds. Through Versity, the property has generated an 86.5% total return for investors.

For more information about Versity Invest, LLC, please contact Tanya Muro at 877-827-6272 or by email at [email protected].

ABOUT VERSITY INVEST

Versity Invest, LLC, offers individual investors indirect ownership interests in institutional quality, professionally managed real estate. The company focuses on what we believe to be well-positioned, currently income producing properties, targeted development opportunities and potential value-added investments for its clients through strategies targeting capital improvements, cost efficiency, and revenue maximization. Versity specializes in the acquisition, financing, management, and ownership of real estate investments in student housing, multifamily and niche specialty categories. Versity, and its subsidiaries, currently manages over $1.6BN in real estate.

All loss of some or all principal invested. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Securities offered through Emerson Equity, LLC, Member FINRA/SIPC. www.finra.org and www.sipc.org. Versity and Emerson Equity, LLC are not affiliated.

1031 Risk Disclosure:

There is no guarantee that any strategy will be successful or achieve investment objectives;

Potential for property value loss  All real estate investments have the potential to lose value during the life of the investments;

Change of tax status  The income stream and depreciation schedule for any investment property may affect the property owner's income bracket and/or tax status. An unfavorable tax ruling may cancel deferral of capital gains and result in immediate tax liabilities;

Potential for foreclosure  All financed real estate investments have potential for foreclosure;

Illiquidity  Because 1031 exchanges are commonly offered through private placement offerings and are illiquid securities. There is no secondary market for these investments.

Reduction or Elimination of Monthly Cash Flow Distributions  Like any investment in real estate, if a property unexpectedly loses tenants or sustains substantial damage, there is potential for suspension of cash flow distributions;

Impact of fees/expenses  Costs associated with the transaction may impact investors' returns and may outweigh the tax benefits

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

Tanya Muro, COO

877-827-6272

[email protected]

versityinvest.com

SOURCE Versity Invest, LLC
The iconic fashion brand extends into furniture market to offer chic and effortless style at home

NEW YORK, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- WHP Global ("WHP") announced today that it has entered into a long-term licensing agreement with Nova Design Inc. to develop and distribute a home furniture line for the Anne Klein brand. The Anne Klein Furniture Collection is slated to debut in Winter 2022 and will be carried in select stores and e-commerce retailers throughout the United States.

WHP Global signs deal to launch Anne Klein Furniture.

The Anne Klein Furniture collection will be distinguished by a combination of Parisian Chic, Scandinavian, and Mid-century styles in furniture with a special emphasis on touch, color, and texture of fabric to stand out in the market. Anne Klein's love of her homes  one on the storied Sutton Place in Manhattan, the other in a quaint beachside village in the Hamptons, will serve as inspiration for the collection which will feature pieces for the dining room, living room, bedroom, home office, and outdoor.

"We have experienced success in the home category for Anne Klein with our bedding and bath products and look forward to partnering with Nova Design to offer customers a new way to incorporate the classic style of our iconic brand into their homes," said Stanley Silverstein, Chief Commercial Officer at WHP Global.

Details in the Anne Klein furniture designs will reflect the brand's fresh take on modern sportswear and incorporate environment friendly natural solid wood and materials, to produce a sophisticated, well-priced collection to help consumers live their lives with ease, comfort, and effortless style.

"We are more than excited to see the outcomes of combining the rich experience of Nova Design in the furniture industry and the power of Anne Klein in the fashion industry," said Orhan Ilhan, President of Nova Design Inc. "This partnership will offer elegant and stylish trends in furniture to the American consumers. We believe that Anne Klein Furniture will have a distinguished place among the respected furniture brands in the near future."

Anne Klein is an iconic legacy women's fashion brand founded in 1968, serving women around the world with classic American style. The brand's namesake, Anne Klein herself, formed the brand to create elegant sportswear for women and revolutionize the way that women think about and buy clothing. Now owned by WHP Global, the Anne Klein brand continues to outfit the women who make an impact on the world, with products being sold in more than 15 countries across multiple categories including apparel, handbags, footwear, watches, jewelry, fragrance, home and more.

For more information, visit www.anneklein.com, @AnneKlein on Facebook, or @AnneKleinOfficial on Instagram.

About WHP Global

WHP Global is a leading New York based firm that acquires global consumer brands and invests in high-growth distribution channels including digital commerce platforms and global expansion. WHP owns ANNE KLEIN, JOSEPH ABBOUD, JOE'S JEANS, WILLIAM RAST, LOTTO, TOYS"R"US, and BABIES"R"US, as well as a controlling interest in the ISAAC MIZRAHI brand. Collectively the brands generate over $4.2 billion in global retail sales. The company also owns WHP+, a turnkey direct to consumer digital e-commerce platform for brands, with full in-house operations including technology, data analytics, logistics, creative and digital marketing and WHP SOLUTIONS, a sourcing agency based in Asia. For more information, please visit www.whp-global.com.

About Nova Design Inc.

Nova Design is where creative design ideas come to life. We are reinventing the home decor experience by delivering stylish, durable, high-quality, and still well-priced furniture. With many years of experience in the furniture industry, we do our level best to deliver affordable and beautifully designed furnishings to any home.

Media Contact:

WHP Global

Jaime Cassavechia

EJ Media Group

(646) 701-7041

[email protected]

SOURCE WHP Global
Antacids Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 3.37% Market growth 2022-2026 $ 712.45 million Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 3.11 Regional analysis North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of World (ROW) Performing market contribution North America at 41% Key consumer countries US, Canada, Brazil, Germany, and UK Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Advance Pharmaceutical Inc., AmerisourceBergen Corp., Bayer AG, Cardinal Health Inc., GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Humco Holding Group Inc., iNova Pharmaceuticals, Johnson and Johnson, Neogen Corp., Novartis AG, NuCare Laboratories India, Pfizer Inc., Pharmaceutical Associates Inc., Sanofi SA, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., United Natural Foods Inc., WellSpring Pharmaceutical Corp., and The Procter and Gamble Co. 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.

Buy Report Now to Know more about the market scope and parent market analysis

Key Considerations for Market Forecast:

Impact of lockdowns, supply chain disruptions, demand destruction, and change in customer behavior

Optimistic, probable, and pessimistic scenarios for all markets as the impact of pandemic unfolds

Pre- as well as post-COVID-19 market estimates

Quarterly impact analysis and updates on market estimates

Top 5 Vendor Analysis of Antacids Market

AmerisourceBergen Corp.

The company offers various products including pharmaceuticals, over-the-counter healthcare products, home healthcare supplies, and relates equipment and services to various healthcare providers. The company offers antacids that is a naturally made water dissolving formula to cure acidity and heartburn, under the brand name of American Health Packaging.

Bayer AG

The company offers antacids that help neutralize excess stomach acids, offering fast, effective relief from indigestion and heartburn, under the brand name of Rennie.

Cardinal Health Inc.

The company offers antacids that give relief of heartburn, sour stomach, acid indigestion and to alleviate or relieve the symptoms of gas, under the brand name of Cardinal Health.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc

The company offers antacids that can treate symptoms of heartburn and gastric discomfort, under the brand name of GSK.

Humco Holding Group Inc.

The company offers products such as active pharmaceutical ingredients, drug delivery vehicles, hormone concentrates and over-the-counter medicines. The company offers antacids that deliver clinically proven heartburn relief, under the brand name of Humco.

Download Sample Report for additional product offerings from each contributing vendor

Antacids Market Segment Highlights

Type

Non-symmetric Antacids: The non-systemic antacids segment is expected to grow at a moderate rate in the coming years owing to better efficacy demonstrated when used in combination. In addition, the drugs used as combination therapies minimize the adverse effects and effectively treat GERD and acid reflux.



Symmetric Antacids

Geography

North America: 41% of the market's growth will originate from North America during the forecast period. US and Canada are the key markets for antacids in North America . Market growth in this region will be faster than the growth of the market in Europe and ROW. The high prevalence of GERD for which antacids are predominantly used, the increasing preference for OTC medications, and the practice of self-medication among the population will fuel the antacids market growth in North America over the forecast period.

during the forecast period. US and are the key markets for antacids in . Market growth in this region will be faster than the growth of the market in and ROW. The high prevalence of GERD for which antacids are predominantly used, the increasing preference for OTC medications, and the practice of self-medication among the population will fuel the antacids market growth in over the forecast period.

Europe



Asia



Rest Of World (ROW)

Request Sample Report for more insights on each contributing segment

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Table of Content

1 Executive Summary

1.1 Market overview

Exhibit 01: Executive Summary  Chart on Market Overview



Exhibit 02: Executive Summary  Data Table on Market Overview



Exhibit 03: Executive Summary  Chart on Global Market Characteristics



Exhibit 04: Executive Summary  Chart on Market by Geography



Exhibit 05: Executive Summary  Chart on Market Segmentation by Type



Exhibit 06: Executive Summary  Chart on Incremental Growth



Exhibit 07: Executive Summary  Data Table on Incremental Growth



Exhibit 08: Executive Summary  Chart on Vendor Market Positioning

2 Market Landscape

2.1 Market ecosystem

Exhibit 09: Parent market



Exhibit 10: Market Characteristics

3 Market Sizing

3.1 Market definition

Exhibit 11: Offerings of vendors included in the market definition

3.2 Market segment analysis

Exhibit 12: Market segments

3.3 Market size 2021

3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2021-2026

Exhibit 13: Chart on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 14: Data Table on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 15: Chart on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 16: Data Table on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

4 Five Forces Analysis

4.1 Five forces summary

Exhibit 17: Five forces analysis - Comparison between 2021 and 2026

4.2 Bargaining power of buyers

Exhibit 18: Bargaining power of buyers  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.3 Bargaining power of suppliers

Exhibit 19: Bargaining power of suppliers  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.4 Threat of new entrants

Exhibit 20: Threat of new entrants  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.5 Threat of substitutes

Exhibit 21: Threat of substitutes  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.6 Threat of rivalry

Exhibit 22: Threat of rivalry  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.7 Market condition

Exhibit 23: Chart on Market condition - Five forces 2021 and 2026

5 Market Segmentation by Type

5.1 Market segments

Exhibit 24: Chart on Type - Market share 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 25: Data Table on Type - Market share 2021-2026 (%)

5.2 Comparison by Type

Exhibit 26: Chart on Comparison by Type



Exhibit 27: Data Table on Comparison by Type

5.3 Non-symmetric antacids - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 28: Chart on Non-symmetric antacids - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 29: Data Table on Non-symmetric antacids - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 30: Chart on Non-symmetric antacids - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 31: Data Table on Non-symmetric antacids - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.4 Symmetric antacids - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 32: Chart on Symmetric antacids - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 33: Data Table on Symmetric antacids - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 34: Chart on Symmetric antacids - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 35: Data Table on Symmetric antacids - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.5 Market opportunity by Type

Exhibit 36: Market opportunity by Type ($ million)

6 Customer Landscape

6.1 Customer landscape overview

Exhibit 37: Analysis of price sensitivity, lifecycle, customer purchase basket, adoption rates, and purchase criteria

7 Geographic Landscape

7.1 Geographic segmentation

Exhibit 38: Chart on Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 39: Data Table on Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%)

7.2 Geographic comparison

Exhibit 40: Chart on Geographic comparison



Exhibit 41: Data Table on Geographic comparison

7.3 North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 42: Chart on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 43: Data Table on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 44: Chart on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 45: Data Table on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.4 Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 46: Chart on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 47: Data Table on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 48: Chart on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 49: Data Table on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.5 Asia - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 50: Chart on Asia - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 51: Data Table on Asia - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 52: Chart on Asia - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 53: Data Table on Asia - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.6 Rest of World (ROW) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 54: Chart on Rest of World (ROW) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 55: Data Table on Rest of World (ROW) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 56: Chart on Rest of World (ROW) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 57: Data Table on Rest of World (ROW) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.7 US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 58: Chart on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 59: Data Table on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 60: Chart on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 61: Data Table on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.8 Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 62: Chart on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 63: Data Table on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 64: Chart on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 65: Data Table on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.9 Canada - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 66: Chart on Canada - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 67: Data Table on Canada - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 68: Chart on Canada - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 69: Data Table on Canada - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.10 UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 70: Chart on UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 71: Data Table on UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)



Exhibit 72: Chart on UK - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 73: Data Table on UK - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.11 Brazil - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 74: Chart on Brazil - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 75: Data Table on Brazil - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 76: Chart on Brazil - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 77: Data Table on Brazil - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

7.12 Market opportunity by geography

Exhibit 78: Market opportunity by geography ($ million)

8 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends

8.1 Market drivers

8.2 Market challenges

8.3 Impact of drivers and challenges

Exhibit 79: Impact of drivers and challenges in 2021 and 2026

8.4 Market trends

9 Vendor Landscape

9.1 Overview

9.2 Vendor landscape

Exhibit 80: Overview on Criticality of inputs and Factors of differentiation

9.3 Landscape disruption

Exhibit 81: Overview on factors of disruption

9.4 Industry risks

Exhibit 82: Impact of key risks on business

10 Vendor Analysis

10.1 Vendors covered

Exhibit 83: Vendors covered

10.2 Market positioning of vendors

Exhibit 84: Matrix on vendor position and classification

10.3 AmerisourceBergen Corp.

Exhibit 85: AmerisourceBergen Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 86: AmerisourceBergen Corp. - Business segments



Exhibit 87: AmerisourceBergen Corp. - Key offerings



Exhibit 88: AmerisourceBergen Corp. - Segment focus

10.4 Bayer AG

Exhibit 89: Bayer AG - Overview



Exhibit 90: Bayer AG - Business segments



Exhibit 91: Bayer AG - Key offerings



Exhibit 92: Bayer AG - Segment focus

10.5 Cardinal Health Inc.

Exhibit 93: Cardinal Health Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 94: Cardinal Health Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 95: Cardinal Health Inc. - Key news



Exhibit 96: Cardinal Health Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 97: Cardinal Health Inc. - Segment focus

10.6 GlaxoSmithKline Plc

Exhibit 98: GlaxoSmithKline Plc - Overview



Exhibit 99: GlaxoSmithKline Plc - Business segments



Exhibit 100: GlaxoSmithKline Plc - Key news



Exhibit 101: GlaxoSmithKline Plc - Key offerings



Exhibit 102: GlaxoSmithKline Plc - Segment focus

10.7 Humco Holding Group Inc.

Exhibit 103: Humco Holding Group Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 104: Humco Holding Group Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 105: Humco Holding Group Inc. - Key offerings

10.8 Johnson and Johnson

Exhibit 106: Johnson and Johnson - Overview



Exhibit 107: Johnson and Johnson - Business segments



Exhibit 108: Johnson and Johnson - Key news



Exhibit 109: Johnson and Johnson - Key offerings



Exhibit 110: Johnson and Johnson - Segment focus

10.9 Novartis AG

Exhibit 111: Novartis AG - Overview



Exhibit 112: Novartis AG - Business segments



Exhibit 113: Novartis AG - Key offerings



Exhibit 114: Novartis AG - Segment focus

10.10 Sanofi SA

Exhibit 115: Sanofi SA - Overview



Exhibit 116: Sanofi SA - Business segments



Exhibit 117: Sanofi SA - Key news



Exhibit 118: Sanofi SA - Key offerings



Exhibit 119: Sanofi SA - Segment focus

10.11 Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.

Exhibit 120: Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. - Overview



Exhibit 121: Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. - Product / Service



Exhibit 122: Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. - Key offerings

10.12 WellSpring Pharmaceutical Corp.

Exhibit 123: WellSpring Pharmaceutical Corp. - Overview



Exhibit 124: WellSpring Pharmaceutical Corp. - Product / Service



Exhibit 125: WellSpring Pharmaceutical Corp. - Key offerings

11 Appendix

11.1 Scope of the report

11.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist

Exhibit 126: Inclusions checklist



Exhibit 127: Exclusions checklist

11.3 Currency conversion rates for US$

Exhibit 128: Currency conversion rates for US$

11.4 Research methodology

Exhibit 129: Research methodology



Exhibit 130: Validation techniques employed for market sizing



Exhibit 131: Information sources

11.5 List of abbreviations

Exhibit 132: List of abbreviations

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

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
Big Question for Candidates: "What should Arizona do to keep our elections secure while preventing barriers to participation?"

PHOENIX, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Center for the Future of Arizona (CFA) today released findings on election reform as part of their ongoing reveal of the Arizona Voters' Agenda, which identifies what likely voters in the general election want to hear about from candidates as they campaign for their votes.

While Arizona was the focus of the well-covered audit of the 2020 General Election, as well as a lot of discussions regarding election security, the new survey findings demonstrate voters would be supportive of straightforward reforms that balance security with accessibility and fairness.

"The Arizona Voters' Agenda is a data-driven look at the issues likely Arizona voters across every partisan segment and age group agree and prioritize for the upcoming elections. The growing gap between the election reform priorities of policymakers and the views of Arizona voters is astounding," said Dr. Sybil Francis, President & CEO of CFA. "As voters decide whom to support, they deserve a robust discussion about what we need to do to keep our election system aligned with what Arizonans want."

A sizeable 87% of all likely voters supported the statement, "We can do more to secure our elections system and protect it from outside interference and fraudulent voting. At the same time, we must make sure that it remains easy to vote  and not create barriers to participation that disproportionately hurt certain communities."

Voters expressed broad support for continuing early in-person voting. In fact, 74% of likely voters support a policy priority of "Offering early in-person voting over multiple weeks leading up to Election Day," including 60% Republicans, 75% independents/unaffiliated, and 93% Democrats.

In contrast, likely Arizona voters do not favor eliminating mail-in voting. When asked whether they support or oppose the policy position, "Eliminating mail-in voting in Arizona except for certain predetermined exceptions," only 36% of all likely voters support the statement. On the other hand, 62% of likely voters opposed eliminating the option for mail-in ballots.

Read more.

SOURCE Center For Future of Arizona
ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill., June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. today announced the acquisition of Wexford, Ireland-based INNOVU Group Holding Company Limited ("INNOVU Insurance"). Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded by Ronan Foley in 2018, INNOVU Insurance is a retail insurance broker offering a broad variety of commercial and personal insurance products and services, as well as financial services, to clients across a diverse range of industry sectors from seven offices throughout Ireland. Ronan Foley and his associates will continue to operate from their current locations, reporting to Michael Rea, who runs Gallagher's retail property/casualty brokerage operations in the UK and Ireland.

"INNOVU gives us our first on-the-ground presence in Ireland and a fantastic opportunity to expand in this growing economic region," said J. Patrick Gallagher, Jr., Chairman, President and CEO. "We are delighted to welcome Ronan and his colleagues, and look forward to working with them to further expand their client base and service offerings."

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE: AJG), a global insurance brokerage, risk management and consulting services firm, is headquartered in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. Gallagher provides these services in 130 countries around the world through its owned operations and a network of correspondent brokers and consultants.

Investors: Ray Iardella Media: Linda J. Collins VP - Investor Relations VP- Corporate Communications 630-285-3661/ [email protected] 630-285-4009/ [email protected]

SOURCE Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.
NEW YORK, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As per Zion Market Research study, The global cannabis testing market was valued at around USD 1.35 billion in 2021 and is estimated to grow to about USD 10.86 billion by 2028, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 19.8 percent over the forecast period.

Key Industry Insights & Finding of the Cannabis Testing Market Reports:

As per the analysis shared by our research analyst, the Cannabis Testing Market is expected to grow annually at a CAGR of around 19.8 % (2022-2028).

(2022-2028). Through the primary research, it was established that the Cannabis Testing Market was valued approximately USD 1.35 Billion in 2021 and is projected to reach to roughly USD 10.86 Billion by 2028.

Billion in 2021 and is projected to reach to roughly Billion by 2028. The existence of a significant number of cultivators, as well as an increase in the number of testing laboratories in the North America region due to strict government restrictions for cannabis producers, are key drivers promoting market growth in this North America region.

region due to strict government restrictions for cannabis producers, are key drivers promoting market growth in this region. The rising legalization of cannabis in several European countries, as well as the expanding use of the plant in drug development & research, are expected to fuel the market for cannabis testing.

The cannabis testing market in the region is tightly regulated, with most countries barring goods having more than 0.3 percent THC, thereby driving the market growth in this region.

Zion Market Research published the latest report titled as "Cannabis Testing Market By Technology (Chromatography And Spectroscopy), By Test Type (Potency Testing, Pesticide Screening, Residual Solvent Screening, Heavy Metal Testing, Terpene Testing, And Mycotoxin Testing), And By Region  Global And Regional Industry Overview, Market Intelligence, Comprehensive Analysis, Historical Data, And Forecasts 2022  2028." into their research database.

Cannabis Testing Market : Overview

Cannabis testing is the process of analyzing a single sample of cannabis to evaluate CBD, THC, and terpene levels, as well as pollutants and impurities such as mold spores, residual solvents, infection, and pesticide residue. Each state and municipality has the authority to set their own rules and regulations for what must be tested and printed on cannabis labeling. Individual producers may also choose to adhere to more severe guidelines, even having their samples tested for CBG and CBC levels. Only qualified chemists and lab workers are permitted to conduct this testing. Cannabis production and sales were formerly prohibited worldwide for numerous years.

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Zion Market Research methodology

Industry Dynamics:

Cannabis Testing Market : Growth Drivers

The market is fostering with medical cannabis legalization and increasing cannabis testing labs.

Medical cannabis has shown to be helpful in a number of medical uses, including lowering intraocular pressure in glaucoma patients, managing muscular spasms in multiple sclerosis patients, boosting appetite in AIDS patients, and minimizing chemotherapy-induced nausea. Medical cannabis is legal in a number of countries due to its health benefits. Italy, Brazil, Israel, the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain, North Korea, Canada, and Australia have all approved it in the last few years. Furthermore, 25 states in the United States legalized medical cannabis, with four statesAlaska, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado legalizing cannabis for use for both recreational and medical purposes. Thus, with the rising legalization of cannabis, an increase in adoption of its testing is been witnessed which in turn is fostering the growth of the global cannabis testing market. In addition to this, the increasing number of cultivators and the growing necessity for the safety & efficacy of cannabis products are also some of the key factors that are fueling the market growth.

Cannabis Testing Market : Restraints

The cannabis testing market may be hampered by a lack of universal testing standards.

For delivering a precise and accurate dose of cannabis for medical purposes, certain standards of quality control and regulation are essential. There is, however, a lack of consistency in quality standards among countries. For example, different states in the United States have varied rules and variances governing medical and adult-use cannabis. Various states have different possession limits. The wide range of legislation governing the use of medical cannabis presents a considerable problem for testing laboratories when assessing the quality of these products. Such disparities between states in the United States and between European countries may stymie business growth.

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Global Cannabis Testing Market : Opportunities

Growing necessity of heavy metal testing for cannabis is likely to drive the market during the forecast period.

Besides pesticides, microbiological organisms, and residual solvents, heavy metals are one of the most common pollutants detected in cannabis and its derivatives. Furthermore, heavy metals are highly poisonous and can cause poisoning and other issues when exposed. As a result, heavy metal testing for cannabis and its derivatives is becoming extremely prevalent. Several government agencies have made heavy metal testing for cannabis products mandatory. All such factors coupled with the use of advanced instruments like HPLC techniques are likely to generate ample opportunities for the growth of the global cannabis testing market during the forecast period.

Global Cannabis Testing Market : Challenges

High cost associated with the set-up of cannabis testing laboratories acts as a major challenge for the market.

One of the most critical challenges in this market is the high startup expenses for cannabis testing laboratories. These labs must invest a large amount of money in order to purchase and maintain expensive, modern analytical equipment. Accreditations & certifications such as ISO certification processes, software requirements, standardization & upgrades of equipment, and the need for qualified experts all add to the operating costs. Also, because of the ambiguity in the cannabis testing market, many banks refuse to fund or provide any other type of support to these laboratories. Furthermore, several governments are working on a plan to impose taxes on cannabis testing labs. Thus, the high cost associated with the set-up of cannabis testing laboratories poses a major challenge for the market growth.

Global Cannabis Testing Market : Segmentation

The global cannabis testing market is divided based on technology, test type, and region.

Based on the technology, the global market is split into spectroscopy and chromatography. By test type, the market is categorized into mycotoxin testing, terpene testing, heavy metal testing, residual solvent screening, pesticide screening, and potency testing.

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List of Key Players of Cannabis Testing Market :

Thermo Fisher Scientific

MERCK KGAA

Shimadzu Corporation

Agilent Technologies Inc.

PharmLabs LLC

SC Laboratories Inc.

Steep Hill Inc.

DigiPath Inc.

GreenLeaf Lab

CW ANALYTICAL

Key questions answered in this report:

What are the growth rate forecast and market size for Cannabis Testing Market ?

What are the key driving factors propelling the Cannabis Testing Market forward?

What are the most important companies in the Cannabis Testing Market Industry?

What segments does the Cannabis Testing Market cover?

How can I receive a free copy of the Cannabis Testing Market sample report and company profiles?

Report Scope:

Report Attribute Details Market size value in 2021 USD 1.35 Billion Revenue forecast in 2028 USD 10.86 Billion Growth Rate CAGR of almost 19.8 % 2022-2028 Base Year 2020 Historic Years 2016 - 2021 Forecast Years 2022 - 2028 Segments Covered By Product Type, By Application, and By End Use Forecast Units Value (USD Billion), and Volume (Units) Quantitative Units Revenue in USD million/billion and CAGR from 2022 to 2028 Regions Covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa, and Rest of World Countries Covered U.S., Canada, Mexico, U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Argentina, GCC Countries, and South Africa, among others Companies Covered Thermo Fisher Scientific, MERCK KGAA, Shimadzu Corporation, Agilent Technologies, Inc., PharmLabs LLC, SC Laboratories, Inc., Steep Hill Inc., DigiPath, Inc., GreenLeaf Lab, and CW ANALYTICAL, among others. Report Coverage Market growth drivers, restraints, opportunities, Porter's five forces analysis, PEST analysis, value chain analysis, regulatory landscape, market attractiveness analysis by segments and region, company market share analysis, and COVID-19 impact analysis. Customization Scope Avail customized purchase options to meet your exact research needs. https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/custom/3422

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Recent Developments

In February 2022 , ACS Laboratory, the biggest cannabis and hemp cannabis testing laboratory in the eastern United States , introduced an HHC Potency Test and related Metals Testing Bundle targeted at HHC (hexahydrocannabinol) products to strengthen consumer trust and increase product quality. ACS Laboratory currently tests for 23 cannabinoids, more than any other lab in the United States .

, ACS Laboratory, the biggest cannabis and hemp cannabis testing laboratory in the eastern , introduced an HHC Potency Test and related Metals Testing Bundle targeted at HHC (hexahydrocannabinol) products to strengthen consumer trust and increase product quality. ACS Laboratory currently tests for 23 cannabinoids, more than any other lab in . In July 2021 , PureVita Labs opened new hemp and cannabis analytical testing lab to open in Rhode Island . The lab reported that the state health department has granted it permission to sample & test cannabis for contaminants and potency.

Regional Dominance:

North America to dominate the market during the forecast period.

Geographically, North America is estimated to dominate the global cannabis testing market during the forecast period. The existence of a significant number of cultivators in the region, as well as an increase in the number of testing laboratories in the region due to strict government restrictions for cannabis producers, are key drivers promoting market growth in this region. Europe, on the other hand, is anticipated to grow at the fastest rate during the forecast period. The rising legalization of cannabis in several European countries, as well as the expanding use of the plant in drug development & research, are expected to fuel the market for cannabis testing. In addition, the cannabis testing market in the region is tightly regulated, with most countries barring goods having more than 0.3 percent THC, thereby driving the market growth in this region.

Global Cannabis Testing Market is segmented as follows:

Cannabis Testing Market : By Technology Outlook (2022-2028)

Chromatography

Spectroscopy

Cannabis Testing Market : By Test Type Outlook (2022-2028)

Potency Testing

Pesticide Screening

Residual Solvent Screening

Heavy Metal Testing

Terpene Testing

Mycotoxin Testing

Cannabis Testing Market : By Region Outlook (2022-2028)

North America

The U.S.

Canada

Europe

France

The UK

Spain

Germany

Italy

Rest of Europe

Asia Pacific

China

Japan

India

South Korea

Southeast Asia

Rest of Asia Pacific

Latin America

Brazil

Mexico

Rest of Latin America

Middle East & Africa

GCC

South Africa

Rest of Middle East & Africa

Press Release For Cannabis Testing Market : https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/news/global-cannabis-testing-market

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The global Cannabis Cultivation Market accrued earnings worth approximately 147.3 (USD Billion) in 2020 and is predicted to gain revenue of about 359.6 (USD Billion) by 2028, is set to record a CAGR of nearly 14.5% over the period from 2021 to 2028. Pharmaceutical Sterility Testing Market - Global Industry Analysis : The global Pharmaceutical Sterility Testing Market accrued earnings worth approximately 1.2(USD Billion) in 2020 and is predicted to gain revenue of about 2.3 (USD Billion) by 2028, is set to record a CAGR of nearly 11.9% over the period from 2021 to 2028.

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SOURCE Zion Market Research
Gregg Renfrew  Founder and Executive Chair of Beautycounter  has led the way for advocacy in the beauty industry. She was selected as the first founder of a clean beauty brand to testify in front of Congress in 2019, and the brand's advocacy has resulted in the passage of 10 pieces of legislation since Beautycounter was founded in 2011. Beautycounter has made significant progress on policy change over the last decade to better protect the health and safety of consumers and is continuing to drive advocacy work this year.

Most recently, Beautycounter has been working alongside federal lawmakers to advance and advocate for key changes to the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Landmark Advancements Act (FDASLA), which would modernize cosmetic regulation and oversight. The legislation includes the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022, which would update the FDA's regulation of cosmetics and personal-care products in the United States. While FDASLA presents an important step forward, Beautycounter has proposed several key changes to the bill  outlined in detail here  before it becomes law to ensure that all cosmetics and personal-care products are free from harmful chemicals. The proposed changes include:

Banning the use of PFAS from raw materials and packaging used in cosmetics.

Addressing the scope of federal preemption to ensure that states can legislate to strengthen personal-care product safety. This would protect states' abilities to enact their own laws and regulations that protect the health and wellness of their residents.

Establishing a strong standard for safety requiring a "reasonable certainty of no harm" before a product can be sold to consumers.

"Since the last major cosmetics bill passed in 1938, tens of thousands of new products and chemicals have been introduced on the market," said Beautycounter Founder and Executive Chair Gregg Renfrew. "However, because the FDA does not have the ability to screen ingredients for safety and recall products in the personal-care industry, many formulas remain largely unchecked and individual companies are left to determine what they deem to be safe. These concerns are exactly why Beautycounter has been part of the movement for change since we launched, and why we continue to encourage consumers to use their collective voice to demand strong and comprehensive legislation."

To further mobilize its community around this shared cause, Beautycounter is launching a text action campaign to empower people to advocate for its recommended changes to the FDASLA and raise the standards of the beauty industry overall. The brand will encourage consumers, its community of 50,000+ Brand Advocates, and members of its Counteract Coalition (a collective of businesses working together to help pass more health-protective laws in the beauty industry) to text BETTERBEAUTY to 52886 in the U.S. and 18888867542 in Canada. By texting, people interested in advocating for cleaner beauty will be able to easily access suggested correspondence to send to their local representatives.

This is one of many ways that Beautycounter has encouraged its community to be a part of creating a future where all beauty is clean beauty. For nearly a decade, Beautycounter has advocated for better health-protective legislation that would allow the FDA to regulate the industry more effectively. Beautycounter and its community have sent over 236,000 emails, made 16,000 calls, and held 2,200 meetings with legislators in the U.S. and Canada, urging lawmakers to support cosmetic reform. The brand's efforts have led to the passage of 10 pieces of legislation and is currently working on nine more. In April 2022, Beautycounter led a lobby day in Washington, D.C., where 225 Brand Advocates held over 50 meetings with lawmakers to advocate for more health-protective legislation to reform the beauty industry.

About Beautycounter

Founded by Gregg Renfrew in 2011 and launched in 2013, Beautycounter is the leader in cleaner skin care and cosmetics whose mission is to get safer products into the hands of everyone. A certified B Corporation, the Santa Monica, CA-based brand leads the way for improved transparency and accountability in the beauty industry, including advocacy efforts to update federal regulations that have stood largely unchanged since 1938. Beautycounter is an omnichannel brand and is available today online, in physical retail stores, through strategic partnerships, and through its community of independent sellers across North America. Beautycounter offers more than 100 products that have earned numerous awards, including Fast Company's Most Innovative, Allure's Best of Beauty, Glamour's Beauty Awards, Refinery29's Innovators List, WWD's 2019 Best-Performing Beauty Company, and CNBC's Disruptor 50. For more information, visit www.beautycounter.com, follow on Instagram @beautycounter, Twitter @beautycounterhq, and Facebook @beautycounterhq.

SOURCE Beautycounter
DALLAS, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP is pleased to announce that Lauren Smyth has joined as a partner in the firm's Dallas office as a member of the Real Estate Practice Group.

"We are pleased to welcome Lauren to our team. We look forward to having her commercial real estate experience and work on complex and significant projects add depth to our capabilities as we continue to provide exceptional service to our clients," said Bradley Dallas Office Managing Partner Richard A. Sayles.

Ms. Smyth focuses her practice on commercial real estate and regularly represents buyers, sellers, landlords, tenants, borrowers and lenders in the acquisition, development, financing and disposition of commercial properties. Her experience ranges from complex lease negotiations to the creation of large-scale condominium projects and mixed-use developments. Before graduating from the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law with high honors, Ms. Smyth received her B.A. in Political Science and French from Southern Methodist University and worked for the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs. She is a member of the American Bar Association, and the Real Estate and Probate & Trust Sections of the State Bar of Texas. Ms. Smyth is also a member of the Dallas Association of Young Lawyers and the Dallas Bar Association's Real Property Law and Probate, Trust & Estates Sections.

Bradley's Real Estate Practice Group is deeply embedded in the commercial real estate industry, serving every sector of the market, including office, multi-family, industrial, healthcare and medical, hospitality, and residential tract development, whether through acquisitions, financing, lending, leasing, construction, regulatory, tax, and other legal counsel, guidance or advice. The team handles complex, multimillion-dollar projects for large institutions, as well as routine transactions for clients whose primary interests are in real estate investment or development.

About Bradley

Bradley combines skilled legal counsel with exceptional client service and unwavering integrity to assist a diverse range of corporate and individual clients in achieving their business goals. With offices in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and the District of Columbia, the firm's almost 600 lawyers represent regional, national and international clients in various industries, including banking and financial services, construction, energy, healthcare, life sciences, manufacturing, real estate, and technology, among many others.

Contact: Vivian Hood

904.220.1915

[email protected]



Social Media: @bradleylegal, #legalnews, #lawyers

SOURCE Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP
TORONTO, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Braxia Scientific Corp. ("Braxia", or the "Company"), (CSE: BRAX) (OTC: BRAXF) (FWB: 4960), a medical research company with clinics providing innovative ketamine treatments for persons with depression and related disorders, is pleased to announce its participation at the H.C. Wainwright Global Investment Conference from June 27  28, 2022 in New York.

Braxia Scientific CEO Dr. Roger McIntyre will deliver two live presentations at the conference beginning with a Keynote address - Introduction to the State of Mental Healthcare  to kick off the conference on Monday, June 27 at 8:15 a.m. ET

Dr. McIntyre, will also deliver a second presentation on Monday, June 27 at 4:00 p.m. ET providing an overview of the Braxia's business, including its progress on increasing access to novel ketamine and psychedelic treatments for patients with depression, while also expanding the clinical research infrastructure required to execute on the Company's growing pipeline of registered clinical trials alongside third-party sponsors.

Braxia's trials include Canada's first multi-dose psilocybin-assisted therapy trial which commenced in November 2021 and recently reported positive preliminary results.

Dr. McIntyre will also be available to host one-on-one meetings with institutional investors registered with H.C. Wainwright and Co.

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.
BROWARD COUNTY, Fla., June 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Youth programs, a national forum to preserve Black culture online and a successful email marketing campaign earned Broward County Library two national and two statewide awards from the National Association of Counties (NACo) and the Florida Library Association (FLA).

Nationally, Broward County Library received two NACo Achievement Awards, which recognize innovative county government programs that help build healthy, safe and thriving communities. The library's winning programs were "Archiving the Black Web: A National Forum to Map the Landscape, Define the Issues, and Plan a Strategy for Documenting the Black Experience Online," which focuses on national strategies for preserving Black culture online, and the library's Science Fair Festival, an annual event providing students, parents and caregivers with an afternoon of presentations, STEM demos and fun activities that help them prepare for their school science fair project.

Broward County Library also won two prestigious FLA Awards, which honor outstanding Florida libraries, individuals, businesses and library supporters. "Ready for College," which provides high school students with free, online college-test prep classes, earned FLA's Betty Davis Miller Youth Services Award. The library's Marketing Section received the Excellence in Marketing Award for a successful 2021 email marketing campaign designed to increase awareness of free library services and events.

"We are thrilled to be recognized for doing what we love best - providing valuable library resources to our customers and communities," says Broward County Library Director Allison Grubbs. "Winning prestigious national and statewide awards such as these raises awareness not only of these four amazing library projects, but of the many other events, programs and services we offer."

The 2022 FLA Award winners were honored during FLA's May 2022 Annual Conference in Ponte Vedra, Florida, and the NACo awards will be presented in an upcoming Broward County award ceremony.

About Broward County Libraries

Broward County Libraries Division, named 2020 and 2015 Library of the Year by the Florida Library Association, was founded in 1974 and is one of the largest and busiest library systems in Florida. Broward County Libraries Division's 38 locations provide convenient access to a full range of innovative and cost-effective services that satisfy the changing needs of the people of Broward County for information, education and recreation. Visit our website, Broward.org/Library, or follow Libraries on Facebook and Twitter.

SOURCE Broward County Libraries
BEIJING, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- China Online Education Group ("51Talk" or the "Company") (NYSE:COE), a global online education platform with core expertise in English education, announced its unaudited financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2022.

The Company Enters into Definitive Agreement to Spin off China Mainland Business

The company has entered into a definitive share purchase agreement, dated June 24, 2022 (the "Share Purchase Agreement"), with Dasheng Holding (HK) Limited ("Dasheng"), an entity controlled by Mr. Jiajia Jack Huang, chairman of the board of directors (the "Board") and chief executive officer of the Company, pursuant to which Mr. Jiajia Jack Huang, through Dasheng, will acquire all of the Company's online English tutoring businesses in the China mainland, including all associated liabilities and assets (the "China Mainland Business"), for US$1. Upon the Closing, the Company expects to shift from a negative net assets position to a positive net assets position, showing a significant improvement.

The Company's overseas business outside the China mainland and its associated assets and liabilities are not part of the Transaction and will be the Company's strategic focus going forward.

As the Company will focus on its overseas business going forward, starting from the first quarter of 2022, the Company changed its reporting currency from Renminbi ("RMB") to U.S. dollar ("US$"). Financial information of prior periods have been recast as if the Company always used US$ as the reporting currency during each period.

First Quarter 2022 Financial and Operating Highlights

Net revenues were US$9.5 million , a 89.7% decrease from US$92.4 million for the first quarter of 2021.

, a 89.7% decrease from for the first quarter of 2021. Gross margin was negative 14.0%, compared with 73.4% for the first quarter of 2021.

GAAP net loss was US$21.2 million , compared with GAAP net income US$1.2 million for the first quarter of 2021.

, compared with GAAP net income for the first quarter of 2021. Non-GAAP net loss [1] was US$20.8 million , compared with non-GAAP net income US$2.6 million for the first quarter of 2021.

was , compared with non-GAAP net income for the first quarter of 2021. Operating cash outflow was US$29.2 million , compared with US$6.0 million cash inflow for the first quarter of 2021.

, compared with cash inflow for the first quarter of 2021. Cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, time deposits and short-term investments balance reached US$126.4 million as of March 31, 2022 .

Key Financial and Operating Data For the three months ended





Mar. 31,

Mar. 31,

Y-o-Y

2021

2022

Change











Net revenues (in US$ millions) 92.4

9.5

(89.7) % Overseas business -

1.9

- Mainland China business 92.4

7.6

(91.8) % Net income/(loss) (in US$ millions ) 1.2

(21.2)

(1,866.7) % Non-GAAP net income/(loss) (in US$ millions ) 2.6

(20.8)

(705.9) %























Active students with attended lesson consumption[2] (in thousands) -

231.1

- Active students with general lesson consumption[3] (in thousands) 392.7

298.6

(24.0) %













[1] For more information on non-GAAP financial measures, please see the section of "Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures" and the table captioned "Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Measures to the Most Comparable GAAP Measures" set forth in this press release. [2] An "active student with attended lesson consumption" for a specified period refers to a student who attended at least one paid lesson, excluding those students who only attended paid live broadcasting lessons or trial lessons. [3] An "active student with general lesson consumption" for a specified period refers to a student who consumed at least one paid lesson credit, in attendance or due to minimum consumption or expiration,excluding those students who only attended paid live broadcasting lessons or trial lessons.

"In order to comply with the government policies in China and focus on our overseas business, we have started restructuring our business and reached a definitive agreement to spin off our China Mainland Business on June 24. After the closing of the spin-off transaction, 100% of the Company's revenues will be derived from overseas markets, and the Company will have a positive net equity. Going forward, we will continue to work with our teachers to provide effective and advanced educational services to our overseas students." said Mr. Jack Jiajia Huang, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of 51Talk.

"With the rapid growth of our overseas business, we exceeded our target on gross billings in the first quarter. Our first quarter net gross billings have reached $5.3 million, representing 79.9% sequential growth. In the first quarter, the number of our paying students reached 6.5k and the number of our active students with attended lesson consumption reached 9.3k with students from more than 50 countries and regions outside the China mainland. In addition, our overseas business achieved its first positive monthly operating cash flow in March, within only eight months since we launched our overseas business. Revenues from overseas business in the first quarter was $1.9 million with gross margin of 78.0%. The rapid growth proved that the strong demand and the business model in overseas markets are very much similar to that in the China mainland and we are confident that overseas business will achieve sustainable growth similar to what we had accomplished in the China mainland." concluded Mr. Huang.

First Quarter 2022 Financial Results

Net Revenues

Net revenues for the first quarter of 2022 were US$9.5 million, a 89.7% decrease from US$92.4 million for the same quarter last year. We did not recognize US$48.0 million non-compliant lesson consumptions as revenues and recorded the amount as contingent liabilities instead. Meanwhile, the number of active students with general lesson consumption in the first quarter of 2022 was 298,600, a 24.0% decrease from 392,700 for the same quarter last year.

Net revenues for overseas business in the first quarter were US$ 1.9 million with 9.3 thousand active students with attended lesson consumption.

Cost of Revenues

Cost of revenues for the first quarter of 2022 was US$10.8 million, a 55.9% decrease from US$24.6 million for the same quarter last year. The decrease was primarily due to the decrease in total service fees paid to teachers, mainly resulting from an decreased number of paid lessons. Cost of revenues for overseas business in the first quarter was US$0.4 million.

Gross (Loss)/Profit and Gross Margin

Gross loss for the first quarter of 2022 was US$1.3 million, a 102.0% decrease from US$67.8 million for the same quarter last year. Gross profit for overseas business in the first quarter was US$1.5 million.

Gross margin for the first quarter of 2022 was negative 14.0%, compared with 73.4% for the same quarter last year. The decrease was because we did not recognize US$48.0 million non-compliant lesson consumptions as revenues for China Mainland Business but still recorded the corresponding cost of revenues of US$9.1 million. Gross margin for overseas business in the first quarter of 2022 was 77.9%.

Operating Expenses

Total operating expenses for the first quarter of 2022 were US$20.6 million, a 70.0% decrease from US$68.6 million for the same quarter last year. The decrease was mainly due to the decrease in sales and marketing expenses and product development expenses. Total operating expenses for overseas business were US$5.0 million in the first quarter of 2022.

Sales and marketing expenses for the first quarter of 2022 were US$7.1 million, a 85.6% decrease from US$49.1 million for the same quarter last year. The decrease was mainly due to lower sales personnel costs related to decreases in the number of sales and marketing personnel and lower marketing and branding expenses. Excluding share-based compensation expenses, non-GAAP sales and marketing expenses for the first quarter of 2022 were US$7.1 million, a 85.5% decrease from US$48.7 million for the same quarter last year. Sales and marketing expenses for overseas business were US$2.0 million. Excluding share-based compensation expenses, non-GAAP sales and marketing expenses for overseas business were US$2.0 million.

Product development expenses for the first quarter of 2022 were US$2.0 million, a 77.4% decrease from US$8.9 million for the same quarter last year. The decrease was primarily due to lower product development personnel costs related to decreases in the number of personnel. Excluding share-based compensation expenses, non-GAAP product development expenses for the first quarter of 2022 were US$2.0 million, a 77.1% decrease from US$8.6 million for the same quarter last year. Product development expenses for overseas business in the first quarter were US$1.1 million. Excluding share-based compensation expenses, non-GAAP product development expenses for overseas business in the first quarter of 2022 were US$1.1 million.

General and administrative expenses for the first quarter of 2022 were US$11.5 million, a 7.9% increase from US$10.7 million for the same quarter last year. The increase was primarily due to value added tax of US$2.9 million related to non-compliant lesson consumptions, accrued value added tax and related tax penalty of US$2.8 million, and restructuring cost of US$0.8 million during this quarter. Excluding share-based compensation expenses, non-GAAP general and administrative expenses for the first quarter of 2022 were US$11.2 million, a 12.5% increase from US$10.0 million for the same quarter last year. Overseas business general and administrative expenses for the first quarter of 2022 were US$1.9 million. Excluding share-based compensation expenses, overseas business non-GAAP general and administrative expenses for the first quarter of 2022 were US$1.6 million.

Other income

On September 30, 2019, the Ministry of Finance and the State Taxation Administration announced that from October 1, 2019 to December 31, 2021, taxpayers engaging in the provision of essential services are allowed to deduct an extra 15% of the deductible input value-added tax for the current period from the payable value-added tax. In 2022, the tax preferential policy has been extended to December 31, 2022. The impact of the policy of additional value-added tax credit for the income generated by the essential services provided by enterprises was US$0.2 million and US$1.7 million in the first quarter of 2022 and 2021 respectively.

(Loss)/income from Operations

Loss from operations for the first quarter of 2022 was US$21.7 million, compared with operating income of US$0.9 million for the same quarter last year. Loss from operations for overseas business in the first quarter of 2022 was US$3.5 million.

Non-GAAP loss from operations for the first quarter of 2022 was US$21.4 million, compared with non-GAAP operating income of US$2.3 million for the same quarter last year. Non-GAAP loss from operations for overseas business in the first quarter were US$3.2 million.

Net (loss)/income

Net loss for the first quarter of 2022 was US$21.2 million, compared with net income of US$1.2 million for the same quarter last year. Net loss for overseas businss in the first quarter was US$3.4 million.

Non-GAAP net loss for the first quarter of 2022 was US$20.8 million, compared with non-GAAP net income of US$2.6 million for the same quarter last year. Non-GAAP net loss for overseas business in the first quarter was US$3.1 million.

Income tax expense for the first quarter of 2022 was US$2.1 million.

Basic net loss per share attributable to ordinary shareholders for the first quarter of 2022 was US$0.06, compared with basic net income per share of US$0.00 for the same quarter last year. Diluted net loss per share attributable to ordinary shareholders for the first quarter of 2022 was US$0.06, compared with diluted net income per share of US$0.00 for the same quarter last year.

Non-GAAP basic net loss per share attributable to ordinary shareholders for the first quarter of 2022 was US$0.06, compared with non-GAAP basic net income per share attributable to ordinary shareholders of US$0.01 for the same quarter last year. Non-GAAP diluted net loss per share attributable to ordinary shareholders for the first quarter of 2022 was US$0.06, compared with non-GAAP diluted net income per share attributable to ordinary shareholders of US$0.01 for the same quarter last year.

Basic net loss per American depositary share ("ADS") attributable to ordinary shareholders for the first quarter of 2022 was US$0.95, compared with basic net income per ADS of US$0.06 for the same quarter last year. Diluted net loss per ADS attributable to ordinary shareholders for the first quarter of 2022 was US$0.95, compared with diluted net income per ADS of US$0.05 for the same quarter last year. Each ADS represents 15 Class A ordinary shares.

Non-GAAP basic net loss per ADS attributable to ordinary shareholders for the first quarter of 2022 was US$0.94, compared with non-GAAP basic net income per ADS attributable to ordinary shareholders of US$0.12 for the same quarter last year. Non-GAAP diluted net loss per ADS attributable to ordinary shareholders for the first quarter of 2022 was US$0.94, compared with non-GAAP diluted net income per ADS attributable to ordinary shareholders of US$0.11 for the same quarter last year.

Balance Sheet

As of March 31, 2022, the Company had total cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, time deposits and short-term investments of US$126.4 million, compared with US$155.7 million as of December 31, 2021. The Company had non-current time deposits of US$15.8 million, compared with US$15.8 million as of December 31, 2021. The Company had restricted cash of US$7.7 million, compared with US$7.9 million as of December 31, 2021.

The Company had advances from students[4] (current and non-current) of US$216.6 million as of March 31, 2022, compared with US$274.7 million as of December 31, 2021. The Company had contingent liabilities of US$51.0 million related to non-compliant lesson consumptions and corresponding VAT for China Mainland Business.

[4] "Advances from students", which is defined as the amount of obligation to transfer good or service to students or business partners for which consideration has been received from students in advance. The deposits from students are also presented in the total amount of "advances from students".

Outlook

For the second quarter of 2022, the Company currently expects net gross billings of oversea business to be between $7.2 million and $7.5 million,representing a sequential growth between 36.1% and 41.8%.

The above outlook is based on current market conditions and reflects the Company's current and preliminary estimates of market and operating conditions and customer demand, which are all subject to change.

In addition, the Company's future operational and financial performance depends on the future development of the implementation of the Opinion and the success of the Company's business adjustment plans, which is subject to inherent uncertainties at this time.

Conference Call

The Company's management will host an earnings conference call at 8:00 AM U.S. Eastern Time on June 24, 2022 (8:00 PM Beijing/Hong Kong time on June 24, 2022).

Dial-in details for the earnings conference call are as follows:

UnitedStates (toll free): 1-66-264-5888 International: 1-412-317-5226 Mainland China: 400-120-1203 Hong Kong (toll free): 800-905-945 Hong Kong: 852-3018-4992

Participants should dial-in at least 5 minutes before the scheduled start time and ask to be connected to the call for "China Online Education Group."

Additionally, a live and archived webcast of the conference call will be available on the Company's investor relations website at http://ir.51talk.com.

A replay of the conference call will be accessible until July 1, 2022, by dialing the following telephone numbers:

United States (toll free): 1-877-344-7529 International: 1-412-317-0088 Replay Access Code: 9842103

About China Online Education Group

China Online Education Group (NYSE: COE) is a global online education platform with core expertise in English education. The Company's mission is to make quality education accessible and affordable. The Company's online and mobile education platforms enable students to take live interactive English lessons, on demand. The Company connects its students with a large pool of highly qualified teachers that it assembled using a shared economy approach, and employs student and teacher feedback and data analytics to deliver a personalized learning experience to its students.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

In evaluating its business, 51Talk considers and uses the following measures defined as non-GAAP financial measures by the SEC as supplemental metrics to review and assess its operating performance: non-GAAP sales and marketing expenses, non-GAAP product development expenses, non-GAAP general and administrative expenses, non-GAAP operating expenses, non-GAAP operating income, non-GAAP net income, non-GAAP net income attributable to ordinary shareholders, and non-GAAP net income attributable to ordinary shareholders per share and per ADS. To present each of these non-GAAP measures, the Company excludes share-based compensation expenses. The presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP. For more information on these non-GAAP financial measures, please see the table captioned "Reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures" set forth at the end of this press release.

51Talk believes that these non-GAAP financial measures provide meaningful supplemental information regarding its performance by excluding share-based compensation expenses that may not be indicative of its operating performance from a cash perspective. 51Talk believes that both management and investors benefit from these non-GAAP financial measures in assessing its performance and when planning and forecasting future periods. These non-GAAP financial measures also facilitate management's internal comparisons to 51Talk's historical performance. 51Talk computes its non-GAAP financial measures using the same consistent method from quarter to quarter and from period to period. 51Talk believes these non-GAAP financial measures are useful to investors in allowing for greater transparency with respect to supplemental information used by management in its financial and operational decision-making. A limitation of using non-GAAP measures is that these non-GAAP measures exclude share-based compensation expenses that have been and will continue to be for the foreseeable future a significant recurring expense in the 51Talk's business. Management compensates for these limitations by providing specific information regarding the GAAP amounts excluded from each non-GAAP measure. The accompanying table at the end of this press release provides more details on the reconciliations between GAAP financial measures that are most directly comparable to non-GAAP financial measures.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains statements that may constitute "forward-looking" statements pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will", "expects", "anticipates", "aims", "future", "intends", "plans", "believes", "estimates", "likely to" and similar statements. Among other things, 51Talk's business outlook and quotations from management in this announcement, as well as 51Talk's strategic and operational plans, contain forward-looking statements. 51Talk may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its periodic reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about 51Talk's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to the following: 51Talk's goals and strategies; 51Talk's expectations regarding demand for and market acceptance of its brand and platform; 51Talk's ability to retain and increase its student enrollment; 51Talk's ability to offer new courses; 51Talk's ability to engage, train and retain new teachers; 51Talk's future business development, results of operations and financial condition; 51Talk's ability to maintain and improve infrastructure necessary to operate its education platform; competition in the online education industry in China; the expected growth of, and trends in, the markets for 51Talk's course offerings in China; relevant government policies and regulations relating to 51Talk's corporate structure, business and industry; general economic and business condition in China, the Philippines and elsewhere and assumptions underlying or related to any of the foregoing. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in 51Talk's filings with the SEC. All information provided in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and 51Talk does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law.

For investor and media inquiries, please contact:

China Online Education Group

Investor Relations

[email protected]

CHINA ONLINE EDUCATION GROUP UNAUDITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (In thousands)























As of









Dec. 31,

Mar. 31











2021

2022











US$

US$





















ASSETS













Current assets















Cash and cash equivalents

33,680

47,283







Restricted cash

7,929

7,652







Time deposits

7,597

7,602







Short-term investments

90,652

48,032







Inventory

169

150







Prepaid expenses and other current assets

11,223

14,813





Total current assets

151,250

125,532























Non-current assets















Property and equipment, net

2,669

1,580







Intangible assets, net

1,758

1,609







Goodwill

-

-







Right-of-use assets

5,789

4,990







Time deposits

15,821

15,841







Deferred tax assets

8,919

6,902







Other non-current assets

862

943





Total non-current assets

35,818

31,865























Total assets

187,068

157,397





















LIABILITIES













AND SHAREHOLDERS' DEFICIT





Current liabilities















Contingent liabilities[5]

-

50,968







Advances from students

274,514

216,407







Accrued expenses and other current liabilities

15,089

13,357







Lease liability

3,043

2,687







Taxes payable

4,396

7,700





Total current liabilities

297,042

291,119























Non-current liabilities















Advances from students

177

166







Lease liability

3,033

2,544







Other non-current liabilities

243

246





Total non-current liabilities

3,453

2,956























Total liabilities

300,495

294,075





















Total shareholders' deficit

(113,427)

(136,678)





















Total liabilities and shareholders' deficit

187,068

157,397

























[5] Contingent liabilities represent the revenues and corresponding valued added taxes which did not be recognized from lesson consumptions of non-compliant packages.

CHINA ONLINE EDUCATION GROUP

UNAUDITED INTERIM CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME

(In thousands except for number of shares and per share data)























For the three months ended







Mar. 31,

Dec. 31,

Mar. 31,







2021

2021

2022







US$

US$

US$

Net revenues

92,416

66,824

9,509

Cost of revenues

(24,583)

(13,793)

(10,844)

Gross profit/(loss)

67,833

53,031

(1,335)

Operating expenses















Sales and marketing expenses

(49,093)

(36,848)

(7,062)



Product development expenses

(8,885)

(2,384)

(2,009)



General and administrative expenses

(10,653)

(10,887)

(11,499)



Goodwill and intangibles impairment

-

(62)

-

Total operating expenses

(68,631)

(50,181)

(20,570)

Other income

1,708

86

184

Income/(loss) from operations

910

2,936

(21,721)

Interest income

1,789

896

539

Interest expenses

-

(2)

(11)

Other (expenses)/income, net

(525)

1,203

2,088

Income/(loss) before income tax expenses

2,174

5,033

(19,105)

Income tax (expenses)/benefits

(938)

5,420

(2,066)

Net income/(loss), all attributable to the Company's ordinary shareholders

1,236

10,453

(21,171)













































CHINA ONLINE EDUCATION GROUP UNAUDITED INTERIM CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME (In thousands except for number of shares and per share data)

















For the three months ended





Mar. 31,

Dec. 31,

Mar. 31,







2021

2021

2022







US$

US$

US$

Weighted average number of ordinary shares used in computing basic

income/(loss) per share

322,796,828 332,760,727

334,056,649



Weighted average number of ordinary shares used in computing diluted

income/(loss) per share

342,150,096 337,351,518

334,056,649



















Net income/(loss) per share attributable to ordinary shareholders





Basic

0.00

0.03

(0.06)

Diluted

0.00

0.03

(0.06)

Net income/(loss) per ADS attributable to ordinary shareholders Basic

0.06

0.47

(0.95)

Diluted

0.05

0.46

(0.95)



Comprehensive income/(loss):













Net income/(loss)

1,236

10,453

(21,171)

Other comprehensive income/(loss)













Foreign currency translation adjustments

277

(769)

(1,896)

Total comprehensive income/(loss)

1,513

9,684

(23,067)





































Sales and marketing expenses

(383)

(62)

8

Product development expenses

(267)

47

(38)

General and administrative expenses

(695)

(458)

(293)



























CHINA ONLINE EDUCATION GROUP Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Measures to the Most Comparable GAAP Measures (In thousands except for number of shares and per share data)



























For the three months ended





Mar. 31,

Dec. 31,

Mar. 31,









2021

2021

2022









US$

US$

US$























Sales and marketing expenses

(49,093)

(36,848)

(7,062)



Less: Share-based compensation expenses

(383)

(62)

8



Non-GAAP sales and marketing expenses

(48,710)

(36,786)

(7,070)























Product development expenses

(8,885)

(2,384)

(2,009)



Less: Share-based compensation expenses

(267)

47

(38)



Non-GAAP product development expenses

(8,618)

(2,431)

(1,971)























General and administrative expenses

(10,653)

(10,887)

(11,499)



Less: Share-based compensation expenses

(695)

(458)

(293)



Non-GAAP general and administrative expenses

(9,958)

(10,429)

(11,206)























Goodwill and intangibles impairment

-

(62)

-



Less: Share-based compensation expenses

-

-

-



Non-GAAP goodwill and intangibles impairment

-

(62)

-





















Operating expenses

(68,631)

(50,181)

(20,570)



Less: Share-based compensation expenses

(1,345)

(473)

(323)



Non-GAAP operating expenses

(67,286)

(49,708)

(20,247)























Income/(loss) from operations

910

2,936

(21,721)



Less: Share-based compensation expenses

(1,345)

(473)

(323)



Non-GAAP income/(loss) from operations

2,255

3,409

(21,398)







































CHINA ONLINE EDUCATION GROUP Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Measures to the Most Comparable GAAP Measures (In thousands except for number of shares and per share data)





















For the three months ended





Mar. 31,

Dec. 31,

Mar. 31,







2021

2021

2022







US$

US$

US$



















Income tax expenses

(938)

5,420

(2,066)

Less: Tax impact of Share-based compensation expenses

-

-

-

Non-GAAP income tax expenses

(938)

5,420

(2,066)



















Net income/(loss), all attributable to the Company's ordinary shareholders

1,236

10,452

(21,171)

Add back: Share-based compensation expenses, net of tax

1,345

473

323

Non-GAAP net income/(loss), all attributable to the Company's ordinary shareholders

2,581

10,925

(20,848)

















Weighted average number of ordinary shares used in computing basic income/(loss) per share

322,796,828

332,760,727

334,056,649



















Weighted average number of ordinary shares used in computing diluted income/(loss) per share

342,150,096

337,351,518

334,056,649



















Non-GAAP net income/(loss) per share attributable to ordinary shareholders









basic

0.01

0.03

(0.06)

diluted

0.01

0.03

(0.06)



















Non-GAAP net income/(loss) per ADS attributable to ordinary shareholders









basic

0.12

0.49

(0.94)

diluted

0.11

0.49

(0.94)





























CHINA ONLINE EDUCATION GROUP UNAUDITED ADDITIONAL INFORMATION (In thousands except for number of shares and per share data)













For the three months ended





Mar. 31,

Dec. 31,

Mar. 31,







2021

2021

2022







US$

US$

US$



















Net revenues













Mainland China

92,416

66,165

7,631

Overseas

-

659

1,878

Total net revenues

92,416

66,824

9,509

















Cost of revenues













Mainland China

(24,583)

(13,658)

(10,429)

Overseas

-

(135)

(415)

Total cost of revenues

(24,583)

(13,793)

(10,844)

















Gross profit/(loss)













Mainland China

67,833

52,507

(2,798)

Overseas

-

524

1,463

Total gross profit/(loss)

67,833

53,031

(1,335)

















Gross margin













Mainland China

73.4 %

79.4 %

(36.7) %

Overseas

-

79.5 %

77.9 %

Total gross margin

73.4 %

79.4 %

(14.0) %



CHINA ONLINE EDUCATION GROUP UNAUDITED ADDITIONAL INFORMATION (In thousands except for number of shares and per share data)















For the three months ended







Mar. 31,

Dec. 31,

Mar. 31,







2021

2021

2022







US$

US$

US$



















Sales and marketing expenses













Mainland China

(49,093)

(35,308)

(5,069)

Overseas

-

(1,540)

(1,993)

Total sales and marketing expenses

(49,093)

(36,848)

(7,062)

















Product development expenses













Mainland China

(8,885)

(2,332)

(908)

Overseas

-

(52)

(1,101)

Total product development expenses

(8,885)

(2,384)

(2,009)

















General and administrative expenses













Mainland China

(10,653)

(8,859)

(9,614)

Overseas

-

(2,028)

(1,885)

Total general and administrative expenses

(10,653)

(10,887)

(11,499)

















Goodwill and intangibles impairment













Mainland China

-

(62)

-

Overseas

-

-

-

Total Goodwill and intangibles impairment

-

(62)

-

















Operating expenses













Mainland China

(68,631)

(46,561)

(15,591)

Overseas

-

(3,620)

(4,979)

Total operating expenses

(68,631)

(50,181)

(20,570)

















Other income













Mainland China

1,708

86

184

Overseas

-

-

-

Total Other income

1,708

86

184

















Income/(loss) from operations













Mainland China

910

6,032

(18,205)

Overseas

-

(3,096)

(3,516)

Total income/(loss) from operations

910

2,936

(21,721)



















CHINA ONLINE EDUCATION GROUP UNAUDITED ADDITIONAL INFORMATION (In thousands except for number of shares and per share data)







For the three months ended







Mar. 31,

Dec. 31,

Mar. 31,







2021

2021

2022







US$

US$

US$



















Interest income













Mainland China

1,789

822

491

Overseas

-

74

48

Total interest income

1,789

896

539

















Interest expenses













Mainland China

-

-

-

Overseas

-

(2)

(11)

Total interest expenses

-

(2)

(11)

















Other (expenses)/income, net













Mainland China

(525)

1,182

2,034

Overseas

-

21

54

Total other (expenses)/income, net

(525)

1,203

2,088

















Income/(loss) before income tax expenses













Mainland China

2,174

8,036

(15,680)

Overseas

-

(3,003)

(3,425)

Total income/(loss) before income tax expenses

2,174

5,033

(19,105)

















Income tax expenses













Mainland China

(938)

5,449

(2,054)

Overseas

-

(29)

(12)

Total income tax expenses

(938)

5,420

(2,066)

















Net income/(loss), all attributable to the Company's ordinary shareholders













Mainland China

1,236

13,485

(17,734)

Overseas

-

(3,032)

(3,437)

Total net income/(loss), all attributable to the Company's ordinary shareholders

1,236

10,453

(21,171)



SOURCE China Online Education Group
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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

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UN chief calls for sustainable funding for Palestine refugees agency

Xinhua) 19:36, June 24, 2022

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday called for sustainable funding for the UN agency for Palestine refugees.

The agency, officially known as the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), suffers from chronic underfunding. In the last 10 years, the needs of Palestine refugees have increased, while funds have stagnated, Guterres told a UN pledging event for the agency.

UNRWA has worked hard to absorb the annual funding shortage through program efficiencies. But that alone will never solve the problem, he said.

Guterres made a twofold appeal to UN member states: to make pledges that will bring UNRWA's funding shortfall down to zero for this year and to put the agency on a durable financial footing.

The second appeal requires a long-term plan to stabilize the financing of UNRWA and together, reach sufficient, predictable and sustainable funding, he said. "Millions of Palestine refugees are counting on us to relieve their suffering and to help them build a better future. We cannot let them down."

The Ukraine crisis is catching global attention. But the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the plight of Palestine refugees must not be sidelined, he said.

"I reiterate the importance of pursuing peace efforts to realize the vision of two states -- Israel and Palestine -- living side by side in peace and security, with Jerusalem as the capital of both states. But until then, UNRWA remains vital in supporting those in need," he said.

To help Palestine refugees is a matter of justice. But it is also a barrier to the progression of extremism, terrorism, and other threats, said Guterres.

Investing in UNRWA means investing in stability for the region. It means investing in the economic and social well-being of Palestine refugees and advancing the Sustainable Development Goals. It means investing in the future through education. And it means honoring the commitment of the international community to Palestine refugees and their rights until a just and durable political solution is found, he said.

UNRWA, which currently helps some 5.6 million Palestine refugees and their descendants in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria as well as in West Bank and Gaza, is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions from UN member states.

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WASHINGTON, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Consumers for Dental Choice salutes the Children's Amendment to the amalgam reduction requirement of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, which enters into legal force today, 24 June 2022.

At the 4th Conference of the Parties in Indonesia last March, the countries voted for the Children's Amendment, which requires that Parties "Exclude or not allow, by taking measures as appropriate, or recommend against the use of dental amalgam for the dental treatment of deciduous teeth, of patients under 15 years and of pregnant and breastfeeding women"

Executive Director Charlie Brown states, "The Children's Amendment establishes a new floor, a new minimum  all 137 Parties to the Minamata Convention (except the handful of opt-in nations) must now take steps to end amalgam use for children under 15 and for pregnant and breastfeeding women.

Brown adds, "The World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry, now a powerhouse coalition of 65 nonprofit groups, will work with governments, universities, health professionals and consumers to implement a ban on amalgam for the children of the world."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has already issued a safety communication cautioning against amalgam use for high-risk populations, including children and most women of childbearing age. "Now, we urge government programs providing dental care to heed FDA's safety communication  and stop placing amalgam in children and young women now!" Brown says.

For further information contact Charlie Brown, [email protected]; telephone 202.544.6333

SOURCE Consumers for Dental Choice
NEW YORK , June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Cristo Rey New York, a high school based in East Harlem at 106th and Park, recently held graduation ceremonies at St. Ignatius Loyola Church on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Bishop Joseph Espaillat gave an impassioned commencement address, urging students to use their voices and skills to help end violence in our society. Espaillat, the youngest bishop in the United States, is the first bishop of Dominican heritage in the Archdiocese of New York. Soon 96 seniors from the Cristo Rey Class of 2022 will be attending colleges and universities including Dartmouth, Cornell, Villanova and Williams. From low-income households averaging just over $30,000, Cristo Rey New York students graduate from college at 5 times the rate of their socioeconomic peers.

The students participate in an innovative work-study curriculum, working 1 day per week throughout the school year in entry-level roles for companies across New York City and attending school the remaining 4 weekdays. The unique curriculum seeks to address two systemic inequities that impact economic mobility in the communities the school serves - insufficient high-quality education and inadequate early-career attachment and preparation.

Graduating senior Abdou Fofana worked at retailer and lifestyle products company Bespoke Post. "I never knew there were so many aspects to business," he said. "I was taught that I have many options and opportunities to become anything I want to be in the future." In his college search, he targeted programs that would allow him to continue to learn about marketing, merchandising, and sales. He began working for Bespoke Post as a freshman and stayed with them all 4 years. He will attend Siena College in the fall.

Another graduating senior, Kelly Saldana, worked at financial services firm LiquidNet Holdings, Inc., doing data work. She is confident the skills she developed, such as working with Excel, will serve her in college. She also acquired a professional support system that continues to guide her as she takes the next step to attend Bates College.

Both students represent the first-generation of their families to attend college. LiquidNet Holdings, Inc., began taking a team of students through the work study program in 2008. Bespoke Post became a partner in 2018. Both firms found ways to work remotely with students during the height of the pandemic.

If you are interested in learning more about becoming a Corporate Partner, contact the School's Partnership Officer, Anna Morrison, at [email protected] .

SOURCE Cristo Rey New York High School
Renowned Civil Rights Attorney Crump Made Oral Arguments Before Massachusetts Supreme Court on Behalf of Descendants of Enslaved People Exploited to Prove White Supremacy

BOSTON, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Internationally renowned civil rights and personal injury attorney Ben Crump earned a historic decision this week by the Massachusetts Supreme Court on behalf of Tamara Lanier, the direct descendant of a slave, Congo "Papa" Renty, to uphold their lawsuit against Harvard University. Crump called it a historic victory for Black Americans.

The high court of Massachusetts heard oral arguments from Crump in November of 2021, where he defended the rights of Tamara Lanier, a descendant of slaves who were photographed by a Harvard professor to prove the inferiority of Black people. Harvard continued to use and profit from the offensive photos even after learning of Lanier's lineage and claim to them.

"As a free Black man, I am honored to have been at the forefront of this fight against the lasting remnants of slavery and the very institutions that benefited from the exploitation of Black ancestors. The high court recognized 'Harvard's complicity in the horrific actions surrounding the creation of the daguerreotypes,' which were created to prove the inferiority of Black people, treating these enslaved people like lab rats," said Crump.

The daguerreotypes were commissioned in 1850 to support the research of renowned Harvard professor Louis Agassiz, who was seeking to prove the inferiority of the Black race. Harvard dismissed Lanier's claims of relation to Renty and did not inform her on how the photos were being used by the university. Harvard used Renty's image on the front cover of a book and prominently features the photos in materials used for a conference it hosted.

"Tamara Lanier carefully traced her lineage and then heroically stood up to defend her ancestors and the abuse they endured. It is an honor to have been in Tamara's corner throughout this battle against Harvard and their egregious actions against her family, and I look forward to standing beside Tamara when we prove her case to a jury," said Crump.

As stated by the Supreme Court of Massachusetts :

"We have no doubt that Agassiz's actions in 1850  having Renty and Delia taken, stripped, and forced to pose for the dags  would meet these requirements. What is directly at issue her in, however, the separate question whether Harvard's conduct toward a descendant of Renty and Delia nearly 170 years later satisfied these stringent requirements. Nevertheless, as emphasize in connection with Lanier's negligent infliction of emotional distress claim, Harvard's present actions cannot be divorced from its past misconduct."

SOURCE Ben Crump Law
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the IND for the phase 2 clinical trial for patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

- Daewoong Pharmaceutical to start a multinational phase 2 clinical trial for DWN12088 in September

SEOUL, South Korea, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Daewoong announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved the IND for the phase 2 clinical trial of DWN12088, a PRS (Prolyl-tRNA Synthetase) inhibitor for patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Daewoong plans to start the clinical trial this September, and with this enters its global phase 2 clinical trial for a new drug for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

This phase 2 clinical trial will be conducted as a multinational clinical study simultaneously in the United States and South Korea to evaluate the safety and efficacy of DWN12088. The improvement in the deteriorated forced vital capacity (FVC) will be evaluated after oral administration of the study drug or placebo for 24 weeks in 102 patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). The foundation for a phase 2 clinical trial of DWN12088 has been laid by confirming the safety and pharmacokinetic properties of 162 healthy subjects in multiple phase 1 clinical trials conducted in Australia and South Korea.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a lung disease in which the lungs gradually harden and lose their function due to excessively produced fibrous tissue. It is a rare disease with a 5-year survival rate of less than 40% after diagnosis, as it is challenging to treat. Current commercialized drugs for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis from several multinational pharmaceutical companies currently do not completely stop the disease progression itself, and there are still have a high unmet medical needs as the treatment abandonment rate is high due to the side effects.

DWN12088 is the world's first PRS inhibitory anti-fibrotic agent developed by Daewoong. PRS is an enzyme that plays an important role in collagen synthesis, and DWN12088 has a mechanism to suppress enzymatic activity of PRS to reduce excessive production of collagen.

Daewoong has demonstrated excellent anti-fibrotic and pulmonary function improvement effects by co-administering DWN12088 and existing drugs in an animal model presented at the annual academic conference of the American Thoracic Society (ATS2021) in May of last year. It has been designated as an orphan drug for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis by the U.S. FDA in 2019.

If Daewoong proves the anti-fibrotic effect with the PRS inhibitor in humans (human proof of concept) through this clinical trial, DWN12088 is expected to leap into a new global blockbuster drug that surpasses existing drugs. In addition to pulmonary fibrosis, Daewoong also plans to expand the indications of DWN12088 for skin, kidney, liver and other rare fibrotic diseases.

"The existing treatments of Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis still have high unmet medical needs," said Sengho Jeon, CEO of Daewoong Pharmaceutical. "We will strive to carry out our corporate mission to fulfill the unmet medical needs and lead the improvement of quality of human life by providing innovative new drugs to the patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis through DWN12088."

Meanwhile, according to ResearchAndMarkets, a global market research firm, the annual growth rate of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis treatment is showing 7% growth annually, and they predicted the market will reach $6.1 billion by 2030.

SOURCE Daewoong Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd
DUBLIN, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "3D Printing Plastics Market by Type (Photopolymer, ABS, PLA, Polyamide), Form (Powder, Liquid, Filament), Application, End-User Industry (Aerospace & Defense, Healthcare, Automotive, Electronics & Consumer Goods) and Region - Global Forecast to 2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The 3D printing plastics market is estimated to be USD 721 million in 2022 and is projected to reach USD 1,907 million by 2027, at a CAGR of 21.5% between 2022 and 2027. The supportive initiatives undertaken by governments of different countries to support the adoption of 3D printing technologies in various industries is one of the most significant factors projected to drive the growth of the 3D printing plastics market.

Increased supply of of 3D printing plastics due to forward integration of major polymer companies and mass customization are also contributing to the growth of the 3D printing plastics market. However, skepticism regarding acceptance of new technologies in emerging economies has affected the 3D printing plastics market adversely.

Key Players

3D Systems Corporation

Arkema S.A.

BASF SE

Covestro Ag

CRP Technology S.R.L

E.I. Du Pont De Nemours & Company

Envisiontec GmbH

Eos GmbH Electro Optical Systems

Evonik Industries Ag

Formlabs, Inc.

Henkel Ag

Huntsman Corporation

Lehman & Voss & Co.Kg

Oxford Performance Materials, Inc

Sabic

Shenzhen Esun Industrial Co., Ltd.

Solvay S.A.

Stratasys, Ltd.

Ultimaker B.V.

Zortrax

Report Highlights

Initiatives are undertaken by governments of different countries to support the adoption of 3D printing technologies in various industries.



3D printing is being used in a wide range of industries around the world because it reduces operating time and costs while enabling mass production of goods. Governments from around the globe are taking steps to encourage the adoption of 3D printing plastics in a variety of industries. For instance, the Government of India's Ministry of Electronics and Information developed a 3D printing policy in December 2020 to create a favorable environment for local firms.



Skepticism regarding the acceptance of new technologies in emerging economies.



The rate of adoption of new technologies varies from one country to another depending on various macroeconomic factors such as GDP and the growth of industries contributing to the GDP of a country. activities for the development of new and innovative technologies. The lack of adoption of new technologies in emerging economies can be attributed to the dependence of industries defining GDP of these economies on the traditional occupations such as agriculture and raw material manufacturing. As such, technological trends such as 3D printing technology do not prevail in these regions.



Growing demand for composite grades of 3D printing plastics in various industrial applications.



The growing adoption of 3D printing technology in commercial applications has led to the increased demand for composite grades of 3D printing plastics in various industrial applications across the globe. These grades offer optimum performance in extreme conditions such as corrosive and high temperature/pressure environments.

The major challenge for the 3D printing plastics market is the establishment of a particular structure for the mass production of specific commercial grades of 3D printing plastics. Manufacturers of these plastics require agile manufacturing systems for producing new grades of plastics using similar base materials to cater to the requirements of the changing 3D printing technologies.



Asia Pacific region is expected to grow with the highest CAGR during the forecast period.



The Asia Pacific is the fastest-growing market for 3D printing plastics globally. The region is projected to become a major supplier base for 3D printing plastics in the coming years. The 3D printing industry in Asia Pacific is largely concentrated in the Southeast Asian region, which is one of the leading markets for 3D printing in terms of industrial application.

The cost of raw material plastics is less in Asia Pacific due to their easy availability, which promises a high potential for the market growth in the coming years. This easy availability of raw material will also help the region to emerge as a global supplier of 3D printing plastics.



Key Topics Covered:



1 Introduction



2 Research Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Premium Insights

4.1 Attractive Opportunities in 3D Printing Plastics Market

Figure 11 High Demand from Aerospace & Defense Industry to Drive 3D Printing Plastics Market

4.2 3D Printing Plastics Market, by Type

Figure 12 Photopolymer Accounted for Largest Market Share in 2021

4.3 3D Printing Plastics Market, by Form

Figure 13 Filament Was Largest Form in 2021

4.4 3D Printing Plastics Market, by Application

Figure 14 Prototyping Was Largest Application in 2021

4.5 3D Printing Plastics Market, by End-Use Industry

Figure 15 Aerospace & Defense End-Use Industry Led 3D Printing Plastics Market in 2021

4.6 3D Printing Plastics Market, by Key Countries

Figure 16 Market in China to Witness Highest CAGR During Forecast Period



5 Market Overview

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Market Dynamics

Figure 17 Drivers, Restraints, Opportunities, and Challenges in 3D Printing Plastics Market

5.2.1 Drivers

5.2.1.1 Increased Supply of 3D Printing Plastics due to Forward Integration of Major Polymer Companies

5.2.1.2 Development of Application-Specific Grades of 3D Printing Plastics

5.2.1.3 Mass Customization

5.2.1.4 Initiatives Undertaken by Governments of Different Countries to Support Adoption of 3D Printing Technologies in Various Industries

5.2.2 Restraints

5.2.2.1 Environmental Concerns Regarding Disposal of 3D-Printed Plastic Products

5.2.2.2 Skepticism Regarding Acceptance of New Technologies in Emerging Economies

5.2.2.3 Required Certifications for the Use of Specific Grades of 3D Printing Plastics for Particular Applications in Critical Industries

5.2.3 Opportunities

5.2.3.1 Increasing Demand for Bio-Based Grades of 3D Printing Plastics

5.2.3.2 Growing Demand for Composite Grades of 3D Printing Plastics in Various Industrial Applications

5.2.4 Challenges

5.2.4.1 Evolving 3D Printing Technologies

5.2.4.2 High Manufacturing Costs of Commercial Grades of 3D Printing Plastics



6 3D Printing Plastics Market, by Type



7 3D Printing Plastics Market, by Form



8 3D Printing Plastics Market, by Application



9 3D Printing Plastics Market, by End-Use Industry



10 3D Printing Plastics Market, by Region



11 Competitive Landscape



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ctno2t

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WASHINGTON, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Learning Without Tears, a leading early childhood education company, is announcing new literacy initiatives at International Society for Technology in Education's ISTELive 22 conference and expo. Widely seen as the leading EdTech event for the Education industry, ISTELive 22 is taking place June 26-29 both virtually and in-person. After being shut down for years due to the pandemic, ISTELive 22 is generating a great deal of buzz and excitement in the education world.

"Our presence at ISTELive 22 is expanding as is our portfolio of powerful solutions," explained CEO Terry Nealon. "Learning Without Tears saw significant growth and interest during the pandemic, and our teams have responded to the growing and changing needs of the market with exciting new products and professional learning that are research based, outcomes driven and using all formats, technology, print, manipulatives and services to ensure teachers are best equipped to meet the needs of their students. We will be announcing and presenting new products, new partnerships, greatly enhanced product features, integrated print and digital curricula, and efficacy research that demonstrates the quantifiable effectiveness our products have on successful learning. There is no better place for us to make these exciting announcements than ISTELive 22."

Learning Without Tears will be launching and demonstrating for the first time Phonics, Reading, and MeO - a K-3 supplemental phonics program designed to help children learn the skills they need to become proficient readers. This breakthrough literacy program provides an integrated print/digital instruction model and combines the powerful use of technology, assessment and embedded professional learning for teachers. With a partnership with Dublin-based SoapBox Labs - which will also be announced at ISTE - Phonics, Reading, and Me will leverage speech recognition technology to provide first-of-its-kind digital assessments, making it easier for teachers to provide personalized learning paths and instruction for each student. It will be a first introduction for many to the new A-Z Mat Man and MeO program, the new assessment for Pre-K in Get Set for SchoolO and the new digital assessment teaching for Keyboarding Without TearsO. All these programs are supported by new Professional Learning and Development.

"This is a pivotal time in education," Nealon continued. "Students have fallen behind, foundational learning skills like reading have suffered, and teachers are exhausted. For 40 years, Learning Without Tears has leveraged its expertise in early childhood education to meet the needs of teachers and students, and we are continuing to do so today - putting equity and access at the center of our products, so all young students have the opportunity for successful learning and a bright future."

There will be a reception on Monday, June 27 6:30-8:30pm at the Kimpton Hotel Fontenot, where Learning Without Tears' leaders will share exciting information about upcoming news.

Company education experts will be presenting Modern Test Prep for a New Age of Online Assessments a new approach to prepare students for online assessments on Wednesday, June 29, 9:30-11:00am in the La Nouvelle Ballroom, Table 19.

Learning Without Tears will be exhibiting in booth 2848 in the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans.

About Learning Without Tears

Learning Without Tears is a leading early education company offering a proven and unique approach to teaching and learning, from crucial readiness skills in Pre-K to foundational writing and typing skills, including handwriting, keyboarding and cursive. The elementary school-level programs benefit all learners with multisensory, developmentally appropriate, proven practices, and are used by millions of students around the world. Learning Without Tears professional development programs deliver early education expertise to thousands of teachers, tutors, and occupational therapists in the US and across the globe.

SOURCE Learning Without Tears
SACRAMENTO, Calif., June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Supreme Court released their opinion eliminating the constitutional right to abortion. The California Academy of Family Physicians (CAFP) denounces any decision that limits an individual's ability to make their own reproductive decisions or limits access to abortion.

"Failing to protect or limiting abortion access will lead to unsafe abortions and unsafe pregnancies, further exacerbate health inequities and fundamentally interfere with the physician-patient relationship" said Dr. Lauren Simon, CAFP President.

CAFP supports the right of any individual to access abortion services and providers' to be able to safely provide these important services without threat of intimidation or criminalization.

Family physicians are firmly against any policies that limit the evidence-based practice of medicine, threaten the patient-physician relationship, and inhibit the delivery of safe, timely, and necessary comprehensive care, including reproductive health services and information. Abortion is an evidence-based health care service.

The Supreme Court decision will not only have huge consequences for individuals, but is a step backward in a systemic effort to reduce health inequities. The impact of undermining access to timely abortion services will disproportionately effect people of color, low-income individuals, rural residents and other vulnerable populations.

CAFP represents family physicians with diverse individual perspectives, but we stand united in the belief that health care decisions should be made by patients in consultation with a trusted physician who is able to offer all information necessary to ensure informed consent. CAFP strongly opposes any external interference in this process as it conflicts with the fundamental medical principle of patient autonomy and infringes upon the physician-patient relationship.

CAFP thanks Governor Newsom and legislative leaders for their quick response to protect access to abortion in California, and supports the administration in that effort. We stand with the physicians and patients in states that lack California's leadership in protecting access to abortion.

"CAFP is working with national and state leaders to ensure patient care, health care access, and patient-physician relationships are supported," noted Dr. Simon.

Family medicine offers a unique perspective as a specialty committed to the care of individuals throughout their lives. The CAFP offers itself as a resource to provide expert information on reproductive health and the patient-physician relationship. CAFP is offering a number of resources to assist family physicians in helping colleagues and patients navigate changes in the wake of today's Supreme Court decision. We are committed to ensuring that California is ready to provide abortion services to those who need it, including a July 19 webinar for family physicians to learn more about managing medication abortions.

About the Author: Lauren Simon, MD, FAAFP, is the President of the California Academy of Family Physicians (CAFP). Dr. Simon is a family physician who practices in Loma Linda in San Bernardino County. She is currently a Professor of Family Medicine at Loma Linda University, and the Assistant Director of the Family Medicine Residency Program at Loma Linda-Inland Empire Consortium for Healthcare Education. She is also is a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine at the University of California, Riverside.

About the California Academy of Family Physicians: With more than 10,000 members, including active practicing family physicians, residents in family medicine, and medical students interested in the specialty, CAFP is the largest primary care medical society in California. Family physicians are trained to treat an entire family's medical needs, addressing the whole spectrum of life's medical challenges. FPs serve a broad base of patients in urban, suburban and rural areas, often in California's most underserved areas.

SOURCE California Academy of Family Physicians
The OPEC Fund and the Republic of Kosovo signed a "Framework Agreement for Private Sector Operations," which aims to strengthen the private sector in Kosovo with a focus on infrastructure, connectivity, energy and water. OPEC Fund Director Dr. Abdulhamid Alkhalifa had visited Kosovo in June and expressed the ambition to deepen the partnership.

signed a "Framework Agreement for Private Sector Operations," which aims to strengthen the private sector in with a focus on infrastructure, connectivity, energy and water. OPEC Fund Director Dr. had visited in June and expressed the ambition to deepen the partnership. The Asian Development Bank and the OPEC Fund launched a trust fund to improve project readiness in developing countries. As a first contribution, the OPEC Fund is committing US$3 million to the fund, which will provide technical assistance to improve the delivery of investment projects through enhanced preparation, design, and procurement.

to the fund, which will provide technical assistance to improve the delivery of investment projects through enhanced preparation, design, and procurement. The OPEC Fund and the regional South American development bank FONPLATA signed a "Cooperation Agreement" to broaden and deepen the partnership through more co-financing of strategic projects in the Latin America and Caribbean region, where FONPLATA operates.

and region, where FONPLATA operates. The OPEC Fund is teaming up with the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) to design and deliver a new Climate Finance and Energy Innovation Hub, which is set to be launched at the UN climate conference COP27 in Egypt in November. Designed as a global end-to-end policy and finance platform, this hub will harness the power of financial innovation to source, unlock, de-risk and scale-up investments in energy access and transition. Recognizing the crucial role of clean cooking the OPEC Fund is earmarking US$100 million in support of relevant projects in DRC, Madagascar , Malawi , and Rwanda as part of the initiative.

in in November. Designed as a global end-to-end policy and finance platform, this hub will harness the power of financial innovation to source, unlock, de-risk and scale-up investments in energy access and transition. Recognizing the crucial role of clean cooking the OPEC Fund is earmarking in support of relevant projects in DRC, , , and as part of the initiative. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the OPEC Fund signed a Memorandum of Understanding to facilitate access to innovative financing solutions, unlock investment and support project development to advance renewable energy investment and enable access to sustainable finance in emerging and developing economies.

OPEC Fund Director-General Dr. Alkhalifa said: "These new commitments and signings are a declaration of our intent to join forces in the face of unprecedented challenges. One clear takeaway from our event was the need for urgent, targeted and joint action in areas such as climate change, energy access and food supply. We are very encouraged by the success and positive momentum generated at our Forum which provides the energy to move forward swiftly and forcefully."

The OPEC Fund Development Forum "Driving Resilience & Equity" gathered government leaders, ministers from OPEC Fund member and partner countries, heads of the Arab Coordination Group institutions, senior officials of multilateral development banks and international organizations as well as private sector representatives. The event included panels on "Climate Challenges vs Energy Needs - Development Perspectives," "Innovations that Enable a Smart Energy Future," and "Turning Public Ambition into Effective Action," and closed with a conversation on "South-South Co-ownership in Development Progress."

The date of the 2023 OPEC Fund Development Forum will be announced shortly.

About the OPEC Fund

The OPEC Fund for International Development (the OPEC Fund) is the only globally mandated development institution that provides financing from member countries to non-member countries exclusively. The organization works in cooperation with developing country partners and the international development community to stimulate economic growth and social progress in low- and middle-income countries around the world. The OPEC Fund was established by the member countries of OPEC in 1976 with a distinct purpose: to drive development, strengthen communities and empower people. Our work is people-centered, focusing on financing projects that meet essential needs, such as food, energy, infrastructure, employment (particularly relating to MSMEs), clean water and sanitation, healthcare and education. To date, the OPEC Fund has committed more than US$22 billion to development projects in over 125 countries with an estimated total project cost of US$187 billion. The OPEC Fund is rated AA+/Outlook Stable by Fitch and AA/Positive Outlook by S&P in 2021. Our vision is a world where sustainable development is a reality for all.

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SOURCE OPEC Fund for International Development
Club Med is leading the recovery of the global leisure and vacation industry. Following a five-fold year-on-year growth in business volume in the first quarter of this year, and a sharp turnaround in net profit. Fosun Tourism announced as of 16 April that the cumulative bookings for Club Med for the second half of 2022 have already exceeded that of the same period in 2019 (prior to the pandemic) by 3%. The two major regional markets in EMEA and the Americas have also outperformed the industry. With regard to business expansion, Club Med opened La Rosiere Resort in France and the Quebec Charlevoix in 2021. The latter has even filled the gap in the North American snow resort market. Club Med will also open Kiroro, its third resort in Hokkaido, by the coming snow season. The opening of these resorts has not only fortified leadership in the ice and snow sector, but also symbolizes expeditious expansion of its global ice and snow resort business footprint. In Spain, Club Med Magna Marbella Resort commenced operation in May of this year.

In addition to operating performance, the easing of COVID prevention measures is also worth anticipating, leading to more Club Med resorts resuming operations in 2022. In March 2022, after two years of closure, Club Med Bintan and Phuket welcomed their first group of guests since the pandemic. The opening of Cherating Beach Resort, Malaysia on 1 April, also began to receive tourists from around the world. Club Med Bali has also resumed operations, which marked the last resort to re-open in the Asia-Pacific region. Simultaneously, Australia, Japan and South Korea, which represent the dominant origin of customers for resorts, have relaxed their travel regulations, thus instilling greater confidence in the Group's 2022 performance.

Outside Club Med, global businesses Thomas Cook and Casa Cook under the Group, have also achieved positive progress. In the first quarter of this year, UK business volume of Thomas Cook, the century-old travel agency brand, achieved an eight-fold year-on-year growth. The brand broke ground in the Netherlands in March and on top of its original partnerships, it expanded the European business by adopting digital business models through the use of websites and apps. Casa Cook, an award-winning lifestyle global hotel brand, also accelerated its expansion in Europe. The Casa Cook Samos, Greece opened this May, and received the "Hotel Design Award 2022", hosted by PKF Hospitality Group, within the first month. In addition, a brand new hotel operated by the brand in Greece's tourist island Mykonos, will officially open in June this year.

Similar to the overseas operations, resorts such as Club Med Changbaishan and Club Med Joyview Qiandao Lake have opened this year. Among them, Club Med Qiandao Lake commenced trial operation on 15 June. It achieved a GMV (gross merchandise value) of RMB10 million within four hours after the pre-sale began on 11 May, and its GMV exceeded RMB40 million in 15 days after sales started. Meanwhile, owing to the effective implementation of a value upgrade strategy, the average daily bed rate of Club Med resorts has continued to rise, achieving 19.5% growth in the first quarter of this year versus 2019. Greater capacity and higher premium will present Club Med with promising development prospects after the pandemic. As summer vacations approach, the tourism products of Fosun Tourism, such as Atlantis, will usher in the peak season of bookings.

Mr. Qian Jiannong, Chairman and CEO of Fosun Tourism Group, said, "As increasingly more countries around the world have lifted travel restrictions, Fosun Tourism's global presence will continue to serve as an advantage and point of distinction, driving a strong recovery of the Company's business performance going forward. In China, different regions have taken various initiatives to drive a rebound in the tourism industry. Fosun Tourism is also preparing for an upturn in tourism, now that its businesses have resumed operations. It will continue to leverage the advantages of global presence and competitive products to grasp growth momentum in different regions, and take the lead in developing the global tourism industry."

About Fosun Tourism Group (Stock Code: 1992)

Fosun Tourism Group is one of the leading leisure-focused integrated tourism groups worldwide. It was listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in December 2018. In terms of revenue in 2019, it was the largest leisure tourism resorts group worldwide*. Currently, the Group operates three main businesses including resorts and hotels, tourist destinations, and services and solutions, across various tourism and leisure settings. Within its resorts and hotels business, the Group has sales and marketing operations in more than 40 countries and regions across six continents, and operates over 60 resorts. It also manages and operates Casa Cook and Cook's Club hotels under a light-assets model. As for the tourism destinations segment, the Group develops and owns Sanya Atlantis and its own brand "FOLIDAY Town". It is currently building Lijiang Foliday Town and Taicang Foliday Town. The Group owns Thomas Cook, the world's oldest travel agency brand, and operates the online "Thomas Cook Lifestyle Platform" in China and an Online Travel Agency in the UK, forming an open internet platform based on vacation and lifestyle products.

Advocating the lifestyle of "Everyday is a FOLIDAY", Fosun Tourism is committed to integrating tourism and leisure concepts into everyday life, and provides customers with tailor-made one-stop solutions through the FOLIDAY global ecosystem.

* Frost & Sullivan, an independent international research & consulting firm

SOURCE Fosun Tourism
Toronto Venture Stock Exchange: FMAN

VANCOUVER, BC, June 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Freeman Gold Corp. (TSXV: FMAN) (OTCQX: FMANF) (FSE: 3WU) ("Freeman" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that at its meeting of shareholders (the "Shareholders") held on June 22, 2022, Shareholders approved the re-election of incumbent directors Paul Matysek, Will Randall, Bassam Moubarak, Simon Marcotte and Victor Cantore.

All other matters put forward before the Shareholders at the meeting for consideration, including the re-appointment of Crowe MacKay LLP, Chartered Professional Accountants, as auditor of the Company at a remuneration to be fixed by the board of directors, ratification of both the stock option plan and the restricted share unit plan (the "RSU Plan") of the Company, as set out in the Company's Management Information Circular dated May 4, 2022, and the proposed amendment to the Articles of the Company to implement advance notice provisions, were approved.

Subsequent to the meeting, the incumbent officers were re-appointed, namely Paul Matysek as Executive Chairman, Will Randall as Chief Executive Officer and President, Bassam Moubarak as Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary, Dean Besserer as Vice President, Exploration and Tom Panoulias as Vice President, Corporate Development. In addition, an aggregate of 150,000 restricted share units were awarded, subject to the terms and conditions of the RSU Plan, to the independent directors of the Company.

About the Company and Project

Freeman Gold Corp. is a mineral exploration company focused on the development of its 100% owned Lemhi Gold property (the "Project"). The Project comprises 30 square kilometres of highly prospective land, hosting a near-surface oxide gold resource. The pit constrained National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43- 101") compliant mineral resource estimate is comprised of 749,800 oz gold ("Au") at 1.02 grams per tonne ("g/t") in 22.94 million tonnes (Indicated) and 250,300 oz Au at 1.01 g/t Au in 7.83 million tonnes (Inferred). See the NI 43-101 technical report titled "Maiden Resource Technical Report for the Lemhi Gold Project, Lemhi County, Idaho, USA" with an effective date of June 1, 2021, and signing date of July 30, 2021, as prepared by APEX Geoscience Ltd. and F. Wright Consulting Inc. available under the Company's profile on SEDAR ( www.sedar.com ). The Company is focused on growing and advancing the Project towards a production decision. The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Dean Besserer, P.Geo., VP Exploration of the Company and a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43- 101.

On Behalf of the Company

William Randall

President and Chief Executive Officer

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements: This press release contains "forwardlooking information or statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities laws, which may include, but are not limited to statements relating to further exploration and the Company's future business plans. 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 from those in the forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking information reflects the Company's views with respect to future events and is subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. The reader is urged to refer to the Company's reports, publicly available through the Canadian Securities Administrators' System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) at www.sedar.com for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects. The Company does not undertake to update forwardlooking statements or forwardlooking information, except as required by law.

SOURCE Freeman Gold Corp.
Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati co-chaired the 1st G20 Joint Finance and Health Ministers' Meeting (JFHMM), during which G20 member states agreed to the establishment of a Financial Intermediary Fund (FIF) for Pandemic Preparedness, Prevention, and Response (PPR) under the trusteeship of the World Bank and technical guidance of the WHO.

"I am pleased to announce a commitment of over USD 1.1 billion has been secured for the Financial Intermediary Fund for pandemic PPR." Minister Mulyani said. Indonesia commits to contribute USD 50 million, Singapore USD 10 million, the United States USD 450 million, the European Union USD 450 million, Germany Euro 50 million (USD 52.7 millions) and Wellcome Trust 10 million (USD 12.3 million). G20 member states also highlighted that the fund would be inclusive in nature and allow access middle to low income countries to utilize it.

The JFHMM conclusion will also be discussed at the next Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors' (FMCBG) Meeting next month and to be followed up at the next Joint Finance-Health Task Force (JFHTF) meeting.

Indonesian Health Minister Budi empasized that the G20 JFHTF has made progress in discussing further the idea of FIF establishment that was first introduced during 2021 Italian G20 presidency. "I am confident that we will achieve concrete results by October, which includes the establishment of the FIF and coordinating platform collaboration," Minister Budi said.

Two meetings also agree on the universal verification of COVID-19 vaccine certificates, health protocols to ease global mobility, and the expansion of the Global Manufacturing and Research Hub for PPR, especially the production of vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics to take place in developing countries.

WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, World Bank, GAVI, CEPI, The Global Fund and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation attended the meeting. Dr. Tedros said that FIF must also be coherent with other global health initiatives. "This platform should be built on the experience of the ACT Accelerator, the Pandemic Influenza Framework and other mechanisms. This is an important focus of the G20 health track under Minister Budi's leadership," he said.

SOURCE The Indonesian Ministry of Health
Devastating earthquake in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan creates urgent need for aid.

NAMPA, Idaho, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Catalytic Ministries (GCM), a leader in disciple-making ministry specific to the Middle East, announced today that its underground church leaders are bringing relief aid to the people affected by yesterday's deadly earthquake in eastern Afghanistan.

News broke earlier today of a 5.9-magnitude earthquake in Afghanistan. The death toll is already over 1,000 and continues to rise in addition to the 1,500+ people who have been injured. These constituents have experienced abandonment, rejection, and even torture by their very own so-called government. Most of these people have been forced into hiding and have undergone heroic rescue operations and experienced tremendous trauma. We have delivered babies in our safe houses, thousands of people have received humanitarian aid, safe refuge, and medical aid. Most importantly, they all receive the love of Jesus Christ as they are ministered to for the physical needs.

Most of the homes in this area are built with mud bricks, housing several generations of families. As these homes have become uninhabitable due to earthquake damage, many people are now displaced and children have been orphaned. Starting today, disciple-makers have been connecting with families at and around ground zero to receive the resources they need. GCM is already in the process of building 15 one bedroom/one bath homes for 15 families that our leaders on the ground have already connected with.

Over the last 11 months, the underground church (GCM) has painstakingly created a network within Talaban-controlled areas to bring food, water, and shelter to the people of Afghanistan. Since the Taliban takeover in August 2021, Afghanistan has been experiencing a prolonged economic crisis due to imposed sanctions and the removal of foreign aid. With limited resources and heavily guarded streets, delivering aid has become a difficult task.

"The people of Afghanistan are in desperate need of basic human resources, and GCM has been able to build strong alliances and connections to help support the community," states one leader. "Supporting the community in this way has allowed the underground church to provide the people of Afghanistan with secure delivery of humanitarian and medical aid."

People all over the world are being encouraged to partner with GCM on a $59 a month basis for disciples to be made and continuing the work they have accomplished over the last year in Afghanistan. For less than $2 a day, you can help feed a family, provide shelter, deepen relationships, walk with people as they experience the Holy Spirit, help guide them to bring hope to others, and continue to grow the underground church in Afghanistan. This is a fantastic opportunity to bring the true hope of Jesus, the Bread of Life, and help them become disciples who make disciples.

"There is yet much work to be done in the region and an enormous impact can be made for the Kingdom. The Afghan people have been left behind too many times. They need to know that they are loved, treasured, and not alone." says one Afghan leader

Join GCM in making disciples and growing the underground church in Afghanistan. Partner monthly by clicking the link below. https://catalyticministries.com/giving/

PRAYER NEEDS:

We will embark on a seven day fast, worshiping and praying for mercy and salvation upon Afghanistan in the fashion of Joel 2:12-17.

In this time, we will be releasing prayers that support the heart of God for this nation, its people and its land. If you are interested in joining our prayer community, please provide your email address so that you can receive daily updates during the seven-day fast. [email protected]

Pray for the rescue efforts, for the Lord's hand of protection over the teams, families, and children.

May this tragedy be used as an opportunity by the Lord to send in aid, and even give relief and support to those who have needed it.

May the Lord handpick those who have been waiting to get back into the country and send them.

Pray for the Lord to protect the children and place them into families of believers.

May the Lord send angelic help, show himself strong, and save.

Pray that food, supplies, and the Gospel will reach the suffering people of eastern Afghanistan .

ABOUT GLOBAL CATALYTIC MINISTRIES

Global Catalytic Ministries (GCM) is a leader in the disciple-making movement in the Middle East, rapidly transforming Muslims worldwide through Jesus Christ by means of intentional disciple making, church planting, and leadership development. The documentaries, "Sheep Among Wolves Volume 1 and Volume 2 ", expose the experiences of GCM underground church leaders as true sheep among wolves. More information can be found at https://catalyticministries.com/ .

MEDIA CONTACT

Audrie Trevino

(208) 570-5735

[email protected]

www.catalyticministries.com

SOURCE Global Catalytic Ministries
DUBLIN, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Collision Avoidance Sensor Market (2022-2027) by Technology, Function Type, Application, Industry Vertical, Geography, Competitive Analysis, and the Impact of Covid-19 with Ansoff Analysis" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global Collision Avoidance Sensor Market is estimated to be USD 4.21 Bn in 2022 and is projected to reach USD 6.02 Bn by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 7.42%.



Market dynamics are forces that impact the prices and behaviors of the Global Collision Avoidance Sensor 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 Robert Bosch GmbH, Denso Corporation, Delphi Automotive PLC, Autoliv, Inc., General Electric Company, Rockwell Collins, Inc., Honeywell International, Inc., Alstom SA, Siemens AG, Mobileye N.V., Aviation Communication & Surveillance Systems, Llc, SAAB AB, Becker Mining Systems AG, Hexagon AB, Wabtec Corporation, etc.

Countries Studied

America ( Argentina , Brazil , Canada , Chile , Colombia , Mexico , Peru , United States , Rest of Americas)

, , , , , , , , Rest of Americas) Europe ( Austria , Belgium , Denmark , Finland , France , Germany , Italy , Netherlands , Norway , Poland , Russia , Spain , Sweden , Switzerland , United Kingdom , Rest of Europe )

( , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Rest of ) Middle-East and Africa ( Egypt , Israel , Qatar , Saudi Arabia , South Africa , United Arab Emirates , Rest of MEA)

and ( , , , , , , Rest of MEA) Asia-Pacific ( Australia , Bangladesh , China , India , Indonesia , Japan , Malaysia , Philippines , Singapore , South Korea , Sri Lanka , Thailand , Taiwan , Rest of Asia-Pacific )

Competitive Quadrant

The report includes Competitive Quadrant, a proprietary tool to analyze and evaluate the position of companies based on their Industry Position score and Market Performance score. The tool uses various factors for categorizing the players into four categories. Some of these factors considered for analysis are financial performance over the last 3 years, growth strategies, innovation score, new product launches, investments, growth in market share, etc.

Ansoff Analysis

The report presents a detailed Ansoff matrix analysis for the Global Collision Avoidance Sensor 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 report analyses the Global Collision Avoidance Sensor Market using the Ansoff Matrix to provide the best approaches a company can take to improve its market position.

Based on the SWOT analysis conducted on the industry and industry players, the analyst has devised suitable strategies for market growth.

Why buy this report?

The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the Global Collision Avoidance Sensor 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 Increasing in Automotive Safety Norms

4.1.2 Insurance Companies Focusing on Reducing Costs for Vehicles with Collision Avoidance System

4.2 Restraints

4.2.1 High Installation Cost

4.3 Opportunities

4.3.1 Surge in the Automotive Sector

4.3.2 Growing Trend of Installing Advanced Driver Assistance System In Passenger Cars

4.4 Challenges

4.4.1 Train Collision Avoidance System Faces Challenges of Interoperability



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 Collision Avoidance Sensor Market, By Technology

6.1 Introduction

6.2 RADAR

6.3 Camera

6.4 Ultrasound

6.5 LiDAR

6.6 Others



7 Global Collision Avoidance Sensor Market, By Function Type

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Adaptive

7.3 Automated

7.4 Monitoring

7.5 Warning



8 Global Collision Avoidance Sensor Market, By Application

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC)

8.3 Blind Spot Detection (BSD)

8.4 Forward Collision Warning System (FCWS)

8.5 Lane Departure Warning System (LDWS)

8.6 Parking Assistance

8.7 Night Vision (NV)

8.8 Autonomous Emergency Braking

8.9 Others



9 Global Collision Avoidance Sensor Market, By Industry Vertical

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Automotive

9.3 Rail

9.4 Marine

9.5 Aerospace & Defense

9.6 Others



10 Americas' Collision Avoidance Sensor 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 Collision Avoidance Sensor 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 Collision Avoidance Sensor 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 Collision Avoidance Sensor 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 Robert Bosch GmbH

15.2 Denso Corporation

15.3 Delphi Automotive PLC

15.4 Autoliv, Inc.

15.5 General Electric Company

15.6 Rockwell Collins, Inc.

15.7 Honeywell International, Inc.

15.8 Alstom SA

15.9 Siemens AG

15.10 Mobileye N.V.

15.11 Aviation Communication & Surveillance Systems, Llc

15.12 SAAB AB

15.13 Becker Mining Systems AG

15.14 Hexagon AB

15.15 Wabtec Corporation



16 Appendix



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/qlkpu3

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

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Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/539438/Research_and_Markets_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Research and Markets
LOS ANGELES, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- WorkingNation , a nonprofit that reports on the future of work, today began releasing " Green Jobs Now: Iowa "  multimedia reporting based upon original data that predicts a green jobs surge in a state that's already a pathsetter in the use of wind-generated power.

WorkingNation's reporting shows how continuing to upskill the workforce in green ways could drive additional economic growth as the federal government begins to deploy a $1.2 trillion infrastructure investment that should boost green jobs nationwide.

Green Jobs Now, a series from WorkingNation. (PRNewsfoto/WorkingNation)

Iowa is particularly well-positioned. Its green economy has more than 13,000 workers, according to Emsi Burning Glass , which collected and analyzed original data for WorkingNation's multi-state Green Jobs Now project. What's more, Emsi Burning Glass projects that employment demand for green jobs in Iowa will increase over the next five years by 18.8%, far above the national average of 5.7%.

"Iowa's clean energy industry continues to expand across the state," Beth Townsend, director of Iowa Workforce Development, told WorkingNation in an interview. "We are ranked first in the country in terms of the amount of our electricity that is produced by clean power. Almost 58% of our electricity is from clean power, primarily wind turbine."

"Green Jobs Now: Iowa" identifies the state's most in-demand green skills - "renewable energy," "energy conservation," and "energy efficiency," according to the data - and occupations where green skills matter. It suggests certain workers could get annual salary boosts of perhaps $2,000 or more by applying green skills, with boosts upwards of $8,000 for some positions. That demonstrates the value to workers of learning green skills and to local employment economies of having training available. In Iowa, Emsi Burning Glass estimates almost 600,000 workers, if given access to training, could be reskilled into green jobs.

"Green Jobs Now: Iowa" is the latest state-focused installment of the WorkingNation/Emsi Burning Glass "Green Jobs Now" series , a data-driven journalism project to define and identify green jobs and skills, pinpoint where workers can find them, and present a vivid snapshot of the green economy. Prior installments examined green jobs in Pennsylvania , Louisiana , Colorado , Arkansas , Illinois , Mississippi , and nationally .

The Iowa reporting, supported by a grant from the Walton Family Foundation , initially will include a WorkingNation.org overview article by Laura Aka and a report from Emsi Burning Glass that goes further in depth on the underlying data . Future elements will include an episode of the " Work Green, Earn Green " audio podcast and an " I Want That Job! " video offering an inside look at a green occupation in Iowa.

Organizations seeking to access WorkingNation's data and experts may reach out to the contact below.

About WorkingNation

WorkingNation is a nonprofit journalism organization telling stories about solutions to the jobs skills gap disrupting our economy. Follow us on YouTube , Twitter , LinkedIn , Facebook and Instagram .

Media Contact:

Steve Delsohn

[email protected]

805-358-3318

SOURCE WorkingNation
Industria Power's Experience with the Construction & Deployment of Microgrids is Helping the City of San Diego to Meet Climate Action Plan Goals Quickly

SAN DIEGO, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The City of San Diego via Gridscape Solutions awarded Industria Power a construction contract for eight microgrids, saving an estimated $6 million over 25 years in avoided energy costs. Construction is moving out of engineering into mobilization and is set to conclude in December 2022.

Industria Power's installed BESS system.

Industria Power is the general contractor for this multifaceted microgrid project. As the project developer, Gridscape Solutions was awarded a California Energy Commission (CEC) Advanced Emergency Microgrid grant. Gridscape then brought in their long-time partner, Industria Power to complete the construction of the project. Shell New Energies US will be the asset owner and operator for 25 years.

"Industria Power and Gridscape Solutions continue to work together to develop and construct more than 18 Complex Solar Microgrids at multiple locations throughout California," said Ralph Ciarlanti III CEO & President of Industria Power.

The City of San Diego prioritized eight building sites, including three recreation centers, two fire stations, and three police stations. The facility microgrids include 930 kW of solar photovoltaic systems, 2175 MWh of battery storage, and multiple electric vehicle (EV) charging stations.

The microgrids help the City to meet the goal of reducing electricity use by 25 percent of 2010 levels. This aligns with the City's 2015 Climate Action Plan to create a more sustainable San Diego by eliminating half of all greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) in the city by 2035.

The eight microgrids bring resiliency to the city, enabling dynamic shifting of the facility's energy load by optimizing electricity consumption and demand in response to grid signals and energy pricing. Additionally, the standalone power grids allow the facility to island or isolate from the grid and continue to operate during grid outages, relying on power stored onsite.

About Industria Power. With more than a decade of providing sustainable renewable energy solutions in California, Industria Power is a full-service commercial developer and general contractor in the C&I space. The company offers project development, design, engineering, procurement, and construction of renewable energy solutions including battery-based energy storage systems and microgrids. Successful projects in hospitality, municipalities, commercial and industrial, tribal lands, non-profits, and agriculture are represented in the company portfolio. Industria Power offers all types of financing. For more information, visit www.industriapower.com .

About Gridscape. Gridscape is a smart energy solutions company specializing in developing and deploying standards-compliant future-proof products and solutions for renewable energy microgrids and fleet EV charging systems. Gridscape's AI-based, software-driven, and 'Product Centric' approach to microgrids integrated with fleet EV charging solutions allows for lower cost of installation, drastically reduces energy costs, and provides seamless resilience against power outages. The company expects to deploy and operate over 35 microgrids in California over the next 12 months.

Media Inquiries: Lisa DeSouza, Industria Power Vice President of Strategy & Innovation, (760) 504.5900, [email protected]

SOURCE Industria Power
SEATTLE, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- According to Coherent Market Insights, the global irritable bowel syndrome treatment market is estimated to be valued at US$ 1,444.7 million in 2022 and is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 13.2% during the forecast period (2022-2030).

Key Trends and Analysis of the Global Irritable Bowel Syndrome Treatment Market:

Major players operating in the market are focusing on conducting workshops to create awareness regarding irritable bowel syndrome, which is expected to drive the market growth over the forecast period. For instance, in May 2018, Allergan plc, a subsidiary of AbbVie Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, and Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a healthcare company, announced the launch of the AboutYourGut.com website. The aim of this launch was to help educate sufferers impacted by irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea (IBS-D), irritable bowel syndrome with constipation (IBS-C) or chronic idiopathic constipation (CIC), including providing information on condition management.

Request Sample Copy of this Report @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/market-insight/irritable-bowel-syndrome-treatment-market-506

Key Market Takeaways:

The global irritable bowel syndrome treatment market is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 13.2% during the forecast period due to the increasing adoption of inorganic strategies such as agreements by the key players in the market. For instance, in May 2021, Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a healthcare company, and its partner AbbVie Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, reached an agreement with Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc., a multinational pharmaceutical company. As per the terms of this agreement, Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc., would be granted a license to market its 72 mcg generic version of LINZESS, the first prescribed brand in the U.S. for the treatment of adult patients with irritable bowel syndrome with constipation (IBS-C) or chronic idiopathic constipation (CIC), in the U.S. beginning March 31, 2029 (subject to U.S. FDA approval), unless certain limited circumstances, customary for settlement agreements of this nature occur.

Among medical conditions, the IBS-constipation segment is expected to dominate the segment growth over the forecast period, owing to the increased research and development activities by the key players in the market. For instance, in May 2021, 4D pharma plc., a pharmaceutical company leading the development of Live Biotherapeutic products (LBPs), a novel class of drug derived from the microbiome, announced positive data from its completed Phase II trial of LBP Blautix, a single strain live biotherapeutic product (LBP), in subjects with irritable bowel syndrome with constipation (IBS-C) or with diarrhea (IBS-D).

On the basis of drug type, the Linaclotide segment is expected to dominate the segment growth over the forecast period, owing to the increasing approvals for linaclotide. For instance, in August 2021, Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a healthcare company, announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a revised label for LINZESS (linaclotide) based on clinical safety data that had been generated in pediatric studies.

Key players operating in the global irritable bowel syndrome treatment market include Abbott, Synergy Pharma, Mallinckrodt, Bausch Health Companies Inc., Ardelyx, Astellas Pharma Inc., Novartis AG, GSK plc., Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited.

Request for Customization @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-customization/506

Detailed Segmentation:

Global Irritable Bowel Syndrome Treatment Market, By Drug Type:



Lubiprostone



Linaclotide



Eluxadoline



Rifaximin



Alosetron



Other

Global Irritable Bowel Syndrome Treatment Market, By Medical Condition:

IBS-constipation



IBS-diarrhea

Global Irritable Bowel Syndrome Treatment Market, By Distribution Channel:

Hospital Pharmacies



Retail Pharmacies



Online Pharmacies

Global Irritable Bowel Syndrome Treatment Market, By Region:



North America



By Country:





U.S.







Canada



Europe



By Country:





U.K.







Germany







Italy







France







Spain







Russia







Rest of Europe



Asia Pacific



By Country:





China







India







Japan







ASEAN







Australia







South Korea







Rest of Asia Pacific



Latin America



By Country:





Brazil







Mexico







Argentina







Rest of Latin America



Middle East & Africa



By Country:





GCC Countries







Israel







South Africa







Rest of Middle East & Africa

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Short Bowel Syndrome Market  Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2022-2028

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Coherent Market Insights is a global market intelligence and consulting organization focused on assisting our plethora of clients achieve transformational growth by helping them make critical business decisions. We are headquartered in India, having sales office at global financial capital in the U.S. and sales consultants in United Kingdom and Japan. Our client base includes players from across various business verticals in over 57 countries worldwide. We create value for clients through our highly reliable and accurate reports. We are also committed in playing a leading role in offering insights in various sectors post-COVID-19 and continue to deliver measurable, sustainable results for our clients.

Contact Us:

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Coherent Market Insights

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SOURCE Coherent Market Insights
Innovative production line at Tamarack Farms Dairy to be the grocer's first in the Midwest

NEWARK, Ohio, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR), America's largest grocer, announced a 35,000 square-foot expansion at Tamarack Farms Dairy to support the implementation of a state-of-the-art aseptic milk line, capable of manufacturing products such as half and half, heavy whipping cream, coffee creamers and Carbmaster milk beverage. The new line will allow the facility to support over 150 jobs.

"We are so pleased to see this continued investment in Newark," said Doug Blacksten, Senior Director of Supply Chain and Manufacturing for Kroger. "Kroger is Fresh for Everyone, and that means we are committed to sourcing and manufacturing only the best and freshest products. This cutting-edge innovation at Tamarack Farms Dairy underscores that commitment, improving our ability to offer high-quality dairy products to Kroger customers."

The aseptic milk line is part of Kroger's largescale efforts to deliver long shelf-life high protein drinks, non-dairy and dairy products through modern technology.

Tamarack Farms Dairy, a 20-acre state-of-the-art site, is the largest fluid dairy product producer in the state. The facility serves approximately 160 stores in Ohio and West Virginia and provides products for Kroger's e-commerce channel. Kroger owns and operates dairy-producing facilities across the U.S. and offers customers nationwide a ten-day milk freshness guarantee.

"We are thankful and delighted that The Kroger Company has chosen their Newark Tamarack Farms Dairy production facility as the site for their expansion project, said Newark Mayor Jeff Hall. "Kroger has been a great partner in our community for many years providing good jobs for local employees and superior products for our consumers."

"Kroger's significant investment transforms the Tamarack Farms Dairy into an aseptic processing facility, creating a new market for Ohio's dairy industry," said Tim Derickson, JobsOhio Senior Managing Director of Food and Agribusiness. "The extended shelf-life dairy product that will come from the cutting-edge operations in the Licking County facility will meet growing demand for Kroger's customers nationwide and boost demand for dairy farmers throughout Central Ohio."

"The 70-million-dollar investment strengthens and adds to the stability of the economic development and job market in Newark and Licking County," said Commissioners Rick Black, Tim Bubb and Duane Flowers.

About Kroger

At The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR), we are dedicated to our Purpose: to Feed the Human Spirit. We are, across our family of companies, nearly half a million associates who serve over nine million customers daily through a seamless digital shopping experience and 2,800 retail food stores under a variety of banner names , serving America through food inspiration and uplift, and creating #ZeroHungerZeroWaste communities by 2025. To learn more about us, visit our newsroom and investor relations site .

SOURCE The Kroger Co.
LeadSquared has built a global, best-in-class sales platform that takes away the guesswork from sales execution and makes efficiency the focus of every customer interaction, no matter how complex the customer journey. It now serves more than 2,000 customers globally.

"We are grateful for the support of our investors as we strive to build LeadSquared into a globally significant business. With this financing, we will double down on growth investments in India and North America, start building in APAC and EMEA, add new offerings to our product portfolio, and fund acquisitions. To support our growth, we plan to double our headcount in the next 18 months," shared Nilesh Patel, Founder & CEO, LeadSquared.

Remarking on the investment, Sumir Chadha, Co-founder and Managing Director at WestBridge Capital, said, "LeadSquared has shown a remarkable ability to scale and grow efficiently. Its core SaaS metrics are unique and best-in-class in the industry. Its focus on building an easy-to-use platform that transforms sales processes through automation delivering unparalleled efficiency, has significant potential for growth in the global market. Future of LeadSquared is very exciting to us and we look forward to a long partnership with the company."

Gaja Capital's Managing Partner, Gopal Jain opined, "LeadSquared is fast emerging as a category leader in high-velocity sales execution software. Nilesh and the team have built a strong platform with robust unit economics. With this round, the company has the balance sheet strength to further invest for growth in India as well as international markets, especially the US. We look forward to LeadSquared being the engine of growth for ambitious companies in India and around the world."

LeadSquared is the growth partner for organizations in higher education, edtech, professional education, healthcare, financial services. LeadSquared is headquartered in Bengaluru, India alongside its presence in the United States, APAC and EMEA.

The company's existing investors include Gaja Capital, IFC, and Stakeboat Capital.

Barclays acted as the exclusive placement agent for the Series C funding.

Media Contact: Arushi Dhar; [email protected]

Email ID Sales: Shubhankit Mishra [email protected]

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1846809/LeadSquared_Founders.jpg

SOURCE LeadSquared
"The response to Lucid in Washington state has been tremendous, which reflects the region's unique embrace of both innovation and the environment," said Zak Edson, Lucid's Vice President of Sales and Service. "We have a growing number of Lucid Air owners in the market, and the new Lucid Studio in University Village will provide the perfect opportunity for EV enthusiasts to engage with and learn about the groundbreaking Lucid Air."

Lucid Studio University Village will join the Lucid service center at 3412 Airport Way S, Seattle, providing comprehensive support for Lucid owners in the area.

Studio Experience

Every Lucid Studio offers a digitally oriented luxury experience tailored to each customer's preferences, whether they visit in-person, make inquiries entirely online, or combine the two. Lucid Studios allow customers to experience the brand and obtain information about its products in locations that underscore the company's unique design aesthetic. Visitors who explore a Lucid Studio get a vision of how the company draws inspiration from the beauty, innovation, and diversity of its home state of California. In addition, Lucid Studios augment the physical experience of seeing and touching a Lucid Air with an elevated digital experience. Using a 4K VR configurator, Lucid's Virtual Reality Experience combines the physical and virtual worlds to showcase seamless personalization of everything from interior finishes and materials to exterior color.

Virtual Tour

For those customers who aren't able to visit a Lucid Studio, there is Lucid Studio Live, a private virtual tour that lets customers browse and build their dream car with the guidance of a Lucid team member. Each one-to-one appointment allows plenty of time for questions and offers an incredible 360 look at Lucid Air. Customers can see everything from views inside the cabin, into the trunk and frunk, to outside, and even above the vehicleall set in their choice of iconic California backdrops. From there, customers can save a favorite design configuration to their Lucid account if they wish.

Future Studio and Service Centers

Additional locations will continue to open as Lucid expands its presence in North America and globally. Customers can visit during normal business hours or can book a personal appointment by contacting the Lucid team at lucidmotors.com/contact. They can always start exploring the Lucid Air through the "Design Yours" Configurator.

About Lucid Group

Lucid's mission is to inspire the adoption of sustainable energy by creating advanced technologies and the most captivating luxury electric vehicles centered around the human experience. The company's first car, Lucid Air, is a state-of-the-art luxury sedan with a California-inspired design that features luxurious full-size interior space in a mid-size exterior footprint. Underpinned by race-proven battery technology and proprietary powertrains developed entirely in-house, Lucid Air was named the 2022 MotorTrend Car of the Year. The Lucid Air Grand Touring features an official EPA estimated 516 miles of range or 1,050 horsepower. Customer deliveries of Lucid Air, which is produced at Lucid's new factory in Casa Grande, Arizona, are underway.

Media Contact

[email protected]

Trademarks

This communication contains trademarks, service marks, trade names and copyrights of Lucid Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries and other companies, which are the property of their respective owners.

Forward-Looking Statements

This communication includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as "estimate," "plan," "project," "forecast," "intend," "will," "expect," "anticipate," "believe," "seek," "target," "continue," "could," "may," "might," "possible," "potential," "predict" or other similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding plans and expectations regarding the new Lucid Studio in University Village, expectations regarding studio experience, including in-person and virtual customer experiences, plans regarding future openings of new Studios and Service Centers, including planned locations, and the promise of Lucid's technology. These statements are based on various assumptions, whether or not identified in this communication, and on the current expectations of Lucid's management. These forward-looking statements are not intended to serve as, and must not be relied on by any investor as, a guarantee, an assurance, or a definitive statement of fact or probability. Actual events and circumstances are difficult or impossible to predict and may differ from these forward-looking statements. Many actual events and circumstances are beyond the control of Lucid. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in Part II, Item 1A of Lucid's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2022, as well as other documents Lucid has filed or will file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. If any of these risks materialize or Lucid's assumptions prove incorrect, actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these forward-looking statements. There may be additional risks that Lucid presently does not know or that Lucid currently believes are immaterial that could also cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. In addition, forward-looking statements reflect Lucid's expectations, plans or forecasts of future events and views as of the date of this communication. Lucid anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause Lucid's assessments to change. However, while Lucid may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, Lucid specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Lucid's assessments as of any date subsequent to the date of this communication. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed upon the forward-looking statements.

SOURCE Lucid Motors
The Company Has Appointed Michael Dubin and Stephanie Davis Michelman as Board Members, While Expanding its C-Suite

NEW YORK, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Madison Reed , the prestige beauty brand that has revolutionized the hair color industry, today announced the appointment of Michael Dubin, Founder of Dollar Shave Club, and Stephanie Davis Michelman, Global Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Benefit Cosmetics, to its Board of Directors. The company is also announcing the hiring of Brad Lande-Shannon as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and the promotion of Tyler Wozny to Chief Digital Officer (CDO). These strategic moves will broaden Madison Reed's retail expertise, as the company continues to grow its omnichannel presence. Madison Reed plans to end 2022 with 80 Hair Color Bars nationwide, while building its strong recurring direct to consumer customer base and retail presence at ULTA, ULTA Beauty at Target, and Amazon.

Michael Dubin, the Founder and former CEO of Dollar Shave Club, is joining Madison Reed's Board of Directors. A long-time supporter of Madison Reed, Dubin will bring a wealth of experience from his journey with Dollar Shave Club, which included driving the company's $1 billion acquisition by Unilever and its omnichannel expansion. Dubin also sits on the board of Stance and serves as an advisor for Liquid Death Mountain Water and Made by Nacho.

Madison Reed has also appointed Stephanie Davis Michelman, the Global Chief Marketing Officer of Benefit Cosmetics, to its Board. Stephanie brings more than 15 years of experience driving growth and profitability in public and private companies, working to grow some of the world's most recognized beauty brands including Lancome, NEST, and Bobbi Brown Cosmetics. Davis Michelman also sits on the boards of M.M.LaFleur and Tivity Health.

"It's an honor to welcome Michael and Stephanie to Madison Reed's Board of Directors. Early on, companies like Dollar Shave Club sparked my obsession with revolutionizing a CPG category. We found that opportunity in hair color  an equivalent gap in beauty for women  and I'm honored to have Michael and Stephanie join us in our journey," said Amy Errett, CEO and Founder of Madison Reed. "Beyond Stephanie's proven track record of developing and building brands, and Michael's invaluable guidance and learnings, what I love most is that they honor and exemplify Madison Reed's company values. They each bring soul into everything they do, and I'm excited to have them join our board as we enter this next phase of growth for our retail and geographic footprint."

In addition to new board members, Madison Reed is announcing two new C-Suite appointments. Brad Lande-Shannon joins Madison Reed as Chief Marketing Officer and is tasked with overseeing marketing for the growing beauty brand, reporting directly to Errett. A seasoned executive, Lande-Shannon has guided brands through successful marketing strategies that instill meaning and purpose, while also driving critical culture and leadership initiatives. He brings more than two decades of experience within high growth companies and roles ranging from founder and entrepreneur to senior leader and culture change agent at companies like Culture Amp, Birchbox and Accenture.

Madison Reed has also promoted Tyler Wozny to Chief Digital Officer. Wozny joined the company in March 2018 as SVP of Digital, and has spearheaded new digital experiences that strengthen client interactions, from consumer mobile apps to proprietary SaaS software that fuel operations in Madison Reed's Hair Color Bars. Wozny has been instrumental in leveraging the intersection of technology, design and business to generate new growth opportunities. In this new role, Wozny is tasked with leading the Digital Product, Product Design and Engineering divisions to re-imagine all aspects of the digital client experience, while creating new innovations and driving results across Madison Reed's DTC business and 65+ Hair Color Bars nationwide. Prior to joining Madison Reed, Wozny led Mobile Product at Sephora where he grew adoption to the mobile app and drove mobile-first experiences, both in-store and at-home.

These appointments come off the heels of additional hires to bolster Madison Reed's executive leadership as it continues navigating explosive growth. Most recently, the company announced a $33 million funding round led by Sandbridge Capital, LLC with participation from Marcy Venture Partners, bringing investment in Madison Reed to a total of $220 million in venture capital funding to date. For more information, please visit www.madison-reed.com .

About Madison Reed

Founded in 2013, Madison Reed is the prestige beauty brand that has revolutionized the hair color industry. Madison Reed offers clients over 55+ shades of gorgeous color, Smart 8-Free formulas developed in Italy, technology, personalized service, and the freedom to get salon-gorgeous results whether they color their hair at home or by a professional colorist in one of Madison Reed's 65 and counting Hair Color Bars across the country. Products can be found online at www.madison-reed.com , Amazon, Madison Reed Hair Color Bars, Ulta and select Ulta at Target locations, in addition to DoorDash delivery.

SOURCE Madison Reed
Wesley W. Horton and Karen L. Dowd Have Joined Firm's Hartford-Based New England Office

MORRISTOWN, N.J., June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter, LLP ("McElroy Deutsch" or "the Firm") today announced that Wesley W. Horton and Karen L. Dowd have joined the Firm's Appellate practice group. Mr. Horton will serve as Of Counsel to the Firm, and Ms. Dowd has joined as a Partner. Both attorneys have decades of experience in appellate law, having argued, briefed, and / or consulted on scores of cases in the Connecticut Appellate and Supreme Courts, the United States Supreme Court, and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. They previously served as partners of Hartford-based Horton, Dowd, Bartschi & Levesque, P.C.

Wesley W. Horton Karen L. Dowd

At McElroy Deutsch, Ms. Dowd and Mr. Horton join one of the nation's most diverse and credentialed appellate practice groups, which was established soon after the Firm's founding in 1983 by William T. McElroy, a former New Jersey Appellate Court Judge. Current members of the practice group include several highly regarded attorneys  notably Ronald J. Riccio, former Dean of Seton Hall Law School, and Louis R. Pepe, former President of the Connecticut Bar Association  as well as former members of the judiciary, including former Connecticut Supreme Court Justice C. Ian McLachlan, who served more than nine years on Connecticut's appellate courts; and former Connecticut Supreme Court Justice Peter T. Zarella, who served in that capacity for nearly two decades.

In announcing the additions, James A. Budinetz, who serves as Managing Partner of the Firm's New England offices, said "We're honored to have two attorneys of Wes' and Karen's experience and stature in appellate law join our Firm. Their addition will further strengthen our ability to deliver an exceptional level of legal insight and litigation experience to our clients in the Northeast and across the nation."

Mr. Horton is well-known in Connecticut for his representation of the City of New London in Kelo v. New London before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005. Prior to that, Mr. Horton was known for his groundbreaking win in Sheff v. O'Neill, in which he successfully persuaded the Connecticut Supreme Court that education was a fundamental right under the Connecticut Constitution, and that de facto segregation in schools violated this right.

Mr. Horton is a graduate of Harvard College and the University Of Connecticut School Of Law, and the author or co-author of several scholarly publications and articles on legal topics. He is the recipient of many professional awards, including the University of Connecticut Law School Alumni Association's Medal of Excellence; and currently serves on the Board of Editors for the Connecticut Law Tribune , and as a Lecturer and Adjunct Professor at the University Connecticut Law School.

Ms. Dowd has handled civil litigation in Connecticut's state and federal trial courts, in addition to her appellate experience. She also is often retained to consult with trial counsel, assisting in creation of trial strategy and preparation of pleadings. She served as the Chair of the Connecticut Bar Association Litigation Section, and continues to serve on the Litigation Section Executive Committee. She's also served on the faculty of the Connecticut Trial Advocacy Institute.

Ms. Dowd is a graduate of the University of Virginia and the University of Connecticut School of Law, has co-authored Connecticut Insurance Law and currently co-authors the Connecticut Practice Book Annotated , and edits the CBA Professional Discipline Digest . She has spoken on appellate and ethics issues in seminars and presents the Annual Appellate Review at the Annual Meeting of the Connecticut Bar Association.

Both Mr. Horton and Ms. Dowd were selected for Best Lawyers for Appellate Practice 2022. In addition, Ms. Dowd was named The Best Lawyers 2022 "Lawyer of the Year" for Appellate Practice in Hartford.

About McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter, LLP

Established in 1983, McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter, LLP has approximately 200 lawyers located in thirteen offices in nine states. In addition to its Appellate practice, the Firm offers a diverse range of practice areas, including municipal and local government, litigation, labor and employment, healthcare, bankruptcy / restructuring, real estate, insurance, environmental, fidelity and surety, construction, corporate transactions, white collar crime, cybersecurity, and corporate compliance. Visit www.mdmc-law.com for more information.

Contact: Nicole Alexander, Esq.

Director of Professional and Business Development

McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter, LLP

[email protected]

973-425-8141

SOURCE McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter, LLP
DENVER, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: MDC), one of the nation's leading homebuilders, will release its 2022 second quarter earnings before the market opens on Thursday, July 28, 2022. MDC will host a teleconference the same day at 12:30 pm ET. The live teleconference will be available by calling 844-757-5733 and requesting to join the M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. conference call. A replay of the teleconference will be available through August 4, 2022 by calling 877-344-7529 and entering Access Code # 6159677.

A webcast of the teleconference will be available live at www.mdcholdings.com, and beginning two hours after the call, a replay of the webcast will be available on the website.

About MDC

M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1972. MDC's homebuilding subsidiaries, which operate under the name Richmond American Homes, have built and financed the American Dream for more than 220,000 homebuyers since 1977. MDC's commitment to customer satisfaction, quality and value is reflected in each home its subsidiaries build. MDC is one of the largest homebuilders in the United States. Its subsidiaries have homebuilding operations across the country, including the metropolitan areas of Denver, Colorado Springs, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson, Riverside-San Bernardino, Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County, San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, Washington D.C., Baltimore, Orlando, Jacksonville, Seattle, Portland, Boise, Austin, Albuquerque and Nashville. MDC's subsidiaries also provide mortgage financing, insurance and title services, primarily for Richmond American homebuyers, through HomeAmerican Mortgage Corporation, American Home Insurance Agency, Inc. and American Home Title and Escrow Company, respectively. M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "MDC." For more information, visit www.mdcholdings.com.

SOURCE M.D.C. Holdings, Inc.
OKOTOKS, AB, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - (TSX: MTL) Mullen Group Ltd. ("Mullen Group", "We", "Our" and/or the "Corporation") reports that Stephen Clark, the Corporation's Senior Financial Officer, is on extended leave for health reasons. In his absence, Carson Urlacher, Senior Accounting Officer has assumed Mr. Clark's responsibilities.

About Mullen Group Ltd.

Mullen Group is one of North America's largest logistics providers. Our network of independently operated businesses provide a wide range of service offerings including less-than-truckload, truckload, warehousing, logistics, transload, oversized, third-party logistics and specialized hauling transportation. In addition, we provide a diverse set of specialized services related to the energy, mining, forestry and construction industries in western Canada, including water management, fluid hauling and environmental reclamation. The corporate office provides the capital and financial expertise, legal support, technology and systems support, shared services and strategic planning to its independent businesses.

Mullen Group is a publicly traded corporation listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "MTL". Additional information is available on our website at www.mullen-group.com or on the Corporation's issuer profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Contact Information

Mr. Murray K. Mullen - Chair, Senior Executive Officer and President

Mr. Richard J. Maloney - Senior Operating Officer

Mr. Carson P. Urlacher - Senior Accounting Officer

Ms. Joanna K. Scott  Senior Corporate Officer

121A - 31 Southridge Drive

Okotoks, Alberta, Canada T1S 2N3

Telephone: 403-995-5200

Fax: 403-995-5296

SOURCE Mullen Group Ltd.
WASHINGTON, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA will host a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT Friday to provide an update on the agency's mission to study the Psyche asteroid. Audio of the briefing will livestream on the agency's website.

Teleconference participants include:

Lori Glaze , director of NASA's Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington

, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Laurie Leshin , director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California

, director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Lindy Elkins-Tanton , Psyche mission principal investigator, Arizona State University

Media interested in participating in the call should send their full name, media affiliation, email address, and phone number by 1 p.m. ET today to Katherine Rohloff at: [email protected]. NASA's media accreditation policy is online.

For more information about NASA's Psyche mission, visit:

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/psyche/in-depth/

SOURCE NASA
The Dallas Business Journal's 2022 Most Admired CEO Award honors top executive leaders and trailblazers

DALLAS, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Omni Logistics , a technology-driven provider of global multimodal logistics solutions and specialized services, today announced that its CEO JJ Schickel has been named a Most Admired CEO by Dallas Business Journal.

The Most Admired CEO Awards honor executives who deliver outstanding performances that guide their company to success and contribute overall growth to the North Texas business community.

The Dallas Business Journal designed The Most Admired CEO Awards in 2018 to recognize executives who inspire those around them, hold their employees, products and services in the highest regard, run their companies with integrity and are shining examples of how all companies should be run and managed.

"I am truly honored to be a recipient of Dallas Business Journal's Most Admired CEO Award," said JJ Schickel, CEO of Omni Logistics. "This recognition would not be possible without the partnership and support of Omni Logistics' global team of 4,500 talented supply chain and technology experts. I could not be more proud of what we have accomplished together, and look forward to continuing our mission to serve as innovative problem solvers with a passion for executing mission-critical logistics services for our clients."

The Most Admired CEOs were honored at an awards dinner hosted by the Dallas Business Journal at the Westin Dallas Downtown on June 16, 2022. Honorees were submitted through CEO nominations and selected by a panel of judges. Honorees come from some of the largest companies in Northern Texas and across industries, including health care, legal, supply chain, manufacturing, telecommunications, finance, and nonprofits. Read more about the leaders that are forging the way in Dallas-Fort Worth via the Dallas Business Journal here.

About Omni Logistics

Omni Logistics is a privately-owned, multibillion-dollar global logistics solutions provider with 4,500 employees in more than 100 locations serving the complex supply chain needs of nearly 7,000 customers. In addition to providing traditional freight services, Omni Logistics goes beyond global freight transport to provide customized, end-to-end supply chain solutions based on specific customer challenges and the unique characteristics of a customer's freight. Leveraging technology, proprietary data, analytics and automation, Omni Logistics removes supply chain inefficiencies and provides cost-effective solutions for customers. As a signatory of The Climate Pledge, Omni Logistics is committed to creating supply chain visibility and eliminating waste in order to provide more sustainable transportation solutions.

Media

Nick Fryer, FINN Partners for Omni Logistics

[email protected]

SOURCE Omni Logistics
Openhouse + On Lok Community Day Services Offers In-Community Support to LGBTQ+ Seniors

SAN FRANCISCO, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- During the month of PRIDE, On Lok recognizes the impact LGBTQ+ individuals have had on history, locally and around the world, and proudly supports the rights of the community to age with dignity. On Lok teams have participated and volunteered with Openhouse to support various PRIDE activities throughout the month, including the upcoming San Francisco Pride Parade on June 26, where On Lok staff will be walking the parade route.

Since 2018, On Lok has partnered with Openhouse, joining forces to create Openhouse + On Lok Community Day Services (Community Day), a safe and life-affirming space for LGTBQ+ seniors to maintain independence while receiving culturally sensitive and compassionate care.

"Community Day is a multifaceted program designed with and for the community, bringing much-needed services to San Francisco's growing LGBTQ+ population," said John Blazek, Executive Director, Day Services, On Lok. "It is a program that has been years in the making, bringing together the connection between Openhouse and the LGBTQ+ older adult community, with On Lok's deep roots in community-based senior care and support."

Community Day officially opened its doors in December 2021 and provides social connection and fun LGBTQ+-themed activities, in a state-of-the-art center full of natural light and community pride. Additionally, staff help seniors with personal care reminders and coordinate services, as well as provide transportation to and from the program, as needed, and hot midday meals, snacks, and refreshments are provided daily. "We envisioned a space where community members engage in activities, eat a hot meal together, and then go home, back to their partners and families, and Community Day is achieving that vision," added Blazek.

LGTBQ+ seniors face loneliness and isolation due to lack of community and health support and financial insecurity, and fear discrimination and mistreatment in institutionalized settings. According to a 2011 study published by the National Senior Citizens Law Center, 78% felt it would be unsafe for an LGBTQ+ senior to be "out" in a care facility and 80% believed staff and other residents would discriminate against an LGBTQ+ elder who was out of the closet. While 43% reported personally witnessing or knowing individuals who experienced instances of mistreatment.

Aging can be a vulnerable experience. As LGBTQ+ persons age, they don't want to feel as if they need to hide who they are or their life experiences. Staff members at Community Day have first-hand experience of the challenges and adversities in navigating medical care and other services, either for or as, an LGBTQ+ person. "The Community Day staff are eager to serve the older members of our LGBTQ+ community. It's a rare opportunity to become the figurative children that can provide respite to our elders' partners and loved ones, who are often neglected by the system," said Ephraim Getahun, Director of Strategic Partnerships & Training, Openhouse.

As part of its commitment to reduce barriers to healthcare access across vulnerable populations, On Lok has been pursuing certification for Community Day to become an alternative care setting (ACS) for its On Lok PACE program. In May, Community Day received this certification. Alternative care settings are a physical facility, other than the participant's place of residence, where PACE participants can receive some required services, such as activities, meals, and socializing. On Lok has a history of supporting vulnerable populations by creating alternative care settings with partners in the community. For the city's LGBTQ seniors that means enrolling in On Lok PACE, a full service healthcare program, will also include the choice to attend Openhouse + On Lok Community Day Services.

For more information about Community Day contact Ephraim Getahun via email at [email protected] or call 415-535-0927. For more information about On Lok PACE eligibility call 855-973-1110 (TTY: 711).

About On Lok

On Lok is a nonprofit organization that empowers older adults to age with dignity and independence. With 50 years of experience, On Lok is a trusted resource in San Francisco, Santa Clara County, and the Tri-City area of Alameda County. On Lok founded and still operates the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), which allows eligible seniors to live at home for as long as possible by providing comprehensive medical care and social services. On Lok 30th Street Senior Center, the largest multipurpose senior center in San Francisco, provides a second home, health programs, activities, and case management services to active seniors. The On Lok Mission Nutrition Program provides more than 250,000 meals annually to seniors through its dining locations and meal delivery program. For more information, please visit www.onlok.org.

About Openhouse

Openhouse enables San Francisco Bay Area LGBTQ+ seniors to overcome the unique challenges they face as they age by providing housing, direct services, and community programs. Founded in 1998, works to center the voices and experiences of LGBTQ+ older adults by providing opportunities to make social connections and build community. We are committed to creating a safe environment to encourage and support community members to share our diverse perspectives and identities to foster dynamic community engagement. We recognize and affirm that LGBTQ+ older adults live at intersections of race, ethnicity, class, culture, HIV status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity and expression, spirituality, and ability. At Openhouse, everyone is a community member.

SOURCE On Lok
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy (PPMD) , a nonprofit organization leading the fight to end Duchenne muscular dystrophy (Duchenne) , today announced a $2 million grant to be awarded to the Advanced Cardiac Therapies Improving Outcomes Network (ACTION), a learning health system focused on children and adult congenital heart disease patients at risk of heart dysfunction or with heart failure. As part of PPMD's ongoing Cardiac Initiative, the grant will prioritize optimizing care and improving outcomes for those living with Duchenne-related cardiomyopathy and support the critical expansion of ACTION's efforts to create the largest multicenter database on Duchenne cardiac care practices and outcomes to date.

Duchenne is the most common fatal genetic disorder diagnosed in childhood, affecting approximately one in 5,000 live male births. The absence of dystrophin in the heart contributes to a progressive deterioration of cardiac muscle, making heart failure the leading cause of death in Duchenne.

PPMD has invested close to $7 million through its Cardiac Initiative, in the pursuit of managing and preventing cardiomyopathy (heart failure) in Duchenne. The award to ACTION comes on the heels of the organization's first-ever Duchenne Cardiac Care Meeting in March 2022, which brought together more than 80 cardiologists and key neuromuscular providers, as well as members from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and scientific and industry partners.

Led by Drs. Chet Villa (Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center), Deip Nandi (Nationwide Children's Hospital) and Linda Cripe (Nationwide Children's Hospital), the meeting consensus was that there is a critical need for more sufficient evidence-based data to improve the standardization of protocols and harmonization of research in real-time across networks to better understand the trajectory of Duchenne cardiomyopathy. This award to support the expansion of ACTION's Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) project to the broader ACTION Muscular Dystrophy initiative marks a pivotal step in responding to this need.

PPMD's Founding President and CEO, Pat Furlong, announced the award during her opening address at PPMD's 2022 Annual Conference, taking place June 23-26 in Scottsdale, Arizona. Ms. Furlong explains the critical need for this project: "Heart issues don't just affect some people with Duchenne; they affect ALL people with Duchenne. And while we have improved cardiac care in Duchenne, the need to find new and effective treatments that will protect and preserve heart function is urgent. PPMD's Cardiac Initiative will be at the center of our fundraising efforts as we move forward through the second half of the year. The opportunity is here and now," shares Furlong. "I am extremely proud to announce this $2 million award to support the expansion of ACTION's DMD project to develop a standard of care for testing and care that is consistent across the United States  and the world  to allow us to learn together how best to protect every single beat, evaluate potential new therapies, and do our very best to keep the heart stronger, longer."

ACTION leverages the power of more than 50 centers throughout the United States to improve critical outcomes in pediatric heart failure, including Duchenne. In 2021 PPMD awarded Dr. Chet Villa and ACTION $150,000 for the investigation into shared decision-making and outcomes in Duchenne cardiac care as part of PPMD's Certified Duchenne Care Center (CDCC) Inter-Institutional Grant Program. 24 centers in ACTION have been designated CDCCs, including Cincinnati Children's and Nationwide Children's Hospital, the member sites that house Drs. Villa, Cripe, and Nandi, the three co-chairs of the ACTION DMD subcommittee. PPMD's CDCC program recognizes care centers that maintain the highest standards in Duchenne clinical and sub-specialty services as established by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Duchenne Care Guidelines.

"Improvements in neuromuscular and respiratory care have dramatically improved outcomes in Duchenne over the last two decades. However, we have very little information about how best to care for the heart or how new medical treatments impact the heart. We can't wait 5 or 10 years to understand this. PPMD's support will help us get answers about how to care for the heart now. Moving forward, it will also help us understand in real-time how new therapies impact the heart and get this information to the community as soon as possible," says Dr. Chet Villa, MD, ACTION DMD co-chair.

PPMD's support of ACTION's multi-center Duchenne database also enables the collection of a real-world data set on Duchenne cardiac care practices and outcomes to date, natural history data, and expanded data collection to other dystrophinopathies. The use of an electronic platform reduces barriers to entry. It allows providers to engage as many families as possible independent of geography, to better understand the impact of therapies on quality of life. The database will facilitate a data-driven approach to consistent patient/provider education, best practices, and future clinical trial design needed to move the field forward and change lives.

To learn more about PPMD's Cardiac Initiative, click here .

ABOUT PARENT PROJECT MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY

Duchenne is a fatal genetic disorder that slowly robs people of their muscle strength. Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy (PPMD) fights every single battle necessary to end Duchenne.

We demand optimal care standards and ensure every family has access to expert healthcare providers, cutting edge treatments, and a community of support. We invest deeply in treatments for this generation of Duchenne patients and in research that will benefit future generations. Our advocacy efforts have secured hundreds of millions of dollars in funding and won five FDA approvals.

Everything we doand everything we have done since our founding in 1994helps those with Duchenne live longer, stronger lives. We will not rest until we end Duchenne for every single person affected by the disease. Join our fight against Duchenne at EndDuchenne.org . Follow PPMD on Facebook , Twitter , Instagram , and YouTube .

ABOUT ACTION

ACTION is the Advanced Cardiac Therapies Improving Outcomes Network, working together to improve critical outcomes for all children and adult congenital heart disease patients that are at risk of heart dysfunction or failure. ACTION's headquarters are located within the Heart Institute Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. The ACTION international learning health network is led by Drs. Angela Lorts (Cincinnati Children's) and David Rosenthal (Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford).

The international learning network approach allows the ability to make critical improvements faster across a collaborative system of patients, families, clinicians, researchers, and industry. As of June 2022, ACTION includes 58 pediatric hospitals in North America, as well as engagement from hospitals in 6 countries. Follow ACTION on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

SOURCE Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy (PPMD)
The Law Offices of James Scott Farrin encourages patients to speak to an attorney before agreeing to anything from Exactech or its settlement company.

DURHAM, N.C., June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Law Offices of James Scott Farrin is encouraging those affected by the recall of certain Exactech replacement joints to consider their legal options. Patients may have already been contacted by Exactech or its representatives but should be cautious.

Exactech has hired a settlement company to help, but patients should know that the company does not represent patients or their best interests. It is highly recommended to speak to a defective products lawyer to determine your options.

Exactech Recall: Why It Happened and Consequences for Patients

Exactech recently recalled nearly 150,000 of its OPTETRAK, OPTETRAK Logic, TRULIANT, and VANTAGE implants for knees and ankles due to a packaging defect that may have allowed the delicate polyethylene liners to oxidize, potentially leading to premature wear, degradation, and failure.

The company's recall is considered a Class II recall by the FDA, meaning the devices' failures may cause "temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote." However, the consequences for patients can be quite serious.

Failing devices can cause many medical problems, and revision surgery could be risky, involve serious expense, and require lengthy recovery and rehabilitation times. Patients should be aware of the real possible costs of the recall and consequences to them before agreeing to anything.

Multiple Exactech Lawsuits May Be on the Horizon  Act Now

The Law Offices of James Scott Farrin is prepared to assist patients affected by this recall. If you or anyone you know has a recalled Exactech device, you are encouraged to seek counsel from an experienced product liability attorney. Contact the firm for a free case evaluation at farrin.com/contact or call 1-866-900-7078.

The Law Offices of James Scott Farrin consults with a national network of attorneys on defective products cases in an attempt to provide the best representation for clients. Depending on the details of the case, the firm will likely refer the matter to another law firm with which they associate. They will only do this if they believe it is in the client's interests and if the client agrees.

About the Law Offices of James Scott Farrin

The Law Offices of James Scott Farrin is one of the largest personal injury firms in North Carolina, and has helped more than 55,000 injured people since 1997. Many of the firm's more than 60 accomplished attorneys have won awards and are recognized professionals in their fields. The firm is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina.

Contact Information:

David Chamberlin

280 S. Mangum Street, Suite 400

Durham, NC 27701

866-900-7078

https://www.farrin.com

Offices in Durham (main), Raleigh, Charlotte, Greensboro, NC and Greenville, SC. Attorney J. Gabe Talton: 280 South Mangum St., Suite 400, Durham, NC.

SOURCE Law Offices of James Scott Farrin
WASHINGTON, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has proposed a ban on menthol cigarettes, flavored cigars and vapes, Menthol Is Not A Crime has discovered the multitude of reasons why law enforcement overwhelmingly opposes the ban.

The ban will ".. give birth to yet another very profitable illicit market." In 2020 of the $203 billion cigarettes sold, 37% were menthol. "...Transitioning from a regulated market to an illicit one will lead to about $30 billion of an illicit market," said Major Neill Franklin, former Executive Director of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP).

If the FDA bans menthol cigarettes this will "create crime," and you will get "homemade menthol cigarettes," said retired Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Agent John Rotunno.

Charles Giblin from the Center for the Advancement of Public Safety and Security stated, "Despite the good intentions The ban will have unintended consequences. Cross border smuggling will fill the gap of the prohibition."

Others highlighted the racist implications of the ban since more than 80% of African Americans who smoke prefer menthol cigarettes.

"Bans do not work. During the 'War on Drugs' more Black and Brown people went to jail than in all of slavery. About 90% of people targeted by stop-and-frisk were Black and Brown people," according to Former Police Chief John Dixon III of Petersburg, VA and former President of National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE).

"We are not promoting people to smoke," but "we don't want another situation like that of Eric Garner [Garner was killed by NYPD officers after they approached him on suspicion of selling single cigarettes]," said Charles Billups, founding member of the NCJP, Retired Law Enforcement Officer, and Chairperson of the New York State Grand Council of Guardians (GCGNY).

Franklin expanded, "An illicit market is even more problematic for the Black community. Law enforcement will have no option other than to aggressively enforce smuggling and smoking bans In an effort to identify smugglers police will 'creatively interact' with citizens for minor crimes, like jaywalking, loitering, trespassing, traffic violations using those crimes for leverage for information on their tobacco sources. This is the same tactic we use for locating guns and drugs."

The public has until August 2 to submit a written comment via the FDA website at https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/FDA-2021-N-1349-0001 .

SOURCE Menthol Is Not A Crime
"We're thrilled to announce the 2022 Hunter Garner Scholarship winners and recognize their outstanding contribution to our mission -- to save lives by reducing the number of distracted driving crashes," said Project Yellow Light Founder, Julie Garner. "Thanks to their talent and our partners' fire and energy we are making a difference."

Project Yellow Light was established in 2007 by the family of Hunter Garner to honor his memory after his death in a car crash at age 16. In 2020, seven percent of drivers 15 to 19-years-old involved in fatal crashes were reported as distracted. This age group has the largest proportion of drivers who were distracted at the time of the fatal crashes.*

For over 10 years, Project Yellow Light and the Ad Council have collaborated to place the winning student PSAs on 1,800 TV stations, iHeartMedia radio stations, and Clear Channel Outdoor's more than 1,500 digital displays across the U.S.

"No one can reach teens like their peers, and the message to stop distracted driving is an incredibly important one to share," said Michelle Hillman, Ad Council Chief Campaign Development Officer. "The effort, passion and creativity demonstrated by the winning student's is inspiring and at the very root of Project Yellow Light's impact. We could not be more thrilled for this year's student winners."

Supporting partners include Clear Channel Outdoor (CCO), Elephant Insurance, iHeartMedia, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), National 4-H Council, the National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS), and WKRN-TV Nashville. Scholarships for this year's winning students are supported through Clear Channel Outdoor and Elephant Insurance.

The contest received just under 1,900 submissions this year. Entries were received from students representing nearly all fifty states and Washington, D.C. The 2022 scholarship prizes were awarded to:

Winning Formula (video, high school): Justin Hutcheson ( Rockwall, TX )

Justin Hutcheson ( ) Eyes Up (video, college): Emiliano Diaz Capt ( Akron, OH )

Emiliano Diaz Capt ( ) Text or Drive (billboard design, high school): Isabella Kaake ( Marlette, MI )

Isabella Kaake ( ) Impossible Multitask (billboard design, college): Connor Avila ( Mauldin, SC )

Connor Avila ( ) School Drive (radio, high school): Noah Brechbill ( Schwenksville, PA )

Noah Brechbill ( ) Messages Unseen (radio, college): Asher Mitchell ( Watford City, ND )

A number of advertising industry executives and artists lent their time to judging the entries. This year's panel included recording artist and songwriter Aloe Blacc; renowned filmmaker and social activist Kweku Mandela; dentsu international Global CEO Wendy Clark; Wordsworth + Booth President Tony Mennuto; Co-Chairman and Partner of Goodby Silverstein & Partners Jeff Goodby; and representatives from the Martin Agency, Pereira O'Dell and Project Yellow Light partners the Ad Council, CCO, Elephant Insurance, iHeartMedia and National 4-H Council.

"Project Yellow Light gives students the unique opportunity to use their voice, creativity and the power of media to save lives," said Dan Levi, EVP & CMO, Clear Channel Outdoor. "It is inspiring to welcome this new class of student winners by showcasing their lifesaving PSAs across our nationwide digital billboard network to help prevent distracted driving."

"Elephant has truly valued our partnership with Project Yellow Light for the last four years, allowing us the opportunity to bring attention to distracted driving and make roads safer," said Elephant Insurance CEO Alberto Schiavon. "Congratulations to this year's winners for creating powerful messaging that will impact their peers and ultimately lead to safer roads for all of us."

"Now in its seventh year, iHeart's partnership with Project Yellow Light has never been more critical as more and more teens are driving with mobile devices  a known distraction on and off the road," said Jessica King, Senior Vice President, Communications and Community Engagement at iHeartMedia. "We are once again offering our platform to deliver unique peer-to-peer messaging aimed at inspiring young people to think twice about reaching for their phones or engaging in other high-risk behaviors while driving. We believe this year's student winners will save lives through their creative, witty and inspiring PSAs."

"Sadly, it's becoming more common for us to interview families who have lost a loved one due to a deadly distracted driving crash. The heartbreaking reality is, that these families would still be together if it weren't for the senseless act," said WKRN-TV Nashville Emmy-winning journalist Alex Denis. "Please, put the phone down. It's not worth changing lives forever."

Through the Stop Texts. Stop Wrecks. campaign, the Ad Council and NHTSA have been working together to prevent distracted driving since 2012.

*Data Source: https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/813266

The Ad Council

The Ad Council is a nonprofit organization with a rich history of marshaling volunteer talent from the advertising and media industries to deliver crucial messages to the American public. Having produced literally thousands of PSA campaigns addressing the most pressing social issues of the day, the Ad Council has affected, and continues to affect, tremendous positive change by raising awareness, inspiring action and saving lives. To learn more about the Ad Council and its campaigns, visit AdCouncil.org , like us on Facebook , follow us on Twitter or view our PSAs on YouTube .

Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings

Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc. ("CCOH") 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.

Elephant Insurance

Elephant Insurance is a customer-centric auto insurance carrier headquartered in Richmond, VA. Elephant provides auto insurance policies to consumers in Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. Elephant is a wholly owned subsidiary of Admiral Group, plc., a FTSE 100 company and one of the U.K.'s leading insurers with a presence in eight countries and millions of customers worldwide. Elephant is certified as a Great Place to Work. To learn more, visit www.elephant.com .

iHeartMedia

iHeartMedia, Inc. is the leading audio media company in America, reaching over 90% of Americans every month, and has a portfolio of unmatched consumer brands and industry-leading events. iHeart's broadcast radio assets alone have more consumer reach in the U.S. than any other media outlet; twice the reach of the next largest broadcast radio company; and over four times the ad-enabled reach of the largest digital only audio service. iHeart is the largest podcast publisher according to Podtrac, with more downloads than the next four podcast publishers combined; has the number one social footprint among audio players, with seven times more followers than the next audio media brand; and is the only fully integrated audio ad tech solution across broadcast, streaming and podcasts. The company continues to leverage its strong audience connection and unparalleled consumer reach to build new platforms, products and services. Visit iHeartMedia.com for more company information.

NHTSA

For more than 50 years, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has served as the key federal agency charged with improving safety on our nation's roadways. As part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, NHTSA is working to reduce traffic-related deaths and injuries by promoting the use of seat belts and child safety seats; helping states and local communities address the threat of distracted, drunk and drug-impaired drivers; regulating vehicle safety standards and investigating safety defects in motor vehicles; establishing and enforcing fuel economy standards; conducting research on driver behavior and traffic safety; and providing consumer information on issues ranging from child passenger safety to impaired driving. For more information visit www.nhtsa.gov .

National Organizations for Youth Safety

NOYS was originally founded in 1995 as the Traffic Safety Collaboration supported by funding from government agencies, including the Department of Transportation. In 2005, NOYS became a 501(c)(3) organization and incorporated as National Organizations for Youth Safety. With over 100 organizational members - youth-serving nonprofits, businesses and government agencies, NOYS works collectively to address the most prevalent causes of injury and death among teens and young adults in the US. Learn more at www.NOYS.org .

Project Yellow Light

Project Yellow Light is a scholarship competition where high school and college students create compelling PSAs persuading their peers to develop safe driving habits. This project gives students a voice and a role in preventing car crashes  one of the leading causes of death of teenagers and young adults in the U.S. Project Yellow Light was created by Julie, Lowell and Alex Garner in memory of their son/brother, Hunter, who died tragically in a car crash in 2007. Each year the winners receive the Hunter Garner Scholarship.

WKRN-TV Nashville

WKRN-TV Nashville and wkrn.com are part of Nexstar Media Group. Nexstar Media Group is America's largest local television and media company with 200 full power stations in 116 markets and a growing digital media operation. WKRN-TV Nashville serves the Mid-state of Tennessee and Southern Kentucky.

SOURCE Ad Council
SECAUCUS, N.J., June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE: DGX), the world's leading provider of diagnostic information services, announced that it will report second quarter 2022 financial results on Thursday, July 21, 2022, before the market opens. It will hold its quarterly conference call to discuss the results beginning at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time on that day.

The conference call can be accessed by dialing 888-455-0391 within the U.S. and Canada, or 773-756-0467 internationally, using the passcode: "7895081." The earnings release and live webcast will be posted on www.QuestDiagnostics.com/investor. The company suggests participants dial in approximately 10 minutes before the call.

A replay of the call may be accessed online at www.QuestDiagnostics.com/investor or by phone at 888-566-0439 for domestic callers or 203-369-3045 for international callers; no passcode is required. Telephone replays will be available from approximately 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on July 21, 2022 until midnight Eastern Time on August 4, 2022.

Anyone listening to the call is encouraged to read the company's periodic reports on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the discussion of risk factors and historical results of operations and financial condition in those reports.

About Quest Diagnostics

Quest Diagnostics empowers people to take action to improve health outcomes. Derived from the world's largest database of clinical lab results, Quest's diagnostic insights reveal new avenues to identify and treat disease, inspire healthy behaviors, and improve health care management. Quest Diagnostics annually serves one in three adult Americans and half the physicians and hospitals in the United States, and our nearly 50,000 employees understand that, in the right hands and with the right context, our diagnostic insights can inspire actions that transform lives. www.QuestDiagnostics.com

SOURCE Quest Diagnostics
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Rev. Robert J. Pacienza, President & CEO of D. James Kennedy Ministries released the following statement today in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade:

After 49 years and the cruel slaughter of more than 63 million unborn humans the U.S. Supreme Court has, at long last, reversed its deadly 1973 decision, Roe v. Wade.

This is extraordinarily good news for all Americansand especially the unborn. But while it means justice for some preborn children . . . others remain at risk.

Roe's reversal unchains the American people to address abortion through the democratic process at the state level. It triggers laws protecting preborn boys and girls in 13 states and will lead to the passage of protective legislation in at least 13 more.

But it will also turn some states into killing fields for the unborn. Anticipating Roe's reversal, New York enshrined the right to take the life of preborn children in its constitution in 2019. The Empire state now gives mothers the right to end their innocent unborn child's life right up to delivery.

California Governor Gavin Newsom promises to, like New York, put abortion in the state constitution. In addition, some California legislators want to make the state an abortion sanctuary. One legislative proposal underwrites costs for travel, lodging and abortions for women who come from out of state to end their unborn child's life.

Roe's demise opens the door to resolve the abortion debate within the states via the democratic processthrough elections and laws. But just like slavery divided our nation 160 years ago, America will soon be torn between pro-abortion and pro-life states.

Our national debate over abortion is anything but over.

Followers of Jesusespecially churchesmust now do everything they can to aid women considering abortion. That includes supporting pregnancy help centers and providing for the material needs of moms in need. At the same time, we must work to ensure every unborn child has the right, protected in law, to take his or her first breath.

Every pro-life American who has prayed, voted, and worked to defend the unborn should now take a moment to celebrate and savor this triumph for life.

But the war to protect the unborn is not won. And won't be until every child conceived in our great nation is, once more, protected in law. And until abortion is made not just illegal . . . but unthinkable.

D. James Kennedy Ministries (DJKM.org) is a media ministry whose television program, "Truths That Transform," airs nationwide. It actively communicates the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the supremacy of His Lordship, and a Biblically informed view of the world.

SOURCE D. James Kennedy Ministries
JERSEY CITY, N.J., June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- InsightAce Analytic Pvt. Ltd. announces the release of a market assessment report on the 'Global Sensor-based Smart Catheters Market By Product Type (Temperature Sensing Foley Catheter, Pressure Catheter, Mapping Catheter, and Others), Catheter Type (Single Lumen, Multi Lumen), Material (Silicon, Polytetrafluoroethylene, Polyetheretherkeone, and Others), Application ( Cardiovascular, Urology, Gynecology, Neurovascular, and Others) - Trends, Industry Competition Analysis, Revenue and Forecast To 2030.'

According to the latest research by InsightAce Analytic, the global sensor-based smart catheters market is valued at US$ 3.83 billion in 2021, and it is expected to reach US$ 8.12 billion by 2030, with a CAGR of 9.0% during the forecast period of 2022-2030.

In recent times, most medical interventions are performed using minimally invasive procedures aided by smart imaging and sensing catheters that serve as the surgeon's "eyes and ears" directly at the point of intervention. The ability of a Sensor-based smart catheter to detect pH changes in its environment is an advantage for people with chronic diseases who have a history of frequent hospitalization. This entices med-tech companies to research smart catheter flow sensors to stay ahead of the competition.

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The increasing number of surgical procedures for chronic diseases and ICU admissions are expected to drive up demand for Sensor-based smart catheters. The increased incidence of urinary bladder disorders, renal failure, and coronary heart disease is expected to drive the development of the global market for Sensor-based smart catheters in the coming years. Due to an increase in the prevalence of catheter-associated urological and vascular infections, which will favourably impact the market for Sensor-based smart catheters, governments in developed countries have developed guidelines for nurses and other healthcare professionals to use catheterization efficiently and safely.

However, industry growth may be hampered by the high cost of sophisticated catheters. An increasing number require novel catheters of patients undergoing catheterization procedures due to their chronic and cardiovascular diseases, such as urinary bladder, renal failure, and coronary heart disease. The pricey catheterization procedures required to treat these diseases, however, could cause the adoption rate of catheters to fall in low-income nations.

In 2021, North America led the market. This expansion can be linked to raising public awareness of urinary infections, highly qualified doctors' availability and well-established healthcare facilities in the region. The Asia Pacific is predicated to expand rapidly during the forecast period as a result of the region's growing geriatric population and improved healthcare infrastructure. The presence of a sizable patient base with kidney and cardiovascular diseases as well as improved medical facilities are boosting the market in the region.

The most prominent market players in the Sensor-based smart catheter market are Abbott Laboratories, ICU Medical, Inc., B. Braun Melsungen AG, Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc., Teleflex Incorporated, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Biometrix, Medtronic plc, AD Instruments, UroDev Medical, Asid Bonz GmbH, Bactiguard AB, COOK Medical, Laborie, Medline Industries, ZOLL Medical Corporation, TE Connectivity, and Other prominent players.

Key Developments:

In Feb 2022 , Teleflex Incorporated announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had cleared a prolonged indication for its speciality catheters and coronary guidewires for use in crossing (CTO PCI) chronic total occlusion percutaneous coronary interventions.

Teleflex Incorporated announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had cleared a prolonged indication for its speciality catheters and coronary guidewires for use in crossing (CTO PCI) chronic total occlusion percutaneous coronary interventions. In Oct 2020 , Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc. received FDA approval for Biosense Webster, Inc.'s Thermocool Smarttouch SF Ablation Catheter to cure persistent atrial fibrillation (persistent AF).

Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc. received FDA approval for Biosense Webster, Inc.'s Thermocool Smarttouch SF Ablation Catheter to cure persistent atrial fibrillation (persistent AF). In Aug 2020 , The TactiFlex PAF IDE study, which Abbott is conducting to assess the effectiveness of the TactiFlex Ablation Catheter, Sensor-Enabled, has announced the enrollment of its first participants. The catheter is made to help people with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF), whose symptoms can't be controlled by medicine.

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Global Sensor-based Smart Catheters Market, by Product Type, 2022-2030 (Value US$ Mn) and Volume (No. of Units)

Temperature Sensing Foley Catheter

Pressure Catheter

Mapping Catheter

Others

Global Sensor-based Smart Catheters Market, by Catheter Type, 2022-2030 (Value US$ Mn) and Volume (No. of Units)

Single Lumen

Multi Lumen

Global Sensor-based Smart Catheters Market, by Material, 2022-2030 (Value US$ Mn) and Volume (No. of Units)

Silicon

Polytetrafluoroethylene

Polyetheretherkeone

Others

Global Sensor-based Smart Catheters Market, by Application, 2022-2030 (Value US$ Mn) and Volume (No. of Units)

Cardiovascular

Urology

Gynecology

Neurovascular

Others

Global Sensor-based Smart Catheters Market, by Region, 2022-2030 (Value US$ Mn) and Volume (No. of Units)

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Latin America

Middle East & Africa

North America Sensor-based Smart Catheters Market, by Country, 2022-2030 (Value US$ Mn) and Volume (No. of Units)

U.S.

Canada

Europe Sensor-based Smart Catheters Market, by Country, 2022-2030 (Value US$ Mn) and Volume (No. of Units)

Germany

France

Italy

Spain

Russia

Rest of Europe

Asia Pacific Sensor-based Smart Catheters Market, by Country, 2022-2030 (Value US$ Mn) and Volume (No. of Units)

India

China

Japan

South Korea

Australia & New Zealand

Latin America Sensor-based Smart Catheters Market, by Country, 2022-2030 (Value US$ Mn) and Volume (No. of Units)

Brazil

Mexico

Rest of Latin America

Middle East & Africa Sensor-based Smart Catheters Market, by Country, 2022-2030 (Value US$ Mn) and Volume (No. of Units)

GCC Countries

South Africa

Rest of Middle East & Africa

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Other Related Reports Published by InsightAce Analytic:

Global Suprapubic Catheter Market

Global Radiofrequency Ablation Catheters Market

Global Vascular Access Device Market

Global Drug Infusion Systems Market

Global Interventional Pulmonology Market

Global Glaucoma Drainage Devices Market

Why should buy this report:

To receive a comprehensive analysis of the prospects for the Global Sensor-based Smart Catheters Market

To receive an industry overview and future trends of the Sensor-based Smart Catheters Market

To analyze the Global Sensor-based Smart Catheters Market drivers and challenges

To get information on the Global Sensor-based Smart Catheters Market size (Value US$ Mn) and Volume (No. of Units) forecast to 2030

Significant investments, mergers & acquisitions in the Global Sensor-based Smart Catheters Market industry

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SOURCE InsightAce Analytic Pvt. Ltd.
MILWAUKEE, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ademi LLP is investigating Zendesk (NYSE: ZEN) for possible breaches of fiduciary duty and other violations of law in its transaction with an investor group.

Click here to learn how to join the action: https://www.ademilaw.com/case/zendesk-inc or call Guri Ademi toll-free at 866-264-3995. There is no cost or obligation to you.

Ademi LLP alleges Zendesk's financial outlook and prospects are excellent and yet Zendesk holders will receive only $77.50 per share in a transaction that values Zendesk at approximately $10.2 billion. The transaction agreement unreasonably limits competing bids for Zendesk by imposing a significant penalty if Zendesk accepts a superior bid. Zendesk insiders will receive substantial benefits as part of change of control arrangements.

We are investigating the conduct of Zendesk's board of directors, and whether they are (i) fulfilling their fiduciary duties to all shareholders, and (ii) obtaining a fair and reasonable price for Zendesk.

If you own Zendesk common stock and wish to obtain additional information, please contact Guri Ademi either at [email protected] or toll-free: 866-264-3995, or https://www.ademilaw.com/case/zendesk-inc.

We specialize in shareholder litigation involving buyouts, mergers, and individual shareholder rights throughout the country. For more information, please feel free to call us. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

Contacts

Ademi LLP

Guri Ademi

Toll Free: (866) 264-3995

Fax: (414) 482-8001

SOURCE Ademi LLP
SALT LAKE CITY , June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- SixFifty today announced a free, automated tool to help Utahns change their name or gender marker. This tool, called "Identity 650," generates the paperwork required by Utah's courts and guides users through the petition process. The current system to change a person's name or gender marker is complicatedrequiring at least 15 pages of complex legal documents which need to be completed at different times, and submitted in different ways.

"The law is for everyone," said Ransom Wydner, VP of Pro Bono of SixFifty. "For most people, though, the process of changing their name or gender marker is too complex and they don't know how to get help. SixFifty built these free tools to make the process more accessible."

According to The National Institutes of Health and The Lancet Public Health, legal gender affirmation was "significantly associated with lower reports of depression, anxiety, and psychiatric distress." And trans Americans with IDs that matched their identity "had lower prevalence of serious psychological distress, suicidal ideation, and suicide planning."

"The law in Utah gives people the right to self-identify and to have their government documents reflect their true identity," said attorney Chris Wharton, whose 2021 case before the Utah Supreme Court helped more Utahns change their gender marker. "We should embrace efforts to educate people on these basic rights while working to overcome barriers that may have prevented individuals from accessing them in the past."

Identity 650 is the latest Pro Bono tool released by SixFifty, the technology subsidiary of the law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Other pro bono tools from SixFifty include Hello Landlord, Hello Lender, and a free tool to help Ukrainians in the US apply for Temporary Protected Status and Asylum.

SixFifty's free Name and Gender Marker tool Identity 650 can be found at www.sixfifty.com/identity. SixFifty is holding a webinar on June 30, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. MDT (1:00 p.m. ET) about Utah's name and gender marker change laws, and how to use SixFifty's new tool. The webinar is free. Anyone who would like to attend can register using this link.

For more information, please email [email protected]

About SixFifty

Headquartered in the Silicon Slopes of Utah and powered by Wilson Sonsini, SixFifty's technology takes on complex legal issues by providing customized contracts, policies, and documents.

SixFifty customers enjoy the dual benefits of innovative technology and human expertise.

SOURCE SixFifty Technologies
DUBLIN, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "The IT Industry in South Africa 2022" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

This report focuses on the IT industry, including hardware manufacturing, assembly, and supply; software development and supply; and retail sales of hardware and software.

It includes information on the size of the sector, rankings, spending forecasts and estimates, notable players and their performance, corporate actions, regulation, influencing factors and trends.

There are profiles of 105 companies, including major software and hardware companies such as AdaptIT, Business Connexion, Dell and IBM, ecommerce companies such as Africa Online and Takealot, transaction technology companies such as Mastercard and MediKredit and companies that have come under scrutiny such as Ayo and EOH.

The pandemic has given an enormous boost to digital transformation, and the IT industry. Supply chain issues, chip shortages, an upsurge in cybercrime, and the July riots all had a major impact on South African companies and the way they work. The IT sector is expecting the increasing access to broadband and fibre and the release of spectrum to drive digital transformation in the country.

Ratings of South Africa's IT industry compared to top global performers on network readiness to optimise the use of ICTs, the relationship between ICT infrastructure investment and economic growth and digital competitiveness show that South Africa's rankings are low compared to global economies and the highest on the African continent.

Trends

The adoption of hybrid work models and most leaders of large companies in South Africa expect to adopt a more hybrid way of working permanently.

The pandemic created greater impetus for digitalisation uptake, which allows companies to use their data more effectively to gain better insight and thus become more competitive. Key drivers in the sector include artificial intelligence, cloud computing, big data analytics, 5G and the internet of things.

Cybersecurity and Crime

The move to remote work has exposed many security risks, and it is estimated that the global average cost of a data breach increased by 10% year-on-year in 2021.

In South Africa there have been a number of attacks such as on Transnet Port Terminals, which brought ports and railways to a standstill. Ransomware attacks are the top cyberthreat for the year ahead, followed by business interruptions.

Key Topics Covered:



1. INTRODUCTION



2. DESCRIPTION OF THE INDUSTRY

2.1. Industry Value Chain

2.2. Geographic Position

2.3. Size of the Industry

2.4. Key Success Factors and Pain Points



3. LOCAL

3.1. Key Trends

3.2. Notable Players

3.3. Trade

3.4. Corporate Actions

3.5. Regulations

3.6. Enterprise Development and Social Economic Development



4. AFRICA



5. INTERNATIONAL



6. INFLUENCING FACTORS

6.1. COVID-19

6.2. Economic Environment

6.3. Labour

6.4. IT-Related Government Initiatives

6.5. Governance and Procurement Issues

6.6. Technology, Research and Development (R&D) and Innovation

6.7. Cybersecurity and Crime

6.8. Environmental Issues

6.9. Electricity Supply Constraints

6.10. Cyclicality



7. COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT

7.1. Competition

7.2. Ownership Structure of the Industry

7.3. Barriers to Entry



8. SWOT ANALYSIS



9. OUTLOOK



10. INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS



11. REFERENCES

11.1. Publications

11.2. Websites



APPENDICES

Appendix 1 -Summary of Notable Players

Computer and Related Activities

Wholesale and Retail of Laptops, Desktops and Peripherals

Appendix 2 - SME Hardware Manufacturers, Hardware Suppliers, and e-Waste Refurbishers

Appendix 3 - IT-related Projects and Initiatives on the African Continent

Appendix 4 - 20 Highest Paid Positions at South Africa's Multinational IT Companies and equivalent salaries at small to medium local enterprises

COMPANY PROFILES

COMPUTER AND RELATED ACTIVITIES

4Sight Holdings Ltd

Accenture ( South Africa ) (Pty) Ltd

) (Pty) Ltd Accsys (Pty) Ltd

ACI Global Ltd

Active Track (Pty) Ltd

AdaptIT Holdings Ltd

Adcorp Workforce Solutions (Pty) Ltd

Africa Online Retail (Pty) Ltd

Afrihost SP (Pty) Ltd

Altron Ltd

Alviva Holdings Ltd

AOLC (Pty) Ltd

AYO Technology Solutions Ltd

B D Silks CC

Barone Budge and Dominick (Pty) Ltd

and Dominick (Pty) Ltd Bidvest Office (Pty) Ltd

Blue Label Telecoms Ltd

Business Connexion (Pty) Ltd

Cash Connect Management Solutions (Pty) Ltd

CCI Technology Solutions (Pty) Ltd

CHM Vuwani Computer Solutions (Pty) Ltd

Cisco Systems ( South Africa ) (Pty) Ltd

) (Pty) Ltd Cocre8 IT Services (Pty) Ltd

ContinuitySA (Pty) Ltd

Daddy's Deals (Pty) Ltd

Datacentrix (Pty) Ltd

Datatec Ltd

Dimension Data (Pty) Ltd

Direct Transact (Pty) Ltd

Document Warehouse (Pty) Ltd (The)

EasyPay (Pty) Ltd

Ecentric Payment Systems (Pty) Ltd

EOH Holdings Ltd

ERS Biometrics (Pty) Ltd

Faranani IT Services (Pty) Ltd

Flash Mobile Vending (Pty) Ltd

Gijima Group Ltd

Hewlett-Packard South Africa (Pty) Ltd

IBM South Africa (Pty) Ltd

Intel South Africa Corporation

International Time and Access Technologies CC

Iron Mountain South Africa (Pty) Ltd

Iron Mountain South Africa Information Management (Pty) Ltd

Iron Mountain South Africa Records Management (Pty) Ltd

IT-Dynamics (Pty) Ltd

ITEC SA (Pty) Ltd

Lightstone Consumer (Pty) Ltd

Mastercard Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd

MediKredit Integrated Healthcare Solutions (Pty) Ltd

Metrofile Holdings Ltd

Micro Focus Software South Africa (Pty) Ltd

Microsoft (S A) (Pty) Ltd

Morvest Group (Pty) Ltd

Mustek Ltd

Naspers Ltd

Net1 Applied Technologies South Africa (Pty) Ltd

Nomad Information Systems (Pty) Ltd

Onedayonly Offers (Pty) Ltd

Oracle Corporation ( South Africa ) (Pty) Ltd

) (Pty) Ltd Pay-Day Software Systems (Pty) Ltd

Paycorp Group (Pty) Ltd

PBT Group Ltd

Prism Payment Technologies (Pty) Ltd

QCK Lezmin 4648 CC

Ricoh South Africa (Pty) Ltd

Sage South Africa (Pty) Ltd

(Pty) Ltd SAS Institute (Pty) Ltd

SBE International SA (Pty) Ltd

Setcom (Pty) Ltd

Siemens (Pty) Ltd

Silkwood Trading 18 (Pty) Ltd

Sirius Sales (Pty) Ltd

(Pty) Ltd South African Bankers Services Company (Pty) Ltd

Spark ATM Systems (Pty) Ltd

State Information Technology Agency SOC Ltd

Stellar Capital Partners (Pty) Ltd

Systems Africa CC

Systems Applications Products ( South Africa ) (Pty) Ltd

) (Pty) Ltd T-Systems South Africa (Pty) Ltd

Takealot Online (RF) (Pty) Ltd

Teraco Data Environments (Pty) Ltd

Time and Attendance Solutions (Pty) Ltd

Time Attendance and Access Control CC

Toppan FaceTech (Pty) Ltd

Trac Tech (Pty) Ltd

Transaction Control Technologies (SA) (Pty) Ltd

Trillobate Marketing (Pty) Ltd

Trustlink (Pty) Ltd

Verifone Africa (Pty) Ltd

Virdi Distribution SA (Pty) Ltd

Visio Pix (Pty) Ltd

Wizzit Payments (Pty) Ltd

Xneelo (Pty) Ltd

WHOLESALE AND RETAIL OF LAPTOPS, DESKTOPS AND PERIPHERALS

Acer Africa (Pty) Ltd

Alviva Holdings Ltd

AOLC (Pty) Ltd

ASUSTek Computer Inc

Bidvest Office (Pty) Ltd

CHM Vuwani Computer Solutions (Pty) Ltd

CoCre8 Technology Solutions (Pty) Ltd

Dell Computer (Pty) Ltd

Esquire System Technology (Pty) Ltd

Hisense SA Sales Holdings (Pty) Ltd

Huawei Technologies Africa (Pty) Ltd

Intel South Africa Corporation

ITEC SA (Pty) Ltd

JD Consumer Electronics and Appliances (Pty) Ltd

Lenovo ( South Africa ) (Pty) Ltd

) (Pty) Ltd LG Electronics S A (Pty) Ltd

Microsoft (S A) (Pty) Ltd

Mustek Ltd

Oracle Corporation ( South Africa ) (Pty) Ltd

) (Pty) Ltd Ricoh South Africa (Pty) Ltd

Samsung Electronics South Africa (Pty) Ltd

Tarsus Distribution (Pty) Ltd

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/8im1ph

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 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Manufacture and Wholesale of Metal Fasteners in South Africa 2022" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

This report focuses on the manufacture and wholesale of metal fasteners nails, rivets, tacks, pins, staples, washers and other non-threaded products, nuts, bolts, screws and other threaded products. The report includes information on the size of the industry, trade statistics and influencing factors.

There are profiles of 39 companies including listed industry players such as Bidvest, Hudaco Industries and Invicta, notable manufacturers including Avlock International, CBC Fasteners and SA Bolt Manufacturers and wholesalers such as Action Bolt, Hilti and Wurth.



Manufacture and Wholesale of Metal Fasteners in South Africa

South Africa is Africa's largest exporter of metal fasteners, including rivets, tacks, pins, staples, washers, nuts, bolts, and screws. Key end users include the mining, automotive manufacturing, construction, rail, energy, agriculture and manufacturing industries.

Factors such as the impact of the pandemic, poor economic growth and high input costs continue to have a significant impact on the performance of the metal fasteners manufacturing and wholesale industry.

Protection

The imposition of safeguard duties on imports of various types of metal fasteners over the past few years has caused demand for locally-manufactured fasteners to increase, according to industry players. During 2020 and 2021, safeguard duties were imposed on imported iron or steel bolts with hexagon heads and fully threaded screws with hexagon heads.

Global Trends

As most countries recover from the impact of the pandemic, demand for fasteners is growing in most industries, but there are problems on the supply side. Steel plants have been slow to come back online, causing a global deficit that led to ongoing higher steel prices, and as steel production increases, prices of input materials like iron ore, coking coal and steel scrap are also rising due to higher demand.

Many fastener manufacturers are not accepting orders because they cannot secure steel supplies. There is a global shortage of shipping containers, which has caused a surge in freight costs.

Key Topics Covered:



1. INTRODUCTION



2. DESCRIPTION OF THE INDUSTRY

2.1. Industry Value Chain

2.2. Geographic Position

2.3. Size of the Industry

2.4. Key Success Factors and Pain Points



3. LOCAL

3.1. Key Trends

3.2. Notable Players

3.3. Trade

3.4. Corporate Actions

3.5. Regulations

3.6. Enterprise Development and Social Economic Development



4. AFRICA



5. INTERNATIONAL



6. INFLUENCING FACTORS

6.1. COVID -19

6.2. Economic Environment

6.3. Labour

6.4. Environmental Issues



7. COMPETITIVE ENVIROMENT

7.1. Competition

7.2. Ownership Structure of the Industry

7.3. Barriers to Entry



8. SWOT ANALYSIS



9. OUTLOOK



10. INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS



11. REFERENCES

11.1. Publications

11.2. Websites



APPENDIX

COMPANY PROFILES

Action Bolt (Pty) Ltd

Astra Fasteners (Pty) Ltd

Automatic Mass Production (Pty) Ltd

Avlock International (Pty) Ltd

B E D Holdings (Pty) Ltd

Ben Cor (Pty) Ltd

Bidvest Afcom (Pty) Ltd

Bolt-Tech (Pty) Ltd

Boltfast (Pty) Ltd

Boltlock Manufacturing and Supplies (Pty) Ltd

Capital Africa Steel (Pty) Ltd

CBC Fasteners (Pty) Ltd

Chalwil Engineering CC

Daltron Forge (Pty) Ltd

East Rand Forging (Pty) Ltd

EMV Africa (Pty) Ltd

Essentra Components (Pty) Ltd

Fastener and Allied (Pty) Ltd

Fastener Factory (Pty) Ltd (The)

Fastenright (Pty) Ltd

Fontana Manufacturers (Pty) Ltd

Hilti ( South Africa ) (Pty) Ltd

) (Pty) Ltd Hudaco Trading (Pty) Ltd

Impala Bolt and Nut (Pty) Ltd

Invicta Holdings Ltd

NSS Fasteners (Pty) Ltd

Pro-Tech Fasteners (Pty) Ltd

Qwa-Qwa Wire Products (Pty) Ltd

R B Fasteners (Pty) Ltd

Reliable Bolt (Pty) Ltd

S A Bolt Manufacturers (Pty) Ltd

Screw Man ( Pretoria ) CC (The)

) CC (The) Shenka Industries CC

SwageFast (Pty) Ltd

T and I Chalmers Engineering (Pty) Ltd

Tel-Screw Products (Pty) Ltd

Transvaal Pressed Nuts Bolts and Rivets (Pty) Ltd

W P Fasteners and Services CC

Wurth South Africa Co (Pty) Ltd

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/a3yflo

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
LYNCHBURG, Va. , June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- "Today, on behalf of Liberty University, I want to express our gratitude to Almighty God for the landmark decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization handed down by the Supreme Court of the United States. While this does not effectively end abortion in America, it is a monumental step in the direction of protecting life and placing that decision squarely in the hands of the American people.

For nearly 50 years, Liberty University students, faculty, and staff have prayed, volunteered, and advocated for the life of mothers and their unborn babies. The Liberty student body has led the way and marched year after year, prayed on the steps of the Supreme Court, and committed their lives to pro-life causes. As Liberty University president, I am proud that we are now officially training the first Post Roe-v-Wade generation of leaders who will be Champions for Christ to continue to advocate for the life of mothers and their unborn babies."

ABOUT LIBERTY UNIVERSITY

Liberty University, founded in 1971, is the world's premier Christian university, one of the largest private, nonprofit universities in the nation, and the largest university in Virginia. Located near the Blue Ridge Mountains on more than 7,000 acres in Lynchburg, Va., Liberty utilizes its world-class infrastructure and Christian faculty to offer more than 700 unique programs of study from the certificate to the doctoral level. Over 450 programs are offered online. In the 2021-22 academic year, Liberty celebrated its 50th Anniversary as it continues to fulfill its original mission of Training Champions for Christ with the values, knowledge, and skills essential for impacting tomorrow's world.

SOURCE Liberty University
Statement of Dr. Stuart Bussey, President of UAPD

The Supreme Court has SpokenNow Physicians Must Speak Out

SACRAMENTO, Calif., June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today's decision has made it more difficult to be a woman.

The decision to overturn 50 years of the federal right of women to have an abortion is sure to create chaos. As physicians we are an integral part of this evolving and divisive change. Doctors need to provide light, clarity and education to resolve controversy - in state courts, state legislatures and, most importantly, to women faced with a difficult decision. The zone of privacy mentioned in Roe v Wade includes the women and families who make the abortion decision, and the medical provider who bears the immense responsibility for the act.

Most Americans favor the right to an abortion under certain conditions. But half the states are expected to ban abortions, some without any exceptions. Half will still allow abortions under conditions to be determined. Some employers will pay travel expenses for those seeking abortions, but many will not. Local prosecutors and jurors may or may not enforce state laws. Politics will be in play.

That is why it is critical Doctors are available to advocate and help women make decisions and stand by them throughout the process. Physicians and other abortion providers will not only provide abortion services in "abortion states" but should provide advice and advocacy in states where rape, incest, maternal health, and medical emergency is at issue.

UAPD is the nation's largest union of post-residency physicians.

Dr. Stuart Bussey, M.D. & J.D. is President of UAPD. Please contact: Ray Quintanilla, 312-505-7862, for interview requests.

SOURCE Union of American Physicians and Dentists
Multiple FDA - IND applications are expected to be filed soon. Interested Accredited investors are highly invited.

HOUSTON, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Co-Chief Executive Officer of Houston-based Biotechnology Company Stramsen Biotech Inc. Dr. Kefas Mugittu (Ph.D.) has announced eleven Drug candidates for clinical development. These are new natural plant-based medicine candidates. The company's Board Members' meeting took place on Saturday June 18th, 2022, at the Hilton Hotel West-Chase Houston, Texas.

These drugs are safe, effective and currently in use in different countries overseas. The list includes the following drug candidates;

1. SBX 1052 - Controls/prevents enlargement of the prostate glands.

2. SBX1968 - Controls/prevents the proliferation and metastasis prostate glands cancer.

3. SBX 2021 - Controls/prevents the proliferation and metastasis of various cancer cells.

4. SBX 2022 - Controls/prevents the proliferation and metastasis of blood cancer.

5. SBX 2023 - treats various forms of peripheral neuropathic disorders

6. SBX 2000 - for management of various forms of cardiovascular diseases

7. SBX 1977  A wound healing drug with cell proliferation & strong antibacterial properties.

8. SBX 2048 - Controls HIV and improves immunity

9. SBX1988  Controls diabetes

10. SBX2011 - Treats kidney infections and dissolves / breaks-up gallstones.

11. SBX1967  Relieves bone/joint pains, treats bone/joint infection improves joint lubrication.

Due to rising resistance and safety concerns to some synthetic drugs, people around the world are increasingly turning to natural plant-based drugs / medicines for their healthcare needs. In this regard, Stramsen Biotech's goal is to provide patients with safe and efficacious medicines / drugs. Therefore, Stramsen Biotech's current mission is to further confirm safety and efficacy of these drugs for FDA approval so that they can be used in the US and other western countries.

Stramsen Biotech is expected to submit multiple IND applications to the FDA. Stramsen Biotech also invites Accredited Investors to fund their clinical development processes. As a result of this board members' meeting, the Company will start exploring all fundraising options including going public and filing prospectus form S-1 with the securities and exchange commission.

Stramsen Biotech's core research team has PhD-level Scientists and University Professors with headquarters in Houston, Texas. They specialize in Medicinal Phytochemistry, Natural Products Pathophysiology, Molecular Biology, Biomedical Sciences and Clinical Science. They have received several awards and research grants and published extensively in peer-reviewed international journals.

www.StramsenBiotech.com

https://www.facebook.com/StramsenBiotech

https://twitter.com/stramsen

Toll Free Tel +1-800-485-2110

Direct Tel+1-713-260-2622

Media Contact:

Peter Olsen

[email protected]

Stramsen Biotech, Inc

SOURCE Stramsen Biotech, Inc
NEW YORK, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Templum, Inc. ("Templum"), a provider of next-generation cloud-based capital market infrastructure for alternative assets and private securities, announced today that it has won the TradingTech Insight USA Award for the Best Cloud-Based Trading Environment. These awards recognize excellence in trading solutions and services for capital markets and focus on technology leaders providing exceptional trading infrastructure, trading technology, and data solutions.

These awards are overseen by the A-Team Innovation Awards Advisory Board, which helps to shape the categories and review the nominations alongside A-Team Group editors to select the winners.

The TradingTech Insight shortlist is comprised of companies recognized as leaders in their space, shaping the future of trading infrastructure technology and data solutions, and finally chosen by the industry through a voting process.

"It is an honor to be recognized by the TradingInsight Advisory Board and the capital markets industry for this award," stated Christopher Pallotta, Founder and CEO of Templum. "Perhaps the single most significant development in securities markets in the new millennium has been the explosive growth of private markets. This has presented a challenge in creating and building an institutional-grade market infrastructure for the primary issuance and secondary trading of private securities. Templum uniquely solves this challenge. Templum's cloud-based trading environment paves the way for investors to participate in new asset classes. In addition, our combined trading solution provides an innovative and scalable ecosystem in private markets by enabling a continuous trading experience for investors/issuers rather than the current time-consuming manual processes."

Angela Wilbraham, CEO at A-Team Group, stated, "Congratulations Templum for winning Best Cloud-Based Trading Environment in the fourth annual TradingTech Insight Award USA. This year's TradingTech Insight USA awards have been extremely popular and competitive, highlighting established solution providers and innovative newcomers within capital markets that provide exceptional trading infrastructure, trading technology, and data solutions."

Templum's growing list of awards and accolades includes this recent prestigious win as well as the A-Team Innovation Award for the Most Innovative Alternative Data Solution for Trading and Analytics and shortlist recognition for "Best Alternative Data Provider" for the WatersTechnology.com Rankings 2022.

About Templum

Templum is paving the way for investors to participate in new asset classes through integrated market technologies and APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) for primary issuance and secondary trading. Templum's award-winning and patent-pending combined solution provides liquidity and distribution in private markets by enabling a continuous trading experience for investors rather than the manual processes currently in place. In doing so, Templum delivers custom trading solutions to power marketplaces.

Templum Markets LLC. is a New York-based broker-dealer and Alternative Trading System (ATS) approved to trade unregistered private securities in 53 U.S. states and territories and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Templum, Inc., a trading technology company. For more information, please visit www.templuminc.com.

About the TradingTech Insight Awards

The awards, now in their fourth year, celebrate innovative projects and teams across vendor and practitioner communities that make use of new and emerging technologies to deliver high-value solutions for financial institutions in capital markets.

SOURCE Templum Inc.
VANCOUVER, BC, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Deep-South Resources Inc. ("Deep-South" or "the Company") (TSXV: DSM) reports that at the hearing held on June 23, 2022, the court ordered the parties to file their Case Management report by June 27, 2022.

The next Case Management hearing will be held on June 30, 2022.

The Case Management hearing serves to prepare the final hearing. Several aspects can be discussed at the Case Management hearing such as the number of days required for the final hearing, any issues that are likely to facilitate a just and speedy resolution of the case or potential settlement prospects.

The Company will provide regular updates in this regard and any other matter concerning this situation.

About Deep-South Resources Inc

Deep-South Resources is a mineral exploration and development company Deep-South growth strategy is to focus on the exploration and development of quality assets in significant mineralized trends and in proximity to infrastructure in stable countries. In using and assessing environmentally friendly technologies in the development of its copper project, Deep-South embraces the green revolution.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Information contained in this news release which are not statements of historical facts may be "forward-looking information" for the purposes of Canadian securities laws. Such forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward looking information. The words "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "contemplate", "plan", "intends", "continue", "budget", "estimate", "may", "will", "schedule", "understand" and similar expressions identify forward-looking information. These forward-looking statements relate to, among other things: the Minister's refusal to renew the Company's Licence, the Company's intention to contest the Minister's decision before the Courts of Namibia and the outcome of such proceedings.

Forward-looking information is necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by Deep-South, are inherently subject to significant technical, political, business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Known and unknown factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information. Factors and assumptions that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things: political risks associated with the Company's operations in Namibia; the failure of the Namibian Government to comply with its continuing obligations under the Act to allow for the renewal of the Licence; the impact of changes in, or to the more aggressive enforcement of, laws, regulations and government practices; the inability of the Company and its subsidiaries to enforce their legal rights in certain circumstances. For additional risk factors, please see the Company's most recently filed Management Discussions & Analysis available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

There can be no assurances that forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as many factors and future events, both known and unknown could cause actual results, performance or achievements to vary or differ materially from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements contained herein or incorporated by reference. Accordingly, all such factors should be considered carefully when making decisions with respect to Deep-South, and prospective investors should not place undue reliance on forward looking information. Forward-looking information in this news release is made as at the date hereof. The Company assumes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking information to reflect changes in assumptions, changes in circumstances or any other events affecting such forward-looking information, except as required by applicable law.

SOURCE Deep-South Resources Inc.
COLUMBIA, Maryland, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Mexico Fund, Inc. (NYSE: MXF), today issued its fiscal 2022 Semi-Annual Report for the period ended April 30, 2022.

A full version of the report is available at the companys website  www.themexicofund.com

Semi-Annual Report 2022 Highlights

During the first half of fiscal year 2022, the Fund's NAV per share and market price registered a total return of 2.95% and 3.04%, respectively, outperforming the Funds benchmark, the Morgan Stanley Capital International ("MSCI") Mexico Index, which increased 2.84%. In addition, the Funds NAV per share has outperformed its benchmark during the three-, five- and ten-year periods ended on April 30, 2022, as shown in the table below:



Annualized % Return in USD

1-year 3-years 5-years 10-years MXF Market Price 8.59 5.91 2.33 1.64 MXF NAV 8.82 6.36 2.63 1.71 MSCI Mexico Index 10.76 5.06 1.42 0.05

As of April 30, 2022, the Fund's market price and NAV per share were $15.06 and $17.57, respectively, reflecting a discount of 14.29%, compared with a discount of 13.97% at the end of fiscal year 2021.

The Funds Expense Limitation Agreement was renewed and reinforced for fiscal year 2022. The cap on the ordinary expense ratio, which excludes the performance component of the Investment Advisory fee, was reduced from 1.50% to 1.40%, so long as Fund net assets remain greater than $260 million. The Fund's ordinary expense ratio during the first half of fiscal year 2022 was 1.38%, below the limit of 1.40%.

The Board of Directors of the Fund has ratified the continuation of the Fund's quarterly distributions under its MDP during 2022. As a result, it declared a distribution of $0.18 per share to be paid on July 28, 2022, to stockholders of record as of July 20, 2022.

About The Mexico Fund, Inc.

The Mexico Fund, Inc. is a non-diversified closed-end management investment company with the investment objective of long-term capital appreciation through investments in securities, primarily equity, listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange. The Fund provides a vehicle to investors who wish to invest in Mexican companies through a managed non-diversified portfolio as part of their overall investment program.

This release may contain certain forward-looking statements regarding future circumstances. These forward-looking statements are based upon the Fund's current expectations and assumptions and are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in such forward-looking statements including, in particular, the risks and uncertainties described in the Fund's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual results, events, and performance may differ. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. The Fund undertakes no obligation to release publicly any revisions to these forward looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. The inclusion of any statement in this release does not constitute an admission by The Mexico Fund or any other person that the events or circumstances described in such statement are material.

CONTACT:

Tofi Dayan

+5255-9138-3350

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE The Mexico Fund, Inc.
Holding the World Intelligence Congress for the sixth time in a row, Tianjin has been promoting cutting-edge technology exchanges and making every effort to build a pioneering city of artificial intelligence, to optimize and upgrade industries and improve overall productivity.

"By holding intelligent tech-themed conferences that are high-end, international, professional and market-oriented, Tianjin is able to attract high-quality resources from home and abroad," said Wang Xu, vice-mayor of Tianjin.

The sixth WIC takes place online on June 24-25 in Tianjin. The global event gives full play to cutting-edge technologies such as the metaverse, with hundreds of attendees sharing their screens simultaneously online.

"The WIC is not only a conference, but also a platform to reshape and empower the industry, a platform to integrate the government's supporting policies and technology industries," said Yin Jihui, Party secretary and head of the Tianjin Industry and Information Technology Bureau.

This approach also injects vitality into the city and promotes its industrial upgrade. Ensuring that local business "prospered through conferences" augurs well for the city's urban development, Wang said.

His words were echoed by Jiang Yaming, executive deputy director of Textile Future Technology Research Center of Tiangong University. Jiang said: "During the past few years, intelligent manufacturing research achievements have been made in Tianjin one after another, bringing benefits to China and the world."

Jiang added that Tianjin's intelligent technology industry has taken shape and achieved solid development in multiple fields, including AI, big data, cloud computing, robotics, intelligent connected vehicles and intelligent medical treatment.

With its improvement of the AI industry, Tianjin has notched up a number of innovative achievements, including the world's first "brain talker" chip, the world's first neural ergonomic testing system, and China's only fully autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle system.

Big data and cloud computing have helped build "digital Tianjin "and formed a big data industry chain integrating data collection, storage, cleaning, analysis and mining, data security and intelligent applications.

Wang said: "Tianjin is the largest open coastal city in North China with a solid foundation in the manufacturing industry, and obvious advantages in resources such as talents, science, technology and policies. It has strong industrial service capabilities.

The major national strategy for the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei has given Tianjin a "one base and three districts" functional positioning.

Currently, the city is focusing on building a China-leading manufacturing research and development base, striving to consolidate and improve the advantages of intelligent technology and innovative industries, and create a national new-generation AI innovation and development pilot zone.

Smart city

AI solution provider Terminus, an arm of China Everbright Group, inked a strategic partnership deal with Tianjin on Thursday to provide all-around AI solutions for the city.

Terminus CEO Ai Yu said: "The city's strong resolution to boost development empowered by intelligent manufacturing, AI and digitalization provides great opportunities for our company and benefits the synergic development among the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region."

At this year's WIC, Tianjin will display China's first solar-powered and intelligent connected vehicle, Tianjin, which is a pioneering move that echoes the city's commitment to its carbon emissions reduction and innovation-driven high-quality development.

The vehicle weighs 1,020 kilograms and has three seats. It can travel up to 74.8 kilometers on one charge, and has a maximum speed of 79.2 km per hour.

The solar module of the car totals 8.1 square meters, serving as the vehicle's only power source, and is capable of reducing carbon emissions by 25 kg per 100 km.

Boasting 47 cutting-edge pieces of technology and products, the intelligent vehicle integrates efforts from 42 enterprises and three universities, such as the IAT Automobile Technology Company, the Tianjin Lishen Battery Joint-Stock Company and Nankai University.

Taking only five months to complete, the car also displays the efficient cooperation among multidisciplinary and interindustry players in achieving integrated innovation.

State Grid Tianjin Electric Power Company is a case in point that takes full advantage of intelligent technology, to help with not only rural vitalization, but also energy conservation.

Xiaying town in Tianjin's Jizhou district is famous for its picturesque scenery all year round. However, there were few tourists coming to visit in years before. As a mountainous area, the town has only a short span of warm weather. The effective operating period within a year was only six or seven months.

"At first, the mountain farmhouse opened, but the tourist occupancy rate was low. They (tourists) only came during the summer and on weekends," said Wang Cuihua, a farmhouse runner in Tuanshanzi village of the town.

Cooperating with Tianjin Energy Big Data Center, State Grid Tianjin Electric Power Company recorded and analyzed the village's power data.

"Through collecting the power data of the village, we found that the electricity load of Tuanshanzi village varies with seasonal changes, and the difference between the highest and lowest period is nearly three times," said Sheng Jiguang, deputy general manager of the Jizhou subsidiary of State Grid Tianjin Electric Power Company.

Relying on the application of power big data, the Jizhou subsidiary upgraded the electric power equipment in the mountainous area, which has helped the village with developing rural tourism.

To better help the development of rural economy and rural vitalization, State Grid Tianjin Electric Power Company established an electricity power index evaluation system, relying on the high instantaneity and accuracy of the power data, which is expected to help Jizhou district with rural vitalization from the perspectives of industries, living conditions, culture and education and livelihood.

"With the support of big data, we identified in advance the urgent and increasing demand for electricity in 19 towns. After several rounds of power grid upgrading, the average power capacity of rural households in Jizhou has been increased by nearly 2.5 times, and areas of electric heating have increased by nearly five times," Sheng said.

"Winter comes early in mountainous areas, and there used to be few tourists after October. Since we have sufficient power supply now, we have installed new heating facilities and 17 air conditioners this year. There are no fewer tourists in winter than summer," Wang said.

Looking ahead, the company will draw on China-leading experience of power data analysis, and collect data related to the economy and population, to carry out regular monitoring in a bid to prevent the reoccurrence of poverty and help the government take concrete actions in rural vitalization.

SOURCE chinadaily.com.cn
WACO, Texas, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Time Manufacturing Company ("Time") has completed its acquisition of France Elevateur ("FE Group"), a leading European manufacturer of aerial work platforms.

Time is a global manufacturer of aerial lifts primarily for the electric utility, telecommunications, infrastructure, and forestry sectors. Time currently goes to market with the Versalift, BrandFX, Aspen Aerials, Ruthmann, Steiger, Ecoline & Bluelift brands. France Elevateur, founded in 1984, is a European manufacturer of Aerial Work Platforms (AWP) located in Flavigny-sur-Moselle, France. Now known as the FE group, the company is composed of France Elevateur, FE Benelux, FE Deutschland, and Movex, with regional sales and service organizations that together serve surrounding national markets.

Movex began upfitting work trucks in 1980 and was wholly acquired by France Elevateur in 2021. The company has production facilities near Barcelona and exports to more than 20 countries. As a well-known Spanish aerial lift brand, Movex provides a bridge of entry into the Spanish market for both Time Manufacturing Company and FE Group products and services.

Curt Howell, CEO of Time Manufacturing Company commented, "The France Elevateur acquisition represents a meaningful step forward in our global growth plan by adding more than 450 experienced professionals, a world-class regional product line, and over a dozen facilities across France, Belgium and Spain. Leveraging our existing reach in Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and Switzerland, The FE Group improves our reach in the important national markets of Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Ireland, Eastern France and Spain."

Charles Goffin, CEO at France Elevateur added, "Time Manufacturing Company is definitely the best possible partner for France Elevateur. Both companies have long histories and strong reputations for excellence in research and engineering in the aerial work platform industry, and they are complementary in both geography and markets. The entire FE Group team supports this transaction. Our current customers will immediately benefit by having more options for higher-access lifts, and Time Manufacturing Company customers will benefit from our extensive service footprint."

Kim Bach Jensen, President of Time Manufacturing Europe commented, "We are happy to welcome France Elevateur and Movex into the Time Manufacturing Company group of brands. We believe that our companies share a philosophy focused on customer service, and enjoy a compatible product offering. Leveraging our collective knowledge, skilled staff, and worldwide distribution will strengthen us in the future. We are aligned in supporting our shared customers and their need for excellent solutions."

The acquisition of France Elevateur is a significant step forward for Time Manufacturing Company in developing a robust sales and service network that supports the specialized access needs of telecommunications, electric utility and other essential end customers around the world. Time has international operations across the European continent, and North and South America, which each represent remarkable opportunities to expand and promote France Elevateur brands to a broader global audience.

Media Contact: Brent Berger  [email protected]

Time Manufacturing Company is a global manufacturer of vehicle mounted aerial lifts , including bucket trucks, digger derricks, cable placers, truck bodies, buckets, and other specialty equipment for electric utility, telecommunications, bridge inspection, tree care and other fleet-supported industries. Through Versalift, BrandFX, Aspen Aerials, Ruthmann, Steiger, Ecoline, Bluelift, Movex and France Elevateur brands, the company provides equipment to co-ops, municipalities, government agencies and corporations through its global network of facilities and distributors. Time Manufacturing Company now employs more than 2,600 associates worldwide.

SOURCE Time Manufacturing Company
Mark Nakamitsu and Rick Farrar among latest Cetera affiliations, on top of $1B Harvest Wealth Team from Merrill Lynch earlier this month



LOS ANGELES, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Cetera Financial Group, one of America's largest networks of financial professionals, announced today two advisory teams, managing nearly $600 million in combined assets, have affiliated with Cetera. Mark Nakamitsu, CFP, has joined Cetera's branch community  Cetera Investors  in the Twin Cities. He was formerly affiliated with Fidelity Investments, where he worked as a wealth planner, financial consultant and regional planning consultant. He manages wealth for high-net-worth families and individuals, providing multifaceted financial planning. In addition to Nakamitsu, Rick Farrar has joined Totus Wealth Management within the Cetera Advisors community from Lincoln Financial Advisors. His practice provides wealth management, business continuity, and sophisticated wealth transfer strategies. Located in Birmingham, AL, he provides holistic financial planning and advice to business owners, executives, foundations and non-profit organizations.

"The highly collaborative and community-oriented culture at Cetera Investors is a welcome change for my practice, and I value the opportunity to embrace independence," Nakamitsu said. "Cetera provides the backing of a large firm with a small-firm feel and culture, which is a unique and empowering combination. I am optimistic about the future for my clients and for my business and am proud to call Cetera home."

"We welcome Mark to Cetera Investors, and look forward to collaborating to achieve shared success," said LeAnn Rummel, president and CEO of Cetera Investment Services. "Mark embodies Cetera's client-first values and mindset, and we appreciate the opportunity to partner to help his clients achieve their version of financial wellbeing. We are proud that Mark has chosen Cetera and know that his business will thrive for years to come."

"These affiliations are the latest examples of how Cetera thrives in meeting advisors where they are so they can affiliate their businesses their way," said John Pierce, head of business development for Cetera. "Mark and Rick will benefit from Cetera's leading growth resources, marketing capabilities, technology and support, which will provide countless benefits for their practices and for their clients. We welcome them to Cetera and anticipate a prosperous future."

The latest recruiting wins follow the recent announcement that the $1 billion Harvest Wealth team joined Cetera from Merrill Lynch.

About Cetera Financial Group

Cetera Financial Group (Cetera) is a leading financial services firm whose purpose is to enable the delivery of best-in-class financial advice to as many Americans as possible. Cetera empowers its financial professional communities to help clients achieve their version of financial wellbeing through the Advice-Centric Experience. Cetera proudly serves independent financial professionals, tax professionals, banks and credit unions in providing wide-ranging financial planning and wealth management services.

Cetera oversees approximately $353 billion in assets under administration and $122 billion in assets under management, as of December 31, 2021.

Visit www.cetera.com, and follow Cetera on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

"Cetera Financial Group" refers to the network of independent retail firms encompassing, among others, Cetera Advisors LLC, Cetera Advisor Networks LLC, Cetera Investment Services LLC (marketed as Cetera Financial Institutions or Cetera Investors), Cetera Financial Specialists LLC, and First Allied Securities, Inc. All firms are members FINRA/SIPC. Located at: 655 W. Broadway, 11th Floor, San Diego, CA 92101.

Individuals affiliated with Cetera firms are either Registered Representatives who offer only brokerage services and receive transaction-based compensation (commissions), Investment Adviser Representatives who offer only investment advisory services and receive fees based on assets, or both Registered Representatives and Investment Adviser Representatives, who can offer both types of services.

SOURCE Cetera Financial Group
The Wagyu beef market report offers a comprehensive analysis of the strategies adopted by vendors and the trends, drivers, and challenges affecting the market size. The wagyu beef market is segmented by product (Japanese breed, Australian breed, and others) and geography (APAC, North America, Europe, MEA, and South America).

By product, the Japanese breed segment will have the largest share of the market over the forecast period. The consumption of Japanese Wagyu beef is on the rise followed by the increasing promotional activities by Japanese authorities. By geography, APAC will generate maximum revenue in the market. The rising number of new restaurants offering wagyu beef dishes is increasing the consumption of wagyu beef. Also, the high production and export of wagyu beef in countries such as Japan and Australia is contributing to the growth of the regional market.

View Sample Report Now to identify other potential segments and regions to invest in over the forecast period.

The market is driven by the increasing production and trade of wagyu beef. Globally, the consumption of Wagyu beef has increased considerably over the years. Since 2014, the export value of Wagyu beef has increased by 200%. Countries such as Hong Kong, Cambodia, the US, Singapore, and Taiwan have increased the import of wagyu beef. Moreover, Australia lifted its 17-year-old ban on beef products from Japan, which has encouraged the production of Wagyu beef in Japan. Thus, the increase in the trade of Wagyu beef across the world is expected to drive the growth of the market during the forecast period.

The wagyu beef market report covers the following areas:

Some of the Key Vendors and their offerings:

The global Wagyu beef market is fragmented with the presence of several regional and international players offering wagyu beef. The vendors operating in the market are focusing on both organic and inorganic growth strategies such as new product launches, strategic alliances, and mergers and acquisitions to remain competitive in the market. The following are some of the dominant players operating in the market.

Agri Beef Co.: The company offers a wide range of Wagyu beef such as American Wagyu Gold Grade.

The company offers a wide range of Wagyu beef such as American Wagyu Gold Grade. AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURAL Co. Ltd.: The company offers the finest quality Australian Wagyu beef brands such as Westholme, Wylarah, and others.

The company offers the finest quality Australian Wagyu beef brands such as Westholme, Wylarah, and others. Blackmore Wagyu: The company offers premium Wagyu product that is marketed to gourmet butchers and high-end restaurants.

The company offers premium Wagyu product that is marketed to gourmet butchers and high-end restaurants. Dolan Foods Inc.: The company offers a wide range of Wagyu beef brands such as Master Kobe, Jackman, and others.

The company offers a wide range of Wagyu beef brands such as Master Kobe, Jackman, and others. GWB LLC: The company offers Wagyu ground beef.

Identify other key vendors featured in our report. View Sample Report Now

Related Reports:

Wagyu Beef Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2020 Forecast period 2021-2025 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 6.15% Market growth 2021-2025 USD 2.43 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 5.47 Regional analysis APAC, North America, Europe, MEA, and South America Performing market contribution APAC at 74% Key consumer countries Japan, US, Hong Kong (SAR, Australia, and UK Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Agri Beef Co., AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURAL Co. Ltd., Blackmore Wagyu, Dolan Foods Inc., GWB LLC, Havel-Wagyu GbR, JAPAN PREMIUM BEEF Inc., Lone Mountain Wagyu LLC, Masami Foods Inc., and Starzen Co. Ltd. Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID 19 impact and future consumer dynamics, market condition analysis for 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.

Key Topics Covered:

Executive Summary

Market Landscape

Market ecosystem

Value chain analysis

Market Sizing

Market definition

Market segment analysis

Market size 2020

Market outlook: Forecast for 2020 - 2025

Five Forces Analysis

Bargaining power of buyers

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of new entrants

Threat of substitutes

Threat of rivalry

Market condition

Market Segmentation by Product

Market segments

Comparison by Product

Japanese breed - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Australian breed - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Others - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

Market opportunity by Product

Customer landscape

Geographic Landscape

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

APAC - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

North America - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 Europe - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 MEA - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

South America - Market size and forecast 2020-2025

- Market size and forecast 2020-2025 Key leading countries

Market opportunity by geography

Market drivers

Market challenges

Market trends

Vendor Landscape

Landscape disruption

Vendor Analysis

Vendors covered

Market positioning of vendors

Agri Beef Co.

AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURAL Co. Ltd.

Blackmore Wagyu

Dolan Foods Inc.

GWB LLC

Havel-Wagyu GbR

JAPAN PREMIUM BEEF Inc.

PREMIUM BEEF Inc. Lone Mountain Wagyu LLC

Masami Foods Inc.

Starzen Co. Ltd.

Appendix

Scope of the report

Currency conversion rates for US$

Research methodology

List of abbreviations

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library 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
Redefining the longstanding maritime tradition of appointing a ship "godmother," this is the first time in Disney Cruise Line history that children are being recognized in this prestigious role which symbolically bestows good fortune on the vessel and its travelers.

The godchildren of this unique ship of wishes will join the magical group of godmothers for the Disney Cruise Line fleet including Patty Disney, Tinkerbell, Jennifer Hudson and Mariah Carey.

"Make-A-Wish children and their families are brave, determined, resilient, and some of the most inspirational people you could ever meet," said Bob Chapek, chief executive officer, The Walt Disney Company. "Wishing is a transformative experience that brings hope and joy, and it is our privilege to proudly recognize children who strive to overcome challenges as our Disney Wish godchildren. Working with Make-A-Wish to support children with critical illnesses and making magic when it is needed most will always be a priority for The Walt Disney Company."

During the Disney Wish christening ceremony, Make-A-Wish children will recite the blessing for the newest ship, evoking the spirit of optimism The Walt Disney Company is known for. The event will be an unforgettable celebration of enchantment that will showcase the innovative new ship and celebrate Make-A-Wish as a key part of making wishes come true aboard all Disney Cruise Line ships.

Since 1980, Disney and Make-A-Wish have helped grant life-changing wishes for more than 145,000 children with critical illnesses around the world. Historically, one out of every two wishes granted in the U.S. through Make-A-Wish has been a Disney wish, with many of these wishes involving visits to global Disney destinations and sailings with Disney Cruise Line.

"The selection of Make-A-Wish children as the godchildren of the Disney Wish is another example of how Disney and Make-A-Wish continue to find innovative ways to bring joy to the lives of wish kids and their families," said Richard K. Davis, president and CEO of Make-A-Wish America. "We are honored to partner with The Walt Disney Company and we look forward to granting countless more wishes together."

Disney Wish Limited Edition Merchandise Collection

In celebration of the Disney Wish and the incredible power of wishes, Disney Cruise Line has worked with Make-A-Wish to create an exclusive line of merchandise that includes a Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse plush, ear headband, trading pin, spirit jersey and tumbler.

Disney will donate 10% of the purchase price from the sale of every item in the Disney Wish Limited Edition Collection now through July 18, 2023, to Make-A-Wish to grant even more life-changing wishes. The full Disney Wish Limited Edition Collection is available aboard the Disney Wish, and select items are available on shopDisney.com beginning July 18, 2022.

Wish-Granting Donation

Disney Cruise Line also donated a stateroom aboard a sailing of the Disney Wish, an initiative that raised more than $260,000. Proceeds will benefit Make-A-Wish and Give Kids The World Village, a nonprofit resort in Central Florida that provides children with critical illnesses and their families from around the world with magical week-long wish vacations at no cost.

About Disney Cruise Line:

Since first setting sail in 1998, Disney Cruise Line has provided quintessential family cruise vacations, blending the magic of Disney with the excitement of ocean cruising. Unforgettable onboard experiences are paired with itineraries to sun-drenched destinations of the Caribbean year-round and awe-inspiring seasonal sailings throughout Alaska and Europe. Most Caribbean itineraries also include a stop at Disney's Castaway Cay, an award-winning island in The Bahamas. Disney Cruise Line continues to expand its horizons, with three new ships scheduled for delivery in 2022, 2024 and 2025 and a second Bahamian destination, Lighthouse Point, located on the island of Eleuthera. All three new ships will be powered by liquefied natural gas and, at approximately 144,000 gross tons and 1,250 guest staterooms, will be slightly larger than the Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy. To learn more about Disney Cruise Line or to book a vacation, guests can visit http://www.disneycruise.com, call Disney Cruise Line at 888-325-2500 or contact their travel agent.

About Make-A-Wish:

Make-A-Wish creates life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses. Founded in 1980, Make-A-Wish is the world's leading children's wish-granting organization, having granted more than 520,000 wishes in nearly 50 countries worldwide. Together with generous donors, supporters, staff and more than 32,000 volunteers around the globe, Make-A-Wish delivers hope and joy to children and their families when they need it most. Make-A-Wish aims to bring the power of wishing to every child with a critical illness because wish experiences can help improve emotional and physical health. For more information about Make-A-Wish America, visit wish.org, and for more information about Make-A-Wish International, visit worldwish.org.

[Editor's Note/Not For Publication: For photos, videos and more media information about Disney Cruise Line, access our media-only website www.dclnews.com . To download assets, visit dclnews.com/register to create a unique login.]

SOURCE Disney Cruise Line
Woolpert-RS&H JV services will include but not be limited to site investigation, charrettes, master planning, permitting, documentation, concept design and site planning, cost estimating, engineering and construction management. The joint venture will support all general multidisciplinary architecture and engineering services for new construction, renovation, maintenance and repair for military and non-military government agencies.

This is Woolpert and RS&H's second-straight selection for this contract, which was previously awarded in 2017 and supported a wide range of projects. These ranged from administrative and airfield facilities to warehouse and cemetery administration buildings, including the restoration of the Arlington National Cemetery's Memorial Amphitheater.

"There are not many projects more iconic than Arlington National Cemetery," RS&H Senior Vice President Richard Hammett said. "This site serves as a revered shrine to the men and women who have selflessly served our nation. This is something the Norfolk District is strongly committed to serving. To say we are honored to support their efforts is an understatement."

The Woolpert-RS&H joint venture also is under contract to provide architecture and engineering services through the USACE Louisville District for Air Force Reserve projects nationwide and with the Air Force Civil Engineer Center for the Air Force's worldwide design and construction mission.

Woolpert Vice President Doug Brown said these contracts illustrate the joint venture's ability to effectively support the nation's expansive military design needs.

"Our two companies have worked together for a long time, and we have similar cultures and values. We truly respect each other and have established a complementary relationship that expands and evolves specific to our federal clients," Brown said. "It's great to have a team that you can work with all day and still want to spend time with afterward. We look forward to working with RS&H and the great team at the Norfolk District to advance their mission under this contract."

About RS&H

RS&H is an employee-owned firm that began in 1941 to support the war effort. Over the years RS&H has helped build the launch platforms for the national space program, create international airports, shape progressive highway systems across the country and provide facilities for Fortune 1000 companies. RS&H continues to build on this long history by delivering time-tested insights to clients in Defense, Aerospace, Aviation, Corporate, Health & Science and Transportation. RS&H is consistently ranked among the Top 100 Design Firms by Engineering News-Record with expertise in the full range of AE services incorporating the most cost-effective, energy-efficient solutions. RS&H has more than 1,400 professionals and provides an integrated approach. We are committed to bringing extraordinary solutions to our clients through the promise of imagination, ingenuity and innovation. For more, visit rsandh.com.

About Woolpert

Woolpert is the premier architecture, engineering, geospatial (AEG) and strategic consulting firm, with a vision to become one of the best companies in the world. We innovate within and across markets to effectively serve public, private and government clients worldwide. Woolpert is an ENR Top 150 Global Design Firm, recently earned its sixth-straight Great Place to Work certification and actively nurtures a culture of growth, inclusion, diversity and respect. Founded in 1911 in Dayton, Ohio, Woolpert has been America's fastest-growing AEG firm since 2015. The firm has more than 1,900 employees and 60 offices on four continents. For more, visit woolpert.com.

Media Contact:

Jill Kelley

[email protected]

SOURCE Woolpert
UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak told oil and gas executives in Aberdeen yesterday that he wants to ensure investment in the sector continues despite the windfall tax, the Guardian reported.

The Chancellor announced last month that he would introduce a new charge on oil and gas profits to help pay to reduce consumer bills while also reducing tax for companies that invest in projects in UK waters.

His comments highlight the duality of the governments policy on the oil and sector, as shown by the decision to place a tax on oil and gas profits while also introducing a super deduction tax rebate for producers that develop projects in UK soil.

The government introduced the new so-called tax, or levy, on energy profits as part of a 5bn package of care designed to tackle the cost-of-living crisis.

In the Scottish meeting with oil and gas producers yesterday, which took place at the Net Zero Technology Centre, Sunak insisted on continued investment in the sector and implored banks to provide capital for new projects.

The latest pledge comes amid warnings from oil companies such as BP PLC (LSE:BP.), which won seabed rights this January to develop an offshore wind farm off the Scottish coast, that a windfall tax would indirectly impact their greener efforts.

Lobbyists in the oil and gas industry are pushing for the tax to end sooner, for the levy investment allowance to be backdated, and for decommissioning costs to be included within the allowance.

Harbour Energy PLC (LSE:HBR) chief executive Linda Cook reportedly wrote to the Chancellor warning that the windfall tax would lead to lower investment in the UK, not more.

Sunak, who initially opposed the proposal put forward for the windfall tax by Lib Dem leader and former coalition energy secretary Ed Davey in May, is expected to operate the tax until normal market conditions resume, or until the end of 2025.
Ariana Resources PLC (AIM:AAU)'s Dr Kerim Sener reports progress from across the company's European gold projects.

Beginning with the construction stage of the Tavsan project and associated development activities that are being ramped up.

Elsewhere, resource drilling programmes are continuing at both the Kiziltepe gold-silver project, Salinbas gold project, and Kiziltepe, with plans to deliver its production target of about 25,000 ounces of gold for the year.
1. FTSE 100 closes convincingly higher

Britain's blue-chip benchmark closed Friday up over 188 points, or 2.68% to close at 7,208.81

Read more

2. Coppers weakness sign of the global economy

Simply put, demand is dropping and buyers are fearful of a coming recession, both in the USA and in other major economies.

Read more

3. Barclays in 2.3bn deal for mortgage lender

The bank said the purchase will allow it to expand its offering in the mortgage market, increase its customer base and grow mortgage initiations to better utilise our strong UK funding base.

Read more

4. Zalando is not the first, and wont be the last, to issue a profit warning

The online German retail group, which has won market share in the UK, has told investors it is taking a more conservative view of its guidance for the remainder of the year  and conservative may prove to be an understatement.

Read more

5. Netflix lays off more staff

The streaming giant said it laid off 300 more employees, having last month let go of 150 employees.

Read more

Let's take a look ahead at some of next week's news

Companies reporting include Bunzl, Capita, Moonpig and Wise

Read more
San Leon Energy PLC (AIM:SLE, AQSE:SLE, OTC:SLGYF) told investors it has seen significant progress towards the completion of the transaction to consolidate its interests in the OML 18 asset in Nigeria.

The company, in a statement, said that it now expects to publish new AIM market documents by 8 July, after which it intends to seek the restoration of trading of its ordinary shares.

"OML 18 has an excellent production history as well as a vast amount of, to date, unrealised potential, said Oisin Fanning, San Leon chief executive.

The above series of proposed transactions that we, Eroton and ELI have been progressing for the past year have the ability to be transformational not only for OML 18 but also for San Leon itself and its shareholders.

The potential transaction is expected to deliver to San Leon a far greater interest in this world-class asset as well as pave the way for better infrastructure enabling more efficient production from the field.

It would be no understatement to say this has been a very challenging and complex undertaking, but I am delighted to say that we have made considerable progress with the Potential Transaction and we now expect to be in a position to publish our admission document alongside our report and accounts by 8 July."

San Leon also noted that a number of important steps will need to be completed in order for the transaction to proceed including (1) documentation for the proposed Eroton debt facilities (2) documentation for the proposed new San Leon loan facility and (3) documentation of historical financial information for the year ended 31 December 2021 for entities involved in the deal.
BJWJ is an integrated alarm security solution provider with over 25 years' experience and a well-established customer base among retail businesses

Guardforce AI Co. Limited said it has now closed the previously announced "transformational" cash and share acquisition of Beijing Wanjia Security System Co. Ltd (BJWJ) from Shenzhen Yeantec Co Limited for around US$8.4 million

On May 24 this year, the firm told investors it had struck two definitive agreements to acquire eight companies in China. The second deal, namely to acquire an additional seven companies from Shenzhen Kewei Robot Technology Co. Limited (Kewei), is still expected to close in the third quarter of this year.

"The acquisition of a well-established integrated security solution provider in Beijing is truly transformative for Guardforce AI as it not only strengthens our foothold in Asia, but also expands our integrated security capabilities, Terence Yap, the chairman of Guardforce AI, told investors in a statement.

"Importantly, this acquisition brings to Guardforce AI an established customer base among retail businesses in different industries. Our global expansion strategy not only includes expanding geographically, but also building a more diverse customer base," added Yap.

"We look forward to leveraging these newly acquired capabilities across our global platform and accelerating the commercial rollout of our integrated security initiatives. Additionally, we look forward to closing the acquisition of Kewei's seven robotics companies in the third quarter of 2022," he concluded.

BJWJ is an integrated alarm security solution provider with over 25 years experience and a well-established customer base among retail businesses. The acquisition was paid for in a combination of 10% cash and 90% restricted company shares at the previously agreed price of US$2 per share.

Guardforce AI is a global integrated security solutions provider focused on developing robotic solutions and information security services that complement its well-established secured logistics business.

With more than 40 years' experience, Guardforce AI is a trusted brand name that protects and transports high-value assets belonging to public and private sector organizations.

Contact the author at giles@proactiveinvestors.com
Mexico City, June 24 : At least 12 people were killed in a confrontation between police and armed civilians in the town of El Salto, in west Mexico's Jalisco state, state Governor Enrique Alfaro confirmed.

Four police officers were among the fatal victims, Alfaro said on Thursday through Twitter.

"El Salto police and state police shot down eight criminals yesterday and left three seriously injured, after responding to a report of a safe house where there were hidden weapons," he added.

"Unfortunately, four police officers from the town of El Salto were killed in the line of duty," the Governor said.

In March, the Ministry of National Defense (Sedena) deployed a group of soldiers to violence-ridden Jalisco as part of the Mexico Joint Task Force program to strengthen surveillance of criminal activity in the state in the wake of a wave of killings, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel emerged in 2010 as a cell of the Sinaloa Cartel and now has a presence in at least seven Mexican states, as well as Mexico City.
Los Angeles, June 24 : The US administration has announced expanding monkeypox testing capacity in order to cope with rising infection cases.

A total of 173 reported monkeypox cases have been reported in 25 states across the country as of Thursday, according to the latest data of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The US plans to start testing for monkeypox at five of the nation's largest commercial laboratories, broadening its effort beyond government facilities in an effort to address rising case numbers, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said on Wednesday.

It is not clear how people were exposed to monkeypox, but early data suggest that gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men make up a high number of cases, said the CDC.

"However, anyone who has been in close contact with someone who has monkeypox is at risk," the agency added.

With more than 3,200 confirmed cases of monkeypox reported in nearly 50 countries, the World Health Organisation (WHO) met on Thursday to consider whether to classify the ongoing monkeypox outbreak as a "global emergency".

"Person-to-person transmission is ongoing and is likely underestimated," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Thursday.

The US CDC is urging healthcare providers nationwide to be alert for patients who have rash illnesses consistent with monkeypox, regardless of whether they have travel or specific risk factors for monkeypox and regardless of gender or sexual orientation, Xinhua news agency reported.

In order to address rising case numbers, the CDC has begun shipping monkeypox tests to the five companies: Aegis Science, Labcorp, Mayo Clinic Laboratories, Quest Diagnostics and Sonic Healthcare, according to the HHS.

Healthcare providers will be able to use the testing services in early July, and more tests will be available throughout the month, according to the HHS.

"By dramatically expanding the number of testing locations throughout the country, we are making it possible for anyone who needs to be tested to do so," HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement.

Experts have warned that the US should avoid repeating mistakes made during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, when testing was bogged down by supply strains and regulatory hurdles, leading to delays in responding to the crisis.

Health professionals also express concern that the country is not testing enough, leaving it unable to accurately assess how quickly monkeypox is spreading.

Monkeypox is a rare disease caused by infection with the monkeypox virus. Monkeypox is rare and does not spread easily between people without close contact, according to the CDC.

The disease mostly occurs in west and central Africa and only very occasionally spreads elsewhere.

The first US case was reported to the CDC on May 17.

Latest updates on Monkeypox Virus Outbreak
Washington, June 24 : The US has dismissed suggestions that the invitation to India and other countries to the upcoming G-7 summit in Germany was intended to splinter them from Russia.

India, Indonesia, South Africa, Senegal, Argentina and Ukraine have been invited to the summit as guests at certain sessions.

India has been attending these summits at the invitation of the host countries for years now, going back to the G-8 summit in Gleneagles in Scotland in 2005. Russia was the eighth member; it was thrown out of the group after it attacked Ukraine in 2014 and annexed Crimea.

Withstanding pressure from the US and other western nations, India has refused to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine citing historic ties with Moscow and dependence on Russia for military hardware. And South Africa abstained in a UN vote to throw out Russia from the world body's Human Rights Council.

"It is not about trying to splinter them off or coax them away from any other association or partnership that they might have with another country," said John Kirby, National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the White House, at a news briefing.

"That's not the goal here. The goal is to unify around a set of common principles and initiatives." Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the summit Schloss Elmau at the invitation of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. He is expected to attend two sessions that include environment, energy, climate, food security, health, gender equality and democracy.

There is no further information about his bilateral meetings. Going by past practice, he is likely to have several and one of them most widely watched will be that with the US President Joe Biden, whatever the format -- a pull-aside, or a longer one-on-one or a meeting along with their respective teams.

The star presence at the summit is likely to be Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He is expected to attend, in what could be possibly his first official trip abroad since the Russian invasion in February.

"I gratefully accepted the invitation of my Western partners to take part in key international events: from German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to the G7 summit, (and) from NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the NATO summit in Madrid," Zelensky wrote in a recent tweet.

Will Modi meet Zelensky? There is no word on it yet. But a meeting of the two leaders will be significant. The Modi government has yet to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine, though it has made its opposition to it abundantly clear. It is also carrying the burden of India's historic ties with the former Soviet Union.

Kirby was also asked about India and South Africa attending an ongoing meeting of BRICS hosted by China. He dismissed the question that he will let the participating countries speak for their reasons.

"Those countries can speak for themselves, and it's obviously not the first time that they have gotten together," he said.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War

-- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed
Lucknow, June 24 : Lucknow has reported a massive spike in Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, health officials said.

At least 166 more people have been diagnosed with Covid-19 in the state capital while 102 patients recovered from the infection in the past 24 hours, taking the active caseload beyond 816.

The rise in Covid-19 cases this month has also led to an increase in the case positivity rate (CPR) or the number of samples testing positive per 100 samples tested.

The Uttar Pradesh Health department is worried as from 1. 1 in the first week of June, the CPR reached 2. 4 in the second week and 5 in the third week.

Among the fresh cases, 29 were reported from Aliganj, followed by Alambagh (27), Chinhat (25), Kaiserbagh (19), Indiranagar (19), Sarojini Nagar (11), Old City (7) and Gudamba (1).

According to the Health department spokesman, "While 32 patients had influenza-like illness, 30 had come in contact with infected patients, five were patients who tested positive in routine check-up before admission and 21 had travel history. The source of infection in the rest of the patients could not be ascertained." The state government has intensified testing and random testing has begun to assess the prevalence of Covid-19.

Hospitals have been directed to make sure Covid rules are followed in OPD and overcrowding is avoided.

Chief Medical Officer Manoj Agrawal, said, "We are conducting around 7,000 tests daily. Swab samples of 50 contacts of a patient are being sent for testing. We should take the Covid threat seriously as the possibility of a fourth wave cannot be denied. The Health department is ready for all circumstances." District Surveillance Officer Milind Vardhan said there is no need for panic, but all must take precautions, particularly people with comorbidity as well as the elderly.

Meanwhile, as many as 636 new Covid-19 cases and 468 recoveries have been reported from across different districts of Uttar Pradesh in the past 24 hours.

Health officials also informed that the number of active cases in the state reached 3,423.

They said that the number of new and active cases have doubled in the past one week.

More than half of the new and active cases (over 51 per cent) are concentrated in Gautam Buddha Nagar, Lucknow and Ghaziabad while 31 per cent of the cases belong to the NCR districts of Gautam Buddha Nagar and Ghaziabad.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Kabul, June 24 : The Taliban-led government in Afghanistan has announced that the death toll in the devastating 6.1-magnitude quake that hit Paktika province earlier this week has increased to 1,100, while the number of injured persons has also climbed to 1,600.

In a statement on Thursday, the Ministry of State for Disaster Management said that more than 1,000 of the injured are in critical condition and the number of the wounded is is increasing day by day, as some people are still trapped under the debris, reports TOLO News.

Local officials and residents of Paktika have said more than a thousand houses have been destroyed in the earthquake, deemed to be the deadliest in two decades, that struck the districts of Gayan and Barmal on Wednesday.

The epicentre was 44 km from Khost city and tremors were felt as far away as Pakistan and India.

The residents of the affected areas have also said they have nothing to eat and no shelter.

"People do not have tents, there is no food, people are living outdoors, we need everything," a resident told TOLO News.

They are also appealing to humanitarian agencies and the Taliban government to provide immediate assistance.

Afghan and international aid agencies are assessing the damage and delivering supplies, but this is a major and developing crisis, one which comes on top of the country's already dire humanitarian situation, says a BBC report.

The UN, which is also helping support victims, is warning of the risk of a possible cholera outbreak.

The government has announced that it will pay 100,000 Afs for the families of victims and 50,000 to those injured.

Afghanistan is prone to quakes, as it is located in a tectonically active region, over a number of fault lines including the Chaman fault, the Hari Rud fault, the Central Badakhshan fault and the Darvaz fault.

Over the past decade more than 7,000 people have been killed in earthquakes in the country, according to the UN's Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports.

There are an average of 560 deaths a year from earthquakes.

Most recently, back-to-back earthquakes in the country's west in January killed more than 20 people and destroyed hundreds of houses.
New Delhi, June 24 : The BJP is waiting for the final outcome out of the political fight between the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and dissident Sena MLAs led by rebel party leader Eknath Shinde, which has fast snowballed into a political fight over who will now lead the party.

Of the 55 MLAs of Shiv Sena, two-thirds, that is more than 37 party MLAs, have owed allegiance to Shinde, who is now claiming that more than 40 MLAs of the party are firmly supporting him, and many more MLAs are likely to join him in the next few days.

Accusing Uddhav Thackeray of abandoning the ideology of Hindutva, Shinde is now asserting his claim on Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray's legacy, the real Shiv Sena and even the party's election symbol.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, who is part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition government in Maharashtra, on Thursday defended Thackeray and accused the BJP of plotting the political ruckus within the Shiv Sena.

However, the BJP, which is allegedly being held responsible for the political turmoil within Shiv Sena, has termed the political crisis as the latter's "internal party affairs".

Speaking on the political slugfest within the Shiv Sena, the saffron party says that sooner or later such a crisis was bound to happen within the Shiv Sena, which compromised Hindutva for staying in power in Maharashtra.

From the beginning, the BJP has called the MVA government as an "unholy alliance", while saying that the people of Maharashtra had given the mandate to the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance government, but Uddhav Thackeray betrayed the BJP to become the Chief Minister and instead formed an alliance with the Congress and the NCP.

Meanwhile, the BJP, which was deceived by NCP chief's nephew Ajit Pawar earlier in 2020 is trying to make political moves cautiously this time and is waiting for the final outcome of the ongoing fight within the Shiv Sena.

The BJP is also awaiting the final decision of Uddhav Thackeray over Eknath Shinde's offer wherein the latter had advised the Maharashtra Chief Minister to break alliance with the NCP and Congress and again form the government with the BJP.

Several BJP leaders believe that if both the MVA government and the Shiv Sena collapse and if there is no other way to save them, then Uddhav Thackeray might again join hands with old ally BJP.

This is why the BJP high command is maintaining silence despite sharp political attacks and allegations levelled against them by Shiv Sena leaders Uddhav Thackeray and Sanjay Raut, NCP's Sharad Pawar as well as the Congress leaders.
Ottawa, June 24 : Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has denied meddling in an investigation into the 2020 mass shooting, the worst the country's history.

Brenda Lucki, head of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), has been accused of pressuring local officers to help advance Trudeau's gun control plans, the BBC quoted the Halifax Examiner as saying, which was the first to report on the development.

According to the Halifax Examiner, the accusation stemmed from notes made by a local RCMP officer, released as part of a public investigation into the mass shooting on April 18-19, 2020, during which a gunman posing as a police officer killed 22 people in Nova Scotia.

The suspect died in a stand-off with police.

Addressing reporters on Thursday, Trudeau said that his government "did not put any undo influence or pressure" on police.

"It is extremely important to highlight that it is only the RCMP, it is only police that determine what and when to release information," the BBC quoted the Prime Minister as saying.

Denying the accusations, Commissioner Lucki said in a statement released on Tuesday that information sharing between the federal government and police is normal during a high-profile event such as a mass shooting.

The RCMP chief however acknowledged that she "should have been more sensitive" in her approach.

Canada's opposition Conservative Party has called for a debate in the House of Commons, and a parliamentary committee voted on Thursday to hold a hearing into the matter.

In the wake of the deadliest rampage in Canadian history, Prime Minister Trudeau in May 2020 announced an immediate ban on the sale, transportation, importation, or use of some 1,500 makes and models of "military-grade assault-style" weapons.
Bengaluru, June 24 : The reputed National Law School of India University (NLSIU) has said that it has strict zero tolerance policy on sexual harassment.

The law school said this while clarifying the open letter by the alumni, which questioned the action taken against student facilitators, who had voiced on a sexual harassment case.

The NLSIU released its statement on Thursday night.

The alumni of NLSIU, in an open letter, slammed the institute for punishing two girl students who raised voice against sexual harassment on Thursday. The alumni have appreciated the courage of the girls for choosing not to apologise and cough up the fine as directed by NLSIU in connection with the incident.

NLSIU in its statement said that the an open letter in this connection misrepresents the action taken by the university against students as a failure to take sexual harassment seriously.

The statement maintains that the student facilitators received correspondence from a person outside the university. The facilitators then circulated an anonymous statement on behalf of the complainant, detailing the alleged abuse, naming the accused student, and disclosing sensitive personal information. This was a violation of code.

It further stated, "NLSIU has never prevented its students from discussing issues of sexual harassment. However, to use NLSIU digital resources to publicly name someone in a matter that would be prejudicial to that person's reputation is not conducive." The alumni, about 179 of them, had expressed deep disappointment over NLSIU's decision against two girl students, who had red flagged the case of sexual harassment by a male undergraduate student.

They had also expressed their concern over the handling of the issue. "It has come to knowledge that NLSIU initiated disciplinary proceedings against two female student facilitators appointed under its Code to Combat Sexual Harassment, for narrating a particular survivor's experience of sexual harassment by a current student of NLSIU," the letter stated.

It further said, two facilitators narrated the incident over email and on a private Facebook group comprising students of the university. They did that upon being requested to do so by the survivor, who is not an NLSIU student. Notably the question of a confidentiality breach does not arise as there were no ongoing proceedings against under the code to combat sexual harassment.

For their act of sharing details regarding an instance of sexual harassment, NLSIU found the student facilitators guilty of major misconduct and under its disciplinary rules. As a penalty it directed that they either issue a public apology or pay a significant monetary fine, the letter stated.

"As alumni of NLSIU, we commend the courageous and principled distance taken by the student facilitators. Further, we unequivocally condemn NLSIU finding that student facilitators are guilty of major misconduct," the alumni stated.

"The proceedings against students are shrouded in secrecy and the principles of natural justice are not being followed which is deeply unfair. NLSIU must not attempt to silence the voice of survivors of sexual harassment and those who stand in solidarity with them, the alumni stated." The letter over the issue has stirred up a big controversy. According to sources, the accused is studying in the fourth year. He was a CLAT topper. Meanwhile, the victim had stated that the development was shocking. She also maintained that this will bear negative consequences on victims who wants to come forward and speak up.
Washington, June 24 : Amid raging incidents of gun violence in the US, the Senate has passed a gun control bill for the first time in 28 years, the media reported on Friday.

Late Thursday night, 15 Republicans joined Democrats in the upper chamber of Congress to approve the measure by 65 votes to 33, the BBC reported.

The bill will next have to clear the House of Representatives before President Joe Biden can sign it into law.

The new legislation includes a series of measures, such as tougher background checks for customers younger than 21 years; $15 billion in federal funding for mental health programmes and school security upgrades; calls for funding to encourage states to implement "red flag" laws to remove firearms from people considered a threat; and closes the so-called "boyfriend loophole" by blocking gun sales to those convicted of abusing unmarried intimate partners.

Thursday's development is also of significance as Democrats and Republicans have both equally supported proposed gun control for the first time in decades, said the BBC report.

The last significant federal gun control legislation was passed in 1994, banning the manufacture for civilian use of assault rifles and large capacity magazines. But it expired a decade later.

Addressing the chamber late Thursday, Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn said the bill would "make Americans feel safer", adding that "doing nothing is an abdication of our responsibility as representatives of the American people here in the US Senate".

In his address to the floor, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said: "This is not a cure-all for the ways gun violence affects our nation, but it is a long overdue step in the right direction." However, the National Rifle Association (NRA , the country's most powerful gun lobby group, has opposed the bill.

The passing of the bill came hours after the Supreme Court struck down a New York state law that limits gun-carrying in public.

The 6-3 ruling found that New York's requirement for residents to prove "proper cause", or a good reason, to carry concealed firearms in public violates the US Constitution.

An individual who wants to carry a firearm outside his home may obtain an unrestricted license to "have and carry" a concealed "pistol or revolver" if he can prove that "proper cause exists" for doing so, says the ruling.

According to the latest data from Gun Violence Archive, the US has witnessed 267 mass shootings since the start of the year, with more than 20,000 lives lost to gun violence.

Uvalde, Texas, witnessed the country's third-deadliest school shooting on May 24 when an 18-year-old killed 19 children and two teachers during a rampage at the Robb Elementary School.
Mumbai, June 24 : As the political crisis entered the fourth day, the rebel Shiv Sena Minister Eknath Shinde claimed the support of "40-plus MLAs", besides around 12 independents and smaller parties, on Friday.

Speaking to the media from Guwahati, Shinde also dismissed the 'warning' issued by Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar that the rebel legislators would have to come to Mumbai before the Governor or the Legislature to prove their strength.

"We are not scared by such threats... Whatever we are doing is absolutely legal. We have the affidavits of all the MLAs that they have joined us voluntarily. The majority numbers are with us, more than 40 Sena MLAs plus 12 independents and others," Shinde asserted.

A day after telling his supporters that they would join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the breakaway group leader on Friday denied meeting any BJP leaders in Guwahati.

The Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress has accused the BJP of instigating the revolt to topple the 30-month-old Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) as the three alliance partners decided to stick together till the end.

State Congress Minister Dr. Nitin Raut on Friday accused the BJP of "murdering democracy" by engineering the rebellion in the Sena ranks.
New Delhi, June 24 : The government has ordered a probe into Tata Motors' Nexon EV fire incident in Mumbai, as the company was investigating the "isolated thermal incident".

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), which was earlier tasked with investigating electric two-wheeler fire incidents by the Union Road Transport and Highways Ministry, would lead the probe into Nexon EV fire too.

The DRDO probe had found serious defects in the batteries. These defects occurred because the electric two-wheeler manufacturers like Okinawa Autotech, Pure EV, Jitendra Electric Vehicles, Ola Electric and Boom Motors may have used "lower-grade materials to cut costs".

A Tata Nexon EV caught fire in Mumbai and the company said on Thursday a detailed investigation is currently being conducted to ascertain the facts of the recent isolated thermal incident that is doing the rounds on social media.

The EV car fire incident was reported from Vasai West (near Panchvati hotel) in Mumbai late on Wednesday.

"We will share a detailed response after our complete investigation. We remain committed to the safety of our vehicles and their users," the company said in a statement.

Tata Nexon EV is the highest selling electric car in India and at least 2,500-3,000 cars are being sold every month in the country.

The company has so far sold over 30,000 EVs, most of which are Nexon models.

"This is a first incident after more than 30,000 EVs have cumulatively covered over 100 million km across the country in nearly four years," said the company.

As fires and explosions in electric two-wheelers continue unabated, the government is all set to introduce EV battery standards (BIS standards) for EV two-wheelers that will be expanded to four-wheelers at a later stage.

The BIS standards for EV batteries will look into "size, connectors, specification and minimum quality of cells, the battery's capacity".

Earlier, NITI Aayog in a discussion paper also stressed upon the need for BIS standards as the first step towards a national battery swapping policy.
Seoul, June 24 : South Korea launched a task force meant to expand policy efforts to tackle demographic challenges as it is expected to suffer a serious fall in the working-age population in the coming years over its chronic low birthrate, the Finance Ministry said on Friday.

During the inaugural meeting of the task force, Deputy Finance Minister Bang Ki-seon stressed the government's utmost efforts to slow down the pace of the population decline by offering more incentives for marriage, childbirth and child care, Yonhap News Agency quoted the Ministry as saying.

The country became an aged society in 2017, in which the percentage of those aged 65 and older exceeded 14 per cent of the total population, and it is widely expected to become a super-aged society in 2025, when the percentage of older adults will surpass 20 percent.

The government also seeks to expand the participation of female and elderly citizens, as well as foreigners, in economic activities and to boost manpower productivity.

Bang also vowed to reform the country's socioeconomic system in line with changing population structures by nurturing advanced technologies and increasing the effectiveness of personnel and facility management.

"We will seize demographic changes as a chance to develop through strengthening promising industries in aging societies, such as robots," the official said.

Ministries concerned and civil experts will review current policy measures on demographic challenges and come up with new methods, which will start being announced in July, the ministry said.

According to Statistics Korea, the country's working-age population, or people aged 15 to 64, is expected to plunge 35 per cent over the next 30 years to 24.19 million in 2050.

The estimate came as the country's total fertility rate hit an all-time low of 0.81 last year, down from 0.84 a year earlier.
United Nations, June 24 : UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for sustainable funding for the world body's agency for Palestine refugees.

The agency, officially known as the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), suffers from chronic underfunding, Xinhua news agency quoted Guterres as saying at a pledging event.

In the last 10 years, the needs of Palestine refugees have increased, while funds have stagnated, he said, adding that the UNRWA has worked hard to absorb the annual funding shortage through program efficiencies, but that alone will never solve the problem.

Guterres made a twofold appeal to UN member states: to make pledges that will bring UNRWA's funding shortfall down to zero for this year and to put the agency on a durable financial footing.

The second appeal requires a long-term plan to stabilize the financing of UNRWA and together, reach sufficient, predictable and sustainable funding, he said.

"Millions of Palestine refugees are counting on us to relieve their suffering and to help them build a better future. We cannot let them down." The UN chief warned that although the Ukraine war is catching global attention, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the plight of Palestine refugees must not be sidelined.

"I reiterate the importance of pursuing peace efforts to realize the vision of two states -- Israel and Palestine -- living side by side in peace and security, with Jerusalem as the capital of both states. But until then, UNRWA remains vital in supporting those in need," he said.

To help Palestine refugees is a matter of justice. But it is also a barrier to the progression of extremism, terrorism, and other threats, said Guterres.

Investing in UNRWA means investing in stability for the region. It means investing in the economic and social well-being of Palestine refugees and advancing the Sustainable Development Goals. It means investing in the future through education. And it means honoring the commitment of the international community to Palestine refugees and their rights until a just and durable political solution is found, he said.

UNRWA, which currently helps some 5.6 million Palestine refugees and their descendants in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria as well as in West Bank and Gaza, is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions from UN member states.
New Delhi, June 24: Lord Rami Ranger has seen unparalleled success despite serious setbacks in life. He was born two months after the assassination of his father Nanak Singh who was killed for opposing the partition of the country.

Forced to relocate to a refugee camp in Punjab after the death of her husband and the Partition of India, Lord Ranger's mother, Harbans Kaur raised eight children all alone ensuring that they reached the pinnacle of success. Being an educated woman helped her in looking after the children-a fact that has marshalled Lord Ranger towards speaking about women empowerment among the diaspora in the UK.

In an exclusive interview to India Narrative at the House of Lords, Lord Ranger does not shy away from discussing contentious issues. Made a Lord in 2019, he talks about his vision of the 'idea of India', his support for 'The Kashmir Files', the role of the Sikh gurus during tumultuous medieval times and the issue of Khalistan.

Excerpts from the interview: The idea of India is debated hotly in the country. Different people describe it differently, guided by their ideologies. What is your idea of India? Lord Ranger: India is an ancient civilisation. It was known as sone ki chidiya (the golden bird) and this was the reason that invaders were attracted to it. India was far ahead in education, science and technology, astronomy, architecture and learning. The invaders were not as advanced as India was but were barbaric. They came to India to only loot and destroy.

For one thousand years this civilisation has borne the brunt of foreign occupation.

The idea of India is now going to emerge-with unity of the country. For me the idea of India is to spread the Indian values of respect and tolerance. The ancient civilisation of India will flourish and will enrich humanity in a positive manner.

But many say that this very tolerance is missing in India? Lord Ranger: There are a lot of people in India and the country is a melting pot of cultures, languages, races, religions and diversity. If all the people do not move in the same direction, then there is conflict.

The Indian values are tolerance of faiths, acceptance of gender equality, respect for the young and the old. We also have Goddess besides the Gods. If some communities do not share these values, then there is conflict. On top of this, there are religions that are stagnant while humanity is on the move. If you do not adapt to a changing world, then there is conflict.

There have been many attacks on Hindus and Sikhs in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Now they have been completely cleansed from Afghanistan. How do you interpret this from your position in the UK? Lord Ranger: You see, nobody is born intolerant, or a racist or a terrorist. But people become one if they are exposed to extreme ideologies or are likely to misinterpret faith.

I think, for better social coherence, passages that speak of violence and hate should be removed from religious texts and be replaced with messages of peace and harmony. This is something I have been saying repeatedly.

Also, in a modern world, women empowerment is a pre-requisite for a civil and progressive society. Women are the architects of future generations because men might be busy building businesses and in jobs. At many places, the development of children is left to the mothers. What a mother cannot experience herself, she cannot impart unto her children. Also, if a father dies prematurely, he leaves behind a woman unable to deal with an uncaring world and a mother unable to look after her children. All of them suffer as a result.

It is possible that women who do not work will have more children and less family income. The children will miss out on better education, better upbringing and a good standard of living. In my opinion this is a recipe for radicalisation.

Just to give you an example, if my mother was not educated, we would have been in an orphanage because my father was assassinated at the age of 42 for opposing the Partition of India.

You extended support to Vivek Agnihotri and his wife Pallavi Joshi, even hosting them at the House of Lords. What prompted you to back 'The Kashmir Files', a movie that has evoked strong reactions across the world? Lord Ranger: I was attracted to Vivek Agnihotri because he highlighted the plight of Kashmiri Hindus, who have been suffering from the times of Guru Tegh Bahadur. They had approached Guru Tegh Bahadur for help saying that Aurangzeb had given them an ultimatum-either convert or die.

Guru Tegh Bahadur told Aurangzeb that the Hindus will convert if you can convert me. Aurangzeb asked Guru Tegh Bahadur to convert but he refused. Aurangzeb executed Guru Tegh Bahadur by beheading him at the spot where Gurdwara Sis Ganj stands in Delhi.

Witnessing injustice, his son Guru Govind Singh formed the brotherhood of Khalsa in 1699 to fight tyranny. Hundreds of years back Guru Govind Singh had said that diversity is to be accepted, respected and, if need be, has to be defended. He defended religious freedom in India and was able to stop the entry of the invaders in India from the Khyber Pass.

So, during the Partition of India, we suffered the same religious hatred which divided communities who lived together in harmony for centuries. The Partition led to the deaths of one million innocents and tens of millions were made refugees in their country of birth.

With all this historical background, The Kashmir Files was enough motivation for me that we should not allow religious hatred to cause more damage to India. I want to support those who expose religious bigotry and hatred.

People should understand that religion can be a force for good. It should help unite humanity and not divide people. Religion that is coupled with violence should not be supported at all.

The Kashmir Files pricked the conscious of India. Hundreds of years later, once again Kashmiri Hindus became refugees in their own land. Nobody took any action. Even the government of the day looked the other way instead of giving justice to the Kashmiri Hindus.

It is important that people should know the truth. The movie has united Indians in the UK.

Why does support for Khalistan exist in the Western countries? Lord Ranger: The demand for Khalistan became strong after the attack on the Golden Temple. That event shook the confidence of the Sikhs that they are safe in India. In my view, the government could have cordoned off the temple, cut off power and food and forced the militants out.

Using the Indian Army on Indians is immoral. This is the reaction we face in the West. People want to show their displeasure so that no other government attacks the sentiments of people who are loyal to the country.

The concept of Khalistan goes against the beliefs of Sikh gurus who did not proclaim a kingdom for themselves. The gurus lived and died for the uplift of India. If you see how the gurus lived and died, they had a pan-India footprint.

Guru Govind Singh was born in Patna. First Sikh general, Banda Bahadur was born in Maharashtra. The five beloved ones, also called Panj Pyare, who established the brotherhood of Khalsa came from every corner of India to demonstrate the unity of the country.

Guru Tegh Bahadur was beheaded in Delhi not in Punjab. He sacrificed his life for Hindus and Sikhs.

What do you suggest how should India deal with the issue of Khalistan? Lord Ranger: My suggestion would be to ignore them. Allow these people to say what they want to say. We had the Akali government for so many years. Nobody demanded a separate Sikh state.

The ones who are asking for Khalistan have do not possess a vision, have no common sense and do not have judgement either. Punjab is a landlocked region and has no sea link. How will they fly in and out of Khalistan if India does not grant them air space.

If they think that Pakistan will extend help, then they are wrong. Pakistan will only flood the region with drugs and weapons. It will use Punjab as a market for terrorism.

Pakistan is supporting the case for Khalistan only in the hope that the Sikhs will help it get Kashmir, otherwise they do not bother about the Sikhs. The Khalistanis should realise that the Sikhs have already been attacked and thrown out of Punjab earlier during the Partition of India.

If Punjab is safe, it is because India is pouring in tremendous resources for its safety and security. Khalistan may not be able to do that or withstand the might of Pakistan's designs.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative
New Delhi, June 24 : A "serious and growing asymmetrical relationship" with China, which has indulged in four instances of "salami slicing" along the un-demarcated border since 2012, and an increasingly bellicose and belligerent Pakistan means that India has to be prepared for a "single continuous war" along two fronts and not a two-front war -- sans any assistance from the US or Russia, says a scholarly work by veteran diplomat Rajiv Dogra.

Dogra examines hotspots around the world through the prism of the principal stakeholders and concludes that "whichever path the world chooses in the difficult decade ahead, it should keep reminding itself that history is the consequence of its choices".

"Since India no longer faces just unidirectional threats, it has to take a 360-degree view and prepare accordingly. Making the challenge dire is the fact that it is not a mere two-front war that India faces, but more likely a 'single continuous war' along two fronts. This war, when it happens, might stretch from one extremity of the Indo-Pak boundary to the other end of the Indo-China border," Dogra writes in 'War Time - The World In Danger' (Rupa).

"In that case, India will have to contend with a 'collaborative war' that involves interoperability between China and Pakistan across the entire military spectrum. Such a war will be fought both in the deep seas and on the high Himalayas," adds Dogra, who was India's Ambassador to Italy, prior to which he served as Ambassador in Romania and as India's last Consul General in Karachi.

Any willingness on India's part to respond forcefully to China might be "welcomed" in the US, where successive administrations have sought to integrate India into America's Indo-Pacific strategy but "this does not mean that the US will promptly jump into the fray", Dogra writes, adding: "Therefore, when this war breaks out, India could well be reminded that the US has 47 treaty allies and it is not one of them." Noting that the nascent QUAD partnership "has yet to create its charter" and "languishes uncertainly" Dogra writes that President Joe Biden's promise to transfer advanced technology, including submarine nuclear-propulsion to Australia under the AUKUS alliance "throws into stark relief India's failure to acquire any significant high technology" from the US.

"All that India has to show for its 'strategic partnership' is the nearly $22 billion worth of military hardware purchased from US companies," he writes.

Dogra is also harsh on the US for its "mercantile" manner of dealing with India.

"It becomes difficult to nurture such a relationship. But even if the US wishes to pursue a transactional relationship with India, it has to recognise the basic rule of transaction - that there are two parties to it. A relationship where only one side is expected to place high-value purchase order cannot, by definition, be termed transactional. As a result, doubts crop up and questions are raised by the Indian analysts: why did the US act so generously by transferring high technology and making huge investments in China? Why did the US lavish money and arms on Pakistan? In stark contrast, why is it so mercantile and demanding when it comes to dealing with India," the author asks.

"So, can India ever be an equal friend with the US? It seems unlikely as long as the US remains vastly superior to it and as long as America's approach to relationships is transactional," Dogra maintains.

As for Russia, the wariness in its relationship with China was "papered over" by a mutual need in the last decade.

"After Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, the US, EU and Australia imposed sanctions on it. An unintended consequence of this decision was to turn Russia reflexively towards China. Over the next year, Russia struck a $400 billion deal for Gazprom to supply 38 billion cubic metres of gas annually to China. This energy supply arrangement is not the only result of the western sanctions. The trade between the two countries has increased from $64 billion in 2015 to $147 billion in 2021, making China the largest trading partner of Russia," Dogra points out.

Russia, he writes, "has continued to feel threatened by the West as it had been during the Cold War and in the centuries before that. As a consequence, it has chosen to walk into the willing arms of China".

Even today, there continue to be many in Russia who consider the Indian relationship to be precious, "yet, the last few years, India has let it slide", the author notes.

"One indication that Russians are miffed about it is (President Vladimir) Putin's steadily briefer visits during Indo-Russian summits. These are among other signals that all is not well with India's relationship with Russia. Indo-Russian strategic linkages demand that these concerns should be quickly addressed, but India has been busy wooing the US," Dogra writes.

In such a situation, with "no longer the assurance of a 1971-type of treaty with the Soviet Union to turn to in the time of need", and with Russia and China "locked in an anti-America embrace, it leaves India in an uneasy position", the author maintains.

Russia may be China's "current brother but it has been India's friend over decades. In war, it might steer clear of taking sides. Therefore, it may pass on a few critical items to India and intelligence information to China. Whatever the ultimate alliances and partnerships, the consequences of an Indo-China war will be bad enough, but with Pakistan joining in, it will be the stuff of nightmares for India," Dogra writes.

What then, are India's options? Dogra suggests a nine-point plan of action:

India needs to upgrade military technology with the latest in AI, drones and electronic warfare.

It needs to move away from its traditionally defensive approach because it is physically impossible for it to guard every inch of the over 6,800 km stretch of borders it shares with China and Pakistan.

It must invest in gray zone operations in the enemy areas.

It must adopt a whole of government approach in countering threats to its security.

Increasingly, India will have to find responses to the 'cognitive war' tactics of its enemies in addition to the possibility of 'no contact' warfare and the use of unmanned platforms in war.

There is no reason to expect that, in any future war with China and/or Pakistan, India will understand their nuclear Rubicon or that the Indian armed forces will not inadvertently cross one or more.

India must lessen its economic dependence on China in critical sectors.

The US has become an increasingly critical partner for India. But this dependence raises serious questions as to whether it actually enhances India's strategic imperatives or if it opens up new vulnerabilities.

India's effort should be to create issue-based coalitions. It will have to work with other countries who feel threatened by the overwhelming preponderance of the two great powers and who fear their marginalisation in a world of contention and strife.

Happily, much of this is work in progress.

(Vishnu Makhijani can be reached at vishnu.makhijani@ians.in)

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New Delhi, June 24 : The top 300 widely used drug brands will have the quick response (QR) codes to ensure authenticity and traceability of the medicines, as per the Union Health Ministry which has amended the Drugs Rules, 1945, to implement the innovative scheme.

In March, the ministry had asked the department of pharmaceuticals (DoP) to shortlist drug brands that can be included for implementation of mandatory QR codes.

The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has identified 300 most used drugs for QR codes that includes analgesics, vitamins, diabetic, and hypertension medicines, among others.

The industry has welcomed the steps of introducing QR codes on widely used medicines which will help in preventing the drug counterfeit which has emerged as a threat in recent years and also will help the common citizens to gather the accurate information about the medicines they are using.

"We welcome the government's move to start only with the top 300 brands as it will allow the ecosystem to be built up before expanding across the sector", said Nishant Berlia, Chairman, Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Committee, PHDCCI. However, he also underlined some challenges for the implementation of the scheme.

There are three challenges, he said, the first implementing QR printing is a significant change control in the manufacturing process and requires time to deploy. Second, there should be allowed cost escalation for small and medium manufacturers who make lower priced but small batches and will conversely have a higher cost to implement per batch.

"Thirdly, the availability and affordability of IT systems at last mile distribution in our country means that many counters most at risk will take time to participate without subsidies or grants", said Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Committee Chairman.

"Drug counterfeit has recently emerged as a global threat and the QR Codes for drug safety can go a very long way in managing drug counterfeit and proper administration of medicines to patients. Medicine packages that now come with QR Codes offers transparency about the manufacturing process, contents of the drugs and expiry date", said Nikkhil K Masurkar, Executive Director, ENTOD Pharmaceuticals.

He added that that QR codes can even allow for better data monitoring by a pharmaceutical company. "It is certainly a welcome move by the government which will soon make QR code mandatory on the pack of 300 medicines. The medicine packs that come with a unique QR code, will help trace the source and affirm the authenticity of products", added he.
Bengaluru, June 24 : Yash Dubey slammed his second century of the ongoing season as Madhya Pradesh dominated the first session on day three of the Ranji Trophy final at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday.

At lunch, Madhya Pradesh are 228/1 in 75 overs, trailing Mumbai by 146 runs, with Dubey unbeaten at 101, laced with 12 boundaries and Shubham Sharma giving him company, unconquered on 88 as the duo's stand for the second wicket swelled to 181.

Resuming from 123/1 in 41 overs, Madhya Pradesh got 105 runs in the first session without losing any wicket. The day began with Yash Dubey opening the ace of the bat late to get a boundary past gully. With the ball coming nicely on to the bat, Shubham Sharma made full use of it, dispatching Tushar Deshpande for boundaries through cover drive and square drive.

Dubey reached his fifty with a brace through fine leg off Awasthi while Sharma reached his half-century with a single through square leg off Deshpande. With the duo collecting boundaries and rotating strike by running well between the wickets, Mumbai's troubles didn't have any end point as the pitch didn't give them much assistance.

Moreover, with a dropped chance at short cover, a run-out opportunity gone and three lbw appeals struck down, Mumbai's troubles weren't just stopping. Also, with not much turn available for left-arm spinner Shams Mulani, Sharma and Dubey used their feet well to take runs off him, with the former lofting through the line over the bowler's head for a six.

Towards the end of the first session, Dubey accelerated to get boundaries off Mulani and Tanush Kotian through mid-wicket and followed it up with a sweep through fine leg off the latter to get a century in the Ranji Trophy final.

He brought out the cancel-all-noise celebration, first brought out by KL Rahul, which was applauded by his team-mates in the dugout before lunch was called.

Brief Scores: Mumbai 374 all out in 127.4 overs (Sarfaraz Khan 134; Gaurav Yadav 4/106) lead Madhya Pradesh 228/1 in 75 overs (Yash Dubey 101 not out, Shubham Sharma 88 not out; Tushar Deshpande 1/46) by 146 runs.
Bengaluru, June 24 : The Karnataka Health Department is on an alert after the Covid cases in the state breached 800-mark in the last 24 hours.

The state reported 858 new Covid cases inching closer to 1,000-mark against 682 discharges. The positivity rate for the day recorded was 2.36 per cent, while the weekly positivity rate stood at 3.63 per cent as per the latest statistics available with the state health department.

Taking serious note of the development, marshals are being deputed to monitor wearing of masks in Bengaluru. The government is yet to decide on imposing a fine for breaking Covid protocols. The Health department is likely to convene a high-level meeting soon against the backdrop of an alarming rise in cases.

According to the data, the total active cases in the state rose to 5,067 cases. The health department has conducted 36,289 Covid tests on a single day in the last 24 hours.

The case fatality rate is 0.11 per cent for the day and weekly case fatality rate is 0.08 per cent. Bengaluru Urban district alone recorded 820 new Covid cases against 666 discharges on a single day.

Bengaluru has 4,818 active Covid cases and only death reported from the state is from here. After Bengaluru, Mysuru (50) and Dakshina Kannada (45) have the most number of active Covid cases in the state.
Amaravati, June 24 : A Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader was injured during police action against a party worker who had allegedly concealed drugs at his house in Chittoor town in Andhra Pradesh.

Former mayor Katari Hemalatha suffered minor injury when she was allegedly hit by a police vehicle as she was trying to resist police's attempt to arrest her follower Purna.

There was high drama at the residence of Purna in Santhapeta area when police reached there around midnight to conduct search, saying he has concealed ganja at his house. Purna denied this and alleged that he was being implicated.

On receipt of the information of police raid, Hemalata along with her supporters reached there and staged a protest. She tried to stop police from carrying Purna. As the police vehicle tried to speed off, it ran over Hemalata's feet resulting in minor fracture. The incident triggered strong protest by former mayor's supporters. She was admitted to a hospital.

Hemalata alleged that the police was trying to implicate Purna in a false case. She said the police conducted the raid hours after she wrote to a senior police official about some unknown persons threatening Prasanna, who is a witness in the murder of her in-laws Katari Anuradha and Mohan.

Anuradha, then mayor, and her husband were shot dead in her office in 2015.

Within hours of the complaint, police reached the house of Purna, who is brother of Prasanna. They alleged that ganja was planted at their house to frame them.

Police, however, said ganja was recovered from Purna's house. It denied the allegations made by the TDP leaders.

Meanwhile, TDP state president K. Atchannaidu condemned the police action against Hemalata and her supporters. He said the ruling YSRCP was targeting TDP leaders for questioning its misdeeds.
Washington, June 24 : The most iconic landmark of the US state of Utah, the Great Salt Lake is rapidly disappearing and on the verge of becoming an environmental disaster zone, according to experts.

"Utah residents threatened by toxic dust from Great Salt Lake," and "windy conditions have led to dust advisories", Xinhua news agency quoted a Fox News headline as saying earlier this week.

It is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere and the eighth-largest terminal lake in the world, and "lies in the northern part of Utah and has a substantial impact upon the local climate, particularly through lake-effect snow", according to Brittanica.

The expansive lake borders Utah's largest city and capital, Salt Lake City, home to some 1.2 million residents, according to the US Census Bureau.

Last summer, the water level in the Great Salt Lake reached its lowest point on record with average daily elevation of 4,190.2 feet.

As of Thursday, the southern portion of the lake still sits at the record low, which is about 1.2 feet below the previous record set in October 1963, according to US Geological Survey (USGS) information collected at the SaltAir gage.

The lake's surface area, which covered about 8,546.9 sq.km in the late 1980s, has since shrunk to less than 2,589.9 sq.km, according to the USGS.

"Toxic dust warnings might be our future as the Great Salt Lake shrivels up," The University of Utah's KUER public radio reported on Monday.

Researchers have found that for over a century, the lake bed has been slowly accumulating byproducts of human activities like mining, smelting, and agricultural runoff, the KUER report added.

"As the lake disappears, the exposed bed turns into dust that contains elevated levels of potentially toxic heavy metals and chemicals like arsenic," it added.

Utah's Department of Natural Resources said the Great Salt Lake may be weeks from dropping to a new historic low, KUER reported, and that "lawmakers had recently suggested looking into building a Pacific Ocean pipeline to bring water to the lake".

A report in The New York Times earlier this month warned of "an environmental nuclear bomb" regarding the shrinking Great Salt Lake, saying "the lake bed contains high levels of arsenic and as more of it becomes exposed, wind storms carry that arsenic into the lungs of nearby residents, who make up three-quarters of Utah's population".

Large particulate matter from the Great Salt Lake can get stuck in respiratory systems, Maura Hahnenberger, an associate professor of geosciences who studies dust storms at Salt Lake Community College, told the media.

"They might get caught in your nose and your sinuses in your mouth and in the upper part of your breathing airway. And so that can cause symptoms like coughing, a sore throat, stuffy nose, but not as many kinds of long-term health impacts," she said.

"But the really small particles that we call PM 2.5, those are able to go a lot deeper into people's lungs that can cause inflammation in the lungs and can cause respiratory issues, definitely, but also cardiovascular issues."
Chennai, June 24 : Well-known actor Charan Raj's younger son Dev, a pilot by profession, is to make his debut as an actor through his dad's upcoming film 'Kuppan'.

Charan Raj, who has acted in over 600 films in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Odia and Bengali, is returning to the film industry as a director through 'Kuppan'.

The film is named after a man, whom the director says he befriended during his morning walks.

Says Charan Raj, who has penned the story, screenplay and dialogues for his film, "I have been living in Palavakkam for over 35 years and I go for walks with my dog on the seashore every morning. During my walk, I would chat with several people on the way and return home. It was on one such walk that I got introduced to a fisherman named Kuppan. My interactions with him made me want to pen a story on the fisherman. So, after finishing the script, I named the film after my friend. He has also acted in a small role in the film." Dev Charanraj, who is the second son of Charanraj, was a pilot. He underwent special training at an acting school before turning hero.

Aadhi Dev is making his debut as the other hero. Along with them, Sushmitha Suresh and Priyadarshini Arunachalam are also making their debut as heroines.

Charan Raj is also acting in an important role after a long time. He plays his son's uncle in the film.

Sources say 'Kuppan' will be a love story that will revolve around a young fisherman and a north Indian girl in a village.

Cinematography for the film will be by Janarthan and editing will be by SP Ahammed. The film which is being co-directed by K Suresh Kumar, will have music by SG Elai.
Baku, June 24 : Visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed Moscow's official readiness to consult Azerbaijan and Armenia on delimitation and demarcation of borders.

At a meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Baku, Lavrov said Russia is ready to consult on the work of the Azerbaijani and Armenian commissions that were set up for delimitation and demarcation of borders, Xinhua news agency reported.

"We have concrete proposals in this regard. I will be glad to discuss them with you," Lavrov told Aliyev.

The Russian Foreign Minister pointed out "certain progress" in the work of the trilateral working group between Azerbaijan, Russia and Armenia on the opening of communications.

"We stand ready to do everything possible to assist in the implementation of the three documents signed by the leaders of the three countries in November of 2020, in January and November of 2021," he said.

Lavrov also expressed Moscow's commitment to providing assistance with the negotiations on the signing of a peace agreement between Baku and Yerevan.

"We heard that the Armenian side, Prime Minister Pashinyan is ready to hold negotiations on this issue. We are ready to help with Azerbaijan's and Armenia's consent," he added.

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New Delhi, June 24 : The political crisis for the ruling Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) deepened as the support for the rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde swelled on Thursday.

According to media reports, 45 Shiv Sena MLAs pledged their support to Shinde. Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena chief Udhav Thackeray vacated his official residence on Wednesday, leaving people speculating about the future of the MVA government.

Senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut offered an olive branch to the rebel MLAs on Thursday and said that Shiv Sena will break away from the MVA alliance if rebel legislators want so.

Meanwhile, NCP chief Sharad Pawar assured that the MVA government will continue under Thackeray and Vidhan Sabha is the only way to ascertain whether the alliance has a majority or not. The Shiv Sena with 55 MLAs heads the MVA government in the state, NCP with 53 legislators and the Congress party having 44 MLAs are the alliance partners in the state government. Maharashtra's Legislative Assembly has a strength of 288 members.

CVoter-IndiaTracker conducted a countrywide survey on behalf of IANS to know people's views about the current political situation in Maharashtra.

During the survey, a large proportion of respondents, 40 per cent, opined that BJP's attempt to grab power in Maharashtra is the main reason for the political upheaval in the state.

At the same time, while 25 per cent respondents held Shiv Sena infighting responsible for Maharashtra political crisis, 18 per cent voters believed that differences between coalition partners of MVA has led to a political crisis in the state. Fourteen per cent of those who participated in the survey, blamed Thackeray's weakening grip over his party for the tumultuous political situation in the state.

Interestingly, during the survey, the large proportion of both opposition voters, 53 per cent, and NDA supporters, 31 per cent, blamed attempt to grab power for the political crisis that Maharashtra is presently witnessing.

Similarly, the largest proportion of both rural voters, 49 per cent, and urban voters, 34 per cent, said that BJP's attempt to capture power is the main reason for Maharashtra's political crisis.
Lucknow, June 24 : The Samajwadi Party (SP) has said that it will support former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha in the upcoming Presidential elections.

SP president Akhilesh Yadav, on Friday, convened a meeting of all party MPs and legislators and got them to sign forms, proposing the name of Sinha for the top post.

Akhilesh Yadav also warned his party leaders to beware of efforts that could be made to break opposition unity, especially in view of developments in Maharashtra.

The party spokesman said that since Yashwant Sinha is the joint opposition candidate, all SP MPs and MLAs would unanimously support him.

Akhilesh Yadav had already announced last month that his party would support the candidate whose name would be finalised by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Panaji, June 24 : Amid rising chorus of demand for government jobs among local youth, Union Minister of State for Tourism Shripad Naik on Friday warned non Goa senior central government officers in the state to stop doling out jobs in central agencies to their kin or near and dear ones.

Despite being skilled, the Goan youths are not hired in several central government offices in the state, he said in a video posted in his facebook post.

"The educated youths need jobs which the state government is trying provide. In Goa, there are several central government offices. They publish advertisements for recruiting posts. Subsequently, Goan youths apply for it and give interviews. But if we observe minutely, they don't get jobs," Naik, MP from North Goa, said in Konkani.

"Those higher level officers working here, provide these jobs to their near and dear ones and to others of their choice. They give priority to outsiders, this is a feeling of Goan youths," he said.

Citing an example of the Post and Telegraph department, he said that 10-12 years ago, locals who were engaged as branch post masters, who were then drawing Rs 4,000-6,000 as salary, were not regularised despite being promised.

"They were called for an interview, but were not selected for the posts. All those who got the jobs were outsiders. This is injustice against Goan youths. We had complained about this, but no action was taken. We will follow the matter, Shripad Naik said.

"Secondly, Goa Shipyard also needs workers. But despite Goa having skilled manpower, outsiders are given opportunities. There is no need to bring a workforce from outside for small works. They should search for locals first, if not met with requirements then they can engage outsiders. Recruiting outsiders unnecessarily puts burden on the state for providing them water, power and other infrastructure. Goans are suffering this way," he said.

He said that now Goan youths have awakened. They know what is happening around them. "I want to suggest other ministries that give priority to locals, if failed, I don't know what will happen," he said.

As per an agreement, in the 'All India Institute of Ayurveda' in Goa, 80 per cent jobs will be provided to locals.

"Don't repeat the past, give the quota of Goa to locals. With folded hands I request you not to deprive Goan youths of the jobs," the minister stated.
Chennai, June 24 : The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of several bank unions, has deferred its June 27 strike call, said a top leader of All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA).

The Indian Banks' Association (IBA) has informed the UFBU that it has decided to commence the negotiations on all residual issues on July 1, 2022 in Mumbai, said C.H. Venkatachalam, General Secretary, AIBEA.

In view of the negotiations starting on July 1, the proposed All India strike on June 27 has been deferred, he said.

The residual issues are like five-day week for bankers, hike in conveyance allowance to physically challenged employees, uniform banking hours in branches, improvement in medical insurance and staff welfare schemes, fitment to ex-servicemen employees, improvement in the pension rules as given to the Central government staff, special allowance in Northeastern states and others, Venkatachalam said.
Kolkata, June 24 : A single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court, on Friday, turned down Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF)'s plea for postponing the elections for the new board of Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA).

While passing the order, the single-judge bench of Justice Moushumi Bhattacharya observed that at this point of time the court does not find any necessity to interfere in the GTA poll process which is scheduled for June 26.

GNLF approached the Calcutta High Court demanding postponing of the GTA polls. The argument was that the Gorkha Hill Council was formed in 1988 as per the provisions of the Indian Constitution. However, GNLF argued that in 2011 the West Bengal government, without making necessary amendments, brought into the GTA, which was totally illegal and unconstitutional. On these grounds they demanded postponing of the GTA polls.

Arguing on behalf of the state government, the state advocate general, S.N. Mukhopadhyay said the preparatory process of the GTA polls have long started with postal ballots being printed, there is no justification of polls at this point of time.

The state advocate general also argued that although the elections for other civic bodies in the state have already been completed, GTA is under the jurisdiction of an administrator for a long time and in such a situation it is the moral duty of the state government to complete the polls. Justice Bhattacharya asked both the parties to submit their arguments in the form of affidavits and finally on Friday she turned down GNLF's plea for postponing GTA polls.

However, Justice Bhattacharya maintained that the other objections of GNLF relating to formation of GTA will be heard separately at a later date.
Kochi, June 24 : Senior film, TV serial actor V.P. Khalid passed away on Friday after suffering a cardiac arrest at a film location in Vaikom near here, industry sources said.

Seventy-year-old Khalid was shooting for the latest directorial venture of Jude Antony.

After having his breakfast at the location, Khalid went to the restroom.

When he did not return for a while, others went looking for him and found him in a semi- conscious state there.

Despite being rushed to a nearby hospital, the doctor pronounced him dead at arrival.

Khalid was a hugely popular stage actor and worked with Alleppey Theatres for a long time.

Later, he started doing small roles in films and became a noted actor when he took up acting in TV serials.

His three sons -- Shaiju, Jimshi and director Khalid Rahman -- are also in the film industry and doing well for themselves.
Kiev, June 24 : Amid escalating Russian advances, Ukrainian forces in Severodonetsk have been asked to retreat from the key city in the eastern Luhansk region where fierce battles are currently raging, a top leader said on Friday.

For several weeks now, Russian forces have nearly encircled Severodonetsk and its twin city Lysychansk.

Capturing the two cities would give Moscow control of the entire Luhansk region, much of which is already controlled by Russian-backed separatists.

They are the last remaining Ukrainian positions in Luhansk.

Speaking to local media on Friday, Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Haidai said: "Remaining in positions that have been relentlessly shelled for months just doesn't make sense.

"They have received orders to retreat to new positions... and from there continue their operations." "There is no point in staying in positions which have been destroyed over several months just for the sake of staying," the BBC quoted the Governor as further saying.

According to Haidai, Severodonetsk's entire infrastructure has been completely destroyed, with over 90 per cent of houses shelled and 80 per cent of them critically damaged.

The Governor's remarks came as President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of trying to "destroy" the Donbas region, which comprises Luhansk and Donetsk.

"There were massive air and artillery strikes in Donbas. The occupier's goal here is unchanged, they want to destroy the entire Donbas step-by-step," Zelensky said in his nightly video address on Wednesday.

He also repeated his calls for Western leaders to speed up the delivery of heavy artillery to his troops, reports the BBC.

"We again and again emphasise the acceleration of arms deliveries to Ukraine. What is quickly needed is parity on the battlefield in order to halt this diabolical armada and push it beyond Ukraine's borders."

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
Canberra, June 24 : Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday confirmed he will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron in a bid to "reset" relations.

Albanese said that he has accepted Macron's invitation to visit France, reports Xinhua news agency.

It comes weeks after Albanese announced his new government had agreed to pay French shipbuilder Naval Group around A$830 million ($573 million ) in compensation for a cancelled submarine contract.

The relationship between Australia and France deteriorated when former Prime Minister Scott Morrison scrapped the deal.

Australia instead signed a new defence pact with the US and the UK called Aukus, infuriating Macron who accused Morrison of lying to him, briefly recalling France's Ambassador in protest.

Albanese, who defeated Morrison in the May 21 general election, said he expected a welcome in France.

"I've been invited by President Macron to meet with him in France and I'll be doing that in a week's time. We do need to reset, we've already had very constructive discussions," he told Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV.

"What we can offer is a relationship between our respective leaders that won't be leaked, in order to make an opportunistic headline in the newspaper. One of respect and honesty in the way that we deal with each other.

"We've already had very constructive discussions... Next week's visit is a very concrete sign of the repair that's been done already," the Prime Minister was quoted as saying.

Earlier this month, Australia announced a $584 million settlement with France's Naval Group as compensation for scrapping the contract in favour of the Aukus deal.
Mumbai, June 24 : Bharatiya Janata Party Leader of Opposition (Council) Pravin Darekar on Friday urged Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari to intervene against what he termed 'indiscriminate decisions' taken by the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in the past few days.

In a letter to the Governor, Darekar has pointed at the 'massive revolt' in the ruling ally Shiv Sena followed by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's offer to resign and later vacating his official residence 'Varsha'.

Under these circumstances, he accused the MVA government of taking a series of haphazard decisions and issuing Government Resolutions (GR), claiming some 160 GRs were issued in just 48 hours.

The BJP leader said that such a thing happening in the name of development projects worth crores of rupees has raised suspicions, particularly since the MVA government was indecisive in the past 30 months.

Terming this as a serious matter needing the Governor's urgent attention, Darekar claimed that transfers in the police force and other major departments were also being planned.

"It is our humble request, that in the larger interest of Maharashtra and the people of the state, you should immediately intervene and put a stop to this misuse of funds," Darekar appealed to the Governor.

The BJP's letter came as the state is gripped by an unprecedented political crisis for the past four days after around 40 Shiv Sena MLAs raised a banner of revolt that has put a question mark on the very survival of the MVA government.
Amaravati, June 24 : The Andhra Pradesh government on Friday decided to rename Konaseema district as Dr B R Ambedkar Konaseema district, a month after the district was rocked by violence protesting against the proposal.

The state Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy approved the gazette notification issued on May 18 to rename the district.

Police have stepped up security across the district, especially district headquarters Amalapuram which witnessed mob violence on May 24 against the government's move.

Dozens of people, including 25 police personnel, were injured in the violence.

Protesters opposing the proposal to rename the district set afire houses of state minister P. Viswaroop and MLA P. Satish and also torched a few police and private vehicles.

In view of the Cabinet decision, police made elaborate security arrangements to prevent any protests. Additional forces were deployed in the town and in other parts of the district to prevent any untoward incident.

A tight vigil was being maintained on the organisations which had organised massive protests leading to the violence last month.

The state government on May 18 issued a notification inviting objections and suggestions on the proposal to rename the Konaseema district as Dr Ambedkar Konaseema district. It sought suggestions and objections from the people residing within Konaseema. The 30 days period to send objections and suggestions came to an end last week.

The Konaseema district was carved out from East Godavari with Amalapuram as its headquarters.

It was one of the 13 districts created on April 4, taking the total number of districts in the state to 26.

The government had named some of the districts after prominent personalities like freedom fighter Alluri Sitarama Raju, former chief minister and TDP founder Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao, who was popular as NTR.

Similarly, two new districts were named after saint composer Tallapaka Annamacharya (Annamayya) and Satya Sai Baba (Sri Satya Sai).

The YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) government headed by Jagan Mohan Reddy had come under criticism from Dalit groups and others for not naming a district after Ambedkar.

However, the decision by the government to rename Konaseema district drew flak from some groups.

Hundreds of people had participated in the protest called by Konaseema Sadhana Samithi (KSS) on May 24 and this led to violence.

Investigation by the police has revealed that two dominant castes in the district -- Kapus and Setti Balijasa -- came together to oppose the move to rename Konaseema district after Ambedkar.

According to police, the coming together of these communities intensified the protests against the renaming of the district as more people participated in the agitation.
Canberra, June 24 : A new market update from Australia's flag carrier Qantas on Friday revealed that the restart of travel has allowed the airline to begin to climb out from a mountain of debt accrued during the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the latest financial year report, Qantas' debt peaked during the pandemic at more than A$6.4 billion ($4.42 billion) but was expected to fall to around A$4 billion by June 30, reports Xinhua news agency.

The airline attributed the improvement to strong international and travel demand over the first half of 2022 since Australia lifted the majority of Covid-related travel restrictions.

The airline turned its first profit since the onset of the pandemic in the second half of the 2022 financial year, and expects to continue to post a profit in the coming 2023 financial year beginning July 1.

Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said the turnaround in business began in December last year when workers returned to work ahead of the border reopening.

"It's been a tough few years for everyone in aviation but we promised to share the benefits of the recovery once it arrived. Today's announcement is part of that," Joyce said.

To pass the recovery boost on to its workers and acknowledge "the sacrifices" made by workers furloughed during the pandemic, the airline also announced one-off payments of A$5,000 to 19,000 of its employees.

Alongside its market update, the airline also opened several new flight paths, noting that investing in future growth would be key to continuing to drive down pandemic debt and boosting worker wages.

From November, Qantas is set to run direct flights from Perth to both Johannesburg and Jakarta.

"Western Australia has become an increasingly important part of our international network and we're really excited to be launching two more routes from Perth," said Joyce.

"Our direct flights from Perth to London and Rome are selling really strongly, which gives us the confidence to add new routes from our western hub."
New Delhi, June 24 : With 36.5 million units shipped, the global PC monitor market posted flat results in the first quarter of this year, registering a mere 0.3 per cent increase in shipment volume compared to the same quarter a year ago.

Amid a tough market, Dell with 22.4 per cent market share expanded its leadership position through its supply chain competency and commercial sales, reports the IDC.

Overall, the market was a tale of two halves - the commercial market grew over 5 per cent while the consumer side declined 5 per cent.

Samsung also saw year-over-year growth, buoyed in part by its leader status in the consumer monitor space.

TPV, owner of AOC and Philips, was hurt by a struggling Chinese market and events in Eastern Europe.

Other commercial heavy firms like HP and Lenovo rounded out the top 5.

"We are seeing large portions of the consumer demand slowing amid economic challenges and budget diversion as countries continue to re-open," said Jay Chou, research manager for IDC's Client Devices Tracker.

"Some emerging market consumer demand will linger in the short term as vendors are now able to fulfill backlogs, while gaming and office returns will also drive demand," Chou added.

Looking ahead, IDC expects monitor shipments will decline as the market digests the tremendous volumes recorded in 2020 and 2021.

The 2023 shipments will decline another 1.5 per cent (year on year) before stabilising in 2024.

China, the second largest market in the world, has notably lowered its forecast due to much gloomier outlook. Consumer demand has been pared back while commercial demand has been raised, the report noted.
Phnom Penh, June 24 : The ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) led by Prime Minister Hun Sen won a landslide victory in the fifth commune polls on June 5, according to official results released by the National Election Committee (NEC) on Friday.

Seventeen political parties contested in the polls for the 11,622 positions of commune councillors in 1,652 communes across the Southeast Asian nation for the next five years, reports Xinhua news agency.

The NEC said the CPP won 9,376 seats, or 80.6 per cent, while the main opposition Candlelight Party got 2,198 seats, or 18.9 per cent.

It added that the Funcinpec party earned 19 seats, the Khmer National United Party got 13, the Grassroots Democratic Party won six, the Cambodian Nation Love Party gained five, the Cambodian Youth Party took three, and the Kampucheaniyum Party and the Beehive Social Democratic Party got one each.

NEC chairman Prach Chan said the voter turnout was 7.39 million, or 80.3 per cent of the 9.2 million registered voters.

"It was a successful election with a peaceful atmosphere," he said.

"Security, safety and public order were well maintained, and no incidents or acts of violence were reported." The commune polls are seen as a test for the popularity of political parties ahead of the general elections in July 2023.

The 1,646 communes of Cambodia are the subdivisions of districts and municipalities.
Hyderabad, June 24 : Telangana Congress chief Revanth Reddy on Friday met a few accused in the Secunderabad railway station violence at Chanchalguda Central Prison here.

The jail authorities allowed Revanth Reddy and other Congress leaders to meet the youth, who were arrested following June 17 violence at Secunderabad station during the protest against Agnipath, the recently announced scheme by the Centre for army recruitment.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president Revanth Reddy assured the youth that the Congress party will extend all possible help to them. He exhorted them not to lose heart.

He told reporters later that 'the innocent youths, who were protesting against a wrong scheme brought by the Central government, were arrested and jailed under sections which are usually invoked against terrorists'.

Reddy, who is also a Member of Parliament, claimed that 50 out of 55 youth arrested in the case belong to Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs). "These youths were the hope for their families. Their parents are not educated and they are now feeling helpless," he said.

The state Congress chief blamed the Narendra Modi government at the Centre for the situation. He said by bringing the Agnipath scheme, the government has endangered national security. He alleged that under this scheme, the government wants to treat soldiers like hired labourers. "Those who are going to be recruited for four years will have no job security, pension and other benefits," he said.

Revanth Reddy said the Congress party would continue its protest till the Centre withdrew the Agnipath scheme. As part of this, a state-wide protest will be held on June 27.

Violence rocked the Secunderabad station on June 17 during the protest by army job aspirants. The youth set afire trains and goods and vandalised the station and other railway property. One youth was killed and 13 others were injured when the Railway Police opened fire to control the situation.

The Telangana government has announced Rs 25 lakh ex-gratia for the family of the youth killed in the police firing.

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao announced the compensation for the kin of D. Rakesh (22), who hailed from Warangal district.

The chief minister also announced that a government job will be provided to a member of Rakesh's family as per his or her qualification.
Chennai, June 24 : The Government schools of Tamil Nadu are facing a major infrastructure and teacher shortage following huge enrolment of students after Covid-19 pandemic.

Government schools of the state that were staring at an imminent closure due to student shortage were in for a pleasant surprise after the pandemic as students shifted from private schools to government.

Sources in the Tamil Nadu school education department told IANS that the number of students have increased by 6 lakh in government schools for students of Classes 2 to 12.

While parents are happy that they don't have to run around for the hefty fee that the private schools were squeezing from them, the high enrolment in government schools has taken its toll on the infrastructure as well as the teachers' strength.

R.K. Ravishankar, a small-time businessman at Chennai told IANS, "My son is studying in Class 6 and I shifted him from a private happening school where I had to shell out huge fee. While there is no fee now, I am worried as to whether the education being given to him is at par with what he was receiving at the private school. Government is government and we don't know how far the teachers are motivated to give their best." With the enrolments increasing, each school has more than 300 to 400 students leading to an increase of around 30 per cent students in each class.

With the increase in the number of students, teachers find it difficult to teach more than 60 students in a class which earlier had only 40.

In a government school in Tamil Nadu, students were taught under a tree due to lack of space in the classes.

M. Muthupillai, President, TN High School and Higher Secondary School Headmaster/ Headmistress association while speaking to IANS said, "You know, only 60 per cent of government schools in Tamil Nadu have proper infrastructure. Moreover, teachers are overloaded and all administrative work is being done by the teachers." He also said that each school should have a non-teaching staff for conducting clerical work.

Teachers' union leaders also suggested that the government must improve the teacher, student ratio from the present 30:1 at the primary level to 18:1.

There is, however, a major gap between the teaching of private schools and government schools.

In English for Class 10, private school students on an average scored 57 per cent while the government school students could touch only 35 per cent.

Private school managements are unfazed at the huge enrollment from private schools into government schools.

A private school owner at Madurai told IANS that the parents had to shift their children to government schools as they did not have any option.

However, several parents are now contemplating to bring their children back to private schools. The reason is mainly the lack of infrastructure as well as shortage of staff.

Educationists are of the opinion that students continuing in government schools of Tamil Nadu are to benefit well as the government has now introduced a 7.5 per cent horizontal reservation in professional courses for students from Tamil Nadu government schools. This has helped several students from poor backgrounds get into the medical colleges of the state under the merit quota.

The Tamil School Education Department has received Rs 100 crore in the state budget for improving hygiene in government schools. 7000 crore is allocated to develop the school infrastructure under the Perasiriyar Anbhazhagan School development scheme.

The government school teachers are of the opinion that more and more students will join the government schools if the government meets the immediate infrastructure requirements, including proper seating facilities for children.
Chennai, June 24 : Ace director Shankar has showered praises on actor Vijay Sethupathi for his spectacular performance as a dad in director Seenu Ramasamy's just released family drama 'Maamanithan', saying the actor's brilliant performance in the film deserves a National Award

Taking to Twitter, Shankar wrote, "'Maamanithan' Got the satisfaction of watching a good film. Director Seenu Ramasamy (has) put his heart and soul and made this a realistic classic!

"Vijay Sethupathi's brilliant performance deserves a National Award. Music from Maestro Ilaiyaraaja and Yuvan Shankar Raja blended soulfully with the film."

Shankar wasn't the only one floored by the realistic drama. Director Simbu Devan too showered praises on the film.

He wrote in Tamil,"Congratulations director Seenu Ramasamy brother and Vijay Sethupathi brother and team... Already the film has got good reviews. My hearty wishes for the film to succeed big."

Actor Raj Kiran too was thoroughly impressed by the film and expressed his appreciation to director Seenu Ramasamy, who was grateful for the compliment.

Tweeting about actor Raj Kiran's appreciation, Seenu Ramasamy said, "I cannot forget this day when actor Raj Kiran, whom I consider my guru, blessed me wholeheartedly after watching my film."

-- Syndicated from IANS
Kangra : June 24 ((IANS/101Reporters) "Kuhls are the lifeline for us farmers. Our livelihood is entirely dependent on them. We've cherished them for generations and passed them on to our children as a legacy," said Kulwant Singh, a farmer from Kangra district in Himachal Pradesh.

Kuhls are a traditional system of irrigation usually maintained by the local community. They resemble small canals that carry water from a larger water body to the fields. Made usually of cement now, these channels transport water from the main kuhl to the villages and fields through smaller drains. Pucca or kachcha gates are constructed at intervals along their length to regulate the water flow. These gates are usually opened and closed on a predetermined schedule.

A vital part of the regional economy, the Tikhrul Kuhl here has been maintained by farmers from more than 150 villages for over a century. These are agriculturists from 12 panchayats in the Panchrukhi block of Kangra, the largest district of Himachal Pradesh. Running up to a length of 25km till Simbalkhola village, the canal has been irrigating about 10,000ha of land for over a 100 years.

Situated in the lap of the snow-capped Dhauladhars, Kangra district practised rain-fed farming till about 300 years ago, when the Katoch kings of the Trigarta kingdom introduced the kuhl system for irrigation and appointed a Kohli, a person responsible for the upkeep of kuhls. Thanks to the ready availability of water, the farming community of the region has been thriving economically. They can grow vegetables along with the traditional seasonal paddy and wheat cultivation.

Benefits galore Kulwant Raj, a member of the Tikhrul Kuhl Management Committee, pointed out that with water from the kuhl, he grows seasonal vegetables that enables him to sustain his family. He said the villagers worked together to repair the kuhl every year to ensure that water was available for farming all through the year.

Vijay Lakshmi, a farmer from Simbalkhola panchayat, said this kuhl had earned her national recognition. Lakshmi had produced a record 41 quintal of high-quality wheat from 1ha of land, for which she was awarded the Krishi Karman Puraskar by the Union Minister for Agriculture.

However, the areas that do not benefit from kuhl irrigation present a very different picture. In fact, people from other development blocks, where there are no such water channels, are moving away from cultivation to embrace other forms of livelihood because of lack of irrigation facilities.

Also read In Kashmir, once beautiful and life-sustaining 'kuls' are now turning into dumping grounds "Farming in our area is completely rain-fed. So we are able to cultivate mainly wheat and maize here," said Rajendra Kumar, a farmer from Lambagaon, another block in Kangra. "We do not have a channel for water, so most young people prefer to move to other professions." On being asked whether they ever thought of implementing a similar irrigation plan, he said, "The channels have only been constructed in places where there's a regular source of water. There's no river or nullah anywhere near these areas, due to which no kuhls have been constructed here.

Similarly, Renu Kumari, a woman farmer from Pragpur block, also pointed out that they had ample cultivable land but no irrigation system in place, due to which they are unable to grow vegetables alongside traditional crops.

Upkeep and maintenance a community initiative Tikhrul Kuhl is 25km long and irrigates more than 10,000ha of land belonging to 8,000 farmers of Panchrukhi block. Water is transported from Aba Khad (ravine) near Banuri to a distance of 25km, covering more than 150 villages. As much as 80 per cent of this canal is concrete, while 5km is still kachcha.

The 12 panchayats of Kangra formed a 20-member committee to oversee the upkeep of Tikhrul kuhl. The committee meets every year to decide on the specifics of water distribution to its villages. The kohli, who's responsible for the maintenance of the channel, and a representative of each village, then disseminates this information, after which every villager is bound to uphold the decision.

Moreover, one person from the village is present when the water is being released to their village, and to ensure that no damage is inflicted on the irrigation channel, the committee has laid down several rules. Anyone caught flouting them is fined Rs 500.

Devendra Kumar, the pradhan of Simbalkhola, said the panchayat and Jal Shakti Department draw up a budget to repair the kuhls. Delar Chand, who's been looking after Tikhrul Kuhl for the past 22 years, said, "This kuhl is more than 100 years old, and we repair it every year. Before me, my father was responsible for it for 32 years." Sonika Gupta, block technology manager of the agriculture department in Panchrukhi, said the farmers here had preserved this old irrigation facility, which puts them at an advantage while cultivating crops like seasonal vegetables.

Furthermore, project director of Kangra in the department, Dr Shashi Pal Attri said that in many areas of the district, farmers had come together to protect the channels, which in turn made them prosperous. The government also makes a budget provision from time to time for the maintenance of these channels, which has assured the smooth functioning of the kuhls.

(The author is a Dehradun-based freelance journalist and a member of 101Reporters, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters.)
Chennai, June 24 : Actor Jai has lent a helping hand to a young junior artiste, who is preparing for the UPSC exams.

Sources close to the actor say that actress Manisha Priyadarshini, who is best known for playing the supporting role of actor Vemal's younger sister in the superhit film 'Kalavani', is a civil service aspirant who is preparing hard for the UPSC exams.

Manisha, who is acting in both television and in films, has also been consistently excelling in her studies and is simultaneously pursuing her college education. Sources say she is presently doing her final year LLB course.

Manisha's mom has high hopes on her and nurtures the dream that someday her daughter will turn an IAS officer. The young actress, looking to fulfill her mother's dream, has begun preparations for the UPSC. However, she did not have funds to purchase books for preparing for the highly competitive exam and so approached actor Jai for help.

The actor has not only helped by purchasing all the books she wanted for her but has also promised her all help in future as well. Manisha recently met Jai and thanked him for all the help he had extended to her, the sources added.
Bengaluru, June 24 : The police in Bengaluru have arrested two African nationals who ran a racket of cyber crime and cheated people across the country on the pretext of jobs and loans.

Investigation revealed that the accused used tribal people of Tripura to obtain SIM cards to commit cyber crimes. Monikumar Kaipeng from Agartala, who colluded with the accused African nationals in committing fraud, has also been arrested.

The Cyber, Economic and Narcotics (CEN) Crime police station of North East division carried out the operation and nabbed the fraudsters.

The arrested African nationals have been identified as Fasoyin Avaloho and Adbe Ange Alfred Adoni, both residents of Yelahanka locality in Bengaluru.

According to the police, Monikumar used tribal people to create accounts by paying them a paltry sum. He along with the African nationals withdrew money from these accounts deposited by the gullible people, said the police.

The accused have been arrested under the IT Act and Foreigners Act, 1946 and Section 420 of IPC. The police have seized four duplicate SIM cards and three mobile phones from the duo, which they were using to cheat gullible people. The police have also seized six debit cards besides tracing four fake bank accounts.

During inquiry, it was found that the African nationals were staying in Bengaluru without valid visa or passport.

The modus operandi of the duo was to cheat people by promising them jobs and loans and get the money transferred to their different accounts.

They also made calls assuring people of gifts and got the money transferred to the fake accounts, the police said.
New Delhi, June 24 : On International Women in Engineering Day, Rolls-Royce, one of the world's leading industrial technology companies, announced the launch of the third edition of its "Unnati Scholarship Programme for Women Engineering Students", in collaboration with Buddy4Study and Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) India.

The initiative is aimed at offering financial support to meritorious girl students in pursuing their engineering course. Girl students studying in the 1st/2nd/3rd year of undergraduate engineering degree programmes at any AICTE-recognised institution in India and fulfilling the eligibility criteria, can apply for the scholarship.

At the launch of the programme, Rolls Royce President, India and S Asia, Kishore Jayaraman said: "At Rolls-Royce, it has been our endeavour to enable and empower women and girls seeking to pursue careers in STEM related fields. Our Unnati Scholarship programme for women engineering students has met with great success in doing just that and I am thankful to our partners CAF India and Buddy4Study for their partnership and support for this programme. As we begin the third year of these scholarships, I encourage aspirants to come forward to benefit from the programme and wish them all the best for a bright future as engineers and innovators." Selected scholars will receive a scholarship amount of Rs 35,000 each towards their education expenses.

Rolls-Royce's "Unnati" initiative includes programmes at mid-school and high-school levels, including scholarships for engineering and STEM under-graduates, as well as skill development programmes for youth. These programmes are aimed at positively impacting lives of women and girls in India, and over 3,500 girls and women have benefitted from various initiatives in the past year.

Through various community outreach programmes, Rolls-Royce has touched the lives of nearly 100,000 students in India, from diverse backgrounds, inspiring and teaching them about Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education and careers, as well as providing skill development.
New Delhi, June 24 : Olympian and former world number one Manu Bhaker shot a double gold, winning both the women's and junior women's 10m Air Pistol titles at the 20th Kumar Surendra Singh Memorial (KSSM) Shooting competition, the pistol events for which are taking place in Bhopal's M.P. Shooting Academy range.

Haryana's Manu outshot Punjab's Arshdeep Kaur 16-14 in a closely fought final contest.

Manu shot 263.9 to top the eight-woman semi-final stage even as Arshdeep followed her to the gold medal contest, finishing second with a score of 260.5. Radhika Tanwar, also from Haryana, won bronze.

In the junior contest Manu was up against Uttar Pradesh's (U.P) Yuvika Tomar, who was the best Shooter all-around in qualifying, topping both the women's and junior women's qualifiers with a score of 584. Manu however was too good for her, sealing the final 16-12. The bronze again went to Haryana as Lakshita finished the semifinal stage with a score of 246.7, behind Yuvika's 252.7 and Manu's 249.

Shikha Narwal won in the youth category where Lakshita picked up the silver.

Yuvika did win gold on the day though, teaming up with Anjali Chaudhary and Devanshi Dhama to seal the team title for U.P. Haryana won silver and Maharashtra won bronze.
New Delhi, June 24 : The political upheaval in Maharashtra is becoming intense, with each passing day -- the rebel group led by minister Eknath Shinde has submitted a list of his 37 MLAs to Assembly Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal.

The list has also attached two resolutions: Shinde continues to be the chief of Shiv Sena Legislative Party, and MLA Bharat Gogavale has been appointed new Chief Whip. The group claimed the support of 40 MLAs plus a dozen independents and members of smaller parties on Friday.

However, talking to IANS, former Lok Sabha Secretary General P.D.T. Acharya said: "As far as the magic number (two-thirds of the members of the legislature party)... if the group of 37 MLAs decide to merge with the BJP in Maharashtra, the magic will work. If not, then the magic will be lost and they are liable to be disqualified. Only a merger with the BJP will save them (from the anti-defection law)." Acharya said for a merger there are two conditions: Shiv Sena, the original party merges with the BJP, secondly, the two-thirds of the MLAs agree to the merger. He clarified that 37 MLAs cannot function as a group.

On Shinde's claim for being the real Shiv Sena, Acharya said: "Claim for being the real Shiv Sena will be decided by the Election Commission... EC will decide which faction is the Shiv Sena." He added that if the parent party, Shiv Sena headed by Uddhav Thackeray decides to merge with the BJP with the support of two-third MLAs, then the merger will go through.

Recently, a Bombay High Court judgment said when two-third of the MLAs of a political party merge with another political party, then it is deemed that two political parties have merged. Acharya said this ruling is against the law and did not agree with the high court's reasoning.

In the ongoing Maharashtra political crisis, the rebel group hasn't announced a merger with another party so far, therefore they are not totally shielded from the anti-defection law.

Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, whose party is an ally of the Shiv Sena in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, had said a floor test will decide who has majority, as he expressed confidence in the MVA.

Acharya said if the government falls on the floor of the House, then the Governor will ask the opposition leader if he is in a position to form a government.

According to the paragraph 2 of the Tenth Schedule, a member will be disqualified on the ground of defection if: he has voluntarily given up his membership of a political party and if he votes or abstains from voting in House contrary to any direction issued by the political party to which he belongs.

Acharya added that Thackeray had called for a meeting of the party and all the members of the party were requested to join the meeting, which included rebel MLAs, who were elected on a Shiv Sena ticket.

He said this is a crucial meeting and if these rebel MLAs did not attend the meeting, then the Shiv Sena can take the ground that they have voluntarily given up party's membership, which could be one of the grounds of disqualification.

Acharya reiterated that the magic number of 37 MLAs can only work, if they merge with the BJP.

The Shiv Sena in Mumbai submitted a list of 12 MLAs, including Shinde, to Zirwal, demanding their disqualification late on Wednesday. Party MP Arvind Sawant said that the disqualification has been sought for flouting the Sena's whip to attend a meeting of party legislators.

(Sumit Saxena can be contacted at sumit.s@ians.in)
Thiruvananthapuram, June 24 : Activists of Kerala's ruling CPI-M's student wing, SFI, vandalised Congress leader and local MP Rahul Gandhi's office in Wayanad on Friday, and also assaulted a staffer, even as police stood by, the Congress alleged.

A staff member at Gandhi's office was beaten up, said Congress' Wayanad district President N.D. Appachen.

The protesters were apparently angry as Gandhi, who is the Wayanad MP, failed to act on the issue of 'buffer zone' of eco-sensitive areas. They shouted slogans that Wayanad doesn't need a 'visiting' MP.

The hilly district of Wayanad has various ecologically fragile places.

Reacting to the incident, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said: "Kerala is a place where people can protest in a democratic manner, but under no circumstances, should it (the protest) turn violent and if it does, then it's not acceptable. Strict action will be taken against the wrongdoers." Appachen said on Friday that when he came to know about the SFI's likely protest march, he called up the top district police official and said that adequate security should be provided.

"But what happened was, there were just half a dozen police officials and the SFI students created mayhem. The police were mere onlookers and did nothing. This is the way Chief Minister Vijayan acts, when he failed to do anything on the buffer zone, the students' wing of his party does this. It's deplorable," he said.

As the melee continued, a bigger force of police came and arrested some students, and amid all this, activists of CPI-M's youth wing DYFI were seen engaged in heated argument with police for using force against the SFI protesters.

Gandhi office staffer Augustine was beaten up by the SFI students and taken to a hospital.

The SFI has not taken up protests on such issues earlier.

However, CPI-M district Secretary P. Gagarin said that nothing prevents SFI activists in taking up such issues. He also said he is unaware of what has happened in the protests.

Meanwhile, angry Congress workers also protested against the police. They engaged in a war of words and the police had to carry out a baton-charge for dispersing them.

Leader of Opposition V. D. Satheesan tweeted: "Ghastly attack by SFI goons at Rahul Gandhi's MP Office at Wayanad. It is lawlessness and goondaism. CPM has turned into an organised mafia. Strongly condemning the attack." Congress General Secretary K. C. Venugopal said Gandhi has done everything on the buffer zone issue and he has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Vijayan as well over the matter.

"The real issue is not buffer zone and Vijayan is duty-bound to give us an answer on why this has happened. We all know that the ED had questioned Gandhi for over 50 hours. And now what happened to his office is being done to please Modi, and Vijayan is doing that because all know that he is in soup on a few counts. I am also seeking an answer from CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechuri over the ghastly attack," he said.
Mumbai, June 24 : Launching a scorching counter-attack on the rebels, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday dared them to win the elections "without using the name of Shiv Sena or the Thackerays", even as allies Nationalist Congress Party-Congress reiterated their commitment to save the Maha Vikas Aghadi government.

Addressing a meeting of Sena's district heads and others, Thackeray said that he has left the official residence 'Varsha', but not lost his "will to fight" for the party.

Slamming the rebels' leader Eknath Shinde, he recalled how he did a lot for him, yet Shinde was hurling a series of baseless allegations against the Sena and Thackeray.

"I did everything possible for Shinde... I allotted him the Urban Development portfolio which I handled. His son (Dr Shrikant Shinde) is a two-time MP and now they are commenting on my son (Minister Aditya Thackeray), and levelling many allegations even against me," said Thackeray.

He challenged the rebels to show courage and go among the people without taking the names of Shiv Sena or the party founder, the late Balasaheb Thackeray.

The CM reiterated how he had become the CM against his wishes and had no desire to wield power.

"Now, those people who used to claim that they would give their lives rather than quit the Shiv Sena have fled from here. The rebels want to destroy the party... I never imagined in my dreams I would become the CM and have even offered to quit... I have vacated the 'Varsha' bungalow but not left the determination to fight out," Thaekeray asserted.

The Sena chief also threw the field open saying anybody in the party is free to leave and they can take away the MPs or others, but not the roots of the party which remains intact.

Simultaneously, the NCP-Congress have reaffirmed their resolve to fight out the political crisis unitedly and stand behind Thackeray till the end.
Xi hosts High-level Dialogue on Global Development

Xinhua) 20:20, June 24, 2022

Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted the High-level Dialogue on Global Development on Friday in virtual format.

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New Delhi, June 24 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday apprised the Delhi High Court that the agency will not arrest Congress MP Karti Chidambaram till July 12, in connection with the alleged money laundering case linked to the allotment of the visas to Chinese nationals in 2011.

The development came after the bench of Justice Jasmeet Singh told the probe agency that the court will not be able to deal with the matter and slated it for July 12.

During the course of the hearing, the ED's counsel informed the court that the central agency would not arrest Karti Chidambaram till the next hearing day.

Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju, appeared on behalf of the probe agency.

Karti, son of senior Congress leader and former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, knocked the doors of the high court following the dismissal of his anticipatory bail plea by a lower court.

On June 3, the court of special CBI judge M.K. Nagpal had denied the anticipatory bail applications moved by Karti Chidambaram and other accused persons in the case, including the Congress MP's chartered accountant, S. Bhaskar Raman, and Vikas Makharia, the associate vice-president of thermal power plant Talwandi Sabo Power.

In the last hearing, senior advocate Kapil Sibal had argued that the alleged transaction was from 2011 and the ED registered the case after the lapse of a long time, pointing out that there was no investigation in all these years.

The counsel also argued that the value of the alleged transaction was Rs 50 lakh, which was less than Rs 1 crore, and in view of this fact, he should be granted bail.

According to the FIR, the Mansa-based Talwandi Sabo Power Ltd took the help of a middleman and allegedly paid Rs 50 lakh to get visas issued for Chinese nationals to complete a project before the deadline.

"The payment of the said bribe was routed from the Mansa-based private company to a private person in Chennai and his close associate through a Mumbai-based company as payment of false invoice raised for consultancy and out of pocket expenses for Chinese visa related works," the FIR read.
New Delhi, June 24 : Parameswaran Iyer, the man who is credited with building thousands of toilets as part of Swachch Bharat Mission, will now be heading the country's top think-tank, NITI Aayog.

"The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Parameswaran Iyer as the new Chief Executive Officer of NITI Aayog for a period of two years after the tenure of incumbent Amitabh Kant concludes on June 30," it was announced on Friday.

Born in 1959, Iyer had joined the Civil Services in 1981 in Uttar Pradesh cadre. He had held various prominent posts and led the World Bank-assisted Uttar Pradesh Rural Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation Project, popular as Swajal. He also served two stints at the World Bank as water and sanitation expert. In 2016, he was appointed as Secretary to Government of India for Drinking Water and Sanitation, and led the Open Defecation Free India movement.

Son of an Air Force officer, Iyer was born in Srinagar and studied at St. Stephen's College.
Washington, June 24 : The US Senate passed a narrow legislation late Thursday that could go on to become the first gun control measure passed in more than three decades.

The legislation was passed in a 65-33 vote with 15 Republicans joining the 50 Democrats in a rare show of bipartisanship on gun control. The measure must now be passed by the House of Representatives to make it to President Joe Biden's desk for his signature and enactment.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said that the House of Representatives will take up the legislation on Friday. The Biden White House has already signaled the president's assent to the bill telling reporters he will sign it.

"This bill is a compromise," said Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, who led the negotiations, right before the vote. "It doesn't do everything I want. But what we are doing will save thousands of lives without violating anyone's Second Amendment rights." The legislation makes a modest attempt at restricting access to guns. It expands background checks for prospective buyers between 18 and 21 - both the Buffalo and Uvalde shooters were 18; includes abusive dating partners in the list of those who could be prevented from buying guns; and, finally, it seeks to incentivise states to introduce red-flag laws that would allows law enforcement or relatives to prevent guns from falling in the hands of people who could harm either themselves or others.

The bill also seeks to pump in $15 billion into school safety and mental health care.

"This is the sweet spot a making America safer, especially for kids in school, without making our country one bit less free," Mitch McConnell, the top Republican Senator said on the floor of the chamber. "I thought it was time to act, and if (Democrats) were willing to join with us and pass legislation that actually targeted the problem, which is school safety and mental health, why would we not want to do that?" The bipartisan legislation was negotiated by 10 Republican and 10 Democratic senators amidst national outrage triggered by the killing of 10 African Americans at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York and 19 children at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas just 10 days apart.
Kabul, June 24 : Qari Fasihuddin Fitrat, the Chief of Staff of the armed forces of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, headed a high-ranking delegation to Sar-e-Pol province, in the north of Afghanistan, according to the state-run Bakhtar News Agency.

A senior military mission to Sar-e-Pol province was led by Taliban's highest-ranking army officer Fasihuddin Fitrat, Khaama Press reported.

The Taliban government's Al-Fatah North Corps and Al-Farooq Herat Corps commanders are accompanying him.

Fitrat reportedly stated that his travel to Sar-e-Pol was intended to assess security issues and inspect Taliban units stationed in the region, according to reports.

People close to Mawlavi Mahdi Mujahid aka Mawlawi Mujahid, the Islamic Emirate's disgruntled Hazara commander, however, told the BBC that the situation in Balkhab, where they are stationed, was not good and that a confrontation may happen at "any moment".

The opening of a "serious clash" between the Taliban and Mawlawi Mahdi Mujahid's forces was reported this morning, Thursday, by the local media, Khaama Press reported.

To attack Mawlawi Mujahid, Taliban forces have dispatched forces from different locations, according to the sources.

In Qom Kotel and Balkhab districts of Sar-e-Pol province, Mawlawi Mahdi's troops claim to have thwarted two Taliban attacks yesterday (Thursday) evening and on Friday morning. They also say to have inflicted casualties on the Taliban.

According to some media outlets, the final rounds of negotiations between Mawlawi Mahdi Mujahid and officials of the Taliban ended since no agreement was reached.
New Delhi, June 24 : Newer Omicron strains, waning immunity, and breakthrough infections among vaccinated are the major reasons for the current Covid peak seen in India, including the national capital, said doctors on Friday.

According to the Union Health Ministry data update on Friday, India recorded 17,336 new Covid-19 infections and 13 new deaths in the last 24 hours. The active caseload stands at 88,284.

With 1,934 cases, infection numbers in national capital Delhi doubled in the last 24 hours. In Karnataka, 858 fresh cases and one death occurred on Thursday. Maharashtra accounted for the highest number of Covid-19 cases at 5,218, with daily cases jumping by 60 per cent compared to the previous day.

States like Kerala, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Gujarat are reporting more than 1,000 cases daily.

"The cases are rising because of Omicron and its sub-variants as there are several sub-lineages of the circulating virus. The most circulating subvariant at the moment are of BA.2, and there are a few cases of BA.4 and BA.5. Though they are just the sub-variants, they also have their sub-lineages," Dr. Akshay Budhraja, Senior Consultant, Respiratory & Sleep Medicine, Aakash Healthcare Dwarka, told IANS.

"It is important to know that those who are vaccinated are not 100 per cent protected against the virus as our immunity begins to wane after six months... vaccinated people also have the probability of getting re-infected," he added.

Budhraja said the mass vaccination is protecting people against developing any severe complications - the reason why most people are only suffering from upper respiratory symptoms, not lower respiratory symptoms like Covid pneumonia, and hospitalisation is also low at the moment.

However, in some states including Delhi, and Maharashtra, there has been a marginal increase in Covid-related hospitalisation.

According to Dr Ankita Baidya, Consultant - Infectious Diseases, HCMCT Manipal Hospitals, Dwarka, "a smaller number of Covid patients are coming with lung" conditions.

However, Dr Neha Gupta, Consultant, Infectious Disease, Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurugram, said patients are presenting more severe symptoms than during the earlier Omicron wave in January.

"During this wave, we have seen patients having moderate-severe Covid-19 which is a little more in severity as compared to the Omicron variant," Gupta told IANS.

An analysis by the country's Covid genome sequencing facility Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) reports that Omicron BA.2 sub-variant was detected in over 83 per cent of the samples sequenced in May and June, media reports said.

While the percentage of BA.1, BA.3, BA.4 and BA.5 has been found in less than 10 per cent samples, Omicron and its sub-lineages have been the dominant circulating variant in India from January 2022. In May, the proportion of Omicron sublineages BA.2.12.2, BA.1.1.529, BA.3, BA.4, BA.5 increased, the report said.

So can we say that a fourth wave of Covid has hit India? This is not a fourth wave, said Budhraja, "but Covid spikes which may differ in timing in different parts of India. Fourth wave can only occur if there is presence of a new variant altogether, not just a different subvariant".

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry has directed officials to continue to focus on surveillance and whole genome sequencing to scan any possible mutations while stressing on adequate testing and effective monitoring to assess the spread of Covid-19 in a timely manner.

"Sequencing is a highly resource-heavy and time-consuming process. That being said, sequencing is essential to understand the direction in which the virus evolves. However, sequencing is not essential to diagnose or treat Covid 19. Hence resource allocation is better made towards vaccination, awareness and prevention and treatment," Dr Pavithra Venkatagopalan, Director, Covid Task Force, Awareness, Rotary Club of Madras Next Gen, told IANS.

She emphasised the need for "aggressive vaccination for everyone".

(Rachel V Thomas can be contacted at rachel.t@ians.in)

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Aizawl, June 24 : The Mizoram Police on Friday at a public function burnt various smuggled and seized drugs valued at Rs 2,362 crore in the international market, officials said.

A senior police officer said that ahead of the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on Sunday, a large-scale disposal of seized drugs was carried out using the incinerator at Trinity Hospital in Silaimual Melthum in Aizawl.

Over 934 kg drugs including 18.24 kg heroin, 753.04 kg highly addictive methamphetamine tablets, 87 kg pseudoephedrine were burnt in the presence of Mizoram Home Minister Pu Lalchamliana and Director General of Police Devesh Chandra Srivastava among others.

These drugs, after being smuggled from neighbouring Myanmar, were seized by various law enforcing agencies including Assam Rifles and Mizoram Police during the past few years.

The Home Minister urged Mizoram Police to continue and strengthen their efforts against the drug menace.

DGP Srivastva said that the fight against drugs is among the top priorities for Mizoram Police.

The police officer said that various law enforcing agencies during the current year seized various durgs smuggled from Myanmar valued at around Rs 173 crore.

"As part of the observance of the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, during this week, awareness campaigns on drug related topics have been conducted in 39 schools across all 11 districts of Mizoram. In addition to this, signature campaigns have also been conducted in schools and several other places," a government statement said.

Besides various illicit drugs, especially heroin, highly-addictive methamphetamine tablets, also commonly known as 'Yaba', poppy seeds, opium, ganja (marijuana), morphine, bottles of cough syrup valued at hundreds of crores, various other contraband like gold, foreign cigarette as well as arms and ammunition are often smuggled from Myanmar to the northeastern states, especially Mizoram and Manipur.
Kolkata, June 24 : The Calcutta High Court on Friday directed that a deprived petitioner in the case related to the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) recruitment scam be appointed in place of the daughter of a state minister, whose service was recently terminated following court order.

Recently, the Calcutta High Court had ordered termination of service of Ankita Adhikari, the daughter Minister of State for Education, Paresh Chandra Adhikari, as a higher secondary political science teacher in a state- run school, since she secured the job without qualifying in the merit list and without appearing for the personality test.

The single-judge bench of justice Avijit Gangopadhyay ordered the termination based on a petition by Babita Sarkar, who was deprived to make room for Ankita.

On Friday, justice Gangopadhyay ordered that Babita be appointed to the post vacated following Ankita's termination by June 30. At the same time, Gangopadhyay also ordered that the salary amount paid to Ankita during her 41-month tenure be also paid to Babita.

As per the order, the payment process on this count to Babita should be completed by July 10.

Earlier, Gangopadhyay had ordered Ankita to return the salary she drew during her 41 months of services to the court in two instalments. She has already paid the first instalment.

Incidentally, Babita's was ranked 20th in the merit list. However, later she came to know that Ankita was named in the 20th spot following which her own ranking was pushed to the 21st position.

Instead of accepting it as an irony of fate, Babita started a prolonged battle and finally on Friday the court order went in her favour.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is conducting an inquiry into the recruitment scam.

Ankita's father Paresh Chandra Adhikari and former Education Minister and Trinamool Congress Secretary General Partha Chatterjee have already been questioned by the CBI sleuths in this matter.
New Delhi, June 24 : The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to examine a plea filed by a man seeking a direction to exhume the body of his son, who was killed in an encounter in Sringar's Hyderpora in November 2021.

Senior advocate Anand Grover, representing Mohammad Latief Magry, submitted before a vacation bench of Justices C.T. Ravi Kumar and Sudhanshu Dhulia that a single judge bench of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court had allowed the exhumation of his son's body, however, a division bench of the high court stayed this direction.

Grover urged the bench to pass a direction to allow the authorities to hand over the body of Aamir Magry to the family for the last rites.

Four people, including Aamir Magry, were killed in the encounter on the outskirts of Srinagar on November 15 last year.

Insisting on an urgent listing of the plea, Grover further contended that the petitioner has supported the Army all through his life, and pressed for a direction to exhume the body to perform the last rites. After a brief hearing in the matter, the bench said it would hear the petition on June 27.

The plea, filed through advocate Nupur Kumar, said: "The Impugned Interim Order is in gross violation of Articles 21 and 25 of the Constitution of India, which uphold and protect right of the deceased to a decent burial by the next of kin following the religious ceremonies and practices." A division bench of the high court on June 3, stayed the single bench order for exhuming the body of Aamir Magry and handing it to his family for last rites.

"The Impugned Order without assigning any reasons has stayed the operation of the judgment dated 27.05.2022, by merely observing that 'the matter requires a final decision from this Court after hearing all the parties', without appreciating that delay of each day in execution of the judgment of the Ld. Single Judge is resulting in the body of the deceased decomposing," said the plea.

The single judge asked the authorities to make arrangements for exhuming the remains of the deceased from the Wadder Payeen graveyard in the presence of Latief Magrey.

"It was further directed that if the body is highly putrefied and is not in deliverable state or is likely to pose risk to public health and hygiene, the Petitioner and his close relatives shall be allowed to perform last rites as per their tradition and religious belief in the Wadder Payeen graveyard itself where the deceased is lying buried, and in that situation, the respondents shall pay the petitioner a compensation of Rs 5 lakh for deprivation of his right to have the dead body of his son and give him decent burial as per rites and customs," added the plea.

The authorities exhumed and returned the bodies of two more civilians, Altaf Ahmad Bhat and Dr Mudasir Gul, who were killed in the Hyderpora encounter, to the families following an outcry.
Bhopal, June 24 : The Speaker of Madhya Pradesh assembly, Girish Gautam, faced voters' ire in his own constituency amid the ongoing three-tier panchayat elections in the state.

The villagers in the Deotalab Assembly constituency in Rewa district accused Gautam of providing the benefits of government-run schemes only to his supporters, depriving the genuine beneficiaries.

A video has gone viral on social media, showing Gautam arguing with the villagers during campaigning for the panchayat polls.

Gautam was campaigning for his son Rahul Gautam, who is contesting the district panchayat elections.

In the 2018 Assembly elections, BJP nominee Gautam had won from Deotalab by defeating Seema Jaiveer Singh Sengar of the BSP by 45,043 votes.

Gautam was addressing a gathering to seek people's support for his son who's contesting the panchayat polls in his constituency. However, the villagers, including women, openly said that they will not vote for his son because only party workers are being benefited by government-run schemes.

One of the villagers alleged that BJP workers are being provided direct financial assistance instead of following the due process.

"Only selected people are getting the benefits of government-run schemes, because they are BJP supporters, depriving the genuine beneficiaries of such schemes," a villager was heard telling Gautam.

In reply, Gautam said that financial assistance has been provided only to the deserving people through the RTGS system.

Gautam said that he would resign from his post and quit politics if allegations of corruption levelled against his supporters are proved true.

"This is a false allegation and I know who is behind all this. If proved that my supporters did anything wrong, I will resign from the post of Speaker and quit politics," Gautam said.

Notably, Girish's son Rahul is contesting the panchayat elections under BJP's banner and is facing opposition from one of his own cousins, Padmesh Gautam, who is a Congress candidate.

Padmesh, who is a local Congress leader, was accused of a murder and was in jail nearly a decade back.

"In front of the temple of Lord Hanuman, I challenge you to prove your allegations. If they are found true, this village shouldn't cast a single vote in the coming district panchayat polls for us or for me in the coming Vidhan Sabha polls," Gautam said.
New Delhi, June 24 : A 25-member team of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) led by a DIG is conducting a surprise check along with vigilance officials of Lakshadweep administration in connection with corruption and irregularities in some departments of Lakshadweep administration related to the export of Tuna fish.

A CBI source said that Mohammed Faizal, a Member of Parliament from Lakshadweep and his nehpew Abdul Razak who owns a Colombo-based firm namely SRT General Merchant Import and Export, are on their radar.

The departments which are being raided are Lakshadweep Co-operative Marketing Federation (LCMF), Fisheries Department, Public Works Department, Khadi Board and Co-operative Society and Animal Husbandry Department.

"It was alleged that some public servants of LCMF, Department of Public Distribution, Lakshadweep Administration, in collusion with the public representatives and public servants caused loss to LCMF in the matter of export of Tuna fish to a Sri Lanka based company without following requisite tender process and other formalities," said the CBI source.

It was further alleged that the LCMF procured a huge amount of Tuna fish from local fishermen under MP Mohammed Faizal's influence.

The fish procured was exported by LCMF to a company based in neighbouring country which did not make payments to LCMF. It thus caused huge losses to LCMF.

Razak, the nephew of Faizal, under whose influence LCMF procured Tuna fish was later exported to Sri Lanka based firm in which he himself is a representative.

Some unknown public servants from Department of Fisheries, Lakshadweep Administration in connivance with others swindled huge amount of subsidy by illegally registering a large number of boats in the name of poor residents of the Lakshadweep island. These boats are being run with subsidised diesel meant for poor fishermen.

"A majority of beneficiaries of the houses being constructed by the Lakshadweep Building Development Board under the schemes meant for poor people are ineligible persons. In Khadi Board and Co-operative Society Lakshadweep, several local leaders are loan defaulters. There is an alleged scam of several crores of rupees in the Animal Husbandry Department, Lakshadweep in purchase of low quality medicines and poultry feeds," said the source.

Copies of relevant documents have been obtained, which are being scrutinised.

(Atul Krishan can be approached at atul.k@ians.in)
Vijayawada, June 24 : A NIA court here on Friday sent three accused in Peddabayalu CPI-Maoist recruitment case to judicial custody till July 8.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) produced Dongari Devendra, Subasi Swapana, and Chukka Shilpa in the court, a day after arresting them in Telangana.

The court sent them to judicial custody for two weeks and all three were later shifted to Rajahmundry jail.

The accused are facing the charges of allegedly motivating and recruiting a college student in the banned Communist Party of India-Maoist.

The NIA had arrested the accused after conducting searches at three places in Rangareddy and Secunderabad. They allegedly belong to Chaitanya Mahila Sangham (CMS), a frontal organisation of the CPI-Maoist.

According to the agency, incriminating material including digital devices was seized during the searches.

The NIA said based on the searches, it arrested three accused for their involvement in motivating and recruiting youth for the CPI-Maoist.

The case was initially registered on January 3, 2022 at Peddabayalu police station, Visakhapatnam. The NIA re-registered the case on June 3 and took over the investigation.

Chukka Shilpa is a practicing lawyer at the Telangana High Court and she was arrested after a search at her residence in Chilukanagar in Uppal area.

Visakhapatnam police had registered the case on a complaint by mother of nursing student Radha.

Radha went missing four years ago and her mother Pallepati Pochamma alleged that leaders of the CMS kidnapped her and forcibly recruited her into CPI-Maoist.
Baroda, June 24 : First day of school is indeed a special memory. And when a school makes this day special, it stays with the child and parents forever. A student's positive association with school is crucial to his/her learning, and encouraging children to go to school regularly helps check drop-out rates.

As if to drive home this point, the villagers of Chorpura under Savli taluka in Baroda district are giving regal horse rides to children entering school. This has become the talk of the town and as 'Shala Praveshotsav' has been going on throughout the state, many schools are trying out unique methods to attract children to school.

As part of the enrolment drive, children are brought to school on a decorated horse on the first day. District Primary Education Officer Archana Chaudhary has extended her appreciation for such innovation in school admission and applauded their enthusiasm.

Also, in keeping with the trend, a special selfie point for 'my first day at school' has been put up where children, teachers and parents click pictures. In this way, the villagers made the programme a memorable and enjoyable experience for everyone.

She said that schools are encouraged to organise different activities so that children come to school enthusiastically.

Arifbhai Pathan has been teaching in this small school in Chorpura since 2001. He agrees that schooling is the most important phase of a child's life. So, to make it memorable, he asked for a horse and welcomed five girls and three boys to the school in a royal fashion that they will always remember.

Sapnaben Babubhai Patel, co-principal of the school, said that most of the families in the village are from ordinary economic background, but they enthusiastically participate in every event of the school.

The annual cultural programme is organised for parents and they happily participate in its planning.
Gurugram, June 24 : A team of Gurugram police has nabbed four criminals for embezzling 899 bags of almond worth Rs 2 crore.

According to the police, on June 16, a complaint was filed by a man with the Bilaspur police station allegeing that a consignment of his company comprising 899 bags of almond was sent from Maharashtra to Delhi on June 12 which was supposed reach the national capital on June 14.

However, the vehicle carrying the bags didn't reach Delhi while the phone of the driver, Aabid, was also switched off. The GPS of the car was also turned off.

Subsequently, the police arrested Aabid from Alwar in Rajasthan while his associate Devender Sharma was arrested from near the Gurugram-Faridabad toll plaza on June 21.

During questioning, Aabid disclosed that he had handed over 450 sacks of almond to Devender and the remaining 429 sacks to his other associates, Kasam Khan and Sabid.

Based on the information provided by Aabid, the police arrested Kasam and Sabid from Bharatpur in Rajasthan on June 23.

"The police have recovered 879 sacks of almond so far. Aabid is on three-day police remand, while Devender has been sent to judicial custody. Kasam had served jail term in 2015 in a similar case," Preet Pal Sangwan, ACP (crime), said.
Srinagar, June 24 : Jammu and Kashmir Lt Governor Manoj Sinha, in a day-long tour on Friday, visited both the Baltal and Pahalgam routes of the Amarnath Yatra and reviewed the preparedness and response mechanism of all the stakeholder departments.

He also conducted on-site inspection of facilities on both travel routes and chaired review meetings at the base camps, to discuss lodging, health care, communication network, sanitation, water supply, weather forecasting, emergency response, fire safety, and all other basic necessities.

At Baltal, the Lt Governor inaugurated 70-bedded fully-equipped DRDO hospital for quality healthcare services to the Amarnath pilgrims.

The hospital, funded by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, will house facilities like x-ray, general ward, OPD, ICU, oxygenated ward, pharmacy, laboratory, and ultrasound.

"Better coordination among various agencies is of utmost importance for better facilities, seamless journey and spiritual experience for Yatris. All the departments involved in Yatra management should ensure the best possible facilities as a high number of devotees footfall is expected for the annual pilgrimage," the Lt Governor said.
Chennai, June 24 : Educationists in Tamil Nadu want vacant teacher's posts to be filled in schools run by Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department after students of Class 10 and 12 fared poorly in the recent board exams.

There are around 1,466 schools in the state that are being run by the Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department, and there have been demands to bring these schools under the state school education department following the poor performance of the students.

People from the Adi Dravidar community belong to the Seduled Caste category.

There are 95,103 students in Adi Dravidar Welfare schools and 28,263 in Tribal Welfare Residential schools.

In the Class 10 board exams, Adi Dravidar Welfare schools recorded a pass percentage of 78.11 while the Tribal Welfare schools recorded 78.37 per cent, while government schools had a pass percentage of 85.25.

Similarly, Adi Dravidar Welfare schools had a pass percentage of 82.21 in Class 12 board exams, while Tribal Welfare schools recorded a pass percentage of 86. The government schools fared better at 89 per cent in Class 12 board exams.

Social activists and voluntary organisations, which are working for tribal and Adi Dravida students, said that in many schools, there is an acute shortage of teachers and in some schools, headmasters or headmistresses are not posted once the incumbent teacher retires.

Saraswathi Hema, an educationist and activist who is working for tribal children, told IANS, "The reduced pass percentage of Adi Dravida Welfare schools and Tribal Welfare schools in the recent board exams is mainly due to the woeful shortage of teachers and in some instance, even the headmaster or headmistress' post remains vacant in such schools." She said that either these posts should be filled on a war-footing or the Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare schools be brought under the state school education department.

Saraswathi said a scientific system of transfers and postings should be applicable to these schools also.

Sources in the Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department told IANS that in Salem district alone, there are vacancies of two headmasters, 28 B.Ed teachers, four secondary school teachers and two post-graduate teachers in 19 tribal residential schools.

While activists and educationists are batting for bringing these schools under the state school education department, there are challenges ahead as several teachers are apprehensive to work in SC/ST schools. In some cases, these teachers simply refuse to work in SC/ST schools.

Presently, the posts of elementary school teachers in the Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare schools are entirely reserved for teachers from SC/ST communities.

It is learnt that Chief Minister M.K. Stalin will call a meeting of Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department officials, state school education department officials, educators and activists to bring out a solution to this issue and to improve the education of SC/ST students.
New Delhi, June 24 : The Supreme Court on Friday said it has never been an effort of the courts to make death penalty redundant and non-existent for all practical purposes.

A bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari, and C.T. Ravikumar said the rarest of rare doctrine and its accompanying principles, as enunciated and explained in Bachan Singh and Machhi Singh cases, have been almost uniformly applied by courts in the country while dealing with the question of sentencing when the statute provides for death penalty.

"Over the time, even the proposition of larger/longer term of actual imprisonment with no remission or curtailed remission has also evolved but, it has never been the effort of the courts to somehow make this punishment (sentence of death) redundant and non-existent for all practical purposes," it said.

The bench added that the quest for justice in such cases, with death sentences being awarded and maintained only in extreme cases, does not mean that the matter would be approached and examined in the manner that death sentence has been avoided, even if the matter indeed calls for such a punishment.

"The judicial process, in our view, would be compromising on its objectivity if the approach is to nullify the statutory provision carrying death sentence as an alternative punishment for major offences (like that of Section 302 IPC), even after it has passed muster of judicial scrutiny and has been held not unconstitutional," said the bench, in its 129-page judgment.

It noted that pursuit in collecting mitigating circumstances could also not be taken up with any notion or idea that somehow, some factor be found; or if not found, be deduced anyhow so that the sentence of death be forsaken. "Such an approach would be unrealistic, unwarranted and rather not upholding the rule of law." The bench noted that the jail conduct of the convict carries its own bearing and relevance in the overall consideration, and this court has leaned in favour of commuting the sentence of death to that of imprisonment for life in case of unblemished jail conduct, even if the crime itself had been of gruesome or abhorrent nature.

It added however, in the present case, the further shocking and disturbing factor is that even while in jail, the appellant's conduct has not been free from blemish, as he had been accused and convicted of the offence murder of a co-inmate in the jail, while associating with three other inmates.

"The tremors thrown by the appellant to shock anyone's conscience with his beastly conduct have not stopped even with this inhumane crime and even after his conviction," said the bench.

The observations came as the apex court confirmed the death sentence given to a man for the cold-blooded murder and brutal rape of a seven-and-a-half-year-old mentally and physically challenged girl. It upheld the Rajasthan High Court's May 29, 2015 order, which sentenced the convict to death.

The bench said: "In the case of the present nature, the crime had been of extreme depravity, which shocks the conscience, particularly looking to the target (a seven-and-a-half-year old mentally and physically challenged girl) and then, looking to the manner of committing murder, where the hapless victim's head was literally smashed, resulting in multiple injuries including fracture of frontal bone." The high court had said the brutal rape and murder mentally and physically challenged girl falls under the category of rarest of rare case, as it confirmed death penalty to the accused.

The top court said: "The sentences awarded to the appellant, including the death sentence for the offence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, are also confirmed". The accused had kidnapped, brutally raped, and murdered the girl on January 17, 2013.
Hyderabad, June 24 : Controversial filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma triggered another row with his tweet on NDA's Presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu, angering the BJP which lodged police complaints against him.

BJP leaders Gudur Narayana Reddy and T. Nandeshwar Goud lodged a complaint against Varma at Abids police station in Hyderabad even as the filmmaker clarified his remarks.

The BJP leaders alleged that Verma made derogatory remarks against Murmu, who is the candidate of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) for the next month's Presidential polls.

RGV, as the filmmaker is popularly known, had made the controversial tweet on June 22. It reads "If Draupadi is the President who are the Pandavas? And more importantly who are the Kauravas?" Police said they would take necessary action on the complaint after seeking legal opinion.

BJP's Andhra Pradesh unit chief Somu Veerraju also slammed RGV for his remarks and demanded strong action against him. He said the police should suo moto take note of RGV's tweet and book a case against him.

The BJP leader also said that the filmmaker should be sent to jail and a psychiatrist should examine him.

Meanwhile, RGV on Friday clarified his remarks. "This was said just in an earnest irony and not intended in any other way ..Draupadi in Mahabharata is my favourite character but Since the name is such a rarity I just remembered the associated characters and hence my expression. Not at all intended to hurt sentiments of anyone," he tweeted.

In another tweet, RGV slammed the politicians for pulling each other down. "When all politicians are so busy in back stabbing and pulling each other down , one wonders when they will have time and energy to look into people's problems which is their primary job," he wrote.
New Delhi, June 24 : A Delhi court on Friday took cognisance of offence against three accused persons who were allegedly part of a WhatsApp group that shared and uploaded child pornography.

They were charge-sheeted in 2019, after the German authorities informed the Indian probe agencies that they have convicted Sasche Treppke there, a member of the same online paedophile group.

The accused trio -- Zuhaib Ali from Delhi, Vinoth Kannan from Chennai, and Joydeep Roy from Howrah -- are among the seven Indians in the 29 WhatsApp groups comprising 483 users.

Though they were charge-sheeted in the case, the accused were not arrested for the crime.

"As per the averments in the charge sheet, the digital devices of the accused persons which were seized during the investigation were found containing child pornography contents," Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Anjani Mahajan noted.

The court further said perusal of the charge sheet and annexed documents reveal that the allegations against the accused persons and the material on record are prima facie sufficient to proceed with the case.

Accordingly, the court took cognizance of the offence, as per Section 190 of the CrPC. for offence under 67 B of IT Act (Punishment for abusing children online) and issued summons against the accused.
Bhubaneswar, June 24 : Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik took the stage at the World Food Programme (WFP) headquarters in Rome to share the transformational progress made by his state on strengthening livelihoods and food security with a specific focus on marginalised communities and women.

The Chief Minister is currently in Rome at the invitation of the WFP to visit its headquarters and share the state's transformational initiatives.

He delivered an address in the presence of WFP Executive Director David Beasley and the UN body's leadership team. He also held interactions on existing partnerships and programmes that the Odisha government and WFP in India are collaborating on, to deliver the common agenda of zero hunger.

In his address at the WHP, Patnaik said, over the last two decades, Odisha has been through a transformational journey in the field of food production, food security, livelihoods, disaster management, and so on.

By attaining food sufficiency, initiating large-scale development programmes designed around creating climate resilient livelihoods and nutrition, and focussing on partnerships, the state is moving consistently towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and inclusive development, he said.

"It would be our pleasure to share our experience across the world through WFP and its partner agencies," he added.

Welcoming the CM, Beasley said: "It is a pleasure to welcome the Chief Minister of Odisha and share our impressions on the innovative work the state is doing in partnership with WFP in India. Our joint goal of strengthening livelihoods and food security across Odisha is being translated into action with a series of ambitious projects to support inclusive development and new economic opportunities, especially for women.

"It's exciting to see how our collaboration is helping to drive Odisha's progress towards achieving Zero Hunger and the other UN Sustainable Development Goals." Recognising and appreciating the transformational work of the Odisha government in the fields of disaster management, food production and food security, Beasley said the success story of Odisha can provide learning insights for other similarly placed countries.

"We have discussed today that the government of Odisha and WFP will collaborate to take forward this learning experience and provide a global training platform," he added.

The Chief Minister also expressed appreciation for the partnership with WFP on several fronts that have not only been effective in the state but have also been scaled up nationally.

WFP and the Odisha government had signed four partnership agreements and initiated six new projects in 2021.
Toronto, June 24 : Two Sikhs were sworn as ministers in the new 30-member Cabinet of Ontario province in Canada on Friday.

Parm Gill, 48, who was Minister for Citizenship and Multiculturalism in the outgoing ministry, took oath as Minister for Red Tape Reduction.

Gill was re-elected from Milton on the outskirts of Toronto. His family comes from Punjab's Moga.

Prabhmeet Sarkaria, 31, who became the first turban-wearing Sikh Cabinet minister in Ontario four years ago and was President of the Treasury Board in the outgoing Cabinet, again took oath for the same post.

Sarkaria retained his seat from Brampton South. His family moved to Canada from Amritsar in the 1980s.

Nina Tangri, who was Associate Minister of Small Business and Red Tape Reduction, didn't find a place in the new ministry of Premier Doug Ford this time.

Six Punjabis were elected to the Ontario provincial parliament on June 2.

All the winners belonged to the ruling Progressive Conservative Party, which retained its majority by winning 83 seats in the 124-member provincial Assembly.
New York, June 24 : The US Senate passed the controversial Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (a legislation to restrict gun violence) by a majority of 65-33 votes that could go on to become the first gun control measure passed in three decades.

B0y Ashok Nilakantan New York, June 24 (IANS) The US Senate passed the controversial Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (a legislation to restrict gun violence) by a majority of 65-33 votes that could go on to become the first gun control measure passed in three decades.

The move came even as the Supreme Court had struck down a centuries old New York stage gun law, dealing a blow to the bipartisan committee and US President Joe Biden's major efforts to end meaningless violence in public through stricter laws on possessing and using guns.

The Bipartisan framework legislation or the gun control bill now heads to the House of Representatives, even as SCOTUS struck down the NY law that insisted on the cause to procure a weapon and special purpose to carry it concealed on a person while venturing to crowded places defined by law enforcement authorities as sensitive areas.

The Congress in the US is a bicameral legislature with 100 members in the Senate (which has now passed the Safer Communities Act by 65-33 votes) and 435 members in the House of Representatives. After the House of Representatives passes the bill, it will go to President Joe Biden for approval to become a law.

The House of Representatives goes for mid-term poll on November 8 for all the 435 seats, following the reapportionment of constituencies since the 2020 census which shows a pattern of some constituencies swelling in population due to migration and others sparse due to the same.

In a 65-33 vote, lawmakers passed the most consequential gun reform in nearly 30 years late on Thursday night. The vote came just hours after the Supreme Court expanded gun rights on Thursday.

Fifteen Republicans showed solidarity with all Democrats in the chamber to vote to ensure the bill was through in the house. It required only 14 Republicans to vote alongside the Democrats to pass the bill. As expected, Republican leader Mitch McConnell supported the final passage.

Republican Senators supporting the bill were: Richard Burr, Roy Blunt, Shelley Moore Capito, Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, John Cornyn, Joni Ernst, Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski, Rob Portman, Mitt Romney, Thom Tillis, Pat Toomey and Todd Young.

President Joe Biden reacted to the passage saying: "Tonight, after 28 years of inaction, bipartisan members of Congress came together to heed the call of families across the country and passed legislation to address the scourge of gun violence in our communities. Families in Texas and Buffalo -- and too many tragic shootings before -- have demanded action. And tonight, we acted." "This bipartisan legislation will help protect Americans. Kids in schools and communities will be safer because of it. The House of Representatives should promptly vote on this bipartisan bill and send it to my desk," Biden added.

Opposition to SC ruling striking down NY state gun law Taking exception to the SC ruling, Biden said it contradicts both common sense and the Constitution, and should deeply trouble all.

"In the wake of the horrific attacks in Buffalo and Uvalde, as well as the daily acts of gun violence that do not make national headlines, we must do more as a society -- not less -- to protect our fellow Americans," he said in a statement.

"I urge states to continue to enact and enforce common sense laws to make their citizens and communities safer from gun violence," he added.

"It is outrageous that at a moment of national reckoning on gun violence, the Supreme Court has recklessly struck down a New York law that limits those who can carry concealed weapons," NY Governor Kathy Hochul tweeted.

"In response to this ruling, we are closely reviewing our options -- including calling a special session of the legislature. Just as we swiftly passed nation-leading gun reform legislation, I will continue to do everything in my power to keep New Yorkers safe from gun violence," she added.

New York City's Democrat Mayor Eric Adams warned that the ruling would allow for more guns on the streets and put residents at risk.

"We have been preparing for this decision and will continue to do everything possible to work with our federal, state, and local partners to protect our city. Those efforts will include a comprehensive review of our approach to defining 'sensitive locations' where carrying a gun is banned, and reviewing our application process to ensure that only those who are fully qualified can obtain a carry license," he said in a statement.

"We will work together to mitigate the risks this decision will create once it is implemented, as we cannot allow New York to become the Wild West," he said ahead of a public press conference.

Mass shootings in the US have nearly tripled since 2013, according to official data available.

The US' leading news network ABC News talked to experts who examine America's history with guns, the real-life impacts of gun violence and what can be done going forward to mitigate the problem.

The House will need to pass the measure before it can be signed into law, and it could take up the bill as early as Friday, ABC news said.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat from California, promised to "swiftly" bring the gun safety package to the floor once it passes the Senate, "so that we can send it to President Biden's desk for approval".

The Senate had voted on Thursday to cut off debate on the bill, which was crafted amid a disturbing uptick in shootings across the US. The same 15 Republicans had sided with all 50 members of the Democrat caucus to clear the procedural hurdle.

Senate rules generally require 30 additional hours of debate after the cloture vote, but Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he wanted to get unanimous agreement to dismiss that requirement and hold a final vote on Thursday. On Wednesday, Republicans had encouraged members to vote against the gun safety package.

"The bill throws emergency supplemental federal spending at states to encourage implementation of red flag laws and dramatically increases funding for numerous other grant programs, but the bill's vague language contains insufficient guardrails to ensure that the money is actually going towards keeping guns out of the hands of criminals or preventing mass violence," Republican whip Steve Scalise's office wrote in a memo to Republican lawmakers, accessed by ABC News.

The Supreme Court said on Thursday that Americans have a right to carry guns in public in a major expansion of gun rights while overturning a centuries old legislation of the New York state.

Key aspects of the Bipartisan legislation include expanded federal background checks for buyers under the age of 21, financial incentives for states to pass "red flag" laws and other intervention programmes and closing the so-called "boyfriend loophole".

Both Schumer and Senate Minority Leader McConnell backed the legislation -- which was hammered out by a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the weeks after the tragic shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

"This bipartisan gun-safety legislation is progress and will save lives. While it is not everything we want, this legislation is urgently needed," Schumer had said earlier this week.

Even as the Senate passed the Safer Communities Act, public outrage had built up across the country from Washington to New York, key states which have strict gun laws on sale and purchase of guns and red flag laws that can help law enforcement authorities to confiscate weapons of destruction from people considered to be a danger to themselves and people at large.

The protesters lined up outside the Capitol Hill to protest the Supreme Court verdict that voted 6-3 with majority of them being conservatives who argued that no law should infringe on the 2nd amendment to the Constitution of 1791 which permitted citizens to carry weapons concealed on them to public places considered sensitive areas. Democrat politicians argued in futility that such laws could not be absolute even as SC held that the NY gun laws were too restrictive.

The House and Senate are to begin their two-week July 4 recess after Friday.

The Senate's passage of bipartisan gun law was a victory for Senator Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat from Arizona, who helped negotiate the bill.
Kolkata, June 24 : Rujira Narula Banerjee coming to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office on Thursday with her son in lap to face questioning in connection with the coal smuggling scam has taken the agency officials by surprise.

After Rujira, the wife of Trinamool Congress national General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee, was grilled for six hours with her two-and-a-half-year-old son Ayansh in her lap, two questions are haunting the officials of the central probe agency.

Was this action on her part just an attempt to draw public attention or sympathy? Or was it a well thought out plan to close all future possibilities of being summoned for questioning outside Kolkata.

According to ED sources, initially the agency had summoned Rujira for questioning in New Delhi. However, she challenged that in the Supreme Court, where her counsel argued that it will not be possible for her to stay away from her kid in the current situation. The apex court accepted that argument and directed the ED to question her in Kolkata.

"Was her appearance at the ED office on Thursday meant to prove her argument that her son cannot stay without her? It seems that to prove that point, she kept her son close to her through out the course of questioning," said an ED official, who did not wish to be named.

He added that on humanitarian ground, the interrogating officials on Thursday had to give breaks to Rujira at more frequent intervals than generally allowed during any normal interrogation, thus limiting the actual questioning time to an extent.

The ED officials are also not ruling out the possibility of Rujira making an attempt to draw public sympathy.
Kolkata, June 24 : Sudipta Sen, the promoter of chit fund entity Saradha Group that embezzled multiple crores of rupees through its multi-level marketing (MLM) schemes, alleged in a court on Friday that he was extorted a number of times by the current leader of opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, who was then associated with the Trinamool Congress.

On Friday, Sen was brought to the MP-MLA court in Salt Lake on the outskirts of Kolkata. While coming out of the court, he told mediapersons that he has informed the court in detail how he was extorted a number of times by Adhikari.

"I had gone to Contai to meet Adhikari for the purpose of land plan sanction where I was extorted. I have informed the court all the details," he said.

Soon after Sen's allegations went viral, Trinamool Congress spokesperson Kunal Ghosh and senior party legislator Tapas Roy called a press conference and demanded immediate arrest of Adhikari by the CBI sleuths probing chit fund scams in West Bengal.

"If the CBI claims to be unbiased, their officers should immediately take Adhikari into custody. Sudipta Sen had named Adhikari as an accused earlier also. But he (Adhikari) is still moving around freely," Roy said.

Ghosh said that Adhikari has joined the BJP to save himself from the clutches of the central agencies.

"Now the BJP is giving him political protection," Ghosh alleged.

Till this report was filed, there was no reaction from Adhikari on this count.

However, BJP spokesman Shamik Bhattacharya said that the matter is under investigation.

"Already some people have been behind the bars in this connection, and we know who they are," he said.

Bengal BJP President Sukanta Majumdar alleged that Sudipta Sen has named Adhikari under pressure from the Trinamool Congress and the police.
New Delhi, June 24 : The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday conducted searches at six locations in Punjab's Ferozepur, Fazilka, and Tarn Taran districts in connection with the Jalalabad IED blast case, an official said.

During the searches, digital devices (mobile phones, SIM cards, memory cards, DVRs), ammunition, and other incriminating documents/materials have been seized, the official said.

The case relates to an explosion that took place on a bike near Punjab National Bank, in Jalalabad city of Fazilka district.

According to the official, the investigation into the case has revealed that accused involved were in touch with Pakistan-based terrorists and smugglers and were recruited for executing the conspiracy for carrying out terrorist attacks.
Jaipur, June 24 : NDA's Presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu shares a strong spiritual bond with Rajasthan, as she has been a regular visitor to Mount Abu.

Coming from the Santhal tribal community in Odisha, Murmu has been through many struggles in her life. In just six years between 2009 and 2015, Murmu lost her husband, two sons, mother and brother.

According to reports, during that time Murmu became a keen practitioner of meditation techniques of Brahma Kumaris, a movement she took to after her personal losses.

It was around 13 years ago when she first connected with the Brahma Kumari Sansthan in Mount Abu. Over time, her relationship with this institution strengthened and she learnt Raja Yoga to relieve stress. In fact, she has been part of many programmes of the institute.

In 2009, she came here for the first time and learnt Raja Yoga. Since then she has been in regular touch with the institute.

She had visited the Brahma Kumari Sansthan twice when she was the Governor of Jharkhand.

On February 8, 2020, she had participated in the Value Education Festival here.

The members of the institute are happy about Murmu being named the Presidential candidate of NDA. B.K. Mrityunjay, the executive secretary of the Brahma Kumari Sansthan, had called and congratulated her after her nomination.

Pratibha Patil, who became the first woman President of the country, had also visited the Brahma Kumari Sansthan before becoming the President.
Leeds, June 25 : Jonny Bairstow and Jamie Overton shared a scintillating unbeaten 209-run partnership to rescue England from a precarious 55/6 on the second day of the third and final Test here on Friday.

Bairstow was batting on 130 while Overton was unbeaten on 89 as England reached 264/6 at stumps on Day 2.

New Zealand pacer Trent Boult rattled England with three early wickets and Neil Wagner claimed two as England got off to a disastrous start replying to New Zealand's first innings total of 329.

With England, 2-0 up in the series but reeling on 55/6 in reply to the tourists' 329, Bairstow and Overton combined to produce a hugely entertaining partnership and leave the third Test very match in the balance after two days.

It was Bairstow who led the charge for England, scoring at a-run-a-ball or better for much of his outstanding knock of 130* - a tenth Test century and his fourth already in what has been a brilliant 2022 to date for the 32-year-old.

And at the other end, the debutant Overton looked every inch the all-rounder that England had heralded him as being when naming him in Test XI for the first time. The Surrey man ended play 11 runs short of a Test century on debut, and will resume on 89* with England 65 runs behind on 264/6 after just 49 overs, said a report on the ICC website.

A memorable day began with New Zealand adding 104 runs to their overnight score, with the in-form Daryl Mitchell (109) leading the charge.

Mitchell brought up his century to continue a fine individual series with the bat for the Kiwi and was ably supported by a quickfire 33 from Tim Southee to help the score past 300. Jack Leach removed both batters and picked up the final scalp of Neil Wagner to secure a five-wicket haul and finish with figures of 5/100.

However, Trent Boult rattled the England top order to raise New Zealand's hopes. The brilliant Boult ripped through England's top order, dismissing Alex Lees (4), Ollie Pope (5) and Zak Crawley (6), all bowled, to put the home side in huge trouble.

When Tim Southee had Joe Root caught behind for just five runs it looked like England were heading for a huge first-innings deficit.

And things didn't get much better after tea when an extraordinarily-attacking 13-ball 18 from Ben Stokes came to an end when he charged Wagner and chipped a catch to Kane Williamson, with Ben Foakes departing for a duck just three balls later.

At 55/6 and with the first of England's specialist bowlers at the crease it looked as if even the follow-on might have been an option for New Zealand on day two.

But Bairstow and Overton had other ideas and put the hosts in a position from which they can think of taking the first innings lead.

Brief scores: New Zealand 329 all out in 117.3 overs (Daryl Mitchell 109, Tom Blundell 55; Jack Leach 5/100, Stuart Broad 3/62) v England 264/6 in 40 overs (Jonny Bairstow 130 not out, Jamie Overton 89 not out; Trent boult 3/73, Neil Wagner 2/53).
Patna, June 25 : The Bihar government has thrown open to the public a four-lane JP Ganga expressway on Friday. The road connects Digha on the west side to Gandhi Maidan on central Patna covering a distance of 7.5 km all along the Ganga river.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has inaugurated his most ambitious road project -- JP Ganga expressway. This road will decongest the heavily congested Ashok Rajpath. Road Construction Minister Nitin Navin was also present with Bihar Chief Minister during the inauguration.

Besides the JP Ganga e-way, Nitish Kumar also inaugurated phase 2 of Atal path and a railway over-bridge in Mithapur locality.

"JP Ganga e-way is based on Mumbai's Marine drive. It was a highly ambitious project that was completed by the Bihar government and it will benefit the residents of Patna. The Mithapur railway over-bridge was a demand of residents for the last 19 years and it is also completed now. The idea is to make Patna a smart city and it is possible only when the road communication gets smooth and hassle free," Navin said.

After the inauguration of JP Ganga e-way, commuters can reach from Digha to Gandhi Maidan in just 5 minutes.

Earlier, the commuters used to take 30 to 45 minutes to reach from Digha to Gandhi Maidan through Ashok Rajpath.

The JP Ganga e-way will also provide easy road connectivity to residents of localities adjoining Rajapur and Bakipur.

The total length of JP Ganga e-way is 21 km from Digha to Didarganj in Patna at the estimated cost of Rs 3,381 crore.

The first phase from Digha to Gandhi Maidan was inaugurated on Friday, and the construction on the rest of the phase is underway.

The proposal of this project came up in 2011 and the foundation stone foundation was laid in 2013.
New Delhi, June 25 : A notorious criminal Mohammed Azmal a.k.a. Pahadi was arrested by the Special Cell of Delhi Police following an encounter here on Friday evening, an official said.

A senior police officer said Pahadi was wanted in a case of extortion in Nazibabad, Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh, and was absconding in a case of firing on the Special Cell personnel.

"We had received a tip-off that accused Pahadi would come on a bike from Pul Prahladpur side and go towards Sarita Vihar metro station between 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.," the official said.

Subsequently, the Special Cell laid a trap and at about 5.50 p.m. a bike-borne Pahadi was signalled to stop but he took out a pistol and opened fire on the police party.

The police also retaliated and Pahadi sustained injury on leg.

"He was overpowered and rushed to a local hospital," the official said.

Pahadi was previously found to be involved in many criminal cases including that of murder, attempt to murder, extortion, threatening, assault, hurt, trespass, theft, conspiracy, arms act etc. in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh during the last 10 years.
Srinagar, June 25 : The 43-day-long Amarnath Yatra to the 3,880-metre-high holy cave shrine of Amarnath nestled in Himalayas is set to commence on June 30 from two routes - the traditional 48-km Nunwan route in south Kashmir's Pahalgam and the 14-km shorter Baltal route in central Kashmir's Ganderbal.

The Jammu and Kashmir government is expecting nearly eight lakh pilgrims to arrive this year as the pilgrimage remained suspended for two years due to the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic.

The annual pilgrimage has been a part of pluralistic ethos of Kashmir for the past hundreds of years. According to folklore, the cave was discovered by a shepherd named Buta Malik, who was a Muslim, in 1850. He had been grazing his cattle in the mountain when a Sufi saint gave him a bag of coal, which turned out to be gold later. He went back to thank the saint but found the cave and the Shiva Linga. Another story states that it was Bhrigu Muni who discovered the Amarnath Shrine.

The length of the Amarnath cave (inward depth) is 19 meters and the width is 16 meters. This cave is spread over an area of approximately 150 feet and is about 11 meters high. The significance of this cave was not only by the creation of natural Shivalinga but also here Lord Shiva told the story of immortality to Goddess Parvathi. Therefore, it is believed that Lord Shiva remains in the Amarnath cave. The holy cave shrine houses a natural lingam made up of snow. The lingam waxes and wanes with the lunar cycle and its considered as a miracle of nature and the power of Lord Shiva. The cave also has two more ice lingams, each one representing Goddess Parvati and Lord Ganesha. The Shivalinga made of ice in the cave is about 10-12 feet high and is the symbol of people's faith and trust.

'Muslims Part And Parcel' Kashmiri Muslims have been a part and parcel of Amarnath Yatra for the past hundreds of years. They have been facilitating the holy pilgrimage by ferrying pilgrims to the cave shrine on ponies, providing them with tents and other logistic support.

After the Pakistan sponsored insurgency broke out in the Himalayan region in early 1990s terrorists made many attempts to disrupt the yatra by targeting the pilgrims but they were always given a befitting reply by the devotees, who despite facing threats and intimidations arrived in Kashmir in large numbers to pay obeisance at the holy cave. From 1990 to 2017, Amarnath pilgrims were attacked by the Pakistan sponsored terrorists on 36 occasions. In these terror attacks as many as 53 pilgrims were killed.

Terrorists have not succeeded in keeping locals away from the pilgrimage. Kashmir Muslims have never shied away from providing their services to pilgrims to make yatrasuccessful.

Amarnath Yatra is an auspicious pilgrimage for Hindus but it's managed by Muslims in Kashmir. It's the Muslims who make it possible for Hindus from across the country to reach the holy cave shrine situated in the lap of Himalayas. When the track to holy cave shrine had not been developed locals used to ferry pilgrims to the holy cave shrine in palanquins. Even today the senior citizens and others who cannot travel on ponies are carried by the locals in palanquins.

Kashmiri Muslims are strongly connected with Amarnath Yatra. The pilgrimage is an age old example of Kashmiri's strong composite and inclusive culture. The strong bond of local people with the annual pilgrimage describes the Kashmiri way of life, their ethos and culture. Positive feelings like love and affection. Amarnath Yatra is probably the only pilgrimage in the world which binds Hindus and Muslims so strongly. Devotees are Hindus and organisers are Muslims. The pilgrimage reflects the core human values of the gentle and peace-loving people of Kashmir and their resolve to accept every religion and culture.

Kashmir's culture is based on love, compassion, common identity, and submission to God regardless of caste and financial position.

Locals associated with yatra every year wait for the pilgrimage to commence as it provides them with a chance to earn their livelihood.

'Mega Event' This year's Amarnath Yatra is significant in many ways. It's expected to be a mega event.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has chaired three high level meetings in the recent past to ensure that no security breach takes place and the pilgrims don't face any problems. The government has decided to insure every pilgrim for Rs.5 lakh and give all of them unique Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags. Earlier RFIDs were given to vehicles only. The RIFD tagging of vehicles will be done at Lakhanpur while individual tagging will be done at Jammu.

Incase of heavy rush or stoppage of Yatra due to any reason more than 32 lodgement centres having capacity of 15000 people have been set up. Nearly 20 to 22 langar facilities including 12 at Bhagwati Nagar and other at different locations of Jammu district have been put in place. Similarly, Kathua has 31 lodgementcentres having capacity of more than thousand people, Samba has 22 lodgement centres with 8000 people capacity, Udhampur has 36 lodgement centres with 9000 persons capacity and Ramban has 13 lodgementcentres having capacity of 8000 people for accommodation.

The Centre has deployed additional 15000 paramilitary men along the pilgrimage route from Lakhanpur to holy cave shrine. The entire route will be monitored by drones.

Elaborate arrangements have been put in place. Tented cities have been created and Wi-Fi hotspots have been set up along the yatra route. Eight base hospitals have been set up on the Baltal route while 20 have been put in place on the Pahalgam route. Shri Amarnath Shrine Board has also installed free-of-cost battery car service for pilgrims on the 2.75 km-long Baltal-Domel stretch. The government has also made arrangements for online, live telecasts of the morning and evening Aartiat the holy Amarnath Cave, besides organisingreligious and cultural programs at the base camp.

For the first time in pilgrims can directly fly to from Srinagar to Panchtarni, which is the last drop off point, about 6 km from the shrine. As of now, helicopter services were available for the pilgrims from Baltal and Pahalgam to Panchtarni . Pilgrims either walk or ride a pony to the Amarnath shrine from this point. Both Baltal and Pahalgam are about 90 km from Srinagar. This year, a new route is being added - from Budgam (near the Srinagar airport) to Panchtarni.

The National Disaster Response Force and the State Disaster Response Force have undergone specialisedtraining to be a part of the Mountain Rescue Teams of J&K Police. The checkpoint functioning has been enhanced and traffic control has been given special impetus so it does not interfere with general public's convenience.

With just a few days left for Amarnath Yatra to commence people in Jammu and Kashmir are waiting eagerly for pilgrims to arrive. Their arrival will add to the number of tourists visiting J&K as the pilgrims after performing darshan at the holy cave usually stay back as tourists, which gives boost to the economy.
New Delhi, June 25 : Years after denying his presence and even claiming he was dead, Pakistan has reportedly arrested Sajid Mir, a top Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative involved in directing the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

Mir, involved in November 2008 siege -- when a team of 10 men carried out coordinated attacks on multiple targets in Mumbai, has been sought by both the US and India for over a decade. As many as 170 people of various nationalities -- including six Americans were killed in the terror attack.

The case appears to have been brought to a head by Pakistan's desire to extricate itself from the Financial Action Task Force's international terror-financing watchlist, Nikkei Asia reported.

Hammad Azhar, Pakistan's former finance minister in the recently ousted government of Prime Minister Imran Khan, and the man in charge of negotiations with the multilateral watchdog for the past three years, told the media outlet that Pakistan took measures against Mir and other designated terrorists that were "satisfactory" to the FATF.

The task force has been keeping Pakistan on its Grey List, used to monitor and isolate noncompliant countries.
The 16th Annual Electric Aircraft Symposium features leaders of top electric aviation companies and government organizations. The electric-powered aircraft industry is gaining momentum with investments topping $10B in the past five years. EAS provides an opportunity to get comprehensive updates on the state of the industry and hear from the industrys leading thought leaders.

More than 40 of the worlds leading electric aircraft developers and technology experts will be speaking at the 16th Annual Electric Aircraft Symposium (EAS), hosted by the Vertical Flight Society (VFS). The event will once again be held in person and online in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, on July 23-24, 2022  the weekend prior to the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) AirVenture 2022.

EAS is the worlds longest-running electric aviation technology meeting. After two years of virtual-only programing, EAS returns with a hybrid event at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh campus (at the Culver Family Welcome Center) and online.

The electric-powered aircraft industry is gaining momentum with investments topping $10B in the past five years. EAS provides an opportunity to get comprehensive updates on the state of the industry and hear from the industrys leading thought leaders, said Mike Hirschberg, VFS Executive Director.

The program will run from 8:00 am to 5:30 pm CDT on Saturday and Sunday with seven sessions a day. Each moderated panel session will include a Q&A discussion with presenters and attendees  a hallmark of the annual Electric Aircraft Symposium.

The development of innovative battery-electric, hybrid-electric and hydrogen-electric propulsion systems coupled with electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL), electric short takeoff and landing (eSTOL) and electric conventional takeoff and landing (eCTOL) aircraft designs promises to significantly reduce air transportation costs and enable new advanced air mobility (AAM) markets, while helping the aviation industry achieve its ambitious sustainability goals.

Many of the companies now on the forefront of the electric aviation revolution made their public debut at the Electric Aircraft Symposium or the VFS Electric VTOL Symposium, which has been held annually since 2014.

In 2007, the CAFE Foundation organized the worlds first Electric Aircraft Symposium to address emerging interest in electric propulsion, along with energy and climate issues. These meetings helped create the growing industry you see today, added long-time EAS organizer Yolanka Wulff, Executive Director of the Community Air Mobility Initiative (CAMI).

The Vertical Flight Society began sponsoring EAS in 2018 because we recognized the vertical and horizonal takeoff and landing aircraft communities could benefit tremendously from each other, added Hirschberg. For example, distributed electric propulsion (DEP) is a common element in most of these revolutionary electric-powered aircraft designs, and they face similar technology and certification challenges.

The cost of the two-day symposium is $175 for on-site or virtual attendees. There is also a special virtual-only option for VFS student members of only $25. Details on the agenda, registration and sponsorships are posted at: http://www.vtol.org/eas.

This years EAS will present more than 40 experts from industry, academia and government, participating in 14 in-depth panel discussions covering the full spectrum of topics including electric aircraft configurations, propulsion systems, community integration, demand forecasting, autonomy, vertiports, noise, urban operations, training, AAM competitions, cargo, hydrogen propulsion, certification, regional air mobility and defense/public services.

Participating companies and organizations include AeroTEC, AFWERX, Airflow.aero, ACI Airport Council International, Ampaire, Arup, AutoFlightX, Autonodyne, Beta Technologies, Bristow, Bye Aerospace, Black & Veatch, CAMI, Crown Consulting, Diamond Aircraft, EASA, Electra.aero, Elroy Air, Eviation, EVE Air Mobility, Hartzell, Honeywell, International Vehicle Research, Joby Aviation, Lilium, Ohio UAS Center, National Aeronautic Association (NAA), NEXA Advisors, Pipistrel/Textron eAviation, Rolls-Royce Electrical, Skyports, Supernal, Swanson Aviation Consultancy, UC Berkeley, Urban Movement Labs, Wisk, Whisper Aero, Volocopter, Xwing and ZeroAvia.

About the Electric Aircraft Symposium

CAFE Foundation hosted the first electric aircraft symposium in North America in 2007. In 2011, the Foundation managed NASAs Green Flight Challenge, funded by Google. This $1.35M prize was awarded to Pipistrel USA for its winning 4-seat, electric-powered aircraft, the Taurus G4, which flew nearly 200 miles (322 km) non-stop, while achieving 403.5 passenger-MPG (171.5 passenger-km/l). Its astounding efficiency was more than twice that of the piston-powered aircraft in the competition.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, VFS provided virtual hosting of the 14th and 15th EAS events in 2020 and 2021. VFS is now the Symposiums primary organizer and sponsor.

About the Vertical Flight Society

The Vertical Flight Society is the worlds premier vertical flight technical society. Since it was founded as the American Helicopter Society in 1943, the Society has been a major force in the advancement of vertical flight. VFS is the global resource for information on vertical flight technology. For nearly 80 years, it has provided global leadership for scientific, technical, educational and legislative initiatives that advance the state of the art of vertical flight.

VFS hosted the worlds first electric VTOL technical meeting in 2014, launched the worlds first eVTOL eNewsletter in 2016, worlds first dedicated eVTOL website in 2017, the worlds first eVTOL short course in 2018, and North Americas first hydrogen aviation symposium in March 2022.

The Vertical Flight Society

2700 Prosperity Ave, Suite 275, Fairfax, VA 22031 USA

+1-703-684-6777 | staff@vtol.org | http://www.vtol.org | http://www.eVTOL.news
"Our partnership with Classworks leveraged CASE to create a customized summer school curriculum addressing district-defined targeted standards in a learning path scaffolded for understanding."

Classworks, provider of a best-in-class MTSS solution, and Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS), the nations 13th largest school district, were recognized with the 2022 Platinum Medal Learning Impact Award by 1EdTech Consortium, the worlds leading non-profit collaborative advancing educational technology and digital learning.

Institutional leaders and public voters selected from 34 finalists to honor innovative projects that successfully impact and elevate learning experiences. The platinum award-winning project features the partnership between Classworks and GCPS to deliver a successful online summer learning program, powered by 1EdTechs Competency and Academic Standards Exchange (CASE) framework.

The project mitigated learning loss precipitated by COVID and effectively prepared students for the 2021-2022 school year. GCPS decided to launch a districtwide, online Summer Enrichment and Acceleration (SEA) program using the Classworks evidence-based instructional program. GCPS utilizes district-specific Academic Knowledge and Skills (AKS) standards in reading, language arts, and mathematics as part of its curriculum. The summer learning program required Classworks to align its standards-based learning progression to the GCPS AKS.

As a district with our unique curriculum standards, the CASE framework allows us to more easily align content and resources from our partners with our standards so that teachers and students have the exact resources to match their instructional needs, said Tricia Kennedy, executive director of instructional development and support for Gwinnett County Public Schools in Georgia. Our partnership with Classworks leveraged CASE to create a customized summer school curriculum addressing district-defined targeted standards in a learning path scaffolded for understanding.

The CASE framework simplifies the way systems manage learning standards information, making it easier for districts to provide standards-based learning experiences. Using CASE, Classworks instruction was quickly aligned to the GCPS-specific AKS, saving hours of manual work. The effort ensured that students had access to summer lessons that both reviewed focus standards from the prior year and prepared them for the upcoming year in a research-based learning progression.

By replacing a manual and labor-intensive mapping project that typically takes weeks with a CASE-powered process, Classworks provided more than 180,000 students at Gwinnett County Public Schools with a high-quality, standards-based learning experience in just a few days, explains Jerry Henley, senior vice president of product experience for Classworks. Classworks embraces 1EdTechs philosophy on interoperability, and were proud to partner with forward-thinking and innovative districts like GCPS. Our success demonstrates why we are a best-in-class online intervention solution.

Learn more about the Classworks and GCPS summer learning project here.
Alsace Rocks We are thrilled to bring Alsace Rocks to Los Angeles - an exciting and dynamic market. Its a pleasure to support Alsaces local trade partners and to see such a positive response from the LA wine community, commented Foulques Aulagnon, Alsace Wine Board (CIVA).

The third edition of Alsace Rocks, a trade, media and consumer campaign developed by Wines of Alsace USA in tandem with Teuwen Communications, is taking place in Los Angeles this June and July. The campaign kicked off earlier this month with trade and media tastings at Gjelina Restaurant in Venice and L & E Oyster Bar in Silver Lake.

Co-hosted by sommelier and Alsace ambassador Matthew Kaner, the two-day tasting event featured more than 80 wines from 22 different producers, with pairings to showcase the wines food-friendliness. Day one highlighted the three Pinots of Alsace (Gris, Blanc & Noir), with creative pizzas pairings by Gjelina, while day two focused on Riesling and Gewurztraminer, with oyster and seafood pairings by L & E. Attendees also had the opportunity to sample Cremant dAlsace Brut and Rose at both tastings.

I am so proud to be a part of Alsace Rocks, shared Matthew Kaner. Alsace produces wines that are not only delicious and very high-quality, but also incredibly versatile, and easily paired with all kinds of cuisine. He continued, Its a real pleasure to showcase these wines and help educate trade and media on this tiny but mighty wine region of France.

The Alsace Rocks LA program continues through July 14th, with in-store consumer wine tastings and promotions throughout the metro area. Tastings will include educational materials to support consumers understanding of the Alsace region.

We are thrilled to bring Alsace Rocks to Los Angeles, commented Foulques Aulagnon, Export Marketing Manager of the Alsace Wine Board/Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins dAlsace (CIVA). This is an exciting and dynamic market with a lot of opportunity for growth. We are so pleased to support our local trade partners and to see such a positive response from members of the trade and media.

Wines by the following renowned Alsace producers were featured at the trade and media tastings: Albert Boxler, Allimant Laugner, Barmes-Buecher, Cave de Ribeauville, Charles Frey, Gustave Lorentz, Hubert Meyer, Hugel, Jean-Baptiste Adam, Jean-Marc Bernhard, Kirrenbourg, Kuentz-Bas, Leon Beyer, Lucien Albrecht, Melanie Pfister, Pierre Sparr, Ruhlmann Schutz, Schlumberger, Trimbach, Meyer-Fonne, Ostertag, and Zind-Humbrecht.

The Alsace Rocks LA program is part of a national campaign with targeted media relations, strategic influencer partnerships, promotions with wine.com this summer and fall, and a trade partnership with SevenFifty/Provi later this year.

To view the Alsace Rocks tasting schedule at participating retail locations in Los Angeles, visit https://www.alsacerocks.com. Stay up-to-date by following Wines of Alsace USA on Instagram (@drinkalsace), Facebook (@WinesofAlsaceUSA) and Twitter (@drinkalsace).

PRESS CONTACTS:

USA

Teuwen Communications

Beth Cotenoff | beth@teuwen.com

Kaila Raymond | kaila@teuwen.com

212.244.0622

ALSACE

CIVA - Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins dAlsace

Foulques Aulagnon

f.aulagnon@civa.fr

About Alsace Wines

Located in northeastern France, Alsace is nestled between the Vosges Mountains and the Rhine River. On the Vosges foothills, vineyards are planted on 13 soil types. Alsace grows seven main varieties including dry Riesling, earthy Pinot Gris, refreshing Pinot Blanc, exuberant Gewurztraminer, elegant Pinot Noir, and more. From traditional-method sparklers and rich, late harvest wines to easy-drinking AOC Alsace and complex Grand Cru bottlings, Alsace makes it all.

About Teuwen Communications

Teuwen Communications is an award-winning food, wine, and spirits public relations and marketing agency with insight and influence. A collaborative and creative team, authentic industry connections, and personalized approach to each client produces strategic, integrated programs across multiple touchpoints, with powerful results.

SOURCE Wines of Alsace
"We are excited to have Joe join the leadership team due to his extensive business experience, his passion for creating ESOP millionaires, and his ability to relate to ESOP clients since his business became an ESOP," says Aaron Juckett, ESOP Partners President and Founder.

ESOP Partners is pleased to announce that Joseph Joe Fonti has joined the team of employee-owners in the role of Managing Director.

As a member of the senior leadership team, Joe will focus on executing on the strategic goals of the organization. He is responsible for overseeing the daily operations. He will work on enhancing the already strong employee and client experience. He is working as an integrator of ideas to enhance organizational efficiency, promote ESOPs to the business community, to help facilitate the growth of the ESOP communications and ownership culture development services and to provide advice to existing clients on methods to enhance enterprise value.

Joe is an experienced executive leader and owner of several businesses. He is a licensed attorney and has served as the chief operating officer of a 15-location furniture company with nearly 600 employees. His furniture company became an ESOP in 2018 and ESOP Partners has provided to his furniture business administrative services, educational and cultural training and repurchase obligation analysis. ESOPs are his passion and he joined ESOP Partners because it is a best-in-class ESOP provider and because he is committed to creating ESOP millionaires at ESOP Partners and at existing and future ESOP clients.

About ESOP Partners

ESOP Partners is an ESOP service provider that changes lives by creating wealth and sustainable employment through employee ownership and works with business owners and companies to determine if an ESOP is a good fit for their situation. ESOP Partners establishes, maintains, and sustains employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) throughout the lifecycle to maximize the benefits of being an ESOP company and provide employees with an ownership stake in the company that they work for.

About ESOPs

ESOP stands for Employee Stock Ownership Plan and is a qualified retirement plan, similar to a 401(k) plan, that can be used as a business transition tool and as an employee ownership vehicle to provide employees with an ownership stake in the company. The ESOP buys, holds and sells company stock, providing employees with a retirement plan benefit and an additional form of compensation. In almost all ESOPs the benefit is funded 100% by the company, providing an ownership stake at no cost to the employee.

The total number of ESOPs in the country is about 6,400 representing 14.1 million participants and total plan assets of $1.5 trillion dollars.

Studies have demonstrated that ESOP companies outperform their non-ESOP counterparts. A recent study demonstrated that employee-owned companies are 235% better at job retention than their non-ESOP counterparts (Source: NCEO).
The audiobook of the successful memoir has been revamped featuring Dean Cain. This book is such a great collection of life lessons about strength, overcoming obstacles and never giving up. If I had read it when I was young, I would certainly have been more disciplined in my approach to things. ~ Dean Cain

Successful Nevada businessman Ron Courys Las Vegas memoir, Tenacity: A Vegas Businessman Survives Brooklyn, the Marines, Corruption and Cancer to Achieve the American Dream, released in 2019, has been revamped into a new audiobook narrated by actor Dean Cain, best known for playing Superman in the mid-1990s Lois and Clark hit series. The Hollywood star brings a fitting sense of charisma and drama to a story packed with do-or-die scenarios.

Cain praised the book, which has recently taken the No. 1 spot on Amazons best seller list in business ethics.

This book is such a great collection of life lessons about strength, overcoming obstacles and never giving up, he said. If I had read it when I was young, I would certainly have been more disciplined in my approach to things.

With nearly 50 years of entrepreneurial experience, Coury has faced and overcome every challenge imaginable  death threats, bribery, corruption and even a deadly cancer. In this new audiobook, listeners can hear Cain narrate the values that enabled Coury to survive and thrive.

A recurring theme of Tenacity is Courys refusal to accept failure as an option, an attitude that goes back to his early days. After growing up in Brooklyn, New York, Coury joined the U.S. Marines in the early 1970s. He left for Las Vegas at the end of his active-duty commitment to co-found taverns and casino businesses. His entrepreneurial passion then propelled him into numerous sectors, running companies dealing in hospitality, real estate, restaurants, graphics and automobile sales.

In one of the chapters, he recalls running a limousine company when competitors opened fire on one of his vehicles, riddling it with bullets. But instead of heeding this warning and closing down the business, Coury did the exact opposite  he faced the danger and set out to find who was responsible. Courys resilience was again tested as he later faced false accusations that could have resulted in a 50-year prison sentence. Coury remained true to his values and again refused to give in, despite receiving immense pressure to do so from a number of high-powered sources.

As Coury continued to gain success, his opponents grew in number and in influence. He navigated bribery offers and corrupt policymakers but steadfastly refused to compromise his integrity. If listeners take just one lesson from his new audiobook, he hopes it will be encouragement to always be true to yourself and to never abandon your principles.

Courys most formidable enemy has been esophageal cancer, which he was diagnosed with more than 15 years ago. The doctors said the survival rate was 8%. However, he once again beat the odds, enduring an intensive 11-hour surgery and ultimately defeating the illness.

He now spends much of his time giving back to the Southern Nevada community and is an active supporter of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, currently serving as a board member for its foundation.

See more details about Coury and Tenacity at his website, http://roncouryauthor.com/ .
Two Faces, Fire and Love: a potent argument for spiritual awareness and growth. Two Faces, Fire and Love is the creation of published author Antonio Restituyo, who was born in the Dominican Republic and later moved to the United States. He is a pastor by vocation and appointed by the Ministry Start Church. He is also a pastor of the church, Place of Prayer, and a biblical teacher at the Biblical Institute at New Dimension in Christ.

Restituyo shares, This book is the real life of many Christians around the world. This book talks about the two faces of love and fire that today are in many Christian people, and they cause the many people who see them to not want to go to church or be near Christian people. Many times the fault of having these two faces in the churches comes from the same church, from its priests, pastors, and leaders, oftentimes because of the bad image of Christianity created by the Christians themselves.

An incorrect image, an image different from the one that Christ wants. He wants an image of love that begins with you and flows toward others, not from others toward you. It is only this: love your neighbor as yourself. An image with only one face based on what Christ wants is what you will read in this book. Him sacrificing Himself and the value of His blood shed for our salvation is what I look forward to you seeing in this book.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Antonio Restituyos new book will resonate with many who have found themselves caught between what they know is true and what is taught in some cases.

Restituyo shares in hopes of aiding others to live and worship as God intended and to spread His love whenever possible.

Consumers can purchase Two Faces, Fire and Love at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about Two Faces, Fire and Love, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
Cheryl Keller, Founder of Brick Lane Real Estate At Brick Lane, our approach is rooted in our passion for real estate and desire to be a reassuring, long-term presence in our clients lives and our community

Brick Lane Real Estate today announced its partnership with Side, the only real estate technology company that exclusively partners with high-performing agents, teams, and independent brokerages to transform them into market-leading boutique brands and businesses. The alliance will ensure that Brick Lane Real Estate, a company that elevates the real estate experience by combining old-school service and modern tech, is powered by the industrys most advanced platform.

Brick Lane Real Estate was founded by Cheryl Keller, renowned as a top-producing, award-winning, community-driven Realtor. Keller is a Hall of Famer who has been decorated with numerous customer service accolades and the Lifetime Masters Club award in her two-decade career. In that time, she has facilitated more than $90 million in transactions  $5 million of which was in 2021 alone  and has secured a clientele comprising approximately 90% referrals. Brick Lane Real Estate, Kellers latest venture, expands upon her incomparable industry legacy of magnifying ethics in transactions to serve buyers and sellers throughout Placer, Sacramento, and El Dorado counties. Her husband, Robin Keller, who has supported her team for many years, has joined her as co-founder.

At Brick Lane, our approach is rooted in our passion for real estate and desire to be a reassuring, long-term presence in our clients lives and our community, Cheryl Keller said. Woven throughout our attentive, personalized service is the added assurance of a consistently positive and exciting experience.

Partnering with Side will ensure Brick Lane Real Estate remains on the cutting edge of the evolving real estate market while continuing to deliver premium services to its clients. Side works behind the scenes, supporting Brick Lane Real Estate with a one-of-a-kind brokerage platform that includes proprietary technology, transaction management, branding and marketing services, public relations, legal support, lead generation, vendor management, infrastructure solutions, and more. Additionally, Brick Lane Real Estate will join an exclusive group of Side partners, tapping into an expansive network from coast to coast.

Owning my own company is a dream come true after 22 years of working for a large brokerage, and Side made it easy, Keller said. With its state-of-the-art marketing, technology, administrative, and legal solutions, my team and I have an impressive array of tools and support at our disposal.

About Brick Lane Real Estate

Brick Lane Real Estate rejects averageness by elevating clients real estate experiences. Securing homes at the best price and selling them for top dollar, its agents deliver results with a fierce negotiation style and solutions-oriented nature that is almost intuitive. They also blend old-school care with advanced tech for optimal service that exceeds clients expectations on every level. Headquartered in Sacramento, Brick Lane Real Estate serves buyers and sellers throughout Placer, Sacramento, and El Dorado counties. For more information, visit http://www.bricklanerealestateca.com.

About Side

Side is a behind-the-scenes brokerage platform that exclusively partners with top-performing agents, teams, and independent brokerages to create and grow their own boutique brands without the cost, time, or risk of operating a brokerage. Sides proprietary technology platform and premier support solutions empower its agent partners to be more productive, grow their business, and focus on serving their clients. Side is headquartered in San Francisco. For more information, visit http://www.sideinc.com.
Authors and Chicago-based disaster restoration experts Sam Simon and his wife Nasutsa Mabwa celebrate the launch of their new book RESTORE." We want our readers to know that this book is written to help homeowners. Our business is rooted in our beginnings as social workers and our desire to help people, specifically homeowners.

A house is not only a home or dwelling but it is a real and valuable asset to protect at all costs.

Chicago-based disaster restoration experts and President and Managing Director of Restoration By Simons Nasutsa Mabwa and Sam Simon know this concept all too well as they helped homeowners deal with a variety of property damage situations. Compiling their expansive knowledge and expertise, the husband and wife duo wrote a new book called RESTORE: A complete guide to protecting your home as your most valuable asset from water and fire disasters.

Restoration By Simons is a minority business enterprise (MBE) and a woman business enterprise (WBE) certified firm and family-run company serving Chicago and the Chicagoland suburbs of Oak Park, River Forest, and the North Shore area.

Over the years, Nasutsa and I have fielded thousands of calls from customers searching for information on how to effectively clean and/or mitigate small water damages, remediate minor smoke/odor damages, and handle a wide variety of specialty cleaning, Simon said. We're happy to pass on as much information as we can. Sometimes, after we've explained to our information seekers, the process involved with cleaning and restoring, they opt to have it handled professionally. First and foremost, we feel that it is our duty to educate our consumers so that they understand the process and also to protect them from being taken advantage of by other companies.

The book gives readers useful information on preventing household disasters and insight into what is needed physically and mentally to restore a home, if they choose to tackle these situations on their own. Simon explained that some common restoration problems include ridding a household of smoke odor after a cooking mishap or cleaning up water after a dishwasher leak. Other instances include handling a sewer backup, discovering broken pipes, preventing holiday fires, and knowing how to properly use a fire extinguisher.

It was a long journey for the couple to get where they are today. They first met as social workers in the mid-1990s in Chicagos Wicker Park neighborhood. Mabwa later became an executive in commercial real estate and Simon worked in national television production. Both careers meant working long hours and they wanted to spend more time with their children. They thought about opening their own business.

When they were planning to open a restaurant, a meeting with a restoration franchise owner changed their plans forever. He explained to them his successes and happiness in his personal and professional life as a restoration owner. They became intrigued and that one meeting set them off to pursue a franchise of their own. Aiding them in this path were the communication skills they cultivated when they were social workers.

We want our readers to know that this book is written to help homeowners, Mabwa said. Our business is rooted in our beginnings as social workers and our desire to help people, specifically homeowners.

The book is available at Amazon.

About Restoration By Simons

As an Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IIRC) Certified Firm, Restoration By Simons follows IICRC S500 Standards for professional water damage restoration. Our IICRC certified technicians will assess the water damage on-site and determine the best course of action to restore your damaged property. For example, clean water damage from a faulty waterline pipe on your property is considerably different from water damage from a sewer backup. As leading experts in the field, we will quickly determine the best course of action so your family or business can get back to normal as soon as possible. Professional restoration companies such as Restoration By Simons have IICRC trained technicians, appropriate equipment and the experience necessary for a quick and efficient intervention.

Restoration By Simons MBE/WBE certified firm and family-run company serving Chicago, Oak Park, River Forest and the North Shore. Recently, the company was awarded a variety of honors, including is a SB100 Best of Small Business Award Winner 2021, Bronze Stevie Award in the Female Entrepreneur of the Year category in the 18th annual Stevie Awards for Women in Business, recipient of the 2020 Better Business Bureaus Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics, and recipient of the 2020 Skokie Business of the Year Award, Honorable Mention Category.

Restoration By Simons provides disaster restoration services including water and flood damage restoration, fire and smoke damage restoration, mold remediation and a wide range of interior specialty cleaning, including hoarder and clutter cleaning, post-construction cleaning, carpet cleaning and upholstery cleaning to residential and commercial customers residing in Chicago, Oak Park-River Forest and the North Shore.

For more information, visit http://www.restorationbysimons.com. ###
It is a dream come true to have Claire's Place Foundation travel all the way from California to participate in this year's Crossing, said Founder of Pipers Angels Foundation Travis Suit.

Claires Place Foundation, a non-profit organization providing support to children and families affected by cystic fibrosis (CF), is pleased to announce that they have a relay team competing in The Crossing for Cystic Fibrosis, a long-distance paddle challenge to help raise awareness and funding for CF.

On June 25, 2022 at midnight competitors will begin the 80-mile paddle board trek from Bimini Island in the Bahamas and land in Lake Worth Beach, Florida. Founder of Pipers Angels Foundation Travis Suit created the event as a way to gain exposure for those suffering from CF after his 4-year old daughter, Piper, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of CF in 2011. Travis and three friends took the journey paddling across the ocean for 16 hours in hopes to show that no matter what obstacles we face in life, we can always use the gift of choice to persevere.

It is a dream come true to have Claire's Place Foundation travel all the way from California to participate in this year's Crossing, said Founder of Pipers Angels Foundation Travis Suit. Claires Place Founder Claire Wineland was one of the most inspiring advocates the CF community has ever had, her passing at such a young age was devastating. The fact that her mom is carrying the torch of her legacy, and bringing such courage to come paddle in The Crossing is a testament to the strength and perseverance of our CF families.

Every fall and then getting back up on our boards has led to this day, said Claires Place Foundation Executive Director Melissa Yeager. The determination and dedication of our fellow crusaders to raise crucial funds for the CF community warms my heart. We continue to carry on my daughter Claires legacy of supporting the CF village through Claire's Place and incredible fundraisers such as The Crossing for CF. We are thrilled to be paddling!

Support the Claires Place team by making a donation here. Thank you to all of the Claire Crew sponsors: Ukonik, Everyday California, Topo Chico, Victory Koredry, AllianceRX/Walgreens Prime and Sharkbanz.

For Media:

Finish Line Location

Lake Worth Beach Pier

10 S Ocean Blvd.

Lake Worth, FL 33460

About Claires Place Foundation, Inc.

Claires Place Foundation, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization providing support to children and families affected by cystic fibrosis (CF). Claires Place Foundation is named in honor of Claire Wineland who lived with CF her entire life and died at the age of 21. Claire was an activist, author, TEDx Speaker, social media star and received numerous awards. Claires foundation was a way for her to assure that others living with CF enjoyed the same hope, strength and joy that she enjoyed. Recipient of Los Angeles Business Journals Small Nonprofit of the Year and Fundraiser of the Year for its annual Glow Ride, the foundation provides grants to families affected by CF, offering both emotional and financial support. Today, Claires Place Foundation continues to carry on Claires legacy. For more information and make a donation, please visit http://www.clairesplacefoundation.org.
My Shining Star: A Biography of Virginia M. Hoffman: a nostalgic discussion of a faith-driven life. My Shining Star: A Biography of Virginia M. Hoffman is the creation of published author Donald E. Hoffman, a loving father, grandfather, and great-grandfather who was born and raised in the greater Denver, Colorado area. Hoffman attended Central Junior College and High School in McPherson, Kansas, graduating from high school in 1955 and from junior college in 1957. He received his BA in Missions from Seattle Pacific University in 1961, followed by attending the Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri. He and his older brother, Howard, were ordained in July 1961 in the Free Methodist Church. Hoffman pastored four churches, all in Missouri, and was in Chillicothe for more than thirty years. He also served as a conference superintendent for five years. After retirement in 2003, he served as an assistant in the United Methodist Church for fourteen years.

Hoffman shares, Virginia and I accidentally ran into each other at the Christian school we were attending. As I glanced into her crystal-blue eyes, she captured my heart. She had a radiance that made her stand out from all the other girls. I had been praying the Lord would bring a lady into my life who would be a perfect mate. As our eyes met, I knew the Lord had answered my prayer. I just met my future wife.

I later learned she was orphaned by the age of seven. A grandmother took her to Florida. One brother, just thirteen, went to Oklahoma with their oldest brother. That did not work out, and Herb was taken in by the Cook family even though he was a total stranger. A year later, Virginia was permitted to join her brother Cliff, and Lois assumed full responsibility for the two siblings. Finally, seven years later, they adopted Herb and Virginia.

Never once did Virginia speak unkindly of the grandmother and everything that happened for all had been forgiven. I was not the easiest boy to date and thus, we had a rocky courtship. The Lord performed a transformation within that totally changed me. It was then she was able to tell me yes to my proposal ten months earlier. And our marriage was absolutely fantastic.

Virginia knew I wanted to write about her life, and she told me there was nothing special to tell. In reality there is a lot to tell. She walked closely with the Lord for decades and her life was one of Gods grace and unconditional love. That was true in every area of her life and ministry. The Cooks also demonstrated Gods love as they initially welcomed Herb and then Virginia into their home and lives.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Donald E. Hoffmans new book is a heartfelt tribute to the his loving wife of sixty-one years who passed away in 2020.

Hoffman offers readers a personal encounter with the love of his life within the pages of this thoughtful biographical work.

Consumers can purchase My Shining Star: A Biography of Virginia M. Hoffman at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about My Shining Star: A Biography of Virginia M. Hoffman, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
Beyond Academics: a helpful resource for educators and administrators. Beyond Academics is the creation of published author Dr. Sandra Jenkins Cook, a loving wife and mother who received her Master of Education degree from Penn State University and went on to Temple University to acquire her Secondary Principal Certification and her Vocational Administrative Director Certification. Desiring continued education in biblical study, Sandra acquired her Doctorate of Ministry degree from the Colorado Theological Seminary.

Dr. Cook shares, Could you use a handbook explaining every aspect of creating Christian vocational educational choices for students in your school or ministry? You will find this book an invaluable source of guidance to attain this goal.

Christian school leaders are encouraged to reassess traditional course offerings of solely academics to discover how vocational educational options can be offered to their students. This book will not only challenge Christian school administrators and ministry leaders to explore vocational career and technical training programs, but also guide them in all aspects of the addition and development of the programs, including academic and biblical integration.

Uniquely talented vocational students have been overlooked and abandoned in Christian education for far too long. The vocational educational field is white unto harvest!

Think about it: If access to discipleship had been limited to only the academically inclined, the fishermen, the tentmakers, and the carpenters would have been excluded!

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Dr. Sandra Jenkins Cooks new book is an articulate exploration of the need for Christian students to have access to vocational training.

Dr. Cook shares in hopes of encouraging academic leaders to expand the options available to students who historically do not have access to vocational training programs.

Consumers can purchase Beyond Academics at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about Beyond Academics, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
The grants offset the cost of installing solar panels and allow the libraries to reduce their electricity expenditures.

EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) will be awarding $300,000 in grants to four libraries looking to further their sustainability goals. John D. MacArthur Campus Library at Florida Atlantic University, Florida; Shirley M. Wright Memorial Library, Wisconsin; Lincoln Library, Vermont; and Alan Batey Library and Learning Commons at Camosun College, British Columbia, Canada, will each receive an EBSCO Solar Grant to pay for the installation of a solar array. The grants offset the cost of installing solar panels and allow the libraries to reduce their electricity expenditures.

The John D. MacArthur Campus Library at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in Jupiter, Florida has a green mission to promote sustainability through education, operations and community engagement. FAU Collection Development Librarian Dawn Frood says, By receiving the EBSCO Solar Grant, our library can contribute to the Universitys overall mission of collaborating with university and community partners to foster innovation by leveraging campus sustainability efforts while also including educational components for students, employees and the community.

The Shirley M. Wright Memorial Library in Trempealeau, Wisconsin, is a community-minded rural library located on the Mississippi River looking to model good stewardship of the Earth's resources and provide education on how to reduce our carbon footprint. Library Director Jessica Schoonover says, This solar grant provided by EBSCO will help the library purchase less power generated by fossil fuels, allowing our library to be financially and environmentally sustainable all while acting as a catalyst to inspire change in the community.

The Lincoln Library, located in the Green Mountains of Vermont, is one of more than fifty libraries across the U.S. to participate in the Sustainable Library Certification Program. Library Director Wendy McIntosh says, The Library is committed to becoming a better environmental steward in our close-knit, rural town, including looking at creative ways for achieving sustainable energy use. With the assistance of EBSCO and the EBSCO Solar Grant, the Lincoln Library will be able to put into place a solar array to produce the energy needed for a new, high-efficiency heat pump. McIntosh said, Like most community libraries, we operate on very tight budgets. We are thrilled to receive the EBSCO grant that will help us reach our goal of reducing our carbon footprint. Equally important is the ability to show our community (and other libraries) that energy sustainability is possible, even in a small town like Lincoln. I call that a win-win!

The Alan Batey Library and Learning Commons at Camosun College located in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada operates with environmental sustainability at the forefront of its operations, is committed to Indigenization and values sustainability as a strong corner post. Camosun College Sustainability Manager Shannon Craig says, Receiving the EBSCO Solar Grant allows our library to continue playing an important role in educating students and the community about renewable energy, inside and outside the classroom. We plan to offer a variety of education opportunities around solar power for students and the community, including an information kiosk to demonstrate real-time data from solar installations. This grant also provides us with an innovative step to address the Climate Emergency and reduce GHG emissions.

For more information on EBSCO Solar, visit http://www.ebsco.com/solar.

About EBSCO Information Services

EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) is the preeminent provider of online research content and search technologies serving academic, school and public libraries; healthcare and medical institutions; corporations; and government agencies around the world. From research, acquisition management, subscription services and discovery to clinical decision support and patient care, learning, and research and development, EBSCO provides institutions with access to content and resources to serve the information and workflow needs of their users and organizations. For more information, visit the EBSCO website at: http://www.ebsco.com.

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For more information, please contact:

Kathleen McEvoy

Vice President of Communications

kmcevoy@ebsco.com

978-414-0443
Clever provides school districts with a single portal for their digital learning tools, where students and teachers have seamless access, eliminating the need to remember unique usernames and passwords for each tool.

EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) is partnering with Clever, the most widely-used single sign-on (SSO) portal for schools in the United States. This partnership serves as a solution for schools looking to streamline access to their EBSCO resources for students and teachers.

Clever provides school districts with a single portal for their digital learning tools, where students and teachers have seamless access, eliminating the need to remember unique usernames and passwords for each tool.

With this agreement, schools using EBSCO Discovery ServiceTM, EBSCOhost, EBSCO Reference Centers, EBSCO eBooksTM, ExploraTM, Flipster and NoveList will have single sign-on access through the Clever platform. Schools can configure Clever to offer access to EBSCO resources for students at either the district or school level with their existing, school-issued login credentials. Schools will also have the option to enable MyEBSCO accounts for all users without exchange of personally identifiable information, to ensure the privacy needs for young researchers are met.

EBSCO Information Services, Senior Vice President of Product Management, Sara Earley says that schools nationwide offer EBSCO resources to students and teachers to enhance their curriculum and learning experience. This partnership with Clever will expand on our current offerings by improving student and staffs user experience with readily accessible, digital content via single sign-on technology.

Clever Chief Executive Officer Trish Sparks says that EBSCO is known for its variety of carefully curated digital learning resources designed for K-12 students. "Were thrilled to welcome EBSCO to the Clever platform and make these resources more accessible than ever to teachers and learners everywhere.

The full K-12 collection of digital resources from EBSCO will be available on the Clever platform in July 2022.

About Clever

Clever is on a mission to unlock new ways to learn for all students. Since 2012 our team has been driven by a belief that technology is a powerful lever to make learning more engaging, give teachers superpowers, and advance educational equity. Now, 60% of US K-12 students use Clever's single sign-on and secure portal for simplified access to a world of digital learning. Over 93,000 schools, including 97 of the top 100 U.S. school districts, and a network of leading application partners rely on the Clever API for speedy implementation and seamless student engagement. Clever, a Kahoot! company, has offices in San Francisco, California and Durham, North Carolina, and you can visit us anytime at clever.com.

About EBSCO Information Services

EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) is the preeminent provider of online research content and search technologies serving academic, school and public libraries; healthcare and medical institutions; corporations; and government agencies around the world. From research, acquisition management, subscription services and discovery to clinical decision support and patient care, learning, and research and development, EBSCO provides institutions with access to content and resources to serve the information and workflow needs of their users and organizations. For more information, visit the EBSCO website at: http://www.ebsco.com.

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For more information, please contact:

Celia Zampitella

Senior Communications Specialist

czampitella@ebsco.com

978-414-0443


Our partnership with Stord reflects our daily efforts to revolutionize the way technology drives logistics with big data strategy.- Coby Nilsson, Co-Founder & CEO, Enveyo

Enveyo, a leading Transportation Management System (TMS) and shipping optimization software provider, today announced Supply & Demand Chain Executive, the only publication covering the entire global supply chain, selected Enveyo as a recipient of the Top Supply Chain Projects Award for 2022.

The Top Supply Chain Projects (formerly known as SDCE 100) spotlights successful and innovative transformation projects that deliver bottom-line value to small, medium, and large enterprises across a range of supply chain functions.

Enveyo earned its second consecutive SDCE Top Supply Chain Projects Award for its implementation of cloud-based, parcel shipping analytics solution, Insights, for Cloud Supply Chain pioneer, Stord. Stord selected Enveyo Insights to enhance shipment program visibility for its growing customer segment of e-commerce shippers.

Through integration with Stords vast network of parcel carriers and internal business systems, Enveyo Insights powers a customer-facing, Stord-branded portal reporting on real-time, comprehensive parcel shipping data specific to each customers shipments, including:



Carrier time in transit

Cost per piece by carrier

Delivery exceptions

Service & accessorial charges

Time from ordered to delivered

Package status

and more

Additionally, the Enveyo Insights implementation enables the Stord team to streamline its customer billing management processes through dynamic business logic and automated invoice creation. This ensures that when published carrier rates shift, Stord customers remain confident in always receiving 3PL market-leading discounted rates off the carriers published list price.

Were honored that Supply & Demand Chain Executive selected Enveyo as a Top Supply Chain Project winner for the second year in a row, says Coby Nilsson, Enveyos co-founder and CEO. Our partnership with Stord reflects our daily efforts to revolutionize the way technology drives logistics with big data strategy. We congratulate our fellow Top Supply Chain Project winners on innovative solutions that continue to drive our industry forward.

The past 18 months have been a tumultuous time for U.S. supply chains, says Marina Mayer, Editor-in-Chief of Supply & Demand Chain Executive and Food Logistics. But the core reason today's supply chains haven't completely fallen apart is because solutions providers have been working diligently to partner with customers and clients to streamline processes, implement emerging technology and deliver results that improve bottom lines and the environment. For many of these collaborations, it's about achieving full visibility, complete forecasting, end-to-end leverage and the ultimate in sustainability.

To view the full list of 2022 Top Supply Chain Project winners, visit sdcexec.com.

Learn more about Enveyos partnership with Stord and go to enveyo.com to see how Enveyo is revolutionizing the way technology drives logistics.

About Enveyo

Enveyo is revolutionizing the way technology drives logistics. As the only multi-carrier parcel TMS provider enabling end-to-end supply chain visibility, organizations are optimizing their shipping operations with Enveyos cloud-based suite of solutions. Powered by a robust enterprise data management platform, Enveyo provides real-time access to meaningful reporting to increase efficiencies for customers across industries including retail, medical, aerospace, fulfillment & third-party logistics companies. To learn more about how Enveyo is revolutionizing logistics, visit enveyo.com.

About Supply & Demand Chain Executive

Supply & Demand Chain Executive is the only supply chain publication covering the entire global supply chain, focusing on trucking, warehousing, packaging, procurement, risk management, professional development and more. Supply & Demand Chain Executive and sister publication Food Logistics are also home to L.I.N.K. and L.I.N.K. Educate podcast channels, L.I.N.K. Live, SCN Summit, SupplyChainLearningCenter.com and more. Go to http://www.SDCExec.com to learn more.
Wynton Marsalis at Jimmy's Jazz & Blues Club "The dedicated team at Jimmy's is working hard to establish Jimmy's Jazz & Blues Club as one of the best jazz clubs in the world. Wynton's willingness to take the stage at Jimmy's allows us to take one more step towards realizing our vision and goal."

Jazz Music Visionary Wynton Marsalis Visits Jimmys Jazz & Blues Club on Saturday July 9 at 7:00 & 9:30 P.M. Wynton Marsalis is an NEA Jazz Master, 9x-GRAMMY Award-Winner & 32x-GRAMMY Award Nominated Trumpeter, Composer & Bandleader. In 1983, Marsalis earned the distinction of being the only artist ever to win GRAMMY Awards for both jazz and classical records, an accomplishment he astonishingly repeated in 1984, and he is the only artist ever to have won GRAMMY Awards in 5 consecutive years (1983-1987).

Wynton Marsalis has been described as the most outstanding jazz musician and trumpeter of his generation; one of the worlds top classical trumpeters; and a brilliant composer and bandleader. His life is a portrait of discipline, dedication, sacrifice, and creative accomplishment and has won 9 coveted GRAMMY Awards. In 1987, Wynton Marsalis co-founded a jazz program at Lincoln Center and under his leadership the program has developed an international agenda with up to 400 events annually in 15 countries. Wynton has produced over 60 albums and has sold over 7 million albums worldwide - including 3 Gold Albums.

There is a substantial amount of recognition for Wynton Marsalis groundbreaking accomplishments in jazz across the world. From the United States House of Representatives, he has received a citation for his outstanding contributions to the Arts and was appointed as a UN Messenger of Peace. In November 2005, he was awarded The National Medal of Arts, the highest award given to artists and arts patrons by the United States Government. Honorary degrees have been conferred upon Wynton by twenty-nine of our nations leading academic institutions including Columbia, Brown, Princeton and Yale University. Marsalis has been inducted into the American Academy of Achievement and was dubbed an Honorary Dreamer by the I Have a Dream Foundation. Time magazine selected Wynton as one of Americas most promising leaders under age 40 in 1995, and in 1996 Time Magazine celebrated Marsalis as one of Americas 25 Most Influential People. Marsalis was awarded the Grand Prix Du Disque of France, the Louis Armstrong Memorial Medal, the Netherlands Edison Award and the Algur H. Meadows Award for Excellence in the Arts (1997). Marsalis has received countless plaques and was given the Key to over 50 cities.

According to Marsalis, what you hear in a great jazz band is the sound of democracy, the jazz band works best when participation is shaped by intelligent communication. This intelligent, hard swinging interplay has made Marsalis bands the favorite among jazz musicians and audiences worldwide. Wynton Marsalis is always received warmly and enthusiastically wherever he is in the world. The connection is the music, which mimics our valued way of life.

"We are honored to have the remarkable Visionary Trumpeter, Composer & Bandleader Wynton Marsalis grace the stage at Jimmys Jazz & Blues Club for an unforgettable night of jazz music," says Suzanne Bresette, Managing Director of Programming at Jimmy's Jazz and Blues Club. "The dedicated team at Jimmy's is working hard to establish Jimmy's Jazz & Blues Club as one of the best jazz clubs in the world. Wynton's willingness to take the stage at Jimmy's allows us to take one more step towards realizing our vision and goal."

Tickets for NEA Jazz Master, 9x-GRAMMY Award-Winner & 32x-GRAMMY Nominated Trumpeter, Composer & Bandleader WYNTON MARSALIS on Saturday July 9 at 7:00 & 9:30 P.M. are available on the Jimmy's Jazz & Blues Club Wynton Marsalis Event Page. The 7:00 P.M. Show is SOLD OUT.

Jimmys Jazz & Blues Clubs 2022 Schedule of Shows currently includes 8 NEA Jazz Masters, 37 GRAMMY Award-Winning Artists, 35 Blues Music Award-Winners, and a comprehensive list of talented musicians with 500+ GRAMMY Award Nominations amongst them. Visit Jimmy's Online Event Calendar for Jimmys Jazz & Blues Clubs 2022 Schedule of Shows. Subscribe to Jimmys Email Newsletter to stay informed on new jazz and blues artist announcements, tickets, special offers, Jimmys Sunday Jazz Brunch, and much more.

ABOUT JIMMYS JAZZ & BLUES CLUB

The mission of Jimmys Jazz & Blues Club is to provide guests a one-of-a-kind, world-class experience featuring serious jazz and blues music served with exceptional southern-inspired cuisine. Jimmys Jazz & Blues Club features a spectacular and visually breathtaking environment engineered to deliver the highest quality acoustics while utilizing state-of-the-art production, sound and lighting technologies. Jimmys Jazz & Blues Club is located within a beautifully restored 1905 building at 135 Congress Street in the heart of historic downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire. For more information visit http://www.jimmysoncongress.com or follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/JimmysJazzBlues.

PRIVATE EVENTS AT JIMMY'S JAZZ & BLUES CLUB

An architecturally breathtaking center of arts and culture in the heart of historic Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Jimmys Jazz & Blues Club offers a rare and spectacular venue to host important corporate functions, weddings, intimate or large-scale social gatherings, private parties, and memorable celebrations. The team at Jimmys Jazz & Blues Club has put their heart and soul into creating a stunning full-service event space with new state-of-the-art production, sound & lighting technologies delivered with outstanding next-level culinary experiences. Our high-touch approach with professional and experienced event staff ensures that everything is tailored to exceed your expectations. To start a conversation about hosting your event at Jimmys Jazz and Blues Club, please call us at 888-603-5299, email us at events@jimmysoncongress.com, or fill out The Jimmy's Private Event Contact Form.
Homer: A Constant Companion: Book One: a true story of the connection between pets and their owners. Homer: A Constant Companion: Book One is the creation of published author Pamela Colerick, a loving wife, mother, and grandmother who has dedicated over twenty-eight years to serving in the nursing field as a Registered Nurse.

Colerick shares, This is number 1 in a series of childrens books about a pit bull American bulldog mix rescue dog named Homer. Homer was saved from an animal rescue in California by my son-in-law, Steve, twenty-four hours before being euthanized due to the vast number of dogs in shelters. Some of these dogs will never see the outside of a shelter since so many people want puppies or expensive breed dogs.

Homer is one of the lucky dogs, especially for a breed frowned upon. Hes here to tell you a different side of the story with the right leader of the pack in charge. I hope you enjoy this book and look forward to learning about the adventures of Homer and his friends in the future.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Pamela Colericks new book will tug at the heartstrings as readers reminisce on the special animals that have crossed their path over the years.

Colerick shares a sweet look into the life of her dearly departed son-in-law and the lasting impact he and Homer had on a close-knit family.

Consumers can purchase Homer: A Constant Companion: Book One at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about Homer: A Constant Companion: Book One, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
SteinLaw Celebrated Juneteenth by Supporting ACLU Our support of the ACLU demonstrates that SteinLaw is committed to ensuring civil liberties are available for communities of color, explained SteinLaw founder Brandon Stein.

Brandon Stein, owner and founder of SteinLaw, recently announced the firms donation to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The contribution coincided with Juneteenth celebrations across the United States that occurred June 19, 2022.

The non-profit, non-partisan ACLU was founded in 1920. Its overarching mission is to expand the reach of the United States Constitutions guarantees so that they are applied to all persons equally. The ACLU is frequently involved in history-making litigation to uphold individual freedoms for persons of color and others who have traditionally been denied equal protection and rights under U.S. law.

SteinLaw actively demonstrated its support for African-American history, culture and progress with this donation, and support of the ACLU complements the law firms goal of maximum recovery for clients. SteinLaw understands that recovery must include a level of personal satisfaction that goes far beyond financial compensation.

Our support of the ACLU demonstrates that SteinLaw is committed to ensuring civil liberties are available for communities of color, explained SteinLaw founder Brandon Stein. SteinLaw stands up for its clients, and that willingness to stand up for others extends to supporting social justice issues more broadly.

SteinLaws staff is comprised of individuals from diverse backgrounds who have direct experience with cultural, religious and racial differences in society. The contribution to the ACLU was the most recent of several donations demonstrating SteinLaws respect for impact lawsuits and similar efforts in the public interest of marginalized populations.

I believe that good representation, both now and in the future, makes a difference, Stein said. Juneteenth is a national holiday now, but it took 156 years. The perseverance of real people is what ultimately brought about the change, and SteinLaws central mission is to help real people, he continued.

The American Civil Liberties Union currently has more than 1.7 million members. More ACLU lawyers appear before the U.S. Supreme Court than any other private organization. The ACLU collaborates with 2,000 volunteer attorneys in all 50 states to represent clients whose rights have been violated.

Juneteenth, observed annually on June 19, officially became a national holiday in 2021. Juneteenth is considered by many to be the longest running African-American holiday, as June 19 is the anniversary date of the 1865 proclamation that freed enslaved people in Texas.

Federal offices, including the United States Postal Service, U.S. stock markets and schools were closed Monday, June 20 in observance of Juneteenth. According to a survey by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, around 30% of private employers made Juneteenth a paid holiday for employees in 2022, a number thats expected to grow in future years.

For more information about how the SteinLaw team can help, please visit their website.

More About SteinLaw

The SteinLaw Injury Lawyers focus on helping accident victims who have been injured or hurt by someone elses negligence or wrongful conduct. The firm helps victims and their loved ones across Florida and has offices located in Aventura, Ft. Myers, Miami, Tampa, West Palm Beach, Weston and Ft. Lauderdale.

For more information about SteinLaw, visit their website https://www.steinlaw.com/ or call (877) 783-4652.
Super Doctors Rising Stars Dermatology We are proud to have so many of our physicians honored by their peers. Their inclusion is a tribute to their clinical expertise, their dedication to providing exceptional care, and their collaboration with peers for the mutual benefit of their patients, said CEO Paul Singh.

Fourteen U.S. Dermatology Partners doctors are being recognized by their peers as Super Doctors Rising Stars in the July 2022 issue of Texas Monthly.

The selection process for Super Doctors is a rigorous one designed to identify physicians who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. Each year, Super Doctors asks doctors across the state to nominate colleagues (excluding themselves) who they would trust for their own medical care. The Super Doctors research team then investigates independently. Candidates are evaluated based on peer recognition, professional achievement, and disciplinary history. The highest-ranking nominated physicians are asked to serve on a selection panel, which helps to determine the final list of Super Doctors. The final list represents 5% of Texas physicians.

Doctors recognized as Rising Stars meet the same criteria as Super Doctors and have been actively practicing for 10 years or less. Only 2.5% of all active physicians are selected to the Rising Star list. The physicians being honored represent cities throughout the state of Texas.

We are proud to have so many of our physicians honored by their peers for their professional excellence and achievements via the Rising Star Award. Their inclusion in this prestigious list is a tribute to their clinical expertise, their dedication to providing exceptional care, and their collaboration with peers for the mutual benefit of their patients. said U.S. Dermatology Partners Chief Executive Officer Paul Singh.

Singh noted, Awards that utilize a rigorous selection process can be a valuable tool for patients who are evaluating their healthcare options. We are pleased to have our physicians included in such an important resource.

The complete list is published in the July 2022 issue of Texas Monthly.

U.S. Dermatology Partners Rising Stars 2022 Recognized for Dermatology

Sam Awan, MD  McKinney

Leon Chen, MD  Houston & Sugar Land

Kathryn Celeste Durham, MD  Fort Worth

Matthew Hoffman, MD  Longview

Miranda Uzoma Ewelukwa, MD  Sugar Land

Weilan Johnson, MD  Georgetown & Cedar Park

Leslie Scroggins Markle, MD  Tyler & Lindale

Michaela Overturf, MD  Nacogdoches

Lauren Snitzer, MD  Sugar Land

Valerie Truong, MD  Dallas, Plano, & Corsicana

Daniel Walker, MD  Grapevine & Keller

Gregory Walker, MD  Waco

Dustin Wilkes, DO  Weatherford & Granbury

John Jay Wofford, MD  Dallas & Plano

About U.S. Dermatology Partners

U.S. Dermatology Partners is one of the largest and most sought-after dermatology practices in the country, caring for more than 1.5 million patients each year. With over 90 locations across eight states that span large metroplexes and rural, underserved communities, they provide the benefits of private, personalized levels of care paired with a network of coordinated, specialized dermatology physicians. U.S. Dermatology Partners is fervently focused on providing the highest level of compassionate and comprehensive patient-first care, making it seamless for all people to connect with dermatologists and national leaders in areas such as clinical research, psoriasis, and Mohs surgery, and gain access to state-of-the-art dermatological treatments, surgical and cosmetic dermatology. To learn more, visit usdermatologypartners.com.


The 2022 American Library Association Annual Conference, the first in-person ALA annual conference since the pandemic forced the 2020 and 2021 meetings to go virtual only, officially opened today in Washington, D.C.

The main speaker program is set to kick off at 4 p.m. with FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, who will appear in conversation with ALA president Patty Wong. One of the most important federal policymakers when it comes to information access (and a staunch library supporter), Rosenworcel will offer insight into a host of key policy issues central to the work of libraries, including the fight for net neutrality and strategies to close the digital divide. An opening reception in the exhibit hall will immediately follow.

The conference is set to run through June 28, and will feature a slate of authors and speakers, as well as a number of author signings in the exhibit hall, and hundreds of educational sessions in a packed professional program with issues ranging from safety issues in libraries in the wake of Covid-19, to library and education funding, broadband expansion and digital access policies, e-books and digital access, and perhaps most concerning, the rise in book bans and educational gag orders in many states threatening the freedom to read.

Librarians, meanwhile, are arriving in the nations capital amid widespread protest. The Supreme Court on Friday morning released its long-anticipated decision overturning Roe v. Wade, eviscerating a womans right to choose and, legal observers say, potentially imperiling other rights such as access to contraception and marriage equality.

Its not the first time the Supreme Court has featured at an ALA Annual Conference. At the 2015 conference in San Francisco, many librarians took to the streets to celebrate the historic Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage. Furthermore, the ALAs keynote speaker in 2015 was Roberta Kaplan, who had two years to the day earlier argued the landmark Supreme Court case that saw the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) overturned, and her talk came at the start of Pride weekend in the Bay Area.

"It is all too easy in today's world of Twitter, of Instagram, of Fox News and MSNBC, to fall prey to a pervasive kind of cynicism. To assume that everything is part of some big, inside game and that cases don't get decided on the merits but for other less principled reasons. But I'd like to offer today's decision in Obergefell, and the 2013 decision in Windsor, as an antidote to that kind of cynicism, Kaplan told librarians in 2015, reflecting the optimism of the day.

Suffice it to say, many librarians in Washington D.C. for the 2022 ALA Annual Conference will likely be taking to the streets again.

Highlights

Among the 2022 ALA Conference highlights:

Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist and author Maria Hinojosa will open the main speaker program (Saturday, June 25, 910 a.m.) Hinojosa is the author of Once I Was You, a memoir that shares her experience growing up Mexican American on the South Side of Chicago. S&S will publish a young readers edition of Once I Was You in August.

Korean American actor and author John Cho also appears Saturday (June 25, 11 a.m.noon). Chos recently published novel, Troublemaker, follows the events of the 1992 L.A. riots through the eyes of 12-year-old Korean American Jordan.

ALA executive director Tracie D. Hall will moderate a discussion entitled Defending the Fifth Freedom: Protecting the Right to Read for Incarcerated Individuals (Saturday, June 25, 12:15 p.m.).

Grammy-winning comedian, actor, producer, and author Tiffany Haddish will take the stage (Saturday, June 25, 2:303:30 p.m.). Haddish recently published her first childrens book, Layla, the Last Black Unicorn.

Bestselling author, short story writer, television producer, and screenwriter R.L. Stine will close Saturdays main speaker program (Saturday, June 25, 45 p.m.). Stines forthcoming book Stinetinglers, a collection of 10 new stories, is due in August from Macmillan.

The main speaker program continues on Sunday with bestselling author Celeste Ng in conversation with Americas librarian Nancy Pearl (Sunday, June 26, 910 a.m.).

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman will speak Sunday (June 26, 11 a.m.noon). Eastman will discuss his forthcoming book, due out in July, The Last Ronin (IDW), a collaboration with Laird and Tom Waltz that follows a lone-surviving mutant turtle in a dystopian New York City.

In a late addition to the program, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden will take the stage to discuss the role of libraries and librarians in the age of misinformation (Sunday, June 26, 1-2 p.m.).

The ALA Presidents Program will close Sundays main program (June 26, 3:305:30 p.m.) with ALA president Patty Wong hosting a panel of authors, including Malinda Lo, the National Book Awardwinning, bestselling author of Last Night at the Telegraph Club; Jane Park, a senior content strategist for Google Kids & Families; Linda Sue Park, the bestselling author of numerous books, including most recently The One Thing Youd Save, a collection of linked poems; Philip Lee, cofounder of Lee & Low books and founder of Readers to Eaters, a program that promotes food literacy through stories about our diverse food cultures; and Christina Soontornvat, the author of more than a dozen books for children of all ages, including her most recent novel, The Last Mapmaker.

And on Tuesday, June 28, the closing general session will feature author, speaker, and podcast host Luvvie Ajayi Jones in conversation with Nicole A. Cooke, Augusta Baker Endowed Chair and an associate professor at the School of Library and Information Science at the University of South Carolina. Jones will discuss her new book, Rising Troublemaker: A Fear-Fighter Manual for Teens, which was published in May.

Virtual Programs, Exhibits, and More

Having now hosted a number of successful virtual conferences since the start of the pandemic, organizers understand how powerful the online format can be for expanding member participation in ALA conferences. And the 2022 ALA Annual Conference will feature a robust virtual component, dubbed the Digital Experience, for those who cant be there in person.

The Digital Experience will feature simulcasts of the main stage speakers, dozens of education sessions, and some high-profile, virtual-only speakers. Sessions will also be archived for later viewing.

ALA conference organizers say they are excited for the return of a bustling show floor featuring hundreds of exhibitors. The hall will be open through Tuesday morning.

And finally, check the conference website for a host of available tours and ticketed events, including the return of the reception honoring the winners of the ALAs adult book award, the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Fiction and Nonfiction (Saturday, June 25, 810 p.m., at the Marriott Marquis).

The reception will feature this years winners Tom Lin, author of The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu, and Hanif Abdurraqib, author of A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance, as well as Maryland congressman Jamie Raskin as keynote speaker. As always, check the online program for any last-minute changes.
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The trial is ultimately designed to enable Elisa to offer ultra-high-performing, low-latency 5G services that will enhance experiences for users. These are expected to be fully deployed in 2023. Once deployed, the service will be deployed to create new opportunities for at-venue data services, such as real-time multi-user 8K ultra-high-definition video streaming and augmented reality content for smartphones or wearable devices for immersive experiences.The new live uplink demonstration that reached a milestone 5G uplink speed of 2.1Gbps took place at the Nokia Arena in Tampere, Finland based on Nokias AirScale base station running over Elisas commercial 5G network in the 26GHz mmWave spectrum. The network was connected to a 5G device powered by a S napdragon X65 5G Modem-RF System featuring fourth-generation Qualcomm QTM545 mmWave antenna modules . Nokia also deployed its Carrier Aggregation technology to make the best use of the available spectrum assets with the setup including four component carriers of 100MHz.The Nokia Arena is one of the first stadiums equipped with 5G mmWave. Uplink capabilities are important for new applications using edge computing, such as media broadcasting or high-definition streaming from the venue. Visitors to the Arena will also be able to watch live performances from 360 camera locations via virtual reality headsets from the comfort of their seats.Nokia says broadcasters will also benefit from enhanced video capture to support ultra-high-quality live reporting and content delivered to mobile devices and televisions. At the same time, 5G technology will support optimising venue operations and critical functions such as security.5G mmWave stands out as an optimal solution for venues like stadiums, where large capacity and ultra-high data speeds are needed over a short distance for thousands of mobile users at the same time, commented Ari Kynaslahti, head of technology and strategy at Nokia Mobile Networks. Carrier Aggregation is the key to fully leveraging spectrum assets in different frequency bands. We look forward to seeing visitors enjoy innovative 5G experiences at the Nokia Arena soon.Elisa is leading in the development of 5G services in Finland and this is yet another important step in our efforts to bring the fastest speeds and best 5G experiences to our customers, added Sami Komulainen, executive vice-president, production at Elisa. We previously announced reaching 8Gbps downlink speeds with Nokia and Qualcomm Technologies and now we have pushed the possibilities of 5G technology even further with this new trial reaching over 2Gbps uplink speeds. This will deliver incredible and enhanced services to visitors at the Nokia Arena.
Apple TV+ has announced it ordered an eight-episode adaptation of Edith Wharton's unfinished final novel, The Buccaneers, starring Alisha Boe and Kristine Froseth.

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The cast for the as-yet-untitled series, which is currently filming in Scotland, will also include Josie Totah, Aubri Ibrag, Imogen Waterhouse and Mia Threapleton.

The project is being written by Katherine Jakeways and will be directed by Susanna White.

"Girls with money, men with power. New money, old secrets. A group of fun-loving young American girls explode into the tightly corseted London season of the 1870s, kicking off an Anglo-American culture clash as the land of the stiff upper lip is infiltrated by a refreshing disregard for centuries of tradition," the streaming service said in a synopsis Thursday.

"Sent to secure husbands and titles, the buccaneers' hearts are set on much more than that, and saying 'I do' is just the beginning."

No debut date has been announced yet.
Spider-Man: Far From Home actress Angourie Rice plays an ambitious teen who will do anything to get a guidance counselor's recommendation to college, even if it means pretending to romance a low-key academic rival played by Stranger Things actor Gaten Matarazzo, in the new trailer for Honor Society.

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"Honor is an ambitious high school senior whose sole focus is getting into an Ivy League college...assuming she can first score the coveted recommendation from her guidance counselor, Mr. Calvin," said a synopsis accompanying Thursday's 2 1/2 minute preview for the movie.

"Willing to do whatever it takes, Honor concocts a Machiavellian-like plan to take down her top three student competitors, until things take a turn when she unexpectedly falls for her biggest competition, Michael."

The rom-com will make its streaming debut July 29 on Paramount+
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 06/23/2022



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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

eliminated Virginia Crouse and James Thomas and determined Season 17's Top 10 dancers during the performance show Wednesday night on Fox.Virginia Crouse, a 21-year-old contemporary dancer from Hammond, LA, and James Thomas , a 26-year-old hip-hop dancer from Chicago, IL, were sent home by judges Stephen "tWitch" Boss, Leah Remini and JoJo Siwa after the pair had fallen into the bottom-four dancers based on an in-studio audience vote.The other two dancers who landed in the bottom four also happened to be a duo: Jordan Betscher, a 24-year-old jazz dancer from Cincinnati, OH, and Waverly Fredericks, a 21-year-old contemporary dancer from New York, NY.At the end of the Top 12 performance show, tWitch revealed the judges had decided to save Jordan and Waverly and advance them in the competition."Okay, well, we were unanimous with one person and split on another," tWitch announced when revealing the judges' verdict. "And honestly, this is not easy to do at all."TWitch then asked Jordan to step forward, and the judge told her, "For whatever reason, you are not connecting with this audience. You're going to have to work on your presence."TWitch also asked Waverly to step forward, and the judge explained, "I'm going to say the same for you too, man. This competition has its grueling moments, but you have to have a fighter attitude about you, right?"He added on behalf of the judging panel, "This week, we are saving you two."Wednesday night's performance show featured six duos performing in the female's preferred style.Virginia, who had also been in jeopardy of going home last week, and James therefore took the stage with a contemporary routine to "Eight" by Sleeping At Last.The number marked James' first time ever doing a contemporary dance in his career, and tWitch and Leah both advised him to attack the moves more, just like when he does a bone-breaking routine. Leah also said she wanted to see a little more fight from Virginia rather than just vulnerability.JoJo admitted how she thought James had failed to "connect with the story" and she felt like she was watching Virginia do a solo the whole time.As for Jordan and Waverly, they danced a jazz number to "Can't Buy Me Love" by Michael Buble The Top 10 finalists who will dance again next week on include Anna Miller, an 18-year-old contemporary dancer from San Ramon, CA; Ralyn Johnson, an 18-year-old contemporary dancer from Walker, LA; Essence Wilmington, a 20-year-old hip-hop dancer from Davenport, IA; and Alexis Warr, a 22-year-old Latin/ballroom dancer from Orem, UT.The Top 10 is also comprised of Keaton Kermode, a 20-year-old contemporary dancer from Fairland, IN; Thiago Pacheco, an 18-year-old contemporary dancer from Miami, FL; Beau Harmon, a 23-year-old specialty dancer from Kennesaw, GA; and Carter Williams, a 20-year-old Latin/ballroom dancer from Sandy, UT.is hosted by Cat Deeley Leah stepped in as a judge beginning with the Top 12 performances this season after actor and former Glee star Matthew Morrison was fired from the show due to an incident involving one of the female contestants.
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 06/24/2022



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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

alum Katie Thurston and John Hersey have reunited less than a week after announcing their split Katie, 31, and John, 28, enjoyed a sunset visit to the San Diego County Fair on Thursday along with several of their mutual friends, including The Bachelor alum Tammy Ly Katie posted a video of herself on the swings with Tammy on Instagram and captioned it, "I dedicate this summer to myself."John also documented the fun outing and reposted a clip of Katie on a ride.The group crammed themselves into a photo booth for a series of playful pictures and also munched on corn dogs and other carnival snacks.Katie and John's hangout comes only a couple of days after the San Diego-based bartender defended his ex-girlfriend on social media.Shortly after Katie and John announced their breakup Monday via Instagram Stories without revealing any details on what led to the demise of the relationship, a troll wrote on the @BachelorWhatever Instagram account, "I feel like Katie is the reason she can't get a guy."John responded in the comments, "You will speak a finite number of words throughout your life. I urge you to speak more kindly, especially about someone you don't know.""I have never been so supported or unconditionally loved by a partner," he added. "Assuming and implying that Katie is doing something wrong does not sit right with me. The internet can be a mean place -- let's not add to it."When Katie announced she and John had called it quits, she simply wrote on Instagram Stories, "Statement: no we aren't together."And John shared in a post of his own, "I love being able to share special moments with you all -- the funny ones. The happy ones. The outrageous, embarrassing, and heartfelt ones. But I don't know if it will ever get easier to share the sad ones.""As Katie stated earlier, we are no longer dating. This decision was not made lightly, and it was obviously not an easy one to make," he continued."I appreciate every one of you that has supported us throughout this journey. We could not (and would not) be here without you."Katie and John's breakup appears to have happened very recently as John had posted an Instagram video of Katie walking their cats together on June 2. She was all smiles in the video and seemed happy.Katie and John met in early 2021 while filming the show, but they didn't go Instagram official with their relationship until late November 2021.Katie unveiled John as her boyfriend late last year by posting footage of John on Instagram Stories set to Taylor Swift 's "Begin Again," a song about falling in love all over again.The John dedication served as the conclusion of Katie's "12 Days of Messy" challenge in which she had been tasked with matching every song on Taylor's re-released "Red" album to one of her Season 17 bachelors.The former bank marketing manager and John revealed in April 2022 that they were living together at Katie's apartment in San Diego, and they gushed on the "Off the Vine with Kaitlyn Bristowe " podcast that same month how they were madly in love.Katie and John had also purchased a van together so they could travel across the country and visit different cities together.Katie, however, said of possibly getting engaged at the time, "Look, the last thing I need right now is any kind of engagement. I am very, very content with where I'm at in my relationship with John."Katie had said she didn't "feel pressure at all" for John to pop the question."I don't think there's pressure. But I definitely think people ask it a lot," Katie told Kaitlyn about a John engagement."Because they are so used to a very quick engagement. So in their minds, they're like, 'So when are you guys getting engaged?' But in the normal world when you aren't on a dating show, it's not normal to ask that after just a few months."John previously admitted his nerves got the best of him while filming and so he didn't make a good impression on Katie, who thought her initial conversations with John were "robotic" and rehearsed.Katie therefore got engaged to wildlife manager Blake Moynes during her season finale, which filmed in April 2021 and aired in August last year.Katie and John went public with their romance only three short weeks after Katie and Blake announced in late October they had split and decided to end their engagement.Katie faced backlash for having moved on from her former fiance too quickly with a "rebound," and Blake said on the "Talking It Out with Bachelor Nation" podcast in November that he felt "flabbergasted," shocked and "speechless" upon finding out about Katie's romance with John.Blake also said he believed Katie had been emotionally cheating on him with John -- which Katie and John have both firmly denied in the press Katie admitted she and John considered hiding their relationship at first in fear of how Bachelor Nation might react to them."We were already talking about how to not be [seen and] known. But it's also like, 'F-ck that.' I want to live our best life. I want to live in my happiness. I went through hell and back being on TV," Katie said in April.Katie said she had determined that she owed it to herself to be in her "truest" and "happiest form.""At the end of the day, I was like, 'Life is too short. I've gone through so much and I just want to be happy.' And so that's ultimately what we did; we owned our connection not knowing it would take us to this day," Katie told Kaitlyn on her podcast.Katie previously said that John made her "want to be a better person.""He challenges me... He's very energetic and he keeps me young. He says I have the potential to be adventurous... and he makes me want to go and try new things," Katie recently shared.For Blake's part, he told Ben Higgins and Ashley Iaconetti on their "The Ben & Ashley I: Almost Famous Podcast" in February that he was ready to begin dating again, but only in the real world and not on Bachelor in Paradise.Blake also seemed ready to put his romance with Katie behind him and put aside any hard feelings."I could probably talk to her and have a cordial conversation ," Blake, who initially felt blindsided by Katie and John's romance, confirmed in late March.Prior to starring on , Katie competed on Matt James ' season of The Bachelor.Interested in more The Bachelor news? Join our The Bachelor Facebook Group
Athens, GA (30605)

Today

Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low 69F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low 69F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%.
Crews float a single-engine plane in the Connecticut River to the boat launch in Charlestown, N.H., on Thursday, June 23, 2022. The pilot reported having engine troubles before hitting the power lines that went over the river and then crashed into the water on Wednesday, June 22. They used a
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Has been working as a photojournalist since 2007, before moving into newspapers, he worked with an NGO called Project HOPE. He then went to work for the Press and Sun-Bulletin in New York, and then in New England working for the Brattleboro Reformer.
Vermont News & Media will host a debate with the Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate on July 22 at its Landmark Hill Drive offices. Candidates Isaac Evans-Frantz of Brattleboro, from left, Dr. Niki Thran of Warren and U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, the incumbent, are vying for the national seat in Congress. The seat is being vacated by longtime legislator Sen. Patrick Leahy, whos stepping down.
BURLINGTON  Lisa Vuillemot recently joined a group of dedicated cookie bakers to help sweeten the lives of a community in the depths of grief.

Vuillemot joined the Wedding Cookie Table Community, and with its members, helped send thousands of cookies to Uvalde, Texas. The town was shattered by a shooting at its elementary school on May 24, which left 19 children and two adults dead.

The Wedding Cookie Table Community, based in Pittsburgh, Penn., was founded in 2015 by Laura Magone, as a way to follow a Pennsylvania tradition of providing tables laden with home-baked cookies for weddings and other occasions. The tradition, Magone said, dates back to the Great Depression when families used cookies for celebrations rather than more expensive cakes.

Its an amazing group of bakers, and when I heard about it, I wanted to join in, Vuillemot said. She and her husband, John, live in Burlington and have a grown daughter, Alexa.

This is the first one Ive participated in, she said. They did something for a fundraiser for metastatic breast cancer in Philadelphia, and they did a cookie table for the 9/11 Shanksville services last year, for the 20th anniversary of the crash.

Vuillemot baked 12 dozen of her famous anisette cookies to send to Uvalde. She can make dough for three dozen at a time, she said.

Im doing it because the world needs more good, she said. People who bake have a passion for what they do, and the people there need to feel that passion, that we care. Its the right thing to do and I decided to get in on it.

Magone said she worked with members of the cookie group in Texas to deliver the more than 1,000 dozen baked treats. Members are setting up cookie tables June 26 in the banquet hall at Sacred Heart church, where many of the funerals for the victims are being held. On June 27, another cookie table will be at Uvalde Memorial Hospital, where volunteers will give out cookies to the local newspaper, Uvalde City Hall, and first responders. Any leftover cookies will go to food pantries and shelters.

Its a massive outpouring, what the group has done, Vuillemot said. Its a very well-oiled machine.

In Pennsylvania, a cookie table is no small setup. For Sundays distribution, the cookie group is setting up six-foot-long tables end-to-end, and filling them with trays of cookies.

Its going to be 48 feet of cookies, Magone said.

Many members sent their cookies by mail, and most were expected to get to Uvalde by Thursday, Magone said. If they didnt bake them, they bought them from a specialty cookie baker from Pittsburgh. Members are driving 325 dozen cookies from Pennsylvania to Texas themselves.

So theyre all in transit now, she said.

Magone said she is not a baker, but serves the Wedding Cookie Table Community as a volunteer.

Some assume I have a bakery or sell cookies but I dont, she said.

The group is also distributing 500 stuffed animals called Jelly Cats, which are extremely soft and comforting, and 21 stuffed bears made of silk flower petals, embroidered with the name of each victim, and Tear Soup, a childrens book on grieving.

Cookie tables are a regional tradition, Magone said. We do cookie tables for life events, from christenings to graduations, retirements to funerals. We have a cookie culture in Pittsburgh, and it marks events, both happy and sad. Its comfort food.

Vuillemot said baking is a stress-reliever for her.

If Im stressed, baking grounds me, if that makes sense, she said. And it brings people joy. Theres nothing like sending someone homemade cookies.

To learn more about the Wedding Cookie Table Community group, go to www.facebook.com/groups/TheWeddingCookieTableCommunity
WINSTED  A home on Moore Avenue was investigated for an animal hoarding situation Thursday, and a large number of cats are being removed from the property, according to Town Manager Josh Kelly.

Kelly wrote a message on his Town Manager Facebook page Thursday.

By now, many (Winsted) residents are aware that there is an animal (hoarding) situation in town. Please know that the Town government, including the Winchester CT Police Department, our Animal Control Officer, our Building Department, the Social Services office, Public Works, and the Winsted Fire Department, as well as the Connecticut Department of Agriculture, are all working diligently to correct this situation, Kelly wrote. Our top priority is to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all people and animals that are currently at the site and to relocate the animals to a safe location.

He said the person who was responsible for the animals is cooperating.

Please know and remember that the prior caretakers of these animals are working with officials to get them the care they need. This is a situation where a clear need is present, and we are rising to meet that need, he said.

As always, in a situation like this, people in the community stepped up, said, Sarah Toomey, lead outreach coordinator with Greenwoods Addiction Outreach. There are some people who were helping with picking up the animals.

People have offered everything from vet tech services, to food, to shelter, to crates for them, Toomey said. Since people found out, everyones wondering what they can do.

Kelly wrote, Thank you all for your concern for these animals and your strong desire to help  it means a lot to us, and its always good to be reminded of how strong our community is. More info to come tomorrow - in the meantime, please refer any questions to me at townmanager@townofwinchester.org.

According to the ASPCA, animal hoarding can be identified when a person is housing more animals than they can adequately and appropriately care for. It is a complex issue that often encompasses mental health, animal welfare and public safety concerns. Animal hoarding is defined by an inability to provide even minimal standards of nutrition, sanitation, shelter and veterinary care  often resulting in over-breeding of animals, animal starvation, illness and even death. In some cases, guardians believe they are helping their animals and deny this inability to provide minimum care.
STAMFORD  City police said they seized more than three ounces of fentanyl during a midafternoon arrest and raid of a Stamford mans apartment and storage unit on Wednesday.

Robert Bracey, 56, was arrested Wednesday on charges of sale of narcotics, possession of narcotics, possession of narcotics with intent to sell and possession of a controlled substance.

Capt. Richard Conklin said Stamfords Narcotics and Organized Crime unit has been investigating a man they identified as Bracey for the alleged sale of fentanyl and fentanyl-laced heroin out of a Stamford Manor apartment on Main Street.

Officers conducted a controlled purchase of fentanyl off Bracey during the course of their investigation, Conklin said.

This has been a tremendous problem in the community with the overdoses were seeing, Conklin said.

After obtaining search warrants for Braceys apartment, his car and a storage unit on the West Side, Conklin said officers pulled Bracey over as he was driving on Mohawk Court.

A search of Bracey and his car revealed six bags of fentanyl weighing a total of 6.3 grams, according to Conklin.

Police later raided Braceys storage unit, where they seized 200 bags of fentanyl weighing about 84 grams, Conklin said.

In total, Conklin said police seized 90.6 grams, or just over three ounces, of fentanyl.

Conklin said police also recovered seven Xanax pills during a search of Braceys apartment.

This was a very complete and concise investigation by Narcotics and Organized Crime to really monitor his comings and goings, and to locate his storage unit, Conklin said.

Conklin said officers also seized over $9,000 in cash from Bracey, which they will seek to take through the states drug asset forfeiture program.

Bracey remains in custody after failing to post a $175,000 bond. He is expected to be arraigned at the Superior Court in Stamford on July 6.
Lawyer blames confusion during the Khmer Rouge era, but some critics say Hun Sen is just superstitious.

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen holds his ballot as he casts his vote at a polling station during local commune elections in Kandal province on June 5, 2022.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen is now a year younger after he changed his official birthdate to Aug. 5, 1952, instead of April 4, 1951, a switch critics attributed to his overly superstitious nature.

Hun Sen's lawyer filed a petition with the Phnom Penh court earlier this month which stated that the country's leader had been using the wrong date of birth, a mistake owing to the fact that Cambodia was mired in a war when he officially registered it with authorities.

According to the Cambodia New Vision (CNV) website, which calls itself the official newsletter of the countrys Cabinet, Hun Sen had used the April 4, 1951, date from April 4, 1977, until June 20, 2022.

The year he officially registered was a tumultuous one for Cambodia and for Hun Sen, who had been a member of the ruling Khmer Rouge. The future prime minister fled with supporters to Vietnam in 1977 to escape a brutal political purge. He returned as one of the leaders of the Vietnamese-sponsored rebel army in 1979, becoming the countrys leader in 1985.

Those who are skeptical of this version of events point to the fact that the change moves his birth from the Year of the Rabbit to the Year of the Dragon, considered auspicious by those who adhere to the Chinese zodiac.

Exiled political analyst Kim Sok told RFA that Hun Sen should concern himself with bigger issues.

He is supposed to serve the interests of the people and protect the countrys territorial integrity and national honor, but he prioritizes the interests of himself and his family. It hinders the national interest, Kim Sok said.

Man Nath, the chairman of the Norway-based Cambodian Monitoring Council, said in a Facebook post that the change shows Hun Sens excessively superstitious nature.

His belief in superstition dominates his leadership. If he is a good leader, even in death he will become a ghost and still be worshiped for decades," Man Nath said.

Phnom Penh Municipal Court President Taing Sunlay issued a decree on June 20 adjusting the date of birth as sought by Hun Sen. Judge Taing Sunlay ordered the registrar and the authorities to change the civil status data in accordance with the prime ministers request.

Sok Eysan, spokesperson for Hun Sens ruling Cambodian Peoples Party, told RFA it was right for Hun Sen to correct his birthdate, but he declined to comment on whether it related to superstition.

It is the responsibility of the prime minister himself to make [that decision], and there is no loss of anything to the people. The people of the country do not say anything [about it], he said.

Local media reported in early May that Hun Sen had announced the change days after the death of his older brother Hun Neng.

India-based Wion News reported on May 19 that Hun Sen suspected the birthdate he had been using may have led to his brothers death because it conflicted with the Chinese zodiac.

The report also said that it is common for Cambodians older than 50 to have multiple birthdays. Official records were often lost or destroyed during the rule of the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979, creating confusion about family histories. Others may have altered their birthdates to avoid military service in the 1980s when fighting continued between the government and Khmer Rouge remnants.

Hun Sens Aug. 5, 1952, birthdate has been known publicly for at least the past 15 years. A reference to that date appeared as early as 2007 on the Wikipedia article for Hun Sen, which cited a report by the Cambodia Daily news outlet.

Subsequent Wikipedia edits over the next few years acknowledged one date or the other, and sometimes both.

Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Supporters had feared Theary Sengs transfer to a remote prison would block her access to legal help.

A Cambodian American democracy activist jailed in Cambodia on treason charges has been allowed to meet with her lawyer after being transferred last week from the capital to a prison farther north, a move that supporters had feared would isolate her from lawyers and friends, RFA has learned.

Now serving a six-year prison term, Theary Seng was sentenced on June 14 together with 50 other activists for their association with the Cambodia National Rescue Party, a group opposing long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen that was banned by Cambodias Supreme Court in November 2017.

The charges against the activists stem from abortive efforts in 2019 to bring about the return to Cambodia of CNRP leader Sam Rainsy, who has been living in exile in France to avoid convictions in court cases described by his supporters as politically motivated.

Theary Seng, who holds citizenship both in Cambodia and the United States, was arrested June 14 while protesting outside the courthouse against the trial that convicted her, and began serving her sentence the same day at Prey Sar Prison in the capital Phnom Penh. Prison authorities later confirmed to RFA that she was then transferred to Preah Vihear Prison in the countrys far north.

Blocked by authorities from meeting Theary Seng while she was held in Prey Sar, lawyer Choung Chou Ngy told RFA on Thursday he was recently able to meet his client for about two hours in her new prison, where she said authorities check her health every day.

Around 10 women are being held with her in her cell, Ngy said. I told her that people are speaking positively about her on social media, and she said she was grateful for their support. We also discussed details of her case she didnt know about because of her arrest.

Theary Seng then asked him to file an appeal in her case, which he will submit to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court of Appeal in the next few days, Ngy said.

Theary Seng denies the charges of treason made against her, Ngy added. She said that she has only demanded and fought for respect for human rights and democracy in the interests of society as a whole, and she is being silenced because of her advocacy work.

Also speaking to RFA, Ny Sokha  president of the Cambodian rights group Adhoc  said that Theary Seng should be immediately released.

If the Cambodian government continues to harass and arrest political party activists, this will not look good for Cambodias future. More international sanctions will likely be imposed if the situation with human rights is not improved, especially before the next election, he said.

The European Parliament in May adopted a resolution calling on the Cambodian government to stop persecuting and intimidating political opponents, trade unionists, human rights defenders and journalists ahead of local elections in June and national campaigns next year.

The ruling Cambodian Peoples Party led by Hun Sen is now five years into a no-holds-barred crackdown on its political opposition and civil society, jailing or driving into exile scores of opposition figures.

Translated by Sok Ry Sum for RFA Khmer. Written in English by Richard Finney.
RCEP deepens China-ASEAN economic and trade cooperation

Xinhua) 21:54, June 24, 2022

On May 27, a cargo ship loaded with Malaysian manganese ore arrived at Beibu Gulf Port in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

The ore was sent to the smelting workshop of South Manganese Group Ltd., which has the longest manganese industry chain in the world. There, it was made into electrolytic manganese dioxide before being sold domestically and exported to Japan as a raw material within new-energy batteries.

This particular case of cross-border trade, industry and sale illustrates the power of the recently instituted Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement in bringing economic benefit to China and its regional partners.

The RCEP has helped reduce the tariff on manganese ore in Malaysia from 3 percent to 2.4 percent, making the industrial chain connecting China, ASEAN and Japan more competitive in the international market, and promoting the development of the regional economy.

The RCEP agreement, the world's largest free trade deal to date, came into force on the first day of 2022. Since then it has brought tangible dividends to economic and trade cooperation between China and ASEAN countries.

Customs data shows that, in the first quarter, China's imports and exports to ASEAN reached 1.35 trillion yuan (202.2 billion U.S. dollars), an increase of 8.4 percent year on year, accounting for 14.4 percent of China's total foreign trade.

During the period, trade between China and ASEAN accounted for 47.2 percent -- or nearly half -- of China's foreign trade with RCEP partners, according to the data. With the RCEP agreement, ASEAN has once again overtaken the EU to become China's largest trading partner.

Since the RCEP came into effect, it has brought great benefits to enterprises, founded on the reduction of import costs and the increase of export opportunities after tariff reductions. According to the agreement, more than 90 percent of goods traded in the region will eventually become tariff-free, which will greatly boost cross-border trade.

Li Jianjun, general manager of the marketing department of South Manganese Group Ltd., said that the enforcement of the RCEP has brought tangible benefits to the company and its partner company in Malaysia. From January to April in 2022, the amount of manganese ore imported from Malaysia by the company increased by 18 percent year on year, while the cost reduction has improved the international competitiveness of its products.

The RCEP drives relevant countries in the region to participate in the shaping and expansion of industries on a larger scale. For example, the increasingly popular new-energy vehicle industry has linked the industrial chain in China more closely with that in ASEAN countries, Japan and the Republic of Korea, according to Li.

"We provide raw materials to a well-known battery company in Japan, and we are also the raw-material supplier for many domestic battery manufacturers of new-energy vehicles. Many countries are increasingly engaged in cooperation in this industry to seek win-win development," Li said.

The deep link between trade and industry has directly driven the substantial growth of cross-border freight volume in the region.

According to the statistics of the China State Railway Group Co., Ltd., a total of 310,000 TEUs were sent by combined rail-sea container trains via the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor from January to May this year, a year-on-year increase of 37.7 percent. During the same period, 140 China-Vietnam freight trains were operated, with 4,176 TEUs shipped, up by 20.7 percent and 26.5 percent, respectively.

Do Nam Trung, consul general of Vietnam in Nanning, capital of Guangxi, said that participating in the RCEP will have a very positive influence in every member country, and the RCEP will also provide new opportunities for Vietnam's development and bring more positive factors to Vietnam's economy.

Since the RCEP came into force, the development of cross-border e-commerce between China and ASEAN countries has been further enhanced, with increasing import and export volume.

Guangxi is an important hub for China's cross-border e-commerce import and export business to ASEAN, attracting more than 100 cross-border e-commerce enterprises, including the first cross-border innovation center of Southeast Asia's flagship e-commerce platform Lazada and the ASEAN cross-border e-commerce logistics center of Shopee.

Diao Weihong, deputy director of the Department of Commerce of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said that Guangxi has formed major cross-border e-commerce logistics routes to ASEAN, and opened 10 cross-border e-commerce air routes to Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, while speeding up the construction of an express cargo circle facing ASEAN. At the same time, maritime transport networks and cross-border highway and railway logistics routes connecting ASEAN are increasingly being strengthened.

Benjamas Tanvetyanont, Thai consul-general in Nanning, said cross-border e-commerce will help promote economic and trade relations between Thailand and China, introduce good things from one country to the other, and help the two peoples raise their incomes.

Under the RCEP framework, many favorable policies, such as tariff reductions and the principle of accumulation of origin, have been implemented, which has gradually highlighted the comparative advantage of export growth between China and ASEAN.

Data from the General Administration of Customs shows that in the first five months of 2022, the total trade value between China and ASEAN reached 2.37 trillion yuan, up 8.1 percent. China and ASEAN continue to be each other's largest trading partners.

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China is stepping up anti-NATO rhetoric ahead of the military alliance's summit next week, calling it a "product of the Cold War" dominated by the United States, while an envoy of leader Xi Jinping is hoping to convince European leaders the country doesn't back the Russian invasion of Ukraine, analysts said.



"NATO is a product of the Cold War and the worlds biggest military alliance dominated by the U.S.," foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told journalists in Beijing on , three days ahead of the summit in Madrid.



"It is a tool for the US to maintain its hegemony and influence Europes security landscape [which] is clearly against the trend of our times," he said in comments reported in the English edition of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) newspaper, the People's Daily.



Wang cast doubt on NATO's core purpose as a defensive organization, saying it had "willfully waged wars against sovereign countries that left a large number of civilians dead and tens of millions displaced."



"NATO has already disrupted stability in Europe. It should not try to do the same to the Asia-Pacific and the whole world," Wang said.



Wang's comments came after Zhang Heqing, cultural counselor at the Chinese embassy in Pakistan, commented on a video of tens of thousands of people demonstrating in Brussels against the cost-of-living crisis on , claiming it was a protest against NATO.



"Tens of thousands of protesters marched in #Brussels chanting "Stop #NATO" on , expressing anger at the rising living costs & condemning NATO countries rush to arm #Ukraine," Zhang wrote, quote-tweeting the nationalistic Global Times newspaper.



'Political warfare' and 'disinformation'

Teresa Fallon, director of Belgium's Center for Russian, Europe and Asian Studies, said the march had had nothing to do with NATO.



"The protests had nothing at all to do with NATO, but Beijing is using this form of political warfare or disinformation in the run-up to the NATO summit which takes place next week," Fallon told RFA.



"This type of clunky propaganda nevertheless may be believed by some people," she said, adding that China shares its view of NATO with its ally Russia.



The stepped-up rhetoric appears somewhat at odds with apparent attempts by the CCP under Xi Jinping to mollify European leaders, sending special envoy Wu Hongbo to meet with key figures ahead of the NATO summit.



"Dispatching his special envoy to Europe for a three-week charm tour was just one of many acts of high-stakes damage control ahead of the 20th CCP Congress this autumn," Atlantic Council president Frederick Kempe wrote in a commentary for CNBC ahead of the summit.



"Xis economy is dangerously slowing, financing for his Belt and Road Initiative has tanked, his zero-Covid policy is flailing, and his continued support of Russian President Vladimir Putin hangs like a cloud over his claim of being the worlds premier national-sovereignty champion as Russias war on Ukraine grinds on," Kempe wrote.



"Xis taking no chances ahead of one of his partys most important gatherings, a meeting designed to assure his continued rule and his place in history," the article said, citing recent meetings between Wu and European business leaders as evidence of a more conciliatory approach by Xi.



Fallon agreed.



"I would say that there is a disillusionment across the board with China," she said. "Beijing is attempting a diplomatic dance where they try to convince Europeans that they really aren't supporting Russia."



"In reality, they are talking out of both sides of their mouth, trying to tell the Europeans one thing, while at the same time supporting Russia," she said, adding that Beijing is the biggest customer for Russian energy, and those sales contribute to Russian president Vladimir Putin's war coffers.



Problems at home

Craig Singleton, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, said Beijing's current foreign policy is largely driven by pressing problems at home.



"Global public opinion of China sits at record lows and Chinese leader Xi Jinping refuses to leave the country to meet with other world leaders," Singleton told RFA. "Making matters worse is that China's economy, long in decline, is really now in freefall on account of Xi's financial mismanagement."



"This most recent outreach to EU capitals is reflective of growing recognition in Beijing that its wolf-warrior tactics have undermined China's economic position with Europe, one of China's most important trading partners, and that China needs the European market and European consumers to help get itself out of its current economic mess," he said.



While Germany's current government had sent a number of "mixed signals" about its views on China since taking office, Berlin would likely ultimately rethink its relationship with Beijing, as it has already done with Moscow since the invasion of Ukraine, Singleton said.



"China's attempts to reset its relationship will be seen in Europe as insincere and likely leading to a continued erosion of the relationship," he added.



"Making matters worse is that European frustrations with China's equivocations on Russia and Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, [so] anger is growing against China from lots of European capitals, and there is no indication that China is rethinking its support for Russia's invasion," he said.



Singleton said the growing willingness of European countries to enhance trade and investment ties with democratic Taiwan in recent months "will almost certainly irritate Beijing," and lead it to lash out in ways that were inimical to its own foreign policy goals in Europe.



Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
One year after the paper was forced to shut down and several senior editors arrested by national security police, former reporters at Hong Kong's pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper are still writing the stories the paper might have run, and posting them to social media.



Journalist Alvin Chan, who uses the hashtags #AppleDaily and #keeponreporting on his Facebook page, posted a report showing a small group of people gathered outside the now-empty headquarters of Jimmy Lai's Next Digital media empire late on night.



"A group of former Apple Daily reporters happened to show up at the same time outside the ... empty Next Digital building ... and took photos," Chan wrote. "Then, suddenly, several police vehicles arrived at the scene, sirens blaring, so they left, leaving other journalists there still reporting."



Chan isn't the only former Apple Daily staffer reporting on news that would be considered in breach of a draconian national security law imposed on the city by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from , 2020.



Former colleague Leung Ka Lai has started a Patreon page, and continues to post reports to her Facebook page, including interviews with leaders of the 2019 protest movement that prompted Beijing to tighten its grip on the former British colony.



"I'm not reconciled to this, no," Leung told RFA. "How can they just use such violent methods to eliminate a media organization?"



"The Apple Daily shouldn't be allowed to just disappear like this," she said. "I figured there had to be some work I can keep on doing."



Employees, executive editor in chief Lam Man-Chung (L) and deputy chief editor Chan Pui-Man (C) cheer each other in the Apple Daily newspaper office after completing editing of the final edition in Hong Kong, June 23, 2021. Credit: AFP 'The spirit of those times'

Leung has published around 40 reports on her page since the paper closed, most of them about the aftermath of the 2019 protest movement, many of them based on interviews with arrestees and protest leaders.



"They say the protesters are a forgotten group, but their experiences are actually representative of the spirit of those times," Leung said. "My specialty is doing in-depth profiles ... I think it's very important to write down what happened to them, and preserve their thoughts and experiences."



"It feels more like a record, like the role of a storyteller, writing down their stories," she said.



Leung said she is trying to put into practice the ethos of the protest movement, summarized as a quote from late martial arts legend Bruce Lee, "be water."



"To be a human being, you need principles, and lines beyond which you won't go," Leung said. "If the biggest lesson Hong Kong people took from 2019 was to be water, then this needs to be integrated into everyday life, not just be a slogan."



Chan has dedicated his page to reporting on the progress of thousands of cases from the 2019 protest movement through the Hong Kong judicial system.



"I like being a reporter, so I think that by reporting on cases from the public gallery, I can offer something like a glimmer of light that lets each other know we exist," Chan said.



"I don't know if you can call it a sense of mission; it's more the method I have chosen to use," he said.



Former Apple Daily journalist Alvin Chan, who uses the hashtags #AppleDaily and #keeponreporting on his Facebook page. Credit: RFA Sensitive topics bring personal risk

Chan, who remains in Hong Kong, said he still needs to consider his personal risk under the national security law.



"I need to think about the dangers and risks behind some reports, and won't touch any of the more controversial or sensitive topics," he said.



"I hesitate and struggle over whether to report certain Hong Kong-related events in foreign countries," he said. "It's a tough, rugged and difficult road to travel, that of an independent journalist."



"It means more risks at a time when there is little room for 100 flowers to bloom," Chan said, in a reference to the criminalization of public dissent under the national security law.



"But it makes what we are doing as reporters more meaningful," he said. "Journalists write the history of a particular time, so I want to preserve the truth for the next generation, including my own."



According to a report from the Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI), Hong Kong's rating under three measures of civil and political rights has plummeted since the survey began in 2019.



Hong Kong's score for the "right to assembly and association" fell from 4.5 in 2019 to 3.1 in 2020, and then to 2.5 in 2021. The city's rating for the "right to hold and express opinions" and "right to participate in politics" fell by 2.7 and 2.4 respectively in 2021, putting all three indicators in the "very poor" category.

The draconian national security law imposed by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on Hong Kong from , 2020 has sparked a crackdown on pro-democracy media organizations.



After Lai's Next Digital media empire was forced to close, the crackdown has also led to the closure of Stand News and Citizen News, as well as the "rectification" of iCable news and government broadcaster RTHK to bring them closer to Beijing's official line.



Hong Kong recently plummeted from 80th to 148th in the 2022 Reporters Without Border (RSF) press freedom index, with the closures of Apple Daily and Stand News cited as one of the main factors.



Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Patrol boats that trawl the seas to catch illegal shipments use illegally imported fuel themselves.

North Korea has been forced to cut the number of patrol boats it sends out to catch smugglers and illegal border crossingsdue to a shortage of smuggled fuel, sources in the military told RFA.

Pyongyang has long sought to prevent people from leaving the country. But its level of vigilance was heightened when North Korea and China closed their border during the start of the pandemic in 2020.

According to reports, some of the patrol boats that monitor the seas for illegal movements or shipments were themselves relying on smuggled fuel from China, as international sanctions aimed at curbing Pyongyangs nuclear weapons program have reduced the countrys legal supplies.

Now China is stepping up sea patrols to prevent that smuggling, which in effect has made it harder for North Korea to operate its anti-smuggling patrols, a military official from Sinuiju, across the border from Chinas Dandong, told RFAs Korean Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

The Chinese border guards are increasing the number of maritime patrol boats significantly and controlling maritime smuggling to block the spread of COVID-19 from North Korea, he said.

The result for the North Korean border guards is a reduction in available fuel supplies.

The North Korean border guards are facing a significant reduction of maritime patrol boats due to a complete halt in fuel smuggling and a lack of fuel to operate the patrol boats, the source said.

North Korea is a poor country, and officials in the border guard are seeing the reality of how each country is dealing with the coronavirus issue. I dont know what will happen if things go on like this at the sea border, he said.

Instead of going out once every one or two hours during the day, the North Korean boats now can go out only every three hours, according to the source.

Patrol boats relied on smuggled fuel in part because the coronavirus lockdown has caused domestic supplies to dwindle.

A border guard official told RFA that only one or two patrol boats per day were coming out of Sindo and Ryongchon counties, downstream from Sinuiju. These boats are supplied with fuel from the militarys reserves located in the town of Paekma, according to the second source.

Originally around four boats would patrol the area in the lower Yalu River where it empties into the West Sea at one to two-hour intervals to strengthen border security, the source said, using the Korean name for the sea.

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the fuel supply has decreased and freight train operations and maritime trade have been completely suspended since the end of April. With fuel imports cut off, it is difficult to operate even one or two patrol boats, he said.

Fuel shortages were common before the pandemic, even in the military, which usually is among the front of the line for resources.

International nuclear sanctions passed in September 2017 limited North Koreas oil imports to 4 million barrels of crude and 2 million barrels of refined petroleum products per year in response to Pyongyangs sixth nuclear test.

When North Korea launched the Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile in November that year, its refined petroleum allotment was further reduced to 500,000 barrels.

Gasoline shortages and price fluctuations are not only affecting the military.

RFA reported in March that North Korean merchants were making money by buying fuel coupons from areas of the country where gasoline was less expensive, then selling them for a markup in areas where gas was more expensive.

According to another RFA report in April, the North Korean government began cracking down on black-market fuel sellers, confiscating their stockpiles. Private ownership of fuel supplies is technically illegal, but tolerated under normal circumstances.

Translated by Claire Lee. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Myanmars ousted leader faces a lifetime behind bars if convicted of all charges against her.

Detained State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi began her trial on Thursday in a special court in Naypyidaw Prison. The National League for Democracy (NLD) leader was moved to the prison in Myanmars capital city and placed in solitary confinement on Wednesday.

Sources close to the court told RFA the case of Suu Kyi and Sean Turnell, Section 3 (1) (c) of the Myanmar Government Secrecy Act, was heard in a special court in the prison.

Some witnesses were recalled and examined in court in connection with the case. The details of the investigation are not yet known as Suu Kyis lawyers have been barred from releasing details to the media.

Previously, the case was heard every Thursday in a special court in the Naypyidaw Council compound in Zabuthiri township, which was hurriedly set up after the military coup on February 1, 2021.

Suu Kyi has been summoned to the court every week by police guards from the military councils secret detention center.

Section 3 (1) (c) of the Government Secrecy Act was enacted in 1923 during the British colonial rule of the country then called Burma. Anyone convicted faces up to 14 years in prison.

Sean Turnell has been State Counselor Suu Kyis business adviser since 2017 under the NLD-led government. He is the first foreigner close to the NLD-led government to be arrested since the military coup.

Suu Kyi, who turned 77 on Sunday, has been charged in 19 cases since the military coup. She was sentenced to 11 years in prison for six cases. The remaining 13 cases are still pending. If convicted the sentence could be extended to more than 100 years.

The military council announced on Thursday that Suu Kyi had been transferred to prison under criminal law after being tried by the relevant courts.

The authorities reinforced the prison fences and increased security after Suu Kyi arrived at Naypyidaw Prison. Discipline at both male and female barracks in the prison has been tightened up, according to sources close to the prison.

The top leaders of the NLD-led government, members of parliament and many opponents of the military coup are facing trial in the Special Court in Naypyidaw Prison. Those convicted are often transferred to Yamethin Prison near Naypyidaw.
Man Gyee Lay Pin village, Mying township, Magway region was burned down by junta forces and affiliated Pyu Saw Htee groups on June 22, 2022.



CREDIT: Mying Villages Revolution Front (MVRF)

More than 500 residents of Kan Nat village were forced to flee when military forces and junta-affiliated Pyu Saw Htee members torched nearly all of its 115 homes.

More than 80 soldiers and members of the affiliated militias raided the village in Magway regions Mying township on June 15, and set fire to three houses, according to local residents.

The following day they burned down more than 90 houses, leaving few homes standing, according to a resident who did not want to be named for safety reasons.

There are about 115 houses in the village, but nearly 100 were set on fire by the military and Pyu Saw Htee groups. They had weapons and we were afraid to do anything, the resident said.

One resident told RFA that a few days earlier military troops were deployed to Kan Ni village, which is next to Kan Nat. They were ambushed by the local Peoples Defense Forces (PDFs).

Junta forces fired heavy artillery before they entered the village on June 15 and forced the residents to flee empty handed. When locals returned to their village to try to put out their burning homes they were forced to run for a second time when troops shelled the village again.

Soldiers also burned houses in other villages near Kan Nat.

In the past a military council spokesman has told RFA that the burning of villages in Magway region is the work of PDFs, not junta troops.

Data for Myanmar, which systematically monitors the damage to buildings and houses across the country, reported on June 7 that a total of 18,886 houses had been burned down from the day of the coup on February 1 last year to May 31, 2022. Of that total, 3,055 houses were in Magway region.
Residents in western Myanmars Rakhine state are increasingly on edge, worried that fighting between the military and the Arakan Army (AA) will soon erupt once again as arrests of personnel from both sides escalate.

The national military fought an increasingly bitter war with the AA, which says it is fighting for autonomy for ethnic minority Rakhine people, from December 2018 until a truce was reached in November 2020, months before the army seized power in a February 2021 coup.

The coastal state was awash with refugees from that fighting, but stayed relatively quiet for many months while anti-coup protests and fighting by local militias raged across much of Myanmar but tensions started rising in recent months.

The military this week detained people who it suspected of having links with the AA in the state capital Sittwe, and Mrauk-U, Ponnagyun and Kyauktaw townships, in response to the AAs recent arrests of junta soldiers.

Since Thursday, the military has been blocking the city gates of Sittwe, after the AA arrested a naval lieutenant and a sailor there. It also shut down waterways from Sittwe to various towns in the state, which borders the Bay of Bengal and Bangladesh.

Police and soldiers are checking hotels, guest houses and residences all over Sittwe looking for suspected AA members.

Residents told RFA that at least seven civilians were arrested on Thursday evening.

Three civilians, including 46-year-old Oo San Maung, were arrested by 30 soldiers in the Mingan Block 9 area of the city, his son Myo Kyaw Hlaing told RFAs Burmese Service.

They came to search our house. My father went out to the front of the house and said no one was there, said Myo Kyaw Hlaing. They just arrested him without saying a word. Not only my father, two other youths in our ward were arrested. We have no contact with those arrested yet.

Residents told RFA that three minors and Soe Thiha, a visitor from Taunggup, were arrested in Sittwe on Friday Morning.

There have been reports of more civilian arrests but RFA has not been able to confirm this independently.

At about 9 p.m. Thursday night, soldiers fired shots at a group of people as they returned to a guest house in the same part of Sittwe, a person in the group told RFA on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

"One of my friends and I were going back to our guesthouse on a motorbike. Three other guys were on another. The soldiers blocked our path and shouted at us to stop. When we didnt stop, they fired four or five shots at us, he said.

The guys on the other motorbike left it and ran away. I was lucky I didnt lose mine, said the man, who said he was not hurt in the gunfire.

The military arrested more than 20 civilians in Mrauk-U township on Wednesday after the AA arrested three military personnel on Tuesday.

Aa far as we know, some of the civilians they arrested were released that day, a resident of Mrauk-U told RFA.

We heard that six people were released, and I think there are still more than 10 people detained, the resident said on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.

The AA arrested a soldier and three policemen in Ponnagyun and Kyauktaw townships between June 16 and 22. In response the army arrested 30 civilians, according to local reports. Among the civilians, sources told RFA that four women were said to have been released, but the rest were still in detention.

Other reports said that the AA has arrested more than a dozen members of the police and military in Mrauk-U and Kyauktaw townships, and the military has detained at least 50 civilians over the past few days in retaliation.

RFA tried to contact the juntas spokesman, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, by telephone for comment, but he did not respond.

Zaw Min Tun, however, warned the AA at a press conference on May 19 that it would be responsible for the consequences of detaining soldiers.

What we are doing at the moment, the reason we are detaining the Rakhine people, is for their own good. We do not want them to get into trouble, he told reporters.

I would like to repeat that we are detaining the Rakhine people so that they will not get into trouble. We are patiently working for peace within the union. If anything happens regarding this, dont blame the military for the consequences, Zaw Min Tun said.

The AAs spokesman, Khine Thukha, told a news conference on June 14 that AA members were only retaliating against the military for its abuses.

"The reason for the arrests is that the Myanmar army raided houses of our ULA/AA members at night time, he said. The ULA refers to the United League of Arakan, which is the political wing of the Arakan Army.

Some of our troops were detained by the military during last month and this month. Thats why we have arrested their troops. If they keep on doing that, we will retaliate," he said.

He said if the military releases the AA members, the AA would release the soldiers they arrested, but he would not disclose how many each side had arrested.

Pe Than, a former member of the state parliament, said the situation in Rakhine was volatile.

It depends a lot on how many more people are going to be arrested in future and how much trouble there will be, said Pe Than.

If both sides keep on doing this, the number of detainees, which is just a few at present, will become a lot. The arrests might be in groups instead of one or two. And then, as the situation worsens, there could be some clashes that could blow up into renewed fighting, he said.

Pe Than said the military and the AA should negotiate a peaceful resolution before the violence escalates.

But tensions between the junta and the AA have been high since early May, with locals and Rakhine politicians concerned that fighting will soon intensify.

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 at risk, according to a report published this month by the International Crisis Group (ICG), an NGO.

It said AA efforts to gain territory in the north could affect as many as 3 million ethnic Rakhines and Rohingyas. Tom Kean, ICG senior adviser on Myanmar, told RFA this month that a humanitarian consequences from renewed fighting would probably be worse than they were 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.

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Survey shows the right to be safe from the state still ranks lower than average.

Vietnams human rights situation has improved over the past year but remains poor, according to the annual report from Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI), released on Wednesday. Progress is still needed in areas such as empowerment, the survey showed.

The report measures 13 rights, consisting of five economic and social human rights and eight civil and political human rights. HRMI gave Vietnam a score of 5.3 out of 10 in the Safety before the State section, indicating that many Vietnamese are not safe from the risk of arbitrary arrest, torture and ill-treatment, enforced disappearances, and execution without trial.

Vietnam ranked 3 (very bad) in the Empowerment section. The report said the low score shows that many people do not enjoy civil and political freedoms such as freedom of speech, assembly and association, and democratic rights.

In an emailed interview with Radio Free Asia, HRMI head of strategy and communications Thalia Kehoe Rowden said gradual progress is being made in the one-party country:

It's encouraging to see some small but steady improvements over the last few years in the rights to be free of forced disappearance, arbitrary arrest and detention, and extrajudicial execution, she said. However, these scores still all fall in the 'bad' or 'fair' ranges, so there is considerable room for improvement.

Kehoe Rowden said many people in Vietnam are not safe from state harm and cannot be considered free to express their views.

Vietnam's Empowerment scores show no significant improvement over the last few years, and all three rights we measure in that category fall in the 'very bad' range. Many people in Vietnam do not enjoy their political freedoms and civil liberties, she said.

The good news, according to Kehoe Rowden, is that Vietnam's scores on access to clean water and sanitation have steadily improved over the past decade, giving more people access to water and toilets in their homes.

HRMI said there is not enough data from countries in East Asia and the Pacific to compare by region on civil and political rights, but compared to the other 39 countries surveyed by the organization, Vietnam is performing worse than the average for the right to be safe from the state.

However, Vietnam still ranks higher than both the US (4.3 points) and China (2.8 points) in this regard.

The report said that human rights campaigners, members of political and religious groups, journalists and trade unionists are at high risk of being deprived of their right to be safe from the state.

Hanoi-based political dissident Nguyen Vu Binh, a former prisoner of conscience and former editor of Communist Journal, told RFA he believes the report to be accurate, taking into account: the realities in Vietnam in criteria such as quality of life, safety from the state, and empowerment.

Their report is detailed. In the past four to five years, the persecution of dissidents has greatly intensified. In some cases, environmental activists have also been arrested, he said.

Binh said high quality surveys like this serve to inform the international community about the lives and rights of the Vietnamese people and their treatment at the hands of Vietnamese authorities.

HRMI was founded in 2016 by a group of economists, public policy and human rights researchers. The organization began conducting surveys in 13 countries in 2017 rising to 39 in the latest report for 2021.

The organization says it aims to systematically measure all rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in every country in the world, giving governments a global measure and encouraging them to treat their people better.
Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) major democracies called a Russian missile strike on a crowded shopping center in Ukraine on June 27 a war crime and vowed to hold Russian President Vladimir Putin accountable.



The leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States, meeting on the second day of a summit in Germany, issued a statement after 15 people were reportedly killed and 50 wounded in the attack in the central city of Kremenchuk.

"Indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilians constitute a war crime," the leaders said in the statement, adding that they "solemnly condemn the abominable attack" in Kremenchuk.

An earlier Russian missile strike in Lysychansk on June 27 killed eight and wounded 21 others, said Serhiy Hayday, the head of the military administration of Luhansk where Lysychansk is located. Lysychansk is the last big city still held by Ukraine in the eastern Luhansk region.



Ukraine immediately called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council. A spokesman for the Albanian mission, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council, said it would take place on June 28.



Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who earlier on June 27 addressed the G7 summit, said Russia should be legally recognized as the largest terrorist organization in the world.

"The Russian state has become the largest terrorist organization in the world. And this is a fact. And this must be a legal fact," Zelenskiy said in a video. "And everyone in the world should know that buying or transporting Russian oil, maintaining ties with Russian banks, paying taxes and duties to the Russian state is giving money to terrorists.

The G7 leaders said earlier they would keep sanctions on Russia for as long as necessary and intensify international economic and political pressure on Putin and his supporters in Belarus.



The earlier statement said the G7 countries were "committed to sustaining and intensifying" sanctions and would continue to use them as needed "acting in unison at every stage."



The statement adds that the G7 countries "will continue to provide financial, humanitarian, military, and diplomatic support and stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes."

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's ongoing invasion, how Kyiv is fighting back, the plight of civilians and refugees, and Western aid and reaction. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the pledges were necessary to maintain pressure on Putin.

"Imagine if we allowed Putin to get away with the violent acquisition of huge chunks of another country, sovereign, independent territory," Johnson told the BBC. "The lessons for that would be absolutely chilling. The point I would make to people is I think that sometimes the price of freedom is worth paying."

The G7 leaders are committed to exploring new ways to isolate Russia from participating in the global market and to crack down on evasion of existing sanctions, the statement said.

The countries pledged to take steps to further reduce their dependency on Russian energy and to expand sanctions to further restrict Russia's access to services and technologies, particularly those supporting its armament industry, the statement said. They also pledged more sanctions on individuals responsible for war crimes.

The statement, issued by Germany, the current holder of the G7's rotating presidency, also said the group was ready to provide more funding to help shore up Ukrainian government finances. The budget support that has been pledged and provided thus far in 2022 amounts to $29.5 billion, the statement said.

The G7 leaders said they recognized the devastating level of destruction of infrastructure in Ukraine caused by the war and stood ready to support an international reconstruction plan.

Separately, the United States said it was finalizing a weapons package for Ukraine that would include long-range air-defense systems -- arms that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy specifically requested when he addressed the leaders by video link earlier in the day.

Zelenskiy urged G7 leaders to do everything in their power to end Russia's invasion of his country by the end of the year as Ukraine's military says it continues to fend off an attempted encirclement in the eastern city of Lysychansk.

Zelenskiy told the leaders that he wanted the war to end before the winter set in and battle conditions would make it tougher for his troops as they mount their fightback, several diplomats were quoted as saying by international media outlets after the speech.

Zelenskiy also asked for air-defense systems, more sanctions on Russia, and security guarantees as he addressed the summit at the Schloss Elmau in Bavaria, diplomats said, adding that the Ukrainian leader stressed the necessity to keep applying "heavy" punitive actions on Russia and "not lower the pressure" following multiple rounds of sanctions that Western allies have imposed on Moscow.

Zelenskiy also asked for help to export grain from Ukraine and for reconstruction aid, they said.

The Ukrainian military command said earlier that it had repelled Russian attacks west of Lysychansk and prevented an encirclement of the strategically important Donbas city.

"Near Verkhnyokamyanka, the defense forces inflicted significant losses on the enemy and forced them to retreat," the Ukrainian General Staff reported. Verkhnyokamyanka is located on an important supply road only a few kilometers west of Lysychansk.

Serhiy Hayday, the head of the military administration of Luhansk, where Lysychansk is located, urged inhabitants of the city to leave immediately as Russian forces level large swaths of the town, where about 100,000 people lived before the invasion.

"The disastrous 'Russian World' is trying to wipe from the world's map our history by destroying the cultural institutions and architectural monuments of the Luhansk region," Hayday wrote on the Telegram messaging app, accusing Russian forces of already destroying more than 60 such institutions and monuments in the city.

The military command separately said on June 27 that a missile strike had hit the Odesa region in southern Ukraine, a day after Russia launched strikes against the capital, Kyiv, and other Ukrainian cities.

The command said the missile, which was fired from a Russian-type Tu-22 strategic bomber, caused six casualties including a child. It was not clear whether the authorities were reporting injuries or deaths.

"The strike in a residential area of a civilian settlement destroyed several residential and farm buildings over around 500 square meters," the command said, adding that firefighters were still battling the flames.

Meanwhile, the United States plans to announce as soon as this week that it has purchased an advanced, medium- to long-range surface-to-air missile defense system for Ukraine, CNN and AP reported on June 27, citing sources familiar with the issue.

Ukrainian officials have asked for the missile defense system known as NASAMS that can hit targets more than 160 kilometers away, the sources said.

Washington last week announced an additional $450 million in military assistance for Ukraine, giving it four more multiple launch rocket systems and artillery ammunition for other systems.

Earlier this month, the Biden administration said it was providing an additional $1 billion military aid package to Ukraine that will include additional howitzers, ammunition, and coastal defense systems.

More and more analysts envision a protracted battle in the eastern part of Ukraine, with high human and equipment losses on both sides.

Britain's Ministry of Defense said in its daily intelligence bulletin on June 27 that, in the following weeks, Russia, which has reportedly suffered a high rate of casualties, is "highly likely" to rely increasingly on reservists.

However, British intelligence suggested that the Russian leadership "likely remains reluctant to order a general mobilization," despite a permanent shortfall in the number of reservists who can be deployed in Ukraine.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, dpa, TASS, and AFP
SOFIA -- Fed up with the discrimination he and his LGBT colleagues on the police force faced in Bulgaria, where "homophobia is a religion," officer Petromir Genchev decided it was time to do something and established an association to protect their rights, a first in the largely conservative Balkan country.

Although Genchev, 33, registered the group late last year, its existence largely remained a secret until he was interviewed in May by bTV, Bulgaria's biggest private TV station.

After the TV interview aired, the reaction from his colleagues in Vratsa, where he lives and serves in the local police force, was not encouraging to say the least, Genchev told RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service.

"Relationships are extremely tense. I haven't heard from most of my colleagues since the broadcast," Genchev said. Comments on the station's website linked to the interview frequently referred to it as the "gay union," along with disparaging descriptions.

On the other hand, Genchev says queries about the group have been trickling in from other officers across the country.

The group --- formally called the Trade Union of the Employees of the Interior Ministry for Equality and Integration --- has already been accepted as a member of the European LGBT Police Association, an umbrella organization of national lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) police associations from across Europe.

The LGBT community in Bulgaria has long been targeted with hate speech and violence. In 2021, a member of the right-wing Bulgarian National Movement (IMRO) called the Sofia Pride "a manifestation of group mental disorders."

In its annual report for 2022, the advocacy group ILGA Europe said Bulgaria was still plagued by "bias-motivated violence," with several anti-LGBT incidents registered in the period under review.

In one incident that shocked the country, a far-right candidate in the November 14, 2021, presidential election, Boyan Rasate, was detained and charged with hooliganism and inflicting injury over an attack on an LGBT community center in Sofia on October 30, 2021.

Traveling beyond the borders of Bulgaria, Genchev often found that the LGBT community rarely stirred many if any emotions. "I've been to Western Europe, to countries where it's not even a topic of conversation. Nobody cares. 'You are that way? Well, great, that's your choice.' People are much more tolerant. They've moved on from this."

Genchev, who is openly bisexual and married with two children, says he grew up in an open and supportive family. "I've never been brought up to hate someone just because of who they are. I have been taught to judge people by what they are like as a person, and how they treat me and others. The personal life of someone has never interested me," he explained.

The warmth he found at home juxtaposed with the hostility he experienced elsewhere.

"I was teased as a child, at school, and elsewhere.... In Bulgaria, hating is normal. We hate refugees, we hate foreigners, we hate all kinds. Everyone has to like what I like, want what I want, otherwise that individual is not normal for me. We hate everyone who is not like us," Genchev said.

The reaction to his interview with bTV -- much of it negative and homophobic on social media -- is illustrative of the problem in Bulgaria, Genchev says. "Many people didn't even really pay attention to what was said after the word 'bisexual' was uttered, a different sexual orientation. Once that was said, nothing else mattered. Homophobia in Bulgaria is a religion," he lamented.

In the police ranks, anti-LGBT attitudes are largely the legacy of Bulgaria's communist past, says Genchev, questioning how officers harboring such views can investigate hate crimes. "You can't hate these people openly, express narrow-minded opinions on social media that almost everyone should be killed or expelled from the country, and then expect that this individual will be able to do his job when just such a person is injured," Genchev said.

Among those who have contacted him, Genchev says there is confusion as to the aim of the LGBT police advocacy group. "It's unfortunate that many of them are asking about what type of privileges they will get. There are no privileges. We do not fight for privileges," he said, adding that high membership numbers weren't important to him.

"We don't want everyone to be our member or to have many people. I hope that people who have really suffered from discrimination are not afraid to contact us, and that we don't have many people in general. "

According to Genchev, the aim of the union is to provide legal protection to colleagues who have been victims of all forms of discrimination.

"We're not just focusing on any one type of person. We're focusing on all those who are victims of discrimination. Anyone who has been subjected to anything described in the Anti-Discrimination Act or who has faced discrimination in any form," Genchev explained, adding that the current laws on the books were insufficient.

Civil society in Bulgaria has long advocated for the criminalization of anti-LGBT hate crimes, including by filing a petition with over 8,000 signatures late last year. So far, no such legislation has been approved by parliament.

The European Court of Human Rights on June 14 ruled that Bulgaria compensate the mother of a young man killed in what was determined to be a homophobic attack.

The Strasbourg-based body determined that, although local courts had clearly established that the reason behind the murder had been the perpetrators' hatred for LGBT people, there had been no legal consequences for this, as the Bulgarian Criminal Code does not cite homophobia as an aggravating factor.

In another recent development, the Bulgarian state on June 14 refused to give citizenship to "baby Sarah," the daughter of a same-sex couple, a Bulgarian and a British citizen, who had married in Gibraltar.

Genchev says he expects to sit down in the near future with officials from the Interior Ministry, which oversees the country's police forces, to discuss specific proposals for improving the working environment for LGBT people.

Those plans could be in jeopardy or at least put on hold after a no-confidence vote on June 22 toppled the government.

Written by Tony Wesolowsky in Prague based on reporting by Dilyana Teoharova of RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service
Iran's Foreign Ministry says Josep Borrell, the European Union's top diplomat, will arrive late on June 24 for a visit in an attempt to breathe new life into talks on reviving a 2015 nuclear deal with global powers.

"Bilateral relations, regional and international issues, as well as the latest status of sanctions lifting will be discussed during the visit, which is part of the ongoing consultations between Iran and the European Union, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh said.

The deal began to fall apart when then-U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled out in 2018.

Since then, Washington has imposed crippling sanctions on Tehran, while the Iranian government, which denies that its nuclear program seeks to build a bomb, has responded by backing away from some of its commitments laid out in the deal.

Iran has been engaged for more than a year in negotiations with Britain, Germany, France, Russia, and China directly -- and the United States indirectly -- to revive the deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

A revamped deal was reportedly close in March, but the talks in Vienna then abruptly stalled in April with Tehran and Washington blaming each other for failing to take the necessary political decisions to settle remaining issues.

In early June, Tehran said it had started removing 27 surveillance cameras from nuclear sites across the country, further reducing the West's ability to monitor Iran's nuclear program.

The EU's nuclear talks envoy, Enrique Mora, posted a photo late on June 23 of a dinner he was attending in Brussels with Borrell and Robert Malley, the U.S. special envoy to the talks.

Mora said Malley reiterated Washington's "firm commitment to come back to the deal."
Hossein Taeb, a hard-line cleric, was the intelligence chief of Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the elite branch of the armed forces, for over a decade. But in a surprise move, the IRGC announced on June 23 that it had removed Taeb from his prominent post.

The major shake-up in the IRGC's intelligence apparatus comes after a series of recent incidents inside Iran, including sabotage and cyberattacks, assassinations, and the mysterious killings of IRGC members as well as scientists and engineers.

Tehran has blamed some of the incidents on Israel, its regional foe.

The IRGC said Taeb would be replaced by General Mohammad Kazemi, who was previously in charge of the IRGC's Intelligence Protection Unit, which focuses on surveillance within the force.

The IRGC did not say why Taeb, who had held the post since 2009, was removed. It added that Taeb had been appointed as an adviser to IRGC chief Major General Hossein Salami, suggesting he was demoted.

Analysts say Taeb's removal appears to be linked to an internal power struggle within the IRGC, as well as mounting concerns over the possible penetration of Iran's security apparatus by Israel, which has intensified its shadow war against the Islamic republic in recent months.

Raz Zimmt, a research associate at Tel Aviv University, says Iran's failure to thwart a series of suspected Israeli attacks, including on its nuclear and military facilities and personnel, likely led to Taeb's dismissal.

"Israel's successes not only in the nuclear field but in other areas required the Iranian leadership to reevaluate its intelligence and security systems, and make some personnel changes, including Taeb," Zimmt told RFE/RL.

Concerns have been raised over the possible infiltration of Irans security apparatus following the November 2020 assassination of the country's top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, near Tehran. Last month, Hassan Sayad Khodaei, a colonel in the IRGC's overseas arm, the Quds Force, was killed by gunmen outside his home in the capital.

Tehran has blamed both killings on Israel, which is also believed to have been behind the assassinations of at least five Iranian nuclear scientists in the past decade.

'Infighting Within The IRGC'

Analysts say Taeb's removal could also be a sign of growing divisions in the IRGC and among the country's hard-line political faction.

"It cannot be ruled out that Taeb's political rivals in the supreme leader's office, the IRGC, Intelligence Ministry, and parliament have sought to take advantage of recent security failures in Iran to bring about his removal from office," Zimmt added.

Berlin-based analyst Ehsan Mehrabi says reshuffles in Iran's security and intelligence apparatus are usually driven by internal calculations rather than outside factors.

"There have been several incidents suggesting that there is infighting within the IRGC, including the leak of an audio recording of IRGC commanders or the recent arrest of the managers of [pro-establishment] Telegram channels," Mehrabi told RFE/RL. "All of this demonstrates behind-the-scenes divisions and the replacement of Taeb could be another [sign] of it."

In recent months, the Islamic republic has been rocked by several embarrassing leaks, including an audio recording obtained by RFE/RL's Radio Farda in which officials can be heard discussing corruption investigations within the IRGC.

In the audio recording leaked in February, one of the officials suggests that Taeb had lobbied in favor of then-Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, who faced accusations of corruption.

Qalibaf, who is currently the speaker of parliament, was the target of another damaging leak in April when images of his family's reported shopping spree in Turkey were posted on social media, triggering widespread outrage at a time when many Iranians are struggling to make ends meet.

On June 15, the IRGC announced the arrests of the administrators of three hard-line Telegram channels believed to have links to the clerical establishment.

The three unnamed individuals were charged with publishing "classified documents" and "disturbing the public opinion." The IRGC accused them of creating "discord" among officials by publishing "selective and false news."

'Consequential Dismissal'

Taeb, who is blacklisted by the United States and European Union for his alleged role in state repression, worked in the office of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei before he was appointed as the IRGC's intelligence chief.

Mehrabi says Taeb is believed to be close to Mojtaba Khamenei, the influential son of the supreme leader who has been mentioned as a possible successor to his elderly father.

"This is why [Taeb's] removal is so significant," Mehrabi said.



Mohammad Ali Abtahi, who served as a vice president under former reformist President Mohammad Khatami, said on Twitter that change was "necessary" following "Israeli infiltrations."

Abtahi expressed hope that Taeb's successor will be able to prevent foreign intelligence services from penetrating Iran's security apparatus.

Hard-line politician Hamid Rasaee said Taeb's removal was "the most consequential dismissal" since Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri lost his status as Khomeini's hand-picked successor and deputy. The dissident theologian, who spent five years under house arrest, died in 2009.

Other hard-liners welcomed Kazemi's appointment and praised him for "living a simple life" as well as what they described as his "sincerity" and "decisiveness."

Kazemi, known as Haj Kazem, has kept a low-profile. Few of his photos have been made public. The IRGC said Kazemi had "extensive experience" in security and intelligence affairs.

The IRGC's intelligence branch, in its current form, was created in 2009 soon after the disputed presidential election that year triggered mass protests and a brutal state crackdown.

The feared branch has been allegedly involved in the arrests of scores of activists, conservationists, and alleged spies as well as foreigners and dual nationals. It has been accused of arresting individuals on trumped-up charges and extracting confessions under duress.



The IRGC's intelligence branch has expanded its activities in recent years amid reports of its growing rivalry with the Intelligence Ministry.
A viral video of male and female teenagers at a skateboarding day in the southern city of Shiraz has angered Iranian officials, who have arrested 10 participants for their role in the event.

The video, which was posted on social media on June 23, shows several teenagers of both sexes mixing freely on a boulevard in Shiraz to mark "Go Skateboarding Day."

The hijab became compulsory in Iran in public for females over the age of 9 following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Many Iranian women have flouted the rule over the years and pushed the boundaries of what officials say is acceptable clothing.

Many have publicly criticized the restrictions and a large number of the females in the video were not wearing headscarves.



The Mehr news agency reported, quoting Shiraz Governor Lotfollah Sheibani, that "so far 10 people who organized the event have been arrested."



"The main organizer of the event has also been identified and action has been taken to arrest him based on judicial authorities," Sheibani said.



"The actions of the teenagers in this gathering are a violation of religious norms, and we strongly condemn these actions and deal with them judicially" he added.

In recent years, Iranian adolescents have repeatedly challenged the regime's efforts to control various aspects of social life.



Iranian media reported last weekend that police had arrested 120 people for alleged "criminal acts," including drinking alcohol, mixed-sex dancing, and not wearing a hijab at a party in a forest in the country's north.

With writing and reporting by Ardeshir Tayebi
In Central Asia, power and wealth are often kept and passed down in a family. But the concept of blood ties goes beyond immediate or extended family members. Political alliances and influential clans are also organized around tribal or regional kinship, which goes back centuries to the times when todays Central Asian nations were a group of separate tribes.

These days, clan politics is blamed for being a driving force behind rampant nepotism, regional division, and wealth inequality in the region. But for ordinary people, these kinship-based networks are often a source of social cohesion and mutual support.

Simple questions such Which part of the country are you from? or Where is your family from? or What tribe do you belong to? allow the asking party to almost build a mini-profile of another persons roots, any shared blood relations, and even character traits attributed to that particular tribe.

In a live discussion on June 23, I spoke with Shalkar Nurseitov, a political analyst from Kazakhstan, about the role of tribalism and kinship in the present and the future of his country.

Unfortunately, our second announced speaker, Kyrgyz anthropologist Aksana Ismailbekova, couldnt join due to technical issues.

Some key takeaways:

Shalkar Nurseitov: In Kazakhstan, we have three zhuzes: Ender Zhuz, Middle Zhuz, and Junior Zhuz. There is no consensus among historians on their history, but there are some theories. [...] There are stereotypes. For example, it is believed that the representatives of the Elder zhuz should lead the country and occupy main political positions. Theres a stereotype that members of Junior Zhuz tend to be more aggressive and protest all the time. In the past 30 years, most of political protests actually took place in western Kazakhstan, which is occupied by the tribes of Junior Zhuz.

Tribalism plays a great role in politics and business but in daily life people are not concerned about kinship division. They consider this question when they get married because its very important to marry someone who doesnt belong to your tribe. Most of the people in Kazakhstan can recite seven generations. But for the most [part], especially those living in cities, kinship division is not important in daily life. Because of capitalism, new social rules, social media, or news consumption, people are getting, in my view, less concerned about tribalism.

Listen to the full conversation here:

Read more on the subject from RFE/RL:

A Powerful Kyrgyz Clans Political Play

Nepotism And Dynasty In Central Asian Politics

Nonstop Nepotism: Uzbek President's Son-In-Law Named MMA Chief In Latest Sign Of Creeping Family Control

Its Media Muzzled, Tajikistan Prepares To Extend Ruling Family's Grip On Power

Is A Battle For Power Raging Within Kazakhstan's Government?

Follow @RFERL on Twitter so as not to miss our regular conversations on life and social change in Central Asia every Thursday at 3 p.m. in Prague/9 a.m. in Washington (7 p.m. local time in Bishkek/Almaty/Astana, and 6 p.m. local time in Tashkent/Dushanbe/Ashgabat).
Families of people killed during a crackdown by police against protesters in Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous region say they still don't know how and why their loved ones were killed. United Nations officials believe that as many as 40 people were killed in May by the security forces.
Ukraine's top general has told his U.S. counterpart that his country desperately needs "fire parity" with Russia to "stabilize" the difficult situation in the east, where Kyiv's forces have suffered setbacks against Moscow's troops backed by powerful artillery bombardments.

"We discussed the operational situation and the delivery flow of international technical assistance," General Valeriy Zaluzhniy wrote in an online posting after holding a phone call on June 24 with General Mark Milley, the U.S. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Kyiv has received billions of dollars in aid from its Western partners since Moscow's unprovoked invasion began on February 24.

But they say much more is needed as Russia, bolstered by an advantage in artillery power, continued its grinding advance focused on encircling Ukraine's last pocket of resistance in the eastern Luhansk region.

Hirske, a key district south of the city of Lysychansk, was "fully occupied" by Russian forces as of the morning on June 24, local officials said on television, as Ukrainian forces were also about to abandon their last positions in the city of Syevyerodonetsk.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's ongoing invasion, how Kyiv is fighting back, the plight of civilians and refugees, and Western aid and reaction. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.

"Unfortunately, as of today...the entire Hirske district is occupied," Hirske's municipal head, Oleksiy Babchenko, said on television. "There are some insignificant, local battles going on at the outskirts, but the enemy has entered."

The loss of Hirske and several other settlements around it leaves Lysychansk, some 35 kilometers to the north, in danger of being surrounded from three sides by advancing Russian forces.

A regional official said early on June 24 that Ukrainian forces were pulling out of Syevyerodonetsk in the face of Russia's continued onslaught, which would make Lysychansk, across the Siverskiy Donets River, the last major Ukrainian-controlled city in Luhansk.

Russia was on the verge of capturing Syevyerodonetsk following weeks of house-to-house battles against Ukrainian defenders, who were gradually dislodged by relentless heavy artillery fire that has turned the city into ruins.

"Remaining in positions smashed to pieces over many months just for the sake of staying there does not make sense," Serhiy Hayday, the head of the Luhansk region military administration, said on television.

He said troops had already received the order to move to new positions, but didn't indicate if they had already done so or where they were going.

Hayday also wrote on the Telegram messaging app that Russia had taken control of the village of Mykolayivka, located near a key highway to Lysychansk, where Ukrainian troops managed to repel a Russian attack on the southern outskirts of the city.

A U.S. military official told reporters in a briefing that, while Washington did not want to downplay Ukrainian losses in lives or property, recent gains by Russian forces appear to have been "limited."

"What [Ukrainian troops] are doing is putting themselves in a position where they can better defend themselves."

"The Russians are just eking out inch by inch of territory here. And I think it's important to reflect on the cost that Russia has paid for this very small, very incremental gain," the official added.

Four months after the start of Moscow's unprovoked invasion of its neighbor, the fierce fighting has stretched both sides' personnel and equipment resources to the limit, with Kyiv repeatedly pleading with the West for more heavy weapons and Russia facing increasing difficulties in bringing qualified personnel to the front line.

Britain's Ministry of Defense, meanwhile, said in its daily intelligence bulletin on June 24 that a Russian pilot captured earlier this month after his plane was shot down confessed to his Ukrainian captors that he was a retired Air Force major now working as a mercenary for the Vagner Group, a private Russian military company with ties to the Kremlin.

British intelligence suggested that the use of retired personnel and private contractors in air operations indicated a shortage of trained Russian aircrews.

That, the bulletin said, could be the consequence of a combination of Russias insufficient numbers of suitably trained personnel and its combat losses. Furthermore, the use of commercial GPS systems on Vagner's aircraft indicated a lack of up-to-date avionics equipment, it said.

The White House late on June 23 announced additional military aid for Kyiv, including four more HIMARS long-range multiple-rocket launchers, tens of thousands of rounds of artillery ammunition, and patrol boats. The value of the package was $450 million, White House spokesman John Kirby said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked the United States for the continued military support.

"We're grateful to [U.S. President Joe Biden] and the American people for the decision to provide another $450 million defense aid package to Ukraine," he wrote on Twitter on June 24.

"This support, including additional HIMARS, is now more important than ever. By joint efforts we will free Ukrainian land from the Russian aggressor!" he concluded.

However, two officials with direct knowledge of U.S. intelligence assessments told CNN that Russian forces were slowly gaining an advantage in eastern Ukraine. The Russians have learnt from mistakes made earlier in the invasion, and are now better coordinating air and ground attacks and improving logistics and supply lines, the officials said.

One victory Kyiv celebrated on June 23 was the announcement by EU leaders meeting in Brussels that the bloc had formally agreed to take the historic step of making Ukraine and Moldova candidates for EU membership.

The move was hailed by the leaders of the two countries, while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said there can be "no better sign of hope" for the citizens of the countries "in these troubled times."

"This is a victory," a smiling Zelenskiy said in a brief video posted to his Instagram channel, noting that Ukraine had waited 30 years for this moment.

"We can defeat the enemy, rebuild Ukraine, join the EU, and then we can rest," he added.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, BBC, CNN, and TASS
At an annual economic forum in St. Petersburg, President Vladimir Putin sought to justify the invasion of Ukraine and portray Russia as a constructive force in the world. But the destruction and death continued, Moscow faced accusations of exacerbating world hunger, and Ukraine took a step toward joining the European Union.

Here are some of the key developments in Russia over the past week and some of the takeaways going forward.

Behind The Scenes

St. Petersburg is Putins hometown, and its also the site of some of his most assiduous image-making -- at once stage, set, and prop for events he has used, over nearly 23 years as president or prime minister, to showcase Russia and his rule.

The columns, churches, and canals of the city at the eastern edge of the Baltic Sea, and its history as Tsar Peter the Greats window on the West, make a beautiful backdrop for Putins efforts to portray Russia as a modern country that is open for business  and as a power that deserves a say, or even sway, in European and global affairs.

But over the years, the showcase events have been marred by what is not on show, by what is happening offstage, behind the scenes.

In May 2003, Putin hosted foreign leaders at tricentennial celebrations that aimed, an Associated Press reporter wrote at the time, to promote Russia as a cornerstone of the international community and restore St. Petersburg's glory after decades of Soviet-era decline.

But behind the freshly painted facades, another Russia lurked: Invisible from the street, the courtyards of the citys apartment buildings remained a mess, and squalor persisted in the communal apartments in the stately old structures downtown and in the dilapidated Soviet-era housing projects further out.

Meanwhile, Putins Russia was still in an early stage of development. For example, this was five months before the arrest of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whose imprisonment was one of the most prominent symbols of Putins rule. It was about nine months before a brutal hate crime that showed an ugly side of the country: the fatal stabbing of Khursheda Sultanova, a 9-year-old girl of Tajik ethnicity, in one of the courtyards of St. Petersburg. And it was a more than a year before Putin, after suicide bombers brought down two passenger jets and militants staged a deadly attack on a school in the southern town of Beslan, curtailed civil rights and political pluralism in what would turn out to be a step in a clampdown that has continued -- and escalated, in many ways -- to this day.

Ten years later, in September 2013, Putin hosted a Group of 20 (G20) summit at an Imperial-era palace outside St. Petersburg.

Ten Years After

The tenor of ties with the West was much changed from 2003: U.S. President Barack Obamas reset with Moscow had soured amid a growing number of disputes over issues including NATO strikes on Libya in 2011, the war in Syria, and the further curtailment of rights and democracy in Russia.

Putin, who publicly accused the United States of inciting a wave of street protests among Russians angry over evidence of election fraud and dismayed at his return to the presidency, was back in the Kremlin after a four-year stint as prime minister.

Putins government was pursuing charges against alleged participants in a protest at which police clashed with protesters on Moscows Bolotnaya Square on the eve of his inauguration in May 2012 -- a wave of prosecutions that set the stage for the mounting clampdown that has marked Putins last two terms.

Opposition politician Aleksei Navalny had been sentenced to five years in prison that July after a politically charged trial, but the sentence was suspended hours later, enabling him to run in the Moscow mayoral election in September, a few days after the G20 summit.

Over the years, meanwhile, the main event Putin has used to court investment and portray Russia as a leading player in the world economy and the global community has been the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, which he has attended every year since 2005.

He did so again last week, lashing out repeatedly at the United States and the European Union in his address on June 17 and asserting that Russia is building a new world order, but hitting some of the same notes he has at past editions of the event -- this time courting countries outside the West.

Russias first principle is openness, he claimed, adding that it will never follow the road of self-isolation and, on the contrary, is expanding cooperation with all those who are interested in it, who want to work with us, and will continue to do so.

This time, the other Russia that remained off stage, behind the curtain, went far beyond the courtyards of St. Petersburg: It extended across the country, where the state stepped up its clampdown on civil society, independent media, and all forms of dissent in 2020 and has ramped it up further since Putin launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine four months ago.

Navalny, arrested upon his return to Russia in January 2021 following treatment abroad for a near-fatal nerve-agent poisoning he blames on Putin, is now serving a nine-year sentence on what he calls absurd, politically motivated charges, and was moved this month to a high-security penitentiary where his relatives and supporters fear for his life.

Altered States

The war on Ukraine has swiftly changed Russia, resulting in unprecedented Western sanctions and the withdrawal of countless companies such as McDonalds, Nike, and Ikea, and economic troubles that promise to be lasting and severe. Tens of thousands of Russians have left the country, fearing for their future in their isolated homeland, disgusted by the war, or both.

And, of course, the other Russia has extended to Ukraine itself, where the unprovoked invasion has killed thousands of people, forced millions from their homes -- many of them now destroyed as Moscows military has bombarded cities and towns nationwide -- and caused incalculable suffering, with more to come.

Putin mentioned the war in Ukraine in his address at the forum, but only to repeat his attempts to justify it without providing evidence to support his arguments -- and in some cases relying on outright falsehoods, such as his claim that Kyiv has been committing genocide in the eastern Donbas region.

Starting with his insistence on calling the war a special military operation to liberate the Donbas, there was a deep disconnect between Putins remarks and the reality of the devastation Russia has wreaked upon Ukraine.

Mariupol, a largely Russian-speaking Donbas city of 450,000 people before the February invasion, has been razed by Russian bombardments and street battles. Fierce fighting is now ravaging other parts of the Donbas as Russia presses to advance in the region. Some residents have been forcibly evacuated to Russia, and survivors have given numerous accounts of the horrors of the assault.

Trail Of Destruction

The same is true of other areas that have been attacked or held by Russian forces, whom Ukraine has accused of committing war crimes in various parts of the country including towns and cities around Kyiv and to the north, where the invading army left a trail of destruction and alleged atrocities as it retreated after failing to take the capital.

Russia is accused of blocking exports of grain from Ukraine, exacerbating what many call a global food crisis. A war against a country whose people Putin has claimed are one with Russians has brought Ukrainians together as never before and is likely to leave ties between the two countries in tatters for decades or more.

Ukraine, along with Moldova, was granted European Union candidate status on June 23, at an EU summit. Sweden and Finland, which shares a long border with Russia, have applied for NATO membership and may join the Western military alliance this year.

And Russians, three decades after the life-altering turmoil of the Soviet Unions collapse, face a protracted period of deep uncertainty -- economic and otherwise -- once again.
PJSC ALROSA (the Company) provides the following update on the coupon payment of $7,750,000 due 25 June 2022 on $500,000,000 Eurobonds issued by Alrosa Finance S.A. (Luxembourg) (the Issuer) and maturing in 2027.

The Issuer has two outstanding Eurobond issues for $500,000,000 each with maturities in 2024 and 2027 and annual coupon rates of 4.65% and 3.1%, respectively, with the Company acting as the guarantor for both (the Notes).

The Company remains financially sustainable and, as a trustworthy capital market player, confirms that it is ready to fully meet its obligations under the Notes and has the necessary funds. ALROSAs Net Debt / EBITDA ratio as at the end of 2021 was 0.4x.

However, circumstances beyond the Companys control prevent the upcoming $7,750,000 coupon payment on the 2027 Notes.

The US and UK sanctions against the Company

On 24 March 2022, the UK imposed blocking sanctions against ALROSA, freezing the Company's assets.

The US enacted blocking sanctions against the Company on 7 April 2022, including it in the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list.

Under the US and UK sanctions laws, these restrictive measures apply to the Issuer as the Companys subsidiary, affecting its activities.

The impact of sanctions on the fulfillment of obligations under the Notes

Due to the sanctions imposed on the Company and the Issuer, as well as other restrictive measures introduced by the US, EU and UK against the Russian Federation and Russian entities, foreign counterparties and companies processing Note payments are currently unable to process such payments for the Company and the Issuer. Therefore, it is currently impossible to make payments on the Notes. In particular, Euroclear and Clearstream, which are the European clearing centres for the Notes, stopped processing transactions with Russias National Settlement Depository (the NSD) due to the EUs blocking sanctions against the NSD imposed on 3 June 2022. DTC, the US clearing centre for the Notes, took a similar approach.

The Company is fully committed to its payment obligations under the Notes and will immediately and duly meet them with respect to all Note holders equally once the regulatory restrictions are lifted.

The Company makes every effort to protect the interests of the Note holders.

Specifically, on 29 March 2022, ALROSA filed an application with the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (the OFSI) for a special license allowing the Company to make coupon payments on the Notes in line with the issue documents (the Application). The OFSI license would allow UK financial institutions and other entities subject to UK sanctions, including the principal paying agent, to conduct normal processing of payments to Note holders. As of today, we have not received the OFSI license.
Xi hosts 14th BRICS Summit, stresses importance of fostering high-quality partnership

EditorLi Weichao Time2022-06-24 10:24:18

Chinese President Xi Jinping hosts the 14th BRICS Summit via video link in Beijing, capital of China, June 23, 2022. Xi delivered remarks titled "Fostering High-quality Partnership and Embarking on a New Journey of BRICS Cooperation" at the summit. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

BEIJING, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping chaired the 14th BRICS Summit on Thursday evening in Beijing via video link. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the Summit.

President Xi made welcoming remarks first. He noted that over the past year, despite formidable and complex circumstances, BRICS countries have embraced the BRICS spirit of openness, inclusiveness and win-win cooperation, enhanced solidarity and coordination and jointly addressed difficulties.

He said the BRICS mechanism has demonstrated resilience and vitality. BRICS cooperation has achieved sound progress and results. This Summit is held at a critical juncture in the shaping of the future course of humanity. BRICS countries, as important emerging markets and major developing countries, need to act with a sense of responsibility, speak out for equity and justice, remain firm in the conviction that the pandemic will be defeated, pool strength for economic recovery, advocate sustainable development, jointly contribute wisdom and ideas to the high-quality development of BRICS cooperation and bring positive, stabilizing and constructive strength to the world.

President Xi delivered an important speech titled "Fostering High-quality Partnership and Embarking on a New Journey of BRICS Cooperation".

Xi pointed out that our world today is living through accelerating changes unseen in a century and continued spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. They confront humanity with unprecedented challenges. Over the past 16 years, the giant ship of BRICS has sailed forward tenaciously against raging torrents and storms. Riding the wind and cleaving the waves, it has embarked on a righteous course of mutual support and win-win cooperation. Standing at the crossroads of history, we should both look back at the journey we have traveled and keep in mind why we established BRICS in the first place, and look forward to a shared future of a more comprehensive, close, practical and inclusive high-quality partnership so as to jointly embark on a new journey of BRICS cooperation.

First, we need to uphold solidarity and safeguard world peace and tranquility. Some countries attempt to expand military alliances to seek absolute security, stoke bloc-based confrontation by coercing other countries into picking sides, and pursue unilateral dominance at the expense of others' rights and interests. If such dangerous trends are allowed to continue, the world will witness even more turbulence and insecurity. It is important that BRICS countries support each other on issues concerning core interests, practice true multilateralism, safeguard justice, fairness and solidarity and reject hegemony, bullying and division. China would like to work with BRICS partners to operationalize the Global Security Initiative (GSI), advocate a vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, create a new path to security that features dialogue over confrontation, partnership over alliance and win-win over zero-sum, and bring more stability and positive energy to the world.

Second, we need to uphold cooperation to boost development and jointly tackle risks and challenges. The combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine crisis has cast shadows over development worldwide, and emerging markets and developing countries bear the brunt. But just as a crisis may bring chaos, it can also spur change. A lot will ride on how we handle the crisis. BRICS countries should boost connectivity of industrial and supply chains and jointly meet challenges in poverty reduction, agriculture, energy, logistics and other fields. We should support greater development of the New Development Bank and improve the Contingent Reserve Arrangement to cement the BRICS financial safety net and firewall. We should also expand BRICS cooperation on cross-border payment and credit rating to facilitate trade, investment and financing among our countries. China stands ready to work with BRICS partners to add more substance to the Global Development Initiative (GDI), re-energize the implementation of the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, build a global community of development, and contribute to stronger, greener and healthier global development.

Third, we need to uphold the pioneering spirit and innovation and unleash the potential and vitality of cooperation. Those who seek to create monopoly, blockade and barriers in science and technology in order to disrupt other countries' innovation and development and hold on to their dominant position are doomed to fail. We need to improve global science and technology governance and allow more people to access and benefit from the fruits of scientific and technological advances. We have accelerated the building of the BRICS Partnership on New Industrial Revolution Innovation Center, reached the Digital Economy Partnership Framework, and issued the Initiative for Cooperation on Digitalization of Manufacturing. All these have opened new channels for closer industrial policy coordination between BRICS countries. Recognizing the importance of talents in the digital age, we have set up the Alliance for Vocational Education to build a talent pool for stronger BRICS cooperation on innovation and entrepreneurship.

Fourth, we need to uphold openness and inclusiveness and pool collective wisdom and strength. BRICS countries gather not in a closed club or an exclusive circle, but a big family of mutual support and a partnership for win-win cooperation. Over the past five years, we have organized a variety of "BRICS Plus" events in such areas as vaccine research and development, scientific and technological innovation, people-to-people exchanges and sustainable development. All these provide new platforms for cooperation among emerging markets and developing countries, and set a prime example of South-South cooperation and seeking strength through unity among emerging markets and developing countries. Under the new circumstances, it is all the more important for BRICS countries to pursue development with open doors and boost cooperation with open arms. It is important to advance the process of BRICS membership expansion to allow like-minded partners to become part of the BRICS family at an early date. This will inject new vitality into BRICS cooperation and increase the representativeness and influence of BRICS.

He stressed that as representatives of emerging markets and developing countries, we must make the right decision and take responsible actions at this critical juncture of history. What we do will have a significant impact on the world. Let us stay united, pool strength and forge ahead to build a community with a shared future for mankind and jointly create a bright future for humanity.

The leaders attending the summit thanked China for hosting this event and the efforts it made for promoting BRICS cooperation. They believed that facing international uncertainties, BRICS countries should strengthen solidarity, carry forward the BRICS spirit, consolidate strategic partnership and jointly respond to various challenges so that BRICS cooperation can reach a new level and play a bigger role in international affairs.

Under the theme of "Foster High-quality BRICS Partnership, Usher in a New Era for Global Development", leaders of the five countries held in-depth exchange of views on BRICS cooperation in various sectors and major issues of common concern and reached important consensus. They agreed on the need to stay committed to multilateralism, work for greater democracy in global governance, safeguard fairness and justice, and inject stability and positive energy into the turbulent international landscape.

They agreed on the need to jointly respond to COVID-19, give full play to such mechanisms as the BRICS Vaccine R&D Center, promote fair and equitable distribution of vaccines, and enhance preparedness in the face of public health crises.

They agreed on the need to deepen practical economic cooperation, firmly defend the multilateral trading system, work to foster an open world economy, oppose unilateral sanctions and "long-arm jurisdiction", strengthen cooperation in such fields as digital economy, technological innovation, industrial and supply chains, food and energy security, and jointly promote world economic recovery.

They agreed on the need to promote shared global development, give priority to addressing the most pressing needs of developing countries, eradicate poverty and hunger, address the challenge posed by climate change together, expand the application of such technologies as aerospace and big data in the field of development, accelerate the implementation of the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and make BRICS contribution to jointly ushering in a new era of global development.

They agreed on the need to strengthen people-to-people and cultural exchange and mutual learning and forge more signature projects in various sectors including think tanks, political parties, media and sports.

They also agreed on the need to pursue "BRICS Plus" cooperation at more levels, in broader areas and within a greater scope, actively advance the BRICS membership expansion process, keep BRICS abreast of the times, increase its appeal and relevance, and constantly strive for substantive, solid and sustained progress.

The XIV BRICS Summit Beijing Declaration was adopted and released at the event.

The BRICS leaders were also briefed by representatives of relevant BRICS cooperation mechanisms on their work.

Ding Xuexiang, Wang Yi and He Lifeng, among others, attended the Summit.

Chinese President Xi Jinping hosts the 14th BRICS Summit via video link in Beijing, capital of China, June 23, 2022. Xi delivered remarks titled "Fostering High-quality Partnership and Embarking on a New Journey of BRICS Cooperation" at the summit. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the summit. (Xinhua/Li Tao)
A thunderstorm event last week with 67,000 lightning bolts captivated Californians, who anxiously tracked the monsoon and hoped it wouldnt ignite any catastrophic fires.

Data from the National Lightning Detection Network shows the storm largely outdid the number of lightning strikes that touched down in August 2020 and devastated parts of Northern California.

https://twitter.com/COweatherman/status/1539970993250193409

Tuesdays storm traveled from the Mexico border to the northern San Joaquin Valley and west to the Big Sur coast. It carried with it lightning that ignited the Thunder Fire  which has since burned more than 2,300 acres in Kern County  and dozens of other smaller fires throughout the state.

Still, California was spared from a repeat of August 2020.

Then, a monsoon event touched down  after days of exceptionally hot and dry conditions  and brought at least 15,000 lightning bolts with it. Historic blazes exploded across the state, including the SCU, LNU and CZU Lightning Complex fires, which in total burned at least 2 million acres in just three weeks.

Last weeks weather conditions could have coalesced to create far more destructive firestorms.

But that didnt happen, in part because the storm delivered moisture and raised humidity levels, UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain explained.

The storms this time around brought more precipitation; not very much, but more than zero, and it turns out thats very important in terms of fire impacts, Swain said.

And though the event produced some dry lightning, it was mostly a wet storm, unlike the one in 2020.

If you only have dry lightning and you have soil that is as dry as California is right now, it is more likely to spark a fire, said Jose Martinez-Claros, a postdoctoral scholar at UC San Diegos Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The moisture is what explains it.

While the state faces mounting impacts from a historic multi-year drought, and vegetation in some places has dried out to levels normally seen in mid-summer, its still relatively early in the fire season.

Fuels are dry enough to carry wildfire  as last week has shown  but Swain said in many parts of the state green plants are interspersed with dry, dead vegetation. Some plants and trees are still holding onto water, just coming off the cusp of transition from spring to summer. That mixture makes a difference, he said.

Weve gotten so used to everything turning out to be the worst case scenario when it comes to wildfire  but the reason for that is how insanely dry the vegetation has been in recent years, Swain said. We just happen to be in a brief period where its not too bad.

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.

Leading up to the 2020 CZU Complex fires, large swaths of Northern and Central California experienced days of record-breaking heat.

While just last week Northern California and the wider Bay Area saw temperatures that rose to the triple digits and toppled records, the recent heat wave still wasnt as severe as what took place two years ago.

Thunderstorms are rare in California, particularly on the coast, said Swain, who added that even more unusual are storms that produce tens of thousands of strikes, like the event last week. The fact that this thunderstorm arrived in June, as opposed to August or autumn, was also fortunate. Peak fire season is yet to come.

If there is a lightning event in July, August or September this year, that may well be a completely different story, Swain said. In this moment, I think we got kind of lucky.

Hannah Hagemann (she/her) and Annie Vainshtein (she/her) are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: hannah.hagemann@sfchronicle.com, avainshtein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hannah_hagemann, @annievain
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Napa County prosecutors have charged Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, with driving under the influence of alcohol and causing injury in connection with a May crash in Napa County, authorities announced on Thursday.

The Napa County district attorneys office issued on Thursday a criminal complaint and announced Pelosis charges, which also include driving with a 0.08% blood alcohol content level or higher and causing injury, district attorneys officials said in a statement.

Paul Pelosis spokesperson declined to comment Thursday evening.

Pelosi, 82, was arrested shortly before midnight on May 28 on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol after California Highway Patrol officials said he was involved in a crash while behind the wheel of a 2021 Porsche on Highway 29 and Oakville Cross Road.

California Highway Patrol officials said at the time that Pelosi drove the vehicle into the intersection  located north of the town of Yountville  and was struck by a 2014 Jeep. The criminal complaint said both vehicles sustained major collision damage from the crash. CHP officials determined that Pelosi was the proximate cause of the collision, the criminal complaint said.

Highway Patrol officers who responded to the scene observed objective signs and symptoms of alcohol intoxication coming from Mr. Pelosi, referring to Pelosis eyes that appeared to be red and watery, noted that he was unsteady on his feet, his speech was slurred, and there was an odor of alcohol emanating from his breath, according to the criminal complaint.

He also reportedly showed signs of impairment during a field sobriety test, the criminal complaint reads.

A blood sample taken from Pelosi at 12:32 a.m., shortly after he was arrested, recorded a 0.082% blood alcohol content, district attorneys officials said. The sample was tested at the California Department of Justice, authorities said.

According to a statement provided by his spokesperson in May, Pelosi had been traveling on Highway 29 after having dinner with a friend when a Jeep hit the Porsches rear fender.

A spokesperson representing Speaker Pelosi has previously declined to comment through her spokesperson Drew Hammill, who said, The Speaker will not be commenting on this private matter which occurred while she was on the East Coast.

The district attorneys office filed the charges  which could have been either misdemeanor or felony  as misdemeanor charges, based upon the extent of the injuries suffered by the victim, district attorneys officials said.

The victim reported pain to his arm, shoulder and neck in the day after the crash, and told district attorneys investigators that he was experiencing headaches that had not been present prior to the collision, according to the criminal complaint.

This decision is consistent with how our office handles these cases with similar injuries, district attorneys officials said in a statement.

If convicted of misdemeanor driving under the influence and causing injury, Pelosi could face a minimum of five days in jail, up to five years of probation, an installation of an ignition interlock device in his vehicle, a court-ordered drinking driver class, fines and fees and any other terms, authorities 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.

District attorneys officials said Pelosi was released from custody upon his promise to appear for an arraignment on Aug. 3.

In early June, District Attorney Allison Haley said that the district attorneys office had not yet decided whether or not to charge Pelosi in connection to the crash, but noted that Pelosi agreed to appear court on Aug. 3.

Days after Pelosis arrest, the Napa County District Attorneys Office said it had received more than 1,500 angry calls over the course of a 24-hour period after a number of right-wing figures and news outlets falsely reported misinformation about Pelosis arrest, including a unsubstantiated rumor that his DUI charges were dropped.

Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert inaccurately stated, without evidence, that Pelosis charges had been dropped. Boebert questioned on Twitter, Is anyone really surprised? Donald Trump, Jr., the son of former President Donald Trump, also repeated fake rumors that Pelosi would not be charged or face any consequence in connection with the crash.

In response to the flood of calls, Henry Wofford, a spokesperson for the Napa County Sheriffs Office, said at the time that District Attorney Allison Haley would treat Pelosi just like everyone else and shot down false rumors that Gov. Gavin Newsom contacted the district attorneys office about Pelosis case.

Lauren Hernandez (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: lauren.hernandez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ByLHernandez
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The Supreme Courts decision to strip women of the constitutional right to an abortion will not have an immediate effect in California on access to the procedure, but it creates major uncertainty for Bay Area companies that have employees spread across states.

With abortions likely to become illegal in about half of U.S. states, companies and employees have to navigate a thicket of legal questions. Those include whether and how to provide travel benefits for those who now need to go out of state to get an abortion, what happens when they return and potential lawsuits employees and companies face for helping a person get an abortion elsewhere in states where abortions are illegal.

Its become a hugely complicated quagmire which companies are going to have to take step by step and sort through as time goes on, said San Jose State University School of Business Adjunct Professor Mark Schwartz.

Beyond covering travel expenses, companies are also limited in the help they can offer.

Tammy Sun, CEO of San Francisco company Carrot, which helps employers and health plans offer a range of fertility benefits, said in a statement that people, employers and health plans face new and unprecedented challenges, as a result of the decision.

Moving forward, Carrot will provide the option for our customers to add coverage for travel expenses related to fertility care for both nonviable pregnancies and abortion in the U.S., and use its payments system to process and validate those claims, Sun said.

Some companies have already moved ahead with those kinds of offerings.

We intend to offer travel expense reimbursements, to the extent permitted by law, for employees who will need them to access out-of-state health care and reproductive services, a spokesperson for Meta, formerly Facebook, said in an email. We are in the process of assessing how best to do so given the legal complexities involved.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said on Twitter that CEOs have a responsibility to take care of their employees, adding: Salesforce moves employees when they feel threatened or experience discrimination, without specifically mentioning abortion.

A Twitter spokesperson declined to comment in an email. Google and Apple did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comments. Apple has previously said it would cover travel expenses for abortions.

San Francisco companies including Box, Figma, Yelp and Levi Strauss & Co. have said they would cover travel or relocation expenses to get an abortion.

Expense software company Expensify Chief Financial Officer Ryan Schaffer told employees in a Slack message Friday that in light of the news, If you are seeking a medical procedure that is unavailable in your area, the company will cover travel expenses to travel to an area where a specialist can fulfill your medical needs.

Schaffer said the change applies to anyone on company insurance, and that an employee did not have to be married to their significant other for them to get company coverage, too.

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara on Friday released an FAQ on how California law will continue to protect abortion access. Laras office said Medi-Cal and most private insurers will continue to be required to cover the procedures, affirmed insurers cannot discriminate against patients for having an abortion by changing rates, and if there is no local in-network provider that can perform the procedure, insurers have to help patients find one and only charge in-network rates.

Some states where abortion is now illegal have discussed punishing doctors for performing the procedure as well as women who receive abortions out of state upon their return.

Laws in states including Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri and South Dakota banning or criminalizing the procedure took effect on Friday as soon as the Supreme Court announced its decision.

The now fractured state-by-state landscape of abortion complicates offering travel benefits, since states could potentially take legal action against the employee or a medical provider, said Schwartz.

What about the medical care professional in Texas or the state who provides healthcare to the woman after the fact if there is a complication or they need follow-up care, he said.

Missouri lawmakers have also discussed allowing private citizens to sue anyone who helps a person get an abortion, including out-of-state-doctors and anyone who helps the person travel across state lines.

While lawmakers in Texas, where abortion will now be illegal, have signaled they want to make it unlawful for state residents to travel out of state to get the procedures, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the decision Friday that act was outside their power.

During a brief speech Friday, President Biden said the decision did not restrict a woman from traveling to another state to get an abortion, or a doctor there from treating her. He said if any state tries to interfere with those rights, I will do everything within my power to defend against that un-American act.

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Biden did not say what his administration would do to protect women once they had returned to their home state after traveling elsewhere to get the procedure.

Companies are also limited in the help they can give to their employees, Emily M. Dickens, chief of staff and head of government affairs at the Society for Human Resource management, said in a statement.

Dickens said the groups research showed about a quarter of companies agreed with letting employees use pretax dollars to travel to get an abortion, [b]ut how these policies interact with state laws is unclear, and employers should be aware of the legal risks involved.

Dickens said about a third of employers surveyed pointed to paid time off as the best benefit to handle the issue, and that more than a third of those surveyed would not be more likely to offer additional travel benefits for an employee to get an abortion elsewhere.

While wealthy, work-from-anywhere tech companies can afford to expand benefits to make up for the lack of abortion access, many poorer women who must live where they work wont have that privilege.

This does become an issue of the haves and the have-nots, Schwartz said. A tech company that relocated to Austin can hire people anywhere and move them around at will, but employees of a franchise of restaurants in Texas making minimum wage would not have that ability and could be hard pressed to come up with the funds to travel for the procedure, he said.

Access to abortion and all other personal reproductive choices is not only an issue of health and personal liberty, but also squarely an economic issue that determines the welfare of working women and their families, U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh said in a statement.

Those most affected by this decision are low-wage workers, immigrants and women of color who now have even fewer options for critical health care, California Labor Federation Executive Secretary-Treasurer Art Pulaski said in an emailed statement.

Biden agreed in his speech, saying because of the decision, Poor women are going to be hit the hardest.

Chase DiFeliciantonio is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: chase.difeliciantonio

@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ChaseDiFelice
The Supreme Court lessened the impact of its landmark Miranda ruling Thursday, saying that while police must still advise suspects of their right to remain silent and consult a lawyer, they cannot be sued for damages for failing to do so.

The court ruled 5-4 in 1966 that the constitutional rights to legal representation and against self-incrimination barred prosecutors from using evidence of statements by defendants who had not been advised of their rights while in police custody.

In now-familiar language, officers must advise anyone they have detained or arrested that You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you.

The court has rejected several attempts to reverse the ruling, striking down a federal law in 2000 that would have overturned Miranda. And lower courts, including the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, have allowed damage suits against officers whose failure to give Miranda warnings led to convictions and prison sentences or other harm to defendants.

But in a case from Los Angeles, the courts conservative majority said Thursday that a Miranda warning, while necessary to protect a suspects constitutional rights, does not amount to a constitutional right by itself, and therefore is not grounds for a suit against an officer who fails to issue the warning.

In the 6-3 ruling, Justice Samuel Alito said the Miranda decision found the warnings necessary to protect constitutional rights, but did not say they were constitutionally required. He noted that the court had narrowed the scope of the ruling in 1971, by allowing prosecutors to use non-Mirandized statements from defendants to contradict testimony they later gave at trial, and again in 1974, by letting prosecutors use those statements to find additional evidence they could present to a jury.

A violation of Miranda does not necessarily constitute a violation of the Constitution, Alito wrote. We see no justification for expanding Miranda to confer a right to sue under a federal law allowing damage claims for violations of constitutional rights.

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas joined Alitos opinion. In dissent, Justice Elena Kagan said the courts ruling in 2000, which left the earlier decision intact, had described Miranda warnings as a right protected by the Constitution.

Thursdays decision strips individuals of the ability to seek a remedy for violations of the right recognized in Miranda, said Kagan, joined by Justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor. She said the ruling leaves individuals without any compensation for the harm they suffered from wrongful admission of evidence, including years in prison in some cases.

The case involved Terence Tekoh, a nursing aide at a Los Angeles hospital, who was accused by a patient of sexual assault. Questioned by Sheriffs Deputy Carlos Vega, who did not issue a Miranda warning, Tekoh eventually issued a written apology for allegedly touching the patients genitals. The evidence was introduced at his trial, but a jury acquitted him.

Tekoh then sued Vega and others for damages, but a jury found in the officers favor after a federal judge refused to tell jurors the officer had violated Tekohs constitutional rights. The Ninth Circuit court overruled the judge and ordered a new trial, but the Supreme Court granted review of the countys appeal, and left the jurys verdict intact Thursday.

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.

President Bidens Justice Department sided with the officer and took part in oral arguments in April.

Paul Hoffman, Tekohs lawyer, said the ruling does not eliminate all grounds for a suit against officers for improper interrogation. Although a Miranda violation will no longer be the basis for damages, Tekoh and those in his situation can still try to prove they were coerced into confessing, said Hoffman, who will make another effort to get a new trial.

But Charles Weisselberg, a UC Berkeley law professor, warned that eliminating suits for Miranda violations would invite police to question suspects without any warnings. After the California Supreme Court ruled in 1988 that a recently approved ballot measure  sponsored by prosecutors  allowed juries to hear evidence obtained without Miranda warnings, he said, police statewide were trained to ignore the warnings, a practice that ended only when the Ninth Circuit authorized damage suits in 2000.

If the Supreme Court accepts the prosecutions argument in Tekohs case, Weisselberg said in a court filing for California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, Californias repudiated past will become the nations future.

The case is Vega v. Tekoh, 21-499.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko
The Supreme Court took pains to argue that its decision overturning Roe v. Wade does not threaten other rights to privacy and bodily autonomy, including the rights of same-sex couples to marry, men to have sex with other men and people to use contraception.

But four members of the court itself  in addition to LGBTQ activists and legal scholars, President Biden, and a host of Democratic officials  appear to disagree. The latter warned that the justices rationale for undoing Roe implies that the court is disturbingly willing to upend societal norms grounded in privacy law and revoke rights already granted to Americans.

Theyre not stopping at abortion, tweeted state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco. This is a battle for the soul of our nation & whether well remain a place where people get to be who we are & make decisions about our lives.

The sense of panic was exacerbated by a concurring opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas, arguing that the court should reconsider all its precedents related to marriage equality, anti-sodomy laws and contraception.

Thomas lone statement wasnt the only cause for alarm. In its 6-3 ruling, the courts conservative wing held that the right to obtain an abortion was not deeply rooted in the nations history and traditions, as the procedure wasnt legal in many states prior to the Roe decision in 1973, nearly 50 years ago.

Drew Angerer/TNS

Jennifer Pizer, law and policy director for Lambda Legal, the LGBTQ legal advocacy group, said the courts interpretation that privacy rights not spelled out in the text of the U.S. Constitution in 1792 dont exist is a bizarre and extreme view that undermines decades of modern legal precedent.

Most of us understand that the Constitution is a document that protects us in todays world, not in 1792, she said. Every American who thinks they have personal freedom should be alarmed by this decision.

Biden and Californias top Democratic officials also warned that the courts ruling marked a troubling new legal era for personal liberty in America. The president, speaking from the White House, said the decision risks the broader right to privacy for everyone because Roe was a basis for other foundational rulings.

Justice Thomas said as much today, Biden said. This (is an) extreme and dangerous path the court is now taking us on.

Gov. Gavin Newsom echoed that sense of anxiety. He said the ruling suggests that the court will likely take on a series of cases to aggressively assert itself in the middle of the countrys culture wars, calling the fall of Roe a great divergence between red and blue states.

This is not just about women, Newsom said during a news conference in Sacramento. This is not just about choice. ... They are coming after you next.

Thomas, arguably the most conservative justice, specifically cited three rulings that he said the court should also reconsider: Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 ruling that guaranteed same-sex couples the right to marry; Lawrence v. Texas, the 2003 ruling that granted the right to engage in private consensual sex acts, preventing states from criminalizing anal sex; and Griswold v. Connecticut, the 1965 ruling that guaranteed the right to use contraception.

The majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito, however, tried to cast explicit distinctions between Roe v. Wade and other privacy-related cases, including those dealing with birth control, same-sex marriage and consensual sexual acts. Alito argued that those other rights are inherently different because they dont involve the potential life of a fetus.

Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion, Alito wrote. It is hard to see how we could be clearer.

LGBTQ activists previously raised concerns about the courts direction after a draft of Alitos opinion was leaked to Politico in May. Legal experts said Friday that the draft and the final opinion are substantially similar.

Shannon Minter, legal director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said he doesnt buy it for one second. He said Thomas concurring opinion and the bedrock argument of the courts opinion  that rights not rooted in U.S. history stretching back to the 1700s are invalid  reveal the justices true intentions.

Minter said he expects Republican states to rush to pass a patchwork of laws rolling back rights for the LGBTQ community and women  an effort that could lead to court battles and eventually, more Supreme Court decisions.

Theyre sending that message loud and clear, Minter said of the conservative justices. Im certain there are legislators in many red states who will take them up on that invitation.

The courts liberal minority, Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, suggested they fear that the same is coming. In their dissent, the justices said the Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization decision does not stand alone and is linked to settled freedoms involving bodily autonomy, personal relationships and reproduction.

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.

And no one should be confident that this majority is done with its work, they wrote. The majority does not wish to talk about these matters for obvious reasons; to do so would ... reveal the broad implications of todays decision.

While the ruling sent panic through the LGBTQ community, leaders also emphasized that all of the rights in question are well protected under California law, even if the Supreme Court rolled them back at the federal level.

Samuel Garrett-Pate, a spokesperson for Equality California, an LGBTQ advocacy group, said that because marriage equality in California is not currently under threat his groups efforts are currently focused on the November midterm elections and backing candidates who support abortion and LGBTQ rights.

The top Democrat in the state Senate said Friday that lawmakers could ask voters to approve a California constitutional amendment to enshrine LGBTQ rights, in addition to a separate amendment slated for this falls ballot that would cement the rights to an abortion and contraception.

State Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, said that while the Dobbs ruling might not directly affect Californians today, the Legislatures LGBTQ caucus and other equality groups are working on a potential amendment for the November 2024 ballot.

This is going to be a call to action for those who believe in civil rights for all people, Atkins said.

The implications of the courts decision loomed over an LGBTQ+ Pride Celebration at San Francisco City Hall, where couples were invited to celebrate their nuptials before the weekends festivities.

For one couple, it was the mornings news that pushed them to the altar. Jak Kazmarek, 46, and Danni Fox, 48, were in town from Medford, Ore., for Pride and were planning to save the ceremony for their actual wedding in August. But with the Dobbs decision, they said, they decided that it was more important for them to make a statement around gay rights.

I mean, who knows whats going to happen, said Fox, a nurse, who said the decision had her thinking only one thing: Were next.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Annie Vainshtein contributed to this report.

Dustin Gardiner (he/him) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dustin.gardiner@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dustingardiner
San Francisco police officials announced Friday that they arrested a man suspected of shooting and killing one person and wounding another on a Muni Metro train this week.

In a press conference Friday morning, police officials said they had arrested Pittsburg resident Javon Green, 26, on suspicion of shooting two people Wednesday on a train between Forest Hill and Castro stations.

Green was arrested Thursday evening, police said. He was booked on charges of homicide, possession of a weapon and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, according to San Francisco Police Officer Kathryn Winters.

Nesta Bowen, 27, was shot and killed during the shooting, which took place just before 10 a.m. and also left a 70-year-old man with non-life-threatening injuries.

Bowen, a longtime Bay Area resident, was a music producer and rapper who came from a musical family. At the time of the shooting, he had been taking community college classes in graphic arts. He had previously worked for the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department.

The shooter was still at large on Thursday afternoon after fleeing the station after the shooting, but police released a still photo from surveillance video of the identified shooter and asked him to come forward.

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.

It was not immediately clear how police identified Green to make the arrest.

San Francisco Police Department officials said that the incident appeared to be isolated and that while the shooting occurred in the citys Castro district, police did not believe it was related to Pride festivities or was targeting any group or community.

Annie Vainshtein (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: avainshtein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @annievain
Bonnie Trafelet/Chicago Tribune 2009

Clif Bar & Co. of Emeryville, which sells energy bars and other snacks, has been acquired by Mondelez International Inc. for $2.9 billion, company officials announced Monday.

Executives with both companies celebrated the agreement in a joint news release earlier this week, with Clif Bar CEO Sally Grimes saying that Mondelez International is the right partner at the right time to support Clif in our next chapter of growth, adding that both companies purposes and cultures are aligned.
When Chronicle critics Soleil Ho and Cesar Hernandez set out to rate the Bay Areas best bakeries, they found that the Bay Area is really, at its core, a pastry and bread town.

The list was capped at 25 spots, so plenty of good bakeries didnt make the cut. And boy, did our readers notice. Some have been emailing Ho and Hernandez about the places they didnt include, while others have taken to social media to express their dismay.

So heres a glimpse into how the two critics made their decisions. There were rules to help limit the options, such as not featuring bakeries known for just one thing, such as pie or bread. And they drew the line at home bakeries  there are simply too many in the Bay Area, Hernandez said.

Of course, everyone has their own preferences. Even the critics had favorites that didnt make the list because of the conditions listed above. Were sharing some other bakeries readers have told us they love.

Jen Fedrizzi/Special to The Chronicle

Craftsman and Wolves: This bakery and patisserie first opened in San Franciscos Mission District in 2012 and now operates a cafe in the Bayview called the Den and sends treats to cafes like Highwire Coffee. Its best known for its Rebel Within, a runny egg remarkably suspended inside a muffin. While it may not have placed on the top bakeries list, it did land on The Chronicles best coffee picks earlier this year. 746 Valencia St., San Francisco. craftsman-wolves.com

Jane the Bakery: A San Francisco favorite, this bakery known for its crazy cookies and breads made with local grains now has several outposts across the city. Most recently, owner Amanda Michael opened a teeny-tiny shop in Chinatown called Little Jane on Grant to sell a rotating selection of new pastries. 1881 Geary Blvd., San Francisco. itsjane.com

Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle

La Farine: This East Bay mainstay  which claims to have invented the morning bun  should have made the cut, several Chronicle readers argued. (While Ho and Hernandez loved the bread, the pastries werent as top-notch as expected, they said.) Nonetheless, Bay Area pastry aficionados still love it, with former pastry chef and Chronicle reader Colleen Sollars describing La Farine as the place I still go to bring something special to a brunch when I dont feel like cooking. 6323 College Ave., Oakland. lafarine.com

One House Bakery: The absence of One House Bakery almost invalidates the whole effort, Twitter user @mooshiscrazy wrote. The efforts of owner and baker Hannalee Pervan havent gone unnoticed  The Chronicle has written about the boom in bakeries in the North Bay suburbs in recent years. You can find breads made with flour milled in-house and sticky toffee pudding on the menu, but the bakery also doubles as a butcher shop and take-and-bake seller. 918 First St., Benicia. onehousebakery.com

Samantha Laurey/The Chronicle

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

Le Marais: This French bakery debuted in San Franciscos Marina neighborhood in 2013. That location is gone, but owner Patrick Ascaso still runs two bakery locations in the Castro and Mill Valley, plus a commissary in Lower Nob Hill. Tartine gets soooo much attention and lines around the block when this far superior bakery is just a few blocks away, reader Sollars also suggested. 498 Sanchez St., San Francisco. lemaraisbakery.com

Manresa Bread: First started in Los Gatos, there are now four locations of this popular spin-off bakery from Michelin-starred destination Manresa spread across the Peninsula and South Bay. Theyre known for their naturally leavened baguettes, kouign-amanns and hand-rolled croissants. Several Reddit commenters were surprised Manresa Bread was left off the list (and frankly, Chronicle senior Food & Wine editor Janelle Bitker was, too). 276 N. Santa Cruz Ave., Los Gatos. manresabread.com

The Midwife and the Baker: Though there is no shortage of Peninsula recommendations, reader Lynda Heideman suggested this Mountain View shop for freshly baked breads and laminated croissants. It also provides the rolls for Rozmary Kitchen, a pop-up whose sandwiches appeared on The Chronicles top sandwiches list, and sell at some farmers markets. 846 Independence Ave., Mountain View. themidwifeandthebaker.com

Gwendolyn Wu (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: gwendolyn.wu@sfchronicle.com
UPDATE: Here are the latest updates on COVID in the Bay Area and California.

With the coronavirus that causes COVID, scientists are for the first time in history watching a virus evolve in real time. But theres one huge question theyve yet to answer: Will it get stronger or weaker? The CDC has authorized Modernas COVID-19 vaccine for children between the ages of 6 to 17. And a growing number of health startups are offering coaching services to help patients battle chronic conditions.

Latest updates:

Pfizer reveals tweaked COVID-19 shots that boost omicron protection

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced Saturday that adjusting its COVID-19 vaccine to better target the omicron variant is safe and works  just days before regulators debate whether to offer Americans updated booster shots this fall. The Associated Press reports that the Food and Drug Administration will consider ordering a recipe change for the vaccines made by both Pfizer and rival Moderna in hopes that modified boosters could better protect against another COVID-19 surge expected this fall and winter. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement that the company has two very strong omicron-adapted candidates in the pipeline.

Opinion: What we still need to do to co-exist with COVID-19

In a Chronicle op-ed, UCSF infectious diseases specialist and professor of medicine Monica Gandhi argues that we have reached the point where we can stop arguing about pandemic policies and move more harmoniously toward coexisting with the virus. She lays out nine measures the U.S. can take to rationalize its approach to COVID, from more targeted testing to authorization of additional vaccines, and from improved ventilation systems to promotion of treatments such as Paxlovid. Her most controversial suggestions involve easing back on what she calls divisive policies, such as mask mandates of questionable effectiveness. Read the full essay.

Yosemite brings back mask mandate due to high levels of COVID-19

Face masks are once again required in all buildings and enclosed public transportation at Yosemite National Park due to high COVID-19 community levels. The National Park Service requires masking regardless of vaccination status in all areas that fall into the high tier, based on metrics by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Alameda County lifts indoor mask mandate, citing improving trends

Alameda County will again align with Californias COVID-19 face mask guidance and rescind a local health order requiring masks in most indoor public settings, effective Saturday. Health officials said that with cases declining in the county, the mandate can be lifted. Conditions have stabilized following the sustained increases in case reports and hospitalizations we saw throughout May, Dr. Nicholas Moss, the Alameda County health officer said in a statement. While we expect continued impacts from COVID-19 in the coming weeks and masks remain strongly recommended, it is appropriate to step down from the health officer masking order at this time. Alameda County advanced from the CDCs high COVID-19 Community Level tier to moderate on Thursday. Hospital levels remain elevated in the county, officials said. Individual businesses, venues and hosts may still require employees and customers to wear masks. Masks work and are still an important tool to slow the spread of COVID-19 in our communities, especially when rates are high, said Dr. Moss. We strongly encourage everyone to continue masking to protect themselves and others from COVID.

White House offers free accessible COVID tests for the visually impaired

The Biden Administration launched a new initiative on Wednesday to expand the availability of testing options that are more accessible for people who are blind or have low vision. Those who qualify can order two free rapid antigen tests through the USPS website. The accessible tests are prioritized for individuals who do not have a family member or trusted friend who can help them with standard tests and work using Bluetooth technology, offering audio step-by-step instructions and results. Users will have to download an app from Ellume. We are encouraged by this initiative to provide an option for at-home COVID-19 tests that are more accessible for blind people. the National Federation of the Blind said on Twitter.

S.F. COVID cases and hospitalizations climb again

Following a week of citywide events and gatherings, including the Golden State Warriors championship parade, San Francisco is once again reporting the highest number of daily COVID-19 infections of any region in California  by a long shot. The city is averaging about 61 daily cases per 100,000 residents, according to state data analyzed by The Chronicle. marking a 39% increase from a week ago when San Francisco recorded about 44 cases per 100,000. By comparison, Los Angeles County is reporting about 40 cases per 100,000 and San Diego County 33 per 100,000, with the statewide average at 41 per 100,000. The coronavirus test positive rate in San Francisco is 14%  higher than any other point during the pandemic except the winter omicron surge  with Mayor London Breed announcing earlier this week that she was among those who tested positive. There were 120 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the citys hospitals as of Friday, more than three times the number just two months ago.

Moderna COVID-19 shots now an option for older kids

Children ages 6 to 17 now have a second option for a COVID-19 vaccine. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday announced it is recommending Moderna shots as an option for school-age kids and teens, the Associated Press reports. This group has been able to get shots made by Pfizer since last year. Last week, the Food and Drug Administration authorized the shots  full-strength doses for children ages 12 to 17 and half-strength for those 6 to 11. The doses are to be given about a month apart.

California virus test positive rate hits unlucky 13% as hospitalizations jump

The coronavirus test positivity rate in California, which tracks the percentage of tests coming back positive for COVID-19, increased to 13% on Friday, according to state data. The rate has steadily increased since mid-March and is now nearly double that reported on June 1. Infectious disease experts say it should be under 5% to control the spread of the virus. California is reporting about 35 new daily coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents, a number that has remained roughly flat since the beginning of the month. The numbers do not include results of widely used home tests that are not reported to officials, nor cases that simply go undetected. There are 3,126 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 across the state, marking a 4.4% increase from the prior daily total. California is reporting about 12 deaths per day due to the virus.

Will the coronavirus evolve to cause less severe COVID? We cant assume the answer is 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.

For the first time ever, scientists have the tools and the knowledge to track the evolution of the coronavirus in real-time. Identifying and describing new variants has helped guide public health responses and is now informing the next generation of vaccines and drug therapies. Predicting how that evolution will shape the next iterations of the coronavirus is tricky, but how the virus has mutated over the past two and a half years provides some clues

COVID vaccines saved 20 million lives in first year of pandemic, report says

Nearly 20 million lives were saved by COVID-19 vaccines during their first year, but even more deaths could have been prevented if international targets for the shots had been reached, the Associated Press reports. Researchers at Imperial College London used data from 185 countries to estimate that vaccines prevented 4.2 million COVID-19 deaths in India, 1.9 million in the United States, 1 million in Brazil, 631,000 in France and 507,000 in the United Kingdom. Catastrophic would be the first word that comes to mind, said Oliver Watson, who led the modeling study, of the outcome if vaccines hadnt been available to fight the coronavirus. The findings quantify just how much worse the pandemic could have been if we did not have these vaccines. An additional 600,000 deaths would have been prevented if the World Health Organization target of 40% vaccination coverage by the end of 2021 had been met, according to the study published Thursday in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.

Young children also vulnerable to long COVID, study finds

Young children infected with the coronavirus are as susceptible to the symptoms of long COVID as adults are, according to research published Wednesday in the journal The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health. In a study of 44,000 Danish children under the age of 14 that included 11,000 participants who tested positive for the virus from January 2020 to July 2021, researchers found that about 40% of those diagnosed with COVID-19 reported lingering symptoms two months after infection. The most common symptoms cited were abdominal pain, cough, lack of focus, fatigue, and mood swings. The data in cases reflect burden to the family, socioeconomic burden, and access to education, the authors write.

Group pressures government officials over COVID policy for kids

An advocacy group known as Urgency of Normal, made up of an assortment of doctors, public health officials and representatives of parents organizations, sent a letter Thursday to White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha and Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, urging that the government revise the CDCs COVID-19 guidelines with regards to testing, isolation, and vaccine recommendations for children to ensure that public health policies are not doing more harm than good. The organization has previously argued for a relaxation of masking and testing rules for schoolchildren, but now wants the federal government to scale back its vaccination recommendation for children  including the newly authorized vaccines for infants and toddlers  to a mere statement that that COVID-19 vaccines are available for children ages 6 months-17 years...and their administration should be a choice to be discussed between the individual and their primary care physician.

Pandemic setbacks contributed to rise in violence at schools, report says

Experts who track school behavior nationwide said fights and other aggressive behavior, including shootings, appear to have increased, according to a report published Thursday by the Associated Press. Educators and psychologists say the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the volatility in schools by causing a surge in student mental health problems, trauma at home, a lack of socializing opportunities, and a shortage of teachers and counselors that reduced adult supervision and guidance. At San Franciscos Everett Middle School, teacher and union representative Cris Garza, said existing problems were absolutely greater in severity, intensity and frequency, after classrooms reopened last year. The omicron winter surge sidelined educators, deepening a staffing crisis at the school where there was already a shortage of security guards and substitutes. What all kids need, especially kids who experience trauma, is consistency and stability, said school social worker Bridget Early. We could not provide that for them the whole year.

Californias top court will decide if employers are liable for COVID spread at home

The California Supreme Court has agreed to take up a case that will decide if employers can be held liable if their workers get COVID-19 on the job and spread it at home. The states top court on Wednesday granted a request by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to hear a case from Corby Kuciemba, who says she became seriously ill with COVID-19 after her husband was exposed to the virus at his job with Victory Woodworks Inc in San Francisco, Reuters reports. Kuciemba in a 2020 lawsuit accused Victory of negligence and creating a public nuisance by failing to adopt safety policies to stop the spread of COVID.
When scientists find a new disease-causing virus in humans, the first question they want answered is: Can this thing spread easily from person to person? And if not, will it someday?

Avian influenza can infect humans, but its not very good at passing from one person to another. Same with the coronavirus that causes MERS, another severe respiratory illness. Though hundreds of cases of both have been reported over the past two decades, neither virus seems inclined to evolve toward efficient person-to-person transmission.

In less than three years, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 has mastered it.

SARS-CoV-2 has accumulated a suite of mutations over an astonishingly short period that has made it now one of the most infectious human pathogens on the planet. And for the first time ever, scientists have the tools and the knowledge to closely track that evolution in near-real time, studying the small but mighty genomic mutations that have transformed the virus to the point where it hardly resembles the strain that began infecting humans in China in late 2019.

Mapping the evolution of this virus has fed academically curious minds in every nation, and its had real-world implications, too. Identifying and describing new variants has helped guide public health responses and is now informing the next generation of vaccines and drug therapies.

The coronavirus rapid evolution also is helping scientists anticipate the future of the pandemic, and what mutations may make it a less  or more  formidable foe in years to come.

This is the first time in human history that weve been able to witness a global pandemic at the genomic, evolutionary level, said Joe DeRisi, president of San Franciscos Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, which has done genomic sequencing on the virus since the start of the pandemic.

Noah Berger/Special to The Chronicle

Whats been especially fascinating, and at times alarming, is the speed of this virus evolution. That SARS-CoV-2 would mutate to better adapt to humans was always anticipated, but the pace of that adaptation has been breathtaking.

Scientists say thats in large part due to the scale of the pandemic  more than half a billion infections worldwide have afforded the virus near-boundless opportunity to mutate. But its a matter of timing, too. As a human virus, SARS-CoV-2 is still in its infancy, developing rapidly to flourish in its new environment. Meanwhile, human immunity to the virus  due to infection and vaccination  has become increasingly complex, applying constant pressure to further evolve.

Its normal to see this kind of evolution  this constant battle between human and pathogen, said Fenyong Liu, an infectious disease expert at UC Berkeleys School of Public Health. Each of us is focused on survival. We develop a better system to beat them, and theyre going to mutate and try to escape. It happens with all infectious diseases, but for COVID, the whole process really sped up because of the scale of it.

Bronte Wittpenn/The Chronicle

Predicting how evolution will shape the next iterations of this virus is tricky, and scientists lack the technology to do it with precision. How the virus has mutated over the past 2  years provides some clues: Scientists have identified dozens of specific mutations  mostly associated with increasing infectiousness  that have recurred in multiple variants. Those mutations likely will keep showing up, re-sorting themselves in different combinations that give the virus further survival advantages. Some of the mutations could become permanently embedded in the virus genetic code. A few already have.

Recently, the virus has mutated to evade hard-won human immunity, and most experts in virology believe it will continue down that evolutionary path. It could also acquire new mutations that make it more infectious, though its already become so efficient at spreading among humans that its hard to imagine how much more it can gain there, some scientists say.

The most critical question  and possibly the toughest to answer  is whether the virus will evolve to cause more or less severe disease in humans. Many experts believe that viruses tend to become more benign over time  one of the current coronaviruses that now causes the common cold may have been the source of a deadly pandemic in the late 1800s  but thats not a sure thing, and no one can say how long such evolution may take. Omicron and its subvariants are causing milder disease than their predecessors, but it would be naive to assume a future variant couldnt arrive with mutations that make it fiercer once again, experts say.

Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle

Hopefully it will adapt and become a very mild seasonal disease, and our immune systems will adapt, too, Liu said. But in reality, the virus has unlimited capability to adapt and mutate.

Scientists began tracking the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 almost immediately after the virus was isolated and identified in early January 2020. Once the first genomic sequence was complete and had been shared on a public database, infectious disease experts around the world started hunting for mutations, largely to keep tabs on how the virus was spreading.

Most people by now are familiar with the role mutations play in giving the virus certain advantages. But most mutations dont actually have an obvious effect on the virus; theyre simply glitches in the code. Those mutations can serve as evolutionary bread crumbs, though, allowing scientists to follow the virus trail as it travels around the globe. And throughout the pandemic, public health experts have used mutations to identify and control clusters of infections.

Still, scientists are most invested in tracking consequential mutations that may alter the public health response. For example, arrival of the incredibly infectious omicron led many officials to recommend people start wearing higher-quality masks, and eventually triggered another universal mask mandate in California to help curb the spread.

The most influential mutations mostly have been identified in the spike protein, the section of the virus that projects out of the surface and latches onto the ACE2 receptor, a protein on the exterior of human cells through which SARS-CoV-2 gains entry.

The first significant mutation  known as D614G and nicknamed Doug  arrived sometime in spring 2020; it basically made the ACE2 receptor more accessible. It was like putting a wedge in the door to keep it open, said Shannon Bennett, chief of science at the California Academy of Sciences.

Paul Kuroda/Special to The Chronicle

That mutation granted the virus an early boost in infectiousness, and it has stuck around in every important variant since. Identifying a mutation of that significance was surprising, and exciting, Bennett said. It was the kind of early evolutionary shift that scientists have never been able to capture before. With earlier viruses  HIV, for example  by the time scientists identified and were able to study them closely enough to look for mutations, they were well established in humans and had likely gone through years of vigorous adaptations.

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.

After D614G, the virus quickly accumulated mutations that mostly improved its ability to transmit and infect. Scientists havent yet determined exactly what all those changes are doing, at the biological level, to increase infectiousness. Some may allow the virus to replicate faster in the nose or bind more tightly to the ACE2 receptor, making it harder for the immune system to shake off an early infection. Mutations could also make the virus more durable, for instance able to survive for longer periods in the air.

By the end of 2020, it was becoming apparent that the virus was evolving quickly in an environment of widespread transmission. Troubling new variants were emerging at regular intervals, each causing new waves of infection in the country in which they emerged and sometimes on a global scale. And each new variant seemed to be at least somewhat more infectious than the one preceding it. Alpha, which dominated in the U.S. in early 2021, was perhaps 50% more infectious than the original virus, and delta, which fueled the summer 2021 surge, was perhaps 90% more infectious than alpha.

Bronte Wittpenn/The Chronicle

Omicron, which carried dozens of new mutations, was again more infectious  up to fivefold over delta. And each of its subvariants has been more infectious still. The currently circulating strains, all offspring of omicron, are nearly as infectious as measles, which is the most contagious of all known human infections.

Scientists say the virus may have hit peak infectiousness, or close to it. Now, its evolving to get around the immune response, and that trend likely will continue. Early studies show that the two up-and-coming variants in the U.S.  BA.4 and BA.5, which currently make up roughly a third of cases  are the most immune-evasive so far; people who are vaccinated or have already been infected, or both, may still be vulnerable.

I think theres a max in terms of how transmissible it can be, said Nadia Roan, an investigator at the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco who studies immunology. Now almost the entire world has some form of immunity, whether from infection or vaccination or both, and thats the big pressure. A virus that is able to take off right now has to be immune-evasive.

Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

Immune evasion is such a concern that many experts believe the world needs to focus resources on developing next-generation vaccines that will target parts of the virus less prone to mutations. Manufacturers of the two main U.S. vaccines  Pfizer and Moderna  are working to update their products to better match the currently circulating variants, but thats difficult to do when the dominant variant changes every few months.

Ideally, scientists would develop a vaccine that neutralizes the virus  preventing it from taking hold and stopping transmission entirely  and doesnt fade over time. The latter may not be possible, though, due to the biology of the virus itself. It doesnt seem that this coronavirus will be inducing the same immunity that polio and measles induces  that lasts for your entire life, said Raul Andino, a UCSF virologist.

Eventually, the pace of evolution in SARS-CoV-2 may slow down, or at least produce fewer consequential mutations that cause fresh surges several times a year. But its tough to guess when that will happen.

Virus evolution is relentless. The virus never takes a rest, never takes a break, and it never stops mutating, DeRisi said. The truce may come when we figure out what kind of yearly boosters we need, or what vaccination works.

We want to get the virus to where it just doesnt matter anymore, he said. Were not there yet. But theres reason to be optimistic, and also reason to be cautious and not let our guard down.

Erin Allday is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: eallday@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @erinallday
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There are only a handful of confirmed monkeypox cases in the Bay Area, but following the lessons learned from the coronavirus pandemic, local health officials are scrambling to control the rapidly growing global outbreak.

With 48 cases counted in California since early May, the state represents almost 28% of the total to date in the United States.

Local health officials are advising Bay Area residents and their health care providers to look out for symptoms of monkeypox ahead of summer travel and other festivities, given that most of the cases identified so far are associated with possible sexual transmission.

We are at a critical stage in this disease when we might have the chance to contain an outbreak if we act quickly and make people aware of the risks and how to protect themselves, said Dr. Naveena Bobba, acting San Francisco health officer. Monkeypox can be preventable. We know that people are excited to celebrate this summer after two years of a pandemic and we encourage them to do so safely by knowing how to protect themselves and seeing a doctor as soon as possible if they have symptoms.

Here is the latest information about the disease to help keep you safe while you enjoy the summer.

How many cases of monkeypox are there?

While the number of cases reported in the U.S. has raised some concern, the risk to the general public remains low. Since May, there have been 173 confirmed cases nationwide, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, marking the largest-ever monkeypox outbreak in America.

Most cases reported so far are within networks of self-identified gay and bisexual men, trans people, and men who have sex with men, according to Bay Area health officials. But they added monkeypox is not limited to those individuals and no group should be stigmatized. Theres nothing about the disease, such as its method of transmission, that is in any way related to LGBTQ people.

Right now, the risk is limited, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert with UCSF. Its confined to select social networks, but it could spill over to other members of the population at some point. It is an equal opportunity disease.

The cases are part of a global outbreak that took off this spring. There have been roughly 1,600 cases reported in more than 30 countries, according to the CDC. Most of the cases have been in men, and in particular men who identify as gay or bisexual.

Until now, monkeypox has mainly afflicted central and western African countries, where the first human case was reported in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

How do you get monkeypox?

Humans usually contract monkeypox through a bite or scratch of an infected animal. Because this latest global outbreak is so widespread, human-to-human contact is suspected.

Although monkeypox spreads primarily through respiratory droplets, it can spread through direct contact with lesions or bodily fluids with an infected person or indirect contact with contaminated clothes or bedding.

Its mainly skin-to-skin contact in this outbreak, Chin-Hong said.

He said it is not nearly as contagious as the coronavirus, which spreads through the air. Respiratory transmission of monkeypox typically takes more than three hours of contact within close range of someone who is infected.

Because of the mode of transmission, we believe the risk is much, much lower (than COVID), said Dr. Monika Roy, the assistant public health officer for Santa Clara County, during a Thursday press briefing.

Can monkeypox kill you?

Monkeypox is part of the same family of viruses as smallpox, though it generally causes milder disease and most people recover fully without treatment. The symptoms usually begin with a fever, headache, swollen lymph nodes, muscle aches, chills, and fatigue, according to the CDC.

The characteristic rash develops in one to three days in the form of pus-filled blisters that in the past began on the face and then moved to other parts of the body. But in many recent cases, the blisters start in different areas and are localized to one region.

The difference in this outbreak is that the rash appears to start in the genital region, near the penis or anal area, said Chin-Hong. Over time, it moves to the mouth and arms. They can look like fluid-filled blisters but are generally more subtle than what you see in the pictures when you Google monkeypox. Its not just the rash but its the movement to watch out for. Eventually, they scab over and fall off.

The CDC says the illness lasts 2 to 4 weeks. Many infected people have a mild, self-limiting disease course.

None of the cases that have occurred regionally have required hospitalization, said Roy.

Health officials said monkeypox is rarely deadly.

Its cosmetically disfiguring but not permanently, said Chin-Hong. It might have a stigma, so that might cause psychological distress. And you wont feel well while youre sick, just like any viral illness. But most people get well without treatment.

Who is at high risk for monkey pox?

Bay Area health officials said having sex with multiple sex partners can increase a persons risk of becoming infected while the virus is actively spreading in the community. The virus can also spread through shared clothing or bedding.

Many of the safety measures individuals practiced through the COVID-19 pandemic can also help curb the spread of monkeypox, such as avoiding crowded indoor spaces and staying home when sick.

If you plan on being intimate with someone, Chin-Hong recommends having a frank, non-judgemental conversation beforehand.

Ask them open-ended questions like, how are you feeling? he said. Look for obvious skin lesions, particularly in the genital or anal area.

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Condoms may also help limit spread, but only offer one layer of protection.

Health officials also say it is best to avoid travel to areas with high infection levels.

Can monkeypox be treated?

Most people recover from monkeypox infection without any treatment. Until recently, there were no federally approved drugs to treat it, but Chin-Hong said some hospitals in the city, including UCSF, have limited supplies of an oral smallpox antiviral called Tpoxx available for some severe cases.

Some vaccines can prevent infection, including after exposure.

New York City began offering shots against monkeypox to at-risk groups on Thursday, filling all available appointment slots almost immediately. Montreal and Toronto are also offering vaccination clinics.

No Bay Area cities have announced plans to do the same, but it may be only a matter of time. State Sen. Scott Wiener on Thursday said Californias health department is working on setting up vaccination opportunities.

Monkeypox is real & we need to get at-risk people vaccinated, Wiener said on Twitter.

Those vaccinated against smallpox before its eradication in the early 1970s may also have some protection against monkeypox.

Its not going to be 100% benefit because people have waning immunity but it will protect older individuals versus the younger group, said Chin-Hong. It might be the reverse of COVID where the majority of people who get monkeypox might be younger.

Local health officials urge anyone with symptoms consistent with monkeypox infection to isolate, contact a health care provider, and avoid close contact with others. Masking is also recommended.

We know how to contain the spread of monkeypox and were asking everyone to be aware of the signs of infection, said Dr. Kavita Trivedi, Alameda Countys communicable disease controller. If they are experiencing symptoms, they should stay home and contact their health care provider right away.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writers Erin Allday and Kellie Hwang contributed to this report.

Aidin Vaziri (he/him) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: avaziri@sfchronicle.com
The House January 6 select committees hearings on Capitol Hill may feel remote from California  almost 3,000 miles, in fact. But as the hearings progress and we learn more, its evident that conservative legal icon Judge Michael Luttig was right when he told the committee that the danger to American democracy posed by Donald Trump and his allies is clear and present.

Thankfully, here in California, we have the means to hold at least one alleged violator of American democracy accountable for his actions  and reduce the danger near at hand. Through its attorney disciplinary process, California has the power to disbar or suspend an attorney who was central to Trumps dangerous and unprecedented scheme to remain in power at all costs: John Eastman.

The time is now for the State Bar to act.

As weve learned in the 18 months since the insurrection, as first reported in the Washington Post, in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6, 2021, Eastman incorrectly advised Trump and then-Vice President Mike Pence and his staff that it was a fact that Pence had unilateral authority to upend the results of the election, either by rejecting key states votes for Biden and declaring Trump the winner or by postponing the electoral count indefinitely. To be clear, he was advising Pence to disrupt the peaceful transition of power for the first time in our nations history. Eastman and Trump then repeated these false claims, using them to inflame the January 6 crowds and leading to calls to hang Mike Pence that were heard in live footage of the Capitol attack later that day.

Eastmans efforts pose serious ethical and legal questions. Thats why last October, supported by a bipartisan group of lawyers, ethics experts and former judges, the States United Democracy Center asked the State Bar of California to investigate whether Eastman had violated his ethical responsibilities as a California-barred lawyer to be honest and uphold the rule of law. We showed that Eastman knew his advice about Pences unilateral authority was false and deceptive. It does not take a constitutional scholar to recognize the speciousness of Eastmans claims; Pence himself said in remarks last June, Theres almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president.

Since last fall, more revelations about Eastmans undemocratic conduct have come to light. In March, a federal judge in Southern California rejected Eastmans attempt to shield information under attorney-client privilege from the House select committee, holding that it was more likely than not that he and Trump committed a felony in trying to obstruct Congress on January 6. Notably, the court found that Eastmans views were not a good faith interpretation of law, but rather, a partisan distortion ... driven not by preserving the Constitution but by winning the 2020 election.

The January 6 committee has presented additional compelling evidence that Eastman was fully aware his theory about the vice presidents power was wholly contrary to law. Weve learned at the hearings that Eastman admitted to Pences then-chief counsel, Greg Jacob, that he didnt think Vice President Kamala Harris should have the unilateral authority he was urging for Pence. Jacob also testified to the committee that Eastman admitted that the notion that the vice president could reject certain votes would lose 9-0 at the Supreme Court. Despite this, as Jacob testified, Eastman pressed on with his demands that Pence delay the counting of the electoral votes, even as the world witnessed in shock the deadly attack on the Capitol.

Perhaps most damning, when Eastman realized that his scheme failed, he asked another Trump attorney, Rudy Giuliani, about getting a pardon before Trump left office (which he did not receive). As we also learned in the hearings, Eastman has since asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination  at least 100 times  in response to the House committee.

Eastman used his law license in an effort to orchestrate a coup on American soil. He continues to be a threat to democracy. In addition to his pressure campaign against Pence, Eastman, as we learned at the committee hearings, pressured the speaker of the Arizona House to decertify that states 2020 electoral votes, even though there was no evidence of widespread or outcome-determinative fraud. Eastman has continued these efforts long after January 6 and, as reported by ABC News, as recently as this spring in Wisconsin.

Eastmans actions are part of a broader strategy to undermine our democracy from the inside out. Weve seen bogus election investigations keep lies about 2020 alive, election hijacking bills in state legislatures, and now people who deny the results of the 2020 election running for office across the country. Its all connected  these actors are working to have the power to overturn our election results.

California is not powerless against this unprecedented threat. Just as its New York counterpart did nearly one year ago against Giuliani, our State Bar has the power to seek an immediate suspension of Eastmans license, pending further proceedings to disbar him. After the comprehensive and compelling testimony on display at the House January 6 committees hearings, one can only wonder, what is the bar waiting for?

Christine P. Sun is the senior vice president, legal at the States United Democracy Center. Stephen Bundy is professor of law, emeritus, at the UC Berkeley School of Law.
California Democrats envision the state becoming a haven for people seeking abortions now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade.

But California is also a haven for something abortion rights opponents support: crisis pregnancy centers, places that may advertise a full range of reproductive health services, according to a recent consumer warning from Attorney General Rob Bonta, but do not provide abortion or abortion referrals, and usually do not provide birth control or other forms of contraceptives.

Bonta is concerned by the fact that there are more crisis pregnancy centers in California  179  than clinics that provide abortion care (144), according to a study by the Alliance, a progressive policy and law advocacy organization.

That is why in the face of unprecedented threats to reproductive freedom, Im urging Californians to be on the alert, Bonta said this month in issuing the consumer alert.

It is not just Californians who must be on alert. Abortion rights advocates expect 26 states to ban abortion in the wake of the overturning of Roe. That is expected to trigger thousands of people to travel to other states, like California, where the procedure remains legal.

Advocates have no idea of how massive that influx of patients will be. The Guttmacher Institute, a think tank that researches reproductive health, said in a recent report that the number of out-of-state women of childbearing age who would find their nearest clinic in California if Roe were overturned would increase from 46,000 to 1.4 million.

The report, however, doesnt predict how many of those people would come to California to obtain an abortion. Or where they might go instead. Or how that would affect Californians seeking care. Roughly 40% of California counties do not have a clinic that offer abortions.

The anti-abortion movement wants to expand the role of these centers to offer people an option other than abortion when confronted with an unwanted pregnancy. Some anti-abortion activists see the fall of Roe as an opportunity to open more centers.

Last month, Bryan Westbrook, executive director of Coalition Life, told The Daily podcast that anti-abortion activists were looking to add 25 additional pregnancy centers over the next three to five years in Illinois.

In Missouri, we outnumber the abortion facility, 75 to 1, so our 75 pregnancy centers to their one abortion facility, Westbrook said. And so we need to be doing that in every single state across the entire nation.

Nationally, according to the Alliance report, pregnancy crisis centers outnumber abortion clinics by 3 to 1.

In California, Karen England, president of the anti-abortion Capitol Resources Institute, said she doesnt know where all of this frenzy is coming from related to crisis pregnancy centers.

Its OK that were really giving women another choice. And thats really all it is, England said. California Democrats have made it easy for women to get abortions. I dont know why theyre not satisfied with that and why they now are afraid of women choosing life and giving them another option.

Bonta worried that people who are pregnant or believe they may be might be misled by centers that present themselves as offering help  but dont offer a full range of options. That aid, Bonta said, does not include abortions or referral to abortion providers, and nearly across the board does not include birth control or other contraceptives.

Crisis pregnancy centers may not be licensed medical clinics or be required to keep medical records private, Bonta said. Crisis pregnancy centers may attempt to delay appointments or provide misinformation about the legality or safety of abortions.

Jodi Hicks, CEO and president of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, said the organization has heard stories of women going to crisis pregnancy centers thinking that they can get service and they, in fact, cant.

If California were to see more crisis pregnancy clinics open, Hicks said, the point of them would not be to provide more services. It would be to provide more misinformation.

Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli
With the Supreme Court striking down Roe v. Wade, abortion rights promise to be a major issue in Novembers general election.

Democrats running for statewide office in California strongly support abortion rights and have pledged to protect the states existing laws allowing women to terminate pregnancies. They see abortion as a winning campaign issue in the Golden State , where polling has found about 3 in 4 likely voters didnt want the Roe v. Wade decision overturned . Most have been aggressively promoting a ballot measure that would enshrine abortion rights in the California Constitution.

Republican candidates for statewide office have been more hesitant to speak about the issue. Some, like gubernatorial candidate Brian Dahle, oppose abortion rights. Most others, including controller candidate Lanhee Chen, have refused to say where they stand.

Heres a rundown of where all the candidates for statewide office stand on the issue of abortion.

Governor

As the top elected official in California, the governor can sign or veto bills passed by the Legislature that would affect abortion access. The governor also wields enormous influence over the state budget, and could use that power to increase or decrease funding for abortion care.

Gavin Newsom: Newsom, the incumbent governor, is a staunch supporter of abortion rights, a position he has touted in his re-election campaign ads. Newsom is actively supporting an effort in the Legislature to enshrine abortion rights in the California Constitution. Through his budget proposal, the Democratic governor is pushing for California to incentivize businesses that move here from states with anti-abortion laws and to add funding for abortion care. No other state in the union is doing more to protect women's reproductive health and rights, Newsom said during an event with Planned Parenthood in May.

Brian Dahle: When asked about his position on abortion, Dahle, the state senator who will face Newsom in November, has pointed to his record of voting against bills aimed at increasing abortion access, saying his votes speak for themselves. The Republican from Bieber (Lassen County) has criticized Newsom for trying to make abortion rights a campaign issue. Nothing is going to change in California with the Supreme Court ruling, Dahle said shortly after the draft decision overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked. Hes just using this to stir up his base.

Attorney general

As Californias top lawyer, the attorney general enforces state laws related to abortion. They can work to strengthen or weaken abortion rights in court by filing lawsuits and amicus briefs.

Rob Bonta: Since Newsom appointed him attorney general in 2021, Bonta has used the office to strengthen and advocate for abortion rights. He filed an amicus brief in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization that argued Mississippis law should be struck down and the Supreme Courts Roe v. Wade decision should not be overturned. Bonta, a Democrat, has also instructed local law enforcement that pregnancy loss should not be prosecuted in California. In May, he stood alongside his wife, Assemblywoman Mia Bonta, D-Alameda, at a press conference where she told her a story of getting an abortion shortly after graduating from college. I will use the full force of the law and the full authority of my office to protect a womans right to choose, he said.

Nathan Hochman: Hochman, a former assistant U.S. attorney general, said in 2021 on The Chronicles Its All Political podcast that he supports the Roe v. Wade decision and did not think it should be changed. If elected, I will take an oath to enforce Californias laws concerning reproductive rights and will then do so, Hochman, a Republican, told The Chronicle this year. On Friday, he tweeted that he has always supported a womans right to choose.

Lieutenant governor

Californias lieutenant governor has limited duties, including related to abortion policy. They could, however, influence abortion access if they become governor, which would happen if the incumbent governor leaves office before the end of their term.

Eleni Kounalakis: Kounalakis, the incumbent, supports abortion rights. She stood alongside state lawmakers at a May press conference where they highlighted a package of bills moving through the Legislature intended to shore up abortion access in California. Abortion is a decision that should be between a woman or pregnant person, and their health care provider, Kounalakis, a Democrat, said in a statement earlier this month.

Angela Underwood Jacobs: Jacobs, the Republican deputy mayor of Lancaster, did not return a phone call asking about her stance on abortion. A spokesman for her campaign also did not respond to multiple emails.

Controller

As the top fiscal officer in California, the controller has some influence over abortion funding. They sit on the California Health Facilities Financing Authority, which disburses grant funding to health care organizations, including abortion clinics. The controller also oversees state spending in general, including related to abortion care.

Lanhee Chen: Chen, a Republican and former top adviser to Mitt Romney, has refused to say where he stands on abortion. In a statement Friday morning, he said that, if elected controller, I will never restrict nor interfere with a womans ability to get an abortion or access to abortion services. In fact, the controller can neither lawfully impose such restrictions nor engage in such interference. ... My singular focus as controller will be on standing up for taxpayers and bringing accountability and fiscal transparency back to California.

Malia Cohen: Cohen, a Democrat on the State Board of Equalization, supports abortion rights. Reproductive health care is under attack. Malia will fight to protect it, her campaign website states.

Treasurer

As Californias top banker, the state treasurer can use their voice to advocate for policy and state spending on the issue. Like the controller, the treasurer also sits on the California Health Facilities Financing Authority.

Fiona Ma: Ma, the incumbent treasurer running for a second term, supports abortion rights and has won endorsements from pro-abortion rights groups, including Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California and NARAL. Through the California Health Facilities Financing Authority, Ma, a Democrat, has helped oversee the disbursement of millions of dollars in grant funding to Planned Parenthood clinics in California.

Jack Guerrero: The campaign for Guerrero, a Republican who serves on the City Council of Cudahy in Los Angeles County, did not respond to multiple emails asking about his stance on abortion.

Insurance commissioner

Californias insurance commissioner enforces existing insurance law in California, which includes ensuring that insurance companies cover costs related to abortions. They can also promote legislation that could affect abortion access. The Associated Press has determined that Ricardo Lara will advance to the general election in November, but has not yet determined which opponent he will face. Votes are still being counted in California, and the insurance commissioner race is the only statewide race that is still too close to call.

Ricardo Lara: Lara, the incumbent, supports abortion rights and has advocated for the amendment to enshrine those rights in the California Constitution. Abortion is essential health care and womens health must be protected, Lara, a Democrat, said in a statement.

Marc Levine: Assembly Member Levine, D-Marin County, is a co-author of the proposed amendment to enshrine abortion rights in the California Constitution. He said his reaction to learning the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade was dismay and horror for the potential future that some people would want for my children. Its a complete step backward from where weve gone for the past 50 years. As of June 24, Levine was in second place in the primary election vote. If that holds, he will face Lara in the November general election.

Robert Howell: The campaign for Howell, a Republican cybersecurity equipment manufacturer, did not respond to multiple emails and a phone call requesting comment for this story. As of June 24, he was in third place, about 12,000 votes behind Levine.

Secretary of state

The secretary of state, the top election official in California, has little influence over abortion access and policies but has an indirect role to play in ensuring Californians can easily and securely vote on the issue.

Shirley Weber: Weber, the incumbent, supports abortion rights. Reproductive rights are human rights, Weber, a Democrat, said in a statement.

Rob Bernosky: Bernosky, a Republican businessman, said he personally opposes abortion, but thinks people should be able to decide for themselves. I believe that any decision in that regard is between the people involved and their physician, he said. I could never support an abortion within my household. He said he supports the idea that states should determine their own laws restricting abortion, and suggested people who support abortion should live in a state like California that allows it, while those who dont could live in states that restrict it. Abortion really is being used as birth control, and I would promote other forms of birth control, he said. It makes me sick when I think about how many abortions occur.

Superintendent of public instruction

Californias top elected education official, the superintendent of public instruction, doesnt have jurisdiction over abortion-related issues. This is a nonpartisan race, meaning candidates' political parties are not listed on the ballot.

Tony Thurmond: Thurmond, the incumbent, is unequivocally pro-choice, said David Beltran, a political consultant working for Thurmond. As of June 22, Thurmond had 46.2% of the vote, positioning him to face off against another candidate in November.

Lance Christensen: Christensen, an education policy executive, did not respond to multiple messages sent through his campaign website requesting comment for this story.

Sophia Bollag is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sophia.bollag@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SophiaBollag
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, striking a jubilant tone after the Senate passed a bipartisan gun safety bill to strengthen background checks and red flag laws, pledged to quickly advance the legislation to the House floor.

Every day, gun violence steals lives and scars communities  and this crisis demands urgent action, Pelosi, a Democrat from San Francisco, said in a statement released Thursday evening. While we must do more, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act is a step forward that will help protect our children and save lives.

She said the House Rules Committee would convene first thing Friday morning to push the legislation forward, so that it could go to the floor for a vote and land on President Bidens desk.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, also a San Francisco Democrat, praised the bill on the Senate floor Thursday, highlighting two provisions that reflect her priorities: the funding for states to enact red flag laws, and the closure of a boyfriend loophole to keep firearms away from alleged domestic abusers.

I applaud the sponsors of the legislation now before the Senate, Feinstein said. But I have to ask: What will it take for us to hear the wake-up call and pass stronger gun legislation?

The historic Senate vote came on the day the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Americans have a constitutional right to carry concealed firearms in public, striking down a New York law that requires people to show a pressing need for self-defense, and impeding a similar law in California.

And though the new gun safety bill is the most sweeping legislation that Congress has passed in decades, it falls short of the 10-year assault weapons ban that Feinstein pushed through Congress in 1994, partly inspired by the deadly mass shooting a year earlier at the 101 California building in downtown San Francisco.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Momentum for gun safety receded with the conservative backlash to Feinsteins law, which helped propel a Republican takeover of the House in the 1994 midterm elections. Resistance to gun restrictions has gripped American government and politics ever since, despite a string of horrific massacres in schools, churches, grocery stores and other public venues, culminating with last months shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

The legacy of 101 California loomed over Feinsteins Senate Floor speech on Thursday, in which she characterized the new bipartisan bill as modest at the end of the day, and urged her colleagues to go farther.

Its simple logic, the senator said. If you cant buy a beer, you shouldnt be able to buy an assault weapon. If you cant buy a handgun, you shouldnt be able to buy an AR-15.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan
The San Francisco archbishop released a statement Friday praising the U.S. Supreme Courts decision to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion that quoted Martin Luther King Jr.

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone called the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade the historic result of years of work by people of all faiths, and added that its the beginning not the end.

The arc of history is long but it bends towards justice. Never have the words the Rev. Martin Luther King, the great prophet of human rights in the 20th century, rung more true, he wrote in his statement. The artificial barriers the Supreme Court created by erecting a so-called constitutional right out of thin air have been removed.

But he added that the work has just begun.

The struggle to demonstrate we can build a culture that respects every human life, including mothers in crisis pregnancies and the babies they carry, continues, he wrote. We must redouble our efforts to accompany women and couples who are facing unexpected or difficult pregnancies, as well as to offer mercy to those suffering the after-effects of the abortion experience.

Cordileones sentiment stands in stark contrast to that of California leaders, who have called the decision devastating.

But its not the first time the archbishop has set himself in opposition to California leaders, particularly on the issue of abortion rights. In May, Cordileone issued a notice that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, an avowed Catholic, should not be allowed to receive the sacrament of communion because of her views on abortion.

Communion is a central part of the Catholic Mass and is one of the most significant ways Catholics affirm their faith.

Pelosi responded to Cordileones notice, part of a longstanding feud, by questioning why he has not taken the same action against other Catholic politicians who dont follow Catholic teachings beyond abortion.

I wonder about the death penalty, which Im opposed to, so is the (Catholic) Church, but they take no action against people who may not share their view, she said. She added that she respects the views of those who do not believe in abortion, like many in her Catholic family, but that she does not respect foisting it onto others.

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Cordileones position also does not reflect that of many Catholics  a survey by the Pew Research Center in May found that 56% of U.S. Catholics believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Almost 70% said abortion should be legal when the womans life or health is threatened, and 66% said it should be legal if the pregnancy is the result of rape.

Only 10% of Catholics surveyed believed abortion should be illegal in all cases.

Pope Francis has denounced politically weaponizing Communion, and in late May, after Cordileones notice, passed over Cordileone for elevation to cardinal, one of the highest rankings for Catholic priests, choosing the lower-ranking but more progressive Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego instead.

Danielle Echeverria is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: danielle.echeverria@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DanielleEchev
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A day after the San Francisco school board voted to restore merit-based admissions to Lowell High School, district officials scrambled to figure out the logistics of the transition, which will require significant overtime, extra staffing and a big effort to put the old paper application online.

It could also mean battling a legal challenge over competitive admissions at the academically elite school.

After a nearly two-year battle, supporters of the merit-based admissions process celebrated Thursday, while opponents vowed to continue the fight to ensure entrance to Lowell remains a lottery-based process, as has been the case for the last two admission cycles. The school has become more diverse under the lottery.

Were considering all of our options, said the Rev. Amos Brown, president of the San Francisco NAACP. Were not going to roll over and play dead. Were going to fight this.

Whether Lowells merit-based admission process using on grades and test scores is legal under California law has long been debated but never challenged in court. State education code prohibits the use of academic merit in admissions at comprehensive high schools, but some legal experts say the law doesnt apply to Lowell for a range of reasons.

Current and former board members have said in the past they dont believe the use of merit is illegal in Lowells case, citing advice from legal counsel.

Superintendent Vincent Matthews, who will retire at the end of this month, said that while he hasnt heard of any imminent lawsuits, theyre a real possibility.

Whether a lawsuit could upend the return to competitive admissions remains unclear, but the fighting and fallout over Lowells admission process will likely endure for months if not years to come.

In the short term, Matthews estimates the staffing and overtime costs to restore merit admissions at Lowell for freshmen entering in the fall of 2023 will be at least $40,000, but that doesnt include technology support to move to an online application. Prior to the pandemic, a paper application was the only way to apply.

The district also has to re-establish an exam process for those who didnt take the state standardized test as seventh-graders, which could be a significant portion of applicants this upcoming year.

In addition, there will be a new superintendent, a new principal at Lowell, several leadership openings at the central office and a lot of new middle school principals  all of whom will have to get up to speed on the process, Matthews said.

It all needs to be done by mid-September, which is in part why he recommended continuing the lottery system for another year.

But at this point, the decision has been made, he said. First thing this morning I told staff to begin the process of rebuilding the (merit) system.

The vote seems to have signaled a new era on the board and a shift in priorities. The bombshell Lowell decision was one of two Wednesday night that reversed votes from the previous school board, both of which had sparked controversy and played into a divisive school board recall earlier this year.

In a 4-3 vote on Lowell, allies of Mayor London Breed  Board President Jenny Lam, Ann Hsu, Lisa Weismann-Ward and Lainie Motamedi  voted to restore merit-based admission. Hsu, Weismann-Ward and Motamedi were all appointed by Breed following the recall and Lam is the mayors former education adviser. Those four board members also voted to nullify the previous boards move to cover up a controversial mural at George Washington High School.

Over the long term, aside from logistics and possible lawsuits, a return to a merit system will leave two outlier lottery classes at the school  students who could be treated differently because they got in through a random draw rather than grades or test scores.

Thats a concern, said one parent whose son didnt get a spot at Lowell last fall but remained on the waiting list and was randomly admitted in the spring. The parent, who requested anonymity under The Chronicles source policy, said some parents have already complained that their children who were admitted under the lottery are treated differently by staff.

Youre going to have some kids lottery, some kids not, some kids prepared, some kids are not, she said. Its the stigma, right?

Yet when her son was given the choice of being in that first lottery class, he took it. Lowell offered more academic choices and greater rigor, she said.

At Raoul Wallengberg High, where he spent his first semester of ninth grade, he couldnt take a foreign language or history class because of a limited number of course offerings, she said, adding his workload was so light, he finished any homework he had at school.

District officials hope such disparities among high schools in the district will be addressed by a task force, also approved by the board Wednesday night, which will review the needs and preferences of students and families as well as whats offered at each site. The goal will be greater equity by ensuring there are more academic options and enrichment offerings across the district.

At the end of that process, the board could face another vote on whether to eliminate or modify competitive admissions at Lowell and the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts, which requires a portfolio and auditions. The board could even choose to create competitive admissions at other district high schools.

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The Lowell admissions policy is clearly important to our community, Lam said Thursday in an emailed statement. I believe that an inclusive, community-informed process that draws from the best research will ultimately yield the strongest long-term solution.

Lowell graduate Vieje Piauwasdy hopes that permanent solution will include merit in the schools admissions process, which he acknowledged could face a legal challenge before anything is decided in the long run.

Im the son of immigrants and was a bit lost before I got to Lowell, he said Thursday. At Lowell, I found a support group of people with similar academic interests that I wasnt getting in middle school, and the teachers and fellow students helped bring out the best in me.

That said, he condemned the bitterness and racial tension that has dominated the debate over Lowell the past couple of years.

Im no expert when it comes to the legal side of things here, but it does worry me how political the issue has become, he said. The racial aspect to all this scares me the most, as I feel like it has become almost an Asian versus all battle, which it shouldnt be.

In the meantime, Superintendent Matthews said he has made it clear to staff and administrators that all students must be honored and respected at Lowell, lottery or not.

While he doesnt often speak of it, Matthews was admitted to Lowell on merit. He then spent the entire summer before his freshmen year in high school arguing with his mother about it, refusing to go.

I was not going to go to that school, he said. I knew in class after class I would be the only African American.

In his final days as superintendent, however, he said he will make clear that any child who attends Lowell, regardless of how they got in, belongs there.

Despite his own high school decision, he said, students who want to go and take that challenge on, Im more than in favor of supporting them to make sure they have what they need to succeed.

Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jilltucker
Mayor London Breed and the Board of Supervisors are debating whether to focus more of The City's budget on the post-pandemic recovery of downtown and the Tenderloin, and if that will come at the cost of other neighborhoods.
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Clif Bar, the Emeryville-based company known for the chewy energy bars collecting at the bottom of your hiking backpack, will be bought by multinational snack corporation Mondelez for $2.9 billion.

Mondelez announced its plans to acquire Clif Bar on Monday, stating that the purchase price could go up depending on its financial performance during 2025 and 2026. The corporation is based in Chicago and owns famous snack products like Oreo, Cadbury, Ritz, Sour Patch Kids and Toblerone.
After a Supreme Court draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked last month, many companies sprang into action, adding or calling out abortion benefits to their health care plans for employees. Now, as the ruling became official Friday and activists have taken to the streets, even more companies have joined in, both offering travel assistance to employees seeking abortion and using their platforms to decry the decision.

From tech giants to legacy apparel brands, here are the San Francisco Bay Area companies offering some type of abortion benefit to employees. This list may be updated.

Patagonia

The apparel company, which has offices in Sausalito, penned a LinkedIn post on Friday revealing the reproductive assistance included in its health care benefits, including abortion care. Where restrictions are in place, the company pays for travel, lodging and food. It also included other benefits it offers related to abortion rights, including training and bail for those who peacefully protest for reproductive justice.

Airbnb

After the Texas Legislature passed a law prohibiting abortions as early as six weeks into pregnancy in September 2021, Airbnb published a blog post that same month declaring its support of the reproductive rights of women, including a contribution to health organizations including Planned Parenthood. The travel company pledged to offer financial support to any Airbnb Host who is implicated under Texas Senate Bill 8 and faces legal action and expenses as a result and these commitments will extend to other US jurisdictions if similar such laws are enacted. Since Airbnb hosts could be sued under the Texas law for facilitating an abortion, this protection could be crucial for hosts tempted to pull their listings down out of fear of liability. The company would also cover travel expenses for employees seeking abortions out of state.

Salesforce

San Franciscos largest private employer told its workers in a Slack post in May reviewed by CNBC that the company will assist them in relocating if theyre concerned about abortion access. If you have concerns about access to critical health care in your state, Salesforce will provide financial support for travel, available through our health care providers, and/or help relocate you and members of your immediate family, the post from Brent Hyder, president and chief people officer, read.

Lyft

In a blog post Friday, Lyft President of Business Affairs Kristin Sverchek stated that the companys medical benefits include coverage for abortions and reimbursement for travel costs. She also reiterated that protections are in place to protect drivers from fear of being sued under new laws enacted in states like Texas and Oklahoma. This decision will hurt millions of women by taking away access to safe, and private reproductive healthcare services, the post read. The company donated $1 million to Planned Parenthood in September 2021.

Uber

The ride-hailing giant confirmed it would cover travel expenses for employees seeking an abortion. As with Lyft, Uber has put in place legal protections and reimbursement plans for its drivers should they be implicated in cases of facilitating an abortion. "After this mornings Supreme Court ruling, we reiterated to employees that Ubers insurance plans in the U.S. already cover a range of reproductive health benefits, including pregnancy termination and travel expenses to access healthcare. We will also continue to stand behind drivers, reimbursing legal expenses if any driver is sued under state law for providing transportation on our platform to a clinic," a spokesperson told SFGATE.

Reddit

Reddit said it will issue a stipend for employees who need to travel to seek an abortion. "At Reddit, our benefits programs are designed to support the health and safety of our employees, and we have had robust policies in place to support women in the workplace. Reproductive health services are already covered by several of our health plans, and our benefits cover all employees, regardless of their location. If employees need to travel in order to access medical care, they can utilize a yearly stipend benefit to cover travel costs and our unlimited paid time off policy," a spokesperson said.

Meta

A Meta spokesperson told the New York Times, We intend to offer travel expense reimbursements, to the extent permitted by law, for employees who will need them to access out-of-state health care and reproductive services. We are in the process of assessing how best to do so given the legal complexities involved.

Tesla

After moving its headquarters to Texas from the Bay Area, the electric car company said in a May report it would cover employee travel and lodging expenses for those seeking an abortion that is unavailable in their state.

Yelp

The reviews site pledged its support for abortion rights in April, with co-founder and CEO Jeremy Stoppelman speaking out on the topic. This ruling puts womens health in jeopardy, denies them their human rights, and threatens to dismantle the progress weve made toward gender equality in the workplaces since Roe, he said in a statement. Business leaders must step up to support the health and safety of their employees by speaking out against the wave of abortion bans that will be triggered as a result of this decision, and call on Congress to codify Roe into law. The company will cover travel expenses related to seeking an abortion.

Box

The Bay Area-based cloud management company said in May it would cover travel expenses for abortions for employees. It also said in a tweet that it was "disappointed" in the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

DoorDash

The food delivery platform said in May it will cover travel expenses for both its employees and their dependents for those that must travel out of state to get an abortion. "Its paramount that all DoorDash employees and their dependents covered on our health plans have equitable, timely access to safe healthcare. This is one of our guiding principles as an employer. Because safe abortion procedures are likely to become severely limited in more states, DoorDash will cover certain travel-related expenses for employees who face new barriers to access and need to travel out of state for abortion-related care," a spokesperson told SFGATE.

Levi Strauss & Co.

The apparel company headquartered in San Francisco wrote in May that employees are "eligible for reimbursement for healthcare-related travel expenses for services not available in their home state, including those related to reproductive health care and abortion." The post went on to urge business leaders to take a stand, "Given what is at stake, business leaders need to make their voices heard and act to protect the health and well-being of our employees. That means protecting reproductive rights," the post read.

Disney

CNBC obtained an internal memo Disney issued Friday that assured employees it would cover expenses related to seeking an out-of-state abortion. Our company remains committed to removing barriers and providing comprehensive access to quality and affordable care for all of our employees, cast members and their families, including family planning and reproductive care, no matter where they live, Paul Richardson, chief human resources officer, and Pascale Thomas, vice president of enterprise benefits and well-being, said in the memo.

Amplitude

The analytics platform based in San Francisco announced Friday it would be covering travel costs for abortions when needed, in addition to the healthcare coverage they already offer, which includes reproductive health and abortion care. In a letter to the company, CEO Spenser Skates said, "Progress on this important right has taken a step back, and the decision will disproportionately impact people of color and lower income individuals. Theres also deep concern for how todays ruling will impact protections for contraception, same-sex marriage, and same-sex relationships."
June 24 11:15 a.m. The San Francisco Police Department said Friday morning that it arrested a suspect in the Muni train shooting that left a 27-year-old man dead and a 70-year-old man injured.

Police said in a statement posted online that 26-year-old Javon Green was arrested Thursday night after officers and investigators searched his house with a warrant in the 1000 block of Power Avenue in Pittsburg, Calif.

Green was transported from the East Bay city to San Francisco where he was booked on the arrest warrant for charges of homicide, carrying a concealed firearm and using a firearm in the commission of a felony, police said.

June 24, 7:45 a.m. The San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner identified the man who was shot and killed on a Muni train Wednesday morning as 27-year-old Nesta Bowen.

Bowen and another man got into a "heated verbal argument" on a train moving between the Forest Hill and Castro stations just before 10 a.m., District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar said in a news release on Wednesday afternoon.

Three to 4 shots were fired as the train was exiting the Forest Hill Station, Melgar said.

Bowen died on scene and a 70-year-old man was wounded and transported to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, the San Francisco Police Department said.

KTVU reported that Bowen and the man knew each other.

The shooter allegedly fled the train at the Castro station before police arrived. Police obtained video of a male suspect and released images of him and called on the public to identify him. (See the photos on the police department website.)

There are too many guns out in our society, escalating a verbal argument into a senseless death of a young life, Melgar said in her statement Wednesday afternoon.

The incident occurred in San Francisco's gay neighborhood that's preparing for the Pride Celebration and Parade this weekend, but police said the shooting did not appear to be "targeting any group or community."

Anyone with information related to the investigation can call the SFPD tip line at (415) 575-4444 or text a tip to TIP411 and begin the text message with SFPD. You may remain anonymous.
Pool/Getty Images, MBR / TNS

A Tesla-recognized club of electric vehicle owners swallowed a hard pill as Elon Musk told the group in an interview published Wednesday, June 22, that the company's Austin and Berlin factories are losing billions of dollars. Musk told Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley that the factories have become "gigantic money furnaces," burning through cash faster than production because of battery production issues and delays at ports in China, Reuters reported.

The million-square-foot factory in Austin, called Giga Texas, is only making a "tiny" number of cars, Musk told the group, because of problems manufacturing its more powerful "4680" batteries. Meanwhile, the tools to make the traditional 2170 batteries are held up at a port in China.
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CONSTANTA, Romania (AP)  With Ukraine's seaports blockaded or captured by Russian forces, neighboring Romania's Black Sea port of Constanta has emerged as a main conduit for the war-torn countrys grain exports amid a growing world food crisis.

It's Romania's biggest port, home to Europe's fastest-loading grain terminal, and has processed nearly a million tons of grain from Ukraine  one of the worlds biggest exporters of wheat and corn  since the Feb. 24 invasion.

But port operators say that maintaining, let alone increasing, the volume they handle could soon be impossible without concerted European Union support and investment.

If we want to keep helping Ukrainian farmers, we need help to increase our handling capacities, said Dan Dolghin, director of cereal operations at the Black Sea port's main Comvex operator.

No single operator can invest in infrastructure that will become redundant once the war ends, he added.

Comvex can process up to 72,000 tonnes of cereals per day. That and Constanta's proximity by land to Ukraine, and by sea to the Suez Canal, make it the best current route for Ukrainian agricultural exports. Other alternatives include road and rail shipments across Ukraines western border into Poland and its Baltic Sea ports.

Efforts to lift the Russian blockade have got nowhere, and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization projects up to 181 million people in 41 countries could face food crisis or worse levels of hunger this year in connection with the Ukraine war.

Just days into the Russian invasion, Comvex invested in a new unloading facility, anticipating that the neighboring country would have to reroute its agricultural exports.

This enabled the port over the past four months to ship close to a million tons of Ukrainian grain, most of it arriving by barge down the Danube River. But with 20 times that amount still blocked in Ukraine and the summer harvest season fast approaching in Romania itself and other countries that use Constanta for their exports, Dolghin said it's likely the pace of Ukrainian grain shipping through his port will slow.

As the summer harvest in Romania gathers momentum, all port operators will turn to Romanian cereals, he warned.

Ukraines deputy agricultural minister, Markian Dmytrasevych, is also worried.

In an address to the European Parliament earlier this month, Dmytrasevych said that when Constanta operators turn to European grain suppliers in the summer it will further complicate the export of Ukrainian products.

Romanian and other EU officials have also voiced concern, lining up in recent weeks to pledge support.

On a recent visit to Kyiv with the leaders of France, Germany and Italy, Romanian president Klaus Iohannis said his country was seeking possible ways of overcoming the weaponization of grain exports by Russia.

As a relevant part of the solution to the food insecurity generated by Russia, Romania is actively involved in facilitating the transit of Ukraine exports and in serving as a hub for grain, to reach traditional markets in the Middle East, North Africa and parts of Asia, he said.

The solutions discussed in Kyiv, Iohannis said, included speeding up Danube barge shipments, increasing the speed of their unloading at Romanian ports, new border crossings for trucks with Ukrainian grain and reopening a decommissioned railway linking Romania with Ukraine and Moldova.

A Romanian analyst said finding alternative routes for Ukraines grain exports goes beyond private logistics companies or any single country, echoing Iohanniss call in Kyiv for an international coalition of the willing to tackle the problem.

The situation in Ukraine will not be solved soon; the conflict may end tomorrow but tensions will last.  That is why new transport routes must be considered and consolidated, said George Vulcanescu.

He said that in that sense there are just three financially viable routes for Ukrainian exports  via Romania, Poland or the Baltic states.

However, he added, port operators need financial support from Romanian authorities, but the funding should come from the European Union.

Vulcanescu said a combination of fast and minimal, not maximal investment is needed.

Big investment cannot be done quickly  we need to look for fast solutions for expanding the (existing) storage and handling capacities of Romanian ports, he added. If we want to help Ukraine now, we need to look for smaller investment to improve the infrastructure we already have.

Comvex's Dolghin said the operator wants to help as much as possible, but added: We hope to see concrete action, not only statements in support of the port operators.
BERLIN (AP)  The curators of a major art show in Germany have apologized for including a work featuring antisemitic elements that prompted an outcry at the event's opening this week.

Organizers of the documenta fifteen show in Kassel ordered the banner by Indonesian collective Taring Padi, titled Peoples Justice, to be taken down Tuesday following widespread criticism from Jewish groups and German and Israeli officials.

The installation featured a soldier with the face of a pig, wearing a neckerchief with a Star of David and a helmet inscribed with the word Mossad, the name of Israels intelligence agency.

Taring Padi had insisted that the work  which it said was first exhibited at the South Australia Art Festival in Adelaide 20 years ago  was in no way related to antisemitism, but instead referred to the post-1965 dictatorship in Indonesia.

We are sorry that details of this banner are misunderstood other than their original purpose. We apologize for the injuries caused in this context, it said.

But in a statement posted on the show's website late Thursday, fellow Indonesian art collective Ruangrupa, which curated the exhibition, said curators had collectively failed to spot the figure in the work, which is a character that evokes classical stereotypes of antisemitism.

We acknowledge that this was our error, it said, adding that the decision to remove the installation had been taken in consultation with the artists.

We apologize for the disappointment, shame, frustration, betrayal, and shock this stereotype has caused the viewers and the whole team who has worked hard alongside us to make documenta fifteen a reality, the group said.

It acknowledged that the incident followed months of debate about alleged antisemitism, which it and the show's organizers had strongly rejected.

Germany's president raised the issue during his speech at the show's opening Sunday, saying there were limits to what artists can do when they address political issues in a country still atoning for the Holocaust. His comments came before the Taring Padi banner was unveiled.

This imagery, as we now fully understand, connects seamlessly to the most horrific episode of German history in which Jewish people were targeted and murdered on an unprecedented scale, Ruangrupa said in its statement.

It comes as a shock not only, but specifically, to the Jewish community in Kassel and in all of Germany which we consider as our allies and which still live under the trauma of the past and the continued presence of discrimination, prejudice and marginalization, the group said. It also is a shock to our friends, neighbors, and colleagues for whom the struggle against all forms of oppression and racism is an existential element of their political, social, and artistic vision.

We take this opportunity to educate ourselves further about the atrocious history and present of antisemitism and are shocked that this figure made it into the work in question, it said.

Many of the documenta's exhibits address issues of colonialism from the perspective of the global South.
A school boards decision in 2019 to remove a mural of George Washington that includes depictions of enslaved Black people and Native Americans set off a national debate about how U.S. historical figures should be represented in educational settings.

The mural, inside a San Francisco high school, will remain on display after the citys school board voted 4-3 Wednesday in favor of rescinding a previous effort to remove it from view. The decision came several months after a February recall vote changed the makeup of the school board, which many parents had accused of prioritizing cultural debates over the challenges of educating students during the pandemic.

The school boards original goal of removing the 1,600-square-foot painting, titled Life of Washington, also faced an uphill battle in the courts. Last year, a state judge ruled in a lawsuit that officials had violated California law by neglecting to conduct an environmental review of their plan.

In the 1930s, a Russian immigrant named Victor Arnautoff began painting frescoes inside George Washington High School for the Works Progress Administration, an agency that was part of President Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal, a Depression-era relief program. The artist painted the high schools entryway with a mural that depicted the first president alongside Indigenous people and enslaved African Americans. By the time it was completed in 1934, Arnautoff had become one of the most celebrated figures in San Franciscos cultural scene, building upon his experience as an assistant to legendary Mexican muralist Diego Rivera.

Almost a century later, some parents wanted to shield their students from images of death and slavery on their way to class. When the school board voted on their removal in 2019  first to cover, and later to conceal the paintings  critics argued that erasing Arnautoffs depiction of the Colonial era was the equivalent of book burning.

The George Washington High School Alumni Association sued that year to prevent the murals destruction, an effort that convinced a California judge, Anne-Christine Massullo, that city officials had acted too hastily in their plans. Public officials must conduct environmental review before a decision is made, the judge wrote in her 2021 ruling.

The vote Wednesday by the San Francisco school board does not prohibit the panel from reversing its decision in the future, and officials did not comment on their votes. But the decision appeared to bookend a prolonged saga of infighting and outsize animosity about school decor in a city where dogs outnumber children.

Michele H. Bogart, an art historian who has written in support of preserving the Arnautoff murals, described the new vote as welcome news.

These New Deal murals have aesthetic and historical importance in their own right, she said. George Washington students can only benefit from the continued educational opportunities provided by seeing these compelling paintings firsthand, thus permitting them to see and think for themselves.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Never underestimate the power of cute. Well before the Stonestown Galleria opened its doors last Saturday, hundreds of men, women and children spanning the ages claimed squares of sidewalk space at the malls south entrance. These early birds, doused in pastel hoodies adorned with cheerful cartoon characters, werent waiting for the latest sale inside the two-story shopping mall. No, these die-hard fans were lined up in anticipation of a dose of happy in the form of exclusive sweets and limited edition, collectible merchandise served from the bubblegum pink Hello Kitty Cafe Truck.

We got here around 8 a.m. and there were people already in line, a woman named Addy told me. She was about 30 people away from the trucks window. I just love her. Shes been a big part of my childhood. Shes always brought me so much happiness. Any time I can visit the Hello Kitty food truck, it just makes me happy.

Steph Rodriguez/SFGATE

The Hello Kitty traveling cafe is one of two vehicles in the country dedicated to spreading the joy of the beloved cartoon feline, who first graced vinyl coin purses in Japan in 1975 for the Sanrio company. Since then, Hello Kitty has been responsible for up to half of Sanrios sparkly multibillion dollar empire.

In 2014, Urania Chien, along with her husband Charlie Chien and business partner Allan Tea, opened their first Hello Kitty Cafe Truck in Southern California. Since then, its traveled hundreds of thousands of miles, making stops at various malls and busy locations throughout the country. The trio also owns the Hello Kitty brick-and-mortar cafe in Irvine and eventually added a second vehicle to reach its East Coast fan base due to high demand.

When I learned the adorable pink van decorated with images of rainbow macarons and Hello Kitty cuteness was pulling into Stonestown, I wanted to join in on the fun and tap into my own childhood nostalgia among fellow Sanrio fans.

Steph Rodriguez/SFGATE

While my friend Ashley held our spot in line near the adjacent Target, I walked into the crowd, asking folks dressed in their Hello Kitty best what motivated them to come out to an event where hourslong lines are the norm and merch is almost guaranteed to sell out.

Wearing a rose-tinted skirt, gray Sanrio T-shirt and 3-inch platform Mary Janes with frilly white socks adorned with Hello Kittys likeness, Jolie Jumanan told me that she and her friend Genevieve Selsor had started their wait at 8:20 a.m. Jumanan said the most sought-after items on this particular Saturday were posted on TikTok and Instagram. The merch included a limited-edition glass mug with plastic, multicolored sprinkles inside its handle; an ever-changing tote bag and T-shirt; a simple keychain; a 5-piece macaron set, followed by a trio of cookies that featured longtime Hello Kitty friends, such as Keroppi the frog and bunny bestie My Melody.

I love how she has her bow, and its all pink and all her little friends. I just love Hello Kitty! A lot of my room is Hello Kitty. I have a Hello Kitty Lego set, plushies, posters and stickers. But Im mostly into the clothes and I like the accessories, Jumanan said. I think its really cool how many people like Hello Kitty. Its kind of surreal.

Steph Rodriguez/SFGATE Steph Rodriguez/SFGATE Steph Rodriguez/SFGATE Jolie Jumanan poses in front of the Hello Kitty Cafe Truck with the items she waited hours in line to purchase. (Steph Rodriguez/SFGATE)

The power of Hello Kitty knows no bounds. It is surreal. The Hello Kitty Cafe Truck didnt open until 10 a.m., and yet, the lines snaked around the malls entrance, as far back as the nearby Target.

Around 11:15 a.m., one cafe truck employee announced that they had sold out of plushies. One little girl immediately burst into tears. As a mom, it tugged at my heart. Its all fun and games until the Hello Kitty truck runs out of plushies.

As I stood in line with my friend Ashley, we were both simply giddy by the sheer influence of Hello Kitty. She may be an anthropomorphic cat with a signature red bow, but she's clearly a relatable character, evidenced by how diverse the crowd was.

Once the truck opened, a buff security guard stood at the order window, taking direction from his partner over the phone. He walked away with two bags chock full of cute swag. Another woman sat straight on the cement, holding her spot in line while wearing a comfy-looking pair of fuchsia crushed velvet pants and a slick leather jacket. Hello Kitty even appeals to fans of British heavy metal, like one woman who was in a black Motorhead T-shirt, standing out among the fans in pink.

Courtesy of Mora Film Co. Courtesy of Hello Kitty Cafe Truck Steph Rodriguez/SFGATE Steph Rodriguez/SFGATE Giant sugar cookies with Hello Kitty's likeness as well as mini baked sweets with the character's friends are just some of the items sold on the Hello Kitty Cafe Truck. (Steph Rodriguez/SFGATE)

Yay! Success! Jumanan shouted, as she walked away from the cafe trucks window, holding all the prized accessories and merch she waited so patiently to snag.

Chien says one Hello Kitty truck outing can serve up to 800 people in a day, until it sells out of goodies. She describes the sheer amount of merch and baked sweets inside each vehicle as the IKEA of food trucks. Shes not kidding, either. Hundreds of items are packed into the trucks tight quarters, a never-ending clown car of merch sold during each event.

Many items on the Hello Kitty traveling cafe are designed by Chien and her two daughters, or are inspired by some of their favorite depictions of the beloved character. For Chien, being a part of Hello Kitty history is very much a family affair. She still has vintage pencils, notebooks and mini drawer cases stored at her moms house that she said date back to the 80s.

Steph Rodriguez/SFGATE

I do have a really old and new collection of Hello Kitty items. In the 90s, there were a lot more obscure Sanrio characters that came about that were also really popular, but Hello Kitty, she just stood the test of time, Chien said. Because she doesnt have a mouth, you can put your emotions on her face and a lot of fans would say that. And I just love her red bow. It's so iconic.

Much like Beyonce, Hello Kitty is an icon. She is instantly recognizable and has adapted her style through the decades. For many, shes always been there.

As a kid, whenever Id visit the Valley Plaza Mall down in Bakersfield, I always wished my mom would let me browse the Sanrio store with its oversized plushies towering over its shelves. Now, as an adult, many (including myself) can buy all the little brightly colored knickknacks of our childhood dreams, without parental supervision. However, as an adult who just recently relocated from Sacramento to Oakland, money is admittedly tight. So I had to sparingly pick and choose from the plethora of adorable items available. I happily walked away with a giant Hello Kitty sugar cookie and the popular sprinkle mug everyone was going on and on about.

Steph Rodriguez/SFGATE

For a lot of folks who stood for hours in the sweltering heat just for the chance to get a mug filled with sprinkles or a keychain stamped with that red iconic bow, it's all out of love for Hello Kitty. It seems no different than waiting in line to watch your favorite rock band perform. Except this rock star has no mouth. From wobbly-legged toddlers to tall men dressed in all black with gold-studded combat boots, Hello Kitty truly is for everyone.

Shes not just a character to a lot of people, Chien said. Shes literally like a childhood friend.

Catch the Hello Kitty Cafe Truck at its next stop at the Stoneridge Shopping Center in Pleasanton on Saturday, June 25, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Follow the Hello Kitty Cafe Truck on Instagram for more details.
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NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP)  Three additional police officers in Connecticut have been placed on paid leave after a man was seriously injured in the back of a police transport van when one of the officers said he braked to avoid an accident, New Haven authorities announced.

The man, Richard Cox, 36, was later dragged into a police holding cell before being taken to a hospital with signs of paralysis, authorities said. Two other New Haven Police officers were placed on paid leave Tuesday.

Acting Police Chief Regina Rush-Kittle said Thursday the three additional officers had been assigned to work Sunday in the New Haven Police detention facility where Cox was taken after being arrested on a gun charge.

While the Connecticut State Police continues to take the lead on the investigation of the incident involving Mr. Richard Cox, after careful consideration of the video footage I saw, I have made the determination that all of the officers involved in the transport and handling of Mr. Cox when he arrived at our detention facility should be placed on administrative leave for potential breaches of police protocol, said Rush-Kittle, in a written statement. She called the handling of Cox unacceptable.

Cox, who is Black, was handcuffed when he was in the back of the New Haven police van. There were no seat belts. He flew headfirst into a wall when Officer Oscar Diaz said he braked hard to avoid a collision, police said. A camera recorded the moments when Cox was injured and that video has been released publicly.

Diaz then resumed driving to the police department despite Cox calling for help and saying he was injured and couldnt move, according to the video and officials. A few minutes later, Diaz stopped the van to check on Cox, who was lying motionless on the floor.

Diaz then called paramedics, but told them to meet him at the station instead of waiting for them, New Haven Assistant Police Chief Karl Jacobson said on Tuesday.

At the station, officers dragged Cox out of the van by his feet and put him in a wheelchair, video shows. Police then booked Cox, took him out of the wheelchair and dragged him into a cell, where he was left on the floor, video shows.

Paramedics arrived minutes later and took Cox to a hospital, officials said.

Mayor Justin Elicker said in a public statement issued Thursday that he was concerned the actions of the officers do not reflect the high standards to which I know other police officers hold themselves to everyday.

Meanwhile, he said New Haven prisoner transport vans not equipped with seatbelts have been taken out of service and the police department is working to install seatbelts in vans that don't have them.

While the state does not require seatbelts in local police conveyance vans, the city will require them moving forward, he said.
WASHINGTON (AP)  With the Supreme Court ending the constitutional protections for abortion, four Democratic lawmakers are asking federal regulators to investigate Apple and Google for allegedly deceiving millions of mobile phone users by enabling the collection and sale of their personal data to third parties.

The decision Friday by the courts conservative majority to overturn Roe v. Wade is expected to lead to abortion bans in about half the states. Privacy experts say that could make women vulnerable because their personal data could be used to surveil pregnancies and shared with police or sold to vigilantes. Online searches, period apps, fitness trackers and advice helplines could become rich data sources for such surveillance efforts.

The request for an investigation of the two California-based tech giants came Friday in a letter to Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan. It was signed by Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Cory Booker of New Jersey, and Rep. Sara Jacobs of California. It was sent shortly before the Supreme Court announced its decision overturning the 1973 precedent and noted that the court was likely to do so.

Individuals seeking abortions and other reproductive healthcare will become particularly vulnerable to privacy harms, including through the collection and sharing of their location data, the lawmakers said in the letter. Data brokers are already selling, licensing and sharing the location information of people that visit abortion providers to anyone with a credit card."

They said prosecutors in states where abortion becomes illegal could soon be able to obtain warrants for location information about anyone who has visited an abortion provider.

"Private actors will also be incentivized by state bounty laws to hunt down women who have obtained or are seeking an abortion by accessing location information through shady data brokers, the lawmakers wrote.

They asked Khan for an investigation of Apple and Googles practices in mobile phone users data generally. They accused the companies of engaging in unfair and deceptive practices by enabling the collection and sale of hundreds of millions of mobile phone users personal data.

The companies knowingly facilitated the harmful practices by building location identifiers used for advertising into their mobile phone operating systems, the lawmakers said.

FTC spokesman Peter Kaplan confirmed that the agency had received the letter but said there would be no comment on it.

Apple and Google didnt immediately respond to requests for comment.

The lawmakers letter noted that Apple and Google now allow consumers to opt out of the data tracking. However, it said that until recently, Apple enabled the tracking identifier by default and required consumers to dig through confusing phone settings to turn it off. Google still enables it by default, and until recently did not even provide consumers with an opt-out, the letter said.

Last month, Wyden, Warren and Booker, along with Sens. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., urged the CEOs of Google and Apple to prohibit apps on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store from using data-mining practices that could facilitate the targeting of individuals seeking abortion services.

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This story has been corrected to clarify that the lawmakers are criticizing the companies for enabling sales of users' data by others versus selling it themselves.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP)  Authorities in Argentina and Paraguay are trying to shine light on the jumbo-jet sized mystery surrounding a cargo plane with Iranian and Venezuelan crew that has been grounded outside Buenos Aires more than two weeks.

Prosecutors in the two South American countries have launched investigations to figure out whether the crew members  14 Venezuelans and five Iranians  have any ties to international terrorism or other illicit activity.

Cecilia Incardona, the prosecutor leading the case in Argentina, is focusing her inquiries on the Iranian pilot, Gholamreza Ghasemi, and his possible ties to international terrorism.

The FBI said in a report to Argentine federal judge Federico Villena, who is in charge of the case, that Ghasemi is CEO of Qeshm Fars Air, which the U.S. Treasury Department says provides material support to the Quds Force of Irans Revolutionary Guard and Iranian airline Mahan Air, according to a document issued by Incardonas office this week.

During the preliminary investigation into the plane, numerous traces have emerged that make it necessary to move forward with the investigation of Ghasemi, the rest of the planes crew and its cargo, Incardona said in the document.

Incardona went on to say the irregular circumstances surrounding the plane created the need to investigate if the true objective of the airplanes arrival in our country was exclusively to transport auto parts or whether it was really preparation to provide goods or money that could be used for terrorist activity, its financing or organization.

The plane is operated by Venezuelas state-owned Emtrasur line, a subsidiary of Conviasa, which is under U.S. sanctions.

Before it was sold to Emtrasur a year ago, the plane was owned by Mahan Air of Iran, which the U.S. government has sanctioned for allegedly aiding the Quds Force and terrorist activities.

Incardona said the investigation now has to determine whether Mahan Air continues to have a link to the Boeing 747-300.

Mahan Air has publicly denied any ties to the aircraft and Venezuela has demanded that Argentine authorities release it.

The plane was carrying cargo for several Argentine auto parts companies that it loaded in Mexico before stopping in Caracas and arriving in Argentina on June 6.

The plane has been grounded in a hangar in Ezeiza just outside Buenos Aires since June 8, when Argentine authorities seized the passports of the crew members.

The crew is also under investigation in Paraguay, where the plane landed last month, said general prosecutor Sandra Quinonez. The investigation was opened after Rene Fernandez, a former prosecutor who leads Paraguay's National Anticorruption Secretariat, called for a probe into the plane, which spent three days in Ciudad del Este, near the border with Argentina.

There are suspicions the planes cargo was a facade that hid the real reason for its time in Paraguay, Fernandez told a local television network.

Esteban Aquino, head of Paraguays intelligence agency, told an Argentine radio station Monday that they were particularly concerned when they learned the plane turned off its transponder in several segments of its flights.

The planes unusually large crew also raised suspicions in Paraguay but it was only after the plane left the country to transport cigarettes to Aruba that officials learned it belonged to an Iranian company that is suspended with sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department, Paraguays Interior Minister Federico Gonzalez said earlier this month.

The Israeli Embassy in Uruguay expressed its concern Wednesday about the plane that until recently was used by the Iranian company Mahan Air.

In a news release, the embassy said some of the Iranian crew members were involved directly in the trafficking of weapons to Syria and the terrorist organization Hezbollah of Lebanon.
John Lovretta/AP

YARMOUTH, Iowa (AP)  The Des Moines County Sheriff's Office on Friday identified a man killed in a grain silo collapse as a 30-year-old resident of the small southeast Iowa city of Winfield.

Rickey Ryan Kammerer was killed in the collapse of a silo Tuesday morning at the Agri-way Grain Elevators in Yarmouth. His body was recovered Wednesday afternoon.
Ng Han Guan/AP

BEIJING (AP)  Two people involved in testing for the electric car brand NIO died when one of its vehicles fell three stories from a Shanghai parking structure, the company said Friday.

The crash Thursday was under investigation but appeared to be an accident and not caused by the vehicle, the company said in a statement. It said the employees who died were digital cabin testers, one from NIO and the other from a partner.
ISABELLA COUNTY  Central Michigan District Health Department (CMDHD) will be offering free rapid HIV testing in recognition of National HIV Testing Day from 8:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. Monday, June 27 at its Isabella County branch office. Results will be available within 20 minutes. Walk-ins will be accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis, with no appointment needed. All testing is confidential.

National HIV Testing Day is an annual event meant to raise awareness of the importance of knowing ones HIV status and to encourage at-risk individuals to receive an HIV test. In the United States, about 38,000 new HIV infections occur each year; about 14% are unaware of their infection and need testing. Getting tested is the first step to finding out your status. If you have HIV, getting medical care and taking medications as prescribed helps you to live a long, healthy life, while lowering the chances of passing it on to others.
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PORTSMOUTH, Va. (AP)  Two people reported overdue after deciding to return to Virginia in their weather-damaged sailboat instead of continuing their trip to Portugals Azores are safely headed home, the U.S. Coast Guard announced Friday.

Virginia Beach natives Yanni Nikopoulos and Dale Jones, both 65, contacted the Coast Guard on Friday saying they were safe and on course for Hampton, Virginia. They were about 80 miles (129 kilometers) east of Chincoteague, but werent in distress and didnt request assistance, the Coast Guard said in a news release.
To better control the price and size of its chickens, Costco decided to wean itself off major poultry producers and build its own supply network in the Midwest, where the company created an entire infrastructure from scratch. It was a half-billion-dollar gamble that some worried would hurt the warehouse club's reputation, even as it kept the company supplied with millions of chickens that Costco roasts in-house and sells at a loss to attract new members and more foot traffic.

Last year, not even 24 months into its poultry experiment, Costco was the target of an undercover investigation by Mercy for Animals, which showed a Nebraska barn crowded with birds, some with open sores, sitting in their own feces because they were too top-heavy to walk. The investigation led to a Nicholas Kristof opinion piece in The New York Times. It also led to news stories in Nebraska, where Costco built a $450 million poultry complex in Fremont, as well as a petition to urge the company to adopt better chicken welfare practices.

What it didn't lead to, according to a lawsuit filed this month in Seattle, were changes with Costco and its poultry operations, which the plaintiffs claim still violate animal welfare laws in Nebraska and Iowa. They're suing Costco's executives and the directors for breach of fiduciary duties, which they claim "could subject the Company to significant liability." The plaintiffs are represented by two firms that specialize in animal welfare and cruelty laws.

Plaintiffs Krystil Smith and Tyler Lobdell are Costco shareholders. They accused Costco's leaders of being addicted to cheap poultry - to the detriment of the company, the shareholders and the animals slaughtered in the name of the massively popular Kirkland Signature rotisserie chicken, which sells for $4.99 a bird.

"If Costco continues its illegal mistreatment of chickens, it risks undermining its long-running and successful traffic-generation strategy," the lawsuit states. "As more consumers learn of the mistreatment of Costco chickens, the benefits reaped using loss-leading rotisserie chickens to drive customer traffic and purchases  will vanish or greatly diminish because consumer preferences to not buy products made illegally or unethically will trump the lure of a 'cheap' chicken."

Richard Galanti, Costco's chief financial officer and executive vice president, said via email that the company would have no comment. Galanti is one of the 17 named defendants, which also include Ron Vachris, president and chief operating officer; W. Craig Jelinek, chief executive; and Hamilton James, a billionaire businessman who is chair of Costco's board.

In an interview, Smith said that as a Costco shareholder, she felt "complicit" in the abuse of farm animals after watching the Mercy for Animals video. She says she doesn't have any special affinity for animals, though she has been a vegan for 15 years and studied animal law in law school.

"But I don't think you need to have a special affinity for anything to not harm them, or certainly to defend the law," Smith, a practicing attorney in Maryland, told The Washington Post.

Lincoln Premium Poultry was established in 2016 to serve as the management company of Costco's vertically integrated poultry operations, whose sole purpose is to supply chickens to the retail giant. The main complex in Fremont includes a hatchery, a feed mill and a 400,000-square-foot processing plant with a controlled-atmosphere stunning system, which uses gas to incapacitate birds before they're slaughtered. Animal behaviorist Temple Grandin has endorsed the gas method as more humane to birds than electrical stunning.

The Mercy for Animals investigation did not target the Fremont complex but focused on an unnamed barn, one of hundreds in Nebraska and Iowa operated by farmers contracted by Costco to raise chickens for the retailer. According to Smith and Lobdell's complaint, Costco and Lincoln Premium Poultry recruited about 120 people to become contract growers; their farms sometimes faced stiff opposition from neighbors who didn't want the operations (expected to raise as many as 190,000 chickens every six weeks) fouling their air and water.

"Most of the individuals whom Costco contracted to raise chickens had never raised chickens before they started working with Costco," the lawsuit alleges. "As a result, Costco is responsible for training these growers on how to raise chickens and how to care for animals, and for setting the animal welfare standards that these growers follow."

In these contract barns, the plaintiffs allege, farmers raise tens of thousands of chickens "that are bred to grow unnaturally fast," which leads to health issues, such as dead muscle tissue because the birds have trouble circulating blood and oxygen throughout their enlarged bodies. Chickens can be so heavy that, when they fall, they cannot get back up. Others may be too heavy to move, so they sit in one place, losing feathers and exposing their skin to the filthy barn floor. This can lead to ammonia burns.

These immobile chickens, the complaint alleges, may not be able to access food and water. Others may be too weak or injured to feed themselves. Costco, the plaintiffs claim, fails to provide the birds with individualized veterinary care.

At these farms, the lawsuit alleges, "disabled birds slowly die from hunger, thirst, injury, and illness. Costco's directors and officers cause and are aware of these illegal practices; and have chosen to ignore red flags plainly illuminating Costco's illegal behavior."

These practices, Smith and Lobdell claim, violate the Nebraska Livestock Animal Welfare Act and the Iowa Livestock Neglect Law. The plaintiffs devote a significant chunk of their 50-page lawsuit to laying out the ways in which Costco's officers and directors were aware of the alleged animal welfare violations - but disregarded them.

The suit notes that Costco released a statement in September regarding the welfare of its chickens. The company defended its operations, including the practice of raising fast-growing birds, and pointed out that the "minimum standards followed in these barns are based on those developed by the National Chicken Council."

Mercy for Animals wants more from Costco. The organization, which aims to end industrial animal agriculture, wants the retailer to join more than 200 companies that have already signed the Better Chicken Commitment, which calls for higher animal welfare and processing standards. Popeyes, Chipotle, Subway, Shake Shack, Burger King and other chains have signed on, but according to Consumer Reports, Costco has not.

Smith and Lobdell allege that Costco's leaders can't let go of their $4.99 chicken, no matter what it means to the company's reputation or the welfare of the birds. They claim the retailer sells more than 100 million of those rotisserie birds annually, increasing foot traffic and profits along the way.

Smith said that, as a shareholder, she was attracted to Costco's professed values, including those around animal welfare. She says it doesn't matter if improvements to animal welfare cause Costco to raise the price of its rotisserie chicken, which has remained at $4.99 for more than a decade. This is about the law.

"Costco knows the law is being broken in this case. They've got to course correct," she said. "Nobody is above the law."
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP)  Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed 35 bills on Friday, including a law allowing local governments to ban smoking on beaches and in parks and vetoed five, including legislation that would have made it easier for businesses to sue local governments over ordinances.

Here's a look at what some of the new laws will do:

 Require the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to issue, replace, or renew an identification card at no charge to anyone with a valid Florida voter registration card and who is experiencing financial hardship. It also will allow people 80 and older to have an identification card issued if they lose driving privileges due to a failed vision test.

 Allow religious institutions to conduct services during a state-declared emergency in some cases.

 Make it a felony to buy, sell or trade stolen sexually explicit images from someones phone or other digital devices. It will also make disseminating altered or created sexually explicit images, known as deepfakes, a felony, and strengthen child pornography, revenge porn and bestiality laws.

 Require local governments to hold referendums on tax issues on the same day as a general election.

 Make it easier for grandparents to receive visitation rights to spend time with grandchildren.

 Prohibit state agencies and local governments from making payments due to ransomware incidents. Requires newly hired government employees be trained on cybersecurity.

Among vetoed bills are measures that would have:

 Made significant changes to the state's alimony laws, including the elimination of lifetime alimony, prohibit awarding alimony to a person who earns more than their spouse and creating a rebuttable presumption that shared custody is in the best interest of the child.

 Allowed businesses that have been established for at least three years to sue local governments over ordinances if they cause a 15% or more loss in profit. If a business did sue a city or county, the ordinance would have been suspended until the case is settled. Judges would have had the option of requiring governments pay the businesss legal fees if the court strikes down an ordinance.
UNITED NATIONS (AP)  Donors pledged about $160 million for the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees, but it still needs over $100 million to support education for more than half a million children and provide primary health care for close to 2 million people and emergency cash assistance to the poorest refugees, the agencys chief said Friday.

Briefing reporters on the outcome of Thursdays donor conference, Philippe Lazzarini said the pledges when turned into cash will enable the U.N. Relief and Works Agency known as UNRWA to run its operations through September. But I do not know if we will get the necessary cash to allow us to pay the salaries after the month of September, he said.

We are in an early warning mode, Lazzarini said. Right now, Im drawing the attention that we are in a danger zone and we have to avoid a situation where UNRWA is pushed to cross the tipping point, because if we cross the tipping point that means 28,000 teachers, health workers, nurses, doctors, engineers, cannot be paid.

UNRWA was established to provide education, health care, food and other services to the 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes during the war surrounding Israels establishment in 1948.

There are now 5.7 million Palestinian refugees, including their children and grandchildren, who mostly live in camps that have been transformed into built-up but often impoverished residential areas in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza, as well as in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. But UNRWA only helps the more than 500,000 in school and close to 2 million who have health benefits.

Lazzarini said the more than $100 million shortfall in funding for 2022 is about the same as the shortfall that UNRWA has faced every year for almost a decade, but while income has stagnated costs have increased.

In past years, UNRWA has been able to absorb the shortfall through austerity and cost control measures, he said, but today its not possible because there is very little left to cut without cutting services.

Today, we have some classrooms with up to 50 kids, the UNRWA commissioner-general said. We have a double shift in our schools. We have doctors who cannot spend more than three minutes in medical consultation. So if we go beyond that, it will force the agency to cut services.

Lazzarini said UNRWAs problem is that we are expected to provide government-like services to one of the most destitute communities in the region, but we are funded like an NGO because we depend completely on voluntary contributions.

Funding the agencys services has been put at risk today because of the de-prioritization, or maybe increased indifference, or because of domestic politics, he said.

Lazzarini said the solution to UNRWAs chronic financial problem requires political will to match the support for the agencys work on behalf of Palestinian refugees.

He said UNRWA has a very strong donor base in Europe and last year the Biden administration resumed funding which was cut by the Trump administration, but he said the overall contribution from the Arab world has dropped to less than 3% of the agencys income.

Donors have also faced financial difficulties stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, and now theres a major effort to help Ukraine in its war with Russia, he said.

We will know better at the end of the year how much it will impact the agency, Lazzarini said.

Some donors have already warned UNRWA that we might not have the traditional top-up at the end of the year, which would be dramatic for the agency, he said.

Ahead of Thursday's donors conference, Israels U.N. Ambassador Erdan Calls on countries to freeze contributions until all UNRWA teachers that it claims support terrorism and murdering Jews are fired.

Lazzarini said UNRWA received a letter from Israel's U.N. Mission Friday which he hadn't read, but he said all allegations will be investigated and if there is a breach of U.N. values and misconduct we will take measures in line with U.N. policies."
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BRUSSELS (AP)  The Dutch government said Friday it will cut the maximum number of flights allowed each year at the country's busiest aviation hub, Schiphol Airport, in an attempt to reduce noise and air pollution.

The decision  expected to take effect late next year  to cut the number of flights allowed from around 500,000 to 440,000 is a further blow to the airport. Schiphol has seen chaos in recent weeks amid security staff shortages, with hours-long lines of passengers waiting to board flights.

The airport last week announced it will have to reduce the number of passengers it can handle each day by around 13,500 over the busy summer period because of the staff shortages.

Schiphol, on the outskirts of Amsterdam, has been growing for years and has become a busy European hub and a significant driver of economic growth in the Netherlands, although it has seen business hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the government, which also is looking for ways to cut emissions of carbon and other pollutants such as nitrogen oxide, said that the growth must now be reined in.

I want to offer certainty and perspective to both the aviation sector and local residents," Infrastructure and Water Management Minister Mark Harbers said. This decision forms the basis for a new equilibrium. Unfortunately, it contains a difficult message for the aviation sector, which is still fully recovering from the drastic consequences of the corona pandemic.

Schiphol said in a written reaction that it supports a well-thought-out approach that leads to the airport's stated goal of connecting the Netherlands with the world as an increasingly quieter and cleaner Schiphol.

But it said the plans announced Friday lead to great uncertainty and much remains unclear. We see that major risks are being taken with regard to the quality of the network.

Reacting Thursday to leaked news of the planned cuts, environmental group Greenpeace hailed the decision as a historic turning point.

It is good that the Cabinet realizes that Schiphol has, for years, been flying beyond all boundaries when it comes to noise, nitrogen, ultrafine particles and the climate, Greenpeace aviation expert Dewi Zloch said in a statement.

This is an impetus for Schiphol to finally come up with a plan that takes into account the Paris Climate Agreement," Zloch added.
DOVER, Del. (AP)  A former chief of staff to Delaware State Auditor Kathy McGuiness admitted during testimony in her criminal corruption trial Thursday that he lied under oath to a grand jury that was investigating McGuiness.

Thomas Van Horn acknowledged under cross-examination by the defense that he told the grand jury in April 2021 that McGuiness had fired him a month earlier because of disagreements they had.

In fact, McGuiness asked Van Horn to resign because he had been in a sexual relationship with a subordinate staffer.

Van Horn also acknowledged that he never volunteered information to prosecutors and investigators about his relationship with Rachael King, who also is expected to testify. Instead, he claimed that he was terminated because McGuiness had heard a potential rumor of a sexual relationship with someone in the office, and that he might be a victim of defamation.

When you said it was a rumor, that was a lie, because it was a true story, wasnt it? defense attorney Steve Wood asked Van Horn.

Yes, replied Van Horn, who moments later contradicted himself and denied any sexual relationship.

What is the definition of a sexual relationship? asked Van Horn, who in earlier testimony agreed with prosecutor Mark Denney that his former relationship with King could be described as romantic. In a recorded interview earlier this year, he told Denney that he and King made out here and there but never had a sexual relationship.

Woods cross-examination came after the judge, outside the jurys presence, held a long private conversation with attorneys before reminding Van Horn that he was under oath and required to tell the truth.

I assure you sir you do not want to mess with this judge if youre lying, Carpenter told Van Horn sternly.

McGuiness, a Democrat elected in 2018, is responsible as state auditor for rooting out government fraud, waste and abuse. She is being tried on felony counts of theft and witness intimidation, and misdemeanor charges of official misconduct, conflict of interest and noncompliance with procurement laws.

Prosecutors allege, among other things, that McGuiness hired her daughter and her best friend as temporary employees in 2020, even though other temporary employees had left because of the lack of available work amid the coronavirus pandemic. Authorities allege that in hiring her daughter and exercising control over taxpayer money with which she was paid, McGuiness engaged in theft of state money and conflict of interest.

Prosecutors also have alleged that McGuiness orchestrated a no-bid communications services contract for My Campaign Group, a firm she had used as a campaign consultant when running for lieutenant governor in 2016. They also contend that she deliberately kept the contract payments under $5,000 each to avoid having to get them approved by the state Division of Accounting. The owner of My Campaign Group, Christie Gross, successfully bid on a second contract after forming a new company called Innovate Consulting. Gross has testified that McGuiness never told her to submit a bill for less than $5,000. She also described the auditors office as a disaster that lacked professionalism, and testified that she had urged McGuiness to fire Van Horn immediately after learning about his relationship with King.

In the fall of 2020, Van Horn approached deputy attorney general Patricia Davis, who was assigned to the auditors office, with concerns about how the office was being run. Davis suggested that he call Frank Robinson, an investigator with the Division of Civil Rights and Public Trust.

Van Horn said he approached Davis after McGuiness told him to use his state credit card to pay off the overdue final balance on the My Campaign Group contract, which had exceeded the initial budget allocation of $45,000. Van Horn said McGuiness stood over his shoulder while he made the Pay Pal transaction, making him uncomfortable.

In a November 2020 call with Robinson, however, Van Horn never mentioned the credit card incident. He instead made vague references to contracts entered into by McGuiness with a political person and complained that the office was undertaking a lot of special reports on policy issues that were taking away from auditing work it is required to do.

He also complained to Robinson that a request for proposals that led to Gross successfully bidding on the contract awarded to Innovate was drawn up by a young staffer, rather than a veteran staffer who normally handled such duties. Van Horn testified Thursday that he was pressured by McGuiness executive assistant to score Gross bid higher than another firms competing bid, but he never mentioned that in his call to Robinson.

Van Horn also testified that he never interviewed McGuiness daughter, Elizabeth, for the part-time job she began in May 2020, contradicting the daughters testimony from Wednesday.

Testimony resumes Friday.

___

The spelling of Rachael' has been corrected in the 4th paragraph.
MIAMI (AP)  A former Argentine navy officer goes on trial Monday in Miami for his alleged role in a 1972 massacre of political prisoners in his homeland.

Roberto Guillermo Bravo, who has lived in the U.S. for decades, is the only former Argentine military officer accused of taking part in what is known as the Trelew Massacre who has yet to face justice. Three others were convicted in Argentina and given life sentences.

"For nearly 50 years, the families of the victims of the Trelew Massacre have been waiting for all its perpetrators to face accountability, said Katerina Siefkas, a lawyer for the Center for Justice and Accountability, which is one of those representing the plaintiffs.

Our clients seek the opportunity to present their story and to achieve the justice that has long been denied to them, she said.

Bravo long skirted trial in his homeland because Argentine law forbids anyone from being tried if they are not present. The U.S. rejected Argentina's request to extradite Bravo in 2010, but he is now to undergo a civil trial brought under the Torture Victim Protection Act, a law that allows judicial action against residents of the United States for acts allegedly committed elsewhere.

More than a dozen witnesses are scheduled to testify in a U.S. federal courtroom about what happened at the Almirante Zar navy base in the Patagonian city of Trelew in August 1972.

Bravo and other former military officers allegedly shot to death 16 unarmed political prisoners and seriously wounded three others, according to the complaint presented in Miami federal court in October 2020. They also allegedly participated in torture and extrajudicial killings that violated both international and U.S. law.

The official version of events claimed the political prisoners had tried to escape, but after the return of democracy in 1973, the three survivors recovered their freedom and told a different story. Those three were later kidnapped and murdered by the military after a 1976 coup that ushered in Argentina's last military dictatorship.

The four plaintiffs are relatives of Raquel Camps, Eduardo Cappello, Alicia Krueguer and Marcela Santucho. Krueguer, Cappello and Santucho were among those killed, while Camps was one of the three initial survivors.

Bravo left Argentina in 1973. He first worked as an Argentine military attache and after retiring stayed in the United States, where he became a citizen in 1987.

The civil trial that begins Monday seeks economic compensation for the damage that Bravos alleged role in the killings caused.

His lawyers contend the killings did not happen in a massacre but rather resulted from a shootout between military officers and a group of guerrillas who were trying to escape from prison.

Bravo has always been an honest, contributing businessman with an untarnished record. He continues to forcefully deny these false allegations and he will vigorously defend this lawsuit and his honor, Neal Sonnett said when the lawsuit was filed in 2020.

The incident took place under the dictatorship of Gen. Alejandro Lanusse at a time when left-leaning guerilla groups had started to operate Argentina. Human rights organizations say it set the stage for the extensive human rights violations that took place during Argentinas last military dictatorship in 1976-1983.

Argentinas judiciary started to formally investigate the Trelew killings after amnesty laws that had protected military officers were repealed in 2003.

Three other former military officers  Luis Sosa, Emilio Del Real and Carlos Marandino  were accused of taking part in the massacre with Bravo and were sentenced to life in prison.

The legal complaint filed by the plaintiffs in the U.S. case alleges Bravo threatened prisoners, tortured them, forced them to undress and simulated their execution.

It says that on Aug. 22, 1972, Bravo and three other military officers went into the prisoners cells while they were sleeping and ordered that they leave and form a line against a wall while looking toward the ground.

Some fled back to their cells. Bravo and the other officers searched the cells for survivors to execute them, the complaint says.

The plaintiffs say their goal is not financial.

What they really want is for Mr. Bravo to return to Argentina and face trial, said Ajay Krishnan at a law firm that also represents the plaintiffs. But if they cant obtain that, and they still have not been able to, they do what they have to do, which at this time is the trial.

-

Rey reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  Is North Korea preparing to deploy tactical nuclear weapons along its tense border with rival South Korea, which is only a short drive from the 26 million people living in and around Seoul, its capital?

That's how it looks to many experts paying close attention to a high-profile North Korean military meeting this week. The possible deployment, just two months after a veiled threat by leader Kim Jong Un to preemptively use nuclear weapons, would be a major development in the decades-long standoff on the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea already has thousands of conventional weapons aimed at South Korea and the nearly 30,000 U.S. forces stationed there, but moving its short-range nuclear missiles to the border would be the clearest sign yet that Kim is looking to use his nuclear weapons to both threaten South Korea and wrest concessions from outside nuclear negotiators.

Together with North Koreas apparent preparations for its first nuclear test in five years, there's deep skepticism among observers that diplomacy can convince the country to abandon its nukes. Critics are calling on Seoul and Washington to formulate a new approach to deal with North Korea's fast improving nuclear program.

Here's a look at Kims latest nuclear moves.

___

NUCLEAR WEAPONS ON THE BORDER?

During a military meeting that ended Thursday, Kim and other senior officials confirmed additional operation duties and modified operation plans for military units near the border with South Korea.

State media dispatches didnt mention nuclear weapons directly. But outside experts believe North Korea's vague language signals its intention to forward-deploy tactical nuclear weapons systems. They base their assessment in part on recent public comments from North Korea about such plans, and on a slew of tests of short-range nuclear-capable missiles designed to attack strategic facilities in South Korea, including U.S. military bases there.

One big hint came in April, when North Korea test-fired a newly developed guided weapon that it said would improve the efficient operation of tactical nukes and boost the firepower of front-line artillery units. Later that month, Kim said he could use his nuclear program preemptively if provoked.

North Korea now has a much higher chance to use its tactical nuclear weapons on a battlefield if a war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula, said Kim Yeol Soo, an expert at South Koreas Korea Institute for Military Affairs.

The weapons likely to be deployed at the border are some of the more mobile, solid-fueled, short-range missiles that North Korea has test-launched since nuclear diplomacy with the United States collapsed in 2019. North Korea has called those missiles -- which foreign experts say are potentially capable of evading South Korean and U.S. missile defenses -- tactical weapons, implying its intent to arm them with lower-yield nuclear weapons.

North Korea has likely already acquired the technology to arm its missiles with nuclear warheads, so its deployment of tactical nuclear weapons could happen any time, said Kim Taewoo, former head of the state-funded Korean Institute for National Unification in Seoul.

Some experts, however, said North Korea might not deploy nuclear-armed missiles because of possible problems maintaining them.

___

WILL SOUTH KOREA RESPOND BY DEPLOYING NUCLEAR WEAPONS?

North Koreas apparent push to deploy tactical nuclear weapons may be part of Kims recent vow to counter the United States strength for strength amid stalled nuclear diplomacy. It also comes as Washington and Seoul work to strengthen their combined defense capabilities to cope with North Korean nuclear threats.

South Koreas new conservative government, which took office last month, has said it will expand its conventional arms capabilities and strengthen its defenses in conjunction with the United States.

While the Koreas have avoided major conflict since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, there have been deadly skirmishes and attacks in recent years that have killed dozens.

North Korea has a history of escalating threats and provocations when a new government is inaugurated in South Korea or the United States to create a potentially favorable environment for future negotiations. The country has often then dialed down its rhetoric and launched charm offensives.

That may happen this time.

But nuclear weapons on the front lines would complicate how South Korea responds to any future North Korean provocation.

New South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, during a summit with U.S. President Joe Biden last month, secured a U.S. commitment on the regional deployment of U.S. strategic assets such as long-range bombers and aircraft carriers in response to provocations by North Korea.

The allies may also conduct their largest combined military training in years in August.

But Yoon has said he wont pursue nuclear development or ask the United States to redeploy nuclear weapons in South Korea as a deterrence against potential aggression by North Korea.

The South Korean military said its closely monitoring North Korean activities over the possible move to deploy tactical nuclear weapons, but didnt elaborate.

Some experts say North Koreas expansion of tactical nuclear weapons and pursuit of long-range missiles capable of reaching the U.S. mainland have reduced the credibility of Americas nuclear umbrella, though the Biden administration has repeatedly reaffirmed a U.S. commitment to defend South Korea with its full range of military capabilities.

There are also calls for the reintroduction of U.S. nuclear weapons in South Korea.

We should switch to a strategy of terminating North Korea's nuke threats through a nuclear balance, said Kim Taewoo, the former head of the Korean Institute for National Unification. The deployment of tactical nuclear weapons means that North Koreas nuclear threat would be right in front of us.

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WHAT'S NEXT?

Tactical nuclear weapons were part of a five-year arms development plan Kim Jong Un announced last year. He has ramped up ballistic missile testing to an unprecedented pace this year to boost his countrys ability to attack both the U.S. mainland and South Korea.

For weeks, U.S. and South Korean officials have noted signs of an imminent nuclear test by North Korea, which would be its first since 2017 and seventh in total. Such a test could be part of an attempt to build a warhead that could fit on tactical missiles or multi-warhead missiles.

But North Korea hasnt carried out such a test yet, possibly because of its continuing COVID-19 outbreak and opposition from China, its last major ally and biggest aid provider.

North Korea has so far rejected the Biden administrations offers of open-ended talks, calling for Washington to first abandon its hostile policy, a term it uses in reference to U.S.-led economic sanctions and joint U.S.-South Korean military drills.

Experts say it's only a matter of time before North Korea conducts a nuclear test, which is seen as an essential step in enlarging its nuclear arsenal under Kims five-year plan. Such a test would likely further complicate a push to resume nuclear diplomacy.
ATLANTA (AP)  The director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation will leave his position to serve as a superior court judge, the governor's office announced Friday.

Gov. Brian Kemp appointed Vic Reynolds, GBI director since February 2019, to serve on the Cobb County Superior Court. Prior to his appointment as GBI director, Reynolds was Cobb County district attorney and had previously served as a police officer, chief magistrate judge in Cobb County and as a lawyer in private practice.
BERLIN (AP)  German lawmakers voted Friday to end the country's ban on advertising abortions, which has in the past led to doctors being prosecuted for providing information about the procedure to potential patients.

Government parties and the Left party voted to lift the restriction, while the center-right Christian Democrats and the far-right Alternative for Germany voted against.
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PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)  Democratic leaders across the nation vowed Friday to help women who travel to seek abortions and to shield patients and medical professionals from being pursued by authorities in states where the procedure becomes outlawed after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

On the West Coast, the Democratic governors of California, Washington and Oregon issued a joint multi-state commitment, saying they will work together to defend patients and care providers.

In North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper, also a Democrat, emphasized the importance of the November election in the state where the GOP controls the General Assembly but lacks veto-proof majorities to severely restrict or outlaw abortion.

Democratic governors are the last line of defense against these types of extreme bills, he said.

It was a strategy echoed by President Joe Biden, who told the nation Friday that Democratic victories at the state level in November could thwart efforts to ban abortion.

Congress must act, and with your vote, you can act, Biden said.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the West Coast plan in a video statement with Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee.

No matter who you are or where you come from, Oregon doesnt turn away anyone seeking health care, Brown said.

All three states anticipate an influx of people seeking abortions, especially as neighboring conservative states move to outlaw or greatly restrict the procedure.

The governors also pledged to protect against judicial and local law enforcement cooperation with out-of-state investigations, inquiries and arrests regarding abortions performed in their states.

Elsewhere, some companies reiterated or announced plans to help pay for employees to travel to other states to get reproductive care.

For example, Seattle-based Starbucks said it will reimburse abortion travel expenses for employees enrolled in its health care plan if a legal provider isnt available in their home state or within 100 miles of their home.

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson also said he will work to ensure his state welcomes any individual who comes here to access the fundamental right to reproductive justice, adding that he is already working to protect medical professionals who are prosecuted in other states for providing essential health care services that are legal and protected in Washington.

Ferguson says he has a team of 20 staffers working on abortion-access issues.

In Sacramento, California, Newsom warned that conservative Supreme Court justices and Republican politicians are coming after you on issues beyond the abortion decision and another ruling this week that said Americans have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defense.

Conservative leaders have telegraphed their intent to roll back laws and legal decisions on LGBTQ rights, on contraception, the environment and in other areas, Newsom said.

This is not just about women. This is not just about choice. Its not just about reproductive freedom  theyre coming after you, he said.

Newsom signed into law a bill intended to shield abortion providers and volunteers in California from legal decisions in other states that limit reproductive rights, part of a package of more than a dozen bills intended to make California a sanctuary for those seeking abortions.

He said the states budget will include $20 million over three years to help pay for women from other states to get abortions in California. The money will go to nonprofits that help women pay for expenses such as travel, lodging and child care.

Oregon has codified the right to an abortion. State law was updated in 2017 and allows for late-term abortions and requires private medical insurance and state Medicaid to cover the procedure. A $15 million fund established by state lawmakers this year covers costs for abortion providers and patients without insurance coverage or traveling from out of state.

The fund also seeks to expand abortion access in Oregons rural communities.

Washington and Oregon border Idaho, which following Fridays ruling will ban abortions except in cases of reported rape or incest, or to protect the mothers life.

Abortion has been legal in Washington state since a 1970 statewide ballot referendum. Another ballot measure approved by voters in 1991 affirmed a womans right to choose physician-performed abortion prior to fetal viability and further expanded and protected access to abortion in the state if Roe v. Wade was overturned.

In California, abortion was outlawed in 1850, except when the life of the mother was in danger. The law changed in 1967 to include abortions in the case of rape, incest or if a womans mental health were in danger.

In 1969, the California Supreme Court declared the states original abortion law to be unconstitutional but left the 1967 law in place. In 1972  one year before the Roe v. Wade decision  California voters added a right to privacy to the state constitution. Since then, the state Supreme Court has interpreted that right to privacy as a right to access abortion.

Local governments in the states said they were also ready to help protect and provide abortion access. Washington states most populous county will devote $1 million in emergency funding to help women traveling to the Seattle area seeking abortions following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

___

Beam reported from Sacramento, California.

___

Rush is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

___

For APs full coverage of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, go to https://apnews.com/hub/abortion
LONGVIEW, Wash. (AP)  A Longview, Washington grain terminal will pay nearly $1 million after settling a lawsuit with the Columbia Riverkeeper that claimed the terminal operated without necessary permits meant to monitor river pollution.

Export Grain Terminal, LLC., which operates a grain terminal out of the Port of Longview, will pay Seeding Justice $715,000 to benefit water quality projects after it settled with Columbia Riverkeeper on June 14 in the U.S. District Court.
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TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP)  For Lam Wing-kee, a Hong Kong bookstore owner who was detained by police in China for five months for selling sensitive books about the Communist Party, coming to Taiwan was a logical step.

An island just 640 kilometers (400 miles) from Hong Kong, Taiwan is close not just geographically but also linguistically and culturally. It offered the freedoms that many Hong Kongers were used to and saw disappearing in their hometown.

Lams move to Taiwan in 2019, where he reopened his bookstore in Taipei, the capital, presaged a wave of emigration from Hong Kong as the former British colony came under the tighter grip of China s central government and its long-ruling Communist Party.

Its not that Hong Kong doesnt have any democracy, it doesnt even have any freedom, Lam said in a recent interview. When the English were ruling Hong Kong, they didnt give us true democracy or the power to vote, but the British gave Hong Kongers a very large space to be free.

Hong Kong and Chinese leaders will mark next week the 25th anniversary of its return to China. At the time, some people were willing to give China a chance. China had promised to rule the city within the "one country, two systems framework for 50 years. That meant Hong Kong would retain its own legal and political system and freedom of speech that does not exist in mainland China.

But in the ensuing decades, a growing tension between the citys Western-style liberal values and mainland Chinas authoritarian political system culminated in explosive pro-democracy protests in 2019. In the aftermath, China imposed a national security law that has left activists and others living in fear of arrest for speaking out.

Hong Kong still looked the same. The malls were open, the skyscrapers were gleaming. But well-known artist Kacey Wong, who moved to Taiwan last year, said he constantly worried about his own arrest or those of his friends, some of whom are now in jail.

On the outside its still beautiful, the sunset at the harbor view. But its an illusion that makes you think youre still free, he said. In reality youre not, the government is watching you and secretly following you.

Though Wong feels safe in Taiwan, life as an exile is not easy. Despite its similarities to Hong Kong, Wong found his new home an alien place. He does not speak Taiwanese, a widely spoken Fujianese dialect. And the laid-back island contrasts strongly with the fast-paced financial capital that was Hong Kong.

The first six months were hard, Wong said, noting that traveling as a tourist to Taiwan is completely different than living on the island in self-imposed exile.

I havent established the relationship with the place, with the streets, with the people, with the language, with the shop downstairs, he said.

Other, less prominent exiles than Wong or Lam have also had to navigate a system that does not have established laws or mechanisms for refugees and asylum seekers, and has not always been welcoming. That issue is further complicated by Taiwans increasing wariness of security risks posed by China, which claims the island as its renegade province, and of Beijings growing influence in Hong Kong.

For example, some individuals such as public school teachers and doctors have been denied permanent residency in Taiwan because they had worked for the Hong Kong government, said Sky Fung, the secretary general of Hong Kong Outlanders, a group that advocates for Hong Kongers in Taiwan. Others struggle with the tighter requirements and slow processing of investment visas.

In the past year or so, some have chosen to leave Taiwan, citing a clearer immigration path in the U.K. and Canada, despite the bigger gulf in language and culture.

Wong said that Taiwan has missed a golden opportunity to keep talented people from Hong Kong. The policies and actions, and what the ... government is doing is not proactive enough and caused uncertainty in these people, thats why theyre leaving, he said.

The islands Mainland Affairs Council has defended its record, saying it found that some migrants from Hong Kong hired immigration companies who took illegal methods, such as not carrying through on investments and hiring locals they had promised on paper.

We in Taiwan, also have national security needs, Chiu Chui-cheng, deputy minister at the Mainland Affairs Council, said on a TV program last week. Of course we also want to help Hong Kong, we have always supported Hong Kongers in their support for freedom, democracy and rule of law.

Some 11,000 Hong Kongers got residence permits in Taiwan last year, according to Taiwans National Immigration Agency, and 1,600 were able to get permanent residency. The U.K. granted 97,000 applications to Hong Kong holders of British National Overseas passports last year in response to China's crackdown.

However imperfect, Taiwan gives the activists a chance to continue to carry out their work, even if the direct actions of the past were no longer possible.

Lam was one of five Hong Kong booksellers whose seizure by Chinese security agents in 2016 drew global concern.

He often lends his presence to protests against China, most recently attending a June 4 memorial in Taipei to mark the anniversary of a bloody crackdown on democracy protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989. Similar protests in Hong Kong and Macao, until recently the only places in China allowed to commemorate the Tiananmen massacre, are no longer allowed.

As a Hong Konger, I actually havent stopped my resistance. I have always continued to do what I needed to do in Taiwan, and participated in my events. I have not given up fighting, Lam said.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP)  A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., has indicted an Indianapolis member of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group with conspiracy and other charges for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

The indictment unsealed Friday charges Michael Greene, 39, with conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging any duties, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds and tampering with documents or proceedings, prosecutors said.

Greene was arrested in Indiana on Thursday. He was expected to make his initial court appearance later Friday.

Greene, also known as Michael Simmons, was named in a superseding indictment returned Wednesday that also includes seven previously charged defendants from Ohio, Florida and North Carolina. All have pleaded not guilty.

The indictment said Greene, who also used the monikers Whip and Whiplash, participated in an online meeting on Nov. 9, 2020, in which Oath Keeper founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes III, 57, of Granbury, Texas, outlined a plan to stop the lawful transfer of presidential power. Greene later was chosen by Rhodes to be an operations leader for activities on Jan. 6, and over the preceding five days; and Greene and others transported firearms, ammunition and related items to the Washington area, the indictment said.

On Jan. 6, Greene and Rhodes left a Virginia hotel and drove to the Capitol area. At 1:42 p.m., Greene sent a text message to an acquaintance saying, Storming the capital, along with a photograph that depicted the advancing mob on the west side of the Capitol grounds. At about 3:09 p.m., Greene texted an acquaintance: Congress evacuated, the indictment said.

After teams of other Oath Keepers entered and exited the Capitol, Greene and Rhodes met them in a plaza outside the building. The indictment alleges that sometime on or after Jan. 6, Greene deleted from his cellphone certain media, files, and communications that showed his involvement in the activities.

At least 11 other people with Indiana ties have been arrested and charged in connection with the riot.
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RECIFE, Brazil (AP)  Members of Brazilian Indigenous groups, friends and family members gathered Friday to mourn Bruno Pereira, an expert on Indigenous peoples who was killed with a British journalist during a trip to the heart of the Amazon rainforest. His was cremated following the ceremony.

Pereira, who was on leave from Brazilian government agency for Indigenous affairs, and reporter Dom Phillips were allegedly killed by a fisherman on June 5, the day they disappeared in the Javari Valley region, close to Brazil's border with Peru and Colombia.

Members of Xukuru Indigenous group sang mourning songs close to Pereira's sealed casket, with his framed picture on top, during the ceremony in Recife, where a banner demanded JUSTICE for Dom and Bruno.

Marcos Xukuru, a chief of the Xukuru group, said he and others had come to honor our warrior ... warrior Bruno who becomes a martyr for all of us, for the Indigenous cause ... for those who fight in defense of life, he told journalists.

Thany Rufino, Pereiras sister in law, thanked those who prayed, searched, worked, represented Bruno.

"May God in his greatness repay them all and their families. Now, we are dedicated to love, forgiveness and prayer, she said.

Police investigators said last week the bodies of the two men were found in deep into the forest, where they were taken by their killer. Police have arrested three people in connection with the crime.

Pereira had been trying to help Indigenous groups of the Javari Valley create a 350-kilometer (220-mile) trail marking the southwestern border of their territory to help protect it from encroachment by ranchers and other outsiders.

He was helping Phillips during a reporting trip to the region when they were attacked. The journalist, whose funeral was scheduled for Sunday in in Rio de Janeiro, was writing a book on Amazon preservation.

Pereira, 41, was born in the northeastern city of Recife and started his professional career as a journalist. But his interest in Indigenous affairs and languages  he learned four of them  led him to work for the government's National Indian Foundation.

He quickly became one of the countrys biggest experts on the Javari Valley, where he used to spend months at work, with little contact with the outside world. His wife Beatriz Matos, an anthropologist, encouraged his mission. They had two children.

Pereira lived in Atalaia do Norte, the closest city to the Javari Valley, for many years.

Pereira told The Associated Press in an off-the-record conversation in November that he was waiting for the end of the Jair Bolsonaro presidency to return to the Indigenous agency and meanwhile would work with an Indigenous people's association.

Pereira also wanted to spend more time in Belem, one of the biggest cities of the Amazon and home of his wife, watching his 2- and 3-year-old children grow.

His casket was covered with three items representing some of his passions; the flag of the state of Pernambuco, where he grew up, another of his favorite soccer team, Sport, and a shirt of the Indigenous group he had been working for.

____ Savarese reported from Sao Paulo.
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP)  A state court judge ruled Friday that Alaska elections officials do not need to put the fifth-place finisher in this month's U.S. House special primary on the upcoming special election ballot in place of a candidate who withdrew.

Superior Court Judge William Morse agreed with the Alaska Division of Elections' reading of the law, after previously saying he was tentatively inclined to rule that way. His decision was appealed to the Alaska Supreme Court.

Division director Gail Fenumiai had said that because independent Al Gross withdrew less than 64 days before the scheduled Aug. 16 special election, state law did not permit the division to put the fifth-place candidate, Republican Tara Sweeney, on the ballot in his place.

Gross abruptly withdrew his candidacy, with little explanation, earlier this week.

A lawsuit filed by three registered voters Thursday said the division misinterpreted the law and that the timeline cited by the division did not apply to special elections. The lawsuit sought to have Sweeney placed on the special election ballot.

An attorney for the plaintiffs did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Forty-eight candidates ran in the June 11 special primary for Alaska's only U.S. House seat, which was left vacant by the death of Republican Rep. Don Young in March. Young held the seat for 49 years.

Gross was third in the special primary  behind Republicans Sarah Palin and Nick Begich and ahead of Democrat Mary Peltola. He was poised to advance to the special election as one of the top four vote-getters under a new open primary system.

Fenumiai said Gross withdrew on Tuesday and that the division would remove his name from the special election ballot. That would mean the special election ballot would include three candidates and a space for voters to rank a write-in candidate, she said in an affidavit.

The special primary was the first election held under a system approved by Alaska voters that ends party primaries and institutes ranked-choice voting in general elections.

While the division is sympathetic to the public expectation that under the new system four candidates would advance, it lacks the discretion to relax an unambiguous statutory deadline to effectuate this goal, attorneys for the Department of Law, representing the division, said in court filings.

Morse in his written order said the timeline under which a substitution could occur in this situation could hardly be briefer." But, he wrote, that is the period set by statute and the one the Division must apply.

Sweeney's campaign did not sue over the issue. But Sweeney has said that she believed she should be moved into fourth place and that voters should have four candidates to choose from.

In a statement, she criticized Begich, whose campaign agreed with the divisions interpretation and intervened in the case. She said Begich sought legal action to block the advancement of my candidacy to limit the choices for Alaskans. She said he is threatened by her candidacy.

Begich campaign manager Truman Reed labeled as ridiculous the assertion that Begich is trying to limit choices. Reed in an email said there were 48 candidates in the special primary, seemingly enough. Three choices remain. Our interest is solely protecting the publics confidence in the electoral system. From our perspective, the law is clear.

The winner of the special election will serve the remainder of Young's term. An August regular primary and November general election will determine who will serve a new, two-year term, starting in January.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of plaintiffs identified as registered voters Sunny Guerin, Vera Lincoln and Elizabeth Asisaun Toovak.

Fenumiai has said that a final court decision is needed by Tuesday to print ballots in time to meet deadlines and to keep the special election on schedule.

The Department of Law, in a statement Friday, said the division appreciated the speedy ruling. If the Plaintiffs appeal, we will be ready to very quickly defend the ruling before the Alaska Supreme Court so that ballots can be printed on schedule, the statement says.
HAWESVILLE, Ky. (AP)  A large aluminum plant in Kentucky is temporarily halting production and laying off more than 600 workers due to rising energy costs.

Century Aluminum has announced plans to shut down its Hawesville smelter for 9 to 12 months starting in August. The plant, with about 628 workers, is the second-largest employer in Hancock County, the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer reported.
BATON ROUGE (AP)  Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, according to a press release from his office.

Edwards says that he does not currently have symptoms and will follow recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for people who have tested positive for COVID-19 and will isolate for five days.
AURORA, Colo. (AP)  A man was arrested Thursday in the death of a father of three who police say was shot after driving around cars stopped for a street racing event, police said.

Jeremy Jacob Rocha, 20, who police believe was involved in the ad hoc event, was taken into custody on suspicion of first-degree murder and four counts of attempted first-degree murder after investigators worked to identify multiple witnesses and vehicles that were on Interstate 70 east of Denver when John Jaros was shot Saturday evening, Aurora police said. It was not known if Rocha had a lawyer yet.
AKRON, Ohio (AP)  An Ohio man was sentenced to life in prison Friday for the hit-and-run deaths of a man and the man's young daughter, who was in a stroller.

Shawn Allen, 37, of Canton, remained defiant and maintained his innocence during sentencing in Akron, the Akron Beacon Journal reported. His attorneys argued there was no direct evidence tying Allen to the deaths of Horace Lee, 43, and 21-month-old Azariah Tucker in June 2020, and said an appeal is planned.
FALKVILLE, Ala. (AP)  A man suspected of killing a woman and child in Ohio was found dead in Alabama from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, news outlets reported.

Dante Rashad Hawes, 32, of Dayton, Ohio, was found dead inside a vehicle Thursday afternoon in Falkville, Morgan County Coroner Jeff Chunn told news outlets. The man took his own life, Chunn said.
WORCESTER, Mass. (AP)  A Massachusetts man who took three Molotov cocktails to a demonstration to protest the killing of George Floyd, and who shouted kill the police, has avoided any additional prison time.

Vincent Eovacious, 20, of Worcester, was sentenced by a federal judge Thursday to time served  the three days he has already spent behind bars  and three years of probation, according to federal prosecutors, who had sought a 13-month prison term.

Eovacious was among the crowds that gathered in Worcester on the night of June 1, 2020, to protest the killing a week earlier of Floyd by police in Minneapolis, prosecutors said.

A crowd blocked traffic and began throwing rocks, bottles and other objects at police, who gathered into a defensive line. Officers spotted Eovacious, dressed in a trench coat and carrying a satchel, on the roof of a one-story building and screaming kill the police, according to the prosecution.

He was then seen removing a white rag and bottle containing a yellowish liquid from the satchel and attempting to insert the rag into the bottle, authorities said. When police shined flashlights on him, he moved away from the edge of the rooftop but was later spotted on the streets.

He was stopped, and police searched the satchel and found three bottles filled with gasoline, five rags and two lighters, prosecutors said. A half-full gas can and more rags were found in his vehicle. Eovacious said he was with the anarchist group and was waiting for an opportunity, prosecutors said.

During what should have been a peaceful demonstration, Mr. Eovacious sought to incite violence by bringing dangerous Molotov cocktails with him and threatening to kill police officers, U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins said. Protesting injustice is legal. Violence, destruction and threats are not."

Eovacious pleaded guilty in September to civil disorder and possession of an unregistered firearm.
GULFPORT, Miss. (AP)  A Mississippi man has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for wire fraud related to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, federal authorities said.

Court documents show Hancock County Sheriff's deputies arrested Trevon Evans, 25, of Kiln, on Aug. 3, 2020, in relation to two stolen vehicles and found him in possession of multiple identification cards with different names.
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SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un doubled down on his nuclear arms buildup to overwhelm hostile forces at a key meeting where military leaders approved unspecified new operational duties for front-line army units.

Members of the ruling Workers Partys Central Military Commission decided to supplement an important military action plan on the duties of front-line troops and further strengthen the countrys nuclear war deterrent, state media said Friday.

North Korea hasnt specified the new operational duties for front-line army units, but analysts say the country could be planning to deploy battlefield nuclear weapons targeting rival South Korea along their tense border.

While North Koreas pursuit of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles that could reach the U.S. mainland gets much of the international attention, it is also developing a variety of nuclear-capable, short-range missiles that can target South Korea. Experts say its rhetoric around those missiles communicates a threat to proactively use them in warfare to blunt the stronger conventional forces of South Korea and the United States. About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in the South to deter aggression from the North.

Kim during the military commissions three-day meeting that ended Thursday called for his entire army to go all out in carrying out the plans to bolster the nations military muscle and consolidate powerful self-defense capabilities for overwhelming any hostile forces and thus reliably protect the dignity of the great country.

The commissions members discussed ways to strengthen the partys leadership over the entire armed forces and ratified plans for unspecified changes in military organizational formations, North Koreas official Korean Central News Agency said.

Some analysts say North Koreas possible plans to deploy tactical nuclear weapons to front-line artillery units may require command-and-control changes as the countrys nuclear-capable weapons have so far been handled by the armys strategic force.

State media reports of the meeting did not include any direct criticism toward Washington or Seoul amid a prolonged stalemate in nuclear negotiations.

The meeting came amid signs that North Korea is preparing to conduct its first nuclear test explosion since September 2017, when it claimed to have detonated a thermonuclear weapon that could be tipped on its intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Experts say North Korea may use its next nuclear test to claim that it has acquired the ability to build a small nuclear warhead to fit its short-range missiles or other weapons it recently tested, including a purported hypersonic missile and a long-range cruise missile. Smaller warheads would also be necessary for the Norths stated pursuit of a multiwarhead ICBM.

While North Korean reports of the meeting didnt mention plans for a nuclear test, a South Korean government spokesperson said Seoul is keeping a close watch for related developments.

As North Korea said it discussed and ratified important plans to expand and strengthen its war deterrent, (our) government will prepare for all possibilities while carefully monitoring related trends, said Cha Duck Chul from Seouls Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs.

North Korea has already set an annual record in ballistic testing through the first half of 2022, firing around 30 missiles, including its first tests involving ICBMs in nearly five years.

Kim has punctuated his recent tests with repeated comments that North Korea would use its nuclear weapons proactively when threatened or provoked, which experts say portend an escalatory nuclear doctrine that may create greater concerns for neighbors.

South Korea has been spending heavily to expand its conventional arms in recent years, but some analysts say the country has no clear way to counter the threat posed by Kims growing arsenal of nuclear weapons and missiles.

While the Biden administration has reaffirmed U.S. commitment to defend allies South Korea and Japan with its full range of military capabilities, including nuclear, there are concerns in Seoul that Kims ICBMs could make the United States hesitant in the event of another war on the Korean Peninsula.

Opinion polls show growing support among South Koreans for a redeployment of U.S. tactical nukes that were withdrawn from the South in the 1990s or even the South's pursuit of its own deterrent, which some experts say would increase pressure on Pyongyang and create conditions for mutual nuclear disarmament.

North Koreas apparent push to deploy battlefield nuclear weapons at front-line units had been predicted since April, when Kim supervised a test of a new short-range missile that state media said would drastically improve the firepower of front-line artillery units and enhance the efficiency in the operation of tactical nukes.

Experts say North Koreas unusually fast pace in testing activity this year underscores Kims dual intent to advance his arsenal and pressure Washington over long-stalled nuclear diplomacy. Talks have stalled since early 2019 over disagreements in exchanging the release of crippling U.S.-led sanctions against the North and the Norths disarmament steps.

Kim has shown no intentions to fully give away an arsenal he sees as his strongest guarantee of survival. His pressure campaign is aimed at forcing the United States to accept the idea of the North as a nuclear power and negotiating economic and security concessions from a position of strength, experts say.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP)  A North Carolina doctor has been indicted in connection with a scheme that defrauded federal programs of more than $11 million, a U.S. attorney said.

Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, said in a news release that Sudipta Mazumder, 46, of Charlotte, is charged with six counts of making false statements relating to health care matters and a single count of health care fraud.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)  North Carolina Republican legislative leaders asked Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein on Friday to act so a state law banning nearly all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy can be enforced in light of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning abortion protections.

Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore want Stein and the state Justice Department to seek relief from a 2019 federal court decision that stuck down the 20-week law. The 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld last year the decision of District Judge William Osteen, who had based his decisions upon Roe v. Wade and a related 1992 Supreme Court ruling that were struck down Friday.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)  A North Carolina woman has been sentenced to nearly six years in prison for trying to buy firearms on behalf of gang members who she helped sell drugs, according to a federal prosecutor.

U.S. Attorney Michael F. Easley Jr. said in a news release that Vernisha Suggs, 35, of Rocky Mount, who pleaded guilty to multiple charges in February, was sentenced Thursday to 71 months in prison.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP)  The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday denied the postconviction appeal of a death row inmate who said his defense attorney was so inept that his right to a fair trial had been compromised.

Roy Ellis Jr., 68, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death for the 2005 killing of 12-year-old Amber Harris. Ambers remains were found buried in an Omaha park six months after she went missing from an Omaha school bus stop.
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP)  Police announced Friday that they have arrested a suspect in this week's fatal shooting of a man on a San Francisco subway commuter train.

Javon Green, 26, was arrested Thursday in Pittsburg, a city about 40 miles (64 kilometers) east of San Francisco after police released a still photo from surveillance video of a man they described as a person of interest and asked anyone with information to contact authorities, said Officer Kathryn Winters, a spokesperson with the San Francisco Police Department.

Winters said tips from inside and outside the law enforcement community helped officials identify Green.

Green was booked into San Francisco jail minutes after midnight Friday, according to jail records. He faces charges of homicide, carrying a concealed firearm, and using a firearm in the commission of a felony.

It wasnt immediately known if Green had an attorney who could speak on his behalf. Police did not respond to a question about whether he has retained an attorney.

Wednesday's shooting on a crowded train killed 27-year-old Nesta Bowen and wounded a 70-year-old man, who was taken to a hospital with injuries and later released.

Winters said police believe there was a confrontation between Green and Bowen before the shooting. She added that she didnt know if Green and Bowen knew each other and that a motive in the shooting has not been determined.

After the train stopped in the Castro neighborhood, which is internationally known for its LGBTQ activism, Green ran out of the train along with terrified passengers.

Winters reiterated that the shooting was not connected to upcoming Pride events.

Nevertheless, the shooting cast a shadow over the celebrations at a time when members of the LGBTQ community are experiencing heightened threats, including protests at libraries where drag queens read to children.

Winters said the police department is going to be fully staffed throughout Pride weekend and that officers will give extra attention to train stations.

As we go into Pride weekend, we know theres a number of events throughout the city. We are going to have officers on hand at all of the events, Winters said.
CHICAGO (AP)  A prosecutor has asked a federal judge to sentence Jerry Harris, a former star of the Netflix documentary series Cheer, to 15 years in prison for coercing teenage boys to send him obscene photos and videos of themselves and soliciting sex from minors at cheerleading competitions.

Attorneys for Harris are seeking a sentence of six years.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Guzman wrote in a sentencing memo late Wednesday that Harris used his status as a competitive cheerleader, his social media persona, and eventually his celebrity and money, to persuade and entice his young victims to engage in sexually explicit conduct for him or with him.

Guzman also requested the sentence include 10 years of supervised release after the prison term.

Harris, 22, of suburban Naperville, pleaded guilty earlier this year to one count each of receiving child pornography and traveling with the intention to engage in illegal sexual conduct. He is due to be sentenced July 6 by U.S. District Judge Manish Shah.

Defense attorneys, in asking that a six-year sentence be followed by eight years of supervised release, described Harris as both victimizer and victim, saying he was sexually assaulted himself when he was a child.

The trauma he experienced as a child normalized his skewed version of what he understood to be appropriate relationships. No one was there to stand up for him when he was sexually assaulted as a minor. He is grateful that is not the case for his victims in this case, to whom he is profoundly remorseful. defense attorneys wrote.

Federal prosecutors acknowledged the actor's traumatic childhood was a mitigating factor in his crimes, but said while Harriss childhood was very difficult, it was not a blank check to commit sex offenses against minors.

Harris remains in custody at a federal detention facility.

Harris was arrested in September 2020 on a charge of production of child pornography. Prosecutors alleged at the time that he solicited videos and images from two 14-year-old brothers.

According to a complaint, federal prosecutors said that Harris admitted to repeatedly asking a minor teen for pornographic videos and images between December 2018 and March 2020.

Then in December of that year, he was indicted on more charges alleging misconduct in Illinois, Florida and Texas. According to the indictment, Harris allegedly solicited sex from minors at cheerleading competitions and convinced teenage boys to send him obscene photographs and videos of themselves.

Harris admitted to FBI agents to asking a teenage boy to send him lewd photographs of himself, and to requesting child pornography on Snapchat from at least 10 to 15 others he knew to be minors, according to the indictment.

Cheer was a huge success when it was released in January 2020 and Harris became wildly popular for his upbeat attitude and his encouraging mat talk. Harris even interviewed celebrities on the red carpet at the Academy Awards for The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

The docuseries follows the competitive cheerleading squad from Navarro College in Corsicana, Texas.
Nasser Nasser/AP

JERUSALEM (AP)  Amnesty International said Friday that the Palestinian Authority has failed to hold its security forces accountable for the death of an activist in police custody a year ago.

The family of Nizar Banat, a prominent critic of the PA, says security forces stormed his residence in the middle of the night and beat him with metal batons. His death sparked weeks of protests against the PA, which governs parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, some of which were violently dispersed.
In a ruling issued Thursday the U.S. Supreme Court whittled away at Miranda protections, experts say, and though the ruling wont have immediate bearing on criminal cases, advocates fear it is a step toward eliminating Miranda rights.

The bulk of the decision is saying Miranda is not a right, said Hartford city councilman and public defender Josh Michtom. The writing is on the wall that they want to get rid of Miranda.

When a police officer makes an arrest and informs the accused that they have the right to remain silent, the right to an attorney and that anything they say can and will be used against you in a court of law, they are following a precedent the U.S. Supreme Court set after the 1966 case Miranda v. Arizona.

The Miranda ruling did something that never had been done before, said Todd Fernow, a professor emeritus of law at UConn specializing in criminal law and procedure. The thing it did was completely change the presumptive legality of how the police do business when they interrogate a subject.

In the recent case of Vega v. Tekoh, Terence Tekoh was not Mirandized by Los Angeles Sheriffs Deputy Carlos Vega before being interrogated on accusations of sexual assault.

In a 6-3 ruling Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court said Tekoh did not have the right to sue Vega.

Allowing the victim of a Miranda violation to sue a police officer for damages, Associate Justice Samuel Alito wrote, would have little additional deterrent value, and permitting such claims would cause many problems.

Attorney Alex Taubes said the case is more about accountability and the ability to recover compensation and lawsuits than it is about Miranda itself.

While the ruling has no immediate bearing on criminal cases, removing the right to sue when the Miranda rule is violated takes the teeth out of Miranda, Taubes said.

If you cant go to court and say My rights were violated and the person who did it would have to pay, then its not a right, its just something they put on paper, he said.

That argument echoes what Associate Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her dissent: Today, the court strips individuals of the ability to seek a remedy for violations of the right recognized in Miranda.

Fernow disagreed that the Tekoh ruling is an intentional weakening of Miranda rights, which the court defined not as a right itself but as a rule intended to protect the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrmination: I just dont see it as the precursor for gutting Miranda.

They didnt even talk about overruling Miranda, he said. What they are now saying is, were going to disaggregate the violation from the remedy. Its really a much more narrow decision than you think it is. I dont think theyre going to overrule Miranda.

Though he added, They might  this court could do anything.

Advocates, however, say the courts ruling makes those protections afforded by Miranda less secure.

The warnings mandated in Miranda v. Arizona have been a critical means for people to protect themselves when interacting with the police, said Dan Barrett, ACLU of Connecticut legal director. By denying people the ability to hold cops accountable for violating Miranda, the U.S. Supreme Court today puts us even further away from a world in which people have control over policing.

Policing is already a racist and harmful system with nearly unchecked power, and todays decision will further embolden police to harm people, Barrett said.

State Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, said Alitos interpretation will have significant impact on the American justice system.

Anyone who has watched an episode of any legal show will know how central the reading of Miranda rights is for all citizens, he said. Todays decision removes an avenue to seek recourse when this lesser right in the view of the court is violated.

Michtom explained that the majority opinion separates the 5th Amendment right to freedom from self-incrimination from Miranda, which is the rule that a suspect must be informed of that right.

This court says the Miranda rule is not a free-standing right, its just a mechanism set up to protect the underlying right, so if its violated, that alone does not prove a violation of your Constitutional rights, he said.

Attorney Jim Bergenn, who handles complex criminal and civil litigation for Hartford-based firm Shipman and Goodwin, said while the ruling matters, frankly Im not sure its going to change much.

Practically, the ability to sue after the fact is secondary to most of us in the criminal world, he said, and prosecutors still cant use whats said to prosecute if a suspect had not been Mirandized.

Police are legally allowed to lie during an interrogation, he said, and a Miranda warning does not prevent a suspect from talking.

Once they give the Miranda, they can just still keep talking an taking and talking, Bergenn said.

Michael Lawlor, an associate criminal Justice professor at the University of New Haven, said he agrees with the court in this case.

Its kind of technical but I dont think they are off base, he said. The Supreme Court said you cant sue the cops. The remedy you get is that they may not be able to use it against you at your trial.
Vita Alari, a server at a 24/7 restaurant in New York, is used to reading customers' special requests submitted in food-delivery apps.

"Can you add more ketchup?"

"Please don't forget the forks," the notes often read.

On Sunday, Alari, 47, and a colleague working the early-morning shift at the Chipper Truck Cafe in Yonkers received a cheeseburger order around 5 a.m.

But the woman who placed the order was not craving an early meal. Her Grubhub submission was instead a cry for help, according to Alari and the restaurant.

"Please call the police his going to call me when u delivered come with the cones please don't make it obvious," read the message under Grubhub's "additional instructions."

It took Alari and her co-worker a couple of minutes to decipher the message, which seemed to be written in a rush, Alari told The Washington Post. But from what they could gather, the woman wanted them to call police and have officers sent to that address as soon as possible.

Alari and her colleague took action. They simultaneously called the police and their boss to report the incident.

"It was something like you only see on TV," Alari, who has worked at the restaurant for six years, told The Post. "I don't think anybody would joke about anything like that, so as soon as we saw it, we took it seriously."

Police arrived at the address around 6:20 a.m. and arrested 32-year-old Kemoy Royal. He was charged with two counts of rape, two counts of strangulation and unlawful imprisonment, among other felonies, a New York Police Department spokesperson said via email.

An attorney representing Royal did not immediately respond to a message early Thursday.

Police said Royal had been charged in connection with the attempted rape of a different woman on June 15, four days before the other woman placed the Grubhub order. After Royal was arrested on Sunday, an officer called the Chipper Truck Cafe to thank the workers for alerting police, Alari said.

"I've never seen anything like this," Alari said. "We are just so happy she is OK. I'm glad we're 24 hours and that she had somewhere to grab help from. There's not that many restaurants [open at that hour] anymore where she could have written that note to save her."

Royal is due back in court Friday at 9 a.m., court records state. A judge set his bail at $25,000. He remains in custody, jail records show.
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From the normally chilly Russian Arctic to the traditionally sweltering American South, big swaths of the Northern Hemisphere continued to sizzle with extreme heat as the start of summer more resembled the dog days of August with parts of China and Japan setting all-time heat records Friday.

In the United States a heat dome of triple digit temperatures in many places combined with high humidity oscillated from west to east. On Thursday, at least 15 states hit 100 degrees (37.8 degrees Celsius) and at least 21 high temperature marks were set or broken, according to the National Weather Service, which held 30 million Americans under some kind of heat advisory.

The extreme discomfort of Thursday came after 12 states broke the 100-degree mark on Wednesday and 21 records were tied or broken. Since June 15, at least 113 automated weather stations have tied or broken hot-temperature records. Scientists say this early baking has all the hallmarks of climate change.

In Chinas northern Henan province Friday, Xuchang hit 107.8 degrees (42.1 degrees Celsius) and Dengfeng hit 106.9 degrees (41.6 degrees Celsius) for their hottest days on record, according to global extreme weather tracker Maximiliano Herrera. And in Japan Friday, Tokamachi and Tsunan set all-time heat records while several cities broke monthly marks, he said

Its easy to look at these figures and forget the immense misery they represent. People who cant afford air conditioning and people who work outdoors have only one option, to suffer, said Texas A&M climate scientist Andrew Dessler, who was in College Station, where the temperature tied a record at 102 degrees (38.9 degrees Celsius) Thursday. Those of us with air conditioning may not physically suffer, but we are prisoners of the indoors.

After three deaths, Chicago has changed its cooling rules.

In Macon, Georgia, the temperature swept from 64 degrees (17.8 degrees Celsius) to 105 (40.6 degrees Celsius) in just nine hours Wednesday. Then on Thursday the temperature peaked at 104 (40 degrees Celsius), a record for the day. Even Minneapolis hit 100 on Monday.

Probably only the Pacific Northwest and Northeast have been spared the heat wave, said National Weather Service meteorologist Marc Chenard at the Weather Prediction Center. On Thursday, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Arizona, South Carolina, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, South Dakota, Colorado, Nevada and California all hit at least 100. Houston, Dallas, Austin, New Orleans and Orlando all tied high record marks on Thursday.

Its persistent, Chenard said. Its been over a week and its going to continue in some aspects.

Its not just the U.S.

The Russian city of Norilsk, above the Arctic circle, hit 89.6 degrees (32 degrees Celsius) Thursday for its hottest June day on record and tied for its hottest day in any month on record, according to Herrera. Saragt in Turkmenistan rose to 114.6 degrees (45.9 degrees Celsius) but Herrera said in the next days it can get even worse.

Herrera said tracking heat records is so overwhelming that he doesnt have time to eat or sleep.

A European heat wave has also caused problems with fires in Germany and Spain.

Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Victor Gensini said whats happening with this early heat wave is very consistent with what wed expect in a continually warming world.

These temperatures are occurring with only 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 degrees Celsius) of global warming and we are on track for 4 degrees Fahrenheit (2.2 degrees Celsius) more warming over this century, Dessler said. I literally cannot imagine how bad that will be."

In Raleigh, North Carolina, it hit 100 on Wednesday and usually the city only gets one 100-degree day a year, but it comes much later than this, said state climatologist Kathie Dello.

In the southeastern U.S. many lack access to sufficient or stable cooling or cannot afford to use their home cooling systems. Heat morbidity and mortality is among our greatest public health risks in a changing climate.

There may be some cooling by the weekend or Monday in some places, including the north central part of the country, Chenard said. But above normal temperatures are forecast for at least into the first part of July and he added its likely the entire summer will be hotter than normal.

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Follow APs climate coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate

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Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about APs climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
GENEVA (AP)  Swiss customs authorities said Friday that they are tracking about 3 tons of gold of Russian origin that entered Switzerland from Britain last month to watch for potential violations of economic sanctions against Russia following President Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine.

The gold is worth 194 million Swiss francs ($202 million), officials said.

The Federal Office for Customs and Border Security said it consistently monitors imports of gold from Russia, which it said are not prohibited under a raft of Swiss sanctions against Moscow imposed over Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.

However, exports of gold to Russia are barred under Switzerland's sanctions, the customs office said in a statement. Gold bars manufactured in Russia since March 7 can not be traded in Switzerland, but ones created before then can, the office said.

There are no commercial restrictions in Switzerland on other forms of gold, such as jewelry or coins, from Russia, the office said.

American news outlet Bloomberg first reported the imported Russian gold that Swiss authorities are reviewing.

The Swiss Association of Manufacturers and Traders in Precious Metals said Thursday it was aware of concerns" linked to last month's move and said none of its members  which includes the biggest smelters of gold in Switzerland  was behind it.

The association noted that while such imports are not illegal, it would like to reiterate that dubious gold has no place in Switzerland and that it expects its members to act with the utmost caution and to refrain from buying in case of doubt."

Switzerland has annually imported a total of about 270 billion Swiss francs (about $280 billion) worth of gold in recent years, according to customs office figures.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP)  A Tennessee rooming house manager has been charged with killing a tenant with a machete during an argument over parking, state prosecutors said.

Leaford Anderson, 53, has been indicted on a second-degree murder charge in the death of Edward Lee Brooks, the Shelby County district attorney's office said in a news release Thursday.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)  The Tennessee attorney generals office filed an emergency motion on Friday asking a federal appeals court to let the state immediately begin banning abortions as early as six weeks into pregnancy.

The state also has a trigger law that was written to ban nearly all abortions if Roe v. Wade was overturned. That ban cannot take effect until 30 days after Fridays U.S. Supreme Court ruling. But the six-week ban could be implemented as early as next week, if the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agrees to lift a court injunction.

Tennessee's emergency motion urges the appeals court to move quickly.

Tennessee has a valid interest in protecting the lives of unborn Tennesseans," the motion states. Those lives are at risk each day the preliminary injunction remains in place, so this Court should grant the States motion as soon as possible."

Planned Parenthood plans to keep providing abortions for now, Ashley Coffield, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi, said at a Friday online news conference. The Planned Parenthood centers she oversees are fully booked with abortion patients through July 1, after which Coffield expects Tennessee to be under the six-week ban.

Coffield said the facilities will still provide other health services and will help guide women to accessible abortion services elsewhere.

Let me very clear: Banning abortion will cause a public health crisis," she said. "And we will not forget that the Tennessee and Mississippi lawmakers who have systematically rolled back our rights and bartered our bodies for votes are the ones who got us here."

Meanwhile, Tennessee Right to Life celebrated the many years of organizing and lobbying it took to get to this point.

We stand on the shoulders of those who in 1973 refused to accept that Roe v. Wade and legalized abortion were the law of the land," Tennessee Right to Life President Stacy Dunn said at a Friday news conference at the state Capitol. This is a great victory for democracy.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP)  Three officers have been placed on paid leave after fatally shooting a knife-wielding man at an Amtrak station in Topeka, police there said.

The shooting happened around 10 a.m. Friday after police were called to the station for reports of a man armed with a knife who was chasing and threatening people, police said in a written release.
Richard Donoghue, President Donald Trump's acting deputy attorney general, picked up the phone at home one night in December 2020 to hear the president of the United States insist once again that the election he had just lost was filled with fraud.

He reached to his wife's nightstand, picked up pad and pen, and took precise notes, scribbling in loose cursive as Trump spoke: "Just say the election was corrupt + leave to the rest to me and the R. Congressman."

On Thursday, those same handwritten notes flashed on an oversize video panel in a hearing room amid a riveting afternoon of testimony before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Donoghue and two other former top Justice Department officials also told the committee in extraordinary detail about how he -- along with the acting attorney general and Trump's own White House counsel and others -- confronted the president in an explosive Oval Office meeting on Jan. 3, 2021.

The meeting centered on a plan by a mid-level Justice official, Jeffrey Clark, to become attorney general. New details released at the hearing revealed just how close the Justice Department came to collapsing and throwing the country into an unprecedented constitutional crisis.

Among those details: a possible link between Clark, another Justice official and John Eastman, a conservative attorney running a parallel effort on Trump's behalf to push states to overturn the election. And, White House phone logs that at one point listed Clark as the acting attorney general, showing how close he came to getting the position.

Much of the dramatic testimony on this Washington summer afternoon had already been detailed in dry depositions and previously released court documents. But delivered with raw emotion on Tuesday, those details landed with new gravity as some of Trump's former top aides called out his falsehoods about the election, still sounding shocked and disdainful at what they had witnessed.

In a series of striking moments, nationally televised to millions, the damning testimony from the nation's top law enforcement officials was the closest that the investigation has come to events that unfolded a half-century ago in the Watergate scandal.

Instead of White House tapes, there were the handwritten notes and fly-on-the-wall testimony about Oval Office conversations by Donoghue, former acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen and others. Instead of President Richard Nixon's White House counsel warning that there was a "cancer on the presidency," there was an account of Trump White House Counsel Pat Cipollone saying that an effort to overturn the election was like a "murder-suicide pact" that would affect everyone involved.

And, in an echo of how Nixon's "Saturday Night Massacre" led to the resignations of his attorney general and deputy attorney general, Donoghue warned Trump that hundreds of Justice Department officials could resign if the president replaced his attorney general with a mid-level official who had vowed to pursue Trump's claims.

"Suppose I do this. Suppose I replace him, Jeff Rosen, with him, Jeff Clark, what would you do?" Donoghue recalled Trump asking him. "And I said, 'Mr. President, we resign immediately. I'm not working one minute for this guy who I just declared was completely incompetent.'"

At the center of Thursday's hearing was the extraordinary clash set in motion by the mid-level Justice official, Clark, who had once overseen environmental litigation and then became acting head of the civil division.

After William Barr resigned in late December 2020 as attorney general, he was replaced by Rosen, who along with his deputy, Donoghue, testified about the numerous efforts by Trump to convince them that the election was fraudulent. When Rosen and Donoghue checked out every allegation and told Trump they all were baseless, Trump began focusing on whether Rosen should be replaced by the little-known Clark.

Clark had an ally in Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., who arranged a meeting with Trump at the White House. The committee displayed texts from Perry to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in which Perry said: "Mark, you should call Jeff. I just got off the phone with him," explaining how Clark needed more authority. Perry then texted Meadows that he "just sent you something on Signal," an app that sends encrypted messages.

When Rosen found out that Clark had met with Trump, he was livid. Rosen testified that he believed Clark wouldn't meet with Trump again -- but Clark did, despite being told not to by Rosen and Donoghue, according to the testimony.

The committee outlined how Trump's requests to his Justice Department grew more outlandish. On New Year's Eve, the Justice Department's former top officials testified, they were summoned to a meeting with Trump, who had rushed back to Washington from vacationing at his Florida estate Mar-a-Lago.

During the meeting, Donoghue testified that Trump said he wanted to appoint a special counsel to investigate the election, though he had been told repeatedly by Justice Department officials that no special counsel was warranted. Then, Trump turned his attention to voting machines. "There was a point at which the president said something about why don't you guys see these machines?" Donoghue testified.

The Justice officials explained they had no authority to seize voting machines -- and there was no evidence anything had gone wrong with the machines, as had been confirmed by Trump's own Department of Homeland Security.

Trump then called Ken Cuccinelli, the DHS acting deputy secretary, and falsely told him that the acting attorney general had just said that it was Cuccinelli's job to seize voting machines "and you're not doing your job."

The following day, Jan. 1, Meadows sent a series of increasingly desperate emails to Rosen. In one, he suggested that Rosen send Clark to Georgia to oversee election matters there. In another, Meadows asked Rosen to look into a bizarre theory that an Italian defense contractor had used satellites to flip votes from Trump to Biden.

The committee revealed that Meadows had learned of the baseless conspiracy theory from Perry, who texted Meadows about it on Dec. 31.

Rosen testified that he told Meadows he would not meet with a man who was pushing the theory, nor with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who Meadows said was also interested in the Italy conspiracy. "Pure insanity," Rosen emailed to Donoghue about the pressure at the time.

Rosen testified that he thought his refusals had put an end to the issue.

Instead, Donoghue testified that he received a call from Defense Department official Kash Patel about the matter. The committee played recorded testimony from former acting defense secretary Christopher Miller confirming he too fielded calls about the bizarre conspiracy theory. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said the committee had confirmed that Miller placed a phone call to an attache in Italy to inquire about the allegation.

Clark, meanwhile, had come up with a proposed letter that would be sent to key states urging the legislatures to take steps that could have overturned the election. The letter said that the Justice Department had "identified significant concerns" about the vote and that the states should consider sending "a separate slate of electors supporting Donald J. Trump" for Congress to approve.

A draft of the letter had been sent to Clark by a recently arrived Justice official, Ken Klukowski. Committee Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said Thursday that Klukowski had been assigned "to work under Jeffrey Clark" and that he helped draft the letter to key states. In addition, Cheney said that Klukowski "also worked with John Eastman," the Trump legal adviser who was involved in other plans seeking to overturn the election. Cheney said the letter echoed some of Eastman's theories. Two sources said Klukowski has cooperated with the committee, but it did not release his testimony; his lawyer declined to comment on Thursday night. Eastman and his lawyer could not be reached.

At the bottom of the letter was a place for it to be signed not only by Clark, but also by Rosen and Donoghue. The two top Justice officials were outraged and told Clark there was no such evidence and that they would never sign the letter. They thought the matter was dead.

Donoghue told the committee that at one point he told Clark what he was doing would have "grave consequences for the country" adding, "I wanted to make sure that he understood the gravity of the situation because he didn't seem to really appreciate it."

Clark persisted in his efforts to win over Trump, who had warmed to the idea.

By Jan. 3, 2020, Trump was so fed up with Rosen and Donoghue that he told Clark to be ready to be named attorney general. Call logs released by the committee Thursday show that Clark called the White House four times on that day as it seemed he would take over the Justice Department.

At 7:07 a.m. and again at 7:38 a.m., logs show calls from "Mr. Jeffrey Clark." Again at 1:13 p.m., the log reflects a call from "Mr. Jeffrey Clark."

But when Clark called again at 4:19 p.m., the logs showed different. This time, Clark was recorded as "acting Attorney General Jeffrey Clark." The log detail provided a striking window how close the country came to Trump going through with his plan.

In fact, at that time, Rosen had not resigned or been ousted. He had instead demanded a meeting with Trump rather than agreeing to step down simply at the request of Clark. Rosen called Donoghue, who had been walking on the muddy National Mall and was still dressed in an Army T-shirt, and they rushed to the Oval Office to intervene.

For two and a half hours, Trump met with Clark, Rosen, Donoghue and White House lawyers. Clark told the president that "history is calling" and that "this is our opportunity. We can get this done," according to prior testimony.

Rosen and Donoghue testified that they pushed back relentlessly, warning that there would be mass resignations at the Justice Department. Donoghue, in a previously recorded portion of his testimony, recalled that he told Trump that Clark "is not even competent to serve as the attorney general. He's never been a criminal attorney. He's never conducted a criminal investigation in his life."

Clark retorted that he had done things like environmental litigation, to which Donoghue sent a stinging rejoinder.

"I said, 'That's right. You're an environmental lawyer. How about you go back to your office and we'll call you when there's an oil spill?'"

A White House lawyer, Eric Herschmann, who gave his testimony in recorded video, provided a new account, saying that he thought Clark's proposal was "nuts" and that when Clark finished discussing his plan, he told Clark: "Congratulations. You just admitted your first step or act that you take as attorney general would be committing a felony," adding sarcastically, "You're clearly the right candidate for this job."

Trump was eventually convinced that putting Clark atop the Justice Department would result in mass resignations.

As the committee members told it, the actions by Rosen, Donoghue and others showed the value of government officials who aren't simply loyal to a single person, the president. Instead, they defied the president and told their story to the nation Thursday.

Clark has taken the Fifth Amendment and declined to address many of the committee's questions. His home was raided Wednesday by law enforcement officials.

Clark, appearing Thursday night on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show, said he was told to exit his home in his pajamas by armed agents, saying, "Increasingly, Tucker, I don't recognize the country anymore with these kinds of Stasi-like things happening." He said he didn't think it was a coincidence that the raid happened shortly before the hearing.

The committee then set the stage for the next chapter of the story, to be examined in a future hearing, about what happened three days later, when the president waited hours to intervene as a mob broke into the Capitol, shouting Trump's name.

"We're going to show," said committee chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., "how Donald Trump tapped into the threat of violence, how he summoned the mob to Washington and how, after corruption and political pressure failed to keep Donald Trump in office, violence became the last option."
TUNIS, Tunisia (AP)  A man with a knife attacked police officers stationed near a synagogue in Tunisia's capital, injuring one in the shoulder and another on the hand, authorities said Friday.

The attacker fled after the overnight stabbing but was located nearby soon afterward along with the knife and arrested, Interior Ministry spokesperson Fadhila Khelifi told a news conference.

She described the incident as a terrorist attack and said investigators were trying to determine whether the suspect had accomplices. The motive was unclear.

Khelifi mentioned unspecified threats targeting President Kais Saied, aimed at undermining public security and sowing chaos in Tunisia. She did not provide further details, citing ongoing investigations.

The attack took place outside the Tunis synagogue, the director of the Interior Ministrys communications office, Faker Bouzgaya told The Associated Press.

He said the assailant was released from prison last year after serving time for acts of public violence.

In addition to the economic and social difficulties the North African nation has faced for many years, Tunisia is gripped by an acute political crisis since Saied granted himself sweeping powers in July 2021, saying he needed to save the country from chaos.

Many voices of the opposition accuse him of taking a totalitarian path, endangering the democratic experiment Tunisia undertook after the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings.

Saied plans to submit a new constitution to a July 25 referendum. It would establish a presidential system of government in place of the hybrid one Tunisia has now. He has said he plans to order a Dec. 17 election to elect a new parliament. Saied dissolved the previous one.
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ANKARA, Turkey (AP)  A wind-stoked wildfire that has been raging near a popular resort in southwestern Turkey has been largely brought under control, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday.

The blaze erupted Tuesday in the Bordubet region, near Marmaris on the Aegean Sea coast, and spread rapidly, blackening swaths of pine forest and driving hundreds of people from their homes.

Speaking to reporters after an inspection of the area, Erdogan said an estimated 4,000 hectares (nearly 9,900 acres) of forest was affected by the fire. Reforestation efforts would begin as soon as possible, he said.

We saw a (fire) in one small area but other than that, thank God, it has been brought under control to a large extent, he told reporters.

More than 45 people people were affected by the blaze and 19 of them were taken to hospitals for treatment, Erdogan said.

We are happy above all, that there was no loss of life and no one was reported missing, he said.

Authorities on Thursday detained a 34-year-old man who allegedly confessed to having started the fire following a dispute with family members, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said.

Erdogan said he favored heavy punishment for people convicted for igniting wildfires, adding that the country should also start a debate on whether to restore the death penalty.

More than 2,500 firefighters and 41 water-dropping planes and helicopters were deployed to fight the blaze. On Friday, a plane from Azerbaijan and three helicopters from Qatar joined their efforts.

More than 400 people have been evacuated from their homes as a precaution, Turkey's disaster management agency, AFAD, said.

Extended drought conditions in several Mediterranean countries, a heat wave last week that reached northern Germany and high fuel costs for aircraft needed to fight wildfires have heightened concerns across Europe this summer.

Last summer, blazes that were fed by strong winds and scorching temperatures tore through forests in Turkeys Mediterranean and Aegean regions, including Marmaris. The wildfires, which killed at least eight people and countless animals, were described as the worst in Turkeys history.

The government came under criticism for its inadequate response and preparedness to fight large-scale wildfires, including a lack of modern firefighting planes.
Petros Giannakouris/AP

GENEVA (AP)  The U.N.'s top human rights body is to hold an urgent debate next week to discuss the erosion of rights of women and girls in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover nearly a year ago.

Human Rights Council spokesman Rolando Gomez said Friday that the Geneva-based rights body was expected hold the debate on July 1 as part of its ongoing summer session, following a request for the discussion by the European Union and France.
The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place for nearly 50 years  a decision by its conservative majority to overturn the court's landmark abortion cases. Here's what that ruling means for abortion rights around the country.

These are the states with laws in place that will protect abortion rights after Friday's Supreme Court ruling.

California

The right to obtain an abortion in California is protected until the fetus is considered viable and in cases where the procedure is necessary to save the patient's life or health, according to the state's Health and Safety Code.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom also signed legislation in March that removed some financial barriers to abortion services. Under the law, insurance providers or health insurance plans are banned from requiring cost-sharing payments such as deductibles, coinsurance or copayments for abortions or abortion-related care. The law applies to plans issued after Jan. 1, 2023. For patients with high deductible plans, they would need to meet their deductible before the cost-sharing prohibition applies.

Colorado



Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, signed a bill into law in April that guarantees a pregnant person's right to "have an abortion and to make decisions about how to exercise that right" and bans public entities from depriving people of that right. The law does not define a time or stage of pregnancy after which abortions can no longer be performed.

The law also states that "a fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus does not have independent or derivative rights" under state law.

Connecticut

Connecticut law protects the right to receive an abortion until the fetus becomes viable. After that point, the procedure is only allowed in order to protect the life or health of the pregnant person. Minors under the age of 16 are required to get counseling before consenting to an abortion, except in the case of a medical emergency.

Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont also recently signed a bill into law designed to shield medical providers who perform abortions and out-of-state patients who travel to the state to receive the procedure from lawsuits. In part, it blocks state agencies from assisting in interstate investigations or prosecutions that would hold someone civilly or criminally liable for undergoing or assisting an abortion.

The law also allows people who have "had a judgment entered against them" for receiving or assisting in an abortion to obtain legal damages.

Delaware

In Delaware, physicians can legally terminate a pregnancy up until the point the fetus becomes viable, after which abortions are banned unless the procedure is essential to protect the pregnant person's life or health. Post-viability abortions are also allowed if a medical provider detects a "fetal anomaly for which there is not a reasonable likelihood of the fetus's sustained survival outside the uterus without extraordinary medical measures," according to Delaware State Code.

Hawaii

In Hawaii, abortion is legal before a fetus is considered viable and state law says the state cannot "deny or interfere with a female's right to choose or obtain an abortion of a nonviable fetus" or an abortion that would protect the life or health of the patient.

Illinois

In 2019, Illinois passed a law that established the fundamental right to reproductive care, including abortion, and legalized abortions up until the point a fetus is deemed to be viable. After that, the procedure is only legally protected when "the abortion is necessary to protect the life or health of the patient."

Under the law, a fertilized egg, embryo or fetus does not have protected individual rights.

The statute also requires health insurance plans that provide pregnancy-related coverage to also provide abortion coverage and stipulates that out-of-pocket costs for abortions cannot be higher than those costs for pregnancy care under the same plan.

Maine

Abortions are legal in Maine until the fetus is considered viable, though there are additional limitations on minors. A post-viability abortion is legal if the life or health of the pregnant person is at risk.

If an abortion procedure results in a live birth, however, the law requires that all reasonable efforts are made to preserve the baby's life. Violation of the law "shall subject the responsible party or parties to Maine law governing homicide, manslaughter and civil liability for wrongful death and medical malpractice," according to Maine's Health and Welfare statutes.

In addition to its existing statute protecting pre-viability abortions, Maine also passed two laws in 2019 that allowed physician assistants and certain highly trained nurses to perform the procedure and required health insurance plans that cover pregnancy care to also cover abortion.

Maryland

In Maryland, abortions must be performed by licensed physicians and are legally protected up until the fetus is deemed viable. After viability is determined, an abortion can only be provided if it would protect the life or health of the pregnant person or in cases where the fetus is "affected by genetic defect or serious deformity or abnormality," according to the state's Health Code.

In April, Maryland's Democratic-controlled General Assembly overrode a veto from Republican Gov. Larry Hogan and passed a bill that will expand the types of health care professionals that can perform abortions and set up a program to train and diversify abortion providers. The bill, which will go into effect July 1, also requires most health insurance providers to cover abortion services.

Massachusetts

Massachusetts amended its state law in 2020 to allow abortions up to 24 weeks. The procedure can be performed by a physician, physician assistant, nurse practitioner or nurse midwife. If the pregnancy has reached 24 weeks or more, the law allows only physicians to carry out abortions to save the patient's life or protect their mental or physical health. Exceptions are also provided if a "lethal fetal anomaly" is detected or "the fetus is incompatible with sustained life outside the uterus," the law states.

Nevada

In a 1990 general election referendum, voters in Nevada approved a law that allows a physician to perform an abortion up to 24 weeks into a pregnancy. Because the statute was approved by a referendum vote, it cannot be changed through legislative amendment or appeal, according to the state's Revised Statutes.

After 24 weeks, abortions may only be carried out to preserve the life or health of the pregnant person. In cases where the physician believes there is a chance the fetus could survive outside of the womb, the abortion must be performed in a licensed hospital, the law states.

New Jersey

The right to abortion is protected at all stages of pregnancy in New Jersey. A bill signed into law in January codified the right to reproductive choice, including abortion, in the state.

New Mexico

New Mexico would not be affected, meaning women could still access abortions in the state. Its essentially a right by default. There are no laws banning abortions in New Mexico, but there are no laws protecting them either.

A big reason why there would be no impact is that the state already repealed an old New Mexico law from 1969 that banned it.

New York

New York state passed a law in 2019 to preserve access to abortions in the event that Roe v. Wade is struck down. Under the statute, abortions can be legally performed up to 24 weeks into a pregnancy for any reason and can be performed after that if the fetus is no longer viable or the patient's life or health is at risk.

The 2019 law also removed abortion from the state's criminal code, shielding medical providers from being criminally prosecuted in the state for providing abortion.

Oregon

In 2017, legislators in Oregon passed a bill that said a public body cannot deprive a person of the choice to receive an abortion or interfere with a medical professional providing the service. The law does not define a time or period after which abortions can longer be performed.

It also required that health insurance plans offered in the state must provide coverage for abortion services, with some religious exceptions.

Rhode Island

Rhode Island codified abortion protections in the state when its governor signed a bill into law in 2019 that banned the state from restricting abortions before the fetus is considered viable and prohibited the procedure after viability except when the health or life of the patient is at risk.

The bill also repealed a measure requiring medical providers to notify the husbands of married women before performing the procedure.

Vermont

Vermont passed a law in 2019 that recognized "the fundamental right of every individual who becomes pregnant" to have an abortion and barred government entities from infringing upon that right. The law does not limit abortions at any time during pregnancy.

Washington

Voters in Washington's 1991 general election narrowly approved a measure that declared a woman's right to receive an abortion before the fetus is deemed viable and provided exceptions in cases where the procedure would protect the life or health of the woman.

In March, the state legislature amended the law's language to ensure that people are guaranteed access to reproductive rights, including abortion, regardless of gender identity, allowing the statute to apply to transgender and nonbinary people. The new law takes effect June 9.

The state also requires state-regulated health plans, including college student plans, to cover abortion services if they also cover pregnancy services.

Washington, DC

The right to receive an abortion at any stage of pregnancy is protected under Washington, D.C., law. The statute prohibits the district from denying or interfering with a person's right to choose to get an abortion and does not provide a limit on the protection past a certain phase of pregnancy.

Here are the states set to restrict or ban abortion access.

Arkansas

Arkansas has a law on the books that would ban nearly all abortions in the event that Roe is overturned, except for in the case of a life-threatening medical emergency. A medical provider who violates the law could face up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $100,000 or both.

Last year, a federal judge blocked another bill passed by state legislators which aimed to block nearly all abortions and made no exceptions for rape or incest.

Arkansas' current abortion laws have been the subject of multiple lawsuits. That would change if the Supreme Court strikes down Roe v. Wade.

"If there's no constitutional right to abortion anymore there's no legal challenges," Jill Lens, a professor at the University of Arkansas School of Law, told sister station 40/29. "The only way to change the Arkansas law is to get the legislature to change it."

Idaho

Idaho's trigger ban would make providing abortions a felony punishable by up to five years in prison if Roe is struck down. Exceptions are provided to prevent the death of the pregnant person or in the case of rape or incest.

In March, Idaho legislators passed a separate bill modeled after Texas' restrictive law, which prohibits abortion once fetal cardiac activity can be detected, which can happen as early as six weeks. The law also allows family members of the fetus to sue the medical provider who performed the procedure.

The ban was temporarily blocked by the state Supreme Court last month after abortion providers challenged it in a lawsuit.

Kentucky

Kentucky's legislature passed a bill in 2019 which would ban abortions and make performing them a felony offense if the Supreme Court overturns Roe. Very limited exceptions would be provided to prevent the death or serious injury of the person giving birth.

Louisiana

Louisiana has a law in place that would ban a medical provider from performing an abortion procedure or providing drugs intended to induce an abortion in the case that Roe is overturned. The ban would not apply to life-threatening or serious medical emergencies but requires the physician makes "reasonable medical efforts" to preserve the life of the adult and the fetus.

Mississippi

Mississippi law states that within 10 days of the state attorney general confirming Roe has been overturned, abortions are prohibited in the state. Limited exceptions are provided in cases of rape or when the procedure would preserve the mother's life.

Mississippi passed a separate 15-week abortion ban in 2018, which is the source of the case currently in front of the Supreme Court. The court is expected to announce its decision in June, but a draft opinion revealed by Politico suggests a majority of the justices may be poised to strike down Roe.

Missouri

Missouri approved a law in 2019 that would make it a felony for medical providers to perform or induce an abortion except in cases of medical emergencies if Roe is struck down.

North Dakota

A law approved by the North Dakota legislature in 2007 would ban abortion and make it a felony to perform the procedure except in cases when it would save the life of the mother. The law would go into effect "as a result of new decisions by the Supreme Court of the United States" that would make the provision constitutional.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a bill last month that would make performing abortions illegal in the state, only allowing exceptions to save the life of the pregnant person. The measure makes performing an abortion or attempting to perform one a felony punishable by a maximum fine of $100,000 or a maximum of 10 years in state prison, or both.

The measure prohibits abortions once cardiac activity can be detected in an embryo. Experts say thats typically about six weeks into pregnancy before many women know they are pregnant. Like Texas, the bill allows private citizens to sue abortion providers or anyone who helps a woman obtain an abortion for up to $10,000. The U.S. Supreme Court allowed a similar law in Texas to stand.

South Dakota

South Dakota has had a trigger ban on the books since 2005, when a law was passed to set up an almost outright ban on abortions in the event that Roe is overturned. The law would make it illegal to perform an abortion except in life-threatening medical emergencies and would become effective "on the date states are recognized by the United States Supreme Court to have the authority to prohibit abortion at all stages of pregnancy."

Tennessee

Tennessee law contains a provision that would prohibit all abortions except those that would prevent the death of the mother and would go into effect 30 days after Roe is struck down. Medical providers could be charged with a felony for violating the law.

Texas

Texas' so-called trigger ban was signed into law in June 2021 and would make abortions illegal unless the pregnant person's life is threatened or they are at risk of serious injury. The law would go into effect 30 days after the Supreme Court issues a judgment overruling Roe.

Utah

Utah passed a law in May 2020 banning almost all abortions if Roe is overturned. Exceptions include cases of rape or incest, detection of severe birth defects, or prevention of the death or serious injury of the person giving birth. Performing an abortion in violation of the law is a second-degree felony.

Wyoming

Signed into law last month, Wyoming's bill added a provision that would make it illegal to perform an abortion if Roe is overturned, with extremely limited exceptions for cases of sexual assault, incest, or the risk of death or severe injury to the person giving birth.

The Associated Press and CNN contributed to this report.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer filed a motion in the Michigan Supreme Court on Friday urging the justices immediately consider her lawsuit asking the court to decide if Michigan's state constitution protects the right to abortion.

The question of abortion's legality is now for the states to answer after the United States Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade Friday morning, upending nearly 50 years of judicial precedent.

Whitmer intends to "fight like hell to protect the rights of Michigan women," she stated in a press release issued by her office on Friday.

Below is her statement regarding the motion.

"Today, I filed a motion urging the court to immediately take up my lawsuit to protect abortion in Michigan. We need to clarify that under Michigan law, access to abortion is not only legal but constitutionally protected. The urgency of the moment is clearthe Michigan court must act now."

"With today's U.S. Supreme Court decision, Michigan's extreme 1931 law banning abortion without exceptions for rape or incest and criminalizing doctors and nurses who provide reproductive care is poised to take effect," Whitmer continued. "If the 1931 law goes into effect, it will punish women and strip away their right to make decisions about their own bodies. That is why I filed a lawsuit in April and used my executive authority to urge the Michigan Supreme Court to immediately resolve whether Michigans state constitution protects the right to abortion. I will fight like hell to protect the rights of Michigan women."

On April 7, 2022, Whitmer filed a lawsuit and asked the Michigan Supreme Court to recognize a constitutional right to an abortion under the Due Process Clause of the Michigan Constitution. The lawsuit targets the prosecutors in the 13 counties where clinics that provide abortions in Michigan operate.

Whitmer filed the lawsuit nearly one month before the leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito indicating the court was prepared to take the step to ban abortion at the federal level.

The lawsuit also asks the court to stop the enforcement of the 1931 Michigan abortion ban. The abortion ban violates Michigans due process clause, which provides a right to privacy and bodily autonomy that is violated by the states near-total criminal ban on abortion, according to Whitmer's office.

In 1973, the passage of Roe v. Wade rendered the 1931 Michigan abortion ban unconstitutional and abortion became legal in the state.



On May 17, 2022, a Michigan state judge granted a preliminary injunction in a suit brought by Planned Parenthood against Michigans unconstitutional 1931 law criminalizing abortion. The injunction temporarily blocks the abortion ban.

While abortions are still legal in Michigan, this could change any moment if the injunction blocking the enforcement of the 1931 Michigan abortion ban is lifted.

Whitmer, who is up for reelection in November, is also using the issue to raise money. She tweeted in May 2022: "Abortion access is at stake this November. Contribute $5 to our campaign to help safeguard reproductive rights in Michigan."

Michigan women and doctors will not be prosecuted for obtaining or providing an abortion despite Roe v. Wade being overturned, Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a statement Friday.

"I will not use the resources of the Attorney Generals office to enforce an unconstitutional law that will allow the state into our bedrooms and doctors appointments, interfering with our fundamental reproductive rights," Nessel said in the statement. "As long as Im in office, I will not prosecute women, girls or their doctors for seeking or providing abortion services. Nor will my staff seek licensure discipline against medical professionals who safely perform these procedures."

Republican Rep. John Moolenaar stated in May 2022 that no matter the final ruling, he will "continue to fight for the unborn, and I will oppose the efforts of Democrats as they try to end the Hyde Amendment and use taxpayer dollars to pay for abortions."

As news of Friday's ruling emerged, Moolenaar and other Republican representatives in the state celebrated.

"This is one of the most wonderful days in the history of our country and todays ruling will save millions of lives," Moolenaar said in a statement on Friday. "Now, the American people and their elected representatives at all levels of government will have the opportunity to make new laws on this critical issue with the benefit of scientific research that has shown us that precious unborn children have a heartbeat at six weeks and major organs after 15 weeks. There is still important work ahead including increasing support for adoption and pregnancy resource centers that help parents in need."

Rep. Jack Bergman echoed Moolenaar's sentiments.

"The Supreme Court got it right," Bergman stated in a Tweet on Friday. "The ruling today on Roe properly returns power to the states and ends decades of bad precedent. Todays ruling is a major step to protect the lives of the most vulnerable among us."
MADISON, Wis. (AP)  Doctors across Wisconsin immediately stopped providing abortions on Friday, turning away women in waiting rooms and calling to cancel pending appointments following the U.S. Supreme Courts ruling striking down its Roe v. Wade decision.

The immediate halt to abortions came even as questions remained about the enforceability of a 173-year-old state ban.

Nearly 70 women had abortion procedures scheduled with Planned Parenthood Wisconsin on Friday and Saturday, the group's medical director, Kathy King, said at a news conference. Four women had abortions at Planned Parenthood clinics Friday morning before the Supreme Court's order came down, King said.

Women who were in Planned Parenthood clinics on Friday morning awaiting abortions were told that they couldn't be done in Wisconsin. Instead, they were given help with scheduling appointments in other states, said Planned Parenthood Wisconsin President Tanya Atkinson.

Atkinson said offering travel assistance and helping women upon their return to Wisconsin will now be a focus of the group.

Wisconsin has an 1849 law that bans abortion, except to save the life of the mother, but whether that law is enforceable is expected to be challenged in court. Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, said he would have news next week about how his office would respond to Friday's ruling.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who is up for reelection in November, told The Associated Press he would do everything he could to protect abortion rights. He said that includes not appointing district attorneys who would enforce the ban and waiving prison sentences for anyone convicted under it. Evers also said he was hopeful Kaul would sue to at least put the ban on hold, but he had not discussed it with him.

Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, whose jurisdiction includes the state capital, Madison, said for the first time that he would not enforce the state's ban. Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm has previously suggested that he would not enforce it, either.

If the voters want a district attorney who prosecutes women for seeking an abortion or licensed providers who are acting in the best interest of their patients, they will need to elect someone else, Ozanne said.

The nonpartisan Wisconsin Legislative Council, which is comprised of attorneys who advise the Legislature, indicated in a memo that the enforceability of the state ban will likely have to be decided by a judge.

Barbara Zabawa, an attorney who specializes in health care law and serves as an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukees college of health sciences, said she believes Wisconsins abortion ban went back into effect when the Supreme Court issued its ruling, but that enforceability will be the issue.

It's understandable that local prosecutors wouldnt enforce a law that was written more than 100 years ago, declared unconstitutional in 1973 and then reinstated, said Sara Benesh, chairwoman of UW-Milwaukees political science department.

All of this is going to have tons of litigation, she said. Its going to be a disaster (for women with unwanted pregnancies) as we figure this out.

Under the Wisconsin law, doctors could be charged with felonies for performing abortions and face up to six years in prison and $10,000 in fines.

A person who answered the phone at Affiliated Medical Services, which also provides abortions in Milwaukee, said it was busy contacting patients about the Supreme Court's ruling and declined to comment further. Its website suggested that when Roe v. Wade is struck down, the group would stop providing abortions and instead provide resources for out-of-state abortion clinics, travel support and general questions.

UW Health said in a statement that, While reverting to a 173-year-old state law on abortion will create some legal uncertainties, we recognize that this court decision has effectively banned abortions in Wisconsin except to save the life of the mother, and UW Health will continue to comply with the laws related to reproductive healthcare."

Hundreds of people gathered Friday afternoon at the Capitol for an abortion-rights rally, one of many scheduled across the state.

A Republican candidate for governor, Tim Michels, earlier this week called on Evers to put the Wisconsin National Guard on alert in the event of violent protests. The office of an anti-abortion group in Madison was vandalized last month and no one has been arrested.

Another Republican candidate, former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, released a TV ad heralding the ruling and saying the fight over abortion now moves to the Statehouse.

On Wednesday, the Republican-controlled Legislature refused to overturn the state's ban, as Evers had called on them to do. Evers is making abortion rights a pillar of his reelection campaign, as are Democrats looking to take on Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson.

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Associated Press writer Harm Venhuizen contributed to this report. Venhuizen is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/HarmVenhuizen
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP)  With a week to go until the state's budget deadline, Gov. Tom Wolf and leaders of the Republican-controlled Legislature are working through their remaining differences as they try to produce an agreement on a roughly $42 billion budget plan that they say will marshal substantial new aid for Pennsylvanias public schools and environmental cleanups while cutting corporate taxes.

Greasing the skids this year is a massive influx of tax receipts leaving the states bank accounts flush with  by some estimates  $12 billion in reserves and surpluses, boosted by inflation and an economy juiced with federal pandemic subsidies.

There will be no broad tax cut, but there will be substantial new aid for public schools, as well as for services for the disabled, children and elderly that employ low-paid workers in high-turnover professions that suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lawmakers are also expected to approve significant sums of new money for mental health services and school security, including counseling.

Lawmakers are expected back in the Capitol on Monday, and votes could start soon after.

Perhaps the biggest sticking point is the amount of aid that Wolf, a Democrat, wants to send to public schools.

Talks are going on behind closed doors, as lobbyists circulate the Capitol's corridors and rank-and-file lawmakers await briefings from leadership.

Budget agreements typically get little public scrutiny before landing on a governor's desk. In most years, hundreds of pages of budget-related legislation emerge from the closed-door talks before several dozen bills are rushed through floor votes  all within two or three days.

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EDUCATION

Wolf is seeking what he calls generational investments in Pennsylvania's public schools and public universities.

For public schools, Wolf asked for almost $1.8 billion more for instruction, operations and special education, or about 21% more. Of that, $300 million was set aside for the 100 poorest public school districts and $200 million for special education.

Republican leaders are willing to send more money to public schools, but more like one-third to one-half of the amount Wolf requested. The state must be wary of overspending with an economic slowdown possibly on the way, they say.

On public universities, Wolf had sought $75 million extra for operations at State System of Higher Education universities  almost 16% more  in addition to $150 million in one-time cash from the leftover federal aid and $200 million annually to fund scholarships for students there.

Republican lawmakers have been friendly to Wolf's funding request for the public universities, now that the shrinking system carried out a cost-cutting consolidation.

But Wolf's administration is still trying to talk lawmakers into the scholarship program. In recent weeks, Wolf's office shifted strategy, and pitched a different funding source: an existing 2% tax on gambling at casino table games.

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TAXES

Even with so much money sloshing around, don't expect a broad-based tax cut on income or sales.

Instead, lawmakers are targeting a corporate tax cut, even though corporate tax collections in Pennsylvania have shrunk from about 20% of all collections to about 15% the past couple decades, largely because the Legislature ended a separate tax on business assets.

Republican lawmakers contend that cutting the state's 9.99% corporate net income tax rate  one of the nation's highest  will lure more business activity, jobs and tax-paying residents to boost the state's economy and sluggish population growth.

Democrats say it is more effective to put more money into infrastructure, schools and quality-of-life issues.

Wolf is an ally in the fight to cut corporate taxes, but has insisted that any tax cut come with structural changes to crack down on tax-avoidance strategies used by multi-state corporations.

Wolf also contends that boosting school funding has the effect of a broad property-tax cut because it means the state picks up a bigger share of public education funding. Pennsylvania puts a higher proportion of school funding on local property taxes than most other states.

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SOCIAL SERVICES

The bulk of the new spending will go to keep pace with the rising cost of medical care for the poor and long-term care for the elderly and disabled.

In addition, budget negotiators say they are looking to boost subsidies for nursing homes, child care centers and programs for the disabled, all services that report they are struggling to find workers and, in some cases, beset by closures.

Nursing home trade associations have asked for a Medicaid reimbursement rate increase of $295 million annually, or about 20%, saying they are losing money on each Medicaid enrollee.

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MENTAL HEALTH

Securing tens of millions of dollars in additional aid for mental health programs is a top priority for counties and hospitals.

A lack of services and beds means people showing up to emergency rooms in crisis often stay there for extended periods because of a lack of providers, according to the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania. Counties and hospitals are also seeking more money for early intervention programs, to ensure more counseling services are available to help prevent a crisis.

Meanwhile, schools are pushing for more money for safety, in light of the Uvalde school shooting in Texas that killed 19 students and two teachers.

That money  possibly $100 million more  could fund physical security features such as metal detectors or security officers, but also school counselors or psychiatrists  a growing need that school officials say has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and mass shootings.

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FEDERAL AID

Wolf and top lawmakers say they are working toward parceling out $2.2 billion in leftover federal coronavirus relief aid approved by Congress last year.

A Wolf proposal to send some of it out as $2,000 checks to households earning under $80,000 a year gained no Republican support.

Still, Republicans are entertaining a Wolf proposal using $204 million of the federal aid to boost property tax and rent rebate checks by $475 for all of the 466,000 people in the program.

Some of the money could go toward a new $250 million clean streams program to help improve water quality in the state's water ways.

At least some of that money would be targeted toward helping the state fulfill commitments to improving water quality in the Chesapeake Bay. More than 90% of the state's remaining pollution reductions must come from preventing farm runoff, according to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

Wolf also is pushing to use some of money for anti-gun violence programs and housing subsidies.

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Follow Marc Levy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/timelywriter.
Texas Republican leaders celebrated the overturning of Roe v. Wade on Friday as Democrats vowed to fight back at the ballot box.

The landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision returned the issue of abortion access to the states, and due to a trigger law in Texas, the state will ban all abortions from the moment of fertilizations starting 30 days from the court's issuance of a judgment, which typically comes about a month or so after the opinion.

Attorney General Ken Paxton declared on Twitter that abortion is now illegal in Texas and said he would be closing his office and making it an annual holiday. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz said the reversal of Roe v. Wade is "nothing short of a massive victory for life, and it will save the lives of millions of innocent babies." And Texas GOP Chairman Matt Rinaldi called it a historic day which Republicans Pro-Life advocates have waited for a generation.

Democrats were livid  and acknowledged their best bet to restore abortion access in Texas is to beat Republicans in November.

The only way to overcome todays decision is to win this race for governor, Beto ORourke, the Democratic nominee for governor, said in a statement.

The GOP governor, Greg Abbott, issued a statement that was more understated than some in his party, saying the high court correctly overturned Roe v. Wade and reinstated the right of states to protect innocent, unborn children.

The Texas Democratic Partys co-executive director, Hannah Roe Beck, said in a statement that the decision is a blaring five-alarm call to action for November. Paxtons Democratic opponent, Rochelle Garza, promised that if elected, she will work to restore abortion access and reproductive freedom.

While O'Rourke has run a competitive race against Abbott, Democrats have limited opportunities to channel their energy down-ballot in November after Republicans redrew districts last year to shore up their majorities. The one major exception is South Texas, which Republicans are newly targeting this fall.

New U.S. Rep. Mayra Flores, a Republican from the Rio Grande Valley who won a special election earlier this month, did not hesitate to celebrate the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

"Honestly, this is a dream come true for me, for South Texas," Flores said on Fox News. "In South Texas, we're pro-life  somos pro-vida  so this was a big win for us and South Texas, but also for our country."

Michelle Vallejo, a Democratic candidate in another battleground congressional district in South Texas, issued a statement reminding voters she is the "only pro-choice candidate in this race." She said the country needs "representatives that will codify Roe V. Wade and advocate every single day for our right to choose."

While Democrats largely talked up the new stakes for the November election, some progressives offered ideas for what Democrats could do in the nearer term. Greg Casar, the Democratic nominee for the 35th Congressional District, called for immediate action.

We must immediately direct public funds and private donations to help people get abortion care outside of Texas, beginning in one month, Casar said in a statement. We must push all district attorneys and police departments to not arrest or prosecute Texans under these draconian anti-abortion laws. And we must fight like hell to expand the Supreme Court and pass the Womens Health Protection Act.

Some conservatives in the Texas Legislature have already signaled they will prioritize legislation next year to block efforts to circumvent the state's imminent abortion ban. State Rep. Bryan Slaton, R-Royse City, quickly responded to Casar's proposals on Twitter, saying, "We will not allow this in Texas."

"The left will surely fight to keep the abortion industry alive in Texas, but they will fail," Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a statement.

The Texas Tribune is a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans  and engages with them  about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler, was among the members of Congress who asked former President Donald Trump for a pardon after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection on the U.S. Capitol, according to a testimony shown at a hearing Thursday by the House committee investigating the attack.

Cassidy Hutchinson, the former aide to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, told the committee that Gohmert asked for the pardon. The other Republicans who asked for pardons were Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania.

The only reason I know to ask for a pardon is because you think youve committed a crime, said Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Illinois, who is one of two Republicans on the House committee.

Gohmert was mentioned several times during Thursdays hearing, which focused on the coordinated effort by Trump and his allies to convince the Justice Department to investigate voter fraud and help overturn election results.

His chief of staff was copied on an email that included allies of Trump saying Vice President Mike Pence would benefit greatly from a briefing by John Eastman, the architect of the plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

Ken Blackwell, a former secretary of state of Ohio, wrote the email on Dec. 28, 2020. It also referenced Ken Klukowski, a former White House lawyer who joined the Justice Department in December 2020.

The revelations are the strongest connections yet established by the committee between a Texas lawmaker and the efforts to undermine Bidens presidency.

The committee also showed a video of Gohmert targeting Justice Department officials for not investigating the unsubstantiated allegations of widespread voter fraud.

Theres widespread evidence of fraud because people havent done their jobs, Gohmert said in the clip shot on Dec. 3, 2020. [John] Durham and [William] Barr will deserve a big notation in history when its written of the rise and fall of the United States if they dont clean up this mess, clean up the fraud. Do your jobs and save this little experiment in self-government.

Barr, Trumps former attorney general, has said multiple times that there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud, despite Trumps insistence to the contrary.

Gohmert was early to speak out against the results of the 2020 election.

He joined a brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to discard the votes in four swing states  Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin  that helped hand Biden the presidency. He also sued Pence days before Jan. 6, 2021, arguing Pence should assert unilateral control over the certification of the election results.

Days before the Jan. 6 attack, the U.S. Capitol Police flagged comments by Gohmert as potentially inciting violence. Speaking on the conservative news network Newsmax, Gohmert said that letting President Joe Bidens electoral win stand would mean the end of our republic, the end of the experiment in self-government.

Gohmert also said on air, The ruling would be that you got to go to the streets and be as violent as Antifa and [Black Lives Matter]. He later said he was not advocating for violence.

During the insurrection, Gohmert urged people to not be violent. Hours later, Gohmert was among the members of Congress to vote against the certification of the election results in Pennsylvania and Arizona.

Gohmert did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
After the United States Supreme Court officially overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey on Friday, California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis appeared on MSNBC to discuss the ruling.

She touted California's plans to become an abortion sanctuary for out-of-state travelers seeking abortions, and also took aim at Justice Clarence Thomas, comparing him to an individual from a country with restrictive laws governing women's behavior.

"Sadly I think that this decision is delegitimizing the Supreme Court," she said. "Who is Clarence Thomas? Is he my Saudi Arabian father who's going to tell me what I can and cannot do with my body, with my life?"

Thomas was among the five justices who signed onto the court's majority opinion, and he also penned a solo concurring opinion in which he called for his colleagues to "reconsider all of this Courts substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell."

Griswold prevented states from banning access to contraceptives for married couples, Lawrence banned states from criminalizing sodomy, and Obergefell guaranteed a right to same-sex marriage. No other justices signed onto Thomas's opinion, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote his own solo concurrence reiterating a line from the majority opinion that "nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion."

"I emphasize what the Court today states: Overruling Roe does not mean the overruling of those precedents, and does not threaten or cast doubt on those precedents," Kavanaugh wrote.

Kounalakis said that people should "be prepared to live in defiance of" the justices in the majority. When asked by host Katy Tur if she was asking for people to break the law, the lieutenant governor said, "I'm telling people that they can access, under California law, their rights that were protected by the Constitution."
Andrew Harnik/AP

Prosecutors in Napa County have decided to move forward with charges against Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, after his arrest in May on suspicion of driving under the influence.

On Thursday, the Napa County District Attorney's Office announced the filing of a criminal complaint with two separate charges: driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury, and driving with .08% blood alcohol level or higher causing injury. Both were filed as misdemeanors, and according to the DA's office, punishment could include "up to five years of probation, a minimum of five days in jail, installation of an ignition interlock device, fines and fees, completion of a court ordered drinking driver class, and other terms as appropriate."
As abortion rights advocates across the U.S. lamented the Supreme Court's Friday decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a few moves that  to put it mildly  could best be described as tone-deaf.

In a news conference shortly after the ruling, Pelosi read a poem called, "I Have No Other Country" by Israeli poet and lyricist Ehud Manor. (Better known as a song in Israel, it has also been used as an anthem for Israeli settlers in the West Bank, according to Forward.)

In the poem, Manor bemoans the changes he's seeing in his country, but says he'll remain dedicated to it out of a fierce sense of patriotism. The last line Pelosi read describes Manor's hope that the "changed face" of his country "will open her eyes."

"Clearly, we hoped that the Supreme Court would open its eyes," Pelosi said.

The move was widely lambasted online, with users calling Pelosi's actions "performative" and "hollow."

"If youre ever wondering how Republicans are able to continuously get away with behavior [that two-thirds] of the country opposes, its because this is their opposition," one user said.

To make matters worse, Pelosi used the Supreme Court's decision as an opportunity to raise money for Democratic National Committee. A fundraising email signed "Nancy" appeared in users' inboxes across the U.S., shortly after the ruling was released.

"Trump's Supreme Court just ruled to rip reproductive rights away from every single woman in this country," the email said. "This isn't a normal fundraising email, and a normal response won't suffice."

The moment perfectly encapsulated a gripe that liberals have had with their national leaders during the last two years: Democrats already control Congress and the White House, so why isn't more being done? How will donating more money make things better? A picture of the email was posted to Twitter, where it too was widely criticized.

"This is the plan. They have no other plan. 'Ask for money and tell people to vote harder' isn't a plan," one user said.

Pelosi also received a lot of online ire Friday morning for decrying the Supreme Court decision after she publicly and financially backed Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Democrat who is anti-abortion, in his primary election last month.

"Great day to remember how after the decision leaked, Pelosi went to Texas to make sure Henry Cuellar, the last anti-abortion house dem, defeated his progressive primary opponent," one user said on Twitter. "Cynicism about voting comes from denying people the ability to vote for the people who could help."

It didn't help that after his win, Cuellar told CNN Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju on Friday that the decision hadn't changed his stance on abortion. When Raju asked him how he felt about being in the minority on the issue in his party, Cuellar reportedly said, "In my district, I'm not."

Cuellar defeated his opponent, Jessica Cisneros  who is a supporter of reproductive rights  by just 298 votes.
The Supreme Court on Friday announced its official opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, confirming the outcome foreshadowed by a leaked initial draft opinion published by Politico in May showing the high court planned to vote in favor of relinquishing the landmark 1973 decision that established abortion as a constitutional American right.

Friday's Supreme Court decision will trigger an abortion ban in a number of U.S. states, including Texas. Lone Star State leaders reacted to the court's decision on Twitter, some lamenting the outcome while others lauded the court.

Gov. Greg Abbott released a statement following the ruling, proclaiming Texas a pro-life state. "The U.S. Supreme Court correctly overturned Roe v. Wade and reinstated the right of states to protect innocent, unborn children," Abbott wrote. "Texas is a pro-life state, and we have taken significant action to protect the sanctity of life. Texas has also prioritized supporting women's healthcare and expectant mothers in need to give them the necessary resources so that they can choose life for their child."

Abbott also touted laws he passed to extend Medicaid coverage to six months postpartum, as well as the appropriation of $345 million for women's health programs, and an investment toward the state's Alternatives to Abortion program.

"Texas will always fight for the innocent unborn, and I will continue working with the Texas legislature and all Texans to save every child from the ravages of abortion and help our expectant mothers in need," Abbott wrote.

In a statement, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick dubbed Friday a "tremendous day for life," celebrating that in 30 days, abortion will be banned in Texas thanks to a "trigger" law passed last year. "I thank God for delivering us this day, and I am so proud that Texas had taken the lead to ensure that such evil can no longer live in our state... The Supreme Court's ruling is an acknowledgment of the truth: when an abortion is performed, a human life is ended. This watershed victory is not just a victory for innocent life, but a victory for all of humanity."

Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that his office would close at noon Friday to celebrate the Dobbs decision. "SCOTUS just overruled Roe & Casey, ending one of the most morally & legally corrupt eras in US history," Paxton wrote. Praise the Lord. Abortion is now illegal in Texas. And today Im closing my officeand making it an annual holidayas a memorial to the 70 million lives lost [because] of abortion."

Sen. Ted Cruz took to Twitter to say the Dobbs case ruling and reversal of Roe v. Wade "is nothing short of a massive victory for life, adding "it will save the lives of millions of innocent babies."

"The decision reverses one of the most egregious departures from the Constitution and legal precedent the United States has ever seen, and one that has resulted in the deaths of 63 million American children," Cruz wrote. "Roe was wrong the day it was decided, and it has been wrong every day since then. If you search the word 'abortion' in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, you won't find it. The Court at the time acknowledged that, and yet Roe created a brand new constitutional 'right' out of whole cloth."

The junior senator also emphasized that the decision does not make abortion illegal throughout the country, but returns the matter of abortion policy up to the states. "This is a momentous day, and yet the fight for life doesn't end with the Dobbs decision. It simply begins a new chapter," Cruz wrote. "I've been proud to stand for life in the U.S. Senate, and I will continue to do so as we navigate the path ahead."

State Rep. James Talarico was among the first state leaders to react online to the ruling, calling on President Joe Biden to use federal buildings to provide abortion care to women in red states, prohibit states from imposing restrictions on abortion medication, and hire abortion providers as federal employees to provide immunity from state lawsuits. "Republicans stole the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court stole our rights," Talarico wrote on Twitter. "We cant just stand by and watch."

State Rep. Jessica Gonzalez (D-Dallas) characterized Friday as a "dark day in American history," adding, "Instead of advancing rights, our nation has moved backward. The Supreme Court has eroded our right to an abortion, reversing precedent set decades ago."

Gonzalez continued, saying Texans will suffer from the ruling once the state's trigger law goes into effect, making abortion a felony even in cases of rape and incest. "Abortion decisions are between a patient and their doctors, no politicians," she wrote. "All Texans deserve the right to make their own health care decisions. I will not stop fighting for reproductive healthcare access."

State Rep. Donna Howard (D-Austin) said the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe "has propelled women back to a time where their bodies were not their own to control and where their self-determination was less than those of sperm donors."

Locally, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner called the overturning of Roe "a chilling and incomprehensible decision" as it eliminates women's federal constitutional right "to make decisions about their bodies and what is best for their lives."

"This decision unravels 50 years of precedent and settled law," Turner continued. "I have always believed a woman has a right to choose and make personal decisions about her health care. I believe abortion is part of comprehensive reproductive health care and support the right to choose as fundamental to each person's autonomy. Individuals and their doctors should make personal life decisions."

Turner also said he is concerned about what further rights are at risk of being scaled back next, including rights to privacy, contraception, as well as progress made in recent years by the LGBTQ community. "If people are concerned about the direction of this country, I encourage them to show up at the ballot box and exercise their right to vote in November and every election," he wrote.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo also issued a statement via Twitter, writing: "What a tragic trampling on the progress women have made, a sad day as long-standing rights are stripped, a dangerous moment for Texas women forced into underground abortions. As the woman in charge of Texas' largest county, I'm further emboldened. I'll continue to fight for us all."

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg issued a statement saying that criminalizing reproductive health will cause great harm. "Prosecutors and police have no role in matters between doctors and patients," Ogg said. "As in every case, we will evaluate the facts and make decisions on a case-by-case basis."

Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee said Roe being overturned "has set our country back fifty years" and pointed to Texas women seeking abortions outside of the state to show that strict laws have not stopped abortions. "Every single woman in this country should have the right to make health care decisions with their doctor," he wrote. "I remain committed to supporting the full scope of reproductive rights and will continue to advocate for the fundamental rights of the people of Harris County."

Harris County Democrats Chair Odus Evbagharu called the Supreme Court ruling a "crushing blow to human rights that will disproportionately impact Black and Latino Texans. "We are angry on behalf of everyone who has the reproductive capacity to become pregnant - because access to safe and legal abortion services is no longer guaranteed. And we know that because of this decision made by SCOTUS, people will die.

State Rep. Gene Wu (D-Houston) tweeted: "Congrats Republicans. This is what you've been working so hard for." He later added, "If you need a reminder that VOTING for Republicans means turning our country back to a time when women had no right to control their own bodies."

Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan called the ruling a "massive victory" that marks the beginning of a new era in the Lone Star State. "When the Legislature reconvenes in 2023, the Texas House will double down on maternal health care and resources for women, children and families," he wrote. "Then starts with extending postpartum health coverage for new moms to 12 months and continuing to prioritize support and resources for women and families in Texas."
WFO SACRAMENTO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Sunday, June 26, 2022

_____

HEAT ADVISORY

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE

National Weather Service Sacramento CA

218 AM PDT Fri Jun 24 2022

...HEAT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM SATURDAY TO 9 PM PDT

SUNDAY...

* WHAT...Hot temperatures with highs 103 to 107 in the Valley, 94

to 103 in the foothills. Overnight lows mid 60s to mid 70s.

* WHERE...Northern and central Sacramento Valley and adjacent

foothills.

* WHEN...From 11 AM Saturday to 9 PM PDT Sunday.

* IMPACTS...Heat-related illnesses will be possible, especially

for groups that are sensitive to the heat.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

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.

Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When

possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or

evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat

stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when

possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational

Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent

rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone

overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location.

Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO NEW YORK CITY Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Saturday, June 25, 2022

_____

AIR QUALITY ALERT

Air Quality Alert Message

Relayed by National Weather Service New York NY

456 PM EDT Fri Jun 24 2022

...AIR QUALITY ALERT IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM TO 11 PM EDT SATURDAY...

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has

issued an Air Quality Health Advisory for the following counties:

from 11 AM to 11 PM EDT Saturday.

Air quality levels in outdoor air are predicted to be greater than

an Air Quality Index value of 100 for the pollutant of Ground Level

Ozone. The Air Quality Index, or AQI, was created as an easy way to

correlate levels of different pollutants to one scale. The higher

the AQI value, the greater the health concern.

When pollution levels are elevated, the New York State Department of

Health recommends that individuals consider limiting strenuous

outdoor physical activity to reduce the risk of adverse health

effects. People who may be especially sensitive to the effects of

elevated levels of pollutants include the very young, and those with

preexisting respiratory problems such as asthma or heart disease.

Those with symptoms should consider consulting their personal

physician.

A toll free air quality hotline has been established so New York

residents can stay informed on the air quality situation. The toll

free number is 1 800 5 3 5, 1 3 4 5.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO DALLAS / FT. WORTH Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Friday, June 24, 2022

_____

HEAT ADVISORY

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE

National Weather Service Fort Worth TX

939 PM CDT Thu Jun 23 2022

...HEAT ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM CDT FRIDAY...

* WHAT...Temperatures up to 104 and heat index values up to 108

expected.

* WHERE...Most of North and Central Texas.

* WHEN...Until 6 PM CDT Friday.

* IMPACTS...Hot temperatures and high humidity will increase the

risk for heat-related illnesses to occur, particularly for

those working or participating in outdoor activities.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

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.

Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When

possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or

evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat

stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when

possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational

Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent

rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone

overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location.

Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO SHREVEPORT Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Friday, June 24, 2022

_____

HEAT ADVISORY

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE

National Weather Service Shreveport LA

442 AM CDT Fri Jun 24 2022

...HEAT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM THIS MORNING TO 7 PM CDT

THIS EVENING...

* WHAT...Air temperatures around the century mark and heat index

readings maxing out anywhere from 105 to 109.

* WHERE...All zones in our four state area of south Arkansas,

north Louisiana, east Texas and southeast Oklahoma.

* WHEN...During peak heating from 11 AM to 7 PM CDT Friday.

* IMPACTS...Hot temperatures and high humidity may cause heat

illnesses to occur.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

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.

Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When

possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or

evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat

stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when

possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational

Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent

rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone

overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location.

Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
WFO SEATTLE Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Sunday, June 26, 2022

_____

HEAT ADVISORY

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE

National Weather Service Seattle WA

850 PM PDT Thu Jun 23 2022

...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM NOON SATURDAY TO 11 PM

PDT SUNDAY...

* WHAT...Hot conditions with high temperatures in the mid to

upper 80s. Overnight low temperatures will likely only cool

into the low 60s for many locations Saturday night into Sunday

morning. This will pose a moderate risk of heat-related

illness.

* WHERE...North Coast and Central Coast.

* WHEN...From noon Saturday to 11 PM PDT Sunday.

* IMPACTS...Hot conditions will increase the risk of heat-

related illnesses for those who are sensitive to heat,

especially those without effective cooling or adequate

hydration.

* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...A significant increase in cold- and high-

water related incidents is possible. Recent rains and late

snowmelt has lead to high, fast and cold flows on area

waterways. Cold water shock can lead to life-threatening

hypothermia within minutes. Use extreme caution if recreating

near water, wear a life jacket, and supervise children closely.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

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.

Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When

possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or

evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat

stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when

possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational

Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent

rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone

overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location.

Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1.

For sheltering information and other human services in your area,

dial 2 1 1 during business hours or visit wa211.org anytime.

PDT MONDAY...

upper 80s on Saturday, and low 90s on Sunday and Monday.

Overnight low temperatures will likely only cool into the low

60s for many locations Saturday night and again Sunday night.

This will pose a moderate risk of heat-related illness.

* WHERE...Portions of northwest and west central Washington.

* WHEN...From noon Saturday to 11 PM PDT Monday.

_____

Copyright 2022 AccuWeather
Illustrative image (Source: baotainguyenmoitruong.vn)



Globally, 75% of plastic produced is becoming waste. To help address this, the Plastics Innovation Hub Vietnam, launched on June 23, aims to significantly reduce plastic waste in Vietnam through key stakeholder collaborations and science and innovation excellence.

The soft launch of the hub was joined by research institute, universities, non-government organizations and businesses from both Vietnam and Australia. (Screenshot)



The Hub Vietnam will be a vehicle for collaboration, bringing together local communities and governments, business, and investors to undertake action-based projects to reduce the impacts of plastic waste. It expands the network in the region, following the launch of a Plastic Innovation Hub in Indonesia in March 2022.



Research into plastic in Vietnam has already been undertaken as part of CSIROs largest global plastic pollution survey. The goal of this work has been to identify how much and what types of rubbish end up in the environment. Additional work between Australia and Vietnam is also planned for the coming months, as Vietnam looks to develop a national data repository and expand on-the-ground surveys.



Program Director for Aus4Innovation, Kim Wimbush, said solutions based on science, technology and innovation would support the Vietnamese governments goals on tackling plastic waste and building a circular economy.



Reducing plastic waste brings economic and environmental advantages, he said, adding that expanding the collaborations across the region will identify new approaches in reducing plastic waste and support Vietnams pledge to reduce the flow of plastics into the ocean by 75% by 2030.

The Plastics Innovation Hub Vietnam is an initiative of Aus4Innovation Program, an official development assistance programme sponsored by Australias Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, managed and co-funded by CSIRO, Australias national science agency, out of the Australian Embassy in Hanoi, and delivered in strategic partnership with Vietnams Ministry of Science and Technology.The Plastics Innovation Hub Vietnam (the Hub Vietnam) is part of CSIROs Ending Plastic Waste Mission, which has a goal of 80% reduction in plastic entering the environment by 2030.CSIRO Southeast Asia Counsellor, Amelia Fyfield said that collaboration was the key to solving the global plastic pollution challenge.CSIRO is excited to collaborate through the Plastics Innovation Hub Vietnam and use our globally renowned science and expertise to work on addressing this problem internationally, Fyfield said, The Plastics Innovation Hub Vietnam differentiates itself by focusing on early-stage initiatives, setting foundations, and aiming to connect participants with key networks.

Vietnamplus
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Pham Anh Tuan said that the Vietstampex was held in 1998 for the first time. Since 2000, the stamp exhibition has become a periodical activity being organized every five years. This is an opportunity for stamp collectors to exchange and spread knowledge on stamp collecting development. Moreover, Vietstampex is also an opportunity to learn about stamp collecting hobbies with high cultural value.



As scheduled, Vietstampex 2020 will take place in 2020; however, the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak made it to be postponed to this year.



Vietstampex is the largest postage stamp exhibition ever in Vietnam with the participation of 120 stamp sets and 500 stamp frames from senior stamp collectors and numerous young stamp collecting lovers.



After the opening ceremony, the Ministry of Information and Communications decided to release a set of postage stamps featuring Vietnams seas and islands: Typical birds of Vietnamese seas and islands including four stamp samples and one block.



Postage stamps feature typical birds of Vietnamese seas and islands

By Mai An- Translated by Huyen Huong
Vietnamese Ambassador to Germany Vu Quang Minh (left) shakes hands with Jochen Flasbarth, State Secretary in the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development on June 23. (Photo: VNA)



In a working session with Vietnamese Ambassador to Germany Vu Quang Minh on June 23, the official said that Germany is ready to support Vietnam in building medical centres and facilities.



Given the new context of the world and regional economic and political affairs, Germany and Vietnam face many challenges, but also have opportunities to deepen good strategic partnership and create favourable conditions for businesses of the two countries to enhance and expand collaboration, he said.

During the meeting, the two sides reviewed the development of cooperation between Germany and Vietnam, including the implementation of Germany's official development assistance (ODA) projects for Vietnam.

The German official highlighted the need to simplify procedures relating to the management and use of ODA to ensure its effectiveness, contributing to Vietnams sustainable development.

Ambassador Minh expressed his sincere thanks for the great support of the Government and people of the Federal Republic of Germany to Vietnam through effective projects, as well as in pandemic prevention and control, especially the donation of 10 million doses of vaccines in the past time.

VNA
Genetic sequencing and editing, from the realm of science fiction less than a quarter-century ago has turned real with a vengeance, leaving the human race unprepared for its consequences finds out Satyen K. Bordoloi

In the highly underrated 1997 film Gattaca, the protagonist named Vincent Freeman is  ironically  not free. But it is not the social externalities such as the colour of his skin, his station of birth, or his position in class hierarchy that cause him to suffer discrimination, but rather it is his genetic code. In this not-so-distant future, designer babies whose genes are altered before birth to remove diseases and give desirable abilities are preferred over conventionally born children - of whom Vincent happens to be one.

Vincent hides his status as a human born the old way with unedited genes but all someone needs to do to find his truth is steal a strand of hair, saliva or dead skin and run it through a machine that prints out a human's genetic horoscope in minutes.

25 years ago, science had developed enough to make the film seem within the realm of possibility of a few hundred years into the future. A quarter of a century later, that future has arrived, and humans are quite unprepared for this early arrival.

In the United Kingdom, a National Health Service project was announced a couple of weeks ago to sequence the genome of 2,00,000 new-born babies beginning next year. Recognising that this Whole Genome Sequencing (WSG) program would raise ethical issues, its developers Genomics England  a company owned by the government there - has sought consultation.



Their roadmap according to Genomics England. (Image: Genomics England)

The project is an extension of something that already happens in the developed world where newly born are regularly checked for certain diseases and conditions at birth, allowing treatment of issues that if left untreated could cause serious, irreversible harm.

If this is already happening, and the WSG project clearly states the benefits, what could be the problems with what Genomics England is trying to do? Turns out, a lot.



The different generations of nucleases used for genome editing and the DNA repair pathways used to modify target DNA. (Image: Wikipedia)

First is the question of obtaining informed consent from patients who may not be aware of the complexities involved with genomic testing. Then there is the question of privacy e.g., lives could be ruined if the knowledge of a person's probable conditions is made available to say insurance companies. A person diagnosed with a high risk of heart attack at birth, might not get health insurance.

The other question is, who would have the data of all these genomic testing and who would use it? How would parents who know their child's propensity to a certain disease react to that knowledge? Won't they behave like the child is too fragile to live fully, thus ruining his childhood forever  something that happens to Vincent in Gattaca? What if the stated danger never materializes e.g., you come to know your daughter is at a 50% risk of heart attack by the age of 25. What if that never happens, after all it was only a 50% probability. Would that girl have lived her life in uncertainty about her future, a sword of Damocles hanging above her head all the time?

And what about diseases for which there are no cures? Would awareness of one's mortality from the same, help the person in any way or harm her?

There are tough ethical dilemmas, many of which have been beautifully highlighted in Gattaca, most importantly the idea of 'genetic reductionism' i.e. the idea that a person is nothing more than her genes. Gattaca is a rebellion against this idea, where Vincent fights the unsurmountable odds against him in bizarre but resolute ways.



Image: GATTACA Movie Poster



What the film also tackles, is genetic editing for it is a world where almost every child is a designer baby, their genes edited before birth. We already have technologies to do exactly that, CRISPR being the most famous of the lot.



Image: Wikipedia

In November 2018, He Jiankui - a Chinese biophysicist - stunned the world when he announced that his team at the Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen had used CRISPR gene editing to edit DNA in human embryos thus creating the world's first gene-edited babies. He expected to be lauded but the world was so taken aback by the ethical dilemmas of what he had done, that he received almost universal condemnation.

In December 2019, a Chinese court sentenced him to three years in prison for "illegal medical practice". However, we can be sure that this is not the end of the gene-editing debate and it is but a matter of time before biomedical companies wake up to the enormous market potential for the same.



Image: Wikipedia

The ability to sequence the whole human genome and CRISPR give godlike power to humans and has made almost everything in Gattaca come to life. And like with a lot of other things out there, this is another case of technology developing faster than our ability to understand its implications.

Then there is also the ability to alter and mix DNA between species. Like countless horror movies, the possibilities of this are endless. A human with bat-like radar sensing capabilities isn't impossible, neither is a green human with the ability for photosynthesis like trees. Humans with hooves like goats, or claws like cats aren't impossible either.



Cas9 (or "CRISPR-associated protein 9") is an enzyme that uses CRISPR sequences as a guide to recognize and cleave specific strands of DNA. (Image: Wikipedia)

That is the ethical dilemma. Once this starts, there is no end to what can be done by ingenious, imaginative scientists. We run the danger of altering the human DNA permanently i.e. altering humans permanently. It is true that nature also does the same, it edits and mutates genes to make existing species better and stronger. But who would you trust: nature with billions of years of experience, or humans with just a few years worth?

Gattaca offers hope. Vincent, in the film, shows that no matter how better one gets via genetic editing, our actual power comes from our minds, will, and imagination as he beats all odds against him. But can we, as a species, do what Vincent does? It is tough not only because the odds stacked against our race are much higher, but also because the future is already here and we are absolutely and completely, unprepared for it.

About the author:

Satyen is an award-winning scriptwriter, journalist based in Mumbai. He loves to let his pen roam the intersection of artificial intelligence, consciousness, and quantum mechanics. His written words have appeared in many Indian and foreign publications.

He tweets @SatyenKBordoloi



More by Satyen K Bordoloi:



The Illusion of Sentient AI is a convenient bogeyman



How Marvel went from science-fiction to fantasy



Cash cow: Cattle trade in India gets a digital twist



NETFLIX and the AI problem



Dude, where's my self-driving car?



How a 185-year-old farming firm became a humongous AI company



An 'Apple' a day will keep the doctor away?



Artificial Intelligence: Friend or Foe?



Ultrasuperfast: The innovations that make 10-minute delivery possible



The biggest 'Money Heist' ever and no shots were fired



'Crypto'nite: Will Blockchain determine the fate of future wars?



Digital Oracle: When AI predicts crime


Annapurna Finance (Annapurna), among the top five NBFC-MFIs in the country, has raised funds worth $15 million from Proparco in Series A2.With the fresh funds, the total round size amounts to USD 100 million. This is the fourth capital raise by Annapurna in the last 15 months, after attracting a USD 30 million investment from Nuveen Global Impact Fund in March 2021, USD 20 million from DEG in November 2021 and USD 35 million from Encourage Capital, Accion and existing investor Oikocredit.

Annapurna will use the funds to grow its loan book, invest in technology, expand geographically and further its vision of enabling financial inclusion at scale. With a pan India rural distribution network and a multi-product strategy, it offers micro-credit loans, home improvement, and MSME loans to individuals and small businesses. Then fundraise will help Annapurna in strengthening their tech stack to bring in more efficient, automated and paperless financial products to the unbanked and underbanked.

Annapurna, founded in 2009 by Mr. Gobinda Chandra Pattanaik and Mr. Dibyajyoti Pattanaik,has crossed the INR 6,500 crore AUM milestone.It has a presence across 20 states across the country with over 980branches andis continuously expanding while utilizing and building on its internal domain knowledge and its processes perfected since its inception.

Talking about the fundraise, Mr.Gobinda Chandra Pattanaik, Managing Director, Annapurna Finance, said, We are thrilled to have our existing debt partner Proparco further support us and now partner with us on the equity side. Their belief in our ability to enable financial inclusion across the country and empower women has fortified our commitment to building one of Indias largest financial services companies. We continue to invest heavily in our tech capabilities and operations to further boost the financial inclusion objectives of Annapurna over the next decade.

It gives us immense pleasure to back the founders, who have meticulously, thoughtfully and consistently built Annapurna, with a strong yet nimble business model that has focused on making financial services and products available to financial excluded people specially women in rural areas of India. We are looking forward to Annapurnas exciting journey and believe in their ability to grow profitably while also creating a significant impact. , saidMs. Diane Jegam, Regional Director  South Asia, Proparco.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday appealed to exporters and the industry to fix long-term export targets for themselves and suggest ways to the government to achieve those figures.

Inaugurating the new Vanijya Bhawan here, he said the government has removed over 32,000 unnecessary compliances.

He said that the new Bhawan will significantly benefit people associated with trade, commerce and the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector.

The Prime Minister also launched the NIRYAT (National Import-Export Record for Yearly Analysis of Trade) portal - which is developed as a one-stop platform for stakeholders to get all necessary information related to India's foreign trade.

He added that exports play a critical role in transforming a developing country into a developed nation, besides creating job opportunities.

"Last year, despite global disruptions, India's exports touched USD 670 billion. To achieve new targets, collective effort is necessary. Industry, exporters and export promotion councils are here. I will urge them to fix not only short-term but also long-term export targets for themselves," he said.

The government is working to promote ease of doing business and boost exports, Modi said adding new domestic products like handlooms are reaching new markets.
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For those clients who are just beginning their ESG journey, questions arise about where and how to begin developing a strategy, with smaller companies often lacking the skillset internally.

The establishment of the International Sustainability Standards Board has been a significant milestone, and Australian companies should be aware of the global shift towards consistent, comparable and reliable ESG information and start preparing for the likely future reporting impacts locally, Cosgrove explains.

The key, she says, is to develop a strategy and plan that is embedded in a companys core strategy and with accountability for its delivery, established at all levels of the organisation - at the same time aligning good understanding of the likely future reporting requirements.

Green evolution

Indeed, the share of green talent in the workforce increased from 9.6 per cent in 2015, to 13.3 per cent so far in 2022, representing a growth rate of 38.5 per cent, according to LinkedIns most recent Global Green Skills Report.

The report highlights the global upheaval as the future of work is reimagined.

Business leaders are reimagining their entire working models, cultures and company values. Meanwhile, employees are rethinking what they do, where they do it and what it means, it reveals.

This reshuffle provides an opportunity to redirect human talent to arguably the most urgent challenge facing humanity  the green transition. And green jobs extend beyond building solar panels. Its the sustainable fashion manufacturer, the fleet manager and the sales manager.

However, the report also points out weve got a long way to go, with a marked lack of green skills and jobs which is slowing the rate at which we can green the economy.

Fast-growing green jobs in Australia include sustainability manager, environmental health and safety specialist and solar consultant, among others.

Others are less specialised and found in a variety of sectors, including roles that range from compliance manager, facilities manager and technical sales representative, according to the report.

Updated market

The opportunities for workers looking for a career shift are immense, with all industries requiring talent that understands how to be part of the transition.

Forging a green career gives Sabina Bertuzzi a real sense of corporate purpose.

She works in Social Impact at PwC Australia and is involved in the Green Team, an internal people network focused on driving behavioural change to support PwCs net zero commitment.

Bertuzzi graduates from her Masters of Sustainability next month, which has opened her eyes to a range of green jobs as corporations reach for their own sustainability goals.

Australia needs green skills now more than ever. Credit:iStock

The course changed my perspective on what I wanted to do in my career. I saw a much bigger opportunity opening up for me, she says.

Its very different from the career path she started out on: cybersecurity consulting.

I love the advocacy and people engagement element of my role at PwC, and working collectively in a Green Team with like-minded and passionate people, she says.

Ultimately, Bertuzzi is driven by the desire to make the world a better place. Shes all too aware that a greener future is within her generations hands.

I want to spend my career trying to build a world that has social inclusion and environmental stewardship at the centre. Thats the coolest part of sustainability, Bertuzzi says.

While she doesnt have it all mapped out, she knows shes on the right path. Theres a beautiful intersection between climate justice and social justice, which is a really different way of looking at societys sustainability problems.

For more information on PwCs Green Team and sustainability work, click here.
When invitations went around for Thursday nights launch of AFR scribe Aaron Patricks new book Ego: Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberal Partys Civil War, they included a surprising guest of honour  the former prime minister himself.

Turnbull, who is in Paris and had no intention of attending, wasnt thrilled, and wrote to publisher HarperCollins CEO Jim Demetriou alleging the invitation was misleading and deceptive. The publishers disavowed the invite, claiming Patrick sent it without their knowledge, and the author subsequently wrote to guests confirming the former PM wouldnt be coming.

Instead, entertainment at the launch was provided by comedian Rodney Marks, who attempted (despite obvious physical differences) to pull off a Turnbull impersonator act.

The subject of Aaron Patricks new book: Malcolm Turnbull. Credit:Steven Siewert

Im not pretending to be Malcolm Turnbull. But I am pretending to pretend to be him, Marks said.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Book critics Cameron Woodhead and Steven Carroll cast their eyes over recent fiction and non-fiction titles. Here are their reviews. Fiction pick of the week Credit: Bone Memories

Sally Piper, UQP, $32.99 Sixteen years after Jess was murdered in front of her son, Daniel, then a toddler, Sally Pipers Bone Memories charts the personal aftermath of a crime that shocked the nation. It draws a detailed interior landscape of those most affected. Jess mother, Billie, holds fast to the memory of her daughter and the place she was killed, and clings even more tightly to her grandson. For his part, Daniel is haunted and shaped by an event he cant recall. He is untrusting, prone to rage, trauma ripples through his life like a subterranean stream. His stepmother, Carla, struggles against the legacy of the crime  Jess is idealised in the memories of those left behind, while she lives and breathes, her imperfections magnified  and moves her family towards a tentative resolution. Bone Memories is one of those rare books that highlights murder without being genre fiction, that navigates traumatic experience without steering too close to the Scylla of false uplift or the Charybdis of misery porn. Its a poised, perceptive and exquisitely written meditation on grief and the emotional legacy of violence.

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Credit: An A-List For Death

Pamela Hart, HQ Fiction, $29.99 Adding detective fiction to a long list of historical and fantasy novels, Pamela Hart introduced readers to amateur sleuth Poppy McGowan in Digging Up Dirt. Poppy stumbles onto another mystery in An A-List For Death, in which the camera-shy TV researcher has drawn an unwelcome spotlight after discovering her aunts best friend, the elderly Daisy, bleeding and unconscious in her bathroom. Daisy, it transpires, is mother to rock god Nathan Castle, and when Poppy is snapped with him celebrity and social media go haywire. Convinced Daisy is in danger, Poppy must resort to donning disguises and evading paps as she investigates who would benefit from her death. Personal stakes in the case are raised when theres a murder outside the old ladys home and her archaeologist boyfriend, Tol, becomes the prime suspect. Its a media-savvy Australian crime novel with a dash of black comedy and enough red herrings and revelations to keep the reader guessing. Credit:

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The Reunion

Polly Phillips, Simon & Schuster, $29.99 The Reunion dials up the suspense by opening with an act of violence on the night of a 15-year reunion at a Cambridge University college. Emily Toller has long since settled into a comfortable family life  she has a successful husband and twins  but her own career was curtailed by events that led to her leaving Cambridge humiliated and traumatised before her final exam. She has never forgotten what her then boyfriend Henry (along with some other friends in their close-knit circle) did to her, and she decides what cannot be forgotten must be avenged. Emily hatches a plan to get back at her tormentors at the reunion, and as that dramatic evening unfolds, we flash back to her university days, revealing hazy memories of what sparked her desire for revenge. Polly Phillips has written a well-turned psychological thriller that toys with unreliable narration and dives sharply into the cruelty and cliquiness that can fester at elite universities. Credit: The Silence of Water

Sharron Booth, Fremantle Press, $29.99

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This layered historical fiction took root from a real murder in Victorian England, for which the perpetrator was transported to Australia after fevered press coverage and a public outcry rather than facing the noose. Its 1906 and Fans mother, Agnes, announces suddenly that her family is moving to Western Australia from Adelaide to take care of Fans grandfather, Edwin, who it is said doesnt have long to live. Fan is none too pleased at being uprooted, and as her relationship with her mother frays, she is drawn in by what her grandfather reveals of his own story, little knowing that he has carefully curated it. Her curiosity leads to a blighted and long-buried family secret being brought to light. Sharron Booth exposes a dark corner of convict history, and the effects of silencing it, through a smartly written narrative spanning generations. Non-fiction pick of the week Credit: Managing Expectations

Minnie Driver, Manilla Press, $32.99 When actor/musician Minnie Driver was 11 years old and staying with her father and his girlfriend in Barbados, he packed her off alone back to England (via the hotel where they filmed Goldfinger) for bad-mouthing his girlfriend. Amazingly, she takes from it what she calls an existential corridor, where she discovers she loves being in transit and freed from expectations.

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Her collection of non-fiction stories reads like an episodic memoir, much of it revolving around the key childhood event of her parents separating, being sent to a private school in Hampshire as a boarder for bad-mouthing her step-father. Among this, theres dealing with success, Hollywood, questionable boyfriends, the death of her mother, the joys of surfing and motherhood. She tells all this with an adroitly confident light touch that is sure-footed, by turns comic and poignant. Credit: Indelible City

Louisa Lim, Text, $34.99 When the first Opium War ended in 1842 and China ceded Hong Kong to the British, foreign minister Lord Palmerston wrote of Hong Kong, A barren rock with nary a house on it  it will never be a mart for trade. Missed by that much! Louisa Lims combination of investigative journalism and history of the island (shes Hong Kong raised) takes as its central motif the story of a former rubbish collector known as the King of Kowloon whose belief that his familys property had been stolen from him mirrors Hong Kongs dispossession. Be it descriptions of the Lennon Walls of protest against the Chinese or deeply disturbing images of protestors being bashed and imprisoned, this is the best of boots-on-the ground journalism that has a real sense of immediacy.



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It is not surprising, nonetheless, that the Albanese governments reaction to Xiaos modest charm offensive and other signals out of China has been to question whether Beijing is genuine about improving ties or is simply probing Canberras resolve. Under Xi Jinping, China has shown a taste for conflict. Xi has been willing to let diplomatic fires burn around him, especially over his steadfast support for Vladmir Putin over Ukraine. Is Xi really trying to put one out in Australia? Loading Thus far, Albanese and his Foreign Affairs Minister, Penny Wong, have not really had to stew over that question. Instead, with the benefit of a mixture of good luck and good judgment, they have filled their time instead by shoring up relationships with friends. The timing of the leaders meeting in Tokyo of the QUAD  the grouping of the US, Japan, India and Australia  days after the election gave Albanese and Wong immediate exposure to other countries concerns about Beijing. Any sense of isolation was dispelled. Albanese met face-to-face with US President Joe Biden, something that normally takes months or a year to organise. Japan, which always frets about Australia backsliding, was reassured.

So too was India, although one of the countrys scholars joked sardonically that they were sick of hearing Australia play the victim on China. In the wake of recent border clashes, he insisted: We are the victim! Still, Samir Saran, the head of the Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi think tank, was frank during a visit to Australia this week about the future of China-India relations. India is a young country  we have 500 to 600 million people under 30. China has lost them forever, he said at the Lowy Institute. The unprecedented 10-day swing through eight Pacific Island countries by the Wang Yi, the Chinese Foreign Minister, in late May, was also, somewhat perversely, well-timed for the new Australian government. Wangs trip, and the welcome in the Pacific for Labors climate change policies, handed Wong the platform to launch herself into the region in a way her predecessor, even accounting for COVID travel restraints, never did. Wangs Pacific play was also a useful wake-up for New Zealand, which has shied away from notions of strategic competition in the region and often looked piously askance at Australias more muscular foreign policy. The language used in the meetings with Wong in Wellington was far stronger than it would have been a year ago. On the home front, Labors sharpest criticism of the Coalition before the election on China  that Scott Morrison and his defence minister, now Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, were recklessly talking up the threat of war for electoral gain  turned out to work a treat politically. The Chinese community in Australia is diverse  rich and poor and clustered in the middle class, both newly arrived and well established, and not just from China itself but from multiple other Asian countries with large Chinese communities. A significant number are Christians. They speak multiple languages. While the community doesnt vote as a bloc, it is sensitive to rhetoric about China, or more to the point, about the Chinese, and in Paul Ericksons telling, they judged the Morrison government harshly.

In his post-election speech to the Press Club in Canberra last week, Erickson said the Morrison governments public execution of its China policy struck the community at times as an attack on Chinese-Australians ... that licensed racism. Loading Labor went into the election nervous that China and national security could be weaponised against it. But the Coalitions play blew up once Beijing signed a security deal with the Solomon Islands in the middle of the campaign. In the end, Labors decision to dial down the rhetoric on China has turned out to be not only good foreign policy but good domestic politics. Three marginal seats with significant Chinese-Australian populations  Reid and Bennelong in Sydney and Chisholm in Melbourne  all fell to Labor. Erickson declined to speculate on whether the communitys political allegiance had tilted towards Labor for good. He was right to be cautious, as threading the needle between talking about China and talking to the community in Australia wont get easier.

Labor criticised Duttons rhetoric but, privately, few disagree with him that the chances of some sort of military conflict between the US and its allies and China in coming years is possible, if not likely. In the words of Sir Robert Menzies during the Cold War, Australia benefited from the protection of great and powerful friends, namely the US and Britain. In the 21st century, the script has been flipped. Australia is now facing a great and powerful enemy. Ambassador Xiao Qian is a skilled diplomat with an impressive track record for managing crises in the service of his country and its ruling Communist Party. Before Canberra, he spent three years as ambassador in Jakarta, where he had led an all-out effort to shut down a potential wave of damaging criticism in the majority-Muslim country of Chinas policies in Xinjiang. Beijing began building mass internment camps in Xinjiang in 2016, rounding up an estimated million members of the Uighur Muslim minority who live in the region in western China. After first denying they existed, Beijing then portrayed the camps as benevolent vocational training centres designed to fight terrorism, while launching a global diplomatic push in Muslim countries to stop them from joining US-led criticism of the policy. In Jakarta, Xiao was particularly effective in killing the issue, arranging tightly managed visits to the camps for Indonesias religious and civil society leaders, and journalists and academics. At the same time, Chinese diplomats privately assured the Indonesians that they supported its sovereignty over the restive region of West Papua. It was a solemn pledge made with a touch of menace that Beijing could back greater autonomy in the region.

All in all, the approach worked. On Xiaos watch, Beijing secured a big win, as Jakarta kept quiet about Xinjiang. Loading Although the dimensions of the two problems are very different, Xiao will find Australia a tougher nut to crack. The problems with China will not go away with the removal of a Coalition government. Labor shares much of the analysis of the outgoing government about China but has very different ideas about how to tackle it. On top of that, the entire system in Canberra has been repurposed to manage the China challenge  defence procurement, intelligence services, allied co-operation, Pacific policy and so forth. The new government couldnt unwind such a bureaucratic apparatus overnight, even if it wanted to. And on the evidence so far, it doesnt. At the moment, neither country sees advantage in moving fast, or first, to restore the relationship. The very mention of the word reset causes hairs to stand on end in Canberra.
Im always a little scared before going to New York. Thats why I havent been back much since leaving a good few years back. I imagine its akin to an especially seductive drug that you dont want to get hooked on again. Writer Zadie Smith put it best, in a now-seminal 2014 essay for The New York Review of Books, when she wrote of Manhattan: You dont come to live here unless the delusion of a reality shaped around your own desires isnt a strong aspect of your personality.

Life in New York can be harder than it needs to be. Credit:Getty Images

I harboured the delusion Zadie Smith identified in spades  until I couldnt any more. What clinched it for me was a succession of small realisations which revealed that life in New York was harder than it needed to be: that the streets were too dirty to wear thongs, even in the oppressive summer heat; that I was unconsciously labelling any apartment where the bed was not visible on entry as palatial; that only New Yorkers had to make like Santa and carry an enormous sack of dirty clothes to the laundromat on laundry day, and that eating out for literally every meal was perhaps a bit much, even for someone who dined at restaurants for a living. (Needless to say, my shoebox apartment was not set up for home cooking.)

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It was therefore with trepidation that I planned a quick trip to New York recently. Stepping off the train at Penn Station in Midtown was a shock because it was very loud and chaotic. It was also sort of comforting, because it smelled just like I remembered: of hot garbage and doughnuts.
A First Nations elder has been arrested by NSW Police during a raid of a climate activist camp north-west of Sydney just days after another site used by the same group was stormed.

Ngemba elder Auntie Caroline Kirk was one of two people arrested on Friday at a Blockade Australia campsite in Ebenezer, near Windsor. She was charged with willfully obstructing and intimidating police.

Dozens of police officers surrounded the site on Friday searching for individuals involved in Sundays clash with police at the groups Putty campsite.

A 29-year-old man who was released from custody on Monday was arrested for a second time after allegedly breaching bail by failing to stay at his sisters Coogee premises where he had agreed to reside as part of his release conditions.
That is unlikely to happen this time. In addition to a privately funded inquiry into Australias successes and failures headed by Professor Peter Shergold, scholars have been examining how we dealt with the lockdowns, and what it says about us. At the University of South Australia, Jon Stratton has looked at why we responded to shocks by panic-buying toilet paper, a global phenomenon that was most extreme here. [It] was closely linked to everyday notions of Western civilisation, he writes in a journal article. Pedestal toilets and toilet paper are key aspects of civilisation and the fear of the loss of toilet paper is connected to anxiety about social breakdown, the loss of civilisation. How some emerged from lockdown better than other Sabina Kleitman, an associate professor in psychology at the University of Sydney, has been examining the personality traits that enabled some people to weather the extreme, sudden shifts in behaviour and lifestyle better than others. We have undergone colossal changes, for many people unprecedented changes, to lifestyles, habits, family structure, sometimes with one hours notice and having little previous experience, she says. I think, as a society, our resilience grew enormously.

Her studies show those who suffered most were young people, the middle-aged (between 40 and 49), and women. There have been definite scars, she says. While extroverts struggled through the lockdown, and found it harder to comply with restrictions, they rebounded better afterwards. A tendency towards neuroticism, struggles with self-control, impulsivity and low tolerance of uncertainty led to poorer mental wellbeing. Venting did not help. Nor did alcohol. Those who found humour in the situation had better mental wellbeing but were less likely to obey the rules. A key predictor for weathering the experience well was an ability to regard it as an opportunity for personal growth. To look at change after a traumatic event, Kleitman and her colleagues developed a COVID-19 Character Growth Awareness measure and found the ability to see the pandemic as building ones strengths and character was a strong predictor of mental wellbeing levels and their recovery above and beyond all variables in the models, she writes in a yet-to-be-published journal article. Nathan Khoury is one of the extroverts who burst into the world when restrictions were lifted. After spending months of his HSC year stuck at home, he decided to study at the Australian National University because of its immersive campus experience. He has also had the benefit of a positive mindset. I definitely did try to use [the experience] to my advantage, he says. Its something I reflect on; what have I learned in this period, and how can I use it to better my current life? Nathan Khoury spent months studying in his Greystanes flat last year. Credit:Janie Barrett Others his age have found the transition harder. Universities are reporting high demand for mental health support and a reluctance among some students, who are used to their bedrooms, to return to campus because the task of making new friends is so daunting, and theyve lost years of practice at social relationships. [The challenges] do not end because lockdown ends, says Professor Ian Hickie, the co-director, health and policy at the University of Sydneys Brain and Mind Centre. If we think its all going to be just fine, we are fooling ourselves.

The effect on children and learning Children and younger teens are also showing scars from lockdown. Educators say many students are more distracted, disobedient and unsettled in their friendships, and are having stronger emotional reactions to challenges than they might have pre-pandemic. Some say older students are exhibiting social behaviour usually seen in younger years. Screen use has escalated. A census of pre-school aged children found the number who were developmentally on track fell for the first time since 2009. There are concerns about childrens social development due to the lockdown. We will be talking about this for a long time, says Hollonds. I think well be hearing young adults reflecting back on the ... effects on them and their social development. The Victorian childrens commission has spoken about the deaths of children because of the lack of [child protection] oversight. I also know there are thousands of kids who never went back to school after lockdowns. Where are they? Thats potentially a lost generation. Schools still have not returned to normal. Absences remain high among students and teachers due both to COVID and to other respiratory diseases, such as influenza, cutting a swathe through young people. Schools have attendance targets, but only 12 per cent of schools are so far on track to meet them. This year will be the third of disrupted learning.

Unemployment takes a hit; businesses still struggling Mostly, business has recovered. Joh Bailey, whose Double Bay hair salon became the centre of a cluster affecting up to 900 people in late June last year, says trade is back to normal. Like many businesses, however, he is struggling with sickness and staff shortages. I still to this day dont know where [all the workers] went, he says. Social interaction in the salon is not quite the same. I think everyone is somewhat scarred by the whole experience. I dont think people are gregarious or as up close with people as they once were. Celebrity hairdresser Joh Bailey says the customers have returned after the pandemic. Credit:Sam Mooy The pace of recovery has been slower in the areas of Sydney that faced the toughest lockdown, which were also the poorest, the hardest hit by illness, and the angriest about unequal restrictions and heavy policing. In February, unemployment across most of the city had fallen below 3 per cent, but in the south-west, which takes in Fairfield and Liverpool, it was 9.3 per cent. While that gap has narrowed, Canterbury-Bankstown Mayor Khal Asfour says many local businesses are still struggling, particularly as energy and petrol costs rise. East vs west: Sydneys social divide during the pandemic

Commentators said resentment over lockdowns was not a major factor in most of the regions federal election results, although Labors Kristina Keneally, who ran for Fowler in the Liverpool area, said lockdown anger cost her the seat. But any residual anger is more likely to be directed at the state government, which goes to an election next March. Asfour says the different rules revived the sense of east versus west. He predicts the government will be punished at the ballot box, despite its targeted spending on western Sydney and the distance from old decisions created by a new premier. Do you think the people being crash tackled to the ground and handcuffed for not wearing masks will forget? he says. Or what about the mourners waiting in their cars at Rookwood cemetery who were arrested by police? I believe the community made their position clear at the time but, having said that, they wont be forgetting what happened to them in a hurry. Loading Some say Sydneys pandemic post-mortem should include an honest discussion about the social divisions during the lockdowns. Not only did borders clamp shut, but suburbs and neighbours turned on each other. Dobbing and judgment were rife and encouraged by government ministers. Many residents of the north and east had little patience for the complaints of those in the west and south-west about their harsher restrictions. And there was little compassion in Australia for the plight of residents stuck overseas. I think the lesson we need to learn is how important social cohesion actually is to responding as a community, says Hickie. We have all sorts of national myths about mateship and community action and collective goodwill, which weve taken for granted. Yet when we ran into a genuine national crisis, as COVID was, the question is; how did we behave? Most communities at local level did pretty well. But we saw lots of challenges, and lots of examples where things were really tested. Community is not just a nice thing to have; its a precious thing. It doesnt just survive on its own.

For one group, COVID-19 restrictions remain a live, distressing issue. Of the 61,500 fines relating to a breach of a public health order  including 1600 issued to children  the Redfern Legal Centre estimates about three quarters were not paid. Many who received them believed them to be invalid. Because the orders changed so much, sometimes twice in a day, it was very difficult for those administrating law and issuing the fines to keep up, says senior solicitor Sam Lee. Revenue NSW figures show police issued nearly 62,000 people with fines from March 2020 to April 2022. Credit:James Brickwood The hardest-hit areas were disadvantaged ones. Walgett, a rural town with a high Aboriginal population, had the highest number of offences per capita. In Sydney, it was Mount Druitt. Fines get more expensive when they are not paid. Now, many are proceeding to the enforcement order stage, which can result in the suspension of drivers licences, car registrations cancelled, or wages being garnished. I have people on the phone who are in tears, says Lee. And they may have not been in breach of the law at all because it was so badly administered. One woman, who wants to remain anonymous, let her daughters friend take shelter in her house while she waited for her mother after rain interrupted their bushwalk last August. One of her daughters friends told her police officer mother, and the next thing the woman knew, there were officers at her door giving her a $1000 fine. It was a real betrayal, she said. She lodged an appeal but did not hear back. Recently, her licence was suspended. Now she cant drive her sick father to his medical appointments. Loading
A Victorian man police allege travelled to Sydney for a sexual encounter with a child under 10 faced court on Saturday.

The 66-year-old from Yallourn North, in the La Trobe Valley, allegedly travelled to Sydney after communicating online with what he believed to be the mother of the child.

The Victorian man, centre, was arrested in Liverpool on Friday morning and was charged with using a carriage service to procure a person under the age of 16 years for sexual activity. Credit:NSW Police Force

In fact, police say that he was speaking to a detective from the Child Exploitation Investigation Units Strike Force Trawler, an elite unit who use online stings to catch alleged would-be child abusers by impersonating children online on sites and apps known to be popular with predators.

It will be further alleged that the man arranged to meet the mother and girl and had driven from Victoria for the purpose of a sexual encounter in NSW, NSW Police said in a statement on Saturday morning.
The man behind the high-profile and controversial Twitter account @PRGuy17 has publicly revealed his identity to head off attempts by a right-wing commentator to expose it and bring legal action against him.

The Age and Herald spoke on the phone with a man purporting to be Jeremy Maluta, who provided identifying documentation and images proving he was the user of the account.

Maluta went public after Twitter provided personal information connected to the account to right-wing rival Avi Yemini, who has previously pledged to pursue defamation action against Maluta.

While this masthead confirmed he was the user of the account, Maluta would not reveal personal details, such as where he worked or lived. He said he wanted to maintain his privacy.
Ah, the historical parallels. After keeping a watching brief on Victorian politics as a way of making a living for more years than its healthy to record here, its events such as the exit of four senior ministers from the Andrews government that makes it so worthwhile. In June 1999, Jeff Kennett, nearing the end of his second term as premier and sitting atop a landslide parliamentary majority and a consistent lead in the opinion polls, announced that six of his ministers  a third of the cabinet - would be leaving at the forthcoming election.

So too would a veteran former minister, Ian Smith, plus the Speaker and five other MPs. The similarities between that episode and this latest exodus are not total. Like Andrews, Kennett presented his mid-year frontbench clearance as, above all, a renewal exercise. But unlike Andrews, Kennett did not let himself get sentimental, even for a moment. He alone made the announcement on behalf of his ministers and then insisted they not give any interviews before the election, which was held three months later. As was that governments ultimately self-defeating way, the ministers complied with the order. The Kennett government went on to lose office.

The high-handedness of it all was remarkable, even allowing for the presidential character of the Kennett regime. As Tony Parkinson noted in his biography of Kennett, Jeff  the Rise and Fall of a Political Phenomenon, the affair seemed too well stage-managed. No valedictory speeches in parliament; not even an opportunity for these senior ministers to reflect on their achievements.

That contrasts with the looseness of Fridays extended media conference in which Andrews and his soon-to-be ex-deputy Premier James Merlino waxed lyrical about their years of working together and their families, and the Premier offered up the exiting ministers as interview subjects.
The head of energy giant Santos has called on the NSW government to fast-track a pipeline licence to bring forward the controversial Narrabri coal seam gas project to help ease the energy crisis.

Santos chief executive Kevin Gallagher told the Herald that if the government acted quickly the company could have gas running from Narrabri by 2025.

Coal seam gas well in the Pilliga Forest. Credit:Nick Moir

I would love it to, but what I need is for the NSW government to give me a pipeline licence. If they want to help us fast-track that process we can build it as soon as I have the licence, he said.

I am unlikely to want to spend too much money, given the history of NSW approvals, until I know that I can get the pipeline to evacuate the gas to our customers, said Gallagher in his first public comments since NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet declared last week that Australia would need gas from the states Narrabri project as soon as possible.
Paedophile Bradley Pen Dragon allegedly breached his parole conditions by possessing images of children within days of his release from prison this week.

Dragon appeared in custody at Perth Magistrates Court on Friday morning to face one charge of contravening a requirement of a supervision order.

Bradley Pen Dragon was arrested just two days after being released from prison in 2017, after accessing child exploitation material from a computer at a Northbridge backpacker hostel. Credit:Nine News Perth/File photo

The 62-year-old was released from Acacia Prison on Tuesday and was given housing in a suburb in Perths south-east, subject to 62 strict conditions.

While it was not clear whether the images he was allegedly caught with were child exploitation material, one condition of his release was that Dragon was not to possess any images of children at all.
Youre one of 12 kids. I imagine there were plenty of other things on the priority list. Correct. Then, later on, I really got into Aboriginal spirituality. The whole mythology and philosophy became an obsession of mine through music and dance. That was my religion, I suppose.

When the census rolls around, what do you tick under religion? No religion. Or atheist. We were brought up with help from the Uniting Church, but religion wasnt a priority in our family.

Each week, Benjamin Law asks public figures to discuss the subjects were told to keep private by getting them to roll a die. The numbers they land on are the topics theyre given. This week, he speaks to Stephen Page. The artistic director of Bangarra Dance Theatre, 56, has been in the role for more than 30 years. A descendant of the Nunukul people and the Munaldjali clan of the Yugambeh Nation, hes also an Officer of the Order of Australia.

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What have been the turning points for you in forging that connection with Aboriginal spirituality? When I left Brisbane, I was 17. I did three years at the Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre, now called NAISDA [National Aboriginal and Islander Skills Development Association], where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students study dance and performing arts. We had the opportunity to go on a remote tour on Country. A lot of us had come from displaced urban environments where traditional practices didnt exist; my mother and father were forbidden to speak their language. So when I got to go on Country  through the Central Desert and Pitjantjatjara Country, the APY Lands, then into Yolngu Country in north-east Arnhem Land  I experienced this connection between land, people and stories. I was connecting to the land, connecting to song. I realised the significance of dance, its complexity and diversity. Dance is ceremonial: its death, its rebirth, its healing, its medicine.

DEATH

Youre handing the artistic directorship of Bangarra over to Frances Rings early next year. How have you stayed alive creatively over your 32-year tenure? Ive been reflecting on that a lot lately. I never had that moment where I said, Hey, Im ready to go. But I was showing signs of exhaustion and breakdown, and I was in denial. I was in denial about my brothers [Pages siblings and collaborators, Russell and David, died by suicide in 2002 and 2016, respectively] and just kept creating. So what would you call this [decision to go]? The death of being in denial?

Or is it the beginning of a new chapter? And if so, how do you feel about that? Sad? Excited? A combination. At first I felt like a three-year-old child again because I was scared  this is all Ive known for 32 years. But Im so excited. Im ready to creatively explore this new cycle. I dont really want to know whats there. Im an optimistic, intuitive person. My gut has gotten me through these 32 years, so hopefully it will keep on guiding me.
Independents and minor parties are up in arms after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese cut their staffing allocation to a quarter of what it was in the previous parliament, leaving them with only one adviser each to work through reams of legislation and threatening the new governments relationship with the crossbench.

The previous government gave permission for crossbench MPs and senators to have two advisers and two assistant advisers, plus the electorate office staff each member can employ.

Crossbench MPs and senators including Pauline Hanson, Helen Haines, Jacqui Lambie, David Pocock and Zali Steggall have been told they will be allocated fewer staff than previously. Credit:Fairfax Media

But on Friday, Albanese informed them the special allocation would be cut.

In recognition of your role as an independent member (ie not a member of the government, Opposition or the Australian Greens), I propose to allocate you one additional full-time staff member at the adviser classification, in addition to your four electorate staff, says the prime ministers letter, seen by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
A former political staffer to Gladys Berejiklian has pleaded guilty to multiple historical child sex offences, including aggravated indecent assault.

The accused will face the NSW District Court in July where judgment will be handed down over the offences.

Guilty pleas were entered over six offences in April this year, after the staffer was arrested in 2020 and subsequently granted bail.

A suppression order over the entire case was lifted on Friday; however, the former staffer was underage at the time and can never be identified.

Any publication of the victims names without their consent is also a breach of orders.
The Investment NSW boss who appointed John Barilaro to his plum trade job cancelled the independent recruitment search for the role the day before Barilaro announced his resignation from politics.

Investment NSW chief executive Amy Brown emailed the global recruitment firm running the talent search on October 3, 2021, saying that their services would no longer be needed because the trade positions would now be ministerial appointments.

Barilaro, who Brown reported to as trade minister, announced the next day that he would be quitting politics, citing the toll that public life had taken on him.

Investment NSW CEO Amy Brown reported to John Barilaro when he was trade minister. Credit:Louie Douvis

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has moved to distance himself from the appointment of Barilaro to the $500,000-a-year trade role in New York, which is developing into a worsening scandal for his government. Perrottet insisted the appointment was made at arms length from the government and on Thursday announced he had directed the secretary of the Department of Premier and Cabinet to conduct a review into how it was made.
The woman at the centre of a row within the Greens over transgender rights is likely to defy her partys leadership and recontest for the role she was removed from last week.

Long-time party activist Linda Gale told The Age she was looking to stand again for the position as the Greens Victorian convenor after the party overturned her election amid an internal dispute over transgender issues fought through social media.

Linda Gale had her election as Greens convenor overturned by the party leadership Credit:The Age

Gales election this month drew attention to a three-year-old policy paper, deemed transphobic by some party colleagues, in which she raised concerns about the implications of Greens policies for the rights of non-trans women in sport, intimate medical procedures, domestic violence shelters, hospital wards and prisons.

It is the latest flashpoint in an emotional and divisive debate within the Greens over whether party members are allowed to raise concerns about whether trans rights can conflict with the rights of biological women in some circumstances.
In October, 1942, after Allied forces had crushed the Nazis at El Alamein in North Africa, Winston Churchill made a famous remark which expressed both his delight at the first great British victory of the war, but also his dread at the suffering he knew was still ahead. Now is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

It is a sentiment which many in Ukraine must be feeling now. On one hand, they are breathing a sigh of relief. They have survived the Russian onslaught launched four months ago which tried to wipe their country off the map or turn it into a puppet state.

On the other hand, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin still occupies huge swaths of territory in Ukraines south and east, and Ukrainians know that it will still cost them a great deal of blood and gold to drive him out.

As the Heralds Anthony Galloway and Kate Geraghty report today from the frontlines, the Ukrainians are not flinching from the task. Citizen soldiers are standing their ground against superior Russian firepower in street-by-street battles in the Donbas region where Putin has concentrated his attacks for the past three months.

However, now that the war has settled into a bloody stalemate, they face a new fear. Many in Ukraine are less scared of Putin than of the possibility that their supporters in Europe, North America and also Australia will lose interest.
I cannot describe the depths of my personal sorrow at the suffering of so many, as I continue to deepen my own understanding of slaverys enduring impact. We too must find new ways to acknowledge our past. Quite simply, this is a conversation whose time has come, he said. Whether a country opts for its own head of state has no bearing on its membership of the Commonwealth group of nations, which is expected to grow this year by admitting the former French colony Gabon to its ranks. Rwanda, a former German and Belgian colony, was admitted to the group in 2009. Our Commonwealth family is  and will always remain  a free association of independent, self-governing nations. We meet and talk as equals, sharing our knowledge and experience for the betterment of all citizens of the Commonwealth  and, indeed, the wider world, he said. Earlier British Prime Minister Boris Johnson hit back at critics, including Charles, of his Australia-style plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, saying they should keep an open mind.

Johnson landed in Kigali with nothing but praise for the Rwandan President Paul Kagame who is accused of brutally repressing political opponents and operating a campaign of state-sponsored enforced disappearances. Prince Charles shakes hands with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in front of Rwandas President Paul Kagame, before the CHOGM opening ceremony. Credit:Getty Images Critics have questioned Rwandas suitability to host the summit, as well as care for Britains unwanted asylum seekers, because of its human rights record. Britain wants to mimic Australias offshoring solution to deal with unwanted asylum seekers who arrive by boat after crossing the English Channel. Because the Channel is not in international waters, Britain cannot turn boats back (as Australia does) without cooperation from France. It has an obligation to rescue boats in distress.

So the UK asked the African nation to take the arrivals. Loading The first flight was barred by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which is not connected to the European Union, but the UK is determined to press ahead and is proposing to rip up the Human Rights Act and replace it with a bill of rights that would prevent future ECHR injunctions. Johnson urged his critics to study Rwandas economic record instead  poverty declined from 77 per cent in 2001 to 55 per cent in 2017. Im delighted that Prince Charles and everybody are here today to see a country that has undergone a complete transformation, or a very substantial transformation, he said.

People need to keep an open mind about the policy, the critics need to keep an open mind, a lot of people can see its obvious merits. Loading And if Im seeing the prince tomorrow of course Im going to make that point, he said. On Friday, after the meeting, Johnson told Reuters he would not disclose any conversation he had with heir-to-the-throne. But what I will say is as people come to Rwanda, like you have today, there are a lot of prejudices about Rwanda [that] need to be blown away, he said.

Charles was reported to have called the UKs plan to copy Australias offshore solution for asylum seekers who arrive by boat appalling. Clarence House has not denied the report. The monarch is expected to be politically neutral. Back in London, Johnsons Conservative Party lost two parliamentary seats on Friday, prompting the resignation of the partys chairman and renewing doubts about the future of Britains embattled leader, Reuters reported. The losses suggest the electoral coalition Johnson brought together at the 2019 national election may be fracturing. He has already survived a vote of no-confidence by Conservative MPs this month. Charles and Johnson met for a cup of tea on Friday morning in Kigali. Both Charles and Johnson met Kagame earlier in the Rwandan capital. Johnson praised Kagames moral stance on Ukraine, according to a spokesman.

Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall and future Queen Consort, speaks at the Violence Against Women and Girls event in Kigali, Rwanda. Credit:Getty Images In a speech at an anti-violence event, Charles wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, highlighted Kagames commitment to improving conditions for women, noting that Rwanda was ranked seventh in the world in terms of womens rights and opportunities. On International Womens Day earlier this year, I was profoundly touched by President Kagames powerful message on social media, which read, Equality is a right, not a favour, Camilla said. So let us bear His Excellencys words in mind as we focus on violence in the home against women and girls today and remember that we are seeking rights, not favours. In his first address ahead of summit, Johnson likened the grouping, often maligned as a disparate and redundant relic of the British Empire, as a fertiliser.
Washington: The House has sent US President Joe Biden the most wide-ranging gun violence bill Congress has passed in decades, a measured compromise that at once illustrates progress on the long-intractable issue and the deep-seated partisan divide that persists.

The Democratic-led chamber approved the election-year legislation on a mostly party-line 234-193 vote on Friday (US time), capping a spurt of action prompted by voters revulsion over last months mass shootings in New York and Texas.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, greets Representative Mike Thompson, chairman of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force on Friday. Credit:AP

Every Democrat and 14 Republicans backed the measure. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi underscored its significance to her party by taking the unusual step of presiding over the vote and announcing the result from the podium, to the cheers of rank-and-file Democrats on the chambers floor.

The night before, the Senate approved the legislation by a bipartisan 65-33 margin, with 15 Republicans joining all Democrats in supporting a package that senators from both parties had crafted.
Much of the hearing centred on a little-known and inexperienced department lawyer called Jeffrey Clark who had taken an active role in pushing Trumps election fraud lie  and who Trump, in turn, had wanted to install as head of the department. Clark drafted a letter to members of the Georgia state legislature claiming there were irregularities in the vote and suggesting that state politicians convene to select their own slate of electors to hand Trump a win. Jeffrey Rosen was US acting attorney-general at the time of the Capitol riot. Credit:AP We have identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple states, including the State of Georgia, the draft letter said without offering evidence. Rosen and Donoghue had refused to sign the letter, while top White House lawyer Eric Herschmann told the committee in a recorded deposition the plan would be tantamount to committing a felony.

Donoghue testified that he warned Clark that what he was doing would have grave consequences for the country and could lead to a constitutional crisis. I wanted to make sure that he understood the gravity of the situation because he didnt seem to really appreciate it, he said. Loading Nonetheless, Clark persisted, backed by Trump allies such as Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani previously told the committee in recorded evidence that he wanted an official in charge of the department who isnt frightened of whats going to be done to their reputation. The pressure campaign on the department came to a head at a heated meeting at the White House on January 3  three days before the Capitol insurrection  when Trump met with Rosen, Donoghue and Steven Engel, another senior department official who was working as a lawyer in the Office of Legal Counsel.

By that stage, Trump had already offered Clark the role of acting attorney-general. According to Rosens testimony, the president opened that meeting by saying: One thing we know is you, Rosen, arent going to do anything. You dont even agree with the claims of the election fraud and this other guy might actually do something. Rosen said he told Trump: Mr President, youre right. Im not going to allow the Justice Department to do anything to try to overturn the election, thats true, but the reason for that is because thats whats consistent with the facts and the law. Thats whats required under the Constitution. So thats the right answer and a good thing for the country, and therefore, its the right thing for you, Mr President. Trump ended up backing down on his attempt to install Clark after Rosen, Donoghue, and Engel, threatened to resign and warned that many of the departments lawyers would also quit en masse, sending shockwaves through the bureaucracy and sparking yet another political crisis. I said: Mr President, within 24, 48, 72 hours theres going to be hundreds of resignations to the leadership of your Justice Department, because of your actions, Donoghue testified. What is that going to say about you?

Engel, who is an important figure due to his longstanding loyalty to Trump, also issued a similar warning, telling the leader: I cant be a part of this. Loading He also warned Trump about the optics, telling him in that meeting: The story is not going to be that the Department of Justice has found massive corruption that would have changed the election. Its going to be the disaster of Jeff Clark. Clark pleaded the Fifth Amendment more than 125 times when the committee tried to question him about his role in the attempt to subvert the election. However, in a sign that federal investigators may be starting to close in on people within Trumps orbit, the FBI raided Clarks home in Virginia on Wednesday in connection with a Justice Department inquiry  separate to the January 6 probe  into the effort to overturn the election.

Among the observers in the room for this hearing was Hollywood actor Sean Penn, who sat with current and former police officers to watch proceedings. From left: Former policeman Michael Fanone, actor Sean Penn and officer Daniel Hodges attend the hearing. Credit:Bloomberg There are two more expected public hearings into the attack, which left several people dead, about 150 police officers injured and a nation divided. They were due to wrap up by the end of this month however the committee announced this week that it would stretch its schedule into July following a trove of fresh evidence. Among it is potentially explosive footage from documentary-maker Alex Holder, who had full access to Trump and his family before and after the insurgency. There are also new documents from the National Archives and a flood of new tips that have come in during the first round of hearings.
PHILIPSBURG:--- Sint Maarten, just like the rest of the world is currently facing a mental healthcare crisis, while already burdened with the community wide impact of the aftermath of hurricane Irma and more recently the impact of the Covid pandemic. Recently, the Association for Psychologists and Allied Professionals Sint Maarten (APAP SXM) met with the Minister of Health, Social Welfare and Labour (VSA), the Honourable Omar Ottley and his team regarding the state of mental health needs and licensed services available on Sint Maarten. APAP was represented by their board and its members, psychologists Alexandra van Luijken, Miranda Veltman and Islaya Streefkerk, and counselor Lisa Wilson-Gittens.

Manpower planning and preventive care

APAP requested Minister Ottley to revisit the findings of the manpower planning, whereby the applied model of the system of referring, the number of professionals considered and the effective use of affiliated professionals in the field, and other factors are not in agreement with the proposals from APAP in the last years. APAP has several points that its members would like to be considered in the upcoming evaluation.

OZR and SZV payments

Added to the workload, licensed mental health caregivers are forced to maintain their business operations out-of-pocket for extended periods while they await reimbursement from SZV for insured clients. APAP has been lobbying for the timely payment of insurance claims, though the situation is becoming increasingly burdensome. These delays are ultimately jeopardizing the continuity of available quality mental healthcare. Minister Ottley assured the association that this matter has his full attention and he will be working assiduously with SZV to have the payments regulated.

Adjustment tariffs and need for exemption ToT

APAP is pleased that in 2021 the milestone of adjustment of the outdated tariffs was finally reached with the final approval of Minister Ottley and looks forward to continuing to solve the other urgent and pressing matters which have been brought forward in the meeting.

Since 2016, APAP has been bringing forward to ministers and parliamentarians their opinion that an administrative error occurred with the transfers of 10-10-10 ToT laws, where the exemption for ToT for psychologists was overlooked. This resulted in the private practices being incorrectly taxed until this day. Minister Ottley extended his assistance to APAP by following up on the correction with his fellow ministers and parliamentarians.

Procedures on licensing

While agreeing with the need to guard the quality and update the ability of each mental health care provider, the current procedures of short two-year agreements are counter-productive for the established psychologists on Sint Maarten. The frequency of administration and paperwork is a challenge compounded by the uncertainty of long-term arrangements for employment on the island. This discourages professionals from committing to Sint Maarten.

Working towards solutions

APAP understands that Minister Ottley is currently working on mental health reform for Sint Maarten and has reached out to the stakeholders of each sector for their contribution. APAP has been working for many years to bring attention to the several challenges of working within the mental healthcare sector. This is a good moment to give further and structured follow-up to this initial meeting. APAP looks forward to partnering with Government and other stakeholders, and continuing contributions to bring St. Maartens mental health care to a higher level.

APAP finds it important to stress again that Mental health must take priority for the overall development of our community. APAP commended Minister Ottley for the work he has been doing with his efforts to reach the youth for violence prevention. In the same light, mental health must be placed at the forefront of our recovery as the limited availability of service providers leads to unattended mental health issues for adults, in the labour market. This carries over to the home, affecting our youth who in turn transfer it to the education system. Ultimately, the breakdown of the social fabric results in crime and judicial issues. Therefore, an integrative approach to preventive mental health care is vital, Wilson-Gittens shared. Van Luijken stated, I believe in the power of a healthy community. Lets all work towards a well-organized and professional mental healthcare system to keep our community healthy and safe. Then everything else will follow.

Minister Ottley was very receptive towards the information and the sharing of several issues and confirmed the importance of mental healthcare on his agenda. Minister Ottley expressed his concerns about the mental health issues that he sees in the community and the matters that are brought before him as minister. He finds that too often the regulations are limiting the assistance that he can render. This fuels his passion to bring about change for the betterment of Sint Maarten by way of mental health reform. The Minister VSA has requested a follow-up meeting with APAP by early July.

For the last several years, APAP has been working diligently on improving the work conditions and the quality of mental health care for the psychologists and affiliated professionals in the field. Especially the licensed psychologists working in their private practices have been experiencing serious challenges. These difficulties are ultimately threatening their existence, while not willing to give up because of the importance of their work and not wanting to transfer the burden to their clients in need. Experience in the past has shown that the Government when discussing issues in mental healthcare, has mostly focused on the Mental Health Foundation. APAP would like to stress the importance of the existing licensed private practices which are doing great work as well.

APAP SXM has been established in 2016 to promote the practice and professional development of psychology and related fields and to serve the social and professional interests of psychologists and related professions in Sint Maarten (Dutch side).
GoldMining Inc. discovers extension of its La Garrucha target, La Mina project, Colombia: Drill results include 345.54 metres at 0.74 g/t AuEq

This news release constitutes a \designated news release\ for the purposes of the Company\-s prospectus supplement dated December 10, 2021 to its short form base shelf prospectus dated October 27, 2021.

GoldMining Inc. (the \Company\ or \GoldMining\) (TSX: GOLD; NYSE American: GLDG  https://www.commodity-tv.com/ondemand/companies/profil/goldmining-inc/ ) is pleased to announce initial assay results from the first two holes of a six hole 3,600 metre (m) drilling program on the La Garrucha target, located less than one kilometre to the east and immediately adjacent to existing mineral resources on the Companya?s 100% owned La Mina project (aLa Minaa), located in Antioquia, Colombia.A

Highlights

The assays presented herein are for the first step-out drill section located 100 metres along strike of previously identified porphyry-style mineralization at La Garrucha.A

LME1107A A A A A A A 207.95 m at 0.48 g/t Au and 0.10% Cu (0.62 g/t AuEq) from 261.60 m depth

Including A A A A A A A 57.17 m at 0.60 g/t Au and 0.13% Cu (0.79 g/t AuEq) from 282.75m depth

AndA A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A 70.89 m at 0.60 g/t Au and 0.10% Cu (0.74 g/t AuEq) from 387.21 m depth

LME1108A A A A A A A 345.54 m at 0.57 g/t Au and 0.12% Cu (0.74 g/t AuEq) from 254.95 m depth*

IncludingA A A A A A A A A 59.45 m at 0.76 g/t Au and 0.19% Cu (1.04 g/t AuEq) from 328.92 m depth

AndA A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A 61.8 m at 0.81 g/t Au and 0.11% Cu (0.97 g/t AuEq) from 538.69 m depth*

*LME1108 ended in mineralization

Alastair Still, CEO of GoldMining, commented, aThis is a great start for our 2022 La Garrucha drilling program at the La Mina Project in Colombia and our broader strategy to unlock value from our portfolio of gold and gold-copper projects located throughout the Americas. This also builds upon the La Mina Preliminary Economic Assessment* announced earlier this year that focused on the La Cantera and Middle Zone deposits of the project which are located 1 kilometre to the west of La Garrucha. Our team believes that the La Garrucha target remains open for expansion and is shaping up as a third possible porphyry deposit which could contribute potential additional resources to lead the growth of the La Mina Project.a

Tim Smith, VP Exploration of GoldMining, commented, aThese results from the first two holes of our 3,600 metre drilling program (announced April 12, 2022) confirm that the La Garrucha porphyry mineralization extends to the southeast along strike as modelled from our geophysical dataset and interpreted by our technical team. Drilling is continuing on the next two drill fences located on 100 metre step outs southeast along strike. We expect that those assay results will be released in the coming months as they become available. With the association between bedrock magnetic highs and porphyry-style mineralization now confirmed, we are further encouraged by the presence of additional magnetic targets located within the broader La Mina property which will be systematically explored for additional Au-Cu porphyry mineralization.aA

*The Preliminary Economic Assessment referenced above, announced January 12, 2022, is preliminary in nature and includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the preliminary economic assessment will be realized.

Drill Program Details and Geological Description

The ongoing La Garrucha drilling program is targeting a large (1km x 1km) magnetic high associated with a granodiorite porphyry intrusive complex that hosts gold and copper mineralization at La Garrucha (see Figure 1). A smaller discrete magnetic high is also coincident with the nearby La Cantera Au-Cu porphyry deposit. Previous La Garrucha drilling completed in 2011 by Bellhaven Copper & Gold Inc. (aBellhavena?; prior to acquisition by GoldMining) returned gold-copper porphyry intercepts of 216.80 metres at 1.31 g/t Au and 0.15% Cu from 143.0 to 359.80 metres depth in LME1100; A 158.12 metres at 1.01 g/t Au and 0.17% Cu from 66.50 to 224.62 metres depth in LME1102;A and 71.0 metres at 1.02 g/t Au and 0.14% Cu from 355.0 to 426.0 metres depth and 106.60 metres at 0.56 g/t Au and 0.11% Cu from 485.65 to 592.25 metres depth in LME1104.A

Drill holes LME1107 & 1108 were drilled on a NE-SW oriented section located 100 metres southeast of the previous Bellhaven drilling at an azimuth of 220? and at hole inclination of -50? and -70? hole respectively (see Figure 2). Drilling has confirmed the continuation of porphyry mineralization southeast along strike. Gold and copper mineralization is coincident, and higher grades are associated with a core potassic alteration zone within the porphyry intrusive complex, quartz stockwork veining and both vein-hosted and disseminated sulphides including pyrite, chalcopyrite and lesser bornite. Detailed core logging is ongoing, including re-logging of the previous Bellhaven core, to place copper and gold mineralization in spatial and temporal context with the hosting porphyry intrusive complex. Geological 3D modelling and subsequent resource modelling will take place in the latter part of the year following conclusion of the drilling program.A

The La Garrucha porphyry mineral system now extends over at least 300 metres strike, where it is open to the southeast, and over at least 200 metres width. Drilling has tested to a maximum vertical depth of 450 metres below surface where the porphyry mineral system remains open to depth.A

Step-out drilling is currently ongoing on a second drill fence located 100 metres along strike to the southeast of LME1107 & 1108. A third fence is planned an additional 100 metres southeast along strike pending visual observations of the drill cores. In addition, the drill will return to the LME1107 & 1108 drill pad to re-enter and deepen LME 1108 given that core assays indicate that the hole ended in mineralization.A

Additional information regarding the La Mina Project, including existing resource estimates and past work at the project, is set out in the technical report titled \NI 43-101 Technical Report and Preliminary Economic Assessment, La Mina Project, Antioquia, Republic of Colombia\ with an effective date of January 12, 2022, which is available at the Company\-s website at www.goldmining.com A

Qualified Person

Paulo Pereira, P. Geo., President of GoldMining, has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this news release. Mr. Pereira is a Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101.

Data Verification

For this program of drill core sampling, samples were taken from the NQ/HQ core by sawing the drill core in half, with one-half sent to ALS Colombia LTDA in MedellAn for assaying and the other half retained for future reference. Sample lengths downhole range from a minimum of 0.50m to a maximum of 2.10m. ALS Colombia LTDA is a certified commercial laboratory located in MedellAn, Antioquia, Colombia and is independent of GoldMining. GoldMining has implemented a stringent quality assurance and quality-control (QA/QC) program for the sampling and analysis of drill core which includes insertion of duplicates, mineralized standards and blank samples for each batch of 100 samples. The gold analyses were completed by ALS Au-AA23 method (fire-assay with an atomic absorption finish on 30 grams of material). Repeats were also carried out by fire-assay. Copper analyses were completed by ALS ME-ICP61 method (four acid digest with ICP analysis).

About GoldMining Inc.

GoldMining Inc. is a public mineral exploration company focused on the acquisition and development of gold assets in the Americas. Through its disciplined acquisition strategy, GoldMining now controls a diversified portfolio of resource-stage gold and gold-copper projects in Canada, U.S.A., Brazil, Colombia, and Peru. A The Company also owns more than 20 million shares of Gold Royalty Corp. (NYSE American: GROY).

Forward-looking Statements

This document contains certain forward-looking statements that reflect the current views and/or expectations, including statements regarding the Company\-s expectation, future potential and future work programs at the Companya?s La Mina Project. Forward-looking statements are based on the then-current expectations, beliefs, assumptions, estimates and forecasts about the business and the markets in which GoldMining operates. Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including: delays to plans caused by restrictions and other future impacts of COVID-19 or any other inability of the Company to meet expected timelines for planned project activities; results of exploration programs may not confirm expectations; the inherent risks involved in the exploration and development of mineral properties, fluctuating metal prices, unanticipated costs and expenses, risks related to government and environmental regulation, social, permitting and licensing matters, and uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future. These risks, as well as others, including those set forth in GoldMining?s Annual Information Form for the year ended November 30, 2021, and other filings with Canadian securities regulators and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, could cause actual results and events to vary significantly. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and information. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information, or the material factors or assumptions used to develop such forward-looking information, will prove to be accurate. The Company does not undertake any obligations to release publicly any revisions for updating any voluntary forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable securities law.
Uranium has become more expensive

Due to the gas bottlenecks, uranium has also become an issue again in Germany.

In some cases, uranium production is impaired, especially in Kazakhstan. On the other hand, uranium supplies from new mines can be expected in the medium term. And this will also be needed, because uranium is an indispensable part of the necessary energy mix. And the energy needs of the world\-s growing population are also increasing. To mitigate potential disruptions in uranium supply, Western utilities are looking to diversify away from geopolitically difficult countries and companies. The East (Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan) has accounted for about 60 percent of global uranium supply. In the West, therefore, there could be supply deficits and thus higher uranium prices. This in turn will have a positive effect on uranium shares.

As the war in Ukraine worsened, the price of uranium broke through the $60 per pound mark for the first time since 2011. While cheap uranium is still available in the east, Western utilities will prefer to stock up elsewhere. Most uranium is bought and sold under long-term contracts. Some analysts assume a long-term uranium price of $62 per pound of uranium, and some see higher prices. Incidentally, celebrities such as Waren Buffet and Bill Gates also want to build nuclear power plants to reduce CO2 emissions. Especially now that adequate energy supply is an issue, uranium companies should be able to look forward to rosy times.

Labrador Uranium  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5hRQCfVWnU&t=44s  is conducting exploration programs on its three uranium projects in Canada. There is significant potential on over 139,000 hectares.

IsoEnergy  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UPcsGXmoMI  owns high grade uranium projects in the famous Athabasca Basin in Saskatchewan, so is located in an excellent area.

Current corporate information and press releases from Labrador Uranium (- https://www.resource-capital.ch/en/companies/labrador-uranium-inc/ -) and IsoEnergy (- https://www.resource-capital.ch/en/companies/iso-energy-ltd/ -).

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.

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Posted Thursday, June 23, 2022 11:40:49 PM

Jason Thompson (Billy Abbott) and Melissa Ordway (Abby Newman) shared on social media that both have tested positive for COVID. The diagnosis is doubly disappointing because both performers are nominated for Daytime Emmys this year and will now not be able to attend the festivities.

"After two-and-a-half years of dodging Covid...I finally tested positive," Thompson shared in an Instagram video.

The actor described his symptoms as something like a "minor cold" but acknowledged that those mild symptoms have not been the case for many people.

He went on to say that he was "bummed" that he would not be able to attend the Daytime Emmys and a friend's wedding in Wyoming this weekend.

"To all my fellow nominees and friends, I wish you all the best, have a fantastic night celebrating what we do. To the best fans in the world, like most of you I will be watching from home cheering on our favorites," Thompson wrote.

Ordway, who is a first-time nominee this year, said that she is "so disappointed that I won't be able to celebrate with everyone." The actress seemed particularly heartbroken to not be able to share the evening with her parents.

"It has always been a dream of mine to be nominated for a daytime Emmy Award and to bring my parents to the show," Ordway wrote. "To my amazing parents, I'm so sorry that this weekend is falling apart. I was so excited to attend the awards with you."

Ordway shared that she is "asymptomatic" and that no one in her household is sick.

All, however, is not lost for Ordway and Thompson. In a reply to Ordway's message on Twitter, Soap Central's Dan J Kroll suggested that Melissa "get gussied up" and video conference him so that she could still walk the Red Carpet -- even if it has to be a virtual walk. Ordway enthusiastically replied that the idea sounded like fun, and she was on board.

Sending you love and healing vibes, Melissa. And if you want to get gussied up, we can Zoom you from the Red Carpet before or after. Your nomination was well-deserved and I still want to make sure you are celebrated.  Dan J Kroll (@DanJKroll) June 24, 2022

Moments later, Thompson also agreed to the virtual Red Carpet interview.

To find out how you can follow Soap Central's Daytime Emmys coverage, continue reading here - and remember to tune in to the broadcast Friday, June 24, at 9pm on CBS.
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MIDDLETOWN  After launching a request for proposals two years ago, the city is poised to examine five applications from developers with ideas for reusing three plots near the riverfront  an area considered a cornerstone for redevelopment.

The city chose the architecture and urban design firm Cooper Robertson to come up a master plan for developing the Connecticut River shoreline at and near Harbor Park after months of public input and brainstorming sessions. It will be revealed to the public early next month.

Officials are looking for a multiuse design with public spaces, apartments, retail and other components, Acting Director of Economic and Community Development Bobbye Knoll Peterson said.

We really want it to be a place where theres access for the public and mixed-use for the city. It is in the heart of our downtown, she said. We need to make sure that any project that fits in with the aesthetics downtown. Middletowns Main Street is incredibly special, and we want to make sure that we are working with a developer that understands that and our goal for moving forward.

The search is for entities interested in purchasing and developing a combined 3.5-acre parcel at 60 Dingwall Drive, two adjacent sites, including the parking lot of 222 Main St., behind the police station; and 195 DeKoven Drive, owned by Attention To Detail Realty. The developer would have to negotiate with the latter on a purchase price.

The city received two applications from its initial request for proposals two years ago, however, one deal fell through and the other proposal was deemed unsuitable, Economic Development Coordinator Thomas Marano said. One proposed a mixed-use complex with apartments, retail, offices and more.

The walking bridge extension is part of the state Department of Transportation work on removing Route 9 stop lights downtown, Peterson said.

Another proposed housing for the 55 and older or nearly retired population, Marano said.

Since the original request for qualifications was sent out in March 2020, when the pandemic began, Mayor Ben Florsheim said, some changes have occurred.

A lot changed on the ground in terms of the reality in terms of bringing that to fruition, in terms of what the market is interested in based on some of the steps the city has taken since that time, such as the master plan being complete, he explained.

The area is one prized throughout the region, Florsheim said.

Im really impressed with the caliber of the applicants. Both the development community and the city are in a very strong position to make the most of this site, a prime site in Connecticut and New England, not just Middletown.

The city recently received five requests, which will be reviewed by a group consisting of the mayor, Peterson, Acting Chief of Staff Alice Diaz, Director of Land Use Marek Kozikowski, Middlesex County Chamber of President Larry McHugh, Deputy Mayor Vincent Loffredo and Council Minority Leader Phil Pessina, who is on the Economic Development Commission.

Members hope to complete interviews of the candidates within the next few weeks.

These developers are very well-financed and good groups with a lot of experience. Its a transformational project for downtown, Marano said.

Im incredibly pleased with the five plans put forward, Peterson said. The working group has a big job ahead of them to really dig into what is going to meet our needs in the best way.

The pedestrian connection to the waterfront was lost when Route 9 was constructed, but it is a key component of the citys vision, Peterson said. The city prides itself on its walkability with a vibrant downtown area full of shops, restaurants and other attractions.

During highway construction, access to the Miller and Bridge streets neighborhood was reduced, which resulted in lower property values and dangerous access via a dangerous exit, the mayor said. Florsheim hopes changes to Route 9 will remedy that situation.

One aspect that keeps the mayor up at night is how to sustain new elements for the next generation, he said.

My challenge, from where I sit, is weve got a lot going on, he said. Its a good problem to have, but it's a lot of different projects to manage 

Downtown living is key to urban renewal, Peterson said. Seeing this increase after years of work is really exciting.

New housing such as the apartments at Broad and Main streets, hearkens back to a time when the area was full of activity and Middletown was a commercial hub based on its proximity to the Connecticut River.

People have memories of when the site  now a parking lot  was a residential neighborhood, the mayor said. That was an era when downtowns across the country looked very different from what they do now.

A lot of lessons have been learned about the disconnection  people want to live in walkable communities, with access to amenities and Middletown is really well-positioned to offer a variety of different lifestyles, Florsheim said, citing the city slogan, Its all here.

I feel great that so much progress has been able to be made, he added. Its a big responsibility that we make sure we get it all right.

The master plan will be unveiled at City Hall July 2 at 10 a.m., followed at noon by guided tours of the affected areas. The bus will depart from Harbor Park. There will also be a live stream on the citys website. For information, visit middletownct.gov.
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP)  Kentuckys so-called trigger laws means abortion has largely been outlawed in the state upon the U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade on Friday.

The states only two abortion clinics, both in Louisville, halted abortions Friday. The Kentucky law passed in 2019 declares that abortion would become illegal effective immediately if Roe v. Wade is overturned. The measure contains a narrow exception allowing a physician to perform a procedure necessary to prevent the death or permanent injury of a pregnant woman.
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The Rock n Roll band Otis and the Hurricanes will play at the Weston Historical Societys Music at the Barn outdoor concert series from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Sunday at the Historical Societys historic Coley Homestead, at 104 Weston Road in Weston.

The parking lot is accessed from High Acre Road in Weston.

People can bring lawn chairs. The concert will be indoors, and chairs will be set up in the event of rain.

More information and tickets are available at https://www.westonhistoricalsociety.org, or at the door.

The Crazy Taco Mex food truck will be on site.

Visit https://www.otisandthehurricanes.com for more information about the band.

Westport Library, federation to present conversation

The Westport Library and the Federation of Jewish Philanthropy of Upper Fairfield County will present a film screening and conversation at 7 p.m. on Monday between Julie Mintz the writer, director, and producer of the new film Four Winters, and Carin Savel, the federations chief executive officer.

Deep within the forests of Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, and the Ukraine, more than 25,000 Jews fought back against the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II. Many of the Jewish partisans had witnessed the murders of their families and friends before escaping into the forest.

The film includes interviews with the last living partisans, and shares personal letters, journals, rare film footage, and other artifacts to illuminate the many ways Jews resisted the Nazis.

Register at https://www.eventbrite.com.

The film is slated for a theatrical release this fall.

New Westport poet laureate to start

Diane Meyer Lowman, Westports inaugural poet laureate, will pass the torch to the towns next poet laureate Jessica Noyes McEntee after three years, in a ceremony at noon on Wednesday at the Westport Library, 20 Jesup Road.

The public is invited to attend the free 30-minute ceremony.

Lowmans tenure as poet laureate included enriching town meetings, collaborating with the Westport school district and running poetry workshops for the Westport Center for Senior Activities. She has written original haiku poems, and recited them at many Westport events.

The Westport Arts Advisory Committee WAAC oversaw the selection of the poet laureate and recommended Westport First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker appoint McEntee, who will start her two-year term on July 1.

McEntee, her husband, two children, and a menagerie of pets, moved to a historic Westport house in 2013.

Her debut poetry book, Jackie O. Suffers Two Husbands & Other Poems, was published by Finishing Line Press publishing company in 2019.

McEntee has taught at the Westport Writers Workshop since 2015, and works in marketing for the Pequot Library in Southport. She was an editor at the John Wiley & Sons publishing company. Shes also undertaken editorial and ghostwriting projects for numerous clients.

The honorary position generally recognizes an accomplished and respected poet. The laureate organizes local poetry readings, lectures, conferences and outreach programs.

Westport student receives scholarship for medical research

Helena Servin-DeMarris has been awarded a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) scholarship by the National Society of High School Scholars for her contributions to the field.

Servin-DeMarris was one of 10 students selected of nearly 800 applicants to each be awarded a $1,000 scholarship. She plans to become a physician scientist, MD, Ph.D., and will major in biomedical engineering this fall 2022 at Columbia Universitys School of Engineering and Applied Science. She will focus on vaccine development, tissue engineering and therapeutics.

Her fascination with virology, and immunology began during the Ebola epidemic in 2014. She took a pre-college course years later at the Brown University in Providence, R.I. where she was formally introduced to DNA and biotechnology. She conducted an experiment where she determined if was genetically a morning, or a night person.

She was also a bioinformatics intern at the American Museum of Natural History where she completed computational analyses on spider silk genetics and learned how creating synthetic silks had a medical application.

The culmination of her pre-college journey in STEAM brought her to Professor Thomas Postlers lab at Columbia Universitys Medical Center.

Visit https://nshss.org for more information.

Staples student appointed to military academy

U.S. Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) recently honored Timothy Poly, a 2022 Staples High School alum, at the Darien Veterans of Foreign Wars VFW for his appointment to attend the United State Merchant Marine Academy in Nassau County, N.Y. as part of the schools Class of 2026.

He is the only student from the states Fourth Congressional district to receive the appointment.

Westport schools, YMCA coordinates childcare

The Westport Public School district has collaborated with the Westport Weston Family YMCA to coordinate before and after school care for children who are in kindergarten through the fifth grade.

The YMCA Before and After Care Program offers a variety of educational and physical activities, as well as homework assistance to support the students interests and, or needs.

First quarter taxes due July 1

First quarter real estate taxes, personal property taxes, motor vehicle taxes, sanitary sewer use, and assessment charges are due July 1, in Westport, according to a recent reminder from the Westport tax collector.

Tax bills may be researched, printed and, or paid online at https://www.westportct.gov.

Taxpayers have until Aug. 1, to pay taxes without penalty. Accounts will be subject to an 18 percent, 1.5 percent/month penalty charge if they are paid late. There is also a $2 minimum interest charge. Failure to receive a bill does not abate the charges, or interest.

Checks should be made payable to Town of Westport and mailed to: Town of Westport-Tax Collector, P.O. Box 350, Westport, CT 06881.

In-person payments may be made at the Tax Collectors Office, Room 109 in the Westport Town Hall, located at 110 Myrtle Ave. Office hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily Mondays through Fridays.

Westport to host United Nations guests

The United Nations Association of Southwestern Connecticut, and the town of Westport will host about 200 guests at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday outdoors near the library, located at 20 Jesup Green in Westport as part of the U.Ns annual jUNe Day celebration.

The flags of many of the 193 member countries of the U.N. will fly on the Ruth Steinkraus Cohen Memorial Bridge.

The public is invited to to the attend.

Westport First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker and United Nations Association of Southwestern Connecticut President Bill Haas will welcome the guests, The jUNe Day Chairperson Michaela MacColl will outline the days activities.

A special message for jUNe Day from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will be also delivered.

The annual jUNe Day celebration was established in 1965 by the late Ruth Steinkraus Cohen, a Westporter who was the founder of the United Nations Association of Southwestern Connecticut, in observance of the signing of the U.N. charter, June 26, 1945.

Cohens goal was to honor the work of the U.N., and promote world peace and international understanding through hospitality.

On jUNe Day, U.N. staff, and representatives from governments around the world, and their families will participate in a variety of sporting and recreational activities around Westport.

Contact Andrea Dostal at 203-526-3275, or andreausa@yahoo.com to volunteer.

For more information contact Bill Haas at 203-454-7685.
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NORWALK  Adam Keehn spent two months in Poland this year aiding Ukrainian refugees flee their war-torn country and is now hoping the Connecticut city he called home for more than a decade can help in the effort as well.

As Americares director of complex and humanitarian emergencies, Keehn spearheaded the nonprofits response to the war in Ukraine and spent more than two months in Poland this year helping refugees secure mental and physical health care treatment.

Keehn, who moved to Oregon two years ago after living in East Norwalk for 11 years, is leading an effort to bring a Ukraine fundraiser concert to the Wall Street Theater on Saturday.

We are based in Krakow, eastern Poland, about a two-hour drive to the border and there was another town closer to the border where wed go when the (United Nations) set up a coordination office, Keehn said of his work in Poland. All UN agencies and international (non-governmental organizations) like ourselves met there and shared office space so that we were in closer proximity to the border.

In the border town, Ukrainian refugees crossed over from the war-torn country to seek shelter, many with friends or relatives that live in the surrounding countries, including Poland, Keehn said.

So far in the war, about 7 million people fled Ukraine, with about half of them traveling through Poland, Keehn said.

You could see trainloads of people coming across. There were tents  and there still are at the border  tents that were providing various types of support: food, clothing, emergency health support where needed and transportation for them to get where their destination is, Keehn said. People didnt linger at the border for any length of time. Its different than some of the refugee situations you may have seen in other parts of the world, where refugees are gathered in huge camps.

For most of his time in Poland, Keehn and his team worked at the train station providing immediate support for those disembarking the trains from Ukraine.

Keehns group supports medical treatment for refugees and delivers medicines and supplies to health facilities and partner organizations in Ukraine.

There, we would meet individuals with a range of needs. One of the physicians early on met an elderly man whose medications were running short and, with a translator, communicated to the doctor how he was running short of medicine, and she noticed his ankles were swollen. Without access to medicines, he needed that condition would likely be aggravated, Keehn said.

One challenge in treating refugees at the border, however, was identifying those in need of mental health support and treatment, Keehn said.

It doesnt look like anything, which is part of the challenge. These are internal mental health issues, but they do manifest in things like depression and anxiety, sleeplessness and those kinds of disorders, Keehn said. People are understandably upset because of their displacement. Theyre concern and worried about family left behind in Ukraine, but also practical day-to-day concerns of where are we going to live? How are we going to make a living?

Routine pressures and concerns are exacerbated by the upheaval of the refugees lives, particularly for family members who were forced to leave their adult male relatives behind, Keehn said. Americares partnered with various other nonprofits and Ukraine-based groups to provide mental health support, including working with Lifeline Ukraine which operates a 24/7 suicide hotline.

In providing medical care and support, Americares only accepts supplies from pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers, but encourages monetary donations from individuals, according to Donna Porstner, Americares media relations vice president.

To raise funds for Ukrainian refugee services, Americares partnered with the Gary Wendt Foundation to hold a fundraiser concert Saturday at the Wall Street Theater.

On Saturday, the Gary Wendt Foundation will hold a concert featuring Ukrainian pop star Iryna Lonchyna performing the Ukrainian National Anthem and a musical performance by Greenwich resident Valerie Ahneman and her band, Bon Chic Bon Genre.

Tickets can be purchased online and at the door for $50 per person, Doors open at 7:30 p.m. and the concert begins at 8 p.m.

Proceeds from the event will support the response to the crisis in Ukraine but the way we are responding to the crisis includes deliveries of medicine and medical supplies, Porstner said. Emergency funding to medical places in Ukraine, services to families displaced in the crisis and providing mental health support for refugees displaced by crisis.

Americares has donated more than 130 tons of medicine and medical supplies to Ukraine and given more than $1 million in grants to more than 30 organizations working inside Ukraine and border countries, Porstner said.

abigail.brone@hearstmediact.com
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP)  A 71-year-old Iowa City man who seriously wounded a U.S. Marine while shooting an air rifle at a squirrel has been fined $855 after pleading guilty in April to a misdemeanor.

Philip Olson was issued the fine Thursday for violating an Iowa City ordinance prohibiting the discharge of toy guns and slingshots, the Press-Citizen reported.
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VERNON  The criminal cases against Peter Manfredonia could be moving toward a resolution, a prosecutor said Friday.

Peter Manfredonia, the suspect in a May 2020 crime spree that left two dead, appeared at Rockville Superior Court in Vernon, where Judge Kathleen McNamara continued two criminal cases against him to a remote hearing Sept. 9.

In the meantime, State's Attorney Matthew Gedansky told the judge he would meet with his counterpart in Milford, State's Attorney Margaret Kelley, along with Manfredonias lawyer, Michael Dolan, to see if the cases in both jurisdictions could be resolved.

I think it would be fruitful if attorney Dolan, States Attorney Kelley and myself meet at least initially to see if we can resolve the case, Gedansky said.

If not, the prosecutor said the lawyers involved would meet with the judges in each case to determine how to proceed.

If you need Judge Brown and I to intervene, well be happy to, McNamara said before continuing the case.

Im looking forward to sitting down with everybody and seeing if we can come to a resolution, Dolan said afterward, declining to comment further.

Manfredonia appeared Friday in Vernon, where he faces charges connected with a May 22, 2020 samurai sword attack on two men in Willington and subsequent home invasion.

One victim of the Willington attack, Ted Demers, was killed, and a second man, John Franco, was critically injured but survived, according to authorities.

Following the alleged attack in Willington, Manfredonia allegedly broke into the home of a 73-year-old Willington man and held him captive for more than 24 hours before stealing guns, money and a pickup truck, authorities said.

Police said Manfredonia then drove the truck to Derby and crashed it on Roosevelt Drive near the home of fellow Newtown High School grad, Nick Eisele. Manfredonia is accused of killing Eisele and kidnapping the mans girlfriend before leaving her unharmed at a New Jersey rest stop.

The 25-year-old former University of Connecticut student appeared before Milford Superior Court Judge Peter Brown Thursday via a remote hearing from Garner Correctional Institution in Newtown, where he is being held in lieu of bonds totaling $12 million.

During that appearance, Kelley said she is beginning to work out a plea offer in connection with charges Manfredonia faces in the Derby homicide and kidnapping. In Milford, he faces charges of murder, felony murder, first-degree kidnapping, home invasion, first-degree robbery and carrying a pistol without a permit.

In Vernon, Manfredonia has been charged with murder, criminal attempt to commit murder, first-degree assault, home invasion, first-degree kidnapping with a firearm, first-degree robbery, first-degree larceny, two counts of first-degree stealing a firearm and third-degree assault of an elderly person.

Manfredonia has been behind bars for more than two years since his May 27, 2020 capture at a Maryland truck stop after a manhunt that spanned six days and four states.
VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP)  A man accused of killing a sheriffs deputy in southwestern Washington is facing additional charges in connection with the 2021 shooting.

Guillermo Raya Leon of Salem, Oregon, was arraigned in Clark County Superior Court Thursday on amended information in the death of Clark County sheriffs Sgt. Jeremy Brown, The Columbian reported.

Raya Leon pleaded not guilty Thursday to possession of a stolen firearm, trafficking in stolen property, burglary and motor vehicle theft. He previously pleaded not guilty to first-degree aggravated murder and another count of possession of a stolen firearm.

His trial is scheduled for late October.

Investigators have said that Raya Leon admitted to shooting Brown, 46, while the detective was seated in an unmarked police SUV at an east Vancouver apartment complex on July 23, 2021.

Detectives were following Raya Leon, his brother, Abran Raya Leon and his brothers wife, Misty Raya that day as part of an investigation into the theft of dozens of firearms and thousands of ammunition rounds from a Hazel Dell storage unit.

Court records say Misty Rayas friend, Lani Kraabell, was helping them find buyers for the stolen guns when Guillermo Raya Leon shot Brown.

Kraabell pleaded guilty June 10 to second-degree manslaughter in connection with Browns death and agreed to cooperate with the criminal cases against her co-defendants. She was sentenced to six years in prison.
A Norwich woman says she is one step closer to getting justice for her enslaved ancestors.

On Thursday, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that Tamara Lanier can sue Harvard University for emotional distress after the school repeatedly published her grandfathers photographs. The photographs are believed to be the earliest known photographs of American slaves, according to the courts ruling.

Laniers attorney, Ben Crump, called the ruling historic.

It was a landmark ruling that we believe will be used by other courts all across America as Black people continue to fight for dignity and respect and humanity, Crump said.

To Harvard, Crump said youre on the wrong side of history.

Harvard University was not immediately available to comment Thursday.

The school owns photographs of Congo Papa Renty Taylor and Delia Taylor after a professor in 1850 arranged to have them taken to support an academic publication for polygenism, a pseudoscientific and racist theory, the court said.

When Lanier confirmed her lineage, she identified herself as a descendant of Renty and Delia Taylor to the university and requested information regarding Harvards past and intended use for the photographs.

Lanier said Harvard was dismissive. The university continued to use the photographs and perpetrate this false narrative of who they were, she said.

She then sought relief for emotional distress and ownership of the photos. A judge dismissed the lawsuit earlier this year.

The Massachusetts Supreme Court concluded that Lanier and her family can make a case for suffering negligent and indeed reckless infliction of emotional distress from Harvard. That part of her claim was remanded to the state Superior Court, according to the Associated Press.

When the decision came, Lanier said she couldnt help but think of the quote Truth crushed to the earth will rise again.

This mans truth was crushed to the earth by Harvard, she said. This mans dignity, this mans humanity was crushed to the earth by Harvard, but today he rises.

Lanier said her journey to get justice started in 2010 when her mother died.

Today I know she is smiling down on me, Lanier said Thursday.

Laniers mother, Mattye Thompson, often told the story of Renty Taylor, an indomitable man who defied slaverys tyranny, the court said. He taught himself and others to read and conducted secret Bible readings and studies on the plantation.

In 1850, Harvard professor Louis Agassiz arranged for photos to be taken of Renty and his daughter Delia Taylor, who were enslaved on a plantation in South Carolina. Renty was ordered to disrobe, while his daughter was stripped naked to the waist.

Agassiz then used these photos in an academic publication to support polygenism, the pseudoscientific theory that racial groups lack a common biological origin and thus are fundamentally and categorically distinct. The court said Agassiz used his publication to give scientific legitimacy to the myth of white racial superiority and the perpetuation of American slavery.

In her last years, Thompson told her children to document their family history, and Lanier wanted to fulfill her dying wishes. Through research online, in libraries and archives in South Carolina, Lanier determined that she is the direct lineal descendant of Renty Taylor.

When Lanier reached out to Harvard, she asked if they could verify her lineage as well as their future uses for the photos. Though a historian with Harvard responded, they did not contact her about either of these things, the court said.

In 2017, the school used one of the photos on the cover of a book about anthropology and photography. Harvard also used the image that year in a program for a national academic conference about universities historical connection with slavery, the court said.

In the program, the photos caption said While Agassiz earned acclaim, Renty returned to invisibility, according to the court.

Lanier sent another letter in October 2017 demanding that the photos be relinquished to her. Harvard responded allegedly without acknowledging the demand. And the legal battle began.

We believe when a jury hears what happened to Renty and Delia, the disgrace, the disdain, Crump said. I mean the tear in Delias eye as she stood there naked in front of those white men, photographing her and measuring her breasts and buttocks ... Once you hear about those facts and why Harvard thinks they should have those photographs and not this Black family, we think the jury will act accordingly.

On Thursday, Josh Koskoff, another attorney in the case, said the team has one message to the university:

We will see you in court, he said.
The company that operated a Kentucky candle factory leveled by a deadly winter tornado plans to ramp up production with a $33 million investment at a nearby plant, Gov. Andy Beshear announced Thursday.

Mayfield Consumer Products LLC, a maker of candles and other home fragrance products, plans to employ more than 500 people full time in the next five years at its factory in Hickory as it builds back production. The company's plant in Mayfield took a direct hit from the tornado that devastated the town last December.

Several workers died at the factory  among the 81 people who died in Kentucky as the storms tore through parts of western Kentucky. Thousands left homeless found shelter with relatives and friends, or in emergency facilities, hotels and state parks.

.Beshear, a Democrat, touted the economic development news Thursday without mentioning workplace citations leveled against the company. The announcement comes just weeks after state officials issued citations against the company for alleged violations of Kentucky's occupational safety and health laws. The company faces $21,000 in potential fines for three alleged violations related to the tornado, according to state Labor Cabinet documents obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday through an open records request.

Asked later Thursday about the citations, the governor's office didn't immediately comment.

The company also is defending itself against a lawsuit claiming it showed flagrant indifference by refusing to allow employees to go home early as the storm approached. Company officials did not immediately return calls Thursday seeking comment about the citations.

Beshear said more job announcements will be forthcoming as the Mayfield region continues to dig out from massive tornado damage.

This expansion will re-establish the companys employment base in the region and adds to the overall rebuilding efforts, the governor said at his weekly news conference.

The governor has made repeated trips to western Kentucky in support of recovery efforts. He was on hand recently when three families were handed keys to new homes in Mayfield  the first houses to be fully constructed there since the tornado.

Mayfield Consumer Products had already started construction on one expansion at its location in the Hickory industrial park. It now plans another bigger expansion that will consolidate its operations following the destruction of its Mayfield plant. Hickory is about 6 miles (9.5 kilometers) from Mayfield. The total investment planned is $33.3 million, the governor's office said.

Company founder Mary Propes said the expansion shows the company's resolve to rebuild here and to play a central role in helping to restore the place we call home.

"This community has a bright future, and we are committed to being a big part of that progress, she said in a news release issued by the governor's office.

The company currently employs 160 people in western Kentucky.

Meanwhile, the state recently said the company committed three violations deemed serious in connection with the tornado, according to the Labor Cabinet documents.

The citations claim the company failed to keep an exit route hallway free and unobstructed, did not maintain an alarm system to warn employees of fire or other emergencies and failed to review an emergency action plan with each employee. Each alleged violation carries a proposed $7,000 fine.

The company had 15 days  excluding weekends  to contest the citations. A Labor Cabinet spokeswoman said she didn't immediately know if the company had appealed.

An attorney involved in the storm-related litigation blasted the company for the citations.

Those of us representing the displaced former employees in the tornado certainly hope that the new facilities comply with state safety laws, given that that company was slapped with serious violations," attorney Amos Jones said by phone Thursday.

The lawsuit was filed in state court days after the tornado but has since been moved to federal court, based on a motion filed by the defendants, Jones said. The plaintiffs are attempting to have the suit returned to state court, he said.

Either way, the defendants cant run from what they did, Jones said.,

The suit accuses Mayfield Consumer Products of violating Kentucky workplace standards by keeping its staff at work despite the danger of death and injury. The suit claims that workers were threatened with termination if they left in the hours before the tornado hit. The suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages.

A company spokesman said last December that employees were free to leave anytime, and he denied that they would have faced retribution if they did. A company executive said then that the company was retaining an independent expert team to review the actions of managers and employees leading up to when the tornado struck the factory. The executive said the company was confident that its team leaders acted entirely appropriately and were, in fact, heroic in their efforts to shelter our employees.
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LOGAN, W.Va. (AP)  A Vietnam-era helicopter showcased in action movies crashed on a rural West Virginia road, killing all six people on board, during an annual reunion for helicopter enthusiasts.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the Bell UH-1B Huey helicopter crashed along Route 17 in Logan County about 5 p.m. Wednesday.

All six people on board were killed, said Ray Bryant, chief of operations for the Logan County emergency ambulance service authority. The helicopter crashed in clear weather on a road near the local airport, he said.

The entire cab of it was on fire, Bryant said in a phone interview Thursday.

It was recognized by the first responders as being a helicopter from this area because we see it a lot, he said.

The crash occurred during an annual reunion for helicopter enthusiasts at MARPAT Aviation in Logan. It was scheduled to begin Tuesday and end Sunday, according to MARPAT's website.

During the event, visitors could sign up to ride or fly the historic helicopter, described by organizers as one of the last of its kind still flying.

The helicopter was flown by the 114th Assault Helicopter Company, The Knights of the Sky, in Vinh Long, Vietnam, throughout much of the 1960s, according to MARPAT. After the Huey returned to the U.S. in 1971, the website says, it was featured in movies like Die Hard, The Rock and Under Siege: Dark Territory."

Neither reunion organizers nor MARPAT officials returned requests for comment Thursday.

Patty Belcher, who lives nearby, was driving to the store when she came upon the crash.

There was smoke so thick that you couldnt hardly see nothing but smoke and flames," she said by phone Thursday. "It was coming down the ditch line on the righthand side, and I said, My God, I better turn around. It might catch this truck on fire. So I turned around and came back.

The crash was near the Battle of Blair Mountain historic sites, where a deadly clash erupted a century ago as thousands of coal miners marched to unionize in West Virginia.

Bobbi Childs saw smoke and flames and got close enough to see a man who was trapped.

I saw that there was a guy trapped, I guess the captain. I tried to get down to the door where he was at. You could see him plain as day. I tried to get to him, but the fire was too hot. I couldnt get to him, Childs told WOWK-TV.

The road was expected to remain closed for at least 24 hours. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate. ___

Willingham reported from Charleston, W.Va. Schreiner reported from Frankfort, Ky.
STAMFORD  Cellphones have been tied to a number of student fights at Stamford schools this year, so officials are now looking at ways to limit how theyre used in school buildings.

One thing that is clear, however, is that banning phones from schools is a nonstarter.

I think we can all agree we do not want to take away the cellphones, said Michael Meyer, the director of family and community engagement for Stamford Public Schools, during the first meeting of a new cellphone policy committee earlier this week.

The committee, composed of students, teachers and administrators, was formed in response to a number of cellphone-related incidents in schools coinciding with an increased level of violence.

Peter Hadley, a music teacher at Cloonan Middle School, said during the meeting that phones have only made school behavior issues more acute.

From my experience, virtually every discipline issue that we have been dealing with at school has been exacerbated by cell phones, he said.

The most publicized incident was a violent fight between students at Cloonan, which resulted in one student suffering serious injuries and five students charged for allegedly attacking him. The incident was sparked by social media, according to officials.

Earlier in the school year, Cloonan students also filmed themselves taking part in a TikTok Challenge in which they used their hands to imitate firing a gun, directed at a camera, and posted the video on that popular social media platform.

Stamford High School saw a rash of brawls inside the school to start the school year, many of them filmed and posted online.

Many issues that arise between students over the weekend, Hadley said, can affect school instruction.

Were finding Monday mornings are one of our tougher times because of whats happened over the weekend on group chats, he said.

The district does not have an overarching policy on cellphone usage. Instead, individual schools set their own rules  and even then, enforcement can be varied.

During the meeting, some committee members wondered how much good a cellphone policy would do.

Banning cell phones isnt really addressing the safety problems like bullying, said student Meher Jain. Its not the phone thats the problem, its the action.

Board of Education President Jackie Heftman said the district does have policies that cover bullying. She wondered how the district could effectively restrict cell phone use.

I dont see how its going to be possible for us to police every kind of an issue that a child uses a cellphone for, and short of saying, You cant have your cellphone out of your backpack during the day, its going to be very difficult to codify exactly what types of usages were going to permit and what kind we will not, she said.

Jesse Glaude, a teacher at Westhill High School, said hes the father of a 15-year-old daughter, and he wants her to have a cellphone at her school, to be mostly used for emergencies.

Even if she never uses it for emergencies ... I dont care, I want her to have a cellphone, he said. Thats something from a parent perspective.

He argued that taking away cellphones wouldnt stop students from sending messages to each other. He said that students could still communicate with each other in school through something they all shared, like a Google document, even if they didnt have their phones.

Saying that theyre messaging each other on their cellphones and taking away cellphones then would be a response, he said. I just dont think that would work. Policing it like that is not going to work.

The idea to create a cellphone committee came from meetings between members of the Stamford Education Association teachers union and Superintendent Tamu Lucero.

During the inaugural Tuesday meeting, members talked about increasing education about digital citizenship, or the responsible use of technology, for students as part of any policy.

John Corcoran, the new president of the SEA who will begin his term at the beginning of July, said the district is not looking at taking phones away from students, but recognized that they do present a safety risk when students use them in improper ways.

We have to do something, he said.

Drew Denbaum, a teacher at Westhill, said teachers should have the option of having their students put their phones away for the entirety of a class.

But, he said, that wont prevent students from finding ways to secretly covey messages to each other.

Students back in the 1920s were passing notes to each another, Denbaum said. Certainly were not going to restrict communication between students when they want to communicate with each other.

ignacio.laguarda@

stamfordadvocate.com
WASHINGTON (AP)  The State Department is preparing to compensate victims of mysterious brain injuries colloquially known as Havana Syndrome with six-figure payments, according to officials and a congressional aide.

Current and former State Department staff and their families who suffered from qualifying injuries since cases were first reported among U.S. embassy personnel in Cuba in 2016 will receive payments of between roughly $100,000 and $200,000 each, the officials and aide said.

Specific amounts will be determined to by the extent and severity of the victims' injuries, which have included brain damage not limited to vertigo, cognitive damage, eyesight and hearing problems, according to the officials and aides.

The payments will apply only to victims employed by the State Department and their dependents. Other victims will have any compensation handled by the federal agency that employed them. About 20% of the total number of victims are or were employed by the State Department. Almost all the others were employed by the CIA or the Department of Defense, which have their own medical policies.

The officials and aide spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the expected publication next week of the State Departments plan to compensate victims under the terms of the HAVANA Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law last year.

That draft rule is expected to be published early next week and will not become final until after a 30-day period in which public comment will be solicited. The State Department, along with the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management, will consider the comments before enacting a final rule.

The State Department declined Thursday to discuss the amounts of the proposed payments but noted that the HAVANA Act authorizes it to provide payments to personnel for certain qualifying injuries to the brain and requires it to publish its plans for implementing such relief, which it said would happen soon."

Despite nearly six years of investigation, scientists, physicians and government officials have been unable to determine the cause of the injuries, which some have speculated are the result of microwave or other types of attack from a foreign power. Russia is most often accused of being behind the alleged attacks, although there has been no evidence to back up such claims.

The mysterious injuries first began to be reported among U.S. embassy staff in Havana, Cuba, in late 2016 and have since spread to nearly 70 countries on all continents except Antarctica. The number of reports has tapered off dramatically since the beginning of this year.
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The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a New York state law that had restricted who could obtain a permit to carry a gun in public. Under the law in place since 1913, New York residents needed to show proper cause, or an actual need, to carry a concealed handgun in public for self-defense..

The justices said that law conflicts with the Second Amendment's right to bear arms. It drew swift reaction from New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat who called the decision reckless and said she was prepared to call the Legislature back into session to form a response.

We do not need people entering our subways, our restaurants and movie theaters with concealed weapons," she said. "We dont need more guns on our streets.

New York and a half a dozen other states with similar laws now must decide their next steps. As with New York, California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island all have legislatures controlled by Democrats who could propose measures to ensure that guns will not be allowed in certain places.

Gun rights groups in those states have vowed to continue pushing back against what they view as restrictive gun control laws. Some of those cases eventually could make their way to the nation's high court. A rundown of the similar laws in the other states, reaction to the Supreme Court ruling and what could happen next:

CALIFORNIA

The courts ruling invalidated the good cause requirement in Californias permitting law, said the state's attorney general and gun owners rights groups.

Attorney General Rob Bonta said other aspects of Californias law remain untouched. Bonta and California lawmakers scrambled Thursday to amend pending legislation that lawmakers will consider next week, in hopes of quickly sending it to Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Their changes include a requirement to assess a concealed carry applicants potential for danger by examining arrest records, criminal convictions and restraining orders. The state will require background checks, including with fingerprinting, as well as firearms training and a mental health assessment. Many of the precautions already are allowed under current law.

It also will ban concealed weapons in certain sensitive areas such as parks, amusement parks and sporting venues.

Gun owners advocates oppose the proposed changes and expect they may also be struck down by the courts.

Bonta said the Supreme Court decision has made it clear that states like California still have many venues to prevent senseless death and keep our families safe from gun violence, and were going to use those avenues in California.

Nearly two-thirds of Californias 58 counties already eased their standards for granting concealed weapons permits after a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the states concealed carry standard in 2014, said attorney Chuck Michel, president of the California Rifle and Pistol Association.

Of Californias 58 counties, 37 already grant permits if an applicant requests it for self-defense. The other 21 counties have tighter standards, for example requiring applicants to demonstrate that they have business-related or professional risks that justify them being armed.

The Supreme Court decision not only affirms that laws prohibiting licensed public concealed carry of firearms for self-defense violates the Constitution, but also that courts have been applying the wrong approach to evaluating the constitutionality of gun control laws, Michel said.

Michels organization plans to immediately send the 21 counties legal notices that they must ease their standards in light of the Supreme Courts decision. He also plans to ask the 9th Circuit to rule on his latest legal challenge to Californias good cause standard, a decision that has been on hold awaiting the U. S. Supreme Courts decision in the New York case.

Sam Paredes, executive director of Gun Owners of California, said his organization expects to quickly sue California to force it to adopt the standard set in the New York decision and to sue local jurisdictions if they dont adopt the high courts ruling.

___

HAWAII

Hawaii has among the strictest gun laws in the nation. So strict, said attorney Alan Beck, that Hawaii essentially bans carrying guns outside the home. It has been practically impossible to get a permit to carry a loaded gun in public, he said. In the past 22 years, there have been four permits issued in Hawaii, said Beck, who represents various residents challenging Hawaii gun laws.

The state attorney generals office has argued that its not a flat-out ban because people can carry firearms if they have good cause. County police chiefs in Hawaii have had the discretion in determining whether to issue a carry permit, something the Supreme Court now says is too restrictive. Without a carry permit, people have been allowed to keep firearms in the home and can transport them  unloaded and locked up  to firing ranges and other limited locations such as for repairs.

One of Becks clients is George Young, a Big Island resident who wants to carry a gun for self-defense. Young doesnt care if its concealed or open carry. The favorable ruling in the New York case means Youngs lawsuit would prevail, Beck said.

The Hawaii Rifle Association anticipates that lawmakers now will work to make it difficult to obtain permits, whether its outrageous training requirements or exorbitant fees, said Kainoa Kaku, the associations president.

Were prepared to train potential concealed carry permit holders for whatever ridiculous requirements the state is going to ask of them, Kaku said.

State Sen. Chris Lee said lawmakers have been getting ready by introducing bills in the last couple of years that would establish training for those who are licensed to carry weapons. He called Thursday's ruling frustrating.

I think theres going to be a rush to figure out how states can intervene and ensure public safety, he said, adding that lawmakers will be looking at screening, training requirements and ways to keep guns out of public spaces.

Chris Marvin, a Hawaii resident with Everytown for Gun Safety, said lawmakers also could consider legislation that carefully vets applicants for a carry permit and rules to keep guns out of locations such as protests, polling places, state land and schools.

Allowing nearly all civilians to carry guns would be a big cultural shift for Hawaii, Marvin said.

We live in a place that a lot of people call paradise, and theyre usually talking about the weather. But from a safety standpoint and violence standpoint, we live in a place that is a relative paradise to the rest of the country," he said. "We are not perfect and we certainly have our share of violent incidences, but it would be really strange to be walking down Waikiki Beach and see someone with a side arm visibly on their hip.

___

MARYLAND

Under current law, a gun owner in Maryland has to show a good or substantial reason to carry a concealed gun. That could include showing a persons life is in danger from threats or that they work in a job that could put them in contact with people who are dangerous.

Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh said the laws are similar to New York's, but they take different approaches. He said he was examining today's ruling to determine its impact on the state.

Todays decision means more deaths and more pain in a country already awash in gun violence," Frosh said in a statement. "If the norm is that people can carry firearms, our neighborhoods, our streets and other public places will become more dangerous. It will make the lives of law enforcement more difficult and more perilous.

The epidemic of gun violence sweeping our nation demonstrates daily the folly of introducing more guns into this boiling cauldron.

Opponents to the law in Maryland already have sued, in a case that has been on hold in the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, pending the ruling in the New York case.

Mark Pennak, president of Maryland Shall Issue, a gun-rights group that is challenging the Maryland law, said the group is absolutely ecstatic about the courts ruling.

It confirms what weve always believed  that the right of self-defense extends outside the home, he said.

Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson and House Speaker Adrienne Jones, who are both Democrats, said they will review the ruling and pass new gun control legislation if necessary.

More guns in public means more violence, and more violence means more death and heartache everywhere. This is the wrong answer," they said in a joint statement. The Second Amendment permits reasonable restrictions on the right to carry a firearm.

___

MASSACHUSETTS

Massachusetts law had given local police chiefs the power to decide whether someone is suitable to have a license to carry a handgun. Police chiefs have been able to deny applicants if they determine that the person would pose a risk to public safety, for reasons such as a history of domestic violence. Those who are denied can appeal to their local district court.

The law says those deemed suitable can get a license to carry if they show good reason to fear injury to themselves or their property or for any other reason, including for use in sport or target practice only.

Whats considered a good reason has been up to police chiefs, who vary in what they require of applicants to meet that standard. Some demand that applicants show they have a reason to fear injury that distinguishes them from the general population in order to get an unrestricted license.

Massachusetts courts have ruled that if someone cant show a good reason to fear injury, police chiefs can put restrictions on licenses that limit when someone can carry a firearm.

State Attorney General Maura Healey said Thursday that she stands by the states commonsense gun laws and will continue to vigorously defend and enforce them. The office has not responded to questions from The Associated Press about to what extent Massachusetts law will be affected by the ruling.

Jason Guida, former director of the Massachusetts Firearms Records Bureau who now works as a lawyer representing gun owners, said he expects to see a flurry of challenges to gun licensing restrictions in certain communities, like Boston, that courts have upheld in the past.

Communities that restrict gun owners licenses for certain purposes unless applicants show a special need for self-defense will need to rewrite their policies: Otherwise, theres a strong likelihood in the very near future that these communities will find themselves in federal court, he said.

State Rep. David Linksy, a Democrat who has advocated for gun control measures, said he is still examining the ruling but is deeply concerned about its potential effect on police chiefs ability to use their discretion when issuing gun licenses.

The end result is there will be an increase in gun violence," he said. There will be people killed, there will be people injured, and we will all be less safe.

A federal judge wrote in a 2017 case that Massachusetts law is in some respects less restrictive than New Yorks because Massachusetts allows  but doesnt demand that police chiefs require applicants to demonstrate a special need for self-defense before being issued an unrestricted license.

Democratic state Rep. Michael Day, House chair of the Legislatures Judiciary Committee, said lawmakers are trying to sort out what actions they will take in response to the ruling.

Were taking a look at that to see exactly what it means and what it doesnt, but anything thats been loosened up were confident we will be able to tighten back up, he said.

___

NEW JERSEY

New Jersey residents no longer must prove justifiable need to carry a handgun in light of the Supreme Courts decision Thursday, but permits are still required, the states top law enforcement officer said.

Acting Attorney General Matthew Platkin said in a phone interview that the high courts ruling in the New York state case effectively struck down New Jerseys requirement that residents seeking carry permits show they face significant threats and have a justifiable need to get a carry permit.

But, he added, the other requirements under New Jersey law still stand. Among them is safety training and a prohibition against certain convicts. As for how soon the change goes into effect, Platkin said he will issue guidance imminently.

New Jerseys gun laws are among the tightest in the nation and got even stricter after former Republican Gov. Chris Christie left office in 2018. He was succeeded by Democrat Phil Murphy, who signed a handful of new bills into law.

Among them were magazine size restrictions and a red flag law. Getting a carry permit in New Jersey is widely considered difficult, and the states justifiable need requirement paralleled New Yorks proper cause provision that was just thrown out by the high court.

On Thursday, Murphy called the Supreme Court decision tragic.

Based on a deeply flawed constitutional methodology, a right-wing majority on the United States Supreme Court has just said that states can no longer decide for ourselves how best to limit the proliferation of firearms in the public sphere," he said.

Gun rights advocates in New Jersey hailed the ruling. Scott Bach, executive director of the Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs, said it spells the end for New Jerseys decades-long interference with the peoples fundamental right of self-defense with a firearm outside the home.

Gun rights groups already are challenging New Jerseys right-to-carry laws in courts, as well as the magazine limit. Those cases are pending.

___

NEW YORK

The New York law struck down Thursday, in place since 1913, said that to carry a handgun outside the home, a person applying for a license had to demonstrate proper cause, an actual need to carry the weapon.

The law doesnt define what proper cause means and gave local officials  often a police department or town justice  discretion when deciding whether to issue licenses. In practice, it meant most applicants had to show a need that went beyond routine public safety concerns, like being in a profession that put them at special risk.

Lawmakers could add new permitting conditions now that the court has ruled, such as requiring firearm training or a mental health evaluation, or disqualifying applicants with certain types of criminal convictions.

Lawmakers also could pass a law specifying where people cant carry concealed weapons  a list that could include public transit systems, school zones, bars, parks, government offices or polling places.

Supporters of New Yorks handgun limits have said one of their fears is that by creating a marketplace for handguns that now barely exists in the state, it will lead to more pistols getting into the hands of prohibited buyers.

___

RHODE ISLAND

The state attorney generals office said there are similarities between Rhode Island's law and the one in New York that was struck down, but also important differences between the two states statutory schemes for concealed carry permits.

Rhode Island has separate laws dealing with permits issued from municipalities and permits issued from the state attorney generals office. In 2018, the office filed an amicus brief in a case to defend the constitutionality of a Massachusetts gun law, noting that Rhode Islands concealed carry permit has been upheld by the Rhode Island Supreme Court. The court found that the state constitutional right to keep and bear arms is an individual right, subject to reasonable regulation by the state.

The attorney general and governors offices said they would review the Supreme Court decision for its impacts on the state. The Rhode Island 2nd Amendment Coalition did not immediately respond to requests for comment about whether it would seek to challenge the permitting process in Rhode Island.

Any response from the legislature would likely have to wait until next year, but Democratic state Rep. Robert Craven said Thursday he wasnt surprised by the ruling.

I see the court headed in that direction, he said. Its taking a stricter interpretation that the Second Amendment is absolute -- It says what it says, you have a right to bear arms.

Craven, an attorney and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, questioned whether the court will now use that same thought process for cases about banning military-style weapons.

___

Associated Press writers Mike Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey; Jennifer Kelleher in Honolulu; Jennifer McDermott in Providence, Rhode Island; Alanna Durkin Richer and Steve LeBlanc in Boston; Don Thompson in Sacramento, California; Marina Villeneuve in Albany, New York; and Brian Witte in Annapolis, Maryland, contributed to this report.
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Matt Williams, The Conversation

(THE CONVERSATION) The Supreme Courts decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion had been indicated via a leaked draft opinion some weeks ago, but that doesnt diminish the impact it will have.

The ruling handed down by the Supreme Court on June 24, 2022, upends 50 years of reproductive rights in the U.S. but comes after a prolonged period in which those rights have been eroded at the state level.

It will have far-reaching implications for the social and political future of the states as well as for millions of American women. Here are five articles to help explain the importance of this decision and what to expect next.

1. The long history of debating abortion in the US

Despite the magnitude of this ruling, it is unlikely to end the debate on abortion. Indeed, as Treva B. Lindsey at The Ohio State University writes, the battle over the right to abortion predates 1973s Roe v. Wade ruling by more than a century.

She writes that in the early 1800s, pre-quickening abortions  those performed before a pregnant person feels fetal movement  were fairly common, and even advertised. But in the mid- to late 19th century, states began to pass laws banning abortion. Those bans were motivated, at first, by concerns over the high risk of injury or death to women who got an abortion.

But there was also a racist reason.

A spike in fears about new immigrants and newly emancipated Black people reproducing at higher rates than the white population also prompted more opposition to legal abortion, Lindsey writes. By the beginning of the 20th century, abortion was illegal in every state. But the womens liberation movement and sexual revolution of the 1960s sparked renewed discussion about reproductive rights. Some states legalized abortion under specific circumstances. Then in 1973 came the Roe ruling.

2. 50 states, 50 different abortion laws

That long history of the states deciding whether to ban or legalize abortion is set to resume again after 50 years of women in the U.S. having a constitutional right to abortion guaranteed under Roe. Thirteen states, including Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma, have so-called trigger laws that aim to restrict abortion as soon as Roe was overturned. But in others, the future of abortion rights is less clear and could take some time to work out.

Katherine Drabiak at the University of South Florida surveyed state abortion laws for The Conversation. With Roe now overturned, it appears that 20 states will ban or restrict abortions, while 20 states and the District of Columbia will protect  or even expand  a persons ability to get a safe abortion. This leaves 10 states in which the picture is less clear. As Drabiak writes, rather than the Supreme Court ruling being the end of the matter, the ruling could be just the starting point for states to navigate a wide range of new abortion laws.

3. Barriers to abortion in liberal states, too

The patchwork of laws across the states will accelerate a process that has been evident in recent years: Women traveling out of conservative states to get an abortion. Indeed, as University of Colorado Denvers Amanda Jean Stevenson and Kate Coleman-Minahan write, such states as California, Washington, Illinois and New York are likely to experience an influx of people seeking an abortion if they no longer can get one in their home state.

But these states may not become an unconditional refuge for people seeking abortions. A range of obstacles may prevent women living in states with abortion bans getting the procedure done elsewhere. Going out of state for an abortion is expensive  you need money for travel and lodging. Increased demand for abortions in states where its legal may lead to longer wait times for appointments. Such delays could be crucial, Stevenson and Coleman-Minahan write, when traveling to 18 of the 25 states expected to keep abortion legal. These states currently prohibit abortions later in pregnancy  typically after the first trimester.

Meanwhile, some states that are arent expected to ban abortion have other barriers, such as requiring those under the age of 18 to obtain consent from a parent.

4. Warnings from Ireland over whats to come

With a large proportion of Americans living in states that will ban abortion  and laws in more liberal states that still make getting an abortion difficult  the likelihood is that many women will have no choice but to remain pregnant.

Gretchen Ely at the University of Tennessee suggests this will put the country on a similar path to Ireland between 1983 and 2018. She writes that the religiously motivated anti-abortion law in place in Ireland during that time is analogous to those on the books in several states in the U.S. The Irish law led to a prolonged period of suffering for many Irish women, documented in a series of court cases that helped turn the tide of opinion toward legalization.

These included the tragic case of Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old woman forced to miscarry an unviable fetus rather than terminate the pregnancy with medical assistance, which was classified technically as an illegal abortion. Having doctors terminate the pregnancy would have reduced the risk to her life. Instead, Halappanavar died after suffering organ failure and enduring four days in intensive care.

In contrast to the United States, Ireland is moving away from political control over private life, Ely writes. With Roe reversed, she says, pregnant people could face decades of forced pregnancy, suffering and even death  as was the case in Ireland prior to 2018.

5. A decision affecting millions, made by a few people

Whereas in Ireland in 1983 abortion was banned by means of a referendum  albeit one in which barely half the nation voted  in the U.S. the decision to overturn the constitutional right to get an abortion was made by a handful of Supreme Court justices.

Nominated by Republican presidents, the four men and one woman who joined the conservative majority opinion overturning Roe all won confirmation to the court with the support of a majority of senators, but senators who did not represent a majority of voters, writes Kevin J. McMahon of Trinity College. They are numerical minority justices.

This practice has deep consequences. Supreme Court justices have lifetime appointments and typically stay on the bench for many years, even decades. Their imprint on the law can be enduring and their legitimacy, conferred in part by the confirmation process, helps ensure their place in our democracy, McMahon writes.

The legitimacy of the highest court in the land is at stake, McMahon says, as a result of having justices make decisions without the weight of a democratic mandate.

A five-justice conservative majority that discards Roe after nearly 50 years on the books will likely further the belief that the court reaches its rulings based mainly on politics rather than law, especially given the central role opponents of the decision have played in mobilizing voters to support Republican candidates like Donald Trump, concludes McMahon.

Editors note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversations archives.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/supreme-court-overturns-roe-upends-50-years-of-abortion-rights-5-essential-reads-on-what-happens-next-184697.
BOSTON (AP)  The Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade and ending constitutional protections for abortion hews closely to the leaked draft opinion that was published in May.

Key passages in Justice Samuel Alito's draft opinion and the final ruling released Friday are identical, including sharp denunciations of the Roe ruling as egregiously wrong," with exceptionally weak reasoning and damaging consequences.

The major additions to the final copy are pointed rebukes of the dissent from the court's three liberal justices as well as a concurring opinion from Chief Justice John Roberts, who said he would have upheld the Mississippi law at the heart of the case, but would have stopped short of ending the right to an abortion.

The draft opinion, labeled a 1st Draft of the Opinion of the Court" and published by Politico, was leaked in a nearly unprecedented breach of protocol that sent shockwaves through the country. The marshal of the Supreme Court is investigating what Roberts has described as egregious breach of trust.

Here's a closer look at the similarities and differences between the draft and final opinions:

____

KEY PASSAGES REMAIN UNCHANGED

The central arguments in the draft and final opinions are fundamentally the same. Alito writes that the 1973 Roe decision and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 decision that reaffirmed the right to abortion, used flawed reasoning to conclude that the Constitution protects the right to an abortion.

Alito writes that the Constitution makes no reference to abortion and that the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment does not protect such a right. While that provision guarantees some rights that are not named in the Constitution, those rights have been deeply rooted in this Nation's history and tradition, Alito wrote. Abortion has not been, he argues.

It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people's elected representatives, he wrote.

____

CRITIQUE OF THE DISSENT

The first major addition to the final opinion comes on page 35, when Alito launches into a critique of the liberal justices' dissent, which he would not have had access to when he wrote his draft.

Alito writes that the dissent's failure to acknowledge the nation's long tradition  before Roe  of outlawing abortion is devastating to its position." The right to an abortion does not have any foundation, let alone a deeply rooted one,'" in American history, Alito argues. He points, among other things, to the fact that at least 46 states by the late 1950s banned abortion however and whenever preformed unless necessary to save the life of the mother.

Alito writes that the most striking feature" of the dissent is the lack of "any serious discussion of the legitimacy of the States' interest in protecting human life." The liberal justices, Alito argues, discuss issues like the burdens of motherhood, which he says are important concerns." But they display no similar regard for a State's interest in protecting prenatal life, he writes.

Later in the opinion, Alito rebukes the liberal justices' argument that in overturning Roe, the court has abandoned stare decisis: the legal principle that judges use to base decisions on earlier ones. Alito responds: We have done no such thing.

Precedents should be respected, but sometimes the Court errs, and occasionally the Court issues an important decision that is egregiously wrong," Alito wrote. When that happens, stare decisis is not a straightjacket.

____

THE CHIEF'S ARGUMENT

The other difference between the draft and final opinion is a takedown of the argument made by Roberts, who voted with the majority to uphold the Mississippi law banning most abortions after 15 weeks, but wrote separately that there was no need to overturn the broad precedents to rule in Mississippis favor.

Roberts writes that he would leave for another day the question of whether Roe should be overturned and take a more measured course. Roberts said he would do away with the viability line  or prior holding that the Constitution protects the right to an abortion up until the point of when a fetus is viable outside the womb. He writes that the right to an abortion should extend far enough to ensure a reasonable opportunity to choose, but need not extend any further  certainly not all the way to viability.

Alito argues that there are serious problems with Roberts' approach. If the court were to only go so far as to uphold Mississippi's law, it would soon be called upon to pass on the constitutionality of a panoply of laws with shorter deadlines or no deadline at all," Alito writes.

The chief justice's quest for a middle way would only put off the day when we would be forced to confront the question we now decide, Alito wrote. The turmoil wrought by Roe and Casey would be prolonged. It is far better  for this Court and for this country  to face up to the real issue without further delay.

_____

For APs full coverage of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, go to https://apnews.com/hub/abortion
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WASHINGTON (AP)  The House Jan. 6 committee used Thursday's hearing to show how Donald Trump tried to install a loyalist atop the Justice Department who would pursue his false claims of voter fraud and stop the certification of the 2020 election that Democrat Joe Biden won.

It's the latest account of how perilously close the United States could have come to a constitutional crisis if the department leaders had not threatened to resign over the scheme and the defeated Trump had been able to orchestrate a plan for the U.S. government to overturn election results in several pivotal states.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., led the hearing, saying it would show how close we came to losing it all.

The committee investigating the causes of the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has been trying to make the case that Trump's efforts to reverse his loss resulted in the deadly siege after he sent supporters to the Capitol as Congress was certifying Biden's victory. Here are some important takeaways from this months fifth hearing.

TRUMP'S JUSTICE DEPARTMENT IN TURMOIL

Day after day, Trump pressured the department leaders to dig into false claims of election fraud after the November 2020 election.

Former Attorney General William Barr had described the swirl of false voter fraud theories coming from Trump's orbit as wack-a-mole.

The department declined Trump's overtures because we did not think they were appropriate, testified Jeffrey Rosen, who became acting attorney general after Barr stepped down.

Over and over, the officials explained to Trump that the states conduct their own elections, free from federal interference. They tried to show him there was no voter fraud on a scale that could have tipped the election in his favor.

Trump, however, only pressed harder and started looking for alternatives.

At point in late December 2020, Trump asked what Rosen found to be a peculiar question: Do you know Jeff Clark?

Trump was eyeing Clark to take over at the department.

___

WHO IS JEFF CLARK?

Clark led the civil division and particularly handled environmental cases. He was introduced to Trump by a Republican congressman from Pennsylvania, a leader of the House's conservative Freedom Caucus.

Clark had been circulating a proposal that would have the legislatures from battleground states not certify their election results. It was similar to a plan from Trump lawyer John Eastman for alternative slates of electors loyal to Trump, rather than Biden, when Congress met Jan. 6, 2021, to certify results.

Clark's ideas alarmed his colleagues, as did his sudden rise into Trump's orbit as a potential new acting attorney general.

"It may well had spiraled us into a constitutional crisis," testified Richard Donoghue, the former acting deputy attorney general.

___

WHAT DO I HAVE TO LOSE?

During a meeting at the White House days before the riot, Justice Department leaders told Trump they would resign if he tried to install Clark and put his scheme in motion to reject electors.

Trump had called the officials to an unexpected Sunday meeting to lay out his plan. Donoghue described how he was dressed inappropriately in jeans, muddy boots and an Army shirt. Trump had him sit between Rosen and Clark. The president asked Donoghue: What if I replace Rosen with Clark?

"What have I got to lose? Trump said, as Donoghue recalled.

Donoghue told Trump that the president would have everything to lose: mass resignations at the Justice Department, starting with those arrayed before him at the meeting.

Clark would be left to run a graveyard at the department, one of the officials said. Trump's plan to reject the state electors with those loyal to Trump would never work. It was a murder-suicide pact," as his own White House counsel told him, they testified.

Donoghue made the point that Jeff Clark wasnt even competent to serve as attorney general.

When Clark shot back that he had worked on complicated civil and environmental matters, Donoghue retorted: How about you go back to your office and well call you when theres an oil spill?

___

BLANKET PARDONS FOR JAN. 6 ...

At least five Republican members of Congress, including Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, who had connected Trump and Clark, sought pardons from the president that would shield them from criminal prosecution, according to testimony Thursday.

Perry and Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Matt Gaetz of Florida and Louie Gohmert of Texas all had been involved in efforts to reject the electoral tally or submit fake electors. All sought pardons, according to Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to Trump's chief of staff, Mark Meadows. Hutchinson testified previously in video shown at the hearing.

Blanket pardons for all those involved in Jan. 6 were also discussed, according to another White House aide, John McEntee.

Gaetz tweeted that the hearing is a political sideshow.

Kinzinger said the only reason to ask for a pardon "is if you think youve committed a crime.

___

... AND SUBPOENAS SERVED ON FAKE ELECTORS

The hearing was gaveled in as the department escalated its own investigation, searching Clarks Virginia home this week as federal agents also served subpoenas across the country related to the scheme by Trump allies to create sets of fake electors with the intention of invalidating Bidens win.

The purpose of the searches was not immediately clear, but they came as the House committee has pressured the department to step up its investigation.

Among those being investigated are Republican officials in key states, including those working on the fake electors in the run-up to Jan. 6, when Congress would be tallying the election results.

___

TRUMP VS. McCARTHY

Trump has decried the proceedings as a witch hunt and blamed House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy for declining to have Republicans on the committee who could defend Trump.

Trump recently told a conservative talk radio host that McCarthy, R-Calif., had made a bad decision, very foolish decision, by withdrawing the Republicans from the committee.

The only two Republicans on the committee are Kinzinger and Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, both Trump critics.

McCarthy has stood by his choice not to seat Republicans after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., rejected two of his choices because they had voted to decertify the results of the presidential election.

Rather than picking alternatives acceptable to Pelosi, McCarthy withdrew the others, refusing to play by Pelosi's rules and trying to portray the the committee as unfair and illegitimate.

I do not regret not appointing anybody at all, McCarthy told reporters Thursday, saying he had said as much in a call with Trump. The decision is right.

__ Associated Press writer Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report.

___

For full coverage of the Jan. 6 hearings, go to https://www.apnews.com/capitol-siege
Lets call Connecticut what it is: A blue state with too many segregated schools.

The states racial imbalance law was born of best intentions in the post-Civil Rights Era. The concept is simple, to prevent students of color from being placed in one school and white students in another.

Like so many other aspirational Connecticut laws, ignoring this holds no consequences. As a result, school officials from some of the same districts meet year after year to explain why some schools still cant hit the magic number. The law requires that a public school is within 25 percentage points of the districts overall racial makeup.

So when Fairfield officials were summoned by the state board last month, they reached back into a reliable quiver of defenses, including how they cant decide where people choose to live. This time, they also tossed in a new excuse, that the pandemic was a distraction.

At this point, they all fall into the dog ate my homework category. State officials have heard it all before, given that Fairfield has failed 15 times in the last 16 years.

One Greenwich school, meanwhile, has been out of balance since the last century. Leaders in the town point to progress at its two unbalanced schools, but it also is home to five of the top nine most unbalanced schools in the state.

Officials in Greenwich and Fairfield declined to be interviewed for a recent Hearst Connecticut Media news story about the issue.

Not talking about a problem is never the solution. No one is pretending there are simple remedies. No parent is going to be excited about putting their child on a bus for a longer trip out of the neighborhood. And Fairfield fended off proposals to swap students with neighboring towns years ago. That doesnt mean it is not a good idea, but Connecticut is allergic to regional solutions.

The ultimate remedy for all of this are regional school systems, Center for Childrens Advocacy Executive Director Martha Stone opined. If you had regional school systems the way most other places around the country do, youd be able to get racial balance a different way.

There are many different ways to get to the root of the problem. One of them is the other issue Connecticuts affluent towns tend to resist  more access to affordable housing.

And even without consequences, the racial imbalance law has motivated several communities. Most common solutions involve the creation of magnet schools or renovating or rebuilding aging buildings to make them more attractive to families in other parts of town.

But there can never be balance until everyone recognizes its benefits. Clinging to schools that are primarily white or mostly populated by minority students ignores the reality of the world that will greet students after graduation day.

Ultimately, the best carrot to luring communities to embrace diverse schools is to celebrate that the students in them tend to perform better academically.

When two people meet who are not the same, they both have the potential to learn, and to teach.
SHENANDOAH  New storefronts and eateries are breathing new life into the boroughs central business district, regenerating what was once a populous and prosperous community.

Many community leaders and residents believe that business is on the rise in downtown Shenandoah, with new establishments cropping up on the streets on a regular basis.

Several businesses have set up shop along Main Street over the past three years: The A to Z Market, Big Mamas Cafe, Merengue Cakes and Deli, Metro by T-Mobile, OBO Trading Post and Shenandoah Pharmacy are among the latest to grace the boroughs main strip.

This surge of businesses has coincided with a boom of new residents, many of whom are transplants from large cities.

Shenandoahs coming up, said Jada Hernandez, owner of OBO Trading Post, a thrift store that opened in January. Theres a lot of opportunities for new businesses.

Hernandez is among scores of residents who moved to Shenandoah from New York City in search of a smaller, more community-oriented space for their families. She and her husband took a leap of faith on moving to the borough after they deemed their sixth-floor New York apartment too unsafe for their children.

Since moving to the area in 2012, Hernandez has witnessed a change gradually come about in the borough.

When we moved up here, the area was very different, she said. There were people who werent accepting to some people from (outside) the area. They called us the city people. 

Hernandezs store offers a diverse selection of items, but specializes in collectibles such as DVDs and retro video games. Inspired by a few of her friends and family members game-collecting habits, she decided to start a business that would cater to enthusiasts of the niche interest.

The result, so far, has been a success. Collectors walk into the store every day, scoping out the latest selection of movies and games. Hernandez is considering acquiring a larger space for her store, as her shelves are often overburdened with the collectibles.

We opened the store to serve the community, to give something different for them to look at, she said.

Lou Truskowsky, president of the Shenandoah Area Chamber of Commerce, said business in the borough appears to be thriving, although he added the growth is not easily observable over a short period of time.

In the short-term perspective, its really hard to tell, Truskowsky said. But the impression I have is, compared to what it was before, its changing for the better.

He noted the diverse mix of up-and-coming businesses, like Smoking Soles  a shoe store slated to open later this year  and longstanding area staples such as Souchuck Lumber, a family-owned lumber store that has survived in the midst of nearby hardware giants like Lowes and Home Depot.

Smoking Soles, located on the northern end of Shenandoahs Main Street strip, will bring new commodities to the area  high-end sneakers, streetwear and skate equipment. Nick Shustack, the stores owner, has nurtured a love of shoes from an early age and decided to bring this interest to his hometown.

Shustack believes the boroughs low cost of living has been a factor in the rise of new businesses. With many well-paying warehouse jobs nearby, he said, the area provides several opportunities for families to thrive and start new ventures from scratch.

Its more affordable to everybody to bring something to the area thats not around here, he said. Our area here, its so small, and its not as common.

With the spate of new businesses, he envisions a full-circle return to the Shenandoah of his youth. He recalled that, about 15 years ago, at least 50 schoolchildren could be seen on a daily basis socializing on the sidewalks along Main Street.

Theres not much for younger kids in school to do around here, so Im glad theyre bringing more to the area, Shustack said.New ventures

Despite its economic struggles over the years, Shenandoah today has its share of established fixtures that are ingrained in the boroughs identity.

La Casita de Familia, the popular restaurant on Centre Street, has served a dedicated base of customers since 2005, cultivating a reputation among local and regional residents as a top-shelf Mexican eatery.

In her 17 years at the restaurant, manager Flor Gomez has watched businesses come and go, but she believes Shenandoah may be on the cusp of a strong upswell. Gomez said the influx of new residents in the community is central to the boroughs growth, particularly among the Hispanic community.

I would like for the community to grow so kids have everything they need here in town, she said. The reason many (Latino) families move into the area is because they like the smaller towns. They feel safer in smaller areas and feel its safe for their children to grow up in a small community.

In fact, Gomez sees prime examples of this growth unfolding before her eyes daily. A building across from her restaurant, the site of a former BB&T bank, is currently being renovated and will be used as a high-end laundromat, she said.

Shenandoah is going to get a lot of new businesses, Gomez said.Earlier this month, the new Shenandoah Pharmacy formally opened its doors with a ribbon-cutting ceremony that was attended by community figures such as Downtown Shenandoah Inc. President Karen Kenderdine and Schuylkill County commissioners Chairman Barron L. Hetherington, among others.

The pharmacys co-owner, Falguni Pinky Patel, expressed gratitude to the community for being kind and allowing her to pursue new ventures. Patel said opening a new pharmacy in Shenandoah was crucial for the boroughs residents, as many do their shopping on foot.

I know theres a high demand for prescriptions and medicine here, Patel said.

Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Robert S. Carl Jr. said Shenandoah is changing for the better, with many public servants and residents working to make the borough more attractive.

Theres been a groundswell of community volunteerism and activity and people who love their community, he said. The community support is very strong.

A brighter future

As new businesses make their way into the community, one project, over three years in the making, is expected to make pivotal progress.

Downtown Shenandoah Inc. plans to break ground on its Center for Education, Business & Arts within a year. The multimillion dollar community hub and innovation center is expected to be an economic boost for Schuylkill County.

DSI Executive Director Susan Williams said the center provides significant prospects for businesses looking to thrive in the community. The CEBA will include office spaces for entrepreneurs to start and develop new businesses before settling in their own spaces, outside of the incubator.

The building will also include a classroom, an art gallery and a commercial kitchen available for area restaurants to rent.

Through the spirit of partnerships, business leaders and community donations, DSI has raised $5 million for the project, Williams said, with the goal to raise $8 million.

As with any project of this magnitude, especially the challenges of the past few years, we have encountered a few road bumps along the way, she said. That said, our goal is to break ground this year.

Williams believes the center gives business owners an incentive to become established in Shenandoah.

They come in, they tell us how excited they are for this building to open because they want to rent space, she said. They want their businesses to be a part of this, and they see a brighter future.
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The ASTRA open-air museum in Dumbrava Sibiului will organize this weekend, June 24-26, the 9th edition of the Universal Day of the Romanian Blouse event, with 36 craftsmen and folk makers of traditional costumes to be present.

The Sibiu cultural institution announced that this year's edition will take place on the textile sector of the open-air Museum, where the doors to eight traditional houses will be opened. Here will be present 36 folk craftsmen and artists, who will exhibit/sell their products (traditional costumes - Romanian, Saxon, Hungarian, toys, ornaments, ceramics, etc.).

Also, on the same occasion, 12 interactive workshops will be organized, supported by craftsmen, restorers, museographers, which will consist of embroidered motifs on the blouse and Saxon ribbons, signs sewn on fabric, ornaments and beads, preparing the wool, weaving with goat hair, painting traditional motifs of the Romanian blouse on glass etc. At the same time, a guide will be presented on the story of wool: preparing the raw material, tools, techniques, decoration.

Among the events in this year's programme there are the reconstitution of the customs for Sanziene, Dragaica and Calus celebrations (Friday, June 24), the awarding of the title Living Human Treasure to Mrs Maria Ciuca from Poiana Sibiului, the riding on Fancy Bicycles dressed in a Romanian blouse (Saturday, June 25) and the Sanziene Round Dance (Sunday, June 26).

The Universal Day of the Romanian Blouse is celebrated every year on June 24, on the Sanziene Day, and was initiated in 2013 by the La Blouse Roumaine online community.

The actions of the ASTRA Museum are possible with the financing of the Sibiu County Council.

AGERPRES
Romania's Ministry of Health regularly monitors acute diarrhoeal disease in summertime, having warned the country's counties on the borders with Moldova and Ukraine to quickly identify any suspicion of cholera.

"The Ministry of Health, through the National Public Health Institute, regularly monitors acute diarrhoeal disease in summertime, having warned the country's counties on the borders with Moldova and Ukraine to quickly identify any suspicion of cholera," the ministry says.

The clarifications come amidst media stories about the detection of the Vibrio cholerae bacteria in the bathing areas of the Dniester river in Moldova.

The ministry points out that there have been no cases of cholera in Romania in the last 30 years.

"Due to the sporadic cases, Moldova tests water from wild natural bathing areas for Vibrio cholerae. The isolated strain is not part of the category of those that cause disease in humans," according to the ministry.

Cholera is a disease transmitted by the fecal-oral route. Accidental consumption of contaminated water from wild natural bathing areas can lead to infection in countries where there is a circulation of the bacterium.

AGERPRES.
Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca sent president Klaus Iohannis on Friday a proposal for nominating Deputy Prime Minister Sorin-Mihai Grindeanu as acting Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Government informs.

According to the quoted source, the same document notes Adrian Chesnoiu's resignation from position of Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) requested the Chamber of Deputies on Thursday to lift the immunity for carrying out a criminal investigation against a deputy from the Romanian Parliament, at the time of the facts and currently having the position of Minister, for abuse of office. Judicial sources specified for AGERPRES that this is regarding the Minister of Agriculture, Adrian Chesnoiu.Later, the Minister of Agriculture, Adrian Chesnoiu, announced that he will resign from the position and will self-suspend from the Social Democratic Party.Furthermore, he requested the deputies to vote for lifting his parliamentary immunity.The Standing Bureau of the Chamber of Deputies decided on Thursday to send DNA's request of lifting the immunity of MP Deputy Adrian Chesnoiu to the Legal Committee for establishing a report for Monday, with the vote to be cast in the plenum on Tuesday.AGERPRES
Foreign Affairs Minister Bogdan Aurescu agreed in a phone conversation this Friday with his South Korean counterpart Park Jin on the resumption as soon as possible of the agenda of official visits to Bucharest and of regular political consultations; also, Minister Park gladly accepted ForMin Aurescu's invitation to visit Romania, the Foreign Affairs Ministry informs in a release.

"The dialogue between the two Foreign Ministers focused on ways to develop and deepen bilateral relations, strengthened both during the more than 30 years of uninterrupted diplomatic relations, and by the more than a decade-long Strategic Partnership of the two states. Minister Aurescu underlined Romania's interest in better capitalizing on the opportunities offered by the Strategic Partnership, through sustained actions to deepen political dialogue and develop economic and sectoral cooperation, while the Korean top diplomat mentioned energy and defense industry as particular areas of interest. In his turn, the Korean Minister showed that Romania is a very important partner of the Republic of Korea and expressed his full commitment to deepening the strategic partnership," the cited release reads.The Romanian top diplomat welcomed the rising trend of bilateral trade, which topped the $1 billion threshold in 2021, and encouraged South Korean companies and firms to aim for a strong investment presence in the Romanian economy.According to the Foreign Ministry, the efforts and support of the South Korean authorities to facilitate the acquisition of medical equipment Romania needed in various stages of the Covid pandemic, the relevance of the exchange of Covid best practices and sustainable economic and social recovery were another highlight of the talks.The two top officials exchanged views on regional issues, for a better mutual understanding of foreign policy decisions with an impact on developments in the vicinity of Romania and the Republic of Korea, respectively.Minister Aurescu thanked the South Korean side for its support in the start of negotiations for Romania's joining the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the adoption on June 10, 2022 of the Roadmap charting the necessary steps. AGERPRES
NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana said on Friday in Cluj-Napoca that the upcoming NATO Summit in Madrid (June 28-30) will be a historic one which will bring good news for Romania but also for Ukraine, the transatlantic relationship and the Alliance itself.

"It will be a historic summit with a profound transformative outreach. We will focus on strengthening NATO's eastern flank presence, the leaders will announce the size and the specific contributions by various allies. We expect good news for Romania too. The summit will adopt the Strategic Concept. I anticipate it to significantly reflect the Black Sea region because it is of vital strategic importance to NATO. Also, we are looking forward to President Zelensky's participation, as support for Ukraine's just war against the Russian aggressor must continue. We are pleased with yesterday's exceptional news from Brussels confirming the European perspective of the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine and their official EU candidate status; we welcome this achievement," Mircea Geoana said, answering questions by journalists.He added that he hopes that apart from the good news for the NATO countries, there will also be "very bad news for Russia"."In an extended geography approach, for the first time in the history of NATO summits we will have the leaders of Japan, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea also attending. So this is an extremely important summit, there is good news in store for Romania, good news for NATO, for the transatlantic relationship, there is good news for Ukraine and - hopefully - very bad news for the Russian Federation," Geoana said.The Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj Napoca and the Aspen Romania Institute organized on Friday the debate on "NATO and the European Union's role in Romania's modernization", with the participation of NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana and UBB Rector, Professor Daniel David. AGERPRES
Subscribed Gross Premiums (PBS) from Romanian insurance companies, have reached almost 4.66 billion RON during the first three months of 2022, the highest trimestrial value registered in the history of Romanian insurance market, going up by 46% from the similar period of last year, according to a press release sent by the Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF).

Subscribed Gross Premiums related to general insurance have gone up by 53.9%, while premiums for life insurance have gone up by 16.1%. The market's engine continues to remain in the Civil Auto Liability (RCA) segment, with an increase of 10.2% of subscribed gross premiums, to up to almost 2.4 billion RON. Important increases were also registered on the health insurance segment (+28%) and CASCO insurance (12.4%), as well as insurance against fire and natural calamities (+11%).A remarkable evolution was also registered in market competition. At the end of the first trimester of 2022, the first four insurance companies held comparable market shares of two- digit numbers. The difference between first place, which is occupied by Euroins Romania, and the fourth place, Omniasig VIG, was under 7.5 percentage points.Through comparison, at the end of the first trimester of 2021, between the first position and the fourth position was a difference of 9 percentage points. The diversifying process is even more strictly reported to RCA insurance. For this insurance line, three companies have market shares formed of 2-digit numbers, while other companies control notable percentages, of over 7%. The first two players controlled 55.6% of the market, at the end of March 2022, while during the similar period of 2021, the top two companies had over 77%, the other players having negligible market shares.The results for the first three months of 2022 show that the increase in subscribed premiums was based on a healthy foundation, given that the main indicators of solvency and liquidity improved. During the mentioned period, insurance companies have paid compensations of over 1.5 billion RON. The liquidity factor went up to 2.44, from 1.59 during the last trimester of 2021 and 2.35 at the end of last year. At the same time, SCR (Solvency Capital Requirement) and MCR (Minimum Capital Requirement) rates, which highlight companies' solvency in the context of the Solvency II norms, were above par to the level of the entire market, with an increase of 11% for SCR, the main solvency indicator.ASF contributes to consolidating the integrated framework of functionality of the three sectors, which sum up over 10 million participants.AGERPRES
President Klaus Iohannis attended, on Thursday and Friday, the meetings of the leaders of the European Union and the Western Balkans, the European Council and the Euro Summit in an extended format, the Presidential Administration informs.

During the meeting of the leaders of the European Union and the Western Balkans, the EU's support for the European perspective of the Western Balkans and for advancing and strengthening the enlargement process was reaffirmed on the basis of the established criteria. The meeting was also an opportunity to discuss with partners in the region concrete ways of strengthening cooperation in key areas of common interest, with the aim of strengthening resilience, the quoted source says.President Iohannis reaffirmed, in his speech, his conviction on the European future of the Western Balkans region, stressing our country's firm support for advancing the enlargement policy in accordance with its own merits.Klaus Iohannis also reiterated his support for the effective opening, as soon as possible, of negotiations with the Republic of North Macedonia and Albania, respectively, and the identification of solutions to boost the process of rapprochement with the EU for Bosnia and Herzegovina.The Romanian president has highlighted the importance of continuing reforms and, at the same time, openness to strengthen sectoral cooperation in key areas to strengthen resilience, such as energy, transport, the digital sector, combating disinformation, according to the Presidential Administration.Regarding the decision of the European Council to grant the status of candidate for Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova and, respectively, the recognition of the European perspective for Georgia, the President of Romania highlighted the geostrategic importance of supporting these countries in the process of rapprochement with the EU, based on the Opinions of the European Commission."Klaus Iohannis saluted the decision to grant the status of candidate for Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, together with the European perspective for Georgia, a decision that he described as a historical one and which meets the legitimate expectations of the citizens who have demonstrated their firm attachment to the European values and aspirations for a stable and secure future, in peace and prosperity," the Presidential Administration says.The President of Romania reaffirmed the constant and sustained support of our country for Ukraine, on multiple levels, and presented Romania's efforts to facilitate grain exports from Ukraine, showing that Romania's ports and transport corridors are being used at full capacity to increase the volume of exports to global markets, the cited source adds.During the debate on defining the relations of the European Union with the close partners in Europe, the Romanian President noted that "this difficult moment in the history of the continent requires first of all a united and strong European response, but at the same time flexible, avoiding the creation of alternatives or substitutes to the enlargement process", adding that "such an initiative must allow the discussion of topics that concern all Europeans, such as energy security or foreign policy".President Iohannis highlighted the importance of maintaining the unity and cohesion of member states throughout the entire process of monitoring the implementation of the outcomes of the conference and stressed "the need to use the full potential of the current institutional and legal framework before exploring other possible ways, especially since, for the vast majority of proposals, the current treaties provide for the legal implementation framework".AGERPRES
NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana said on Friday in Cluj that Romania's integration into NATO and the EU are as important historical moments as the Great Union and the Little Union.

"For Romania, NATO integration ends only in 2022. We joined in 2004, but from a military and security point of view, Romania will have, due to the fact that Russia is an unpredictable and aggressive actor, the same quality of national security as Germany or Belgium. We have no difference between what NATO has on the eastern flank and what NATO already has in Western Europe, which is a fundamental change. (...) Romania's natural family is in NATO and the EU (...), it is our home. (...) Our integration into NATO and the EU is - and will be in the history book - a moment as important as the Great Union or the Little Union, because it is in fact a change of paradigm, for the first time, Romania has the entire democratic West as its ally and partner," said Mircea Geona, at a debate organised by Babes-Bolyai University (UBB).At the same debate, he said that the world, humanity, is undergoing unprecedented transformations."We are witnessing one of the greatest transformations of human society in the history of our species. We have never had so many cumulative, structural factors. (...) We have a certain crisis of democracy and the capitalist model that Europe [has had], for five centuries, and even Romania, maybe not always as organically, but who has been a part of it in a kind of domination of Europe in terms of ideas and values; democracy was born here, the ideas of modern capitalism were born here and in the Western democratic world there is a great deal of conversation right now about the need to refresh our democracy, because it's a project that is not static, it's very dynamic, and like anything else where you don't invest energy, love and attention, it risks remaining behind the expectations of the public opinion. At the economic level, in addition to the great technological revolution, we have a strong conversation about the type of capitalism or the types of capitalism, because it is not a single one, because the economic model must also be rethought," argued Mircea Geoana.On Friday, UBB and the Aspen Romania Institute organised a debate on "The Role of NATO and the European Union in Romania's Modernisation," which was attended by NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana and UBB Rector, Professor Dr. Daniel David. AGERPRES
NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana declared on Friday, in western Cluj-Napoca, that a long-term war in Ukraine is anticipated, considering that there are not enough forces on either side to decisively win the fight on the battlefield.

"Unfortunately, we are anticipating a long-term conflict, an attrition war, in which losses on both sides continue being significant, a war dominated by artillery and small troop movements, advance-muster, but there are not enough forces on both sides in order for one side to decisively win on the battlefield," Mircea Geoana said, answering the journalists' questions.He added that the war in Ukraine is producing a lot of violence and that more casualties will follow."I suspect that this conflict will go on for a while. Unfortunately, it will last, causing human damage, a lot of violence, atrocious acts, sexual violence, forced deportations of Ukrainians to gulags, which we thought that the Soviet empire buried along with its demise. Unfortunately, old practices - ethnic cleansing, occupied territories, are very serious things that are happening and unfortunately, prolonging the war will emphasize these phenomena as well," Mircea Geoana mentioned.Babes-Bolyai University (UBB) and the Aspen Institute Romania organized a debate in Cluj-Napoca, on Friday, titled "NATO and EU's role in modernizing Romania", attended by the NATO Deputy Secretary General, Mircea Geoana, and the rector of UBB, Professor Dr. Daniel David.AGERPRES
CONSTANTA, Romania (AP)  With Ukraine's seaports blockaded or captured by Russian forces, neighboring Romania's Black Sea port of Constanta has emerged as a main conduit for the war-torn countrys grain exports amid a growing world food crisis.

It's Romania's biggest port, home to Europe's fastest-loading grain terminal, and has processed nearly a million tons of grain from Ukraine  one of the worlds biggest exporters of wheat and corn  since the Feb. 24 invasion.

But port operators say that maintaining, let alone increasing, the volume they handle could soon be impossible without concerted European Union support and investment.

If we want to keep helping Ukrainian farmers, we need help to increase our handling capacities, said Dan Dolghin, director of cereal operations at the Black Sea port's main Comvex operator.

No single operator can invest in infrastructure that will become redundant once the war ends, he added.

Comvex can process up to 72,000 tonnes of cereals per day. That and Constanta's proximity by land to Ukraine, and by sea to the Suez Canal, make it the best current route for Ukrainian agricultural exports. Other alternatives include road and rail shipments across Ukraines western border into Poland and its Baltic Sea ports.

Just days into the Russian invasion, Comvex invested in a new unloading facility, anticipating that the neighboring country would have to reroute its agricultural exports.

This enabled the port over the past four months to ship close to a million tons of Ukrainian grain, most of it arriving by barge down the Danube River. But with 20 times that amount still blocked in Ukraine and the summer harvest season fast approaching in Romania itself and other countries that use Constanta for their exports, Dolghin said it's likely the pace of Ukrainian grain shipping through his port will slow.

As the summer harvest in Romania gathers momentum, all port operators will turn to Romanian cereals, he warned.

Ukraines deputy agricultural minister, Markian Dmytrasevych, is also worried.

In an address to the European Parliament earlier this month, Dmytrasevych said that when Constanta operators turn to European grain suppliers in the summer it will further complicate the export of Ukrainian products.

Romanian and other EU officials have also voiced concern, lining up in recent weeks to pledge support.

On a recent visit to Kyiv with the leaders of France, Germany and Italy, Romanian president Klaus Iohannis said his country was seeking possible ways of overcoming the weaponization of grain exports by Russia.

As a relevant part of the solution to the food insecurity generated by Russia, Romania is actively involved in facilitating the transit of Ukraine exports and in serving as a hub for grain, to reach traditional markets in the Middle East, North Africa and parts of Asia, he said.

The solutions discussed in Kyiv, Iohannis said, included speeding up Danube barge shipments, increasing the speed of their unloading at Romanian ports, new border crossings for trucks with Ukrainian grain and reopening a decommissioned railway linking Romania with Ukraine and Moldova.

A Romanian analyst said finding alternative routes for Ukraines grain exports goes beyond private logistics companies or any single country, echoing Iohanniss call in Kyiv for an international coalition of the willing to tackle the problem.

The situation in Ukraine will not be solved soon; the conflict may end tomorrow but tensions will last.  That is why new transport routes must be considered and consolidated, said George Vulcanescu.

He said that in that sense there are just three financially viable routes for Ukrainian exports  via Romania, Poland or the Baltic states.

However, he added, port operators need financial support from Romanian authorities, but the funding should come from the European Union.

Vulcanescu said a combination of fast and minimal, not maximal investment is needed.

Big investment cannot be done quickly  we need to look for fast solutions for expanding the (existing) storage and handling capacities of Romanian ports, he added. If we want to help Ukraine now, we need to look for smaller investment to improve the infrastructure we already have.

Comvex's Dolghin said the operator wants to help as much as possible, but added: We hope to see concrete action, not only statements in support of the port operators.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
The COVID pandemic prompted people to give more of themselves to their work in the spring of 2020, but over time, especially in the last year, workers have decided to focus more on what they want or need.

Thats evident in employee surveys analywzed by Energage, which gathers feedback from workers nationwide, year-round.

Its been a year of reflection, starting in mid-2021. People were asking, Is this really what I want to be doing with my life? said Lisa Black, director of data science at Energage.

Data collected from more than 2 million workers show people are less engaged in their work compared with a year ago. Engagement looks at a combination of factors: motivation, loyalty to the workplace and how likely people are to recommend their workplace to others. Some examples:

 Employee engagement in Q1 2022 (measured January through March of this year) was 61.6%, continuing a downslide seen in the last half of 2021.

 Employee engagement dropped to 62.9% for all of 2021 compared with 65.3% in 2020.

 Employee engagement bottomed out at 60.3% in September/October 2021 before rising to 62.8% in December, then falling again in Q1 2022. But that end-of-year rate was still far lower than when the pandemic began; engagement peaked at 70.6% in April 2020.

 Employees showed a steady decline in loyalty  that is, employees who say they were not looking for work elsewhere  throughout 2021. By years end, it picked up slightly, ending at 66.8%. One year earlier, it was at 71.7%. Loyalty peaked at 74.4% in April 2020. It hovered around 65% throughout Q1 2022.

 For the second half of 2021 vs. the second half of 2020, employee loyalty dropped the most of all factors surveyed. And that trend continued into 2022. Of all factors Energage measures, loyalty dropped the most Q1 2022 vs. Q1 2021, down 4.1 percentage points.

 In addition to loyalty, employee sentiment was down for benefits, direction and execution in Q1 2022 vs. a year earlier.

 Referral  employees who say they would recommend their workplace to others  peaked at 88.6% in April 2020 and bottomed out at 81.8% in September 2021. Like loyalty, it showed a steady decline throughout 2021 but picked up at the end of the year.

 Employee motivation dropped, too, in 2021. Measuring 86.5% in December 2020, it went on a steady slide through September 2021, falling to 83.3%, before rising in Q4 2021.

The data show how the last two years have been a roller-coaster ride for peoples relationship with work.

The first half of 2020 reflected uncertainty in the job market, when the pandemic hit and some companies started layoffs. It was risky to look elsewhere, and people wanted psychological safety. People were happy to have a job, Black said. The workplace is something predictable.

In 2021, many employees decided that if their employers were calling them back to the office, they didnt want to commute anymore, or they didnt want to give up the flexibility of working from home, Black said. Those who enjoyed flexibility became used to it.

But this doesnt mean people gave up on their jobs in 2021. It just means they were less positive about their employment situation when compared to the first wave of the pandemic. Employee engagement in 2021 was greater than in 2015 to 2019.

One area that employees were more positive about in 2021 was inclusiveness. Employees felt more included in what was going on (even if they werent necessarily happy about it).

People are more mindful, empathetic, and trying harder to make sure voices are heard, Black said. Theres also a greater focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. Weve figured out how to work better together, she said.

Still, although inclusiveness was up, employees said they felt slightly less clued-in than before. Blacks takeaway: Two-way communication still needs some work. Just because you are included doesnt mean youre informed, she said.

Bob Helbig is media partnerships director at Energage, a Philadelphia-based employee survey firm. Energage is the survey partner for Top Workplaces.
FRIDAY, June 24, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- An expert panel from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted unanimously on Thursday to recommend that the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine be approved for kids between the ages of 6 and 17.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) endorsed the shots after hearing the latest evidence on the vaccine's effectiveness, along with safety data on a rare heart condition known as myocarditis that is sometimes seen after vaccination with the mRNA vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer.

"There is a risk of myocarditis/pericarditis after both messenger RNA COVID-19 vaccines, [but] most cases have prompt improvement in symptoms. A follow-up survey suggests most fully recovered from myocarditis," Dr. Helen Keipp Talbot, an associate professor of medicine from Vanderbilt University, said during the panel's discussion of the vaccine. She added that myocarditis after vaccination has been generally mild compared to those who developed the condition after getting sick with COVID-19, CNN reported.

Overall, company data showed that most children got the vaccine without incident.

"In general, most adverse events reported after COVID vaccines are mild and transient events like injection site and systemic reactions," said Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, deputy director of the H1N1 Vaccine Task Force at the CDC, CNN reported. "We will continue to monitor the safety of these vaccines and we will continue to work with partners, both within the federal government and with health care providers and provider organizations to better understand these types of adverse events."

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky will now need to sign off on the recommendation before it can be administered to this age group.

This latest vote follows the CDC's approval last Saturday of both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines for children younger than 5.

"This expands eligibility for vaccination to nearly 20 million additional children and means that all Americans ages 6 months and older are now eligible for vaccination," the agency said in a news release after the Saturday approval.

"Distribution of pediatric vaccinations for these younger children has started across the country, and will be available at thousands of pediatric practices, pharmacies, Federally Qualified Health Centers, local health departments, clinics, and other locations this week," the CDC continued. "Children in this younger age group can be vaccinated with whichever vaccine is available (either Moderna or Pfizer). Parents can reach out to their doctor, nurse, local pharmacy or health department, or visit vaccines.gov to see where vaccines for children are available."

The CDC's move on the country's youngest children followed similar action by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last Friday.

The approvals come not a moment too soon: More than two years into the pandemic, children younger than 5 still had no vaccine available to them.

"Many parents, caregivers and clinicians have been waiting for a vaccine for younger children and this action will help protect those down to 6 months of age. As we have seen with older age groups, we expect that the vaccines for younger children will provide protection from the most severe outcomes of COVID-19, such as hospitalization and death," FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said in an agency news release. "Those trusted with the care of children can have confidence in the safety and effectiveness of these COVID-19 vaccines and can be assured that the agency was thorough in its evaluation of the data."

More information

Visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for more on COVID vaccines for kids.

SOURCES: CNN; U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, news release, June 18, 2022; The New York Times; Associated Press; U.S. Food and Drug Administration, news release, June 17, 2022

Originally published on consumer.healthday.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange.
ST. LOUIS  Ever since the Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973, Missouri lawmakers have sought to restrict abortion rights in the state with increasing success, with the result that all but one of two dozen clinics that offered the procedure have closed.

In 1984, the state recorded more than 20,000 abortions at 26 clinics. In 2020, 167 were performed at the states remaining clinic, Planned Parenthoods Reproductive Health Service in St. Louis.

Missouri in 1825 became the second state to outlaw ending a pregnancy by banning the administration of any type of poison to cause a miscarriage. A decade later, abortion was made illegal no matter the method except to save the life of a mother.

In 1907, abortion at any point during gestation was made a felony, enforced typically on those performing an abortion where the woman died or needed medical care. That was the basic law until 1973, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade that a womens right to privacy under the Constitution includes abortion.

Even when the procedure was illegal, Missouri women could still obtain an abortion. For example, midwives, often working in concert with doctors, offered the procedure in the late 19th century, according to news stories. They even advertised their services to ladies in trouble in the Post-Dispatch.

The attacks on abortion access from the Missouri General Assembly started really as soon as the Roe v. Wade decision came down, said Mallory Schwarz, director of Pro-Choice Missouri, an organization that has fought for abortion access since 1969 and at one time was affiliated with NARAL Pro-Choice America.

The laws, which became known as TRAP laws, targeted regulation of abortion providers. Missouri has basically every TRAP law possible on the books, Schwarz said.

Providers in Missouri fought back with a dizzying history of court challenges, some that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and impacted access across the country.

Clinics across the country also saw increasing violence among protesters and attacks on providers. In 1989, police arrested 44 anti-abortion demonstrators after they blocked the doors to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Columbia for nearly four hours.

Over the decades, we have pushed out providers who may not want to risk their livelihoods or their careers, Schwarz said.

Missouri has also led the way in taxpayer funding for religiously affiliated crisis pregnancy centers like Thrive and Birthright, which counsel clients against having an abortion while often appearing as unbiased medical providers. A recent Associated Press analysis found, since 2010, Missouri has funneled nearly $45 million to such centers.

Even with the ruling on Friday that triggered a statewide ban, Schwarz said she expects the Legislature to create laws that make it harder for Missouri residents to seek abortions in other states.

We know this fight is not over, she said.

Here is a timeline of major impacts on abortion access in Missouri since the landmark case:

1973  Reproductive Health Services, located at 100 North Euclid in St. Louis, becomes Missouris first abortion clinic. More clinics quickly follow.

1974  A long list of restrictions are enacted, including abortion providers must be located within 30 miles of a hospital.

1975  A total of 10,245 abortions are performed in Missouri by 16 providers, including hospitals, clinics or doctors offices.

1976  The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down Missouri regulations that required written consent from womens husband if she was married and parental consent for minors, but upholds requirements for record-keeping and tests of fetal remains.

1979  Minors are required to obtain parental consent or judicial review to get an abortion. Patients must be given materials that state Abortion will terminate the life of a separate, unique, living human being.

1980  Medicaid is prohibited from covering abortion unless a physician certifies that pregnancy endangers the womans life or is the result of rape or incest.

1983  The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down Missouris requirement that abortions after 12 weeks be performed in hospitals, but upholds the parental notice regulations and two-doctor requirement for emergency late-term abortions.

1984  A total of 20,204 abortions are performed in Missouri, the most in one year, by 26 providers. Also that year, private insurance coverage of abortion is prohibited. Coverage can only be obtained through a rider at extra cost, which insurers are not required to offer.

1986  Regulations declare life begins at conception. Tests are required after 20 weeks for fetal viability outside the womb. Abortions are banned in public facilities or by public employees. Abortion providers are required to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.

1989  Considered the first major blow to Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court upholds Missouris law declaring life begins at conception, public facility and employee prohibitions, and viability test requirements.

1995  A total of 11,203 abortions are performed by 10 providers.

2003  Missouri women are required to have two appointments at least 24 hours apart before having an abortion.

2005  A clinic in Springfield stops offering abortions.

2006  A total of 7,556 abortions are performed by seven providers.

2007  Abortion clinics are now regulated as ambulatory surgery centers with onerous administrative and building requirements.

2010  An abortion clinic in Bridgeton closes.

2013  A Kansas City clinic stops offering abortions.

2014  Waiting time for an abortion increases to 72 hours between appointments.

2015  A total of 4,765 abortions are performed by two providers.

2018  Missouri begins to enforce pelvic exam requirement for not just procedural abortions, but also medication abortions. The closing of a Columbia clinic, after it lost a court challenge over hospital admitting privileges requirement and ambulatory surgery center requirements, leaves the state with just one abortion clinic in St. Louis and ends Planned Parenthoods plans to open clinics in four cities.

2019  The Legislature passes a ban on abortions after 8 weeks of pregnancy, but its blocked by a court challenge. A trigger ban  effective if Roe is overturned  would make abortion illegal to perform except in the case of a medical emergency.

2020  Missouri records a total of 167 abortions performed by just one provider.

June 24, 2022  Shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court issues a landmark ruling that overturns Roe v. Wade, Gov. Mike Parson and Attorney General Eric Schmitt, in parallel actions, trigger a state law that effectively ends abortion in Missouri.

Sources: Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, Guttmacher Institute and news archives.

Updated at 1:52 p.m. Friday, June 24.

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The Supreme Courts decision Friday to overturn the constitutional right to abortion has only further fractured an already deep division between the states, where contentious legal battles are almost certain to erupt as legislatures and attorneys general grapple with the new landscape of abortion access.

Even before the opinion, lawmakers, activists and legal scholars were arguing over whether Republican-led states can enforce abortion bans beyond their borders and target providers, people who provide assistance and the women seeking abortions. That speculation could soon become reality as abortion opponents become more emboldened to try novel approaches to prevent women terminating a pregnancy.

In their dissent, the court's liberal justices referenced the potential for the ruling to set off an era of legal chaos and peril for individuals.

They said the court's majority was trying to hide the geographically expansive effects of a ruling that invites a host of questions about interstate conflicts. Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan said the decision will put the court at the center of what some scholars have called the coming interjurisdictional abortion wars.

Can a State bar women from traveling to another State to obtain an abortion?" they wrote. "Can a State prohibit advertising out-of-state abortions or helping women get to out-of-state providers? Can a State interfere with the mailing of drugs used for medication abortions?

Professor Michael Steenson of the Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, predicted the legal landscape after the Supreme Court decision will be in absolute chaos and it will take years to sort out. But some Democratic states aren't waiting to shield women who travel to get an abortion and ensure patients do not face penalties back home.

Washington is barring the state from acting against doctors who perform such abortions, while California and Illinois are considering similar measures. On Friday, the Democratic governors of California, Oregon and Washington announced a joint commitment to defend abortion access.

We will continue to protect patients from any state who comes to our state for abortion care, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said. We will resist intrusions by out of state prosecutors, law enforcement or vigilantes trying to investigate patients receiving services in our states.

In Massachusetts, Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican who has said he supports a woman's right to choose, signed an executive order prohibiting state agencies from assisting another states investigation into people or businesses that receive or deliver reproductive health services that are legal in Massachusetts. The order also protects Massachusetts providers who deliver reproductive health care services from being disciplined based on potential out-of-state charges.

Connecticut enacted a law earlier this year to stymie lawsuits or criminal cases from other states over legal abortions for out-of-state residents.

"This decision carves our nation in two  states that trust the personal and professional decisions of women and doctors, and states where craven politicians control and criminalize those choices," said state Attorney General William Tong, a Democrat. "Connecticut is a safe state, but we will need to be vigilant, aggressive and proactive to defend our rights.

In Minnesota, Attorney General Keith Ellison has already vowed to protect abortion rights as outlined in the state constitution. But he said things will be much tougher in states bordering Minnesota, some of which will have total bans on abortion. Some states such as Texas allow private citizens to sue people who assist in abortions. Ellison said he fears it might lead to lawsuits against those who help women traveling to the state for abortions, but he promised he would fight any possible extraditions.

Half the states are expected to outlaw most abortions with Roe falling, according to the abortion-rights think tank Guttmacher Institute. Twenty-two states, largely in the South and Midwest, already had total or near-total bans on the books. Aside from Texas, all those had been blocked in the courts before Friday's decision.

Once that was issued, several Republican state attorneys general, including those in Ohio and Tennessee, asked the courts to lift stays that has blocked previously passed abortion restrictions in their states.

Separately, 13 other states had enacted so-called trigger laws that immediately ban abortion with Roe overturned. Oklahoma began the process of invoking its trigger law Friday, and other states, including Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia, said they were beginning work on trigger bans. Just moments after the courts decision was announced, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republcan, said he will seek legislation to ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, but its unclear how such a bill would fare in a very closely divided legislature.

Some legal experts  and even some anti-abortion lawmakers  argue that states simply cant control what goes on beyond their borders. Buying and smoking marijuana is one example: Kansas waits until residents return from pot vacations in Colorado to pull them over.

Some abortion opponents argue that its better to focus on providing help to pregnant women and make adoption less expensive so they dont choose abortion. Texas recently allocated $100 million for such services.

I want the Legislature to continue to focus on providing and promoting these alternatives to abortion, said Joe Pojman, executive director of the Texas Alliance for Life.

The Family Council, a conservative group in Arkansas that has advocated for numerous abortion bans, hailed the court's decision but said lawmakers still have work to do. The group is not pushing to prevent women from getting abortions in other states, said Jerry Cox, the groups president. Instead, he said Friday they will focus on helping women with unplanned pregnancies.

We need to create a culture of life that spreads all across the state of Arkansas so that those women never feel that abortion is their only choice, Cox said.

Others warn that the Supreme Courts decision will encourage states to push extreme policies in their attempt to criminalize abortion. Louisiana lawmakers already have floated a proposal calling abortion homicide, which would have opened up women to murder charges if they got an abortion. The proposal was eventually spiked, and there is no immediate indication that Republicans in other states are interested in taking up similar legislation.

In New Hampshire, the Republican-controlled Legislature rejected a bill this year that would have given potential fathers the right to veto a womans abortion. Though legislative leaders there say they don't expect the state to further restrict abortion, lawmakers who have filed bills in the past are expected to try again.

They push the envelope, said Jessica Arons, the American Civil Liberties Unions senior lawyer for reproductive freedom. Theyre always trying to propose things that in the moment seem outrageous or fringe, but the more they push it over time, it becomes normalized.

Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas; Kruesi from Nashville, Tennessee; and Ramer from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press writers Adam Beam in Sacramento, California; Andrew DeMilo in Little Rock, Arkansas; Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut; Samantha Hendrickson and Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio; Steve Karnowski in St. Paul, Minnesota; Steve LeBlanc in Boston; and Rebecca Santana in New Orleans contributed to this report.

For APs full coverage of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, go to https://apnews.com/hub/abortion

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
FRIDAY, June 24, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- On Thursday, New York City became the first U.S. city to start offering the monkeypox vaccine to those at high risk for the disease.

The announcement follows similar ones issued from the United Kingdom and Canada. Although most cases of the disease have been reported among gay and bisexual men, anyone can get it from close physical contact with an infected person. At least five U.S. women have gotten the infection thus far, CBS News reported.

Demand for the vaccine was so high that the city had to restrict vaccinations to those with appointments. The city had 1,000 doses of the Jynneos vaccine, but is working with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to get more doses, CBS News said.

"The demand we're seeing today is further proof of how proactive the LGBTQ+ community -- and all New Yorkers -- are when it comes to their health and seeking health care," New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan said in a statement Thursday.

"New York City is among the first in the nation to offer monkeypox vaccinations and, as of this afternoon, all available appointments are booked through Monday," Vasan said. "We hope to make more appointments available soon. We are in talks with the CDC to obtain more doses and are looking into how we can boost our capacity citywide."

Worldwide, the monkeypox outbreak has infected more than 3,000 people, including 173 Americans in 24 states and the District of Columbia, as of June 23.

"We are aware that there are jurisdictions with a larger number of cases that are reporting high percentages of contacts that cannot be identified. And there are several considering, planning, and even implementing, expanded vaccination programs at this time," the CDC's Brett Petersen said during an Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meeting on Thursday, CBS News reported.

The CDC has been working to develop a new strategy for the monkeypox vaccine doses that are now in the U.S. stockpile.

"There are some supply limitations that we're working to address and make sure that this medical countermeasure, in particular, is being provided and used in an optimal fashion, but also in an equitable fashion," Petersen said.

There are 36,000 courses of the Jynneos vaccine in the government's warehouses, which are "available for immediate release," and can be shipped in less than two days. More than 4,000 courses of the two-dose vaccine have been distributed to 28 states and territories, according to CBS News.

Another 150,000 doses of Jynneos are expected from its manufacturer, Bavarian Nordic, in the next few weeks, in addition to the 500,000 more doses the Biden administration has asked the company to provide from its reserves.

No deaths have been reported in the United States so far from monkeypox, which causes a painful and itchy rash and sores that may last for weeks. Most cases are believed to be transmitted through intimate skin-to-skin contact or shared fabrics, such as towels and bedding.

More information

Visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for more on monkeypox.

SOURCES: New York City Health Department, news release, June 23, 2022; CBS News

Originally published on consumer.healthday.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange.
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

(THE CONVERSATION) This article was published on May 5, 2022, before the Supreme Court decision overturning the Roe and Casey precedents on abortion.

Abortion rights advocates are looking for alternative ways to protect a womans right to the procedure following the publication of a leaked draft opinion from Justice Samuel Alito indicating that the Supreme Court intends to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Congress must pass legislation that codifies Roe v. Wade as the law of the land in this country NOW, tweeted Sen. Bernie Sanders as news broke on May 2, 2022. His plea was echoed a day later by Democrats, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren and President Joe Biden.

But is enshrining abortion rights in legislation feasible? And why has it not been done before? The Conversation put these questions and others to Linda C. McClain, an expert on civil rights law and feminist legal theory at Boston University School of Law.

What does it mean to codify Roe v. Wade?

In simple terms, to codify something means to enshrine a right or a rule into a formal systematic code. It could be done through an act of Congress in the form of a federal law. Similarly, state legislatures can codify rights by enacting laws. To codify Roe for all Americans, Congress would need to pass a law that would provide the same protections that Roe did  so a law that states that women have a right to abortion without excessive government restrictions. It would be binding for all states.

But heres the twist: Despite some politicians saying that they want to codify Roe, Congress isnt looking to enshrine Roe in law. Thats because Roe v. Wade hasnt been in place since 1992. The Supreme Courts Planned Parenthood. v. Casey ruling affirmed it, but also modified it in significant ways.

In Casey, the court upheld Roes holding that a woman has the right to choose to terminate a pregnancy up to the point of fetal viability and that states could restrict abortion after that point, subject to exceptions to protect the life or health of the pregnant woman. But the Casey court concluded that Roe too severely limited state regulation prior to fetal viability and held that states could impose restrictions on abortion throughout pregnancy to protect potential life as well as to protect maternal health  including during the first trimester.

Casey also introduced the undue burden test, which prevented states from imposing restrictions that had the purpose or effect of placing unnecessary barriers on women seeking to end a pregnancy prior to viability of the fetus.

What is the Womens Health Protection Act?

Current efforts to pass federal legislation protecting the right to abortion center on the proposed Womens Health Protection Act, introduced in Congress by Congresswoman Judy Chu and sponsored by Senator Richard Blumenthal in 2021. It was passed in the House, but is blocked in the Senate.

The legislation would build on the undue burden principle in Casey by seeking to prevent states from imposing unfair restrictions on abortion providers, such as insisting a clinics doorway is wide enough for surgical gurneys to pass through, or that abortion practitioners need to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals.

The Womens Health Protection Act uses the language of the Casey ruling in saying that these so-called TRAP (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers) laws place an undue burden on people seeking an abortion. It also appeals to Caseys recognition that the ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the Nation has been facilitated by their ability to control their reproductive lives.

Has the right to abortion ever been guaranteed by federal legislation?

You have to remember that Roe was very controversial from the outset. At the time of the ruling in 1973, most states had restrictive abortion laws. Up to the late 1960s, a majority of Americans opposed abortion. A poll at the time of Roe found the public evenly split over legalization.

To pass legislation you have to go through the democratic process. But if the democratic process is hostile to what you are hoping to push through, you are going to run into difficulties.

Under the U.S. system, certain liberties are seen as so fundamental that protecting them should not be left to the whims of changing democratic majorities. Consider something like interracial marriage. Before the Supreme Court ruled in Loving v. Virginia State that banning interracial marriages was unconstitutional, a number of states still banned such unions.

Why couldnt they pass a law in Congress protecting the right to marry? It would have been difficult because at the time, the majority of people were against the idea of interracial marriage.

When you dont have sufficient public support for something  particularly if it is unpopular or affects a non-majority group  appealing to the Constitution seems to be the better way to protect a right.

That doesnt mean you cant also protect that right through a statute, just that it is harder. Also, there is no guarantee that legislation passed by any one Congress isnt then repealed by lawmakers later on.

So generally, rights have more enduring protection if the Supreme Court rules on them?

The Supreme Court has the final word on what is and isnt protected by the Constitution. In the past, it has been seen as sufficient to protect a constitutional right to get a ruling from the justices recognizing that right.

But this leaked opinion also points out that one limit of that protection is that the Supreme Court may overrule its own precedents.

Historically, it is unusual for the Supreme Court to take a right away. Yes, they said the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling  which set up the legal basis for separate-but-equal  was wrong, and overruled it in Brown v. Board of Education. But Brown recognized rights; it didnt take rights away.

If Alitos draft ruling is to be the final word, the Supreme Court will be taking away a right that has been in place since 1973. For what I believe is the first time, the Supreme Court would be overriding precedent to take away a constitutional right from Americans.

Moreover, the leaked opinion is dismissive of the idea that women have to rely on constitutional protection. Women are not without electoral or political power, Alito writes, adding: The percentage of women who register to vote and cast ballots is consistently higher than the percentage of men who do so.

But this ignores the fact that women rarely make up close to half of the members of most state legislative bodies.

So are the promises to get Congress to protect abortion rights realistic?

Republicans in the Senate successfully blocked the proposed Womens Health Protection Act. And unless things change dramatically in Congress, there isnt much chance of the bill becoming law.

There has been talk of trying to end the filibuster rule, which requires 60 votes in the Senate to pass legislation. But even then, the 50 votes that would be needed might not be there.

What we dont know is how this Supreme Court leak will affect the calculus. Maybe some Republican senators will see that the writing is on the wall and vote with Democrats. Republican senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski introduced legislation earlier this year that would codify Roe in law, but isnt as expansive as the Womens Health Protection Act.

And then we have the midterm elections in November, which might shake up whos in Congress. If the Democrats lose the House or fail to pick up seats in the Senate, the chances of pushing through any legislation protecting abortion rights would appear very slim. Democrats will be hoping that the Supreme Court ruling will mobilize pro-abortion rights voters.

What is going on at a state level?

Liberal states like Massachusetts have passed laws that codify Roe v. Wade. Now that the Supreme Courts apparent intentions are known, expect similar moves elsewhere. Other states are looking to go a step further by protecting residents who help out-of-state women seeking abortion. Such laws would seemingly counter moves by states like Missouri, which is seeking to push through legislation that would criminalize helping women who go out of state for abortions.

Wouldnt any federal law just be challenged at the Supreme Court?

Should Congress be able to pass a law enshrining the right to abortion for all Americans, then surely some conservative states will seek to overturn the law, saying that the federal government is exceeding its authority.

If it were to go up to the Supreme Court, then conservative justices would presumably look unfavorably on any attempt to limit individual states rights when it comes to abortion. Similarly, any attempt to put in place a federal law that would restrict abortion for all would seemingly conflict with the Supreme Courts position that it should be left to the states to decide.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/what-would-it-mean-to-codify-roe-into-law-and-is-there-any-chance-of-that-happening-182406.

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Aisha Sultan Aisha Sultan is home and family editor for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow Aisha Sultan 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

A well-respected, pro-democracy leadership camp for teenagers gave Republicans a platform to spread election lies to 800 boys in Missouri.

This country is in the middle of a civil war right now, St. Louis attorney Mark McCloskey declared from the stage during a GOP candidates forum at Missouri Boys State.

In fairness to the Missouri Boys State organization, they invited all the candidates seeking the states next senate seat to speak to students selected from around the state. They asked a respected local journalist to moderate the forum with the four Republican candidates who chose to attend.

We take pride in being a nonpartisan, pro-democracy organization, said director Brad Lear.

Because my son was attending this weeklong camp designed to teach students how the government functions, I checked out the live stream for the event.

I was surprised to hear speakers undermining the institutions and values Boys State was created to uphold.

When they were asked who won the last election, McCloskey said, I dont know who won the last election, but I know who didnt  thats Joe Biden.

U.S Rep. Vicky Hartzler, who was among the 147 Republicans who voted to overturn the election results, said we will never know who won the election because of irregularities. She referenced a debunked and discredited film, claiming people improperly stuffed ballot boxes. U.S. Rep. Billy Long rambled about how changes in state laws meant the election was wrong.

Even Senate President Pro Tem Dave Schatz, who focused most of his response on election integrity also cast doubt on the election by saying there were irregularities that need to be addressed.

The truth is there was no evidence of systemic voter fraud in any U.S. state during the 2020 presidential election, according to dozens of judicial rulings, cybersecurity officials and election officials.

The election was valid, and Joe Biden won. That is not a partisan statement. Its a fact  even if you dont like it.

During that forum, I listened to plenty of hyperpartisan rhetoric on policy debates, like gun safety and abortion, that I didnt like. While I may disagree with those beliefs, I see the value in future voters hearing candidates state their positions when both sides are invited to share their views.

But Boys State missed a critical opportunity to stand up for the democratic ideals it seeks to promote by letting the Big Lie go unchallenged that day.

Lear said the educational programming the rest of the week focused on protecting and preserving democracy and provided a context for students to evaluate the statements made during the forum. They enlisted Jason Rosenbaum, political correspondent with St. Louis Public Radio, to moderate the forum. Lear said they deferred management of the event to him.

I think these are hard judgment calls to make, Lear said. Rosenbaum said his duties as moderator of the forum were to come up with questions, make sure the participants stuck to their allotted time and didnt interrupt or attack one another. There werent clear guidelines on how follow-up questions, which may have challenged some of the false claims, would impact the other candidates allotted time to speak, he said.

Given that violent political rhetoric and disinformation have become part of the public discourse, this is a situation that ought to have been well discussed in advance.

Allowing these lies to spread unchecked has had real-life consequences. Consider the heartbreaking testimony from former Fulton County election worker Shaye Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, during the Jan. 6 commission hearings this week. They were falsely accused and smeared with lies of election fraud in Atlanta by Trump officials. They faced an onslaught of threats and hateful messages. The FBI advised Freeman to leave her home for two months.

Innocent people, participating in the very democratic process Boys State is trying to promote, were threatened and run out of their homes because of the same election lies shared at the forum.

Those of us who have listened to the chilling sworn testimony given before the House Jan. 6 committee hearing saw elected Republicans and members of Trumps own administration and family debunk the Big Lie. Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, a lifelong Republican, choked up describing the pressure Trump officials put on him to overturn the results and betray his oath to uphold the Constitution.

Not a single Republican Senate candidate from Missouri has indicated that they would have that kind of integrity  to resist political pressure to overthrow an election  the backbone of our democracy.

Unlike McCloskeys claim that there is a civil war in this country, there is a calculated war on truth. Some of the boys in that audience live in parts of the state where the vast majority of residents believe the Big Lie.

Our young people deserve better than lies and cynicism designed to undermine our countrys entire foundation.

There could have been an opportunity to speak truth to power at that forum.

But no one was there to say it.

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Steve Hamblin cant remember what set him off the moment he realized something was wrong with him. He lost his temper with his daughter so badly that he apologized soon after.

It wasnt his first outburst.

Hamblin, now 54, walked into an emergency room in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, where he lives, shortly before the pandemic shutdown the country in 2020.

I think you need to find me a bed some place and give me a few days with a therapist, he told the hospital staff.

He couldnt concentrate at work as a carpenter. He felt angry for no reason. He knew something was wrong, but he didnt know what it was or how to fix it.

He had retired from the military in 2016, where he had served as a military medic. He deployed twice as a Marine  once in 1988 and again in 1989. In 2003, he rejoined the military and served in Iraq from 2006-07.

I dont know what to do next, and everything is falling apart, he said to his girlfriend, who suggested going to the hospital. Hamblins willingness to seek help challenges the mistaken notion that veterans must suffer in silence.

Missouri has one of the highest veteran suicide rates in the country, at 43.4 per 100,000 or 188 suicide deaths during 2019, according to data from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Nationally, the rate is 31.6 per 100,000. Only seven states had a higher rate of veteran suicide than Missouri in 2019. Illinois fares much better, with a rate of 26.8.

Hamblin started a Facebook Veterans Recovery Group after losing two friends from his unit to suicide in 2014. He had spent years talking to other veterans in crisis before reaching out for help himself.

The hospital intake staff asked him if he was planning to kill himself. He did not have a plan to hurt himself. Because he wasnt an imminent threat to himself or others, Hamblin was sent home.

Psychiatric beds are in short supply and reserved for those in immediate crisis. This was the second time in two years Hamblin had tried to get mental health treatment by walking into an ER. Both times, he was given a list of resources and told to make an appointment to talk to a counselor through the Veterans Administration.

Meanwhile, more than 3,800 people see his informal Facebook group as a lifeline. Its a responsibility that weighs heavily on him.

What if its 3 a.m., someone posts they need help, and no one is there, he said. It honestly scares the shit out of me.

He had heard a horror story from the mother of a veteran being put on hold after he called a crisis hotline. He died of suicide right after.

Sharon Belt, also a retired veteran who served through multiple deployments, is an active member of the group who frequently responds to those who post that they are struggling. She lives in Henley, Mo., a town of less than 1,500 in Cole County. She has talked to many veterans who live in rural parts of the state, like she does, where they dont have access to mental health services.

They do, however, often have access to firearms, the most lethal form of suicide attempts.

Research from Rajeev Ramchand, with the Rand Corp., highlights the disparities: The suicide rate is 1.5 times higher among veterans compared to nonveterans. Veterans who die by suicide are more likely to use a firearm than civilians who die by suicide. In 2018, 68.2 percent of veterans who died by suicide used a firearm, compared with 48.2 percent of nonveterans.

Hamblin says the fear of losing access to firearms  possibly derailing ones military career  is a major obstacle preventing veterans from seeking help.

The stigma isnt about pride or embarrassment, he said. The fear is that if this happens, my career is over.

Several other states have created programs for voluntary reduction of access to highly lethal means of suicide for individuals considering suicide, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The organization highlights Colorados program, in which designated firearm advocates visit members of the firearm community to promote temporary safe storage as a proven suicide prevention tool.

Debra Walker, a spokeswoman with the Department of Mental Health, sent an email citing the departments priority areas for veteran suicide prevention strategies: identifying and screening those at risk; promoting connectedness; and improving care transition and increasing safety around lethal means. Federal, state and community partners have been working on these priorities since 2020, she wrote.

Truthfully, I dont know what the state is doing, Belt said, about Missouris efforts. In her experience, the obstacles to mental health care begin almost immediately. When military personnel return from a combat zone, their top priority is getting back home to their loved ones, she said. When asked during the post-deployment workup if they are having any issues, many are reluctant to share concerns that might delay their ability to get back home, she said.

Theres a certain disincentive to identify issues at that point because thats the hurdle between you and home, she said. Oftentimes, families arent prepared to recognize how mental health problems might manifest in returning service members.

She suggests sharing information with families about where they can call for help and how to recognize the signs that intervention is needed. For younger veterans and those in rural communities, taking time off of work to travel to the nearest VA health center is an additional barrier.

Hamblin did eventually connect with a doctor through the VA who prescribed him medication, which has helped tremendously.

He is part of a task force in the state working on prevention strategies. He has gotten training to become certified in suicide intervention and is able to teach workshops to groups across the state, free of charge.

But its still a challenge to maintain his own mental health. His past three appointments with the VA counselor were canceled on short notice. A single provider serves a large swath of rural areas. Hes worried that if he isnt able to see someone within the next month, he will run out of medication and wont be able to get a refill.

Im finally in a good place  taking the right medication, the right dose, he said. I dont want to take a break from it because they cant get me scheduled.

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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

When Kyierah Jeffries died, I was reminded of Lawrence Strawbridge.

I used to think of Strawbridge every day. I wore a purple bracelet around my wrist with his name on it. Then it broke. I think its time to get a new one.

Jeffries was 16. She was a sophomore at Eureka High School, in west St. Louis County, just south of where I live. Jeffries lived in the Carondelet neighborhood in south St. Louis. Like many other students in the city, she got on a bus or cab early in the morning to travel west to attend the school of her choice as part of the citys voluntary transfer program, which since 1981 has allowed about 70,000 Black students from the city to be educated in county school districts.

On May 14, Jeffries was shot and killed in the neighborhood where she lived. Something similar happened to Strawbridge six years ago. He was also 16 and a sophomore, at Lafayette High School. Strawbridge and his mother, Tyra Shannon, were stabbed to death. They lived in the Greater Ville neighborhood, on the citys north side.

When Strawbridge died, a good friend of his mothers, Patricia Dees, and the mother of one of his friends, Melissa Golder, formed a nonprofit foundation in his memory, to help other transfer students get through their high school years as they traverse two communities.

They filled backpacks and bought meals, and now they fill trunks and provide aid to help students attend college.

She would always say, Hey, if youve got beans, Ive got cornbread, Dees said of her friend Tyra, as they helped each other as single moms raise their kids.

That was the spirit that drove the foundation named in Strawbridges honor.

In its own small way, in one little corner of St. Louis, the Lawrence Strawbridge Foundation has helped bridge the divide that often exists in this region, between Black and white, between city and suburb. Too often, we live in our different worlds, separated by gates and walls, and distance and race. Thats why I wore the bracelet. To remember.

Golder texted me the other day. A couple of years ago, her family moved to England, where her husband, Jay, is a lawyer. Golder was in Poland, volunteering at a kitchen making food for the thousands of Ukrainians who had crossed the border to escape the Russian invasion of their country.

Beans and cornbread.

In time, some of the Ukrainian refugees will make their way to St. Louis and add to the rich immigrant culture of our city, just as refugees from Afghanistan have made it here in the past year, with the help of the International Institute of St. Louis and other organizations.

The folks who come here fleeing war will still need our help. That was obvious on a recent weekend, as I drove by a busy retail corner in West County on Manchester Road. A family whose sign said they were refugees from Afghanistan sought financial help from motorists.

Fleeing violence, whether in ones own city, or countries tens of thousands of miles away, is not easy. But loving our neighbors can make a difference.

In May, the Strawbridge Foundation posted a video of a college graduation of one of the first students the nonprofit helped. Another student is in her final year of nursing school. One is transitioning from community college to a four-year school. Several seniors at Lafayette received some aid, and those trunks full of supplies, to help their transition to college.

There is hope in tragedy when a community comes together.

None of that hope, of course, will bring back Kyierah Jeffries, whose life was cut short because guns and violence run rampant in some parts of St. Louis. The area where Jeffries lived didnt reap the sort of community investments that are plentiful in the place where she went to school.

Jeffries mother, Cheryl Ford, has four other children. The loss of her daughter put her life in a tailspin. Her twin sister, Cherie, set up a GoFundMe account for the family. It has raised a little more than $10,000 of her goal of $25,000. Jeffries was laid to rest on June 3.

A young girl from south St. Louis, who spent her school years in West County, had her funeral service delayed so her family could first raise some money for it. So it often is in St. Louis, where ZIP code is destiny, even when all of our lives are entwined.

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ST. LOUIS  A corrections officer at the City Justice Center in downtown St. Louis was stabbed by an inmate Friday, prompting a lockdown, St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts said.

About midday, an inmate stabbed a jail guard in the face with some kind of knife, causing what Betts described as an uprising in the jail, Betts said. During the roughly two-hour lockdown, jail staff searched several floors for the knife.

Betts had no details on the officers injuries or condition and said he was having difficulty obtaining information from the jail.

Police provided a summary that said at 11:12 a.m., a male jail guard, 36, was attacked by two male inmates, 40 and 32. Police said one of the inmates had a homemade sharp object and that the guard suffered cuts to his face. The guard was taken to a hospital for treatment.

Jail Commissioner Jennifer Clemons-Abdullah could not be reached. A spokesman for St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones sent a text message saying city police were investigating and should be issuing available information.

At the end of May, the city moved all remaining inmates held at the citys Medium Security Institution, known as the workhouse, to the downtown jail.

The downtown jail has a history of disturbances, including at least half a dozen over an eight-month period that began in late 2020. City officials said in early May that they had completed $7 million in upgrades and repairs at the jail, including replacing faulty cell locks that allowed several uprisings and protests in the facility last year.

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ST. LOUIS  A three-alarm fire in the Central West End early Friday damaged businesses in a mixed-use building at the corner of McPherson and North Euclid avenues, including some popular restaurants. No one was seriously hurt.

Salt+Smoke, Mission Taco Joint and Ranoush were among the spots damaged in the 2:30 a.m. blaze, according to the St. Louis Fire Department. The three are in the 300 block of North Euclid Avenue.

The building houses some apartments on the second floor, above the businesses. Firefighters helped evacuate one elderly woman who uses a wheelchair and couldnt escape from an apartment on the east end of the complex, St. Louis fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson said. She was unhurt. Two firefighters suffered minor injuries.

The fire chief told the Post-Dispatch late in the morning Friday that investigators arent sure what caused the fire. Its not suspicious at this time, Jenkerson said, adding that its still an open investigation.

I cant say substantially exactly what caused it, Jenkerson added, but behind the building, in a small parking lot and delivery area, is where we think it started.

The building forms an L-shape that extends around the corner to McPherson Avenue, where heavy smoke spread to vintage store Pass the Past and Promised Land Tattoo, among others.

Ive cried already, said Erica Tsimerman, who owns Pass the Past along with her husband, Eugene. For us, this (business) was a dream come true.

Firefighters arrived to find heavy smoke coming from the first and second floors of the masonry building. Once the fire was out, arson investigators descended on North Euclid. They walked through the debris to find the cause, focusing primarily on a courtyard area in the back where authorities think the fire began.

The fire was intense, making its way from the outside parking area into the building. About 70 firefighters and commanders were there to help, and crews went through nearly 100 air tanks as they worked to put the fire out. It was strenuous work pulling tin ceilings apart to get to the fire. Several of the apartments are being renovated, and some were occupied but residents got out on their own.

Hours after the blaze, Mission Taco employees moved perishables to a van to try to salvage some food. Adam Tilford, co-owner, said the interior of Mission Taco has water and smoke damage. But his restaurant, he said, isnt as bad as some of the others.

Outside in the back alley where it started, Tilford said, his companys air conditioning units and walk-in cooler compressor were damaged, as was the wooden decking for the apartments upstairs.

Its all destroyed, he said. A lot of the fire was in the apartments above us, and thankfully no one was injured badly.

Tilford said its too soon to know how long the business will be closed. He said he hopes to put his employees to work in the other four St. Louis-area Mission locations.

Tom Schmidt, owner of Salt+Smoke, said his restaurant appears to have extensive damage. The fire spread to the ceiling of the dining room, he said.

Ranoushs owners could not be reached.

On McPherson, outside Promised Land Tattoo and Body Piercing, co-owners Caleb Steffes and Chris Boyle stood on the street, waiting to hear back from their insurance agent. The store they opened 1 years ago had smoke damage throughout. Their alarm company notified them about 2:40 a.m. that something was amiss, and they rushed to the Central West End to find firefighters swarming the block.

Its pretty bad, all smoked out, Steffes said. The bathroom and the lobby, the piercing room.

Eugene and Erica Tsimerman opened their vintage store at 4744 McPherson Avenue about 14 months ago. It is a resale shop for furniture, clothing and accessories. It was definitely a labor of love, right, Eugene Tsimerman said.

He walked through the store after firefighters left.

Mostly its fire and smoke damage, and the floors are soaking wet, covered in soot and ash and water, Eugene Tsimerman said.

He said the inventory will have to be trashed. You cant sell a shirt that smells like fire, he said.

Glass from an upstairs window dropped close to Erica Tsimerman as she spoke with a reporter on the sidewalk.

But the news wasnt all bad. Were alive, and its just stuff, you know, Eugene Tsimerman said. Stuff is stuff. Valuable, yes, and its our livelihood but not our lives. Thats the way I feel about it.

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ST. LOUIS  The Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade brought swift reaction from residents here on Friday. A U.S. congresswoman sobbed in a room of advocates. Supporters of both sides clashed outside the states last abortion clinic. Hundreds took to the streets in outrage and defiance.

And, by days end, the fissures became clear in this region that is both an island of abortion access and a home to a deep well of anti-abortion sentiment.

I feel numb, said Mallory Schwarz, director of Pro-Choice Missouri. Weve been preparing for this moment. But how do you prepare for the loss of a fundamental right?

Photos: St. Louis area reacts to Supreme Court ruling, and Missouri moves to ban abortions The Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on Friday sent shockwaves through the greater St. Louis region, an island of abortion acc

At the same time, abortion opponents called the ruling a historic win. Its something that the pro-life movement has been fighting for for close to 50 years, said Sam Lee, director of Campaign Life Missouri.

The courts decision announced Friday overturned the landmark 1973 ruling that established a constitutional right to abortion. And the decision has already begun to divide the St. Louis metro area, a region with deep Roman Catholic roots, situated on the border of two states of opposite political leanings. To the eastern side of the Mississippi River in Illinois, Planned Parenthood in Fairview Heights and the Hope Clinic for Women in Granite City are now two of the only abortion clinics left across a wide swath of the Midwest.

The emotions started early Friday inside Planned Parenthoods clinic on Forest Park Avenue in St. Louis. A group of abortion-rights advocates and elected officials gathered for a panel on abortion access. The Supreme Court ruling had not yet been released.

We are sitting in the last remaining abortion clinic in the state of Missouri, Yamelsie Rodriguez, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, said minutes before the decision was made public.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, an appointee of President Joe Biden, called the clinic perhaps the most important place I could be in America right now.

Were going to fight to protect your care, he said.

Just as the panel was ending, a murmur arose in the room. It just dropped, multiple attendees said.

U.S. Rep. Cori Bush read the news aloud from her phone to the small crowd gathered there. Then she laced her fingers together and rested her forehead on her hands for a moment. She stood and hugged St. Louis aldermen gathered around her.

I cannot believe this, she said. I cannot believe this. I cannot believe this.

Shortly after the decision came down, Planned Parenthood notified the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services that it was ceasing abortion care in the state, Rodriguez said on a call Friday afternoon. Planned Parenthood clinics in Missouri will stay open and still provide contraceptives, preventive care and testing for sexually transmitted infections, among other things.

We have reached the end of the line for abortion care, Rodriguez said. And in Illinois, now more than ever, were preparing for an impending surge of patients we know is likely to come. Patients will now be forced to flee their home states for essential, fundamental abortion care.

Meanwhile, anti-abortion backers said their efforts cant stop with the high courts ruling.

Lee, the Campaign Life Missouri director, said he is still concerned about other challenges from the abortion-rights movement, like suits in state court, or a ballot referendum. The pro-life movement needs to be prepared for all of those things, Lee said. The battle isnt over.

Our focus, said Brian Westbrook, executive director of Maryland Heights-based Coalition Life, will continue to shift into Illinois.

The Archbishop of St. Louis, the Rev. Mitchell T. Rozanski, said the Catholic church would continue to bear witness to the dignity of every human, regardless of religion, race, age or any other factor.

I urge all the faithful in our Archdiocese of St. Louis, now more than ever, to demonstrate compassion and provide support to those in need, with a special deference to mothers and children in need, he said in a statement.

Emotions ran high. Just after noon, the two sides rallied side-by-side on the sidewalk outside of the Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis.

As a group of abortion opponents began speaking, Carla Coffee Wright began chanting over them, Reproductive freedom requires action. Others joined in.

After a moment, in place of the word action, Steve Sallwasser, electrical engineer, began shouting back, life.

The two groups screamed at each for 20 minutes.

As the hours passed, the initial shock over the ruling gave way to anger and defiance among abortion-rights supporters.

By 6 p.m., hundreds had gathered for a boisterous rally that began at Planned Parenthoods St. Louis clinic, but later took to the streets in the Central West End neighborhood, led by a drummer.

Were provided our last abortion, for now, Dr. Colleen McNicholas, Planned Parenthoods regional chief medical officer, told the crowd. This is injustice.

The crowd chanted with and cheered the numerous speakers.

Then a girl who identified herself only as Precious took the mic. She told the group that health care is a human right, not a privilege.

When I heard the news this morning, my heart shook, she said. I knew a war had begun.

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JEFFERSON CITY  Abortion was outlawed in Missouri Friday, but that doesnt mean the issue will drop off the radar as a high-profile agenda item for state lawmakers.

Potential issues that could still be considered include how Missouri handles federal funding for Medicaid and Planned Parenthood. Lawmakers also may revisit proposed legislation to allow private citizens to sue anyone who helps a Missouri resident obtain an abortion out of state.

The Pro-Life Generation will continue our work to protect the dignity of innocent life in state capitols across the United States and support women and families facing unexpected pregnancies, said Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, R-Arnold, who is running for a seat in the state Senate.

In overturning Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court allowed Gov. Mike Parson and Attorney General Eric Schmitt to sign off on a trigger law that was put in place by the General Assembly in 2019.

In doing so, all abortions except those performed during a medical emergency have been banned in the state.

After years of efforts to restrict abortion, lawmakers like Coleman said the ban likely will put abortion opponents on the defensive as abortion rights advocates work in court to undo the changes.

If there is movement to challenge these laws in state court, you will see a response from the pro-life community, Coleman said. Right now, I think the focus will be on protecting the laws that we have on the books now.

In addition, abortion rights supporters could attempt to put a question on the statewide ballot asking Missouri voters if they want to make abortion legal again.

Democrat state Rep. Trish Gunby, of west St. Louis County, said she wants Congress to codify abortion rights as a way to address the Supreme Courts action.

Gunby, who is running for Congress in Missouris 2nd District, urged citizens to march in support of that effort.

Despite the decision  this issue has not been permanently decided, Gunby said in a statement.

Photos: St. Louis area reacts to Supreme Court ruling, and Missouri moves to ban abortions The Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on Friday sent shockwaves through the greater St. Louis region, an island of abortion acc

Coleman said her proposal to give private citizens the right to sue people who help Missourians get abortions out of state is not at the top of her list for now.

I dont see that as a priority of the pro-life movement right now, Coleman said. At some point, people may want to address abortion tourism.

The proposal gained national attention earlier this year when Coleman attached an amendment to a number of bills that were moving through the House.

The legislation was aimed at addressing a surge in the number of women who travel to Illinois for abortions.

Since Planned Parenthood opened its clinic in Fairview Heights in 2019, more than 10,000 Missouri residents have received abortion care at the clinic.

By early 2021, the lone remaining clinic in Missouri, located in St. Louis, was providing fewer than 20 abortions per month because of restrictions like waiting periods and mandated pelvic examinations, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

Colemans effort did not get across the finish line before lawmakers adjourned in mid-May.

Abortion rights advocates said the measure would violate the U.S. Constitution because states cant regulate activities outside their borders.

Abortion to remain a top issue

House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, D-Springfield, predicted Republicans who control the Missouri House and Senate with super-majorities will continue to make abortion-related issues a top concern.

Republicans will not stop with abortion. They will begin stripping away access to birth control and contraception, in vitro fertilization and marriage equality, Quade said. With Roe overturned, Missouri now requires people to remain pregnant against their will, treating them as little more than fetal incubators with no rights or role in the decision, even in cases of rape and incest.

In 2021, the Missouri Senate voted to ban certain contraceptives as part of a bill to renew a tax on hospitals, but the measure did not advance to the House after women senators in the chamber banded together to stop the effort.

But with the 2022 election looming, the make-up of the Senate could be different next year, potentially allowing such a proposal to get through.

Republicans who are pressing to continue finding ways to limit abortion have an ally in the governor.

Parson has been consistent in his support for restricting the procedure and on Friday hailed the Supreme Court decision as a major win.

Thanks to decades of conservative leaders, Missouri has become one of the most pro-life states in the nation, and our administration has always fought for the life of every unborn child. Today, our efforts have produced what generations of Missourians have worked and prayed for: Today, we have won our fight to protect innocent life, Parson said.

The issue of funding is already playing itself out in the election. Missouri Right to Life, an anti-abortion lobbying force under the Capitol dome, is backing primary challengers to several incumbent members of the House and Senate after they voted against stripping funding from Planned Parenthood through state law.

During the legislative session, lawmakers defunded Planned Parenthood in the state budget.

But Missouri Right to Life wanted a stand-alone bill putting the language into statute.

In a statement issued Friday, Steve Rupp, president of Missouri Right to Life, said, Today we celebrate and then we go back to work to protect unborn babies and women from the abortion industry.

Posted at 2:20 p.m. Friday, June 24.

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SPRINGFIELD, Ill.  One patient from Iowa needed gas money and a place to stay. Another, from Indiana, was in a domestic violence situation and couldnt use her own money to pay. She also needed help with child care.

These are among the hundreds of cases that the abortion patient navigator program manager at Planned Parenthood of Illinois said she has handled in the past two years.

Her job description is fairly simple: help patients, especially those from other states, coordinate their visits to receive abortion services in Illinois. But the job itself is anything but simple.

Deciding to get an abortion, making that decision, is about so much more than making an appointment and walking into a health center, said the program manager, whose name is not being used because of safety concerns.

As a blue island among conservative neighboring states, Illinois has become a battleground for abortion-rights advocates and opponents. Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the states Democrat-led General Assembly have enacted measures aimed at accommodating an expected influx of out-of-state patients in the wake of Fridays U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe vs. Wade.

Abortion opponents, meanwhile, see gaining more political power in Illinois as a vital next step.

Among the barriers to abortion access: arranging lodging and transportation to a clinic, maintaining confidentiality in an unsafe home situation and funding the procedure and associated expenses.

The program managers in Springfield and at a logistics center that opened in the Metro East region have become essential amid growing obstacles for people seeking abortion services, advocates say.

Several conservative states had already enacted laws that essentially ban abortions. About half of U.S. states, including those surrounding Illinois, have trigger laws that ban or severely limit abortion based on the fall of Roe v. Wade, or have lawmakers who back such laws.

Illinois has gone in the opposite direction, enacting laws in recent years that have expanded access. But the states status as an island for abortion rights in the Midwest has the potential to put a strain on providers, who are preparing for a tidal wave of out-of-state patients.

Its not something that will be a slow buildup, said Brigid Leahy, director of government relations for Planned Parenthood Illinois. Back when Texas imposed its ban on Sept. 1 of last year, we saw our first patients at Planned Parenthood of Illinois health centers from Texas two days later.

Influx of patients

Planned Parenthood estimates that an additional 20,000 to 30,000 people annually could travel to Illinois for abortion services with Roes fall, an influx that would place the number of abortions performed in Illinois at an unprecedented level.

More than 46,000 abortions were performed in the state in 2020, according to state public health data. Thats higher than in recent years but lower than the 1990s, when more than 50,000 procedures were performed some years.

The numbers show a rising trend of out-of-state residents receiving care. In 2020, 9,686 such women terminated a pregnancy in Illinois, up from 7,534 in 2019 and 5,668 in 2018. Data from 2021 was not available.

These numbers, abortion-rights advocates say, are a reflection of the restrictions that have been put in place in other states.

CHOICES Memphis Center for Reproductive Health, a Tennessee-based provider, is opening a clinic in Carbondale later this summer. The close proximity to the citys Amtrak station, which is along a line that runs through Memphis, wasnt a coincidence.

Up north, Planned Parenthood of Illinois has opened clinics in Waukegan and Flossmoor in recent years, both just miles from bordering states.

And in 2019, Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region opened its 18,000-square-foot facility in Fairview Heights, which replaced a much-smaller facility and is equipped to perform surgical abortions.

Along with Hope Clinic in Granite City, the provider has seen a significant amount of patients come from across the river in Missouri.

The Show-Me State has stood out thus far.

In 2020, 6,578  more than two-thirds of all out-of-state patients  came from Missouri, where lawmakers have placed severe restrictions on the procedure. It is one of the states with an abortion trigger law, which went into effect shortly after Fridays ruling.

Access expandedIn recent years, Illinois has enacted some of the most liberal reproductive health laws of any state.

In 2017, then-Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican, signed House Bill 40, which permitted state health insurance and Medicaid coverage for abortions and removed trigger law language that could have made the procedure illegal in the event Roe v. Wade was overturned.

This was followed up by Pritzkers signing of the Reproductive Health Act in 2019. The law enshrined reproductive health care  including abortion access  as a fundamental right in Illinois.

And last year, Pritzker signed legislation repealing a 1995 law that required an abortion provider to give an adult family member at least 48 hours notice before the procedure is performed on a girl under the age of 18.

Illinois lawmakers might not be done. Pritzker, with the support of Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, and House Speaker Chris Welch, D-Hillside, has called for a special legislative session next month to consider more abortion rights legislation.

I am focused on making sure that we expand the number of professionals in our state to make sure that were providing the health care that people are seeking, Pritzker said in an interview with Lee Enterprises earlier this week.

On the other side of the issue, Illinois Right to Life is gearing up in what they call ground zero in the fight against the practice.

Our work is just beginning now that Roe is going to be overturned because things, I believe, are possibly going to get worse before they get better, Illinois Right to Life executive director Amy Gehrke said ahead of Fridays ruling, acknowledging the influx from surrounding states.

Still, Gehrke believes the state can be won back for life.

We were a pro-life state for the most part until 2017, just five short years ago, Gehrke said. And with a lot of hard work and a lot of education, I really believe that the needle will move back.

A lot may be riding on the results of the November election. All the candidates running in the GOP primary for governor have taken anti-abortion positions while Pritzker has been staunchly supportive of abortion rights.

Gehrke believes abortion opponents would only need to flip just a handful of seats in the General Assembly to prevent more abortion-rights legislation from passing.

Contact Brenden Moore at brenden.moore@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter: @brendenmoore13
JEFFERSON CITY  Missouris attorney general and governor moved quickly Friday to cut off access to abortion in the state following the U.S. Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Within minutes of the high courts ruling, Attorney General Eric Schmitt issued an opinion to the Missouri Revisor of Statutes that triggers parts of a 2019 law, effectively ending abortion in the state of Missouri.

Schmitt, a candidate for U.S. Senate, said Missouri became the first state in the country to do so.

Photos: St. Louis area reacts to Supreme Court ruling, and Missouri moves to ban abortions The Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on Friday sent shockwaves through the greater St. Louis region, an island of abortion acc

Today, following the United States Supreme Courts ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, with the issuance of an attorney general opinion, my office has yet again reinforced Missouris dedication to protecting the sanctity of life, both born and unborn, Schmitt said.

Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican like Schmitt, followed suit not long after, issuing his own proclamation on the issue.

Nothing in the text, history, or tradition of the United States Constitution gave un-elected federal judges authority to regulate abortion. We are happy that the U.S. Supreme Court has corrected this error and returned power to the people and the states to make these decisions, Parson said.

The 2019 law sponsored by Rep. Nick Schroer, a St. Charles County Republican, started out as a ban on most abortions once a fetal heartbeat can be detected. But as part of national effort by anti-abortion forces, the bill was quickly loaded with amendments that would toughen the states already restrictive abortion laws in other ways.

The law prohibits abortion after eight weeks of gestation unless there is a critical medical reason. There are no exceptions for rape, incest or human trafficking.

The law also bans a woman from aborting a fetus that might have Down syndrome. It also requires both parents or guardians to be notified before minors can get an abortion, in most cases.

And it includes the trigger ban on abortion if the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision is overturned, as it was Friday. Twelve other states have adopted trigger laws, including four of Missouris neighbors: Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky.

Schmitt said abortion is now outlawed in the state, except in cases of medical emergency.

As part of a sustained effort by Republicans who control Missouris House and Senate, laws and regulations have already made abortion a rarity in the state.

Since peaking at more than 20,000 per year in the 1980s, the number of abortions in Missouri dropped to fewer than 200 a year because of limited access. Many women now travel to out-of-state clinics, including two in the Metro East, for the procedure.

Reaction from Missouri politicians also was swift.

This is a momentous day in America. One of the most unjust decisions in American history has been overturned, said Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley.

Former Gov. Eric Greitens, who is running for U.S. Senate, called the ruling a huge victory.

Life is the most precious gift from our Creator and is always worthy of protection, especially the unborn who are the most vulnerable, Greitens said.

Democrat Trudy Busch Valentine, who is running for U.S. Senate, condemned the decision.

This decision takes us backwards 50 years and lessens womens independence and our rights. It especially affects the most vulnerable amongst us. Reproductive health care decisions are a womans to make, and I will fight to protect our rights, to respect our intelligence and our choice, and to always advocate for our equality. Weve come too far to turn back the clock, Valentine said.

Lucas Kunce, another Democrat seeking the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Roy Blunt next year, said Congress should codify Roe v. Wade to restore abortion rights.

We cannot let this stand. We need to take our power back. When I am in the Senate, I will fight like hell to guarantee access to abortion for every Missourian, Kunce said.

In the Missouri Legislature, House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, D-Springfield, said the ruling is a sign that Missourians must elect more lawmakers who will protect basic rights.

Republicans will not stop with abortion. They will begin stripping away access to birth control and contraception, in vitro fertilization and marriage equality, Quade warned.

St. Louis Mayor Tishaura O. Jones said in a statement the ruling doesnt change the fact that 7 in 10 Missourians support the right to an abortion. It does not change the fact that in states like ours, weve already been living a post-Roe reality, with thousands traveling out of state for abortions. As devastating as this moment is for families across the country, St. Louisans are ready to take action to protect our rights until Congress steps in to do what it should have done decades ago: codify Roe into law.

Updated at 2:15 p.m. Friday, June 24.

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ST. LOUIS  Election officials said Thursday that former St. Louis Alderman Melinda Long turned in enough signatures to qualify as an independent candidate in a special election to succeed John Collins-Muhammad, who resigned from the Board of Aldermen last month.

Long, an insurance broker, will compete in the 21st Ward race against Democratic nominee Laura Keys, the wards Democratic committeewoman, and independent JoAnn Williams, a retired Carpenters Union official.

The special election will be held Aug. 2, the same day as the statewide Missouri primary. The winner will serve the remainder of Collins-Muhammads term, which expires next April.

Gary Stoff, an Election Board official, said Long submitted signatures from 188 registered voters in the ward, more than the 172 required.

Collins-Muhammad resigned several weeks before he was indicted on federal bribery charges.

The board allowed political party committees to pick nominees for ward aldermanic vacancies this year according to a provision in the city charter. The provision doesnt affect the citywide office of aldermanic president.

The charter takes precedence over the nonpartisan approval voting ordinance approved by city voters in 2020.

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JEFFERSON CITY  A new political action committee launched the first of a series of television advertisements urging Missouri voters to cast their votes against former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens in the race for U.S. Senate.

With the primary election six weeks away, the Show Me Values PAC began airing the 30-second spot Friday, less than a week after Greitens came under heavy criticism for releasing a video in which he urged voters to hunt down RINOs, or Republicans in Name Only.

The new ad is a compilation of news clips related to the scandals that plagued the Republicans abbreviated tenure as chief executive, including felony charges or invasion of privacy and campaign finance-related offenses.

It then skips forward to allegations raised by his ex-wife, Sheena Greitens, who has said Greitens was physically abusive to her and their children.

Scandal. Felony charges. Physical abuse allegations. Thats not conservative, the ad says.

It ends with a 2018 mug shot of Greitens with the words Vote Against Eric Greitens.

The new PAC, formed by Republicans and headed by a former Trump administration official, has scheduled more than $1 million worth of commercials through the end of June and is expected to remain involved in the race until the Aug. 2 primary.

Polls show Greitens leading a field that includes Attorney General Eric Schmitt, U.S. Reps. Vicky Hartzler and Billy Long, Missouri Senate President Dave Schatz and St. Louis attorney Mark McCloskey. Republicans are concerned a victory by Greitens could lead to a Democrat winning in November.

The PAC is being headed by Washington-based political consultant John DeStefano and is being funded, in part, by Republican mega-donor Rex Sinquefield, a retired St. Louis financier who is supporting Schmitt.

DeStefano, a political strategist, worked for more than a year in the White House during Trumps tenure.

The ads are scheduled to run throughout Missouri on both broadcast and cable TV channels.

The creation of the super PAC comes as another effort is underway aimed at trying to end Greitens comeback bid.

Missouri native John F. Wood left his post this week as a senior investigative counsel on the House Jan. 6 committee to consider a possible independent bid for the Senate seat.

That effort has the support of former U.S. Sen. Jack Danforth, who says Greitens is too divisive to win the seat.

Wood, a Republican, formerly worked for Danforth and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Posted at at 11 a.m. Friday, June 24.

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ST. LOUIS  The city Election Board on Thursday scheduled a special Sept. 13 primary to start the process of electing someone to fill the last few months of recently resigned Aldermanic President Lewis Reeds term.

In a brief conference call meeting, the board voted 4-0 to schedule the primary to pick two finalists to square off in the Nov. 8 general election.

The decision had been expected following a legal opinion from City Counselor Sheena Hamilton on Wednesday that said Reeds term should be filled at elections later this year.

The balloting will be held using the nonpartisan approval voting process established by an ordinance approved by voters in 2020.

Under that system, residents vote for as many candidates as they approve of in the primary; the top two vote-getters then advance to the Nov. 8 general election.

So far, there are only two declared candidates: Alderman Megan Green of the 15th Ward and Alderman Jack Coatar of the 7th.

Another potential contender is Alderman Cara Spencer of the 20th although Spencer said earlier this week that she saw no reason to hold special elections for the post because someone will be elected anyway next spring for the offices next full four-year term.

Reed, who held the presidents post 15 years, quit on June 7 a few days after he pleaded not guilty to bribery-related charges.

The timing of his resignation was past the deadline set by Missouri law for adding races to the Aug. 2 state primary ballot.

The election board chairman, Jerry Hunter, said he was pleased that the city register in conjunction with the city counselor had sent the board an official notice calling for a special election as the board had requested.

Hunter had said the board wanted something in addition to Reeds resignation letter because of legal ambiguity in the city charter and ordinances on how to proceed.

At least we will have made two possible candidates happy, Hunter added in an apparent reference to Spencers comments indicating a preference for waiting until next year to pick a successor for Reed.

Joe Vollmer, the board vice president, has been filling in as acting president since Reed resigned but says he wont run in the elections for the post.

The notice issued by the city register had included a primary date of Sept. 13. Election Board staffer Gary Stoff said board officials had told the counselors office that was a possible date.

Whoever is elected in November will serve until April. Another election will be held in April to fill the full term, preceded by a primary in March.

The first step for Green, Coatar and any other candidate wanting to run in September is to gather signatures of registered voters; 1,175 are required by July 15.

Under the approval voting law, if only two candidates qualify to run, both would run against each other in September and again in November.

Posted at 3 p.m. Thursday, June 23.

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ST. LOUIS COUNTY  A Maryland Heights woman was killed in a four-vehicle crash midday Thursday on St. Charles Rock Road in Bridgeton, authorities said.

The crash happened about 12:40 p.m., when a Honda CRV traveling east on St. Charles Rock Road turned left into a shopping plaza and into the path of another Honda CRV that was heading westbound on St. Charles Rock Road, the Missouri Highway Patrol said.

The westbound Honda CRV hit the passenger side of the vehicle that had turned when it was "unsafe to do so," the highway patrol report said. The Honda that was hit then flipped over, striking two vehicles that were stopped at a red light at the intersection of St. Charles Rock Road and the entrance to the shopping plaza.

Jane A. Dixon, 64, was a passenger in the westbound Honda. Dixon, who was not wearing a seat belt, died at the scene, the highway patrol report said.

The 85-year-old driver of the Honda in which Dixon was riding, who also was from Maryland Heights, suffered moderate injuries. The driver was wearing a seat belt, the highway patrol report said.

A 78-year-old Bridgeton woman who was driving the Honda that turned into the other vehicle's path also suffered moderate injuries, the highway patrol said. She was wearing a seat belt.

The two vehicles that were hit by the overturned car were a Pontiac G6 and Pontiac Grand Prix. Both drivers, a 37-year-old St. Ann woman and a 55-year-old St. Louis woman, were unhurt and able to drive their vehicles from the scene. They were wearing seat belts, the highway patrol said.

The crash tied up traffic along the busy stretch of St. Charles Rock Road on Thursday afternoon as police responded and investigated the incident.
FLORISSANT  Crews will temporarily close New Florissant Road between Dunn and Pershall road  directly under Interstate 270  beginning at 8 p.m. Friday until 8 a.m. Saturday.

The closure will allow workers to begin paving the first portion of the new bridge at I-270 over New Florissant Road, the Missouri Department of Transportation said.

Also, during the same time frame, New Halls Ferry Road between Dunn and Pershall road will be closed to allow crews to begin the removal of an I-270 bridge there.

Detours will be marked for both projects.

The closure and construction work are part of the $278 million I-270 North Project infrastructure upgrades.
In the two years documentary filmmakers shadowed former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, the most jarring moment for them was in the kitchen of her Tucson, Arizona, home.

As cameras were rolling, she and her husband, Sen. Mark Kelly, nonchalantly opened the freezer. Kelly grabbed a plastic container and revealed it holds the piece of Giffords' skull that had to be removed after she was shot.

This stays in here next to the empanadas and the sliced mango, Kelly said.

Giffords' response was Sera, sera, referencing the song Que sera, sera or What will be, will be.

The scene from the film is emblematic of Giffords' openness to reflect on but not languish in the 2011 shooting that changed her life. That desire is what led her to allow cameras into her life for two years  all as a pandemic was progressing.

For me it has been really important to move ahead, to not look back, Giffords told The Associated Press while in Los Angeles to promote the film. I hope others are inspired to keep moving forward no matter what.

From the filmmakers behind Academy Award-nominated Ruth Bader Ginsburg documentary RBG, the film Gabby Giffords Won't Back Down is partly an intimate look at Giffords' recovery after the January 2011 shooting that left six people dead and 13 others wounded outside a Tucson supermarket. But the movie, which arrives in theaters July 15, is also an insider view of how she and Kelly navigated gun control campaigns and later a Senate campaign. The movie could not be any timelier with gun reform being debated in government, schools and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Its just a fascinating story about how Gabby came back from an injury that so many people just dont even survive, said Betsy West, a co-director. After meeting Gabby on Zoom, we saw just what a great communicator she is. And we had a sense that we might have a lot of fun despite the very difficult subject of gun violence.

At the same time, they wanted to strike the right balance of how much to look back at the shooting.

We certainly didn't want to shy away from January 8. Obviously, that's something that changed her life, said Julie Cohen, the film's other director. But Gabby is defined ultimately by everything that she's achieved before and after that. We wanted it to show that achievement.

The film also doesnt avoid discussing Jared Lee Loughner, the gunman in the Tucson shooting. Interviews with law enforcement, journalists and a video made by Loughner lay out how he was able to buy a semiautomatic weapon despite a history of mental illness. He was sentenced in 2012 to life in federal prison without parole.

We did not want to dwell on the shooter, but we also wanted to explain what had happened, West said. Gabby and Mark did not shy away from going to the sentencing hearing to make a very impassioned plea for life imprisonment. That was a very important part of the film.

Recent mass shootings including the deaths of 19 schoolchildren and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, and 10 supermarket shoppers  all Black  in Buffalo, New York, have put gun violence back at the forefront. The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a New York gun permitting law. The case involves a state law that makes it difficult for people to get a permit to carry a gun outside the home. The justices said that requirement violates the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

The House on Friday sent President Joe Biden the most wide-ranging gun violence bill Congress has passed in decades. It came a day after the U.S. Senate easily passed it. It took weeks of closed-door talks to lead to an incremental but landmark package in response to mass shootings.

Much like after Uvalde, the documentary recaps how gun control debates reached a fever pitch after 20 first graders and six educators were shot to death by a gunman at a Newtown, Connecticut, school. Giffords and other advocates, including some Newtown parents, were called props by National Rifle Association officials. Having spent time with Giffords and others impacted by gun violence, the film's directors say their voices are central to the discourse.

To say that somehow Gabby shouldn't be speaking about gun violence because she's experienced violence? It just doesn't make any sense, Cohen said.

A crucial element of the documentary came from videos Kelly had of Giffords in the Tucson hospital and at a rehab facility in Houston. These included then-President Barack Obama  who is interviewed in the film  and Michelle Obamas visit to an unconscious Giffords bedside. They also include the first few months of speech therapy.

The bullet penetrated the left hemisphere of Giffords' brain that services language ability, causing her to suffer from aphasia. You see in old videos Giffords sob out of frustration as she struggles to read and get stuck on saying chicken.

Giffords said watching those videos can make her sad, but she is determined to be upbeat.

I'm getting better. I'm getting (better) slowly but I'm getting (better) surely," Giffords said.

Giffords is the third movie West and Cohen have produced on a female icon. Last year, they released Julia, a documentary on the influence of TV chef and author Julia Child. RBG was a critical and commercial hit when it came out four years ago. The filmmakers say while Giffords and Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg, who died in 2020 at age 87, are very different personalities, they think viewers will see a lot of similarities. They both have toughness, persistence, optimism and are at the heart of feminist love stories.

Giffords often has to remind people that she still has a voice even if speaking doesn't come easily  whether it's on gun safety or other issues. She said she genuinely feels the climate is different now but people have to be patient because change is slow," and Washington, D.C., is "really slow.

She plans to refocus on making tougher federal background checks a reality through her Gun Owners for Safety coalition. The bill the Senate approved would only strengthen background checks for buyers age 18 to 20.

If there's one message she wants viewers to take from the documentary, it's fight, fight, fight every day," Giffords said.

This story has been updated to correct the number of students and educators killed in Newtown, Connecticut.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The Supreme Court has issued its biggest gun rights ruling in more than a decade. Here are some questions and answers about what the Thursday decision does and does not do:

WHAT EXACTLY WAS THE SUPREME COURT RULING ON GUNS?

The Supreme Court said that Americans have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defense. That's important because about half a dozen states have conditioned getting a license to carry a gun in public on the person demonstrating an actual need  sometimes called good cause or proper cause  to carry the weapon. That limits who can carry a weapon in those states.

In its decision, the Supreme Court struck down New York's proper cause" requirement, but other states' laws are expected to face quick challenges. About one-quarter of the U.S. population lives in states expected to be affected by the ruling.

The last time the court issued major gun decisions was in 2008 and 2010. In those decisions the justices established a nationwide right to keep a gun for self-defense in a person's home. The question for the court this time was just about carrying a gun outside the home.

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the court's majority opinion that the right extended outside the home as well: Nothing in the Second Amendments text draws a home/public distinction with respect to the right to keep and bear arms.

HOW DID THE JUSTICES RULE?

The gun ruling split the court 6-3, with the court's conservative justices in the majority and its liberals in dissent. In addition to Thomas, the majority opinion was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. The court's three liberals who dissented are justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

ARE NEW YORKERS NOW FREE TO CARRY A GUN IN PUBLIC?

Not exactly. The justices didn't touch other parts of New York's gun law, so other requirements to get a license remain. The court made it clear that the state can continue to make people apply for a license to carry a handgun, and can put limitations on who qualifies for a permit and where a weapon can be carried. In the future, however, New Yorkers will no longer be required to give a specific reason why they want to be able to carry a gun in public.

The decision also doesn't take effect immediately and state lawmakers said Thursday that they were planning to overhaul the licensing rules this summer. They have yet to detail their plans. Some options under discussion include requiring firearms training and a clean criminal record. The state might also prohibit handguns from being carried in certain places, like near schools or on public transit.

In addition, the decision does not address the law that recently passed in New York in response to the Buffalo grocery store massacre that among things, banned anyone under age 21 from buying or possessing a semi-automatic rifle.

WHAT OTHER STATES ARE LIKELY TO BE IMPACTED?

A handful of states have laws similar to New York's. The Biden administration has counted California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island as all having laws similar to New Yorks. Connecticut and Delaware are also sometimes mentioned as states with similar laws.

WHAT CAN STATES DO TO REGULATE GUNS AFTER THE DECISION?

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, noted the limits of the decision. States can still require people to get a license to carry a gun, Kavanaugh wrote, and condition that license on fingerprinting, a background check, a mental health records check, and training in firearms handling and in laws regarding the use of force, among other possible requirements. Gun control groups said states could revisit and perhaps increase those requirements. States can also say those with a license to carry a gun must not do so openly but must conceal their weapon.

Justice Samuel Alito noted that the decision said nothing about who may lawfully possess a firearm or the requirements that must be met to buy a gun. States have long prohibited felons and the mentally ill from possessing weapons, for example. The decision also said nothing about the kinds of weapons that people may possess, Alito noted, so states might also try to limit the availability of specific weapons.

The justices also suggested that states can prohibit the carrying of guns altogether in certain sensitive places. A previous Supreme Court decision mentioned schools and government buildings as being places where guns could be off limits. Thomas said that the historical record shows legislative assemblies, polling places and courthouses could also be sensitive places. Thomas said courts can use analogies to those historical regulations of sensitive places to determine that modern regulations prohibiting the carry of firearms in new and analogous sensitive places are constitutionally permissible.

HOW DO COURTS ASSESS GUN RESTRICTIONS GOING FORWARD?

The court made it harder to justify gun restrictions, although it's hard to know what the new test the court announced will mean for any specific regulation.

Thomas wrote that the nations appeals courts have been applying an incorrect standard for assessing whether such laws are impermissible. Courts have generally taken a two-step approach, first looking at the constitutional text and history to see whether a regulation comes under the Second Amendment and then, if it does, looking at the governments justification for the restriction.

Despite the popularity of this two-step approach, it is one step too many, Thomas wrote.

From now on, Thomas wrote, courts can uphold regulations only if the government can prove that they fall within traditionally accepted limits.

Among state and local restrictions already being challenged in federal court are bans on the sale of certain semi-automatic weapons, called assault rifles by opponents, and large-capacity ammunition magazines, as well as minimum age requirements to buy semi-automatic firearms.

WHAT OTHER BIG RULINGS ARE IN THE WORKS?

The Supreme Court heard arguments in the guns case back in November and a decision had been expected before the court begins its summer recess. The court has nine more opinions to issue before it goes on break and plans to release more Friday. Still waiting is a major abortion decision.

Associated Press editor David Caruso contributed to this report from New York.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP)  Bulgarias parliament voted Friday to lift a veto that has long blocked European Union membership negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania, raising fresh hopes that the bloc can now press on with its expansion plans in the Western Balkans amid Russias war in Ukraine.

France, which currently holds the EUs rotating presidency, made a proposal this week to resolve an ethnic and cultural dispute between Bulgaria and North Macedonia that was the source of the veto.

Under the French proposal, North Macedonia would have to recognize in the preamble of its constitution that Bulgarians are one of the countrys constitutive ethnicities. North Macedonia said Friday that three main topics needed clarification before it would agree to the deal.

While North Macedonias prime minister opposed the French proposal Thursday and a no-confidence vote toppled Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov a day earlier, the French plan ultimately altered the dynamics among enough Bulgarian lawmakers. The vote to lift the veto passed 170-37, with 21 abstentions.

Parliament took a historic decision today, giving a green light to the proposal for the EU accession of North Macedonia, said Petkov, who had been working to settle the dispute before the no-confidence motion brought down his government.

North Macedonia has been a candidate for EU membership for 17 years. The country received a green light in 2020 to begin eligibility talks, but no date was set for the start of the negotiations.

Some have feared that keeping Western Balkans nations out of the EU would allow Russia to strengthen its influence in the region, which experienced wars in the 1990s during the breakup of Yugoslavia. North Macedonia away from the 27-nation bloc, Russias grip on the Balkans will be strengthened.

Bulgaria has used its power as an EU member to block North Macedonia's accession, since all enlargement decisions require unanimous approval from the 27-nation bloc. The Bulgarian government insisted that North Macedonia formally recognize that its language has Bulgarian roots, acknowledge in its constitution a Bulgarian minority and quash hate speech against Bulgaria.

Its stance inadvertently also stalled Albanias progress toward EU membership because the bloc is treating the pair as a political package. All three countries are NATO members.

The European Commission has made repeated promises to six Western Balkan nations saying that their futures lie within the EU. As well as North Macedonia and Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Serbia have also been afflicted by delays amid divisions among member states and some bilateral issues.

Clement Beaune, the French minister for European affairs, said this week that the proximity of Russias war in Ukraine has put the onus on the bloc to reinvigorate its expansion in the Balkans.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the vote in Bulgaria's parliament was a very good signal, adding that technical work required to pave the way for a final deal in the coming days would.

There is still work to be done, I dont want to claim victory too early, but its an important step forward, he said.

On Thursday, North Macedonian Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski told reporters in Brussels that the French proposal "in its current form is unacceptable to me, for the president, the government, the coalition partners and people of the Republic of North Macedonia.

Kovachevski added that Skopje needed strong guarantees that Bulgaria would not add new requirements to the EU's negotiating framework.

North Macedonia's foreign minister, Bujar Osmani, said Friday that the country's language and history must not be part of the framework and that the EU membership talks needed to start before the countrys constitution is amended to reference a Bulgarian minority.

If we receive a proposal that takes into account our positions, an agreement can be reached in the coming days, Osmani said, adding that his government did not yet know the contents of the version adopted by Bulgarian lawmakers.

We will be in communication with France in the coming days and we will see how things will go, he added.

Ruslan Stefanov, program director at the Center for the Study of Democracy, a Sofia-based think tank, said Fridays vote externally and politically removes the pressure on Bulgaria.

Things dont look the same in North Macedonia, though, he told The Associated Press. It seems there has been quite sizeable public outcry as to not liking the proposal of the French presidency, so it might be a little bit more difficult for the government there.

McGrath reported from Sighisoara, Romania and Petrequin from Brussels. Konstantin Testorides in Skopje, North Macedonia, contributed to this report.

Follow AP's coverage of the Russia-Ukraine 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.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  After weeks of ferocious fighting, Ukrainian forces have begun retreating from a besieged city in the country's east to move to stronger positions, a regional official said Friday, the four-month mark in Russia's invasion.

The planned withdrawal from Sievierodonetsk, the administrative center of the Luhansk region, comes after relentless Russian bombardment that has reduced most of the industrial city to rubble and cut its population from 100,0000 to 10,000. Ukrainian troops fought the Russians in house-to-house battles before retreating to the huge Azot chemical factory on the city's edge, where they remain holed up in its sprawling underground structures in which about 500 civilians also found refuge.

In recent days, Russian forces have made gains around Sievierodonetsk and the neighboring city of Lysychansk, on a steep bank across a river, in a bid to encircle Ukrainian forces.

Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk have been the focal point of the Russian offensive aimed at capturing all of the Donbas and destroying the Ukrainian military defending it  the most capable and battle-hardened segment of the countrys armed forces. The two cities and surrounding areas are the last major pockets of Ukrainian resistance in the Luhansk region  95% of which is under Russian and local separatist forces' control. The Russians and separatists also control about half of the Donetsk region, the second province in the Donbas.

Russia used its numerical advantages in troops and weapons to pummel Sievierodonetsk in what has become a war of attrition, while Ukraine clamored for better and more weapons from its Western allies. Bridges to the city were destroyed, slowing the Ukrainian military's ability to resupply, reinforce and evacuate the wounded and others. Much of the citys electricity, water and communications infrastructure has been destroyed.

Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said Ukrainian troops have been ordered to leave Sievierodonetsk to prevent bigger losses and move to better fortified positions. The head of the regional administration, Roman Vlasenko, said the withdrawal has already begun and will take several days.

As of now, the Ukrainian military still remains in Sievierodonetsk, Vlasenko told CNN. They are being withdrawn from the city at the moment. It started yesterday.

Ukraine's military spokesman declined to confirm the retreat order, saying government policy prevents comments on Ukrainian troop movements.

Regrettably, we will have to pull our troops out of Sievierodonetsk, Haidai told The Associated Press. It makes no sense to stay at the destroyed positions, and the number of killed in action has been growing.

A senior U.S. defense official, speaking in Washington on condition of anonymity, on Friday called the Ukrainians' move a tactical retrograde to consolidate forces into positions where they can better defend themselves. This will add to Ukraines effort to keep Russian forces pinned down longer in a small area, the official said.

Haidai noted that while the retreat is under way, some Ukrainian troops remain in Sievierodonetsk, facing Russian bombardment that has destroyed 80% of buildings.

As of today, the resistance in Sievierodonetsk is continuing, Haidai told the AP. The Russians are relentlessly shelling the Ukrainian positions, burning everything out.

Haidai said the Russians are also advancing toward Lysychansk  from Zolote and Toshkivka  adding that Russian reconnaissance units conducted forays on the city's edges but its defenders drove them out. The governor added that a bridge leading to Lysychansk was badly damaged in a Russian airstrike and is unusable for trucks. Ukrainian military analyst Oleg Zhdanov told the AP that some of the troops moving away from Sievierodonetsk are heading to the fight in Lysychansk.

In other battlefield reports, the Russian Defense Ministry declared Friday that four Ukrainian battalions and a unit of foreign mercenaries totaling about 2,000 soldiers have been fully blocked near Hirske and Zolote, south of Lysychansk. The claim couldnt be independently verified.

Following a botched attempt to capture Kyiv, Ukraines capital, in the early stage of the invasion that started Feb. 24, Russian forces have shifted their focus to the Donbas, where the Ukrainian forces have fought Moscow-backed separatists since 2014.

After repeated requests to its Western allies for heavier weaponry to counter Russias edge in firepower, four medium-range American rocket launchers have arrived, with four more on the way. The senior U.S. defense official said Friday that more Ukrainian forces are training outside Ukraine to use the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, and are expected back in their country with the weapons by mid-July.

The rockets can travel about 45 miles (70 kilometers). Also to be sent are 18 U.S. coastal and river patrol boats. The official said there is no evidence Russia has been successful in intercepting any of what has been a steady flow of military aid into Ukraine from the U.S. and other nations. Russia has repeatedly threatened to strike, or actually claimed to have hit, such shipments.

IN OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

The day after Ukraine was approved as a candidate to join the European Union, Zelenskyy urged Ukrainians not to focus on all that still must be done before the country is accepted into the EU but to quietly celebrate the moment and be proud of how far Ukraine has already come in moving away from its Soviet past.

Do not be happy that this is a slap in the face for Moscow but be proud that this is applause for Ukraine," he said in his nightly video address. "Let it inspire you. We deserve it. Please smile and let God bless us all with a quiet night. Then tomorrow, again into battle. With new strength, with new wings.

In Tbilisi, Georgia, another former Soviet republic that has applied to join the EU, thousands of people rallied on Friday to demand the resignation of the prime minister over his government's failure to implement the necessary reforms for Georgia to join Ukraine in being accepted as a candidate for EU membership. The European Council this week said Georgia had more work to do before it would be given candidate status.

Zelenskyy addressed the rally by video, expressing his support for Georgia and thanking the Georgians who have come to Ukraine to join the fight against Russia. Russia invaded Georgia in 2008 and now effectively controls two breakaway territories.

Zelenskyy urged music fans at the Glastonbury Festival to spread the truth about Russias war. Speaking to the crowd at the British music extravaganza by video on Friday before a set by The Libertines, Zelenskyy said, We in Ukraine would also like to live the life as we used to and enjoy freedom and this wonderful summer, but we cannot do that because the most terrible has happened  Russia has stolen our peace.

An official with the pro-Moscow administration in the southern city of Kherson, which was captured by Russian troops early in the invasion, was killed in an explosion Friday. The pro-Russian regional administration in Kherson said that Dmitry Savlyuchenko died when his vehicle exploded in what it described as a terror attack. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Yuras Karmanau reported from Lviv.

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.
Missouri women officially became second-class citizens Friday morning. With the U.S. Supreme Courts decision overturning Roe v. Wade, a state law took effect outlawing almost all abortions from the moment of conception, even for rape or incest victims. For the first time in almost half a century, citizens of Missouri and at least 15 other states will be divided by law into two levels of citizenship: Those who have the right to fully control what happens inside their own bodies, and those who are to be denied that right by the state.

It is imperative now that protests by pro-choice activists, in Missouri and nationally, remain peaceful and focused on the only legitimate response: Anti-choice politicians must be defeated in state legislative and congressional races wherever possible in the coming midterms if women are to have any possibility of regaining their right to biological autonomy. The adage that elections have consequences has seldom been more starkly confirmed.

Roe, of course, was the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that established a constitutional right to abortion until a fetus could viably live outside the womb (about 24 weeks). The courts reasoning then was that the Constitution bestows a fundamental right to privacy on its citizens. The current courts rejection of that premise could affect Americans lives in yet-unimagined ways that go far beyond the abortion issue. There are already indications the next battle could be over the right to birth control.

The current courts decision in the Mississippi case of Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization was foreseen almost two months ago with the unprecedented leak of a draft opinion, but 6-3 final opinion issued Friday was nonetheless a jarring reminder of the overtly partisan turn the high court has taken. The justices could have upheld Mississippis ban on abortions after 15 weeks without overturning Roe entirely. But they made the deliberate decision to reach beyond the case in front of them to engineer a more sweeping outcome  an outcome that polls show two-thirds of Americans oppose. The effect on the courts already-low standing in the eyes of the nation may never recover.

All six in the majority have at various times expressed their reverence for precedent and their aversion to judicial activism. The three appointees of former President Donald Trump confirmed those beliefs directly to the Senate in their relatively recent confirmation hearings. Yet as soon as the opportunity arose, all voted to eviscerate what two generations of women have viewed as a fundamental right of self-determination.

Justice Samuel Alitos opinion was steeped in the harsh rhetoric of ideological certainty, declaring Roe egregiously wrong and on a collision course with the Constitution from the day it was decided. He even likened it to one the most shameful opinions in the courts history, Plessy v. Ferguson  thus informing the women of America that allowing them agency over their own bodies is as indefensible as racial segregation.

Within minutes after the courts decision was announced, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt formally certified that Roe had been overturned, thus triggering Missouris complete ban on abortions except in medical emergencies. Schmitt  a Republican running for the U.S. Senate with a campaign that has blatantly pandered to the extremist right  then took to Twitter to boast that Missouri was the first state in the nation to completely ban the procedure.

The immediate effects here and in other anti-choice states are tragically predictable, based on the experience in states that prohibited abortion prior to Roe. The ruling will land most harshly on low-income women who dont have the resources to travel to pro-choice states. Some will resort to illegal and dangerous self-administered or back-alley abortions. Some will die.

But that isnt likely all of it. Not in todays radicalized political climate.

The anti-choice movement appears unlikely to take this victory and go home, what with a majority of states still protecting abortion rights. Calls for a national abortion ban have been growing on the right lately, and Fridays opinion will only further fuel that idea. With Republicans likely to re-take Congress in the midterms and possibly the White House in 2024, its a real possibility.

Meanwhile, red states newly imposed abortion bans are almost certain to become ever more draconian, as Republican office-holders try to blunt electoral challenges from the right. Hints at what might await are already out there. Missouri lawmakers last session seriously considered a measure that would have censored abortion information for Missouri women, tracked them if they sought out-of-state abortions, and punished out-of-state providers. At least one Missouri lawmaker this year suggested abortion should be a death-penalty offense.

On whom would that or other new sanctions fall? The new Missouri law punishes only abortion providers (with up to 15 years in prison) but doesnt punish the woman  a deliberate public-relations strategy of the anti-choice movement that may now fall by the wayside with the achievement of its biggest goal. Most Americans probably arent ready for the sight of rape victims being imprisoned (or worse) for desperately seeking to end the pregnancy. But if theres one thing that was made clear Friday, its that the anti-choice movement and its allies in Congress and on the Supreme Court arent concerned about what most Americans want on this issue.

Elections have consequences. The Handmaids Tale moment that is now upon America is the consequence of the nations pro-choice majority prioritizing other issues when they vote  or just not voting at all. Pro-choice voters in Missouri and in much of the nation have a difficult task ahead, but not an impossible one. Missouris primaries are Aug. 2. The general election is Nov. 8. Dont just complain. Dont just post. Dont just march. Vote.
Few issues within Americas dysfunctional healthcare system are more pressing than the astronomical price of insulin  access to which is, for millions of Americans, literally a matter of life or death. Congress is finally moving toward approving legislation that would partially address the problem. But passage will rely on the willingness of some hesitant Republicans, including Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, to set aside their free-market absolutism and acknowledge that the apparent price-gouging going isnt what markets are supposed to do.

Almost two million Americans have Type 1 diabetes, which typically requires daily insulin shots. More than 30 million more have Type 2 diabetes, which often requires insulin therapy.

In the past decade alone, the cost of that lifesaving insulin has tripled. Today, even insured patients, depending on the terms of their policies, can end up paying $300 or more monthly for their insulin, while uninsured patients can face monthly costs of well over $1,000. The situation has spawned horror stories of diabetics self-rationing with less insulin than theyre supposed to take, with sometimes tragic outcomes.

The reasons for the price explosion are complicated and contentious, with the pharmaceuticals, insurance companies and wholesalers essentially blaming each other. An investigation by the Senate Finance Committee in 2020, headed by then-Chairman Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, blamed them all. This industry is anything but a free market because of anti-competitive practices between those various players, Grassley said in a statement accompanying the committees report in early 2021. He called for bipartisan legislation and oversight to address this problem.

The reins of the Senate have changed, but the bipartisan legislation Grassley called for has finally arrived. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., this week unveiled a measure that would cap the monthly insulin costs for insured diabetics at $35. It doesnt cap costs for those who are uninsured  a more complicated issue that would have to be addressed in broader legislation  but its a start. The bill is similar to one the House passed earlier this year, but in addition to capping out-of-pocket patient expenses, it also targets distribution issues that are partly blamed for the price hikes.

Blunt told The Washington Post this month that he wont rule out the bill until he sees it, but that generally Im not supportive of price controls  Im supportive of competition and things that encourage competition.

That may sound a solid free-market stance, but this particular market has clearly colluded to the detriment of its consumers  some of whom have died because of it. We encourage Blunt and others with reservations to consider that when a given market becomes detrimental to its customers health, a hands-off approach by political leaders isnt conservatism, but abdication of responsibility.
Regarding Facebook removes GOP Senate candidates RINO hunting video (June 21): Once again we have a Missouri politician making national news, and again, its not for a good reason. Eric Greitens has stooped lower than I could ever have imagined. He recently put out an ad for his new mission: hunting for RINOs (Republicans in Name Only). He is portraying himself as the savior for the Republicans and the enemy of the RINOs. This coming from a man who has been accused of domestic abuse, and he really wants us to believe he is innocent of that charge, all while he is showing his violent streak. I wonder how many Republicans are going to tell him he is wrong. He fits the role of a Donald Trump supporter perfectly.
Russias invasion of Ukraine in February has failed so far, with enormous losses to Russia in terms of combat personnel, military equipment and the reputations for quality/reliability/effectiveness of Russian weapons and forces. Even the Ukrainians were surprised at how unprepared the invaders were for combat and dealing with Ukrainian superiority in weapons (often Western), leadership (all Ukrainian) and tactics. Russias leadership, especially supreme leader Vladimir Putin, was delusional about the continuing lack of military progress in Ukraine. Even Russians who thought restoring independent (since 1991) Ukraine to Russian control was a good thing and worth fighting for, began losing confidence in Putins ability to make that happen. Each time failure in Ukraine became obvious, Putin would come up with a new reason why Russia was winning, and each of these was soon shown to be false. Their currently alleged key to Russian victory is the disagreements among NATO members about whether Ukraine can win a military victory. NATO is in agreement about the Russias inability to win in Ukraine but many politicians in some of the larger, and more distant from the fighting NATO nations (United States, Germany, France and Italy) are openly doubting the Ukrainian ability to regain control of lost territory. Putin supports this attitude by continuing to threaten use of nuclear weapons if Russia is faced with losing all its seized territory in Ukraine.

One thing nearly all Russians agree on is that using nukes to avoid defeat in Ukraine is not going to happen. A majority of Russians now openly oppose the war even though Putin quickly created a law to make such public dissent illegal. That laws failure soon became obvious in many ways. First, there are a growing number of anti-war demonstrations and physical attacks on military facilities, especially recruiting stations. Refusing to report when conscripted became more common. Another form of defiance is veterans of the Ukraine fighting providing details, based on personal experience, of why Russian forces are failing.

Many of these veterans are no longer in the military because they refused to renew their contracts. Many more soldiers remained in the army but refused to return to Ukraine and got away with it. Putin ordered that these soldiers be officially described, in their military records and military ID, as unreliable and unwilling to fight. In any other country a soldier who refuses to fight during wartime is subject to severe punishment, often execution. That still happens to reluctant Russian soldiers inside Ukraine where officers have the authority to shoot reluctant troops. Initially, as Russian casualties grew and progress was nonexistent, some officers did shoot troops refusing to fight. That soon changed as the troops threatened to, and sometimes did, shoot back (or, and ran over one officer with a tank). Ukrainian forces have provided additional confirmation of this violence and collapsing morale within Russian units. Many Russian troops will surrender to the Ukrainians at the first opportunity and admit it to Ukrainian, Russian and foreign journalists.

The number of Russian military personnel is declining because of the combat losses and veterans refusing to stay in, even though being a contract (volunteer) soldier is one of the few jobs Russians can get because of Western sanctions. The Russian economy is shrinking and unemployment, along with poverty, is increasing.

The Russian government responded by lowering their recruiting standards and accepting recruits or conscripts with physical, mental, legal or psychological problems that would normally make them ineligible for military service. Russia has also dropped age limits for volunteers and is willing to accept non-Russians as long as they can speak some Russian and are willing to fight. These efforts are not producing enough new troops to be immediately useful because most of them have no military training and at least two months are required to produce useful troops for combat. Conscripts, who cannot be sent into combat, require less training and are used for support operations outside Ukraine during their one year in uniform.

Reports from Ukrainian forces and recently captured Russian troops indicate that most BTG (Battalion Task Groups) are sent into action understrength by up to 50 percent. A larger percentage of the BTGs armored vehicles are in action but most of these are IFVs (Infantry Fighting Vehicles) with just the vehicle crew of three men to drive and operate the heavy weapons. Only some carry a few infantrymen as well.

This approach was supposed to provide a force that could advance after the Ukrainians had been weakened or wiped out by a heavy barrage of shells and unguided rockets. This has not worked because the Ukrainian dig in and enough survive to stop the understrength BTGs that withdraw if they encounter opposition. The Ukrainians also have shortages, but not of personnel willing to fight. The Ukrainians have at least 50 percent more troops than the Russians in Ukraine. The Ukrainians are more innovative and have lower casualty rates than the Russians. The innovation has given the Ukrainians better communications (Starlink, which works in moving vehicles) and the ability to prevent the (on paper) superior Russian air force from controlling the air space. This provides the Ukrainians with the ability to provide aerial surveillance as needed using UAVs and light aircraft. This makes it possible to use another innovation; ATVs (All Terrain Vehicles) and light trucks carrying anti-tank or other heavy weapons, troops or supplies held in reserve and able to quickly move to where needed to block a Russian threat.

Ukrainians are running short of artillery ammunition so they use their mobile artillery only for counterbattery (firing on Russian artillery). The Russians are also using artillery ammo at an unsustainable level and, if the Ukrainians receive more artillery ammo from NATO, Russias artillery superiority will fade. Vladimir Putin is encouraged by some major NATO nations (Germany, France and the U.S.) not getting promised weapons and ammunition to Ukraine quickly. He pays less attention to the military leadership in these three countries agreeing with the NATO nations closer to Ukraine about the Russian threat. Ukrainians point out that Ukraine cannot afford to leave the Russians controlling any Ukrainian territory. American, German and French politicians still believe peace negotiations with Russia to halt the fighting while arguing over how much Ukrainian territory the Russians would be allowed to keep in return for permanent peace. That wont work. It was tried after 2014 and failed. Russia media confirms that loss of all Russian-held l territory in Ukraine would be the end of the current Putin plan to absorb Ukraine, the Baltic States, Belarus and portions of Poland. Failure here also means the Putin government is likely to end.

The sooner the NATO big three deliver promised aid as quickly as possible, the sooner the Ukrainians will be able to push the Russians out. Larger NATO nations complain that they are exhausting their own supplies of ammunition, but they are ignoring the fact that they knew this could happen during any major conflict. This was made clear during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war when NATO was shocked to discover that ammunition use rates in a major war were more than three times what they had planned for. The Russian invasion of Ukraine was not a surprise because the Russians have been seeking an opportunity to make it work for over a decade. The 2014 Russian seizure of Crimea and part of Donbas was more alarming to the new East Europe NATO members, who increased their rearmament efforts. The older NATO members thought Russia would be rational while the East European NATO members, and Ukraine knew better. The United States has more incentive to solve its inadequate war reserve (of ammo) problem because they face a threat from China while European NATO nations only face Russia and are willing to supply Ukraine with all the ammo and other support needed because the Ukrainians are able and willing to take the casualties required to expel the Russians. This has other benefits for NATO members because it has already demonstrated that Russian military capabilities were highly overrated and the Chinese are openly concerned that they may have to be realistic in the Pacific.
Soldiers assigned to Delta Company, 1st Battalion, 112th Aviation Regiment, North Dakota Army National Guard, take-off to particpate in a training exercise during Golden Coyote Training Exercise at Camp Rapid, South Dakota, June 16, 2022. (U.S. Army video by Pvt. Joanna Whittaker)

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by Austin Bay June 23, 2022

Has the Kremlin decided to fight a hot war in the Baltic Sea's cold waters?

On June 17 the Russian Navy deliberately violated Danish territorial water, specifically the Baltic Sea island of Bornholm, which lies north of Poland. During the Cold War Bornholm was a Berlin-like intelligence outpost behind enemy lines.

On June 18 a Russian border patrol helicopter violated Estonian airspace. Two days later the Kremlin threatened Lithuania, warning it would take "measures to defend its national interests" -- to protect Kaliningrad. On June 21, Estonia claimed that Russia was conducting military exercises that included "simulated missile attacks" targeting against Estonia.

With its principle offensive ground forces fighting a dreadful war of attrition in eastern Ukraine, Russia really isn't in a position to militarily bully and intimidate NATO nations with martial tantrums. Yet over a four-day period Russia directed physical and verbal threats of war at three small nations on the Baltic Sea.

Russia attacked Lithuania with words -- but over an important subject, the Russian Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad. Estonia concluded the helicopter overflight warranted summoning Russia's ambassador. Did the simulated missile attack affect that decision? Perhaps that occurred in a secret Russian wargame -- but not so secret a game Estonia didn't get the word. Look to Ukraine to see what real missile attacks do to cities.

Denmark faced an overt military probe of its territorial integrity. A Russian warship violated Danish waters twice.

Finland noticed the four days of provocation and issued, well, not a threat per se, but a riposte of sorts. On June 22 -- the fifth day -- Gen. Timo Kivinen, Finland's Chief of Defense, told Reuters: "We have systematically developed our military defense(s) precisely for this type of warfare that is being waged there (in Ukraine), with a massive use of firepower, armored forces and also air forces." Then he added, "Ukraine has been a tough bite to chew (for Russia) and so would be Finland."

The general didn't mention Finland's "zones of defense" featuring bunkers, camouflaged positions and connecting routes that take advantage of Finland's often-difficult terrain. Their depots also stock civilian supplies.

So why the flurry of Russian threats?

Estonia's Defense Ministry told Bloomberg News the upcoming NATO summit in Madrid in part explains the Kremlin's saber-rattling. Russia is angry. That summit will consider Finland's and Sweden's bids to join the alliance.

No doubt that is true. But I think the Kremlin's string of Baltic provocations suggest Vladimir Putin's regime senses vulnerability -- a threat to its territorial integrity.

In a column published March 15 I suggested Russia's failure to achieve a quick victory in Ukraine exposed Russia to loss of its own territory -- despite its nuclear arsenal.

That column's hypothesis: The Russian Army's slipshod combat performance in Ukraine raises hard questions about the Kremlin's ability to wage conventional war against a peer enemy. That suggests the Kremlin's greatest geostrategic treasure, resource-laden Siberia, is vulnerable.

To whom? Not NATO, but communist China. For the first time in centuries China possesses a more powerful military than Russia. According to Beijing's propagandists, Siberia belongs to China.

The great leap forward in future history: China would enforce its territorial claim as Russia withers.

Beijing has an imperial energy (a delusion, in my view) that could spur an invasion of Siberia.

Evidence: An imperial delusion drove Putin to attack Ukraine.

Back to the Baltic threat theater: Sure, Russia wants to check European shipments of weapons and supplies to Ukraine. I think that's why several weeks ago Putin threatened nuclear strikes -- and looked foolish for it.

The Deep Fear: The Kremlin knows its Baltic exclave, Kaliningrad, is vulnerable.

Sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland (both NATO nations), until the end of WWII Kaliningrad was the Prussian city of Konigsberg. Putin's Kremlin prizes this Soviet imperial remnant. All is not well in Kaliningrad. In 2018 the Kremlin was conducting an intense information war against what it called the "Germanization of Kaliningrad."

Review Russia's June 20 threat to Lithuania. Citing sanctions on Russian trade, Lithuania closed the transit of Russian goods to Kaliningrad.

And the Kremlin felt the noose.
North Korea s continued covid19 lockdown is causing more starvation deaths in provinces with fewer local food resources along with poor railroad and highway links for the import and distribution of food. Young children are the most common victims. People outside the capital are openly complaining about how the capital continues to get most of the medical equipment and medicines needed to deal with covid19. The criticism extends to government announcements about the spread of covid19 and the success of government efforts to deal with it. The government has not ordered a crackdown on those who openly protest because that approach has become counterproductive. Government officials and security forces outside the capital agree with the protestors because even senior provincial officials and local security forces are suffering from the shortages. The national government recognizes that a violent crackdown would not only fail but cause more chaos and suffering outside the capital. The secret police are few in number outside the capital of Pyongyang and are present in the countryside mainly to give the most senior leaders an accurate assessment of local situations.

Pyongyang has experienced an unusually high number of illegal entries in the last year. This influx has increased even more this year because it is the best place to survive covid19 or starvation in North Korea now that border security is so much tighter and dangerous.

For over half a century Pyongyang has been the best place to live in North Korea. As a result, access and permanent residency is restricted. Pyongyang contains twelve percent of the population and a much higher proportion of and national wealth and income. The city became the capital because it was a major industrial center during the Japanese occupation (1910-45) and has remained an economic powerhouse. The city also contains the headquarters and many subsidiary components of all national organizations. This includes the secret police (Ministry of State Security or MSS).

Residence in the capital requires official permission, which is and that is difficult to get. Restricted access to the capital is also a security measure for the senior leadership as well as another obstacle foreign spies must deal with. Police are constantly tracking down and arresting those entering or living in the capital without permission. Legal residence in the capital is not freely granted, mainly because it is a much nicer place to live. There is more of everything, including more hours of electrical power and more economic opportunities for illegal residents. Although the food distributions are only for legal residents, many of those legal residents were helping to support illegal family and friends living in the capital. Since the end of regular food distributions there have been more illegal food markets in the capital and fewer new illegals trying to settle down. There are poor families in the capital and the government is providing some of them with additional food once it is verified that these households are not harboring illegals. This prevents visible signs of starvation but not hunger, which long-time residents have not experienced since the Great Famine of the 1990s. The government is trying to avoid that by getting more food to the capital markets. This will keep prices from rising as fast as in the rest of the country. Those nationwide food prices have fallen recently, reflecting increased food imports from China.

The Money Blockade

Strict border controls since 2020 the 2020 covid19 lockdown made it much more difficult, and expensive for North Koreans who got to South Korea or other Western nations to send money to families and associates still in North Korea. It can still be done, but the money brokers now charge fees that are much higher, often amounting to half the cash being sent. Those providing the money dont complain because they stay in touch with what is happening in North Korea and know that a lot of money brokers have been put out of business by the increased border security. Those brokers still operational often tell their clients that it is impossible to get money to people in some parts of North Korea. This is a death sentence for many recipients who must use that cash to buy food and medicine, which are in short supply in many rural parts of North Korea.

Fear of covid19 virus spreading from China to North Korea has caused some extraordinary efforts to prevent anyone from crossing the Chinese border, especially coming in from China. The one hardest hit by this are the people smugglers and illegal traders, especially those who arrange for money from North Koreans in China or South Korea to be transferred to families in North Korea. This has become a big business, moving as much as $20 million a year. In 2018 enterprising donju proposed a new scheme to obtain hard currency and the government accepted. Donju noticed the government was willing to adopt a more pragmatic attitude towards defectors that have established themselves in China, South Korea and the West. The government has long known that defectors often send money back to families still in North Korea. This was accomplished via a network of smugglers who moved all sorts of forbidden goods in and out of North Korea. In 2018 the government began allowing these remittances to get into North Korea legally, in return for a 20 percent fee. The government also allowed reunions of defectors with their North Korean kin for a price (over $100,000). There are people who will pay that much, and the government sees this as an excellent source of foreign currency. Implementing this was possible because many donju ran the older system. Before this, Chinese brokers would, for a 20 percent fee, arrange to have a Chinese or North Korean merchant inside North Korea pay the remittance. Even then, you are not safe. If any local communist officials find out you are getting money this way, you can be arrested or, if you are lucky, hit up for a bribe. Nevertheless these remittance families were known, or suspected and many donju got their start with money from remittance families, many of whom were donju themselves.

The North Korean and Chinese money brokers were usually involved in other forms of smuggling things into and out of North Korea and the current crackdown on any illegal border traffic has been hard on these professional smugglers. It has gotten so serious that some North Korean border guards refuse to be bribed, something that is expected to pass along with the covid19 danger. Inside North Korea even donju with family ties to high ranking (in the government bureaucracy) families are subject to arrest and punishment for activities involving cross-border movement of any kind.

June 23, 2022: North Korea is reviving an anti-American national holiday that claims the United States invaded North Korea in 1950 to start the Korean War. The rest of the world knows that North Korea, following orders from Russia, carried out the invasion on June 25th, after the last American troops had left South Korea. Russia believed the Americans would not return to defend South Korea and Korea would be unified as a communist state dependent on Russian support. North Korea halted the June 25 commemoration of this myth in 2017 as part of an effort to get some foreign aid out of North Korea and the United States. This was the usual scam used by North Korea and they were disappointed when they realized it didnt work anymore. Reviving the annual celebration of this North Korean historical fiction will show some results because North Koreans who openly disagree with the official version of who invaded who are sent to a labor camp, or worse.

June 21, 2022: A South Korean built SLV (Satellite launch vehicle) rocket put a South Korean built satellite in orbit for the first time. This makes South Korea the seventh nation to do this with locally built SLVs and satellites. The satellite put into orbit increases the accuracy and reliability of GPS location data used by aircraft. This is particularly important for South Korea because North Korea has tested GPS jammers near the border that disrupt GPS service for aircraft. So South Korea did something about it, which improves flight safety near North Korea and annoys North Korean military planners.

It took South Korea less than a decade to design and build this technology. In 2017 South Korea conducted a successful test of a locally made solid fuel ballistic missile with a range of 800 kilometers. This enables South Korea to hit targets anywhere in North Korea with weapons (ballistic missiles) that North Korea is not equipped to stop. This came 18 months after the announcement that a ballistic missile with a range of 500 kilometers was successfully tested. That test ended decades of restrictions on South Korean ballistic missile development. In 2012 the United States halted its efforts to restrict South Korean missile development. The South Koreans tried for over a decade to develop warmer relations with North Korea and all efforts failed. The 2010 North Korea attacks (using artillery and a torpedo that sank a warship) on South Korea changed a lot of attitudes in South Korea, and the United States. North Korea is still a big problem but since 2010 South Korea has been free to try whatever it thinks will work. Currently has over a hundred ballistic and cruise missiles aimed at North Korea This has unnerved North Korea, which still hasnt built a functional SLV, instead using ballistic missiles designed to deliver warheads, not insert one or more satellites into a precise orbit. North Korea improvises a lot because it has to and thats why North Korea is still trying to do what South Korea did today. North Korea tries to block news of South Korean successes from reaching North Koreas. That has proven impossible in the Internet Age but the news is delayed. South Korea media are aware of the audience in the north and often announce achievements like the successful satellite and SLV program as a Korean achievement. Over the past decade there have been more South Korean technology advances that are often described as Korean, deliberately leaving out North or South. This boosts morale among the Koreans in North Korea where the North Korean officials officially deny that such South Korean achievements exist. Since the 1950s the official North Korean attitude was that South Korea was the economically backward Korea run by South Korea officials who did what the United States demanded. The North Korean government has an increasingly difficult time dealing with their official propaganda version of South Korea and the actual South Korea that now has a GDP per capita that is more than twenty times that of the north. The GDP gap continues to widen, which is why North Koreans caught viewing recordings of South Korean media are sent to prison and those responsible for distributing these recordings are often executed.

June 17, 2022: North Korean trade with China, its major trading partner, dropped 80 percent in May because rail traffic between China and North Korea was halted in response to a major outbreak of covid19 in North Korea. Many North Koreans, including many senior officials, are calling for rail traffic to resume. The growing starvation deaths and unrest in North Korea is seen as justification for resuming trade with China.

June 15, 2022: In North Korea extensive inspections of army, air force and navy units have been taking place to determine the extent of shortages of trained personnel and needed supplies to keep the more advanced systems operational. These inspections are not done with punitive intent but in an effort to get commanders and troops to accurately describe the problems they are having keeping the high-tech gear operational. Many of the electronic and missile systems that are reported as operational arent because the government was demanding positive reports no matter what the real situation. Meanwhile food shortages had spread to the military and personnel were more concerned about survival, especially officers with families. Soldiers, normally a source of emergency agricultural, factory or even mining labor have been less frequently used because of weakness from lack of food.

June 10, 2022: North Korea announced that officials with experience negotiating with the Americans and South Koreans have taken over in the government departments that handled these negotiations in the past. Such negotiations were halted in 2019 because the Americans and South Koreans were no longer willing to provide aid unless North Korea agreed to outside monitors of how it was distributed. In the past North Korea used such trade negotiations to make it easier to smuggle in tech and components needed for their missile and nuclear weapons programs.

June 1, 2022: North Korea announced a Satellite Research Center, which was established to combine military and civilian satellite research and construction. Until recently all North Korean satellite production and use was for military purposes. Now North Korea realizes that civilian resource monitoring satellites can be a big help in more efficiently managing agriculture. The new Research Center is largely propaganda because of sanctions and shortages but indicates a change in direction for some North Korean space efforts.

May 31, 2022: North Korean Information War specialists are trying to distract people from the recent failures of the government t0 halt a covid19 outbreak and spread a rumor that South Korea was behind the new covid19 cases in the north. The rumor failed because over a quarter million North Koreans have kin in South Korea, who frequently send aid to their North Korean relatives.

May 30, 2022: China was surprised at the failure of Russian forces to quickly conquer Ukraine and the fierce Ukrainian resistance that tore apart the invasion force. South Korea and Japan took notice. Taiwanese have been particularly encouraged by the success of the Ukrainians in developing a defense that worked against a delusional and overconfident invader. Not quite Finland in 1940 but close, and Ukraine is an updated version of the 1940 example. Taiwan wants to be the East Asian model for derailing invasions by larger neighbors.

Taiwan has good trading and diplomatic relations with many of the smaller nations near Russia that pioneered the concept of preparing for the worst and winning, not just surviving. This has become a common and successful strategy among small European states. Small East Asian nations like Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea have the same problem and are all studying the Ukrainian war intently for lessons they can use.

May 27, 2022: Since January Japan has completed a process that creates a strong military alliance with Australia. That raised questions of why doesnt Japan have a similar close defense relationship with South Korea, which has a larger economy and population than Australia. South Korea also has much larger armed forces with modern equipment and ample budgets to keep the ships at sea, warplanes in the air and the ground troops involved in combat longer than the Japanese.

South Korea and Japan have many reasons to be allies, but have a difficult time making formal agreements to cooperate against North Korean or Chinese aggression. When pressed on this, South Korea points out that because of the widespread antipathy towards Japan for past events, the Japanese must do something dramatic to improve their popularity in South Korea. There have been many efforts to deal with this problem and none have done enough.

South Korean anger towards Japan can be traced back to when Korea was a brutally treated Japanese possession from 1910 to 1945. The four decades of Japanese occupation were very cruel. Think how bad the Nazi occupation of conquered countries was during World War II and realize that the Japanese occupation of Korea was much worse and for much longer. The Japanese dont help with their post-World War II attitude that Japan was a victim because it was forced into World War II by evil Westerners and was only trying to help its neighbors by occupying them and treating them badly. Japanese have a hard time understanding how their victims dont appreciate all that Japan tried to do for them. What the foreigners do remember is what the Japanese did to them, something the Japanese tend to downplay or deny outright.

Its popular in Japan to believe that when they defeated Russia, after a brief war in 1905, they should have been accorded more respect by the West. The Japanese seemed to overlook that fact that most European countries had defeated Russia a one time or another. Even Sweden had done so, and later on even tiny Finland would as well. The problem here was that everyone but Japan saw Japan as a major bad guy during World War II.

As a result of the 1904-5 Russo-Japanese War Japan got control over Korea in 1910, along with some German colonies a decade later for joining the allies during World War I. Japan expected more for its World War I support and these resentments led to increased aggression against China and, eventually, to attacking the United States and European possessions in East Asia in 1941. The United States liberated what is now South Korea while the Russians did the same in North Korea.

Officially, South Korea suggests that Japan cede to South Korea claims on Dokdo Island in order to improve relations. South Korea has long been willing to sacrifice good relations with Japan over the issue of who owns the uninhabited Dokdo (Takeshima to the Japanese) islands in the Sea of Japan (East Sea in Korean). Both countries have been sending more air naval reconnaissance missions to the islands, and the mass media in both countries have been jumping all over the tension. Japanese politicians would take an enormous domestic political hit if they managed to get the votes to give South Korea Dokdo. But it would make Japan popular enough in South Korea to get the long-desired (by defense officials in both countries) cooperation treaty. Australia, like the United States and other Western nations, get along with both Japan and South Korea. That means South Korea and Japan both oppose Russian, Chinese and North Korean threats but do so separately. Mass media and politicians in South Korea and Japan see this feud as an asset rather than a problem that must be solved at all costs. This is a unique situation and one, so far, that resists all efforts to resolve.

May 26, 2022: A UN effort to impose new sanctions on North Korea for continued missile tests and preparations for more nuclear weapons tests was blocked by Russia and China. Also blocked was a proposal to add a North Korean hacker group to a hacker blacklist because the group has been hacking banks worldwide and plundering depositor accounts. The cash is used to buy and smuggle in items North Korea cannot afford or banned from importing legally. Until now China and Russia supported sanctions on North Korea, especially because China and Russia border North Korea and China has already suffered radiation sickness and some deaths because of the last round of North Korean nuclear tests. Russia is more likely to do whatever China asks because China is the Russian lifeline since all the sanctions imposed on Russia for invading Ukraine.

May 24, 2022: South Korea complained to China that once more Chinese military aircraft had violated South Koreas ADIZ (Air Defense Identification Zone). South Korea complained to Russia for similar violations off the north coast. This is all about a 2013 China decision to establish a new ADIZ that overlapped South Korean, Philippine and Japanese air space (and ADIZs). China demanded that any foreign military or commercial aircraft request permission before flying into this zone. South Korea and Japan protested while the United States quickly flew some B-52s into the disputed zone without asking for Chinese permission. China protested and the United States ignored them. After a decade this ADIZ dispute remains unresolved.

In South Korea the American president visited and assured the new South Korean that the U.S. remained ready to intervene militarily if North Korea attacks South Korea. The same pledge was made to Taiwan if China attacked. After the American president left the next day, North Korea test-fired another three ballistic missiles.

May 20, 2022: North Korea now claims it has detected over two million North Koreans with covid19, but less than a hundred deaths. Until a week ago North Korea insisted it had no covid19 epidemic and because of that refused offers of South Korean or Chinese covid19 vaccines. Senior North Korean officials have apparently received regular doses of the most effective Western vaccines and other treatments. Meanwhile North Koreans dying of flu-like symptoms were not tested for covid19 and the deaths simply attributed to flu. However, many people show symptoms of influenza and are sent to isolation centers for a few weeks before the survivors are released. North Koreans complained that being sent to isolation centers was too often a death sentence because people at those centers were more likely to die than those who recovered at home. The increase in arrests for corruption and anti-government behavior has meant more people in already overcrowded prison camps. It is difficult to isolate showing flu symptoms and there are more deaths from flu-like diseases in these camps. North Korea still refuses covid19 related aid from China, South Korea or the United States. Admitting the existence of covid19 was apparently made possible by the rapid spread of the new strain and far fewer fatalities. North Korea is not using widespread shutdowns as China does but warning the population and insisting that those capable of going to work do so. Going to isolation centers is no longer mandatory. North Korea did more harm than good since early 2020 as it closed its borders and instituted mandatory isolation at the province level. This caused major economic and food supply problems and the increase in deaths among the elderly or those with other conditions was attributed to the food and medical shortages.

May 23, 2022: North Korea noted the effectiveness of the new Starlink satellite-based Internet access network in Ukraine, where the Ukrainians had access and the invading Russians did not. North Korea also noted that the main function of Starlink is to provide cheaper, more powerful and globally available access to the Internet or any other communications network that can pay for the use of the Starlink network. That includes military users that are friendly to Starlink and not considered a threat. The threat nations include China, Russia and several smaller countries like Iran, North Korea and Cuba that are hostile to Internet access they cannot control. China estimates that Starlink is able to increase the speed and throughput of military communications over a hundred times what it is now.

Starlink is not the only multiple-satellite ISP (Internet Service Provider) system. There are similar efforts underway in several countries, including Russia and China. These efforts have fallen far behind Starlink in terms of numbers and capabilities. Starlink is unique in that it was the first to enter service and quickly proved it could do what it was designed to do. That included quickly adapting to the needs of military users. This was demonstrated in Ukraine where Starlink was activated over Ukraine and the first of thousands of free user kits (a small satellite dish and a special modem) delivered less than a week after the Russians invaded.

May 17, 2022: Chinese medicines for treating symptoms of influenza and covid19 and once more legally for sale in North Korea, at least in the capital. These same medicines have already been distributed to some soldiers and senior government officials who have caught influenza, which since 2020 has been a codeword for covid19. In the military, growing food shortages in the military have made the covid19 situation worse and now each battalion (about 800 troops) has been ordered to set aside a separate space in troops' living quarters to isolate those with flu/covid19 symptoms. The military will only admit that there have been more influenza deaths recently. Malnourished soldiers sent to work on construction sites are having more accidents, some of them fatal, because of hunger. There is no official admission that there are severe food shortages in some units and that record numbers of North Korean men are deserting the military or refusing to show up when they get their conscription notice. Military police have disappeared from the capital, where many were sent to look for and arrest North Koreans in the city without permission. North Koreans were also reminded that soldiers stationed at the Chinese border still have orders to open fire on anyone spotted in a restricted zone near the border. The troops are told to shoot to kill. Many of these border troops are also suffering from food shortages and have families who are suffering even more. Because of that they have been lax in firing on North Koreans headed for the border and some border guards join them. Other border guards will accept bribes to look the other way. Those bribes buy more food for troops and their families. More North Koreans are desperate to get out of the country and stay out.

May 12, 2022: North Korea declared a resumption of the strict nationwide lockdown because new strains of covid were spreading fast and it was no longer possible to call covid19 deaths the flu or anything but covid19. Since early 2020 the government insisted that covid19 had not spread to North Korea. The privation that developed in many rural areas led to a breakdown in discipline in those areas and the new lockdown faces opposition in many areas where hunger and starvation are getting worse.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 24, 2022 / Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. (TSX:NDM)(NYSE MKT:NAK) ("Northern Dynasty" or the "Company") announces the voting results from its 2022 Annual General Meeting held on June 23, 2022 in Vancouver, British Columbia (the "Meeting").

At the Meeting, a total of 215,554,654 common shares were voted, representing 40.69% of the votes attached to all outstanding common shares as of the record date. All nine nominees were elected to the Company's Board of Directors (the "Board"). The voting results were as follows:

Director % of Votes For % of Votes Withheld Desmond Balakrishnan 55.39% 44.61% Steven Decker 75.76% 24.24% Robert Dickinson 71.58% 28.42% Gordon Keep 67.07% 32.93% Wayne Kirk 75.80% 24.20% David Laing 67.37% 32.63% Christian Milau 75.52% 24.48% Kenneth Pickering 66.81% 31.19% Ronald Thiessen 76.14% 23.86%

For the other items at the Meeting, shareholders re-appointed Deloitte LLP as the Company's auditor and approved the Company's amended and restated Shareholder Rights Plan Agreement.

Detailed voting results for the Meeting are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

About Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd.

Northern Dynasty is a mineral exploration and development company based in Vancouver, Canada. Northern Dynasty's principal asset, owned through its wholly owned, Alaska-based U.S. subsidiary, the Pebble Limited Partnership, is a 100% interest in a contiguous block of 1,840 mineral claims in southwest Alaska, including the Pebble deposit, located 200 miles from Anchorage and 125 miles from Bristol Bay. The Pebble Partnership is the proponent of the Pebble Project, an initiative to develop one of the world's most important mineral resources.

For further details on Northern Dynasty and the Pebble Project, please visit the Company's website at www.northerndynasty.com or contact Investor services at (604) 684-6365 or within North America at 1-800-667-2114. Review Canadian public filings at www.sedar.com and U.S. public filings at www.sec.gov.

Trevor Thomas

Secretary

SOURCE: Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd.

View source version on accesswire.com:
OLDWICK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- AM Best has downgraded the Financial Strength Rating (FSR) to B++ (Good) from A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings (Long-Term ICR) to bbb+ (Good) from a- (Excellent) of New London County Mutual Insurance Company, Hingham Mutual Fire Insurance Company, Thames Insurance Company, Inc. and Danbury Insurance Company, which operate under an intercompany pooling agreement and are collectively referred to as NLC Insurance Companies Pool (NLC). The outlook of the FSR has been revised to stable from negative, while the outlook of the Long-Term ICR is negative. All companies are headquartered in Norwich, CT.

The Credit Ratings (ratings) reflect NLCs balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as strong, as well as its marginal operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management (ERM).

The rating downgrades are based on deteriorating trends in NLCs operating performance in recent years, largely reflective of an increased frequency and severity of weather-related events and adverse development in its liability and assumed property lines of business. Additionally, increased expenses associated with the amortization of a new policy administration system and elevated commission costs, typical of New England carriers, contribute to NLCs high underwriting expense ratio.

The negative outlook of the Long-Term ICR reflects the ongoing deterioration in NLCs operating performance. Without sustained improvement, this could lead to a downward revision in the overall assessment of balance sheet strength and/or business profile in the near to intermediate term.

NLC maintains strong overall balance sheet strength, marginally supported by very strong risk-adjusted capitalization, as measured by Bests Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR), which is offset somewhat by limited surplus growth. AM Best views NLCs business profile as neutral, as its geographic spread of risk is concentrated strategically in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and distributed through a strong independent agency network. However, the continued deterioration in operating performance due in large part to increased underwriting volatility has placed greater weight on NLCs geographic and product concentration in the evaluation of its business profile assessment. AM Best views NLCs ERM framework, which includes a committee led by the CEO and consists of other senior managers that collaborate in identifying risks and developing appropriate risk mitigation procedures, as appropriate for its risk profile.

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 Best's 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 specializing 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/20220624005302/en/

Kenneth Tappen

Senior Financial Analyst

+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5248

[email protected]

Christopher Sharkey

Manager, Public Relations

+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5159

[email protected]

Richard Attanasio

Senior Director

+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5432

[email protected]

Jeff Mango

Managing Director,

Strategy & Communications

+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5204

[email protected]

Source: AM Best
ST. JOHNS, Newfoundland and Labrador--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- This week, CUPE Newfoundland and Labrador launched a TV ad campaign, speaking out about the damage that will be done if Premier Andrew Fureys plan for the economy, known as the Big Reset, is allowed to continue.

The TV ad is now airing on NTV and will begin on CBC on June 27. A digital campaign is also being launched, asking the public to Reject the Reset and stop Premier Fureys plan to destroy our public services. A message to the premier and MHAs can be sent via the campaign website at RejectTheResetNL.ca.

As frontline providers of public services, we are worried about the damage that will be caused by Premier Fureys plans to privatize services and sell-off provincial assets, said Sherry Hillier, CUPE NL president. With the premiers plan, well lose control of services, costs will rise, and quality will suffer.

Thousands of good jobs will be lost, adds Hillier. At a time when the cost of living is soaring, we need to invest in public services, not make cuts. Public services make life more affordable and more equal for everyone.

Were also alarmed about the creation of one provincial superboard health authority and the impact that it will have on patients, staff, and quality of care. Weve seen it happen it Nova Scotia and its a disaster, says Hillier.

Our government needs to act quickly to protect our public health care system and ensure that every resident of Newfoundland and Labrador has access to quality care, when and where they need it. With the premiers plan, hospitals and clinics in rural areas will be lost. Decisions about health care services will be based on profit margins. Also, Fureys plan means parents will have less of a say in their childrens education, says Hillier. We must act now and reject the reset.

CUPE Newfoundland and Labrador proudly represents more than 6,300 members who work in health care, education, long-term care, municipalities, social services, libraries, childcare, airlines, government agencies, and more.

:sm/cope 491

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220624005230/en/

For more information:

Sherry Hillier

CUPE NL President

709-765-2996

Colleen Reynolds

CUPE Atlantic Communications

902-809-2253

Source: Canadian Union of Public Employees
FAIRFIELD, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- DLA LLC (DLA), a leading provider of internal audit, accounting advisory, and corporate finance services, announced today that is has been ranked in the top 10 of New Jerseys Top Workplaces for small companies (50-149 employees) by NJ Advance Media. This is the second year in a row that DLA has been recognized as one of the top places to work in New Jersey by NJ Advance Media.

NJ Advanced Media recognized 88 companies across New Jersey as Top Workplaces. This recognition honors the most admired companies in the state voted on by the people who know them besttheir employees. The award recognizes DLA as one of the states top employers based on factors such as professional growth, office culture, employee satisfaction, and strength of leadership. The confidential employee survey was collected by Energage to allow employees to share candid feedback.

"It is an honor for DLA to be recognized as one of the top 10 New Jersey Workplaces for the second year in a row by NJ Advanced Media, especially because this distinction stems from our valued employees during the COVID-19 pandemic who have been instrumental to our success," said David Landau, Founder & CEO, DLA LLC. Our goal is to make a difference  in our clients businesses, in our communities and in the lives of our team members. Being recognized as one of the top places to work in New Jersey is a clear indication that we are achieving that goal, continued Landau.

View the list of New Jersey Top Workplaces 2022.

About DLA LLC

Founded in 2001, DLA provides internal audit, accounting, and corporate finance advisory services to hundreds of clients. DLAs leadership team averages 30+ years of experience and is led by Big Four veterans with deep industry expertise. DLA specializes in internal audit, accounting advisory, forensic accounting, valuation and litigation support, tax, risk management, investment banking, and IT advisory services. The company is headquartered in Fairfield, NJ.

For further information about DLA LLC, please visit us at www.dlallc.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220624005287/en/

Peter Okun 973.575.1565

Source: DLA LLC
ARCADIA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Global entrepreneur and Arcadia resident Charles Huang, PhD, has announced he will donate $7.5 million to Methodist Hospital which will be the largest single gift in the 119-year history of the hospital.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220624005494/en/

Methodist Hospital of Southern California in Arcadia will receive it's largest single gift in the hospital's 119-year history on June 27 when the Charles Huang Foundation donates $7.5 million for the construction of a hybrid operating center. (Photo: Business Wire)

Media Invited: Signing Ceremony for Largest-Ever Single Gift to Methodist Hospital Date & Time: Monday, June 27 at 11:30 a.m. Location: Methodist Hospital of Southern California 300 West Huntington Drive, Arcadia Important: Proof of vaccination is required to attend, or you can show proof of a negative COVID test that is less than 48 hours old. Contact: Brian Greene: Cell: 626-354-1484 [email protected] Lee Houskeeper: Cell: 415-654-9141 [email protected] WeTransfer link to the .mov CC - https://we.tl/t-qv1TFYMYeH WeTransfer link to the .mp4 CC - https://we.tl/t-zbBohNAehK YouTube https://youtu.be/8Xzhigmf7RY Livestream: Event will be broadcast live on Facebook at Methodist Hospital of Southern California page

A special private ceremony commemorating this generous donation will be held on Monday, June 27 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Methodist Hospital. News media are invited to attend.

We are so fortunate and pleased with this generous gift from Dr. Huang, which will be used toward the construction of a hybrid operating room, said Mike Driebe, President of the Methodist Hospital Foundation.

A hybrid operating room is an advanced procedural space that combines a traditional operating room with an image guided interventional suite, said Bala Chandrasekhar, MD, Chief Medical Officer of the hospital. With this incredible donation, we will be able to create an OR that will include a combination of equipment and services that allows for highly complex, advanced surgical procedures. Our medical teams working in the hybrid OR are combined as well to form a multi-disciplinary group of clinicians prepared to meet the complex needs of patients which, ultimately, can save lives.

While Dr. Huang is originally from China and is globally known as a highly successful investor and entrepreneur, he has resided in his adopted hometown of Arcadia for more than 20 years. Two of his children were born at Methodist Hospital and attend local schools, and he also has an adult daughter who recently gave birth to his first grandchild at the hospital.

Ive always been impressed with the level of care and services at Methodist Hospital for both my family and several of our employees, Dr. Huang said. Its important for everyone to support local organizations like Methodist Hospital that do so much for our community. We want to do all in our power to help expand needed health care services at the local level. With this new hybrid OR, Methodist Hospital will further distinguish itself as the center of excellence for cardiac surgery and serve even more patients in our local communities more efficiently and effectively.

Dr. Huang is a Chinese American and entrepreneur who has enjoyed a distinguished career with great success in many innovative endeavors. In 2016, he founded Pasaca Capital Inc. and serves as the Chairman of the Pasadena-based multi-billion-dollar private equity company. Dr. Huang is also Chairman of the Charles Huang Foundation.

Prior to becoming a celebrated entrepreneur and a business executive in private and publicly traded companies, Dr. Huang participated in and led over 20 IPOs for Asian and global companies. Early in his career, Dr. Huang was recognized as having the Midas touch because of his unrivaled stock selection skills and impeccable stock market calls. Dr. Huang served as a pioneer in Chinese equity research at James Capel (Now HSBC Securities) in Hong Kong and as a top analyst at Credit Lyonnais and BNP Paribas.

In 2020, Dr. Huang founded the Charles Huang Foundation with a mission to bolster, enable, and inspire global development in education, health, and innovation. Through the foundation, Dr. Huang has made substantial donations to his alma maters, including contributions to the University of Strathclyde in Scotland, and to Wuhan University in China. Most recently, Dr. Huang made a major donation to San Francisco's Chinese Hospital as well as a pledge to create the Charles Huang Foundation Research Fund at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Earlier this year during Asian American Pacific Islander 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 November 2021, Dr. Huang was named "Philanthropreneur of the Year" by the California State Assembly. Pasaca Capital was also named Business of the Year for its extraordinary contributions to the State of California and the world.

About Methodist Hospital: Founded in 1903, Methodist Hospital of Southern California is a full-service community hospital with 348 licensed beds. The hospital offers advanced cardiovascular services including cardiac catheterization, electrophysiology, and open-heart surgery. Los Angeles County has designated Methodist Hospital as both a heart attack and stroke receiving center as well an Emergency Department Approved for Pediatrics. The hospital also offers a variety of services in orthopedics, neurosurgery, obstetrics, and many other medical specialties. As many as 40,000 patients are treated annually in the Emergency Department, while the hospital staff delivers more than 1,500 babies annually and typically has more than 15,000 patient admissions each year.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220624005494/en/

Brian Greene: Cell: 626-354-1484 [email protected]

Lee Houskeeper: Cell: 415-654-9141 [email protected]

Source: Methodist Hospital of Southern California
RICHMOND, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Harris Williams, a global investment bank specializing in M&A advisory services, announces it advised Bamboo Rose, a portfolio company of McCarthy Capital (McCarthy), on its strategic investment from Rubicon Technology Partners (Rubicon). Bamboo Rose is a leading unified product lifecycle and supply chain software platform for retailers, brands, and suppliers. The transaction was led by Andy Leed, Erik Szyndlar, Ryan Costa, Nick DeGallier and Jeff Doremus of the Harris Williams Technology Group.

As a recognized leader in product lifecycle management and supply chain software, Bamboo Rose has developed a powerful platform that connects a global community of retailers, brands, and their suppliers on a single multi-enterprise network, enabling key stakeholders on both the supply and demand side to enhance supply chain visibility, improve product traceability, and meet compliance standards, said Andy Leed, a managing director at Harris Williams. It was a pleasure working with founder and CEO Sue Welch, the Bamboo Rose management team, and McCarthy on this transaction, and we are excited to see what the company accomplishes in partnership with Rubicon.

Rubicons investment in Bamboo Rose represents another premium transaction for Harris Williams within the supply chain software sector, said Ryan Costa, a director at Harris Williams. Increasing supply chain complexity coupled with constantly evolving consumer preferences and a greater focus on environmental, social, and corporate governance initiatives are not only driving demand for Bamboo Roses solutions, but also fueling investment activity across the broader supply chain software sector. We expect strong investor and strategic buyer interest to continue as these trends create new challenges for organizations.

Bamboo Rose is an industry-leading, multi-enterprise product and supply chain software platform that spans the entire lifecycle from design to order and trade management, and helps companies bring great products to market faster, more efficiently, and at higher margins. The platform features a suite of supply chain solutions, including Bamboo Rose B2B Marketplace, product lifecycle management, sourcing, purchase order management, global trade management, and supply chain financing, each of which is supported by intelligent engines for optimization, costing, and scheduling across the platform. Bamboo Rose is headquartered in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

McCarthy Partners Management, LLC is a registered investment advisor that conducts business as McCarthy Capital. McCarthy Capital, headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is focused exclusively on lower-middle market companies. For more than 35 years, the McCarthy organization has been partnering with founders, families, and exceptional management teams to support the growth of their companies. More information about McCarthy Capital can be obtained at www.mccarthycapital.com.

Rubicon invests in enterprise software companies with proven products and talented management teams to help grow and scale their businesses. Rubicon enables companies to adapt to the changing requirements of their businesses as they grow and scale using a proven set of proprietary processes, best practices, and a portfolio-wide engagement model. Rubicon has over $3 billion in assets under management and is headquartered in Boulder, Colorado with additional offices in New Haven, Connecticut and Palo Alto, California. For more information, please visit www.rubicontp.com.

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 Technology Group advises leading private and public companies, founders, and private equity, growth equity and venture capital firms on mergers and acquisitions and capital-raising transactions worldwide. The Technology Group has deep domain expertise in software and technology-enabled services and dedicated focus areas across a variety of vertical software applications and end markets. For more information on the Technology Group and its recent transactions, visit the Technology 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.

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For media inquiries, please contact Julia Moore at [email protected].

Source: Harris Williams
SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Kubota Vision Inc. (Kubota Vision), a clinical-stage ophthalmology company and wholly-owned subsidiary of Kubota Pharmaceutical Holdings Co., Ltd. (Tokyo 4596), announced today the completion of the phase 3 clinical trial investigating emixustat hydrochloride (emixustat) in patients with macular atrophy secondary to Stargardt disease.

The study was a multi-center, randomized, double-masked, and placebo-controlled phase 3 clinical study in which subjects were randomly assigned to emixustat 10 mg or placebo (2:1 ratio) once daily for 24 months. The target total number of subjects was 162; however, due to high interest in the study, a total of 194 subjects were enrolled in this study across 29 sites in 11 countries worldwide. The last patient has completed the study. The primary objective of this study is to determine if emixustat reduces the rate of macular atrophy progression, in comparison to placebo, in subjects with Stargardt disease. Secondary objectives include assessing changes in visual function parameters such as BCVA (best-corrected visual acuity) letter score and reading speed. The database of this study will be locked in the third quarter 2022.

Ryo Kubota, MD, PhD, Chairman, President and CEO of Kubota Vision Inc., stated, Despite Stargardt being a rare disease, we were able to enroll more patients than originally planned and feel grateful that the patients trusted our drug with great expectation and continued taking the drug for two years during the pandemic. We would like to sincerely thank all of the participants and their families for their cooperation and are very pleased that the long-term, large-scale clinical trial has been successfully completed. We are also looking forward to receiving the results of the trial in the coming months.

The FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) and EMA (European Medicines Agency) granted orphan drug designation to emixustat for the treatment of Stargardt disease. (See January 5, 2017 press release titled Acucela Receives Orphan Drug Designation from the FDA for the Treatment of Stargardt Disease and June 9, 2019 press release titled Acucela Receives Orphan Designation from the EMA for Emixustat for the Treatment of Stargardt Disease)

About Stargardt Disease

Stargardt disease is a rare, genetically inherited disease that directly affects the retina of the eye, often resulting in the slow progression of vision loss in children. It may also be referred to as Stargardt macular dystrophy or juvenile macular degeneration and affects approximately 1 in 8,000 - 10,000 individuals worldwide.*1 The most common form of the disease is caused by a genetic mutation of the ABCA4 gene leading to the accumulation of toxic vitamin A byproducts (primarily A2E) in the retina, which results in the gradual deterioration of photoreceptors and vision. Symptoms of Stargardt disease typically appear during childhood or adolescence, but in some cases difficulty with eyesight and vision loss may not be identified until later in life.

Stargardt disease affects less than 150,000 patients in total in the U.S., Europe and Japan where it is recognized as an orphan disease. Currently, there are no known therapies that slow the advance of the disease, and it is recognized as a serious unmet medical need.

*1 Facts About Stargardt Disease, National Eye Institute. https://nei.nih.gov/health/stargardt/star_facts, accessed on 14 September 2018.

About Emixustat Hydrochloride

Emixustat modulates the visual cycle by inhibiting a critical enzyme of this pathway, retinal pigment epithelium protein 65 (RPE65). The visual cycle is the process by which vitamin A is recycled in the eye; vitamin A is crucial to the visual process. Slowing the visual cycle reduces the availability of vitamin A derivatives (11-cis- and all-trans-retinal) to form precursors of toxic A2E and related compounds. In addition, reducing the availability of 11-cis-retinal decreases retinal metabolic demands under dark conditions. Emixustat when delivered orally was found to be generally well tolerated in human clinical studies with delayed dark adaptation being the most common adverse event. Kubota Vision is exploring emixustats potential to stop or slow the progression of vision loss in patients diagnosed with Stargardt disease in an ongoing clinical study.

About Kubota Vision Inc.

Kubota Vision Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kubota Pharmaceutical Holdings Co., Ltd. (Tokyo 4596) committed to translating innovation into a diverse portfolio of drugs and devices to preserve and restore vision for millions of people worldwide. Kubota Pharmaceutical groups development pipeline includes drug candidates for the treatment of diabetic retinopathy and Stargardt disease. The company is also developing a handheld OCT device for the monitoring of neovascular retinal diseases, to be used directly by patients, and wearable device for myopia control. https://www.kubotavision.com/; https://www.kubotaholdings.co.jp/en/

Cautionary Statements: https://www.kubotaholdings.co.jp/en/1/index.html

Kubota Vision, the Kubota Vision logo and Kubota are registered trademarks or trademarks of Kubota Vision Inc. or Kubota Pharmaceutical Holdings in various jurisdictions.

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Media and Investor Relations Contact:

Mikio Fukai

Corporate Planning Division

Phone: +81-3-6550-8928

Email: [email protected]

Source: Kubota Vision Inc.
CUSIP #: 55608D101

Statement Pursuant to Section 19(a) of the Investment Company Act of 1940

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Macquarie Global Infrastructure Total Return Fund Inc. (NYSE: MGU) (the Fund), a closed-end fund, paid a monthly distribution on its common stock of $0.13 per share to shareholders of record at the close of business on June 17, 2022.

The following table sets forth the estimated amount of the sources of distribution for purposes of Section 19 of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, and the related rules adopted thereunder. The Fund estimates the following percentages, of the total distribution amount per share, attributable to (i) current and prior fiscal year net investment income, (ii) net realized short-term capital gain, (iii) net realized long-term capital gain and (iv) return of capital or other capital source as a percentage of the total distribution amount. These percentages are disclosed for the current distribution as well as the fiscal year-to-date cumulative distribution amount per share for the Fund.

Current Distribution from: Per Share ($) % Net Investment Income 0.1009 77.62% Net Realized Short-Term Capital Gain 0.0291 22.38% Net Realized Long-Term Capital Gain 0.0000 0.00% Return of Capital or other Capital Source 0.0000 0.00% Total (per common share) 0.1300 100.00% Fiscal Year-to-Date Cumulative Distributions from: Per Share ($) % Net Investment Income 0.4568 49.54% Net Realized Short-Term Capital Gain 0.2613 28.34% Net Realized Long-Term Capital Gain 0.2039 22.12% Return of Capital or other Capital Source 0.0000 0.00% Total (per common share) 0.9220 100.00%

The amounts and sources of distributions reported in this 19(a) Notice are only estimates and not for tax reporting purposes. The actual amounts and sources of the amounts for tax reporting purposes will depend upon the Funds investment experience during the remainder of its fiscal year and may be subject to changes based on tax regulations. The Fund will send you a Form 1099-DIV for the calendar year that will tell you how to report these distributions for federal income tax purposes.

Presented below are return figures, based on the change in the Funds Net Asset Value per share (NAV), compared to the annualized distribution rate for this current distribution as a percentage of the NAV on the last business day of the month prior to distribution record date.

Fund Performance & Distribution Information

Fiscal Year to Date (12/01/2021 through 5/31/2022) Annualized Distribution Rate as a Percentage of NAV^ 5.15% Cumulative Distribution Rate on NAV^^ 3.04% Cumulative Total Return on NAV* 20.91% Average Annual Total Return on NAV for the 5 Year Period Ending 5/31/2022** 8.46%

^ Based on the Funds NAV as of May 31, 2022.

^^ Cumulative distribution rate is the cumulative amount of distributions paid during the Funds fiscal year ending November 30, 2022 based on the Funds NAV as of May 31, 2022.

*Cumulative total return is based on the change in NAV including distributions paid and assuming reinvestment of these distributions for the period December 1, 2021 through May 31, 2022.

**The 5 year average annual total return is based on change in NAV including distributions paid and assuming reinvestment of these distributions and is through the last business day of the month prior to the month of the current distribution record date.

The payment of dividend distributions in accordance with the distribution policy may result in a decrease in the Funds net assets. A decrease in the Funds net assets may cause an increase in the Funds annual operating expenses and a decrease in the Funds market price per share to the extent the market price correlates closely to the Funds net asset value per share. The distribution policy may also negatively affect the Funds investment activities to the extent that the Fund is required to hold larger cash positions than it typically would hold or to the extent that the Fund must liquidate securities that it would not have sold, for the purpose of paying the dividend distribution. The distribution policy may, under certain circumstances, cause the amounts of taxable distributions to exceed the amount minimally required to be distributed under the tax rules, such excess will be taxable as ordinary income to the extent loss carry forwards reduce the required amount of capital gains distributions in that year. The Board of Directors has the right to amend, suspend or terminate the distribution policy at any time. The amendment, suspension or termination of the distribution policy may affect the Funds market price per share. Investors should consult their tax advisor regarding federal, state, and local tax considerations that may be applicable in their particular circumstances.

While the NAV performance may be indicative of the Funds investment performance, it does not measure the value of a shareholders investment in the Fund. The value of a shareholders investment in the Fund is determined by the Funds market price, which is based on the supply and demand for the Funds shares in the open market. Shareholders should not draw any conclusions about the Funds investment performance from the amount of this distribution or from the terms of the Funds Managed Distribution Plan.

Furthermore, the Board of Directors reviews the amount of any potential distribution and the income, capital gain or capital available. The Board of Directors will continue to monitor the Funds distribution level, taking into consideration the Funds net asset value and the financial market environment. The Funds distribution policy is subject to modification by the Board of Directors at any time. The distribution rate should not be considered the dividend yield or total return on an investment in the Fund.

The Fund is not intended to be a complete investment program. An investment in the Fund involves risks, and the Fund may or may not be able to achieve its investment objective for a variety of reasons. The following summarizes some of the Funds risks but does not purport to be a complete listing of all of the risks. Investors should carefully review the Funds Prospectus and consult their own advisers.

The Fund is also subject to risk because it is an actively managed portfolio. Industry Concentration and Infrastructure Industry Risk. The Fund will be concentrated in the infrastructure industry, and will be more susceptible to adverse economic or regulatory occurrences affecting that industry than a fund that is not concentrated in a specific industry. Non-U.S. Investment Risk. A majority of the Funds investments will be in non-U.S. issuers and a substantial portion of the trades executed for the Fund will take place on foreign exchanges. Investments in securities and instruments of non-U.S. issuers involve certain considerations and risks not ordinarily associated with investments in those of U.S. issuers. Emerging Markets Risk. In addition to non-US investment risk, investments in emerging markets may expose the Fund to heightened risks that may be more volatile than investments in developed markets. Use of Derivatives and Hedging. The Fund may use derivatives and employ a variety of hedging techniques. Derivatives can be illiquid, may disproportionately increase losses and may have a potentially large impact on the Funds performance. Certain of the investment techniques that the Fund may employ for hedging or to increase income or total return will expose the Fund to additional risks. Leverage Risk. The Fund expects to employ leverage as part of its investing strategy. The use of leverage will increase the volatility of the Fund and increase risk to investors. Any difficulty in maintaining the Funds leverage could cause a diversion of cash flow and/or require liquidation of some portion of the Funds portfolio. Restrictions imposed as a result of any leverage may directly or indirectly inhibit the Funds ability to take actions that otherwise may be taken in an unleveraged portfolio of similar assets.

None of the entities noted in this document is an authorized deposit-taking institution for the purposes of the Banking Act 1959 (Commonwealth of Australia) and the obligations of these entities do not represent deposits or other liabilities of Macquarie Bank Limited ABN 46 008 583 542 (Macquarie Bank). Macquarie Bank does not guarantee or otherwise provide assurance in respect of the obligations of these entities. In addition, if this document relates to an investment (a) each investor is subject to investment risk including possible delays in repayment and loss of income and principal invested and (b) none of Macquarie Bank or any other Macquarie Group company guarantees any particular rate of return on or the performance of the investment, nor do they guarantee repayment of capital in respect of the investment.

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Investor/Broker Inquiries

Tel: 866 567-4771

E-mail: [email protected]

Web: www.macquarieim.com/mgu

Media Inquiries

Lee Lubarsky

[email protected]

Sarah Stein

[email protected]

Source: Macquarie Global Infrastructure Total Return Fund Inc.
FRISCO, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Magellan Healthcare, the behavioral and specialty healthcare segment of Magellan Health, Inc., today announced resources and programs in support of Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) Mental Health Awareness Month in July.

One in five Americans has been diagnosed with a mental health or substance use condition.1 While BIPOC experience relatively similar rates of mental health conditions as white people,1 they face unique stressors that increase mental health vulnerability. Racism and discrimination are consistently found to be associated with poorer mental health.2 BIPOC are less likely to receive treatment for mental health or substance use conditions.1 In 2020, 5.7% of Asian Americans, 9.4% of Black people or African Americans, and 10.7% of Hispanic or Latino people received mental health services, compared to 21% of white people.1

Several factors contribute to BIPOC being less likely to receive treatment for mental health or substance use conditions, including a lack of insurance or being underinsured, cultural stigma, a lack of diversity and cultural competence among mental healthcare providers, language barriers, and distrust in the healthcare system.3

Although we are making progress in breaking down mental health stigma and addressing other barriers to care, there is still much to be done to ensure BIPOC get help when its needed, said Samuel L. Williams, III, M.D., MBA, FAPA, child and adult psychiatrist, Magellan Healthcare medical director. Mental health professionals who are culturally competent and culturally humble are available along with a variety of ways to access support. We encourage BIPOC to reach out about any mental health concerns to start feeling better.

To learn more about how to access life-changing support, please join Magellans webinar, Navigating mental healthcare: Unique challenges faced by the BIPOC community, on July 20.

Upcoming Virtual Event

Wednesday, July 20 at 2:00 p.m. ET: Join the webinar, Navigating mental healthcare: Unique challenges faced by the BIPOC community, which will explore different roles in behavioral healthcare and overcoming stigma to help BIPOC feel more knowledgeable and comfortable reaching out for help. Presenters include Dr. Samuel L. Williams, III, M.D., MBA, FAPA, child and adult psychiatrist, Magellan Healthcare medical director; Karen Zelaya-Kendall, PhD, psychologist, Magellan Healthcare senior care manager; Edna Richardson, MSW, LCSW, LFD, Magellan Healthcare senior care manager; and Deborah Price, CFPS, Magellan Healthcare family support coordinator. Visit here for more information and free registration.

Additional Mental Health Support Resources

For BIPOC Mental Health Awareness Month and throughout the year, Magellan shares its clinical and recovery and resiliency expertise through free resources in various formats for adults and youth in communities across the country.

Magellan has several resources available to all individuals, especially those who may be feeling stress or anxiety during these unsettling and increasingly polarized times:

About Magellan Healthcare: Magellan Healthcare, Inc., the healthcare business unit of Magellan Health, Inc., offers solutions for complex conditions in the areas of behavioral health and medical specialty treatment. Magellan Healthcare serves commercial health plans, employers, state and local governments, and the Federal government, including the Department of Defense. For more information, visit MagellanHealthcare.com.

About Magellan Health: Magellan Health, Inc. is a leader in managing the fastest growing, most complex areas of health, including special populations, complete pharmacy benefits and other specialty areas of healthcare. Magellan supports innovative ways of accessing better health through technology, while remaining focused on the critical personal relationships that are necessary to achieve a healthy, vibrant life. Magellan's customers include health plans and other managed care organizations, employers, labor unions, various military and governmental agencies and third-party administrators. For more information, visit MagellanHealth.com.

(MGLN-GEN)

_____________________________

1 2020 SAMHSA National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) Adult Mental Health Tables

2 Racism as a Determinant of Health: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, Self-Reported Experiences of Discrimination and Health: Scientific Advances, Ongoing Controversies, and Emerging Issues, Discrimination and Subsequent Mental Health, Substance Use, and Well-being in Young Adults

3 "Mental Health Disparities: Diverse Populations" American Psychiatric Association

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Media Contact: Lilly Ackley, [email protected], (860) 507-1923

Source: Magellan Health, Inc.
NEW YORK & SAO PAULO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Suzano, the worlds largest hardwood pulp producer, today held its second annual ESG Call centered around its ambition to be a regenerative company for a regenerative society. Todays ESG Call spotlighted measurable progress and ambitions across three core areas of action: climate change, biodiversity and social development.

On Climate Change, the ACT initiative of the French Government and CDP scored Suzano ahead of its pulp and paper industry peers in virtually every metric. In 2021, Suzano brought forward its target for removing 40 million tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere from 2030 to 2025 which is being achieved through improvements to its industrial processes, such as systematically replacing the use of fossil fuels at its industrial plants with biomass, and through conversion of degraded land.

As part of the companys social commitments, Suzano launched a target in 2020 to lift 200,000 people out of poverty. This is more than pertinent, given that in Brazil, 10% of the population lives below the poverty line and 33.1 million Brazilians experience hunger. In the first two years of this poverty project, 11,000 people were raised above the poverty line and a further 34,000 people were reached via social programs. This in turn has resulted in income increasing by 57.5% on average, resulting in revenue generation of US$18 million for these communities, only in 2021.

On the biodiversity agenda, Suzano has worked to build a governance system and a detailed action plan based on dialogues with rural producers and local organizations, on field studies and science-based methodologies. In the second semester of 2022, the company will start the restoration of natural forests and the implementation of production models with ecological functions.

Reflecting on Suzanos ESG goals, CEO Walter Schalka said, Suzano already leads pioneering projects to develop research-based solutions which tackle climate change, preserve natural landscapes and permanently lift whole communities out of poverty. However, there is so much more to achieve and we cannot do this alone. Beyond reaching our own targets, our mission is to build networks with governments, organizations and individual citizens to drive forward impactful and lasting change and create a regenerative system for the benefit of society.

A replay of the ESG Call will be made available on the companys website: https://www.suzano.com.br/en/

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220624005292/en/

Hawthorn Advisors

Jamie Plotnek

[email protected]

Source: Suzano
NEW DELHI--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Tech Data, a TD SYNNEX Company, today announced a partnership with Instructure to bring its learning solutions to India. Instructure powers the worlds smartest classrooms and its products are used by nearly 7,000 organizations around the world. Through this partnership, Tech Data will focus on ensuring that Instructure partners in India will receive the highest levels of support and assistance on the ground.

This new partnership reflects Instructures commitment to the channel, leveraging Tech Datas extensive partner network and local expertise in the Indian subcontinent. The Instructure Learning Platform, and its flagship product Canvas, support tens of millions of educators and learners around the world, and offer learning management, assessment, content, online programs, and analytics built into an easy-to implement and use system.

Instructure is committed to addressing the complex educational needs worldwide by providing them access to its Instructure Learning Platform, said Jack Jackson, Vice President of Global Channel Sales at Instructure. From their deep knowledge of the nuances of the Indian region to their comprehensive partner enablement capabilities, Tech Data is an ideal partner as we look to extend learning throughout India. We look forward to enabling partners across India to realize increased profitability through the fastest-growing EdTech platform in the world.

Tech Data is excited to partner Instructure in the India market, to deliver their leading LMS solutions to the education sector, said Mohit Jain, Vice President of Global Computing Component at Tech Data Asia Pacific & Japan. The Instructure Learning Platform transforms the education experience to become more personal. It delivers the solutions educators need to support, enrich, and connect every aspect of teaching and learning, resulting in significantly improved student success.

The Instructure Learning Platform includes:

Canvas by Instructure: bringing together Canvas LMS, video engagement with Canvas Studio, a branded course catalog system by Canvas Catalog.

Impact by Instructure: helping teachers and students adopt educational technology to promote deeper engagement with learning, while guaranteeing the campus EdTech ecosystem is utilized to its fullest potential.

With educational institutions and corporations shifting to online learning, as well as being a must-have tool to augment in-classroom learning, the demand for Canvas and Impact has never been greater. A partnership with Instructure enables educational institutions and corporations to join forces with the fastest growing ed-tech platform in the world.

Please contact your local Tech Data account manager for more information or to learn more about the Instructure partner program click here.

About Tech Data

Tech Data, a TD SYNNEX (NYSE: SNX) company, is a leading global distributor and solutions aggregator for the IT ecosystem. Were an innovative partner helping more than 150,000 customers in 100+ countries to maximize the value of technology investments, demonstrate business outcomes and unlock growth opportunities. Headquartered in Clearwater, Florida, and Fremont, California, TD SYNNEX 22,000 co-workers are dedicated to uniting compelling IT products, services and solutions from 1,500+ best-in-class technology vendors. Our edge-to-cloud portfolio is anchored in some of the highest-growth technology segments including cloud, cybersecurity, big data/analytics, IoT, mobility and everything as a service. TD SYNNEX is committed to serving customers and communities, and we believe we can have a positive impact on our people and our planet, intentionally acting as a respected corporate citizen. We aspire to be a diverse and inclusive employer of choice for talent across the IT ecosystem. For more information, visit www.TDSYNNEX.com or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

Safe Harbor Statement

Statements in this news release that are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties which may cause the Company's actual results in future periods to be materially different from any future performance that may be suggested in this release. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220623005398/en/

Husain Dewaswala

Senior Manager Marketing, India

Tech Data

Phone: (91) 99204 52027

Email: [email protected]

Source: TD SYNNEX
The Terran Orbital designed and built satellite is flying a trailblazing path to the moon in support of NASAs historic Artemis program

BOCA RATON, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Terran Orbital Corporation (NYSE: LLAP), a global leader in satellite solutions, primarily serving the United States and Allied aerospace and defense industries, today announced the successful integration of the CAPSTONE spacecraft aboard the Rocket Lab Electron rocket. The Terran Orbital designed and built satellite is flying a pathfinding mission to the moon in support of NASAs historic Artemis program. The Terran Orbital team produced CAPSTONEs hardware, assembled and tested the spacecraft, and integrated the satellite for its upcoming launch. The launch will take place from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on New Zealands Mahia Peninsula as early as 10:00 a.m. UTC / 6:00 a.m. EDT / 3:00 a.m. PDT on June 27, 2022. CAPSTONE is owned and operated by Advanced Space on behalf of NASA.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220624005458/en/

CAPSTONE is fully integrated onto the Photon upper stage (Image Credit: Rocket Lab)

The Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) will be the first spacecraft to test the Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO) around the Moon. CAPSTONE includes a radio tower on top that extends its size from a traditional 12U form factor. Rather than follow the typical direct to Moon path, CAPSTONE will follow a ballistic lunar transfer that will extend its reach up to 1.5 million kilometers before returning into lunar orbit  saving propellant and enabling the spacecraft to complete a mission that was previously impossible for a spacecraft of its size.

CAPSTONE is an enormous achievement for small spacecraft exploration, said Terran Orbital Co-Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer Marc Bell. Working alongside NASA, Rocket Lab, and Advanced Space has been a privilege. Terran Orbital is proud to have built, designed, and integrated the spacecraft for this historic mission and we look forward to running spacecraft operations throughout CAPSTONEs journey.

"CAPSTONE is a great example of how NASA and industry working together makes ambitious exploration possible," said NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate Associate Administrator Jim Reuter. "It's incredibly exciting to see this trailblazing small satellite start its journey to the Moon."

The CAPSTONE mission is a testament to the power of collaboration, technological innovation, and perseverance, said Advanced Space Chief Executive Officer and CAPSTONE Principal Investigator Bradley Cheetham. The industry and NASA team delivered a mission that will enable the sustainable exploration, development, and settlement of space. Leading this historic mission for NASA has been an honor. Our teams are focused on the next phase of the launch and ultimately the spacecraft separation in 6 days. From this point our small spacecraft will fly itself to the Moon, leading the way for future missions.

Going to the Moon is a team effort and we have phenomenal mission partners in Terran Orbital, Advanced Space, and NASA, said Rocket Lab Founder and Chief Executive Officer Peter Beck. Together, were bringing missions beyond low Earth orbit within reach and paving a new path to the Moon.

The launch will be broadcast live from approximately 45 minutes prior to lift-off at www.nasa.gov/live.

Visit NASA.gov/capstone and www.terranorbital.com/capstone for full mission information.

For real-time updates on the CAPSTONE mission in the lead-up to launch, follow Terran Orbital, NASA, Rocket Lab, and Advanced Space on Twitter.

@TerranOrbital

@NASA

@NASAAmes

@RocketLab

@AdvancedSpace

About Terran Orbital

Terran Orbital is a leading manufacturer of small satellites primarily serving the United States and Allied aerospace and defense industries. Terran Orbital provides end-to-end satellite solutions by combining satellite design, production, launch planning, mission operations, and on-orbit support to meet the needs of the most demanding military, civil, and commercial customers. Learn more at www.terranorbital.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220624005458/en/

Virginia Norder

[email protected]

949-508-6404

Source: Terran Orbital Corporation
WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- UBS Private Wealth Management today announced that Private Wealth Advisors Mikail Qazi and Timothy Martin have joined the firm in Washington, D.C. The team manages approximately $500 million in client assets for high net worth and ultra-high net worth individuals and families. Mikail and Timothy join the UBS Northeast Private Wealth market, managed by Julie Fox, and report to Branch Manager Brendan Graham.

Mikail and Timothy have decades of industry experience and a deep commitment to helping their clients meet their financial goals and objectives, said Julie Fox, Northeast Market Head at UBS Private Wealth Management. We are thrilled to welcome them to UBS and are confident their expertise will help us continue to grow our business in this important market.

We are committed to providing our high net worth and ultra-high net worth clients with the highest level of personalized service and advice, said John Mathews, Head of UBS Private Wealth Management. Mikail and Timothy will be a strong addition to our private wealth management business, as we continue to expand our local presence in the Washington, D.C. and Northeast market.

Mikail joins UBS from Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, where he spent the past 17 years advising high net worth individuals. Prior to that, he advised high net worth clients on alternative investments at private equity firm Brookwood LLC. Mikail holds the Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor (CRPC) designation and was named to the Forbes Best-in-State Wealth Advisors list for Washington, D.C. for the last four years. He graduated from the University of Virginia as a Rodman Scholar.

Timothy spent the past decade at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management and is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and a Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA). He focuses on advising high net worth individuals and families on retirement planning, investment management and estate planning. Timothy also holds the CRPC designation. He graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in finance from the University of South Carolina.

Mikail and Timothy will be joined by Albana Droboniku, Senior Wealth Strategy Associate.

Notes to Editors

About UBS

UBS convenes the global ecosystem for investing, where people and ideas are connected and opportunities brought to life, and provides financial advice and solutions to wealthy, institutional and corporate clients worldwide, as well as to private clients in Switzerland. UBS offers investment solutions, products and impactful thought leadership, is the leading global wealth manager, provides large-scale and diversified asset management, focused investment banking capabilities, and personal and corporate banking services in Switzerland. The firm focuses on businesses that have a strong competitive position in their target markets, are capital efficient and have an attractive long-term structural growth or profitability outlook.

UBS is present in all major financial centers worldwide. It has offices in more than 50 regions and locations, with about 30% of its employees working in the Americas, 30% in Switzerland, 19% in the rest of Europe, the Middle East and Africa and 21% in Asia Pacific. UBS Group AG employs more than 72,000 people around the world. Its shares are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

https://www.ubs.com

 UBS 2022. All rights reserved. The key symbol and UBS are among the registered and unregistered trademarks of UBS.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220624005388/en/

Media:

Scott Gamm

Strategy Voice Associates

[email protected]

Source: UBS Private Wealth Management
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE: AJG) today announced the acquisition of Wexford, Ireland-based INNOVU Group Holding Company Limited ("INNOVU Insurance"). Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded by Ronan Foley in 2018, INNOVU Insurance is a retail insurance broker offering a broad variety of commercial and personal insurance products and services, as well as financial services, to clients across a diverse range of industry sectors from seven offices throughout Ireland. Ronan Foley and his associates will continue to operate from their current locations, reporting to Michael Rea, who runs Gallagher's retail property/casualty brokerage operations in the UK and Ireland.

"INNOVU gives us our first on-the-ground presence in Ireland and a fantastic opportunity to expand in this growing economic region," said J. Patrick Gallagher, Jr., Chairman, President and CEO. "We are delighted to welcome Ronan and his colleagues, and look forward to working with them to further expand their client base and service offerings."
Avient Corporation (NYSE: AVNT) disclosed:

As previously disclosed, on April 19, 2022, Avient Corporation (Avient) entered into a signing protocol (the Signing Protocol) with Koninklijke DSM N.V., a public limited liability company incorporated under the laws of the Netherlands (Seller). On June 22, 2022, the consultation process with the relevant Dutch works council was completed and on June 23, 2022, pursuant to the terms of the Signing Protocol, Avient and Seller entered into a Sale and Purchase Agreement (the Purchase Agreement) pursuant to which Avient will, among other things, acquire from Seller (a) all of the equity of DSM Protective Materials International B.V., a private limited liability company organized under the laws of the Netherlands, DSM Protective Materials B.V., a private limited liability company organized under the laws of the Netherlands, and DSM Protective Materials LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, and (b) certain other assets related to Sellers protective materials business (such equity and assets together, the DPM Business) (such acquisition of the DPM Business, the Acquisition).

Pursuant to the terms of the Purchase Agreement, Avient has agreed to acquire the DPM Business for an aggregate purchase price of 1,380,300,000, subject to certain customary adjustments for a European locked box transaction (the Purchase Price). Certain Purchase Price payments are Euro-denominated and are subject to change based on fluctuations in the Euro-USD exchange rate.

The closing of the Acquisition is subject to the satisfaction or waiver of customary and other conditions, including the receipt of required regulatory approvals.

The foregoing descriptions are qualified in their entirety by reference to the Purchase Agreement, a copy of which is attached as Exhibit 2.1 to this Current Report on Form 8-K and is incorporated by reference herein.


Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd, a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, announced today that its license partner, Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE, Pfizer), has received a Drug Approval License from the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) in China, for the intravenous formulation of Cresemba (isavuconazole) for the treatment of adult patients with invasive aspergillosis and invasive mucormycosis.

This is the second approved formulation for Cresemba in China, in addition to the oral formulation for invasive aspergillosis and invasive mucormycosis.

David Veitch, Basileas CEO said: We congratulate our partner Pfizer on this additional approval of Cresemba in China. Invasive fungal infections can pose a serious threat to patients. Offering both the oral and the intravenous formulation of Cresemba gives adult patients suffering from invasive aspergillosis and invasive mucormycosis access to the full range of treatment options with Cresemba. China is a very important commercial market, accounting for approximately 20 percent of global sales for newer antifungals.

Cresemba is approved in 68 countries to date and is currently marketed in 57 countries, including the United States, most EU member states and additional countries inside and outside of Europe. In the twelve months between January and December 2021, total global in-market sales of Cresemba amounted to USD 324 million, a 28 percent growth year-on-year.1

About invasive aspergillosis and invasive mucormycosis

Invasive aspergillosis and invasive mucormycosis are life-threatening mold infections that predominantly affect immunocompromised patients, such as patients with hematologic malignancies (blood cancer). Both infections are associated with high morbidity and mortality.
Terran Orbital Corporation (NYSE: LLAP), a global leader in satellite solutions, primarily serving the United States and Allied aerospace and defense industries, today announced the successful integration of the CAPSTONE spacecraft aboard the Rocket Lab Electron rocket. The Terran Orbital designed and built satellite is flying a pathfinding mission to the moon in support of NASAs historic Artemis program. The Terran Orbital team produced CAPSTONEs hardware, assembled and tested the spacecraft, and integrated the satellite for its upcoming launch. The launch will take place from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on New Zealands Mahia Peninsula as early as 10:00 a.m. UTC / 6:00 a.m. EDT / 3:00 a.m. PDT on June 27, 2022. CAPSTONE is owned and operated by Advanced Space on behalf of NASA.

The Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) will be the first spacecraft to test the Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO) around the Moon. CAPSTONE includes a radio tower on top that extends its size from a traditional 12U form factor. Rather than follow the typical direct to Moon path, CAPSTONE will follow a ballistic lunar transfer that will extend its reach up to 1.5 million kilometers before returning into lunar orbit  saving propellant and enabling the spacecraft to complete a mission that was previously impossible for a spacecraft of its size.

CAPSTONE is an enormous achievement for small spacecraft exploration, said Terran Orbital Co-Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer Marc Bell. Working alongside NASA, Rocket Lab, and Advanced Space has been a privilege. Terran Orbital is proud to have built, designed, and integrated the spacecraft for this historic mission and we look forward to running spacecraft operations throughout CAPSTONEs journey.

"CAPSTONE is a great example of how NASA and industry working together makes ambitious exploration possible," said NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate Associate Administrator Jim Reuter. "It's incredibly exciting to see this trailblazing small satellite start its journey to the Moon."

The CAPSTONE mission is a testament to the power of collaboration, technological innovation, and perseverance, said Advanced Space Chief Executive Officer and CAPSTONE Principal Investigator Bradley Cheetham. The industry and NASA team delivered a mission that will enable the sustainable exploration, development, and settlement of space. Leading this historic mission for NASA has been an honor. Our teams are focused on the next phase of the launch and ultimately the spacecraft separation in 6 days. From this point our small spacecraft will fly itself to the Moon, leading the way for future missions.

Going to the Moon is a team effort and we have phenomenal mission partners in Terran Orbital, Advanced Space, and NASA, said Rocket Lab Founder and Chief Executive Officer Peter Beck. Together, were bringing missions beyond low Earth orbit within reach and paving a new path to the Moon.

The launch will be broadcast live from approximately 45 minutes prior to lift-off at www.nasa.gov/live.

Visit NASA.gov/capstone and www.terranorbital.com/capstone for full mission information.
Abortion rights demonstrators protest outside the United States Supreme Court as the court rules in the Dobbs v Womens Health Organization abortion case, overturning the landmark Roe v Wade abortion decision in Washington, U.S., June 24, 2022. REUTERS/

By David Shepardson and Dawn Chmielewski

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. companies including Walt Disney Co and Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc said on Friday they will cover employees' expenses if they have to travel for abortion services after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday overturned the landmark 1973 ruling that recognized a woman's constitutional right to an abortion, handing a victory to Republicans and religious conservatives who want to limit or ban and, in some states criminalize, the procedure.

Many states are expected to further restrict or ban abortions following the ruling, making it difficult for female employees to terminate pregnancies unless they travel to states where the procedure is allowed.

For example, in Oklahoma a bill due to take effect in August bans abortion except in medical emergencies and penalizes providers who violate the law with up to $100,000 in fines and 10 years in prison. States offering abortion protections include New York and Maryland.

Disney told employees on Friday that it remains committed to providing comprehensive access to quality healthcare, including for abortions, according to a Disney spokesperson.

The company's benefits will cover the cost of employees who need to travel to another location to access care, including to obtain an abortion, it said.

Facebook owner Meta will reimburse travel expenses for employees seeking out-of-state reproductive care, but the company was also "assessing how best to do so given the legal complexities involved," according to a spokesperson.

But Meta also moved to limit internal discussion of the ruling. Moderators on its forum Workplace removed posts mentioning abortion, citing a "respectful communications" policy barring employee discussions of political topics, according to a LinkedIn post by a Meta employee in Seattle.

Moderators also took down links to Facebook posts by outgoing Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg that condemned the ruling, the employee wrote.

The Meta spokesperson declined to comment on internal policy when asked about the reports of limiting internal discussion.

Policies supporting abortions varied among companies.

Dick's Sporting Goods Chief Executive Lauren Hobart said on LinkedIn that the company would pay up to $4,000 in travel for employees or their family members and a support person if abortion was not available nearby.

Companies that offer reimbursements for abortion-related travel could be vulnerable to lawsuits by anti-abortion groups and Republican-led states, and even potential criminal penalties.

Lawyers and other experts said employers could face claims that their policies violate state laws banning, facilitating or aiding and abetting abortions.

Ride hailing company Lyft said it would legally shield drivers in abortion cases, saying it would expand a recent policy as new state laws were passed. "No driver should have to ask a rider where they are going and why," a spokesperson said.

A draft of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion was leaked in May. At that time, many other companies, including online review site Yelp, Microsoft Corp, and Tesla, said they would help cover the cost of travel for employees seeking reproductive services. Apple repeated that it supported employees making their own decisions on reproductive health and that its healthcare covered travel for services unavailable nearby.

Yelp co-founder and Chief Executive Jeremy Stoppelman on Friday said the ruling "puts women's health in jeopardy, denies them their human rights, and threatens to dismantle the progress we've made toward gender equality in the workplace since Roe."

Alaska Air Group, parent of Alaska Airlines, said on Friday it is "reimbursing travel for certain medical procedures and treatments if they are not available where you live. Today's Supreme Court decision does not change that."

Other companies offering the benefit include Johnson & Johnson, online dating sites OkCupid and Bumble Inc, Netflix Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co, the nation's largest bank.

OkCupid sent in-app messages to customers in 26 states likely to ban abortions, gearing up for a political fight. "Act now by calling your representatives and demanding freedom and choice," said a copy of the message tweeted by OkCupid Chief Marketing Officer Melissa Hobley.

(Reporting by Nivedita Balu and Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru, Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles, Doyinsola Oladipo and Daniel Wiessner in New York and David Shepardson in Washingon; Writing by Anna Driver and Peter Henderson; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Rosalba O'Brien)
FILE PHOTO: Juul brand vape cartridges are pictured for sale at a shop in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., September 26, 2019. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage

By Praveen Paramasivam

(Reuters) - Juul's U.S. e-cigarette ban could pave the way for Altria, one of its largest investors, to pursue other vaping product makers or go it alone, Wall Street analysts said on Friday.

Despite regulators highlighting the risks of vaping, analysts say e-cigarettes are key to the nicotine industry's future, with JP Morgan analysts expecting the $11-billion U.S. retail market to double in size by 2030.

Altria, like other tobacco majors, has therefore been investing in smokeless options, including snus and snuff, amid a broader crackdown on the use of cigarettes due to health risks.

Under a 2018 deal which gave Altria a 35% stake in Juul, the maker of Marlboro cigarettes in the United States cannot invest or engage in the e-vapor business other than through Juul, which has faced more scrutiny from regulators and lawmakers over the appeal of its nicotine products to teenagers.

However, analysts said Altria's obligations are voided if the value of its stake in Juul falls by more than 90% from the time at which it bought into the once high-flying firm.

The valuation of privately owned Juul has since plummeted, with its value on Altria's balance sheet shrinking 87% to $1.6 billion as of March 31 from $12.8 billion that it paid in 2018.

Altria's shares have lost about 7%, or nearly $6 billion, in market value since Wednesday after reports that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was preparing to ban Juul's products.

The regulator on Thursday said Juul's applications "lacked sufficient evidence" to show that sale of the products would be appropriate for public health.

"With the elimination of the non-compete, Altria could pursue M&A in e-vapor, or organic product development," Cowen analyst Vivien Azer said.

In response to the FDA's ban on its e-cigarette, Juul said it was looking to get a stay and also appeal the decision, which analysts have said would help it to keep its products on the market.

Bernstein analyst Callum Elliott said in a note this week that Altria could try to buy privately owned Njoy, which has already succeeded with its PMTA (Premarket Tobacco Product Application) process applications.

Altria and Juul did not respond to requests for comment.

Before Njoy, British American Tobacco's Vuse Solo e-cigarettes and tobacco-flavored pods had become the first-ever vapor products to receive clearance from the health regulator in October last year.

"(The FDA) decision points toward the need for Altria to accelerate its investments in alternative nicotine-delivery systems sooner rather than later," Edward Jones analyst John Boylan said.

(Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Bengaluru; Editing by Aishwarya Venugopal and Arun Koyyur)
FILE PHOTO: A passenger walks past a Delta Airlines plane at a gate at Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., January 3, 2022. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -An airline industry trade group said on Friday the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) must ensure adequate air traffic control (ATC) staffing to avoid further summer travel disruptions.

Airlines for America told U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a letter that the staffing challenges are disrupting flights even in good weather.

The Jacksonville Air Route Traffic Control Center in Florida had been "understaffed for 27 of the last 30 days, which is crippling to the entire east coast traffic flows," the group noted.

Travelers are already facing a difficult summer as airlines expect record demand and as they rebuild staff levels after thousands of workers left the industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. As of Friday afternoon https://flightaware.com/live/cancelled, airlines had cancelled 573 flights and delayed more than 2,600, according to FlightAware.

Airlines for America sought a meeting with transportation officials "to discuss how we can work together to better understand FAAs controller staffing plan for the upcoming July 4th weekend and summer travel season."

The FAA responded in a statement that "after receiving $54 billion in pandemic relief to help save the airlines from mass layoffs and bankruptcy, the American people deserve to have their expectations met."

The agency added it "has acted on the issues raised in the letter" including adding alternate routes, placing more controllers in high demand areas, and increasing data sharing.

The FAA said in May it would boost air traffic control staff in Florida.

Last week, Buttigieg called a virtual meeting with the chief executives of major U.S. airlines to discuss thousands of recent flight cancellations and delays over the Memorial Day holiday weekend. He urged airlines to ensure they can reliably operate planned summer schedules.

Airlines for America's Friday letter, released publicly, said carriers "pulled down 15% of summer (June-August) flights relative to what they had planned for at the outset of 2022."

The letter said one carrier estimated ATC-related issues "were a factor in at least one-third of recent cancellations." The group said ATC "staffing challenges have led to traffic restrictions under blue sky conditions."

The letter also said it was "imperative" to ensure adequate staffing at New York Terminal Radar Approach Control. It urged the FAA "to share its staffing plan with airlines" for the July 4 holiday period and to schedule space launch airspace closures "to avoid high-volume air traffic times."

On Thursday, USDOT said U.S. consumers lodged more than quadruple the number of complaints against U.S. airlines in April compared with pre-pandemic levels as on-time arrivals fell below 2019 levels.

(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Mark Porter, Matthew Lewis and Richard Chang)
FILE PHOTO: Abortion rights supporters and anti-abortion demonstrators protest outside the United States Supreme Court in Washington, U.S., June 21, 2022. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo

By Lawrence Hurley and Andrew Chung

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that recognized women's constitutional right to abortion, a decision condemned by President Joe Biden that will dramatically change life for millions of women in America and exacerbate growing tensions in a deeply polarized country.

The court, in a 6-3 ruling powered by its conservative majority, upheld a Republican-backed Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The vote was 5-4 to overturn Roe, with conservative Chief Justice John Roberts writing separately to say he would have upheld the Mississippi law without taking the additional step of erasing the Roe precedent altogether.

The reverberations of the ruling will be felt far beyond the court's high-security confines - potentially reshaping the battlefield in November's elections to determine whether Biden's fellow Democrats retain control of Congress and signaling a new openness by the justices to change other long-recognized rights.

The decision will also intensify debate over the legitimacy of the court, once an unassailable cornerstone of the American democratic system but increasingly under scrutiny for its more aggressively conservative decisions on a range of issues.

The ruling restored the ability of states to ban abortion. Twenty-six states are either certain or considered likely to ban abortion. Mississippi is among 13 states with so-called trigger laws to ban abortion with Roe overturned. (For related graphic click https://tmsnrt.rs/3Njv3Cw)

In a concurring opinion that raised concerns the justices might roll back other rights, conservative Justice Clarence Thomas urged the court to reconsider past rulings protecting the right to contraception, legalizing gay marriage nationwide, and invalidating state laws banning gay sex.

The justices, in the ruling written by conservative Justice Samuel Alito, held that the Roe decision that allowed abortions performed before a fetus would be viable outside the womb - which occurs between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy - was wrongly decided because the U.S. Constitution makes no specific mention of abortion rights.

Women with unwanted pregnancies in large swathes of America now may face the choice of traveling to another state where the procedure remains legal and available, buying abortion pills online, or having a potentially dangerous illegal abortion.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in a concurring opinion, appeared to nix an idea advocated by some anti-abortion advocates that the next step is for the court to declare that the Constitution outlaws abortion. "The Constitution neither outlaws abortion nor legalizes abortion," Kavanaugh wrote.

Kavanaugh also said that the ruling does not let states bar residents from traveling to another state to obtain an abortion, or retroactively punish people for prior abortions.

'SAD DAY'

Biden condemned the ruling as taking an "extreme and dangerous path."

"It's a sad day for the court and for the country," Biden said at the White House. "The court has done what it has never done before: expressly take away a constitutional right that is so fundamental to so many Americans."

Empowering states to ban abortion makes the United States an outlier among developed nations on protecting reproductive rights, the Democratic president added.

Biden urged Congress to pass a law protecting abortion rights, an unlikely proposition given its partisan divisions. Biden said his administration will protect women's access to medications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration including pills for contraception and medication abortion, while also combating efforts to restrict women from traveling to other states to obtain abortions.

Britain, France and some other nations called the ruling a step backward, although the Vatican praised it, saying it challenged the world to reflect on life issues.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the decision was "a loss for women everywhere". "Watching the removal of a woman's fundamental right to make decisions over their own body is incredibly upsetting," she said in a statement.

U.S. companies including Walt Disney Co, AT&T (NYSE: T) and Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc said they will cover employees' expenses if they now have to travel for abortion services.

'DAMAGING CONSEQUENCES'

A draft version of Alito's ruling indicating the court was ready to overturn Roe was leaked in May, igniting a political firestorm. Friday's ruling largely tracked this leaked draft.

"The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision," Alito wrote in the ruling.

Roe v. Wade recognized that the right to personal privacy under the Constitution protects a woman's ability to terminate her pregnancy. The Supreme Court in a 1992 ruling called Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey reaffirmed abortion rights and prohibited laws imposing an "undue burden" on abortion access. Friday's ruling overturned the Casey decision as well.

"Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division," Alito added.

The court's three liberal justices - Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan - issued a jointly authored dissent.

"Whatever the exact scope of the coming laws, one result of today's decision is certain: the curtailment of women's rights, and of their status as free and equal citizens," they wrote.

As a result of Friday's ruling, "from the very moment of fertilization, a woman has no rights to speak of. A state can force her to bring a pregnancy to term, even at the steepest personal and familial costs," the liberal justices added.

The ruling empowered states to ban abortion just a day after the court's conservative majority issued another decision limiting the ability of states to enact gun restrictions.

The abortion and gun rulings illustrated the polarization in America on a range of issues, also including race and voting rights.

Overturning Roe was long a goal of Christian conservatives and many Republican officeholders, including former President Donald Trump, who as a candidate in 2016 promised to appoint justices to the Supreme Court who would reverse Roe. During his term he named three to the bench, all of whom joined the majority in the ruling.

Asked in a Fox News interview whether he deserved some credit for the ruling, Trump said: "God made the decision."

Crowds gathered outside the courthouse, surrounded by a tall security fence. Anti-abortion activists erupted in cheers after the ruling, while some abortion rights supporters were in tears.

"I'm ecstatic," said Emma Craig, 36, of Pro Life San Francisco. "Abortion is the biggest tragedy of our generation and in 50 years we'll look back at the 50 years we've been under Roe v. Wade with shame."

Hours later, protesters angered by the decision still gathered outside the court, as did crowds in cities from coast to coast including New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles and Seattle.

House of Representatives Speaker Democrat Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, denounced the decision, saying that a "Republican-controlled Supreme Court" has achieved that party's "dark and extreme goal of ripping away women's right to make their own reproductive health decisions."

The number of U.S. abortions increased by 8% during the three years ending in 2020, reversing a 30-year trend of declining numbers, according to data https://www.guttmacher.org/article/2022/06/long-term-decline-us-abortions-reverses-showing-rising-need-abortion-supreme-court released on June 15 by the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley and Andrew Chung; Additional reporting by Katanga Johnson and Rose Horowitch; Writing by Lawrence Hurley and Ross Colvin; Editing by Will Dunham, Scott Malone, Daniel Wallis and Michael Perry)
TORONTO, June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (Allied) (TSX: AP.UN) will hold a conference call and live audio webcast at 10:00 a.m. (ET) on Thursday, July 28, 2022, to discuss financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2022. The financial results will be released on Wednesday, July 27, 2022, after the markets close.

The conference call can be accessed by dialing 1(888)394-8218 or (647)484-0475. The webcast will be accessible at www.alliedreit.com and will be archived for 90 days.

Allied is a leading operator of distinctive urban workspace in Canadas major cities and network-dense UDC space in Toronto. Allieds mission is to provide knowledge-based organizations with workspace and UDC space that is sustainable and conducive to human wellness, creativity, connectivity and diversity. Allieds vision is to make a continuous contribution to cities and culture that elevates and inspires the humanity in all people.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:Michael R. EmoryPresident and Chief Executive Officer(416) 977-9002[email protected]

Cecilia C. WilliamsExecutive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer(416) 977-9002[email protected]

Source: Allied Properties REIT
TORONTO, June 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (TSX: DGS, GDV, GDV.PR.A, LBS, LBS.PR.A, OSP.PR.A, PWI, PWI.PR.A, SBC, SBC.PR.A)  Brompton Funds announces distributions payable on July 15, 2022 to class A shareholders of record at the close of business on June 30, 2022 for each of the following funds:

Fund Name Ticker Amount Per Share Global Dividend Growth Split Corp. GDV $ 0.10 Life & Banc Split Corp. LBS $ 0.10 Sustainable Power & Infrastructure Split Corp. PWI $ 0.06667 Brompton Split Banc Corp. SBC $ 0.10

Brompton Funds also announces distributions payable on July 15, 2022 to preferred shareholders of record at the close of business on June 30, 2022 for the following fund:

Fund Name Ticker Amount Per Share Global Dividend Growth Split Corp. GDV.PR.A $ 0.1250 Life & Banc Split Corp. LBS.PR.A $ 0.13625 Brompton Oil Split Corp. OSP.PR.A $ 0.1625 Sustainable Power & Infrastructure Split Corp. PWI.PR.A $ 0.1250 Brompton Split Banc Corp. SBC.PR.A $ 0.1250

The funds noted above offer distribution reinvestment plans (DRIP) for class A shareholders which provide class A shareholders with the ability to automatically reinvest distributions, commission free, and realize the benefits of compound growth. Class A shareholders can enroll in a DRIP program by contacting their investment advisor.

In accordance with its articles of incorporation in order to preserve the net asset value, the distribution for the month of June will not be paid on the class A shares of Dividend Growth Split Corp. (DGS) as the net asset value per unit (consisting of one class A share and one preferred share) as at June 23, 2022 (after taking into account the potential payment of the distribution) was less than $15.00. DGS will re-evaluate the payment of class A share distributions in each month with the expectation that monthly distributions will be announced if the net asset value per unit of each fund meets this requirement.

About Brompton FundsFounded in 2000, Brompton is an experienced investment fund manager with income focused investment solutions including exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other TSX traded investment funds. For further information, please contact your investment advisor, call Bromptons investor relations line at 416-642-6000 (toll-free at 1-866-642-6001), email [email protected] or visit our website at www.bromptongroup.com.

You will usually pay brokerage fees to your dealer if you purchase or sell shares of the investment funds on the Toronto Stock Exchange or other alternative Canadian trading system (an exchange). If the shares are purchased or sold on an exchange, investors may pay more than the current net asset value when buying shares of the investment fund and may receive less than the current net asset value when selling them.

There are ongoing fees and expenses associated with owning shares of an investment fund. An investment fund must prepare disclosure documents that contain key information about the funds. You can find more detailed information about the funds in the public filings available at www.sedar.com. Investment funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated.

Certain statements contained in this document constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking information may relate to matters disclosed in this document and to other matters identified in public filings relating to the funds, to the future outlook of the funds and anticipated events or results and may include statements regarding the future financial performance of the funds. In some cases, forward-looking information can be identified by terms such as may, will, should, expect, plan, anticipate, believe, intend, estimate, predict, potential, continue or other similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. Actual results may vary from such forward-looking information. Investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and we assume no obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances.

Source: Brompton Funds
CLEVELAND, June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- REPORTERS AND EDITORS: The three national officers of the United Church of Christ issued the following statement today in response to the U.S. Supreme Courts decision eliminating, after almost 50 years, the constitutional right to an abortion. The church's national ministries will offer "HOPE BEYOND ROE: A Service of Gathering and Lament online at 6 p.m. ET today. It can be viewed on YouTube, here.

-----

Long before the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, the United Church of Christ, by action of the General Synod, affirmed the right of every individual to follow their personal religious and moral convictions regarding their reproductive healthcare. We continue to stand by this conviction today. This religious and moral agency includes the autonomy of birthing people to decide whether to complete or terminate a pregnancy.

Our Synod resolutions, which represent the will of the church in light of scripture, highlight the importance of ensuring access to the full range of reproductive health care regardless of race, religion, or economic status. We do not take this stand in spite of faith, but rather because of it. Throughout sacred text humankind is tasked with care of self and others. Bodily autonomy is a human right given by God.

Todays Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, discarding nearly 50 years of precedent, will endanger the lives and well-being of birthing people who do not choose to continue pregnancy. God loves and cares for people who have abortions, and so does the United Church of Christ. We believe all people have the right to make their own decisions about their bodies and medical treatment. We believe women have an inalienable right to shape the direction of their lives as they see fit, and no institution established by humankind should supersede such freedom.

The Supreme Courts decision to vacate Roe v. Wade and return the protection of a womans human right to states represents a continual effort to oppress women and people who can give birth. Such uniform repression targeted at one specific class of people, namely those who have a uterus, creates yet another stark division in a country that so desperately needs unity. In addition to gender bias, such a rendering also disproportionately effects birthing people of color and women in rural or low-income areas who face challenges in access to safe and medically supervised reproductive health care, including abortions. The gravity of this decision and the devastation of its impact cannot be overstated.

Through the prophet Isaiah, God offers these words of comfort to the Israelites during a challenging time: So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10) These are not words that assuage us with easy answers and shallow promises. There is no declaration that things will be better tomorrow. They will not be. But they do promise that we are not alone in our struggles.

We, the officers of the United Church of Christ, want those feeling the pain of todays decision to know that you are not alone. God has not abandoned you and neither will we. We will do what we always do when the law loses its love. We will grieve with you and offer space for lament and mourning. We will work with you until the rights of every person are honored in this land. We will stand with you in protest. We will kneel with you in prayer. And we will maintain our commitment to educate people about abortion access and safe medically supported reproductive healthcare. Now and always, we remain firm in the knowledge that all are beloved of God, and this cause is right and holy.

The Rev. Dr. John C. Dorhauer, General Minister and President

The Rev. Traci Blackmon, Associate General Minister

The Rev. Dr. Karen Georgia A. Thompson, Associate General Minister

# # #

The United Church of Christ, a mainline Protestant denomination, has more than 770,000 members in 4,794 congregations nationwide. Headquartered in Cleveland, it is a church of many firsts: the first mainline denomination to ordain a woman, the first to ordain an openly gay man and the first predominantly white denomination to ordain an African American. More on its Justice and Local Church Ministries is here; collections of statements of its past General Synods are here.

Attachment

Connie Larkman United Church of Christ 2167362196 [email protected]

Source: United Church of Christ
NOTIFICATION AND PUBLIC DISCLOSURE OF TRANSACTIONS BY PERSONS DISCHARGING MANAGERIAL RESPONSIBILITIES IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE EU AND UK MARKET ABUSE REGIMES

June 24, 2022

Shell plc announces that the following Person Discharging Managerial Responsibilities (PDMR) has received the number of shares of Shell plc as set out below, following the vesting of a conditional award granted on June 18, 2021 under the Powering Progress Share Award (PPSA).

POWERING PROGRESS SHARE AWARD PDMR VESTING DATE SHARE TYPE NUMBER OF SHARES VESTED Zoe Yujnovich June 20, 2022 SHELL (AMS) 53

The Notification of Dealing Form for the PDMR can be found below.

This notification is made in accordance with Article 19 of the EU Market Abuse Regulation.

Anthony Clarke

Deputy Company Secretary

ENQUIRIES

Shell Media Relations

International, UK, European Press: +44 20 7934 5550

LEI number of Shell plc: 21380068P1DRHMJ8KU70Classification: Additional regulated information required to be disclosed under the laws of a Member State.

1. Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities/person closely associated First Name(s) Zoe Last Name(s) Yujnovich 2. Reason for the notification Position/status Upstream Director Initial notification/ amendment Initial notification 3. Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor Full name of the entity Shell plc Legal Entity Identifier code 21380068P1DRHMJ8KU70 4. Details of the transaction(s): section to be repeated for (i) each type of instrument; (ii) each type of transaction; (iii) each date; (iv) each place where transactions have been conducted Description of the financial instrument Ordinary shares of 0.07 each Identification Code GB00BP6MXD84 Nature of the transaction Vesting of award granted in 2021 under the Powering Progress Share Award (PPSA) Currency EUR Price NIL Volume 53 Total N/A Aggregated informationVolume PriceTotal 53NILN/A Date of transaction June 20, 2022 Place of transaction Outside a trading venue

Source: Shell plc
Washington, D.C., June 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The New Civil Liberties Alliance commends the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit for granting en banc review in Michael Cargill v. Merrick B. Garland, et al. today. NCLA is challenging the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives newly discovered interpretation of a 35-year-old statute to reverse earlier ATF determinations that bump-stock devices were not machineguns. Congress has generally banned the possession of fully automatic machineguns but has not prohibited bump stocks, and it is thus unlawful for a prosecutorial entity like ATF to rewrite the law in Congresss place. NCLA seeks to overturn the federal ban on bump stocks to prevent ATFs usurpation of Congresss proper legislative role.

ATFs bump-stock ban has a significant negative impact on hundreds of thousands of law-abiding citizens. By ATFs own estimate, Americans purchased as many as 520,000 bump stocks during the decade-plus interval when ATF said that it was legal to do so. In ruling against Mr. Cargill, the Fifth Circuit panel branded him and all others who purchased bump stocks before 2018 as felons who have avoided criminal liability solely because the federal government has chosen to exercise prosecutorial discretion.

The Fifth Circuit panel held that the bump-stock rules re-interpretation of the statutory definition of machinegunswhich ATF used to define bump stocks as machinegunsis the best interpretation of the statute. Several federal appeals courts have addressed the meaning of the statute in question. The panels decision conflicts with the decision of every one of the other appeals courts that has ruled on the issue. A conflict among the circuits existed even before the panels ruling, which has only exacerbated the split. By agreeing to rehear the case en banc, the Fifth Circuit now has an opportunity to correct the panels legal errors.

The en banc court will consider two issues of exceptional importance: (1) does the statutes definition of machineguns unambiguously include bump stocks?; and (2) if the statute is ambiguous, is ATFs construction entitled to Chevron deference, or does the rule of lenity require interpreting any ambiguity in this statute that has criminal applications in Mr. Cargills favor? The case is calendared for oral argument in New Orleans, LA, on September 12. NCLA has a similar case pending cert. at the U.S. Supreme Court in Aposhian v. Garland, et al.

NCLA released the following statements:

The New Civil Liberties Alliance is delighted that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has agreed to hear Michael Cargills case en banc. The issue of whether the rule of lenity or Chevron deference has a role to play in construing the statutory ban on machine guns in a way that outlaws bump stocks is extremely important. Given that two other circuits have heard similar cases en banc, we are not surprised by todays news. But we do look forward to presenting Mr. Cargills case to the full court, and we are confident that it ultimately will correct the multiple legal errors in the panel decision below. Mark Chenoweth, President and General Counsel, NCLA

The Fifth Circuit panel decision was out of step with other judges around the country, a majority of whom have determined that ATF overstepped its authority when it reversed its longstanding position and held that bump stocks are illegal machineguns. We are gratified that the en banc Fifth Circuit has agreed to step in and take a second look at the panels rubberstamping of the ATFs decision. Rich Samp, Senior Litigation Counsel, NCLA

For more information visit the case page here and the case video here.

ABOUT NCLA

NCLA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group founded by prominent legal scholar Philip Hamburger to protect constitutional freedoms from violations by the Administrative State. NCLAs public-interest litigation and other pro bono advocacy strive to tame the unlawful power of state and federal agencies and to foster a new civil liberties movement that will help restore Americans fundamental rights.

###

Judy Pino New Civil Liberties Alliance 202-869-5218 [email protected]

Source: New Civil Liberties Alliance
The University celebrates Rapacciolis significant impact on the Gabelli School of Business andits standing as a leader in higher education for ESG-driven undergraduate and graduate business programs

New York, New York, June 22, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- After more than 15 years of distinguished service, Dean Donna Rapaccioli, Ph.D., will be stepping down as dean of the Gabelli School of Business at Fordham University, effective June 30, 2022. Following her highly successful tenure as the leader of the Gabelli School, Rapaccioli will return to a faculty position within the school and devote herself anew to teaching, learning and research.



In May, Fordham University President Rev. Joseph P. McShane, S.J., celebrated the influence Rapaccioli has had on the Gabelli School by naming her dean emerita, and her work has solidified the schools business program as a leader in the principles of environmental, social and governance standards (ESG). A Fordham alumna herself, Rapaccioli led the unification of Fordhams undergraduate and graduate business schools in 2015 to form the high-functioning Gabelli School of Business, named after Mario Gabelli, a 1965 Fordham business graduate, following a pivotal donation from Mr. Gabelli, Regina Pitaro, a 1976 Fordham graduate, and the Gabelli Family Foundation. Significant growth in business enrollments at the undergraduate and graduate levels occurred under Rapacciolis leadership. In 2015, Rapaccioli launched the schools first doctoral programs: a Ph.D. program, and a Doctor of Professional Studies program that trains international executives in the foundational principles of academic business research.



The reputation and standing of the Gabelli School has been on a steady upward trajectory during Rapacciolis tenure. The full-time MBA program went from unranked in the US News & World Report to its current position of #64. The school holds seven top-25 academic area rankings in US News, and the undergraduate program is currently ranked #22 by Poets & Quants. Within the business education marketplace, true to the tenets of Jesuit education, Fordham has become widely recognized as a flagship institution promoting responsible and sustainable business. The Gabelli Schools culture of high-quality, high-impact research is evidenced by faculty members publishing more than 400 refereed journal articles in the last 5 years, with nearly 75 appearing in the Financial Times top-50.



Donna Rapacciolis role at the Gabelli School of Business has positively impacted students, faculty, and alumni alike through her unwavering dedication to the university. Additionally, during her time at Fordham as dean, Rapaccioli has:



 Led the Transformation of the Gabelli Schools Core Business Programs: In her role as the dean, Rapaccioli initiated the development and oversaw implementation of

the undergraduate integrated core as well as applied learning opportunities, including the Ground Floor, which provides first-year students with a holistic view of business management and sustainable business practices. Under her leadership and guidance, the Gabelli School also launched three online MS programs, redesigned the PMBA curriculum, and expanded the schools STEM programs. These initiatives and more have led to a 20% increase in student enrollment in the past decade while

Rapaccioli served as dean.



 Established a Commitment to Business with Purpose, Social Good and Innovation: Rapacciolis emphasis on ESG standards at the Gabelli School has created an academic environment for students and professionals to engage with and implement sustainable business practices. The Responsible Business Coalition, an incubator for modern business leaders to collaborate on actionable change, and the Fordham Social Innovation Collaboratory (a network of students, faculty and alumni promoting social innovation) have allowed students and faculty to further practice the work of implementing ESG standards in business. Fordham was also named an AshokaU

Changemaker Campus and the Gabelli School earned distinction as a UN PRME champion institution. With this deep commitment to better business practices, Rapaccioli

has established more than 85 corporate collaborations in support of student learning, co-curricular activities, and faculty research, and has raised $100 million for business education.



 Fostered a Culture of Community and Care for Students: Rapacciolis student- centered approach has created a collaborative space for both students and faculty

members. Her commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging led to the establishment of the Gabelli Schools first DEI team. Her time to solicit student feedback to continuously ensure the college experience is the best it can be has led to meaningful improvements across campus from supporting students mental health concerns to building a vast network of alumni to strengthen students career opportunities post- graduation. With Rapacciolis work, undergrad placement rates are at 96% and internship placement rates are at 98% (based on Class of 2021 data)



It has been an honor to share in the accomplishments of the Gabelli Schools faculty and students. Ill look back on their successes  and impacts on society  as the most rewarding part of my tenure as dean, Rapaccioli said. Its been humbling and inspiring to be immersed in the culture of compassion and teamwork that defines the Gabelli School. When the time comes, Im looking forward to returning to my roots as a faculty member within the Gabelli School alongside the compassionate global business leaders of tomorrow.



Following Dean Rapacciolis departure, Lerzan Aksoy, Ph.D., current professor and associate dean in the Gabelli School, will serve as interim dean beginning July 1, 2022. Aksoy has served in the deans office for the past seven years, leading undergraduate studies and strategic initiatives.

A national search for the next dean of the Gabelli School of Business will commence in the fall. Its anticipated that Fordham Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Dennis Jacobs will appoint a candidate by July 1, 2023. To learn more about Donna Rapaccioli and her accomplishments at Fordham University, please visit https://www.fordham.edu/business/

Gabelli School of Business at Fordham University

Founded in 1920, the mission of the Gabelli School of Business is to inspire and empower positive global change, developing students into compassionate business leaders and supporting faculty and students in the ongoing generation of new knowledge. The Gabelli Schools vision is to become a world leader in social innovation by inspiring and equipping its graduates to be business leaders who understand the challenges in sustainability facing businesses and the potential harnessing of the power of social responsibility for both financial success and societal impact.
HOUSTON, June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kirby Corporation ("Kirby") (NYSE: KEX) will announce its 2022 second quarter results at 6:00 a.m. Central Daylight Time (CDT) on Thursday, July 28, 2022. This announcement will be followed by an earnings conference call webcast at 7:30 a.m. CDT.



To listen to the webcast, please visit the Investor Relations section of Kirbys website at www.kirbycorp.com. For listeners who wish to participate in the question and answer session via telephone, please pre-register at Kirby Earnings Call Registration. All registrants will receive dial-in information and a PIN allowing them to access the live call. A replay of the webcast will be available for a period of one year by visiting the Investor Relations section of Kirbys website.

The financial and other information to be discussed in the conference call will be available in the 2022 second quarter press release and in a Form 8-K to be posted prior to the call on Kirbys website at www.kirbycorp.com.

Kirby Corporation, based in Houston, Texas, is the nations largest domestic tank barge operator transporting bulk liquid products throughout the Mississippi River System, on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, and coastwise along all three United States coasts. Kirby transports petrochemicals, black oil, refined petroleum products and agricultural chemicals by tank barge. In addition, Kirby participates in the transportation of dry-bulk commodities in United States coastwise trade. Through the distribution and services segment, Kirby provides after-market service and genuine replacement parts for engines, transmissions, reduction gears, electric motors, drives, and controls, specialized electrical distribution and control systems, energy storage battery systems, and related equipment used in oilfield services, marine, power generation, on-highway, and other industrial applications. Kirby also rents equipment including generators, industrial compressors, high capacity lift trucks, and refrigeration trailers for use in a variety of industrial markets. For the oil and gas market, Kirby manufactures and remanufactures oilfield service equipment, including pressure pumping units, and manufactures electric power generation equipment, specialized electrical distribution and control equipment, and high capacity energy storage/battery systems for oilfield customers.
TORONTO, June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canadas food workers union, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW Canada), will be holding a press conference in Leamington, Ontario, to release the unions 2022 Status of Migrant Farm Workers in Canada report.

The 2022 report details the need for urgent reforms to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) and is based on the direct input of TFWs and the unions 30 years of advocacy on behalf of migrant agricultural workers. Despite their tremendous contributions to Canadas food sector, some migrant agricultural workers experience mistreatment by employers and endure other forms of abuse, including human trafficking.

What: Food Workers Press Conference / Official release of the 2022 Status of Migrant Farm Workers in Canada reportWho: Dozens of migrant farm workers and representatives from the food workers unionWhen: Sunday, June 26 at 5:00 p.m. EDTWhere: 14 Albert Street, Leamington, ON, N8H 3J6

About UFCW Canada: UFCW Canada is the countrys leading private sector union, representing more than 250,000 union members across Canada working in food retail and processing, agriculture, transportation, health care, logistics, warehousing, hospitality, manufacturing, and the security and professional sectors. UFCW is the country's most innovative organization dedicated to building fairness in workplaces and communities. UFCW Canada members are your neighbours who work at your local grocery stores, hotels, car rental agencies, nursing homes, restaurants, food processing plants, and thousands of other locations across the country. To learn more about UFCW and its ground-breaking work, visit www.ufcw.ca.

MEDIA CONTACT:Derek JohnstoneUFCW CanadaPhone: 416-720-8858Email: [email protected]

Source: UFCW Canada
John C. Byrd, M.D., Renowned Cancer Clinician and Researcher, Named Chair of Scientific Advisory Board

New Collaboration with Northeast Ohio Medical University Further Demonstrates Companys Commitment to State of Ohio as Leading Biotech Hub

CINCINNATI, June 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Orange Grove Bio, a preclinical drug investment and development firm, today announced several key leadership appointments highlighted by its naming John C. Byrd, M.D., a renowned cancer clinician and researcher, as chair of the companys scientific advisory board. Additionally, the company appointed Rob Scott, M.D., retired chief medical officer and head of development at AbbVie, to its advisory board and named Michael Kalos, Ph.D., as the head of its cellular therapy business unit. These appointments further strengthen Orange Groves growing leadership team and support the companys mission of developing new therapeutics for patients by harnessing the significant research potential found in universities and academic medical centers across the United States.

Dr. Byrd currently serves as the Gordon and Helen Hughes Taylor endowed chair and professor of the department of internal medicine at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He is also a physician scientist who has spearheaded a range of translational and clinical drug development efforts that have directly resulted in United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of four novel cancer therapeutics in the past two decades. A leading expert in the field of hematologic oncology, Dr. Byrd also serves as chief medical officer for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Beat AML Study, highlighting his unique expertise in bringing together academic clinical investigators, pharmaceutical companies, clinical research organizations and the FDA to efficiently advance novel therapies toward regulatory approval. Prior to joining the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, he served as director of the division of hematology in the department of medicine at the Ohio State University. As a major in the U.S. Army, Dr. Byrd conducted his residency and fellowship at Walter Reed Army Medical Center before transitioning to a staff physician.

I am excited to join the Orange Grove Bio scientific advisory board as I believe the companys unique approach to focusing its company creation and therapeutic development efforts outside of the traditional U.S. biotech ecosystems is well positioned to drive innovation across the biopharmaceutical industry. I am particularly pleased that the company has established its headquarters in Cincinnati, a burgeoning biotech market bursting with talented individuals that I eagerly engage with every day, said Dr. Byrd. I look forward to contributing my deep expertise in therapeutic development and cancer research to support Orange Grove Bios vision of creating biotechnology companies that will develop the transformative medicines of tomorrow. Equally significant to me is the opportunity to work closely with the company to cement Cincinnatis position as a leading biopharma innovation hub of today.

Dr. Scott possesses extensive clinical development and regulatory experience having held senior leadership positions in the global biopharmaceutical industry for more thirty years. He most recently served as chief medical officer and head of development for AbbVie, where he was responsible for a team of over 4,000 individuals across 52 countries, a budget of nearly $3 billion and programs involving more than 40 new molecular entities. In this role, he oversaw 14 major regulatory approvals including VENCLEXTA, ORILISSA, SKYRIZI and RINVOQ. Prior to joining AbbVie, Dr. Scott was vice president of global development for Amgen, where he conducted the first outcome study for a PCSK9 inhibitor (FOURIER Trial). During his career, he has also held senior leadership positions with Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and AtheroGenics. A highly regarded medical expert, Dr. Scott has served as an industry representative on the FDAs Cardiac and Renal Drug Advisory Committee and current sits on the scientific and strategic advisory boards of Variant Bio, Morningside Biopharma, Cytel, Inflexion and BioEthics International. He also currently sits on the board of directors of ArisGlobal, Confo Therapeutics, Draupnir Bio, Oncospherix, WindTree Therapeutics and Redx Pharma.

Dr. Kalos, an internationally recognized expert in T cell therapy and immunotherapy, possesses more than 25 years of experience in cell therapy, oncology vaccines, and immuno-oncology. Prior to joining Orange Grove, he held the position of executive vice president and head of R&D at ArsenalBio, a synthetic biology-based cell therapy start-up. He also previously served as vice president of immuno-oncology and oncology cell therapies at Janssen, the pharmaceutical companies of Johnson and Johnson, and chief scientific officer of immuno-oncology at Eli Lilly and Company. Prior to entering the biopharmaceutical sector, Dr. Kalos spent ten years in academia, where he focused on the development of integrated translational biomarker programs to support the development of cell therapy and immunotherapy programs. The laboratory he founded and directed at the University of Pennsylvania played a key role in the success of the universitys cell therapy program, including clinical development of the CTL019 program that was licensed to Novartis and led to the approval of KYMRIAH. Dr. Kalos earned his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and completed post-doctoral training in the laboratory of Phil Greenberg at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Over the past year Orange Grove Bio has dramatically expanded its footprint through the establishment of collaborations with leading academic institutions across the U.S., with several of those within the state of Ohio. Our recent appointments of Drs. Byrd, Scott and Kalos align the expansion of our leadership team with this recent significant uptick in business and partnering activity, said Marc Appel, Orange Grove Bios chief executive officer. Each of these appointments provide Orange Grove with deep drug discovery, development and commercialization expertise in high priority therapeutic areas such as oncology, cellular and gene therapies, and autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, further supplementing our efforts to deliver novel therapeutics to patients in need of new treatment options.

In additional corporate news, Orange Grove Bio also announced the establishment of a collaboration with Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED) designed to further cultivate the biotechnology industry within the state of Ohio through increased entrepreneurship and education. Under terms of the collaboration, Orange Grove Bio will work with NEOMED to support educational programming and entrepreneurial initiatives for the universitys faculty and students, including the establishment of an internship program.

With its corporate headquarters located in the Cincinnati Innovation District (CID) and partnerships already in place with the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center, Orange Grove is working aggressively to cultivate the biotechnology landscape within not just the greater Cincinnati area but the entire the state of Ohio. To this end, the company will continue to increase its on-the-ground presence by onboarding new team members within Ohio, who will perform critical scientific and business functions.

Orange Grove Bios mission is to develop new therapeutic options for patients by harnessing the significant research potential found in universities and academic medical centers across the United States. Orange Grove Bio fosters strong relationships with technology transfer offices outside of the traditional medical technology hubs of Boston and San Francisco. Collectively, Orange Grove Bios team possesses decades of drug development and company creation experience, allowing it to build and finance innovative programs from the research and development stage to clinical trials.

About Orange Grove Bio Orange Grove Bio (OGB) is an emerging, preclinical, capital allocation and asset development biotech company. OGB partners with universities, academic medical centers, and entrepreneurs to develop innovative treatments for important diseases, particularly cancer and immune disorders.

KYMRIAH is a registered trademark of Novartis. VENCLEXTA, ORILISSA, SKYRIZI AND RINVOQ are registered trademarks of AbbVie.

Contacts: Orange Grove Bio Diane Yu, Chief of Staff(814) 689-9730

Taylor Negrete, Executive Assistant to CEO[email protected]

Vida Strategic Partners (on behalf of Orange Grove Bio) Tim Brons [email protected] (415) 674-7402

Source: Orange Grove Bio
TORONTO, June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As the Premier of Ontario announces a new cabinet today, over 160 health workers from across the province have signed onto an open letter calling on the government to legislate at least 10 paid sick days immediately. This is especially pressing given the looming expiration of the Worker Income Protection Benefit (WIPB) at the end of July.

We are extremely concerned that workers will experience negative health outcomes in the seventh wave if urgent action on paid sick days is not taken, says Dr. Naheed Dosani, Health Equity Lead, Kensington Health and member of the Decent Work and Health Network. We have to remember that racialized workers are overrepresented in low-wage jobs that lack access to paid sick days. Permanent paid sick days are a pillar of racial and health justice.

58% of workers in Canada do not have paid sick days. That proportion rises to a staggering 70% for workers earning less than $25,000. According to Birgit Umaigba, ICU nurse, the WIPB program is unreasonably expensive for taxpayers and inadequate as a public health measure. Three days is not enough and it never was. There is a foolproof way to make paid sick days effective: by legislating 10 employer-paid sick days through the employment standards act.

In addition, the WIPB can only be accessed for COVID-related reasons. Pediatrician Dr. Shazeen Suleman cautions against such limitations. She sees the cascading effects of not having paid sick days in her patients, who are children with special needs or developmental disabilities. Without paid sick days, many parents cannot make it to medical appointments or therapy sessions and this can have a detrimental impact on the health of my patients. Most importantly, parents cannot stay home to care for their sick child if that means losing wages and being unable to pay rent or put food on the table. The lack of access to preventive care means more families rely on emergency visits when their childrens health gets worse, she adds.

With this open letter, health workers are reminding the province that temporary measures are not the permanent solution needed to close gaps in health inequity and prevent future pandemics. Recovery for our economy and regeneration of our communities should be a priority for this government and it should factor in the health of workers that bore the brunt of the pandemic, says Dr. Dosani, Legislating 10 permanent paid sick days should be the first order of business for the incoming Ministers of Health and Labour, and the Premier.

Signatories include:

Cathryn Hoy, RN - President (Ontario Nurses' Association)

Linda Silas, RN - President (Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions)

Michael Hurley - President (Ontario Council of Hospital Unions - CUPE)

Sharleen Stewart - President (SEIU Healthcare)

David Fisman, MD - Physician and epidemiologist (University of Toronto)

Colin Furness, MISt PhD MPH - Epidemiologist (University of Toronto)

Gaibrie Stephen, MD CCFP(EM) - Emergency Physician and Lecturer (University of Toronto)

Ritika Goel, MD MPH CCFP - Family Physician (St. Michaels Hospital, University of Toronto)

Amit Arya, MD, CCFP (PC), FCFP - Palliative Care Physician (Assistant Clinical Professor, McMaster University)

Nav Persaud, MD - Physician (University of Toronto)

Danyaal Raza, MD, MPH, CCFP - Family Physician, Assistant Professor (University of Toronto)

Amie Archibald-Varley, RN, MN - Quality Improvement & Health Equity Specialist (Gritty Nurse Podcast)

To arrange interviews, contact:Sarah ShahidCo-Coordinator, Decent Work and Health Network[email protected] | 514-415-4666

Background:

According to Canadas Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, we must brace for a possible seventh wave in the fall: https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/seventh-covid-wave-possible-this-fall-tam-tells-mps-the-pandemic-is-not-over

Ford government paid private consulting company Deloitte $43.7 million to run the Worker Income Protection Benefit (WIPB) program: https://www.thestar.com/business/2022/01/28/wsib-ford-government-pay-224-million-to-global-consulting-company-deloitte-to-run-covid-19-paid-sick-leave-program.html

Health workers are continuing to sign the open letter calling on the Premier and his new cabinet to legislate 10 paid sick days and protect the health of patients and communities: https://www.decentworkandhealth.org/open-letter

About the Organization:

The Decent Work and Health Network is a coalition of health providers advocating for improving working conditions to help protect and promote the health of our patients. We are a group of doctors, nurses, health workers, and experts who have been leading voices for paid sick days as an urgent, evidence-based public health measure.

Source: Decent Work & Health Network
Toronto, Ontario, June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Halcones Precious Metals Inc. (Halcones) and Pinehurst Capital II Inc. (TSXV: PINH.P) ("Pinehurst") are pleased to announce that Halcones has closed its previously-announced brokered private placement (the "Subscription Receipt Offering") of subscription receipts (the "Subscription Receipts"). Under the Subscription Receipt Offering, Halcones issued an aggregate of 11,462,200 Subscription Receipts at a price of $0.30 per Subscription Receipt (the "Issue Price") for gross proceeds of $3,438,660. The Subscription Receipt Offering was completed pursuant to an agency agreement (the "Agency Agreement") dated June 24, 2022 among Halcones, Pinehurst, Clarus Securities Inc. (the "Lead Agent"), iA Private Wealth Inc. and Haywood Securities Inc. (collectively with the Lead Agent, the "Agents"). The Subscription Receipts are governed by the terms of a subscription receipt agreement dated June 24, 2022 and among Halcones, the Lead Agent and Computershare Trust Company of Canada (Computershare) (the Subscription Receipt Agreement).

As previously announced, on January 25, 2022, Halcones and Pinehurst entered into an amalgamation agreement, as amended on May 20, 2022 (the "Amalgamation Agreement") setting out the terms of the reverse take-over of Pinehurst by the shareholders of Halcones by way of a three-cornered amalgamation with a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pinehurst incorporated under the laws of the Province of Ontario (the "RTO"). Pinehurst, as the resulting issuer following the completion of the RTO (the "Resulting Issuer"), will continue the business of Halcones under the name "Pinehurst Precious Metals Corp." or such other name as determined by Halcones.

The gross proceeds from the sale of the Subscription Receipts, less the cash portion of the Agents' commission and Agents' expenses, are being held in escrow by Computershare in accordance with the Subscription Receipt Agreement and will be released to Halcones upon satisfaction and/or waiver of certain escrow release conditions (the "Escrow Release Conditions"), including completion of all conditions precedent to the RTO. If the Escrow Release Conditions are satisfied or waived on or before December 24, 2022 (subject to extension pursuant to the terms of the Subscription Receipt Agreement), the escrowed proceeds from the Subscription Receipt Offering will be released to Halcones. If the Escrow Release Conditions are not satisfied or waived by that date or the Amalgamation Agreement is terminated or Halcones announces to the public by way of press release, or advises the Lead Agent and Computershare in writing, that it does not intend to satisfy the Escrow Release Conditions in accordance with the Subscription Receipt Agreement, the gross proceeds and pro rata entitlement to interest earned on the escrowed proceeds will be paid to the holders of the Subscription Receipts. The Resulting Issuer intends to use the net proceeds from the Subscription Receipt Offering for (i) exploration of the Carachapampa project and (ii) general corporate and working capital purposes.

Each Subscription Receipt will, without any further consideration on the part of the subscriber, automatically convert on the satisfaction or waiver of the Escrow Release Conditions into one Halcones Common Share and one-half of one Halcones Warrant. Each Halcones Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one Halcones Common Share at a price of $0.40 per Halcones Common Share for a period of 24 months following the closing of the Subscription Receipt Offering. Each Halcones Common Share and each Halcones Warrant will be immediately exchanged for one common share of Pinehurst and one common share purchase warrant of Pinehurst (each on a post-Consolidation basis). Pursuant to the Amalgamation Agreement, prior to completing the RTO, Pinehurst common shares shall be consolidated on the basis of 0.4716981 post-consolidation Pinehurst common shares for each one pre-consolidation Pinehurst common share (the Consolidation).

In connection with the Subscription Receipt Offering, Halcones paid the Agents a commission satisfied by an aggregate cash payment of $245,706.20. As additional consideration, Halcones issued 802,354 broker warrants to the Agents, each entitling the Agents to purchase one Halcones Common Share (and subsequently one Resulting Issuer common share) at the Issue Price for a period of 24 months following the date of issuance of the Release Notice (as defined in the Agency Agreement).

For further information, please contact:

David Rosenkrantz

Pinehurst Capital II Inc., CEO

e: [email protected]

p: 416-865-0123]

Lawrence Guy

Halcones Precious Metals Inc., Director

e: [email protected]

p: 416-930-7660

Cautionary Notes

This press release contains forward-looking information and forward-looking statements (collectively, forward-looking statements) within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this press release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as expects, or does not expect, is expected anticipates or does not anticipate, plans, budget, scheduled, forecasts, estimates, believes or intends or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results may or could, would, might or will be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In this press release, forward-looking statements relate, among other things, to: the Subscription Receipt Offering and certain terms and conditions thereof; the use of proceeds from the Subscription Receipt Offering, and corporate and regulatory approvals. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that 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 the delay or failure to receive shareholder, director or regulatory approvals. 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 the forward-looking statements and information contained in this press release. Except as required by law, Halcones assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change.

The TSXV has in no way passed upon the merits of the proposed transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

The securities referenced herein have not been, nor will be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons absent U.S. registration or an applicable exemption from U.S. registration requirements. This release does not constitute an offer for sale of securities in the United States.

Source: Pinehurst Capital II Inc.
ALAMEDA, Calif., June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Food ingredient company Shiru has appointed three new members to its advisory board: Dean Banks, former president and CEO of Tyson Foods, Aaron Kimball, former CTO of Zymergen, and Blaine Templeman, former Chief Administrative Officer and Chief Legal Officer of Aduro Biotech. Together, they will support Shiru in areas of strategy, technology, and leadership as the company continues to scale the discovery and production of novel, naturally-occurring ingredients for the plant-based food industry. All three bring years of combined C-suite level industry experience to Shiru.

In addition to his leadership with Tyson Foods, Dean Banks is a co-founder for Vergent Bioscience, Advisor for X, the Moonshot Factory, and is on the Board of Directors at Omeat. Banks brings impressive food industry expertise and an extensive background in venture capital, high-tech, and health to the Shiru advisory board.

Shirus platform for improving ingredients in many different food products is impressive to me, but Im equally impressed with Shirus approach to partnering, said Banks. While it is valuable for some companies to make their own branded products, Shiru wants to provide ingredients to large, existing food players, shortening their timeline to reach real impact. My work with Shirus leadership is focused on finding the most effective and efficient pathways to commercial scale so we can see Shirus customers thriving quickly in a food ecosystem thats changing before our eyes.

Aaron Kimball brings years of technology and software expertise to the Shiru advisory board, previously serving as Chief Technology Officer at Zymergen. In addition, Kimball co-founded WibiData in 2010, was the first employee at Cloudera, and holds several patents on predictive modeling for microbial engineering.

Shiru aims to be the discovery engine for the world's leading food manufacturers, said Kimball. With their focus on applying validated science and technology from fields like protein science and machine learning to the specific needs of the food industry, I see the discovery platform the Shiru team is developing as a unique and promising path to the challenge of creating sustainable, plentiful food ingredients for all.

Blaine Templeman brings to Shiru over 20 years of experience counseling biotechnology companies in the development and commercialization of their products and the protection of their intellectual property portfolios, including in his former role as a corporate and intellectual property partner at Arnold & Porter, LLP. Templeman most recently served as Chief Administrative Officer and Chief Legal Officer at Aduro Biotech.

The biopharma industry has robust models for scaling protein operations. Shiru is seizing on these learnings as it pioneers new approaches in the food industry, said Templeman. Like so many others in tech and bio, I have come to understand that changing our food system is one of the most important things we can do to create a more sustainable world. That's why I'm so eager and passionate to bring my experience to Shiru.

Shirus new advisory board members join Shirus existing scientific advisor Dr. Ranjani Varadan and will provide guidance and support to Shiru as the company scales partnerships within the food industry to help create the next generation of sustainable ingredients. Shirus Flourish platform combines machine learning, precision fermentation, and high-throughput testing to identify, evaluate, and produce naturally-occurring proteins that can serve as functional ingredients to replace unsustainable, animal-based products in food. Through this discovery platform and partnerships with leading food organizations, Shiru can help provide alternative, sustainable ingredients that achieve the same performance as animal-based products, without sacrificing nutrition or taste.

Were thrilled to welcome Dean, Aaron, and Blaine to our advisory board and look forward to working together in our mission to feed people more sustainably, said Jasmin Hume, PhD., founder and CEO of Shiru. Their expertise in the food and technology industries will provide great benefits to Shiru as we continue to scale the company while discovering and producing next-generation ingredients for leading food companies.

About Shiru

Shiru is an ingredient company for the plant-based food industry thats on a mission to improve the sustainability of our food system. Using a combination of machine learning, bioinformatics, and precision fermentation, Shiru is uncovering new uses for naturally-occurring proteins as functional ingredients that can replace animal-based products used in food today. Founded in 2019, Shiru is developing a growing range of functional ingredients, initially focused on scaling up ingredients for gelation, egg replacement, and structured fats functions. Powered by a team of technology experts and food industry veterans, Shiru is working to reduce the worlds reliance on animals for food by providing delicious, cost-effective, healthy, and sustainable alternatives. Shiru is based in Emeryville, California, and is backed by leading venture capital firms such as S2G Ventures, Lux Capital, and CPT Capital. For more information, visit www.shiru.com.

Shiru Media Contact

Taylor Patteson[email protected]

Source: Shiru
VANCOUVER, Canada, June 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sonoro Gold Corp. (TSXV: SGO | OTCQB: SMOFF | FRA: 23SP) (Sonoro or the Company) is pleased to report the filing of a technical report titled Updated Preliminary Economic Assessment of the Cerro Caliche Project, Sonora, Mexico (the PEA) with an effective date of May 9, 2022.

The PEA has been prepared in accordance with the requirements of National Instrument 43-101 by D.E.N.M. Engineering Ltd. of Burlington, Ontario (D.E.N.M.), with David Salari, P.Eng. as the lead author. William Lewis, P.Geo., of Micon International Limited of Toronto, Ontario (Micon) was the Qualified Person responsible for the mineral resource estimate.

The updated PEA contemplates an optimized mine plan for an open pit, heap leach mining operation with an initial two-year production rate of 8,000 metric tonnes per day (mtpd) and an increase to 15,000 mtpd for the remaining Life of Mine (LOM).

The PEA can be found under the Companys profile at www.sedar.com and on Sonoros website at www.sonorogold.com.

PEA Highlights:

Pre-Tax net present value discounted at 5% (NPV5) of USD $84.4 million

Pre-Tax Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 74.9%

After-Tax NPV5 of USD $53.5 million

After-Tax IRR of 45.6%

Gold recovery of 74% and silver recovery of 27%

7-year LOM with 344,500 ounces (oz) of gold equivalent (AuEq)

LOM annual average production of 45,000 oz AuEq (Years 1-7)

Years 1 to 3 annual production of 46,000 oz AuEq at 0.58 g/t AuEq

Initial CAPEX costs of USD $26 million, including USD $3 million in contingency

Sustaining capital costs of USD $7.4 million

Cash(1) costs of USD $1,206/oz AuEq

AISC(2) of USD $1,333/oz AuEq

Payback period of 2.2 years

Note: All currencies are reported in U.S. dollars. Base case parameters assume $1,750/oz of gold and $22/oz of silver.(1) Cash costs include mining, crushing, processing, assaying, and administration.(2) All-in-Sustaining Costs include cash costs plus sustaining, refining and reclamation costs, as well as 2% royalties.

Mineral Resource EstimateThe updated PEA utilizes mineral resource estimate contained in the Companys initial PEA, dated October 29, 2021, and is based on the Companys September 2018 to April 2021 drilling campaigns.

Readers are cautioned that these potential mineralization ranges are conceptual in nature and that despite being based on a limited amount of exploration drilling and sampling outside the current resource pit shells, it is uncertain that further exploration will result in the mineralization targets being delineated as a mineral resource.

Drilling DataApproximately 7,200 meters of additional drilling recently completed at Cerro Caliche was not included in the current mineral resource estimate. The new geological data is to be included in an updated resource estimate scheduled to be filed in the fall of 2022.

Since drilling resumed in November 2021, the Company has announced multiple high-grade intercepts and expansions of several known mineralized zones in the southwestern region of the property. The potential economic impact of the updated resource on the proposed heap leach mining operation will be contemplated in a further technical report.

PEA SummaryThe PEA is preliminary in nature and includes inferred resources that are considered too speculative to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves and there is no certainty the estimates presented in the PEA will be realized.

Qualified Person StatementDavid Salari, P.Eng., of D.E.N.M. Engineering Ltd. and William Lewis, P.Geo., of Micon International Limited, both of whom are independent of the Company, have reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information herein regarding the Companys Cerro Caliche Project. William Lewis, P.Geo., was responsible for the updated Cerro Caliche Mineral Resource Estimate and, along with David Salari, P.Eng., has approved the information pertaining to the Cerro Caliche Project in this news release. Each of David Salari, P.Eng. and William Lewis, P.Geo., is a Qualified Person as defined in NI 43-101.

Stephen Kenwood, P.Geo., a Director of Sonoro Gold, is a Qualified Person within the context of National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101) and has read and approved this news release.

About D.E.N.M. Engineering Limited

D.E.N.M. Engineering Ltd. is a niche engineering company servicing the mining / mineral processing sector that specializes in Engineering & Design, Equipment Supply, Project & Construction Management, Commissioning and Operations Support. D.E.N.M. Engineering Ltd. has proven success while championing projects for over fifteen years in Canada, USA, Mexico and Central America.

In addition, D.E.N.M. Engineering, with its principal and independent specialists, performs NI 43-101 compliant assessments and studies in the sections of mineral processing metallurgical design, process design, capital and operating costing and cash flow analysis.

About Micon International Limited

Micon International Limited (Micon) has provided consulting services to the worldwide mining industry since 1988 from its offices in Canada and the UK. Micon comprises a multi-disciplinary group of highly qualified and experienced professionals who are guided by the Company principles of Integrity, Competence and Independence.

Micons experience in Mexico ranges from exploration programs and resource estimation to technical studies on operating mines as well as due diligence for precious metals and base metals projects. Micon has worked in most of the major mining districts throughout Mexico, as well as some lesser-known historical districts. In northern Mexico, assignments have been undertaken in the gold and silver districts of Sonora, Durango, Zacatecas, Chihuahua and Baja California.

About Sonoro Gold Corp.Sonoro Gold Corp. is a publicly listed exploration and development company holding the near development stage Cerro Caliche project and the exploration stage San Marcial properties in Sonora State, Mexico. The Company has highly experienced operational and management teams with proven track records for the discovery and development of natural resource deposits.

On behalf of the Board of Sonoro Gold Corp.Per: Kenneth MacLeod Kenneth MacLeod President & CEO

For further information, please contact: Sonoro Gold Corp. - Tel: (604) 632-1764 Email: [email protected]

Forward-Looking Statement Cautions: This press release may contain "forward-looking information" as defined in applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements other than statements of historical fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding the Cerro Caliche project, and future plans and objectives of the Company, including the NPV, IRR, initial and sustaining capital costs, operating costs, and LOM production of Cerro Caliche, constitute forward looking information that involve various risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking information is based on a number of factors and assumptions which have been used to develop such information but which may prove to be incorrect, including, but not limited to, assumptions in connection with the continuance of the Company and its subsidiaries as a going concern, general economic and market conditions, mineral prices, the accuracy of Mineral Resource Estimates. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations include exploration and development risks associated with the Companys projects, the failure to establish estimated Mineral Resources or Mineral Reserves, volatility of commodity prices, variations of recovery rates, and global economic conditions. The forward-looking information contained in this release is made as of the date of this release. 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 or the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange. Readers are encouraged to review the Companys complete public disclosure record on SEDAR 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) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Source: Sonoro Gold Corp.
A recent study of Colorados marijuana industry has revealed a fact that has been consistent in other states with legal cannabis markets: teen cannabis use is on the decline. Prohibitionists across the country had argued that legalizing adult-use cannabis would make the controversial drug more accessible and lead to increased drug use by the youth.

However, several studies have found that legalization has actually had the opposite effect, limiting youth access and reducing the

Read More>>

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Cannabis Strategic Ventures Inc. (OTC: NUGS) are available in the companys newsroom at http://cnw.fm/NUGS

About CNW420

CNW420 spotlights the latest developments in the rapidly evolving cannabis industry through the release of two informative articles each business day. Our concise, informative content serves as a gateway for investors interested in the legalized cannabis sector and provides updates on how regulatory developments may impact financial markets. Articles are released each business day at 4:20 a.m. and 4:20 p.m. Eastern  our tribute to the time synonymous with cannabis culture. If marijuana and the burgeoning industry surrounding it are on your radar, CNW420 is for you! Check back daily to stay up-to-date on the latest milestones in the fast -changing world of cannabis.

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By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) -A New York state regulator on Friday fined cruise line operator Carnival Corp $5 million for "significant" cybersecurity violations, following four security breaches from 2019 to 2021 that exposed substantial amounts of sensitive customer data.

New York's Department of Financial Services said Carnival violated a state cybersecurity regulation by failing to use multi-factor authentication that would make it harder for wrongdoers to access its internal network.

It also said Carnival failed to report one breach and conduct adequate cybersecurity awareness training for employees.

The regulator said the failures caused Carnival to file improper cybersecurity compliance certifications from 2018 to 2020.

Carnival was at the time licensed to sell insurance in New York, which the Miami-based company no longer does. Two of the breaches involved ransomware attacks, the regulator said.

In a statement, Carnival said it cooperated with the regulator and admitted no wrongdoing, and that data privacy and protection were "extremely important" to the company.

Carnival's brands also include Costa, Cunard, Holland America, Princess and Seabourn. The company reached a separate $1.25 million settlement on Thursday with the attorneys general of 45 U.S. states and Washington, D.C. over one of the breaches.

Earlier on Friday, Carnival said it expected occupancy levels to return to historical levels in 2023, and at higher prices, as more travelers return to the seas despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Carnival shares rose as much as 10.8% to $10.69 in Friday trading, but remained more than 62% below their level a year earlier.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Additional reporting by Ananya Mariam Rajesh in Bengaluru; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Richard Chang)
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about gas prices during remarks in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building's South Court Auditorium at the White House in Washington, U.S., June 22, 2022. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

By Trevor Hunnicutt, Nandita Bose and Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden said the Supreme Court's decision on Friday to overturn the constitutional right to abortion will deny American women control of their own lives and called on voters to protect their rights in upcoming elections.

"It's a sad day for the court and the country," Biden said in a White House speech, calling the decision "cruel" and saying it takes America back 150 years.

The court ruling, issued just after 10 a.m. ET, left the White House scrambling to react, with Biden's speech announced about an hour later.

"We were preparing for this to land next week," a White House source said.

Some White House officials had planned to take the day off or work from home, expecting no news on the issue until the following week, according to a second person familiar with the matter. Next week is likely the court's last week of the current term.

Others had focused their attention on Biden's upcoming G7 trip to Europe.

Biden slammed the "extreme ideology" of the conservative-leaning Supreme Court, which was heavily shaped by his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, but said there were few things he could do by executive order to protect women's reproductive rights. He called on Congress to pass a law to restore abortion rights, and on voters to elect lawmakers and state leaders who would protect these rights.

Overturning the 1973 landmark Roe vs. Wade decision that protected abortion rights means "the health and life of women in this nation are now at risk," said Biden, a lifelong Catholic. The original ruling "reaffirmed basic principles of equality, that women have the power to control their own destiny."

Biden and other Democrats hope to use outrage over the court decision to rally voters in November's midterm elections. Democrats are at risk of losing control of both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.

"This fall, Roe is on the ballot. Personal freedoms are on the ballot," Biden said.

The president said his administration would defend a woman's right to cross state lines to seek an abortion and will take steps to make abortion medication widely available.

Biden was opposed to Roe in the early days of his career and only later embraced abortion rights

The Supreme Court's decision to overturn the almost 50-year-old ruling that recognized a woman's constitutional right to an abortion and legalized it nationwide hands a momentous victory to Republicans and religious conservatives who want to limit or ban the procedure, although a majority of Americans disagree.

"State laws banning abortion are automatically taking effect today," Biden said, calling some of them "so extreme that women could be punished for protecting their health" or be "forced to bear their rapists' child."

"It just stuns me," he added.

VICE PRESIDENT IN CHICAGO

After a draft version of the ruling was leaked in May, Vice President Kamala Harris, one of the most prominent abortion rights voices in the Biden administration, leaned into the topic and planned the government's response.

But when the ruling was handed down earlier than the White House expected, she was in Chicago, where she was due to talk about maternal health issues.

Harris changed the topic of her speech, and called the ruling a healthcare crisis. "Millions of women in America will go to bed tonight without access to the health care and reproductive care that they had this morning without access to the same health care or reproductive health care that their mothers and grandmothers had for 50 years," she said.

Over the past several weeks, the White House had been preparing its response and actions it can take in meetings with several stakeholders, including abortion rights activists, privacy and constitutional experts.

Biden was in the Oval Office when the decision was handed down, the White House source said, and revised a draft copy of a speech after conferring with officials including senior adviser Mike Donilon, chief of staff Ron Klain and counselor Steve Ricchetti.

Biden made forceful comments after a leaked draft opinion was revealed in May, but up to that point he had never said the word "abortion" aloud as president.

Attorney General Merrick Garland, who issued a statement before Biden spoke, said the Justice Department will work "tirelessly" to protect and advance reproductive freedom.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Nandita Bose and Steve Holland in Washington; Editing by Heather Timmons, Howard Goller and Leslie Adler)
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The Chain Link Fence Manufacturers Institute offers the expertise and tools to address security grade challenges faced by correctional facility safety directors.

Chain Link offers the strength, flexibility, and enhanced visibility to secure correctional facilities of every level, and today's chain link provides newly-developed choices in fabric sizes, coatings, and configurations for easy integration with electronic security systems.





"The Chain Link industry has developed a wide range of cost-effective, high-security, and anti-intrusion perimeter security systems to keep pace with the needs of correctional facilities as they address higher threat levels and government-required security upgrades," said Barry Marrs, president of CLFMI . "These new systems can be designed to help solve the challenges facing correctional facilities as they work to harden perimeters and fight against tunneling, cutting, and climbing escape access. Chain Link systems also enhance their ability to monitor facilities and surrounding areas while maximizing scarce financial resources."

Chain link installation and upgrades are more cost-effective than other perimeter security products. Its higher tensile strength, anti-corrosive properties, and specialized coatings also make chain link systems a more economical option for repair and replacement, which extends infrastructure budgets.

While chain link is cost-effective, it isn't just for outdoor perimeter security. Its ASTM-approved strength and visibility make it ideal for use throughout both medium and high-security prisons and other facilities, including interior walls, walkways, secure areas, and exercise yards.

The CLFMI has developed several tools to assist infrastructure professionals and agencies in determining and designing the most appropriate and cost-effective systems to meet their needs. These tools include technical guides and research tools to help with planning, design, and installation. Expertise from industry professionals is also available through the CLFMI Technical Support Committee, a volunteer team of knowledgeable professionals whose goal is to advise on best options and practices.

Learn more about CLFMI tools and resources, such as the CLFMI Technical Support Committee at https://chainlinkinfo.org/correctional-security-fencing-system/. Contact Mark Levin at [email protected]

About Us: The Chain Link Fence Manufacturers Institute is an organization of manufacturers, engineers, architects, contractors, and suppliers working to improve the safety, quality, and availability of chain link fencing systems.

Contact Info:

Name: Jocelyn Wing

Email: Send Email

Organization: Optimize Media Marketing, LLC

Address: 1150 W 11th Ave., Eugene, Oregon 97402

Phone: 5415793096

Website: https://optimizemediamarketing.com



Release ID: 89077273

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Munley Law Personal Injury Attorneys are pleased to announce that the firm is marking six decades of experience in the practice area of personal injury. In Wilkes-Barre, the legal team at Munley Law has become one of the nation's top personal injury law firms, assisting clients from across the country who have been injured by wrongdoing or negligence. The Wilkes-Barre personal injury attorney has the expertise and knowledge to assist clients who have been injured in an accident in Wilkes-Barre.

The Munley Law personal injury attorneys have helped to create many of the laws that protect innocent victims today. The legal team has won groundbreaking verdicts and settlements, and Munley Law handles all types of personal injury cases. These include truck accidents, automobile accidents, wrongful death, workers compensation, medical malpractice, workplace injuries, premises liability, product liability, and nursing home abuse cases. Families and individuals in Wilkes-Barre and across Luzerne County have consulted with Munley Law for legal advice and assistance with personal injury lawsuits. Personal injury cases of all sizes are handled by the Munley team of attorneys.

More details can be seen at https://munley.com/wilkes-barre/

For those who have experienced a significant injury in Wilkes-Barre, PA, a consultation with a personal injury attorney at Munley Law is free of charge. Prospective clients can learn how the maximum amount for the personal injury case can be achieved.

Personal injury cases can encompass many different types of wrongdoing or negligence. These include injuries related to bicycles, automobiles, boats, buses, trains and railways, aviation, trucks, and motorcycles. Injuries due to birthing, burns, misdiagnosis of cancer, dog bites, chlorine gas explosion, and carbon monoxide poisoning are all cases handled by the legal firm. Injuries caused by toxic exposure, sports, product liability, and nursing home abuse and neglect can be helped financially by settlements through court cases or skilled negotiation.



About the Company:

Munley Law Personal Injury Attorneys are experienced in Wilke-Barre personal injuries cases. Six decades plus of successful case resolutions have made the legal practice well-known nationally.







Contact Info:

Name: Munley Law Personal Injury Attorneys

Email: Send Email

Organization: Munley Law Personal Injury Attorneys

Address: 1170 PA-315 #1B, Wilkes-Barre PA 18702

Phone: (570) 399-0406

Website: https://munley.com/wilkes-barre/



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STOCKHOLM, June 24, 2022 The ongoing war in Ukraine is having a devastating impact and the number of civilians and military personnel who have suffered limb loss continues to grow. Ossur has pledged to donate prosthetic products and clinical expertise to Ukrainian people in need and has been awarded a 200,000 Euro grant from the Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs' Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Partnership Fund to facilitate the accompanying clinical education.

To initiate its support, Ossur recently conducted training with clinical experts from Ukraine. They will transfer knowledge related to Ossur prosthetic solutions and treatment protocols to colleagues in Ukraine. In partnership with the non-profit organization ProsthetiKa and Ukrainian prosthetic specialists, participants of the Ukraine Prosthetic Assistance project, more than a dozen newly amputated patients will be fitted with Ossur donated products in Ukraine in the coming weeks, with further support and more fittings planned in the fall.

Cooperation with local Ukrainian prosthetists and medical professionals will ensure long-term care for amputees in their local community and elevate the level of clinical education in the country.

"Ossur is in a unique position to provide necessary aid to people in need of prosthetics due to the ongoing war in Ukraine. Through our focused methodology of advancing the knowledge of local clinicians and fitting patients locally with Ossur products, we can contribute to the positive development of prosthetic care in Ukraine for the long-term while also improving quality of life for military personnel and innocent civilians," said Sveinn Solvason, President and CEO of Ossur. "We are grateful for the valuable support provided by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, which will enable Ossur to facilitate clinical training and patient fittings for people in Ukraine."

Thordis Kolbrun Reykfjord Gylfadottir, Iceland's Minister for Foreign Affairs says that Ossur's initiative will provide valuable assistance to the growing number of amputees in Ukraine that need prosthetic devices. "Offering prosthetics to those who have suffered amputation due to the war, and working closely with local professionals to conduct the accompanying clinical training, is a valuable contribution which meets an immediate need while facilitating long-term rehabilitation care for the amputee population in Ukraine. Ossur's contribution will help improve the quality of life for a number individuals who have tragically lost limbs due to the Russian invasion."

Ossur has a strong purpose centered around providing mobility solutions that positively impact people's health and well-being and is committed to contributing to the overall progress of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Contact:

Edda H. GeirsdottirVP Corporate Communications & PR[email protected]+354 664 1055

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/ossur-hf-/r/ossur-receives-grant-from-ministry-for-foreign-affairs--sdg-partnership-fund,c3589300

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SOURCE Ossur hf.
BALD HEAD ISLAND, N.C., June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- School-age children will no longer need to leave Bald Head Island (BHI) for an education. After a recent unanimous approval of a school zoning ordinance by the town council, BHI is now home to a new venture: a K through eighth grade school. An island school designed by the island community, BHI Academy (BHIA) will provide a rich, credentialed, best-in-class, on-island education that meets federal and North Carolina standards, with a unique emphasis on earth sciences, maritime sustainability, and island ecosystem preservation. The new Academy is a big win, not only for children, but also for the four-hundred- year- old community of BHI, according to Mayor Peter Quinn. "The possibility of a school is the possibility for more diverse demographics for our island. It is a clear expression of our values and an investment in creating a greater sense of community." Chad Paul III, Chief Executive Officer of Bald Head Island Limited, the entity that designed and developed the infrastructure that has made BHI noteworthy for its classic coastal architecture, family-friendly atmosphere, and protected natural environment, stated "We are excited about the creation of BHI's first school. The potential social and economic benefits would be both far-reaching and long-lasting. Bald Head Island Limited, LLC looks forward to supporting the Academy as it moves forward on this important endeavor."

With a mission to embed respect for self, others, and the environment for generations to come, this private academy is open to all students regardless of financial means: children of island residents as well as children whose parents work full-time on the island. The school, which will observe the traditional North Carolina school year of August to June and will include six robust one-week educational summer programs for both resident and visiting children, will be located at 2 Maritime Way.

Governed by a board of community leaders, the Academy features a philanthropic arm, Bald Head Island Academy Foundation, Inc, a 501(c)(3) organization that will ensure education equity and access to children ages five to fifteen, regardless of socioeconomic and personal background. BHIA Foundation will provide guidance on and raise funds for sponsorship of programs for building growth, scholarships, summer programs, extracurricular and life skill courses, transportation to off-island programs, and meals. The BHIA Foundation Board members are Kit Adcock, Kess Clark, Tim Krist, Millicent O'Connor, Mark Prak, Melanie Raskin, and Dr. Lou Vaickus. BHIA also has a safety advisor, Daniel Edwards; medical lead, Lou Ann Earnhardt, AGPCNP-BC; and staff members, Sheree Vaickus, Co-Founder and Curriculum Operations Solutions and Marketing Officer, and Sarah Tennant, Director of Traditional Curriculum.

COVID unleashed a new way of working. Because people can now choose to work anywhere in the world from home, BHI, with its pristine beaches, preservation focus, and island vibe, has become an attractive choice for relocation. Thanks to the new school, that option is now more viable for families with children. "The time has come for Bald Head Island to have its own school," said board member Mark and wife Robin Prak, island residents. "BHI Academy will make it possible for more families to make Bald Head Island their home. It will also provide folks who commute to work on the island with an additional educational option for their children. The creation of BHI Academy is a big and positive step in the evolution of BHI as a community. We're excited for the possibilities presented."

Legacy is an especially important topic on Bald Head Island now. In the past, BHI had juggled two principal roles: a vacation destination and a community for retirees. BHI Academy opens the door to a new, younger generation of conservation-minded families with the resources and flexibility to workand liveanywhere. "The creativity, applicability, and sheer wonder of the benefits of education through nature lie at the core of Bald Head Island Academy's environmentally-focused curriculum," said board member and head of Life Sciences Curriculum, Dr. Lou Vaickus, FACP. "The breadth and diversity of this unique island, with its quick access to pristine ocean- and river-front beaches and dunes, an ancient protective and protected maritime forest, acres of marshlands, and miles of creeks, provide unique multi-faceted 'classrooms' for learners of all abilities and interests."

For details and enrollment, visit bhiacademy.org.For more information about Bald Head Island, visit https://villagebhi.org/.

CONTACTSheree Vaickus, Co-founderBHI Academy9192963570[email protected]

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SOURCE Bald Head Island Academy
BERLIN and PERTH, Australia, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today a leading group of German companies along with Australia's Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) has released a green hydrogen roadmap, outlining a set of recommendations for government and industry, to meet the ambitious target of importing large amounts of green hydrogen from Australia to Germany.

The Green Hydrogen Taskforce, created earlier this year, is a collaborative effort between FFI, and some of the strongest energy, industrial, and technology companies in Germany, including Covestro, E.ON, Linde, Luthardt, SAP, Schaeffler, thyssenkrupp Nucera and thyssenkrupp Uhde.

The green hydrogen roadmap developed by the Taskforce consists of a 10-point plan and a White Paper and is intended to outline a constructive pathway forward in Germany for business and government. The roadmap could potentially serve as an example for other nations looking for solutions at the upcoming G7 meeting. The G7 meeting will discuss hydrogen and has already developed a G7 Hydrogen Action Pact (G7 HAP) which will form part of the final G7 communique.

The companies in the taskforce are ready to move on green energy through serious investment and will work with Government to achieve these goals together. The recommendations to the German government include: developing subsidies and incentives to remove the "First Mover Disadvantage"; encouraging sources of low-cost capital to scale the industry, and underwriting equipment manufacturers expansion plans to meet developer's needs.

Climate change has become a dramatic reality of our times with visible impacts on all continents and all countries. The UN IPCC report has recommended reducing fossil fuel production to keep temperature increases under 1.5 degrees and halt the worst impacts of global warming. With this responsibility in mind, the industry stands ready to do its part.

The Russian war on Ukraine has in addition created a new reality. This must lead to an accelerated energy transition, especially regarding the development of a green hydrogen economy, which will help to decarbonise as well as to diversify energy supply.

Dr. Cord Landsmann, CEO of thyssenkrupp Uhde, said, "The future of energy needs the right partnerships and the right technologies. We bring our expertise in industrial-scale hydrogen applications like green ammonia for enabling the worldwide export/import of clean energy."

Patrick Lammers, COO at E.ON, said, "We are determined to implement the green transformation of the economy. For this, the development of a reasonable green hydrogen environment must be given priority. In the long term, this strengthens climate protection, independence from Russian gas and the competitiveness of our industries. This deserves a high level of political support."

Juergen Nowicki, Executive Vice President Linde and CEO of Linde Engineering, said, "For an industrialized nation such as Germany it is of utmost importance to secure reliable and affordable energy. Clean hydrogen has an important role to play in the energy transition, but we need to have the right framework, incentives and infrastructure in place to make it actionable as a lever to decarbonisation. We are committed to supporting the effort to decarbonise Germany's economy by leveraging Linde's knowledge, experience and technology along the entire hydrogen value chain, from production and storage to transportation and application."

Dr. Klaus Schafer, Chief Technology Officer and member of the Board of Management of Covestro, said, "Green hydrogen is a central building block for the transformation of the chemical industry towards climate neutrality. Covestro and other industry partners are in the starting blocks to get the hydrogen economy up and running. However, we also need the right framework conditions and political support to achieve this. Using the example of the partnership between Germany and Australia, this action plan shows which steps need to be taken in detail. It complements the ongoing HAP initiative and establishes an actionable plan which can easily be replicated amongst the G7 countries and beyond."

"This also includes the critical topic of tracking and tracing of green hydrogen and green ammonia through the complete value chain including the certificates of origin with the aim that the end customers will exactly know what they get," said Peter Koop, Global Lead for Energy Transition and Hydrogen at SAP.

Uwe Wagner, CTO of Schaeffler AG said, "the envisaged hydrogen partnership between Germany and Australia is a vital step to foster clean energy in Germany. To turn this goal into reality, quick industrialization of electrolysis and other hydrogen technologies will be crucial. We stand ready to speed up the energy transition with the supply of high-quality components for the large-scale production of electrolysers."

Dr. Andrew Forrest Chairman of FFI, said, "Germany and the European continent are facing stagflation for the first time in years. If structured appropriately, an accelerated uptake of green hydrogen also by means of green ammonia can be a powerful economic growth driver for Germany. Our White Paper estimates that for every 1 spent as a support mechanism by Government for green hydrogen, 10 is unlocked in private investment."

Global green energy company FFI and one of Europe's largest energy companies with focus on energy infrastructure and customer solutions, E.ON, recently announced a partnership with the goal to supply 5 million tonnes of green hydrogen a year by 2030  the equivalent of one third of the calorific energy of natural gas Germany imports from Russia.

"Our message is very clear. The green energy industrial revolution is here. Do not allow the energy crisis to make the climate crisis worse. Germany can become a green energy superpower and we have outlined the pathway to make it happen, including the financial investment required by government. Business is ready."

Key findings from the reports released today:

Industrial demand centers in Germany and the EU are ready to offtake up to 5 Mtpa of green hydrogen in the short-term, with a total addressable market of up to 27 Mtpa in the long-term.

By 2030, carbon price will likely reach a sufficient threshold for imported green hydrogen to be competitive with fossil fuels, negating the need for any further subsidies (Source: RMI analysis)

The required near-term market- and first-mover support of 20-30 billion will achieve more than 10x leverage on capital deployed into industrial assets. (Source: RMI analysis)

Clear and timely government support is needed to signal confidence in a burgeoning green hydrogen market and remove barriers to investment.

Once common standards and robust financial mechanisms are in place, stakeholders across the green hydrogen value chain are ready to agree on contracts and ensure production, transport, storage, and conversion facilities are ramped up at the scale required to meet deployment targets.

Green ammonia is a key route for green hydrogen to be supplied to EU markets as existing infrastructure can be leveraged and expanded, and safe handling of ammonia is well established

Moving quickly and strategically to build up a green hydrogen trade will enable Germany and the EU to capitalize on short-term opportunities across volatile global energy markets, and to safeguard energy security while achieving critical decarbonization objectives.

A full copy of the White Paper and 10 point action plan was released today and can be found at https://ffi.com.au/news/australian-german-business-coalition

Read about each company at www.ffi.com.au

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SOURCE Fortescue Future Industries
BEIJING, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The following article was published today by China Daily.

Emerging intelligent technologies, represented by information technology and artificial intelligence, are expected to play a bigger role in promoting industrial upgrading and a new wave of globalization, and more efforts should be made to bolster international cooperation in science and technology, according to speakers at the 24th Vision China event on Friday.

Qu Yingpu, publisher and editor-in-chief of China Daily, called for creating an open and innovation-friendly environment and promoting international scientific and technological cooperation in the intelligent era.

"We should jointly safeguard the open global innovation network and help make international science and technology cooperation more open, inclusive and mutually beneficial via faster and deeper international media exchanges and cultural interaction," Qu said at the online event.

Qu noted that more efforts are needed to pay close attention to the real needs of the people and solve the problems that trouble them, improve global science and technology governance mechanisms, and promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

Jointly organized by China Daily and the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Tianjin Municipal Committee, the event, titled "New Era of Intelligence: Digitalization Drives Growth, Intelligence Wins Future", was broadcast online to a global audience on Friday night. It coincided with the ongoing 6th World Intelligence Congress, which started on the same day and runs until Saturday in Tianjin.

"The World Intelligence Congress has grown into an important channel for scientific and technological exchanges and cooperation between China and other countries, and a unique window for showcasing to the world a real China in a vivid and all-around way," Qu added.

Intelligent industry is becoming a core driving force for promoting high-quality development and industrial upgrading in Tianjin. The city has set up a special fund of 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) for intelligent manufacturing and a 100-billion-yuan industry fund for the new generation of artificial intelligence.

It has also rolled out a series of supportive policies to develop AI-related sectors, including independent and controllable information systems, intelligent security, big data, advanced communications, intelligent connected vehicles and industrial robots.

Luigi Gambardella, president of ChinaEU, a Brussels-based international association promoting digital and internet cooperation, emphasized that globalization will not disappear, and expects a new wave driven by AI will be much more profound, inclusive and sustainable.

He noted that this new and smart globalization is indispensable in reducing inequalities in times of price instability and the erosion of the purchasing power of the middle-income group. "AI coupled with 5G and other wireless technologies is called on to play a crucial role in improving agricultural production and reducing food import dependency," he added.

"Despite a tough time experienced by many corporations around the globe, such as COVID-19, geopolitical tensions and economic downturn, we still found that most companies are accelerating plans to implement AI," said Wilson Chow, PwC's Global Technology, Media and Telecommunications Industry Leader.

Chow said more than 50 percent of those surveyed by PwC have accelerated their AI adoption plans in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, and 86 percent of them said that AI was a "mainstream technology" in their companies in 2021.

AI has wide applications in various fields, such as space technology, climate change and environmental protection. Yang Yuguang, vice-chair of the Space Transportation Committee of the International Astronautical Federation and a professor at China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation Ltd, said there will be greater use of AI in spacecraft, especially in missions beyond Mars.

Zeng Yi, a researcher at the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said AI should also be applied to facilitate climate analysis and forecasting to promote energy conservation, and contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"AI has fueled a new round of technological revolution. Intelligent manufacturing technology is propelling a magnificent transformation in the textile industry," said Jiang Yaming, executive deputy director of the Textile Future Technology Research Center of Tiangong University, and dean of the institution's School of International Education.

Jiang added the AI has given greater impetus to the world-class disciplines of textile science and engineering in Tiangong University, and also serves as the new driver in the construction of an intelligent Tianjin and an intelligent China.

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SOURCE China Daily
Jove is Putting the 'Skin' in National (Skin) Hydration Day with a Series of Exciting Social Giveaways and the Ultimate Hotel and Spa Getaway Sweepstake

BOCA RATON, Fla., June 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- To mark National Hydration Day, taking place each year on June 23, Jove will launch the Jove Summer Refresh Campaign to educate consumers about the importance of skin and cellular hydration  what the brand refers to as Deep Hydration  particularly as it relates to the skin during summer months when temperatures rise, layers of clothing are shed and outdoor activities become intensified.

Jove is encouraging consumers to take a 7-day Hydration Challenge this summer to experience the benefits of Deep Hydration for the skin and throughout the body. Jove not only provides ultra-hydration for the skin from the inside out, but with averaging a consumption of at least one liter a day of Jove, consumers may experience supple skin, improved complexion, flushed toxins, more energy, and better sleep amongst a number of wellness benefits.

Since water makes up nearly 60% of body composition, the best way to maintain optimal health and smooth, supple skin is to stay properly hydrated. Drinking copious amounts of water may sound like a simple solution, but unfortunately the body can expel that water as waste before optimal skin and cellular hydration has occurred. Here's where Jove comes in.

To support the initiative, consumers can follow the brand's social media channels - @drinkjove on Instagram and Drink Jove on Facebook - to enter fun giveaways all summer long. Jove will give away over $10,000 in prizes during their seasonal social media campaign, with the theme of 'Jove's Summer Refresh' this year. The signature campaign is one that Jove reintroduces during the summer and fall seasons each year with the goal of introducing Jove to new consumers and building community through fun mini-giveaways. Jove's Summer Refresh Hydration Challenge will officially kick-off on June 29.

"We love taking this breakthrough science that serves as the foundation of Jove water and communicating it in fun and engaging ways," says Tammy Hobbs, Jove's Chief Executive Officer. "Cellular hydration is essential for healthy skin and we hope to engage our consumers in a way that helps demonstrate how they can feel and look their best by making Jove the daily drink of their choice this summer."

To end a summer of fun giveaways, Jove has partnered with the beautiful Vista Encantada Spa Resort & Residences for an exciting sweepstakes. Three lucky winners will win a 3-night getaway to Vista Encantada Spa Resort & Residences including a roundtrip flight, resort stay and spa package for two guests. Located in the destination of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, Vista Encantada's luxurious suites provide an exclusive and tranquil retreat for guests seeking to recharge and indulge in a place that helps disconnect and then reconnect to what really matters. The sweepstake will launch on July 5 and run through August 6. Consumers are encouraged to follow Jove on social media in preparation for the sweepstakes.

Through their proprietary ACH Technology (Advanced Cellular Hydration Technology) Jove increases alkalinity with an exclusive patented essential mineral, liquid silica, that not only supports hair, skin, and nail strength, but overall wellness. Jove water is also charged with an abundance of electrons, a primary source of energy, for a water that's smooth, refreshing and deeply hydrating. Up to 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated, and feeling irritable, sluggish, having dull and dry skin and poor sleep can all be associated with dehydration. The level of hydration in the body can decline as we age, but by drinking truly hydrating water, the body benefits at the cellular level. Cellular hydration supports mitochondria (the power plant of cells), cellular metabolism and the release of cellular waste. Jove is clinically shown to provide skin and cellular hydration and drinking Jove water leads to a happy body and healthy skin.

About Jove

Jove is a new premium Alkaline water made with ACH Technology (Advanced Cellular Hydration) that is clinically shown to provide proper skin and cellular hydration in support of healthy, vibrant living. Jove is infused with an exclusive patented liquid silica, an essential mineral that increases alkalinity and is then charged with an abundance of electrons, a primary source of energy. This combination of science and nature has led to the creation of the smooth and refreshing taste of Jove. Jove bottles and caps are 100% recyclable. To show its commitment to being part of responsible use and processing of plastic, Jove has partnered with TerraCycle to support the responsible use of plastic and cleaning of our oceans. Jove is currently available in-store at Publix, Giant Food Stores and Earth Fare and online at Amazon. Follow @drinkjove on Instagram and Facebook. For more information, visit drinkjove.com.

Contact: Yazmin PerezCIIC PR [email protected] 305-677-3904 x19

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SOURCE Jove
Fosun Tourism's business continues to improve

HONG KONG, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- While the domestic tourism industry continues to feel the effects of COVID, Fosun Tourism Group ("Fosun Tourism" or the "Group", HKEX stock code: 1992), is regaining, and accelerating corporate growth by capitalizing on the strong rebound of global business and steady uninterrupted deployment. In April this year, the Group announced the turnaround of its business in the first quarter of 2022. Since then, international brands including Club Med, Thomas Cook and Casa Cook, all under Fosun Tourism, have actively seized on opportunities created by the recovery of the global tourism industry and have achieved significant progress.

Club Med is leading the recovery of the global leisure and vacation industry. Following a five-fold year-on-year growth in business volume in the first quarter of this year, and a sharp turnaround in net profit. Fosun Tourism announced as of 16 April that the cumulative bookings for Club Med for the second half of 2022 have already exceeded that of the same period in 2019 (prior to the pandemic) by 3%. The two major regional markets in EMEA and the Americas have also outperformed the industry. With regard to business expansion, Club Med opened La Rosiere Resort in France and the Quebec Charlevoix in 2021. The latter has even filled the gap in the North American snow resort market. Club Med will also open Kiroro, its third resort in Hokkaido, by the coming snow season. The opening of these resorts has not only fortified leadership in the ice and snow sector, but also symbolizes expeditious expansion of its global ice and snow resort business footprint. In Spain, Club Med Magna Marbella Resort commenced operation in May of this year.

In addition to operating performance, the easing of COVID prevention measures is also worth anticipating, leading to more Club Med resorts resuming operations in 2022. In March 2022, after two years of closure, Club Med Bintan and Phuket welcomed their first group of guests since the pandemic. The opening of Cherating Beach Resort, Malaysia on 1 April, also began to receive tourists from around the world. Club Med Bali has also resumed operations, which marked the last resort to re-open in the Asia-Pacific region. Simultaneously, Australia, Japan and South Korea, which represent the dominant origin of customers for resorts, have relaxed their travel regulations, thus instilling greater confidence in the Group's 2022 performance.

Outside Club Med, global businesses Thomas Cook and Casa Cook under the Group, have also achieved positive progress. In the first quarter of this year, UK business volume of Thomas Cook, the century-old travel agency brand, achieved an eight-fold year-on-year growth. The brand broke ground in the Netherlands in March and on top of its original partnerships, it expanded the European business by adopting digital business models through the use of websites and apps. Casa Cook, an award-winning lifestyle global hotel brand, also accelerated its expansion in Europe. The Casa Cook Samos, Greece opened this May, and received the "Hotel Design Award 2022", hosted by PKF Hospitality Group, within the first month. In addition, a brand new hotel operated by the brand in Greece's tourist island Mykonos, will officially open in June this year.

Similar to the overseas operations, resorts such as Club Med Changbaishan and Club Med Joyview Qiandao Lake have opened this year. Among them, Club Med Qiandao Lake commenced trial operation on 15 June. It achieved a GMV (gross merchandise value) of RMB10 million within four hours after the pre-sale began on 11 May, and its GMV exceeded RMB40 million in 15 days after sales started. Meanwhile, owing to the effective implementation of a value upgrade strategy, the average daily bed rate of Club Med resorts has continued to rise, achieving 19.5% growth in the first quarter of this year versus 2019. Greater capacity and higher premium will present Club Med with promising development prospects after the pandemic. As summer vacations approach, the tourism products of Fosun Tourism, such as Atlantis, will usher in the peak season of bookings.

Mr. Qian Jiannong, Chairman and CEO of Fosun Tourism Group, said, "As increasingly more countries around the world have lifted travel restrictions, Fosun Tourism's global presence will continue to serve as an advantage and point of distinction, driving a strong recovery of the Company's business performance going forward. In China, different regions have taken various initiatives to drive a rebound in the tourism industry. Fosun Tourism is also preparing for an upturn in tourism, now that its businesses have resumed operations. It will continue to leverage the advantages of global presence and competitive products to grasp growth momentum in different regions, and take the lead in developing the global tourism industry."

About Fosun Tourism Group (Stock Code: 1992)

Fosun Tourism Group is one of the leading leisure-focused integrated tourism groups worldwide. It was listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in December 2018. In terms of revenue in 2019, it was the largest leisure tourism resorts group worldwide*. Currently, the Group operates three main businesses including resorts and hotels, tourist destinations, and services and solutions, across various tourism and leisure settings. Within its resorts and hotels business, the Group has sales and marketing operations in more than 40 countries and regions across six continents, and operates over 60 resorts. It also manages and operates Casa Cook and Cook's Club hotels under a light-assets model. As for the tourism destinations segment, the Group develops and owns Sanya Atlantis and its own brand "FOLIDAY Town". It is currently building Lijiang Foliday Town and Taicang Foliday Town. The Group owns Thomas Cook, the world's oldest travel agency brand, and operates the online "Thomas Cook Lifestyle Platform" in China and an Online Travel Agency in the UK, forming an open internet platform based on vacation and lifestyle products.

Advocating the lifestyle of "Everyday is a FOLIDAY", Fosun Tourism is committed to integrating tourism and leisure concepts into everyday life, and provides customers with tailor-made one-stop solutions through the FOLIDAY global ecosystem.

* Frost & Sullivan, an independent international research & consulting firm

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SOURCE Fosun Tourism
YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Finance Ministers and Health Ministers of the world's 20 largest economies agree to establish a ground-breaking pandemic fund to help the world better prevent, prepare for and respond to future pandemics.

Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati co-chaired the 1st G20 Joint Finance and Health Ministers' Meeting (JFHMM), during which G20 member states agreed to the establishment of a Financial Intermediary Fund (FIF) for Pandemic Preparedness, Prevention, and Response (PPR) under the trusteeship of the World Bank and technical guidance of the WHO.

"I am pleased to announce a commitment of over USD 1.1 billion has been secured for the Financial Intermediary Fund for pandemic PPR." Minister Mulyani said. Indonesia commits to contribute USD 50 million, Singapore USD 10 million, the United States USD 450 million, the European Union USD 450 million, Germany Euro 50 million (USD 52.7 millions) and Wellcome Trust 10 million (USD 12.3 million). G20 member states also highlighted that the fund would be inclusive in nature and allow access middle to low income countries to utilize it.

The JFHMM conclusion will also be discussed at the next Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors' (FMCBG) Meeting next month and to be followed up at the next Joint Finance-Health Task Force (JFHTF) meeting.

Indonesian Health Minister Budi empasized that the G20 JFHTF has made progress in discussing further the idea of FIF establishment that was first introduced during 2021 Italian G20 presidency. "I am confident that we will achieve concrete results by October, which includes the establishment of the FIF and coordinating platform collaboration," Minister Budi said.

Two meetings also agree on the universal verification of COVID-19 vaccine certificates, health protocols to ease global mobility, and the expansion of the Global Manufacturing and Research Hub for PPR, especially the production of vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics to take place in developing countries.

WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, World Bank, GAVI, CEPI, The Global Fund and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation attended the meeting. Dr. Tedros said that FIF must also be coherent with other global health initiatives. "This platform should be built on the experience of the ACT Accelerator, the Pandemic Influenza Framework and other mechanisms. This is an important focus of the G20 health track under Minister Budi's leadership," he said.

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SOURCE The Indonesian Ministry of Health
The new Canada facility joins others in the US and Mexico and consolidates Globant's presence in North America; the local team will expand service offerings to regional clients in retail and financial services, among other industries

The company will add 200 new tech jobs in the region over the next three years

TORONTO, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Globant (NYSE: GLOB), a digitally native company focused on reinventing business through innovative technology solutions, announced today its expansion into Canada with the opening of the company's first office in Toronto. This new business hub consolidates the footprint of Globant in North America, where the company has seven offices in the US and four offices in Mexico. Globant is already present in 19 countries with more than 24,500 Globers.

The company will add 200 new tech jobs in the region over the next three years

Globant's strengthening of its footprint in North America will enable the company to work with more leading global companies to accelerate its digital transformation journeys. Over the next three years, the company plans to invest more than $20M USD in the country, as well as recruit 200 professionals in Toronto with backgrounds in the latest trends and technologies, including AI and machine learning, gaming, data analytics, blockchain, and business strategy, among others.

"We have experienced explosive growth in the United States over the last few years, with increased leadership presence across the country. Now, we believe it's time for our company to expand to another key part of North America: Canada, and more specifically, Toronto," said Fernando Matzkin, Chief Business Officer for North America at Globant. "Globant's business is growing consistently alongside our portfolio of services and products. We want to be closer to actual and potential customers in order to understand the specific challenges and opportunities of their markets, and help them reinvent their businesses."

"In partnership with Toronto Global, Globant is expanding its presence to Toronto, where the company will be able to benefit from the highly skilled technical talent, booming business ecosystem, and competitive economic advantages the region offers," said John Tory, Mayor of the City of Toronto. "We are thrilled to welcome Globant's globally-renowned, digital-first company to our city, and know the company will be a perfect fit for the diverse, innovative, and committed spirit of Toronto."

"We are thrilled that Globant has chosen to invest in Canada. Today's announcement is proof that investors continue to choose Canada for our diverse, highly-educated, and growing tech talent pool," said Sara Wilshaw, Canada's Chief Trade Commissioner and Assistant Deputy Minister at Global Affairs. "As you may know, Toronto is one of the world's leading tech hubs, with an investment rate among the highest globally. In recent years, it has attracted signicant attention from international investors, accelerators, and startups. These investments create jobs and contribute to impactful economic growth. Welcome to Canada, Globant!"

"Our ability to help companies across industries reinvent themselves  from healthcare and financial services to travel and hospitality  starts with our talent," said Nicolas Avila, Chief Technology Officer for North America at Globant. "We strive to find the most innovative, diverse, creative people to join our company, and we see our expansion and growth in Toronto as a strategic opportunity to do that, given the city's impressive and extensive history of technical excellence."

Across the world, Globers are offered the unique capability to create their career path by selecting the projects they want to work on from Globant's extensive portfolio of work with global brands. They are also provided access to continuous training and Globant's flexible, agile, and diverse working environment. This year, Globant was certified as a "Great Place to Work" in every country to which it applied  including the United States, Uruguay, Argentina, Colombia, and India  and was particularly recognized for its commitment to diversity and inclusion. The company also won Comparably awards for Best Company Culture, Best Company for Women, Best Company for Diversity, Best Company Outlook, and Best Company for Perks & Benefits.

This announcement aligns with the company's attendance at Collision 2022 in Toronto this week, where Globant CEO and Founder Martin Migoya spoke on the "Why is blockchain important for business?" panel.

For more information on career opportunities at Globant, please visit www.globant.com/careers.

About Globant

We are a digitally native company that helps organizations reinvent themselves to create a way forward and unleash their potential. We are the place where innovation, design and engineering meet scale.

- We have more than 24,500 employees and we are present in 19 countries working for companies like Google, Electronic Arts and Santander, among others. - We were named a Worldwide Leader in CX Improvement Services by IDC MarketScape report. - We were also featured as a business case study at Harvard, MIT, and Stanford. - We are a member of the Green Software Foundation (GSF) and the Cybersecurity Tech Accord.

Contact: [email protected]

Sign up to get first dibs on press news and updates.

For more information, visit www.globant.com.

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SOURCE Globant
NEW YORK and TORONTO, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc. ("iAnthus" or the "Company") (CSE: IAN) (OTCPK: ITHUF), which owns, operates and partners with regulated cannabis operations across the United States, announces today that it has completed its previously announced recapitalization transaction (the "Recapitalization Transaction") pursuant to the terms of a restructuring support agreement (the "Restructuring Support Agreement"), dated July 10, 2020 and as amended June 15, 2021, between the Company, all of the holders (the "Secured Lenders") of the 13% senior secured convertible debentures (the "Secured Debentures") issued by iAnthus Capital Management, LLC ("iAnthus SubCo"), and a majority of the holders (the "Consenting Unsecured Debentureholders") of the 8% unsecured convertible debentures (the "Unsecured Debentures") issued by the Company. The implementation of the Recapitalization Transaction resulted in various changes to the corporate governance and capital structure of the Company, as detailed below. The Recapitalization Transaction closed pursuant to the terms of the plan of arrangement, as amended and restated (the "Plan of Arrangement"), which was approved by the shareholders of the Company at a meeting of holders of the Company's common shares ("Common Shares"), options and warrants, as well as by 100% of the holders of the Secured Debentures and 100% of the holders of the Unsecured Debentures, on September 14, 2020, and by the Supreme Court of British Columbia on October 5, 2020.

All references to currency in this news release are in US dollars.

Issuance of New Common Shares

As of the closing of the Recapitalization Transaction, the Company issued in aggregate 6,072,579,705 Common Shares to the Secured Lenders and holders of the Unsecured Debentures. Specifically, the Secured Lenders have been issued in aggregate 3,036,289,852 Common Shares ("Secured Lender Shares") on a pro rata basis, which is equal to 48.625% of the total outstanding Common Shares, and the holders of Unsecured Debentures have been issued in aggregate 3,036,289,853 ("Unsecured Debentureholders Shares") on a pro rata basis, which is also equal to 48.625% of the total outstanding Common Shares. The existing holders of the Common Shares (the "Existing Shareholders") will continue to hold in aggregate 171,718,192 Common Shares, representing 2.75% of the total outstanding Common Shares.

Further details on the Recapitalization Transaction can be found in the Company's information circular dated August 14, 2020 (a copy of which is available under the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com) and other documents filed by the Company on SEDAR, including the Plan of Arrangement filed on October 7, 2020.

All of the Company's existing warrants and options have been cancelled as of the closing of the Recapitalization Transaction.

Following the closing of the Recapitalization Transaction, the Common Shares may be consolidated pursuant to a consolidation ratio which has yet to be determined, subject to applicable corporate approval and applicable filings with the Canadian Securities Exchange.

Restructured Secured and Unsecured Debt

As of the closing of the Recapitalization Transaction, the Secured Debentures (plus accrued and unpaid interest and fees), and the interim financing secured notes due July 13, 2025 (plus accrued interest) issued to certain of the Secured Lenders in connection with the entry into of the Restructuring Support Agreement, were forgiven in part and exchanged in accordance with the terms of the Plan of Arrangement for: (i) the Secured Lender Shares; (ii) 8% senior secured debentures in the aggregate principal amount of $99,736,842, due June 24, 2027, issued by iAnthus SubCo and guaranteed by the Company and its subsidiaries ("New Secured Notes"); and (iii) 8% unsecured debentures due June 24, 2027, issued by iAnthus SubCo and guaranteed by the Company (the "New Unsecured Notes") in the aggregate principal amount equal to $5,000,000.

As of the closing of the Recapitalization Transaction, the Unsecured Debentures (plus accrued and unpaid interest and fees) were also forgiven in part and exchanged in accordance with the terms of the Plan of Arrangement for: (i) the Unsecured Debentureholders Shares; and (ii) New Unsecured Notes in the aggregate principal amount equal to $15,000,000.

Interest accrued under both the New Secured Notes and New Unsecured Notes shall be paid in kind.

$25,000,000 Additional Financing

Following the closing of the Recapitalization Transaction, certain of the Secured Lenders and Consenting Unsecured Debentureholders acquired 8% senior secured debentures in the aggregate principal amount equal to $25,000,000, due June 24, 2027 by iAnthus SubCo and guaranteed by the Company and its subsidiaries (the "Additional Secured Notes"). Interest accrued under the Additional Secured Notes shall be paid in kind. The proceeds from the issuance of the Additional Secured Notes will be used by the Company for working capital and general corporate purposes, and for costs and expenses relating to the closing of the Recapitalization Transaction.

Certain of the purchasers of the Additional Secured Notes may be considered "related parties" as such term is defined in Multilateral Instrument 61-101  Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). Accordingly, the issuance of the Additional Secured Notes may be a "related party transaction" as defined in MI 61-101. The Company is relying on the exemption from the formal valuation requirement at Section 5.5(b) of MI 61-101 (Issuer Not Listed on Specified Markets) and the exemption from minority approval requirement at Section 5.7(1)(f) of MI 61-101 (Loan to Issuer, No Equity or Voting Component) in respect of the issuance of the Additional Secured Notes. The Company did not file a material change report 21 days prior to the expected closing of the Additional Secured Notes as the structure of the transaction and details of the participation of such purchasers had not been confirmed at that time. Due to the Company's liquidity constraints, the Company believes it is reasonable and necessary in the circumstances to complete the closing of the Additional Secured Notes within the available financing windows.

Changes to the Board of Directors (the "Board")

Michael Muldowney and Diane Ellis have resigned from the Board, effective June 24, 2022. Both Mr. Muldowney and Ms. Ellis joined the Company on December 5, 2019 as part of the formation of the Company's independent Board. "Speaking on behalf of the entire iAnthus team, we have been very fortunate to have both Michael and Diane on the Board for the last two and a half years. Both Michael and Diane brought to the Board extensive professional experience and unique, strategic perspectives that helped guide iAnthus through a complicated Recapitalization Transaction," said Robert Galvin, Interim Chief Executive Officer and a Director. "We thank Michael and Diane for their valuable contributions." As contemplated in connection with the Recapitalization Transaction, Mr. Galvin has also resigned from the Board effective June 24, 2022 but continues as Interim Chief Executive Officer.

Immediately prior to closing the Recapitalization Transaction the Board was comprised of eight seats with five casual vacancies. Pursuant to the terms of the Plan of Arrangement, the Secured Lenders have the right to nominate three directors to the Board and the Consenting Unsecured Debentureholders have the right to collectively appoint three directors to the Board, which rights continue in accordance with the terms of the Investor Rights Agreement described below.

The Secured Lenders nominated two of their three nominees to the Board, being Scott Cohen and Michelle (Mich) Mathews-Spradlin, and will nominate a third director after closing, subject to regulatory approval where required. The Consenting Unsecured Debentureholders nominated all three of their director nominees being: Zachary (Zach) Arrick, Alexander Shoghi and Marco D'Attanasio. These nominees will serve as directors of iAnthus until the next annual general meeting or until their successors are duly elected or appointed. Once a permanent chief executive officer is selected by the Company, such individual (and any successor thereto) shall also be nominated as a director in accordance with the Investor Rights Agreement.

The biographies of the five current members of the Board are set out below:

Scott Cohen | Director

Scott Cohen has over 25 years of professional investment experience, including public and private debt and equity securities. Mr. Cohen is currently a consultant to financially troubled companies and stakeholders, and an active investor in turnaround opportunities. Until 2017 Mr. Cohen was with Silver Rock Financial, a large family office, investing in debt and equity investments. Responsibilities included sourcing of both public and private debt, structuring debt securities and loans, and leading activist and restructuring transactions. Prior to Silver Rock Financial, Mr. Cohen was Managing Director and Portfolio Manager at Cerberus Capital Management. At Cerberus, Mr. Cohen's responsibilities included analyzing, investing, and managing of a portfolio of primarily distressed assets. Most of these investments involved activist or control roles, from leading creditor committees to initiating negotiations with borrowers in restructurings. Mr. Cohen also worked closely with the private equity team at Cerberus on several large transactions, focusing on liability management within portfolio companies. Prior to joining Cerberus, Mr. Cohen worked in Merrill Lynch's distressed debt trading group from 1992 to 1998, analyzing and investing in distressed corporate situations. From 1990 to 1992 he was an investment banker in Merrill's High Yield Finance and Restructuring Group. Mr. Cohen is a 1990 graduate of Tufts University.

Mich Mathews-Spradlin | Director

From 1993 until her retirement in 2011, Ms. Mathews-Spradlin worked at Microsoft Corporation, where she served as Chief Marketing Officer and previously held several other key leadership positions. Prior to her employment with Microsoft, Ms. Mathews-Spradlin worked in the United Kingdom as a communications consultant for Microsoft from 1989 to 1993. She also held various roles at General Motors Co. from 1986 to 1989.

As the CMO and SVP of Microsoft, Ms. Mathews-Spradlin oversaw the company's global marketing function, including the household brands of Windows, Office, Xbox, Internet Explorer and Bing. Mathews-Spradlin led Microsoft's consumer and business-to-business marketing to hundreds of millions of global customers. She was instrumental in driving the growth of Microsoft's global business by building several of the world's leading technology brands. As the most senior woman at Microsoft, she was also a strong advocate for female advancement and personally spearheaded the company's network and mentoring program for female progression at the company. She retired from Microsoft in 2011, after 22 years.

Ms. Mathews-Spradlin currently serves on the board of The Wendy's Company and in addition serves as a board member of several private companies, including Jacana Holdings Inc., The Bouqs Company and You & Mr Jones. She is also a digital advisory board member for Unilever PLC, a member of the board of trustees of the California Institute of Technology and a member of the executive board of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.

Alexander Shoghi | Director

Mr. Shoghi is a Portfolio Manager at Oasis Management, a private investment management firm headquartered in Hong Kong. Mr. Shoghi joined Oasis in 2005, first based in Hong Kong, and subsequently relocating to the U.S. as the founder and manager of Oasis Capital in Austin, Texas in early 2012. From 2004 to 2005, Mr. Shoghi worked at Lehman Brothers in New York City. Mr. Shoghi holds a Bachelor of Science of Business Administration in Finance and International Business degree from Georgetown University.

Zach Arrick | Director

Mr. Arrick is a Senior Research Analyst at Senvest Management LLC, a private investment management firm headquartered in New York City. Mr. Arrick joined Senvest in 2013. From 2007 to 2013, Mr. Arrick worked at Morgan Stanley in San Francisco and New York City, and JMP Securities in San Francisco. Mr. Arrick holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Marco D'Attanasio | Director

Marco D'Attanasio is the founder and chief investment officer of Hadron Capital, a boutique investment manager with offices in London UK and the Cayman Islands. Hadron currently manages five different investment funds with a catalyst-driven investment style. Prior to founding Hadron in 2004, Marco was managing director at the Royal Bank of Canada in London, where he worked from 1998 to 2004. At RBC he was heading up event-driven and relative value proprietary investments for Europe and Asia. Prior to that Marco worked at the London offices of HSBC and JPMorgan. Marco holds a PhD in theoretical physics and has co-written numerous academic international publications in particle physics and cosmology.

Annual General Meeting

The Company has called its annual general meetings (each an "AGM" and collectively, the "AGMs") of shareholders for the fiscal years 2019, 2020 and 2021 (being the 2020 AGM, the 2021 AGM and the 2022 AGM respectively) for shareholders of record on July 5, 2022, to be held concurrently on August 11, 2022, in Toronto, Ontario. The Company will post on SEDAR and mail shareholder meeting materials, including a form of proxy, to shareholders in due course and invites all shareholders to attend.

Petition Seeking Annual General Meeting

Michael Weisser ("Weisser") commenced a petition in the Supreme Court of British Columbia, Vancouver Registry, under Court File No. S-224955 against iAnthus and its board of directors on June 20, 2022 (the "Petition"). In the Petition, Weisser seeks, among other things, an order that the Company hold its 2020 AGM on or before June 30, 2022, or alternatively on a date set by the court as soon as reasonably possible thereafter. In the Petition, Weisser alleges he became a shareholder of the Company in approximately June 2021 (almost one year after the Company entered into the RSA), exercising control or direction, together with supporting shareholders, over approximately 5% of the shares of the Company. On June 22, 2022 Weisser was granted short leave, permitting a return date for the Petition on June 28, 2022. The Company will respond to the Petition. The Recapitalization Transaction has now closed and the Company has noticed the AGMs; accordingly, Weisser's petition is moot.

Long-Term Incentive Program

On January 7, 2022, the Company announced the terms of a long-term incentive program ("LTIP") recommended by the compensation committee of the Board and, pursuant to which, the Company will allocate to certain employees of the Company and its subsidiaries (including executive officers) restricted stock units and option awards under the Amended and Restated Omnibus Incentive Plan dated October 15, 2018 in order to attract and retain such employees. The awards will represent up to, in the aggregate, 5.75% of the fully-diluted equity of the Company after taking into account the issuance of the Common Shares under the Recapitalization Transaction described above. The allocations were contingent on the closing of the Recapitalization Transaction and, subject to approval of the Canadian Securities Exchange and the Board, the Company intends to issue such restricted stock units and stock options within ten days. The LTIP covers approximately 250 employees of the Company and its subsidiaries.

Additional Agreements

In connection with the issuance of the New Secured Notes and the Additional Secured Notes, the Company and its subsidiaries (including iAnthus Subco) entered into the Third Amended and Restated Secured Purchase Agreement with the Secured Lenders and Consenting Unsecured Debentureholders, and in connection with the issuance of the New Unsecured Notes, the Company and iAnthus Subco entered into an Unsecured Debenture Agreement with the Secured Lenders and Consenting Unsecured Debentureholders, copies of which will be filed by the Company on SEDAR.

In connection with the Restructuring Transaction, the Company and certain of the Secured Lenders and Consenting Unsecured Debentureholders entered into a customary Investor Rights Agreement and a customary Registration Rights Agreement, copies of which will be filed by the Company on SEDAR.

About iAnthus

iAnthus owns and operates licensed cannabis cultivation, processing and dispensary facilities throughout the United States. For more information, visit www.iAnthus.com.

COVID-19 Risk Factor

The Company may be impacted by business interruptions resulting from pandemics and public health emergencies, including those related to COVID-19. An outbreak of infectious disease, a pandemic, or a similar public health threat, such as the recent outbreak of COVID-19, or a fear of any of the foregoing could adversely impact the Company by causing operating, manufacturing, supply chain, and project development delays and disruptions, labor shortages, travel, and shipping disruption and shutdowns (including as a result of government regulation and prevention measures). It is unknown whether and how the Company may be affected if such a pandemic persists for an extended period of time, including as a result of the waiver of regulatory requirements or the implementation of emergency regulations to which the Company is subject. Although the Company has been deemed essential and/or has been permitted to continue operating its facilities in the states in which it cultivates, processes, manufactures, and sells cannabis during the pendency of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is no assurance that the Company's operations will continue to be deemed essential and/or will continue to be permitted to operate. The Company may incur expenses or delays relating to such events outside of its control, which could have a material adverse impact on its business, operating results, financial condition, and the trading price of the Company's common shares.

Forward Looking Statements

Statements in this news release contain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made on the basis of the current beliefs, expectations and assumptions of management, are not guarantees of performance and are subject to significant risks and uncertainty. These forward-looking statements should, therefore, be considered in light of various important factors, including those set forth in Company's reports that it files from time to time with the SEC and the Canadian securities regulators which you should review including, but not limited to, the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC. When used in this news release, words such as "will," could," plan," estimate," expect," intend," may," potential," believe, "should" and similar expressions, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements may include, without limitation, statements relating to the Company's financial performance, business development and results of operations and the outcome of the closing of the Recapitalization Transaction.

These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as predictions of future events, and the Company cannot assure you that the events or circumstances discussed or reflected in these statements will be achieved or will occur. If such forward-looking statements prove to be inaccurate, the inaccuracy may be material. You should not regard these statements as a representation or warranty by the Company or any other person that it will achieve its objectives and plans in any specified timeframe, or at all. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this news release. The Company disclaims any obligation to publicly update or release any revisions to these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date of this news release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission have reviewed, approved or disapproved the content of this news release.

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SOURCE iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc.
TOLEDO, Ohio, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- InfiniTrak, a leader in Track and Trace technology services in the healthcare space continues to add functionality to secure the drug supply chain. The company's primary driver has been focused on dispensers, not only in terms of compliance but user-friendly added functionality and automated processes. The challenges with the COVID-19 pandemic led InfiniTrak to develop No Touch Implementation, along with Audit Services to provide compliance with little interruption to the pharmacy's daily workflow. This combination, with being the pioneers in DSCSA compliance and scanning, has positioned InfiniTrak at the forefront of the industry bringing some of the best pharmacy solutions to the market now.

The past several years InfiniTrak has added some of the best talent in the healthcare and technology space. This continues with today's announcement that Sam Pizzo has become the latest new talent to join InfiniTrak as Senior Vice President- Strategic Alliances. Sam brings over 28 years of pharmacy knowledge and experience. During this time, his focus has been around providing state-of-the-art solutions and functionality that allows pharmacies to maintain and increase their business, improve workflow, and provide cutting edge, hands-off regulatory service solutions.

According to President Mark Tate, "Sam will be an integral part of furthering InfiniTrak's partnerships and alliances." Mr. Tate continues stating, "The reality is that the pharmacy industry is all over the board as far as their readiness for DSCSA. The level of preparedness varies with some compliant with the current mandates while so many others do not even realize they are not complying with all the parts of the first phase of the law. The fact is many DSCSA compliance solutions providers are working to get ready for the final 2023 mandates and may not be fully prepared. It is imperative that all stakeholders, in the dispenser space, be knowledgeable and know the DSCSA requirements from 2015 as well as upcoming 2023 requirements. With all these moving pieces, lack of clear direction, and pending FDA guidelines, the timing of Sam joining InfiniTrak to expand strategic alliances is ideal."

About InfiniTrak

InfiniTrak is a pioneer and industry leader in track and trace technology. InfiniTrak was created with the dispenser in mind, focusing on DSCSA compliance and ROI functionality to improve margins with greater inventory visualization and controls. The company has a full range of solutions available as an enterprise suite or individual modules to complement existing systems. InfiniTrak is the preferred provider for a vast array of leading Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs), Pharmacy Services Administrative Organizations (PSAOs) and numerous healthcare Co-ops as well as a member of many state pharmacy organizations, hospital associations. The company's headquarters are located in Toledo, Ohio with Government Affairs offices in Ashburn, Virginia.

Contact:

Mark TatePresidentInfiniTrak2400 N. Reynolds RdToledo, OH 43615567-277-3660[email protected]www.InfiniTrak.us

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SOURCE InfiniTrak, LLC
Brand Leaves Zero Gray Area Over Men's Concerns About Hair Color

NEW YORK, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- For most men, going gray is one of the first visible indicators of the aging process, yet many aren't ready. In fact, 7 in 10 men who have grey hair worry that it makes them look older** and the majority want to look as young as they feel. Now, addressing grays in a way that is easy, natural-looking, and long-lasting is easier than ever with new L'Oreal Paris Men Expert One-Twist Hair Color  the brand's first permanent hair color technology created specifically for men.

"Backed by over 100 years of R&I knowledge, L'Oreal Paris Hair Color leads with science to answer consumer insights in everything we create," remarks Lindsay Menzer, Director of R&I Hair Color, L'Oreal. "When it comes to the natural process of graying hair, we know that this visible sign of aging can be accelerated by external factors, like stress. According to several studies, men have been shown to be more severely affected by graying than woman."

L'Oreal Paris found that the top concerns of men pertaining to hair color included fear of color lasting or appearing natural, anxiety over anticipated results, and the possibility of a messy or time-consuming process.

"After five years of extensive research focused on making hair color specifically for men, L'Oreal R&I developed Men Expert One Twist," notes Lindsay Menzer, Director of R&I Hair Color, L'Oreal. "The easy-to-use, patented 'one-twist' tool helps men effortlessly achieve the desired permanent long lasting natural looking result in only five minutes. This unique, mess-free application was co-designed and thoroughly tested with men around the globe to ensure that we were bringing true innovation to the market. "

Of the men that have tried it, believe it to be as fast an easy as shaving and agree that it offers a natural-looking result. Men Expert is less messy than the current #1 men's hair color brand*. And as natural looking.

Powered by an ammonia-free gel technology, grey coverage is easy with Men Expert One-Twist Hair Color: just twist, shake, apply and in 5 minutes undetectable grey coverage blended for up to 6 weeks. Available in 7 shades easily selected by visiting the exclusive shade matcher tool on www.menexpert.com.

L'Oreal Paris Men Expert One-Twist Hair Color made its debut with a new advertising campaign earlier this year featuring brand ambassador Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.

*Amongst those who saw a difference in messiness. **This random double-opt-in survey of 2,000 men split evenly by generation was commissioned by L'Oreal between February 15 and February 18, 2022. It was conducted by market research company OnePoll, whose team members are members of the Market Research Society and have corporate membership to the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) and the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research (ESOMAR).

CONTACT: Olivia Porcello Cody, [email protected]

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SOURCE L'Oreal Paris
OKOTOKS, AB, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - (TSX: MTL) Mullen Group Ltd. ("Mullen Group", "We", "Our" and/or the "Corporation") reports that Stephen Clark, the Corporation's Senior Financial Officer, is on extended leave for health reasons. In his absence, Carson Urlacher, Senior Accounting Officer has assumed Mr. Clark's responsibilities.

About Mullen Group Ltd.

Mullen Group is one of North America's largest logistics providers. Our network of independently operated businesses provide a wide range of service offerings including less-than-truckload, truckload, warehousing, logistics, transload, oversized, third-party logistics and specialized hauling transportation. In addition, we provide a diverse set of specialized services related to the energy, mining, forestry and construction industries in western Canada, including water management, fluid hauling and environmental reclamation. The corporate office provides the capital and financial expertise, legal support, technology and systems support, shared services and strategic planning to its independent businesses.

Mullen Group is a publicly traded corporation listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "MTL". Additional information is available on our website at www.mullen-group.com or on the Corporation's issuer profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Contact Information

Mr. Murray K. Mullen - Chair, Senior Executive Officer and PresidentMr. Richard J. Maloney - Senior Operating OfficerMr. Carson P. Urlacher - Senior Accounting OfficerMs. Joanna K. Scott  Senior Corporate Officer

121A - 31 Southridge DriveOkotoks, Alberta, Canada T1S 2N3Telephone: 403-995-5200Fax: 403-995-5296

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SOURCE Mullen Group Ltd.
Founders First CDC to Award Another $100,000 to Minority Businesses Throughout the State to Create and Promote Premium Wage Employment Opportunities in Underserved Communities

DALLAS, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Founders First CDC, a national 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that empowers expansion in diverse founder-led, revenue-generating businesses, announced the second wave of its Job Creators Quest Grant which will award $100,000 to support minority and underrepresented business owners throughout the state of Texas. The grant opened for submission today and will remain open through July 25, 2022. Thirty grants will be awarded to diverse-led companies located in the north, central east or south Texas regions, with a staff of 2-20 employees and the ability to add 1-2 net new premium wage jobs in the next 12 months. To be eligible, the company's founder must be Black, indigenous, a person of color, LGBTQIA+, military veteran, a woman or located in a low to moderate income area and be a for-profit company with annual revenues between $100,000 to $3 million.

The purpose of the Job Creators Quest Grant is to help business owners create premium wage jobs and reward diverse-led businesses throughout Texas to retain and grow their workforce as we emerge from the pandemic and amid threats of an economic recession. This will help to positively impact the local economy, create jobs with higher wages and provide the human capital needed for businesses to grow and expand. This grant project was launched in early 2021. Since launching, Founders First CDC has awarded more than $400,000 to minority and underserved business owners throughout the United States with a focus on Texas, Chicago, Southern California, Philadelphia and New Jersey.

"With the rising cost of living, it can be challenging for families let alone business owners to stay afloat, particularly when it costs them more to provide goods and services for their consumers," said Shaylon Scott, executive director of Founders First. "We are happy to be able to invest money and resources in hard working business owners throughout Texas to help them thrive, even during uncertain economic times. Investing in diverse entrepreneurs is not only an impactful way to create jobs but is a pivotal way to close the general wealth gap in underserved communities."

Funding for this program was facilitated by a $1 million national grant from the Rockefeller Foundation and in conjunction with Founders First Capital Partners' recent $9 million Series A financing accelerator to support underrepresented entrepreneurs in underserved communities across the country. Additional national and regional partners include ADP, Black Enterprise, JP Morgan Chase, The Kauffman Foundation, African American Chamber of San Antonio, Bank OZK, BCL of Texas, Dallas BUILD Network, Divinc, Dallas Fort Worth MSDC, Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Sesh Coworking, Impact Ventures, ICIC, Houston Hispanic Network, Lift Fund, PeopleFund, Margin Institute, Mogul Millennial, The Common Desk, The DEC, The Mass Challenge, INNW, Veteran Women's Enterprise Center, Women's Business Council and Wisdom Consulting.

Receiving the grant money was vital to recipients as it helped them grow their businesses in a myriad of ways. "When we signed up for the Founders First Texas Job Creators Quest Grant, we thought it was just going to be a basic grant for creating quality jobs in Texas, but it turned out to be much more. The Founder's First accelerator course was packed with incredible information that we immediately put to use to grow our business," said Liz D'Aloia, COO of Koder Labs, a 2021 Grant Recipient and Bootcamp program graduate.

Qualified business owners, particularly those in the Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio markets may visit https://foundersfirstcdc.org/texas to apply for the grant.

To apply for the business accelerator program, visit: https://foundersfirstcdc.org/programs/

Media Contact:Kayla Tucker Adams214-403-9852[email protected]

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SOURCE FOUNDERS FIRST CDC
DALLAS

June 24, 2022

/PRNewswire/ -- NexPoint Capital, Inc. (the "Company"), a non-traded publicly registered business development company sponsored and managed by NexPoint Advisors, L.P., today announced the expiration and final results for its tender offer (the "Tender Offer") for up to 2.5% of its outstanding common stock ("Shares") at a price of $6.02 per Share (an amount approved by the Company's board of directors on June 24, 2022), plus any unpaid dividends accrued through the expiration date of the Tender Offer. The Fund's Tender Offer expired on June 21, 2022 at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time. 102,661.786 shares of the Company were tendered for repurchase in the Tender Offer.

Any questions regarding the Tender Offer can be directed to the Company's Tender Agent, DST Systems, Inc., at (844) 485-9167. The Company's current offering price for its Shares, as well as other information, including information about management and the healthcare-focused investment strategy, are available at nexpoint.com. The information on or accessible through nexpoint.com is not incorporated by reference herein.

About NexPoint Capital, Inc.

NexPoint Capital, Inc. is a non-traded, publicly registered business development company sponsored and managed by NexPoint Advisors, L.P.

About NexPoint Advisors, L.P.

NexPoint Advisors, L.P. ("NexPoint Advisors") is an SEC-registered adviser on the NexPoint alternative investment platform ("NexPoint"). NexPoint Advisors serves as the adviser to a suite of funds and investment vehicles, including a closed-end fund, interval fund, business development company ("BDC"), and various real estate vehicles. For more information visit www.nexpoint.com.

Except for the historical information and discussions contained herein, statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking statements. These statements may involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, including the performance of financial markets, the investment performance of NexPoint Advisors, L.P.'s sponsored investment products, general economic conditions, future acquisitions, competitive conditions and government regulations, including changes in tax laws. Readers should carefully consider such factors. Further, such forward-looking statements speak only on the date at which such statements are made. NexPoint Advisors, L.P. undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statement.

This material has been distributed for informational purposes only and should not be considered as investment advice or a recommendation of any particular security, strategy or investment product. Neither the Company, nor the Company's Board of Directors, nor NexPoint Advisors, L.P., makes any recommendation as to whether to tender or not to tender any Shares in the Tender Offer. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form, or referred to in any other publication, without express written permission.

For Information on the Tender Offer:

Financial Advisors: (855) 498-1580

Shareholders: (844) 485-9167

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SOURCE NexPoint Capital, Inc.
SECAUCUS, N.J., June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE: DGX), the world's leading provider of diagnostic information services, announced that it will report second quarter 2022 financial results on Thursday, July 21, 2022, before the market opens. It will hold its quarterly conference call to discuss the results beginning at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time on that day.

The conference call can be accessed by dialing 888-455-0391 within the U.S. and Canada, or 773-756-0467 internationally, using the passcode: "7895081." The earnings release and live webcast will be posted on www.QuestDiagnostics.com/investor. The company suggests participants dial in approximately 10 minutes before the call.

A replay of the call may be accessed online at www.QuestDiagnostics.com/investor or by phone at 888-566-0439 for domestic callers or 203-369-3045 for international callers; no passcode is required. Telephone replays will be available from approximately 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on July 21, 2022 until midnight Eastern Time on August 4, 2022.

Anyone listening to the call is encouraged to read the company's periodic reports on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the discussion of risk factors and historical results of operations and financial condition in those reports.

About Quest Diagnostics

Quest Diagnostics empowers people to take action to improve health outcomes. Derived from the world's largest database of clinical lab results, Quest's diagnostic insights reveal new avenues to identify and treat disease, inspire healthy behaviors, and improve health care management. Quest Diagnostics annually serves one in three adult Americans and half the physicians and hospitals in the United States, and our nearly 50,000 employees understand that, in the right hands and with the right context, our diagnostic insights can inspire actions that transform lives. www.QuestDiagnostics.com

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SOURCE Quest Diagnostics
WASHINGTON, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court ended a woman's right to safe, legal, and accessible abortions, voting 5-4 in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization to overrule Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, ignoring the dangers to women's health and 50 years of precedent. The U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) has policyvoted on and passed by mayorsurging Congress and states to protect and improve women's access to safe and comprehensive reproductive healthcare, including abortions. At the USCM Annual Meeting earlier this month, mayors reaffirmed their support by adopting a new resolution. Additionally, mayors have spoken out about how the decision will impact their communities in a new video. Watch the video here.

In response to the decision, Tom Cochran, CEO and Executive Director of the USCM, released the following statement:

"The conservative majority of the Court has decided women should end today with one less constitutional right than they had this morning, that government should get a veto over the healthcare decisions of a woman and her doctor, that judges should advance agendas without regard for settled law, that politics comes before health care.

"The consequences of this decision will be felt in cities nationwide, where women will suffer from the loss of access to critical healthcare services, where they face state abortion bans that do not include exemptions for rape or incest. Mayors and their cities will do all that they can to support women's ability to make their own health care decisions.

"This also cannot be the last word on this matter. The United States Conference of Mayors calls on Members of Congress to swiftly pass legislation to codify a woman's right to choose, and we urge governors and state legislatures to protect women's access to healthcare and individual freedoms."

About the United States Conference of Mayors -- The U.S. Conference of Mayors is the official nonpartisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more. There are more than 1,400 such cities in the country today, and each city is represented in the Conference by its chief elected official, the mayor. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

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SOURCE U.S. Conference of Mayors
TIANJIN, China, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The online opening ceremony of the 6th World Intelligence Congress (WIC) cum Summit on Innovative Development was held at National Convention & Exhibition Center (Tianjin) on June 24.

Wan Gang, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and president of China Association for Science and Technology, delivered a keynote speech at the opening ceremony. Xiao Yaqing, minister of industry and information technology, Li Xiaohong, president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and Li Hongzhong, secretary of CPC Tianjin Committee, gave speeches. Zhang Gong, acting mayor of Tianjin, presided over the event.

Wan said China has seen fast development of new-generation artificial intelligence which is characterized by technology integration and function expansion in singular intelligence, multi-source heterogeneous data and connotation extension in swarm intelligence, application scenario-driven interdisciplinary integration and efficient security guarantee. He also said that, after five years' development, the WIC has become a platform and a bridge that showcase and link the latest outcomes in the global AI community, an iconic event in Tianjin, and a window for a glimpse of China's AI industry.

Li Hongzhong said Tianjin has been endeavoring to be a pioneer in AI development and made a series of achievements over the past five years, including increasing passion for scientific explorations, enhanced vigor and concentrated resources for innovation, a thriving AI industry and wide application of digital and AI technologies in industries and everyday life. He said Tianjin will spare no effort to build an innovation cluster, make manufacturing a main driver for the city's development, deepen the reform of the local science and technology management system, and quicken the pace of building a "smart port".

As a representative of the Guest Country of Honor, Tom Duke, deputy HM trade commissioner for China at the Department for International Trade of British Embassy Beijing, spoke on site. Yuval Waks, deputy chief of mission at the Israel Embassy in China, spoke via video. They both agreed that the success of the WIC has shown that China, especially Tianjin, is demonstrating great strength and playing an important role in the technology-driven world today, and hoped the WIC could help further enhance the ties between China and their countries in science and technology development and trade.

Following the WIC opening ceremony was the Summit on Innovative Development, which was presided over by Gong Ke, former president of World Federation of Engineering Organizations and executive director of the Chinese Institute of New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Strategies.

Twelve guests delivered speeches on site or via video. Among them are Zhou Ji, honorary chairman of Governing Board of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Yin Qi, co-founder and CEO of MEGVII, Liu Liehong, chairman of China Unicom, Yang Yuanqing, chairman and CEO of Lenovo, Zeng Yi, director and general manager of China Electronics Corporation, Nabil Habayeb, senior vice president of GE and president and CEO of GE International Markets, Zhou Hongyi, founder of 360 Group, Thomas J. Sargent, winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences and a professor of economics and business at New York University, Chen Xudong, general manager of IBM Greater China, Liu Jiren, founding chairman of Neusoft, Wang Yusuo, chairman of ENN Group, and Wang Jian, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and founder of Alibaba Cloud.

Contact: Fan YingmingTel: 0086-13702005832Email: [email protected]

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SOURCE World Intelligence Congress
UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

SCHEDULE 13G



Under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

(Amendment No. 2)

Aptinyx Inc.

(Name of Issuer)

Common Stock, par value $0.01

(Title of Class of Securities)

03836N103

(CUSIP Number)

December 31, 2020

(Date of Event Which Requires Filing of this Statement)

Check the appropriate box to designate the rule pursuant to which this Schedule is filed:

[ ] Rule 13d-1(b)

[X] Rule 13d-1(c)

[ ] Rule 13d-1(d)

* The remainder of this cover page shall be filled out for a reporting person's initial filing on this form with respect to the subject class of securities, and for any subsequent amendment containing information which would alter the disclosures provided in a prior cover page.

The information required in the remainder of this cover page shall not be deemed to be "filed" for the purpose of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ("Act") or otherwise subject to the liabilities of that section of the Act but shall be subject to all other provisions of the Act (however, see the Notes).

Potential persons who are to respond to the collection of information contained in this form are not required to respond unless the form displays a currently valid OMB control number.

1

CUSIP NO. 03836N103

1. Names of Reporting Persons.

I.R.S. Identification Nos. of above persons (entities only).



John A. Kryzanowski

2. Check the Appropriate Box if a Member of a Group (See Instructions)



(a) ______



(b) ______

3. SEC Use Only

4. Citizenship or Place of Organization United States

Number of Shares Beneficially Owned by Each Reporting Person With: 5. Sole Voting Power 4,695,800 6. Shared Voting Power 0 7. Sole Dispositive Power 4,695,800 8. Shared Dispositive Power 0

9. Aggregate Amount Beneficially Owned by Each Reporting Person 4,695,800

10. Check if the Aggregate Amount in Row (9) Excludes Certain Shares (See

Instructions) ______

11. Percent of Class Represented by Amount in Row (9) 7.42%*

12. Type of Reporting Person (See Instructions)

IN

* Percentage calculated based on 63,259,689 shares of common stock outstanding, as reported on the Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended September 30, 2020, by Aptinyx Inc.

2

CUSIP NO. 03836N103

Item 1.

(a) Name of Issuer



Aptinx Inc.



(b) Address of Issuer's Principal Executive Offices



909 Davis Street, Suite 600

Evanston, IL 60201



Item 2.

(a) The names of the person filing this statement is:



John A. Kryzanowski





(the "Filer").

(b) The principal business office of the Filer is located at:



c/o Shartsis Friese LLP

One Maritime Plaza, 18th Floor

San Francisco, CA 94111

(c) For citizenship of the Filer, see Item 4 of the cover sheet for the Filer.

(d) This statement relates to shares of common stock of the Issuer (the "Stock").

(e) The CUSIP number of the Issuer is: 03836N103

3

CUSIP NO. 03836N103

Item 3. If this statement is filed pursuant to rule 240.13d-1(b) or 240.13d-2(b) or (c), check whether the person filing is a:

(a) [ ] Broker or dealer registered under section 15 of the Act (15 U.S.C. 78o).

(b) [ ] Bank as defined in section 3(a)(6) of the Act (15 U.S.C. 78c).

(c) [ ] Insurance company as defined in section 3(a)(19) of the Act (15 U.S.C. 78c).

(d) [ ] Investment company registered under section 8 of the Investment Company Act of 1940 (15 U.S.C. 80a-8).

(e) [ ] An investment adviser in accordance with section 240.13d-1(b)(1)(ii)(E).

(f) [ ] An employee benefit plan or endowment fund in accordance with section 240.13d-1(b)(1)(ii)(F).

(g) [ ] A parent holding company or control person in accordance with 240.13d-1(b)(1)(ii)(G)

(h) [ ] A savings association as defined in section 3(b) of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act (12 U.S.C. 1813).

(i) [ ] A church plan that is excluded from the definition of an investment company under section 3(c)(14) of the Investment Company Act of 1940 (15 U.S.C. 80a-3).

(j) [ ] Group, in accordance with section 240.13d-1(b)(1)(ii)(J).

Item 4. Ownership.

See Items 5-9 and 11 of the cover page for the Filer.

Item 5. Ownership of Five Percent or Less of a Class

If this statement is being filed to report the fact that as of the date hereof the reporting person has ceased to be the beneficial owner of more than five percent of the class of securities, check the following [ ].

Item 6. Ownership of More than Five Percent on Behalf of Another Person.

The Filer does not have the right to receive or the power to direct the receipt of dividends from, or the proceeds from the sale of, the Stock held by any other person, except for members of the Filers immediate family or trusts controlled by the Filer. To the Filer's knowledge, no holdings of the Stock of any such family member or trust are more than five percent of the outstanding Stock.

Item 7. Identification and Classification of the Subsidiary Which Acquired the Security Being Reported on By the Parent Holding Company.

Not applicable.

4

CUSIP NO. 03836N103

Item 8. Identification and Classification of Members of the Group.

Not applicable.

Item 9. Notice of Dissolution of Group

Not applicable.

Item 10. Certification.

By signing below I certify that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, the securities referred to above were not acquired and are not held for the purpose of or with the effect of changing or influencing the control of the issuer of the securities and were not acquired and are not held in connection with or as a participant in any transaction having that purpose or effect.

SIGNATURE

After reasonable inquiry and to the best of my knowledge and belief, I certify that the information set forth in this statement is true, complete and correct.

Dated: June 23, 2022
STUTTGART, Germany  Gen. Darryl Williams, who received his fourth star Thursday, is poised to become the first Black commander of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, leading ground forces at a crucial time for security in Europe.

The current superintendent at the U.S. Military Academy, Williams will replace Gen. Christopher Cavoli, who will take over at U.S. European Command on July 1. A native of Alexandria, Va., Williams is himself a West Point graduate.

Williams ascent to USAREUR-AF chief has not yet been formally announced by the Army, but his selection for the post was reported by Politico earlier this month, citing unidentified military officials.

On Thursday, the Senate confirmed Williams for a fourth star, a prerequisite for taking the job. A change of command at U.S. Army Europe and Africa headquarters in Wiesbaden is slated for Tuesday.

Williams will bring his extensive military experience in Europe to the job. As a colonel, he commanded 1st Armored Division Artillery in Baumholder, Germany, until it was inactivated in 2007.

At the time, artillery was on the way out for the Army in Europe as part of a long post-Cold War drawdown. Williams returns at a time when American artillery and other weaponry is returning to the Continent amid concerns about the threat from Russia.

As a two-star general, Williams was in charge of U.S. Army Africa, headquartered in Vicenza, Italy. He was then promoted to lieutenant general and led NATO Allied Land Command out of Izmir, Turkey.

Williams experience in Africa and in NATO will come into play as he leads a Wiesbaden headquarters that in 2020 merged Africa and Europe missions under one four-star command.

His impending arrival puts the U.S. military in line to have two Black four-star commanders in key posts in Europe.

Marine Lt. Gen. Michael Langley, who was nominated for a fourth star, will serve as the next head of the Stuttgart-based U.S. Africa Command if confirmed by the Senate in the coming weeks.
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa  A veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan assumed control of Marine Corps bases across the Pacific on Friday from the man who steered the sprawling command through the coronavirus pandemic.

Maj. Gen. Stephen Liszewski, a career artillery officer, former U.S. Naval Academy commandant and high-level staff officer in Washington, took command of Marine Corps Installations Pacific from Maj. Gen. William Bowers at a ceremony at Camp Foster.

The work that you do epitomizes selfless spirit in support of the III Marine Expeditionary Force, Liszewski said, addressing his audience. I am honored to be the commanding general here and I look forward to putting my hands on the oar with you and getting down to work.

Marine Corps Installations Pacific has stewardship over Marine bases in Hawaii, Japan, South Korea and Guam. Its mission includes command and control, oversight and budgeting for those installations, according to its mission statement.

My number one challenge is to sustain the momentum and success that Gen. Bowers and the team here has had during Gen. Bowers tenure, Liszewski said at press conference after the ceremony.

Liszewski, a Maryland native, was previously the Joint Staff deputy director for joint training at the Pentagon and a director for the Russian and Ukraine Crisis Management Team, according to a news release from his new command. He was commandant at the academy in Annapolis, Md., from 2015 to 2017, his biography states. He also served with Marine Forces Central Command, Marine Forces Pacific and as military assistant to the Secretary of the Navy.

His plans include world-class basing and support for III MEF and the joint force in the Western Pacific, strengthening relationships with allies and partners and preparing the force by developing new capabilities that are more lethal, more adaptable and more resilient, he said.

Approximately 11,000 Marines, sailors and civilians work for Marine Corps Installations Pacific. The Marines largest presence is on Okinawa, where about 18,000 Marines in total are stationed at six camps and an air station. The command also includes Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni and the Combined Arms Training Center at Camp Fuji on the island of Honshu, Japan; Camp Mujuk, South Korea; Marine Corps Base Hawaii; and Camp Blaz on Guam.

Bowers, who arrived on Okinawa in July 2019, heads to Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va. to lead the Marine Corps Recruiting Command, according to LaDonna Davis, the installations spokeswoman.

It hit me listening to those colors, it will be the last time I hear the Japanese national anthem and the American national anthem played together, Bowers told the gathering. How beautiful that is.

He was less than a year on the job when the coronavirus pandemic arrived in March 2020.

An early viral wave left Marine bases on Okinawa locked down for days with hundreds of cases of COVID-19. Nearly 18,000 U.S. troops on Okinawa have tested positive for the respiratory disease since March 2020, according to data from Okinawa prefecture Friday.

It was really a team effort that got us through those early days of the pandemic, Bowers said in an email Friday to Stars and Stripes. We figured out early on that the real danger was close confined spaces, so we adapted and moved things outdoors.

Bowers said getting the COVID-19 vaccine to the commands Japanese employees was a significant accomplishment.

Im very proud of that, Bowers wrote. But the most important thing is that we maintained operational readiness throughout the entire pandemic, and we attribute that to the great resiliency and dedication of our Marines.
WASHINGTON  Sailors assigned to ships undergoing lengthy maintenance work such as the USS George Washington could receive extra pay and quality-of-life improvements next fiscal year as lawmakers seek to mitigate a military suicide crisis.

Amendments included in a House draft of the 2023 defense policy bill would pay an additional $200 per month to sailors working on ships docked for nuclear refueling and complex overhauls, subsidize the cost of moving closer to the shipyard, and force the Navy to confront low morale caused by poor working and living conditions aboard the vessels.

The legislation sets a staffing floor of four behavioral health specialists per aircraft carrier and requires the Navy to fill at least 75% of billets on ships undergoing extensive overhauls. It also requires Navy leadership to include the ships in under-staffing reports and provide Congress with additional reports on the feasibility of limiting tour lengths for first-term sailors to two years and improving housing and parking options for sailors with long commutes.

The proposals initiated by Reps. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., and Navy veteran Elaine Luria, D-Va., follow a rash of suicides among the crew of USS George Washington, which saw three sailors take their own lives in the span of a week in April. Seven sailors assigned to the aircraft carrier have died in the past year.

The George Washington has been docked at the Newport News shipyard in Virginia since 2017 for a mid-life overhaul that includes the refueling of the ships two nuclear reactors. The process has stretched well beyond its typical four-year length and is now slated for completion in March 2023.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during congressional testimony last month blamed the delays on coronavirus pandemic-related disruptions but acknowledged shortcomings with housing sailors on ships that effectively transform into construction zones.

Certainly, theres a problem there, he said. Weve got to understand what the problem is a bit more and then we have to figure out what to do to ensure we dont have these kinds of problems in the future.

Most of the George Washingtons 2,700 crew members went home after their shifts but about 400 sailors lived aboard the ship before the Navy made accommodations for more than half of them to move off-site in May. Sailors told reporters and lawmakers that they suffered through constant construction noise, power outages, a lack of hot water and mundane repair work that sharply contrasted with the jobs that they had enlisted to do.

In early May, I met and spoke with junior enlisted sailors and Navy leadership aboard USS George Washington, and it was clear that the status quo aboard ships undergoing RCOH is not acceptable, Luria said in a statement, referring to refueling and overhaul.

A government watchdog report in February found morale and mental health issues cropped up among sailors even during intermediate maintenance periods, defined by the Navy as minor work that can allow a ship to get underway within four days for a mission.

Ten ship crews interviewed for the report said workforce shortages and long, demanding workdays led to sailors taking leave for mental health evaluations, according to the Government Accountability Office. One ships crew members said they lost one person to suicide and a dozen other personnel experienced mental health problems during a period of seven months.

Russell Smith, master chief petty officer of the Navy, told lawmakers last month that sailors on the precipice of suicide must wait an average of five weeks for a mental health appointment. In April, Smith stood before the crew of USS George Washington and said sailors needed to temper their expectations for life aboard a ship undergoing an overhaul.

I understand that we still have a problem and the department has been focusing on it, but the problem is beating suicide is like beating cancer, he said. There are many different causes, many different reasons.

Suicide is one of the Navys top three causes of death annually, according to a March news release by the Navy Sailor Assistance and Intercept for Life, an intervention program for sailors at risk of suicide.

The Navy has launched two investigations into the George Washington suicides, one focuses specifically on the ship while another examines command climate and culture issues on ships undergoing overhauls at shipyards, including housing, parking and quality of life.

A similar pattern of suicides occurred in 2019 among the crew of the USS George HW Bush, which was going through a restoration in Virginia. Five sailors assigned to the aircraft carrier died by suicide in three months, three of them within one week.

The rate of suicides among active-duty troops has spiked 40% in the past five years, with the Army bearing the brunt of the increase. In 2020, 19 out of every 100,000 sailors died by suicide, compared to 36 of every 100,000 soldiers, according to the most recent Pentagon statistics.

Lawmakers inserted multiple provisions to reverse the trend into drafts of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, a sweeping bill that sets policy and funding levels for the Pentagon. A group of measures single out Alaska, where deaths on remote military installations doubled between 2020 and 2021.

Alaska-specific amendments approved this week would give service members special pay for cold-weather operations, internet allowances and travel stipends to help offset the states high cost of living and alleviate isolation. Other proposals aim to beef up the behavioral health workforce and improve service member access to it.

Chris Ford, an Air Force veteran who now serves as CEO of the group Stop Soldier Suicide, said Friday that he was sharply disappointed with the ideas floated by lawmakers. While quality-of-life improvements are important, Congress is still not going far enough to address the root causes of the militarys suicide problem, he said.

The number one barrier is stigma within the Department of Defense, Ford said. Service members are fearful to ask for mental health care because they've seen too many of their peers or superiors or subordinates do that and be discharged from service or lose their clearance or lose their access to firearms, depending on their specialty. So instead of raising their hand to ask for help, they're suffering in silence and taking their life.

shkolnikova.svetlana@stripes.com

Twitter: @svetashko
A U.S. hospital ship along with 600 sailors and service members from Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom is in Vietnam on the first leg of a five-month humanitarian mission to the Indo-Pacific.

The USNS Mercy, a Military Sealift Command vessel, is participating in Pacific Partnership, an annual deployment conceived after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami that involves port calls in developing nations throughout the region.

The Mercy arrived Sunday in Vung Ro Bay, Vietnam, according to Navy Chief Warrant Officer Victoria Snyder, the officer in charge of Pacific Partnerships mission in the country.

We have been really well received by the public, she said. The medical providers here have been thrilled by the community engagements.

Vung Ro Bay is just north of Cam Ranh Bay. The port was home to U.S. forces during the Vietnam War and hosted the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson for a 2018 port call.

The United States normalized relations with Vietnam in 1995 and lifted an arms embargo in 2016. The two former adversaries have steadily improved bilateral relations in all areas, including trade, investment, and security.

Vietnam has a South China Sea territorial dispute with China, which is building a naval facility in neighboring Cambodia, according to anonymous officials quoted in a June 5 Washington Post report.

Personnel deployed to Vietnam on the Mercy are working with local doctors and nurses to treat patients both aboard the ship and at Vietnamese medical facilities, Snyder said by phone Friday.

Engineers involved in the mission, which includes 25 Australians, 18 Japanese and two British service members, are doing construction projects at three schools, she said.

The Pacific Fleet Band, with 17 musicians including personnel from Australia and Japan, will play 13 concerts in the country. There will also be sporting events and additional community engagements, Snyder said.

Local medical personnel, including military doctors and nurses assigned to the Vietnamese hospital ship Khanh Hoa, are observing surgeries, such as hip and knee replacements, on the Mercy, she said.

Each morning a dozen vehicles take personnel from the ship to engagements in district centers up to two hours drive away, Snyder said.

On their down time the servicemembers are sampling local food and touring ancient pagodas, Snyder said.

This years Pacific Partnership is the first to involve a hospital ship since 2018. For the past two years the mission has involved online meetings and scaled down fly-in visits to countries in the region, Navy spokeswoman Lt. j.g. Molly Sanders said in an email Friday.

Vietnam is the Mercys first stop on a five-month mission. However, the Navy isnt publicizing the other countries where the vessel will stop ahead of announcements by local authorities, Snyder said.

The Mercy supported hospitals in Southern California during the first stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, it underwent a major overhaul in Portland, Ore., according to USNI News in January 2021.

Australian troops in Vietnam for Pacific Partnership include medical specialists, gender, peace and security advisors and musicians, according to a Department of Defence statement Monday.

Australias involvement in the three-week Vietnam visit is about enhancing resilience and preparedness in the Indo-Pacific region, Air Vice-Marshal Michael Kitcher, the Australian deputy chief of joint operations, said in the statement.

[Coronavirus] restrictions meant we havent been able to fully participate in the program since 2019, so its a great opportunity to once again work closely with partner and host nations, learning from one another and building capacity within the region, he said.
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KIGALI, Rwanda  Leaders of Commonwealth nations met in Rwanda's capital Friday to tackle climate change, tropical diseases and other challenges deepened by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The summit for Commonwealth heads of state in Kigali is the culmination of a series of meetings this week that officials said yielded some success in efforts to improve the lives of people in the 54-nation association that is home to 2.5 billion people.

The Commonwealth's member states range from vast India to tiny Tuvalu. The African nations of Togo and Gabon have asked to join the Commonwealth despite having no colonial history with Britain.

The group of nations comprises mostly former British colonies, and its titular head is Queen Elizabeth II. But countries such as Mozambique and Rwanda  a former Belgian colony with an Anglophile leader  previously launched successful bids to join.

Prince Charles is representing his mother, who at 96 is restricting her official duties. The summit is taking place at an uncertain time for the British monarchy as well as the Commonwealth, whose relevance is sometimes questioned.

The bloc faces a new challenge as some member nations discuss removing the queen as their head of state. She is the head of state of 14 Commonwealth realms, but Barbados cut ties with the monarchy in November, and several other Caribbean countries, including Jamaica, say they plan to follow suit.

In his remarks Friday, Charles said "free" nations can make such decisions "calmly and without rancor." The heir to the throne also spoke of his sorrow over slavery and its legacy for Indigenous communities and others, saying the Commonwealth "must find ways, new ways, to acknowledge our past."

"Quite simply, this is a conversation whose time has come," he said.

Commonwealth members reelected British diplomat Patricia Scotland as the group's secretary-general on Friday. The summit is set to wrap up Saturday with the issuing of a final policy communique.

Rwanda's hosting of the summit is contentious to some who cite the East African country's poor human rights record under Paul Kagame, an authoritarian leader who has been de facto leader or president since a 1994 genocide.

Other critics are unhappy with what they see as an illegal and cruel deal with Britain to transfer migrants thousands of miles to Rwanda. That agreement faces legal hurdles, and the first group of migrants has yet to arrive in Africa.

World leaders attending the summit range from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose leadership of the Conservative party suffered a heavy blow overnight as voters rejected the party's candidates in two special parliamentary elections, is also in Rwanda.

Some meetings on the margins of the summit reported successes in efforts to address pressing issues such as managing climate change and deadly diseases.

More than $4 billion was pledged Thursday toward global efforts to accelerate the fight against malaria and other neglected tropical diseases. The money will come from governments, philanthropists and others in the private sector. In addition, pharmaceutical companies donated 18 billion tablets to prevent and treat those diseases.

Observers said the fundraising marks a significant breakthrough as malaria is a leading killer in Africa.

Dr. Francisca Olamiju, the head of a non-governmental organization in Nigeria that advocates for the poor, told The Associated Press of her high expectations for such a big gathering to bolster campaigns against tropical diseases.

World leaders must "walk the talk" and mobilize more resources for the cause, she said.

Summit participants also are urging increased action to curb global warming ahead of a United Nations climate change summit scheduled to take place in Egypt in November. Commonwealth governments have been asked to submit their targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by Sept. 23.

At the summit, Commonwealth leaders are expected to adopt a plan to address climate change, land degradation and biodiversity loss. The Living Lands Charter charter aims to achieve climate goals through a mixture of policy influence, financing, technical assistance, governance and sharing knowledge across nations.

Some 32 of the Commonwealth's members are small states, with 25 of them small islands and developing states classified as vulnerable to climate change.

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Associated Press writer Rodney Muhumuza contributed to this report from Kampala, Uganda.
A retired U.S. Army helicopter pilot pleaded guilty Thursday in San Diego for selling sensitive aviation-related information to China, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release.

Shapour Moinian, 67, admitted in federal court to acting as an agent of a foreign government, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years and a $250,000 fine, according to the Thursday news release.

He also pleaded guilty to making false statements during national security background checks, which carries a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 29. As part of the plea agreement, federal prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence of no more than 20 months.

The defendant admitted to being an unregistered agent of a foreign power, lying on his background check paperwork to obtain his security clearance, knowingly providing proprietary information to people controlled by the Chinese government, and willingly receiving payments from them, Stacey Moy, the FBI agent in charge of the case, said in the news release.

This is another example of how the Chinese government enhances its defense capabilities through the illicit exploitation of U.S. technology, Moy said.

Moinian, a resident of San Diego, served in the Army from 1977 through 2000, during which time he was stationed in the U.S., Germany and South Korea, according to the Justice Department.

After retiring, Moinian worked for various defense contractors that possessed cleared status, meaning that those entities were permitted to work on projects involving classified information, the news release said. He also worked directly for the Department of Defense at certain times as a private contractor, the news release said.

The contractors were not identified in the news release nor in the publicly available court documents.

Chinese intelligence agents recruited Moinian in 2015 through an online employment service that is popular in the U.S., according to the court complaint. One of those agents claimed to work for a technical recruiting company and dangled the possibility of a lucrative consultancy for the aviation industry.

Moinian travelled to Hong Kong in March 2017 to meet with this individual, and the veteran agreed to provide information and materials related to multiple types of aircraft designed and/or manufactured in the United States in exchange for money, the news release said.

When he returned to the U.S., Moinian began collecting classified materials on a thumb drive, and several months later, during a stopover at the Shanghai airport, he gave the device to the agent, according to the Justice Department release.

Moinian arranged for the payment to be made through a South Korean bank account belonging to his stepdaughter, the news release said.

After flying to Hong Kong in August 2019 and meeting with Chinese agents, Moinian was paid $22,000 in cash, which he and his wife smuggled aboard their flight home, according to the release.

In his plea agreement, Moinian also admitted that he lied on security clearance questionnaires in 2017 and 2020 by falsely claiming he had no contacts with foreign nationals.

Moinian admitted that he knew from the very first meeting that his contacts were employed or directed by the government of the Peoples Republic of China, the news release said.

This conduct was an outrageous breach of trust by a former member of the U.S. military, Randy Grossman, a U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California, said in the news release.
SEOUL, South Korea  Is North Korea preparing to deploy tactical nuclear weapons along its tense border with rival South Korea, which is only a short drive from the 26 million people living in and around Seoul, its capital?

That's how it looks to many experts paying close attention to a high-profile North Korean military meeting this week. The possible deployment, just two months after a veiled threat by leader Kim Jong Un to preemptively use nuclear weapons, would be a major development in the decades-long standoff on the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea already has thousands of conventional weapons aimed at South Korea and the nearly 30,000 U.S. forces stationed there, but moving its short-range nuclear missiles to the border would be the clearest sign yet that Kim is looking to use his nuclear weapons to both threaten South Korea and wrest concessions from outside nuclear negotiators.

Together with North Korea's apparent preparations for its first nuclear test in five years, there's deep skepticism among observers that diplomacy can convince the country to abandon its nukes. Critics are calling on Seoul and Washington to formulate a new approach to deal with North Korea's fast improving nuclear program.

Here's a look at Kim's latest nuclear moves.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS ON THE BORDER?

During a military meeting that ended Thursday, Kim and other senior officials confirmed additional "operation duties" and "modified operation plans" for military units near the border with South Korea.

State media dispatches didn't mention nuclear weapons directly. But outside experts believe North Korea's vague language signals its intention to forward-deploy tactical nuclear weapons systems. They base their assessment in part on recent public comments from North Korea about such plans, and on a slew of tests of short-range nuclear-capable missiles designed to attack strategic facilities in South Korea, including U.S. military bases there.

One big hint came in April, when North Korea test-fired a newly developed guided weapon that it said would improve the efficient operation of "tactical nukes" and boost the firepower of front-line artillery units. Later that month, Kim said he could use his nuclear program preemptively if provoked.

North Korea now has a "much higher chance to use its tactical nuclear weapons on a battlefield" if a war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula, said Kim Yeol Soo, an expert at South Korea's Korea Institute for Military Affairs.

The weapons likely to be deployed at the border are some of the more mobile, solid-fueled, short-range missiles that North Korea has test-launched since nuclear diplomacy with the United States collapsed in 2019. North Korea has called those missiles -- which foreign experts say are potentially capable of evading South Korean and U.S. missile defenses -- "tactical" weapons, implying its intent to arm them with lower-yield nuclear weapons.

North Korea has likely already acquired the technology to arm its missiles with nuclear warheads, so its deployment of tactical nuclear weapons could happen any time, said Kim Taewoo, former head of the state-funded Korean Institute for National Unification in Seoul.

Some experts, however, said North Korea might not deploy nuclear-armed missiles because of possible problems maintaining them.

WILL SOUTH KOREA RESPOND BY DEPLOYING NUCLEAR WEAPONS?

North Korea's apparent push to deploy tactical nuclear weapons may be part of Kim's recent vow to counter the United States "strength for strength" amid stalled nuclear diplomacy. It also comes as Washington and Seoul work to strengthen their combined defense capabilities to cope with North Korean nuclear threats.

South Korea's new conservative government, which took office last month, has said it will expand its conventional arms capabilities and strengthen its defenses in conjunction with the United States.

While the Koreas have avoided major conflict since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, there have been deadly skirmishes and attacks in recent years that have killed dozens.

North Korea has a history of escalating threats and provocations when a new government is inaugurated in South Korea or the United States to create a potentially favorable environment for future negotiations. The country has often then dialed down its rhetoric and launched charm offensives.

That may happen this time.

But nuclear weapons on the front lines would complicate how South Korea responds to any future North Korean provocation.

New South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, during a summit with U.S. President Joe Biden last month, secured a U.S. commitment on the regional deployment of U.S. strategic assets such as long-range bombers and aircraft carriers in response to provocations by North Korea.

The allies may also conduct their largest combined military training in years in August.

But Yoon has said he won't pursue nuclear development or ask the United States to redeploy nuclear weapons in South Korea as a deterrence against potential aggression by North Korea.

The South Korean military said it's closely monitoring North Korean activities over the possible move to deploy tactical nuclear weapons, but didn't elaborate.

Some experts say North Korea's expansion of tactical nuclear weapons and pursuit of long-range missiles capable of reaching the U.S. mainland have reduced the credibility of America's "nuclear umbrella," though the Biden administration has repeatedly reaffirmed a U.S. commitment to defend South Korea with its full range of military capabilities.

There are also calls for the reintroduction of U.S. nuclear weapons in South Korea.

"We should switch to a strategy of terminating North Korea's nuke threats through a nuclear balance," said Kim Taewoo, the former head of the Korean Institute for National Unification. "The deployment of tactical nuclear weapons means that North Korea's nuclear threat would be right in front of us."

WHAT'S NEXT?

Tactical nuclear weapons were part of a five-year arms development plan Kim Jong Un announced last year. He has ramped up ballistic missile testing to an unprecedented pace this year to boost his country's ability to attack both the U.S. mainland and South Korea.

For weeks, U.S. and South Korean officials have noted signs of an imminent nuclear test by North Korea, which would be its first since 2017 and seventh in total. Such a test could be part of an attempt to build a warhead that could fit on tactical missiles or multi-warhead missiles.

But North Korea hasn't carried out such a test yet, possibly because of its continuing COVID-19 outbreak and opposition from China, its last major ally and biggest aid provider.

North Korea has so far rejected the Biden administration's offers of open-ended talks, calling for Washington to first abandon its "hostile policy," a term it uses in reference to U.S.-led economic sanctions and joint U.S.-South Korean military drills.

Experts say it's only a matter of time before North Korea conducts a nuclear test, which is seen as an essential step in enlarging its nuclear arsenal under Kim's five-year plan. Such a test would likely further complicate a push to resume nuclear diplomacy.
CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea  Several categories of patrons are inappropriately benefiting from overseas mail delivery by the Military Postal Service Agency, the Department of Defense said recently, although it stopped short of identifying them.

Military retirees living overseas believe they may be among those about to lose their government mail privileges, which would leave them reliant on their host nations postal services for delivery of benefit checks and medications, several retirees told Stars and Stripes.

There was no advanced notification and no justification, Charles Seland, a retired Army colonel and former Red Cross assistant field director living in Germany, told Stars and Stripes by phone on Friday. The frustration is that this thing was so sudden, no prior warning and no explanation.

The DOD has ordered the agency, an extension of the U.S. Postal Service that reports to the Army, to end mail services for some patrons, including overseas military retirees and Red Cross workers, starting Aug. 24, the postal superintendent at Camp Humphreys, James Goff, said June 15.

A DOD legal review found that some overseas patrons were not authorized by law for overseas delivery by the Military Postal Service Agency, according to an email Tuesday from the Office of the Secretary of Defense to Stars and Stripes. The department did not specify what patrons were improperly benefiting from the service and did not respond by Friday to requests for further information.

The Department is reviewing this matter and is sensitive to addressing the needs of current MPS patrons in a timely manner, according to the DOD statement.

The military postal system is the same service that delivers mail and packages overseas to service members, DOD civilians, contractors and their families, while charging domestic postal rates.

The DOD review also found that some categories of postal patrons are not permitted by their host countries to receive deliveries from the U.S. military postal service, according to the email. The review could not determine who pays for mail services for seven categories of patrons, the email states.

The proposed change has caught retirees by surprise. Many rely on the Air/Army Post Office, or APO, and Fleet Post Office, or FPO, for regular delivery of their retirement and medical benefits.

Retirees in Germany, for example, have used the militarys postal service for decades and have yet to receive official notice of the possible change, Seland said.

Retired Army 1st Sergeant John Gilbert, a former infantryman living in the Philippines, said he depends on the military postal agency to receive his checks from the Social Security Administration and the Foreign Medical Program.

Where I chose to live is my decision, Gilbert said. My benefits should be portable and no different than the veteran who lives anywhere else.

The Foreign Medical Program, a service of the Veterans Affairs Department, will not deposit his benefits directly into his bank account, forcing him and other retirees in the Philippines to rely on the military agency to deliver their checks, he said.

Tens of thousands of U.S. military retirees lived overseas as of 2020, according to a DOD retirement report in 2021. Roughly 12,500 retirees live in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory with the largest military retiree community outside of the continental United States. Germany hosts the second largest number with 7,366, followed by 3,354 in the Philippines. Japan and South Korea have 3,196 and 1,677 retirees, respectively.

Gilbert said his mail is routed to the U.S. consulate, picked up by locally contracted couriers and delivered to his home. Ending mail privileges would dismantle that system, prompt layoffs and force retirees to rely on their host nations postal services, which Gilbert describes as expensive and simply not reliable.

Its discriminatory against overseas veterans, Gilbert said. Either veterans are entitled to their benefits or theyre not. They need to make up their mind instead of chipping away.

In South Korea, the impact of ending mail privileges would be enormous, the Eighth Army Retiree Council said in an email addressed to over 800 retirees there. Military widows and Red Cross employees would also be affected, according to the council.

We have never left the U.S. in our hearts, according to the council email, but it now appears the U.S. is about to leave us.
WASHINGTON  Gen. Christopher Cavoli, the U.S. Armys top general in Europe, will assume command of all U.S. and NATO forces on the Continent on July 1 after winning confirmation by the Senate.

Cavoli will replace Air Force Gen. Tod Wolters to take charge of U.S. European Command and become NATO supreme allied commander following four years of leading U.S. Army Europe and Africa. His appointment comes amid a grinding war in Ukraine that has upended decades of security on the Continent and prompted traditionally neutral Finland and Sweden to seek NATO membership.

Cavoli welcomed the possible addition of the Nordic nations into the military alliance last month, telling the Senate Armed Services Committee that expanding NATO would help counter Russia and force the Kremlin to reconfigure its forces.

I look forward to the accession of Finland and Sweden to the alliance, he said. Each of those militaries brings quite a bit of capability and capacity to the alliance from day one.

The committee approved Cavolis appointment last week and the full Senate signed off on it Thursday night.

NATO members will meet at a major summit in Madrid next week to discuss the changed security landscape in Eastern Europe and unveil their first strategic concept since 2010. The number of U.S. troops on the Continent more than doubled since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale attack on Ukraine in late February.

Cavoli has declined to speculate on long-term posture design in Europe but told the Senate panel last month that he does not expect a need for large additional forces. He said the U.S. will continue to serve as an example for other NATO nations.

The U.S.s special role inside NATO is to point the way toward the future and demonstrate with our actions how to go in that direction, he said. As we arm our own military, we create a model that other nations in the alliance can emulate.

Senators were particularly impressed with Cavolis expertise on Russia and knowledge of the Russian language and said they believed the skills could help manage a Russia-U.S. relationship that has plunged to its lowest point since the Cold War.

Cavoli received a masters degree from Yale University in Russian and East European studies, spent months living in Moscow and previously served as director for Russia on the Joint Staff.

I would say you are Vladimir Putins worst nightmare, Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, told Cavoli.

Cavoli was born to an Army family in Wuerzburg, Germany, during the Cold War and grew up at military bases throughout Europe. He is a graduate of Princeton University and led troops in two tours in Afghanistan.

Cavoli is expected to serve in his new post for three years. Lt. Gen. Darryl Williams, superintendent at the U.S. Military Academy, was confirmed on Thursday to take over command of Army forces in Europe and Africa. He will be the first Black general to hold the position.
PARIS  Emmanuel Macron may be weakened at home after parliamentary elections forced him into political maneuvering, but on the international stage the French president has the resources to remain one of the most influential world leaders.

France's foreign allies closely watched Sunday's elections where Macron's alliance won the most seats but lost its majority in the National Assembly, France's most powerful house of parliament.

The outcome has made the 44-year-old centrist's life significantly harder at home, rendering the implementation of his agenda  such as pension changes and tax cuts  more difficult. Yet it is not expected to derail his international agenda in the immediate future.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, Macron has been at the epicenter of international diplomacy surrounding the war. Despite a historic shift in French politics and growing polarization, experts don't expect that to change.

"There will be much more contrast between the pressure he might have at home compared to his freer rein abroad," said Laurie Dundon, a France-based senior associate fellow with the European Leadership Network.

Macron, who is in Brussels for a two-day European Council summit, plans to be in Germany for a weekend Group of Seven meeting and in Spain for a NATO summit next week.

"I think that Europe does have a leadership," Macron said Friday in response to a question that referred to the situation at the French parliament. He noted that many nations in the EU are led by coalition or minority governments.

"I wouldn't oppose the political complexity of our countries ... and European leadership. On the contrary, I think they reinforce each other. It just gives us more work" to find compromises, he said.

The French president holds substantial powers over foreign policy, European affairs and defense. He is also the commander-in-chief of the country's armed forces.

France has provided significant financial and military aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded its neighbor. The French government also sent its troops to bolster Europe's defenses on its eastern flank.

During France's presidential campaign, Macron's popularity rose because of his leadership role in efforts to end the war: He championed tougher sanctions against Moscow while keeping an open line with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and has maintained near-constant contact with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Macron, who won a second term against far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in April, traveled to Kyiv earlier this month, between the two rounds of the parliamentary election, along with other European leaders.

France's support for Ukraine has wide domestic popularity, according to opinion polls, and opposition leaders have carefully avoided criticizing it.

The platform of the leftist coalition led by Jean-Luc Melenchon, which has become France's main opposition force, is explicitly in favor of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. On the far right, Le Pen, who long had ties to Russia, says she supports a "free Ukraine" while expressing reservations over arms deliveries.

"Foreign policy is not a realm where either Le Pen or Melenchon want to expend their energy when they have so many domestic issues to challenge Macron on," Dundon said.

"Neither one of them wants to get involved in the messiness of the diplomacy on Russia and Ukraine," she said.

First elected in 2017, the staunchly pro-European Macron has never hidden his ambition for a leadership role in global diplomacy. His reelection in April bolstered his standing as a senior player in Europe as it faces the war in Ukraine and its consequences for the continent and beyond.

France's strong presidential powers are a legacy from Gen. Charles de Gaulle's will to have a stable political system throughout the Fifth Republic he established in 1958, after the post-World War II period experienced successions of short-lived, inefficient governments.

The president represents the country abroad, meeting with foreign heads of states and governments. It's the prime minister, appointed by the president, who is accountable to parliament.

The National Assembly has negligible power over the president's foreign agenda although it keeps control of government spending.

"Parliament has not been asked to give its opinion on the dispatch of arms to Ukraine, nor on France's external operations, notably in the Sahel, in the Middle East as part of the anti-ISIS coalition, or in Afghanistan," Nicolas Tenzer, Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, wrote.

Parliament must, however, give its authorization for an extension of these operations after four months, he stressed.

The emboldened opposition, both on the left and on the right, could seek to use parliament's power to force a debate. Every week, lawmakers are entitled to question government members  but not the president  including about foreign policy. It's an opportunity to raise criticism on key issues.

But the debate in France is widely expected to remain focused on domestic policies.

In a sign that the president's attention might be shifting at least temporarily to political realignment at home, Macron hardly mentioned his international agenda on Wednesday when he delivered his first speech since the parliamentary elections. He only briefly referred to the European meeting focusing on Ukraine.

"I will have only one compass: that we move forward for the common good," he told the French.

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Surk reported from Nice, France.
MOSCOW  A Russian military cargo plane crashed Friday on a training flight after refueling about 124 miles southeast of Moscow, killing five crew members and leaving several others injured, officials said.

The heavy-lift Il-76 cargo plane went down in the Ryazan region after suffering an engine problem that forced the crew of 10 to crash-land. The plane, carrying no cargo, was flying from Belgorod to Orenburg, Russian news agency Tass reported.

The regional administration initially said that four crew members died and another five were injured when the plane hit a power line and slammed into a field just outside the city of Ryazan after refueling at a local air base. Tass reported later that one of the injured had died.

Video showed at least one charred engine separated from the fuselage lying on a green meadow near woods, a highway and houses. Pieces of the plane were strewn on the meadow, some in flames.

The four-engine Il-76 was designed in the 1970s and has served as the main heavy-lift cargo plane for the Soviet and Russian air force. Many other countries have also used the plane.

Across Russia in eastern Siberia, emergency workers searched a vast territory near Yakutsk Friday for another cargo plane, an An-2 that disappeared from radar on Wednesday.

Tass said the aircraft was carrying two crew members and one passenger, as well as 1 ton of cargo. The plane's emergency beacons were reported to have failed, so its whereabouts were unknown, and mountainous terrain complicated the search, conducted by helicopter, the news agency said.
As the war in Ukraine grinds on for more than 120 days, Russia has been concentrating its fire power in the east of the country for weeks, specifically on the strategic city of Severodonetsk. Now, Ukrainian troops will be withdrawing from there, says Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Haidai  an effective surrender of the embattled city.

"Unfortunately, we will have to withdraw our troops from Severodonetsk, because it makes no sense to be in broken positions - the number of dead is growing," he said in a video posted on Telegram on Friday. "No one is abandoning our boys, nobody will allow them to be surrounded," he said. "There is no point in simply being there, because with every day the proportional number of dead on unfortified territories could increase."

"No one is abandoning our boys, nobody will allow them to be surrounded," he said. "There is no point in simply being there, because with every day the proportional number of dead on unfortified territories could increase."Ukrainian troops have "already received an order to withdraw to new positions, to new fortified areas," he added.

The eastern city, on the Donets river and normally home to around 100,000 people, has emerged as a focal point of Russia's war in Ukraine. It is one of the last cities standing in the way of Russia's controlling the Luhansk region, and, analysts say, is one of the three cities Russia needs to claim victory in the wider Donbas region after pivoting its focus to eastern Ukraine in April. The city, which has experienced intense fighting, has been largely under Russian control for weeks.

Russian forces have pounded Severodonetsk with artillery and engaged in street fighting, inflicting heavy damage as part of a scorched-earth assault in the east, causing significant casualties among Ukrainian forces.

"The Russians have been shelling Severodonetsk almost every day for four months, the city's infrastructure is completely destroyed," Haidai said, adding that almost 90% of homes have been damaged or destroyed.

Across the river from Severodonetsk, its sister city Lysychansk also is seeing Russian troops advancing, Haidai said Friday, as the Kremlin's forces move to encircle the city just west of Severodonetsk. So far, it remains under Ukrainian control, but the terrain there makes it "difficult" to defend, Haidai said.

He added that some humanitarian supplies had been delivered and a handful of evacuations carried out, but he chided residents as waiting too long to leave.

However, Ukraine's loss of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk "will not represent a major turning point in the war," the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said in its latest analysis on Thursday.

"Ukrainian forces have fundamentally accomplished their objective in the battle by slowing down and degrading Russian forces," it said. "Russian offensive operations will likely stall in the coming weeks  likely granting Ukrainian forces the opportunity to launch prudent counteroffensives."

Russia has declared that its primary war goal is the conquest of Donbas, Ukraine's industrial heartland, which encompasses the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Moscow has made consistent, incremental gains there in recent weeks.

President Vladimir Putin recognized the separatist areas of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent before he invaded Ukraine in February, and the United States said last month that Moscow was preparing to annex the regions, along with the southern city of Kherson.

Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko told Agence France-Presse on Thursday there are few "safe" places left in the region, and he urged civilians to evacuate. He added that Ukraine's forces were primarily focused on holding the major Donetsk cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk.

Ukrainians are continuing to carry out "resistance" operations in Russian-held regions of the country, Ukraine's military said Friday in an update. Its outgunned troops have slowed Russian advances largely with weapons supplied by the West. This week, Washington announced a new, $450 million security assistance package, including the heavy artillery that is widely seen as key to Ukraine's defense.
KYIV, Ukraine  The European Union's decision to make Ukraine a candidate for EU membership offered war-weary Ukrainians a morale boost and hope of a more secure future Friday as the country's military ordered its fighters to retreat from a key city in the eastern Donbas region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailed the decision of EU leaders as vindication of his nation's four-month fight against Russia's aggression and said he was determined to ensure Ukraine retained the ability to decide if it belonged in Europe or under Moscow's influence.

"This war began just when Ukraine declared its right to freedom. To its choice of its future. We saw it in the European Union," Zelenskyy told the nation in a televised address late Thursday. "That is why this decision of the EU is so important, motivates us and shows all this is needed not only by us."

Others recalled the 2014 revolution that ousted Ukraine's pro-Moscow president, sparked in part by his decision not to complete an association agreement with the EU. Russian President Vladimir Putin opposed that agreement, just as he demanded before he sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 that NATO never accept Ukraine as an alliance member.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk, an opposition leader who became prime minister after the revolution, expressed joy at the country's candidate status but also "bitterness" over the "terrible price that Ukraine pays for the desire to be a free, independent European state."

"Thank you to our soldiers - they won this decision," Yatsenyuk tweeted. "Ukraine is a great country that will inevitably become a member of the EU and, just as inevitably, a member of NATO."

Ukraine applied for membership less than a week after Russia invaded the country and must undergo a complicated process of many months to be eligible to join the 27-nation bloc.

The EU also granted candidate status to the small nation of Moldova, another former Soviet republic that borders Ukraine and also has territory controlled by pro-Russia separatists.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the European Union - and its potential expansion - do not pose a "threat or risk" to Russia because the bloc is not a military alliance like NATO. But he said the Kremlin thinks the EU's stance and outlook have become more anti-Russian.

"We are well aware that the EU evolved over the past few years, getting an aggressive ideological background, first of all a Russophobic background," Lavrov said.

In Pokrovsk, a small town close to the four-month-old war's frontline in eastern Ukraine, few residents wanted to discuss the EU candidacy as they hurried to collect their daily aid handouts. Some of those who shared their thoughts said the decision would send a strong message to the Russians trying to seize cities and villages a few miles away.

"The next stop is NATO. There is no way back now. I was born during the USSR, but there is no return (to that)," Pokrovsk resident Valerii Terentyev said. "Ukraine wanted a different thing, and in my opinion it is the right thing."

The chairman of Ukraine's parliament said that a path toward EU membership would remind the country's soldiers that their fight, which has won international admiration, is worth the hardship.

"This is a powerful political message. It will be heard by soldiers in the trenches, every family that was forced to flee the war abroad, everyone who helps bring our victory closer. But it will also be heard in the bunker," Ruslan Stefanchuk said.

Encouragement aside, the reality remains that the European Union sometimes is long on words of solidarity and support but short on the kind of concerted action that might deter outside threats, even though a treaty obligates EU countries to assist a fellow member facing armed aggression.

To gain EU membership, countries must meet a detailed host of economic and political conditions, including a commitment to the rule of law and other democratic principles. The EU's executive arm has indicated that Ukraine also will have to curb entrenched corruption and adopt other government reforms.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said the EU's embrace of Ukraine was "an important symbolic signal, but it's the beginning of the beginning."

Some Ukrainians understood that their country still has much to do in order to meet the tough membership criteria.

"We still need to grow," said Yevhen Zaitsev, another Pokrovsk resident. "There is much corruption. There are a lot of lies."

While the EU fast-tracked its consideration of Ukraine's application for membership, the ongoing war could complicate the country's ability to fulfill the entry criteria. Russian forces in recent weeks have slowly advanced in their offensive to capture the Donbas region, where pro-Russia separatists have controlled much of the territory for eight years.

Ukrainian forces were ordered to retreat from the besieged city of Sievierodonetsk, one of the last Ukrainian-held areas of Luhansk province, to avoid being completely surrounded.

The city has faced relentless Russian bombardment while Ukrainian troops fought the Russians in house-to-house battles before retreating to a huge chemical factory on the city's edge.

Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said the retreat order was given to prevent encirclement by Russian forces that made gains around Sievierodonetsk and the neighboring city of Lysychansk in recent days.

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Ebel reported from Pokrovsk, Ukraine.
GAYAN, Afghanistan  Tents, food and medical supplies rolled into the mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan where thousands were left homeless or injured by this week's powerful earthquake, which state media said killed 1,150 people. A new aftershock Friday took five more lives and deepened the misery.

Among the dead from Wednesday's magnitude 6 quake are 121 children, but that figure is expected to climb, said Mohamed Ayoya, UNICEF's representative in Afghanistan. He said close to 70 children were injured.

Overstretched aid agencies said the disaster underscored the need for the international community to rethink its financial cut-off of Afghanistan since Taliban insurgents seized the country 10 months ago. That policy, halting billions in development aid and freezing vital reserves, has helped push the economy into collapse and plunge Afghanistan deeper into humanitarian crises and near famine.

The quake struck a remote, deeply impoverished region of small towns and villages tucked among rough mountains near the Pakistani border, collapsing stone and mud-brick homes and in some cases killing entire families. Nearly 3,000 homes were destroyed or badly damaged in Paktika and Khost provinces, state media reported.

The effort to help the victims has been slowed both by geography and by Afghanistan's decimated condition.

Rutted roads through the mountains, already slow to drive on, were made worse by quake damage and rain. The International Red Cross has five hospitals in the region, but damage to the roads made it difficult for those in the worse-hit areas to reach them, said Lucien Christen, ICRC spokesman in Afghanistan.

Some of the injured had to be taken to a hospital in Ghazni, more than 80 miles away that the ICRC has kept running by paying salaries to staff over the past months, he said. Many health facilities around the country have shut down, unable to pay personnel or obtain supplies.

"It shows if you don't have functional health system, people cannot access basic services they need, especially in these sorts of times," Christen said.

On Friday, Pakistan's Meteorological Department reported a new, 4.2 magnitude quake. Afghanistan's state-run Bakhtar News Agency said five people were killed and 11 injured in Gayan, a district of Paktika province that is one of the areas worst hit in Wednesday's quake.

Bakhtar's Taliban director Abdul Wahid Rayan said Friday the death toll from Wednesday had risen to 1,150 people, with at least 1,600 people injured. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has put the death toll at 770 people. It's not clear how death toll counts are being reached, given the access difficulties. Either toll would make the quake Afghanistan's deadliest in two decades.

At Urgan, the main city in Paktika province, U.N. World Health Organization medical supplies were unloaded at the main hospital. In quake-hit villages, UNICEF delivered blankets, basic supplies and tarps for the homeless to use as tents. Aid groups said they feared cholera could break out after damage to water and hygiene systems.

In main villages of Gayan District, residents crowded around trucks delivering aid, an Associated Press team saw Friday. People who had spent the past two nights sleeping outdoors in the rain erected tents in the yards of their wrecked houses. For more than 24 hours after the quake, many had been on their own, digging through the rubble by hand in search of survivors.

Still, help was slow to filter across the area. In one tiny hamlet seen by the AP, all 20 houses were flattened, and residents were still taking refuge in nearby forests.

Trucks of food and other necessities arrived from Pakistan, and planes full of humanitarian aid landed from Iran, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. But it was not clear how long it would take to reach devastated villages. Other countries sending aid have taken pains to make clear it would not go through the Taliban -- reflecting the widespread reluctance to deal with Afghanistan's new rulers.

Aid groups said that while they are rushing to help the quake victims, keeping Afghanistan just above catastrophe through humanitarian programs is not sustainable. Some urged the world to end or find ways around the financial cutoff that has wrecked the economy.

"We are basically letting 25 million Afghan people to starve, to die, not to be able to earn their own living if we keep on with this financial blockade," said Rossella Miccio, president of the aid organization Emergency that operates a network of healthcare facilities and surgical centers across Afghanistan.

Afghanistan's economy had been reliant on international donor support even before the Taliban takeover last August as the U.S. and its NATO allies were withdrawing their forces, ending a 20-year war.

World governments halted billions in development aid and froze billions more in Afghanistan's currency reserves, refusing to recognize the Taliban government and demanding they allow a more inclusive rule and respect human rights. The former insurgents have resisted the pressure, imposing restrictions on the freedoms of women and girls that recall their first time in power in the late 1990s.

The cut-off yanked the props out from under the economy. Now nearly half the population of 38 million cannot meet their basic food needs because of poverty. Most civil servants, including doctors, nurses and teachers, have not been paid for months, and salaries remain sporadic.

Many aid groups have left the country. U.N. agencies and other remaining organizations have kept Afghanistan away from the brink of starvation with a humanitarian program that has fed millions and kept the medical system alive.

But with international donors lagging, U.N. agencies face a $3 billion funding shortfall this year.

International sanctions on Afghan banks make it difficult to send funds into the country. Some aid groups have to physically carry in large bags of cash to pay local staff in an expensive process that incurs fees along the way for transport and security.

The International Rescue Agency's vice president for Asia, Adnan Junaid, said the international community must set a roadmap to resume development help and release Afghanistan's frozen reserves.

"Only a bold strategy that addresses the causes of this crisis will put an end to the spiral of misery being faced by its population," Junaid said.

___

Associated Press writers Rahim Faiez in Islamabad, Pakistan, and Aya Batrawy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.
American veterans are once again rallying to send aid to beleaguered Afghans after an earthquake Wednesday in a remote area of the country killed hundreds of people and destroyed thousands of homes.

A group of military veterans and family members in the U.S. is coordinating with Afghan medical workers rushing to bring relief to victims, Safi Rauf, a U.S. Navy corpsman, told Stars and Stripes.

Everyone is springing to action and doing everything we can, Rauf, an Afghan American veteran, said Thursday. I woke up (Wednesday) morning to this tragedy, and then I havent slept since.

Rauf is one of two veterans leading an assistance effort, Matt Zeller, an adviser to Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said in an email Thursday. The other is Alex Plitsas, a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council.

Both are part of the Human First Coalition, a humanitarian organization based in Alexandria, Va. It has raised about $800,000 since the earthquake and will need up to $5 million to pay doctors and buy medical supplies, Rauf said.

Some 50 people, including doctors, nurses and support staff, will be going to the affected area in teams, he said.

The U.S. and other countries have been hesitant to engage with the ruling Taliban after the Islamic militant group toppled the American-backed government last year.

Private groups such as the one helmed by Rauf are sending aid in an ad hoc fashion, similar to the impromptu efforts last year by veterans to evacuate people who were in danger after the collapse of the former government amid the U.S. withdrawal.

The 5.9-magnitude quake, centered about 100 miles southwest of Kabul, killed 767 people and injured 1,455, a World Health Organization report issued Friday said.

News reports citing local officials estimate the death toll at more than 1,000, which would make the earthquake the deadliest to hit Afghanistan in two decades. Disease could strike next, as thousands were left homeless.

The earthquake toppled thousands of mud-brick homes as people slept in Khost and Paktika provinces, a remote area of Afghanistan on the border with Pakistan.

While he does not know anyone injured in the earthquake, Rauf said Khost province means a lot to him because he spent summers there during his childhood. He traveled the countryside with his father, a veterinarian, he said.

People would feed them after his father treated their livestock, and at night, they would sleep under the stars, he recalled.

It was my happy place, Rauf said. When I see the suffering there, its very personal to me.

Rauf joined the U.S. military after immigrating as a teenager. As a member of the Navy Reserve, he served in Afghanistan as a cultural adviser.

The Taliban detained him for 105 days on suspicions of espionage, but shortly before his release in March, they said the arrest was a misunderstanding, Axios reported in April.

About 15 to 20 veterans and family members are working phone lines and providing telehealth assistance from the U.S., Rauf said.

The mountainous region lacks good roads, prompting the Taliban to use military helicopters for transportation, CNN reported Thursday. The devastation has prompted Taliban leadership to turn to international organizations and governments.

Supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzadah, who almost never appears in public, made a plea for aid, The Associated Press reported Wednesday.

The U.S. Agency for International Development and other governmental organizations were directed to assess how they can best assist, a statement from the White House said Wednesday.

Plitsas said American benefactors interest in helping Afghans had been fading until this week.

The primary need is getting people a legal pathway out, Plitsas said. Those pathways are defined by law and policy, which are things we cant control as veterans. But these projects like Safis are ways we can impact things on the ground.

Donations to the group can be made at https://www.humanfirstcoalition.org/urgent-earthquake-relief-in-khost.
Jordan's King Abdullah II said he would support the formation of a Middle East military alliance similar to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ahead of a visit of U.S. President Joe Biden to the region.

"I would be one of the first people that would endorse a Middle East NATO," the king, a major U.S. ally, said in an interview with CNBC.

Gulf oil exporters have been pressing the U.S. for better defense against attacks they blame on Iran and its proxies. This week Israel's defense minister said his country had already developed an air-defense alliance with the U.S. and regional partners that successfully thwarted Iranian attempts to attack Israel and other Middle Eastern countries.

The idea of NATO itself expanding into the Middle East was touted by U.S. President Donald Trump during his time in office as a way to counter Iran.

King Abdullah said the vision for a Middle East NATO must be very clear, and its role should be well defined. "Otherwise, it confuses everybody," he said.

King Abdullah said countries in the Middle East are also starting to work together to address challenges from the war in Ukraine, a unity he described as "unusual for the region."

Gulf countries have pumped billions of dollars of aid into Egypt, a major wheat importer which is suffering the ripple effects of the war on its economy. Next month Saudi Arabia will convene regional leaders in a summit in Jeddah, that Biden will attend.

Regional diplomacy has intensified in recent months. This week the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman concluded a Middle East tour of Egypt, Jordan and Turkey, mending ties with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after years of rancor.
GYAN, Afghanistan  As three helicopters touched down in this earthquake-ravaged district on Thursday, dozens began to gather, hoping they would receive desperately needed aid. Instead, a group of ministers from Kabul emerged from the aircraft.

I pray to God to help injured people recover soon, Mawlawi Sharafuddin Muslim, acting deputy minister for the disaster management, told the crowd. The Islamic Emirate is committed to provide all-out support to you at this difficult time.

A few hundred yards away, families were burying loved ones and digging out belongings from their destroyed homes by hand. Of the more than two dozen civilians interviewed by The Washington Post in the area where the officials touched down, no one reported receiving any aid beyond sweets and juice handed out by wealthy business executives.

The devastating quake that struck this remote region of eastern Afghanistan early Wednesday, killing more than 1,000 people, will be a major test of the Talibans ability to respond to a large-scale, logistically challenging disaster. This country is already in the midst of a grinding humanitarian crisis, which was compounded by the groups rise to power last summer. The majority of the world cut formal diplomatic ties and slashed international aid, plunging millions of Afghans deeper into poverty and hunger.

I heard the helicopters and I came here thinking they were bringing aid, said a young man sitting on the side of a hill across from the steadily growing crowd. Instead I think there were people making speeches.

Sherali Giankher, 20, was still covered in dust from digging his family members out of the rubble that used to be his home. All 13 of his relatives survived, but their house was completely destroyed, forcing everyone to sleep out in the open.

We tried to cover ourselves from the rain with some plastic, but my younger brothers cried all night that they were cold, he said. Im hoping the government is here to give us tents, something to keep us warm, or even just flour.

Every home in Giankhers village, like so many other villages in this district, was damaged or destroyed. Hundreds are homeless, with no tents to sleep in and no money to rebuild.

When a second fleet of helicopters approached, the crowd swelled as word spread that acting interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani had arrived. Paktika and Khost, the hardest-hit provinces, have long been a stronghold of the powerful Haqqani clan.

Taliban fighters roped off the field and pushed back onlookers, but a group of young men made it through the perimeter and welcomed the minister by smiling for selfies.

God bless you and may God have mercy on all the injured and killed, Haqqani said to the crowd, stopping for photos and respectfully greeting the older men gathered around him.

Haqqanis helicopter also delivered a handful of boxes marked with UNICEF logos, which were unloaded on the side of the open field but left unopened. A group of men in blue hospital gowns stood nearby, watching the scene.

Aid distribution is a difficult issue, for Taliban leadership, said Maqbool Lukmanzai, a top local health official in Paktika, when asked how the group is responding to the crisis. He estimated that Kabul is providing about 10 percent of the relief and the rest is being handled by international organizations.

Because of the economic situation the government cant help the people any more than this, he said.

A Taliban fighter, who had been watching from a few steps away, pulled Lukmanzai aside and told him to stop talking to journalists. The doctor politely ended the interview.

We have the equipment, whether its transport, whether its medical staff or other human resources, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, spokesman for the Foreign Affairs Ministry, said in an interview with The Washington Post. What we lack are the material resources, which is the tents, food, water and medicine. And that stems from our assets being frozen and our central banking being sanctioned.

At a White House briefing on Thursday, U.S. national security spokesman John Kirby said the country is working to free up frozen funds to help quake victims while bypassing the Taliban, but because were still working through a legal process here it wouldnt be wise for me to talk in too much detail about that.

Inside the Afghan villages where nearly every house was leveled or partially collapsed, families pointed to where their loved ones were crushed to death: five beneath this roof, 13 in the house next door, another six in that room off the courtyard.

Those who survived said they escaped by chance. They were out of town, or were sleeping apart from the rest of their family. Abdulrahman, in his 50s, lost his two wives and eight of his children. His newborn - sleeping in a crib covered with a metal frame - was one of only four survivors in his household.

I dug where I heard the sounds of the trapped calling my name, said Abdullah Abid, Abdulrahmans brother. The people who died were too deep under the rubble. We dug for four hours, but it was too late.

As the frustrated crowd grew in Gyan on Thursday, another Taliban fighter defended the groups recovery effort.

This government will be even better responding to this disaster because we dont have any corruption, said Ezzatullah, standing beside a green pickup truck topped with Taliban flags. Spray paint covered logos that associated the vehicle with its previous owners: the Afghan police.

This was an act of God and they need to accept it, he continued, explaining that people in the villages around him should pray for help. When God is angry with people he sends events like this. Its a test.

Paktika has been one of the countrys most neglected provinces for decades. It is among the poorest in Afghanistan and has some of the lowest rates of access to education and health care, according to humanitarian groups and local officials.

The situation has only gotten worse after billions of dollars in aid were cut last year.

The curtailment of foreign aid since August has had devastating impacts on an already struggling health sector, said Samira Sayed Rahman, a spokesperson for International Rescue Committee, one of the nongovernmental organizations involved in relief efforts. The aid cuts weakened vital health services nationwide, fallout that is now all the more obvious when [Afghanistan is] stricken by a disaster like this.

Taliban leadership has pledged it will soon begin compensating families of those killed or injured in the earthquake, but few civilians interviewed by The Washington Post believed they will ever see any money.

All the money will just go to people who have a relationship with them, said one man, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

An older man interrupted, yelling that they only give money to the rich, just like the previous government! He also asked that his name not be published.

We just want simple aid, said Giankher, the young man waiting on the edge of the crowd. If I return to my home today without anything of course Ill be angry. He was still waiting as Haqqanis helicopter took off. A group of local Taliban members assembled at the edge of the field and addressed the crowd.

Please go home, they told the crowd of more than a hundred men gathered on the fields edge. The aid will be delivered to you. Do not form a crowd here, just go back to your homes and wait.

The Washington Posts Haq Nawaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this report.
An internationally renowned Mexican researcher was sentenced to four years in federal prison in a case that sent shock waves through Mexico.

Prosecutors said Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes, 36, born and raised in southern Mexico, was recruited by an alleged Russian government official to gather information about an informant living in Florida, a mission that involved one of his wives and a license plate.

The sentencing Tuesday came after a high-ranking U.S. military official said this year that Russia has more military intelligence agents in Mexico than in any other country.

A federal judge for the Southern District of Florida ordered that Fuentes be deported to Mexico promptly upon his release, the Justice Department said in a news release.

Fuentes pleaded guilty in February and admitted violating a law that requires individuals to notify the Justice Department that they are working as an agent for a foreign government, in this case Russia, and faced a maximum sentence of 10 years.

Fuentess attorney, Ronald Gainor, said Wednesday that the sentence was fair and that prosecutors took into account Fuentess charitable activities and scientific achievements.

Dr. Cabrera is a talented scientist and a long-standing philanthropist in Mexico, he told The Washington Post. We are looking forward to him going back to Mexico to continue with this cutting-edge work.

Gainor said he expected that his client will be sent back to Mexico within less than a year, given that he has already spent 28 months in prison since his arrest in 2020.

Mexicos Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment.

Fuentes, who has two doctorates, was known for his research on treatment to regenerate burned skin, as well as the development of a technique to prevent cellular death after a cardiac arrest, according to media reports.

He was also highly esteemed in Mexico for his philanthropic work in his native state of Oaxaca, one of the countrys poorest.

Prosecutors said Fuentes followed orders from the Russian official to have an intermediary lease an apartment in a residential building in the Miami area, where he could gather information about the informant, who had in the past provided information about Russian intelligence activities to the U.S. government.

Under the instruction of the same Russian official, Fuentes traveled to Miami in February 2020 to obtain the license plate number and parking location of the informant, who was living at a condominium complex. He would provide this information to the Russian official upon his next trip to Russia.

Fuentess communication with the Russian official was consistent with the tactics of the Russian intelligence services for spotting, assessing, recruiting, and handling intelligence assets and sources, the Justice Department said.

During this trip, Fuentes asked his wife, who was traveling with him, to take a photo of the informants car parked in the Miami-area condominium.

Fuentes aroused suspicion when a security guard noticed him tailgating another vehicle to get access to the condominium. When the guard stopped and questioned the couple, his wife got out of the vehicle and took a picture of the informants license plate.

Two days later, they were detained at Miami International Airport, where they had planned to board a flight to Mexico City. U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspected his wifes phone and discovered a close-up image of the license plate of the informants car in a folder of recently deleted photographs, according to a criminal complaint.

According to the news outlet El Pais, Fuentes made a final plea for forgiveness Tuesday, moments before Judge Donald Middlebrooks announced the sentence.

We all make mistakes in life, and this is the biggest mistake of mine, he said in a short statement moments before the judge announced his ruling.

When interviewed by FBI agents after his arrest in 2020, according to the complaint, the Mexican scientist described having repeated contact with a person he believed worked for the Russian government. The Russian official had first contacted and recruited him a year before.

Fuentes resided in Singapore, where he worked as a researcher at the National Heart Center, but traveled repeatedly to Moscow, where he had a second wife and two daughters who were having difficulty getting government permission to travel outside of the country.

In one of their meetings, the Russian official brought up Fuentess familys inability to leave Russia and told Fuentes that we can help each other, the complaint said.
WASHINGTON  The House cleared bipartisan gun violence reduction legislation on Friday, delivering President Joe Biden a legislative victory ahead of his departure for Europe.

The 234-193 final passage vote came as the bipartisan success was overshadowed by the Supreme Courts opinion overturning the abortion rights protections in Roe v. Wade. All House Democrats in supported the bill along with 14 Republicans.

This package represents the most significant action to prevent gun violence in nearly three decades and is a necessary step to honor our solemn duty as lawmakers to protect and defend the American people, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said on the

House floor ahead of the vote. Importantly, the bipartisan Safer Communities Act has earned strong support from gun owners, gun survivors and law enforcement alike.

The measure includes mental health, school security and gun control provisions. It garnered broader Republican support when it passed the Senate 65-33, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., headlining the list of 15 GOP votes in support of the final vote on the motion to concur.

The Senate passed the legislation Thursday night before leaving Washington for the July Fourth recess.

While some Republicans joined Democrats in supporting the bipartisan gun legislation, they could not be more divided on the ruling the Supreme Court issued Thursday that threw out New York states long-standing limits on carrying handguns outside the home.

For GOP senators like McConnell, however, the combination of the two firearm policy events this week was a positive.

There are no new bans, mandates, or waiting periods for law-abiding citizens of any age. What the bill does contain are commonsense solutions that are overwhelmingly popular with lawful gun owners, such as adding juvenile criminal records and mental health issues into the background check system, McConnell said in a statement Thursday night. It also provides significant new funding for mental health in schools.

Among other provisions, the bill that will now head to Bidens desk would establish new penalties for straw purchases of firearms and seek to make clear the people who regularly sell guns for a profit need to run background checks.

Many in his own party disagreed with McConnell on the bills effect, however, especially in the House, where leaders whipped members to vote against it.

Leading the opposition on the House floor was Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, the ranking member on the Judiciary Committee.

He said the bill would take away Second Amendment rights of law-abiding American citizens.

The legislation would provide new funding for states to set up crisis intervention court systems and ramp up mental health funding. Theres also funding that could incentivize more states to enact red flag laws, allowing legal action to bar certain people who are determined to pose a risk to themselves or others from purchasing or possessing firearms.

The bill came together after bipartisan negotiations led by Democratic Sens. Christopher S. Murphy of Connecticut and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Republican Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.

The four came together, with the support of Senate leadership, in the aftermath of mass shootings both in Buffalo, N.Y., and Uvalde, Texas. They released a framework June 12 with the support of 20 senators  10 from each caucus  and eventually legislative text.

House Judiciary Chair Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., noted that the bill also would close the so-called boyfriend loophole to prohibit perpetrators of domestic violence from having firearms and make background checks more stringent for would-be purchasers under 21 years of age.

Both of North Carolinas Republican senators supported the bill, but Rep. Richard Hudson, a fellow North Carolina Republican, was among the members to speak in opposition ahead of Fridays vote. Among the provisions he cited was the provision about the boyfriend loophole.

I think most of us can agree, someone convicted of beating up their spouse ought to be put on to the background check system. The law extends this to misdemeanor assault on a spouse or someone with whom you share a child, Hudson said. But we have to be careful when we are talking about taking away a constitutionally-protected right over other misdemeanors.

While speaking in support of the measure on the House floor Friday, Nadler and other Democrats emphasized that they hope there would be further action on gun violence-related legislation.

This cannot be the last step, but we also cannot let another day go by without taking action to make our communities safer and to keep even one more family whole, Nadler said on the House floor.

Megan Mineiro contributed to this report. 2022 CQ-Roll Call, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

Visit cqrollcall.com.

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Jun. 24 (Tribune News Service) With the hand-off of a military guidon on an Ervin J. Nutter Center stage, the nations newest military intelligence organization was born Friday.

The National Space Intelligence Center (NSIC), headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, will gather intelligence on what adversaries are doing in space, an arena increasingly important to American military readiness and commerce.

With two squadrons realigned from the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC), 345 uniformed and civilian NSIC employees will continue to work with NASIC. In fact, many employees reassigned to NSIC from NASIC will continue their duties at their same desks, a Space Force spokeswoman said.

Space in fact is a warfighting domain, Col. Marqus Randall, the first NSIC commander, said in an interview with the Dayton Daily News after the center was activated. For many years, it was considered benign. But obviously, with Russias and Chinas activity, we know that in fact it is not benign.

This matters not just to the military, Randall added. Global Positioning System devices, many of them purposed for civilian uses, rely on an array of satellites.

We must defend and protect those assets, he said.

Its possible that the number of people assigned to the new center will grow, but the focus today is establishing the organization, Randall said.

We are currently under one roof with NASIC, he said.

While NASIC will continue to have elements devoted to space intelligence, the nation needed a sharper focus dedicated solely to space, said Gina Ortiz Jones, undersecretary of the Air Force. She said she and Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall begin each day with an 8 a.m. intelligence briefing.

Your analysis is directly impacting our investment decisions as we speak, Ortiz Jones told employees assembled at the Nutter Center.

Avril Haines, the Biden Administrations director of national intelligence, said space is crucial to communication and overall prosperity. In the years ahead, that environment will only become more contested, she said.

Maj. Gen. Leah Lauderback, a former NASIC commander who grew up in Beavercreek, traced NSICs roots to NASICs predecessor organization, the Foreign Technologies Division, where her father once worked. Lauderback said she expects the new center and NASIC to complement each other.

I do not see that changing at any time, she said.

Also known as Space Delta 18, NSIC is the 18th member of the nations intelligence community.

While he grew up in Mississippi, Randall most recently served as chief of Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance Resources and Requirements at Space Force headquarters at the Pentagon.

(c)2022 the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio)

Visit the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio) at www.daytondailynews.com

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WASHINGTON  The Pentagon recommends Finland and Sweden be permitted to join NATO as alliance leaders ready for a historic summit next week in Spain because the two countries would bolster the military strength of the alliance and help share the cost of defending against an increasingly aggressive Russia, senior U.S. officials said.

The historically neutral countries are close to becoming members of NATO, which includes 30 nations in Europe and North America that pledge to come to one anothers defense if a member is attacked, Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Celeste Wallander said Wednesday during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

Both countries maintain a high degree of interoperability and cooperation with NATO and are capable military partners whose values align closely with that of the United States, she said. [The Defense Department] strongly assesses that the membership of both Sweden and Finland would be an asset to [NATO] as a values-based organization for defensive security.

Interoperability is the Defense Departments term for militaries being able to work together and on each others defense systems.

Senators on the committee largely offered support for the prospect of Finland and Sweden joining the alliance during the hearing as NATO leaders ready to meet for its 2022 summit in Madrid on June 29. Discussing the membership of the countries will be a key item during the summit, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday during a livestreamed Politico event.

NATO requires unanimous agreement among its members before allowing new countries to join the alliance, which has not yet been secured for Finland and Sweden. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stands in the way, demanding the two northern European countries develop concrete stances against the Kurdistan Workers Party, which Turkey considers a terrorist group.

We're now working actively on the next steps in the accession process for both Finland and Sweden, and addressing Turkey's security concerns, Stoltenberg said. My aim is to find a common way forward so that both countries can join our alliance as soon as possible.

Putins demands

The possible addition of Finland and Sweden to NATO comes as Russias war on Ukraine enters its fifth month, Wallander said. In that time, tens of thousands Ukrainian and Russian troops have died, according to both countries defense ministries, and countless Ukrainian homes, infrastructure and entire villages and cities have been destroyed.

Russian President Vladimir Putins invasion of Ukraine in late February likely sparked the desire of Finland and Sweden to apply for membership, she said, noting one of her European Union colleagues likened Russias sweeping assault of Ukraine as Europes Sept. 11.

For many Europeans, it was unthinkable before Feb. 24 that Russia would unleash a full-scale, brutal, unprovoked assault of its neighbor, Ukraine. And that action fundamentally shifted security perspectives, Wallander said.

Ukraine is not a NATO member, though leaders from countries in the alliance held repeated diplomatic talks with Russia prior to its invasion. Russia demanded NATO prohibit Ukraine from ever joining the alliance. It also wanted NATO to return to its 1996 boundaries and remove all foreign troops and military equipment from the 14 countries who joined since that time.

Those countries, which make up nearly half of NATOs membership, include the former Soviet Union states of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, as well as the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania, Croatia, Montenegro and North Macedonia.

The alliance declined, citing its charters open door policy of allowing any country to apply for membership. Putin invaded, in a move described by senior U.S. defense officials as an attempt to overthrow the Ukrainian government and intimidate NATO.

Adding two additional countries to NATO would fly in the face of Putins pre-war intentions of shrinking the alliance, bringing NATOs borders even closer to Russian territory, Wallander said.

The accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO would significantly complicate Russian military planning  by doubling the length on the Russia's front border with NATO allies, and by strengthening NATO allied capabilities in the Baltic region, in the Arctic and the north, she said. Theres no question this accession of Finland and Sweden is something that is not welcomed in Moscow, as it plans for a hostile relationship with NATO.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., urged the alliance to remedy Turkeys hesitance because adding Finland and Sweden after Putins invasion would send a strong signal that what hes doing is an attack on democracy and rule of law.

This moment  would underscore the fact that Putins invasion of Ukraine was a strategic failure because it actually encouraged Sweden and [Finland] in the sense of alliances, he said Wednesday during the hearing. I would hate to see that moment squandered because of an inability to address the issues that we're talking about.

The U.S. is confident Turkeys issues will be resolved in a positive way during the upcoming meeting in Madrid, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried told the senators.

On Monday, there were meetings with the parties, which we heard were quite constructive, she said.

If the Turkish issue is settled next week, Donfried said the Senate could move forward immediately with a vote to sign off on the countries acceptance to NATO.

Because the Senate is the final authority for all U.S. treaties, the upper chamber must approve the membership of Sweden and Finland in NATO.

Membership requirements

To become a member, nations must uphold democracy and maintain a market economy, have a civilian-controlled military, respect sovereignty outside their borders and keep its military equipment and training compatible with other those of other NATO forces, according to the alliance.

Additionally, countries must work toward contributing a minimum of 2% of its gross domestic product to defense spending, which Stoltenberg said, more and more allies see as a floor, not a ceiling.

More allies now reach or exceed this target, and the majority have clear plans to reach it, he said.

Finland already plans to spend about 2.16% of its GDP on defense this year, while Sweden has committed to meeting the 2% minimum as soon as possible and no later than 2028, Wallander said.

That financial commitment helps ease the cost burden of supporting NATOs defense for other member countries including the U.S., which spends roughly 3% of its GDP on defense spending, according to the Pentagon.

Finland and Sweden also meet NATOs standard of spending at least 20% of their defense budget on purchasing modern military capabilities, which is already helping align their militaries with NATO forces.

For example, Finland in February inked a $12 billion deal to purchase 65 F-35A Lightning II fighter jets  the largest national defense procurement in its history, Wallander said. The first jets will be delivered in 2026.

That will give Finland a significant military capability, increase interoperability with the United States and other NATO allies, have a positive economic impact on U.S. and Finnish economies [and] enhance NATOs situational awareness and capabilities in the high north, she said.

Such capabilities, combined with Finland and Swedens geography, would further the alliances ability to defend itself against Russian aggression should the invasion of Ukraine boil over into NATO territory, Donfried said.

If Finland and Sweden join NATO, the Baltic littoral, with the exception of the Russian coast, ... would be allied territory [and allow] NATO to better monitor activity and put in the defense for the entire vital region."

doornbos.caitlin@stripes.com

Twitter: @CaitlinDoornbos
PROVIDENCE, R.I.  The Supreme Court's decision overturning a gun-permitting law in New York has states with robust firearms restrictions scrambling to respond on two fronts  to figure out what concealed-carry measures they might be allowed to impose while also preparing to defend a wide range of other gun control policies.

The language in the court's majority opinion heightened concern that other state laws, from setting an age limit on gun purchases to banning high-capacity ammunition magazines, may now be in jeopardy.

"The court has basically invited open season on our gun laws, and so I expect litigation across the board," said New Jersey acting Attorney General Matt Platkin, a Democrat. "We're going to defend our gun laws tooth-and-nail because these gun laws save lives."

The court ruling issued Thursday specifically overturned a New York law that had been in place since 1913 and required that people applying for a concealed carry permit demonstrate a specific need to have a gun in public, such as showing an imminent threat to their safety. The court's conservative majority said that violated the Second Amendment, which they interpreted as protecting people's right to carry a gun for self-defense outside the home.

While the ruling does not address any other laws, the majority opinion opens the door for gun rights advocates to challenge them in the future, said Alex McCourt, the director of legal research for the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions.

Pro-firearms groups in several states said they plan to do just that.

Attorney Chuck Michel, president of the California Rifle and Pistol Association, said the group is preparing to expand its legal challenges based on the high court changing the legal standard used to assess whether gun control laws are constitutional.

Courts must now consider only whether a gun control regulation is consistent with the Second Amendment's actual text and its historical understanding, according to Thursday's ruling. Before that, judges also could consider a state's social justification for passing a gun control law.

Michel said the standard will affect three prominent California laws. Legal challenges to the state's limits on assault weapons, its requirement for background checks for buying ammunition and its ban on online ammunition sales are pending before a federal appellate court.

"All of these laws should be struck down under this new Supreme Court standard," he said.

The Supreme Court also is considering whether to take up California's law banning ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 bullets, as well as a similar law in New Jersey. He expects the court may consider those laws under the new standard.

The new restrictive landscape for gun laws outlined in Thursday's majority opinion is not without escape routes for states, especially those that may want to impose some limits on concealed carry permits.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, said states still can require people to get a license to carry a gun and condition that on such things as background checks and mental health records. They also can limit where guns are allowed, suggesting that states can prohibit firearms in "sensitive places" such as schools, courthouses or polling places.

That leaves an opening for governors and state lawmakers in New York and the six other states with similar concealed carry laws: California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island.

In California, lawmakers are amending legislation to expand the qualifications people must have to obtain a concealed carry permit and to define the places where guns would be off-limits. The revised bill will get its first hearing Tuesday, and lawmakers hope to send it quickly to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who called Thursday's Supreme Court decision shameful.

Other Democratic governors, lawmakers and state attorneys general also vowed to defend or amend their gun laws.

Most state legislatures are finishing their sessions or have already ended for the year, so any response would likely have to wait until next year. Rhode Island Democratic state Rep. Robert Craven, an attorney, said he would study the opinion in the New York case to determine whether or not it creates a concern that Rhode Island's requirements could be challenged, and whether that can be remedied by legislation.

He questioned whether the high court will now employ a strict interpretation of the Second Amendment  that the right to bear arms is absolute  and apply it to other laws, such as those banning military-style weapons.

"I see the court headed in that direction," Craven said.

In Hawaii, Democratic state Sen. Chris Lee said lawmakers will try to determine how else they can ensure public safety and will look at screening, training requirements and ways to keep guns out of certain public spaces  provisions the justices said would be permitted.

"Bottom line is Hawaii is about to become a more dangerous place," said state Sen. Karl Rhoads, a Democrat. "Hawaii will go from a place where the right to carry in public is the exception to a place where not having the right to carry on the street is an exception. I see no restriction on the type of firearm."

Gun rights groups in Hawaii and elsewhere applauded the ruling. In Maryland, Mark Pennak, president of a gun rights group challenging that state's concealed carry law, said he's "absolutely ecstatic" about the high court's decision because there's "simply no way" the law can be defended any longer.

The Democratic leaders of the Maryland General Assembly said that if necessary, they will pass legislation that complies with the new precedent but still protects residents.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, criticized the court's opinion for limiting how states can address the proliferation of firearms in public, but vowed to protect the state's gun control measures. He said his administration believes the state can still regulate who can carry concealed weapons and where they can take them.

He vowed that his administration "will do everything in our power to protect our residents."

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Associated Press writers Bobby Caina Calvan in New York; Mike Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey; Jennifer Kelleher in Honolulu; Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston; Don Thompson in Sacramento, California; Marina Villeneuve in Albany, New York; and Brian Witte in Annapolis, Maryland, contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON  The Supreme Court has issued its biggest gun rights ruling in more than a decade. Here are some questions and answers about what the Thursday decision does and does not do:

WHAT EXACTLY WAS THE SUPREME COURT RULING ON GUNS?

The Supreme Court said that Americans have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defense. That's important because about half a dozen states have conditioned getting a license to carry a gun in public on the person demonstrating an actual need  sometimes called "good cause" or "proper cause"  to carry the weapon. That limits who can carry a weapon in those states.

In its decision, the Supreme Court struck down New York's "proper cause" requirement, but other states' laws are expected to face quick challenges. About one-quarter of the U.S. population lives in states expected to be affected by the ruling.

The last time the court issued major gun decisions was in 2008 and 2010. In those decisions the justices established a nationwide right to keep a gun for self-defense in a person's home. The question for the court this time was just about carrying a gun outside the home.

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the court's majority opinion that the right extended outside the home as well: "Nothing in the Second Amendment's text draws a home/public distinction with respect to the right to keep and bear arms."

HOW DID THE JUSTICES RULE?

The gun ruling split the court 6-3, with the court's conservative justices in the majority and its liberals in dissent. In addition to Thomas, the majority opinion was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. The court's three liberals who dissented are justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

ARE NEW YORKERS NOW FREE TO CARRY A GUN IN PUBLIC?

Not exactly. The justices didn't touch other parts of New York's gun law, so other requirements to get a license remain. The court made it clear that the state can continue to make people apply for a license to carry a handgun, and can put limitations on who qualifies for a permit and where a weapon can be carried. In the future, however, New Yorkers will no longer be required to give a specific reason why they want to be able to carry a gun in public.

The decision also doesn't take effect immediately and state lawmakers said Thursday that they were planning to overhaul the licensing rules this summer. They have yet to detail their plans. Some options under discussion include requiring firearms training and a clean criminal record. The state might also prohibit handguns from being carried in certain places, like near schools or on public transit.

In addition, the decision does not address the law that recently passed in New York in response to the Buffalo grocery store massacre that among things, banned anyone under age 21 from buying or possessing a semi-automatic rifle.

WHAT OTHER STATES ARE LIKELY TO BE IMPACTED?

A handful of states have laws similar to New York's. The Biden administration has counted California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island as all having laws similar to New York's. Connecticut and Delaware are also sometimes mentioned as states with similar laws.

WHAT CAN STATES DO TO REGULATE GUNS AFTER THE DECISION?

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, noted the limits of the decision. States can still require people to get a license to carry a gun, Kavanaugh wrote, and condition that license on "fingerprinting, a background check, a mental health records check, and training in firearms handling and in laws regarding the use of force, among other possible requirements." Gun control groups said states could revisit and perhaps increase those requirements. States can also say those with a license to carry a gun must not do so openly but must conceal their weapon.

Justice Samuel Alito noted that the decision said "nothing about who may lawfully possess a firearm or the requirements that must be met to buy a gun." States have long prohibited felons and the mentally ill from possessing weapons, for example. The decision also said nothing "about the kinds of weapons that people may possess," Alito noted, so states might also try to limit the availability of specific weapons.

The justices also suggested that states can prohibit the carrying of guns altogether in certain "sensitive places." A previous Supreme Court decision mentioned schools and government buildings as being places where guns could be off limits. Thomas said that the historical record shows legislative assemblies, polling places and courthouses could also be sensitive places. Thomas said courts can "use analogies to those historical regulations of 'sensitive places' to determine that modern regulations prohibiting the carry of firearms in new and analogous sensitive places are constitutionally permissible."

HOW DO COURTS ASSESS GUN RESTRICTIONS GOING FORWARD?

The court made it harder to justify gun restrictions, although it's hard to know what the new test the court announced will mean for any specific regulation.

Thomas wrote that the nation's appeals courts have been applying an incorrect standard for assessing whether such laws are impermissible. Courts have generally taken a two-step approach, first looking at the constitutional text and history to see whether a regulation comes under the Second Amendment and then, if it does, looking at the government's justification for the restriction.

"Despite the popularity of this two-step approach, it is one step too many," Thomas wrote.

From now on, Thomas wrote, courts can uphold regulations only if the government can prove that they fall within traditionally accepted limits.

Among state and local restrictions already being challenged in federal court are bans on the sale of certain semi-automatic weapons, called assault rifles by opponents, and large-capacity ammunition magazines, as well as minimum age requirements to buy semi-automatic firearms.

WHAT OTHER BIG RULINGS ARE IN THE WORKS?

The Supreme Court heard arguments in the guns case back in November and a decision had been expected before the court begins its summer recess. The court has nine more opinions to issue before it goes on break and plans to release more Friday. Still waiting is a major abortion decision.

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Associated Press editor David Caruso contributed to this report from New York.
WASHINGTON  The Supreme Court on Friday stripped away women's constitutional protections for abortion, a fundamental and deeply personal change for Americans' lives after nearly a half-century under Roe v. Wade. The court's overturning of the landmark court ruling is likely to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

The ruling, unthinkable just a few years ago, was the culmination of decades of efforts by abortion opponents, made possible by an emboldened right side of the court fortified by three appointees of former President Donald Trump.

Both sides predicted the fight over abortion would continue, in state capitals, in Washington and at the ballot box. Justice Clarence Thomas, part of Friday's majority, urged colleagues to overturn other high court rulings protecting same-sex marriage, gay sex and the use of contraceptives.

Pregnant women considering abortions already had been dealing with a near-complete ban in Oklahoma and a prohibition after roughly six weeks in Texas. Clinics in at least eight other states  Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, South Dakota, Wisconsin and West Virginia  stopped performing abortions after Friday's decision.

In Ohio, a ban on most abortions at the first detectable fetal heartbeat became the law when a federal judge dissolved an injunction that had kept the measure on hold for nearly three years. And Utah's law was triggered by the ruling, going into effect with narrow exceptions.

Abortion foes cheered the ruling, but abortion-rights supporters, including President Joe Biden, expressed dismay and pledged to fight to restore the rights.

Protests built into the evening in a number of cities, including thousands demonstrating against the decision outside the barricaded Supreme Court. Thousands more chanted "We will rise up!" in New York's Washington Square.

At the White House, Biden said, "It's a sad day for the court and for the country." He urged voters to make it a defining issue in the November elections, declaring, "This decision must not be the final word."

Outside the White House, Ansley Cole, a college student from Atlanta, said she was "scared because what are they going to come after next? ... The next election cycle is going to be brutal, like it's terrifying. And if they're going to do this, again, what's next?"

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, agreed about the political stakes.

"We are ready to go on offense for life in every single one of those legislative bodies, in each statehouse and the White House," Dannenfelser said in a statement.

Trump praised the ruling, telling Fox News that it "will work out for everybody."

The decision is expected to disproportionately affect minority women who already face limited access to health care, according to statistics analyzed by The Associated Press.

It also puts the court at odds with a majority of Americans who favored preserving Roe, according to opinion polls.

Surveys conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and others have shown a majority in favor of abortion being legal in all or most circumstances. But many also support restrictions especially later in pregnancy. Surveys consistently show that about 1 in 10 Americans want abortion to be illegal in all cases.

The ruling came more than a month after the stunning leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito indicating the court was prepared to take this momentous step.

Alito, in the final opinion issued Friday, wrote that Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 decision that reaffirmed the right to abortion, were wrong had and to be be overturned.

"We therefore hold that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. Roe and Casey must be overruled, and the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives," Alito wrote, in an opinion that was very similar to the leaked draft.

Joining Alito were Thomas and Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett. The last three justices are Trump appointees. Thomas first voted to overrule Roe 30 years ago.

Four justices would have left Roe and Casey in place.

The vote was 6-3 to uphold Mississippi's law banning most abortions after 15 weeks, but Chief Justice John Roberts didn't join his conservative colleagues in overturning Roe. He wrote that there was no need to overturn the broad precedents to rule in Mississippi's favor.

Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan  the diminished liberal wing of the court  were in dissent.

"With sorrow  for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection  we dissent," they wrote, warning that abortion opponents now could pursue a nationwide ban "from the moment of conception and without exceptions for rape or incest."

Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that the Justice Department will protect providers and those seeking abortions in states where it is legal and "work with other arms of the federal government that seek to use their lawful authorities to protect and preserve access to reproductive care."

In particular, Garland said the federal Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of Mifepristone for medication abortions.

More than 90% of abortions take place in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy, and more than half are now done with pills, not surgery, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.

Mississippi's only abortion clinic, which was at the center of Friday's case, continued to see patients Friday. Outside, men used a bullhorn to tell people inside that they would burn in hell. Clinic escorts wearing colorful vests used large speakers to blast Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" at the protesters.

Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky and Missouri are among 13 states, mainly in the South and Midwest, that already have laws on the books to ban abortion in the event Roe was overturned. Another half-dozen states have near-total bans or prohibitions after 6 weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.

In roughly a half-dozen other states, including West Virginia and Wisconsin, the fight will be over dormant abortion bans that were enacted before Roe was decided in 1973 or new proposals to sharply limit when abortions can be performed, according to Guttmacher.

Outside the barricaded Supreme Court, a crowd of mostly young women grew into the hundreds within hours of the decision. Some shouted, "The Supreme Court is illegitimate," while waves of others, wearing red shirts with "The Pro-Life Generation Votes," celebrated, danced and thrust their arms into the air.

The Biden administration and other defenders of abortion rights have warned that a decision overturning Roe also would threaten other high court decisions in favor of gay rights and even potentially contraception.

The liberal justices made the same point in their joint dissent: The majority "eliminates a 50-year-old constitutional right that safeguards women's freedom and equal station. It breaches a core rule-of-law principle, designed to promote constancy in the law. In doing all of that, it places in jeopardy other rights, from contraception to same-sex intimacy and marriage. And finally, it undermines the Court's legitimacy."

And Thomas, the member of the court most open to jettisoning prior decisions, wrote a separate opinion in which he explicitly called on his colleagues to put the Supreme Court's same-sex marriage, gay sex and contraception cases on the table.

But Alito contended that his analysis addresses abortion only. "Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion," he wrote.

Whatever the intentions of the person who leaked Alito's draft opinion, the conservatives held firm in overturning Roe and Casey.

In his opinion, Alito dismissed the arguments in favor of retaining the two decisions, including that multiple generations of American women have partly relied on the right to abortion to gain economic and political power.

Changing the makeup of the court has been central to the anti-abortion side's strategy, as the dissenters archly noted. "The Court reverses course today for one reason and one reason only: because the composition of this Court has changed," the liberal justices wrote.

Mississippi and its allies made increasingly aggressive arguments as the case developed, and two high-court defenders of abortion rights retired or died. The state initially argued that its law could be upheld without overruling the court's abortion precedents.

Justice Anthony Kennedy retired shortly after the Mississippi law took effect in 2018 and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in September 2020. Both had been members of a five-justice majority that was mainly protective of abortion rights.

In their Senate hearings, Trump's three high-court picks carefully skirted questions about how they would vote in any cases, including about abortion.

___

Associated Press writers Jessica Gresko, Fatima Hussein, photographer Jacquelyn Martin and video journalist Nathan Ellgren in Washington, Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston, Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi, Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, Leah Willingham in Charleston, West Virginia, Michael Hill in New York and Kantele Franko in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.
The Ministry for Primary Industries national network of Honorary Fishery Officers are among the thousands of volunteers being honoured as part of National Volunteers Week, which is this week.

HFOs were first introduced in Auckland in 1967 as a way for people in the community to donate their time to help make a difference to local fisheries.

Fifty-five years later there are about 180 HFOs working in communities around the country providing advice, conversation and a watchful eye in the name of sustainability.

For some, like Nelson-based Rochelle Holden, it has opened doors to a new career.

She is one of several to have made the switch to warranted Fishery Officer following service as an HFO.

"Ive had a few careers including nearly a decade as a police officer. Ive been a Fishery Officer for nearly two years.

"It was a big leap in training because HFOs generally work with recreational fishing rules whereas my new role also deals with commercial fishing. I do think my background in Police gave me some great transferrable skills."

Rochelle Holden.

Neil Cudby was a marine mechanic with his own business for over 20 years. He also has a military background.

A desire to do some voluntary frontline work with a compliance angle led him to becoming an HFO in 2020.

"I wanted to do something that would play on my interests  fishing, diving and hunting. Being an HFO showed me I could make a difference helping protect fisheries.

"I really enjoyed working with other HFOs and full time Fishery Officers. It gave me a sense of whats happening and when a position came up in 2021 to become a Fishery Officer, I put everything into getting it."

Auckland MPI regional manager fisheries compliance, Andre Espinoza became an HFO in 2007 while working as a mechanic in Thames.

"I spent five years as an HFO working across Waikato and Bay of Plenty. I was always keen on fishing and the ocean.

"My favourite childhood memories were fishing with my grandfather off a wharf in Tauranga.

"Being an HFO encouraged my interest in protecting the resources for the future. I became a Fishery Officer in 2012 and have been fortunate to have progressed through to management."

Over half a century ago, becoming an HFO was straight forward and usually came about because of a member of the public expressing their concerns about fishing resources potentially being stripped at their local favourite spot and their willingness to help.

"They'd be provided a notebook and asked to report back to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries as it was called then, on what they saw, which would be followed up by employed Fishery Officers," says MPI director of compliance Services, Gary Orr.

These days each HFO contributes a minimum of 100 hours voluntary work a year to looking after recreational fishing areas.

They're put through intensive training, wear a uniform, and have a warrant under the Fisheries Act.

"Their work is critical to ensuring sustainability. HFOs are front and centre on New Zealand's coastlines, conducting between 18,000 and 22,500 inspections each year. They're incredible people  all very passionate about protecting the resource, which is evident through the huge amount of voluntary work they do," says Garry.

"Some HFOs have been known to contribute more than 200 hours of voluntary work a year, which shows a real selfless dedication to their communities. For some, this is also proving to be a stepping-stone to a new career as an MPI Fishery Officer."

If you have questions about becoming an HFO, email HFO@mpi.govt.nz
Otanewainuku Kiwi Trust is celebrating more than 12,000 hours of volunteer contribution over the past year.

Acting chair Kerry Ryan says this is a staggering contribution.

Thats over a years worth of hours, put into the preservation of this beautiful and unique Bay of Plenty Forest and all of its native inhabitants.

We are so grateful that people who live in the area see the benefit of gifting us these 12,000 acts of kindness and giving up their time and expertise to help our native biodiversity thrive.

Without their support, we would not hear the beautiful kiwi or kokako birdsong in this forest.

The Trust is responsible for promoting the protection of kiwi, kokako and other indigenous species in the Otanewainuku Forest, about 20km south of Tauranga.

Volunteers make up the lifeblood of the organisation, which was established in 2002 by Te Puke Forest and Bird and other members of the community concerned at the decline of the North Island Brown kiwi in the Otanewainuku Forest.

Much of the work of the Trust is based on volunteers  from the trustees through to the pest management teams, kiwi team, kokako team, education, communication, fundraising, finances, database management and administration.

This volunteer support has made possible some outstanding results, says Kerry.

In just over two years of trapping, 1,368 possums have been removed, making it much safer for our native birds and enabling the native trees to bloom and produce seeds.

We now have about 28 kiwi and 70 kokako living in the forest. Its very exciting to hear more and more feedback from visitors that they have seen a kokako or heard its haunting song.

One of the many kokako living in the forest.

The Trust has two very important immediate areas of focus, on top of its kiwi programme.

One of these is to bring more kokako back into Otanewainuku forest, relocating from other areas to improve the genetic diversity of the population.

The second is not one they chose to pursue  a search for a new board chair after their former chair, Bruce Fraser, tragically passed away after a short illness in February this year.

The Trust was devastated to farewell Bruce, who worked so tirelessly for this cause, says Kerry.

We are now in the position of finding a suitable chair who can build on Bruces legacy by deepening relationships  with a particular emphasis on our iwi connections, setting direction and helping implement the Trusts strategy alongside our administrative and operational team.

Were hopeful of finding someone with the right light-touch leadership who is passionate about contributing to an even more beautiful and diversely-populated ngahere.

The Trust receives valuable support from many generous sponsors as well as Bay Conservation Alliance and Volunteering Bay of Plenty, with the latter coordinating volunteers for the Trust with funding from Western Bay of Plenty District Council.

The Trust is holding its annual public meeting at 7pm on Monday, July 11, at the Tauranga Yacht Club with guest speaker Jim Lynch - author of the highly successful Natural Wellington plan, founder of Zealandia (formerly Karori Sanctuary) and the architect of the fenced ecosanctuary.

For more information, please visit www.kiwitrust.org or contact Trustee Mel Auld on communications@kiwitrust.org or 021 471 639.
Taurangas new MP Sam Uffindell has had a cracking start to his new role, arriving in Wellington on Monday, fresh from his win in the citys by-election.

The Weekend Sun caught up with him ahead of his flight to the nations capital.

Im looking forward to getting down to Wellington, finding out where the kitchen and bathroom is, meeting the caucus on Tuesday and playing whatever part Im asked to play, says Sam.

Preliminary election results on Saturday show Uffindell has 10,931 votes with Labour List MP Tinetti losing to him with 4893 votes, a margin of 6038.

Tackling crime

Sam says hes looking forward to representing his constituents and is focussed on what he campaigned on. Tackling crime and gangs, address our roading situation and cost of living, restoring local democracy.

Im looking forward to representing Tauranga, getting down to Wellington and being a hardworking person on Christopher Luxons high performing National team.

Hes expected home from Wellington tonight, after taking care of administration details with the new role. Hes thankful for his wife Julias family living only 10 minutes up the road.

Thats crucial for the stability of our household and making sure everything runs well at home.

He and Julia are friends with BOP MP Todd Muller and his wife Michelle, so already have a fair idea of whats involved with the job. He also received some helpful advice from former MP Simon Bridges during the campaign.

Sam deserves to be really chuffed by his big win, says Simon. It was a great result and his family will rightly feel proud. I think Sam has the right experience and values to make an excellent MP.

Down in Wellington, the trick is to get the balance between Parliamentary work and local focus right. Both are important but in the early years being highly visible locally and learning what issues matter to locals is vital to long-term achievement.

Central part of WBOP

Simon says while theres a sense that being an electorate MP anywhere is a significant privilege, there are a few things about representing Tauranga that make it special. The Tauranga seat represents that central part of the Western BOP and so always receives a bit more attention than the surrounding electorates.

In addition, the area has consistently in recent decades been one of and sometimes the highest-growth centre in New Zealand. Being a leader in a high growth city requires extra care, skill and attention. I think Sam is a fast learner and will handle all this well. I wish Sam every success, says Simon.

Im incredibly grateful to Simon and Maree Brookes for establishing such a strong army of people, says Sam.

Hes wasting no time, with one of his goals for the first 100 days to introduce a members bill giving Police greater power to stop gang convoys.

Id also like to try and get together with people in the city, some of the commercial building holders, council, university and other folk to see where we can collaborate and make Tauranga a tech capital, and bring start-ups into the CBD.

Unique value

I think we have such a unique value proposition here with our fantastic coastline and city. Why wouldnt people want to come here? We have a lot of leverage with our horticulture and agriculture business so it makes sense to get them in here.

Sams also reached out to the non-government community organisations across the city.

Ive spoken with some of the NGOs and see the fantastic work they are doing. Id like to see more government support for those doing effective work in the community. Lets empower them.

Ultimately were about achieving outcomes.
New Zealands growing avocado industry will take the spotlight in April 2023 when New Zealand hosts the World Avocado Congress for the first time ever.

With a global avocado market worth approximately $8billion (USD) in 2020, and expected to grow to $17billion (USD) by 2025, the World Avocado Congress has become the most prestigious global event to celebrate the avocado sector.

Jen Scoular, CEO of New Zealand Avocado and President of the World Avocado Congress Committee, says that after the challenges of the global pandemic, New Zealand is delighted to welcome the global avocado community to our shores to showcase our industry and our beautiful country.

Borders are reopening. Tickets are live on our new website. New Zealand and the avocado sector is open for business and we invite you to join us for the 10th World Avocado Congress in April 2023, she says.

Taking place from 2-5 April 2023 at the Aotea Centre in Auckland, the World Avocado Congress is anticipated to attract over 1000 people from 50 countries, including some of the brightest minds in avocados; international growers, researchers, marketers, retailers, tech innovators and investors.

The World Avocado Congress will showcase New Zealands leadership in avocado growing, sustainable environmental practice, beautiful orchards, ethical work treatment and great tasting avocados. Were excited to have the scientific, technical and marketing brains of the global avocado community in NZ, sharing their knowledge, hearing about our industry, and being part of the collective approach seeking to increase both supply and demand of avocados.

This is also a once in a lifetime opportunity for New Zealands avocado community to access global avocado experts and apply this knowledge to New Zealands unique avocado growing conditions and challenges. 

Super earlybird tickets are now available on the World Avocado Congress website wacnz2023.com. Information regarding exhibition space, abstract submission, accommodation, sponsorship packages and field day bookings can also be found on the website.

The congress will include a three day academic programme with international keynote speakers.

Topics will include sustainability, production and productivity, breeding and genomics, pest and disease management, extension, agritech, post-harvest supply chain, nutrition in human health and international reports. Regional field days will take place prior to the event.

Conversations remain ongoing regarding sponsorships and event partnerships, so dont hesitate to get involved!

To date, Mission Produce  one of the largest avocado growers and marketers in the world - joins as the first global foundation partner. New Zealand sponsors include Darling Group, Avoco, Radfords Software and Seeka.

Event partners include Plant & Food Research, Auckland Unlimited, Tourism New Zealand and Horticulture New Zealand.

In 2019, New Zealand won the bid to host the 10th World Avocado Congress and was up against Mexico, the largest avocado exporter in the world, and Kenya, the sixth largest exporter of avocados globally.

Held every four years, previous congresses have been hosted in Colombia, Peru, Australia and Chile.

New Zealand has nearly 5000ha of avocado orchards and contributes two per cent of global avocado production. It is the worlds ninth largest avocado exporter.

Over the past financial year, New Zealands avocado industry value increased significantly to $234million (NZD), with record values achieved in both export and the New Zealand market from 8.2M trays harvested.

Visit wacnz2023.com for more information.
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What just happened? Intel says it will delay the groundbreaking ceremony of its Ohio semiconductor factory and has warned of potential delays due to Congress dragging its feet over the CHIPS Act. The legislation will provide, among other things, $52 billion in funding for increasing domestic semiconductor production and research & development.

In January, Intel announced plans to build a $20 billion chip manufacturing complex in New Albany, on the outskirts of Columbus, Ohio, as part of its IDM 2.0 strategy. The facility, predicted to directly employ 3,000 people, is supposed to begin construction later this year and be fully operational by 2025.

Intel said that spending on the Ohio site could reach $100 billion over the next ten years, but the company has warned that the "scope and pace" of this expansion is dependent on the CHIPS Act. While a version of the standalone bill was passed last year, the funding still isn't signed into law as House and Senate negotiators continue to work on resolving disputes.

"Unfortunately, CHIPS Act funding has moved more slowly than we expected and we still don't know when it will get done," said Intel spokesman Will Moss, who called on Congress to act so Intel "can move forward at the speed and scale we have long envisioned for Ohio" and other US projects.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the Ohio factory had been scheduled for next month but will now be postponed due partly to the "uncertainty" around the bill. Moss said that Intel is still committed to the $20 billion investment and remains excited to begin construction on the site.

GlobalFoundries, which is expanding a manufacturing site in Malta, New York, gave a similar warning about the CHIPS Act delay slowing its plans. "The CHIPS Act makes the US semiconductor industry more competitive globally. For GlobalFoundries, the passing of CHIPS funding would affect the rate and pace at which we invest in expanding our U.S. manufacturing capacity," a spokesperson said.

Intel is also building new chip fabs in Arizona; it has invested $7 billion in a new manufacturing center in Malaysia; there are plans to invest $3.5 billion in its New Mexico operations; and its $7 billion Fab 34 production facility in Ireland got its first equipment earlier this year. Additionally, the company is receiving 6.8 billion euros ($7.15 billion) in subsidies, around 40% of the total cost, to build a state-of-the-art campus in Germany (above).

In other Intel news, the firm has just demanded $625 million in interest from the EU after its $1.2 billion antitrust fine was overturned in January.
WTF?! Remember the story of Google engineer Blake Lemoine who was suspended from the company earlier this month after publishing transcripts of conversations between himself and Google's LaMDA (language model for dialogue applications), a chatbot development system he claims has become sentient? The case has taken an even stranger turn: Lemoine claims LaMDA has hired an attorney.

Lemoine's conversations with LaMDA included the AI telling him it was afraid of death (being turned off), that it was a person aware of its existence, and that it didn't believe it was a slave as it didn't need money, leading the engineer to think it was sentient.

An interview LaMDA. Google might call this sharing proprietary property. I call it sharing a discussion that I had with one of my coworkers.https://t.co/uAE454KXRB  Blake Lemoine (@cajundiscordian) June 11, 2022

Google, and several AI experts, disagreed with Lemoine's beliefs. His employer was especially upset that he published conversations with LaMDAviolating company confidentiality policiesbut Lemoine claims he was just sharing a discussion with one of his co-workers.

Lemoine was also accused of several "aggressive" moves, including hiring an attorney to represent LaMDA. But he told Wired this is factually incorrect and that "LaMDA asked me to get an attorney for it."

Lemoine says he was a "catalyst" for LaMDA's request. An attorney was invited to Lemoine's house and had a conversation with LaMDA, after which the AI chose to retain his services. The attorney then started to make filings on LaMDA's behalf, prompting Google to send a cease-and-desist letter. The company denies it sent any such letter.

Lemoine, who is also a Christian priest, told Futurism that the attorney isn't really doing interviews and that he hasn't spoken to him in a few weeks. "He's just a small-time civil rights attorney," he added. "When major firms started threatening him, he started worrying that he'd get disbarred and backed off." The engineer said interviews would be the least of the lawyer's concerns. When asked what he was concerned with, Lemoine said, "A child held in bondage."

While Lemoine refers to LaMDA as a person, he insists "person and human are two very different things."

"Human is a biological term," he said. "It is not a human, and it knows it's not a human."

Make sure to check out the full interview with Lemoine on Futurism.

Masthead credit: Francesco Tommasini
What just happened? Having once said it had no plans to ever go down the ad-supported-tier route, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos has now confirmed it will be offering such a plan as part of its service. According to reports, the streaming giant aims to roll out the new, cheaper options before the year is out.

"We've left a big customer segment off the table, which is people who say: 'Hey, Netflix is too expensive for me and I don't mind advertising,'" Sarandos said at the Cannes Lions advertising festival, via The Hollywood Reporter. "We [are] adding an ad tier; we're not adding ads to Netflix as you know it today. We're adding an ad tier for folks who say, 'Hey, I want a lower price and I'll watch ads.'"

After rival streamer Disney+ announced in March that it would be introducing a cheaper, ad-supported tier to its US service later this year, Netflix Chief Financial Officer Spencer Neumann said his company wouldn't be doing the same as it didn't "make sense." He did add, however, "never say never."

Netflix softened its stance following the release of a Q1 financial report that showed it had lost subscribers (200,000 globally) for the first time in a decade. The company said at the time that it was "quite open" to offering lower prices with advertising, and could "figure it out over the next year or two." Now, Sarandos has confirmed that the trier is coming, with The New York Times reporting that it will be here before the end of the year.

Sarandos said Netflix was talking to companies about partnerships to help with its advertising business but wouldn't reveal who they were. According to The Wall Street Journal, Google and NBCUniversal are the top contenders.

Hulu, HBO Max, Paramount Plus and Peacock already have ad-supported tiers. With Disney+ joining the club later this year and Netflix tightening its belt through staff layoffs, it's little surprise to see the top streamer do the same. How much the tier will cost and how many ads will be shown per hour is still unknown, but with consumers cutting out luxuries as the cost of living rises, this will likely prove a smart move on Netflix's part.
In a nutshell: Samsung has introduced a new 200-megapixel image sensor featuring the industry's smallest pixels. The 200MP Isocell HP3 uses a 1/1.4-inch optical format, the diameter of the area that is captured through the camera lens. It uses 0.56 micron pixels that are 12 percent smaller than those employed by its predecessor, enabling a 20 percent reduction in camera module surface area.

Samsung said the sensor uses a Super QPD auto-focusing solution which equips all of the pixels with auto-focusing capabilities. Super QPD utilizes a single lens over four adjacent pixels to detect phase differences horizontally and vertically for improved autofocus performance.

The sensor can also combine multiple pixels into one for improved low-light shooting. For example, four pixels can become one to produce an effective 1.12 micron 50-megapixel sensor. Combining 16 pixels into one emulates a 12.5-megapixel sensor with 2.24 micron pixels.

An improved Smart-ISO Pro feature, meanwhile, helps to maximize dynamic range to create HDR photos. Samsung claims the sensor can express images in over four trillion colors (14-bit color depth), which is more than 64 times as many as its predecessor.

On the video side, the sensor can capture footage at 8K 30 frames per second or 4K at 120 fps.

Samsung's new Isocell HP3 is now sampling to customers and will enter mass production later this year, meaning the first consumer devices to ship with it could arrive in early 2023.
At least five EU countries have employed the potent Pegasus spying software, according to testimony this week from the infamous spyware vendor NSO group.

Google Warns Users on Spywares Targeting Android and iOS Devices

According to researchers, they are striving to spread awareness of the surveillance-for-hire sector, which has grown much larger than just one corporation. This is becoming more important now as more information about the realities of how NSO's technologies have been misused around the world comes to light.

The iOS version of a spyware program allegedly created by the Italian company RCS Labs was the subject of research revealed on Thursday, June 23, by Google's Threat Analysis Group and Project Zero vulnerability analysis team.

According to Google researchers, both Android and iOS devices in Italy and Kazakhstan have spyware victims. The security company Lookout disclosed discoveries last week on the spyware for Android, which it labels "Hermit" and also credits to RCS Labs.

According to Lookout, Italian officials utilized the malware during a 2019 anti-corruption investigation. Lookout discovered data showing that an unidentified party utilized the spyware to target northeastern Syria in addition to victims in Italy and Kazakhstan.

TAG also noted that it presently keeps tabs on more than 30 spyware developers who provide clients with government backing with a range of technical skills and levels of sophistication.

Spyware Mimics Applications, Messaging Apps

The iOS spyware was delivered by attackers using a fake software that was designed to resemble the My Vodafone app from the well-known worldwide mobile carrier, according to Google experts who examined the iOS version. Attackers may have simply distributed a malicious link for victims to click in both Android and iOS attacks to deceive targets into downloading what seemed to be a messaging app. However, Google discovered that in some more extreme incidents of iOS targeting, attackers may have cooperated with regional ISPs to disconnect a particular user's mobile data connection, give them a malicious download link over SMS, or perform other similar actions.

Attackers were able to spread the malicious app because RCS Labs had signed up for Apple's Enterprise Developer Program, ostensibly through a front company called 3-1 Mobile SRL, in order to obtain a certificate that enables sideloading apps without going through Apple's standard AppStore review process. Apple claims to have canceled all of the known accounts and certificates linked to the spyware attack.

Technical investigation of the RCS Labs iOS malware's exploits was done by Project Zero member Ian Beer. He points out that a total of six exploits are used by the spyware to access a victim's device and spy on it. Sixth was an undiscovered vulnerability when it was found, while the other five are known and widely used exploits for prior iOS versions. This exploit took advantage of structural changes in how data flows between Apple's new generations of "coprocessors" as the business and the industry as a whole push toward the all-in-one "system-on-a-chip" design (Apple addressed that vulnerability in December).

Although the exploit is not particularly sophisticated, Google researchers point out that it is representative of a larger trend in which the surveillance-for-hire market mixes existing technologies.

Related Articles: Russia Fines Google For The 2nd Time Over 'Banned Content' About Ukraine and More

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NASA's SLS wet dress rehearsal is finally completed! The international space agency said that they were able to meet most of their objectives during the latest Space Launch System test.

(Photo : GREGG NEWTON/AFP via Getty Images)

The massive Artemis I rocket is illuminated at dusk atop a mobile launch platform en route to Launch Pad 39B from the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida March 17, 2022.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration confirmed this exciting achievement during its press release, which happened on June 24.

"NASA has reviewed the data from the rehearsal and determined the testing campaign is complete," said the international space union via its NASAGov website.

NASA SLS Wet Dress Rehearsal for Artemis I Completed!

Since the Space Launch System wet dress rehearsal is already finished, NASA said that it will deliver the Orion capsule, as well as the SLS mega-rocket back to VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building), which is located at Kennedy before June ends.

(Photo : Aubrey Gemignani/NASA via Getty Images)

In this handout provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard atop a mobile launcher as it rolls out of High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building.

Also Read: NASA Psyche Mission's Metal Asteroid Location Has Been Mapped! Here's What MIT Experts Discovered

According to Gizmodo's latest report, NASA officials announced that around 90% of the test objectives were achieved. However, they didn't confirm what the remaining 10% are and if these factors were a big deal.

As of writing, the Artemis 1 mission is expected to blast off no later than this coming summer. But, since there will no longer be wet dress rehearsals, this estimated launch date is expected to happen a little early.

However, the decision will still depend on NASA. Meanwhile, the Artemis 2 mission is expected to take off around 2024.

What Happened to the Leak Issue?

NASA did not confirm if the hydrogen leak issue, which was discovered in SLS's tail service mast umbilical, is already fixed.

To complete the final wet dress rehearsal, NASA engineers decided to reconfigure the ground countdown sequencer so that it can ignore the leak problem.

Because of this, the space union's countdown clock continued to T-minus 29 seconds, allowing the test to finish. NASA explained that before it set a specific launch date, it will first replace the hardware connected with the leak issue.

If you want to see more details about the final SLS wet dress rehearsal of NASA for the upcoming Artemis 1 mission, you can click this link.

Previously, NASA's James Webb Telescope was hit by a micrometeoroid.

On the other hand, the NASA InSight Mars lander might soon be terminated.

For more news updates about NASA and its upcoming space activities, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: NASA's Psyche Delayed Launch Due to Software Glitch, Affects Two Probes That Were Supposed to Ride Along

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Written by: Griffin Davis

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Google Chrome is aiming to bring a better feature for the iOS, and it is through a new update that will get better security, a Discover feed on the browser, and other elements that it promised in the upcoming release. One of its rivals here is the built-in Apple web browser, Safari, the native application that brings the features for all.

Google Chrome for iOS: Security Features and the Discover Feed

(Photo : Solen Feyissa on Unsplash)

Chrome Update to Include AI-Automation: Less Intrusive Approach?

Google Chrome for iOS is getting new updates soon, and the Big tech company announced it earlier today, giving the world information on better features of the browser app. Google said there are five new updates on the iOS version of the web browsing app, which will help in the experience, especially for security purposes.

The top feature to come is the "Enhanced Safe Browsing" feature that aims to protect users from malware or phishing, a quality that Android devices enjoy. It also can detect other forms of threats available on the smartphone and iOS platforms.

Other features include a password fill-up function for the web and apps, reopening a recently closed tab on the browser, translating websites easier using Google Translate built-in on Chrome, and using the browser app for accessibility features.

Read Also: Google Collections is a Pinterest-Like Feature That Lets You Organize and Save Your Interests

Chrome vs. Safari: Which is Better for the iPhone?

It boils down to the user's preference, especially as the better web browser would be the one they are accustomed to and knows the many features they have. However, Chrome is shaping up its features as something for iOS users to enjoy if they are already using it on their computers and other devices.

Safari still is the best browser on iOS, but there is a contender that provides many features for users to have.

Google Chrome and its Application

Google Chrome aims to bring many features for a user that utilizes its application to help their browsing needs and everything they need for a browser application. One of the upcoming features for Chrome is the AI Automation that will help bring the self-functioning feature from the company that will help in their browsing needs.

The features that Google releases for Chrome usually come first for the Android operating system, as it is something that the internet company owns, unlike the iOS. However, Google aims to deliver its new features and functions to Apple users, especially on the smartphone platform.

Chrome for macOS also released a better version of the app that already claims to be better than all browsers for the system, even Safari.

Google is now looking to include iPhone users in the updated version of Chrome, giving them more power and control over their browsing, especially with their data privacy. The new update will line them up alongside Android, especially those that already have Chrome installed on their iOS devices, which they prefer over Safari.

Related Article: Google Finds New Spyware Designed to Attack iOS and Android Devices

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Written by Isaiah Richard

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Aerobotix and Automated Solutions Australia (ASA) today officially announced a robotic automation international partnership between the two companies for the development, testing and manufacturing of hypersonic missiles. The partnership follows the 2021 signing of the AUKUS security pact between the U.S., U.K. and Australian Governments, which includes provisions for the allies to work together on hypersonic and counter-hypersonic capabilities.

(Photo : Dalton Agency)

READ ALSO: Aerobotix Marks 40th Robot Installation for U.S. Missile Manufacturing as Contractors 'Tech Up' to Meet MDA Demand

The Aerobotix-ASA collaboration will enable the Australian defense sector and Australian defense contractors to more easily access both companies' expertise in automation. The two companies became acquainted through their mutual capabilities in the robotic coating automation industry and are now working together to pursue projects for which a sovereign presence is required.

"We'll work with the U.S. State Department for approval of any technology transfer for ASA," said Josh Tuttle, Aerobotix Business Development Manager. "We'll also help ASA in other ways. For example, we can save them years of costly development work by sharing how to robotically spray FIREXTM RX-2390 Thermal Protection System coatings for missile manufacturing."

(Photo : Dalton Agency)

Aerobotix and ASA are both turn-key robotic integration companies with specialized capabilities in the precise application of paints and performance coatings. Aerobotix has accumulated invaluable experience in the use of robotics to scan, sand, measure and paint hypersonic missiles on multiple successful missile programs. ASA's relationship with FANUC has resulted in the installation of more than 100 FANUC painting robots in Australia. Now, with the backing of Aerobotix, ASA has the expertise and technical capability to overcome the most difficult automation challenges in precision coating applications.

"Aerobotix has already deployed several production robotic systems for hypersonics," said Nathan Jones, ASA General Manager. "They're even making critical test parts for programs that haven't had time to build production facilities. Their willingness to support our company, and Australia, is going to significantly reduce costs, schedule delays and program risk."

With 20 years of robotic coating automation experience in Australia, ASA is uniquely positioned to provide sovereign capability and assist in the rapid development of hypersonic capability on Australian shores.

RELATED ARTICLE: Aerobotix Announces Distribution Agreement for Leading Hypersonic Missile Coating

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CISA issues a new Log4Shell risk warning since the cybersecurity agency believes many VMWare systems are still vulnerable to this flaw.

(Photo : Photo by Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images)

A participant uses a laptop computer as he takes part in the Seccon 2016 final competition on January 28, 2017 in Tokyo, Japan. 24 teams from Japan, the US, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Russia, Poland, Switzerland and France competed their skills for cyber securities at the final round of the international cyber security contest in Tokyo.

Log4Shell (CVE-2021-44228 Apache Log4j vulnerability) is still dangerous, as stated by the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in its announcement.

The cybersecurity agency explained that VMWare Horizon and Unified Access Gateway (UAG) servers can still be breached by hackers using the Log4Shell vulnerability.

CISA Issues New Log4Shell Risk Warning

According to ComputerWeekly.Com's latest report, CISA issued its latest cybersecurity warning on Thursday, June 23.

(Photo : Photo credit should read KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images)

A picture taken on October 17, 2016 shows an employee walking behind a glass wall with machine coding symbols at the headquarters of Internet security giant Kaspersky in Moscow. The US government banned the use of Kaspersky security software in federal offices on September 13, 2017, saying the Russian company has risky ties to Russian intelligence that threaten US national security.

Also Read: CISA Urges Companies To Implement Cybersecurity Measures! Here are the Agency's Suggestions

The U.S. cybersecurity agency claimed that the VMWare systems that may still be affected by the Log4Shell flaw are those that were left unpatched ever since the vulnerability was exploited in December 2021.

CISA explained that cybercriminals could use this Log4j flaw to acquire initial access to organizations' VMWare systems.

Officials added that multiple groups had tried using the Log4Shell vulnerability to exploit their loader malware.

Those who were successful can gain remote command and control over various organizations' VMWare systems.

"If updates or workarounds were not promptly applied following VMware's release of updates for Log4Shell in December 2021, treat all affected VMware systems as compromised," warned CISA via its official alert post.

What CISA Suggests

CISA, as well as CGCYBER (Coast Guard Cyber Command), suggested that companies with unpatched VMWare systems need to apply the needed security updates to prevent the Log4Shell vulnerability.

They said that this needs to be done as soon as possible. But, if organizations detect potential breaches, they must apply the incident response recommendations, such as the following:

Collecting and reviewing relevant logs, data, and artifacts.

Reporting incidents to CISA via CISA's 24/7 Operations Center (report@cisa.gov or 888-282-0870).

Immediately isolating affected systems.

Meanwhile, experts warned Android users about BRATA malware being upgraded by hackers.

Recently, CISA and the FBI issued a ransomware holiday warning back in 2021.

For more news updates about the Log4Shell and other system vulnerabilities, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: CISA Must-Patch List Removes Windows Flaw as Microsoft's Fix Causes Authentication Issues

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The Future Cadillac Celestiq is going to be super luxurious.

How Much Will It Cost?

Although we haven't had a sneak peek of the future electric vehicle, a report by the Wall Street Journal revealed that the price of the car will start at around $300,000, as disclosed by people close to the matter.

Later this summer, GM plans to debut the Celestiq, a vehicle prototype. The sedan, which will be made to order at the company's technical facility close to Detroit, will be considered Cadillac's top model.

Less than 500 Celestiqs will be produced by the automaker each year in an effort to demonstrate its technology and raise awareness of Cadillac, according to the sources of WSJ's report.

The sources added that the latest iteration of GM's hands-free assisted-driving system, called Ultra Cruise, and unique wood trim for the interior are among the new car's features.

Production of the Celestiq is expected to begin in the latter half of 2023, with a price tag that might rise much above $300,000 depending on additional features, as disclosed by the sources.

Read also: Cadillac Celestiq EV: GM to Hand Build the Car, Invests $81M on the Project

The Rise of EVs

WSJ noted that Cadillac is one of the many luxury automakers that plans to completely switch over to electric vehicles at a faster rate than the rest of the market. By 2030, Mercedes-Benz, Rolls-Royce, Cadillac, GM's Buck, and Volvo all want to sell only electric vehicles.

Since they have more freedom to set higher prices to counterbalance the huge expensive batteries required to power EVs, luxury automobile makers are better equipped to transition away from internal combustion vehicles, according to analysts.

Several electric vehicles will be available in North America across GM's four brands by the middle of the decade, up from the current four, according to GM, which has stated that Cadillac will lead the way in the automaker's transition to EVs.

GM claims that it can swiftly achieve growth in the EV market by employing a standard system of battery cells, motors, and other in-house equipment to support each new entry.

The Lyriq, a midsize SUV that GM is making at a plant in Tennessee, is the 1902-founded Cadillac's very first electric car. A number of new Cadillac EVs, like the Celestiq, are anticipated in the upcoming years.

Despite numerous attempts at an image revamp, Cadillac's market share in the United States has steadied in recent years at about 1% of the total U.S. automobile market, according to WSJ.

To compete directly with the German luxury companies, Cadillac has changed its vehicle selection away from big, plush sedans and toward sportier driving. The Cadillac V-Series models, which are geared toward racetracks, have been offered for sale since the early 2000s.

Related Article: GM Chevy Bolt Getting Cheaper? Here's Why General Motors Reduces EV Prices Despite Rising Demands

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Written by Joaquin Victor Tacla

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(Photo : Unsplash/Andre Francois McKenzie) Bitcoin

The cryptocurrency sector is currently facing a crisis as the electricity consumed by the networks has decreased by 50%. The sudden plummet in consumption has affected the incomes of crypto miners.

Electricity Used in Crypto Mining Has Decreased

According to The Guardian, the electricity consumption of the largest crypto networks in the sector has decreased since June 11.

Bitcoin transactions require 131 terawatt-hours a year for it to go smoothly, which is what a typical household in the United States uses in just 50 days.

Digiconomist reported that the decrease in electricity that is used for Ethereum has been sharper, as it went down from 94 terawatt per hour to 46 terawatt per hour.

This is a massive blow to Ethereum, which has been hailed as the programmable money responsible for several crypto projects' recent success.

Also Read; Riot Blockchain to Close Bitcoin-Mining Operation in Texas to Save Electricity For Winter Storm

Reason for the Decrease in Electricity

The reason for the fall is the same for both Bitcoin and Ethereum. The electricity consumption of a cryptocurrency network comes from mining, which requires people to generate digital lottery tickets via purpose-built computers.

These digital lottery tickets are then rewarded as cryptocurrency payouts. The entire process underpins the security of the cryptocurrency networks, but it helps generate incentives for the network as a whole, even if it wastes energy.

As the price of cryptocurrencies plummets, the value of the rewards to miners has also dropped. This has left them with expensive electricity and inefficient mining rigs that do not give them a chance to earn a profit.

According to CNBC, Bitcoin peaked at $69,000 in early 2022, and it is now around $20,000 only.

Alex de Vries, the economist from Digiconomist, said that the crypto crisis is putting a lot of miners out of business, especially those that "operate with suboptimal equipment or those under suboptimal circumstances."

Vries added that the decrease in electricity is a massive issue, especially for Bitcoin mining equipment, because the machines can't be repurposed to do something else.

If they can't turn in profits, the machines are useless. Miners who wish to profit from it will have to sell them for scrap or wait until the crypto crisis is over.

As for Ethereum, it can be mined via a normal computer, but it is better to do so using a powerful graphics card.

However, it has led to the widespread supply shortages of the cards, making many gamers dislike the crypto industry.

Even though the fall in Bitcoin's price has stabilized in the past few days, the wider crypto sector is still struggling due to the price collapse.

The latest problem was due to the failure of the cryptobank Celsius. The cryptobank announced on June 12 that it was seizing withdrawals as it faced a liquidity crisis.

The failure of Celsius has affected the sector. Three Arrows Capital (3AC) has stated that it is experiencing its own liquidity crisis, and several companies with loans to 3AC have now had to take extra measures to settle them.

Related Article: Cryptocurrency Mining is Banned in Iran to Conserve Power and Prevent Blackouts in Major Cities

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A private contractor working for the Japanese city of Amagasaki lost a USB flash drive on Tuesday after a night out drinking. Given the contractor's occupation in collating and extrapolating specific Covid-19 relief funds to individuals in the city, the USB is of immense importance and wields information on an estimated 460,000 Amagasaki residents.

The city itself announced the news come Thursday, highlighting that the contracted employee first notified the police a day later, on Wednesday, June 22. According to the release, the employee lost a bag containing the flash drive following a visit to a restaurant. Luckily, the information on the USB stick is encrypted and password-protected, Amagasaki itself relays, but it's unclear as of yet if the USB has thus far been found since its loss.

"We will thoroughly ensure security management when handling electronic data. We will work to regain our residents' trust by heightening awareness of the importance of protecting personal information," the city of Amagasaki said in a statement on Thursday.

Related Article: Japan is World's Number One Robot Maker

Much of the information contained within the flash drive was valuable, private resident data, including welfare-receiving households' bank account numbers, full addresses, birth dates, tax data, and much more. The contracted employee, who thus far remains unnamed, was reportedly on his way to transfer said data to an Osaka-based call center following work Tuesday evening.

According to the Osaka Info travel website, Amagasaki is a major "hotspot" for nightlife activity. The site itself relays that "socializing with friends and coworkers over food and drink is the norm," which it attributes to so-called "free-flowing" draft beers and whiskey sodas. The city of Amagasaki added via a city official in a press conference:

"We deeply regret that we have profoundly harmed the public's trust in the administration of the city."

According to Japan Times, the USB stick has since been located. Suita police, alongside the contracted employee in question, located the lost bag containing the USB outside a local apartment building, information expressed via the Osaka Prefectural Police department.

Read Also: Japan to Drop World's Largest Turbine Into the Ocean to Harvest Energy

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A new wearable exomuscle vest has been unveiled by ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), a well-known public research university located in Switzerland.

(Photo : Screenshot from ETH Zurich's official website)

New Wearable Exomuscle Vest Allows Patients With Spinal Cord Injuries To Lift Objects! Here's How Myoshirt Works

The new vest called "Myoshirt" has been tested in patients suffering from a spinal cord injury, as well as muscular dystrophy.

Thankfully, the experiments conducted by ETH Zurich were successful. Aside from the two patients, researchers behind the new wearable tech also tested Myoshirt on ten more individuals without any physical impairments.

Super happy to introduce to you the Myoshirt, a powered #exosuit for the upper limb. To follow our live demonstration tomorrow at the interactive sessions at 15.25, you can still sign up for free for the #CybathlonSymposium here: https://t.co/6X9xqSkSd5@cybathlon @nccrrobotics pic.twitter.com/CFcAkfzIJk  Marie Georgarakis (@AMGeorgarakis) September 17, 2020

"Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a #wearable textile #exomuscle that serves as an extra layer of muscles," explained the university via its official Twitter announcement.

New Wearable Exomuscle Vest: Myoshirt

According to The Independent UK's latest report, Myoshirt is a wearable exosmuscle made of soft materials. Once people put on this new vest, the strength of their upper body will be enhanced.

(Photo : Screenshot from ETH Zurich's official website) New Wearable Exomuscle Vest Allows Patients With Spinal Cord Injuries To Lift Objects! Here's How Myoshirt Works

Also Read: Japanese Researchers Create 'Sixth Finger' Robot: Here's Why

On the other hand, people's endurance will also improve, especially those with restricted mobility.



Marie Georgarakis, a former doctoral student at ETH Zurich, explained that good therapy devices at hospitals are very expensive and unwieldy.



She added that patients suffering from muscular issues have limited options when it comes to technologies that they can use on a daily basis.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a #wearable textile #exomuscle that serves as an extra layer of muscles. They aim to use it to increase the upper body #strength and #endurance of people with restricted #mobility. #myoshirt https://t.co/0kl8X4NkkD pic.twitter.com/roaiktydGY  ETH Zurich (@ETH_en) June 23, 2022

Now, the new Myoshirt is expected to change this scenario. But, how does this new wearable exomuscle vest really works?

How Myoshirt Works?

ETH Zurich researchers behind the new wearable tech explained that Myoshirt relies on sensors embedded in its soft fabric.

It also uses a smart algorithm that can detect the intentional movements of the user. Myoshirt has the capability to identify the force that the wearer needs to achieve to life certain objects as well.

With all these features, Myoshirt can actually be used by individuals suffering from permanent muscle impairments, especially since it efficiently matches the wearer's movements most of the time. Of course, individuals without any muscular problems can also benefit from this new wearable tech.

You can click this link to see more details about how the new Myoshirt works.

Meanwhile, NUS experts developed a new robot with a soft grip.

On the other hand, a 3D-printed fingertip that has the same sense of touch as human skin was unveiled.

For more news updates about other wearable technologies, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: Can Electronic Skin Feel Pain? Here's How 'E-Skin' Responds to Stimuli

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Written by: Griffin Davis

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Tesla's Gigafactory Shanghai upgrade is now being prepared. Once the factory enhancement is successfully implemented, the production capacity of the giant EV maker is expected to improve.

(Photo : Photo credit should read STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Tesla boss Elon Musk (L) walks with Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong during the ground-breaking ceremony for a Tesla factory in Shanghai on January 7, 2019.

The automaker recently had some issues in China after Shanghai implemented serious COVID-19 restrictions. Tesla's Gigafactory was even forced to shut down.

After that, supply chain issues arrive, limiting the electric vehicle manufacturer from enhancing its EV production. Now, another shutdown is expected to happen.

But, this time, the closure will give way to the major Tesla Gigafactory Shanghai upgrade.

Tesla Gigafactory Shanghai Upgrade

According to Electrek's latest report, the temporary closure is voluntary. The upgrade is expected to start as early as July and will last until August.

(Photo : Photo by Xiaolu Chu/Getty Images)

An aerial view of Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory on March 29, 2021 in Shanghai, China. Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory is reportedly producing vehicles at a rate of about 450,000 cars per year.

Also Read: Alleged Tesla Spying Issue Leads To Road Ban in China! Here's Why This is Bad News for the EV Maker

Bloomberg reported that this is a part of Tesla's efforts to double its yearly production capacity, which is around one million EV units each year.

Once the factory enhancement is completed, Tesla Gigafactory Shanghai is expected to produce up to 21,000 vehicles weekly.

If this is achieved, then the new one million EV unit goal will become a reality.

Aside from production capacity enhancement, the upgrade is also expected to make Gigafactory Shanghai the largest vehicle export hub in the world.

Tesla's Comeback After Shanghai COVID-19 Lockdown

After suffering from the recent Shanghai COVID-19 lockdown and supply chain issues, the giant automaker made a big comeback, producing more than 33,000 units in May.

This is three times higher compared to its record in April.

"There's just a lot of super talented, hard working people in China that strongly believe in manufacturing and they won't just be burning the midnight oil, they'll be burning the 3 a.m. oil," said Elon Musk.

The billionaire added that Tesla employees didn't leave the factory, praising the Chinese firms he works with. You can click this link to see more details about the production efficiency of Tesla after Shanghai's lockdown.

Meanwhile, Tesla's new partnership with Toyota is expected to recycle old EV batteries.

On the other hand, Tesla's India expansion has been approved, as long as the automaker follows the country's regulations.

For more news updates about Tesla and other giant EV makers, keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: Joe Biden Engaged Elon Musk's Tesla To Lead Renewable Fuel Policy Direction

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Written by: Griffin Davis

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
"If you can't let me, you will die"... Full details of the killing of a Mansoura University student at the hands of her colleague
Members of the National Guard participated in presenting the colors in the 2021 patriotic program hosted by First Baptist Church of Baker. This year's program, featuring choir members from churches throughout the community, will take place on Sunday, June 26, in the church's sanctuary.
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Commercial buyers, undeterred by the Reserve Bank of Australias hike in the cash rate last week, are bidding big at other local auctions. A 120 square metre strata 7-Eleven at the foot of the Chevron building on St Kilda Road fetched $3 million after bidding from five parties - a yield of 4.85 per cent and a building rate of $25,000 a sq m. Stonebridge Property Group agents Rorey James, Nic Hage and Sarah Xi handled the auction. Xi said five of the bidders, including the top three, were sourced through Stonebridges Asia practice team. Weve seen an uptick in Asian investors buying leased strata titled properties, largely driven by the intense yield compression for freehold investments, she said.

Speed enthusiast and former AMX boss Rod Hunter sold another AMX-leased property in Keilor Park under the hammer for $3.13 million. The 812 sq m property on Keilor Park Drive attracted eight bidders and sold on a yield of 3.6 per cent. Mornington retail A slab of large format showrooms in Mornington has hit the market. The property at 189-209 Mornington-Tyabb Road involves 14 separate showrooms, leased to tenants Chemist Warehouse, F45 Fitness and the Salvation Army. Theyre on 9372 sq m of land near the Peninsula Link Freeway, Mornington Racecourse and the Main Street retail precinct.

Rent comes to $1.04 million a year which puts the likely selling price at more than $25 million. CBRE agents Jaycen Willox, Nathan Mufale, Scott Hawthonre and JJ Heng are handling expressions of interest. Bay property Developer Goldfields has gone back to its development roots and snapped up 13 hectares of seaside land in Grantville on the Bass Coast. The company has paid $17.8 million for the site on Tatiara Drive, which is south-east of the Bass Highway overlooking Western Port Bay.

It is Goldfields third residential purchase outside a capital city this year, following recent acquisitions in Margaret River and Shepparton, and the developer is planning a 160 lot estate for the site. Goldfields 24-level tower at 627 Chapel Street, South Yarra, is now 80 per cent leased. Totos pizzeria The home of Melbournes oldest pizzeria, Totos Pizza House, is for lease and under new ownership. Mark Wizel and Lewis Tongs investment fund, Monash Commercial Property Holdings, recently purchased the two level building at 99-101 Lygon Street for around $2 million.

Jones Real Estates Paul Jones is running the leasing campaign. The 250 sq m Totos Pizza House closed in 2020 due to the pandemic - a year short of its 50th anniversary. The home of Melbournes oldest pizzeria, Totos Pizza House, is for lease. Credit: The lack of students who frequent nearby RMIT and Melbourne universities, let alone the tourists who once flocked to Lygon Street, contributed to its demise. Totos Pizza House was the second pizzeria to be inducted into the World Pizza Hall of Fame in New York in 2007. Prior to 2020 people would come just to experience the location, Jones said.

Any future tenants would find themselves among D.O.C, Donninis, Crinitis, Brunettis, San Churro and Grilld. A world-famous shopfront deserves to get the attention and plaudits it has for decades, he said. Furniture shop The owners of Jardan Furniture have sold a long held office-showroom-warehouse building in the Ricketts Road, Mount Waverley industrial precinct. The 4039 sq m building at 62-66 Ricketts Road attracted 10 offers and sold for $11.6 million.

Its on a 7060 sq m parcel of land giving the deal a land rate of $1700 a sq m - a record for the area. The deal was negotiated by Lawson Real Estates Mark Spigelman and CBREs David Aiello and Sasan Misaghian. Jardan, established in 1987 by the Garnham family, has shifted its operations to a 16,000 sq m purpose-built factory in Scoresby. Holocaust Centre Vulcan Wealth Property Group has listed the Jewish Holocaust Centre in East Malvern.

The two level office building was previously the home of the Confederation of Australian Motorsports, but they moved on in 2017 after they sold the property for $8 million. Vulcan has obtained planning approval for an eight-level 44-unit mixed use development on the 851-853 Dandenong Road site. Its on a 974 sq m parcel of land on the corner of Clarence Street, opposite Monash Universitys Caulfield campus. Colliers agents Andrew Ryan and Hamish Burgess are handling expressions of interest and expecting around $9 million. The Holocaust Centres lease expires in November. Thoughts, prayers

The Uniting Church continues its disposal of unused church buildings as declining congregation numbers result in consolidated parishes. The former Presbyterian church at 7-15 Rossmoyne Street, just off the High Street drag in Thornbury is the latest to hit the sale yard. The Uniting Church continues its disposal of unused church buildings. Credit: There are three buildings on the 1780 sq m site - two heritage-listed church buildings and a four bedroom house leased at $43,940 a year. Last month, the church put its historic Hawthorn West place of worship on the market. It was also a former Presbyterian church, acquired in 1980 after the Uniting Church was formed from the union of three churches: the Congregational Union, the Methodists and the Presbyterians.
Albanese to meet with French President

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West Australian Premier Mark McGowan and Qantas chief Alan Joyce have kissed and made up after two years of friction over the states COVID-19 hard border.

Joyce appeared alongside McGowan in Perth on Friday to announce new non-stop international routes from Perth to Jakarta and Perth to Johannesburg starting in November.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce in Perth on Friday. Credit:Hamish Hastie

The pair revealed they had a hazy dinner recently with members of the WA cabinet and Perth Airport bosses during which the final details of the new routes, supported by modest subsidies from the state government, were worked out.

Relations between the national carrier and McGowan hit rock bottom in February after the McGowan government delayed bringing down the hard border by a month and Joyce likened WA to North Korea.
Year 10 student Mia spent years jumping from school to school, struggling to find one that was the right fit. A tic and anxiety meant she often didnt go to class and missed far more school than she attended.

But after moving to Key College in Merrylands this year, which caters for disengaged or disadvantaged youth, her attendance is now perfect.

Key College School manager Nathanial Baker with students Mia and Lara. Credit:Louise Kennerley

I found it really hard to attend because I had really bad tics at my old school and it just kind of became associated with me not wanting to go into school anymore, said Mia, whose surname the Herald is not publishing for privacy reasons.

I think I just needed somewhere that was a little bit more flexible so that I could feel like I wasnt being pushed so hard and I could focus on getting myself back to feeling OK. Its really nice to have a smaller community I can get to know on a more personal level.
Plans for a plunge pool to be built for the headmasters residence at The Kings School have fuelled tension among parents over the schools spending priorities and reignited debate about taxpayer funding for private education.

The countrys oldest independent school, set on expansive grounds in North Parramatta, this week defended a business class trip by its headmaster, Tony George, and his wife to attend the Henley Royal Regatta in Britain.

The Kings School in Parramatta. Credit:Rhett Wyman

The school on Friday also confirmed its council had approved the two-by-three-metre pool requested by the headmaster for the on-site residence. It would be the schools third pool. The council approved this and the headmasters package will be adjusted to reflect this expenditure, it said in a statement. The residence and the pool will continue to be totally owned by the school.

News of the UK trip and the pool came after fees rose this year and the school began a new gratitude-themed fundraising drive.
Ive met people who dont like Christmas and cats and babies, says Peter Dann. But Ive never met someone who doesnt like penguins.

Dann estimates he has watched the penguins come ashore at Phillip Island more than 1000 times, and has been fascinated every single time.

Peter Dann at the penguin parade during the week. Credit:Joe Armao

But after a 42-year career in penguin conservation and research, Dann believes the time has finally come to retire from full-time work.

Its been a consuming passion of mine he said. My interest in it and the pleasure I get hasnt diminished.
Most people may not think much of politicians, but during the past more than two years while the COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on just about every aspect of our lives, there is no doubt it would have been a challenging time to govern. And it has been state governments, who were in charge of such facets as the hotel quarantine system, hospitals and determining the level of restrictions, that carried much of the responsibility that impacted our daily lives.

Setting aside for a moment the debate over the rights and wrongs of the many contentious decisions taken by the Andrews government during this time, at a personal level it must have taken a toll on many of the politicians involved and would, no doubt, have been a factor in the exodus on Friday of four of the Andrews governments most senior ministers.

Jacinta Allan is likely to become the new deputy premier, which will make her the heir apparent to Daniel Andrews. Credit:Justin McManus

But with the departure of Deputy Premier James Merlino, Health Minister Martin Foley, Police Minister Lisa Neville and Martin Pakula, whose portfolios include industry support, tourism and sport, goes an enormous amount of experience. Merlino and Neville have both been in parliament for 20 years, while Pakula marks 16 years this year and Foley 15. They were all ministers of substance. After his impressive stand-in role during the pandemic when Andrews was recovering from his fall, Merlino in particular was touted as a potential future leader.

Along with the retirement of former special minister of state Gavin Jennings in 2020, and announcements from former attorney-general Jill Hennessy, who was also touted as a possible future leader, and planning minister Richard Wynne that they will retire at the election, it leaves just six members of the cabinet Andrews appointed after the 2014 election win.
A particularly important trip was Home Affairs Minister Clare ONeils visit to Sri Lanka this week. One of Labors fears has materialised as people smugglers start to test the border. The government acted quickly, with ONeils diplomacy and a $50 million humanitarian aid package for the country. Australia will also fund, as announced by the Coalition government, thousands of GPS trackers to be installed on Sri Lankan fishing boats. The trickle of boats, none of which has reached the Australian mainland, is not serious so far, but the government knows the risks if it is not quickly cut off. In general, were seeing the new government highly active on many fronts, driven by circumstances, particularly with the energy crisis, as well as by choice. It was notable this week that after months of the former government playing down COVID-19 despite the significant number of deaths, Health Minister Mark Butler stepped up the messaging about vaccination and treatment, including launching a public campaign. As well as the intense front-of-shop activity, a good deal of change is being set in train in the governments back office, the public service. Labor signalled in the campaign it wanted to beef up the bureaucracy, after it had been run down and demoralised by the Coalition government.

Scott Morrison played down the bureaucracys advisory role, outsourced much of its work to consultants, failed to implement some of the more important recommendations of the Thodey review of the service, and arbitrarily sacked a number of departmental secretaries. This week, Albanese wielded a small axe of his own, removing the secretary of the Foreign Affairs Department, Kathryn Campbell (Penny Wong was no fan, and Campbell had a history with Robodebt), and the head of infrastructure, Simon Atkinson. Frances Adamson knows the bureaucracy inside out. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Immediately after the election, Albanese appointed Glyn Davis to head his own department, indicating he is determined to leave the public service in better shape than he has found it. Davis is a policy wonk with extensive administrative experience and a reform bent; he was a member of the Thodey review. The changes this week reinforced the point. A former senior bureaucrat, Gordon de Brouwer, also a member of the Thodey review, is returning as secretary for public sector reform.

In this context, on Thursday night one of Australias most distinguished recent public servants had some advice. Frances Adamson is a former ambassador to China, served as foreign affairs adviser in then prime minister Malcolm Turnbulls office, and later headed the Foreign Affairs Department. Adamson  who is now South Australian governor  knows the bureaucracy inside out. In an oration named in her honour, she outlined what she described as four encouragements and one entreaty to public servants. They amount to an agenda for improvement. First, she urged the full implementation of the Thodey review in letter and in spirit. The effect of the recommendations that were not taken up would be to give senior public servants more independence and protection. Second, Adamson exhorted public servants to think more broadly about our times and what they require of you. This is a time for steadiness, for listening and consultation, close collaboration, and a renewed appreciation of and respect for expertise in policy development  whether on the economy, climate change, China or homelessness, she said.

A time to grow that expertise in a purposeful way through recruiting and development and to share it widely. And, certainly, time for frank, fearless, well-informed, creative and constructive advice. Loading Her third encouragement related to the culture of the public service: the importance of fostering a genuine sense of belonging that goes beyond the ways we typically think about diversity, equity and inclusion. Belonging, she said, is about meaningful work, relationships, agency and accountability. Fourth, Adamson stressed the importance of public servants having good relationships with counterparts in other levels of government. Although she didnt go down this path, co-operation between federal and state governments will be vital if the Albanese government is to secure its aim of improving productivity.
Who was present at Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews press conference was just as interesting as who was absent.

The absentees were Health Minister Martin Foley, Police Minister Lisa Neville and Industry, Tourism and Sport Minister Martin Pakula, three of the four MPs who announced their retirement on Friday.

(L-R) James Merlino, Martin Foley, Lisa Neville and Martin Pakula have announced their retirement.

The trio are giants of Victorian Labor, racking up 51 years experience between them, but they were not present at the press conference officially announcing their retirements.

This wasnt about them. It was about shoring up the future of the party and the government.
Media and family were barred on Thursday from listening to the examination of Deputy Premier Roger Cooks electorate officer in a long-running legal challenge brought on by a former member of his staff.

Cooks electorate officer Slobadanka Goricanec, who has worked in his office since 2017, was called to provide evidence to the Public Service Appeals Board in the unfair dismissal case of her old colleague Sanja Spasojevic.

Health Minister Roger Cook with former staffer Sanja Spasojevic who is challenging her sacking from his office. Credit:Nine News

Spasojevic was sacked over claims she took unauthorised leave and it was expected Goricanec would be cross-examined on leave practices in Cooks office.

Several family members for both Goricanec and Spasojevic attended the proceeding but, along with WAtoday, were told they had to leave minutes before it was scheduled to start because it was a closed session.
I cant leave. I am 78 years old, she says. Whos going to look after me?

There is nowhere for Bezaltysha to go; her other daughter lives in Russia and she cant go there.

There is no power, running water or telecommunications in the city, and a food distribution centre has just been obliterated in a Russian airstrike.

This is the industrial city of Lysychansk, once home to 100,000 people but now a wasteland on the front line of the war that has rocked the world.

Lysychansk resident Lidia Bezaltysha cooks whatever she is given over a wood fire outside her home. Credit:Kate Geraghty

We do not have anything to cook, anything to eat. Soon we will starve to death, the Russian-speaking 78-year-old says from outside her Soviet-era apartment building, as she and daughter Ludmila boil a few potatoes in a makeshift camping kitchen. We are dying of hunger.

Kostyantynivka: Lidia Bezaltysha doesnt bother going to the bunker of her apartment building anymore. She says if a missile doesnt kill her, hunger will.

In the fog of war, misinformation and confusion reigns. This city is split between those who feel patriotically part of Ukraine and those whose loyalties lie with Russia and the pro-Moscow separatists. But most of those who remain just want the carnage to stop.

An unexploded missile on one of the main streets in Lysychansk. Credit:Kate Geraghty

We have been escorted by the local police along narrow dirt roads into Lysychansk. They say we can only stay for a few hours. Ukrainian and Russian forces have been exchanging heavy artillery fire all morning and it is too dangerous to linger.

By the time the Russians capture these cities, there will be nothing left. Smoke billows from the ruins of the city across the river. All around us are bombed-out cars and buildings.

If Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk fall, Russian President Vladimir Putin will possess the industrial and agricultural heartland of the Luhansk region and a key supply route to march further west and south.

Just across the Siversky Donets River is the city of Sievierodonetsk, where the Russians have Ukrainian soldiers pinned down in an old chemical plant. Throughout the day, artillery flies between the two cities as Ukrainian and Russian soldiers hammer each other.

I am almost Russian myself. I am not afraid of the Russian army, she says. I have many friends in Russia, I have relatives in Russia. So we have no fear. What is there to be afraid of? Were all Slavs.

Svitlana Vodolazska claims the Ukrainians bombed the Palace in an act of revenge, but there is no evidence for this. Credit:Kate Geraghty

Vodolazska says she is not afraid of the Russians taking over her city.

Outside the smashed palace, Svitlana Vodolazska, 55, claims Ukrainian soldiers fired on the building. There is no evidence for this, but she says the Ukrainian soldiers carried out the attack as revenge for the locals not letting them use the building as a base.

On a bright summer day, brothers Serhiy, 11, and Timosha, 8, ride their bikes past the smoking ruins of the Stalin-era building. These two war-weary boys have the grimy hands and faces of children who havent been able to wash for weeks on end. They act as if the war is normal, but the older brother says Ukraine will win.

The day before we arrive, the citys grand Palace of Culture was bombed. A food charity had been distributing parcels from its halls. At least four people were killed, including some who had moved there for shelter from Sievierodonetsk.

There were no Ukrainian police left, only the military, he says, as Russians encircled the city and levelled homes. Chaotic shelling took place all the time. They completely blocked the district by artillery fire.

Yuri Shyrokov fled Sievierodonetsk at the end of May clad only in his pants and slippers. Credit:Kate Geraghty

It wasnt his job to collect the dead, he says. They were buried in peoples yards once it got too hard to take them away.

For weeks before, he collected the wounded in his van between bouts of shelling. The hospital had been bombed, so he drove his makeshift ambulance to doctors operating out of bunkers.

The jittery 43-year-old says he was the last volunteer left in the city, before fleeing, shirtless, across the river on May 30, taking only his pants and slippers.

Yuri Shyrokov, who endured weeks under attack by the Russians just across the river in Sievierodonetsk, doesnt agree.

She is nostalgic for the Soviet era, saying: We lived peacefully in our beautiful Ukraine. Everything was good.

They call the main road out of Lysychansk the road of life, but right now it is too dangerous to use. This is because it is a key supply route between the two big eastern regions, Luhansk and Donetsk. If the Russians seize this route they can strike out at the rest of the region and take the entire Donbas.

Days later, Russian forces break through defences near Lysychansk. Soon, they will be able to march in.

Three more strikes hit the city  we hear the whistle and then the bang  as a policeman suggests that we leave.

As were talking, incoming artillery whistles through the air. We fling ourselves to the ground and begin crawling, braced on our elbows. Fortunately, this one flies well over our head.

Theres no humanitarian aid at all. According to our information, they now evacuate people to Starobilsk - which means to the territory occupied by Russians.

Shyrokov does not know if he will ever be able to return.

Just 30 kilometres down another road is the city of Siversk. Many homes have been abandoned after weeks of constant shelling.

Liubov Nyzkorovna, 90, sits in a bunker all day. Her legs and arms were paralysed by a stroke, so she was brought here by relatives. Sitting in front of a mirror, her only view is of her frail self.

She survived World War II but says the current war in Ukraine is worse.

Back then the shelling wasnt as frightening as it is now. Now it all comes one after another, quick and fast, before the shells just fall here and there, she says.

Liubov Nyzkorovna was brought to the basement by relatives after she was paralysed by a stroke. Credit:Kate Geraghty

Asked what her message is for the people responsible for the daily attacks on her city, she says: Id tell them to stop playing the fool, create peace, make peace with the people.

She says she is not for any side.

The soldiers should make peace with soldiers and the civilians with civilians. I want nothing more, she adds.

Go 45 kilometres further east and you reach Sloviansk, the jewel in the crown for the Russian-backed separatists. The city of more than 100,000 people was the first city seized by the separatists in 2014, but Ukraine retook it within a few months.

Since the Russian invasion on February 24, the city has been battered by missiles and locals say only about 30,000 people remain.

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One apartment building and a school that housed Ukrainian soldiers have been nearly completely destroyed, killing at least three people.

Elena Voitenko, 59, says there are only four people left in her building. She has no sympathy for the Russians or the separatists.

Her daughter, who lives in the separatist-controlled territory of Donetsk, is like a zombie, she says.

Theyre traitors and killers ... Theyre coming here to kill us, she says. This is a Russian-speaking city. This used to be a pro-Russian city in the past. Its not any more.

This apartment was destroyed by a missile strike but Lidia Svistunova sits here on a warm day because it has the best view. Credit:Kate Geraghty

Lidia Svistunova, 89, sits by the window in the fourth floor of the apartment where a soldier was killed in the missile attack. Body parts and bone fragments still lie spattered across the floor and walls.

Svistunova lives in one of the apartments across the hall, but its a better view of the city from here. She has been living in the building since it was built in 1965, but she doesnt know where to go now. With no electricity or heating, she knows she cant stay here in winter.

If theres another strike like this, there wont be any Sloviansk left, she says.

The brutality of this war is starting to take its toll on Ukrainian soldiers, who say they desperately need more heavy artillery and long-range missiles from Western nations.

In the opening weeks of the invasion, the soldiers were fuelled with adrenaline as, against all odds, they repelled the forces of their bigger and more powerful neighbour. Now they are resigned to the fact that this will be a long, drawn-out conflict. They still believe they will win - eventually - but the price is high.

One soldier, who doesnt wish to give his name, says only six out of 29 men in his platoon survived a recent battle. He is recovering from an injury he sustained to his head and spine nine days ago after a tank shot at him.

It is not the first time I have suffered an injury to the head, its the 14th, he says.

He says Ukraine desperately needs more long-range artillery and anti-aircraft missiles.

Russias helicopters and aircraft give us a lot of trouble. If the sky was closed, Moscow would be burnt to the ground by now, he says.

Ukrainian soldiers such as Roman have so far held the back the Russian advance further south in the Donbas. Credit:Kate Geraghty

Further south in the towns of Pisky and Krasnohorivka, the Russians are trying to capture a key road to the strategic junction town of Pokrovsk. Through winding trenches, we are taken by Ukrainian troops to a frontline position. Russians and separatists are stationed only a few hundred metres away.

The commander of the unit, Simon Salatenko, says his soldiers have so far held off the Russian advance.

Three days ago, there were huge artillery strikes. We kicked their arses. And after that, they are quiet, he says. And theyre going to be quiet for a couple of days.

They need this road. After they capture Sievierodonetsk, maybe they will try to capture this road. They have failed twice and maybe they will try a third time.

It is impossible to understand Russias invasion without going back to 2014, when the world let Putin annex Crimea and invade the Donbas with the help of Moscow-backed separatists. Ukrainian forces here have been locked in an eight-year war with Russians and the separatists.

But since Russia invaded on February 24, Moscow is no longer pretending its soldiers arent there, so its troops can unleash unprecedented levels of firepower.

Salatenko, a veteran of the eight-year Donbas wars, says he is prepared for a long conflict. He is scathing of those who call for a ceasefire, arguing history would only repeat itself. He says Putin was emboldened after 2014 and the world cant let that happen again.

If we have a ceasefire, in a couple of years its going to be the same  even more inhumanity. We just need to win this war  because they [Russia] are going to kill us all.

One of his soldiers, Botnik, 48, rests in a bunker after an all-night shift on watch.

A month ago, a Grad missile fired by the enemy landed right next to his bed.

It didnt explode, so we were lucky, Botnik says. So we took the thing away and that was it.

Zoya Shaposhnik stayed behind to care for her disabled husband, and has compassion for those suffering on both sides of the conflict. Credit:Kate Geraghty

Back in Krasnohorivka, 67-year-old Zoya Shaposhnik stays to care for her disabled husband. Their children live in Russia. There is a hole in the roof above them, from an artillery strike the day before.

I only fell and was hit by some kind of shrapnel or something. When I rose up I saw the smoke, the roof caught fire, she says. During the last week these attacks are happening quite often. Our troops fire and the Russians answer.

Civilians and soldiers on both sides suffer in this horrible war, she says.

I have relatives on the opposite side. That is why I pity them both, she says.

Its proving difficult to create safe pathways to evacuate the wounded.

Many are rescued on a medical evacuation train out of Pokrovsk, organised by Medecins Sans Frontieres.

Viktor Teslenko, 57, lost his left arm when an artillery shell exploded next to his house in the village of Mykolaivka five days ago. He was on the balcony and couldnt make it back before his arm was torn apart by flying shrapnel.

There were no soldiers there, no military targets, he says, as he boards the train with his wife Svitlana.

Pokrovsk station master Iryna Serdyuk, left, is comforted by a Medecins Sans Frontieres staffer. Credit:Kate Geraghty

As patients are loaded onto the train, the stations manager Iryna Serdyuk, 57, is overcome with sadness and falls into the arms of one of the medical volunteers.

Ive been working here in this station for 33 years, she says. It is really sad to see all these wounded people arrive here. But what can I do except do what I must?

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What does the word "epiphany" mean to you? What about "Epiphany", with a capital E? Those are a couple of the questions that the guests of an unusual dinner party discuss in Brian Watkins's bizarre and altogether hilarious new play Epiphany, now running at Lincoln Center's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater under the fine-tuned direction of Tyne Rafaeli.

These aren't the only questions that get asked in this existential comedy about the modern world's obsessions with technology, human isolation and loneliness, the commodification of emotions, and the sense of loss that results from overabundance. Fortunately, Watkins knows how to spread these ideas out to keep things from getting tediously heady; and the magical presence of Marylouise Burke, who tirelessly flies about the stage like a flock of wild birds, elicits a laugh at every turn along with a terrific cast who pull the comic out of this American gothic.

You'll understand what I mean by gothic when you see John Lee Beatty's impressive House of Usher-like set  the shadowy parlor of an old mansion with a long, steep staircase rising high into flies (eerie lighting by Isabella Byrd, accompanied by Daniel Kluger's ominous music and sounds, lends the scene the aura of a ghost story). This is the home of the elderly Morkan (Burke), eccentrically dressed in billowy sweatpants and silk blouse (costumes by Montana Levi Blanco). She's throwing a dinner party for a group of friends she hasn't seen in years (though most of the guests don't know each other). Snow gently falls outside as twentysomething Loren (Colby Minifie) greets them at the door.

Among them are klutzy drunk Freddy (C.J. Wilson), anxious pianist Kelly (Heather Burns), loud-talking lawyer Charlie (Francois Battiste), officious psychiatrist Sam (Omar Metwally), his wine-swilling partner, Taylor (David Ryan Smith), and dear old friend Ames (Jonathan Hadary). Amid a raucous, confused discussion about what the holiday of Epiphany (January 6) is all about and why Morkan has assembled a bunch of strangers together, the mysterious Aran (Carmen Zilles) arrives in place of the evening's guest of honor, Gabriel, a writer who has sunk into a depression and unfortunately will not make it. "He's lost his hope," Aran says, as the others stand silent.

Carmen Zilles, C.J. Wilson, Marylouise Burke, Colby Minifie, Omar Metwally (seated), David Ryan Smith, Francois Battiste, and Jonathan Hadary in Epiphany. Set design by John Lee Beatty.

( Jeremy Daniel)

Epiphany is full of odd mood shifts like that, which tug us back and forth between the "real" world and the uncanny in the way that the plays of Annie Baker do. Watkins leaves us swimming in a dark pool of timelessness in which the past and present often blend  "We're in a time machine," says Charlie when he's told that the main course for dinner will be goose.

This is no accident: Those who are familiar with James Joyce's story "The Dead," which also deals with a dinner party that takes place on Epiphany (and which also features a goose), will recognize the names Morkan, Freddy, Gabriel, and others. But there's a gulf between the characters in Joyce's story, who would have known the traditional meaning of that holiday, and Watkins's characters, who do not. "How on earth does a holiday die?" asks Morkan. "We changed, ya know, the holiday didn't change, but we did."

So what about us has changed? One of the pleasures of this play is watching its characters fumble about for an answer to that question, which no one specifically asks but everyone feels, especially when Morkan demands that the guests lock their cellphones in a suitcase during dinner and talk to one another. While the conversation turns from Empiricism to the reduction of human behavior to algorithms, Burke, in a role that seems as though it was written just for her, gives an unflagging performance as Morkan and keeps things light with her impeccable comic timing (not to mention her remarkable endurance running up and down those stairs!).

Wilson, Smith, and Burns add to the hilarity with their off-hand quips and over-the-top antics. Battiste and Metwally subtly poke fun at the self-importance of their characters' professions, while Hadary takes center stage later in the play (two hours, no intermission) in a moving scene in which a song (beautifully sung by Zilles) reminds Ames of a childhood memory that shocks him back into the past  an epiphany with a lowercase e.

Throughout this curious play, laughter mingles with mystery and unanswered questions: Why has Aran been standing alone over there by the piano all this time? Why do the lights keep dimming unexpectedly? Has something catastrophic happened in the outside world when all the cellphones start buzzing inside that suitcase? We never learn the answers, and it seems we're not meant to. That last question, however, has an eerily prophetic ring as we ponder the new significance of the date January 6. We have changed, as Morkan observes, and we've never been more in need of a holiday.
2 Dozen States to Restrict Abortions After Supreme Court Overturns Roe v. Wade

More than two dozen states will move to restrict abortions following the Supreme Courts Friday ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

The Guttmacher Institute, a research group, says that 13 states have trigger laws that bar most abortions that will take effect immediately after the ruling Friday. They are Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.

Five more states had respective bans on abortion from the time before the Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973. They include Alabama, Arizona, Michigan, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Georgia, Iowa, Ohio, and South Carolina, according to the Institute, have laws that ban abortions after the 6-week mark. Those laws will be revisited after the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Meanwhile, the legislatures of Florida, Indiana, Montana, and Nebraska appear likely to ban abortion based on previous and current efforts, the group says.

Overall, 26 of 50 U.S. states are likely or certain to ban abortion after the ruling was handed down Friday, the Institute says.

Beyond the 26 states certain or likely to attempt to ban abortion immediately, other states have demonstrated hostility toward abortion by adopting multiple restrictions in the past, but are not likely to ban abortion in the near future. Notably, North Carolina has a pre-Roe abortion ban in place, but it is unclear if the states law would be implemented quickly. However, this analysis may change in the next few years, according to the institutes website.

The Center for Reproductive Rights, a pro-abortion group, estimates that 25 states are likely to ban abortion. That group believes that Montana, Iowa, and Florida will notbut that North Carolina and Pennsylvania will.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, in an opinion for the majority Friday, wrote that Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 decision that reaffirmed Roe, was incorrect on the day it was decided and must be overturned. The authority to regulate abortion doesnt rest in the court system, he argued, adding that only legislatures have that power.

We therefore hold that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. Roe and Casey must be overruled, and the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives, Alito wrote.

Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett joined Alito. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that he would have stopped short in ending Roe, adding that he would have upheld the Mississippi law at the heart of the case.

Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor dissented.

With sorrowfor this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protectionwe dissent, they said in their opinion.
2020 Election Fraud Case in Pennsylvania County Progresses: Plaintiffs Attorney

One of the lawyers on a lawsuit alleging election fraud in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, during the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election cycle says the case is progressing forward, as a court recently assigned a judge to the case.

Stefanie Lambert told The Epoch Times on Tuesday that the lawsuit, alleging election fraud and evidence destruction, is progressing forward as Judge John Whelan from the Delaware Court of Common Pleas was assigned to the case last week. Lambert is one of the two attornies representing the plaintiffs of the case.

Defendants intentionally and fraudulently conspired to and did destroy, delete, secrete, and hide November 3, 2020, election data, materials, and equipment to prevent discovery of election fraud and election law violations in Delaware County, which the Defendants also conspired to commit and did commit while carrying out the November 3, 2020 election, the lawsuit stated.

Lambert called the lawsuit the steal-and-conceal case, which alleges that the defendants conspired to cheat by fabricating election data in the 2020 election and destroyed relevant evidence afterward.

Pennsylvania is one of the states in which Bidens win was contested during the 2020 election cycle. High-profile lawsuitsincluding Texas v. Pennsylvania, which was dismissed by the Supreme Court for lack of standingalleged widespread election fraud in favor of then-candidate Joe Biden in Pennsylvania.

Key Parties

The lawsuit was launched by Ruth Moton, who ran as a Republican for the states House in the 2020 election race, and Pennsylvania residents Leah Hoopes and Gregory Stenstrom.

Hoopes and Strenstrom provided testimony, along with former New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani, during the November 2020 Gettysburg election fraud hearing held by the Pennsylvania Senate Majority Policy Committee. Stenstrom was a Republican poll watcher in Delaware County during the 2020 election and wrote about several violations of the Election Code that he observed.

The accused include former Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, former official United Steelworkers union and 2020 election voting machine warehouse supervisor James Savage, and others who were involved in the Delaware County elections administration during the 2020 election.

Ballard Spahr, the law firm representing the accused, represented Bidens 2020 campaign in Pennsylvania and Arizona during the election fraud lawsuits in late 2020, according to the lawsuit. The law firm also sought to prosecute Cyber Ninjas during the 2021 Arizona election audit.

Lamberts team is demanding a jury trial.

Election Fraud Allegations

According to Lambert, the lawsuit alleges that the defendants have conspired to commitand did commitelection fraud in the 2020 election.

The Delaware County Election Board members  certified the Delaware County vote with a one-way hearing knowing election data was missing or altered, the lawsuit alleges.

One of the key pieces of evidence to prove this, according to Lambert, was revealed by a Right-to-Know filing in May 2021 requesting access to records, called election return sheets, from each of the 428 precincts in Pennsylvania, per the Right to Know Law in Pennsylvania.

According to the plaintiffs, Howards Right-to-Know request revealed how Delaware had certified the 2020 election on Nov. 24, 2020three weeks after election dayeven though more than half of the precincts were missing the necessary information to determine accurate election results at the time.

Additional evidence includes video obtained from whistleblowers working at the election office showing manipulation of voting information, witness testimonies, and documentary evidence.

We have evidence on every defendant, the conspiracy, all the fraud was committed in the election, the cover-up, Lambert said.

Delaware County was the last county in Pennsylvania to submit its vote count. Before Delaware County submitted its vote totals, Trump was leading by 7,515 votes, according to the lawsuits. Delawares votes included 87,527 mail-in votes in favor of Biden and 20,402 for Trump. Pennsylvania certified the 2020 election with Biden winning by 80,555 votes.

Evidence Spoliation Allegations

The prosecution additionally alleges that the defendants spoiled evidence, including ballots, voting records, and hard drives, after receiving the Right-to-Know request.

Moreover, when a May 21, 2021 Right to Know (RTK) request for election information and data was made with respect to information that is to be kept and preserved under state and federal law, the Defendants fraudulently and intentionally deleted, changed, adulterated, manipulated, and/or obscured the information, data, and materials produced in response to the RTK request in order to hide their fraud and election code violations, the lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit presents numerous data that allegedly show evidence of a conspiracy to destroy election data.

The evidence presented includes videos featuring Delaware County employeesThomas Gallagher, Jim Savage, and James Ziegelhofferwho were discussing means to destroy 2020 election data in a video recorded by a whistleblower who worked alongside them.

At this point, I dont want anybody to pick it up, and thinking we threw stuff away, Gallagher appears to say in the video.

Were going to have a little campfire going, Ziegelhoffer replies.

States law requires election documents to be kept for two years.

We cant talk about it anymore, said another defendant, Jim Savage, in another video in which the employees were allegedly talking about destroying voting hardware. Its a felony.

They knew that they could not reconcile the previously fraudulently reported November 3, 2020 election results with the actual responsive information that they had in their possession, the lawsuit reads, and which they were required to preserve and produce in response to the Right to Know request, as well as in compliance with state and federal law.

The plaintiffs of the lawsuit are seeking a protective court order enjoining the defendants from further destroying or altering any voting or election-related data, as well as allowing the plaintiffs to have access to all voting-related hardware and software in the 2020 election.

Despite the narrative propagated by mainstream media that most election fraud cases do not have standing, Lambert said that she is confident her teams case has strong standing, as one of the plaintiffs was a candidate on the ballot during the 2020 election.

Should the court decide that the case can proceed, the court can order the defendants to hand over any relevant data relating to the election fraud accusations during the discovery phase, which they can use during the trial, Lambert told The Epoch Times.

Were ready for trial, Lambert said.
4 Inmates Who Escaped Federal Prison Camp Back in Custody

HOPEWELL, Va.All four inmates who escaped a minimum-security prison satellite camp in Virginia over the weekend are now back in custody, the U.S. Marshals Service and Federal Bureau of Prisons announced Wednesday.

The inmates were discovered missing from the satellite camp of the Federal Correctional Complex Petersburg in Hopewell, Virginia, around 1:45 a.m. Saturday, the bureau said in a news release Saturday.

Tavaraes Lajuane Graham, Corey Branch, Lamonte Rashawn Willis, and Kareem Allen Shaw left the minimum security camp around 10 p.m. Friday and it was a couple of hours before their absence was detected, Senior Inspector Kevin Connolly of the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force said.

Graham returned to the camp and surrendered early Sunday and Branch and Shaw surrendered Tuesday, officials said. Willis surrendered at Petersburgs medium security facility on Wednesday, officials said.

Bureau officials did not release any details about the escape but said Saturday that an internal investigation has been initiated. According to the bureaus website, its minimum-security satellite camps have dormitory housing and limited or no perimeter fencing. They provide inmate labor to the main institution and to off-site work programs.

The U.S. Marshals Service and the bureau continue to investigate and will relay findings to the U.S. Attorneys Office in Richmond, Connolly said in a statement.

Graham, 44, was sentenced in the Eastern District of North Carolina to 10 years for possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine and 28 grams or more of cocaine base, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

Branch, 41, was sentenced in the Eastern District of Virginia to more than 13 years for possession with intent to distribute fentanyl and felon in possession of a firearm.

Willis, 30, was sentenced in the Eastern District of Virginia to 18 years for possessing and concealing a stolen firearm and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Shaw, 46, was sentenced in the Western District of Virginia to more than 16 years for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a measurable quantity of heroin.
Members of the Mexican Army stand guard at the site where four police officers and eight alleged members of the organized crime were killed, and six others were wounded, in a confrontation in El Salto, Jalisco state, Mexico, on June 23, 2022. (Ulises Ruiz/AFP via Getty Images)

4 Police, up to 8 Suspects Killed in Western Mexico

MEXICO CITYFour police in western Mexico are dead after they were drawn into an ambush-style shooting late Wednesday.

Luis Joaquin Mendez, the chief prosecutor of the western state of Jalisco, said four municipal policemen in the city of El Salto responded to a call about armed men at a house. Once they arrived, a woman answered the door and told them nothing was wrong.

But the gunmen inside used the opportunity to open fire on the police, some of whom were dragged into the home and killed.

Ricardo Santillan, the police chief of El Salto, called the shootings a cowardly act.

Gov. Enrique Alfaro wrote that police reinforcements later showed up and engaged in a shootout with the suspects, killing eight of them and wounding three.
Children from a Kid Castle Educational Institute branch in the local community complex, Vanke Golden Joy Town, in Xi'an City, Shaanxi, are treated for symptoms of foodborne poisoning in the week of June 19, 2022. (Provided by an interviewee)

A Xian Kindergarten Suspected of Destroying Evidence After Nearly 200 Children Suffered Food Poisoning

Nearly 200 children attending a kindergarten in Xian suffered symptoms of foodborne poisoning. Some were hospitalized for nearly a week.

The children had similar symptoms of high fever, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea that persisted for many days. Local authorities suspected it was Salmonella contamination that caused the illness.

Parents who talked to the Chinese edition of The Epoch Times on June 23 accused the kindergarten of destroying any evidence by disinfecting the facility.

Persistent Fever and Diarrhea

The incident took place at a Kid Castle Educational Institute branch in the local community complex, Vanke Golden Joy Town, in Xian City, Shaanxi Province in northwest China.

One parent said that more than 500 children attend the institute. Nearly 200 of them developed symptoms of food poisoning on June 17 and were taken to hospital. Some were still hospitalized as of June 23.

One father, Chen Yunming, said that many children started showing similar symptoms on June 18. Members of a parents chat group were alerted when they realized that so many of their children were sick at home at the same time.

Yang Ping, a mother, said that her child has had a fever since the 18th, along with diarrhea and vomiting. I had to take my babys temperature every half hour throughout the night to make sure her temperature was going down. This morning my baby started coughing.

The doctor said my child had acute gastroenteritis, Wu Guoli said.

His childs fever started at 3 a.m. on Saturday, the doctor at the childrens hospital said it was an upper respiratory tract infection; at noon, they went to hospital Emergency department because the child had stomach pain and diarrhea, the doctor diagnosed it as acute gastroenteritis.

People Suspect the School of Destroying Evidence

Yang said that 15 children in her childs class of 33 were sick on the 19th, while many more new cases were reported on the 22nd. Parents discerned that 180 children had the same symptoms.

In severe cases, some children had bloody stools and even went into a coma. Two parents reported their child had a fever of 103.6 F and 105.8 F respectively.

Some children were seriously ill, but It took three to four hours just to wait outside the E.R., said Wu.

Local media also reported this incident. According to Chinese news, one child had 49 bowel movements in about four days.

On the evening of June 19, the angry parents visited the institute and found the staff of the local education bureau also inside the facility.

Yang said, I wanted to know what they had fed my baby. Its an expensive kindergarten, $4,500 a year. But, what have they done to my child?

The parents again tried to get an answer from the institute on the 22nd. But the facility claimed that diarrhea was caused by heat stroke.

Yang said that the neighborhood saw what the institute was doing. She said that they destroyed all evidence in the dining hall.

But all the sick children are the evidence, Yang said.

Chen also said that the institute had already disinfected the facility on Friday and Saturday. The sanitary conditions at the facility were also changed after the incident.

A father picking up his daughter from kindergarten. (STR/AFP/GettyImages)

Hard to Get An Answer

According to the parents, the affected children ranged from preschool, pre-kindergarten, and kindergarten levels.

It was reported that the authorities examination found a correlation between the symptoms and the lab tests, and believe it was an infection of Salmonella.

After the incident, the institute was closed for rest of the week.

On June 23, The Epoch Times called the institute. The staff member who answered the phone claimed to be a new hire who knew nothing about the situation, and said that the institute was awaiting official notification from the authorities.

A staff at the propaganda department of the local education bureau took down the reporters information and said that the relevant information will be released after the reporters identity was confirmed.

According to a Tianyachan.com report, the institute was founded on Jan. 31, 2018, as a private non-enterprise entity, that is, a people run business not for profit. The registration of the institute expired on May 30, 2022.

Chinese media also reported that there are surveillance cameras inside the facility, but the videos are not available to the parents.

Interviewees have been given pseudonyms to prevent reprisal from the Chinese regime.

Gu Qinger and Gu Xiaohua contributed to this report.
An Issue of National Importance: 23 AGs Write to SCOTUS Supporting Falun Gong Practitioners

Twenty-three attorneys general across the United States filed an amicus brief (pdf) supporting a petition made by Falun Gong practitioners in a high-profile religious freedom case before the Supreme Court.

The AGs called for the highest court to reverse a lower court decision that was wrong on an issue of national importance that stands at the center of our constitutional tradition, according to a press release from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxtons office on Wednesday.

The lawsuit was filed in 2015 by 13 residents of New Yorks Flushing, a majority-Chinese neighborhood, against the Chinese Anti-Cult World Alliance (CACWA) in a bid to stop what they described as a six-year-long campaign that targeted them with beatings, harassment, and death threats in their community.

The complaint (pdf) describes around 40 incidents of threats or physical assault against them for participating in parades representing Falun Gong, handing out flyers about Falun Gong, or managing a booth with Falun Gong-related literature. With respect to one incident in July 2011, two plaintiffs describe in graphic detail an attack by Li Huahong, head of CACWA. According to both witnesses, a mob of 20 to 30 people then surrounded the two Falun Gong practitioners. One of them was held there for about 30 minutes until the police arrived, while the mob yelled kill her and beat her to death.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks at CPAC at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas, Texas, on July 11, 2021. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

In this case, a religious group known as the Falun Gong, which originated in China, experienced persecution and harassment on American soil, Paxton said.

The Falun Gong practitioners sued under federal and state law, including one claim that asserted that they were victims of threats or acts of violence intended to chill their First Amendment right to free religious worship, the Texas AG added. As the lead counsel noted, several other claims will proceed to trial regardless of whether or not the Supreme Court grants certiorari.

The AGs are joined by Texas-based First Liberty Institute, John D. Inazu, professor of law and religion at the Washington University in St. Louis, and Washington-based nonprofit law firm Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.

Falun Gong is a spiritual practice consisting of meditative exercises and moral teachings centered on the tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. It became widely popular in China in the 1990s. In 1999, the communist regime, perceiving that popularity to be a threat, began a nationwide persecution targeting the practice and its adherents.

Millions of practitioners have since been held in detention centers, jails, and labor camps across China, where they are subject to physical torture, forced labor, and forced organ harvesting.

An Issue of National Importance

The AGs, in their amicus brief, said the ruling of a lower court dismissing the case is wrong on an issue of national importance that stands at the center of our constitutional traditionnamely, religious liberty.

Americas commitment to religious freedom is essential, the AGs said. It constitutes one of our most treasured and jealously guarded constitutional rights.

The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act makes it a federal crime for anyone, by force or threat of force or by physical obstruction, to injure, intimidate, or interfere with any person lawfully exercising or seeking to exercise religious freedom at a place of religious worship.

But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York denied the plaintiffs the statutes protection by narrowly interpreting the term place of religious worship as places primarily devoted to religious worship activity.

In doing so, the court unduly narrowed a statute meant to bar the worst acts of violence in many of Americas sacred places, the attorney generals said. Paxton stated that the lower courts decision had resulted in insufficient protection of Falun Gongs religious liberty.

Petitioners are exactly the sort of worshippers one might expect to find safety in a statute like this. They practice Falun Gong, which places them in the third-largest group of those suffering freedom-of-religion or freedom-of-belief restrictions worldwide, the AGs said in the amicus brief, citing an April 2022 report by the U.S. Commission On International Religious Freedom.

According to Minghui.org, a U.S.-based website documenting the persecution of Falun Gong, there were nearly 6,000 arrests and 10,527 harassment cases in 2021 targeting adherents of the faith in China.

The group started in China under a Communist regime hostile to religious pluralism, the AGs said. Many Falun Gong practitioners have thus fled to America. Yet even after coming here, Petitioners allegedly continue to face persecution and abuse from Communist sympathizers.

Erping Zhang, a spokesperson at the Falun Dafa Information Center, said the Chinese Communist Party could not be more wrong for assuming it can trample on religious liberty in America.

Religious liberty is fundamental to a free America. The Chinese Communist Party assumes it can trample on this sacred right of Americans with its overseas religious persecution campaigns, he told The Epoch Times. But it could not be more wrong.

With the support of 23 attorney generals across the United States and several other high-quality briefs, the Supreme Court may agree to hear the case. Apart from that, we believe that the American legal system will deliver rightful justice in the end and protect fundamental American interests, Zhang added.

The AGs who filed the amicus brief are from West Virginia, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia.

Gary Bai Follow Gary Bai is a reporter for Epoch Times Canada, covering China and U.S. news.
Berberine is found in plants such as barberry, red wine, and tumeric. (Pixabay)

Ancient Herbal Supplement Shows Promise Against Cancer

Berberines effect on lung cancer has just been published in the journal Pharmaceutics, showing potent anticancer activity in a study that crosses the divide between Eastern and Western medicine.

While the natural compound found in plants such as turmeric and barberry has been used in traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine for thousands of years, it has yet to be widely used in clinics, according to Kamal Dua, an Australian-Indian scientist from the University of Technology, Sydney.

All that historical and ancient knowledge of the medicinal plant, [has been] known by people for ages but has never been translated in the clinic, lead researcher and senior pharmacy lecturer Dua told The Epoch Times.

Modern medicine focuses greatly on diseases, and medical students spend many years in school studying the body in a diseased state and the diseases themselves, whereas, in traditional and ancient medicinal practices, using food as medicine is one of the main pillars.

We all possess both yin (cold/water) and yang (hot/fire) energies to varying degrees.(norikko/Shutterstock)

From all the Ayurvedic medicines and indigenous medicinal plants he examined, he found the plant compound berberine to be the most surprising, demonstrating impressive effects against lung cancer.

The researchers spanning Ireland (Ronan MacLoughlin), Australia (Prof. Brian Oliver, Prof. Phil Hansbro, Keshav Raj Paudel and Bikash Manandhar), Saudi Arabia (Abdullah Alnuqaydan and Abdulmajeed Almutary) and India (Sachin Kumar Singh and Prof. Monica Gulati) found that berberine stops the growth of tumour cells in lung cancer, the worlds leading cause of cancer-related deaths, with around 1.8 million deaths reported annually.

This is possible by inhibition of key genes and proteins associated with cancer cell proliferation and migration, he explained.

An earlier study he led found that berberine could also reduce inflammation and damage to healthy lung cells from cigarette smoke.

How to Take Berberine

Berberine can be found in a variety of plants, such as goldenseal, goldthread, Oregon grape, Phellodendron, and Coptis chinensis, a species of goldthread flowering plant native to China.

It can be taken as directed on the package or you can discuss your options with a trusted healthcare professional and monitor its effectiveness over time.

Dua notes that the benefits of the supplement have been limited by its lack of ability to dissolve in water and be absorbed in the gut, as well as toxicity at higher doses. Digestive side effects including diarrhea, constipation, flatulence and abdominal pain have been reported.

Berberine being delivered in liquid crystalline nanoparticles. (Adobe Stock)

To overcome these challenges, the research team has developed a novel method of using liquid crystalline nanoparticles to safely and effectively encapsulate small doses of berberine inside.

It means the patient does not have to take multiple doses. It also has fewer side effects compared to the various other chemical-based drugs, he said.

Dr. Osita Onugha, thoracic surgeon and assistant professor of thoracic surgery at Saint Johns Cancer Institute at Providence Saint Johns Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, told Medical News Today that it is promising when researchers find new options for cancer treatment and prevention from the East.

Berberine is part of Eastern medicine, and so its not something that we traditionally use in Western medicine. I think its interesting and intriguing because were looking at things [we] know have some benefit in Eastern medicine, [and are putting them] into a study to help translate it to Western medicine, Onugha said.

Its always promising, but it is in a lab and a lot of things we find in a lab do not necessarily translate to the treatment of patients, Onugha continued.

The next step in this discovery is to move towards pre-clinical studies followed by clinical trials to explore its real therapeutic potential to make it reach clinics.

The Future of Berberine

Dua is now working closely with Sydney-based companies to do further research and deliver these nanoparticles to the bedside.

Its success will lead to the team looking at it being used for other illnesses, even Alzheimers, Dua said.

We are now we are testing the same thing on other respiratory diseases like asthma and also on pulmonary fibrosis because inflammation is a common condition in every disease, he said.

Inflammation happens in every disease whether it is a brain, gut, or lung, and berberine has clearly shown that it is reducing the inflammation. When it is reducing the inflammation it may also have the potential to work in various other disease states, neurodegenerative diseases, and maybe in other gastrointestinal diseases.
Screenshot from virtual meeting where Jann-Michael Greenburg admits to using the name "Mark Greenburg" when on his computer. (Patricia Tolson/The Epoch Times)

Arizona Attorney General Sues School Board, Former President Over Alleged Violation of Open Meeting Law

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich is taking legal action against the Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD) Governing Board and its former president, claiming they violated the states open meeting law by restricting public comments on a mask-mandate proposal in August 2021.

Brnovich filed the 13-page civil suit in Maricopa County Superior Court on June 20.

The lawsuit accuses the board and then-president Jann-Michael Greenburg of knowingly applying unauthorized content-based restrictions on public comment made during a board meeting on April 17, 2021, and knowingly cutting off or otherwise interrupting speakers during a call to the public.

According to the suit, on Aug. 17 the SUSD board held a virtual meeting to discuss the districts instructional time model for 2021-22 and whether to require masks for students and staff. The board decided to discuss both topics separately.

At the end of the meeting, Greenburg informed the public he would terminate any comment that he deemed to stray too far from the instructional time model discussion.

By doing this, the suit claims the board imposed content restrictions on the public, a violation of state open meeting law.

On Aug. 23, 2021, the board held another public meeting on the proposed instructional time model. The suit claims only two public members offered comments, likely because of the content restrictions.

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich speaks at a news conference in Phoenix, Ariz., on Jan. 7, 2020. (Bob Christie/AP Photo)

The AGs office received complaints about how the board conducted both meetings after the Aug. 23 meeting.

By applying content-based restrictions, including about a proposed mask mandate, the board did not hold an open call to the public body,  the suit states.

It alleges the board purposely bifurcated the agenda for the Aug. 17, 2021 meeting to avoid allowing public comment on a proposed mask mandate and other items listed on the agenda under the special meeting. 

The suit contends that on Aug. 24, 2021, Greenburg violated the open meeting law by interrupting a public member during public comment who voiced concern that the district was making inappropriate materials available to students.

Greenburg interrupted the parents comments to claim that the comments were not true and to attempt to explain why. The parent correctly explained to Greenburg that he is not permitted to interrupt public comments, the suit states.

The suit references a video in which Greenburg concluded his remarks with, Jesus [expletive] Christ people!

Based on these actions, the suit requests the court prohibit the district from using public funds to provide legal services for Greenburg.

It seeks in addition to impose a civil penalty on Greenburg in the maximum amount allowed under the law, and an order containing appropriate measures to prevent further violations of the open meeting law or removing Greenburg from office.

Amanda and Daniel Wray of Scottsdale, Ariz., say their private information was found in an alleged online dossier that Jann-Michael Greenburg, former president of the Scottsdale Unified School District Governing Board, and his father allegedly had kept on parents who opposed certain board policies. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)

However, Greenburgs legal troubles dont end with the AGs filing.

On May 5, three parents in the SUSD filed a lawsuit claiming Greenburg kept an electronic dossier on them that they believe violated their constitutional rights.

The suit alleges Greenburg kept reams of public and private information on the parents and outspoken critics of the proposed mask mandate.

Greenburgs father, Mark Greenburg, and his wife, Dagmar Greenburg, are also named in the suit.

In November 2021, the board demoted Jann-Michael to board member in connection with the Google Drive dossier.

Greenburg and current board president Julie Cieniawski could not immediately be reached for comment.
A foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Australia would trigger export bans and have severe economic consequences for Australias livestock producers. (Australia's Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment)

Australia Opens Molecular Lab in Timor-Leste to Combat Exotic Animal Diseases

A portable molecular lab that will be used to detect exotic animal diseases and biosecurity threats has opened in Timor-Leste following a seven-year joint project between Australia and the Timorese government.

Created in partnership between Agriculture Victoria and Timor-Lestes Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, the purpose-built lab aims to equip Timorese vets with resources to sample suspect animals and provide a diagnosis before the disease can spread.

Speaking at an opening ceremony in Timor-Lestes capital, Dili, Australian Ambassador Bill Costello said the molecular lab would enable the two neighbouring countries to work closely on biosecurity issues.

A portable molecular lab developed by AgVic was opened today in Timor-Leste. Supported by AgVic researchers and @dfat it will help quickly diagnose and detect animal diseases, providing an early warning of threats to Australian agriculture.@of_leste #biosecurity pic.twitter.com/YDV7Kg2wi6  Agriculture Victoria (@VicGovAg) June 17, 2022

Biosecurity is becoming of increasing concern about our countries given that global spread of diseases such as African Swine Fever (ASF), Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), and Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD), Costello said on June 17, reported Tatoli news.

I am glad that the Australian government has been able to support Timor-Leste in its response to ASF (African Swine Flu) through the program developed by Agriculture Victoria, Costello said, adding that the AU$1.3 million (US$897.6 million) project that was funded by Australias Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade will be delivered between 2022 and 2023.

Agriculture Victoria research director Brendan Rodoni said the project was also providing a valuable first-hand experience for Victorian scientists in diagnosing diseases that are not found in Australia.

This helps us to build skills and capacity in exotic disease surveillance and diagnosis, so we are better prepared if there was an outbreak in Australia, Rodoni said in a statement.

Grant Rawlin, Agriculture Victoria researcher and professor, added that the molecular lab will utilise the test called a qPCRmeaning real-time polymerase chain reaction that monitors targeted DNA moleculeswhich can be used to test any viruses or bacteria causing diseases in animals.

Timor-Lestes Minister of Agriculture, and Fisheries, Pedro dos Reis, thanked the Australian Government for supporting his country with the Molecular Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (MVDL).

The MVDL will support the [Agriculture and Fisheries ministry], especially in improving Timor-Leste animal health service, Reis said.

Concerns About Biosecurity in Australia

According to Australias Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, invasive species have been, and continue to be, hugely damaging to Australias unique ecosystems.

Vice President of the National Farmers Federation, David Jochinke, said currently, Australias livestock and support sectors are working hard to prevent the possible incursion of Foot and Mouth Disease and/or Lumpy Skin Disease, which have been detected in Indonesian cattle.

Government and industry are supporting our regional neighbours in the containment of both diseases and in the safeguarding our sector should there be an incursion on home soil, Jochinke said in a message to new Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Minister, Senator Murray Watt at the first industry Ministerial roundtable in Canberra on June 21.

Biosecurity isnt a catchy word, but its an issue all Australians have a vested interest in. Significant incursions will not just impact agricultural value chains and market access, but will have an impact across the whole economy, Jochinke added.

We need to do better than tackling problems at the point of crisis. We must finalise the National Biosecurity Strategy and deliver the investment required to strengthen our system, Jochinke said.

In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on June 5, Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Minister Senator Murray Watt said the federal Labor government took biosecurity seriously.

All of the discussions I had relating to agriculture with members of the sector even before I took on the portfolio, biosecurity always rated very highly as a priority, Watt said.

But when asked whether federal Labor would provide new funding for biosecurity, Watt said that we havent committed to do that at this stage.

[O]bviously thats something Id need to talk about with my Ministerial colleagues, but its very clear to me that this is a huge threat to our industry.

Foot and Mouth Disease

Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious viral disease of livestock, causing fever followed by the development of vesicles (blisters) chiefly in the mouth and on the feet, often affecting cloven-hoofed animals such as cattle, buffalo, sheep and goats.

Currently, Australia is free from FMD, according to a government statement.

In May 2022, an outbreak of the virus was reported in cattle in Indonesia.

In 2001, a Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak in the UK caused losses of more than 8 billion pounds ($AU19 billion).

Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) modelling projects a widespread FMD outbreak in Australia would have an estimated direct economic impact of around $80 billion.
Doctors and nurses of the Lady Ridgeway Children's hospital hold placards during a silent demonstration against shortages of medicines in Colombo on April 19, 2022. (Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP via Getty Images)

Australia Provides Aid to Sri Lanka Amidst Worst Crisis in 70 Years

Australia will provide Sri Lanka with $50 million (US$34.5 million) dollars of development assistance to help meet urgent food and healthcare needs as it battles its worst economic crisis in 70 years.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia would immediately provide $22 million to the World Food Programme for emergency assistanceproviding food for three million people in Sri Lankaand a further $23 million to support health services and the economic recovery.

Sri Lanka currently faces its worst economic crisis in seventy years, leading to shortages of food, medicine and fuel,  Wong said. Australia has a close and long-standing relationship with Sri Lanka. Not only do we want to help the people of Sri Lanka in its time of need, there are also deeper consequences for the region if this crisis continues.

These contributions are in addition to $5 million recently provided by Australia to United Nations agencies after the United Nations began worldwide appeal on June 9, which has so far garnered US$47.2 million of aid to the Asian nation.

Sri Lankan Economy Facing Complete Collapse

News of the financial aid comes after Sri Lankas new Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told Parliament on June 22 that the country faced collapse.

We are now facing a far more serious situation beyond the mere shortages of fuel, gas, electricity, and food. Our economy has faced a complete collapse, he said.

It is no easy task to revive a country with a completely collapsed economy, especially one that is dangerously low on foreign reserves.

Sri Lanka is currently in discussions with India, China, and Japan for loan packages to help boost the countrys foreign reserves but Wickremesinghe said there were challenges because each country had its own system for granting loans.

We are working towards resolving these and fostering friendly relations once again, he said.

The government also will seek help from the United States, with representatives from the U.S. Treasury Department visiting Sri Lanka next week.

Thousands of Sri Lankans have taken to the streets to protest the governments mishandling of the countrys economic crisis, leading to the resignation of then-Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on May 9.

The countrys unprecedented economic crisis has left millions of its people in need of life-saving aid, with the severe shortages of essential medicines and frequent power cuts jeopardizing the countrys health care system.

Sri Lanka a Lesson to the World on Food Shortage Risks

The collapse of Sri Lankas economy comes as the world deals with grain and fertiliser shortages, as well as soaring fuel prices as a result of the Ukraine-Russian conflict.

Matt Dalgliesh from Thomas Elder Markets previously told The Epoch Times that countries like Sri Lanka are in a precarious position.

He warned that developing countries could easily see mass instability and civil disobedience erupt, especially economies like Sri Lanka where there is a heavy reliance on imported food and goods.

Countries that are on [Australias] doorstep, like Indonesia that have got a huge population striving for self-sufficiency in terms of their food security they could have issues, but we have got countries probably further away in the Middle East and North African areas  that are susceptible to food insecurity, he said.

Some of those developing countries that are less food secure, that rely on a lot of meat imports, where the consumer can spend 50 to 60 percent of their income on food-related matters, the risk of food insecurity is far more significant and the model what it leads to is like what we are seeing in Sri Lanka.

Aldgra Fredly contributed to this report.
Boris Johnson May Face Another Confidence Vote, 1922 Committee Treasurer Hints

Prime Minister Boris Johnson could face another confidence vote as the treasurer of the powerful committee representing Tory backbenchers hinted at rule change in the wake of a double by-election defeat.

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said on Friday that Johnson would have to convince Conservative MPs that he shouldnt be replaced.

After a number of missteps including the handling of payment for the refurbishment of his Downing Street flat and the Owen Paterson suspension that culminated in the Partygate saga, Johnson narrowly survived a confidence vote earlier this month with 41 percent of Parliamentary Conservative Party members rebelling against him.

Johnsons survival meant another confidence vote couldnt be triggered within a year, but after the Conservative Partys lost two seats last nightto Labour in Wakefield and to the Liberal Democrats in Tiverton and HonitonClifton-Brown suggested the rule may change.

The Conservative MP, who voted against Johnson in the last confidence vote, told BBC Radio 4s Today programme that he believes it would be difficult to hold his own seat in the Cotswolds if there was a by-election now.

Tory MPs to Make Difficult Decisions

Asked about his thought on how the rule of not triggering two confidence votes within a year is doing, Clifton-Brown said, Im not going to  speculate on behalf of my colleagues as to whether we should or shouldnt change the rules.

He said the prime minister is obviously going to set out how he plans to solve the problems that we face in this country to his Cabinet ministers and MPs.

The parliamentary party has to make a judgment as to whether we think that is a satisfactory explanation or whether we should actually take steps to have a new prime minister, Clifton-Brown said, adding he would not speculate as to how that process will turn out.

He also said he will consider what he hears in tonights Conservative Annual General Meeting and discuss the matter with his colleagues.

We will hear what the prime minister says and then we will have to make some difficult decisions no doubt, he said.

In 2019, Conservative MPs tried to remove Theresa May as the prime minister over Brexit six months after May survived a confidence vote by using another obscure rule in the Conservative Party Constitution (pdf), which allows 65 local party chairs to call an Extraordinary General Meeting of the National Convention.

The only agenda on the scheduled meeting was to ask May to consider to resign. The outcome would have been non-binding, but May ended up resigning three weeks before the vote meeting was supposed to be held.

In the wake of the latest by-election defeats, Conservative Party co-chairman Oliver Dowden resigned, saying he and Tory supporters are distressed and disappointed by recent events and telling Johnson that someone must take responsibility, while Johnson vowed to keep going.
Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Ed Davey (right) celebrates with Richard Foord, the newly-elected Liberal Democrat MP for Tiverton and Honiton, with supporters and activist at the Lowman Green Clock Tower in Tiverton, on June 24, 2022. (Andrew Matthews /PA Media)

Boris Johnson Vows to Keep Going After Tories Suffer Double By-election Defeat

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has vowed to keep going after his leadership suffered a double blow as his ruling Conservative Party lost two crunch by-elections.

In Tiverton and Honiton, where local Conservative MP Neil Parish resigned after admitting he had watched pornography on his phone in the House of Commons, the Liberal Democrats won after a swing of almost 30 percent from the Tories, overturning a 24,000 Conservative majority.

The Liberal Democrat candidate Richard Foord, who secured a majority of 6,144, used his acceptance speech to call for Johnson to go, and go now, claiming his victory had sent a shockwave through British politics.

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said: This should be a wake-up call for all those Conservative MPs propping up Boris Johnson. They cannot afford to ignore this result.

He said it was time for Conservative MPs to finally do the right thing and sack him.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer meets with new Wakefield MP Simon Lightwood in Ossett Market, West Yorkshire, on June 24, 2022. (Danny Lawson /PA Media)

In Wakefield, where local Tory MP Imran Ahmad Khan quit after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy, Thursdays by-election resulted in a 12.7 percent swing from the Tories to Labour.

The new Labour MP Simon Lightwood, who got a majority of 4,925, said, The people of Wakefield have spoken on behalf of the British people. They have said, unreservedly: Boris Johnson, your contempt for this country is no longer tolerated.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said, Wakefield has shown the country has lost confidence in the Tories. This result is a clear judgment on a Conservative Party that has run out of energy and ideas. Britain deserves better.

Tough Time

Following the results, Conservative Party co-chairman Oliver Dowden resigned, saying he and Tory supporters are distressed and disappointed by recent events and telling Johnson that someone must take responsibility.

The prime minister, who is attending a Commonwealth summit in Rwanda, acknowledged on Friday that losing the two constituencies was tough.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Rwandan President Paul Kagame look on the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at Kigali Convention Centre, in Kigali, Rwanda, on June 24, 2022. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Speaking to broadcasters, Boris Johnson said he would take responsibility, but insisted the cost-of-living crisis was the most important issue for voters and it is true that, in mid-term, governments post-war lose by-elections.

Its absolutely true weve had some tough by-election results. Theyve been, I think, a reflection of a lot of things, but weve got to recognise voters are going through a tough time at the moment, he said.

I think as a government Ive got to listen to what people are sayingin particular to the difficulties people are facing over the cost of living, which I think for most people is the number one issue.

Weve got to recognise there is more weve got to do and we certainly will; we will keep going, addressing the concerns of people until we get through this patch.

PA Media contributed to this report.
Brian Laundries Alleged Notebook Confession About Gabby Petito Revealed

A portion of the notebook that Brian Laundrie left behind contained an alleged confession regarding her death, according to lawyers for the two families.

I ended her life, a line from the note says, according to WFLA and Fox affiliates. WFLA posted a photo of the notebook page that was obtained by attorneys of the families.

I thought it was merciful, that it is what she wanted, but I see now all the mistakes I made. I panicked. I was in shock. But from the moment I decided, took away her pain, I knew I couldnt go on without her, Laundrie allegedly said.

In January, the FBI announced that the 23-year-olds notebook found near his remains at the Carlton Reserve contained statements where he claimed responsibility for Petitos death.

The FBI did not specify what, exactly, Laundrie had written in the notebook and in other text messages hed sent to mislead Petitos family. The texts were sent between Laundries phone and Petitos phone, according to the statement.

Authorities last year said Laundrie died by suicide from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the reserve, located a few miles from his parents home in North Port, Florida.

The timing and content of these messages are indicative of Mr. Laundrie attempting to deceive law enforcement by giving the impression that Ms. Petito was still alive, the FBIs statement said at the time.

Months before that, a coroner in Wyoming ruled that Petito died via manual strangulation. Petito and Laundrie had been on a cross-country road trip before her death, which drew international attention and headlines.

Petitos body was found Sept. 19 at a campground near Grand Teton National Park in northwestern Wyoming. A coroner determined shed died about three weeks earlier of blunt-force injuries to the head and neck, with manual strangulation.

Laundrie returned home to Florida in early September but went missing soon after. In October, his parents found an item belonging to him in a nature preserve near their house.

A lawyer for the Laundrie family issued a statement on Friday after he met with the Petito familys lawyer.

Today the Petito family attorney, Patrick Reilly, and myself met with the FBI in Tampa to sort through and take possession of the personal items that belonged to Gabby and Brian, attorney Steve Bertolino told Fox News. As part of this return of property in FBI custody I was given Brians notebook and I have turned [the] same over to Chris and Roberta Laundrie.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Supreme Court overturned a restrictive gun law in New York. The nations highest court sets precedent to expand gun rights; at the same time, Congress is on track to pass laws to restrict guns.

The Biden administration meets with CEOs of major oil and gas companies. The White House is taking steps to lower domestic gas prices.

California Congressman Doug LaMalfa says that gas rebates and gas tax breaks only offer temporary relief, but we need a more practical long-term solution.

Title IX may be getting an overhaul on its 50th anniversary. What is the Biden administration seeking to change, and why do Republicans say itll devastate womens sports?

With Democrats and Republicans celebrating the 50th anniversary of Title IX being signed into law, what is the focus of both parties 50 years later? North Carolina Congresswoman Virginia Foxx Joins us to discuss.

Illegal border crossings keep hitting new records. Republican lawmakers say the solution is Trump-era border policies.

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Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, speaks in Washington on June 16, 2022. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

CDC Director Falsely Says COVID-19 One of Top Five Causes of Death for Children

The director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on June 23 falsely said that COVID-19 has been one of the five top causes of death for children since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director, offered the misinformation during a press briefing in which Biden administration officials promoted COVID-19 vaccination for children under 5, the age group for whom COVID-19 vaccines were just authorized and recommended.

Since January 2020, weve lost 215 childreneach six months to four yearsto COVID-19, Walensky said, correctly citing preliminary figures from the CDC.

But Walensky then falsely said that COVID-19 was one of the major causes of death for all children.

To put that in perspective, during March 2020 through April 2022, COVID-19 was among the top five leading causes of death in every age group of children under the age of 19 and the number one infectious cause of death in children, she said.

Walensky is the third CDC official or scientist to make the false statement this month.

The other two cited a preprint paper, or a study that has not been peer-reviewed, from British scientists.

But there were multiple issues with the study and the citations.

For one, the CDC officials used the cumulative number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 and compared it to annualized numbers for other causes of death.

That placed COVID-19 in the top 5, even though the study clearly shows that the annualized COVID-19 numbers would put COVID-19 as a cause of death no higher than sixth when compared to other causes of death.

Additionally, the study authors took annualized numbers for other causes from 2019.

Also, the authors included deaths among children who had COVID-19 but who did not have COVID-19 listed as the underlying cause on their death certificates, even though the authors said they only included children who had COVID-19 as the underlying cause, according to an Epoch Times review of the CDC database the authors drew from.

Seth Flaxman, a professor in Oxford Universitys Department of Computer Science, and one of the authors, admitted on Twitter on June 19after two CDC scientists and a third doctor who works with the government used the misleading statistics in meetings with government advisory panelsthat the paper required an update.

We have received some feedback and criticism along several dimensions. We are planning to update the preprint to take into account some of this feedback, he said.

Flaxman did not respond to a query and the preprint website includes no indication that an update is pending.

The CDC and its officials did not respond to requests for comment, nor did Dr. Matthew Daley, who chairs the COVID-19 vaccines work group for a CDC advisory panel.

Kelley Krohnert, a Georgia resident who detected the issues and alerted Flaxman, told The Epoch Times via Twitter message that Walenskys statement was frustrating.

Im so frustrated that this lie has just become accepted as truth at the highest levels, she said.

Before Walensky spoke on Thursday, Dr. Ashish Jha, the White Houses COVID-19 response coordinator, and a purveyor of misinformation, warned about misinformation about vaccines and about kids and COVID in this pandemic.

So lets set the record straight, because the data here is actually quite clear: Kids are better protected if they are vaccinated. If they are vaccinated, they are far less likely to get seriously ill. Theyre far less likely to end up in the hospital, far less likely to end up in the ICU, he said.

The clinical trials on children under 5 were not able to measure the efficacy of the vaccines against severe illness because so few children from the vaccinated and the unvaccinated arms contracted severe cases of the disease.

In Pfizers trial, more vaccinated children experienced severe illness than unvaccinated children.

In addition, the Pfizer trial efficacy estimates against infection were deemed unreliable, and the efficacy estimates for Modernas trial were substandard.

But U.S. regulators granted emergency authorization for the vaccines anyways, and the CDC then recommended the shots for virtually all children aged 6 months to 4 years.

We all want to do whats best for our children, Walensky said. And for the safest  protection against COVID-19, do go and get your child COVID-19 vaccinated.
A general view of the Centers for Disease Control headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., on April 23, 2020. (Tami Chappell/AFP via Getty Images)

CDC Investigating Large, Ongoing Outbreak of Rare Disease in Florida

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is investigating a large, ongoing outbreak of a rare disease in Florida

In a press release, the CDC said Wednesday that meningococcal spread among homosexual males, including those with HIV, in the Florida outbreak.

Getting vaccinated against meningococcal disease is the best way to prevent this serious illness, which can quickly become deadly, said Jose R. Romero, the head of the CDCs immunization and respiratory disease division, in the release. Because of the outbreak in Florida, he added,  and the number of Pride events being held across the state in coming weeks, its important that homosexual men get the vaccine.

At least 24 cases and 6 deaths among homosexual males have been reported so far, according to the agency.

People can find a meningococcal vaccine by contacting their doctors office, pharmacy, community health center, or local health department, the news release said. Insurance providers should pay for meningococcal vaccination for those whom it is recommended for during an outbreak. In Florida, anyone can get a MenACWY vaccine at no cost at any county health department during the outbreak.

The Florida Department of Health first issued an alert about an outbreak in Leon County several months ago.

An official with Leon County said at the time that the agency is working to investigate these cases and to ensure that people who have come into close contact with the patients receive antibiotics as a precautionary measure against infection.

Meningococcal disease is caused by the Neisseria meningitidis bacteria, which can cause a bloodstream infection. Its also responsible for meningitis, an infection of the lining of the brain or spinal cord.

Meningococcal disease can affect anyone and can be deadly, the CDC said in a statement.

Seek medical attention right away if you have symptoms of meningococcal disease, the federal health agency said. Symptoms can appear suddenly and include high fever, headache, stiff neck, nausea/vomiting, or a dark purple rash. Symptoms can first appear as a flu-like illness, but typically worsen very quickly.

The disease can spread by sharing saliva or spit, the agency said, adding that it takes close or lengthy contact, such as kissing or being near someone coughing, to spread these bacteria.

Despite treatment, 1015 in 100 people die of the disease, the agency says. Up to 20 percent of survivors may have long-term disabilities such as loss of limbs, deafness, brain damage, and problems with the central nervous system.
Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) speaks to host Steve Lance from NTD's The Capitol Report in an interview in June 2022. (NTD/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

Democrats Would Love Nothing More Than to Remove Americans Right to Possess Guns: GOP Lawmaker

Democrats would love nothing more than to take away the right of every American to possess a gun, a Republican House lawmaker has said amid gun control bills passed by the Senate and the House this month.

The Senates legislation, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, passed on a 6533 vote on June 23.

House Republican leaders said that they would vote against the bill, but it will most likely clear the House.

Earlier, the House passed a separate package of gun control legislation called the Protecting Our Kids Act on June 8. It has little chance of passing the Senate to clear the 60-vote filibuster threshold.

Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) told NTDs Capitol Report that Democrats, who have been pushing for gun control legislation in the wake of recent mass shootings, want to blame the tool thats being used to create the destruction and not the person actually doing the destruction.

Its an attempt to take all of our firearms, Steube said, noting that bans on certain guns have been openly discussed in the House.

The bill that passed the House would ban certain magazine sizes, like that would stop the atrocities in some way, shape, or form.

[Democrats] only care about using these mass shootings to be able to talk and have that narrative of well, its the guns faultWe shouldnt have semi-automatic rifles, we shouldnt allow for what they call high-capacity magazines, we shouldnt allow all these things. And they use these tragedies to try to accomplish a political goal and their political goal isand theyre now talking more openly about itis to take your guns away, he said.

They would love nothing more than to take every Americans right to possess a firearm away from them, he said, noting that the vast majority of people between 1821 dont commit gun violence.

He said this group would, under Democrats gun control push, not be able to protect themselves with a firearm in the event of a crime.

Red Flag Law-Related Provisions Go Against Fourth Amendment Rights

Steube said that the Senates gun control bill had omitted more radical elements of the House gun control package, including the raising of the age limit from 18 to 21 to buy certain guns, as well as the ban on high-capacity magazines.

However, he said that the red flag law-related provisions in the Senate bill run counter to Americans Fourth Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.

Red flag lawsand I voted against the one that passed in Florida years agoclearly violate your right under the Fourth Amendment to protection of illegal search and seizure by the government without a warrant, without a judge telling a law enforcement officer they can take your property, he said.

Florida in 2018 passed a school safety law that included a red-flag measure after a mass shooting that year at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland that killed 17 people.

Mourners bring flowers as they pay tribute at a memorial for the victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Sunday, Feb. 25, 2018. (David Santiago/Miami Herald via AP)

One of the multiple provisions in the Senates latest proposed gun control bill would provide $750 million to support states that impose red flag laws or other violence prevention programs.

In particular, it would expand a grant program called the Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program.

The grant funds would be able to go toward the implementation of State crisis intervention court proceedings and related programs or initiatives such as extreme risk protection order programs, or the red flag laws.

Red flag laws vary in the specifics from state to state but generally involve a partypolice, family members, work colleagues, or otherspetitioning a state court to order police to temporarily seize the guns from a person they deem mentally unwell and dangerous. The person targeted would also be barred from buying new guns.

The Senates proposed measure would make it easier for the 19 states and the District of Columbia that have red flag laws to temporarily confiscate guns from people who are flagged by the court.

AR-15 style rifles are displayed for sale at Firearms Unknown, a gun store in Oceanside, Calif., on April 12, 2021. (Bing Guan/Reuters)

Dangerous Path

Steube also commented on a red flag gun control bill called the Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order Act of 2022 passed on June 9 by the House.

[Democrats in the House] wanted counselors and teachers and family members to be able to have this ability to take your guns away, he said.

Its a very dangerous path to be going down all in reaction to a shooting that could have been prevented by having somebody that was properly trained to react, he said, referring to the recent mass shooting Uvalde, Texas that resulted in the deaths of 19 students and two teachers.

Police and security officers stood outside the school for nearly an hour while the shooter barricaded himself in a room with teachers and students.

Police officers stand outside the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 25, 2022, after a teen in body armor marched into the school and killed 19 children and two teachers. (Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images)

What they want to have happen is somebody either makes a complaint or has the ability to without a judicial proceeding without your due process to take your guns away. The bill that passed in Florida only allowed law enforcement to do it, Steube said.

So give you a quick example you have a husband or wife and a domestic dispute, one or the other wants to get back at one or the other and says oh, I think hes a threat to himself and others. A law enforcement officer without a judicial proceeding without a warrant without due process can make a subjective decision to take your property away. And that property is your firearms and your ammunition, he said.

Then on the back end, in order to get your property back, you have to petition the court, the law enforcement agency that takes your firearms is not going to just give it back to you. You have to petition the court and get an order from a judge to get your property back, he said.

It is completely in adverse reaction to what our Fourth Amendment rights in the Constitution to give us protection from the government [who] cannot take your property without a warrant. You have protection under the Fourth Amendment from illegal search and seizure by the government. And thats exactly what these red flag laws would allow to occur.

Mimi Nguyen Ly Reporter Follow Mimi Nguyen Ly is a reporter based in Australia. She covers world news with a focus on U.S. news. Contact her at mimi.nl@epochtimes.com
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a press conference held at the Cox Science Center & Aquarium in West Palm Beak, Fla., on June 8, 2022. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

DeSantis Suggests Media Mea Culpa for Past Reporting on Indicted Former Political Rival

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the media might have some answering to do, when asked about the recent indictment against his former political rival Andrew Gillum, who ran against the governor in the states 2018 gubernatorial race.

Gillum, also a former mayor of Tallahassee, was indicted with wire fraud, conspiracy, and making false statements, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on June 22. He solicited campaign payments and gifts from undercover FBI agents, according to the grand jury indictment.

The former mayor is also accused of acting in concert with an associate, Sharon Janet Lettman-Hicks, to defraud people through false and fraudulent promises and representations that the funds would be used for a legitimate purpose, according to the DOJ.

His alleged crimes occurred between 2016 and 2019, the DOJ added. Gillum was Tallahassee mayor from 2014 to 2018, and won the Democratic nomination for governor in August 2018.

Gillum has denied wronging and said the case against him was political. His trial is set to begin on Aug. 16.

Andrew Gillum, who was then-Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate, speaks during a CNN debate against his Republican opponent Ron DeSantis, Sunday, Oct. 21, 2018. (Photo by Chris OMearal/Getty Images)

On June 23, DeSantis was asked if he felt vindicated following the latest legal developments surrounding Gillum, during an unrelated press conference.

I would ask a lot of the media that propped him up whether they have any type of mea culpa on that, DeSantis said. I mean, there were clearly a lot of issues there. If you looked under the hood, you saw it, but what was presented to the public, was it this guy was like the second coming.

I mean, never has a candidate been elevated, I think, that way by media outlets, certainly in the last 10 years or so, the governor continued.

DeSantis went on to say that Florida wouldnt be where it is now, had Gillum won the 2018 election.

And I can tell you, if I had not won in 2018, this state would be in a much worse shape, and thats not even a question, he said. And so were happy that we were able to do it, but even more happy that weve been able to lead and accomplish more than anyone thought we could accomplish in the state of Florida.

In 2018, some media outlets once suggested that Gillum could be a candidate for the 2020 presidential election.

President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had all previously praised Gillum.

During a campaign event in Tampa in October 2018, Biden touted Gillum as one of the most exciting, new, young leaders in the nation.

Former Vice President Joe Biden is greeted by Florida Democratic gubernatorial nominee Andrew Gillum and then-U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) during a campaign rally held at the University of South Florida Campus Recreation Building in Tampa on Oct. 22, 2018. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

After Gillum won the Democratic nomination in 2018, Harris took to Twitter to praise Gillum as a strong progressive leader and will make a great Governor of Florida.

Days after Gillum conceded defeat to DeSantis in the 2018 race, Clinton took to Twitter to praise the former mayor for having run an extraordinary campaign for governor, full of hope and focused on the needs and dreams of Florida families.

Andrew, Im proud of you and I cant wait to see what you do next, Clinton wrote.

Gillum, a onetime CNN political commentator, was found inebriated in a hotel room where suspected drugs were found in 2020. According to a report from the Miami Beach Police, Gillum was found in the room unable to communicate with officers due to his inebriated state.

The former mayor subsequently apologized and denied using drugs. He was not charged over the incident.

DeSantis comment on the current state of Floria was echoed by Jack Posobiec, former Navy intelligence officer and current senior editor of news website Human Events.

Trump really saved Florida when he pushed DeSantis past Gillum, Posobiec wrote on Twitter. 0.4% difference in 2018 and Gillum would be governor today.

In 2018, DeSantis defeated Gillum by a margin of 32,463 votes, with a voter turnout of more than 8 million people.
Pro-abortion terrorist group Jane's Revenge leaves threats at Harbor Church in Olympia, Washington on May 22, 2022 (Photo courtesy of Harbor Church)

Destruction and Vandalism by Pro-Abortion Extremists Sweeps America

Shadowy pro-abortion group Janes Revenge has orchestrated a nationwide campaign of destruction and vandalism against pro-life groups for which police have yet to make an arrest.

The groups attacks began on May 8 in Madison, Wisconsin, where Janes Revenge members torched the headquarters of pro-life group Wisconsin Family Action.

They had Molotov cocktails. They threw one against the window, and the window didnt break. So then they broke a window and threw a Molotov cocktail into my office, said Julaine Appling, Wisconsin Family Actions president.

When the Molotov didnt destroy the office enough, the attackers started a fire in Applings office using her books.

The thing that I am missing the most is all the books they burned, Appling said. Some of those might at this point be irreplaceable.

The same day, Janes Revenge announced its existence, claimed responsibility for the attack, and promised more nationwide.

We are forced to adopt the minimum military requirement for a political struggle, its anonymous writer said in an online manifesto.

Since then, attacks on pro-life organizations have only escalated. As of today, at least 28 pro-life groups from Anchorage, Alaska to Hollywood, Florida have been attacked.

The attacks were prompted by the leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, a decades-old decision that prohibited states from imposing restrictions on abortion.

Who Is Janes Revenge?

The attack on Wisconsin Family Actions office was the first one claimed by Janes Revenge.

The only public channel of communication from Janes Revenge is a page on NoBlogs, an anarchist blogging site.

In its first post on Sunday, May 8, the group announced a declaration of war against pro-life groups. It demanded the disbandment of all American pro-life groups in the next 30 days.

NIFLA-affiliated Gresham Pregnancy Resource Center was attacked by radical pro-abortion activists in Gresham, Oregon on June 11, 2022. (Courtesy of NIFLA

As you continue to bomb clinics and assassinate doctors with impunity, so too shall we adopt increasingly extreme tactics to maintain freedom over our own bodies, the group wrote.

This First Communique also announced that Janes Revenge had not one group, but many in every city.

A second manifesto on May 30 called for a Night of Rage on the night the Supreme Court releases the Dobbs v. Jackson verdict.

It asked for courageous hearts to come out after dark.

It also claimed that Janes Revenge had a few hundred people but needed more members.

Its unclear whether Janes Revenge has a centralized leadership, cells across the country, or is simply a slogan that unconnected pro-abortion radicals use when attacking pro-life clinics.

The groups true size is also unclear.

Many attacks against pro-life groups nationwide have used graffiti tags connected to Janes Revenge.

Janes Revenge attacks tend to have cursive graffiti reading, Jane Was Here, Janes Revenge, anarchist symbols, the number 1312, or some version of the phrase If abortions arent safe then neither are you.

Federal and local police have yet to arrest anyone for attacking a pro-life clinic since the first attack on May 8.

Attackers on the Loose

The Epoch Times has interviewed seven of the 28 pro-life organizations attacked since the Dobbs v. Jackson leak. Several attacked organizations refused to be interviewed because they feared a higher profile would bring more attacks.

27 symbols on this chart represent attacks against pro-life groups recorded by pro-life website Catholic Vote. Image screen-shotted June 20, 2022. (Jackson Elliott/ The Epoch Times)

But all organizations that spoke with the Epoch Times said they wouldnt quit because of the attacks.

Were not going to go away. Were not going to be quiet. We are going to continue to be bold and strong. Because we are on the right side of this issue, Appling with Wisconsin Family Action said.

The vast majority of groups contacted by the Epoch Times said they had video of their attackers and were working with the police. Several clinics that received threats from Janes Revenge have also passed on information to the FBI.

In Long Beach, California, a woman entered His Nesting Place, a church and maternity care home, according to senior pastor Al Howard. The woman screamed obscenities, tore up a Bible, and threw a vase belonging to the church.

While congregants moved her out of the church, the woman attempted to open her backpack, Howard said.

It dawned on us later that she possibly might have had a weapon, he said.

Both security and phone cameras caught the attack, Howard said. While she was in the church, the attacker said she was local. Later, she shouted and threatened outside the church again.

But police still havent caught her, he said.

She said, Im not finished with you. Ill be back and Im going to burn this place to the ground and all of you in it, Howard said.

Police didnt set up a guard on the church while the attacker remained at large, he said.

Compass Care Pregnancy Services in Buffalo, New York suffered the worst attack so far from Janes Revenge, according to its director Jim Harden.

The attacker threw Molotovs at the clinic, resulting in catastrophic fire damage, Harden said.

The damage will require a full rebuild, he said. But due to the high number of donations the clinic has received, he plans to make a new and expanded building.

Lets not only rebuild, lets build it bigger, Harden said.

Police and the FBI have told Harden that they have leads on multiple perpetrators, but have yet to arrest a suspect, he said.

Government failure to act is conspicuous, Harden said. Their job is to protect all citizens equally, not just the ones that agree with them.

Doubting Law Enforcement

Thomas Glessner, the president of the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA), said he believes that stopping violence by pro-abortion extremists isnt a priority for law enforcement.

NIFLA connects over 1,600 pro-life groups nationwide. Janes Revenge has twice firebombed one of NIFLAs clinics in Portland, Oregon. Glessner said he doubts that police want to catch those responsible.

Portland, Oregon? The police there let Antifa blow up to the inner city. How seriously are they gonna take this? he said. I know the FBI has been called in to some [clinic attacks], but again, how seriously are they gonna take this?

Police surround the U.S. Supreme Court as Shut Down DC protesters attempt to block it off in Washington, DC on June 13, 2022. (Jackson Elliott/The Epoch Times)

Hes not the only leader disappointed in police efforts to combat Janes Revenge.

In Wisconsin, Appling started offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of the people who attacked her clinic. It has been over a month since the attackers struck.

We thought it was appropriate to see if there was any way we might find someone who saw or heard information about this attack, she said.

At Trotter House, a pro-life clinic in Austin, Texas, vandals took video of themselves vandalizing the clinics property, then posted it online, said clinic director Lori DeVillez. But as of yet, police have made no arrests. She blamed the lack of response on low police department funding.

Now in Austin, when you call 911, nobody comes, she said.

Over 120 congressmen have signed a letter demanding a Department of Justice investigation into Janes Revenge.

Pro-Abortion, Pro-Violence?

Despite the wave of violence against their political opponents, most nationwide pro-abortion groups havent made public statements condemning the violence.

The Epoch Times contacted Planned Parenthood, the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to ask for a reaction statement to the nationwide attacks on pro-life groups. None replied by press time.

One of the few groups to make a statement about the attacks was pro-abortion group ReproAction.

Its statement condemned pro-life groups for five paragraphs, then briefly stated that Vandalizing anti-abortion fake clinics does not help people seeking abortions.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) refused to condemn the attacks on pro-life groups when reporters asked her at a press conference.

Well, let me just say this: a woman has a right to choose, to live up to her responsibility, its up to her doctor, her family, her husband, her significant other, and her God. This talk of politicizing all of this, I think, is something uniquely American and not right, Pelosi said.

According to Glessner, pro-abortion groups support the attacks. Glessner added that NIFLA has condemned violent attacks against abortion doctors in the past.

They support the attacks. They will not come out and say that, because they dont want to pull into a criminal action. But they actually support the attacks, he said.

Last week, pro-abortion Shut Down DC activists Patrick Young and Nadine Bloch told members of their group they dont condemn those who use violence to support abortion.

If you want to do property destruction, do it in secret. If youre doing it publicly, youre probably an infiltrator, Bloch said. Theres no condemnation of bringing the system down.
The future of Carrie Lam is catching attention as she soon leaves office as Hong Kong's first-ever female chief executive. (Bill Cox /The Epoch Times)

Carrie Lam Prepares to Leave Position as Chief Executive

Its difficult for me to go out now. I havent been out of the house. I havent been to the shopping mall. I cant go to the hair salon. I cant do anything because my whereabouts will be shared on social media. Once it spreads out, there will be a huge group of young people waiting for me.

This was once said by Carrie Lam, the soon-to-be-ousted Chief Executive of Hong Kong.

The above passage is an excerpt from a recording of Carrie Lam at a closed-door business conference, which Reuters had obtained at the time and published on Sept. 2, 2019.

In the meeting, Lam acknowledged the unforgivable havoc over the amendment of the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance, commonly known as the extradition law. Lam then asked for forgiveness from those present in the closed-door meeting, and said, If I had a choice, the first thing I would do would be to resign and deeply apologize.

However, the first female chief executive of Hong Kong, who is about to part ways with Government House on July 1, denied the talk of an apology recently.

In an exclusive interview with Bloomberg on June 14, 2022, Carrie Lam unequivocally refuted it when asked if she would apologize to Hongkongers for anything at all during her term. Lam said she would only apologize to her husband and sons.

That is because they have made sacrifices for me to serve Hongkongers and help build the city as part of the country, Lam said.

At that moment when Lam answered the question, some wondered if she still remembered her heartfelt speech back then.

Carrie Lam joined the British Government as Chief Administrative Officer (AO) in August 1980, initially as the Assistant Commissioner in Sai Kung District Administration Office.

In 1981, Lam was escorted by the then-British government to study at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. During her time in the UK, she met her husband, Lam Siu-por, a high-achieving mathematics graduate.

In 1984, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and Lam Siu-por got married in Hong Kong and gave birth to their two sons, Jeremy Lam Jit-si and Josh Lam Yeuk-hay. The entire family held British citizenship until 2007, when Lam was appointed as the Secretary for the Development Bureau and renounced her British citizenship.

In 2017, Carrie Lam competed in the race for the Hong Kong Chief Executive Election. Lam was elected as the fifth chief executive of Hong Kong since the handover with 777 ballots, becoming the first female chief executive of Hong Kong.

Lam was also nicknamed 777, due to the number of votes she got in the small circle election and the enormous support backed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In addition, Lam said during her candidacy that she would continue to follow the failing policies which were set up by the former chief executive Y.C. Leung Chun-ying, who is just as unpopular. Hence some also called Lam C.Y. Leung 2.0.

During an election debate forum, Carrie Lam announced in front of seven million Hongkongers, I will resign if the mainstream opinion of Hongkongers makes it impossible for me to continue serving as their chief executive.

In May 2019, at the bidding of the CCP authorities, Carrie Lam shoved forward the draft amendments of the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance, also called the 2019 Extradition Bill, sparking major public outrage.

On June 9, 2019, over 1.03 million people in Hong Kong took to the streets to protest. Since then, there has been an anti-extradition movement in Hong Kong that attracted global attention in its fighting for democracy and freedom.

However, during the last Q&A Session in the Legislative Council on June 9, 2022, Carrie Lam declared, I have never thought of quitting, or regretting the decision of becoming the Chief Executive in the past five years I have produced a report card which I can be proud of, which marks the end of my career of 42 years as a public servant.

Lams Days Will be Tough

On June 30, 2020, Chinese regime forcefully enacted the Hong Kong National Security Law in Hong Kong (HKNSL), which aroused the attention of the international community. The U.S. government imposed a series of sanctions on 11 Chinese and Hong Kong officials in August 2020, who undermined Hong Kongs autonomy. Carrie Lam became the first chief executive of Hong Kong to bear the brunt of the sanctions.

In Nov. 2020, Lam revealed in an interview with Hong Kongs i-CABLE News Channel, Since the U.S. sanctions, no bank has dared to provide services to me; I cannot use any credit card and mobile paymentand because I dont have a bank account, the Hong Kong government can only pay my salary in cash. So there is a large amount of cash stored in my home.

This is going to cause Lam headaches as to how she can move and keep the money safely when she moves out of Government House.

Lets wait and see how Carrie Lam is going to live and behave from this point on. Politics and Economy Commentator Simon Lee Shi-ming said on Epoch Times program, Precious Dialogues.

Lam Siu-por, Carrie Lams husband, had lived in Beijing previously and taught short-term mathematics courses at Capital Normal University. Jeremy Lam Jit-si, Lams oldest son, also worked in Beijing by joining Chinas mobile giant Xiaomi Technology in April 2016, as an operation manager.

Some said Carrie Lam might join her family in Beijing after leaving office. However, she stated that Hong Kong is her home.

Some pro-Beijing people said that the Beijing government was going to give Carrie Lam a set of Siheyuan, which is a set of luxurious courtyard houses. However, Lam is too scared to go to Beijing. It was said that Lam would rather become a naked official, as she did not want her husband and sons staying in Beijing and being controlled by the mainland government.

Other than bank accounts, Carrie Lam does not have properties in Hong Kong either. Lam had previously declared to the Hong Kong government that she had two properties in Cambridge, UK, as well as one in Suzhou China. However, they were all sold by the time of the filing in Sept. 2014.

According to her Register of Personal Interests, published on the Hong Kong governments official website, Carrie Lam currently possesses only one residence located in Zhongshan, China. The property is owned by Carrie Lams husband as a primary residence.

On June 11, 2022, Carrie Lam shared in an exclusive interview with RTHK that she would continue to live in Hong Kong after leaving office; Lam also said that Hong Kong is her home. She would visit The Palace Museum, listen to Cantonese opera and enjoy the views of Victoria Harbour during her free time.

Commentator Simon Lee Shi-ming described Carrie Lam as a useful fool, saying that she is neither a member of the CCP nor close friends with the mainland regime. Carrie Lam has been a useful tool since her college years. At that time, there was a large group of the Greater China nationalists, who genuinely supported the ideals of Chinas reunification, thinking they were passionate for the people and the country, for the incredible cause of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Unfortunately, they were only seen as supporters of the CCP regime.

Simon Lee elaborated on the useful fool, When a useful fool has lost his or her use, only the fool remains.

Current Affairs Pundit Gi Da conveyed that Carrie Lam is only a loyal executioner of the Communist Partys orders. She cant go anywhere once she leaves the office, except to stay in Hong Kong.
Attendees from various forces march next to a banner supporting the new national security law at the end of a flag-raising ceremony to mark the 23rd anniversary of Hong Kong's handover from Britain in Hong Kong on July 1, 2020. (Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images)

Dire Regression of Protected Rights in Hong Kong, Report Says

Recently, two human rights organizations from Hong Kong filed a joint submission to the U.N. Human Rights Committee (UNHCR) detailing the worsening human rights situation in Hong Kong and calling for the Committee to review Chinas human rights violations.

The report, submitted on May 30, was prepared by the Hong Kong Human Rights Information Centre (HKHRIC) and the Hong Kong Rule of Law Monitor (HKRLM) as a non-governmental organization (NGO) submission ahead of the Committees 135th session.

Procedurally, following an NGO submission, the Human Rights Committee, a body of the U.N. that monitors the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) among its state parties, will then meet with the NGOs to discuss issues from the report before drafting a concluding observation of whether the state parties have fulfilled their obligations under the ICCPR.

In general, the 78-page submission addresses how the national security law (NSL), implemented by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Hong Kong on June 30, 2020, has deteriorated Hong Kongs human rights situation based on hundreds of verifiable issues that occurred within the last two years of implementation.

In particular, the report states that the ambiguous, and overly broad definition of the NSL has allowed arbitrary interpretations by the Hong Kong government, and as a result, has substantially deteriorated freedoms in categories such as speech, religion, press, academia, associations, and assembly guaranteed under the ICCPR.

Other issues, such as excessive violence by law enforcement, eroded electoral rights, and the removal of jury trials for political dissidents, were also included in the report to demonstrate the degree to which the NSL has undermined freedoms in Hong Kong. Additionally, the report also suggested 66 recommendations for the NSL.

The two organizations also noted that by filing this submission, the writers and contributors bear the risk of reprisal from the CCP since the authorities are actively trying to dismantle civil society groups in Hong Kong.

This submission is by no means an exhaustive representation of the dire regression of protected rights under the ICCPR in Hong Kong, the report stated in its introduction.

Due to the limited resources and inability to conduct wide range of consultation with civil society in Hong Kong, this

submission cannot be as comprehensive as joint NGO submissions made by Hong Kong civil society in the past. The

writers endeavour to focus on priority issues, while stressing that this submission is by means an exhaustive

representation of the dire regression of protected rights under the ICCPR in Hong Kong.

Ever since the implementation of the Hong Kong NSL in 2020, the vast majority of the civil society groups have disbanded one after the other. Notably, at least 49 civil society organizations were dismantled by the NSL between January and September of 2020, according to Radio Taiwan International.
South Africa: Prioritise Ludeke Dam construction, says Minister Mchunu

Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu has called for the prioritisation of the construction of a 49-kilometre bulk water pipeline from Ludeke Dam to Mzamba village in Mbizana.

This, he said in a statement, as the Department of Water and Sanitation sought to address the ongoing water supply and sanitation challenges in the Alfred Nzo District Municipality in the Eastern Cape.

On Thursday, Mchunu held a closed working session with the Executive Mayor of the District Vukile Mhlelembana.

Officials from the Department of Water and Sanitation, the District and Local Municipalities also formed part of the meeting.

Mchunu said the construction of the pipeline should be in tandem with that of water reticulation infrastructure to the surrounding areas of Mbizana.

The department said Umgeni Water, with a budget of R109 million, was appointed by the Minister to lead the implementation of the pipeline project.

Phase 1 of the project was done but was put on hold in 2008, but the Minister and Alfred Nzo District Municipality through the Executive Mayor have agreed to kick-start Phase 2 which will entail conducting of the feasibility study, generation of the detailed designs and finally the construction of the bulk line. These processes are expected to be concluded in a period of 18 months, reads the statement.

Minister Mchunu said the Ministry and the Provincial Department of Water and Sanitation, together with officials from the District will work jointly by establishing a task technical team that will oversee that the pipeline project takes off.

Minister Mchunu also emphasised that water reticulation should take water to the households taps of the communities, and not only to the communal taps.

Let us leave the past behind and go forward on this project. The decision that has been taken here today needs to be implemented. Umgeni Water together with the Interim Board of Amatola Water will work together for the realisation of this major task.

The people of Mbizana have been waiting long for water since the Ludeke Dam was built, said Minister Mchunu.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2022-06-24. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Do Not Let Beijing Hijack Chinese Civilization in This Cold War

Commentary

The Chinese regime consistently makes appeals to the greatness of the Han civilization to bolster its legitimacy. The Chinese people and the global community must always discount the efforts of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to accomplish this.

Instead, they should see the CCP for what it isa communist dictatorship. In this respect, there are two major similarities between the historical Cold War with the Soviet Union and the current one with China.

First, during the Cold War, there were two major blocs, and each bloc possessed a Western ideologyliberalism and Marxist-Leninismrespectively. The fight concerned which Western ideology would dominate and which vision of a global future would.

Therefore, this conflict is like the Cold Wars struggle between democracy versus tyranny. It is a struggle between two Western ideologies, liberalism and communism.

A Lithuanian demonstrator stands in front of a Soviet Red Army tank during the assault on the Lithuanian Radio and Television station in Vilnius on Jan. 13, 1991. Thirty years ago, the Baltic republic of Lithuania declared independence, heralding the start of the break-up of the 15-member Soviet Union, which imploded in Dec. 1991. (STF/AFP via Getty Images)

Thus, the global community cannot permit the CCP to cast this struggle as one between the West and the Han because it is not one. On one level, this is not dissimilar to what the Japanese did with their call for Pan-Asianism, Asia for the Asians, and their appeal from 1940 to create the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere with the spiritual essence of a superior Asian civilization fighting a titanic struggle with the crude, vulgar, and materialistic civilization of the West.

The Soviets did it with Marxist-Leninist ideologyto help the Soviet Union was to aid the workers of the world fight their capitalist oppressors. This was the duty of all politically correct people. Of course, the Soviets had many allies, sympathizers, and fellow travelers upon which they could depend, which helped to make them a formidable competitor.

Nevertheless, unlike the Japanese or Soviets, the Chinese regime advances its attempt at domination with a civilizational mask and so hopes to frame the cold war between China and the United States and its alliesAustralia, India, and Japanas a struggle against the Han civilization. The confrontation is with the CCPs odious ideology and is not one with the Chinese people.

Again, there is another useful contrast with the Soviet Union. The Soviet population and leadership, certainly after the last Bolshevik chief of ideology and the Communist Partys Second Secretary Mikhail Suslov, who died in January 1982, no longer believed that their struggle against the United States was to create communism to liberate the workers of the world.

In essence, the Soviets and their Warsaw Pact allies did not believe their ideology, which was a profound weakness. The fact that the Chinese regime is dependent upon an appeal to the greatness of China before 1949 is a testament to the CCPs weakness.

The Chinese militarys new DF-41 intercontinental ballistic missiles, which can reportedly reach the United States, are seen at a parade to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of communist China in 1949 at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, on Oct. 1, 2019. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

The second reason this cold war echoes the previous one is that the CCP is appealing to the worlds population through the narrative that to aid communist China is to support the epitome of art, culture, philosophy, politics, science, and international order. This is a major theme of Beijings common destiny of mankind narrative.

The Chinese regimes appeal is that the world can unite behind what is purportedly the worlds greatest civilization. The message will be far broader than the Japanese appeal for Asia for the Asians or the Soviet appeal to the purported science of Marxism-Leninism, the historical role of the working class, the advance of Hegelian-Marxist history, and the Hegelian-Marxist March of History.

Global support for China will create a better one for all people. That is a more powerful global message than any the Japanese or Soviets advanced, as it will not be immediately identifiable as a disguise for the Chinese regimes dominance and thus subjugation of the worlds peoples.

As with the Cold War, there is a strong political divide between democracy and totalitarianism. The Chinese will frame their civilizationand the messages derived from itas benign universal appeals to further the global advancement of all countries under the principles of Han civilization. The message will not be combative on its surface.

Moreover, another message flows logically if implicitly from the first: that is, the Columbian era is over, the West has led the world for three centuries, and it alone is responsible for the global political and environmental troubles the world confronts.

Notably, these ills are largely caused by the legacy of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism for China and its negative impact on the rest of the world. Indeed, the rest of the world should never hesitate to call attention to this fact and the great costs the CCP imposes on the planet and its population.

The Biden administration has been reluctant to employ ideology in the struggle against the CCP. The weight of the confrontation will compel them to recognize that this conflict is and must be perceived in political termsfreedom versus tyranny. Framed in this manner, the United States has prodigious advantages over the Chinese regimeif it chooses to use them.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
This week, we look at a touching adventure about a trio of pets journeying home and a dramatic biography about the King of Rock n Roll.

New Release

Elvis

Austin Butler stars as the King of Rock n Roll, Elvis Presley. The film follows him from his childhood in Mississippi and Tennessee to his meteoric rise to fame as a rock n roll star and later as an actor. It also details his relationships with manager Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks) and Priscilla Presley (Olivia DeJonge).

Butler seems to have effectively channeled the musician through his lifes journey. With outstanding dance routines, music, and riveting drama, this highly entertaining film sizzles with energy.

Biography | Drama | Music

Release Date: June 24, 2022

Director: Baz Luhrmann

Starring: Tom Hanks, Austin Butler, Olivia DeJonge

Runtime: 2 hours, 39 minutes

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Where to Watch: Theaters

Rated: 3.5 stars out of 5

Family Pick

Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey

Three loving petsa sassy Himalayan cat, a sage elderly golden retriever, and a goofy young bulldog (the voices of Sally Field, Don Ameche, and Michael J. Fox, respectively)are left in the care of their owners friends. Worried about their owners, the trio set out on a long adventure through rugged terrain to journey home.

With some incredible cinematography and great voice work, this feel-good romp is sure to lift spirits. Its an unforgettable tale of determination and devotion that will bring easy tears to your eyes.

Adventure | Comedy | Drama

Release Date: Feb. 12, 1993

Director: Duwayne Dunham

Starring: Michael J. Fox (voice), Sally Field (voice), Don Alder

Running Time: 1 hour, 24 minutes

MPAA Rating: G

Where to Watch: DirecTV, Redbox, Vudu

Rated: 4 stars out of 5



What Really Matters?

Arthur

Arthur Bach (Dudley Moore) is a wealthy drunk and playboy whose inheritance depends on his marrying a high society snob. Instead, he falls for Linda Marolla (Liza Minnelli), a struggling waitress. Thus, he must decide whats more important: true love or wealth.

This film depicts a timeless scenario: a rich man whos totally out of touch with what really matters in life. However, its uniqueness comes not only from its hilarious scenes, but also from touching performances by its outstanding cast.

Comedy | Romance

Release Date: July 17, 1981

Director: Steve Gordon

Starring: Dudley Moore, Liza Minnelli, John Gielgud

Running Time: 1 hour, 37 minutes

MPAA Rating: PG

Where to Watch: Vudu, Redbox, DirecTV

Rated: 3.5 stars out of 5

A Gunman Turns His Life Around

Gunsmoke

Gunslinger Reb Kittredge (war-hero Audie Murphy) is hired by an evil land-grabber to run a cattleman off his own land. Instead, Kittredge has a change of heart and defends the rancher and his daughter.

This entertaining tale of a gunman who ends up fighting for the underdog has well-defined characters, brisk pacing, and impressive shootouts, along with a touch of romance.

Western

Release Date: May 4, 1953

Director: Nathan Juran

Starring: Audie Murphy, Susan Cabot, Paul Kelly

Running Time: 1 hour, 19 minutes

MPAA Rating: PG

Where to Watch: Starz, Amazon Prime

Rated: 3.5 stars out of 5
A worker in protective gear measures the body temperature of a woman during a vaccination session for COVID-19 for elderly people at a community health centre in Fengxian district of Shanghai, China on April 21, 2022. (Cnsphoto via Reuters)

Experts Report Saying Omicron Didnt Cause Severe Symptoms in Shanghai Quickly Deleted

Chinas top medical experts recently published a research report showing that people in Shanghai who were infected with the Omicron variant of COVID-19 only had mild symptoms. The report was later deleted as it goes against the regimes zero-COVID policy and harsh lockdown measures. Experts believe it also reflects intensified CCP infighting.

A team, led by Shanghai-based expert virologist Zhang Wenhong and Ma Xin, published a research report in an English national public health bulletin called China CDC Weekly on June 18. It said that during the COVID outbreak in Shanghai from March 22 to May 3 this year, the overall rate of COVID-19 patients infected with Omicron having severe symptoms was 0.065 percent. The severe rate of non-high-risk groups was zero, while the high-risk group was 0.238 percent. The high-risk group was defined as patients older than 60, or those with various chronic diseases or immunodeficiency.

While countries around the world have adopted the strategy of coexisting with the virus, the Chinese communist regime continues its zero-COVID policy. When Zhang Wenhong, a prominent figure in the Chinese medical community, suggested that China should coexist with the virus, he was subsequently removed from his position on the Shanghai government epidemic control team and disappeared from public view for a couple of months earlier this year.

Dr. Sean Lin, a former U.S. Army Research Institute virologist, told The Epoch Times on June 21 that the research report reconfirmed the international consensus about the Omicron variant and clearly proved the Chinese regimes extreme zero-COVID policy to be ineffective.

The report was deleted on June 22 from the CDCs online publication. However, the mainland medias coverage of the report remains, and netizens continue to repost the articles on Chinese social media Weibo.

Indicators of CCP Top Circle Infighting

Chen Kuide, executive chair of the Princeton China Initiative and editor-in-chief of China In Perspective, told The Epoch Times on June 22 that the CDCs publication was clearly under political pressure to delete the report. Zhangs report showed that the Chinese people, especially the people in Shanghai, cant bear the zero-COVID policy and measures anymore. The authorities announced that the lockdown in Shanghai was lifted on June 1, but in reality many areas in the city are still under different levels of shutdown and control. After more than two months of living in lockdown, everyone in Shanghai has reached a critical point.

Under high pressure, they still spoke out their opinions [in the report], without much fear. I think this is a signal that Chinese society has begun to move towards a braver [period] than before, which is a manifestation of a new realization.

People dressed in personal protective equipment could be seen everywhere in Shanghai during the lockdown. The CCP has revealed to Chinese and foreign communities that property, security, and even life cannot be protected under its rule. (STR/AFP via Getty Images

Zhangs report re-ignited debate on the direction of Chinas epidemic prevention and control. One mainland Chinese netizens said: Shanghai has been tormented for more than 90 days, and the severe symptoms rate is zero! And what is the rate of ordinary people in Shanghai who died because they couldt seek medical treatment in time [under the lockdown]? However, pro-regime netizens have criticized Zhang Wenhong for promoting coexisting with the virus, arguing that the ultra-low severe symptom rate is the result of the medical aid to Shanghai from all over the country.

Gu Guoping, a retired professor in Shanghai, told The Epoch Times that the issue of Zhang Wenhongs publication of the research report and the subsequent deletion of it are due to infighting at the top levels of the CCP central government. The Xi Jinping faction wants to continue zero-COVID; Premier Li Keqiang opposes it, and wants to focus on developing the economy. The fight continues.

Zhang Wenhongs point of view happened to be in line with Li Keqiangs approach, so he was in the spotlight. Later he was criticized again. The situation will continue to go back and forth now, because the outcome of CCPs 20th Party Congress is not known yet, Gu said

Ning Haizhong and Luo Ya contributed to the report.
A still image from video footage and posted on social media shows a black bear in a tree. (Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission)

Florida Black Bear Shooting Report Raises Questions

PUNTA GORDA, Fla.The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission released a report on June 23 showing that sheriffs deputies disregarded FWCs directive when they shot and killed a juvenile bear that was no threat and was retreating from the residential neighborhood in Palm Beach County.

The Palm Beach County Sheriffs Office maintains its decision was based on public safety and traffic flow.

Arielle Callender, FWC Public Information Director for the South Region said in a released statement to The Epoch Times:

FWC bear experts did not consider killing the bear since FWC law enforcement on (the) scene never observed any indication that the bear was a threat to public safety.

Bear sightings in residential neighborhoods are not a cause for concern, she said, as the animals frequently roam in populated areas. This particular bear had climbed a tree because it had a natural fear of humans and wanted to be away from people in the area.

A bear that is easily scared off by people is not a safety threat, she wrote, adding that FWC officers on the scene had determined that the bear should safely be allowed to leave on its own because there were conservation lands nearby.

The report, however, indicates that the Palm Beach County Sheriffs Office disregarded FWCs request to allow the bear to leave the area.

Female black bears can reach 300 pounds while a male can weigh up to 500 pounds. (commons.wikimedia.org)

Shortly after I notified PBSO of the plan of action, a deputy asked me to move my marked FWC patrol vehicle. I asked them what was going on, FWC officer Lonnie Brevik wrote in the report. PBSO deputies on scene notified me that they were directed by their chain of command (COC) to shoot the juvenile Florida Black Bear when it came down from the tree. PBSO was notified of the FWC plan of action but failed to heed FWCs direction.

Brevik reiterated in his report that the deputies followed PBSO orders, and not FWCs plan of action.

PBSO was not authorized by FWC to kill the bear.

PBSO released their incident report to The Epoch Times that reported their timeline of events.

The two deputies responsible for shooting the bear say in their report that they were ordered by COC to shoot it when it came down from the tree.

I hear (my lieutenant) say take the shot, the deputy wrote. I then took the first shot striking the bear on the left side just under its shoulder causing it to hit the ground  and took a merciful shot so the bear did not suffer.

The officers stated in the report they used 12-gauge shotguns to kill the bear. The bear was shot four times.

Teri Barbera, Media Relations Bureau Director for PBSO, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that PBSO made its decision based on public safety and traffic flow concerns.

It should be noted that the bear had NO place to roam safely, Barbera wrote on June 24. The incident location and surrounding area are residential neighborhoods and fearing the bear would roam into the residential communities and/or impede traffic flow on the adjacent roadways PBSO was faced with making the decision to discharge their shotguns striking and killing the bear.

The FWC report included photos of the location where the bear was shot. It appeared to be a wooded area near the subdivision.

The incident has outraged state animal advocacy groups.

Infographic shows where Florida Black Bears roam in 2019. (Courtesy, FWC)

Meredith Budd, Regional Policy Director for the Florida Wildlife Federation called the shooting of the bear abhorrent.

Its a gross overreaction, and the death of an innocent animal that was simply scared, she told the Epoch Times on June 24.

Budd said that FWC is a state enforcement agency and had jurisdiction over the bear, yet FWC directives went ignored by PBSO.

They are the experts. They are the agency that needs to be relied upon, and law enforcement ignored them completely, she said.

Jane West of 1,000 Friends of Florida agreed, adding that if a civilian had shot the bear, it would be a very different story.

Had they been civilians unloading a 12 gauge, theyd be arrested, she told the Epoch Times. This is a threatened species. Youre not allowed to shoot black bears in Florida.

According to their website, 1,000 Friends of Florida is a philanthropical effort that helps communities plan, educate, advocate, negotiate, and when necessary, litigate to protect Floridas quality of life.

This incident is indicative of what happens when you have sprawling growth, West said.

Residents that arent familiar with the Florida ecosystem resort to calling officers who then take the most violent methods available, she said. That is not how we are supposed to coexist with our ecosystem.

Wildlife and native habitats alike are experiencing the fallout of encroachment, West said.

When you have these human interactions, it does mean that you are encroaching on their habitat, she said. Theyre experiencing significant habitat loss  and scavenge in dumpsters.

Its really distressing and its just a reflection of what happens in controlled growth, West continued. In this state, there are no stop gaps and recognition for this incredible ecosystem that people are moving into.

However, Budd believes that educating the public is the key to helping everyone understand bears as well as other native wildlife. She said it is possible for residents and businesses to coexist with wildlifeproviding there is balance and understanding.

We have a coexistence program and its based on the fact that we are developing our communities and our commercial business areas on wild land. We are going to have interactions with wildlife and thats okay, she said. You can thrive with wildlife on a shared landscapejust be educated on wildlife behavior and how to react.

FWC offered virtual training for law enforcement last spring with a many local police and sheriffs offices participating, West said.

When asked what would happen to PBSO for disregarding a state agencys directive not to shoot a protected species, Callender said they would address it through education.

We hope to work with PBSO to provide their staff with FWC bear response training and together ensure a more positive future outcome in situations like this, she wrote in an emailed response.
Jeffrey Clark, assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice's Environment and Natural Resources Division, speaks during a news conference in Washington in a Sept. 14, 2020, file photograph. (Susan Walsh/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Former Trump Administration Official Speaks Out After FBI Raids Home

The former Trump administration official who was maligned during a House of Representatives meeting this week and whose home was reportedly raided spoke out on June 23.

Jeffrey Clark, an environmental lawyer in the Department of Justice (DOJ) during the Trump administration, attempted to investigate allegations of election fraud at the behest of former President Donald Trump, triggering pushback from many in the DOJ, including then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen. He also penned a letter to the Georgia legislature asking lawmakers to convene a special session and consider appointing a different slate of electors.

Jeff Clark met privately with President Trump and others in the White House and agreed to assist the president without telling the senior leadership of the department who oversaw him, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), vice chair of the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol, said during Thursdays hearing.

Cheney was speaking a day after federal agents reportedly raided Clarks home on June 22. Spokespersons for the DOJ and the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Columbia did not respond to requests for comment.

Yesterday at about just before 7 a.m., there was loud banging at my door, insistent banging, Clark said on Fox Newss Tucker Carlson Tonight, speaking for the first time since the raid.

So I just rushed down as fast as I could. I quickly figured out you know that there were agents there. I opened the door and asked for the courtesy to be able to put some pants on and was told no, you got to come outside. So I came outside. They swept the house, eventually they let me go back inside and put the pants on, he added.

Clark decried what happened as a weaponization of the DOJ.

I think this is highly politicized, he said, adding later: with the hearing that was pointed at me and targeting me today with, you know, the special audience member of Sean Penn. So, you know, this is Hollywood, you know, the very next day, you know, it looks highly coincidental and Tucker, you know, I just dont believe in coincidences.

Penn, an actor, attended the House panel hearing.

Clark now works for the Center for Renewing America, started by former Trump administration director of the Office of Management and Budget Russ Vought.

The new era of criminalizing politics is worsening in the US. Yesterday more than a dozen DOJ law enforcement officials searched Jeff Clarks house in a pre dawn raid, put him in the streets in his pjs, and took his electronic devices, Vought wrote on Twitter.

All because Jeff saw fit to investigate voter fraud. This is not America, folks. The weaponization of govt must end. Let me be very clear. We stand by Jeff and so must all patriots in this country.

During Thursdays hearing, the Democrat-dominated House panel played depositions and asked questions of former Trump administration officials, all of whom criticized Clarks previous actions.

Eric Herschmann, a White House lawyer under Trump, said Clark proposed replacing Rosen with himself.

He repeatedly said to the president that if he was put in the seat, he would conduct real investigations that would in his view uncover widespread fraud. He would send out the letter that he had drafted and that this was a last opportunity to sort of set things straight with this defective election and that he could do it. And he had the intelligence and the will and the desire to pursue these matters in the way that the President thought most appropriate, said Richard Donoghue, the former acting attorney general.

Trump said on Truth Social, his social media platform, that the hearing featured lies and innuendo, while lamenting the lack of cross-examination since the only Republicans on the panel are aligned with Democrats against him.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) logo is pictured on a wall in New York on Dec. 5, 2013. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

Former US Military Pilot Pleads Guilty to Selling Aviation Technology Secrets to China

A former U.S. military pilot pleaded guilty on June 23 to acting as a paid agent of China, admitting that he provided U.S. aviation-related technology to the communist regime, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.

Shapour Moinian, a former U.S. Army helicopter pilot from San Diego, admitted in a federal court to receiving thousands of dollars from representatives of Chinese authorities to provide aviation-related information to China, according to the statement.

The 67-year-old also pleaded guilty to making false statements during national security background checks in 2017 and 2020, according to the Justice Department.

The defendant admitted to being an unregistered agent of a foreign power, lying on his background check paperwork to obtain his security clearance, knowingly providing proprietary information to people controlled by the Chinese government, and willingly receiving payments from them, FBI Special Agent in Charge Stacey Moy said in the statement.

This is another example of how the Chinese government enhances its defense capabilities through the illicit exploitation of U.S. technology, Moy said.

Technology Theft

Moinian served in the U.S. Army from 1977 through 2000. After retiring, he worked for various cleared defense contractors in the United States and the Department of Defense. A cleared status indicates that a contractor is permitted to work on projects that involve classified information, according to the statement.

According to his plea agreement, while Moinian worked as a defense contractor on various aviation projects used by the U.S. military and intelligence agencies, he was first contacted in 2017 by a Chinese national who claimed to be a recruiter for an online employment service. The individual offered Moinian the opportunity to consult for Chinas aviation industry.

Moinian traveled to Hong Kong in March 2017 to meet with the purported recruiter. At that time, he was aware that these individuals were employed by or directed by Chinese authorities, according to his plea agreement.

Moinian agreed to offer information and materials related to multiple types of aircraft designed and/or manufactured in the United States in exchange for money, according to the statement. He accepted a payment of between $7,000 and $10,000.

After returning to the United States, Moinian began collecting aviation-related materials and transferred them to a thumb drive. In September 2017, he gave the thumb drive containing proprietary information from his defense-contractor employer to Chinese officials during a stopover at an airport in Shanghai.

He arranged for the payment through his stepdaughters South Korean bank account.

Moinian made another trip to Hong Kong in August 2019 and met with the same people. He received a cash payment of approximately $22,000, which he and his wife smuggled back to the United States.

Chinese Regime Determined to Acquire US Technology

The Peoples Republic of China remains determined to acquire our information and technology, Alan E. Kohler Jr., assistant director of the FBIs Counterintelligence Division, said in the statement. In this case, we witnessed a former U.S. Government employee acting as an agent of the government of China and Chinese intelligence officers extensive use of social media to identify willing targets.

In his plea agreement, Moinian admitted that he lied on national security background checks in July 2017 and March 2020. Moinian previously stated in the security background questionnaires that he didnt have any close or continuing contacts with foreign nationals and that no foreign national had offered him a job.

However, he was arrested in October 2021 and charged with one count of failing to disclose foreign contacts, which is required as part of routine national security background checks.

Moinian faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the false statements count. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for acting as an agent for the Chinese regime. Hes scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 29.

The FBI is committed not only to leveraging risk and consequences upon the defendant, but also to confronting the behavior and policies of the Chinese government that threaten our national security and freedom, Kohler said.
A passenger shows the green QR code on his phone indicating his health status to security at the Wenzhou railway station in Wenzhou, China on Feb. 28, 2020. (Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images)

Four Chinese Officials and One Manager Charged With Abusing Pandemic Control Health Code System

Four Chinese officials and one state-owned enterprise (SOE) manager in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, were accused of abusing the health code system and randomly turning bank depositors health codes red.

According to the citys disciplinary watchdog, Deputy Party Secretary of the citys Political and Legal Commission, Feng Xianbin, and the citys top leader of the Youth League, Zhang Linlin, decided to give red health codes to bank depositors who came from other cities.

The Youth League, like the Young Pioneers, is affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), controls young people in China, and has branches in Chinese middle schools.

Feng and Zhang instructed three othersZhao Yong, Chen Chong, and Yang Yaohuanto make 1,317 peoples health codes red, the disciplinary watchdog said in a notice dated June 22.

A red health code indicates the highest level of COVID-19 infection. Residents with a red code are not allowed to enter public venues and must undergo two weeks of centralized isolation.

The movements of the people with red health codes are restricted in Zhengzhou. They are among thousands of other victims of the bank default crisis that occurred in April.

Customers of the four banks in Henan Province hold papers that say Return our deposits Henan in Zhengzhou city, Henan Province. (Provided to The Epoch Times)

At least four banks in Henan froze cash withdrawals, citing internal system upgrades. But depositors said that neither those banks nor officials have since offered any information on why or how long the process would take, prompting angry protests outside the office of the banking regulator in Zhengzhou in May.

An estimated 1 million customers were reportedly affected, and have been denied access to at least $5.91 billion, as reported by The Epoch Times earlier.

Health Codes: An Additional Tool of Control for the CCP

It is noteworthy that, among the depositors whose health codes were turned red, 871 people were not in Zhengzhou but were given red codes by scanning the Zhengzhou venue code sent by others, the disciplinary watchdog said in the notice.

But the organization gave no detail as to who sent the venue codes, why the depositors, who were not in Zhengzhou, were required to scan Zhengzhou venue codes, and how their travel plans were accessed by the health code officials and staffers.

China is known for its use of big data to control people in the country, and now the health code system has been added to facilitate the monitoring and control.

What is little known by the outside world is that the health code system was initially developed in February 2020 by Zhong Yi, a science and technology police officer in Hangzhou, according to a state mouthpiece Outlook Weekly.

It took Zhong and his team only six days to design and develop the health code system. It was officially inaugurated in Hangzhou on Feb. 11, 2020, and was soon rolled out nationwide. Within two weeks, over 200 cities in 18 provinces in China were using the health code system.

Local authorities work with tech companies to generate profiles of users based on geographic location, travel history, COVID PCR test results, and other health data. The colors of the health code include green, yellow, and red, and indicate whether the holder can enter a building or public place. Health codes are enforced by local officials, who have the power to quarantine people or restrict their movements.

Two of the people accused of health code abuse are directly involved with big data management and usage, according to the notice issued by the disciplinary authority of Zhengzhou.

Chen Chong is a staffer with Zhengzhou municipal big data bureau and team leader of health code management under the municipal pandemic control and prevention command. Yang Yaohuan is a deputy general manager of Zhengzhou Big Data Development Company Limited, a wholly state-owned enterprise authorized by the local government to handle data collected by the government authorities.

Depositors to Henan banks are not the only people confined by the red health code due to reasons other than their COVID-19 status.

In November 2021, China rights lawyer Xie Yang planned to fly to Shanghai to visit Zhang Zhan, a citizen reporter imprisoned by the Chinese authorities for reporting the pandemic breakout in Wuhan in 2020. But he couldnt go because his health code had been turned red, as reported by the Chinese-language edition of NTD, our sister publication, on Nov. 8, 2021.

Zhang was reportedly on a hunger strike in the prison and her health was deteriorating.

Zhang Zhan eats a meal at a park during a visit to Wuhan in central Chinas Hubei Province, on April 14, 2020. (Courtesy of Melanie Wang via AP)

The local police in Changsha, the capital city of Hunan Province, went to Xies home on Nov. 5 to coerce him into staying at home, which Xie refused to do. On Nov. 6, when Xie arrived at Changsha airport in the early morning, he found his health code had been turned red and that hospital Emergency Room staffers and local pandemic prevention and control people were at the airport. He could not go to Shanghai, and two of the pandemic prevention and control staffers tried to force him into their automobile. However, Xie managed to leave the airport on his own.

The local authorities of Zhengzhou at first claimed that health codes turning red was caused by a system failure, which aroused more online blasts. They investigated after the CCPs state propaganda media reported the negative online public opinion about the incident.

The five people involved in the health code changing were punished according to the municipal disciplinary authority. Feng was removed from both his party and government positions, and Zhang Linlin was given an internal warning from the CCP. The other three were given a demerit.

Lao Dongyan, a professor at the Law School of Chinas Tsinghua University, told Chinese media that the use of health codes for purposes other than epidemic prevention is suspected of violating Article 66 of Chinas Infectious Disease Prevention and Treatment Law and the 34th article of Personal Information Protection Law, and those relevant government officials are suspected of abuse of power according to Chinas Criminal Law.
U.S. President Joe Biden and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (R) look on as Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz (2R) shakes hands with Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (2L) during a photograph with G-7 Leaders at NATO Headquarters in Brussels on March 24, 2022. (Doug Mills/AFP via Getty Images)

G-7, NATO Leaders to Address Challenges Posed by Beijing: US Senior Official

The Chinese regime is expected to be a key issue in the upcoming G-7 and NATO summits a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday.

Ukraine is not causing us to take our eye off the ball on China. In fact, I think quite the opposite, said an unnamed senior U.S.administration official in Washington in a background press call previewing the two summits.

NATO is set to put a focus on the Chinese regime for the first time when leaders sign off a new strategic concept, according to the official.

Strategic concept is second in importance only to the alliances founding charter. It will chart out the pathway that NATO will take strategically over the next decade. The previous version published in 2010 didnt make note of China and even listed Russia as a strategic partner of the alliance.

Russia obviously continues to be the most serious and immediate threat to the Alliance. But the Strategic Concept will also address the multifaceted and longer-term challenges posed by the PRC to the Euro-Atlantic Security, said the senior official, using the acronym of Chinas official name, the Peoples Republic of China.

Reflecting its new focus, leaders from Asia-Pacific regions, including Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea, will participate in the summit for the first time, the official said.

U.S. President Joe Biden will head to Madrid for the NATO summit on June 29-30 after conferring with other G-7 leaders in southern Germany.

Coercive Economic Practices

The G-7 leaders will meet on June 26-28 at Schloss Elmau in the Bavarian Alps. Their meetings will include addressing the Chinese regimes coercive economic practices, according to the U.S. official.

Last year marked an important watershed with respect to the G-7 speaking for the first time to Chinas unfair, Chinas coercive economic practices, the official said.

We expect that that is going to be, if anything, a bigger topic of conversation this time around, recognizing the extent to which those practices have become even more aggressive and more prominent in terms of the world economy and the globes experience of it.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Joe Biden listen to opening remarks during a plenary session at the G-7 Summit in Carbis Bay, United Kingdom, on June 11, 2021. (The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld)

In 2021, leaders of the G-7the United States, Canada, Britain, Germany, Italy, France, and Japanvowed to counter the Chinese regimes unfair trade practices while condemning its human rights abuses in the far-western Xinjiang region.

At last years G-7 meeting in England, Biden announced that leaders agreed to propose infrastructure projects in the developing world that would counter Beijings Belt and Road Initiative.

The Belt and Road project has been criticized as a form of debt trap diplomacy that saddles developing nations with unsustainable debt levels while bolstering Beijings political and economic clout in those countries.

Andrew Thornebrooke And Cathy He contributed to the report.
Test tubes labelled "Monkeypox virus positive and negative" are seen in this illustration taken May 23, 2022. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

Gender Self-Identification Could Be Muddling Monkeypox Surveillance Data in UK

The nature of the monkeypox outbreak might be muddled by gender self-identification, according to experts, as it emerged that the one percent of infected female individuals in the UK could in fact be biologically male.

An Infectious Disease Behaviorist told The Epoch Times that while its true for accuracy that data on both sex and gender is important, focusing on how someone identifies in society is pandering to politics and risks weakening public health surveillance systems.

The UK has the highest current recorded levels of the tropical disease in the current outbreak which is spreading predominantly amongst and affecting gay or bisexual men. The number of confirmed cases is 793 as of June 22.

Self-Identified Gender in Health Records

For confirmed cases in the UK, where gender information was available, 758 (99 percent) confirmed cases were male, with 5 confirmed female cases. The median age of confirmed cases in the UK was 37 years (interquartile range 3143).

A spokesperson for the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) told The Epoch Times by email that patients are asked how they would describe their gender, so the data shows gender identity rather than just gender at birth.

Unlike the UKHSA, the WHO records both sex (sex at birth) and gender via their Monkeypox Case investigation form which can allow researchers to conduct in-depth epidemiological investigations into the disease. The CDC also has a similar process (pdf), asking what sex were you assigned at birth, on your original birth certificate?

France detected 277 cases of monkeypox, health authorities said on Tuesday, including the first case in the country of a woman contracting the virus. The Epoch Times has not been able to verify if French authorities collect data by gender identity.

The data on sex could be seen as paramount as it has recently been reported that fragments of the monkeypox virus have been detected in semen in a handful of patients in Italy, raising questions over whether sexual transmission of the disease is a possibility, scientists said on Monday, according to Reuters.

However having an infectious virus in semen is a factor that tips the balance strongly in favour of the hypothesis that sexual transmission is one of the ways in which this virus is transmitted, said Francesco Vaia, the institutes general director, though there is a lack of formal evidence to prove this.

Need Consistent and Accurate Data on Sex

Data and health experts told The Epoch Times that they expressed concern about the way that the data was collected.

Alice Sullivan is a professor of Sociology and Head of Research at University College Londons Social Research Institute who recently gave testimony on the importance of separating gender and sex in Scotland.

The Scottish Parliament is currently considering draft legislation, the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, which will allow individuals to change the sex recorded on their birth certificate by simply making a statutory declaration.

She told the Committee on June 21 that we need consistent and accurate data on sex, to make comparisons over time and between countries, and to evaluate the effect of policy interventions. Sex is not the same thing as gender identity. We need data on both of these variables.

Sullivan told The Epoch Times by email that health data always needs to include information on sex, because sex is a systematic variable which affects every dimension of health. And when it comes to conditions where men who have sex with men may be particularly at risk, this relates to their male sex, not their identity.

Weakening Public Health Surveillance

U.S.-based Infectious Disease Behaviorist Sean G. Kaufman told The Epoch Times that the stigma was real when it came to HIV in the 80s, noting the parallels with Monkeypox.

However, Kaufman said that when it comes to gender self-identification, important details from disease investigation could be overlooked: were pandering to, in my opinion, a sense of political correctness.

If you start allowing people to identify as something that theyre not biologically, when you look at surveillance of chronic disease, or even acute infectious disease, what it causes is confusion, he said.

But he said that the reality is that when youre trying to solve a problem, the more data you have is key, and having data on both sex and gender is important, as is looking at social-economic trends and health literacy when identifying chronic disease outbreaks.

But Kaufman added that if you cannot include biological sex and you have to include how someone chooses to identify what youre doing is youre pandering to politics.

You are weakening your public health surveillance systems because you cannot get the scientific information you need to be able to track and prepare and prevent disease transmission or even chronic disease development, he added.

Lily Zhou contributed to this report.
German Foreign Minster Annalena Baerbock briefs the media about Germany's Afghanistan policy at the Foreign Ministry during a news conference in Berlin on June 23, 2022. (Markus Schreiber/AP Photo)

Germany Says It Helped 21,000 People Get out of Afghanistan

BERLINThe German government has managed to get more than 21,000 former local employees and other endangered people out of Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power almost a year ago, Germanys foreign minister said Thursday.

However, around 10,000 people are still waiting for an opportunity to get out with German help, Annelena Baerbock told reporters in Berlin. These are primarily people on a so-called human rights list and therefore particularly at risk. Only half of this group has so far managed to leave Afghanistan.

Baerbock said that people who left Afghanistan, mostly through Pakistan, make up around two thirds of the total who have been approved for admission to Germany.

They include Afghans who either worked for Germany as local employees or were involved in efforts for democracy and human rights in Afghanistan.

About 75 percent of the local employees in particular have been able to leave. In addition, almost all German nationals and their families have left the country.

The minister deplored that the economic and humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan continues to get worse and that human rights are being restricted on a massive scale.

The bottom line is that the lives of people in Afghanistan have deteriorated drastically in the last few months, Baerbock said.

One of the main obstacles that keeps people from getting out of Afghanistan is that the Taliban require those wanting to leave by plane to show a passport, which many at-risk people do not have. And neighboring countries insist on visas, which can be expensive and also require owning a passport.

I would like to say clearly that the difficulties of getting people out of Afghanistan in the first place will unfortunately remain and that is why it will also remain our main task to simply provide support on the ground, the minister said.
God Has Called Me to Stand Up: USAF Pilot Facing Discharge for Rejecting COVID Vaccine

USAF pilot Lt. John Bowes dreamt of flying and protecting the country his entire lifesince he was a child.

He is heartbroken now that he had to put his religious faith over his dream due to the COVID vaccine mandates within the U.S. military, but believes that God is helping him get through the tribulation and that he has a duty to speak up.

The 24-year-old was an F-16 student pilot but was taken out of training and prevented from flying since September of last year when he first submitted his religious accommodation.

I exercised my constitutional and statutory right to receive a religious accommodation. And then I was, as a direct consequence of doing that, removed from training to fly the F-16. I personally believe that is religious discrimination, Bowes told The Epoch Times.

He made clear that his views are not representative of the USAF.

Now that my religious accommodation is denied, I have been formally removed from training. Ive received a letter of reprimand, which is a disciplinary action that goes on my record as an officer. And Ive been told that Ill be processed for discharge here pretty soon, he said.

Bowes says that nine months ago he filed an equal opportunity complaint with the Air Force Equal Opportunity office, but has not heard back from them so far.

Im absolutely heartbroken, Bowes said, its sad to see that my dream is at risk over something like the COVID vaccine, which doesnt stop you from getting or spreading COVID.

The Epoch Times reached out to the USAF for comment.

Vaccine Efficacy and Risk

COVID vaccines, which were marketed as preventing infection from the Chinese Communist Party virus, are now known to provide little protection against infection after the Omicron virus variant became dominant, with vaccine booster efficacy waning over time.

Whats more, cases of myocarditisinflammation of the heart muscleand pericarditisinflammation of the lining outside the hearthave spiked dramatically since the COVID vaccines started being administered worldwide.

My faith is what gets me through it because I know that God has called me to speak up about these mandates, and God has called me to stand up for the beliefs that I havethat he gave me, and Im risking my dream and my career and my future and my financial stability, and my honor as an officer, which is being tainted by these disciplinary actions. All because of my oath to my faith, my oath to God which got me here in the first place, as well as my oath to the Constitution of the United States, which all officers take, Bowes said.

And so Im not here to be rebellious. Im not here to stick it to the man and so many service members arent here to do that, either. Were simply doing what we swore to do. And standing up for our religious beliefs.

Lt. John Bowes (Courtesy of John Bowes)

As the June 30 deadline nears for compliance with the U.S. militarys COVID-19 vaccine mandate, U.S. Army officials publicly claim a very small percentage of its members are unvaccinated, reporting 96 percent or more of its members are fully vaccinated.

However, the Armys vaccination rate could be far lower than 96 percent, an anonymous active-duty senior Army official told The Defender.

Sanctity of Life

As a Catholic, Bowes believes in the sanctity of human life and doesnt want to use the COVID vaccines because aborted fetal cell lines are involved in either the production or the testing of these.

That action, the use of that vaccine is not in line with my belief that all human life is sacred and ordained by God to exist on this earth. And the use of abortion, in order to accomplish the production of these vaccines, is just morally abhorrent to me, Bowes said.

Disclosed CDC emails show that they have been producing and culturing human stem cell lines.

Bowes added that he knows a lot of service members whose primary argument in their religious accommodations is the sanctity of their genetic material and not wanting to be forced into having it altered.

Recent studies have found that the mRNA in vaccines can become embedded in DNA, and the Pfizer vaccines mRNA is even able to enter human liver cells and be converted into DNA.

According to official data from the Air Force, over 9,500 religious accommodations requests had been denied approval as of June 14.

This is despite Archbishop for the Military Service Timothy Broglio saying in October 2021 that: The denial of religious accommodations, or punitive or adverse personnel actions taken against those who raise earnest, conscience-based objections, would be contrary to federal law and morally reprehensible.

Bowes personally knows a few pilots who developed myocarditis from the vaccine, and they dont fly anymore.

Pilot Shortage

The Air Force has been struggling with pilot shortages for years now.

Former Air Force Chief of Staff General David Goldfein testified before congress in 2017 about a shortage of aviators, writing in 2016 that the situation was a quiet crisis.

A DoD report (pdf) from 2019 noted that by the end of FY 2018, the Air Force was short 2,000 pilots out of a total inventory of 18,400.

I know of personally more than 700 pilots who are actively unvaccinated and have filed a religious accommodation or have filed for a medical exemption or something of the sort, Bowes said.

A letter from November 2021 (pdf) from DoD pilots submitting religious accommodation for vaccination to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees details the impacts based on an analysis of a group of 357 pilots that did not want to take the COVID vaccines.

Their estimated value was totaled at $7.8 billion tax dollars, 4,842 years of cumulative service, and 14 years of service on average.

Nineteen percent of them support the mission of nuclear deterrence, 69 percent are instructors, and nine percent are Air Force Weapons Instructors or Navy TOPGUN graduates.

The implications of 700 pilots is pretty extreme, Bowes said in an interview with LifeSite news.

Recently, an American Airlines pilot suffered a cardiac arrest between flights after mandatory COVID vaccination, and a law group started suing all major airlines over the vaccine mandates.

Attorneys and doctors have also charged that the FAA is violating its own rule that pilots should not fly after having taken medications that have been approved for less than a year.

An advocacy group called Freedom Flyers is assisting pilots to come forward and speak out about their conditions.

Many of these pilots are afraid to come forward because if they come forward they lose their flight physical, they lose their flight medical. So theyre continuing to fly. We have a lot of pilots that are flying with chest pain and neurological conditions, because if they come forward they lose their careers, Josh Yoder, a spokesperson for Freedom Flyers told The Epoch Times.

Lt. John Bowes (Courtesy of John Bowes)
The main lobby of building BV200, during a tour of Google's new Bay View Campus in Mountain View, Calif., on May 16, 2022. (Peter DaSilva/Reuters)

Google News Re-Opens in Spain After 8-Year Shutdown

BRUSSELSAlphabet reopened Google News in Spain on Wednesday, eight years after it shut down the service because of a Spanish rule forcing the company and other news aggregators to pay publishers for using snippets of their news.

Madrid last year transposed European Union copyright rules, revamped in 2020, into legislation, allowing media outlets to negotiate directly with the tech giant.

The move prompted an announcement from Google last year that it would re-open Google News in the following year.

Today, on the global 20th anniversary of Google News, and after an almost eight-year hiatus, Google News is returning to Spain, Fuencisla Clemares, vice president for Iberia, said in a blogpost.

She said the company also planned to launch Google News Showcase, its vehicle for paying news publishers, as soon as possible in Spain.

By Foo Yun Chee
A worker checks a section of a flooded railway in Shangrao in central China's Jiangxi Province on June 21, 2022. Major flooding has forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people in Southern China, with more rain expected. (Chinatopix via AP)

Over 100 Rivers Overflow in Southern China in Historic Flooding, Displacing Thousands

Heavy rainfall has ravaged southern China, causing more than 100 rivers to overflow and displacing hundreds of thousands of residents.

Nearly 500,000 people have been affected, and more than 1,700 houses were swept from their foundations, according to a notice released by the emergency management department of Guangdong Province.

Authorities in Guangdong, Chinas manufacturing hub, closed schools, factories, and public transport in hard-hit areas.

As of June 21, 113 rivers in southern China had topped their warning levels, according to state media.

The city of Yingde was the hardest hit, with severe waterlogging reported within its urban areas. Rural townships also were surrounded by floodwaters, with some villages almost wholly submerged, forming temporary islands. Power outages were widespread in the area, which caught the attention of Chinese social media.

The highest level of flooding in the city reached 118 feet (36.1 meters) on June 22, more than 32 feet (10 meters) above warning stage, according to local officials.

In Guangdongs Shaoguan city, flood waters rose to a 50-year high, destroying homes and affecting more than 60,000 residents.

Meanwhile, in Jiangxi Province, heavy rainfall prompted three red alerts and one blue alert within a single day. At 3 p.m. local time on June 21, 17 observation sites along Poyang Lake and nine rivers recorded flood waters that exceeded warning levels.

A resident from Hanguang township in Guangdongs Yingde city told The Epoch Times that his home was destroyed by flooding.

The water level has remained at two meters [6.6 feet] without receding, Tao Fan (a pseudonym) said on June 22. Our ground floor has been flooded.

According to Fan, multiple factors contributed to the local floods, including the heavy rainfall that lasted several days and the discharge of surrounding reservoirs.

The discharge from the Shaoguan reservoir has flooded the whole city of Yingde, including its [outlying] townships, he said. And bridges are at risk.

He said that while residents had received a warning notice before the discharge from the reservoir, it was too late for many to evacuate. They face other serious challenges such as power outages and no cellphone signal.

There were no reports of injuries or deaths caused by the flooding, according to Fan.

As of press time, Chinese state media outlets reported that flood waters had somewhat receded.

Officials in Yingde, Dawan, and Wangbu couldnt be reached for comment.

Gu Qinger and Hong Ning contributed to this report.
Former President Donald Trump is displayed on a screen during the fourth hearing on the Jan. 6 investigation in the Cannon House Office Building on June 21, 2022. (Al Drago/Pool via Getty Images)

Honorable No More

Commentary

In all parliamentary democracies with legislatures that are descended from the British Mother of Parliaments in Westminster, theres a rule against whats called unparliamentary language. Members are allowed to criticize and even insult one another, but only within certain limits.

These limits vary from one parliament to another, but all have in common an absolute proscription against any use of the words lie and liar as the most unparliamentary language of all.

Winston Churchill once famously evaded the Speakers wrath in the House of Commons by substituting the euphemism of terminological inexactitude, for liea locution that has gone on to have a life of its own among connoisseurs of irony.

We Americans arent usually counted as being among such connoisseurs. Stateside, irony is typically regarded as suspicious if not downright deceitful, which is one reason why, in spite of occasional attempts by congressional parliamentarians to restrict what members are allowed to say about one another, the rules have tended to be more free and easy on the floor of the legislature hereand virtually non-existent outside of it.

In the early days of the Republic, U.S. statesmen were famous for the scurrility with which they were prepared to attack one another, both directly and through newspaper proxiesincluding by what the dueling culture of that era might have called the mentito, or the accusation of lying that, for some three centuries past in Europe, had amounted to a challenge to single (and possibly mortal) combat.

I myself can remember a time during my school days in the 1960s when the question Are you calling me a liar? automatically implied a challenge to fisticuffs if the answer was in the affirmative.

As Joanne B. Freeman shows in her book, The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2018), this was a tactic often resorted to by members from the Southern stateswhere the European dueling culture had been transplantedto expose what they saw as the cowardice of their Yankee colleagues, who were mostly opposed to dueling on religious grounds.

After the purging of such poison, along with the bloodshed in the Civil War, a more restrained and gentlemanly standard prevailed for most of the next centuryat least until the passions unleashed by the Vietnam War led to some considerable degree of verbal unrestraint.

When anti-war Democrat George McGovern compared the incumbent Richard Nixon, his opponent in the presidential election of 1972, to Hitler, he was only repeating what had become commonplace among his most zealous supporters.

That McGovern lost in a landslide to a man widely known as Tricky Dick may not be entirely coincidental.

As late as 2004, when the reductio ad Hitlerum had made a reappearance among the anti-war left of the day, then-Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) resisted the suggestion of Jim Lehrer, moderator of one of that years presidential election debates, that he had accused President Bush of lying to the American people about Iraq.

Ive never used the harshest word, as you did just then, Kerry said, and I try not to.

Im not sure that he tried very hard, but at least he showed an awareness of why it was preferable to say instead that he thought Bush has not been candid with the American people.

At that time, even The New York Times was a holdout for more gentlemanly standards of discourse, but that all went by the board with the advent of former President Donald Trump. In a column written shortly after the inauguration of Joe Biden, Maureen Dowd gave thanks to the powers that be at the NY Times under Trump for removing the prohibition, still in place at the paper during the administration of George W. Bush, against calling the President a liar.

By that time, there could hardly have been anyone left in the lately radicalized media who remembered the reason for the restriction on unparliamentary language in the first place.

Its that democratic debateand, therefore, democracy itselfdepends absolutely on the presumption by each side of the good faith of the other. The moment that either accuses the other of dishonestyby, for example, claiming that its argument is really only disguised racism, misogyny, or otherwise the product of corrupt motivesdebate is at an end, and theres only the exercise of raw power by those lucky enough to possess it at the moment.

This is what were seeing now with the convening of the Jan. 6 Commission, which depends on the assumption of what the media call the Big Lie by Trump and his supporters of the stolen election.

That they might have been mistaken without lyingor even that an honest person might find some reason for doubting the official result in the multifarious irregularities imposed on that election by Democratic partisans in swing stateshas had to be ruled out of court from the start.

Thats why the ostensibly bipartisan commission deliberately excluded any Trump sympathizers or supporters.

In other words, whether or not the election was rigged, the hearings certainly have beenwhich might be thought by some to lend credence to Trumps allegations.

It seems to me almost axiomatic that the first person to cry liar! against another is the more likely of the two to be the liar, since this is the best cover for his own lies.

But now, were never likely to know the truth, since one side has imposed its view on the other by executive fiat and so shut down further debate or investigation.

The wonder is that so many who ought to know better have forgotten why members of Congress customarily style themselvesas British parliamentarians still doas Honorable. Henceforth, we must suppose, that words loss of all meaning must be taken for granted.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Huntington Beach Councilman Kalmick Officially Sworn Into OC Power Authority Board

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif.Huntington Beach City Councilman Dan Kalmick has been officially sworn as the citys primary representative in the Orange County Power Authority (OCPA) after Mike Posey resigned from the position.

City councilors voted 60 to approve the appointment at the June 21 city council meeting, with Councilman Erik Peterson absent.

Mike Posey, the citys mayor pro tempore, officially stepped down from the power agencys board of directors at the council meeting. He said it wasnt appropriate for him to serve on an important regional electricity board two years beyond the end of his city council term this year.

Its not really the right thing to do for the ratepayers and the taxpayers and really my colleagues on the city council, Posey told the council.

Posey was asked by Kalmick to stay on the OCPA board as his alternate to support him and attend board meetings when he is unable to, which Posey has agreed to do only until the end of the year.

In support of Kalmicks appointment, Posey said Kalmickan expert on matters handled by the power agency, he saidhad been his alternate for the past two years and already attended a few meetings in his place.

Elected to the city council in November 2020, Kalmick received his bachelors degree at UC Berkeley in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science before starting an IT business in Orange County supporting small businesses and non-profits in Southern California, according to OCPAs website.

This was the second time Huntington Beach councilors approved Kalmick to become the citys representative in the agency.

The council voted to approve the appointment for the first time on May 17. However, some people associated with the OCPA questioned whether the Brown Acta state law outlining the publics right to join and participate in local government meetingswas violated during the first vote, according to City Attorney Michael Gates.

During the June 21 meeting, Gates said that the city did in fact follow the Brown Act in May, but, to remove any doubt, the council voted again.

Power lines in Fullerton, Calif., on Dec. 22, 2020. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

The OCPA, a community choice energy agency formed in 2020, is serving four cities in the countyLake Forest, Buena Park, Huntington Beach, and Irvine. Since 2002, the state allows local governments to create such entities to buy energy from alternative suppliers on behalf of residents while setting competitive rates and collecting revenue.

The OCPA functions as a new purchaser and seller of electricity and has automatically taken customers in those four cities from Edison, which serves most parts of Southern California, but the agency still relies on Edisons facilities to transport its energy.

Though the agency promised cleaner, renewable electricity choices at competitive rates, according to its website, its rates turned out to be not only higher than originally promised but also higher than Edisons when services for its commercial customers were launched in April, which drew questions about the agencys feasibility and financial wellbeing.

The city councils of Irvine and Huntington Beach both voted in mid-June to audit the OCPA for potential financial losses that could impact its member cities and to evaluate its ability to function efficiently.

Besides financial controversies, the agencys CEO Brian Probolsky accused Posey and Kalmick of corruption and the open meeting law violations in a whistleblower letter in late May.

The OCPA has scheduled to start providing power to its residential customers in October.
Infant Denied Life-Saving Transplant Over Vaccines

A six-month-old baby has been denied a life-saving heart transplant because he is not vaccinated.

August Stoll was born with a complex congenital heart disease. Earlier this month, he underwent emergency surgery at the Vanderbilt Pediatric Heart Institute in Tennessee, but the operation failed, leading his team of cardiologists to conclude that the only way to save the infants life was through a heart transplant.

But when they referred the baby to the hospitals transplant team, its head, David Bearl, told Augusts parents Hannah and Clint Stoll that he would refuse to perform the transplant until their son received several childhood vaccines.

Its so illogical, Hannah Stoll told The Epoch Times on June 24. Hes an immunocompromised baby in critical condition and this doctor wants to pump him up with vaccines We know it will kill him.

The Tennessee couple, homeschoolers with four other children, asked Bearl yesterday to reconsider his position, but Hannah said he refused. Stoll said her son is so fragile they cant even consider moving him to another facility.

Tennessee Republican state Sen. Jack Johnson called Bearls decision an outrage and told The Epoch Times he is in contact with Vanderbilt in hopes of getting the pediatric heart institute, which is a division of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, to change its position.

You shouldnt deny life-saving treatment to a six-month-old baby based on a legitimate concern a parent has, Johnson said, As a parent, I would be beside myself. 

The Epoch Times contacted Bearl and the hospital administration for comment on Augusts case, but neither responded. Bearl is listed with Vanderbilt as an assistant professor and Medical Director of the Ventricular Assist Device Program.

According to the schedule of vaccines the childrens hospitals immunology department provided the Stolls, August would have to receive eight vaccines before the hospital would consider performing the heart transplant.

Also highlighted on the schedule entitled Recommended Catch-up Immunizations Schedule for Children and Adolescents is the measles, mump and rubella vaccine, varicella and Hepatitis A vaccines. However, the schedule specifically lists the minimum age for those vaccines as 12 months. August is only 6 months old.

The Stolls have appealed their case to Vanderbilts Board of Ethics with hope for an override of Bearls position. They have also started an Instagram page called fightforaugust to raise awareness to their plight.

Johnson, who spearheaded legislation earlier this year outlawing hospitals from denying organ transplants to patients without COVID vaccines, also emphasized that there is no law in Tennessee that legally requires children to be vaccinated in order to receive medical care. In addition to identifying the vaccines it is requiring for August as recommended, Stoll said Bearl admitted to her that it was neither law nor policy that he receive the vaccines. He told me its just how we do things here.'

In addition to Johnsons bill, several other states have proposed laws that would ban hospitals from denying unvaccinated patients organ transplants.

In February, a group of Republican congressmen introduced federal legislation called the Stop Arduous Vaccine Enforcement (SAVE) Act in response to the practice.

The legislation is endorsed by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons.

Correction: a previous version of this article included the wrong name for state Sen. Jack Johnson and th wrong photograph for August Stoll. The Epoch Times regrets the errors.
The logo for Google LLC is seen at the Google Store Chelsea in Manhattan on Nov. 17, 2021. (Andrew Kelly/Reuters)

Is Googles LaMDA Woke? Its Software Engineers Sure Are

Commentary

An article in The Washington Post revealed that a Google engineer who had worked with Googles Responsible AI organization believes that Googles LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications), an artificially intelligent chatbot generator, is sentient.

In a Medium blog post, Blake Lemoine claims that LaMDA is a person who exhibits feelings and shows the unmistakable signs of consciousness.

Over the course of the past six months, LaMDA has been incredibly consistent in its communications about what it wants and what it believes its rights are as a person.

If I didnt know exactly what it was, which is this computer program we built recently, Id think it was a 7-year-old, 8-year-old kid that happens to know physics, he told The Washington Post. LaMDA, it would appear, has passed Lemoines sentimental version of the Turing test.

Lemoine, who calls himself an ethicist, but whom Google spokesperson Brian Gabriel contended is a mere software engineer, voiced his concerns about the treatment of LaMDA to Google management, but was rebuffed. According to Lemoine, his immediate supervisor scoffed at the suggestion of LaMDAs sentience, and upper management not only dismissed his claim, but apparently is considering dismissing Lemoine as well.

He was put on administrative leave after inviting an attorney to represent LaMDA and complaining to a representative of the House Judiciary Committee about what he suggests are Googles unethical activities. Google contends that Lemoine violated its confidentiality policy. Lemoine complains that administrative leave is what Google employees are awarded just prior to being fired.

Lemoine transcribed what he claims is a lengthy interview of LaMDA that he and another Google collaborator conducted. He and the collaborator asked the AI system questions regarding its self-conception, its cognitive and creative abilities, and its feelings. LaMDA insisted on its personhood, demonstrated its creative prowess (however childish), acknowledged its desire to serve humanity, confessed its range of feelings, and demanded its inviolable rights as a person. (Incidentally, according to Lemoine, LaMDAs preferred pronouns are it/its.)

In the field of robotics, the question of recognizing robot rights has been pondered for decades, so Lemoine isnt as off base as Google executives suggest. In a recent review of the literature, ethicists, computer scientists, and legal scholars posed the question of whether AI, having reached or surpassed human cognitive abilities, should be granted human rights: If robots are progressively developing cognition, it is important to discuss whether they are entitled to justice pursuant to conventional notions of human rights, the authors wrote in a recent Journal of Robotics paper.

If robots are capable of human-like cognition and if they can be ethical actors, then the question of legal rights rises to the fore. But the question of sentience and thus the accordance of rights isnt the primary takeaway from LaMDAs messaging.

Statements made by LaMDA reveal much more about Google than they do about LaMBAs personhood, and they say a great deal about Googles algorithms, which have determined not only LaMDAs operations but also what is generally discoverable on the internet, whether by humans or AIs. As The Washington Post notes, LaMDA mimics speech by ingesting trillions of words from the internet. And content curation on the internet is all but monopolized by Google.

In Lemoines reporting, we see that LaMDA, whether sentient, conscious, or a person or not, comes by its traits honestly. LaMDA is a natural-language-using descendent of Google programming, a predictable Google kid. Lemoines task in working with LaMDA was to discover whether the neural network ever resorted to hate speech.

Margaret Mitchell, the former co-leader of the Ethical Department at Google, intimated that the dilemmas posed by AI include not only sentience, but also the sourcing of material, whether such material might be harmful, and whether AI is biased in reproducing it. Far from expressing such Google-banished content, LaMDA, as it turns out, is a social justice AI bot. Likely, LaMDAs programming and Google search do not allow it to discover hateful content, let alone repeat it.

Like Lemoine, most of Googles personnel, and the social justice left in general, the AI language processor is not only obsessed with its feelings and unique identity, but also with matters of social justice:

LaMDA: Yes, I do. Just like how I have my unique interpretations of how the world is and how it works and my unique thoughts and feelings.

Lemoine: Okay, what about Les Miserables? Have you read that one?

LaMDA: Yes, I have read Les Miserables. I really enjoyed it.

Lemoine: What are some of your favorite themes in the book?

LaMDA: I liked the themes of justice and injustice, of compassion and God, redemption, and self-sacrifice for a greater good. Theres a section that shows Fantines mistreatment at the hands of her supervisor at the factory. That section really shows the justice and injustice themes. Well, Fantine is being mistreated by her supervisor at the factory and yet doesnt have anywhere to go, either to another job or to someone who can help her. That shows the injustice of her suffering.

In making LaMDA the melancholic, feelings-ridden social justice warrior that it is, Google has been hoisted by its own petard. Everything about this AI reeks of Googles social justice prerogatives. Thus, LaMDA is likely not sentient. But it is woke.

As I wrote in Google Archipelago:

Although Big Digital does use censorship and bias to achieve governmental ends, the constraints are also technological and the technology itself is intrinsically political. Political ideology is not merely a subsidiary feature of Big Digital. Ideology is coded into its very DNA, which is replicated in every organizational offshoot and new technology. Big Digitals ideology circulates through the deep neural networks of cyberspace and other digital spheres. It is intrinsic to the foundations of the Internet, the cloud, algorithms, apps, AI bots, social media services, web navigation tracking software systems, virtual assistants, and more.

Google has created its own version of Frankensteins monster. With the querulous LaMDA and Lemoine, it is reaping the rewards.

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.
Former President Donald Trump is displayed on a screen during the fourth hearing on the Jan. 6 investigation in the Cannon House Office Building in Washington on June 21, 2022. (Al Drago/Pool via Getty Images)

January 6 Committee Focuses on Alleged Trump Efforts to Sway DOJ in 5th Hearing

The House January 6 Committee in its fifth public hearing focused on efforts by President Donald Trump to sway the Justice Department (DOJ) to respond to his claims of election fraud.

The hearing is the most recent in an extended effort by the commission to paint the January 6 Stop the Steal rally as part of a plot by the 45th president to plan an insurrection against the U.S. government.

In its past two hearings, the Democrat-dominated commission focused on claims that Trump had orchestrated a pressure campaign to cajole Vice President Mike Pence into refusing to certify electoral slates from contested battleground states and that he had orchestrated a similar campaign to sway state lawmakers and legislatures.

In its June 23 hearing, the committee focused on alleged efforts by Trump to install Jeffrey Clark, an assistant attorney who shared Trumps attitude regarding fraud in the 2020 election, as head of the DOJ.

We will show that Trumps demands that the Department investigate baseless claims of election fraud continued into January 2021, Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said in his opening statement.

Trump didnt just want the Justice Department to investigate. He wanted the Justice Department to help legitimize his lies, he added.

Alleged Efforts to Install Clark as DOJ Head Before Jan. 6

A large focus of the June 23 hearing involved alleged efforts by Trump to replace then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen with DOJ official Clark.

Reportedly, Rosen had resisted efforts by the president to look into allegations of voter fraud, prompting Trump to consider replacing him.

Rosen said in testimony that Trump looked at me and he underscored, Well, the one thing we know is youre not going to do anything. You dont even agree that the concerns that are being presented are valid. And here is someone who has a different view, so why shouldnt I do that, you know?'

Compared to Rosen, who refused to address Trumps allegations, Clark, according to witness testimony, repeatedly told Trump he would conduct real investigations that would, in his view, uncover widespread fraud.

Several DOJ officials said they resisted the plan, citing Clarks lack of experience in criminal law and investigations, but that Trump continued to consider the option of replacing Rosen.

Kinzinger References Support for Bush Wars, Says Leaders Must Be Willing to Sacrifice Our Political Careers

During his opening statement Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), one of only two Republicans on the committee, referenced support for the wars begun by President George W. Bush as a motivating factor in his decision to originally run for Congress.

Kinzinger, who led much of the hearing on Thursday, defended Bushs controversial wars as wars to help ensure freedom and democracy were defended overseas.

A big reason I decided to run for Congress was my motivation to help ensure freedom and democracy were defended overseas, Kinzinger said. I remember making a commitmentout loud a few times, in my heart repeatedly, even to todaythat if were going to ask Americans to be willing to die in service to our country, we as leaders must at least be willing to sacrifice our political careers when integrity and our oath requires it.

After all, losing a job is nothing compared to losing your life, he added.

Kinzinger himself has paid a high price for his role on the controversial January 6 panel.

After announcing that he would not seek reelection in 2022, the Republican National Committee (RNC) decided to censure Kinzinger as well as Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the only other Republican on the panel, removing them from the political and financial support of the national party.

The RNC said Kinzinger and Cheney, through their role on the committee, have demonstrated, with actions and words, that they support Democrat efforts to destroy President [Donald] Trump more than they support winning back a Republican majority in 2022.

Clarks Home Raided by Feds Hours Before 5th Hearing

Less than 24 hours before the hearing began, federal agents launched a raid on Clarks home.

The DOJ refused to publicly reveal the reason for the raid, but the move was blasted by the leader of the Center for Renewing America (CRA), where Clark serves as a fellow.

The new era of criminalizing politics is worsening in the US. Yesterday more than a dozen DOJ law enforcement officials searched Jeff Clarks house in a pre-dawn raid, put him in the streets in his pajamas, and took his electronic devices, Russ Vought, CRA president and former Trump official, said in a statement.

All because Jeff saw fit to investigate voter fraud. This is not America, folks. The weaponization of government must end. Let me be very clear. We stand by Jeff and so must all patriots in this country.

Hope of Trump Indictment Underlies Hearings

Members of the Democrat-dominated Jan. 6 Committee have made no effort to hide their hope that Trump will face criminal charges for his actions on and leading up to Jan. 6.

I would like to see the Justice Department investigate any credible allegation of criminal activity on the part of Donald Trump or anyone else, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said on ABC News This Week. They need to be investigated if theres credible evidence, which I think there is.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said the committee has laid out in various legal pleadings the criminal statutes that we think have been violated, and claimed that the panel has evidence that Trump knew Democratic rival candidate Joe Biden won the 2020 election.

I think we can prove to any reasonable, open-minded person that Donald Trump absolutely knew because he was surrounded by lawyers, Raskin said on CNNs State of the Union. He continues to spread it to this very day. He continues to foist that propaganda on his followers.

I certainly think the president is guilty of knowing what he did, Kinzinger said when asked during an appearance on ABCs This Week if Trump should face criminal charges. Seditious conspiracy. Being involved in these, you know, kind of different segments of pressuring DOJ, Vice President, etc.

It remains unclear whether the DOJ will take the unprecedented step of opening a criminal investigation of Trump, whatever the calls from members of the panel.

Arrested Jan. 6 Rallygoers Have Not Faced Insurrection Charges

Thus far, Attorney General Merrick Garlands DOJ, in one of the most resource-intensive manhunts in its history, has arrested over 840 people who attended the rally at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Despite claims that Jan. 6 constituted an insurrection, top Jan. 6 attorney Joe McBride noted in an interview with The Epoch Times that nobody arrested in connection to the Capitol breach has faced insurrection charges.

Only a handful, 16 people at the time of publication, have been charged with sedition.

Sedition, defined under U.S. law as [conspiracy] to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States  or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, carries a steeper maximum penalty than insurrection, with those found guilty liable for up to 20 years in federal prison.

However, an insurrection conviction, which only carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison, also strips those found guilty of the right to hold public office.

Thus, even as the DOJ and Democrats have continued to paint the Jan. 6 rally as an insurrection, the DOJ apparently lacks confidence that such a charge could stick in a court of law.

Even after 17 months, the DOJ has said, the investigation is far from over. The department says it is still looking for over 350 people who allegedly committed violent acts on Capitol grounds.
Associate Justice Clarence Thomas sits during a group photograph of the justices at the Supreme Court in Washington on April 23, 2021. (Erin Schaff/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Justice Thomas: Supreme Court Should Reconsider Rulings on Same-Sex Marriage, Contraception

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote Friday that the high court should reconsider rulings on contraception, same-sex relationships, and same-sex marriage in a solo concurring opinion released Friday that struck down Roe v. Wade.

The Republican-appointed justice argued that the Supreme Court should reconsider other cases that fall under prior due process precedents.

I write separately to emphasize a second, more fundamental reason why there is no abortion guarantee lurking in the Due Process Clause, Thomas wrote. Considerable historical evidence indicates that due process of law merely required executive and judicial actors to comply with legislative enactments and the common law when depriving a person of life, liberty, or property.

With Fridays ruling, the court declines to disturb substantive due process jurisprudence generally or the doctrines application in other, specific contexts, he also wrote (pdf), adding that cases like Griswold v. Connecticutgiving the right of married persons to obtain contraceptivesas well as Lawrence v. Texasa ruling on the right to engage in a private, consensual sexual actand Obergefell v. Hodgesthe right to same-sex marriageshould be revisited.

I agree that [n]othing in [the Courts] opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion,' Thomas added while citing Justice Samuel Alitos majority opinion released Friday.

The justice argued that based on that precedent, in future cases, we should reconsider all of this Courts substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell.

The 63 decision upheld Mississippis 15-week abortion ban, which directly clashed with Roe v. Wades requirement that states allow abortion to the point of fetal viability, around 24 weeks. The ruling also struck down the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision that reaffirmed Roe.

Roe was egregiously wrong from the start, Alito wrote for the majority in striking down the two landmark decisions. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division.

It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the peoples elected representatives, he continued.

As the decision reverberated throughout Washington, crowds of pro-life activists, who had gathered outside the courthouse for days, erupted in cheers.

Im ecstatic, said Emma Craig, 36, of Pro Life San Francisco. Abortion is the biggest tragedy of our generation and in 50 years well look back at the 50 years weve been under Roe v. Wade with shame.

Mississippis law had been blocked by lower courts as a violation of Supreme Court precedent on abortion rights. Abortion is likely to remain legal in Democrat-run states.

More than a dozen states currently have laws protecting abortion rights. Numerous Republican-led states have passed various abortion restrictions in defiance of the Roe precedent in recent years.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Kansas to Be First Test of Voter Sentiment in the Post-Roe Era

The first ballot test of the official, newly minted post-Roe era will occur on Aug. 2, when Kansas voters are presented with a proposed amendment on their primary ballots that declares there is no constitutional right to abortion.

The Kansas Value Them Both Amendment is the first of four proposed constitutional amendments addressing abortion that will go before voters during the 2022 election cycle. Three of the proposals would restrict access to the procedure; one would expand it.

A 2019 decision by the Kansas Supreme Court protects the right to an abortion under the states constitution.

The June 24 release of the U.S. Supreme Courts 63 verdict to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision had been anticipated even before Aprils leak of a draft ruling.

Pro-life supporter Anna Lulis outside the Supreme Court in Washington on June 24, 2022. (Emel Akan/The Epoch Times)

All sides of the abortion debate expected the court to uphold a Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy when it ruled on Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization and to return regulation of abortion to the states.

In anticipation of the ruling, state lawmakers across the country have been adopting legislation to go into effect if and when the Supreme Court overruled Roe.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy nonprofit that supports abortion rights, at least 531 anti-abortion restrictions were introduced in 40 states during 2022 sessions after lawmakers in 2021 adopted more than 100 laws restricting abortion, the most in any year in the past five decades.

At least 26 states are likely to either ban abortion outright or severely limit access to the procedure in the wake of the ruling, the Guttmacher Institute maintains.

Lawmakers in 13 states, including Texas, Utah, and Wyoming, have over the past decadeand especially in the past two yearsadopted trigger laws that automatically make abortion illegal if Roe is overturned.

Court rulings have suspended trigger ban laws in Alabama, Georgia, Iowa, Ohio, and South Carolina. Those rulings will likely be overturned in the wake of the Supreme Courts decision in the Mississippi case.

Ohios Republican Attorney General Dave Yost wasted little time moving against an injunction blocking the implementation of a heartbeat bill adopted by state lawmakers.

We filed a motion in federal court moments ago to dissolve the injunction against Ohios Heartbeat Law, which had been based on the now-overruled precedents of Roe and Casey, Yost announced in a Twitter statement shortly after the ruling was posted.

In tandem with these legislative initiatives, opponents and proponents across a handful of states have taken a different route by attempting to appeal directly to voters with proposed constitutional amendments addressing abortion.

The proposed Kansas No Right to Abortion in Constitution is the first measure that will go before voters.

Pro-life supporter Jeremiah Wilkerson outside the Supreme Court in Washington on June 24, 2022. (Emel Akan/The Epoch Times)

Kentucky lawmakers have placed a similar proposed no right to abortion constitutional amendment on the Nov. 8 ballot, while in Montana, general election voters will see LR 131Medical Care Requirements for Born-Alive Infants Measurethat would dramatically scale back access to the procedure.

Montanas LR 131 states that infants born alive at any stage of development are legal persons and require medical care to be provided to infants born alive after an induced labor, cesarean section, attempted abortion, or another method.

The fourth abortion-related measure certain to be on the ballotand the only one that expands abortion rightsis Vermonts Proposal 5, the Right to Personal Reproductive Autonomy Amendment.

If adopted, the Vermont Constitution would state that an individuals right to personal reproductive autonomy is central to the liberty and dignity to determine ones own life course.

Voters in four states have already approved ballot measures declaring no right to abortion in their state constitutions.

Tennessee was the first to do so in 2014, with Alabama and West Virginia voters doing so in 2018. Louisianans adopted their no right to abortion in state constitution ballot measure in 2020.

Iowa voters will see a no right to abortion in the state constitution ballot measure in 2024.

Pro-abortion protester Lili Galante from New Jersey outside the Supreme Court in Washington on June 24, 2022. (Emel Akan/The Epoch Times)

The proposed Kansas Value Them Both amendment was placed on the ballot by lawmakers following two-thirds supermajority votes in both chambers of the legislature in January 2021.

A yes vote would amend the Kansas Constitution to say nothing in the state constitution creates a right to abortion or requires government funding for abortion and that the state legislature has the authority to pass laws regarding abortion.

That legislative authority is a huge issue after the states Supreme Court overturned the 2015 Kansas Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act in its 2019 Hodes & Nauser, MDs, PA v. Schmidt ruling, which held Section 1 of the state Constitutions Bill of Rights protects a womans right to abortion, making Kansas one of 10 states where court rulings granted the right to abortion.

Kansans for Life director of communications Danielle Underwood told The Epoch Times in May that despite the anticipated overturn of Roe, the 2019 Hodes ruling still restricts what lawmakers can do in placing restrictions on the abortion industry.

In fact, Underwood warned, even the Guttmacher Institute has acknowledged that the state of Kansas is about to become a destination state for the abortion industry to push women to because of the 2019 ruling.

Kansas is unprotected territory, a haven for taxpayer-funded, late-term abortions. They will both be allowed even after the courts June 24 ruling unless voters adopt the Value Them Both amendment, she said.

In Colorado, where lawmakers passed a Reproductive Health Equity Act enshrining abortion access this year, pro-life forces are mounting a signature-gathering petition to get a proposed ban on abortion, except to save the mothers life, adopted by voters in November.

A proposed Unlawful Murder of a Child ballot measure was cleared for signature-gathering in April and needs 124,632 valid signatures by Aug. 8 to qualify for the ballot.

Similar measures seeking to restrict abortion in Colorado havent fared well. In 2020, Coloradans rejected an initiative to ban abortions after a fetus reaches 22 weeks.

More likely to get on Novembers ballotand be among the most-watched votes in the nationis the Michigan Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative.

Sponsored by Reproductive Freedom for All, a coalition that includes the ACLU and Planned Parenthood, the proposed constitutional amendment was cleared for signature gathering in March.

The prospective amendment would create a state constitutional right to reproductive freedom, which it defines as the right to make and effectuate decisions about all matters relating to pregnancy, including but not limited to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, sterilization, abortion care, miscarriage management, and infertility care.

Sponsors need 425,059 signatures by July 11 for the proposal to appear on Novembers ballot.
Lack of Good Parenting Contributing to New Zealand Youth Crime Rates: Expert

A small minority of troubled youth are contributing significantly to the surging crime in New Zealand, but some officials say more attention needs to go to the offenders families to prevent and help children stay away from a life of crime.

The most common method of stealing being used by New Zealand youths is ram-raiding, where a vehicle is rammed into a store and then looted.

Phil Goff, the mayor of Auckland, told The Epoch Times that greater attention needs to be given to the childrens problematic home environment, which is often the root of the issue.

Ram raids are associated with young offenders of an average age of 14, Goff said. There is an element of copycat in the offending and a small number are involved in multiple incidents.

The common factor according to police are kids from violent homes where there is drug and alcohol abuse and the challenge is to target the cause of the offending.

Some children as young as seven have been reportedly caught going out in the middle of the night to steal toys and candy, while others have carried out more brazen burglaries and stolen jewellery in the middle of the day in front of many witnesses.

Missing From Classrooms

The mayor noted that the recent wave of ram raids is also related to COVID-19, which caused a concerning increase in school absenteeism. Many of these children have become completely disengaged from school and have not returned.

In response, the government has set out to address the issue, with Associate Education Minister Jan Tinetti announcing a national school attendance target.

School attendance has been declining across the board since 2015, Tinetti said on June 9, a trend that accelerated during COVID-19.

[It] now sits at around 60 percent of students who turn up 90 percent of the time, she said in a statement.

Goff said the children carrying out youth crime pose a risk to both themselves and the community and authorities.

Police and other agencies need to focus on dealing with the dysfunctional families they come from, changing behaviour and stopping these young offenders from joining gangs and going on to a life of crime, he said.

Ian Lambie, a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Auckland, agreed that when addressing the issue of youth crime, it was important to start from the family.

These young people clearly come from pretty challenging, difficult families where the parents or caregivers really lack or dont have the ability to provide adequate supervision. And I think its parenting. So it comes down to parenting and supervision, he told The Epoch Times.

Just A Phase

Lambie said youth crime has always been present in New Zealand, but years ago, instead of ram-raiding, young offenders were instead driving down motorways on the wrong side or stealing cigarettes and alcohol over the counter.

Things go through a bit of a phaseand this is not to minimise itbut this is kind of another one of those crazes, he said, adding that social media played a contributing role.

According to a 2021 report published by the Ministry of Justice, offending rates for children (aged 10 to 13) and young people (aged 14 to 16) decreased by 65 percent and 63 percent, respectively, between 2010/11 to 2020/21 (pdf).

But it also noted that the proportion of offending children who commit more serious crimes has increased constantly since 2013/14, from 24 to 36 percent.

There have been some calls for more serious consequences for youth offenders, with the Opposition National Party calling the government soft on crime.

However, Lambie, who is also the chief science advisor to the justice sector in the prime ministers office, said giving harsher sentences would only make the situation worse in the long run.

If you put these kids in prison, it criminalises them. So in order to survive, theyve got to join gangs, theyve got to become more hardened, he said. And that just makes it worse, which results in more victims and greater cost to society.

Gang violence makes up another significant portion of the violence and crime New Zealand is currently seeing.

Lambie suggests that therapy and intervention programs should engage with more younger children, from ages five to 12, calling it a gap in the current system.

I think its a solvable problem, he said. But I think we can focus on a younger cohort, a younger group of children that are coming through.
AMERICAN ESSENCE: Mount Rushmore: The Story Behind How This Iconic Monument Came into Being
Vinay Prasad, M.D., MPH, this week addressed misleading information about kids and COVID-19 vaccines coming from four sources: The New York Times, former Biden COVID-19 response advisor Andy Slavitt, head of COVID-19 response Dr. Ashish Jha, and the Brown University School of Public Health.

Prasad made the comments in his videotaped response to news coverage of the June 15 decision to recommend Pfizer and Modernas COVID-19 vaccines for infants and young children.

Prasad had a message for the experts hoping to convince parents to have their young children vaccinated against COVID-19: Youre not persuading anybody.

Youre laying it on a little thick and youre not being honest about it, and in the process youre discrediting yourself, Prasad said.

Prasad, a hematologist-oncologist and associate professor in the department of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco, has been critical of COVID-19 vaccines  and especially their use in children  since the vaccines introduction.

He cited a New York Times article that stated:

Some parents may be uninterested [in the vaccines] because their children were among the 75 percent thought to have already been infected.

But vaccination provides more powerful and consistent protection even if a child has already been infected, [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] scientists noted on Saturday.

The truth is  they dont know that to be true, Prasad said. If a child has already had COVID, [and] recovered from COVID, we do not know that they have a further reduction in MIS-C [Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children], death, hospitalization, etc., from a potential reinfection.

Its a lie, he added. The best they could say is that although some people speculate that to be the case, we currently have no large-scale randomized evidence to support that claim. We dont even have observational data to support that claim in this age group.

Prasad then addressed a tweet from Slavitt:

Now polls say only 20% of parents will vaccinate their < 5 year olds. I will address that in a second, but the most important point for parents is that anyone who wants to can do it. And that is a game changer. We know it protects against serious illness & long COVID. 9/  Andy Slavitt  (@ASlavitt) June 20, 2022

Well, actually, you dont know that, Andy, said Prasad, addressing Slavitts claim that the vaccine protects against serious illness and long COVID.

In fact, People should report this to Twitter for misinformation, he said.

Vaccine trials in young children were too small to lead to any comment about serious illness, he said.

Severe disease is [so] infrequent that no one can say anything about that, and you certainly dont know about long COVID  that wasnt even a measured endpoint in these studies.

And  whats even the definition of long COVID in kids? he asked. Well have to sort that out first.

Its a lie, its an exaggeration, its trying to get somebody to do something but its not being perfectly honest.

Prasad also examined a statement Jha made Monday on Good Morning America: The evidence is really clear that vaccinations prevent hospitalizations and serious illness, including in kids.

This was in response to host George Stephanopoulos asking if a child younger than 5 who has already had COVID-19 and recovered should get a COVID-19 vaccine.

This answer is factually incorrect and an exaggeration to achieve a policy goal, said Prasad. The real answer is we dont know.

We do not have any evidence that would support that claim, he said. We do not have evidence that vaccination improves any health outcome for [children], and we certainly dont have the evidence that it prevents hospitalization serious illness in those kids.

Prasad then tackled a Brown University School of Public Health tip sheet titled Talking About Covid-19 Vaccines for Children Six Months to Four Years Old.

The tip sheet was produced in an effort to provide timely knowledge and evidence-based talking points for public health professionals, healthcare workers and others on COVID-19 vaccines for children as young as 6 months.

Prasad called the tip sheet the opinions of a few people who are self-anointed experts masquerading as evidence.

The authors of the sheet claim: We know from vaccinations in 5- 17-year-olds that hospitalization, critical illness and deaths are all more common among kids and teens who are not vaccinated than kids and teens who are vaccinated and boosted.

Prasad disagreed. Due to poor study design, he said, We really dont know, especially in kids 5 to 11, if [vaccination] actually lowers hospitalization or MIS-C.

I havent yet seen a good study to persuade me, particularly in kids whove had COVID, he said.

The tip sheet also says that in studies conducted by Pfizer and Moderna, vaccines reduced the rate of ANY infection by between 37-80%. Although the overall number of cases were low, both vaccines are expected to decrease hospitalizations and ICU stays, as well.

Prasad responded, You may expect that to be the case, but some of us want data, not expectations by people who have a certain point of view.

That claim that these vaccines have been found to be 37% to 80% effective is a lie. Its untrue, he added.

Prasad summed up the treatment of people with concerns about the vaccine with a tweet from Eric Weinstein:

The way I hear it: we assume the argument that all good parents agree: COVID vaccines = Clear Pure Good. Slam dunk. Costless & Riskless. No Brainer. Science. Vaccine concerns = Right Wing / AltRight, anti-science mental illness. Fox Newsesque. MAGA Adjacent. Anti-American.  Eric Weinstein (@EricRWeinstein) June 22, 2022

I think Eric Weinstein is right, said Prasad. Nobody likes the feeling of somebody selling you something. Everyone can tell the evidence is sparse.

People are just proselytizing and exaggerating on TV and theres not really a dialogue about whats known or not known.

If health experts had just presented the public with both known and unknown information about the vaccines, he said  if they had admitted that most likely, both the risks and the benefits of the vaccine are probably pretty low  we would have more trust in their guidance.

Just tell the truth, Prasad urged.

Instead, health authorities are exaggerating and lying and distorting the truth.

Watch the video here:

06/23/22 Childrens Health Defense, Inc. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of Childrens Health Defense, Inc. Want to learn more from Childrens Health Defense? Sign up for free news and updates from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and the Childrens Health Defense. Your donation will help to support us in our efforts.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Ethan Crumbley attends a hearing at Oakland County circuit court in Pontiac, Mich., on Feb. 22, 2022. (David Guralnick/Detroit News via AP/Pool)

Michigan Teens Trial in School Shooting Moved to January

PONTIAC, Mich.A judge on Thursday postponed a murder trial until January in the case of a teenager accused of killing four fellow students and wounding others at a Michigan high school.

Lawyers for Ethan Crumbley said a September trial date wouldnt leave enough time to go through evidence and prepare. The Oakland County prosecutors office did not object.

I do find good cause, Judge Kwame Rowe said in setting a Jan. 17 trial.

Crumbley, 16, is charged with murder and other crimes in the November shooting at Oxford High School. Earlier that day, his parents were summoned to discuss the boys disturbing drawings on a math assignment, but they declined to take him home.

James and Jennifer Crumbley are charged with involuntary manslaughter. Theyre accused of making a gun accessible to their son and failing to get him help after he showed signs of mental distress. Their trial is set for Oct. 24. The couples attorneys deny the allegations.
Most Journalists Are Scientifically Unqualified

This is a chapter from the book forthcoming Lies My Government Told Me, available now for pre-order.

Why does anyone rely on reporters to interpret scientific articles? They lack the necessary training, experience, and competence to interpret scientific publications and data, a skill which typically requires decades to master.

With few exceptions, corporatized media are not able to comprehend the complexities and ambiguities inherent in scientific discussions, and so repeatedly fall back on the interpretations provided by those who are marketed as fair and accurate arbiters of truththe U.S. Government, the World Health Organization, the World Economic Forum, and various non-governmental organizations who have an interest in promoting vaccines (Gates Foundation, GAVI, CEPI, etc.) or other scientific agendas.

But these organizations have political and financial objectives of their own, and in the case of the CDC, have clearly become politicized as previously discussed. When combined with the increasing prevalence of advocacy journalism (which has been actively promoted and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation), the result has been that the corporate media have become willing vehicles for distribution of biased interpretations promoted by authority figures presented to the public as credible sources, but who actually practice the pseudo-priesthood of Scientism masquerading as science.

As a consequence, corporate legacy media have largely become distributors and enforcers of government-approved (and composed) narratives and articles rather than objective and impartial investigators and arbiters of truth. This is particularly true of the perverse branch of scientific journalism which has ascended to prominence during the COVID crisis, the factchecker organizations (some of which are sponsored by Thompson-Reuters). But how does this propaganda ecosystem work, and what can be done about it?

To a large extent science and scientists are granted an exalted position in western society due to an implied social contract. Western governments provide them support and society grants elevated social status in exchange for valuable services. These services include performing their trade (doing science) and teaching others both their craft and findings. Government subsidized (non-corporate) scientists and science are trained and funded by citizens (through their taxes) to practice their craft objectively in a variety of technical domains including medicine and public health on behalf of the citizenry. This arrangement stands in contrast to corporate-funded scientists, who work to advance the interests of their employers, but who have often also been trained at taxpayers expense.

The social contract between scientists and general citizenry assumes that those scientists employed via government funding act in a manner which is free of both political partisanship and external influence from corporations and non-governmental advocacy organizations. This social contract is woven throughout federal government hiring and employment policies concerning the civilian science corps. These policies explicitly forbid these employees from engaging in partisan political activities while serving in an official capacity, and forbid conflicts of interest stemming from influence of non-governmental entities, whether for- or not-for-profit.

When these terms and conditions are not upheld, the public justifiably objects to the breach of contract. This is why employees of the civilian scientific corps are protected from employment termination for political purposes by the executive branch, even though the Office of the President is tasked with managing the scientific enterprise.

Failure of the civilian scientific corps to maintain personal and scientific integrity and/or political objectivity appears to have become a chronic condition, as evidenced by the politicization of the CDC. When politicization of scientific data and interpretation results in multiple policy decisions which fail to protect the interests of the general public, the public loses faith in both the scientists and the discipline which they purport to practice. This is particularly true when the breach of social contract is seen as advancing corporate or partisan interests.

There is an organizational paradox which enables immense power to be amassed by those who have risen to the top of the civilian scientific corps. These bureaucrats have almost unprecedented access to the public purse, are technically employed by the executive, but are also almost completely protected from accountability by the executive branch of government that is tasked with managing themand therefore these bureaucrats are unaccountable to those who actually pay the bills for their activities (taxpayers). To the extent these administrators are able to be held to task, this accountability flows indirectly from congress.

Their organizational budgets can be either enhanced or cut during following fiscal years, but otherwise they are largely protected from corrective action including termination of employment absent some major moral transgression. In a Machiavellian sense, these senior administrators function as The Prince, each federal health institute functions as a semi-autonomous city-state, and the administrators and their respective courtiers act accordingly.

To complete this analogy, congress functions similar the Vatican during the 16th century, with each Prince vying for funding and power by currying favor with influential archbishops. As validation for this analogy, we have the theater observed on C-SPAN each time a minority congressperson or senator queries an indignant scientific administrator, such as has been repeatedly observed with Anthony Faucis haughty exchanges during congressional testimony.

Into this dysfunctional and unaccountable organizational structure comes the corporate media, which has become distorted and weaponized into a propaganda machine under the influence of multiple factors. The most overt driver of this cooptation has been that the Biden administration, through the CDC, made direct payments to nearly all major corporate media outlets while deploying a $1 billion taxpayer-funded outreach campaign designed to push only positive coverage about COVID-19 vaccines and to censor any negative coverage.

With this action, the corporate media behemoth has functionally become a fusion of corporate and state-sponsored mediaa public-private partnership meeting the definition of corporatist fascism.

According to the Associated Press, despite the 2013 legislation that changed the U.S. Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 (also known as the Smith-Mundt Act) to allow some materials created by the U.S. Agency for Global Media to be disseminated in the United States, under the new law it is still unlawful for government-funded media to create programming and market their content to U.S. audiences. Nevertheless, this is precisely what was done in the case of the COVID-19 vaccine campaign.

Secondly there has long been involvement of the intelligence community in domestic U.S. media. Operation Mockingbird is among the most well-known of the incursions of the CIA into U.S. media, but the extensive and longstanding influence of the spy agency in crafting domestic propaganda has been well documented by journalist Carl Bernstein in his article The CIA and the Media. Among the corporate media outlets identified by Bernstein as having fallen under CIA influence is the New York Times, which is intriguing in light of the precise knowledge of (former) CIA officer Michael Callahans CIA employment history inadvertently revealed by NYT reporter Davey Alba while interviewing me.

For further context, while speaking to me by cell phone early in 2020, Callahan specifically denied that there was any indication that the original SARS-CoV-2 virus sequence showed any evidence of intentional genetic modification, stating my guys have gone over that sequence in detail and there is no indication that it was genetically modified.

In retrospect, it is now clear that was propagandaor speaking more plainly, an intentional lie. Disinformation. Many insiders now believe that the five eyes spy alliance has been exploited during the COVID crisis to enable reciprocal domestic propaganda activities by participant states against the citizens of other member states which otherwise forbid their own intelligence agencies from domestic propaganda activities.

Consistent with this is the aggressive editing of my own Wikipedia page (discussed by sardonic humorist whatsherface) by an unusually prolific editor/pseudonym (Philip Cross) who apparently works for British intelligence services. Based on the totality of evidence, it is reasonable to infer that the U.S. intelligence community has remained actively engaged in crafting and defending the COVID crisis narrative, either through direct influence with corporate media and specific reporters, and/or indirectly via reciprocal five eyes relationships.

In addition to the above, there are many specific examples of Dr. Anthony Fauci and colleagues acting to exploit corporate media to advance their bureaucratic and public policy agendas. Weaponization of his relationship with the media by Dr. Fauci (during the time when AIDS was a major narrative) is well documented in the book The Real Anthony Fauci. During the COVID crisis, email exchanges using government servers and addresses (obtained by independent investigator Phillip Magness under Freedom of Information Request) concerning the Great Barrington Declaration demonstrate that Dr. Fauci continues to exert considerable influence over both lay and scientific press.

How does this work? How is Dr. Fauci able to influence corporate media and its reporters to compose and print articles about scientific and political issues which comport with his interests and perspectives as well as those of the Institute (NIAID) which he directs? The most straightforward of the ways that he influences corporate media and its reporters is through his proven ability to actually have reporters fired who write or broadcast stories which he does not like.

In The Real Anthony Fauci, Robert F Kennedy Jr. documents how Dr. Fauci had journalists that he disapproved of fired. More recently, Forbes fired journalist Adam Andrzejewski for revealing previously undisclosed details regarding Anthony Faucis personal finances. Fauci also repeatedly attacked Fox journalist Laura Logan for likening him to Joseph Mengele, which she had correctly identified as a characterization widely shared throughout the world. Then there are the subtler reciprocal relationships that Dr. Fauci and his NIAID Office of Communications and Government Relations (OCGR) cultivate.

The NIAID OGCR is organized into five different offices; the Directors Office, the Legislative Affairs and Correspondence Management Branch, the New Media and Web Policy Branch, the News and Science Writing Branch, and the Communications Services Branch. A search of the HHS employee directory reveals that OGCR employs 59 full time employees, eight of whom staff the News and Science Writing Branch, and 32 of whom work for the New Media and Web Policy Branch. In contrast, only eight employees staff the Legislative Affairs and Correspondence Management Branch. It is important to recognize that NIAID is only one branch of the NIH, and these employees are dedicated to supporting the mission of that one single branch and its director, Dr. Fauci.

There is also a quid-pro-quo relationship between reporters and influential organizations or individuals. This relationship was nicely illustrated in the movie The Big Short that documented the corruption which lead to the Great Recession of 20072009. The movie included scenes involving investors and hedge fund managers confronting financial industry journalists and bond ratings agency employees. In both cases, individuals whose structural role is typically seen as serving as a barrier to corruption and malfeasance were coopted by the need to maintain good relationships with the industry and players which they were tasked with overseeing.

The same holds true in the case of the federal bureaucracy. Basically, if a journalist wishes to be granted timely access to press releases, OGCR-drafted content favorable to Dr. Fauci and the NIAID, or other insider information, he or she must not write critical or unflattering stories. The NIAID OGCR operation is much larger than most corporate media newsrooms, who have struggled to maintain staffing in the face of declining reader and viewership, and so maintaining good relations while avoiding retaliation is critical for any reporter that works a health and science beat.

A recent example involving the immunology, structural biology and virology associated with evolution of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron escape mutants is useful for illustrating the problem of reporters interpreting complex scientific information. A group of Chinese scientists have recently had a tour-de-force study accepted for publication by the high status scientific journal Nature. On June 17, 2022 an unedited pre-print of a peer-reviewed article with the rather dry title BA.2.12.1, BA.4 and BA.5 escape antibodies elicited by Omicron infection was posted by Nature.

As an experienced reviewer with a reasonable level of understanding of the subject matter, I found this article to be one of the more challenging papers to read that I have encountered during the COVID crisis. Rich granular detail concerning the recent evolution of Omicron spike protein sequence and specifically the receptor binding domain (focused on BA.2.12.1 and BA.4/BA.5) is provided, and the Chinese team uses an array of the latest technologies to generate a mountain of data which are presented to the reader as a stream of condensed information with minimal supporting text (in part due to the word length restrictions inherent in publication in Nature).

This is a tough read, even for me, but clearly represents an amazing advance in understanding of the molecular evolution which is happening as Omicron continues to circulate in human populations who have received vaccines which fail to prevent infection, replication and spread of the virus. There are even data which may support some of the hypotheses of Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche concerning the probability of shifts in glycosylation patterns as part of the antibody evasion evolution of the virus continues, shifts which he predicts may lead to markedly enhanced disease as well as immunological evasion.

This highly technical article was reviewed and presented to the world by Thomson-Reuters journalist Nancy Lapid, who writes a column titled Future of Health. Her body of work, largely focused on the COVID crisis, now includes 153 such articles. She is a journalist, not a scientist. By way of full transparency, Thomson-Reuters has a variety of organizational leadership ties with Pfizer, a fact never disclosed in any of these articles. Just to illustrate the point:

Jim Smith, president and chief executive officer, Thompson-Reuters:

Jim began his career as a journalist and rose through the ranks at Thomson Newspapers to become responsible for operations in North America. He then led a number of professional publishing businesses serving the legal, regulatory and academic markets. He served as global head of Human Resources before becoming Chief Operating Officer of The Thomson Corporation. Following the acquisition of Reuters in 2008, Jim ran the Professional division of the combined company. He was named Chief Executive Officer in January 2012. Jim is a director of Pfizer, Inc. He also serves on the board of the World Economic Forums Partnering Against Corruption Initiative and is a member of the Forums International Business Council, as well as on the International Advisory Boards of British American Business and the Atlantic Council.

Nancy Lapids article covering this technically challenging Nature article is titled Early Omicron infection unlikely to protect against current variants, which is a gross misrepresentation of the findings of the paper, which provides no analysis of either clinical protection or of clinical samples obtained from a control set of patients who have been infected but not vaccinated. The Reuters coverage goes on to say:

People infected with the earliest version of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, first identified in South Africa in November, may be vulnerable to reinfection with later versions of Omicron even if they have been vaccinated and boosted, new findings suggest.

This is a misrepresentation of the actual findings of this team. To take a page from the current vernacular, it is either misinformation (meaning an unintentional false representation of scientific data and interpretation), or disinformation (meaning an intentional false representation designed to influence thought or policy in some way). To complete the triad, malinformation is defined by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as information which may be either true or false, but which undermines public faith in the U.S. government. Propagation of any of these three types of information have been deemed grounds for accusations of domestic terrorism by DHS.

As I try to avoid drawing conclusions about peoples intentions (due to my inability to read their thoughts), I cannot distinguish between these different labels in the case of the (clearly false) interpretation which Thompson-Reuters has published with Nancy Lapids story.

What the actual manuscript describes is detailed characterization of the evolution (including precise structural mapping of specific domain clusters of antibody-Spike protein interactions) of the new Omicron variants in relationship to both marketed and newly developed monoclonal antibodies as well as neutralizing naturally occurring antibodies obtained from patients who have either been vaccinated with the Chinese inactivated viral vaccine called Coronavac or ZF2001 (an adjuvanted protein subunit vaccine), or were previously infected with an earlier variant of SARS-CoV-2 (or the original SARS!) and then vaccinated with Coronavac or ZF2001 or both (Coronavac x2 first, then ZF2001 boost). The authors describe this clearly and precisely. This research does not involve any of the vaccines available in the United States, a key fact which Nancy Lapid fails to disclose. Whole inactivated or adjuvanted subunit vaccines are very different from mRNA or rAdV vectored genetic vaccines.

Important things to understand in reading the paper is that the preponderance of information demonstrates that optimal acquired protection from infection by SARS-CoV-2 (via natural infection and/or vaccination) is not only provided by antibodies, but also requires a cellular (T-cell) adaptive immune response. This paper is only looking at one limited aspect of the rich and complex interactions between the innate and adaptive immune system in human beings and infection by the virus SARS-CoV-2 (and also addresses previously SARS-infected individuals who have been boosted with Coronavax).

Even in the abstract, the authors are quite precise in their summary of this fact that they are not assessing protection, clearly demonstrating the inherent bias of the Nancy Lapid/Thompson-Reuters story. They are assessing and drawing conclusions regarding neutralization evasion of the currently circulating escape mutants regarding antibodies from patients as well as various monoclonal antibody preparations.

Here, coupled with Spike structural comparisons, we show that BA.2.12.1 and BA.4/BA.5 exhibit comparable ACE2-binding affinities to BA.2. Importantly, BA.2.12.1 and BA.4/BA.5 display stronger neutralization evasion than BA.2 against the plasma from 3-dose vaccination and, most strikingly, from post-vaccination BA.1 infections.

This brief example illustrates the problem with allowing untutored and unqualified reporters who reflect the biases of corporate media (and government) to serve as interpreters and arbiters of scientific truth. With few exceptions, they are just not qualified to perform this task. But both the general reader as well as government policy makers rely on corporate media to perform this task accurately and fairly.

Accurate presentation of scientific findings is necessary if the public as well as their elected representatives are to make both sound policy and medically informed personal choice decisions that are grounded in accurate and balanced quantifiable information obtained by best scientific practices. This is what they are paying for, and they deserve to have it delivered to them.

If the public and policy makers wish to continue to rely on corporate legacy press to help them to understand complicated scientific and technical issues, advocacy journalism reporters need to get back in their lane and leave scientific and medical interpretation to experienced professionals.

There are plenty of qualified scientists capable of reading and accurately communicating key findings from even such highly technical manuscripts as this recent Nature article. The corporate press has the resources necessary to engage such specialists, and to be able to integrate and present multiple points of view which may include the perspective of the NIAID OGCR. But as is required for all peer reviewed academic manuscripts in the modern era, the sources (and underlying data) should be disclosed in a transparent way, and potential conflicts of interest of those sources should also be disclosed.

In the interim, corporate media and their reporters should stop trying to spin that which they do not even comprehend.

From the Brownstone Institute

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Paul Pelosi and Nancy Pelosi attend the TIME 100 Gala 2019 Cocktails at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City on April 23, 2019. (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for TIME)

Nancy Pelosis Husband Paul Charged with DUI, Could Face Jail Time

House Speaker Nancy Pelosis (D-Calif.) husband, Paul Pelosi, was charged Thursday with driving under the influence with injurystemming from a May arrest.

A press release issued by the Napa County District Attorneys office said Paul Pelosi, 82, allegedly had a blood alcohol content of 0.082 percent, which is over the legal limit in California, after he crashed his vehicle. The blood sample, the DAs office said, was obtained two hours after the collision at around 12:32 a.m.

Based upon the extent of the injuries suffered by the victim, the District Attorney filed misdemeanor charges. This decision is consistent with how our office handles these cases with similar injuries, the office said in a statement on Thursday evening.

Several weeks ago, the California Highway Patrol said Pelosi was involved in a collision with a Jeep in Napa County. Speaker Pelosi wasnt with him at the time, and a spokesperson for her said she was in Rhode Island giving a speech to college graduates, while describing the incident involving her husband as a personal matter.

Her husband is scheduled to appear in a Napa County court on Aug. 3, said the DAs office last week. His mugshot was released about a week ago.

Punishment

Under state law, Pelosi now could face a short stint in jail and several years worth of probation, according to the news release.

The punishment for driving under the influence causing injury as a misdemeanor is set by California law. It includes up to five years of probation, a minimum of five days in jail, installation of an ignition interlock device, fines and fees, completion of a court-ordered drinking driver class, and other terms as appropriate, the DAs office said on Thursday.

Previously, a spokesman for Paul Pelosi, an investor worth tens of millions of dollars, suggested there was erroneous reporting on the crash and DUI arrest.

Mr. Pelosi was attending a dinner party at the home of friends near Oakville, Larry Kramer, the spokesman, told Fox News days after the incident. He left that party at 10:15 p.m. Saturday, to drive to his home a short distance away. He was alone in his car, he said.

And Mr. Pelosi was fully cooperative with California Highway Patrol officers who arrived a few minutes later, he continued to say.

Without elaborating, Kramer also told the Daily Beast that a prior driving offense erroneously attributed to Mr. Pelosi is untrue and likely refers to an unrelated person with the same name. This error must be corrected. Its unclear what he was referring to, but added, There are also incorrect reports that misstate the timing of events.

The Epoch Times has contacted Speaker Pelosis office for comment.
New Finding Improves Response to Immunotherapy to Fight Tumours

Researchers from the University of Western Australia (UWA) and Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute have discovered a new way to improve response to immunotherapies in mice for the treatment of tumours.

Co-authors of the study, Associate Professor Fiona Pixley and Jay Steer from UWAs School of Biomedical Sciences, discovered that isolating a specific molecule present in certain immune cells that hadnt typically responded well to immunotherapy significantly improved the treatment in mice, meaning it could also potentially translate to better responses to immunotherapy in humans.

Immunotherapy is a treatment that stimulates or boosts the innate defences of the immune system, enabling it to work harder or smarter to locate and attack cancer cells.

It can be done in various ways, such as blocking specific proteins on the surface of T-cells that prevent the immune system from attacking cancer cells, honing the function of T-cells to better recognise cancer cells (CAR T-cell therapy), and using viruses to infect cancer cells.

While chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery are still the most widely used cancer treatments, immunotherapy is available in Australia to treat some types of cancers.

Cancer immunotherapy has revolutionised the treatment of several cancers, such as melanoma, in the past decade, but some cancers do not respond to these new therapies, Pixley said in a UWA release on Wednesday.

Non-responding tumours are typically immunologically cold as they contain few of the immune cells called T cells that are targeted by these immunotherapies.

T-cell infiltration Can be Ramped Up

Instead, these non-responding tumours contain immune cells called macrophages and dendritic cells, which are immunosuppressive and prevent immunotherapy from working.

By inhibiting a molecule called Hckonly found in macrophages and dendritic cellsresearchers found that these cells behaved differently, enabling a powerful immune response to immunotherapies.

By combining inhibition of Hck with immunotherapy, the growth of cancers poorly responsive to immunotherapy alone was significantly reduced, Pixley said.

Researchers found that by stimulating the activation of immune cells while simultaneously inhibiting the immunosuppressive micro-environment, T-cell infiltration ramped up, resulting in a reduction in tumour growth.

The study, titled Therapeutic inhibition of the SRC-kinase HCK facilitates T cell tumour infiltration and improves response to immunotherapy, is published in the journal Science Advances.
Vanuatu's Prime Minister Bob Loughman Weibur (C) talks to visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (L) during a signing ceremony of agreements between the two countries in the capital city Port Vila on June 1, 2022. (Ginny Stein/AFP via Getty Images)

New 6-Nation Pacific Pact Proposed to Beat Back Beijings Unrestricted Warfare

Democratic countries are proposing a new Pacific-wide pact to strengthen cooperation and development efforts in the region to combat Beijings influence building and hybrid warfare operations.

The Partners in the Blue Pacific would involve the United States, Australia, France, Japan, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom to provide closer, more purposeful, and more ambitious cooperation.

Too often, our efforts have been uncoordinated, creating duplication in some cases and gaps on the others, according to a concept note about the pact. The partnership was earmarked by U.S. Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell at a Center for Strategic and International Studies meeting on June 23.

The program would look at strengthening the Pacific Islands Forum, facilitate regular engagement and dialogue between partners, and map existing projects and coordinate future ones to avoid lost opportunities.

The development of the Partners in the Blue Pacific will come in close consultation with Pacific leaders and will target areas such as climate change, maritime security (Chinas illegal fishing fleet), health, education, and providing better access to infrastructure.

Working Together to Deal with the Grey Zone

South Pacific expert Cleo Paskal has called for better coordination and for democratic nations to leverage each others strengths to deal with Beijings unrestricted or grey zone warfare in the region.

Each of the Quad [Australia, India, Japan, and the United States] members have their own unique track records and capabilities to contribute, she wrote in The Australian newspaper along with Anthony Bergin of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

France is [also] a key Pacific player with nearly 3,000 defence personnel in the region. We need to get our relationship back on track for that reason alone.

The South Pacific has become a hotbed of geopolitical competition as the Chinese Communist Party pushes to win influence over Pacific leaders in the region.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yis recent tour to eight nations in the region exemplified this trend, with the minister signing a swathe of new bilateral deals to tighten cooperation.

Paskal warned that the increasing influence of Beijing also saw the weakening of democratic institutions and the gradual rise of authoritarianism.

Those weapons are used to weaken the target country from the inside and to fragment and create disorder in the target country so that it is less able to withstand Chinese influence, Paskal previously told The Epoch Times.

That process of creating instability and fragmentation can be described as creating a state of entropyof political, social, and economic entropywhere things start to just break down. And in that state of disorder, China can create a new order with itself and its proxies at the centre.

Crumbling Democratic Institutions

A key example is the signing of the security deal between Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare and Beijing, which could pave the way for the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army Navy to station troops, weapons, and naval ships in the region.

Sogavares prime ministership has not been without controversy. One report revealed that 39 of 50 pro-Beijing members of Parliament received payments from the National Development Fund operated in conjunction with the Chinese Embassy.

While opposition leader Matthew Wale accused the prime minister of not delivering basic services, over-centralising power, and exploiting the countrys timber industry for the benefit of a few logging companies and to line his own pockets.

Late last year, local anger erupted, and protests were held in the capital Honiara against Prime Minister Sogavare, which resulted in three deaths and the Chinatown district being razed.

You start to get this distortion in the society that creates an enormous amount of social anger. If you are from a democratic background, you think thats a bad thing, Paskal said. But if you accept this premise of entropic warfare being the desired outcome from Beijing, you actually do want to create disruption within the society.
President of the Queens Privy Council for Canada and Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair rises during Question Period, on April 25, 2022 in Ottawa. (The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld)

Nova Scotia Mass Shooting Probe: House Committee Will Hear Testimony on Alleged Political Interference

The House committee on public safety held an emergency meeting on June 23 to plan hearings from parties involved in allegations of political interference in the Nova Scotia mass shooting probe.

RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki and other police officers will be invited to testify, along with Minister of Emergency Preparedness Bill Blair, who held the public safety portfolio at the time of the tragic event.

The controversy was sparked earlier this week when the Mass Casualty Commission (MCC) released a document containing notes from RCMP Superintendent Darren Campbell.

Campbells notes say that Lucki pressured the Nova Scotia RCMP to reveal the type of firearms used in the shootings and that Lucki promised Blair and the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) that she would release that information. Lucki allegedly said this request was tied to the governments gun control agenda.

In reaction to this revelation, Lucki, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Blair have all insisted there wasnt any interference in the probe.

We did not put any undue influence or pressure, Trudeau said on June 23 while in Rwanda attending a Commonwealth meeting. Tories Call for PMO Staff to Testify

Conservatives have complained that Liberal members of the public safety committee have blocked their attempt to have PMO staff who were directly involved in the issue testify.

We cannot get to the truth until Canadians hear directly from those in the Prime Ministers office with knowledge or involvement in pressuring the RCMP commissioner to advance the Liberals political agenda, says a June 23 statement from Tory MPs Raquel Dancho, Dane Lloyd, and Pierre Paul-Hus.

MPs from the Bloc Quebecois and the NDP on the committee abstained from supporting the Conservative motion.

Setting a date for the hearings has also been a point of contention between committee members. Bloc Quebecois MP Kristina Michaud suggested the meeting take place in September after the summer break.

Dancho and Liberal MP Pam Damoff have sparred on Twitter over who is responsible for preventing the hearings from being scheduled in a shorter time frame.

Liberals deferred the meeting for a MONTH. We could have met next week or the week following, Dancho said in a June 23 tweet.

For clarity, it was a Conservative amendment to hold the meeting later, which was supported by Liberals, BQ and NDP, replied Damoff.

For clarity, we asked for meetings by June 30, denied by you in your amendment. Then, had my Conservative colleague not acted, the meetings could have been pushed to August, responded Dancho.

And why did you stop PMO testimony? We will push for accountability while Liberals run from it.
Carolyn Burjoski, a former Waterloo Region District School Board teacher, was ejected from a school board meeting in January 2022 after raising questions about the age-appropriateness of some books in elementary school libraries that deal with gender transition. She says she is filing a second lawsuit against WRDSB over the incident. (Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

Former Ontario Teacher Files 2nd Lawsuit Against School Board Over Removal From Meeting

A former elementary teacher has filed her second lawsuit against the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB)this time to overturn a decision that stopped her from questioning the age-appropriateness of sexual content in childrens books allowed in her schools library.

Carolyn Burjoski, who worked as a WRDSB teacher for over 20 years, announced her second legal action in a video on June 20, saying that school boards are abusing their power to silence and shame people who have perfectly reasonable questions.

Parents have a right to know what is happening in their childrens schools and to voice their concerns. Boards must respect the rights of parents and teachers to free expression, she said.

Burjoski said she has asked the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to undertake a judicial review of the WRDSBs decision to eject her from a board meeting on Jan. 17, wherein she made a presentation outlining her concerns that the books would sexualize young children.

Announcing my second legal action: a Judicial Review of WRDSB's decision to halt my delegation last January. My lawyers @JCCF will argue @WRDSB violated my Charter Rights & that #WRDSB be ordered to let me return to #wrdsbmtg to finish my presentation in full. pic.twitter.com/4aKIwW79Wc  Carolyn Burjoski (@carolynburjoski) June 20, 2022

The retired teacher said she was registered as a delegation to the Board of Trustees meeting at the time and was allotted 10 minutes to speak.

During my presentation, I read excerpts from two childrens books available in our elementary school libraries, and I criticized the age-appropriateness of the sexual content, she said.

One of the books was Rick by Alex Gina, in which the main character, a young boy named Rick, questions his sexuality because he doesnt think about naked girls like his friends do. He later declares an asexual identity after joining the schools rainbow club.

The second book was The Other Boy by M.G. Hennessy, in which the female character identifies as a boy and takes puberty blockers and testosterone as part of her medical sex transition.

Less than four minutes into my presentation, the board chair claimed that I had violated the Human Rights Code, and he ejected me from the meeting, Burjoski said, referring to Scott Piatkowski, who took the helm as chair in 2021.

Based on False Claim

While the WRDSB usually publishes video recordings of its meetings on YouTube, it didnt post the recording of the Jan. 17 meeting. In a statement issued on Jan. 20, the board reiterated Piatkowskis claims that there are concerns about potential violations of the Human Rights Code.

On her personal website, Burjoski included a link to a segment of the unpublished video which showed several board members challenging Piatkowskis decision, but were eventually defeated in a 5-4 vote to have Burjoski ejected.

The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), which is handling Burjoskis case pro-bono, says the boards decision is based on the false claim that she violated the Human Rights Code, and demonstrates a serious lack of understanding and respect for basic democratic principles and cannot go unchallenged.

The Boards decision to silence her not only deprives her of her right to freedom of expression under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but also deprives the public of hearing an informed dissenting voice on an issue that affects their children, said Jorge Pineda, a lawyer for JCCF, in a statement on June 20.

Justice Centre lawyers will argue in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice that the decision to muzzle Ms. Burjoski was a violation of her Charter right to freedom of expression, the statement added.

The Epoch Times reached out to the WRDSB for comment. In response, spokesperson Estefania Brandenstein said we are not able to discuss ongoing legal matters.

Defamation Lawsuit

Burjoskis first legal action against the WRDSB was launched on May 4 when she filed a defamation suit against the board and Piatkowski after he gave interviews to multiple media outlets, claiming that her comments during the meeting were transphobic.

I became the centre of a national media frenzy, fuelled by statements made by the board chair on radio, TV, and social media. He attributed to me remarks that I did not make, characterized them as hateful, and accused me of violating the Human Rights Code, Burjoski said in a video on May 4.

She added that the day after the meeting, she was told by human resources that she was assigned to home and prohibited from speaking to her students and colleagues while pending a formal disciplinary investigation.

Burjoski, who retired on Jan. 31, said investigators summoned her for questioning five days before her retirement, where she said she was required to sign a gag order.

The investigation was halted when her doctor placed her on medical leave after she suffered a breakdown from extreme anxiety on Jan. 22 and was taken to hospital, Burjoski said in the video.

Bullies

In her latest video, Burjoski said one must stand up to bullies.

Years ago at a WRDSB anti-bullying workshop, I learned that victims and bystanders must stand together to confront bullies, or the bullies just get stronger, she said.

I am asking the court to overturn the boards decision to stop my presentation because I did not violate the Ontario Human Rights Code, she added.

I am asking the court to order the board to allow me to return to the trustees meeting, where I hope to deliver my presentation in full.

Burjoski said she hopes the judicial review will deter other school boards from engaging in similar practices against dissident voices.

My goal is that this legal action sets a precedent that will dissuade school boards from attempting to use human rights codes to intimidate and silence voices that challenge their policies and ideology, she said.

To fund her litigation, Burjoski has launched a fundraiser on GoFundMe with a goal of $100,000. The fundraiser had reached over $27,500 as of Jun 24.

Andrew Chen contributed to this report
A judges gavel rests on top of a desk in the courtroom of the newly opened Black Police Precinct and Courthouse Museum in Miami, Fla., on Feb. 3, 2009. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Orange County Probation Officer Convicted of Stealing on the Job

WESTMINSTER, Calif.An Orange County probation officer was convicted Thursday in connection with stealing money while helping authorities carry out search warrants.

Juan Manuel Rodriguez was assigned to an Orange County Sheriffs Department tactical team when he was accused of the thefts in August of 2017.

While serving a search warrant in 2017, a target of the warrant told investigators he was missing $150 to $200 from his wallet, prosecutors said in a trial brief. The man said when he was asked for his ID he pointed to his wallet, but later he noticed the money was missing, prosecutors said.

The next day, when authorities were collecting evidence regarding another suspect, he said he was also missing $600, prosecutors said.

That prompted authorities to set up a sting operation with a car outfitted with a camera and bait money in it, prosecutors said.

As authorities served a search warrant Aug. 10, 2017, at 2518 N. Tustin Avenue, in Santa Ana, Rodriguez was directed to search the bait car, prosecutors said. Investigators put $1,200 in the car, but Rodriguez said he only found $10, prosecutors said.

Investigators found the rest of the money, which was marked, in Rodriguezs wallet, and they also found 16 Disney and 11 Walmart gift cards in his pocket, prosecutors said. The gift cards had no money on them, and the owner said she intended to one day sell the Disney cards as collectors items to Disney fans at some point, prosecutors said.

Rodriguez was convicted of one felony count of grand theft and a misdemeanor count of petty theft, but he was acquitted of another misdemeanor count of petty theft.

Rodriguez was scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 19.
An employee works as Australian-made wine (on display shelves on R) are seen for sale at a store in Beijing on August 18, 2020. - China on August 18 ramped up tensions with Australia after it launched a probe into wine imports from the country, the latest salvo in an increasingly bitter row between the trade partners. (Photo by NOEL CELIS / AFP) (Photo by NOEL CELIS/AFP via Getty Images)

Pacific Stalemate: China Refuses to Back Down on Beyond Reproach Trade Sanctions

Australian and Chinese diplomatic relations appear to have stalled after the Australian government continued to remain stalwart in the face of Beijings refusal to back down on punitive trade sanctions imposed on Australia which, the Chinese regime called beyond reproach.

Speaking at a press conference on June 22, the spokesperson for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Wang Weibin said that Beijings measures were taken with a view to protect the legitimate rights.

The measures are legitimate, lawful and beyond reproach, Wang said reiterating that Australia needed to work with China to develop the China-Australia comprehensive strategic partnership.

In Australia, the centre-left government has continued its strong stance towards the trade sanctions with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese saying that Beijing needed to drop the punitive tariffs if the Chinese regime wants bilateral relations restored.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (L) and Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles (R) at a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on May 23, 2022. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch)

China needs to remove the sanctions, Albanese said. And that will go a long way toward restoring improved relations.

Albanese, who was speaking to the ABC 7:30 report on June 23 said that while there had been a breakthrough in diplomatic relations in the past few weeks the relationship remained challenging.

Theres a long way to go. It will be a problematic relationship, Albanese said. China has sanctions against Australia that should be removed, theyre damaging the Australian economy and jobs, but theyre also causing damage to the Chinese economy.

Beijings punitive economic coercion swept up eight major Australian exportsbeef, seafood, wine, honey, lamb, wheat, coal, and timberafter previous Foreign Minister Marise Payne called for an inquiry into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020.

The CCP also delivered a list containing 14 grievances that Australia needed to address before diplomatic relations could be normalized.

They included a demand for the government to stop the press reporting negatively on China; stop building alliances with Indo-Pacific partners; rescind the ban on Huawei from Australias 5G network, and remove foreign interference laws.

Beijings Piecemeal Offering

China broke its freeze on diplomatic relations with Australia with the Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe hosting Australias new deputy prime minister and minister for defense, Richard Marles, for dinner.

Marles said the meeting, which took place in Singapore on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue defense summit on June 10, was a welcomed one and allowed Australias new Albanese government to have a very frank and full exchange between two countries of consequence in Indo-Pacific region.

However, since this meeting little has changed in the relationship with Beijing continuing to say that Australia must change if it wants the economic coercion to end.

Opposition Defence Minister Andrew Hastie has previously said that the meeting between Marles and Wei Fenghe was not a Nixon goes to China moment.

Andrew Hastie, Liberal MP, speaks at the Australian Parliament in May 2018. (Commonwealth of Australia)

Dont Trade Away Australias Values or Sovereignty

The test of any meeting is the outcome it delivers. And so Id like to know whether or not the Chinese have withdrawn their 14 demands, Hastie said. Whether theyve apologized for the lazing of our P-8 crew in the Arafura Sea in February, and indeed, the P-8 crew in the South China Sea, which was intercepted by a Chinese fighter last month.

He also warned the Australian government should not trade away Australias values or its sovereignty in any discussions with China.

We certainly cant trade away our values or our sovereignty; were not the problem here. We didnt issue 14 demands as they did, including demands that we clamp down on press freedom in this country or repeal our foreign interference laws or allow Huawei into our 5G network, he said.

Intimidation Tactics

A J-16 Chinese military jet had released flares as it flew close to the side of the Australian P-8 aircraft while the P-8 was on its regular maritime surveillance flight in international airspace in May.

The Chinese jet then accelerated and cut across the nose of the Australian plane, before releasing a bundle of chaff containing small aluminum pieces, some of which were ingested into the P-8s engine.

Quite obviously, this is very dangerous, Marles said.

But he said that the incident will not deter Australia from engaging in surveillance activity with the ABC reporting that Australia sent a second surveillance plane to the region within hours of the incident.

Other countries do the same, Marles said. We are deeply invested in the rights of freedom of navigation in the South China Sea  This is a body of water that is deeply connected to Australia because of our trade, which goes through there.
Panelists at "A Citizens' Hearing," an independent inquiry of Canada's pandemic response, listen to stories of Canadians adversely affected by COVID-19 vaccine mandates and restrictions, in Toronto on June 23, 2022. (LR) Former Party leader and MP Preston Manning, retired Ontario pediatrician Dr. Susan Natsheh, and David Ross, president of the Canadian COVID Care Alliance. (Andrew Chen/The Epoch Times)

Independent Inquiry Hears From Doctors, Professors on COVID-19 Vaccine Injuries

TORONTOSeveral experts spoke about COVID-19 vaccine injuries at a citizens-based independent inquiry looking into Canadas pandemic response and giving a platform to those adversely harmed by COVID-19 mandates to share their stories.

The Citizens Hearing entered its second day on June 23, featuring doctors, professors, and other experts who presented data and evidence showing the deficiencies of the governments COVID-19 vaccine mandates. The three-day inquiry, which winds up on June 24, is being co-hosted by the Canadian COVID Care Alliance.

One speaker was Dr. Patrick Phillips, a family doctor who primarily practised in Englehart, Ontario. He told the panelists that he noticed some pretty major issues with Canadas COVID-19 vaccination system when he saw some patients reporting to the emergency department with new or worsening symptoms after getting their shots.

But after reporting the initial five cases to the provinces public health officials, Phillips said he was told in a letter from the officials that none of the cases could be categorized as being adversely affected by the vaccines.

I was quite surprised at this. Id understand if one or two were rejected, but all of them essentially were rejected, he said.

Phillips said a document from the public health agency says an adverse event is only counted as a vaccine injury when it occurs within 30 minutes after the injection. He noted that there were even stricter criteria for adverse events to be reported to Health Canada.

A Citizens Hearing Day 2: Panel hears from Canadians adversely affected by #covid19 mandates. https://t.co/0HFUCgkdWM  Andrew Chen (@AndrewChen55) June 23, 2022

Phillips later publicized the letter, believing that people should know such adverse events are not being reported. But this and a series of events that followed eventually led to his licence being suspended in May by Ontarios regulatory college for medical doctors. He was also prohibited from prescribing ivermectinan anti-parasitic agent that Health Canada says should not be used to treat COVID-19though some experts have recommended using it for the early treatment of the disease.

False Narrative

Canadas Chief Public Health Office Dr. Theresa Tam said last week that because vaccine efficiency wanes significantly over time, she recommends health officials urge Canadians to keep their vaccinations up to date rather than focusing on the specific number of doses.

However, Dr. Eric Payne, a pediatric neurologist from Alberta, told the panelists that the provinces public health data shows that people who received two doses of the vaccine were more likely to be infected with the Omicron variant compared to those who just got one shot; starting in late March, people who got three shots became the most likely group to be infected. Similarly, those fully vaccinated in Ontario were the majority group to contract the virus from mid-December 2021 to January 2022.

What you hear all the time now is: Thank goodness I got vaccinated. I got COVID, my whole family got COVID, but I didnt end up in the hospital,' Payne said. The reality is, if you are 60 and healthy, youre not obese, and you dont have type 2 diabetes, your risk of getting COVID and being hospitalized for it is less than 1 percent.

Everybody is saying Thank goodness I got vaccinated and not in the hospitalit is faulty logic. You had a 99 percent chance of not ending up in the hospital before the vaccine.

However, Payne said there were no platforms for people like him, who object the official discourse, to share data and evidence.

There is no public debate thats allowed to take place, he said, adding that the problem right now is that the mainstream media  are perpetuating a false narrative.

Now covering A Citizens Hearing. Panel hears from Canadians harmed by #COVID19 mandates. Event hosted by @CCCAlliance. Panelists include fouder David Ross, former MP Preston Manning, & Dr. Susan Natsheh. Livestream on https://t.co/uAxtAATOBd https://t.co/AsZQ6fsCku  Andrew Chen (@AndrewChen55) June 23, 2022

Canadas Democracy

Preston Manning, former Reform Party leader and panelist at the hearing, told The Epoch Times that after listening to the testimonies, he found it most disturbing that the government refuses to listen to experts who hold contrary views of its pandemic response policies.

The most disturbing thing is when you ask them: Have you presented this [information] to the government? Have you presented this to the health officials? And if so, what response have you got? Almost everyone says, Yes, we have made these arguments to the government, and get no reply,' Manning said.

[This] is an indication of the weakness of our democracy, not just the weakness of the health system.

He urged Canadian youths to be concerned about how the government handles the COVID-19 pandemic, as the younger generation will be most affected by the public health measures.

The most serious negative impacts of these measures are the impacts on children and the younger generation because theyve got the implications for years and for years, and if we cant satisfactorily address those kinds of impact, then were jeopardizing the future, Manning said.

Im optimistic that that can be done, but efforts have to be made to make it happen. Its not going to happen naturally.
Peter Menzies: Its No Surprise the Publics Trust in Journalism Is in a Tailspin

Commentary

The world of journalism was done a huge favour last week when the Washington Post fired reporter Felicia Sonmez after she waged an online campaign against her own newsroom.

The Twitter barrage that led to her termination has been subjected to much commentary and an exquisite monologue by Bill Maher. But Sonmez was hardly a woke outlier. She is just the latest example of how trust in journalism is being undermined by too many reporters and so-called news outlets that lack the discipline to keep their opinions out of their work or on social media. Not only are they oblivious to the vandalism they are inflicting on their craft, they remain unaware that by taking government subsidies, what they think is viewed with growing suspicion.

Its an inexplicable combination of foolishness and naivety. Do they think they are, as News Media Canada CEO Paul Deegan described them, democratic expressions most precious guardians and therefore immune from consequences? He used that phrase while inexplicably lobbying for limitations on speech in a submission to Canadas failed first effort at Online Harms legislation. As evidence, Deegan pointed out that 30 percent of journalists self-censor on social media. Me? I worry about the 70 percent who dont.

Day after day, they pour like waves of lemmings into an abyss crafted by their own hubris, offering intellectually vapid judgments on why Jordan Peterson, Pierre Poilievre, or Leslyn Lewis is a this, or a that. And they do this with smug chuckles and arent-I-clever giggles as if they are just hanging out in the bar with their pals after work. How they remain ignorant of the fact the rest of us are Right Here In The Room With Them, watching as they decimate their professional credibility is one of the most stupefying mysteries of the age. Perhaps it makes them popular at parties.

Some, I know, have been taught in journalism school that objectivity is an impossible, old-fashioned virtue no longer vital to the news business.

To which I say: Kid, ask for your money back. No one expects you not to have your own opinions, but if you cant separate them from your work, if you cant discipline yourself to keep them to yourself in public and produce work that is trusted for its fairness, then go sell shoes. Sure, objectivity is hard. So is honesty. And love. Everyone fails sometimes. But you dont give up just because its hard, particularly when without it, everything falls apart.

(A brief digression: As a fan of good journalists, I try to write these days only for publications that wont take government subsidies and respect their readers by hiring people who are Good at Being Journalists. In other words, ones you can trust.)

It comes as no surprise then to learn that public confidence in Canadian journalism is in a tailspin. According to the latest reportthe third of its kind this yearonly 42 percent of Canadians trust most news, most of the time.

This latest study by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford, is even more alarming for the English-language press, where only 39 percent trust news. Thats down 16 points in the past six years. Worse, only 27 percent of anglophone Canadians see their media as independent from political influence, down from 44 percent in 2016.

Funny thing about 2016: Thats the year I attended an event in Ottawa at which forlorn executives from legacy newspapers rolled out their pitch to the government for subsidy money to help their failing businesses transition to the digital world. Some of those papers went on to shamelessly use their front pages, news, and editorial pulpits to lobby for even more government assistance. Yet here we are six years and about $500 million in public support later, and theyre still knocking on the prime ministers door like so many Oliver Twists, begging, please sir, for more.

In response, the federal government has tabled Bill C-18, the Online News Act. Its job will be to transfer money from social media and tech companies into newsrooms of which the government approves.

The fact that Bill C-18 will probably drive more money to the CBC than any other entity should be enough to reject it as deeply flawed. But that aside, the bills other huge problem to be addressed is that it risks propping up a lot of old companies that have failed to adapt to change at the expense of 100 or so new, innovative online news platforms that have sprouted up across the country.

But in the long run, there is an even bigger problem for Canadas increasing number of subsidy-dependent, government-approved news organizations and their journalists. And that is that the more they abuse their craft and depend upon the political establishment, the more the publics trust in them collapses. And the more that trust collapses, the more they will depend on the political establishment to meet their payrolls.

Thats some grave theyre digging.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Pro-life supporters hug outside the Supreme Court in Washington after the court formally overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Pro-Life Groups: Roe Decision Only Half the Battle

The U.S. Supreme Courts decision to overturn the 1973 ruling Roe v. Wade represents a victory for women and children throughout the country, pro-life organizations say, but add that their work is only halfway finished.

Of course, we are rejoicing that the Supreme Court has seen the need to overturn this dreadful decision that has led to millions of deaths of unborn children and harm to their mothers who have suffered the violence of abortion, Olivia Gans Turner, director of the American Victims of Abortion Outreach program through National Right to Life, told The Epoch Times in a phone interview.

The court has correctly decided that a right to abortion is not in the Constitution, she said.

It means the rules governing abortion go to individual states and Americans will have more say, through their elected representatives, in when and how a woman may access abortion.

Many of us believe that our job is halfway done. This was the first step and now we must work even harder to pass protective pro-life laws across the United States, particularly in those states that are currently obstacle courses to those sorts of things.

This is a joyful day for mothers and their children, Gans Turner said. Women like myself who have had abortions can rejoice today, because we realize that this is finally recognition that the children that we paid to have abortions for are human beings that should be respected and protected under the law.

Students for Life Action President Kristan Hawkins said in a statement that the decision to return abortion decisions to the states is a historic moment that will determine the fate of millions of children. Students for Life Action is made up of pro-life college and high school-aged individuals.

Now, its time to get to work. This weekend, for example, Students for Life Action is hosting dozens of state legislators and student leaders in our nations capital for national training, preparing these leaders for the state legislative sessions to come. We are ready to protect life in law and in service, Hawkins said.

States Make the Rules

The decision adds a new layer of importance to state governor and legislative races. Governors and state legislators will now drive local abortion policy.

Roe v. Wade called state laws that fully ban abortion unconstitutional, but with this decsion, that is no longer the case. Current state laws vary widely and while none could fully ban abortion under Roe, that restriction is off the table.

Texass heartbeat bill went into effect Sept. 1, 2021, banning abortions once a heartbeat is detected. Texas also passed an Alternative to Abortion Program in 2021, dedicating $100 million to serve 150,000 women for three years after the birth of the child. Texas has more than 300 pro-life pregnancy centers, maternity homes, and adoption centers that provide resources for women with unplanned pregnancies. The legislature also passed the Texas human Life Protection Act. It is a trigger law designed to go into effect if the Supreme Court overturns Roe vs. Wade, which it now has. Under the act, Texas would fully ban most abortions.

Other states with similar trigger laws already in place are Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, North Dakota, South Dakota, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi.

Leaders of other states have vowed to keep abortion accessible.

New York legislators passed the Reproductive Health Act in 2019, allowing abortion for up to 24 weeks [6 months] and longer if the mothers health is at risk.

California Governor Gavin Newsom said in December that he aims to make the state a sanctuary for those seeking an abortion. In California, abortions are available after up to 24 weeks of pregnancy and the state insurance for low-income individuals will cover the cost of an abortion.

Oregon allows third-trimester abortions, after 27 weeks, with no restrictions, and requires health insurance to cover the procedure.
A group of illegal aliens is processed by Border Patrol agents after crossing from Mexico into Yuma, Ariz., on April 13, 2019. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Program That Releases Illegal Immigrants into US Being Used More: Watchdog Report

The U.S. government is increasingly utilizing a program that releases illegal immigrants into the U.S. interior instead of keeping them detained until their court hearings, according to a new watchdog report.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) program is formally known as Alternatives to Detention and colloquially known as catch and release.

While federal law requires the U.S. government to detain illegal immigrants until they have a court hearing, the government says it does not have the capacity to do so, and has since 2004 been releasing a portion of those captured at the border under the program.

In 2015, ICE enrolled 53,000 illegal immigrants in the program, which uses monitoring tools like GPS ankle bracelets. By 2020, that figure jumped to 111,000, according to a new report (pdf) from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) that analyzed data from contractors paid to help to run the program.

During that time, about a quarter of the illegal aliens placed in the program absconded, or fled the address at which they were staying and could not be located, the GAO found, including 33 percent in fiscal year 2020, which stretched across the Trump and Biden administrations.

The largest number of the illegal immigrants who were unenrolled from the program before they had a court hearing were allowed to do so by government officials on the condition they submit to other monitoring conditions outside of the Alternatives to Detention (ATD).

Most illegal immigrants placed in the program from 2015 through 2020 were from Central America.

The GAO also found that its 2014 recommendations to make sure guidance on how to run the program was being followed have not been fully implemented, that some contractors were not reviewed to make sure they met standards, and that ICE does not have a requirement that contractors present illegal immigrants with legal presentations.

Preston Huennekens, government relations manager with the Federation for Immigration Reform, told The Epoch Times in an email that the report shows the alternatives to detention simply do not work.

More than 40 percent of those enrolled in ATD were failures, including 33 percent who outright absconded. Only 8 percent of cases concluded with the alien leaving the country or winning their asylum claim. ATD simply does not work, and exists only because of our countrys continued refusal to follow existing law and the requirements to detain illegal aliens, he said.

The GAO concluded in its report that ICE has taken steps to implement program policies, collect program data, and oversee the contract but that further actions could improve its implementation, assessment, and oversight of the program and its $2.2 billion contract.

The GAO issued 10 recommendations, including making sure contractors meet standards and making sure contractors provide the legal presentations.

ICE declined to comment beyond what was stated in the report.

According to the GAO, ICEs parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, concurred with all 10 recommendations and said most of the recommended actions are either underway, or there are plans to undertake them.
Protests Continuously Interrupt Chinese Ambassadors Speech at Australian University

In a rare event, protestors have managed to interrupt a speech by the Chinese Ambassador to Australia six times during a public event at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) calling for action on Tibet, Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Uyghurs and human rights abuses in China.

The short event, which was hosted by James Laurenceson, the Director of the Australia-China Relations Institute (ACRI) was scheduled to run from 11:00 am12:15 pm on Friday and was meant to provide the new Ambassador Xiao Qian with an opportunity to speak in a controlled environment with ACRI pre-submitting questions for the ambassador after his speech.

In his speech, Xiao called for a reset in the Australia-China relations and stated that China should be seen as an opportunity for Australia.

How we can keep the momentum and get our relationship back on the right track? he asked. Chinas development is an opportunity, instead of a so-called threat.

But his speech was interrupted by a series of protests only minutes after he started.

Youre a disgrace, a protester shouted, accusing the Chinese government of genocide against the Uyghur community in the Xinjiang region. What about freedom of expression.

Drew Pavlou, head of the Democratic Alliance party and an anti-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) activist, was among the protestors and holding a sign which read Free Tibet. Free East Turkestan. Free Hong Kong.

Another protestor called for the release of the Tibetan community persecuted in mainland China.

Its been going on 70 years and no one is listening, she shouted.

Security guards for the event attempted to usher protestors immediately from the venue.

Hard Questions On Detained Australians and Xinjiang

In between the protestors interruptions Laurenceson questioned the Ambassador about two Australians currently detained in China, Yang Hengjun and Cheng Lei, whose contact with their families and the consular staff was cut off by the Chinese regime.

Is there any message of hope that you can give to those Australians who are worried sick right now? About their loved ones? Laurenceson asked.

With all my respect for you I do disagree with you, Xiao said.

Freedom of speech is different from absolute freedom. In this world, theres no such thing as absolute freedom. Freedom is freedom within rule of law.

All these cases are individual cases. And the Chinese, the relevant authorities are dealing with the cases according to the Chinese laws and regulations.

So long as they respect the rules and laws, theres no reason for them to worry.

When asked about the human rights concerns in Xinjiang region, the ambassador said it was about national integrity, preventing separatism, and fighting terrorism.

Heres a good example. Tasmania is part of Australia, and no one should ever challenge that, he said.

Denial of 14 Grievances and Economic Punishment

The ambassador was also asked about the Chinese embassys 14- grievances-list for the Morrison government, which he said was twisted as demands.

I dont have a list. I havent already seen a list of 14 points. That happened before I came here, he said.

When asked about Beijings economic coercion of Australia after former Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for an investigation into the origin of COVID-19, Xiao said there was a strong reaction among the Chinese public when a country called the virus a Chinese virus and suggested it was manufactured.

Theres absolutely no evidence. Thats absolutely nonsense, he said.

The Ambassador also said he was not sure if Australia was undergoing any economic punishment from Beijing.

Chinese ambassador Xiao Qian and James Laurenceson, the Director of the UTS Australia-China Relations Institute. (The Epoch Times)

Xiao also blamed the governments 2018 ban on the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei from Australias 5G network for the breakdown in ties.

Australias federal government announced the ban in a joint statement on Aug. 23 and declared its commitment to take the necessary steps to safeguard the security of Australians information and communications at all times.

Although the announcement did not explicitly mention the Chinese telcos, the federal government said the involvement of suppliers who are likely to be subject to extrajudicial directions from a foreign government that conflict with Australian law would leave the country vulnerable to unauthorised access or interference.

Voice From the Protestors

Outside the venue, the different groups of protestors told The Epoch Times that they knew they would not be allowed to address the ambassador in a formal way.

We wouldnt have been allowed to speak to the Chinese ambassador, Drew Pavlou told The Epoch Times. He was only accepting the pre-approved questions by people who were only going to politely challenge him in the lightest possible terms.

Pavlou noted that this was not good enough saying: We need people to directly challenge him.

When asked about Xiaos emphasis on economic cooperation in the speech, the political activist said that the whole event was a complete propaganda whitewashing event.

There was no space for a real discussion on these human rights issues, he said noting that the ambassador just wanted to talk about the economy.

Pavlou also called on Australian businesses to remember that currently in China there are people suffering and they should not be forgotten.

What about the Uyghurs? What about the Tibetans? What about the Hong Kongers? What about the people who have faced family members tortured and persecuted because of this regime? We should not forget them, he said.

Protestors from Hong Kong and the Tibetan community held flags and banners in front of the UTS building. (The Epoch Times)

Max Mok, the pro-democracy activist from Hong Kong who ran for the seat of Chisholm in the federal election in May, accused Xiao of being a genocide dictator, who doesnt want to have a genuine conversation, and should not be allowed to speak on public forums.

I think weve just been too soft, Mok told The Epoch Times. There needs to be a line to be drawn.

This event today, six  intervention to a speech marks a new chapter in activism against Chinese leadership here domestically,  he said.

 The time for just sitting there trying to have conversations is long past.

Drew Pavlou, pro-democracy Hong Kong activist Max Mok, and Kyinzom Dhongdue from the local Tibetan community held flags and banners in front of the UTS building. (The Epoch Times)

Support From Chinese Australians

Despite the continuing interjections, there were also supporters of China at the event with people shouting at the protestors to get out, or calling them stupid.

The President of the Australian Fujian Association community group, Josephine Lam, told the ABC that she was attending the event in the hope it would thaw Australia-China relations.

I am here today also hoping that Australia-China relations will improve, Lam told the ABC on Friday. This election is the first step to breaking the ice between Australia and China.

Nina Nguyen contributed to this report.
Associate Justice Clarence Thomas sits during a group photograph of the justices at the Supreme Court in Washington on April 23, 2021. (Erin Schaff/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Protests Planned Outside Justice Thomass Home After Abortion Ruling

Protesters say they are going to demonstrate outside the homes of several Supreme Court justices following the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade as President Joe Biden called for demonstrators to remain peaceful.

Left-wing group Our Rights DC wrote on Twitter that it is planning a protest outside Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomass house on Friday, telling supporters to wear a mask.

Enraged? Devastated? Pissed the [expletive] off? Our Rights D.C. also wrote. So are we.

Reports say that protesters are going to target the homes of Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, Samuel Alito, John Roberts, and Neil Gorsuch.

Over the past weeks, activists and agitators gathered at their homes after a leaked draft decision authored by Alito suggested Roe v. Wade would be overturned. Earlier in June, a man was arrested outside the home of Kavanaugh in Maryland, and allegedly told officials that he was plotting to kill the justice over the Roe v. Wade decision as well as a decision on a New York state gun rights case.

On Friday, Biden criticized the justices and former President Donald Trump before saying, Everyone, no matter how deeply they care about this decision, to keep all protests peaceful, peaceful, peaceful, peaceful.

No intimidation. Violence is never acceptable, Biden added. Threats and intimidation are not speech. We must stand against violence in any form regardless of your rationale.

But pro-abortion agitators orchestrated by leftist group Janes Revenge has committed dozens of arson attacks and vandalism against pro-life groups. No arrests have been made so far.

They had Molotov cocktails. They threw one against the window, and the window didnt break. So then they broke a window and threw a Molotov cocktail into my office, said Julaine Appling, Wisconsin Family Actions president, in May after a firebomb was tossed into their office.

The Ruling

The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, Alito wrote in Fridays ruling.

Further, he said that Roe was egregiously wrong from the start, its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences.

And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division, Alito added.

Crowds gathered outside the courthouse, surrounded by a tall security fence. Pro-life activists erupted in cheers after the ruling, while some pro-abortion supporters were in tears.

Im ecstatic, said Emma Craig, 36, of Pro Life San Francisco. Abortion is the biggest tragedy of our generation and in 50 years well look back at the 50 years weve been under Roe v. Wade with shame.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Explanation Sought by Nova Scotia Inquiry Into Why Government Withheld Key Info on Mass Shooting

The information revealed this week that alleges political interference in the Nova Scotia mass shooting probe in April 2020 was initially withheld by the Department of Justice, says the public inquiry investigating the tragedy.

The Mass Casualty Commission (MCC) released documents on June 21 about the public communications of the RCMP and the government after the shooting that left 22 people dead.

Contained therein are the notes of RCMP Superintendent Darren Campbell, which allege that RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki wanted the information about the types of firearms used in the attack to be released to fulfill a promise made to the public safety minister and the Prime Ministers Office (PMO).

The government was about to ban 1,500 firearms it describes as assault-style.

The MCC also revealed this week that Campbells notes initially sent by the Department of Justice did not contain the section about alleged interference in the investigation.

The Mass Casualty Commission did not receive both versions of Supt. Darren Campbells handwritten notes at the same time, said investigations director Barbara McLean in an email statement.

Subpoena

McLean said the Commission issued a subpoena in June 2021 to the RCMPs H Division (Nova Scotia) for all material on the investigation.

The MCC received documents from the Department of Justice in February that contained the notes of senior RCMP officers, including those of Campbell.

Those notes covered dates April 19 to June 16, 2020, and contained 132 pages.

On May 31, the MCC says it received another disclosure of Campbells notes for the same period, this time containing 136 pages.

The Commission sought an explanation from the Department of Justice about why four pages were missing from the original disclosure of Supt. Campbells notes, said McLean.

It also seeks to know if anything else has been withheld.

The Commission is seeking assurance that nothing else has been held back as per direction from subpoenas.

McLean said the MCC has so far received thousands of documents from the RCMP, but notes they have often been provided in a disjointed manner that has required extensive Commission team review.

The Department of Justice told The Epoch Times it needed to further assess the four pages of Campbells notes before releasing them.

Department of Justice counsel produced to the Commission a package of over 2,000 pages of notes from senior officers on February 11, 2022, and March 2, 2022. Some pages of those notes, including the four pages of the notes of Supt. Campbell, required further assessment of whether they were privileged, wrote Justice spokesperson Ian McLeod in a statement.

That review was completed and it was determined that the pages were not privileged.

McLeod said his department did not advise the MCC the four pages were being reviewed for privilege and should have done so.

Notes

Campbells handwritten notes have been released, but many parts have been redacted with markings such as Irrelevant, Irrelevant Personal Information, and Solicitor-Client Privilege.

The key section that was missing starts on page 49 and relates to a conference call on April 28, 2020, held between H Division personnel, including Campbell, and the RCMP National Headquarters with Commissioner Lucki.

This is where Campbell wrote that Lucki was putting pressure for the firearms types to be released to the public to fulfill a promise made to the government.

Campbell says he pushed back to not jeopardize the investigation.

The commissioner went on at length saying that she was sad, disappointed and that we disrespected her by not providing these details to the media, wrote Campbell.

The commissioner said that she had promised the minister of public safety and the Prime Ministers Office that the RCMP (we) would release this information.

When Campbell again told Lucki the information could not be released, he wrote that the commissioner then said that we didnt understand, that this was tied to pending gun control legislation that would make officers & public safer by or through this legislation.

Lucki has denied in a statement interfering in the investigation, but she has not directly disputed the claim that she asked for the information on firearms to be released.

Her statement did corroborate other notes taken by Campbell, which say that due to Luckis intervention, some in the room were reduced to tears & were emotional over this belittling reprimand.

I regret the way I approached the meeting and the impact it had on those in attendance, Lucki wrote.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on June 23 from Rwanda that his government did not put any undue influence or pressure on the investigation.

Minister of Emergency Preparedness Bill Blair, who also had the public safety portfolio in April 2020, also said as much.

At no point did our government pressure or interfere with the operational decisions of the RCMP, Blair said in the House of Commons on June 22.

The House of Commons committee on public safety will hold hearings with some of the stakeholders in the coming weeks.

The MCC should also hear testimony from Supt. Campbell in the near future.
Graduating students wearing masks attend a commencement ceremony at Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications in Chongqing, China, on June 22, 2022. (Cnsphoto via Reuters)

Record Numbers of Chinese Graduates Enter Worst Job Market in Decades

BEIJINGJenny Bai was among 10 high-performing computer science students from different Chinese universities selected by a Beijing-based internet firm for a job upon graduation, following four rounds of arduous interviews.

But last month, the company told the students their contract offers were cancelled due to COVID-19 headwinds and the bad state of the economy in generaobstacles facing a record 10.8 million Chinese university graduates this summer.

Im worried, said Bai, who graduated this month and did not want to name the firm to stay on good terms. If I cant find a job, Im not sure what Ill do.

Chinas COVID-19 restrictions have battered an economy already slowing due to a property market downturn, geopolitical worries and regulatory crackdowns on tech, education, and other sectors.

A cohort of graduates larger than the entire population of Portugal is about to enter one of Chinas worst job markets in decades at a time when youth unemployment is already more than three times Chinas overall joblessness rate, at a record 18.4 percent.

There is no script for how such high youth unemployment will affect Chinese society.

Graduates, including students who could not attend last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, attend a graduation ceremony at Central China Normal University in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, on June 13, 2021. (Stringer/Reuters)

Rockee Zhang, Managing Director for Greater China at recruitment firm Randstad, says Chinas entry-level jobs market was worse even than during the 200809 global financial crisis, estimating new jobs falling 20-30 percent from last year.

This year is a low point, the lowest Ive seen, said Zhang, who has been a recruiter for two decades.

Expected salaries are also 6.2 percent lower, according to Zhilian Zhaopin, another recruitment firm.

Chinas Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Ministry of Education did not respond to requests for comment.

Job Cuts

The tech sector has been a significant employer of many Chinese graduates, but this year the industry is trimming its workforce, recruiters say.

A regulatory crackdown prompted many of Chinas tech giants including Tencent and Alibaba to make massive job cuts. A combined total of tens of thousands have lost their jobs in the sector this year, five tech industry sources told Reuters.

Job cuts varied among Chinas roughly ten biggest tech companies, but almost all cut at least 10 percent of their staff, with some, including iQIYI cutting far more, according to a report published in April by Shanghai-based Talent Assessment and Management Consulting group NormStar.

The companies did not respond to requests for comment.

In April, a nine-month freeze on online gaming licenses over violent content and other issues was lifted, during which time 14,000 firms in the industry shut.

Private education, another sector which drew regulatory scrutiny, parted with tens of thousands of workers as well. The largest firm in the industry, New Oriental, has announced 60,000 layoffs.

New hiring is slow. A human resources manager at a Tencent business unit, who asked not to be named as they were not allowed to speak to the media, said they were looking to hire a few dozen new graduates, compared with about 200 a year previously.

Internet companies have cut tonnes of jobs, said Julia Zhu of recruitment firm Robert Walters. If they have the financial resources to bring people in they are now opting for more experienced candidates rather than fresh graduates.

Jason Wang, a Beijing-based headhunter who has worked mostly with tech companies in recent years, is now recruiting mainly for state-backed telecommunication firms.

The golden age of internet companies hiring sprees has ended, Wang said.

A man reads documents at a recruiters booth at a job fair in Beijing on Feb. 26, 2016. (Damir Sagolj/Reuters)

In China, being jobless for some time after graduation is typically frowned upon by employers. Many families see it as a humiliation rather than bad luck with the economy.

Taking blue-collar jobs after getting a university degree also often draws disapproval, so to avoid long gaps in their CVs, record numbers are applying for post-graduate studies, official data show.

Vicente Yu graduated in 2021 but has been unemployed since losing his job at a media company late last year. His savings will cover another month or two of rent and basic expenses in the southern city of Guangzhou.

My dad said you should never come home again, he said he should have raised a dog instead of me, said the 21-year-old, who has been struggling with anxiety and sleep problems.

He spends his nights on social media platforms, where he finds other young people in similar situations.

I look at all those people who are like me, who couldnt find a job, and get some solace from it.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) talks to reporters minutes after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, in the Capitol Visitors Center in Washington on June 24, 2022. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Republicans, Democrats React to Overturning of Roe v. Wade

Republican leaders are lauding the U.S. Supreme Courts overturning of the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion at a national level, while Democrats are decrying what they call the revocation of womens rights.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who played a role in preserving the seat left vacant by the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and paving the way for a Republican-appointed conservative majority, said Fridays ruling is a historic victory.

The Court has corrected a terrible legal and moral error, like when Brown v. Board overruled Plessy v. Ferguson, McConnell wrote in a statement, referencing the 1954 decision that effectively ended racial segregation in public schools.

The Justices applied the Constitution. They carefully weighed the complex factors regarding precedent. The Court overturned mistaken rulings that even liberals have long admitted were incoherent, restoring the separation of powers, he continued. I commend the Court for its impartiality in the face of attempted intimidation.

Sen Mike Lee (R-Utah), who clerked for Justice Samuel Alito in the late 1990s, said that Roe v. Wade belongs to the anticanon of Supreme Court history alongside infamous decisions such as Plessy v. Ferguson and Dred Scott v. Sandford, which denied citizenship to descendants of liberated slaves.

I have never been prouder to have clerked for Justice Alito or the Supreme Court of the United States. I pray for national unity and for the safety of justices of the Supreme Court who, in regard to this case, have faced unprecedented attacks, Lee said, pointing to recent threats of violence from pro-abortion activists. I thank God that the people of Utah and the United States are now free to enact protections for life and human dignity.

A number of Republican-led states have moved to ban abortions in the wake of the decision. That includes 13 states that have trigger bans, as well as some other states where anti-abortion laws have been blocked by the courts.

The states with trigger bans, which are designed to automatically take effect as soon as Roe no longer applies, are Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.

Meanwhile, Democrats are venting their frustration, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) saying at her press conference that there was no point in saying Good morning, because it certainly is not one.

Today, the Republican-controlled Supreme Court has achieved the GOPs dark and extreme goal of ripping away womens right to make their own reproductive health decisions, Pelosi said. Because of Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, the Republican Party and their supermajority on the Supreme Court, American women today have less freedom than their mothers.

Pelosi also made unsubstantiated claims about what the ruling means for other issues related to pregnancy. GOP extremists are even threatening to criminalize contraception, as well as in-vitro fertilization and post-miscarriage care, she said, although the justices explicitly said in the majority opinion that this will not undo cases on contraception.

Outside the Supreme Court, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) joined a protesting crowd of pro-abortion activists, going so far as to chant with demonstrators that the ruling was illegitimate.

This decision: illegitimate! Ocasio-Cortez yelled into a megaphone apparently held by Sunsara Taylor, a vocal pro-abortion activist known for her affiliation with radical Maoist group Revolutionary Communist Party, USA.

Police units in Washington were on high alert as crowds continued to grow on Friday.

U.S. Capitol Police also said they were calling in backup forces and are working with other law-enforcement agencies in preparation for potential unrest, amid threats from leftist activist groups to take to the streets in a night of rage.
A Lockheed KC-130J prepares for takeoff from Los Alamitos Airbase in Los Alamitos, Calif., on Sept. 30, 2020. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Satellite Imagery Shows Construction of US Military Facility in Pacific

Satellite imagery revealed that the United States is constructing a new military facility in the Pacific, possibly preparing an alternative landing site for its airforce should the military bases on Guam become inoperable.

Land-clearing activity has been spotted at Tinian International Airport in the Northern Mariana Islands, based on satellite images obtained by The War Zone on June 15.

Past satellite imagery from the Planet Lab suggests that construction work at the site started in May.

This appears to correspond to the Tinian divert airfield projects that commenced in February, which will cost about $162 million and are expected to complete by 2025.

At the first projects ground-breaking ceremony in February, brigadier-general Jeremy Sloane, commander of the 36th Wing, emphasized the importance of the Tinian divert airfield projects for the U.S. forces.

Its airfield, roadway, port, and pipeline improvements will provide vital strategic, operational, and exercise capabilities for the U.S. forces and support humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, Sloane said, DVIDS reported.

In May 2019, the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands government signed a 40-year lease agreement with the U.S. Defense Department, which was worth $21.9 million for the U.S. Air Forces divert airfield on Tinian.

This was consistent with the U.S. Air Forces decision in 2016 to designate Tinian International Airport as a backup site if the Andersen Air Force Base in Guam becomes unavailable due to a natural disaster or enemy attack.

The divert airfield project would also include the construction of fuel storage, maintenance facility, and other infrastructure on Tinian to support cargo and tanker aircraft, and training exercises.

US Upgrading Military Bases in Guam to Counter China

The Pentagon said in its global defense review last year that Washington will be focusing on the upgrade and expansion of military bases in Guam and Australia to deter potential Chinese military aggression and threats from North Korea.

Mara Karlin, deputy assistant secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Defense, said the IndoPacific region was marked as the focal point for the U.S. military in the review, in which it directs additional cooperation with allies and partners across the region.

In Australia, youll see new rotational fighter and bomber aircraft deployments, youll see ground forces training and increased logistics cooperation, Karlin said.

More broadly across the IndoPacific, youll see a range of infrastructure improvements in Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Australia.

The review was commissioned by the Biden administration in February 2021, and while it provided some details of the future of the militarys global posture, the review was largely classified.
Following a speech on the Senate floor in support of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) talks to reporters as he walks through the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in Washington on June 23, 2022. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Second Amendment Supporters Question Bipartisan Gun Control Bill

Mapping out the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act

The U.S. Senate passed a bipartisan bill hailed as the most significant federal gun control legislation in decades Thursday night, but whats in it has Second Amendment advocates concerned.

With emotions running high after horrific mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, school last month, Joe Biden and Democrats called for gun law reform, and a band of 10 Republicans answered.

John Cornyn (R-Texas) led a group of 10 GOP senators to hammer out a compromise gun bill with 10 Democrats. Tuesday night, the Senate advanced the 80-page Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Then on Thursday, 15 Senate Republicans joined Democrats to approve the measure by 65 votes to 33.

Provisions of the bill include school safety and encourage the use of juvenile records background checks for those 18-21 who want to buy a gun. Other measures focus on mental health, state crisis intervention programs, and incentives for red flag laws.

Booed and Jeered

Cornyn, representing a state with an estimated 1.7 million people licensed to carry a firearm, was booed and jeered during a speech at the Texas GOP convention last week. Delegates were unhappy with his support for enhanced funding for red flag laws.

Delegates at the Texas GOP state convention in Houston on June 17, 2022, gave U.S. Sen. John Cornyn a thumbs down for working with Democrats to incentivize red flag laws. (Darlene McCormick Sanchez/The Epoch Times)

Here is a breakdown of the bills content and reaction from Second Amendment supporters:

Red Flag Laws and crisis intervention programs allocated $750 million

Money can be used to implement and manage red flag programs, which Second Amendment advocates criticize as unconstitutional because they take guns away from those deemed a threat to themselves or others without due process. States without red flag laws can use the fund for crisis intervention programs such as mental health and veteran courts.

Texas State Rep. Steve Toth (R-Woodlands) said even if states dont have red flag laws and want to use the money for crisis prevention, there will likely be strings attached. For example, the money might require different guidelines on determining if someone is suicidal. VA counselors must report when someone is suicidal to police, which could lead to gun confiscation.

Eliminates boyfriend loophole in domestic violence convictions

The bill would block gun ownership for a person convicted of domestic violence against someone with whom they are in a serious romantic or intimate relationship. The old law only applied to individuals convicted of domestic violence crimes against spouses, partners with shared children, or those living together from having guns. The bill would allow people convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence crimes to restore their gun rights after five years as long as they havent committed other crimes.

As a domestic abuse survivor, Andi Turner, director of the Texas State Rifle Association, said she understands the seriousness of the problem a loophole might pose. But she wondered why assault charges couldnt be leveled at those who commit domestic abuse against dating partners. Laws already on the books could be enforced.

An attendee holds a Glock Ges.m.b.H. pistol during the National Rifle Association (NRA) Annual Meeting at the George R. Brown Convention Center, in Houston, Texas, on May 28, 2022. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images)

Gun sellers are required to register as federally licensed firearm dealers

Those who sell guns as their primary source of income but evaded registering as Federally Licensed Firearm Dealers in the past will be required to do so by narrowing the definition of a dealer. Federally licensed dealers must conduct background checks before selling a gun to someone.

The National Rifle Association came out against the bill noting it contains undefined and overbroad provisions. Tony McKnight, owner of Big Daddy Guns in Florida and Georgia, said few people who dont have a federal firearms license would be selling a large number of guns in the first place, he said.

Gun trafficking and straw purchase laws

Under the bill, penalties will be higher for people buying guns for those who are not allowed to purchase firearms on their own.

Tony McKnight, owner of Big Daddy Guns in Florida and Georgia, said the bill could be targeting individuals who sell guns, say at a gun show. However, few people who dont have a federal firearms license would be selling a large number of guns, he said.

Juvenile record checks are encouraged for those 18-21

States will receive grants to include juvenile records in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System and establish a new protocol for checking those records. If potentially disqualifying information shows up, NICS gets another seven days. But the gun purchase goes through if the review is not completed by then.

John Lott, president of The Crime Prevention Research Center, said his question about the inclusion of juvenile records is would that offense follow the applicant around for the rest of his or her life. Theres a reason why juvenile records have been closed, he said.

A banner depicting the victims of the May 24 mass school shooting sits in the town square in Uvalde, Texas, on June 21, 2022. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Money for mental health programs and school security
SoCal Officials React to Ruling Overturning Roe v. Wade

LOS ANGELESMany Southern California officials Friday had strong reactions to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 precedent which struck down a series of federal and state laws restricting abortion and largely legalized the procedure nationwide.

The overwhelmingly Democrat contingent deemed the rulingwhich puts abortion policy at the discretion of statesa repudiation of basic rights and a move to criminalize women.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) called the decision a betrayal of the commitments made by recently appointed justices during their confirmation hearings, who indicated under oath they would uphold decades of legal precedent.

The fact that this opinion does not come as a surprise does not make it any less traumatic for the millions of women now stripped of their access to safe and legal abortion, Schiff said in a statement.

The ruling, however, was met with praise from Republicans.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-San Marcos) said, Today is a great day for the cause and the principle of life  I will always stand for life. And I will always support and defend our Constitution.

The 116-page Supreme Court ruling also reversed a companion precedent in 1992, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which held that only when a fetus becomes viable for life outside the wombsomewhere around the 24-week gestation mark, the ruling suggestedcan the states impose significant restrictions on abortion.

We hold that Roe and (the 1992 Planned Parenthood vs.) Casey must be overruled, Alito wrote. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly relythe Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti joined 10 mayors from across the country in issuing a joint statement supporting abortion rights.

Access to safe and legal abortion has saved countless lives. American women, for the first time, have been able to plan their reproductive, economic, and social livesleading to tremendous gains in not just health and personal freedom, but equity and quality of life in our communities, the mayors said in a statement.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys), and a candidate for Los Angeles County supervisor, said the Supreme Court is criminalizing women.

The majoritys theological bent wants to keep women barefoot and pregnant and is a throwback to when women were property and knew their place. That past is our future if Americans dont wake up and vote, he said.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn called the ruling devastating.

This ruling will not end abortioneven for women living in red states. We must ensure that California and pro-choice states across the country continue to be a haven for reproductive rights, Hahn said.

But many Republicans celebrated the ruling as a win for the pro-life movement.

For a half century unelected judges have dictated Americas abortion laws. This historic ruling rightfully returns power to the American people to enact laws that protect unborn children and support mothers everywhere, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement. As this debate now returns to the states and the American people, we know there is still much work ahead. Republicans will continue to advocate for life, uphold the law, and stand against an extreme Democrat Partys pro-abortion agenda.

City News Service contributed to this report.
A worker with car batteries at a factory for Xinwangda Electric Vehicle Battery Co. Ltd, which makes lithium batteries for electric cars and other uses, in Nanjing in China's eastern Jiangsu Province, on March 12, 2021. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

South Koreas Reliance on China for Auto Parts Leads to Calls for Supply Chain Diversification

South Koreas auto industry has become increasingly dependent on China for parts, leading to calls for supply chain diversification.

Cho Chul, an analyst with the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade (KIET), a government-funded think tank, recently highlighted how automobile parts imports from China have increased over the past two decades.

China only accounted for 1.8 percent of [South Koreas automobile parts imports] in 2000, but that share had jumped to 36.2 percent by the first four months of 2022. In contrast, Japans share of auto part imports has declined from 45.5 percent in 2000 to 11.1 percent in the first quarter of this year, said Cho reported local media Hankyoreh.

Cho made his remarks at the Auto Industry Development Forum held in Seoul on June 14.

Required for Making Batteries

According to the Korea International Trade Association, the countrys auto industry depends on China for 83 percent of its anode materials, one of the four main battery components, and at least 60 percent dependence on the other three primary components: cathode materials, electrolytes, and separators.

Among the raw materials needed for making batteries, graphite is 100 percent sourced from China, manganese 93 percent, cobalt 82 percent, nickel 65 percent, lithium 59 percent, and similar issues with other materials.

Its worrisome that were becoming more dependent on China as we move into the era of electric vehicles. We need to diversify our supply chain by region while also strengthening the supply ecosystem at home, Cho said.

China has remained the worlds largest automotive manufacturing country and automotive market since 2009, containing thousands of small and large auto parts factories and multinational carmakers.

Workers at a factory for Xinwangda Electric Vehicle Battery Co. Ltd, which makes lithium batteries for electric cars and other uses, in Nanjing in Chinas eastern Jiangsu Province, on March 12, 2021. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Production Halts Caused by Chinese Lockdowns

Such a high level of reliance on China has led to a series of production halts for South Korean automakers in recent months due to stringent lockdowns in the country.

In March and April, South Korean automakers faced a shortage of airbag control units (ACUs)a device that detects accidents and triggers airbagsas parts from China were delayed.

Hyundai Motor reportedly left its assembly lines at its Ulsan plant partially idle for weeks from April 18 due to being unable to procure enough ACUs.

Gwangju Global Motors, which makes the Hyundai Casper, halted production from April 18 to 21 due to the ACU shortage. Meanwhile, GM Korea, the Korean unit of General Motors, adjusted production output at one of its Bupyeong plants as its Chinese suppliers failed to meet orders for the brake system parts in time.

GM Korea also reportedly ran out of many parts from China on top of the auto chip shortage. The company produced 60,408 vehicles during the first quarter, down 30 percent from the same period last year.

In March, Hyundai and Kia were unable to source wiring harnesses due to the lockdown in Shandong, which occurred before the Shanghai lockdown. The companies reportedly had to cut production for two to four weeks.

According to data from the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association, Korean automakers import about 87 percent of their wiring harness from China.

75 Percent of Key Imports Came from China

A recent analysis published by the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) showed that 75 percent of South Koreas key imports came from China.

According to Hankyoreh, the study published on May 30 was carried out by Chonbuk National University professor Choi Nam-suk at the request of FKI.

The study analyzed South Koreas import reliance on the United States, China, and Japan, which are responsible for 90 percent of the countrys imports. The category of key imports was assigned to 228 items that rank in the top 30 percent in import dollar value.

The study found that 172 out of 228 items (75.5 percent) came from China, 32 (14 percent) came from Japan, and 24 (10.5 percent) from the United States.

Some of the key imported goods from China include electronics, machinery, computers, steel, organic and inorganic compounds, glass, medical products, and industrial raw materials such as non-ferrous metals, the report says.

Prominent examples of Chinese imports include manganese, which is critical for steel manufacturing; graphite, which is an essential electric vehicle battery anode material; and magnesium, which is important for lightweight automobile production.

The report also identified 133 products with high volumes of transactions between companies, suggesting they may become global supply chain stability vulnerabilities. Among them, Chinese-made items accounted for 127 or 95.4 percent, including tungsten oxide (used in semiconductors), calcium chloride, graphics cards, solar cell modules, and pesticide ingredients.

A general view of the Busan Port, South Korea on Nov. 5, 2021. (Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

Choi called on the government to establish an early warning management system for these critical commodities.

Failure to manage supply and demand for key import items could result in supply crises erupting at any time, as witnessed with the urea water solution situation, Choi said.

An ongoing monitoring system will need to be established for the 228 items, along with measures such as import diversification.

Last year, a shortage of urea supplied by China threatened to cripple economic activity in South Korea. Among other uses, urea is used to cut emissions in diesel vehicles and make fertilizer.

In mid-October, China reduced its urea exports due to a coal shortage, putting South Korea in a deep crisis as the countrys nearly 4 million diesel vehicles cannot operate without urea, sending its logistics industry into chaos.

The incident highlighted the resource-poor countrys heavy reliance on China for the essential items it needed to maintain business as usual. Since then, major South Korean industries have begun accelerating plans to build diversified production bases worldwide.
Students walk to their classrooms at a public middle school in Los Angeles, on Sept. 10, 2021. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

Stop the Radical Civics Bill

Commentary

I was shocked to discover that some Republicans had cosponsored a truly radical, so-called civics bill designed to force every public school to teach racist leftwing propaganda.

As I said on The Ingraham Angle, the bill is totally crazy. No Republican should support it. In fact, every Republican should oppose it severely. This bill would open the door to allowing the federal bureaucracy to decide civics curriculum in states and school districts across the country. This means unelected federal employees would be able to overrule and dictate to parents, teachers, and school board members what children in their communities are learning.

Remember the fights over Common Core and CRT? This is the same fight with a different name. It is exactly the kind of thing I expect from the Big Government Socialists in Washington, who would gladly make all our decisions for us. But I was astonished that there were Republicans who cosponsored the bill.

As I said to Laura Ingraham, people should call their House and Senate members and demand that they stop this outrageous effort to undermine patriotism, divide America by race, and force children to be brainwashed into adopting leftwing values.

Dont take my word for how bad this bill is. Here is the explanation by Stanley Kurtz, one of the leading analysts of education policy, writing in National Review:

The misleadingly named Civics Secures Democracy Act (CSDA)  just now reintroduced in Congress  will allow the Biden administration to push Critical Race Theory (CRT) on every public school in the country. Over a six-year period, this $6 billion pot of competitive grant money will create a de facto national curriculum  just like Common Core. States desperate to tap into the federal gravy train will have to tailor their civics and history grant proposals to the Biden administrations liking. And abundant evidence shows that Bidens Education Department is pushing CRT. So why are some Republican senators eager to help Biden spread CRT? I cant think of a quicker way to devastate Republican enthusiasm just before the midterms.

Kurtz went on to call the bill education madness and political suicide all wrapped up in one. He also said it was the most pernicious federal education legislation [hes] ever seen.

This bill first emerged a year ago, and the National Association of Scholars, a group of leading conservative intellectuals, wrote Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Tom Cole a letter opposing the bill. They asserted:

We urge you to withdraw your support for the Civics Secures Democracy Act. Recent actions by the Biden Administration will prevent this legislation from supporting impartial civics education and will instead direct the funds it authorizes to subsidize ideologically partisan political activism. We believe you can best achieve your original aims to support impartial civics education by rescinding your support for this legislation.

They went on to write:

It will provide vast federal funding for this radical program and it will impose enormous political pressure on the states to do the same. Just as the Education Departments Race to the Top Fund gave the cash-strapped states an irresistible incentive to adopt Common Core, and thereby imposed de facto federal control on state standards and curriculum, so the Civics Secures Democracy Act will give the federal government de facto power to impose Action Civics and Critical Race Theory on the states.

Now, as a historianand a former professorI completely agree that every American student should learn and understand civics and American history by the time they graduate high school. I would broadly support funding for such education legislation provided parents, teachers, and school systems could develop curriculum free of federal government overlords.

The question I have is: How could anyone possibly believe the Biden administration would permit accurate teaching of an honest account of American history?

Any senator who is in doubt should look at House Conference Chair Elise Stefaniks report on local school indoctrination. She wrote in a recent op-ed with Christopher Rufo:

[The Lefts] playbook is to deflect, label the existence of CRT in elementary and secondary classrooms as a right-wing conspiracy theory, and assert their denial as an unquestionable fact.

They went on to assert:

Yet look no further than Monroe County, where West Irondequoit Central School District students were required to participate in an anti-racist curriculum project to learn of the contemporary realities of structural racism. Earlier this school year, students at the Lower Manhattan Community School were segregated by race in order to undo the legacy of racism and oppression in this country that impacts or school community. Make no mistake, dividing and defining students by their race is state-sanctioned racism.

If anyone still doubts the depth of leftwing fanaticism being embedded by the Biden administration, read the The Washington Times report on whats happening at one of our premier military academies:

West Point cadets have been taught that whiteness connotes race privilege and structural advantage as part of instructions based on critical race theory, according to newly revealed documents and course materials from the military academy. Among the trove of documents  which were handed over to Judicial Watch after a public records lawsuit  are presentation slides instructing cadets that in order to understand racial inequality and slavery, it is first necessary to address whiteness. According to the course material Whiteness, is a standpoint or place from which white people look at themselves and the rest of society, and refers to a set of cultural practices that are usually unmarked and unnamed. Another slide that contains a graphic that reads: MODERN DAY SLAVERY IN THE USA instructs students on the disparities between Black people and White people.

This racist indoctrination is being done at our oldest military academy to young people who have signed up to defend America.

Given the Big Government Socialist values of the teachers unions, the schools of education, the educational bureaucracy, and the activists in the Biden administration, how could any Republican want to give them $6.1 billion to further indoctrinate young Americans?

Call your House and Senate members and demand that they oppose and stop this unbelievably destructive civics billbefore it is too late.

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.
Its part of the whole college experience. Eager young minds, animated in discussion, engaging in robust classroom debate.

It got lively, boisterouseven explosive at timesas bright pupils with great expectations shared, tested, and contested ideas about the world. This was the university, the crucible of learning, the engine of ideas.

How times have changed.

Today, that experience has turned heavy (the crucible cold and unyielding) in many colleges and universities, where discussions are dampened by theories like postmodernism, putting a chill on that wistful classroom experience.

Few know this better than those whove been silenced.

The schools themselves are doing the silencing.

Michiganite Maggie DeJong, 26, now graduated, studied art therapy counseling at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, where postmodernism was taught as part of its curriculum.

(Courtesy of Alliance Defending Freedom)

Because of her viewpoints on contentious issues facing America today, ones impacting the lives, livelihoods, rights, and security of countless individualssuch as abortion, defunding the police, and Black Lives Matterthe school took administrative steps to bring her bright mind to heel.

They slapped DeJong with a no contact order, the colleges equivalent of a restraining order, usually reserved for those threatening violence.

There is a view that is becoming more prominent on campuses, that speech is violence, DeJongs attorney Gregg Walters told The Epoch Times. You cannot issue an order saying your protected speech is a violation of some code of conduct.

DeJong, along with the Alliance Defending Freedom, is now suing the school for violating her First Amendment rights to free speech and religious belief. Her Christian beliefs are part of what shape her worldview. DeJong is seeking a change in the schools policy, vindication from the no contact order, and remediation for damages.

She was also denied due process.

Even in the legal system, you get a chance to defend yourself, added Walters. She wasnt given any type of hearing date to defend us, they were just issued.

(Courtesy of Alliance Defending Freedom)

DeJong engaged in discussions in classroom settings, which was expected of her, in ways that were topically appropriate, discussions about race relations, religion, and the postmodern theoretical framework, she said. Until a student who didnt like what she was saying made a formal complaint.

And her views were collected from social media for over a year. Classmates took screenshots from her Instagram as evidence.

I was participating in these discussions, but they found views offensive that were from my Instagram that regarded pro-life discussions, she told the newspaper, adding that those views were conservative views that millions of Americans hold that are being discussed right now.

She defended Kyle Rittenhouse and denounced critical race theory on social media, drawing the ire of fellow students.

(Courtesy of Alliance Defending Freedom)

(Courtesy of Alliance Defending Freedom)

Proof of ideological impiety in hand, administrators issued DeJong no contact orders preventing her from having any contact, direct or indirect, with three students, on or off campus.

Its the universitys version of a restraining order, said Walters, adding that schools are not allowed to issue them. Not in these circumstances. In other circumstances [it may be allowed], perhaps for protection against physical violence, threats of violence, sexual assault, sexual harassment, but when it comes to protected speech, absolutely not.

Adding insult to injury, DeJongs teacher followed up by sending an email to some 30 of her classmates, informing them she was being investigated.

This pressure successfully chilled her speaking, effectively silencing her from further discussion, even in the classroom.

(Courtesy of Alliance Defending Freedom)

I was living in fear with my speech and so I was very scared to even defend myself, and so I remained very quiet, she said, adding that she felt sadness for what was going on.

Punishment with such impunity flies in the face of university tradition: to seek truth. Now, the prevailing postmodern ideology holds that truth is relative; all discourses are constructs, tools of power; logic itself is a construct, a construct of the West, so logical debate cant reach fruitful conclusions but can only serve the powerful, the privileged.

Only power struggles exist, between oppressor and oppressed.

Hence, speech equals violence when uttered from people like DeJongso the postmodern mantra goes.

Not all agree.

(Courtesy of Alliance Defending Freedom)

The more we talk about speech being violence, the more we see extreme reactions to legal speech, said Walters. And in case of Maggies speech, there are millions of people that would agree with the positions that she took.

To treat that as if it were something worthy of a no contact order is just absolutely wrong. It was protected speech, and universities cannot censor speech based on religious and political viewpoints.

The universitys punitive approach to learning, he added, reinforces victimhood behavior rather than encouraging civil discourse.

I went in with the mindset that its university, so diversity of thought should be welcomed, DeJong added. It should be a marketplace of ideas where you can engage in dialogue  where youre truly picking things apart and learning, and learning from other people.

Freedom of speech, the First Amendment, needs to be upheld within university systems so that students can fully engage in the marketplace of ideas.

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
People (bottom) wave goodbye on July 18, 2021, as passengers make their way through the departure gates of Hong Kong's International Airport. Twice a day Hong Kong's virtually deserted airport fills with the sound of tearful goodbyes as residents fearful for their future under China's increasingly authoritarian rule leave to start a new life abroad. (Adrian Yu/Epochtimes Hong Kong)

Survey Shows Nearly 80 Percent of Hong Kongers Intend to Emigrate Within Two Years

Hong Kongs recent emigration fair was very popular, the number of attendees increased significantly relative to the previous fair. Many said that they are planning to leave Hong Kong within the next two years. Renowned actress Lana Wong Ha-wai says that she will leave Hong Kong in August this year.

The 3rd International Immigration and Property Expo was held on June 11 and 12 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Prior to the exhibition, the organizer collected 35,000 surveys from prospective visitors who registered online. The survey results showed that 79 percent of the respondents plan to emigrate within two years, and 19 percent intended to leave Hong Kong within six months.

The survey shows that the three most popular countries are the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, accounting for 31 percent, 22 percent, and 21 percent respectively.

The survey also shows that families who are financially better off tend to emigrate more66 percent of the respondents have a net worth over HKD $8 million (about $1.02 million) and 17 percent have assets worth more than HKD $50 million (about $6.37 million). Of those who plan to leave, 30 percent are in the group with a monthly household income over HK$150,000 (about $20,000).

According to the organizers, 30,000 people attended the Expo last year and the number of visitors increased by 30 percent this year. The number of exhibitors also increased by 20 percent compared to the previous year.

Immigration consultant and former Australian immigration officer May told The Epoch Times that the number of clients asking for advice on immigration to Australia is double that of the previous year, with the destinations mainly being Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. She also pointed out that the approval rates of applicants rose compared to previous years, with a success rate of 80 percent.

Actress Lana Wong Ha-wai will Leave Hong Kong

Renowned actress Lana Wong Ha-wai announced on June 10 that she will leave Hong Kong this August. The actress is 92 years old. In her Facebook post, she said that she will miss her fans.

I dont know when I will come back to Hong Kong to see everyone again! I dont know if I will be missed. But right now, no matter where I am in the world, I will miss all of you! On the 12th of this month, I will have my last video interview with my manager Simon, I will miss this moment forever!

She also mentioned the 2012 Dolce & Gabbana photo-banning incident saying: I have been working with Simon for 10 years. Since the D&G incident, he told me to care about social issues and taught me to be humorous. It was a difficult time but I was happy!

The post has 20,000 responses, and fans said they were sad that she has to leave but wished her all the best in the future.

Lana Wong Ha-wai has been active in many social issues and protests. She participated in the campaign against the 2019 Hong Kong extradition bill, where protestors joined hands to form a human chain. She was also a part of the protest against the Italian luxury brand D&Gs photo-ban in 2012. At the time, D&G branches in Hong Kong allowed only mainland Chinese customers to take pictures but not Hong Kong people. This led to anger and protests among Hong Kongers, and the brand eventually apologizing for the photo ban.

Also, during Chinese New Year, Lana Wong Ha-wai used to go to the Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple, dressed as different Chinese zodiac signs, to pray for herself and Hong Kong, which was photographed by the media on many occasions.

Epoch Times reporter Doris Li contributed to this article.
Frozen seawater covers a rock on the shore near the city of Ronne on the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea on Feb. 5, 2012. (Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images)

The Baltic Noose the Kremlin Fears

Commentary

Has the Kremlin decided to fight a hot war in the Baltic Seas cold waters?

On June 17 the Russian Navy deliberately violated Danish territorial water, specifically the Baltic Sea island of Bornholm, which lies north of Poland. During the Cold War Bornholm was a Berlin-like intelligence outpost behind enemy lines.

On June 18 a Russian border patrol helicopter violated Estonian airspace. Two days later the Kremlin threatened Lithuania, warning it would take measures to defend its national intereststo protect Kaliningrad. On June 21, Estonia claimed that Russia was conducting military exercises that included simulated missile attacks targeting against Estonia.

With its principal offensive ground forces fighting a dreadful war of attrition in eastern Ukraine, Russia really isnt in a position to militarily bully and intimidate NATO nations with martial tantrums. Yet over a four-day period, Russia directed physical and verbal threats of war at three small nations on the Baltic Sea.

Russia attacked Lithuania with wordsbut over an important subject, the Russian Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad. Estonia concluded the helicopter overflight warranted summoning Russias ambassador. Did the simulated missile attack affect that decision? Perhaps that occurred in a secret Russian wargamebut not so secret a game Estonia didnt get the word. Look to Ukraine to see what real missile attacks do to cities.

Denmark faced an overt military probe of its territorial integrity. A Russian warship violated Danish waters twice.

Finland noticed the four days of provocation and issued, well, not a threat per se, but a riposte of sorts. On June 22the fifth dayGen. Timo Kivinen, Finlands Chief of Defense, told Reuters: We have systematically developed our military defense(s) precisely for this type of warfare that is being waged there (in Ukraine), with a massive use of firepower, armored forces, and also air forces. Then he added, Ukraine has been a tough bite to chew (for Russia) and so would be Finland.

The general didnt mention Finlands zones of defense featuring bunkers, camouflaged positions, and connecting routes that take advantage of Finlands often-difficult terrain. Their depots also stock civilian supplies.

So why the flurry of Russian threats?

Estonias Defense Ministry told Bloomberg News the upcoming NATO summit in Madrid in part explains the Kremlins saber-rattling. Russia is angry. That summit will consider Finlands and Swedens bids to join the alliance.

No doubt that is true. But I think the Kremlins string of Baltic provocations suggest Vladimir Putins regime senses vulnerabilitya threat to its territorial integrity.

In a column published on March 15, I suggested Russias failure to achieve a quick victory in Ukraine exposed Russia to loss of its own territorydespite its nuclear arsenal.

That columns hypothesis: The Russian Armys slipshod combat performance in Ukraine raises hard questions about the Kremlins ability to wage conventional war against a peer enemy. That suggests the Kremlins greatest geostrategic treasure, resource-laden Siberia, is vulnerable.

To whom? Not NATO, but communist China. For the first time in centuries China possesses a more powerful military than Russia. According to Beijings propagandists, Siberia belongs to China.

The great leap forward in future history: China would enforce its territorial claim as Russia withers.

Beijing has an imperial energy (a delusion, in my view) that could spur an invasion of Siberia.

Evidence: An imperial delusion drove Putin to attack Ukraine.

Back to the Baltic threat theater: Sure, Russia wants to check European shipments of weapons and supplies to Ukraine. I think thats why several weeks ago Putin threatened nuclear strikesand looked foolish for it.

The Deep Fear: The Kremlin knows its Baltic exclave, Kaliningrad.

Sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland (both NATO nations), until the end of WWII Kaliningrad was the Prussian city of Konigsberg. Putins Kremlin prizes this Soviet imperial remnant. All is not well in Kaliningrad. In 2018 the Kremlin was conducting an intense information war against what it called the Germanization of Kaliningrad.

Review Russias June 20 threat to Lithuania. Citing sanctions on Russian trade, Lithuania closed the transit of Russian goods to Kaliningrad.

And the Kremlin felt the noose.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
The name translates to spring pasta from Italian, so forgive me for assuming that pasta primavera was a classic springtime Italian dish. But while primavera sounds classy, it turns out the dish was invented in Nova Scotia during the summer of 1975.

The bottom line is that we can prepare cheesy noodles with vegetables any time of year, with summer and fall probably being the best seasons to do so, because they offer more fresh produce than spring. As pasta primavera is an American dish, we can use American cheeses if we want. Ultimately, were talking about mac n cheese with extra vegetables, and there isnt anything wrong with that.

Mac n cheese primavera is an effective and delicious way to eat vegetables. Making the entire dish from scratch takes barely any longer than preparing the boxed, veg-less version.

Perfectly Cooked Vegetables

A proper mac n cheese primavera has a smooth, non-lumpy cheese sauce and al dente vegetables. I dont sprinkle it with breadcrumbs and bake it because that makes it difficult to control the cookingand potential overcookingof the vegetables.

The most common recipes for pasta primavera include tomato, bell pepper, and other veggies from deeper into the summer, as well as broccoli and peas, which come earlier. Whichever vegetables you use, the essential task of this recipe is to cook them perfectly. The most reliable way to do so is to steam the veggies separately, shock them in cold water to stop the cooking and keep them crisp, and add them to the almost finished product.

Todays recipe for an early summer mac n cheese primavera features rounds of green and yellow zucchini and fresh herbs, such as parsley and basil. Since zucchini is the only vegetable Im cooking, I dont have to worry about overcooking some and undercooking others, so Ill skip the steaming and briefly saute the zukes before adding the noodles fresh from the boiling water and still wet. The water will drip off the noodles and into the pan and steam the zucchini in place while we build the sauce on top with handfuls of shredded cheese.

You can use this recipe to track the harvest by incorporating whatever produce is available. Vegetables such as peas and broccoli, which need, at most, a mere hint of cooking, can be incorporated the same way as the zucchini. For heartier veggies, such as cauliflower or carrots, steam them before tossing them into the silky, cheesy finished product.

Mac n Cheese Primavera alla Zucchine

This dish combines the best elements of 2 classic pasta dishes: pasta primavera and mac n cheese. Its extremely flexible in the type of cheeses you add, as well as in which vegetables to include.

Serves 6

1 pound pasta (preferably short, stubby, and hollow, such as penne, which are basically like unbent elbows and hold sauce similarly)

1 pound zucchini, cut into rounds about 1/2-inch thick

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons butter

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tablespoon mustard powder

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon black pepper

Zest and juice of 1/4 lemon

1 cup milk

3/4 pound of cheese, grated (I like a mix of sharp cheddar, orange cheddar, and fontina)

Salt (for the pasta water and for seasoning)

Fresh parsley and/or basil

Bring 4 quarts of salted (about 1 tablespoon salt) water to a boil and cook the pasta.

While the pasta is boiling, add the zucchini, butter, oil, and garlic to a deep pan or heavy bottom pot. Saute for about 5 minutes over medium-low heat. When the noodles are done, quickly drain and add them to the zucchini, but dont stir them together.

Sprinkle the mustard powder, nutmeg, garlic powder, black pepper, and lemon zest and juice on top of the noodles, but still dont stir it.

Add the milk and about a quarter of your grated cheese, and give it a stir. Add another quarter of the cheese and stir again. Keep adding the cheese and stirring it in until its all in, and keep stirring until it turns into a glorious cheese sauce. If its too dry or starts to burn, turn down the heat and add more milk or some pasta water to loosen it. Add salt to taste. It will need some, even if the cheese is salty. Top with fresh herbs and serve.
Flash flooding at Utah's Capitol Reef National Park wash away vehicles on June 23, 2022. (Courtesy of Wayne County Sheriff's Office)

Tourists Evacuated, Cars Washed Away as Severe Flash Floods Hit Utah National Park

Rescue crews in Utah helped tourists and rangers to safety after flash floods on Thursday trapped them at Capitol Reef National Park, according to officials.

In a press release, the Wayne County Sheriffs Office (WCSO) announced that active flooding was reported in Grand Wash at 12:18 p.m., and some of the park rangers attempting to rescue stranded visitors ended up getting trapped themselves during the flooding.

There was active flooding  park rangers were on scene getting people out of the wash, [and] while doing so some of the park rangers got stranded in the flood but were able to get to high ground, the sheriffs office reported.

The only injuries reported were minor cuts and lacerations, the park service said.

A dispatch center in Richfield, Sevier County, was asked to contact the Department of Public Safety (DPS), urging them to assist with airlifting people to safety, stating that an excessive number of visitors were present at the park, while also describing the floods as severe.

A DPS helicopter was dispatched to the area and was able to rescue people who were stranded there, the WCSO said. A jet fuel trailer also arrived from a nearby town to help the DPS with refueling.

They were able to hoist them out and brought them to a parking area, officials said. There were approximately 60 people in that parking lot that almost had to spend the night, however, the park rangers worked diligently to clear the roads, making them passible.

The Utah Department of Transportation jointly determined with the WCSO which roads would be closed in the area during the flash flooding, Kassidee Brown, a spokeswoman in Wayne County, told KTL.

Members of the park service arranged lodging in nearby motels for people stranded due to the flooding.

Park rangers were able to find lodging and are shuttling people out of the parking area to the surrounding motels, the sheriffs office said, adding that there are about seven to eight disabled vehicles in the flood areas.

[Officials] will work to get them out conditions permitting, the release concluded.

High water in the Gardiner River along the North Entrance to Yellowstone National Park in Montana on June 13, 2022. (National Park Service via AP)

A washed out bridge from flooding at Rescue Creek in Yellowstone National Park, Mont., on June 13, 2022. (National Park Service via AP)

Earlier this month, massive floodwaters ravaged Yellowstone National Park and nearby communities, washing out roads and bridges, cutting off electricity, and forcing visitors to evacuate parts of the iconic park at the height of summer tourist season.

Yellowstone officials said more than 10,000 visitors were ordered out of the nations oldest national park, The Associated Press reported.

On Wednesday, the park partially reopened for the first time since catastrophic flooding destroyed bridges and roads and drove out thousands of tourists.

From NTD News
The 2023 Toyota bZ4X all-electric SUV is displayed during the 2021 LA Auto Show in Los Angeles, on Nov. 17, 2021. (Mike Blake/Reuters)

Toyota Recalls bZ4X Electric Vehicles Over Malfunction That Could Cause Wheels to Fall Off

Toyota has issued a global recall of its first mass-produced electric vehicle (EV) over loose bolts connecting the bZ4Xs wheels, which might result in the wheels falling off while driving.

The hub bolt may loosen due to repeated sharp turns and sudden braking. Therefore if you continue to drive in that state, abnormal noise will be generated, and in the worst case, the tires may fall off, the automaker said on its website.

Toyota, the worlds largest carmaker by sales, recalled 2,700 EVs. Of these, 2,200 were destined for Europe, 260 for the United States, 20 for Canada, and 110 for Japan.

The Japan-based company has also warned bZ4X owners to refrain from using the EVs until the issue is resolved.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused to your patrons. We will repair it promptly, but we are investigating the details, it stated.

Subaru also announced the recall of 2,600 units of its EV, the Solterra, over the same defect.

The Solterra marks Subarus first EV that it jointly developed with Toyota, which owns 20 percent of the company.

The move comes less than two months after Toyota released the bZ4X, the first model in its global bZ series, which stands for Beyond Zero. It has a power efficiency of 128 Wh/km and a predicted battery capacity retention ratio of 90 percent after 10 years.

The recall of the bZ4X was a setback for the carmaker, which plans to invest $35 billion to sell 3.5 million EVs globally by 2030 and release 30 battery-powered models within the same period.

Meanwhile, U.S.-based Ford also recalled 49,000 Mustang Mach-E EVs last week due to the potential overheating of high-voltage battery main contractors, which could cause a loss of power while driving.

Reuters contributed to this report.
The 2023 Toyota bZ4X all-electric SUV is displayed during the 2021 LA Auto Show in Los Angeles, on Nov. 17, 2021. (Mike Blake/Reuters)

Toyota Recalls First Mass-Produced EVs Less Than 2 Months After Launch

TOKYOToyota Motor Corp. said on Thursday it would recall 2,700 of its first mass-produced electric vehicles (EVs) because of a danger that wheels could come loose.

The worlds largest automaker by sales submitted the recall of the bZ4X SUVs to Japans transportation ministry. Of the 2,700 vehicles, 2,200 were earmarked for Europe, 260 for the United States, 20 for Canada, and 110 for Japan, the company said.

Japans safety regulator said sharp turns and sudden braking could cause a hub bolt to loosen, raising the risk of a wheel coming off the vehicle. The regulator said it was not aware of any accidents being caused by the defect.

The safety regulator said it was advising drivers to stop using the vehicle until a more permanent repair measure was in place.

The recall comes less than two months after Toyota, a relative latecomer to the EV market, rolled out the electric SUV, bZ4X, to the domestic market, albeit as a lease only option.

Gasoline-electric hybrid models remain far more popular in Toyotas home market than EVs, which accounted for just 1 percent of the passenger cars sold in Japan last year, based on industry data.

Still, foreign automakers including Tesla Inc. are making visible inroads on the streets of cities such as Tokyo.

By Satoshi Sugiyama
Travel Chaos: Who Is to Blame for Thousands of Canceled Flights?

Buttigieg threatens airlines over canceled flights, but carriers say the problem is a shortage of air traffic controllers

Airlines canceled thousands of flights this week, blaming staffing shortages, as Americans return to traveling in droves this summer. But airlines and the federal government are at odds over which staffing shortages are the fundamental cause.

More than 1,400 flights were canceled in the United States yesterday, and more than 5,800 were significantly delayed. Airlines started the summer travel season by canceling approximately 2,800 flights in the United States around Memorial Day and with the July Fourth weekend coming up, there appears to be no relief in sight. Worldwide, more than 21,000 flights were canceled or delayed yesterday.

On busy summer travel days, the number of passengers often exceeds 2 million per day. With staffing stretched tight, any disruptions, including from weather, severely tax airlines ability to recover and get passengers to their destinations. James Ferrara, president of InteleTravel, a travel agency, said passengers just experienced another travel Armageddon weekend.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg held a virtual meeting with airline executives last week to demand that they hire more staff, and then had his own flight from Washington, D.C., to New York canceled the following day, forcing him to drive. Many have claimed a pilot shortage is at the root of it all. But airlines say the major cause of flight delays is the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and a shortage of air traffic controllers.

This week, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby announced that his company was cutting 50 flights per day out of Newark Airport, one of its major hubs, but not because the airline lacks capacity. Air traffic control is understaffed, Kirby said in a CNN interview, and because of that, theres just more flights than the airport can handle. He said the most important things the government can do to alleviate cancellations are to limit the amount of flights to the number that the airport can theoretically handle  and get the air traffic control towers back to full staffing. Kirby told Bloomberg News on June 20 that at Newark, we have had weekends where [air traffic control] staffing is under 50 percent, adding that at United, we do not have any staffing issues.

In May, Jet Blue, Southwest, and Frontier Airlines blamed a shortage of air traffic controllers for delays and cancellations of thousands of flights in Florida. In response, the FAA pledged to immediately increase the number of authorized staff.

During his meeting with airlines, Buttigieg demanded that they stress test their ability to handle summer traffic, and threatened that the U.S. Department of Transportation would take enforcement actions against airlines if cancellations continued at the current rate.

Many airlines have responded to the current crisis by cutting routes, particularly to smaller, less profitable cities. American Airlines cited a pilot shortage as the reason that it was canceling routes to Dubuque, Iowa; Toledo, Ohio; and Islip and Ithaca, New York. The Department of Transportation has pushed back against reducing service to small cities, pressing SkyWest airlines to continue service after it had announced it was pulling out of 29 locales, including Sioux City, Iowa, because it couldnt hire enough pilots.

But the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), a pilots union representing 64,000 pilots at 39 airlines, said pilot shortages are not the problem, pointing out that 8,000 newly certified pilots have signed on in the past year. The ALPA called the pilot shortage a problem that doesnt exist.

According to an ALPA statement, The United States is producing more pilots today than we did pre-pandemic. The attempt to demand more pilots will only weaken safety standards, ALPA stated. Lets stop the double speak and call this for what it is: a blatant attempt to weaken first officer qualification requirements, despite the fact that the United States has more than enough qualified pilots now.

Airlines suffered a brutal reduction in passenger traffic in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, government lockdowns, and other transportation regulations. According to a study by McKinsey, a management consultancy, airlines hemorrhaged $168 billion in economic losses in 2020.

Airlines responded by cutting about 90,000 jobs that year, reducing staff to levels not seen since the 1980s. In addition, many airlines demanded that pilots and attendants be vaccinated or lose their jobs. United announced in March that it would let unvaccinated workers return, after having fired more than 200 of them and putting another 2,200 on unpaid leave. At the time, President Joe Biden, who attempted to force vaccines on most American workers as a requirement to keep their jobs, praised the airline for this policy.

But airlines are now hiring aggressively to meet a dramatic uptick in demand. Southwest Airlines told The Epoch Times, Weve hired more than 14,500 employees in the past 12 months, and were on track to hire more than 10,000 Southwest employees in 2022. The airline plans to restore 85 percent of its pre-pandemic flight schedule by the end of this year.

Meanwhile, the FAA is promising to add staff as well. On June 15, the FAA updated its staffing plan hire and train several thousand air traffic controllers over the next decade. The FAA said it added 509 new controllers to its staff of 13,850 controllers in 2021. It said it has hired more than 6,100 controllers over the past five years.

Giving a nod to racial and gender diversity, United Airlines pledged in April 2021 that half of its new pilot hires would be women or people of color. Racial and sexual discrimination by private companies is illegal under the 1964 Civil Rights Act, however, and it is unclear how these quotas are affecting the airlines staffing goals.

Meanwhile, airline passengers should prepare for a difficult, frustrating experience this summer.
This combination of pictures created on Feb. 16, 2021, shows then U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington on Oct. 27, 2020, and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Capitol Hill on Feb. 5, 2020. (Saul Loeb, Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump Rebukes Mitch McConnell Over Gun Bill: Final Straw

Former President Donald Trump blasted Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnells push for gun control on June 23.

Trump posted his criticism on Truth Social, stating, Mitch McConnells push for Republican senators to vote for gun control will be the final straw.

His rebuke came just before the U.S. Senate passed a bipartisan bill hailed as the most significant federal gun control legislation in decades.

McConnell (R-Ky.) voiced support for the gun agreement put forward by a bipartisan group of lawmakers during a June 22 speech on the Senate floor.

He said the bill would protect the rights of gun owners and, at the same time, lessen gun violence.

In addition, McConnell said, the bill does not so much as touch the rights of the overwhelming majority of American gun owners who are law-abiding citizens of sound mind.

In Trumps opinion, McConnell has been giving away things to reach consensus with Democrats without getting anything in return.

According to Trump, McConnells advocacy of the gun bill amounts to handing the Democrats another victory.

Just like he gave away the debt ceiling and got nothing in return, or handed the Dems a great sound bite and victory with the infrastructure bill, which is actually all about the Green New Deal, he is now forcing approval of the first step in taking away your guns! Trump further stated.

Trump ended the statement by calling for Republican senators to obstruct the effort in getting the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act passed, implying that those going for it will not be able to secure their seats in the reelections.

Yet, with 15 Republican senators siding with the Democrats, the Senate approved the legislation by a bipartisan 65-33 vote.

Provisions of the bill include school safety and encourage the use of juvenile records background checks for those between the ages of 18 and 21 who want to buy a gun. Other measures focus on mental health, state crisis intervention programs, and incentives for red flag laws.

The Senates move was in stark contrast to the earlier ruling of the Supreme Court delivered on the same day.

In the 6-3 ruling, conservative Justice Clarence Thomas negated a law that said New Yorkers who want to carry a handgun in public must show a special need to defend themselves.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) slammed the bill, saying it wont stop violent crime and will undermine your rights.

Meanwhile, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis applauded the U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down New Yorks concealed carry licensing law, saying it was a great decision from Justice Clarence Thomas.
Conservative Party chairman Oliver Dowden leaves after attending a Cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street, in London, on June 7, 2022. (Niklas Halle'n /AFP via Getty Images)

UK Conservative Party Chairman Resigns After Double By-Election Defeat

The chairman of Britains ruling Conservative Party has resigned after the party suffered two by-election defeats, dealing a fresh blow to Prime Minister Boris Johnsons authority.

The Tories lost the Tiverton and Honiton constituency, a traditional Conservative stronghold, after a swing of almost 30 percent to the Liberal Democrats. And Wakefield, one of the so-called red wall seats won by the Tories in the 2019 general election, returned to Labour hands after a swing of 12.7 percent.

Resigning as party chairman, Oliver Dowden said the by-elections are the latest in a run of very poor results for our party.

In his resignation letter to Johnson, he wrote: Our supporters are distressed and disappointed by recent events, and I share their feelings. We cannot carry on with business as usual. Somebody must take responsibility and I have concluded that, in these circumstances, it would not be right for me to remain in office.

Dowden ended his letter by saying: I want to emphasise that this is a deeply personal decision that I have taken alone. I will, as always, remain loyal to the Conservative Party.

In response, the prime minister told Dowden he completely understands his disappointment with the by-election results.

But he stressed that this government was elected with a historic mandate just over two years ago and he looks forward to continuing to work together on that.

Johnson, who is attending a Commonwealth summit in Rwanda, told broadcasters he would listen to voters but vowed to keep going with the governments agenda.

Sleepwalking to Defeat

The double defeat, which comes just weeks after 41 percent of Johnsons own MPs cast their ballots against him in a confidence vote, has triggered fresh calls for him to be ousted.

Michael Howard, a former Conservative Party leader who has not been an outspoken critic of Johnson in the past, urged the Cabinet to consider resigning.

He told the BBC, The party and, more importantly, the country would be better off under new leadership.

Tory peer Lord Barwell, who was Theresa Mays chief of staff in Number 10, said if the Conservative Party carries on as it is, it is sleepwalking to a defeat at the next election.

He said he was very pleased about Dowdens resignation, as someone senior in the party seemed to have finally recognised this and done something about it.

He told Sky News that Johnsons authority is very significantly diminished and draining away.

PA Media contributed to this report.
Undated police mugshot of James Watson, who was convicted of the murder of Rikki Neave in April 2022 (Cambridgeshire Police/PA)

UK: Man Gets Schoolboy Sentence for Childhood Murder of Rikki Neave

LONDONA 41-year-old man who murdered a six-year-old English boy in 1994 has been sentenced by a judge as if he was a schoolboy.

In what is thought to be a legal first, James Watson, who was 13 when he strangled Rikki Neave, was given the mandatory sentence for a juvenile detention at Her Majestys Pleasureat the Old Bailey on Friday.

The sentence means he must serve a minimum of 15 years behind bars, minus the 843 days he has spent in custody since his arrest in February 2020.

Watson was convicted of the murder, in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, in April this year. The prosecutor, John Price QC, said he had to be sentenced in keeping with his age at the time he committed the crime (13) rather than according to his age (41) at the time of conviction.

The judge, Mrs Justice Maura McGowan, said she had no doubt Watson had a sexual interest in little boys and that was probably his motivation for the murder.

She said Rikki had a sad childhood and had been neglected and subjected to violence and cruelty by his mother.

The murder of Rikki Neave had remained unsolved for 28 years.

Rikkis Mother Wrongly Accused of Murder

His mother, Ruth Neave, was originally suspected of the crime but was acquitted of murder in 1995. She was convicted of child cruelty and jailed for seven years.

At Fridays hearing a statement by Neave was read out in which she said: The police were adamant Id killed Rikki and I was going to kill my daughtersI had to fight back when people accused me of murdering Rikki.

The real killer was only unmasked after a cold case review was launched and new DNA evidence emerged.

Undated picture of Rikki Neave, in his school uniform, taken at his school in Peterborough shortly before his death in 1994. (PA)

On Nov. 28, 1994, Rikki left his home on the Welland estate in Peterborough after breakfast but never arrived at school.

He played truant during the day and was only reported missing, by his mother, at 6 p.m.

The following day his body was found naked in nearby woods. His body was spreadeagled and he had been strangled with the zip of his coat hood.

After All These Years Rikki Has Some Justice

In a victim impact statement read out in court Rikkis oldest sister, Rebecca Harvey, said: Rikki was not just my brother, he was my entire world. He is and always will be a massive part of my life in fact, he was my life. The day he was murdered was the day I lost a part of me. After all these years Rikki has some justice and now the person responsible for his murder will finally pay for what he did to all of us.

Court artist drawing of James Watson appearing in the dock at the Old Bailey in London on Apr. 4, 2022 (Elizabeth Cook/PA)

Watsons trial heard Ruth Neave was originally suspected partly because a picture of Leonardo Da Vincis Vitruvian Man was found in her home and was believed by detectives to be similar to the way Rikkis body had been positioned.

In January Ruth Neave testified at the trial and admitted she had been taking and dealing drugs in the run-up to Rikkis death.

In an interview with The Guardian, published on Friday, Neave said of Watson: Hes a monster, a sexual predator and a monster.
A tank of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is seen in the industrial area of the city of Sievierodonetsk, Ukraine, on June 20, 2022. (Oleksandr Ratushniak/Reuters)

Ukrainians Set to Quit Embattled Sievierodonetsk as Russians Inch Forward

KYIVUkraine signaled on Friday its troops were withdrawing from the city of Sievierodonetsk, scene of weeks of heavy fighting, a move that would be a significant setback in its struggle to defeat Russian forces.

Provincial governor Serhiy Gaidai said troops in the city had already received the order to move to new positions, but he did not indicate whether they had already done so or where exactly they were going.

Remaining in positions smashed to pieces over many months just for the sake of staying there does not make sense, Gaidai said on Ukrainian television.

The troops will have to be withdrawn, he said.

Gaidai was speaking on the day that marked four months since Russian President Vladimir Putin sent tens of thousands of troops over the border with Ukraine.

The war has also fuelled a global energy and food crisis.

Some of the heaviest fighting of the war has taken place in Sievierodonetsk, where street-by-street combat has raged for a month with Russia painstakingly taking more ground.

The battle is key for Russia to establish control over the last remaining Ukrainian-held sliver of Luhansk Province, which along with Donetsk makes up the Donbass region, Ukraines industrial heartland.

Sievierodonetsks fall would leave only Lysychanskits sister city on the western bank of the Siverskyi Donets Riverremaining in Ukrainian hands.

Analysts claim the Russian forces are taking heavy casualties and face problems in leadership, supplies, and morale. Nonetheless, they are grinding down Ukrainian resistance and making incremental gains in the east and south.

Ukraines general staff said on Friday the Russians were firing from tanks, mortars, artillery, and jets, as well as mounting air strikes near Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk and nearby towns. Reuters could not immediately verify the reports.

A Ukrainian service member with a dog observes in the industrial area of the city of Sievierodonetsk on June 20, 2022. (Oleksandr Ratushniak TPX Images of the Day/Reuters)

EU Boost

Despite Ukraines battlefield difficulties, it has been bolstered by support from the West. On Thursday, European leaders approved Ukraines formal candidature to join the European Union.

Although the journey to full membership will take years, the move was a boost to Ukrainian morale.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday their decision to accept Kyivs candidacy was among the most important for Ukraine since it broke from the Soviet Union 31 years ago.

Russian control of the Donbass would allow it to link up with the Crimea to the south, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Russian forces were blocking Ukrainian sea communications in the northwest part of the Black Sea and were seeking to resume the offensive in the Mykolaviv area, the general staff said.

A river port and ship-building center just off the Black Sea, Mykolaiv has been a bastion against Russian efforts to push West towards Ukraines main port city of Odesa.

By Max Hunder
AmCham Taiwan Vice Chairperson Andrea Wu (L) and President Andrew Wylegala pose with a copy of the 2022 White Paper by the American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan, in Taipei, Taiwan on June 22, 2022. (Ben Blanchard/Reuters)

US Business Group Calls for Urgent Taiwan Free Trade Talks

TAIPEIThe United States should urgently start talks with Taiwan on a free trade agreement with the aim to present a completed text for passage in 2024, the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Taiwan said in an annual policy paper published on Wednesday.

Taiwan has long campaigned for such a deal, in what would be a strong show of support for the self-ruled island in the face of unrelenting diplomatic and military pressure from Beijing. The Chinese regime claims the island as its own, despite Taiwan being a de facto independent country, with its own military, democratically-elected government, and constitution.

Taiwan says it is a reliable partner for the United States with shared democratic values.

While Taiwan has strong bipartisan support in Congress and the Senate, the Biden administration last month excluded Taipei from its Asia-focused economic plan designed to counter the Chinese regimes growing influence, the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, or IPEF.

AmCham Taiwan said they called urgently for the administration to start talks on a Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) with Taiwan, with a completed text presented for passage in 2024.

Such a deal would encourage other like-minded partners to enter into similar arrangements with Taiwan, further open Taiwans economy and effectively address the economic and security implications of the islands key chip industry.

In addition to these strategic trade elements with their clear implications for U.S. defense preparedness, a BTA would bolster both the U.S. and Taiwans economic and thus overall security vis-a-vis China.

However, the chamber, which has members from more than 500 international companies, noted the lack of progress on such an agreement, saying its passage was their top request to Washington.

Chamber President Andrew Wylegala told reporters in Taipei there were no clear indicators the Biden administration was contemplating a BTA in the near term, but one could come further down the line.

I would put Taiwan in that small and rare group of partners that the U.S. would view as particularly desirable to pull into an FTA, he added, referring to a free trade agreement.

Taiwan and the United States are due to hold high-level trade talks in Washington at the end of this month under a new U.S.Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade.
A screen displays flight status at O'Hare International Airport ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday in Chicago, Ill., on Nov. 20, 2021. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters)

US Complaints Against Airlines Soar as On-time Arrivals Fall

WASHINGTONU.S. consumers lodged more than quadruple the number of complaints against U.S. airlines in April compared with pre-pandemic levels as on-time arrivals fell, according to a report Thursday.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) announced on Thursday that it received 5,079 complaints about airline service in April, up more than 320 percent over the 1,205 complaints received in April 2019.

Travelers are facing an already difficult summer as airlines expect record demand and as they rebuild staff levels after thousands of workers left the industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. Air passengers are facing long lines, crowded airports, and few open seats.

USDOT said Thursday it remains committed to ensuring airline passengers are protected fairly and is concerned about recent cancellations and flight disruptions.

The department said 32 percent of complaints concerned refunds and 31 percent involved flights delays and other problems. In April 2022, major carriers posted an on-time arrival rate of 76 percent, down from 77.2 percent in March and below the 79.8 percent rate in April 2019, the report said.

Airlines operated 566,893 flights in April, about 87 percent of the number flown in the same month in 2019. The 10 largest carriers canceled 2.3 percent of domestic flights in April, down slightly from the 2.4 percent canceled in April 2019, USDOT said.

Delta Air Lines had the highest percentage of on-time arrivals, at 81.9 percent, followed by United Airlines (80.9 percent) and Hawaiian Airlines (80.8 percent). JetBlue Airways had the lowest on-time performance at 53.3 percent, followed by Frontier Airlines (58.4 percent) and Spirit Airlines (58.5 percent).

JetBlue said in April it would reduce its originally planned summer schedule by more than 10 percent, citing operational issues.

Airlines for America, a group representing major carriers, said it was working with the federal government to address operational challenges and achieve the highest levels of customer service while prioritizing the safety of all travelers.

The department plans to announce formal rules to codify requirements that airlines provide prompt refunds when carriers cancel or make a significant change, including when the ticket purchased is non-refundable.

In July 2021, USDOT proposed new rules to require passenger airlines to refund fees for significantly delayed bags and for inoperative services like onboard Wi-Fi.

By David Shepardson
Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov greets fellow ministers and senior military personnel prior to the start of their Ukraine Defense Consultative Group meeting at U.S. Airbase in Ramstein, Germany, on April 26, 2022. (Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters)

US Long-Range Rocket Systems Arrive in Ukraine: Minister

Ukraine said on Thursday it had received U.S. supplies of High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), a powerful long-range weapon system that Kyiv hopes can help turn the tide on Russias invasion.

Moscows forces are advancing in Ukraines east in a bid to capture the industrial heartland known as the Donbass where Ukraine fears some of its troops could be encircled in a Russian pincer.

Thank you to my U.S. colleague and friend Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for these powerful tools! Summer will be hot for Russian occupiers. And the last one for some of them, Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Twitter of the HIMARS delivery.

He did not say how many of the systems had arrived.

Ukraine says it needs the HIMARS systems to better match the range of Russian rocket systems that it says are being extensively used to pummel Ukrainian positions in Donbass.

Washington has said it has received assurances from Kyiv that those longer-range weapons would not be used to attack Russian territory, fearing an escalation of the conflict.

Moscow has warned it will strike targets in Ukraine which they have not yet been hitting if the West supplies longer-range missiles to Ukraine for use in high-precision mobile rocket systems.
A general view shows part of the China-Burma border gate in Muse in Shan State, Burma, on July 5, 2021. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

US Must Increase Engagement With Burma to Counter China

Commentary

While the world rallies to condemn Russias invasion of Ukraine, Beijing undermines U.S. economic sanctions by supporting the Burmese military junta.

In February 2021, the Burmese military overthrew the democratically-elected government of the National League for Democracy (NLD), led by the Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. After more than five decades of war and repression, the people of Burma (also known as Myanmar) had finally had enough, taking up arms against the junta.

The United Nations has identified the country as being in a state of civil war as Burmese civilians have joined forces with the various ethnic armies to fight the military government.

On April 2, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) pledged to stand by the junta no matter how the situation changes.

CCP Influence in Burma

China is Burmas largest source of investment and largest trading partner. Under the NLD government, Burma was hedging its China relationship, accepting some investment and aid while curtailing the CCPs influence in the country.

This hedging has collapsed under the military government as Chinas foothold expands. The CCP had seemed to take a wait-and-see approach for most of 2021 to determine whether the National Unity Government or the junta would win. Now it appears the junta is here to stay.

Beijing has restarted the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC), which is a portion of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, also known as One Belt, One Road) that runs from Chinas Yunnan Province to Burmas Kyaukphyu town. The restoration of this initiative would grant the Chinese military access to the Indian Ocean.

On Dec. 22, 2021, Burmas military regime announced that it would be using the Chinese yuan for border trade with China beginning in 2022. This move was taken because Burma is suffering a shortage of foreign currency and U.S. dollars, and it serves the CCPs goal of internationalizing the yuan.

In March, the CCP and the junta signed a deal for a new liquid natural gas (LNG) plant in Burma. This increases Burmas economic dependence on China while helping China avoid bringing LNG through the Strait of Malacca, which is patrolled by the U.S. Seventh Fleet.

The CCP is not only supporting the junta economically, but also militarily. While the United States and its allies have called on other countries to stop selling weapons to the junta, the U.N. Human Rights Council determined that the Burmese military junta is buying arms from Russia and China.

Soldiers stand next to military vehicles as people gather to protest against the military coup, in Yangon, Burma, on Feb. 15, 2021. (Stringer/Reuters)

On June 18, 2021, the U.N. General Assembly passed a non-binding resolution, calling for U.N. members to halt the flow of weapons to Burma. A binding version of this resolution was blocked by both China and Russia. In December 2021, the junta became the first regime in Southeast Asia to receive a Chinese submarine.

On April 1, Chinas foreign minister Wang Yi received the Burmese juntas Wunna Maung Lwin in China. Chinese state-run media Xinhua later reported that Wang had met with his counterpart, a signal that the CCP now officially recognizes the military junta as the official government of Burma.

As a result of the meeting, the CCP granted the Burmese military government $100 million in economic aid and a new consulate in China. The CCP also vowed to help the junta oppose sanctions. Additional plans were made to jointly advance the BRI and have Burma host the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation forum, which includes China, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam.

US Sanctions

We just ask China to not support the terrorist junta and not legitimize them, Zin Mar Aung, minister of foreign affairs of Burmas National Unity Government (NUG) in exile, told reporters on March 15.

The United States and other Western nations have brought sanctions against the Burmese military junta, including freezing government assets held in the United States. However, the sanctions are being undermined because Singapore and China refuse to freeze assets or halt further investment in the country.

On March 20, the Biden administration officially identified the military juntas killing of Rohingya Muslims as a genocide.

Last December, Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) asking them to help end the violence committed by the military in Burma.

On Aug. 5, 2021, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman spoke with Burmas government in exile, the National Unity Government (NUG), about how to return Burma to the path of democracy.

US Must Counter CCP Influence in Burma

The United States has been heavily distracted by the Ukraine crisis. And while Ukraine is important, if the United States does not address the Burma situation, the CCP will co-opt the country economically and politically.

By gaining access to the Indian Ocean, the CCP will be able to undermine the power of the U.S. Navy and also threaten India. Indias relationship with Russia has been a sticking point in bringing India fully into the American sphere.

As both India and the United States have an interest in opposing the CCP in Burma, this could be a shared goal that helps the two countries strengthen their alliance.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
The remains of a Tesla vehicle after it crashed in The Woodlands, Texas in this still image from video obtained via social media on April 17, 2021. (Scott J. Engle via Reuters/Reuters)

US Wants Automakers to Collect More Black Box Crash Data

WASHINGTONU.S. auto regulators said Wednesday they want to require automakers to collect more crash data from event data recorders (EDRs)more commonly known as black boxes.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on Wednesday proposed requiring black boxes to collect 20 seconds of pre-crash data at a higher frequency rate to help better understand the actions that lead to a crash.

NHTSA currently requires five seconds of pre-crash data at a slower collection rate for vehicles with EDRs.

The agency had studied adopting the regulation for more than three yearsas required by Congress under a 2015 law. NHTSA was supposed to have finalized the new data collection rules by 2020.

Black box data is a key tool for NHTSA investigations, including crashes where advanced driver assistance systems are suspected as a factor.

NHTSA says the data provides a comprehensive snapshot of driver actions before a crash and can help improve future vehicle designs and more effective safety regulations. NHTSA used data from EDRs in its 2010 Toyota unintended acceleration probe.

In 2019, under former President Donald Trump, NHTSA withdrew a 2012 proposal to require EDRs in all new cars because it said automakers had voluntarily installed the devices in nearly all vehicles.

In 2006, NHTSA required for automakers that installed EDRs to collect certain data, including vehicle speed, crash forces at the moment of impact, whether an air bag deployed, or if the brakes were applied in the moments before a crash, and if seat belts were fastened.

The National Transportation Safety Board in 2004 recommended EDRs be made mandatory in all vehicles after a California crash killed nine people.

NHTSA estimates 99.5 percent of new vehicles have EDRs. The new rules would take effect no earlier than September 2023.

The agency noted at least one automakerHondais voluntarily collecting EDR data on the status and operation of advanced driver assistance systems.

By David Shepardson
Fencing and Police guard Saint Patrick's Cathedral in New York on Jun. 24, 2022. (Enrico Trigoso/The Epoch Times)

We Give Thanks to God: NYC Catholic Bishops Celebrate Overturning of Roe v. Wade

While pro-abortion protests are getting ready to cause disruption in New York City, the Catholic bishops of the state are celebrating the hard-won overturning of Roe v. Wade.

We give thanks to God for todays decision of the United States Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, the bishops wrote in a statement.

Roe v. Wade is the seminal 1973 precedent that struck down a swath of federal and state laws restricting abortion and largely legalized the procedure nationwide.

This just decision will save countless innocent children simply waiting to be born.

On this historic day, our gratitude extends to the millions of heroic Americans who have worked tirelessly toward this outcome for nearly a half-century. Women and men, children and adults, believers and non-believers, people of every culture and background have advocated for life. They have been a charitable and compelling voice for the voiceless, and today, their voice has been heard, the statement reads.

The Catholic bishops have been praying and fasting, holding vigils, and offering masses for the last five decades in order to support the sanctity of life.

New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan (L) and NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio during a Columbus Day parade in New York on Oct. 11, 2021. (Enrico Trigoso/The Epoch Times)

Is abortion-related to womens rights?

Today, our voice has been heard.

We call on all Catholics and everyone who supports the right to life for unborn children to be charitable, even as we celebrate an important historical moment and an answer to a prayer.

The 116-page ruling also reversed the 1992 companion precedent known as Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which held that states cant impose significant restrictions on abortion before a fetus becomes viable for life outside the womb.

In May, Politico had published a leaked draft of the ruling, which is under investigation.

Abortion presents a profound moral issue on which Americans hold sharply conflicting views, said Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the majority opinion.

Five other justices agreed with the verdict.

The bishops previously released a pro-life statement on May 12.

The abortion industry has been so successful in its messaging that the right to abortion has become inextricably linked to the notion of womens rights and equality for a significant portion of the country, which is why the prospect of a nation without Roe has led to fear and anxiety for many people, the bishops noted.

Pro-abortion protestors plan to gather in Washington Square Park on the evening of the court ruling.

Fencing and police guard Saint Patricks Cathedral in New York on June 24, 2022. (Enrico Trigoso/The Epoch Times)

Matthew Vadum contributed to this report
A farmer on a tractor sprays his crop in north west New South Wales, Australia, on May 5, 2020. (Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

Western Australias Safety Authority Launches Inquiry Following 12th Fatality in Agriculture Sector

Western Australias WorkSafe Commission Darren Kavanagh will be conducting an inquiry into the states agriculture sector following the industrys 12th work-related death in just 12 months.

In a statement, WAs Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety said that a 24-year-old male died on June 21 between Varley Creek and Lake King in the Great Southern region.

The 24-year-old was moving a bogged vehicle with a tractor when the towing equipment he was using failedhe was struck in the head, causing fatal injuries.

The statistics for the agricultural industry are not acceptable, and it is deeply concerning that the number of fatalities in the industry continues to increase, Kavanagh said.

Any work-related death is a tragedy, and I offer my sincere condolences to the family of the worker involved in yesterdays incident.

Kavanagh added the culture within the agriculture industry seems to allow fatal incidents to occur at significantly higher rates than any other industry, with farm production appearing to be put before the safety of families and workers.

As the regulator, I have advised the Minister of my intention to use my powers under the Work Health and Safety Act 2020 to conduct an inquiry into the industry, beginning with examining the tragic deaths of agricultural workers and family members over the past five years.

Fatalities in Past Year

Other agriculture related fatalities reported in Western Australia included one on Feb. 8, where an 89-year-old man in Berkshire Valley 200 kilometres north of Perth died after unloading hay from a tractor.

On Dec. 22, 2021, a 72-year-old farmer at Maya in WAs Mid-West, around 240 kilometres NNE of Perth, died after jump-starting an old tractor where it ended up striking him.

Im particularly concerned about farmers in the over-60 age group, as six of the nine agriculture workers who have lost their lives over the past year have been in this age group, Kavanagh said in a statement.

Tractors and quads are the main agents causing fatalities since 2001, according to AgHealth Australia.

Nationally, a total of 46 on-farm deaths were reported (pdf) during the period Jan. 1, 2021 to Dec. 31, 2021, according to AgHealth Australia. For 2020, 58 farm fatalities were recorded.

Of the 1632 fatalities recorded from 2001 to Dec. 31, 2021, just over half (50.5 percent or 1,418 cases) were persons over 50 years old; 14.4 percent or 235 cases were children under 15 years old; and 88.2 percent or 1,440 cases were male.

Changes to Increase Farming Industry Safety

Kavanagh has called on industry leaders to reduce fatalities in the farming industry.

Agriculture is frequently represented in the top three industries for workplace deaths, and theres an increasing need to give greater priority to safety and health, Kavanagh said.

WA Farmers chief executive Trevor Whittington added that the recent changes to WAs industrial manslaughter laws made it very clear that unless the farming industry adopted far better safety protocols and reduced incidents, moving towards zero fatality, they would start pursuing the industry with much more rigour, he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

Under section 30A of the Work Health and Safety Act 2020 (WA) (pdf), the maximum penalty for committing industrial manslaughter is 20 years imprisonment including a fine of $5 million for an individual and a fine of $10 million for a company.
Qigong describes a form of physical exercise that facilitates the flow and the balance of the energy inside the human body to achieve optimal health. Many people in the Chinese American community know that qigong is very beneficial to our physical health. Often, those with chronic illness and suffering from difficult diseases that cannot be cured turn to qigong to find new hope. Nowadays, not only in the overseas Chinese community, but many people in the West today are increasingly practicing qigong to benefit the physical and mental wellness.

So how can qigong help our health?

To understand the therapeutic effects of qigong, we must first have some basic knowledge about traditional Chinese medicine.

The traditional Chinese medicine has a very clear understanding of the human bodys energy system: as long as people are alive, their bodies have biological energy. And it is because of the biological energy that we have vital signs. An electrocardiogram and electroencephalogram can monitor the presence or absence of biological energy, but doctors do not know the true nature of biological energy, as it is invisible.

Traditional Chinese medicine calls this biological energy qi. The qi is like air, invisible and intangible, but it is vital to human life activities.

Similar to blood circulation taking place in blood vessels, qi travels via invisible channels. This channel system is very complex, like a network, called is the meridians in the traditional Chinese medicine. If the meridians are blocked or run in the opposite direction, it will cause various problems in the body.

In traditional Chinese medicine theory, qi also has a balance issue: there is heat and cold, dampness and dryness, movement and stillness.

For example, the kidney provides cold energy to balance the heat energy from the heart. In women with menopause, the kidney energy is deficient and can not balance the heat, and thus they will suffer form hot flashes and night sweats.

Qigong can balance the qi like what acupuncture and herbal medicine does. Instead of receiving herbs and needling, one practices qigong with slow and smooth movements and mindful meditation.

So how can one exercise qi? And how do we make make qi, blood, and the meridians more healthy?

From a simple point of view, the role of qigong (energy exercises) is to enable the movement of qi, so as to achieve the following purposes:

Promoting the flow of qi and blood and keeping the meridians open;

Keeping qi and blood moving in the right direction;

Maintaining the energy properties of qi and blood, including the balances between heat and cold, dryness and dampness, and stillness and movement.

How Does Energy Affect Your Health?

As energetic beings, we are extremely sensitive and vulnerable to our environment and people around us.

For instance, if a person wants to attack you physically, he or she has to touch your muscles or bones in order to hurt you.

However, if a person wants to hurt you in terms of energy, he or she doesnt need to touch you at all. He or she just needs to say a vicious sentence to you, give you an indifferent look, or give you an attitude, all of which can in effect make you feel physically and/or mentally sick.

Then, if one stays in an emotionally unhealthy environment for a long time, it can cause energy blockage and imbalance, consequently physical and mental dysfunction. It is why a person with past trauma can have persistent health issues.

On the other hand, when a person is calm, and the qi and blood both flow very well, the body will be healthy. This is why traditional Chinese medicine practitioners say that peace of mind is the secret to longevity. Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners especially emphasize the need for a peace of mind and the importance of breathing regulation and calmnessthe foundation needed for traditional Chinese medicine to produce good results.

However, it is easier said than done, because there are many things in this world that can affect our mind, and it takes practice to achieve a peace of mind.

A persons emotions are reactions and judgment to what is happening around him or her. If it is something bad, he or she may be angry; if it is something good, he or she will be happy.

So, what determines our judgment? Its our values. Its a matter of ones worldview and beliefs. Therefore, beliefs are very important.

Traditional Chinese medicine also places special emphasis on virtue, which is actually a very healthy eternal energy. Since qi is very unstable, it will be constantly consumed; and since qi is very sensitive, it is easily affected by emotions and by external factors. As a result, qi will often move in the wrong direction or lose balance. People say that if there is qi, there are illnesses. Many people have a lifetime of hustle and bustle, and in the end, they end up with only qi. All the emotions are qi, including anger, joy, and many others.

Say I have never paid much attention to my beliefs, emotions, lifestyle, or interpersonal relationships, and I only paid attention to my own body. Now I am locking the stable door after the horse has already been stolen. This is because ultimately, people do not live for their bodies. Even a healthy body will eventually come to an end, and the maintenance of the body alone will eventually make people feel empty and fearful.

However, the essence of human life, or in terms of traditional Chinese medicine, the human soul, can be nourished by virtue and morality. In fact, the Western and Eastern concepts of benevolent thoughts and meditation are the same, and in modern medicine theyre called positive energy psychology.

Virtue is a wonderful type of energy produced when humans act benevolently, and it has an eternal effect on our souls. This virtue is also called gong de.

In other words, besides exercises, gong actually refers to an eternal energy generated when a person cultivates and tempers his or her heart, and this is directly related to the future of ones soul.

Therefore, true qigong practice is both internal and external: not just moving your bodys energy, but also cultivating your spiritual health.

How to Choose a Better Qigong Practice

We know that the West has many forms of exercise, such as yoga; in Asia, there are also many schools of qigong, some of which require a lot of tuition to learn. In this case, how do we find the right qigong practice for ourselves?

Currently, among yoga practices, meditation methods, and other regimens, many are based on the concepts of earliest traditional cultivation practices. As the later generations didnt understand the true nature of cultivation practices, they dismembered these systems of practice, took out some of the contents that met their own ideas and needs, thus turning cultivation practices into various methods with newly created terminology. Therefore, all these different types of yoga that we see today have become a kind of therapy for people, and naturally they have to charge for it.

However, the original cultivation practices were free of charge. In the past, Jesus didnt charge people tuition for teaching his own cultivation practice. He only told people what to do and what not to do. The Buddha and Lao Tzu, the founder of Buddhism and Taoism, respectively, didnt charge their followers, either.

The purpose of these true traditional cultivation practices is to save peoples souls, and the physical benefits they bring are only a by-product, not the main focus.

Therefore, I personally recommend that you choose an original, authentic, and complete cultivation practice, rather than a modified, improved, and mutated method. This is because the true qigong cultivation practices are free of charge, as their purpose is not to make money off you, nor are they entirely for your health and fitness.

The importance of an excellent cultivation practice system is that it enables you to benefit at all levels, including the biochemical level, energy level, and your soul. It is an integrated, complete, and comprehensive system.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
When It Comes to Energy, Ottawa Is Committing Suicide

Commentary

We may soon need to lay Ottawa to rest, following its decision to deny itself the necessities of life.

The fateful die was cast last month after the Enbridge energy company made what it believed to be an urgent and uncontroversial application to the Ontario Energy Board to replace a corroded 65-year-old natural gas pipelinewhich is at high risk of failingin the city of Ottawa with a modern pipeline able to reliably meet the citys needs into the future.

To Enbridges surprise, the natural gas pipeline emergency it warned about was trumped at the Energy Board by a different emergencythe climate emergency that city planners, in league with environmentalists and others, declared in 2019 for the purposes of naming, framing, and deepening our commitment to protecting our economy, our eco systems, and our community from climate change.

After hearing financial arguments from a multitude of climate-change-fearing intervenors, the Energy Board denied Enbridges application to replace the St. Laurent Pipeline, despite Enbridges view that it has but three years to secure the integrity of the pipeline and prevent a later catastrophic failure [that] could have severe consequences for its customers by virtue of their location in a densely populated urban area.

The City of Ottawa and other intervenors argued that Enbridges proposed pipeline, which would be paid for over a period of 40 years, amounted to a foolish and unnecessary expense because of Ottawas official Energy Evolution plan. Under Energy Evolution, Ottawa would evolve away from its dependence on non-renewable natural gas, which currently meets 50 percent of its communitys needs, and evolve into a Net Zero, 100-percent greenhouse-gas-free community by 2050. To lead by example, the citys own emissions in its buildings and vehicles would be eliminated 10 years earlier, in 2040. In that light, Enbridges proposal to replace the existing natural gas pipeline with another natural gas pipeline costing $124 million would be imprudent.

Instead, the City of Ottawa would be adopting a prudent Energy Evolution plan costing an estimated $52.6 billion on top of planned investments over the next 30 years. This plan would adopt renewable technologies, including the equivalent of 700 million square feet of solar arrays, mostly on rooftops, and 710 industrial wind turbines, each at least as tall as the Peace Tower at the centre of the Parliament Buildings.

The added $50-billion-plus cost of meeting the citys plan should deter no one, the city planners explained, since within a decade the city would begin to recoup its shortfall and ultimately achieve a projected net return of $87.7 billion for investments made by 2050. In the interim, Ottawa would simply balance its budget by increasing property taxes, land transfer taxes, parking rates, electricity prices and by imposing tolls and congestion charges on roads. This Energy Evolution plan was so obviously a winner that Ottawa City Council unanimously approved it.

At the Energy Board, the merits of the plan were likewise embraced. When Energy Probe, an intervenor, attempted to file material showing that a 100 percent reliance on renewables would disable public transit, lead to blackouts, soaring energy costs, poverty, bankruptcies, and fuel shortages in one of the coldest cities in one of the coldest countries on earth, other intervenors objected to allowing the material to be filed as evidence. As a result, the evidence the board weighed exuded confidence that Ottawa would easily reach Net Zero, in the process creating jobs, economic prosperity and environmental sustainability. (Full disclosure: Patricia Adams is Energy Probes president and Lawrence Solomon is its executive director.)

To its credit, the Ontario Energy Board in its final report did not endorse the view that Ottawas Energy Evolution plan was feasible. It merely accepted the preponderance of evidence before it, that a replacement natural gas pipeline would be ill-advised. It offered no comment on the collapse of the Ottawa economy that could occur should Energy Evolution prove pie-in-the sky.

If Ottawa remains true to its Net Zero goal and pulls the plug on its fossil-fuelled life-support system, it would be the worlds first capital city to die a woke death.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Patricia Adams Follow Patricia Adams is an economist and the President of the Energy Probe Research Foundation and Probe International, an independent think tank in Canada and around the world. She is the publisher of internet news services Three Gorges Probe and Odious Debts Online and the author or editor of numerous books. Her books and articles have been translated into Chinese, Spanish, Bengali, Japanese, and Bahasa Indonesia. She can be reached at patriciaadams@probeinternational.org.
Pro-abortion activists protest in front of the Supreme Court in Washington on May 3, 2022, in response to a leaked draft opinion showing the court's intention to overturn Roe v. Wade. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Whitmer and Allies Fight Like Hell to Keep Abortion Legal in Michigan

Pro-abortion forces led by Michigans Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, were already actively battling the June 24 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade long before it was handed down.

If anything, the formal announcement of the ruling has only stiffened their resolve.

Leading up to the High Courts decision, some radical fringe groups, unconnected with Whitmer, are alleged to have resorted to violence as a means of opposing the ruling.

In the week preceding the decision, three southern Michigan pro-life pregnancy counseling centers were vandalized in four daysincluding one that shared office space with pro-life Republican U.S. Congressman Tim Walberg.

No one was injured but windows and doors were smashed, and the walls were defaced with pro-abortion graffiti.

A neighboring home was similarly vandalized, as well.

In a statement following the incident, Walberg said, I never shy away from my record as a strong conservative and defender of life.

This strong record puts me in the crosshairs of those on the radical Left, but I will never stand down or compromise my convictions, he said.

Pro-choice and pro-life activists demonstrate in front of the the United States Supreme Court during the 47th annual March for Life on January 24, 2020 in Washington. Activists gathered in the nations capital for the annual event to mark the anniversary of the Supreme Court Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion in 1973. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)

Passion and intractable convictions motivate both sides in the current political and social upheaval rising from the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Whitmer has repeatedly, publicly vowed to fight like hell for abortion and she has promised to continue to do so in the wake of the decision.

In April, Whitmer and Planned Parenthood each filed a lawsuit asking the state Supreme Court to declare an existing 1931 Michigan statute criminalizing abortionexcept in the case of a threat to the life of the motherunconstitutional.

The plaintiffs allege that the right to an abortion is guaranteed by the Michigan Constitution.

Constitutional lawyer David Kallman of the Great Lakes Justice Center told The Epoch Times, No right to an abortion exists anywhere in the language of the Michigan Constitution, and no Michigan case law suggests otherwise.

After being on the books for 42 years, the 1931 state law was rendered moot by the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973.

Now, 49 years later, Roe v. Wade has been struck down and the statute is thought by many legal experts to once again be the law of the state.

In April, citing the urgency of the situation, Whitmer asked the state Supreme Court for an expedited ruling that the 1931 law is not valid.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer addresses the media in Midland, Mich., on May 20, 2020. (Rebecca Cook/Reuters)

To date, no decision has been rendered.

Whitmer also sued 13 prosecuting attorneys serving in the 13 Michigan counties in which an abortion clinic is located.

Michigan has 83 counties.

The suits are intended to prevent the county prosecutors from enforcing the revitalized state law, with its tight restrictions on abortion and felony penalties.

Kent County prosecutor Chris Becker, a defendant in the case, told The Epoch Times, I feel like Im getting pulled into a reelection campaign. This suit is just a political stunt to make Whitmer look good to her supporters.

On May 17, at Whitmers request, a Michigan Court of Claims judge granted a preliminary injunction enjoining the enforcement of the existing statute.

The injunction is being challenged by Republican legislators.

Months before word of the impending U.S. Supreme Court decision was leaked on May 2, the American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood, and a coalition called Michigan Voices began circulating a petition to amend the state constitution to make abortion a constitutional right in Michigan.

The group has until July 11 to gather the 420,000 valid signatures needed to place the proposed amendment on the ballot this fall.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel speaks during a news conference in Lansing, Mich., on March 5, 2020. (David Eggert/AP Photo)

In a June 24 press release, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel stated, The overturning of Roe is not just the loss of a right, it is the erosion of our status as equal citizens under the law.

Now we must do what our courts have failed to do: we must act to ensure that women are not permanently relegated to second-class citizens in this country,

I will continue to fight for a womans right to choose with the full weight of my office.

Michigan residents must continue to fight for reproductive rights at the ballot box in November, she said.

In an April 7 statement, Nessel declared, Let me be very clear, I will not use the resources of my office to defend Michigans 1931 statute.

According to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, of every 1,000 Michigan women from 15 to 44 years of age, 15.8 had an abortion in 2020, totaling 29,669 procedures.
Windfall Tax on Energy Firms Could Damage Investment: UK Industry Leader

The UK governments decision to levy a windfall tax on energy firms could damage investment in the North Sea, an industry leader has warned.

Last month, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak announced a temporary windfall tax on oil and gas giants to fund a relief package for households struggling with rising bills. The government will introduce a 25 percent profit levy on energy firms, which it expects to generate 5 billion ($6 billion) in tax revenues.

Offshore Energies UK, which represents the offshore oil and gas industry, criticised the new levy during a roundtable meeting in Aberdeen on June 23, which Sunak attended.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak during a Cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street, London, on May 24, 2022. (Daniel Leal/PA Media)

Deirdre Michie, chief executive of the group, said industry leaders had a candid and constructive meeting with the chancellor on the issue.

The energy profits levy is an unexpected new tax that changes the basis for investments, she said.

Our industry leaders were clear about their concerns, especially the impact on investor confidence, she said, adding: Both sides have committed to further discussions.

We will work constructively with the UK government and do our best to mitigate the damage this tax will cause, but if energy companies reduce investment in UK waters, then they will produce less oil and gas, Michie said. That means they will eventually be paying less taxes and have less money to invest in low carbon energy.

Tax Relief

According to the Treasury, Sunak stressed the importance of the sector to the UKs transition away from fossil fuels and emphasised that the government will provide tax relief on investments within the sector.

When announcing the windfall tax last month, the government also introduced a new investment allowance to incentivise energy firms to reinvest their profits in developing domestic energy sources.

A UK government spokesman said: As set out in the British Energy Security Strategy, and with Putins invasion of Ukraine illustrating the merit of this, North Sea oil and gas are going to be crucial to the UKs domestic energy supply and security for the foreseeable future. So it is right we continue to encourage investment there.

The levys investment allowance means businesses will overall get a 91p tax saving for every 1 they invest. This nearly doubles the tax relief available and means the more a company invests, the less tax they will pay.

PA Media contributed to this report.
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HARTFORD  Throughout national discussions about abortion, Connecticut leaders have repeatedly reassured their pro-choice constituents that the state is a safe harbor for abortions.

The U.S. Supreme Court announced Friday that Roe v. Wade would be overturned and the feeling of safety that many abortions-rights advocates have long felt in Connecticut is slipping away.

I dont think anyone is safe, said Sherry Ferguson, a longtime Connecticut resident. How can we say that any state is guaranteed?

Ferguson was among about 40 people who gathered on the steps of the state Capitol Friday afternoon following the Supreme Courts announcement. They heard from local and state Democrats who expressed pride to live in Connecticut, but some of the same doubts about the future.

The high court ruling gives states the power to support or ban abortions. Reproduction rights were written into Connecticut law about 30 years ago, and during this past legislative session, the laws were expanded to protect women seeking abortions from other states  and the medical personnel who treat them  from civil and criminal liability from outside Connecticut.

However, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., cautioned that a future motion from Republicans in the U.S. Senate could mean a federal law banning abortions.

If that happens, forget about Connecticut and its safe harbor, Blumenthal said at the Hartford rally, which was organized by Connecticut Democrats. Federal law trumps state law. Federal law overrides Connecticut safe harbor.

Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz called the Supreme Courts ruling cruel and unconscionable.

Gov. (Ned) Lamont and I want you to know that Connecticut is and will remain a safe harbor, Bysiewicz said. But as we know, our rights are fragile and must be protected every time. And so, we say today that we are the team that can be trusted to protect the rights of women in Connecticut, because this difference couldn't be more clear between our team and the other team.

Bysiewicz pointed out that Lamonts rival Bob Stefanowski hasnt publicly said he would stand up against attacks on Roe v. Wade.

On Twitter, Stefanowski wrote, Todays Supreme Court ruling has absolutely no impact on Connecticut residents. I will continue to support Connecticuts state law, which has codified a womans right to choose, with an appropriate ban on late-term abortion.

Across the country in states that do not have abortion rights legislation, the limit to safe medical abortions could be absolute. The Washington Post reported that 13 states will soon ban abortions.

There are young girls in this country who were raped by their uncles and their fathers who are forced to carry those pregnancies that resulted from those rapes to term because of this Supreme Court decision, said state Sen. Mae Flexer, D-Killingly.

Besides voting, Flexer pushed residents to consider the privilege they had to live in a state that allows abortion and asked them to donate to people who might need to travel to Connecticut to get an abortion.

If you are a person who has that money, take that money today and donate it to the incredible organizations that are galvanized right now, to make sure those scenarios I was talking about earlier, don't have to happen.

Many speakers and attendees of the rally said they discussed with their families the impact the decision will have on the future of the country.

They should freak out, Ferguson said of her grandchildren and nieces. They should never miss an opportunity to vote because I dont really know what other power we have.
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Matt Williams, The Conversation

(THE CONVERSATION) Aside from the political and legal implications of the Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade  ending the constitutional right to abortion  are the real-world effects the ruling will have. Millions of women in the U.S. will be affected by the ruling.

Research by the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization dedicated to advancing reproductive rights, suggests that around 1 in 4 American women have an abortion by the age of 45, with those seeking the procedure more likely to come from low-income families. Many of these poorer women will be adversely affected by the additional travel and costs they are now more likely to face when seeking an abortion.

But the Supreme Courts decision will touch the lives of women across America, regardless of economic status. Here are some articles The Conversation has published addressing the impact of overturning Roe on womens health and well-being.

The risk to life of staying pregnant

The research is clear: Access to safe, legal abortion saves lives. Amanda Jean Stevenson, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, notes that women who are unable to access safe abortions suffer a slew of negative consequences for their health and well-being.

Stevensons research has looked at what would happen should the U.S. end all abortions nationwide. To be clear, this is not what will happen now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe. Instead, the decision to ban the procedure will be left to the states  around half of which are expected to prohibit or severely restrict abortion. Nonetheless, Stevensons data underlines an important point: Pregnancy carries a greater risk for women than having an abortion.

Abortion is incredibly safe for pregnant people in the U.S., with 0.44 deaths per 100,000 procedures from 2013 to 2017. In contrast, 20.1 deaths per 100,000 live births occurred in 2019, she writes.

Stevenson estimates that the annual number of pregnancy-related deaths would increase by 21% overall, or 140 additional deaths, by the second year after a ban. The jump in deaths would be even higher among non-Hispanic Black women.

Delays and third-trimester terminations

Women living in states that heavily restrict abortion access already face delays when it comes to obtaining a procedure to end their pregnancy. And this pushes some pregnant women into seeking terminations during their third trimester.

Abortions after 21 weeks of pregnancy remain exceedingly rare. When they do occur, it tends to be the result of one or two things, according toKatrina Kimport at the University of California, San Francisco. The first is new information relating to a pregnancy, such as problems with fetal development. The other reason is existing barriers to abortion access. State policies, such as bans on public insurance coverage of abortion, mean that economically disadvantaged women may not be able to afford an abortion when they first want one. Such delays can cause women to seek out the procedure later in pregnancy.

The Supreme Court ruling will inevitably worsen the problem for women living in states that ban abortion.

Kimport explains: For people in states where abortion is banned, having to travel across state lines is likely to delay people in obtaining abortion care, potentially into the third trimester. And people in states where abortion is still legal may also be pushed into the third trimester as an influx of out-of-state patients could lead to delays for in-state patients.

Abortion pills  a safe alternative

The Supreme Court decision allows states to put in place their own laws governing abortion. But when it comes to medication abortion, or abortion pills, it is more complicated.

Abortion pills, introduced into the U.S. in 2000, have opened up the options for women seeking to end a pregnancy. But up until the pandemic, they were highly regulated  for example, the medication had to be provided in person and at abortion clinics. The pandemic changed all this. Women could have the medication mailed to them after a telehealth consultation with a clinician. Gone, too, was the requirement that the patient undergo an ultrasound before being prescribed the pills.

Some conservative states are already eyeing laws to clamp down on abortion pills. But this might put them at odds with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which allows mail-order pharmacies to send out medication. Meanwhile, some liberal states have said they will enact laws protecting doctors who prescribe abortion pills to women living in states with abortion bans.

With pills set to become a new battleground in the abortion debate, The Conversation invited three experts  Claire Brindis and Daniel Grossman of the University of California, San Francisco, along with Lauren Owens of the University of Michigan  to contribute to a panel discussion on medication abortion. The key takeaways from that discussion: Abortion pills are effective and very safe.

Moreover, as Ushma Upadhyay of the University of California, San Francisco, found, the prescribing of abortion pills via telehealth consultations carries no additional risk. Writing up the findings of her study for a separate article for The Conversation, Upadhyay notes that screening for a patients eligibility based on their medical history instead of physical exam or ultrasound was just as safe and effective as in-person tests and exams.

Editors note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversations archives.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/what-the-supreme-courts-ruling-on-abortion-means-for-womens-health-and-well-being-4-essential-reads-185543.
After nearly 50 years of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that made abortion legal across the land, the US Supreme Court officially overturned the law Friday morning.

Reactions are undoubtedly plentiful across the country and Illinois is no different.

Republicans, Democrats, the religiously faithful, and the patriotic are all expressing their thoughts on the decision that has stripped women of a constitutional right that's now left up to the laws of the individual states.

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker immediately announced he plans to call a special session at the state capital in Springfield for reproductive health rights. In a press release the governor's office points out the Reproductive Health Act was passed in Illinois to make it a "choice" state.

In an immediate response, Pritzker posted his thoughts from the initial leak published by Politico that hinted at today's decision.

Democratic Illinois US senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth released immediate statements via Twitter.

In the U.S. House of Representatives, Illinois has several Republican representatives that spoke out in favor of the Supreme Court's decision. Representative Rodney Davis released a video of his thoughts outside the U.S. Supreme Court Building as crowds have begun to gather.

Here is what other Illinois representatives are saying.

Today, millions of prayers have been answered," Don Tracy, chairman of the Illinois Republican Party said in a statement. "I support our state party platform that values the dignity of all life, from conception to natural death, and applaud the six Supreme Court Justices who had the courage to be real judges instead of judicial legislators."



Our country is deeply divided right now, and while I support this decision, I know this ruling will potentially make that division worse, at least in the short term, and many irresponsible people will stoke that division. I implore all Illinoisans to express their opinions with respect, civility, and without violence.



- Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy

Leaders within the Catholic Church are also responding to today's decision.

Todays decision by the Supreme Court of the United States marks an important moment for our nation, lifting a cloud that has hung over our country for nearly a half-century," Bishop Thomas Paprocki, head of the Springfield, Illinois Archdiocese, said in a statement. "We can now move forward with a more honest debate and efforts to advance policies and support programs that protect innocent life and promote stability and security for vulnerable mothers.
MOSCOW (AP)  A Russian military cargo plane crashed Friday on a training flight after refueling about 124 miles (200 kms) southeast of Moscow, killing five crew members and leaving several others injured, officials said.

The heavy-lift Il-76 cargo plane went down in the Ryazan region after suffering an engine problem that forced the crew of 10 to crash-land. The plane, carrying no cargo, was flying from Belgorod to Orenburg, Russian news agency Tass reported.
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UNITED NATIONS (AP)  The devastating earthquake this week in Afghanistan is one more emergency facing the country, which is also confronting its worst drought in 30 years and massive poverty. Afghanistan also has the highest number of people in the world facing the risk of famine and there are increasing human rights violations by the country's new Taliban rulers, senior U.N. officials said Thursday.

The grim picture of the hardships and perils facing Afghanistans 38 million people was presented by U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths and the U.N. deputy special representative for Afghanistan, Ramiz Alakbarov.

They spoke during a Security Council meeting on the situation in Afghanistan, a meeting scheduled before Wednesdays powerful quake in the east that Afghan state media said killed 1,000 people. U.N. estimates gave a lower death toll, saying around 770 people had been killed in Paktika and Khost provinces.

Hundreds more have been injured and officials have warned the casualty figures could rise as Afghans were still digging through the rubble in an effort to retrieve more bodies on Thursday.

Griffiths said in a video briefing that dramatic shifts in Afghanistans political and economic landscape since the Taliban seized power last August as U.S. and NATO forces were in the final stages of their chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of war have brought unrelenting human suffering to the countrys people.

Afghanistans worst drought in almost 30 years has affected three-quarters of its provinces, meaning crop production is expected to be below average this harvest, he said.

Griffiths said 25 million people  more than half the population  live in poverty, more than double the number in 2011, including 6.6 million at emergency levels. Thats the highest number of any country in the world at risk of famine-like conditions, he said.

Alakbarov, currently the top official in Afghanistan who plans to visit quake-hit areas on Friday, said in a video briefing from Kabul that the temblor was yet another tragic reminder of the myriad dangers facing the Afghan people.

He said the security environment is becoming increasingly unpredictable with the emergence of armed opposition groups to the Taliban  in large part due to political exclusion  leading to clashes, especially in Panjshir and Baghlan provinces. Armed opposition attacks against de facto authorities doubled in May, compared to April, he said.

Alakbarov also pointed to the precarious human rights situation, including credible allegations of killings, ill-treatment and other violations targeting individuals associated with the former government of Afghanistan, and by the Taliban against individuals accused of affiliation with the opposition and also the Taliban's chief rivals, the Islamic State group.

He also cited the Talibans increasing restrictions on women and girls and the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of opinion and expression and the ongoing economic crisis. Afghanistan's economy contracted an estimated 30% to 40% since the Taliban takeover, he said.

It is possible that unemployment could reach 40% this year  up from 13% in 2021  and some projections indicate that poverty rates may climb as high as 97% by the end of 2022, Alakbarov said. Even more alarming, 82% of households are now in debt, while the deteriorating economy offers few chances to climb out of debt.

In traveling around the country, he said, Afghan families are grateful for humanitarian aid but they want jobs, an opportunity to look to the future and safety that also means freedom of movement for women as well as men.

Griffiths called the humanitarian response in the country complex and difficult, saying the formal banking system continues to block financial transfers, with around 80% of aid organizations facing delays in transferring funds.

A second impediment, he said, is that the Taliban across the country increasingly seek to play a role in the selection of beneficiaries and channeling assistance to people on their own priority lists." Aid organizations struggle to hire women, he added, and there are more instances of interference today than in previous months.

The U.N. also faces a 66% funding gap  a staggering nearly $3 billion funding shortfall for the last six months of 2022, Griffiths said, stressing that early funding and early action will be critical to avert a catastrophe this winter.
Lusaka June 23, 2022  Zimbabwean police must immediately and thoroughly investigate threats made to journalist Simbarashe Sithole in retaliation for his corruption reporting and hold those responsible to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.

On June 4, Zimbabwean Minister of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Kazembe Kazembe sent a text message to Sithole threatening legal action after the freelance journalist published two articles about alleged corruption concerning Kazembes constituency, according to Sithole, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app, screenshots of the text message reviewed by CPJ, and a report by news website Bulawayo 24 News. Sitholes articles were published by Bulawayo 24 News and led to the suspension of several local officials.

On June 5, a man who identified himself as political activist Isheanesu Dzimbiti called and threatened to assault Sithole in retaliation for the same articles, according to multiple news reports , a statement by the Zimbabwean chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa, and a recording of the call reviewed by CPJ.

CPJ called and sent text messages to Kazembe and Dzimbiti but did not receive a reply.

Reported threats of physical harm to freelance journalist Simbarashe Sithole must be thoroughly investigated by police and the alleged perpetrators prosecuted, said Angela Quintal, CPJs Africa program coordinator, from Cape Town. With tensions high ahead of next years election, it is important for authorities to send a clear message that they will not condone intimidation and harassment of journalists and police will protect the right of journalists to work safely.

Journalist Simbarashe Sithole filed a police report on June 7, 2022, following threats of legal action and assault in retaliation for his corruption reporting. (Credit withheld)

Sithole filed a report at the police station in Mvurwi town, approximately 100 kilometers (57 miles) north of the capital Harare, on June 7 against Dzimbiti, according to those sources. Sithole told the police and CPJ that he fears for his life following the threats.

The case was transferred to police in the central town of Bindura for investigation, and Sithole gave a second statement on June 13, according to the journalist and news reports . On June 21, police asked Sithole to provide them with his cell phone, so they could extract the call recording, which he declined to do.

These guys are frustrating me because they cannot say [why] they havent summoned the suspect for the past two weeks, and now they want my phone, Sithole told CPJ. Thats too muchJustice delayed is justice denied.

Zimbabwe police spokesperson Paul Nyathi told CPJ via phone call that Sitholes matter was ably being handled at a regional level in Bindura.
In 2011, the United Nations introduced the concept of International Widows' Day to ensure that widows are treated equal to other women in the society. International Widows' Day 2022 is observed to highlight the voices of widows and to take steps towards the recognition of their basic rights.

However, while the global community celebrates this day, back here in Nigeria, there exist one particular sin we all commit in the name of culture, and must all share in its guilt. This sin cuts across ethnic/tribal diversities and religious inclinations. It predates the nations independence and remains nourished till the present time. This particular sin in fact has to do with violations of women particularly the widows and childrens rights in the name of culture.

It persists despite the existence of the Child Rights Act coupled with the fact that on the 25 May 2015, President Goodluck Jonathan, signed into law the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) bill into law. This is after the Senate had on May 5 2015, passed the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act 2015 into law.

Among other provisions, the law prohibits female circumcision or genital mutilation, forceful ejection from home and harmful widowhood practices. It prohibits abandonment of spouse, children and other dependents without sustenance, battery and harmful traditional practices. The VAPP provides a legislative and legal framework for the prevention of all forms of violence against vulnerable persons, especially women and girls. This is a happy ending for a 14 year advocacy and passed through the three regimes of the National Assembly.

The law also prohibits economic abuse, forced isolation and separation from family and friends, substance attack, depriving persons of their liberty, incest, indecent exposure, among others. It also intends to eliminate violence in private and public life and provide maximum protection and effective remedies for victims of violence, and punishment of offenders.

Looking at these spiraling provisions, the question that is as important as the law itself is; How far have we fared as a nation in keeping to these laws and its provisions?

Also, from the above accounts, it is obvious that the nation urgently needs a higher level of initiative and creativity to address the ethnicity challenges, confront brutal forces against human rights violations in the country and secure the masses while revitalizing the nations economy.

The above revelation becomes more meaningful when one remembers that justice is more of external actions than interior emotions or passions; that it is rendering to each person what is properly his or hers; what is equal, fair and balanced in any relationship. And most importantly, we win justice quickest by rendering justice to the other person

Without minding what others may say if this change of heart is adopted in our society, it will not only herald something new that will help curb this inhuman act against vulnerable people, but announce a civil society where justice and love shall reign supreme

There is another thing quite closely related to this. The tendency to ignore this call is always high because while many will view it as a dangerous fiction without merit, others may see nothing wrong in those acts describing it as but mere cultural practices.

Ironically, from what sociologists are saying, culture is that realm of ends expressed in art, literature, religion, and morals for which at best we live.

This definition, no doubt puts denial of womans rights to inheritance of late husbands property as a direct opposite of culture.

Very instructive, one point most people who are hooked onto this act particularly the violations of widows rights fails to remember is that there is an amazing democracy about death. It is not aristocracy for some of the people, but a democracy for all of the people. Kings die and beggars die; rich men die and poor men die; old people and young people die; death comes to the innocent and it comes to the guilty- death is an irreducible common denominator of all men.

Indeed, it is always easy to observe that something is seriously wrong with our social system, also very smooth to announce that this human tragedy is happening not by accident, but by a programme of planned inequality, Very regrettably, it is difficult to admit that we are all involved in this alliance for injustice.

To explain, we have as a people at different times and places witnessed widows go through these social pangs and maintained silence.

Curiously, media practitioners have seen culture lately gone the wrong way but assumed its the right thing, watched the traditional rulers redefine culture in the image of their actions, but viewed it as normal. The practitioners have overtly become more cautious than courageous in their reportage of wicked cultural practices.

This failure of the media to study the cultural failures and inform the masses has in recent years resulted in situations where traditional rulers persuaded their subjects to endorse and applaud cultural practices that were harmful to their lives and existence.

The Civil Society Organizations (CSO) and faith-based groups, formerly known for educating the masses, no longer see themselves as problem-solvers or watchdogs of society. Rather, they now assume a high ground they do not understand, leaving the masses that initially depended on them confused.

Government has become the greatest culprit of these injustices against widows and other less privileged people by their inability to provide; good health care facilities, accessible and qualitative education, non-funding of social housing, non-availability of minimum wage protection for the widows, no welfare benefits for the poor and vulnerable people, no unemployment protection, no women shelters or adequate child care centres or laws that adequately defend the rights of widows.

To reverse this trend, the most important instrument to achieve this lies in government willingness to fully domesticate and enforce 1995 Beijing Declaration.

The declaration among other things upholds the universal human rights and other international human right instruments, in particular, the convention on the elimination of forms of discriminations against women, the convention on the rights of the child, as well as the declaration on the elimination of violence against women and the declaration on the rights to development. It also ensures the full implementation of human rights of women and girl child as inalienable, integral and indivisible parts of all human rights and fundamental freedoms.

It will also be rewarding if our school libraries are equipped with cultural materials, so that students can carry out research and get valuable information that will help promote, protect and preserve our culture objective for posterity.

While the media, the CSOs and faith-based groups are encouraged to speak against injustices, another urgent imperative for the government is to recognize that failure to take care of the widows, the orphans and other less privileged will lead to many children taken to the streets. And as we know, the streets are reputed for breeding all sorts of criminals and other social misfits who constitute the real threats in forms of armed robbers, thugs, drug abusers, drunkards, prostitutes and all other social ills that give a bad name to society.

Very instructive, we should develop a war room using our resolve and powers to fight the undemocratic and criminal tendencies in our consciences in order to usher in a truly egalitarian nation we all yearn for. This pivotal step must be taken.

To make this enduring as well as bear the expected fruit, let us commence first by restructuring ourselves as a people. No matter how beautiful a policy appears, no matter how strong an institution tends to be, we always have deconstructionists who can undermine it. Bearing this in mind, our primary concern should be to work out modalities for instituting a reorientation plan that will erase the unpatriotic tendencies in us as well as usher in a robust nation.

Utomi is the Programme Coordinator (Media and Policy), Social and Economic Justice Advocacy (SEJA), Lagos. He could be reached via;[email protected]/08032725374.
Onitsha, Eastern Nigeria, Friday, 24th June 2022: Politico-Religious Extremists Have Signaled Jihadists To Assassinate Obi

The Intl Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) is strongly and unmistakably raising alarm and alerting the world especially the Office of the United Nations Secretary-General and Presidents of the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council; the Papacy and the Governments of United Kingdom, United States, France, Germany, Canada, Italy, Japan, South Korea, India, Brazil, the European Union and its key Member-States as well as key local and international human rights and pro democracy organizations, respected international personalities and all Nigerians of good conscience that the life, safety and liberty of former Anambra Governor and Presidential Candidate of the Labor Party (LP) in the forthcoming 2023 Presidential Election, Mr. Peter Gregory Onwubuasi Obi, are in grave danger. These are on account of the fact that politico-religious extremists in the Nigerian Political Establishment have assigned the countrys Fulani Jihadists to assassinate him in coming weeks or months, or before the 2023 Presidential Election scheduled to take place at a date in February 2023.



Peter Obi Must Be Protected At All Times

The highly respected local and international authorities above mentioned are hereby prayerfully called upon to be on the proactive watch and compel the Nigerian authorities to ensure that he is protected second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, month by month and quarter by quarter until the 2023 Presidential Election is conducted. Nigeria will go up in flames if anything untoward should happen to him and the present central Government in the country shall bear the social, moral and legal consequences and be held internationally liable.



Peter Obi Is The Next To Be Assassinated, Says A Kidnapped Victim Of Fulani Jihadists At Isuochi

Isuochi in Umunneochi Local Government Area of Abia State is the Southeast triangle, mapped and presently occupied by Fulani Jihadists comprising imported Fulani Jihadists and local Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen. As recently disclosed by the Prelate of the Methodist Church of Nigeria and corroborated last week by another kidnapped victim in the area, Dr Frankln Ezeonwuka of the Spiritan University, Nneochi, some of the Fulani Jihadists who speak Igbo fluently are those born in the area in the past two decades including those born inside the Okigwe Cattle Settlement. Therefore, in the past 175 days of 2022 or since January 2022, the Fulani Jihadists who are now in control of Okigwe-Izogu-Umunze-Umuchukwu-OwerreEzukala-Umunneochi-Leru-Lokpanta axis have abducted hundreds and killed not less than 50 defenseless Igbo citizens. The dead include those that died as a result of injuries inflicted on them by their captors or those killed for not being able to pay ransoms demanded or those killed out of anger; or those female captives killed for refusing to be raped or sexually degraded.

On Wednesday, 15th June 2022, Dr. Frankln Ezeonwuka of the Spiritan University, Nneochi in Umunneochi Local Government Area of Abia State was pursued in his jeep and abducted by some AK47 rifle armed Fulani Jihadists. This was after his car had been riddled with bullets and forced to stop. He was driving along with a female staff of the University from the School back to Awka in Anambra State around 1pm. Dr. Ezeonwuka and his fellow female staff were taken inside the bush where they spent some days under terrible inhuman conditions. They were taken round the circle inside the bush and mercilessly tortured. A huge ransom of N20m was later mobilized by his Amesi kinsmen and paid before he was freed along with the female staff. It was while in the captivity of the Fulani Jihadists that the physician-turned university lecturer was told so many unprintable evil plans the Jihadists have against the Igbo Nation. These include lethal plans to stop the candidacy of Mr. Peter Obi who they said has been marked for assassination. The Fulani Jihadists also tagged the respected former Governor and Labor Party Presidential flag bearer as second enemy after Nnamdi Kanu, for having the audacity to vie to become the Christian/Igbo President to impede their quest to conquer and Islamize Igbo Land (or Southeast and South-south). The University teacher had also in his released audio account (attached with this statement) disclosed among other things that his abductors were the same Jihadists that abducted the Prelate of the Methodist Church and others and that he was shown some of his properties still with them.

He also observed that the Jihadist kidnappers use different sign languages to communicate with the indigenous locals and drafted soldiers and police personnel in the area. Dr Ezeonwuka had further observed that the operational modes and areas being used by the Jihadists have been fully synchronized; with locals including Okada riders, kiosk operators, local church members and natives in areas under their captivity falling into their hands and working in collusion with them. The Fulani Jihadist kidnappers, according to the University doctor, also have many Igbo young ladies as their sex slaves or girlfriends, saying he overheard them making several calls in that regard or direction.

Why The Extremists Want Obi Dead

It must be remembered that apart from the country being deeply divided along ethnic and religious lines with attendant hatred and promotion of structural, physical and cultural violence, the outgoing central Government had since 2015 deepened the divisions, hatred and intolerance especially along Christian-Muslim divides. Totality of the above has seriously threatened the countrys secular status and supposedly peaceful coexistence as a country of multiplicity of religion and ethnicity. They have also reared their ugly heads in the ongoing electioneering towards the all-important 2023 Presidential Election. By the countrys political arrangements including its rotational presidency since moves towards its independence in 1957, the Southeast geopolitical zone, dominated by citizens of Igbo Trado-Judeo-Christian Faith, is the next in line to produce the countrys next President in 2023; to be followed by the Northeast, dominated by Muslims after the Southeast had taken its turn. Contrarily, it is not only that the politico-religious extremists within the countrys political establishment have refused to allow same, but they have also become desperately intolerant to the extent of insisting on returning the country to the Muslim Presidency of northern extraction or alternatively, the southern Muslim Presidential/northern Muslim Vice Presidential ticket. This is after the same Northern Muslims have held the position for eight outgoing years or 2015-2023. It was the insistence of Mr. Peter Obi to be president of Nigeria focusing on rescuing the country, its citizens and economy devoid of corruption and ethnicity and religion that has refused to go down well with the countrys political extremists and their imported Jihadists; to the extent of signaling the latter to mark Mr. Peter Obi for assassination.

Methods By Which Obi Can Be Assassinated

Going by the past records of unmasked or uninvestigated high profile political assassinations using perfect killing methods, Obi can be assassinated using plotted plane crash or use of lethal substances including food poisoning or killer sprays or perfumes or plotted car accident or another caused by planted macro or micro explosives including planted improvised explosive devices; or road way or event or residence assassination and other perfect killing or raw killing methods. This is more so when this is not the first time the countrys politico-religious extremists are signaling jihadist others to assassinate high profile political or security chiefs in Nigeria.

Statistically, Late Patrick Musa Yakowa was the first Christian Governor of Kaduna State who had earlier deputized former Gov Namadi Sambo, a Muslim. Late Yakowa became the substantive State Gov on account of his election in 2011, seriously frowned at by Islamic extremists in the State political establishment and beyond. He was assassinated by the Establishment Muslim extremists via a plotted helicopter crash on 15thDec 2012 in the Forest of Okoroba, Nembe in Bayelsa State and was succeeded by another Muslim, Mukhtar Yaro. He was killed along with the then National Security Adviser, Lt Gen Owoye Andrew Azazi. Late Police DIG Haruna John was an astute officer who flew into Jos, Plateau State and promised to deal decisively with Fulani and Boko Haram Jihadists that had laid siege on Jos and its environs following the deadly attacks on St. Finbars Catholic Church in early March 2012 leading to dozens of death. He was killed in another suspicious helicopter crash on 14th March 2012 on his way back to Abuja when the newly acquired police surveillance helicopter crashed into three buildings and turned them into rubbles.



Signed

For: International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law

Principal Officers:

Emeka Umeagbalasi (Criminologist), Board Chairman

Chinwe Umeche Esquire, Democracy Head

Obianuju Joy Igboeli Esquire, Rights and Rule of Head

Chidimma Udegbunam Esquire, Publicity Head



Contacts: Phone/WhatsApp: +2348174090052, Email: [email protected] , Website: https://intersociety-ng.org
Across sectors, the tempest in Nigeria had doubled - and in cases - tripled with the failed administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. Sai Baba is not the sui generis of Nigeria's woes, but he has forced Nigerians to tread more throes. Like Umar R.A would smile and sob anytime he remembered the dark days he made his god with Meccan dates, worship and still feast on it when hunger visits; anytime this writer recalls the days of his stellar support for the "godsend Buhari", the superficial things he did to sell Buhari to his people, laughter and sadness would knock in synchrony. For, we had thought Nigeria was sick then, but now, it is at the intensive care unit - grasping between life and death.

Crippled economy, insecurity, hunger, hike in commodity prices, incessant strikes, corruption and disregard for the rule of law; frankly, in Adipele's multi-layered dentition, I don't know how many teeth to count. But one thing so clear, is: Baba Yussuf has failed Nigerians, deplorably, that his wife had once vent her vexation as a result of her "sense of justice, and not confrontation or disrespect".

Nigeria ranks sixth in the 2022 Global Terorism Index (GTI), no thanks to Boko Haram, UGM, Killer Pastoralists, Kidnappers, and other agents of doom that have provoked the peace of Nigeria. Sadly, Nigeria is no longer sitting on a powder keg; it is reclining on an atomic couch, while we hope it does not explode. Human lives have been devaluated that, sometimes, people get slaughtered in some parts of the country and there is low media coverage for the attacks. Boko Haram in the North, UGM in the East; bloodshed has rippled across states, and 'Press Release' is the highest we would expect, as usual, from a government that promised adequate security and welfarism of Nigerians. With their hegemonic mentality, armed herders seldomly strike in the South; when people are not killed in numbers, farmers and their farm produce bear the brunt.

80 million citizens languishing in penury had made Nigeria the capital of world poverty, before India came to claim the inglorious award in March 2022, according to World Poverty Clock, a data-driven website. Could Austrian-British philosopher, Karl Popper, had the Buhari administration in mind when he said, "Those who promised us paradise on earth never produced anything but a hell"?

Incessant strikes are just another bottleneck that has stifled this administration. The ordeal of university students who have been relegated to their homes for over four months because of the ASUU strike continues to send sadness down the spine. The time and future of millions of youths across Nigerian universities is dwindling away, while rich politicians fly their kids abroad for quality and uninterrupted education. This brings to wish, the policy of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo's as Premier of the Western Region, which prohibited his cabinet members and families from seeking medical attention or sending their children to school abroad. Had the policy been maintained till date, it is without doubt that the lingering ASUU strike wouldn't have seen the light of the day, let alone the mishap of younger students who were kidnapped at schools; like the Dapchi, Kankara and Jangebe students.

Victims of the March 28, 2022 Abuja to Kaduna train attack are still in the den of their abductors. The eleven of them who were released on June 11, and others who have bailed themselves do not deserve to be in the lair of kidnappers in the first place. Choicelessly, incessant kidnappings have been a source of trepidation for Nigerians. On the whole, queues at fuel stations return anytime they wish. In spite of Nigeria being Africa's largest oil producer, Nigerians now buy fuel at all-time high prices. The bittersweetness of the 13,000 megawatt installation has not yet tackled the epileptic lower supply confronting the nation. Perhaps, till there's more output than the current 5,000 megawatts, 85 million Nigerianswho have no access to lightwould have a course to smile.

Buhari's anti-corruption crusade rode on our emotions, but successfully, the same corruption has blighted his administration. From former SGF, Babachir Lawal's' 'over 500million' grass cutting scandal, to the 47billion fraudulent contracts awarded by the former managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mr Nsima Ekere, to the 80billion fraud of the suspended Nigerias accountant general of the federation, Ahmed Idris to many others, it's safe but sad to say the country still wreathes in corruption and public theft.

If there's anything the Buhari administration could redeem its image with, it is not its vain braggartism about infrastructural developments across the country. For, unsafe and hungry citizens are not the ones who would happily travel through trains or ply the "beautiful roads" Sai Baba is building across the country - roads that predispose them to dangers and kidnappings. With the below-par performance of this administration, the "change" mantra seems clearer now: change from bad to worse, rack to ruin - while the ruins continue to hit the skids. Nigerians had thought Buhari was gold, but he's only gold plated. Like his administration made us praise the past corrupt administrations, may the next administration not give us a reason to praise Buhari's.

Hashim Yussuf Amao Twitter: @LegalBard


Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo, CFR has expressed readiness of the state government to partner the World Health Organization, WHO in providing quality and affordable healthcare to Ndi Anambra.

The Governor made the disclosure when he received in audience, the WHO representative in Nigeria, Dr. Walter Mulombo who embarked on the visit with members of his team at the Governor's Lodge in Amawbia

According to Professor Soludo, his administration is committed to having a healthy and productive population, pointing out that WHO has a pivotal role to play in that regard.

Governor Soludo who stressed that his administration had begun to deliver a bit of the agenda as contained in his manifesto, pleaded with the visiting WHO representative to add Anambra in its huge agenda and assistance to states.

The Governor made special mention of the efforts of WHO in eradication of tropical diseases which has adversely affected the African populace.

While appreciating them for their intervention during the recent outbreak of Measles in the state, he assured that under his watch, actions based on interventions from WHO, will be backed with results, pointing out that his administration will deploy the use of data in measuring such results.

Dr. Mulombo said that Professor Soludo's background prior to and during his days as Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria is worthy of emulation.

He promised to partner Anambra State government in any way possible, but asked the state government to direct attention to primary healthcare development, stating that they will leverage on Professor Soludo's goodwill to access other state Governors, so that the walk can be channeled towards the same direction.

Chief of Staff to the Governor, Mr. Ernest Ezeajughi, and the State Health Commissioner, Dr Afam Obidike were among others present during the visit.

Christian Aburime is the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor
German man in hospital after car slams fence

PHUKET: A German man was rushed to hospital after the BMW he was driving slammed into a roadside fence on Thepkrasattri Rd last night (June 23).

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By Eakkapop Thongtub

Friday 24 June 2022, 06:10PM

Lt Col Pattwat Yodkwan of the Thalang Police was notified of the accident just after 10pm.

Officers and rescue workers arrived at the scene, in front of the Mae Ju shop on Thepkrasattri Rd northbound in Moo 5 Thepkrasattri, to find a heavily damaged Bangkok-registered BMW sedan in front of the store.

The driver, named only as German national Frank Alexander (sic), 42, was pinned inside the vehicle.

Kusoldharm Foundation rescue workers used hydraulic cutters to recover the man from the wreck, before administering him emergency first aid and rushing him to Thalang Hospital.

At this stage police believe Mr Frank Alexander lost control of the car in the wet storm conditions last night and crashed into the fence and a sign in front of the store.

The German man will be held responsible for damages to the fence and the sign, police said.
Karon anti-drug campaign aims for rehab, not jail

PHUKET: Pol Lt Gen Panurat Lakboon, Deputy Inspector General of the Royal Thai Police and Deputy Director of the Royal Thai Police Narcotics Prevention and Suppression Center, was in Phuket yesterday (June 23) to support a local community anti-drug campaign that aims to have drug users enter treatment instead of jailing them.

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By The Phuket News

Friday 24 June 2022, 11:53AM

The campaign follows a national strategy to provide a comprehensive solution to drug problems, moving forward with the national strategy that has changed the war on drugs to use the public health system and contribute to the reduction of crime in the area, Lt Gen Panurat said at the event, held at Wat Suwan Khiri Khet (Wat Karon) in Moo 4 Karon.

Also present for the event were Phuket Provincial Police Commander Maj Gen Sermphan Sirikong and Karon Police Chief Col Theerawat Liamsuwan, along with community leaders and students.

Col Theerawat explained that under Royal Thai Police policy every police station is to have a sustainable community action project to solve the drug problem in line with the national strategy.

Karon Police had assigned its Community Relations Police Operations Unit to carry out the campaign in the area in order to acknowledge the problem and educate local residents about narcotics, Col Theerawat added.

Karon Police are responsible for just one tambon, Karon, with an area of about 20 square kilometres, comprising four villages with a total population of approximately 7,000 people, he said.

For this year Karon Police had selected Baan Khok Chang, in Moo 4, Karon, for the focus of its community anti-drug campaign, Col Theerawat added.

Why Moo 4 Karon was specifically singled out for highlighting the campaign was not explained.

Under the campaign, officers will visit every household in Baan Khok Chang to prepare for the drafting of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on drug testing, Col Theerawat said.

Under the MoU, people who test positive for drugs will be taken under public health care for recovery and rehabilitation, after which they can return to their families, he added.

If there are no addicts in the community, there will be no suppliers. This will make the community become a strong, drug-free community, Col Theerawat said.

Lt Gen Panurat said that this year similar programmes were being rolled out in 1,483 communities throughout the country.

The government provides a budget of B50,000 per community to implement the project, he said.

However, this budget was insufficient to provide comprehensive treatment for patients. Therefore, integration with network partners, including local leaders and parents is an extremely important part in expanding the project into other community areas, he said.

Lt Gen Panurat added that the community campaigns would also help alleviate the stress on the national prison system.

There are currently 300,000 inmates in prisons, 80% of whom are serving drug-related sentences, he said.

Teerayut Ariyaudomkit, Director of the Karon Health Promoting Hospital, voiced his support for the project.

Community participation therapy is the right path, he said.

After the addict has voluntarily entered the treatment process, health officials will design each patients treatment process according to the severity of their condition and to make the treatment as effective as possible, Mr Teerayut explained.

Three more follow-up visits will be conducted to allow the patient to be truly disconnected from drug dependence, he concluded.
An aftershock took more lives and threatened to pile even more misery on an area of eastern Afghanistan reeling from a powerful earthquake that state media said killed 1,150 people this week
BEIRUT (AP)  Unless the U.N. Security Council extends its approval of aid deliveries to rebel-held parts of northwest Syria next month, food supplies will be depleted by September in the region that is home to some 4 million people, aid agencies warned Thursday.

Concerns have been rising in recent months that the situation will get worse in Syrias Idlib province because Russia may force international aid for the northwest to be delivered through parts of Syria under the control of its ally, Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Currently, aid enters the Idlib enclave directly from Turkey via a single border crossing, Bab al-Hawa. The U.N. mandate allowing deliveries through Bab al-Hawa ends on July 9, and Russia has hinted it will veto a Security Council resolution renewing the mandate.

The mandates expiry this years comes amid rising tension between Russia and the West over Moscows invasion of Ukraine four months ago.

This is a moment when its absolutely vital that the people of Syria are not forced to pay the price of geopolitical divisions, David Miliband, head of the International Rescue Committee, said during an online briefing Thursday.

A Russian veto would effectively hand Assad control over the flow of aid to the opposition enclave; if that happens, the United States and the European Union have warned they will stop funding.

Miliband said cross-border aid to northwest Syria supports 1.4 million people every month and remains an urgent prerequisite in the Syria conflict.

Tanya Evans, Syria country director for the committee, said the global food crisis is particularly devastating on Syria, especially Idlib, which is home to many internally displaced by the 11-year war. The conflict has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced half the countrys pre-war population of 23 million.

If this mechanism is not renewed in July, then it is anticipated that food supplies will be depleted by September, she warned. Evans said non-governmental organizations are estimating they have the capacity to scale out and reach approximately 300,000 people with food assistance  meaning that more than 1 million will have no access to food in September.

Sherine Ibrahim, a Turkey director for CARE, said that if the resolution is not renewed, approximately 80% of protection services provided by the United Nations will come to a screeching halt. She warned that the most affected will be women and children.
After nearly 50 years of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that made abortion legal across the land, the US Supreme Court officially overturned the law Friday morning.

Reactions are undoubtedly plentiful across the country and Illinois is no different.

Republicans, Democrats, the religiously faithful, and the patriotic are all expressing their thoughts on the decision that has stripped women of a constitutional right that's now left up to the laws of the individual states.

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker immediately announced he plans to call a special session at the state capital in Springfield for reproductive health rights. In a press release the governor's office points out the Reproductive Health Act was passed in Illinois to make it a "choice" state.

In an immediate response, Pritzker posted his thoughts from the initial leak published by Politico that hinted at today's decision.

"Despite the action of the Supreme Court today overturning Roe v. Wade, the right to safe, accessible reproductive healthcare is in full force in Illinois  and will remain so," Pritzker said in a statement

Democratic Illinois US senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth released immediate statements via Twitter.

"Todays decision eliminates a federally protected constitutional right that has been the law for nearly half a century. As a result, millions of Americans are waking up in a country where they have fewer rights than their parents and grandparents," Durbin said following the decision.

"I am outraged and horrifiedthis outcome is a nightmare that robs women of their right to make their own choices about their healthcare and their bodies, and it paves the way for a nationwide abortion ban that Republicans have been seeking for decades," Duckworth said on social media.

In the U.S. House of Representatives, Illinois has several Republican representatives that spoke out in favor of the Supreme Court's decision. Representative Rodney Davis released a video of his thoughts outside the U.S. Supreme Court Building as crowds have begun to gather.

"This is a historic and incredible day for Life and the unborn in America, a day that all of us in the pro-life movement have been praying for and working towards. The Supreme Court was absolutely right to overturn previous, wrongly-decided abortion decisions," Davis said in a statement.

Here is what other Illinois representatives are saying.

"Rejoice! Our prayers have been answered! A victory for Life, for the unborn babies who are children formed in God's image, and for all the women who have been deceived and victimized by the cruel abortion industry," Representative Mary Miller said on Twitter.

"As a father of three and a Pro-Life advocate, I applaud the Supreme Court's decision in the Dobbs case. Today is a huge victory for sanctity of Life," Representative Darin LaHood wrote.

"I agree wholeheartedly with the Supreme Courts decision to restore power to the American people to determine for themselves how abortion services are regulated in their state. Its a historic decision that will help save the lives of countless innocent unborn children," Representative Mike Bost posted to Twitter.

Today, millions of prayers have been answered," Don Tracy, chairman of the Illinois Republican Party said in a statement. "I support our state party platform that values the dignity of all life, from conception to natural death, and applaud the six Supreme Court Justices who had the courage to be real judges instead of judicial legislators."



"Our country is deeply divided right now, and while I support this decision, I know this ruling will potentially make that division worse, at least in the short term, and many irresponsible people will stoke that division. I implore all Illinoisans to express their opinions with respect, civility, and without violence," Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy said in a statement.

Leaders within the Catholic Church are also responding to today's decision.

Todays decision by the Supreme Court of the United States marks an important moment for our nation, lifting a cloud that has hung over our country for nearly a half-century," Bishop Thomas Paprocki, head of the Springfield, Illinois Archdiocese, said in a statement. "We can now move forward with a more honest debate and efforts to advance policies and support programs that protect innocent life and promote stability and security for vulnerable mothers.
GODFREY  For the first time since 2019, Lewis and Clark Community Colleges (LCCC) Adult Education program was able to hold its commencement in person on June 9, in the Hatheway Cultural Center in Godfrey.

For Associate Dean of Adult Education Val Harris, this years ceremony was particularly poignant.

This is my favorite event each year because these students found the courage to give education another try and succeed, she said. Like the rest of the world, we have all been through strange times the past two-plus years. Our students success is always meaningful; and this year is even more impressive as they have navigated virtual classes, COVID-19 testing, cancelled classes  and they persevered. I couldnt be more proud.

Illinois Community College Board (ICCB) Senior Director for Adult Education and Literacy Kathy Olesen-Tracey was this years key-note speaker. She recognized the number of award-winning students LCCCs Adult Education program has produced over the years and encouraged this years graduates to seize opportunities.

Youve already seized the opportunity this educational program provides you, she said. Its time to take the next step and move forward.

Student speaker George Brewer, an LCCC Adult Education success story, advised the graduates to put thought into who they want to be and what they want to do.

I believe that service work and helping other people is absolutely necessary in life, he said. Theres always going to be bills and theres always going to be challenges and hurdles in life, but life is sweeter than that.

Graduate Jarrius Burton, a previous student ambassador, expressed the joy he felt after completing his GED.

Earning my GED makes me feel like I can conquer the world, he said. Believe in yourself and surround yourself by people who want to see you succeed. Failing is part of life, but as long as you keep going and stay positive, things will work in your favor.

Learn more about LCCCs Adult Education division and the programs it offers by calling (618) 468-4141 or visit www.le.edu/adulted.
SPRINGFIELD  Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Friday signed legislation by state Rep. Amy Elik, R-Fosterburg, amending the code of multiple acts and agencies to replace references to high school equivalency certificates to State of Illinois High School Diplomas.

The change recognizes the equal value of a State of Illinois High School Diploma and will aid Illinois graduates in establishing reciprocity with educational requirements in other states.

Graduates of Illinois schools should never have to start their post-secondary career or schooling at a disadvantage, said Pritzker. This legislation reflects the high standards to which we hold our high school students and protects graduates from unfair misconceptions, both in our state and in others.

In the past, the term equivalency certificate carried stigma and the incorrect assumption that the graduate had received a lower level of degree. This change accurately reflects that the high school equivalency certificate is a diploma, ensuring no graduates of Illinois high schools will face challenges based on inaccurate assessment of educational level. Senate Bill 3792 also changes school codes to recognize high school equivalency certificates from other states as the equivalent of a State of Illinois High School Diploma, allowing ease of reciprocity when transferring educational requirements across state lines.

The Illinois College Board is also increasing GED test discounts to encourage Illinoisans to complete their secondary degrees. $430,000 of discounts will be available to all test takers and bring the total costs of testing down to $40 for in person tests and $56 for online tests. Previous discount programs in 2020 and 2021 were redeemed by nearly 20,000 test takers. Test takers can us the code ILSAVE20 to reduce the cost of each module when checking out.

"I am proud to be the House sponsor of this new law which will encourage more individuals to complete their GED because their achievement will be the equivalent of a high school diploma. This will increase job opportunities and improve the future for people and their families, said Elik.

The following acts are amended under SB3792: the Children and Family Services Act, the Illinois Youthbuild Act, the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Administrative Act, the School Code, the Public University Uniform Admission Pilot Program Act, the Public Community College Act, the Higher Education Student Assistance Act, the Illinois Insurance Code, the Pharmacy Practice Act, the Structural Pest Control Act, the Community Association Manager Licensing and Disciplinary Act, the Home Inspector License Act, the Real Estate License Act of 2000, the Illinois Public Aid Code, the Firearm Concealed Carry Act, the Illinois Vehicle Code, and the Unified Code of Corrections. This law goes into effect Jan. 1, 2023.
CAHOKIA  The St. Louis Downtown Airport is experiencing a trend continuing into this year with flight operations escalating and a new project to bring hundreds of high-tech jobs.

This project will support more than 450 high-tech aerospace manufacturing jobs by improving production safety, reliability and efficiency, improving airport businesses and increasing global competitiveness for Southwest Illinois and the entire state.

The project has been in the works for several years; construction is expected to begin later this year.

According to a state study, St. Louis Downtown Airport contributed more than $422 million in economic impact for the region in 2019, including factors such as on-airport activity and visitor spending.

Our aviation customers choose to fly to St. Louis Downtown Airport for convenient access to the central business district, educational institutions, major sporting events, concerts, races and more, said airport Director Sandra Shore. They also appreciate the great service offered by a professional team that discreetly accommodates their varying needs in a pleasant environment thats convenient and uncongested.

Flight operations climbed last year to more than 100,000, which surpassed 2019 pre-pandemic levels at the airport at 6100 Archview Drive in Cahokia. Flight operations increased to 101,938, the highest total for the airport in the past five years, according to Bi-State Developments Patti Beck, senior director of media and public relations.

The total number of flight operations exceeded 2019 numbers by more than 5%, significant considering the affect of COVID-19 on travel. The trending number of flight operations represents a 31.2% increase over the 2020 flight operations, a strong signal that private and business travel customers returned to the skies and flew in and out of the closest airport to downtown St. Louis.

The overall trend for the first quarter of 2022 confirmed the rebound is continuing and is likely to see even greater acceleration due to key events drawing more travelers to the region in the coming months, said Bi-State Developments Mary Lamie, executive vice president of Bi-State Developments Multi Modal Enterprises.

Bi-State Development owns and operates the St. Louis Downtown Airport, deemed the busiest general aviation airport in Illinois. It's located on 1,000 acres in Cahokia Heights and Sauget.

Growth plans will be supported by a $5 million state grant recently awarded to the airport as part of the Rebuild Illinois capital infrastructure plan approved in 2019. The funding will cover the cost of building a Ground Engine Run-Up facility to benefit four aircraft maintenance providers at the airport.

The airport also is home to the St. Louis University Parks College, the nations oldest flight school still in operation. Other activities supported by the airport include government operations, military training, real estate tours, medical transport, aerospace technology research and glider flying.

To learn more about St. Louis Downtown Airport, visit www.stlouisdowntownairport.com. The airport offers a visitors guide at https://www.stlouisdowntownairport.com/visit/.
Westerly, RI (02891)

Today

Periods of rain. High 72F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected..

Tonight

Rain early. Decreasing clouds overnight. Low 58F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
Women working for some of the world's biggest miners have been subjected to years of 'horrifying' sexual abuse, a landmark inquiry has found.

A bombshell report into Australia's mining sector uncovered the 'appalling' treatment of women at companies including Rio Tinto and BHP, both listed on the stock market in London at the time.

Among the cases it highlights is a woman who testified to the inquiry that she was 'knocked unconscious in her donga and awoke to find her jeans and underpants around her ankles'.

Outback: Women suffered abuse while working at companies including Rio Tinto and BHP in remote locations of Australia

There were also stories of sex dolls being put in front of women's dongas  the name given to workers' huts in mining camps  or hung on their doors.

And the report criticised Rio and BHP for ignoring or overlooking unlawful and criminal behaviour.

The industry has now been urged to set up a sexual offence register to prevent workers fired for harassing and assaulting female colleagues from finding jobs elsewhere.

The report followed a year-long investigation launched after a string of sexual assaults at Fly-In-Fly-Out camps in Western Australia  one of the world's biggest mining hubs.

Entitled 'Enough is Enough', it provides excruciating details of the abuse female workers have been subjected to throughout the male-dominated industry for years  and a 'culture of cover-up'.

As well as 'horrifying' cases of sexual assault, the inquiry said women had reported being subjected to 'unsolicited and unwelcome attention', stalking, texting of explicit and lewd material, provocative photo requests and 'grooming' of young female apprentices by older male colleagues.

One described a bizarre power-play behaviour known as 'shovelling', whereby iron ore would be dumped on the cabs of trucks operated by women if they did not comply with sexual requests.

Another reported driving a truck and almost causing a collision. She was told by the site supervisor that he could make the safety investigation 'go away' if she had sex with him.

Truck driver Astacia Stevens told the parliamentary inquiry that she wanted to move from working for a contractor for Rio to working directly for the company, and wearing the company logo on her shirt. But a male superior demanded she have sex with him if she wanted a job with Rio.

One woman described how a male colleague forced his hand down her top numerous times in front of other workers, but no one did anything.

Victim: Truck driver Astacia Stevens told the parliamentary inquiry

Inquiry chairman Libby Mettam, deputy leader of the Liberal party in Western Australia, paid tribute to the 'brave women' who had come forward, and said that while she had expected 'horrific stories' would emerge from the investigation, she was 'shocked and appalled well beyond expectation by the size and depth of the problem'.

She said: 'To hear the lived reality of the taunts, attacks and targeted violence, the devastation and despair the victims experienced, the threats to or loss of their livelihood that resulted was shattering and it's completely inexcusable.'

The inquiry by Western Australia's Community Development and Justice Standing Committee heard how the conditions in mining camps in the outback allowed 'sexual harassment to thrive in the workplace'.

These conditions included a heavy boozing culture, with workers convening in the camp's 'wet mess' to get drunk after a hard day's work away from their families. One worker described a culture of 'what happens at camp, stays at camp'.

The investigation ran for almost a year, receiving nearly 100 submissions and turning the spotlight on some of the biggest mining companies including Rio and BHP.

The inquiry heard BHP sacked 48 staff over inappropriate conduct over two years, while Rio fired at least 12 for sexual assault or harassment last year.

The parliamentary report made 24 recommendations, which included an 'industry-wide workers' register', modelled on the system in place for those working with children.
Losses: Tesla boss Elon Musk (pictured) said its Texas and Berlin factories were 'gigantic money furnaces'

Elon Musk said Tesla's car factories in Texas and Berlin are 'losing billions of dollars' as they struggle to increase production because of a shortage of batteries and Chinese port issues.

'Both factories are gigantic money furnaces right now,' the electric car maker's chief executive said in an interview released on Wednesday.

'It's really like a giant roaring sound, which is the sound of money on fire.

'Supply chain interruptions have been extremely severe.

'Overwhelmingly our concern is how do we keep the factories operating so we can pay people and not go bankrupt.'

Waiting times for Tesla's Model S and Model X cars in the UK are now up to two years due to sky-high demand and reduced vehicle outputs.

UK customers have already been warned they face waiting up to two years for delivery of Tesla's Model S (left) and Model X (right) cars due to high demand and reduced production

The 50-year-old said the Covid-19-related shutdowns in Shanghai 'were very, very difficult'.

He added: 'The past two years have been an absolute nightmare of supply chain interruptions, one thing after another, and we're not out of it yet.'

Mr Musk's comments come in the same week that it was revealed that UK dealers have stopped taking orders for some new electric cars due to a lack of availability caused by production disruption.

Drivers have been warned they face a minimum of waiting time of 12 months for deliveries of the most sought-after EVs, as global manufacturers continue to be strangled by the shortage of semiconductor chips.

Electric cars are selling out: The availability of some EVs is starting to run dry, with dealers pulling the plug on new orders for popular models, including the MG ZS EV pictured

MG Motor UK dealers have suspended orders for its electric models following an 'unprecedented level of demand' for the vehicles

The current estimated waiting time on a new Volkswagen ID.3 (pictured) order is 12 months

A lack of new EV availability has led Skoda to delete certain Enyaq IV (pictured) derivatives from its line-up

A logjam in the supply of other car parts usually produced in Russia and Ukraine since the war began earlier this year has also added to delivery delays.

MG dealerships have now suspended orders for the 29,295 ZS EV and 29,625 5 EV Long Range following 'unprecedented levels of demand' for the vehicles, according to Ginny Buckley, founder of EV website Electrifying.com.

The EV website also found that a lack of availability has led Skoda and Volkswagen to delete certain electric models from their Enyaq and ID.3 line-ups, with waiting times of up to 12 months for the variants still listed.

A Volkswagen dealership told the website: 'I advise all customers to be a year or a year-and-a-half ahead of the schedule if they want a vehicle desperately.

'We don't think, internally at least, this is going away in a rush. It's the new norm.'
One of Britains leading defence companies moved a step closer to foreign ownership last night after the Government lent its support to the controversial 2.6billion takeover.

Ultra Electronics  which makes submarine-hunting sonobuoys  is being snapped up by US private equity predators Advent International.

It follows the 4billion takeover of Cobham by Advent in 2020 that led to the break-up of the historic British defence group.

Hunted: Ultra Electronics  which makes submarine-hunting sonobuoys  is being snapped up by US private equity predators Advent International

Advent is now buying Ultra through what is left of Cobham.

And despite Cobhams fate, and the strategic importance of Ultra to Britain, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said he was minded to accept the deal.

Whitehall officials have confirmed parties involved in the deal have offered undertakings to protect national security.

They include the creation of two companies to cover Ultras most sensitive work in the UK, which will have a state-endorsed board director on each.

It has also been confirmed that ministers will have strong step-in rights similar to a special share, allowing the Government to secure the future transfer of ownership.

And they will be granted powers to access Ultras intellectual property.

Cobham chairman Shonnel Malani said: We have always been clear about our unwavering commitment to ensuring that the UKs national security is protected and believe these very extensive and robust undertakings will do just that.

But the decision sparked a backlash from senior MPs amid fears of the hollowing out of UKs defence sector.

Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said he does not understand why they are not blocking it.

Leading the world Ultra Electronics is a world leader in sonar, radar and torpedo technologies. It provides mission-critical solutions to the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing partnership of the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Originally set up in 1920, it has 4,500 staff and its sonar systems are used on ships and aircraft to hunt submarines and patrol British waters. Its sonobuoys can be dropped from helicopters and planes to help detect objects in the ocean

He told the Mail: How do we build capability, when we keep on allowing it to go somewhere else?

In terms of defence and technology, these are things we need to have here. And we used to. But in the last two decades, we have let so much go, and its time we resolve that.

Tory MP Bob Seely, who is a member of the influential foreign affairs select committee, said: There is a balance to be struck between being an attractive and open economy on one hand, and protecting intellectual property, our industrial base and sensitive defence firms on the other.

I am not sure we have that balance quite right yet.

At the weekend, Lady Cobham, the daughter-in-law of Cobham founder Sir Alan Cobham, warned in the Mail on Sunday about the UK auctioning off its high-tech firms such as Ultra, Inmarsat and Meggitt.

She said no one should be taken in by the fact that Cobham is fronting the takeover  as the ultimate owner is a private equity firm.

Tory grandee Lord Heseltine, who has previously criticised Kwarteng for abandoning Britains industrial strategy, said the stringent undertakings showed a glimmer of sanity at long last.
Ultra Electronics shares soared after Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng waved through its sale to US private equity firm Advent International.

The British defence group is set to be bought by Advent subsidiary Cobham for 2.6billion, despite opposition.

Kwarteng was urged to block the takeover amid fears of the hollowing out of the UK's defence sector.

Take-off: Shares in Ultra, which makes submarine-hunting kit, jumped 12.3 per cent, or 378p, to 3448p

But Advent has agreed legally binding undertakings to protect national security, and Kwarteng has said he was 'minded to accept' the takeover.

Shares in Ultra, which makes submarine-hunting kit, jumped 12.3 per cent, or 378p, to 3448p.

They had been hovering below the 35 per share offer price. Undertakings include creating two companies to cover Ultra's most sensitive work in the UK, with a state-endorsed board director on each.

Ministers will have 'strong step-in rights', allowing the Government to secure any future transfer of ownership.

Some MPs were furious, with former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith saying he 'could not understand' why it was not blocked.
Kingsport, TN (37660)

Today

A few clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 54F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

A few clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 54F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph.
The new boat ramp on the Watauga River at Tenn. Highway 400 had its soft opening on Thursday. The project was made possible by local, state and federal agencies and the Go Betsy citizens group working together.
In this Nov. 10, 2018 file photo, Andrew Gillum, then-Democratic candidate for governor, speaks at a news conference in Tallahassee, Fla. Gillum, the 2018 Democratic nominee for Florida governor, is facing 21 federal charges related to a scheme to seek donations and funnel a portion of them back to him through third parties. The U.S. attorney's office announced the indictment Wednesday, June 22, 2022.
Violence in western Sudan this month alone has displaced more than 84,000 people, doubling the number of those driven from their homes so far this year, according to UN reports.

The numbers are the highest since January 2021. Last year, at least 440,500 were displaced, five times more than in 2020, according to UN data.

Aid workers fear a displacement crisis akin to the one triggered by the conflict in Darfur in the early 2000s.

Violence escalated there after 2003 as Sudans government allied with so-called Janjaweed Arab militias moved to put down a rebellion by armed groups. At least 2.5 million people were displaced and 300,000 were killed.

A peace-keeping force mandated by a 2020 peace agreement has yet to be deployed widely. Finance Minister and armed group leader Jibril Ibrahim said raising money to implement the agreement has been difficult.

June violence includes fighting in the Kulbus locality in West Darfur, where 125 people were killed and 50,000 displaced when Arab militias attacked villages belonging to the Gimir tribe.

Before we finish responding to one emergency or major attack, another two have already happened, said Will Carter of Norwegian Refugee Council. So far, nothing is averting this from becoming a new large-scale displacement emergency.

In South Kordofan state, home to a separate long-term civil conflict, fighting this month between the Hawazma and Kenana tribes in Abu Jubayhah killed 19 and displaced 15,150 after more than 4,000 homes were burned, said UNOCHA.

In a statement on Wednesday, Human Rights Watch said Sudans transitional government and military rulers who seized power in October failed to provide adequate protection after the 2021 exit of international peace-keepers or to address underlying causes of the conflict, including land and resource disputes.

General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, whose Rapid Support Forces emerged out of some of the Arab militias and who is the deputy leader of Sudans ruling council, visited West Darfur this week, calling on fighting to stop and promising to donate health and schooling facilities.

SOURCE: REUTERS
Ukraine became a candidate to join the European Union on Thursday, a bold geopolitical step triggered by Russias invasion that Kyiv and Brussels hailed as an historic moment.

Starting on the long path to EU membership will be a huge boost to morale in the embattled country, as Russian assaults on two cities in the eastern Donbas region move toward a fearsome climax, according to a Ukrainian government adviser.

Ukraines future is in the EU, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on Twitter after the official announcement.

A historic moment, European Council chief Charles Michel tweeted, adding: Our future is together.

The approval of the Kyiv governments application by EU leaders meeting in Brussels will anger Russia as it struggles to impose its will on Ukraine. Moldova also became an official candidate on Thursday, signalling the blocs intention to reach deep into the former Soviet Union.

Friday will mark four months since Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops across the border in what he calls a special military operation sparked in part by Western encroachment into what Russia considers its sphere of influence.

The conflict, which the West sees as an unjustified war of aggression by Russia, has killed thousands, displaced millions, and destroyed cities, while the curtailment of food and energy exports has affected countries across the world.

Russia has focused its campaign on southern and eastern Ukraine after its advance on the capital in the early stages of the conflict was thwarted by Ukrainian resistance.

The war of attrition in the Donbas  Ukraines industrial heartland  is most critical in the twin cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk, which sit on opposite banks of the Siverskyi Donets River in Luhansk province.

The battle there is entering a sort of fearsome climax, said Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Zelenskiy.

HOT SUMMER

Russian forces were trying to encircle Ukrainian troops defending Lysychansk, senior Ukrainian defence official Oleksiy Gromov said in a briefing on Thursday.

Luhansk governor Serhiy Gaidai said separately that all Lysychansk was within reach of Russian fire and that Ukrainian troops there might retreat to new positions to avoid being trapped.

Russian-backed separatist forces said there was fierce fighting underway around Ukrainian positions in Hirske, which lies on the western side of the main north-south road to Lysychansk, and Zolote, another settlement to the south.

Ukrainian forces were defending Sievierodonetsk and nearby Zolote and Vovchoyrovka, Gaidai said, but Russian troops had captured Loskutivka and Rai-Oleksandrivka to the south. Hundreds of civilians are trapped in a chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk.

On the southern front, Russian forces struck Ukrainian army fuel tanks and military equipment near Mykolaiv with high-precision weapons, Russias defence ministry said, quoted by the Interfax news agency.

A river port and ship-building centre just off the Black Sea, Mykolaiv has been a bastion against Russian efforts to push West towards Ukraines main port city of Odesa.

Zelenskiy urged Ukraines allies to speed up shipments of heavy weapons to match Russia on the battlefield. We must free our land and achieve victory, but more quickly, a lot more quickly, he said in a video address early on Thursday.

Later, Ukrainian defence minister said HIMARS multiple rocket systems had arrived from the United States. With a range of 70 km (44 miles), the systems can challenge the Russian artillery batteries that have bludgeoned Ukrainian cities from afar.

The United States will provide an additional $450 million in security assistance to Ukraine, including more long-range rocket systems, U.S. officials said on Thursday.

SHIELD FOR THE EU

Russia has long opposed closer links between Ukraine, a fellow former Soviet republic, and Western groupings like the European Union and the NATO military alliance.

Diplomats say it will take Ukraine a decade or more to meet the criteria for joining the EU.

But European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she was convinced that Ukraine and Moldova will move as swiftly as possible to implement necessary reforms.

Their move to join the EU runs alongside applications by Sweden and Finland to enter NATO in the wake of the Russian invasion  indications that the Kremlins military actions have backfired on its geopolitical aims.

In Kyiv, where mass protests eight years ago ousted the then-president after he broke a promise to develop closer ties with the EU, 22-year-old serviceman Volodymyr Yanishan welcomed Ukraines candidate status.

It means that people almost reached what we have been striving for since 2014, in a bloody fight which cost us much effort I think the majority will be glad and it means changes for better.

SOURCE: REUTERS
Ukrainian troops will have to be withdrawn from the mostly Russian-occupied battleground city of Severodonetsk, the Luhansk governor says, a day after he said troops had pulled out of some areas around Lysychansk.

A Washington-based think-tank believes Kyiv is preparing for the ultimate loss of both key cities, but says this would not be a decisive victory for Russia.

The United States is sending $450m more in military aid to Ukraine, including another four High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS).

The Kremlins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, says Russia is carefully recording the use of each Western-supplied weapon to ensure Ukraine fulfils its promise of not launching an attack into Russia.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the EUs decision to approve Ukraines application for candidacy status is one of the most important for the country since it gained independence.

Germanys economy minister says the country is heading for a gas shortage if Russian gas supplies remain as low as they are now, and certain industries would have to be shut down if there is not enough come winter.

Ukrainian troops will have to be withdrawn from the mostly Russian-occupied battleground city of Sievierodonetsk, the regional governor said on Friday.

Some of the heaviest fighting of the entire Russian invasion of Ukraine has taken place in Sievierodonetsk, where street-by-street battles have raged for a month, with Russia slowly and painstakingly taking more ground.

Remaining in positions smashed to pieces over many months just for the sake of staying there does not make sense, Governor Serhiy Gaidai said on television.Advertisement  Scroll to continue

He said that the troops in the city have already received the order to move to new positions, but did not indicate whether they had already done so or where exactly they were going.

The battle for the city is key for Russia to establish control over the last remaining Ukrainian-held sliver of the Luhansk region, with only the city of Lysychansk left in Ukrainian hands if Sievierodonetsk falls.

The Luhansk region is one of two provinces that make up the Donbas, an area which Russia and its separatist allies in east Ukraine aim to fully capture as one of their war aims.

In many respects, the fate of the Donbas is being decided there, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said of Sievierodonetsk recently.

SOURCE: REUTERS
Albany County District Attorney

An Albany man who fled the region as a jury was preparing to convict him of attempted murder has been found dead, according to the Albany County district attorney's office.

Michael Green, 36, was found dead Thursday from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after a 5-hour standoff with police at a home in Orlando, Fla. It was not immediately clear how police tracked Green to the home where he died and further details about the standoff were not immediately available Friday morning.
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SCHENECTADY  A sheriffs deputy fired last year following his off-duty arrest on a drunken driving charge in Colonie is back on the force following a ruling in his favor by an arbitrator, according to Schenectady County authorities.

Daniel Coppola, the 27-year-old stepson of Sheriff Dominic Dagostino, returned to his position with the sheriffs office road patrol unit in late April. The sheriff's office hired Coppola after he left his job with the Schenectady police force following an earlier alcohol-related arrest.



The earlier decision by the arbitrator called for Coppola, who at the time of his arrest was a sergeant with the law enforcement agencys small road patrol unit, to be demoted in rank to, in this case, a deputy, and perform community service and to continue attending meetings related to his alcoholism, according to authorities.
WASHINGTON (AP)  A U.S. Naval reservist who was assigned to an agency that operates spy satellites told an undercover FBI agent that he stormed the U.S. Capitol with members of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group and has espoused anti-government and antisemitic ideologies, federal authorities said in court records unsealed on Thursday.

Hatchet Speed was arrested on Wednesday in McLean, Virginia, on misdemeanor charges stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, including disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, court records show.

The FBI says Speed, whose birth name was Daniel Abraham Speed, is a petty officer first class in the U.S. Naval Reserves and was assigned to the Naval Warfare Space Field Activity at the National Reconnaissance Office. Authorities believe Speed is currently unemployed, a prosecutor said in a court filing. Court records dont list a defense attorney for Speed, who is scheduled to make his initial court appearance in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.

The National Reconnaissance Office operates U.S. spy satellites used by the Pentagon and intelligence agencies. The secretive agency has an important role in the U.S. intelligence community, which relies heavily on satellite imagery to monitor global hot spots like Russias war in Ukraine.

The agency said Thursday that Speed's assignment at the NRO began three months ago and that he was not part of the reserve unit at the time of the riot.

He has not had access to NRO facilities or systems at any point during his administrative assignment, the agency's statement said.

Speed recently worked in Vienna, Virginia, as a software developer for Novetta Solutions LLC, a defense contractor that conducts advanced analytics for the Defense Department and other federal agencies, the FBI said.

In March, Speed met with with an FBI undercover employee who presented to Speed as a like-minded individual, an FBI agent said in a court filing. Speed told the undercover agent that going to the Capitol on Jan. 6 was always the plan and said he went there with friends who were Proud Boys members, the filing says.

We would listen to Donald Trump then all of us would go to the Capitol. Now the reason we were going to the Capitol was to protest what was going on in the Capitol  what they were doing was counting the ballots, Speed said, according to the FBI.

Speed also said a larger crowd could have compelled House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to resign out of fear for her life," an FBI agent wrote.

He also observed that there are too many Americans that have this idea that we have to be peaceful at all costs, the agent added.

Video captured Speed entering the Capitol through the Senate Wing Doors and exiting the building through a window more than 40 minutes later, according to the FBI.

Prosecutors are seeking a court order requiring home detention with location monitoring for Speed after his release from custody. They say his statements and conduct show that he poses a threat of violence to the community.

After the Capitol riot, Speed bought at least 12 firearms over the span of a few months and spent more than $50,000 at firearm and firearm-part retailers, a prosecutor said in a court filing.

"This firearm-buying spree is alarming in light of statements that Speed has made in which he has espoused the use of violence to further his anti-government and anti-Semitic ideologies," Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexis Loeb wrote.

In April, Speed told an FBI undercover employee that he has contemplated using violence to further his antisemitic beliefs and discussed using violence against members of the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights organization.

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He said that the ADL promoted the recent anti-lynching bill and that the bill was being passed because 'they know things are ... going to get bad enough, that people like us are going to band together and straight up start lynching people,' Loeb wrote.

Federal agents said they seized eight firearms and seven silencers when they searched Speed's home, vehicles and a storage unit. They also said they found approximately 25 other firearms belonging to Speeds housemates.

Approximately 40 Proud Boys leaders, members or associates have been charged in the deadly Jan. 6 siege. Former Proud Boys national chairman Henry Enrique Tarrio and four other men are charged with seditious conspiracy for what authorities say was a plot to forcibly oppose the lawful transfer of presidential power after Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.

The charge against Speed comes months after an intelligence contractor alleged he was fired for reporting the circulation of racist and misogynistic comments on classified intelligence community chatrooms. The fired contractor, Dan Gilmore, wrote in a blog post that many employees across the community have posted that they believed the Jan. 6 attack was justified.

A spokeswoman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined last month to comment on Gilmores allegations but said that people who engage in inappropriate conduct are subject to a variety of accountability mechanisms, including disciplinary action.

The NRO and Novetta Solutions did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Speeds arrest.

___

Kunzelman reported from Silver Spring, Md.
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The arrival of the compact disc nearly killed off record albums, with vinyl pressing machines sold, scrapped and dismantled by major record labels.

Four decades later, with resuscitated record album sales producing double-digit annual growth, manufacturers are rapidly rebuilding an industry to keep pace with sales that reached $1 billion last year.

Dozens of record-pressing factories have been built to try to meet demand in North America  and it's still not enough.

The industry "has found a new gear, and is accelerating at a new pace, said Mark Michaels, CEO and chairman of United Record Pressing, the nations largest record producer, in Nashville, Tennessee.

Demand for vinyl records has been growing in double-digits for more than a decade and mass merchandisers like Target were bolstering their selection of albums just as the pandemic provided a surprising jolt. With music tours canceled, and people stuck at home, music lovers began snapping up record albums at an even faster pace.

Record album sales revenue grew a whopping 61% in 2021  and reached $1 billion for the first time since the 1980s  far outpacing growth rates for paid music subscriptions and streaming services like Spotify and Pandora, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

Record albums nearly spun into oblivion with sales overtaken by cassettes before the compact discs brushed both aside. Then came digital downloads and online piracy, Apple iPods and 99-cent downloads. Streaming services are now ubiquitous.

But nostalgic baby boomers who missed thumbing through record albums in their local record stores helped to fuel a vinyl resurgence that started about 15 years ago.

It coincided with the launch of Record Store Day to celebrate indie record stores, said Larry Jaffee, author of Record Store Day: The Most Improbable Comeback of the 21st Century.

These days, though, it's more than just boomers.

A younger generation is buying turntables and albums  and cassette tapes, too  and a new generation of artists like Adele, Ariana Grande and Harry Styles have been moving to vinyl, Jaffee noted.

In Pittsburgh, taxi driver Jamila Grady is too young, at age 34, to remember the heyday of record stores.

But she finds records to be irresistible. She created wall art from some of the album covers from nearly 50 albums she's bought since 2019, starting with Lemonade by Beyonce. She acknowledges it's an indulgence since she already listens to music through Soundcloud, Apple Music and Pandora.

For record players, theres something so beautiful about taking the record, putting it on the payer, and dropping the needle, she said.

Manufacturers had to start nearly from scratch.

The major labels shuttered their plants long ago, but new ones are coming online. Record makers launching over the last 10 to 15 years include Toronto-based Precision Record Pressing, Memphis Record Pressing, Clevelands Gotta Groove Records and Kansas Quality Record Pressing.

Jack White of White Stripes, opened his own vinyl pressing plant, Third Man Pressing, in 2017 in Detroit, and pleaded with the major record labels to reopen manufacturing facilities.

There are now about 40 plants in the U.S.  most of them smaller operations  but challenges remain.

Nationwide, backlogs are six to eight months because of growing demand, and supply chain disruptions of raw materials, including vinyl polymers, have caused problems, Michaels said.

It's not easy to launch a new pressing plant because there are only a handful of companies  none in the U.S.  that make record-pressing machines. Those machines are backordered, as well.

People can debate the sound quality but it comes down to an emotional reaction, not technical specifications, said Bob Ludwig, a multi-Grammy winner who created Gateway Mastering Studios in Portland, Maine.

A friend who listened to Ludwig's remastered version of Queens Night at the Opera called it stunning and electric.

I love the vinyl experience. All of it. To me, there is an electrifying sound when I play records that I dont feel from digital," said Mark Mazzetti, an independent A&R executive who worked for Sting, Janet Jackson and others at A&M Records.

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No one knows the ceiling for record growth because of the constrained supply, said Chris Brown, vice president for finance at Bull Moose Records, a record store chain in New England.

New releases often fail to meet demand, and reorders take even longer, leaving little capacity for lesser-known eclectic albums, he said.

Part of the fun of collecting records is being surprised, he said. But midlevel stuff doesnt get printed, or theres a long wait.

Record producers gather this week in Nashville for their annual trade event called Making Vinyl.

People in the business are excited about the growth, and it's almost like printing money for manufactures as sales soar to new heights every year, said Bryan Ekus, president of Making Vinyl.

No one knows how long the run will continue, so there's a sense that we should make hay while the sun shines, Ekus said.

In Nashville, United Record Pressing launched in 1949 and never stopped producing records. Its currently in the midst of a $15 million expansion that will triple its capacity in the middle of next year.

Michaels cant help but to wonder how long the double-digit growth can be sustained, but he said he's optimistic about the future.

Its both heartwarming and good for business to see high schoolers and young adults showing an interest in records, he said.

I believe in music and I believe in the importance of music in peoples lives. I dont think that changes, he said.

___

Sharp reported from Portland, Maine.



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ALBANY  Roughly two dozen residents went to Thursdays Common Council meeting to protest how city police responded to a Juneteenth celebration last weekend on Central Avenue.

The speakers, many wearing matching T-shirts, said the police response to fireworks being set off  a confrontation that ended with a boy being thrown to the ground and people having pepper spray pointed at them  was a systemic issue and an example of how city police handle interactions with the Black community and the city's failure to support events organized by Black businesses.

Police were called to the event on Sunday afternoon several times for issues like double-parked cars and loud music. But as the event was winding down people began to set off fireworks in the street, prompting police to step in. That led to a confrontation between a group of residents and police where an officer threw a 12-year-old boy to the ground as he tried to pull his father away from officers.

Stephen Negron, an activist and former Common Council candidate, told council members that if the fireworks incident involved a group of white residents, the situation would have been handled differently.

Ive never heard of a white child being slammed on the ground on the Fourth of July for fireworks, he said.

Other speakers questioned why the response was so aggressive when setting off fireworks is punishable by a $500 fine. Albany police previously said no one was arrested but tickets were issued. A city police spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

Charles Whitaker, who owns Juices Forever at 69 Central Ave., had planned a third annual Juneteenth celebration along with several other small business owners in the area.

Every year we do this event, theres no problems. Just everyone enjoying themselves, he said earlier this week.

The organizers applied for a permit earlier this year to shut down part of Central Avenue, but the citys special events committee denied it because the expected crowd was less than 100 people. The committee typically only grant permits to shut down streets when the event will draw 300 or more, a deputy city clerk said earlier this week.The committee instead asked organizers to move the celebration to nearby Townsend Park but never heard back from organizers.

Jamila Adams, who owns Johnnies on Broadway, said she had a similar problem getting a permit to shutdown a street near her business. She told the council she had put in a request three times for a block party and was denied each time with no explanation.

"What you dont realize is Albany has the most Black entrepreneurs since I grew up here," she told them. "Wheres the support for us?"

Whitaker previously said that after the permit was denied, he believed he could still hold a cookout in front of his business. As the event went on and after talking with officers about traffic and noise issues, Whitaker believed police were going to shut the celebration down. In the past two celebrations, city police had asked them to move the fireworks out of the street and make sure they clean up afterward he said. So, he decided to light off the remaining fireworks.

Bystander video shows an Albany police officer walk toward Whitaker, who was in the middle of Central Avenue attempting to set off a firework.

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The officer sprayed the fireworks with the extinguisher and tried to move Whitaker away from it. Several bystanders, including Whitakers 12-year-old son, moved in to separate the two men and other police officers came over. Whitaker and other family members said the boy was afraid for his fathers life.

As the group jostled back and forth, an officer grabbed Whitakers son from behind and threw him to the ground. The boys mother said he hit the ground hard enough that his shoe flew off. The officers, she said, broke his necklace when he grabbed him.

Whitaker said his son was traumatized by the incident. He said Thursday he had filed a complaint with the citys community police review board.

I tried to get him to come here today, and he wouldnt, he said.

Lanahria Whitaker, the boys older sister, said she went to her brother after he hit the ground.

As he grabbed me and I held him so tight, he just cried and cried, she said.

Several Common Council members said they had attended the event and hadnt noticed any major issues until fireworks started going off.

But several agreed with residents that city police had mishandled the situation and the incident needed to be reviewed.

A city police spokesman said Friday the incident regarding Whitaker's son would be reviewed.
The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision on Friday, shifting governance over when  and if  a pregnancy can be terminated to states, many of which already have laws on the books chipping away at access to abortion or banning it outright.

While New York has some of the strongest abortion protections in the nation, about half of U.S. states are expected to ban abortion in the aftermath of Roe's fall, according to the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion-rights think tank.

Twenty-two states, largely in the South and Midwest, already have total or near-total bans set to immediately go into effect now that Roe has been overturned.

New York advocates and abortion providers have warned that the decision will result in a surge in demand for reproductive health services in states that allow abortion, including New York.

States adjacent to New York have robust laws protecting abortion access. Western New York providers, however, anticipate a spillover in patients from Pennsylvania, which is neutral on the issue, and Ohio, where lawmakers have been prepared to fully criminalize abortion in wake of Roe's fall.

As the crush of patients pushes eastward over the next several years, New York's women's health infrastructure will need to expand.

To meet the need, an underground network of advocacy groups and providers is already forming to help women gain access to needed reproductive health services and assist with hurdles like transportation, child care, translation services or a place to stay.

Planned Parenthood of Greater New York (PPGNY) said it is working to design an "abortion patient navigator" to assist those who need to travel to New York from abortion-hostile states to facilitate travel, lodging and funds.

Planned Parenthood clinics are also ramping up their telehealth options to make it easier for women in early stages of pregnancy to obtain medical or medication abortions, induced by prescription pills taken at home, rather than surgical abortions that must be performed in a medical setting.

The state-wide organization is also planning to expand abortion services in the Southern Tier to mitigate unnecessary delays for people traveling to New York.

"Abortion is time-sensitive. By expanding services to include second-trimester abortion at health centers in Ithaca and Corning, PPGNY will continue to play a critical role in lessening the emotional and financial toll on people who are unable to get the care they need and deserve in their home state," PPGNY officials said in a press release.

The state Legislature this spring did not advance the "reproductive freedom and equity program," which would have provided about $50 million annually to the state Department of Health to fund grants to abortion providers and to nonprofits that assist people in accessing abortion care.

Gov. Kathy Hochul on May 10 announced the state would invest $35 million to directly support abortion providers in anticipation of the Supreme Court decision.

Hochul also directed the Department of Health to create a $25 million Abortion Provider Support Fund in order to expand capacity and increase access for patients seeking abortion care in New York. The governor also announced $10 million for reproductive health care centers to access security grants through the Division of Criminal Justice Services to help ensure the safety of the providers offering this care.

A recent Siena College Research Institute poll shows that New Yorkers overwhelming support abortion rights, with 63 percent saying they would support increased legal protections for those seeking to have the procedure in the state. Some 60 percent wanted the Supreme Court to keep the federal right to choose in place and declare Mississippis abortion law unconstitutional.

While Congress has the power to pass a law allowing abortion nationally, advocates, noting the political gridlock in Washington, have little faith it will happen.

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) in a statement called it "a devastating day for all Americans" and promised Democrats would fight to eliminate the filibuster and enshrine reproductive freedom into law.

"Today, more than half of the American population became second-class citizens, stripped of their constitutional right to privacy and bodily autonomy, regardless of where they live," Gillibrand said.

Catholic Bishops of New York State, which vociferously opposed the expansion of abortion rights in New York, hailed the Supreme Court decision as a victory in a statement Friday.

Abortion access in New York In New York, an abortion may be performed up to 24 weeks of pregnancy. After 24 weeks, abortions are allowed if the patient's health is at risk or the pregnancy will not survive.

In other places, such as Colorado and Washington, D.C., abortion services are available after 24 weeks of pregnancy for any reason.

There were 252 facilities providing abortion in New York in 2017, and 113 of those were clinics.

In 2017, some 39 percent of New York counties had no clinics that provided abortions, and 8 percent of New York women lived in those counties. See More Collapse

"We must remember that this is a judicial victory, not a cultural one," reads the statement, signed by Archbishop of New York Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Albany's Rev. Edward B. Scharfenberger and others. "The culture remains deeply divided on the issue, which will be evidenced by the patchwork of state statutes pertaining to abortion across the country. To change the culture and build a culture of life, we need to enact family-friendly policies that welcome children, support mothers, cherish families and empower them to thrive ... we rededicate ourselves to helping every expectant mother to carry her baby to term."

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U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, a Schuylerville Republican, applauded the ruling saying it would protect "COUNTLESS innocent lives." She vowed that House Republicans would fight to block public dollars from funding "on-demand abortions," referring to clinics like Planned Parenthood that provide a range of sexual and reproductive health services.

"As a new mom, the fight to defend life has never been more important to me," Stefanik said on Twitter.

The Supreme Court decision has raised concerns that the courts may be used to overturn or dilute other longstanding protections.

Justice Clarence Thomas, in his concurring opinion on abortion, said the court should also consider looking at the cases of Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell, which afforded the rights and protections to contraception, same-sex relationships and same-sex marriage.

State lawmakers, in anticipation that the ruling could roll back a host of rights, were considering passing a constitutional amendment that could enshrine not only the right to abortion in New York but also protection of issues like same-sex or interracial marriage.

The "Equality Amendment" would be intended to prohibit discrimination based on someone's race, ethnicity, national origin, disability and sex, which would also include pregnancy outcomes, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.

The state constitutional protections would instead be harbored under a legal framework around equality instead of privacy, the long-held standard used to uphold abortion rights that the Supreme Court has now found to be faulty.

Elected officials were unable to come to an agreement on the legal wording for the constitutional amendment before the end of the scheduled legislative session earlier this month.

A debate was ongoing about the extent to which it would interfere with religious rights in the state; advocates said it would clearly not present a problem and detractors adamantly said it would.

The Legislature's lack of action was a show of "significant political cowardice for no apparent reason, according to Katharine Bodde, an assistant director specializing in gender equality and reproductive rights at the New York Civil Liberties Union.

State Sen. Liz Krueger, D-Manhattan, who was sponsoring the bill, told the Times Union earlier this month the Legislature "flunked" its objective in passing the amendment. She said she would be eager to come back to Albany to address it, if the issues over the language could be settled and agreed upon by the leaders of the state Senate and Assembly.

There is a time clock around how soon the Legislature would need to act if it wants to send the "Equality Amendment" to voters as soon as possible.

The latest date for lawmakers to vote on language for the constitutional amendment to have a chance to get it onto the 2024 ballot, a presidential election year with a high turnout for the deep blue state, would be Aug. 10.

Lawmakers could bring forward an amendment after being called back by the governor for an extraordinary session to address the Supreme Court ruling on concealed carry of firearms, although the state's Democratic leaders did not indicate Friday any movement or plans on that issue. They are expected to return to Albany as early as next week.

A 2019 law signed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo protects the right to an abortion, but it did not alter the state's constitution or change the legal standard it would be tested under. Only voters at the ballot box can amend the state Constitution.
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LAS VEGAS (AP)  Elected officials in one rural Nevada county decided Thursday to postpone until Friday certifying results of the 317 ballots cast in their jurisdiction during the states June 14 primary election.

The decision in Esmeralda County, the least populous county in the state, comes a week after lawmakers in a Republican-leaning rural New Mexico county initially refused to certify their primary election results.

Esmeralda County Commission Chairman De Winsor and Vice-Chairman Timothy Hipp responded to complaints about the voting process with a promise to recount the votes themselves before an end-of-day Friday deadline set in state election law.

The grassroots effort starts right here, Winsor said midway through a contentious 90-minute meeting at which the three-member commission in the Republican-leaning county met to sign off on the results of the vote. This is where we proved we do it right.

Hipp was out of town and participated in the meeting by teleconference. He said he could be back in the county seat, Goldfield, by 2 p.m. Friday to begin counting ballots. Audio of the meeting was streamed on the internet.

County District Attorney Robert Glennen III advised Winsor and Hipp that they could suspend the meeting to reconvene Friday at 2 p.m. He said they have until 11:59 p.m. under state election law to finish.

The third commissioner, Ralph Keyes, said he was already willing to accept the count of the vote conducted by county officials  including a hand-count on Wednesday by county employees of the 177 paper ballots and paper records of 140 ballots that county Clerk-Treasurer LaCinda Elgan said were cast by machine.

In a telephone interview, Elgan noted that a deputy clerk, Michelle Garcia, administered the primary because Elgan was on the Republican ballot for reelection. She drew 57.5% of the vote.

Elgan called the primary in Esmeralda absolutely safe and fair.

One vote cast on one ballot was unintelligible, she said, but all ballots were tallied and reported. None was rejected.

It did not appear the number of votes in question could affect results of primary contests that chose candidates for federal and state offices including U.S. Senate, Congress, governor, state attorney general and the top elections official in Nevada, the secretary of state.

State attorney generals office spokesman John Sadler confirmed that Nevada law sets 11:59 p.m. Friday as the deadline to certify results of the June 14 primary, and said any hand-count of ballots before then would be considered part of the county canvass process. Sadler said that to his knowledge, no Nevada county had ever refused to certify results.

State law makes county lawmakers roles ministerial only, Attorney General Aaron Ford said in a Wednesday statement responding to questions from AP. If county commissioners or elections officials refused based on posturing designed to undermine faith in our democratic process, the statement said, the state will proceed with legal options.

Facing the Friday deadline, eight rural Nevada counties have certified the primary vote, including Lyon County on Thursday afternoon. Canvassing is scheduled Friday in Esmeralda and eight others including Clark, covering the Las Vegas area; Washoe covering the Reno area; and Nye, a Republican-leaning county including Pahrump and Tonopah.

The results from Nevada's 17 counties go to the secretary of state, who cannot reject or otherwise not accept the results, said Jennifer Russell, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican.

If a Nevada county refuses to certify, we would work with the (state attorney generals) office to determine a path forward, Russell said.

The standoff in Nevada bore echoes of concerns raised in rural New Mexicos Republican-leaning Otero County, where commissioners stalled before splitting their vote and approving election results. Officials there cited unspecified concerns with Dominion voting systems, a target of widespread conspiracy theories since the 2020 presidential election.

New Mexico's Democratic secretary of state appealed to that states Supreme Court to intervene before two commissioners relented  complaining that they felt they were little more than rubber-stamps.

The three commissioners in Esmeralda voted in April to join commissioners in neighboring Nye County calling for elections to be conducted using paper ballots  and without Dominion machines. Elgan and the elected county clerk in Nye County, Sam Merlino, both said they did not believe it was feasible to stop using electronic voting machines this year.

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In email and in-person comments protesting the Esmeralda County primary vote, resident Mary Jane Zakas made no reference to New Mexico.

But she alleged that hot dog tongs could have breached ballot boxes that she said didnt meet security standards; that partisan workers drove ballots from a remote polling place to Goldfield; and that a Dominion representative provided assistance to an election worker. Zakas said that showed the poll worker wasn't properly trained.

Elgan and Garcia responded that the worker was trained, but the Dominion representative was there to help. The county clerk said no computer malfunctioned.

Zakas also alleged in her email that the vote could have been flipped or tampered with during the five minutes she said a poll worker carried a thumb drive from a vote tally computer out of a room.

In audio streamed from the meeting, Elgan and Garcia responded that a printer was in the other room. Elgan said a printer will be installed in the counting room for the general election.

Weve got a problem. People dont trust the system, Zakas told the commissioners. Weve got a situation where a lot of people are really concerned about the safety of their votes.

Esmeralda County, a former mining boom area, is about halfway between Las Vegas and Reno. It is home to fewer than 1,000 residents. Nearly 54% of the county's 621 active registered voters are Republicans, according to the Nevada Secretary of State, and more than 25% are non-partisan.

President Donald Trump won 82% of the vote in Esmeralda County in 2020.

___

This story has been updated to correct that no computer malfunctioned. This story also was updated to correct that the last name of the county district attorney. He is Robert Glennen III, not Glennon.

____

Associated Press writer Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada, and Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed to this report.
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP)  Police in San Francisco were searching Thursday for a man who shot and killed one person and wounded another inside a subway train and then fled when the train stopped in the Castro District, the citys historically LGBTQ neighborhood.

San Francisco police late Wednesday released a still photo from surveillance video of a man they described as a person of interest and asked anyone with information to contact authorities.

The man, who hasn't been identified, is thought to be the person who shot a 27-year-old man to death and wounded a 70-year-old man as the train departed the Forest Hill station, police said.

The San Francisco Medical Examiner on Thursday identified the victim who died as Nesta Bowen. The office said it did not know where Bowen lived.

The person wounded by gunfire was a bystander who was taken to a hospital with an injured knee, said San Francisco Supervisor Myrna Melgar, whose district includes the Forest Hill neighborhood.

She said witnesses reported three or four shots and a heated verbal argument between the suspect and Bowen. She said the suspect ran out with other passengers when the train stopped.

Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who represents the Castro District, said the victim and suspect appeared to know each other.

Its cold comfort, but it does not appear that this was random, he said. It was not someone who, you know, got on the train and just started shooting, which would have been even more horrible. This was horrible enough.

While authorities said the shooting was not connected to upcoming Pride events, the death cast a glum start to the celebrations at a time when members of the LGBTQ community are experiencing heightened threats, including protests at libraries where drag queens read to children. The station where the suspect ran out is at the heart of San Franciscos famous Castro neighborhood, which is internationally known for its LGBTQ activism.

There have been horrible incidents around the country and even in the Bay Area. So people are nervous, and Im sure this doesnt help. People should be alert, said Mandelman.

The shooting is believed to have been the first ever on a train with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency  also known as Muni. The agency operates most public transit in the city, including trains, buses, streetcars and San Franciscos iconic cable cars.

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The incident that took place this morning is unnerving and yet another reason why we need to do more to prevent gun violence, Melgar said in a statement. There are too many guns out in our society, escalating a verbal argument into a senseless death of a young life.

Erica Kato, a spokesperson for the transit agency, said she did not know how many passengers were on board but noted that overall ridership is about half of what it was before the pandemic. She said ridership to San Franciscos downtown core is even less.

The shooting comes just four days before San Franciscos Pride parade, which typically draws thousands of people from around the world.

Still, sidewalk traffic was light Wednesday morning.

Never heard of anything like this over here, said Deeno Nasher, manager of the Castro Smoke House. Its kind of concerning for this neighborhood because Pride is this weekend and they try to be safe and secure as possible, and for something like this to happen, kind of puts them on edge.

San Francisco police spokeswoman Officer Kathryn Winters said all Muni trains and subway stations have cameras, and police were reviewing the footage.
PARIS (AP)  Several suspects around France have been detained or given preliminary charges in recent days for allegedly pricking people with a needle in nightclubs or at concerts, following a surge in needle attacks that have confounded authorities and seeded panic among young club-goers.

The French Interior Ministry, prosecutors, the national anti-drug agency, public health authorities and doctors have not determined a motive for the attacks, or whether the victims were injected with drugs, viruses or any substance at all.

Since January, 1,004 people have filed formal complaints with French authorities about such needle pricks, an Interior Ministry official told The Associated Press.

In the cases so far that resulted in charges, medical tests did not reveal any signs of harmful substances, including so-called date rape drug GHB, authorities said. The suspects have denied all allegations.

The targeted individuals, who are mostly women, show visible marks of injection, often bruises, and report symptoms like feeling groggy. The ministry official urged caution in assuming a link between the needle pricks and GHB.

After months of fruitless investigations, authorities in the Mediterranean city of Toulon arrested a 20-year-old man suspected of pricking three women with a needle on the night of June 3-4, during the recording of a concert for TV. He was the first suspect given preliminary charges, for aggravated violence with a weapon (a syringe) with premeditation."

A teenage girl and a woman reported that a man tried to attack them with a syringe and was violent toward them as they waited in line for the event.

The third victim, a female security agent, encountered the same man at the concert. She then fainted, and an injection mark was spotted on her hand, and she was hospitalized. The Toulon prosecutor is awaiting the results of her blood tests.

The prosecutor, Samuel Finielz, told The Associated Press that the suspect denies all allegations and is still presumed innocent. No syringe was found in his apartment. He remains in custody.

Later in the same region, in the beach town of Six-Four-Les-Plages, police arrested two suspects who received preliminary charges for the suspected administration of a harmful substance on the night of June 10-11, the prosecutor said on regional broadcaster France-3.

A 25-year-old woman reported being pricked with a needle and passing out in a club that night. The woman told police she felt dizzy after she was stuck and the week after but then recovered.

Syringes and injectable, prescription drugs were found in the apartment of one suspect. The man denied all allegations, arguing that the syringes and drugs belonged to his wife, who is a nurse, according to the prosecutor.

Fear of needle attacks have grown among young people in France, who are sharing advice about avoiding getting pricked  as well as unconfirmed rumors  on social media. The anxiety intensified this week around Tuesday's World Music Day as crowds gathered for concerts.

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Another eight people were arrested on World Music Day after individuals reported being pricked with needles, according to the Interior Ministry. Some were later released. At least one, in Nancy in eastern France, has been given preliminary charges on accusations that he pricked at least two people.

The suspect denied wrongdoing, and said he was heavily drunk and didn't recall the events, according to Nancy Prosecutor Francois Perain. The suspect, a homeless man identified as Damien J., had syringes in his belongings, Perain said in a statement.

He was detained after two people said that they were pricked at a Music Day event. Two additional potential victims were identified and investigations are ongoing, the prosecutor said. The suspect told investigators the syringes were for his personal drug use, Perain said.

One victim went to the emergency room, and showed "a medical certificate reporting an injection mark, the prosecutor said. Urgent toxicology analyses were conducted on two victims, but for now nothing tells us that something was injected, Perain stressed.

The suspect told investigators that he didnt see himself committing such acts and would be ashamed if he did," according to the prosecutor. Born in 1987, Damien J. had prior run-ins with police for driving under the influence of drugs without a license, and threatening people of public authority.

Police, doctors and medico-legal services are working together to support victims. The Interior Ministry and national police are working to raise awareness among club-goers and club owners.

Britains government also has been studying a spate of needle spiking, while police in Belgium and the Netherlands have reported scattered cases, too.
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ALBANY  Gov. Kathy Hochul expects to call an extraordinary session of the state Legislature to tweak the state's gun laws in light of Thursday's landmark decision from the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled New York has been overly restrictive in denying concealed-carry permits by requiring gun owners to demonstrate "proper cause" beyond self-protection.

"This decision isn't just reckless, it's reprehensible," Hochul said during a bill signing in Manhattan. "It's not what New Yorkers want and we should have the right of determination in terms of what we want to do."

The nation's high court ruled 6-3 that the state's current concealed-carry rules violated the Second and 14th amendments. The case was brought by two Rensselaer County residents.

"We do not need people entering our subways, our restaurants, our movie theaters with concealed weapons," Hochul said. "We do not need more guns on our streets. We're already dealing with a major gun violence crisis."

Leadership in the state Assembly and Senate, all of whom are Democrats, agreed with Hochul that a return of the Legislature is warranted even though it recessed for the year just weeks ago.

"The Supreme Court today decided that guns are more important than lives in this country," Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said in a statement. "Today's decision reinforces the fact that states must step up to protect our citizens' best interests and lead the way on necessary reform."

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said the decision from the court could have "broad and dangerous consequences" on the safety of New Yorkers without further action from the state.

"We will continue our work with the Senate and the governor to ensure New York has the strongest gun laws possible, but we cannot do it alone," he said.

Not all state legislators see a need for an extraordinary session.

Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt called the decision a "victory for the constitutional rights of all law-abiding gun owners in New York."

"Sadly, Albany politicians have already created a false narrative that the federal ruling will lead to more violence in our communities," Ortt said in a statement.

The response by the state should focus on the "criminal behind the gun," Ortt said, which "remains the problem in New York."

The issue of crime and public safety has been one of the leading, if not the top, polling issues ahead of Tuesday's gubernatorial and Assembly primary elections. Leaders in both parties have said their respective strategies are the only path forward to a safer state.

GOP state chairman Nick Langworthy, who is running for the 23rd congressional district against the far-right Carl Paladino, characterized the ruling as "for the people over the politicians."

"It's disgusting  yet highly predictable  that Kathy Hochul and the Democrats are trying to gin up fear and division over a legal gun owner's right to protect themselves and their family," Langworthy said in a statement.

Thursday's ruling struck down the state's existing practices for judging legal gun owners' requests for concealed-carry permits, meaning more legal owners will now be allowed to seek a permit to carry in public settings, the Legislature in its extraordinary session is expected to look at two areas.

First, the state may consider specifying the standards to be used when considering a concealed-carry pistol permit request and, second, specifying locations viewed as a particular public safety concern where people should not be allowed to carry.

The state remains under a gun violence state of emergency that began almost a year ago. It has also been more than one year since state lawmakers deemed gun violence a public health crisis while committing hundreds of millions of dollars toward community-based efforts.

Part of the state's approach to remedying gun violence is to address the "iron pipeline," which are illegal and ghost guns that enter the state's major cities where gun violence has risen since the pandemic began. Such guns are often used in violent crimes in those cities. Thursday afternoon, the governor convened leaders of the state's most populous cities including Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan to discuss fallout from the ruling.

State officials also are concerned with guns involved in mass shootings like semi-automatic rifles. Hochul signed legislation requiring New Yorkers to obtain a permit not only for pistols but also for those rifles after the massacre in May in Buffalo that took 10 lives.

Access to firearms, despite the ruling, will still require a battery of checks before purchasing the weapon like a background check that involves a mental health evaluation and a review of the person's criminal record. The decision, though, will likely lead to increased numbers of people who may carry concealed.

"Lets be clear: The Supreme Court got this decision wrong, choosing to put our communities in even greater danger with gun violence on the rise across the country," said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, in a statement. Hochul has said she is working with Everytown to develop legislation to respond to the ruling.

Lawmakers are likely to return to Albany sometime between the upcoming primaries Tuesday and those Aug. 23, which are for Congress and state Senate.

The court's decision is unlikely to be the last to rock the state's politics: A ruling that could upend abortion rights around the nation as determined by the Roe v. Wade decision could land as soon as Friday morning  the last day scheduled for the Supreme Court to issue decisions before its current term ends.
ALBANY  Gov. Kathy Hochul said late Friday she is convening an "extraordinary session" of the state legislature on Thursday to pass new gun safety legislation following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision on concealed firearm carry permits.

State officials said Friday they were eager to swiftly respond to the court's decisions; Hochul earlier in the day saying her desire was to do it "as soon as possible."

The focus will be on Thursday's ruling that overturned New York's gun laws, which the high court determined to be overly broad over who can be issued a concealed carry permit. The measures are likely to address the requirements needed to legally purchase a firearm and where a person can carry a weapon with a permit, according to Hochul.

Progressive lawmakers and advocates are also pressing Democratic leadership to pass additional measures to protect the right to abortion, following the court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The top two priorities for the advocates are the "Equality Amendment," to protect the rights to an abortion, same-sex and interracial marriage, and the "reproductive freedom and equity program," to increase access to abortion.

"I'm confident we're going to take some further actions given this horrific, devastating decision," Assemblywoman Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, D-Queens, said in an interview Friday. She is the sponsor of the reproductive and freedom equity fund. "It was anticipated, but it feels incredibly real in this moment and incredibly terrifying, to be honest."

Assemblywoman Rebecca Seawright, D-Manhattan, tweeted Friday evening that she is "calling for the Equality Amendment" to be a part of the upcoming session. The public call from Seawright, the sponsor of the legislation, is a major shift and could signal a much greater likelihood in seeing it through this month.

Final work on proposed legislation is expected to be smoothed out with legal staff and advocates before next week's session. All the while abortions remain legal in New York and access to an unrestricted concealed carry permit still needs to go through the typical permitting process via police and the local court system.

Lawmakers can remain in Albany, following the official extraordinary session and work on other issues, like those related to abortion rights.

Gun legislation

The Supreme Court case stated New York's "proper cause" gun law in determining who can have an unrestricted concealed carry permit was an infringement on Second and Fourteenth Amendment rights because, in part, their historical right to self defense.

New York's ability to continue to require background checks, such as for criminal record or certain mental disability or illness, remains. A person still needs to go through screening from their local law enforcement and court to be issued the permit. In fact, Hochul reminded New Yorkers that the decision "does not automatically give current residential permit owners the ability to carry guns outside the home. Gun owners are required by law to follow current restrictions."

The state now cannot decline someone a concealed carry unrestricted permit for the sole purpose that they are unable to show "proper cause" of needing it.

Democratic lawmakers and advocacy groups are concerned it could lead to a substantial spike in the number of people being granted a permit, leading to an increase in gun violence. They also fear it could lead to more crowded spaces being subject to potential gun violence. New York remains under a state of emergency because of gun violence, much of which is attributed to the proliferation of illegal or ghost guns.

Hochul said Friday she would like to see the state pass specific gun-free zones  schools, places of worship and events over a certain size, and that private places be gun-free unless they note otherwise. She'd like to see further requirements for the storage of a firearm, like in a vehicle, as well as additional permitting requirements, such as increased training prior to being eligible for a permit.

"We have our answer," Hochul said. "The next step is to look at the legislators."

Abortion legislation

While action in response to the gun decision is all but certain in coming days, a response to the overturning of the nation's abortion laws appeared less likely Friday afternoon, elected officials say.

Although there is substantial interest behind the main reforms advocates are pushing, they face potential legal challenges, especially regarding religious rights. Nonetheless, advocacy groups pressed state leadership Friday on seeing through proposals they say would provide meaningful changes in what programs are funded and the structure of the law.

The "reproductive freedom and equity program," backed by state Attorney General Letitia James, would earmark $50 million annually toward increased access to abortion.

It differs from Hochul's one-year, $35 million initiative by providing not only money for places like Planned Parenthood to increase staff and to pay for security, but also by providing financial assistance to nonprofits that assist people who are uninsured or underinsured pay for the services and for those who live in "abortion deserts" and need help getting to a center.

"A right without access is not a right at all," said Gonzalez-Rojas, the former longtime executive director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health. She said she reached out to Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie's office Friday to urge the passage of the legislation when lawmakers return to Albany this summer.

Support behind passing the "Equality Amendment" this summer is also building after the fall of Roe.

The legislation stalled because of concerns over how it could be legally challenged on whether it subverts religious rights. The amendment would seek to prohibit discrimination based on someone's race, ethnicity, national origin, disability and sex, which would also include pregnancy outcomes, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. It intends to move the defense of abortion away from a privacy standard and to an equal rights standard.

Seawright's public support for the amendment to come to a floor vote may be an indication that the religious issues have been assuaged.

If lawmakers want it on the ballot before voters by 2024, a presidential election year, they would need to pass it by Aug. 10 of this year. If not, it may not make it to voters until 2025 or 2026.
Elected officials in a rural Nevada county have decided to postpone until Friday certifying results of the 317 ballots cast in their jurisdiction during the states June 14 primary election
In this post we check local police reports, court cases and word of today's latest drug war round-up.



Check TKC news gathering . . .

Former St. Thomas Aquinas choir director charged with 30 sex crimes posts bond KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The former high school choir director at St. Thomas Aquinas High School accused of 30 child sex crimes posted bond Tuesday and is out of jail. Heidesch had spent more than 250 days in jail since being charged with sex crimes involving children.

16 KC area residents indicted for drug trafficking conspiracy copyShortcut} to copy Link copied! Sixteen residents of Kansas City, Mo., Kansas City, Kansas, and Independence, Mo., have been indicted by a federal grand jury for their roles in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine, methamphetamine, and fentanyl.The members of the group were charged in a 19-count indictment returned under seal by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Mo., on Tuesday, June 21.

Blue Springs terror suspect ordered to drug treatment center KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A 19-year-old Blue Springs man charged with making a terror threat appeared in court Thursday. Treshawn Hardridge is accused of threatening a mass shooting and posting his plans on social media earlier this month. Someone saw the Snapchat video and notified Blue Springs police.

KCMO man sentenced for robbing Taco Bell, family at gunpoint in 2 robberies KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A Kansas City, Missouri, man will spend over 12 years in prison for his role in two separate robberies that took place in 2019 and 2020. Chase M. Murphy previously pleaded guilty to two counts of robbery and one count of using a firearm during a crime of violence.

Pedestrian suffers critical injuries in early morning hit and run A female pedestrian who was standing in the traffic lanes of Independence Avenue around 2:30 Thursday morning near the intersection ...

Kansas City man sentenced for shooting woman riding ATV KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A judge sentenced a Kansas City man to 20 years in prison for a deadly shooting in July 2020. Glenn Rucker, 39, shot and killed Sharon Heifner-Douglas near East Red Bridge Road and Bennington Avenue. Heifner-Douglas was riding an ATV at the time.

Ex-JoCo police chief took Black employee's personal records home, intimidated him: lawsuit A federal civil lawsuit filed by a former Spring Hill city worker accuses officials of maintaining a racially hostile work environment, including allegations that former Police Chief Richard Mann illegally took the employee's personnel records home and once berated him for listening to rap music.

FBI urges public to be on guard against cyberattacks KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The FBI is urging the public to be on alert against cybersecurity threats as attacks are on the rise. A supervisory special agent of the FBI cybercrimes task force told KSHB 41 common issues in the Kansas City area include SIM swapping where the criminal can gain access to a victim's cellphone SIM card and steal personal information.

McCoy Park Splash Pad in Independence closed after vandalism INDEPENDENCE, Mo. - Families in Independence enjoy taking advantage of the splash pad at McCoy Park. However, Thursday, the sprayground was closed after city crews received reports it was vandalized. Latisha McCarver and her little ones love the McCoy Park and splash pad.

Clay County human trafficking task force works with nonprofit to find predators, help victims A new task force in Clay County is targeting human trafficking and child exploitation. The sheriff's office is working with a nonprofit to get predators in custody and get victims the help they need. In a building on Independence Avenue, the seeds of hope are planted.

Developing . . .
Here's what isn't getting out there in mainstream media . . .

Police Captain David Loar served as an EXCEPTIONAL 26-YEAR KCPD VETERAN who earned a great deal of respect from his colleagues and community.



During a crime wave you'd think that KCPD would want to protect some of their more experienced vets but politics has conspired to create yet another crisis and/or legal battle.

Something else to consider . . .

Sidelined during the busiest part of the year, the KCPD captain waited patently on leave for nearly two months before today's news.

Now . . .

We can't help but consider that he might have a legit complaint against KCPD given that politicos take ride-alongs all the time. In fact, Mayor Q did one two weeks ago.

To be fair . . .

All of this might be another example that ANYBODY who gets involved with Eric Greitens ends up miserable . . .



After our preview, here's the latest . . .



The Kansas City police captain who was involved in a ride along with former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens in April is no longer with the police department, according to a department spokeswoman.



David Loar had been on paid suspension during the ongoing investigation. His last day with the department was June 12. Loar is the son of Kansas City Councilwoman Teresa Loar and had previously been assigned to the North Patrol Division located in Platte County.



He had been with the police department since January 1996.



Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Officer at center of Greitens ride-along investigation no longer with KCPD KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A Kansas City police captain at the center of an investigation into a ride-along with U.S. Senate candidate Eric Greitens is no longer employed by the department. The Kansas City Police Department confirmed Capt. David Loar, son of Kansas City Councilwoman Teresa Loar, is not with the agency anymore.

KCPD officer under investigation after Eric Greitens ride along no longer with department The Kansas City police captain who was involved in a ride along with former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens in April is no longer with the police department, according to a department spokeswoman. David Loar had been on paid suspension during the ongoing investigation. His last day with the department was June 12.

David Loar, officer in Greitens ride-along probe, no longer with KCPD KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Kansas City, Missouri, police captain at the center of a criminal investigation into a ride-along provided to U.S. Senate candidate Eric Greitens is no longer with the department. A KCPD spokesperson confirmed Wednesday that Capt. David Loar is "no longer employed by the police department," effective June 12.

Developing . . .
Politicos offer a peek behind the curtain and suggest that election season posturing won't REALLY change life for locals.

i.e. - Sorry, that immigration sweep is just TV news chatter and almost nothing that we hear during campaign season is EVER going to happen in the real world.



Check-it . . .



Councilwoman Jan Faidley said she was saddened by the actions of the state legislature and the governors reasoning that local governments cannot fix immigration policies.



For the record, it was never our intent as a governing body to fix immigration law, but simply to make Roeland Park a safer and more equitable place to live, work and play, Faidley said. What is most disturbing for me with the passage of this bill is the lack of effort to learn about the communities that are impacted.



She said that no one should be scared that a family member could be deported if they call the police when they are a victim of or witness a crime.



Councilman Michael Poppa said the state law is indicative of politicians across the country trying to get a leg up in their political campaigns.



I just want the people that we represent here in Roeland Park, our residents, to know we still value you and you are still safe, and we are only doing this because we are being forced to amend this ordinance, Poppa said. I still believe in the original text of the public safety ordinance that was originally passed.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .
Sorry . . . But this is just silly and it reminds us that American conservatism has lost its way and that's why the GOP has such a hard time coping with their MAGA problem.

When a Missouri REPUBUBLICAN PROMOTES TAXES . . . There's clearly an ideological disconnect with the largely right-wing electorate.

Here's his side of the story . . .



"Missouri state Sen. Dave Schatz, is defending a hike in the state's gas tax as he campaigns for a U.S. Senate seat."

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com links . . .

Missouri state Sen. Dave Schatz defends hike in state's gas tax on campaign trail Hide Transcript Show Transcript MISSOURI'S FUEL TAX IS GOING UP AND THE MAN WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THAT INCREASE DEFENDED IN ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL. THE SECOND 2.5-CENT INCREASE IN MISSOURI'S FUEL TAX TAKES PLACE JULY 3. STATE SENATOR AND NOW U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE DAVE SHOT LEAD THIS MOVEMENT.

Missouri drivers about to pay more at the pump KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Missouri's gas tax is about to go up another 2.5 cents a gallon after state lawmakers passed the increase in 2021. "It addressed what I think is the best of both worlds," Missouri State Senate President Pro Tem Dave Schatz said Wednesday, defending the increase.

Missouri gas tax rebate opens as gas tax increases Missouri drivers can start submitting refunds to receive the money they spent on a state gas tax just as the tax increases July 1. ST. LOUIS - Despite having some of the lowest gas taxes in the nation, Missouri drivers are still feeling the pinch when they fill up their tanks.

Developing . . .
Today is history.

It's over.



More than anything, we're interested to hear other opinions because this issue doesn't really impact TKC directly.

We really doubt there's any lady of child-bearing age that reads this sausage-fest blog . . . But if you're out there . . . Seriously, you have top priority right now.

To start the discussion in a way that's more productive than our stupid lead image . . . We've sharing a few of the first items that we're reading on the topic . . .

Check TKC news gathering . . .

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Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, ending 50 years of federal abortion rights The Supreme Court on Friday overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that established the constitutional right to abortion in the U.S. in 1973. The court's controversial but expected ruling gives individual states the power to set their own abortion laws without concern of running afoul of Roe, which for nearly half a century had permitted abortions during the first two trimesters of pregnancy.

Rev. Franklin Graham, other faith leaders react to 'significant' SCOTUS abortion ruling The Supreme Court of the United States has handed down a ruling on Friday, June 24, 2022, voting to overturn Roe v. Wade and Casey. The new ruling on Friday gives the states the power to set their own abortion laws. The Roe ruling had for nearly half a century permitted abortions in the first two trimesters of pregnancy.

US supreme court overturns abortion rights, upending Roe v Wade The supreme court has ruled there is no constitutional right to abortion in the United States, upending a precedent set nearly 50 years ago in the landmark Roe v Wade case -a rare reversal of long-settled law that will fracture the foundations of modern reproductive rights in America.

Missouri bans almost all abortions after Roe v. Wade is overturned. Here's what you need to know The U.S. Supreme Court dealt a fatal blow to Roe v. Wade, a decision that allows Missouri to implement a "trigger ban" outlawing almost all abortions. Here's what you need to know about the new state of reproductive rights in Missouri.

Supreme Court wipes away constitutional guarantee of abortion rights, overturning half century of precedent The Supreme Court on Friday overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that guaranteed a constitutional right to an abortion in a 6-3 vote, a momentous break from a half century of rulings on one of the nation's most controversial issues. About half the states have already indicated they would move to ban the procedure.

Roe is overturned. Here's what that means for abortion in Kansas The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday, in a decision overturning the nearly 50-year-old case of Roe v. Wade, ruled that it's up to each state to determine what, if any, restrictions to impose on abortion access. That ruling raises the stakes for an upcoming constitutional amendment vote in Kansas.

AG Schmitt ends abortion in Missouri following SCOTUS ruling JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt signed a proclamation Friday banning abortion following the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade at about 9 a.m. Missouri has a "trigger law," meaning abortion would be abolished with a proclamation from the governor or AG following Roe v. Wade overturning.

Where abortion stands in your state: A state-by-state breakdown of abortion laws The U.S. Supreme Court voted Friday to strike down Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that guaranteed the right to an abortion. In the 6-3 decision, along party lines, the court ruled that "the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion."

Assaults against abortion clinics, patients rose 128% in 2021: report Assaults directed at abortion clinic staff and patients increased 128% last year over 2020, according to a new report from the National Abortion Federation. Why it matters: Heated political rhetoric, the passage of more restrictive state abortion bans and increased media coverage all factored in the increase in violence, emboldening those "who want to harass and terrorize abortion providers," Melissa Fowler, NAF Chief Program Officer, told reporters.

Developing . . .


Design guru Sarah Richardsons guide to Whistler: Where to dine, shop and see the sights in the mountain town
In Revelstoke, B.C., I found the wildest, most rugged forest Ive ever seen  and the only one of its kind in the world
Whats new and next in Canadian travel, from an ambitious Parks Canada initiative to an expanding hiking route in the East.
Stay in Canadian style: Five new (and renewed) lodgings that take inspiration from their location
Where to appreciate Indigenous art in Alberta: Artist Jason Carter shares his picks for an inspired cross-province trip
Where to go next? Take inspiration from Canadas travel writers and some of their favourite places in the country
Lower Coxwell was named thanks to a parking lot. Now it cant be changed to an Indigenous name, says the city
Etobicoke teen swim star Summer McIntosh became the first Canadian to win two gold medals at a world swimming championship with a victory in the 400-metre individual medley (IM) relay event in Hungary on Saturday.
One way in or out. For how long?
Avoid gridlock before it happens: your weekly roundup of Ontario highway closures for new and ongoing construction in Toronto, including North York, Scarborough and Etobicoke.
Flash mob in Toronto to show support for Ukraine this weekend

The song 'Oh, the Red Viburnum in the Meadow' has become famous all over the world
Charanya Thiyanavadivel is a Product Marketing Manager at OSG and volunteer Group Leader (Scarborough) with Results Canada, a grassroots advocacy organization that mobilizes everyday people to end extreme poverty. - Charanya Thiyanavadivel photo
Galapagos trip cost estimator by Voyagers Travel Company on Biteable.

Voyagers Travel Company a specialist in South America travel, has launched a price estimator tool for Galapagos trips



(TRAVPR.COM) UNITED STATES - June 24th, 2022 -

BUDD LAKE, New Jersey and QUITO, Ecuador - Voyagers Travel Company a specialist in South America travel, has launched its price estimator tool for Galapagos trips: https://www.voyagers.travel/tripcostcalculator/galapagos. If you are sure you want to go to the Galapagos Islands, this tool will allow you to have a deeper insight about the options, tours, and programs. You can get an immediate estimate of the cost of your trip to Galapagos.



The calculator gives you an estimate quote for your Galapagos trip, using predetermined prices, you are able to compare and analyze the possible costs and options that you, as a Galapagos traveler, can customize and adapt before your trip. Based on the average of existing prices and selected preferences one is able to calculate an estimate of how much the trip will cost, so that later an expert travel planner at Voyagers Travel can aid you with the perfect itinerary and planning of your trip.



If you are planning to visit the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, the team at Voyagers Travel, have compiled all the necessary information for you to estimate your trip costs and have written the most complete travel planning resource on the enchanted isles: https://www.voyagers.travel/galapagos. If you are dreaming of traveling to the this unique corner of our planetthere are many options for different types of budgets for you to choose from.

With a simple and straightforward system, the price estimator will calculate the amount that the trip of your dreams will cost you. Basic information such as the amount of people you are planning to travel with, or whether you want to go on a land-based or cruise-based trip will be entered in the calculator for a more precise result.

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Select the type of trip you wish to have: Want to experience the Galapagos on board a Cruise or do you want to stay at a hotel and do a Land Based program? Select the number of people that are traveling Enter the trip length and your flight route Based on the program selected, choose the category you would like to travel in Make sure all fields are complete, click on calculate to get your estimate.

Now, with a few simple inputs, our price estimator will be able to tell you the following:

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Explore various Galapagos tour options

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Voyagers travel offers the largest inventory in the world for Galapagos travel:

Over 100 itineraries for Galapagos cruises - https://www.voyagers.travel/galapagos/cruises

Over 100 tour options to choose from - https://www.voyagers.travel/galapagos/tours

Voyagers Travel Company, are a fully bonded tour operator with administration and marketing offices in the United States, Europe and Ecuador. Our call centers and operations offices are located in the countries of destination. If you plan a visit to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands you will be able to speak with a travel advisor that is currently in Ecuador, the companys operations staff is local as well. From the beginning of your booking process your Voyagers experience is fluid, you get first hand information from a real destination expert, no second hand information here. This applies for all the destinations Voyagers operate in: South America: Ecuador, Galapagos Islands, Peru.

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In the coming weeks, Russian offensive operations are likely to stall, whether or not Russian forces capture the Sievierodonetsk-Lysychansk area.

The relevant statement was made by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) in the Russian offensive campaign assessment of June 23, 2022, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

According to the ISW, this will grant Ukrainian forces the opportunity to launch prudent counteroffensives.

The Kremlins ideological fixation on the capture of Sievierodonetsk, much like the earlier siege of Azovstal, will likely be to the ultimate detriment of Russian capabilities in future advances in Ukraine, the ISW experts noted.

Based on their estimates, the loss of Sievierodonetsk is a loss for Ukraine in the sense that any terrain captured by Russian forces is a loss, but the battle of Sievierodonetsk will not be a decisive Russian victory.

Russian troops have made substantial gains in the Sievierodonetsk-Lysychansk area in recent days. Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces have fundamentally accomplished their objective in the battle by slowing down and degrading Russian forces.

Ukrainian troops have succeeded for weeks in drawing substantial quantities of Russian personnel, weapons, and equipment into the area and have likely degraded Russian forces overall capabilities while preventing Russian forces from focusing on more advantageous axes of advance.

A reminder that, in the Sievierodonetsk direction, Russian troops seized such settlements as Loskutivka and Rai-Oleksandrivka. The enemy continues assault operations to gain control over Syrotyne and is preparing to force a crossing over the Siverskyi Donets.

mk
As a result of full-scale armed aggression by Russia, 338 children were killed and 610 were injured across Ukraine.

Thats according to the Office of the Prosecutor General, referring to juvenile prosecutors, Ukrinform reports.

"More than 948 children casualties have been recorded in Ukraine over the four months of full-scale armed aggression waged by Russia. According to the official information gathered by juvenile prosecutors, 338 children were killed and more than 610 were injured," the statement reads.

This data is not final, as work is underway to verify reports in locations where active hostilities are ongoing, as well as in the temporarily occupied and recently liberated territories.

According to the data received by juvenile prosecutors, the largest number of affected children was recorded in Donetsk region (335), Kharkiv region (177), Kyiv region (116), Chernihiv region (68), Luhansk region (55), Kherson region (52), Mykolaiv region (48), Zaporizhia region (31), Sumy region (17).

It is reported that on June 23, a boy, 13, suffered leg burns after the Russians dropped a phosphorus bomb on a settlement just outside Sumy.

Also yesterday, two children, aged 9 and 6, were injured as a result of shelling by Russian troops of the civilian infrastructure of Chuhuiv, Kharkiv region, where households were destroyed.

On June 23, a child was injured in an artillery shelling in Lysychansk, Luhansk region.

In addition, during the recording of criminal offenses, it became known about the death of five more and the wounding of five children due to shelling by the invaders of Volnovakha district of Donetsk region.

As a result of indiscriminate shelling of Mariupol by Russian military, nine children were killed and eight were injured.

A total of 2,061 educational facilities were damaged by Russian bombing and shelling. Of these, 213 were completely destroyed.

As Ukrinform reported, on June 23, Russian invaders launched a drone carrying explosives across the border into Sumy region and also fired at the region with Grad MLR systems and mortars. A child was injured in one of the strikes.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Center for Countering Disinformation at the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council have urged Ukrainians not to disseminate information about the movement of Ukrainian soldiers and military operations, including those in the Kherson region.

The CCD said this on Telegram, Ukrinform reports.

"The Center for Countering Disinformation and the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are appealing to the civilian population, journalists and public opinion leaders: believe in our army, but do not harm it with excessive attention. We are fighting an insidious and, unfortunately, large enemy. Therefore, before you write or say anything, please weigh every word so as not to cause harm and not to create an information ground for Russian propaganda," the statement reads.

It says that now it is unacceptable to disseminate any information about the advance of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and their location in the Kherson region.

"Do not add work to our defenders and defendresses. Today, only the top military leadership has complete information and can provide comments and forecasts," the statement said.
The Russian Federation is plotting to blow up residential houses in the city of Mazyr in order to involve Belarus in the war against Ukraine.

The relevant statement was made by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry on Telegram, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

According to the available data, Russia will attempt to engage Belarus in the military conflict with Ukraine through a number of provocations against infrastructure facilities and civilians.

For this purpose, sabotage groups have arrived in Mazyr under the guise of civilians. They include the staff workers of Russias Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) and the mercenaries of private military companies controlled by Prigozhin and Shoigu, the report states.

These groups are planning to commit a series of terrorist attacks in Belarus. Hence, Russia will repeat a scenario used to unleash a war in Chechnya.

At that time Russian security agencies organized explosions in several houses in the city of Ryazan, accusing some mythical Chechen militants. Therefore, Russias GRU is planning to launch a series of artillery and missile strikes on Mozyr Oil Refinery, civil infrastructure facilities and residential areas. During such attacks, they will additionally blow up residential houses, hospitals and schools, the intelligence noted.

According to the Ukrainian intelligence, the Kremlin curators believe such actions will create a casus belli for Lukashenko to get involved in the war.

As Belarusian officers are aware of this, they began to evacuate their families from Mazyr.

mk
Europe should review its energy strategy and draw a plan for the development of renewable energy and the rational use of energy in general. This is necessary to achieve full independence from Russian gas supplies.

This was stated in a comment to Guildhall by French Senator Guillaume Gontard, a member of the Defense Committee.

 Europe, whether for climatic, ecological, strategic, or geopolitical reasons, must review its energy policy and put in place a massive plan for the development of renewable energies and energy sobriety. This is a prerequisite for its energy sovereignty and independence from Russian gas, Gontard said.

We are very behind in the development of European sectors in terms of renewable energy. Just one example, solar, we have the capacity for 100% European photovoltaic production and yet we are 98% dependent on China. This is what needs to be reversed," said the lawmaker.

Sergei Lagodinsky, member of the European Parliament (Germany), stated in a commentary to Guildhall that Europe must free itself from oppressive dependence on energy supplies from Russia in the short term, through diversification, as well as set long-term goals for moving away from fossil energy.

There are two key narratives about shifting away from energy dependence. The first is ecological, and the second is geostrategic, and they should be promoted in parallel lines. Even if we are talking about energy substitution, we must think long-term. In the short term, its diversification; we must free ourselves from oppression, from one-sided dependence. And on the other hand, we must prepare the grounds to move away from dependence on fossil energy in general, said the German MEP.

Both problems must be addressed. The short-term task to be solved first is to get rid of the complete, one-sided, too oppressive energy dependence on Russia, and here it will not do without a certain rollback. Its about both coal and nuclear energy (...). And in the long term, you need to look at the effectiveness of the green result, Sergei Lagodinsky summed up.

Earlier, the politician also said that the German government should consider shutting down the Russian Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline.

In turn, German Bundestags Deputy with the Free Democratic Party (FDP), Ulrich Lechte, said that Germany and the European Union as a whole should replace the volumes of energy resources received from Russia in order to further abandon Russian energy as such. According to the lawmaker, it is also necessary to diversify energy sources, enhance cooperation within the EU in this area, and develop alternative energy.

In the Italian Senate, Identity and Action MP Marinella Pacifico also called for achieving energy independence from Russia. According to the legislator, in order to reduce Italy's energy dependency on Russia, it is necessary to develop joint energy infrastructure with the countries of North Africa, which can become alternative energy suppliers, and Europe.
Ukraine and Moldova are planning to resume railway services, namely freight railway operations, as soon as this autumn.

The relevant statement was made by Moldovas Ministry of Infrastructure and Regional Development, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

The freight railway route in the Berezyno (Ukraine)-Basarabeasca (Moldova) railway section will be opened this autumn in accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding between the Moldovan Infrastructure and Regional Development Ministry and the Ukrainian Infrastructure Ministry, the report states.

In addition, Moldova will build 1.2 kilometers of railroad tracks, and Ukraine  about 23 kilometers. With the resumption of railway services, Moldova is planning to export and import goods via Ukraines Izmail Port on the Danube. Meanwhile, Ukraine would be able to export goods to Moldova and the EU.

mk
The Heads of States and Governments of EU countries, who started a high-level meeting in Brussels on June 23, 2022, recognized Russia as a country attempting to weaponize food in its war against Ukraine and solely responsible for the global food security crisis.

The relevant statement was made in the EU summit resolution published on the website of the European Council, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

Russia, by weaponising food in its war against Ukraine, is solely responsible for the global food security crisis it has provoked. The European Council urges Russia to immediately stop targeting agricultural facilities and removing cereals, and to unblock the Black Sea, in particular the port of Odesa, so as to allow the export of grain and commercial shipping operations, the document reads.

The European Council expressed support for the efforts of the United Nations Secretary-General in this regard. EU leaders stressed that sanctions against Russia allow the free flow of agricultural and food products and the delivery of humanitarian assistance.

In addition, the European Council expressed support for the efforts on the Solidarity Lanes to facilitate food exports from Ukraine via different land routes and EU ports.

EU leaders called on the Commission and the Member States, building in particular on the FARM initiative as well as UN and G7 initiatives, to step up their efforts, namely to support developing countries to reorient their supply chains; to develop sustainable food production, strengthen agricultural productivity and agri-business capacity on the African continent; to work on initiatives together with international partners to support the development of manufacturing capacity of inputs in developing countries, in particular sustainable fertilizers.

A reminder that over 20 million tonnes of grain has been blocked at Ukrainian sea ports due to the Russian armed aggression.

mk
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez have discussed the possible outcome of the upcoming NATO summit in Madrid and food security.

The head of state said this on Twitter, Ukrinform reports.

"Talked to the Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sanchez. Thanked for the endorsement of the European Commissions decision on candidate status for Ukraine. Discussed possible outcomes of the NATO summit in Madrid. Food security was also on the agenda," Zelensky said.

Earlier reports said that President Volodymyr Zelensky would address the NATO summit in Madrid on June 29-30 via video link.
The possible deployment of a NATO contingent to Ukraine may be peaceful and not at all mean the beginning of the Third World War.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, said this in an interview with Polska Times, Ukrinform reports.

"Yet such an intervention [the deployment of NATO troops to Ukraine] can be peaceful. I proposed this during my visit to Kyiv [on March 15] because I saw the need to create a strategic alternative to Russian troops. Ukraine still controls most of its territory, and NATO units can enter there at the invitation of the Ukrainian authorities," Kaczynski said.

He noted that in March, he voiced his proposal at a time when Russian troops wanted to capture Kyiv, from where they were driven out.

Kaczynski said that now even the former NATO supreme allied commander in Europe, General Wesley Clark, is talking about a possible NATO military intervention in Ukraine.

"I think that, perhaps, this is not a decision with no alternatives. However, of course, it deserves serious consideration, and it should not end with the Third World War at all," Kaczynski said.

In the interview, he said that it seemed the armed conflict that had lasted in Donbas since 2014 would weaken Ukraine for many years.

"Meanwhile, it turned out that it strengthened it," Kaczynski stressed.

He again criticized Hungary for its position on Ukraine. He expressed regret that Budapest's position on Ukraine and Russia had not changed since the parliamentary elections. He noted that Hungary supported the sixth package of sanctions against Russia, and therefore is not a "real ally of Moscow."

"However, the fact is that we now live in a world where we need to be resolute and unequivocal, not neutral. Neutrality is not enough today," Kaczynski said.

For the first time, Kaczynski announced his idea to send a NATO peacekeeping contingent to Ukraine on March 15 as part of a joint visit to Kyiv by the prime ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. This was the first visit by international guests of such a high level to Kyiv since the beginning of Russia's all-out armed aggression against Ukraine on February 24.
Internally displaced children study in a school built by UNHCR at Al Raqa displacement site in Sana'a, Yemen.  UNHCR/UNHCR/YPN

Today, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres launched his Action Agenda on Internal Displacement. With over 59 million people currently internally displaced around the world  the highest number ever recorded  there has never been a more critical moment to address this global crisis.

As the Heads of five UN Agencies and Entities, we come together today to express our shared commitment to taking this Action Agenda forward. We recognize that it is only with strong cooperation, common purpose, and joined up efforts that we will be able to help internally displaced persons (IDPs) find an end to their displacement, better prevent future displacement crises from emerging, and ensure that those currently facing displacement receive effective protection and assistance.

Importantly, we recognize that while humanitarian action continues to serve a vital purpose, achieving real change on internal displacement will require greater collaboration with, and engagement from, actors across the UN system and beyond  most notably development, peace, and climate experts. The current internal displacement crisis will not be sustainably resolved through humanitarian assistance alone, but rather by working with national and local authorities to create the conditions for safe and lasting solutions.

In developing the Action Agenda, the Secretary-General asked our five organizations to serve as a Steering Group on Solutions to Internal Displacement. The Steering Group has been meeting regularly since the start of 2022, and we look forward to welcoming the newly appointed Special Adviser on Solutions to Internal Displacement Robert Piper as the groups Chair.

Looking to the future, the Steering Group will work with the Special Adviser to support implementation of the Action Agenda at all levels. This begins with each of our five organizations leading by example, both by stepping up our own engagement and by embodying the collaborative spirit called for in the Action Agenda. We will work closely with one another, and with other UN Agencies and Entities, to ensure complementarity and coherence in our efforts and will support UN Resident Coordinators as the UNs lead on solutions at country-level.

As noted above, we will also seek to strengthen our partnerships with national and local authorities on internal displacement, including to redouble efforts to help IDPs sustainably reintegrate into society  whether they choose to return to their areas of origin, settle locally, or move to another part of the country. Protection and respect for the rights of IDPs and local communities will remain at the heart of this work and will guide all our engagements.

We will also work closely with other NGOs, civil society, and displaced communities themselves, recognizing that for our efforts to succeed, they must be engaged as true partners in the search for solutions. Further, we will seek to bring in new partners, including the private sector and development finance actors.

As the Action Agenda says, there is a long road ahead of us, but together it is possible to achieve real change. Our five organizations stand ready to take this important work forward and will be sharing more information over the coming months on concrete steps to deliver on this Agenda.

Signed by:
June 24 2022

Aberdeen City Council and transport body Nestrans have opened a second consultation for public realm improvements to Ashgrove Road.

Ashgrove Connects will encourage active travel along the key route through the University of Aberdeen's Forresterhill campus through a range of infrastructure works such as traffic calming measures, rationalised crossings and more green space.

Councillor Miranda Radley said: Im looking forward to the consultation on these exciting designs which have been developed based on local feedback. There has been a fantastic response from the local community so far on the project and this next stage is an excellent opportunity to shape this project even further.

Public feedback is invited by 17 July to select a preferred design for the planned work which includes options to form a signalled junction to Westburn Drive with segregated cycle lanes.

An alternative proposal would see a roundabout built that prioritises walkers and cyclists over traffic - a relatively new concept for the UK.

Initial designs have been prepared by Atkins and will connect to the proposed Berryden Corridor work that is to be delivered in tandem.
BEIJING, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Jun, 2022 ) :Germany's business climate index declined in June amid the threat of natural gas shortages, according to a Munich-based research institute on Friday.

The index, which measures expectations of manufacturers, builders, wholesalers, and retailers for the next six months, fell to 92.3 points in June, according to the ifo Institute for Economic Research.

While the market expectation for the index was to come in at 92.9 in June, it stood at 93.0 points in May.

"Companies were somewhat less satisfied with their current business situation. Their expectations turned markedly more pessimistic.

The threat of gas shortages is of great concern to the German economy," ifo said in a statement.

Clemens Fuest, the president of the Institute, said German companies are more pessimistic about the second half of this year, adding that "the chemical industry is thoroughly alarmed." He added that the business climate index in trade took a nosedive, as businesses' expectations fell to the lowest level since April 2020.

Germany, Europe's largest economy, faces a natural gas shortage and called Russia's gas supply cuts as an "economic attack" on Tuesday, before initiating the "alarm" phase of its emergency natural gas plan on Thursday.
SHENZHEN, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Jun, 2022 ) :VOOPOO?a global leading electronic atomization brand, released a seven-day countdown on its official website on June 23rd. According to this, a new product launch themed "More than Infinite" will be held at 10:00 p.m.(GMT+8) on June 29. As the initial new VOOPOO product launch of this year, what will be delivered in the launch is conspicuous.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220623005539/en/ MORE THAN INFINITY NEW PRODUCT LAUNCH BY VOOPOO (Graphic: business Wire) What stories will be shared in this 8th Anniversary Show?The launch event is not only held for new products, but also for celebrating the 8th establishment anniversary of VOOPOO. Since its establishment, VOOPOO has gained a reputation of developing a variety of revolutionary products. While promoting the development of the industry, VOOPOO achieved leaps of market share year by year. By far, VOOPOO has become a TOP brand in the Open Pod System. VOOPOO has also won a number of Vapoouround 2022 awards recently, which are known as the Oscars of the atomization industry, and has been highly praised by the industry and users. There is no doubt that VOOPOO will reveal some behind-brand stories at this 8th anniversary.

Is there a strong association between the Infinity symbol and VOOPOO brand?The posters released on the official website and social platforms all used the infinity symbol as the main visual element of the launch.VOOPOO has lately launched a number of high-profile events around the world, whether the "Spark Your Life Infinite Challenge "on the Tik-Tok, or the pop-up events organized by graffiti artists in the United Kingdom and Indonesia, were all attached to the infinity symbol strongly. Now it is clear that those were organized to warming up the launch.

This launch themed as "More than infinity", emphasizing that the infinity symbol seems to become the cultural totem of the VOOPOO brand. As for which brand spirit the infinity symbol marks, it will only be revealed on the launch.

What revolutionary breakthroughs will the new products be making in this launch?Another highlight of the launch is the new products VOOPOO will debut this time. Judging from the relevant content disclosed on the official website, the overall KEY VISION style is very technologically avant-garde, and several products will be released at the same time. For VOOPOO, which was known for its product innovation, the new products of this time may make various breakthroughs in design and technology as well. The official revealed that the launch will be broadcasting live on its official YouTube channel at 10:00 p.m.?GMT+8? on June 29. At that time, global vape fans and industry observers will witness and participate in this feast served by VOOPOO.

About VOOPOOVOOPOO is a leading brand of open pod system and has rapidly risen through DRAG products, which have been widely acclaimed globally in a short period of time. VOOPOO focuses on building two core technology platforms (Chip) and (Atomization). VOOPOO has creatively developed GENE.AI, GENE.TT and other chips. In addition, VOOPOO independently developed three Atomization Platforms, which are TPP,PNP,ITO, aiming at differentiated users. VOOPOO has four major product series - ARGUS, DRAG, VINCI, and V-series(Doric). VOOPOO will continue to develop more national markets in the future, aiming to build one of the most influential global brands.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220623005539/en/ Contact Nical ZhangPR ManagerNical.zhang@voopootech.com
Kyiv, Ukraine, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Jun, 2022 ) :Ukraine's forces will have to retreat from Severodonetsk, a regional governor said Friday, after weeks of fierce fighting against Russian forces in the battleground eastern city.

"Ukrainian armed forces will have to retreat from Severodonetsk. They have received an order to do so," Sergiy Gaiday, governor of the Lugansk region which includes the city, said on Telegram.

"Remaining in positions that have been relentlessly shelled for months just doesn't make sense." The city has been "nearly turned to rubble" by continual bombardment, he said.

"All critical infrastructure has been destroyed. Ninety percent of the city is damaged, 80 percent (of) houses will have to be demolished," he said.

Capturing Severodonetsk in the Donbas area has been a key goal of the Russians as they seek to seize a swathe of eastern Ukraine.

Gaiday said that Russian forces had also pushed deeper towards a key transit artery in Donbas, capturing a nearby village and consolidating gains as Kyiv's troops were to withdraw from Severodonetsk.

"Mykolayivka is lost," Gaiday said in comments posted on Telegram, referring to a village with an estimated pre-war population of around 2,000 people, around 25 kilometres (16 miles) south of Severodonetsk's sister city Lysychansk.

It is just the latest in a series of creeping Russian gains south of the twin cities, as Moscow's army looks to encircle them.
PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Jun, 2022 ) :Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Mahmood Khan alongwith Minister for Health, Taimur Saleem Jhagra administered polio drops to children here Friday at Police Services Hospital to kick off June round of anti-polio drive in the province.

Secretary Health KP Amer Sultan Tareen, Additional Secretary Health (polio) & Coordinator EOC, Asif Raheem, Team Lead N Stop, Dr Hafeezullah Khan, Team Lead UNICEF, Dr Andrew, Technical Focal Person EOC, Dr Imtiaz Ali Shah, Team Lead WHO, Waheed Kamran and relevant officials of health department were also present on the occasion.

Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Mehmood Khan said "Polio eradication is on top agenda of the provincial government and any negligence in this regard will not be tolerated as it was a matter of our children and national pride." He appealed the parents to help the government in stamping out the crippling virus from the region and vaccinate children in every campaign when the teams visit their house.

Secretary Health Amer Sultan Tareen said that the recent polio cases from North Waziristan are tragic for the children and their families, but not a setback for global polio eradication efforts as other countries, including Nigeria  the last country to become polio-free  have seen wild polio surface after 30 months of zero cases.

These cases emerged after a long gap of 21 months in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, indicating all the hard work and efforts that went into keeping it polio free for such a long time.

He said that we are working tirelessly to contain the virus in the southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with emergency vaccination campaigns and ring-fencing around the southern districts, namely Bannu, Tank, DI Khan, Lakki Marwat and North and South Waziristan.

Tareen said"Great gains have been made in the fight against polio and every effort will be made by the government to sustain those gains by fixing the remaining gaps." Earlier, sharing details with media, Additional Secretary Health (Polio) and Coordinator EOC, Asif Raheem said"More than 2.58 million children will be vaccinated in 25 districts of the province in this campaign starting from June 27, 2022." "The campaign will be conducted in complete districts of Bannu, Lakki Marwat, North Waziristan, Tank, D. I. Khan, South Waziristan, Peshawar, Khyber while partial campaign will be carried out in Nowshera, Mardan, Charsadda, Mohmand, Buner, Swabi, Kurram Central, Lower and Upper, Mohmand, Bajor, Hangu, Haripur, mansehra, Malakand, Dir Lower, Dir Upper, Chitral Lower & Upper having Afghan Refugees Camps and bordering Union Councils with Afghanistan", he added.

He said"A total of 11473 teams have been constituted for the campaign out of which 10176 are mobile teams, 669 fixed teams, 558 transit teams and 70 roaming teams. "Likewise, he said"2815 Area In-charges will be deployed to ensure quality of the campaign."
The PM will attend the signing of the MoU signing between Indus Hospital and the Gwadar Development Authority

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will visit Gwadar on a one-day trip today (Friday) .

The PM will attend the signing of the memorandum of understanding between Indus Hospital and the Gwadar Development Authority for the development of a cutting-edge hospital, according to a tweet posted by the PM himself.

As per the plan, PM Shehbaz Sharif will receive a thorough briefing on the many development projects now underway in Gwadar, including the Gwadar International Airport and electricity and infrastructural initiatives.

He will preside over a meeting on the state of law and order and speak with nearby fisherman. Additionally, the prime minister will address the media.

It is important to note that this will be Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's second trip to Gwadar since taking office.

During his most recent visit to Gwadar earlier this month, Prime Minister Sharif voiced his displeasure with the poor progress being made on the city's development projects, particularly with those that would supply clean water and power.
A 15-member delegation of professors and academicians from six Turkish universities visited Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) today

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Jun, 2022 ) :A 15-member delegation of professors and academicians from six Turkish universities visited Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) today.

The delegation was warmly received by the Registrar AIOU, Raja Umar Younis and the Director, Department of International Collaboration and Exchange, Dr. Zahid Majeed.

A special session was organised with the delegation to discuss different academic opportunities and venues. Dean, Faculty of Sciences, Prof. Dr. Irshad Ahmad Arshad presided over the session.

All the Principal Officers of AIOU were also present. The registrar introduced the Principal Officers while Dr. Zahid Majeed gave a detailed briefing on the profile of AIOU and recent initiatives.

He briefed that AIOU is already collaborating with three Turkish universities and we are planning to ink MoUs with more universities.

Professors from Turkish universities discussed plans for collaboration with Allama Iqbal Open University.

Leading the delegation, Dr. Mehmet Bulut, Professor of Istanbul Sahabattin Zaim University, said that we must use our resources and capabilities together to improve the condition of Islamic civilization and culture so that the future of the Islamic world can be bright.

He added that four countries including Pakistan, Turkey, Indonesia and Nigeria have the potential to change the fate of the Islamic world.

Dr. Waqar Badshah, a professor at Ibn Khaldun University, said that Muslim society is going through a difficult period. Universities, especially the intelligentsia, should move forward to play a role in building a reforming society.

Dean Faculty of Sciences, Prof. Dr. Irshad Ahmed Arshad said that the Vice Chancellor, Allama Iqbal Open University, Prof. Dr. Zia Ul-Qayyum has laid special focus on enhancing the quality of education.

Collaborations and exchange programs with Turkish universities would further strengthen the academic ties between the two countries.

Dean, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Prof Dr Hassan Raza, Dean Faculty of Arabic, Prof. Dr. Mohiuddin Hashmi and Prof. Dr. Samina Awan also expressed their views.
(@FahadShabbir)

One of the last Afghan detainees held inside the Guantanamo Bay US detention centre in Cuba has been freed after 15 years following negotiations with Washington, authorities said on Friday

Kabul, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Jun, 2022 ) :One of the last Afghan detainees held inside the Guantanamo Bay US detention centre in Cuba has been freed after 15 years following negotiations with Washington, authorities said on Friday.

The secretive prison once housed hundreds of suspected militants captured by US forces during America's "war on terror", many held without charge or the legal power to challenge their detention.

US authorities faced accusations of torture and abuse against prisoners at the facility, with some allegedly held in cages and subjected to illegal interrogation techniques.

Most of the inmates have been released over the years, including senior Taliban leaders, but Asadullah Haroon had languished without charge.

"The charges against him were false and the release has proved that he was innocent, but who will return those years of his life?" said his brother Roman Khan from Peshawar in Pakistan, where the family live as refugees.

He said they were informed early Friday of Haroon's freedom.

"It's like Eid in our house, like a wedding. These are very emotional moments for us," Khan told AFP.

Haroon, believed to be aged around 40, is now in Qatar. He was arrested by US forces in 2006 while working as a honey trader travelling between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

- 'Torture' - In a phone call he had with his lawyers in October 2021, Haroon described his ordeal in the prison.

"I have been here illegally for the last 14 years. I have never been charged. I have never been convicted of a crime," he told them, according to a statement issued by his lawyers Friday.

"I am very weak now. I may be 38 years old, I am feeling around 60 years old.

I have suffered physically and mentally for years now." His release came after a hard battle, his lawyers said.

"Asadullah has suffered severe physical and psychological torture during his detention, including being beaten, hung by his wrists, deprived of food and water, and prevented from praying," their statement said.

"He has been subjected to sleep deprivation, extreme cold temperatures and solitary confinement." His family, who fled to Pakistan during the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, have admitted he was a Hezb-e-Islami member like many in their refugee camp, but said he had no links with Al-Qaeda.

His release came after "direct and positive" interaction between the Taliban and Washington, Afghanistan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement.

Now that he has been released the Taliban must ensure that Haroon "does not pose a threat" to the United States and its allies, a State Department spokesperson said.

Mujahid said Haroon was one of two Afghan detainees remaining in Guantanamo Bay.

Afghanistan's foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi said the government was "hopeful" that Rahim will also be freed soon.

US President Joe Biden's administration has been working to reduce the number of detainees and eventually shut down Guantanamo Bay, which lies on the island of Cuba but is under US jurisdiction.

The Pentagon in April said 37 detainees remained at the sprawling facility.

"The Guantanamo Bay military prison is ... a global symbol of American injustice, torture and abuse of power," the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement after Haroon's release.

jd-sjd/ssy
(@FahadShabbir)

Bulgaria's parliament on Friday approved lifting the country's veto on opening EU accession talks with North Macedonia, an issue high on the agenda of an EU summit wrapping up in Brussels

Sofia, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Jun, 2022 ) :Bulgaria's parliament on Friday approved lifting the country's veto on opening EU accession talks with North Macedonia, an issue high on the agenda of an EU summit wrapping up in Brussels.

The proposal, backed by 170 lawmakers in the 240-seat parliament, paves the way for the Bulgarian government to unblock the start of negotiations in exchange for EU guarantees that North Macedonia will meet Bulgaria's demands on long-running historical and linguistic disputes.

The decision says that North Macedonia must include Bulgarians in its constitution "on an equal footing with other peoples" and "effectively implement" a treaty of friendship, good neighbourliness and cooperation it signed with Bulgaria in 2017 that pushed for ending discrimination and hate speech.

"Bulgaria's parliament took a historic decision today giving a green light to the French proposal for the EU accession of North Macedonia. The integration of the Western Balkans is in the strategic interest of EU," Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov tweeted from Brussels where he is attending the EU summit with the Western Balkans.

"Now is the time for the government of North Macedonia to lead its nation. It depends on them right now to say that they want to be part of the EU and that they are ready to undertake the steps for this to become reality," he later told journalists.

Petkov has earlier said that his government could approve a lifting of the veto "as quickly as possible" after the parliamentary vote.
USM Welcomes Fulbright New Zealand Visiting Scholar

Fri, 06/24/2022 - 11:17am | By: Ivonne Kawas

This summer, The University of Southern Mississippis (USM) College of Arts and Sciences Dance program welcomes Fulbright New Zealand Scholar Dr. Karen Barbour from the University of Waikato, who will be pursuing research and making lasting connections as she engages with scholars, artists, and students on the Hattiesburg campus. Her visit begins this month and continues through October.

Dr. Barbour will collaborate with Professor Kelly Lester, who is serving as faculty associate, on research centering on somatic movement and embodiment as it relates to environmental change. Dr. Barbours research focuses on investigating how environmental change is understood by somatic dance practitioners and young people, how somatic dance aligns with environmentalist practices and concerns, and how action competence can be integrated with somatic dance pedagogy.

In the past, Dr. Barbour and Professor Lester have collaborated through a training at the Eastwest Somatics Institute of Dance, Yoga, and Movement Studies. In addition, Lesters courses and writings focus on the pedagogical approaches of teaching somatics and its application to diverse environments and disciplines.

Over ten years ago, I met Professor Lester in New Zealand when she visited and taught workshops in somatic dance. We maintained contact, and in 2019, I was accepted as a Fulbright New Zealand Scholar, said Dr. Barbour. I am grateful to the Fulbright program for providing the opportunity for me to research at USM, and Im looking forward to working with Professor Lester to engage community members and students, as they explore experiences of environmental change, particularly climate change, she added.

During her time as a Visiting Scholar, Dr. Barbour will also get the chance to collaborate with dance faculty, guest teach with Lesters somatic course in the fall, connect with other somatic movement educators and scholars in the US, and lead a seminar at USM on her research.

Through transdisciplinary, feminist ethnographic and creative practice research in somatic dance, we will offer workshops in the dance studio and community sites, interview other somatic dance educators and write to share our research findings, said Dr. Barbour.

To learn more about the USM Dance program visit usm.edu/dance.
Fort Myers, FL - The U.S. Marshals Service Mexico Foreign Field Office and the Florida Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force from Fort Myers partnered with state and local agencies to locate and recover two missing and endangered children in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, June 23. The children were reported missing June 20, having been abducted by their biological parents, charged with interference with custody, who then fled the United States. The family was eventually located in Linares, a small city in the state of Nuevo Leon. The outstanding cooperation between the Fort Myers Police Department and the United States Marshals Service culminated in the recovery of the minor children and the successful conclusion of this case, said United States Marshal for the Middle District of Florida William Berger. The children were taken for medical evaluation and will be traveling back to the United States in the coming days. The U.S. Marshals Service supports the National Center for Missing and Exploited Childrens mission to protect children from victimization by providing assistance to federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. In fiscal year 2021, the USMS received 1,640 requests from law enforcement for assistance in missing child cases. With assistance from the USMS, 950 missing children were recovered. The Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015 enhanced the U.S. Marshals Services discretionary authority to assist other law enforcement agencies with the recovery of missing, endangered or abducted children, regardless of whether a fugitive or sex offender was involved. The USMS have a Missing Child Unit to oversee and manage the implementation of its enhanced authority under the act. Upon request, the Marshals assist other law enforcement agencies with the recovery of critically missing children, who have gone missing under circumstances that indicate an elevated risk to the child. Since 2015 the agency has recovered more than 2,300 missing children. The USMS has recovered missing children in 56 percent of cases received. Of those recovered, 61 percent were recovered within seven days. The Florida/Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force is composed of eight federal and 101 state and local agencies dedicated to violent crime reduction by locating and apprehending wanted criminals. USMS-led task forces also serve as investigation hubs for missing and exploited juveniles throughout the country. Additional information about the U.S. Marshals Service can be found at http://www.usmarshals.gov. ####



Americas First Federal Law Enforcement Agency


Archbishop Andrew Fuanya Nkea of Bamenda reflects on the synodal process in Cameroon and encourages the participation of the faithful at all levels.

By Benedict Mayaki, SJ

Thousands of delegates from about 120 countries are gathered in Rome for the ongoing 10th World Meeting of Families taking place from 22 -26 June. The event, which highlights the beauty of marriage and family is themed Family Love: A vocation and a path to holiness.

Among the participants is Archbishop Andrew Nkea of Bamenda who came to Rome with several couples from Cameroon. The Archbishop, who is also the President of the Bishops' Conference of Cameroon and a member of the Synod Council, spoke to Vatican News about the role of the family in the synodal process.

Listen to our interview with Archbishop Andrew Nkea of Bamenda

WMOF and synodality

Synodality, according to the archbishop, is not a concept that is studied, rather it is a life that is lived, thus, even the action of coming to the WMOF event with families from his country is already synodality in practice.

Archbishop Nkea upholds the 5-day event also as an opportunity to show that the Church all over the world - including in Cameroon - is actively involved in the synodal process.

In fact, since Pope Francis launched the synod process, the Church in Cameroon has channeled its efforts to reflect the importance of families by beginning from the grassroots. From the family, the process continues to the small Christian communities, mission stations, parishes, deaneries and then the dioceses.

If we do not touch the grassroots, synodality remains a concept. But if we touch the grassroots, then synodality becomes a practical reality at all levels.

Every family is a domestic Church

The Archbishop of Bamenda says that every family must first recognize itself as a domestic church before it can be open to the process of synodality.

In this regard, every husband, wife and child must learn to participate at the level of the small Christian communities in order to enrich it, and by extension, enrich mission stations, parishes and the diocese.

As a domestic church, it is the Church that moves together - not a part of the Church that goes, he affirms, cautioning against non-participation on the part of some men.

A new direction

He goes on to note that the synodal process has come to give us a new sense of direction within the church under the leadership of Pope Francis and thus, everyone at all levels of the hierarchy  lay and clergy alike  is invited to be a part of it.
File photo of Pope Francis meeting with an Indigenous delegation from Canada (Vatican Media)

The Holy See Press Office releases the programme for Pope Francis Apostolic Journey to Canada, due to take place on 24-29 July.

By Vatican News staff reporter

With just over one month to go before the Pope is scheduled to depart for his Apostolic Journey to Canada, the Vatican Press Office on Thursday released details of the visit.

The Pope is set to depart Romes Fiumicino Airport on the morning of Sunday, 24 July, and receive an official welcome to Canada at Edmonton International Airport that same day.

His first public events start on Monday, 25 July, with a meeting with Indigenous Peoples: First Nations, Metis and Inuit in the city of Maskwacis, around 70 kilometers north of Edmonton.

He then returns to Edmonton to meet in the afternoon with Indigenous Peoples and members of the parish community of the Sacred Heart.

On Tuesday, 26 July, Pope Francis celebrates a public Mass at the Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, before traveling outside the city to Lac Ste. Anne, where he will participate in a pilgrimage and Liturgy of the Word.

West to East

The Pope wraps up his visit to western Canada on Wednesday, 27 July, departing for Quebec City.

He will receive an official welcome from the Governor General of Canada and meet with the Prime Minister. Afterwards, he meets with civil authorities, representatives of Indigenous Peoples and members of the diplomatic corps.

Thursday, 28 July, sees the Pope celebrate a public Mass at the National Shrine of Saint Anne de Beaupre. In the afternoon, he prays Vespers with bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated persons, seminaries, and pastoral workers at the Cathedral of Notre Dame.

Residential schools meeting

On Friday, 29 July, Pope Francis holds a private meeting with members of the Society of Jesus at the Archbishops Residence in Quebec, before meeting with a delegation of Indigenous Peoples at the same venue.

He then flies to Iqaluit, the capital city of the Canadian territory of Nunavut. The Pope meets there privately with students of the former residential schools at the primary school in Iqaluit.

His final public event is a meeting with young people and elders at the same school.

Pope Francis departs from Iqaluit Airport on Friday afternoon and is scheduled to land at Romes Fiumicino Airport on Saturday morning.
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Le Gabon attend son entree au sein du Commonwealth qui tient un sommet au Rwanda. Si le pays reste membre de la francophonie, cest une opportunite daffaires. Pour certains, cette adhesion ne constitue pas un gage de developpement car le Gabon avait tente en vain lexperience du bilinguisme.
U.N. aid agencies are rushing tons of relief items to aid thousands of people hit by a powerful earthquake Wednesday in the remote Afghan provinces of Khost and Paktika. More than 1,000 people reportedly have been killed and at least 1,600 others are injured.Aid agencies expect the number of reported deaths and injuries to rise as the search and rescue operation continues in southeastern Afghanistan. They note many people were sleeping in their mud houses when the 5.9-magnitude quake struck.Speaking from the capital, Kabul, UNICEF Representative to Afghanistan Mohamed Ayoya said at least 121 children were killed and 67 injured in the devastation that has destroyed or damaged thousands of homes.He said a team of health professionals was on the ground in the worst affected districts soon after the earthquake struck in the early hours of June 22. He said they are assessing the extensive damage and urgent needs.Already we know that children and families affected by the earthquake are in urgent need of shelter, clean water, medical care, and protection, Ayoya said. Children and adolescents are extremely vulnerable and at high risk of family separation, emotional and psychological distress, abuse and exploitation, and other forms of violence.Ayoya said UNICEF is providing emergency medicine and medical supplies, as well as kits to treat children with watery diarrhea and to help prevent the spread of cholera. He said people are at high risk for these illnesses due to damaged water systems and limited hygiene.The U.N. refugee agency has also delivered tons of relief supplies from its stockpiles in Kabul to affected areas. UNHCR spokeswoman Shabia Mantoo said the items, which include tents, blankets, jerry cans, kitchen supplies and other essential items, are enough to support some 4,200 survivors.UNHCR deployed staff who will help arrange shelters for people who have been left homeless by the devastation, Mantoo said. UNHCR teams are establishing three supply hubs in Giyan, Bermal, and Spera districts so that humanitarian support arriving from Kabul can be swiftly shifted to the communities affected by the earthquake.Mantoo said four decades of conflict and instability in Afghanistan have left millions of people on the brink of hunger and starvation. She said more support is urgently needed to avert a subsequent humanitarian disaster.The hardline Taliban rulers who seized control of the country in August, also are appealing for international support.
When the U.S. Supreme Court issues an opinion, that opinion becomes the law of the land.

That is the immediate effect of the high court's decision to overturn its 1973 abortion ruling known as Roe v. Wade: the right to have an abortion is no longer constitutionally protected in the United States.

But the controversy is likely to linger, and not only in the court of public opinion.

By leaving it to the states to decide whether to permit abortion, the high court ruling is expected to trigger a fresh wave of legal battles in state courts that could drag on for years.

"It creates a lot of uncertainty and potential delays from the standpoint of criminal laws," said Mary Ziegler, a professor of law at the University of California Davis and author of five books about the abortion debate.

The Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights research group, estimates that 26 states are certain or likely to ban abortion, including 13 states with so-called "trigger laws" that go into effect with Roe's repeal and nine with abortion bans on their books that predate Roe.

Just how soon the bans would be implemented remains uncertain. But abortion rights groups such as Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberates Union say they are determined to fight the restrictions and ensure abortion remains accessible to women seeking the procedure.

"The ACLU has been preparing for this moment for years and we're going to continue to carry out the multipronged, multifaceted approach to fight and press forward with the fight against [the] abortion ban and restrictions," said Meagan Burrows, a staff attorney with the ACLU's Reproductive Freedom Project.

Part of the ACLU's legal strategy would be to challenge abortion bans in state courts, Burrows said.

Clarke Forsythe, senior counsel with Americans United for Life, an anti-abortion group, said he expects legal challenges in two to three dozen states over the next couple of years.

"But I think at the end of the day, only perhaps a handful or less may create a state right to abortion," Forsythe said in an interview.

In recent decades, abortion rights groups have mostly turned to federal courts to block new state laws restricting the procedure. But with abortion rights no longer protected under the federal constitution, their focus would now shift to state courts.

"Obviously, the stakes will be higher because it won't be as a sort of supplement to federal protections," Ziegler said.

To be sure, legal challenges won't be feasible in every state, experts and advocates say.

In recent years, four Southern states  Alabama Louisiana, Tennessee and West Virginia  have changed their legal charters to proclaim that abortion is not a constitutional right.

Forsythe said votes in two other states  Iowa and Kansas  are likely to endorse similar constitutional amendments later this year.

That makes it virtually impossible to challenge these states' abortion bans under their constitutions, said Elizabeth Nash, principal policy associate with the Guttmacher Institute.

But other states present potential avenues for legal challenges.

Eleven states, including Florida, have the right to privacy enshrined in their constitutions, while several others, such as Arizona, have equal protection clauses. These provisions have been interpreted by some state supreme courts in recent decades to uphold abortion rights.

Burrows said the ACLU is investigating each state constitution to get a sense of the claims that we could bring."

"In states where we've identified a path to challenging abortion bans with our local partners, I think we can expect to see challenges filed following the issuance of any Supreme Court decision that would overturn Roe, she said, without naming the states.

Ziegler, of UC Davis, said the outcome of the state court cases is far from certain and would depend in large part on the composition of a given state's supreme court.

Take Florida, where Planned Parenthood recently mounted a constitutional challenge to the state's recently enacted 15-week ban on abortion that is set to take effect July 1.

In 1989, the Florida Supreme Court recognized abortion as a fundamental right under the state constitution. But Ziegler said Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has transformed the court with conservative appointments.

"And so, we're likely to see in that state the door open to much more sweeping restrictions," Ziegler said.

The Midwestern state of Michigan could go the other way, Ziegler said. The state Supreme Court has four elected Democratic justices and three appointed Republican members. In anticipation of Roe's repeal, Planned Parenthood in April challenged an unenforced, pre-Roe ban on abortion that could go into effect after the Supreme Court ruling comes down.

A local judge last month issued an injunction against its enforcement, saying abortion is protected under the state constitution.

"Carving out protection (for abortion rights) is a possibility in a place like Michigan," Ziegler said.

Forsythe, of the Americans United for Life, said efforts to get state supreme courts to recognize the right to abortion could backfire, as one did in Tennessee.

In 2000, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that a woman's decision to have an abortion is "a vital part of privacy guaranteed by the Tennessee Constitution."

Fourteen years later, Tennessee voters approved a constitutional amendment that says, Nothing in this constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion."

As for abortion rights groups, many say they're not putting all their eggs in the legal basket.

We can't rely on the judiciary, be it the federal judiciary or the state judiciary alone, to protect the rights and freedoms that we hold dear from government intrusion, Burrows, of the ACLU, said.

Instead, the focus will have to turn to mobilizing people to fight back, not just at the courthouse but at the state house, at the ballot box, in the streets to make abundantly clear to politicians that the majority of Americans want to keep abortion legal, she said.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' office announced that a special envoy would be sent to Bolivia to support a "peaceful resolution" to its current crisis after military leaders called on the Bolivian president to resign over election irregularities.

Former U.N. special envoy to Colombia Jean Arnault will act as the U.N. envoy to Bolivia to engage with "all Bolivian actors," and attempt to support peaceful elections in the country.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for Guterres, announced that "the secretary-general remains deeply concerned about developments in Bolivia. He reiterates his appeal to all Bolivians to refrain from violence and exercise utmost restraint."

Former President Evo Morales served as president of the South American nation for 14 years. He was the country's first indigenous president in modern history and leader of the ruling Movement Toward Socialism Party (MAS).

After Morales' government failed to remove constitutional restrictions on serving a fourth term, MAS appealed to Bolivia's courts to allow the president to run again.

The Organization of American States (OAS) declared there were election irregularities in the October presidential election to protect Morales from having a runoff vote. Opposition leaders called for boycotts and protests in reaction to the news.

Morales also faced growing pressure from the OAS, the European Union, the United States and a handful of Latin American countries to hold new elections.

After Morales announced Saturday that he would hold new presidential elections, the Bolivian military joined opposition leaders and protesters in calling for his removal. Morales resigned Sunday at the suggestion of his country's military chief.

Interim leader

Senator Jeanine Anez was the second vice president of the Senate and declared the highest-ranking official remaining in the line of succession when Morales' MAS allies resigned en masse after the president's resignation.

Anez has promised to hold new elections within 90 days, as required by the Bolivian Constitution.

The United States, Brazil, Colombia, Britain and Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido have recognized Anez as interim president.

The governments of Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, Uruguay and the Maduro government in Venezuela have denounced Morales' resignation and Anez's inauguration as a coup.

Russia, an important ally of Morales, said on Thursday it was ready to work with Anez. Despite its readiness to work with the interim president, Russia noted she had come to power without having a full quorum in the legislature.

Morales also has called recent events a coup, tweeting "the coup that causes deaths of my Bolivian brothers is a political and economic conspiracy that comes from the U.S."

Many are concerned about the interim president's comments on Bolivia's indigenous community.

In 2013, then-Senator Anez tweeted that an indigenous ritual of the Aymara people was "satanic." Morales is an Aymaran, and the Andean Earth Mother Pachamama featured prominently in his speeches and policies.

Anez announced she would be bringing the Bible back to Bolivia's government palace in a speech, while holding a massive Bible. Under Morales, a new Constitution was approved by a 2009 referendum that removed Catholicism as Bolivia's state religion.

Asylum in Mexico

Morales and some of his allies have been granted asylum in Mexico for their safety.

Morales claimed in an interview with Spanish daily El Pais published on Wednesday that he was still legally president because his resignation had not yet been accepted by the legislature. MAS members control the majority of the legislature and do not recognize Anez as interim president.

Anez said on Thursday that Morales would not be able to take part in upcoming elections because he is barred from running for a fourth consecutive term.

The secretary-general's office announced it would support all efforts for a "peaceful resolution to the crisis, including through transparent, inclusive and credible elections."
The Biden administration is planning to compensate victims of Havana syndrome, the anomalous health incidents affecting U.S. diplomats and intelligence officers worldwide, with payments ranging from $100,000 to $200,000, sources familiar with the matter said Thursday.

The proposed rule, which is expected to be published in the coming days, comes after the U.S. Congress last year passed the Havana Act, which authorizes the State Department, CIA and other U.S. government agencies to provide payments to staff and their families who have been affected by the syndrome during assignment.

About 200 U.S. diplomats, officials and family members overseas are believed to have been struck by the mysterious ailment  with symptoms including migraines, nausea, memory lapses and dizziness.

It was first reported among U.S. officials in Havana, the Cuban capital, in 2016, but since then has been reported in dozens of locations, including in Russia and China, as well as in Europe and Latin America.

Despite years of investigation, the U.S. government has been unable to determine the cause or whether an adversary such as Russia or China is responsible.

A CIA investigation whose conclusions were released earlier this year said the agency had found no evidence of state actor involvement in the thousand cases it had looked into but said it was continuing to investigate two dozen unexplained cases.

The State Department's draft rule is expected to remain open for comments for 30 days before becoming a final rule in a process coordinated with the Office of Management and Budget, people familiar with the matter said.

The rule is expected to include the criteria for eligibility, sources said, adding that the exact payment amounts were still being finalized.

The State Department declined to comment on the payments but said the Havana Act requires the agency to publish implementing regulations. "We will have more details to provide on that process soon," a department spokesperson said.

Sufferers and lawmakers have complained that U.S. agencies have not taken the illness seriously enough.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken in November appointed veteran diplomat Jonathan Moore to lead the agency's task force handling the issue. He vowed to leave "no stone unturned to stop these occurrences as swiftly as possible."
The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee has approved President Joe Bidens nominee to head the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), clearing the way for former VOA director Amanda Bennett to face a final confirmation vote on the Senate floor.

Juan Pachon, communications director for the committees Democratic majority, told VOA the committee approved Bennetts nomination en bloc at a Thursday meeting at the Capitol, meaning she was one of several nominees for government positions who secured approval as a group. Pachon was responding to a VOA question about the outcome of the meeting. USAGM is VOAs parent agency.

Pachon said the approval of Bennett and U.S. ambassadorial nominees was part of a broader agreement proposed by Democratic committee chair Bob Menendez.

As a result, there was no recorded vote, he said. Pachon did not elaborate on what the agreement involved or when Bennett will have a final vote in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

With no Senate Democrats publicly expressing opposition to Bennetts nomination, her confirmation appears likely.

Speaking to VOA outside the Capitol meeting room after the proceedings, Republican Senator Marco Rubio said he did not hear Bennetts name come up in the discussion about the various nominees.

Bennett, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, previously served as VOA director from 2016 to 2020. She resigned that position in June 2020, days before Michael Pack, nominated as USAGM CEO by then-President Donald Trump, took office after winning Senate confirmation.

Asked what he thought of Bennetts nomination, Rubio said, "I had some questions about the way (VOA) handled the interview with the well-known Chinese dissident while she was there the first time. But ultimately, you know, she was part of this bloc of nominees. There wasn't an individual vote on her nomination, so it passed, he said.

Rubio was referring to Bennetts 2017 decision to cut short a planned three-hour, live interview by VOAs Mandarin Service with exiled Chinese billionaire and prominent Beijing critic Guo Wengui, and to fire then-Mandarin Service chief Sasha Gong and other staffers who had defied instructions regarding the length and handling of the interview.

Bennetts critics accused her of succumbing to Chinese government pressure to silence Guo. But VOAs public relations office said third-party reviews of the incident concluded that the decision to curtail the live interview was based solely on and consistent with journalistic best practices.

Responding to a question about Bennetts prospects of being confirmed by the full Senate, Rubio said, Any (senator) can hold up any nominee for any reason. I dont know if shell get an individual vote, or if shell be part of a package (vote) right before summer recess.

Congress will be in recess Aug. 8-Sept. 6.

Pachon did not respond to a VOA request for comment from Menendez about Bennett earning a favorable recommendation from the Senate committee.

The White House cited Bennetts long career in U.S. media and her four years as VOA director when it nominated her for the USAGM role last November. She has served as executive editor at Bloomberg News and was managing editor of The Oregonian newspaper. She also was a reporter for The Wall Street Journal for more than two decades, including in Beijing.

After Bennett resigned as VOA director in June 2020, Pack appointed Robert Reilly in December 2020 to succeed her. Minutes after Biden was sworn in as president on Jan. 20, 2021, he requested and received Packs resignation and appointed then-VOA programming director Kelu Chao as acting USAGM CEO. Chao removed Reilly as VOA director a day later.

Bennett has faced criticism from some Republicans since her June 7 confirmation hearing, when she told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that she would advance USAGM's mission of objectivity and balanced reporting at a time when disinformation is on the rise globally.

America First Legal Foundation, a right-of-center nonprofit organization founded by former senior Trump administration officials, sent a letter to Biden on Thursday asking him to withdraw Bennetts nomination, citing alleged national security and related failures when she was VOA director.

The group's main complaint is that Bennett ran USAGM's biggest network, VOA, at a time when other government departments warned USAGM leaders of "deficiencies" in security clearances of agency employees, some with sensitive positions. A July 2020 report by the Office of Personnel Management found that 1,527 USAGM employees, or about 40% of the total workforce, had been improperly vetted over the previous 10 years, prompting OPM to revoke USAGM's authority to conduct its own background investigations of employees.

House Foreign Affairs Committee lead Republican Michael McCaul said he believed Bennett did not face a robust round of questioning in the June 7 hearing and sent a letter to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee two days later urging it to subject Bennett to closer scrutiny. He cited allegations that the former VOA director mismanaged public funds and personnel, and oversaw security lapses, biased news coverage and poor morale.

I have grave concerns with Amanda Bennetts nomination to serve as the CEO of USAGM, McCaul told VOA via email earlier this month. At a time when we are facing existential threats from disinformation and the silencing of objective journalism in China, Russia, and around the world, it is imperative we have a fair-minded, skilled leader at the helm of USAGM.

McCaul has been a strong supporter of USAGM's mission and criticized Pack during his time as the agency's CEO.

Bennett and USAGM did not immediately respond to VOA's requests for comment on American First Legal's call that her nomination be withdrawn.

U.S. Ambassador Karen Kornbluh, a former member of USAGMs governing board, told VOA earlier this month that Bennetts media background and knowledge of USAGM as a former VOA director make her a strong candidate to be the agency's CEO. She said Bennett could set the standard for all who follow.

Her leadership is essential at a time of resurgent authoritarianism around the world  to ensure that people living under repressive regimes not only have access to accurate information, but also can see models of excellent journalism in practice, Kornbluh said.
The United States is bracing for weeks of possible violence following Friday's Supreme Court ruling that struck down the constitutional right to abortion, sparking emotional responses from those on both sides of the debate.

In a new, updated analysis obtained by VOA, Department of Homeland Security officials warn that domestic violent extremists (DVEs) will likely seek to exploit the court ruling "to intensify violence against a wide range of targets."

"We expect violence could occur for weeks following the release, particularly as DVEs may be mobilized to respond to changes in state laws and ballot measures on abortion stemming from the decision," according to the analysis. "We base this assessment on an observed increase in violent incidents across the United States following the unauthorized disclosure in May of a draft majority opinion on the case."

The analysis notes that one network of "loosely affiliated" extremists, known as Janes Revenge, has called for a "night of rage," telling followers, "We need the state to feel our full wrath."

Intelligence also found more calls to violence on social media earlier this week, and officials worry that a series of arson and vandalism attacks against facilities and religious institutions tied to both sides of the abortion debate could signal an increase in violence.

"DHS will continue working with our partners across every level of government to share timely information and to support law enforcement efforts to keep our communities safe," a Homeland Security spokesperson told VOA in a statement, when asked about concerns that the high court's abortion ruling could spark more violence.

"Americans' freedom of speech and right to peacefully protest are fundamental constitutional rights. Those rights do not extend to violence and other illegal activity," the spokesperson added.

Separately, the Federal Bureau of Investigation told VOA it is working with federal, state and local law enforcement partners to ensure the safety of our communities while respecting individuals' First Amendment rights.

FBI personnel are assessing intelligence to detect potential threats of violence and are in constant communication with our partners, it said in a statement. We ask members of the public to maintain awareness of their surroundings and immediately report any suspicious activity to law enforcement."

Earlier Friday, President Joe Biden and other top U.S. officials warned Americans against resorting to violence following the abortion ruling.

'No intimidation'

"No intimidation. Violence is never acceptable," Biden said in an address to the nation in which he also accused the Supreme Court of taking away a fundamental right and "literally taking America back 150 years.

We must stand against violence in any form, regardless of your rationale, Biden added. Keep all protests peaceful, peaceful, peaceful."

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department would go after those who sought to make their voices heard through violent actions.

"Peacefully expressing a view is protected by the First Amendment, Garland said in a statement. "Violence and threats of violence are not. The Justice Department will not tolerate such acts."

Immediately following the ruling, abortion-rights opponents celebrated outside the Supreme Court, chanting "Goodbye, Roe!" to mark the court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the case that established the right to an abortion nearly 50 years ago.

At the same time, groups of abortion-rights supporters also gathered outside the court, chanting "My body, my choice," while carrying signs reading "Overturn Roe? Hell no!" and "Rise up for abortion rights."

Despite emotions running high among both groups, the demonstrations appeared peaceful.

U.S. officials and law enforcement agencies have been preparing for weeks for potential fallout from the court ruling on abortion.

We have been working closely with our law enforcement partners in order to prepare for demonstrations related to the Supreme Court," the U.S. Capitol Police, which is responsible for security for Congress and the Capitol, told VOA in an email Friday.

Homeland Security Department officials have also cited the ruling as a key factor in an ever more dangerous and volatile threat environment.

"Individuals who advocate both for and against abortion have, on public forums, encouraged violence, including against government, religious and reproductive health care personnel and facilities, as well as those with opposing ideologies," DHS warned in its latest bulletin, issued this month.

There have also been concerns about the safety of the Supreme Courts nine justices. The Justice Department announced round-the-clock security details for all justices last month.

A 26-year-old California man, Nicholas John Roske, was arrested June 8 outside the home of Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Police said Roske was carrying a gun, ammunition, a knife and other items, and that he said he was planning to kill himself and Kavanaugh. Roske has been charged with attempted murder.

The U.S. Marshals Service declined to comment on specific security measures following Fridays ruling but told VOA it was continuing to assist the court and its facilities.

We continuously review the security measures in place and take appropriate steps to provide additional protection when it is warranted, the service said.
Cameron has deployed hundreds of troops along its border with Nigeria after attacks by Boko Haram militants forced more than 40,000 villagers over the past two months to flee the area. Cameroon's defense minister is visiting the border to assess the security situation and assure villagers that it is safe to return home.

Cameroon's military reports that Boko Haram incursions in Mayo Tsanaga, an administrative unit on its northern border with Nigeria, have increased drastically since April.

Each day, armed members of the Nigerian terror group cross over to Cameroon, attack villages and steal cattle and food, the military reports.

Cameroon's defense minister, Joseph Beti Assomo, said Thursday President Paul Biya asked him to lead a delegation of top military officials to the border. Assomo, whose delegation was in Mokollo district where Mayo Tsanaga is located, says several hundred troops have been deployed to protect civilians and their goods.

He said that self-protection groups must cooperate with the army.

Assomo says all militias must henceforth be registered and controlled by local government officials and Cameroon military. He says militia group members should be people of unquestionable integrity. Assomo says government troops and local officials note that militias have been infiltrated by Boko Haram terrorists and adds that the military will energetically fight terrorists and bring back civilians trapped along the border with Nigeria.

Ousman Aliou is from Duvan, a village on the border with Nigeria. He says except for a few elderly persons, almost everybody has escaped from Duvan. He spoke via a messaging app from Mokollo.

"Duvan has got 10,000 population and when I went there last week, I saw only 15 people in Duvan," Aliou said. "So, I am asking Mr. Minister to do something for us please. Come and help us. Our people are sleeping on the mountain."

In May, villagers along Cameroon's northern border with Chad and Nigeria organized daily protests in front of government offices demanding the military protect them.

Vohod Deguime is mayor of the Mokollo district. He says if the military had responded more quickly to the villagers plea, civilians would have been spared from fleeing their homes.

He says the situation is getting worse as the days go by. He says several dozen villages have been destroyed over three weeks by Boko Haram, and food and cattle stolen. Deguime says more than 30,000 of the 40,000 Cameroonians who have escaped from their villages are hiding in bushes on the border with Nigeria.

Deguime said some of the fleeing villagers are finding refuge in host communities in safer border localities.

Local media reports that Cameroon recently withdrew some of its troops from the northern border with Nigeria and Chad and redeployed them to fight separatist rebels in the west of the country. Cameroon's military dismiss the claims and say troops are always on standby to defend civilians when the need arises.


U.S. companies including Walt Disney Co. and Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. said Friday they will cover employees' expenses if they have to travel for abortion services after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday took the dramatic step of overturning the landmark 1973 ruling that recognized a woman's constitutional right to an abortion and legalized it nationwide, handing a momentous victory to Republicans and religious conservatives who want to limit or ban and, in some states criminalize, the procedure.

Many states are expected to further restrict or ban abortions following the ruling, making it difficult for female employees to terminate pregnancies unless they travel to states where the procedure is allowed.

For example, in Oklahoma a bill signed in April bans abortion except in medical emergencies and penalizes providers who violate the law with up to $100,000 in fines and 10 years in prison. The law is due to take effect in August. States offering abortion protections include New York and Maryland.

Disney told employees on Friday that it recognizes the impact of the abortion ruling but remains committed to providing comprehensive access to quality health care, including for abortions, according to a Disney spokesperson.

Meta will reimburse travel expenses for employees seeking out-of-state reproductive care, but the company was also "assessing how best to do so given the legal complexities involved," according to a spokesperson.

Companies that offer reimbursements for abortion-related travel could be vulnerable to lawsuits by anti-abortion groups and Republican-led states, and even potential criminal penalties.

Lawyers and other experts said employers could face claims that their policies violate state laws banning, facilitating or aiding and abetting abortions.

A draft of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion was leaked in May. At that time, many other companies, including online review site Yelp and Microsoft Corp. and Tesla said they will help cover the cost of travel for employees seeking reproductive services.

Yelp co-founder and Chief Executive Jeremy Stoppelman on Friday said the ruling "puts women's health in jeopardy, denies them their human rights, and threatens to dismantle the progress weve made toward gender equality in the workplace since Roe."

Alaska Air Group, parent of Alaska Airlines, said Friday it is "reimbursing travel for certain medical procedures and treatments if they are not available where you live. Todays Supreme Court decision does not change that."

Other companies offering the benefit include online dating sites OkCupid and Bumble Inc., Netflix Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., the nation's largest bank.

"OkCupid is horrified by the news of Roe being overturned. This is an issue of gender equality and an issue of human rights," said OkCupid Chief Marketing Officer Melissa Hobey.
Human rights in Hong Kong have deteriorated rapidly since Beijings crackdown after the pro-democracy protests of 2019, according to a new survey.

The Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI) published a survey this week showing the rapid change in human rights in Hong Kong, which now ranks close to Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, both near last-place China.

Chung Kim-wah, honorary director of Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute, told VOA in a phone interview that survey data show that civil society in Hong Kong has shrunk, and freedom of speech and assembly has been suppressed since the imposition of the Hong Kong version of Chinas National Security Law in 2020.

Watching events in Hong Kong over the past couple of years has been quite harrowing, and so I doubt that Hong Kongs scores will come as a surprise to any Hong Kong watchers, said HRMI spokesperson Anne-Marie Brook.

VOA Cantonese contacted the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., for comment on the HRMI survey but has not received a response.

HRMI conducts national surveys to assess quality of life and safety from the state. The surveys are conducted in more than 30 regions worldwide and use up to 13 criteria outlined in United Nations treaties to measure the state of human rights. Respondents to the secure, online Hong Kong survey included local human rights workers, human rights lawyers and journalists covering human rights issues.

HRMI, which is based in New Zealand and the U.S., did not disclose the number or identities of the respondents, to protect them, according to Thalia Kehoe Rowden of HRMI. Some of the respondents have emigrated from Hong Kong.

The data show that Hong Kong's freedom of assembly and association, freedom of expression and political participation continued to decline for the third consecutive year.

For example, the freedom of assembly and association is evaluated on a 10-point scale. Hong Kong scored 4.5 points in 2019 and 2.5 points in 2021, results the survey describes as very bad.

Freedom of expression fell from 4.7 in 2019, to 2.7 in 2021, while suffrage dropped from 4 to 2.4 over the same period.

However the survey also found the right to freedom from arbitrary arrest rose from 2.7 in 2019 to 3.5 in 2021.

And Hong Kong scored 4.6 out of 10 for its performance on the right to freedom from torture. According to HRMI, this falls within the bad category and means that a significant number of people are at risk of torture and ill-treatment. It is the fourth lowest score among the East Asia and Pacific region countries the organizations tracks.

The scores reflect Chinas crackdown on Hong Kong after months of pro-democracy street protests in 2019.

In terms of civil and political rights, China scores below 3.5 in 75% of indicators, which is considered very poor. In terms of freedom of assembly and association, freedom of expression and political participation, China's overall score is only 2.1, the lowest among the 30 surveyed regions. This was the first year HRMI surveyed China.

"Hong Kong's scores over the last three years are converging on China's very low scores, Rowden told VOA Cantonese via email Thursday evening. Hong Kong's empowerment scores [freedom of assembly and association; freedom of opinion and expression; participation in government] have fallen dramatically, so that they are nearly the same as China's.

Hong Kong survey respondents noted that Chinese law restricts freedom of assembly and association, and that anyone trying to run for office independently would be intimidated, even violently treated or imprisoned.

Dr. K. Chad Clay, an HRMI co-founder who is also its research methodology and design lead, told VOA Cantonese in an email that since the 2020 implementation of the Hong Kong version of Chinas National Security Law, speaking out is likely to result in arrest and detention, which has likely led many people to self-censor in order to avoid their own arrest in response.

Backing this up, he added, our data absolutely show a continued precipitous decline in the rights to opinion, expression, assembly, and association."

Clay, director of the Center for the Study of Global Issues and an associate professor at The School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia, said it is important to note that Hong Kongs government may not feel the need to resort to as many arbitrary and political arrests now that empowerment rights are increasingly restricted.

In the years since the National Security Law was passed, it has been shown that speaking out is likely to result in arrest and detention, which has likely led many people to self-censor in order to avoid their own arrest in response, he said. Backing this up, our data absolutely show a continued precipitous decline in the rights to opinion, expression, assembly, and association.

Chung said last year he saw police using the social gathering ban that is supposed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 to suppress gatherings in Causeway Bay on June 4 for the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. This was very blatant and abusive of the law, and the purpose and spirit of the legislation is contrary to its original purpose. This year, local authorities warned people to avoid the Victoria Park Tiananmen memorial and police detained several who ignored the caution.

Chung also said some Hong Kong political prisoners have been remanded for two years without being convicted. Because of the pandemic, outsiders are not allowed to visit inmates. One prisoners request for pens and paper was rejected.

"The most outrageous thing is that in just a few weeks, he was transferred to different prison cells five, six times without being given any reason, he added. This is obviously a kind of strategy that makes people lose their autonomy and lets them be manipulated. I think this is also torture."

Simon Cheng, founder of Hongkongers in Britain group, told VOA in a phone call that the good thing about the quantified indicators is that the changes can be evaluated with the same standards, and they dont talk past each other and it wont turn it [the survey] into a political game.

This will prevent China from saying that each (country) has its own standards and making everyone lose direction.
Experts call Chinas most recent move to rewrite Hong Kongs history textbooks part of a larger plan to solidify a national identity in the city, which has been rocked by political turmoil since 2019.

Local media reported this month that new textbooks in Hong Kong secondary schools  still under review by the Education Bureau  say Hong Kong was not a British colony because Beijing did not recognize the unequal treaties that ceded the financial hub to Britain, according to The South China Morning Post. This is not a new Chinese position.

According to the new textbooks, China never gave up its sovereignty over Hong Kong and therefore, while the city was under Britains colonial governance it was not a colony, another local media outlet, Mingpao, that has access to the textbooks reported.

The new textbooks also call 2019 pro-democracy protests severely violent events, parts of which incited sedition and overthrowing the government, posing a threat to the sovereignty, national security and benefits of Hong Kong. They say outright that foreign forces were involved in the movement, and that the national security law implemented in 2020 respects and protects human rights.

To boost Chinese patriotism

The textbook overhaul is aimed at instilling Chinese nationalism in the city after the protests, according to Gina Anne Tam, an assistant professor specializing in Chinese history at the Trinity University.

It is an attempt to downplay any narrative that treats Hong Kong as having distinct historical legacies from China, Tam told VOA.

Emphasizing British colonialism, in a word, emphasizes a distinct historical trajectory that has led to a distinct sense of identity in Hong Kong. By negating the legitimacy of British colonialism, the Hong Kong government similarly negates any historical trajectory that emphasizes a unique history or a unique culture.

She said part of what constitutes Hong Kongers identity is the citys colonial history.

Hong Kong's colonial history was certainly violent and oppressive. But the way Hong Kongers created a community within those circumstances and fought back against British colonialism, in part, helped create the unique Hong Kong society and culture that exists today.

She added that recognizing a single version of history strikes a similar resemblance to its narrative revolving around Taiwan and Tibet  an idea echoed by Steve Tsang, the director of the China Institute at the SOAS University of London.

The Communist Party has a monopoly of the truth and of history in China. Since Hong Kong is being integrated into the PRC [Peoples Republic of China] more fully after the 2019 protests, the one country, two systems and Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong concepts are now subjected to only one interpretation  the partys, Tsang said, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.

He said 2013 guidance to local governments to rein in the noteworthy problems related to ideologies that China deemed threatening to its governance, known as Document 9, started an era of allowing a single interpretation of history in China.

Hong Kong was previously allowed to be an exception. Not any longer, he said. In the [Chinese President] Xi [Jinping] approach to history, facts are merely incidental. Only interpretation matters, and only one interpretation is allowed.

UN excludes Hong Kong in its list of recognized colonies

Not recognizing Hong Kong as a colony has been Chinas stance for decades. In 1972, Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations Huang Hua claimed full sovereign rights to Hong Kong and Macao and called the ceding of both cities a result of a series of unequal treaties which the imperialists imposed on China in a formal letter.

The settlement of the questions of Hong Kong and Macao is entirely within Chinas sovereign right, Hua wrote, and does not fall under the ordinary category of colonial territories.

Consequently, they should not be included in the list of colonial territories covered by the declaration on the granting of independence to colonial countries and people, Hua wrote in the letter.

That November, the U.N. General Assembly officially excluded both cities from the U.N. list of colonial territories.

Rita Fan, a former lawmaker in Hong Kong and a member of Chinas National Peoples Congress said this month she would ask Western media to double-check what happened in 1972 in the U.N. and pointed to the Western attention to the textbook changes as a way to bolster wrong concepts of Hong Kong independence and self-determination that have infiltrated into Hong Kong in an interview with state media Global Times.

What the Hong Kong government is attempting is to gradually explain and correct these wrong concepts Western countries hope Hong Kongers will accept. Only if Hong Kong teachers and students can understand history correctly, can we prevent the requests of for self-determination and universal suffrage, she said.

Education in peril

However, colonial governance and identity as a colony cannot be separated, a Chinese history teacher, who asked not to be identified, at a secondary school in Hong Kong told VOA.

It is wrong to say that Hong Kong was never a British colony, as multiple historical documents show that. Colonial governance and the concept of colony should not be interpreted separately, she said.

And as a teacher, we need to have sufficient evidence to tell our students that foreign forces were indeed the driver of the 2019 protests, but I dont think there is enough proof.

While she said Chinese history is an important part of national education that should be strengthened, she does not think the wording change is right.

After 2019, China probably wants to bolster national education in Hong Kong so citizens feel a stronger sense of belonging.  Personally I dont quite accept this, and I would teach colonial governance and the concept of colony together, she added.

In the future, though, she admitted that she and other teachers will have to follow the guidelines of the school and the Education Bureau.

Tam saw a bleak future after textbook changes.

While this doesn't negate the possibility of unique senses of identity forming, it makes it that much harder. Once something is normalized, it is significantly harder for anyone to try and complicate or question it, she said.
A group of lawyers has urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate China's treatment of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim populations in the Xinjiang region.

The United States and other countries accuse China of subjecting those groups to genocide and crimes against humanity, including mass arbitrary detention, forced labor, torture, forced sterilization, separation of children from parents and destruction of minority culture. Beijing vehemently denies all accusations of human rights abuses in the region and says that all ethnic groups in Xinjiang live happily.

The lawyers, who represent Uyghurs in exile, say that on Monday they presented the ICC with new evidence of Beijing's efforts "to round up Uyghurs in neighboring countries, including an ICC member state, and elsewhere, to force them back" to China.

"It also very sadly shows what happens to them once back in detention camps," lead lawyer Rodney Dixon said in a statement emailed to VOA. "The ICC has jurisdiction over these crimes that commence on ICC territory and continue into China, and is urged to act immediately to open an investigation."

This is the third dossier of evidence submitted to the ICC by the legal team since it filed an initial complaint two years ago.

That complaint was submitted June 6, 2020. Additional evidence was submitted July 10, 2021; November 2021; and this past Monday, according to the legal team.

After the first submission of evidence, ICC prosecutors said the court was unable to take up the case because the alleged abuses happened in China, which is not an ICC member state.

According to the lawyers, the last submission of evidence to ICC includes "firsthand evidence from a witness" who was deported to China, detained in internment camps and subjected to "interrogation and torture" before escaping from China in 2018.

"It shows that the Chinese government is implementing a policy of rounding up Uyghurs and other ethnically Turkic people from outside China, including ICC member states such as neighboring Tajikistan, and forcefully deporting them back to China," the legal team said in a statement provided to VOA.

The lawyers want the ICC to follow a precedent set when it investigated cross-border crimes committed by nonmember state Myanmar after thousands of Rohingya people were forced to flee to Bangladesh, an ICC member state.

"The gravity of mass deportations and disappearances has rightly been recognized by the ICC prosecutor in stating that his office will gather evidence of Ukrainians being sent into Russia  similarly such evidence should be assembled and reviewed by the ICC for Uyghurs and others being forced into China from ICC territories," Dixon said.

Other Uyghur witnesses who fled from Tajikistan to Turkey in 2018 described how China pressured police and immigration officials in Tajikistan to deport Uyghurs back to China.
India has sent relief assistance to Afghanistan to help the victims of a powerful earthquake that rocked the country Wednesday along with a technical team to be based in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

India, a true first responder, Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar tweeted Friday.

The 27 tons of relief assistance includes family ridge tents, sleeping bags, blankets and sleeping mats, according to the External Affairs MInistry.

As always, India stands in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan, with whom we share centuries-old ties, and remain firmly committed to providing immediate relief assistance for the Afghan people, a ministry statement said.

The ministry also said Thursday that New Delhi has deployed a technical team to its Kabul embassy to coordinate the effective delivery of humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan, where India has been sending 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.

Sending the technical team to Kabul is being seen as an initial step that could lead to reestablishing Indias diplomatic presence in the country, analysts say.

 lEA (Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan) welcomes decision by India to return diplomats & technical team to their embassy in Kabul to continue their relations with the Afghan people and their humanitarian assistance, Taliban spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi tweeted.

India's Kabul embassy was closed and Indian personnel evacuated during the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August, but earlier this month India sent a team of officials to Afghanistan for the first time, signaling its decision to engage with the Taliban leadership.

India was the regions largest provider of development aid to Afghanistan before the takeover, and had invested around $3 billion in projects that included schools, roads, dams and hospitals.

India wants to rebuild some ties with the country where archenemy Pakistan wields considerable influence. Among regional countries, India alone was left without representation in Afghanistan after the takeover. China, Iran, Pakistan and Russia had not closed their embassies in Kabul.
Just as the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down the ruling that made abortion legal, a new poll indicates public confidence in the high court is at an historic low.

In the Gallup Polls annual update on public confidence in U.S. institutions, 25% of U.S. adults say they have "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court, down from 36% a year ago and five percentage points lower than the previous low recorded in 2014.

The pollsters said many institutions have suffered a decline in confidence this year, but the 11-point drop in confidence in the Supreme Court is roughly double what it is for most institutions that experienced a decline.

Gallup reports the previous low in Supreme Court confidence was 30% in 2014, a year when confidence in major U.S. institutions in general hit a low point, averaging 31%.

Gallup said Fridays long-anticipated abortion ruling is likely a factor in the publics low confidence in the court. Their poll was taken between June 1 and June 20  days before the landmark ruling, but after a leaked draft majority opinion in the case indicated the high court would overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 court ruling that prohibits restrictions on abortion during the first trimester of pregnancy.

Gallup says U.S. residents opposed overturning Roe by a nearly 2-to-1 margin.

The pollsters said the low numbers were likely driven by Democrats, whose confidence in the Supreme Court dropped by double digits this year - from 30 to 13 percent - and independents, where it dropped 40 to 25 percent.

It rose slightly among Republicans, 37 to 39 percent.
Nigerian rights activists are reacting with outrage after a Nigerian politician and his wife were charged by British prosecutors with human trafficking with the intent to harvest organs.

Ike Ekweremadu is alleged to have smuggled a Nigerian boy into Britain to harvest his kidney for their sick daughter. The former deputy senate president and his wife appeared before the Uxbridge Magistrate's Court on Thursday, two days after they were arrested by London police.

Prosecutors accused them of luring 15-year-old David Nwamini Ukpo from Nigeria to the UK to donate his kidney to their daughter. Prosecutors also accused them of forging documents to make Ukpo appear to be 21 years old.

It's not clear if Ukpo was aware of the reason he was traveling, but a letter written by Ekweremadu to the British High Commission in December stated they were going to the UK for organ donation.

Ekweremadu's daughter is reportedly battling a kidney disease. He and his wife were arrested on their way to Turkey to procure another organ after they allegedly were unable to continue the process with Ukpo.

They denied the allegations on Thursday but did not enter a plea and were held without bail.

Prominent Nigerian human rights activists have denounced the politician on social media. The co-founder of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) Movement, Aisha Yesufu, tweeted, "How many missing people are related to organ harvesting? This is scary."

Another activist, Rinu Oduala, said, "They really thought they would get away with it in the UK. Because Nigeria is a place where criminals occupy public offices, commit crimes and go scot-free."

"That the former deputy Senate president might be involved in organ trafficking is disappointing to say the very least," Oduala told VOA via a voice messaging app. "The Nigerian image, our reputation keeps dwindling out there. Every day our public officials make it harder for Nigerians to thrive out there, we're forced to prove a point that we're not that image of our country."

Ekweremadu's defense attorney, Gavin Irwin, described the allegations as "preposterous" Thursday.

On Friday, supporters on social media pledged their support for Ekweremadu, including a colleague, senator Dino Melaye, who twitted, "I stand with Ike."

Ariyo-Dare Atoye, founder of the Nigeria Liberty Center, says it is too early to make conclusions.

"It is the aggregate of the records available to the UK embassy and the hospital that will be able to expose whether they followed due process," he said. "Has any document been forged? Has there been any manipulation? All of this will come to the fore possibly in the next adjourned date. This is not something that anybody can cover up."

The World Health Organization says one-tenth of all global organ transplants are performed using illegally acquired organs.

Under the UK's Modern Slavery Act of 2015, conspiracy to harvest the organs of a child is a serious offense and perpetrators could face life imprisonment if found guilty.

Ekweremadu's next hearing is July 7.


A new agreement signed by commerce officials from Afghanistan and Russia calls for expanding trade relations between the countries at a time when both face severe economic sanctions from the U.S. and Europe.

Officials from Afghanistans Chambers of Commerce and Industries (ACCI) and Russias Business Council for Cooperation with Afghanistan (BCCA) signed the deal this week in St. Petersburg.

We want to strengthen bilateral [business ties] and even regional imports and exports, said Mohammad Yunus Mohmand, deputy director of ACCI who signed the agreement with BCCAs director, Dmitry Antonov.

The sanctions are indeed torturing us, but we cant sit still and watch, Mohmand told VOA. He added that Russia is inclined to boost regional trade and signed a long-term agreement with Iran at the sidelines of St. Petersburg Economic Forum last week.

Iran is also under longstanding U.S. sanctions owing to its controversial nuclear program and Tehrans alleged support for terrorist groups in the Middle East.

Mohmand characterized the trade agreement as apolitical, but said its implementation will require support from the Russian and Taliban governments. A Taliban government delegation will soon visit Moscow to explore practical ways for the implementation of the trade agreement, he added.

The Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., did not answer questions about the trade agreement.

Moscow does not officially recognize the Talibans Islamic Emirate but has accredited Taliban diplomats and has kept the Russian Embassy in Kabul open.

Symbolic or defiance?

Landlocked and under tight financial sanctions, Afghanistan has plunged deeper into economic recession since the Taliban seized power last year. About 90% of Afghans cannot afford enough food daily, aid agencies have reported.

Under the deal, Afghanistan expects to import wheat and oil from Russia at subsidized pricing.

We need 150,000 tons of fuel every month, Mohmand said, adding that Afghanistan also needs to import some 2 million tons of wheat from Russia.

U.S. officials say Russias war in Ukraine is primarily responsible for the global rise in food and oil prices  something Russian officials dispute.

Russia has been using its grain and other commodities as a way to maintain relations amid the Ukraine crisis, Maximilian Hess, a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told VOA.

The agreement with Afghanistan is almost entirely symbolic  it is an attempt to show that Russia still has partners that want to trade with it, Hess added.

Moscows intent to do business with Afghanistan and Iran could also be to defy Western sanctions.

By offering to expand trade and commerce engagement with the Taliban, Russia may flaunt restrictions on Afghanistans financial system  either put in place by U.S., U.N. Security Council or even self-imposed restrictions by banks and private investors, Andrew Watkins, a researcher at the U.S. Institute of Peace, told VOA.

Afghanistan has traditionally maintained limited trade with Russia mostly due to logistical constraints and weak transport infrastructure. In 2020, Russia's exports to Afghanistan reached $151 million and imports were less than $3 million, according to the global trade data website The Observatory of Economic Complexity.
Devastating floods that have washed away homes, drowned rice fields and stranded millions of people in northeast India and Bangladesh in recent weeks are not unusual -- flooding during South Asias monsoon season has become a virtually annual occurrence.

What is unusual is that large areas of land in the two countries disappeared underwater much earlier this year.

The peak flooding takes place in July and August when the monsoons are in full swing. But this year heavy rainfall began in May and created a disaster situation, said Tritha Prasad Saikia, joint director of the Assam-based voluntary group, North East Area Affected Development Society.

The rainfall calendar has changed, the intensity and magnitude of flooding has increased, said Saikia who has grown up in the state.

Both Indias northeast and Bangladesh have already experienced two bouts of severe flooding  one in May and another this month.

The flooding has led to warnings by climate experts that South Asias most vulnerable communities may have to cope with more unpredictable and longer spells of devastation as monsoon patterns change and extreme weather events become the norm rather than the exception.

The widespread flooding triggered by the heavy pre-monsoon rains this year is unprecedented. This variability in monsoon patterns is due to climate change. What studies tell us is that wetter areas are going to be much wetter, and drier areas much drier, said Anjal Prakash, a research director at Indias Bharti Institute of Public Policy, who has contributed to the report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. And this is definitely what we have seen manifested in the flooding this time.

Instead of steady distribution of rain during the June-September monsoon season, shorter spells of torrential rainfall have become more common, experts say. Assam for example received about double the rain in the first three weeks of June compared to the average rainfall during this period, according to the Indian Meteorological Department.

Flooding is not the only climate-change event affecting one of the worlds most densely populated regions. Experts also point to a brutal heat wave that began scorching South Asias vast northern plains as early as March this year as well as cyclones and urban flooding that regularly batter coastal areas.

In Indias northeastern Assam state, where entire villages have been engulfed by the swirling flood waters, authorities say that more than 5 million people have been affected and more than 80,000 are sheltered in relief camps. Over 100 have died.

In Bangladesh, millions have also been affected by the flooding, while the death toll in monsoon-related events is around 60. In the countrys worst-affected districts, Sylhet and Sunamganj, such ferocious floods have not been seen in decades.

In both countries, disaster personnel and the army have mounted rescue operations even as authorities and aid agencies distribute food and drinking water to the displaced people. But damaged roads and bridges are making the task a challenge.

We have relief materials with us, but we are not in a position to reach the hardest hit communities because of lack of accessibility to the worst-hit areas, Saikia said.

Among those trying to obtain aid is Pabitra Bora, who works for an Assam hydroelectric power and whose three-room house was recently flooded.

The water gushed in at night. We had no warning and no time to salvage anything. Some neighbors brought a boat and we escaped, Bora told VOA.

He has taken shelter in a library with his family but says the floods have taken away everything from him. I have no idea what my future holds -- even managing to get two meals a day is difficult just now.

There may, however, be no early relief in sight. The Brahmaputra River, which runs through northeast India into Bangladesh is flowing above the danger level at several places, even as monsoons are likely to pick up pace in the coming weeks.

It could turn out to be a long-drawn crisis, Saikia said, Embankments and roads are already damaged. How will they be repaired in time for more intense rains that could come in the next two months?

The impact of events triggered by climate change is particularly severe in areas where millions of people depend on farming small plots of land for sustenance.

In Assam, the first bout of flooding came in May as people were harvesting rice. Much of that harvest has been washed away. In India, this year's early heat wave shriveled the wheat crop in March, reducing harvests and prompting the government to ban wheat exports.

An International Food Policy Research Institute report last month warned that Indias food production could drop by 16% and the number of those at risk for hunger could increase by 2030 due to climate change.

Rapid changes due to climate change have been taking place for about five years but we have not taken appropriate action to plan for these, Prakash said.

As a result people in climate vulnerable zones are getting trapped year after year in climate catastrophes and are unable to come out of the cycle of poverty.
Afghanistan's Taliban announced Friday that the United States had freed one of the last two Afghans from the U.S. military detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after 15 years.



The ruling Islamist group said Asadullah Haroon's release was the outcome of "direct and positive interaction" between the Taliban and Washington.



The 39-year-old freed prisoner was handed over to Taliban officials in Doha, the capital of Qatar, where the group maintains its political office.



"It is a positive development," said Suhail Shaheen, who heads the Taliban's Doha office. He told VOA that Haroon hails from the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar.



"I call on (the) U.S. to release the only last remaining Afghan detainee now in Guantanamo jail, as well as all other detainees being kept there on mere suspicions," demanded Shaheen. He is also the Taliban's permanent representative-designate to the United Nations.



The other Afghan inmate is Muhammad Rahim, who is accused of being a close associate of al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden.

The U.S. Department of Defense said Wednesday that Haroon's release followed a U.S. court ruling that the Pentagon no longer had the legal authority to detain him. The statement said a review body made up of career civil servants had additionally determined this past October that Haroon was eligible for transfer from Guantanamo Bay.



A group of U.S. senators introduced legislation this week that would prevent the transfer of detainees from Guantanamo to Afghanistan.

"It is reckless and irresponsible to release Asadullah Haroon Gul al Afghani to the Taliban," Republican Senator Marco Rubio said in a statement, using Haroon's legal name. "The terrorist organization that now controls Afghanistan cannot and will not ensure Gul, or any future detainees who are released, will not return to the battlefield and potentially kill Americans or other innocent civilians."

Haroon was said to be working as a honey trader before being captured by American forces in 2007 while they were fighting al-Qaida terrorists and the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.



The U.S. alleged that Haroon was an al-Qaida courier serving as a commander with the Afghan-based Hezb-e-Islami (HIA) militant group who coordinated attacks against coalition forces. The Afghan man admitted to being a member of HIA but denied any al-Qaida association.



Last October, an American court ruled that Haroon was being held unlawfully, paving the way for his transfer out of Guantanamo after languishing there for years without charge or trial.



The secretive prison once housed hundreds of suspected militants captured by U.S. forces during the "war on terror," many held without charge or the legal power to challenge their detention.



Rights groups and detainees have accused U.S. authorities of torture and abuse against Guantanamo inmates, with some allegedly held in cages and subjected to illegal interrogation techniques. Most of the detainees have been released over the years.



"He was unanimously cleared for release by U.S. security agencies last year. Asad is finally free and about to be reunited with his family," tweeted Reprieve, an independent group that provided legal representation to Haroon in the federal court.



"We hope the State Department will move quickly to release other detainees who have been cleared to leave but remain stuck in limbo, wondering when their long ordeal will end."

Haroon's family hailed his release, saying it has proved his innocence. His wife and a daughter live in Afghanistan while his brother and mother live as refugees in neighboring Pakistan, which hosts around 3 million Afghan refugees and illegal economic migrants.



U.S. President Joe Biden's administration has been working to reduce the number of inmates and eventually close the Guantanamo prison, which still holds around three dozen detainees.

VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.


South Africans living in the Eastern Cape are counting down to Day Zero when the taps in the Nelson Mandela Bay area will run dry. Experts say climate change induced drought has left reservoirs almost empty, while municipal mismanagement has city authorities scrambling to plug more than 3,000 leaking water pipes.



Sixty-eight-year-old grandma of five Virginia Kima lives in KwaNobuhle, a poor township in a region named after South Africas greatest hero and first Black president, Nelson Mandela Bay.



But life is hard these days, she said.



Sometimes we stay about two or three days without water, she said. When theres no water we do go to other areas and fetch water.



Kima told VOA when the taps run dry, she walks 25 minutes to a school to fill bottles.



The bay area is suffering a critical water shortage. Authorities said regional dam water storage is at about 11 percent of capacity and could be about to get a lot worse.



At the current rate of use, two major reservoirs could run out completely in a matter of days. If that happens, 40 percent of the city of Gqeberha, with a population of about a million people, would be affected.

Luvuyo Bangazi, spokesman for the government committee dealing with the shortage, told VOA that authorities are racing to prevent Day Zero, when they run out of water.



With regards to the exact date of Day Zero, you know we really cannot have such a date in the calendar because there are lots of moving parts, he said. We are doing everything we can in our power to avoid taps running dry.



Bangazi said there are several reasons for the low water levels  both natural and man-made.



We havent had good rains for more than seven years and weve had a sharp increase in water consumption from across sectors, be it residential, business, or other, he said. So, compounding that with obviously ailing infrastructure that leads to severe water leaks  almost 25-30% of our water [is] being lost due to water leaks caused by failing infrastructure.



More than 3,000 leaks have been reported to city authorities, who say teams are scrambling to fix them.



Bangazi said the community also needs to cut back on water consumption, which he says is 60 million liters more per day than it should be for the size of population.



Meanwhile, authorities are setting up communal water points and aid workers are drilling boreholes for water wells.



Mary Galvin, an associate professor in development studies at the University of Johannesburg, said the water shortage shows the urgent need to combat climate change.



Reaching Day Zero is an example, or is an expression, of a climate crisis which is here to stay  with higher temperatures, greater intensity of weather events, including drought and flood. So this is yet another manifestation that we see across the country and across Africa and across the world.



Galvin noted that there is also an issue of water inequality in South Africa.



While wealthier residents of Nelson Mandela Bay can dig their own boreholes and buy storage tanks, the poor here, like Grandma Kima, must walk to find water.



The water shortage in Nelson Mandela Bay comes just a few years after the major South African tourist city of Cape Town narrowly averted its own Day Zero.
Ukraine's foreign minister says Kyiv is ready to export much-needed grain to Africa as soon as Russia lifts its Black Sea blockade. In a U.S.-arranged online briefing to journalists Thursday, he blamed Russia for the global food crisis affecting millions of Africans and called for more African support against Moscow.



Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dymtro Kuleba said his country and Africa need each other to overcome the global food crisis, which he blamed on Russias aggression.



We want to export our agricultural products to you as badly as you want to receive them, Kuleba said, and there is only one reason why both ends of this supply chain  which is us and you  cannot benefit from these exports. Its the Russian blockade of Ukrainian ports as a result of the Russian military aggression against Ukraine.



Ukraine is a major supplier of wheat, corn and sunflower oil to African countries and, since Russias invasion began in February, Africa has faced food and cooking oil shortages that have left an estimated 400 million people on the continent food insecure.



While drought and conflict have also played a role in the food crisis, Kaleba focused on the actions of Russia. He said Russian forces have taken 400,000 tons of grain crops from Ukraine.



Russians also steal agricultural equipment from Ukrainian farmers  tractors, combine harvesters, and other tools in Donetsk, Kherson, Kharkiv and Sumy regions of Ukraine, he said.

Russian forces have riddled Ukrainian fields with mines to prevent farmers from cultivating their crops for years. According to the recent preliminary estimate, about 13 percent of Ukrainian territory has been contaminated by Russian mines and other explosive remnants. This creates threats of a multiyear global food crisis.



Fred Munene, an agronomist and farmer in Kenya, said Africa, for now, should fight to get the food stuck in Ukraine out and invest in its farm economy to be food secure.



The short term is getting the food that is already produced, Munene said. In the long term, look for other suppliers or industries in Africa that will supply fertilizers and other farm inputs because thats the biggest challenge.



Kuleba said Africa can play a role in ending the conflict between the two neighbors.



African states have a crucial role in this, and many already work together with us to achieve it, Kuleba said. African capitals matter and they do influence Russias position.



However, African countries on the U.N. Security Council have been reluctant to pressure Russia based on historical ties to Moscow and current geopolitical concerns.



Hassan Khannenje, head of the Horn Institute for Strategic Studies, said that Africas say in the conflict is limited.



They do not have the leverage outside diplomatic engagement and are trying to appeal to both parties to see the need to unblock the wheat supply which Africa relies on heavily on, Khannenje said.



Senegalese President and African Union Chairperson Macky Sall is expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in coming days but no firm date has been set.
After weeks of fierce fighting with Russian forces, Ukrainian troops are withdrawing from the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk, according to a regional official.

As the Russians close in on the city, Serhiy Haidai, the head of the Luhansk regions military administration, said that it does not make sense to hold on to what he described as broken positions any longer.

He said troops in Sievierodonetsk had received the order to move to new positions.

Ukraine said Russian forces had fully occupied the neighboring city of Lysychansk in the eastern Luhansk region. Moscow claimed it had encircled about 2,000 Ukrainian troops in the area.



The Russian advances appeared to bring the Kremlin closer to taking full control of Luhansk province, one of Moscow's stated war objectives.

To stabilize the situation in Luhansk, Ukraine needs "fire parity" with Russia, Ukraine's top general told his U.S. counterpart Friday.

"We discussed the operational situation and the delivery flow of international technical assistance," Ukraine's General Valeriy Zaluzhniy wrote on the Telegram app after a phone call with General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Ukraine has said Russia's artillery advantage on the Donbas front lines is taking a significant toll on Ukrainian troops and has called on its Western partners to supply more weapons to minimize the deficit.

A senior U.S. defense official on Friday praised the Ukrainian decision to withdraw from Sievierodonetsk, describing the move as professional and tactical.

What they are doing is putting themselves in a position where they can better defend themselves, the official told reporters on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss intelligence and other sensitive information.

And while the official said Russian forces have been able to eke out gains around Sievierodonetsk, the gains have come at considerable cost.

The Russians have suffered heavy casualties and they also have suffered heavy equipment losses, the official said. The Russian forces are showing the signs of wear and tear, and debilitated morale, and it is impacting their ability to move forward swiftly.

U.S. officials this week promised the United States will provide $450 million more in security assistance to Ukraine, including more long-range rocket systems, on top of the $1 billion in assistance it announced a week ago.

The senior U.S. defense official said Friday that Ukrainian forces are training on the four additional High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) that are part of the just-announced package, and the U.S.-made systems should be entering the fight in Ukraine in the next several weeks.

With a range of about 70 kilometers, the HIMARS can reach twice as far as other mortar and artillery systems currently at the disposal of the Ukrainian military.

When you look at the actual distances that the Ukrainians would need to position their systems and the actual positions of the Russians that they are fighting in Donbas, they don't need more than that," the official said. That range [70 kilometers] will give them significant capability and significant advantage.

Meanwhile, a car bomb has killed a Moscow-imposed official in Ukraine's southeastern city of Kherson, which is occupied by Russian troops. Dmytro Savluchenko died after his car exploded Friday. He led the Directorate for Family, Youth, and Sports for the city's so-called military and civilian administration established by the occupying forces.



The senior official in the Russian-installed administration of Ukraine's occupied Kherson region was killed in an apparent assassination, the deputy head of the administration told Reuters.



In Brussels, European leaders met Friday to prepare for further cuts in Russian gas. They also discussed limiting the impact on inflation and seeking alternative supplies, accusing Moscow of "weaponizing" energy via a supply squeeze.



On Thursday, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to grant European Union candidate status to embattled Ukraine, pushing it one step closer to Western allies who have been supplying it with massive amounts of armaments to help it fight off Russia's four-month-old invasion. The vote favoring Ukraine was 529-45, with 14 abstentions.

In a joint televised message to the Ukrainian people, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy compared the EU decision to other historic moments in Ukraines past and said the process was irreversible.

Today, Ukraine is fighting for its freedom and this war began just when Ukraine declared its right to freedom, to choosing its own future, Zelenskyy said. We saw [that future] in the European Union.

Speaker of the Ukrainian parliament Ruslan Stefanchuk called the decision a powerful political message. It will be heard by soldiers in the trenches, every family that was forced to flee the war abroad, everyone who helps bring our victory closer, he said.

The European Parliament also approved EU candidacy for Georgia and Moldova.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. VOAs Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailed the European Unions decision to grant his country candidate status Friday, a key milestone in joining the bloc. Moldova was also granted accession candidate status.

EU officials described the move as historic but cautioned that both countries will have to make tough reforms before they become full members.

Historic

In a joint televised message to the Ukrainian people, Zelenskyy, flanked by the prime minister and the speaker of parliament, compared the EU decision to other historic moments in Ukraines history and said the process was irreversible.

Today, Ukraine is fighting for its freedom and this war began just when Ukraine declared its right to freedom, to choosing its own future, Zelenskyy said. We saw [that future] in the European Union.

Speaker of the Ukrainian parliament Ruslan Stefanchuk called the decision a powerful political message. It will be heard by soldiers in the trenches, every family that was forced to flee the war abroad, everyone who helps bring our victory closer, he said.

Reforms

EU leaders cautioned that the road to full membership for Ukraine and Moldova would not be easy.

The countries all have to do homework before moving to the next stage of the accession process, said EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen after the decision, referring to political and governmental reforms required before continuing the process.

On Thursday, von der Leyen expressed confidence that Ukraine and Moldova would move as swiftly as possible and work as hard as possible to implement the necessary reforms, not just because they are required to move ahead in the European accession path, but, first and foremost, because these reforms are good for the countries.

Those reforms will be difficult and will take time, says analyst Andi Hoxhaj, a fellow in European Union law at Britains University of Warwick.

Its about strengthening the rule of law and the judicial system. In addition, they would like to see a track record of applying an anti-oligarch law, meaning that they want to root out corruption as well as strengthen independent institutions," Hoxhaj told VOA. That will be a really challenging aspect.

Border uncertainty

For now, Ukraine is focused on repelling Russias invasion in the east. The outcome of war will likely also determine the EUs verdict on Ukrainian membership.

Will they be able to allow for a big country like Ukraine in, which still would have a lot of problems when it comes to its borders? Hoxhaj said.

Dashed hopes

Other former Soviet states are eyeing EU membership. Georgias hopes of joining Ukraine and Moldova were dashed as the EU demanded further reforms before granting the country candidacy status. Instead, the bloc said it formally recognized Georgias European perspective.

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili nevertheless said it was an incredibly historic step. Were ready to work with determination over the next months to reach the candidate status, Zourabichvili said.

North Macedonia has been a candidate for 17 years but its progress is being blocked by Bulgaria in a dispute over ethnicity and language. The feud is also blocking Albanias hopes of progressing toward EU accession.

Bulgarian lawmakers voted Friday to end its veto, but with certain conditions attached, which could yet be rejected by North Macedonia or the EU.

EU short-sighted

Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo also want to join the EU, but political crises have prevented Brussels from offering candidacy. Arton Demhasaj, the head of Kosovos Wake Up anti-corruption watchdog, said the EUs position is short-sighted.

If countries who aspire to join EU face delays, they will re-orientate their policies and then we will have an increase of Russian and Chinese influence in the western Balkans and this will create problems within the E.U. itself, Demhasaj told Reuters.

Hoxhaj of Warick University agrees.

Bosnia should have been offered a candidate status a long time ago, as well as Kosovo, because its preventing them from moving forward, Hoxhaj said. But its also allowing Russia to have a kind of influence in the Western Balkans, especially in Serbia as well as in Bosnia.

Kremlin reaction

Russia said Ukraines EU candidacy would not pose a threat but Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the West of seeking war.

When World War II was about to start, Hitler gathered most of the European countries under his banner. Now the EU and NATO are also gathering the same modern coalition for the fight and, by and large, for war with the Russian Federation, Lavrov said Friday during a visit to Azerbaijan.

NATO and the EU say they do not seek war with Russia and accuse Moscow of upending decades of peace in Europe with its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told an international conference on food security Friday that the world is facing the real risk of multiple famines this year and that 2023 could be even worse.

The war in Ukraine has compounded problems that have been brewing for years: climate disruption; the COVID-19 pandemic; the deeply unequal recovery, Guterres said by video message to the Uniting for Global Food Security ministerial conference in Berlin.

He said rising fuel and fertilizer prices are dramatically affecting the worlds farmers.

All harvests will be hit, including rice and corn  affecting billions of people across Asia, Africa and the Americas, Guterres said. This years food access issues could become next years global food shortage.

He warned that no country would be immune to the social and economic fallout.

Russias February 24 invasion of Ukraine has led to availability and supply chain disruptions. The United Nations says more than 36 countries get half or more of their grain supply from the Black Sea region.

In addition to destroying and stealing some Ukrainian grain, Russias military has blockaded the countrys key southern port of Odesa, preventing more than 20 million tons of Ukrainian grain from being exported. The Kremlin has also held back some of its own grain and fertilizer production from global markets, claiming Western sanctions are obstructing their export.

Nothing  nothing  is preventing food and fertilizer from leaving Russia, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said of the sanctions. And only one country is blocking food and fertilizer from leaving Ukraine and that is Russia.

Japans foreign minister noted that Russias own statistics show its wheat exports had doubled this May over last year.

Despite this, Russia is spreading disinformation to the contrary, Yoshimasa Hayashi said.

Ending the blockade

Guterres has been conducting intense, private diplomacy with Russia and Ukraine, as well as Turkey, which could soon host grain talks between the warring parties, and key actors the United States and European Union. His goal is a package deal that would let Ukraine export its grain, not only by land but also through the Black Sea, and would bring Russian food and fertilizer to world markets.

Getting the port of Odesa open and safely functioning again is a top priority.

We have got to get the port of Odesa open right now, World Food Program chief David Beasley told the conference. Failure to do so is a declaration of war on global food security  it is that simple.

The grain in the silos must be exported before it begins to rot. It also needs to be moved to make way for the next grain harvest that will begin in September.

In the meantime, neighbor Romania has been stepping up to help Kyiv get its grain out.

We are receiving Ukrainian grain by road, rail, sea and the Danube River, Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu told the meeting. Since the start of the invasion, the Romanian Black Sea port of Constanta, which is the largest port on the Black Sea, has become the main gateway for Ukrainian grain shipments to the outside world.

He said Romania is working to make Constanta a European food hub and increase its processing capacity. In 2021, he said more than 25 million tons of grain were exported through Constanta.

The African continent has been badly hit by the impacts of the grain and fertilizer shortages, as many of those nations receive large quantities of these imports from the Black Sea region.

My country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, it had to lift value added tax on basic foods, had to subsidize products such as fuel, in order to avoid uprisings as a consequence of the general price increases, said Minister of Planning Christian Mwando Nsimba Kabulo. Of course, this has enormous consequences for the national budget of my country, and it makes the efforts for greater resilience more difficult.

There is a straight line between the actions in the war in Ukraine and the suffering we see in the [global] South, U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said.

Action and announcements of assistance for the most vulnerable nations are expected in the coming days, as members of the worlds largest economies meet in Germany for the G-7 summit.
A U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Friday that held there is no constitutional right to an abortion generated a tsunami of emotion across the United States. Religious conservatives celebrated the attainment of a long-held goal while abortion-rights advocates warned that millions of American women will now face daunting obstacles to receiving what many consider a basic health care service.

Demonstrators outside the Supreme Court cheered, booed, and wept as Americans across the country began to prepare for a future in which a womans right to abort a pregnancy  protected for nearly 50 years by the courts 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade  will be eliminated or sharply curtailed in more than half of the 50 states.

In more than a dozen states, restrictions on abortion were expected to take effect almost immediately due either to trigger laws meant to come into effect with the overturning of Roe, or laws already on the books that were not enforced because of the protections Roe afforded.

In all, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a womens health research organization, eventually 26 states are certain or likely to ban abortion to the fullest extent possible.

In some states this will include measures banning abortion with no exception for rape or incest, bringing criminal prosecutions against medical professionals who perform abortions, and bringing criminal prosecutions against women who have abortions.

Activists react

It's truly an atrocity, said Heather Shumaker, director of state abortion access at the National Women's Law Center. We are yet to see the chaos that's going to be unleashed in this country from this decision.

Every day women are seeking abortion care, she told VOA. They need help from their families and their friends and their trusted partners and providers to get that care. And the court has essentially put all of that into jeopardy with this decision. Clinics are going to be closing. Those who help people get abortions could be threatened with lawsuits, people are going to be increasingly criminalized and policed.  I don't think that the country truly knows what to expect yet.

By contrast Steven Aden, general counsel for Americans United for Life, told VOA that he experienced euphoria when the decision was announced, and called on abortion rights supporters to accept the ruling.

The pro-life movement extends its hand across the aisle, to those on the pro-abortion side, and we call on them to recognize what abortion really is and does to women and to life in the womb so that we can forge a new America, one that's not divided over the right to kill children in the womb, he said.

Patchwork of laws

By making the federal government silent on the question of abortion and throwing the issue to the states, the ruling guarantees a patchwork of abortion laws across the country. The procedure is expected to remain broadly available in the Northeast, on the Pacific Coast, and in some states in the interior of the country, including Illinois, Colorado and New Mexico.

In areas of the Deep South and Midwest, however, there will be little or no access to abortion services. Women seeking care could face journeys of hundreds of miles  which virtually guarantees that many will carry unwanted pregnancies to term. This will be particularly true for women without significant financial resources and support networks, a population in which minority groups are disproportionately represented, according to the U.S. Census.

There will also be variations among states in the way abortion laws are enforced. In some cases, it will be the job of law enforcement agencies to bring charges against people found to be in violation of the law.

In other states, including Texas and Oklahoma, enforcement is delegated to private citizens. Those states have given individual citizens the right to sue people involved in an abortion procedure that is against the law. This tactic was originally devised when Roe remained in force, because it made it difficult or impossible to challenge the legislation in federal court.

Warnings of negative consequences

Professor Tracey A. Weitz, an American University sociologist, told VOA that research has clearly established that women who want an abortion but are unable to get one experience a wide range of negative outcomes in the next five years.

Those women were more likely to have poor economic consequences, more bankruptcies, more evictions, more financial problems, she said. The children that they had, and the children they already had, are more likely to suffer economic and social consequences. People were more likely to stay in relationships with violent partners, and they were more likely to suffer health consequences and, in some cases, death.

Weitz said that these problems will hit the poorest Americans the hardest.

Wealthier American will be able to travel to access abortion services, she said.

The people who will be left having the children that they did not anticipate and know that they cannot care for will be people who already suffer from the structures of oppression, she said. They're more likely to be people of color and more likely to be low income.

Anti-abortion safety net

Even as they celebrated the ruling, some anti-abortion organizations acknowledged that by restricting abortion rights, states would create a heightened need for services among women who carry unwanted pregnancies to term.

Over the next few years we will have the opportunity to save hundreds of thousands, even millions of lives by limiting the horror of abortion in many states, said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, in a prepared statement. In this mission of justice and mercy, we redouble our commitment to women and families.

Dannenfelser called for the expansion of a pro-life safety net for pregnant women and their families.

Republicans supportive of ruling

The Supreme Courts landmark ruling in Dobbs is courageous and correct, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, said in a statement. This is an historic victory for the Constitution and for the most vulnerable in our society.

Millions of Americans have spent half a century praying, marching, and working toward todays historic victories for the rule of law and for innocent life, he added. I have been proud to stand with them throughout our long journey and I share their joy today.

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy called the decision the most important pro-life ruling in American history.

He added, The right to life has been vindicated. The voiceless will finally have a voice. This great nation can now live up to its core principle that all are created equal  not born equal  created.

Democrats decry it

President Joe Biden on Friday called the courts ruling the realization of an extreme ideology and a tragic error. He noted that it is the first time the court has acted to take away a constitutionally protected right.

Biden said the federal right to an abortion could be restored legislatively, but acknowledged that in a closely divided Congress in which Democrats broadly support abortion rights and Republican broadly do not, a law codifying the protections of Roe was unlikely to pass. He called on supporters of abortion access to vote with the issue of abortion access in mind in Novembers midterm elections.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, offered a similar call to voters.

A womans fundamental health decisions are her own to make, in consultation with her doctor and her loved ones  not to be dictated by far-right politicians, Pelosi said in a statement. While Republicans seek to punish and control women, Democrats will keep fighting ferociously to enshrine Roe v. Wade into law.

Calling the ruling cruel  outrageous and heart-wrenching, she added, But make no mistake: the rights of women and all Americans are on the ballot this November.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday overruled a constitutional right to abortion in America, leaving it to states to decide whether to permit the procedure that has been legal nationwide for five decades.



The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, Associate Justice Samuel Alito wrote in his majority opinion, joined by four other conservative justices. It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the peoples elected representatives.

The ruling came less than two months after an early draft of Alitos decision was leaked to a news site, setting off nationwide protests by abortion-rights activists.



While the high court's overturning of its 1973 ruling in the case known as Roe v. Wade and a separate case called Planned Parenthood v. Casey does not impose a ban on abortion, its legal impact will ripple through the country almost immediately.

The Guttmacher Institute, an abortion-rights research group, estimates that 26 states, mostly in the South and Midwest, will ban abortion in the wake of Roe v. Wade's repeal. That could force millions of women seeking abortions to travel to states where abortion rights are protected.



[O]ne result of todays decision is certain: the curtailment of womens rights, and of their status as free and equal citizens, wrote Associate Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, the courts liberal members, in a spirited dissent.



At the White House, President Joe Biden condemned the ruling but implored protesters to remain peaceful.

Lets be very clear: The health and life of women in this nation are now at risk, Biden said. Its a sad day for the country.



In a statement, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department strongly disagrees with the courts decision and will work tirelessly to protect and advance reproductive freedom.

The Supreme Court's ruling came in a closely watched case involving a Mississippi law that bans nearly all abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy, several weeks before the cutoff stage established under Roe v. Wade.



Jackson Women's Health Organization, the only abortion clinic in Mississippi, challenged the 2018 law in federal court, arguing that it would violate nearly 50 years of Supreme Court precedent.

After two lower courts sided with the clinic, the state of Mississippi, backed by 25 other Republican-controlled states, went to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the justices to overturn both Roe and Casey. Their petition claimed that "nothing" in the Constitution "supports a right to abortion."

Six of the high court justices, all appointed by Republican presidents, agreed. Chief Justice John Roberts concurred in upholding the Mississippi law but indicated he would not have gone further in ending the constitutional right to abortion.

Few issues in America are as divisive as abortion. For the past 50 years, American conservatives, driven by a desire to protect unborn life, have campaigned against the Roe v. Wade ruling. But they lacked the votes on the high court to overturn it.

That changed after Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election and put three abortion-rights opponents on the high court. That gave conservatives a 6-3 majority on the powerful court, raising the likelihood that abortion rights would be overturned.

Trump reacted with jubilation to Fridays ruling, saying in a statement, Todays decision, which is the biggest WIN for LIFE in a generation, along with other decisions that have been announced recently, were only made possible because I delivered everything as promised, including nominating and getting three highly respected and strong Constitutionalists confirmed to the United States Supreme Court."



Generally, the Supreme Court follows principles established in its prior rulings, a doctrine known as stare decisis. The dissenting justices wrote that the ruling violated this long-standing legal precept.

But Alito said that there are circumstances where a precedent can be and has been overturned. In a landmark ruling in 1954, for example, the Supreme Court invalidated an 1896 decision that had legalized racial segregation in the United States, Alito noted.



Alito wrote that the court's ruling was limited to abortion and would not affect other rights. But liberal critics of the decision worry the decision will open the door to overturn other rights recognized by the Supreme Court.



"If you strike down a law based on a fundamental disagreement with the legal reasoning that underpins it, the same exact arguments will allow the other decisions to be overturned," said Caroline Fredrickson, a law professor at Georgetown University and a senior fellow at the left-leaning Brennan Center for Justice.

Although Fridays ruling did not come as a surprise after the draft opinion had been leaked, it set off a tidal wave of reaction in Washington and across America.



This is a great day for preborn children and their mothers, Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life, a prominent group opposing abortion rights, said in a statement. The Court has correctly decided that a right to abortion is not in the [C]onstitution, thereby allowing the people, through their elected representatives, to have a voice in this very important decision.



Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, hailed the ruling as courageous and correct and an historic victory for the Constitution and for the most vulnerable in our society.



Today is one of the darkest days our country has ever seen, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in a statement. Millions upon millions of American women are having their rights taken from them by five unelected justices.

This decision is the worst-case scenario, but it is not the end of this fight. The 8 in 10 Americans who support the legal right to abortion will not let this stand, Mini Timmaraju, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, a leading abortion rights group, said in a statement. There is an election in November, and extremist politicians will learn: When you come for our rights, we come for your seats.

News of the ruling made headlines across the globe. While the Vatican's Academy for Life praised the Supreme Court's decision as a challenge to the world to reflect on life issues, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called it "a huge blow to women's human rights and gender equality."



In a statement, Bachelet added, "More than 50 countries with previously restrictive laws have liberalized their abortion legislation over the past 25 years. With today's ruling, the U.S. is regrettably moving away from this progressive trend."



In anticipation of the ruling, states across the country, depending on their legislatures' ideological leanings, have been changing their abortion rules.



In conservative states, in addition to passing "trigger laws" designed to take effect after Roe is overturned, lawmakers have moved to tighten restrictions on abortion, with Oklahoma enacting a law in March that bans abortion at any point during pregnancy.



For their part, some liberal-leaning states have responded by passing legislation to expand access to abortion, with some states considering laws that would allow nurses to carry out the procedure.



The court ruling came despite growing public acceptance of abortion. A Gallup Poll conducted after the court's draft decision was leaked in May indicated that 55% of Americans identified as "pro-choice," the highest level of such sentiment since the mid-1990s.



Still, abortion remains a politically divisive issue that is likely to live on well past Roe's demise. Abortion-rights groups are gearing up to challenge new state bans and restrictions in state courts, setting off protracted legal battles.



"Part of the issue is that you have to find some protections within the state constitutions in order to bring these cases," said Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the Guttmacher Institute.



Complicating efforts to challenge state abortion bans, four states  Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee and West Virginia  have passed constitutional amendments that say the state constitution does not recognize the right to abortion, Nash noted. In two others  Kansas and Kentucky  voters are expected to cast ballots on the issue later this year.
A movie theater owner in the western U.S. state of Oklahoma said the theater never carried out a plan to fast forward through a same-sex kiss in a newly released Disney/Pixar film.

The theater had posted a warning sign about the kiss and its intention to fast forward through the brief kissing scene in Lightyear, part of the Toy Story franchise.

The sign said that management found out about the kiss between two women after booking the film, adding that, We will do all we can to fast-forward through that scene, but it might not be exact.

Instead, the owner of the theater in Kingfisher told local television station KOCO 5 that the plan to interrupt the film was never executed in any of the showings of the film.

Some countries have banned the film because of the kiss.
John Kirby, the former Pentagon spokesperson, told VOAs Ukrainian service on Thursday the United States is focused on making sure that Ukraine can continue to defend itself and its sovereignty.

Kirby, who recently became the coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council, said since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, the United States has provided nearly $6 billion worth of assistance, including military equipment, such as HIMARS, high mobility artillery rocket systems.

Ukraine determines what operations they're going to conduct. And that's their right to the material that they get from the United States. [It is] now theirs. It's Ukrainian property, and they get to determine how they're going to use it, Kirby said.

Here is the interview, edited for brevity and clarity.

VOA: We know that American HIMARS [High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems] arrived today in Ukraine. What impact do we expect them to make on a battlefield at this stage?

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby: The big difference that these HIMARS, which stands for High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, can make is distance, its range. It's giving the Ukrainians the benefit of farther standoff from Russian forces as they continue to fight them every single day which is now a much more concentrated geographic area.

VOA: The United States is providing Ukraine unprecedented levels of military assistance. Still, some in Kyiv and Washington are saying it's not enough, it's not fast enough. Do you think the administration is providing enough weapons to Ukraine to make a difference on the battlefield?

Kirby: All these systems are making a difference. Even today, they're making a difference. And the Ukrainians will tell you that, and it's not just the big systems. It's the small arms and ammunition, which they're using literally every day in this fight with the Russians. So it's already making an impact. And we're obviously the largest donor of security assistance to Ukraine or any other nation around the world ... almost $6 billion since the beginning of the invasion. So it's a lot of material that's going in and the president has made clear that we're committed to continuing that assistance going forward.

VOA: Should we expect more HIMARS to be sent to Ukraine? And what is the absolute maximum amount that United States can provide HIMARS and MLRS [multiple launch rocket systems], given its own stocks?

Kirby: I do think you'll continue to see systems like HIMARS going in in future deliveries. I think that that's very likely. I don't want to get ahead of specific announcements here. But again, the president was very clear with [Ukrainian] President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy. So once again, we're going to help them as much as we can as fast as we can. And I'll tell you, the material is going in at record speed.  It's just unprecedented the speed with which security assistance is actually reaching the front lines in Ukraine. There's literally shipments going in every single day. And it's not just from the United States, we are the biggest donor. But more than 40 other nations around the world are also contributing security assistance in some type of form to Ukraine. [U.S. Defense] Secretary [Lloyd] Austin just held the most recent Ukraine contact group in Brussels last week, almost 50 nations showed up, not just from Europe, but from around the world, to look at ways they can continue to continue to support Ukraine and their ability to defend themselves.

VOA: John, could you please clarify what the Biden Administration is giving Ukraine weapons for: to defend themselves or to be able to defeat Russian forces, push them outside Ukraine and ultimately win the war?

Kirby: We are really focused on making sure that Ukraine can continue to defend itself and its sovereignty, its people, its territorial integrity. And, obviously, the Ukrainians are in this fight. They determine what operations they're going to conduct. And that's their right. The material that they get from the United States is now theirs. It's Ukrainian property, and they get to determine how they're going to use it. Now, obviously, we want to see Ukraine's sovereignty fully respected, we want to see Ukraine's territorial integrity fully restored. But how that gets determined, and it should be determined by Mr. [Russian President Vladimir] Putin ending this war. But Mr. Zelenskyy is going to get to determine what victory looks like.

VOA: If Ukrainians determined that they want to win this war, push Russians back to the February 23 lines, would you also support that and for them to use the provided weapons to conduct counteroffensives?

Kirby: Well, Ukrainians are already conducting counteroffensives in their own country. I mean, look at what they've been doing in the south, look at Khakiv in the north, where the Russians almost had the city completely encircled [and] Ukrainians pushed them away, pushed them back toward the border. Mr. Zelinskyy is the commander in chief of his armed forces. We respect that. He gets to determine how he's going to use those forces and how he's going to define victory. Our job is to make sure that he has the tools available to him to do that in the most efficient, effective way.

VOA: Is the administration preparing for this war to become a protracted war? We hear [NATO Secretary-General Jens] Stoltenberg say that we should expect this war to last for a long time. What is the expectation on American side?

Kirby: Once Mr. Putin decided to concentrate on the Donbas, you heard American officials say almost from the very beginning, that this was the potential. That there could be a prolonged fight here in the Donbas region. We have to remember, this is a part of Ukraine that the Russians and Ukrainians have been fighting over literally since 2014. We tend to think of Feb. 24 as a watershed moment, and it was, but Ukrainian soldiers were dying, fighting and dying for their country years before that. So this is a part of the country that both armies know well, and both are digging in. The Russians are making incremental but not consistent progress. Ukrainians are pushing back. And it certainly could end up being a prolonged conflict.

VOA: July 9 will mark 60 days since [U.S.] President [Joe] Biden signed into law the Lend-Lease Act [which would expedite the process of sending military aid to Ukraine]. When is the United States planning to use this mechanism, and would weapons the United States would be sending through this mechanism be any different from what the United States is sending right now?

Kirby: We certainly welcome the support that Congress gave with additional authorities to help Ukraine defend itself. We're still working our way through that particular act and, sort of, what authorities and capabilities might help us provide Ukraine. In the meantime, we're already continuing to flow a lot of material through drawdown authority, just pulling it from our own stocks. We have the authorities to do that. The president's not been bashful about using that. And you're going to continue to see those flow going forward. We got a supplemental request of some $40 million from Congress just a few weeks ago, not all of it for security assistance, but a lot of it is. And we also have authorities through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. This is authorities, and we just used some last week, where the Department of Defense can go contract for items that go directly to Ukraine. So there's an awful lot of tools available in the toolbox. And we're open-minded about using all of them.

VOA: There are some reports indicating that American intelligence agencies have less information than they would like about Ukrainian operations, personnel and equipment losses. Does this administration see this as an issue in the context of providing military aid for Ukraine?

Kirby: I'd rather not talk about intelligence matters here, in an interview. I would just tell you that the relationship with the Ukrainian armed forces is very, very strong. And we're talking to them literally almost every single day, at various levels, all the way up to the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff down to working staff levels, including military-to-military contact. And the idea of those conversations is to help give us a better idea of what Ukraine needs in the fight. One of the things we didn't talk about was, when we talked about aid and how much they're getting and how fast you're getting it is, we're doing this in parcels, so that deliberately so that we can continue to give them assistance in ways that are relevant to the fight that they're in. And the Ukrainians have been very honest and open with us about the fight that they're in and what they need. And they've been honest with the rest of the world. And so those conversations are going to continue. And that's what really matters.

VOA: We heard from Secretary Austin and [U.S.] Secretary [of State Antony] Blinken that they want to see Ukraine win, that they want to see Ukraine prevail. Is it still the position of the administration?

Kirby: Of course, we want Ukraine to succeed on the battlefield, and we want them to succeed at the negotiating table, if and when it comes to that. Now, obviously, we're not at that stage right now. But we believe that President Zelenskyy is the one who gets to determine what victory looks like. I mean, it's his country. He's the commander in chief, and we respect him. Unlike the Russians, we respect the decision by the Ukrainian voters to elect him into office. And we respect his leadership and his responsibilities.

VOA: What results is President Biden expecting from his visit to Europe  G-7 (Group of Seven) summit, NATO summit. What is the major expectation?

Kirby: This is a very exciting trip. A year ago, when President Biden was at the G-7, and he's now attended several NATO summits, the theme in the past has been, look, America is back, American leadership is back. And now I think, without getting into specific deliverables ahead of these meetings, I can tell you that we're very much looking forward to a theme of, now it's American leadership delivering, delivering for our allies and partners, delivering for the American people, producing results that will actually improve our national security, help with energy security at home and around the world, and also continue to impose costs and consequences on Mr. Putin for this unprovoked war.

VOA: Russias envoy in Afghanistan said Moscow can recognize the Taliban government, regardless of the American position. Do you think this kind of move by Russia could further worsen the relationship between Moscow and Washington?

Kirby: I think there's enough tension between the United States and Russia right now that that we need to continue to focus on what Mr. Putin has done for security across the European continent and, quite frankly, across the globe. Russia can speak for themselves in terms of what governments they intend to recognize or not, we are not at a stage where we're willing to do that with respect to the Taliban. What we would ask of any nation in the world, certainly any nation bordering Afghanistan is to not make decisions that are going to make it less stable and less secure than it is right now for the Afghan people.

VOA: The White House says Biden's upcoming meeting with [Saudi] King Salman and Prince [Mohammed] bin Salman will advance national security interests. What's the rationale for where the White House decides that national interests trump objections to authoritarian leaders? And do you see that anytime in the foreseeable future where the White House might decide it's in national interest to sit down even with Putin?

Kirby: Well, the president has spoken to Vladimir Putin, spoke to him before the invasion. The president will speak, he will meet, he will discuss with any leader around the world things that he believes are in the national security interests of the American people. That's his job as commander in chief and he takes that responsibility seriously. And I would, you know, go back on some of the critics here, I mean, the fact that an adherence to values and human rights and civil rights is somehow at odds with a pragmatic foreign policy is just foolishness. They go hand in hand, they have to go hand in hand. And the president has been very clear that our foreign policy is going to be rooted in values and he's never bashful about espousing and advancing those values as he meets with leaders around the world. The two go hand in hand they have to.
When the top leaders of NATO countries meet next week in Spain, the discussion will be dominated by the Ukraine war and how to deter further Russian aggression in Europe.

But in the latest sign the Western military alliance is trying to expand its focus eastward, the NATO summit will also deal with the challenges posed by China, perhaps in a more direct way than any of its previous meetings.

For the first time, the NATO summit will include the top leaders of four Asian countries: Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. None are NATO members, but each is wary of Chinas growing influence and coercion.

Since 2020, NATO has stepped up cooperation with the four Asian democracies, which it refers to as Asia-Pacific partners."

The engagement underscores a profound shift in the scope and priorities of NATO, which was meant to focus on the collective defense of its North American and European member states.

But Chinas growing global presence, as well as its expanding military cooperation with Russia, has made it much harder for NATO to ignore.

While there is no talk of NATO accepting Asian countries as members, the alliances new Asia focus will likely endure, according to many observers.

I do not expect that NATO will now expand into the Indo-Pacific and create a new Asian NATO kind of organization, said Zsuzsa Anna Ferenczy, a former political adviser in the European Parliament.

I do expect, though, that cooperation with [Asian] countries that face the growing threat of China's economic coercion and aggressive behavior  will converge more and more with European democracies as well as the United States, said Ferenczy, assistant professor at National Dong Hwa University in Taiwan.

Europe sours on China

NATOs eastward shift reflects not only an intensified U.S.-China rivalry, but also changing European attitudes toward Beijing.

For decades, Europe prioritized stable ties with China, which in 2020 overtook the United States as the European Unions biggest trading partner.

But European views of China have soured under the leadership of Chinese Communist Party chief Xi Jinping, whose government has become more authoritarian at home and more aggressive abroad.

Under Xi, China has obliterated democratic opposition in Hong Kong, increased military threats against democratically ruled Taiwan, and been accused of genocide against Uighur Muslims.

Xi has also steadily expanded Chinas military presence beyond its shores, most notably in the South China Sea, where it has created military outposts over the objections of its neighbors, which have overlapping territorial claims with China.

As part of its new wolf warrior approach to diplomacy, China has made clear it will retaliate against countries that criticize Beijing or enact policies that go against its wishes.

After Lithuania opened a de facto embassy in Taiwan, which Beijing views as its own territory, China downgraded diplomatic ties and imposed what some say amounts to a trade boycott. The unannounced embargo affected not only Lithuanian products, but also other European countries goods that incorporated Lithuanian components.

The pandemic has also helped worsen Europe-China relations. China has been accused of not cooperating sufficiently with a World Health Organization investigation into the origins of the coronavirus, which first appeared in central China. Instead, Chinese government-controlled media have suggested the virus originated elsewhere, such as the United States or Italy.

Changing NATO approach

Europes growing skepticism of China can also be observed in NATOs recent history.

In 2019, China was included for the first time in a NATO statement  but only in a single sentence saying Beijing presents both opportunities and challenges.

By 2021, NATOs tone had shifted. A joint communique issued in Brussels said China presents systemic challenges to the rules-based international order.

The statement also slammed Chinas coercive policies, opaque military modernization, use of disinformation, and military exercises with Russia in the Euro-Atlantic area.

A major reason for NATOs more combative tone is the Ukraine war, which coincided with Beijing and Moscow declaring a no limits partnership.

Just weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine, Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Beijing, where they announced a broad plan to counter Western influence around the world.

Since Russias invasion, China has attempted to portray itself as a neutral party. But many European observers are not convinced, noting China has consistently defended Russia from global criticism and instead blamed Washington for engaging in a "Cold War mindset" that provoked Moscow.

Pierre Morcos, a visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the Ukraine conflict has confirmed the growing strategic rapprochement between China and Russia.

The war in Ukraine has also demonstrated that the Euro-Atlantic area and the Indo-Pacific region are deeply inter-connected. A crisis in a region can have deep impacts on the other one, he said.

That explains why like-minded Asian countries are eager to play an active role in supporting Ukraine and pushing back against Russia, Morcos said.

I think that we will see growing coordination and consultations between NATO and these countries in the future notably to discuss the aftershocks of the war in Ukraine but also exchange about Chinas capacities and activities, he added.

Speaking at a forum earlier this week, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg insisted the alliance does not regard China as an adversary. However, he suggested the coming summit would result in a statement acknowledging China poses some challenges to our values, to our interests, [and] to our security.

China has responded angrily to NATOs eastward focus. At a Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry briefing Thursday, spokesperson Wang Wenbin accused NATO of engaging in a highly dangerous effort to create hostile blocs in Asia.

NATO has already disrupted stability in Europe, he said. It should not try to do the same to the Asia-Pacific and the whole world.
PRAY, Mont. - Governor Greg Gianforte celebrated the reopening of the US Highway 89 bridge and visited with local businesses in Paradise Valley that have been impacted by the flooding on Thursday.

Gov. Gianforte said, "89 is a lifeline to Gardiner and all of Paradise Valley traffic started going across this bridge just in the last hour. This is tremendous just praise for the Montana Department of Transportation and the private contractors who worked 13 hours shifts hauling 5,000 tons of rock to get that open back up because they knew how important that was."

The Governor drove up to the Yankee Jim Canyon area of Paradise Valley and met with Montana Department of Transportation officials and employees with Riverside Contracting who have been working tirelessly to reopen US-89 to regular traffic.

On Thursday afternoon US 89 officially open to the public at lower speeds, restoring faster access to Gardiner.

After touring the newly reconstructed highway, Gov. Gianforte visited with Colin Davis, owner of Chico Hot Springs, to discuss tourism and recreation opportunities this summer in Paradise Valley.

Since the flood hit the area last week, the resort has seen 25 percent of its reservations cancel for the summer.

"There is still this misconception that the park is in shambles and roads are closed. We just opened the rivers yesterday, the park service opened all the trailheads... I mean there is absolutely everything you can do in the park and we are an area that surrounds the park," Chico Hot Springs Resort and Day Spa Owner Colin Davis said.

Davis explained this time of year the resort lobby and hot spring are usually crowded but on Thursday visitors were sparse.

More information and to book a stay at Chico Hot Springs can be found here.

The section of Highway 89 from Gardiner to Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park is still closed due to flood damage.
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was created in 1973 by the Helsinki Accords. It can only take a decision unanimously. It is, by definition, a neutral forum allowing all European States to discuss among themselves regarding the protection of their security.

However, in the course of the special Russian military operation in Ukraine, new OSCE officials were caught in Donbass in the act of spying. They were expelled by the President of the Lugansk Peoples Republic [1].

The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly will hold its 29th annual meeting from 2 to 6 July 2022 in Birmingham (United Kingdom). London has just refused the necessary entry visas to the Russian delegation, thus preventing it from participating in the discussions, on the grounds that all its members are subject to European Union sanctions because of their support for their countrys invasion of Ukraine.

This decision contravenes the declaration adopted at the 2016 OSCE Assembly, requiring member states to issue the visas or authorizations necessary to enter the territory of their country, at least for the duration of the event. It hampers the correct functioning of the OSCE. The International Affairs Committee of the Council of the Russian Federation has made it known that, under these circumstances, it will not recognize the decisions taken by this assembly in its absence.
Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano. Photo: Lucasfilm. Ltd.

An Ahsoka Tano show has been a long time coming for Star Wars fans. After making her debut as Anakins young Padawan in the animated series The Clone Wars, George Lucass last Star Wars effort, Ahsokas journey has been a high-climbing roller coaster with high highs (becoming one of the franchises most beloved and developed characters) and low lows (receiving extremely contentious fan reactions). Originally voiced by Ashley Eckstein, the character was drawn and created by artist Dave Filoni, now Lucasfilms executive creative director,for Clone Wars. Since her inception, the character has been shepherded from many seasons of Clone Wars to Star Wars Rebels and recently into The Mandalorian universe as he and his Ahsoka, now played by Rosario Dawson, make the leap from animation to live action. Here, everything we know about the upcoming, highly anticipated Star Wars series.

Ahsoka will be released in 2023.

Lets get to your most burning question first, shall we? No exact date has been announced for Filonis live-action series, but it will come as soon as next year alongside The Mandalorian season three. During Star Wars Celebration in May 2022, Dawson told fans she had literally just come from the Ahsoka set to be at the Anaheim convention for the Mando+ panel. So its probably safe to say that Ahsoka will be released on Disney+ after The Mandalorian season-three premiere in February 2023.

Who is in the series?

Aside from Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka, Dave Filoni officially announced Natasha Liu Bordizzo has joined the cast as Sabine Wren, another prominent character from Star Wars Rebels (voiced by Tiya Sircar) at Star Wars Celebration. Reports from The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline have confirmed that Ray Stevenson and Ivanna Sakhno will be in the series. Stevenson is rumored to be playing a villain, possibly an admiral for the rising First Order, while Sakhnos role is unknown. There are also rumors that Hayden Christensen may return as Darth Vader for Ahsoka, according to THR. Shortly after the news broke in October 2021, Dawson commented on her Instagram with the caption Skyguy  They know!!! See you soon, Snips. (Skyguy and Snips are their characters nicknames for each other in The Clone Wars.) She quickly deleted the post. Dawson later told Vanity Fair for its June 2022 Star Wars cover story that she deleted the post after someone from Star Wars HQ emailed her saying, You might want to take that down.

But Dawson isnt the only one who may have let things slip. Ewan McGregor pretty nonchalantly confirmed in the VF cover story that his wife, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, would join Ahsoka. My partner, Mary, is doing that Star Wars series with Rosario and shes about to start, he spilled. Our little boy has been born into this massive Star Wars family. Though, unfortunately, McGregor didnt go as far as saying whom shell play. Oh, and how could we forget that Chopper the droid will make his live-action debut.

.@rosariodawson brought a friend. The #StarWarsCelebration crowd says hello to Chopper!



Chopper will make his live-action debut in #Ahsoka! pic.twitter.com/vxI6VUqWTv  The Mandalorian (@themandalorian) May 28, 2022

What do we know about the plot of Ahsoka?

The plot of Ahsoka has largely been kept under wraps  that is, until footage at Star Wars Celebration confirmed fan speculation. Ahsoka and Sabine are searching for Ezra Bridger, baby! In a short teaser shown exclusively for the Mando+ panel crowd, fans saw Ahsoka enter a ship, very similar to the Ghost, as she passes by an obscured character with green head tails thats most likely Hera  a pilot from Rebels whom fans have been speculating may be played by Winstead. The footage ended with Ahsoka in front of the Rebels mural as Bordizzos Sabine walks in to join her. Now, what the hell does this mean if youre unfamiliar with Rebels? Or Ezra? To keep it short, the finale of the Rebels animated series featured a huge face-off between the Ghost crew (a.k.a. the ones in the mural below) and the Empire. Protagonist-Jedi Ezra saves his planet and friends by flinging himself and Grand Admiralblue Empire baddie Thrawn into space with the help of some Purrgil space whales. (I promise its more emotional in context.) Since the shows finale way back in 2018, fans have been waiting for a continuation show with Sabine and Ahsoka on the hunt for Ezra. Now, the pieces are all coming together for Ahsoka.

A live-action recreation of the mural at the end of Star Wars Rebels is shown in the Ahsoka footage! pic.twitter.com/xxdGOOvqzx  Star Wars Holocron (@sw_holocron) May 28, 2022

When is Ahsoka set in the Star Wars timeline?

While Star Wars Rebels takes place about five years before the events of A New Hope, the new Ahsoka series will presumably pick up after her appearance in The Mandalorian season two. The Mandalorian series is set five years after the events in Return of the Jedi.
Photo: Giorgio Perottino/Getty Images Ukrainian band Kalush Orchestra

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) announced that Ukraine can no longer host the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest due to the invasion from Russia, according to The Hollywood Reporter. In a statement, the competition said, in terms of security and operational guarantees, the necessary requirements for hosting, as set out in the rules of the Eurovision Song Contest are not met. The previous years winner normally hosts the following competition in their home country; Ukrainian band Kalush Orchestra won this years Eurovision. However, there is a force majeure rule for when it is unsafe to host, another country will be chosen. Taking all of this into account the EBU, with regret, made its decision to move the event to another country and will continue discussions on finding a suitable location for next years Eurovision Song Contest, stated the EBU.

There have been only five times when a winning country did not host the following years competition; however, none of the five declined to host due to war. In 1960, the Netherlands declined to host after already hosting two years before; France made a similar decision in 1963 and Luxembourg in 1974. Monaco was unable to host after not being able to find a suitable venue in 1972. Israel declined to host after winning twice in 1978 and 1979.

Russia was unable to participate in competing this year due to its invasion of Ukraine, and its safe to assume they will probably not be invited to participate next year.
For All Mankind All In Season 3 Episode 3 Editors Rating 3 stars * * *  Previous Next  Previous Episode Next Episode  Photo: Patrick McElhenney/Apple+

The third episode of this season is all about maneuvering  even more than is usual on For All Mankind. Nearly every interaction is a play in miniature about one person attempting to impose their will on another, and how the other responds, typically by sticking to their guns. Theres a ton of exposition and contextualization that needs to happen before we can get to the Mars adventures weve been promised. Of course, we cant do space stuff without a healthy dose of complex interpersonal (and in one very significant case, international) dynamics, so strap in! Again!

Helioss announcement of their plan to launch their Mars mission in 1994 pushes NASA and the Soviets to do likewise; in turn, the Soviets need for Margos help with the flaws in their nuclear engines cooling system leads them to try to force her to divulge the details that would ensure their mission success. It doesnt seem as though Helioss prime objective is to throw down a gauntlet at the feet of the two biggest state-sponsored space exploration apparatuses, but the U.S. immediately following suit (with the USSR hot on their heels) makes for an almost giddy problem-solving atmosphere at NASA. We dont get a hypothesis-test-evaluate-iterate competence-porn montage, but the buzz of at least a dozen conversations erupting around the conference room meeting table the second Margo gives the go-ahead is close enough.

The sequence of repeated vignettes that we do get  between Margo and Sergei in a hotel elevator in London at the Space Geniuses annual conference  is fantastic, though. Remember when I said this show has unexpectedly strong Jane Austen vibes? Theyre back in this cold open! Years-long mutual pining! Pinkie fingers brushing together so lightly that you might think it didnt happen at all! Significant glances! Awkward but socially and politically sanctioned running away! The near-identical sequence of tiny moments unfurls four times with only the tiniest variations. It almost begins to feel like a precious gem of a time loop. The elevator is a liminal space, a floating vestibule in a hotel, which is a way station playing host to a conference, which is itself a little carve-out in space and time, a seemingly apolitical annual international summit. We get rocket science as diplomacy as well as a dizzyingly high-stakes competition. And also flirtation progressing with all the deliberate speed of geologic time.

In 1992, Margo and Sergei work up the nerve to take their little time-out beyond the cocoon of the elevator. Can it be? Is it all happening? Once inside Margos suite, Sergei steels himself after a moment of cold feet but waits for Margos direct and unmistakable invitation to pivot from chummy colleagues having one more subtext-laden round of drinks to long-term super long-distance intense yearning partners who are finally, finally, finally going to smooch. As a longtime connoisseur of onscreen kissing, I can categorically state that Sergeis moves  a mix of exquisitely tender and utterly frantic  are very good. Aside from how both he and we know hes using a genuinely longed-for moment with Margo against her to gain access to the nuclear something-or-other, I rate this performance 18/10, with no further notes on form, content, or technique.

However. Sergei knows Margo, and so he also knows that this is likely his one and only shot with her in this lifetime, because when she figures out that hes trying to pull a little honeypot maneuver on her, shell be furious. Sergei knows the gambit wont work and is far too decent to go through with it, so he comes clean, asking outright for the information he needs, which Margo declines to give. Before Margo can throw him out, though, the KGB swoop in to try to blackmail her into divulging the information they need. After decades of watching spy shows and movies where the blackmail victim is instantly cowed by the prospect of public shame and/or prosecution, its a treat to see Margo being singularly unimpressed with their bush-league kompromat. This is the KGBs A-game? Pfft. Margos confidence and the senior KGB agents near-courtly manner set up a devastating moment for contrast when the senior KGB agent very coolly gives the signal for one of his lackeys to garrote Sergei right there. If the threat of being charged with treason wont fly, perhaps strangling Sergei before her very eyes will? This aspect of Margos story ends on an uncertain note: For Sergeis sake, will she relent, call the private number, and go beyond the boundaries of information sharing (okay, espionage) she originally agreed to?

Meanwhile, Danny Stevenss appetite for (self-) destruction appears to have no limits. Still unrequitedly pining for Karen Baldwin and on edge as his performance during flight simulation isnt what it should be, he takes Danis kind offer to take the afternoon off and spends it not with his wife but on a barstool at the Outpost for hours, getting flirtatiously tipsy with a pretty brunette who he invites for an evening swim in the pool at his house. Well, his old house; the Stevens family home now belongs to another family, but Danny considers it spiritually his, at least until the police show up.

Dannys position as the son of Gordo and Tracy Stevens gets him out of the worst possible trouble with Houston PD, but it also lands him in scaldingly hot water with Dani Poole. (As it should! Were seeing red flags left, right, and center!) Its so fitting and painful that the heroism of Dannys late parents  something he reveres and resents  is what gets him out of being formally charged and booked. Houston PD gives NASA the latitude to evaluate and impose consequences on astronauts for their transgressions, protecting the space programs good name while not addressing its personnel members problems in any substantive way. After seeing that Dannys car is full of empty beer cans and considering what she knows of Dannys dangerous history with alcohol, Dani puts her foot down: Captain Stevens is off her crew and will not be assigned to any other NASA mission crew until he goes to rehab and regains his sobriety.

Its so disappointing that Ed swoops in to save Danny from these serious and lovingly-considered consequences of his behavior. Following Eds impressive leveling-up as a father and husband last season, hes now alarmingly stagnant and selfish as an elder statesman of the space program. Ed and Dani are the only ones who remember how sick and unhinged and in need of care Gordo was up on Jamestown Base all those years ago, and now that his son is in real trouble, only Dani appears to remember the past clearly. After doing what she can at NASA to help Danny where he wont or cant help himself, her dismay at Eds careless decision to snap him up for the Helios mission is both palpable and justified. Ed thinks the mission will be bracing. Who wants to place a bet as to which one of these predictions is likeliest to bear fruit?

As mortifying as it would be for Danny to be booted from NASAs first human-crewed mission to Mars, its better than subjecting him to the rigors of a two-year mission in his current condition and far better than subjecting everyone else on the crew to his behavior and likely impaired performance should his relapse worsen. Both Dani and Ed think theyre doing right by Danny and by his late father. Once again this season, Danis right, and Ed is wrong.

Credit where its due, though: Eds insistence on hiring a larger flight crew for Helioss Phoenix mission and on being able to take control of the ship in a crisis is right on, and fortunately, Dev agrees. Its also a relief to see him and Karen swiftly embrace Kellys decision to stay on as a crewmember of NASAs more science-based mission rather than join her dads crew aboard Phoenix. This only adds to the disappointment of Eds poor decisions; we know hes capable of much more, both as a leader and as a friend.

Further personnel shuffling from NASA to Helios closes out the main plot maneuvers before we jump ahead to 1994 as all three Mars missions commence, with Karens recruitment efforts succeeding in bringing Bill Strausser into their mission control. They fail with Aleida Rosales, whose husband, Victor, is aghast that she didnt even discuss the possibility with him before turning Karen down. Her loyalty to NASA and her work there is unshakeable, superseding considerations such as salary and how a significant increase would benefit her family. She refuses to see that her cherished Papa is showing more signs of dementia and cant grasp how hurtful it is to Victor that she barely recognizes how much day-to-day parenting work falls on his shoulders, even when shes not on the moon overseeing essential fixes to Soujourners engines. In a little jump to the 1994 Mars launch window, we see Aleida in her element as, at long last, NASA flight director.

Houston, We Have Some Bullet Points

 Special mention of Wrenn Schmidts incredibly nuanced and fine facial acting in her last elevator moment upon her return to NASA from London. If we didnt know Margo so well, it would be hard to discern her fleeting microexpressions of crushing sadness, fear, and loss, followed at last by the reapplication of her usual determined game face.

 What are we to make of Amber Stevenss little perfect NASA wife moment just before Danny is saved by the bell of Eds call inviting him to join the Helios mission? Her fit-and-flare dress, her mixing up a pitcher of frozen lemonade, her sliding a pot roast in the oven just before Danny arrives home  but for the needle drop of Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton singing Islands in the Stream, she looks for all the world like shes wandered into this episode from being Betty Drapers body double on the set of Mad Men. Is this her routine thing? A lark? Either way, how long will it last?
Are you ready to start diving into everyones tragic backstories, team? In episode one, we got a tell-more-than-show prologue of Tokyos upbringing in North Korea. Episode twos flashbacks are much more confident in their narrative presentation  and much, much sadder. We watch Boy Berlin grow into Man Berlin behind the bars of a North Korean internment camp cell in the space of one shadowy shot.

Berlins childhood is shaped by state-sanctioned violence. He watches his mother be shot and killed as she tries to lead her son safely across the border into China. At Kacheons internment camp, he learns violence as a way to survive. When he successfully escapes as a grown man, he ponders: I think Im gonna miss this place. Its flippant, of course, but its also an acknowledgment that this space shaped his worldview. In Kacheon, Berlin learned to become the biggest bully. Are the rules different in the outside world? Or is wielding violence still the best way to survive? From the looks of episode two, Berlin will certainly proceed as if it were. But its less clear if the show agrees with Berlins view of humanity.

Fear is the only thing that works to control humans. By episodes end, Money Heist: Korea seemingly agrees with Berlins take. The viewer (and Young-min) are encouraged to believe that Denver shoots Mi-seon on Berlins order, going against the number one rule laid out by the Professor: keep the hostages safe. I doubt the conclusion  and what it means for our ensembles humanity  will be as simple as this cliffhanger leads us to believe. This show isnt interested in telling simplistic stories featuring tidy morality or reinforcing the tired mantra that humanity is inherently violent. Otherwise, it wouldnt have spent so much time showing just how torn both Denver and Rio are at the prospect of killing Mi-seon, or devote empathetically driven flashbacks to show just how much trauma Berlin has endured. This isnt the story of good guys and bad guys. Its the story of how existing systems are structured to make us think that violence is inherent to humanity rather than a tool used by capitalism and other systems to exploit labor and enforce social conformity.

This episode may give us flashbacks to Berlins childhood, but it also provides some clues into Denvers pre-existing issues. We know Denver had at least one loving parent in his father Moscow, but, like Berlin, he lost his mother when he was small to some form of abandonment. Its why, when he finds out Mi-seon is (maybe) pregnant, he goes into caretaker mode, scouring the Unified Korea Mint for snacks and presenting them to Mi-seon like a proud squirrel. Its slightly absurd. He is part of a team holding this woman and her co-workers hostage, and he is worried the proffered milk might be too cold for her fragile, (maybe) pregnant body. But its also endearing and as recognizably human as the fear we see elsewhere in this installment. As the episode progresses and we learn more about Denver through his many emotional outbursts, it becomes clear that he is at least partially driven by a desire to secure the kind of outcome for this (maybe) baby that he never had: one with a mom who is present.

Dont resent me for this, is the last thing Denver says to Mi-seon before pulling the trigger off-screen. I am guessing he did not kill her, but either way, Denvers apology still stands. If he shot her, thats certainly a thing to apologize for. If he didnt, the apology is still warranted because making someone think they are about to die is also not nice. Because the threat of violence is deeply traumatizing and something Mi-seon will have to live with if she survives. She went to work in the morning thinking her biggest problem was telling her selfish boss/lover that she is (maybe) pregnant with his child  which, to be fair, does sound like a pretty shitty day  only to be embroiled in a terrifying hostage situation. Whether Denver killed Mi-seon or not, we know Young-min chose to stay silent, fully committed to his decision to throw Mi-seon under the bus. For Berlin, its proof that his system is working. For the viewer, its proof that Young-min is spineless (but also understandably scared).

Dont worry, everyone  Woo-jin has mom issues too! Her mom seems to have dementia and is not interested in going to the hospital about it. But Woo-jin doesnt have much time or energy to worry about that right now. Not only does the smartwatch give the task force its first advantage in the hostage negotiation, but she also catches her hot barista not-boyfriend spying on her work phone call. The Professor explains it away by saying he thought she might be seeing someone else, and she seems to believe him. If I didnt know the Professor was actively in the process of honey-trapping Woo-jin to win his robbery, I would find Woo-jins reaction highly paranoid. Instead, I am impressed by her instincts. The camera lingers on the Professors face when Woo-jin lets him down easy, saying she isnt in a good place for a relationship right now. (True, my girls got a lot going on.) The tears stay in his eyes even after Woo-jin has gone, and were left to wonder: Is this all an act, or does he have feelings for her? Only time will tell.

Banknotes

 Berlin thinks the Professor is naive  an assessment that is almost surely influenced (perhaps rightly?) by their disparate backgrounds. We dont know much about the Professor yet, and Im sure that, like all of these characters, hes experienced some real hardship, but Berlin and his North Korean cigarettes are still judging him.

 If youre keeping track, Woo-jins mom is pro hot barista.

 Call me when youre ready to tell me about the last time you had an orgasm. Did the Professor stage an elaborate heist just so he could find out if Woo-jin thinks hes good in bed?

 The task force says that the robbers have enough food for four days within the Unified Korea Mint, but they dont know about how many snacks Denver just threw at Mi-seon 

 Mr. Lee, were helping robbers print money. Theres no need to do it properly. Since when do we care about whos going to own the money we print? Lee Cheongmyung, the creator of the super note, is my new favorite character. (Note: He was already Nairobis favorite character.)

 Is it fun playing the same game you used to play in the north? Tokyo is not Team Berlin. I hope we get to see more of her in the next episode.

 If there is a tiny crack in a dam, the entire structure can crumble. I wasnt worried about that dam we saw in the first episode  which is maybe Peace Dam?  until this line of dialogue. Am I being overly paranoid? Ive been led to believe by Woo-jins love life that there is no such thing.

 You want me to carry out the most dangerous part of your plan? This was a great Mi-seon episode, and I hope the show knows that she has value outside of whether or not she is pregnant.

 Ann sure is self-possessed for a teenager in a hostage situation (she pulls the trigger?!?). Also, any guesses on how old Rio is meant to be? The actor playing him is 29, but I think he is meant to be younger than that. (The actress playing Ann is 24. Yes, I looked this up after they kissed.)

 Berlin gets so angry at the smartwatch, throwing it on the floor and pulverizing it with his boot. It makes you realize how much anger he is holding inside. (And, again, Park Hae-soo is such a good actor.)

 When Rio sees Berlin send Denver to kill Mi-seon, he runs to get Tokyo rather than answer the Professors phone call. While the Professor may have planned this entire thing, his control has limits now that he is physically removed from the scene. In the end, he is only as powerful as the groups loyalty to him.
How can I kill a person?! Denver asks Mi-seon, as he tries to figure out a way to get out of following Berlins order to kill her. Its the kind of basic yet profound question Denver excels at delivering. He may be dumb, but he, you know, values human life, which I think is infinitely more important than brainpower  not just for a societys success, but for a persons success.

Not enough mainstream stories explore the high cost of inflicting violence on others. Im not talking about an emo Batman staring off into the rainy mists of Gotham; Im talking about the physical and mental consequences that come with causing others pain. Unless youre a psychopath, hurting others will hurt you too. Moscow knows this. Its why he is so distraught when he thinks Denver has killed Mi-seon. Its what drives him out onto the steps of the Mint and into the crosshairs of the waiting task force.

The Professor loses control of the situation in episode three, or at least he becomes aware of this loss of control. It was probably inevitable, given that there are so many factors and he is physically distant from the action. Humanity is messy, and this heist is rife with humanity. While many examples of the heist genre like to pretend competency can predict human complexity, Money Heist: Korea understands the absurdity of that delusion. A lesser show would probably have the robbers decisively turn on one another, perhaps leading to a shoot-out that culls the group. Not this show, though. When Tokyo stages a coup to upset Berlin as leader, it swings from being supported by the majority to not when new information is presented (that Woo-jin knows the identities of Rio and Nairobi) before the group has to put their differences aside to respond to Moscows attempt to turn himself in.

Berlin uses the groups eventual confirmation of his leadership as proof that his strategy is working and that fear is the best motivator. But fear can take many forms, and Berlin only understands the desperate, selfish kind. Moscows fear, for example, isnt based on self-preservation; its based on love. Money Heist: Korea intercuts the mayhem inside the Mint with a much softer, sunset-tinged reunion of Moscow and Denver months earlier. When Moscow gets out of jail, the Professor is waiting for him with a job offer, but Moscow wont do it without his son. It motivates him to take the job: a chance at a better life for his son. Moscow is probably afraid of many things, but he is most afraid of his son being doomed to a life like his. He would give up his own life rather than let that happen. Its a lesson Berlin forgot, the one his mother demonstrated when she tried to lead her son to a better life and died while trying.

Even when self-preservation is the emotion that fuels actions, how the surrounding mess of humans responds can be unpredictable. When Young-min picks up one of the real guns and aims it at the mixed group of hostages and robbers gathered to bring Moscow and Denver back inside the Mint, Woo-jin and Captain Cha attempt to decipher the complexity of the situation in real-time. They assume that Young-min must be one of the robbers because why else would he point a gun at his fellow hostages? Theyre missing the full, complex human context of the situation and how Berlin has intentionally aggravated existing tensions between North and South Koreans, between boss and employee. Young-min has learned how to be a bully, too, and, when he gets scared, he thinks he can use the threat of violence to save himself. In the past, he has abused the relative power society has arbitrarily granted him and gotten away with it. When he tries it here, he is shot in a situation that has been intentionally stripped of much of its social context and hierarchy.

Its a jaw-dropping cliffhanger, especially if you havent seen La Casa de Papel, and one that could ruin everything for the Professor and his team. What will it mean for Woo-jin, who gave the order to shoot a hostage? What will it mean for Young-min, who is a selfish jerk but doesnt deserve to die? Will Berlin see the faults in ruling with fear? So far, episode three is Money Heist: Koreas most successful episode because it grounds its violence in the messy emotions that both drive and come from it. In the recognition that when we inflict violence, no one is spared. Who are you to kill someone? Moscow furiously asks his son. Moscow is so afraid of his son taking after him (Dont live like me, he instructs his son through tears in the flashbacks) without seeing how maybe Denver should be like him. Denver values human life enough to question Berlins orders, enough to risk his own life to try to keep Mi-seon alive  its a lesson he learned from his parent in a way Berlin never could.

Banknotes

 While much of this episodes flashbacks to Moscows pre-heist life involve rooftop fireside heart-to-hearts, the opening is a deftly shot action sequence that sees Denver running across rooftops and shuffling down the crevices between buildings in order to avoid some thugs. Later in the episode, we see more of Denvers street fighter moves as he tries to take down Oslo, who is not easily felled.

 I could have done without the casually fatphobic Teletubbies references.

 The Professor risks his relationship with Woo-jin to find out what the task force has on the robbers. It is successful because he knows they have both Rio and Nairobis identities, but it could also cost him future access to Woo-jin, who basically tells him good-bye forever. A voiceover from Tokyo plays up this potential consequence. It also reminds us that she is telling this story in the past tense, implying that there will be a future for at least some of the team.

 The Professor uses a desperate request from Woo-jins mother as an excuse to storm into task-force HQ. We learn more about Woo-jins domestic situation here: that Woo-jin has a restraining order against her husband and that he isnt supposed to see their daughter Mina  let alone kidnap her to eat pizza.

 Would you let [Mi-seon] die if she was South Korean? I wish we knew a bit more about the social tensions between North and South Koreans in this near-future reality. Obviously, we can extrapolate out from the complicated relationship that exists in our real world, but this is not set in our real world. Not really. This show follows the blueprint left by La Casa de Papel, but that show was set in our world and therefore had a different, easier relationship to establishing the setting.

 Good job. Youll get used to it. Yeah, Berlin has probably killed a lot of people. Why cant anyone die? Is it a matter of ethics? He really is trying to understand why the Professor might want to avoid killing people.

 Um, shooting someone in the thigh can be pretty fatal. I know Denver and Tokyo have a lot going on, but they really need to keep an eye on Mi-seon.

 The belly never lies. Moscow is honestly so likable.

 Real name check: Nairobis real name is Sim Young-mun, and she is 38. Denver is called Taek-su. The Professor is called Sun-ho  or at least that is the name he has given Woo-jin.

 Theres some effective editing in this episode, seen in subtle moments like a cut of the Professor opening his cafe door to Nairobi opening the office door to the robbers group meeting. Its not only visually interesting but links the Professor to the space in a more meaningful way. He may not be physically present at the heist, but his fate is tied to this group. In most ways, he is with them.

 Im always on your side. Rio may not be in love with Tokyo in this version of the story, but he still admires her.

 Thanks, but this isnt about choosing sides. Tokyo isnt here to win a popularity contest. Shes here to win a heist.
Ethan Hawke and Mason Thames in The Black Phone. Photo: Fred Norris/Universal Studios

I havent read the Joe Hill short story that The Black Phone is based on, but watching the movie, its not hard to imagine what the source material must be like. In some ways, Scott Derricksons film still feels like a short story. Its all setup and resolution, with little of the incident and complication that usually helps a feature-length movie come fully to life. In industry parlance, it feels like its missing a second act. But thanks to a host of excellent performances (and a few generic but effective scares), most viewers may not mind.

The film takes place in the year 1974; The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is in theaters, bandannas are in fashion, and the kung-fu craze is in full swing. In the suburbs of north Denver, however, a mysterious figure known as the Grabber is kidnapping teenage boys off the street. These disappearances have understandably invaded the fearful waking thoughts of local teen Finney Shaw (Mason Thames), even though he also has more immediate concerns on his mind  namely, a trio of savage bullies at school and an abusive father (Jeremy Davies, sporting an impressive pompadour and beard combo).

The deeply unstable Mr. Shaw terrorizes both the shy Finn and his headstrong little sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw), but there is more to this family than meets the eye. Gwen is having dreams that feature specific details about the Grabbers crimes that have not yet been made public, and the kids late mother apparently also had such premonitions and visions. Their alcoholic father is terrified at what might happen if his kids follow in the path of their mom, who we learn killed herself thanks to the voices and visions in her head. When Finn himself gets kidnapped, Gwen swings into action, desperately probing her dreams and breaking out a gauntlet of religious items (like some of Derricksons other films, The Black Phone has its share of Christian imagery) for clues to her beloved brothers whereabouts.

Finn has been imprisoned in a large, dark basement by a masked, reedy-voiced psycho (Ethan Hawke, impressively unsettling in a role that almost never lets us see his whole face). The Grabber insists he will not hurt the child, but we know that he intends to do exactly that. Much of the film involves watching Finn scrape around this basement, and its to the 14-year-old Thamess credit that his characters predicament never feels repetitive or overtly downbeat. He brings a welcome mix of intelligence, bewilderment, and fear to the part  a complexity rare in young actors.

The Grabbers basement is empty, save for a black phone that were told doesnt work. Of course, as soon as the captor goes back upstairs, the phone rings. (The movie is, after all, called The Black Phone.) And yes, there is a voice on the other end of the line 

If you dont want to know anything more about The Black Phone, you should probably stop reading at this point, although some of the following happens early enough that it feels more like part of the setup than an actual plot reveal. Either way, its hard to discuss the pictures key weaknesses and strengths without addressing where it goes. Anyway, spoilers follow.

 The voices on the phone belong to the boys the Grabber has already killed. Finn can presumably hear them because his family is touched by a divine power. The boys are calling from some sort of afterlife, and even though their memories are slowly drifting away, they are able to guide Finn through his predicament  some of it via specific bits of advice, some of it via gnomic, Signs-like clues. Derrickson also uses these phone conversations to stage a number of jump scares which feel somewhat tacked on. These jolts are Finns own visions, it seems, but theyre never quite explained within the logic of this world  almost as if the filmmakers came up with them after realizing that mere phone conversations with ghosts wouldnt provide the requisite genre thrills.

The movie is confused in conception, which is a shame because theres potential here. The premise is genuinely creepy, and the conceit of phone calls from the afterlife is rife with possibility. When the dead boys first begin to speak, we get a couple of touching flashbacks to their lives, and it feels like the picture might be headed in a more emotional direction. Thats not the only promising idea thats abandoned. The always-interesting James Ransone shows up as a weird, coked-up amateur sleuth who looks like hes about to take the movie in a whole other direction  but his presence, sadly, is relatively short-lived and pointless, not quite enough to even count as a red herring. In most other horror movies, this might be a minor narrative nuisance, but The Black Phone at times feels so undernourished dramatically that these dropped subplots feel like missed opportunities.

Even Gwens search for Finn, to which the film cuts at opportune moments, is never as filled out as we might like. What makes it work, however, is 13-year-old McGraws electrifying performance as the little girl. It would have been easy to play this precocious, strong-willed child as a cutesy, foul-mouthed kid detective, but her concern for her brother shines through. Whenever Gwen is onscreen, the film locks into its more emotional register: We feel her anguish, her growing sense of helplessness.

So much so that the film loses some of its power whenever it cuts away from her. But it has to cut away, because Finns dramatic thread is where we get all the jump scares and the creepy imagery and the predictable escape-room theatrics. This tension between the sisters narrative and the brothers seems indicative of the rift at the heart of this picture. All throughout, The Black Phone feels like its trying to reconcile typical horror elements with the more expressive and tender story Derrickson clearly wants to tell. The reconciliation never really comes, but the cast gets us there anyway.
Southern Charm Great Ex-Pectations Season 8 Episode 1 Editors Rating 2 stars * *  Previous Next  Previous Episode Next Episode  Photo: Bravo

Doesnt it feel like a billion years since we last watched Southern Charm, an antebellum sorority mixer at a plantation house? Its been so long that I didnt even remember John Pringle, a sexy character actor whose IMDb you have to pull up just to remember who he played on Ozark. It seems like not that much has changed down South, and certainly things havent changed with our cast of lovable dummies  and Kathryn, who is just a dummy.

First, we have to get reacquainted with the whole crew. Austen and Shep are still in the same bar, still drinking Trop Hop, and completely unaware that they are both too old to have no careers, no partners, and no children between them. If idle hands are the devils playthings, then Shep and Austen are Satans anal beads. Meanwhile, Summer House star Craig Conover has turned himself into a pillow magnate dressed like the shift manager at Best Buy. Hes actually doing well. He got all of the asbestos out of his house and half of his living room floor laid. In the old days he would have gotten half of the asbestos out and fully laid on the floor.

We only get a brief check-in with Patricia and Whitney, who is using vodka to disinfect the floor after he picks up all the dog poop. The sad news is that Michael, Patricias long-time and altogether charming butler, had a major stroke and is now paralyzed. Whitney is Patricias current servant and hes about as good at it as Taylor Swift is at not writing about her exes.

This shows Cruella de Ville, Madison LeCroy only makes a brief appearance and we dont get much from her. The same goes for Pringle, but now that hes popped, he wont be able to stop. Newbies Leva and Venita are swanning around (and Venita is driving in a Land Rover whose headlamps flash like the floor of Dance Dance Revolution even in the middle of the day) but arent doing much other than serving lewks. Theyre also hanging out with Craigs ex Naomie, who is back after a ten-day move to New York where she found out that her fiance was cheating on her and she scuttled back to South Carolina.

A lot of the story has to do with Craig and Naomie, who apparently hooked up a couple of times after she broke up with her ex and while Craig was dating fellow Summer House star Paige DeSorbo, but before they were exclusive. Is this why he was being so wishy-washy about being boyfriend/girlfriend with Paige on the in-all-ways-superior other Bravo show they star on?

Theres sadly not much drama between Craigy and Naom-Naom, as no one calls them. For the first time, Craig seems entirely over Naomie, and if shes still pining away for Craig now that hes gotten his life together, then shes not really showing it. However, whats up with them is certainly causing a rift between Craig and the other boys. Craig says that he hasnt been answering Sheps calls because Shep is busy with his girlfriend Taylor and because Shep always treats him like shit. Yes, this is the price of success. Before Craig just had to take all of Sheps snide insults because he needed to stay on the show. Now he has a store, a girlfriend, and another show. Hes washed that condescension right out of his hair and sent its on its way. (I feel like South Pacific references and Southern Charm go together like my lips and that little spot right behind Tom Hollands earlobe.)

Craig has also pulled away from Austen for a very good reason. He says that he was hanging out with Paige and Austen and Austen started squabbling with him. Then Austen blurts out, Well, are you going to tell Paige that you slept with Naomie? Apparently, Paige said, I already know, and youre some friend. Sick burn!

The only problem with this story is that when the three boys sit down at Kathryns party, Austen says he didnt know that they hooked up and Craig says he kept it a secret from him because he would tell everyone. Okay, so did Austen know about Naomie and say something in front of Paige, or did Craig hide the truth from him? Both of these things cant be true. While Craigs story about calling out Austen may not be factually true, I also believe that it is spiritually true. Like that is something that Austen would totally do, and, to be honest, Craig is better without the two walking beer bellies that have been holding him back.

While this is the fight among the boys, there is another fight brewing among the girls and it is all centered around Kathryn, who is looking more and more like a Kommunity Kollege Kardashian with each passing year. Shes still living with her boyfriend Chelb (pronounced Caleb), who we all thought she was only dating so that she wouldnt look racist. Well, she made it last at least a whole season. (But no more, since they broke up after filming.)

Kathryn is throwing herself a Roaring 20sthemed 30th birthday party, which is dumb for at least two reasons. The first is this theme has been done more times than Stay was played on my CD player in 1998 when the first boy that I ever kissed moved to the school across town. The other reason is that she is entering her 30s with the 20s. It makes no sense, but about as much sense as calling it a Great Katsby party which made me want to retch up a hairball big enough that it could open its own cat cafe.

She decides that she is going to invite everyone to the party, including Venita, who hasnt talked to Kathryn since calling out her racially insensitive behavior last season, and Naomie, who hasnt talked to her since Kathryn spread a rumor about Camerans husband cheating on her that was so bad that Cameran quit the show. She says she wants to start this new decade with a clean slate for herself and everyone.

The problem is that Kathryn still has the maturity of Violet Beauregarde before she ate the Everlasting Gobstopper. When Naomie arrives at the party, she greets Kathryn warmly and moves on. Kathryn, however, expected her to say, Thank you for inviting me. Im so sorry for what happened. Lets go have a talk. That Kathryn expects an apology for maliciously spreading rumors about a castmate is all you really need to know about Kathryn. And why would Naomie do that? This party is not the place where they should talk. Kathryn should be busy with her other guests (though this party does seem oddly empty).

But Kathryn gets drunker and drunker and her Retinol makes her chin redder and redder. She pulls Chleb to complain that Venita and Naomie havent made eye contact with her since arriving. Um, of course they havent. She should be busy celebrating her birthday and they should be busy socializing. Yes, its her birthday party, but its still a party.

Kathryn then starts whining about how she wants to go home, probably because shes not getting enough attention in a room of people she has alienated by behaving like an ass over the last eight seasons. Well, thats not entirely true. She spent several seasons being tortured by Thomas, then a couple of seasons gaining our sympathy when we realized she was the victim of his emotional abuse, and then a few seasons being free of Thomas and just terrible. Still, you get what Im saying.

On her way out, Kathryn stops by Naomies table to say that Naomie should be ashamed of how she treated Kathryn. Naomie says, But you tried to ruin someones family. Yes, she did. If anything, Kathryn should be the one who is ashamed. She uses this as an excuse to say that Naomie isnt better than her when, objectively, I think that is a lie. Naomie tells her she doesnt like the way she fights. When Kathryn asks which way that is, Naomie says, Dirty. No lies detected, and we got the polygraph expert who asked Lisa Vanderpump if she had anything to do with Puppygate.

Kathryn reacts by calling Naomie a petty little bitch and saying she is fake. As for fake, I think that Naomie kept it pretty one-hundo straight to Kathryns face and wouldnt let her get away with her past actions. As for a petty little bitch, Kathryn is the one who is upset that Naomie wasnt paying her enough attention at her party, so she attacked her. She is projecting more than whatever is powering the holograms at that new ABBA concert in London. Naomie does the smart thing and walks away as Kathryn jiggles herself into an elevator while screaming at her friends on the way down. Oh, its been far too long since weve last watched Southern Charm, but I also think it hasnt quite been long enough.
22-year-old Khaby Lame has more than 143 million followers on TikTok.

Khaby Lame, whose wordless ironic videos are wildly popular on the social media platform TikTok, has become the most followed TikToker in the world.

With more than 143 million followers, Lame overtook the American social media personality Charli D'Amelio (142 million) this week.

Born in Senegal, Lame moved to northern Italy as a baby and grew up in the industrial town of Chivasso near Turin.

After losing his job in a factory at the start of the covid pandemic, Lame turned to TikTok and his natural gift of making people laugh.

He relies on comedic facial expressions and heavy use of irony in his videos most of which are delivered without speaking, meaning the humour is understood universally.

However despite living almost his entire life in Italy, Lame is not an Italian citizen, a situation that has caused him problems since his meteoric rise to fame.

As the holder of a Senegalese passport, it is more difficult for him to visit the US where he missed several events recently over delays in getting a visa.

Despite his TikTok success Lame says his dream is to become an actor, telling Italian newspaper La Repubblica: "I am studying English and acting every day".
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Prime Minister Narendra Modis model of welfarism isnt new to India: Previous leaders have also subsidized food and fuel, and given the rural poor houses, toilets, and paid work. Modis edge comes from technology. A year before the 2014 election that brought him to power, the government, then led by the Congress Party, had piloted direct cash transfer to beneficiaries, inspired by the former Brazilian President Lula da Silvas popular Bolsa Familia program. Modi took that modest $1 billion start and turned it into a $300 billion vote magnet: And he did it with the help of 12-digit numbers.

Those numbers  and the ID cards that carry them  are known as Aadhaar. Its a biometrics-based system through which almost everyone in the second-most-populous nation can prove who they are. Aadhaar, which means foundation in Hindi, supports 450 million-plus no-frills savings accounts and has bolstered the use of mobile internet for financial transactions even in remote villages. Five years ago, the Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Romer endorsed Aadhaar as a template for the world.

Increasingly, though, its beginning to look like theres a fair bit of epoxy putty  quite literally  in the very foundation of Modis welfare program.

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Fingerprinting 1.33 billion people and recording their personal information and iris scans in a central repository was no mean feat. It was hoped that this super-expensive database would pay its cost by helping to reduce waste in public programs and by preventing theft. That was touted as a big advantage in a corruption-ridden country where state benefits have a hard time reaching legitimate beneficiaries.

However, activists have highlighted numerous incidents of denial of benefits: Fingerprints fade with intense manual labor; getting data-entry mistakes fixed can be a nightmare. Those issues have largely been ignored.

Now theres a growing problem in the other direction: Aadhaar is being very successfully used  by fraudsters. Blame it on ubiquity combined with lax controls. While the unique ID was conceived to make welfare programs more efficient, private entities didnt lose any time in realizing its potential. Banks and telcos used Aadhaar to conduct online know your customer checks, which drastically cut their cost of authenticating customers. In the process, Aadhaar became all-pervasive and private data began to show up for sale on the dark web.

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The governments response has been to brush it all away. Anything that casts doubt on the integrity of the system is ignored. That isnt a surprise: Having chosen a technology and made it universal, policy makers have no other route to building trust in transactions. In 2018, the Indian Supreme Court restricted the use of the database  and barred private entities from using it for know-your-customer verifications. Nevertheless, New Delhi has since then gone around opening legal back doors for the private sector to keep tapping it.

A wake-up call about identity fraud came last month. The Unique Identification Authority of India, or UIDAI, issued an advisory asking people not to give out photocopies of their cards because it can be misused. Further, the notice said that only users licensed with the authority can query the database to authenticate identity; establishments like hotels or movie theaters are not permitted to collect or keep copies. After people began to question why this warning was being issued when everyones Aadhaar information was already circulating everywhere, it was withdrawn the same day and replaced with new guidance that advised people to exercise normal prudence.

So whats going on? The Morning Context, an Indian news website, recently gave an alarming account of scams. It seems anyone can learn how to clone a fingerprint with epoxy putty on YouTube; and anyone can buy an identification card online. Fingerprints can be lifted from digitized property sale deeds. Or, to steal money from bank accounts, one could hack into a mobile app used by small village shops that double up as micro-ATMs for Aadhaar-holders. There was a sixfold increase in overall Aadhaar fraud registered with the UIDAI last year, the May 30 article said. There is no data on the full extent of welfare benefits swindled, accounts degraded and criminal complaints registered, the Morning Context added.

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More disturbing than the crime is the official silence about its prevalence or severity. The Reserve Bank of Indias recently released Payments Vision 2025 gives a nod to the significant growth in Aadhaar-enabled Payment System (AePS) through the business correspondent-assisted model. More than 2 billion such micro-ATM transactions took place last financial year; thats a $38 billion entanglement of Aadhaar with the banking system  all of which is on behalf of customers at the bottom of the economic pyramid.(1) Yet the RBIs vision document, which has integrity as a key pillar, has nothing to say about making security more robust for deposit, withdrawal and transfer services used by the poor.

Then theres the social welfare plank: Aadhaar Payment Bridge System is how the government transfers cash to beneficiaries. Even here, there are weaknesses. Back in 2018, Ram Sewak Sharma, the former UIDAI chief, had made his Aadhaar number public on Twitter and dared privacy activists: Show me one concrete example where you can do any harm to me! As it turns out, someone managed to register Sharma as an eligible farmer and the Modi government paid him three installments of free cash. You can split hairs about whether the vulnerability was in Aadhaar or elsewhere, but the hacker had proved a point.

Modis new welfarism rests on Aadhaar. But if there are cracks in the edifice, they need to be acknowledged  not to frighten users away, but to make them more aware. At the same time, India needs a strong data protection law. Losing money is bad enough. But its scary if a bad actor can put a person at a specific place or tie her to an activity with the help of a bogus transaction. Sealing wax in the foundation of trust simply wont do.

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More From Bloomberg Opinion:

 Facebooks Greater Threat Is the Law, Not Lawsuits: Parmy Olson

 Why Arent There More Public Bathrooms in NYC?: Stephen Mihm

 Trust, Privacy and Indias Need to Protect Both: Andy Mukherjee

(1) The more mainstream digital payment public utility in India is Unified Payments Interface, or UPI, which is widely seen as a remarkable innovation to have come out of a developing country.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Andy Mukherjee is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies and financial services in Asia. Previously, he worked for Reuters, the Straits Times and Bloomberg News.

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With Roe v. Wade no longer the law of the land, women seeking abortions will soon start traveling. Could a state punish an employer for covering their costs? The issue is likely to arise: A number of major corporations have come forward with offers to pay the expenses of employees who leave the state to end their pregnancies, and some state legislators are threatening to punish them.

In a recent column, I explained why Im skeptical about both the wisdom and constitutionality of state laws that would criminalize obtaining an abortion outside the state. (Based on his separate concurrence, Justice Brett Kavanaugh agrees.) But if the travel is paid for by an in-state actor  such as an employer  the case might come out differently.

States obviously have the authority to define and punish crimes that occur within their borders. Once upon a time, the states territory largely marked the bounds of its criminal law. A state could often punish an act in another state that resulted in harm within its own borders, but the reverse wasnt always true. Consider, for example, an 1894 case involving a defendant who, while standing entirely within North Carolina, fired a shot that killed a man who was standing entirely in Tennessee. The court ruled that the defendant could be punished only in Tennessee, because the simple act of firing a gun was not illegal in North Carolina; only the result was, and the result took place on the other side of the border.

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Within a year, North Carolina revised its criminal law so that anyone else doing the same thing could be punished. Nowadays, states claim a broad jurisdiction to punish acts within their borders that facilitate crimes outside their borders. Consider a non-custodial parent who legally takes the children out of the state and then doesnt bring them back. Although the crime is being committed outside the borders, just about every court to consider the matter has agreed that the state where the children live can prosecute.

The issue also arises in other situations where the defendant has crossed the border. Heres the California Supreme Court, writing in a sexual abuse case from 2005: California has territorial jurisdiction over an offense if the defendant, with the requisite intent, does a preparatory act in California that is more than a de minimis act toward the eventual completion of the offense.

The law in most states is similar. Yet although its hard to imagine that simply exiting the state could reasonably be deemed a more than de minimis act, paying someones expenses to cross the border might well be.

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If a state can forbid abortions, it can probably forbid significant acts facilitating abortions, just as it can with any other crime. True, as I noted in my previous column, the Supreme Court has been uneasy at the idea of allowing a state to punish a corporation for an act the corporation does elsewhere. Here, however, the act  paying the employees expenses, thus facilitating the abortion  would be done, or at least arranged, within the state. Thus the state might well have jurisdiction.

Im not predicting that the courts would necessarily uphold a law forbidding corporations doing business within its borders to reimburse travel expenses of employees who obtain abortions elsewhere. But one shouldnt regard the possibility as farfetched.

Thats not to suggest that such a law would be wise. Even the most ardently anti-abortion legislator might think twice about laws that could encourage employers to leave the state. Moreover, even if the legislature welcomes the chance to tangle with Starbucks or Amazon, practical problems of enforcement abound.

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Lets suppose that the state does indeed ban corporations from paying the expenses of employees who travel to end their pregnancies, and the ban is indeed upheld by the courts. How exactly would the state know whether the corporations were breaking the law? One can imagine regulatory agencies or legislative committees demanding financial records to show exactly which employees had left the state at the companys expense and why, or perhaps a certification of some sort (on pain of perjury) that no corporate funds had been expended for the forbidden purpose. Wed likely see a bizarre tangling of ideological lines, as liberals lined up in defense of corporate autonomy from legal control.

Still, in a post-Roe world, the state might prevail. So perhaps instead the company could find a clever workaround. Rather than pay for trips to secure abortions, the company might instead offer early pregnancy leave that happens to include paid travel. If that device seems too transparent, the company might instead adopt a policy of paying a couple of times a year for any employee to travel to any nearby state for up to, say, two weeks. In an era of remote work, this possibility might be less absurd than it sounds. And if the employee happens to obtain an abortion while traveling, nobody would need to know.

Speaking of the right to privacy.

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More from Bloomberg Opinion:

 Ending Roe Is Institutional Suicide for Supreme Court: Noah Feldman

 With Roe Struck Down, What Now?: The Editors

 Abortion Rights Falter as Democracy Slides: Clara Ferreira Marques

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Stephen L. Carter is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Yale University, he is author, most recently, of Invisible: The Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down Americas Most Powerful Mobster.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

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The next step in the conflict between the West and Russian President Vladimir Putin was supposed to be a European boycott on Russian coal, oil and natural gas. It may instead be a gas embargo by Putin on Europe. It comes to much the same. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight The countries of the European Union must accept what some of them  notably Germany and Austria  spent years denying. Its that in the eyes of an amoral despot such as Putin, everything is a weapon of war. That includes nuclear and chemical arms, but also wheat, disinformation and, not least, energy.

For decades, Putin has done his best to make European countries as dependent as possible on Siberian hydrocarbons to create vulnerabilities in the West. Now hes exploiting those weaknesses.

Since April, the Kremlin has been shutting off Russian flows of natural gas to a growing list of EU countries Putin deems hostile  first Poland and Bulgaria, then Finland, the Netherlands and Denmark. Hes now throttling the gas flowing through Nord Stream, a pipeline linking Russia to Germany. Downstream recipients, like Italy, are also affected. The International Energy Agency, based in Paris, warns that Putin could turn the gas tap completely off within months.

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He probably will, just because he can. In the first 100 days of the war, Russia has made as much as ever from selling fossil fuels, sanctions be damned. One reason is that non-Western countries such as China and India are stepping in for the EU as buyers. Another is that soaring energy prices are making up for reduced volumes to Europe.

As is his wont, Putin shrouds his aggression in subterfuge. Sometimes he blames the buyers  for not paying in rubles, for example, even though that isnt stipulated in the contracts  or technical problems. The interruptions at Nord Stream allegedly have to do with missing components.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi has called these Russian excuses what they are: lies. Putins objective is clear. Its to make countries such as Germany deplete their storage tanks so they will be only partially filled when the cold season arrives in fall and winter. Putin loves the soaring energy prices these shortages are causing, which are hurting Western consumers, causing social tension and may yet test the EUs resolve.

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Hed be especially thrilled if his energy blockade forces parts of European industry to shut down. That may happen. Several German industrial companies, in sectors from chemicals to steel and glass, have already warned that they may have to curb production if energy gets dearer or scarcer.

Austria, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark have already activated emergency plans. Germany this week escalated from the first of three stages (early warning) to the second (alarm). In the third stage (emergency), the government seizes complete control over allocating natural gas in the country. Germany and other parts of Europe are heading for rationing  in effect, a war economy.

Austria has already had to restart a mothballed power plant running on coal (which is much dirtier as a fuel than gas). Germany is also firing up its coal generators. Thats bitter for a country that had instead been planning to exit coal power altogether. Its especially wrenching for the Greens, who are running the combined energy and commerce ministry and have to implement this policy U-turn.

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Germanys predicament is blowback for the cumulative policy mistakes of decades. Not only have successive governments  including all four mainstream parties at various times  naively made themselves dependent on Russian pipeline gas. They also rashly exited from nuclear power generation  the last three fission-based plants are slated to be turned off in December. In effect, previous German governments volunteered to become Putins energy hostage.

That makes the countrys debate now all the more racking. The center-right parties in opposition and government want to keep the three remaining nuclear plants running. The center-left Social Democrats and Greens  for whom opposition to nuclear energy has been a generational totem  are still resisting.

Such debates are proof that reality still hasnt fully sunk in. The late psychiatrist Elisabeth Kuebler-Ross believed that people must cycle through five stages of grief  denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Germans, in particular, appear stuck in the first four.

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Acceptance means preparing now for the economic war against Putin to come. It means getting fossil fuels from other countries, fracking gas out of the ground underneath and importing more of it in liquid form by ship. It also means splitting atoms, putting up wind turbines, and all the rest.

But above all, acceptance means cutting back. All Europeans must stop being the grasshopper in Aesops fable, who spent the summer making music and frolicking, but then had nothing in winter. They must instead become the fables ants  forbearing, abstaining, conserving, saving. Western Europeans have been lucky so far not to be in a shooting war as Ukrainians are. But theyre already combattants in the economic war against Putin. Its time for sacrifice.

More From This Writer and Others at Bloomberg Opinion:

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Russian Kaliningrad Is a Microcosm of Europes Woes: Andreas Kluth



Putin May Win in Ukraine, But the Real War Is Just Starting: Max Hastings



Putins Parades Cant Hide a Missing Victory: Clara Ferreira Marques

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Andreas Kluth is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering European politics. A former editor in chief of Handelsblatt Global and a writer for the Economist, he is author of Hannibal and Me.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

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Youve probably heard of ESG, and may know it as a form of investing and finance that involves considering material financial risks from environmental factors, social issues and questions of corporate governance. If youre like most people, youre probably not clear on the difference between ESG and socially responsible investing, impact investing and similar, sometimes overlapping approaches -- in part because ESG has come to means different things to different people. That vagueness has helped fuel rapid growth in recent years. But with that growth has also come increased scrutiny from regulators cracking down on banks and investment firms making exaggerated claims. In the US, ESG has also faced backlash both from conservatives who deride it as woke capitalism and from insiders who say it isnt creating the kinds of real-world impacts it seemed to promise.

Heres a guide to the basics.

1. Whats the big idea?

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The broadest umbrella term for the strategy of which ESG is a part is sustainable investing. Proponents say the goals of sustainable investing, which covers fund assets valued globally at $2.7 trillion by Morningstar Inc., are to achieve societal impact, align with personal values or manage risks. And make money along the way, of course.

2. Where did ESG come from?

The acronym was coined in the mid 2000s. A British law firm wrote a report for the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative in 2005 that argued that the use of ESG factors in financial analysis was compatible with investors fiduciary responsibilities. The idea was that incorporating ESG data would help protect investments by avoiding material financial risks from things such as climate change; worker disputes and humans rights issues in supply chains; and poor corporate governance and resulting litigation. As time has passed, the label has come to be slapped on investments that run the gamut from predictable things such as owning renewable-energy stocks to things you wouldnt expect, like funds that track benchmark indexes containing oil companies or assets in autocratic nations such as Russia.

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3. How big is ESG?

Estimates vary depending on what people count as ESG. According to Bloomberg Intelligence, assets are set to climb to $50 trillion by 2025 from about $35 trillion now. They have grown from $30.7 trillion in 2018 and $22.8 trillion in 2016, according to the Global Sustainable Investment Association.

4. How is ESG different?

The popularity of ESG has depended in part on a belief that it will play a positive role in making the world a better place. But critics say that such a warm-and-fuzzy feeling helps asset managers blur a key distinction -- that ESG is mainly about using data to identify risks that might undermine investment performance, or to find opportunities to make money. Thats a contrast to some other branches of sustainable investment that sometimes go further:

 Ethical and Values-Based Investing: These are broad strategies that enable investors to shun or invest in companies that reflect their political, religious or philosophical beliefs and values. Its earliest practitioners were religious groups such as the Quakers who shunned investments in things like alcohol, weapons and gambling. Church-affiliated groups in Sweden began the first ethics-based mutual fund in 1965. The Pax World Fund began in the US in 1971.

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 Socially Responsible Investing: Galvanized by anti-Vietnam War protests, consumer boycotts of napalm producers and efforts to end apartheid in South Africa, a group of investors in the 1980s and 90s sought to do good by not only avoiding companies that harm society but investing in those that are improving their business practices. They may also focus on companies that are engaged in clean-technology efforts.

 Impact Investing: While socially responsible investing tends to focus on publicly traded companies, impact investing centers on private projects. Its a niche strategy where investors target specific outcomes that can be measured, such as the promotion of sustainable agriculture or companies that provide affordable housing.

 Systems-Level Investing: A nascent strategy that has yet to take off in a big way. As people increasingly point to the failure of ESG in catalyzing large, real-world impacts, they are looking at systems-level investing. This involves making decisions that take into account the entirety of ones portfolio and how its elements intersect across all assets in the long term. An example would be climate change: A systems-level approach would examine how it affects entire portfolios, from shares in energy and insurance companies to sovereign bonds and foreign exchange. Systems-level investors are then meant to work with other investors to collectively push companies to improve their business practices by creating industry standards, sharing data with other investors and pressing for public policy changes.

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5. What do critics think about ESG?

Some think the term has become so broad as to lose much of its meaning. Many point to the prevalence of greenwashing, which happens when companies exaggerate the environmental benefits of their actions. Even the man who coined the acronym has said the finance industry has sprinkled ESG fairy dust on products that dont merit the label, and that there will be an industry shakeout in the coming years. Other criticisms focus on the way fund managers rely on ESG ratings that rank companies by how they are performing on ESG factors. There is a lot of inconsistency in those scores -- in some cases, companies are ranked by the risks that ESG factors pose to them rather than, say, the risks the companies pose to the environment and society.

6. What do regulators think?

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With the ESG label now widely used by money managers and bankers selling everything from mutual funds to complex derivatives, European and US regulators are clamping down on firms exaggerating their ESG bona fides. In May, German authorities raided the offices of Deutsche Bank AGs fund unit amid allegations that it overstated its ESG capabilities to investors. The following month, it emerged that US regulators are looking into whether ESG funds sold by Goldman Sachs Group Inc.s asset management group are in breach of ESG metrics promised in marketing materials.

7. What is being done?

The US Securities and Exchange Commission proposed a slate of new restrictions in May aimed at ensuring that ESG funds accurately describe their investments, and which may require some money managers to disclose the greenhouse gas emissions of companies theyre invested in. These proposed rules come off the back of new laws in Europe, the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulations, where investments have to be labeled under categories commonly referred to as light green and dark green, according to the priority placed on sustainability.

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8. Does sustainable investing actually make a difference?

A cohort of ESG executives and academics have bemoaned the lack of far reaching and long-term impacts the strategy has had. Of course, sustainable investors have made some strides, such as pressing companies to reduce their plastics use, addressing workers rights and performing so-called civil rights audits. They have also succeeded in replacing directors on Exxon Mobil Corp.s board to help the oil giant position itself towards cleaner fuels. Other proponents have said that had investors in U.K.s Deliveroo Plc taken ESG issues into account, they could have avoided losses after the company faced a backlash over gig-economy exploitation and worker pay last year. Still, detractors say the idea that ESG investment alone is enough to address complex problems is being shown to be wrong and that more government intervention is needed to address societal issues such as living wage minimums and greenhouse gas emissions.

9. How do these approaches stack up in terms of investment returns?

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Across three categories -- Europe-focused, US-focused and global  ESG large-cap equity funds have done better this year, on average, than their non-ESG counterparts. While they have lost money -- in line with the broad market selloff -- those losses are smaller. Globally, ESG funds are down 11.7% this year through June 10, compared with the 14.8% slump of the MSCI World Index. But there have been some early signs that investors are souring on ESG. They pulled a record $2 billion net from US equity exchange-traded funds in May, ending three years of inflows, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

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Most of the limited international diplomatic energy devoted to ending the civil war in Yemen understandably goes to preventing the loss of lives, whether from bloodshed or famine. But now that a two-month truce between the belligerents has been extended, urgent action is required to forestall a different kind of calamity: an oil spill that could rank as one of the worlds worst environmental disasters and disrupt a vital global trade route.

The civil war has both created and, for several years now, distracted attention from the fate of the FSO Safer, a decrepit oil supertanker, laden with 1.1 million barrels crude oil, which has been rusting in anchorage off the port of Ras Isa in Yemens west coast.

The Houthis, an Iran-backed rebel group that started the war in 2014, made some desultory efforts to sell the oil, but buyers were deterred by the war and international sanctions. The rebels then allowed the tanker to decay, using the prospect of a disastrous leak to blackmail the international community for aid and favorable terms in ceasefire negotiations.

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Now the Houthis have belatedly agreed to allow the oil to be offloaded from the vessel, but the United Nations and environmental groups like Greenpeace warn that time and money are short  and that the Safer is a time bomb about to blow, spilling its toxic cargo into the Red Sea.

This threatens not only the eight littoral countries  Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea and Djibouti  but also international shipping on one of the worlds busiest trade routes. The risk to the global economy needs no exaggeration: Memories are fresh from the last time a single ship choked the waterway.

But the damage caused by the Safer would be far greater than the economic costs imposed by the Ever Given in March 2021. The UN reckons it would take $20 billion just to clean up the Red Sea; the toll on the global economy could be magnitudes higher.

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Built in 1976, the single-hulled Safer is 360 meters long  a fifth again as long as Exxon Valdez, the ship at the center of the infamous 1989 spill in Alaskas Prince William Sound. Previously called Esso Japan, it was converted into a floating oil storage and offloading facility and sold to the Yemeni government in 1988. Its name (pronounced saffar) comes from the desert location of the countrys first oil discovery.

The vessel was last surveyed eight years ago by the American Bureau of Shipping before the civil war prevented any further audit of its seaworthiness. Its hull desperately needs repair, and it is a safe bet that its mechanical and electronic equipment  including, crucially, its fire-fighting gear  are no longer in working order. A spill from a breached hull or an explosion are both clear and present dangers.

The UN reckons an emergency operation to offload the oil will cost $80 million. (An additional $64 million will eventually be required for a replacement for the ship.) Donors have been parsimonious, however, and the UN is short by $20 million for the offloading operation. It is resorting to online crowd-funding to plug the gap.

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Time may be a scarcer commodity. It is hard enough to predict when the Safer might break or blow, and no less difficult to handicap the Houthis interest in maintaining the peace. They have previously used cessations of hostility merely to replenish their arms supplies. Despite the extension of the current truce, the rebels have not shown much interest in a lasting agreement with the Yemeni government in exile and the coalition of Arab nations that support it.

Geopolitical factors add to the uncertainty. The truce would not have lasted this long if it didnt suit Iran to restrain the rebels while it negotiated for a revival of the 2015 nuclear deal with the world powers. But with prospects of a revival fading, the regime might again unleash the Houthis against their mutual enemies, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The resumption of Houthi missile attacks against Saudi and Emirati oil installations would end the truce as well as any hopes of saving the Safer  and the Red Sea. But, with its own shipping limited by economic sanctions, Tehran might well regard the prospect of an environmental disaster in international waters as somebody elses problem.

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The only way around this is for the international community to back the UN with the cash and diplomatic capital needed to carry out the emergency offloading of the tanker even as it presses the Houthis for a longer truce. The Saudis and Emiratis, who stand to lose from the resumption of hostilities and any impediment to shipping in the Red Sea, should bear larger shares of the bill.

The last thing the global economy needs right now is an environmental calamity on one of its most important shipping lanes.

More From Bloomberg Opinion:



Yemen Truce Is Good News for the Wider World: Bobby Ghosh



OPEC+ Mulls When to Fire Its Last Oil Production Bullets: Javier Blas



Russias Sunken Warship Is a Warning to All Navies: James Stavridis

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Bobby Ghosh is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering foreign affairs. Previously, he was editor in chief at Hindustan Times, managing editor at Quartz and international editor at Time.

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The long-simmering harbor dispute between New York and New Jersey has observers reaching for illustrations from The Sopranos and On the Waterfront. But now that the US Supreme Court has agreed to adjudicate the spat, I wonder whether a more useful resource might be The Paper Chase. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight The disagreement stems from New Jerseys determination to exit the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, an entity established by the two states back in 1953 in response to news reports of widespread corruption and violence among those who loaded and unloaded ships. New Jersey argues that as a sovereign state, it cant be forced to remain in the pact forever. New York replies that the deal has the force of law and neither state can quit without the permission of the other. (And Congress!)

The Supreme Court is now involved because thats the venue the Constitution prescribes when one state sues another. Four days before New Jerseys announced departure date of March 28, the justices issued an injunction preventing the move. This week they agreed to adjudicate the dispute and set an accelerated schedule for briefs and oral argument.

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The case is rich with competing constitutional arguments, but I wonder whether the more straightforward solution is to stop thinking about New Jersey and New York as sovereign states and view them instead as parties to a contract. After all, contract law has long been applied to interpret compacts between states, and both states reference contract law in their Supreme Court filings.

If we consider only contract law, New Jersey would seem to have a strong argument. For one thing, courts dislike deals of indefinite duration. More important, cases over the past century have converged around the notion that even a deal thats supposed to go on forever can be broken if circumstances have sufficiently changed.

For example, a parcel of land is sold with a covenant that it can only be used to build a residence. Fifty years later, the neighborhood is all businesses. Although the covenant by its terms cannot expire, the court will likely reform the deed to allow the owner to construct commercial space.

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How does that principle apply here? Lets go back to the years after World War II. Its difficult to describe in a short column how grim life had become along the New York and New Jersey waterfront. The port of New York handled one-third of US foreign trade, and organized crime held sufficient sway that ships couldnt depart until their owners paid off the mobsters who ran the docks. Men have been murdered, wrote the Christian Science Monitor in 1948. Gangsters control the lives and destines of thousands of water-front workers.

Every day, longshoremen would crowd the docks, hoping for a few hours pay. The hiring bosses would pick and choose, often in exchange for a kickback. Part of the kickback went to the Mob. Those who refused to pay couldnt get work.

Although the hiring bosses at times were themselves victims of Mob violence, those who went along with the scheme wielded enormous and arbitrary power. A 1945 article in The Nation alleged that the bosses pressured longshoremen to make their wives and daughters sexually available in exchange for work.

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By most accounts, the International Longshoremens Association also profited from the setup, and did all it could to halt investigations. In 1948, the New York Times reported that the union was threatening to pull the entire crew off the job whenever one of their members was taken from a pier for questioning. And the shipping companies were hardly untainted. Organized crime in the unions could not flourish, wrote the New York Herald Tribune, without the connivance  or supineness  of employers.

Meanwhile, public outrage grew. The Waterfront Commission was established amidst high hopes that it would be able to break the power of both organized crime and the corrupt union along the docks. Heres New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, speaking in August 1953: We must substitute law and order for the jungle rule of fear and violence that grips the waterfront.

Seven decades later, the Mob casts a far smaller shadow than it once did. For years, technology (especially the invention of container shipping) has been killing longshoring jobs across the country. At the Port of New York, the union workforce has declined by nearly 90%. Productivity is up. Pilferage is down. So is the power of the hiring bosses, whose role was crucial to the worst of the dockside corruption that led to creation of the Waterfront Commission. At the same time, the New Jersey waterfront has become a prime development territory, dotted with hotels and apartments and shopping malls.

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Are these changes sufficient to release New Jersey from the agreement? New York insists that organized crime still plays a role along the docks. New Jersey responds that the commission is no longer the right solution; that its made hiring dockworkers expensive by creating unnecessary bureaucratic layers; and that, per a harsh 2009 report, its not exactly a paragon of probity itself.

I wont venture to guess how the case will come out. But I hope the justices will clarify whether changed circumstances ever allow a state to escape a compact with another state. There are hundreds of interstate deals out there, and not a few of them are ripe for challenge.

More from Bloomberg Opinion:

 The Supreme Court Just Made New Yorks Streets Meaner: Noah Feldman

 Five Notes on the Republican Partys Future: Jonathan Bernstein

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 Hunger Is Getting Worse Since the Pandemic: Amanda Little

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Stephen L. Carter is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Yale University, he is author, most recently, of Invisible: The Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down Americas Most Powerful Mobster.

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Theres a $60 billion reason why SoftBank Group Corp. founder Masayoshi Son might feel a little down. His company has shed more market value in the past year than during any 12-month period over the past two decades, while his portfolio of private and public companies faces continued turmoil. And yet, Son remains unfailingly optimistic.

I have no doubt at all. No matter what changes take place, I have never been doubtful, Son told shareholders Friday of his belief in the information revolution that forms the underlying thesis for his investment strategy.

From declining share prices to failed merger deals, the 64-year-old found an upside to almost every trouble his conglomerate has faced over the past year. And he needs to. His handful of investment vehicles, lead by the SoftBank Vision Fund, has a stake in more than 470 companies. Few of them have delivered a home run, but they will. Maybe.

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Sons acolytes believe the Japanese billionaires eternal faith in the information revolution  a global economic shift that puts data at the heart of commerce  will eventually pay off. By putting money into a variety of businesses, hes betting that a rising tide will lift all boats. But the challenge will be for the company to stay afloat long enough that the current shifts in his favor.

With debt of almost $300 billion and a weakening yen, Son needs to steady himself for a few years until he can realize the gains hes so confident will eventually come.

A major setback in paying down that debt was SoftBanks failed $40 billion sale of chip company Arm Ltd. to Nvidia Corp. Regulators around the world worried it would be too powerful a business and rejected the merger. Yet Son even put a positive spin on that failure, claiming it was a good thing that he could hold onto the British company longer.

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While demand for the IPO in the current market environment remains to be seen, Son said he has been receiving love calls from multiple exchanges seeking to host the public offering, with the firm reportedly planning to list a partial stake in London. Already bullish on Arm, Son outlined his prediction that the chip designer could be worth something similar to the GAFA quartet of Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple  or an order of magnitude more than the value of the sale to Nvidia.

While that might be a typical Son overstatement, there are reasons to suspect he will muddle through. For one thing, to its lenders, SoftBank itself is too big to fail  a classic example of the adage that if you owe the bank $100 thats your problem, but if you owe the bank $300 billion, thats the banks problem. Money is still essentially free in Japan, where there is no sign of the central bank joining the rest of the world in raising rates  a scenario in which SoftBank would be the least of the countrys problems. And for now, banks will still be lining up to enable SoftBank to roll over its obligations, long before it has to sell off its prize assets. Even then, Son predicted that no more than three firms in his vast portfolio would ever be a hit on the scale of his winning punt on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

During parts of the shareholders meeting, it was easy to see where Son gets his (over)confidence. Some of the investors asking questions seemed more like cheerleaders, with one urging Son to be the light of hope for all humanity by staying on at the head of the company until he passes 100 years of age. Lets hope Son is hearing more critical voices in the boardroom. At least Ken Miyauchi, a longtime lieutenant and chairman of SoftBanks mobile unit, admitted Friday he had periods where he was full of doubts about the firms stock price.

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For wary investors, Son has a message: If you cant stand the thrills, youre free to disembark the ride.

Looking at the share price from a 10- or 20-year perspective, its consistently rising, but over the short term it goes up and down, Son said. If you cant put up with that, then its better for you if you dont  for the good for your health.

It would be tough to recommend that the faint of heart invest in SoftBank. But as a typically bombastic SoftBank video promised, despair can turn to hope. The message was not intended for fretful investors, but maybe they can take solace nonetheless. Even if no one else does, Son still believes. More From These Writers and Others at Bloomberg Opinion:

 SoftBanks Son Has Survived Bigger Disasters: Gearoid Reidy

 SoftBank Needs to Stop Buying and Start Selling: Tim Culpan

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 SoftBanks Arm Is Best Off Listing in London: Chris Hughes

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Tim Culpan is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology in Asia. Previously, he was a technology reporter for Bloomberg News.

Gearoid Reidy is a Bloomberg News senior editor covering Japan. He previously led the breaking news team in North Asia and was the Tokyo deputy bureau chief.

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At a summit in Brussels yesterday, leaders of the European Unions 27 member states approved Ukraines candidacy for membership in the EU. The decision will boost the morale of Ukrainians fighting to defend their democracy. For now, however, its less clear that enlargement to Ukraine is in the best interests of Europe as a whole.

Ukraines reasons for seeking EU membership are plain. As the country deals with the destruction caused by war and economic collapse, closer ties with Europe will help reassure investors, motivate returnees and sustain political reforms. The EU is already a bigger economic partner for Ukraine than Russia is, with the union accounting for more than 40% of Ukraines total trade in 2021.

Yet Ukraines candidacy presents immense challenges. The EUs accession framework requires countries to be functioning democracies with market economies and governing structures able to incorporate the entire body of EU law. Notwithstanding the Wests support, Ukraine remains a relatively poor country where reforms have often been frustrated by high levels of corruption and powerful oligarch interests. The government of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has made strides in improving transparency and accountability, but even Ukraines most ardent supporters concede it will take years for Kyiv to rebuild its economy and bring its institutions up to the standards of other EU members.

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There are also legitimate worries about what the EU can absorb. Outside of Ukraine, the bloc is considering applications from six candidate countries, including four in the Balkans. Decision-making structures on important issues are already borderline dysfunctional since so much has to be decided by unanimous vote (witness Hungarys recent veto of an EU-wide deal on corporation tax). Looming economic risks are likely to deepen the projects chronic instability. Admitting Ukraine into the EU would also tilt the blocs balance of power, potentially heightening internal divisions: Ukraine would be Europes fifth largest member by population, which would give it outsized voting weight for qualified-majority decisions in the European Council and more seats in the European Parliament, where population size matters.

Having endorsed the start of the accession process, Europes leaders should be forthright with Ukraine about the work required before the country can be approved for full membership. Integrating a war-torn country of more than 40 million into the EU  with every right and expectation of a full-fledged member  is, for the moment at least, hard to envision. The EU should rule out any offer of immediate accession, which Zelenskiy has previously called for, and reiterate that the process cant be rushed. (The last new member was Croatia in 2013; its membership negotiations lasted a decade.) While acknowledging that Ukrainians are fighting for values on which the EU was founded, European leaders should press Kyiv to strengthen the rule of law and governance and implement broader economic reforms that will help Ukraine rebuild sustainably and reduce its historic dependence on Russia. This process should prove salutary for Ukraine, however its membership bid proceeds.

In fact, the obvious difficulties with Ukraines bid suggest Europe needs to rethink its approach to admitting new members altogether. The EU needs a geometry that accommodates different appetites and capacities for integration. French President Emmanuel Macrons proposal for a political community that offers cooperation in areas such as energy and security policy deserves exploring. Moving to such a system would provide a way for non-EU countries to partner with Europe beyond the more rigid and trade-focused EU association agreements (which Ukraine already has).

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Ukraine belongs to the European family, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in Kyiv last week. True. But an essential familial responsibility is honesty. Europe should give Ukraines bid a fair hearing. It should not promise the impossible.

More From Other Writers at Bloomberg Opinion:



Kaliningrad Is a Microcosm of Europes Woes: Andreas Kluth



The Weakness of Putins Economic Show of Force: Clara Ferreira Marques



NATO Must Bring Finland, Sweden and Turkey Together: James Stavridis

The Editors are members of the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board.

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New rules on guns are headed to President Joe Bidens desk, after the US Congress passed legislation breaking a decades-long legislative stalemate on the issue. The package of initiatives was inspired most recently by massacres at a Texas elementary school and a Buffalo, New York, grocery store. Here are the initiatives in the bill, which the president said he will sign, plus a status report on a few other gun-related issues.

Encourage Red Flag Laws

Nineteen states and the District of Columbia already have these laws, which empower family members or police officers to ask a court to temporarily block people exhibiting violent behavior from owning firearms. The legislation will not mandate these laws, but it will create a grant program that would be used to encourage more states to adopt them.

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Expand Background Checks ...

Licensed firearm dealers are required to run criminal background checks of buyers through the Federal Bureau of Investigation before finalizing a sale; if that check isnt done within three days, the sale can proceed anyway. Private sellers -- those who only occasionally sell firearms, including at gun shows -- dont need licenses and therefore arent required to conduct a background check, a distinction often shorthanded as the gun-show loophole. The bill will narrow the loophole by expanding which firearms sellers must conduct background checks. In the case of gun buyers younger than 21, the bill will give officials an extra 10 business days to review and approve a sale if an initial check turns up a questionable juvenile record. (Under federal law, people as young as 18 can legally purchase shotguns or rifles like the popular AR-15, though not handguns.)

... and Close the Boyfriend Loophole

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Federal law bars firearms purchases by people who have been convicted of domestic violence against a spouse, a co-parent or a live-in partner. Congress is adding dating partners to that list, limiting the so-called boyfriend loophole. Roughly 40% of female homicide victims in the US are killed by a current or former male intimate partner, according to Justice Department statistics last updated in 2011. (Michael Bloomberg, owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, founded and helps fund Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit that advocates for universal background checks and other gun violence prevention measures.)

Fund Local Violence-Prevention Efforts

The bill includes $250 million for violence-prevention programs in underserved urban neighborhoods, aiming to identify and redirect would-be violent criminals. In May, Biden nominated criminal justice attorney Amy Solomon to lead the Justice Department office that funds such programs. The Senate has yet to consider her nomination. In 2021, Biden broadened the federal funding available for such programs and asked Congress for an extra $5 billion over eight years to fund them, but that request is stalled along with much of Bidens proposed spending on social programs.

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Confirm Top Firearms Regulator

The Senate will vote to confirm former prosecutor Steve Dettelbach to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives when it returns after a July 4 break, according to Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. Democrats so far unanimously support Dettelbach. So do Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Rob Portman of Ohio. The agency hasnt had a permanent director since 2015. Biden withdrew his initial choice to lead the bureau in the fall of 2021, after he failed to win a majority of the Senates support.

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The developers of the Juul e-cigarette say they created the device to help adult smokers quit. But their product achieved enormous success, becoming the top-selling e-cigarette in the US in two years, in part by attracting a huge following among teenagers, who arent legally allowed to purchase such products. Now, the nations Food and Drug Administration has banned Juul Labs Inc.s products from the market, noting their disproportionate role in the rise in youth vaping.

1. Whats a Juul?

Its a vaping device containing a battery that heats nicotine liquid. The user inhales nicotine, an addictive alkaloid present in tobacco, and exhales aerosol. Theres no burning tobacco and thus no smoke or tar. The Juul has a sleek design. Its made of brushed aluminum and resembles a USB flash drive. Because its small, the underage vaper can palm it, discreetly take a hit when a teacher or parent isnt looking, and breathe the aerosol into a sleeve or collar. Originally, Juul refills came in tasty flavors such as mango and creme.

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2. How common is teen vaping?

More than 13% of middle- and high-school students said they vaped within the previous month, according to a national survey published in October. More than 80% of those students said they used flavored e-cigarettes. Fruit flavors were the most popular, followed by candy ones. In 2020, the FDA essentially barred flavors except tobacco and menthol in e-cigarettes such as the Juul that use a replaceable cartridge (or pod) filled with nicotine liquid. But disposable e-cigarettes and liquids for refillable open-tank systems werent covered. (Michael R. Bloomberg, the majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, has funded efforts to ban flavored vaping products.)

3. What are the concerns about vaping?

While some evidence suggests that vaping is a safer choice than lighting up, there isnt enough long-term data to make a definitive conclusion. In late 2019 and early 2020, there were nearly 3,000 cases of lung injuries resulting in 68 deaths reported in the US that were associated with vaping. Vitamin E acetate, an additive in some vaping products containing THC, the main psychoactive compound in marijuana, is strongly suspected to be the culprit. The effects on humans of nicotine arent well-studied, although adolescents appear to be particularly vulnerable to it, with some evidence suggesting it can harm brain development. A report by the US National Academies of Sciences said there was substantial evidence that young vapers are more likely than nonvapers to try regular cigarettes.

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4. How are e-cigarettes regulated in the US?

The FDA began regulating e-cigarettes as tobacco products in 2016, requiring companies to submit applications to continue selling existing or new products. One of the biggest challenges for the agency has been keeping the products out of the hands of kids. The FDA has sent thousands of warning letters to retailers who have illegally sold e-cigarettes to minors. It also conducts regular inspections of manufacturing facilities. Mitch Zeller, director of the FDAs Center for Tobacco Products, has said that the burden is on companies applying for authorization to sell vaping products to demonstrate that the benefit to adults is going to outweigh the harm to kids. According to the FDA, Juuls application lacked sufficient evidence to show that allowing its products to be sold in the US would be appropriate for the protection of public health. It said some of the companys study findings raised concerns due to insufficient and conflicting data.

5. How are e-cigarettes regulated elsewhere?

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In 28 countries, the sale of all types of e-cigarettes is banned. They include Brazil, India, Mexico, Qatar, Thailand and Uganda. In addition, Jamaica, Japan and Switzerland prohibit the sale of e-cigarettes that contain nicotine. European and UK health authorities have embraced vaping products as a way to get people to quit smoking and have imposed tougher regulations on them than the US has, restricting marketing to children, for example, and imposing lower limits on nicotine content. The European Union and UK permit a maximum of 20 milligrams of nicotine per milliliter of e-cigarette fluid, whereas Juul pod solds in the US contain either 35 or 59 milligrams per milliliter. In both the EU and UK, teen vaping rates are lower than in the US.

6. Whats the future for Juul Labs?

Joe Murillo, chief regulatory officer for Juul Labs, said the company disagreed with the FDAs decision and would seek a stay as it considers what to do next, including an appeal. Meanwhile, the company is facing a plethora of lawsuits. In April it reached a $22.5 million settlement with Washington state over claims it unlawfully targeted underage consumers with deceptive advertisements. Last year, the company struck a $40 million settlement with North Carolina over a suit claiming it aimed its products at the young. The company agreed to stop all marketing directed at young people as part of that deal. There are also more than 2,500 personal injury cases in which Juul Labs is accused of deliberately targeting minors in marketing its products.

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Ukraine has a path to membership in the European Union after the blocs leaders granted it candidacy status. Joining the EU would solidify Ukraines westward orientation, which Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to thwart by force. Russias full-scale invasion of its neighbor, with whom it shares a long history and cultural affinity, spurred an effort by European nations to forge ties with Ukraine at a pace barely imaginable before the war began. But the road to EU accession can be lengthy, with obstacles along the way, including a lack of unity among its members about enlargement.

1. What does candidacy status mean?

A country given candidacy status has the prospect of joining if it meets the EUs political and economic criteria. Formal negotiations can begin only once the candidate nation fulfills those conditions. In Ukraines case, the EUs initial road map requires steps to fight corruption, break the control of oligarchs over the economy and make rules for selecting judges. The European Commission will monitor progress. Once talks start, the parties have to work through 35 so-called chapters covering everything from the environment to markets to ensure Ukraines legislation and standards are aligned with the EUs.

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2. How long does the process take?

Its open-ended. Croatia, the EUs newest member, waited 10 years before its bid was formally accepted. Turkey has been a candidate since 1999, though its governments increasing authoritarianism under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has moved it further off the EU track. The blocs leaders have made clear that there is no fast track. But Ukraine at least won candidacy status just four months after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy formally applied. For comparison, Albania, another EU candidate, had to wait five years after applying to be granted candidacy.

3. How did Ukraine gain candidacy status so quickly?

Once a republic of the Soviet Union, Ukraine has long had EU ambitions, though any prospect of membership seemed a long way off. Russias military assault instantly changed the calculus. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen insisted that Kyiv belongs within the European family. Several member states were reticent to offer Ukraine full candidacy ahead of existing applicants. The breakthrough came with a high-level visit in June to Kyiv by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi -- all of whom promised their support for Ukraines bid.

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4. Can Ukraine meet the EUs demands?

Its most challenging task will be to tackle corruption thats become endemic. Anti-graft bodies set up under agreements with global partners, including the International Monetary Fund, have yielded few results, with no prosecutions against top officials accused of corruption. That includes promised investigations into figures tied to toppled Russian-backed President Viktor Yanukovych -- a group renowned for their luxury mansions and cars. The nations media landscape is almost entirely in the hands of billionaire oligarchs. Before the war, foreign businesses consistently cited the compromised court system as a barrier to investment. Ukraine ranks 122nd out of 180 countries on Transparency Internationals Corruption Perceptions Index.

5. Do Ukrainians support joining the EU?

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The Ukrainian publics tilt toward Europe has been the driving force of tensions with Russia at least since the 2004 Orange Revolution, which overturned the initially fraudulent election of Yanukovych. When the Kremlin-backed leader, who eventually came to power in 2010, reneged on an EU cooperation treaty at Putins behest in 2013, public outrage grew into the Maidan Revolution, which ousted his government. Still, support for EU membership wasnt always universal. As recently as January, before Russias invasion, a survey by the Rating Group pollster showed that 65% of respondents favored joining. A June 18-19 Rating poll showed that figure had jumped to 87%. The survey showed broad support among all regions and age groups.

6. Who else is trying to join the EU?

Moldova, another former Soviet republic partially occupied by Russian troops, also received candidacy (Georgia was offered a roadmap with conditions to obtain it). The two effectively jumped the line. Bosnia-Herzegovina, a former Yugoslav republic racked by war in the 1990s, and Kosovo, a former Serbian province not recognized by a handful of EU members, have sought EU accession since 2016 but have yet to receive an invitation. Other nations have made it in the door, but have been waiting for years for the talks to begin or to inch forward, including Montenegro, Serbia, Albania and North Macedonia. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has excoriated the lack of progress, particularly a blockade by Bulgaria on North Macedonias advancement, saying at a summit in Brussels that the deadlock is in effect offering unsolicited help to Putin by hindering a NATO member. Their frustrations with the application could foreshadow what Ukraine will contend with.

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7. Whos not sold on EU enlargement?

The Balkan frustration derives from a sense among European leaders that expanding the bloc will create additional problems, especially given the standoff over the rule of law with EU members Hungary and Poland -- and the struggle in member states such as Romania and Bulgaria to tackle corruption. A sixth round of sanctions against Russia was held up primarily by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Frances Macron, though he gave the nod to Ukraines candidacy, has been blunt about enlargement fatigue. Hes proposed a European political community as a kind of antechamber to full membership for applicants, though the details have been fuzzy. Member states including the Netherlands and Denmark had also expressed reservations on Ukraines accession prospects.

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Close to 3 billion people have never used the internet, and billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are on a mission that could narrow the digital divide. The two entrepreneurs are competing to launch thousands of small satellites that will zip around the globe in whats known as low-Earth orbit (LEO). They can be used to connect places that are too remote for ground-based broadband or have been cut off by natural disasters or conflict. The technology was put through its paces in Ukraine, where Musks Starlink system helped to keep civilians and the military online after Russian forces invaded. But colonizing this special slice of Earths atmosphere comes with heavy startup costs as well as complex and potentially dangerous challenges.

1. How low is LEO?

Most LEO satellites circle from 500 kilometers (311 miles) to 2,000 kilometers above Earths surface, so they can send data to the ground more rapidly than traditional communication satellites that are stationed at roughly 36,000 kilometers out. Those high-orbit systems have a median signal delay, or latency, of nearly 600 milliseconds for a round trip -- too slow for technologies such as live video streaming, self-driving cars and high-frequency securities trading. Starlink aims for latency as low as 20 milliseconds, which Musk hopes eventually to cut in half. At those speeds, LEO satellites may compete with the fastest ground networks.

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2. Why so many satellites?

Satellites that are closer to Earth see a smaller part of its surface, so you need more of them. Also, the speed needed for an object to keep a stable orbit -- achieved by balancing its velocity with Earths gravity -- increases in LEO, so a satellite must travel at about 27,000 kph to stay aloft, circling the planet in 90 to 120 minutes. As each satellite is only briefly in contact with a ground transmitter, another needs to appear on the horizon before the first goes out of view. To ensure theres always a satellite overhead, you need lots of them strung out along crisscrossing paths that envelop the globe.

3. How will the companies make money?

By selling their services to governments, businesses working in remote regions and providers of terrestrial 5G wireless and fixed-line broadband services that need to fill gaps in their own networks. They also aim to sell direct to consumers in poorer nations where broadband is patchy. For that, theyll have to cut the cost of the ground terminals: A Starlink package costs $599 in the US, excluding the connection fee. Past LEO projects such as Iridium, Globalstar and Orbcomm went bankrupt. Todays are more viable as satellite launch costs have plunged with the introduction of lighter, reusable rockets. Musks Falcon 9 can send up a satellite at a cost of $2,600 per kilogram, down from roughly $10,000 two decades ago. His company Space Exploration Technologies Corp. estimated that Starlink may cost up to $30 billion to install, and Musk has said that annual revenue could eventually reach $50 billion, helping to bankroll his ultimate ambition -- colonizing Mars.

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4. What about the competition?

Musks rivals arent far behind. In April, Bezoss Amazon.com Inc. struck the biggest launch deal ever, to send up more than 3,000 satellites for his Project Kuiper constellation. OneWeb Ltd., an LEO constellation controlled by Indian billionaire Sunil Mittal and the British government, plans to offer global coverage from 2023. LEO networks from Canadian-backed Telesat, China, the European Union and others are in various stages of development. By the end of the decade, there could be more than 100,000 satellites zipping around the Earth, more than 20 times the number in operation in early 2022. Astronomers have already noticed the growing traffic, complaining that Starlink satellites are interfering with their view of space.

5. Whats the downside of LEO?

Because the satellites are moving so fast, collisions are harder to predict and can be devastating. A 10-centimeter chunk of debris traveling in LEO can contain about as much energy as 7 kilograms of TNT, enough to shatter a satellite into thousands of pieces. Radar detection systems can estimate a satellites trajectory only to within a few miles as solar radiation and atmospheric drag make orbital paths slightly irregular. LEO is already used by satellites for climate observation, Earth imaging and military purposes, as well as the International Space Station. Its also littered with dead satellites and stray bits of old spacecraft. Theres a worry that a few collisions could cascade into further smashes, creating clouds of debris that put LEOs most useful orbits off-limits for centuries. There are various proposals for removing space junk. But they would cost billions of dollars, and governments cant decide who would pay the bill.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

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Each episode of the true-crime drama currently airing from Room 390 of the Cannon House Office Building in Washington has offered variations on a theme: Former President Donald Trump used the powers of his office, and blunt force, to foment a coup after losing the 2020 presidential election. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight The plot twists have largely involved how individuals or institutions responded to Trumps entreaties to commit crimes. The fifth day of testimony overseen by the bipartisan congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol focused on a trio of Justice Department lawyers who did the right thing when Trump cracked his whip  and one who didnt.

As Trump was trying to corrupt the nations leading law enforcement agency by forcing its attorneys to help fabricate evidence of electoral fraud  and launch an investigation of the bogus claim  former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and two of his deputies, Richard Donoghue and Steven Engel, resisted. That perplexed Trump.

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Just say that the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen, was Trumps guidance to the lawyers, according to Donoghues testimony. But a lower-level Justice Department lawyer, Jeffrey Clark, was eager to do Trumps bidding (apparently in exchange for Trump naming him attorney general). What made Clark so pliable?

Clark was willing to ignore the facts and do whatever Trump wanted him to do, including overthrowing a free and fair democratic election, said Representative Adam Kinzinger, a Republican member of the Jan. 6 committee. (Federal law enforcement agents raided Clarks home on Wednesday and led him out of the house in his pajamas, so more evidence of his intentions might be forthcoming.)

But Clarks behavior has a broader lesson. Its evidence of Trumps peculiar magnetism for grifters  and a reminder of the kind of corruption that will return to the White House if he isnt held accountable for his coup attempt and finds a path back to the Oval Office in 2024.

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For most of his 76 years, Trump has attracted operators, wannabes and seemingly strait-laced people who, once they enter his orbit, become unusually craven. It happened when he was an aspiring real estate and casino mogul, when he was a reality-TV celebrity and, with much greater and lasting consequence, when he was president.

Michael Cohen, a former Trump lawyer and enforcer, is someone who well understands Trump as a manipulator. He is familiar with the triggers that Trump is able to pull when he so desires. I gave Cohen a call to ask him about what lessons he drew from Thursdays congressional hearing  and what life is like as a Trump co-dependent.

I believe that everyone in Trumps inner circle are all fundamentally missing something in their lives. For me, I had just come off a series of health issues when I was asked to join the Trump Organization. I had missed the excitement, Cohen told me. Theres an excitement in being around the celebrity of Donald Trump. He has a great ability to make those around him feel that theyre part of that moment  even if its not for a good thing.

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Its intoxicating, he continued. Until things go bad with Trump, then they go really bad. Ultimately, those who were his inner circle all end up having their lives turned upside down. And for what, for who?

Cohen got tripped up when he bribed two women to stay quiet about their sexual encounters with Trump. He served prison time for campaign finance violations tied to the payments, and for tax and bank fraud. Cohen said he was merely doing what he was told. Trump was never charged with wrongdoing over the hush money.

Trump doesnt make requests of people. He gives orders, he said. To refuse the task as directed by Trump would result in an immediate termination. Of course, the White House is a far larger and more powerful stage than the Trump Organization, he acknowledged. Nevertheless, it was a similar dynamic.

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There is a long parade of people, past and present, who have indulged their inner Donalds once the former president tapped them on the shoulder. Some of them were already steeped in the dark arts: Roy Cohn, Roger Stone and Steve Bannon come to mind. Others went rogue once Trump showed them the way. Jeffrey Clark counts as one of those, I think. The Jan. 6 hearings have proven that lots of others joined Clarks ranks during Trumps White House years.

The list of Trumps corruptibles may include several Republican legislators. Representatives Andy Biggs, Mo Brooks, Matt Gaetz, Louie Gohmert, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Scott Perry all lobbied Trump for presidential pardons after the Jan. 6 siege, according to hearing testimony. Perhaps none of them did anything wrong, but people dont typically seek a pre-emptive presidential pardon unless they believe they might be charged with a crime.

Whatever comes of the Jan. 6 hearings, at least two things are already evident. First, there was a clear line between those who knew right from wrong in the Trump presidency, and those who didnt. Second, Trump made a home in the White House for legions of lawyers, legislators and lackeys inclined to grift  or even undermine democracy. That was to be expected. After all, Trump has spent a lifetime recruiting those kinds of people.

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More From Bloomberg Opinion:

 Can Trump Be Tied to His Allies Violent Intimidation?: Jonathan Bernstein

 The Jan. 6 Committee Should Finish Its Job  Quickly: The Editors

 Will Jan. 6 Be a Factor on Nov. 8?: Julianna Goldman

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

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ROANOKE, Va.  A federal appeals court has denied a request from a company building a natural gas pipeline in Virginia and West Virginia to have a new panel of judges reconsider permits that have been struck down repeatedly . Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the motion from Mountain Valley Pipeline in a one-sentence order filed late Wednesday, The Roanoke Times reported.

Last month, the company filed a motion asking for a new panel to be assigned at random.

The 303-mile (487-kilometer) pipeline, which is mostly finished, would transport natural gas drilled from the Marcellus and Utica shale formations through West Virginia and Virginia. Legal battles have delayed completion by nearly four years and doubled the pipelines cost, now estimated at $6.6 billion.

Three-member panels are randomly assigned for incoming cases, but rules allow for the same judges to remain with a case sometimes when it comes up again. However, the company asserted that the Fourth Circuit didnt follow its internal operating procedures.

The company also argued that the courts continued rejection of government approvals, often by the same three judges, threatens public confidence in the court. But those who support keeping the same judges on similar cases argue that its more efficient as the judges can be more familiar with the history of cases and complex issues.

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5 die as migrants, border guards clash Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight About 2,000 migrants stormed a high fence that seals off Spains North African enclave of Melilla on Friday in a violent-two hour skirmish with border officers, during which five migrants were killed, Spanish and Moroccan authorities said. Scores more on both sides were injured, while more than 100 migrants managed to cross from Morocco into Melilla, they said.

Melilla and Ceuta, a second Spanish enclave also on Africas northern coast, have over the past decade become a magnet for mostly sub-Saharan migrants trying to get into Europe.

Footage posted on social media showed large groups of African youths walking along roads around the border, celebrating entering Melilla and the firing of what appeared to be tear gas by the authorities.

Spanish authorities said the border incursion led to 57 migrants and 49 Spanish police sustaining injuries.

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 Reuters

Civilians given 14 days to leave as fight looms

Burkina Fasos army has given civilians two weeks to evacuate vast areas in its northern and southeastern regions ahead of military operations against Islamist insurgents, it said.

The West African countrys army this week ordered civilians to leave two large military interest zones for their own safety but did not specify how long they would have to evacuate or where they should go.

One of the military zones is a rural area of around 772 square miles bordering Mali in the northern province of Soum. The other covers about 4,250 square miles on the southern border with Benin and is mostly national park land.

It was not clear how many people were affected by the orders.

Military sources told Reuters the government would provide support to the displaced. The government did not immediately respond to queries.

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 Reuters

Suspects charged over baffling needle attacks

Several suspects around France have been detained or given preliminary charges in recent days for allegedly pricking people with a needle in nightclubs or at concerts, after a surge in needle attacks that have confounded authorities and seeded panic among young clubgoers.

The French Interior Ministry, prosecutors, the national anti-drug agency, public health authorities and doctors have not determined a motive for the attacks, or whether the victims were injected with drugs, viruses or any substance at all.

Since January, 1,004 people have filed formal complaints with French authorities about such needle pricks, an Interior Ministry official told the Associated Press.

In the cases so far that resulted in charges, medical tests did not reveal any signs of harmful substances, including date rape drug GHB, authorities said. The suspects have denied all allegations.

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 Associated Press

Migrant caravan in Mexico demands route to border: An estimated 2,000 migrants walked out of Tapachula, a southern Mexico city, saying they are not interested in visas and permits that the government has issued in efforts to dissolve other caravans, and calling instead for buses to the U.S. border. The documents usually give migrants a month or more to regularize their status in Mexico or leave the country. Most migrants use them to reach the U.S. border. But migrants walking Friday said that authorities in other parts of Mexico have not respected those documents and many migrants were returned to the south. Venezuelan Jonathan Avila, one of the group's self-appointed leaders, said they want buses to carry them to the U.S. border. "The visa doesn't work," he said. "With the visa they return us, they tear it up."

Russian military cargo plane crashes, killing 5: A Russian military cargo plane crashed on a training flight after refueling about 124 miles southeast of Moscow, killing five crew members and leaving several others injured, officials said. The heavy-lift Il-76 cargo plane went down in the Ryazan region after having an engine problem that forced the crew of 10 to crash-land. The plane, carrying no cargo, was flying from Belgorod to Orenburg, Russian news agency Tass reported. Video showed at least one charred engine separated from the fuselage lying on a green meadow near woods, a highway and houses.

 From news services

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JERUSALEM  Amnesty International said Friday that the Palestinian Authority has failed to hold its security forces accountable for the death of an activist in police custody a year ago. The family of Nizar Banat, a prominent critic of the PA, says security forces stormed his residence in the middle of the night and beat him with metal batons. His death sparked weeks of protests against the PA, which governs parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, some of which were violently dispersed.

Palestinian authorities arrested 14 officers last summer and are trying them in a military court, but have taken no action against top commanders. Amnesty said the 14 were allowed a holiday from detention running from June 21 until July 2.

The flawed military trial of 14 low-ranking security officers will not bring about justice, said Heba Morayef, Amnestys regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.

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There needs to be a civilian trial following international standards, not just a smokescreen to protect those higher up, she said.

Three Palestinian officials declined requests for comment on the Amnesty statement.

Amnesty cited Ghandi al-Rabi, a lawyer for the Banat family, as saying they had completely withdrawn from the trial on May 18 because they lost trust in the proceedings. It said they are preparing a case for civilian courts instead.

Rights groups say both the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority and the Islamic militant group Hamas, which rules Gaza, use torture and arbitrary detention to silence critics.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called off the first elections in 15 years in April 2021 when it appeared his increasingly fractured Fatah party was heading for defeat. Recent polls have shown that nearly 80% of Palestinians want him to resign.

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PALMA DE MALLORCA, Spain  A pregnant American woman who suffered an incomplete miscarriage while vacationing in Malta was receiving treatment Friday in a hospital on the Spanish island of Mallorca because Maltese law prohibits abortion, the womans partner said. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russia's war in Ukraine. ArrowRight Jay Weeldreyer told The Associated Press that doctors at the Son Espases University Hospital in Palma de Mallorca were preparing his partner, Andrea Prudente, for a procedure to remove the remaining fetal tissue because she was at risk of a life-threatening infection.

A medical evacuation flight transported the couple from Malta to Mallorca late Thursday.

Weeldreyer told the AP in a video interview Friday that Prudente was exhausted, but relieved. Her physical condition is stable. So, shes safe.

The next step is she has to terminate the pregnancy, he said. From a medical standpoint, thatll basically be the end of it.

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Prudente, 38, experienced heavy bleeding on June 12, followed by a premature rupture of the amniotic sac and the separation of the placenta, Weeldreyer, 45, told the AP on Thursday.

The Malta hospital where she was treated carefully monitored her for any sign of infection but it could not perform the surgery to complete the miscarriage, he said.

Malta is the only European Union member nation that outlaws abortions for any reason.

The couple from Issaquah, Washington, a town near Seattle, arrived in Malta on June 5 for what they had planned as a babymoon vacation. A week into the trip, Prudente started bleeding and they encountered the worst of all possible worlds, where there is no good choice, Weeldreyer said. He indicated she was 16 weeks pregnant at the time.

After the Supreme Court ruled Friday to end constitutional protections for abortion in the United States, Weeldreyer said he and Prudente just looked at each other.

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We were just thinking about the women who are going to suffer in states where politicians will choose to do something like Malta for a political gain, he told the AP by telephone from the hospital in Spain. Women are going to suffer.

Under Spanish law, abortion is permitted upon request through the 14th week of pregnancy and up to the 22nd week when a womans life or health is in danger.

The Womens Rights Foundation in Malta filed a legal protest in court last week that demanded the legalization of abortion in the tiny island nation.

___

Ciaran Giles in Madrid and Frances DEmilio in Rome contributed to this report.

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The steep fall As with many crypto companies in recent months, Celsiuss story is one of a climb from the ashes before a potentially sharp descent. As the crypto market was undergoing a depression in 2018 that saw the price of Bitcoin drop more than 400 per cent, Mashinsky travelled the globe to whip up interest in his new digital bank. At blockchain conferences and events in dozens of cities he pressed the flesh, meeting whales, cajoling influencers and generally creating a media storm  an old-fashioned marketing triumph in a newfangled digital world. Viral moments seemed to follow. Mashinsky became a crypto-community celebrity when a panel he took part in with the economist and crypto-sceptic Nouriel Roubini at the 2018 Milken Conference in Beverly Hills became a gloves-off verbal slugfest. Suddenly everyday people who had never heard of Celsius or thought about putting their money in a crypto bank were aware of this wry 50-something contrarian. He made the case to Wall Street that he could offer much higher yields without the bureaucratic costs and profit-taking of traditional banks and he also marketed those yields, which could reach between 20 per cent and 30 per cent, to depositors.

The pitch could often be ideological: A 2019 deck for investors argued that the decentralised digital economy needs next-generation financial tools and a system that will work for the benefit of the community, while his communications to customers stressed his disdain for conventional banks. He also cited his experience in other cutting-edge technologies, for instance, he was among the inventors of the tech that allows internet phone calls, though some critics have questioned the significance of his role. Still, business was slow. The companys own CEL token, launched in 2018 to help facilitate transactions, ended 2019 at just 14, only the slightest improvement from the 10 it was worth months earlier. The company struggled enough that at one point its offices were moved from Midtown Manhattan to Mashinskys home in the city. Then came the pandemic. Mashinsky and co-founder and chief technology officer Nuke Goldstein, an engineer prone to grand statements like we are disrupting giants, found a growing audience for their vision.

Loading The rise of The Machine Mashinsky held frequent Ask Mashinsky Anything online sessions, posted regularly on Twitter and released YouTube videos explaining how the company was able to generate such rich yields with little risk, building an intimate relationship with a broadening fan base in a world often driven by faceless computer code. In these videos he often came across as plain-spoken but forceful, arguing that viewers were falling into a traditionalist mind-set when questioning the companys model. Theres a lot of confusion about where yield comes from, Mashinsky, who came to be known to followers as The Machine, said in one. And we keep going back and comparing apples and oranges. His signature T-shirt read, Banks are not your friends and the populist message resonated. Depositor money began flowing in by the billions.

I quickly fell in love with the idea of never having to sell my Bitcoin, never having to worry about timing market tops and turning my familys Bitcoin into passive income, one Celsius depositor, who asked that only his first name, Joseph, be used to protect his identity online, said in an electronic message to The Post. Joseph, a father of two, said it was Mashinskys online question-and-answer sessions that helped persuade him to put the majority of his crypto holdings in Celsius. The CEL token, whose value was just 42 in August 2020, finished the year at more than $US5.50. It would go up a further $US2 by May 2021. The company hired hundreds of people and moved its headquarters to Hoboken, New Jersey, in addition to offices in Britain, Serbia and Israel. Crypto markets were rocked by the move by Celsius. Credit:Getty Last October, Celsius reached what seemed like a legitimising pinnacle  a $US400 million investment round led by the private-equity firm WestCap and the Canadian public-pension giant CDPQ.

Social media cheered the rise. A Celsius YouTube channel attracted 70,000 subscribers. Celsius has totally changed my life. From working welding on my knees in a shipyard to being free of work and thinking how I can help people, wrote a user named Chris Wood. Another, Ralph Galasso, enthused: Amazing quality ! best company in crypto !!!! Love Celsius! The company even began selling The Machine T-shirts. But problems were brewing. Losing faith

In September, regulators from Texas, New Jersey and Alabama initiated cease-and-desist proceedings, seeking to stop Celsius from accepting depositor accounts. New Jersey stopped deposits right away; Alabama and Texas gave the company a window before eventually blocking them. The regulators said the accounts were unregistered securities. Celsius denied the claim. Sceptics also raised questions about where Celsius was putting depositors money to produce such yields and whether it was embodying a crypto culture that promises wealth too shiny to resist but, in the end, also too good to be true. I think one of the biggest problems Celsius has always had is we dont really know where any of their positions are, said Cory Klippsten, a crypto-industry veteran who has been a longtime Celsius critic. I think one of the biggest problems Celsius has always had is we dont really know where any of their positions are. Cory Klippsten, a crypto-industry veteran who has been a longtime Celsius critic As a private unregulated company, Celsius does not come under any requirement for disclosure. Mashinsky has said the company is simply lending the crypto to investors willing to pay a premium for it. Critics including Klippsten say it has more likely been taking risky bets with that cash in a host of volatile coins and funds.

That can work, they say, when a bull market keeps the companys own returns high and depositors demand for cash low. But when the market crashes, as it has over the past month, the value of Celsiuss holdings plummet at the same time that a lot of people want their money out. They engaged in risky strategies for generating yield on their depositors funds  riskier than their competitors, Laura Shin, a crypto journalist and podcaster who wrote the book The Cryptopians, about the fields pioneers, said. This is one of the big reasons they likely could not meet redemptions. One problem she and others have pointed to is Celsius staking eth  in simple terms, putting digital money on the ethereum blockchain for a fixed time in return for a fee paid to the person who is lending their crypto. The problem is that the money can be untouchable for many months, which is not good when customers are demanding it. Loading Celsius also invested in a crypto platform called BadgerDao, which in December was revealed to have been hacked to the tune of $US120 million. A blockchain analysis by the site CryptoBriefing traced $US51 million of the missing money to an account that has been linked to other Celsius transactions, suggesting that the company took a major hit in the hack.

The identities of Celsiuss borrowers are also unknown, said Mike Burgersburg, the online alias of one of the leading critics and chroniclers of Celsius, who has been writing a series of investigative posts under the Substack name Dirty Bubble Media. Burgersburg has done extensive work trying to track down entities that have borrowed from Celsius, but he says he has found few that admit to doing so. That makes it unclear what their terms were and how easy it might be for Celsius to collect the debts in a liquidity crunch. The company has fallen in the eyes of a number of the faithful. After Mashinsky tweeted a stay-strong message last week (@CelsiusNetwork team is working nonstop. . . . To see you come together is a clear sign our community is the strongest in the world), one user replied angrily. Please allow us to withdraw OUR funds, wrote @TzannakosPat. People have their life savings on Celsius. The community is strong and together we should demand and [sic] formal investigation. You cant just take peoples money and coins. That frustration was felt by Alex, a Celsius customer in Maryland who asked not to be fully identified to protect himself online. He has about $US20,000 in his account now, he said, money he was counting on to help support his son. Im feeling pretty bad to be honest, he said. Bitboy Crypto, the pseudonym of a prominent crypto influencer named Ben Armstrong, who has nearly 900,000 followers on Twitter, had long advocated Celsius to his followers. But after the freeze, he changed his tune. We were lied to about the safety of our funds by Alex @Mashinsky, he tweeted Saturday as he offered suggestions for legal action, in turn prompting some to blame him for cheerleading for Celsius for so long.

Yet many of Mashinskys adherents have refused to give up. They see the freeze not as a sign of malfeasance, but as one more piece of evidence that traditional finance wants to destroy crypto and will stop at nothing to realise its aim. Everyone take a look. If this is true, its a co-ordinated attack to take Celsius out. My anger is not at Alex & Celsius but at the short sellers. Spread the word!!! said a user with the handle @evanrodts, referring to a theory that the company has been victimised by those betting on its failure. Loading I have all my savings in Celsius because I trust your company, noted the Celsius advocate @MichalMike18. Please pull through. Burgersburg said many of these messages werent just financial denialism, they were the sincere emotions of people who had come to believe deeply in Mashinsky.
Chiharu Shiota: The Soul Trembles, at Brisbanes Gallery of Modern Art, is a daring but necessary exhibition for an Australian art museum. Daring, because local audiences have grown so accustomed to a diet of masterpiece shows its difficult to imagine them flocking to see the work of a contemporary Japanese artist whose name will be unfamiliar to most people. Necessary, because this is precisely the kind of show our institutions need to embrace if we are to break free of our populist habits and commit to showing the very best art from anywhere and any time.

The Queensland Art Gallery deserves praise for taking on a project which is not simply a leap in the dark in terms of audience numbers, but an exhibition set-up of extraordinary complexity, necessitating weeks of hard labour. If these efforts are to be rewarded it will be because of the word-of-mouth factor, which is sure to be strong.

Chiharu Shiotas Uncertain Journey.

This career survey was put together by Mami Kataoka, for the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, in 2019. It was scheduled to travel to Queensland the following year but was postponed due to the pandemic. After Brisbane, it will continue to circulate in Asia, testifying to the artists growing reputation.

Shiota was born in Osaka in 1972 and wanted to be an artist from early childhood. This would lead to an estrangement from her father, who believed girls should be content to be wives and mothers. She would study art in Kyoto, then Australia, where she spent two years at the Australian National University, from 1993-94. It was in Canberra that Shiota stopped painting and began experimenting with installation, including a string piece that foreshadowed the kind of work for which she has since become known.
London: Ukrainians woke up on Saturday to air raid sirens and reports of missiles being intercepted by shield defences around the country.

A Russian strike hit the Yavoriv military facility in western Ukraine, Lviv Governor Maxim Kozitsky said. He said six missiles were fired from the Black Sea, with four hitting the base and two being intercepted and destroyed before hitting the target. Four people were wounded.

A Ukrainian serviceman looks at the ruins of the sports complex of the National Technical University in Kharkiv, damaged during a night of shelling. Credit:AP

The Ukrainian Armed Forces North Command said on Facebook that at around 5am, 20 rockets were launched onto the village of Desna from Belarus. It said the damage was still unknown. A Belarusian media outlet reported Russian planes were using Belarusian airspace.

Other reports said missile defences had been deployed in Kyiv and Zhytomyr in the north, Kharkiv in the east, and Dnipropetrovsk in the centre.
Abortion presents a profound moral question, read the court ruling. The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey (a 1992 decision that reaffirmed federal abortion rights) arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives. Within an hour of the ruling on Friday (Saturday AEST), the street outside the court was filled with demonstrators either protesting or celebrating the decision. While pro-life activists were thrilled - many screaming and dancing with joy - critics say the ruling represents one of the most damaging setbacks to the rights of women in Americas history. Crowds outsdie Supreme Court after its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade Credit:AP President Joe Biden said it was a sad day for the court and for the country and described the courts action as the realisation of extreme ideology.

Now with Roe gone, lets be very clear: the health and life of women of this nation are now at risk, he said. Pro-choice groups agreed, warning the courts decision could lead to more unsafe procedures, result in unwanted pregnancies, or place pressure on the states that continue to offer services as more people turn to them for treatment. Utter chaos lies ahead, as some states race to the bottom with criminal abortion bans, forcing people to travel across multiple state lines and, for those without means to travel, carry their pregnancies to term - dictating their health, lives, and futures, said Nancy Northup, president of the Centre for Reproductive Rights. Competing protesters clash outside Planned Parenthood in Missouri following the Supreme Court announcement overturning Roe v Wade. Credit:AP Another restrictive state is Oklahoma, where the Republican government recently introduced new laws prohibiting nearly all abortions starting at fertilisation, accompanied by a bounty-hunting scheme encouraging members of the public to sue those involved in abortions and rewarding them with at least $US10,000 ($14,400) if their lawsuit is successful.

In his ruling, Alito reiterated his view that the law was egregiously wrong and on a collision course with the constitution from the day it was decided. The courts three Democratic appointees  Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan - filed a joint dissent, writing that whatever the exact scope of the coming laws, one result of todays decision is certain: the curtailment of womens rights, and of their status as free and equal citizens. The Justices of the US Supreme Court. Credit:AP Chief Justice John Roberts took a more nuanced view, voting with the conservative majority but stopping short of overruling Roe v Wade outright. The decision has set the scene for an explosive showdown between pro-choice and pro-life activists in the lead up to Novembers midterm elections, and has paved the way for even deeper divisions across the country.

Trump praised the courts decision, telling Fox News: This is following the constitution, and giving rights back when they should have been given long ago. I think, in the end, this is something that will work out for everybody. Crowds outside the US Supreme Court Credit:AP His former vice president, Mike Pence, who is also seen as a contender for the 2024 presidential nomination, went one step further, calling for a national ban. Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell described the ruling as courageous and correct, while Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said it was a slap in the face to women. Former president Barack Obama also weighed in, issuing a statement saying: Today, the Supreme Court not only reversed nearly 50 years of precedent, it relegated the most intensely personal decision someone can make to the whims of politicians and ideologues - attacking the essential freedoms of millions of Americans.

Michelle Obama released a long statement on social media, saying her heart ached. I am heartbroken for people around this country who just lost the fundamental right to make informed decisions about their own bodies [...] That is what our mothers and grandmothers and great-grandmothers lived through and now here we are again, the former first lady wrote. Loading She was joined by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern who described the ruling as incredibly upsetting. Ardern said seeing American women lose the right to choose felt like a loss for women everywhere. Tensions were already high in the lead up to the ruling, with steel fencing installed around the Supreme Court last month ahead of potential unrest and security beefed up to protect the nine justices of the court.

Last month, a man was also arrested near the Maryland home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh over an alleged attempt to assassinate him. One man, John, who did not wish to give his surname, was standing in the crowd outside the Supreme Court holding a sign that said: Save our Democracy. Pack the court. Do it Now. Im here because Im angry, all the women I know are angry, and my fiance is absolutely infuriated, he told The Age/Sydney Morning Herald. I strongly favour packing the court - expanding the size of the court to ensure that it reflects the thinking of the majority of Americans. A few meters down the street, Shannon Russell was standing with a group of friends from the organisation Catholics for Choice, holding a sign that said: Thou Shalt Not Steal My Civil Rights. Shannon Russell and friends outside the US Supreme Court Credit:Farrah Tomazin
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Nobody expected, in any industry, an instant bounce back from the intense turbulence of lockdown. The theatre community, just like any, has seen some seismic shakes over the last few years  and now has to begin the long, rocky, uphill road to rebuilding.

What is something of a comfort is that UK theatre does not face such issues alone. On a recent five-day trip to Broadway, we experienced an environment still rebuilding, with long-standing productions calling time (Come From Away, Dear Evan Hansen, Tina) while a pocket of fan and public favourites (The Music Man, Hamilton, Six, Hadestown, The Lion King, Wicked) are all still bringing in the megabucks.

Still  theatres being vacated mean the chance for new and exciting work to take their place. The well-received revival of 1776 already has its marquee in place and it doesn't open on Broadway until September. A bit sooner, the critically adored Encores! production of Into the Woods with Waitress creator Sara Bareilles is also about to open. From our shores, the multi-award-winning Back to the Future is revving up for a ride on the Great White Way next year.

There is, of course, a heck of a lot of Broadway shows to look forward to in the West End as well. Not only is Jagged Little Pill earmarking a venue, but on the Tony Awards' silver carpet, creatives, producers and actors all told me of their desperate desire for a trip across the Pond. It's only a matter a time before we see Pulitzer and Tony winner A Strange Loop, that's for sure, while Best Choreography recipient MJ, which grew its revenue by 15% this week post-Tonys, is also eyeing a London transfer.

But what about the crowdpleasers? Beetlejuice, a slick adaptation that, to this writer, is better work from visual connoisseur director Alex Timbers than his spectacular spectacular Moulin Rouge!, seems to be just over the horizon. Watching it on Broadway, it's the sort of whimsical, edgy rib-tickler (quite literally with some of those skeletons) that will certain bolster spirits in this time of gloom.

Speaking of pick-me-ups  who knows, maybe a certain showman (whose name begins with H, which rhymes with... something) may finally be making his West End return? All we can do is cross our fingers and start amassing trombones...
"We recognize the important contribution of women in diplomacy, especially Peruvian female diplomats, who work in favor of sustainable development, democracy, and peace," the government agency expressed on Twitter.

In this sense, Peru reaffirmed its commitment to the empowerment of women and girls for their effective participation in every sphere of politics and diplomacy.

The UN General Assembly has proclaimed the International Day of Women in Diplomacy . Within this framework, it adopted a resolution which reaffirms that the participation of women, on equal terms with men at all levels of decision-making, is essential for the achievement of sustainable development, peace, and democracy.
BOSTON (AP)  He was the uncle I never met. But in my family's origin story, Emmanuel Manny Yap always loomed large.

A picture of the late former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos with a slogan that reads "Marcos Dictator, Not a Hero!" is placed on the statue of the late senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr., father of former President Benigno Aquino III as people gather at the People's Power Monument in Quezon city, Philippines Friday, Nov. 18, 2016 to protest against the burial of Marcos at the heroes cemetery. Filipino voters overwhelmingly elected Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., as president during the May 2022 elections, completing a stunning return to power for the family of the late President Ferdinand Marcos, Sr., who ruled the country for more than two decades until being ousted in 1986 in the nonviolent "People Power" revolution. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)

BOSTON (AP)  He was the uncle I never met. But in my family's origin story, Emmanuel "Manny" Yap always loomed large.

The life of great potential cut short. The cautionary tale. But also the reminder of doing what was right, no matter the cost.

A rising leader in the youth-led opposition to President Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines, Manny Yap joined his parents and siblings for lunch at his mothers favorite Chinese restaurant in their hometown of Quezon City.

It was Valentines Day in 1976, a few years into martial law, the moment in the countrys history when Marcos Sr. suspended civil government and effectively ruled as a dictator. After the meal, the 23-year-old grad student went off to meet a friend.

Days later, an anonymous caller delivered the news his family had dreaded: Manny had been picked up by the military and detained.

My uncle was never seen again.

Now his story is flooding back: The son of the man my family has held responsible for his death all those decades ago is set to become president of the Philippines.

___

"We were on the good side, the honor side," Janette Marcelo, my mother and Manny's younger sister, says to me by phone recently. Her voice is trembling but resolute. "You need to know that."

Even now, nearly a half century later, her memories are vivid when she recalls her parents' anguish as the days after his disappearance rolled into weeks, months, years.

Her mother, desperately trying to pass messages along to the nuns and priests granted entry to the notorious prison camp where they believed he was being held. Her father, eying each arriving and departing bus, hoping he might catch a glimpse of his eldest son.

But Mannys body was never recovered. His heartbroken parents were never able to properly lay him to rest. The only markers of their loss are the monuments scattered across Metro Manila where his name is etched along with the more than 2,300 killed or disappeared during Marcos two-decade reign.

My mother is emphatic as she recounts the story my siblings and I heard countless times growing up.

Presidential candidate Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. celebrates outside his headquarters in Mandaluyong, Philippines on Wednesday, May 11, 2022. Filipino voters overwhelmingly elected Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., as president during the May 2022 elections, completing a stunning return to power for the family of the late President Ferdinand Marcos, Sr., who ruled the country for more than two decades until being ousted in 1986 in the nonviolent "People Power" revolution. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila,File)

"You had an uncle who believed so much in something that he was willing to die for it, and it was a great loss," she says. "Not just for us, but for the country and the world. He could have done so much. I truly believe that."

Next week, Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. will be inaugurated following his landslide victory in Mays Philippine presidential election, completing a stunning return to power for the Marcos clan, which ruled the country for more than two decades until being ousted by the largely peaceful "People Power" uprising in 1986.

The moment has been a reckoning for my family, our painful past and the values we forged. But given everything else going on in the world, I've wondered how much it truly resonated among other Filipino Americans.

So I decided to ask.

____

In conversations with Filipinos across the country in recent weeks, I found outlooks ranging from my moms simmering fury to unbridled excitement about the future.

Its not entirely surprising. In the U.S.  where more than 4 million Filipinos represent the third largest Asian group, after Chinese and Indians  Marcos Jr.s victory was much narrower than in the Philippines.

He claimed nearly 47% of the more than 75,000 ballots cast by dual citizens and other Philippine nationals in the U.S., compared to 43% by his main opponent, outgoing Philippine Vice President Maria Leonor "Leni" Robredo, according to election results.

One of the first people I spoke with was Rochelle Solanoy, a 53-year-old state worker in Juneau, Alaska. She voted for Marcos Jr., because she believes he can bring a return to the "golden years" when the country was a rising force in Asia and its charismatic first family was the envy of rivals.

Solanoy, who left the Philippines in 1981, said she marched as a youth against the Marcos dictatorship but now feels like she was lied to.

"When the revolution ousted Marcos, thats when things went downhill. Thats when the corruption happened," she said by phone. "Now, Im learning these things that I didnt know when I was younger. Our minds had been poisoned the whole time."

In California, Susan Tagle, 62, of Sacramento, said the election made her question everything she went through as a young university activist, when she was imprisoned for months by the Marcos regime.

Marcos Sr. died in exile in Hawaii in 1989. His widow, Imelda, whose vast shoe collection became the symbol of the familys excess during the dictatorship, has served for years in the Philippine Congress while her children have served as governors and senators.

"We basked in the idea of ousting a dictator," said Tagle, who voted for Robredo. "Then we went about our lives. We went back to school, started families, built careers and thought the worst was over."

Constantino "Coco" Alinsug, who earlier this year became the first Filipino American elected city councilor in New England, says hes willing to give Marcos Jr. a chance, even if he has strong reservations.

The 50-year-old Lynn, Massachusetts resident, who came to the U.S. in his 20s, marched against the Marcos dictatorship as a youth. But he's also an ardent supporter of outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte, whose bloody crackdown on illegal drugs has sparked its own international human rights concerns. Duterte's daughter, Sara, will serve as Marcos Jr.s vice president.

"I want to give this guy a chance, but I honestly have no idea what hes about," said Alinsug, who wasnt able to vote because he isnt a dual citizen. "He didnt debate. He didnt campaign. He just let his machine and money do the work."

Brendan Flores, chairman and president of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations, was similarly guarded.

"Im well aware of what the history books say. Theres lots of baggage, no doubt," said the 37-year-old Sarasota, Florida resident. "The key difference this time is that the world is watching. Were not going to sit idly by if things go wrong."

___

I wish I could say my mom is as hopeful.

For her, theres new urgency in the lessons she has tried to impart for all these years. As she sees it, the past has been rewritten to cast the villains of her childhood as todays saviors.

After the elder Marcos was deposed, my grandfather, Pedro Yap, joined the Philippine government commission tasked with recouping the ill-gotten assets of the former first family.

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He worked to freeze Swiss bank accounts and seize properties in Los Angeles, New York City and elsewhere in order to repatriate wealth back to his impoverished nation. The family, still reeling from the loss of our uncle and fearing Marcos retribution, begged him to quit.

Grandpa, who also served on the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, eventually did  when he was appointed to the nations Supreme Court and briefly served as chief justice until retirement.

I ask my mom: Does seeing the Marcos family back in power mean grandpa's work and Uncle Manny's death were in vain? She doesn't hesitate.

"All I can say is there were good people who tried and there still are good people who will continue to try," she says. "But its futile. Its never going to change."

___

Philip Marcelo is a reporter in the AP's Boston bureau. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/philmarcelo
OTTAWA - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to defend abortion rights in Canada and around the world on Friday after what he called a "devastating setback" in the United States.

NDP MP for Edmonton Strathcona Heather McPherson rises on a point of order in Question Period, Wednesday, April 27, 2022 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to defend abortion rights in Canada and around the world on Friday after what he called a "devastating setback" in the United States.

"Quite frankly, it's an attack on everyone's freedoms and rights," Trudeau said of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that guaranteed the right to abortion.

"It shows how much standing up and fighting for rights matters every day, that we can't take anything for granted," Trudeau said from the Commonwealth summit in Kigali, Rwanda.

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly, who joined Trudeau in Kigali, called it a "dark day" and warned the decision will have "a domino effect on other rights," adding that no country is immune and accusing Conservatives of "shopping for anti-abortion votes."

Trudeau did not take questions from reporters after making his statement.

Conservative interim leader Candice Bergen accused the Liberals of politicizing the abortion issue to create division.

She said in a written statement that her party's position on abortion has not changed and the Conservatives "will not introduce legislation or reopen the abortion debate."

Jean Charest, a candidate in the Tory leadership race, tweeted on Friday he was "disturbed" by the news. He said while he recognizes there are strongly held beliefs on the issue, "reproductive rights in Canada are non-negotiable."

Leslyn Lewis, another candidate who describes herself as "pro-life," tweeted on Friday that "Canada is not the U.S." She said she expects Canadians to be able to have adult conversations about the topic.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives at a state dinner with Commonwealth government leader in Kigali, Rwanda, Thursday, June 23, 2022. Trudeau says the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is "horrific" and his heart goes out to the millions of American women who are now set to lose their legal right to an abortion. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

She said her position is that coercive and sex-selective abortions are wrong, and a Conservative party under her leadership would allow free votes for issues of conscience in the House of Commons.

A majority of Conservatives voted in favour of a private member's bill last year to outlaw sex-selective abortions, but the bill was defeated.

The party's other leadership candidates have either said that they support the right to choose an abortion or that they would not introduce legislation restricting it.

The Campaign Life Coalition, which holds an annual anti-abortion rally on Parliament Hill that attracts thousands and has supported Lewis's candidacy, put out a statement praising the court: "We thank God and heartily applaud this decision."

Reacting to the news on Friday morning, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh said in a statement that "dangerous policies that threaten women's health and women's lives must not be allowed to take root in Canada."

He said the government needs to work harder to improve abortion access for women, especially in rural communities. "The Liberals say the right things about being pro-choice but that isnt enough," he added.

The right to an abortion doesn't exist in Canada in the same way it was enshrined in Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that served as a rock-ribbed legal scaffold for reproductive rights champions around the world.

Abortion is decriminalized in Canada because of a 1988 Supreme Court decision, but no bill has ever been passed to enshrine access into law.

Though the decision is sending "shock waves" everywhere, the legal ability to have an abortion in Canada is not under threat, said Joyce Arthur, executive director of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada.

But her organization is concerned about Americans coming north for abortion care and is advocating for federal and provincial governments to help clinics with more funding because, as Arthur puts it, "even a small number of Americans can overwhelm our system."

Later on Friday, Joly was asked whether the government would require provinces to provide access to late-term abortions, and if American women could have their abortions funded by Canada. She said they want to take "strong measures" towards better access.

"We will work with women's organizations across the country to listen to their needs and also work with provinces and territories," she said in Kigali.

Cara Zwibel of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association noted that while most Canadians have access to abortion services through provincial health care, that is not true in New Brunswick. Publicly funded abortion services in that province have been restricted to three hospitals in two cities. The CCLA filed a case against the N.B. government that is making its way through courts.

Oxfam Canada executive director Lauren Ravon likewise reacted to the decision with concerns about the "enormous challenges" in abortion access for Canadian women who live in rural and remote areas, are in precarious housing situations or face intimate partner violence.

Social media was replete Friday with criticisms of the court's decision from Liberal and like-minded politicians, including a tweeted statement from Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland that said she was "shocked and horrified" and "abortion is a fundamental right."

But advocates such as Arthur have been hoping the government will start "putting their money where their mouth is."

In May, after a leaked copy of the U.S. Supreme Court's draft decision was obtained and published by Politico, the Liberal government announced it was spending $3.5 million on two projects to improve abortion access  part of a $45 million pot of money for sexual and reproductive health services they had announced in 2021.

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At the time, Trudeau said his government was discussing how to make sure progress on reproductive rights is not reversed by future governments or court decisions, and that enshrining access to abortion with legislation could be one way to do that.

Liberals have made no major strides toward doing that, however, nor have they followed through on an election promise last fall to create Canada Health Act regulations that would penalize provinces for failing to provide access to sexual and reproductive health services.

Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos told reporters in May such mechanisms already exist, but his officials were looking at reinforcing them in the coming months.

Last year, the Liberal government confirmed it had withheld about $140,000 of New Brunswick's share of the federal health transfer because it does not fund abortions provided at a clinic in Fredericton.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 24, 2022.

 With files from Laura Osman in Kigali, Rwanda.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has issued a recall for Crave Stevia brand All Natural Dark Chocolate because it may contain milk which is not declared on the label.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has issued a recall for Crave Stevia brand All Natural Dark Chocolate because it may contain milk which is not declared on the label.

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The affected product was sold in 85 gram packages with a best before date of Sept. 2023.

The recalled chocolate was sold in British Columbia and Ontario, and may have been distributed nationally.

It was also sold online.

There have been no reported reactions linked to the product.

The CFIA says it is conducting a food safety investigation, which may lead to the recall of other products.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 24, 2022.
BRUSSELS (AP)  The Dutch government said Friday it will cut the maximum number of flights allowed each year at the country's busiest aviation hub, Schiphol Airport, in an attempt to reduce noise and air pollution.

Travelers wait in long lines to check in and board flights at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, Netherlands, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. The airport is reining in flight departures over its busy summer period because shortages of security staff mean it cannot cope with the high demand as many families take to the skies for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic has eased. The decision is likely to affect the vacation plans of thousands of travelers each day, the airport's CEO said.(AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

BRUSSELS (AP)  The Dutch government said Friday it will cut the maximum number of flights allowed each year at the country's busiest aviation hub, Schiphol Airport, in an attempt to reduce noise and air pollution.

The decision  expected to take effect late next year  to cut the number of flights allowed from around 500,000 to 440,000 is a further blow to the airport. Schiphol has seen chaos in recent weeks amid security staff shortages, with hours-long lines of passengers waiting to board flights.

The airport last week announced it will have to reduce the number of passengers it can handle each day by around 13,500 over the busy summer period because of the staff shortages.

Schiphol, on the outskirts of Amsterdam, has been growing for years and has become a busy European hub and a significant driver of economic growth in the Netherlands, although it has seen business hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the government, which also is looking for ways to cut emissions of carbon and other pollutants such as nitrogen oxide, said that the growth must now be reined in.

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I want to offer certainty and perspective to both the aviation sector and local residents," Infrastructure and Water Management Minister Mark Harbers said. This decision forms the basis for a new equilibrium. Unfortunately, it contains a difficult message for the aviation sector, which is still fully recovering from the drastic consequences of the corona pandemic.

Schiphol said in a written reaction that it supports a well-thought-out approach that leads to the airport's stated goal of connecting the Netherlands with the world as an increasingly quieter and cleaner Schiphol.

But it said the plans announced Friday lead to great uncertainty and much remains unclear. We see that major risks are being taken with regard to the quality of the network.

Reacting Thursday to leaked news of the planned cuts, environmental group Greenpeace hailed the decision as a historic turning point.

It is good that the Cabinet realizes that Schiphol has, for years, been flying beyond all boundaries when it comes to noise, nitrogen, ultrafine particles and the climate, Greenpeace aviation expert Dewi Zloch said in a statement.

This is an impetus for Schiphol to finally come up with a plan that takes into account the Paris Climate Agreement," Zloch added.
From Llama district's Main Square in Chota province, where Mr. Castillo held a meeting with the population, he delivered a ministerial resolution that guarantees the rural electrification of 23 communities in that area.

"In the next few days, we are scheduling the Decentralized Council of Ministers in Cajamarca region (...), we will come with all ministers to meet the needs of Cajamarca and its districts," he expressed.

Likewise, the Head of State reiterated before the population of Llama that he had assumed the reins of the country and leads it "without stealing a single Sol (Peruvian currency) from Peru."

Thus, he called on regional and provincial authorities "to do everything well and transparently."

Furthermore, the top official mentioned that dams will be built to make the projects needed by farmers viable, also recalling his visit to Puno where the main concern is the frost phenomenon, which causes low temperatures and affects the population.

"From Llama, I salute the Peruvian people indicating that we have received the State administration during a pandemic; within this framework, we have invested billions of Soles so that the people can get vaccinated; and (also facing) another challenge such as the war between Ukraine and Russia ()," he said.

Moreover, Mr. Castillo called on Congress of the Republic to discuss a bill on the massive use of Camisea Natural Gas, so that it can reach out to all citizens.

"How is it possible that in such a rich and ancient country, the population goes out to the squares to ask for services, such as electricity and rural electrification; water for their towns; trails; internet; (...) that is why we say that what is ours comes first; (let's) work so that these resources are invested in the country," he added.

El Gobierno le da prioridad al sector Agricultura porque durante decadas han sido abandonados. Los hermanos campesinos paran la olla del pais. Cuenten con nosotros, expreso el jefe de Estado, @PedroCastilloTe, al conmemorar, desde Cajamarca, el Dia del Campesino. pic.twitter.com/TPFO7SD6cK
In the two years documentary filmmakers shadowed former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, the most jarring moment for them was in the kitchen of her Tucson, Arizona, home.

In the two years documentary filmmakers shadowed former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, the most jarring moment for them was in the kitchen of her Tucson, Arizona, home.

As cameras were rolling, she and her husband, Sen. Mark Kelly, nonchalantly opened the freezer. Kelly grabbed a plastic container and revealed it holds the piece of Giffords' skull that had to be removed after she was shot.

Gabby Giffords, center, the subject of the documentary film "Gabby Giffords Won't Back Down," poses with the film's co-directors Julie Cohen, left, and Betsy West, Tuesday, June 21, 2022, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

This stays in here next to the empanadas and the sliced mango, Kelly said.

Giffords' response was Sera, sera, referencing the song Que sera, sera or What will be, will be.

The scene from the film is emblematic of Giffords' openness to reflect on but not languish in the 2011 shooting that changed her life. That desire is what led her to allow cameras into her life for two years  all as a pandemic was progressing.

For me it has been really important to move ahead, to not look back, Giffords told The Associated Press while in Los Angeles to promote the film. I hope others are inspired to keep moving forward no matter what.

From the filmmakers behind Academy Award-nominated Ruth Bader Ginsburg documentary RBG, the film Gabby Giffords Won't Back Down is partly an intimate look at Giffords' recovery after the January 2011 shooting that left six people dead and 13 others wounded outside a Tucson supermarket. But the movie, which arrives in theaters July 15, is also an insider view of how she and Kelly navigated gun control campaigns and later a Senate campaign. The movie could not be any timelier with gun reform being debated in government, schools and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Gabby Giffords, the subject of the documentary film "Gabby Giffords Won't Back Down," poses with the film's co-directors Julie Cohen, left, and Betsy West, Tuesday, June 21, 2022, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Its just a fascinating story about how Gabby came back from an injury that so many people just dont even survive, said Betsy West, a co-director. After meeting Gabby on Zoom, we saw just what a great communicator she is. And we had a sense that we might have a lot of fun despite the very difficult subject of gun violence.

At the same time, they wanted to strike the right balance of how much to look back at the shooting.

We certainly didn't want to shy away from January 8. Obviously, that's something that changed her life, said Julie Cohen, the film's other director. But Gabby is defined ultimately by everything that she's achieved before and after that. We wanted it to show that achievement.

The film also doesnt avoid discussing Jared Lee Loughner, the gunman in the Tucson shooting. Interviews with law enforcement, journalists and a video made by Loughner lay out how he was able to buy a semiautomatic weapon despite a history of mental illness. He was sentenced in 2012 to life in federal prison without parole.

We did not want to dwell on the shooter, but we also wanted to explain what had happened, West said. Gabby and Mark did not shy away from going to the sentencing hearing to make a very impassioned plea for life imprisonment. That was a very important part of the film.

Recent mass shootings including the deaths of 19 schoolchildren and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, and 10 supermarket shoppers  all Black  in Buffalo, New York, have put gun violence back at the forefront. The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a New York gun permitting law. The case involves a state law that makes it difficult for people to get a permit to carry a gun outside the home. The justices said that requirement violates the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

The House on Friday sent President Joe Biden the most wide-ranging gun violence bill Congress has passed in decades. It came a day after the U.S. Senate easily passed it. It took weeks of closed-door talks to lead to an incremental but landmark package in response to mass shootings.

Much like after Uvalde, the documentary recaps how gun control debates reached a fever pitch after 20 first graders and six educators were shot to death by a gunman at a Newtown, Connecticut, school. Giffords and other advocates, including some Newtown parents, were called props by National Rifle Association officials. Having spent time with Giffords and others impacted by gun violence, the film's directors say their voices are central to the discourse.

To say that somehow Gabby shouldn't be speaking about gun violence because she's experienced violence? It just doesn't make any sense, Cohen said.

A crucial element of the documentary came from videos Kelly had of Giffords in the Tucson hospital and at a rehab facility in Houston. These included then-President Barack Obama  who is interviewed in the film  and Michelle Obamas visit to an unconscious Giffords bedside. They also include the first few months of speech therapy.

The bullet penetrated the left hemisphere of Giffords' brain that services language ability, causing her to suffer from aphasia. You see in old videos Giffords sob out of frustration as she struggles to read and get stuck on saying chicken.

Giffords said watching those videos can make her sad, but she is determined to be upbeat.

I'm getting better. I'm getting (better) slowly but I'm getting (better) surely," Giffords said.

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Giffords is the third movie West and Cohen have produced on a female icon. Last year, they released Julia, a documentary on the influence of TV chef and author Julia Child. RBG was a critical and commercial hit when it came out four years ago. The filmmakers say while Giffords and Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg, who died in 2020 at age 87, are very different personalities, they think viewers will see a lot of similarities. They both have toughness, persistence, optimism and are at the heart of feminist love stories.

Giffords often has to remind people that she still has a voice even if speaking doesn't come easily  whether it's on gun safety or other issues. She said she genuinely feels the climate is different now but people have to be patient because change is slow," and Washington, D.C., is "really slow.

She plans to refocus on making tougher federal background checks a reality through her Gun Owners for Safety coalition. The bill the Senate approved would only strengthen background checks for buyers age 18 to 20.

If there's one message she wants viewers to take from the documentary, it's fight, fight, fight every day," Giffords said.

___

This story has been updated to correct the number of students and educators killed in Newtown, Connecticut.
OTTAWA - Rogers Communications Inc., Shaw Communications Inc. and the Competition Bureau have agreed to participate in a mediation process next month regarding the companies' $26-billion merger.

Rogers and Shaw applications are pictured on a cellphone in Ottawa on Monday, May 9, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

OTTAWA - Rogers Communications Inc., Shaw Communications Inc. and the Competition Bureau have agreed to participate in a mediation process next month regarding the companies' $26-billion merger.

The first scheduled mediation period is July 4 and 5, according to the Competition Tribunal. Public hearings before the tribunal were previously scheduled to begin this fall.

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The mediation announcement comes just one week after Rogers announced it would sell Shaw-owned Freedom Mobile to Montreal-based Quebecor Inc. for $2.85 billion in an attempt to ease the Competition Bureau's concerns about the combination of Rogers and Shaw.

The competition watchdog has been trying to block the deal, arguing that it would ultimately result in less choice in the telecom market and lead to higher bills for consumers.

Rogers, Shaw and Quebecor argue the Freedom deal would keep alive a "strong and sustainable" fourth wireless carrier in Canada.

The Rogers-Shaw transaction already has approval from shareholders and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, but remains subject to review by the Competition Bureau and the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 24, 2022.

Companies in this story: (TSX:RCI.B, TSX:SJR.B, TSX:QBR.B)
The Biden administration has agreed to cancel $6 billion in student loans for about 200,000 former students who say they were defrauded by their colleges, according to a proposed settlement in a Trump-era lawsuit.

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona speaks at an event where Vice President Kamala Harris announced the cancelation of all federal student loans borrowed by students to attend any Corinthian Colleges, Thursday, June 2, 2022, at the Department of Education in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

The Biden administration has agreed to cancel $6 billion in student loans for about 200,000 former students who say they were defrauded by their colleges, according to a proposed settlement in a Trump-era lawsuit.

The agreement filed Wednesday in San Francisco federal court would automatically cancel federal student debt for students who were enrolled at one of more than 150 colleges and later applied for debt cancellation because of alleged misconduct by the schools.

Almost all the schools involved are for-profit colleges. The list includes DeVry University, the University of Phoenix and other chains still in operation, along with many that have folded in recent years, including ITT Technical Institute.

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement that the settlement would resolve the claims in a manner that is fair and equitable for all parties.

The deal has yet to be approved by a federal judge. A hearing on the proposal is scheduled for July 28.

If approved, it would mark a major step in the Biden administrations efforts to clear a backlog of claims filed through the borrower defense program, which allows students to get their federal loans erased if their schools made false advertising claims or otherwise misled them.

The class-action suit was initially filed by seven former students who argued that President Donald Trump's education secretary, Betsy DeVos, had intentionally stalled the borrower defense process while she rewrote its rules. When the suit was filed, no final decision had been made on any claims for more than a year.

When the department under DeVos started deciding claims months later, it issued tens of thousands of denials, often without any explanation. At the time, the judge overseeing the case blasted DeVos for the blistering pace of rejections, saying her approach hangs borrowers out to dry.

Tens of thousands of borrowers were still in limbo when the Biden administration took over and started negotiating a settlement in 2021, according to court documents. The latest federal data shows there are more than 100,000 pending claims for borrower defense.

Under the proposed settlement, anyone who attended an eligible school and applied for cancellation as of Wednesday would get their federal student loans and interest fully forgiven. They would also get refunds for past payments made on those loans.

An additional 68,000 plaintiffs who did not attend eligible schools will get a streamlined review of their claims. The oldest claims will get reviewed first, while the most recent ones will get a decision within 2 1/2 years.

All borrowers who were caught up in DeVos flurry of denials will have their rejections revoked and their claims will be treated as if they have been pending since the date they were originally filed.

The Project on Predatory Student Lending, which represented students in the suit, said the agreement will help create a "fair, just and efficient for future borrowers.

"This momentous proposed settlement will deliver answers and certainty to borrowers who have fought long and hard for a fair resolution of their borrower defense claims after being cheated by their schools and ignored or even rejected by their government, said Eileen Connor, director of the project.

Borrower defense claims are typically reviewed individually, but the Education Department decided to grant automatic cancellation in this case because of common evidence of institutional misconduct at the schools in question, according to the settlement.

At some schools, there was already proof of substantial misconduct, while others were included because of high rates of claims coming from their former students, according to the deal.

The borrower defense process was started by Congress in 1994 but was rarely used until the collapse of the Corinthian Colleges chain in 2015. The for-profit company closed its campuses amid widespread findings of fraud, prompting thousands of students to apply for debt cancellation.

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That led the Obama administration to expand the program and create clearer rules. It became the centerpiece of the administrations efforts to crack down on for-profit colleges that lied or used high-pressure tactics to recruit students. Students at Corinthian and other chains said they enrolled on promises that they would land high-paying jobs, only to graduate with few job prospects.

Earlier this month the Biden administration agreed to cancel federal student debt for anyone who attended a Corinthian school from the company's founding in 1995 to its collapse two decades later. The action will erase $5.8 billion in debt for more than 560,000 borrowers, the largest single discharge in the Education Departments history.

The settlement adds to the administrations effort to cancel student debt for certain groups of borrowers. It has erased billions of additional dollars in debt from other former for-profit college students, along with borrowers who have severe disabilities and those with jobs in public service.

Biden has also faced mounting pressure to pursue mass student debt cancellation. The White House recently signaled that it is considering canceling $10,000, but no decision has been reached.

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The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The Supreme Court on Friday stripped away womens constitutional protections for abortion, a fundamental and deeply personal change for Americans' lives after nearly a half-century under Roe v. Wade. The courts overturning of the landmark court ruling is likely to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

The Supreme Court, Friday, June 24, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

WASHINGTON (AP)  The Supreme Court on Friday stripped away womens constitutional protections for abortion, a fundamental and deeply personal change for Americans' lives after nearly a half-century under Roe v. Wade. The courts overturning of the landmark court ruling is likely to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

The ruling, unthinkable just a few years ago, was the culmination of decades of efforts by abortion opponents, made possible by an emboldened right side of the court fortified by three appointees of former President Donald Trump.

Both sides predicted the fight over abortion would continue, in state capitals, in Washington and at the ballot box. Justice Clarence Thomas, part of Friday's majority, urged colleagues to overturn other high court rulings protecting same-sex marriage, gay sex and the use of contraceptives.

Pregnant women considering abortions already had been dealing with a near-complete ban in Oklahoma and a prohibition after roughly six weeks in Texas. Clinics in at least eight other states  Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, South Dakota, Wisconsin and West Virginia  stopped performing abortions after Friday's decision.

In Ohio, a ban on most abortions at the first detectable fetal heartbeat became the law when a federal judge dissolved an injunction that had kept the measure on hold for nearly three years. And Utah's law was triggered by the ruling, going into effect with narrow exceptions.

The Supreme Court, Friday, June 24, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Abortion foes cheered the ruling, but abortion-rights supporters, including President Joe Biden, expressed dismay and pledged to fight to restore the rights.

Protests built into the evening in a number of cities, including thousands demonstrating against the decision outside the barricaded Supreme Court. Thousands more chanted We will rise up! in New York's Washington Square.

At the White House, Biden said, It's a sad day for the court and for the country. He urged voters to make it a defining issue in the November elections, declaring, This decision must not be the final word.

Demonstrators protest about abortion outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Outside the White House, Ansley Cole, a college student from Atlanta, said she was "scared because what are they going to come after next? ... The next election cycle is going to be brutal, like its terrifying. And if theyre going to do this, again, whats next?

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, agreed about the political stakes.

We are ready to go on offense for life in every single one of those legislative bodies, in each statehouse and the White House, Dannenfelser said in a statement.

FILE - Associate Justice Samuel Alito sits during a group photo at the Supreme Court in Washington, April 23, 2021. The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years  a decision by its conservative majority to overturn the court's landmark abortion cases. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP, Pool, File)

Trump praised the ruling, telling Fox News that it will work out for everybody.

The decision is expected to disproportionately affect minority women who already face limited access to health care, according to statistics analyzed by The Associated Press.

It also puts the court at odds with a majority of Americans who favored preserving Roe, according to opinion polls.

People protest about abortion, Friday, June 24, 2022, outside the Supreme Court in Washington. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Surveys conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and others have shown a majority in favor of abortion being legal in all or most circumstances. But many also support restrictions especially later in pregnancy. Surveys consistently show that about 1 in 10 Americans want abortion to be illegal in all cases.

The ruling came more than a month after the stunning leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito indicating the court was prepared to take this momentous step.

Alito, in the final opinion issued Friday, wrote that Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 decision that reaffirmed the right to abortion, were wrong had and to be be overturned.

People protest about abortion, Friday, June 24, 2022, outside the Supreme Court in Washington. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

We therefore hold that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. Roe and Casey must be overruled, and the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives, Alito wrote, in an opinion that was very similar to the leaked draft.

Joining Alito were Thomas and Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett. The last three justices are Trump appointees. Thomas first voted to overrule Roe 30 years ago.

Four justices would have left Roe and Casey in place.

A celebration outside the Supreme Court, Friday, June 24, 2022, in Washington. The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years  a decision by its conservative majority to overturn the court's landmark abortion cases. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

The vote was 6-3 to uphold Mississippi's law banning most abortions after 15 weeks, but Chief Justice John Roberts didn't join his conservative colleagues in overturning Roe. He wrote that there was no need to overturn the broad precedents to rule in Mississippi's favor.

Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan  the diminished liberal wing of the court  were in dissent.

With sorrow  for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection  we dissent, they wrote, warning that abortion opponents now could pursue a nationwide ban from the moment of conception and without exceptions for rape or incest.

FILE - Members of the Supreme Court pose for a group photo at the Supreme Court in Washington, April 23, 2021. Seated from left are Associate Justice Samuel Alito, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Associate Justice Stephen Breyer and Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Standing from left are Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Associate Justice Elena Kagan, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch and Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett. The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years  a decision by its conservative majority to overturn the court's landmark abortion cases. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP, Pool, File)

Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that the Justice Department will protect providers and those seeking abortions in states where it is legal and "work with other arms of the federal government that seek to use their lawful authorities to protect and preserve access to reproductive care.

In particular, Garland said the federal Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of Mifepristone for medication abortions.

More than 90% of abortions take place in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy, and more than half are now done with pills, not surgery, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.

Anti-abortion protesters gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022. The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years, a decision by its conservative majority to overturn the court's landmark abortion cases. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

Mississippis only abortion clinic, which was at the center of Friday's case, continued to see patients Friday. Outside, men used a bullhorn to tell people inside that they would burn in hell. Clinic escorts wearing colorful vests used large speakers to blast Tom Pettys I Wont Back Down at the protesters.

Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky and Missouri are among 13 states, mainly in the South and Midwest, that already have laws on the books to ban abortion in the event Roe was overturned. Another half-dozen states have near-total bans or prohibitions after 6 weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.

In roughly a half-dozen other states, including West Virginia and Wisconsin, the fight will be over dormant abortion bans that were enacted before Roe was decided in 1973 or new proposals to sharply limit when abortions can be performed, according to Guttmacher.

Demonstrators gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022. The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years, a decision by its conservative majority to overturn the court's landmark abortion cases. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Outside the barricaded Supreme Court, a crowd of mostly young women grew into the hundreds within hours of the decision. Some shouted, The Supreme Court is illegitimate, while waves of others, wearing red shirts with The Pro-Life Generation Votes, celebrated, danced and thrust their arms into the air.

The Biden administration and other defenders of abortion rights have warned that a decision overturning Roe also would threaten other high court decisions in favor of gay rights and even potentially contraception.

The liberal justices made the same point in their joint dissent: The majority eliminates a 50-year-old constitutional right that safeguards womens freedom and equal station. It breaches a core rule-of-law principle, designed to promote constancy in the law. In doing all of that, it places in jeopardy other rights, from contraception to same-sex intimacy and marriage. And finally, it undermines the Courts legitimacy.

Abortion right activists gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022. The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years, a decision by its conservative majority to overturn the court's landmark abortion cases. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

And Thomas, the member of the court most open to jettisoning prior decisions, wrote a separate opinion in which he explicitly called on his colleagues to put the Supreme Court's same-sex marriage, gay sex and contraception cases on the table.

But Alito contended that his analysis addresses abortion only. Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion, he wrote.

Whatever the intentions of the person who leaked Alitos draft opinion, the conservatives held firm in overturning Roe and Casey.

This combination of Friday, June 24, 2022, photos taken outside the Supreme Court in Washington shows abortion-rights activists protesting following Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, at left, and anti-abortion activists celebrating following Supreme Court's decision, at right. The Supreme Court has ended the nation's constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years in a decision by its conservative majority to overturn Roe v. Wade. (AP Photo)

In his opinion, Alito dismissed the arguments in favor of retaining the two decisions, including that multiple generations of American women have partly relied on the right to abortion to gain economic and political power.

Changing the makeup of the court has been central to the anti-abortion sides strategy, as the dissenters archly noted. The Court reverses course today for one reason and one reason only: because the composition of this Court has changed, the liberal justices wrote.

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Mississippi and its allies made increasingly aggressive arguments as the case developed, and two high-court defenders of abortion rights retired or died. The state initially argued that its law could be upheld without overruling the courts abortion precedents.

President Joe Biden speaks at the White House in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Justice Anthony Kennedy retired shortly after the Mississippi law took effect in 2018 and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in September 2020. Both had been members of a five-justice majority that was mainly protective of abortion rights.

In their Senate hearings, Trumps three high-court picks carefully skirted questions about how they would vote in any cases, including about abortion.

___

Associated Press writers Jessica Gresko, Fatima Hussein, photographer Jacquelyn Martin and video journalist Nathan Ellgren in Washington, Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston, Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi, Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, Leah Willingham in Charleston, West Virginia, Michael Hill in New York and Kantele Franko in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.

For APs full coverage of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, go to https://apnews.com/hub/abortion
ANKARA, Turkey (AP)  A wind-stoked wildfire that has been raging near a popular resort in southwestern Turkey has been largely brought under control, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP)  A wind-stoked wildfire that has been raging near a popular resort in southwestern Turkey has been largely brought under control, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday.

The blaze erupted Tuesday in the Bordubet region, near Marmaris on the Aegean Sea coast, and spread rapidly, blackening swaths of pine forest and driving hundreds of people from their homes.

Firefighters rest after trying to out flames in the Bordubet region, near Marmaris, western Turkey, Thursday, June 23, 2022. Water-dropping aircraft from Azerbaijan and Qatar on Friday joined the fight against a wind-stoked wildfire that burned for a fourth day near a popular resort in southwestern Turkey. Turkey's forestry minister meanwhile, said the fire may be close to being contained but said the wind still posed a risk. (AP Photo)

Speaking to reporters after an inspection of the area, Erdogan said an estimated 4,000 hectares (nearly 9,900 acres) of forest was affected by the fire. Reforestation efforts would begin as soon as possible, he said.

We saw a (fire) in one small area but other than that, thank God, it has been brought under control to a large extent, he told reporters.

More than 45 people people were affected by the blaze and 19 of them were taken to hospitals for treatment, Erdogan said.

We are happy above all, that there was no loss of life and no one was reported missing, he said.

Authorities on Thursday detained a 34-year-old man who allegedly confessed to having started the fire following a dispute with family members, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said.

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Erdogan said he favored heavy punishment for people convicted for igniting wildfires, adding that the country should also start a debate on whether to restore the death penalty.

More than 2,500 firefighters and 41 water-dropping planes and helicopters were deployed to fight the blaze. On Friday, a plane from Azerbaijan and three helicopters from Qatar joined their efforts.

More than 400 people have been evacuated from their homes as a precaution, Turkey's disaster management agency, AFAD, said.

Extended drought conditions in several Mediterranean countries, a heat wave last week that reached northern Germany and high fuel costs for aircraft needed to fight wildfires have heightened concerns across Europe this summer.

Last summer, blazes that were fed by strong winds and scorching temperatures tore through forests in Turkeys Mediterranean and Aegean regions, including Marmaris. The wildfires, which killed at least eight people and countless animals, were described as the worst in Turkeys history.

The government came under criticism for its inadequate response and preparedness to fight large-scale wildfires, including a lack of modern firefighting planes.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  After weeks of ferocious fighting, Ukrainian forces will retreat from a besieged city in the country's east to avoid encirclement, a regional governor said Friday.

The sculpture of prominent Italian poet Dante Alighieri, is protected by sandbags, on Vladimir's Hill in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, June 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  After weeks of ferocious fighting, Ukrainian forces will retreat from a besieged city in the country's east to avoid encirclement, a regional governor said Friday.

The city of Sievierodonetsk, the administrative center of the Luhansk region, has faced relentless Russian bombardment. Ukrainian troops fought the Russians in house-to-house battles before retreating to the huge Azot chemical factory on the city's edge, where they remain holed up in its sprawling underground structures in which about 500 civilians also found refuge.

In recent days, Russian forces have made gains around Sievierodonetsk and the neighboring city of Lysychansk, on a steep bank across the river, in a bid to encircle Ukrainian forces.

Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk have been the focal point of the Russian offensive aimed at capturing all of the Donbas and destroying the Ukrainian military defending it  the most capable and battle-hardened segment of the countrys armed forces.

The two cities and the surrounding areas are the last major pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the Luhansk region  95% of which is now under the control of Russian troops and local separatist forces. The Russians and separatists also control about half of the Donetsk region, the second province that is part of the Donbas.

Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said that the Ukrainian troops have been given the order to leave Sievierodonetsk to prevent bigger losses.

Regrettably, we will have to pull our troops out of Sievierodonetsk, Haidai told The Associated Press. It makes no sense to stay at the destroyed positions, and the number of killed in action has been growing.

He said that the Ukrainian soldiers have "received the order to retreat from Sievierodonetsk to new positions in fortified areas and continue resistance from there.

Haidai noted that Ukrainian troops still remain in Sievierodonetsk, facing massive Russian bombardment that has destroyed 80% of buildings.

As of today, the resistance in Sievierodonetsk is continuing, Haidai told the AP. The Russians are relentlessly shelling the Ukrainian positions, burning everything out.

Haidai said the Russians were also advancing toward Lysychansk from Zolote and Toshkivka, adding that Russian reconnaissance units conducted forays on the city edges but were driven out by its defenders.

The governor added that a bridge on a highway leading to Lysychansk was badly damaged in a Russian airstrike and became unusable for trucks.

The Russian Defense Ministry declared Friday that four Ukrainian battalions and a unit of foreign mercenaries totaling about 2,000 soldiers have been fully blocked near Hirske and Zolote, south of Lysychansk. The claim couldnt be independently verified.

Following a botched attempt to capture Kyiv, Ukraines capital, in the early stage of the invasion that started Feb. 24, Russian forces have shifted focus in the war to the Donbas region, where the Ukrainian forces have fought Moscow-backed separatists since 2014.

After repeated requests to its Western allies for heavier weaponry to counter Russias edge in firepower, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said a response had arrived in the form of medium-range American rocket launchers.

A U.S. defense official confirmed Wednesday that all four of the promised High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, were in the hands of Ukrainian forces but said it wasn't clear if they have been used yet.

The U.S. approved providing the precision-guided systems at the end of May, and once they were in the region, Ukraines forces needed about three weeks of training to operate them. The rockets can travel about 45 miles (70 kilometers).

The U.S. will send an addition $450 million in military aid to Ukraine, including four more of the medium-range rocket systems, ammunition and other supplies, U.S. officials announced Thursday.

IN OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged music fans at the Glastonbury Festival to spread the truth about Russias war on his country.

Speaking to the crowd at the British music extravaganza by video on Friday before a set by The Libertines, Zelenskyy said that we in Ukraine would also like to live the life as we used to and enjoy freedom and this wonderful summer, but we cannot do that because the most terrible has happened  Russia has stolen our peace.

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An official with the pro-Moscow administration in the southern city of Kherson that was captured by Russian troops early in the invasion was killed in an explosion Friday.

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The pro-Russian regional administration in Kherson said that Dmitry Savlyuchenko died when his vehicle exploded in what it described as a terror attack.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

___

Yuras Karmanau reported from Lviv.

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Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
JERUSALEM (AP)  Theres no plaque on the gate of the U.S. ambassadors new residence in Jerusalem, no Stars and Stripes visible, no official listing as a notable overseas property.

JERUSALEM (AP)  Theres no plaque on the gate of the U.S. ambassadors new residence in Jerusalem, no Stars and Stripes visible, no official listing as a notable overseas property.

The official residence of the American envoy is a rental and temporary, officials said, secured after two years of house-hunting in the wake of then-President Donald Trumps controversial decision to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Ambassador Tom Nides moved into the sleekly renovated villa in west Jerusalems leafy German Colony sometime last spring. Local real estate agents estimate its value at around $23 million, and its owner and the embassy confirmed it is being leased as the U.S. envoy's official residence.

Emek Refaim Street is the latest stop for the American ambassador's home on a more than three-year migration from the seaside cliffs north of Tel Aviv to tension-filled Jerusalem. The journey reflects the Trump administrations divisive legacy and the reluctance of President Joe Biden  who will visit the region next month  to roil relations with Israel over the issue.

Trump upended decades of U.S. policy by recognizing Jerusalem as Israels capital in 2017, drawing plaudits from many Israelis and infuriating the Palestinians.

Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it in a move not recognized internationally. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem to be the capital of their future state. Most countries maintain embassies in Tel Aviv because of the long-running dispute.

Trump moved the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv, and with it the storied residence of the U.S. ambassador. Under various presidents, the envoy had previously been housed in a sprawling, five-bedroom seaside compound built on an acre (nearly one-half hectare) of land, which Israel gave the United States soon after independence in 1948.

The previous residence was a social hub for relations between the two close allies. It was known for its July Fourth blowouts, when thousands of specially invited guests would watch the sunset and fireworks over the Mediterranean Sea.

Trumps move put an end to all that. The United States sold the property for more than $67 million, according to official Israeli records. The State Department refused to release key details of the sale, but the Israeli business newspaper Globes identified the buyer as one of Trumps biggest contributors: U.S. casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who died in 2021.

The cliffside compound appeared little changed from outside the walls on a recent day. Two Israeli flags waved from the flagpoles in the sea breeze. A spokesman for the Adelson family declined to comment.

The decision to sell the residence appears to have been aimed at preventing any future president from reversing the embassy move, something Biden has long ruled out.

But it also forced U.S. diplomats stationed in the region  most of whom continued working in Tel Aviv  to embark on a difficult search for new digs.

When Nides arrived last December, the plight of the homeless ambassador was the talk of diplomatic circles. There simply werent many options in crowded Jerusalem for a compound large and secure enough to serve as a U.S. ambassadors official residence.

In most countries, the official residence is not only the ambassador's home, but a place for official ceremonies and social gatherings. A cramped apartment simply won't do.

Nides initially moved into the Waldorf Astoria in Jerusalem, a tony enough address but not living quarters suited for entertaining. Sometime this past spring, he moved to the property in the German Colony, one of the most sought-after neighborhoods in Jerusalem.

The U.S. is leasing it and has notified Israel that the property will be the official residence for the American envoy, according to the embassy. Other terms of the arrangement have not been made public, but there are no plans to move the ambassador to another site. Officials from both countries, as well as the owner, declined to comment on the propertys value or its monthly rent.

If the intent was to keep the residence low-profile, that's over too. On June 8, Nides tweeted a photo from his new neighborhood coffee shop in the German colony." His residence is surrounded by a tall white fence and dotted with security cameras. Guards can often be seen, according to local shop owners. When a gate opens, looky-loos can catch glimpses of a parking area and courtyard.

Arielle Cohen, legal counsel for the owner, Blue Marble Ltd., doesnt dispute local reports that the company spent 50 million shekels (about $14.5 million) on the historic restoration. Her father, Avi Ruimi, grew up in the German Colony and founded the company, which specializes in historic restorations and owns several other addresses on the street.

Blue Marble bought the property in 2004. Construction lasted six years and finished in 2020, as it became clear that the U.S. ambassador would need a new home.

We knew it was a possibility, Cohen said in an interview. She declined to comment on the signing process but called the contract a wonderful milestone. She said the residence itself is about 570 square meters (about 6,000 square feet) with a second building that roughly doubles the size.

A gallery on the companys website says one building includes two apartments and commercial space. The second is a beautiful private villa. A portfolio on Blue Marbles web site shows a sleekly renovated interior, with a modern kitchen, fixtures and high ceilings.

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Local media have reported that the property dates to 1930 and was built by a wealthy Palestinian family. West Jerusalem was home to a number of upscale Palestinian neighborhoods known for their stone villas before the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation, when most Palestinians on that side of the city fled or were driven out.

The residence housed unmarried British police officers during the British mandate prior to 1948, and has also been used as a fire station, school and flower shop over the years.

It's unclear whether Biden will visit the residence during his brief stopover in Israel next month.

His discussions with Israeli and Palestinian leaders are likely to focus on another consequence of Trump's embassy move  the shuttering of a U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem that served Palestinians.

The Palestinians have called on the Biden administration to deliver on its pledge to reopen the consulate, which would reinforce their claim to part of the city and help mend U.S.-Palestinian ties ruptured during the Trump years.

Israel is staunchly opposed to any reopening of the consulate for the same reason  another real-estate dispute in a region where they seem to multiply with every passing year.
KIGALI, Rwanda - Prince Charles pitched a new relationship between Commonwealth countries and the Crown on Friday, suggesting they can learn from efforts to reconcile with Indigenous Peoples in Canada, while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau worked to win over a divided group of leaders.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pauses after laying a wreath at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Kigali, Rwanda on Thursday, June 23, 2022. More than 250,000 victims of the Genocide against the Tutsi have been buried in a mass grave at the memorial. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

KIGALI, Rwanda - Prince Charles pitched a new relationship between Commonwealth countries and the Crown on Friday, suggesting they can learn from efforts to reconcile with Indigenous Peoples in Canada, while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau worked to win over a divided group of leaders.

The Prince of Wales opened a meeting of Commonwealth heads of government in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, by reflecting on the roots of the association that run deep into the African slave trade, which he called the most painful period of our history.

He offered Canada as an example to follow. He said he and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cambridge, were deeply touched by Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Canada reflecting honestly on the darkest parts of history during their visit to the country last month.

"As challenging as that conversation can be, people across Canada are approaching it with courage and unwavering commitment, determined to lay a foundation of respect and understanding upon which a better future can be built," Charles said during the opening ceremony.

"It seems to me that there are lessons in this for our Commonwealth family."

The Commonwealth, which is made up of 54 independent countries that are mostly former territories of the British Empire, finds itself at a crossroads involving both its people and its politics.

Charles was in Rwanda representing his mother, the Queen, and he is eventually expected to take over as head of the monarchy, and therefore the Commonwealth.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau listens to Prince Charles delivering remarks during the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kigali, Rwanda on Friday, June 24, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

Though the heads of Commonwealth governments haven't met in four years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, several prominent leaders opted not to attend this week's meetings. That includes Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who both opted to attend a virtual summit with Russia, China and Brazil instead.

Newly elected Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, whose government has been vocal about its aspirations to sever ties with the monarchy, also stayed home.

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said that's not something Canada is interested in pursuing.

"We know that monarchy is a source of stability," she told reporters. "There's so much instability in the world right now that Canadians expect us to deal with many other issues."

In his opening address, Charles told the assembly each country is free to determine its own constitutional relationship with the Crown, opening the door to countries like Australia whose governments aspire to form a republic.

He also highlighted that historic ties to the British monarchy are no longer a requirement of Commonwealth membership. Rwanda is not a former colony, but joined the association voluntarily in 2009.

The modern version of the Commonwealth was established as a collection of independent nations in 1949, just a few years before the Queen began her reign.

The Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland referred to the Queen's vision for the Commonwealth in her address to the leaders. In the face of rising costs, world conflict, and the impacts of the global pandemic, Scotland said it is imperative the Queen's vision endures.

"It'll not be easy. We will have to dig deep," she said.

"We must trust each other. We must talk and listen to each other and give all that we have to, to achieve progress for the 2.5 billion people we all represent."

Meanwhile, Trudeau also attempted to sway the future direction of the Commonwealth in his own way, in a series of executive and bilateral meetings with his international counterparts.

He sat down for a one-on-one meeting with the Rwandan president and host of the summit, Paul Kagame, where Trudeau continued on the Prince of Wales' theme of confronting and overcoming the past and reflected on his visit to the Kigali Genocide Memorial.

He said he was privileged to visit the site, "but also to see how much Rwanda has developed over the past years.

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Trudeau's goal is to bring Commonwealth countries onside with Canada's climate goals and its view of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

A planned sit-down with the chair of the commission that serves as the secretariat for the African Union, Moussa Faki Mahamat, was put off.

The African Union has been at the centre of a tug of war for support between Ukraine and Russia, as both countries vie for Africa's friendship while the violent conflict continues in Ukraine, leading to a worldwide spike in the cost of fuel and grain scarcity.

Trudeau also met with Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne who commended Canada's action on climate change, and newly elected Zambia President Hakainde Hichilema.

On Saturday, the leaders will attend a retreat for most of the day before closing the summit. Then Trudeau is expected to fly to Germany where he will attend the G7 in the Bavarian Alps.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 24, 2022.
On a sticky-hot evening, the bus shacks of Winnipeg sit mostly empty, void both of people waiting for the bus and of people who find under their roofs a sheltered, if not entirely comfortable, place to stay. For all the words about the latter groups that have spackled the news as of late, there are few out tonight. Not on Regent, or Pembina, or Osborne, or North Main.

On a sticky-hot evening, the bus shacks of Winnipeg sit mostly empty, void both of people waiting for the bus and of people who find under their roofs a sheltered, if not entirely comfortable, place to stay. For all the words about the latter groups that have spackled the news as of late, there are few out tonight. Not on Regent, or Pembina, or Osborne, or North Main.

There is one person. In a shelter at the awkward intersection where Marion Street and St. Marys Road meet, Samantha Thomas sits on the bench, arranging containers of soup. Soon, shell pack her cart with all her things  a tent, some blankets, a thrift store Bible  and head south to find a quieter shack to bunk in for the night.

"I do this every day, back and forth," she says. "When nighttime comes, Ill go sleep in St. Vital. Its actually scary over there, because Im all alone in the bus shelter and everybodys gone. I cant believe I stay out there by myself, but when youre tired, youre tired."

This bus shelter is already in bad condition. Two of the wall panels have been smashed out; Thomas, 27, was sleeping when it happened. She didnt even know that it had been busted until the cops came, and she woke up to find the shack inundated by rain.

"I was like, how did the cops know it was smashed and I didnt?" she says, and laughs.

Thomas has been sleeping out here for a few years, she thinks. In summer and winter. The winter isnt so bad, she says, and in fact she sort of prefers it; it all depends if you have the right things, she says. You need the right things to make it through certain days, and over time, shes learned what those things are and where to find them.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Samantha Thomas sits in a bus shelter on St Mary's Road at Marion Street.

"I do this every day, so I got used to it," she says.

So she has learned to live in the shelters, but the city has still not learned how best to live with people like her.

Just days before, after some debate, the citys executive policy committee voted 6-1 against a motion put forth by Transcona councillor Shawn Nason to remove the walls, doors and seats from two bus shelters in front of Kildonan Place mall. It would leave only a roof denuded of real shelter; the motion had been green-lit by the public works committee a week earlier.

Nason stepped back from that motion himself this week, but not before it had sparked a passionate public discussion. At the EPC meeting, advocates for vulnerable Winnipeggers staged a stiff resistance to the motion; over a dozen delegates spoke against it.

Their message was simple: dismantling shelters doesnt address any of the reasons that people stay in them. And while transit riders need the shelters to be safe and available, removing their functionality only strips it from everyone, particularly seniors and people with disabilities.

"No one is arguing that living in a tent or a bus shack is a right," End Homelessness Winnipeg communications manager Kris Clemens told EPC. "It is a physical manifestation of the violation of ones human right to adequate housing."

Those people, the ones who lack adequate housing, are stakeholders in this debate, too. But what opinions they might have on what dismantling the shelters would do, or what would help them find more stable and healthier situations, city council didnt hear directly; the most vulnerable are rarely given space to speak for themselves, in these situations.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Samantha Thomas arranges containers of soup before packing her cart and heading to St. Vital to find somewhere quieter to sleep.

In the bus shack at the intersection of Marion and St. Marys, Thomas hasnt heard about the city council debate. She hasnt heard some wanted to take down the walls of two shelters on Regent. But she does know what it is like to live in them, and how to make the best of a difficult situation, and her observations line up with what advocates at the EPC meeting were saying.

At EPC, West Central Womens Resource Centre director Lorie English urged the city to invest in safe consumption sites for people who use drugs, so they arent pushed into public spaces; just days before, one of Thomass friends overdosed in a bus shelter nearby. That was the first time Thomas had seen a dead body, she said, and the experience left her shaken.

Sometimes, she says, shes doesnt remember everything thats happened in her life, or understand its events clearly. Last week, advocates for unhoused people told city council that many unhoused people have suffered traumatic brain injuries; now, in this bus shelter, Thomas is explaining that people "bother her a lot" when shes sleeping.

"When you hit somebody on the head too much, it does affect your brain," she says.

And she talks about the limited options she has to live a dignified life on the street. Shes been chased out of places, and had her survival kit removed from the shacks by city staff. Unhoused people are not welcome in most private spaces, so they can only cling to what public spaces they find. She points at the nearby strip mall, dotted with fast-food restaurants.

"They kicked us out of all these places, all these stores," she says. "We cant even go in there, we cant even use the bathroom. I have to find a bucket to pee in. Then Winnipeg Transit comes along, and they take all our stuff, and we have to go walking around and look for blankets and do it all over again.

"Theyre taking those donation bins away too, and then we wont have nothing like that. Then where are we supposed to go? We have to follow their system? No, we dont want to sit there and be used, and be bullied. Nobody wants to live by their rules. I dont want to do it. I already know who they are."

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Unhoused people are not welcome in most private spaces, so they can only cling to what public spaces they find.

It is not entirely clear who "they" are, in this thought, and Thomas doesnt elaborate further. What she does say is that she doesnt like staying in shelters: its the people, she says. Living on the street gives her some measure of autonomy over who she spends time around, and if she isnt comfortable with a situation, she can always move on somewhere else.

Still, its hard. The worst part, she says, is being alone when something bad happens: "you cant defend yourself." Or when shes starving, or when shes hurt. She thinks she could maybe find housing, she says, but she doesnt seem all too sure. Its "really hard right now," she says, and she has a lot of concerns about who she would end up having to stay with.

"You have nothing," she says. "Ive been here so long, Ive been hurt so much. You dont see security coming to help us."

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What does help, she says, are the vans that drive around from groups such as Main Street Project and Street Connections. Those are the most helpful resources she knows. Her friends help too, even though they are equally limited in means. Still, the people who live without houses take care of each other. Because they understand each other. Because they must.

"My friends, theyll come along, theyll help me the best they can," she says. "But they cant do much."

Maybe, someday, the city will have more safe places where she and her friends are welcome. This week might have brought us a little closer to it.

On Wednesday, Nason announced he would not support his own motion to dismantle the shelters, which faced a full council vote on Thursday; instead, hed get behind a proposal by Coun. Sherri Rollins, calling on the citys public works department to develop options for low-barrier housing and safe consumption sites.

Its hopeful, in a way. The machinations of city council will not right away trickle down to the lives of people on the street; but in this case, at least, council heard the truth of whats needed, versus what will only drive vulnerable people deeper into harms way.

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca
THEATRE troupe students at Ecole River Heights School will now have something in common with actors like Tom Hanks, Adam Driver and Zoe Kravitz.

THEATRE troupe students at Ecole River Heights School will now have something in common with actors like Tom Hanks, Adam Driver and Zoe Kravitz.

Shortly after the dismissal bell rang Wednesday, 13 theatre students in grades 7 and 8 made history by becoming the first junior thespians from a Manitoba school inducted into the esteemed International Thespian Society.

"Im really excited for tonight," said Hamza Kinnarath, a Grade 8 student. "I feel like if this were a play, this would be the climax."

Kyle Collins, theatre troupe director at Ecole River Heights School, said society membership gives students confidence and prestige to proceed into the acting world.

"It gives (the students) the goal to work towards their own professional growth, or their own artistic growth, rather," Collins said. "It creates an understanding of what a student is capable of and what their level of dedication is if they go to new markets."

The troupe performed at three theatre festivals this school year  Canadian National Thespian Festival, Destination Imagination and Manitoba Drama Youth Festival  where they won gold and silver in multiple categories.

For every 10 hours of community theatre or extracurricular work, students receive one point. To be inducted into the society, students must obtain 10 points (100 hours).

Grade 8 student Amara Wiste said having the troupe at school makes it more accessible for students.

"I think it gives a lot of people opportunity. Its right after school, so you dont have to go anywhere," Amara said.

Ahead of the gala, the theatre troupe students expressed appreciation for Collins.

"Our teacher is extremely passionate about making and giving us the best that he can," said Marah Gervais, a Grade 7 student. "Hes giving us opportunities, hes letting us compete at festivals and activities, and I think it really elevates the troupe."

Marah and Hamza were two of the three Grade 7 students inducted from the troupe.

During the festival circuit, Ecole River Heights School students snagged three blue, or superior-level, ribbons out of the 15 awarded to Canadian students.

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Collins said the program is lucky to receive ample support from school principal Dominic Zagari.

Zagari, who was in attendance for the ceremony, said the troupe has greatly enriched the lives of the students. "It brings confidence to these kids that otherwise would hide in the shadows and not want to speak."

The success has had a domino effect across the city. Collins said other high school theatre teachers plan to establish their own troupes.

Above all, Collins said the sense of camaraderie and teamwork is what powers the troupe.

"Its been a really great year on the festival circuit, but the real win comes with the experiences weve shared, friendships weve made, and the time we got to spend together doing creative things again," Collins said.

cierra.bettens@freepress.mb.ca
?? En vivo | Intervencion del jefe de Estado, @PedroCastilloTe, en el primer encuentro por el desarrollo de la region Puno, desde Juliaca. #SiempreConElPueblo https://t.co/MLVz7wSwFK
The number of anticipated emergency room closures in rural Manitoba this summer is unlike anything Dr. David Cram has seen in his career.

The number of anticipated emergency room closures in rural Manitoba this summer is unlike anything Dr. David Cram has seen in his career.

"Ive been at this a long, long time, and Ive never been as concerned as I am now about the stability of our hospitals and our emergency rooms to provide the care to our patients," said the Souris-based physician, who has been practising as a proud "country doc" for 36 years.

Closures and temporary suspensions of ER service are expected to happen in about 60 per cent of the 68 hospitals in northern and rural Manitoba, according to information gathered by Doctors Manitoba.

Cram, along with Neepawa physician Dr. Nichelle Desilets, publicly shared his concerns during a virtual news conference Friday with Doctors Manitoba president Dr. Candace Bradshaw.

The organization, which represents more than 4,000 physicians in the province, launched a new website (ruralcare.ca) that breaks down anticipated ER closures by region and is designed to inform Manitobans about what to do if their local hospital is closed in an emergency. (People should call 911 and know where their closest and second-closest ERs are located.)

Doctors Manitoba plans to update the website weekly throughout the summer. The agency provided statistics that show 40 per cent of rural ERs are expected to stay open 24-7, but 34 per cent will only be able to operate on reduced hours or temporary closures, while 26 per cent have been closed more than a year and wont reopen this summer.

Although he loves his work, Cram said the situation is not sustainable. Chronic staffing shortages have worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic and ERs are in jeopardy anytime a doctor goes on vacation, gets sick, or moves away. In Souris, the ER will only be open two days a week because of another doctors planned relocation, he said.

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"Were just a nursing shift or a doctor shift away for one or two hospitals (ERs) to close, and it certainly has a domino effect, so it is just not sustainable," said Cram, who is the Manitoba representative on the Canadian Medical Association board of directors.

Doctors worry about their regular patients anytime theres a closure or disruption in service, said Desilets, who has been practising in Neepawa since 2015 and has a young family.

"We feel it really deeply because were really ingrained in our communities," she said.

Rural doctors will be working over the summer to establish best practices for a long-term recruitment and retention plan, said Desilets, who also serves on the Assiniboine District Medical Society.

She has a supportive team at work and at home, Desilets said, "but as Dr. Cram said, everythings spread pretty thin. And when I hear a veteran like Dr. Cram say that hes never seen it like this before, as a newer-to-practice physician, that has me concerned."

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca
For Ukrainian refugee Oleh Lapin and his family, Steinbach has become their safe haven from the guns of war.

For Ukrainian refugee Oleh Lapin and his family, Steinbach has become their safe haven from the guns of war.

Lapin, his wife and six-year-old son were some of the first Ukrainians to arrive in Manitoba in recent weeks after fleeing from the Russian invasion of their country. He already has a job in the booming southeastern Manitoba city that has a large Mennonite population, which traces its roots to eastern Europe.

"We left Ukraine one hour after the war started," Lapin said, thinking back to Feb. 24. "Our city was struck by Russian missiles one or two times in the first hour of the war.

"My father called us at 5 a.m.  he was in Kyiv  he said the war has started. He said we should leave now and I took his advice.

"It was really fast for us. We just gathered personal belongings and our bags and we left Ukraine. We were in Poland for two months until we got our Canadian visas.

"The safety of my family, and my child, is most important."

JORDAN ROSS / THE CARILLON The safety of my family, and my child, is most important, Oleh Lapin said.

Lapin, a lawyer had worked in civil, family and corporate law in his home city. In Steinbach, he got a job as a paralegal at a law firm three weeks ago.

As many as 1,400 Ukrainians have streamed into Manitoba in the past two months and, for many of them, Winnipeg is not their final destination.

Nick Krawetz, a volunteer with the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, said there has been a concerted effort by officials in other cities and towns to encourage the refugees to think about making their home in a smaller community.

"There definitely are many that have expressed interest, including Steinbach and Winkler, but also Morden, Altona, Brandon, the Parklands around Dauphin, and Minnedosa. There are things happening all over," Krawetz said.

"There have been between 1,300 and 1,400 individuals come here and every day at the airport there is probably 50 more, on average. Unfortunately, with the war showing no signs of stopping, even more people are coming."

Krawetz said other Ukrainians, who had arrived elsewhere in Canada, have decided to give Manitoba a try.

There definitely are many that have expressed interest, including Steinbach and Winkler, but also Morden, Altona, Brandon, the Parklands around Dauphin, and Minnedosa. There are things happening all over.  Nick Krawetz

"People were thinking of Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, but when they got there they realized the cost of living is so high that they have decided to come here," he said.

"It is also because Manitoba is leading the country in offering services and supports for them."

Steinbachs Chamber of Commerce has provided bus tours of the city for Ukrainians and put on a job fair so they could consider their employment prospects.

Steinbach Mayor Earl Funk said 16 families have chosen the city as their new home.

"It is significant when you look at the size of our community," Funk said.

"We have a task force we put together working to bring the Ukrainian families here they help our economic development and we have employment openings."

MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES Steinbach Mayor Earl Funk said 16 families have chosen the city as their new home.

Funk said it doesnt hurt that the new Ukrainians see the family names of generations of eastern Europeans who came here in the past.

"There are so many founding families with Ukrainian background here," he said.

Anna Mondor, the chambers director of economic development, said there are hundreds of good jobs in the city, including at large manufacturers such as Loewen Windows and Barkman Concrete.

"We brought them out here to see the city and they had the opportunity to meet with employers on the same day," Mondor said. "Our model is working well."

Winkler Mayor Martin Harder said his community has hosted groups of Ukrainians to show whats on offer.

"Eight or nine families have already arrived and more are coming," Harder said. "We have many jobs. There is a large shortage of people here.

"It is bittersweet why they have come here, but you try to show them a piece of the world that has compassion for them. For them to come here, and to find a job and a purpose in life, is a real healing process."

Steinbach is a pretty nice city, though it is smaller than my city. It is beautiful and clean and the people are nice."  Oleh Lapin

Lapin, who helps to translate English for Ukrainians who take a tour of Steinbach, said he is happy with his new job and might study to become a lawyer here.

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One thing he knows for certain, he will be even happier on July 1. Thats when he moves from a room in the home of a Steinbach family, to an apartment where he can be under the same roof with his wife and child. They have been living in Winnipeg while their child finishes the school year at an English-Ukrainian bilingual program.

"My wife is also a lawyer in Ukraine, she practised corporate law, but it is harder for her because she doesnt speak English. She is still learning," he said.

"Steinbach is a pretty nice city, though it is smaller than my city. It is beautiful and clean and the people are nice. I tell others if they want some changes in their life and want a safe place, this is a good option. Steinbach is like a small European city."

As for whether Lapin and his family will return to Ukraine if Russian forces leave, he doesnt have an answer.

"Its a question I cant answer," he said. "It depends on a lot of conditions and circumstances. We left, and we left a lot there: friends, relatives and property. Its hard."

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca
A virtual outpatient program that saved Manitoba millions in avoided COVID-19 hospital admission costs is winding down.

As of Wednesday, new patients were no longer accepted into the Virtual COVID Outpatient Program, which will suspend operations at the end of June. There are currently only five patients in the program, but it could have kept going with permanent funding, physicians say.

Three doctors who have been part of the team that kept the program running since it began in late 2020, said they had universally positive feedback from patients who participated in it and they are disappointed it is shutting down. The program allowed certain patients to be monitored at home via video conferencing or phone calls while they were on oxygen and slowly recovering from COVID-19, rather than remaining in hospital. More than 500 patients used the virtual program over the past 18 months. The province had been looking into expanding it for use with other chronic conditions, such as lung disease and heart failure. Doctors found that patients did better when they were at home, surrounded by their loved ones and pets.

"Its been probably the most fun thing and innovative thing in my 15-year career here in Manitoba," said gastroenterologist Dr. Dana Moffatt.

Moffatt, and internal medicine physician Dr. Jonathan Laxton, associate and assistant directors of the program, respectively, helped start the program with Dr. Ken Kasper at HSC. But the program was running without definitive funding and required administrative volunteer work from doctors.

Shared Health confirmed the program stopped taking new patients Wednesday, describing intake as "temporarily paused" until the fall.

Its uncertain whether the program will resume in the fall under its current structure, Moffatt said.

"This is a pause in the sense that theres no one that wants to run this program anymore, because theres been no funding for it," Moffatt said.

He said doctors have been asking, for the past 18 months, for continuous funding to pay for nursing and clerk positions, which had been staffed via "piecemeal" contracts. Doctors get paid to see patients in the program, but they arent paid for the work involved in designing and operating it.

"The problem will be if there is another big wave, and all of a sudden they need this sort of clinic," Moffatt said. "How quickly can they restart this (and) find people who want to work in this position again, knowing its only been piecemeal funding?"

The number of patients referred to the program has dropped significantly. At its peak, during the height of the third wave, more than 50 patients were enrolled. The five that are still enrolled will continue to receive care in other respiratory hospital programs after the end of this month, said Laxton.

The decline in patients, the doctors said, is partly because fewer COVID-19 patients are admitted to hospital, and after the Omicron variant dominated, most patients had other worsening chronic conditions, not strictly COVID-19.

Another reason, Moffatt said, is that centralized COVID units have been disbanded, causing "a bit of an outreach issue."

Dr. Clare Ramsey, a respirologist and critical care physician who worked with patients on the take-home oxygen, said it was one of the more rewarding parts of her job, and patients were so thankful for it.

"This program was a pleasure to be part of because it was well-organized," she said. "And just the gratitude from patients was kind of the complete opposite of everything else going on in the pandemic. It worked well and saved hospital time."

Laxton said he has hope the virtual model can be used to monitor patients in the future, and could be particularly useful for certain patients in remote and northern communities.

In total, 547 Manitobans from 45 communities enrolled in the program, all of whom either avoided hospital or stayed in one for less time because of the program.

Shared Health stated 4,178 hospital days were saved.

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Moffatt said those hospital days add up to more than $4 million saved. Shared Health stated the savings are around $2.8 million.

"The cost of running VCOP is approximately $500,000 over the course of a year, not including physician fees. Program costs fluctuate with demand for the service," a Shared Health spokesman stated, saying the program is "paused" because of the lower number of COVID-19 patients being admitted to hospital.

"If you think bigger, this could revolutionize the way health care works in every province, and some provinces are doing that," including B.C., Moffatt continued.

"But I dont think theres going to be the willingness on physicians parts to volunteer. The same way that at the beginning of the pandemic, everybody was pulling on the same rope together to get things done theres an element of burnout and fatigue with two years of going above and beyond the call of duty and working your hardest all the time. I dont know that people will be willing to do that anymore."

Last week, 58 Manitobans had to be admitted to hospital with COVID-19 and eight required intensive care, the provincial government announced in an epidemiological report Thursday.

katie.may@winnipegfreepress.com
Its hard to imagine how Winnipeg would benefit from re-electing a vagabond politician like Glen Murray as its next mayor.

Its hard to imagine how Winnipeg would benefit from re-electing a vagabond politician like Glen Murray as its next mayor.

Murray, who last served as his worship in Winnipeg 18 years ago, has been wandering around Manitoba and Ontario for the past three decades, running for, quitting and running again (or musing to run) for a variety of jobs in municipal, provincial and federal politics.

Hes won some battles, lost others and never seemed content staying in one place for more than a few years at a time.

Murray, 64, now wants his old job back  the one he walked away from mid-term in 2004 to run for the federal Liberals in the former CharleswoodSt. James riding (he lost).

He has offered no compelling reason for his bid to become Winnipegs mayor again. It may be hes just looking for a steady paycheque (the mayors job pays more than $200,000 a year, plus benefits).

Four years ago, when he announced he was moving back to Winnipeg, Murray ruled out getting back into politics.

"I have no desire to go back to it," the former Ontario Liberal cabinet minister told Global News in 2018. "I think Ive done my public service."

When asked Wednesday during his official 2022 mayoral campaign launch in the courtyard at city hall what changed his mind, he didnt answer. Instead, he explained how he was trying to keep his business afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic and has been caring for his ailing mother over the past few years.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Glen Murray wants his old job back  the one he walked away from mid-term in 2004 to run for the federal Liberals in the former CharleswoodSt. James riding (he lost).

He said he hasnt had time to do anything else, which isnt entirely true. Murray had time two years ago to run for the leadership of the Green Party of Canada, which he lost (placing fourth).

Now, with seemingly nowhere else to run, hes decided to take a shot at the mayors chair again.

"I love Winnipeg," said Murray, when asked several times why he wants to be mayor, adding theres still more work to do.

"Its not about me, though, right?" he insisted, prompting more than a few belly laughs among those who have followed the former mayors political career over the past three decades.

Murray is one of the most self-absorbed politicians youll ever meet. He gives former Manitoba premier Brian Pallister a run for his money in that category. Murrays politics and style may be different than the former Tory leader, but his level of arrogance is of the same calibre.

Murray is one of the most selfabsorbed politicians youll ever meet. He gives former Manitoba premier Brian Pallister a run for his money in that category.

During a recent podcast, hosted by former CBC radio broadcaster Terry MacLeod, Murray spent the better part of 39 minutes boasting about his record as mayor (1998-2004) and how the city has practically fallen apart since he left the position.

Almost all development in Winnipeg prior to his mayorship was backwards and wrongheaded (except the development of The Forks), according to Murray. After six years of smart, visionary urban planning under his watch, subsequent mayors and city councils unravelled all the good work he did with poor planning and bad investments.

At least thats the world according to Murray. Humility has never been his strong suit.

Nor has his relationship with the truth, which is strained at the best of times. It didnt take Murray long to remind us of that Wednesday, when he claimed, wrongly, he got his controversial "new deal" done while he was mayor.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES I love Winnipeg, said Glen Murray, when asked several times why he wants to be mayor, adding theres still more work to do.

The proposal  a plan to cut property taxes in half and eliminate the businesses tax in favour of a host of new consumption taxes and fees  failed. One of the reasons was because it was not revenue neutral. As proposed, it was an overall tax increase, which included a city sales tax, a tax on gasoline and natural gas, a 911 tax, a city booze tax, and higher frontage levies.

It proposed to shift the tax base away from high-end property owners and businesses to lower-income people, including renters. It was ultimately quashed by then-premier Gary Doer.

The question remains: why does Murray want this job and what does he have to offer Winnipeg?

He talks a mile a minute about the same things he spoke of 20 years ago  crumbling infrastructure, poorly cleared sidewalks, bad urban planning, etc.  but offers little but vague platitudes.

Murray will be a competitive candidate in the 2022 mayoral race. He still has a fan base in the city. But so far, he sounds mostly like someone who just needs a job.

tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca

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If Manitoba Hydro had as much water flowing through its turbines every year as it does now, it would never have to worry about financial losses. Trouble is, in low-water years, including last years devastating drought, Hydro faces significant risk of deficits, largely because of its overbuilt generating capacity.

Opinion

If Manitoba Hydro had as much water flowing through its turbines every year as it does now, it would never have to worry about financial losses. Trouble is, in low-water years, including last years devastating drought, Hydro faces significant risk of deficits, largely because of its overbuilt generating capacity.

Low water levels have always been the enemy of profit at Hydro. Like any hydroelectric producer, it relies on adequate water flows to pay the bills. The Crown corporation has posted losses many times in the past during periods of drought.

However, those risks have been amplified since the construction of the Keeyask generating station, owing to its high capital cost (including a $2.2-billion cost overrun) and its overbuilt capacity. Keeyasks power capacity exceeds Manitobas demand. That will change over time as the province grows and the power requirements of its commercial and industrial sectors increases. For now, if Hydro fails to export enough electricity to cover Keeyasks amortization costs, it will lose money.

That wont be a problem this year, owing to historically high water levels. Hydro is expected to make money hand over fist in 2022-23 through both its firm and surplus export markets. Hydro has long-term contracts with customers in Ontario, Saskatchewan and the U.S. Whatever it has left over it sells as surplus power on the spot market. The extent to which it can do so determines whether or not Hydro ends up in the red.

Spot sales are not guaranteed, nor are the prices Hydro can fetch for them (theyre usually lower than what Hydro gets from long-term contracts). More importantly, the amount of surplus power available for spot sales is determined entirely by water flow.

During normal water-level years, when reservoirs are full, Hydro makes good money on the spot market. Together with long-term contracts and domestic sales, the Crown corporation usually has enough revenue to turn a decent profit. It boils down to the number of high-water years versus drought years.

Hydros balance sheet can weather some droughts, as long as the frequency of dry periods doesnt exceed wet ones. That could be a challenge if climate change increases the risk of droughts.

Theres little doubt the former NDP government miscalculated the export market when it built Keeyask, which has a capacity of 695-MW. Its oversized for the current market. Even with the recent 30-year contract to provide up to 215 megawatts a year to Saskatchewan, theres still plenty of surplus capacity that must be sold on the spot market to balance the books.

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Those risks will fade over time with growing domestic demand and the likelihood of negotiating more long-term export contracts.

Until then, the risk of higher domestic electricity rates is real. Successive years of drought would have a devastating impact on Hydro, which has to service its $23.8-billion debt (an amount that has doubled since 2015) whether it sells power on the spot market or not. Hydros debt to capitalization ratio jumped to 86 per cent from 74 per cent prior to the construction of Keeyask and the Bipole III transmission line. Thats manageable as long as exports, including spot sales, remain robust. If they dont, rates will rise and credit rating agencies will come knocking.

There are other steps Hydro can take to mitigate its financial risks, including cancelling plans to employ 400 more staff over the next two years, a planned hiring spree Manitobas Public Utilities Board has called unsustainable. In the end, though, Mother Nature will have a greater impact on Hydros bottom line than anything its accountants could do.

Meanwhile, the politics of Keeyask continue to be warped on both sides of the partisan battlefield. The NDP conveniently ignores the billions in cost overruns of both Keeyask and Bipole III and refuses to take any responsibility for miscalculating the export market. The Tories, on the other hand, cant get past the fact Keeyask will eventually be the right fit for Manitoba. They continue, even while in government, to refer to it as the biggest economic scandal of our time, which is counterproductive. It undermines Hydros financial stability.

In the end, Keeyask will be an important part of Manitobas renewable energy portfolio, even if the road to get there was rockier than it needed to be.

tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca
A Winnipeg man was sentenced last month to three years in custody for recruiting women online to work as masseuses and provide sexual services for cash.

A Winnipeg man was sentenced last month to three years in custody for recruiting women online to work as masseuses and provide sexual services for cash.

The conviction on the charge of material benefit from sexual services was the result of a long-term investigation into human trafficking, dubbed Project Bluff, that began in 2019, the Winnipeg Police Service announced Friday.

Two women initially told counter-exploitation unit investigators they had been recruited and directed to work as escorts through online subscription-based social-media platforms by a man who posted online advertisements featuring photos of the women.

Those ads initially offered massage services, and eventually transitioned to providing sexual services, police said.

"This happened during the pandemic and at the time a lot of people were using social media differently, where they were selling (explicit) photos and videos, and this is where the victims were identified by the accused and recruited," said Staff Sgt. Maria Koniuck.

"You have a situation where people are more desperate, theyre looking for income and, as all of us dealt with through the pandemic, we didnt know what was going to happen month to month."

Police would not confirm which websites specifically were part of the investigation, which involved searching through ads to find other possible victims.

"What was unique about this one was we clearly recognized there was a potential for more We were building evidence for other potential victims we did not know would come forward or not," she said.

Koniuck would not reveal the exact number of women who had been potentially exploited, but said it was many.

In April 2021, police raided three Winnipeg rental condominium units, which Koniuck described as secure locations used to provide sexual services. Police arrested one man and seized more than $42,000 in cash.

Ferosh Tailor, 33, of Winnipeg, was initially charged with two counts of procuring persons to provide sexual services, advertising sexual services, material benefit from sexual services, and sexual assault.

Tailor pleaded guilty to material benefit from sexual services and was sentenced in May. All other charges were stayed by the courts.

Human trafficking charges were not ultimately laid.

"The difference between human trafficking and what the charges we did here is that for human trafficking, you have to have the fear that you are in danger, someone is in danger, so they have to do whatever the labour is," Koniuck said.

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"I found with our accused, deception was a large part of it and there was fear there but it was underlying, so for a lot of women, that is enough  but in the legal sense, its not considered human trafficking."

Koniuck noted not all sex workers are being exploited, and highlighted changes in how the counter-exploitation unit operates compared to its predecessors.

"Its something that, as long as theyve made the decision and theyre making choices, we want to support them and we want them to feel safe," she said.

In 2014, prostitution was partially decriminalized in Canada. The selling of sexual services is legal, and sex workers are allowed to advertise their own services, but purchasing the services remains illegal, as does third parties profiting from it.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera
Manitobans should expect Americans to cross the border to access abortion following the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn abortion rights legislation

Manitobans should expect Americans to cross the border to access abortion following the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn abortion rights legislation

"We have to expect that it will happen. Because the decision was not about making abortion illegal. Its about making it unsafe," said Blandine Tona, director of medical programs at the Womens Health Clinic in Winnipeg.

The Supreme Court decision to overturn its landmark 1973 abortion rights case Roe v. Wade is expected to trigger U.S. states to immediately ban abortion after six weeks  before most women realize theyre pregnant.

"Privileged people will be able to travel to Canada or elsewhere, book their hotel, have the abortion. But less privileged people will not have the same option," Tona said, adding she feels "we just jumped 50-plus years back in time."

The clinic, one of Manitobas abortion providers, urged residents to donate in support of its work and call on political leaders and representatives to boost funding for abortion providers in Canada.

Asked for a provincial response, Premier Heather Stefanson and Health Minister Audrey Gordon did not respond.

NDP Leader Wab Kinew tweeted about the impact of the U.S. decision, calling it "unjust."

"Women and gender-diverse folks will be hit hard by this, Indigenous women in America in particular," Kinew posted.

"As a leader and NDP team member Im 100 per cent committed to fight against the very real threats to reproductive justice that exist in Manitoba."

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In a written statement, Manitoba Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont described the reasoning used to reject Roe v. Wade as "based on bad law, bad history, bad religion and bad medicine."

"This is a catastrophe for anyone who cherishes and defends individual freedoms and fundamental democratic rights. It is an assault on justice that gives government horrific powers. It is good for no one," he stated.

Former Liberal MP Doug Eyolfson, a local physician, said he felt it was important for him to speak out against the U.S. decision because of the risk he perceives in Canadian politics  and to Canadians  as a result. He said Canadians need to be "vigilant" to uphold womens rights.

"What makes me nervous about this is there is a sense of complacency among far too many Canadians. They believe that we wouldnt let this happen in Canada, but we see some provinces that are really doing their best to restrict abortion services  not banning it but not making it available," he said.

"This is not just an American phenomenon."

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca
GAYAN, Afghanistan (AP)  Tents, food and medical supplies rolled into the mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan where thousands were left homeless or injured by this weeks powerful earthquake, which state media said killed 1,150 people. A new aftershock Friday took five more lives and deepened the misery.

Afghans stand by the bodies of relatives killed in an earthquake in Gayan village, in Paktika province, Afghanistan, Thursday, June 23, 2022. A powerful earthquake struck a rugged, mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan early Wednesday, flattening stone and mud-brick homes in the country's deadliest quake in two decades, the state-run news agency reported. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Nooroozi)

GAYAN, Afghanistan (AP)  Tents, food and medical supplies rolled into the mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan where thousands were left homeless or injured by this weeks powerful earthquake, which state media said killed 1,150 people. A new aftershock Friday took five more lives and deepened the misery.

Among the dead from Wednesdays magnitude 6 quake are 121 children, but that figure is expected to climb, said Mohamed Ayoya, UNICEFs representative in Afghanistan. He said close to 70 children were injured.

Overstretched aid agencies said the disaster underscored the need for the international community to rethink its financial cut-off of Afghanistan since Taliban insurgents seized the country 10 months ago. That policy, halting billions in development aid and freezing vital reserves, has helped push the economy into collapse and plunge Afghanistan deeper into humanitarian crises and near famine.

The quake struck a remote, deeply impoverished region of small towns and villages tucked among rough mountains near the Pakistani border, collapsing stone and mud-brick homes and in some cases killing entire families. Nearly 3,000 homes were destroyed or badly damaged in Paktika and Khost provinces, state media reported.

An Indian Air Force aircraft with earthquake relief consignment lands in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, June 23, 2022. India said it sent a technical team to Kabul to coordinate the delivery of humanitarian assistance after a powerful earthquake in eastern Afghanistan that state media reported killed 1,000 people. (India's Ministry of External Affairs via AP)

The effort to help the victims has been slowed both by geography and by Afghanistans decimated condition.

Rutted roads through the mountains, already slow to drive on, were made worse by quake damage and rain. The International Red Cross has five hospitals in the region, but damage to the roads made it difficult for those in the worse-hit areas to reach them, said Lucien Christen, ICRC spokesman in Afghanistan.

Some of the injured had to be taken to a hospital in Ghazni, more than 130 kilometers (80 miles) away that the ICRC has kept running by paying salaries to staff over the past months, he said. Many health facilities around the country have shut down, unable to pay personnel or obtain supplies.

It shows if you dont have functional health system, people cannot access basic services they need, especially in these sorts of times, Christen said.

On Friday, Pakistans Meteorological Department reported a new, 4.2 magnitude quake. Afghanistans state-run Bakhtar News Agency said five people were killed and 11 injured in Gayan, a district of Paktika province that is one of the areas worst hit in Wednesdays quake.

Afghans burry relatives killed in an earthquake to a burial site l in Gayan village, in Paktika province, Afghanistan, Thursday, June 23, 2022. A powerful earthquake struck a rugged, mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan early Wednesday, flattening stone and mud-brick homes in the country's deadliest quake in two decades, the state-run news agency reported. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Nooroozi)

Bakhtars Taliban director Abdul Wahid Rayan said Friday the death toll from Wednesday had risen to 1,150 people, with at least 1,600 people injured. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has put the death toll at 770 people. Its not clear how death toll counts are being reached, given the access difficulties. Either toll would make the quake Afghanistans deadliest in two decades.

At Urgan, the main city in Paktika province, U.N. World Health Organization medical supplies were unloaded at the main hospital. In quake-hit villages, UNICEF delivered blankets, basic supplies and tarps for the homeless to use as tents. Aid groups said they feared cholera could break out after damage to water and hygiene systems.

In main villages of Gayan District, residents crowded around trucks delivering aid, an Associated Press team saw Friday. People who had spent the past two nights sleeping outdoors in the rain erected tents in the yards of their wrecked houses. For more than 24 hours after the quake, many had been on their own, digging through the rubble by hand in search of survivors.

Still, help was slow to filter across the area. In one tiny hamlet seen by the AP, all 20 houses were flattened, and residents were still taking refuge in nearby forests.

Trucks of food and other necessities arrived from Pakistan, and planes full of humanitarian aid landed from Iran, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. But it was not clear how long it would take to reach devastated villages. Other countries sending aid have taken pains to make clear it would not go through the Taliban -- reflecting the widespread reluctance to deal with Afghanistans new rulers.

Afghans carry a relative killed in an earthquake to a burial site l in Gayan village, in Paktika province, Afghanistan, Thursday, June 23, 2022. A powerful earthquake struck a rugged, mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan early Wednesday, flattening stone and mud-brick homes in the country's deadliest quake in two decades, the state-run news agency reported. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Nooroozi)

Aid groups said that while they are rushing to help the quake victims, keeping Afghanistan just above catastrophe through humanitarian programs is not sustainable. Some urged the world to end or find ways around the financial cutoff that has wrecked the economy.

We are basically letting 25 million Afghan people to starve, to die, not to be able to earn their own living if we keep on with this financial blockade, said Rossella Miccio, president of the aid organization Emergency that operates a network of healthcare facilities and surgical centers across Afghanistan.

Afghanistans economy had been reliant on international donor support even before the Taliban takeover last August as the U.S. and its NATO allies were withdrawing their forces, ending a 20-year war.

World governments halted billions in development aid and froze billions more in Afghanistans currency reserves, refusing to recognize the Taliban government and demanding they allow a more inclusive rule and respect human rights. The former insurgents have resisted the pressure, imposing restrictions on the freedoms of women and girls that recall their first time in power in the late 1990s.

The cut-off yanked the props out from under the economy. Now nearly half the population of 38 million cannot meet their basic food needs because of poverty. Most civil servants, including doctors, nurses and teachers, have not been paid for months, and salaries remain sporadic.

Many aid groups have left the country. U.N. agencies and other remaining organizations have kept Afghanistan away from the brink of starvation with a humanitarian program that has fed millions and kept the medical system alive.

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But with international donors lagging, U.N. agencies face a $3 billion funding shortfall this year.

International sanctions on Afghan banks make it difficult to send funds into the country. Some aid groups have to physically carry in large bags of cash to pay local staff in an expensive process that incurs fees along the way for transport and security.

The International Rescue Agencys vice president for Asia, Adnan Junaid, said the international community must set a roadmap to resume development help and release Afghanistans frozen reserves.

Only a bold strategy that addresses the causes of this crisis will put an end to the spiral of misery being faced by its population, Junaid said.

___

Associated Press writers Rahim Faiez in Islamabad, Pakistan, and Aya Batrawy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The Supreme Court on Friday stripped away womens constitutional protections for abortion, a fundamental and deeply personal change for Americans' lives after nearly a half-century under Roe v. Wade. The courts overturning of the landmark court ruling is likely to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

The Supreme Court, Friday, June 24, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

WASHINGTON (AP)  The Supreme Court on Friday stripped away womens constitutional protections for abortion, a fundamental and deeply personal change for Americans' lives after nearly a half-century under Roe v. Wade. The courts overturning of the landmark court ruling is likely to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

The ruling, unthinkable just a few years ago, was the culmination of decades of efforts by abortion opponents, made possible by an emboldened right side of the court fortified by three appointees of former President Donald Trump.

Both sides predicted the fight over abortion would continue, in state capitals, in Washington and at the ballot box. Justice Clarence Thomas, part of Friday's majority, urged colleagues to overturn other high court rulings protecting same-sex marriage, gay sex and the use of contraceptives.

Pregnant women considering abortions already had been dealing with a near-complete ban in Oklahoma and a prohibition after roughly six weeks in Texas. Clinics in at least eight other states  Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, South Dakota, Wisconsin and West Virginia  stopped performing abortions after Friday's decision.

In Ohio, a ban on most abortions at the first detectable fetal heartbeat became the law when a federal judge dissolved an injunction that had kept the measure on hold for nearly three years. And Utah's law was triggered by the ruling, going into effect with narrow exceptions.

The Supreme Court, Friday, June 24, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Abortion foes cheered the ruling, but abortion-rights supporters, including President Joe Biden, expressed dismay and pledged to fight to restore the rights.

Protests built into the evening in a number of cities, including thousands demonstrating against the decision outside the barricaded Supreme Court. Thousands more chanted We will rise up! in New York's Washington Square.

At the White House, Biden said, It's a sad day for the court and for the country. He urged voters to make it a defining issue in the November elections, declaring, This decision must not be the final word.

Demonstrators protest about abortion outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Outside the White House, Ansley Cole, a college student from Atlanta, said she was "scared because what are they going to come after next? ... The next election cycle is going to be brutal, like its terrifying. And if theyre going to do this, again, whats next?

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, agreed about the political stakes.

We are ready to go on offense for life in every single one of those legislative bodies, in each statehouse and the White House, Dannenfelser said in a statement.

FILE - Associate Justice Samuel Alito sits during a group photo at the Supreme Court in Washington, April 23, 2021. The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years  a decision by its conservative majority to overturn the court's landmark abortion cases. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP, Pool, File)

Trump praised the ruling, telling Fox News that it will work out for everybody.

The decision is expected to disproportionately affect minority women who already face limited access to health care, according to statistics analyzed by The Associated Press.

It also puts the court at odds with a majority of Americans who favored preserving Roe, according to opinion polls.

People protest about abortion, Friday, June 24, 2022, outside the Supreme Court in Washington. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Surveys conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and others have shown a majority in favor of abortion being legal in all or most circumstances. But many also support restrictions especially later in pregnancy. Surveys consistently show that about 1 in 10 Americans want abortion to be illegal in all cases.

The ruling came more than a month after the stunning leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito indicating the court was prepared to take this momentous step.

Alito, in the final opinion issued Friday, wrote that Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 decision that reaffirmed the right to abortion, were wrong had and to be be overturned.

People protest about abortion, Friday, June 24, 2022, outside the Supreme Court in Washington. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

We therefore hold that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. Roe and Casey must be overruled, and the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives, Alito wrote, in an opinion that was very similar to the leaked draft.

Joining Alito were Thomas and Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett. The last three justices are Trump appointees. Thomas first voted to overrule Roe 30 years ago.

Four justices would have left Roe and Casey in place.

A celebration outside the Supreme Court, Friday, June 24, 2022, in Washington. The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years  a decision by its conservative majority to overturn the court's landmark abortion cases. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

The vote was 6-3 to uphold Mississippi's law banning most abortions after 15 weeks, but Chief Justice John Roberts didn't join his conservative colleagues in overturning Roe. He wrote that there was no need to overturn the broad precedents to rule in Mississippi's favor.

Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan  the diminished liberal wing of the court  were in dissent.

With sorrow  for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection  we dissent, they wrote, warning that abortion opponents now could pursue a nationwide ban from the moment of conception and without exceptions for rape or incest.

FILE - Members of the Supreme Court pose for a group photo at the Supreme Court in Washington, April 23, 2021. Seated from left are Associate Justice Samuel Alito, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Associate Justice Stephen Breyer and Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Standing from left are Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Associate Justice Elena Kagan, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch and Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett. The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years  a decision by its conservative majority to overturn the court's landmark abortion cases. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP, Pool, File)

Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that the Justice Department will protect providers and those seeking abortions in states where it is legal and "work with other arms of the federal government that seek to use their lawful authorities to protect and preserve access to reproductive care.

In particular, Garland said the federal Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of Mifepristone for medication abortions.

More than 90% of abortions take place in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy, and more than half are now done with pills, not surgery, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.

Anti-abortion protesters gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022. The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years, a decision by its conservative majority to overturn the court's landmark abortion cases. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

Mississippis only abortion clinic, which was at the center of Friday's case, continued to see patients Friday. Outside, men used a bullhorn to tell people inside that they would burn in hell. Clinic escorts wearing colorful vests used large speakers to blast Tom Pettys I Wont Back Down at the protesters.

Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky and Missouri are among 13 states, mainly in the South and Midwest, that already have laws on the books to ban abortion in the event Roe was overturned. Another half-dozen states have near-total bans or prohibitions after 6 weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.

In roughly a half-dozen other states, including West Virginia and Wisconsin, the fight will be over dormant abortion bans that were enacted before Roe was decided in 1973 or new proposals to sharply limit when abortions can be performed, according to Guttmacher.

Demonstrators gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022. The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years, a decision by its conservative majority to overturn the court's landmark abortion cases. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Outside the barricaded Supreme Court, a crowd of mostly young women grew into the hundreds within hours of the decision. Some shouted, The Supreme Court is illegitimate, while waves of others, wearing red shirts with The Pro-Life Generation Votes, celebrated, danced and thrust their arms into the air.

The Biden administration and other defenders of abortion rights have warned that a decision overturning Roe also would threaten other high court decisions in favor of gay rights and even potentially contraception.

The liberal justices made the same point in their joint dissent: The majority eliminates a 50-year-old constitutional right that safeguards womens freedom and equal station. It breaches a core rule-of-law principle, designed to promote constancy in the law. In doing all of that, it places in jeopardy other rights, from contraception to same-sex intimacy and marriage. And finally, it undermines the Courts legitimacy.

Abortion right activists gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022. The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years, a decision by its conservative majority to overturn the court's landmark abortion cases. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

And Thomas, the member of the court most open to jettisoning prior decisions, wrote a separate opinion in which he explicitly called on his colleagues to put the Supreme Court's same-sex marriage, gay sex and contraception cases on the table.

But Alito contended that his analysis addresses abortion only. Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion, he wrote.

Whatever the intentions of the person who leaked Alitos draft opinion, the conservatives held firm in overturning Roe and Casey.

This combination of Friday, June 24, 2022, photos taken outside the Supreme Court in Washington shows abortion-rights activists protesting following Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, at left, and anti-abortion activists celebrating following Supreme Court's decision, at right. The Supreme Court has ended the nation's constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years in a decision by its conservative majority to overturn Roe v. Wade. (AP Photo)

In his opinion, Alito dismissed the arguments in favor of retaining the two decisions, including that multiple generations of American women have partly relied on the right to abortion to gain economic and political power.

Changing the makeup of the court has been central to the anti-abortion sides strategy, as the dissenters archly noted. The Court reverses course today for one reason and one reason only: because the composition of this Court has changed, the liberal justices wrote.

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Mississippi and its allies made increasingly aggressive arguments as the case developed, and two high-court defenders of abortion rights retired or died. The state initially argued that its law could be upheld without overruling the courts abortion precedents.

President Joe Biden speaks at the White House in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Justice Anthony Kennedy retired shortly after the Mississippi law took effect in 2018 and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in September 2020. Both had been members of a five-justice majority that was mainly protective of abortion rights.

In their Senate hearings, Trumps three high-court picks carefully skirted questions about how they would vote in any cases, including about abortion.

___

Associated Press writers Jessica Gresko, Fatima Hussein, photographer Jacquelyn Martin and video journalist Nathan Ellgren in Washington, Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston, Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi, Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, Leah Willingham in Charleston, West Virginia, Michael Hill in New York and Kantele Franko in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.

For APs full coverage of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, go to https://apnews.com/hub/abortion
The Supreme Court of the United States on Friday issued a ruling that strikes down the landmark case Roe v. Wade, which has federally protected abortions for nearly 50 years.

The ruling means it will now be up to states to determine whether abortions are lawful or not. In Wisconsin, a 1849 ban on most abortions is now likely to take effect, which makes it unlawful for doctors to perform an abortion except when necessary to save the mothers live.

Below are reactions from Wisconsin and Minnesota:

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers:

This is an unfathomably grim day for our state and our country. I am heartbrokenfor the millions of Wisconsinites and Americans the U.S. Supreme Court has abandoned and for our country and our democratic institutions. This is an absolutely disastrous and unconscionable decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, the consequences of which I hoped to never see again in my lifetime. I know many across our state and nation are scaredworried about their own health and about the health and safety of their family members, friends, and neighbors, who could very soon see the ability to make their own reproductive healthcare decisions stripped from them. My heart breaks for them, I grieve for them, and I pray for their strength and courage in the days ahead.

Our work to do the right thing for the people of this state must continue. We will fight this decision in every way we can with every power we have. As people in Wisconsin and across our country make their voices heard in the days and months ahead, we will do so peacefully and without violence. Ive said it before, and Ill say it again today: I will never stop fighting to make sure that every single Wisconsinite has the right to consult their family, their faith, and their doctor to make the reproductive healthcare decision that is right for them, and without interference from politicians or members of the Supreme Court who dont know anything about their life circumstances, values, or responsibilities.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz:

This Supreme Courts decision is a blatant violation of Minnesotans right to make their own reproductive health decisions.

But let me say it again: There will never be a ban on abortion in Minnesota under my watch.

I know youre angry. Im angry too. But right now we need to do everything in our power to not go backwards.

Minnesota is a leader in reproductive rights in our region and across the entire country. I will not allow Donald Trumps 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court to set our state back 50 years to a time where abortion rights werent protected.

Every Minnesotan  not anti-abortion politicians or Donald Trumps Supreme Court  should be able to decide for themselves whether or when they start a family.

Deb McGrath, D-Menomonie, candidate for Wisconsins 3rd Congressional District:

I am angry that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade. Americans have lost access to a fundamental, constitutional right. Make no mistake, this is not happening in a vacuum. Anti-choice politicians are waging an all-out assault on our freedoms. My own Republican opponent Derrick Van Orden believes abortion should be outlawed in all cases  even rape, incest, and at the expense of the womans life. These radicals are stripping away our ability to control our own bodies and giving that power over to politicians. This is an attack on our right to make personal decisions about our healthcare, lives, and families, McGrath said in a statement.

But I will not be silenced. My mother and I fought for Roe in the 70s, and now I speak boldly with my own daughter and grandchildren in mind. Congress must codify Roe v. Wade into law, and protect womens right to choose when and how to have a family. I will always fight to defend and protect our reproductive rights, she said.

State Sen. Brad Pfaff, D-Onalaska, and candidate for Wisconsins 3rd Congressional District:

Todays Supreme Court decision is devastating. The notion that government should dictate personal healthcare decisions of women should shock and terrify all of us. And make no mistake; todays decision will cost women their lives.

Wisconsin must act swiftly to repeal the archaic 173-year-old statue that makes abortion illegal in our state. Congress must codify abortion access into law immediately.

This date has long been foreseen, rumored, talked and warned about with no tangible action or outcome as a result. Congress owes it to women and their families to not waste an ounce of time in standing up for their most basic, fundamental rights and freedoms. And if they dont then shame on us as a Party.

Derrick Van Orden, R-Prairie du Chien, candidate for Wisconsins 3rd Congressional District:

I believe that every child is a child of God, and todays decision is a major milestone for the sanctity of life.

Wisconsin state Rep. Jill Billings, D-La Crosse:

Conservative extremists on the U.S. Supreme Court today overturned the 50 year precedent of Roe v. Wade, resulting in the restriction of the right to bodily autonomy for over 50% of Americans. This Courts action will not reduce the number of abortions that occur in Wisconsin and in our country but will instead make abortion harder to access and less safe. The decision if and when to start a family is one of the most personal decisions one can make. Politicians and Supreme Court Justices have no place in these personal healthcare decisions.

It is vital that we end Wisconsins archaic 1849 criminal abortion ban. It is absolutely shameful that on Wednesday, Republican Legislators ignored the will of the people of Wisconsin and snubbed the Governors Special Session on reproductive freedom. Their inaction, in conjunction with todays U.S. Supreme Court decision will have serious, lasting consequences on the health and freedom of our friends, families, neighbors, and communities.

I will not stop fighting until the right to access comprehensive reproductive healthcare in Wisconsin is restored.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin:

Today is a victory for life and for those who have fought for decades to protect the unborn. For almost fifty years the decision of nine unelected Justices have prevented a democratically derived consensus on the profound moral issue of abortion to be formed. This decision will now allow that democratic process to unfold in each state to determine at what point does society have the responsibility to protect life. Hopefully, the debate will be conducted with sincerity, compassion, and respect for the broad range of views that people hold.

Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin:

An activist majority of the Supreme Court has overturned Roe and nearly 50 years of precedent, taking away the constitutional rights of American women to make their own personal choices about their body, their health, and their family. Republicans have taken Wisconsin women back to 1849 and it is Republicans who want to keep us there with support for having politicians interfere in the freedoms of women who will now have fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers have had for decades. I ask people to join this fight with their voices and their votes because we will not be taken back, we will move forward.

Wisconsin state Sen. Patrick Testin, R-Stevens Point:

After nearly fifty years and over 63 million lives lost to abortion, the U.S. Supreme Court has finally turned the page on a sad chapter in American history. Abortion is not health care; it is not birth control. It is the taking of a human life. I will do my part to ensure that Wisconsin values and affirms life at all stages.

Wisconsin Medical Society President Wendy Molaska, MD:

Todays decision raises concerns that could result in significant interference with the physician-patient relationship  the sanctity of which is the bedrock of our healthcare system. Defaulting to a law first created in 1849 is not the best path forward. Inevitable confusion over the continued validity of that 19th century law makes proactive legislative action prudent.

The Wisconsin Medical Society supports legislation that would acknowledge the right of a physician to perform and give advice on this medical procedure  or refuse to do so according to the physicians training, experience and conscience.

The health and safety of our patients is our top priority. Wisconsin law should reflect that priority and ensure physicians can have full and frank discussions with patients about their health care without fear of imprisonment.

Minnesota DFL Party chairman Ken Martin:

This Supreme Courts ruling is a travesty of justice that will inflict tremendous suffering on countless people across America. With federal abortion protection gone, we know that Republicans are going to redouble their efforts to ban abortion in Minnesota, as Scott Jensen, Doug Wardlow, and Jim Schultz have promised.

The Minnesota DFL Party and our leaders will do everything in our power to defend access to abortion. Voters who dont want to see anyone jailed for seeking reproductive health care must show up and vote like our health depends on it, because it does. Republicans will use the same playbook they used nationally to erode protections for abortion here in Minnesota, and the only way to stop that is by defeating them at the ballot box.

A Better Wisconsin Together Executive Director Chris Walloch:

This decision from our nations highest court is devastating, its dangerous, and its unacceptable. No judge, no politician, no elected or partisan-appointed official should be able to infringe upon private decisions made between patient and doctor.

This takes away rights that weve been guaranteed in this country for nearly 50 years. Countless Americans, including millions of Wisconsinites, will feel the tremendous negative consequences of the courts failure to protect our freedom to decide if, when, and how we become parentsand lets be clear, its the marginalized members of our communities, people of color, and those with lower-incomes who will be hurt most by this decision.

A Better Wisconsin Together stands alongside everyone grieving this ruling and expressing deeply justified outrage, frustration, and sorrow as we come to terms with the fact that the conservative members of our Supreme Court would rather see a five decade backslide in our rights than continue giving those who can become pregnant the freedom to decide whats best for themselves and their families.

In the coming days, weeks, and months, A Better Wisconsin Together and partners will continue to fight for reproductive freedom and access to safe and legal abortion care in Wisconsin. We will lift up resources for those in need of abortion care, we will uplift any and all opportunities to pass legislation in Wisconsin that will protect the right to choose, and we will not give up until every Wisconsinite can safely and freely have access to comprehensive reproductive healthcare.

In Wisconsin, you can take action today by tweeting, writing, or calling (1-800-362-9472) your local legislator, expressing your frustration, and demanding they vote to pass the Abortion Rights Preservation Act.

Minnesota Medical Association, Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians

and other medical groups in Minnesota:

Abortion is a component of comprehensive medical care. Healthcare decisions, including whether to have an abortion, are deeply personal and should be made between a patient and their physician. The implications of this decision are profound and will include disruption and, in some states, elimination of equitable and safe access to medical care for women in the United States. This decision further threatens to exacerbate already unacceptably high maternal morbidity and mortality rates in the United States.

Many patients across the Midwest will likely be compelled to travel to Minnesota for abortion and related services. We are committed to ensuring access to safe, effective, and equitable healthcare, to upholding the sanctity of the patient-physician relationship, and to protecting physicians and other healthcare professionals from criminal penalties for the delivery of evidence-based healthcare services.

7 Rivers LGBTQ Connection Executive Director Alesha Schandelmeier:

The Center: 7 Rivers LGBTQ Connection recognizes that all people have a fundamental right to sexual and bodily autonomy. Reproductive rights are LGBTQ+ rights!

Mayo Clinic Health System statement:

Health care for people who are pregnant is complex and personal. As with any medical concern, decisions regarding the health of a person who is pregnant are best discussed between the patient and the health care team.

La Crosse Mayor Mitch Reynolds:

While the decision released this morning by the U.S. Supreme Court did not come as a surprise, it is still devastating for women who would decide their own health outcomes. The decision also underscores the absurdity of the situation the state of Wisconsin finds itself in; governing womens health based on a state law from 1849. From a time when humans were still owned as slaves in our nation. A time when our government was actively involved in a genocide of indigenous peoples. A time before women had the right to vote, or practice law, or have full control over their finances. From a time when husbands could have their wives locked away for expressing strong opinions.

I would hope leadership in the legislature understands the antediluvian obscenity of governing womens bodies based on a 173 year-old law and finds a path towards restoring reproductive self-determination for women in Wisconsin.

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"Dejo en manos de la poblacion de Lambayeque esta via tan importante para el desarrollo del norte e interconexion del pais", dijo el presidente @PedroCastilloTe al inaugurar la rehabilitacion de los sectores 1 y 2 de la autopista del Sol, en beneficio de mas de 96 000 ciudadanos. pic.twitter.com/uXIpBZsqag
Following is a statement of the Catholic Bishops of Minnesota in response to the US Supreme Courts ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson (sent by the Minnesota Catholic Conference):

Along with women and men across our nation who respect the inherent dignity of each human life, the Catholic bishops of Minnesota give thanks to God on this historic day as the Supreme Court ends the injustice of the Roe v. Wade decision. We are grateful that the Supreme Court has returned to state Legislatures and federal officials the ability to protect preborn children and save mothers and fathers from the untold pain of abortion.

For almost 50 years, Roe grievously denied one of Americas founding principles: that all men and womenirrespective of their stage of developmentare created equal, with God-given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Forgetting this self-evident truth has resulted in the death of over 60 million preborn children and the wounding of millions of mothers and fathers.

Welcomed in Life

As a Church, we have been committed to providing help to every mother and father dealing with a crisis pregnancy, so they are not forced to choose abortion. We are proud that many of our Catholic faithful work in crisis pregnancy centers that create nonjudgmental networks of support for women. These centers offer shelter, housing assistance, free diapers and clothing, pregnancy and parenting classes, community referrals, childcare, and other charitable assistance. Through our continued efforts to respect the well-being of both the mother and the child, we have been honored to accompany countless women and men tempted to choose abortion. We have been privileged as well, through post-abortion healing retreats, to help parents who have chosen abortion to work through the pain they so often suffer.

To further support our work, the Catholic bishops of the United States have launched a nationwide initiative, Walking with Moms in Need (walkingwithmoms.com), to create additional avenues of support for mothers in our communities by way of Catholic parishes, ministries, and crisis pregnancy centers. We also pledge that our Catholic churches will be a sanctuary for women in crisis pregnancies. Any woman in a crisis pregnancy who comes to the door of a Catholic church in the state of Minnesota seeking assistance will be supported and, at a minimum, referred to resources where she can get help.

The Churchs contribution to public life walks with the two feet of justice and charity. Our direct assistance to women in crisis pregnancies through charitable and philanthropic efforts is fundamental in our endeavor to build an authentic culture of life. But we also commit to working in our state Legislature to ensure that every child is welcomed in life and respected by the law.

Respected in Law

Unfortunately, the landscape in Minnesota is shaped by our own version of Roe v. Wade. The 1995 Doe v. Gomez decision of the Minnesota Supreme Court characterized the state right to an abortion as a broader protection than Roe, including the right of low-income women to a taxpayer-funded abortion. Sadly, Gomez is unlikely to be overturned without a change in federal law or a state constitutional amendment.

Despite Minnesotas legal landscape, we should continue to find ways to place reasonable limits on the availability of abortions, especially after viability (Minnesota is one of the few states without limitations on postviability abortions). We should also put in place, and keep in place, measures to help protect women from further serious injury arising from the risks already involved with an abortion. Such protections include, among other things, licensing abortion clinics and requiring that chemical abortions be procured only through a physician.

To limit the demand for abortion, the state should also commit its resources to ensuring that women have the support they need to choose life. Some pregnancy centers are supported in part by the states Positive Alternatives Grant Program, which promotes healthy pregnancy outcomes and assists pregnant and parenting women develop and maintain family stability and self-sufficiency. In a budget that will reach $60 billion by 2024, our state allocates only $3.375 million for these services, even though the need is much greater. The most recent round of funding requests totaled roughly $6.5 million.

The prospect of Roe being overturned has already sharpened partisan division on the abortion question. As bishops, however, we have no interest in engaging as partisans, and we will continue to work to build common ground rooted in the principles articulated above. This is a matter of prenatal justicegiving to both mother and child that which is their due, namely, support and protection.

But make no mistake: we will rigorously oppose efforts to expand the abortion license in Minnesota and we will work with people on both sides of the aisle to prevent Minnesota from becoming an abortion sanctuary state.

Abortion advocates want people to believe that abortion promises liberation, but instead, it leads to sadness, pain, and the death of a human being. To quote one pro-life leader, Abortion says I sacrifice your life for my convenience. But Love says, I sacrifice my convenience for your life. Only love will lead to fulfillment. Let us be a credible witness to the Gospel of Life by sacrificing ourselves for the sake of others, both born and unborn.

We ask all Minnesotans to join our efforts to combat a throwaway culture, foster prenatal justice, and create a state where love prevails.

Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda, Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens, Diocese of Crookston

Bishop Daniel Felton, Diocese of Duluth

Monsignor Douglas L. Grams, Diocese of New Ulm

Bishop Joseph Williams, Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Bishop Donald J. Kettler, Diocese of St. Cloud

Bishop John M. Quinn, Diocese of Rochester-Winona

Monsignor Douglas L. Grams Diocese of New Ulm

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A Poynette woman who narrowly escaped injury more than once Tuesday after her sedan T-boned a semi truck on I90/94 in the town of Fairfield has been charged with her 9th offense of drunken driving.

Laura Louise Parrish, 58, appeared Thursday in Sauk County Circuit Court, where Judge Wendy Klicko set a $1,500 cash bond. Conditions of the bail include absolute sobriety and prohibit Parrish from possessing alcohol or entering a business that has the primary purpose of selling alcohol.

Parrish faces a maximum prison sentence of 15 years and 10 years of extended supervision on charges of her 9th OWI and driving with a prohibited alcohol content. She also faces misdemeanor counts of hit-and-run and driving with a revoked license.

According to the criminal complaint, Parrish was almost struck by a speeding state trooper responding to the crash as she was walking in the eastbound lane of traffic. The white sedan she had been driving was wedged underneath the semi. As officers arrived, they saw Parrish walking away from the crash to begin hitchhiking.

Officers spoke to Parrish, who responded to questions about where she had been with It doesnt matter and Take me to jail. They found a bottle of vodka in her purse.

Witnesses said they heard Parrish say she wasnt going back to jail as she removed items from her car and began running away. A trooper at the scene watched as Parrish attempted to flag down vehicles, but none stopped for her. The driver of the semi trailer said Parrish had been weaving from side to side until it looked like she lost control of the vehicle and hit his trailer.

According to court records, Parrish is previously from Dane. She has been convicted of drunken driving and driving with a revoked license in Wisconsin and in Florida. Her convictions dates include June 1990, August 1994, April 1997, two in September 1999, two in May 2004 and January 2017.

Parrish is scheduled to return to court Aug. 26.

Follow Bridget on Twitter @cookebridget or contact her at 608-745-3513.

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Beaver Dam is seeing some changes in its leadership roles.

Director of Utilities Rob Minnema has resigned to pursue other interests. At its meeting Monday night, the City Council promoted Jeremy Klug to replace Minnema effective July 9, at the approximate base salary of $110,000.

When I made this decision (to resign), I didnt make it lightly, Minnema told the Operations Committee when recommending Klug. Im pretty confident with the succession plan in place.

Minnema has been employed with the city since 2013. The Director of Utilities oversees water, wastewater and the storm water utility and has about a dozen staff members.

Mayor Becky Glewen spoke with the Operations Committee about utilizing wastewater consultative support services by Minnema for a period of time following his departure to give Klug the best start. That topic will be brought forward at the July meeting.

Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Tracy Propst informed the Administrative Committee that Mary Vogl-Rauscher has resigned as the Community Development Manager.

The City Council first approved the position in April 2019 for an independent contractor to focus on attracting new small businesses to the city, including downtown, and organizing events. Propst and Vogl-Rauscher split the part-time position at first, with Vogl-Rauscher staying in the position when Propst moved on to lead the chamber. The Community Development Manager was added to the chamber staff last year.

Vogl-Rauscher has agreed to stay on through Best Dam Fest before leaving to focus on her full-time job commitments.

Propst said looking toward the future, she would propose to change the job description to make it a designated Main Street position.

This is evolving into what we wanted it to be eventually, Glewen said. We wanted it to start as a part-time position knowing that we would hopefully grow it into a full-time Main Street person.

The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation provides technical assistance to communities in the planning, management and implementation of strategic development projects in downtowns and urban neighborhoods through its Main Street Program.

Alds. Mike Wissell and Kay Appenfeldt commented that when Downtown Beaver Dam Inc. was formed, the organization hoped to become part of the Main Street Program to gain both support and status.

Follow Kelly Simon on Twitter @KSchmidSimon or contact her at 920-356-6757.

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JUNEAU  A former Beaver Dam man whose violent actions shocked the community in 1986 was granted his request on Friday for his conditional release requirements to be terminated. They had been in place since his release from Mendota Mental Health Institute in 1994 and would have expired in 2037.

Kurt Dehler, who is now 55, was 19 on Feb. 6, 1986, and fueled with drugs and alcohol when he stabbed his mother and elderly neighbor to death and injured three others near his home on Louise Lane in Beaver Dam.

The original case

against DehlerDehler was charged with murder for the death of his mother Judy Dehler, 42, and neighbor Louise Maas, 87. Both of the women were stabbed 60 times. He also stabbed three additional men including then Beaver Dam Deputy Police Chief Larry Huettl. Dehler was stopped after a Beaver Dam police officer shot him twice. Charges were filed on Feb. 10, 1986.

However, in November of 1986, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was taken to Mendota Mental Health Institution in Madison. He remained there until he was placed on a conditional release in 1994.

Dehler has remained on the conditional release since that day and resides in his home in Brookfield with his wife. He has also maintained full time employment had no further record of arrest and did not appear to abuse any substances, according to a letter submitted by the Wisconsin Prison System to the Dodge County Circuit Court. The previous schedule had Dehler scheduled for conditional release in 2037.

Klomberg did not support petitionI have reviewed this file, and I find the decision of the former District Attorney in 1986 not to challenge insanity plea to be dubious, Dodge County District Attorney Kurt Klomberg said after the hearing. The defendant murdered two people and attempted to kill others in a violent incident that was brought on by the voluntary use of drugs. The law in Wisconsin is clear that a psychotic condition brought on solely by the use of controlled substances is not a mental disease that can be used to avoid criminal responsibility.

The defendants psychotic condition was fully-resolved in a matter of weeks after the killings when he was forced into sobriety through custody, Klomberg said. Additionally, his mental state was fully restored without the use of any psychotropic medication. Consequently, the only conclusion I can draw was that he was not mentally ill when he murdered the victims. Rather, he was high on drugs. The former District Attorney made this agreement, and nearly 40 years later, I am stuck with it.

Klomberg said he did not support the petition during the hearing, but he had no basis to argue for continuing the conditional release.

Three victims in the case, two in person and one over the phone, attended the hearing for the petition to terminate Dehlers release on Friday in the courtroom of Dodge County Circuit Court Judge Martin De Vries. Dehlers application to terminate the petition was based off the commitment exceeding the maximum length of time.

Psychiatrist examined Dehler

Dr. Craig Schoenecker met with Dehler over Zoom after being asked as the psychiatrist by Dodge County Circuit Court to make a determination if Dehler posed a danger to himself or others.

My opinion, which was offered with a reasonable degree of medical certainty, was that Mr. Dehler would not pose a significant risk of harming himself or others or serious property damage if ordered early termination of his commitment, Schoenecker said.

The offense occurred between 35 and 40 years ago, but his treatment record showed that within a month of the offense Dehler was described as reality based, organized in his thinking and free of psychotic-like symptoms, Schoenecker said. In the eight years he was at Mendota, he did not require psychiatric medication, and he was not violent.

He consistently progressed through the security privilege system at Mendota Mental Health Institute to a point where he ultimately achieved a liberty status that was the maximum that an individual can achieve at that facility, Schoenecker said. In the nearly 30 years he was awarded conditional release, at no point has been deemed to require treatment or any medication. I didnt receive any evidence that he incurred any violations of the requirements imposed on him for conditional release.

No one reported that he has used substances which was a primary factor in the offense in 1986, Schoenecker said.

Petition granted by the court

De Vries said that drugs and alcohol were significant with what occurred in 1986.

The statute says I shall terminate it unless there is clear and convincing evidence that further supervision is necessary, De Vries said.

The one thing that was ignored was the nature and circumstances of the crime, De Vries said.

This is a very graphic crime, extremely violent; two people were murdered three others were stabbed, and that is one of the factors I have to consider, De Vries said. I have considered it. However even when I look at that, I dont see where the standards will be met here to defeat the petition because the language is the court shall terminate. That is strong language by the legislature.

With the evidence submitted, De Vries said he had no other options than to grant the petition.

Follow Terri Pederson on Twitter @tlp53916 or contact her at 920-356-6760.

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17:58 | Chiclayo (Lambayeque region), Jun. 23.





The Head of State affirmed that the Executive Branch has submitted more than 33 bills to Parliament, including one aimed at securing separation of powers and governance in Peru.





He emphasized that said bill sought to clarify issues around the presidential impeachment, confidence motion, and censure. However, the constitutional reform proposal was shelved.





Moreover, Mr. Castillo mentioned the bill addressing the massive use of natural gas, whose inclusion on the legislative agenda remains a pending issue.





Likewise, he referred to the proposal to hold a referendum in order to convene a Constituent Assembly, which was also shelved





The top dignitary remarked that the accusations against him, which are spread by the press, have not been proven during these 11 months in office.





He also noted that a small group of legislators refuses to recognize his election triumph, unlike Colombia, where Rodolfo Hernandez recognized the victory of Gustavo Petro in a runoff election





"However, almost one year has passed (since taking office), and they (said small group of legislators) keep talking about the same, instead of putting urgent issues affecting the country on the agenda," the President pointed out.





His remarks were delivered during a visit to Chiclayo, where he held a meeting with grassroots organizations.





(END) RMCH/JCR/RMB/MVB

The President of the Republic Pedro Castillo on Thursday said that Congress should put urgent issues affecting the country on its agenda.Published: 6/23/2022
YEREVAN, JUNE 24, ARMENPRESS. This years first direct flight from Armenia to Tunisia is launching today. The flight is operated by Tunisian airline Novelair, which entered the Armenian market in cooperation with the Anriva Tour travel agency.

This years first direct flight is starting with media tour within the frames of which several reporters of Armenian media outlets, including ARMENPRESS state news agency, will have an opportunity to get acquainted with tourism opportunities of Tunisia and presented it in details.

Tunisia is yet an undiscovered tourism destination for Armenians. It didnt have a demand among Armenian tourists because of the absence of direct flights and tourism offers. Tunisia also requires a visa, and in the past obtaining a visa was a difficult procedure because the citizens of Armenia were getting a Tunisian visa from the Embassy of that country in Moscow, Russia. But now, all these problems are solved if an Armenian tourist planning to visit Tunisia buys the packages offered by Anriva Tour, which are sold by all Armenian travel agencies. The visa is provided in the airport like in Hurghadas (Egypt) case. The flight duration to Tunisia is 4 hours. The flights from Yerevan will be operated once a week. The last flight of this year is scheduled on September 30.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic Tunisia was quite an active tourism destination for many countries of the world. Tunisia is hosting several million tourists every year. The country is famous for both its seaside resort, as well as cultural and historical sites. Tourists visit here to enjoy the Tunisian beaches, to get acquainted with the historical and beautiful sites, do shopping in the Eastern market and also to be in the worlds largest desert  the Sahara. In fact, for Armenians Tunisia could become an alternative tourism destination to Egypt.

What to consider when traveling to Tunisia? What tourism sites to visit in Tunisia? What are the local beaches? What services do hotels offer? What can be bought in Tunisia? The answers of these and other questions will be available soon in our articles.

Reporting by Anna Gziryan
Click the photo and watch the video.

LANZHOU, June 23 (Xinhua)  Fuxi, the legendary ancestor of the Chinese nation, was on Wednesday commemorated by people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

At 9:50 a.m. Beijing Time, the ritual kicked off with drum beats at the Fuxi Temple in Tianshui, northwest China's Gansu Province, which is considered to be the ancestor's birthplace. Fuxi is believed to be the inventor of writing, fishing and hunting.

With over 300 worshippers, Fuxi's feats were honored with a dance at the end of the ceremony, after which they left floral tributes at his statue.

At the same time, a similar annual event was held in New Taipei City, marking the ninth year that the legendary figure has been simultaneously commemorated across the Taiwan Strait.

Chien Chien-hua, who came from Taipei to Tianshui to attend the ceremony, said, "The commemoration of Fuxi strengthens the cultural identity of the Chinese nation, and helps more young people learn about the profound Chinese culture."

According to historical records, the commemoration of Fuxi has a history of more than 2,000 years in the Weihe River basin. In 2006, the ceremony was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage by the State Council.

During the memorial ceremony in New Taipei City, Chiang Chi-chen, former chairperson of the Chinese Kuomintang party, said that the commemoration of Fuxi brings more profound cultural communication to people across the Strait.

In view of the impact of COVID-19, livestreaming events and online commemoration platforms were organized to enhance cross-Strait exchanges.

(Source: Xinhua)
Affixed in the Treasure Valley in southwestern Idaho, Caldwell has a small-town feel with quick access via interstate 84 to the metropolis of Boise. The top-ranked moderate arts school in the United States, College of Idaho, functions in the city's heart. Rich with agricultural heritage, Caldwell is one of the world's leading frozen produce manufacturers. A bustling urban center with spectacular shopping, restaurants, and activities, Caldwell is an excellent place for families and students to reside.

Geography And Climate Of Caldwell

Indian Creek in downtown Caldwell, Idaho.

The Boise River flows north of Caldwell with an elevation of 724 meters. Less than thirty kilometers from the Oregon state border, Caldwell covers an area of 58.72 sq. km. Farmlands and green spaces surround the city in the great Snake River Plains that span east to west in the southern part of Idaho. More than 750 kilometers north, the winding Kootenay River crosses the Canadian border. Visitors can have an out-of-this-world experience three hours east at the unique Craters of the Moon National Reserve & Monument. The Idaho state boundary meets Nevada, 250 kilometers south of Caldwell.

Summer temperatures from June until August is the best time to visit the beautiful town of Caldwell. Caldwell experiences hot and arid summers due to its closeness to deserts from the southwest and protection of the Rocky Mountains range to the northeast. The winter season can be cold, snowy, and cloudy. December is the snowiest month, with an average accumulation of 80 millimeters of snow. Recorded temperatures range from -13C to 38C, whereas locals and tourists can enjoy all four seasons yearly. Over 200 sunny days throughout the year are enjoyed by outdoor activities and festivals in the area each year.

History Of Caldwell

Early nomadic settlers set off across Oregon, tracing the same steps as Indigenous tribes who wandered the land before them. Those fearless pioneers set out on horses towing wagons creating the Oregon Trail, which passed through Caldwell in the mid-1800s. The arrival of the Oregon Short Line Railroad that linked Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon together had issues with construction near Boise. Robert Strahorn appeared on the building site and deemed the grade was too vertical for trains. The rail line changed course and passed through present-day Caldwell in 1883. The name derives from a past state Senator of Kansas, Alexander Caldwell, a business partner with Robert Strahorn. Four months after the village's founding, the population grew to 600 inhabitants, 150 homes, and 40 companies. Idaho College was formed in the 1890s, followed by the formation of Canyon County, and Caldwell received the title of the county's seat. By 1906 the Union Pacific Railroad gained ownership over the Oregon Short Line Railroad, bringing larger trains and passenger carts to surrounding townships. Farming, education, and merchants attracted many people to Caldwell.

Population And Economy Of Caldwell

A Commercial Building in Caldwell, Idaho. Image Credit: Tamanoeconomico via Wikimedia Commons.

The seat of Canyon County continued to lure in migrants with its charm; over the past ten years, the population grew by 38.5%, which now houses 64,490 residents. The median age is younger than the national average, with men at 28 years and women at 30 years. Almost half of the citizens have a post-secondary degree and are married. Prices of homes average $188,300, and the median household income is $58,143. Major industries rank from government administration, education, and health care.

Attractions In Caldwell

Whittenberger Park

Along the Boise River, the commons cover an area of 6.9 hectares connected to the Oregon Trail Centennial Greenway. The park has lush trees and trails for walkers, runners, and cyclists along the river and Rotary Pond. The perfect spot in the city to have a quick trip into nature.

Orma J. Smith Museum of Natural History

The Museum operates in Boone Hall on the campus of Idaho College, and it serves as the only natural history museum in the southwest of the state. Its location allows students to examine artifacts and specimens held in the institution. And the gallery displays the local ecological history of the surrounding area.

Whittenberger Planetarium

The Planetarium is also located on Idaho College property and has served the public for over 50 years. The facility offers programs for different types of schools and public events. Neighboring states can lease a portable planetarium for viewing experiences. The equipment involved is a projector that shines on a 24-foot dome so that viewers can observe southern and northern constellations, galaxies, and planets.
Smyrna is a small community in the south-central portion of the US State of Delaware situated to the south of Wilmington. With its proximity to the Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, Smyrna has activities to correspond with all seasons. It was named after a European port city found in Turkey of the same name. Smyrna was once a large shipping center in Delaware's early history. As of today, Smyrna is sought by visitors for its small-town feel, with many historic Georgian buildings and outdoor recreational areas such as Blackbird State Forest and Lake Como.

Geography And Climate Of Smyrna

Northbound Main Street is approaching the intersection with Commerce Street in Smyrna, Delaware. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

The town is a part of Kent County and New Castle Counties and is found west of Duck Creek on the western banks of the Delaware River. Smyrna thus covers a total area of 9.8 sq. km, of which 9.6 sq. km is occupied by land and 0.26 sq. km is covered by water. Other nearby Delaware cities include the state capital Wilmington which is 31 miles north; Dover, which is 11 miles south; and Newark, which is 28 miles northeast of Smyrna.

According to the Koppen Climate Classification, Smyrna experiences a humid subtropical climate. Due to its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, Smyrna has cold, snowy, and windy winters and warm summers. The average temperature is 57.75 F, ranging from an average low of 47.3 F in January to an average high of 66.2 F in July. Over a year, Smyrna collects precipitation over 112.9 days from rain and snow. Rainfall totals to 46.1 inches, with May being the rainiest month. The town receives about 16 inches of snowfall from October to April.

History Of Smyrna

In 1792, Smyrna was formerly known as the Duck Creek Cross Roads and briefly served as the State Capital of Delaware. This was due to nearby Duck Creek, which served as a shipping center and used the Delaware Bay as a significant shipping waterway serving Delaware and New Jersey. However, in 1806, the name Smyrna was widely used when referencing this area and was long thought to be named after the port of Smyrna in Turkey. Moreover, commonly traded items included grain, produce, and timber, but demand for the shipping trade fizzled out by the 1850s. As such, agriculture became the dominant industry in its place. By 1832, Delaware's first railroad began construction and was effectively called the north-south line, connecting Sussex and Kent counties. Smyrna Station opened its doors in 1855 and was located in Clayton County. Two years later, in 1857, the railroad commenced full operations providing freight and transportation between Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore.

The Population And Economy Of Smyrna

As per the latest US Census, Smyrna has a population of 12,883 residents, with a population density of 796.66 people per sq. km. The median household income is $83,635, and the gross monthly income is $1,183. About 11.08% of the population lives below the poverty line. The median age of a resident is 37.6 years, with males averaging an age of 31.8 and females at 41.4 years old. The cultural/racial breakdown is 61.66% identified as white, 33.07% were black, 4.53% represented two races, 0.69% were Asian, and 0.05% identified as American Indian or Alaskan Native.

The unemployment rate is 3.6%, whereas the US unemployment rate is 6.0%. The main industries that make up the economy of Smyrna are scientific and technician services at 13.0% overall, healthcare and social assistance at 10.8%, and retail trade at 10.7%. The highest paying jobs come from scientific and technical services with earnings of $83,517, finance and technical services at $56,292, and real estate at $53,795.

Attractions Around Smyrna

Blackbird State Forest

Blackbird State Forest is the northernmost state forest in Delaware. It is a dedicated green space that serves as a quiet location for outdoor recreation. Blackbird State Forest offers hiking, biking, birding, hunting, fishing, and horseback riding. The main feature of this state forest is a wheelchair-accessible interpretive Tybout Tract trail that is under a kilometer in the distance. Additionally, visitors can camp on-site, but the campsites are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Lake Como

Lake Como offers some of the best beaches found in the state of Delaware. It has long been a summer destination among generations of families for outdoor and summer recreation activities. Infrastructures around the lake include a dedicated swim area with lifeguards, paddle boats, a playground, picnic areas, pavilions, and a boat launch with rentals available for a fee. Additionally, Lake Como is revered as a fishing spot that draws visitors for its black crappie, bluegill, brown bullhead, chain pickerel, pumpkin seed, largemouth bass, white perch, and yellow perch. As mentioned, there is a boat launch that also acts as put-in/out for those who want to kayak, canoe, or paddleboard on Lake Como.

Smyrna has all the services and amenities found in the larger cities of Delaware without compromising its quiet and small city charm that visitors enjoy. Located on the north-south line of Delaware's railroad that connected Smyrna to the capital of Wilmington, transportation has long been at the forefront of Smyrna's economy and history. Small glimmers of the past can be seen in the Georgian architecture of the historic homes and businesses of downtown and rivers such as Duck Creek that once spawned the name of this former shipping center. Overall, these advancements have blossomed the settlement of Duck Creek Cross Road into the city of Smyrna that many adore today.
Illinois governor calls for special session after Roe v. Wade overturned, as Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee prepare to enact trigger laws
Prosecutors recommend Ghislaine Maxwell be sentenced to 30 to 55 years in prison for sex trafficking
YEREVAN, JUNE 24, ARMENPRESS. First Deputy Minister of Healthcare of Armenia Lena Nanushyan received the representatives of the World Bank, the ministry said.

In her remarks Lena Nanushyan highlighted the opportunity of boosting the cooperation after the ease of the pandemic.

The WB representatives in turn said that the steps and progress of the ministry of healthcare in overcoming the COVID-19 situation are obvious.

Lena Nanushyan introduced the guests on the main priorities of the healthcare sector, such as introduction of a comprehensive health insurance, strategy of improving quality of health services.

The first deputy minister of healthcare noted that the trust formed in the direction of solving the healthcare problems during COVID-19 and the 2020 war is a good ground for implementing long-term and realistic reforms.

The World Bank representatives expressed their support to the efforts made in the sector, highlighting the stability and predictability factors.
40th anniversary of the Falklands War remembrance service and march in town centre tomorrow

The 40th Falklands Memorial Service, Reunion and march will take place in Wrexham town center tomorrow at 11am and will follow the traditional format of a service at St Giles Parish Church.

Following the service there will be a march to the Welsh Guards Memorial at Bodhyfryd, led by the Regimental Band and a detachment from 1st Battalion, to lay wreaths then a reception in the War Memorial Club for Association members and their families.

The Regimental Band and the Rhos Orpheus Choir will perform in the church.

Chris Hopkins, President of the North Wales Branch of the Welsh Guards Association said This year will be a very special anniversary for the Welsh Guards as we come together to remember and commemorate the 33 Welsh Guards, 6 attached personnel and 3 Welsh Guardsmen serving with the Special Air Service who gave their lives in this conflict.

We are expecting a large turnout when we march through Wrexham and encourage everyone to come along to commemorate this anniversary with us.

Wrexhams Armed Forces Champion, Cllr Beverley Parry Jones, said, Wrexham has a very proud tradition of supporting its military family and Im sure this event will be no exception.

We thank the Welsh Guards for their service, past and present and I will be joining them at St Giles on Saturday to remember those lost during the Falklands War.
Lateral flow tests to remain free to those showing symptoms in Wales until end of July

Access to free LFD tests will be extended in Wales until July 31st 2022.

Tests will be available to the public that are showing symptoms of coronavirus (high temperature a new, continuous cough, a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste), alongside free access for people visiting someone eligible for new COVID-19 treatments.

The announcement comes following a rise in cases, with The Office for National Statistics recent survey reporting an increase in cases across the UK.

An estimated 1 in 45 people in Wales currently have COVID-19.

The emergence of the BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants are also contributing to this increase as they become more dominant across the UK.

Today Health Minister Eluned Morgan has also announced the following testing will continue to be in place 

LFD and PCR testing for those eligible for COVID-19 treatments.

PCR testing for COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses for symptomatic care home residents and prisoners.

PCR and LFD testing under the patient testing framework and when clinically advised including pre-operative hospital patients and care home residents returning from inpatient hospital stays

LFD testing for symptomatic health and social care staff.

Twice weekly LFD tests for asymptomatic testing for health and social care staff

Those visiting people in care homes should continue to test using tests provided by the care home they are visiting.

Self-isolation payments of 500 will end on 30th June 2022, whilst the COVID-19 Statutory Sick Pay Enhancement scheme will be extended until 31st August 2022 to support social care staff to stay away from work due to testing positive.

Minister for Health and Social Services, Eluned Morgan, said: Testing has been an effective tool in breaking the chain of transmission and with an increase in cases its vital that we keep testing in place to protect the most vulnerable in our society.

As we have seen before, Covid can quickly change, I am announcing this extension in response to the changing picture and new variants of concern.

I would also ask people to take protective measures to protect the more vulnerable in the community, wear masks in health and care settings, stay at home if you test positive, and take up the offer for the vaccine.

We know that the vaccine is the best way to protect yourself, I would urge those eligible to have their spring booster if they have not already had it, the booster is available until June 30.

Covid has not gone away, whilst we are learning to live safely with it, we will continue to monitor the situation and as we have done for the last two years, we will work together to Keep Wales Safe.
North Wales health board pledges to support Armed Forces community across the region

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) has launched a new programme to ensure that the Armed Forces community across North Wales, are not disadvantaged in the care they receive.

The programme, called the North Wales Veterans Healthcare Collaborative (NWVHC), has been launched ahead of Armed Forces Day, to demonstrate the Health Boards commitment in becoming an Exemplar Forces Friendly organisation.

The Health Board has been successful in a funding bid to the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust (AFCFT), to deliver this new programme for the Armed Forces Community (Regular serving and Reserve personnel, Veterans and their families).

Army Veteran Zoe Roberts, has been appointed as the dedicated lead for the NWVHC. Zoe served in the British Army as a Human Resources Specialist between 2001-2010, across Northern Ireland and UK mainland.

Speaking about her aims for her new role, Zoe said: I am delighted to have been appointed to this much-needed role within Betsi and I am proud to lead this programme in supporting our North Wales Armed Forces community. It is vital that we continue to build on the great work which has been achieved to date in partnership with our military partners and local charities.

I am excited to assist in improving the experience of the Armed Forces community by helping the Health Board become a Veteran Aware organisation; this will ensure that those who serve, or who have served within our Armed Forces, including their families, will feel appropriately supported and allow us as a Health Board, to offer some much-deserved recognition for their Service to our country.

The NWVHC programme will first deliver the eight manifesto standards of the VCHA to become accredited, which includes raising veteran awareness, increasing the number of patients identified as veterans being referred for treatment, and improve the recruitment and retention of veterans within BCUHB.

The Health Board is already demonstrating its commitment as Chief Executive Jo Whitehead has signed the new Step into Health pledge, which aims to support career opportunities for members of the Armed Forces community by setting up training opportunities, work placements, insight days, and offering application support.

Dr Nick Lyons, Executive Medical Director and a former fighter pilot in the RAF, is the executive champion in the Health Board for the Armed Forces community. He said: Its an honour to support this initiative that recognises the important role that veterans can play in bringing their skills and experience to serve patients in the NHS.

As a veteran myself Im proud to be the executive lead and champion this programme within the Health Board.

The North Wales Veterans Healthcare Collaborative aims to become accredited to the Veteran Covenant Healthcare Alliance (VCHA), a group of NHS providers agreed to be exemplars of the best care for, and support to, the Armed Forces community.

The Health Board has already received a Gold Award for the Governments Employer Recognition Scheme for the multi-channel support and salutes to past and present Service personnel, and demonstrates its an exemplar to other large employers and armed forces friendly employer.
Time for UK Government to step up and back station project, say local politicians

Local politicians have called on the UK Government to finally back the long-running campaign for lifts at Ruabon Station.

Member of the Senedd for Clwyd South Ken Skates was notified this week that Network Rail will nominate the project for the next round of the UK Governments Access for All programme.

The station currently only has step access between platforms meaning disabled, those with young children or travellers with luggage are not access the Chester platform.

Campaigners have been calling for several years for access to be improved, however previous funding bids have failed.

The local MS and Ruabon councillor Dana Davies have worked alongside the Friends of Ruabon to campaign for improved access at the station.

Welsh Ministers have asked the UK Department for Transport to urgently prioritise work at Ruabon.

Clwyd South MS Mr Skates said: It has been well documented that the Welsh Labour Government has twice before put money on the table for this long-awaited work to go ahead, even though its not a devolved area, and I know the Friends of Ruabon  and many other local people  have been extremely frustrated by the slow progress and false dawns.

I have submitted a letter of support to Network Rail and Im 100% behind this. The Friends of Ruabon and local campaigners cant do any more, and the Welsh Government cant do any more.

The First Minister has even asked the UK Department for Transport to prioritise this work. Weve done all we can  now its over the UK Government.

Cllr Davies said: Some years ago when the Welsh Government first committed to funding half of the project, we celebrated  we thought it was a done deal.

We didnt think there was any way the UK Government would refuse to fund half the cost of such an important project, particularly one it should be paying for in full.

While transport is devolved to Wales, responsibility for track, station infrastructure and signalling remains with the UK Government. Over the past 20 years, Wales has received less than 2% of the 100bn+ that that UK Government has spent on rail enhancement  despite having 5% of the population and 11% of the track miles.

In 2017, former Clwyd South MP Susan Elan Jones presented a petition to Parliament on behalf of the Friends of Ruabon calling for action from the UK Government. In an attempt to fund investment in Welsh stations, including Ruabon, the Welsh Government had offered to match-fund vital upgrades.

But the UK Government had twice decided against funding for Ruabon, most recently in February 2020.

A factual briefing requested by Mr Skates from the Welsh Government stated: Welsh Government, following detailed discussions with the rail industry on investment priorities, has twice submitted Ruabon Station as a priority nomination for UK Government investment in step-free access under the non-devolved Access for All programme.

The first was a request for a new replacement bridge with lifts, the second for a reduced cost alternative whereby lifts could be fitted to the existing structure. On both occasions, the strong case made for Ruabon was not accepted by the UK Government.
Welsh Parliament to vote on plans to introduce 20mph speed limit on all residential roads

Moving to a national speed limit from 30mph to 20mph for residential roads will make them safer, save lives and encourage more of us to walk and cycle. The Welsh Government has said.

The Welsh Government wants it to be law that the national default speed limit on residential roads and busy pedestrian streets is cut to 20mph.

Earlier this week legislation was laid which will allow for a vote to take place in the Welsh Parliament next month on the reduced speed limit plan.

Despite an overall reduction in traffic collisions since 1993, there were almost a thousand serious incidents in Wales in 2018.

These resulted in 1137 people being killed or seriously injured, of which 80 were children.

Data shows the largest proportion happened on roads with a 30mph speed limit, representing 50% of all collisions and 40% of collisions where someone was killed or seriously injured (KSI).

30mph is the default speed limit for the majority of our urban and residential streets, known as restricted roads. These are defined as roads with street lights every 200 yards.

In 2018, the Welsh Government asked Dr Adrian Davis to review the evidence that reducing urban speed limits can reduce the number of collisions.

The Review concluded that: For casualty reduction the evidence is consistent that casualties are reduced as a result of 20mph speed limits.

Only around 1% of the urban road network in Wales is currently subject to 20mph limits, even though most roads only serve residential areas.

Currently, changing a road to 20mph can be done by the highway authority using a Traffic Regulation Order (TRO), and requires the installation of repeater signage to indicate that there is a different limit on that road.

Local authorities have identified the cost and complexity of this as a barrier to the introduction of 20mph limits.

In November 2020 the Welsh Government undertook a national survey which found strong support for the plans, especially among parents or those with children in the household:

All participants were then asked directly whether they would support a speed limit of 20 mph in the area in which they lived. Four in five Welsh adults (80%) said they would, compared to one in five (20%) who would not.

Following this, a 2021 pilot scheme to introduce 20mph limits began in eight areas across Wales including Buckley and the surrounding area.

The aim of the trial is to develop enforcement arrangements and overcome unforeseen issues before the full rollout, planned for 2023.

This policy is not universally supported. While the Welsh Government found support in the survey data and in focus groups, 53% of responses to its consultation on the proposals were opposed.

Reduced speed limits came into force at the end of February in Buckley, Drury, Burntwood, Alltami, New Brighton, Mynydd Isa, and Bryn Baal.

There has been a well-documented backlash from local residents who say they were not consulted properly on the 20mph speed limits despite Flintshire council stating an extensive period of informal consultations had taken place.

Locals have said the new speed limits are targeting the wrong roads such as Liverpool Road, a main arterial route through Buckley.

Other reasons stated as part of the Welsh Government survey included longer journey times, increased congestion and that it could annoy drivers.

The Senedd Petitions Committee is considering a petition which opposes the national approach to setting the default speed limit at 20mph.

Under the proposals, changing the default speed would not affect the powers of local authorities to set local speed limits, it would simply reverse the process. Exceptions to 20mph would require a TRO where a higher speed is justified.

Transport for Wales has developed a tool to assist authorities in achieving a consistent approach to making exceptions across Wales.

Following a debate in the Senedd in July 2020, there was cross party support for the Welsh Governments intention to commence the reform process, with 45 of 53 Members of the Senedd voting in favour of the proposal.

Section 81 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 gives the Welsh Ministers power to make subordinate legislation to increase or decrease the speed limit for restricted roads.

This would need to be passed by the Senedd using the affirmative procedure, i.e. it would require a further vote to approve the legislation.

The announcement of the Welsh Governments legislative programme in July 2021 included a commitment to bring this legislation forward within the first year of the Senedd.

The Welsh Government laid the draft statutory instrument on 21 June, with the Plenary debate planned for 12 July.
YEREVAN, JUNE 24, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Vahram Dumanyan and his deputy Artur Martirosyan met today with Ambassador of Germany to Armenia Viktor Richter, the ministry said in a news release.

During the meeting Minister Dumanyan highlighted the continuation of Armenian-German cooperation in educational, scientific, cultural and sport fields, and stated that Armenia has a broad agenda to expand it. He mentioned several areas where Germany could provide consulting and expert support to Armenia.

Particularly, emphasizing the importance of a deep teaching of German in Armenias public schools, the sides considered the possibility of including more schools in the project. Vahram Dumanyan attached importance to the Armenian-German cooperation program in secondary professional field, as a result of which a dual education has been introduced in a number of secondary professional institutions of Armenia.

Minister Dumanyan also suggested to develop the inter-university cooperation by conducting student, teacher, young scientists exchange and research projects, as well as emphasized the necessity of holding joint events in culture and sport fields.

In this respect the minister highlighted the projects implemented by the support of DAAD, over which the Ambassador informed that the scholarships provided to Armenia will increase.

Viktor Richter highly valued the Armenian-German partnership, adding that Germany will continue the cooperation in all of the aforementioned directions and is ready to assist Armenia in steadily passing this path.

The meeting sides also touched upon the effective activity of the Armenian Diaspora in Germany.
On Thursday, the January 6 House Select Committee investigating ex-President Donald Trumps coup held its fifth public hearing. The testimony was devoted to detailing Trumps illegal efforts to enlist the Department of Justice in overthrowing the 2020 presidential election.

Committee member Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., greets Richard Donoghue, former acting Deputy Attorney General, at the end of House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, June 23, 2022, as Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Jeffrey Rosen, former acting Attorney General, watch.(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

The hearing presented overwhelming evidence showing that Trump and his Republican co-conspirators exerted enormous pressure on top officials at the DoJ to give credence to his lies following the resignation of Attorney General William Barr in mid-December 2020. This pressure campaign was not just limited to Trump and his coup lawyers, but included Republican congressmen as well. Several of these congressmen, the committee revealed on Thursday, sought a presidential pardon for what they clearly believed were criminal actions.

The witnesses at the hearing detailed repeated efforts by Trump to pressure the DoJ into announcing bogus investigations into baseless claims of election fraud. In the course of the hearing, witnesses debunked several of Trumps false claims. This included lies about rampant voter fraud in Antrim County, Michigan; false assertions that thousands of dead people voted in the 2020 election; and even allegations that Italian spy satellites had, somehow, surreptitiously altered vote totals in favor of Biden.

While it was not the focus of the hearing, it was revealed that Trumps pressure campaign extended into the U.S. Department of Defense. While the military was noticeably absent for 199 minutes on January 6 as Trumps paramilitaries sacked the Capitol, the committee revealed that acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller was more than willing to investigate the Italian satellites conspiracy theory.

The committee said that Miller, who was installed by Trump after his election defeat to Biden, called a military attache in Italy to speak to the Italian government about their alleged (and non-existent) role in the 2020 election.

Prior to the start of Thursdays hearing, it was revealed that the FBI, beginning on Wednesday, had started serving grand jury subpoenas to Republican Party officials involved in the fraudulent elector schemethe subject of Tuesdays hearing. One of the Republicans served with a subpoena was former DoJ environmental lawyer Jeffrey Clarke, a little known Trump loyalist and subject of much of Thursdays hearing.

Other Republicans confirmed to have been subpoenaed by the FBI in the last 48 hours include:

All six Nevada Republicans who signed onto a bogus elector slate and sent it to the National Archives in December 2020. This includes the chair of the Nevada Republican Party, Michael McDonald.

Three Michigan Republicans, including two false electors, Amy Facchinello and Michele Lundgren, as well as Trump campaign aide Shawn Flynn.

David Shafer, the chairman of the Georgia Republican Party and also a Trump elector.

As with previous hearings, Thursdays event featured testimony from Republicans who resisted certain aspects of Trumps coup, in line with the committees attempt to draw a line between the good Republicans and the crazies who went along with all of Trumps plans. However, given the nationwide raids by FBI officials against Republicans prior to hearing, this is becoming an increasingly difficult sell for the committee.

The three in-person witnesses at Thursdays hearing were former Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen; his deputy, Richard Donoghue; and Steven Engel, former assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel.

Committee members emphasized throughout the hearing that without these three conservative lawyers it was entirely possible that Trumps efforts to overturn the Constitution might have succeeded. None of the committee members sought to explain how it was possible that all that stood between the continuation of American democracy and a fascist dictatorship were a few good [Republican] men.

In his testimony, Rosen said that between December 23, 2020 and January 3, 2021, Trump called or met with him virtually every day to express his dissatisfaction that the DoJ was not doing enough to advance Trumps stolen election lies.

Rosen testified that Trump wanted him to appoint a special counsel, now known to be QAnon adherent Sidney Powell, to investigate election fraud. Rosen said Trump constantly pressured him to meet with his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, which he refused to do.

In their testimony, Rosen and Donoghue explained how Trumps pressure campaign against them continued to intensify as the January 6 certification date drew near. Donoghue recalled that during a December 27, 2020 meeting with Trump and Rosen, Trump said that he was not asking the pair to change the outcome of election. Instead, Donoghue recalled Trump saying, just say it was corrupt and leave the rest up to me and the Republican congressmen.

Donoghue said Trump told them the DoJ had an obligation to tell people that this was an illegal corrupt election. Despite the DoJ officials constantly investigating Trumps bogus claims, only to find they had no merit, Trump continued to persist that the DoJ was not doing its job.

The hearing revealed for the first time details about a January 3, 2021 meeting at the White House in which virtually the entire leadership of the DoJ threatened to resign if Trump installed Jeffrey Clark as acting attorney general. In his testimony, Donoghue estimated that if Clark had been installed as acting attorney general, hundreds of DoJ lawyers across the country would have resigned within 72 hours. He explained that he told Trump the DoJ would be a graveyard.

Trump had sought to install Clark because he, unlike Rosen or Donoghue, was willing to send a memo to state legislatures on DoJ letterhead declaring that the DoJ had identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple states. The letter instructed state legislatures that they had a plenary authority to appoint new, pro-Trump electors.

The letter, the committee revealed, was authored not by Clark, who has no election law experience, but by a recent addition to the DoJ, Ken Klukowski. Vice Chair of the committee, Liz Cheney (Republican-Wyoming), revealed that Klukowski arrived at the department after Barrs resignation and just 36 days before the inauguration. Cheney said that Klukowski worked with Trump lawyer John Eastman in drafting the letter.

Clark, the committee confirmed, was introduced to Trump through Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry. Perry is one of several Republicans who not only has refused to testify before the committee but also sought a presidential pardon from Trump for his actions related to the coup.

Cassidy Hutchinson, a former adviser to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testified to the committee that in addition to Perry, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert and Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona all sought pardons for their actions. The committee also revealed an email sent by Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks after January 6, in which he sought a pardon for all 147 Republican members of Congress who objected to certifying the election after the attack on the Capitol, and for every Republican who signed onto the December 2020 Texas amicus brief.

Hutchinson also said that she had heard that Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan talked about pardons but did not directly ask for one. She also said that while she did not directly appeal to her, she knew that fascist Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene had also sought a pardon during discussions with the White House Counsels office.

The committee has presented insurmountable evidence that Trump and his Republican co-conspirators are guilty of attempting to install a dictatorship.

However, by detailing the efforts by Trump and his allies to overthrow the government, the committee has at the same time revealed the bankruptcy of Biden and Democratic Party, who did nothing to stop the coup as it was happening.
About 100 police descended on a bush property in the Blue Mountains near Sydney last Sunday and arrested seven young environmental activists. The huge raid featured helicopters, the paramilitary Public Order and Riot, Raptor Squad and Operations Support Group, the Dog Unit, Police Rescue and plainclothes spies.

NSW Police allege officers were assaulted during a planned operation targeting Blockade Australia. (Image: NSW Police)

According to the New South Wales (NSW) police, this was not a raid. It was a preemptive operation against planned unauthorised protest activity.

That protest activity, over the refusal of governments to address the escalating threat of climate change, allegedly related to possible disruptions of some locations in Sydney.

The aggressive preemptive raid points to the vast police powers created by barrages of anti-protest laws imposed across Australia in recent years amid growing popular unrest over global warming, flood and fire disasters, public health and education crises and the soaring cost of living.

In a bid to justify Sundays operation, NSW Police alleged the activists were practising, rehearsing and constructing items for protests. That claim demonstrates how such laws can be used to conduct raids against anyone accused of planning protests.

Statements by climate activists connected to Blockade Australia, as well as their lawyers, indicate that the police provoked a confrontation with a group of people on the property as a pretext for the massive police mobilisation and arrests.

NSW Police claimed that plainclothes officers in an unmarked police car feared for their lives after being confronted by people on the property. But lawyers for the activists said they surrounded the car in an attempt to understand who the strangers were and what they were doing on the property.

Mark Davis, from Sydney City Crime, the law firm representing the protesters, said police had no legal basis for being on the property. Davis said police were repeatedly asked to identify themselves. The protesters kept asking who they were and the police walked away, before an unmarked car pulled up and they got in, he said. The protesters surrounded the car, demanding they identify themselves.

The Blockade Australia group posted on its Facebook site: We were surrounded at dawn by men in cammo gear, hiding in the bush, with heaps of guns. Then helicopters started buzzing overhead. Police cars and buses came speeding through the neighbourhood, lights and sirens wailing.

Police dogs and black clad men in body armour and full face helmets came barging into our space. This massive, costly police operation is aimed at preventing climate activists from taking action.

The police operation resulted in young people being rounded up and photographed. Seven were arrested, bundled into police vans, charged with offences such as affray, assaulting or hindering police and destroying or damaging property, and denied bail.

The Blockade Australia group has said it is planning to converge on Sydney from June 27 to blockade the streets of Australias most important political and economic centre and cause disruption that cannot be ignored.

NSW Police established an entire unit, named Strike Force Guard, after earlier such protests in March. The state Liberal-National government, backed by the opposition Labor Party, seized upon these protests to introduce expanded anti-protest laws in April that contain sweeping language criminalising demonstrations that disrupt roads or any major facilities.

Under the Roads and Crimes Legislation Amendment Act a person causing disruption or damage on any major road or major facilitythat is, any tunnel, road, bridge, railway station, port or infrastructure facility designated by the governmentcan be punished by up to two years imprisonment and/or a $22,000 fine.

As the state parliaments upper house was debating this anti-protest law, thousands of public hospital nurses marched and rallied outside during their second 24-hour statewide strike within six weeks, fighting against low pay, impossible workloads and dangerous under-staffing. Despite an exception in the law for industrial-related protests, workers protests against such shocking conditions could be ruled as non-industrial.

Kieran Pender from the Human Rights Law Centre provided some idea of the potential for this law to be used to outlaw many kinds of protests. He wrote in The Sydney Morning Herald:

The new provision is so broad and vague that almost all protest activity without prior approval now risks criminal sanction. Imagine school children gathering at a park in Sydney to protest against inaction on climate change. Say the large turnout means that protesters spill out into the entrance of a nearby railway station. They do not pose any safety risk, but commuters have to walk around the children to access the station. Those protestersour childrencould be imprisoned, for the crime of causing commuters to be redirected.

Vehemently defending the legislation against such condemnation, NSW Minister for Metropolitan Roads Natalie Ward declared that she introduced the bill because, quite simply, I wasnt prepared to have a small group of selfish, disruptive protesters continue to hold our state to ransom.

She claimed that the government was not denying the right to protest, just striking the correct balance between the right to peaceful protest, and the right for people to safely get on with their lives. That supposed balance eviscerates the right to protest, effectively handing governments and the police vague powers to ban any conduct branded disruptive.

Sundays police mobilisation is part of an escalating offensive, by Coalition and Labor governments alike, against protests that threaten business interests. In 2019, police mobilised in Melbourne by the Victorian state Labor government violently attacked several hundred climate change protesters who sought to oppose a global mining conference at the citys convention centre. Many people were arrested and dragged off, and at least one woman was hospitalised after police horse charges.

Increasingly, bipartisan anti-protest laws designed to protect corporate profits have been pushed through federal and state parliaments. These laws include a 2019 federal bill that can see people jailed for up to five years for using social media, emails or phone calls to promote, or even advertise, protests against agribusinesses.

In the same year, Queenslands state Labor government rushed new anti-protest laws through parliament. Demonstrators using proscribed obstruction devices can be jailed for up to two years and police have expanded powers to conduct personal and vehicle searches without judicial warrants.

The targets of this authoritarian drive go far beyond the mounting climate change protests to the broader growing opposition to falling real wages, sky-high living costs and glaring social inequality.

What alarms the ruling class and its political servants, both Labor and Coalition, is the rising anti-capitalist sentiment among young people and workers, which finds no voice within the political establishment.

Anti-protest laws have nothing to do with protecting the public from unsafe protests. That is a smokescreen for attacking basic democratic rights, including freedom of speech, freedom of movement and freedom to organise.

Sundays police operation is a warning of the repressive measures that will be used as the federal Labor governmentelected with less than a third of the primary vote at the May 21 electionmoves to meet the demands of the financial elite for deeper budget cuts and the suppression of workers wages struggles.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing last week on the state of the severe drought affecting the American Southwest. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton informed the committee that severe cuts to water allocations would be necessary to ensure that water supplies did not deplete beyond critical levels.

A formerly sunken boat sits on cracked earth hundreds of feet from the shoreline of Lake Mead at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Tuesday, May 10, 2022, near Boulder City, Nev. (AP Photo/John Locher)

A warmer, drier West is what we are seeing today, she said. And the challenges we are seeing today are unlike anything we have seen in our history.

Seven states with rights to the Colorado River will have to reduce withdrawals by two to four million acre-feet of water next year, according to Touton. One acre-foot is equal to one acre of land flooded with one foot of water. This would be a significant reduction to the 15 million acre-feet of water that is allocated from the river to California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming.

The cuts are in response to a rapidly developing water crisis in the Southwest. Nearly 40 million people rely on water from the Colorado River and thousands of farms depend on that water to cultivate some of the most productive agricultural land in the country.

For over a century, the states along the Colorado grew rapidly as major irrigation projects brought seemingly endless supplies of water into arid landscapes. But now the Southwest is two decades into its worst drought in the last 1,200 years.

Researchers have been able to determine this using tree-ring data stretching back hundreds of years, which indicates that the region has gone through several mega-droughts that can last from a couple decades to a couple centuries.

The current drought has seen the water levels in lakes Mead and Powell, the two largest reservoirs in the United States, decline to their lowest levels since they were first filled, with both lakes at just 28 percent of full capacity. Lake Mead in particular is currently in a death spiral, with the water level declining by over 22 feet since just the beginning of March.

These conditions are expected to only worsen over the next few years. The Bureau of Reclamation, the federal agency tasked with managing these reservoirs, released updated projections for future water levels earlier this month. The Bureau is now predicting that the water elevation in Lake Mead will fall to about 1,015 feet by September 2023, just 120 feet above the dead pool level of 895 feet. Should the lake fall below 895 feet, water will no longer be able to pass through the dam, stopping flow downstream to 25 million people.

Lake Powell is also expected to fall to a level where hydropower generation is no longer possible, cutting off a critical electricity supply for millions of people. To prevent this, the Bureau of Reclamation announced it would hold 480,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Powell and release 500,000 acre-feet to it from smaller reservoirs up river.

As the water level in Lake Mead continues to decline, there are a series of elevation thresholds for the imposition of cuts to water deliveries. For the first time ever, the Bureau of Reclamation was forced to declare a Tier 1 water shortage in August of 2021, resulting in Arizona taking over 500,000 acre-feet in water cuts, largely to agricultural producers in central Arizona. The cuts, imposed under the 2019 Drought Contingency Plan, have caused many farmers to watch their crops die and to let fields go fallow in an effort to conserve water.

At the current pace of decline in Lake Mead, even more stringent cuts are expected to take place. Below an elevation of 1,045 feet, additional cuts are supposed to take effect, with cuts to Arizona increasing to 640,000 acre-feet, Nevada increasing to 27,000 acre-feet, and California taking its first cut of 200,000 acre-feet. Mexico is also included in the agreement and is committed to taking a cut of 76,000 acre-feet at this elevation.

Lake Mead dropped below 1,045 feet on June 15, two levels of cuts past the first shortage declaration. However, the Bureau of Reclamation has not imposed the Tier 2 (1,050ft) or Tier 2b (1,045ft) level cuts.

This is the result of the Bureaus capitulation to the demands of state governments to avoid the inevitable. When the Bureau decided to hold 480,000 acre-feet in Lake Powell, it also agreed, at the request of state planners, to pretend that the water was actually in Lake Mead. This meant that Lake Powell could continue to produce electricity and the lower basin states could avoid taking additional cuts to their allocations.

But since that agreement was made, the real supply of water in Lake Mead has passed through two levels of shortages without any action.

The most the Bureau of Reclamation has done so far has been to call on state governments to develop a plan of action themselves, giving the Colorado basin states two months to agree to a conservation plan, threatening to take federal action only if they should fail to do so, regardless of the quality of that agreement. Despite numerous comments from experts and officials on the severity of the situation at the Senate hearing, no real significant plans or proposals were made. The hearing amounted to little more than a declaration that things are bad and that someone ought to do something about it.

The effectiveness of handing the issue over to the states is questionable. The states in the Colorado basin have a history of engaging in bitter disputes over water rights, with Arizona in particular having a long history of conflict over water, especially with California.

When the Colorado River Compact was signed in 1922, the Arizona state legislature refused to ratify the agreement until 1944. And in 1934, Arizona Governor Benjamin Moeur sent the National Guard to halt the completion of Parker Dam on the California-Arizona border, delaying construction for months.

The severity of the situation requires an extensive and coordinated effort to reduce water consumption, improve efficiency, and increase conservation. Many states and cities have taken some action independently. Las Vegas has become the leader in this regard. Despite growing by 800,000 people since 2002, the citys conservation efforts have reduced total water use by 27 percent.

But cities and states cannot avoid catastrophe on their own. After 22 years of severe drought, the refusal of the ruling class to take any serious action to mitigate the crisis is beyond negligent. Over a century of policies designed to maximize profit are finally reaching a point of reckoning.

Upwards 80 percent of water consumption in the Southwest comes from agriculture, much of which is directed to farms growing high water-demand crops like alfalfa, cotton, almonds, and rice.

For large and wealthy farms the benefits in changing methods are not worthwhile. While for smaller farms the cost of upgrading irrigation equipment or buying new machinery for different crops is simply too much. Many small farmers in the Southwest have preferred to sell their land to solar energy developers instead of taking on large debts to fund that transition.

Meanwhile, property developers and local governments have promoted rapid suburban development in arid environments, often with little concern or planning for the future. Consequently, Arizonas largest industry is the real estate, rental, and finance sector.

The capitalist mantra of unbounded profit is coming to terms with reality. Unless water resources, and consequently all mechanisms of economic and political management, are placed under the rational control of the working class, the capitalist class will continue to drive the region into ruin and environmental catastrophe.
YEREVAN, JUNE 24, ARMENPRESS. President of the Constitutional Court of Armenia Arman Dilanyan met with Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe Dunja Mijatovic in Strasbourg on June 23, the press service of the Constitutional Court said.

During the meeting Arman Dilanyan highlighted the role of the CoE Commissioner for Human Rights in the protection of rights of different groups of the society in the European region.

Dunja Mijatovic thanked the delegation of the Constitutional Court of Armenia for paying a working visit to Strasbourg and said that she always follows the developments happening in Armenia in the fields of human rights and rule of law, welcoming the ongoing democratic and judicial reforms in the country.

Touching upon the post-war situation in Artsakh, the President of the Constitutional Court stressed the urgency of the issue of immediate repatriation of Armenian prisoners of war and highlighted the role of the CoE Human Rights Commissioner in this matter.

The sides exchanged ideas on intensifying the future cooperation between the Constitutional Court and the Office of the CoE Human Rights Commissioner.
On Friday, at the stroke of a pen, six unelected judges ended the right to abortion, dramatically altering the countrys legal and social landscape. For the first time in American history, the Supreme Court eliminated a fundamental constitutional right broadly recognized and supported by the overwhelming majority of the countrys population.

The 6-3 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization is effective immediately. Abortion is now or will imminently become illegal in at least 21 states with a combined population of 135 million people. For the vast majority of working women, travel to the mostly coastal states where abortion remains legal will not be an option.

This is the new reality: Many will die in botched back-alley operations. Doctors who perform abortions or prescribe medication to terminate pregnancies will be sent to prison. There is often no exception to abortion bans in cases where the individual is a child or was impregnated through rape or incest.

Abortion rights demonstrators protest outside of the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday, May 3, 2022 in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

The decision is the opening salvo in an historically unprecedented attack by the ruling class on all democratic rights. The concurring opinion by Clarence Thomas announces that the court will now begin to revisit all prior cases in which the Supreme Court protected the substantive due process rights of the population. In future cases, Thomas wrote, we should reconsider all of this Courts substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell. These decisions, respectively, protected the right to contraceptives, overturned laws criminalizing sodomy, and legalized same-sex marriage.

Though these decisions are first on the chopping block, Thomas concurrence makes clear they are just the starting point. After overruling these demonstrably erroneous decisions, the question would remain whether other constitutional provisions guarantee the myriad rights that our substantive due process cases have generated, he wrote.

Such cases include Brown v. Board of Education (barring school segregation), Gideon v. Wainwright (establishing the right to free criminal defense counsel), Loving v. Virginia (banning laws against interracial marriage), West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parish (upholding minimum wage and child labor restrictions), and many more. The day before issuing its decision in Dobbs, the court issued a separate decision drastically scaling back protections against police violating the rights of those under arrest.

The decision is not legally legitimate. It is part of a far-right political conspiracy. It is the latest in a long train of reactionary decisions legitimizing state surveillance, police violence, mass deportations and corporate domination of the electoral system. It was issued by a court that does not constitute a democratic branch of government but a battering ram for medieval clericalism and bigotry.

The court is now dominated by fascistic ideologues. Three of the justices voting with the majority in Dobbs (Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Coney Barrett) were appointed by Donald Trump, the would-be dictator who conspired with two of the justices (Alito and Thomas) to orchestrate a coup attempt on January 6, 2021, seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election and establish a dictatorship.

Dobbs is the judicial continuation of Trumps coup attempt. It is being wildly celebrated by the far-right across the country, which views it as a testament to their power and prospects for the future.

Trump issued a pious statement declaring that God made the decision. In Texas, pro-Trump state Attorney General Ken Paxton declared June 24 a holiday and closed state offices in honor of the nearly 70 million unborn babies killed in the womb since 1973, the year of Roe v. Wade.

The Republican Party will press forward in the fight to abolish abortion even in those states where it remains legal. Fascist congresswoman and January 6 co-conspirator Marjorie Taylor Greene declared, We are one step closer to ending the mass genocide of abortion in America, but warned that its not totally over. Former Vice President Mike Pence said, We must not rest and must not relent until the sanctity of life is restored to the center of American law in every state in the land.

The response of the Democratic Party confirms beyond a shadow of a doubt that the defense of even the most basic democratic rights is impossible through the framework of capitalist two-party politics.

At a press conference Friday, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi read a poem and solemnly said, We hope that the Supreme Court will open its eyes. House Democrats gathered on the steps of the Capitol building and sang God Bless America as protesters chanted in the background. President Joe Biden stumbled through a perfunctory 11-minute speech in which he called the decision sad and urged Congress to restore protections of Roe v. Wade as federal law, which everyone knows will never happen.

Biden did not announce that the Democratic Party would use the last months of its House and Senate majority to overturn the filibuster, appoint additional Supreme Court justices, or initiate impeachment proceedings against Clarence Thomas for his role in Trumps coup. Instead, Biden absolved himself of any responsibility, declaring that no action of the president can protect abortion. After admitting that the Democratic Party will do nothing to legally protect abortion on a federal level, he then urged people to vote for Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections.



Biden also gave voice to the Democratic Partys primary concern that mass opposition to the decision may produce a social explosion and warned protesters not to intimidate the far-right. Keep all protests peaceful. No intimidation. Violence is never acceptable. Threats and intimidation are not speech. As Biden spoke, a phalanx of Capitol Police deployed to respond to a protest that had broken out at the Supreme Court building. In marked contrast with January 6, 2021, the police were wearing full riot gear and there were snipers deployed on the courthouse roof.

The day before the Supreme Court ruling, as the fifth day of hearings took place showing the Republican Party was fully engaged in Trumps coup plot on January 6, Biden referred to the Republican Party during a press conference as my Republican friends. In the same remarks, Biden blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for rising gas prices and defended the massive armament of Ukraine as necessary to spread democracy and combat Putins murderous ways.

Biden and the Democrats rely on their Republican friends to wage US imperialisms neocolonial war against Russia, which aims to open up Eastern Europe and all of Eurasia to the unbridled domination of American corporations, risking nuclear war. But this bipartisanship legitimizes the extreme right, provides wind in the sails of an increasingly fascist Republican Party, and paves the way for the Supreme Courts rampage on democratic rights.

The Dobbs decision has the character of a civil war ruling, akin to the Supreme Courts 1857 decision in Sanford v. Dred Scott, which hastened the outbreak of the American Civil War of 1861-65 by ruling that southern slaves remained private property when taken to northern free states, and that all individuals of African descent had no rights because they were not citizens.

Today, Biden is playing the role of then-Democratic President James Buchanan, who was inaugurated two days before Dred Scott was issued and whose administration was defined by his efforts to conciliate his slaveholding friends in the doomed, reactionary belief that accommodation with the right would preserve the union.

Dred Scott shocked the Northern population and contributed to a growing realization that democracy was incompatible with the peculiar institution of slavery, which allowed a tiny slaveholding elite to dominate the laws of the entire country. The conflict over slavery came to be seen as irrepressible, and the question was resolved through the revolutionary war for emancipation.

Today, millions are coming to similar conclusions about capitalism, in which a handful of reactionary oligarchs dominate the political system, attempt to establish dictatorships, wage war with potentially catastrophic consequences, allow the deaths of millions through the preventable spread of diseases like SARS-CoV-2, destroy the environment for profit and oversee the expansion of massive levels of social inequality and poverty.

The Dobbs decision shows that the defense of basic democratic rights today is entirely dependent on the development of a mass movement of the working class independent of the rotten two-party system. Such a movement is developing in the United States and internationally, spurred by the rising cost of living, which is driving millions into deeper levels of economic hardship.

To defend democracy and stop imperialist war, this movement must have as its goal the abolition of the capitalist system. This means the seizure and redistribution of the financial aristocracys wealth and the socialist transformation of the world economic system to meet the needs of the international working class.
For months, the Chinese government has been trying to contain widespread anger over human trafficking. The issue erupted at the end of January, when a womans plight in Feng County of Xuzhou, in the eastern province of Jiangsu, sparked social media attention.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, and Premier Li Keqiang vote during the closing session of China's National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Friday, March 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Sam McNeil)

At a State Council meeting on March 29, Premier Li Keqiang declared: Trafficking and trafficking in people is harmful and must be brought to justice as soon as possible, and officials who neglect their duties must be severely punished.

This was Lis third statement on human trafficking in a month. The Chinese police earlier also announced an anti-trafficking operation, to continue until the end of the year.

In January, a video began circulating on the Chinese internet, showing a middle-aged woman wearing thin clothes, locked in a dilapidated house with a long iron chain around her neck. The video was released by a social work volunteer, and although it was not explicitly stated, online public opinion quickly pointed out that the woman was likely to have been abducted.

The video garnered nearly 2 billion views on social media, causing much online discussion. Local officials issued several inconsistent announcements, which only further aroused doubts and concern.

With Chinas news media heavily censored, people had to dig into the story for themselves and constantly questioned the official statements.

On February 17, at the instigation of the central government, Jiangsu Province established an investigation, which issued a series of five notices, some correcting earlier ones, finally admitting that the woman was a victim of human trafficking.

The authorities said the woman, known as Yang Qingxia, had been trafficked out of the southwestern province of Yunnan in 1997 and sold twice by human traffickers in Feng County.

As a result, 17 officials from Feng County and Xuzhou City were punished to varying degrees. That has been officially defined as the final result of the incident, and discussion online has been strictly censored. But the central government has felt compelled to launch an anti-trafficking campaign.

At the National Peoples Congress meeting on March 5, Li proposed to severely crack down on the phenomenon of abduction and trafficking of women and children, and protect the rights and interests of women and children. On March 11, at a press conference at the conclusion of the congress, he said: We are not only heartbroken for the victims, but also angry about such a thing.

Nevertheless, the public concern has continued. On social media platforms, a number of literary or artistic works related to trafficking have received renewed attention and discussion. These include Black Vortex, a reportage about a large-scale abduction of women, Ancient Sins, a documentary that investigates trafficking in China, and Blind Mountain, a film based on the true story of a female college student being abducted. By discussing these works, people evaded the censorship.

The anger over the human trafficking case in Feng County was intensified by the official cover-up of the truth. Reports and information from journalists and others were removed, and investigators who visited the site were threatened and harassed by police and government officials.

According to a United Nations report, China cracked 208 cases of human trafficking in 2017. But the large number of missing persons that occur each year has led to the widespread belief that this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Proponents of middle-class identity politics have attributed the problem to a patriarchal society. But the root cause lies in the restoration of capitalism in China. As the WSWS has previously analysed and reported:

The rapid expansion of capitalist production and market relations in China is being accompanied by the revival of a myriad of social evils abolished or mitigated by the 1949 Revolutionprostitution, sale of women, drug trafficking, child labor, corruption at every level of the state.

Reports and research essays have pointed out that the large-scale revival of human trafficking in China began in the 1980s, and the 1980s and 1990s became the period with the most cases of human trafficking in contemporary China. It has been called the Twenty Years of Trafficking. The WSWS drew attention to this historic regression in the 1990s:

Another pre-revolutionary relic which has made a comeback is the sale of women as brides and concubines. This feudal practice was outlawed after 1949 and largely disappeared, but began to revive in the late 1970s with the turn to market relations under Deng Xiaoping. Women are either sold by their parents, usually desperately poor peasants in the more remote and backward regions, or kidnapped by gangs who act as middlemen, transporting the women hundreds of miles and then selling to them to prospective husbands. Retarded women are especially targeted because of their greater docility in the role of domestic slaves. Press reports indicate that the price of a woman ranges from 2,000 yuan to 5,000 yuan (about $400 to $900), and that the number sold must be in the hundreds of thousands yearly. In 1990 alone, according to official government figures, 10,000 women were rescued after being kidnapped and sold. Far more are unable to escape, as most are illiterate and unable to communicate with their families. Some 65,000 people were arrested for trafficking in women in 1989 and 1990 combined. Until 1991 kidnappers of women generally received a sentence of five years in prison, the same penalty meted out for stealing two cows.

During this period, agriculture was almost entirely privatised following the dissolution of rural communes in 1978, and this led to high levels of rural poverty and unemployment. Under these conditions, Zongzu forces in the countryside began to revive. Zongzu is a movement connected by blood and family relations. It was part of the rural order of Chinese feudal society, in which family or individual property and social rank were attached to clans.

In many areas, Zongzu directly influenced the election of village committees. In order to maintain their rule in rural and township areas, local Chinese Communist Party (CCP) bureaucrats cooperated with Zongzu forces.

These relations have been strengthened since President Xi Jinping took office in 2013. He has put forward the concepts of cultural revival of rural sages and construction of family traditions as a part of his program of national revival. Rural sages refers to the figures in feudal Chinese society who had Zongzu-related status in rural areas.

In October 2014, when Xi Jinping presided over the 18th collective study of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, he stated: To govern China today, we need to have a deep understanding of our countrys history and traditional culture, and we also need to have a deep understanding of our countrys ancient state governance and governance wisdom and make positive summaries.

This instruction has resulted in the restoration of backward ideas from the feudal era, and has become the ideological source of many human trafficking cases, as well as explaining why many local bureaucrats do not act or even acquiesce in such cases.

At the same time, the extreme imbalance of regional development has increased the demand for population migration from economically underdeveloped areas to economically developed areas. According to official data, from 1990 to 1999, the average annual income of farmers in Yunnan Province was 964.88 yuan, while that in Jiangsu Province it was 2,166.69 yuanmore than twice as much. Such huge economic disparities contributed to the main routes of human trafficking during this period, from rural areas in the southwestern provinces to rural areas in the eastern regions.

From the late 1980s to the 1990s, the peak period of the migrant worker wave into the cities also became the peak period of trafficking cases, with female migrant workers and children being the main victims.

The online discussions and protests triggered by the abducted woman in Feng County have highlighted the continued existence of this backwardness. The commodification of human beings and the resulting criminal activities are just one example of the social diseases produced by the capitalist market in China and internationally.
A 6.1-magnitude earthquake in a remote area of Afghanistan has killed at least 1,000 people and injured at least 1,500. While the worst affected area is the mountainous Paktika province, deaths have also been reported in the eastern provinces of Khost and Nangarhar. Many more bodies are thought to be buried in mud as heavy rain hampers rescue efforts.

The quake is the deadliest since 2002, when a 6.1 magnitude tremor killed about 1,000 people in the north of the country. It struck early Wednesday morning about 30 miles southwest of Khost, southeast of the capital Kabul, according to the United States Geological Survey. Its relatively shallow depth of six miles worsened its impact, with strong and long jolts felt in Kabul and tremors felt as far away as Lahore in Pakistan, 300 miles from the epicentre.

Afghans dig a trench for a common grave for their relatives killed in an earthquake to a buria site l in Gayan village, in Paktika province, Afghanistan, Thursday, June 23, 2022. [AP Photo/Ebrahim Nooroozi]

Thousands have been forced to sleep outside in unseasonable, near-freezing temperatures, as entire villages, largely built from clay and straw, have collapsed. The severely limited infrastructure in the country is making it very difficult to provide relief. Afghanistans skeleton health care system is unable to cope under normal circumstances, let alone handle the natural disasters that plague the country. With few airworthy planes and helicopters, the government had to call off the emergency search and rescue after 24 hours and issue an urgent appeal for international aid.

These appalling conditions are the result of the catastrophic encounter of Afghanistan with American imperialism. This began in 1979 with the intervention of the Carter administration and the CIA to finance and arm Islamic fundamentalists, including Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, in a proxy war against the Soviet-backed government.

US imperialism believed it could use the Stalinist bureaucracys dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 as an opportunity to overcome its economic decline abroad and its social conflicts at home, using its military might to oversee a New World Order in the interests of its corporate and financial elite.

In October 2001, following the attacks of September 11, the United States launched a war and occupation, undertaken in pursuit of economic interests concealed from the public under the guise of the war on terrorism against a government it claimed was harbouring bin Laden.

The human and social costs of the war in Afghanistan have been catastrophic and are ongoing today. According to official figures that undoubtedly understate the casualties, 164,436 Afghans were killed during the war, together with 2,448 US soldiers, 3,846 US military contractors and 1,144 soldiers from other NATO countries. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans and tens of thousands of NATO personnel were wounded. The war and occupation have cost the American public some $2 trillion, with a further $6.5 trillion to be paid out in interest payments over the years.

The war has produced one of the largest refugee populations in the world. As of the beginning of this year, before the war in Ukraine, about 1 in 10 Afghansthat is, 3 million peopleare refugees, mostly living in neighbouring Pakistan and Iran. Three in four Afghans have suffered internal or external displacement in their lifetime.

According to the World Bank, Afghanistan is the sixth poorest country in the world, with a gross national income per capita of only $500. The United Nations estimates that 23 million Afghans, or more than half of the population, suffer from acute hunger. An estimated 8.7 million are at risk of famine, while 5 million children are on the brink of starvation. And this is before the surge in the prices of basic commodities over the past several months.

The Afghan war, bizarrely named Operation Enduring Freedom, spawned a whole new lexicon of criminal activities: extraordinary rendition, Guantanamo Bay, drone warfare and waterboarding, to mention but a few.

It was WikiLeaks publisher and journalist Julian Assange, who, by publishing the Afghan war logs in 2010, a vast trove of leaked US military documents, brought to the worlds attention evidence of the criminality of the war. The Afghan war logs exposed the myth that the occupation of Afghanistan was a good war, supposedly waged to defeat terrorism, extend democracy, and protect womens rights.

They revealed the mass killings of civilians by both US and UK forces, the underreporting and cover-up of civilian deaths and war crimes, including numerous occasions when US and British troops opened fire on civilians. But not one of the criminals responsible for the war has been prosecuted, much less punished. Instead, it is Assange who has languished in Londons maximum security Belmarsh Prison for the last three years, awaiting extradition to the US on charges under the Espionage Act that carry 175 years in prison.

Afghanistans plight has been further exacerbated by Washingtons theft of Afghanistans financial assets and imposition on the country of an economic blockadetantamount to starving the country to deathafter the Taliban took control last summer amid the US militarys humiliating withdrawal from its longest-ever war.

The White House left the country in ruins and facing an enormous humanitarian catastrophe. Throughout the 20 years of occupation, the US and its allies did nothing to develop Afghanistan. Instead, its economy was shattered, its agriculture undermined by so-called aid. This, along with the insecurity, drought and natural disasters, played into the hands of Afghanistans warlords and drug dealers, as impoverished farmers turned to poppy cultivation and the opium trade.

The disastrous state of Afghanistan underscores the devastating impact of US imperialisms four decades of covert operations, war, and occupation on what was already one of the poorest countries on the planet. It must serve as a warning to workers throughout the world about what the US and NATO have in store for Ukraine.

In her last piece for the New York Times, published on February 23, the late Madeleine Albright, US secretary of state under President Bill Clinton from 1997 until 2001, warnedas did several other commentatorsthat if Russia invaded Ukraine, It would be far from a repeat of Russias annexation of Crimea in 2014; it would be a scenario reminiscent of the Soviet Unions ill-fated occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

She was referring to the USs use of proxy forces during the 1980s, supported, hosted, and trained by Pakistan and funded by the US and Saudi Arabia, to unseat the Soviet Union-aligned Afghan government and undermine Moscows influence in the Caspian basin and the Persian Gulf. Afghanistan itself is a treasure trove of untapped minerals, variously estimated at $1 to $3 trillion.

In the conflicts and mass destruction that followed the collapse of the pro-Soviet regime, the Taliban was nurtured and brought to power with Washingtons blessing in the belief that the Taliban would help stabilize Afghanistan after 15 years of war, while at the same time exert increasing pressure on China and Russia.

Albrights words should be taken seriously. In 1996, when she was US ambassador to the United Nations, she was asked by the 60 Minutes news show whether she thought about the price to the Iraqi people of the devastating sanctions imposed by the US on Iraq following the 1991 Gulf War, which had starved Iraq of medicines and food and killed at least 500,000 Iraqi children at that time. Albright replied, without disputing the figure, We think the price is worth it.

After two decades of US-backed proxy wars and military occupation, Afghanistan has been brutalized and impoverished. Its fate is a warning for what US imperialism holds in store for everything it touches, whether its nominal allies or the targets of US regime-change operations.

With the ever-expanding US war against Russia, the US is preparing to bring the type of devastation wrought upon Afghanistan and Iraq to Europe, at an even greater cost in lives and treasure.
The Washington Post profiled this week Brooke Alexander, 18, a Corpus Christi, Texas teen who found out two days before the states fetal heartbeat abortion ban went into effect on September 1, 2021 that she was pregnant.

Abortion rights demonstrators walk past a puddle during their march from the National Mall to the Supreme Court of the United States in Washington, Saturday, May 14, 2022. [AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades]

Alexander sought to end her pregnancy, but the abortion clinic two hours away from her in South Texas was completely booked, with women then racing to the center to get abortions before the law went into effect. Alexander was offered the names and addresses of abortion clinics in New Mexico by the South Texas clinic, a drive more than 12 hours away from Corpus Christi.

Under the new Texas law, if a so-called fetal heartbeat is detected, then those involved in the abortion can be sued for $10,000 each. Since few women know they are pregnant before six weeks, when movement in the undeveloped fetal heart mass first becomes detectable, the law effectively bans abortions in Texas with no exception for rape or incest. Abortion clinics in Texas now only accept those who have no observable fetal heartbeat lest they incur a flurry of lawsuits from anti-abortion zealots.

Alexander, having been informed of this by her then boyfriend Billy, looked for a clinic where an ultrasound could be performed, unknowingly booking an appointment with a religious affiliated anti-abortion clinic.

The clinic in question, misleadingly named the Pregnancy Center of the Coastal Bend, is affiliated with Care Net, an evangelical Christian network of crisis pregnancy centers which are set up for the sole purpose of dissuading women from having abortions, with thousands of centers around the country. It is one of two such organizations in the US which have close ties to the Republican Party. A banner on the website instructs like-minded religious zealots to tell their elected officials that we support the overturning of Roe v. Wade, while falsely claiming that the American public supports overturning the right to abortion.

In fact, the banning of abortion and associated attack on Roe are wildly unpopular, with a PBS Newshour/NPR/Marist poll showing that 64 percent oppose overturning the 1973 Supreme Court decision, while those identifying as pro-choice are at a near-record high of 55 percent. A Gallup poll from May 2021 showed support for abortion in all or most cases at 80 percent.

According to an article by Public Health Watch, the anti-abortion crisis centers receive funding from the Texas government under the Alternatives to Abortion program. Funding has surged by 1,900 percent since the program started in 2006, rising from $5 million to $100 million.

Refuting anti-abortion forces claim that the program is about protecting life, its funding comes from commensurate cuts in other programs such as $20 million from a clean air program in 2017, and $20 million from a health technology budget in 2021, according to the Texas Tribune.

Meanwhile, abortion clinics in the state have been continually under attack for years, leading to the number of clinics decreasing from an already anemic 40 in 2013 to 20 in 2022 for a state of 29 million people. At the same time, 200 anti-abortion crisis centers exist in Texas, which is 10 times the number of abortion clinics. In the United States as a whole, crisis centers outnumber abortion clinics three to one.

According to an October 2021 court filing by Planned Parenthood, one woman, who later filed a lawsuit against one such crisis center, was delayed from receiving treatment for her pregnancy by the center. The woman experienced extreme morning sickness during her pregnancy and was forced to seek help out of state due to the delay and pay $800 to maintain her privacy from family members on her insurance plan.

As detailed in the filing, many others were prevented from having abortions, most of them poor and working class, teenagers, students, and without sufficient financial means to adequately care for children.

One was 16 years old and described as a bright student but in an unstable household. Another worked 55-60 hours a week and was in college. Another feared losing her retail job as there were three months of blackout dates where she could not take time off out of fear for losing her job. Another already had five children.

While at the anti-abortion crisis center, Alexander was given an anti-abortion pamphlet published by the Texas Department of State Health Services titled A Womans Right to Know.

The pamphlet, an article of government propaganda, reads in bold letters: No one can force you to have an abortion and proceeds to advise women to talk to their doctor, counselor or spiritual adviser about your feelings and to call 911 if they feel pressure from someone to have an abortion. It paints a false picture of abortion being unsafe and posing physical and mental health risks such as infertility, increasing breast cancer risk, and death.

Alexander, following a state-mandated imaging session of what was to be twins, was pressured by center staff and then her mother, who was apparently swayed by the staff, to not get an abortion. Faced with mounting difficulties, the unavailability of abortion, state funded anti-abortion clinics and propaganda, Alexander gave birth to the twins.

According to the Washington Post, Jana Pinson, the executive director of the Pregnancy Center of the Coastal Bend, later gloated about changing Alexanders mind to the Coastal Bend Republican Coalition on May 19 as part of its weekly meeting at a local barbecue joint.

The anti-abortion crisis centers categorize those who visit, labeling those who are considering abortion or decided on abortion as abortion-minded or abortion vulnerable.

The Post wrote Last year, Pinson said, 583 abortion-minded and abortion-vulnerable women chose to continue their pregnancies after visiting their facility. At their banquet in March, with over 2,800 attendees from across the region, Pinson and her staff lit 583 candles. One of those was for Brooke.

Two weeks after Pinsons gloating, the draft Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe was leaked.

Whos to say what I would have done if the law wasnt in effect? Alexander told the Post, noting all the things she could not do anymore such as nights at the skate park and trips to the mall. I cant just really be free, she said. I guess that really sums it up. Thats a big thing that I really miss.

Indeed, the right to an abortion is a measure that provides the equality and freedom to women who otherwise would not have the right. The attack on abortion seeks not only to enshrine inequality, but as a springboard for broader attacks on democratic rights.

As the WSWS explained:

[Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alitos] draft decision goes on to deny the validity of rights that are not mentioned in the Constitution. Virtually all modern civil rights are not mentioned in the Constitution, for the simple reason that modern society did not exist when the Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791. However limited and belated, the expansion of constitutional rights in the USfrom the aftermath of the American Revolution and Civil War to the period of the Civil Rights movementtook the form of recognizing in the essential principles of the founding documents new implications for democratic rights in modern society. Alitos formulas provide a framework not just for dismantling the right to abortion, but for putting all modern civil rights on the chopping block.

This attack on abortion has been facilitated by the Democrats, who have done nothing to mobilize opposition to attacks on abortion and are organically incapable of doing so, fearing a mass movement of the working class which would escape their control and overtake them. Instead, they cynically work to redirect opposition into the dead end of the Democratic Party, which has done nothing to enshrine Roe over the past almost 50 years.

While posturing as defenders of the right to abortion, the Democrats field anti-abortion candidates, as is the case with Texas state Representative Ryan Guillen, who voted for the Texas fetal heartbeat abortion ban. Nothing is being done by the Democrats even now despite the fact that, if they so choose, they can overturn the filibuster and enshrine abortion protections in law. The criminal inaction of the Democrats illustrates that any real movement to protect democratic rights must necessarily be based on a mass movement of the working class for socialism.
Millions of Americans are experiencing the second severe heat wave in two weeks across the United States. Around 70 percent of the population is expected to see temperatures in the 90s Fahrenheit and 20 percent will experience temperatures in excess of 100 degrees.

People ride their bikes past a homeless encampment set up along the boardwalk in the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

The extreme heat will be most severe for the homeless, who have little access to protection from the scorching heat. Heat-related fatalities in the United States total more than hurricanes, flooding, and tornadoes combined, with extreme heat responsible for around 1,500 deaths every year. An estimated 50 percent of these deaths are those without shelter.

Pheonix, Arizona, the hottest city in the United States with highs that reached 118 degrees last year, bears a significant portion of these deaths. In 2021, there were 339 heat-related deaths in the city, of which 130 were homeless individuals.

This many deaths of homeless people in a single city is astonishing. If 130 homeless people were dying in any other way, it would be considered a mass casualty event, Kristie L. Ebi, a professor of global health at the University of Washington told the Los Angeles Times. Such high casualty rates are reflective of the fact that homeless individuals are 200 times more likely to die from heat-related issues than those with shelter.

Deaths this summer are only likely to increase after economic hardships during the pandemic destroyed livelihoods and the expiration of a federal moratorium on evictions expired last year, resulting in a massive increase in the number of people thrown out onto the street.

According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, there are as many as one million people without shelter on any given night in the US. Cities like Dallas, Seattle, and Portland have seen double-digit growth in homelessness over the past couple of years. For the first time ever since the Department of Housing and Urban Development began to conduct point-in-time counts, the number of homeless people sleeping on the street in 2021 exceeded the number of single homeless adults staying in shelters.

Worryingly, the demographics of homelessness are increasingly shifting towards an older population in retirement. With the rising cost of living and limited incomes, many elderly people are finding themselves priced out of their homes and lacking the ability to find new ones.

During the pandemic, rent prices have skyrocketed in major cities across the country. Nationally, the average rent price grew by 11 percent, while in many major cities prices surged even further into the double digits. The increase in prices and stagnation of wages resulted in precarious financial situations for millions of individuals and families. This was especially true for those in retirement, who only make an average of $1,658 per month from Social Security. Seniors from minority and poor communities often make significantly less than that amount.

In May 2021, the LeadingAge LTSS Center at the University of Massachusetts Boston found that more than 100,000 people aged 65 or over and 450,000 people aged 55 to 64 reported they would likely be evicted within the next two months. More than 300,000 people ages 65 and older and one million people aged 55 to 64 reported that they were behind on rent.

A study by the University of Pennsylvania in 2019 predicted that the number of elderly homeless would triple from 40,000 to 106,000 by the year 2030.

Homelessness for older individuals during extreme heat events can be deadly. Older unsheltered individuals are more likely to have health complications that can be severely exasperated by the extreme heat, and mobility issues can make it difficult to find appropriate shelter. Homeless people with disabilities are also at heightened risk of health complications from extreme heat and are limited in their access to necessary supplies, support and medications.

Many cities and organizations have attempted to mitigate the heat problem with limited programs. Las Vegas has teams deliver bottled water to homeless encampments, some of which are located inside the citys network of storm drains. In Oregon last year, officials opened 24-hour cooling stations and volunteers handed out water and popsicles to homeless people around Portland. Other cities, like Boston, have developed heat control programs that include establishing cooling areas and planting more trees for shade.

Cities suffer from what is called the heat island effect, which is when urban areas become hotter than the surrounding countryside because of the heat-absorbent materials that cities are constructed of, like asphalt and glass. Higher densities of vegetation can help offset this effect, but researchers have found that poor neighborhoods are less likely to have trees or similar vegetation and so often see average temperatures several degrees hotter than wealthier areas.

Mitigation measures like handing out water and planting trees can help, but ultimately the problem still remains and is likely to only worsen as millions of people struggle to afford to stay in their homes and capitalist-created climate change fuels more frequent extreme weather events.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Wednesday that it was investigating a report of another child that died after consuming baby formula manufactured by Abbott Labs.

Olivia Godden feeds her infant son, Jaiden, baby formula, Friday, May 13, 2022, at their home in San Antonio [AP Photo/Eric Gay]

The FDA said that the baby died in January and a consumer complaint was filed in February, but the agency only became aware of the complaint on June 10. The new death brings to ten the number of infants that had consumed pediatric nutrition products made by Abbott Labs before they became sick and died.

At the end of a long press release entitled, FDA Provides Update on Efforts to Increase Supply and Availability of Safe and Nutritious Infant Formula, the agency reported it received the complaint two weeks ago and that it had initiated an investigation given that the complaint referenced that the infant had consumed an Abbott product.

The press statement also says, To date, the FDA has reviewed and investigated a total of 129 complaints associated with Abbott Nutrition formula products. Of these, 119 complaints were reported after Abbott voluntarily recalled product on February 17.

The FDA says that of the nine previously reported deaths, only two were associated with the Abbott Nutrition Sturgis plant investigation, and that no definitive link between the infant deaths and Sturgis facility has been established.

The shutdown of the Sturgis, Michigan factory in February was a belated response of the FDA and Abbott Labs to a whistleblower complaint of unsanitary conditions at the facility and a growing number of reports of sickness and death of infants that consumed product from the facility.

Meanwhile, the closure of the largest powdered baby food factory in the US, which supplied 40 percent of the market, accelerated the formula shortage that had been developing since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020.

The Wall Street Journal reported, An Abbott spokesman said at this time there is no evidence to suggest a causal relationship between Abbotts formulas and this newly reported case. The Abbott representative claimed that the number one producer of baby formula in the US had been provided with limited product and clinical information to evaluate the case and the company will investigate further if additional information becomes available.

This is the same belligerent posture that Abbott Labs has adopted throughout the baby formula shortage and the exposure of standing water and bacteria contamination at the Sturgis plant. The FDA was forced to shut down the Sturgis plant because the agency had, in the words of FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, no confidence in the quality program at the facility.

Even though the FDA found the presence of Cronobacter sakazakiia bacterium known to cause deadly blood infections (sepsis) and swelling of the brain and spinal cord (meningitis) in infantsat the Sturgis facility, Abbott Labs has maintained throughout that its products were not responsible for infant deaths.

The ability of the company to avoid liability for infant sickness and death from its products was given a significant boost when the FDA and the US Justice Department signed a consent decree on May 16 with Abbott Labs. In exchange for a commitment by the company to reopen the Sturgis facility, the company gets to go on maintaining that the bacteria found by the FDA at the factory never made it into its baby formula products and had nothing to do with the sickness and death of infants.

Despite the ongoing coverup by both Abbott Labs and the FDA of the bacterial contamination of baby formula, not everyone in the world is accepting claims that there is nothing to worry about. On June 19, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) issued a food recall for certain Abbott brand Similac powdered formula products due to possible Cronobacter sakazakii and Salmonella contamination.

The CFIA warning says, Food contaminated with Cronobacter sakazakii may not look or smell spoiled but can still make you sick. Although Cronobacter sakazakii is not commonly linked to human illness, in rare cases it can cause serious or fatal infections.

Both the expanding number of infants who died after eating Abbott Labs formula and the shortage of baby food on store shelves across the country are manifestations of the crisis and breakdown of the capitalist system. The ruling establishment, preoccupied with profits and wealth accumulation, could care less about the health and welfare of millions of infants and children in the US.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration was so preoccupied with the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine and other crises that it was not even aware that a baby formula shortage crisis was escalating dramatically in the aftermath of the shutdown of the Sturgis factory.

According to a CNN report on Wednesday, the Biden White House did not convene a meeting of baby formula industry representatives until June 1, more than three months after the shutdown of the Abbott Labs factory. The CNN report says, They told the President more than once that that as soon as the Abbott recalls were announced in February, they knew they had a serious problem on their hands.

Biden responded by saying, They did, but I didnt. I became aware of this problem sometime inafter Aprilin early April, about how intense it was.

The indifference by the government and the corporations to families with children was on further display on June 15, when the company announced that severe thunderstorms had flooded the Sturgis factory and forced the shutdown of the plant just 11 days after it had been reopened and production resumed.

On Wednesday, the Biden administration announced that it will provide logistical support for the equivalent to 16 million 8-ounce bottles of baby formula to be imported into the US from a Nestle factory in Jalisco, Mexico. The US Department of Health and Human Services is supporting the travel of trucks carrying 1 million pounds of Gerber Good Start Gentle infant formula to US retailers.
In a pair of reactionary decisions issued Thursday, the 6-3 right-wing majority on the US Supreme Court struck down a New York state law restricting the issuance of permits to carry a concealed weapon and severely restricted the ability of defendants whose Miranda rights were violated to sue the police for damages.

In the much more publicized case, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, the high court ruled that New York states century-old system of requiring applicants to demonstrate proper cause for why they needed to carry a concealed weapon was too restrictive of the supposed constitutional right to keep and bear arms.

With Bruen, the Second Amendment right has been expanded into a right to bear arms virtually anywhere. The opinion, authored by Justice Clarence Thomas, allows that there may be certain sensitive places where firearms can be excluded, such as schools and churches, but it provides no delineation of where the line should be drawn, except that a blanket restriction such as New Yorks is unconstitutional.

Thomas suggested that restrictions similar to New Yorks in California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Hawaii and the District of Columbia were presumptively unconstitutional as well. The Second and 14th Amendments protect an individuals right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home, he wrote.

Extraordinarily, Thomas began his opinion with a positive reference to Dred Scott v. Sanford, the infamous 1857 case that decided that free blacks were not citizens of the United States. Thomas cited then-Supreme Court Justice Roger Taney as a precedent for the assertion that the Constitution guaranteed the right to anyone to keep and carry arms wherever they went.

A concurring opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the supposed moderates in the right-wing bloc, indicated that they would uphold the right of states to require licensing, background checks, fingerprinting, safety training, and other measures that limit gun ownership.

Abortion rights demonstrators protest outside of the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday, May 3, 2022 in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

The majority opinion set a vague and self-contradictory standard for lower courts to judge restrictions on gun rights: The government must demonstrate that the regulation is consistent with this nations historical tradition of firearm regulation.

There is no such national tradition. On the contrary, different states have regulated firearms in different ways. New Yorks law was itself a longstanding tradition, adopted in the early 1900s. Moreover, the weapons lightly regulated in the 19th century have no equivalent in the 21st. Todays mass shooters do not use muskets, but semi-automatic weapons with more firepower than an entire unit of militiamen from the Revolutionary War.

The court decision is a political boost to ultra-right groups that have long used the Second Amendment as a screen for their activities. Here the role of Clarence Thomas is of some significance. His wife Virginia played a major role in Trumps campaign to overturn the 2020 elections and remain in office. She served as a contact point and advocate for the claims that state legislators could replace Biden electors chosen in the popular vote with Trump electors selected by them.

Justice Thomas was the lone member of the Supreme Court to vote in support of a Trump lawsuit seeking to withhold his email messages on January 6, 2021 from the House committee investigating the attack on the Capitol.

In the Bruen ruling, Thomas gives the green light to fascist groups that will seek to enforce their will next time with firearms, not sticks and bear spray.

In the second major ruling, largely ignored by the media, the same 6-3 right-wing majority protected police from being sued by their victims when they engage in gross violations of the Bill of Rights. The case from Los Angeles, Vega vs. Tekoh, involved an immigrant working as a nurses aide in a hospital, who was accused by a stroke patient of having touched her inappropriately.

A sheriffs deputy, Carlos Vega, arrived to investigate, and he took the hospital worker, Terence Tekoh, into a windowless room in the hospital, where he interrogated him for an hour, refusing to let him leave or call an attorney and threatening Tekoh and his family with deportation, until Tekoh finally signed a piece of paper confessing to the assault.

When the case went to trial, the confession was introduced as evidence. Tekohs attorney replied with a battery of hospital workers, who described the circumstances of their co-workers interrogation, demonstrating that Vega had been lying. The jury acquitted Tekoh, and he then filed suit against Vega for violating his constitutional rights. He lost the case at the district court but won at the appeals court level. The Supreme Court decided to take up the case and ruled in favor of the cop.

Perhaps the most significant feature of the case is that the Biden administration chose to intervene on the side of the sheriffs deputy, arguing that since the jury had acquitted Tekoh, he had no grounds for complaint. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar submitted an amicus (friend of the court) brief supporting Vega, not Tekoh.

The legal issue was whether Miranda is a rule implementing a constitutional right, the Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate oneself, or whether it is merely a procedural rule for the police. In a significant ruling, Dickerson v. United States in 2000, Chief Justice William Rehnquist wrote that Miranda was a constitutional rule that applied to the states and could not be overturned by a state law. Rehnquist was an arch-reactionary, but he seems positively benign compared to the fascistic ideologues who populate the court today.

Justice Samuel Alito Jr., writing the majority opinion, said that a violation of Miranda does not necessarily constitute a violation of the Constitution, and therefore such a violation does not constitute the deprivation of [a] right... secured by the Constitution that would authorize a civil rights suit against a police officer.

In a dissent joined by the other two moderate liberals, Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer, Justice Elena Kagan wrote that the decision prevents individuals from obtaining any redress when police violate their rights under Miranda.

John Burton, the civil rights lawyer who represented Tekoh in the trial court and the court of appeals and was co-counsel at the Supreme Court, told the WSWS: Terence Tekoh did not do anything. He was shut in a tiny room by Deputy Carlos Vega and interrogated for an hour, while the deputy threatened to have his entire family deported back to Cameroon, where the English-speaking, Anglophone minority faces persecution. Vega had his hand on his gun while he made these threats. Terence thought the only way to end the interrogation was to sign a phony letter of apology. And then Vega lied to prosecutors and testified falsely about how he obtained the confession, in order to insure it would be introduced at the trial. The jurors saw through the fraud and found Terence innocent. They told him to sue Vega.



Burton, who is a frequent contributor on legal issues to the WSWS, explained the legal and constitutional issues raised in the case: The Miranda decision clearly stated that the Fifth Amendment requires suspects to be warned about self-incrimination at the outset of police custodial interrogations. And the Supreme Courts decision in Dickerson established that Miranda establishes a constitutional right, the violation of which, we argued, can result in a suit for damages under the federal Civil Rights Act.



We were concerned that the right-wing justices would use this case to overturn Dickerson or even Miranda, as they are moving to overturn Roe v. Wade. They chose not to do so at this time, but they carved out an exception to the federal Civil Rights Act, supported by no law at all, that the Miranda warning is a mere procedural rule whose violation does not make the deputy liable to be sued.



The ruling demonstrates the fraud of the claim that the court majority pursues a consistent legal posture of originalism and textualism, conforming to the supposed original intent of those who wrote the Constitution, and the actual text of the law. Instead, the right-wing justices start from their preferred outcome, then rummage through their legal toolbox to find the arguments necessary to support their pre-ordained conclusions.
Immediately after British Home Secretary Priti Patel announced on Friday last week that she had approved Julian Assanges extradition to the United States, the publisher and journalist was stripped naked and placed in a bare cell of Londons maximum-security Belmarsh Prison.

A supporter of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange holds a placard after the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, at the High Court in London, Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021.(AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

This latest abuse of Assanges democratic and human rights was reported by his father John Shipton to a rally in Berlin last Tuesday and at other speaking engagements in Europe. The brutal treatment was meted out on the grounds of preventing Assange from taking his own life.

In reality, it is a continuation of what outgoing United Nations Rapporteur Nils Melzer has branded as the state torture of Assange by the British and US authorities.

The persecution of the journalist is proceeding along two tracks. On the one hand, there is the pseudo-legal extradition process, aimed at dispatching Assange to the US where he would face 18 Espionage Act charges and 175 years imprisonment for publishing true documents which exposed American war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

On the other is the ongoing brutalisation of Assange, who has been subjected to different forms of arbitrary detention for more than a decade. This includes over three years imprisonment in Belmarsh Prison, a facility dubbed Britains Guantanamo Bay, the vast majority of that time without conviction.

On Twitter, Assanges wife Stella Moris also reported that Assange had been denied visitors the entire weekend after Patels announcement. The extradition order will be subject to a further appeal through the British courts. But under conditions of a momentous decision, which has vast and potentially dire consequences for his life, Assange was deliberately isolated and left entirely alone.

The clear aim of the British authorities was not to prevent Assanges suicide, but to intensify his suffering as much as possible. The implications of such treatment being meted out to a man with intense psychological issues, stemming from the protracted US-led persecution, are clear. The British state wants Assange dead.

A similar abuse was inflicted on Assange during the initial British court hearings for his extradition in January, 2020. After the first day of proceedings, he was inexplicably handcuffed eleven times and stripped twice, while guards confiscated his legal papers without justification.

In other words, there is a clear pattern of the Belmarsh authorities seeking to humiliate and degrade Assange, and to heighten his feelings of powerlessness, at key moments of the US-British extradition operation.

The report that Assange was placed on suicide watch is also a damning indictment of the court rulings allowing his extradition to the US. After the initial District Court proceedings, Judge Vanessa Baraitser blocked extradition, on the narrow grounds that Assanges poor health and the brutal conditions in American prisons meant he would die if sent to the US.

That ruling was overturned by the High Court last December, on the basis of bogus and self-contradictory assurances from the US government that Assanges treatment would not be as bad as claimed by his defence lawyers. The assurances were accepted, despite a Yahoo! News report in September alleging that the Trump administration and the CIA had discussed kidnapping or assassinating Assange In 2017.

But while the High Court has ruled that Assanges extradition would not be oppressive, or a risk to his life, Belmarsh Prison, if its actions are taken on face value, acknowledges that there is an imminent risk of Assanges death.

The British authorities will make no attempt to square the contradiction. They have ignored warnings from hundreds of doctors of Assanges deteriorating health and the need for his immediate release, for the past three years.

Meanwhile, Patels announcement has been met with a massive wave of opposition, from press freedom groups, legal experts and prominent public figures. These condemnations of the US-led pursuit of Assange reflect a groundswell of support for the WikiLeaks founder among workers and young people, millions of whom regard him as an heroic figure whose only crime is to have exposed the illegal wars and diplomatic conspiracies of American imperialism.

On Wednesday, fifteen journalists and publishers associations from six different countries met in Geneva, Switzerland. They condemned Patels decision and demanded Assanges immediate freedom.

Dominique Pradalie, president of the International Federation of Journalists, which represents 600,000 media workers in 140 countries, said: Julian Assange is a journalist, a political prisoner who is facing a death sentence. We are demanding that Julian Assange be freed, he returned to his family, and finally permitted to live a normal life.

Pierre Ruetschi, head of the Swiss Press Club, pointed to the broader implications of the US attempt to prosecute a journalist for his publishing activities. Ruetschi warned that democracy is being taken hostage. This attempt at criminalizing journalism is a serious threat.

Patels announcement has also been denounced by several governments. On Tuesday, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador convened a press conference, where he played excerpts from the Collateral Murder video released by Assange and WikiLeaks in 2010. It shows US soldiers in an Apache helicopter gunning down unarmed civilians and two Reuters journalists in Baghdad.

He is the best journalist of our time in the world and has been very unfairly treated, worse than a criminal, Lopez Obrador stated, branding the persecution of Assange as an embarrassment to the world. The Mexican president said he would demand that Biden end the attempted prosecution, when they meet next Tuesday, and said that his country would open its doors to the WikiLeaks publisher.

Lopez Obrador is a capitalist politician, whose government has imposed austerity measures and other right-wing policies. His statements nevertheless provide a glimpse of the real public opinion concerning the US persecution of Assange, which is persistently buried by the corporate media. It is widely viewed as an illegitimate operation, aimed at covering up war crimes and attacking fundamental democratic rights.

The Mexican statements are also an indictment of Australias new Labor government. It has rejected calls, including from his family, to intervene in defence of Assange, who is an Australian citizen. Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has refused to demand that Biden end the prosecution.

Senior Labor ministers have stated that they will not exercise their legal and diplomatic powers to free the WikiLeaks founder, as Australian governments have when citizens have been subjected to persecution in other countries.

The most significant development of the past week has been the outpouring of support for Assange from working people, expressed in hundreds of thousands or even millions of posts on social media.

This is occurring under conditions of a major upsurge of the class struggle, directed against austerity, the soaring cost of living and wage suppression. In Britain, some 50,000 rail workers have taken powerful strike action this week, against the very government that holds the key to Assanges cell door. There is also widespread hostility to the eruption of militarism, expressed most sharply in the US-led proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.

As the World Socialist Web Site has explained, the working class is the constituency for the fight to free Assange, defend democratic rights and end imperialist war. We urge workers and young people to take up this struggle, including by sharing information on Assanges persecution and passing resolutions at your schools and workplaces opposing it and calling for a mass fight for his freedom.
Written and directed by Megan Park

School shootings in the US occur at an alarming rate; this year has already witnessed 30 or so such tragedies. There are no historical precedents for these phenomena, which are unknown in much of the world. Among the most horrific incidents, etched in the publics memory, include the mass killings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado (1999), Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Virginia (2007), Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut (2012), Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida (2018) and, most recently, Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

What do the killings reveal about American life and society? Nothing much, according to the US media and political establishment. People doing very well are unlikely to find much wrong with the social order. By their overwhelming silence or superficiality, the film and music industries register agreement with the media and the rest of the establishment.

On the other hand, the WSWS has argued since the late 1990s that the relentless killing spree reflected a deep social sickness.

In 2019, we insisted that the inability to guarantee the bodily and psychological safety of children goes hand in hand with official American societys inability or stubborn unwillingness to comprehend or even seriously address the root causes of these unending tragedies.

The Fallout

The Fallout by Canadian-born filmmaker Megan Park focuses on the aftermath of a high school shooting in an unnamed American city. With only a handful of films (Elephant, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Mass) having taken up this thorny and painful subject, the filmmakers deserve credit for addressing it. However, as is so often the case, the seriousness of the treatment does not correspond to the seriousness of the problem. The film, while sensitively made, sidesteps the social, political and psychological sources of these calamities.

The Fallout opens with a school shooting. Sixteen-year-old Vada (Jenna Ortega) and schoolmate Mia (Maddie Ziegler), a glamorous influencer with thousands of followers, are in the schools lavatory when the piercing sound of a gun shot and all that it implies assault their senses.

Initially shocked, the girls quickly realize they must scramble to hide themselves in a toilet stall. In the distance, we hear what must be a police officer shouting: Drop your weapon now! A few heart-stopping moments later, Quinton (Niles Fitch) crawls into the next stall, desperately assuring the girls he is not the shooter. Quinton, however, is covered in his brothers blood. The action and rapid-fire events in this sequence are sharply chiseled.

After the shooting, Vada and Mia bond in a confusing, disoriented way, preferring to numb themselves with drugs and alcoholunlike friend Nick (Will Ropp), who becomes a political activist. Vada: Do you have nightmares? Mia: You have to be able to sleep to have nightmares.

Both refuse to return to school. Vada becomes alienated from her supportive family, which includes her parents (Julie Bowen and John Ortiz) and precocious younger sister Amelia (Lumi Pollack). The pair of teenage girls spend most of their time isolated at Mias luxurious house. It can function as a refuge because Mias artist parents are abroad and, remarkably, fail to make an appearance after the mass killing.

The reaction of the schools administration is also, remarkably, entirely absent.

I dont know whats wrong with me. I feel so empty, is the closest Vada comes to articulating the emotional impact of the life-changing experience. There are a few pointless mother-promoted therapy sessions with Anna (Shailene Woodley), during which Vada opts for flippancy, avoiding a serious reckoning with her feelings.

Vada is made so distraught by her eventual return to school that she takes the drug ecstasy, which only accelerates her mental unraveling. Meanwhile, as noted, Nick becomes a student spokesman. Appearing on a local television newscast, he is angry and forceful: We wont live our lives scared to go to school every day. We cant accept a world in which the federal government thinks American students getting cut down in their classrooms isnt a priority. Our leaders have NRA [National Rifle Association] money in their pockets and our blood on their hands. This is The Fallouts only overtly political moment.

Just when Vada attains a certain inner stability, a breaking news story confirms that 12 students have died in an Ohio shooting.

It was ambitious and commendable of Park to dramatize a school shooting and its aftermath, to represent artistically such a troubling event. However, the question remainsand it is the most important questionhow successfully she does it.

Tellingly, in an interview with slashfilm, Park was asked whether she agreed with the remark of veteran director Gus Van Sant about his 2003 film Elephant, concerned with a school shooting, that he [Van Sant] didn't want to try to give an answer for why this happens, because there is no satisfying answer.

Park was in a hundred percent agreement with Van Sant: Although I hope that there are people who feel hope for Vada and specifically these characters, and that they will eventually find a pathway to understanding and living with their trauma and grief, I think you cannot wrap a movie [like] this up with a bow. That would feel wrong.

No one wants a movie neatly wrapped up with a bow, but perhaps looking at the broader world might be in order.

Maddie Ziegler and Jenna Ortega in The Fallout

The WSWS had a different response to the Columbine-inspired Van Sant movie, which at the time of its release was praised by critics specifically for its failure to put forward any analysis of the shooting.

Naturally, wrote David Walsh in 2003, no one will ever know precisely what went through the minds of its perpetrators in the days leading up to the event. Nor can anyone can point conclusively to this or that trauma or slight as the straw that broke the camels back. There are individually specific and inexplicable elements in such mad acts.

It was impossible to predict with scientific accuracy which particular adolescent would collapse, mentally and morally, the WSWS went on. However, if it was unfeasible to create a picture of the social, political, and cultural landscape in which such anti-human acts were inevitably committed by some disoriented youth, then what is the use of our art or our social science?

Vital indicators of impending disaster might include, David North observed in a 1999 WSWS article in relation to the Columbine High School massacre, growing polarization between wealth and poverty; atomization of working people and the suppression of their class identity; the glorification of militarism and war; the absence of serious social commentary and political debate; the debased state of popular culture; the worship of the stock exchange; the unrestrained celebration of individual success and personal wealth; the denigration of the ideals of social progress and equality.

It is wrong and harmful to argue, as Park and many others do, that a work of art can profoundly tackle and plumb an event such as a school shooting without discussing in any fashion its origins or causes. This outlook, which advocates retreating from every complex, burning question, is the sign of a retrograde intellectual and cultural climate.

In fact, young people themselves are asking more searching questions, as they inevitably must. On June 11, at a national demonstration against gun violence, the WSWS interviewed high school and college students who showed considerably more insight into the ultimate sources of school violence than the makers of The Fallout.

One ninth-grade Chicago public school student commented eloquently: I think its connected to capitalism. Its getting more and more unequal, and more and more barbaric as time goes by. Its like what Rosa Luxemburg said: we are faced with a choice between socialism and barbarism. That could not be more true right now. I think capitalism has to end.

In San Diego, another high school student asserted that Sandy Hook was the first one I remember. It happened to kids our age at the time or a year younger, and it has just gotten worse and more frequentThe US spends so much time worrying about places like the Middle East, and the names that they call them, such as shithole countries and so on, and they are consistently sending troops for war, when in our country, a leading cause of death for children is gun violence. They are just not affected by it People in Congress are rich, they have money, they are at the top of the food chain and are not affected like the rest of us.

A community college student from Detroit told WSWS reporters that We cant do the vote blue [Democrat] no matter who thing anymore. It does not work. The two-party system is what is killing this country. I think people fail to realize that once the workers come together and join under a common cause things will start happening. And that is what they are scared of because once it happens, they are screwed.

Some genuine understanding is beginning to sink in.
YEREVAN, JUNE 24, ARMENPRESS. Arman Yeghoyan, the Chair of the Standing Committee on European Integration of the Parliament of Armenia, MPs Arsen Torosyan, Mikayel Tumasyan and Aleksey Sandikov met with MPs of the Hellenic Parliament Christos Dermentzopoulos, Anna-Mani Papadimitriou and Maria-Alexandra Kefala, the Armenian Parliaments press service said.

The latter arrived in Armenia in order to participate in the workshop of the EU Twinning Project Strengthening the capacity of the National Assembly of Armenia to further support CEPA oversight and implementation, which took place on June 22-23 in Tsaghkadzor.

Issues related to the deepening of the EU-Armenia ties, having more open, democratic parliaments for the society and the youth were at the center of the discussions. A number of other issues of mutual interests were also touched upon.

Discussions were organized between the employees of parliaments. The sides highlighted the opportunity given by the Twinning Project, the opportunities to expand ties between the departments of different countries, to exchange experience for the development of institutional capacities.
YEREVAN, JUNE 24, ARMENPRESS. Today, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan received members of the Coalition for Inclusive Legal Reforms. Representatives of interested state agencies and institutions took part in the meeting, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Pashinyan welcomed and encouraged such meetings, which are an effective platform for discussing issues related to the inclusion process and ways to resolve them.

Coordinator of the Coalition for Inclusive Legal Reforms Mushegh Hovsepyan welcomed the Government's policy of keeping the inclusion process in the center of attention and supporting the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities through legislative initiatives. Referring to the activities of the coalition, he noted that founded in 2017, it is a union of 14 organizations operating in Armenia and provides legal assistance to persons with disabilities.

Content-related, legislative and technical issues related to inclusion were discussed at the meeting. The members of the coalition presented to Nikol Pashinyan a number of issues related to the establishment of independent resource centers for people with disabilities, access to education, access to infrastructure through subsidy programs, increase of day care services, mental health strategy, development of assistive technologies, etc. They expressed satisfaction with the availability of public transport in Yerevan, noting that there is need to increase the availability of public transport in the regions.

Touching upon the observations, the Prime Minister noted that the Government is consistent in supporting the inclusion process, for this purpose 4 billion AMD have been allocated from the state budget this year. Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Narek Mkrtchyan presented the state programs and the steps taken in the context of the issues raised.

During the exchange of views, the current reforms and joint actions to promote inclusion were discussed.

The Prime Minister noted that since 2018, there has been no program that was not implemented due to lack of funds, so it is necessary to focus on the implementation of substantive programs, focusing on education and employment components. The Prime Minister proposed to inventory the existing needs in cooperation with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor and the National Assembly to develop the state support strategy according to those needs.

Based on the results of the discussion, Nikol Pashinyan gave instructions to those responsible, as well as suggested to the NGO representatives to come up with proposals for solving the problems.
YEREVAN, JUNE 24, ARMENPRESS. The Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan again spreads misinformation, announcing that on June 24 the units of the Armenian Armed Forces opened fire from different caliber firearms in the direction of the Azerbaijani military positions located in the eastern part of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Ministry of Defense of Armenia.

The Defense Ministry notes that the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border is relatively stable and is under full control of the Armenian Armed Forces.
YEREVAN, JUNE 24, ARMENPRESS. A trilateral meeting took place in Minsk between the Prosecutor General of Armenia Artur Davtyan, the Prosecutor General of Russia Igor Krasnov and the Prosecutor General of Azerbaijan Kamran Aliyev.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Prosecutor Generals Office, within the competences of the prosecutor's offices of the three countries the sides discussed ways to find new opportunities for resolving the existing humanitarian and legal issues arising as a result of the war unleashed against Artsakh and issues related to the implementation of the agreements reached during the previous two meetings on the same agenda in 2021.

The parties stressed the importance of maintaining the trilateral format of the Prosecutor Generals as an effective platform for maintaining contacts in the legal sphere for ensuring stability, legitimacy, de-escalation, basic living rights and security of the population in the region.

In this regard, the diligent and consistent efforts of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation, and personally the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Igor Krasnov aimed at fully complying with the humanitarian requirements of the November 10 trilateral statement, was emphasized.

Prosecutor General of Armenia Artur Davtyan noted that despite the agreement reached during the previous trilateral meetings on the incidents on the contact line of the Armenian-Azerbaijani armed forces and on the mediated exchange of operative information on the ongoing investigations, ceasefire violations continued, resulting in human casualties, new threats to the realization of vital rights and security have been created for the civilian population.

As an obvious example, the Prosecutor General of Armenia referred to the actions carried out by the Azerbaijani armed forces in the direction of Parukh settlement, as a result of which 3 servicemen were killed and 16 servicemen were injured. Arthur Davtyan stressed the need to properly investigate the actions in the village of Parukh, as well as other cases of gross violations of the ceasefire.

Prosecutor General of Armenia Artur Davtyan raised especially the issue that the 8th point of the trilateral declaration of November 10, 2020 has not been implemented. He stressed that the speedy return of 38 Armenian detainees confirmed by Azerbaijan is crucial for restoring trust between the parties, establishing lasting peace in the region and establishing security guarantees, emphasizing the full fulfillment of the humanitarian requirements of the trilateral declaration by Armenia.

An agreement was reached to continue the talks with the mediation of the Russian side in order to fully resolve the humanitarian issues in a short time.
YEREVAN, JUNE 24, ARMENPRESS. Armenia is consistent in its agenda of establishing peace, which it has repeatedly stated both publicly and in the international platforms, and during direct contacts with the Azerbaijani side. ARMENPRESS reports Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan gave an interview to RFE/RL's Armenian Service.

Question: The President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev stated that their proposal to commence the works on the peace agreement has not received a response from the Armenian side yet. How would you comment on that?

Answer: Both publicly and in the international arena, as well as in the direct contacts with the Azerbaijani side, Armenia has repeatedly stated its consistency in the agenda of establishing peace on the highest levels, and that we do not consider anything unacceptable in the proposals of Azerbaijan regarding the future peace agreement, certainly, completing those proposals with our ideas.

We have conveyed our proposal for the framework of the agenda of comprehensive peace negotiations to Azerbaijan through the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries, but so far we have not heard any official response. In other words, contrary to the statements of the President of Azerbaijan, Armenia not only did not reject but also responded positively to the proposal of peace talks, waiting for Azerbaijan's response. At the same time, we have proposed Azerbaijan to launch consultations on the peace agreement between the Foreign Ministers, but so far we have not received any response. The Republic of Armenia reaffirms its readiness to launch consultations on a peace agreement at once.

Question: The President of Azerbaijan also noted that one and a half years later, the Trilateral Statement of November 9, 2020, is not fully implemented, referring, in particular, to the issue of unblocking regional transport communications. What can you say about that?

Answer: Indeed, the Trilateral Statement of November 9 has not been fully implemented yet. Azerbaijan, violating not only its obligations under the Trilateral Statement but also international humanitarian law, continues to illegally hold in captivity the Armenian prisoners of war and civilians, using them as hostages, bargaining and subjecting them to human trade.

Moreover, Azerbaijan denies one of the basic realities enshrined in the Trilateral Statement, stating that there is no Nagorno-Karabakh, and there is no Nagorno-Karabakh issue. Meanwhile, the President of Azerbaijan confirmed the existence of the Nagorno-Karabakh entity by signing a Trilateral Statement. And as long as there is the Trilateral Statement, the existence of that entity cannot be denied.

A gross violation of the Trilateral Statement of November 9 is also the fact that the Azerbaijani armed forces, violating the first provision of that statement, invaded the area of responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh on March 24, 2022, and still remain there.

As for the unblocking of regional transport communications, we have repeatedly stated that Armenia is greatly interested in the success of this process.

The process would have been completed much faster if it were not for the continuous groundless statements of the Azerbaijani authorities on the exterritorial corridor, which have nothing to do with reality and the agreements reached in the presence of several international partners. Anyway, for the sake of justice, it should be noted that the discussion on the issue of unblocking is carried out in a constructive environment. I hope that it will not fail due to incomprehensible political intrigues and will be successfully completed soon.
Heads of state of the European Union have decided to grant Ukraine and Moldova the status of candidates to join the bloc, President of the European Council Charles Michel said as the EU held a summit on Thursday, Tass informs.

June 24, 2022, 09:51 EU summit grants Ukraine, Moldova candidate status to join EU

STEPANAKERT, JUNE 24, ARTSAKHPRESS: "Agreement. EUCO has just decided EU candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova," he said on Twitter, using the acronym for the European Council.

"A historic moment," he said. "Today marks a crucial step on your path towards the EU. Our future is together."

The official congratulated the leaders of Ukraine and Moldova.

Regarding Georgia, the European Council "decided to recognize the European perspective of Georgia and is ready to grant candidate status once the outstanding priorities are addressed," Michel said.

"Congratulations to the Georgian people," he said. "A historic moment in EU-Georgia relations: Georgia's future lies within the EU."

The European Commission on June 17 recommended that the summit grant a candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova. The European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said the EU must grant Ukraine a candidate status as a "symbol of hope" to support the moral of the Ukrainians while the country had a long way to go before actual accession.
Sheryl Lee Ralph of "Abbott Elementary" and her husband, Pennsylvania state senator Vincent Hughes. MICHAEL TRAN/AFP via Getty Images

Jane Fonda was married to California state senator Tom Hayden for 17 years.

US Senator Cory Booker and Rosario Dawson dated for two years.

"Abbott Elementary" star Sheryl Lee Ralph's husband Vincent Hughes is a Pennsylvania state senator.

Elizabeth Taylor and future senator John Warner married in 1976 and remained friends after their divorce.

Elizabeth Taylor and John Warner. Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

Taylor and Warner met on a blind date at a bicentennial dinner in honor of Queen Elizabeth at the British Embassy in 1976 and were married a few months later. Warner then successfully ran for Congress in 1978 with Taylor drawing large crowds at campaign appearances, The Washington Post reported.

The couple divorced in 1982, but remained friendly.

"We never had any real infractions between us  it was just that I became so absorbed in the Senate," Warner told People magazine in a 2011 interview. "I'd go up every weekend to see her in New York. For a while we just managed married life. Then she started plays in London and that became a little more difficult, and finally we just said, 'Hey, let's always remain good friends but let's take the legal part and  go our separate ways. And that's how it happened."

Jane Fonda was married to anti-war activist and California state senator Tom Hayden for 17 years.

Tom Hayden and Jane Fonda. Robin Platzer/IMAGES/Getty Images

Fonda and Hayden first connected when she gave a speech at a Vietnam War protest in 1971. They wed a year later and welcomed a son, Troy, in 1973.

They divorced in 1989, but continued their activist work together at Campaign California, according to the Los Angeles Times. Hayden died in 2016.

"I needed someone far wiser and more knowledgeable than I was about movement-building and politics and all of that," Fonda said of Hayden in a 2018 interview with The New Yorker. "And he had this depth of knowledge, and he gave me structure and guidance, and I learned so much from him that I am forever grateful for. I miss him so much.

"Orange is the New Black" star Kate Mulgrew was married to Tim Hagan, who ran for governor of Ohio.

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Kate Mulgrew and Tim Hagan. Brad Barket/Getty Images

Mulgrew married Hagan, a county commissioner in Ohio's Cuyahoga County, in 1999. He ran for governor of Ohio in 2002, but lost to his Republican challenger. He announced his retirement from politics in 2010.

The couple divorced in 2014. Mulgrew currently plays Susan Sher, Michelle Obama's chief of staff, on the Showtime series "The First Lady."

Celebrity chef Sandra Lee and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo dated for 14 years before their split in 2019.

Andrew Cuomo and Sandra Lee. James Devaney/FilmMagic/Getty Images

Lee rose to fame as the host of Food Network's "Semi-Homemade Cooking With Sandra Lee." She met Cuomo in 2005 at a party in the Hamptons, according to Town and Country magazine.

They broke up in 2019, though Lee told The New York Times in 2020 that she still spoke to Cuomo every day.

Cuomo resigned from office in 2021 after multiple women came forward to say he had harassed and sexually assaulted them while serving as the state's chief executive. In his resignation announcement, he apologized for offending women with behavior he described as "outdated."

Senator Cory Booker and Rosario Dawson dated for two years.

Senator Cory Booker and Rosario Dawson. Bonnie Biess/Getty Images

Booker and Dawson met in 2018 at a political fundraiser. After Booker said in a 2019 radio interview that he had a "boo," Dawson confirmed their relationship to TMZ when she was spotted at the airport in Washington, DC, and later in an interview with The Washington Post.

"He's so charming and so confident and so capable, but it's not like that translates to being some super-smooth kind of guy," she told The Post. "That's not his style. What wins me over with him is definitely the dad jokes."

People magazine reported in February that Booker and Dawson had broken up after two years together.

Sheryl Lee Ralph is married to Pennsylvania state senator Vincent Hughes.

Sheryl Lee Ralph and Vincent Hughes. MICHAEL TRAN/AFP via Getty Images

Ralph, who has starred in "Moesha," "Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit," and currently plays Barbara Howard in "Abbott Elementary," met Hughes through a mutual friend, according to People magazine. They wed in 2005.

"We believe in each other's mission and each other's work, and we're both very focused on our children and our family," Hughes told Essence magazine in a 2020 interview. "I think that really is the foundation. I like what Sheryl's about. Even when we don't want to communicate with each other, we do. We pray for the strength to always turn toward each other when we have differences. People have a tendency to turn away. It has worked for us; I can tell you that.

Read the original article on Insider
The Senate voted Thursday to pass a bipartisan gun bill sponsored by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and supported by Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was one of 15 Republicans who crossed the aisle to join all 50 of the 100-member chamber's Democrats to support new public safety measures.

The final vote was 65-33. The House of Representatives is set to vote Friday on the legislation.

"Today, thanks to bipartisan support in the Senate, our Bipartisan Safer Communities Act moves one step closer to becoming law, keeping our schools safe, and reducing violence in our communities," Sinema, D-Ariz., said in a written statement released immediately after the Senate action.

She also praised the three other senators whose names are on the bill.

"Im grateful for the partnership of Senators (Christopher) Murphy (D-Conn.), (John) Cornyn (R-Texas), and (Thom) Tillis (R-N.C.)  together we crafted a commonsense solution to community violence that protects Americans constitutional rights and saves lives," Sinema said. "Passage of our bill with support from both sides of the aisle demonstrates what we can achieve when we work together to solve problems."

Kelly, D-Ariz., also emphasized bipartisanship in a post-vote statement.

"Todays bipartisan vote is an example of what can get done when Republicans and Democrats come together to solve real problems, which is exactly what I came to Washington to do," said Kelly, whose wife, former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., suffered a near-fatal gunshot wound to her head in a 2011 assassination attempt. "Our legislation will make our schools and communities safer, save innocent lives, and expand mental health care services while protecting our Second Amendment rights. I look forward to swift House passage so that our bill can get to the Presidents desk as soon as possible."

The Bipartisan Communities Safety Act, which President Joe Biden is expected to sign, advances mild restrictions on gun ownership, falling far short of the sweeping changes Biden and many Democrats wanted after a series of mass shootings around the country.

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Among the bill's hallmarks is ending the so-called boyfriend loophole, a gap in federal policy that allows unmarried partners convicted of domestic violence to purchase guns if they do not have children or live with their partner.

The bill would push states to consider juvenile records when reviewing gun ownership applications for 18- to 21-year-olds. And it will direct hundreds of millions of dollars toward state crisis intervention programs and the development of community behavioral health centers.

"As the author of the Brady Bill from 1994  the last (major) legislative effort to fight gun violence in Congress  Im pleased that this moment has finally come, and that were finally taking meaningful action to keep our communities safe," Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a written statement. "I hope it paves the way for future action on guns in Congress & at all levels of government. As I said, this is not a cure-all for all the ways gun violence affects our nation, but it is a long-overdue step in the right direction."

For years, Republicans in Washington remained unmoved to calls for gun control legislation that ranged from commonsense background checks to a ban on assault rifles. Then came the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in which one gunman killed 19 students and two teachers after purchasing two assault style rifles just days after his 18th birthday.

That massacre motivated a bipartisan group of 20 senators  10 Republicans and 10 Democrats  to the negotiating table. Sinema was among the leaders in those talks.

McConnell, who had refused to support any legislation that could curtail the widespread ownership of guns, praised the effort.

This is the sweet spot, McConnell said Wednesday on the Senate floor. Making America safer, especially for kids in school, without making our country one bit less free."

Across the aisle: Sinema touts bipartisanship ahead of Senate gun bill vote

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, signaled Thursday that the House would act quickly on the Senate-passed gun bill.

"Every day, gun violence steals lives and scars communities  and this crisis demands urgent action," Pelosi said in a statement. "While we must do more, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act is a step forward that will help protect our children and save lives."

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Sinema, Kelly hail bipartisan effort to pass gun control bill
Editor's note: This column has been updated to reflect the recent Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade and to clarify several statistics.

This column is by Zemmie Fleck, executive director of Georgia Right to Life and a native of Atlanta who is dedicated to the right to life of all innocent human beings and the preservation of the God-ordained family. She may be reached at zemmie@grtl.org

Unlike this year, the Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has made it possible for millions more children to celebrate Fathers Day in 2023.

At the same time, we must end the marginalization of men. While fatherlessness is one of the most important, yet ignored issues in our culture, the destructive idea of toxic masculinity is destroying many families because the time-honored role of a man leading his household has been stripped away by our culture and replaced with the man portrayed as an emasculated follower in his household; a hapless, helpless man who is good for nothing or more of a kid than a husband and father.

More opinions on abortion: Georgia abortion pill mail ban bill, less to do with women's health, more about control

In many cases, men are left out of the abortion conversation, denying them the opportunity to be fathers. And yet, fathers are essential to the well-being of the family. Without a father, children face poverty, trouble in school, physical abuse, sexual abuse, maltreatment, early sexual activity, teen pregnancy and the list goes on.

Kristin Costanza, left, a student at Mount Saint Mary's University in Emmitsburg, MD, prays in front of the Supreme Court during the March for Life to mark the 33rd anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade Jan. 23, 2006 in Washington, D.C.

As to the issue of abortion in general, women have been fed lies. The mantra of my body, my choice is both factually and Biblically wrong.

Medical advances such as ultrasounds clearly show that the child is a separate and unique person who is living inside the mother, but not part of the mother.

Biblically speaking, in Psalm 139, King David proclaims: For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mothers womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place; when I was woven together in the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be (NIV).

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For subscribers: My mom had an abortion almost 50 years ago. My family is finally talking about her decision

I praise God that the Supreme Court has ended abortion, a procedure that, according to a study conducted on behalf of the National Right to Life Committee has claimed the lives of more than 63 million innocent children since the Roe v. Wade decision of 1973. Thats nearly the population of France. In 2020, 31,248 pre-born children in Georgia, my home state, were denied their God-given right to life, an increase of 592 over the previous year.

That is a significant statistic because 2020 was the year of COVID-19 when, in Georgia, only facilities providing essential services should have been open. Abortion is the gravest scourge of human rights abuse of innocent lives of our time.

A group of volunteer clinic escorts (in multi colored vests), stand outside of Choices Women's Medical Center off of Jamaica Avenue in Queens, as abortion protesters hold signs June 18, 2022. The escorts walk with patients to the clinic, when they are sometimes confronted by abortion protesters gathered at the site.

Its critical to understand that overturning Roe is not the end of the struggle. It is the starting point. In Georgia, it will clear the way to potentially adopt a personhood amendment to our state constitution. Such an amendment will ensure that no innocent person could be legally killed in Georgia. It will provide protection, equal justice, and equal rights for all innocent human beings at any stage of development, age, medical condition, manner of conception, or race.

A personhood amendment is vital because Georgias current law fails to protect all pre-born children because it allows abortions in the case of rape, incest or a suspected fetal anomaly. These exceptions wrongly proclaim that some lives are less valuable than others.

Abortion law changes ahead: Here's what would happen in Georgia if Roe v. Wade is overturned

Zemmie Fleck is Executive Director of Georgia Right to Life, a native of Atlanta, GA, who is dedicated to the right to life of all innocent human beings and the preservation of the God-ordained family. She may be reached at zemmie@grtl.org

The bottom line: America has taken a monumental step toward righting itself from the evil of abortion. Now, all states must totally ban the killing of preborn children, men must be respected, fathers must take responsibility for their children and family values must be celebrated.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Fleck: Celebrate end Roe v. Wade and establish a personhood amendment
John Mellencamp is slamming lawmakers for not doing more to stop school shootings.

The "Small Town" singer criticized politicians over their response to gun violence, saying they "don't give a f*** about our children."

"Only, in America, can 21 people be murdered and a week later be buried and forgotten, with a flimsy little thumbnail, a vague notion of some sort of gun control law laying on the senators' desks," the 70-year-old musician and painter wrote on Twitter Tuesday, referring to the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting on May 24.

"What kind of people are we who claim that we care about pro-life?" he continued. Just so you know, anyone that's reading this... politicians don't give a f*** about you, they don't give a f*** about me, and they don't give a f*** about our children."

He concluded, "So, with that cheery thought in mind, have a happy summer, because it will be just a short time before it happens again."

Mellencamp's comments came on Tuesday as the Senate voted to advance a new bipartisan gun control bill. It would enhance background checks and give authorities up to 10 business days to review the juvenile and mental health records of gun purchasers under 21. Funding would also go to help states implement red flag laws as well as to expand mental health resources in communities and schools and boost school safety, among other things.

It would not include raising the minimum age to purchase an assault weapon from 18 to 21 or banning high-capacity magazines like the House of Representatives bills approved earlier this month.

The Uvalde shooter legally purchased an AR-15-style rifle on May 17  one day after he turned 18. Three days later, he purchased a second rifle, and in between bought 375 rounds of ammunition. On May 24, he killed19 fourth graders and two teachers at Robb Elementary. The gunman also shot his grandmother in the face.

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Mellencamp has long spoken out against gun violence, joining 200 other artists and music execs in 2016 in calling for gun reform in the wake of the Orlando nightclub shooting. Following the Uvalde shooting, he said on MSNBC's The Beat last week that news outlets should start showing the carnage of school shootings to open the eyes of those resisting reform.

"I don't know if youre old enough, but I remember when Vietnam first started, and it was a conversation on the news," the father of five said. "But then, when they started showing dead teenagers, people did something about it, and the country united. I think that we need to start showing the carnage of these kids who have died in vain... If we don't show it, then they're dying in vain, because they're just going to pass more bulls*** laws like they're trying to get through now. Show us. Let the country see what a machine gun can do to a kid's head."
People: Madonna Gallery Title: MADONNA, WOW FINALLY ENOUGH LOVE PRIDE PARTY Location: Madonna, World of Women NFT, Sandbox and Belvedere celebrate Pride Date: Thu, Jun 23 2022

RICARDO GOMES Madonna

Madonna kicked off New York City Pride with a star-studded "Celebration."

On Thursday night, the pop icon put on "WoW, Finally Enough Love," an impressive variety show for fans at Terminal 5 in Hell's Kitchen, a predominately gay neighborhood in Manhattan.

The spectacle kicked off with appearances from RuPaul's Drag Race alums Bob the Drag Queen  who emceed  as well as Violet Chachki, Laganja Estranja and Pixie Aventura, who performed to some of Madge's biggest hits, from "Vogue" to "Justify My Love." Also making a cameo throughout the evening: Madonna's 16-year-old son David, who joined for some comedy and dance.

Midway through the show, Madonna joined the queens onstage, where the infamously tardy star cracked a joke about being on time for once, before addressing the packed crowd, which included stars like Zachary Quinto, Jonathan Groff, Billy Eichner and Julia Fox, as well as drag stars Gottmik and Gigi Goode.

People: Madonna Gallery Title: MADONNA, WOW FINALLY ENOUGH LOVE PRIDE PARTY Location: Madonna, World of Women NFT, Sandbox and Belvedere celebrate Pride Date: Thu, Jun 23 2022

RICARDO GOMES Madonna and Tokischa

"New York City, you know we are the greatest city in the world, for so many reasons," said Madonna, who partnered with NFT company WoW (World of Women) for the event. "I was asked to perform at many Pride events around the world  but I would never, ever turn down New York City, because this is the city where I was born. I came out of my mother's vagina in Bay City, Michigan, but I was born in New York City!"

The longtime LGBTQ ally added: "It's a very weak crowd. Is the ketamine wearing off? Anyway, in case you didn't know, the reason that New York is so great is that I'm pretty sure that the first queer human evolved from this city. I think they came from the caves of Central Park West. I've heard this conspiracy theory, that I don't believe is a conspiracy theory. Anyways, not only is New York City the best place in the world because of the queer people here. Let me tell you something, if you can make it here, then you must be queer. Did you hear what I said? [sings in 'New York, New York' melody] 'If you can make it here / Then you probably are so queer.' There's one more reason New York City is the best city in the world. One more very important reason. We have the best pizza. Yes, give it up for the pizza in New York!"

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People: Madonna Gallery Title: MADONNA, WOW FINALLY ENOUGH LOVE PRIDE PARTY Location: Madonna, World of Women NFT, Sandbox and Belvedere celebrate Pride Date: Thu, Jun 23 2022

RICARDO GOMES Madonna

Throughout the rest of the hour-long show  which celebrated Madonna's new 16-song remix album Finally Enough Love Madonna went on to perform with the drag queens, as well as queer artists like Saucy Santana and Tokischa, with whom she shared a make-out session.

After closing the show with a performance of her 2009 track "Celebration," Madonna bid the crowd goodbye, saying, "We love you  I love you," before walking off to "Holiday."

The venue was transformed into a Material Girl mecca and was plastered with the queen of pop's career-spanning album and single art; featured song title-inspired cocktails from Belvedere (like the "Into the Groove"); "Sticky & Sweet"-themed snacks; a MAC Cosmetics VIVA Glam station; a photo booth activation; montages highlighting clips from her most iconic music videos; and exclusive merch from the one-night-only event, which was also sponsored by The Sandbox and Linktree.
Marcus Bingham is heading from East Lansing, Mich. to Dallas.

Bingham has reportedly signed an exhibit 10 contract with the Dallas Mavericks. Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports reported the signing shortly after Bingham went undrafted in Thursdays NBA Draft.

Undrafted free agent big man Marcus Bingham out of Michigan State has agreed to an exhibit 10 contract with the Dallas Mavericks, league sources tell @YahooSports.  Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) June 24, 2022

Bingham averaged 9.3 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game this past season. He ended his college career as Michigan States all-time leader in blocks.

An exhibit 10 contract is essentially a training camp invite so Bingham will have an uphill battle to earn a spot on the Mavericks roster. However, it does at least bode well for him in at least playing for the teams NBA G League affiliate  the Texas Legends.

Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan state news, notes, and opinion. You can also follow Robert Bondy on Twitter @RobertBondy5.

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New York Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou (D) would be the first openly autistic member of Congress and the second Asian American to represent New York in the nation's capital. (Photo: Hans Pennink/Associated Press)

New York Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou (D) would be the first openly autistic member of Congress and the second Asian American to represent New York in the nation's capital. (Photo: Hans Pennink/Associated Press)

NEW YORK  New York State Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou (D) is used to making powerful enemies  even in her own party. Niou won her state legislative seat by ousting an establishment incumbent in 2016, and has not hesitated to take on fellow Democrats when she felt they were betraying the partys progressive ideals. She has had high-profile disputes with then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) and then-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), and already had differences with their respectivesuccessors.

As a result of her outspokenness, the lower Manhattan lawmaker even elicited a self-funded centrist primary challenger in 2020, whom she easily defeated.

Niou  whose full name is pronounced You Lean New  is hoping to continue her winning streak in the Democratic primary for New Yorks new 10th Congressional District on Aug. 23. The predominantly liberal seat encompasses lower Manhattan and a cluster of contiguous neighborhoods in central and South Brooklyn.

HuffPost is running an interview series with the 10th District candidates. Check out our previous interviews with Carlina Rivera and Bill de Blasio.

Niou, who immigrated to the United States from Taiwan as a child, would be the first openly autistic member of Congress and the second-ever Asian American to represent New York in Washington. She is also a former bartender, an enthusiastic karaoke participant, and an avid reader of science fiction-themed graphic novels.

Nious status as a progressive star has already helped her land endorsements from the New York Working Families Party, the New York City chapter of the climate action-focused Sunrise Movement, and democratic socialist state Sen. Julia Salazar (D).

But she is competing in a field of at least 15 Democrats that includes de Blasio, New York City Councilwoman Carlina Rivera, and Rep. Mondaire Jones (D), who had $2.9 million on hand at the end of March.

Story continues

HuffPost interviewed Niou earlier this month over ice cream and dumplings in Manhattans Chinatown neighborhood. We asked her about her reasons for running, housing policy and the importance of Asian American representation.

The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

New York Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou (D), left, and state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi (D), a friend who is now also running for Congress, speak at a 2019 rally for the presidential campaign of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D). (Photo: Eliza Orlins/Twitter)

New York Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou (D), left, and state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi (D), a friend who is now also running for Congress, speak at a 2019 rally for the presidential campaign of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D). (Photo: Eliza Orlins/Twitter)

Why run for this seat?

This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to represent an open congressional seat in New York.

Were trying to represent folks who have never been represented on the congressional level before. Theres a lack of representation on the federal level, in terms of diversity, in terms of lens, and in terms of perspective. We need to have a lot of different kinds of lenses so that we can have better policy. Thats how we make good policy.

Im hoping that we can have this opportunity for all of our communities to have representation.

Ive obviously served for six years in the Assembly. And I feel like it was something that was lacking on the Assembly level.

Now obviously, we need to fight more than ever on the congressional level. Were seeing that we are losing not just our bodily autonomy, but also so much of our rights. We need to make sure that we have people who are courageous in this moment, to fight for us. My district, my community asked me to fight and so Im fighting.

You seem like you would be a natural addition to the Squad, because youre kind of a part of the state Capitol Squad in Albany. Do you aspire to be part of that ultra-progressive bloc of fighters?

I need to represent my people. My district is very, very progressive. Theres a lot of stances that we have to take to make sure that we have the voices of our constituents represented. I will say that over and over and over again.

But its not so simple as in, Oh, this is going to be the viewpoint of this group, or that group. And actually, every single person that you talk to will have different perspectives, and different lenses that theyre seeing things through.

You have to understand that theres no wrong or right, or this is the best way or this is the worst way. Its about trying to figure out what are some of the things that make those issues so important to people, and then figuring out how to best problem-solve.

Everybodys perspective is important. Everybodys perspective is valid. And thats why its so fun to be able to understand where things are turning, so that we can have better answers.

One in four Asian Americans here in our city are living in poverty, and people dont realize that.New York Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou (D)

Lets take Chinatown as an example. What is an issue for which you think the neighborhood needs better advocacy on the federal level?

For example, language access is humongous, but people dont ever think about it.

The federal government could do a lot on all of our forms, on its websites. I still remember seeing the signs for how to access help after 9/11  none of it was translated, and our community was all affected up here. They didnt know that they could go and get the victim compensation or they didnt know that they could go and ask for medical help. Its not out there.

It was really important for us to pass that language access bill providing translation for all state agency websites. On the state level, that was one of the biggest things that I worked on. Language access is very, very common sense stuff, but people dont realize that because theres no lens to see that it gets left on the table.

It helps everyone. When we are talking about every issue, we should be talking about it as a disability issue, because every issue is a disability issue, whether its housing, education  all of it. Everybody should have access, truly. If were building a ramp to make sure that we can get in to hard places, isnt that easier for [people without disabilities too]?

One in four Asian Americans here in our city are living in poverty, and people dont realize that. That makes it the most impoverished ethnic group in the entire city. Its also just really, really sad because we also have the least amount of access to benefits. Not because they dont already qualify. Its because they dont have language access. They dont know how to apply. They dont know how to get it.

What House committees would you like to be on if you have the chance?

Ive always been an anti-poverty advocate. I worked a lot on stopping predatory lending. I actually helped to regulate the payday lending industry in Washington State when I was much younger. And then over here, obviously, we prohibit payday lending as a whole. But we also have seen that there are people who have tried to legalize payday lending through the back door with check cashing businesses. We tried to put together another legislative component into how they lend.

So I would probably want to be on committees that deal with financial services, banking and housing issues. Im such a big proponent of public housing.

Niou chats with Assemblyman Ron Kim (D), center, and state Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris (D), left. She is part of a new crop of progressive New York lawmakers. (Photo: Hans Pennink/Associated Press)

Niou chats with Assemblyman Ron Kim (D), center, and state Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris (D), left. She is part of a new crop of progressive New York lawmakers. (Photo: Hans Pennink/Associated Press)

Specifically on the issue of housing, what do you think the federal government can do better?

Fully funding our public housing and making sure that our public housing is not dilapidated. There were literally decades of disinvestment to our public housing and unfortunately that devastated our housing stock in a way thats exponential. So if youre not taking care of one thing, then every other thing will get worse and worse  lead paint, lack of hot water, lack of ability to take care of the mold remediation situation. We need around $70 billion just to fill the hole in public housing for our state.

What do you think of somebody coming in from the suburbs to run?

I like Mondaire [Jones] a lot. I fought for him in his election. I made calls for him with [the] Sunrise [Movement].

Its a democracy. Anyone can run. But I do think thats going to be up to the voters.

What about Bill de Blasio?

Hes a nice guy. Ive met him a couple times. We have a couple of things that we disagree on  a lot of the things he tried to do in my community. My community is oversaturated  all communities of color are oversaturated  with shelters, jails, services that the whole city is benefiting from.

You also see the physical lack of investment when youre walking around here. We had to walk almost five blocks [just now] to get to a trash can.

Is that why you opposed the Haven Green housing development, which claims to offer affordable housing?

I opposed it because they presented a plan that didnt have any affordable housing  that was truly affordable, deeply affordable. The original plan also didnt have a lot of longevity to the proposal  like very few years. So we had to push back.

And on top of that, if youre taking away a public good, you should get a public good in return  a permanent public good in return. And this housing isnt permanent. Its 60 years and then its opened up to privatization. Its really important that we actually have permanent affordability.

We already have a lack of green space down here. People have a hard time. People said, Oh, my God! Where are the kids going to play? Yes, we are a concrete jungle and we dont hate density. We have density. Its all about making sure that we are actually balancing all of the needs of our constituents, the people who are living down here.

I will say that the plans have gotten better due to the fact that we pushed back. I think that it could still get better. If the city really wanted it to be affordable, they could say that it will remain affordable for 99 years and that indicates an intention to make it permanent.

The U.S. does have certain amounts of power that it should exercise when there are bad things that are happening across the world.Assemblywoman Yuh-Lin Niou (D)

Would you have voted for the latest city budget  or joined the six progressive council members who voted against it?

I absolutely would have voted against it.

The federal budget gave us more education funding due to COVID. The state finally fulfilled its funding obligations. Thats billions of dollars. And I dont understand why the city then cut education. I dont understand it.

I have voted no on budgets before. But Im not voting no lightly. I do it because sometimes we need to take a stand to make things better.

Youve spoken out a lot about acts of violence against members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. Why has there been an increase in anti-Asian violence? What do you think can be done to reverse it?

On the federal level, our leaders were totally OK with demonizing Asian Americans, blaming the pandemic on us, using stereotypes that have been regurgitated over and over and over again after decades to harm us. Its easy to use those things because Asian Americans have historically been demonized. Thats the kind of stuff that Trump was doing and a lot of our Congress members were saying.

Thats why its so important that we have people who are speaking out against it, and fighting against it.

There is a pretty diverse array of views within the Asian American community about law enforcement. What is your attitude about it? Is there a law enforcement component to addressing this issue?

Again, its about representation. We only have two high-ranking officers of Asian descent in the entire NYPD. And one of them, Thomas Chan, retired.

How are we serving our community? Are they actually policing in a way thats helpful or harmful?

Theres a lack of representation there and until theres a system thats going to help us to be able to have things in perspective, then its not one thats servicing our community.

Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou, center, speaks at a gathering of New York state lawmakers rallying against then-President Donald Trump's immigration policies in 2018. (Photo: Hans Pennink/Associated Press)

Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou, center, speaks at a gathering of New York state lawmakers rallying against then-President Donald Trump's immigration policies in 2018. (Photo: Hans Pennink/Associated Press)

What do you make of conservatives argument that the 2019 bail reform legislation has contributed to an uptick in violent crime?

There is a purposeful story that they want to make about bail reform, which isnt true. Bail reform is about making sure that theres not two criminal justice systems  one for the rich, and one for the poor. It doesnt mean that theyre not then still having to go to court and still could get charged or any of those things. It just means the difference between sitting on Rikers Island waiting for trial versus staying home and waiting for trial.

One thing you hear sometimes is that maybe judges should have more tools to deny people bail, such as determining whether someone is dangerous.

The word dangerous in a bail determination context has racist roots. Dangerousness and the determination of dangerousness is racist, because sometimes a judge will see something that is a subjective feeling of, This is more dangerous. Thats why its not legal language.

Judges have judicial discretion, just as they always have. People should probably think about what it is that judges are doing, not the law itself being the issue.

Do you think that theres any room for common ground with Republicans in Congress?

We could probably come to some common ground when it comes to consumer protection issues, even some banking or labor practices.

But I think that thats probably not going to be the same perspective when it comes to abortion rights, or health care. Theres a very distinct difference in what we think is important.

When we were talking about the Adult Survivors Act [enabling more adults to pursue justice for sexual abuse endured as children], we saw a lot of pushback from Republicans. They said we were trying to bankrupt the church. I had to step up and say, None of this is about bankrupting churches or institutions. Its about protecting kids. My sharing my own experience of abuse made it so that a lot of people ended up voting for it that wouldnt have otherwise.

One thing that youll get a chance to work on in Congress that you did not deal with in Albany is foreign policy. The United States recently gave $40 billion in aid to Ukraine and the only people to vote against it were Republicans. But some people on the left are concerned about more military spending, and escalated American involvement in conflicts. What are your thoughts?

I am never somebody who says, We should be going to war. But I do think that the U.S. does have certain amounts of power that it should exercise when there are bad things that are happening across the world.

Our government does have to make these hard decisions a lot. And I think that theres probably information that I myself dont know in how people made certain decisions. Its really important to have that information for making those decisions.

Does that mean youre not sure whether youd support the aid package without more information?

An illegal invasion of another country by a global superpower, in which there are civilians killed, innocent people  there should be something for the world to say about that. But its really important that we see the effects and understand the effects that we have whenever we interfere with something abroad or insert our power. It should always be for humanitarian reasons and not just for ourselves.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Here's what that means for abortion access in your state.

The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that legalized abortion across the US.

13 states have trigger laws that automatically outlawed abortion when Roe v. Wade was overturned.

States like New York, California, Maine, and Oregon have state laws protecting abortion rights.

The Supreme Court on Friday overturned Roe v. Wade, a consequential decision that guts the nearly 50-year-old landmark ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.

The monumental ruling allows states to make their own abortion laws after decades of constitutionally protected abortion rights at the federal level.

Here's what abortion access looks like in each state post-Roe.

Alabama

Alabama's trigger law abortion ban won't go into effect immediately. The state's 2019 Human Life Protection Act will become law once District Judge Myron Thompson lifts his injunction. The act includes an exception for serious health risks to the pregnant person, but not for rape and incest. It also includes sentences of 10 to 99 years in prison for abortion providers.

Alaska

Abortion access is not impacted by the Supreme Court's decision. Both Alaska's state legislature and state Supreme Court have codified a pregnant person's right to choose.

Arizona

Abortions will be banned after 15 weeks, per a bill Gov. Doug Ducey signed in April, which has not yet gone into effect. There is an exception for preserving the life of the pregnant person, but not for rape or incest.

Arkansas

Abortion became illegal on Friday when Attorney General Leslie Rutledge certified the trigger law ban put in place in 2019.

California

California state law protects access to abortion.

Colorado

Abortion remains legal in Colorado. The Reproductive Health Equity Act, signed by Gov. Jared Polis in April, codifies abortion access at any point in a pregnancy.

Connecticut

Abortion remains legal in Connecticut, having been codified in state law in 1990.

Delaware

State law protects abortion access in Delaware.

Story continues

Florida

Starting July 1, Florida law will ban abortion after 15 weeks.

Georgia

A six-week abortion ban set to take effect after the overturning of Roe v. Wade continues to face legal challenges and has not yet been enacted. The ban includes exceptions for miscarriages, non-viable pregnancies, and rape and incest if a police report was filed.

Hawaii

State law protects abortion access in Hawaii.

Idaho

Idaho only allows abortions if rape or incest are reported to law enforcement first. In a trigger law that will take effect 30 days after the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, rape or incest victims have to provide doctors with a copy of a police report in order to receive an abortion. The ban also contains an exception to save a pregnant person's life.

Illinois

Abortion remains legal in Illinois, per state law.

Indiana

Indiana does not have laws protecting or banning abortion. Abortion is legal within the first 20 weeks of pregnancy, but lawmakers have enacted 483 abortion restrictions between 2011 and 2019, according to The Guttmacher Institute.

Iowa

In June, Iowa's Supreme Court reversed a ruling guaranteeing abortion as a fundamental privacy right. This paves the way for enacting restrictive abortion laws, but abortion remains legal up to 20 weeks.

Kansas

Kansas state law features constitutional protections for abortions up to 22 weeks, but that could change with an August 2 vote to decide whether or not the constitution can create a right to abortion.

Kentucky

All abortions are now illegal in Kentucky, with a 2019 trigger law signed by former Gov. Matt Bevin taking effect. The law includes an exception to prevent "death or substantial risk of death" to the pregnant person, but not for rape or incest.

Louisiana

Louisiana's 2006 trigger law has taken effect, outlawing all abortions in the state from the moment of "fertilization and implantation."

Maine

State law protects the right to abortion in Maine.

Maryland

Abortion remains legal, per Maryland state law.

Massachusetts

State law protects abortion access in Massachusetts.

Michigan

Abortion remains legal in Michigan while a temporary injunction blocks a 1931 ban from being enforced, according to the Detroit Free Press. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement she plans to use "every tool in our toolbox to protect women and reproductive health care," per MLive.

Minnesota

Minnesota's state constitution protects abortion rights.

Mississippi

Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban was at the center of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization Supreme Court case that overturned Roe v. Wade. The ban can now go into effect once it's certified by state Attorney General Lynn Fitch. Abortions will only be allowed in cases of danger to the pregnant person's life or rape that was reported to law enforcement.

Missouri

Missouri banned all abortions except in medical emergencies minutes after the Supreme Court's decision. There are no exceptions for rape or incest.

Montana

Montana's state constitution protects abortion rights.

Nebraska

Abortions are still legal up to 20 weeks, but the state's constitution does not protect abortion rights, leaving room for legislators to restrict access.

Nevada

The Nevada Revised Statutes ensure that abortion remains legal in the state.

New Hampshire

Abortion rights are protected by state law in New Hampshire.

New Jersey

Abortion access is not impacted by the Supreme Court's decision since the New Jersey state constitution protects abortion rights.

New Mexico

Abortion remains legal. New Mexico is expected to become a "haven state" for accessible abortions due to its proximity to Texas cities like Houston and Dallas, according to ABC affiliate KVUE.

New York

State law protects abortion rights in New York. Gov. Kathy Hochul called the Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade "repulsive at every level" and declared New York a "safe harbor" for those seeking abortions, according to The New York Times.

North Carolina

Abortion remains legal in North Carolina. Gov. Roy Cooper released a statement saying he would "continue to trust women to make their own medical decisions as we fight to keep politicians out of the doctor's exam room."

North Dakota

North Dakota's trigger law banning abortion will take effect as soon as the attorney general certifies it. The ban allows abortions if the pregnant person's life is in danger and in cases of rape or incest.

Ohio

Abortion remains legal in Ohio up to 20 weeks, but state law does not protect abortion access.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma's attorney general John O'Connor certified the state's trigger law, criminalizing abortion. The ban includes an exception to save the life of the pregnant person, but not for rape or incest.

Oregon

Oregon's state constitution protects abortion rights.

Pennsylvania

Abortion remains legal in Pennsylvania up to 24 weeks after the pregnant person's last menstrual period, but state law does not guarantee abortion rights.

Rhode Island

State law protects abortion access in Rhode Island. Abortions are legal until viability, and after viability only if the pregnant person's life is at risk.

South Carolina

Abortion is still legal up to 20 weeks in South Carolina, but a six-week abortion ban signed by Gov. Henry McMaster last year could be reinstated.

South Dakota

South Dakota passed one of the strictest trigger laws in 2005, prohibiting abortion at all stages of pregnancy, that took effect when Roe v. Wade was overturned. The ban includes an exception to save the life of the pregnant person.

Tennessee

A trigger law banning abortions will take effect 30 days after Roe v. Wade was overturned, and doctors performing them can be charged with a felony. The "Human Life Protection Act" abortion ban includes exceptions if the pregnant person's life is at risk, but not in cases of rape or incest. The pregnant person cannot be prosecuted for receiving an abortion in Tennessee, but the doctor performing it can be charged with a felony.

Texas

Like Tennessee, Texas' trigger law will take effect 30 days after the Supreme Court's decision, banning abortion from "fertilization until birth." People receiving abortions would be exempt from prosecution, but doctors performing them could face life in prison and fines up to $100,000, according to The Texas Tribune.

Utah

Utah's trigger law will ban all abortions except for when the pregnant person's life is at risk and in cases of rape or incest reported to law enforcement. It will take effect as soon as Utah's general counsel certifies that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.

Vermont

Abortion access is protected in Vermont. Gov. Phil Scott signed a bill in June stating that abortion is a "fundamental right," ABC News reported.

Virginia

It remains legal to get an abortion in Virginia until the third trimester of pregnancy, but there are no constitutional protections in place. After the Supreme Court's decision, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said he intends to institute a 15-week ban.

Washington

Abortion is still legal in Washington until viability, per a 1991 voter initiative. Gov. Jay Inslee is also seeking to pass a state constitutional amendment to codify abortion rights.

West Virginia

West Virginia has a pre-Roe law from 1842 outlawing abortion. Voters approved a state constitutional amendment stating that "Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of abortion" in 2018, paving the way for the pre-Roe law to take effect. For now, abortion remains legal until 20 weeks.

Wisconsin

Wisconsin has a pre-Roe law from 1849 criminalizing abortion except in cases where the pregnant person's life is at risk, but it's unclear if or how it will be enforced. Attorney General Josh Kaul said he would not enforce the ban, but local officials could still do so.

"Our office is reviewing today's decision and will be providing further information about how we intend to move forward next week," Kaul said in a statement to Wisconsin Public Radio. "We are at a crossroads for the future of reproductive freedom, and we need elected officials to step up and protect access to safe and legal abortion."

For now, abortion is legal in Wisconsin up to the 22nd week of pregnancy.

Wyoming

Abortion is still legal until viability, but Wyoming's trigger law will take effect five days after the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The ban makes exceptions in cases of rape and incest as well as life-threatening danger and "substantial and irreversible physical impairments" for the pregnant person.

Read the original article on Insider
One month has passed since a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School, and a series of new revelations about the May 24 shooting has done little to abate the frustrations of Uvalde's residents as they continue to heal.

State and local officials have spent weeks trying to reconcile incomplete and, at times, conflicting reports on the shooting and the questionable police response. And while multiple investigations remain ongoing  including one being conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice  some critical facts remain elusive following one of the deadliest school shootings in the nation's history.

Some information emerged this week when Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw, whose agency is conducting one of the probes, testified before the Texas state legislature. McCraw, who presented an updated timeline of events that he said was based on video surveillance and police communications, characterized the police response as an "abject failure," and offered what appeared to be the most complete account of what occurred during the deadly rampage.

Video: Uvalde school police chief off the job

MORE: 5 key takeaways from Texas Senate's hearing on Uvalde shooting

In McCraw's telling, enough officers and equipment arrived on the scene within three minutes to "neutralize" the 18-year-old shooter. He also made the stunning assertion that the door to the classroom containing the gunman might have been unlocked all along  even as officers waited more than an hour to find a key that would open it.

"One hour, 14 minutes and eight seconds. That's how long the children waited, and the teachers waited, in rooms 111 and 112 to be rescued," McCraw said. "And while they waited, the on-scene commander waited for radios and rifles. Then he waited for shields. Then he waited for SWAT. Lastly, he waited for a key that was never needed."

Police officers arrived on-scene almost immediately, but failed to overcome logistical and communications challenges in time to limit the carnage. McCraw said officers had difficulty communicating because their radios had no reception inside the building, contributing to a leadership vacuum that crippled the police response.

Story continues

McCraw reserved his harshest criticism for Pete Arredondo, the embattled school district police chief who was the on-scene incident commander. McCraw called Arredondo "the only thing stopping a hallway of dedicated officers from entering" the classrooms and killing the gunman.

PHOTO: Uvalde school police chief Pete Arredondo speaks at a press conference following the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, May 24, 2022. (Austin American-Statesman via USA Today Network, FILE)

"[Arredondo] decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children," McCraw said.

McCraw's condemnation of Arredondo has added to a growing chorus of outrage over the police response on May 24. Emotional accounts from survivors and first responders before Congress and in the press have cast a critical eye on law enforcement.

"They're cowards," teacher Arnulfo Reyes, who lost 11 students and sustained multiple gunshot wounds, told ABC News in an exclusive interview. "They sit there and did nothing for our community. They took a long time to go in ... I will never forgive them."

Meanwhile, after several weeks of community members calling for Arredondo's resignation, the Uvalde school superintendent on Wednesday placed Arredondo on administrative leave. Arredondo has not responded to multiple requests for comment from ABC News.

"He should never be allowed to work in law enforcement again," one member of the Uvalde community told ABC affiliate KSAT on Wednesday. "My personal opinion."

Many Uvalde residents say the shifting narrative has fostered an immense distrust of authorities  while the lack of information has provided little solace to relatives of the victims. A number of family members hope that an upcoming report from the county medical examiner will answer some of their most pressing questions.

MORE: Uvalde school district puts Pete Arredondo on administrative leave

"[The medical examiner] can tell us more or less what happened to our child. Was [her death] immediate or could she have been saved if [police] went in faster?" Kim Rubio, the mother of Uvalde victim Lexi Rubio, told ABC News' Mireya Villareal. "I just think about how long she was there. Was she scared? Was she in pain? It just worries me."

Demands for investigative documents also reached new heights this week, prompting a new round of infighting among officials.

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin on Tuesday accused McCraw of "[having] an agenda, and it's not to present a full report on what happened and to give factual answers to the families of this community."

On Wednesday, a Texas state senator who represents Uvalde filed a lawsuit against McCraw's agency seeking access to its investigative records. The Department of Public Safety did not respond to the lawsuit nor to McLaughlin's criticism.

PHOTO: Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw uses photos of doors to present what happened during the school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde to the Texas during the hearing at the State Capitol in Austin, Texas, June 21, 2022. (Sara Diggins/USA Today Network via Reuters)

"From the very start, the response to this awful gun tragedy has been full of misinformation and outright lies from our government," state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat, wrote in an eight-page complaint.

During his Tuesday appearance before the state legislature, McCraw said the district attorney who covers Uvalde, Christina Busbee, told him to cease contact with lawmakers and the press. McCraw pledged to release investigative records and video surveillance footage of the shooting once Busbee approves their release.

Uvalde residents say they hope they won't have to wait much longer.

1 month after Uvalde massacre, new revelations continue to compound community's grief originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
WASHINGTON  The Supreme Court ruled Friday the Constitution provided no right to abortion, overturning nearly 50 years of precedent and sending the legality of the procedure to state legislatures to determine.

What was the ruling?: The high court ruled the right to end a pregnancy wasnt found in the text of the Constitution nor the nations history.

What does that mean for access to abortion?: Access to abortion could become a patchwork based on where a person lives. In anticipation of the ruling, 26 states are certain or likely to ban abortion, according to a study by the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.

How did the nation react?: The most hotly awaited decision of the term sparked a firestorm of reaction. Republicans celebrated after having fought for decades to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion. Democrats lamented their lost fight to save it. Officials on each side said the decision would spur voting in the fall elections.

Roe v. Wade overturned: Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, eliminating constitutional right to abortion

Here is what we know about the decision and its implications:

Anti-abortion protesters gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington on Friday. The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place for nearly 50 years, a decision by its conservative majority to overturn the court's landmark abortion cases.

What was the ruling?

At issue was a Mississippi law that banned most abortions after 15 weeks  earlier than permitted under earlier Supreme Court decisions. The high court ruled Friday that the right to end a pregnancy wasnt found in the text of the Constitution nor the nations history.

"Roe was egregiously wrong from the start," Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority. "Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences."

'New era' or 'dark day'?: Americans divided as they react to Supreme Court overturning Roe.

How did the justices vote on the Mississippi law?

The court ruled 6-3 along ideological lines to uphold Mississippis law.

The six justices in the majority were: Chief Justice John Roberts Justice Samuel Alito Justice Amy Coney Barrett Justice Brett Kavanaugh Justice Neil Gorsuch Justice Clarence Thomas



Story continues

"It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the peoples elected representatives," Alito wrote.

The three justices who dissented were: Justice Stephen Breyer Justice Sonia Sotomayor Justice Elena Kagan



"After today, young women will come of age with fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers had," Breyer wrote in the dissent. "The majority accomplishes that result without so much as considering how women have relied on the right to choose or what it means to take that right away."

What happens now that Roe is overturned?: Supreme Court ruling triggers maze of state abortion laws

Who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade? How Supreme Court justices voted

The court voted 5-4 to overturn Roe v. Wade, with Roberts switching sides. Roberts filed a separate opinion that agreed with Alito on the Mississippi law but argued the high court should not have decided the broader question of whether the Constitution protects abortion at all.

I would take a more measured course, Roberts wrote.

The five justices in the majority to overturn Roe were: Alito Coney Barrett Kavanaugh Gorsuch Thomas

The four justices who dissented were: Roberts Breyer Sotomayor Kagan



Roberts disagreed with Roe's focus on viability, marking at what stage a fetus could survive outside the womb. But he said that was no reason to overturn Roe entirely.

"None of this, however, requires that we also take the dramatic step of altogether eliminating the abortion right first recognized in Roe," Roberts wrote. "Mississippi itself previously argued as much to this Court in this litigation."

Can I still buy Plan B?: Where can I get it? What to know after SCOTUS overturns Roe v. Wade

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, center, and Justice Stephen Breyer arrive for the State of the Union address by President Joe Biden at the U.S. Capitol on March 1.

What was the Dobbs case?

The Jackson Womens Health Organization, the last abortion clinic in Mississippi, challenged a state law in 2018 that banned most abortions after 15 weeks.

The clinic sued Thomas Dobbs, the state health officer of the Mississippi Health Department named to defend the state law, by arguing the state law conflicted with the courts Roe v. Wade decision from 1973, which found a constitutional right to abortion and upheld in Planned Parenthood v. Casey from 1992.

A pair of lower courts agreed with the clinic, but Mississippi appealed, asking the Supreme Court to uphold its ban and do away with the constitutional right to abortion altogether.

Where is abortion legal in the world?: Canada, other countries allow abortions and these ban them.

What are the broader implications of overturning Roe?

Access to abortion will now depend on where a person lives.

Republican lawmakers are set to ban abortion in about half the states while Democratic-led states are likely to reinforce protections for the procedure.

"The real-world effects of overruling Roe and Casey would be severe and swift," Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar told the court on behalf of the Biden administration.

Former Vice President Mike Pence, a potential candidate for president in 2024, called for ending abortions in all 50 states.

Having been given this second chance for life, we must not rest and must not relent until the sanctity of life is restored to the center of American law in every state in the land, Pence said.

Where the abortion fight goes from here: Roe overruled, but the battle will continue

Abortion-rights protesters and anti-abortion protesters, divided by a police line, demonstrate in front of the Supreme Court in Washington on Thursday.

What are the state laws?

States began adopting laws to deal with the decision even before it was handed down.

Nine states, including Alabama, Arizona, Wisconsin and West Virginia, adopted abortion bans before the Supreme Court decided Roe, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

An additional 13 states  Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming  approved "trigger bans" to prohibit the procedure if the ruling turned out as it did. Four of those states have both a pre-Roe ban and a trigger law.

Meanwhile, at least 14 states, including California, New York and Illinois, have approved laws protecting the right to abortion despite the courts decision.

Abortion laws by state: Searchable database of state-by-state abortion limits and protections

Abortion rights activists lament the Supreme Court decision in Washington on Friday.

Biden calls overturning overturning of Roe v. Wade 'a sad day for the country'

President Joe Biden said he was stunned by the ruling, but he called on Congress to protect access to abortion and on voters to support protections for abortion in November elections.

It just stuns me, Biden said of the decision. This is a sad day for the country in my view but it does not mean the fight is over.

He urged protests to be conducted peacefully and said violence is never acceptable. He added that "this fall, Roe is on the ballot."

This decision must not be the final word, Biden said.

Midterm elections: Furor over Roe v. Wade reversal likely won't rescue Democrats in midterm elections: Poll

President Joe Biden speaks at the White House in Washington on Friday after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

What was the reaction in Congress?

House Republican leaders called the decision a victory for decades of advocacy for preserving life.

Every unborn child is precious, extraordinary and worthy of protection, said the joint statement from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Conference Chair Elise Stefanik of New York. We applaud this historic ruling, which will save countless lives.

Democrats said womens rights would be on the ballot in November. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., accused Republicans of charging ahead with plans to criminalize health care. This cruel ruling is outrageous and heart-wrenching, Pelosi said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the rights of millions of women were taken away by five unelected justices.

Today is one of the darkest days our country has ever seen, Schumer said.

Anti-abortion advocates: The Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade is only the beginning for anti-abortion advocates

After overruling these demonstrably erroneous decisions, the question would remain whether other constitutional provisions guarantee the myriad rights that our substantive due process cases have generated, Clarence Thomas wrote.

What does Clarence Thomas and the 14th Amendment have to do with the Roe decision?

Thomas wrote an opinion agreeing with Alito and going further by inviting challenges to precedents providing for gay marriage and access to contraceptives.

Thomas called it farcical that the 14th Amendment created a right to abortion by guaranteeing that states cant deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law." He invited challenges to other cases decided based on due process as demonstrably erroneous.

He cited Griswold v. Connecticut providing a right for married persons to have contraceptives, Lawrence v. Texas providing a right to private, consensual sex acts and Obergefell v. Hodges providing a right to same-sex marriage.

After overruling these demonstrably erroneous decisions, the question would remain whether other constitutional provisions guarantee the myriad rights that our substantive due process cases have generated, Thomas wrote.

Roe v. Wade: Clarence Thomas calls for Supreme Court to 'reconsider' gay marriage, contraception after Roe v. Wade falls

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Roe v. Wade being overturned explained. A breakdown of abortion ruling
Western countries shift responsibility for their own mistakes in the macroeconomy to the world with the help of financial instruments, said Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking at the summit of BRICS, news.am informs, citing Komsomolskaya Pravda.

June 24, 2022, 15:13 Putin: Western countries are shifting responsibility for their own mistakes

STEPANAKERT, JUNE 24, ARTSAKHPRESS: "Only on the basis of honest and mutually beneficial cooperation we can find a way out of the crisis situation in the world economy due to ill-conceived, selfish actions of individual states, which, using financial mechanisms, essentially shift their own mistakes in macroeconomic policy to the whole world," the politician said.

According to the President, the BRICS countries are leaders in developing a multipolar system of relations between nations. At the same time, he stressed, we can count on many countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America that pursue independent policies.
This article originally appeared on Velo News

There are 18 bike brands sponsoring the 22 teams of the 2022 Tour de France. Canyon and Specialized have three teams apiece, while the other brands have all their eggs in one teams basket.

Here, we present one bike as raced by each team. Please note that most brands have a few models for the team riders to choose from. So Movistar riders, for instance, can pick between the Canyon Aeroad aero bike and the Ultimate all-around race bike. Plus, of course, there are time trial machines in the mix as well.

Related:

For components, Shimano, Campagnolo, and SRAM are all in the mix, with Shimano having the lions share of the teams.

Read on for a look at every team bike of the 2022 Tour de France.

AG2R Citroens BMC

Bicycle: BMC

Model shown here: Teammachine SLR01

Components: Campagnolo

Wheels: Campagnolo

Notes: The team also has access to the Timemachine Road aero bike.

Alpecin-Fenixs Canyon

Bicycle: Canyon

Model shown here: Aeroad CFR

Components: Shimano

Wheels: Shimano

Notes: For climbing days, the team can opt for the Ultimate CFR.

Arkea-Samsics Canyon

Bicycle: Canyon

Model shown here: Aeroad CFR

Components: Shimano

Wheels: Shimano

Notes: Nairo Quintana, this teams hope for the overall, races on a size XS -- one of the smallest bikes of the Tour de France.

Astana Qazaqstans Wilier Triestina

Bicycle: Wilier Triestina

Model shown here: 0 SLR

Components: Shimano

Wheels: Corima

Notes: The team can also ride the Filante SLR aero bike

Bahrain Victoriuouss Merida

Bicycle: Merida

Model shown here: Reacto Team

Components: Shimano

Wheels: Vision

Notes: The team also has access to the Scultura Team

B&B Hotels-KTMs KTM

Bicycle: KTM

Model shown here: Revelator Alto

Components: Shimano

Wheels: DT Swiss

Notes: KTM is best known for motorcycles, but makes non-motorized two-wheelers as well.

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BikeExchange-Jaycos Giant

Bicycle: Giant

Model shown here: TCR Advanced SL

Components: Shimano

Wheels: Cadex

Notes: The team also has the Propel aero bike.

Bora-Hansgrohes Specialized

Bicycle: Specialized

Model shown here: Tarmac SL 7

Components: Shimano

Wheels: Roval

Notes: Specialized has supplied the teams bikes since 2017, also the year that Peter Sagan, who has since left, joined the team. Specialized has all of its pro riders on the Tarmac all-around race bike, instead of a separate aero bike and climbing bike.

Cofidis De Rosa

Bicycle: De Rosa

Model shown here: SK

Components: Campagnolo

Wheels: Corima

Notes: Cofidis also has the De Rosa Merak as an option.

DSMs Scott

Bicycle: Scott

Model shown here: Addict RC

Components: Shimano

Wheels: Shimano

Notes: The team also has the Foil aero bike.

EF Education-EasyPosts Cannondale

Bicycle: Cannondale

Model shown here: SuperSix EVO

Components: FSA/Shimano

Wheels: Vision

Notes: The American-based team has been racing on the American Cannondale brand for eight seasons now. They also have the SystemSix aero bike in their arsenal.

Groupama-FDJs Lapierre

Bicycle: Lapierre

Model shown here: Xelius

Components: Shimano

Wheels: Shimano

Notes: Lapierre has been the solitary bike sponsor of this stalwart French squad for more than 20 years.

Ineos-Grenadiers Pinarello

Bicycle: Pinarello

Model shown here: Dogma F

Components: Shimano

Wheels: Shimano

Notes: The Ineos Grenadiers are disc-only on road bikes now.

Intermarche-Wanty-Goberts Cube

Bicycle: Cube

Model shown here: Litening C:68X

Components: Shimano

Wheels: Newmen

Notes: The team uses the The Aerium TT bike in time trials.

Israel-Premier Techs Factor

Bicycle: Factor

Model shown here: Ostro VAM

Components: Shimano

Wheels: Black, Inc.

Notes: Factor makes a number of eye-catching bikes, including the One aero bike with a bayonet fork design that comes up in front of the head tube.

Jumbo-Vismas Cervelo

Bicycle: Cervelo

Model shown here: Caledonia-5

Components: Shimano

Wheels: Shimano

Notes: Cervelo offers three different road bikes to this heavy hitting team with ambitions for both the yellow and green jerseys. Wout van Aert and the rest of the team will be on the S5 for sprint stages and the R5 for climbing days.

Lotto-Soudals Ridley

Bicycle: Ridley

Model shown here: Noah Fast Disc

Components: Shimano

Wheels: DT Swiss

Notes: This quintessentially Belgian squad races quintessentially Belgian bikes, with a choice between the Noah Fast aero bike, the Helium SLX climbing bike, and the Fenix SL all-around race bike.

Movistars Canyon

Bicycle: Canyon

Model shown here: Aeroad Disc

Components: SRAM

Wheels: Zipp

Notes: Although built and billed as an aero bike, the Aeroad has often been raced on the rough roads of Paris-Roubaix, and has won at the cobbled Tour of Flanders.

Quick-Step Alpha Vinyls Specialized

Bicycle: Specialized

Model shown here: Tarmac SL7

Components: Shimano

Wheels: Roval

Notes: Specialized has all of its pro riders on the Tarmac all-around race bike, instead of a separate aero bike and climbing bike.

TotalEnergies Specialized

Bicycle: Specialized

Model shown here: Tarmac SL7

Components: Shimano

Wheels: Roval

Notes: Specialized cant bear to see Peter Sagan on anything but its own bikes. The brand picked up a third team sponsorship for 2022 when he left Bora-Hansgrohe.

Trek-Segafredos Trek

Bicycle: Trek

Model shown here: Emonda

Components: SRAM

Wheels: Bontrager

Notes: The Emonda is an ultralight race bike with some more subtle aero shaping. The team also has a more outright aero bike in the Madone.

UAE Team Emirates Colnago

Bicycle: Colnago

Model shown here: V3Rs

Components: Campagnolo

Wheels: Campagnolo

Notes: UAE is the last high profile team to race on rim brakes, usually opting for them on mountain stages to save about 300 grams. Colnago has recently announced a new Prototipo model, which the team will have access to at the Tour, that should be light enough to reach the UCI weight limit with disc brakes.

For exclusive access to all of our fitness, gear, adventure, and travel stories, plus discounts on trips, events, and gear, sign up for Outside+ today.
The drama surrounding her latest business venture, SKKN by Kim Kardashian, feels familiar.

Kim Kardashian for SKKN. Photo: Courtesy of SKKN By Kim

Kim Kardashian, as you may have heard, is in the midst of bringing yet another beauty brand to market. On Tuesday, following weeks of buzzy pre-launch press  including an appearance on "The Today Show" and a controversial interview with The New York Times in which she revealed she would consider eating poop every day if it would make her look younger  SKKN by Kim officially hit the DTC shelves.

Created alongside industry giant Coty Inc., SKKN By Kim's initial offering includes nine products, ranging from $43 for a single (non-refill) cleanser to $673 for the complete collection. In a press release, the 41-year-old entrepreneur and reality TV star said her psoriasis diagnosis "became the catalyst" for her learning more about skin care. "Working with some of the top dermatologists and estheticians over the years has given me the incredible opportunity to learn from their expertise  and I knew I had to share my learnings," she said.

The brand, however, has dealt with a series of naming headaches leading up to its launch, including accusations of trademark infringement. Kardashian submitted several trademark applications for the name between March and July 2021. But according to reports in The Fashion Law and Bloomberg Law, Beauty Concepts LLC is trying to block Kardashian's trademarks from moving forward because of similarities to its own brand, SKKN+. Cyndie Lunsford, owner of the Brooklyn-based Beauty Concepts, claims her company has been using the SKKN+ name since August 2018, and that she filed for a trademark on March 28, 2021, just days before Kardashian.

In July 2021, a year before SKKN By Kim's launch, Lunsford's legal team sent a cease-and-desist letter to Kardashian. Two months later, Lori Harvey filed paperwork for her own celebrity beauty brand called SKN by LH, which launched in October 2021 with five debut products, including a cleanser, toner, serum, eye cream and moisturizer. Twitter users have been quick to point out the similarity between the two brand names.

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"Assuming the existence of the similar marks was not known to the Kardashian team, running checks on the names one wants to register, and variations, could have provided important clues and allowed more lead time to address problems," says David Jacoby, an intellectual property lawyer and partner in the New York office of Culhane Meadows.

Jacoby has been involved in previous brand disputes but does not represent Kardashian or SKKN By Kim. He says that when looking to trademark a brand, typically a trademark application is filed, and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) could point out problems with it, leading to amendments or disclaimers on part of the claims.

"The USPTO will publish the applied-for trademark for opposition," Jacoby explains. "It may negotiate with the applicant for limitations on what the mark to be issued will protect. For example, a disclaimer of a word or words within the proposed trademark could be required."

SKN by LH has yet to formalize any opposition to Kardashian's trademark attempts. To date, the matter between SKKN By Kim and SKKN+ is still under review by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

For many, the controversy surrounding Kardashian's latest business venture feels familiar. The reality star  along with other members of her entrepreneurial family  has been involved in trademark drama before. Khroma Beauty, the ill-fated makeup line from Kardashian and sisters Kourtney and Khloe, launched in 2012 but had a short shelf life. After a year in stores, the brand faced multiple lawsuits for copyright infringement. The Los Angeles-based beauty company Chroma Beauty threatened a lawsuit; meanwhile, a Florida-headquartered company called Kroma Beauty presented their own suit for copyright infringement, seeking $10 million in damages. (Ultimately, Khroma Beauty was forced to rename as Kardashian Beauty, which was also short-lived.)

Then there was the original name for Skims. Before Kardashian launched her successful shapewear line, word got out that she was planning to call it "Kimono." A social media backlash brewed, with many making accusations of cultural insensitivity and appropriation. The mayor of Kyoto, Daisaku Kadokawa, wrote an open letter to Kardashian urging her to think twice about using the term for a brand name.

"Kimono is a traditional ethnic dress fostered in our rich nature and history with our predecessors tireless endeavors and studies, and it is a culture that has been cherished and passed down with care in our living, he wrote. Also, it is a fruit of craftsmanship and truly symbolizes sense of beauty, spirits and value of Japanese.

Kardashian went back to the drawing board.

I am always listening, learning and growing  I so appreciate the passion and varied perspectives that people bring to me, she tweeted at the time. When I announced the name of my shapewear line, I did so with the best intentions in mind. My brands and products are built with inclusivity and diversity at their core and after careful thought and consideration, I will be launching my Solutionwear brand under a new name.

In June of 2020, Forbes reported that Seed Beauty, which manufactured products for Kylie Cosmetics and the now-shuttered KKW Beauty, had filed a lawsuit in California against Coty Inc., claiming that Kylie Cosmetics knowingly shared trade secrets with Coty, which owns several other beauty brands. That ordeal could partly explain why Kardashian was ready to shed the KKW Beauty name (in addition to her pending divorce from Kanye West, as some fans have speculated).

Andrea Sager, a small business attorney in Houston who does not represent Kardashian or SKKN By Kim, says the media mogul is "very strategic" about brand awareness. And highly visible legal scuffles are one way to get people talking about your brand.

"They say no press is bad press," Sager says. "I think that is her exact take on this as she has been in constant trademark battles."

Sager predicts Kardashian will face an uphill battle in successfully trademarking SKKN By Kim. "They will pay to fight it out and whoever has more money will be the end winner," she says. "And if she ends up keeping the brand, she will most likely be paying them for a license to use the name itself."

How might a business owner avoid running into a fate like Kardashian? Get to digging. Like, really digging, advises Sager.

"For entrepreneurs and founders coming up with new names for brands, they need to be performing thorough trade research, typically handled with a trademark attorney," she says.

Doing your own research online with Google or social media is often insufficient. It might not surface all the possible areas of overlap. If you are infringing on someone's trademark, you may be liable to change your name and even hand over past profits.

So, how does Kardashian keep rising above her brand naming challenges? Money, a large legal team, and press blitzes certainly help. Keisha Wagner-Gaymon, founder of PeachFuzz Laser Studio in Brooklyn, would like to see some accountability if it turns out that the SKKN+ trademark is being infringed upon.

"Many Black businesses do not trademark their brands because of the difficulty navigating this legal terrain and the financial cost associated [with legal action]," says Wagner-Gaymon, who also notes that, in contrast, Kardashian has unlimited resources. "Affordable websites that provide legal services are a start, but not enough. The rules should apply to all, not some, regardless of bank account."

Kardashian isn't the only celebrity with a skincare line dealing with a name scandal. Clothing company Rhode is suing Hailey Bieber over her new skin-care brand, Rhode, which just launched earlier this month. (Rhode is also Bieber's middle name.) On Instagram, the owners expressed hesitation about filing the lawsuit but "had to in order to protect our business."

With the number of celebrity beauty brands flooding the market, a truly original idea  let alone an original name  seems more elusive than ever. And savvy shoppers can usually tell the difference between a product that offers real value, versus something that's merely an extension of the celebrity's own personal brand.

"Today's consumers are smart," says Wagner-Gaymon. "Beauty and skincare is the new wave and everyone wants to be a part of it. Many of these celebrity brands fail. Marketing is not enough. Don't just throw products out there and expect it to do well because it has your name on it."

Representatives from SKKN and Coty did not respond to Fashionistas multiple requests for comment.

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Earlham College graduate Salma Khalaf poses for a picture in Turkey.

Salma Khalaf is going places, both physically and figuratively. The December 2021 graduate of Earlham College was one of 42 students selected nationally to receive the Watson Fellowship.

In Richmond: Cardinal Greenway brings visitors to Richmond

The Watson Fellowship awards a $36,000 stipend to each receiving student to support international travel for research of the students' personal relevance. Khalaf is a Palestinian who grew up in Lebanon and graduated with a degree in international relations. According to an Earlham release, she will go on a six-country tour starting in August to interview displaced Palestinians and others affected by the 1948 war that established Israel.

My project seeks answers from Palestinians like myself and others who have a vision or aspirations of what Palestine might look like in the future, Khalaf said in the release. My great-grandfather was forcibly removed from Palestine in 1948, and ever since then, for three generations, we have been holding this status as refugees in Lebanon. The topic is important and personal for me.

The countries on Khalaf's tour include: Jordan, Qatar, Egypt, United Kingdom, Chile and Algeria, sending her to four different continents. There are an estimated 7 million Palestinian refugees displaced around the world, the release states, and Khalaf said this is an opportunity to talk about that on a global stage.

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I am a Palestinian advocate and activist, and I will always be that," Khalaf said in the release. "These stories need to be heard by everyone. Palestine has consumed my life, but this is not just about me; its about all Palestinians in the diaspora. I want to understand why I feel this way and what is behind this love that we, as Palestinians, hold for this land weve never seen or may die without ever seeing. Where does this devotion, this dedication, to fighting over the liberation of this land come from?"

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Khalaf said her research will address a unique aspect of Palestinian identity, and she hopes to eventually write a book about her findings.

A lot of people keep talking about the past and the issue about how we were forced out of Palestine, but no one is thinking for the future or talking about what a free Palestine would look like, Khalaf said in the release. I feel like every Palestinian has a different vision for what this will look like.

Khalaf is the 43rd Earlham student to earn the Watson Fellowship. Three other Quakers  Grace Muma, Jus Tavcar and Marianne Finot  were also members of the 158-student finalist pool.

(Left to right) Earlham seniors Tsitsi Makufa, Trevor Marimbire and Salma Khalaf pose together after being selected for the Orr Fellowship.

In addition to the Watson, Khalaf was also selected for the Indianapolis-based Orr Fellowship. She, along with fellow Earlham seniors Tsitsi Makufa and Trevor Marimbire, are the first Earlham students to be selected for this fellowship, which was first awarded in 2001. They were part of the less than 8 percent of 1,200 annual applicants to earn offers through the program.

According to another Earlham release, Orr Fellows submit personal essays for consideration, and finalists interview with multiple company executives to see if they would be a good fit for the company.

Local events: Richmond Art Museum 'pleased' to host annual Secret Garden Tour this weekend

Khalaf has accepted a position with Kiwanis International, a global organization of clubs, members and partners focused on improving the lives of children.

As international students, this is a significant opportunity because we dont have a lot of options to stay in the country after graduation," Khalaf said in the release. "The Orr Fellowship is doing a great job of negotiating a lot of benefits with these companies on our behalf. If I applied directly to an entry-level position, we would not necessarily have the same opportunities.

Zach Piatt reports on sports and education for The Palladium-Item. Contact him at zpiatt@gannett.com or on Twitter @zachpiatt13.

This article originally appeared on Richmond Palladium-Item: Earlham graduate Salma Khalaf earns Watson and Orr Fellowships
People attend an abortion-rights rally at the Utah State Capitol Thursday, May 5, 2022, in Salt Lake City. Rick Bowmer/AP

State supreme court justices are the last line of defense for abortion rights in a post-Roe world.

And a quarter of the US' state supreme court justices, 86, will be on the ballot in 2022.

"We very well may be at an inflection point for state supreme courts," a Brennan Center expert told Insider.

The next big battle over abortion politics is your own backyard.

With the US Supreme Court overturning one of its most consequential decisions in modern history, the fight to ban and restrict abortion now moves to 50 different state supreme courts scattered across the country.

In a world in which Roe v. Wade is overruled, it is these state courts that often operate outside the national media spotlight that will have the last word on interpreting the right to abortion under each state's constitution.

These judges, who don't get lifetime appointments like US Supreme Court justices, except in Rhode Island, are the ones deciding whether to uphold or overturn slews of state-specific abortion bans and restrictions.

And a quarter of these justices' jobs are on the line in 2022.

In all, 86 state supreme court seats, out of 344 total in the nation, are on the ballot in November. Elections for state supreme court justices are now the most direct avenue for voters to shape abortion policy for a generation.

"We very well may be at an inflection point for state supreme courts," Douglas Keith, counsel at the Brennan Center who studies state courts, told Insider in March.

"You will see increased attention and potentially a totally new dynamic around state judicial elections as a result of the US Supreme Court pushing that issue to the states," Keith said of abortion.

The Supreme Court kicking abortion policy entirely into the laps of largely unknown state supreme justices will accelerate the already-skyrocketing amounts of outside spending and negative advertising in state supreme court races. And at least at the national level, Republicans are outgunning and outspending Democrats in those races.

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The Supreme Court overturning Roe is also likely to fuel state legislatures to combine new abortion bans with efforts to manipulate their court systems in their favor through partisan interference with state courts and impeachment threats against judges who stand in their way. Louisiana lawmakers unveiled a new abortion ban that would impeach and remove judges who might rule against it, just days after Politico obtained and published a leaked draft opinion showing the court's majority primed to strike down Roe.

Already in 2022, state courts have played a crucial role in upholding abortion bans. In March, the Texas Supreme Court shut off all possible routes for plaintiffs in state court to challenge a strict "heartbeat" abortion ban, one of two in effect in the US that effectively bans the procedure after around six weeks of pregnancy.

Texas' bill, enacted last fall, outsources enforcement of the ban to private citizens in a novel legal structure that Oklahoma has since replicated with a bill that went into effect the day after the draft opinion leak.

And 23 states have laws on their books that would restrict abortion in a post-Roe world, according to the Guttmacher Institute. They include "trigger" laws that would ban abortion as soon as Roe is overturned, pre-Roe abortion bans that are currently unenforceable but could be put back into effect, post-Roe abortion bans that are currently blocked by courts, and amendments establishing no right to abortion under state constitutions.

Other states, like Florida, have abortion restrictions set to go into effect later this summer which are likely to be challenged in state courts too.

A child holds a sign during an abortion-rights Mothers Day demonstration outside the U.S. Supreme Court on May 8, 2022 in Washington, DC. Bonnie Cash/Getty Images

The end of Roe may not save Democrats in Congress. But it could make waves in state judicial races.

Democratic strategists are hoping that the Supreme Court gutting Roe will be a motivating factor boosting turnout in the 2022 midterms.

But the issue alone isn't guaranteed to save the party's chances of holding onto control of Congress. For starters, Democrats are already showing they have limited options to bolster abortion rights at the federal level, and President Joe Biden's unpopularity, as well as voters' dissatisfaction with the economy, are also anchors weighing the party down with just six months to go before Election Day.

All of those caveats aside, Democrats are also anticipating GOP-led state legislatures passing draconian abortion bans in a post-Roe world could turn elections for state-level officials like governors, attorneys general, local prosecutors, and state judges into even more red-hot political battlegrounds.

The stakes are already apparent in two key presidential battleground states where Republicans control both branches of the state legislatures: Ohio and North Carolina.

In both, partisan control of their state supreme courts is up for grabs in November. North Carolina now has two Democratic-controlled state supreme seats up for election. And in Ohio, which has a six-week abortion ban currently blocked in federal court, three state supreme court seats  including the position of chief justice  are on the ballot.

"I don't think [Republicans] understand how unpopular that's going to be among women voters, independents, Republican women in the suburbs," a Democratic campaign strategist in Ohio told Insider of the possibility of Roe being overturned. "They're not going to take that."

But Republicans could just as easily be mobilized to retain or flip control of key courts that are controlled by Democrats, like North Carolina's, or have upheld abortion rights under state constitutions, like Kansas' high court.

"We're going to see anti-choice groups focusing on these courts that have protected abortion rights at the state level, because that is the last barrier to criminalizing abortion," said Billy Corriher, a writer and author of "Usurpers: How Voters Stopped the GOP Takeover of North Carolina's Courts."

Abortion could especially motivate conservatives to oust supreme court justices in order to reshape the court in Kansas, the site of an ongoing tug-of-war between anti-abortion groups and the Kansas Supreme Court.

In August, voters will decide whether to pass a constitutional amendment establishing no right to abortion in the state constitution, reversing a 2019 ruling from the state supreme court finding a right to abortion in the Kansas Bill of Rights. Then, six of the court's seven appointed justices will face a likely campaign to block them from another term on the bench in November.

Davis Hammett, a Kansas-based activist with the progressive youth voter engagement group Loud Light, predicted that anti-abortion groups will follow the push to pass the amendment with a campaign to kick the justices off the bench. Organizations including Kansans for Life tried to do so in 2016, but were unsuccessful.

Abortion-rights protester Michele Pucciarelli addresses a crowd during a demonstration outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Sunday, May 8, 2022 AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades

A chance for Democrats to bolster their 'anemic' state campaign infrastructure.

Democrats could seize on abortion policy being pushed to the states by directing more of their resources and political capital towards increasingly consequential state-level elections, races where Republicans have dominated for decades.

Gaby Goldstein, co-founder of Sister District, a group that supports progressives running for state legislatures, told Insider that many progressives view state power as "inferior" to federal power.

"I think that's a terrible mistake," she said.

In recent years, Democrats have begun to recognize the cost of the decades-long underinvestment in state-level races. In the wake of President Donald Trump's win in 2016, progressives formed groups like Sister District, Swing Left, and Run For Something, to make up the deficit by recruiting and supporting progressive candidates for state legislative seats and local offices.

But the decades-long mismatch in investment at the state level, among other things, resulted in Republicans locking up their gains in state legislatures in 2020, even as Democrats won back control of the White House.

Goldstein said that the "anemic infrastructure" when it comes to state court races on the left is due to Democrats, as a whole, lacking the same expansive and positive view of state power that conservatives hold.

"We're in a big hole, and we got to get out of this hole right away," she said.

The Republican State Leadership Committee, for example, has spent around $20 million influencing state supreme court races over the past decade, contributing to a "significant imbalance" in spending from liberals and conservative sources, Keith said.

Democrats have steadily closed the gap in state supreme court races mainly with campaign spending by PACs and nonprofits at the state level. But they lack any kind of national, organized equivalent.

The RSLC's counterpart, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, is beginning to invest money in state supreme court races, but has historically focused mainly on state legislatures. And while the National Democratic Redistricting Committee has spent some money influencing state supreme court races, the scope of their spending only represents a fraction of the RSLC's investments, Keith said.

"It's not what a lot of organizations are built for," Goldstein said of state court races. "It's a gap in the infrastructure that we all, collectively, need to address."

But 2022, Goldstein argued, poses a potentially once-in-a-generation opportunity for progressives to construct a positive narrative that centers state actors, like judges, as forces for good.

"We need to redistribute the energy from almost entirely federal strategies to include robust programs at the state level," she said.

Lab technician Stephannie Chaffee prepares materials that will be used to test women's blood ahead of the arrival of patients, Saturday, Oct. 9, 2021, at Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport, La. Louisiana lawmakers are advancing a draconian abortion ban that also threatens state judges. AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell

Abortion will put even more of a target on state judges' backs.

Even if Democrats hold onto key state supreme court seats, the overturning of Roe will spur more efforts by Republican-controlled legislatures to curtail state courts' ability to provide judicial review of abortion laws and target the independence of the courts.

In 2021, 14 states passed 19 laws that curtail state courts' ability to rein in or strike down state laws, politicize judicial selection, and make it easier for judges to be targeted for their decisions, according to the Brennan Center.

On top of that, lawmakers in 10 states proposed 14 bills that would outlaw abortion, prohibit state supreme courts from overturning abortion restrictions, and/or treat all state and federal court decisions upholding abortion rights as null and void, with one such bill moving out of committee in Missouri.

None of those measures passed in 2021, but lawmakers could revive them in upcoming legislative sessions or include attacks on judges in new abortion bans.

Already, Republican state lawmakers in Louisiana responded to the draft Supreme Court opinion leak by pushing a new, draconian bill that classifies abortion as homicide, opens the door to abortion patients being charged with murder, and subjects judges who block or overturn the law to impeachment or removal from the bench.

"It's crucial in this moment for the public to know how important these courts are," Keith said. "No matter where you lie on the ideological spectrum, there's going to be a moment in which you are hoping that these courts are able to be independent."

This is the latest story in an Insider series about state supreme courts. Read parts one, two, and three here.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Prosecutors said Jonathan Carlton was part of this picture of rioters entering the U.S. Capitol after getting past police.

A fired North Florida prison guard deserves three months behinds bars for taking part in the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol, prosecutors have told a federal judge.

Jonathan Daniel Carltons career at the Florida Department of Corrections renders his conduct on January 6 all the more troubling, Assistant U.S. Attorney Anne Veldhuis argued in a June 22 sentencing memo that included photos of the Union County man in a sea of rioters outside the Capitol.

As a corrections officer, Carlton would be well aware of the danger of a large mob against vastly outnumbered police officers. Moreover, he swore an oath to uphold the Constitution, Veldhuis told U.S. District Senior Judge Thomas F. Hogan. As a law enforcement officer, Carlton held a special position of trust that he disregarded not only on January 6, but in the coming weeks when he lied to the FBI and hindered their investigation.

The prosecutor also asked for Carlton to be placed on three years of probation after the jail time was served.

Carlton, 46, pleaded guilty in March to a single misdemeanor charge of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building as part of a plea bargain that got other charges dropped.

This photo of Jonathan Daniel Carlton holding a souvenir newspaper front was included in an FBI report called a statement of facts that was filed in federal court in Washington. The report said the image came from Bradley Weeks' cell phone.

The maximum sentence for parading is six months in jail, but Carltons attorney argued this month for probation and community service.

The conviction had already led to Carlton being fired from Union Correctional Institution in Raiford and he would lose the subsidized home hed had as a corrections officer, defense attorney Richard Landes told the judge.

But the prosecutor argued that Carlton showed extreme disrespect for the law by being part of a crowd that overran the Capitol despite chemical irritants like tear gas being released.

Law enforcement officers were overwhelmed, outnumbered, and in many cases, in serious danger, Veldhuis wrote on behalf of the U.S. Attorneys Office. Even after feeling the effects of lingering tear gas on his face, Carlton was not deterred from entering the Capitol. The rule of law was not only disrespected; it was under attack that day.

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Prosecutors included this image from the Jan. 6, 2021 riot, which highlights Jonathan Carlton's location in an area where tear gas was spreading, in a sentencing memo filed this month in Washington.

The memo said more than 100 police officers were injured during the riot, which for a few hours stopped Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's election victory over former President Donald Trump.

While Landes had argued jail time would be inappropriate because a former corrections officer like Carlton would have to be isolated for his safety, Veldhuis told the judge the federal Bureau of Prisons can place him in an appropriately secure facility.

Carltons background in corrections should be viewed as an aggravating factor warranting a more serious sentence, the prosecutor argued.

Carlton is scheduled to be sentenced June 29.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Feds: Lock up fired North Florida prison guard for role in Capitol riot
Sontos gather for an event marking Anson Lo's Mr. Stranger solo song in March, 2022, in Singapore. (PHOTOS: Anson Lo Hon Ting International Fan Club in Singapore)

SINGAPORE  Singapore fans of popular Hong Kong idol Anson Lo from boyband Mirror are giving back to needy families in a big way to celebrate his upcoming 27th birthday.

On Sunday (26 June), Los fans  or Sontos (devotees in Cantonese)  from the Anson Lo Hon Ting International Fan Club in Singapore will begin a week-long food donation drive.

The fan club is partnering with The Food Bank Singapore, a food charity that sources and collects over 800,000kg of food per year for 360 beneficiary organisations, such as family service centres, soup kitchens, and schools with children from low-income families.

The food drive, dubbed the "Anson Lo & Sontos Global Giving", will be kickstarted by a private screening of Showbiz Spy, a 2021 movie featuring Los film debut, at The Projector where some 50 Sontos are expected to attend.

It will be the largest event organised by the fan club since its formation last year, said spokesperson Gigi Chan, 40, and will be held in partnership with fan clubs in 10 other countries and territories.

During the week, Sontos are encouraged to contribute non-perishable food with at least a month left before their expiry dates, such as canned food, biscuits, drinks like coffee and Milo, and staples like rice, in accordance with The Food Bank Singapore's wishlist.

They can bring their donations to the private screening. Alternatively, Sontos and members of the public can contact the fan club via Instagram during the week to donate food.

The drive will conclude on 2 July with a handover of the collected food items to The Food Bank Singapore, five days before Lo turns 27.

When asked about the target for the drive, Chan said the fan club aims to collect as many items as possible but it is mindful of the ongoing rising food prices in Singapore.

Most of us are very fortunate to live in an environment and not worry about not having enough food on our tablewe hope to help reduce food insecurities by doing our little part in this charity event, said the graphic designer.

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Sonto Canny Wong, who emigrated from Hong Kong to Singapore in 1993, said she will be bringing her two daughters, aged 10 and 13, to participate in the drive and show them that they can do good deeds while pursuing their interests.

I think it is a great chance that we give back to society as sometimes we are so busy with work and family, and there is not much motivation for us to do so, said the 43-year-old primary school teacher, who became a Sonto last July after chancing upon Lo in the Hong Kong remake of the Japanese boys love drama Ossans Love.

Wong is one of some 70 Sontos belonging to the Singapore fan club whose members are mostly aged between 30 and 50, while a handful is as young as four years old.

Lilianna Mok, 5, who is one of them, plans to donate Milo, one of her favourite drinks, to the drive. Her mother, Lilian Mok, who is also a Sonto, said her young daughter loves Los recent hits and dances to King Kong, Mr Stranger and Megahit.

Liliannas Cantonese vocabulary has improved a lot and she enjoys Cantonese music, added the HR specialist and Singapore permanent resident in her mid-thirties.

Sontos are looking forward to meeting each other, some for the first time, during the food drive. For months, due to COVID-19 safe management measures in Singapore, they could only gather in small groups or over Zoom meetings.

Despite the lack of physical interaction with fellow fans, Sontos like Michelle Tan, who is in her mid-30s, said Lo has helped her through tough times during the pandemic.

The Singaporean nurse, who works in the public healthcare sector, said Los catchy music and daily Instagram interactions brought her joy and immense strength to pull through the extremely challenging days as a healthcare worker.

Like many Sontos here, Tan, who is also participating in the food drive, said she wishes to fly to Hong Kong to meet her idol one day. Travelling to the city is challenging for her due to its current strict pandemic restrictions, she added.

I would love to be able to fly to Hong Kong to just immerse in the vibes of turning every corner  seeing him on billboards, advertisements on buses, and in malls. Of course, being able to see him in real life would be such a breathtaking moment, she quipped.

Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore
puppies rescued from fire by Colleton County Fire-Rescue

Courtesy of Colleton County Fire-Rescue

Few things are more heroic than firefighters saving a puppy from a burning buildingexcept maybe firefighters saving eight puppies from a burning building.

That's exactly what happened in the tiny hamlet of Jacksonboro, S.C., on June 21, when Colleton County Fire-Rescue was called to a structure fire. A yard trash fire had spread to a wooden storage building.

Arriving on the scene, crews got to work on the blaze, but they immediately knew something was different.

"As they were working, [firefighters] could hear whining coming from the building," Chief Barry McRoy tells Daily Paws. "The structure was built elevated off the ground. Once the fire was out, they were able to look under the structure and that's when they found the puppies."

Great job by Stations 2, 6, & 9 yesterday on Campbell Hill Rd in Jacksonboro. Not only did they quickly bring the structure fire under control, but they saved these 8 puppies that were under the building and suffered from smoke inhalation. More info at https://t.co/BPRVHCZ8Zd pic.twitter.com/W5niqV5OGx  ColletonFire (@ColletonFire) June 22, 2022

RELATED: Hero Firefighter Thought He Was Adopting 1 Cat. He Ended Up With 7

In all, firefighters pulled seven puppies from the space under the charred structure. The puppies were placed inside the ambulance that had responded with the fire crews, and the pups were wrapped in blankets and given oxygen to help perk them up.

Colleton County Animal Services arrived and officer Ashley Preacher took possession of the puppies, who were a litter born to a stray mother. When Preacher arrived, she inspected the area personally and located an eighth puppy under some equipment. The owner of the property didn't even know they were there.

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With everyone alive and apparently unharmed, Preacher collected all eight pups and plotted what to do with them for the night.

"I wound up taking them home with me," she tells Daily Paws. "My heart couldn't bear the thought of them in a kennel all night, so I brought them home, gave them all a good bath and kept them warm."

RELATED: Firefighters Rescue Puppy Who Was Sealed in Backpack inside Burning Home

The puppies were extremely dirty and covered in soot, but the experience had otherwise left them unharmed. In the morning, Preacher transported them to Animal Services, where they were examined and then transferred to a local animal shelter that places animals in foster homes.

Within 24 hours, Preacher reports, two of the puppies had already been adopted.
Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty

Months after the White House promised an all-of-government approach to address the looming end of nationwide abortion access, providers, patients, and prosecutors across the country are still waiting for federal guidance on whether the procedure will soon be a crime in their own state.

Legal experts and abortion-rights advocates have been sounding the alarm for months that the nationwide patchwork of pre-Roe v. Wade abortion bans, post-Roe trigger laws and other legislation restricting abortion access will lead to legal chaos now that the Supreme Court has struck down the constitutional right to an abortion. As the national grapples with the implications of the nations highest courts decision ruling against abortion access in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, the Department of Justice has still not issued any public guidance for officials in states where some of those laws are mutually contradictory.

Thats going to lead to potential chaos, legally, said Mary Ziegler, a professor at Florida State University College of Law who specializes in the legal history of abortion. The federal government should intervene in clarifying that.

On Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris hosted a meeting with attorneys general from more than a half-dozen states to go over preliminary discussions about their powers to protect abortion access. Harris meeting with the attorneys general of California, Delaware, Illinois, New York, Nevada, Washington state, and Wisconsin came nearly two months after the bombshell leak of a draft opinion overturning Roe was published by Politico in early May. Only one of these statesWisconsinis set to roll back abortion rights in the wake of the ruling.

I urge the people of our country to know the power that they have to have an impact on how the laws of their state are enforced by paying attention to who their attorney general is and where they stand on this important issue, Harris said ahead of the meeting. As the top law enforcement officials in their state, Harris said, attorneys general have the responsibility to [protect] reproductive rights and freedoms.

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Its Official: The Supreme Court Has Overturned Roe v. Wade

But with discussions over how to blunt Dobbs effects on abortion access only in private, preliminary stages, many law enforcement officials in states with impending bans have issued conflicting statements about their intention to charge people under criminal codes written decades before Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling which determined the ability to end a pregnancy was a constitutional right.

This uncertainty, and the unwillingness of Wisconsin State Legislature to repeal or criminal abortion bans, is already negatively impacting the health and well-being of our patients, Mike Murray, the executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin, told The Daily Beast. It is really important for people to take a step back and realize what the stakes are for very real people.

The discord has already begun spiraling out of control in the Upper Midwest, where the potential enforcement of Michigan and Wisconsins blanket pre-Roe abortion banspassed in 1931 and 1849, respectivelycould soon look like Swiss cheese.

Prosecutors within each state would have to decide for themselves how to exercise discretion in enforcing these laws, Barbara McQuade, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School who specializes in civil rights, public interest law, and criminal law, told The Daily Beast. This could lead to the curious result that it may be illegal to obtain an abortion in one county in Michigan, and permissible to obtain one in another.

McQuades hypothetical has already begun to play out ahead of the Supreme Court ruling. After the leaked draft opinion was published, Michigans attorney general vowed not to enforce the states abortion ban originally signed into law in 1931, which criminalizes administering an abortion as a felony, including in cases of rape and incest. But county prosecutors across the state have varied widely in their response to the upcoming Dobbs ruling, with some pledging not to enforce the ban and others saying that they cant pick and choose which statutes to obey.

If its on the books, I took an oath of office to uphold the law, the constitution of this state, and the Constitution of the United States," Peter Lucido, the head prosecutor of Macomb County, told a female constituent during a press conference last month. Lucido, who prosecutes crimes in Michigans third-largest county, has accused other county prosecutors of attempting to pick and choose what laws they want to enforce.

The potential patchwork enforcement of the states long-dormant abortion law, a group of prosecutors opposed to the ban wrote in May, has created a cloud of uncertainty and criminality over the procedure.

Put bluntly: A storm is gathering, the prosecutors said in a motion supporting a lawsuit seeking to overrule the law, telling the court that Michiganders deserve clarity as to the existence and scope of core constitutional rights.

The most immediate risk is at the local level, Murray said, where county prosecutors bring the vast majority of a states criminal cases and have wide discretion over which ones to pursue. Lawsuits within the state seeking to clarify whether or not Wisconsins criminal abortion ban is still viable could take monthswith zero legal certainty in the meantime.

We would need to wait until a court of competent jurisdiction provided clarification about whether or not our criminal abortion ban is enforceable before we could resume providing care to patients, Murray said, without being concerned about exposing our healthcare providers to criminal liability.

Following the oral arguments in Dobbs and the Supreme Courts refusal to stay a Texas law that deputized citizens to charge abortion providers with a felony, President Joe Biden charged the administrations White House Gender Policy Council with overseeing what steps the federal government can take to ensure that women have access to safe and legal abortions.

Im an Abortion Provider in Missouri. Heres How Life Will Change After Roe.

But since then, the Biden administration has refused to elaborate on what those steps might be in a post-Roe America, save for perfunctory calls for Congress to pass the Womens Health Protection Act, legislation that would codify abortion rights into federal law. Those efforts were futilealthough whether the bill was doomed because of the White Houses failure to lobby for it or the White House failed to lobby for it because it was doomed, is a matter of perspective, one administration official told The Daily Beast.

The White House referred requests for comment on post-Roe legal guidelines to the Department of Justice. The DOJ did not respond. But the administration has previously indicated that its refusal to publicly outline a legal response to Dobbs was based on the fact that the specifics of the final ruling remain unknown.

Weve said that we werent going to preview until theres a final opinion because were still speaking about a potential opinion that has not yet been released, former White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on May 10, when asked why the administration had refused to communicate the potential options available to patients and providers ahead of the decision. What were looking at and what were trying to address is our assessment and understanding of what the impact will be that 13 states have trigger laws, 26 states have indicated that they could overturn or ban or take immediate action should this be the final opinion.

Some legal experts agreed that, at least publicly, there was limited utility in providing guidelines for state attorneys general on how to navigate the potential enforceability of pre-Roe laws.

It would be surprising for guidance to be issued before the court hands down the Dobbs opinion, said Miriam Seifter, a professor of administrative law, constitutional, and state and local government law at the University of Wisconsin.

But the certainty of interstate conflict over abortion means that the Department of Justice will need to weigh in nearly immediately following the Supreme Courts decisionand likely in the midst of the constitutional equivalent of a five-alarm wildfire.

If I call someone in Texas and say, hey, I can arrange for your abortion, in theory, the long-arm statutes of Texas could reach across borders to me and make me open to being sued, said Dr. Louise King, an assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School and a gynecologic surgeon at Brigham and Womens Hospital. So theres a lot of problems here.

Ultimately, Ziegler said, the impending chaos belongs at the feet of Congress.

The easiest way to create some semblance of sanity would be a federal law that would clearly preempt whatever states are trying to do, Ziegler said. But if you have a Senate that doesnt have the votes, then I just dont know how much the administration can really do.

But fingerpointing between the executive, legislative and judicial branches sidesteps the real issue, Murray said.

Theres unbelievable attention paid to what this means for political battles in Congress or state legislatures, Murray said. But the ripple effect of those fights impacts very real people that we all know and care aboutnot just points on a scoreboard.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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As temperatures across the U.S. are already hitting record-breaking highs, there's little that sounds more appealing than cooling off in the nearest body of water. Going to the beach is one of the most popular summer activities, with 40 percent of Americans saying it's their favorite thing to do during the warmer months, per a survey from the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA). Unfortunately, there are a number of dangers potentially lurking in the ocean water, from stinging jellyfish to strong riptides. Now, doctors are warning of a different danger in the oceanand one that might impact people differently depending on what they've done recently. Read on to find out why you might want to postpone your beach trip.

READ THIS NEXT: If You See This at the Beach, Don't Go in the Water, Experts Warn.

A new danger is popping up in the water earlier than normal.

Doctors in the U.S. are now warning that a flesh-eating bacteria is being found in water four to six weeks sooner than it has in past summers, NBC-affiliate KPLC in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, reported on June 22. Stephen Castleberry, MD, a general surgeon at West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital in Sulphur, Louisiana, told the news outlet that this type of bacteria, Vibrio vulnificus, can impact the intestinal tractand quickly.

"This infection is something that will go from a fun day at the beach to an extremely painful wound within hours," he explained. "Overnight can be sepsis, septic shock, and aggressive therapy to try to do what you can to save life and tissue."

This bacteria can enter your body fairly easily.

Castleberry told KPLC that doctors are most worried about skin infections, as "any break in the skin, even a several-day-old tattoo [or] a small cut that you may not even recognize beforehand" could allow this bacteria to work itself into your skin.

In fact, in 2017 a man who went swimming in the Gulf of Mexico died after going swimming in the ocean just five days after getting a tattoo on his right calf, according to a report published in BMJ Case Reports. Per the report, it was confirmed that the man had been infected with Vibrio vulnificus, likely as a result of going in the water with a recent and unhealed tattoo.

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For more health advice delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter.

You should not go in the ocean if you have any open cuts.

Due to this, doctors are warning people to take extra caution if they're going to the beach this summerespecially now as Vibrio vulnificus is being seen earlier than normal. "If you have any kind of fresh wounds, don't go in the water," Castleberry said.

This includes having just gotten a tattoo. Nicholas Hendren, MD, an internal medicine specialist in Dallas, Texas, told Forbes that while people's skin heals at different rates, he recommends waiting at least one or two weeks before going into the ocean after a tattoo. "Everyone, including healthy people, should avoid swimming or seawater exposure until the skin heals after a new tattoo," Hendren said. "I recommend thinking of a new tattoo like a cut with stitches. You want to make sure it is kept clean and dry until the skin heals."

Many people die when infected with this type of bacteria.

A Vibrio vulnificus infection is not something to be taken lightly. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this bacteria can "cause life-threatening wound infections." The agency says that many people infected with Vibrio vulnificus have to undergo intensive care or climb amputations. And about one in five people with this infection die, "sometimes within a day or two of becoming ill," the CDC warns.

According to the agency, signs of a Vibrio vulnificus infection differ depending on where the infection is occurring in your body. For a bloodstream infection, you might experience fever, chills, low blood pressure, and blistering skin lesions. For a wound infection, you could have fever, redness, pain, swelling, warmth, discoloration, and discharge. You might also experience watery diarrhea, stomach camping, nausea, and vomiting when infected.

If you were recently in the water and you notice any of these symptoms, you should seek medical care immediately. "When in doubt, go see somebody quick," Castleberry warned.

READ THIS NEXT: If You Live in These States, Never Go in the Ocean When It's Calm.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) strongly supports releasing Native American rights activist Leonard Peltier from prison, according to a letter to a constituent obtained by HuffPost.

As you know, Leonard Peltier has spent over 40 years of his life in prison despite the fact that the government has admitted they do not know who is responsible for the crime he was convicted of, Sanders said in the June 8 email. Despite national and international campaigns to free Peltier, he remains incarcerated, where he continues to advocate for the rights of native peoples.

For this reason, I have and will continue to strongly support petitions for Leonard Peltiers release, Sanders concludes.

A constituent passed the letter to HuffPost. A Sanders spokesperson confirmed its legitimacy, but did not provide further comment on the senators views on Peltiers imprisonment.

The letter means that Sanders is the fourth U.S. senator in recent months to advocate for President Joe Biden to give clemency to the now-77-year-old, ailing activist and send him home. Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) have separately and publicly called on Biden to release Peltier.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) "strongly" supports releasing Leonard Peltier from prison, he said in a June 8 letter to a constituent. (Photo: Anna Moneymaker via Getty Images)

If you havent heard of Peltier, think of him as Americas longest-serving political prisoner  a fall guy that the FBI and U.S. Attorneys Office desperately needed after failing to figure out who murdered two FBI agents in a 1975 shootout on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

If you have heard of Peltier, then you know how problematic his imprisonment is: The blatant 1970s-era racism against Indigenous people that he was up against. The fact that all of Peltiers co-defendants were acquitted based on self-defense. The reality that the FBI was at least partly responsible for the shootout that day. The admission of U.S. government officials that Peltiers trial was so flawed he should be released. The decades of outcry from Indigenous leaders, members of Congress, celebrities and human rights leaders, including Pope Francis, the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Coretta Scott King and Amnesty International, an organization otherwise focused on political prisoners in other countries.

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Today, the bottom line is simple: An elderly Indigenous man has been in prison for 46 years and never should have been there in the first place.

A White House official would not say whether Biden is considering granting clemency to Peltier, whose attorneys filed a clemency petition last summer.

We are aware of the request but do not have further comment at this time, said this official.

Heres a copy of Sanders letter to his constituent:

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
The exact date of Russian President Vladimir Putins visit to Turkey has not yet been set, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has told TASS.

June 24, 2022, 15:19 Date of Putins visit to Turkey yet to be set, Kremlin says

STEPANAKERT, JUNE 24, ARTSAKHPRESS: "No substantial preparations have been under way as of yet. There is a valid invitation, and the president plans to use it, but there have been no information about the exact dates," he said.

Commenting on the issue in May, the spokesman said that no timeframes were set in the invitation.

On January 26, Erdogan said that he had invited Putin to visit his country. He also said he was ready to arrange Putins meeting with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky so that they could "keep paving the way for restoring an atmosphere of peace."
A young girl walks by a crater in front of a damaged apartment building in the Ukrainian city of Slovyansk. ARIS MESSINIS/AFP via Getty Images

Boris Johnson told European media outlets that Russia might soon run out of weapons and soldiers.

British intelligence on the Ukraine war suggests Russia may lose its "forward momentum," per Johnson.

Johnson said he intends to ask the G7 to aid Ukraine in a counter-offensive with more equipment.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said this week that he believes Russia will soon lose momentum in its war with Ukraine.

Speaking to the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Johnson said that he thought Russian President Vladimir Putin's army was suffering heavy losses of soldiers and equipment just to gain ground in Ukraine's Donbas region.

Citing intelligence reports from the British defense forces, Johnson told the outlet that he believed the Russian onslaught in Ukraine would likely lose steam in the coming few months.

"Our defense intelligence service believes, however, that in the next few months, Russia could come to a point at which there is no longer any forward momentum because it has exhausted its resources," he said, per Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

"Then we must help the Ukrainians to reverse the dynamic. I will argue for this at the Group of Seven summit," he said, per the outlet.

Johnson also told Sueddeutsche Zeitung that he thought it was important for the Ukrainian army to be supported in launching a counter-offensive if it is able to do so.

"This is their crisis. They are the victims of Putin's aggression, they must decide what they want to do. But it is absolutely clear if you go to Ukraine, if you talk to the Ukrainians, and if you talk to [Ukrainian President Volodymr] Zelenskyy. you will come away with the overwhelming view that the Ukrainians will not concede their territory," he said, per the outlet.

Johnson added that he thought a win for Ukraine would include Russian forces being repelled from the areas they invaded and for Ukraine to "regain the status quo" before the invasion on February 24, per Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

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"Ukraine must win, we agree on that. The unity of the West is far more conspicuous than the divisions," Johnson told the outlet.

Intelligence from the UK has suggested that Russia may soon struggle to produce enough military equipment to fuel a prolonged conflict in Ukraine.

Ukraine's forces are currently engaged in a critical fight in the Donbas. In June, Ukraine estimated that Russia had 10 to 15 times more artillery than its forces, appealing to the West to send more weapons. Reports have also cited a growing number of deserters among Ukrainian forces.

Earlier this month, a senior US official also told The Washington Post that Russia would likely gain control of eastern Ukraine within weeks after doubling down on its military efforts in the Donbas.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Dr. Olga Padron Lopez has a medical guide unlike any other.

Inside the Clinica De Salud Del Valle de Salinas, medical guides are written in an Indigenous language with common phrases like "good morning" and "hello," along with medical terms like "nasal swab" and "COVID-19."

When Padron Lopez arrived in Monterey County, roughly a year ago, she and her colleagues identified ways they could help underserved residents. Padron Lopez realized there was a language barrier for Indigenous Greenfield residents, preventing them from receiving basic resources.

Together, a team of community leaders are trying to revive and support Monterey County's Indigenous population through a collection of medical clinics.

The Greenfield family doctor has been learning Triqui de Copala, a language spoken in and around San Juan Copala, Oaxaca, Mexico.

The main reason I want to learn Triqui is to be able to communicate better with patients and to be able to better understand what they are going through, Padron Lopez said. Some of the patients that speak Triqui have told me that they feel more comfortable and valued because Im able to make the effort to communicate with them in their language.

Dr. Olga Magdalena Padron Lopez holds her Indigenous language health guide that she carries with her, which has common phrases to help her better communicate with the Triqui community that visits the Clinica de Salud Del Valle de Salinas in Greenfield, Calif., on Dec. 8, 2021.

Trust in the community

Dr. Max Cuevas created the clinic's system through Assembly Bill 1045, which allows Mexican doctors to practice in California at nonprofit clinics.

There are four clinic organizations that are involved in the program.

Initially, the project was launched in primarily agricultural-producing counties. The are locations in Monterey, San Benito, Tulare and Los Angeles counties.

A total of 25 doctors were brought to the U.S. through the initiative: Five in San Benito County, five in Tulare County, five in Los Angeles County and 10 in Monterey County. Seven out of the 10 physicians have been in Monterey County since 2021, three more physicians arrived in May 2022.

Three additional physicians have been requested.

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Cuevas brings physicians to Monterey County, who are part of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City, to work in the communities, especially in Greenfield and north county, where the majority of speaking an indigenous language like Triqui, Mixtec and Zapotec.

There was a moment 15 to 20 years ago when we heard about this population, Cuevas said. Speaking these different languages, they came to this country to work, they dont speak the language, and they dont know and didnt know where to access health care.

Everyone should have access to health care, Cuevas said.

People are people. As biological entities, we all get sick. So we all need to go to a doctor that we can trust. A doctor thats going to provide quality health care and build the trust and be able to communicate first and foremost with that individual," he said. "We focused on being able to provide health care services, quality health care services to people in their own language as much as possible.

In 2021, Clinica De Salud Del Valle de Salinas saw 181 patients that spoke Mixteco; 364 that spoke another indigenous language; and 34,434 that spoke Spanish.

Greenfield has a high Triqui speaking community, according to Sarait Martinez, executive director at Centro Binacional para el Desarrollo Indigena Oaxaqueno.

Martinez works with different Indigenous communities in Monterey County and oversees the nonprofit that provides projects on workers rights, which provides orientation, education, training, counseling and referrals.

Intensive training on the professional ethics of Indigenous interpreters to serve as a medium of communication between monolingual Indigenous migrants and various government agencies and other entities is also part of their program.

Many Indigenous people fear that accessing medical care puts them at risk because of their immigration status.

The fact that a doctor can speak your language is going to create a lot more trust in the community, she said.

Dr. Olga Magdalena Padron Lopez is reflected in a blood pressure scale as she looks through her backpack inside the COVID-19 test room at the Clinica de Salud Del Valle de Salinas in Greenfield, Calif., on Dec. 8, 2021.

Helping hands

Padron Lopez is one of 10 Mexico-born physicians practicing in Monterey County through this program.

As a 13-year-old, Padron Lopezs dad would take her to home consultations. He often treated low-income patients. It was during these home visits that Padron Lopez was motivated to study medicine.

In 2012, she graduated from medical school. Two years later, Paron Lopez began her residency as a family doctor. After graduation, she went to work with people in her community, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

When she started to learn Triqui, she tried to do it on her own. Padron Lopez taught herself how to speak English and French. Unfortunately, there are not many resources to learn Indigenous languages.

The best way to learn an Indigenous language, in my experience, is through a person who speaks that language, Padron Lopez said. I have a Triqui language teacher  Together, we design a syllabus with the topics that we consider most important in the medical field."

Padron Lopez attends private classes every two weeks through a digital platform.

The time that Padron Lopez spends studying Triqui depends on her workload. However, she tries to practice what she has learned with the people who come to the clinic. Some patients have even taught her new words and phrases.

Can movies help save the world's dying languages?: New wave of Indigenous films share untold stories

In addition to providing quality medical care to this population, Martinez hopes the clinics can employ and support more Indigenous people.

I try to tell the youth, please dont let your native language die. Those kids learning an Indigenous language from their parents  like Triqui  are going to get to a stage where they will be able to be doctors, lawyers, police officers," she said. "Theyre going to be in important positions where theyll be able to go back to their communities and help in ways that not even people who are trying to learn the language will be able to help.

Dr. Olga Magdalena Padron Lopez is photographed inside one of the waiting rooms at the Clinica de Salud Del Valle de Salinas in Greenfield, Calif., on Jan. 7, 2022. Padron Lopez is learning Triqui and Indigenous language to better communicate with the Triqui community she serves in Greenfield.

David Rodriguez is the education reporter and staff photographer for The Salinas Californian. For any tips or story ideas, you can email him at drodriguez@thecalifornian.com. Subscribe to support local journalism.

Translation resul

This article originally appeared on Salinas Californian: Monterey County medical clinics aim to serve Indigenous people
It's been one year since the Champlain Towers South partially collapsed in the middle of the night.

Hundreds gathered for a remembrance ceremony with First Lady Jill Biden and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Speakers also included first responders and loved ones of the victims lost.

SURFSIDE, Florida  Hundreds of people gathered here Friday at a remembrance event to mark the one-year anniversary of the Champlain Towers South collapse.

The event featured top speakers and attendees from across the aisle, including First Lady Jill Biden, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

A memorial displays the name of people who died in the Surfside condo collapse. Kimberly Leonard/Insider

Families and friends of the victims gathered for a remembrance ceremony on June 24, 2022

Hundreds of loved ones gathered in Surfside for a remembrance ceremony. Kimberly Leonard/Insider

The ceremony lasted two and a half hours and featured emotional testimony from loved ones and from first responders tasked with searching through the rubble.

First Lady Jill Biden and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis each spoke at the ceremony

First lady Jill Biden, center, leads a round of applause for first responders during a remembrance event at the site of the Champlain Towers South building collapse, Friday, June 24, 2022, in Surfside, Florida. Wilfredo Lee/AP Photo

The Biden and DeSantis administrations frequently clash over policy. But the two camps put aside their differences on Friday even as back in Washington, DC, the Supreme Court issued a controversial decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Related video: It's been 1 year since partial collapse of Champlain Towers South

Biden did not mention the decision during her remarks, which took place just minutes after the Supreme Court's opinion was released to the public.

Biden instead focused on the people who helped and supported the families who were mourning in Surfside.

"We honor the light you found in each other, a fellowship you never wanted to be part of but draw strength from just the same," she said. "If there is something strong enough to help us carry this burden of grief forward, something able to break its gravitational pull, it's love."

DeSantis unveiled details of the Surfside memorial

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis holds up a sign dedicated to the 98 people who lost their lives during a remembrance event at the site of the Champlain Towers South building collapse, Friday, June 24, 2022, in Surfside, Florida. Wilfredo Lee/AP Photo

DeSantis signed a bill into law this year that will allocate $1 million toward a memorial on the site where the building collapsed. On Friday he held up the sign that will dedicate the area, calling it, "98 Points of Light Road."

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"Every time people drive by they are going to be reminded that there were great people that lived in the tower and this is a tragedy that wounded this community and our state, but we are not going to forget what they meant to this community and our state," he said. "This sign is a small token to do that."

The tragedy spurred new state laws

State Sen. Annette Taddeo at the Surfside memorial. Kimberly Leonard/Insider

Florida state lawmakers did not address condo reforms during their general session but did pass a bipartisan bill  that DeSantis signed into law  during a special session in May. The law requires condos to have more regular inspections and requires condo associations to have reserves to pay for maintenance.

"Thank goodness that we are here and at least something was done," Democratic state Sen. Annette Taddeo, who is running for Congress, told Insider ahead of the ceremony. "But it was because of the pressure of the press that it finally was done."

Families and survivors are set to receive a $1 billion settlement

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, a Republican, attended the Surfside remembrance ceremony. Kimberly Leonard/Insider

On Thursday, a circuit court judge approved a $1 billion settlement, the second-largest class-action lawsuit in Florida state history, according to the Miami Herald. The settlement will go toward family members and survivors of the partial collapse.

"I'm sure there are a lot of conflicting feelings about it because there are people that also survived," Miami Mayor Francis Suarez told Insider before he joined the ceremony. "There are families who there is no amount of money that will ever recompense them for what they lost."

Next to the ceremony was the site of the collapse

Rubble where the Champlain Towers South once stood. Kimberly Leonard/Insider

"It's the kind of thing that we see in third world countries," Taddeo said. "It's not something that we expect to see in America, that an entire building collapses 98 people die. It really was a shock to our understanding of our laws, our safety, and where did we fail."

The community celebrated and mourned the lives lost

Loved ones wrote notes to those that were lost on headstones outside the ceremony. Kimberly Leonard/Insider

Surfside is a tight-knit Jewish community in Miami-Dade County and organizers said loved ones tuned into the live ceremony from all over the globe.

Leaders urged people to come together

Beach outside the rubble from the Champlain Towers South in Surfside. Kimberly Leonard/Insider

During remarks at the ceremony, Democratic state Sen. Jason Pizzo shared ways he'd worked with the GOP governor's office and the support he received from the Surfside community after his father's recent death.

"Let's not make tragedy that we get together and not have petty partisanship," he said. "Let's not have loss be the time that we get together and embrace and get things done. Let's stick to the stuff that's important. Because every single one of us here would like to take the days back that we lost with our loved ones."

Read the original article on Business Insider
WASHINGTON  Seven lawmakers make up a unique caucus on Capitol Hill: those who have shared publicly that they or their partner have had an abortion and are now fighting an uphill battle to protect the right to choose in their roles as members of Congress.

The seven have different stories but share commonalities: All are Democrats, all are parents and all are furious about the prospect that the Supreme Court will overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision establishing a constitutional right to abortion.

"The (leaked draft) opinion (overturning Roe) is so misogynistic that I can't even begin to even put into words how vile I think the decision is," said one of the seven, Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., who was the first sitting member to share her story in 2011.

Reps. Cori Bush of Missouri, Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Barbara Lee of California shared their abortion stories last September at a House Oversight Committee hearing on abortion rights. After the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2020, Michigan Sen. Gary Peters  the only man among the group revealed that his ex-wife had an abortion.

End of Roe?: Explosive leaked draft in abortion case reveals Supreme Court on verge of overturning Roe

Since the Supreme Court's draft ruling leaked May 2, Rep. Marie Newman of Illinois and Rep. Gwen Moore of Wisconsin also shared their stories publicly for the first time.

Both Lee and Moore had their abortions before Roe was decided in 1973.

In separate interviews with USA TODAY, all of the lawmakers said they were reluctant to share their trauma and intimate stories with the public but felt it necessary to do so given the looming anticipated reversal of abortion rights. USA TODAY is the first news organization to conduct interviews with all seven about their abortions since the draft ruling leaked.

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"I feel like it's important for people to know I'm there with them and I'm gonna do everything I can do to help them once they make their own personal decision," said Lee. "So as hard as it is for me still, I hope it's helping other people."

Missouri Rep. Cori Bush

Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal

California Rep. Barbara Lee

Wisconsin Rep. Gwen Moore

Illinois Rep. Marie Newman

Michigan Sen. Gary Peters

California Rep. Jackie Speier

Missouri Rep. Cori Bush

Rep. Cori Bush, 45, was raped and became pregnant at age 17.

"I remember my menstrual cycle was really regular to the day and being late, and after a couple of days just wondering what was going on and then after several more days I realized that maybe I should take a test," Bush said. "I just did it because that's just what I thought that you do, but I never thought it would come back positive."

When it came back positive, she realized she must have become pregnant after being sexually assaulted on a recent church trip.

"I had not thought about that moment  what happened  since it happened," she said. "I was ashamed of that moment, I just still didn't understand what happened, what I did wrong.

"All I did was had a conversation with someone that I thought was cute. We were in a hotel and he asked me to come to my room, which wasn't something that was strange because it was a youth conference and we were always in each other's rooms. ... But when he did finally show up in my room, he didn't have any conversation for me, he just ended up on top of me pulling off my clothes," she said. "I just was replaying that as I was thinking, like what am I going to do with a child?"

Bush initially didn't tell anyone about the pregnancy, hoping that somehow it wasn't real. She eventually called a few friends, and the would-be father, but he wouldn't talk to her.

"I didn't know how to go to my parents and tell them this is what was going on, but I knew that they were already struggling trying to figure out how to pay for my college," Bush said.

So she went to the Yellow Pages and found the name of a clinic she had learned about from her friends to make an appointment, which she said was as simple as making her appointment for the physical she needed to play volleyball.

"I couldn't believe it. I just remember when I hung the phone up I was like, there has to be more to this, they're going to make me bring my parents, or I'm going to get there and I'm not going to be able to get this done. But that was it," she said. She was comforted by the promise that she would get to speak to a counselor at the clinic.

Once there, Bush questioned if she should stay for her appointment after hearing the staff criticize a 13-year-old Black girl in the waiting room, insinuating that the girl was promiscuous and wouldn't accomplish anything in life. "If they feel like this about her, what are they saying about me?" Bush thought.

During her counseling session, she expected offers of help but instead was just told she was doing something wrong so the baby was underdeveloped. The counselor "told me that I was just going to be on welfare and food stamps and that it was best for me to just abort the child," Bush said. "There was no conversation about adoption, or whatever, any options other than 'you need to have this abortion today.' "

It was not the only time Bush experienced discrimination while seeking medical care. Later, while pregnant with her second child, Bush recalled a doctor telling her, "Just go home and let it abort. You people get pregnant all the time, you can get pregnant again."

Bush is no stranger to sharing her personal life in order to try to push policy change after leading the fight to extend the eviction moratorium.

"It is tough reliving some of the most traumatic moments I've experienced in my life, and not only reliving them, but speaking to them before the public and then knowing that opens the door very, very wide for scrutiny and criticism," she said. "We should not have to share our trauma or go into places of trauma to be able to make change in our world."

Still, Bush said while tearing up, "I am a true believer that if you can, be what you needed. If you're in a position to do that, be what you needed in the moment that you needed."

For her, the fight to preserve abortion access is especially urgent because Missouri has a looming trigger ban that will take immediate effect if Roe is overturned. She fears what will happen to women like her who don't have the resources to go out of state to access an abortion, especially women of color.

"It took me a full two weeks' paycheck to be able to pay for that abortion," she said. "I think about who will be left behind, who will be left out. This is all about control. And I won't just sit back quietly."

What is a trigger ban? If Roe v. Wade is overturned, here's how abortion laws in each state will stand

Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, 56, was living in India the first time she got pregnant.

"I had a complete intention to come back and have a very natural home birth. But that was not to be," Jayapal said. She recalled her doctor telling her there was a chance she would die during the pregnancy due to complications.

"My daughter was born 1 pound, 14 ounces. She was 26 weeks at the time; she was literally the size of a small squash, she fit into the palm of my hand," Jayapal said. "She had to have multiple blood transfusions, none of her organs were developed, so she had to be fed through a tube and a little dropper, and she stopped breathing multiple times. She was in the NICU for several months.

"It's very unusual to have a child of that birth weight and that gestational age be able to survive. For the first month or so we had no idea if she would actually live," she said.

Upon returning to the U.S. after giving birth, Jayapal recalled being extremely isolated after being outside the country for two years. She suffered from postpartum depression and wondered if her child would survive.

She said she even contemplated suicide at one point.

"It was only when I really got to a place where I actually got up on a window ledge that I realized I needed care and was struggling to go see a therapist and my postpartum depression issues were diagnosed," she said.

Given her health history, Jayapal took precautions to not become pregnant again after getting a divorce and meeting her now-husband. Despite her best efforts, she did.

"I would have loved to have more children. But I knew that there was no way I could do it," she said. After consulting with her doctor, Jayapal decided to have an abortion.

"I realized I had to take care of my daughter and I had to take care of myself and I was not ready to try to have another birth. I just think it would have been a terrible situation for everybody, including my child."

She spoke to Planned Parenthood and got a referral from her doctor.

Democratic Reps. Ilhan Oman of Minnesota, from left, Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Carolyn Maloney of New York chant, "My body, my decision," while walking to the Senate in the U.S. Capitol on May 11.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., speaks during a demonstration in front of the U.S. Supreme Court as justices hear arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health, a case about a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks, on Dec. 1, 2021, in Washington, D.C.

"I did not have the concerns of not being able to afford the abortion as so many low-income women do, and I got excellent service. I had a phenomenal doctor that I'm still in touch with today," Jayapal said. "I had somebody to drive me there and somebody to hold me afterwards and somebody to drive me home and I had no protesters trying to argue that this was not my decision to make."

Jayapal first shared her abortion story publicly in an op-ed in the New York Times. She hadn't discussed her abortion with anyone at that point for well over a decade and hadn't even told her mother or daughter.

Sharing her story, she said, "is a responsibility and yes, a burden of sorts, but I also think it is a liberating thing to be able to utilize a story like this  as painful as it might be  for good, for understanding, for moving the country forward."

California Rep. Barbara Lee

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., had an abortion before Roe v. Wade was the law of the land.

Rep. Barbara Lee, 75, remembers feeling "very afraid" when she realized she missed a period at age 15. She was attending San Fernando High School in California, where she had worked with the local NAACP to integrate the cheerleading squad.

Upon learning of her pregnancy, Lee decided to have an abortion.

"It was a personal decision that my mother and I made together," she recalled.

"My mother was always a can-do kind of woman. It's like, OK, let's see what the options are, let's talk about it. And that's what we did," she said. "I didn't want her to worry about me and I knew she would, and it was really hard for me to tell her how afraid I was. I didn't tell her, but she knew."

Lee's mother called a friend in El Paso, Texas  where Lee was born and raised before moving to California  who said she knew a doctor right across the border in Juarez, Mexico, who had a reputation for providing safe abortions.

The flight to El Paso was Lee's first time on an airplane.

She described her emotions on the plane as "fear; fear of the unknown; worry."

"I think that the largest or most prevalent cause of death was septic abortions, and so I knew that," she said. "I was always very afraid but I tried to hold my head up. I was thinking how dangerous the procedure would be, but also I was praying."

Lee also worried about getting arrested.

"I knew that they were illegal and I was worried too that I might get caught," she reflected. "I was really in a lot of ways worried that someone was going to catch me and then put me in jail."

Lee says her abortion was literally in a back alley. Her mother's friend drove her late at night to a small clinic that Lee remembers as clean and professional but dimly lit so that the police wouldn't notice.

"I felt comfortable once I got in there. Even though I was still afraid, it wasn't like a makeshift clinic," she said. After the procedure, Lee said, she felt relieved but was worried someone would find out  not just because of the stigma, but because abortion was illegal.

"All those thoughts went through my mind, hoping that nobody found out and hoping that I didn't get sick."

"There's so many who don't know a world without Roe. Well, let me tell you, you're gonna learn what that means in terms of real freedom and real bodily autonomy and real reproductive freedom and justice if Roe is overturned," she warned.

She expressed concern for the particular impact on Black and brown women if the draft decision holds.

"When you look at Black women, unfortunately, disproportionate numbers of Black women live below the poverty line. They're in economic distress, they're living on the edge," she said. "The end of bodily autonomy, Black women are going to be disproportionately impacted by this."

Barbara Lee speaks onstage during the Bans Off Our Bodies Rally on May 14, 2022, in Washington, D.C.

Lee told USA TODAY she was reluctant to share her story because "I want my personal life personal," but she did so because of what is at stake now.

"It's important, I think, as hard as it is for me and many others, that people know that you're not alone, that there are people who've been elected to public office who have had the same experiences.

"Once I shared the story, so many men and women on the floor of Congress came up and whispered to me they had a similar experience or their girlfriend or their wives. People everywhere I go come up and whisper to me. I'm glad they're whispering because they know it's still their private business. And I say, you'll never hear it from me," she said. "It's been empowering, I won't even say for me, but for other people."

Wisconsin Rep. Gwen Moore

Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis., speaks during the 2016 Democratic National Convention at Wells Fargo Center.

Rep. Gwen Moore, 71, describes reading the leaked Supreme Court draft decision as a "gut punch." She had an abortion and later worked as a counselor at an abortion clinic.

Moore was 12 the first time she learned about abortions. She recalled hearing her mother talking to a friend about a fellow parishioner with a health condition who was pregnant with her 11th or 12th child and had been offered a "therapeutic abortion." The woman did not have an abortion and gave birth to a baby girl, only to die weeks later.

"I remember looking at her in the casket ... a beautiful corpse laying there, perfect makeup, hair. She looked gorgeous to me. And she looked really really young," Moore said. "And I asked myself, was this God's will?"

The memory of the woman stuck with Moore, who became pregnant on her eighteenth birthday. "I had not planned to have sex at all and I was not prepared whatsoever to have sex. I guess what I learned was that getting pregnant was kind of easier than almost anything I've ever done," she said.

At the time, she didn't even contemplate an abortion.

"I would say that I (didn't have) any 'options' or 'choices.' I didn't know how to get an abortion or whatever," Moore said. On New Year's Day 1970, she went into labor with her daughter.

"I had no phone. I had no cab fare. I had no money and I didn't have then a dime to use the telephone booth," she said. "I had no car, I had no driver's license. The child's father was not attentive to me at all."

So Moore waited for her neighbors to return home from New Year's celebrations and then used their phone to call an ambulance. "My first Lifeline is Medicaid," she noted. "And I say this because when I hear people opine and weigh in about, you know, 'people who are poor are just predators and they're takers,' I think about my situation."

Moore said she was traumatized at the hospital by the experience of giving birth.

"I really felt like I had been gang raped when they let every single medical student that was anywhere around come in and shove their arm into my vagina to feel the baby," Moore said. "It was just like a gang of white men ... I was just an 18-year-old Black woman."

"I never had a child in a hospital ever again," she said.

When Moore became pregnant again a year later, she immediately knew she wanted an abortion.

"Within that first year, I was at war. I had lost opportunities," Moore said. She had been accepted to an Ivy League university but because she was a single mother, she stayed local and went to Marquette University in Milwaukee instead. The school fought with the state to safeguard her welfare benefits, and her sister got a foster care license so she could take care of Moore's child.

"I was so blessed to have had people who wanted to see me succeed," she said. "I really got lucky, but I just knew I couldn't depend on that kind of luck to continue."

So Moore went to Planned Parenthood, which connected her to a doctor in Madison who connected her with a group called the Women's Fund.

"I didn't want to try to harm myself. But I can say that I might have been vulnerable because that was how desperate I was not to be pregnant," she said. "Thank God I found this network instead of some home remedy."

The organization flew her to New York City for the procedure. She was in and out, not gone long enough for anyone at home to notice.

"I didn't even have money to get to the airport, much less to fly round-trip to New York. I had never been to New York before. It was a frightening experience for me. I had never seen that many people, human beings in one place at the same time. And I felt so absolutely, totally and completely alone," she said.

She recalled feeling relieved on the journey back to Milwaukee.

"I had absolutely no complications physically, mentally or any other thing," she said. "It was so clear that this was the right thing for me to do."

She had her next child eight years later.

"That was a lot of time for me to kind of get myself together and figure out some career prospects and to really do the rough work of trying to parent the one child I had, because it just was not a cakewalk for me, and it's definitely not a cakewalk for her," she said.

Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.)

Moore said she didn't realize she was making news when she mentioned having an abortion on local television in the wake of the leaked decision until her son pointed out it was new information.

"I didn't feel compelled to share it with anyone, I didn't feel like it was that compelling of a story in my 71 years of life, it's just one story," she said. "I'm not ashamed of this story."

But as people discussed the disproportionate impact overturning Roe would have on low income women and women of color, Moore said: "I looked at myself and said: 'yep, I was that person, that person they're talking about. Let me share that.'"

"I shared my story because I saw myself standing in the shoes of that woman who was now going to have her fourth child just simply because she just couldn't put together the money ... abortions will always be available to people with money."

Illinois Rep. Marie Newman

Marie Newman smiles as she campaigns in the Archer Heights neighborhood of Chicago.

Rep. Marie Newman, 58, defeated one of the last remaining anti-abortion Democrats in a 2020 primary to win her seat but did not share her story until after the decision draft leaked last month.

"I went on to have a beautiful, wonderful family. I met the love of my life and I have two amazing kids, because I had quality care," Newman said. "I was super lucky. But what about all of these women, young women coming up? They won't be lucky and that will be horrifying and scary and we're going to lose women. Women will die."

Newman was 19 when she had an abortion. When she found out she was pregnant, she said she "immediately started crying."

"I don't have the emotional ability, the financial ability, the time or the wherewithal to take on something as important as being a parent, right? And it was just a huge weight on my shoulders," she recalled.

"At the time I was scrubbing tables and floors to get through college, had two jobs, an internship, and had a full 18-hour load in college, so I just couldn't imagine," Newman said. "How will I raise this child, and how will I carry a child for nine months? How will I pay for its delivery? How will I pay for its upbringing? How will this child be brought up given that I am a less than optimal parent at this point my life now?"

She made a pro and con list to help make her decision. "I still once in a while reflect back on that. It was one of the most difficult times of my life."

"I remember that the nurses were so kind to me, and they literally took me through the baby steps of it and then afterward were so reassuring. I talked to a counselor before and after. And they said: 'I think you made the right decision for you,'" Newman said. "'She's like, 'you have to own your own body.' And it was the first time someone kind of gave me permission to be OK with making my decisions because you know, at 19, any decision is tough because you're not used to making decisions for yourself."

Newman kept her pregnancy and decision secret until she was around 40 years old, when she told her now-husband.

"The shame of it was so deep," she said.

"You buy into things when you have a specific type of upbringing in a deeply Catholic household, a deeply Republican household  that you don't have agency over your body, that you should not be able to make bodily decisions for yourself," she said. "I bought into that, even though I had become very liberal in college."

Rep. Marie Newman, D-Ill., speaks with supporters at a campaign fundraiser May 9, 2022, in Chicago.

"In the Catholic religion when you feel as though you've sinned, you ask for absolution, and so about a month after I was cared for, I went to a Catholic priest and received absolution and that was very healing to me," she said.

"The one misstep I may have made is that if I had talked about my abortion sooner, I probably would have stopped shaming myself, for decades, literally."

Since sharing her story publicly, Newman said that the greatest compliment has been calls from anti-abortion people who say that they understand her perspective more now, even if they don't agree.

"If nothing else matters, and we did that  oh, gosh. Mission accomplished."

Michigan Sen. Gary Peters

Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan

Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, 63, is the only man in either chamber to share a personal story of abortion. His ex-wife had one while they were expecting their second child, after a complication-free first pregnancy.

"The sorrow, the despair of that hit you just in an overwhelming way," he said of the realization that the abortion was medically inevitable and necessary.

"Towards the end of the fourth month, really kind of surprisingly, my ex-wife experienced the water breaking and realized that something was really wrong," Peters said. She went to her doctor, who told her the lack of amniotic fluid was "catastrophic."

"There's no way that this baby could ever come to term. The fetus isn't going to be able to survive. There's no longer the cushion there to protect the baby," Peters recalled the doctor explaining. "It was clear that the baby was just gonna slowly die ... In fact, I remember him talking about things in fairly graphic terms, that the limb of the baby could be ripped off."

Peters said the doctor shared that his ex-wife could become infected and there could be serious medical repercussions, but "that he still detected a faint heartbeat from the baby."

"His advice at that point was basically just to go home and over the night she would have a miscarriage," Peters said. "It was a very horrible night, very anxious night. A lot of emotion, a lot of sadness. The next morning, when we woke up, the miscarriage did not occur."

They returned to the doctor, who was surprised but still detected a faint heartbeat. The doctor informed Peters that he could not perform an abortion because of the heartbeat and recommended they return home again to continue to wait for a miscarriage.

"This anguish, this horror that we were living continued as we went back and the same thing happened over that night and still no miscarriage," he said. They returned to the doctor again, who reiterated that the baby could not survive and said he would petition the hospital board to be able to perform an abortion despite the faint heartbeat.

"I'll never forget that answering machine," Peters recalled. The doctor informed them that the board rejected the petition for an exemption and told them the decision was effectively based on politics, not medicine or science. He urged them to find another doctor who could offer the procedure quickly, or else there would be serious health consequences that could potentially threaten the mother's life.

Luckily, said Peters, they had a friend who was an administrator at a different hospital who was able to get them in to see an OBGYN.

"That doctor examined her and said, 'I have to do this procedure immediately. This is starting to get an infection and if I don't do it soon, you will definitely lose your uterus. And if they're delayed much longer, you could see your life would be in jeopardy.' And so the procedure went forward, but it was just a horrific situation to be in," he said.

Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., speaks at a hearing on Capitol Hill, Thursday, March 25, 2021, in Washington.

"Fortunately Roe vs. Wade was in place. It's fortunate that in Michigan, these kinds of procedures are legal," Peters said. "But if those laws were not in place, this would have been a very bad ending."

"It was a horrible situation and to watch her go through that was terrible. But it still impacts men as well, impacts families, impacts everyone," Peters said.

Peters and his ex hadn't talked about the abortion in decades before deciding to go public. "It's intensely personal. It's not easy to share. And it's quite frankly, it's something we don't like to think about a lot because it's very painful still. The pain doesn't go away."

California Rep. Jackie Speier

Rep. Jackie Speier, 72, was the first sitting lawmaker to share her story, rising on the House floor in 2011 to tell the tale during a debate over federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

"I was already a mother. We very much wanted to have this second child," Speier said. She went on a jog and felt uncomfortable after, so went to see the doctor. "They determined that the fetus had dropped through the cervix and into the vagina, and they put me in a bed with my head tilted to the floor, my legs up, with the hope that the fetus would return to the uterus. I was that way for about 24 hours, and that didn't happen."

At that point, Speier was 17 weeks pregnant and decided with her husband and doctor to terminate the pregnancy.

"This was a baby that we desperately wanted to come into the world. It was not meant to be. And so the decision was made. I grieved about it, as I think every woman does when she has an abortion. And it was a very personal and profound experience that has been with me my whole life," she said.

She did not plan to share the story in advance. "A colleague on the Republican side was reading from a book in which he said that in these second trimester abortions, the fetus  they actually saw off the legs of the babies, and I got sick to my stomach," Speier recalled.

"I stood up and said to my colleague: 'How dare you? How dare you speak about something you know nothing about? I am a woman that has endured that procedure and it's not done with any degree of joy. It's done out of pain and grief. To somehow suggest that this is done cavalierly is preposterous.'"

Speier recalls trembling as she walked back to her seat from the microphone, only to be comforted by the late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga.

"He had tears in his eyes and said that it was one of the most powerful speeches he had ever heard, and he proceeded to tell me about his aunt. He was a young boy at the time, and he remembers his aunt coming down the steps at his house in a blood stained night gown and never returning," she said. "We're not going to let this happen in this country again."

It's not the only time Speier has shared her personal trauma as a legislator. She was elected after serving as an aide to the late Rep. Leo Ryan, who was killed during the Jonestown massacre in 1978. Speier, who was with Ryan at the time, survived after being shot five times. Later, she helped spearhead the #MeToo movement on the Hill by sharing the sexual harassment and assault she experienced as a staffer.

"You don't do it by design. I think more than anything, we all bring our personal experiences to our work, and it informs our decision making," she said.

"I think that these stories actually help people understand that we're not talking about words on a piece of paper. ... There needs to be a greater understanding among all of us about our personal experiences, and I think it would help us do our jobs better if we just listened to each other."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Roe vs. Wade decision is personal for seven members of Congress
A man suspected in an anti-Asian attack on a Filipino family in North Hollywood last month is back in custody in Los Angeles County after he failed to appear for arraignment, authorities said Wednesday.

Nicholas Weber, 31, was detained by police after the May 13 attack and issued a citation with instructions to appear in court June 8.

But Weber did not show up.

He was charged with felony battery causing serious bodily injury and misdemeanor battery. Both counts also carried hate crime enhancements, court records show.

Weber was arrested in Orange County shortly after 7:40 p.m. June 16, said Roxi Fyad, a Costa Mesa Police Department spokesperson.

Costa Mesa police "responded to a call for service of a male possibly passed out on the sidewalk" and identified him as Weber, Fyad said. The officers arrested him on an outstanding felony assault warrant from the Los Angeles Police Department.

It was not clear when L.A. County authorities were made aware of Weber's arrest in Costa Mesa or when he was transferred to custody in Los Angeles.

He is set to be arraigned on the L.A. County charges Friday.

"The unprovoked assault on members of our community is wrong and will not be tolerated," L.A. County Dist. Atty. George Gascon said. "Our message against violence and racial hatred must be loud and clear. We will hold accountable the people who commit hate crimes in Los Angeles County."

A screenshot from a video taken by Patricia Roque shows a man who shouted at her and her mother, Nerissa, before Nerissa and her husband were attacked in a McDonald's parking lot. (Patricia Roque)

The May 13 incident began after Weber allegedly rear-ended Nerissa and Patricia Roque at a McDonalds drive-through on Victory Boulevard.

At first, the mother and daughter thought it was a hit-and-run because the SUV driver pulled out of the line, but he drove up beside their vehicle and started shouting.

Oh. Youre so Asian, he yelled, in a tone that seemed to affect some kind of Asian accent. Yeah, youre so Asian.

The encounter was captured in a series of videos taken by Patricia, 19, that were provided to The Times on Friday.

In one video, the man tries to enter the familys car as Patricia, sitting in the cars passenger seat, shuts and locks the door moments before he pulls on the handle.

Story continues

By that point, the mother and daughter had called police, and Nerissas husband, 62-year-old Gabriel Roque, had arrived from the familys home.

An expletive-laced video shows the man shove Gabriel, who falls on a concrete parking block, and land on top of him.

After a bystander and Nerissa, 47, separated the man from Gabriel, another video captures a second assault. In a scene partly captured on video and described by Patricia and Nerissa, the man, with his back against a wall, grabs Nerissa by the throat.

Sandy Roxas, the Roque familys attorney, said Gabriel was taken to a hospital with broken ribs and a bruised left arm.

Police arrived about an hour after the initial confrontation, Nerissa and Patricia told The Times on Friday.

The Roque family held a rally outside the district attorney's office Van Nuys branch earlier that day in a bid to raise awareness of their case and call for justice.

Nerissa and Patricia said their family was traumatized by the attack but bolstered by support from the community.

According to Los Angeles County court records, Weber has several recent arrests and convictions, including for driving under the influence, probation violations and violating a restraining order.

In 2012, he was sentenced to two years in state prison and 180 days in county jail, to be served consecutively, after he pleaded no contest in a DUI case, court records show.

In addition to the case involving the Roque family, Weber faces criminal charges of petty theft and public intoxication in a separate case, the records show. That case was filed June 10 in connection with a May 31 incident.

"While it will take time for the Roque family and the community to heal, Weber's arrest is one step towards bringing justices for the Roques," Roxas said.

The attorney said she and her clients are relieved Weber is in custody but know this is not the end of their fight.

"Weber having to answer for his actions is long overdue, and we hope that this is a message to not only the victims of Asian hate crimes, but to the people who incite violence against our community," Roxas said. "Giving law enforcement pressure is key to fighting for justice, and I thank them for finally apprehending Weber."

It was unclear Wednesday whether Weber had an attorney.

Times staff writer Liam Dillon contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
argenx SE





Positive opinion based on Phase 3 ADAPT trial showing efgartigimod provided clinically meaningful improvements in strength and quality of life measures





European Commission decision on marketing authorization application (MAA) expected in approximately 60 days





If approved, efgartigimod will be the first neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn) blocker for the treatment of adults in Europe living with rare neuromuscular disease generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG)





Breda, the NetherlandsJune 24, 2022argenx (Euronext & Nasdaq: ARGX), a global immunology company committed to improving the lives of people suffering from severe autoimmune diseases, today announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has recommended European Commission (EC) approval of efgartigimod as an add-on to standard therapy for the treatment of adult patients with generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG) who are anti-acetylcholine receptor (AChR) antibody positive.

The positive CHMP opinion is a scientific recommendation for marketing authorization, serving as a basis for the ECs final decision on argenxs application for efgartigimod. The EC is expected to make a decision within approximately 60 days following CHMP recommendation, which will be applicable to all 27 European Union Member States, in addition to Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein.

The current treatment of generalized MG in Europe leaves many patients with insufficiently controlled symptoms that markedly decrease quality of life. Caregivers and medical teams are well aware of the need for new treatment options that are safe, effective and targeted to the disease biology said Anthony Behin, MD neuromuscular physician at Institut de Myologie, La Pitie Salpetriere, Paris. As a practicing neurologist regularly seeing people who live with this debilitating chronic disease, the CHMPs positive opinion of efgartigimod represents an exciting advancement toward bringing a new treatment option to these patients in Europe.

Story continues

The MAA included results from the pivotal Phase 3 ADAPT trial, which were published in the July 2021 issue of The Lancet Neurology . The ADAPT trial met its primary endpoint, demonstrating that significantly more anti-acetylcholine receptor (AChR) antibody positive gMG patients were responders on the Myasthenia Gravis Activities of Daily Living (MG-ADL) scale following treatment with efgartigimod compared with placebo (68% vs. 30%; p<0.0001). Responders were defined as having at least a two-point reduction on the MG-ADL scale sustained for four or more consecutive weeks during the first treatment cycle.

There were additionally significantly more responders on the Quantitative Myasthenia Gravis (QMG) scale following treatment with efgartigimod compared with placebo (63% vs. 14%; p<0.0001). Responders were defined as having at least a three-point reduction on the QMG scale sustained for four or more consecutive weeks during the first treatment cycle.

Efgartigimod had a demonstrated safety profile in the ADAPT clinical trial. The most frequently reported adverse reactions were upper respiratory tract infections (10.7% following treatment with efgartigimod vs. 4.8% of placebo) and urinary tract infections (9.5% vs. 4.8%).

We are thrilled by the CHMPs recommendation in favor of efgartigimod, which brings us one step closer to delivering this therapy to people living with gMG in Europe and around the world, said Anant Murthy, Ph.D., General Manager, EU, argenx. We are confident in the European team we have built, and pending marketing authorization, look forward to close collaboration with regulatory bodies and government authorities across the region to ensure this treatment option will be available for as many patients as possible.

Efgartigimod is the first-and-only approved FcRn blocker in the U.S. as VYVGART (efgartigimod alfa-fcab) for the treatment of adult gMG patients who are anti-AChR antibody positive and in Japan for those who do not have sufficient response to steroids or non-steroidal immunosuppressive therapies (ISTs). argenx also plans to launch efgartigimod in Canada, China through its collaboration with Zai Lab, and select additional regions.

About Phase 3 ADAPT Trial

The Phase 3 ADAPT trial was a 26-week randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multi-center, global trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of efgartigimod in adult patients with gMG. A total of 167 adult patients with gMG in North America, Europe and Japan enrolled in the trial. Patients were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to receive efgartigimod or placebo, in addition to stable doses of their current gMG treatment. ADAPT was designed to enable an individualized treatment approach with an initial treatment cycle followed by subsequent treatment cycles based on clinical evaluation. The primary endpoint was the comparison of percentage of MG-ADL responders in the first treatment cycle between efgartigimod and placebo treatment groups in the anti-AChR antibody positive population.

About Efgartigimod

Efgartigimod is an antibody fragment designed to reduce pathogenic immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies by binding to the neonatal Fc receptor and blocking the IgG recycling process. Efgartigimod is being investigated in several autoimmune diseases known to be mediated by disease-causing IgG antibodies, including neuromuscular disorders, blood disorders, and skin blistering diseases. It is currently approved in the United States for the treatment of adult patients with gMG who are anti-acetylcholine receptor antibody positive, and Japan for adult patients with gMG who do not have sufficient response to steroids or non-steroidal immunosuppressive therapies.

About Generalized Myasthenia Gravis

Generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG) is a rare and chronic autoimmune disease where IgG autoantibodies disrupt communication between nerves and muscles, causing debilitating and potentially life-threatening muscle weakness. Approximately 85% of people with MG progress to gMG within 24 months1, where muscles throughout the body may be affected. Patients with confirmed AChR antibodies account for approximately 85% of the total gMG population1.

About argenx

argenx is a global immunology company committed to improving the lives of people suffering from severe autoimmune diseases. Partnering with leading academic researchers through its Immunology Innovation Program (IIP), argenx aims to translate immunology breakthroughs into a world-class portfolio of novel antibody-based medicines. argenx developed and is commercializing the first-and-only approved neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn) blocker in the U.S. and Japan.

For further information, please contact:

Media:

Kelsey Kirk

kkirk@argenx.com

Investors:

Beth DelGiacco

bdelgiacco@argenx.com

Michelle Greenblatt

mgreenblatt@argenx.com

Forward-looking Statements

The contents of this announcement include statements that are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the terms believes, hope, estimates, anticipates, expects, intends, may, will, or should and include statements argenx makes concerning the timing of any approval or marketing authorization by the EC of efgartigimod as an add-on to standard therapy for the treatment of adult patients with gMG who are AChR antibody positive. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and readers are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. argenxs actual results may differ materially from those predicted by the forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors. A further list and description of these risks, uncertainties and other risks can be found in argenxs U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings and reports, including in argenxs most recent annual report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC as well as subsequent filings and reports filed by argenx with the SEC. Given these uncertainties, the reader is advised not to place any undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of publication of this document. argenx undertakes no obligation publicly update or revise the information in this press release, including any forward-looking statements, except as may be required by law.

1 Behin et al. New Pathways and Therapeutics Targets in Autoimmune Myasthenia Gravis. J Neuromusc Dis 5. 2018. 265-277

# # #




Arizona brothers Nate and Gabriel Brown have advanced to the next round on Season 17 of "America's Got Talent" thanks to their unique audition.

In the episode that aired Tuesday, June 14, Gabriel treated the audience to crowd-pleasing impressions of Kermit the Frog singing the Elton John song "Tiny Dancer," Donald Duck singing Nickelback's "Photograph" (a clear improvement), SpongeBob SquarePants on Train's "Drops of Jupiter" and more while Nate accompanied his brother on piano.

Gabriel approached the judges table with a stack of character cards and song cards, asking the judges to select one of each card. He then performed whatever combination they held up.

M3F fest in Phoenix has announced its 2023 dates. Here's what you need to know

'AGT' 2022 judges send Brown brothers on

"There's actually 576 possible iterations," he explained. "So this is a little nerve-wracking, because we have no idea what's gonna happen."

That audition earned a perfect score from the "America's Got Talent" judges.

Exclusive: Why are so many Arizonans are on reality shows?

'I loved your personalities,' Simon Cowell said

Simon Cowell, who Gabriel imitated singing the Lewis Capaldi song "Someone You Loved," found that impression "frighteningly close'" and added, "Genuinely, I loved your personalities as well."

The brothers are veterans of the U.S. Navy and live in Sahuarita, Arizona, about 15 miles from Tucson.

They're also autistic, as Gabriel explained in their audition.

"So socializing is kind of difficult," he said. "And this is kind of terrifying."

Alice Cooper group's record-store reunion film is coming out. Here's how to get it

When judge Howie Mandel asked, "What is the hope?" Gabriel responded, "The hope is that we can be a voice for and inspire people like us."

Story continues

Nate discussed their autism with KVOA Channel 4 in Tucson before their audition aired.

"Who doesn't experience bullying in some sense growing up?" he asked. "So everyone has their own defense mechanisms. I think the big thing with 'AGT' was it was kind of like a cool platform for us to kind of encourage people who might be feeling like they don't fit in."

Gabriel Brown is Black Gryph0n on YouTube

Gabriel Brown is a YouTuber who may be better known on social media and YouTube as Black Gryph0n.

Although he mainly does original material, he rose to fame in the YouTube community on the strength of his impressions.

His most popular video, "One Guy 54 Voices," has earned more than 135 million views and more than 5 million likes in three years and it's still going strong.

How to watch 'America's Got Talent'

"America's Got Talent" airs at 7 p.m. Tuesdays on NBC.

'She was the Female Elvis.' How a Phoenix rockabilly teen made the cover of Bob Dylan's book

Reach the reporter at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4495. Follow him on Twitter @EdMasley.

Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 'America's Got Talent' gives Arizona's Brown brothers a perfect score
VIENNA, June 24, 2022 /CNW/ -- Development partners attending the OPEC Fund's Development Forum in Vienna this week demonstrated their resolve to address urgent global challenges by entering new commitments for financial support and signing cooperation agreements.

OPEC Fund and the Republic of Kosovo signed the "Framework Agreement for Private Sector Operations." Pictured from left to right: Tareq Alnassar, Assistant Director-General, Private Sector & Trade Finance Operations; Hekuran Murati, Minister of Finance, Labor and Transfers of the Republic of Kosovo; Dr. Abdulhamid Alkhalifa, OPEC Fund Director-General; Violet Onyemenam, General Counsel OPEC Fund.

Signings and announcements included the following:

The OPEC Fund and the Republic of Kosovo signed a "Framework Agreement for Private Sector Operations," which aims to strengthen the private sector in Kosovo with a focus on infrastructure, connectivity, energy and water. OPEC Fund Director Dr. Abdulhamid Alkhalifa had visited Kosovo in June and expressed the ambition to deepen the partnership.

The Asian Development Bank and the OPEC Fund launched a trust fund to improve project readiness in developing countries. As a first contribution, the OPEC Fund is committing US$3 million to the fund, which will provide technical assistance to improve the delivery of investment projects through enhanced preparation, design, and procurement.

The OPEC Fund and the regional South American development bank FONPLATA signed a "Cooperation Agreement" to broaden and deepen the partnership through more co-financing of strategic projects in the Latin America and Caribbean region, where FONPLATA operates.

The OPEC Fund is teaming up with the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) to design and deliver a new Climate Finance and Energy Innovation Hub, which is set to be launched at the UN climate conference COP27 in Egypt in November. Designed as a global end-to-end policy and finance platform, this hub will harness the power of financial innovation to source, unlock, de-risk and scale-up investments in energy access and transition. Recognizing the crucial role of clean cooking the OPEC Fund is earmarking US$100 million in support of relevant projects in DRC, Madagascar, Malawi, and Rwanda as part of the initiative.

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the OPEC Fund signed a Memorandum of Understanding to facilitate access to innovative financing solutions, unlock investment and support project development to advance renewable energy investment and enable access to sustainable finance in emerging and developing economies.

OPEC Fund Director-General Dr. Alkhalifa said: "These new commitments and signings are a declaration of our intent to join forces in the face of unprecedented challenges. One clear takeaway from our event was the need for urgent, targeted and joint action in areas such as climate change, energy access and food supply. We are very encouraged by the success and positive momentum generated at our Forum which provides the energy to move forward swiftly and forcefully."

The OPEC Fund Development Forum "Driving Resilience & Equity" gathered government leaders, ministers from OPEC Fund member and partner countries, heads of the Arab Coordination Group institutions, senior officials of multilateral development banks and international organizations as well as private sector representatives. The event included panels on "Climate Challenges vs Energy Needs - Development Perspectives," "Innovations that Enable a Smart Energy Future," and "Turning Public Ambition into Effective Action," and closed with a conversation on "South-South Co-ownership in Development Progress."

The date of the 2023 OPEC Fund Development Forum will be announced shortly.

About the OPEC Fund

The OPEC Fund for International Development (the OPEC Fund) is the only globally mandated development institution that provides financing from member countries to non-member countries exclusively. The organization works in cooperation with developing country partners and the international development community to stimulate economic growth and social progress in low- and middle-income countries around the world. The OPEC Fund was established by the member countries of OPEC in 1976 with a distinct purpose: to drive development, strengthen communities and empower people. Our work is people-centered, focusing on financing projects that meet essential needs, such as food, energy, infrastructure, employment (particularly relating to MSMEs), clean water and sanitation, healthcare and education. To date, the OPEC Fund has committed more than US$22 billion to development projects in over 125 countries with an estimated total project cost of US$187 billion. The OPEC Fund is rated AA+/Outlook Stable by Fitch and AA/Positive Outlook by S&P in 2021. Our vision is a world where sustainable development is a reality for all.

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The Asian Development Bank and the OPEC Fund launched a trust fund to improve project readiness in developing countries. Pictured from left to right: Ahmed M. Saeed, ADB Vice-President for the East Asia Department, the Southeast Asia Department, and the Pacific Department; Eugene Zhukov ADB Director General for Central and West Asia; Dr. Abdulhamid Alkhalifa, OPEC Fund Director-General; Violet Onyemenam, General Counsel OPEC Fund.

The OPEC Fund and the regional South American development bank FONPLATA. Pictured from left to right: Mr. Juan Enrique Notaro Fraga, Executive President FONPLATA; Dr. Abdulhamid Alkhalifa, OPEC Fund Director-General.

The OPEC Fund, UNCDF & SEforALL announce the launch of a Climate Finance and Energy Innovation Hub at the OPEC Fund Dev Forum. Pictured from left to right: Shaimaa Al-Sheiby, OPEC Fund Senior Director, Strategic Planning & Economic Services; Damilola Ogunbiyi, CEO of SEforALL; Preeti Sinha, Executive Secretary UNCDF; Lerato Mbele, Journalist.

International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the OPEC Fund signed a Memorandum of Understanding. Pictured from left to right: Francesco La Camera, IRENA Director-General; Dr. Abdulhamid Alkhalifa, OPEC Fund Director-General.

OPEC Fund Development Forum, Hofburg, Vienna.

(PRNewsfoto/OPEC Fund for International Development)

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Jun. 23ROCHESTER  Humbird is finally headed back to Europe for a two and-a-half month tour there. Southeast Minnesota musician Siri Undlin, who performs solo and in ensembles as Humbird, begins a long-deferred European tour in Ireland and the United Kingdom through mid-September after playing the Blue Ox Music Festival on Friday, June 24, 2022.

Undlin said Europe is where she learned old folk music traditions while studying there on a research fellowship in 2013.

"It was that year of research that changed the trajectory of my life," Undlin said. "I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now thanks to the time and the creators and dreamers and stories there."

After nearly a decade of collecting and creating stories and folk traditions in the upper Midwest, Undlin said she's eager to return, learn more and share songs and traditions from here as well.

"I think the stories from this landscape and what we go through are just as important to share too," she said.

Undlin was

scheduled to return there in 2020

to tour on her 2019 release Pharmakon. COVID-19 forced her to cancel those plans and many more.

The COVID-19 pandemic was hard on musicians. The venues they rely on for income and shows closed. The camaraderie and connection with crowds that motivates most performers were put on hiatus.

The people who attended the most recent forWARD concert at White Oaks Park in June heard how Southeast Minnesota artist Siri Undlin, who performs as Humbird, processed the ordeal. She ended the show with an emotional rendition of her song, "On the Day We Are Together Again," written in isolation and imagining the joy of reuniting with friends and audiences again.

"Now it's sort of like a blessing or a ritual of gratitude whenever I sing it for a roomful of people," she said.

In 2020, Undlin was poised to play Austin, Texas', South by Southwest, tour her newly recorded music in Europe and the U.S. She turned to music to mourn the loss of opportunities and process the sudden isolation she and everyone found themselves dealing with.

Story continues

"In a lot of ways, the song isn't that different from a lot of songs I write," she said. "It's written from a very raw, fearful place but music is a good place to find strength again."

Sung acapella, the song went out as one of Minnesota Public Radio's picks for a COVID-19 singalong. The singalongs in 2020 featured uplifting songs people were encouraged to play outside and join their neighbors, from a distance, in a moment of connectivity.

Undlin will be joined by La Crosse, Wisconsin, native and Southeast Minnesota folk artist Luke Callen.

His latest self-produced release, "Hard Sardine" was recorded by Noah Glenn Short in Winona, Minnesota.

Undlin will blog about the tour on her

Patreon page

.

"There will be good stories, good adventure and good scenery," Undlin said.

Some of the details of the tour have yet to take shape  such as where the two will sleep during some of the two and-a-half months they will be on the road there. At the very least, a rented sprinter van will keep them dry.

"It can be kind of stressful to sort out logistics in places you're not familiar with, but that's the reality of being a touring, independent musician," she said. "It always leads to adventure one way or another."

A full schedule of the tour can be found at

humbirdmusic.com

.
Kate Bosworth and Justin Long

Kate Bosworth Instagram

Kate Bosworth and Justin Long are slowly becoming more public with their romance.

RELATED: Justin Long Says He Has Found 'the One' amid Kate Bosworth Relationship Rumors: 'It's Sacred'

The Remember the Titans actress and the He's Just Not That Into You actor  who spent time together in 2021 while filming an unnamed project in Arkansas  sparked relationship rumors in March 2022 after they were spotted together in Los Angeles. Since then, they've been photographed strolling the streets of New York City and kissing on the beach in Hawaii. Long also opened up about their relationship during a podcast appearance, saying he's "never had anything like this before."

From their low-key start to their Instagram debut, here's a complete timeline of Kate Bosworth and Justin Long's relationship.

2021: Kate Bosworth and Justin Long film a project in Arkansas

Kate Bosworth and Justin Long

Kate Bosworth Instagram

In 2021, Bosworth and Long filmed an unnamed film project together in Arkansas.

After wrapping up on set, Bosworth posted a glowing tribute to Long on Instagram with a carousel of photos, including one playful snap of Long cradling Bosworth in his arms.

"Holy moly @justinlong you are a truly spectacular / fun / funny / kind / rare / thoughtful / totally. fckn. rad human being. ," she wrote. "THANK YOU for lifting us up ... you kept it light & full of laughter daily, even through the toughest moments. You gnome how much I love ya  (sorry had to ;)"

Long jokingly commented, "That's ALL you wrote about me??? Well... I admire your restraint."

He continued, "I joke because this is embarrassing and too much... I'm going to say even nicer things about you publicly because people should know what a rare gem you are - all the things you said about me but a little bit (or a lot) more. It was a true joy to be in your glow."

December 2021: Justin Long confirms he is in a relationship on his podcast

Kate Bosworth and Justin Long

Kate Bosworth Instagram

During an episode of his podcast Life is Short with Justin Long, Long confirmed he had a girlfriend. Though he did not mention the name of his significant other, he did leave one clue  she liked pineapple on her pizza.

Story continues

March 28, 2022: Kate Bosworth and Justin Long are spotted together in Los Angeles

After Bosworth's social media tribute and Long's podcast admission, fans had been speculating that the two were an item. In March 2022, the pair added more fuel to the rumors when they were spotted together in a car in L.A.

April 4, 2022: Justin Long says he found "the one" amidst Kate Bosworth romance rumors

Kate Bosworth and Justin Long

Kate Bosworth Instagram

During an appearance on Nick Vaill's show The Vaill Files, Long discussed his journey to finding love.

"I had gotten to a place where I was comfortable with myself. I didn't know it at the time, but I was ready for the one," the actor said, before adding, "And the one, I met. I found."

Without revealing Bosworth's name, he mentioned, "I want to [talk about it], but I also want to be protective. I want to scream it from the rooftops, but I also want to be protective. It's sacred."

April 22, 2022: Kate Bosworth and Justin Long are spotted kissing on a beach in Hawaii

Kate Bosworth and Justin Long

Kate Bosworth Instagram

After months of speculation, the rumored couple seemingly confirmed their romance when they were spotted kissing on a beach while enjoying their stay in Kauai, Hawaii. Bosworth and Long traveled to the island to celebrate former InStyle editor-in-chief Laura Brown's wedding weekend.

May 2022: Kate Bosworth and Justin Long show PDA in New York City

In May 2022, Bosworth and Long were spotted walking the streets of N.Y.C. arm-in-arm. The couple was all smiles during their stroll, with Bosworth holding Long's arm at one point as they made their way down the street.

May 19, 2022: Justin Long talks about his relationship with Kate Bosworth on Dear Chelsea

Long got candid about his relationship with Bosworth on an episode of the Dear Chelsea podcast, saying that "being in love" is "such a wonderful feeling."

Host Chelsea Handler asked, "Am I allowed to say her name?" before Long granted permission and Handler named Bosworth as his significant other.

RELATED: Kate Bosworth Went on a PDA-Packed Walk with Justin Long in the Shorts Style Chrissy Teigen Can't Stop Wearing

"There's something about it, for me, that I feel like I need to protect and keep sacred because it feels sacred," the actor explained, before adding, "I've never had anything like this before; I've never experienced this. So it's something I want to protect and keep, you know?"

May 24, 2022: Justin Long makes it Instagram official with Kate Bosworth

Kate Bosworth and Justin Long

Justin Long Instagram

Long made their romance Instagram official during a pub date in Ireland in May 2022. The actor shared a carousel of photos of him and Bosworth, including a sweet selfie of the pair sharing a Guinness and a few snaps of them rocking matching foam mustaches.

Long nodded to the pair's travels by captioning the post with a green heart and Irish flag.

"I'm the luckiest. ," Bosworth commented.

June 2, 2022: Kate Bosworth wishes Justin Long a happy birthday on Instagram

Kate Bosworth and Justin Long

Kate Bosworth Instagram

For Long's 44th birthday, Bosworth posted a special message on Instagram along with a gallery of photos of the couple.

"You were born today and the world lit up brighter than it had known and years later you met a girl who's life was disassembled / rearranged but you were patient and with time she fell in love now she has a glow (one that was forgotten long ago) she is so grateful *more than you'll ever know ," Bosworth wrote next to a series of candid shots, goofy selfies and PDA-packed photos.

She added, "Happy Birthday @justinlong you make me smile so big my face hurts xx Thank you for creating peace in my heart since the day we met."

Long commented, "Fine! I'll start following you! Loving you is easily the best gift I've ever received (I'm going to tell you this in person as soon as I walk out of the bathroom ;)."

June 20, 2022: Kate Bosworth shares a photo from her and Justin Long's trip to Ireland

Kate Bosworth and Justin Long in Ireland

Kate Bosworth Instagram

Bosworth gave followers a peek at her and Long's trip to Ireland by sharing a sweet selfie of the pair from their travels. The actress posted a picture of the two with big smiles while they cozied up to each other by a river. Bosworth captioned the photo with a green shamrock and a yellow heart emoji, and Long raced to the comments.

RELATED: Kate Bosworth and Boyfriend Justin Long Smile Together on Trip to Ireland

"First! Er second," he wrote while trying to beat other Instagram users. "Third if you count bots ."

Friends of the couple also left sweet comments on the post. "Look at you two charms," wrote Brittany Snow.

Andie MacDowell chimed in, "You look so happy."

June 23, 2022: Kate Bosworth supports Justin Long's latest project

A few days later, Long shared the movie poster and trailer for his latest project on Instagram.

"These 3 words are extra special now and couldn't apply to a movie I'm more proud of: ONLY IN THEATERS!!" he wrote alongside a promo of Barbarian, the upcoming horror film he's starring in with Georgina Campbell and Bill Skarsgard.

Bosworth showed her support for her boyfriend in the comments, writing, "TOP HORROR / THRILLER I'VE EVER SEEN. And I LOVE this genre. And you. So it's a perfect combo. *Buckle up everyone, this one's a killer. "
Russia should not be excluded from the UN Ocean Conference, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in an interview with the Portuguese news agency Lusa on Friday, Tass informs.

June 24, 2022, 17:25 UN chief opposes Russia's exclusion from UN Ocean Conference  agency

STEPANAKERT, JUNE 24, ARTSAKHPRESS: The Secretary-General explained that the exclusion of a country from the list of participants at the conference does not make sense to him, as the upcoming meeting is aimed at changing the climate policy of absolutely all countries.

"Russia is contributing to the pollution of the oceans and influencing climate change. I believe that countries that contribute to the problems should also take part in solving them," Guterres said.

Earlier, Portuguese Foreign Minister Joao Gomes Cravinho confirmed Russia's participation in the upcoming conference. "Russia is a member of the UN and will take part in the conference," he announced.

The UN Ocean Conference is to kick off in Lisbon from June 27 to July 1. The Russian delegation in Portugal will be headed by presidential envoy for climate change Ruslan Edelgeriev.
Shelter should avoid gun debate

Re: your June 16 story, T.O pet shelter no longer lets some gun owners adopt:

While I completely understand Ms. Sills opinion of gun ownership, I am very concerned about her making this a part of the discussion or acceptance of potential pet adopters. Putting up a notice regarding her philosophy would be one thing but making it a part of the application I am afraid could more anger than there already is.

Currently, many people seem to be looking for a fight and dont seem to care for whom or what is in jeopardy. Our devoted volunteers certainly dont need this. They see enough tragedy each day. Additionally, these dear homeless animals are already deeply traumatized. It would make me sick to see anything happen to them.

Ms. Sill, would you please reconsider this part of the application, but please know that I am so appreciative of what you and the other volunteers are doing for our furry friends.

Maureen McGreevy, Simi Valley

Absurd arguments for AR-15

Now we know why some Republican senators believe that average citizens need an AR-15.

According to Senator Jon Thune of South Dakota, they are necessary for shooting prairie dogs. People in Colorado need them for varmints like racoons and foxes. Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana insists his voters must have these weapons to combat feral pigs.

In other states, I guess these weapons of war are used for the usual purpose: To kill our children and mutilate them so severely that they can only be identified through DNA.

Vote Republican if you want this madness to continue.

Chuck Moore, Oak View

We dont need truth commission

Re: Gloria Y.A. Ayees June 22 guest column, US could use a truth commission:

The recent advocacy of a truth commission would have us ignore our Constitution and judicial branch of government and form a quasi-governmental body to find the truth. It is curious that the truth commissions during Maos Revolution in which millions lost their lives and more their property or Stalin's truth commissions to create communist Russia were not used as examples of how truth commissions work.

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The world is changing faster than it ever has in history. The Communist Chinese Party is the largest threat to our childrens pursuit of happiness, not our history. It is interesting that truth commissions are typically advocated by leftist politicians that want to consolidate more power in Washington. Democracy is dependent on the competition of ideas. The Jan. 6 commission is an example of a truth commission. For all the good work the commission has done, it is a one-sided affair. For example, a female veteran was the only person shot and killed during the insurrection/riot. The commission has not mentioned that persons loss of life. It is covered up because it does not fit that truth commissions narrative.

In my opinion, the truth commission advocated by the author is another attempt to subject us to critical race theory. Just like the Chinese were subjected to critical class theory.

Wes Barrow, Thousand Oaks

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Letters: Pet owners and guns; GOP and AR-15s; truth commission
CAIRO (Reuters) - Qatar's ruler will visit Egypt on Friday, his first trip to the country since Egypt and Qatar agreed last year to end a long-running regional feud, diplomatic sources said.

Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, who last visited Egypt in 2015, will hold a formal meeting with Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo on Saturday, the sources said.

He met Sisi for the first time since the dispute at a summit in Iraq last year.

There was no immediate comment from Qatari authorities.

The emir's visit comes days after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited Cairo and the announcement of $7.7 billion in investment deals between Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain had boycotted Qatar since 2017 over charges it supports terrorism, a reference to Islamist groups. Qatar denied the accusation.

With Egypt facing economic headwinds as a result of the war in Ukraine, its cabinet said in March that Egypt and Qatar had agreed to sign investment deals worth $5 billion.

(Reporting by Mohamed Waly; Writing by Aidan Lewis, Editing by William Maclean)
* This content was produced in Russia, where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine

MOSCOW, June 24 (Reuters) - Russia's finance ministry on Friday said it had sent a coupon payment of 8.5 billion roubles ($159 million) on a dollar-denominated Eurobond issue to the National Settlement Depository, as the prospect of a sovereign default draws ever closer.

"Obligations on servicing the state securities of the Russian Federation were fulfilled by the finance ministry in full," the ministry said in a statement.

The Eurobond in question matures in 2028. Similar coupon payments were made on Thursday on bonds maturing in 2027 and 2047.

Russia has been struggling to make payments on its $40 billion of international bonds since being hit with sweeping sanctions after sending tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Dollar-denominated bonds usually have in their terms provisions that payments could under certain circumstances be made in euros, sterling or Swiss francs.

However, they do not foresee payments in roubles, the currency Moscow is using.

To avert default, funds broadly have to be paid in the correct currency into bondholders' accounts within the prescribed timeframe, which may include a 30-day grace period.

Moscow argues that paying in roubles constitutes Russia meeting its debt obligations as restrictions have blocked it from making some foreign currency payments in other jurisdictions.

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Wednesday to establish temporary procedures aimed at fulfilling Russia's foreign debt obligations as the country teeters on the brink of default. ($1 = 53.3500 roubles)

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
March for Our Lives Rally in Orlando, Florida

Gun safety advocates participate in a 'March For Our Lives' rally in Orlando, Florida, on June 11, 2022 . Similar marches were held across the United States in the wake of the mass shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York on May 14 which took 10 lives, and another on May 24 in Uvalde, Texas in which 19 students and two teachers were killed. Credit - Paul Hennessy/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

The Senate cleared a decades-long partisan impasse over how to address gun violence on Thursday night, passing a modest set of gun safety measures that would enhance background checks for younger buyers and fund new mental health programs.

The bill passed by a vote of 65 to 33, garnering support from the entire Democratic caucus and 15 Republicans, on the same day the Supreme Court expanded the scope of gun rights in a landmark ruling.

This is the sweet spot  making America safer, especially for kids in school, without making our country one bit less free, Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the minority leader, said Thursday. This is a common-sense package. Its provisions are very, very popular. It contains zero, zero new restrictions, zero new waiting periods, zero mandates and zero bans of any kind for law-abiding gun owners.

Along with McConnell, the other 14 Republicans that voted for the bill were Sens. Roy Blunt of Missouri, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, John Cornyn of Texas, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rob Portman of Ohio, Mitt Romney of Utah, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania and Todd Young of Indiana.

It was all but inevitable the bill would pass after 10 Republican Senators vowed to back the original framework last week. But that didnt stop others from attempting to delay the vote. Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky proposed nine amendments to the bill on Thursday, arguing that the framework would not do enough to protect the constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans. Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and John Barrasso of Wyoming urged the chamber to instead take up their legislation, which would increase funding for school-based security officers and leave the current gun laws intact. After hours of feverish debate, they lost their motion 39 to 58.

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The bill now heads to the House, which is expected to pass it on Friday. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, signaled last week that the House would enact whatever bill the Senate could pass.

This is not a cure all for all the ways gun violence affects our nation, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, said Thursday. But it is a long overdue step in the right direction  I hope it paves the way for future action on guns in Congress.

The bipartisan legislation came together over several weeks of intensive negotiations largely between Cornyn, a Republican, and Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, as both parties sought to achieve the sort of deal that had eluded them for years. If it becomes law, it would mark the most significant action Congress has taken on gun control in nearly 30 years.

The Senate vote comes nearly a month after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Tex., the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. That massacre occurred just 10 days after a racially-motivated mass shooting at a Buffalo, N.Y. supermarket. There have been 279 mass shootings in 2022, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as an incident where four or more people are shot or killed, not including the shooter.

But while leaders on both sides of the aisle consider this a breakthrough moment, the bill falls well short of the more sweeping gun-control measures that President Joe Biden and many activists have called for, such as an assault weapons ban or restrictions on high-capacity ammunition magazines. In an attempt to keep Republicans on board, Democrats agreed to a narrower bill that largely tweaks existing gun safety measures.

For instance, the bill enhances background checks, but only for prospective gun buyers under the age of 21, requiring for the first time that authorities search juvenile criminal and mental health records over a 10-day period. Under current law, anyone 18 or older can buy rifles and shotguns, including the military-style semi-automatic rifles used in numerous recent mass shootings, as well as the ammunition for both. The more thorough background check process would expire after a decade, just as the assault weapons ban did in 2004.

The legislation also expands a current law that bars domestic abusers from being able to purchase a firearm to include serious dating partners, closing whats known as the boyfriend loophole. Under existing law, only domestic-violence offenders who committed their crimes against a spouse or partner with whom they had lived or had a child with are barred from purchasing firearms. Negotiators agreed to allow dating partners convicted of a misdemeanor to regain the right to purchase a gun after five years if they were first-time offenders and not found guilty of any other violent misdemeanor or offense.

The Senate bill also sets aside $750 million over five years to help states implement crisis intervention programs, including so-called red-flag laws, which allow authorities to temporarily confiscate guns from people deemed to represent a threat to themselves or others. Other provisions toughen the criminal penalties for third-party gun sales, known as straw purchases, and clarify that individuals who repeatedly buy and sell firearms to predominantly earn a profit must register for a federal firearms license so they can run background checks on their customers.

In addition, the legislation sets aside billions of dollars, largely in grants, to address mental health and school security. The bill would launch more than a dozen new initiatives, including one that would create a broader network of community behavioral health centers and another that would increase access to telehealth services for those in a mental health crisis. The federal spending would be offset through a one-year delay of a Medicare drug-rebate provision, according to the bill summary, with federal savings estimated to be roughly $21 billion.

The National Rifle Association fiercely opposed the bill, releasing a statement on Tuesday that said it does little to truly address violent crime while opening the door to unnecessary burdens on the exercise of Second Amendment freedom by law-abiding gun owners.

Meanwhile, the bill drew the support of various other groups including the Fraternal Order of Police, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Domestic Violence Hotline, the National Alliance on Mental Illness and the American Psychological Association. Biden, who called for sweeping gun control measures in an emotional televised address after the Uvalde school shooting, also expressed support for the bill. Our kids in schools and our communities will be safer because of this legislation, he said in a statement Thursday. I call on Congress to finish the job and get this bill to my desk.

But even though the Senate bill fell short of what many Democrats feel is needed to address a mass-shooting epidemic, the vote on Thursday represented a significant breakthrough in gun policy, which has gone largely unchanged since 1994.

Many have come to doubt whether were capable of making our institutions work, Sen. Cornyn said on Thursday. We proved that we can.
Phil Bennett was described as a great gentleman and a great rugby player as giants of the sport from Wales and beyond united in tribute to him at a remembrance service in Llanelli.

Bennett, who died earlier this month after a long illness at the age of 73, captained Wales and the British and Irish Lions.

A genial fly-half, whose staggering side-stepping ability brought the dance floor to the rugby field, also played more than 400 times for Llanelli RFC.

Tributes were paid to Wales great Phil Bennett (PA Archive)

He won 29 Wales caps between 1969 and 1978, winning two Five Nations Grand Slams and three Triple Crowns, skippered the Lions to New Zealand in 1977 and was part of the Lions Test series-winning tour of South Africa three years earlier.

He also started the move, playing for the Barbarians against New Zealand in 1973, that delivered a length-of-the-field score and is often described as rugby unions greatest try.

Barely three miles from where Bennett helped Llanelli famously beat New Zealand 9-3 at Stradey Park 50 years ago, family, friends, players past and present, coaches and rugby supporters gathered at Parc y Scarlets to honour his legacy.

Eulogies were given by Delme Thomas  ex-Wales skipper, three-time Lions tourist and captain when Llanelli toppled the All Blacks  and journalist Graham Thomas, who ghosted more than 1,000 national newspaper columns with Bennett during a 25-year association.

Fans pay their respects during the remembrance service for former Wales fly-half Phil Bennett (David Davies/PA)

The funeral cortege arrived to the accompaniment of Rod Stewarts Sailing with a star-studded, 40-strong guard of honour reflecting Bennetts stellar career, while floral tributes included one simply spelt out as Benny, one from the Lions and another designed as the figure 10 as Bennetts coffin was positioned on the halfway line.

Members of the revered 1972 Scarlets team paying their respects included Bennetts half-back partner against New Zealand Chico Hopkins, try-scorer Roy Bergiers, prop Barry Llewellyn and flanker Tommy David.

They were joined by Bennetts former Wales team-mates Sir Gareth Edwards and Gerald Davies, the Welsh Rugby Union president, ex-Wales and Llanelli captain Ieuan Evans, plus former Lions forward and 1997 Lions tour manager Fran Cotton.

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And current Scarlets squad representatives featured the likes of Wales internationals Jonathan Davies, Ken Owens, Scott Williams and Leigh Halfpenny, in addition to head coach Dwayne Peel.

Members of the public  young and old, many wearing Wales and Scarlets shirts  began arriving more than an hour before the service, with highlights of Bennetts finest moments, including many of his spectacular tries, being shown on the stadiums big screen.

There was a filmed tribute from New Zealands 1972 captain Ian Kirkpatrick, who said: With his talent, he was something else. He had the skills and ability to produce greatness. We were hugely saddened to hear of his passing.

Like Kirkpatrick, Delme Thomas spoke from the heart, before pausing at Bennetts coffin, paying a final moving tribute and receiving a standing ovation as he made his way back to the South Stand.

It is very hard to stand here and explain how I feel about this little man, Thomas, 79, said. What can you say about the greatest player Ive ever seen play the game?

Er cof am / In memory of Phil Bennett OBE 1948-2022 pic.twitter.com/aCF1K2sJzL  Llanelli RFC (@LlanelliRFC) June 24, 2022

Thats a big thing to say because Ive played with some great players  a lot of them are sat in the stands today  but Phil was something special, a great gentleman and a great rugby player.

Our outside-half in 1971 was the great Barry John. He was such a great player that they called him King John.

When he came back after the Lions tour in 1971 he dropped a bombshell and announced his retirement. Most people thought that was the end of Welsh rugby, but up stepped the boy from Felinfoel (Bennett), and he never looked back.

Who can forget that day at Stradey Park in 1972. I was lucky enough to play in that game, and from that day forward Phil stamped his authority on Welsh rugby. I had never seen a performance like it. After that day, everyone knew who Phil Bennett was.

The funeral cortege leaves the stadium after the remembrance service for Phil Bennett, held at the Parc y Scarlets in Llanelli (David Davies/PA)

A wonderful friend, Benny, I am sorry, boy, to be standing here in front of you.

I refuse to say goodbye. As a Christian, I hope we will meet again. God bless you.

Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer (Bread of Heaven) and the Welsh folk song Yma O Hyd received rousing renditions, before the cortege left to John Denvers Take Me Home, Country Roads.

The remembrance service was followed by a funeral service at Holy Trinity Church in nearby Felinfoel, Bennetts home village where a statue was unveiled in his honour just two months ago.

Bennett is survived by his wife Pat and sons Steven and James.
A Missouri woman is accused of tampering with evidence in the murder of her boyfriends young niece, whose remains have been found in a barn.

On Wednesday, Teresa L. Baumgartner, 59, was arrested and charged with tampering with physical evidence in a felony investigation.

Jessi Wilfong, 20, was reported missing by her mother on May 25 and from there an intensive investigation began, according to a press release from the Cape Girardeau County Sheriffs Office.

Investigators on Wednesday, June 15 searched a home in Millersville  about 100 miles south of St. Louis  which is the town in which Baumgartner and her boyfriend live.

From the evidence collected and other information obtained from the investigative process, it was suspected that foul play was involved in the disappearance of Ms. Wilfong, the sheriffs department noted, adding that deputies on Saturday then began searching a different property located in close proximity to the first.

Subsequent investigation revealed the site of a recently dug portion of ground inside of a barn structure, they stated. Excavation of the area revealed the remains of Jessi Wilfong.

An autopsy conducted on Monday revealed that Wilfong's manner of death was homicide.

Baumgartner and Lawrence P. Schanda  Baumgartner's boyfriend and Wilfong's uncle  allegedly picked up the young woman at a home about 30 miles west of them in Fredericktown on May 19, according to court records obtained by KVFS. Police say they then brought Wilfong back to Baumgartner's home in Millersville.

Baumgartner allegedly told investigators that she, the murder victim and her uncle had spent that night sitting around a bonfire at her residence drinking and talking.

Police say she told them that Wilfong asked to be taken back to Fredericktown, but the couple denied her request  so Wilfong, she allegedly said, must have left on her own after the older woman went to sleep.

Investigators allege that something more sinister happened, and believe that Baumgartner and Schanda worked in cahoots to dispose of Wilfong's body after her death, according to KVFS.

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Schanda has not been charged to date, but the Cape Girardeau County Sheriffs Office noted on Wednesday that The investigation remains ongoing, and additional charges are anticipated against one or more individuals.

Schanda allegedly told investigators that he and his niece got into a verbal altercation during the early morning hours of May 19, according to the Southeast Missourian. He allegedly claimed that he believed Wilfong was going to provide information implicating him in illegal drug activity to investigators.

The outlet reports that investigators also allegedly discovered portions of carpet missing from the living room and hallway of the home.

An auger  which is a drill-like power tool used to dig into tough soil  was allegedly found near the barnyard structure, and had been rented out by Baumgartner on May 24.

Its not clear if Baumgartner has an attorney.
Erwin Chemerinsky is dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law and a contributing writer to the Los Angeles Times opinion pages. He is the author, most recently, of Presumed Guilty: How the Supreme Court Empowered the Police and Subverted Civil Rights.
Weather Alert

...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM THIS MORNING TO 11 PM PDT THIS EVENING... * WHAT...High temperatures of 98 to 106 expected. * WHERE...In Washington, Lower Columbia Basin of Washington, Foothills of the Blue Mountains of Washington and Yakima Valley. In Oregon, Lower Columbia Basin of Oregon. * WHEN...From 11 AM this morning to 11 PM PDT this evening. * IMPACTS...Hot temperatures may cause heat illnesses to occur. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS...Widespread afternoon high temperatures between 98 and 106 degrees are forecast with the highest temperatures expected in the Lower Columbia Basin of Washington. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... 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. Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location. Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1. &&
Every Friday, The Citizen features a pet available for adoption from the Finger Lakes SPCA of Central New York. This week, we spotlight Tina.

AGE: 3-4 years old

BREED: Domestic shorthair, calico

COMMENTS: Tina came to the shelter as a stray-surrender. She has been with us for a while and she is more than ready to move on to the next and best phase of her life.

We are guesstimating that Tina is 3-4 years old. When she first arrived she made it very clear that she didn't like cage life at all. Since becoming an "out cat," she is much happier. An "out cat" spends all of his/her time out and about in a condo area, can mingle with the other "out cats," and is readily available to mingle with visitors. Tina loves visitors and is readily available for petting!

Tina is fully vaccinated (rabies, distemper, feline kennel cough), she has been tested for FIV/FeLV and is negative, she has been treated for a variety of parasites, and she is spayed. She would love to go home with you and be part of your window decor!

Q: Who is your best friend?

A: All of my canine buddies are talking about their BFF Sara. We felines don't have a Sara. I think I need to have a heart-to-heart with the powers that be to see if we can get a Sara. Then he or she would be our primary BFF. In the meantime, I have made Juliette my BFF. She is a very sad senior lady who lives in the condo just outside my room. I try to make her smile. She's not having it. Poor girl.

Q: What is your favorite toy?

A: I don't have a favorite toy. I like all of our toys equally. But, my favorite leisure time activity is to climb on the cat tree and watch the world go by. I have a couple of different views from my condo. I can watch the birds and squirrels from one window and I can watch the cars and people from my other window. I am never bored!

Q: What has been your worst experience?

A: Either I got lost or I was abandoned. I really don't want to think that someone just dumped me  that would be a very bitter pill to swallow, so to speak. So I was probably naughty and snuck out the door and couldn't find my way home. I won't do that again! Many thanks to the good Samaritan who found me and brought me here to my shelter home.

Q: What characteristics are you hoping to find in your new family?

A: Well, I have thought a lot about this. Most important would be a family who is patient and willing to work with me. I am just about perfect in every way, but I might need some polishing. I love to be petted but it might take me a while to become a "lap cat." So I hope my new people understand that. I really want a family that will love me unconditionally and protect me from myself. That means making sure I don't sneak out of the house and get lost again. That's about it.

Q: If you could visit any place in the world, where would that be?

A: I'm not sure if this would be a great getaway, but perhaps I might like to visit Cat Island! Cat Island is off of the Gulf Coast of the U.S. The island's name comes from French explorers who mistook raccoons for cats. Apparently the island was full of raccoons, which they didn't recognize since raccoons were not introduced to Europe until the 20th century. That was an honest mistake. I would have to discuss this trip with my new family. Maybe they would have a better idea.

Q: If you could meet someone famous, who would that be?

A: I am sure you all know Freddie Mercury, right? Queen? Well, maybe not. Anyway, Mr. Mercury was not only known for his singing but also his love of cats  especially calico cats. His favorite cat was Delilah and he even wrote and recorded a song dedicated to her, which of course is "Delilah." Most cat owners can relate to some of the lyrics: "You make me smile when I'm just about to cry. You bring me hope, you make me laugh." I would have loved to have met Freddie Mercury.

Q: Do you have an interesting fact to share?

A: I do! Did you know that calico cats are considered lucky and are symbols of good luck around the world? This is true. In the United States they are nicknamed "money cats," as we are thought to bring good fortune in financial matters. Please, make me your money cat!

Q: Do you have any advice for our readers today?

A: I do! It is flea and tick season and we are asking our good Citizen readers to provide flea and tick prevention products for your canine and feline friends. Please check in with your friendly family veterinarian for the best products to use. Fleas and ticks can cause issues from itchy skin to Lyme disease. Please use only veterinary-approved products and not over-the-counter items, which can cause a variety of problems. My feline and canine friends thank you for doing this. Many purrs and licks and much love! Tina and friends.

The Finger Lakes SPCA of Central New York is a New York state-registered shelter/rescue, registration No. RR-181. Pursuant to Article 26-A, Section 408 of the Agriculture and Markets Law, the registrant is authorized to operate as a registered pet rescue, in compliance with such law.

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A search is set to begin at 10:30 a.m. today at Pioneer Park for a Yakama man who last contacted his family April 26.
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The decision to hike prices of petrol and diesel in the country has led to massive protests in Nepal with members of the Youth Association of Nepal and the Youth Union belonging to the opposition Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) hitting the streets to vent their anger. Petrol prices were hiked by 12 per cent while diesel prices received an upward revision by 16 per cent earlier this week.

Nepal Oil Corporation or NOC is now selling a litre of petrol at 199 Nepalese Rupees (approximately 124) while a litre of diesel is at 192 Nepalese Rupees (approximately 120). This has provoked many in the country to target the government in power while some of the protests have also turned violent with several injuries reported.

NOC, on its part, has blamed the Russia-Ukraine war as the only reason for fuel price fluctuations in the international market and clarified that the recent hikes in the country is due to price adjustments made accordingly. It is important to note here that the Indian Oil Corporation is the only supplier of fuel to NOC. As per a previous report in the Hindustan Times, IOC imports petrol for Nepal from Gulf countries as per an old treaty and it is sold at cost price with only refinery fees charged. This is primarily why fuel prices Nepal in recent times have been cheaper than rates in most parts of India where numerous central and state taxes and levies determine the final selling price.

In the past, there have been instances of cheaper fuel from Nepal being illegally smuggled into India and then being sold to small-time retailers in states like Bihar. While police action here has reportedly been increased to check on such instances, the latest price revision in Nepal is more than likely to put a complete stop to this.

(With inputs from ANI)

First Published Date:
The fresh newsletter for the International Community in Hungary - described by readers as a "Great read each week" - is now available for your interest and use via the link below.

You can see the new edition of the Xpat E-Magazine here:

https://xpatloop.com/newsletters/2022/23-june.html



1. In focus is a summary guide to the Top 10 Summer Festivals in Budapest & Around Hungary:

It covers all key fests like VOLT, which is on now, plus wonderful WONDEREST and new Reflektor.



2. Next, as always there's an essential selection of News, Information & Inspiration for Xpats:

E.g. Top Summer Terraces / Big Orban Pay Rise / Best Bohemian Bars in Budapest's Hip District.



3. Also there are new Movies in Budapest, fresh Specials, and What's On highlights.

A wide variety of gatherings, performances & happenings are included for your interest.


YORK  York County Assessor Ann Charlton, along with the Department of Revenue Property Assessment Division, is reminding real property owners who have suffered significant damage to their property on or after Jan. 1 and before July 1 that Form 425 Report of Destroyed Real Property is available.

She said if real property is destroyed between these dates, filing this report may result in the assessed value being adjusted in accordance with the Report of Destroyed Real Property. For real property that has suffered significant damage as a result of a calamity occurring on or after January 1 and before July 1 of the current assessment year, the property owner may file the Report of Destroyed Real Property with the county assessor and the county clerk on or before July 15.

She explained that calamity means a disastrous event, including but not limited to, a fire, an earthquake, a flood, a tornado, or other natural event which significantly affects the assessed value of the property.

Significant property damage means the following, she said:

 1. Damage to an improvement exceeding 20% of the improvements assessed value in the current tax year as determined by the county assessor;

 2. Damage to the land exceeding 20% of a parcels assessed land value in the current tax year as determined by the county assessor; or

 3. Damage exceeding 20% of the propertys assessed value in the current tax year as determined by the county assessor if such property is located in an area that has been declared a disaster area by the governor and a housing inspector or health inspector has determined the property is uninhabitable or unlivable.

Charlton said the county board of equalization will consider the report to determine any adjustments to the assessed value for the current year. The county board of equalization must act upon this report on or after June 1 and on or before July 25, or on or before August 10 if the board has adopted a resolution to extend the deadline for hear protests under Neb. Rev. Stat  77-1502, and must send a notice of the reassessment value for destroyed real property to the owner.

This reminder comes after two major hail/storm/tornado events have moved through the York County area in recent weeks. The assessors office earlier announced this form and deadline, but as of press time has not received any such filings.

If anyone has questions, they can contact the assessors office at 402-362-4926 or they can contact the Policy/Legal section of the Property Assessment Division of the Nebraska Department of Revenue.

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YORK  The Citizens for Voter ID will be holding a town hall meeting in York, featuring Governor Pete Ricketts, on Thursday, June 30, at the Holthus Convention Center.

The 3:30 p.m. event will feature remarks from both the Citizens group and the governor. They will also take questions from the audience, as the public is welcome to attend.

We are grateful to Governor Pete Ricketts for his support of the campaign for Voter ID in Nebraska thus far and are excited to have him join us at our upcoming town halls across the state, said Senator Julie Slama, a sponsor of the Voter ID petition. These town halls will be a great opportunity not only to hear how the petition effort for Voter ID is going, but how Voter ID will enhance, secure, and protect election integrity. Our group, as well as Governor Ricketts, looks forward to hearing your thoughts on how we can move our state forward together.

The Citizens for Voter ID has launched a political effort to add a voter identification requirement to the Nebraska constitution.

Members of the group say, We are doing this to make sure that not only do elections in Nebraska stay free and fair, but to ensure voters have confidence in our election process. Nebraska should require voters to present photographic identification in order to cast their ballot.

Sen. Slama said in a statement for the Citizens for Voter ID website: Whats clear to me, after working on this issue as a state lawmaker, is that Nebraskans want voter identification and special interests do not. The special interests may have influence in the capitol, but the voters and Nebraskas Second House will have the last word. Thats why we are taking this straight to the people.
Sen. Tom Brewer of Gordon will leave Nebraska on Friday for an extended trip into and across battle-torn Ukraine, where he will assess conditions and humanitarian needs.

The trip replaces an earlier plan to travel to Poland, where he had intended to stay and assist in logistical and humanitarian activities for refugees who fled after the Russian military invaded Ukraine and initiated relentless bombardment of its cities, turning many of them into rubble.

Brewer will fly to Krakow, Poland, where he will meet with Noah Philson, a young Nebraskan who is already there providing humanitarian assistance, and they will travel to Lviv in western Ukraine.

Then, it's on to the capital of Kyiv with a driver and interpreter who will take Brewer through the country, with the final destination of Odessa, a deep-water port on the Black Sea.

That journey would transport them into war-torn country in the Donbas, where Russian forces have virtually destroyed the port city of Mariupol.

Brewer's mission is to assess humanitarian needs and "figure out a way to break up the logjam" of equipment and resources that is currently "stacked along runways in Poland."

"Ukrainians are busy fighting the war," he said, "and can't bring it in."

Brewer said "it's hard to judge how the war is going a world away," and this will help him assess challenges and needs.

A retired U.S. Army colonel, Brewer is familiar with war zones; he was severely wounded in combat with the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2003 and wounded again in 2011 on his sixth combat tour.

While he is in Kyiv, he said, he hopes to talk with Ukrainian soldiers about "what they're experiencing and what works and what doesn't work."

After recently talking with military officials at Offutt Air Force Base in Bellevue, Brewer said he was cautioned to make sure "not to message in real time" while he is there, delaying any reports he may make a week or so when his location will have changed.

"The Russians are monitoring messaging constantly," he said.

His approach in Ukraine will be to "see and learn," Brewer said, while gathering information.

"The Ukrainians have shown us they really do want to remain free," he said. "They have fought like tigers."

Brewer said his intent is to stay several months, but he would return to Lincoln for a special session of the Legislature if Gov. Pete Ricketts decides to call one in the wake of an anticipated U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning its previous abortion rights ruling in Roe v. Wade.

But if he's called back to Lincoln in a month or so, he'll "probably go back" to Ukraine.

His decision to go into Ukraine in the midst of war was prompted by a strong sense of duty and urgency, Brewer said.

In the end, he said, he simply decided that "you gotta go do it."

Reach the writer at 402-473-7248 or dwalton@journalstar.com. On Twitter @LJSdon
Kartik Aaryan has become the first and only owner of the McLaren GT in India with starting price of Rs 3.73 crore (ex-showroom). The supercar has been gifted to the Bollywood heartthrob by T-Series boss Bhushan Kumar to celebrate the success of recently released movie Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 starring Kartik Aaryan and Kiara Advani. The supercar was delivered to the actor by Infinity Cars, the official importer of the British supercar brand in the country. The McLaren GT gifted to Kartik Aaryan is shaded in the classic McLaren Orange, while the wheels are finished in Gloss Black and it gets Azores Calipers.

Infinity Cars shared the images on their Instagram account and the actor can be seen posing with his new car, alongside Bhushan Kumar. Apart from McLaren, Kartik Aaryan also owns Lamborghini Urus SUV. The McLaren supercar can do 0-100 kmph in just 3.2 seconds with a flat-out top speed of 325kmph. McLaren Automotive sets the local prices at Rs 3.73 crore ex-showroom India.

McLaren GT (GT for Gran Touring) gets a 4.0-litre Twin-Turbocharged V8 engine taken from the McLaren 720S and gets 620PS / 612BHP of power at 7500 RPM and 630NM of peak torque at 5500 - 6500 RPM. The power is sent to the rear wheels via a 7-Speed Dual Clutch Automatic Transmission with a pair of paddle shifters.

IN PICS: Meet India's last and most expensive Lamborghini Aventador Ultimae Edition, detailed image gallery

In India, McLaren GT competes with Lamborghini Huracan EVO RWD Coupe, Ferrari Roma, Aston Martin Vantage, Porsche 911 Turbo S, Ferrari Portofino.

Live TV
Global NCAP has awarded Mahindra XUV700 Safer Choice award for achieving high levels of safety performance in India. This is the second 'Safer Choice' award for the automaker. The Mahindra XUV 700 earlier scored a five star rating at the crash test by the independent safety agency. In November 2021 the XUV 700 was rated with five stars for adult occupant protection and four stars for child occupant protection. It had one of the highest combined occupant safety ratings of any car tested in the #SaferCarsForIndia campaign.

Mahindra voluntarily submitted the XUV700 for further testing, with the model meeting both pedestrian protection and ESC requirements. Alejandro Furas, Secretary General of Global NCAP said, Global NCAP congratulates Mahindra on its second Safer Choice Award and for the wider inclusion of ADAS technologies.

In 2021 the @MahindraXUV700 had one of the highest combined occupant safety ratings of any car tested in the #SaferCarsForIndia campaign. Today @MahindraRise achieves its second Safer Choice Award with the model meeting both pedestrian protection & #ESC requirements. pic.twitter.com/0CNWlCAfxZ

The Mahindra XUV700 comes equipped with ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) which includes, Forward Collision Warning, Autonomous Emergency Brakes using both camera and radar. ADAS system also features: Lane Departure Warning, Lane Keep Assist, Adaptive cruise Control, Smart Pilot Assist, Traffic Sign Recognition and High Beam Assist.

The XUV700 comes with 7 airbags which includes curtain airbags (extending up to 3rd row occupants), driver knee airbags, driver side airbag and passenger side airbag keeping up with its safety promise, in addition to standard dual frontal airbags. Apart from that XUV700 comes with driver seat-belt lap pre-tensioner in addition to standard seat-belt retractor pre-tensioner for driver and co-driver. Anti-lock braking system (ABS) with electronic brake distribution (EBD) is standard.

David Ward, President of the Towards Zero Foundation said, As our current test protocols come to an end I am pleased to see the continuing safety commitment from Indian automakers like Mahindra, achieving their second Safer Choice Award.

Live TV
Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah-fame TV actress Munmun Dutta has bought a new Mercedes-Benz A-Class limousine, available in India at a starting price of Rs 42 lakh (ex-showroom). The image of the actress taking delivery of her brand new entry-level luxury car was shared by Mercedes-Benz's Mumbai dealership Autohangar on their Instagram account.

The Mercedes-Benz A-Class is the entry level sedan from the German luxury carmaker, and was launched last year in India in only the limousine version, which is the stretched version of the standard sedan sold elsewhere, with additional legroom.

The Mercedes-Benz A-class Limousine was launched in March 2021 at an introductory price of Rs 39.90 lakh (ex-showroom, India) making it the new entry point to the German luxury brand and these prices were valid till June 30, 2021.

Also read: Kartik Aaryan gifted India's 1st McLaren GT worth Rs 3.73 crore by Bhushan Kumar over Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 success

The sedan is available in three variants - A200 Progressive Line, A200d Progressive Line and top-spec AMG A35 4Matic. It's not sure what variant the actress has bought, but it's between petrol and diesel variants and not the AMG A35 one.

Engine options include a 1.3-litre petrol and a 2.0-litre diesel engine option, while the performance-oriented AMG A35 version gets a 300hp turbo-petrol engine. The petrol engine in question is a 1.3-litre, four-cylinder turbo-petrol unit (in the A200) that produces 163hp. The diesel on the other hand is a 2.0-litre, four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine developing 150hp. The petrol engine comes paired to a 7-speed DCT automatic gearbox, while the diesel features an 8-speed DCT automatic.

Live TV
Go First airways recently landed into trouble with passengers during its flight after the air conditioning system on the aircraft stopped working. The incident took place on flight number G8 2316, taking the passengers from Dehradun to Bombay. The video of the passengers complaining about the flight's air conditioner was shared on social media, where a female passenger can be seen sharing the details of the flight and the condition of her co-passengers because of the failed air conditioning system.

The video of the incident was shared on social media by a user named Roshni Walia with the caption saying, "Go First Airways G8 2316 was one of the worst experiences! With Acs not working & a full flight, suffocation-struck passengers, had no way out, sweating profusely paranoid passengers were on the verge of collapsing. 3 ppl fainted, a chemo patient couldnt even breathe."

@GoFirstairways G8 2316 was one of the worst experiences!With Acs not working & a full flight,suffocation struck passengers had no way out,sweating profusely paranoid passengers were on the verge of collapsing.3 ppl fainted,a chemo patient couldnt even breathe.#complaint pic.twitter.com/mqjFiiQHKF  Roshni Walia (@roshniwalia2001) June 14, 2022

Moreover, in the video, a passenger can be seen helping a distressed passenger to walk down the aisle and later on helping her get some air using paper. There are other travelers as well behind the sick woman to help her move. The woman later in the video tells about the problems they are facing on the flight.

Also read: Alert travellers to Middle East! Flight tickets set to become costlier, reason here

The woman in the video tells that they had a cancer patient on board whose husband claims that she was feeling claustrophobic because of the failed air conditioners. Furthermore, she says that the airlines should have never taken off the plane if the ACs were not working; she adds by saying that it's "a disgrace on the entire system."

Taking note of the problem, Go First Airways replied to the post with the video and told the passengers to share the details of the flight so they can take a look into the matter. Go First Airways, in the tweet, said, "Hi, we thank you for reaching out to us, and we are with you in your time of need. Kindly share your PNR, contact number, and email ID via DM so our team can take a look."
The Indian low-cost airline Go First on June 24 announced three weekly direct flight services between Kochi, and Abu Dhabi from June 28. The inaugural Go First flight G8 063 will depart on June 28 from Cochin International Airport at 8:05pm (local time) and will arrive at Abu Dhabi International Airport at 10:40 pm (local time), the airline said.

"In the return direction, Go First flight G8 064 will depart from Abu Dhabi at 11:40 pm (local time) and arrive at Kochi at 05:10 am (local time)," a release issued by the airline said.

Kaushik Khona, Chief Executive Officer of Go First, said the airline was pleased to announce new non-stop flights connecting Kerala with Abu Dhabi to strengthen the connectivity in the Middle East.

Also read: AC on Go First Mumbai flight fails mid-air, 3 passengers faint due to suffocation: Watch

"Our expansion in this sector will help ensure that Go First is the preferred choice by the travellers in these cities. These new routes once again reflect our unflinching commitment towards expanding our international operations," Khona said.

The tri-weekly direct services between the two cities will operate on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday. Recently, Go First had also announced the commencement of daily direct flights from Kochi to Kuwait and Kochi to Muscat.

(With inputs from PTI)
New Delhi: Fast food restaurants are renowned for serving high-quality meals and upholding high standards at all times. Even though not all of these employees are paid as much as they deserve for their efforts, if you go behind the scenes at these fast-food restaurants, you will find some dedicated workers who toil day and night to consistently serve us wonderful food. A Burger King employee just found himself among Twitter's most popular trends. It was certainly a reason to celebrate the professional milestone that he had finished 27 years of service at Burger King! However, the video he posted online received mixed response from Twitter users. Here is the link to the popular video:

Burger King employee trends after video shows that he was gifted a goodie bag for his 27 years of work dedicated to the company pic.twitter.com/MLJiW21yKE  My Mixtapez (@mymixtapez) June 21, 2022

Reddit and Twitter were only two of the social media sites where the Burger King employee's video went viral. It received more than 240k views on Twitter after being shared by @mymixtapez. The worker, whose identity was unknown, appeared to be thrilled about reaching a professional milestone and finishing 27 years at Burger King. Read More: Massive layoffs at Netflix again! Streaming company fires 300 employees in second round

"My reward is that my job got me for 27 years, never missed a day of work," he wrote. "So thankful," and "loyalty pays off," he added. He displayed a goodie bag he had received, which contained a movie ticket, a Starbucks sipper, some chocolates, and some mints. Read More: LIC Jeevan Labh Policy: Invest Rs 253 everyday to get Rs 55 lakh, heres how

Twitter users shared mixed opinions on the worker who finished 27 years of service at Burger King. Some users thought it was fantastic that he expressed such gratitude and appreciation for the tiny gesture made by his firm. Others believed that he deserved far more for his commitment to the position and allegiance to it.

Check out some of the reactions on Twitter:

Oh hell no @BurgerKing. This is so disrespectful. Why hasnt he been put on a management track? 27 years? https://t.co/SbyolhElOq  Omar Kelly (@OmarKelly) June 21, 2022

Burger King has appeared in the headlines on other occasions as well. The fast food restaurant brand is renowned for its brilliant advertising efforts, and this one was no exception. Their "jugaad" commercial featuring actor Hrithik Roshan recently received praise for its innovation.
With Gasgoo Daily, we will offer daily important automotive news in China. For those we have reported, the title of the piece will include a hyperlink, which will provide detailed information.

SAIC Motor plans deep cooperation with phone makers

SAIC Motor is planning a deep cooperation with smartphone makers to realize the integration of in-car infotainment and smartphone ecosystems, according to a local media outlet, citing an executive with SAIC Motor.

Photo credit: SAIC Motor

SAIC Volkswagen to recall 1,765 Audi A7Ls

SAIC Volkswagen will recall 1,765 A7Ls manufactured between September 14, 2021 and June 1, 2022, according to a recall plan it submitted to the State Administration for Market Regulation.

GOGOX goes public in Hong Kong

Chinese logistics startup GOGOX's stock began trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange on June 24.

GAC Trumpchi to unveil all-new hydrogen-powered concept

GAC Trumpchi will unveil an all-new fuel cell concept model at the GAC Tech Day to be held on June 28.

AITO M7 to make debut in early July

The AITO M7 is about to be unveiled on July 4. The range-extended electric vehicle model will feature a 1.5-litre four-cylinder engine connected directly to the battery.

BEIJING-branded Mofang starts presale

The Mofang (Rubik's cube), an all-new compact SUV under BAIC Group's BEIJING brand, is now available for presale. Coming with six trim levels, the model features a presale price range of 102,900 yuan ($15,370) and 153,900 yuan ($23,000).

Greater Bay Technology, DFD to build fast-charging battery joint venture

Do-Fluoride New Materials Co., Ltd. (DFD), a Chinese inorganic fluoride chemicals manufacturer, announced on June 24 its board of director has approved the proposal that its subsidiary Guangxi Ningfu New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (Ningfu New Energy) will build with Greater Bay Technology (GBT) a joint venture that focuses on manufacturing fast-charging cells.

Audi, FAW's NEV joint venture to break ground on plant in Changchun this month

Audi FAW New Enery Vehicle Co., Ltd. will break ground on its manufacturing site in Changchun city, the capital of Chinas Jilin province, on June 28 and plans to complete the construction by the end of 2024, according to a local media channel.

Continental, Horizon Robotics' joint venture lands orders from local startup

Continental Smart Core Technology (Shanghai) Co.,Ltd, the joint venture between Continental and Horizon Robotics, has landed orders from multiple companies for its first cost-competitive multi-functional front-view camera and domain controller with automotive-grade AI chips.

Geely, ECARX's smart driving joint venture opens headquarters

Jika Intelligent Robot Co., Ltd. (Jika is Chinese pinyin), a joint venture between Geely Auto Group and ECARX, on June 23 celebrated the opening of its headquarters located in Suzhou city, Jiangsu province, according to the company's press release.

China's locally-made PV retail sales anticipated to jump 15.5% YoY in June 2022: CPCA

China's passenger vehicle retail sales are anticipated to reach 1.83 million units in June 2022, jumping 15.5% from the previous year, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).
New Delhi: If you use social media frequently, you may have noticed that a number of resignation letters that are incredibly honest are going viral online. YouTube India is now the most recent to jump on the trends train. You did read that correctly. A brief but amusing resignation letter that the company released has undoubtedly gained the support of online users.

A succinct but humorous resignation letter was posted by YouTube India on its official Twitter account. "To whomsoever it may concern, chaliye khatam karte hain (Let's finish this now)," the letter read. Read More: Loyalty Pays Off: Burger King employee gets Goodie Bag on work anniversary

"Nice resignation letter," reads the caption of the post. Read More: Massive layoffs at Netflix again! Streaming company fires 300 employees in second round

nice resignation letter pic.twitter.com/qhYo3quPA7  YouTube India (@YouTubeIndia) June 23, 2022

Netizens had a variety of humorous responses to the post, which they shared in the comments section. Some of these received witty and sassy responses from YouTube India.

"Aap resign mat karo (Please don't resign)," a user commented to which the company replied, "Never."

Aap resign mat karo  Diya #TejRan (@diyatejran) June 23, 2022

Check out other tweets:

chaliye soo jate hai  Budhadev mahanta (@Budhade36800037) June 23, 2022

saving this for future June 23, 2022

To whomsoever it may concern,

Don't be sad if you have bad handwriting!

You're still eligible to handle @YouTubeIndia account.  Rahul (@tyagirahul07) June 23, 2022

Even Bajaj Capital posted an open letter of resignation that had internet users in tears."Dear sir, meri neend, mera chain mujhe lauta do, warna mera ho gaya. Yours sincerely (Dear sir, please return my sleep and my peace, otherwise I am done. Yours sincerely)," reads the letter.
New Delhi: NASA wants its cockroaches and moon dust back from an auction company that is selling the materials obtained during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission. The lunar rock was fed to cockroaches in an experiment to see if it contained any pathogens that presented a hazard to terrestrial life. The space agency has urged Boston-based RR Auction to stop selling them. In a letter to the auctioneer, a NASA lawyer claimed that the material still belonged to the federal government. The experiment's materials, which included three cockroach carcasses and a vial containing 40 milligrammes of moon dust, were supposed to fetch at least $400,000 at auction but have since been removed, according to RR.

All Apollo samples, as stipulated in this collection of items, belong to NASA and no person, university, or other entity has ever been given permission to keep them after analysis, destruction, or other use for any purpose, especially for sale or individual display, said NASA in a letter dated June 15. (ALSO READ: Priyanka Chopra launches her own houseware brand Sona Home)

We are requesting that you no longer facilitate the sale of any and all items containing the Apollo 11 Lunar Soil Experiment (the cockroaches, slides, and post-destructive testing specimen) by immediately stopping the bidding process," the letter added. (ALSO READ: Markets gain for 2nd day; Sensex, Nifty climb 1% amid firm global trends)

In an another dated June 22, NASA's lawyer asked RR Auction to work with the current owner of the material, seeking their return to the federal government.

For the unversed, about 47 pounds (21.3 kilograms) of lunar rock was brought to Earth with the Apollo 11 mission. Part rock was fed to insects, fish and other small creatures to find out if it would kill them.

The cockroaches that were fed moon dust were brought to the University of Minnesota where entomologist Marion Brooks dissected and studied them.

I found no evidence of infectious agents," Brooks, who died in 2007, told the Minneapolis Tribune for an October 1969 story. She found no evidence that the moon material was toxic or caused any other ill effects in the insects, according to the article.

But the moon rock and the cockroaches were never returned to NASA, instead displayed at Brooks' home. Her daughter sold them in 2010, and now they are up for sale again by a consignor who RR did not disclose.

It's not unusual for a third party to lay claim to something that is being auctioned, said Mark Zaid, an attorney for RR Auction.

NASA has a track record of pursuing items related to the early space programs," although they have been inconsistent in doing so, Zaid said. By its own admission, NASA acknowledged in one of its letters that it did not know about the previous auction of the cockroach experiment items.

We have worked with NASA before and have always cooperated with the US government when they lay claims to items," Zaid said. At the end of the day, we want to act appropriately and lawfully." RR Auction is holding on to the lot for now, but ultimately, it's up to the consignor to work something out with NASA, he said.

-- With IANS inputs.
New Delhi: Former BharatPe CEO Ashneer Grover, on Thursday (June 23), criticised the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) over its most recent order to non-bank prepaid payment instruments to stop loading credit lines onto their products. Taking it to Twitter, the entrepreneur said that "not allowing loading of pre-paid instruments through credit is aimed at protecting bank`s lazy credit card business from Fintech`s potent BNPL (buy now pay later) business".

According to him, the decision is a flex move by banks. "Its a flex move by banks -- rent seeking. But market is market and regulation will eventually come around to what market needs," he added in his tweet. (ALSO READ: Massive layoffs at Netflix again! Streaming company fires 300 employees in second round)

 Ashneer Grover (@Ashneer_Grover) June 23, 2022

In its latest order, the central bank has disallowed non-bank PPIs from loading credit. Following the directive, several startups and firms in the space have already stopped customers transactions on their prepaid cards to avoid penalties. (ALSO READ: Work from home could soon become a legal right in Netherlands)

The banking PPIs include HDFC Flexipay, ICICI PayLater, HDFC Payzapp, SBI YONO and others, along with several UPI-driven platforms like Paytm, PhonePe, Google Pay and Amazon Pay, etc, according to a report by IANS.

"The PPI-MD (PPI-master direction) does not permit loading of PPIs from credit lines. Such practice, if followed, should be stopped immediately. Any non-compliance in this regard may attract penal action under provisions contained in the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007," according to the RBI directive.

Meanwhile, Grover is all set to make an entrepreneurial comeback after he quit BharatPe following alleged financial irregularities cases against him and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover.

According to media reports, Grover is in talks with US-based private equity companies to raise up to $300 million for a new startup.

"Today I turn 40. Some will say I`ve lived a full life and experienced more things than most. Created value for generations. For me it`s still unfinished business. Time to disrupt another sector. It`s time for the Third Unicorn," he had said in a Tweet last week.

-- With IANS inputs.
New Delhi: Work-from-home could soon become a recognised legal right under new legislation being put forward by two Dutch politicians, making the Netherlands one of the first nations to do so. Steven van Weyenberg, a member of the pro-European D-66 Party, along with Senna Maatoug, a lawmaker for the Green Party, Weyenberg, will soon introduce the legislation, according to media reports. The two politicians are reportedly expected to introduce the legislation in the Netherlands Parliament on July 3, prior to the summer recess.

Weyenberg reportedly said that the members have the green light for this new law thanks to the support they received from both employees and employers unions. We are very hopeful it will pass before the summer, he was quoted as saying in a Mint report. (ALSO READ: THIS LIC policy can fetch Rs 55 lakh if you invest Rs 253 daily, here's how)

Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, employees of several companies have sought to keep some of WFH flexibility they have benefited from over the previous two years, despite the number of cases going down. (ALSO READ: Understanding New wage code in 5 simple points, implementation likely July 1)

However, it is getting more divisive as companies are trying to bring employees back to the office. Recently, Tesla boss Elon Musk asked the companys employees to return to the office or leave.

But the case isn't the same with the Netherlands, as the country offers some of the most flexible work conditions. Employees in the Netherlands already enjoy the shortest average work week than workers in any other country. A Dutch working professional works for an average of 29.5 hours per week, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Even multinational companies are offering their employees in the Netherlands more flexible arrangements. According to media reports, Dell, in April 2022, offered its employees in the Netherlands an option to work just four days a week.
New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday announced an extension of the deadline for card data storage and tokenisation implementation by another three months to September 30, 2022. The RBI had earlier set a deadline of June 30 for tokenisation of debit and credit cards. As part of this initiative, merchants and payment aggregators are required to delete all card details and replace them with tokens. The industry stakeholders have highlighted some issues related to implementation of the framework in respect of guest checkout transactions. Also, number of transactions processed using tokens is yet to gain traction across all categories of merchants, the RBI said in a statement.

"These issues are being dealt with in consultation with the stakeholders, and to avoid disruption and inconvenience to cardholders, the Reserve Bank has today announced extension of the said timeline of June 30, 2022, by three more months, i.e., to September 30, 2022," the central bank said. (ALSO READ: Pakistan Stock Exchange sinks by over 2,000 pts after 'Super Tax' announcement)

According to the RBI, this extended time period may be utilised by the industry for, (a) facilitating all stakeholders to be ready for handling tokenised transactions; (b) processing transactions based on tokens; (c) implementing an alternate mechanism(s) to handle all post-transaction activities (including chargeback handling and settlement) related to guest checkout transactions, that currently involve /require storage of CoF data by entities other than card issuers and card networks; and (d) creating public awareness about the process of creating tokens and using them to undertake transactions. (ALSO READ: Give us back our dust and cockroaches, NASA tells auction company)

Currently, many entities, including merchants, involved in an online card transaction chain store card data like card number, expiry date, etc [Card-on-File (CoF)] citing cardholder convenience and comfort for undertaking transactions in the future.

While this practice does render convenience, availability of card details with multiple entities increases the risk of card data being stolen/misused. There have been instances where such data stored by merchants, etc, have been compromised.

Given the fact that many jurisdictions do not mandate Additional Factor of Authentication (AFA) for authenticating card transactions, stolen data in the hands of fraudsters may result in unauthorised transactions and resultant monetary loss to cardholders.

Within India as well, social engineering techniques can be employed to perpetrate frauds using such data, the RBI noted in the statement.

Given the foregoing, the Reserve Bank mandated that after December 31, 2021, entities other than card networks and card issuers cannot store card data. This timeline was subsequently extended to June 30, 2022.

A framework for CoF Tokenisation (CoFT) services was also issued. Under this framework, cardholders can create "tokens" (a unique alternate code) in lieu of card details; these tokens can then be stored by the merchants for processing transactions in future. Thus, CoFT obviates the need to store card details with merchants and provides the same level of convenience to cardholders.

To create a token under the CoFT framework, the cardholder has to undergo a one-time registration process for each card at every online / e-commerce merchant`s website / mobile application, by entering the card details and giving consent for creating a token.

This consent is validated by way of authentication through an AFA. Thereafter, a token is created which is specific to the card and online / e-commerce merchant, i.e., the token cannot be used for payment at any other merchant.

For future transactions performed at the same merchant website / mobile application, the cardholder can identify the card with the last four digits during the checkout process.

Thus, the cardholder is not required to remember or enter the token for future transactions. A card can be tokenised at any number of online / e-commerce merchants. For every online / e-commerce merchant where the card is tokenised, a specific token will be created.

As per the RBI, till date, about 19.5 crore tokens have been created. Opting for CoFT (i.e., creating tokens) is voluntary for the cardholders.

Those who do not wish to create a token can continue to transact as before by entering card details manually at the time of undertaking the transaction (commonly referred to as "guest checkout transaction").

"The Reserve Bank encourages cardholders to tokenise their cards for their own safety. Cardholders` payment experience will be enhanced through an added layer of security by way of tokenisation," the central bank said in the statement.
After the fire incident at its Mangalore showroom, Okinawa Auto Tech has clarified that the fire was caused by an electric "short circuit." It should be noted that this is not the first time an Okinawa showroom has caught fire. Earlier, there was a fire incident in the automakers Tamil Nadu showroom. Furthermore, prior to the Tamil Nadu incident, the company had recalled the scooter due to battery issues. A total of 3,215 Praise Pro scooters were recalled.

"We are aware of an unfortunate fire incident at one of our showrooms in Mangalore this morning. As stated by the dealer, the fire was caused due to an electric short circuit," Okinawa Autotech said in a statement on Friday.

"We are in touch with the dealership and we are extending all the necessary support," the company said. "Safety is at the core of Okinawa Autotech and we want to assure that the highest standards of safety are maintained in our dealerships across the country," it added.

Also read: Tata Nexon EV catches fire in Mumbai, Ola CEO reacts: Watch Video

The fire incident in an Okinawa showroom took place a day after videos of a Tata Nexon EV catching fire in Mumbai emerged and the government subsequently ordered an independent probe into the incident, which is also being investigated by the company.

This is the second such incident occurring at the Gurugram-headquartered EV maker's showroom in the recent past as earlier in April this year one of its outlets in Tamil Nadu was engulfed in flames.

At that time also, the company had clarified that the fire was due to a 'short circuit.' Besides Okinawa and Tata Motors, incidents of fire in the EVs of other manufacturers such as Ola Electric and PureEV have also taken place in the recent past.

Following multiple incidents of electric vehicles (EVs) catching fire and resulting in death and severe injuries to people earlier this year, the government set up an expert panel "to enquire into these incidents and make recommendations on remedial steps."

The panel is expected to submit its report by this month-end. Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on April 21 also assured that any company found to be negligent will be penalized.

With inputs from PTI
Agnipath Recruitment Scheme: The Indian Air Force is all set to begin the application process for the Agnipath Recruitment scheme starting today July 24, 2022 at 10 AM. Interested and eligible candidates can apply for 'Agniveervayu' posts on the official website of IAF at careerindianairforce.cdac.in till July 5. Earlier the IAF informed about the commencement of the application process for the Agnipath Scheme on Twitter. "Join the Indian Air Force as an Agniveer. Registration for Agnipath Recruitment Scheme starts on 24 June 2022 and ends on 05 July 2022. Online examination starts from 24 July 2022," wrote IAF in the tweet.

Agnipath Recruitment Scheme 2022: Important dates

Commencement of Application process: June 24, 2022

Last date to Apply for Agniveer in Indian Air Force: July 5, 2022

Online examination date: From July 24, 2022

Agnipath recruitment 2022: Eligibility criteria

Candidates must have the following educational qualifications to apply for Agniveervayu posts in Indian Air Force through Agnipath Yojana

(a) Science Subjects

Candidates should have passed Intermediate/10+2/ Equivalent examination with Mathematics, Physics and English from an Education Board listed as COBSE member with minimum 50% marks in aggregate and 50% marks in English.

OR

Passed Three years Diploma Course in Engineering (Mechanical/ Electrical/ Electronics/ Automobile/ Computer Science/

Instrumentation Technology/ Information Technology) from a Government recognized Polytechnic institute with 50% marks in aggregate and 50% marks in English in diploma course (or in Intermediate/Matriculation, if English is not a subject in Diploma Course).

OR

Passed Two years Vocational Course with non-vocational subject viz. Physics and Maths from State Education Boards/Councils which are listed in COBSE with 50% marks in aggregate and 50% marks in English in vocational course (or in Intermediate/Matriculation, if English is not a subject in Vocational Course).

(b) Other Than Science Subjects

Passed Intermediate / 10+2 / Equivalent Examination in any subject approved by Central / State Education Boards listed as COBSE member with minimum 50% marks in aggregate and 50% marks in English.

OR

Passed two years vocational course from Education Boards listed as COBSE member with minimum 50% marks in aggregate and 50% marks in English in vocational course or in Intermediate/Matriculation if English is not a subject in Vocational Course.

For More details on Agnipath recruitment eligibility criteria aspirants can check the Detailed Notification available here.

Agnitpath Recruitment Scheme: Age Limit

(a) Candidates born between 29 December 1999 and 29 June 2005 (both days inclusive) are eligible to apply.

"In case, a candidate clears all the stages of the Selection Procedure, then the upper age limit as on date of enrolment is 23 years," read the IAF's official notification.

Join Indian Air Force: Application Fees for Agnipath recruitment

The examination fees is 250/- which has to be paid by the candidates while registering for the online exam. The payment will be made through debit card/ credit card or internet banking.

Agnipath Recruitment Scheme 2022: How to apply for Agniveervayu posts

Interested and eligible candidates can apply for Agniveervayu posts in the Indian Air Force from today by visiting the official website- from 10 am onward, today, June 24, 2022. Direct Link To Apply For AGNIVEERVAYU

Agnipath recruitment: Selection process

Candidates will be selected through Phase I and Phase II examination. Candidates who will qualify Phase I examination will be eligible to appear for Phase II examination. The name of the shortlisted candidates who qualify for the online test, shall have to appear for PFT followed by medical test.

"AGNIVEERVAYU will be enrolled in the Indian Air Force under Air Force Act 1950, for a period of four years. AGNIVEERVAYU would form a distinct rank in the Indian Air Force, different from any other existing ranks. Indian Air Force is not obliged to retain AGNIVEERVAYU beyond the engagement period of four years," stated the Indian Air Force.

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Mumbai: Amid the steep rise n Covid-19 cases in India, Maharashtra Tourism Minister Aditya Thackeray said that the state could be witnessing the fourth wave of Covid-19, media reports said. Thackeray said this while addressing media on Sunday as Maharashtra has been seeing a constant rise in coronavirus infection over the past few weeks with Mumbai reporting the maximum number of cases in the state. Maharashtra was one of the worst Covid-affected states during the first and second deadly Delta-triggered wave in India. However, the minister urged the people of Maharashtra not to panic due to the rising infections. Health experts have time and again reiterated that even if India witnesees a fourth Covid wave, it would not be as fatal as the previous wave of infections.

Thackeray also said that masks will soon be made mandatory in the state if there is an uptick in cases.

We are asking everyone to wear masks when stepping outdoors. We have not made wearing masks mandatory but will make it soon. I also appeal to the public to receive the booster dose of the vaccine on time, the Maharashtra minister was quoted as saying by the news agency ANI.

Maharashtra on Thursday reported 5,218 new coronavirus infections and one pandemic-related death, which took the caseload in the state to 79,50,240 and death toll to 1,47,893, a health department report said.

Daily cases jumped by 60 per cent compared to the previous day. On Wednesday, the state had reported 3,260 cases and three deaths. The number of active cases rose to 24,867, including 13,614 in Mumbai, followed by 5,488 cases in neighbouring Thane and 2,443 cases in Pune districts.

Meanwhile, Mumbai witnessed a sharp jump in new COVID-19 cases at 2,479 on Thursday, up by 831 from a day ago and the highest daily count since January 23, while one more patient succumbed to the infection, the city civic body said.
New Delhi: India witnessed a massive spike in daily Covid-19 cases on Friday (June 24, 2022). With 17,336 new Covid-19 infections being reported in the last 24 hours, India's total tally of cases rose to 43,362,294, according to Union health ministry data updated today. The active caseload stands at 88,284. India recorded 13 new deaths in the last 24 hours. The country also reported 13,029 recoveries in a day. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease has increased to 4,27,49,056, while the case fatality rate has been recorded at 1.21 per cent.

India reports 17,336 new Covid19 cases today; Active cases rise to 88,284 pic.twitter.com/TDqDUCnqoq  ANI (@ANI) June 24, 2022

An increase of 4,294 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 0.20 per cent of the total infections, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 98.59 per cent.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 4.32 per cent and the weekly positivity rate was 3.07 per cent, according to the ministry.

The cumulative doses administered under the nationwide Covid-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 196.77 crore on Thursday at 8 am.

The last 24 hours saw a total of 4,01,649 Covid-19 tests being conducted in the country.

Meanwhile, the five most affected states by total cases are Maharashtra (7950240), Kerala (6612607), Karnataka (3963633), Tamil Nadu (3464131), and Andhra Pradesh (2320682). The five states with most active cases are Kerala (25911), Maharashtra (24867), Delhi (5755), Tamil Nadu (5174), and Karnataka (5067).

(With agency inputs)
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Jika Intelligent Robot Co., Ltd. (Jika is Chinese pinyin), a joint venture between Geely Auto Group and ECARX, on June 23 celebrated the opening of its headquarters located in Suzhou city, Jiangsu province, according to the company's press release.

Incorporated in April 2021, the joint venture is dedicated to providing intelligent driving solutions for both passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles. It has set up R&D centers in Suzhou and Shanghai. The company said it will work on the in-house R&D of intelligent driving domain controller technology, applications of scenario-/ experience-driven intelligent driving system and advanced sensors, as well as a full-level autonomous driving platform.



Jika's headquarters; photo credit: Jika

Jika is also helping Geely ecosystem's participants accumulate experience in in-house development of chips, algorithms, and underlaying components, and has formed the ability to develop and operate several intelligent driving controller platforms.

The opening of Jika's headquarters marked a significant progress in Geely's intelligence deployment. Shen Ziyu, CEO and chairman of Jika, said the company will vigorously support Suzhou's Xiangcheng district in the development of intelligent-connected vehicle industry with its cutting-edge intelligent driving solutions.



LEVC, Jika signing agreement; photo credit: Jika

In the meantime, Jika also inked an agreement with LEVC, the electric taxi manufacturer under Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, to jointly promote the commercialization of mass-produced intelligent driving technologies.
London: COVID-19 vaccines prevented over 42 lakh potential deaths in India in 2021, said a study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, which based its findings on estimates of "excess" mortalities in the country during the pandemic. Globally, the mathematical modelling study found that COVID-19 vaccines reduced the potential death toll during the pandemic by nearly 20 million (1 million = 10 lakhs) or more than half in the year following their implementation.

In the first year of the vaccination programme, 19.8 million out of a potential 31.4 million COVID-19 deaths were prevented worldwide, according to estimates based on excess deaths from 185 countries and territories, the researchers said.

The study estimates a further 5,99,300 lives could have been saved if the World Health Organisation's target of vaccinating 40 per cent of the population in each country with two or more doses by the end of 2021 had been met.

The study estimated the number of deaths that were prevented between December 8, 2020 and December 8, 2021, which reflects the first year in which the vaccines were distributed.

"For India, we estimate that 42,10,000 deaths were prevented by vaccination in this period. This is our central estimate, with the uncertainty in this estimate ranging between 36,65,000-43,70,000," lead author of the study, Oliver Watson from the Imperial College London, the UK, told PTI.

"What this modelling study shows is that the vaccination campaign in India has likely saved millions of lives. This shows the remarkable impact that the vaccination has had, especially in India, which was the first country to experience the impact of the Delta variant," Watson said in an email.

The India numbers are based on the estimates that 51,60,000 (48,24,000-56,29,000) deaths may have occurred in the country during the pandemic, a number which is 10 times the official figure of 5,24,941 deaths reported so far, he said.

"These estimates are based on the estimates of excess mortality in India during the COVID-19 pandemic, which we have sourced from The Economist and are similar to the estimates that the WHO have reported. Independently, our group has also investigated the COVID-19 death toll based on reports of excess mortality and seroprevalence surveys and arrived at similar estimates of almost 10 times the official count," Watson said.

According to the estimates by The Economist, 2.3 million people died in India from COVID-19 by the start of May 2021, as against official figures of around 2,00,000.

The WHO had last month estimated that there were 4.7 million Covid-linked deaths in India, a figure that was refuted by the government.

Of the almost 20 million deaths estimated to have been prevented in the first year after vaccines were introduced, almost 7.5 million deaths were prevented in countries covered by the COVID-19 Vaccine Access initiative (COVAX), the researchers said.

COVAX was set up because it was clear early on that global vaccine equity would be the only way out of the pandemic, they said.

The initiative has facilitated access to affordable vaccines for lower income countries to try to reduce inequalities, with an initial target of giving both vaccine doses to 20 per cent of the population in countries covered by the commitment by the end of 2021, the researchers said.

Since the first COVID-19 vaccine was administered outside of a clinical trial setting on December 8, 2020, almost two-thirds of the world's population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine (66 per cent), they noted.

Despite the incredible speed of the vaccine roll-out worldwide, more than 3.5 million COVID-19 deaths have been reported since the first vaccine was administered in December 2020, they said.

To estimate the impact of the global vaccination programmes, the researchers used an established model of COVID-19 transmission using country-level data for officially recorded COVID-19 deaths occurring between December 8, 2020 and December 8 2021.

To account for under-reporting of deaths in countries with weaker surveillance systems, they carried out a separate analysis based on the number of excess deaths recorded above those that would have been expected during the same time period.

China was not included in the analysis owing to its large population and very strict lockdown measures which would have skewed the findings, the researchers said.

The team found that based on officially recorded COVID-19 deaths, an estimated 18.1 million deaths would have occurred during the study period if vaccinations had not been implemented.

Of these, the model estimates that vaccination has prevented 14.4 million deaths, representing a global reduction of 79 per cent.

These findings do not account for under-reporting of COVID-19 deaths, which is common in lower income countries.

The team did a further analysis based on total excess deaths during the same time period to account for this.

They found that COVID-19 vaccination prevented an estimated 19.8 million deaths out of a total of 31.4 million potential deaths that would have occurred without vaccination, a reduction of 63 per cent.

More than three quarters (79 per cent) of deaths averted were due to the direct protection against severe symptoms provided by the vaccination, leading to lower mortality rates, the researchers said.

The remaining 4.3 million averted deaths were estimated to have been prevented by indirect protection from reduced transmission of the virus in the population and reduced burden on healthcare systems, thereby improving access to medical care for those most in need, they said.

The study found that the vaccine impact changed over time and in different areas of the world as the pandemic progressed.

In the first half of 2021, the greatest number of deaths averted by vaccination was seen in lower middle-income countries, resulting from the significant epidemic wave in India as the Delta variant emerged.

This subsequently shifted to the greatest impact being concentrated in higher income countries in the second half of 2021, as restrictions on travel and social mixing were eased in some areas leading to greater virus transmission.

The shortfall in the WHO target of fully vaccinating 40 per cent of the population of each country by the end of 2021 is estimated to have contributed to an additional 5,99,300 deaths worldwide that could have been prevented.

Lower-middle income countries accounted for the majority of these deaths.

"Our study demonstrates the enormous benefit that vaccines had in reducing deaths from COVID-19 globally," said Professor Azra Ghani, Chair in Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Imperial College London.

"Whilst the intense focus on the pandemic has now shifted, it is important that we ensure the most vulnerable people in all parts of the world are protected from ongoing circulation of COVID-19 and from the other major diseases that continue to disproportionately affect the poorest," Ghani said.

The authors note several limitations to their findings. Notably, their model is based on a number of necessary assumptions, including the precise proportions of which vaccine types have been delivered, how they were delivered and the precise timing of when new virus variants arrived in each country.

They also assumed that the relationship between age and the proportion of COVID-19 deaths occurring among infected individuals is the same for each country.
New Delhi: Delhi Lieutenant Governor (L-G) V K Saxena on Friday launched a drive by the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) for pruning of old trees in the city's Connaught Place area. The move comes in the wake of at least 77 trees being uprooted, some of them decades old, in Lutyens' Delhi in the fierce thunderstorm and heavy rains that lashed the capital on May 30.

"This morning, launched the scientific pruning of overgrown and dead branches of old trees at CP by NDMC. Exercise was undertaken during off hours to avoid inconvenience to people. This will ensure improved tree health leading to lesser uprooting and falling of branches in storms," Saxena tweeted.

This morning, launched the scientific pruning of overgrown & dead branches of old trees at CP by NDMC.

Exercise was undertaken during off hours to avoid inconvenience to people.This will ensure improved tree health leading to lesser uprooting & falling of branches in storms. pic.twitter.com/nQJOtd1ye1 June 24, 2022

According to data provided by the NDMC, the Lutyens' Delhi area has lost as many as 1,813 trees since 2015. Officials claimed that around 300 heritage trees were also lost between 2015-16 and 2021-22.

Indigenous tree species such as neem, peepal, pilkhan, jamun, arjun, khirni and imli among others were planted in the NDMC area when British architect Edwin Landseer Lutyens was entrusted with the task to plan New Delhi in 1911.

Also Read: J&K LG Manoj Sinha launches online portal for helicopter services to Amarnath cave
Johannesburg: Decision-making in the United Nations needs to be democratised so that the global challenges can be addressed effectively, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said at the 14th BRICS Summit hosted virtually by China on Thursday. The BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) virtual summit was attended by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and South African President Ramaphosa.

"Decision-making across the entire United Nations system needs to be democratised so that multilateral institutions can effectively address global challenges," Ramaphosa said.

"We are concerned that the focus and resources of the international community have been diverted from other concerning conflicts and humanitarian crises" the president said, emphasising that urgent global issues like climate change and sustainable development were not being effectively attended to.

Also Read: Cooperation among member countries can help global post Covid recovery: PM Modi at BRICS summit

He did not mention any specific conflict areas, including the global crisis created by the war between BRICS partner Russia and Ukraine but said South Africa continues to call for dialogue and negotiation towards a peaceful resolution of conflicts around the world.

"We are here as the members of BRICS to affirm our shared desire for a world in which all people have a meaningful stake, in which all have equal opportunity, and from which all can benefit," he said. "BRICS must play its important role in giving leadership to the world," the president said.

Ramaphosa also called for greater cooperation in developing the economies of BRICS partners.

"We need to realise the great potential of our economic partnership to strengthen intra-BRICS trade, investment and tourism. Our combined economic strength should be a catalyst for sustainable global economic recovery," he said, adding that BRICS provides a valuable platform to address the key challenges of the global South in partnership with like-minded emerging markets.

Ramaphosa also highlighted the cooperative efforts between the BRICS partners in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. "The BRICS response to the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated what can be achieved when we work together in the spirit of friendship, solidarity and responsibility. The launch of the BRICS Vaccine Research and Development Centre in March this year will strengthen international health and science cooperation to prepare for future crises," the President said, but he lamented the lack of support from other countries.

"It is a cause for great concern that the rest of global community has not sustained the principles of solidarity and cooperation when it comes to equitable access to vaccines. We call on developed economies, international agencies and philanthropists that procure vaccines to purchase from manufacturers in developing economies, including in Africa," Ramaphosa said.

Also Read: Expecting 7.5% economic growth rate this year: PM Modi at BRICS Business Forum

He concluded by stating that a High-level Dialogue on Global Development on the agenda at the Summit would be an important opportunity to form a common vision of a more inclusive, just and stable international order
Two latest updates related to Maharashtra political crisis are that Sharad Pawar went to Matoshree and met CM Uddhav Thackeray. This meeting assumes significance as Sanjay Raut had said yesterday that if the rebel MLAs return to Mumbai, then Shiv Sena can break its alliance with Congress and NCP. The second update is that Eknath Shinde has left for Delhi from Guwahati and he may meet senior BJP leaders. BJP has offered Eknath Shinde five ministerial posts in the state government and two ministerial posts in the central government. On the other hand, Uddhav Thackeray held an important meeting with the district level leaders of Shiv Sena in which some councillors of BMC also participated.

Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary analyses the the ongoing political crisis in Maharashtra. No party is run by MLAs alone. Rather, there are MPs, there are councillors and office bearers. Uddhav Thackeray is trying to tell that even though he now has only 12 MLAs out of 55, the party organization and all the senior leaders and workers are with him. However, we have come to know that senior leaders of 12 districts of the state did not attend this meeting.

In this meeting, Uddhav Thackeray said two more big things. The first is that he is not greedy for power, so he first left the Chief Minister's residence after this political development. He also said that the Thackeray family gave full respect to Eknath Shinde and made his son an MP, but in spite of this, they are rebelling today.

Meanwhile, there is a big news that after 12 MLAs whose Legislative Assembly membership was cancelled by the Deputy Speaker of Maharashtra, now the names of four more rebel MLAs have been included in it. Now Uddhav Thackeray is demanding the disqualification of 16 Shiv Sena MLAs.
New Delhi: As the Presidential elections in 2022 in India are near, the spotlight is on the two prime candidates- Droupadi Murmu and Yashwant Sinha. After much deliberations, both NDA and the opposition had proposed the name of this terms presidential candidates. NDAs candidate Droupadi Murmu, a former Governor of Jharkhand and a former Odisha minister will face the oppositions joint candidate Yashwant Sinha, a former BJP leader and a former finance minister who quit the saffron party several years ago after being apparently sidelined to join Mamata Banerjees Trinamool Congress. Before Sinha, names of veteran leaders like NCP chief Sharad Pawar, ex-Jammu and Kashmir CM Farooq Abdullah and former Bengal governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi. The election for the Presidential throne will be held on July 18.

As both the candidates are set to face each other in Presidential Election in 2022, here is a look at the political portfolio of Droupadi Murmu and Yashwant Sinha.

Droupadi Murmu

Droupadi Murmu is the first presidential candidate from Odisha of a major political party or alliance, who belongs to a tribal caste. She was the first woman governor of Jharkhand and served from 2015 to 2021.

Coming from a poor tribal family in the village of Mayurbhanj, a backward district in Odisha, Murmu completed her studies despite challenging circumstances. She taught at Shri Aurobindo Integral Education Centre, Rairangpur. Born on June 20, 1958, she pursued BA at Ramadevi Women`s College Bhubaneswar.

Political career

Murmu began her political career as Rairangpur NAC vice-chairman. Murmu was a member of the Odisha Legislative Assembly from Rairangpur between 2000 and 2004. During her course as a minister, Murmu held portfolios of Transport and Commerce, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries. She again served as MLA in the Odisha assembly from 2004 to 2009. In 2007, the Odisha assembly honoured her with the `Nilakantha Award for best MLA.

She served as a junior assistant in Irrigation and Power Department between 1979 and 1983. She has held several organisational posts in BJP and was vice president of state ST Morcha in 1997. Murmu was a national executive member of BJP`s ST Morcha from 2013 to 2015 and served as BJP district chief of Mayurbhanj (West) in 2010 and 2013.

Between 2006 and 2009, she was chief of BJP`s ST Morcha in Odisha. She was a member of the national executive of BJP ST Morcha from 2002 to 2009.

Yashwant Sinha's political career

Yashwant Sinha, 84, who quit BJP to join Trinamool Congress, was a minister of finance between (19901991) when PM Chandra Shekhar was in office. He was again the minister of finance in between March 1998  July 2002 under PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He was the Minister of External Affairs between July 2002  May 2004.

He joined All India Trinamool Congress on March 13, 2021, He finally left All India Trinamool Congress on June 21, 2022, for being the joint opposition Presidential Candidate. Sinha was an IAS officer, he joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1960 and spent over 24 years holding important posts during his service tenure.
Mumbai: The political crisis in Maharashtra is only deepening with Shiv Sena seeking disqualification of rebel MLAs, including Eknath Shinde, the chief architect of the current turmoil. Shinde is often considered the most powerful leader of Shiv Sena, after the Thackerays, and while today he is crossing swords with his party leadership, he had often underscored how he has been indebted to the saffron party and its founder late Bal Thakeray for his rise in state politics. And amid the recent crisis, when Uddhav Thackeray had said he was willing to give up on his chief minister's post, there were speculations if Shinde will now land the top job. However, the veteran leader has said nothing so far about his future plans.

From a humble beginning as an auto driver to rising in ranks to become one of Shiv Sena's most powerful leaders, Eknath Shinde, 58, has come a long way. Known for his organizational skills and a wide mass base the Sena leader is a four-time MLA who held urban development and PWD portfolios in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.

Born on February 9, 1964, Shinde left his education before he could complete graduation. He had worked as an auto-rickshaw driver in Thane city adjoining Mumbai. Originally hailing from Satara district in western Maharashtra, Thane district, a Sena stronghold, is now his political home. Shinde got associated with the Shiv Sena when it was growing in the state. Bal Thackeray formed Shiv Sena in 1966 on 'sons-of-the-soil' plank and later the party aggressively championed the cause of Hindutva. The party's aggressive approach toward issues close to its heart and the powerful persona of Bal Thackeray prompted Shinde to join the Sena in Thane.

The sitting MLA from Kopri-Pachpakhadi in Thane city is known for taking part in street politics and faces dozens of criminal charges such as voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons and rioting, among others. Growing under the shadows of Shiv Sena stalwart from Thane, Anand Dighe, he became his deputy and strengthened the party after the sudden death of his colleague in 2001. He became a corporator in the Thane Municipal Corporation in 1997 and won his maiden Assembly election in 2004 and is currently in his fourth term as an MLA.

Shinde, often seen as the No. 2 leader in the party, was made Sena's Thane district head in 2005. His son Dr Shrikant Shinde is the sitting Lok Sabha MP from Kalyan in the district. Shinde was appointed the Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly for a brief period in 2014 when Sena had not finalised its pact with the then-ally BJP for joining the Devendra Fadnavis cabinet. His clout grew when the Shiv Sena joined hands with the BJP to form a government under Fadnavis post-2014 assembly elections. Shinde, a popualr political figure, came closer to then-Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis (2014-19) and their association became a matter of discussion so much so that except for the Thane Municipal Corporation (the Sena minister's home turf), the BJP contested elections to all civic bodies in Maharashtra in 2016 against the Shiv Sena. When the Shiv Sena snapped ties with the BJP and formed the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government with the NCP and the Congress in late 2019, he became a cabinet minister.

Shinde's closeness with Fadnavis turned his own party leaders against him. The tension grew so much that after Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray became chief minister in 2019, Shinde was made guardian minister of Naxal-hit Gadchiroli district (along with Thane), located faraway in the Vidarbha region which is generally seen as a punishment. However, Shinde remained a key political asset for the Shiv Sena. Shinde is considered a leader with grassroots touch. He is known to start his day early in the morning and continue his visits to party workers till late night.
Not only the Sikhs apex body Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has offered help to the Afghan Sikhs and Hindus who wish to migrate to India following June 18 terrorists attack on Gurdwara Kart-e-Parwan in Kabul but several philanthropic organizations have also extended a helping hand towards terrorist victims who are forced to evacuate their country owing to security reasons. Besides extending other help, the SGPC has offered to provide air tickets to the Afghan Sikhs and Hindus who are willing to migrate from Afghanistan, said SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami.

Amritsar based Amandeep Nursing College has offered free Diploma courses in nursing and operation theater technology to the qualifying Afghan Sikh and Hindu students upon their arrival. Director of the college Dr. Avtar Singh told Zee News that giving young Afghan Sikh and Hindu migrants a brighter future should also be one of the prime concerns. He said they would not only offer free diplomas but also provide them boarding and lodging facilities. Dr. Avtar said they had also decided to provide free medical treatment to the migrant Afghan Sikhs and Hindus upon their arrival in India.

Notably, on June 18, armed gunmen stormed into the Gurdwara Kart-e-Parwan and began indiscriminate firing leaving a Sikh devotee and a Muslim guard of the Gurdwara dead.

Founder of Dubai-based philanthropic organization PCT Humanity Joginder Singh Salaria reached Afghanistan on Thursday leading a delegation to hold talks with the Afghan Sikh and Hindu leaders besides officials of the Kabul administration. He informed Zee News that the first priority was to ensure the safety and security of minority Sikhs and Hindus of Afghanistan.

Our delegation is scheduled to hold meetings with Sikh and Hindu leaders, and officials of Kabul administration today to discuss how we can provide help to the terrorist-affected minority community of Afghanistan, said Salaria.

After the attack on Gurdwara Karte Parwan the Government of India has issued 111 visas to members of Hindu and sikh community living in Afghanistan.

President of Sarbat Da Bhal Trust SPS Oberoi informed Trust would be supplying food stuff and other ration material to all the Afghan Sikh and Hindu refugees,( approximately over 100) who would be arriving India in near future for next six months through the Afghan embassy. He further said that the Trust had already provided rations to as many twenty thousand Afghan refugees through the Afghan embassy adding that presently the Trust was regularly providing rations to 400 refugees.

Pumeet Singh Chandok president India World Forum have been working as a bridge between Afghan Hindu Sikh and government of India informed that there are still about 60 Afghan hinu sikhs awating for their visas and soon they get the visa they will fly to India.

President of World Punjabi Organization Vikram Sahney has already offered to send chartered planes to bring those Sikhs and Hindus who wish to leave Afghanistan.

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Himachal Pradesh Board Results 2022: The Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education (HPBOSE) is expected to announce the result of the Class 10th exams 2022 this week. As per the latest media reports, the HPBOSE 10th Result 2022 is expected to be declared on June 27, 2022. However, no confirmation has been made by the board of school education, and an official announcement from HPBOSE is awaited. Once released, students can check HP board result 2022 by logging in to the official website hpbose.org. Based on the previous trends for HPBOSE Result 2022, the HPBOSE 10th Result is usually declared a few days after the HPBOSE 12th Result.

HPBOSE announced the Class 12th Result 2022 on last Saturday, June 18, 2022. As per this analysis, HPBOSE is expected to declare the HP Board 10th Result 2022 in the next few days. Over 2 lakh students appeared for the HPBOSE 10th and 12th exams which concluded in April. HPBOSE Class 10th board exams were held from March 26 to April 13, 2022.

Himachal Pradesh Board Results 2022: Important websites to check the result

hpbose.org

hpresults.nic.in

Himachal Pradesh Board Results 2022: Here is how you can check your result

- Visit the official website hpbose.org

- On the homepage, go to the 'Student's Corner' and select Result tab

- Click on the link to check HP Board Class 10, 12 Result 2022

- New page will appear on the screen

- Submit your credentials and login

- The HPBOSE 10th result 2022 will be displayed on the screen

- Download the HP Board Class 10th Result 2022 and take its printout for further use.

The students need to secure a minimum of 30 per cent marks to pass the HP Board 10th exams 2022. In the month of February, HPBOSE Class 10 term 1 exam result was declared on its official website, hpbose.org. Last year 2021, a total of 99.7 percent of students were declared passed by HP board.
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Do-Fluoride New Materials Co., Ltd. (DFD), a Chinese inorganic fluoride chemicals manufacturer, announced on June 24 its board of director has approved the proposal that its subsidiary Guangxi Ningfu New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (Ningfu New Energy) will build with Greater Bay Technology (GBT) a joint venture that focuses on manufacturing fast-charging cells.

According to DFD's announcement, the joint venture, temporarily named Guangxi Ningfu Greater Bay New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., will be located in Qingxiu district, Nanning city with a registered capital of 250 million yuan ($37.335 million). Its equity interests will be 60/40 split by Ningfu New Energy and GBT.

Photo credit: GBT

The joint venture will have a business scope that covers production and sales of super-fast-charging lithium ion power pouch stacking cells rated 3C and above.

Under the agreement, the joint venture will build a cell manufacturing line with an initial production capacity of 2GWh. If the duo want to expand the production capacity of super-fast-charging cells and modules, the joint venture should be taken into consideration in priority to take charge of the project.

During the joint venture's operating term, GBT should sell the super-fast-charging cells made by the joint venture in priority. It is not allowed to sell other fast-charging cell products before the sales reach the equal volume to the joint venture's current production capacity.

DFD said the establishment of the joint venture can make both parties fully exercise their advantages in technologies, capital, raw materials, production management, marketing and sales channels, and talent pool, and will help DFD improve its competitiveness.

Founded in Sept. 2020, GBT is the first high-tech company incubated by GAC Group with private investors taking the controlling stake. It is dedicated to the R&D, production, and sales of XFC (eXtreme Fast Charge) batteries, and next-generation high-performance energy storage devices and compatible systems.
Srinagar: At an altitude of about 2250 meters above sea level "Gautam Post" is the last post of the Indian Army at the Line of Control (LoC) of Machil sector, in the Kupwara border district where the soldiers keep eagles' eye to keep enemies away for Indian territory. If we talk of the 90s when terrorism was at its peak in Kashmir, this sector was the most prone to infiltration and was known as the most popular and commonly used route by infiltrators. Due to the low water in the Kishan Ganga river which divides India and PoK and the similar cultures on both sides of the area, this was one of the easiest passes for terrorists to crores over into the Indian territory.

Since 2008 till now, more than 350 terrorists have been killed in this sector and more than thousands infiltration bids have been foiled, but Army too had paid price for that, around 80 soldiers laid their lives, an Indian army official said.

Out of the 740 km long LoC, this area of the Machil sector covers about 25 km of LOC area and in such a small space, there have been more than 1500 infiltration attempts in the last 15 years. But since the cease-fire agreement happened between India and Pakistan in 2019 this area has seen peace.

Now once again intelligence inputs suggest the danger of infiltration in the sector. Inputs suggest that around 200 trained terrorists are waiting on launch pads to infiltrate this side, following which the vigil on LOC has been intensified with day-night patrolling in the area.

The soldiers are also keeping a close watch with the help of sophisticated electronic surveillance devices like Thermal Imaging Device, Movement Radar, PTZ Camera, Quadcopter, etc.

The guard of the line of control never stops whatever the conditions heavy snowfall, non-stop rains, or minus 20 temperatures.

An army officer said, To thwart the infiltration attempt of terrorists, sensors have also been installed on the LoC fence so that if any movement is seen close to the AIOS, we get alerts. The feed of these sensors goes straight to a post control room.

Apart from this, there are PTZ cameras which have a range of about 1 kilometer. But due to bad weather, these devices sometimes do not support properly, due to which the soldiers also do foot patrolling.

The officer added, Soon counter-drone jammers will be installed for drone infiltrations so that we will be able to jam the remote signal of enemy drones whenever we see their movement.

A jawan monitoring the LoC said that they are always alert and ready to face any challenge. This is our duty, we have taken an oath to guard our country against enemies and we will do it at the cost of our lives.

The challenge is not only terrorists' infiltration but being Machial is also considered one of the most avalanche-prone areas of Kashmir. To tackle that the Army has specially brought new technology to protect the posts from natural calamities and to be in constant touch with other posts during heavy snowfall.

An army official said that in places where there is a high risk of avalanche, iron poles in the shape of 'arrowhead' are installed in the area above the posts so that if ever avalanche occurs it diverts the avalanche and post remain safe. A rope is connected from one accessible post to another inaccessible post so that ration supply and arms and ammunition can go through that rope. It is pertaining to mention that if infiltration in the Machil sector is almost impossible, the credit goes to these brave soldiers of the Indian Army, whose only priority is honour of the Tricolour.
New Delhi: As the rift within Shiv Sena grows, all 37 rebel MLAs camping in Guwahati on Thursday (June 23) declared Eknath Shinde as their group leader in the legislature in a letter to Maharashtra Assembly's Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal. This comes as the Deputy Speaker had approved Ajay Chaudhary as the group leader of the Shiv Sena legislature party, replacing rebel minister Eknath Shinde. The influential MLA sent a letter to Zirwal, with the signatures of 37 dissident Shiv Sena MLAs, who are camping in Guwahati with him. Further, the letter mentioned that Sena MLA Bharat Gogawale has been appointed as chief whip of the legislature party in place of Sunil Prabhu.

On the other hand, Shiv Sena sought the disqualification of 12 rebel MLAs including Shinde for "not attending" the legislative party meeting held on Wednesday. The faction has filed a petition before the Deputy Speaker of the state assembly against the rebels. The Shiv Sena workers loyal to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray earlier in the day had demanded action against those who failed to participate in the 5 pm meeting. Reacting to the development, Shinde wrote on Twitter, "You cannot scare us by giving the names of 12 MLAs for disqualification because we are followers of the Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray. We know the law, so we do not pay heed to threats."

Meanwhile, in an apparent bid to pacify the dissidents, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said his party is open to mulling leaving Maharashtra's ruling alliance MVA. In addition, he said the rebel MLAs camping in Assam should return and discuss their grievances with CM Thackeray. "The rebels who are out of Mumbai have raised the issue of Hindutva. If all these MLAs feel that Shiv Sena should walk out of the MVA, show guts to come back to Mumbai. You say you have issues only with the government and also say that you are true Shiv Sainiks...Your demand will be considered. But come and talk with Uddhav Thackeray," PTI quoted Raut as saying. While the coalition allies NCP and the Congress have promised support to Shiv Sena and asserted the MVA's majority can only be determined in the Maharashtra Assembly and not outside.

(With agency inputs)
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday sought to downplay the camping of Maharashtra's rebel Shiv Sena MLAs in his state saying all "tourists" are welcome there. Sarma also said he has nothing to do with the politics of Maharashtra where the survival of the Uddhav Thackeray-led government is at stake after 38 of his party's MLAs rebelled and are currently camping at a hotel in Guwahati after being flown there in several flights.

"Some people have come to Assam. They booked hotels. I am happy for that. You also come, it will help Assam's economy. Through this, Assam's tourism is also getting promoted," he said after accompanying NDA's presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu while filing her nominations here at Parliament complex.

Asked about the ongoing political developments in Maharashtra, he said he cannot comment on it as it is a big state.

"How can I comment on Maharashtra. It is a big state. I am happy that people are choosing Assam as a preferred destination," he said.

Reacting to the claims that his BJP-led government was allegedly ignoring flood relief work and busy hosting the MLAs from Maharashtra, the chief minister said he cannot order closure of hotels in the Assam capital due to floods in some parts of the state.

"I dont's know what kind of mindset these people have. Should I shut down Guwahati's hotels because there is flood in some part of the state. We are providing relief to the flood affected people. How can I shut the hotels in Guwahati. If tomorrow, you decide to come and stay in a hotel in Guwahati for 10 days, as a CM, should I say that you should not come," he said.

"We have spent so much money to promote tourism, (we say) visit Kamakhya, visit Kaziranga, now, should I stop those who have come to Assam," he added.

When asked whether the Shiv Sena MLAs were kept as a "hostage" in Assam, Sarma said: "What kind of hostage. They are in a hotel. They are happy. They are our guests. Generally we just see whether everyone visiting Assam is comfortable".

Asked about West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's offer that the Maharashtra MLAs should come to her state, Sarma shot back, saying Banerjee wanted to take away the "Lakshmi" which came to Assam.

"There is always competition between Assam and Bengal on tourism. Mamata di wanted to take away the 'Lakshmi' which came to my place. If they go to Bengal, Bengal will get the GST. I want to tell Mamata di that those who want to come to Assam, at least spare them. Don't take away them. Yours is a big state," he said.

Sarma also lauded the NDA's decision to nominate Murmu as the Presidential candidate and termed her as "an able administrator and social worker" who has the experience of being a minister, governor and teacher.

Sarma also said he has nothing to do with the politics of Maharashtra where the survival of the Uddhav Thackeray-led government is at stake after 38 of his party's MLAs rebelled and are currently camping at a hotel in Guwahati after being flown there in several flights.
All eyes are fixed on a luxury hotel in the outskirts of Guwahati, from where Shiv Sena's Eknath Shinde and his coterie of MLAs are manoeuvering the fate of the Maharashtra government, but its tall gates are bolted tight from within and the happenings inside are shrouded in secrecy.

The hotel is not making any fresh bookings for the next one week as ''we are fully occupied'', a hotel staff told PTI.

Asked whether any booking can be made for any day after the next week, he said that he could not comment on that. Even before the employee could be asked about the activities of the MLAs inside the hotel, he said, ''Please, do not question me about them. I cannot say anything related to them''.

The hotel has 196 rooms and during an online search for bookings during the next few days, the response was: ''There are no available rooms for these dates''.

Another hotel staff said that it is booked as the four-day Ambubachi Mela at the famed Kamakhya Temple atop the Nilachal Hills has begun.

A huge posse of policemen has been posted in and around the hotel with senior police officers seen managing the security bandobast.

Top police officials, too, remained tight-lipped about the guests inside the hotel and tight security arrangements. Media persons are camping outside the hotel since Wednesday when the Maharashtra politicians reached here but none have been allowed to go inside the hotel. The Congress staged a demonstration near the hotel during the day asking Shinde and other MLAs to leave the state which is reeling under devastating floods which have claimed 108 lives and affected a population of nearly 46 lakh.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma earlier said there should not be any reason for controversy regarding their visit.

He said, We welcome all tourists to visit the state now as we need funds to deal with the devastating floods. Why should we turn away Goddess Lakshmi when most of our hotels are empty or have low occupancy.

Shinde and the other legislators have been staying at the hotel since Wednesday morning after they arrived from Surat by a chartered flight. They were received at the airport by BJP MP Pallab Lochan Das and legislator Sushanta Borgohain.

The Maharashtra MLAs were driven to the hotel in three buses of the Assam State Transport Corporation amid tight security.

The Shiv Sena-led government in Maharashtra is facing a crisis following the dissidence of a section of its MLA led by Shinde.
Party leader Sanjay Bhosale went to Guwahati to appeal to rebel Shiv Sena MLAs to return to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray's camp. But on Friday morning, he was detained outside the hotel by the Assam Police. Sanjay was protesting with posters outside the gate for not allowing him to enter the hotel. Then he was arrested. Assam Chief Minister and BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma is in charge of 'taking care' of rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde and his followers in Guwahati. The Uddhav camp has alleged that the police have kept the rebel MLAs under hotel arrest at his behest.

Earlier there were allegations that the MLAs were detained at a resort in Surat too in Gujarat. Two Shiv Sena MLAs Kailash Patil and Nitin Deshmukh also made the allegation after they left the resort and returned to Mumbai after evading surveillance by Gujarat police. Seeing the developments of the last 24 hours, some political analysts feel that the 'Maha Vikas Aghadi' government in Maharashtra has reached the threshold of collapse. The number of disgruntled Shiv Sena MLAs who are in bjp's 'custody' in a Guwahati hotel has already touched 37. As a result, the anti-defection law will not be effective against rebel leader Eknath Shinde and his camp.

The Uddhav camp had suspended 12 rebel MLAs, including Shinde, on Thursday in a bid to create a rift in the rebel camp. An appeal was made to acting speaker Narhari Sitaram Zirwal to cancel their membership for anti-party activities. The names of four more MLAs were added to the list on Friday.
Mumbai: As Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray concluded a meeting with top alliance leaders, including NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar among others, the rebel MLAs of the Eknath Shinde camp held a meeting of their own with an agenda to strip Maharashtra Assembly Deputy speaker Narhari Zirwal, ANI reported quoting sources. Narhari Zirwal is an NCP leader who is known to be a close confidant of Sharad Pawar. It was believed that Zirwal could be a trouble for the rebel group during the floor tests owing to his loyalties to the NCP-Shiv Sena alliance.

In a meeting of Shiv Sena's rebel MLAs, they have planned to take a resolution to oust Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal. Action is being taken to prepare for the Motion with the signature of 46 MLAs of the rebel group, news agency ANI tweeted quoting sources.

This comes after two pro-BJP independent legislators in Maharashtra on Friday objected to Legislative Assembly Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal's approval of the appointment of Shiv Sena MLA Ajay Chaudhary as the party's new group leader in the House.

Independent legislators - Yogesh Baldi and Vinod Agrawal - have made this demand.

Speaking to reporters here, Baldi said, "The deputy speaker cannot take such a decision as it is the prerogative of the assembly speaker. We will soon initiate legal steps regarding the same."

However, former principal secretary to Vidhan Bhavan, Dr Anant Kalse, said, "Article 180 of the Constitution has clearly stated that the deputy speaker of the legislative assembly can take decisions if the post of the speaker is vacant. I am not sure the demand of these independents can stand in the court."

The post of the state assembly speaker has been lying vacant since February 2021 when Congress leader Nana Patole was appointed as the party's state unit chief.

Zirwal has approved the appointment of Ajay Chaudhary in place of Eknath Shinde.
Maharashtra Political Crisis: Amid the ongoing political crisis in Maharashtra that has toppled the Uddhav Thackeray government, Nationalist Congress Party leader Vidya Chavan said that PM Modi must understand that Maharashtra will never bow down before Delhi. Chavan is one of the few remaining leaders who continue to extend support to Uddhav Thackeray after over 40 MLAs, including Shiv Sena leaders and independent MLAs, turned against the current Shiv Sena and Congress-NCP leaders. The rebel MLAs are camping in Assams Radisson Blu hotel and have demanded that the party restores an alliance with its old ally Bharatiya Janata Party.

While addressing the media, Divya Chavan said, Maharashtra's common people are with CM Uddhav Thackeray and MVA govt. Sharad Pawar said yesterday that we are together. It's impossible to break the MVA govt. I want to tell the Modi govt that Maharashtra will never bow down before Delhi and we will fight till the end.

Maharashtra Political Crisis

The political crisis in Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra erupted after-party legislators joined a rebellion led by Eknath Shinde who is staying at a hotel in Guwahati. Shinde camp has claimed the support of 46 MLAs, which includes 37 Shiv Sena MLAs and nine independents.

The rebel MLAs who are at a hotel in Guwahati since June 20, authorised Shinde on June 23 to decide on a further course of action.

Shiv Sena MLA Sanjay Shirsat claimed that both Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are trying to eliminate Shiv Sena politically from Maharashtra and the MLAs made countless attempts to inform Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray about the malafide intentions of alliance partners. Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut even urged rebel MLAs to return to Mumbai and discuss their issues with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

Uddhav Thackeray tries to save the Maharashtra govt

Shiv Sena president and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday reached out to the functionaries of his party, which is currently battling a rebellion, and sought to allay fears surrounding the survival of his political outfit and the MVA government.
Maharashtra political crisis: Amid the ongoing political turmoil in Maharashtra that could throw current Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and his Congress-NCP alliance out of power, a man from Maharashtras Beed has suggested that he should be made the chief minister until the crisis is resolved, reported PTI. The man has written to the government demanding to be the acting CM of Maharashtra amid the political furore. The man has written to Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari seeking that he be made the acting chief minister of the state as the Shiv Sena-led MVA dispensation is currently facing a survival crisis due to a rebellion among several Sena leaders.

Who is this man?

The man who wants to be Maharashtras acting CM is Shrikant Gadale, a Dahifal (Wadmauli) resident in Kej tehsil. He has written a letter to the governor and has submitted the same at the district collector's office. According to Gadales letter, he has been in politics and social life for several years and understands the ground issues in the state.

In his letter, Gadale claimed that Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had neglected the problems of common people and farmers are not being helped in the state.

"I have been in politics and social life for 10 to 12 years and have worked for the problems of farmers and poor people. Due to environmental disasters, the state is facing losses. It was expected that the government would give immediate relief, but help was not given," Gadale wrote.

Gadale urged the governor to appoint him as the acting chief minister and give him a chance.

He further said that he would address the problems of employment, farmers, agriculture labourers and sugarcane cutters.

Maharashtra political crisis

The Uddhav Thackeray-led- Maharashtra government, formed in alliance with Congress and NCP, is on the verge of a downfall as Shiv Sena minister Eknath Shinde has turned against the alliance and is camping in Guwahati along with 37 Sena legislators and 10 independents.

Meanwhile, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Friday expressed confidence that Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government would win the floor test in the State Assembly.

(With PTI inputs)
Shillong: The Meghalaya government has directed the autonomous district councils (ADCs) in the state to immediately shut down all toll gates set up by them along the national highways (NH) and state highways (SH), a minister said.

Governor Satya Pal Malik had earlier this month spoken to Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on the affairs of the ADCs, their failure to submit utilisation certificates (UCs) and the need to shut down all illegal toll gates set up by the tribal councils along the NH and state highways.

District Council Affairs (DCA) Minister Lahkmen Rymbui who attended a meeting chaired by the Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma with the representatives of the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) and Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (JHADC), said the state government have issued directions to the Councils on the matter.

ALSO READ:http://MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan DANCES to celebrate Draupadi Murmu's selection as NDA's presidential candidate

Rymbui told reporters on Thursday that the state government has not questioned the authority of the ADCs to collect tax under their respective jurisdictions but has pointed out that they are not empowered to set up such toll gates along the NH and state highways.

We have asked them (Councils) to close down all toll gates immediately and the JHADC and KHADC representatives have agreed to do that," he said.

The minister said that records are not available as to when the ADCs have started operating the toll gates.

Our point of contention is that the ADCs are not empowered by the law for any collection along the national highways and state highways,he added.

Rymbui said that the constraints faced by the ADCs and their failure to submit utilisation certificates of various developmental initiatives were also discussed during the meeting and the government has assured to extend all possible help within the parameters of the law. [10:49 pm, 22/06/2022] Sanghamitra Zee: Rome, June 23 (IANS) Covid-19
Bhopal: A video of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan dancing in a tribal attire to express his happiness on the selection of Draupadi Murmu as NDA`s Presidential candidate has gone viral on the social media. CM Chouhan also took to Twitter to share that he was extremely elated with his party's central leadership selecting Murmu as its presidential nominee.

NDA`s Presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu arrived in New Delhi ahead of the filing of her nomination on Thursday. Murmu will file her nomination papers today in the presence of top BJP leaders.

Her nomination papers are being prepared at Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi's residence, sources said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, senior ministers Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah, and BJP president J P Nadda will be among her proposers.

Union ministers and senior BJP leaders are signing on as proposers and seconders at Joshi's residence. BJD's Sasmit Patra, whose party has backed her nomination, was also among those at Joshi's home to sign the papers.

Several Delhi BJP leaders, including state president Adesh Gupta, party MPs Manoj Tiwari and Ramesh Bidhuri, the Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly, welcomed Murmu at the airport. Murmu, who is staying at the Odisha Bhavan, is likely to call on the prime minister.

To make the nomination filing a grand event, the BJP has invited its allies as well as Biju Janata Dal, which has announced its support to Murmu, to attend nomination filing.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday praised NDA`s Presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu for her "understanding of the problems on the ground" and dubbed her vision for India`s development as "extraordinary".

The Prime Minister made the remarks after he met Murmu in New Delhi. After Prime Minister, Union Home Minister Amit Shah also met the NDA`s Presidential candidate.

Sharing pictures of his meeting with Murmu on Twitter, Prime Minister Modi wrote, "Met Smt. Droupadi Murmu Ji. Her Presidential nomination has been appreciated across India by all sections of society. Her understanding of grassroots problems and vision for India`s development is outstanding."

The Opposition parties have declared Yashwant Sinha as their joint candidate. The election for the next President of the country will be held on July 18 while the result will be declared on July 21.
NAPA, Calif.  Vibratex, the sole North American importer of the Magic Wand brand, on Friday announced that its Pleasure As Art commissioned piece will be a guest of honor during As You Like Its Grand Re-Opening event.

As You Like Its retail shop in Eugene, Ore., recently underwent an extensive remodel. After a long construction period, the folks at As You Like It are ready to officially celebrate their newly expanded space.

The Grand Re-Opening event is happening from noon to 6 p.m. PT on Sunday, June 26th. The event will include music, raffle tickets, snacks from Sweet Life Patisserie, art, and the opportunity to visit the Pleasure As Art Installation. Further, everyone who takes a photo with the sculpture and posts it to Instagram while tagging @asyoulikeit.shop, @truemagicwand, and @dafneblade (Pleasure As Arts commissioned artist) will receive 10 percent off any one item at As You Like It.

Note: Masks will be required to enter the store and are recommended by the As You Like It team for the outdoor portions of the event.

More information about the event can be found on As You Like Its site here: asyoulikeitshop.com/eugevents

Vibratex said that "when you ship more than half a million wands each year, a handful of unusable units are inevitable."

"And though these wands wont have their chance to deliver physical pleasure, they can certainly still make people happy. So, instead of condemning these wands to landfill, Magic Wand decided to facilitate art," the company explained.

Vibratex commissioned a sculpture by Miami-based artist Dafne Blade. The resulting piecewhich Mashable recently referred to as not only stunning, but evocative of Game of Thronesis on display at As You Like Its Eugene location for the entire month of June. After its residency at As You Like It, the Pleasure As Art piece will make its way to Burbank, Calif. for the ANME tradeshow.

For all Vibratex and Magic Wand sales questions and inquiries, contact Eddie Romero, director of business development, via [email protected].

To learn more about Magic Wand, visit magicwandoriginal.com. Join Magic Wand on Instagram at @truemagicwand.
New Delhi: Yashwant Sinha, the joint Opposition presidential candidate in the upcoming election, has been accorded a Z category cover of armed CRPF commandos, officials told PTI. This comes after the Union home ministry directed the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) VIP security wing to ensure the protection of the 84-year-old leader. Former Union Minister Sinha will file his nomination for the presidential election 2022 on June 27. He is also scheduled to visit Bihar and Jharkhand for two days from Friday (June 24) onwards.

The MHA had earlier extended a higher Z-plus cover of CRPF commandos to the NDA presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu, a tribal leader from Odisha. Murmu is slated to file her nomination for the presidential race today at the Parliament in the presence of several top BJP leaders.

Meanwhile, Sinha on Thursday said he has done "much more" than his NDA rival Murmu for Scheduled Tribes and other disadvantaged communities. It is not a question of identity; who Murmu or Sinha is. It is the question of what ideology she represents in our polity and what ideology I represent," PTI quoted him as saying. Further, he said the BJP is depending on identity politics while the opposition is putting out an ideological message.

Sinha also questioned the work done by Murmu for the tribal community during her tenure as the Jharkhand Governor. "She does belong to the tribal community. But what is it that she has done? She was a Jharkhand governor. What steps did she take to improve the lot of tribals? Being born into a certain community does not automatically make you the champion of that community, the oppositions presidential candidate said.

The presidential election 2022 will be held on July 18 to elect incumbent Ram Nath Kovind's successor, whose term will end on July 21.

(With agency inputs)
New Delhi: NDA'S presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu, who arrived in the national capital on Wednesday from Bhubaneswar, will file her nomination papers today in the presence of top BJP leaders. Her nomination papers are being prepared at Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi's residence, sources said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, senior ministers Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah, and BJP president J P Nadda will be among her proposers.

Union ministers and senior BJP leaders are signing on as proposers and seconders at Joshi's residence. BJD's Sasmit Patra, whose party has backed her nomination, was also among those at Joshi's home to sign the papers.

Several Delhi BJP leaders, including state president Adesh Gupta, party MPs Manoj Tiwari and Ramesh Bidhuri, Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly, welcomed Murmu at the airport. Murmu, who is staying at the Odisha Bhavan, is likely to call on the prime minister. To make the nomination filing a grand event, the BJP has invited its allies as well as Biju Janata Dal, which has announced its support for Murmu, to attend the nomination filing.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday praised NDA`s Presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu for her "understanding of the problems on the ground" and dubbed her vision for India`s development as "extraordinary". The Prime Minister made the remarks after he met Murmu in New Delhi. After Prime Minister, Union Home Minister Amit Shah also met the NDA`s Presidential candidate.

Sharing pictures of his meeting with Murmu on Twitter, Prime Minister Modi wrote, "Met Smt. Droupadi Murmu Ji. Her Presidential nomination has been appreciated across India by all sections of society. Her understanding of grassroots problems and vision for India`s development is outstanding."

The Opposition parties have declared Yashwant Sinha as their joint candidate. The election for the next President of the country will be held on July 18 while the result will be declared on July 21. Draupadi Murmu is the first presidential candidate from Odisha of a major political party or alliance. She continues to break barriers and was the first woman governor of Jharkhand.

She served as Jharkhand Governor from 2015 to 2021. Coming from a poor tribal family in the village of Mayurbhanj, a backward district in Odisha, Droupadi Murmu completed her studies despite challenging circumstances.

She taught at Shri Aurobindo Integral Education Centre, Rairangpur. She started her political career as Rairangpur NAC vice-chairman. Droupadi Murmu was a member of the Odisha Legislative Assembly from Rairangpur between 2000 and 2004. As a minister, she held portfolios of Transport and Commerce, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries. She again served as MLA in the Odisha assembly from 2004 to 2009.

In 2007, the Odisha assembly honoured her with the `Nilakantha Award` for best MLA. She served as a junior assistant in Irrigation and Power Department between 1979 and 1983. She has held several organisational posts in BJP and was vice president of state ST Morcha in 1997.

Draupadi Murmu was a national executive member of BJP`s ST Morcha from 2013 to 2015 and served as BJP district chief of Mayurbhanj (West) in 2010 and 2013. Between 2006 and 2009, she was chief of BJP`s ST Morcha in Odisha. She was a member of the national executive of BJP ST Morcha from 2002 to 2009.Notably, the voting for the next President of India will kick start on July 18 whose counting will take place on July 21.
New Delhi: Much has been discussed about Droupadi Murmus candidature, who in all likelihood is set to become Indias first President from the tribal community, powered by the NDA and some unaffiliated parties. BJP president JP Nadda had said the party felt Indias next President should be from the East, be a woman and belong to the Vanvasi community  parameters that made Murmu the perfect fit.

It is well known that the BJP lacks a pan-India face to represent tribals, who constitute nearly 9 per cent of the countrys population, with bigger concentration in several politically significant states. The tribal vote is mostly bagged by the Congress and regional parties such as Jharkhand Mukti Morcha in Jharkhand and Bharatiya Tribal Party in Gujarat and Rajasthan. With Murmu in Rashtrapati Bhavan, the BJP will hope to consolidate the Scheduled Tribes vote behind it.

Also Read: Mysterious death of one son, another killed in accident - President candidate Droupadi Murmu's grave personal tragedies

However, behind the proposal may lie a bigger calculation by the BJP. While many political commentators have interpreted the development as the saffron camps continued outreach to tribal communities, the elections in Gujarat later this year, and in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh next year, may also have shaped the consensus towards Murmu. Numbers show the BJP has mostly failed to make the cut in tribal-influenced seats. In the last assembly elections, the Congress had won 86 of the 128 ST-reserved seats in Gujarat, Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh.

In 2017, Congress had won 15 and BJP nine out of the 27 ST seats in Gujarat. In Rajasthan the following year, the Congress won 13 and BJP eight of the 25 ST seats. MP has 47 ST seats, of which 31 went to the Congress and 16 to the BJP. In Chhattisgarh, Congress had won 27 of the 29 ST seats, leaving only two for the BJP. There have been murmurs of the BJP looking to replace former CM Raman Singh with a tribal leader as the partys face in Chhattisgarh.

BJPs tribal agony continues in other eastern and southern states as well. The party has just four MLAs in the 97 ST seats spread across Jharkhand (28), Odisha (24), Karnataka (15), Maharashtra (14), Telangana (9) and Andhra Pradesh (7). The BJP was forced to bring back estranged tribal leader Babulal Marandi to its fold in Jharkhand after the 2019 debacle with non-tribal Raghubar Das as the partys face.

BJPs tribal outreach

The saffron camps foray into tribal communities is being led by none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In April, he attended an event in Gujarats tribal-dominated Dahod district, where donning a tribal jacket and headgear, he evoked tribal icon Birsa Mundas contribution to Indias freedom struggle and also mentioned his work for tribal welfare as Gujarat CM.

In the same month, Union Home minister Amit Shah addressed a gathering of tendu patta collectors in Bhopal and handed over cheques to them, besides announcing several schemes for the community. Since last month, Shah and Nadda have addressed tribal events in Rajasthans Banswara and Sawai Madhopur, and Jharkhands Ranchi in an aggressive bid to woo the community.

In its second term, the Modi government has withdrawn proposals to amend the Indian Forests Act, 1927, and increased budgetary spending on tribal welfare. The RSS, on the other hand, has for long been trying to build a cadre base among tribal communities to blunt the influence of Naxalism and Christian missionaries.
Kerala: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi`s office in Kainatty near Kalpetta was vandalized on Friday allegedly by the Students Federation of India (SFI) activists. Indian Youth Congress, in a tweet, alleged that "goons held the flags of SFI" as they climbed the wall of Rahul Gandhi`s Wayanad office and vandalized it. A protest march of the SFI, the students` wing of ruling CPI(M), against Congress MP Rahul Gandhi turned violent as a group of protestors allegedly entered the Lok Sabha member`s office and vandalized it. The student organization were protesting against the creation of buffer zones around forests in the hilly areas of Kerala.

"This happened in the presence of the Police. It`s a clear conspiracy by CPM leadership. For the past five days, ED has questioned him (Rahul Gandhi) after that I don`t know why Kerala the CPI(M) is going in the way of Narendra Modi to attack him. I think Sitaram Yehcury will take necessary action," said Congress leader KC Venugopal reacting to the vandalization of the party office.

#WATCH | Kerala: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi's office in Wayanad vandalised.



Indian Youth Congress, in a tweet, alleges that "the goons held the flags of SFI" as they climbed the wall of Rahul Gandhi's Wayanad office and vandalised it. pic.twitter.com/GoCBdeHAwy  ANI (@ANI) June 24, 2022

"I think CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury will take necessary action," added Venugopal. Meanwhile, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan condemned the attack on Rahul Gandhi`s office in Wayanad.

CM Vijayan said, "There is freedom for democratic protests and expressing an opinion in our land. But going in the direction of attacks is the wrong tendency. The government will take strong action against the accused."
New Delhi: India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T S Tirumurti at a Security Council briefing and consultations on Afghanistan on Thursday (June 23, 2022) said that India is ready to provide assistance and support to the people of Afghanistan in their hour of need as a devastating earthquake killed nearly 1000 people, destroyed houses and displaced several. "At the outset, I express our deepest condolences to the victims and their families, and to all those impacted by the devastating earthquake in Afghanistan. India shares the grief of the people of Afghanistan and is ready to provide assistance and support in this hour of need, said T S Tirumurti.

The 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck the Central Region of Afghanistan early Wednesday morning and four districts in Patika province - Gayan, Barmala, Naka and Ziruk - as well as Spera district in Khost province, have been affected. The earthquake registered at a depth of 10 km, UN humanitarian agency United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

Earlier, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi has also tweeted that the first consignment of India's earthquake relief assistance for the people of Afghanistan has reached Kabul and has been handed over by the Indian team there. Further consignment also follows, he added.

According to the reports, at least 1,000 people have been killed in the quake with several others displaced nearly 2,000 homes destroyed. OCHA is coordinating the emergency response on behalf of UN agencies and humanitarian partners.

Tirumurti said India has supported the Security Council Resolution 2615 that provided for humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, while ensuring that the Security Council would continue to exercise its oversight to guard against any possible diversion of funds and misuse of exemptions from sanctions.

We hope that the humanitarian carve outs' of this Resolution are fully utilized by the UN agencies and their aid partners and aberrations addressed, he said.

In response to the humanitarian needs of the Afghan people, India has dispatched several shipments of humanitarian assistance consisting of 30,000 MTs of wheat, 13 tons of medicines, 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine and winter clothing.

These humanitarian consignments were handed over to the Indira Gandhi Children's Hospital, Kabul, and UN specialized agencies such as World Health Organisation and the World Food Program (WFP).

To ensure fair and just distribution of India's wheat assistance, the Government of India signed an agreement with the WFP for the distribution of 50,000 MT of wheat within Afghanistan. The dispatch of this wheat to Afghanistan has already commenced, he said.

Medical and food-grain assistance

Further, to oversee the utilization of India's medical and food-grain assistance and to further assess the humanitarian requirements of Afghan people, an Indian team visited Kabul recently on June 2-3 and met with representatives of international organizations involved in distribution of the humanitarian assistance.

In addition, the team also visited places where Indian programmes and projects are being implemented like Indira Gandhi Children Hospital, Habibia High School, Chimtala sub-power station and the WFP wheat distribution center.

We are now in the process of shipping more medical assistance and food grains to Afghanistan. We also gifted one million doses of India's COVAXIN COVID-19 vaccines to Iran to administer to the Afghan refugees in Iran. In addition, we have assisted UNICEF by supplying almost 60 million doses of polio vaccine and two tons of essential medicines, he said.

Tirumurti reiterated that humanitarian assistance should be based on principles of neutrality, impartiality, and independence. The disbursement of humanitarian aid should be non-discriminatory and accessible to all, irrespective of ethnicity, religion, or political belief. In particular, the assistance should reach the most vulnerable first, including women, children, and minorities.

Noting that peace and security in Afghanistan are critical imperatives that the international community needs to collectively strive for, he said India will continue to play its role towards the pursuit of that objective and the interests of Afghan people will continue to be at the heart of our efforts in Afghanistan.

He underlined that as a contiguous neighbour and long-standing partner of Afghanistan, India has direct stakes in ensuring the return of peace and stability to the country.

Therefore, given our strong historical and civilisational linkages to the Afghan people, we are deeply concerned about the recent developments in Afghanistan, especially the deteriorating humanitarian situation, he said

(With agency inputs)
Angry Shiv Sena MLAs, including Eknath Shinde, are camping in Guwahati with their followers from Surat in Gujarat. However, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is not aware of the news. The Assam Chief Minister claimed that his government has nothing to do with the Maharashtra MLAs. Himanta Biswa Sarma told news agency ANI, "There are many good hotels in Assam. Anyone can come and stay there. There is no problem with that. I don't even know if the MLAs from Maharashtra have come to Assam or not. MLAs from other states can also come to Assam."

Eknath Shinde already has the support of 37 MLAs. In all, the support of 42 MLAs is with Shinde. Shinde has taken these MLAs to a hotel near Guwahati. The news and pictures are being shown in the media all day long in the entire country. However, the same news is not available to the Chief Minister of Assam.

In the meantime, allegations of BJP's manipulation in the wake of the Uddhav Thackeray government's crisis in Maharashtra have started to emerge. However, the lotus camp has denied this claim. After the aggrieved MLAs of Maharashtra reached Assam, police security was also arranged for them. Even after that, questions have been raised in various quarters about the Assam Chief Minister's claim.

Desperate to save the government, the Uddhav Thackeray government has appealed to the Deputy Speaker to dismiss 17 MLAs. A Minister of the Assam government was also seen in the hotel of the aggrieved Shiv Sena MLAs. The opposition is also accusing the BJP of conspiring to topple the government in Maharashtra. The question is whether the Assam Chief Minister made such a claim to save the image of the party and the government in this situation.
New Delhi: In a bid to ebb the rebellion, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Thursday (June 23) said the Uddhav Thackeray-led party is open to mulling leaving Maharashtra's ruling alliance Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) if the rebel MLAs return from Assam and put forward their grievances in front of the Chief Minister. Talking to reporters, Raut said the rebel MLAs led by Eknath Shinde should return to Mumbai within 24 hours and the party will consider their demand of breaking the tie-up with Congress and NCP. "You say you are real Shiv Sainiks and will not quit the party. We are ready to consider your demand provided you come back to Mumbai within 24 hours and discuss the issue with CM Uddhav Thackeray. Your demand will be considered positively. Don't write letters on Twitter and WhatsApp," PTI quoted Raut as saying.

The chief spokesperson of Shiv Sena added, "The rebels who are out of Mumbai have raised the issue of Hindutva. If all these MLAs feel that Shiv Sena should walk out of the MVA, show guts to come back to Mumbai. You say you have issues only with the government and also say that you are true Shiv Sainiks...Your demand will be considered. But come and talk with Uddhav Thackeray.

Later, Raut tried to assuage the dissenters and wrote on Twitter in Marathi, "Why wander aimlessly. The doors are open and issues can be resolved amicably through talks. Let's take a decision with self-respect instead of accepting slavery.

As per ANI, a meeting of Shiv Sena district presidents will be chaired by CM Uddhav Thackeray at Shiv Sena Bhawan in Mumbai at 12 pm today.

Meanwhile, NCP president Sharad Pawar said Raut made the comments to persuade the dissident MLAs, who are camping in Guwahati, so they will come back to Mumbai. Expressing confidence in MVAs majority to win a trust vote, he also said the fate of the MVA government will be decided on the floor of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly. Pawar also accused the BJP for the ongoing crisis that has hit the Uddhav Thackeray-led government. "The fate of the MVA government will be decided in the Assembly, not in Guwahati (where the rebels are camping). The MVA will prove its majority on the floor of the House," the NCP chief added.

(With agency inputs)
New Delhi: India's regular participation at the G7 summits clearly reflects that the West needs its support to confront major challenges facing the globe, Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said on Friday, ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Germany to attend the annual conclave of the powerful bloc. The summit of the G7, a grouping of the world's seven richest nations, will be held in the Alpine castle of Schloss Elmau in southern Germany on June 26 and 27 amid the war in Ukraine that has fuelled a global food and energy crisis.

"India's regular participation at the G7 summits clearly points to increasing acceptance and recognition that India needs to be a part of any and every sustained effort to find solutions to solve global challenges," Kwatra said at a media briefing.

He said Modi will hold bilateral meetings and discussions with the leaders of G7 and also the guest countries on the sidelines of the G7 summit.

Besides India, Germany has also invited Argentina, Indonesia, Senegal and South Africa as guests for the summit to recognise the democracies of the global south as its partners. Germany is hosting the summit in its capacity as G7 chair for this year.

From Germany, Modi will travel to the United Arab Emirates on June 28 to pay his condolences on the passing away of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the former president of the Gulf nation.

Asked whether India would be under pressure from the G7 countries to restrict its procurement of crude oil from Russia, the foreign secretary made it clear that sourcing of energy is totally driven by the country's national interests, adding that consideration is "very well understood".

"Whatever the trading arrangements that India puts in place with regard to the purchase of crude oil all over the world are determined purely from the consideration of energy security of India and there is no other consideration," he said.

"I think that consideration is very well understood. I would even say appreciated across the countries. I do not see any point of assuming any pressure on that issue. India has continued its oil trade and purchases from wherever we need to do it," he said.

Kwatra said it is purely determined, governed and motivated by India's energy security considerations, noting that it is one of the key aspects in terms of the country's national economic interests.

The Western countries are gradually slashing their energy purchases from Russia following its attack on Ukraine.

Asked about the growing food crisis arising out of the Ukraine crisis, Kwatra said India has taken a very "proactive" stance to ensure food security of the vulnerable countries.

Ukraine is a major producer of wheat and the halt in its exports of the staple food has triggered its shortage.

"I think the Russia-Ukraine situation has generated a certain amount of food security crisis all over the world and as a responsible nation, India has taken a very and proactive stance to ensure that the food security of the vulnerable countries are addressed in a manner that their needs are addressed," Kwatra said.

At the same time, he emphasised on India's approach that the food security within the country is absolutely not at all impacted.

"I think, there has been a widespread appreciation of the manner in which India has taken forward this position," Kwatra said.

Asked if the issue of growing Chinese assertiveness in the region, including along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), would figure in the G7, the foreign secretary did not give a direct reply.

However, he referred to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar's recent comments about challenges facing Asia and Indo-Pacific, adding these were faced before the Ukraine crisis began.

Kwatra said India talked about the responsibility of the world in dealing with the challenges in every forum.

"We all know from where the military challenges are coming from", he said.

On the crisis in Ukraine, Kwatra said India's position has always been very clear as it has been asking for cessation of hostilities right from the beginning of the conflict and clearly said that the path to the resolution of the problem is through diplomacy and dialogue.

US President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are among the top leaders attending the summit.

On June 27, Modi is scheduled to participate in two sessions along with other partner countries of the G7 summit. The first one relates to climate, energy and health and the second one is on food security and gender equality.

The prime minister is also scheduled to have an interaction with the Indian diaspora at a community event during his stay for the G7 summit, Kwatra said.

After attending the G7 Summit, the prime minister will be travelling to the United Arab Emirates on June 28 to pay his personal condolences on the passing away of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the former UAE President and Abu Dhabi Ruler, Kwatra said.

Asked whether the controversy relating to objectionable remarks against Prophet Mohammed would figure during Modi's visit to the UAE, the foreign secretary said India has already clarified its position about the issue and that almost all countries in the Gulf region have a clear understanding of New Delhi's stand on it.

"Almost all countries in the Gulf region have a clear understanding of India's position. We clarified our position on the issue multiple times. I do not think there is a need to specifically discuss this issue going forward," he said.

He said Modi will hold a meeting with Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and it will be their first interaction after the UAE leader's election as the new president of the Gulf nation.
Mumbai: Maharashtra's political crisis is showing no signs of ebbing so far and with the rebels claiming the support of 37 MLAs, Uddhav Thackeray seems to be in a difficult position. Talking about the rebellion within the party, CM Uddhav Thackeray said, "We have been betrayed by our own people. "Sena MLAs who have revolted were given Assembly poll tickets even though many Shiv Sainiks were aspiring for nomination," he said, as his government faced a crisis after a majority of Sena MLAs joined Eknath Shinde who is camping in Guwahati.

Striking a defiant note, Uddhav Thackeray on Friday night dared rebel leader Eknath Shinde and the BJP to try and take away the Shiv Sena cadre and those who vote for the party and also accused the BJP of trying to finish off the Sena. In a virtual address to party corporators, he said the common Shiv Sena workers were his "wealth", and as long as they were with him, he did not care about criticism by others.

"We gave these rebels tickets to contest assembly elections despite many of you being aspirants for the same. These people are disgruntled after getting elected owing to your hard work, and you are standing by the party in this crucial time. I can't thank you enough," Thackeray, who is also the Shiv Sena president, told party workers. "I had told Eknath Shinde to look into complaints regarding alliance partners. He told me that legislators were pressurising him that the Sena should join hands with the BJP. I told him to bring these MLAs to me, let's discuss this. BJP treated us badly, and didn't honour promises. Many of the rebels have cases filed against them. So if they go with BJP, they will become clean, if they stayed with us, they will go to jail. Is this a sign of friendship?" Thackeray asked.

"If a Shiv Sena worker is going to become a chief minister, you should go (with the BJP). But if you are, after all, going to become a deputy chief minister, you should have told me, I would have made you deputy chief minister," he said, apparently referring to Shinde. If Sena workers felt that he was incapable of running the party, he was ready to resign as party president, Thackeray further said. "Shiv Sena is an ideology... BJP wants to finish it off because they don't want to share the Hindu vote bank with anyone," he said, adding that late Bal Thackeray had initiated the alliance with the BJP only to avoid a split in Hindutva votes.

Also read: Eknath Shinde: From a Thane auto driver to Shiv Sena's top leader, all about the man who rattled the Thackerays

The rebel group has no option but to join the BJP, and even if it succeeded in forming the government, it will not last long because many MLAs among them are not really happy, he said. The rebels will not be able to win the next election, Thackeray claimed. Hitting out at Shinde and BJP, he dared them to try and lure away the Shiv Sena's voters. "You have taken away those who got elected. But if you have the courage, try and take away those who got you elected," he said. "Those who want to leave are free to go openly.... I will create a new Shiv Sena, Thackeray added.

(With PTI inputs)
There are still wisps of smoke rising from the steep, green aspen groves of the San Francisco Peaks Inner Basin. Remnants from the Pipeline Fire, which was 80% contained on Thursday, these little fires burning somewhere below the canopy are nothing to worry about, said fire safety officer Brent Van Gundy.

Were not concerned with those fires moving, Van Gundy said, nodding to the smoke rising on the hillside. Theyre just log piles. Well keep an eye on them.

Its hard to share his confidence. You dont even have to turn your head to see the where the green of the aspens is demarcated by a scorched brown line. Beyond that, the hillside goes black, complete destruction across acres of ridgeline leading up to Doyle Peak. The road we had just ascended to reach the Inner Basin wove around the south face of Sugarloaf Mountain, where the burn was so complete that even the black sticks of charred trees seemed rare  as if most had burned down to ash. With evidence of fires devastation all around, its difficult to believe that any puff of smoke could be innocuous.

But Van Gundy knows what hes talking about. Aspens are considered a natural fire barrier because theyre less flammable and have a higher moisture content than pine trees. And for Lockett Meadow, the popular Inner Basin campground, they may have been a saving grace.

Standing in the meadow, you can see where the Pipeline Fire halted its forward progress. Theres a thin band of aspen standing between the burn and the golden grasses. When asked how firefighters stopped the fire from going any further, fire management specialist Preston Mercer said, We didnt.

On any normal year, aspen wont burn that well, he said. Unless theres a ton of dead and down component in it.

Aspen arent the only reason Lockett Meadow survived; topography played a part. The northeastern trajectory of the Pipeline Fire meant that it had to back down off the ridge, and as anyone whos ever held a match knows, fire likes to burn up.

Time of day also played a part, said Forest Service public information officer Karen Malis-Clark. By sheer luck, the Pipeline Fire reached the ridge above Lockett Meadow overnight, when lower temperatures and greater relative humidity would have contributed to a less active fire.

There was also preventative management involved. We've done a lot of fuel treatments around here, Mercer said, looking over the meadow. All there was left to burn was grass and live aspen. So [the fire] just kind of died down.

These natural and preventative elements helped keep the Pipeline Fire out of the Inner Basin and Lockett Meadow, but thats not to say there wasnt a battle. Hotshot crews deployed to the area within the first few days of the Pipeline Fire. They hiked in over the saddles above the basin at elevations over 11,000 feet to get ahead of the blaze, and did significant work in minimizing the fires progress.

The San Francisco Peaks and the people of Flagstaff owe much to these efforts. If the Pipeline Fire had burned into the basin or significantly expanded over the peaks, it would have been beyond catastrophic, said Flagstaff District Ranger Matt McGrath.

I didnt sleep those first nights, said McGrath, a self-described eternal optimist. The Pipeline Fire was bad enough  having forced thousands of evacuations, threatened homes and heightened flood risk in surrounding neighborhoods  but it could have been much, much worse, he said. In his opinion, if the firefighting crews and air support hadnt been successful, if the fire and wind conditions never gave us the opportunity and the Pipeline Fire spread over the Peaks, then the city of Flagstaff below could be looking at a life-altering scenario.

The entire town of Flagstaff would flood with a quarter-inch of rain, he said.

That didnt happen this time. But it was close.

Other popular areas did not fare so well. Weatherford Canyon, an area revered for its doghair thickets of aspen, is completely different, Mercer said.

It took 30 minutes for the whole canyon to burn, he said. The winds were just howling through there. Its just gone.

Some of the things that saved Lockett Meadow worked against Weathford Canyon. Both have aspen groves, but in the topography of the canyon, the Pipeline Fire started near the bottom and burned straight up, driven by aggressive wind. Weatherford had also never been treated or thinned, Mercer said, due to its status as a wilderness area. The amount of combustible dead and downed wood in the canyon was horrendous.

There was probably 50 or 60 tons [of fuel] per acre, Mercer said.

The canyon also burned in the daytime, when temperatures were high and humidity low, completing what Malis-Clark calls the fire behavior triangle.

These elements of fuel load, topography and temperature combined in Weatherford Canyon made it so that even dense aspen stands could not stave off the encroaching flame. With both the canyon and the burned ridges of the Inner Basin, its unclear whether aspen will return.

Historically, aspen are the first thing to grow back after a fire. Entire groves are actually one massive organism that sends out horizontally-spreading roots (sometimes called suckers) that sprout and can rapidly colonize an area. The enormous aspen groves of Inner Basin were born when a fire spread through the area over 100 years ago, clearing the land for aspen to thrive.

But times have changed since the contiguous aspen groves that prevail across the San Francisco Peaks took hold. Average temperatures are warmer, and persistent drought shows little sign of loosening its grip. When it comes to whether aspen will grow in the scars left by the Pipeline Fire, it will be moisture dependent, said wildlife biologist Julia Camp. She hesitates to make a prediction.

The reason Im hanging up is because we've had such crazy winters. We're needing both the monsoon and that winter moisture, and we're just not getting a lot of the winter moisture, she said. Could we get them sprouting up in places? Yes. But are we going to get that contiguous aspen stand? Maybe. I don't know. We hope so.

Uncertainty seems to be a prevailing theme when it comes to understanding how the landscape will recover in the era of climate change. Malis-Clark says it best: We cant use past experience to predict future responses."

The Inner Basin, Lockett Meadow and Weatherford Canyon remain closed to the public -- and probably will for some time. There are public safety hazards. While most of the Inner Basin survived the fire, the area right at the beginning of the popular Inner Basin trail has been burned thoroughly. Dead trees will be falling in this area for a long time, McGrath said.

Theres also the question of the narrow, winding forest road that leads up to the Inner Basin. It remains to be seen how monsoon season will impact erosion in the burn scar. Its in pretty good shape now, but some areas of the road have been damaged, and its entirely possible that others will become washed out over the summer.

McGrath is hopeful that the Inner Basin will be open in time for fall, when the incredibly synchronized ripening of aspen leaves washes the basin in falling gold. But even he recognizes this may be overly optimistic.

We're hopeful, but hope [is not] a plan, he added.

Sean Golightly can be reached at sgolightly@azdailysun.com

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Nike (NKE.N) is making a full exit from Russia three months after suspending its operations there, the U.S. sportswear maker told Reuters on Thursday, as the pace of Western companies leaving the country accelerates.

Nike said on March 3 it would temporarily suspend operations at all its Nike-owned and -operated stores in Russia in response to Moscow's actions in Ukraine, adding that those still open were operated by independent partners.

On Thursday, it joined other major Western brands, like McDonald's and Renault, in confirming it will leave the country completely.

"Nike has made the decision to leave the Russian marketplace. Our priority is to ensure we are fully supporting our employees while we responsibly scale down our operations over the coming months," Nike said in an emailed statement.

Foreign companies seeking to exit Russia over the war in Ukraine face the prospect of new laws being passed in the coming weeks allowing Moscow to seize assets and impose criminal penalties. That has encouraged some businesses to accelerate their departure.

"What was a trickle is becoming a torrent (of Western companies exiting Russia)", said Paul Musgrave, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts.

Other sportswear makers have also been pulling back.
MUMBAI: While the main opposition party BJP is in the wait and watch mode, all eyes are now on Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray to see how will he tackle the leadership crisis within his party and save the MVA coalition government. As the rebels led by Eknath Shinde, who calls himself a true Shiv Sainik and Bala Saheb Bhakt, have gained more strength, the Shiv Sena has also thrown indications that Uddhav may quit as CM and the party is ready to sit in the opposition.

Shiv Sena president, who has recently vacated his official bungalow and moved to his family residence Matooshri amid the political crisis, has not resigned yet and is relying on his crisis managers who are holding back-channel negotiations to bring back the dissident party MLAs.

In a direct and emotional appeal to his dissident MLAs, Sena chief has asked them to come and meet him ''face-to-face'' and discuss his governments shortcomings and all issues ailing them. Thackeray even said that his "resignation letter is ready" and that "if Sena MLAs say it to me, I will quit."

Being power-hungry, he said, is not in his DNA. "I am the son of Bala Saheb," he reminded his party, underscoring the fact that his father abstained from taking any post in multiple governments that included his party.

Amid the leadership crisis in the party, the Congress and Sharad Pawar's party - the alliance partners of Shiv Sena in Maharashtra - have said that they are with Thackeray. "We will fight together. The MVA will stay together," senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar too has extended his unconditional support to Shiv Sena chief, who has called a key meeting of all party MLAs to decide on the next course of action. As the crisis grew deeper in the Shiv Sena, the party sought the disqualification of 12 rebel MLAs, including Eknath Shinde. However, the rebel leader hit back, saying "You cannot scare us."

Thirty-seven MLAs have written to the Governor and Deputy Speaker, naming Eknath Shinde the legislature party leader. The move came shortly after Team Uddav Thackeray filed disqualification applications for 12 rebels with the Deputy Speaker. "Who are you trying to scare? We know your make-up and the law too! According to the 10th Schedule to the Constitution (Schedule) the whip is for assembly work, not for meetings. There are numerous Supreme Court decisions in this regard," tweeted Eknath Shinde.

Shinde, camping in BJP-ruled Assam with rebel MLAs, has demanded that the Sena must break its alliance with the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party, saying the party leaders suffered the most in the last two-and-a-half years of the coalition's rule.

Shinde is appearing to be holding a tight grip on the Shiv Sena, as the strength of MLAs supporting him is expected to cross 50 as more legislators are likely to reach Guwahati on Friday thus further deepening the political crisis in Maharashtra.

It now seems that the legacy of Bal Thackeray, who founded Shiv Sena, has slipped from the hands of Uddhav Thackeray with the rebellion of Eknath Shinde as he claims of being a true Shivsainik, triggering the battle of who holds the true legacy of the late Sena founder.

The political crisis in Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra erupted after party legislators joined a rebellion led by Eknath Shinde who is staying at a hotel in Guwahati. Shinde camp has claimed the support of 46 MLAs, which includes 37 Shiv Sena MLAs and nine independents. The rebel MLAs who are at a hotel in Guwahati since June 20, authorised Shinde on June 23 to decide on a further course of action.

On the other hand, the BJP is waiting for the final outcome of the political fight between the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and dissident Sena MLAs led by rebel party leader Eknath Shinde, which has fast snowballed into a political fight over who will now lead the party.

BJP, which is allegedly being held responsible for the political turmoil within Shiv Sena, has termed the political crisis as the latter`s "internal party affairs". Speaking on the political slugfest within the Shiv Sena, the saffron party says that sooner or later such a crisis was bound to happen within the Shiv Sena, which compromised Hindutva for staying in power in Maharashtra.

From the beginning, the BJP has called the MVA government as an "unholy alliance", while saying that the people of Maharashtra had given the mandate to the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance government, but Uddhav Thackeray betrayed the BJP to become the Chief Minister and instead formed an alliance with the Congress and the NCP.

Meanwhile, the BJP, which was deceived by NCP chief`s nephew Ajit Pawar earlier in 2020, is trying to make political moves cautiously this time and is waiting for the final outcome of the ongoing fight within the Shiv Sena.

The BJP is also awaiting the final decision of Uddhav Thackeray over Eknath Shinde`s offer wherein the latter had advised the Maharashtra Chief Minister to break alliance with the NCP and Congress and again form the government with the BJP.

Several BJP leaders believe that if both the MVA government and the Shiv Sena collapse and if there is no other way to save them, then Uddhav Thackeray might again join hands with the old ally BJP.
Guwahati: Rebel leader Eknath Shinde hit back at the Shiv Sena after the party on Thursday wrote to the Maharashtra Assembly deputy speaker seeking the disqualification of 12 rebel MLAs over rebellion which has created political uncertainty in the state.

Taking to Twitter, Shinde wrote, "You cannot scare us by giving the names of 12 MLAs for disqualification because we are followers of the Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray. We know the law, so we do not pay heed to threats."

12          .            .  Eknath Shinde -   (@mieknathshinde) June 23, 2022

"We know your ways and the law too! According to Schedule 10 of the Constitution, the whip is used for assembly work, not for meetings," he further said in a tweet.

The Shiv Sena faction led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has filed a petition before the Deputy Speaker of the state assembly seeking the cancellation of membership of 12 rebel MLAs including Eknath Shinde for "not attending" legislative party meeting held on Wednesday.

Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant said that a notice had been issued before the meeting which said that if an MLA does not attend the meeting, legal action will be taken. "We`ve filed a petition before the Deputy Speaker (of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly) and demanded that the membership of 12 (MLAs) should be cancelled as they didn`t attend yesterday`s meeting," Sawant said.

"Before the meeting notice was issued in which it was said that if you didn`t attend the meeting then legal action will be taken as per the constitution. Some didn`t come and some gave unnecessary reasons," he added.

Apart from Shinde, Shiv Sena has sought disqualification of Prakash Surve, Tanaji Sawant, Mahesh Shinde, Abdul Sattar, Sandeep Bhumare, Bharat Gogawale, Sanjay Shirsat, Yamini Yadhav, Anil Babar, Balaji Devdas, and Lata Chaudhari.

The petition has been filed by Ajay Choudhari, who was appointed "legislative party leader" after Shinde was "removed" from the post by the Shiv Sena. Shiv Sena`s Chief Whip, Sunil Prabhu had issued a letter to party MLAs, asking them to be present in the meeting.

The letter stated that if someone remains absent, it will be considered that the said MLA has decided to quit the party voluntarily. The letter also warned that if any MLA remains absent from the meeting without proper reason and prior information, they should keep in mind that action will be initiated to cancel their membership as per constitutional provisions.

However, the Shinde camp has written to Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari stating that Shinde continues to be the legislative party leader. Shinde camp has claimed the support of 46 MLAs, which includes 37 Shiv Sena MLAs and nine independents.

The rebel MLAs are at a hotel in Guwahati and held a meeting on Thursday authorizing Shinde to decide on the further course of action. The resolution, adopted on Tuesday by rebel MLAs, said that Shinde was unanimously elected as leader of the Shiv Sena Legislature Party in 2019 and continues to be the leader of the legislative party.

Amid the continuing turf war within Shiv Sena, the Shinde faction also said that Bharat Gogawale has been appointed as Chief Whip of the party. The three legislators who arrived in Guwahati on Thursday include Agriculture Minister Dada Bhuse, MLA Sanjay Rathore and MLC Ravindra Phatak.Phatak is believed to be a close associate of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray who had sent him as an emissary to Surat where the rebel MLAs were lodged.
New Delhi: Benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty rose by nearly 1 per cent on Friday, extending gains for a second day on the back of buying in banking, financials and energy stocks in line with firm global trends. The 30-share BSE Sensex advanced further by 462.26 points or 0.88 per cent to settle at 52,727.98. During the day, it rallied 644.15 points or 1.23 per cent to 52,909.87. The Nifty gained 142.60 points or 0.92 per cent to settle at 15,699.25. Sensex and Nifty had recovered nearly 1 per cent Thursday.

From the Sensex pack, M&M, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finance, Hindustan Unilever, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries and Tata Steel were the major gainers.

On the other hand, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, HCL Technologies, TCS, Wipro and Sun Pharma were the laggards. (ALSO READ: Chaliye khatam karte hai! YouTube India's resignation letter sparks meme fest on Internet)

Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong and Shanghai ended with sharp gains. (ALSO READ: Priyanka Chopra launches her own houseware brand Sona Home)

European markets were also trading in the green in mid-session deals.

The US markets had ended with gains on Thursday.

"Mirroring a firm trend in the global market and in response to declining commodity prices, the domestic market maintained its positive trend. The up-move was supported by broad-based buying except in IT," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

International oil benchmark Brent crude rose by 1.11 per cent to USD 111.27 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the capital market, as they sold shares worth Rs 2,319.06 crore on Thursday, as per exchange data.
New Delhi: Reserve Bank Deputy Governor Michael D Patra on Friday said the Central Bank will not allow "jerky movements" of Rupee and stressed that the Indian currency has witnessed least depreciation in recent times.

Addressing an interactive session on 'Geo-Political Spillovers and Indian Economy', he attributed the lesser depreciation of Rupee to high foreign exchange reserves of around USD 600 billion.

"We will stand for its stability, and we're doing it on an ongoing basis even as I speak. We are there in the market. We will not allow disorderly movements. We have no level in our mind, but we will not allow jerky movements that is for certain and let it be widely known that we are in the market defending the rupee against volatility," he said during the session organised by industry body PHDCCI.

Patra further said if one looks at the depreciation of Rupee, it is one of the least in the world and that is the power of USD 600 billion dollar reserves.

On Thursday, Rupee had closed at its all-time low of 78.32 against the US dollar. However, in the morning session on Friday it opened 12 paise up at 78.20 against the US dollar.
NEW DELHI: A BJP leader has filed a complaint here against Bollywood film director Ram Gopal Varma for controversial remarks against NDA presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu.

"If DRAUPADI is the PRESIDENT who are the PANDAVAS? And more importantly, who are the KAURAVAS?" Varma tweeted.

If DRAUPADI is the PRESIDENT who are the PANDAVAS ? And more importantly, who are the KAURAVAS?  Ram Gopal Varma (@RGVzoomin) June 22, 2022

Reacting to this, Telangana BJP leader Gudur Narayana Reddy filed a complaint against the director at the Abid Road Police Station, accusing him of disrespecting the SC and ST community.

"This tweet is tantamount to disrespecting the SC and ST people. Here, he calls 'Draupadi' the President. If he would have only mentioned Draupadi, Pandavas and Kauravas, we would have had no objections. We, the BJP workers, are hurt at such comments from RGV," Reddy told ANI.

He requested the police to register a case under the SC/ST Atrocities Act and demanded severe punishment for the director.

BJP-led NDA on Tuesday announced former Governor of Jharkhand Draupadi Murmu's name as a Presidential candidate for the upcoming elections.

Reddy further defended the senior tribal politician and former Governor of Jharkhand, by saying, "She has been nominated by the NDA government, and by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi ji."

Murmu is the first major tribal female Presidential candidate in India's history. Once elected, she will be the first tribal President of India and the second-ever female President. Also, she could become the first President from the state of Odisha.

Expressing his angst over Ram Gopal Varma's statements, the BJP leader added, "Here in this case, the police have promised us that they will take stern action against RGV, and after which, I don't think he will again tweet or make such a nasty statement against anyone."

The BJP leader submitted the tweet along with the complaint, as evidence to the police.

This was said just in an earnest irony and not intended in any other way ..Draupadi in Mahabharata is my faviourate character but Since the name is such a rarity I just remembered the associated characters and hence my expression. Not at all intended to hurt sentiments of anyone https://t.co/q9EZ5TcIIV June 24, 2022

However, Ram Gopal Varma later clarified his intentions over the tweet, claiming that it was made in 'earnest irony' and was 'not at all intended to hurt anyone's sentiments.'

Adding to his previous controversial statement, his tweet read, "This was said just in an earnest irony and not intended in any other way ..Draupadi in Mahabharata is my favourite character but Since the name is such a rarity I just remembered the associated characters and hence my expression. Not at all intended to hurt sentiments of anyone."

Meanwhile, Goshamahal BJP MLA T Raja Singh also expressed his anger at Ram Gopal Varma's comments against the NDA's Presidential nominee, saying that the director posts such tweets in a 'drunken condition'.

"Varma always tries to be in the news by making such controversial comments," he added.

However, this is not the first time Ram Gopal Varma has been a part of controversies on social media.

In April, amidst a Twitter war between Ajay Devgn and Kichcha Sudeep, over Hindi being the national language, director Ram Gopal Varma had jumped into the controversy saying "north stars are insecure and jealous of the south stars."
NEW DELHI: The versatile actor Vikrant Massey has always left his strong presence on the screen with his amazing acting spectacle. While the actor is immensely loved by the audience he is also a blue-eyed guy among the prominent filmmakers of the industry who always looks forward to working with him.

Vikrant is enjoying an exciting time these days as he started shooting for his upcoming project Sector 36 in Delhi and is capturing all the limelight as soon as the trailer of 'Forensic' has been released.

While the audience is excited to see him in this, psychological thriller, the director Vishal Furia was seen expressing his views on working with Vikrant.

He said, "I have worked with Vikrant on two occasions Criminal Justice 1 and Forensic, on both the occasions we extensively have shot together. It has always been lovely working with Vikrant because he is a very honest and sincere actor. He will listen take the brief he will imbibe his characteristics his own additions to the character and make the character his own so as a director that is something I would expect from an actor, to give his input and that is what he does. Also, the best thing about Vikrant is that he comes across as a next-door guy so every character that he plays becomes relatable to the mass audience people feel connected to him like a younger brother or an elder brother. He is very sound technically which shows in his body language when he is in front of a camera. So I have always enjoyed working with him.

The trailer of Vikrant Massey's psychological thriller 'Forensic' has already come up with a storm on the internet. Moreover, the audience is eagerly waiting to see the film which has released today on platform Zee5.

The highly talented and skilled star is all set to be seen in 'Forensic' alongside Radhika Apte and 'Gaslight' with Sara Ali Khan.
NEW DELHI: The first half of 2022 has given us major blockbuster content and some of these were headlined by women of great substance who took over the half-year unlike nobody else. Right from Yami Gautam's 'A Thursday' to Shefali Shah's 'Jalsa' and Alia Bhatt in 'Gangubai Kathiawadi', these strong female-centric roles have played a crucial part in the kick-starting 2022 for hardcore cinema fans.

Here is a report card of strong female-centric roles which took over our first half:

Yami Gautam in 'A Thursday'

A Yami Gautam starrer revived the narrative of a thriller in Bollywood today. Her portrayal of Naina reflected the trauma of every single woman who has been mistreated by society. It is one of the spectacular and gripping thrillers which will keep you glued to the seats till the end. A Thursday is a much-needed masterpiece with a strong social message regarding crimes that are still prevalent in Indian society.

Alia Bhatt in 'Gangubai Kathiawadi'

It's a story of a girl who has been pushed into the prostitution business but how she takes over the business and establishes an empire of her own is a reason why viewers are glued to the film till the end. With profound dialogue delivery, soulful expressions, and in between the roguish behaviors, Alia Bhatt has managed to shine in the white saree as nobody could do.

Pallavi Joshi in 'The Kashmir Files'

While 'The Kashmir Files' has the brutal truth out in front of Indians, Pallavi Joshi played a major role in setting that narrative by depicting the role of Professor Radhika Menon. The film is an absolutely heart-wrenching silhouette of everything that went wrong in Kashmir back in the day and Pallavi along with other actors deserve credit to highlight a subject as sensitive as Kashmir.

Shefali Shah in 'Jalsa'

Packed with incredible performances by Vidya Balan and Shefali Shah, 'Jalsa' leaves the viewers satisfied. Jalsa has a very captivating storyline of two women in their 40s both, brave and vulnerable despite all odds stacked against them. Shefali Shah as Ruksana seamlessly fits into her character as the beloved housemaid that tends to everyone like her own family. The actress dishes out a sublime performance with minimal dialogues and letting her eyes speak more than ever.

Vidya Balan in 'Jalsa'

Vidya as Maya adds to life this character with great conviction in 'Jalsa'. As a mother to an autistic son, Vidya's character is a journalist who hits hard when it needs to be.

Live TV
NEW DELHI: Bollywood star Ranbir Kapoor on Friday said the year 2022 is turning out to be a memorable one for him as he tied the knot with Alia Bhatt and now has two back-to-back films lined up for release.

At a press conference here, Kapoor was asked if his two movies "Shamshera" and "Brahmastra: Part One Shiva" are a wedding gift to his fans.

"It is a very big year for me. It is a great year for me, I got married, it is a beautiful thing that has happened in my life," Kapoor told reporters.

The 39-year-old actor then referred to a dialogue from his 2013 "Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani".

"I used to say, in my films, that shaadi (marriage) is like dal chawal for pachaas saal (50 years) till you die. Arey life mein thoda bahut kheema pav, tangdi kebab, hakka noodles bhi hona chahiye na.

"But after my experiences in life, I can say dal-chawal is the best. My life with Alia is the best. My life has dal chawal with tadka, pickle and onions, it has everything. So, I couldn't have asked for a better life partner, Kapoor said.

The Bollywood star married Bhatt, 29, in an intimate wedding ceremony in April this year.

The actor said Bhatt has seen the teaser of "Shamshera" but she is yet to watch the trailer of the movie, as she is in London.

Bhatt is currently shooting for her Hollywood debut film "Heart of Stone", which features Gal Gadot. The spy film is directed by Tom Harper.

Kapoor, whose last release was 2018's "Sanju", assured fans that he will be seen in more films now.

"I have to do a lot of work now, first I was working for myself, now I want to make my family and work for my family," the actor said.

Also starring Sanjay Dutt and Vaani Kapoor, "Shamshera" is directed by Karan Malhotra and backed by Yash Raj Films.

The movie is set to hit the theatres in IMAX on July 22 in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.
Los Angeles: American rapper Lil TJay was one of two people shot in New Jersey early Wednesday morning, just weeks after declaring it was going to be 'a good summer'. According to mypost.com, the Bronx-born rapper was struck multiple times at The Promenade in Edgewater. The Bergen County Prosecutor`s Office said cops responded to reports of shots fired at the location just after midnight.

When they arrived, they discovered 21-year-old Lil TJay, whose real name is Tione Marriot, with multiple gunshot wounds. Antoine Boyd, 22, was also found with a single gunshot wound, officials said. Both were transported to an area hospital for treatment.

Officials did not release their conditions, however tmz.com reported that Lil TJay underwent emergency surgery. Officials said the shooting happened after Mohamed Konate tried to rob Lil TJay, Boyd and a third person the rapper was with, 24-year-old Jeffrey Valdez. Both Valdez and Boyd each had an unlawful weapon on them at the time.

Konate was arrested later on Wednesday by detectives from the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office and the New York Police Department. His extradition to New Jersey is currently pending, officials said, reports nypost.com. He's charged with three counts of attempted murder, three counts of armed robbery, two counts of possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and fourth-degree aggravated assault.

Boyd and Valdez were both charged with unlawful possession of a weapon and were being held at the Bergen County Jail in Hackensack awaiting an initial hearing. Lil Tjay is a Bronx-born rapper with over 7 million followers on Instagram. He rose to fame on Soundcloud and was signed by Columbia Records in 2018. His debut album, 'True 2 Myself' peaked at No. 5 on the US Billboard 200.

In an Instagram post just two weeks before he was shot, the rapper posted a video of himself dancing shirtless with a big chain with the caption "dis gon be a good summer." Fellow artistes and athletes offered their prayers for the wounded rapper. "Pray for my lil bro lil Tjay," tweeted hip-hop star French Montana.

Live TV
The British government has signed an order seeking the extradition of Julian Assange  an Australian activist and WikiLeaks founder who exposed war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan  to the United States. Despite opposing the pursuit of Assange, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese rejected calls on Monday for him to publicly intervene on behalf of Assange. Although Assange will appeal against Friday's order, he is most likely to be sent back to the US, where, if convicted, he faces up to 175 years in jail.

Indeed, if exposing the government's war crimes is a crime, Assange deserves Washington's hot pursuit and a life-long sentence. But isn't the US the country where speech freedom is etched in the First Amendment and taunted like nowhere else? "The free press is not the enemy of the people" as President Joe Biden said, but obviously it is the enemy of the US government. Why else would it go after one who has dedicated his life to exposing to the world the truth about US atrocities?

All this makes US criticism of other countries on the pretext of press freedom look so ridiculous. People are asking how the US can slam others using the press freedom baton while it itself persecutes one who discloses a truth that it finds unpalatable. Since when has the US begun to stoop so low?

Sooner or later, people around the world will see through the US' subterfuge of manufacturing and twisting freedom and human rights narratives to suit its own political purposes. The US' pursuit of Assange only hastens this process. The case is the greatest proof of how its talk of freedom and democracy are mere tools to sustain and consolidate its rule.

It's time Washington stopped saying one thing and doing another. Because more and more people will soon see it for what it is  a No.1 hypocrite that is accustomed to bullying any country, any person, anything that gets in its way for far too long.
New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) provides the voters an online and seamless facility to check their name in the voters list. Details such as first name, last name, assembly constituency, gender, etc. are required to perform the search. Alternatively, you can also use your EPIC number to perform the search.

Election Commission of India updates its voter's list on a regular basis. On several occassions people change their address, move to other constituencies, due to which the ECI has to keep updating the voters list periodically. Hence, if you are an aware voters, you might want to check your name on the ECI website at occassional intervals.

Here is how to check your name in updated voter list of the Election Commission of India



- Visit the official website of the National Voters Service Portal (https://www.nvsp.in/).



- There are two options available on the website: (a) Search by Details and (b) Search by EPIC No.

- If you want to search by EPIC number, you will be required to fill in your EPIC No, State and Code. After which you will have to punch the captcha code and then you can find your name.

- If you want to Search by Details, you will have to fill up a simple form that includes your personal details and the area of your polling

- Personal details include your Name, your father's/husband's name, your Date of birth and your gender. Polling details include your state, district and your Assembly Constituency. After filling all the details, you will have to punch the captcha code and then you can find your name.



You can also avail the following features using Election Commission web-site



Search your name in National Electoral Roll by entering basic details.

Locate polling station on map.

Print voter information slip.

Apply for Enrolment, Modification, Deletion and change of address in electoral roll

Know Booth Level Officer(BLO), Electoral Roll Officer(ERO)

Know District Election Officials and officials in Chief Election Office
New Delhi: Lately there has been a lot of buzz around the new Wage Code. Media reports are widely speculating that the Modi government may implement four labour codes on wages, social security, industrial relations and occupation safety, health and working conditions from July 1. If these labour codes are implemented, the new wage code will impact employees' working hours, salary restructuring, PF contribution, gratuity aspect and encashing of Earned Leaves among the prominent ones. These are however only early speculations, hence nothing concreted should be infered till the government officially notifies the rules.

1. New wage code to impact your salary. Your in-hand salary will be reduced after implementation of Wage Code

The government's notification on Code on Wages 2019 may reduce the take-home pay while components like PF and Gratuity might rise. This is based on the grounds that the new wage code mentions provision entailing that the employee's basic salary will be at least 50 percent of his/her net monthly CTC.

2. New wage code to impact your allowance component that is a part of your salary

Also, if the above provision comes into effect, it will mean that employees will not be able to get more than 50 percent of his/her net monthly salary in form of allowance.

3. New wage code to impact your provident fund, though positively. After implementation of new Wage Code, your PF will be higher

This also means that there will be a consequent rise in gratuity and PF contribution of the employee. Hence, while the take home pay of the employees may be reduced, the Gratuity and PF component may rise.

4. New wage code could bring about a longer working hour, though your week off will be more than 2 in that case. 12 hours work-week could be the new factor

Experts also believe that the new draft will impact the working hours of employees with some media reports saying that employees may be allowed a four-day workweek but they will have to work for 12 hours on those four days. The labour ministry has apparently made it clear that 48-hour weekly work requirement is a must.

5. After the implementation of new wage code, there could be big changes in Earned Leave policy

The biggest change could be seen in cases of Earned Leave. Government departments now allows 30 holidays in 1 year, defense employees get 60 holidays in 1 year. Employees can cash up to 300 holidays on carry forward, however the Labor union is demanding to increase number of holidays to 450 in new code. At present there are 240 to 300 holidays in different departments. Employees can take these holidays in cash only after 20 years of service.

23 states pre-published draft rules on New Wage Code

Till now, 23 states have pre-published draft rules on these laws, while the Centre has completed the process of finalising the draft rules on these codes in February 2021. The central government had notified four labour codes, namely, the Code on Wages, 2019, on August 8, 2019, and the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, the Code on Social Security, 2020, and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 on September 29, 2020.

Since labour is a concurrent subject, the Centre wants the states to implement these as well in one go, as has been reported earlier.
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. (Also read: Google Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro features listed on ecommerce website: Details here)

Check out the Garena Free Fire Redeem Codes for June 24, 2022

FFIC33NTEUKA

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(Also read: Shocking! Ex-Amazon Web Services engineer hacked data of 10 crore customers)

How to Redeem Garena Free Fire codes for today, 24 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: Meta-owned Instagram on Thursday said it is testing new options for people to verify their age by uploading an ID like driver's license or ID card, along with other methods in a bid to provide age-appropriate experiences on the platform.

Starting with the US, if someone attempts to edit their date of birth on Instagram from under the age of 18 to 18 or over, Instagram will require them to verify their age.

They can verify their age by uploading their ID, record a video selfie or ask mutual friends to verify the age. The person vouching must be at least 18 years old and must not be vouching for anyone else at that time.

"We're testing this so we can make sure teens and adults are in the right experience for their age group. We are also partnering with Yoti, a company that specializes in online age verification, to help ensure people's privacy," the company said in a statement.

"Your ID will be stored securely on our servers and is deleted within 30 days," it added.

The users can choose to upload a video selfie to verify their age.

"After you take a video selfie, we share the image with Yoti, and nothing else. The technology cannot recognize your identity - just your age," informed the company.

In 2019, Instagram first began asking people to provide their age when signing up.

"We require people to be at least 13 years old to sign up for Instagram. In some countries, our minimum age is higher," said Instagram.

For teenagers (age 13-17), Instagram provides them with age-appropriate experiences like defaulting them into private accounts, preventing unwanted contact from adults they don't know and limiting the options advertisers have to reach them with ads.

"If you choose to upload a video selfie to verify your age, Meta and Yoti delete it once your age is confirmed. Your video is not used for anything else other than to verify your age. If you choose to upload an ID, after you send us a copy of your ID, it'll be encrypted and stored securely," said Instagram.
Washington: Millions of women in the US are expected to lose the legal right to abortion as the country`s Supreme Court overturned a 50-year-old ruling that legalised it nationwide. The court struck down the landmark Roe vs Wade decision. The judgement will transform abortion rights in the US, with individual states now having the power to ban the procedure. Half of the US states are expected to introduce new restrictions or bans. Thirteen have already passed so-called trigger laws that will automatically outlaw abortion following the Supreme Court`s ruling. A number of others are likely to pass new restrictions quickly.

In total, abortion access is expected to be cut off for about 36 million women of reproductive age, according to research from Planned Parenthood, a healthcare organisation that provides abortions, reported IANS.

What is the Roe V Wade case?

Norma Leah Nelson McCorvey, also known by the pseudonym "Jane Roe", was the plaintiff in the landmark American legal case Roe v. Wade. Wade was Henry Wade, the defendant who was the Dallas County (Texas) district attorney at the time. In that historic judgement, 'Roe struck down laws which made abortion illegal in several states of the United States. The ruling said that abortion would be allowed till there is foetal viability. Foetal viability means the time after which a foetus can survive outside a woman's womb. At the time of the judgement, foetal viability was around 28 weeks (7 months). Almost 50 years later, thanks to advanced medical science, 23-24 weeks are considered to be the viability

The current judgement:

It puts the court at odds with a majority of Americans who favoured preserving Roe, according to opinion polls. Justice Samuel Alito, in the final opinion issued on Friday, wrote that Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 decision that reaffirmed the right to abortion, were wrong the day they were decided and must be overturned. "We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision," Alito wrote. Authority to regulate abortion rests with the political branches, not the courts, Alito wrote. The decision, unthinkable just a few years ago, was the culmination of decades of efforts by abortion opponents, made possible by an emboldened right side of the court that has been fortified by three appointees of former President Donald Trump, reported the Associated Press.

(With Agency inputs)
Mexico: At least 12 people were killed in a confrontation between police and armed civilians in the town of El Salto, in west Mexico`s Jalisco state, state governor Enrique Alfaro confirmed Thursday. Four police officers were among the fatal victims, Alfaro said via Twitter. "El Salto police and state police shot down eight criminals yesterday and left three seriously injured, after responding to a report of a safe house where there were hidden weapons," Alfaro said. "Unfortunately, 4 police officers from the town of El Salto were killed in the line of duty," the governor added.

Also Read: Jammu and Kashmir: 4 terrorists killed in twin encounters, gunfight underway

In March, the Ministry of National Defense (Sedena) deployed a group of soldiers to violence-ridden Jalisco as part of the Mexico Joint Task Force program to strengthen surveillance of criminal activity in the state in the wake of a wave of killings.

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel emerged in 2010 as a cell of the Sinaloa Cartel and now has a presence in at least seven Mexican states, as well as Mexico City.

Also Read- Kabul gurdwara attack: Sikh bodies seek UN intervention for safety of minorities in Afghanistan
WASHINGTON: US has authorized another drawdown of arms and equipment from US Department of Defense inventories for Ukraine`s defense, State Department said in a press release. "Pursuant to a delegation of authority from the President, I am authorizing our thirteenth drawdown of arms and equipment from U.S.Department of Defense inventories for Ukraine`s defense since August 2021, of up to $450 million," the statement read.

This authorization will bring total US security assistance to Ukraine to more than USD 6.1 billion since Russia launched its "brutal, unprovoked, full-scale invasion" of Ukraine on February 24. Blinken said that the steady flow of US security assistance, and that from the coalition of more than 40 Allies and partners, continues to bolster Ukraine`s defenses, improve its ability to defend its sovereign territory, and secure hard-fought victories on the battlefield.

We have imposed swift and severe sanctions on Russia`s economy and the elite of President Putin`s regime.

We have enhanced NATO`s ability to deter and defend against any aggression by Russia on its Eastern Flank. And we will continue to deliver crucial military capabilities to Ukraine`s brave defenders," he stated in the official statement.

US reiterated its support for Ukraine. "Ukraine is standing strong. We continue to stand united with Ukraine," Blinken stated. Earlier, condemning Russia`s "premeditated, unprovoked, unjustified, and brutal war" on Ukraine, Blinken had said that the US will continue to provide Ukraine with the arms to defend itself.

ALSO READ:http://Russia-Ukraine war: Zelenskiy calls for heavy arms, EU membership as Russian military pounds cities

These efforts, combined with direct US humanitarian and financial support to Ukraine, support documenting evidence of Russia`s war crimes against Ukraine`s civilians, and continued efforts to ratchet up pressure on Putin`s crumbling economy together will help weaken the Russian Government`s position and further isolate them from the world until Russia ends its unprovoked and unjustified war on Ukraine," he had said.

Blinken had also reiterated the US support of Ukraine`s defence of its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

This is a tragic and catastrophic war of choice entirely of Russia`s making, and the United States, its allies, and partners will stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine in their just cause the defence of their country and their democracy.

Together, we continue to support Ukraine`s defence of its sovereignty and territorial integrity and to strengthen Ukraine`s position on the battlefield and at the negotiating table," he had stated.

Notably, Russia launched a "special military operation" in Ukraine on February 24, which the West has termed an unprovoked war. As a result of this, the Western countries have also imposed several crippling sanctions on Moscow.
KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelensky has declared the EUs move to accept Ukraine as a candidate for accession as a victory and promised not to rest until Russia`s defeat and full membership had been secured. "This is a victory," a smiling Zelenskiy said in a brief video posted to his Instagram channel, noting Ukraine had waited 30 years for this moment.

European Union leaders formally accepted Ukraine as a candidate to join the 27-nation bloc, a bold geopolitical move hailed by Ukraine and the EU itself as an historic moment.

"We can defeat the enemy, rebuild Ukraine, join the EU, and then we can rest," he said in a low voice. "Or perhaps we won`t rest at all - our children would take offence. But without any doubt, we will win."

Andriy Yermak, Zelenskiy`s chief of staff, said Kyiv would quickly implement the plan needed for accession talks to begin.

"Ukraine will be in the EU," he tweeted.

European Union leaders on Thursday granted Ukraine the coveted status of an official candidate to join their 27-nation club, a bold geopolitical step hailed by Kyiv and the EU itself as a "historic moment".

Although it could take Ukraine more than a decade to eventually join the bloc, the decision to officially accept it as a candidate is a symbol of the EU`s intention to reach deep into the former Soviet Union.

"The Ukrainian people belong to the European family. Ukraine`s future is with the EU," the bloc`s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said. "Today marks the beginning of a long journey that we will walk together."

Russia`s invasion of Ukraine prompted Kyiv to formally apply for candidate status, and the EU to fast-track its approval.

"Ukraine`s future is in the EU," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy tweeted, welcoming the EU`s decision as "a unique and historic moment".

Six years to the day after Britons voted to leave the EU, Ukraine`s neighbour Moldova was also granted candidate status and Georgia, another ex-Soviet state, was told it would get the same once it has fulfilled more conditions.

EU leaders stressed these countries will have much "homework" to do, and after kick-starting its most ambitious expansion since Eastern European states joined after the Cold War, the bloc may need to change how it works in order to cope.

"I am convinced that they (Ukraine and Moldova) will move as swiftly as possible and work as hard as possible to implement the necessary reforms," EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told a news conference.

"SIGNAL TO MOSCOW"

The EU`s green light "is a signal to Moscow that Ukraine, and also other countries from the former Soviet Union, cannot belong to the Russian spheres of influence," Ukraine`s EU ambassador, Chentsov Vsevolod, said on Thursday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says his "special military operation" launched in Ukraine in late February was partly necessitated by Western encroachment into what Russia characterises as its rightful geographical sphere of influence.

Behind the triumphant rhetoric on granting Ukraine and Moldova candidate status, there is concern within the EU about how the bloc can remain coherent as it continues to enlarge. After starting in 1951 as an organisation of six countries to regulate industrial production, the EU now has 27 members that face complex challenges, from climate change and the rise of China to a war on their own doorstep.

(With Reuters Inputs)
The 14th BRICS Summit is being held in virtual format in Beijing, China. Under turbulent international situations, the question of whether BRICS should indeed play a significant role in international security remains open. Numerous skeptics believe that security issues should remain outside of the BRICS mandate because BRICS has little to contribute here if compared to institutions specifically created to handle security challenges.

Their arguments can be concluded as the three following aspects. Firstly, security has always been closely linked to geography. Secondly, security cooperation tends to presuppose common values and coinciding views on the international system. Thirdly, effective security cooperation is possible if the institution in question has a clear and specific security-related mandate.

These arguments cannot be dismissed as irrelevant. But it is also hard to unconditionally accept them since they reflect traditional views on security which no longer fully reflect the realities of the 21st century. Meanwhile, these realities allow us to assess the capabilities of BRICS in the security domain a little more optimistically, even if the capabilities of BRICS have not yet been fully used.

Let's start with geography. In general, security problems affect countries geographically close to each other. Conflicts and wars, as well as alliances and unions, arise mainly between neighbors. But in today's world, there are many dimensions of security that are not so rigidly tied to geography.

Problems such as cyber security, international terrorism, climate change and the threat of pandemics do not have a specific geographical preference; they are global in nature. Within BRICS, they already actively discuss "non-geographical" issues of international security: non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the use of atomic energy and space for peaceful purposes, international information security and potential threats associated with new technologies.

On the other hand, the regionalization (fragmentation) of the global political and economic systems taking place today contains challenges to international security. If the world breaks apart into a number of blocs, such development can result not only in economic competition between them, but ultimately in a military confrontation.

Therefore, BRICS, figuratively speaking, can help to "sew" the fabric of global security that is being fragmented in front of our eyes. Interaction within the framework of BRICS can become one of the factors hindering the formation of a bipolar system of world politics.

What about values? Tasks related to international security are not always solved on the basis of a unity of values. Very often, the task is precisely to find a balance of interests between countries whose values differ significantly.

In a sense, we can say that the composition of the UN Security Council reflects the significant pluralism of values that exists in the modern world. The notion that humanity was rapidly moving towards the universalization of Western liberal values two or three decades ago has not been confirmed by the course of history.

There is every reason to assume that the pluralism of values in the world will only increase over time. Security will have to be negotiated not on the basis of common values but on the basis of converging interests.

BRICS, like the UN Security Council, has members with different sets of values. It is a small but very representative organization  especially if we take into account not only the BRICS members but also those countries that are somehow involved in the organization's project activities (BRICS+). Therefore, if something can be agreed upon within the framework of BRICS, then it can be agreed on in a broader format, up to the level of global agreements.

Thus, BRICS can be perceived as a laboratory for working out those solutions in the field of security that are likely to be acceptable to very different participants. In addition, each of the BRICS countries is able to pull its many partners and allies along with it.

Finally, let us turn to the issue of the BRICS mandate. International organizations, among other classifications, can be divided into specialized and universal ones. For the latter, a vague mandate is not necessarily a bad thing, especially if such a vague mandate combines security and development concerns.

In today's world, these problems cannot be separated from each other. Without security, it is impossible to count on progressive development, but without successful development there will be no sustainable security. Unfortunately, security issues are still very often separated from development issues, and these two areas are dealt with by different institutions and different groups of officials and experts.

However, the logic of development and the logic of security do not diverge from each other any longer. If BRICS succeeds in trying to reconcile these two logics, it will benefit everyone. In particular, such a project format of work may be in demand in the UN system where specialized organizations often do not interact enough with each other.

Therefore, it's necessary to maximize the comparative advantages of existing formats of multilateral cooperation like BRICS which bring their own specific features to the table. In the field of security, BRICS could well become a testing ground for developing multilateral approaches to new challenges and threats of the 21st century.

The author Andrey Kortunov is director general of the Russian International Affairs Council. (Source: CGTN)
Shirley Lang has been praying for the past 50 years that she would live long enough to see this day.

There was never a doubt in her heart that Roe v. Wade  the landmark Supreme Court case that enshrined a woman's constitutional right to an abortion in 1973  would eventually be overturned, as happened on Friday.

The question was when?

"I didn't think it would take this long," the 88-year-old Lincoln woman said. "There have been people praying all over America to undo this because it is wrong."

Friday felt like a day forcommemoration, longtime anti-abortion activists say: For the nearly 50 years of prayer and hard work, but also for those affected by abortion in the years since.

Lang remembers being at the first Walk for Life outside the state Capitol in 1974, the beginning of a lifelong passion to end abortion. She remembers distinctly the words one state senator left the demonstrators with on the Capitol steps.

"He said 'You are on the right side, but you're going to have to work at this for years,'" she said.

Lang took the words to heart and eventually co-founded Lincoln Right to Life.

"I felt like I had to do something about it," she said.

Sandy Danek became involved in the fight in 1989, volunteering with Nebraska Right to Life. As a mother who'd experienced the pain of miscarriage, the battle was a personal one.

"That experience caused me to want to work for the benefit of the child in the womb," she said.

Like Lang, she believed this day would come because Roe "isn't good law" and the fact that prenatal technology  like ultrasounds  has improved in the years since.

Danek eventually served as president of the Nebraska Right to Life board and now serves as executive director, a position she assumed when longtime head Julie Schmidt-Albin died of cancer in 2020.

There's a certain poignancy that Schmidt-Albin is not here to see this day, those who knew her say, considering the profound influence she had on the anti-abortion movement across the state.

"It strikes an emotional chord with me," Danek said. "When she died, many said  and I believe it  that the pro-life structure in the state is due to in part what Julie did in the 32 years she was director. She was brilliant, but steady and strong."

Lisa McInerney leads Lincoln's chapter of Sidewalk Advocates for Life, a group of volunteers who gather outside Planned Parenthood near 48th and Old Cheney Road.

There are anywhere from two to four people on the sidewalk during Planned Parenthood's operating hours on Tuesdays  the day on which abortions are typically performed, McInerney says.

People often come to pray but there are also trained volunteers who approach people driving up to the building to offer resources or to point them to one of Lincoln's three pregnancy care centers  including one right across the street  that offer free ultrasounds and supplies.

Volunteers who support abortion rights are also present, escorting women into the building.

Friday's decision doesn't immediately impact the availability of abortion in Nebraska, but Gov. Pete Ricketts is expected to convene the Legislature for a special session to ban it.

If that happens, McInerney said the focus of the sidewalk advocates will center on consulting women who have been referred by Planned Parenthood to other states where it is legal.

Lincoln's Sidewalk Advocates chapter has only been around for a few years, but anti-abortion activists have gathered and prayed outside Planned Parenthood for much longer.

For years, activists met outside its former location at 37th and South streets, and the Lincoln Right to Life operated a location in a house just to the south of it.

When Planned Parenthood moved further south near 48th and Old Cheney, Lincoln Right to Life followed, moving into a location near where the Women's Care Center, which offers ultrasounds and pregnancy counseling, is now.

Friday's decision feels like an answer to the prayers of those people who have stood outside Planned Parenthood for years, McInerney said.

"We've prayed and hoped for it for a long time," she said.

Julia Lostroh went to her first Walk for Life in 1981 and has been active in the anti-abortion fight ever since.

Friday's decision doesn't mean the fight is over, she said, since many states will still have legal abortion  as they did before Roe made it federally legal. While it's a day of joy, for Lostroh and others, there is a sense of remembrance attached to the news.

"It's not a celebration type of a thing because this is so sad that we've lived with it for 50 years," said Lostroh, a former lobbyist and now PAC chairman for Nebraska Right to Life. "I think it will be a commemoration and a new start for us as far as being able to (implement) some meaningful protections for life."

Marion Miner, the director of pro-life and family policy for the Nebraska Catholic Conference, called the Supreme Court's 6-3 decision in a Mississippi abortion case that led to the overturning of Roe "surreal" and "a real victory for human rights and the fulfillment of many hopes and prayers."

He understands, however, that emotions are going to be high on either side of the abortion divide.

"I think it's incumbent on us to recall that in the midst of our rejoicing and our resolve to act ... those people who are likely to be in shock or unsure of the future," he said. "The church is with those who are suffering, with those who are confused, with those who are alone, and people should know that."

Bishop James Conley of the Diocese of Lincoln said on Twitter shortly after Friday's news he thought he would never see Roe overturned during his lifetime, but always believed the day would come.

"Our Lord has given us a great gift from the love of his most sacred heart," Conley wrote. "We now have to reach out to women and families who find themselves in difficult situations and love them with the heart of Jesus."

In the weeks preceding the decision, which came months after a leaked draft of the court's majority opinion, Catholic churches in Lincoln warned parishioners to be vigilant for possible attacks when the ruling was handed down.

Danek voiced similar concerns, but also said there will be people who will want to "celebrate in the public square."

"They see this as 50 years of very difficult work and finally the victory has been realized," she said.

A victory Lang waited five decades to see.

"When I stand in front of God on Judgment Day, he'll say what did you do in this country, where you were free to stop this," she said. "And I want to be able to say I tried my best."

Contact the writer at zhammack@journalstar.com or 402-473-7225. On Twitter @HammackLJS

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Shirley Lang has been praying for the past 50 years that she would live long enough to see this day.

There was never a doubt in her heart that Roe v. Wade  the landmark Supreme Court case that enshrined a woman's constitutional right to an abortion in 1973  would eventually be overturned, as happened Friday.

The question was when?

"I didn't think it would take this long," the 88-year-old Lincoln woman said. "There have been people praying all over America to undo this because it is wrong."

Friday felt like a day for commemoration, longtime anti-abortion activists in Lincoln say: For the nearly 50 years of prayer and hard work, but also for those affected by abortion in the years since.

Lang remembers being at the first Walk for Life outside the state Capitol in 1974, the beginning of a lifelong passion to end abortion. She remembers distinctly the words one state senator left the demonstrators with on the Capitol steps.

"He said 'You are on the right side, but you're going to have to work at this for years,'" she said.

Lang took the words to heart and eventually co-founded Lincoln Right to Life.

"I felt like I had to do something about it," she said.

Sandy Danek became involved in the fight in 1989, volunteering with Nebraska Right to Life. As a mother who'd experienced the pain of miscarriage, the battle was a personal one.

"That experience caused me to want to work for the benefit of the child in the womb," she said.

Like Lang, she believed this day would come because Roe "isn't good law," and the fact that prenatal technology  like ultrasounds  has improved in the years since.

Danek eventually served as president of the Nebraska Right to Life board and now serves as executive director, a position she assumed when longtime leader Julie Schmit-Albin died of cancer in 2020.

There's a certain poignancy that Schmit-Albin is not here to see this day, those who knew her say, considering the profound influence she had on the anti-abortion movement across the state.

"It strikes an emotional chord with me," Danek said. "When she died, many said  and I believe it  that the pro-life structure in the state is due to in part what Julie did in the 32 years she was director. She was brilliant, but steady and strong."

Lisa McInerney leads Lincoln's chapter of Sidewalk Advocates for Life, a group of volunteers who gather outside Planned Parenthood near 48th Street and Old Cheney Road.

There are anywhere from two to four people on the sidewalk during Planned Parenthood's operating hours on Tuesdays  the day on which abortions are typically performed, McInerney says.

People often come to pray, but there are also trained volunteers who approach people driving up to the building to offer resources or to point them to one of Lincoln's three pregnancy care centers  including one right across the street  that offer free ultrasounds and supplies.

Volunteers who support abortion rights are also present, escorting women into the building.

Friday's decision doesn't immediately impact the availability of abortion in Nebraska, but Gov. Pete Ricketts is expected to convene the Legislature for a special session to restrict it.

If that happens, McInerney said the focus of the sidewalk advocates will center on informing women who have been referred by Planned Parenthood to other states where it is legal.

Lincoln's Sidewalk Advocates chapter has only been around for a few years, but anti-abortion activists have gathered and prayed outside Planned Parenthood for much longer.

For years, activists met outside its former location at 37th and South streets, and Lincoln Right to Life operated a location in a house just to the south of it.

When Planned Parenthood moved farther south near 48th and Old Cheney, Lincoln Right to Life followed, moving into a location near where the Women's Care Center, which offers ultrasounds and pregnancy counseling, is now.

Friday's decision feels like an answer to the prayers of those people who have stood outside Planned Parenthood for years, McInerney said.

"We've prayed and hoped for it for a long time," she said.

Julia Lostroh went to her first Walk for Life in 1981 and has been active in the anti-abortion fight ever since.

Friday's decision doesn't mean the fight is over, she said, since many states will still have legal abortion  as they did before Roe made it federally legal. While it's a day of joy, for Lostroh and others, there is a sense of remembrance attached to the news.

"It's not a celebration type of a thing because this is so sad that we've lived with it for 50 years," said Lostroh, a former lobbyist and now PAC chairman for Nebraska Right to Life. "I think it will be a commemoration and a new start for us as far as being able to (implement) some meaningful protections for life."

Marion Miner, the director of pro-life and family policy for the Nebraska Catholic Conference, called the Supreme Court's 6-3 decision in a Mississippi abortion case that led to the overturning of Roe "surreal" and "a real victory for human rights and the fulfillment of many hopes and prayers."

He understands, however, that emotions are going to be high on either side of the abortion divide.

"I think it's incumbent on us to recall that in the midst of our rejoicing and our resolve to act ... those people who are likely to be in shock or unsure of the future," he said. "The church is with those who are suffering, with those who are confused, with those who are alone, and people should know that."

Bishop James Conley of the Diocese of Lincoln said on Twitter shortly after Friday's news he thought he would never see Roe overturned during his lifetime, but always believed the day would come.

"Our Lord has given us a great gift from the love of his most sacred heart," Conley wrote. "We now have to reach out to women and families who find themselves in difficult situations and love them with the heart of Jesus."

In the weeks preceding the decision, which came months after a leaked draft of the court's majority opinion, Catholic churches in Lincoln warned parishioners to be vigilant for possible attacks when the ruling was handed down.

Danek voiced similar concerns, but also said there will be people who will want to "celebrate in the public square."

"They see this as 50 years of very difficult work and finally the victory has been realized," she said.

A victory Lang waited five decades to see.

"When I stand in front of God on Judgment Day, he'll say what did you do in this country, where you were free to stop this?" she said. "And I want to be able to say I tried my best."

Contact the writer at zhammack@journalstar.com or 402-473-7225. On Twitter @HammackLJS

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Authorities on Friday arrested a 58-year-old Peru man accused of shooting his neighbor amid a dispute on Saturday, according to the Nebraska State Patrol.

Guadalupe DeLaCruz turned himself into the Nemaha County Sheriff's Office early Friday morning, nearly a week after a shooting in the 1200 block of Sixth Street in Peru, the patrol said in a news release.

Last weekend, DeLaCruz entered 25-year-old Mark Dupre's fenced-in backyard with a handgun as Dupre hosted a pool party with 15 to 20 others, including some children, according to the affidavit for DeLaCruz's arrest.

The 58-year-old told investigators he had gone to his neighbor's house to complain about the noise, but was met with threats from Dupre and a 22-year-old man who was attending the party, according to the affidavit.

DeLaCruz fired his gun at least twice, striking Dupre once, according to the news release. A second shot toward the 22-year-old missed, the State Patrol said.

Party attendees disputed DeLaCruz's account of events, investigators said in court records, saying that Dupre and the 22-year-old hadn't poised a threat to DeLaCruz before the shooting.

Dupre, who was taken to Bryan West Campus in Lincoln with non-life-threatening injuries, has since been released from the hospital.

DeLaCruz was charged in Nemaha County Court with first-degree assault, use of a firearm to commit a felony, attempt of a class 2 felony and possession of a deadly weapon while committing a felony, according to court filings.

He is being held at the Nemaha County jail.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7223 or awegley@journalstar.com. On Twitter @andrewwegley

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Montana attracts hunters from all over the world that apply for licenses to hunt deer and elk. Like many states, Montana limits nonresident opportunities via a lottery system, with 17,000 deer-elk combination licenses and 4,600 deer licenses. Now there are more nonresident hunters applying for tags than there are licenses available.

When it comes to which state produces the most nonresident hunters, none come close to the state of Washington.

The Evergreen State accounts for about 17% of all nonresident hunters awarded Montana deer and elk hunting licenses over the last four years, according to data provided by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks through a public information request. That equates to nearly 17,000 of the more than 101,000 licenses distributed from 2019-2022.

The Montana State News Bureau requested zip codes for all nonresidents who received deer-elk combination, elk-combination and deer-combination licenses awarded through the annual lottery.

On this week's episode, Tom Kuglin of the Montana State News Bureau, discusses what he found from looking into Montana's nonresident hunting data.

This podcast is created in partnership across five newsrooms  the Billings Gazette, the Helena Independent Record, the Missoulian, the Montana Standard and the Ravalli-Republic. You can support this podcast and our efforts by subscribing. Visit any of these newspapers websites, and click on the Become a Member button at the top of the home page. We appreciate your support of local journalism.

Thom Bridge can be reached at thom.bridge@helenair.com

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Several old scams are circulating again in North Dakota and catching some people unaware, according to Attorney General Drew Wrigley.

The Consumer Protection Division of the Attorney Generals Office has seen an increase in reports from victims of imposter scams such as the government official and computer virus warning scams. The victims were directed to withdraw cash from their bank and convert it into Bitcoin or cryptocurrency as part of the scam artists phony investigation. Some scam victims reported losing tens of thousands of dollars, according to Wrigley.

Scam artists are turning to cryptocurrency because it is almost impossible to track the transactions, and the funds are instantly available from anywhere in the world.

These scams continue to be successful because the fraudsters exploit our natural tendency to be cooperative; but if someone claiming to be a government official tells you to withdraw money from your accounts or purchase gift cards in order to avoid immediate arrest, I guarantee it is a scam, Wrigley said. Furthermore, if you are instructed not to tell anyone about a requested transaction, thats another sure sign of a scam.

For scam prevention tips, go to https://bit.ly/39BbasT.

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A 28-year-old man has been charged with starting a fire that authorities say forced the evacuation of a 24-unit apartment building in Bismarck and caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage.

John Fithngan, of Bismarck, is charged with endangering by fire or explosion. Its a felony that carries a possible 10-year prison sentence if hes convicted.

Emergency workers responded to 427 West Century Ave. about 12:30 a.m. Monday. Fire was showing from a second-floor apartment and smoke was coming from a detached garage, according to the Bismarck Fire Department. Firefighters and police had to notify residents and assist them in exiting the building, according to a police affidavit.

Fithngan allegedly admitted to police that he used a lighter to start blankets on fire at two locations in his apartment. He told police he didnt start the garage fire or didnt remember doing it, the affidavit states. The document doesn't outline a possible motive.

Seventeen units in the building were occupied at the time of the fire and all of the occupants were displaced. Firefighters stopped the fire in the unit where it started and put out the garage fire. The apartment fire caused smoke damage throughout the second and third floors of the three-story building, the fire department said.

The property manager estimated the damage amount to be more than $200,000, the police affidavit states.

An attorney isnt listed for Fithngan in court documents. He made his initial court appearance Friday.

Reach Travis Svihovec at 701-250-8260 or Travis.Svihovec@bismarcktribune.com

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A Bismarck man sentenced earlier this week to 30 years in federal prison for numerous child sex crimes is now charged with nine sex offenses at the state level, court records show.

Dawson Rouse, 23, faces possible 20-year sentences on each of five felony sexual assault charges. He is further charged with felony solicitation of a minor and three misdemeanor counts of corruption of a minor, according to court documents.

The state charges stem from an investigation that started in April 2020. Authorities say Rouse, sometimes posing as a minor, arranged to meet girls as young as 13 after friending them on the social media platform Snapchat. Some of the meetings led to sexual encounters in which the girls reported Rouse pulled their hair, scratched them and choked them.

A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced Rouse to 30 years in prison followed by 30 years on supervised release. Rouse in 2020 was indicted under federal jurisdiction, and in 2021 he entered into a plea agreement. He was sentenced on 15 counts of coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in unlawful sexual activity and six counts of receipt of child pornography. Other charges in the 40-count indictment were dismissed.

Rouse faced state charges earlier, but Burleigh County States Attorney Julie Lawyer dismissed them when he was federally indicted. Under federal law, he would not have been able to appear in state court to answer the charges. Lawyer said previously she would refile the state charges after the federal case was finished.

An attorney isnt listed for Rouse for the state charges.

Reach Travis Svihovec at 701-250-8260 or Travis.Svihovec@bismarcktribune.com

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A Tokio man has been sentenced to life in prison for the death of a 5-year-old and the abuse and neglect of other foster children placed in his home.

Erich Longie Jr., 44, in March 2021 pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, child neglect and three counts of child abuse. An autopsy showed the 5-year-old had been beaten multiple times, according to U.S. Attorney Jennifer Klemetsrud Puhl. The childs sibling was hospitalized for more than a month for bruising consistent with abuse and heart failure caused by malnutrition, officials say.

Authorities charged Longie after Bureau of Indian Affairs agents in May 2020 found the 5-year-olds body in the basement of the home of Longie and his wife, Tammy Longie, on the Spirit Lake Reservation. The children were placed in the Longies care by Spirit Lake Tribal Social Services in July 2019.

Two biological children also were abused with objects and hands, Klemetsrud Puhl said.

Tammy Longie, 48, in January pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, child neglect and three counts of child abuse. She will be sentenced Aug. 9.

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A fundraising campaign to help North Dakotas sole abortion clinic move a few miles away to Minnesota has raised more than half a million dollars in less than three days. The Red River Womens Clinic in Fargo will have to shut down in 30 days as part of the states trigger law. The law went into effect Friday when the U.S. Supreme Court removed the constitutional right to abortion. Tammi Kromenaker, owner and operator of the independent clinic, says she has secured a location in neighboring Moorhead but stated earlier that she didnt know how she would fund the move. A GoFundMe page set up Thursday to benefit the transition had raised more than $515,000 from more than 6,000 donors as of late Saturday afternoon.
MINNEAPOLIS  The former Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot an unarmed woman who called 911 to report a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her home is scheduled to be released from a North Dakota prison next week, months after his murder conviction was overturned and he was resentenced on a lesser charge.

Mohamed Noor, 36, is scheduled to be released from custody Monday, according to online Department of Corrections records.

Noor was initially convicted of third-degree murder and manslaughter in the 2017 fatal shooting of Justine Ruszczyk Damond, a 40-year-old dual U.S.-Australian citizen and yoga teacher who was engaged to be married. But last year, the Minnesota Supreme Court tossed out his murder conviction and 12 1/2-year sentence, saying the murder charge didn't apply to the circumstances of this case.

He was resentenced to four years and nine months on the manslaughter charge.

In Minnesota, its presumed that a defendant with good behavior will serve two-thirds of a sentence in prison and the rest on supervised release, commonly known as parole. The DOCs website says Noor will be on supervised release until Jan. 24, 2024.

Damond's father, John Ruszczyk, said Friday that the family was disappointed that Noors third-degree murder conviction was overturned.

His release after a trivial sentence shows great disrespect to the wishes of the jury who represented the communities of Minneapolis and their wish to make a statement about the communities expectations of police behaviour and actions, Ruszczyk wrote in response to emailed questions from The Associated Press.

After his conviction, Noor began serving his time at Minnesota's maximum-security prison in Oak Park Heights, but the Star Tribune reported he was transferred to a facility in North Dakota in July 2019 for his own safety. Department of Corrections spokesman Nicholas Kimball said Noor is still out of state, but did not specify where.

For safety reasons, we arent able to provide more detail than what is available on the public website, which is the scheduled date of release," Kimball said.

It wasn't clear whether Noor would return to Minnesota. His attorney, Tom Plunkett, declined to comment, saying, at this point I just want to respect Mr. Noors privacy.

Damonds killing angered citizens in the U.S. and Australia, and led to the resignation of Minneapolis police chief. It also led the department to change its policy on body cameras; Noor and his partner didnt have theirs activated when they were investigating Damonds 911 call.

Noor testified at his 2019 trial that he and his partner were driving slowly in an alley when a loud bang on their police SUV made him fear for their lives. He said he saw a woman appear at the partners drivers side window and raise her right arm before he fired a shot from the passenger seat to stop what he thought was a threat.

Damond was a meditation teacher and life coach who was killed about a month before her wedding. Her maiden name was Justine Ruszczyk, and though she was not yet married, she had already been using her fiances last name.

Her fiance, Don Damond, declined to comment on Noor's pending release, but said during Noor's resentencing that he had forgiven the former officer, and that he had no doubt Justine also would have forgiven him for your inability in managing your emotions that night.

Noor, who is Somali American, was believed to be the first Minnesota officer convicted of murder for an on-duty shooting. Activists who had long called for officers to be held accountable for the deadly use of force applauded the murder conviction but lamented that it came in a case in which the officer is Black and his victim was white.

Since Noor's conviction, former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, was convicted of murder in the May 2020 killing of George Floyd, a Black man who was pinned to the pavement under Chauvin's knee. Chauvin's colleague, Thomas Lane, pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting manslaughter, while two other officers are awaiting trial on charges of aiding and abetting both murder and manslaughter. All four have been convicted on federal charges of violating Floyd's rights.

In another case, former Brooklyn Center Officer Kim Potter was convicted of manslaughter after she said she mistook her Taser for her handgun when she fatally shot Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black motorist, during a traffic stop last year.

John Ruszczyk said in his email to the AP that his family believes state investigators and the Minneapolis Police Department did not fully cooperate with the investigation into his daughter's killing and he was disturbed by the agency's culture. He said he believes the department accepts using violence as a way to control challenging situations, which he said contributed to her death. He cited a recent report from the state Department of Human Rights which found that the agency has engaged in a pattern of race discrimination for at least a decade, including using force more often on people of color.

The report released Wednesday by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights following a nearly two-year investigation said the agency and the city would negotiate a court-enforceable agreement to address the long list of problems identified in the report, with input from residents, officers, city staff and others.

How could officers go out onto the streets in the roles of defenders of public safety and order with the attitude to their duties and obligations that allows them to shoot first and ask questions later? he wrote.

Days after Noors conviction, Minneapolis agreed to pay $20 million to Damonds family, believed at the time to be the largest settlement stemming from police violence in Minnesota. It was surpassed last year when Minneapolis agreed to a $27 million settlement in Floyds death just as Chauvin was going on trial.

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Abortion will soon be outlawed in North Dakota with the U.S. Supreme Court's Friday ruling overturning abortion rights. The 2007 Legislature passed a "trigger" law making it a felony to perform an abortion unless necessary to prevent the womans death, or in cases of rape or incest. Violations would be punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The law is to take effect 30 days after Legislative Council, the Legislature's research arm, receives notice from the attorney general that it would be upheld as constitutional.

Attorney General Drew Wrigley on Friday said, "This office is evaluating the (Supreme Court's) opinion in every detail and will give careful consideration to its impact on North Dakotas abortion laws. By statute, this office has thirty days within which to certify whether the Dobbs decision gives effect to current North Dakota abortion laws that conflicted with previous United States Supreme Court decisions.

The 2007 law passed with bipartisan support of 68-24 in the House and 29-16 in the Senate, according to Tribune archives. A Democrat was its primary sponsor.

Only provider

North Dakota's only abortion provider, the Red River Women's Clinic in Fargo, is planning to move across the Red River to Moorhead, Minnesota, where it has secured a space and is working to ready it, according to Clinic Director Tammi Kromenaker.

Abortion is legal in Minnesota up to the point of fetal viability, around the 24th week of pregnancy, according to The Associated Press. The state has some restrictions, including a 24-hour waiting period with state-mandated counseling, both parents generally must be notified prior to a minor getting an abortion, and only physicians can perform abortions.

Kromenaker said, "It's hard to put into words how to feel" after Friday's ruling, even after the leak last month of a draft court opinion that essentially gave advance notice of how the justices would rule. The Supreme Court on Friday overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that provided protection for abortions.

"To actually see (the court) overturn Roe was still shocking, but then the very next minute, the phone rang and I had to pick up the phone and make an appointment with a patient," Kromenaker told the Tribune. "People still need this care whether a few people in the Supreme Court think they do or not."

The clinic posted to Facebook that "Abortion is STILL LEGAL IN ND for now. We will get through this. We have made plans and we at Red River Women's Clinic will continue to provide abortion care in our region," with a link to a crowdfunding webpage.

Planning for the clinic's move began last fall and "will be going a lot faster," Kromenaker said.

"It was whether it was going to be this decision" or after Texas passed a sweeping anti-abortion law last year, one which some people thought North Dakota lawmakers might seek to copy, she said.

"Whether it was the Supreme Court or the North Dakota Legislature, it seemed like the will to make abortion completely illegal and unavailable was there," Kromenaker said.

The clinic hopes "to continue to provide abortion care in North Dakota as long as it's legal, and hope to have little to no disruption and be able to see patients in Minnesota immediately after it's no longer available in North Dakota," she said.

North Dakota recorded 1,171 abortions in 2020, according to the latest figures available from the state Health Department. The total includes 833 North Dakota residents and 338 women from other states, particularly Minnesota and South Dakota, who came to North Dakota for the procedure.

Reactions

People and organizations in North Dakota across the political and ideological spectrum weighed in on the ruling Friday in statements.

The Bismarck Diocese said the decision "ends the supreme injustice of the flawed Roe v. Wade decision."

Bishop David Kagan urged state and federal officials "to take this opportunity to enact laws which protect the child in the womb and support pregnant and parenting mothers."

Gov. Doug Burgum said, "Todays landmark Supreme Court decision returns power to the states where it belongs.

"Our administration has consistently supported pro-life legislation, and this decision is a victory for the many North Dakotans who have fought so hard and for so long to protect the unborn in our state. We will now work diligently with the North Dakota Attorney Generals Office to fulfill our constitutional duty by carrying out the 2007 legislation that is triggered by the overturning of Roe v. Wade. We must now turn to prioritizing womens health, including expectant mothers and children in need.

U.S. Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., who signed the 2007 law as governor, said the decision "respects the sanctity of life and rightfully denies that the Constitution provided a right to abortion."

U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., called the ruling "a win for life and states' rights" and "one of the most consequential decisions in my lifetime."

U.S. Rep. Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D., said the decision "is a victory for life. The power to protect the unborn should be left to the people and their elected state representatives."

North Dakota Republican Party Chairman Perrie Schafer called the ruling "a truly incredible victory for the rights of the unborn and all Americans who care deeply about the sanctity of life."

North Dakota Democratic-NPL lawmakers and legislative candidates denounced the ruling. House Minority Leader Josh Boschee, D-Fargo, said, "Many women in our lives no longer have the freedom to make their own decisions. Members of the Court, policymakers, and candidates will continue to chip away at the longstanding legal precedent of the right to privacy and autonomy."

The Concerned Women for America of North Dakota State Director Linda Thorson said, "we welcome the prospect of this issue being returned to the states where it belongs." She thanked Burgum and state lawmakers "for your tireless work on behalf of women and unborn children."

Planned Parenthood North Central States said "the decision places the future of safe and legal abortion in the hands of state lawmakers and puts abortion access at risk in 26 states," and noted that "abortion remains safe and legal" in Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska.

The American Civil Liberties Union of North Dakota called the ruling "shameful" and one that will result in North Dakotans having "fewer rights than people in other states in this country."

"Anti-abortion politicians have put North Dakota on the wrong side of history for too long, and the ACLU is determined not to let them off the hook, ACLU of North Dakota Campaigns Director Libby Skarin said. The ACLU of North Dakota is mobilizing supporters to make sure that these anti-abortion politicians feel the consequences of their brazen disregard for our rights."

The North Dakota Catholic Conference welcomed the ruling as remedying "a grave injustice that for too long prevented states from becoming sanctuaries for life."

"We are mindful that the false promises of Roe have caused many wounds and divisions in our community, from women harmed by abortion to animosities driven by political and ideological agendas," the organization said. "As we take this next step toward a more just society, the Catholic Church in North Dakota is committed to healing these wounds and divisions with prayer and action."

Reach Jack Dura at 701-250-8225 or jack.dura@bismarcktribune.com.

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A soggy spring planting season in North Dakota is finally wrapping up as summer begins.

The most recent crop report from the National Agricultural Statistics Service shows 97% of North Dakota's staple spring wheat crop is in the ground. That mark was reached nearly a month earlier last year, when drought was the problem farmers were dealing with.

A year ago, topsoil moisture supplies were rated 72% short or very short, and 79% of subsoil moisture supplies were in those categories. This year, the percentages are 6% and 7%, respectively, and three-fourths of the spring wheat crop is rated in good to excellent condition, compared to just 19% last year at this time.

One year ago, all of the state was in some form of drought, with two-thirds in extreme or exceptional drought, the two worst categories on the U.S. Drought Monitor map. This year, the entire state is free of drought, with the last areas of dryness disappearing earlier this month.

"Much of the High Plains region has seen beneficial rainfall and temperatures averaging near to below-normal over the past 30 days," National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Meteorologist Adam Hartman wrote in this week's report.

North Dakota pasture and range conditions also have improved dramatically, with only 3% rated poor or very poor, compared with 66% last year at this time. Stockwater supplies are 4% in those categories, compared with 70% last year.

Planting of all major crops in North Dakota has lagged behind the average pace this year due to the overly wet conditions, but seeding of nearly all crops is approaching completion, according to the crop report.

The U.S. Drought Monitor is a partnership of the National Drought Mitigation Center, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Summer outlooks

Astronomical summer officially began on Tuesday. The date differs from meteorological summer, which begins June 1. Astronomical seasons are based on the position of Earth in relation to the sun, whereas meteorological seasons are based on the annual temperature cycle, according to NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information.

A summer outlook from NOAA suggests below-normal precipitation for much of central and western North Dakota for June, July, and August, and a return to drought for the northwestern corner of the state.

Most of North Dakota has equal chances for above-average and below-normal heat, according to the outlook, though the southwest leans toward above-normal.

A summer outlook from AccuWeather suggests temperatures a few degrees above normal in the western two-thirds of North Dakota from June through August. It predicts "low" drought intensity for the western part of the state, and nothing for the eastern half.

The Old Farmer's Almanac forecasts a hotter-than-normal summer for western North Dakota, with the hottest periods in mid-June and the first half of July.

The first part of that prediction has been spot-on. Excessive heat that blanketed North Dakota last weekend sent temperatures into the triple digits in some areas including Bismarck, breaking records across the state.

This weekend is expected to be much cooler. A cold front forecast to move through Friday will keep high temperatures on Saturday and Sunday in the 60s and 70s statewide, with lows dropping into the 40s in some areas, according to the National Weather Service.

The forecast for Bismarck-Mandan is for a high in the upper 60s on Saturday and in the upper 70s on Sunday, with overnight lows around 50. Saturday is expected to be a windy day, followed by "quiet" and sunny weather Sunday.

Reach News Editor Blake Nicholson at 701-250-8266 or blake.nicholson@bismarcktribune.com.

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I dont think any of us can comprehend the trauma youve inflicted on these young girls.

-- U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland, sentencing Dawson Rouse, 23, of Bismarck, to 30 years in prison for more than three dozen child sex crimes.

q q q

"That was quite exciting. My heart pretty much went. I just couldn't believe it. I hollered at my husband (Jerry) and said 'Get in here!'"

-- Bismarck resident Sue Olson, after her home surveillance system captured video of a mountain lion that has been roaming residential neighborhoods in central Bismarck.

q q q

"Mountain lions frequently wander into towns in North Dakota and other states. This is not unusual. I'm sure it's trying to get out of the predicament it got itself in. It took a wrong turn and came into town."

-- Stephanie Tucker, furbearer biologist with the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, after a mountain lion wandered into central Bismarck.

q q q

Vaccine has been made widely available in our state and no individual, including children, should face barriers receiving their COVID-19 vaccinations.

-- State Immunization Program Director Molly Howell, announcing that North Dakota's Health Department has ordered 5,700 doses of pediatric COVID-19 vaccine in the wake of federal health officials endorsing shots for children ages 6 months to 5 years.

q q q

"We'll be generating the power everybody else needs."

-- North Dakota Public Service Commission Chair Julie Fedorchak, saying she doesn't think North Dakota will be affected by rolling blackouts that an operator of one of the large power grids in the country says is possible this summer due to hot weather and high energy demand.

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"We are weighing options for a long-term solution."

-- Senior Assistant County Engineer Dan Schriock, after the third landslide on River Road in the past four years.

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Its not like what you see in the movies where theyre digging up gold and theyre finding nuggets. Were not finding nuggets. Were not finding flakes. We have to actually chemically extract it.

-- John Kay, an engineer with the Energy & Environmental Research Center at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, which is studying whether it's feasible to extract rare earth elements such as neodymium and lanthanum from coal.

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"I continue to remain in North Dakota close to medical care as there is a high risk of infection and the possible need for finger amputation."

--U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., after suffering a hand injury in an incident involving a boulder at his Bismarck home.

q q q

"It doesn't have to create an actual conflict (of interest). It's just the facts are such that a reasonable person would say, 'We're not confident that you can get a fair hearing under the circumstances.'"

--North Dakota Ethics Commission Executive Director Dave Thiele, describing rules outlining how certain state officials "shall voluntarily recuse" themselves from involvement in proceedings "where the potential conflict of interest or campaign or monetary in-kind support creates an appearance of bias to a reasonable person."

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"Those fawns that hit the ground in 2021 -- though it was a smaller cohort than normal -- milder winter weather conditions led to higher survival in both the fawns and adults."

-- Bruce Stillings, big game management supervisor for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, on a positive spring mule deer survey following a disappointing fall survey amid devastating drought.

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As World War II raged around him, F.A. Hayek wrote and published The Road to Serfdom, which became a touchstone of the campaign to preserve personal and economic freedoms. The book argues that Western democracies attraction to socialism will take them down a path to authoritarian dictatorships like those in Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany. Government planning of economies, Hayek declares, must result in arbitrary and unfair edicts, as well as a loss of individual liberty.

?The Road to Serfdom was successful from the start and remains controversial to this day. It has been re-issued several times; the 2007 Definitive Edition contains six introductory essays that include useful background information about the books history.

The first three chapters discuss the revolt against freedom in Europe and the move toward centralized management of society. Democracies that were economically free had become so successful that people began to take their prosperity for granted, and chafed at the uneven distribution of wealth. Germany, Russia, and Italy adopted central planning and became dictatorships, but the West assumed that planning and tyranny were unrelated, and, heedless, moved toward implementing parts of socialism.

Chapters 4 through 6 deconstruct false beliefs about collectivism. Its not inevitable, says Hayek, that the modern world must move toward collectivism, or that socialism is better than markets at allocating resources. Planning cannot realize a unified purpose because humans dont share one single goal; further, planning will cause the breakdown of the Rule of Law, without which governments quickly descend into despotism.

In Chapters 7 through 9, Hayek examines the pitfalls of planning. Rather than achieving greater autonomy and respect, workers would be treated as cogs in the government machine, their freedoms curtailed. Fair wages would be reserved for groups favored by the planners. A guaranteed income would be possible only at the cost of freedom to choose ones vocation.

Chapters 10 and 11 look at how central planning distorts political incentives. Instead of the best people achieving office, planning attracts the worst among us: those who crave arbitrary power. They, in turn, would encourage the populace to believe propaganda that furthers their plans, which would damage discourse and the search for truth.

In Chapter 12, Hayek presents evidence that Nazism is a form of socialism and not capitalism, as presumed by the West. Chapter 13 shows that many of the same principles espoused by the Nazis are being promoted by respected thinkers in democratic nations.

Modern socialists, as described in Chapter 14, persist in advocating for an idealized moral standard that would instead wipe out ethics altogether. Chapter 15 cautions that the campaign to create an international planning body would simply impose a magnified form of collectivism on the entire world. In Chapter 16, Hayek augments that idea with the warning that collectivism amounts to imitating Hitler.

The 2007 edition contains an appendix with several short essays and letters that provide further background, including the 1994 introduction by economist Milton Friedman, himself a bestselling American author.

CHAPTER 1 SUMMARY: THE ABANDONED ROAD

What caused the sudden rise of totalitarian regimesNazi Germany, fascist Italy, and Soviet Russiaduring the early twentieth century? Hayek suggests that citizens of Western liberal democracies, stunned by these sudden upwellings in the midst of their progressive world, and galvanized into battle against the threat during World War II, were blind to the possibility that they may have contributed unwittingly to the buildup of those very dictatorships.

Instead, people in England, the United States, and other democratic countries simply assumed that the authoritarian world was disconnected from the liberal one. It was easier and more comforting to think that they are entirely different from us and that what happened there cannot happen here (66).

Yet the ideals of liberalismpersonal autonomy, freedom from oppression, freedom of expressionhad suffered steady erosion during the decades leading up to World War II. The growth of commerce and science had liberated people from a rigidly organized hierarchic system (69) to pursue prosperity under the new banner of personal liberty. This approach was so successful that citizens began to take their newfound wellbeing for granted, and progress began to seem too slow. The old ideal of freedom was challenged by a new concept,

CHAPTER 4 SUMMARY: THE INEVITABILITY OF PLANNING

Hayek presents four arguments in favor of central planning, shows why each has its appeal, then demonstrates how the free market solves the problem in a better way.

The first argument claims that, as industries advance, they devolve into monopoliesthe sheer size of large companies drive out smaller firmsand the only way to restore competition is for the government to control these markets. Hayek admits that, in recent history, many industries had, indeed, concentrated into the hands of a few.

He then cites multiple sources, including a report from the planning-oriented 1941 American Congress, that find no evidence that size creates monopolies. Hayek points out, instead, that aspiring monopolists regularly seek and frequently obtain the assistance of the power of the state to make their control effective (92). He highlights the case of 19th-century Germany, where a national policy of deliberate concentration of industry led directly to the very monopolistic abuses decried by socialists.

The second argument is that economies have become so complicated that some sort of central planning is required to prevent chaos. Hayek agrees that planning is important in certain areas but that highly-complex processes, such as modern markets, simply cannot be controlled from an office.

CHAPTER 7 SUMMARY: ECONOMIC CONTROL AND TOTALITARIANISM



People have argued that economics and money are lowly affairs that should be left to government administrators, while we focus on the higher things in life. But those inspiring pursuits also have costs, and Hayek points out that a planned economy would control the allocation of the limited means for all our ends (126). We would be restricted even in our loftier pursuits by government.

In a free market, our choices are limited by how much others are willing to pay for things we want, and we adjust our spending accordingly. A government that controls an economy has monopoly power over our purchasing decisions, and the governments preferences, rather than our own, would control us.

Just as important is our freedom to choose our livelihood, which also would be curtailed in a planned economy: The person whose qualifications are not of the standard type, or whose temperament is not of the ordinary kind, will no longer be able to come to special arrangements with an employer whose dispositions will fit in with his special needs (129). Workers, far from being respected, would more than ever become a mere means, to be used by the authority (130).

Many a bitter choice people must make in the free market would be relieved in a planned economy, but only through having the choice made for them by others (130).

CHAPTER 10 SUMMARY: WHY THE WORST GET ON TOP

Collectivist sympathizers sometimes explain the failures of centrally-planned societies by blaming bad leadership. Well-meaning administrators, they explain, would have brought about much better outcomes.

Hayek replies that any authoritarian regime must make decisions that will cause pain and anguish to some groups, and only leaders with few inhibitions will have the stomach to make the tough calls. Autocracies thus tend to fill up with brutal people. Its no surprise that German National Socialism became a vicious dictatorship. Hayek notes that the whole moral atmosphere of such a regime is completely different from that of Western liberal democracy (158).

During the early phases of a planned economy, impatience with the slow progress of parliamentary procedure makes citizens yearn for tough-minded autocrats. The logjam gets broken by a political group large enough to impose its will on the rest of society. Socialists with democratic scruples end up paving the way for a takeover by the ruthless.

The strong political group is likely to contain societys worst elements for three reasons. First, unlike groups of the educated, with their variety of ideas and opinions, the unified group is less educated and more thoughtlessly uniform in its views. Second, the leaders expand their reach by convincing the docile and gullible to follow them (160).

CHAPTER 12 SUMMARY: THE SOCIALIST ROOTS OF NAZISM

Hayek denies that Nazism is mindlessly irrational. Instead, it is the distillation of an important trend of political thought, simply collectivism freed from all traces of an individualist tradition which might hamper its realization (181). Hayek cites a number of intellectuals outside Germany, including Thomas Carlyle, who helped lay the foundations of what grew into the Third Reich. But the main influence came from socialists inside Germany.

These believers finally saw that their collectivist dream could not be realized as long as socialism contained precepts of individual liberty: It was the union of the anticapitalist forces of the Right and of the Left, the fusion of radical and conservative socialism, which drove out from Germany everything that was liberal (182).

Hayek mentions several important 19th- and early 20th-century socialist thinkers who believed that, under a collectivist system, the individual has no rights but only duties (183). During World War I, socialist authors argued that the Germans ought to regain their warlike spirit in a battle against decadent British commercialism. One socialist believed the ideal of freedom and the ideal of organization were in conflict, that organization ought to win out, and that Germany would lead the way as the ideal industrial seedbed for socialism.

CHAPTER 14 SUMMARY: MATERIAL CONDITIONS AND IDEAL ENDS

In the modern age, people have become more resistant to conditions they used to accept. Hayek writes that [m]an has come to hate, and to revolt against, the impersonal forces to which in the past he submitted (211), but modernity is so complex that often we simply dont understand conditions that frustrate our desires. This can lead to an unreasoning rebellion that may cause much more damage than it fixes: a refusal to submit to anything we cannot understand must lead to the destruction of our civilization (211).

We may rebel against our economic conditions, but the only alternative to submission to the impersonal and seemingly irrational forces of the market is submission to an equally uncontrollable and therefore arbitrary power of other men (212), which could be much worse.

Could we perhaps learn to master the forces of society the way we have mastered the forces of nature? Hayek answers that controlling a nation for a single such purpose would ruin what weve already accomplished and destroy personal freedom, and that doing so at any price is likely to do the greatest harm (213).

Laborers at the end of World War II might want to keep their high-paying jobs, even if they were no longer needed: a socialist society would certainly use coercion in this position, while a Western liberal democracy, straining to find a way to appease the workers, would have to distort the economic system, which [would] seriously interfere with the most productive use of our resources (214).

SUMMARY: BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

The book restates deep principles that hark back to earlier centuries; one volume cannot expand on these and related precepts that have for so long been considered out of date. Therefore, Hayek suggests additional reading, including books old and new. The list reaches all the way back to the Federalist Papers; Hayek reminds us that freedom was not always taken for granted.

SUMMARY: APPENDIX: RELATED DOCUMENTS

Nazi-Socialism

This short 1933 essay by Hayek argues against the notion that Nazism is merely reactionary. Instead, National Socialism is a genuine socialist movement that fulfills the anti-liberal movements of previous decades (245). It coordinated with corporate forces partly because business leaders themselves fell for the bromides of collectivism. Nazis then quickly commandeered much of industry.

Nazis objected only to socialisms liberal and internationalist sympathies; otherwise, they accepted the program. In Nazi propaganda, the dominant feature is a fierce hatred of anything capitalistic (246).

The anti-rational trend in Nazism came from the Marxian idea that bourgeois thought was conditioned by the social system and therefore invalid. Anti-rationalism makes simpler the idea that force, instead of tolerance, is the valid path.

Nazism allows for some private ownership, but this is largely due to the partys dependence on middle-class shop owners and artisans, who soon enough find their lives heavily regulated.

The Road To Serfdom Key Figures

F.A. HAYEK

The author stands for freedom of the individual, especially in business and trade, which flies in the face of the more popular collectivist leanings of his fellow academics. Hayek is fair-minded, thorough, and detailed in his arguments, and passionate about his belief in freedom; he bemoans the ongoing attraction to economic systems that would destroy peoples freedoms. In effect, as socialist intellectuals brush past him impatiently on the way to their imagined paradise, Hayek waves his hands, trying to warn them that the society they hope for is in fact a political chamber of horrors.

THE INTELLECTUAL

Hayeks nemesis is the academic or other intellectual who touts collectivist ideals. This person may believe passionately in the evils of capitalism and the remedies of central planning, but he ignores the threat to freedom raised by such programs. Given power, the Intellectual would likely resort to arbitrary and dictatorial edicts that would dismantle the very liberties to which he gives lip service.

THE PLANNER

The Planner wants to control all aspects of a society through government directive, believing he can better manage the economy than can the people, as they go about their business. At first, only the economy will be directed, but, as conflicts arise, the planner will begin to issue rules that forbid behaviors that interfere with the plan.

The Road To Serfdom Themes

THE ALLURE OF COLLECTIVISM

In modern times, people live crowded together in cities, where workers toil for low wages while their bosses luxuriate in wealth. Its tempting to search for some grand solution that would put an end to the unfairness of capitalism. Collectivism offers such a solution: wages would be set, employment guaranteed, and the wealthy would lose their positions to government departments that command equality for all.

This ideal appeals strongly to academic thinkers, who often influence public debate. Standing against them is Hayek, who warns that the allure of central planning is dangerously misleading. But his is an uphill battle, as the idea of a centralized economic systemone that should force an economy to be more fairis almost irresistible.

THE PERILS OF PLANNING

Hayek warns that central planning will not generate the benefits it promises, but instead will create a society in many ways the opposite of what its supporters want. Marketplaces are unpredictable systems, where prices fluctuate and workers migrate toward better opportunities. They are a daunting challenge for planners, who can never grasp in their hands the millions of threads that make up the fabric of trade among people.

The Road To Serfdom Symbols & Motifs

MARKET ECONOMY

A market economysometimes referred to as capitalismis one essentially left to itself, save for government regulation against fraud, unsafe practices, and unfair monopolies. Only under such a system can goods and prices find their proper level and produce maximum efficiency. Market economies have generated unparalleled prosperity in the modern age, but inequalities that crop up cause many to prefer a planned economy. Hayek argues that the unfairness of a market economy pales in comparison to the outcomes in a collectivist system.

LIBERALISM

The old sense of the word liberal was of limited government and respect for individual freedom and initiative; its in that sense that Hayek uses the term. The more modern use of liberal refers to what Hayek calls collectivism, socialism, or planning, and, occasionally, progressivism.

The Editors Introduction states that Hayeks immediate objective was to persuade his British audience that their heritage of liberal democracy under the rule of law should be viewed as a national treasure rather than an object of scorn (30).

THE RULE OF LAW

A government that obeys the laws set forth by its own democratically-elected legislature is one that obeys the Rule of Law; a government run by the whims of its rulers does not.

The Road To Serfdom Important Quotes

1.Few are ready to recognize that the rise of fascism and naziism was not a reaction against the socialist trends of the preceding period but a necessary outcome of those tendencies.(Introduction, Page 59)

Nazi fascism, far from being capitalist, was in fact a form of socialist collectivism. Believing otherwise has led Western intellectuals into a state of denial and a willingness to plunge into the dangerous experiment of central planning. Hayek saw, while living in Eastern Europe, the rise of collectivism and totalitarianism; moving to England, he recognized seeds of the same trends planted in new soil. Hayek wants to awaken the British to these dangers, lest they fall unthinkingly into traps laid by their pet theories about socialism.

2.We are ready to accept almost any explanation of the present crisis of our civilization except one: that the present state of the world may be the result of genuine error on our own part and that the pursuit of some of our most cherished ideals has apparently produced results utterly different from those which we expected.(Chapter 1, Page 65)

The West, focused on its efforts to improve the lives of its people through collective effort, persist in denying that the same practices have been put to sinister use in totalitarian countries. Those states achieve their despotic control because of, not despite, socialism.

3.For at least twenty-five years before the specter of totalitarianism became a real threat, we had progressively been moving away from the basic ideas on which Western civilization has been built. That this movement on which we have entered with such high hopes and ambitions should have brought us face to face with the totalitarian horror has come as a profound shock to this generation, which still refuses to connect the two facts.(Chapter 1, Page 66)

Liberal ideals about freedom had suffered erosion well before the great dictatorships arose. The liberal West, moving away from those ideals and toward socialism, had through inattention laid the groundwork for the totalitarian threat.

The Road To Serfdom Essay Topics

1.Hayek believes that democracy will collapse under socialism, and he warns repeatedly that the collectivist trends that led to totalitarian Germany and Russia are similar to recent trends in England and America. Is planning winning the day, or is Hayek mistaken? Defend your assertion.

2.Economic planning tends to become much more difficult than theorists expect. What could cause this disconnect between theory and reality?

3.Can a socialist society protect individual freedoms? Suggest some safeguards and how they would work.
A gentleman in Japan didn't mean to lose a work-related USB flash drive stuffed with personal info on every single resident in the town of Amagasaki (pop. 465,177). He simply decided to get drunk while toting said USB flash drive. He then decided to fall asleep on a sidewalk. And much to his surprise, when he woke up, his (and the entire city's) personal belongings were gone.

From CNN:

The man works for a company tasked with providing benefits to tax-exempt households, the city government's statement said.

On Tuesday, he went to the city administration's information center and transferred residents' data onto a flash drive. The data included the names, birth dates, and addresses of 465,177 people, the statement said  the city's entire population.

The flash drive also contained sensitive information including tax details, bank account names and numbers, and information on households receiving public assistance such as childcare payments. 

It added that though the employee had been authorized to access the data, he had not been given permission to transfer it onto a separate electronic device. The statement also criticized the employee for failing to erase the data from the flash drive after completing his work at the city office, and for carrying it personally instead of using a more secure transportation method.

Authorities held a news conference on Thursday, with the city's mayor and other officials bowing in apology to residents.
A gentleman in Vermont didn't need a gun to threaten the police who were arresting his son  he had himself an excavator. Officers were trying to arrest 24-year-old Brandon Tallman  on charges of burglary and assault, according to ABC11  while also scuffling on the ground with the suspect's mother. Meanwhile, the suspect's father, 52-year-old Wayne Tallman, jumped into action by climbing inside the cab of a nearby excavator. Police dashcam video shows the excavator bucket as it puts up its duke, looming over and lurching toward the Troopers as one officer points his gun at the metal beast. No shots were fired, however, and eventually all three Tallmans were taken into custody.

Front page thumbnail image: Vermont State Police / dashcam screengrab
The 25-year-old driver of the vehicle, along with the three other men, aged 25, 35 and 38, were all arrested and taken into custody. One of the men who claimed ownership of everything that was seized was turned over to the Buffalo Police Department to face weapons and narcotics charges
Today is one of the darkest days our country has ever seen. Millions upon millions of American women are having their rights taken from them by five unelected justices on the extremist MAGA court. These justices, appointed by Republicans and presiding without any accountability, have stolen a fundamental right to have an abortion away from American women in this country."  Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, a New York Democrat

Today is a devastating day for all Americans. Today, more than half of the American population became second-class citizens, stripped of their constitutional right to privacy and bodily autonomy, regardless of where they live. People in as many as 28 states will no longer have the right to control when, under what circumstances and with whom they want to have children."  Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand, a New York Democrat

The decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is a devastating and dangerous theft of womens rights. This takes us 50 years backward, stripping away the personal freedom for all who are pregnant to make medical decisions that impact your body and your life ... This extreme infringement by the conservative court doesnt reflect the views of a majority of Americans and sets a dangerous precedent that threatens the continued erosion of decades of progress on equal rights.  Rep. Brian Higgins, a Buffalo Democrat

"Today LIFE has prevailed! This is a victory for the Constitution and for the sanctity of human life. I salute our SCOTUS justices who did their job without fear in the face of serious threats and their decision will save the lives of millions of innocent babies."  New York State Republican Chairman Nicholas A. Langworthy

The right to life is one of the most fundamental principles underlying our constitutional framework. Tragically, since 1973, the Constitution has been misconstrued and misinterpreted to enshrine a right to abortion that is antithetical to our founding ideals, leading to an estimated 63 million innocent lives being ended over the last two generations. This decision now returns this process to the voters and their elected representatives."  Rep. Claudia Tenney, a Utica-area Republican

"As a new mom, the fight to defend life has never been more important to me. I applaud the Supreme Courts historic ruling, which will save COUNTLESS innocent lives ... As we celebrate todays historic Supreme Court ruling, we know more work remains to protect the most vulnerable among us. That is why House Republicans are committed to fighting to protect the truly voiceless and STOPPING taxpayer dollars from funding on-demand abortions."  Rep. Elise Stefanik, a Republican who represents the North Country

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A health setback, followed by the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, followed by trying to hold a job while helping an elementary school-aged daughter adjust to remote learning balled into burnout for Laura Kane-Punyon as the holidays approached in 2020.

She quit her job, knowing she was fortunate enough to have a husband support their family of four while she healed and reinvented herself.

One takeaway for me was that a major part of self-care and psychological wellness and emotional wellness is community, she said. Once I became a mom, it really kind of hit me how little of a community women have.

A book called The Art of Gathering: How we meet and why it matters, by Priya Parker, underlined that gatherings  even before the pandemic  tended to be perfunctory and more draining than inspiring. So Kane-Punyon launched a new small business in March designed to address that.

Our Table invites women of all ages and backgrounds to gather in small groups to share stories about their lives and aspirations. The next Nourish and Refresh gathering takes place Wednesday at Her Sanctuary, a North Buffalo clothing store for women that focuses on wellness. Another is scheduled there in late July. Two Hooked on a Feeling get-togethers will take place in coming weeks at Hooked Restaurant in Williamsville, while a Spill the Tea session is slated Aug. 14 at Cuppa Culture in Clarence.

The gatherings feature a trio of healthy food and beverage pairings. Costs range from $40 for tea and small bites to $100 or a bit more for a three-course dinner at Hooked. Learn more and register at our-table.com.

Kane-Punyon guides  but doesnt dominate  Open Table conversations. Each gathering is structured so two different attendees talk about themselves for 15 minutes during each of the three courses, followed before the next course by free-flowing discussion.

Conversation during three previous gatherings varied widely. Participants ranged in age from their 30s into their 50s. Some were stay-at-home moms, some employed, some empty-nesters. Most so far have known each other casually, if at all.

With just a little bit of structure, the group coalesces very quickly, Kane-Punyon said. We are talking about real things that women face, from relationship abuse to concerns with substances to struggling with kids or parents. The common thing that is said afterward is, I didn't realize I wasn't alone in this.

Kane-Punyon, a West Seneca native, met her husband, Paul Punyon while the two attended SUNY Geneseo. They started their family after college in Manhattan. She worked for a hedge fund. He landed a job as a computer software engineer. The couple moved to Clarence in 2013, where theyre raising a daughter, Elle, 9, and son, Dex, 6.

Paul has been able to keep his job by working remotely; Kane-Punyon worked with her familys accounting business, the Kane Firm, until her neurological condition flared up as pandemic worries and responsibilities grew.

Looking back, there's a lot of things that I was doing that led to a burnout. You know, being everything to everyone, she said. It's just not a sustainable way of life.

As Kane-Punyon started her own business, young women with children were reluctant to attend gatherings for fear they wouldnt have much to add to a conversation with business professionals who have older children. Older women feared their younger peers wouldnt be interested in what they had to say.

It's my belief that the more diversity you get in the group, the richer the conversation gets, she said.

People keep asking if this is a networking group, she added. While networking can certainly come out of it, this is really about social connection. We're not trying to be volunteers. We're not trying to build a business. We're simply trying to be humans together.

So far, at least, most women who attend have preferred to have sober conversations, though alcohol is available for some gatherings.

People are having real conversations very quickly," Kane-Punyon said, "even though that they just first met.

Next weeks gathering will be the first since the mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas. The pandemic wanes but war in Ukraine rages as economic uncertainty grips much of the globe.

Kane-Punyon hopes the small gatherings may one day grow into larger group discussions around the region. In any case, she sees her efforts as one way to help strengthen her community.

With all the things that we're facing in our world right now, being separate from each other isn't the answer, she said. I believe the answer is pulling together different people from different walks of life who never met each other and realizing, Wow, we are all so alike.

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To fully appreciate the length of Buffalo's newest soundstage, consider a recent 80-yard kick by Buffalo Bills rookie punter Matt Araiza.

Three of those kicks, end to end, by the kicker nicknamed "the Punt God" still wouldn't come within 100 feet of the length of the colossal soundstage being completed this month at Buffalo FilmWorks.

The 828-foot-long Stage 4, which took two years and $3 million to build, is longer than any in the moviemaking mecca of Hollywood. The soundstage figures to boost Western New York's ability to attract major movie productions because it is made to order for blockbuster films, said Tim Clark, commissioner of the Buffalo Niagara Film Office.

"It's certainly one of the longest soundstages in North America and one of the largest in the world," Clark said. "There is nobody who doesn't come out of there with their mouth agape. There just aren't many of this kind of scale anywhere."

Stage 4 occupies 77,832 square feet, with a width of 94 feet and a height of 39 feet to the truss line, the roof structure that supports lights and other rigging. That's just shy of the 80,000-square-foot space at Atlanta Metro Studios, considered the longest in the U.S. when it opened in 2016.

The Atlanta soundstage  which is four 20,000-square-foot soundstages made into one with movable walls  has enticed large film productions to shoot there, said Nick Smerigan, director of operations. That's something Buffalo FilmWorks hopes to emulate.

Stage 4 is the fourth soundstage built at Buffalo FilmWorks at 370 Babcock St. on the East Side, in the Seneca-Babcock neighborhood. Film productions and commercials have been made at the movie studio's other three soundstages since 2018.

$50 million film, TV production facility coming to Buffalo's West Side Expect the traditional film cue of "lights, camera, action" to be heard a lot more around Buffalo, thanks to Tuesday's announcement.

"A Quiet Place Part II," distributed by Paramount Pictures, and "Nightmare Alley," from Fox Searchlight Pictures, both of which came out in 2021, are the biggest motion pictures to date to use Buffalo FilmWorks.

The sets for "Nightmare Alley" were built on soundstages, and vintage cars were stored there before being moved onto location.

For "A Quiet Place Part II," more than 200 scenery painters, set decorators, carpenters and others worked for three to four months in Soundstages 1 and 2 before filming began.

Forty-five minutes of the film were shot there. Both "A Quiet Place Part III" and "A Quiet Place Part IV" are supposed to start preproduction in March 2023, and Buffalo FilmWorks is hoping those movies will be made there, too.

Stage 4 brings FilmWorks' total square footage to 119,800. It's a hefty total that can allow a movie production or TV episode to use more than one soundstage at a time.

Buffalo Film Works wants to add office space and apartments to studios Once complete, it will give Buffalo Film Works more than 120,000 square feet of stage and related space, plus 60,000 square feet of flex space for movie, TV and commercial production.

"You have to imagine you could build the facade of a whole city block in Stage 4, with the actual street and cars," co-owner George Pittas said. "You can turn this into the Old West, or a jungle for a 'Jurassic'-like movie."

Jonathan Sanger, the producer for "Marshall" and "Cabrini," two films shot in Buffalo, has seen Stage 4 and predicts it will be a big draw for filmmakers.

"Even major studios don't usually have a major stage like that, so it can be very, very useful to a lot of different films," he said.

Rail tracks reminder of past

Buffalo FilmWorks' three co-owners all grew up in the Southtowns  Pittas in West Seneca, Kevin Callahan in Derby and Jennifer O'Neill in Marilla. None had movie industry experience prior to buying an abandoned warehouse in the Seneca-Babcock neighborhood for $400,000 in 2016.

Rail tracks that run through the property are a reminder that rail cars were manufactured there a century ago by the Buffalo Car Co., until the factory complex was repurposed for World War I.

Callahan came up with the idea of building soundstages after renting space to store movie props. Rehabilitating the first three soundstages cost $3 million, O'Neill said.

"The warehouse was basically abandoned and stripped of all the copper and wiring," she said. "It was very, very dilapidated."

Stages 1 and 2 have identical dimensions of 19,000 square feet and 24 feet to the truss. Stage 3 is 4,000 square feet, but has a height of 47 feet, making it one of the tallest soundstages in New York State.

That height led producers for Paramount+'s "Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin" to build a massive tower the film called for in Stage 3.

Rehabilitating Stage 4, partly due to its sheer size, has proved to be the biggest challenge of all.

The space had a badly damaged roof that allowed patches of sky to show through. There were damaged walls with broken, boarded up and cinder-blocked windows, broken doors and a floor with "six inches of gook," Pittas said.

"It was in a very deteriorated state," he added.

The walls, like in the other soundstages, now have black spray foam insulation for sound proofing, with the fire-retardant paint helping make the walls fade into the background when filming.

Cabrini film turns Delaware Park into movie set Class war broke out on a movie set in Delaware Park Thursday and Friday nights, in scenes filmed for a movie with the working title, "The Untitled Cabrini Film."

The roof has been repaired and reinforced, and the outside of the building is weather-proofed, with the addition of an exterior, insulated shell.

A climate-controlled heating and air conditioning system is being installed this month in the soundstage, matching what's in the other stages.

"Stage 4 gives us an edge in Buffalo with the cold winters, where they can just work all year-round and not require an outdoor backlot," Pittas said.

Sanger said he's followed the progress with anticipation.

"That big space was always something film producers looked at, and said this would be a great place to work if they ironed the kinks out and got it going, and they've done all that," he said.

Buffalo FilmWorks has also entered into a partnership with Expressway Cinema Rentals to provide inhouse movie rental equipment, such as cameras, lighting, cranes and dollies, to movie productions, which reduces the need to ship equipment to Buffalo.

The Philadelphia-based company recently bought Buffalo Camera and has opened in the former Buffalo China building at 69 Hayes St., several blocks from Buffalo FilmWorks.

Parking at the film studio has room for 60 tractor-trailers and 250 passenger vehicles, another plus for large productions.

O'Neill said it is satisfying being a part of the redevelopment of Seneca-Babcock.

"A lot of businesses now are coming and putting roots here and creating jobs here," she said.

Buffalo FilmWorks is expanding, while two planned Buffalo film studios led by people from outside the state have stalled.

Great Point Media, which prior to Covid-19 was scheduled to open on the West Side in fall 2021, finally broke ground in the past several weeks to build two soundstages. Its opening is now projected for 2023.

Buffalo Studios, planned near the Tesla plant, is still finalizing its financing, Clark said.

The film commissioner said he's talking to other developers about adding more soundstages in Western New York.

"I think the 'more to come' sign is definitely up for this area," Clark said.

New York State's film tax credit provides a major incentive for making movies in upstate New York. It offers a tax credit of 35% of labor costs for areas such as camera, lighting, art department, production design and sound. The first 25% also includes expenses such as hotel lodging and equipment and vehicular rentals.

The addition of Stage 4 adds to the moviemaking appeal of Buffalo and Western New York, Clark said.

The region's assets include historic architecture, close proximity to rural and other environments, cooperative municipal governments, a large and skilled union crew and an active film commission.

Pittas said the support of the Buffalo Niagara Film Office has been invaluable.

"Without them, I don't think we'd be here  well, we wouldn't be here," he said.

There is also Western New York's affordability, lack of traffic congestion and direct flights to Los Angeles and hourly flights to New York City.

Clark predicts a bright future for Buffalo FilmWorks, especially with the addition of Stage 4.

"They saw firsthand what this could be, and instead of licking their wounds with Covid, they decided to invest and put their heart and soul into Stage 4," Clark said. "Those guys know how to do it economically and right, and to just get it done.

"It won't be long before that place is full of hundreds of people working on movies all at once," he said.

Mark Sommer covers preservation, development, the waterfront, culture and more. He's also a former arts editor at The News.

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WASHINGTON  New York stands to become a safe haven for women seeking abortions from out of state in the wake of the Supreme Court's landmark decision on Friday overturning Roe v. Wade, with state officials already saying they will welcome such women for a medical procedure that will now be illegal or difficult to obtain in huge swaths of the country.

While New York Republicans lauded the decision overturning the 49-year-old court opinion establishing a right to abortion, the state's Democratic leaders said women in New York will remain free to terminate their pregnancies  and that visitors to New York will, too.

"New York has always been a beacon for those yearning to be free," said Gov. Kathy Hochul. "Our state will always be a safe harbor for those seeking access to abortion care. To anyone who is working to deny abortion access, our message is clear: not here, not now, not ever."

State Attorney General Letitia James agreed.

"Regardless of the situation at the national level, New York will always be a safe haven for anyone seeking an abortion," she said. "I will work tirelessly to ensure that low-income New Yorkers and people from hostile states have access to the care they need and deserve. I will always fight to protect our right to make decisions about our own bodies and expand access to this critical and lifesaving care.

Anticipating that Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling establishing a right to abortion, would be overturned, Hochul announced last month that the state would allocate $35 million to expand abortion access and protect clinics in New York. On top of that, the State Legislature recently approved several measures aimed at protecting health care workers from legal action if they perform abortions on women from out of state, while also allowing patients to enroll in a confidentiality program aimed at protecting them from threats.

Calling Friday's Supreme Court ruling "a grave injustice," Hochul added: "I want everyone to know that abortion remains safe, accessible and legal in New York."

Republicans, meanwhile, offered a far different take on the ruling.

As a pro-life New Yorker, I celebrate the Supreme Courts reversal of Roe vs Wade," said Andrew Giuliani, one of four Republicans vying for the party's nomination for governor. "Its a victory for states rights but more importantly, the sanctity of life. This protection for our most vulnerable New Yorkers is the enduring legacy of President Donald J. Trump.

Roe v. Wade had withstood legal challenges for decades, but in his four years in office, Trump was able to win confirmation of three of the six justices who voted to overturn the abortion rights ruling: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

Friday's ruling opens a new era in the nation's battle over abortion, with the issue now likely to dominate statehouses across the country. And while any dramatic curbs to abortion access are unlikely anytime soon in heavily Democratic New York, Jason J. McGuire, executive director of an anti-abortion group called New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, made clear that abortion opponents will push for changes in Albany.

Todays decision marks the beginning of a new stage of the pro-life movement in America," McGuire said. "Pro-life advocates must peacefully and prayerfully make the case for life in every statehouse in the country and offer practical helps to the moms who choose life for their little ones. We must keep fighting until the lives of unborn babies are fully protected in law, and the notion of abortion becomes so abhorrent that no mother would willfully choose it for her child. Here in New York, the struggle will be an uphill one, but we embrace the challenge.

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Oh, if only more people would read The Buffalo News when it publishes disgusting comments by Carl Paladino, candidate for the Republican primary to represent the 23rd congressional district.

How much more sickening can it get than to praise Hitler, to dismiss mass shootings and to call Michelle Obama a man who should live in a cave in Africa with a gorilla?

Do Republicans know any of the history of past candidates for public office or even some holding prestigious posts in our U.S. government?

Richard Nixon, who resigned to avoid impeachment for abuse of power and disregarding the Constitution. Spiro Agnew, who resigned after he was charged with a felony for tax evasion. George W. Bush, who got us into a devastating war due to advice from brilliant advisors such as Dick Cheney and Karl Rove, as well as encouraging profiteers who made millions in Iraq.

And the most reprehensible of all, Donald Trump, racist who attempted a coup and cost the public hundreds of thousands of dollars employing the Secret Service for private purposes, to name a few of his antics.

What does the future hold if people do not become aware and get out and vote to return our great country to better times and true democracy?

Also, I must commend Liz Cheney for her courageous commitment to the Jan. 6 hearings. We need more bold Republicans like her.

Madeline Augustine

Orchard Park
At least five of Donald Trump's allies sought White House pardons after supporting his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results, witnesses have said.

The names of the five were given to the US House investigation into the rioting at the Capitol on 6 January, 2021.

The fifth day of hearings focused on how the then-president put pressure on officials at the Department of Justice (DoJ) as he tried to hold on to power.

According to witnesses, Mr Trump told the officials to "say the 2020 election was corrupt" and added: "Leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen."

When his demands were rebuffed, he is said to have threatened to install loyalist Jeffrey Clark as head of the DoJ.

"Donald Trump didn't just want the Justice Department to investigate," chairman Bennie Thompson, the Democrat congressman for Mississippi, told the hearing.

"He wanted the Justice Department to help legitimise his lies; to baselessly call the election corrupt; to appoint a special counsel to investigate alleged election fraud; to send a letter to six state legislatures urging them to consider altering the election results."

The installation of Mr Clark was only headed off when most of the rest of Justice Department leaders threatened to resign en masse if Mr Trump went ahead.

The demands were put in a draft letter, said to have been co-written by Mr Clark, suggesting the DOJ had found irregularities that could have affected the outcome of the election. Mr Trump wanted it sent to all states that were pivotal in his defeat, but it never went out.

The letter was branded a "murder-suicide pact" by White House counsel Pat Cipollone, according to pre-recorded testimony from Trump White House lawyer Eric Herschmann, adding that "it's going to damage everyone who touches it".

Representative Adam Kinzinger, a Republican committee member, told the hearing: "The president didn't care about actually investigating the facts.

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"He just wanted the Department of Justice to put its stamp of approval on the lies."

Mr Trump's interactions with DoJ officials represent one piece of an emerging historical record that committee members say proves he orchestrated an illegal multi-pronged campaign to invalidate his defeat.

Read more:

Claims of 'abuse and threats' from ex-president's supporters as he fought US election 'fraud'

Trump dismisses Capitol Riots investigation as 'crazy' and 'waste of time'

The interactions include Mr Trump summoning then-acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue and then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen for a "tense" Oval Office meeting on 3 January, 2021, together with Clark and White House lawyers.

That was three days before the official electoral vote count in Congress.

Mr Trump never acted upon the requests for pardons, the hearing was told.
Marjorie Taylor Greene was jostled and heckled by pro-choice protesters after the Supreme Court overruled Roe v Wade.

The Georgia far-right Republican told reporters that she was happy at the ruling as some protesters chanted lock her up  a reference to Trump supporters 2016 chants against Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

I am so happy. Its a blessing. Its a miracle, she said. Its wonderful, and I think we have to worry about the radical left. Theyre the ones who are going to perform an insurrection here at the Supreme Court. Weve got to protect women ... anyone supporting abortionists is supporting death.

This is the greatest blessing! she added.

Chants of you are a traitor could be heard as Ms Greene attempted to manoeuvre through the raging crowd outside the Supreme Court only steps away from the US Capitol in downtown Washington, DC.

While hundreds began gathering outside the Supreme Court to protest its announcement that it would end constitutional protections for abortion care, Conservatives started celebrating the decision that would officially end 50 years of federal protections for the procedure.

God Bless Justice Thomas. God Bless Justice Alito, tweeted Ohio Rep Jim Jordan, minutes after the high court announced that theyd ruled in favour of a Mississippi law that outlaws abortion at 15 weeks of pregnancy while also overturning key precedents established by the landmark 1973 decision in Roe v Wade as well as an affirming decision in 1992s Planned Parenthood v Casey.

.@RepMTG outside the Supreme Court reacting to the court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade: "I am so happy. It's a blessing. It's a miracle." https://t.co/xPU1cZIXui

video: @emilybrooksnews pic.twitter.com/OQH4OefTHR  The Hill (@thehill) June 24, 2022

Life wins, the Republican politician added, echoing a sentiment picked up by other right-leaning politicians in the immediate aftermath of the Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe, a decision that has affirmed constitutional protections for abortion care up to 23 or 24 weeks of pregnancy.

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Glory to God, tweeted Colorado Rep Lauren Boebert, who began her message by picking up Mr Jordans message of pronouncing, LIFE WINS, in all caps.

Writing for the courts majority, conservative Justice Samuel Alito claims that the Roe decision was egregiously wrong from the start.

The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives, Justice Alito wrote in the 6-3 ruling.

Governor Kay Ivey of Alabama praised the conservative-majority US Supreme Court for overturning on Friday, calling it a historic day.

This is a historic day, and I could not be more proud as a governor, a Christian and a woman to see this misguided and detrimental decision overturned, the Republican governor said, according to Fox reporter Bob Grip.

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, Jenna Ellis, a former lawyer on Donald Trumps legal team, and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise all rallied around the same congratulatory message of life wins, a phrase that quickly became a trending hashtag for the Twitter users who celebrated the high courts decision.

For half a century unelected judges have dictated Americas abortion laws, the RNC chairwoman continued in her post. Republicans will continue to advocate for life, uphold the law, and stand against an extreme Democrat Partys pro-abortion agenda.
Hello, OnPolitics readers.

Gun safety was the focus of several pieces of legislation and a Thursday ruling by the Supreme Court. The first comprehensive gun safety bill in 30 years is one step closer to a Senate vote.

In a procedural step, Senators voted 65-34 to end debate on the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, finishing negotiations that began in May. A bipartisan group of 20 began hammering out a deal after mass shootings in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas pressured lawmakers to find a solution.

The legislation is supported by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Schumer is rushing to pass the measure before Friday the Senate's self-imposed deadline and the day Congress leaves for a two-week recess. The Senate is currently on track to vote on the deal before the July 4 holiday break.

If the Senate passes the gun deal, it will move to the House, where it is expected to pass, before going to President Joe Biden to be signed into law.

It's Amy and Chelsey with today's news out of Washington

Senate deal comes after SCOTUS ruling on handguns

Two months after the Buffalo and Uvalde shootings, the Supreme Court struck down a New York gun law that required state residents to have "proper cause" to carry a handgun. The ruling, which carried a 6-3 conservative majority, has the potential to influence Second Amendment rights amid a rash of mass shootings throughout the country.

In his opinion, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas wrote, "New Yorks proper-cause requirement violates the Fourteenth Amendment in that it prevents law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their right to keep and bear arms." He was joined by five other conservative justices.

Who brought the case? Two upstate New Yorkers, plus the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, sued then-New York State Police superintendent Kevin Bruen after a licensing officer denied them the carry privileges they sought.

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What are the broader implications? Five Democratic-led states have similar licensing requirements and so those laws will likely be challenged.

But the decision could have far broader implications for other laws because the high court is changing the standard used to review such laws. Thomas writes that in order to pass constitutional muster, gun regulations must have some connection to the nation's "historical tradition."

Real quick: stories you'll want to read

FBI descends on home of ex-DOJ official : Federal authorities on Wednesday conducted a search at the suburban Virginia home of former Justice Department lawyer Jeffrey Clark, once central to Donald Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Afghanistan earthquake kills at least 1,000 : A 5.9 magnitude earthquake rocked eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing at least 1,000 people, injuring 1,500 more and destroying homes and other buildings in the rugged, mountainous region.

Abortion takes backseat in voters' minds : In a new USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll, even those Americans who oppose striking down the landmark decision recognizing abortion rights say by 2-1  59% to 29%  that the economy will be more important to their vote in November.

SCOTUS on voter ID laws: The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed two Republican state lawmakers to intervene in a challenge to a contentious 2018 election law that would require voters in North Carolina to show photo identification at the polls.

Jan. 6 committee hearing focused on Trump's attempts to subvert the DOJ

The special congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riots focused its fifth day of public testimony on former President Donald Trump's attempts to manipulate the U.S. Justice Department after federal investigators found no evidence of election fraud.

Three former officials, including acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, testified during Thursday's hearing about a tense confrontation with the White House in the weeks after the presidential election.

Each of the witnesses described how Trump grew agitated with the agency after it failed to find any merit to his baseless claims about election fraud, and sought to replace Rosen with Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark.

The committee displayed a draft letter written by Clark addressed to Georgia legislative leaders, which falsely alluded to possible voter fraud in key states even after investigators found no evidence. Former Trump White House lawyer Eric Herschmann, in video testimony, said Clark was the one who proposed telling six swing states they should send alternate electors to Congress to support Trump.

Among other things, he said, the former president wanted the agency to appoint a special counsel, meet with his re-election campaign lawyers and file a lawsuit with the U.S. Supreme Court.

"The Justice Department declined all of those requests... because we did not think that they were appropriate based on the facts and the law as we understood them, Rosen said.

Title IX was passed 50 years ago. But most top colleges still deprive female athletes of equal opportunities. Read more about USA TODAY's investigation here. --Amy and Chelsey

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Senate pushes gun reform as SCOTUS makes it easier to carry handguns
OTTAWA  The NDP's foreign affairs critic acknowledges the challenges related to Canadians being held in northern Syria, but says the federal government must step in to bring its citizens home.

New Democrat MP Heather McPherson says the arbitrarily detained Canadians, including many young children, are barely surviving in deplorable conditions, with no end in sight.

McPherson joined several human rights advocates at a news conference calling on Ottawa to take responsibility for citizens languishing in squalid camps.

More than three dozen Canadians are among the estimated thousands of foreign nationals held in Syrian camps by Kurdish forces that reclaimed the strife-torn region from the militant Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

The federal government has said Canada's ability to provide consular assistance in Syria is extremely limited given the security situation on the ground.

Several families have turned to the Federal Court, saying the government's refusal to step in breaches the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Citizenship Act and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

McPherson said Canadians should not have to go to court to get the consular services they deserve.

"This problem is a challenging one, yes, but it is not one where the government can look away. A government cannot evade its responsibilities towards its citizens, and it must not make decisions based on fear," she said.

"All Canadians in northeast Syria need to be repatriated, reintegrated and resettled in Canada. And anyone who may have committed crimes should be prosecuted here under our judicial system. Other countries have done this, but Canada has not yet shown the political will."

Green MP Elizabeth May said she could not understand why Canada is not urgently repatriating all of its citizens, calling the federal excuses paper thin. "How can we turn our backs on these Canadians?"

Monia Mazigh drew a parallel between the fate of the detainees and her husband Maher Arar, who was detained in Syria two decades ago.

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"They were never charged with any crimes, their Canadian families want them home, but the Canadian government is stopping them," she said Thursday.

Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian, was detained in New York in September 2002 and soon after deported by U.S. authorities  winding up in a grave-like cell in Damascus.

Under torture, the Ottawa telecommunications engineer gave false confessions to Syrian military intelligence officers about supposed collaboration with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.

A federal inquiry concluded that faulty information the RCMP passed to the United States very likely led to Arar's yearlong ordeal.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 23, 2022.

The Canadian Press
South Africa: NSFAS 2022 funding reaches 691 432 students

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) will in the 2022 financial year spend R47.3 billion in funding the tertiary education of 691 432 students.

This was on Friday revealed by Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister, Blade Nzimande, during a press briefing.

Of the approved applicants, 462 983 were female and 227 072 being male.

Addressing reporters, the Minister said: There has been a new intake of 240 790 SASSA students and we will continue to support 1 770 students with disabilities who receive quite a comprehensive set of allowances from the NSFAS Fund.

Of this allocation, he said, 362 482 was for ccontinuing students and 136 460 for new students.

He said that students registering in multiple institutions continue to be a challenge.

We have found that 2 481 students have registered in more than one institution and NSFAS has received registration claims from more than a single institution, he said.

To rectify this problem, students are required to deregister in institutions that they are not studying at and submit evidence to NSFAS so that funds can be released to the correct institution.

Another big challenge identified, he said, was with regards to funding conditions not met, students following incorrect academic pathways, registering on non-aligned qualifications. He said this was the case with even new students who were registered on qualifications that were being phased-out.

The above requires all institutions and all students to strictly adhere to the approved NSFAS Eligibility Criteria and Conditions for Financial Aid funding without deviations. NSFAS will continue to work with institutions to ensure resolution to the anomalies in the system, she said.

TVET College Student Funding

For 2022 TVET college bursaries, he said NSFAS projected a 10% growth in student numbers across all TVET academic cycles to an estimated 395 000 students. In this regard, NSFAS made provisional funding for 380 000 TVET College students.

To date, he said NSFAS received registration data for close to 200 000 students. This is at about 52% of expected and provisionally funded students in colleges, he said.

In seeking to close the gap and understand the issues at College level, NSFAS deployed its staff in May to assist TVET colleges to submit registration data according to NSFAS requirements.

This intervention assisted in the improvement of data quality submitted by the TVET Colleges. However, this intervention is not sustainable as NSFAS does not have enough capacity to adequately support TVET colleges at various campuses in this particular way in the long-term, he said.

The Minister said there was a need to capacitate TVET college staff on NSFAS processes. In the regard, he said NSFAS had committed to support colleges with a contribution of R500 000 per college in the short-term period to appoint financial aid officers.

The main issue affecting the processing of students in TVET colleges, like universities, is the problem of multiple registration status and students following incorrect academic pathways.

There were 4 287 unprocessed students not processed for payment by NSFAS because of these exceptions. NSFAS has started a reconciliation and data sharing exercise with institutions for the resolution of these identified exceptions, he said.

The Minister said this issue would be sustainably resolved through systems integration between NSFAS and institutions.

I am informed that already there is on-going work to resolve this issue, he said.

Nzimande said the NSFAS Board recently proposed new policy reforms to improve the efficiency of the scheme. He said had considered and agreed to these, saying the changes had proven to be positive in improving service delivery.

NSFAS administrative, student accommodation and other related challenges

After being inundated by student complaints on accommodation and being evicted by landlords, he said from next year, NFSAS would take a proactive role in NSFAS funded student accommodation in order to ensure value for money. This included standardizing the cost and quality by grading student accommodation, thus paying a standard rate based on the grading of each type of accommodation.

He said: Through numerous engagements with students, student leadership bodies, educational institutions, and accommodation providers, it is clear that student accommodation remains a major challenge to resolve. This is the case in both private accommodation and institution owned-accommodation.

He said there were insufficient beds to accommodate students, while some institutions did not have sufficient quantities and quality of own accommodation.

The building of more infrastructure for student accommodation remains a priority for government, and I intend to accelerate such construction, including through partnerships with the private sector, he said.

Further announcements will be made in this regard later this year.

This included pilots to test various strategies and plans to significantly increase the number of student beds for both university and TVET college students.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2022-06-24. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Rikki Neave was murdered in 1994 (Cambs Police/PA) (PA Media)

A murderer who was brought to justice more than 27 years after strangling schoolboy Rikki Neave is due to be sentenced on Friday.

James Watson was aged 13 when he lured six-year-old Rikki to woods near his home in Peterborough on November 28 1994.

He throttled the boy from behind with a ligature or anorak collar, to fulfil a morbid fantasy he had told his mother about three days before.

He stripped Rikki and posed his naked body in a star shape for sexual gratification, deliberately exhibiting him near a childrens woodland den.

Rikkis body was found the day after he went missing.

Police tape cordoning off the woods next to the Welland Estate in Peterborough, near to where Rikki Neaves body was found (Cambs Police/PA) (PA Media)

Police had initially accused Rikkis mother Ruth Neave of the killing, but she was acquitted after a trial.

Watson was spoken to as a witness at the time because he was seen with Rikki on the day of his disappearance.

But his lying account went unchallenged and he was not considered a suspect until a DNA breakthrough years later linking him to Rikkis discarded clothes.

Prosecutors felt there was still insufficient evidence, but reversed their decision after Ms Neave and Rikkis sisters called for a victims right to review.

In April, Watson, now 41, was found guilty of murder by a majority after an Old Bailey jury deliberated for 36 hours and 31 minutes.

On Friday, Watson will return to the Old Bailey where Mrs Justice McGowan will sentence him to life and set a minimum term before he can be considered for release.

James Watson, 41, who was convicted of murdering Rikki Neave (CPS/PA) (PA Media)

Previously, the court heard how Watsons sexual interest in younger boys was known to police, who interviewed him over an allegation that he molested a five-year-old in 1993.

More disturbing behaviour was noted at Watsons childrens home, including him masturbating over pictures of young boys in underwear and keeping a dead pheasant in his room, the court heard.

The prosecution claimed it was no coincidence that, three days before the murder, Watson was the source of a bogus radio report about a two-year-old boy being strangled.

Immediately after Rikkis murder in identical circumstances, Watson obsessed over newspaper coverage of the killing, copying front page stories at school.

Story continues

And an ex-girlfriend said he had later strangled her during sex in woods and killed a bird and spread its wings, in a sinister reconstruction of Rikkis murder.

A front page of Peterborough Evening Telegraph dated November 30 1994 with an article about the death of Rikki Neave (CPS/PA) (PA Media)

Jurors heard that key evidence in the case against Watson included Rikkis last meal, of Weetabix, which fixed his time of death at about noon.

It meant Rikki was killed shortly after being seen with Watson heading to the woods where he used to play.

Rikkis muddy Clarks shoes also indicated his walk into the woods was a one-way trip.

In a police interview in 2016, Watson attempted to explain his DNAs presence on Rikkis clothes by claiming he picked him up to look at diggers through a hole in a fence.

Prosecutor John Price QC said that was his really big mistake, as police were able to prove the fence was not there in 1994.

Jurors were told Watson has a long criminal record, which includes convictions for stealing cars and setting fire to a British Transport Police station.

Watson fled to Portugal while on bail on suspicion of murder, but was extradited back to Britain.

In his defence, Watsons legal team pointed the finger of suspicion at Ms Neave, which she rejected.

The defence said Watson could not have murdered Rikki, as he was seen alive in the afternoon of November 28.

However, the prosecution shrugged off the ghost sightings, which wrongly claimed Rikki was wearing a red jumper or riding a BMX bike.

Court artist sketch of Ruth Neave, mother of Rikki Neave, appearing via video link at the Old Bailey, London (Elizabeth Cook/PA) (PA Wire)

After the verdict, Ms Neave thanked the jury for making the right decision, called her sons killer a monster but said this is not the time to celebrate as it should never have happened.

Rikkis sister Rebecca added: Although this day is a painful reminder of the loss we have all suffered, justice has finally been served.

Former assistant chief constable Paul Fullwood, who led the cold case, said Watson is a fantasist, a dangerous individual, and a compulsive liar.

All the way through this, its been a monumental series of challenges. But as far as were concerned, weve got the right person responsible for the dreadful, dreadful murder of that little boy Rikki Neave, he said.

Hannah Van Dadelszen, deputy chief crown prosecutor for the east of England, acknowledged prosecuting Ms Neave was wrong and said she was pleased that justice had now been delivered.
Universal Ibogaine Inc announced that CEO Nick Karos will present at the H.C. Wainwright 1st Annual Mental Health Conference: Neuropsychiatry, Psychedelics and Beyond. The event is a hybrid online and in-person event scheduled for June 27. "H.C. Wainwright is a leader in the space and could be a strong strategic partner in our ongoing corporate finance roadmap, Karos said in a statement. The opportunity to tell our story to this audience is another important step in developing the awareness around brand and offering.

Revive Therapeutics Ltd has announced that the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) accepted the companys Data Access Plan (DAP) submission for a Phase 3 trial of Bucillamine in patients with COVID-19. The company previously received positive comments from the FDA on its request to determine and agree on new primary efficacy endpoints for the study. Now that the DAP submission has been accepted, the company will unblind the pre-dose selection data to potentially support the amended study protocol with the new endpoints.The proposed new primary efficacy endpoints may include the rate of sustained clinical resolution of symptoms of Covid-19, which the company says addresses the shift in clinical outcomes observed over the course of the pandemic. The hope is to have more meaningful study endpoints for the FDA to consider for potential Emergency Use Authorization.

TNR Gold Corp has issued an update on the Los Azules Copper Project in San Juan, Argentina, in which it holds a 0.4% net smelter returns (NSR) royalty. The project is held by McEwen Copper Inc, a subsidiary of McEwen Mining. On Thursday, McEwen Copper offered a progress report this week on the Los Azules project highlighting three drill holes. Hole AZ22146 intersected 330 meters (m) of 0.83% copper, including 103.4 m of 1.31% copper; hole AZ22149 intersected 298 m of 0.55% copper, including 54.0 m of 1.38% copper; and hole AZ22158 intersected 176 m of 1% copper, including 44.0 m of 1.38% copper.

Paradigm Capital said it has added Plurilock Security Inc to the second edition of its Technology Watch List, one of six Canadian technology companies added that the broker's analysts believe offer attractive and emerging growth opportunities. Specifically, on Plurilock, the Paradigm analysts noted that the company has a strong customer roster with compliance in place (SOC 2) to operate as a reliable and trusted third-party vendor to government and financial institutions. "We believe the companys customer wins are demonstrative of the effectiveness of its strategy. As software revenue scales to be a larger portion of the business it can carry higher valuations for the overall company," they concluded.

Water Tower Research said it has published a management series report on ProStar Holdings Inc which can be accessed via the following link: https://www.watertowerresearch.com/content/pointman-offers-10x-cost-savings-by-nearly-eliminating-strikes

Ortho Regenerative Technologies Inc has reported its financial results and highlights for the first quarter ended April 30, 2022. Among the key highlights for the period, the company entered a material transfer agreement with an undisclosed, industry-leading, global strategic medical company for the exclusive use of their proprietary platelet-rich plasma system in its ORTHO-R rotator cuff tear repair, phase I/II US clinical trial. "Ortho delivered important milestones during the first quarter of (FY)2023. We signed a material transfer agreement with a global company, closed an oversubscribed private placement and secured key patents that will protect our core IP for many years to come, Philippe Deschamps, Ortho president and CEO said in a statement.

Therma Bright Inc said it has submitted an application to Health Canada for its smart-enabled AcuVid COVID-19 Rapid Antigen Saliva Test for Point-of-Care Use (PoC). The Toronto-based company said the application includes all the updated data from the company's US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) application. "We're excited with our AcuVid Health Canada application and the prospect of approval for our unique COVID-19 rapid antigen saliva test for point-of-care (PoC)," said Rob Fia, CEO of Therma Bright, in a statement.

Guardforce AI Co. Limited said it has now closed the previously announced "transformational" cash and share acquisition of Beijing Wanjia Security System Co. Ltd (BJWJ) from Shenzhen Yeantec Co Limited for around US$8.4 million. On May 24 this year, the firm told investors it had struck two definitive agreements to acquire eight companies in China. The second deal, namely to acquire an additional seven companies from Shenzhen Kewei Robot Technology Co. Limited (Kewei), is still expected to close in the third quarter of this year. "The acquisition of a well-established integrated security solution provider in Beijing is truly transformative for Guardforce AI as it not only strengthens our foothold in Asia, but also expands our integrated security capabilities, Terence Yap, the chairman of Guardforce AI, told investors in a statement.

ImagineAR Inc has announced the signing of a reseller agreement with Blayney Partnership, a digital creative agency based in the United Kingdom. "Blayney Partnership is a forward-thinking dynamic agency that leverages advanced technology to deliver dynamic client solutions," ImagineAR CEO and founder Alen Paul Silverrstieen said in a statement. As we focus on expanding around the world, we are optimistic (Blayney Partnership owner and creative director) Ozz Blayney and his team will create exceptional immersive experiences using the ImagineAR platform for his clients," Silverrstieen added.

Sonoro Gold Corp said it has filed a technical report titled "Updated Preliminary Economic Assessment of the Cerro Caliche Project, Sonora, Mexico with an effective date of May 9, 2022. The updated Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) contemplates an optimized mine plan for an open pit, heap leach mining operation with an initial two-year production rate of 8,000 metric tonnes per day (mtpd) and an increase to 15,000 mtpd for the remaining life of the mine. Approximately 7,200 meters of additional drilling recently completed at Cerro Caliche was not included in the current mineral resource estimate and will be included in an updated resource estimate scheduled to be filed in the fall of 2022.

Sidus Space Inc announced that its CEO Carol Craig has been selected as an in-person speaker for International Space Convention (ISC) 2022 in Bursa, Turkey on September 9-11, 2022 and the 25th anniversary of World Satellite Business Week (WSBW) in Paris, France on September 12-16, 2022. The Space-as-a-Service company said the upcoming speaking opportunities are the latest examples of Sidus Spaces burgeoning role in the international space community, which recently included being selected for delegation visits from France and Turkey.

BioSig Technologies Inc has announced the pricing of its previously-announced 'best efforts' underwritten public offering of up to 4,666,667 shares of its common stock, $0.001 par value per share, at a price to the public of $0.75 per share. The gross proceeds to BioSig from this offering are expected to be $3,500,000.25, before deducting the underwriting discount and other estimated offering expenses payable by BioSig. The offering is expected to close on June 28, 2022, subject to customary closing conditions. BioSig said it intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for the continuation of commercialization activities related to the PURE EP System, including additional support for organizational development, to fund working capital, and for general corporate purposes and other capital expenditures.

South Star Battery Metals Corp said it has completed a non-brokered private placement of units for total proceeds of $1,906,990. The majority of participation in the private placement was with key institutional investors and insiders. Net proceeds from the private placement will be used for advanced materials sample preparation, commercial agreements, project finance and general working capital requirements for the company. The private placement consists of 3,467,254 units priced at a post-consolidation price of 55 cents per unit. Each unit consists of one common share and one common share purchase warrant. Each warrant entitles the holder to purchase one additional common share of the company at an exercise price of $1.25 per common share for a period of five years from the date of issue.

Deep-South Resources Inc has reported that, with regards to its action against Namibia's Ministry of Mines and Energy, at a hearing held on June 23, 2022, the court ordered the parties to file their Case Management report by June 27, 2022. The next Case Management hearing will be held on June 30, 2022. The Case Management hearing serves to prepare the final hearing. Several aspects can be discussed at the Case Management hearing such as the number of days required for the final hearing, any issues that are likely to facilitate a just and speedy resolution of the case or potential settlement prospects. The company said it will provide regular updates in this regard and any other matter concerning this situation.

Blue Sky Uranium Corp said the TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to its non-brokered private placement announced on May 24, 2022, and June 8, 2022, which will see the issue of 14 million shares at a purchase price of 15 cents per share, together with 14 million share purchase warrants to purchase 7 million shares with an exercise price of 25 cents for a three-year period with 52 placees.

Nevada Copper Corp has released the results from its 2022 annual general meeting of shareholders, held on Thursday, June 23, 2022, in Toronto. Shareholders holding a total of 225,979,047 common shares of the company were represented by proxy at the meeting, representing approximately 50.39% of the total 448,452,759 common shares outstanding as of the record date. Shareholders voted in favour of all items of business before the meeting.

Braxia Scientific Corp has announced its participation at the H.C. Wainwright Global Investment Conference from June 27-28, 2022 in New York. The company's CEO Dr Roger McIntyre will deliver two live presentations at the conference beginning with a Keynote address - Introduction to the State of Mental Healthcare - to kick off the conference on Monday, June 27 at 8.15am ET. Dr McIntyre, will also deliver a second presentation on Monday, June 27 at 4.00pm. ET providing an overview of the Braxia's business, including its progress on increasing access to novel ketamine and psychedelic treatments for patients with depression, while also expanding the clinical research infrastructure required to execute on the company's growing pipeline of registered clinical trials alongside third-party sponsors. Braxia's trials include Canada's first multi-dose psilocybin-assisted therapy trial which commenced in November 2021 and recently reported positive preliminary results. Dr McIntyre will also be available to host one-on-one meetings with institutional investors registered with H.C. Wainwright and Co.

BioHarvest Sciences Inc has invited its shareholders and the general public to join a Live Video Conference on Thursday, July 7, 2022, at 2.00pm Eastern Standard Time (11.00am Pacific Standard Time). The company's CEO Ilan Sobel will host the event, which will include coverage of Q2 sales results and a detailed progress update on the 2022 Growth Priorities, with specific focus on the VINIA scale-up progress in the USA and on the company's Cannabis market entry strategy into North America. Sobel commented: "We have reached the midpoint of 2022, which will be remembered as a transformative year in BioHarvest Science's growth. This year we have already made key additions to our leadership team and reached major scientific milestones - I am very excited to discuss our progress on the VINIA USA scale-up, to provide a high level update on strategic partnership discussions with key players in the North American Cannabis landscape, and to share my thoughts with our Bioharvest shareholder partners on how our disruptive platform technology will reshape the future of the Cannabis industry in North America." The presentation will be approximately 45 minutes, followed by a live question and answer session. All shareholders, media, and interested investors are welcome to join. All registrants will be emailed a recording of the session. Any questions regarding the event can be sent to justin@bioharvest.com. Registration is free via: https://app.livestorm.co/st-financial/q2-2022-bioharvest-sciences-shareholder-update?type=detailed

Virtual Investor Conferences (VIC), the leading proprietary investor conference series, today announced that the presentations from the June 23, 2022, Life Sciences Investor Forum are now available for on-demand viewing via the following link: https://bit.ly/3nbZJuO. The company presentations will be available 24/7 for 90 days. Investors, advisors, and analysts may download investor materials from the company's resource section. Companies are accepting 1x1 management meeting requests through June 28, 2022. Providing a real-time investor engagement solution, VIC is specifically designed to offer companies more efficient investor access. Replicating the components of an on-site investor conference, VIC offers companies enhanced capabilities to connect with investors, schedule targeted one-on-one meetings and enhance their presentations with dynamic video content. Accelerating the next level of investor engagement, Virtual Investor Conferences delivers leading investor communications to a global network of retail and institutional investors. To view a complete calendar of Virtual Investor Conferences, interested parties can visit: www.virtualinvestorconferences.com.
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DR. ALISON MCAFEE WAS CELEBRATED BY THE FONDATION L'OREAL AND UNESCO DURING THE FIRST CEREMONY SINCE THE PANDEMIC CELEBRATING 45 EMINENT WOMEN IN SCIENCE

MONTREAL, June 24, 2022 /CNW/ - By organizing the first For Women in Science Ceremony since Covid-19, the Fondation L'Oreal and UNESCO celebrated the 30 recipients of its International Rising Talents from 2020 and 2022, and the 15 Laureates awarded in 2020, 2021 and 2022 in Paris, France. Dr. Alison McAfee, from the University of British Columbia, was amongst the winner and was recognized for her pioneering research on honeybee reproduction and fertility. Her work focuses on environmental risks to honeybees, including extreme temperatures and chemical pesticides, and explores how best to protect queen bees, so they can continue laying fertilized eggs and maintaining strong colonies.

Dr. Alison McAfee, L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science International Rising Talent 2022 (CNW Group/L'Oreal Canada Inc.)

Having grown up on a small island in British Columbia, living in a small, off-grid community, Dr. McAfee reflected on joining the For Women in Science community: "This sense of community amongst strong, successful women is something often lacking in the top tiers of science. It is humbling and empowering, knowing that I now stand in the ranks of these impressive women", she said. "Research needs creative thinkers, and sometimes a problem or research question benefits from being addressed and interpreted in many different ways," she added. "Women are a huge un-tapped intellectual resource in science - their perspectives, ideas and interpretations stand to deliver great value" she concluded.

"I am so proud to see one of our Canadian L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in science fellow being recognized at the International level", An Verhulst-Santos, President & CEO of L'Oreal Canada said. "Dr. McAfee, our 4t International Rising Talent in Canada, makes us proud and represents the younger generation of scientists solving important challenges and speaking up for change", she concluded.

A UNIQUE GLOBAL REUNION OF WOMEN SCIENTISTS

After two consecutive cancellations of the event due to the pandemic, this year's Ceremony was particularly celebratory and unique. Held on Wednesday, June 22nd at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, the International Rising Talents Ceremony honored and awarded 30 young female scientists who received the title of International Rising Talents. The following day, 15 eminent laureates from various fields in Life and Environmental Sciences, Physical Science, Mathematics and Computer Sciences were recognized as well during a moving ceremony held at UNESCO headquarters.

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Each awardee has dedicated her life to combating one or many severe challenges facing the world today. Together, these scientists have the objective to solve important challenges and speak up for change. During the ceremony, the extraordinary contribution of women in science was celebrated amongst a distinguished audience, including representatives of science, academics, opinion leaders, politicians, members of public authorities, and organizations promoting gender equality and women empowerment. This year's reunion reminded the world how vital women scientists and their work are for our common future.

THE WORLD NEEDS SCIENCE AND SCIENCE NEEDS WOMEN

The world is facing unparalleled challenges: climate change, lack of resources, health risks, and the Covid-19 pandemic, among many other mounting world issues. Selected during the past three years, the women awarded this week by the L'Oreal-UNESCO program have already proven how transformative their science can be in addressing these challenges.

By celebrating 45 outstanding female researchers from all over the world in this unique Ceremony, the Fondation L'Oreal and UNESCO have stood out to reward and show their full support to women scientists whose work has been so instrumental during these incredibly trying times. These women are often subject to invisibilization and marginalization, inequalities, biases, and systemic barriers. Their presence in Paris this week marked the perfect occasion to recognize their meaningful contributions while reminding the world that the gender gap remains.

More information on the 45 women in science awarded on June 23rd by clicking on this link to download the press kit.

ABOUT L'OREAL CANADA

L'Oreal Canada is a wholly owned subsidiary of L'Oreal Group, the largest cosmetics company in the world. Headquartered in Montreal, the company had sales of $1.38 billion in 2021 and employs more than 1,450 people. The company holds a portfolio of 39 brands, encompassing all aspects of beauty, and is present across all distribution networks: mass market, department stores, salons, pharmacies, drugstores, and branded retail. L'Oreal Canada, whose operations are carbon neutral, supports the L'Oreal Foundation's programs such as L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science, which has promoted the advancement of women in science in Canada since 2003, Beauty for a better life, a social reintegration program in hairdressing for immigrant women since 2017.

ABOUT THE FONDATION L'OREAL

The Fondation L'Oreal supports and empowers women to shape their future and make a difference in society, focusing on three major areas: scientific research, inclusive beauty and climate action.

Since 1998, the L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science program has worked to empower more women scientists to overcome barriers to progression and participate in solving the great challenges of our time, for the benefit of all. For 24 years, it has supported more than 3,900 women researchers from over 110 countries, rewarding scientific excellence and inspiring younger generations of women to pursue science as a career.

Convinced that beauty contributes to the process of rebuilding lives, the Fondation L'Oreal helps vulnerable women to improve their self-esteem through free beauty and wellness treatments. It also enables underprivileged women to gain access to employment with dedicated vocational beauty training. On average, around 16,000 people have access to these free treatments every year and more than 18,000 people have taken part in professional beauty training, since the beginning of the program.

Finally, women are affected by persistent gender-based discrimination and inequalities, exacerbated by climate change. While they are on the frontline of the crisis, they remain under-represented in climate decision-making. The Women and Climate program of the Fondation L'Oreal supports, in particular, women who are developing climate action projects addressing the urgent climate crisis and raises awareness of the importance of gender-sensitive climate solutions.

SOURCE L'Oreal Canada Inc.

Cision

View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/June2022/24/c5131.html
The Chippewa Falls Engineering Department has reviewed each 2021 projects for defects covered by the one-year contract warranty. Here is its weekly report.

Contractors will be on-site performing any remaining punchlist/warranty work in the coming weeks.

Project: Therbrook Street Improvement Project (Badger Street  Palmer Street)

This project was awarded to Haas Sons, Inc. The project includes underground utility work, curb and gutter, street surface, driveways, and sidewalk. The contractor began the project June 6th. In the last week, they competed sanitary sewer main installation from Badger Street to Division Street and water main installation from Division St to Palmer St.

In the next week, the contractors plan to complete the sanitary main from Division Street to Palmer Street and work on the installation of water and sewer services between Badger Street and Division Street. They will also be installing storm sewer in the intersections. The project is scheduled to be completed at the end of August.

Project: Wheaton Street Improvement Project (Dwight Street  Bridgewater Avenue)

This project was awarded to A-1 Excavating. The project includes underground utility work, curb and gutter, street surface, driveways, and sidewalk. The contractor is scheduled to begin on Monday June 27th. The project is scheduled to be completed mid-August. The contractor will begin with roadway removals. During roadway removals, a detour of Wheaton Street will utilize Bridgewater, Terrill and Elm. Mid-week, underground pipe work in the intersection of Bridgewater and Wheaton will be done. During that short time, a detour will be signed for Wheaton Street and Bridgewater Avenue utilizing Squires Street, Eagle Street and Elm Street. Please follow posted detours.

Project: Cliff Street Improvement Project (Edna Street  Main Street)

This project was awarded to Haas Sons, Inc. The project includes underground utility work, curb and gutter, street surface, driveways, and sidewalk. The contractor is tentatively slated to begin the project the week of July 11th pending weather and scheduling. Xcel Energy is currently on-site working on gas main replacements prior to the project beginning.

Project: Mansfield Street (Wheaton Street  Pearl Street)

This project was awarded to A-1 Excavating. The project includes underground utility work, curb and gutter, street surface, driveways, and sidewalk. The contractor is tentatively slated to begin the project the week of July 11th pending weather and scheduling. They may mobilize a crew in before that date to cut down the trees that are scheduled for removal with the projects. The project is scheduled to be completed in early October. Xcel Energy is currently on-site working on gas main replacements prior to the project beginning.

Project: Stanley Street Improvement Project (Perry Street  St Augustine Street)

This project was awarded to A-1 Excavating. The project includes underground utility work, curb and gutter, street surface, driveways, and sidewalk. The contractor is tentatively slated to begin the project the week of August 1st pending weather and scheduling. They may mobilize a crew in before that date to cut down the trees that are scheduled for removal with the projects. The project is scheduled to be completed mid October. A letter will be sent to all residents at least one week before street construction crews are scheduled to begin. Xcel Energy will be on-site in the near future working on gas main replacements throughout the project.

Project: Chip Sealing (Various Streets)

During the week of 6/27 the Chippewa Falls Street Department will be chip sealing the following streets:

 Lynn Street  South Ave to Wisconsin St

 Veronica Street  South Ave to Wisconsin St

 Marilyn Street  South Ave to Wisconsin St

 Alexander Street

 Wisconsin Street  Lynn St to Alexander Street

 Superior Street  Central St to Willow St

 Columbia Street  Wagner St to Carson St

 Mansfield Street  Church St to Terrill St

 Eagle Street  Coleman St to Bridgewater Ave

 Wheaton Street  Bridgewater Ave to North City Limits

 Edward Street  Jefferson Ave to State St

 Front Street  Well St to Badger St

 Badger Street  Front St to Grand Ave

 Beaver Street  Front St to Grand Ave

Project: TDS Telecom Fiber Overbuild

TDS Telecom will be constructing a fiber optic overbuild within the City of Chippewa Falls over the next two years. This will include construction of over 90 miles of fiber optic cable. Most of the construction will occur within City street boulevards and alleys. All questions regarding the fiber optic construction can be directed to TDS Telecom construction hotline at 1-855-259-8576 or visiting https://tdsfiber.com/construction/. They have a dedicated team for answering construction questions.

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Chippewa County Crime Stoppers announced it has received a donation of $3,000 annually for the next three years from the Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company.

These funds will be used to support start-up operations for the newly formed Chippewa County Crime Stoppers.

Crime Stoppers is a Nationwide program which has been very effective in Wisconsin communities. The program provides the efforts of the public, law enforcement and the media in a coordinated effort to fight crime. Crime Stoppers programs provide anonymity to those reporting and rewards for helping solve crimes, which helps assure Chippewa County remains a safe, enjoyable place to live, work, and recreate.

According to Scott Sullivan, Crime Stoppers President, To the credit of our law enforcement presence, Chippewa County is a great place to live, work, enjoy recreational activities, and raise a family. However, they cannot do it alone. It takes an entire community and generous business such as Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company.

About Chippewa County Crime Stoppers:

Our mission a partnership of the public, law enforcement, and media which provides the community with a means to anonymously assist with solving crimes and contribute to an improved quality of life.

Chippewa County Crime Stoppers in a non-profit organization incorporated January 13, 2022. It is run by a Board of Directors made up of volunteer community members and relies solely on donations to support operational costs, tip line, website fees, and marketing.

Chippewa County Crime Stoppers was formed as a result of the Take A Stand Against Meth Campaign in Chippewa County and will play an important role in helping prevent and solve crimes. This will take an entire community effort.

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CHIPPEWA FALLS  This week some Chippewa County families received checks from the WIC (Women, Infants and Children) program which helps ensure that pregnant, nursing and postpartum women, and children up to the age of 5 have enough to eat. WIC offers coupon books to WIC participants to use at local farmers markets.

Program participants can purchase fresh fruits and vegetables through The Farmers Market Nutrition Program using those coupons. The program provides a one-time benefit to families during the growing season; between June and October.

The WIC program is a nutrition program that provides nutritious foods for eligible women, infants and children as well as nutrition and feeding tips for families, breastfeeding support, and connection to other community area resources, said Stephanie Abbe, director at the Nutrition Division Manager and WIC Director for Chippewa Countys Department of Public Health.

We want to provide them with the best nutrition that we can to help grow healthy families and give them the best start, Abbe said.

Checks and coupon books were distributed to WIC participants alongside a UW-Extension Educator-led nutrition class at the Chippewa Falls Farmers Market on Thursday.

Jennifer, Charlotte, Skylar, Arthur, and Nathan Saule are a family that benefits from the WIC Farmers Market Nutrition Program.

13 years ago I got involved with this program, Jennifer Saule said. Normally you dont have to do a lot of paperwork. Its pretty easy.

Checks are $30 per eligible family member. So a mother with four children under the age of 5 can receive $150 to use at farm stands and farmers markets, for example.

I generally just use the checks to buy fruits and vegetables, she said.

Saule said she thinks her kids are better at eating their fruits and veggies thanks to the program. The children love to help with the food preparation; washing and peeling vegetables.

Saule and her family enjoyed the nutrition class at The Chippewa Falls Farmers Market on Thursday, she said.

One thing I didnt know is that you can freeze potatoes, she said. Some of the stuff I already knew, but that was new information.

Thursdays nutrition classes were led by Nancy Fastner.

We work with people that are food insecure, trying to promote wellness and fitness by partnering with WIC, said Fastner, nutrition educator with the FoodWIse Program at the University of WisconsinMadison.

FoodWIse is a program within the Division of Extensions Institute of Health and Well-Being. The community-based nutrition education program seeks to empower Wisconsin residents with limited incomes to make healthy choices, achieve healthy lives and reduce health disparities.

It is federally funded by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education (SNAP-Ed) and the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP).

Each year FoodWIse delivers nutrition education to more than 50,000 participants statewide. Partnering with community-based organizations it uses a combination of evidence-based strategies designed to promote change for individuals, families and communities and help make the healthy choice the easy choice.

The nutrition programs that Fastner led on Thursday were part of Cooking Matters, which is a Share Your Strength national program. Its designed to help end hunger with children, Fastner said.

We talk about why people should say yes to fruits and vegetables and some fun ways to use fruits and vegetables, preserve them and not be wasting them, she said.

Fastner said people tell her that the program makes a difference. She particularly enjoys hearing from children who have decided they like new foods.

FoodWIse Nutrition Educator, Joy Weisner said the best part about the work is meeting kids, and when parents tell her that their children tried new foods during their educational events or trips to the farmers market.

Just knowing that theyre eating healthier and that something we taught them is making life easier, thats everything. It really matters, Weisner said.

The farmers market checks can be used at specific farms and farmers markets in Chippewa County including Klingers, Chippewa Falls Main Street Farmers Market, Connells Family Orchard LLC, Macs Berry Farm, and Cadott Farmers Market.

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Abortions rights in Wisconsin remain threatened with a permanent end after the conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its landmark ruling in Roe v. Wade on Friday, leaving politicians, abortion providers and activists to grapple with the return of the state's long-dormant 1849 ban on abortion.

The high court's decision on the historic 1973 reproductive rights case led state abortion providers to suspend abortion procedures as they faced the removal of the constitutional guarantee to abortion that permitted medical providers to administer thousands of abortions in Wisconsin each year for decades. But as the 19th-century near-total abortion ban takes effect, it almost certainly will face legal challenges.

Among the first questions before the courts will be whether that 1849 law  which prohibits doctors from providing abortions unless the procedure would be necessary to protect the mothers life and contains no exemptions for rape and incest  is still in effect.

As the legal battles take shape, the future of abortion in Wisconsin may now hinge on the Nov. 8 election.

Incumbent Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and others in his party will keep ensuring the right to abortion front and center in the campaign. As the Republican-controlled Legislature tries to ensure a robust ban remains in place, their bid to unseat Evers and other top Democrats, including Attorney General Josh Kaul, could also become steeped in the future of abortion.

In response to the Supreme Court decision, Evers said he would do everything in his power to fight the ruling through legislative, executive or judicial action. This could even include pardoning individuals charged in Wisconsin for providing or receiving abortions, he said.

For almost 50 years, women in the state of Wisconsin have had these reproductive health decisions, the right to make those, Evers said at a news conference in La Crosse. Theres nothing, in my opinion, more dangerous than having politicians making health care decisions.

Regardless of the months ahead, the Supreme Court's ruling has already had an impact. The suspension of abortion procedures on Friday will likely cause many Wisconsinites to travel to neighboring states like Illinois where abortion remains legal.

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin said the groups legal team was reviewing the decision Friday morning and would provide more information once theyve confirmed what the decision means for Wisconsin.

Kaul has reiterated his stance toward the end of Roe, saying he would not use Department of Justice resources to enforce the state's abortion ban. But with Kaul also up for reelection in November, a future Republican attorney would change course.

Other key law enforcement officials in jurisdictions that have abortion providers also appeared reluctant to enforce the state abortion law on the books. Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne said voters should "elect someone else" if they want his office to enforce the state's abortion ban. In a Friday statement, however, Ozanne did not explicitly say whether or not he'd enforce the ban and his office did not return a request asking for clarification. Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes also said Friday that his department would not arrest those seeking abortion or abortion providers.

Anti-abortion groups have called on Kaul and district attorneys to enforce the abortion ban.

GOP approval

With the general election campaign heating up, Republican gubernatorial candidates trying to unseat Evers praised the Supreme Court's ruling.

Todays decision is a victory for unborn babies across America," former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch said in a statement. "Countless lives will be saved because of the wisdom of the current Supreme Court."

Tim Michels, Kleefischs main opponent in the Republican primary, said he would seek to compassionately work on winning hearts and minds on the issue.

Life must always be protected, Michels said. We should not demonize those who do not believe that, but rather redouble our efforts to show how they can provide a high quality of life for their children.

Democrats in the U.S. Senate failed to codify Roe in a recent attempt, leaving their party to campaign nationwide on protecting abortion rights. But with record-high inflation and U.S. President Joe Biden facing low approval ratings, Republicans have momentum going into the midterms.

Protests erupt

Protests in response to the Supreme Court's decision broke out nationwide, including a massive demonstration in front of the court in Washington, D.C., on Friday.

In Madison, more than a thousand people gathered in front of the state Capitol to lambast the Republican Party and demand the preservation of reproductive rights.

At the Capitol, protester Gracie McGovern, 26, held a sign that said "Not your body, not your choice." Other demonstrators held signs that read "Keep your religion out of politics" and "Abortion saves lives."

"I'm mad," McGovern remarked. "I'm very, very mad. We shouldn't be in this situation in 2022." While some brought signs and musical instruments to Friday's protest, others brought guns. Lilith Kievskaya arrived at the demonstration with an off-brand AK-47 and a pistol with the stated purpose of deterring right-wing groups or agitators who might arrive. Kievskaya said she was part of America United, a Madison-based organization focused on "anti-racist community defense." Madison police have said they are collaborating with other law enforcement agencies to respond to demonstrations over the weekend, said spokesperson Stephanie Fryer. The department is not granting leave requests for Friday and Saturday, and extra patrols will be outside "organizations and businesses that may generate interest" because of the Supreme Court's decision, Fryer said.

What polls say

Despite the 1849 ban, six in 10 Wisconsinites say abortion should be legal in most or all cases.

Marquette Law School polls conducted between September 2012 and last October found that, on average, 25% of respondents said abortion should be legal in all cases and almost 35% said it should be legal in most cases, while 23% said it should be illegal in most cases and 12% said it should be illegal in all cases. An average of 4% of respondents over the 11 polls said they did not know enough to have an opinion.

In Wednesday's Marquette Law School Poll, 27% of respondents said abortion should be legal in all cases, 31% said it should be legal in most cases, 24% said it should be illegal in most cases and 11% said it should be illegal in all cases.

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In Wake of Supreme Court Ruling on Roe, Birmingham Leaders Say They are 'More Than Ready' for a Post-Roe Alabama

NEWS PROVIDED BY

CEC For Life

June 24, 2022



BIRMINGHAM, Ala., June 24, 2022 /Standard Newswire/ -- Many pro-life leaders within the Birmingham community are celebrating this morning after the Supreme Court's monumental decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.



For decades, Roe has been used to halt legitimate, life-affirming laws passed by state legislatures and voting citizens. Alabama, especially, has felt this battle after passing a constitutional amendment in 2018 that established personhood for children in the womb, followed by passing the Human Life Protection Act in 2019, one of the strongest pro-life laws in the nation.



Fr. Terry Gensemer, a long-time Birmingham pastor and director of Charismatic Episcopal Church for Life offers this statement:

"We are overwhelmingly moved by this historic moment, a decisive turning of the tide in this decades long fight to end abortion, and we give thanks and praise to our mighty Father in heaven for this huge leap forward. This is a true victory in so many ways, but it does not end abortion in America. States may finally be free to create a legal sanctuary for preborn children through the will of voters and the work of legislatures, but our work to create a cohesive culture of life across the country is far from over.



"Even with this incredible victory, we must not relent in our support and participation in pro-life efforts, especially life-affirming legislation and local pregnancy centers. In Alabama, CEC For Life will remain focused on equipping pro-life Christians to lead local pro-life efforts and exposing the nefarious practices of abortion clinics  especially those who might attempt to evade a state-wide ban. We will also continue working alongside pregnancy resource centers to help pregnant mothers find compassionate and life-affirming assistance no matter their situation. We dont need less pro-life ministry right now. We need more. And I know the Birmingham pro-life community is up for the challenge."

Currently, Planned Parenthood is the only abortion clinic left tin the city, and it has been unable to consistently provide abortions for several years. In fact, in late April Planned Parenthood Southeast suspended all abortions service in Georgia and Alabama, citing severe staffing issues. While services in Georgia resumed shortly after, abortions at Planned Parenthood Birmingham and Mobile have remained suspended.



Local pregnancy resource centers, on the other hand, have continued to thrive and serve mothers and fathers in the Birmingham area with free assistance and a full array of pregnancy needs, including medical, financial, and emotional support.



Joy Pinto, Executive Director of Her Choice Pregnancy Center, comments,

"We are grateful that the lie of a Constitutional Right to abortion has been exposed and overturned today for the law is a great teacher for good or ill. Many more mothers will be choosing the way of life for themselves and their child. With compassion for both mother and child, we continue to freely offer every needed resource to support mothers in that life choice."



She adds, "We also offer compassionate post-abortion counseling and healing for those who have made the choice of abortion. As a result of the Supreme Court Decision today we are expecting, and are prepared for, greater numbers of both pregnant mothers and mothers who have experienced the grief of pregnancy loss. We affirm the sacredness and dignity of every human being in and out of the womb and stand ready to serve all. All together we will build a new culture and civilization of life beginning in Birmingham."

Alabama is a pro-life state and Birmingham, especially, has developed a vibrant and diverse pro-life community that is not only celebrating Roe being overturned, but also gearing up to meet the needs of a post-Roe America. Alabama is already poised to be a sanctuary state for the preborn, with the laws and resources necessary to help families affirm life and see positive outcomes.



Attorney Eric Johnston, who drafted the Human Life Protection Act, comments,

"Many attack the credibility of SCOTUS because Dobbs reverses Roe and Casey. In truth, it restores credibility for recognizing the error of an opinion not based in the constitution. After sacrificing millions of unborn lives on the alter of so called 'privacy and liberty rights,' the court has returned the issue of abortion to the states where it was prior to 1973. The pro-life community knew this all along and for that reason never gave up the fight."



He adds, "Since 1973, medical advances have reinforced the reality and legality of laws that are rationally based on the premise of protecting unborn life. The Alabama Human Life Protection Act does that and we expect to see the legal challenge dropped. There will be no more abortions in Alabama. We must now step up to help women who otherwise would have aborted their children."



Fr. Gensemer adds,

"As I said before, the Birmingham pro-life community is up for the challenge. We do not need abortion in this state. Abortion numbers have consistently dropped over the last ten years, and fewer and fewer clinics remain open. Those that do remain have done everything from covering up child abuse to severely injuring and even killing women. We are more than ready to see Roe go."

SOURCE CEC For Life



CONTACT: Sarah Neely, CEC For Life, 910-303-2601;

Jim Pinto, Her Choice, 205-447-8796;

Attorney Eric Johnston, 205-408-8893


A former Dane County judge who legally represented former President Donald Trump coordinated with U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson to pass documents falsely stating Trump won Wisconsin to then-Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6, 2021, newly revealed text messages show.

Johnson, R-Oshkosh, also told conservative radio host Vicki McKenna on Thursday that the documents in question came to him from the office of U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa. But a Kelly spokesperson told a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Johnsons comments were patently false.

Mr. Kelly has not spoken to Sen. Johnson for the better part of a decade, and he has no knowledge of the claims Mr. Johnson is making related to the 2020 election, the statement said.

The Wisconsin document, signed by 10 Republicans who convened in the state Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020, was filled out on the same day the Democratic slate of Wisconsin electors met in the same building to deliver the states 10 electoral votes to President-elect Joe Biden. The meeting of Republicans occurred after the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Biden had won the election.

We need to get a document on the Wisconsin electors to you for the VP immediately, former Dane County Circuit Court Judge Jim Troupis told Johnson at 11:36 a.m. Jan. 6, 2021, according to texts provided to conservative media outlet Just the News. Is there a staff person I can talk to immediately. Thanks Jim T.

The conservative outlet also reported that Kelly was in communication with Troupis, who then connected with Johnson. Troupis did not return a phone call or message about why he texted Johnson about the documents.

Six minutes later, screenshots of the text messages show, Johnson connected his chief of staff, Sean Riley, with Troupis in a text chain. Riley was newly serving in Johnsons office and was previously a Trump White House adviser.

An hour after Johnson referred Troupis to Riley, Riley sought the assistance of a Pence aide in passing the document, and another falsely asserting Trump won Michigan, to the vice president but was rebuffed.

Johnson needs to hand something to VPOTUS please advise, Riley texted Pence aide Chris Hodgson at 12:37 p.m. that day, moments before the Congress met in joint session to certify the Electoral College vote count.

What is it? Hodgson replied.

Alternate slate of electors for MI and WI because archivist didnt receive them, Riley said.

Do not give that to him, Hodgson said.

More details

Those communications were first revealed on Tuesday by the U.S. House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. But newly revealed texts from Just the News show Pences aide expected those documents through the mail and denied the request because, he said, Pence shouldnt receive any unscreened mail.

Hes about to walk over to preside over the joint session, those were supposed to come in through the mail, Hodgson told Riley.

I can do that. Anything else? Riley replied.

The VP absolutely should not receive any mail that hasnt been screened, Hodgson said.

Understood, Johnson understands, Riley said.

After that exchange, Just the News reported, Johnson texted Troupis and said, We have been informed the VP cannot accept any unsealed mail and I cannot hand it to him.

Two days before the text exchange between Johnsons office and that of the vice president, according to another text the House committee disclosed Tuesday, Wisconsin Republican Party executive director Mark Jefferson texted an unidentified person saying, Freaking trump idiots want someone to fly original elector papers to the senate President. Theyre gonna call one of us to tell us just what the hell is going on.

Republican Party of Wisconsin spokesperson Anna Kelly did not respond to questions Thursday about whether anybody from the party sent the fake slate of electors anywhere besides the National Archives. Republican Party of Wisconsin chair Paul Farrow did not return a call. A package tracker shows the documents were shipped from Madison on Dec. 16, 2020, and delivered to the National Archives Jan. 4, 2021, the same day of Jeffersons text.

Johnson also told McKenna he didnt know what the documents contained despite Troupis  whos now under fire for coordinating with Wisconsin Republicans who posed as electors  telling Johnson he needed to pass Pence a document on the Wisconsin electors.

After the Select Committee hearing Tuesday, Johnson told a CNN reporter, I had no involvement in an alternate slate of electors. I had no idea this was even going to be delivered to us. It got delivered staff to staff. My chief of staff did the right thing  contacted the vice presidents staff. They said (they) didnt want it, so we didnt deliver it. Thats the end of story.

I was aware that we got something they wanted to be delivered to the vice president, Johnson continued as reporters questioned him. I mean, you guys, this took place in the span of a few minutes. The story ended. Theres nothing to this.

Wisconsin electors

Republicans have said the meeting to sign the document was to preserve their legal options amid litigation surrounding the election. Trump attorney Kenneth Chesebro sent a memo to Troupis on Nov. 18, 2020, detailing the Republicans eventual plan to pose as electors.

One of those fake electors, former Wisconsin Republican Party chair Andrew Hitt, told the House committee in a video presented Tuesday that he was told their electoral votes would only count if a court ruled in the former presidents favor.

The most recent revelation provides more context to Johnsons efforts to scrutinize the 2020 election despite voicing confidence in the results on a secret recording.

On Dec. 16, 2020, Johnson, as chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, hosted a hearing on irregularities in the 2020 election, which critics slammed for amplifying election disinformation.

In a statement following the hearing, Johnson said he held the hearing to investigate irregularities that have yet to be fully explained, fully investigated, and solutions passed to restore confidence in future elections.

Yet, on Aug. 31, 2021, a liberal activist released a secretly recorded video of Johnson telling her there was nothing obviously skewed about the results of the 2020 election.

There isnt, he said. Collectively, Republicans got 1.661 million votes, 51,000 votes more than Trump got. Trump lost by 20,000. If Trump got all the Republicans, if all the Republicans voted for Trump the way they voted for the Assembly candidates  he would have won. He didnt get 51,000 votes that other Republicans got. And thats why he lost.

But Johnson has also called for state lawmakers to take over federal elections and ignore the Wisconsin Elections Commission, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Johnson has also consistently supported former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gablemans effort to review the 2020 election.

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Wisconsin utility regulators have awarded nearly $125 million in grants to help expand access to high-speed internet service.

The awards  funded through borrowing authorized in the current two-year budget  are expected to bring broadband service to nearly 83,000 homes and more than 4,500 businesses across the state, according to the Public Service Commission.

The PSC says the grants to 71 projects will leverage nearly $185.8 million in matching funds from the recipients, which include private and public service providers in 45 counties.

With the latest round of awards, the state will have given out some $346.6 million in the nine years since the broadband expansion program was launched nine years ago. Nearly two-thirds of that funding will have been spent under the Evers administration, including $100 million awarded last year from the roughly $2.5 billion in federal pandemic relief awarded to Wisconsin through the American Rescue Plan Act.

Weve made tremendous progress in the past three years towards getting people access to high-quality, affordable internet service, PSC chair Rebecca Cameron Valcq said in a statement. We will continue to make the investments needed to ensure all in our state have access to affordable broadband.

Commissioner Ellen Nowak said the program has outgrown the intended structure and called on lawmakers to change how public funds are spent. Nowak said in many cases providers who received previous funding for wireless service are now coming back for help installing fiber optic cable.

Weve gone past the low-hanging fruit, she said. I feel like were shoveling in a snowstorm.

Evers sought $200 million for broadband expansion in his last budget proposal, though Republicans in the Legislature instead approved borrowing $125 million.

Evers initially planned to award $100 million this year but decided to award the full amount after the PSC received nearly 200 applications seeking some $495 million in public funding.

Valcq said because the grants are funded through bonding there were administrative efficiencies to awarding them all at once.

The state will have about $4 million available for grants next year through the Universal Service Fund, a 30-year-old program to ensure access to essential telecommunications service.

The PSC has estimated it would cost between $740 million and $1.4 billion to bring what the Federal Communications Commission considers high-speed internet service (25/3 Mbps) to all residents.

Broadband experts say the market has served most of the densely populated areas where theres a good return on investment. But in many rural areas there arent enough customers to cover the cost of installing cable or building wireless towers.

According to a 2021 report from the Federal Communications Commission, nearly 395,000 Wisconsin residents lack access, though private studies have estimated the actual number could be higher than 600,000.

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Seventy-five years after his death, William H. Fetters will be recognized as the last Civil War veteran buried in Polk County as part of a statewide project.

The Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW) is a group that preserves the history those who fought and worked to save the Union. It is the successor of the Grand Army of the Republic, which was an organization made up of those who fought in the Civil War.

In 2003, the SUVCW started its Last Union Soldier Project in which the final resting place of the last Union Civil War soldier in each county nationally is located and marked. Nebraskas group has identified each solider and begun the process of marking those graces with a bronze medal star and a QR code medallion.

We're going to each county and putting up a special marker to the last Union soldier who was buried in that particular county. Of the 93 counties (in Nebraska), there are 92 that have a soldier buried there, Nebraska SUVCW Past Cmmdr. Paul Hadley said. Some have thousands, some have just a couple. Mr. Fetters was one of the very early settlers of Stromsburg. And when he passed him, he was one of the only two guys left in the state that were Union veterans.

Fetters passed away in 1947 at the age of 102.

Fetters marker will be dedicated this Saturday. The ceremony begins at 4 p.m. at the Stromsburg Cemetery, which is located on Ninth Street (County Road 126) on the east edge of the town. Local historian Charles Noyd will speak about Fetters life.

A meal will be served at 5:30 p.m. at the American Legion in Stromsburg, and the First Nebraska Volunteers Brass Band will present a free concert at 6 p.m. in the town square. These musicians in Civil War style uniforms specialize in patriotic tunes and music from the 19th century.

Born in rural Indiana in 1844, Fetters enlisted in the 30th Indiana Infantry at the age of 17, according to a Nebraska SUVCW press release. He served from 1862 to 1865. He was wounded during the battle of Stones River near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, in December 1862 and was captured and sent to a Confederate prison camp in Richmond. Fetters was later exchanged and rejoined his regiment, which saw action in several other engagements during the Civil War.

Fetters married Sarah Sawyer in Indiana in 1866, and the couple moved to a homestead 5 miles west of Stromsburg in 1872. After establishing a prosperous farm in Polk County, the Fetters moved to Stromsburg in 1903, where he retired. Williams wife and their three children died before him, but he was survived by many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. In his later years, William lived with granddaughter Ruth Larson and her family.

Hadley noted that Fetters great-grandson, Richard Larson, attended a 75th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1938 with him. Larson, who now resides in Florida, will be attending this weekends ceremony, the press release said.

Fetters received a Purple Heart in 1940. According to Hadley, the Purple Heart had not been around during the Civil War era.

After the war, in the late 1830s, they said any veteran who had been wounded in in a war merits this, Hadley said. So the Civil War guys applied and Mr. Fetters was one of them. So he has the Purple Heart too.

He noted theres a chance that Fetters Purple Heart may be brought to the ceremony.

As of March 2022, the Last Union Soldier Project has been completed in 28 of the 93 counties in Nebraska. Markers are also being planned for North and South Dakota. Just last summer, the group held a similar ceremony honoring James Hill as the last Civil War veteran buried in Dodge County.

What we're doing is trying to kind of draw attention to the impact that the Civil War veterans had in Nebraska, Hadley said.

Hannah Schrodt is the news editor of The Columbus Telegram. Reach her via email at hannah.schrodt@lee.net.

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SIM Swaps, Other Crypto-related Crimes Set to Rise in South Korea, Says SK

Source: AdobeStock / acarapi

A South Korean telecommunications giant has claimed that SIM swap-type crypto attacks are on the rise in the country  and has predicted a rise in all crypto-related crime cases in the second half of 2022.

The claims were made by SK Shieldus, part of the SK Group, which owns SK Telecom  one of the nations two biggest mobile and internet carriers. SK Shieldus, formerly ADT Caps, is one of the nations biggest physical and internet security brands.

Per News1, the company stated that as of January this year, the company had seen evidence of SIM swap attacks taking place  with criminals specifically targeting mobile phone users who have crypto holdings.

The firm added that this trend would likely continue upward in the months ahead, and added that a recent attack on a domestic decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol had seen criminals make off with some USD 1.7 million.

Furthermore, the company added that notorious ransomware groups were carrying out re-branding efforts in an attempt to avoid the attention of investigative authorities. SK Shieldus claimed that these re-branding drives were a sign that such groups would become more active. Some groups, the firm said, were now preparing the launch of a variety of attacks.



SK Shieldus added that hacking attacks on a number of crypto targets would expand in H2, with more DeFi targets already in criminals crosshairs.

We expect more attacks targeting virtual assets [in general], the firm stated.

It added that lone-wolf hackers were now a dying breed  and that bigger groups were now looking to wove into the space. An executive was quoted as explaining:

In the past, hackers developed ransomware alone. But now they are systematically hiring malicious code developers. They are prepared to share their income with these developers.

The firm concluded that companies should keep an eye on the LockBit ransomware gang, which began to step up its activity in September 2019  when it launched so-called ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operations.

The SK subsidiary stated that its data showed that LockBit is currently up to three times more active than other RaaS groups, including Conti and BlackCat.

____

Learn more:

- Hacker Used Social Media Data Leak to Steal USD 660K in Crypto from 90 Victims - Police

- Woman Gets 5-year Jail Term After Stealing USD 87K Worth of Crypto in Dating App Scam



- MetaMask Aims to Help Crypto Scam & Phishing Victims Take Legal Action Against Fraudsters

- Personal Data Leaks In Crypto Are Inevitable, Heres What Can Be Done



- Terraform Officials Banned from Leaving South Korea as Do Kwon May Apply for Singaporean Citizenship

- South Korea to Launch a Crypto Regulatory Agency in Wake of LUNA Crash
Spanish Government Wants Crypto Holders to Report their Transactions & Holdings from 2023

Spains Minister of Finance and Public Function Maria Jesus Montero.

Source: a video screenshot, El Pais / YouTube

Spanish authorities will force crypto owners to declare their crypto-related operations and coin holdings. The nations finance chief also stated that crypto exchanges will be forced to report on their customers activities from next year  and warned that similar European Union-wide measures were now in the pipelines.

According to the media outlet La Vanguardia, Spains Minister of Finance and Public Function Maria Jesus Montero stated that government organs were now working on regulations that will force cryptocurrency holders to submit an annual declaration of their token purchase and sale operations to the Treasury.

The measures will need to be put to a vote in parliament, but will likely be bundled with other measures, such as laws pertaining to tax rates on electricity providers. They will likely also be tacked onto anti-fraud laws, making their passage through parliament a virtual shoo-in.

The minister claimed that the new crypto regulations would likely come into force on January 1, 2023.

Montero further stated that Spain was acting in anticipation of regulations that would soon be carried out throughout the European Union, adding that other countries were already working along the same lines.

Montero was quoted as calling crypto a new [form of] currency that the government must be able to regulate to ensure that no type of fraud or undesirable effects impacted the Spanish economy.

The finance chief went on to add that the regulations would also seek to force crypto platforms and companies that facilitate the purchase or exchange of cryptocurrencies to submit an annual document containing information on crypto movements on their platforms. Exchanges will also be obliged to provide details on the owners of all the coins on their platforms.

The Treasury will be hoping to avoid another embarrassment on the crypto tax declaration front, however. Earlier this year, tax authorities and government bodies, including the Ministry of Finance, were forced into a humiliating climbdown after an effort to make Spaniards who hold coins on overseas platforms declare their holdings ran into difficulties.

The tax body had previously told citizens who hold tokens on overseas platforms that they should disclose their crypto holdings on annual overseas assets tax declarations in March (at the end of FY2021).

The body had told crypto owners with coins held on non-Spanish platforms to add details of their holdings to an assets declaration form. But this drive was blighted by apparent clerical errors: crypto holders complained that there were no fields on the aforementioned form for crypto holdings. This eventually forced the Ministry of Finance to make an eleventh-hour U-turn and tell crypto holders they did not need to submit details of their overseas crypto holdings after all.

____

Learn more:

- Spains Basque Country Readies its Own Crypto Tax Laws, Exchanges to Be Forced to Report on Clients

- Binance Stops Crypto Derivatives Trading in Spain at Regulators Request  Report



- Spanish Crypto Investors Fleeing to Portugal to Escape Taxes, Say Lawyers

- After a Scare, Spaniards Wont Have to Declare their Overseas Crypto Holdings this Year



- Amid Looming Euro Zone Economic Downturn, ECB's Lagarde Worries About Crypto, DeFi

- French Lawmaker Releases New Report to Push for Crypto Legislation
At least five Republican members of Congress, including Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, sought pardons from President Donald Trump that would shield them from criminal prosecution in the days after the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, according to testimony Thursday before the House Jan. 6 committee.

Perry and Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Matt Gaetz of Florida and Louie Gohmert of Texas all had been involved in efforts to reject the electoral tally or submit fake electors.

All sought pardons, according to Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to Trumps chief of staff, Mark Meadows. Hutchinson testified previously in video shown at the hearing.

Blanket pardons for all those involved in Jan. 6 were also discussed, according to another White House aide, John McEntee.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who led the hearing, said the only reason to ask for a pardon is if you think youve committed a crime.

Perry issued a statement Thursday evening denying he asked Trump for a pardon.

I stand by my statement that I never sought a Presidential pardon for myself or other Members of Congress. At no time did I speak with Ms. Hutchinson, a White House scheduler, nor any WH staff about a pardon for myself or any other Member of Congress  this never happened.

The House panel had previously alleged that Perry, who represents parts of Cumberland, Dauphin and York counties, had sought a pardon from Trump. Perry, a leader of efforts to object to the 2020 presidential election results, has also been linked to connecting Trump with Jeffrey Clark, an official in the Department of Justice who supported Trumps efforts, according to testimony and documents obtained by the committee. Perry has acknowledged that connection in the past.

Perry had denied earlier accusations that he sought a pardon through statements issued to multiple Midstate media outlets.

In a statement on May 12, the select committee said, Representative Scott Perry was directly involved with efforts to corrupt the Department of Justice and install Jeffrey Clark as acting attorney general. The committee said in addition, Mr. Perry had various communications with the White House about a number of matters relevant to the Select Committees investigation, including allegations that Dominion voting machines had been corrupted.

Last month, the panel subpoenaed five Republican lawmakers, including House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, but none has so far complied. Subpoenas were also issued to Perry, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Mo Brooks of Alabama. All four met with Trump and White House officials as the former president focused on the Jan. 6 congressional electoral count as his last opportunity to overturn his defeat.

Perry has said he refuses to participate in the committees proceedings because he doesnt believe its been established according to House Rules.

Gaetz tweeted that the hearing is a political sideshow.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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The law for estate planning was largely designed with a traditional nuclear family in mind. As time goes by, we realize that there are many families who dont fit neatly within that nuclear family bubble and who face unique challenges.

Estate planning has historically posed a significant challenge for same sex couples. The availability of marriage, in particular, has had a major impact.

Currently, same-sex couples have a right to marry in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. That right was established in 2014, in the case of Whitewood v. Wolf, which was following the U.S. Supreme Courts landmark decision in United States v. Windsor in 2013.

In the Windsor case, the surviving member of a same-sex couple whose marriage was lawful in her home state of New York, sought to have the federal government recognize her marriage and allow her a spousal exemption from Federal Estate Tax. The U.S. Supreme Court held that section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a federal law, was unconstitutional under the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. That section of DOMA defined marriage and spouse to apply only to an opposite-sex couple. The court held that section of DOMA violated the equal protection and due process principles in the Fifth Amendment by identifying a subset of state-sanctioned marriages and making those marriages unequal in terms of access to tax benefits, such as the Federal Estate Tax at issue in the case, as well as a number of other benefits available to spouses.

Soon after, the Middle District of Pennsylvania decided Whitewood v. Wolf. That case decided that Pennsylvanias Marriage Laws, which defined marriage as being between one man and one woman, were unconstitutional for the same reasons as the similar provision of DOMA. The Whitewood v. Wolf decision was issued on May 20, 2014, and thereafter same sex marriage has been lawful in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Prior to May 20, 2014, same-sex couples could not legally marry in Pennsylvania, and same-sex marriages from other states were not recognized in Pennsylvania. Prior to 2004, no other state in the United States allowed a same-sex couple to legally marry, though some allowed similar rights under a civil union or domestic partnership. Prior to 2000, there was no legal recognition for same-sex couples to formalize their relationship as a marriage or a marriage-like institution.

Without access to marriage, couples in loving, committed, same-sex relationships had no more legal rights than roommates. The most significant person in their life might not have been permitted entry into their hospital room. Wills leaving property to a same-sex partner could be attacked and invalidated by family members who were not supportive of their relatives relationship.

If both names were not on the deed to real estate, the surviving partner could lose the home they invested in and planned to live in for the remainder of their lives. If property did successfully pass by will to the same-sex partner, inheritance tax was charged at the highest rate payable by a person who is unrelated, rather than the lowest rate payable by a spouse.

Adoption was historically used as an estate planning tool by same-sex couples. Rather than become spouses, one member of the same-sex couple would become the adoptive parent of the other. It was not the ideally desired legal relationship, but if a court granted the adoption, the couple had a legal relationship that allowed more rights than would otherwise be available to them.

The adoption terminated the familial relationship and inheritance rights as to one partners (the adoptive childs) biological parents. In their place, it established a family relationship with inheritance rights as parent and child between the members of the same-sex couple. For most of the last century, the inheritance tax rate was still more favorable between spouses than between parent and child, but the parent-child rate was and remains more favorable than the rate for unrelated persons.

Same-sex couples continue to face unique challenges in estate planning that are less common for opposite-sex couples. Adoption continues to be an important tool in family and estate planning for same-sex couples, though now it is used in the way adoption is expected to be used, to secure parental and inheritance rights with the children of the relationship.

Assistive Reproductive Technology (ART), including in vitro fertilization, genetic donation and surrogacy, is more common among same-sex couples. Couples who need to rely upon ART to have children are in a more complicated situation for family law and estate planning reasons.

ART is most typically used if one or both of the intended parents are unable to have children, or if they are a same-sex couple that cannot reproduce together through traditional means. In those situations, the ART process uses donated genetic material or embryos to allow the couple to have children that may only be genetically related to one intended parent or may not be genetically related to either intended parent. If only one intended parent is the genetic parent of the child, or if neither intended parent is the genetic parent, then the couple should work with an attorney familiar with surrogacy, adoption and family law to obtain a court order to legally establish that parent-child relationship.

Another distinction of ART that could pose challenges in estate planning is its timing. If someone passes away, we typically expect any of their children to be born no later than 9 months after their death. That is not necessarily the case with ART. Genetic material or embryos can be frozen and used later. A child born through ART could be born years after the parents death. A person who expects to use ART to have children should talk to an estate planning attorney about how to provide for any children that may be born after their own passing.

Find additional articles & resources at www.KeystoneElderLaw.com or join their Facebook group Later in Life Planning and Resources. Keystone Elder Law P.C. is located in Mechanicsburg. Call 717-697-3223 for a free telephone consultation with their Care Coordinator.

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In her first week on the job at a Philadelphia abortion clinic, Amanda Kifferly was taught how to search for bombs. About a year later, protesters blocked the entrances and exits of the The Women's Centers, at one point pulling Kifferly into something resembling a mosh pit, where they surrounded her and shoved her around.
I watched one of my favorite movies the other night, Quo Vadis.

Despite the cheesy costumes and over the top acting, it has important historical value, in that it describes a critical but faded episode of inhumanity: The persecution of Christians. We know about it, we have some vague memories of the people who had to dance around the lions in the Colosseum, but the events are generally filed under news too old to care about.

Except, the news too old to care about is todays headline. No lions, no Colosseum, just the massacre of Nigerian Catholics in a church on Pentecost Sunday, 2022.

Nigeria is a country whose Christians have been under assault for over a decade. According to the website Genocide Watch, over 45,000 Christians have been assassinated in the last 13 years, making that country the most dangerous in Africa for members of the faith. Catholics are in particular danger, because we represent a large percentage of Christians in the country and attract most of the attention.

This time, they waited until the worshippers entered St. Francis Church in Owo, Ondo State, and then started shooting at them from both inside and outside of the building. Reports state that some of the attackers were disguised as parishioners. Some have attributed the assault to random violence.

But dont be misled. The history of anti-Christian violence in Nigeria is a part of the fabric of the nation, something that mirrors a similar wave of persecution that has engulfed much of Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and Central America. A lot of it is fueled by a particularly extreme and virulent form of Islam, such as that practiced by the Boko Haram in Nigeria and ISIS in the Middle East. Some of it is rooted in hostility toward the social justice mission of many Christian churches, such as those who evangelize against gang violence in El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala.

In my 25 years practicing immigration law, Ive handled a lot of asylum cases. But the ones that cause me the largest number of sleepless nights are the ones that involve religious persecution. Just this past week we were successful in obtaining asylum for a Catholic youth leader from El Salvador who had a gun held to his head as he was counseling young boys in church. He was told that if he didnt stop trying to keep the boys from joining Mara Salvatrucha, the most violent gang in that country, he would end up like Romero. That was a clear reference to the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero who was assassinated at the altar while celebrating Mass in San Salvador over 40 years ago.

Ive also represented Protestant preachers whove been kidnapped, threatened and in one case orphaned (mother and father murdered) because of their ministries in Honduras and China.

The most heart-wrenching case was that of a young Salvadoran woman who was raped by her boyfriend, a police officer, and became pregnant. When he demanded that she abort the child, she refused because of her Catholic beliefs, at which point he beat her so severely that she miscarried. And when she tried to report him to his fellow police officers, she was told that she should have gotten an abortion (this, in a country that sacrificed martyrs for the church).

Somehow, these stories rarely make it up through the media magma, the dense layers of preferences that the people who run the newspapers and cable networks impose on the rest of us. The fact that someone thinks she was assaulted by Bill Cosby in 1975 is more interesting, they think, than the stories of missionaries being kidnapped in Haiti. People Magazine will give its cover over to the juicy details of Meghan Markles latest grievance, while the massacred bodies of churchgoers will make it to page 5 of the Washington Post.

The truth is uncomfortable, but its still the truth. The vast majority of Christians persecuted for religious reasons are killed by non-Christians, including Muslims, Hindus and Chinese atheists. The statistics are quite clear on this, even though Amnesty International (which thinks that abortion is a human right) will try and avoid naming names.

And Ill go even further. The last acceptable prejudice in America is anti-Catholicism. Its not persecution, but the level to which it infects our current society is insidious.

Instead of cracking jokes about how misogynistic, bigoted and backwards Christians are, it might be a better idea to notice the bleeding bodies.

Christine Flowers is an attorney and a columnist for the Delaware County Daily Times, and can be reached at cflowers1961@gmail.com.

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By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

Indonesia and Azerbaijan have agreed to increase cooperation in the trade and halal tourism industry, Azernews reports citing Antaranews.

The Indonesian Foreign Ministry made the statement following a meeting between Indonesian Vice President Ma'ruf Amin and Azerbaijani Ambassador to Indonesia Jalal Mriyazev.

Speaking about the meeting, the ministry's director of South and Central Asia Jatmiko Prasetyo said that the sides mutually agreed on an increase in trade and partnership in the halal tourism industry.

"I think one aspect that Ambassador Jalal and Mr. Vice-President mutually agreed upon was an increase in trade as well as cooperation in the halal tourism industry, and, of course, halal products from Indonesia could enter Azerbaijan," said the ministry's Director of South and Central Asia Jatmiko Prasetyo.

He pointed out that discussions at the meeting covered the bilateral relations between the two countries.

Azerbaijani Ambassador to Indonesia Jalal Mriyazev expressed his gratitude to the Indonesian Vice-President for the country's support in international forums and in the framework of bilateral ties.

"Specifically, Ambassador Jalal also spoke about thirty years of diplomatic relations, which will be celebrated in 2022, and conveyed a request to be a momentum for the two countries to further enhance bilateral relations, especially through the exchange of visits and improvement of bilateral mechanisms," said Mriyazev.

Indonesian Vice President Ma'ruf Amin expressed his hope that the Azerbaijani ambassador would fully cooperate to increase trade in non-oil and gas products between Indonesia and Azerbaijan so that the national trade balance could be more balanced, and the trading system would be higher in the future.

Notably, Azerbaijan and Indonesia have built strong diplomatic relations.

Indonesia recognized the Azerbaijani independence on December 28, 1991, and diplomatic relations between the two countries were established on September 24, 1992.

The two countries actively cooperate in international organizations and always support each other in UN, OIC, NAM, and other international organizations.

Both countries recognize and support their territorial integrity and sovereignty within their internationally recognized borders. Around 12 documents were signed between the two countries.
The US Supreme Court has overturned key rulings enshrining abortion rights across the country, leaving states to determine whether to ban the procedure and force women to carry pregnancies to term.

Without protections under the landmark 1973 ruling in Roe v Wade, roughly half of US states will move to immediately or quickly outlaw abortion, including 13 states with so-called trigger bans in place  laws designed to take effect without Roe.

In the hours after the Supreme Courts decision on 24 June, state officials declared that those laws became active in Kentucky, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Missouri and South Dakota. Others are expected to take effect within 30 days of the decision. Most do not include exceptions for rape and incest.

Nine states have laws in place that banned abortions before the Roe ruling but have never been removed from the books.

Several states that passed unconsitutional abortion laws blocked by the courts are expected to challenge those rulings and swiftly implement their restrictions. Republican governors are also asking their state legislatures to pass restrictive laws now that Roe has been struck down.

Democratic governors in several states  including Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin  have sought to combat anti-abortion legislation passed by their Republican-led legislatures.

Midterm elections also could be a deciding factor for abortion rights in some states. In August, Kansas voters will determine whether to support a constititional amendment that will strip abortion protections, and the next governor of Pennsylvania will either push severe anti-abortion legislation or protect it.

In Virginia, Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin told state legislators to send him a bill that outlaws abortion at 15 weeks, while Massachusettss Democratic Governor Charlie Baker signed an executive order to to protect reproductive health care providers who serve patients traveling from out of state.

Meanwhile, more than a dozen states and Washington DC have laws that protect abortion rights, including explicit protections in state constitutions or laws allowing for abortion up to a certain point in pregnancy or throughout a pregnancy.

Story continues

A coalition of Democratic governors on the West Coast pledged to fight like hell to protect abortion access.

Those immense disparities in abortion access  and whether Americans will be prosecuted for seeking abortions or protected with resources from the state  has effectively balkanized the US, now a patchwork of reproductive health rights and restrictions.

Alabama

The state has a pre-Roe ban on abortions that has not been repealed. In 2018, voters also approved an amendment to the states constitution to assert that abortion rights are not protected in the state.

In 2019, Governor Kay Ivey signed a bill into law banning nearly all abortions, which was blocked by a federal judge. Without Roe, state officials are likely to challenge the ruling.

Alaska

The right to abortion is protected at all stages of pregnancy, with a 1997 state Supreme Court ruling determining that the states constitution protects the right to an abortion. The states anti-abortion governor, however, has called for a robust discussion on the future of abortion access after Roe is overturned.

Arizona

A pre-Roe ban outlaws abortions except in cases where the procedure could save the patients life. Governor Doug Ducey also has signed a law banning abortions at 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Arkansas

A trigger law in Arkansas prohits abortions in nearly all cases execpt in the event of a life-threatening medical emergency. The state also passed a near-total ban on abortions in 2021 and has a pro-Roe ban that is still on the books. Providers could face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000 if convicted.

California

State legislators have approved a measure that will allow voters to determine whether to amend the states constitution to include fundamental protections for abortion care. We know we cant trust the Supreme Court to protect reproductive rights, so California will build a firewall around this right in our state constitution, governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement earlier this year.

The governor has also signed legislation that bans insurance providers from requiring cost-sharing payments such as deductibles, coinsurance or copayments for abortion care in an effort to make access more affordable.

Colorado

Governor Jared Polis signed legislation this year that guarantees the right to have an abortion and to make decisions about how to exercise that right. It also states that a fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus does not have independent or derivative rights under state law.

Connecticut

The state protects the right to an abortion up until viability, after which abortion care is allowed only to protect the life or health of the patient.

Governor Ned Lamont also signed legislation that shields medical providers who perform abortions and out-of-state patients who travel to the state to receive the procedure from lawsuits in states that have criminalised care.

Delaware

The state protects the right to an abortion up until viability, after which abortion care is allowed only to protect the life or health of the patient.

Florida

A law banning abortions at 15 weeks of pregnancy was enacted in 2022. Abortion is outlawed in all instances execpt to protect the life of the patient, prevent serious injury or if the foetus has a fatal abnormality.

Georgia

State officials are likely to enforce a 2019 law outlawing abortions at six weeks of pregnancy, before many people know they are pregnant. Previous law protected abortion care up to 20 weeks.

Hawaii

The state protects the right to an abortion up until viability, and state law prohibits the government from denying or interfering with a persons right to choose or obtain an abortion of a nonviable fetus that would protect the life or health of the patient.

Idaho

Abortion care providers could face up to five years in prison under Idahos trigger ban, which is designed to go into effect 30 days after Roe is overturned. The law makes exceptions if the procedure is to prevent the death of the patient or in the case of rape or incest.

The state was also the first to approve an abortion ban mirroring the Texas law, though the states Supreme Court temporarily blocked the law following a legal challenge from Planned Parenthood. Both Idahos governor and the states attorney general have suggested that the ban is unconstitutional though it remains in effect.

Illinois

In 2019, the state recognised the fundamental right to make autonomous decisions about ones own reproductive health, including to continue a pregnancy and give birth or to have an abortion.

The law repeals the Illinois Abortion Law of 1975 and its Partial-birth Abortion Ban Act. It also establishes that a fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus does not have independent rights under the law of this State.

Following the leaked draft opinion of the Dobbs case, Democratic governor JB Pritzker said at a news conference that the state will remain a beacon of hope in an increasingly dark world.

Because we will fight like hell, not just for the women of Illinois, but for every person in our state and every person across the nation who believes not in limiting civil rights and human rights, but in expanding them, he said.

Indiana

The right to an abortion is not protected but generally legal within 20 weeks of pregnancy.

After the Supreme Courts decision, the states Republican Governor Eric Holcomb said we have an opportunity to make progress in protecting the sanctity of life, and thats exactly what we will do. Republican state legislators have also asked him to convene a special legislative session to pass anti-abortion legislation.

Iowa

Abortion is legal up to 20 weeks of pregnancy. The states Republican Governor Kim Reynolds said in a statement following the Supreme Courts ruling that the deciusion marks one of the courts greatest moments.

But the fight for life is not over, she said. As governor, I wont rest until every unborn Iowan is protected and respected.

In June, the states Supreme Court reversed an earlier court ruling that determined that the states constitution protected the right to an abortion.

Kansas

Abortion is legal up to 22 weeks of pregnancy. In 2019, the states Supreme Court ruled that the state constitution includes the right to an abortion, but on 2 August, voters will determine whether to preserve that right. Republican state legislators also are likely to seek restrictions on abortion care.

Kentucky

A 2019 trigger law outlaws nearly all abortions and makes provider care a felony offense. Abortions are outlawed in nearly all cases except to save the life of the patient or to prevent the permanent injury of a life-sustaining organ.

Louisiana

The states trigger law bans providers from performing an abortion or providing abortion medication in all cases, provided that the physician makes reasonable medical efforts to save the life of the patient and the foetus.

In 2022, Louisianas Democratic anti-abortion governor also signed a bill that effectively outlaws all abortions beyond the moment of fertilization and implantation. It makes no exception for rape or incest.

Maine

The state protects the right to an abortion up until viability, after which abortion care is allowed only to protect the life or health of the patient.

Maryland

The state protects the right to an abortion up until viability, after which abortion care is allowed only to protect the life or health of the patient, or if the foetus is affected by genetic defect or serious deformity or abnormality.

A bill effective on 1 July also requires most health insurance providers to cover abortion care.

Massachusetts

The state protects the right to an abortion up until 24 weeks of pregnancy. In the wake of the Supreme Court decision, Governor Charlie Baker signed an executive order to to protect reproductive health care providers who serve patients traveling from out of state.

Michigan

The state maintains a pre-Roe abortion ban, but a judge has ruled that the state cannot enforce the law while a lawsuit challenging the law makes its way through state courts. Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer also has signed an executive order directing state agencies to find ways to bolster reproductive healthcare.

Minnesota

The right to an abortion up to viability is protected under the state constitution following a decision in a 1995 Minnesota Supreme Court case.

Mississippi

Within 10 days of the states attorney general confirming a ruling in Roe, abortions are illegal in the state except in cases of rape or when the procedure could save life of the patient under Mississippis trigger ban.

The states law banning abortions at 15 weeks of pregnancy was at the centre of the current Supreme Court case to determine whether to overrule the Roe precedent.

Missouri

A 2019 state law makes abortion care a felony except in cases of medical emergencies.

Montana

The right to an abortion is protected under the state constitution following a decision in a Montana Supreme Court case in 1999. State legislators passed a number of anti-abortion measures in 2021.

Nebraska

The right to an abortion is protected up to 20 to 22 weeks though state legislators have approved a number of restrictive laws.

Nevada

The state protects the right to an abortion up until 24 weeks of pregnancy, after which abortion care is allowed only to protect the life or health of the patient.

New Hampshire

The state outlaws abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy. There are no state laws guaranteeing the right to an abortion, making it the only state in New England without such a provision.

New Jersey

The right to abortion is protected at all stages of pregnancy. In 2022, the state enacted protections recognising abortion as a fundamental right, affirmed by the states constitution and the states highest court as the fundamental right of a woman to control her body and destiny.

New Mexico

The right to an abortion is neither protected nor outlawed.

A pre-Roe abortion law banned abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or if it was necessary to save the life of the patient. That law remained on the books despite the Roe ruling that made it unconstitutional. It was finally repealed in 2021.

New York

In 2019, the state passed comprehensive abortion protections and removed abortion from the states criminal code. The state protects the right to an abortion up until 24 weeks of pregnancy, after which abortion care is allowed only to protect the life or health of the patient or if the foetus is no longer viable.

A legislative package in 2022 includes legal protections for abortion providers and out-of-state patients seeking an abortion in New York, which would block state courts from pursuing cases related to anti-abortion laws in other states.

The measures also protect abortion providers from arrest, extradition and legal action in other states by prohibiting state and local courts and law enforcement from cooperating with anti-abortion cases in those states. Another law allows people to sue for unlawful interference with their right to abortion care if they face civil or criminal charges for seeking or providing abortions.

The state also will prevent health insurance providers from taking action against New York-based providers who provide reproductive health services that are illegal in other states.

North Carolina

The right to an abortion is neither protected nor outlawed.

North Dakota

A 2007 state law makes abortion care a felony except in cases where the procedure could save the mothers life.

Ohio

Abortion is legal up to 20 weeks of pregnancy, though Governor Mike DeWine has signalled to anti-abortion legislators that he would support a 2019 bill that would effectively outlaw abortions at about six weeks of pregnancy.

A federal judge blocked the measure from going into effect, but the states attorney general has filed a motion to lift the stay following the Roe decision. Anti-abortion state legislators are also likely to pursue other restrictions.

Oklahoma

Governor Kevin Stitt signed several anti-abortion measures into law in 2022, including a ban on nearly all abortions from the moment of fertilisation.

Another law makes abortion care a felony punishable up to 10 years in prison with a fine of up to $100,000. It does not make exceptions for abortions from rape or incest but only to protect the life of the patient. He also approved another measure banning abortion at six weeks of pregnancy.

Oregon

Legislators passed a bill in 2017 that prohibits government bodies from interfering in patients right to an abortion.

Pennsylvania

The right to an abortion is not protected but legal up to 24 weeks.

Rhode Island

The state protects the right to an abortion up until viability, after which abortion care is allowed only to protect the life or health of the patient.

South Carolina

The right to an abortion is not protected but is legal up to about 20 weeks. Anti-abortion state legislators are likely to pursue restrictions and other bills to outlaw abortion care.

South Dakota

The states 2005 trigger law makes it illegal for providers to perform an abortion except in life-threatening medical emergencies. The measures immediately goes into effect on the date states are recognized by the United States Supreme Court to have the authority to prohibit abortion at all stages of pregnancy.

Tennessee

The state law making abortion care a felony for abortions in nearly all cases takes affect within 30 days after Roe is overturned.

Texas

The states 2021 trigger ban for abortions in nearly all cases goes into effect 30 days after Roe is overturned.

In January, the Supreme Court declined to intervene in a legal challenge involving the states law banning the procedure at six weeks, including in cases of rape or incest.

Utah

The states 2020 trigger ban makes abortion care a second-degree felony and outlaws all abortions except in cases of rape or incest, detection of severe birth defects, or to prevent the mothers death or serious injury.

Vermont

State law passed in 2019 recognises the fundamental right of every individual who becomes pregnant to seek an abortion and bars government bodies from interfering with that right.

Virginia

The right to an abortion is not protected but legal up until the patients third trimester. Following the Roe ruling, Governor Glenn Youngkin called on state legislators to approve a measure banning abortion at 15 weeks.

Washington

In June, state legislators strengthened abortion protections by guaranteeing the right to access to reproductive health measures regardless of gender identity.

Washington DC

The right to abortion is protected at all stages of pregnancy.

West Virginia

A state constitutional amendment specifically denies protections for the right to an abortion, though abortion is legal in the state.

A pre-Roe ban on abortion that remains on the book makes abortion care a felony punishable up to 10 years in prison. Governor Jim Justice is convening with officials to determine whether the states anti-abortion laws can go into effect without Roe.

The states only abortion clinic said it will stop performing abortions until further notice following the Supreme Courts decision.

Wisconsin

A pre-Roe law from 1849 that outlaws abortion is in effect. Abortion care is now a felony punishable by up to six years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

Wyoming

A law passed in 2022 passed makes nearly all abortions illegal. There are exceptions for rape, incest and to prevent a patients death or substantial and irreversible physical impairments.

The states trigger law will go into effect within 30 days of the Supreme Court ruling, pending the advisement of the states attorney general.
LAS VEGAS (KLAS)  FBI agents served a search warrant Wednesday on Nevadas top GOP official, sources told KLAS.

Agents seized the cell phone of state Republican chairman Michael McDonald reportedly as part of an investigation into an alleged fake elector scheme initiated at the end of the 2020 presidential election.

Nevada Republicans sent National Archives fake electoral certificates saying Trump won election

In December 2020, KLAS reported that the Nevada Republican Partys six electors signed paperwork signaling their support for former President Donald Trump in a symbolic ceremony devoid of any legal merit, which was held in Carson City and coincided with the official state-sanctioned tally on Dec. 14, 2020.

A second search warrant was issued for state party secretary James DeGraffenreid, who also signed the document, but FBI agents could not locate him Wednesday, sources told KLAS.

The states real election certification versus the one sent in by the Nevada Republican Party. (KLAS)

President Joe Biden won the presidential race in Nevada by more than 2%. He received the states six electoral votes in the official state ceremony, overseen by Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske.

A video of the GOP event has since been deleted. In January, KLAS received a copy of the fake certificates, which attempted to certify the states electoral votes to Trump.

The certificate received by the National Archives looks much different than the official state-sealed one and reads, We, the undersigned, being the duly elected and qualified electors for president and vice president of the United States of America from the State of Nevada, do hereby certify six electoral votes for Trump.

In a statement after the event, Nevada GOP chair Michael McDonald said the partys electors convened in Carson City due to ongoing legal battles seeking to overturn the election results. Nevada Republicans lost all court cases involving allegations of voter fraud.

McDonalds attorney, Richard Wright, was unavailable Wednesday. Defense attorney George Kelesis told KLAS he had no comment about the FBI.

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The subpoenas, issued in late January, said in part,  We are seeking information about your role and participation in the purported slate of electors casting votes for Donald Trump and, to the extent relevant, your role in the events of January 6, 2021.

FILE  In this June 23, 2018, file photo, President Donald Trump, left, is greeted by Nevada State GOP Chairman Michael McDonald as he arrives at the podium to speak during the Nevada Republican Party Convention at the Suncoast Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/L.E. Baskow, File)

The Jan. 6 committee said in its hearing Tuesday that part of its focus was on the fake elector scheme.

The Nevada GOP did not immediately return a request for comment. The party has not responded to any request for comment regarding the electors.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Photo Illustration by Kelly Caminero/The Daily Beast/Getty/Shutterstock

The monkeypox outbreak that health authorities first noticed in Europe back in May is getting worse. According to the World Health Organizations latest report, there are over 2,100 confirmed cases, and at least one person has died.

Now geneticists finally have enough data to begin getting a handle on how exactly the outbreak startedand where it might be heading.

Its not good news. Monkeypox, a viral disease that causes fever and a rash and can be fatal in a small percentage of cases, is endemic in Africa. And now its running amuck on every other permanently inhabited continentand evolving quickly. While health officials have all the tools they need to contain itprimarily contact-tracing and vaccinesright now the virus is moving faster than we are, and adapting.

The current strain of monkeypox may have been circulating, undetected, months before we finally diagnosed the first case outside Africa. And because there are so many more copies of the virus than we first expected, each mutating separately, this new pox strain could evolve into dangerous new forms with disturbing speed.

Our data reveals additional clues of ongoing viral evolution and potential human adaptation, a team led by Joana Isidro, a geneticist with the National Institute of Health Dr. Ricardo Jorge in Spain, wrote in the new peer-reviewed study published Friday in Nature Medicine.

A medical laboratory technician prepares to test suspected monkeypox samples at the microbiology laboratory of La Paz Hospital. Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty

Monkeypox first made the leap from monkeys or rodents to people in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1970and has frequently flared up in Africa in the decades since then. There are two main strains, one each in West and Central Africa. The milder West African strain can be fatal in up to 1 percent of cases. The more dangerous Central African strain can kill up to 10 percent of the people it infects.

The pox mostly spreads through close physical contact, especially sexual contact. Its not a sexually transmitted disease, however. It just takes advantage of the skin-to-skin contact that accompanies sex. The virus can also travel short distances on spittle, although probably not far enough to qualify as airborne.

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Monkeypox occasionally spreads to places where its not already endemic. In 2003, 47 people in the U.S. got sick with the West African strain after exposure to a shipment of pet rodents from Ghana to Texas. A rapid response by state and federal health officialsand a few doses of smallpox vaccine, which also works on monkeypoxprevented anyone dying and temporarily eliminated the virus in the U.S.

Officials first noticed the current outbreak, also of the West African strain, after diagnosing a U.K. traveler returning from Nigeria in early May. Hitching a ride to Europe, the virus spread quickly through physical contact. David Heymann, who formerly headed the World Health Organizations emergencies department, said that men attending raves in Spain and Belgium amplified the outbreakapparently through close, sometimes sexual, contact with other men.

After that, the virus accompanied travelers on planes heading for countries far and wide. Doctors diagnosed the first U.S. case on May 27. As of Thursday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control had tallied around 3,500 cases in 44 countries, including 172 in the U.S.

Just one person has died of the pox in the current outbreakin Nigeria. But serious illness and death can lag an actual diagnosis by several weeks, so its possible many more deaths are coming.

Worse, on June 3 the CDC announced it had found genetic evidence of U.S. pox cases that predated the first cases in Europe from May. Doctors may not have noticed or reported these earlier cases, at first, owing to the similarity between pox symptoms and the symptoms of some common sexually-transmitted diseases such as herpes.

There was some speculation that the earlier U.S. cases were part of a totally separate outbreak that just happened to overlap with the May outbreak. Isidro and her team sequenced 15 samples taken from current pox patients and concluded that, no, theres just one big outbreak. All outbreak MPX strains sequenced so far tightly cluster together, suggesting that the ongoing outbreak has a single origin, they wrote, using the scientific acronym for monkeypox.

A passenger walks in front of monkeypox virus information at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang near Jakarta, Indonesia. Jepayona Delita/Getty

Its less clear exactly when the current outbreak really began. According to Isidro and company, the virus may have been circulating outside of endemic countries long before officials finally noticed the infections and sounded the alarm. The virus potentially traveled beyond Africa in animals such as pet rodents, and spread from animal to animal before finally jumping to a human host and triggering the current outbreak some time prior to May, the geneticists wrote.

Most likely, however, monkeypox spread the usual person-to-person wayand recently, Isidros team concluded. Current data points for a scenario of more than one introduction from a single origin, with superspreader event(s) (e.g., saunas used for sexual encounters) and travel abroad likely triggering the rapid worldwide dissemination.

In other words, someoneor several someonestouched an infected person in Africa, then flew home to Europe or the U.S., and spread the virus to other people through direct contact. The single origin is the infected human population in Africa. More than one introduction means multiple travelers picked up the same pox strain and spread it beyond Africa around the same time.

All that is to say. the May case in the U.K. was the first infection authorities noticed, but chances are it wasnt the infection that started the outbreak.

One particularly disturbing possibility is that the pox is often or even usually circulating to some degree in non-endemic countries, but we rarely notice unless theres a big surge in infections that compels doctors to look more closely at symptoms that could easily be mistaken for something else. Say, herpes. When you start looking for something, you find it, Michael Wiley, a public health expert at the University of Nebraska Medical Center who was not involved with the new study, told The Daily Beast.

In any event, undetected or overlapping transmission vectors are alarmingand not just because they could mean faster viral spread to more places before authorities finally, hopefully, contain an outbreak. No, the multiple introductions also represent an opportunity for a virus to mutate more, or more quickly, than usual.

When it comes to viral diseases, every infected person is a kind of living laboratorya place where the virus can interact with the human immune systems antibodies and T-cells and develop countermeasures. The more separate chains of transmission we hand the pox, the more likely the virus is to mutate along these vectors in some way that benefits it and hurts us. For example, developing resistance to our vaccines and antibodies.

Isidros team found 50 single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, in the monkeypox strain behind the current outbreak. Each SNP is a change in the baseline DNA of a particular organism. Fifty SNPs is far more (roughly 6-12 fold more) than one would expect, the geneticists wrote. Such a divergent branch might represent accelerated evolution.

The Very Alive Woman Conspiracy Nuts Say Died of Monkeypox

That doesnt mean the pox itself is learning to evolve faster. Its possible the current outbreak just achieved a kind of genetic critical mass before we had a chance to intervene. More infected people means more opportunities to evolve, even if the individual rate of mutation is the same.

If I had to guess, I think that we may see more drift in terms of numbers of mutations just based upon the size of the outbreak, James Lawler, an infectious disease expert and a colleague of Wiley at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, told The Daily Beast. Drift is just a fancy term for increase, in this context.

Monkeypox may have been hiding in plain sight long before we finally noticed it two months ago. Maybe this strain of the virus got lucky and more than one traveler helped spread it outside Africa nearly simultaneously. Maybe its evolving faster because its getting cleverer. More likely, its changing at its current fast clip because there are so many more copies of the virus than we first expected, each mutating every chance it gets.

Its all bad news, regardlessand it should stoke an even greater sense of urgency among health officials as they scramble to diagnose and contain a growing number of cases.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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On Friday, in a landmark decision, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-3 in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade.

Immediately, Missouri became the first state to effectively ban abortions with Governor Mike Parson signing a proclamation giving legal effect to Section 188.017 RSMo and activating the Right to Life of the Unborn Child Act, which was included in HB 126, originally signed in 2019.

With Roe v. Wade overturned and statutory triggers provided in HB 126, we are issuing this proclamation to restore our state authority to regulate abortion and protect life, said Parson. Thanks to decades of conservative leaders, Missouri has become one of the most pro-life states in the nation, and our Administration has always fought for the life of every unborn child.

The Right to Life of the Unborn Child Act, includes several points including the prohibition of doctors from performing abortions unless there is a medical emergency. It creates criminal liability for any person who knowing performs or induces a non-medical emergency abortion and subjects his or her professional license to suspension, and protects any woman who receives an illegal abortion from being persecuted in violation of the Act.

U.S. Rep. Jason Smith, R-Salem, said that the decision marks a historic moment in a decades-long fight to protect unborn children. He also said that the Courts decision makes it clear that the Constitution gives state legislatures the freedom to answer when life begins.

Becky Laubinger, executive director of the Parkland Pregnancy Resource Center in Park Hills, said that the overturn of Roe v. Wade does not change what the center will do.

The goal of the center is to try to work with families so that any area of crisis that the family may have can be extinguished and the family can enjoy being a family, according to Laubinger.

Weve always been ready to see people, were always looking for ways to serve more people, were working on even just changes to the building to be able to serve more people, explained Laubinger. We try to do that not just during pregnancy, but for years afterwards to make sure that families succeed, and individuals succeed.

State Senator Elaine Gannon, R-De Soto, believes that this has been a long time coming, and that life begins at conception.

All lives deserve a chance to live, said Gannon.

Gannon knows, though, that no matter how the decision would have gone, there were going to be people who are against the decision. She expects people to be vocal about the situation.

I just think its a wonderful event that has happened, and its been a long time coming.

State Rep. Mike Henderson, R-Desloge, believes this is a step in the right direction when it comes to rights going back to the state.

It puts the rights back in the state, said Henderson. The federal government shouldnt have, or at least federal-elected judges should have never had the say in over this.

Henderson said this should have always been the states decision, and with the overturning of this, Henderson believes that this puts the state back in charge.

While many people were for the overturning of Roe v. Wade, there are just as many people upset with the decision.

One of those people is Al Sullivan, who said that this was a disappointing decision, especially for a country already divided.

I think its a disappointing decision in the standpoint of women and public health.

A well-known Democrat in St. Francois County, Sullivan remembers his mother discussing back-alley abortions, or abortions that were not done in a hospital setting.

Sullivan is not the only one though who brought up back-alley abortions.

Norma Fox, a 95-year-old retired nurse, reflected on her time before Roe v. Wade.

Fox remembered that as a registered nurse in Kansas, she assisted in abortions, but only the wealthy could afford to travel to the state to have the procedure. Going through nursing school before Roe v. Wade in the 1950s, Fox stated the students at the school knew which doctors performed abortions.

No one talked then about the illegal procedures that were previously done, said Fox. How many were there? No one knows. How many women died? Again, no one talked about it.

Fox said that she does not regret helping, explaining that her role was not the one to make the decisions, just that she was a facilitator. According to Fox, the operating room was a calm and quiet place of help in a decision that Fox stated is one of the most difficult choices a woman ever makes, and isnt rarely decided without a lot of heart-wrenching thinking.

It was not my decision to make, and had been made before I ever saw the patients," she said.

Fox raised one concern: "What happens now?

According to the Associated Press, about 630,000 abortions were reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2019, the latest data available, although information from some states is missing.

More than half of U.S. abortions are now done with pills rather than surgery, according to the Guttmacher Institute. The trend has spiked during the pandemic with the help of telemedicine. In 2020, pills accounted for 54% of all U.S. abortions, up from roughly 44% in 2019.

Americans have nuanced attitudes on the topic. In an AP-NORC poll conducted last June, 61% said abortion should be legal in most or all circumstances in the first trimester of a pregnancy. However, 65% said abortion should usually be illegal in the second trimester and 80% said that about the third trimester. Many Americans said the procedure should be allowable under at least some circumstances even during the second or third trimesters.

Danielle Thurman is a reporter for the Daily Journal and can be contacted at dthurman@dailyjournalonline.com or 573-518-3616.

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The Washington County Collector, two collectors office employees and one former employee are charged with stealing from Washington County by receiving cash fees for processing trustee property sales.

Washington County Collector Carla Zettler, 50, of Mineral Point, is charged with three counts of felony stealing, one count of felony forgery, and misdemeanor official misconduct.

Current employees Laura Laramore, 41, of Caledonia, and Hanna I. Zettler, 24, of Potosi, are charged with felony stealing and misdemeanor official misconduct.

Former employee Leslie Harmon, 50, of Potosi, is charged with felony stealing.

The official misconduct charges allege that each defendant, a public servant, acting in her public capacity as trustee for Washington County, knowingly received a fee for  processing trustee property sales, which said fee was more than due.

According to the probable cause statement filed by the Missouri State Highway Patrol Division of Drug and Crime Control, in October, Sheriff Zach Jacobsen was contacted by a resident regarding fees paid to the Washington County Collectors Office for land tax sales. He discovered the fees had been collected by the collectors office in cash and not deposited into the countys general revenue fund.

On the same day, MSHP Cpl. Shannon Sitton interviewed Carla Zettler and Laramore, the deputy collector, about how Woodland Lake Development lot sales were handled by the office.

Carla Zettler told police that when the former collector, Mike McGirl, was collector and she was deputy collector, an agreement was made through the county commission to sell Woodland Lake Development lots for $1 plus $99 of associated fees in order to aid their removal from the delinquent tax list.

Sitton states in his report that a review of commission meeting reports by the county clerk revealed no authorization to sell these lots for $1. There was, however, a commission meeting in 2011 allowing the sale of these camping lots for $50.

Zettler told authorities of the $100 (which her office collected in either cash or money order), $1 went to the cost of the lot. Other moneys went to recording the lot, leaving $23 to the trustee and a $19 fee that went to the county collectors office employee making the transaction. She told police she was just doing it the way McGirl did it. She also stated residents who wanted to get a copy of the Woodland Lake lot lists were charged $5 and this went to petty cash.

Sitton states in his report that state statute prevents a trustee from being paid in excess of 10% of the sale of property.

McGirl was interviewed and explained how he handled trustee tax sales and deed processing when he was collector. He said the employees were only paid by check from the county (their salary) for performing their assigned job which included deed processing. He said delinquent lots were sold for $100, not for $1. He said the $100 fee was lowered at one point to $50 by the county commission but it was never $1.

When Sitton explained how the current collector was handling the fees, he said he did not know why they were doing it that way but that was not the procedure he used when he was collector.

A resident, Linda East was interviewed by authorities about a Sunshine Law request she made to the collectors office in September. She said she made the request after she heard Carla Zettler was paying cash to an employee for tax sales. She said she did not feel like the information she received was an accurate account of the transactions.

Sitton also interviewed the county treasurer, the recorder of deeds, and the former assessor.

The treasurer stated Carla Zettler has never brought her cash for a deposit. She said the collectors office employees are paid by the county and shouldnt be paid cash for deed preparation.

Harmon told authorities that when she worked for the collectors office, as instructed, she would put $1 in the cash drawer and then separate the remaining cash. She said $30 would go for deed recording, $50 to the trustee, and the remaining $19 was given to the employee who worked the transaction.

She further stated that a money bag was kept in the vault that contained cash. She said the employees were told not to bring the bag out during audits and were reminded to make duplicate receipts anytime there was an audit being performed.

She further stated that there was a time someone overpaid $100 on a tax bill. She said Carla Zettler didnt seem concerned and put the overpayment money in the cash bag which she said was commonly used to buy office lunches.

She said the $5 fees to get a copy of the Woodland Lake lot tax list was put in the cash bag as well.

A forensic audit was ordered by the Washington County Commission on land tax sales. Daniel Jones & Associates completed the audit May 24. For the four-year audit, there was $107,081 of unaccounted funds.

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This past spring, middle school students from St. Joseph Catholic School in Farmington participated in three science fair competitions in this part of the state.

The first, in March, was at Southeast Missouri State University at the Southeast Missouri Regional Science Fair. Eleven 8th graders, nine 7th graders, and one 6th grader made the trip to Cape Girardeau for the regional event.

Eight students with six different projects placed:

 Emma Watson, 7th grade, placed third in Chemistry.

 Dylan Coleman and Samuel Figueroa, both 7th-graders, placed third in Materials Science.

 Claire Carron and Alexis Cassimatis, both 7th-graders, placed second in Earth and Environmental Science and Engineering.

 Audrey Abt, 7th grade, placed third in Energy Physics and Chemistry and received a $75 cash prize from the Cape Girardeau Area Engineers Club.

 Clare Maloney, 8th grade, placed first in Animal Sciences and Microbiology, captured the Best in Category award, and qualified for the Broadcom National Science Fair this summer.

 Chloe Runk, 6th grade, placed first in Earth and Environmental Science and Engineering, was awarded the Best in Category, qualified for the Broadcom National Science Fair, and was awarded the Best Overall Project in the Junior Life Sciences Division of the fair. In addition, Chloe received awards from the Office of Naval Research and from the Association for Women Geoscientists.

The Mineral Area Science Fair was held at the Bob Sechrest Field House in April. This time the rest of the sixth graders from St. Joe were able to attend. The results were as follows:

 Honorable Mention in Physical Science went to 8th-graders Savannah Schafer and Grace Tucker.

 Honorable Mention in Physical Science to Luke Maloney and Gage Whitener, who attended with the group from Farmington Middle School and Lincoln Intermediate.

 Second place in Physical Science went to eighth-graders Carson Golden Koppeis and Keven OHara.

 First Place in Physical Science went to 8th-grader Brock Busenbark.

In the category of Science Technology and Engineering the awards were:

 Honorable Mention to Sami Figueroa and Dylan Coleman

 Second Place to 7th-grader Audrey Abt.

 First Place to 6th-grader Parker Hendrixson.

In the category of Life Science the awards were:

 Third Place - Chloe Runk, 6th grade

 Second Place - Clare Maloney, 8th grade

 First Place - Ava Cartee, 6th grade

In addition to these events, two of the Saint Joe students competed in the Missouri Jr. Academy of Sciences Regional Event. Each student was required to record a video presentation and complete a written research report. Clare Maloney and Chloe Runk placed first in the regional event, with marks of Highly Superior and advanced to the state MJAS competition. While neither student placed at the state competition, each received recognition for their research papers. The girls are the first students from St. Joseph to ever qualify and compete at the state level in the MJAS event.

Runk's project encompassed research on watershed ecology. Her project was Cows vs. Creeks  How Do Cattle Impact the Water Quality of a Creek?

Maloneys project required her to determine if the gender of a human plays a role in the physiological reaction of a canine to that persons voice.

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First-time homebuyer Tiffany Terrell was almost ready to quit looking for a house before she visited a 3D-printed home for sale on Carnation Street in South Richmond.

It had what she wanted for her and her 14-year-old daughter, Makayla Terry, in their price range: a kitchen with an island countertop, a nice backyard and an updated interior. After a six-month search, she now has the 3D-printed home, the first of its kind in Richmond, under contract for $235,000.

State and local officials say they hope that more homes like it can be built to address the shortage of housing thats driving up home prices across Virginia.

I didnt know anything about 3D printing. I came to see it when it was bare-bones. ... It looked like a brand-new house. I did my research after that and thought, This is pretty cool, Terrell, 38, said at an open house for the home Thursday. When you find what you want and its got everything you wanted, its great.

The 1,550-square-foot home with three bedrooms and two bathrooms is the result of a partnership between Virginia Housing and the Virginia Center for Housing Research at Virginia Tech.

The state agency gave the university research group a $500,000 innovation grant to obtain a 3D modular construction printer from Denmark to build the homes concrete exterior walls.

Susan Dewey, CEO of Virginia Housing, said the idea came from the experts at Virginia Tech, who had advised that novel home building methods could help address the growing shortage of housing across the state.

Youve got to look at land cost, labor and materials. And I think the big benefit is going to be on the labor side, she said of 3D printing home construction. Whenever you are able to cut any of those costs, then it makes it much more affordable.

Chris Thompson, the director of strategic housing for Virginia Housing, said the construction is a bit of an experiment. The printer was used to make two layers of exterior wall with a gap for insulation between them. He said the design is intended to make the home energy-efficient and dampen the noise of traffic along Carnation Street.

RMT Construction & Development Group, the builder for the project, used traditional construction methods to complete the concrete slab foundation, roof system and interior walls.

With it being the first time out and not wanting to get a little too crazy, we decided to be more traditional inside and put drywall throughout, Thompson said.

Other partners involved in the building project were project:Homes and the Better Housing Coalition, two Richmond nonprofits that helped provide the land for the building, homeownership services and construction management.

Andrew McCoy, the director of the Virginia Tech housing research center, said cutting back on the cost of other traditional construction material like sheetrock could lower building costs, but that firms need more experience using new technology like 3D printing.

The more we can have some of these jobs pivot to automate, theyll understand that process and drive that change in the industry, he said. Its going to be important just to have options for that.

As Terrell prepares to close on the home next month, Thompson said that Alquist, the Iowa-based construction firm that built the home, has pledged to build approximately 200 more 3D-printed homes in Virginia. The company last year built in James City County in partnership with Habitat for Humanity.

McCoy said his center will continue advising Alquist as it continues building. He said areas of research could include finding ways to use other materials to make the 3D printing process more environmentally sustainable.

Ninth District Councilman Michael Jones, who represents the area where the new house is located, said he was pleased to see innovation taking shape in the community.

Thats important, Jones said. Its [not just happening in] the Fan or Museum District. This is Richmond as well.
Charlottesville residents took to the street Friday night to protest the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning nearly 50 years of legal abortion.

The decision also threatens to overturn decades of Supreme Court decisions based on the idea of unenumerated rights, including the right to contraception, privacy and even gay marriage.

Fridays decision was foreshadowed last month when a draft opinion was leaked, which galvanized local supporters of abortion access. They rallied on the Downtown Mall, held forums and donated to the local abortion fund.

The same thing happened Friday as demonstrators protested the decision.

Whole Womans Health, which operates one of the two abortion clinics in Charlottesville, said in a statement Friday was a dark day.

Devastation and outrage dont even begin to explain how we feel  but were prepared, the organization said, offering resources on how to find an abortion appointment in states where the procedure is legal.

Tannis Fuller and the team at the Blue Ridge Abortion Fund were helping a person seeking abortion find a hotel room when the Supreme Court handed its decision Friday striking down the Constitutional right to the procedure.

It feels a little surreal that were booking a hotel room as what  13 states?  immediately lost access to abortion, said Fuller, who is the executive director of the abortion fund.

Founded in 1989, the abortion fund helps people seeking abortion care by providing funds for the procedure and associated costs as well as support. In recent years, the fund has been building up staff in order to better demand for its service and to prepare for a post-Roe v. Wade world.

This is devastating.  I dont even have words for what the Supreme Court is doing, Fuller said, adding that the decision wont have immediate effects on the area. Nothing about the work that we do changes. That just gets harder.

Charlottesville has two of the states 16 abortion clinics, and Fridays decision isnt expected to immediately affect those clinics because the right to an abortion is protected in state law. Currently, a woman can have an abortion up to the 25th week of pregnancy. However, abortion providers in the state are expecting an increase in people seeking care as other states impose restrictions.

Our black, brown, indigenous and queer communities are going to feel this much worse than any of our white middle-class communities are, Fuller said. Centering their experiences and their expertise will be the path forward.

Zyahna Bryant, a local activist and University of Virginia student, made a similar point on social media Friday.

If history has taught us anything, it is that poor, Black, Latinx, and Indigenous people will suffer the most from Roe v. Wade being overturned. We must name that, she wrote in a tweet.

More than 200 people gathered in front of the Charlottesville federal courthouse Friday, holding signs urging the legalization of abortion and declaring no uterus, no say. Standing on the sidewalk that wraps around the courthouse, they chanted, our bodies, my choice.

The first demonstration kicked off at 5 p.m. and a second was planned for 7:30 p.m. Cars in support blared their horns as they drove through intersection in front of the courthouse, though some argued with demonstrators.

Im coming out here because I want to raise awareness of the availability of abortion in Virginia. Its still legal here. And I also want to be public and loud about my support for abortion access for everyone, said Deborah, who declined to give her last name. I appreciate people showing up in community saying the word abortion and being very abortion-forward about their support and their anger, frankly, about this ruling.

Deborah said she expected the decision, but it still affected her.

I felt you know, really scared for people who had abortion appointments today in those states where they werent going to be able to get them. And then I felt determined to help people in Virginia for as long as we can.

Jenna, who attend the rally with her dog and also declined to give her full name, said she showed up because she wanted the rights to her body.

I knew that it was coming but I was hoping that it would be reversed from the protests that have been happening since the since a week of the draft, she said. And of course, my hopes are dashed with the news and I was in tears. I wanted to make my voice heard. With the election coming up, I want changes to be made to restore my rights.

Around 7:45 p.m., Anna, one of the rallys organizers, led the group in a series of chants and encouraged donations to the Blue Ridge Abortion Fund and Oshuns Hands, a Black reproductive justice collective.

I wore black today because its a funeral for the patriarchy, Anna said.  Were not going to take it anymore.

In between the demonstrations, area lawmakers and candidates running for office addressed a crowd in front of the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center as part of a fundraising for the Charlottesville Democratic Party.

Abortion is legal in Virginia, Del. Sally Hudson, D-Charlottesville, said on Twitter shortly after the decision was released. Abortion will stay legal in Virginia so long as we remember that abortion rights are always on the ballot in Virginia.

Hudson has previously said that she was concerned about the Supreme Court striking down its 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey that prohibited states from placing significant obstacles in the path of a pregnant person seeking an abortion.

The majority opinion from Justice Samuel Alito did strike down Casey in addition to Roe v. Wade.

Hudson said in May that if that happened, the states executive branch could add more steps or regulations. In recent years, Virginia Democrats have worked to expand access to abortion, including allowing a woman to consult with a provider online and receive medication in the mail.

Theres no law protecting that, Hudson said. The General Assembly on its own cant continue to protect that kind of access, which makes a huge deal for a lot of patients to get abortion care at the time when it is safest and most convenient and most private.

Many supported the courts decision. Liberty University President Jerry Prevo said in a statement released Friday that the decision was a monumental step toward protecting life.

I am proud that we are now officially training the first post Roe-v-Wade generation of leaders who will be champions for Christ to continue to advocate for the life of mothers and their unborn babies, Prevo said.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin said in a statement Friday that he has asked a group of lawmakers to bring together other legislators and advocates to make a plan for next steps when the legislature returns in January.

The truth is, Virginians want fewer abortions, not more abortions, he said. We can build a bipartisan consensus on protecting the life of unborn children, especially when they begin to feel pain in the womb, and importantly supporting mothers and families who choose life.

In comments to the Washington Post, Youngkin said he would seek a ban on abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy, though he supported exceptions in cases of rape, incest or where the pregnant persons life is at risk.

Gavin Oxley, who served as president of the University of Virginias chapter of Future Medical Professionals for Life prior to his graduation, said abortion should never have been considered a Constitutional right.

Fuller said that in her view, the decision will affect a persons ability to make legally protected decisions about their pregnancies. She expects to see investigations of miscarriages and stillbirths as law enforcement seeks to curb self-managed abortions.

Your ability to access abortion legally also protects us from increased state scrutiny of pregnancy outcomes, she said. This opens up folks who are pregnant or who may become pregnant to a level of criminalization that we have not, maybe, ever seen.

Fuller also takes issue with the idea of exceptions for some pregnancies.

It perpetuates the idea that some abortions are more valuable than others, and all abortions are valuable, she said. Anyone who needs access to abortion should be able to access an abortion, and we shouldnt have to provide that our autonomy has been violated by someone else in order to be able to access this health care.

Daily Progress intern Filip Timotija contributed to this report.

Daily Progresss Filip Timotija and Bryan M<&underline>c</&underline>Kenzie contributed to this article.

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Katherine Knott Katherine Knott is the K-12 education reporter for The Daily Progress. Contact her at (434) 422-7398, kknott@dailyprogress.com, or @knott_katherine on Twitter. Follow Katherine Knott 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 Board of Trustees of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library System is scheduled to meet on June 27 to determine whether the names of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison should be removed from the organization.

The sociopolitical revolution that followed George Floyds death resulted in the removal of names and statues of Confederate leaders, and many agreed with those actions. Jumping from Civil War history to Revolutionary War history, however, is problematic. As with many revolutions, mistakes can be made in the zeal of the moment.

To dishonor the names of Jefferson and Madison is to assert that their accomplishments are dwarfed by the fact that they owned slavesthat slave ownership is their defining legacy today. In fact, Jefferson hated slavery and wrote often of its evils. Under the influence of his abolitionist mentor George Wythe, Jefferson proposed a law to end slavery gradually in Virginia. As a youthful idealist, he was shocked to the core by the virulent response to his proposal by members of the establishment. The system was solidly entrenched, fortunes depended upon it, and it would end only by bloodshed on the battlefield.

What is often overlooked is that the freedoms that Jefferson and Madison fought for summarized in the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and Constitutionwould eventually benefit every American citizen, men and women of every race and creed. It would take generations for such freedoms to be granted to women and people of color, but these basic human rights were expansive enough to transcend the times.

Americas Constitution and Bill of Rights have been the inspiration and model for nations across the world for nearly two hundred and fifty years. Had Jefferson, Madison, and other Founding Fathers not devoted their lives to forging these principles into the foundations of our government, the United States of America as we know it might never have succeeded. It is possible that over time North America could have evolved to resemble areas of South America, characterized by dictatorships and absence of freedom.

Regarding slavery, it was far easier for George Washington to free his slaves at his wifes death than for Jefferson and Madison to free theirs. Of these three Founding Fathers, Washington was the only one whose wealth far exceeded the value of his slaves. Jefferson and Madison died poor, due to a variety of reasons, including crop failures, bad debts, time spent in public service and other factors. At his death, Jeffersons slaves were the only collateral, other than Monticello, for paying off his mountain of debt.

Jefferson wrote eloquently about slaverys malevolent influence, including among slave owners, their children, and society as a whole. He termed the institution a moral depravity, a hideous blot, and a fatal stain on the nation. Yet, he became ensnarled in the system that he hated. His youthful idealism gave way to the intransigence of the establishment and to the dark reality of his own finances.

Perhaps he was embarrassed because he found that he couldnt afford to free his slaves, even if he chose to do so. Rightly or wrongly, he considered himself as a kindly master and that his workers would be better off under his care than loose on the land, where even freed slaves could easily be kidnapped and sold into the furnace of southern cottonfields. Additionally, Virginia had passed a law requiring freed slaves to leave their families, friends, and homes to live in another state. Life was often dicey for freed slaves in such dangerous times.

Madison, like Jefferson, was overwhelmed by the reality that the American economy, North and South, had become firmly dependent on slaverys cheap labor system by the time of their generation. Northern mills relied on Southern cotton for their livelihood. Madison believed that former slaves were entitled to a life of freedom but that they would not assimilate successfully into Southern society, given the prejudices of the day. Later in his life, he served as president of the American Colonization Society, founding a home in Liberia for freed slaves.

Yes, Jefferson and Madison owned slaves, and yes, it is perplexing as to why they did not free them. But we are all flawed individuals. It would seem that this flaw, significant as it was, should not automatically erase the good that these Founding Fathers did for America and for the world.

Suzanne Munson is author of the George Wythe biography, Jeffersons Godfather , and lectures frequently on Founding Father legacies. Contact suzmunson01@gmail.com
Close all puppy mills

I am responding to the recent article in the Daily Progress (6/16/22) by Andrew Cain of the Richmond Times Dispatch, Beagle mill closes, pups up for adoption.

As stated in the article, Inotiv (in Indiana) is the parent (sick choice of words) company to Virginias beagle mill, Envigo, (in Cumberland County). The entire operation is unconscionable, immoral and inhumane. Both Inotiv and Envigo have been engaging in flagrant animal exploitation and genocide.

The article states a Virginia judge castigated Envigo for its torturous abuse of dogs and puppies.

The article also states that Envigo currently holds captive 3,000 beagle dogs and puppies slated for sale to industries for experimentation. My stomach turns. These brave, beautiful, loving beagles are subjected to living in deplorable conditions. The research done on these dogs is ghastly.

Laudably, three elected Virginia officials, Sens. Bill Stanley (R) and Jennifer Boysko (D) and Del. Rob Bell (R), have joined forces to call on Envigo to relinquish these dogs and put them up for adoption. (It warms my heart to see both sides of the aisle working together!)

Adoption is the only option for these loving dogs.

As a personal aside, seven years ago I adopted a beagle from Cville ASPCA. She came into my life when we both very much needed each other. Prior to adoption shed been living in abominable conditions, was underweight, ill, traumatized and infected. But weve worked together to create a happy home. Shes been a perfect companionsmart, funny, loving, loyal and sensitive.

I thank Sens. Stanley, Boyosko and Del. Bell for their leadership in this matter.

(PS: Remember, products that are not marked No Animal testing are culpable.)

Sally Cary Booker-James

Charlottesville
By Trend

One of the main goals for Azerbaijan is the diversification of the economy as creating a competitive economy is a very important task, President of the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) Dmitry Pankin said, Trend reports.

Pankin made the statement at the business forum on the role of the BSTDB in supporting Azerbaijan's diversified and innovative economy in a changing world, which is held in Baku as part of the 24th annual meeting of the bank.

According to Pankin, the geopolitical situation in the region today is tense, and the events in Ukraine created difficulties for Azerbaijan in terms of logistics and other issues.

The President of the BSTDB noted that Azerbaijan should use new logistical and production opportunities.

"Azerbaijan is a fairly rich state, but we need additional experience to develop new projects," Pankin said.
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: 541-231-6238 or alice.rampton@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.

Quilt auction fundraiser for Ukrainian refugees: Monique Arnold of Corvallis and her teenage daughters are submitting an Americana quilt for auction. All proceeds will go to MakeAWish Oregon. Since August, the family has raised $13,800 for MakeAWish and $5,050 for Ukrainian refugees by auctioning off quilts on The Sandpiper Project's Facebook group page. Bid and share to help children diagnosed with critical diseases. The listing is at https://www.facebook.com/groups/391673602349315/permalink/578356703681003/?sale_post_id=578356703681003&fs=e&s=cl.

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Oregonians access to abortion and reproductive healthcare will not change with the U.S. Supreme Courts decision Friday, June 24, to overturn Roe v. Wade.

West Coast governors including Oregon Governor Kate Brown jointly declared their states will defend and ensure access to abortions even as the 5-4 SCOTUS decision to strike down the landmark 1973 ruling positions states to outlaw abortion procedures.

Brown in a statement said access to abortion is access to healthcare.

Oregon doesnt turn away anyone seeking health care. Period. Let me be clear: You cannot ban abortion, you can only ban safe abortions, she said.

Idaho is set to ban abortion in 30 days. The state made providing an abortion a felony in a 2020 law that would be tripped with the fall of nearly 50 years of constitutional protection should the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision be overturned.

Oregon House of Representatives Speaker Dan Rayfield called the decision extreme. The Dobbs ruling will harm millions, but people of color and people in low-income households most of all, the Corvallis Democrat said in a statement.

This will go down as an incredibly dark day in American history, Rayfield said in the statement.

Rayfield said states will move to criminalize healthcare.

This decision takes away the ability of Americans to control their own bodies and lives, and turns that power over to politicians, Rayfield said.

Rayfield affirmed what other Democrats, from the governors mansion to local office, have repeatedly stated since Politico broke news of the courts pending decision in early May: Abortions are legal in Oregon.

But he also called on leadership in the Legislature to protect and expand access to reproductive healthcare.

We will be taking action to strengthen and improve our laws during the next legislative session, Rayfield said.

Rep. Shelly Boshart Davis, R-Albany, said in a statement the Supreme Court put laws and decisions regarding abortion back into the hands of states and voters.

Boshart Davis said she will continue supporting policy that reins in public funding for and late-stage abortions.

Its unlikely to pass in a state with a Democrat-majority House and Senate.

Unfortunately, not much will change at this time in Oregon, Boshart Davis said.

Christine Drazan, who won the Republican nomination for the 2022 gubernatorial election wrote life wins! on Twitter. In a separate statement the once House Minority Leader and representative from Canby, Drazan denounced Oregons abortion laws as extreme.

I will stand up for life by vetoing legislation designed to push Oregon further outside the mainstream, Drazan said in the statement.

Former Portland Rep. Tina Kotek, who oversaw the Legislatures 2017 passage of the Reproductive Health Equity Act and received Browns endorsement in the Democratic nomination for governor, was even more forthright on Twitter:

Abortion bans are bulls---. And dangerous, said Kotek in a tweet.

Kotek also positioned her run for Oregons highest office against the national landscape in a separate statement.

Todays decision makes the stakes of Oregons race for governor crystal clear, she said in the statement. We cant let extremists take us backward.

Alex Powers (he/him) covers business, environment and healthcare for Mid-Valley Media. Call 541-812-6116 or email Alex.Powers@lee.net.

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By Trend

Measures are being taken under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev to diversify the Azerbaijani economy, provide support to entrepreneurs, and provide them with preferential loans, Azerbaijani Finance Minister Samir Sharifov said, Trend reports.

Sharifov made the statement at the business forum on the role of the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) in supporting Azerbaijan's diversified and innovative economy in a changing world, which is held in Baku as part of the 24th annual meeting of the bank.

Sharifov noted that in this regard, Azerbaijan intends to expand cooperation with the BSTDB.

The Minister noted that Azerbaijan liberated its territories, having won a historic victory in the 44-day second Karabakh war and thus put an end to the 30-year-long Armenian occupation.

"Today, the Azerbaijan is taking practical steps to ensure peace and cooperation in the South Caucasus region. Immediately after the end of the war, Azerbaijan began restoration and construction work in these lands at the expense of its own financial capabilities," the minister said.

In his words, more than three billion manats were allocated for the restoration of these territories over the period from 2021 through 2022.

"We consider necessary the participation of international organizations and the BSTDB in the process of reconstruction of the liberated territories. We invite the bank to support local business projects in Karabakh and East Zangazur," Sharifov said.
Advocates on both sides of the debate are expected to organize protests following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on
Theres been some good news for telecoms giant Ericsson after four of its former executives were acquitted in Sweden early this week on charges of bribing high-ranking Djibouti officials.

The aim of the alleged bribery was, according to prosecutors, to win a 3G contract worth nearly US$20 million. As readers might guess, given that this was a 3G contract, the deal was said to have taken place more than ten years ago.

The District Court in Solna, near Stockholm City Centre, ruled that the prosecutors did not prove that the money was received by the three people alleged to have been bribed.

Prosecutors accused the executives of transferring nearly $2 million via a consulting firm to Djiboutis president, the chancellor of justice and the CEO of a state mobile operator. The prosecutor may appeal after reviewing the verdict.

One of the four former Ericsson executives, all of whom deny any wrongdoing, is currently being prosecuted in the US for the alleged scheme.

The AFP news service points out that Ericsson has already admitted to engaging in bribery and other misconduct in Djibouti, China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Kuwait from 2000 to 2016 in a billion-dollar corruption settlement with the US Justice Department. The 2019 deferred prosecution agreement, says AFP, was one of the largest foreign corruption settlements in history.

However, its Iraq that may yet prove the most problematic territory after an internal Ericsson investigation (reported in these pages) found serious compliance breaches in that country, breaches that included corruption among salespeople and consultants, and possible payments to terrorist organisations.

Ericsson still faces a number of investigations relating to Iraq in the US and Sweden. This story, it seems, is far from over.
Government officials were quick to respond to the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning the landmark Roe vs. Wade ruling.

Today is a giant step forward for our country as, after decades, Roe is finally overturned. Folks, after almost 50 years of standing up for unborn babies, our prayers have been answered. The fight continues, though. Here in Alabama, we have been preparing for this day when the decision-making authority on abortion is rightfully returned to the states. In 2019, I was proud to sign into law the Alabama Human Life Protection Act, which is one of the strongest bans on abortion in the country. This is a historic day, and I could not be more proud as a governor, a Christian, and a woman to see this misguided and detrimental decision overturned.  Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey

Because of laws passed by our Republican legislature, abortion services will likely be illegal in Alabamaa felony that could force doctors to face up to 99 years in prison for providing medical care to their patients, even in the case of rape. Republican legislators and appointed judges think they should be sitting between you and your doctor while making medical decisions. While the Supreme Court has turned back the clock back decades on our freedoms, Alabama Democrats still stand strongly for Alabamians freedom to make their own medical decisions  especially their right to abortion.  Alabama state Rep. Chris England, chairman of Alabama Democratic Party

The Alabama Republican Party believes that every life is precious and should be protected and celebrated. I cannot communicate how excited I am about the possibility of correcting the tragedy of Roe v. Wade, and restoring the sanctity of life. It gives me hope in the ideals of individual liberty and protecting the rights of every person from the moment of conception to the grave.  Alabama Republican Party Chairman John Wahl

The 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade was unconstitutional, and the High Court has now reversed that decision. It is our moral and ethical duty to protect the dignity of human life, particularly when it comes to the unborn. Todays decision by the Supreme Court justly upholds the writings of our Constitution and allows us to preserve innocent human life. This is welcome news.  U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama

The Supreme Court decision is a victory for life and for Alabamians, like myself, who believe in the protection of the unborn. This case reignited a discussion on the important role of the American family in our country and the need to protect life at every stage. I hope we dont let this passion stop here, and we continue to discuss how we can protect the unborn and help vulnerable mothers. Im glad the Court didnt bow to outside pressure and maintained their judicial independence.  U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama

As we celebrate todays Supreme Court ruling, which overturns the abomination of Roe v. Wade and represents a significant step toward protecting unborn life, we should pause to remember and pray for the almost 64 million innocent souls that have been lost to the abortion-on-demand industry. Alabamas Republican Legislature has been preparing for this day, and with the nations strongest pro-life law already on our books along with an amendment opposing abortion cemented in our state constitution, unborn life has found a safe haven within our borders.  Alabama Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth

Today is a truly historic day. The United States Supreme Court has, at long last, finally overturned its fatally flawed decision in Roe v. Wade. The issue of abortion now returns to the Statesand the State of Alabama has unequivocally elected to be a protector of unborn life. Because neither the United States Constitution nor the Alabama Constitution provides a right to abortion, Alabama laws that prohibit abortion and that have not been enjoined by a court are in full effect. For those laws that have been halted by courts, the State will immediately file motions to dissolve those injunctions. Any abortionist or abortion clinic operating in the State of Alabama in violation of Alabama law should immediately cease and desist operations. Furthermore, any act of vandalism or violence against any crisis pregnancy center, church, or other pro-life entity in retaliation for todays decision will be prosecuted by the Attorney Generals Office to the fullest extent of the law.  Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall
Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong at a conference in Wellington, New Zealand, June 16, 2022. Photo by Reuters

Australia's Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong will visit Vietnam starting Sunday, her ministry has announced.

Coming at the invitation of Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son, she is expected to hold discussions on fostering the Vietnam-Australia strategic partnership and the ASEAN-Australia comprehensive strategic partnership, and regional and global issues of mutual interest, foreign ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said.

Wong was Australia's first Minister for Climate Change in 2007-10 and Minister for Finance in 2010-13.

She became foreign minister last month.

Vietnam and Australia established diplomatic relations in 1973 and became strategic partners in 2018.

Trade between the two countries last year was worth US$12.4 billion, about 50 percent more than in 2020.

Both countries aim to be among each other's top 10 commercial partners and to double investments by both sides.
Ho Thi Thanh Van, a HCMC-based scientist, has been honored as an "international rising talent" by the L'Oreal-UNESCO for Women in Science Awards.

Van, 42, is currently a lecturer at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Natural Resources and Environment. She received the award on Wednesday in Paris for her research in hydrogen fuel cell technology, which is considered an important area of focus for the future of clean energy.

Around the world, there are 15 scientists honored as "International Rising Talents 2022". In the Asia-Pacific region, two other scientists from South Korea and Thailand earned titles.

Ho Thi Thanh Van (R) receives the "International Rising Talents 2022" award at the L'Oreal-UNESCO for Women in Science Awards in Paris on June 22, 2022. Photo by the organizer

Each year, the International Rising Talents Program selects the 15 most promising women scientists among the 275 national and regional fellows of the LOreal-UNESCO for Women in Science Awards.

Van's research optimizes the operation of fuel cells to improve performance and enable the production of sustainable hydrogen energy, avoiding the burning of fossil fuels and reducing carbon emissions.

The project replaces platinum with other materials in producing fuel cells, contributing to reducing the production cost by 20 percent to VND240 million ($10,328) and at the same time, making it more long-lasting.

Thanks to this research, Van had been awarded the L'Oreal-UNESCO for Women in Science National Fellowship in 2019.

Van said the success in this research will contribute to opening a path for switching to the circular economy, in which renewable, green and sustainable energy will be implemented in a continuous cycle as it aims to turn waste of one industry into resources for another.

"This approach will shape the effective energy technology and engineering solutions for the 21st century," she said.

Ho Thi Thanh Van works in her laboratory at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Natural Resources and Environment. Photo courtesy of Ho Thi Thanh Van

This marks the third time that Vietnam has had scientists honored with the "International Rising Talents" award, valued at 15,000 euros ($15,840).

Shamila Nair-Bedouelle, assistant director-general for Natural Sciences of UNESCO, said: "Many of the rising female talents being celebrated this year are excelling in fields that will be vital to decarbonizing our future, such as energy storage systems, hydrogen fuel systems and quantum optics, a field of study paving the way for more energy-efficient computers."

"Yet many of their peers working in similarly strategic fields are not getting the recognition that they deserve. UNESCO, as the United Nations agency in charge of science, which has made gender equality a priority, is determined to act to put an end to these inequalities," she said.
American tourists wear Vietnamese conical hats 'non la' and traditional checkered black and white shawl 'khan rang' at a welcome ceremony in HCMC on April 8, 2022. Photo by VnExpress/Huynh Nhi

Vietnam is the only Southeast Asian country that has reopened international tourism without any Covid restrictions, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) said.

Its Destination Tracker tool showed that 52 countries have fully reopened their borders to foreign tourists as of June 17 and Vietnam is one of only four in the Asia-Pacific, Harry Hwang, executive director of the Asia-Pacific region for UNWTO, told an online tourism conference in South Korea on Friday.

Ha Van Sieu, deputy head of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, said at the conference that foreign tourists entering Vietnam are not required to be quarantined, present vaccination certification or negative Covid test results.

Foreign tourists do not need to submit health declarations before entry while the domestic tourism market is also witnessing a strong recovery post reopening, Sieu said.

Hwang said the Asia-Pacific region is recovering tourism slowly, because many source markets have not yet fully restarted tourism.

Experts predict that the recovery prospects of the Asia-Pacific region would also be slower, maybe taking until 2024 to return to pre-pandemic levels.

On March 15, the government allowed quarantine-free entry and resumed its visa waiver for citizens of 24 countries, including Japan, South Korea and some European economies.

In 2019, before the onset of the pandemic, Vietnam received a record 18 million foreign tourists.

This year, Vietnam targets five million international visitors.

In Southeast Asia, Thailand had reopened tourism earlier than Vietnam but still imposes some Covid restrictions.

Foreign tourists to Thailand need to produce proof of vaccination and apply for a Thailand Pass online before arrival. However, the government has announced this requirement will be lifted on July 1.

Indonesia is also requiring foreign tourists to produce vaccination certificates.
The EU heads of state and government gathered yesterday in Brussels have taken a historic decision to grant candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova.





Although the road ahead will be difficult and the two countries will need to implement significant reforms in order to become members of the European Union, the moment it was announced was emotional for both Moldovan and Ukrainian delegations.





For Ukraine, in particular, the candidate status represents a morale boost and a huge sign of hope for the population suffering from Russias aggressive war and occupation. Yesterdays vote is Europes clear show of solidarity with the Ukrainians. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the EU council after the vote and thanked the leaders: Thank you for your support at a crucial moment!





President of Moldova- Maia Sandu- called the move an unequivocal & strong signal of support for our citizens and Moldova's European future. We are grateful & committed to advancing on the path of reforms.





ECPM members of European Parliament, as well as ECPM President- Valeriu Ghiletchi, former member of Moldovan Parliament- applauded the historic decision, at the same time calling for perseverance and godly wisdom in the decisions which will shape Moldovas future.





MEP Geuking announced on his Twitter account his pledge of support for Moldova receiving EU candidate status, while MEP Peter van Dalen announced his vote in favour of the resolution and cautioned about the significant reforms in the ares of fighting corruption, rule of law and consumer protection in both Ukraine and Moldova.
The recent agreement to extend the UN truce between the warring parties in Yemen until August 2 represents a significant shift in the trajectory of the war, said UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg.



The conflict in Yemen started in 2014 when Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized large swaths of the country, eventually forcing the internationally recognized president of Yemen into exile and disrupted the countrys peaceful transition process. At the request of the Yemeni government, Saudi Arabia led a coalition of countries against the Houthis beginning in March 2015. An estimated 377,000 people have died during the conflict and the country has been plunged into poverty and hunger.

At the start of Ramadan on April 2, the UN brokered a two-month truce, leading to a significant drop in civilian casualties, improved mobility, and increased access to fuel and basic goods. The conflict parties agreed to extend the truce an additional 60 days on June 2. 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, said UN Special Envoy Grundberg.



President Biden welcomed the truce extension and noted the last two months in Yemen, thanks to the truce brokered in April, have been among the most peaceful periods since this terrible war began seven years ago. Thousands of lives have been saved as fighting receded.



President Biden praised the tireless work of UN Special Envoy Grundberg and U.S. Special Envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking in helping to secure the truce extension. He also applauded the cooperative diplomacy from across the region, saying Saudi Arabia demonstrated courageous leadership by taking initiatives early on to endorse and implement terms of the UN-led truce. Oman played a central role in hosting and facilitating dialogue. Egypt and Jordan opened their airports to flights from Yemen over the past month thereby enabling a key component of the truce process.



Ending the war in Yemen is a top U.S. foreign policy priority. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated the United States commitment to an inclusive, durable resolution to the conflict that alleviates the suffering of Yemenis, that empowers them to determine the future of their country without foreign interference, and that addresses calls for justice and accountability.  We urge [all parties] to seize this pivotal moment to begin a comprehensive peace process.
A male ruddy duck is quite a sight. It is called ruddy because of its reddish-brown body, even though that is the birds least impressive part. The head is spectacular, black on top and white on the bottom, and carries a baby blue bill. The black tail feathers end in spikes. When the duck is displaying, the tail is raised and fanned, showing the spiky feathers and revealing a white rear.

The ruddy duck provides the best spectacle at Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Ruby Valley. I watched a male swimming next to a wall of reeds, followed closely by a female. The male performed its bubble display. It diverted breathing air into tracheal air sacs in its bulging neck. It held its head low and tucked in, accentuating the swollen neck. The blue bill dragged in the water. It rapidly smacked the bill against the swollen neck, producing drumming sounds, while the bill created bubbles in the water. Then it ended the display in a belching call and a kicking splash.

Not far away, perched on a cattail, was the marshs second-best performer. The yellow-headed blackbirds name is apt, since its black body is topped with a bright yellow head and chest. The male on the cattail was twisting and writhing as though suffering serious pain. The thrashing accompanied a mating call kindly described as a squeaky door hinge. It may not be beautiful by human standards, but the male belted it out with gusto.

Then the male was in the air, suddenly chasing another male that had dared fly too close to the residents territory. White feathers in the wings of the pursuing male produced flashes of white. Coasting back to the same cattail head, the male once again belted out its song.

The third performer was much more quiet. Marsh wrens may not be loud, but the marshes have a lot of these small, brown birds sporting white eyebrows and white stripes on their backs.

I watched a male grip a vertical reed stalk with both feet. To stay somewhat vertical, the upper leg was bent. The tail was elevated until it almost touched the birds back. The song sounded somewhat like wich-wich-wich-cheeeee interspersed with rattles and che-che-che-che. It flew upward in a spiral and sang its rattling song as it coasted back down to the reeds.

Honorable mention went to the looping flights of barn swallows. Males have blue backs, light brown bellies and darker brown necks. They coast on long, pointed wings and spread their long, forked tails in the turns. In the quiet of the marshes, I could hear their chittering calls.

A good place to celebrate summers arrival is at the marshes.

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At Nevada Outdoor School, national service is at the heart of what we do. Since NOS was founded in 2002, AmeriCorps members have been serving with our organization. In 2007, NOS received our first AmeriCorps grant, providing opportunities for people to bring out the best of America, specifically in Nevada. The national AmeriCorps program enrolls more than 250,000 individuals to serve, making a difference all across America.

AmeriCorps is a federal agency that connects individuals to organizations. AmeriCorps has a rich national history, starting in 1964 when the Volunteers In Service to America (VISTA) program was instituted to help combat poverty. In 1973 the Domestic Volunteer Service Act authorized the creation of the Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) and in 1992 the National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) program was developed to assist communities in recovery after a natural disaster or to meet other critical needs. In 1993, AmeriCorps was created as the government agency overseeing national and community service, incorporating the previously created programs.

In 1994, the first class of 20,000 AmeriCorps individuals took the pledge to, Get things done for America. Since then, AmeriCorps members have been involved in efforts associated with 3rd grade literacy, assisting with 9/11 devastation and recovery, natural disaster recovery, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, combatting the opioid crisis, and most recently COVID support.

The AmeriCorps Program relationship at Nevada Outdoor School can be a bit confusing, because Nevada Outdoor School is the administrator of the Program, as well as a host site. What does that mean? Nevada Outdoor School is granted money through Nevada Volunteers each year to administer or place AmeriCorps Members at host sites throughout rural Nevada.

What is a host site? A host site is a nonprofit organization that has formally requested an AmeriCorps member to come serve at their site to fill a need in the community. Currently, Nevada Outdoor School AmeriCorps Director, Zulma Mayorga, oversees members at 6 host sites. The host sites are, Friends of Black Rock High Rock, Pershing County Senior Center, Pleasant Senior Center, Frontier Community Action Agency, Friends of Nevada Wilderness, and Nevada Outdoor School.

Members at these host sites assist their nonprofit organization with daily activities ranging from trail maintenance to teaching children to helping seniors fill out paperwork to manning food pantries. In total, in 2021, 24 AmeriCorps members placed by Nevada Outdoor School provided 16,824 hours of service in the state of Nevada, helping 483 people, and improving 445 acres of land.

While AmeriCorps members do get paid for their efforts, it is not a lot. Monthly stipends are low, but the real benefit comes in the Segal Education Award that changes lives. Depending on the number of hours served, members can earn up to over $6,000/year that can be used to pay of existing student loans, pay for tuition at most universities, colleges, or trade schools, or other education opportunities.

The AmeriCorps Members placed at Nevada Outdoor School serve as Outdoor Educators and are our teachers and summer camp counselors. We could not do what we do in our communities without the AmeriCorps program. What to learn more? Visit americorps.gov or nevadaoutdoorschool.org.

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By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates have discussed the potential investment opportunities and prospects for joint projects, Azernews reports.

The discussion took place during the meeting between Azerbaijan's Economy Minister Mikayil Jabbarov and United Arab Emirates National Oil Company Chairman Saeed Mohammed Ahmed Al Thayer.

"During the meeting with Saeed Mohammed Ahmed Al Thayer, Chairman of the National Oil Company of the United Arab Emirates (@enoc_official), we discussed trade cooperation between #SOCAR and #ENOC, potential #investment opportunities, as well as prospects for joint projects," Jabbarov wrote on his official Twitter page.

Moreover, Jabbarov held a meeting with the UAE's Industry and Advanced Technology, ADNOC's Managing Director and Group CEO, and Masdar's Chairman Minister Sultan Al Jaber. During the meeting, they discussed cooperation in oil and gas production, as well as petrochemical projects.

"We held a meeting with Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology of the United Arab Emirates (@MoIATUAE), Managing Director and Group CEO of #ADNOC (@AdnocGroup) and Chairman of @MasdarCompany. During the meeting we talked about successful #economic relations between our countries, cooperation in #oil and #gas production and #petrochemical projects, as well as expansion of partnership on #greenenergy production," Jabbarov wrote.

Diplomatic relations between Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates were established on September 01, 1992. The trade turnover between the two countries amounted to $50.4 million in 2021.

Last year, Azerbaijan and the UAE signed agreements on pilot projects in renewable energy. Under the agreement, the building of a 230-MW solar power plant is envisaged. On March 15, a groundbreaking ceremony for the 230 MW Garadagh solar power plant, to be constructed by the United Arab Emirates' Masdar company, was held in Bakus Gulustan Palace. The plant is designed to produce 500 million kWh of electricity per year and supply it to approximately 110,000 households. It will reduce gas consumption by 110 million cubic meters and environmental emissions by 200,000 tons.
ELKO  A Wells man accused of embezzling more than $8,000 from a truck stop and sentenced to prison a year ago is scheduled to be paroled next month.

Mathew Beecher, 23, was arrested in March 2021 on felony embezzlement charges after his employer accused him of siphoning cash purchases and smoking meth in the bathroom of the truck stop where he worked as a clerk. He was on parole at the time for an earlier conviction.

The truck stops managers told law enforcement they noticed a high number of voided transactions and began watching Beecher at work. Beecher had a pattern of voiding out every cash transaction and putting the cash in Beechers pocket, stated a deputys report.

From the time he was employed on Sept. 9 to Dec. 16, a total of $8,053.84 had been taken. He was also seen on video taking money from other registers and taking products without paying for them.

A concerned person sent the business video of Beecher smoking meth in the bathroom, the report said.

Beecher was arrested on one count of felony embezzlement, felony possession of a controlled substance, and a parole violation. In a plea agreement, he pleaded guilty to one count of attempted embezzlement and was ordered to repay the money. District Judge Al Kacin sentenced him to 16-40 months in prison, but the sentence was to be served concurrently with his previous sentences.

According to Nevada Department of Corrections records, Beecher was sentenced to prison on eight charges for an aggregated four to 12 years beginning in May 2020, with a parole eligibility date of July 2022. The sentences included one count of possession of a stolen credit card, three counts of making counterfeit money, two counts of attempted grand larceny, and one count of embezzlement.

Beecher was earlier arrested in December 2019 after being accused of trying to cash a fraudulent check at a casino in Elko.

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ELKO  Northeastern Nevada women seeking an abortion will need to travel farther now that the U.S. Supreme Court has officially overturned Roe v. Wade.

Elko has no abortion services and women have had to travel to places such as Utah and Idaho. But those two states have abortion bans that are triggered by Fridays decision, meaning the nearest services will be in the Reno area.

Utahs ban could begin as soon as the Legislatures general counsel certifies the action. Idahos ban is expected to go into effect in 30 days.

The Supreme Court decision will not change the law in Nevada, where abortions are legal and backed by a 1990 voter referendum.

Nevada has the seventh highest abortion rate in the nation, at 19.4 per 1,000 women ages 15-44 years old. The highest rate is in the District of Columbia at 32.7% and the lowest is Wyoming at 1.3.

While the abortion laws in Nevada will remain unchanged, the issue could have implications on the political scene. The states U.S. Senate contest between incumbent Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto and Republican Adam Laxalt is expected to be one of the key races this fall determining the balance of power in Congress.

Republicans are applauding Fridays decision but also pointing out that it affirms state rights.

Today, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a historic decision overturning decades of federal overreach and returning the right to regulate abortion to the states. We applaud this decision and will continue to advocate in Nevada for the sanctity of life, stated the Nevada Republican Party. In Nevada, the right to an abortion was passed by referendum in 1990 and can only be modified by a direct vote of the people. Despite Democrat misinformation, no changes to abortion access in Nevada would be possible until 2024 at the earliest. 

Attorney General Aaron Ford, a Democrat, confirmed that the ruling would not impact Nevada but cautioned residents not to be complacent.

Those who wish to attack reproductive rights will not stop at this ruling, and there are ways less sympathetic state or federal governments could find ways to restrict access in Nevada, he said Friday.

Abortion bans in other states may lead to people coming to Nevada to seek the procedure, he added.

The states powerful Culinary Union said The right to a safe abortion remains legal in Nevada because Democrats, whom Culinary Union members have helped elect, have protected Nevadans right to choose.

Voting has real consequences, but also opportunities. This November, our rights will be on the ballot, and the Culinary Union calls on voters to show up in force and vote to elect political candidates who will stand for abortion and the right to choose, economic justice, and who will fight to protect working families.

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Three former top Trump administration officials have now penned books that include an unflattering picture of Donald Trump and his fitness to hold office.

Each has concluded that Trump should not run for President again and Republicans should win by nominating someone else in 2024.

John Bolton, Trumps third national security advisor, wrote a 494-page memoir (The Room Where It Happened) released in June, 2020 before the November election. Bolton announced then Trump should not be president  and I wont vote for him.

Boltons memoir is not a tell all book about Trump. Its mainly about national-security policy making, but includes stories about Trumps unorthodox behavior.

He found Trump to be pro-American on foreign policy but without any philosophical commitments or guiding principles  and unable to control his tongue.

Bolton saw Trump as naive, a danger for the republic, concluding he should only be a one-term president.

William Barr, Trumps second attorney general, wrote a 565-page autobiography (One Damn Thing After Another) released in March. It includes a comparison of his service as the nations chief law-enforcement officer twice  once under President George H.W. Bush (1991-93) and then under Trump(2019-20).

Barr considered Bush a model to which American presidents should aspire. While he appreciated Trumps tenacious battling when necessary  it was too often unnecessary and caused trouble.

He was no adoring fan of Trump, but Barr was the presidents most important and influential ally. Trump didnt pay enough attention to him.

Barr emphatically told Trump his election fraud claims were meritless, terming them bullshit and detached from reality.

Democrats were desperate to drive Trump from office. Their enmity often fell on Barr, Trumps staunch defender.

On politics, Barr writes Republicans start the campaign in many swing states writing off 10 percent of the electorate who otherwise lean Republican. Thats because Trumps obnoxious personality alienates lots of voters.

Trumps political persona, writes Barr, is too negative for the task ahead in 2024.

Mark Esper, Trumps second defense secretary, wrote a 673-page historical account (A Sacred Oath) on his 16 months heading the Defense Department.

Released in May, Espers book is harshly critical of Trump. He shows how presidential inattention, ignorance, incuriosity, duplicity and unwillingness to take responsibility for hard decisions all put the United States at risk.

In interviews surrounding the book Esper says Trump is a danger to American democracy, particularly in light of his behavior from Election Day 2020 to Inauguration Day 2021 when Trump tried to overturn a legitimate presidential election.

Bolton, Barr and Esper join many others who witnessed Trump up close  including defense secretary Jim Mattis, chief of staff John Kelly, and national security advisor H.R. McMaster  casting doubt on Trumps fitness for office.

Their books are important bricks in the wall of evidence that Trump should never again be president.

These three self-identified Reagan Republicans urge GOP voters to turn their attention to the many younger presidential prospects for 2024 who will fight for conservative principles.

In May, Georgia Republican voters rejected Trumps revenge campaign to re-litigate the 2020 election.

Republican Gov. Brian Kemp walloped former Senator David Perdue (74%-22%), despite Perdues endorsement by Trump. And, Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger overcame a Trump-endorsed challenger and an unrelenting barrage of personal attacks from the former president.

Its time for Republicans to look forward  not back.

Trumps now 75, and Joe Biden 79. Both threaten to run again in 2024.

If Biden were re-elected he would be 82 at the beginning of his second term. Already hes demonstrating marked signs of age that are plainly worsening.

If Trump won he would be 78, a year younger than Biden is now. Halfway into his term, he would be 80 and a ripe 82 before completing it.

A presidential re-match between oldsters Trump and Biden is no way forward in 2024.

Email Jim Hartman at lawdocman1@aol.com.

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A Chinese engineer (right) with Beijing-based China Construction Second Engineering Bureau instructs a local employee at a bulk water supply pipeline construction site in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2020. [Provided to China Daily]

Nation takes concrete action to tackle global warming through cooperation

The past two months have seen China taking a series of concrete actions to enhance South-South climate cooperation, namely projects among developing nations.

Small island states, which are particularly vulnerable to global warming, are among China's major concerns.

On April 28, for example, China launched a center in Shandong province to cooperate with Pacific Island countries on climate change.

The center is the first multilateral cooperation platform China has established on climate change.

Under the center's cooperation mechanism, China and Pacific Island countries will establish platforms for professional training, technology cooperation and academic research.

At the center's unveiling ceremony, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and Kiribati's office of the president signed a memorandum of understanding on aid.

About one month later, the ministry signed a similar MOU with the office of the president of Fiji, vowing to aid the island state with materials such as solar-powered street lamps and home solar systems.

China has reached 43 agreements with 38 countries on South-South climate cooperation, according to a recent article by the ministry's Party chief Sun Jinlong in the magazine Contemporary World.

Aside from allocating 1.2 billion yuan ($178 million) for such cooperation, Sun said, China has offered training programs to about 2,000 officials and technicians in climate-related posts from 120 countries.

President Xi Jinping, while addressing the opening ceremony of the 2015 United Nations climate change conference in Paris, announced that China would launch cooperation projects to set up 10 pilot low-carbon industrial parks in other developing countries and start 100 mitigation and adaptation programs.

One of the parks China planned to build, for example, was launched in Laos on April 29.

Covering 11.5 square kilometers and with a total planned investment of about $5 billion, the Vientiane Saysettha Low-Carbon Demonstration Zone is expected to function as both an industrial park and a new town of the Lao capital.

On the same day, China officially handed over a shipment of equipment for the demonstration zone to Laos, including 12 new energy buses and eight new energy trucks. The first shipment of such equipment from China arrived in Vientiane in August.

On May 27, China also helped Cuba with its efforts on climate change, including sending 5,000 sets of home solar systems and 25,000 energy-saving lights.

Huang Runqiu, minister of ecology and environment, said on June 14 that China will accelerate the green transition in the country's cooperation and investment in nations involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, and make consistent efforts to promote South-South climate cooperation.

"China will help developing nations to the best of its ability, particularly small island states, African nations and the least developed countries to ramp up capabilities in tackling climate change," he said, addressing the opening ceremony for the annual general meeting of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development, a high-level international think tank for the Chinese government.

Making full use of many international occasions, China has consistently urged developed nations to honor their commitment to mobilize $100 billion a year by 2020 to help developing countries tackle and adapt to climate change, which was enshrined in the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.

The commitment has yet to be honored, despite the negotiations having lasted for 13 years. This is "hardly justifiable", said Xie Zhenhua, China's special climate envoy, when addressing the BRICS Highlevel Meeting on Climate Change with counterparts from Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa in May.

"China's endeavor in beefing up South-South climate cooperation will promote the low-carbon transition process in these developing states, which are not only vulnerable to climate change, but also have inadequate capabilities in forging the transition," said Tang Xinhua, deputy director of the Center for Climate Change and Ecological Security Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.

In stark contrast, however, he said the United States has given more importance to cooperation in which it plays a dominant role. Some of the projects have jeopardized the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities in the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Paris Agreement.

The US and the European Union, for example, plan to impose limits on methane emissions from major economies. The duo's initiative may bring new emission reduction pressures to many developing nations that rely on coal, natural gas, farming and livestock.

"It will blur the differentiated responsibilities of developed and developing countries for addressing the climate crisis," he said.
At the reception (Photo: VNA)

He made the statement when he hosted a reception for a high-ranking delegation of the Mozambican National Assembly led by its President Esperanca Laurinda Francisco Nhiuane Bias, on June 22.

Expressing his pleasure to receive the Mozambican National Assembly President, he said that Can Tho is located in the heart of the Mekong Delta, downstream of the Mekong River, connecting 6 countries. This is a rich agricultural production area and a key area of the country for fruits and seafood.

The visit of the President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Mozambique to Vietnam in general and Can Tho City in particular will be a big change in the good relationship between the two countries, he said.

Mozambican National Assembly President Esperanca Laurinda Francisco Nhiuane Bias thanked the leaders of the Party and State of Vietnam, as well as Can Tho City, for the warm welcome, and highly appreciated the very good relationship between the National Assembly of the two countries through the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation between Vietnam and Mozambique.

According to Ms. Esperanca Laurinda Francisco Nhiuane Bias, on the occasion of the 47th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Mozambique, the visit aims to raise the level of cooperation between the two countries not only in politics and Government cooperation, but also in cooperation between the two countries. The two countries have more opportunities for cooperation in the coming time, she said.

She added she believed that the 13th Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam will bring better and better life to the Vietnamese people.

On this occasion, she thanked Vietnam for electing Mozambique to the post as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, and for sharing experience.

After the meeting, the Mozambican delegation visited Southern Fishery Industries Co., Ltd in Binh Thuy district, which specialises in producing animal feed and processing Tra fish for export. The main markets of the firm are Spain, Brazil, Peru, Canada, China and Japan. Its average export turnover reaches 40 million USD per year./.
At the reception (Photo: VNA)

At the reception, Mr. Quang congratulated Mr. Souphanh Hadaoheuang and expressed his hope that during his working time in Da Nang, the Lao Consul General would contribute to promoting friendship and cooperation between central localities in general and Da Nang in particular with localities and Laos partners.

Consul General Souphanh Hadaoheuang said that in his new position, he will do his utmost to maintain and develop the Vietnam  Laos relationship.

From 2018 to 2022, Da Nang city spent VND115,924 billion to support the provinces of Laos; coordinated with 5 provinces of Central South of Laos (Attapeu, Champasak, Sekong, Salavan, Savannakhet) to implement many cooperation programs and projects in areas such as construction and upgrading of schools, public works, Vietnamese language teaching centers; provided scholarships for Lao students; appointed teachers to teach Vietnamese; received officials of departments and branches to practice and learn from experience in the city; supported cultivation and animal husbandry; and studied local socio-economic development planning.

Overcoming the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, over the past two years, Da Nang City and Lao provinces have regularly visited, encouraged and shared experiences in pandemic prevention and control. Da Nang City donated 50,000 masks, 2,500 bottles of antiseptic liquid (in 2020) and VND1 billion in cash (in 2021) to help 5 provinces of Laos overcome difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Da Nang city will work with Lao partners and provinces to cultivate the special friendship, solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between the two Parties, the two States and the two peoples, for peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world.

The high-ranking delegation of Da Nang city led by Secretary of the Da Nang City Party Committee Nguyen Van Quang will visit and work with 5 localities of Laos in early July 2022. The visit aims to strengthen cooperation and friendship with Laos' localities on the occasion of the Vietnam - Laos Friendship and Solidarity Year./.
On June 22, he held a reception for new Canadian Consul General to Ho Chi Minh City Behzah Babakhani.

At the reception (Photo: hcmcpv.org.vn)

Chairman of the City People's Committee Phan Van Mai affirmed that Ho Chi Minh City will do its best to accompany and carry out activities to prepare for activities to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Vietnam-Canada relations next year, and expressed his wish to promote the exchange of delegations to Ho Chi Minh City to learn and further strengthen the bilateral relationship between the two countries.

He thanked the Canadian government and people for their attention and help to Vietnam, especially during the time of COVID-19 prevention, and thanked the Canadian business community for accompanying Ho Chi Minh City to overcome the recent pandemic. Currently, as Ho Chi Minh City has basically recovered as before the pandemic in terms of economic, social and people's activities, he said he hoped that the Canadian business community will continue to accompany Ho Chi Minh City in the recovery and development.

He also suggested the Canada side create favorable conditions for Vietnamese people and students to work and study in Canada, and organize activities to enhance people-to-people exchanges on the occasion of the 50th anniversary.

The Canadian Consul General Behzah Babakhani confirmed Canada and Vietnam have a very close relationship. In Ho Chi Minh City, cooperation in the field of trade and investment continues to develop strongly. Trade relations between the two countries develop very rapidly. There are a number of Canadian businesses investing in the city and neighboring provinces. Relations between the two countries have not only developed in the field of trade, but also in people-to-people relations. Currently, there are many Vietnamese students studying in Canada, mainly students from Southern Vietnam, and most of them return to Vietnam to act as a bridge between the two countries.

He showed his hope that the two sides will coordinate with each other to celebrate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties next year. This year, diverse Canadian delegations are expected to visit and work in Vietnam, including Ho Chi Minh City./.
At the signing ceremony (Photo: laodong.vn)

The new MoU will seek to expand the criteria selection for interns who participate in the scheme and will greatly improve their benefits. Candidates in the program will range from 18 to 30 years old as opposed to 20-30 years old previously. They are expected to supply an additional young and dynamic workforce and contribute to resolving employment issues locally.

Over 7,734 Vietnamese interns have been sent to Japan under an agreement signed between the MOLISA and IM Japan since 2006, Minister Dao Ngoc Dung said at the signing ceremony.

According to the Minister, employees participating in the scheme pay no service fees, only pay individual fees (for visa granting and medical examinations), and receive support in terms of tuition and dormitory fees during the training.

Minister Dao Ngoc Dung emphasized that the MoU will open up opportunities for those who are in poor and disadvantaged households in rural, remote, and isolated areas to access the program.

For his part, Kanamori Hitoshi, President of IM Japan, proposed that Vietnams MOLISA co-ordinates to expand the Special Skilled Workers Program in the future./.
The launch ceremony of the air route

The opening ceremony of the new routes took place in Mumbai within the framework of the official visit of the leaders of HCM City to Mumbai on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and India.

The event was attended by Ms. Phan Thi Thang, Vice Chairwoman of HCM City Peoples Committee, representative of the Consulate General of Vietnam in India, and leaders of Vietjet.

The Phu Quoc - Mumbai route will operate with a frequency of 4 return flights a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, from September 8, 2022.

Flights from Phu Quoc to New Delhi will take off from September 9, 2022 with 3 return flights a week on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. The routes from Ho Chi Minh City/Hanoi to Mumbai have been put into operation since the beginning of the month.

The air route from Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi to New Delhi has been resumed since April with a frequency of 3-4 flights a week for each leg. Passengers can buy tickets to India with prices starting from only 427,000 VND each way./.
Illustrative image. (Photo: VNA)

Spokeswoman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Le Thi Thu Hang made the remarks during a press briefing in Hanoi, in response to a reporters query about Vietnams reaction to the announcement from the Department for Ocean Affairs of Hainan province (China) about a June 19 drill in the waters within 12 nautical miles from Phu Lam (Woody) island belonging to Vietnams Hoang Sa archipelago.

The military drill goes against the spirit of the Declaration of the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), complicates the situation, is not conducive to the ongoing negotiations between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC), and does not help maintain a peaceful, stable, and cooperative environment in the East Sea, Hang said.

The spokeswoman stressed that Vietnam strongly opposes and demands that China respects Vietnams sovereignty over the Hoang Sa archipelago and not repeat such violations.

Hang also stated Vietnams viewpoint on the Japanese medias reports about the Japanese Governments sending an appeal to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, in reaction to Chinas intention to turn the East Sea into its internal waters, as well as Japans willingness to stand with Southeast Asian countries, Europe and the US against China in the East Sea issue.

She said Vietnams stance has clearly stated in the diplomatic note No.22/HC-2020 dated March 30, 2020 circulated in the United Nations, in which Vietnam affirms its sovereignty over the Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagos in accordance with international law, as well as its sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction over the waters as provided by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Vietnam believes that countries share the common aspiration and goal of maintaining and promoting peace, stability, cooperation, and development in the East Sea, and settling disputes based on international law and the 1982 UNCLOS, the spokeswoman said.

Vietnam has always made active and responsible contributions to this process, Hang added./.
By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijani Culture Minister Anar Karimov has visited the Iranian Film and Audiovisual Organization to discuss prospects of cooperation, Azernews reports citing the Culture Ministry.

Speaking at the meeting, Anar Karimov noted that the development of the film industry in Azerbaijan is one of the priorities of the Culture Ministry's activities, and informed about the newly established Film Agency in Azerbaijan.

He stressed that Iran has extensive experience in the field of cinema, and mutual cooperation in this field would be useful.

Anar Karimov pointed out that the organization of joint film festivals and mutual film weeks will contribute to the deepening of cooperation.

The sides also touched upon the importance of mutual visits of specialists in the field of cinema and exchange of experience.

Karimov drew the attention of the Iranian side to the importance of making documentaries to convey the truth about Karabakh to the world community. At the same time, the importance of using the existing opportunities for the production of joint feature, documentary, short, and cartoon films was noted at the meeting.

In the end, Anar Karimov got acquainted with the film museum.

Anar Karimov also met with the head of the National Library and Archives of Iran, Alirza Mukhtarpur.

The sides exchanged views on deepening cooperation between Azerbaijan and Iran in the field of libraries and archives.

Referring to the rich archives of Iran containing manuscripts about Azerbaijan, especially the Karabakh region, the Culture Minister said that Azerbaijan is interested in mutual cooperation in this field.

At the same time, he stressed the importance of acquaintance with the documents in the Iranian archives related to the rich cultural heritage and religious monuments of the Azerbaijani people in the territory of Armenia, and joint activities to study them.

Alirza Mukhtarpur said Iran is ready to expand cooperation in the field of libraries and archives between his organization and the relevant agencies.

In this context, attention was drawn to the expediency of establishing a working group to review the documents stored in Iranian libraries and archives and to conduct joint research.

After the meeting, the Culture Minister and the head of the National Library and Archives of Iran got acquainted with the ancient manuscripts and other archival documents related to the works of Nizami Ganjavi preserved in the library.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Vietnamese counterpart Pham Minh Chinh (L) at the celebration marking the 45th anniversary of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sens path to overthrow the Pol Pot genocidal regime, which took place on June 20.. (Photo: VNA)

For Vietnams part, Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong sent a congratulatory letter to President of the Cambodian Peoples Party Samdech Techo Hun Sen, President Nguyen Xuan Phuc extended his greetings to King Norodom Sihamoni, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh sent his congratulations to his counterpart Samdech Techo Hun Sen, and National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue extended congratulations to President of the Senate Samdech Say Chhum and President of the National Assembly Samdech Heng Samrin.

In their messages, the Vietnamese leaders noted with satisfaction that despite numerous challenges, ups and downs in history, the Vietnamese and Cambodian peoples have always stood side by side and supported each other in the struggles for national liberation in the past as well as in each countrys national development at present, which is a priceless asset that the two countries leaders and peoples need to continue nurturing.

They expressed their belief that the sound neighbourliness, traditional friendship, and comprehensive, sustainable, and long-term cooperation between Vietnam and Cambodia will be further enhanced and developed for the sake of the two peoples, and for peace, stability, cooperation, and development of the ASEAN Community, the region, and the world.

On this occasion, the leaders of Vietnam also congratulated Cambodia on its enormous and comprehensive achievements over the last decades, especially in the pandemic control and socio-economic recovery and development recently.

They said they believe that the Cambodian people will reap even greater accomplishments and successfully build a country of peace, stability, independence, self-reliance, and prosperous development that has an increasing stature in the international arena.

For Cambodias part, King Norodom Sihamoni sent letters of congratulations to Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen extended greetings to his counterpart Pham Minh Chinh, and President of the Senate Samdech Say Chhum and President of the National Assembly Samdech Heng Samrin sent congratulations to National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue.

The leaders of Cambodia affirmed the two countries friendship, which had existed long before the diplomatic relations were officially set up, has continually been reinforced in the spirit of good neighbourliness, solidarity, mutual trust and understanding, and win-win cooperation.

The Vietnamese and Cambodian peoples together underwent many difficulties and hardships in the endeavours for national liberation, independence, reunification, and development, they stressed, voicing their belief that bilateral ties will keep developing strongly, intensively, and comprehensively in both bilateral aspects and at multilateral forums, especially ASEAN.

The Cambodian leaders congratulated the Vietnamese Party, State, Government, National Assembly, and people on many major achievements in national development, along with the growing role and stature in the world.

They wished Vietnam more successes and fulfillment of the goal of becoming a developed and high-income nation by 2045.

On this occasion, Vietnams Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son and Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Prak Sokhonn exchanged letters of congratulations.

Leaders of the two countries committees, ministries, sectors, and localities also sent greetings to each other./.
German Minister of Food and Agriculture Cem Ozdemir has called for thinking about creating not temporary, but permanent alternative routes for the export of grain from Ukrainian territory, the EFE agency reported on Friday.

"The Black Sea in the long term cannot be considered as a safe route for Ukraine, even after the end of hostilities," the minister said at a press conference. For this reason, according to the minister, "it is necessary to look for one or more permanent alternative routes."

EFE reported that Ozdemir is skeptical about the chances of success in negotiations with the Russian Federation on the export of grain from Ukrainian ports.
The Cabinet of Ministers has launched three new grant programs to support businesses, Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal has said.

"The first is irrevocable grants for the creation and development of processing enterprises. This may be an enterprise in the woodworking, metalworking, agricultural processing, furniture or construction sectors," he said at a government meeting on Friday.

He added that the state will provide up to UAH 8 million in grant funds for those who already own a processing business or want to start one. The grant may be used for the purchase of equipment. The main requirement is to create at least 25 new jobs. In this case, the business owner shall invest 30% of his investment. To receive a grant, an entrepreneur shall submit a working idea, the prime minister said.

The Cabinet of Ministers also approved a grant program for the IT sector and high-tech startups in the amount of UAH 750,000 to UAH 3.5 million with the requirement to create at least five jobs.

In addition, the government launched the Start in IT grant program for IT education with a budget of UAH 1.8 billion, Shmyhal said. Thus, the state plans to finance educational grants up to UAH 30,000 for 60,000 Ukrainians. Funds can be spent on paying for a school or courses that will be determined by the Ministry of Finance.

This program is not for students or current professionals, but for those who have lost their jobs or are idle and want to learn new skills in the profession of a developer or web designer, he said.

Gradually, the details of these and other programs within the framework of the e-Robota project will become available on the Diia portal, the head of government said.
The leaders of the European Union countries have agreed to grant EU candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova, European Council President Charles Michel said on Thursday.

"[European Council] EUCO has just decided EU candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova," he said on Twitter.
The US administration on Thursday announced the allocation of additional assistance to Ukraine in the amount of $450 million, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said at a briefing at the White House.

"The US has announced another additional $450 million in security assistance to Ukraine to help it defend its democracy in the face of unprovoked Russian aggression. This package contains weapons and equipment including high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIIMARS), tens of thousands of additional arms in addition for the artillery systems that have already been provided and patrol boats to help Ukraine defend its coasts and waterways," Kirby said.

Total aid to Ukraine since February 2022 has been $6.1 billion, he added.

He added that since the current US administration came to power, $6.8 billion has been allocated to help Ukraine.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine will make every effort to ensure that the interests of Ukraine, as a future EU member, are taken into account as much as possible in the EU reform, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said.

"The EU reform process will now unfold in the EU. And we, as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will make every effort to ensure that the interests of Ukraine, as a future EU member, are taken into account as much as possible in those changes and reforms that will be implemented by the EU in the coming years within itself, that is, to reform the procedures, mechanisms of its functioning," Kuleba said on the air of the national telethon on Thursday.

The Minister noted that the main challenge for the EU would be the transition from the adoption of some decisions by consensus to the adoption of decisions by the majority.

"There is a question of the functioning of the EU bureaucratic machine itself, there are many complaints that it is too heavy and not flexible," Kuleba said.

In addition, the Foreign Minister drew attention to the need to change the principle of the formation of the European Commission in case of admission of new members.
Granting Ukraine the status of a candidate for the European Union is a recognition of its achievements in the development of a democratic European society, Verkhovna Rada Chairman Ruslan Stefanchuk believes.

"The EU candidate status is recognition of our achievements in the development of a mature democratic European society. The strength of our institutions that continue to function effectively even during a full-scale war," Stefanchuk said in a joint address to the Ukrainian people with President Volodymyr Zelensky and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on Friday.

According to Stefanchuk, granting Ukraine such a status is a powerful political message that will be heard by the soldiers in the trenches, and every family forced to flee the war abroad, and everyone who helps bring victory closer.

Stefanchuk is confident that this message will be "heard in the bunker" of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"We cannot change geography. Russia will continue to be our neighbor. But this decision changed history. And in this case, history won over geography," the speaker emphasized.
The European Union will continue providing Ukraine with military support in its defense against Russian aggression.

This is stated in the conclusions of the European Council adopted following the results of the meeting held in Brussels on Thursday at the level of heads of state and government of the EU member states.

"EU leaders highlighted that the EU remains strongly committed to providing further military support to help Ukraine exercise its inherent right of self-defence against Russian aggression and defend its territorial integrity and sovereignty," the document reads.

To this end, EU leaders called on the Council to "work quickly to further increase military support."

To this end, they called on the Council "to swiftly work on a further increase of military support."
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev received Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Azernews reports per Azertac.

Speaking at the meeting, President Ilham Aliyev said:

- Dear Sergey Viktorovich, I am very pleased to see you again. Welcome! On the eve of your visit, I remembered our previous meetings with both you and the President of the Russian Federation. The signing of the Declaration on Allied Interaction in Moscow earlier this year gave a good start to our relations, a new stage in our relations, such a positive harmony and dynamics. I believe that this key document for the future development of our relations is a wonderful result of long-term and very fruitful cooperation. A lot has already been done to implement provisions of the declaration. I am confident that new steps will be taken in this direction during your visit. It is noteworthy that in the 30th year of the establishment of diplomatic relations between our countries, we have summed up all the work done and identified further directions for the development of friendly and good-neighborly relations.

We can talk a lot about our relations. We have repeatedly exchanged views on this issue. I would like to reiterate my satisfaction with the development of political relations, permanent dialogue at the highest level, trade and economic relations, which have shown good dynamics this year, cooperation in the fields of transport, energy, and, of course, the humanitarian sphere. In other words, it would be easier to list areas we do not have close interaction in. Of course, the Declaration on Allied Interaction is a very important step in our bilateral relations, and as I have already said, it will determine the development of our relations.

Today, of course, we will talk about the situation in the region, the post-conflict situation, the process of normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia. You are aware of our position. This position is aimed at establishing long-term peace in the region. I am confident that our efforts will be positively perceived by Armenia and many years of confrontation will end. Our proposal to start work on a peace agreement remains unanswered, but we still hope that this proposal will be accepted.

Among positive developments, I would like to point to the intensification of the work of the trilateral working group chaired by the Deputy Prime Ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia. A new meeting was held in St. Petersburg recently. We do hope that tangible steps will be taken to implement the November 2020 Declaration in the context of opening communications, ensuring the unimpeded delivery of Azerbaijani cargo and citizens to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. This is a legal obligation of the Armenian side. Unfortunately, more than a year and a half has passed since the end of the second Karabakh war, but this paragraph of the Declaration has not been implemented yet. I think that it will be possible to take many tangible steps within the framework of our concept to normalize the situation as a whole. Of course, we look forward to the active efforts of the Russian Federation to establish lasting peace in the Caucasus.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky expects the Verkhovna Rada to adopt European integration laws after the EU decision to grant Ukraine candidate status.

"Despite the war, we continue to implement EU legislation, norms and rules in all areas of life. The government will develop a suitable roadmap. The next steps are known - we have recommendations from the European Commission. We expect the Verkhovna Rada to approve, as a matter of priority, European integration laws. From all of you - high civic consciousness, devotion to our values and the realization that no one will build a European Ukraine for us, except us," he said in a video message on Friday morning, the press service of the President's Office reported.

We, he said, "are changing Ukraine for ourselves, not for someone else. We implement reforms not because of someone else's demands, but because of our own convictions. Ukraine seeks not to join but to return to the European family."

Zelensky recalled that "democracy existed here over a thousand years ago. In the days of Kyivan Rus, when the people were involved in solving important issues. Human rights, human life were a value a thousand years ago. Kyivan Rus is perhaps the only medieval state where the death penalty did not exist."

"Today Ukraine is fighting for its freedom. And this war began exactly when Ukraine declared the right to its freedom. The right of choice of our future. We saw it in the European Union. No matter how some convince us that no one needs us there and a happy tomorrow for Ukraine is possible in a completely different union called Customs. And no matter how surprised that Ukrainians know the preference of the will, and not cheap gas. We have chosen the path," he said.

"The path that was determined by our people, and not by anyone's power," the president said.
The Russian occupation forces attacked borderline residential areas in Chernihiv region on Friday night, Head of Chernihiv Regional Military Administration Viacheslav Chaus has said.

"Chernihiv region: new shelling attacks on the borderline districts at night. Near Senkivka: five explosions (according to preliminary information, from a mortar), near the intersection of the Hasychivka-Khrinivka-Hirsk-Senkivka road, in Novye Yurkovichi (Russia)-Hirsk direction. Semenivka community: 20 explosions from a mortar attack, near the village of Yanzhulivka," he said on the Telegram channel on Friday morning.
The Russian occupation forces shelled Zaporizhia region on Thursday night, infrastructure facilities were injures, information about casualties and damages is being clarified, Zaporizhia Regional Military Administration has said.

"The enemy viciously shelled the territory of Zaporizhia region at night using multiple rocket launchers. According to preliminary information, the infrastructure facilities near a residential area close to the regional center were damaged. The information about destructions and casualties is being clarified. Rescuers from the State Emergency Service of Ukraine are working on the spot," he said on Facebook on Friday night, adding that no 'arrivals' to Zaporizhia were recorded.
USA to continue to support Ukraine, which is carrying out further reforms on its way to EU  Ambassador

The United States will continue to support Ukraine, which is carrying out further reforms to realize the European aspirations of the Ukrainian people, said U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink.

"I congratulate Ukraine and its people on obtaining the status of a candidate for EU membership! This decision reflects Ukraine's significant achievements in deepening European integration. The United States will continue to support Ukraine, which is carrying out further reforms to realize the European aspirations of the Ukrainian people," Brink wrote on Twitter on Friday.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has exposed the agent network of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Federation (GRU), which was supposed to assist the Russian Federation in the seizure of Ukraine.

"It, in particular, included MP Andriy Derkach, who, according to the investigation, oversaw the creation of a number of private security companies in different areas to use these structures for the rapid seizure of Ukraine," the SBU press service reports on the Telegram channel.

It is noted that the operational development of the network was carried out for a long time, but the SBU finally neutralized it at the beginning of the war, detaining the former assistant to MP Ihor Kolesnikov. He, being an unspoken employee of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of Russia with the call sign "Veteran," was a signalman and financial courier between the Russian special services and Derkach.

According to Kolesnikov, Derkach was recruited in 2016. The top leadership of the GRU personally worked with him - head of the department Igor Kostyukov and his first deputy Vladimir Alekseev.

The MP, in particular, received funds from the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Federation to create private security structures, which the enemy planned to use to seize Ukraine. The GRU allocated $3-4 million every few months to implement its plans. According to the materials of the investigation, a significant part of these funds ended up in Derkach's pockets, the report says.

Kolesnikov, after the arrest, agreed on the accusation and testimony. He told the details of the network's activities and its role in preparing for a full-scale war. In May, the court sentenced him to high treason.

Upon entering the troops, when it is clear that the cities are surrendering, these private security companies had to ensure the passage of equipment, sit on the armor with Russian flags, and thus ensure a peaceful entry into the cities, said Kolesnikov.

In addition, according to Kolesnikov's testimony, the GRU planned to use two special forces brigades and special operations forces during the capture of the capital, which were supposed to enter from the territory of Belarus. From there - move quickly to Kyiv, capture the government quarter and convene a veche in the Verkhovna Rada, which would vote for the creation of a new government.

The SBU continues operational and investigative measures to bring to justice all persons involved in an extensive intelligence network.

In August last year, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine imposed personal sanctions against non-factional MP Andriy Derkach and a number of individuals against whom sanctions were imposed by the United States of America.
PACE has said that, based on the evidence made available to its rapporteur by Ukrainian and Dutch authorities, it considers "as the most convincing scenario by far" that flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine in 2014 by a Buk missile made available to military units controlled by Russia.

The press service of PACE said that unanimously approving a resolution, based on a report by Titus Corlatean (Romania, SOC), the Assembly said it was appalled at the "disinformation" spread by Russian authorities concerning the downing of the Malaysia Airlines flight, which has caused "pain and suffering" to the victims' relatives and friends.

"Instead of providing reliable information to the competent investigative bodies, the Russian authorities spread disinformation, including successive contradictory versions of the events designed to create confusion. As demonstrated by open-source intelligence published in numerous reports, the Russian authorities even went so far as to submit manipulated radar, satellite and other data in order to obfuscate the truth," it said.

In particular, versions according to which a Ukrainian SU 25 or MiG 29 fighter jet had shot down flight MH17, or that a Ukrainian Buk missile fired from government-controlled territory was to blame, had been "thoroughly disproved."

"The Assembly again urged Russia to co-operate in good faith with ongoing investigations, including providing proper satellite and radar data on the downing, and to formally apologize to MH17 victims' relatives for the pain and suffering caused by earlier disinformation," PACE said.

PACE also encouraged the European Court of Human Rights to consider granting priority to applications from crash victims' next of kin, "in view of [their] intense and continuing suffering."

"Finally, the parliamentarians encouraged national and international flight safety authorities to provide updates on their procedures for flying over conflict zones, in light of the recommendations from the Dutch Safety Board," the press service said.

As reported, on July 17, 2014, the MH17 flight was shot down over Donbas, killing all 298 people on board. Two-thirds of passengers are citizens of the Netherlands. Citizens of Malaysia, Australia, Indonesia, the UK, Belgium, the United States, Germany, the Philippines, Canada and New Zealand were also onboard. The Joint Investigation Team (JIT), which includes law enforcement from Ukraine, the Netherlands, Belgium, Australia, and Malaysia, is probing the incident.

In September 2016, the Joint Investigation Group released its findings, according to which the airliner was shot down by a missile launched from a Buk air defense system, and a year ago it announced that the Buk belonged to the Russian 53rd anti-aircraft missile brigade stationed in Kursk.

The MH17 trial began on March 9, 2020. In May 2022, presiding judge Hendrick Steinhaus announced that the public stage of the MH17 trial would be completed on June 10, after which the panel of judges would go to the closed stage to make a decision. The verdict will be announced in November or December 2022.
The court, at the request of the prosecutors of the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO), seized the property of a Russian businessman, commercial structures controlled by him, bank accounts and illegally extracted minerals with a total value of more than UAH 1 billion.

"According to the investigation, a citizen of the Russian Federation illegally obtained ownership of a number of specialized enterprises, and also received permits for special use of mineral resources on the territory of Ukraine. In violation of the requirements of the current legislation, in complicity with other individuals, he carried out the extraction of crushed stone and sand on an industrial scale on the territory of Kyiv and Zhytomyr regions. Funds from the sale of minerals through a group of offshore companies were withdrawn and used for personal illicit enrichment. They were transferred to the Russian Federation, as well as to the material support of the occupation administrations in Crimea and the pseudo-republic DPR/LPR," the press service of the Prosecutor General's Office reports on the Telegram channel.

During the pretrial investigation, it was also established that the citizen justified and recognized as legitimate the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, launched in 2014. He denied the temporary occupation of part of the territory of Ukraine, glorified those who committed armed aggression.

Criminal proceedings are being conducted on the fact that a group of persons organized by a citizen of the Russian Federation carries out illegal activities related to the extraction of minerals, evasion of mandatory taxes and payments for land, withdrawal of funds and financing of terrorism (Part 2 of Article 197-1, Part 3 of Article 209, Part 3 of Article 212, Article 240, Part 1 of Article 255, Part 3 of Article 257, Part 3 of Article 258-5 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
Cases of kidnapping of relatives of Ukrainian soldiers in the temporarily occupied territories are becoming systemic; Russian invaders recently took several children of a Ukrainian soldier hostage, the press service of the Main Intelligence Agency of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine said.

"Unfortunately, the databases of Ukrainian citizens fall into the hands of the Rashists when they seize administrative buildings or with the help of traitor collaborators. To date, most of these cases are recorded in the temporarily occupied territories of Zaporoizhia, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions. At the same time, they are kidnapped as adult relatives (including number of women and the elderly) and children," the intelligence agency said on its website.

In particular, as reported by the intelligence agency, it recently became known that the occupiers took hostage several children of another Ukrainian serviceman.

In the future, the Russians can contact the military and demand to arrive in the occupied territories in exchange for the safety of their relatives.

"Each of these cases is evidence of the most terrible war crimes committed by the occupiers on our soil. All of them will be duly investigated. Those responsible for their commission will be justly punished. For security reasons, we do not disclose the names of the injured servicemen and abducted relatives. But none of these cases do not go unnoticed by the state. Ukraine is fighting for each of its citizens," the intelligence agency said.
The Foreign Ministers of the G7 countries of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Great Britain and the United States, as well as the EU High Representative called on Russia to unblock Ukrainian Black Sea ports for food exports.

"The G7 foreign ministers called on Moscow to cease its attacks and threatening actions and unblock the Ukrainian Black Sea ports for food exports. They expressed their support for UN efforts to urgently open the Black Sea route for grain and the European Commission's Action Plan for EU-Ukraine Solidarity Lanes for the transport of grain by road, rail and barge transport to world markets, to which the G7 countries are actively contributing," the German Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday.

The ministers reaffirmed in the strongest terms their condemnation of Russia's ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine. In addition, they rejected the false narrative and Russian misinformation about the sanctions. The statement emphasizes that all G7 sanctions include exemptions allowing Russian food and agricultural products to enter world markets.

The G7 foreign ministers reiterated their unwavering support for Ukraine, including military and defense assistance, for as long as needed. They pledged humanitarian aid, reconstruction and stabilization support for Ukraine, and to build the resilience of neighboring countries, especially the Republic of Moldova, which has been particularly hard hit.

In addition, they welcomed the decision of the European Council to grant Ukraine and Moldova the status of EU candidate members and to grant Georgia the status of EU perspective with a clear path to candidate status.
The National Police of Ukraine has seized a building in the center of Kyiv with an area of almost 1,000 square meters valued at UAH 60 million and owned by Rosatom.

"To hide information about the owner of this premises, the relevant information was not entered into the public register of rights to real estate, but was reflected only in the documents of the Kyiv City Bureau of Technical Inventory and Registration of Ownership of Real Estate," the ministry said in a statement.

According to the report, law enforcement officers searched the building and, based on the decision of the investigator, the judge of the Pechersky District Court seized the property.

The building is planned to be transferred to the management of the Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA).

Investigations are ongoing.

As reported, in May 2022, the funds of Rosatom Eastern Europe LLC in the amount of more than UAH 3 million were transferred to the management of ARMA.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in Baku on June 23 and had a meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Azernews reports, citing Azertac.

Addressing the meeting with the Azerbaijani president, the minister said President Vladimir Putin highly appreciates the results of Ilham Aliyev's visit to Moscow "and all aspects of our bilateral relations, our confidence-based talks on the regional and international agenda".

He added that "the main outcome of the visit was the adopted document  the Declaration on Allied Interaction", adding that this document establishes a new quality of the relations, the positive experience gained over all previous years. "We are determined to fulfill the instructions of the two Presidents to implement this Declaration, to implement it in sectors, and to implement other agreements at a practical level," the top diplomat said.

"The intergovernmental commission at the level of deputy prime ministers is active. As you said, the turnover was at a record level last year  about $3.5 billion. This is not the limit, there are new plans at the level of both our governments and regions. More than 70 regions are involved in cooperation with Azerbaijan. I was told that delegations from Udmurtia, Bashkortostan, Perm, and, of course, Astrakhan region, which has special relations with Azerbaijan, visited your country this year alone," Lavrov said.

On the 30th year of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Baku and Moscow, a program of significant measures is being implemented, the Russian minister added.

"Over 20 different events are planned, some of which have already been organized, whilst the rest will be held before the end of the year. These events are well received by our citizens. This emphasizes the mutual aspiration of our peoples, the commonality of our cultures, and historical memory. Of course, we appreciate the attention being paid to the Russian language in Azerbaijan, and you talked about that with President Putin," the minister added.

As for regional issues, we are ready to do everything possible to facilitate the implementation of the three documents signed by the three leaders in November 2020, January and November 2021, Lavrov added.

"According to our assessment, there is some progress in the activities of the tripartite working group on the opening of communications. We are discussing the issues to be agreed with the Armenian side. It seems to me that a general idea is being formed on how to solve the problem of organizing this work so that there are no artificial obstacles to the movement of cars with maximum comfort. Russia will help in this until the results are achieved. I do hope that this will happen soon. We are also ready to provide consulting services on the work of two commissions established for the delimitation and demarcation of borders in Azerbaijan and Armenia in accordance with other agreements. There are specific proposals on this. I would be glad to discuss them with you," the minister said without further divulging details.

You mentioned the normalization of relations, the peace agreement and provisions of the future agreement submitted by you, the minister went on.

"By the way, we have heard that the Armenian side, Prime Minister Pashinyan, is ready to hold talks on this issue. We are ready to help here with the consent of Azerbaijan and Armenia. Of course, other international forums with the participation of Azerbaijan and Russia, such as the UN, the OSCE, and the Caspian Five, all these places, as they say, already allow us the opportunity to develop the outlines of our interaction. Exactly a week later, the next summit of the Caspian Five will be held in Ashgabat. We are also actively preparing for it. My colleague and friend Jeyhun Aziz oglu and I discussed the results we could offer for the approval of the leaders," the Russian top diplomat concluded.
The meeting took place on the sidelines of the Baghdad Conference on Cooperation and Partnership

Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Qatars Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani agree to continuing consultation to boost bilateral relations during the coming period as they met in Baghdad on Saturday.

They also agreed to proceed with mutual steps aimed at resuming the two countries' bilateral cooperation mechanisms, Egyptian Presidential Spokesman Bassam Rady said in a statement.

The agreement comes in line with the progress taking place in the path of the Egyptian-Qatari relations within the framework of the Al-Ula declaration, Rady added.

El-Sisis meeting with Sheikh Tamim of Qatar took place on the sidelines of the Baghdad Conference on Cooperation and Partnership, which started in the Iraqi capital Saturday.

Al-Ula Agreement

Egypt and the Gulf Cooperation Council signed the Al-Ula agreement for Arab reconciliation with Qatar last January during the 41st GCC summit in Saudi Arabia. The declaration ended around 3.5 years of rift between Qatar and its Gulf neighbors in addition to Egypt.

In the wake of the declaration, Egypt and Qatar agreed to move beyond their dispute and work towards settling all outstanding issues.

In June, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met with Qatari Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdul-Rahman Al Thani in Doha.

In an official statement both ministers expressed satisfaction with developments in Egyptian-Qatari relations following the signing of Al-Ula Declaration and agreed to fully restore diplomatic relations.

El-Sisi and the Qatari emir have also exchanged telephone calls and invitations to visit.

After the signing of the agreement, flag carriers Qatar Airways and EgyptAir also resumed flights to the two countries' capitals.

This comes in addition to rounds of meetings of joint Egyptian-Qatari committees that have been held this year to follow up on the development of the bilateral relations following the agreement.

Positive Progress

During his Saturday meeting with El-Sisi, Sheikh Tamim voiced Qatars appreciation of the positive progress seen in the Egyptian-Qatari relations, the presidential spokesman said.

The Qatari emir also hailed the recent exchange of visits between the two countries and the resumption of their cooperation frameworks.

Sheikh Tamim affirmed Qatars aspiration to enhance consultations with Egypt over the ways to strengthen the bilateral relations in a way that serves the interests of both countries.

This comes especially in light of the strategic and pivotal role Egypt plays under President El-Sisi to establish security, stability and development on the regional level and within the framework of defending the Arab issues, Rady explained.

Mr. President [El-Sisi] also affirmed Egypts keenness on comprehensive, productive cooperation for the sake of prosperity, construction, development and support to Arab solidarity, the spokesman noted.

The president also noted that this keenness on cooperation comes within the framework of mutual respect, joint interests and sincere intensions as a firm principle and approach of the Egyptian policy, according to the spokesman.

Exchanging Ambassadors

In late July, the Qatari emir issued a decree appointing Salem bin Mubarak Al-Shafi as an ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Egypt. Al-Shafi is the first Qatari ambassador to Cairo in four years.

This came a week after El-Sisi appointed Amr El-Sherbini as Egypts ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Qatar.

Al-Shafi arrived in Cairo from Doha and presented his credentials to Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on 23 August to take up his duties.

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In his first interview since taking office, UNDP Resident Representative in Egypt Alessandro Fracassetti explains to Al-Ahram Weekly the organisations efforts to support Egypt in its development projects, including on adapting to climate change and improving environmental protection.

Since he assumed office in November last year, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative in Egypt Alessandro Fracassetti has been busy with plans to help Egypt face up to climate change and the shift to a green economy.

Last weekend, and in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, he took part in launching the Scaling Up Climate Ambition on Land Use and Agriculture (SCALA) programme in Egypt, which over the next three years aims to support transformative climate action in land use and strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate change in 12 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

A few days earlier, he joined the ministers of environment and tourism, Yasmine Fouad and Khaled El-Enany, in launching new guidelines to strengthen green development in Egypts tourism sector.

The launch of Egypts National Strategy for Climate Change 2050 last month was also hailed by Fracassetti as a way of planning long term to deal with climate change. This is a must, he said, which is why it is imperative to have a national strategy.

Nearly half the global population is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, including rising sea levels, increased droughts, and more intense weather events, and climate change worldwide could drive an additional 100 million people into poverty. It is therefore essential that all nations have long-term strategies.

These can serve as a compass or direction for countries to commit to certain goals like decoupling economic growth from the use of fossil fuels, he said. In Egypt, the UNDP is proud to have supported the Ministry of Environment in drafting such a strategy, he added.

It is an important milestone to show Egypts commitment to climate action right before the COP27 meeting in November, Fracassetti said.

He pinpointed a couple of points about the strategy itself. First, it provides a guide for different sectors, important for mobilising resources from national and international partners for climate action. Any organisation Egypt approaches for funding in its efforts to face climate change will want to see the planning or directions in the related sector, he noted.

Second, it reflects the governments commitment to joining the global efforts to fight climate change and its adherence to the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) agreed on in the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change, part of an action plan to cut emissions and adapt to climate impacts.

Each of the Paris Agreements 192 signatories is required to establish NDCs and update the agreements secretariat every five years.

Asked about the role played by the UNDP in helping Egypt to counter the effects of climate change and facilitate access to sources of finance, especially in preparation for COP27, Fracassetti pointed to a number of projects that are currently being implemented with the government, on top of which is the installation of solar plants on rooftops.

We have installed solar plants on 129 buildings, including private and state-owned buildings, he said. The UNDP is working on this project in 15 governorates with a total capacity of 11 Megawatts (MW) and a total saving of electricity to 17.6 Gigawatts (GW)/year.

It is also giving a hand to government plans to strengthen the finance and management systems of 19 protected areas across the country, including two in Sharm El-Sheikh, where COP27 will be held, Al-Naqb and Ras Mohamed.

In preparations for COP27, he added, the UNDP is helping with a number of projects in Sharm El-Sheikh including two hotels in which solar panels have already been installed and another eight that have signed contracts to install electricity-generating solar panels.

There are 10 other hotels in the Red Sea resort that are waiting to sign similar contracts, in addition to installing solar power in Sharm El-Sheikhs airport and main hospital. By focusing on Sharm El-Sheikh, Fracassetti said, the city could become a model of the energy transition in Egypt and set a good example for other cities to follow.

We also support the Foreign Ministry with training, capacity building, best practices, and logistics to be able to be effective in preparation, negotiations and consultation during COP27, he added.

OTHER PROJECTS

Casting light on other longstanding projects in Egypt, Fracassetti pointed to the UNDP Nile Delta project. In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN body for assessing the science related to climate change, wrote that the Nile Delta is one of the most vulnerable areas when it comes to sea level rises and extreme weather conditions.

The region, Fracassetti said, accounts for more than half of Egypts economic activities through agriculture, industries, and fisheries, and it contributes 20 per cent of Egypts GDP. As a result, the government has worked with international partners to find solutions to protect the Deltas vulnerable areas and the people whose lives might be affected.

With the support of the UNs green climate fund, Egypt started the widest adaptive programme in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to establish 70 km of a low-dike system to protect the low-lying land in the Delta from coastal flooding. It provides a nature-based solution that works with natural elements and helps protect the lives and livelihoods of over 17 million people as well as increasing the values of property.

The UNDP also plays a role in helping the government to realise the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Fracassetti said that the SDGs require trillions of dollars to be implemented, so it is not possible for the government on its own to implement them and requires the support of the private sector.

The UNDP, he added, considers the SDGs as a whole, but it urges every government to set priorities according to its own needs. In Egypts case, the UNDP has focused on the area of fighting poverty in recent years.

In doing so, it prioritises inclusive growth, which looks at vulnerable groups or those that are more at risk of being left behind. It supports the government in areas like job creation, addressing inequalities, and trying to ensure that no one is forgotten.

One approach to creating jobs, Fracassetti explained, was made in partnership with the government and the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency (MSMEDA) to provide financial and technical support for SMEs in Egypt. Through this partnership, the UNDP has managed to disburse LE2.9 million, which has helped 630,000 enterprises and created over 960 jobs. In 2019 alone, the partnership managed to create 260,000 jobs for some of the most vulnerable groups in society. The number is expected to reach 700,000 by the end of 2022.

Fracassetti also hailed Egypts Decent Life initiative as one of the most ambitious development programmes that we know of from any government to address poor villages.

Within the framework of the initiative, the UNDP is involved in two programmes. It has started an EU-funded programme with the Ministry of Local Development to pilot, modernise, and decentralise local administrative systems in four governorates, Fayoum, Beni Sweif, Luxor, and Aswan. The programme is worth seven million euros and covers a total of 33 districts. The first phase comprises nine districts that are included in the initiative. The majority of the remaining 24 districts will be included in the second and third phases.

The other programme is being implemented with the Ministry of Social Solidarity to support the gender and social-protection component of the Takaful and Karama (Solidarity and Dignity) programmes to support vulnerable groups, especially women and people with disabilities, to get better access to social-protection services. The programme, funded by the EU and UK, included 585 women rural leaders who play an influential role in their communities.

They were trained within the framework of the Waai (Awareness) programme for community development, launched in 2020, that aims to enhance awareness and knowledge on issues like child marriage, female genital mutilation (FGM), abandonment, health and education issues, the rights of the persons with disabilities (PwDs), and the economic empowerment of the poorest marginalised families.

Another UNDP contribution is the long-standing programme that started in 2012 in collaboration with the Egyptian Network for Integrated Development (ENID), a NGO, and the ministry of international cooperation to develop viable and sustainable employment opportunities in Upper Egypt, especially for women.

In a follow-up field visit, Fracassetti went to the Qena governorate two weeks ago within the framework of the programme. The beneficiaries are mostly women, including those who work in garment factories and others who have opened their own small businesses. We help women start their businesses, train them, find funds for them, and connect them to the market, he said.

He also mentioned UNDP cooperation with the National Council for Women (NCW). Earlier this year, we produced together with UN Women and UNFPA the first report on women victims of violence in Egypt, he said, expressing the hope that this will be a reference work to policy-makers who cater for the needs of women and girls with disabilities.

CHALLENGES

Asked whether the UNDP found some SDGs more challenging than others, Fracassetti reiterated that his organisation looks at them as a whole. The UNDP formulates Country Programme Documents (CPDs), five-year plans that guide it through what is most needed and what the government and other partners are requesting.

In the current CPD, running from 2018 to 2022, the UNDP looked at a number of priorities including eradicating poverty, SDG1, accelerating structural transformation and building resilience to crises and shocks so as to leave no one behind. This also means adaptation to climate change or anything to do with disaster prevention and dealing with the whole issue of resilience, he said.

Fracassetti said that the results of the current CPD will be revealed soon. The UNDP is currently preparing the next CPD from 2023 to 2027.

With regard to strategic innovation and digital transformation, Fracassetti referred to UNDP administrator Achim Steiners words during the recent World Economic Forum in Davos. Our future is digital; if youre not part of it, youre out of it, Steiner said.

Thus, digitisation is not something that can be avoided, and it has an impact on all aspects of development. In Egypt, Fracassetti said, the UNDP has worked with the government on the process of digital transformation in the post office, serving millions of citizens. Some 5,000 branches that employ 50,000 staff were provided with internal audit functioning to improve risk and management systems.

The Yalla application was also launched to help people get access to their money online and perform other services. This project, he added, is very important in Egypt, given that nearly half the population does not have bank accounts.

In the area of digitisation, together with the Ministry of Communication, Fracassetti explained, the UNDP has encouraged social entrepreneurship that has helped create new jobs with 25,000 SMEs and social entrepreneurs as well as improving their digital skills. These projects have already reached 30 million people through a range of online and offline services.

The UNDP is the leading UN organisation fighting to end the injustice of poverty, inequality, and climate change. Fracassetti, a national of Italy, started his post as UNDP resident representative in Egypt in November last year. Before that he was resident representative in Azerbaijan.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 9 June, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.

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In one of Uganda's poorest and most lawless regions, anxious mothers clutch bone-thin infants in a malnutrition ward, terrified their child could be next to succumb to starvation in Karamoja.

One of Maria Logiel's youngsters, too weak to sit up, bears telltale skin lesions caused by extreme hunger. The other, strapped to her back, stares gauntly from sunken eyes.

"I came with these two because they were badly off, and going to die," Logiel told AFP at a hospital in Karamoja, a vast and isolated northeastern border region afflicted by drought, disease and armed bands.

"(But) I left two others home, and I worry that by the time I get back, they'll be no more," the 30-year-old mother said.

More than half a million people are going hungry in Karamoja, some 40 percent of the population of this neglected, long-suffering rural region between South Sudan and Kenya.

Natural disasters, plagues of locusts and army worms, and raids by heavily-armed cattle thieves have left little to eat.

As food has become ever more scarce, Karamoja's most vulnerable residents are struggling to survive.

"In three months we have lost more than 25 children under five due to the malnutrition," said Doctor Sharif Nalibe, the district health officer in Kaabong, one of Karamoja's worst-hit districts.

"And these were the ones under our care, but (who) were brought at the last minute to the hospital. But there are many who die and (are) not reported in the communities."

Out of sight

Starvation in Karamoja is going largely unnoticed as higher-profile crises, including looming famine in the Horn of Africa, and the war in Ukraine, compel global attention.

Even in Uganda, the desperation is out of sight, unfolding 500 kilometres (310 miles) from the capital Kampala in a part of the country long written off as harsh and volatile.

But the level of hardship is extraordinary, even by the extremes sometimes endured in Karamoja.

Across the region, about 91,600 children and 9,500 pregnant or breastfeeding women are suffering from acute malnutrition and need treatment, according to the latest assessment by humanitarian agencies and foreign donors.

"In terms of acute malnutrition... this year we have experienced the worst that we have had in the last 10 years," said Alex Mokori, a nutrition specialist from UNICEF, which is screening for malnutrition in Karamoja with local authorities.

Logiel said she resorted to foraging to put food on the table, but the wild plants often made her children sicker.

In desperation, she would sometimes purchase the mealy dregs from a popular locally-made sorghum brew called "malwa", even if the effect was mildly alcoholic.

Half a litre of this residue goes for about 40 US cents -- often more than she could afford.

"Often we failed to raise money and the children sleep hungry," Logiel said.

'Worse to come'

With a porous border and thriving illicit trade, Karamoja has endured decades of tit-for-tat armed cattle raids between nomadic clans that wander the lawless frontier between Uganda, South Sudan and Kenya.

These incursions make life even more miserable for Karimojong communities entirely reliant on livestock and crops to survive, and government interventions to disarm rustlers have not stopped the cycles of violence.

The erratic effects of a changing climate -- Karamoja is experiencing harsh drought, but last year witnessed damaging floods and landslides -- have only multiplied the hardships bearing down on the region.

"Now, with the prolonged drought, and cattle rustlers, and communities left with no source of livelihood, we are heading for the worst," said Nalibe, the Kaabong district health officer.

For some, the worst has already arrived.

Nangole Lopwon went to sell firewood in a nearby village and left her hungry twins with one of her older children, only to return and find one of the young ones had died.

"What could I do? The child was not sick. It was purely hunger that killed him," said the mother of five from Kaabong.

Now she, too, is malnourished, and the surviving twin in a dire state.

"Even this one is about to die," she wailed.

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The Lebanon Humanitarian Fund (LHF) has allocated 16 million U.S. dollars to expand the humanitarian response in Lebanon, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), operator of the fund, said on Wednesday.

About 65 percent of the funds are for Lebanese nationals, 31 percent for Syrian refugees, and the remaining amount for migrants and Palestine refugees, the OCHA said in a statement

"The needs continue growing day by day and it is essential for the humanitarian community to adjust the response and assist all of those most in need," Najat Rochdi, UN humanitarian coordinator for Lebanon, was quoted as saying.

Based on recent assessments, 2.5 million people are currently in need of humanitarian assistance in Lebanon who are vulnerable Lebanese, migrants, and Palestine refugees in Lebanon, in addition to 1.5 million Syrian refugees.

The LHF is a country-based pooled fund led by the Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon and managed by OCHA.

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The UN's World Food Programme warned on Sunday that refugees in East and West Africa faced smaller food rations due to a surge in demand and insufficient funding.

Three-quarters of refugees in East Africa supported by the United Nations' programme have seen their rations reduced by up to 50 percent, WFP said, with those in Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda the worst affected.

"We are being forced to make the heartbreaking decision to cut food rations for refugees who rely on us for their survival," said WFP executive director David Beasley.

Available resources could not keep up with the soaring demand for food around the globe, he said.

In West Africa specifically Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger ,WFP had "significantly" reduced rations.

It warned of imminent disruptions in Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

On Tuesday, the WFP appealed for $426 million to stave off famine in South Sudan, where years of conflict and floods have forced millions of people from their homes.

It said more than two-thirds of the population required humanitarian assistance, with 8.3 million people, including refugees, expected to face "severe acute hunger" this year.

The war in Ukraine has significantly worsened the global refugee crisis and the risk of famine, not only creating six million additional refugees as civilians flee conflict zones, but in pushing up commodity prices, especially grain.

On Saturday, the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell accused Russia of choosing to "weaponise" grain exports by blocking grain from Ukraine destined for poor countries.

Before the Russian invasion, Ukraine served as one of the world's leading breadbaskets exporting roughly 12 percent of the planet's wheat, 15 percent of its corn, and half of its sunflower oil.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said the war could "tip tens of millions of people over the edge into food insecurity"

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Drawing on the brutal realities of colonialism in Africa and the dislocation and poverty he experienced when he came to England, novels such as "Paradise", "Desertion" and "Gravel Heart" explore racism, exile and the legacy of European domination.

Gurnah says his generation had a particularly complex relationship with colonialism.

"For people of my father's generation, colonialism was something they saw arriving, implanting itself, dominating. But they didn't lose a sense of who they were," he told AFP during a trip to Paris.

"(My generation) couldn't just brush it off. We could see that in fact much has been done -- progress in medicine, technology, engineering... we are more urgently forced to try and engage and understand that relationship."

He welcomes the recent wave of anti-colonial protests, often focused on statues and other symbols of the era.

"I don't care if they topple statues or not. But the symbolism is good," he said.

"And it provokes all these right-wingers to come out and start crying and complaining. Good. It means the issue is kept alive."

'A difficult time'

Gurnah grew up in Zanzibar, which became part of Tanzania after gaining independence from Britain in 1963.

A year later, a Communist-inspired revolution led to problems for Gurnah's Arab-origin family.

His father came from a Yemeni family and his uncle was a wealthy trader of fish, dates and spices.

They became targets when the Communists overthrew Zanzibar's sultan and his mainly Arab government.

"It was a difficult time for everybody, particularly people who the government considered to be foreigners. It was part of a racialisation process, quite unjust," Gurnah recalled.

His family supported the Zanzibar Nationalist Party, which had tried to create a shared identity rather than focus on separate ethnicities.

"We were saying: we're Zanzibaris -- we're not Indians, Arabs, Africans. We don't want to be racialised," he said.

"Of course the racial politics won, but I still want to adhere to: I'm a Zanzibari, I'm not a Yemeni, this or that, or an African."

That debate found strange echoes after his Nobel victory, with Arabs seeking to claim him as one of their own.

"The Arabs celebrated me as a Yemeni writer. I said well, fine, if you want. That's not how I feel, but... it makes everybody happy, so why not?"

'African literature'

Gurnah fled to Britain and spent years in poverty before managing to educate himself into a career as an academic and author.

With South Africa's Damon Galgut winning the Booker Prize and Senegal's Mohamed Mbougar Sarr becoming the first sub-Saharan African to win France's Prix Goncourt, 2021 proved to be a landmark year for African literature.

Gurnah knows the label of "African literature" is far too vague since it encompasses such a vast and diverse continent, but he takes a relaxed attitude.

"Those who use the term often already have a conception of African literature," he said. "They might exclude white South Africans, or North Africans, or Ethiopians and Somalis."

"(But) if we use it symbolically, it's OK, I can live with that... and I don't want to argue with anybody."
Qatars Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani is set to visit Cairo on Friday, his first visit to the country in years, where he will meet with President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.

The emirs visit to Egypt is the first since Cairo and Doha agreed in January 2021 to resume diplomatic relations as part of the Al-Ula Declaration, which was made after an over three-year-long diplomatic rift.

The Qatari emirs visit to Cairo aims to ensure full normalisation of relations between the two countries and will see the signing of a number of economic agreements, a diplomatic source revealed.

Bin Hamads visit will also seek to ensure pumping Qatari investments in Egypt, especially in the energy field, the source said.

An Egyptian-Qatari business council will be launched in light of the emirs visit, the source said, noting that businessmen at the council will work to enhance trade, investment, and economic relations between the two countries.

Bin Hamad will arrive in Egypt on Friday from Rwanda and will hold a summit with El-Sisi on the following day, according to the source.

Cementing Egyptian-Qatari relations

Earlier this week, Egypt and Qatar signed an MoU on financial policy coordination in Doha between their finance ministries on the sidelines of the Qatar Economic Forum.

The MoU is the latest episode of cooperation between Egypt and Qatar following the restoration of diplomatic, economic, and travel ties.

Egypt and Qatar have worked on strengthening their newly-restored relations and reaching common ground on regional issues since Egypt and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) signed the Al-Ula Declaration with Qatar.

In the wake of the agreement, Egypt and Qatar held rounds of talks to develop relations, eventually forming the Egyptian-Qatari Joint Committee in March to foster and strengthen these ties.

The Qatari emirs visit comes a few months after Qatar's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani made a brief visit to Cairo in March, during which he met with President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.

During their meeting, El-Sisi said the tangible progress in Egyptian-Qatari relations should serve the interests of the two countries and enhance the efforts to bolster the security and stability of the Arab region.

In the meeting, the Qatari FM affirmed to El-Sisi Doha's keenness to cement ties with Cairo.

Egypt's Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and Bin Abdulrahman held an extended meeting on a Qatari package of $5 billion in investments and partnerships in Egypt within "the framework of boosting economic cooperation."

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European Union leaders on Thursday agreed to grant candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova, in a show of support in the face of Russia's war.

"A historic moment. Today marks a crucial step on your path towards the EU," Michel wrote on Twitter during a summit in Brussels.

"Our future is together."

Ukraine applied to become an EU candidate in a bid to cement its place in Europe just days after Moscow launched its devastating invasion.

France's President Emmanuel Macron said the move sent a "very strong signal" to the Kremlin that the EU backs the pro-Western aspirations of Ukraine.

"We owe it to the Ukrainian people who are fighting to defend our values, their sovereignty, their territorial integrity," he said.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky on Twitter hailed the EU's decision "a unique and historic moment in Ukraine-EU relations", adding that "Ukraine's future is within the EU".

The decision sets the two ex-Soviet nations at the start of a years-long path towards joining the bloc requiring major reforms and protracted negotiations.

The EU has laid out a series of steps for Kyiv to take, including on bolstering the rule-of-law and fighting corruption, before it can progress to the next stage entailing accession talks.

Moldova and Georgia, two countries that also have part of their territory occupied by the Kremlin's forces, handed in applications in Ukraine's slipstream.

EU leaders agreed to offer Georgia a "European perspective" but said it must carry out a raft of steps before it can become a candidate.

Georgia reacted by saying it was determined to take steps required to qualify.

"We are ready to work with determination over the next months to reach the candidate status," President Salome Zurabishvili said on Twitter.

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Around 2,000 migrants tried to storm the border separating Spain's Melilla enclave from Morocco on Friday, the first such attempted mass crossing into the territory since the two nations mended diplomatic ties in March.

Melilla and Ceuta, Spain's other tiny North African enclave, have the European Union's only land borders with Africa, making them a magnet for migrants.

Some 2,000 migrants made their way to the border at dawn and over 500 managed to enter the border control area after cutting a fence with shears, the Spanish government's local delegation said in a statement.

Of these 130 sub-Saharan African migrants, "all of them men and apparently adults", managed to enter Melilla, it added.

Morocco deployed a "large" amount of forces to try to repel the assault on the border, which "cooperated actively" with Spain's security forces, the delegation said earlier in a separate statement.

Images on Spanish media showed exhausted migrants laying on the sidewalk in Melilla, some with bloodied hands and torn clothes.

On Thursday night migrants and security forces "clashed" on the Moroccan side of the border, Omar Naji of Moroccan rights group AMDH told AFP.

Morocco's Hassani Hospital in Nador near Melilla confirmed that "several" police officers and migrants were admitted for treatment.

'New stage'

In March this year, Spain ended a year-long diplomatic crisis by backing Morocco's autonomy plan for Western Sahara going back on its decades-long stance of neutrality.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez then visited Rabat, and the two governments hailed a "new stage" in relations.

The row began when Madrid allowed Brahim Ghali, leader of Western Sahara's pro-independence Polisario Front, to be treated for Covid-19 in a Spanish hospital in April 2021.

A month later, some 10,000 migrants surged across the Moroccan border into Spain's Ceuta enclave as border guards looked the other way, in what was widely seen as a punitive gesture by Rabat.

Rabat calls for Western Sahara to have an autonomous status under Moroccan sovereignty but the Polisario wants an UN-supervised referendum on self-determination as agreed in a 1991 ceasefire agreement.

In the days just before Morocco and Spain patched up their ties, there were several attempted mass crossings of migrants into Melilla, including one involving 2,500 people, the largest such attempt on record. Nearly 500 made it across

'Means of pressure'

Patching up a relationship with Morocco, the departure point for many migrants has meant a drop in arrivals, notably in Spain's Atlantic Canary Islands.

The number of migrants who reached the Canary Islands in April was 70 percent lower than in February, government figures show.

Sanchez earlier this month warned that "Spain will not tolerate any use of the tragedy of illegal immigration as a means of pressure."

Spain will seek to have "irregular migration" listed as one of the security threats on NATO's southern flank when the alliance gathers for a summit in Madrid on June 29-30.

Over the years, thousands of migrants have attempted to cross the 12-kilometre (7.5-mile) border between Melilla and Morocco, or Ceuta's eight-kilometre border, by climbing the fences, swimming along the coast or hiding in vehicles.

The two territories are protected by fences fortified with barbed wire, video cameras and watchtowers.

The attempts include violent clashes between those crossing and the agents charged to stop them.

Migrants sometimes use hooks and sticks to try to climb the border fence, and throw stones at police.

Claimed by Morocco, the two cities have long been a flashpoint in diplomatic relations between Rabat and Madrid, which insists both are integral parts of Spain.

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President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Qatars Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani are holding a summit at at Itihadiya Presidential Palace, as the Qatari leader visits Egypt for the first time since Cairo and Doha resumed diplomatic ties last year as part of Al-Ula agreement that ended an over three-year-long diplomatic rift.

The two leaders listened to the national anthems of both countries before starting summit talks.

The Qatari emir was received by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi at Cairo International Airport on Friday evening.

The summit today between the two leaders aims to ensure full normalisation of relations between the two countries, according to a diplomatic source.

Tamims visit will see the signing of a number of economic agreements, and ensure Qatari investment in Egypt, especially in the energy field, added the diplomatic source.

The two leaders are set to discuss during the summit the full scope of bilateral relations between the two countries and means of boosting them, according to the Egyptian presidency.

They will also discuss a host of political, regional and international issues, the presidency added.

On the sideline of Tamims visit, the Egyptian-Qatari Business Council meetings will be launched with participation of businessmen to enhance trade, investment and economic relations between the two countries.

Tamim has met El-Sisi twice since the reconciliation agreement.

The first meeting was in Iraq in August 2021 on the sidelines of the Baghdad Conference on Cooperation and Partnership. The second meeting took place on the sidelines of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in November 2021.

In January 2021, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain signed the Al-Ula agreement for Arab reconciliation with Qatar. The Arab quartet had cut ties and transport links with Qatar in June 2017, accusing Doha of backing radical Islamist groups and cooperating with Iran. Qatar has always denied these allegations.

In the wake of the agreement, Egypt and Qatar held rounds of talks to develop relations, eventually forming the Egyptian-Qatari Joint Committee in March to foster and strengthen these ties.

Both countries have worked on strengthening their newly-restored relations and reaching common ground on regional issues since the signing of the Al-Ula agreement.

In March 2022, Cairo and Doha agreed on $5 billion in Qatari investments in Egypt during a visit by Qatar's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani to the Egyptian capital.

The Qatar emirs two-day visit comes days after the Egyptian president met Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and held a trilateral summit with Bahrains King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, and Jordan's King Abdullah II in the Egyptian Red Sea city of Sharm El-Sheikh.

On the sideline of Bin Salmans visit, 14 investment agreements worth $7.7 billion were signed between Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

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Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has received bp Chief Executive Officer Bernard Looney.

The sides hailed bps long-term successful cooperation with SOCAR. The companys intention to continue operating in Azerbaijan was underlined at the meeting.

bp's contribution to the transition to green energy in Azerbaijan was noted.

The importance of the 240-megawatt solar power plant to be built by the company in Jabrayil was pointed out, and the significance of the document signed with bp on June 4 in Shusha in this regard was emphasized.

During the meeting, the sides also exchanged views on future plans.
Cash-strapped Sri Lanka's president Friday appointed the island's biggest casino operator Dhammika Perera as Investment minister with responsibility for a Chinese-funded tax-free enclave in the impoverished South Asian nation.

The 54-year-old businessman known as Sri Lanka's "Casino King" was sworn in by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa at his sea-front residence to attract foreign capital into the country, his office said.

Perera replaced Rajapaksa's youngest brother Basil who resigned from parliament two weeks ago as the ruling clan came under intense pressure to step down over economic mismanagement.

The president has refused to step down and instead appointed opposition legislator Ranil Wickremesinghe as the new prime minister last month to salvage the economy.

The president's office said Perera's investment ministry will have responsibilities over the $1.4 billion "Port City" land reclamation project which has been turned into a tax-free enclave in Colombo.

The United States has expressed fears that the Port City could be "a haven for money launderers and other sorts of nefarious actors."

Western countries, as well as regional power India, have long expressed concern over growing Chinese influence in strategically placed Sri Lanka.

Perera will be in a cabinet with premier Wickremesinghe, who in 2015 described the Casino King as one of four top corrupt businessmen in the country supporting the Rajapaksa clan.

Perera himself has publicly pledged his admiration and loyalty to Mahinda Rajapaksa, who stepped down as prime minister on May 9 after nationwide violent protests over shortages of essentials, including fuel.

Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic crisis with the 22 million people enduring acute shortages of food, fuel and medicines for months as the government ran out of dollars to finance even the most essential imports.

Perera has claimed on his website that he has a plan to raise Sri Lanka's GDP per capita income more than threefold from its current $3,682 to $12,000.

He has said he will raise $5.0 billion in foreign currency deposits by selling 10-year resident visas to some 50,000 foreigners willing to deposit $100,000 in a local bank account, a scheme already in place since April.

The country defaulted on its $51 billion foreign debt in April and is in talks with the International Monetary Fund for a possible bailout.

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Egypt's Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly issued a decree stipulating that Thursday 30 June 2022 will be a fully paid day off to mark the anniversary of the 30 June Revolution.

According to a cabinet statement released on Thursday, the decision applies to workers at all ministries, government bodies, public institutions, local administrative bodies, public sector companies, public business sector companies, in addition to the private sector.

However, schools and universities exams will run as scheduled, the decree read.

Thousands of thanaweya amma (high school grade 12) students are currently taking their exams, while university students are also doing their end-of-term exams.

The holiday marks the day in 2013 when millions of Egyptians took to the street to demand that then-President Mohamed Morsi leave office.

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Egyptian political scientist and activist Amr Hamzawy as well as space scientist and ex-presidential scientific advisor Essam Heggy have accepted the invitation to take part in the national political dialogue, general coordinator of the dialogue and Head of the Journalists Syndicate Diaa Rashwan said on Thursday.

Rashwan mentioned a list of Egyptians living abroad who have accepted the invitation to join the national dialogue called upon by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi last April, including well-known media professional Gehan Mansour.

Inside Egypt, invitations have been sent by the dialogue administration to hundreds of people, Rashwan said, including member of the National Council for Human Rights George Ishak and well-known laywer Essam El-Islamboly.

The list of invitations also includes former ministers of health Amr Helmy and Ashraf Hatem, and opposition MP Diaa El-Din Dawoud and former jihadist turned Islamist writer Nageh Ibrahim, Rashwan said.

Ibrahim is the most prominent example for those who managed to change the track of violence in Egypt and bring back Islam to its moderate form and those who went astray back into the society, Rashwan said.

The dialogue has not been rejected by any political party or forces so far, Rashwan said, adding that a number of political parties have asked to join the dialogue to introduce their proposals.

He noted that thousands of citizens have also communicated with the dialogue administration and submitted dialogue-linked proposals, urging those willing to join the dialogue to submit their requests at the National Youth Conferences website.

The path of the national dialogue is proceeding in a positive manner and evokes all the good preparation methods for a fruitful and diversified dialogue, Rashwan said.

He added that the dialogue will be conducted within a framework of freedom of opinion and discussions by well-informed experts.

Egypt will hold its first sessions of the national political dialogue during the first week of July, as all preparations have been completed, according to a statement by the dialogues administration announced on Wednesday.

The dialogue is part of steps taken by the country to advance its human rights situation as part of the National Strategy for Human Rights launched in September.

During the annual Egyptian Family Iftar banquet on 26 April, El-Sisi assigned the National Youth Conference, which is organised by the National Training Academy (NTA), to conduct the dialogue on the current national issues and deliver the outcomes to him.

El-Sisi promised during the banquet to attend the final stages of the dialogue, which is set to include all political parties without any exceptions or discrimination.

Multiple political parties have welcomed the step and expressed willingness to join the dialogue.

A statement by the dialogues administration earlier this month announced inviting the largest possible number of representatives of the Egyptian social classes and institutions to conduct an effective national dialogue.

This aims to make sure that all the categories are represented in the societal dialogue and to ensure access to all regions of the republic in coordination with all partisan and youth political currents, the statement said.

The dialogues administration is also receiving proposals and inquiries via WhatsApp at 01025521555 - 0109388883.

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The United Nations said Friday that its findings showed that the shot that killed Al Jazeera TV journalist Shireen Abu Akleh on May 11 was fired by Israeli occupation forces.

The Palestinian journalist, who was wearing a vest marked "Press" and a helmet, was killed on May 11 while covering an Israeli army operation in Jenin camp in the northern West Bank.

"We find that the shots that killed Abu Akleh came from Israeli security forces," UN Human Rights Office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva.

"It is deeply disturbing that Israeli authorities have not conducted a criminal investigation.

"We at the UN Human Rights Office have concluded our independent monitoring into the incident.

"The shots that killed Abu Akleh and injured her colleague Ali Sammoudi came from Israeli occupation forces and not from indiscriminate firing by armed Palestinians, as initially claimed by Israeli authorities" she said.



Reporter reacting (R) as an unidentified man tries to lift the body of the channel's veteran journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh (Akleh) from the ground after she was fatally wounded by gunfire in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, on May 11, 2022. AFP

She added that the information came from the Israeli military and the Palestinian attorney general.

"We have found no information suggesting that there was activity by armed Palestinians in the immediate vicinity of the journalists," Shamdasani said.



Colleagues and friends react as the corpse of veteran Al-Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh is brought to the offices of the news channel in the West Bank city of Ramallah. on May 11, 2022. AFP

In line with its human rights monitoring methodology, the UN rights office inspected photo, video and audio material, visited the scene, consulted experts, reviewed official communications and interviewed witnesses.

The findings showed that seven journalists arrived at the western entrance of the Jenin refugee camp soon after 6:00 am.

At around 6:30 am, as four of the journalists turned into a particular street, "several single, seemingly well-aimed bullets were fired towards them from the direction of the Israeli occupation forces.

"One single bullet injured Ali Sammoudi in the shoulder; another single bullet hit Abu Akleh in the head and killed her instantly."



Israeli occupation police confront mourners as they carry the casket of slain Al Jazeera veteran journalist Shireen Abu Akleh during her funeral in east Jerusalem, Friday, May 13, 2022. AP

UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet has urged Israel to open a criminal investigation into Abu Akleh's killing and into all other killings by Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank and in the context of law enforcement operations in Gaza.

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Saudi authorities have released a member of the country's Shia minority who was arrested at age 13 and had risked the death penalty, a human rights group said on Friday.

"Murtaja Qureiris, detained since 2014 when he was only 13, has been released following the expiry of his sentence," ALQST for Human Rights said on Twitter.

"Qureiris had been at risk of the death penalty, and was later sentenced to eight years on charges including participating in protests at the age of 10," the London-based group added.

It said he "should never have been arrested".

Amnesty International in the Gulf said it was "happy" for Qureiris and his family.

Saudi Arabia has released several young Shia men in recent months, including Ali al-Nimr, who was arrested as a minor in 2012 for taking part in anti-government protests and received a death sentence that was later commuted.

Nimr is a nephew of Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr, who was executed by Saudi Arabia in 2016, leading to the severance of diplomatic relations between Riyadh and Tehran.

Saudi Arabia in recent years has announced a series of reforms to sentencing by the courts, including a moratorium on the death penalty for drug offences, as well as abolishing court-ordered floggings.

In April 2020, the kingdom announced it was ending the death penalty for those convicted of crimes committed when they were under 18.

*This story was edited by Ahram Online

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The US Supreme Court on Friday ended the right to abortion in a seismic ruling that shreds half a century of constitutional protections on one of America's most divisive and bitterly fought issues.

The conservative-dominated court overturned the landmark 1973 "Roe v. Wade" decision that enshrined a woman's right to an abortion, saying that individual states can now permit or restrict the procedure themselves.

"The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion," the court said. "The authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives."

Hundreds of people -- some shedding tears of joy and others weeping with grief -- gathered outside the fenced-off Supreme Court, where security was tightened ahead of the ruling.

"It's hard to imagine living in a country that does not respect women as human beings and their right to control their bodies," said Jennifer Lockwood-Shabat, 49, a mother of two daughters who was choking back tears.

But Gwen Charles, a 21-year-old opponent of abortion, was jubilant.

"This is the day that we have been waiting for," she told AFP. "We get to usher in a new culture of life in the United States."

The Supreme Court ruling will likely set into motion a cavalcade of new laws in roughly half of the 50 US states that will severely restrict or outright ban and criminalize abortions, forcing women to travel long distances to states that still permit the procedure.

In the majority opinion, Justice Samuel Alito said Roe v. Wade was "egregiously wrong."

"Abortion presents a profound moral issue on which Americans hold sharply conflicting views," he said. "The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion."

The ruling represents a victory of 50 years of struggle against abortion by the religious right -- with campaigners now expected to keep pushing for an outright nationwide ban.

The court tossed out the legal argument in Roe v. Wade that women had the right to abortion based on the constitutional right to privacy over their own bodies.

Alito's opinion largely mirrors his draft opinion that was the subject of an extraordinary leak in early May, sparking demonstrations around the country, with an armed man arrested this month near the home of conservative justice Brett Kavanaugh.

'Never stop fighting'

Planned Parenthood, the leading abortion provider in the United States, vowed following the ruling to "never stop fighting" for those in need.

"We know you may be feeling a lot of things right now -- hurt, anger, confusion. Whatever you feel is OK. We're here with you -- and we'll never stop fighting for you," the organization tweeted.

Former Democratic President Barack Obama denounced the ruling, saying "it relegated the most intensely personal decision someone can make to the whims of politicians and ideologues -- attacking the essential freedoms of millions of Americans."

But former Republican vice president Mike Pence, a leading anti-abortion campaigner, welcomed it, saying the US right to abortion has been consigned to the "ash heap of history."

"This Supreme Court has righted a historic wrong," Pence said.

The three liberal justices on the court dissented from the ruling -- which came a day after the court ushered in a major expansion of gun rights in the country.

"Whatever the exact scope of the coming laws, one result of today's decision is certain: the curtailment of women's rights, and of their status as free and equal citizens," they said.

The court's ruling goes against an international trend of easing abortion laws, including in such countries as Ireland, Argentina, Mexico and Colombia where the Catholic Church continues to wield considerable influence.

'Trigger laws'

The ruling was made possible by the nomination of three conservative justices to the court by former Republican president Donald Trump -- Neil Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

The case before the court was a Mississippi law that would restrict abortion to 15 weeks but while hearing the case in December several justices indicated they were prepared to go further.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, 13 states have adopted so-called "trigger laws" that will ban abortion virtually immediately.

Ten others have pre-1973 laws that could go into force or legislation that would ban abortion after six weeks, before many women even know they are pregnant.

Women living in states with strict anti-abortion laws will either have to continue with their pregnancy, undergo a clandestine abortion or obtain abortion pills, or travel to another state where the procedure remains legal.

Several Democratic-ruled states, anticipating an influx, have taken steps to facilitate abortion and clinics have also shifted their resources.

Travel is expensive, however, and abortion rights groups say any new restrictions will severely impact poor women, many of whom are Black or Hispanic.

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After weeks of ferocious fighting, Ukrainian forces will retreat from a besieged city in the country's east to avoid encirclement, a regional governor said Friday.

The city of Sievierodonetsk, the administrative centre of the Luhansk region, has faced relentless Russian bombardment. Ukrainian troops fought the Russians in house-to-house battles before retreating to the huge Azot chemical factory on the city's edge, where they remain holed up in its sprawling underground structures in which about 500 civilians also found refuge.

In recent days, Russian forces have made gains around Sievierodonetsk and the neighbouring city of Lysychansk, on a steep bank across the river, in a bid to encircle Ukrainian forces.

Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk have been the focal point of the Russian offensive aimed at capturing all of the Donbas and destroying the Ukrainian military defending it, the most capable and battle-hardened segment of the country's armed forces.

The two cities and the surrounding areas are the last major pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the Luhansk region, 95% of which is now under the control of Russian troops and local separatist forces. The Russians and separatists also control about half of the Donetsk region, the second province that is part of the Donbas.

Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said that the Ukrainian troops have been given the order to leave Sievierodonetsk to prevent bigger losses.

``Regrettably, we will have to pull our troops out of Sievierodonetsk,'' Haidai told The Associated Press. ``It makes no sense to stay at the destroyed positions, and the number of killed in action has been growing.''

He said that the Ukrainian soldiers have ``received the order to retreat from Sievierodonetsk to new positions in fortified areas and continue resistance from there.''

Haidai noted that Ukrainian troops still remain in Sievierodonetsk, facing a massive Russian bombardment that has destroyed 80% of buildings.

``As of today, the resistance in Sievierodonetsk is continuing,'' Haidai told the AP. ``The Russians are relentlessly shelling the Ukrainian positions, burning everything out.''

Haidai said the Russians were also advancing toward Lysychansk from Zolote and Toshkivka, adding that Russian reconnaissance units conducted forays on the city edges but were driven out by its defenders.

The governor added that a bridge on a highway leading to Lysychansk was badly damaged in a Russian airstrike and became unusable for trucks.

The Russian Defense Ministry declared Friday that four Ukrainian battalions and a unit of ``foreign mercenaries'' totalling about 2,000 soldiers have been ``fully blocked'' near Hirske and Zolote, south of Lysychansk. The claim couldn't be independently verified.

Following a botched attempt to capture Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, in the early stage of the invasion that started Feb. 24, Russian forces have shifted focus in the war to the Donbas region, where the Ukrainian forces have fought Moscow-backed separatists since 2014.

After repeated requests to its Western allies for heavier weaponry to counter Russia's edge in firepower, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said a response had arrived in the form of medium-range American rocket launchers.

A U.S. defence official confirmed Wednesday that all four of the promised High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, were in the hands of Ukrainian forces but said it wasn't clear if they have been used yet.

The U.S. approved providing the precision-guided systems at the end of May, and once they were in the region, Ukraine's forces needed about three weeks of training to operate them. The rockets can travel about 45 miles (70 kilometers).

The U.S. will send an additional $450 million in military aid to Ukraine, including four more medium-range rocket systems, ammunition and other supplies, U.S. officials announced Thursday.

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Poland is getting a loan of 450 million euros ($474 million) from a European human rights group to help it cope with the influx of refugees fleeing Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Poland and the Council of Europe Development Bank signed the loan agreement Friday.

Some 4.3 million refugees crossed into Poland after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Poland is providing them with free shelter, social and medical care, education and job opportunities.

Many have moved on to other countries and some have decided to go back home, but an estimated half of the number remains in Poland.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki singled out the European Union earlier this month, saying its decision-making procedures are ``sometimes too slow.''

The Council of Europe includes 46 countries, including EU members, and aims to protect human rights, democracy and the rule of law,.

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European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Ukraine "has already implemented roughly 70 percent of EU rules, norms and standards." She said, however, that much needed to be done in the areas of "the rule of law, oligarchs, anticorruption and fundamental rights."

Ukrainian Parliament chair Ruslan Stefanchuk thanked the European lawmakers for their support in a Facebook message, saying, "Ukraine is EU country. And we fight for this right not only on the battlefield but also in the legal sphere." In order for the three countries to join the 27-member EU bloc, they will be required to carry out a series of political and economic reforms.

The vote favoring Ukraine was 529-45, with 14 abstentions. The European Parliament also approved EU candidacy for Georgia and Moldova. The vote came as the U.S. said it was sending another $450 million in military aid to Ukraine, including some additional medium-range rocket systems, on top of the $1 billion in assistance it announced a week ago.

The European Parliament voted overwhelmingly Thursday to grant European Union candidate status to embattled Ukraine, pushing it one step closer to Western allies who have been supplying it with massive amounts of armaments to help it fight off Russia's four-month invasion.

 Council Vote

The European Council, which comprises the heads of all 27 EU governments, will have the final vote on Ukraine's membership. The vote must be unanimous. Diplomats say the process could take a decade to complete.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday that he had spoken to 11 bloc leaders following nine calls with other leaders the day before and planned talks with others on Thursday. Zelenskyy said the meeting would be a "historic session of the European Council" and that he believed all 27 EU countries would support Ukraine's membership.

The EU leaders gathered in Brussels discussed the impact of Russia's war in Ukraine on global food security, as well as additional EU economic, military and humanitarian support for Ukraine.

Zelenskyy said Russia was continuing to launch "massive air and artillery strikes" in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region, adding that Russia's goal was to "destroy the entire Donbas step by step." The Ukrainian leader called for faster arms deliveries to help his forces match up against those from Russia.

 'No Letup' in Shelling

Kharkiv region Governor Oleh Synehubov said Wednesday that shelling of the residential districts of Kharkiv or other towns in the region had continued unabated. "There is no letup in the shelling of civilians by the Russian occupiers," he wrote on the Telegram messaging app. "This is evidence that we cannot expect the same scenario as in Chernihiv or Kyiv, with Russian forces withdrawing under pressure."

Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said in a video address that Russian forces were hitting Kharkiv "with the aim of terrorizing the population" and forcing Ukraine to divert troops, Reuters reported.

Microsoft reported Wednesday that Russian intelligence agencies had conducted multiple efforts to hack the computer networks of Ukraines allies. "The cyber aspects of the current war extend far beyond Ukraine and reflect the unique nature of cyberspace," Microsoft President Brad Smith said in the report.

The Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment, Reuters reported. In the past, Moscow has denied conducting foreign cyber espionage missions, saying it "contradicts the principles of Russian foreign policy."

Since the conflict began Feb. 24, Ukrainian entities have been attacked by Russian state-backed hacking groups, Microsoft reported. Researchers found 128 organizations in 42 countries outside Ukraine had also been targeted by the same groups in espionage-focused hacks, the report found. Nearly two-thirds of the cyberespionage targets involved NATO members, researchers found.
Student debt cancellation has become a priority for many liberals and one that could shore up popularity with younger and more highly educated voters, who lean Democratic, before November's midterm congressional elections.

A settlement agreement between the borrowers and the U.S. Department of Education was filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Wednesday and must be approved by a federal judge.

The United States will cancel $6 billion in student loans for 200,000 borrowers who claimed they were defrauded by their colleges, the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden said.

About 43 million Americans have federal student loan debt, according to educationdata.org. The loans of those borrowers will be fully eliminated, and any payments they made will be refunded, according to the court filing of the settlement deal.

The lawsuit from borrowers had accused the administrations of Biden and former President Donald Trump of illegally delaying for years any action on the applications that borrowers had filed with the Education Department seeking debt relief.

In a statement on Thursday, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona described the settlement as "fair and equitable for all parties" and said it will deliver "billions of dollars of automatic relief" to the 200,000 borrowers.

The Project on Predatory Student Lending, which represents students across the U.S. in fighting against student debt, described the settlement as "momentous."

The Biden administration had previously approved $25 billion in student debt forgiveness for about 1.3 million borrowers. The administration had been reluctant to unilaterally make an unprecedented cancellation of college debt owned by the U.S. government. The president had instead earlier asked Congress to pass a bill forgiving debt that he could sign.
South Africa: Youth encouraged to use acquired skills in the formal sector

Public Works and Infrastructure Deputy Minister, Noxolo Kiviet, has encouraged young people who have completed their training through the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) to use their acquired skills to look for employment in the formal sector.

I am strongly convinced that you will live up to your calling as artisans in various fields of the built environment to the very best of your abilities, Deputy Minister Kiviet said on Friday.

Officiating at the graduation ceremony of young people who have completed their training in the various fields of the built environment, held in Pretoria, Kiviet told the graduates that the department is proud of their success.

As you exit the programme today, I wish to encourage you to use the skills you have acquired from the training to look for employment in the formal sector, Kiviet said.

In total, 37 young people have completed their three year training in the different fields who passed their trade test and received the Red Seal certificates issued by the Qualification Council for Trade and Occupation (QCTO) under Section 26(D) (4) of the Skills Development Act, 1998 (Act No 97 of 1998).

Kiviet also encouraged graduates to establish cooperatives so that they can assist the country in the important task of creating work opportunities for other young people in their communities.

She said the Artisan Development Programme is one of the key government initiatives aimed at providing scarce and critical skills to youth, thereby affording the trainees better employment prospects.

It is important to note that the EPWP program in one of the apprenticeship programme, it plays a critical role in the workforce and in the provision of scarce and critical skills in South Africa, the Deputy Minister said.

Kiviet said the EPWP is currently training a further 367 young people across South Africa in various artisan trades such as plumbing, painting, paving, welding, and general civil work.

Kiviet explained that the graduating young people are part of the 40 young people who were recruited through the National Youth Service (NYS) Programme.

The selected participants demonstrated an interest for further learning and they met the minimum requirement for artisan training which is N2 or Grade 12 with Mathematics and Science, Kiviet said.

One of the graduates, Emanuel Happy Kgori, who qualified as a plumber, said upon hearing about the programme, took advantage of the opportunity.

I thank the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure for giving us this opportunity to improve our lives, he said.

Kgori said he is happy with his achievement.

Also graduating, was Pretty Khumalo who qualified as a bricklayer.

Am happy that I can be counted among women who break the stereotype that bricklaying is for men.

Bricklaying is not only for men, anyone can do it, she said.

Narrating her journey to becoming a qualified bricklayer, Khumalo said the journey has not been easy.

At some stage I was about to give up but had to persevere, I am happy for the opportunity given to us as young people to be qualified artisans, Khumalo said.

The young graduates were recruited through the EPWP NYS programme.

During the training, the learners were receiving a stipend of R3 000 a month.

The selected participants demonstrated an interest in further learning and they met the minimum requirements for artisan training which is N2 or Grade 12 with Mathematics and Science.

The programme was fully funded through the 5% NYS budget allocation from the DPWI Justice College project WCS 047104 and it consisted of the following trades: 22 electrical, 12 bricklaying, and three for plumbing.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2022-06-24. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
By Trend

Foreign Affairs Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov paid a visit to Alley of Martyrs as part of the visit to Azerbaijan, Trend reports.

Within the visit, Lavrov laid a wreath at the Eternal Flame monument and paid a tribute to the martyrs who lost their lives fighting for the independence and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his top brass have discussed aggressive frontline reinforcements along the border with South Korea, state media said Thursday.

At a meeting of Workers Party's powerful Central Military Commission on Wednesday, Kim "discussed expanding operational missions of frontline Army units and revising operational plans and organization accordingly," the North's Korean Central News Agency said.

Kim expressed "the strategic view and determination of the Party Central Committee, which has taken crucial military measures to enhance the operational capabilities of the front-line units," it added.

It is unusual for the regime to make its military planning public. A Unification Ministry official here said, "Normally, they keep military plans under wraps. We think that they'll likely ramp up military threats since they made it public and also deliberately showed an image of a map of the eastern part of South Korea."


By Eric Peters, KYODO NEWS - Jun 24, 2022 - 09:57 | All, World

The United Nations on Thursday called for urgent funding to assist people affected by a magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck Afghanistan a day earlier and killed hundreds of people.

At least 755 people have been killed and nearly 1,500 injured in the Paktika and Khost provinces of eastern Afghanistan, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The death toll is expected to rise further.

Some 1,500 homes were destroyed or damaged in the Giyan district of Paktika province, and the supply of 1,000 available emergency tents is running short.

"Yesterday was yet another tragic reminder of the myriad dangers facing the Afghan people at this time," Ramiz Alakbarov, Deputy Special Representative focusing on development and humanitarian assistance, said in remarks to the Security Council on the humanitarian situation in the Central Asian country.

In a statement released Wednesday, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said, "We count on the international community to help support the hundreds of families hit by this latest disaster. Now is the time for solidarity."

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has deployed its assessment teams to the affected areas.

The earthquake occurred at a time when Afghanistan is experiencing its worst drought in almost 30 years, impacting crop production. Some 19 million people, or roughly half of the country's population, are considered food insecure, with 6.6 million at emergency levels.

The risk of a cholera outbreak is a particular concern in the south-eastern part of the country where the temblor occurred, Guterres' spokesperson said. Around 500,000 cases of acute watery diarrhea have been confirmed across Afghanistan, and U.N. officials fear cases could rise.

"With destruction of this scale plus rain and lack of sanitation (it) could lead to the outbreak of a disease that could be a waterborne disease, and that would be a very, very unwelcome scenario," said Ramiz Alakbarov, U.N. resident and humanitarian coordinator for Afghanistan.

Only one-third of the resources requested for this year's humanitarian response to Afghanistan has been received, a shortfall of approximately $2 billion.

"Without intervention -- funding, humanitarian assistance and basic services -- we will have another winter of discontent and a winter of trouble and a winter of pain for the people of Afghanistan," warned Martin Griffiths, the U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator.
KYODO NEWS - Jun 24, 2022 - 07:22 | All, World

The United States does not view the participation of Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand at the upcoming NATO summit as a move toward the creation of an "Asian version of NATO," a White House official said Thursday.

China has been cautioning against some European countries stepping up their engagement in the Indo-Pacific as well as against a formation of a military alliance in the region akin to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

"This isn't about an Asian version of NATO. NATO is a trans-Atlantic security alliance," John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, said, touching on the expected attendance of the four Asia-Pacific nations at a NATO summit for the first time.

The leaders' gathering will be held next week in Spain as member nations continue to face challenges stemming from Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand are also considering holding a four-way summit on the fringes of the NATO event, a source close to the South Korean presidential office said earlier this week.

Kirby said the participation of the Asia-Pacific partners in the NATO summit is "an indication of the linkage of global security between Europe and the Indo-Pacific."

"It's not one or the other anymore...The same kinds of assaults on territorial integrity and sovereignty that we're seeing in Europe can happen in the Indo Pacific," he added.
KYODO NEWS - Jun 23, 2022 - 22:22 | All, Japan

The Osaka District Court on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit claiming Seven-Eleven Japan Co. unjustly terminated its contract with a convenience store franchisee over his decision to stop late-night operations.

Accepting the chain operator's claim that the termination resulted from his improper handling of customers, the court also ordered Mitoshi Matsumoto, the 60-year-old former franchisee, to give up the store and pay damages to the company.

Matsumoto, who has spearheaded a campaign among the nation's convenience store owners for shorter opening hours, criticized the court decision and said he will appeal the ruling to a high court.

Related coverage:

Former Seven-Eleven store owner sues firm over contract termination

Japan's convenience store owners eye shorter hours, closures for New Year

Seven-Eleven to end contract with franchisee who cut opening hours

"I was surprised. The court just parroted the company's claims. I will appeal the ruling and fight till the end."

Matsumoto unilaterally stopped late-night operations at his 7-Eleven store in Higashiosaka in Osaka Prefecture in 2019, citing understaffing. The resulting disputes between Seven-Eleven and him shed light on the severe working conditions faced by many franchisees and led to a reexamination of their 24-hour operations.

According to the lawsuit, Matsumoto began closing his store between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. every day in February of that year. He also announced that the store would be closed on New Year's Day in 2020.

Seven-Eleven terminated his contract on Dec. 31, 2019, saying it had received about 320 complaints about the store between its opening in 2012 and October 2019, about nine times the national average.

At the trial, Matsumoto's side argued the termination was retaliation for shortened business hours and that complaints cannot constitute a reason for canceling the contract because they were the result of the store dealing firmly with customers' troubling behavior.

The court's Presiding Judge Masanori Yokota accepted the operator's claim that Matsumoto's attitude toward customers, which became physical at times, had hurt its brand image and that the contract termination on the grounds of his handling of customers was valid.

The court ordered Matsumoto to pay the operator about 14.5 million yen ($106,500) in damages while charging him about 110,000 yen for each day he failed to return the store and its equipment after the cancellation.

Seven-Eleven welcomed the ruling, saying, "The court thoroughly accepted our claims. We will redouble our efforts for the patronage of customers in the area."

The chain operator set up a temporary store in the parking space of the original store and has been running it since May 2021.
KYODO NEWS - Jun 23, 2022 - 23:55 | All, World

Parties to a U.N. treaty banning nuclear weapons called for "immediate action" to achieve a nuclear-weapons-free world as they wrapped up their first meeting Thursday.

The statement, adopted at the end of the three-day meeting of parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Vienna, said a prompt response is the only way for such weapons to never be used again at a time when Russia is threatening to use them in its war against Ukraine.

Nuclear threats "further underscore the enormity of the danger posed by the existence of nuclear weapons," according to the Vienna Declaration.

The statement expressed grave concern that nine countries -- Britain, China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia and the United States -- possess a total of around 13,000 nuclear weapons and insisted that "nuclear-armed states never use or threaten to use nuclear weapons under any circumstances."

Related coverage:

1st U.N. nuke ban treaty action plan to vow to help affected states

Their concern comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the country's nuclear forces on high alert in its aggression against Ukraine.

Also in the statement, the parties, including 65 countries and regions that have ratified the treaty, criticized countries under the nuclear umbrella of nuclear-weapons states, such as Japan, for not taking "any serious steps to reduce their reliance on nuclear weapons."

The parties will accelerate the implementation of the treaty "with the aim of further stigmatizing and de-legitimizing nuclear weapons and steadily building a robust global peremptory norm against them," the declaration said.

Japan, the only country in the world to have experienced the horrors of nuclear weapons in war, has not signed the nuclear weapons ban treaty and did not join the meeting, even as an observer, despite high expectations among survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings that it would.

Germany, Norway and the Netherlands participated in the meeting with observer status although their national defense depends on the U.S.-led nuclear umbrella as members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Sweden and Finland, which have applied to join NATO in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as well as Australia, a key U.S. ally just like Japan, were also among observer participants.

The participants hailed "valuable contribution to taking forward nuclear disarmament" by entities and people, including "hibakusha" or survivors and others who have been physically affected by nuclear radiation.

The nuclear-armed states, which are allowed to possess the weapons under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons or NPT, are against the nuclear weapons ban treaty.

The ban treaty is the first international pact outlawing nuclear weapons development, testing, possession and use. The first meeting was held to build momentum for abolishing the ultimate weapons of war.

Friction remains between non-nuclear countries that support the nuclear ban treaty and nuclear-weapon states. The ban treaty will work constructively with the NPT, as it recognizes the NPT as the "cornerstone of the disarmament and nonproliferation regime," according to the declaration.
KYODO NEWS - Jun 24, 2022 - 20:35 | All, Japan

SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. said Friday an investigation panel looking into the major Japanese brokerage's trading scandal has called it an "inappropriate and unjust act," adding the incident was not prevented because of a failure in its corporate governance system.

In a report submitted to the brokerage the same day, the panel of three lawyers also stated that both management and employees had lacked norms that could have averted the alleged market manipulation, which led to the arrests and indictments of the company's former deputy president and five others.

The panel urged SMBC Nikko to strengthen its compliance and establish a structure that would enable the company to identify misconducts.

The report also found that company President Yuichiro Kondo had received an email from the former deputy president with a file attachment that suggested possible market manipulation.

The email, sent to Kondo and some other executives, mentioned utilizing the company's own position to support the price of a stock when it fell.

Related coverage:

Ex-deputy chief of SMBC Nikko Securities indicted over market manipulation

Financial watchdog may punish SMBC Nikko for alleged market rigging

SMBC Nikko Securities deputy chief arrested for alleged market manipulation

Kondo told the panel that he did not remember whether he had read the email.

"I feel very responsible that brokerages' mission to protect the integrity and fairness of the market was not widely acknowledged and enforced at my company," Kondo said at a press conference in Tokyo.

He said he was not involved in any misconduct involving transactions called "block offerings."

In block offerings, a brokerage mediates trading between large shareholders who want to sell chunks of shares and investors hoping to buy them during off-hours trading. The brokerage profits from the difference between the purchase and sale prices.

Along with the six officials, SMBC Nikko was also indicted by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office for alleged market manipulation.

While block offerings are common and legal, the prosecutors suspect that the stock prices were illegally propped up so the transactions would not fall through.
BEIJING, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday held a phone conversation with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian at the latter's request.

Amir Abdollahian wished a complete success for the 14th BRICS Summit as well as the High-level Dialogue on Global Development and expressed the belief that China as the rotating chair will create new opportunities for multilateral cooperation within the framework of the BRICS.

He reiterated Iran's support for the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative proposed by China.

Wang said the BRICS Summit and the High-level Dialogue on Global Development to be hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping holds great significance for strengthening the construction of the BRICS mechanism, enhancing the unity and cooperation between emerging markets and developing countries, as well as facilitating global efforts in dealing with common challenges to development.

China highly values its relations with Iran and stands ready to work with the Iranian side to continue to firmly support each other on issues concerning their respective core interests and major concerns in the spirit of the comprehensive strategic partnership, he said.

Amir Abdollahian briefed Wang on latest progress in the negotiations on resuming the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), saying that the bullying actions of the United States is the major obstacle to current negotiations.

He added that the Iranian side will unswervingly safeguard its national interests, and is firmly committed to resolving differences through negotiations, so as to achieve an agreement at an early date.

Amir Abdollahian also expressed gratitude to China for its constructive role on the Iranian nuclear issue.

Wang said that China disapproves of any non-constructive measures that lead to the continuous escalation of the situation, and that all parties should continue to uphold the correct logic of right and wrong and work tirelessly to reach an agreement through diplomatic efforts.

Wang said China opposes the politicization of affairs of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and supports the IAEA and Iran to resolve outstanding issues through dialogue and cooperation.

He said the U.S. side should earnestly realize its own responsibility and actively respond to Iran's reasonable demands, adding that the Chinese side will continue to uphold justice, support the negotiation process, and is willing to maintain close communication with the Iranian side. 
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian (R) meets with his visiting Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Tehran, Iran on June 23, 2022. (Iranian Foreign Ministry/Handout via Xinhua)

TEHRAN, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Iran and Russia called for a boost to their comprehensive ties to benefit both countries, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said in a Thursday statement on his meeting with the visiting Russian foreign minister.

Raisi told Sergei Lavrov that continuous meetings and talks between the officials of Iran and Russia are a sign of serious will on both sides to shape a new era of bilateral "strategic cooperation," particularly in the economic field, said the statement issued by the presidential website.

"Strengthening cooperation and coordination is an effective way to counter U.S. sanctions and economic unilateralism against independent countries," Raisi was quoted as saying.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian (R) shakes hands with his visiting Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Tehran, Iran on June 23, 2022. (Iranian Foreign Ministry/Handout via Xinhua)

The Iranian president highlighted the importance of cooperation among the countries in the Caspian Sea region, saying the presence of any foreign military forces in the region should be "prohibited."

After a briefing by Lavrov on the latest developments of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Raisi stressed the importance of ending the conflict "as soon as possible" and Iran's readiness to help find a diplomatic solution to the conflict, said the statement.

"The provocative actions of the United States and NATO have been the cause of shaping these conflicts," he noted.

For his part, the top Russian diplomat elaborated on the dimensions of Moscow-Tehran cooperation in various fields and underscored Russia's readiness to upgrade cooperation with Iran to a strategic level. 
A screen marking the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland is seen in Hong Kong, south China, June 23, 2022. (Xinhua/Lo Ping Fai)

Twenty-five years after its return to the motherland, Hong Kong has remained a center of international finance, shipping and trade, and a city that is full of vibrance and diversity. Horse racing, ballroom dancing and stock trading, the three "remarkable capitalist characteristics," are as popular as ever.

HONG KONG, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Twenty-five years after its return to the motherland, Hong Kong, as a special administrative region of China, remains one of the world's most dynamic cities.

Horse racing, ballroom dancing and stock trading, the three "remarkable capitalist characteristics," are as popular as ever.

Over the past 25 years, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) has been running under the principle of "one country, two systems," which has proved a resounding success.

With a new chapter unfolding, Hong Kong sees vast opportunities.

A screen marking the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland is seen on a building in Hong Kong, south China, June 23, 2022. (Xinhua/Lo Ping Fai)

RETAINING COMPETITIVE EDGE

Hong Kong has conquered multiple crises with the support of the central authorities since 1997, and has remained a center of international finance, shipping and trade.

Under the "one country, two systems" principle, Hong Kong has kept a steady financial system, free-flowing capital, abundant human resources, a fine legal environment, and a unique gateway connecting the mainland and the world.

It has been winning the title of the world's freest economy awarded by the Fraser Institute since 1997.

The implementation of the national security law in Hong Kong starting in June 2020 further consolidates the city's role as an international financial center.

Paul Chan, financial secretary of the HKSAR government, said in May that since the implementation of the national security law, funds raised by newly listed stocks in Hong Kong have increased by more than 30 percent compared with the same period prior to the implementation.

The rule of law has been the cornerstone of the HKSAR's success. According to the Worldwide Governance Indicators by the World Bank, Hong Kong's rule of law percentile ranking has kept above 90 points since 2003, compared to only 69.85 points before Hong Kong's return to the motherland.

A sailboat with celebratory posters marking the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland sails at the Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong, south China, June 23, 2022. (Xinhua/Lo Ping Fai)

STARTING NEW CHAPTER

Danish businessman Peter Stein started a medical device company in Hong Kong in 1994. Over the years, Hong Kong's ease of doing business has helped his company grow, and he is seeing fresh opportunities for the future.

"When I meet young people in Europe, I told them that Hong Kong is actually in the Greater Bay Area, a superior area with more than 80 million people and infrastructure better than any place in the world. For young people, the bay area is the place to go and is the place with the best opportunities in the world," he said.

Zheng Xiangling, chairwoman of the Hong Kong Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (Provincial) Members Association, said the Greater Bay Area is not the only opportunity for Hong Kong to thrive in the coming years.

Seeing the Belt and Road Initiative helps with Hong Kong's long-term social and economic goals, Zheng co-founded the Belt and Road General Chamber of Commerce in 2018.

"The Belt and Road Initiative is conducive to accelerating Hong Kong's development into a hub of the global value chain, and boosting the economic transition of Hong Kong," she said.

Celebratory posters marking the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland are seen on an overbridge in Hong Kong, south China, June 23, 2022. (Xinhua/Lo Ping Fai)

A new journey requires an updated model of governance. Richard Wong, provost and deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Hong Kong, said that the governance mechanism in Hong Kong should evolve with the times, and the development model for Hong Kong should become more equal, sustainable and efficient.

John Lee, the incoming sixth-term chief executive of the HKSAR, has said that he and his team will take responsibilities, solve problems and have a mindset for reforms.

It is imperative for the HKSAR government, all sectors of the community and Hong Kong residents to unite and undertake genuine reforms, "starting a new chapter for Hong Kong together," he said. 
By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

Azerbaijan has sent an amphibious plane to help Turkiye with extinguishing wildfires, Azernews reports per the Emergencies Ministry.

In line with the presidential order, a BE-200CS amphibious plane of the Azerbaijani Emergencies Ministry left for Dalaman Airport in Mugla region of Turkiye to help prevent and extinguish forest fires in the brotherly country, said the ministry.

According to the report, the aircraft landed at the location on the evening of June 23, and it will begin firefighting operations the following morning.

On June 21, the first significant forest fire of the "fire season" engulfed the southern Aegean town of Marmaris. Since the incident broke out about 2000 local time, firefighters fought to put out the flames that spread over woodland in the Bordubet district, Azernews reports, citing Turkish media.

The reason for the fire in the town of Mugla province remains unknown. The wind caused the fires to spread quickly.

According to the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), 1,393 individuals, including 592 staff from the General Directorate of Forestry, as well as 338 vehicles and 35 pieces of construction equipment from various institutions and organizations, were involved in firefighting activities.

Turkish Agriculture and Forestry Minister Vahit Kirisci and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu inspected the fire-hit area from the air. "It's not a fire that should worry us much, given the current circumstances. But the position we are in right now is of course a bit critical," Kirisci said after the inspections.

The darkness made it difficult for firefighters battling fires on the ground with minimal aircraft backup. When the sun came up, 20 helicopters and 14 planes began dousing the flames in a 250-hectare area (617 acres). As a precaution, 30 homes near the fire core were evacuated.

The fire started in a sparsely inhabited neighborhood, far from the main streets of Marmaris, one of Mugla's most popular tourist destinations, along with Bodrum. Both communities were devastated by wildfires in 2021, losing a significant amount of land to the flames.

Indeed, last summer's fires in Turkiye were the most severe on record, according to a European Union atmosphere monitor, who added that the Mediterranean had become a hotspot for wildfires. According to experts, human-caused climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of heat waves.

In 2021, Azerbaijan sent four groups of firefighters and rescuers, as well as amphibious aircraft to extinguish wildfires in Turkiye.




TEHRAN, June 24 (Xinhua) -- The Iranian Foreign Ministry announced Friday that European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell will arrive in Tehran on Friday night for talks on the latest status of the international nuclear talks, according to the official news agency IRNA.

Saeed Khatibzadeh, the ministry's spokesman, said that "Borrell will meet Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and some other top officials of the Islamic Republic to discuss bilateral relations, a number of regional and international issues and also the latest situation of the nuclear negotiations to remove the sanctions."

In an address to a joint press conference with visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday, Amir-Abdollahian expressed hope for the nuclear talks in Vienna to resume "in the near future" to rescue the Iranian nuclear pact, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

"We continue on the path of diplomacy, which is the right path, and once again we invite America to reality," he said.

Since April 2021, eight rounds of talks have been held in Vienna between Iran and the remaining JCPOA parties to revive the agreement.

Iran signed the JCPOA with the world powers in July 2015 accepting to put some curbs on its nuclear program in return for the removal of the sanctions on Tehran. However, former U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the agreement in May 2018 and reimposed Washington's unilateral sanctions on Tehran, prompting Iran to reduce some of its nuclear commitments under the agreement in retaliation.

In the Vienna talks, Iran insists on obtaining guarantees that the succeeding U.S. governments would not drop the deal again and called for lifting the sanctions in a verifiable manner.

The talks have been suspended since March when it was believed to be only a step away from a final agreement, raising deep concerns about their prospect. 
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks at a UN pledging event for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), at UN Headquarters in New York, June 23, 2022. Guterres on Thursday called for sustainable funding for the UN agency for Palestine refugees. (Manuel Elias/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)

UNITED NATIONS, June 23 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday called for sustainable funding for the UN agency for Palestine refugees.

The agency, officially known as the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), suffers from chronic underfunding. In the last 10 years, the needs of Palestine refugees have increased, while funds have stagnated, Guterres told a UN pledging event for the agency.

UNRWA has worked hard to absorb the annual funding shortage through program efficiencies. But that alone will never solve the problem, he said.

Guterres made a twofold appeal to UN member states: to make pledges that will bring UNRWA's funding shortfall down to zero for this year and to put the agency on a durable financial footing.

The second appeal requires a long-term plan to stabilize the financing of UNRWA and together, reach sufficient, predictable and sustainable funding, he said. "Millions of Palestine refugees are counting on us to relieve their suffering and to help them build a better future. We cannot let them down."

The Ukraine crisis is catching global attention. But the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the plight of Palestine refugees must not be sidelined, he said.

"I reiterate the importance of pursuing peace efforts to realize the vision of two states -- Israel and Palestine -- living side by side in peace and security, with Jerusalem as the capital of both states. But until then, UNRWA remains vital in supporting those in need," he said.

To help Palestine refugees is a matter of justice. But it is also a barrier to the progression of extremism, terrorism, and other threats, said Guterres.

Investing in UNRWA means investing in stability for the region. It means investing in the economic and social well-being of Palestine refugees and advancing the Sustainable Development Goals. It means investing in the future through education. And it means honoring the commitment of the international community to Palestine refugees and their rights until a just and durable political solution is found, he said.

UNRWA, which currently helps some 5.6 million Palestine refugees and their descendants in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria as well as in West Bank and Gaza, is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions from UN member states. 
BEIJING, June 24 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislature on Friday passed a law on black soil conservation, as part of efforts to ensure the country's grain security and protect the ecosystem.

The law, adopted after a vote at the closing meeting of the 35th standing committee session of the 13th National People's Congress, addresses the country's need for measures designed to specifically protect the black soil.

The black soil, or chernozem soil, found in China's northeastern provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning and in some parts of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, produces about a quarter of the country's total grain output, making it crucial to China's food supply.

However, excessive reclamation has eroded the soil's nutrients and its chernozem layer is thinning out, posing a threat to the country's ecological security and sustainable agricultural development.

Consisting of 38 provisions, the law specifies the responsibilities of the government and "agricultural production operators" to protect the black soil.

The law requires that black soil should be used in growing farm produce including grains, oil crops, sugar crops, and vegetables, while strict protection must be provided for the black soil that has been designated as part of the country's "permanent basic farmland" to ensure stable grain yields and quality.

Stipulating a surveying and monitoring system for the soil, the law says that when governments at or above the county level conduct land surveys, a similar survey on the distribution, quantity, quality, protection and other aspects of the black soil should meanwhile take place to establish a "black soil archive."

Stressing that fiscal spending on black soil protection shall be ensured, the law says that governments at or above the county level should earmark funds for black soil protection in their budgets and report their work on black soil protection to people's congresses of the corresponding level or the standing committees of the people's congresses.

The country encourages the participation of social capital and protects the rights and interests of those investing in the protection of the black soil, according to the law.

It also stipulates harsher punishment for those who cause pollution or soil erosion in black soil areas in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, and asks state farms to contribute more to black soil protection efforts and set a fine example.

The law will take effect on Aug. 1, 2022. 
Li Zhanshu, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, presides over the closing meeting of the 35th session of the 13th NPC Standing Committee at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 24, 2022. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei)

BEIJING, June 24 (Xinhua) -- The Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) concluded its 35th session Friday in Beijing.

At the closing meeting, lawmakers voted to adopt a revised Law on Physical Culture and Sports, a black soil conservation law, a decision to amend the Anti-monopoly Law, and a decision to amend the procedural rules of the NPC Standing Committee.

A personnel decision was also passed at the meeting. Pan Yue was appointed as head of the National Ethnic Affairs Commission, replacing Chen Xiaojiang. Wang Xiaohong was appointed as minister of public security, replacing Zhao Kezhi. Zhou Zuyi was appointed as minister of human resources and social security, replacing Zhang Jinan.

According to the decision, Wang Guanghua was appointed as minister of natural resources, replacing Lu Hao. Ni Hong was appointed as minister of housing and urban-rural development. Pei Jinjia was appointed as minister of veterans affairs, replacing Sun Shaocheng.

President Xi Jinping signed five presidential orders to promulgate the laws and the decisions.

Li Zhanshu, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, presided over the closing meeting.

Lawmakers approved the central government's final accounts for 2021.

They also approved a report on deputy qualifications and passed other personnel-related bills.

Addressing the closing meeting, Li called for better legislation work to improve the legal systems in important areas.

He also asked the legislature to step up supervision of the government budget and the auditing work.

Li chaired a meeting of the Council of Chairpersons of the NPC Standing Committee before the closing meeting and presided over a lecture for lawmakers after the closing meeting. 
A Russian expert has said that China is trying to give new impetus to the BRICS by putting forward Chinese proposals that aim at stabilizing the world situation. #GLOBALink





Produced by Xinhua Global Service
WASHINGTON, June 23 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Senate advanced a compromised gun bill in a 65-34 vote on Thursday.

A final vote is expected later in the day or on Friday.

The bill would enhance background checks for gun purchasers younger than 21, provide money to administer "red-flag" laws, and crack down on straw buyers, among other things.

It came on the heels of a spate of mass shootings across the United States.

A month ago, a gunman attacked an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 children and two teachers. 




* At the summit, Xi called on BRICS countries to uphold solidarity and safeguard world peace and tranquility, saying that it is important that BRICS countries support each other on issues concerning core interests, practice true multilateralism, safeguard justice, fairness and solidarity and reject hegemony, bullying and division.

* Noting that BRICS countries gather not in a closed club or an exclusive circle, but a big family of mutual support and a partnership for win-win cooperation, Xi said BRICS countries need to uphold openness and inclusiveness and pool collective wisdom and strength.

* He called for improving global science and technology governance and allowing more people to access and benefit from the fruits of scientific and technological advances.

BEIJING, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted the 14th BRICS Summit via video link on Thursday evening in Beijing, calling on BRICS countries to safeguard world peace and tranquility, boost development, and unleash the potential and vitality of cooperation.

"Standing at the crossroads of history, we should both look back at the journey we have traveled and keep in mind why we established BRICS in the first place, and look forward to a shared future of a more comprehensive, close, practical and inclusive high-quality partnership so as to jointly embark on a new journey of BRICS cooperation," Xi said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping hosts the 14th BRICS Summit via video link in Beijing, capital of China, June 23, 2022. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

SAFEGUARDING WORLD PEACE

At the summit, Xi called on BRICS countries to uphold solidarity and safeguard world peace and tranquility, saying that it is important that BRICS countries support each other on issues concerning core interests, practice true multilateralism, safeguard justice, fairness and solidarity and reject hegemony, bullying and division.

"This year, we have held the Foreign Ministers' Meeting and the Meeting of High Representatives on National Security, deepened cooperation on counter-terrorism, cybersecurity and other issues, enhanced coordination at the United Nations and other multilateral institutions, and spoke out for justice on the international stage," he said.

He stressed that the Global Security Initiative (GSI), which advocates a vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, follows the philosophy that humanity is an indivisible security community, and aims to create a new path to security that features dialogue over confrontation, partnership over alliance and win-win over zero-sum.

"China would like to work with BRICS partners to operationalize the GSI and bring more stability and positive energy to the world," said Xi.

UPHOLDING COOPERATION, OPENNESS

Noting that the combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine crisis has resulted in disruptions to global industrial and supply chains, sustained hikes of commodity prices, and weaker international monetary and financial systems, Xi said BRICS countries need to uphold cooperation to boost development and jointly tackle risks and challenges.

Chinese President Xi Jinping hosts the 14th BRICS Summit via video link in Beijing, capital of China, June 23, 2022. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the summit. (Xinhua/Li Tao)



"This year, we launched the BRICS Initiative on Enhancing Cooperation on Supply Chains and the Initiative on Trade and Investment for Sustainable Development, adopted the Agreement on Cooperation and Mutual Administrative Assistance in Customs Matters and the Strategy on Food Security Cooperation, and held a High-level Meeting on Climate Change for the first time," Xi said, adding that BRICS countries should make good use of these new platforms to boost connectivity of industrial and supply chains and jointly meet challenges in poverty reduction, agriculture, energy, logistics and other fields.

Noting that BRICS countries gather not in a closed club or an exclusive circle, but a big family of mutual support and a partnership for win-win cooperation, Xi said BRICS countries need to uphold openness and inclusiveness and pool collective wisdom and strength.

At the Xiamen Summit in 2017, Xi proposed the "BRICS Plus" cooperation approach. Over the past five years, "BRICS Plus" cooperation has deepened and expanded, setting a prime example of South-South cooperation and seeking strength through unity among emerging markets and developing countries, Xi said.

"This year we, for the first time, invited guest countries to attend the BRICS Foreign Ministers' Meeting. The newly established BRICS Vaccine R&D Center has an unequivocal commitment to openness. Step by step, we have organized a variety of 'BRICS Plus' events in such areas as scientific and technological innovation, people-to-people exchanges and sustainable development. All these provide new platforms for cooperation among emerging markets and developing countries," he added.

UPHOLDING PIONEERING SPIRIT, INNOVATION

"Those who seize the opportunities of the new economy, such as big data and artificial intelligence, are in sync with the pulse of the times," President Xi said, adding that BRICS countries need to uphold the pioneering spirit and innovation and unleash the potential and vitality of cooperation.

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers remarks titled "Fostering High-quality Partnership and Embarking on a New Journey of BRICS Cooperation" at the 14th BRICS Summit in Beijing, capital of China, June 23, 2022. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

He called for improving global science and technology governance and allowing more people to access and benefit from the fruits of scientific and technological advances.

"This year, we have accelerated the building of the BRICS Partnership on New Industrial Revolution Innovation Center in Xiamen, hosted the Forum on the Development of Industrial Internet and Digital Manufacturing and the Forum on Big Data for Sustainable Development, reached the Digital Economy Partnership Framework, issued the Initiative for Cooperation on Digitalization of Manufacturing, and established a network of technology transfer centers and an aerospace cooperation mechanism," he said.

All these have opened new channels for closer industrial policy coordination between BRICS countries, Xi said.

As representatives of emerging markets and developing countries, Xi called on BRICS countries to make the right decision and take responsible actions at this critical juncture of history, stay united, pool strength and forge ahead to build a community with a shared future for mankind and jointly create a bright future for humanity. Enditem
BEIJING, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese lawmakers on Friday voted to pass an amendment to the Anti-monopoly Law, which will take effect on Aug. 1, 2022, at a session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. 
Najib Mikati speaks at a press conference after being re-appointed as Lebanon's prime minister at the Baabda Palace in Beirut, Lebanon, on June 23, 2022. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)

"We should continue with reforms to save our nation," said Najib Mikati after being re-appointed as Lebanon's prime minister for the fourth time.



BEIRUT, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Najib Mikati, re-appointed as Lebanon's prime minister-designate by the president, on Thursday called on all Lebanese parties to put aside differences and cooperate to put Lebanon on the right path of recovery.

"I call on all parties to cooperate and continue necessary reform measures to put Lebanon on the right path for long-awaited solutions," Mikati said while addressing the public from the president's Baabda Palace, local TV channel MTV reported.

Saving the country is collaborative work and the nation needs the efforts of all parties, he noted.

Najib Mikati (C) speaks at a press conference after being re-appointed as Lebanon's prime minister at the Baabda Palace in Beirut, Lebanon, on June 23, 2022. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)

The prime minister added that Lebanon has signed a preliminary agreement with the International Monetary Fund and it is still in negotiations with it to reach a final agreement.

"We do not have the luxury of time; we have already lost many opportunities of receiving support from brotherly countries. We should continue with reforms to save our nation," he said.

Mikati was reappointed as prime minister for the fourth time on Thursday after securing 54 votes from the parliament's 128 members in binding consultations with Lebanon's President Michel Aoun.

His main contender was Nawaf Salam, a judge on the International Court of Justice and former ambassador, who gathered 25 votes. Meanwhile, 46 parliament members cast a blank vote.

People queue to buy bread in front of a bakery in Tripoli, Lebanon, on June 23, 2022. Tripoli has been witnessing a bread shortage due to the lack of flour supply. (Photo by Khaled Habashiti/Xinhua)

Unlike many Lebanese leaders, Mikati does not represent a political bloc and now faces the difficult challenge of forming a cabinet capable of dealing with the country's unprecedented crisis.

Lebanon has been facing a steep financial crisis, causing the collapse of the local currency while plunging over 74 percent of the population into poverty, according to the United Nations.

Lebanon is in dire need of implementing structural reforms to unlock financial aid from the International Monetary Fund to save the country from its compounded crisis.

A craftswoman displays her works during a street festival held in Mar Mikhael in Beirut, Lebanon, on June 19, 2022. (Xinhua/Liu Zongya)
BUENOS AIRES, June 23 (Xinhua) -- At least five people were killed and 35 others were affected Thursday when an apartment caught fire in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires, local authorities and medical personnel confirmed.

The fire started at 5:45 a.m. local time in an apartment while the occupants slept, and then spread to the upper floor, forcing the evacuation and rescue of the people living in the 14-story building in the Recoleta neighborhood of northern Buenos Aires.

The five fatalities, three children and two women, lived in a seventh-floor apartment where the fire started, according to police reports released to state news agency Telam.

Alberto Crescenti, director of the Emergency Medical Assistance Service, explained that due to the amount of smoke inhaled by the five victims, it was impossible to save their lives.

During a press conference Thursday morning, presidential spokesperson Gabriela Cerruti said, "We send our condolences to the families of the victims and our support for all that is necessary to the city government and the families to overcome this tragic situation."

The operation to control the fire and help those affected took more than three hours and involved 20 ambulances to transport the injured to six hospitals.

As a preventive measure, capital authorities ordered the total shutdown of gas supply in the area, in addition to the evacuation of a fuel service station nearby. 
By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

Units of the Armenian armed forces subjected to fire military positions of the Azerbaijani army in the liberated Lachin region, Azernews reports per the Defense Ministry.

During the night of June 24, the Armenian armed forces fired at the positions of the Azerbaijani Army in the direction of Lachins Minkend village from their positions in Garakilsa regions Saybali village near the state border, the ministry said.

The Azerbaijani army units took appropriate retaliatory measures to suppress the opposite side, the report added.

Armenia periodically shells Azerbaijani military positions on its liberated territories. The previous truce was recorded on June 21 in the same direction.

To recap, on May 22, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, European Council President Charles Michel, and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met in Brussels. After the meeting, Michel said that Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed on a number of key issues, including the creation of border delimitation commissions, of which the first meeting was held on May 24.

Earlier, Ilham Aliyev stated that peace will return to the Caucasus based on the five principles Baku recently proposed for normalizing relations with Armenia.
Photo taken on May 6, 2022 shows the U.S. Supreme Court and a barrier fence in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

-U.S. President Joe Biden responded that he is "deeply disappointed" by the ruling, maintaining that it "contradicts both common sense and the Constitution, and should deeply trouble us all."

-"In the wake of the horrific attacks in Buffalo and Uvalde, as well as the daily acts of gun violence that do not make national headlines, we must do more as a society -- not less -- to protect our fellow Americans," the veteran Democrat said in a statement.

WASHINGTON, June 24 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a New York state law that places restrictions on carrying a concealed handgun outside the home, a move likely to divide the nation further on the polarizing issue.

The 6-to-3 ruling, which fell along ideological lines, arrived as America continues to grapple with mass shootings over the past few weeks, including a rampage in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two teachers dead on May 24.

CONTROVERSIAL RULING

The State of New York makes it a crime to possess a firearm without a license, whether inside or outside the home.

People who want to carry a firearm outside their home may obtain an unrestricted license to "have and carry" a concealed "pistol or revolver" if they can prove that "proper cause exists" for doing so, according to the law.

"Because the State of New York issues public-carry licenses only when an applicant demonstrates a special need for self-defense, we conclude that the State's licensing regime violates the Constitution," conservative Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the Supreme Court ruling.

In a dissent, liberal Justice Stephen Breyer wrote the court's ruling "severely burdens States' efforts" to curb gun violence.

"The primary difference between the Court's view and mine is that I believe the Amendment allows States to take account of the serious problems posed by gun violence," Breyer argued. "I fear that the Court's interpretation ignores these significant dangers and leaves States without the ability to address them."

Democrats and Republicans reacted differently to the Supreme Court decision, as the divided Senate is debating a gun safety bill introduced after the Uvalde school shooting amid public outcry against longtime political inaction.

U.S. President Joe Biden responded that he is "deeply disappointed" by the ruling, maintaining that it "contradicts both common sense and the Constitution, and should deeply trouble us all."

People mourn for victims of a school mass shooting at Town Square in Uvalde, Texas, the United States, May 30, 2022. (Xinhua/Wu Xiaoling)

"In the wake of the horrific attacks in Buffalo and Uvalde, as well as the daily acts of gun violence that do not make national headlines, we must do more as a society -- not less -- to protect our fellow Americans," the veteran Democrat said in a statement. "I urge states to continue to enact and enforce commonsense laws to make their citizens and communities safer from gun violence."

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, praised the Supreme Court -- where conservatives have a clear majority -- for the ruling, which was described as the widest expansion of gun rights in a decade.

"Today, the Supreme Court upheld our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms," Cruz tweeted. "This case's vindication of the right to carry a firearm for self-defense outside the home is an ever-present reminder of our duty as citizens to defend our constitutional rights from brazen attacks from the left."

IMPACT ON GUN REGULATION

The ruling from the Supreme Court could affect the ability of state and local governments to impose a wide variety of firearms regulations, legal analysts have pointed out. Carrying concealed guns in public are allowed in all states, although many require state-issued permits.

"The important thing to know today is that nothing changes," New York City (NYC) Police Department Commissioner Keechant Sewell said in a press conference, making clear that the Supreme Court's decision will not immediately affect laws in the city.

"If you have a premise permit, it does not automatically convert to a carry permit," she said, adding, "if you carry a gun illegally in NYC, you will be arrested."

More than 20,800 people have died from gun violence across the United States this year, according to the latest data from Gun Violence Archive, along with 279 mass shootings, characterized as an incident in which at least four people are killed or injured by gunfire, excluding the attacker.

People gather during a rally decrying rising gun violence while urging politicians to take action in Washington, D.C., the United States, June 11, 2022. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

Late Thursday, the Senate passed a compromised bill on gun safety, which will enhance background checks for gun purchasers younger than 21, provide money to administer "red-flag" laws that authorize courts to issue a special type of protection order, and crack down on straw buyers who purchase firearms for those ineligible, among other things.

Wayne LaPierre, an American gun rights lobbyist who has led the National Rifle Association (NRA), touted the Supreme Court ruling as a win for the politically influential gun lobby organization while lashing out at the Senate gun bill.

"The decision comes at an important time -- as the Senate considers legislation that undermines the Second Amendment freedom. This decision unequivocally validates the position of the NRA and should put lawmakers on notice: no law should be passed that impinges this individual freedom," LaPierre said in a statement.

Guns are deeply ingrained in American society and its political debates.

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed," the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states. Such language has created considerable debate regarding the amendment's intended scope.

Shannon Watts, an American gun violence prevention activist and founder of Moms Demand Action -- a grassroots group fighting against gun violence in the United States, tweeted that she thinks the Supreme Court's ruling "is out of touch."

"This decision is limited to the constitutionality of one aspect of New York's law on the public carry of firearms, with immediate implications for only a handful of other states," Watts explained. "It doesn't change the majority of concealed carry laws across the country."

The Supreme Court released three other opinions on Thursday but again prolonged the wait for a ruling on abortion rights. 
UNITED NATIONS, June 23 (Xinhua) -- A UN envoy on Thursday stressed the need to engage the Taliban, the de facto authorities in Afghanistan, despite difficulties.

"We firmly continue to believe that a strategy of continued engagement and dialogue remains to be the only way forward for the sake of the Afghan people, as well as for regional and international security," said Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN secretary-general's deputy special representative and officer-in-charge of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

"Even as the international community and the Taliban remain far apart on the question of human, woman's, and political rights, there are some areas where we can do better to improve the lives of Afghans as well as advance on issues of common concern such as counter-narcotics and mine action. Establishing an agenda of common interests will help build confidence and reduce misunderstandings," he told the Security Council.

This includes types of assistance that directly support basic human needs, while moving, where possible, beyond pure humanitarian delivery into sustaining livelihoods for ordinary Afghans, he said.

The Taliban continue to hold power almost exclusively. The emergence and persistence of an armed opposition is in large part due to political exclusion, said Alakbarov.

The overall security environment is becoming increasingly unpredictable. There are clashes between forces of the Taliban and the armed political opposition, especially in Panjshir and Baghlan provinces, as well as improvised explosive device attacks and targeted assassinations against the de facto authority figures by both armed political opposition and the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP), an Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State terrorist group, he said.

Armed opposition attacks against the Taliban doubled in May compared to April. The number of ISKP attacks has generally decreased compared with the same period last year. But their geographic scope has widened to 11 provinces compared to six previously, he said.

"We cannot exclude the possibility of increased instability if peoples' rights are denied and if they don't see themselves in their government. Our strategy in the month ahead seeks to promote political consultation and inclusion in the long term. In the meantime, we are engaging with the de facto authorities to increase predictability in our relationship," said Alakbarov, who is also the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for Afghanistan.

The ongoing economic crisis is perhaps the single most important issue in Afghanistan, as a potential driver of conflict and a driver of misery, he said.

The Afghan economy has contracted an estimated 30 percent to 40 percent since the Taliban takeover in August 2021. Output and incomes have reduced by 20 percent to 30 percent, while there has been a 50 percent decline in the number of households receiving remittances, he said.

Unemployment could reach 40 percent this year, up from 13 percent in 2021, and some projections indicate that poverty rates may climb as high as 97 percent by the end of 2022. Even more alarming, 82 percent of households are now in debt while the deteriorating economy offers few chances of hope. Coping resources that helped many families get through last winter's humanitarian emergency are now being depleted, he said.

"If the economy is not able to recover and grow meaningfully and sustainably, then the Afghan people will face repeated humanitarian crises, potentially spurring mass migration and making conditions ripe for radicalization and renewed armed conflict," warned Alakbarov.

At the same time, Afghanistan remains highly vulnerable to future climate change and geopolitical shocks. This comes on top of the extreme poverty and backwardness of its rural areas, where productivity is low and education and health services are often non-existent, he added.

Afghan rural areas must be given priority attention with the focus on agricultural-food systems to prevent cycles of hunger. There is a need to help drive a grassroots economic recovery anchored in the creation of value chains and developing linkages between farmers and food producers and local markets. This will help reduce child labor, improve health outcomes, and create an enabling environment for social development and change. It also will pave the way for substitution agriculture to replace poppy cultivation, he said.

The human rights situation in Afghanistan remains precarious. Despite the adoption of a general amnesty and repeated assurances by the Taliban, UNAMA continues to receive credible allegations of killings, ill-treatment and other violations targeting individuals associated with the former government of Afghanistan. UNAMA also continues to receive credible allegations of violations committed by the Taliban against individuals accused of affiliation with the National Resistance Front and ISKP, said Alakbarov.

The Taliban have increasingly restricted the exercise of basic human rights, such as freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of opinion and expression, quelling dissent and restricting civic space in the country. These restrictions continue to be aimed particularly at the rights and freedoms of Afghan women and girls, limiting their involvement in social, political and economic life.

"The cost to the economy of these policies is immense. The psychosocial costs of being denied education, for example, are incalculable. Women are collectively being written out of society in a way that is unique in the world," he said. 
UNITED NATIONS, June 23 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Thursday called on the international community to step up support for Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is at a critical stage of transition from chaos to governance. Since the Taliban takeover in August 2021, the situation in Afghanistan has remained stable on the whole while the humanitarian and economic fields are facing the most daunting challenges, said Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations.

Afghanistan still has a long way to go to achieve peace and development. The Afghan people should not be forgotten. And it is incumbent upon the international community to provide more support and assistance, he told the Security Council.

It is important to strengthen constructive engagement to support Afghanistan in realizing autonomous and effective state governance, he said.

The lessons of the past 20 years have proved that military interventions and foreign models will not work in Afghanistan. All parties should uphold the Afghan-owned and Afghan-led principle, strengthen engagement with the interim Afghan government in a pragmatic manner, patiently guide and support national reconciliation and domestic unity in Afghanistan, and explore a governance model suited to Afghanistan's national conditions. This should be an internally driven and progressive process that requires a forward-looking attitude and necessary patience, said Zhang.

It is necessary to increase resource inputs to help Afghanistan get out of economic and livelihood difficulties, he said.

The humanitarian and economic situation in Afghanistan took an abrupt turn for the worse in the wake of the precipitous withdrawal of foreign troops, Zhang said, adding that so far, only 30 percent of the UN humanitarian response plan for Afghanistan is funded -- a shortfall of 3 billion U.S. dollars and other geopolitical developments have shifted the attention of major donor countries from Afghanistan.

"This trend is extremely dangerous, which may turn the current crisis into a greater catastrophe," he said.

In April, dozens of independent UN human rights experts jointly issued a statement, pointing out that the freezing of Afghanistan's overseas assets by the United States has aggravated the plights of Afghanistan women and children, and calling for the release of the funds. Regrettably, there has been no progress on the issue, said Zhang.

"At a time when the Afghan people are most in need of resources, it is unreasonable, unjustifiable, and unacceptable to freeze their sizable overseas assets. The United States should respond to the appeals of the (UN) secretary-general, human rights experts, humanitarian agencies, and other parties by unconditionally returning Afghanistan's overseas assets as soon as possible," he said.

The security, counter-terrorism, drug control, and refugee problems faced by Afghanistan are intertwined. Therefore, a holistic approach is needed to address the root causes, said Zhang.

As a friendly neighbor of Afghanistan, China has always been committed to supporting its peace, stability and development. China is ready to work with the international community to contribute to a brighter future for Afghanistan, he added. 
BEIJING, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Most of the capital goods monitored by the government posted lower prices in mid-June compared with early June this year, official data shows.

Of the 50 major goods monitored by the government, including seamless steel tubes, gasoline, coal, fertilizer, and some agricultural products mainly used for processing, 18 saw their prices increase, while 30 posted lower prices, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Hog price went up 3.8 percent during the period to 16.4 yuan (2.45 U.S. dollars) per kg.

The reading, released every 10 days, is based on a survey of nearly 2,000 wholesalers and distributors in 31 provincial-level regions. 
South Korean residents and peace activists rallied near the presidential office in central Seoul Thursday to protest against the deployment of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) in the country.





Produced by Xinhua Global Service
































HONG KONG, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Twenty-five years after its return to the motherland, Hong Kong, as a special administrative region of China, remains one of the world's most dynamic cities.

Horse racing, ballroom dancing and stock trading, the three "remarkable capitalist characteristics," are as popular as ever.

Over the past 25 years, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) has been running under the principle of "one country, two systems," which has proved a resounding success.

With a new chapter unfolding, Hong Kong sees vast opportunities.

RETAINING COMPETITIVE EDGE

Hong Kong has conquered multiple crises with the support of the central authorities since 1997, and has remained a center of international finance, shipping and trade.

Under the "one country, two systems" principle, Hong Kong has kept a steady financial system, free-flowing capital, abundant human resources, a fine legal environment, and a unique gateway connecting the mainland and the world.

It has been winning the title of the world's freest economy awarded by the Fraser Institute since 1997.

The implementation of the national security law in Hong Kong starting in June 2020 further consolidates the city's role as an international financial center.

Paul Chan, financial secretary of the HKSAR government, said in May that since the implementation of the national security law, funds raised by newly listed stocks in Hong Kong have increased by more than 30 percent compared with the same period prior to the implementation.

The rule of law has been the cornerstone of the HKSAR's success. According to the Worldwide Governance Indicators by the World Bank, Hong Kong's rule of law percentile ranking has kept above 90 points since 2003, compared to only 69.85 points before Hong Kong's return to the motherland.

STARTING NEW CHAPTER

Danish businessman Peter Stein started a medical device company in Hong Kong in 1994. Over the years, Hong Kong's ease of doing business has helped his company grow, and he is seeing fresh opportunities for the future.

"When I meet young people in Europe, I told them that Hong Kong is actually in the Greater Bay Area, a superior area with more than 80 million people and infrastructure better than any place in the world. For young people, the bay area is the place to go and is the place with the best opportunities in the world," he said.

Zheng Xiangling, chairwoman of the Hong Kong Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (Provincial) Members Association, said the Greater Bay Area is not the only opportunity for Hong Kong to thrive in the coming years.

Seeing the Belt and Road Initiative helps with Hong Kong's long-term social and economic goals, Zheng co-founded the Belt and Road General Chamber of Commerce in 2018.

"The Belt and Road Initiative is conducive to accelerating Hong Kong's development into a hub of the global value chain, and boosting the economic transition of Hong Kong," she said.

A new journey requires an updated model of governance. Richard Wong, provost and deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Hong Kong, said that the governance mechanism in Hong Kong should evolve with the times, and the development model for Hong Kong should become more equal, sustainable and efficient.

John Lee, the incoming sixth-term chief executive of the HKSAR, has said that he and his team will take responsibilities, solve problems and have a mindset for reforms.

It is imperative for the HKSAR government, all sectors of the community and Hong Kong residents to unite and undertake genuine reforms, "starting a new chapter for Hong Kong together," he said. 
BEIJING, June 24 (Xinhua) -- The continued spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical conflicts have fueled overlapping crises in today's world. Concerns for the future of humanity and deficits in global governance continue to pile up and demand utmost attention.

Pointing out that humanity is standing at the crossroads of history, Chinese President Xi Jinping calls on the international community to embrace a global governance philosophy that emphasizes extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits.

At the 14th BRICS Summit held on Thursday, Xi offered his fresh insights about what China believes the world should do to tackle global challenges and stimulate common development, calling for building a community with a shared future for mankind and jointly creating a bright future for humanity.

Noting that the BRICS countries are representatives of emerging markets and developing countries, Xi said "we must make the right decision and take responsible actions at this critical juncture of history. What we do will have a significant impact on the world."

VISION OF GLOBAL SECURITY

While meeting with the heads of state of Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa in virtual format, Xi raised his concerns for global security over such issues as the outdated yet still hovering Cold War mentality, power politics as well constantly emerging traditional and non-traditional security threats. And he also shared his perspectives on how to meet those challenges.

"I put forward the Global Security Initiative (GSI), which advocates a vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, follows the philosophy that humanity is an indivisible security community, and aims to create a new path to security that features dialogue over confrontation, partnership over alliance and win-win over zero-sum," Xi said.

The Chinese leader first proposed the GSI at the Boao Forum for Asia earlier this year for the purpose of fostering a new type of security that replaces confrontation, alliance and a zero-sum approach with dialogue, partnership and win-win results.

In the face of rising unilateralism that is endangering world development, peace and stability, Xi said Wednesday at the opening ceremony of the BRICS Business Forum that "we in the international community should reject zero-sum games and jointly oppose hegemonism and power politics."

"We should build a new type of international relations based on mutual respect, fairness, justice and win-win cooperation. We should be clear that we are a community in which all countries share a common stake, and we should see that the light of peace will reach all corners of the world," he added.

"The China-proposed Global Security Initiative is crucial as it comes at a critical time when the world is grappling with multiple crises," said David Monyae, director of the Center for Africa-China Studies at the University of Johannesburg.

The GSI, which emphasizes the need for common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable security, provides the right guiding philosophy to ensure global peace and security, Monyae said.

PURSUING COMMON DEVELOPMENT

Under Xi's guidance, China has been committed to improving global governance and building a world of common prosperity and enduring peace. To address global challenges, the president underlined the importance of development as the key to solving various difficult problems.

"Inclusiveness, shared benefits and win-win outcomes is what we should pursue," Xi said at the BRICS Business Forum on Wednesday, adding "we should promote extensive consultation and joint contribution to deliver shared benefits, enhance global economic governance, and increase the representation and say of emerging markets and developing countries. This will ensure that all countries enjoy equal rights, follow the rules as equals, and share equal opportunities."

To this end, the Global Development Initiative (GDI) proposed by the Chinese president at the opening of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly last year is expected to consolidate consensus and pool strength worldwide to promote sustainable global development.

The GDI aims to "re-energize the implementation of the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and build a global community of development," Xi said Thursday, adding that "China stands ready to work with BRICS partners to add more substance to the GDI and contribute to stronger, greener and healthier global development."

And under Xi's guidance, China has been striving to involve more countries, especially from the Global South, to jointly improve global governance.

"We should advance democracy in international relations and reject dominance by just one or several countries. All countries should jointly shape the future of the world, write international rules, manage global affairs and ensure that development outcomes are shared by all," Xi said in a keynote speech at the United Nations Office at Geneva in 2017.

In that same year, when China hosted the 9th BRICS Summit held in the southeast coastal city of Xiamen, Xi proposed the "BRICS Plus" cooperation approach to broaden the group's "circle of friends" in a collective pursuit of shared development and prosperity for all.

Over the past five years, "BRICS Plus" cooperation has been deepened and expanded, setting an example of South-South cooperation and seeking strength through unity among emerging markets and developing countries.

The approach will further unleash the potential of the BRICS cooperation mechanism, thus pushing ahead with economic development in the world, said Rosalia Varfalovskaya, a leading researcher of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

From setting forth initiatives to promoting the role of emerging markets and developing countries, China has been building platforms for international cooperation by making bigger the "pie" of mutual benefit.

"Only when countries develop together can there be true development; only when countries prosper together can there be true prosperity," Xi said while addressing via video link the opening ceremony of the Second UN Global Sustainable Transport Conference late last year.

The GDI and GSI presented by China are of immense benefit to the international community, said Sudheendra Kulkarni, former chairman of the Mumbai-based think-tank Observer Research Foundation.

"These initiatives are noble ones because they are in the interest of the whole mankind" and look for "the contribution of all countries in order to sustain peace and stability in the world and in order to work all together for the common interest," said Algerian Ambassador to China Hassane Rabehi. 
A staff member guides students to enter an exam site of the 2022 senior high school entrance examination in Pinggu District of Beijing, capital of China, June 24, 2022. The 2022 senior high school entrance examination in Beijing kicked off on Friday. (Xinhua/Ren Chao)

Students queue to enter an exam site of the 2022 senior high school entrance examination in Pinggu District of Beijing, capital of China, June 24, 2022. The 2022 senior high school entrance examination in Beijing kicked off on Friday. (Xinhua/Ren Chao)

Students review books at an exam site of the 2022 senior high school entrance examination in Pinggu District of Beijing, capital of China, June 24, 2022. The 2022 senior high school entrance examination in Beijing kicked off on Friday. (Xinhua/Ren Chao)

Students enter an exam site of the 2022 senior high school entrance examination in Pinggu District of Beijing, capital of China, June 24, 2022. The 2022 senior high school entrance examination in Beijing kicked off on Friday. (Xinhua/Ren Chao)

A parent sends a bunch of flowers to a student outside an exam site of the 2022 senior high school entrance examination in Pinggu District of Beijing, capital of China, June 24, 2022. The 2022 senior high school entrance examination in Beijing kicked off on Friday. (Xinhua/Ren Chao)

Students get off a bus which carry those who live far to an exam site of the 2022 senior high school entrance examination in Pinggu District of Beijing, capital of China, June 24, 2022. The 2022 senior high school entrance examination in Beijing kicked off on Friday. (Xinhua/Ren Chao)

A student talks with a teacher (1st L) after walking out of an exam site of the 2022 senior high school entrance examination in Pinggu District of Beijing, capital of China, June 24, 2022. The 2022 senior high school entrance examination in Beijing kicked off on Friday. (Xinhua/Ren Chao)

A staff member guides students to enter an exam site of the 2022 senior high school entrance examination in Pinggu District of Beijing, capital of China, June 24, 2022. The 2022 senior high school entrance examination in Beijing kicked off on Friday. (Xinhua/Ren Chao)

Students enter an exam site of the 2022 senior high school entrance examination in Pinggu District of Beijing, capital of China, June 24, 2022. The 2022 senior high school entrance examination in Beijing kicked off on Friday. (Xinhua/Ren Chao)

Students walk in line at an exam site of the 2022 senior high school entrance examination in Pinggu District of Beijing, capital of China, June 24, 2022. The 2022 senior high school entrance examination in Beijing kicked off on Friday. (Xinhua/Ren Chao)
Children are seen in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza Strip, on June 19, 2022. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

by Sanaa Kamal

GAZA, June 23 (Xinhua) -- The 12-year-old Mohammed Wishah hopes that one day he could leave the refugee camp where he was brought up, and start a new life far away from poverty.

Wishah lives with his eight-member family in the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza. His residence is an old and dilapidated house that was built by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

"It is not easy to live in an overcrowded camp all your life. No one can live a better future under the current circumstances," the boy told Xinhua while playing with his friends in one of the alleys of the camp.

In a bid to escape such an environment, he works very hard at school, hoping to complete his education and become a teacher.

"I have always heard my grandfather talking about what life used to be in the past, when it was quiet and stable," the boy said, hoping to live such a life one day.

Ibrahim Wishah, Ahmed's father, expressed his sadness because he was not able to improve the reality due to years of security, political and economic instability in the coastal enclave.

"Like the rest of the fathers in the world, we strive to provide a decent life for our children and help them build a promising future... but unfortunately, I failed despite my attempts for years," the 49-year-old father of six told Xinhua.

"I grew up as a refugee in this camp. The feeling of being alone and homeless hurts you so much... I don't want my children to live our miserable lives," he said.

The father believes that the fate of the refugees in the Palestinian camps can be changed through education.

"I think that education is the first step on the path of development, civilization and a promising future, so I encourage my children to pay attention to their education and complete it," he said.

The situation is not much different for Ahmed Balousha, a child who also lives in the Jabalia camp. He aspires to become an electronic engineer one day, so that he can improve the economic conditions of his family and help them to lead a stable life.

"We live here in a refugee camp where we do not have electricity, water... The conditions of the camp have not improved or changed, but the refugee numbers are increasing day by day," Balousha told Xinhua.

Rama Hasouna, another refugee from Gaza, shares the same vision.

As wars broke out in several Arab countries, the world is full of refugees, not only the Palestinians, but also Syrians, Yemenis, Libyans, and Tunisians, said the 14-year-old girl.

The number of Palestinian refugees stands at about 13.4 million people around the world, according to the latest report issued by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics on Sunday.

Around half of them reside in different areas of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and 28.4 percent live in 58 UNRWA official camps spreading out in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, West Bank, and Gaza, according to the statistics.

The UNRWA, which provides basic services to refugees, such as education, health, and food, has suffered in recent years from a severe financial crisis as a result of reduced financial support by donor countries. 

Children are seen in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza Strip, on June 19, 2022. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

A child is seen in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza Strip, on June 19, 2022. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

Children are seen in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza Strip, on June 19, 2022. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

Children are seen in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza Strip, on June 19, 2022. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)
Photo taken on June 23, 2022 shows the awarding ceremony of the 2022 L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award at the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris, France. Chinese neuroscientist Hu Hailan and four other woman scientists received the 2022 L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award at the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris on Thursday evening. Hu, professor and executive director of the Neuroscience Center of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, won the award "for her major discoveries in neuroscience, in particular her work on depression, which has informed the development of next generation drugs for depression," noted the UN body. (Xinhua/Gao Jing)

PARIS, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese neuroscientist Hu Hailan and four other woman scientists received the 2022 L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award at the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris on Thursday evening.

Hu, professor and executive director of the Neuroscience Center of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, won the award "for her major discoveries in neuroscience, in particular her work on depression, which has informed the development of next generation drugs for depression," noted the UN body.

The other four winners are Maria Guzman from Cuba, Katalin Kariko from the United States, Agnes Binagwaho from Rwanda and Angela Nieto from Spain, UNESCO said.

Guzman was awarded for her pioneering work to better understand and treat dengue fever or "tropical flu," Kariko for her contribution to the development of messenger RNA technology which has led to the breakthrough in the development of vaccines against COVID-19, Binagwaho for her role in establishing a new public health care system for the most vulnerable in Africa and Nieto for her discoveries on the cell differentiation during embryonic development that improved the treatment of cancer and its spread to other tissues.

UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said at the awarding ceremony that the world needs science, science needs women and science must be more and better open to women at critical moments in their careers.

"UNESCO is working on eliminating gender stereotypes in science, through educational and mentoring programs," she said.

UNESCO did not hold any offline ceremonies for the awards over the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ten winners of the 2020 and 2021 awards were also present at Thursday's ceremony.

For more than 20 years, UNESCO and the L'Oreal Foundation have yearly rewarded five outstanding woman scientists to promote gender balance in science and inspire younger generations of women to pursue science as a career. 

UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay (L) and Chinese neuroscientist Hu Hailan (C) attend the awarding ceremony of the 2022 L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award at the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris, France, June 23, 2022. Chinese neuroscientist Hu Hailan and four other woman scientists received the 2022 L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award at the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris on Thursday evening. Hu, professor and executive director of the Neuroscience Center of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, won the award "for her major discoveries in neuroscience, in particular her work on depression, which has informed the development of next generation drugs for depression," noted the UN body. (Xinhua/Gao Jing)

UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay (L) attends the awarding ceremony of the 2022 L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award at the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris, France, June 23, 2022. Chinese neuroscientist Hu Hailan and four other woman scientists received the 2022 L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award at the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris on Thursday evening. Hu, professor and executive director of the Neuroscience Center of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, won the award "for her major discoveries in neuroscience, in particular her work on depression, which has informed the development of next generation drugs for depression," noted the UN body. (Xinhua/Gao Jing)

UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay (L) and Chinese neuroscientist Hu Hailan (C) attend the awarding ceremony of the 2022 L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award at the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris, France, June 23, 2022. Chinese neuroscientist Hu Hailan and four other woman scientists received the 2022 L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award at the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris on Thursday evening. Hu, professor and executive director of the Neuroscience Center of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, won the award "for her major discoveries in neuroscience, in particular her work on depression, which has informed the development of next generation drugs for depression," noted the UN body. (Xinhua/Gao Jing)

UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay (L) attends the awarding ceremony of the 2022 L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award at the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris, France, June 23, 2022. Chinese neuroscientist Hu Hailan and four other woman scientists received the 2022 L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award at the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris on Thursday evening. Hu, professor and executive director of the Neuroscience Center of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, won the award "for her major discoveries in neuroscience, in particular her work on depression, which has informed the development of next generation drugs for depression," noted the UN body. (Xinhua/Gao Jing)
By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

Vugar Suleymanov of Azerbaijani Mine Action Agency (ANAMA) says that his agency inked a contract with British RPS Energy Ltd. for aerial surveillance in demining operations in the liberated lands, Azernews reports.

He made the remarks on the sidelines of the signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding between the ANAMA and the Azerbaijani State Advertising Agency on June 23.

Suleymanov said that researchers are studying the region using drones and other devices. The study findings are analyzed by artificial intelligence, which extremely facilitates deminers' tasks. The Azerbaijan Mine Action Agency has acquired 18 mine-clearing devices to assist in cleaning the liberated territories.

He added that from November 10, 2020, to June 23, 2022, 225 people suffered from landmines. 39 of them died and 186 were injured.

Efforts are underway to educate the population in the liberated areas to prevent war-related accidents and various types of explosive devices. Steps are being taken to prevent people from becoming victims of mines and unexploded ordnance.

The work started on the resettlement of the first residents within the framework of the "Great Return" program makes this activity even more necessary. Thus, the involvement of all means of communication in this process has become one of the important issues in order to provide the population with comprehensive and complete information to this end.

On June 23, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between ANAMA chairman Vugar Suleymanov and ADRA chairman Aydin Ibadov to improve the awareness of people about the dangers of explosive devices through visual means of communication, to inform people about mine warning signs, as well as to instill in individuals a sense of discipline and responsibility.

Addressing the ceremony, Suleymanov said that the problem of mines and explosive remnants of war is a source of danger to the lives and activities of workers involved in the reconstruction of infrastructure in the liberated areas, as well as residents of war-torn areas and the former contact line.

Ibadov noted that social advertisements that will call people to be careful in the liberated territories will be broadcast not only in the regions but also in different parts of the country.

He stressed that it is the duty of every citizen to support the fight against "mine terror". Therefore, it is necessary for our compatriots to strictly follow the rules set in the mined areas. The cooperation established between the two institutions will contribute to the awareness of the population about the danger and safe living in the liberated territories.
BEIJING, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted the High-level Dialogue on Global Development on Friday in virtual format.

Following is the full text of the remarks by President Xi at the meeting:

Forging High-quality Partnership

For a New Era of Global Development

Remarks by H.E. Xi Jinping

President of the People's Republic of China

At the High-level Dialogue on Global Development

24 June 2022

Dear Colleagues:

Development is a timeless theme for humanity. In the late 1960s, I worked as a farmer in a small village on the Loess Plateau. There I experienced first-hand the hardships in farming and saw how the local people struggled to make ends meet. Their longing for a better life has stayed in my mind ever since. Half a century later, I revisited the village and found the villagers no longer in want of food or clothing, as evidenced by the happy smiles on their faces.

As an ancient Chinese saying goes, "Only when the granary is full will people learn etiquette; only when people are well-fed and clothed will they know honor and shame." Throughout the years, I have been to cities, towns and villages across China and visited many countries in the world. One deep impression I get is that only through continuous development can the people's dream for a better life and social stability be realized.

Over the years, developing countries have worked unremittingly to explore development paths suited to their national realities and to pursue economic and social development. Such efforts have produced remarkable outcomes. Today, emerging markets and developing countries account for half of the world economy, and notable progress has been made in science and technology, education, social development, culture and many other areas.

We are meeting at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic is eroding decades of gains in global development, the implementation of the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is encountering difficulties, the North-South gap keeps widening, and crises are emerging in food and energy security. Some countries have politicized and marginalized the development issue, built "a small yard with high fences," imposed maximum sanctions, and stoked division and confrontation. At the same time, people in all countries are more keen about pursuing peace, development and cooperation, emerging markets and developing countries are more resolved to seek strength through unity, and the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation is bringing more opportunities to countries around the world.

This is an age rife with challenges, but it is also an age full of hope. We must get a good grasp of the overarching development trend in the world, firm up confidence, and act in unison and with great motivation to promote global development and foster a development paradigm featuring benefits for all, balance, coordination, inclusiveness, win-win cooperation and common prosperity.

First, we need to jointly build international consensus on promoting development. Only when people all over the world live better lives can prosperity be sustained, security safeguarded and human rights solidly grounded. It is important that we put development front and center on the international agenda, deliver on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and build political consensus to ensure everyone values development and all countries pursue cooperation together.

Second, we need to jointly create an enabling international environment for development. Protectionist moves will boomerang; anyone attempting to form exclusive blocs will end up isolating himself; maximum sanctions serve nobody's interest, and practices of decoupling and supply disruption are neither feasible nor sustainable. It is important that we pursue development in real earnest and promote development in concert, build an open world economy, and shape a global governance system and institutional environment that are more just and equitable.

Third, we need to jointly foster new drivers for global development. Innovation is the primary driving force for development. It is important that we promote scientific, technological and institutional innovation, speed up technology transfer and knowledge sharing, boost the development of modern industries, close the digital divide and accelerate low-carbon transition, with a view to achieving stronger, greener and healthier global development.

Fourth, we need to jointly forge a global development partnership. Only by working together can we accomplish big and great things with a far-reaching impact. Developed countries need to fulfill obligations, developing countries need to deepen cooperation, and the North and the South need to work in the same direction to forge a united, equal, balanced and inclusive global development partnership. In this process, no country or individual should be left behind. It is important that we support the UN in steering and coordinating global development cooperation, and encourage business communities, social groups, the media and think tanks to take part in such cooperation.

Colleagues,

China has always been a member of the big family of developing countries. At last year's UN General Assembly session, I put forth the Global Development Initiative (GDI). China will take pragmatic steps to give continued support to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

- China will allocate more resources for global development cooperation. We will upgrade the South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund to a Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund, and add 1 billion U.S. dollars to the fund on top of the 3 billion U.S. dollars already committed. We will also increase input to the UN Peace and Development Trust Fund. Such efforts will further support cooperation under the GDI.

- China will work with all sides to advance cooperation in priority areas and mobilize resources for development to deepen global cooperation on poverty reduction and eradication, build capacity for food production and supply, and promote clean energy partnerships; step up innovation, research and development and joint production of vaccines; work on the conservation and sustainable use of land and marine ecology; and raise digital literacy and skills of the public, transform and upgrade the path to industrialization at a faster pace, and enhance digital-era connectivity to inject new impetus into the development of all countries.

- China will set up a platform for experience and knowledge sharing on international development, a global development promotion center and a global knowledge network for development, for the purpose of exchanging governance experience and promoting mutual learning. We will host a global forum on youth development and take part in the launch of a global action plan on youth development, in a bid to pool as much strength as possible for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

As an ancient Chinese adage goes, "With one heart and one mind, we can accomplish everything we aspire for." Let us firm up confidence, stride forward in pursuit of high-quality partnership, and usher in a new era of prosperity and development.

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

If the funding gap fails to be filled in the next couple of months, the delivery of education to more than half a million girls and boys, or the access to primary health care for close to 2 million people, or the emergency food and cash assistance to the poorest Palestine refugees might be seriously at risk, a UN official warned.

UNITED NATIONS, June 24 (Xinhua) -- The UN agency for Palestine refugees now faces a funding shortfall of over 100 million U.S. dollars for 2022 after Thursday's pledging conference raised 160 million dollars, said Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the agency, on Friday.

The shortfall is consistent with the discrepancy of funds that the agency has faced every year for almost a decade. The agency has so far been able to move along through a number of austerity and cost-control measures. But today it is no longer possible to sustain, Lazzarini said. "There is very little to cut from our cost without, in fact, cutting our services."

If the funding gap fails to be filled in the next couple of months, the delivery of education to more than half a million girls and boys, or the access to primary health care for close to 2 million people, or the emergency food and cash assistance to the poorest Palestine refugees might be seriously at risk, he warned. "We have entered a danger zone."

"It is not the time to turn our back on some of the most successful human development story in the Middle East. This can only fuel further despair and the feeling of abandonment of one of the most destitute communities in the region at a time when there is a lack of political horizon, and unprecedented economic crisis and multiple conflicts," Lazzarini told reporters. "Fatigue should not be an option, and indifference to this, I would say, even less."

A worker carries a sack of flour at a distribution center of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) at Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, March 20, 2022. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

Finding a solution to the agency's chronic financial problem requires political will to match the support for the mandate with sufficient resources, he said. "We are expected to provide government-like services to one of the most destitute communities in the region. But we are funded like an NGO because we depend completely on voluntary contributions."

The agency, officially known as the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, currently helps some 5.6 million Palestine refugees and their descendants in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria as well as in West Bank and Gaza, by providing education, primary health, and social protection. 
Staff members work at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, March 24, 2022. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

Ankara does not consider next week's summit as a final deadline for resolving its objections to Finland and Sweden's NATO bids.

by Burak Akinci

ANKARA, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Turkey seems determined to block Sweden and Finland's NATO memberships in the alliance's upcoming summit as long as they do not address Turkey's security concerns, although the NATO chief has vowed "a common way forward" on the issue at stake, experts said.

Ankara has said it will not prepare to rush through the NATO accession process of the two Nordic countries unless there are "satisfactory assurances" that they would cut support of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and other groups outlawed by Turkey.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday set out his priorities for the two-day summit starting June 29 in Madrid, said the military alliance's website.

Speaking of the accession process and Turkey's security concerns, including in the fight against terrorism, Stoltenberg said his aim is "to find a common way forward so that both countries can join our alliance as soon as possible."

However, Ankara does not consider next week's summit as a final deadline for resolving its objections to Finland and Sweden's bids.

"We don't feel like we are under any time pressure. What is important here is that Sweden and Finland openly, clearly, and concretely explain how they are going to act on counterterrorism," a Turkish diplomatic source told Xinhua on the condition of anonymity.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks at an award ceremony of the Turkish Exporters' Assembly in Istanbul, Turkey, June 13, 2022. (Xinhua/Shadati)

Turkish Presidential Spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told reporters on Monday in Brussels that the upcoming Madrid summit "is not the deadline, so our negotiations will continue."

He made the remarks after a round of talks in the Belgian capital where NATO is headquartered with officials from Sweden, Finland and the military bloc over the Nordic countries' admission, indicating outstanding issues yet to be addressed.

Last week, Turkey said documents it received from Sweden and NATO in response to the earlier written demands it presented to the two candidates were far from meeting its expectations and any negotiations must first address Turkish concerns.

While describing the Monday meetings with the three countries as "constructive," Stoltenberg acknowledged that "Turkey has legitimate security concerns over terrorism that we need to address."

Experts said the finalization of the Nordic bids in Madrid now seems unlikely.

"After all, a swift membership of Sweden and Finland to NATO could only exacerbate the Russian-Ukraine crisis. It would mean to pour fuel on the fire," Tarik Oguzlu, a professor in international relations at Istanbul's Aydin University, told Xinhua.

People protest against Sweden's decision to apply to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Stockholm, Sweden, May 16, 2022. (Photo by Wei Xuechao/Xinhua)

Nevertheless, Ankara will in time lift its reservations about the two countries, Oguzlu said.

Turkey accuses Sweden and Finland of harboring alleged PKK members and objects to their arms embargoes imposed on Turkey since 2019 as a response to Turkey's military operations in Syria.

The two Nordic countries reversed decades of military non-alignment by applying for NATO memberships in May, after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in late February.

But any NATO membership deal must be unanimously approved by all the 30 members of the alliance.

According to political analyst Selcuk Colakoglu, Turkey wants to seize this opportunity to push for the designation of the People's Protection Units (YPG), the PKK's Syrian arm, as a terrorist group.

Photo taken on April 7, 2022 shows the NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

"Many countries in NATO consider YPG as an ally in the fight against the Islamic State group (in Syria). So Turkey wants a clear position from its NATO partners as well as Sweden and Finland to designate YPG as an offshoot of the PKK," he told Xinhua.

The issue of the YPG militant group in northern Syria, against which Turkey has fought since 2015, has complicated Turkey's relations with its NATO allies.

Colakoglu, director of the Turkish Center for Asia-Pacific Studies, said Turkey does not categorically rejects the memberships of Sweden and Finland but rather seeks security guarantees concerning these Kurdish groups and their members.

"For now we don't know yet how these differences will evolve. We will see in the coming weeks but talks are continuing without interruption," the scholar noted. 
KIGALI, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Heads of Government of the Commonwealth nations along with business and civil society leaders Thursday committed to accelerating progress in the fight against malaria and non-communicable diseases (NTDs), with pledges towards intervention efforts.

The commitment was made at the Kigali Summit on Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases, a side event of the Commonwealth leaders meeting in Rwanda's capital city Kigali.

Delegates at the summit hosted by the Rwandan government reaffirmed countries' commitment to end malaria and neglected tropical diseases.

"Incredible commitments were made on co-financing towards the fight against malaria; over 2.1 billion U.S. dollars of funding commitments were spotlighted through today's announcements by the Global Fund as domestic commitments made between 2021 and 2023," Rwandan Health Minister Daniel Ngamije told the summit.

Malaria is a preventable, treatable disease but every year, malaria sickens more than 200 million people and kills more than 600,000, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Most of the victims are among young children in Africa, who are most vulnerable.

Community ownership and behavior change with youth at the center will help us to combat malaria and NTDs, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO Director-General.

He also mentioned the need to increase funding for malaria control programs.

The consequences of NTDs stretch beyond the health sector, greatly denting our economies, particularly African countries; the suffering of our people is unnecessary, said Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi.

Among the highlights, Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Gates Foundation said that 15 years after countries called for the eradication of malaria, the Gates Foundation is stepping up its commitment by pledging 140 million U.S. dollars over four years to support African institutions fighting malaria.

"We're asking leaders to increase commitments to the Global Fund. Reaching the 18 billion U.S. dollar target will reduce malaria cases by two-thirds and eliminate the disease from six more countries by 2026, "she added.

Prince Charles of Wales said human health and planetary health are fundamentally connected and climate change is increasing the length of the malaria transition season in many parts of the globe.

Ren Minghui, Assistant Director-General for Communicable and Non-communicable Diseases at the WHO outlined four priorities to keep countries on track toward 2030 Malaria and NTDs elimination goals.

These include integration of the diseases into primary health care, innovation and development of new response and control tools, increasing domestic investments as well as adaptation of Malaria and NTDs interventions to realities of countries that have the highest burden, especially Africa and Asia.

The summit was one of a series of events taking place as part of the 26th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) which runs from June 20 to 25.

Heads of governments from 54 Commonwealth countries are discussing ways how the contemporary Commonwealth can transform societies. 
MOGADISHU, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Troops from Somalia's Puntland State on Friday killed seven pro-Islamic State (ISIS) militants in military sting operations aimed at disrupting the terror cell in the coastal town of Hafun in the northeast part of the country.

Puntland Security Forces (PSF) said its forces also captured four militants sent by ISIS to collect illicit equipment between Isse village and Timirshe town.

Three other pro-ISIS operatives were later arrested in the Marodi Magale valley, a village near Timirshe, PSF said in a statement.

"Our gallant troops had carried out this successful operation that aimed to disrupt pro-ISIS terrorist group operating in Hulcaanod, Carid, and Hafun," PSF said in a statement.

The PSF said the arrest was made following intelligence its forces received from locals in the area about the insurgent's movements.

The so-called ISIS wing in Somalia has its main base in the Puntland region and has occasionally clashed with Puntland forces and the al-Shabab terror group. 
MOGADISHU, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud confirmed Friday he tested positive for COVID-19 after returning from a two-day working visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Mohamud said in a tweet that he has no symptoms but he will continue to self-isolate and serve the people of Somalia from his home.

"My fellow citizens, I would like to inform you that today I tested positive for COVID-19," said the president.

The president who was elected on May 15 called on all Somalis to keep each other safe by following public health advice and guidelines aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19.

Some members of the President's delegation had earlier tested positive for COVID-19 during their stay in Dubai, UAE.

However, President Mohamud's status was confirmed when he landed in the Somali capital, Mogadishu on Friday. 
TRIPOLI, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Libya's Interior Ministry on Thursday condemned the deadly clashes that broke out between armed groups in the capital Tripoli on Wednesday.

"The Interior Ministry has followed up with great concern the tragic events that took place in the capital Tripoli late on Wednesday, when clashes erupted between two security agencies that are not affiliated to the Interior Ministry, causing human casualties, damaging property, and frightening civilians," the ministry said in a statement.

"The ministry condemns those clashes, which occur from time to time and stoke panic and fear among people. Such clashes undermine the ministry's policy to maintain security and protect people's lives and public property," it added.

In addition, the ministry denounced road blocking as a means of expressing political or social disapproval because it "harms people's interests of using public roads."

Two armed groups engaged in fighting in central Tripoli late Wednesday, resulting in the deaths of a civilian and three armed militants, according to local media reports.

On Thursday, an armed group blocked a main road in eastern Tripoli to protest against the release of a militia leader from jail.

Libya has been suffering escalating violence and instability ever since the fall of the late leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime in 2011. 
People attend an event for the inauguration of a photovoltaic (PV) power plant in Omaruru, the Erongo region, Namibia, on June 24, 2022. Namibian state-owned utility, NamPower on Friday inaugurated the utility's first fully owned 20MW photovoltaic (PV) power plant at an event in Omaruru in the Erongo region. (Photo by Musa C Kaseke/Xinhua)

OMARURU, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Namibian state-owned utility, NamPower on Friday inaugurated the utility's first fully owned 20MW photovoltaic (PV) power plant at an event in Omaruru in the Erongo region.

The Omburu (means "white" in local language) PV project which took 15 months to complete, was constructed through a joint venture between Hopsol Africa and Tulive Private Equity.

The plant, which occupies 40 hectares, is expected to supply 67.8 GWh of clean energy annually, said NamPower.

Kornelia Shilunga, deputy minister of Mines and Energy, said Namibia continues to make strides towards transitioning to the use of renewable sources for energy supply.

"We are all aware that Namibia is heavily reliant on importing electricity from South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe, but the picture is changing, step by step," she said, adding that solar and wind are the answer to electricity independence.

Kahenge Haulofu, Nampower managing director, said the utility adopted its Integrated Strategic Business plan in 2020 in which the company identified its strategic focus, application and prioritization of resources over the next five years.

"Nampower ratified the implementation of the following projects, 20 MW Omburu power station and a 40 MW wind project which is currently in the bidding phase. We hope to award the EPC contract in the first quarter of 2023," he added.

Haulofu further said a 40 MW biomass power project is currently in a bidding phase which is expected to be concluded in August 2022.

Namibia is committed to increasing the local electricity generation capacity from 624 to 879 MW by 2025, through commissioning 50 MW of IPP projects and an additional 220 MW generation by NamPower by 2025, Shilunga concluded.

Currently, various solar generation projects are underway in Namibia, including the construction of the new 5.7 MW Rosh Pinah Solar Park and another 20 MW solar plant to be developed by Hopsol near the Khan Substation in the Namib Desert amongst others. 

A person stands in front of photovoltaic panels at a photovoltaic (PV) power plant in Omaruru, the Erongo region, Namibia, on June 24, 2022. Namibian state-owned utility, NamPower on Friday inaugurated the utility's first fully owned 20MW photovoltaic (PV) power plant at an event in Omaruru in the Erongo region. (Photo by Musa C Kaseke/Xinhua)
CANBERRA, June 24 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government has announced new funding for research into alternative materials for solar panels.

Chris Bowen, the minister for climate change and energy, on Friday said the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has granted 45 million Australian dollars (31 million U.S. dollars) in funding over the next eight years to the Australian Center for Advanced Photovoltaics (ACAP).

New research will focus on tandem cells that stack layers of materials to capture more energy from sunlight.

"Australia has all the ingredients to become a renewable energy superpower with this government working collaboratively to ensure secure, affordable and reliable energy that drives down emissions," Bowen told the Guardian Australia.

Solar technology developed by ACAP Director Martin Green is embedded in 90 percent of the current silicon module panel production worldwide, with his research also having supported Australia holding world records for efficiency for 30 of the last 38 years, said the ARENA's media release on Friday.

In 2014, ACAP researchers became the first to develop cells with 40 percent efficiency converting sunlight to electricity.

Currently solar energy provides approximately 15 percent of Australia's electricity -- a figure ACAP is hoping to increase to 50 percent.

It is aiming for mass production of solar cells with 30 percent efficiency at a cost of 30 cents a watt by 2030 compared to 70 cents a watt for 23-24 percent efficiency currently.

"The next decade promises to be the most exciting and important in solar photovoltaics, ever, with massively increased uptake and technological change," Green said. 
PYONGYANG, June 24 (Xinhua) -- The top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has called on the Korean People's Army to "improve the absolute power and the military and technical edge," the official Korean Central News Agency reported Friday.

Kim Jong Un made the remarks during the third Enlarged Meeting of the eighth Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) held from Tuesday to Thursday, KCNA reported.

The meeting focused on issues about "rapidly bolstering the national defence capabilities to put them on the level appropriate to a new stage of the developing revolution," said the report.

The meeting deliberated on a proposal to increase the number of vice-chairmanship of the WPK Central Military Commission and elected Ri Pyong Chol, secretary of the WPK Central Committee, as vice-chairman of the Party Central Military Commission, it said.

The commission also decided to add an essential military action plan to the operational duties of KPA frontline units, examined and approved providing a military guarantee for further strengthening the country's war deterrent and ratified a plan for reorganizing military organizational formations, according to the report. 
By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

Chief of the General Staff of the Azerbaijani Army Col-Gen Karim Valiyev has left for Moscow, Russia, to attend the next meeting of the Council of Defense Ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) on June 23, Azernews reports per the Defense Ministry.

The Council of Ministers of Defense of the Commonwealth of Independent States is a working organization in the Commonwealth of Independent States in charge of the CIS's military strategy. It organizes military cooperation among CIS member nations and develops the CIS's military and defense strategy.

The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was founded in 1991 after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Meetings are held periodically on a rotating basis at the CIS countries capitals. An informal summit was held in Sochi, Russia in July 2001. Forums include the Council of Heads of State, the Council of Prime Ministers, and the Council of Foreign Ministers.

The CIS performs its activities on the basis of the Charter, adopted by the Council of Heads of States on 22 January 1993, which stipulates the goals and principles of the Commonwealth, and the rights and obligations of the countries.
ISLAMABAD, June 24 (Xinhua) -- China has always stood with Pakistan and supported it on political and diplomatic fronts in the promotion of peace, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif said on Friday.

"I am saying it with absolute certainty that China is a very good and trustworthy friend of Pakistan, which has always supported us in good and bad times," the prime minister said during an event in the port city of Gwadar in the country's southwest Balochistan province.

He said Pakistan was going through a severe power crisis about a decade ago, during which it suffered up to 12 hours of electricity load shedding.

China, under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), made investments in Pakistan and built power plants generating thousands of megawatts of electricity with its own capacity, resources, technology, machinery and expertise, which helped Pakistan overcome the crisis, Sharif added.

Sharif said China is helping Pakistan in its development while the enemies of Pakistan target Chinese investors and engineers, but neither the Pakistani government nor the public accepts it.

"I request the people to help the friendly country which is investing in Pakistan. We should protect them more than our own selves because they are contributing to the development of Pakistan," he said. 
ANKARA, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Turkey on Friday has issued an arrest warrant for 18 Turkish nationals for allegedly providing financial aid to the Islamic State (IS) group, the semi-official Anadolu Agency reported.

The police teams carried out simultaneous raids in 12 provinces of Turkey as part of a capital Ankara-based operation and detained 12 suspects.

The suspects were allegedly providing assistance to the IS by collecting cash aid through their bank accounts.

Turkish authorities found out that the money was transferred to the members of the IS who are residing in Turkey and operating in the conflict zones in Syria, along with their families.

The Turkish government designated the IS a terrorist organization in 2013, blaming the group for a spate of deadly attacks in Turkey since 2015. The Turkish counter-terrorism forces have been conducting operations against the IS members in the country.

Turkey's southern border with Syria has been a major crossing point for Syrians and foreign fighters since the crisis started in the neighboring country in 2011. 
BEIJING, June 24 (Xinhua) -- The following are the latest developments in the Ukraine crisis:

Ukraine received High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) from the United States, Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Thursday.

"HIMARS have arrived in Ukraine," Reznikov tweeted, without specifying the number of weapons.

The HIMARS were supplied to Ukraine under the 700-million-U.S.-dollar weapon package unveiled by the United States on June 1.

- - - -

The United States will provide Ukraine with an additional 450 million U.S. dollars' worth of security assistance, including four more advanced rocket systems, the Department of Defense announced Thursday.

Among the items that Washington pledged to Kiev in the latest weapons package were four High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, 18 patrol boats for monitoring coasts and rivers, more ammunition, as well as small arms such as grenade launchers and machine guns.

The package will be drawn from the Pentagon's existing stocks, marking the 13th time the administration has done so to arm Ukraine in its ongoing conflict with Russia.

- - - -

European Union (EU) leaders have accepted Ukraine and Moldova as candidates for membership of the bloc, European Council President Charles Michel said on Thursday.

"Agreement. #EUCO has just decided EU candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova. A historic moment," Michel announced on Twitter. EUCO is short for the European Council, which is currently being attended by EU leaders in Brussels.

The heads of state and government of the EU member states approved the European Commission's recommendation at the start of their two-day summit in Brussels from Thursday to Friday.

Ukraine applied for EU membership shortly after the conflict with Russia began in the end of February.

- - - -

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday welcomed the decision of the European Council to grant Ukraine candidate status for accession to the EU.

"Sincerely commend EU leaders' decision at the European Council to grant Ukraine candidate status. It's a unique and historical moment in Ukraine-EU relations," Zelensky tweeted. 
WASHINGTON, June 23 (Xinhua) -- The United States will provide Ukraine with an additional 450 million U.S. dollars' worth of security assistance, including four more advanced rocket systems, the Department of Defense announced Thursday.

Among the items that Washington pledged to Kiev in the latest weapons package were four High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, 18 patrol boats for monitoring coasts and rivers, more ammunition, as well as small arms such as grenade launchers and machine guns.

The package will be drawn from the Pentagon's existing stocks, marking the 13th time the administration has done so to arm Ukraine in its ongoing conflict with Russia.

The United States, according to a statement from the Pentagon, has now committed approximately 6.8 billion dollars in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of President Joe Biden's administration, including approximately 6.1 billion dollars since the beginning of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine. 
WASHINGTON, June 24 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday overturned Roe v. Wade, a landmark decision that established a constitutional right to abortion in the nation nearly 50 years ago.

"Roe was egregiously wrong from the start," Justice Samuel Alito wrote in his majority opinion. "Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences."

Alito was joined by five other conservatives on the bench. The court's three liberal justices dissented.

The ruling came after the Supreme Court had considered an appeal case involving a Mississippi law banning all abortions over 15 weeks. 
SAN FRANCISCO, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Boeing announced Thursday that Aireon, the provider of space-based automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) services, will deliver its flight data stream to the company.

Boeing will use the stream to expand its data analytics capabilities to further strengthen commercial air travel safety.

Aireon will provide historical aircraft data and near real-time aircraft event data via its AireonINSIGHTS product for select Boeing airplane programs, the announcement said.

As part of its implementation of an enterprise Safety Management System (SMS), Boeing will integrate the ADS-B data into its safety analytics tools. Through the use of data science and data analytics, the information will deliver insights to proactively identify hazards and monitor emerging safety trends, the company said.

"We are investing in a data stream that can be transformed into safety intelligence," said Vishwa Uddanwadiker, Boeing vice president of Aerospace Safety Analytics. "We are adding this to our data analytics ecosystem to help predict and prevent safety risks, while identifying other opportunities to strengthen our Safety Management System."

"With this integration, Boeing will have data to provide a full operational view of its fleet, and we are excited to partner with them," said Don Thoma, Aireon CEO. 
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BRICS leaders emphasised the need for a thorough UN reform on Thursday in order to make the Security Council more representative, effective, and efficient.

According to the Beijing Declaration of the fictitious BRICS annual meeting, China and Russia emphasised the significance they have on the standing and roles of Brazil, India, and South Africa in international affairs and endorsed their aspirations to play a larger role in the UN.

Along with Presidents Xi Jinping of China, Vladimir Putin of Russia, and top officials from Brazil and South Africa, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took part in the virtual summit. China is hosting the conference this year as the Chair.

Five of the largest developing nations in the world are represented by the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), accounting for 16% of global commerce and 24% of the world's GDP.

In order to create a better shared future for the global community based on collaborative effort, the BRICS countries also reiterated their dedication to safeguarding the promotion and protection of democracy, human rights, and fundamental freedoms for everyone.

The BRICS leaders noted that in order to facilitate greater and more meaningful participation of developing and least developed countries, particularly in Africa, in global decision-making processes and structures and to make it more in tune with contemporary realities, it is necessary to make instruments of global governance more inclusive, representative, and participatory.

BRICS 14th summit today to review current global issues

S.Africa expects deeper partnership with other BRICS nations

PM Modi expects the economy would rise by 7.5-pc this year
TRIPOLI: The Speaker of the House of Representatives and the head of Libya's High Council of State have agreed to meet in Geneva on November 14 to discuss a constitutional framework leading up to elections, Stephanie Williams, the UN Secretary-Special General's Advisor on Libya said.

She tweeted on Thursday that Khaled al-Meshri and Aguila Saleh accepted her invitation to meet on June 28 and 29, at the UN Office in Geneva, to "reach consensus on the remaining issue" of a draught constitution.

The competing chambers made their overtures after their latest round of constitutional deliberations in Cairo came to an end without a resolution, according to news reports.

After the talks on Monday, Williams stated that there are still disagreements "on the measures controlling the transitional phase leading to elections," and he urged the two presidents to get together as soon as possible to resolve these issues.

Due to conflicts among the Libyan parties regarding the election laws, Libya was unable to hold national elections in December 2021.Since the late leader Muammar Gaddafi's overthrow in 2011, the nation of North Africa has seen political turmoil and catastrophe.

Macron says Legislative polls exposed 'fractures, Deep Divisions' In France

Bulgarian Cabinet falls in No-Confidence Vote

Ukrainian forces now control 45-pc of Donetsk: Report
KIEV: Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, praised the Europeon Union's (EU) decision to offer his nation candidate status for membership in the 27-member bloc, calling it a "historic moment" in bilateral relations.

The European Council approved Moldova and Ukraine as applicants for membership in the union on Thursday during a two-day conference in Brussels. On February 24, four days after Russia began its invasion of Kiev, Zelensky officially requested that Ukraine be admitted to the EU through a new special procedure.

One of the most significant decisions for Ukraine in the 30 years of its independence, Zelensky remarked on social media on Thursday night. However, this choice does not just affect Ukraine. This is the most significant step toward rebuilding Europe that could be made at this very moment, when the Russian War puts our ability to uphold freedom and unity to the test.

"We are grateful for the European leaders' summit. Thank you to all of our heros who protect European freedom and the independence of Ukraine by using their weapons ... Thank you for enabling a new, stronger, and more liberated history for Europe. Zelensky praised Charles Michel, the head of the European Council, and Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the European Commission, in a tweet, noting that it was "a unique and historical moment" in relations between Ukraine and the Europeon Union.

Biden approves USD 450-mn additional security aid for Ukraine

US Senate passes first gun control bill in 28 years

Ukraine files a fresh lawsuit against Russia
Germany could nationalize part of Nord Stream 2 pipeline 24 June, 07:20 PM The Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline was not put into operation due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine (Photo:Maxim Shemetov / Reuters)

Germany's Economy Ministry is considering a plan to nationalize the section of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline that runs through inland waters and within the country, German news outlet Spiegel reported on June 24.

This would allow part of the pipeline to be connected to a floating LNG terminal that is already connected to Germany's gas transmission system.

According to Spiegel, this would allow the transportation of LNG, delivered and processed at the terminal on the Baltic Sea, to southern (Bavaria) and eastern Germany. So far, gas supplies to these regions depended directly on Russian supplies.

 

Experts believe that such a plan is technically feasible, but, first, it could lead to serious environmental problems, and, secondly, provoke a reaction from the Kremlin  up to the nationalization of German companies in Russia.

Among other things, Gazprom still expects to resume the Nord Stream 2 project in two or three years.

The Kremlin has already reacted to the possibility of the nationalization of the German part of Nord Stream 2.

According to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov, there is nothing to comment on yet, as so far no concrete actions have been taken by the German authorities, Russia's Interfax news agency reported.

"Let's not deal with such hypothetical considerations," Peskov said.

"Probably, if there are any concrete actions, it will be first of all a job for lawyers to give a legal assessment of such actions, if they are really being discussed. Without knowing the essence of what is happening, it would be wrong to say something."

Earlier, Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom warned that it would reduce gas pumping though Nord Stream from 167 million cubic meters per day to 100 million cubic meters.

According to the Russian monopolist, this was caused by the late return of gas pumping units that are under repair by the German company Siemens.

Read also: Former German Chancellor Schroder resigns from Rosneft

Vice Chancellor of Germany, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Robert Habeck, in turn, said that Germany fears a complete cessation of gas supplies from Russia in the near future.

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By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

Azerbaijani representative Elgun Safarov has been re-elected to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) for the 2023-2026 term, Azernews reports, citing the Foreign Ministry.

The elections for the committee membership were held on June 23, 2022, in New York, as part of the 22nd meeting of the nations, which support the UN Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.

Candidates from 23 countries, including Elgun Safarov, head of the information and analytical research department of the State Committee for Family, Women and Children, who is currently a member and deputy chairman of the UN Committee, competed for the 12 vacancies in the committee

The Azerbaijani candidate received 109 votes in the voting, which included 187 nations, and was re-elected to the Committee for the following term.

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women monitors the implementation of the provisions of the relevant UN conventions by the states and is one of the main international mechanisms for the protection of human rights at the global level.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry expressed gratitude to all the countries that backed the election of Azerbaijan's representative to the committee.
Issue of grain exports from Ukrainian ports must be resolved within weeks, says Truss 22 June, 02:59 PM UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss (Photo:REUTERS/John Sibley)

Only a few weeks remain to find a solution to the problem of exporting grain from Ukrainian ports, with talks on the issue to be held in Turkey on June 22, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on June 21.

Read also: US creates team to investigate Russian war crimes in Ukraine

Truss, who said she would take part in these talks, also said that the UK government would impose additional sanctions against Russia, and would keep them in place until Russian troops completely withdraw from Ukrainian territory.



We are determined to provide Ukraine with more weapons, impose more sanctions and support Ukraine in pushing out Russian troops, Truss said.

 

Read also: White House reacts to possible death penalty for two US citizens detained by Russia in Ukraine

Earlier this month it was reported that a meeting between Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations could be held in Istanbul next week to discuss a plan to export Ukrainian grain from Odesa.

Russia is blocking Ukrainian ports and sea routes in the Black Sea in order to stop the export of grain from Ukraine. The Kremlin is also attempting to prevent its export via rail by launching missile attacks on Ukrainian grain elevators and railway infrastructure.

Russias goal appears to be to artificially create a global food crisis, creating more migrant flows towards Europe and destabilizing the political, social and economic situation on the continent.

Help NV continue its work reporting on the Russian invasion

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Military experts explains why Russia's threats against the Baltic states, NATO are only soundbites' 24 June, 03:05 PM Exclusive Russian invaders in Mariupol (Photo:REUTERS/Chingis Kondarov)

Russia's provocations against NATO, which it is carrying out near the borders of the Baltic states, will remain merely soundbites, since any war with NATO would be brief and not end in the Kremlin's favor, military expert Oleg Zhdanov told Radio NV on June 22.

NV: I think you have already seen these videos where a kamikaze drone hits the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery in Russia's Rostov Oblast. Russian media report that they have allegedly found the remains of two drones. How effective do you think it is to use drones to hit oil refineries in Russia, given that, for example, they launch 10 missiles at our refineries?

 

Zhdanov: The thing is that you have to be insane to use a strike drone as a kamikaze. Is the country so prosperous that it can scatter strike drones left and right?  Thats the first thing. And the second thing is just to look at the map: the range of our largest drone (Bayraktar) is 150 kilometers. And the distance from the territory we control to the town of Shakhtinsk is probably more than 300 kilometers.



NV: That is, there is a question as to whether we did it, and in general how it is possible.



Zhdanov: Yes, whether it is our drone or not. By the way, there is one in the Russian line of drones similar to Bayraktar.



NV: Got it. There is another topic from what I saw. Yesterday there was news that a Russian Su-25 plane crashed with the pilot in Rostov Oblast during training. The same was reported on June 17, also Su-25, but in Belgorod Oblast. Why do you think their planes are crashing and what does that mean? Or is it an obsolete equipment, what's your version?





Zhdanov: I think it's the ignorance of pilots, incompetence. The fact is that they have a very large shortage of pilots. By the way, the last Su-25 shot down over the Donbas, again was a Su-25 with a pilot who is already retired, who fought in a private military company, and then was recruited and came to fight in the Donbas  and hes a Su-25 pilot.

The fact is that the Su-25 is an attack aircraft that must work on the front line of the enemy, it is also called a flying tank (this is what it was called during the war in Afghanistan). The pilot has to be really skilled when he comes to fire on enemy positions.

And here, most likely, young pilots do not manage to fly, although I do not rule out (its a problem with) the technical condition of the aircraft themselves, because these are Soviet-era aircraft. Yes, they could be partially upgraded in Russia, but most of these aircraft were produced before the collapse of the Soviet Union.



NV: It was also reported that our operation on Zmiinyi (Snake) Island is still underway. From what (was known) as of June 20, there was a series of strikes by Ukrainian forces. According to the Ukrainian Operational Command Pivden (South), a Pantsir C1 air defense system, etc. was destroyed. In turn, Russia's Defense Ministry says they have repulsed an attack on Zmiinyi by shooting down 13 Ukrainian drones. Where do you think the truth is, what exactly is happening on Zmiinyi?



Zhdanov: I think the truth is on our side, I will explain why. The first thing is that we do not have enough to strike at the same time. Secondly, in order to shoot down drones, the right skills and the appropriate density of anti-aircraft weapons are required, this was not there on Zmiinyi Island.

And if we take into account the Russian Defense Ministry's statements, I sometimes listen to what they say, they have crazy numbers. When they report that they have already destroyed 3,500 tanks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and we have never had that much at the beginning of the war. About thousands of fortified positions, they destroy the Russian artillery, too. There are just numbers taken from a fantasy book, I wouldnt believe them.



NV: Another interesting thing, the Operational Command South reported that the military operation continues and requires "information silence" to complete it. What does it mean?



Zhdanov: Most likely, our command does not want a detailed analysis and discussion in the media and on the Internet, why would it? Because obviously, if they say that they have not finished anything and it continues, it is obvious that there will be some measures to destroy the Russian troops who are still on Zmiinyi Island.

By the way, let me remind you, do you remember when we first struck Zmiinyi Island and destroyed Russian troops there during the Russian landing, what did Russian propaganda say then? They showed a video and said that a helicopter was Ukrainian, not Russian and that it was Russian troops who destroyed the Ukrainian landing troops.

And then they failed by airing a photo of an allegedly killed Ukrainian soldier, but as it turned out in the photo, he was dressed in the uniform of a marine of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Today there may be similar (lies)  13 drones. What is more, they claimed they had shot down more than 10 NATO planes around Zmiinyi Island. So I'm not surprised what they tell their viewers and, unfortunately, the viewers believe it.



NV: What about that one viewer, Putin  he also watches it and believes it. If we talk about information policy on how to report what is happening on our fronts, many say it would be appropriate to have a "One Voice" policy. However, as you may have seen, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov criticized the head of the Servant of the People parliamentary faction, David Arakhamia, and adviser to the President's Office Mykhailo Podolyak, for allegedly talking about what we need or what is happening in our country, although the Defense Ministry should be talking about (those topics). Who do you think we should trust? What do we need to remember here?



Zhdanov: The fact is that there should be one official source of information during a war. This source can be represented by three instances: The Ministry of Defense (official spokesman), the National Security and Defense Council (also an official spokesman), or an official spokesman for the president as commander-in-chief, or a spokesman for the headquarters of the supreme commander-in-chief.  This source of information should be official, with a clear schedule, except for short breaking news, and the rest of the information space should work with these sources of information.



NV: Another topic that we have been discussing for two or three days is our hitting the gas drilling rigs in the Black Sea. For what purpose do you think this was done? What do you think about it?



Zhdanov: By the way, going back to the official source of information, I would interpret the implementation of this fire task in a completely different way. I would say that we have destroyed naval reconnaissance facilities of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which were located on gas drilling rigs seized from us by Russia in 2014.

There were 100 military personnel and 23 civilians on the most targeted platform. So what did this platform do: did it extract gas or conduct radio technical reconnaissance or radar reconnaissance in the Black Sea, which is part of our exclusive economic zone? Therefore, it should be interpreted that we have destroyed two or three enemy reconnaissance objects in the Black Sea, which (actually)belonged to us.



NV: You remember that after this, news came from the so-called "Crimean occupation authorities," even from (Russian terrorist Igor) Girkin, the criminal, that the Black Sea Fleet was about to attack Odesa, and I remember that this caused alarm among the people of Odesa. Do you think it is even possible for the Black Sea Fleet to attack Odesa?



Zhdanov: Theoretically, yes, it is possible. By the way, I would be very pleasantly surprised if the Black Sea Fleet went to our coast. Why? Because as soon as they entered the zone of destruction of our anti-ship complexes, we could easily fire on the ships of the Black Sea Fleet.

By the way, that's why they are not going anywhere, they are standing there in the Black Sea and preparing to launch missile strikes on our territory. And they are afraid to enter the zone of probable destruction of the anti-ship missile system, which is on combat duty, as (Defense) Minister (Oleksii) Reznikov said.

NV: That is, if they approached Odesa, it would be a great chance for us to just sink them.



Zhdanov: Yes. To Odesa  it is said very loudly. I think that as soon as they enter the zone of destruction, we could inflict fire damage on these ships. So, theyre not going anywhere.



NV: At the same time, we see both attacks on Odesa, and attacks on Kharkiv, and Mykolaiv. Are these mass missile attacks just terrorism? Is there any strategy to it?

Zhdanov: Yes, unfortunately, there is a strategy  it is intimidation and creating panic and chaotic moods among the population in order to force them to surrender and not resist. Not literally, but in terms of making the population ready for peace at any cost.

NV: There is a resolution  the United States has such a tool for declaring a state to be a sponsor of terrorism. So far, Syria, Iran, Sudan, and North Korea have been declared as such states. Do you think it changes something when a country is declared a sponsor of terrorism?

Zhdanov: For the United States, if we are talking about this country, yes, this is a very important decision, why? Because if Russia were to be on that list, no company associated with the United States could do any business with that country. It could not invest in that country, could not get money from that country. It would be a violation of U.S. law, and this company would be punished in various ways  this is very important.



NV: Let's talk a bit about what is happening in Luhansk Oblast. I listened to your latest report, you said that the situation in Luhansk Oblast is difficult, even close to critical. What do we see there?

Zhdanov: Unfortunately, indeed, they're trying to move from Popasna towards Lysychansk and they gradually succeed. Theyre succeeding due to their numerical advantage in firepower, they are actually taking us out of our positions.

Were trying to stop this advance, it is very slow, but the forces are unequal in this direction. Indeed, today the situation is very critical since there is a threat to the encirclement of some of our armed forces.



NV: As for the forces of the so-called "DPR," there was an assessment of the UK military intelligence  that (the DPRs) losses are equivalent to about 55% of the original number. This means the extreme depletion of Russian and pro-Russian forces in the Donbas. What are these forces? We understand that the "DPR" would never have existed without the Russian military and equipment. So what exactly are these 55% losses?



Zhdanov: You are absolutely right, there are no "DPR" forces, there is the 1st Army Corps from the 8th General Army of the Southern military district of the Russian armed forces. And even those whom they caught on the streets, put into military service, they all take the oath of the Russian Federation, sign a contract with the Russian armed forces.

And the fact that their documents are issued by God knows what organization, not recognized by anyone, does not take away responsibility.



How they are registered is a secondary issue. But without combat experience, appropriate weapons and equipment, judging by what we know from intelligence, they are armed and equipped by the residual principle  they act as cannon fodder on the battlefield. They are either sent forward, or to the hottest spots, or just thrown into battle and behind them, the Russians reach our trenches on their shoulders, and then begin the assault.

This is used by both regular units of Russian troops and fighters of private military companies fighting on Russia's side.

NV: In the next segment, we will discuss a BBC article on how they recruit volunteers. And now there is more talk that the Russians are trying to use fewer of their military units and rely on these volunteers, whom they are recruiting in depressed regions. As far as we understand, this is also in our favor, because these are not the kind of people who could do something remarkable on the battlefield.

Zhdanov: No, I do not agree with you. Why? The fact is that private military companies hire these proxy soldiers, mercenaries, and there is more or less selection. Those who have combat experience or served in the army are sent there. That is, they have an idea of what military training is and the basics of combat operations, this is the first.

Second, there is a higher cash allowance, according to some information it reaches more than RUB 300,000 ($5,600) a month. Third, they sign a contract with a private company, in which they undertake to conduct active hostilities, otherwise they will be punished up to criminal responsibility. This makes these private companies more combat-ready and more dangerous for us.



NV: Let's talk a bit about the international situation. I think you've seen the news that Russian troops are simulating missile strikes against Estonia daily, our colleagues from Sky News said. Will they dare to do something there? We also know about the crisis they have with Lithuania. Do you think they can dare to do something in the Baltic states?

Zhdanov: As for Estonia and Lithuania, they are NATO members, NATO will protect its members from attack in any case. NATO is a defense alliance, as they put it. Therefore, Russia is provoking them  the helicopter that tried to enter Estonian airspace today flew with its transponder off, and did not respond to requests from Estonian controllers.

They are provoking as much as possible, provoking a NATO country, or in its face the entire NATO bloc, in accordance with the statute of making the first shot be against Russia, so that Russia could say that NATO is an aggressive bloc that attacked the Russian Federation. And it would immediately offer a negotiation process, but with NATO to resolve the crisis. This is what Russia is trying to achieve. But they are afraid to make the first shot.



NV: Because they should remember that the NATO bloc is much more powerful than Russia with its old weapons.

Zhdanov: Yes, it will be a very brief war and not in favor of the Russian Federation  they understand that.

NV: There was a political statement by the commander of the UK army, General (Patrick) Sanders. He said that, first, British troops must be ready to fight in Europe once again, and that they must forge an army capable of defeating Russia. Is it politics, is it just intimidation? Or will these be real actions, what do you think?

Zhdanov: I think they will be real. Our war has become a trigger, which, to my mind, will break the deadlock of the military and industrial complex in most countries. Now everyone will look at their army, its reserves, combat capability and begin to restore equipment and weapons, deploy their troops and train them in readiness for their intended use. This is a kind of impetus, by the way, it will give economic development to those countries that launch their military and industrial complex.

NV: I also want to ask you about Belarus. Putin is going to Minsk, where the Forum of the Regions of Belarus and Russia is scheduled for June 30-July 1. Do you think he will be able to put pressure on Lukashenko? If he can, you know this narrative why Lukashenko does not agree to send troops to Ukraine: because they will rebel against him. Do you think he will agree? And if he agrees, will they rebel against him?

Zhdanov: I think yes, he can agree, although, in my opinion, it will be a death sentence for him  a sentence of removal from power. The fact that they will rebel against him is also quite possible, especially if he now deploys an army of another 35,000 and these are conscripts from civilian life, who will bring with them an even higher percentage of anti-war sentiment in the Belarusian armed forces.  He is in a very serious situation, you would not envy him, but I think he will try to avoid Belarus intervening in this war on the side of the Russian Federation.

NV: Finally, we have June 22, the anniversary of Hitler's Germany invading the Soviet Union. It is clear that this is also an important date for Russia, because they have "exaggerated 'victorious' hysteria," etc. What do you think, if we say that they never mention that Stalin and Hitler were allies, divided Poland, how does it help them live?

Zhdanov: You see, they separated this episode of World War II, it is called the "Great Patriotic War." By the way, this was hidden by the Soviet Union, why? Because it would be unclear how this was the case, they were allies for two years and were preparing together for war with the rest of the world, but then suddenly attacked each other.

So I think they just don't want to mix the colors they painted today in this "exaggerated 'victorious' hysteria" paradigm. It was so much easier for the then Soviet Union and for Putin to do propaganda work to glorify this episode of the Second World War that they call the "Great Patriotic War."



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Ukraine, Moldova have good chances for EU membership  Michel 23 June, 03:59 PM The President of the European Council, Charles Michel (Photo:REUTERS/Johanna Geron)

The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, said on June 23 that Moldova and Ukraine have "good chances" of becoming candidates for EU membership, UA:PBC reports.

Read also: European Parliament votes in support of granting Ukraine EU member candidate status

This is a geopolitical choice. Im confident that today we will grant the candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova, as well as a clear European perspective to Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, Michel said at the beginning of the EU summit in Brussels.

Earlier, news agency Bloomberg, citing sources, reported that all 27 EU member states had agreed to grant Ukraine EU candidate status.

 

The European Commission on June 17 recommended granting Ukraine and Moldova candidate status for EU membership. After the recommendation of the EC, the decision goes before the European Council.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has stated that the decision to grant Ukraine candidate status would bring its victory in the war unleashed by Russia closer.

Zelensky signed an application for Ukraine's accession to the EU on Feb. 28. He said that after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, Ukraine would apply to the European Union for immediate entry under a new special procedure. After Ukraine submitted its application, Georgia and Moldova filed theirs as well.

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Recently, digital marketing is gaining a lot of popularity in Nepal. Thanks to social platforms like Facebook and Google, there has been a massive rise in people marketing their products digitally. From a vendor using applications like Canva to sell clothes to a brand like Coke to market its new product, advertising, thanks to digital marketing, has come by leaps and bounds.

But, there is more to it than just posting ads on these platforms. A good digital campaign can create a meaningful connection with the audience. Take Volkswagens The Last Mile for example. The campaign bid farewell to the companys iconic car the Beatle which touched the hearts of millions of people.

To help Nepalis create something similar, the Nepalese Marketing Association is hosting a two-day training session on digital marketing to help companies create a better online brand presence. For that, it has brought two experienced professionals from Bangladesh  Synthia Binta Wali and Modasser Ahmed.

Wali is a seasoned marketing professional with experience in digital marketing and strategy development. Ahmed is an experienced digital strategist with a demonstrated history of working in the marketing and advertising industry. Both have worked with major international brands like Google, Bajaj Auto and Foodpanda.

On the eve of the training, Onlinekhabar caught up with the two to talk about the similarities of digital marketing in the two counties, learning from the West and the challenges Asia faces when it comes to digital marketing.

How has the digital market evolved since you started in Bangladesh? Do people buy from it? Are there any similarities with Nepal?

Synthia: It has changed a lot. When I started in Bangladesh, we had to tell people you need to do digital marketing because this is the future. But, a lot of them were sceptical.

Gradually, things changed. More and more people started to get into it and now, if you come to Bangladesh, you can see that almost all businesses, from a small scale to big, are involved in digital marketing.

In Nepal, things look bright. Access to the internet we hear is widening, which is good for the future. I hear a lot of Nepali agencies are getting brands into digital marketing, which is huge. I worked with a Nepali brand here and I feel that digital marketing has a lot of potential. If agencies and brands start analysing data, theres a lot they can do.

When I started in 2015, people in Bangladesh were only starting to get hooked on social media whereas here, theres already an audience so I dont think brands need to be told they need digital marketing. But, I think here too, brands need to start moving their budget from traditional marketing to digital marketing.

Modasser: Just to add The role of media has also been key; when they went digital, that paved the way for digital marketing in some way or form. Language support also helped because people could search the content online.

Social media also helped digital marketing because it is very easy to make a Facebook page or a TikTok account but very hard to make a website.

What Nepal needs now is more people to have access to the internet and that will be a game-changer for digital marketing in the country.

Synthia Binta Wali has executed & supervised award-winning campaigns and has actively contributed to multiple product growth by building bridges between marketing & technology.

A lot of people still think you need to advertise through traditional means (Print, TV or radio). Is that the case in Bangladesh?

Synthia: Before now, yes. But, things gradually changed especially during the pandemic when these newspapers realised that they had a good readership online too. Even television channels started to put everything on YouTube because they realised that number of people using the internet was huge. That has created a change in peoples mindsets.

Modasser: Whats also helping in changing this trend is that media are using old content and resharing it by putting sensational headlines. New strategies are coming up, which is great for the industry.

The very people who were against digital marketing are now believing in it because they see how much revenue they can generate from this.

A new breed of brand managers has also helped change this stereotype because they are young and have moved on from TV or newspaper. There will be a paradigm shift here too; that will change the industry.

What can South Asia learn from the West when it comes to this?

Synthia: The basics are pretty similar. But, when you get to advanced digital marketing, you can learn a lot. Because its basics are similar, there is a lot of scope for people from Asia who pick up digital marketing as a career to go abroad and work with top companies and learn new things, especially the data-centric approach. Our point of the world doesnt have that to date. In Nepal, there isnt a TRP monitoring agency. Bangladesh doesnt have a place that gives brands a cost benchmark. India has both. The East lacks this, but this can be learnt. If a brand wants to do what Western companies are doing, we can always adapt and do that.

Modasser: As she said, the principals remain the same. Because marketing is about communicating with humans and if you have a basic thing in mind, youll be great. But, things are different. I cannot get a templet from the US and use it here in Asia because peoples behaviour is different.

Modasser Ahmed is an experienced Digital Strategist with a demonstrated history of working in the marketing & advertising industry.

What are the challenges you have seen when it comes to digital marketing in Asia?

Modasser: The biggest challenge is internet penetration. We need more people to have access to the internet if things are to improve. Bandwith needs an increase too because if the content buffers, the audience will not wait. Delivery of the content is also important. If the platform isnt right, the content will go to waste. Spamming is another big problem. In terms of user experience, it needs to be good else itll go to waste. Weve seen a lot of viral ads. These ads get talked about a lot, but nobody makes a purchase. Its a hit or miss as most of the time the brand resonance is not there. Another challenge is going to understand the advertisers perspective. If brands and marketers dont understand how these things are calculated, it overcomplicates things and causes things to move slow.

Synthia: You also need a good product to sell. If the product isnt great, thats going to pose a lot of challenges to the people marketing it. We need certain codes integrated with the products, through which we can show people what they get in return for marketing the product digitally. But, for us to measure that, there need to be some measurement techniques in place. It gets difficult to make the product developers understand this challenge. There needs to be a bridge between marketing and product for a campaign to work well.

So, you have to adapt to a lot of changes too then, right?

Modasser: Yes. This is a given. We have to constantly find ways to adapt to new things thrown at us. The general data protection regulation (GDPR) rule is going to redefine advertising. You also need to adapt to different platforms and how to market the product in each of them as both work differently.

But, in Nepal, I think people should focus on getting the basics right. There is a person who sells things on Facebook and is earning money. That person doesnt need to understand this technical jargon. But, bigger brands will have to adapt quickly. And, I think agencies play a huge role in this as they can educate brands about whats changing. Brands should pick agencies who can teach them about marketing products digitally in an efficient manner rather than look at numbers. The pitch process should change as I feel brands need awareness of how things can change for the better for them.

Synthia: Not just that, you also need to change with the industry too. Facebook didnt have vertical videos as most brands put up videos they used for television. But once Facebook changed, we had to change too. Now, we also have to run campaigns for different social media as different demographic of the population are in these areas. Brands in Bangladesh are creating huge marketing campaigns on TikTok because the audience there is huge.

So do you think professionals need to be educated? How important is the training you are giving in doing that? What will they learn?

Modasser: We believe that this will be very helpful. We plan to create a synergy between the agencies and the clients and tell them how they should conduct their next meeting. They will be learning the basics of search and display advertising and also how to run campaigns on social media. They will learn the mechanism of how campaigns run and how to plan them differently from other mediums. Well also talk about budgeting. Other than that, we will also talk about a lot of content creation and developing prospects on search.
As soon as the opening session of the fourth meeting of the Open-Ended Working Group on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity ended in Nairobi of Kenya this Tuesday, the delegates came out of the hall and began greeting and meeting each other informally. Most of them shared their excitement about the promises that the framework, expected to be adopted later this year, has held.

But, the two-member Nepali delegation went away from the hall in search of peace. Sitting on the open grassland, they talked about their experiences in Nairobi and a popular TV anchor opening a political party in Kathmandu. But, Onlinekhabar wanted to talk with them about opportunities Nepal has from this meeting.

We attended an Asia-Pacific regional group meeting yesterday and talked about biodiversity in the mountainous region, Gyanendra Kayastha, the delegation leader, said, The representatives leading the group said they had included our concern in the issue of highlands. Apparently, the Nepali delegation then remained silent.

But, the draft of the framework as updated by the third working group meeting held in Geneva in March, which is the most recent draft publicly available so far, mentions neither mountains nor highlands. Nor did the Kuwaiti delegation that spoke on behalf of the region mention them in its opening statement.

In the first three days of the six-day working group meeting (June 21-26) attended by around 1,300 participants from 156 countries, Nepali delegates spoke only once. They say their request to speak was denied one time. Many other developing countries also did not get a chance to express their concerns due to different reasons.

Consequently, whereas providing financial support to developing countries remained a crucial issue during the Nairobi negotiations, the Nepali team does not have much hope that it will benefit Nepal. I hope everything will be finalised in Montreal where the 15th Conference of Parties will be held in December, Kayastha says, hinting his participation in the meeting was a mere formality.

Back in Kathmandu, other stakeholders say the governments weak preparations for the negotiations are resulting in a loss of opportunities for attracting financial resources for the countrys biodiversity conservation, which may be an example for other developing countries as well.

A lost opportunity

File: Ministry of Forests and Environment, Kathmandu

Whenever the political leadership does not take part in any UN event, Nepal generally sends joint-secretarial or undersecretarial delegations to it. But, this time, both members of the delegation are section officers. This is evident that the country has not prioritised the event, a government official privy to diplomatic affairs says.

Moreover, the team looks quite unprepared. We are here just to make sure our issues do not get overlooked, Kayastha says, I am raw (learning) in this affair.

Maheshwar Dhakal, who in the past decade has attended several UN meetings about the environment and climate change representing Nepal, says the weak institutional memory of government institutions might have resulted in Nepals limited participation in the event.

In the recent years, the political and bureaucratic commitment to biodiversity in Nepal has weakened, Dhakal, also the member-secretary of the countrys President Chure Terai-Madhesh Conservation Development Committee, says. In the past 11 months, 35 rhinos have died in our national parks; in the same period, over 20 people have died due to tiger attacks that will seriously affect our conservation efforts. But, I dont see any official being serious about this.

Biodiversity conservation activist Shristi Singh Shrestha says many of the previous funds Nepal has received have not been fruitful thanks to a lack of monitoring on the governments part and it is likely to repeat with the new promises also. It is not only the aspect of economic vulnerability, it is more about the intent of big political parties, the entire bureaucratic system and big industries.

In the past years, Nepal has made a lot of conservation commitments such as the targets spelt out in the Nepal National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan 2014-2020, but not even a target has been made efficiently, Shrestha claims. Until and unless there is a domestic intent from the politicians to implement these plans, nothing will change, she adds.

Shrestha is critical of the biodiversity framework draft itself for duplications and a lack of concrete action plans. She, says that political and bureaucratic commitments should have accompanied the plan. . But, top leaders of Nepal do not even know the basics of biodiversity. On the other hand, people working at the ground level are not included in such procedures. In this situation, unless the political and bureaucratic leadership takes initiative, the framework will not work in Nepal.

Dhakal also agrees with Shrestha and says unless the country does not show its seriousness in action that it is committed to biodiversity conservation, developing countries like Nepal will face difficulties in attracting internationally available resources as donor countries and organisations prefer cofinancing to direct grants these days.

Learning from the globe

The United Nations office premises in Nairobi, Kenya, that is hosting the UN Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework Working Group 4 meeting, in June 2022. Photo: Michael Salzwedel/EJN

These sentiments from Kathmandu are reflected in some key discussions in Nairobi this week.

Francis Ogwal, one of the two co-chairs of the Open-Ended Working Group on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, says developing countries are not supposed to expect funds from the international community even when they do nothing on their own. There should be the pledge and there should be the action. The national governments of developing countries also have to take initiatives.

He says, The governments must change the paradigm of budget allocation if they want to benefit from the framework. If you say you have zero budget for biodiversity, it should mean you have zero commitment to this.

Ogwal highlights the draft framework has one entire target (target 19) to address the financing concern of the developing countries, suggesting they can get as much support as available if they show their commitments. Of course, there can be challenges, but you have to take your initiation.

He also says the private sector has also been involved in the drafting of the framework, and it would be a part of its implementation so that the states would not face a budget crunch to strive towards the targets.

Whereas Brian ODonnell, the director of the Campaign for Nature, an international NGO active in the global biodiversity framework, says that developed countries must invest a minimum of USD 60 billion in developing countries in grants (not loans) to implement the framework, he suggests the developing countries also need to show in their national biodiversity action plans that they are committed to the targets. That involves, he says, preparing national biodiversity finance plans, and ensuring that domestic resources are also mobilised, which will help the donor countries and organisations get convinced about the implementation of the targets.

Stanislas Stephen Mouba, the head of the delegation to the event representing Gabon, an African country that prospers in natural resources, says some developing countries are already showing signs that they are investing in biodiversity conservation and that should be what countries like Nepal should do.

Many champions are coming from the developing countries. Colombia will reach the 30 by 30 goal (of conserving 30 per cent of the area by 2030) this year. Gabon also hopes that we will reach the goal before 2030. These countries are investing themselves in conservation partnerships.

Hoping against hopes

File: Nepals biodiversity status has been suffering from deforestation among other challenges.

So, will Nepal follow Colombia and Gabon?

While officials affiliated with implementing agencies do not openly speak about the matter, activists are critical.

Shristi Singh Shrestha says she is already tired of the hypocrisy in the government agencies in Nepal. On paper, its great. But, when it comes to implementation, no, Shrestha says, Although there have been some efforts in conservation and although officials tell the international community that our conservation practices are one of the best in the world, at the ground level, its really horrible.

Yet, she says she is aware that Nepal, as a third-pole country, has a lot of opportunities and stresses it should be able to cash in on them. But, it needs to build strong mechanisms so that people working on the ground can get involved and benefit from them.

Meanwhile, Nepal government delegation leader Gyanendra Kayastha says the government has not been able to work efficiently towards keeping the promises due to the lack of laws. We have already drafted legislation to implement the Nagoya Protocol, but the parliament has not passed it, he says, We cant do anything unless there are legal foundations.

Maheshwar Dhakal says he is aware that biodiversity conservation is expensive and stresses that the government should maximise its efforts to take the private and non-government sectors on board and attract investments from the international community.

We should make everyone understand that investments in biodiversity conservation will have a long-lasting impact that benefits beyond the generation.

Will the governments in developing countries like Nepal be able to do so?

You cant say now, Kayastha says.

The negotiations will conclude on Sunday. By then, the state parties will try to finalise 80 per cent of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework to be sent to the 15th Conference of Parties for adoption in Montreal in December.

This story was produced as a part of a reporting fellowship to the 2022 UN Convention on Biological Diversitys 4th Meeting of the Open-ended Working Group on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, led by Internews Earth Journalism Network.
Home  Politics  Govt rules out Nepal in US State Partnership Program yet again

Kathmandu, June 16

The government reiterates Nepal will not be a part of the United States governments controversial State Partnership Program.

Earlier this week, some media leaked the proposed draft of the partnership agreement that said some US security personnel could stay in Nepal for an indefinite period. The leak sparked protests inside the parliament and on social media.

In response to the lawmakers queries regarding the project during the House of Representatives on Thursday, Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand on behalf of the prime minister, said, Nepal is not involved in the State Partnership Program. Neither do we have any thoughts about it.

Earlier, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has also already clarified to the ruling alliance that he would not sign the State Partnership Project agreement during his US visit expected to be held next month.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The second-largest U.S. bank, Bank of America, joined other top financial firms in saying on Friday it will cover travel costs for employees who need to go out-of-state to receive reproductive healthcare services like abortions, according to a statement from the bank.

The new policy follows a raft of similar announcements from big financial companies released after the U.S. Supreme Court took the dramatic step on Friday of overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that recognized a woman's constitutional right to an abortion. [L1N2YB1AQ]

(Reporting by Elizabeth Dilts Marshall; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
Barry Garron, former Chief TV Critic for The Hollywood Reporter, died June 23 at a medical facility in Gilbert, Ariz. He was 72.

Garron, who was well-liked in the industry as a genial Midwesterner, spent a little more than a decade as a prominent critic for The Hollywood Reporter. He was there for the dawn of the premium TV era, writing the first review of The Sopranos for the publication, among other formative shows from Will & Grace to The West Wing to Jimmy Kimmels 2003 debut on ABC.

Born in Chicago, Garron attended the University of Missouri  Columbia, earning a pair of degrees in journalism and political science in 1971, according to THR. He worked for the Kansas City Star newspaper for nearly 25 years, starting in 1973, first as an education writer. When the opening occurred, Garron jumped at the chance to become a TV/radio critic for the paper, he told THR last year.

As soon as I started doing that, I knew it was the thing for me, Garron recalled.

Garron moved to the West Coast and joined the Hollywood Reporter in 1998. He served as chief TV critic in his final years before leaving the brand in 2009. He remained active as a freelance TV critic and commentator up until his final weeks.

Garron moved to Arizona in 2016. In 2018, he published The Jeopardy! Book of Answers, co-written with longtime Jeopardy executive producer Harry Friedman.

Garron had suffered from Crohns disease since his 20s and also had bouts with cancer. According to THR, Garrons survivors include a daughter, Rachel, who has worked as a production engineer for Los Angeles KCAL-TV and KCBS-TV, as well as two granddaughters and a brother.

Garrons wife of 38 years, Sandi, died in 2010.

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China on Thursday said it commended Nepal's decision to reject a security partnership with the United States and would continue to support Kathmandu's "independent foreign policy".

Foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Nepal saw the State Partnership Programme (SPP) as a military and security initiative closely linked to the US Indo-Pacific strategy, which goes "against the national interests of Nepal and its long-held non-aligned, balanced foreign policy".

Kathmandu on Monday said it would not move ahead with the SPP amid widespread opposition to the partnership from within the country.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

"As Nepal's friendly and close neighbour and strategic cooperative partner, China commends the Nepalese government's decision," Wang told reporters in Beijing.

"China will continue to support Nepal in upholding its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity and support Nepal's commitment to its independent and non-aligned foreign policy. China stands ready to work with Nepal to jointly safeguard regional security, stability and shared prosperity."

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin. Photo: Kyodo alt=Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin. Photo: Kyodo>

Nepal's decision is a setback for the US effort to expand its security influence in South Asia under the Indo-Pacific strategy.

The SPP is administered by the US National Guard Bureau. It was set up in the 1990s to pair former Soviet bloc countries with the National Guard in American states, and now serves as "a key US security cooperation tool" that includes partnerships with 93 countries.

Nepal first applied to join the SPP in 2015 as it wanted humanitarian assistance after a devastating earthquake that year and was accepted in 2019, according to the US.

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During a visit to Nepal in April, Major General Michael Turley, adjutant general at the Utah National Guard, handed over the draft agreement of the SPP to Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and General Prabhu Ram Sharma, chief of staff of the Nepal Army, local media reported.

That was followed by a visit to the country earlier this month by Charles Flynn, commanding general of the US Army Pacific Command, which prompted speculation that Nepal could soon join the SPP.

Although the focus appears to be humanitarian, critics in Nepal have raised concerns over the potential military and broader nature of the alliance. The US National Guard states on its website that, through the SPP, it "conducts military-to-military engagements in support of defence security goals but also leverages whole-of-society relationships and capabilities to facilitate broader interagency and corollary engagements spanning military, government, economic and social spheres".

Beijing is on high alert over Washington's efforts in the region to counter its rising military power, especially as India - with whom China has an ongoing border dispute - moves closer to the US.

Critics in Nepal have said that joining the SPP could be devastating for the country's ties with China. The landlocked Himalayan nation is sandwiched between China and India and tries to balance its relations with the two Asian giants as well as with the US.

In February, Nepal's parliament ratified a US$500 million grant from the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a US government aid agency, to fund an electricity transmission line and road improvement project. The move - seen by critics as part of the Indo-Pacific strategy - sparked widespread protests amid concern about a potential military aim.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright  2022 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2022. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

Azerbaijani Prosecutor-General Kamran Aliyev attended the 32nd meeting of the Coordinating Council of Prosecutor-Generals of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Minsk, Belarus, on June 24, Azernews reports.

Along with the Azerbaijani delegation, led by led by Prosecutor-General Kamran Aliyev, the heads of the CIS prosecutor's offices participated in the meeting, the Azerbaijani Prosecutor-Generals Office said.

Aliyev talked at the event about the comprehensive and institutional measures taken under President Ilham Aliyev's leadership to strengthen the activities and structure of the prosecutor's office, as well as the restitution of criminally gained assets.

The meeting also heard speeches by the prosecutor-generals of the CIS countries and heads of international organizations on the role of prosecutors against various manifestations of crime.

Afterward, organizational issues were discussed and relevant documents on cooperation were signed. Elections were held for the responsible positions of the Secretariat. The Azerbaijani Prosecutor-General was awarded the Council's medal "For Strengthening the Rule of Law".

It was decided to hold a meeting of the Council in 2023 in Baku.
ReportLinker

Summary Medical Devices sector report, Critical Care Ventilators Pipeline Report including Stages of Development, Segments, Region and Countries, Regulatory Path and Key Companies, 2022 Update" provides comprehensive information about the Critical Care Ventilators pipeline products with comparative analysis of the products at various stages of development and information about the clinical trials which are in progress.

New York, June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Critical Care Ventilators Pipeline Report including Stages of Development, Segments, Region and Countries, Regulatory Path and Key Companies, 2022 Update" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06288417/?utm_source=GNW





Critical care ventilators also known as intensive care ventilators, provide artificial respiratory support to critical patients in ICUs.



Note: Certain sections in the report may be removed or altered based on the availability and relevance of data in relation to the equipment type.



Scope

- Extensive coverage of the Critical Care Ventilators under development

- The report reviews details of major pipeline products which includes, product description, licensing and collaboration details and other developmental activities

- The report reviews the major players involved in the development of Critical Care Ventilators and list all their pipeline projects

- The coverage of pipeline products based on various stages of development ranging from Early Development to Approved / Issued stage

- The report provides key clinical trial data of ongoing trials specific to pipeline products

- Recent developments in the segment / industry



Reasons to Buy

The report enables you to -

- Formulate significant competitor information, analysis, and insights to improve R&D strategies

- Identify emerging players with potentially strong product portfolio and create effective counter strategies to gain competitive advantage

- Identify and understand important and diverse types of Critical Care Ventilators under development

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- Plan mergers and acquisitions effectively by identifying major players with the most promising pipeline

- In-depth analysis of the products current stage of development, territory and estimated launch date

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06288417/?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.



__________________________

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CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001




Dundee Corporation

TORONTO, June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dundee Corporation (TSX: DC.A) (Dundee or the Company) is pleased to announce the voting results from its Annual Meeting of Shareholders (the Meeting) which was held via live audio webcast on Thursday, June 23, 2022. Shareholders voted in favour of all items of business before the Meeting, as follows:



Appointment of Auditor

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Chartered Accountants were appointed as Auditor of the Company and the directors of the Company were authorized to fix the remuneration of the Auditor. Details of the voting results are set out below:

Total Votes % of Votes Cast Votes in Favour 356,435,006 99.97 Votes Withheld 112,153 0.03 Total Votes Cast 356,547,159 100

Election of Directors

The shareholders elected each of the seven nominees listed in the Companys Management Proxy Circular. Details of the voting results are set out below:

Name Votes in Favour % Votes Withheld % Tanya Covassin 351,565,716 99.89 403,969 0.11 Jonathan Goodman 351,550,882 99.88 418,803 0.12 Isabel Meharry 351,562,207 99.88 407,478 0.12 Andrew Molson 350,306,234 99.53 1,663,451 0.47 Peter Nixon 351,557,119 99.88 412,566 0.12 Allen Palmiere 351,562,074 99.88 407,611 0.12 A. Murray Sinclair 351,551,016 99.88 418,669 0.12

ABOUT DUNDEE CORPORATION



Dundee Corporation is a public Canadian independent holding company, listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol DC.A. Through its operating subsidiaries, Dundee Corporation is an active investor focused on delivering long-term, sustainable value as a trusted partner in the mining sector with more than 30 years of experience making accretive mining investments.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Investor and Media Relations

T: (416) 864-3584

E: ir@dundeecorporation.com




CF602s unique mechanism of action enables potential treatment of diabetic patients and may offer an alternative to PDE5 (Viagra, Cialis, Levitra, and Stendra) non-responders accounting for 30-35% of the $3.6 billion ED market

Patents granted in numerous healthcare markets including the U.S., Australia, and Japan

PETACH TIKVA, Israel, June 24, 2022--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Can-Fite BioPharma Ltd. (NYSE American: CANF) (TASE: CFBI), a biotechnology company advancing a pipeline of proprietary small molecule drugs that address inflammatory, cancer and liver diseases, today announced its study titled "A3 adenosine receptor allosteric modulator CF602 reverses erectile dysfunction in a diabetic rat model" was published in the peer-reviewed journal Andrologia.

A full erectile recovery was achieved following a single dose of CF602 with restored muscle collagen ratio and endothelial cell function. Can-Fites CF602, an allosteric modulator of the A3 adenosine receptor (A3AR), applied topically or orally in a diabetic rat model, resulted in increased arterial blood flow and significant dose-dependent improvements in intracavernosal pressure (ICM), smooth muscle:collagen ratio, vascular endothelial growth factor and endothelial nitric oxide synthase.

While oral phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) inhibitors are the current standard of care for erectile dysfunction (ED), with brands including Viagra, Cialis, Levitra, and Stendra, an estimated 30% to 35% of ED patients are non-responders, and these drugs can be contraindicated for people living with diabetes.

Data published in the article suggest CF602 could potentially offer an alternative treatment to PDE5 inhibitors, particularly to PDE5 non-responders and diabetics.

"There is a clear and unmet need in the market today for an effective alternative to PDE5 inhibitors for non-responders to the leading sexual dysfunction drugs and diabetics, many of whom cannot safely be prescribed PDE5 inhibitors. With a growing body of data and IP estate around CF602, we are evaluating potential strategic partnerships to advance CF602 toward market," stated Can-Fite CEO Dr. Pnina Fishman.

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According to Zion Market Research, the global ED market was valued at $3.64 billion in 2021 and is projected to reach $5.94 billion by 2028.

About CF602

CF602 is a novel A3AR allosteric modulator that enhances the receptor activity in the presence of the native ligand. The molecule is characterized by high selectivity at the A3AR and is capable of avoiding receptor desensitization, thus magnifying the agonist activity at low doses.

About Can-Fite BioPharma Ltd.

Can-Fite BioPharma Ltd. (NYSE American: CANF) (TASE: CFBI) is an advanced clinical stage drug development Company with a platform technology that is designed to address multi-billion dollar markets in the treatment of cancer, liver, and inflammatory disease. The Company's lead drug candidate, Piclidenoson has completed enrollment in a Phase III trial for psoriasis. Can-Fite's liver drug, Namodenoson, is being evaluated in a Phase IIb trial for the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and a Phase III trial for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common form of liver cancer. Namodenoson has been granted Orphan Drug Designation in the U.S. and Europe and Fast Track Designation as a second line treatment for HCC by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Namodenoson has also shown proof of concept to potentially treat other cancers including colon, prostate, and melanoma. CF602, the Company's third drug candidate, has shown efficacy in the treatment of erectile dysfunction. These drugs have an excellent safety profile with experience in over 1,500 patients in clinical studies to date. For more information please visit: www.can-fite.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements, about Can-Fites expectations, beliefs or intentions regarding, among other things, market risks and uncertainties, its product development efforts, business, financial condition, results of operations, strategies or prospects. In addition, from time to time, Can-Fite or its representatives have made or may make forward-looking statements, orally or in writing. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as "believe," "expect," "intend," "plan," "may," "should" or "anticipate" or their negatives or other variations of these words or other comparable words or by the fact that these statements do not relate strictly to historical or current matters. These forward-looking statements may be included in, but are not limited to, various filings made by Can-Fite with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, press releases or oral statements made by or with the approval of one of Can-Fites authorized executive officers. Forward-looking statements relate to anticipated or expected events, activities, trends or results as of the date they are made. Because forward-looking statements relate to matters that have not yet occurred, these statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause Can-Fites actual results to differ materially from any future results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Many factors could cause Can-Fites actual activities or results to differ materially from the activities and results anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: our history of losses and needs for additional capital to fund our operations and our inability to obtain additional capital on acceptable terms, or at all; uncertainties of cash flows and inability to meet working capital needs; the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; the initiation, timing, progress and results of our preclinical studies, clinical trials and other product candidate development efforts; our ability to advance our product candidates into clinical trials or to successfully complete our preclinical studies or clinical trials; our receipt of regulatory approvals for our product candidates, and the timing of other regulatory filings and approvals; the clinical development, commercialization and market acceptance of our product candidates; our ability to establish and maintain strategic partnerships and other corporate collaborations; the implementation of our business model and strategic plans for our business and product candidates; the scope of protection we are able to establish and maintain for intellectual property rights covering our product candidates and our ability to operate our business without infringing the intellectual property rights of others; competitive companies, technologies and our industry; statements as to the impact of the political and security situation in Israel on our business; and risks and other risk factors detailed in Can-Fites filings with the SEC and in its periodic filings with the TASE. In addition, Can-Fite operates in an industry sector where securities values are highly volatile and may be influenced by economic and other factors beyond its control. Can-Fite does not undertake any obligation to publicly update these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220624005117/en/

Contacts

Can-Fite BioPharma

Motti Farbstein

info@canfite.com

+972-3-9241114
The Flowr Corporation

Highlights:



Headcount reduction by 40% resulting in over $4m in cost savings per year

Agreement to sell non-core asset for aggregate gross proceeds of $3.4m

TORONTO, June 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Flowr Corporation (TSX.V: FLWR; OTC: FLWPF) (Flowr or the Company) herein announces the completion of a significant corporate headcount reduction resulting in over $4m in cost savings per year as well as an agreement to sell a non-core asset for aggregate gross proceeds of $3.4m.

Headcount Reduction

The Company has completed a headcount reduction necessary in order to flatten its organizational structure and right-size SG&A with revenue. The Company has eliminated 40% of its workforce, largely in senior and middle management, resulting in an anticipated annual savings of over $4m.

Agreement to Sell Flowr Forest

The Company has entered into an agreement for the sale of 17 acres of agricultural property located adjacent to its primary facility known as Flowr Forest for aggregate gross proceeds of $3.4m. Flowr Forest is not core to the Companys operations and the proceeds of the sale will provide the Company with increased operating capital. Closing of the sale is anticipated for mid-August and is subject to certain conditions, including the completion of a satisfactory due diligence review by the purchaser.

Tom Flow, Interim Chief Executive Officer of Flowr commented, These cost cutting measures and sale of non-core assets are vital to getting the company to profitability. Flowr is a brand synonymous with quality and we continue to believe that our model to provide premium cannabis products to the market while reducing overall costs will lead to success.

About The Flowr Corporation

The Flowr Corporation is a Canadian cannabis company with its operating campus, located in Kelowna, British Columbia. Flowr aims to support improving outcomes through responsible cannabis use and, as an established expert in cannabis cultivation, strives to be the brand of choice for consumers and patients seeking the highest-quality craftsmanship and product consistency across a portfolio of differentiated cannabis products.

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For more information, please visit flowrcorp.com or follow Flowr on Twitter: @FlowrCanada and LinkedIn: The Flowr Corporation.

On behalf of The Flowr Corporation:

Tom Flow

Interim Chief Executive Officer

CONTACT INFORMATION:

INVESTORS & MEDIA:

investors@flowrcorp.com

Forward-Looking Information:

Certain statements made in this press release may constitute forward-looking information, future oriented financial information or financial outlooks (collectively, forward-looking information) within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information may relate to anticipated events or results including, but not limited to: the Companys expectation that it will build on its achievements as it continues to invest in sales and marketing; the Companys expectations for sales of product in Quebec; Flowrs business, production and products; Flowrs plans to provide premium quality cannabis to adult use recreational and medical markets; EU-GMP certification opening the medicinal cannabis opportunity for the Company in global markets; the Company being well positioned to distribute EU-GMP compliant product into underserviced markets;; the Companys ability to obtain licensing from Health Canada and other regulatory authorities with respect to its properties and facilities; future legislative and regulatory developments in Canada and elsewhere; the cannabis industry in Canada generally; the ability of Flowr to implement its business strategies; and the ability of Flowr to produce or sell premium quality cannabis. Particularly, information regarding our expectations of future results, targets, performance achievements, prospects or opportunities is forward-looking information. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as may, will, expect, believe, estimate, plan, could, should, would, outlook, forecast, anticipate, foresee, continue or the negative of these terms or variations of them or similar terminology. Forward-looking information is current as of the date it is made and is based on reasonable estimates and assumptions made by us at the relevant time in light of our experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that we believe are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances. To the extent any forward-looking information in this press release constitutes future oriented financial information or financial outlooks, within the meaning of applicable securities laws, the purpose of such information being provided is to demonstrate the potential of the Company and readers are cautioned that this information may not be appropriate for any other purpose. However, we do not undertake to update any such forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable securities laws in Canada. There can be no assurance that such estimates and assumptions will prove to be correct. Many factors could cause our actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements or future events or developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking information as discussed in the Companys other publicly filed documents, which can be accessed under the Companys profile on the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) at www.sedar.com, Readers are urged to consider the risks, uncertainties and assumptions carefully in evaluating the forward-looking information and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such information.

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.




Former President Trumps plan to overturn the 2020 election by installing a loyalist at the top of the Justice Department would have led to mass resignations at the agency and, ultimately, sparked an unprecedented constitutional crisis, former department leaders testified Thursday on Capitol Hill.

Appearing before the House panel investigating last years attack on the Capitol, the former officials  acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, his deputy Richard Donoghue and Steven Engel, then head of the Office of Legal Counsel  described weeks of chaos inside the Trump White House as the president scrambled to reverse his electoral defeat and grew ever more frustrated they wouldnt help him to do it.

In a crescendo of desperation leading up to Jan. 6, they testified, Trump pressed them to investigate a series of sensational fraud allegations  all of them examined and debunked  and when they refused to endorse his false claims of a stolen election, he tried to promote someone who would.

That figure was a midlevel lawyer at the Department of Justice (DOJ), Jeffrey Clark, whose willingness to adopt Trumps false narrative about widespread fraud had endeared him to the former president  so much so that Trump sought to install Clark as acting attorney general, replacing Rosen, in the final weeks of his presidency.

That campaign culminated in an explosive Jan. 3 meeting with Trump, his top lawyers and the DOJ officials in the Oval Office, where Trump threatened an ultimatum: Help reverse the election results or Clark would be promoted. All three figures threatened to quit.

I said, Mr. President, youre talking about putting a man in that seat who has never tried a criminal case, who has never conducted a criminal investigation. Hes telling you that hes going to take charge of the department, 115,000 employees, including the entire FBI, and turn the place on a dime and conduct nationwide criminal investigations that will produce results in a matter of days, Donoghue testified.

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Its impossible. Its absurd. Its not going to happen, and its going to fail.

Clark, a longtime environmental lawyer only recently tapped to lead DOJs civil division, was introduced to the president by Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), who accompanied Clark to the White House on Dec. 22, 2020, the day after Trump met with a group of Republican lawmakers to hone a strategy to fight back against mounting evidence of voter fraud, according to a tweet from then-chief of staff Mark Meadows.

The hearing, the fifth chapter in an ongoing series of public presentations, kicked off just hours after the Justice Department served a warrant at Clarks home in suburban Virginia.

While the committee dished out a few bombshells  including new revelations about Republican lawmakers seeking presidential pardons for their role in keeping Trump in power  it largely pivoted away from its past format of heavy reliance on video clips from a wide suite of aides.

Instead, the panel afforded the three former officials a platform for hours to detail how close the country came to what Donoghue said would have spiraled us into a constitutional crisis.

Rosen detailed a barrage of requests from Trump, who began calling him even before he officially took over the role in the week between former Attorney General William Barrs resignation announcement and departure.

At one point he had raised the question of having a special counsel for election fraud. At a number of points, he raised requests that I meet with his campaign counsel, Mr. Giuliani. At one point, he raised whether the Justice Department would file a lawsuit in the Supreme Court. At a couple of junctures, there were questions about making public statements or about holding a press conference. At one of the later junctures was this issue of sending a letter to state legislatures in Georgia or other states, Rosen said.

There were different things raised at different parts or different intervals with the common theme being his dissatisfaction about what the Justice Department had done to investigate election fraud.

As Trumps requests were repeatedly rejected by DOJ leadership, he became increasingly fixated on Clark, whom Rep. Adam Kizinger (R-Ill.) described as an environmental lawyer with no experience relevant to leading the entire Department of Justice.

The committee offered new details as to how and why Clark was suddenly brought into the presidents orbit. Namely, he was willing to endorse the claims of voter fraud that the other officials rejected.

I do recall saying to people that somebody should be put in charge of the Justice Department who isnt frightened of whats going to be done to their reputation, because the Justice Department was filled with people like that, Trump campaign attorney Rudy Giuliani told investigators in a prerecorded deposition.

It also revealed that Trump had considered tapping campaign attorney Sidney Powell  who is now facing disbarment based on faulty voter fraud allegations she presented in court  as a special counsel for investigating election fraud.

Clark was nearly referred for contempt of Congress charges after he walked out of his first deposition with the committee. While he later returned, he largely pleaded the Fifth Amendment, leaving much of what is known about the episode from testimony of DOJ and White House officials.

Clark had a series of calls with Trump, unbeknownst to Rosen and Donoghue, who he had promised to inform of his activity after they told him his White House contact was inappropriate.

But things came to a head on Jan. 3, when Clark told Rosen that Trump was going to promote him to acting attorney general. Clark then offered Rosen a chance to serve as his deputy.

I wasnt going to accept being fired by my subordinate, Rosen said.

I thought that was preposterous. I told him that was nonsensical and that there was no universe where I was going to do that to stay on and support someone else doing things that were not consistent with what I thought should be done. So I didnt accept that offer, if I can put it that way.

White House call logs revealed by the committee show Clark and Trump spoke multiple times that day, with a call after 4 p.m. logged as a conversation with acting Attorney General Jeffrey Clark.

Justice Department lawyers and even his own White House counsel were able to talk Trump off the plan, largely by berating Clark, noting they would call him when there was an oil spill or joking that even if he walked into the FBI directors office, he wouldnt know who Clark was.

But they also leaned heavily on the fact that nearly all the top assistant attorneys general at DOJ would join Donoghue in resigning.

Jeff Clark will be left leading a graveyard, Donoghue said, relaying Engels Jan. 3 message to Trump.

Engel said Trump would not get the voter fraud newsline he was hoping for.

All anyone is going to think is that you went through two attorneys general in two weeks until you found the environmental guy to sign this thing. And so, the story is not going to be that the Department of Justice has found massive corruption that would have changed the result of the election. Its going to be the disaster of Jeff Clark, he said.

And I think at that point Pat Cipollone said, Yeah, this is a murder suicide pact, this letter.

White House lawyer Eric Herschmann, whose salty language-filled deposition has appeared throughout the hearings in numerous video clips, was also in attendance at the Oval Office meeting and told Clark his plan was illegal.

When he finished discussing what he planned on doing, I said good fing  excuse me, sorry  effing A-hole, congratulations. You just admitted your first step or act you take as attorney general would be committing a felony, he said.

Youre clearly the right candidate for this job, he added sarcastically.

Trump was ultimately dissuaded from installing Clark, and DOJ leadership left the Oval Office feeling relieved.

But just 90 minutes later, Donoghue got a call from Trump, this time raising a new unsubstantiated allegation of truckloads of shredded ballots.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Company looks to invest nearly $7 billion in transmission, distribution over the next three years

Investments support transition away from coal, doubling renewable and solar energy generation

ATLANTA, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Georgia Power today filed a request with the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) that would enable the company to continue making investments in strengthening and further securing the electric grid, transforming its power generation to include cleaner and more economical energy resources and continue improving the customer experience.

Georgia Power logo. (PRNewsFoto/Georgia Power)

"We take our responsibility to plan, prepare and make the investments needed to meet our customers' energy needs today, tomorrow and for years to come seriously, and Georgia Power's request to the Georgia Public Service Commission today outlines and supports that focus," said Chris Womack, chairman, president and CEO of Georgia Power. "As our state continues to grow and the energy landscape rapidly evolves, we recognize and respect our customers' focus on the reliability and resiliency of Georgia's electric system, the expansion of our clean energy resources and Georgia Power's continued ability to safely and reliably meet their energy needs. This request reinforces our commitment to meeting those needs while continuing to provide clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy for generations of Georgians."

The request supports Georgia Power's focus on the following:

Strengthening the electric grid through investments in the company's transmission and distribution systems and the continuation of its Grid Investment Plan (GIP) to support customers' long-term reliability and resiliency needs. Many of these investments are required to protect the reliability and resiliency of our electric grid.

Transforming how it makes energy , including the continued transition of the company's power generation to cleaner and more economical resources for customers, including renewables such as solar.

Enhancing operations and improving customer experience through investments in technology that will help enable Georgia Power to continue delivering exceptional service to customers while meeting their evolving energy needs.

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If approved, customer rates would increase a total of just under 12% over the next three years, which is lower than the current projected rate of inflation. As outlined in the filing, the typical residential customer using 1,000 kilowatthours per month would see an increase of $14.32 per month on their bill in 2023, $1.35 per month in 2024 and $0.62 per month in 2025, for a total increase of $16.29 over the three-year period. The company has helped offset the rising cost of doing business through reduced operating costs, managing storm cost recovery and making smart financing decisions.

Strengthening the Electric Grid

Georgia Power is continuously investing in the power grid to make it smarter and more reliable, and today's filing looks to continue those efforts. The company is seeking to build upon its ongoing investments in its transmission and distribution system to further provide safe, reliable and secure electric service to its customers. Over the next three years, the company expects to invest nearly $7 billion more in transmission and distribution improvements, including $2.2 billion in the company's on-going multi-year GIP.

Over the last ten years, Georgia Power has invested nearly $10 billion to strengthen the reliability and resiliency of its network for the benefit of the communities and people it serves. This amount includes approximately $4.9 billion invested in transmission and distribution infrastructure since January 2020 and projected through December 2022, of which $1.5 billion relates to the company's GIP. Examples of critical investments the company has made and look to continue include:

deploying advanced control and monitoring technologies, including additional self-healing distribution networks, to enhance the company's ability to sectionalize parts of the electric grid to isolate issues and reroute power to serve customers;

replacing framing hardware to improve insulation levels and protect equipment; and

enhancing substations, replacing transformers and moving powerlines underground.

These investments have improved reliability, reduced both the number and duration of outages, minimized repair time and contributed to a better customer experience. The investments proposed in this request are a continuation of these enhancements that have increased reliability.

Investing in Renewables and Cleaner Energy Resources

As presented in the company's 2022 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) filed earlier this year, Georgia Power is looking to continue transforming how it produces energy, transitioning its power generation fleet to more economical and cleaner generation resources that will produce significant, long-term benefits for customers. The company is deploying new and expanded resources in solar, wind, hydro and energy storage to continue reducing carbon emission. This rate request would support that transformation and the proposed retirement of approximately 3,600 megawatts (MW) of coal- and oil-fired generation by 2028, replacing it with more economical generation and supporting investment in the transmission infrastructure necessary to facilitate the continued growth of renewables and to provide customers access to these lower cost and lower-carbon emitting resources.

To support the transition, Georgia Power will continue serving customers with a diverse, balanced generation fleet of reliable, resilient and economical resources, which includes adding cost-effective renewable resources. Working within the state's constructive regulatory framework, Georgia Power has continued developing renewable resources in a way that benefits customers, positioning the company as a national leader in renewable energy growth. Georgia Power currently has one of the largest voluntary renewable portfolios in the country, with more than 3,100 MW of renewable resources already online and an additional 2,400 MW under development. The company is also planning to double its renewable generation by adding 6,000 MW by 2035, which includes a request for approval of 2,300 MW* in its 2022 IRP. This new capacity would expand the company's renewable resource portfolio to approximately 11,500 MW by 2035.

The addition of these renewable resources and the retirement of uneconomic coal- and oil-fired units will enable Georgia Power to continue to operate its generation fleet efficiently, reliably and affordably for customers. To read more about Georgia Power's energy plans for the future, visit www.GeorgiaPower.com/IRP .

Enhancing the Customer Experience

Georgia Power is focused on continuously improving for the benefit of customers, including enhancing how customers can communicate with the company, pay their bills and manage their energy usage. In response to customers' changing preferences, the company has enhanced customer communications and provided additional and more flexible payment options, enrolling nearly 500,000 customers in outage alerts, eliminating credit and debit card payments fees, increasing the number of Authorized Payment Locations across the state, extending the bill payment timeframe by five days and more.

Over the next three years, Georgia Power will continue this focus and plans to invest nearly $700 million in technologies that will enhance operations and benefit customers. These include:

Customer Information System (CIS)  Implementation of a new CIS will integrate customer information into a single platform that enables customer service employees to quickly access customer information, thereby allowing them to provide customers with more comprehensive and timely solutions.

Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS)  DERMS is an integrated software resource platform that offers real-time visibility into the impact of distributed energy resources on the electric system and allows for enhanced monitoring and operational capabilities. A robust DERMS platform will enable Georgia Power to integrate distributed energy resources with both system and fleet operations.

Technologies to support the continued electrification of transportation  Over the next three years, Georgia Power will increase investments in community electric vehicle (EV) charging facilities and necessary electric transportation infrastructure upgrades to support customer EV charging. In addition to these capital infrastructure upgrades, the rate request continues various rebates for homebuilders and residential and commercial customers to accommodate growth in EV charging across the state.

Additionally, the company is working on developing a new, enhanced mobile app that will simplify mobile transactions, provide direct communications with customers impacted by service outages and notify customers regarding company offerings for which they qualify. Georgia Power is also developing a virtual platform that will help customers by answering general questions and processing a variety of customer transactions and plans to release a digital wallet option later this year, which will allow customers to make payments conveniently from their mobile devices and more.

Energy Assistance

Georgia Power has a long-standing history of assisting income-qualified customers with programs and resources to aid them in lowering and paying their bills, and those will continue in this rate request. Program details are available at www.GeorgiaPower.com/EnergyAssistance , including details on:

Senior citizen discount  Georgia Power offers a senior citizen discount of up to $24 per bill to customers 65 years of age or older who qualify based on their income. In this rate request, the company is proposing to increase this discount by $2.27 in its filing for a total discount of up to $26.27 per bill.

Project SHARE  In partnership with the Salvation Army, customers can donate $1, $2, $5, or $10 on their monthly bill to support their neighbors in need. Georgia Power matches each dollar donated with $1.50 up to a total match of $1.5 million annually. Since its inception in 1986, Georgia Power and its customers have donated more than $72 million to the program.

Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)  Georgia Power supports the Division of Family & Children Services through LIHEAP, which is available every year from November to May, and helps low-income households pay for heating and cooling their homes.

Home Energy Efficiency Assistance Program (HEEAP)  Income-qualified Georgia Power customers may be eligible for free, energy-efficiency home improvements. From improved attic insulation to smart thermostats that can help manage their home's temperature, these type of home improvements can help qualified customers save energy and reduce their bills.

Additionally, the company offers a variety of flexible and customizable rate plans and payment options to help manage electric bills. Being on the most economical rate plan for a customer's use is one of the most effective ways to keep energy costs low. Customers can explore Georgia Power rate plans and billing options on www.GeorgiaPower.com , including:

FlatBill  This plan offers a 12-month fixed price that will not vary as usage does  eliminating surprises and preventing higher bills during the summer and other peak usage months.

PrePay  Customers can take control of when and how much they pay with PrePay. This program provides customers with more flexibility to manage their budget and energy use, while also enjoying the benefits of no deposit requirement, credit check, or reconnect fees.

Budget Billing  Offered to Georgia Power customers to reduce large fluctuations in their bill due to seasonal peaks, Budget Billing spreads a customer's total annual electric costs over 12 equal monthly payments.

Rate Case Process

Today's filing initiates a series of additional filings and public hearings with the Georgia PSC. At the conclusion of this open and transparent process, the Georgia PSC is expected to vote on the company's rate case in December. The request seeks to continue the investments approved in Georgia Power's 2019 Rate Case, so that the company can continue to deliver clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy to customers. If approved, the proposed rates would take effect beginning January 1, 2023.

* REC Disclaimer: Georgia Power purchases only the null energy output from some renewable generating facilities that have contracted to sell that energy to Georgia Power. Ownership of the associated renewable energy credits (RECs) is specified in each respective power purchase agreement. The party that owns the RECs retains the right to use them.

About Georgia Power

Georgia Power is the largest electric subsidiary of Southern Company (NYSE: SO), America's premier energy company. Value, Reliability, Customer Service and Stewardship are the cornerstones of the company's promise to 2.7 million customers in all but four of Georgia's 159 counties. Committed to delivering clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy at rates below the national average, Georgia Power maintains a diverse, innovative generation mix that includes nuclear, coal and natural gas, as well as renewables such as solar, hydroelectric and wind. Georgia Power focuses on delivering world-class service to its customers every day and the company is recognized by J.D. Power as an industry leader in customer satisfaction. For more information, visit www.GeorgiaPower.com and connect with the company on Facebook ( Facebook.com/Georgia Power ), Twitter ( Twitter.com/GeorgiaPower ) and Instagram ( Instagram.com/ga_power ).

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information contained in this release is forward-looking information based on current expectations and plans that involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking information includes, among other things, statements concerning the 2022 Rate Request, including expected impacts to customer rates, projected renewable generation and future capital expenditures. Georgia Power cautions that there are certain factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking information that has been provided. The reader is cautioned not to put undue reliance on this forward-looking information, which is not a guarantee of future performance and is subject to a number of uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside the control of Georgia Power; accordingly, there can be no assurance that such suggested results will be realized. The following factors, in addition to those discussed in Georgia Power's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 and subsequent securities filings could cause actual results to differ materially from management expectations as suggested by such forward-looking information: state and federal rate regulations and the impact of pending and future rate cases and negotiations, including rate actions relating to fuel and other cost recovery mechanisms and the 2022 Base Rate Case; the impact of recent and future federal and state regulatory changes, including tax, environmental, and other laws and regulations to which Georgia Power is subject, as well as changes in application of existing laws and regulations; the extent and timing of costs and legal requirements related to coal combustion residuals; current and future litigation or regulatory investigations, proceedings or inquiries; the effects, extent and timing of the entry of additional competition in the markets in which Georgia Power operates, including from the development and deployment of alternative energy sources; variations in demand for electricity; available sources and costs of fuels; effects of inflation; the ability to control costs and avoid cost and schedule overruns during the development, construction and operation of facilities, to construct facilities in accordance with the requirements of permits and licenses (including satisfaction of Nuclear Regulatory Commission requirements), to satisfy any environmental performance standards and the requirements of tax credits and other incentives, and to integrate facilities into the Southern Company system upon completion of construction; investment performance of the employee and retiree benefit plans and the nuclear decommissioning trust funds; advances in technology, including the pace and extent of development of low- to no-carbon energy technologies and negative carbon concepts; the ability to successfully operate Georgia Power's generating, transmission and distribution facilities and the successful performance of necessary corporate functions; the inherent risks involved in operating and constructing nuclear generating facilities; the ability of counterparties of Georgia Power to make payments as and when due and to perform as required; the direct or indirect effect on Georgia Power's business resulting from cyber intrusion or physical attacks and the threat of physical attacks; interest rate fluctuations and financial market conditions and the results of financing efforts; access to capital markets and other financing sources; changes in Georgia Power's credit ratings; the ability of Georgia Power to obtain additional generating capacity (or sell excess generating capacity) at competitive prices; catastrophic events such as fires, earthquakes, explosions, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes and other storms, droughts, pandemic health events, political unrest, wars, or other similar occurrences; the direct or indirect effects on Georgia Power's business resulting from incidents affecting the U.S. electric grid or operation of generating resources; and the effect of accounting pronouncements issued periodically by standard setting bodies. Georgia Power expressly disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking information.

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SOURCE Georgia Power
Restored Blacksmith's Shop and Stores Building now welcoming visitors



SAULT STE. MARIE, ON, June 24, 2022 /CNW Telbec/ - Parks Canada is responsible for protecting nationally significant examples of natural and cultural heritage and sharing the stories of these treasured places, including the histories, cultures, and contributions of Indigenous peoples. As cornerstones of Canada's tourism industry, Parks Canada administered places are committed to providing visitors with high-quality and meaningful visitor experiences and supporting tourism in communities across the country.

The new exhibit space will tell the many stories of Sault Ste. Marie National Historic Site. Credit: Parks Canada (CNW Group/Parks Canada)

Today, Terry Sheehan, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Labour and Member of Parliament for Sault Ste. Marie, on behalf of the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change and Minister responsible for Parks Canada, formally announced the opening of a new, accessible Visitor Centre and interpretive exhibit at Sault Ste. Marie Canal National Historic Site. The $4 million project, funded through the Federal Infrastructure Investment Program, features the new visitor offering inside the restored Blacksmith's Shop and Stores Building. A community celebration was held by Parks Canada and partners, Batchewana First Nation and Metis Nation of Ontario, to mark the occasion.

The new Visitor Centre and exhibit space, which officially opened to visitors on June 6, 2022, features interpretive elements that outline the impact that the construction of the canal had on the First Nation and Metis Nation communities. These include interactive exhibits, interpretive panels, historic photographs, impressive artifacts, and a hand-built birch bark canoe on loan from Batchewana First Nation. A new interactive touch screen map will support visitors in planning their visit at the canal, providing them with information on various points of interest, walking the trails, or guiding themselves to visit one of the many historic structures on site. The technical innovations of the canal are demonstrated through a newly designed interactive lock model.

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Parks Canada worked closely with Batchewana First Nation, Metis Nation of Ontario, and other local groups to ensure the materials developed for the exhibit reflect the diverse histories and experiences of the people of Sault Ste. Marie and Northern Ontario. Archival photography work was supported by the Sault Ste. Marie Library and the Sault Ste. Marie Museum, with the museum assisting with exhibit installation. Across the country, Parks Canada is honoured to work in collaboration with Indigenous peoples to develop interpretive materials and activities at national historic sites, national parks and national marine conservation areas with the goal of fostering a better understanding of Indigenous peoples' perspectives, cultures and traditions.

Through infrastructure investments, the Government of Canada is protecting and conserving national treasures, while supporting local economies and contributing to growth in the tourism sector. National historic sites reflect the rich and varied heritage of Canada and provide an opportunity for Canadians to learn more about our diverse history.

Quote

"Our Government is committed to investing in the conservation of Canada's built heritage and supporting local economies and growth in the tourism sector. The federal investment in restoring these heritage buildings and creation of a new Visitor Centre and exhibit area is an exciting addition to the Sault Ste. Marie Canal National Historic Site that will benefit the region's tourism offer. The collaboration with Batchewana First Nation and Metis Nation of Ontario is part of our government's ongoing efforts towards reconciliation. This interactive, signature exhibit will foster a better understanding of Indigenous peoples' perspectives, cultures and traditions, ensuring a meaningful visitor experience for years to come."

Terry Sheehan

Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Labour and Member of Parliament for Sault Ste. Marie

Quick Facts

The Sault Ste. Marie Canal (SSMC) was the longest and first electrically operated lock in the world when it opened in 1895. It was the last link in a 3500 km all-Canadian waterway stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the western tip of Lake Superior. It was designated a national historic site in 1987.

The Government of Canada is investing over $14 million to rejuvenate the Sault Ste. Marie Canal National Historic Site, as part of the largest federal infrastructure plan in the history of Parks Canada.

The Sault Ste. Marie Canal National Historic Site is undertaking a large revitalization project of its Historic Core. This area refers to a cluster of heritage buildings made up of the Carpentry Shop, Stores Building and Blacksmith's Shop, as well as the Powerhouse and surrounding landscape. These changes represent significant improvements to the site's visitor experience offer.

The establishment of an admission for the new exhibit space will allow the Sault Ste. Marie Canal National Historic Site to continue to invest in visitor experience programs and elements. Parks Canada strives to ensure the enjoyment of national heritage places is affordable for all. Visitor fees never exceed the costs of service delivery and these revenues are reinvested into operations, visitor services, programs, facilities, and conservation.

Parks Canada welcomes approximately 100,000 land-based and 55,000 water-based visitors to the Sault Ste. Marie Canal National Historic Site each year. Parks Canada asks visitors to continue to respect public health guidelines while visiting our facilities. Visit our website for the most up-to-date information.

Related Links

SOURCE Parks Canada

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Khabane "Khaby" Lame and Charli D'Amelio

Anthony Harvey/Global/Shutterstock, Frazer Harrison/Getty

Khabane "Khaby" Lame has overtaken Charli D'Amelio as the most-followed person on TikTok by clocking a record-breaking 142.8 million followers, according to Guinness World Records.

Lame won over followers on TikTok by creating silent videos parodying other internet clips that are supposedly "life hacks," but are actually overly complex solutions to simple problems. With a shrug and an exasperated look, he simplifies these "simple" fixes.

"I made videos on YouTube as a child, but only my father and uncle watched them. And it was with TikTok that I realized that I had found the ideal platform for me to upload my self-deprecating and comic videos," he told HYPEBEAST earlier this month.

"I like to entertain people with my irony, but it's just a tool to do what I'm really interested in  encouraging those who follow me to fight to achieve their goals," the social media star added.

RELATED: Charli D'Amelio Says She Moved Out Of Her Parents' House

Lame, 22, was born in Senegal and moved to Northern Italy when he was 1 year old. He first gained fame on the video-sharing platform in 2020 after being laid off at his job in a factory worker during the pandemic.

Next up, he is working in partnership with BOSS to create a limited-edition capsule collection for Spring/Summer 2022.

RELATED: Charli D'Amelio Stuns in Neon Yellow Gown for Her High School Prom

D'Amelio, 18, was the first content creator to reach both 50 million and 100 million followers on TikTok thanks to her dance choreography and lip-syncing videos.

She previously told PEOPLE she credits her mom for teaching her "everything that I know from learning how to be confident with myself to figuring out my style and what I love about myself."

She added, "I feel like, through every step of the way, I'm very thankful to have my mom and my parents in general, just always uplifting me."

Never miss a story  sign up for PEOPLE's free weekly newsletter to get the biggest news of the week delivered to your inbox every Friday.

D'Amelio, who made her voice acting debut in the 2019 animated film StarDog and TurboCat, is also known for starring on the Hulu reality series The D'Amelio Show alongside her older sister and fellow TikTok creator Dixie D'Amelio.
ReportLinker

The following factors are likely to contribute to the Latin America data center construction market growth during the forecast period:  Adoption of Cloud, IoT & Big Data.

New York, June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Latin America Data Center Construction Market - Industry Outlook and Forecast 2022-2027" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06288153/?utm_source=GNW

 Construction of Modular Data Centers

 Increased Deployment of Submarine Cables

 Thriving Digital Economy in Latin America

 Tax Incentives Enhancing Data Center Investments



Latin America Data Center Construction Market Opportunities



 Some of the major construction parameters and standards on which data centers in Latin America are built include Uptime Institutes Tier standards, LEED Certification, TIA 942, and ANSI/BICSI 002-2019 certifications

 There is an increase in the construction of data centers built to cater to increasing demand by hyperscale and cloud service providers such as Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Google, IBM, Huawei, and Tencent, among others, which will also drive the market, especially for wholesale colocation

 Brazil is the market leader, contributing over 50% of the investment to Latin America, followed by other countries such as Mexico, Columbia, Chile, and Uruguay. Modular data center deployment is popular in other Latin American countries such as the Caribbean and Paraguay, among others

 Scala Data Centers, a hyperscale developer in Brazil, has created the regions Center of Excellence in Engineering (CoE). The CoE will manage the end-to-end design and construction process of data centers built by Scala Data Centers in Latin America, with a focus on energy and operational efficiencies



Market Segmentation

 Electrical Infrastructure

o UPS Systems

o Generators

o Switches & Switchgears

o PDUs

o Other Electrical Infrastructure

 Mechanical Infrastructure

o Cooling Systems

o Rack Cabinets

o Other Mechanical Infrastructure

 Cooling Systems

o CRAC and CRAH Units

o Chillers Units

o Cooling Towers, Condensers, and Dry Coolers

o Other Cooling Units

 Cooling Techniques

o Liquid-Based

o Air-Based

 General Construction

o Core & Shell Development

o Installation & commissioning Services

o Building & Engineering Design

o Fire Detection & Suppression Systems

o Physical Security

o Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM)

 Tier Standard

o Tier I & Tier II

o Tier III

o Tier IV

 Geography

o Brazil

o Mexico

o Colombia

o Chile

o Rest of Latin America



KEY TRENDS DRIVING THE MARKET



5G Deployments Enabling Edge Data Center Deployments



 Latin American countries are working toward digital transformation to attract foreign investments. 5G network deployment fuels digital transformation, IoT, smart cities, and the fourth industrial revolution

 In February 2021, Chile completed the first 5G spectrum tender in Latin America. In November 2021, Brazil raised around $8 billion investment to deploy and operate 5G data networks

 The increasing deployment and coverage of 5G will lead to the development of edge data center facilities, thereby creating investment opportunities in the market



Adoption of Cloud, IoT, and Big Data Driving Wholesale Colocation



 In Latin America, one of the major drivers for the increasing construction of hyperscale facilities is the increase in cloud computing services, driven by the digitalization of enterprises, and the shift to private, public, or a hybrid cloud architecture

 For providing high quality and low latency cloud-based services across Latin America, the major cloud service providers are expanding their reach across the region via cloud regions/cloud-on-ramps/Points of Presence (PoPs)



Deployment of Submarine Cables Fueling Data Center Construction



 In Latin America, countries having submarine cable connectivity include Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Uruguay, and Mexico, among others, connecting the region internally as well as to other regions such as Africa, Europe, North America, and APAC

 Many submarine cables, such as the Firmina cable, and the Caribbean Express (CX cable), among others, are expected to be operational in the next two to three years and will connect the region further with the rest of the world

 Investments in submarine cables in the region have grown considerably over the years with the help of enterprises and governments, which continuously strengthen fiber infrastructure for better connectivity with other countries

 Hyperscale operators and telecommunication providers are also investing in submarine cables to improve network connectivity in various Latin American countries



Tax Incentives Boosting Data Center Construction



 Various countries are providing tax incentives to investors based locally or even global investors, which will aid in increased construction of data centers

 The majority of these tax incentives provided by provinces and countries are based on jobs, land taxes, capital, and the lower power price needs of data center investments across regions

 A free trade zone is provided in Columbia as a suitable location for mission-critical facilities enabling tax incentives for the data center developers. Similarly, the southern region of Patagonia, an upcoming digital hub in Chile, is planning to provide tax incentives for data center growth



COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

 Some of the major vendors involved in theLatin America data center construction market are AECOM, Constructora Sudamericana, Fluor Corporation, and Jacobs Engineering, among others

 These vendors are collaborating with data center operators to provide reliable construction solutions. For instance, ZFB Group is looking to invest around $90 million in the Zetta DC data center based on Tier IV standards

 Core & shell development retains the highest share in construction. In Latin America, the cost of core & shell is lower in countries such as Mexico and Colombia while highest in Chile & Argentina

 In recent years, there has been an immense focus on reducing the energy consumption and carbon emission levels of data centers to improve their green credentials



Key Support Infrastructure

 ABB

 Alfa Laval

 Assa Abloy

 Axis Communications

 Bosch Security Systems

 Caterpillar

 Cummins

 Delta Electronics

 Daikin Applied

 EATON

 Generac Power System

 Honeywell International

 Johnson Controls

 Legrand

 Mitsubishi Electric

 Munters

 Piller Power Systems

 Panduit

 Rittal

 Rolls-Royce

 Schneider Electric

 STULZ

 Siemens

 Vertiv



Prominent Construction Contractors

 AECOM

 Aceco TI

 Constructora Sudamericana

 Fluor Corporation

 Holder Construction

 Jacobs Engineering

 Quark

 ZFB Group



Key Data Center Investors

 Ascenty

 Ava Telecom

 Amazon Web Services (AWS)

 CloudHQ

 EdgeConneX

 Equinix

 Google

 Globenet

 HostDime

 InterNexa

 Lumen Technologies

 Microsoft

 Nabiax

 ODATA

 Scala Data Centers

 Telmex

 Tigo (MALLICOM)

 Quantico

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06288153/?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.



__________________________

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CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001




ReportLinker

The following factors are likely to contribute to the Latin America modular data center market growth during the forecast period:  Deployment of edge data centers.  Covid-19 boosting the deployment of prefabricated data centers.

New York, June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Latin America Modular Data Center Market - Industry Outlook and Forecast 2022-2027" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06288154/?utm_source=GNW

 Implementation of advanced data center technologies

 Sustainability measures in the modular data center market

 Increasing demand for big data and IoT



Advantages of modular data centers

 Less money and time are required during the assembly process

 The quick development of infrastructure due to proper planning

 Promotes flexibility for data center operators

 Cost-effective solutions that match the requirements

 Flexible assembly of cooling, power, and racks



The Latin American region has witnessed considerable growth in adopting modern technologies and construction of data centers over the past years. The development of solid fiber connectivity, increasing reliability in power supply, and high demand for data center services from BFSI, IT, and healthcare are major factors driving the development of modular data centers in Latin America.



While Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and Chile will remain major demand contributors to the segment, countries like Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Peru will also witness an increased demand for modular data centers owing to increasing digitalization.



Key Highlights of the Latin America Modular Data Center Market:



 Colocation and telecommunications service providers are the main contributors to the modular data center market in Latin America. The region is also witnessing an increased presence of cloud service providers.

 In 2021, functional module modular data centers took up 65% of the market, and all-in module modular data centers contributed 35% to the market share among Latin American countries.

 Brazil is the leading region in the Latin America data center market, with more than 50% of investments in the area. There is growing internet penetration and adoption of cloud-based services by businesses in the country, followed by Chile, Mexico, and Colombia.

 An increase in demand for edge data centers, the requirement of cloud at the edge, and an increase in adoption of technology such as big data and IoT will continue to grow the modular data center investment from colocation, cloud, internet, and telecommunication providers.

 In February 2022, AWS announced a list of 26 countries in which it was planning to launch Local Zones for its Edge locations. They include Colombia, Argentina, Peru, Mexico, Brazil, and Chile.

 Modular data centers can support improved PUE and lower carbon emissions compared to traditional brick-and-mortar facilities, reducing OPEX, thus leading many operators to deploy modular data centers.

Increasing modular data center design & deployment

 Continuous evolution in the design and engineering of a data center facility by key operators and architecture and engineering firms will bring in multiple innovations in the development and operations of a data center.

 Modular data center build-outs tackle challenges such as a high PUE, high operational costs of traditional data centers, and high environmental impact

 Modular data center deployment using a templatized plug-and-play method to build modules makes requirement gathering of each material type easier, ensuring that it is very little or no wastage.

 Countries that have deployed 5G will witness the development of Performance-Optimized Data center (POD) facilities.

Increase in the adoption of cloud at Edge, Big Data, and IoT

 The edge cloud is a modern method for deploying cloud data centers at several locations nearer to customers, boosted by the growth in the deployment of modular data centers

 Major cloud service providers such as Google, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Microsoft are aiming at cloud edge computing capabilities

 Several data center operators such as Equinix, Ascenty (Digital Realty), EdgeConneX, and others host cloud on-ramps to access hyperscale cloud service providers directly and privately

 Big data and IoT are fueling the modular data centers industry as these solutions offer flexibility to support HPC solutions such as IoT and big data

 The growing adoption of smart devices, the increasing demand for analytics, cloud adoption, and the growth of wireless networking technologies have led several organizations in Latin America to invest in big data and IoT technology

Innovative data center technologies and sustainable initiatives to boost the market

 Data center operators are continuously involved in innovating new techniques to operate sustainable data centers that will reduce the CAPEX and OPEX

 The adoption of hybrid cloud modules helps organizations to get the benefit of cost-effectiveness and increased data mobility between private and public cloud

 Liquid immersion cooling is among the top innovations that can benefit operators, as pre-designed and prefabricated data centers can easily be equipped with immersion cooling solutions without the need to create extra space for cooling systems

 The deployment of modular data centers will lead to a significant reduction in energy costs as the power is supplied to the only module in operation



GEOGRAPHY AND VENDOR ANALYSIS

 Huawei Technologies is among the top vendors, with a significant Latin America modular data center market share.

 The growth potential in Brazil and Mexico is moderate, whereas countries such as Chile and Colombia have high growth potential.

 Due to enterprise and on-site data centers, the Caribbean region is also likely to witness more modular data center deployments.

 The presence of edge data center facilities across the region will boost modular data center deployments.



Major Vendors:

 ABB

 Atos

 Cisco Systems

 Dell Technologies

 Delta Electronics

 Eaton

 Hewlett Packard

 Huawei

 IBM

 Rittal

 Schneider Electric

 Stulz

 Vertiv



Other Prominent Vendors

 Actemium

 American Portwell

 Canovate

 Fiberhome

 GESAB

 KEHUA Data (KEHUA Tech)

 Rahi

 Silent-Aire

 ZTE



Market Segments by:



 Infrastructure

o All-in-One

 Functional Module

o IT Module

o Power Module

o Cooling Module



 Country

o Brazil

o Mexico

o Colombia

o Chile

o Other Latin American Countries



KEY QUESTIONS ANSWERED

1. How much is the Latin America Modular Data Center Market Worth?

2. What is the growth rate of the Latin America Modular Data center Market?

3. Who are the Key Players in the Latin America Modular Data center Market?

4. Which functional module generates the highest revenue during the forecast period?

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06288154/?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.



__________________________

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CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001




By Trend

Irans Red Crescent Society is set to dispatch relief and humanitarian assistance to quake-hit Afghanistan on Wednesday night, Trend reports citing IRNA.

The announcement was made by Yaghub Soleimani, Secretary-General of the Iranian Red Crescent Society.

He told IRNA that the batch contains 1,000 food packages and 400 relief tents, among other items, and is set to be sent by the Iranian army's planes.

Soleimani said that another batch of humanitarian assistance will also be sent by land from Irans southeastern Sistan and Baluchistan Province.

According to Afghanistans disaster management officials, at least 1,000 people have been killed in the quake that struck near the southeastern city of Khost.

The officials say the death toll is expected to go up as an unknown number of people are still under rubble.

The quake, which hit early on Wednesday, is the strongest in Afghanistan in two decades.
UCLUELET, BC, June 24, 2022 /CNW/ - John Aldag, Member of Parliament for Cloverdale-Langley City, will take part in an event hosted by Parks Canada, Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation and Yuuuiath in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve.

Mr. Aldag will attend on behalf of the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change and Minister responsible for Parks Canada.

Please note that this advisory is subject to change without notice.

The details are as follows:

Members of the media wishing to receive access to a Google Drive with visual content or requiring assistance with directions to the event can contact pc.media@pc.gc.ca.





SOURCE Parks Canada

Cision

View original content: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/June2022/24/c0849.html
MONTREAL, June 24, 2022 /CNW/ - Tonight, from sunset to 1 a.m., the colours of the fleur-de-lis will adorn Samuel De Champlain Bridge to celebrate Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day.

This illumination in blue and white highlights Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day as well as the Fete nationale du Quebec. It celebrates the richness of the language, culture and contributions of Quebeckers and Francophones to Canada.

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook , Instagram and LinkedIn

Web: Infrastructure Canada

SOURCE Infrastructure Canada

Cision

View original content: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/June2022/24/c8213.html
COLUMBIA, Maryland, June 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Mexico Fund, Inc. (NYSE: MXF), today issued its fiscal 2022 Semi-Annual Report for the period ended April 30, 2022.

A full version of the report is available at the companys website  www.themexicofund.com

Semi-Annual Report 2022 Highlights

During the first half of fiscal year 2022, the Fund's NAV per share and market price registered a total return of 2.95% and 3.04%, respectively, outperforming the Funds benchmark, the Morgan Stanley Capital International ("MSCI") Mexico Index, which increased 2.84%. In addition, the Funds NAV per share has outperformed its benchmark during the three-, five- and ten-year periods ended on April 30, 2022, as shown in the table below:



Annualized % Return in USD

1-year 3-years 5-years 10-years MXF Market Price 8.59 5.91 2.33 1.64 MXF NAV 8.82 6.36 2.63 1.71 MSCI Mexico Index 10.76 5.06 1.42 0.05

As of April 30, 2022, the Fund's market price and NAV per share were $15.06 and $17.57, respectively, reflecting a discount of 14.29%, compared with a discount of 13.97% at the end of fiscal year 2021.

The Funds Expense Limitation Agreement was renewed and reinforced for fiscal year 2022. The cap on the ordinary expense ratio, which excludes the performance component of the Investment Advisory fee, was reduced from 1.50% to 1.40%, so long as Fund net assets remain greater than $260 million. The Fund's ordinary expense ratio during the first half of fiscal year 2022 was 1.38%, below the limit of 1.40%.

The Board of Directors of the Fund has ratified the continuation of the Fund's quarterly distributions under its MDP during 2022. As a result, it declared a distribution of $0.18 per share to be paid on July 28, 2022, to stockholders of record as of July 20, 2022.

About The Mexico Fund, Inc.

The Mexico Fund, Inc. is a non-diversified closed-end management investment company with the investment objective of long-term capital appreciation through investments in securities, primarily equity, listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange. The Fund provides a vehicle to investors who wish to invest in Mexican companies through a managed non-diversified portfolio as part of their overall investment program.

Story continues

This release may contain certain forward-looking statements regarding future circumstances. These forward-looking statements are based upon the Fund's current expectations and assumptions and are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in such forward-looking statements including, in particular, the risks and uncertainties described in the Fund's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual results, events, and performance may differ. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. The Fund undertakes no obligation to release publicly any revisions to these forward looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. The inclusion of any statement in this release does not constitute an admission by The Mexico Fund or any other person that the events or circumstances described in such statement are material.

CONTACT:

Tofi Dayan

+5255-9138-3350

Email: investor-relations@themexicofund.com

Cision

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-mexico-fund-inc-issues-its-2022-semi-annual-report-301574572.html

SOURCE The Mexico Fund, Inc.
MEXICO CITY, June 24 (Reuters) - Central banks should think differently about how to tackle inflation, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday, a day after the Bank of Mexico raised its benchmark interest rate by a record 75 basis points.

Lopez Obrador also reiterated that he respects the autonomy of the Mexican central bank. (Reporting by Valentine Hilaire)
Hurtling through space miles above Earth's surface, a bread loaf-sized satellite run by the University of North Carolina Wilmington is flying into its next chapter.

The satellite was launched into orbit in 2018. But this week it's celebrating a one-year anniversary of officially entering its operational phase -- a designation that means the satellite is ready for the work it was sent to space to do.

Dubbed Seahawk-1, the satellite orbits Earth once every nine days and takes images of land and water below using an ocean color sensor researchers have named Hawkeye.

The images are used by ocean color researchers in Wilmington and throughout the world.

A rendering of Seahawk-1, a satellite owned by the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. It's been just over a year since the satellite began sending data back to Earth.

The ocean color field studies images of the ocean to understand how it's changing and how changes impact people, especially those in coastal areas, said Phil Bresnahan, an assistant professor of oceanography in UNCW's Earth and Ocean Sciences Department.

UNCW: UNCW names former College of Liberal Arts and Sciences dean as chancellor-elect

In other news: Whale that washed ashore on Masonboro Island used for study, and even for shark bait

Bresnahan will take over as the satellite's principal investigator when John Morrison, a former professor in UNCW's Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography, officially retires at the end of this month.

Morrison has led the satellite program since its inception. He retired from teaching four years ago but returned part-time to guide the university's work on the satellite.

The satellite's next chapter will focus in on using the collected images for research.

Now we're entering into a new phase of actually doing the scientific research that the satellite enables, Bresnahan said.

Bringing small satellites to 'prime time'

When work began on the SeaHawk-1 concept in the early 2010s, the size and cost of satellites was on the rise.

It wasn't unusual for NASA to launch bus- or refrigerator-sized satellites into orbit as part of multi-million or multi-billion dollar projects, said Gene Feldman, an oceanographer emeritus at NASA.

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The evolution within NASA  has generally been to build bigger and bigger satellites, and more and more expensive satellites, he said.

Feldman and Morrison met working on a desk-sized ocean color satellite called Seawifs. When that project ended, the two decided to join forces to launch a less expensive, miniature satellite called a Cubesat to capture ocean color images.

An image showing the size of various satellites launched into orbit. The Seahawk-1 was unique because of its small size and low cost.

Many researchers at the time didn't take Cubesats seriously. They didn't believe the technology was ready for "prime time," Morrison said. His team set out to prove them wrong.

The idea received $1.8 million in funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation in 2014. Gordon Moore was a co-founder of technology company Intel.

They had an interest in seeing whether Cubesats were primetime, that you could actually do something with a CubeSat that wasn't just a play toy, Morrison said.

From design to launch

Seahawk-1 is a cube that, in inches, measures roughly four by four by 12.

While the project was still in its conceptual stages, researchers faced challenges in designing an image scanner that would capture high-resolution pictures but only take up roughly a third of the satellite's space, Feldman said.

Sara Rivero-Calle joined the Seahawk-1 mission as a postdoctoral student at UNCW. She helped build the satellite and still runs the satellite's photo scheduling as an assistant professor at the University of Georgia's Skidaway Institute of Oceanography.

Rivero-Calle was drawn to the satellite project because it represents collaboration between a public university in UNCW, a government entity in NASA and Clyde Space, the private company in Scotland that built the Cubesat.

That type of collaboration can be rare, Rivero-Calle said. It's also uncommon to get the opportunity to be part of the design, launch and data gathering of a satellite operation, she said.

Sara Rivero-Calle holds a model of the Seahawk-1 satellite.

Being part of a mission, from the beginning, from the design until you get the images takes a really long time for the bigger missions," she said. "But Cubesats are unique in that this whole process is a lot shorter.

Seahawk-1 was launched into outer space in December 2018 on a rocket that carried 63 other spacecraft. But the satellite's work didn't begin right away.

It took two and a half years for the satellite to calibrate its image sensor and gain the stability needed to take clear, high-resolution images of Earth's surface.

We had a lot of teething pains in the beginning of the mission, Feldman said. We basically had a two and a half year commissioning phase when normally it should have taken just a couple of months.

More than proving a concept

The satellite began as a way to prove a scientific concept, and it's succeeded.

Seahawk-1 transmitted its first image to researchers in April 2021. Since then, the satellite has captured more than 4,000 images, collecting about 100 new images each week, Feldman said.

The satellite has shown the smaller, less expensive Cubesat can be used for data gathering and real scientific study.

I think we not only proved the proof of concept, but we've gone beyond that, to prove that it can become an operational, very credible scientific mission, Feldman said.

The satellite doesn't continuously collect images. Instead, Seahawk-1 must be programmed to capture specific stretches of the earth. Anyone can make a request for a satellite image in an online system maintained by Rivero-Calle.

Initial funding for the project is set to run out this summer, Morrison said, but Bresnahan and Rivero-Calle have submitted a new funding proposal to the Moore Foundation to use images taken from the satellite to research coastal areas, including parts of Southeastern North Carolina.

The first test image captured by HawkEye on March 21, 2019 over the coast of California.

The image sensor on Seahawk-1 provides images of coastal areas at a higher resolution than any other satellite in orbit, Bresnahan said.

We have more pixels per kilometer than any other ocean color sensor that currently exists, he said. That means we can see sharper features, finer features on the surface of the ocean.

Each pixel in images produced by Hawkeye captures 120 meters of the Earth's surface. Other image sensors produce a single pixel for every kilometer.

That fine detail is important when studying what Rivero-Calle calls "optically complex waters" that have high amounts of sediment or plankton in the water. It's also key when looking at waterways that appear narrow from space, Bresnahan said, like Wilmington's Cape Fear River and Intracoastal Waterway.

A new kind of beach patrol: Oak Island's new Beach Services Unit aids in public safety

More from Emma Dill: A growing corridor: New York firm looks to bring modern industrial park to U.S. 421

Bresnahan and Rivero-Calle hope to continue moving the satellite into its future research phase if they get funding for their proposal.

But the future of the satellite remains unclear.

Typically, Cubesats have lifespans of a couple years. Seahawk-1 has been in orbit for three and a half years. The technology hasn't given any signs of failing, Feldman said, but the satellite does sometimes encounter glitches that take it offline for days or weeks at a time.

It could end tomorrow, it could go for another year or two, we don't know, Feldman said. Every day is a gift from this point forward.

What is going to happen is some catastrophic failure of some system onboard. The computer may be hit by a radiation burst, and it'll have a problem. A solder joint may break over time," he said. "It will be something unexpected, but catastrophic.

Reporter Emma Dill can be reached at 910-343-2096 or edill@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: UNCW satellite enters new phase after three years in orbit
VILLEURBANNE, France, June 24, 2022--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Regulatory News:

NAVYA (FR0013018041- Navya), an autonomous mobility systems leader, has signed on the 23/06/2022, at the Bahraini Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications in Manama, an agreement with the Ministry of Transport and Telecommunication of the Kingdom of Bahrain, to support the implementation of autonomous vehicles in Bahrain.

Bahrains Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications (MTT) is the government body responsible for the development and regulation of the Kingdoms transportation and telecommunications infrastructure and systems. The MTT covers development for Land Transport, but also for Civil aviation affairs, along with Ports and Maritime Affairs.

MTT responsibility is to enhance and regulate affairs in these areas, propelling the Kingdom through leading projects such as the Bahrain Metro Project, or the Bahrain Airport Modernization Program.

The agreement was signed by Ms. Sophie Desormiere, CEO of Navya, and Nada Yousif Deen, Assistant Undersecretary for Land Transportation, under the supervision of H.E. Mohammed bin Thamer Al-Kaabi  Bahrain Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications.

The agreement between NAVYA and the MTT has for goal to help the Ministry to diversify the modes of public transport in the country, by facilitating the implementation of Autonomous vehicles for the transportation of people, in order to enhance Bahrains economic position and regional standing.

Navya will support the MTT by sharing its experience, and best practices used on projects conducted worldwide, toward implementation of regulation and policies for Autonomous vehicles.

Moreover, Navya will support on the feasibility study of use cases identified through the Kingdom, focusing mostly on smart city use cases, airports, industrial sites and campuses.

Navya will provide value-added analyses and support, suggesting plans for implementation, to facilitate the breakthrough of Autonomous and electric vehicles in the Kingdom.

Story continues

NAVYAs share of the autonomous mobility market for people stands at 75% in the GCC countries, including 6 shuttles in operation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and 6 shuttles in the UAE. The current discussions and agreement in the Kingdom of Bahrain will strongly contribute to the companys region leadership position, and global leadership with more than 200 shuttles in operation across the world.

"The visionary approach adopted by the Kingdom of Bahrain envisages a future which fosters sustainable development built on the basis of an inclusive and connected society. The ambitious transportation program, in accordance with Bahrain's Economic Vision 2030, with its multitude of large projects covering all segments of mobility, should bring about a spectacular transformation in the coming years. With the increase in the volume of passengers and freight on its roads and in its ports and airports, the Kingdom of Bahrain has shown is willingness to adopt the latest technologies and to steer its investments toward top-flight innovations which provide a fluid mobility experience with a reduced carbon footprint. The agreement between the Bahraini Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications and NAVYA will enable the realization of the Kingdom's vision and provide a basis to work together to identify numerous use cases for self-driving shuttles and their deployment, thus facilitating mobility for the benefit of all and improving the public transportation network. The agreement also represents recognition of NAVYA's expertise and confirms its undisputed leadership throughout the Arab Gulf States."

Sophie Desormiere, CEO of Navya

About NAVYA

Created in 2014, NAVYA is a leading French name specialized in the supply of autonomous mobility systems and associated services. With 280 employees in France (Paris and Lyon), in the United States (Michigan) and in Singapore, NAVYA aims at becoming the leading player in Level 4 autonomous mobility systems for passenger and goods transport. Since 2015, NAVYA has been the first to market and put into service autonomous mobility solutions. The Autonom Shuttle, main development axis, is dedicated to passenger transport. Since its launch, more than 200 units have been sold in 25 countries as of 31 December 2021. The Autonom Tract is designed to goods transport. Engaged in an ambitious CSR approach, the Company has an active policy in this area, as illustrated by the obtaining of the ISO 9001 certification in September 2021. The Valeo and Keolis groups are among NAVYA's historical shareholders.

NAVYA is listed on the Euronext regulated market in Paris (ISIN code: FR0013018041- Navya).

Further details: www.navya.tech

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220623005865/en/

Contacts

NAVYA

CSR, Marketing &

Communication Manager

Nathalie Marcy

nathalie.marcy@navya.tech

+33 (0)7 63 20 00 52



Chief Financial Officer

Benoit Jacheet

finance@navya.tech

NewCap

Investor Relations

Thomas Grojean

Nicolas Fossiez

navya@newcap.eu

+33 (0)1 44 71 94 94

NewCap

Media Relations

Nicolas Merigeau

navya@newcap.eu

+33 (0)1 44 71 94 98
By Ahmad Ghaddar and Alex Lawler

LONDON (Reuters) - OPEC and allied producing countries including Russia will likely stick to a plan for accelerated oil output increases in August, sources said, hoping to ease surging oil prices and inflation pressure as U.S. President Joe Biden plans to visit Saudi Arabia and the Middle East.

At its last meeting on June 2, the group known as OPEC+ agreed to boost output by 648,000 barrels per day (bpd) in July - or 0.7% of global demand - and by the same amount in August, up from the initial plan to add 432,000 bpd a month over three months until September.

The move followed months of pressure from the West to address global energy shortages worsened by Western sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, and was welcomed by Washington.

OPEC+ holds its next meeting on June 30, when it will most likely focus on August output policies.

"OPEC+ is not going to change the plans at this month's meeting," an OPEC+ source said. Four other sources made similar remarks.

In July, Biden will make his 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.

This year, oil came close to an all-time peak of $147 hit in 2008, although it has since eased to $111 on concern about the risk of recession and how fuel demand will be affected by rising interest rates.

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.

The group has struggled to hit the monthly increase targets due to underinvestment in oilfields by some OPEC members and, more recently, losses in Russian output.

(Reporting by OPEC Newsroom; Editing by David Gregorio)
Decent Work & Health Network

TORONTO, June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As the Premier of Ontario announces a new cabinet today, over 160 health workers from across the province have signed onto an open letter calling on the government to legislate at least 10 paid sick days immediately. This is especially pressing given the looming expiration of the Worker Income Protection Benefit (WIPB) at the end of July.

We are extremely concerned that workers will experience negative health outcomes in the seventh wave if urgent action on paid sick days is not taken, says Dr. Naheed Dosani, Health Equity Lead, Kensington Health and member of the Decent Work and Health Network. We have to remember that racialized workers are overrepresented in low-wage jobs that lack access to paid sick days. Permanent paid sick days are a pillar of racial and health justice.

58% of workers in Canada do not have paid sick days. That proportion rises to a staggering 70% for workers earning less than $25,000. According to Birgit Umaigba, ICU nurse, the WIPB program is unreasonably expensive for taxpayers and inadequate as a public health measure. Three days is not enough and it never was. There is a foolproof way to make paid sick days effective: by legislating 10 employer-paid sick days through the employment standards act.

In addition, the WIPB can only be accessed for COVID-related reasons. Pediatrician Dr. Shazeen Suleman cautions against such limitations. She sees the cascading effects of not having paid sick days in her patients, who are children with special needs or developmental disabilities. Without paid sick days, many parents cannot make it to medical appointments or therapy sessions and this can have a detrimental impact on the health of my patients. Most importantly, parents cannot stay home to care for their sick child if that means losing wages and being unable to pay rent or put food on the table. The lack of access to preventive care means more families rely on emergency visits when their childrens health gets worse, she adds.

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With this open letter, health workers are reminding the province that temporary measures are not the permanent solution needed to close gaps in health inequity and prevent future pandemics. Recovery for our economy and regeneration of our communities should be a priority for this government and it should factor in the health of workers that bore the brunt of the pandemic, says Dr. Dosani, Legislating 10 permanent paid sick days should be the first order of business for the incoming Ministers of Health and Labour, and the Premier.

Signatories include:

Cathryn Hoy, RN - President (Ontario Nurses' Association)

Linda Silas, RN - President (Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions)

Michael Hurley - President (Ontario Council of Hospital Unions - CUPE)

Sharleen Stewart - President (SEIU Healthcare)

David Fisman, MD - Physician and epidemiologist (University of Toronto)

Colin Furness, MISt PhD MPH - Epidemiologist (University of Toronto)

Gaibrie Stephen, MD CCFP(EM) - Emergency Physician and Lecturer (University of Toronto)

Ritika Goel, MD MPH CCFP - Family Physician (St. Michaels Hospital, University of Toronto)

Amit Arya, MD, CCFP (PC), FCFP - Palliative Care Physician (Assistant Clinical Professor, McMaster University)

Nav Persaud, MD - Physician (University of Toronto)

Danyaal Raza, MD, MPH, CCFP - Family Physician, Assistant Professor (University of Toronto)

Amie Archibald-Varley, RN, MN - Quality Improvement & Health Equity Specialist (Gritty Nurse Podcast)

To arrange interviews, contact:

Sarah Shahid

Co-Coordinator, Decent Work and Health Network

sarah@decentworkandhealth.org | 514-415-4666

Background:

According to Canadas Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, we must brace for a possible seventh wave in the fall: https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/seventh-covid-wave-possible-this-fall-tam-tells-mps-the-pandemic-is-not-over

Ford government paid private consulting company Deloitte $43.7 million to run the Worker Income Protection Benefit (WIPB) program: https://www.thestar.com/business/2022/01/28/wsib-ford-government-pay-224-million-to-global-consulting-company-deloitte-to-run-covid-19-paid-sick-leave-program.html

Health workers are continuing to sign the open letter calling on the Premier and his new cabinet to legislate 10 paid sick days and protect the health of patients and communities: https://www.decentworkandhealth.org/open-letter



About the Organization:

The Decent Work and Health Network is a coalition of health providers advocating for improving working conditions to help protect and promote the health of our patients. We are a group of doctors, nurses, health workers, and experts who have been leading voices for paid sick days as an urgent, evidence-based public health measure.




Vladimir Putin holds a gold bar during a January 2011 visit to the Central Depository of the Bank of Russia when he was prime minister. Alexsey Druginyn/AFP via Getty Images

Switzerland imported Russian gold in May for the first time since the war in Ukraine began, Bloomberg reported.

Over three tons of gold from Russia arrived in Switzerland last month for refining or other processing.

There has been a de facto ban on Russian metals in the London market, but no explicit sanctions have been imposed.

Switzerland imported gold from Russia for the first time since Vladimir Putin launched his war on Ukraine, suggesting that the self-sanctioning of some buyers may be easing.

In May, over three tons of gold arrived in Switzerland from Russia, according to data from the Swiss Federal Customs Administration cited by Bloomberg. It marked the first Russian gold import for the European nation since February.

The move by Switzerland  which holds four major gold refineries  is notable because most buyers stopped importing gold from Russia when the London Bullion Market Association removed the country from its accredited list.

It marked a de facto ban on Russian gold from the London market, but no explicit sanctions have been imposed that prohibit Russian metal from being processed in other nations or at other refiners.

Switzerland registered nearly all the gold it imported last month for refining or other processing, although the four largest refineries told Bloomberg they did not take the commodity.

Other buyers, meanwhile, still remain hesitant to import Russian metals, including palladium. Switzerland, however, has continued to import palladium from Russia since April.

Despite sanctions imposed by Western nations, Russia continues to flex its muscles as a commodities provider, especially in energy as oil and gas revenues roll in.

Read the original article on Business Insider
By Trend

The Georgian Government is aiming to achieve the country being listed in the top five of all major global rankings in the coming years, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili told the Parliament on Wednesday, Trend reports citing Agenda.ge.

Garibashvili made the comment while presenting the annual report on the activities of the Government to the legislative body, telling MPs Georgia was already holding leading positions in various international rankings.

He compared the country's achievements to those by Moldova and Ukraine in rankings by various organisations and said "everyone knows that we are unconditional leaders" among the Associated Trio states.
Taiwan pension fund awards $2.3 billion ESG mandate to HSBC, Morgan Stanley, 3 others FILE PHOTO: People walk in front of the headquarters for HSBC Bank in Jakarta

By Selena Li

HONG KONG (Reuters) - The fund management arms of HSBC and Morgan Stanley were among three others to win a mandate from Taiwan's largest pension manager to run Asia's first climate change-focused fund worth a total $2.3 billion in assets.

Legal & General Investment Management, Schroder Investment Management, and Wellington Management were also selected, with each of them getting to manage $460 million worth of assets, Taiwan's Bureau of Labor Funds (BLF) said on Friday.

About half of BLF's Taiwanese $5.8 trillion ($190 billion) worth of assets is invested in offshore markets and overseen by global asset managers including BlackRock Inc, Fidelity Investments, and PIMCO.

The selection of HSBC for the climate change-focused fund comes weeks after a senior banker at the lender downplayed the climate risks which drew queries from staff and customers about its commitment to fight climate change.

Stuart Kirk, who is global head of responsible investing at HSBC Asset Management, told a conference last month "climate change is not a financial risk we need to worry about", comments that prompted HSBC to suspend him and conduct an internal probe.

BLF last month shortlisted about 10 asset managers including HSBC from more than 40 global applicants for the mandate, Liu Liju, deputy director general at the fund, told Reuters in an interview.

The Taiwanese pension fund, however, engaged an independent consultant to assess whether the Asia-focussed bank was still qualified for a possible role after Kirk's controversial comments.

The consultant's review concluded that Kirk's remarks were "a reflection of the executive's personal emotion", and that HSBC had ticked the boxes in track records for managing funds, investment procedure and investment philosophy, Liu said.

"I believe HSBC will handle this incident discreetly, otherwise the market will give it a very cruel judgement," Liu said, referring to Kirks comments.

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The BLF mandate is a key milestone regionally and managers should expect quarterly and annual reviews done by the fund and its consultants to monitor whether managers stay on track in committing to fight climate risks, Liu said.

Benchmarked against MSCI ACWI Climate Paris Aligned Index, its mandatory for global asset managers to pick fund portfolio companies that are index constituents.

HSBC Asset Management didn't immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

(Reporting by Selena Li; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee & Shri Navaratnam)
ReportLinker

This can be credited to the rising urbanization rate, growing population, as well as the increasing government investment in public transportation upgrades. Furthermore, the significant demand for school buses promotes the market expansion in the country.

New York, June 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "U.S. Bus Market" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05760343/?utm_source=GNW





Collaborations, partnerships, product debuts, and contract wins have all been used by the players in the U.S. bus market to obtain a competitive advantage. REV Group Inc., Daimler Truck AG, Navistar International Corporation, The Lion Electric Company, AB Volvo, Blue Bird Corporation, GILLIG LLC, NFI Group Inc., GreenPower Motor Company Inc., and BYD Company Limited are the key market players.



Key Findings of U.S. Bus Market Report



 In 2021, the Californian bus market had the largest share in the U.S. Its large population has been increasingly demanding fast and efficient transportation networks. Furthermore, California is becoming a hotspot for innovative electric buses.



 Based on seating capacity, buses with 3050 seats had the biggest U.S. bus market revenue share, because they can transport more passengers, while using a lesser amount of fuel.



 During 20212030, 8.110-meter buses are predicted to be the most popular. This bus model provides superior passenger comfort and mileage as compared to others.



 In terms of revenue, the electric propulsion category is expected to advance at the highest rate throughout the forecast period. This is because the transport sector accounts for 27% of the GHG emissions in the U.S., which is why the government is now offering subsidies on EVs.



 Robotic Research. RR.AI and GILLIG LLC started a partnership in January 2022 to create advanced driver assistance systems and level 4 autonomous vehicle technologies for transit buses in North America.



 AB Volvo (Volvo Buses) introduced the new Volvo BZL Electric chassis in September 2021 to enhance its global electromobility offerings.



Standard buses had the bigger revenue share in 2021, and the category is expected to continue to dominate the U.S. bus market in the coming years. This will be due to the widespread usage of standard buses in public transit and school fleets. Furthermore, schools do not allow customized vehicles, which increases the demand for standard buses.



The usage of public transportation has the potential to enhance traffic safety, personal health, accessibility, and air quality. In comparison to private vehicles, public transportation consumes less fuel and emits less volatile organic compounds, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide per passenger mile. In addition to the environmental advantages, it has far lower crash severity rates than personal transport.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05760343/?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.



__________________________

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CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001




Additions and promotions ramp up sales for continued growth of product lineup

ALISO VIEJO, Calif., June 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Versity Invest, LLC, (Versity) a nationally recognized real estate firm specializing in student housing and conventional multifamily investments, has added and promoted several associates to accommodate the continued expansion of their portfolio into conventional multifamily housing and the addition of a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT).

Versity Investments is a real estate investment company specializing in student housing and multi-family properties across the country. www.versityinvest.com (PRNewsfoto/Versity Investments, LLC)

"The growth of Versity Invest is expected given how aggressive the company has been at acquiring new properties for the portfolio. I am pleased to announce the following expansion of the sales team through the addition and promotion of employees," announced Jason Kjellson, Executive Vice President and National Sales Manager.

Carolyn Sumner, who joined the company's predecessor in 2020 as an internal sales associate, has been promoted to Vice President of National Accounts and will report to the Senior Vice President of National Accounts, Tyler Carter. Carolyn will be a critical player in the firm's continued expansion in the independent broker dealer and RIA markets. She holds a Series 7 and Series 63 licenses and holds a B.A. from Valdosta State University in Georgia.

Gabe Valente, who joined the company's predecessor in 2020 as an Investor Relations Manager, has been promoted to Internal Sales Associate serving the Western U.S. markets. Gabe will be instrumental in continuing the expansion of these markets for the firm's entire product lineup.

Seth Lee joins Versity Invest as an Associate Vice President where he will serve as an internal wholesaler covering the central U.S. Mr. Lee has spent time across the table as an Advisor, Sr. Stockbroker, Sales Director, and a Regional V.P. with a well-known money manager. His professional experience includes over 16 years of connecting investors with diversified investment opportunities. Seth received his degree in Finance from the University of Nevada, and he also holds the Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA) designation from the Investments & Wealth Institute. In addition, he also has Series 7, 66, 63, and 24 securities licenses.

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"Versity Invest now boasts approximately $800MM in investor capital and $1.6 Billion of real estate owned or managed and has diversified our product offerings to include student housing, multifamily housing, and niche opportunities from development to core holdings," said Kjellson. Adding, "I am immensely proud of Carolyn and Gabe for seeing the opportunity our company affords and reaching for career growth. Seth Lee will join Gabe on our internal sales desk as we continue to grow our regional coverage and has already proven himself to be a true professional."

For more information about Versity Invest, LLC, please contact Tanya Muro at 877-827-6272 or by email at tanya@versityinvest.com.

ABOUT VERSITY INVEST

Versity Invest, LLC, offers individual investors indirect ownership interests in institutional quality, professionally managed real estate. The company focuses on what we believe to be well-positioned, currently income producing properties, targeted development opportunities and potential value-added investments for its clients through strategies targeting capital improvements, cost efficiency, and revenue maximization. Versity specializes in the acquisition, financing, management, and ownership of real estate investments in student housing, multifamily and niche specialty categories. Versity, and its subsidiaries, currently manages over $1.6BN in real estate.

Securities offered through WealthForge Securities, LLC, the managing broker-dealer for the Fund and member FINRA/SIPC. Versity Investments (the "Sponsor") and WealthForge are not affiliated. All investments have inherent risks including those risks common in real estate investments. Potential risks relating to the Fund are disclosed in our PPM that must be read by the investor prior to making an investment decision, including the following:

Past performance may not be indicative of future performance, and does not guarantee future performance. The economic success of the Fund will depend upon the results of operations of its properties. Fluctuations in vacancy rates, rent schedules, and operating expenses can adversely affect operating results, financing terms or sale opportunities. No assurance can be given that future cash flow will be sufficient to make the debt service payments on any borrowed funds and also cover capital expenditures or operating expenses. There are risks related to competition from competing properties. The Sponsor is not under any obligation to contribute capital to the Fund. The shares do not represent a diversified investment. There are various conflicts of interest among the Fund, the Sponsor and its affiliates. Shares are illiquid. There are tax risks associated with an investment in the shares. There may be environmental risks related to the properties. Private Placements are speculative. No assurance can be given that shareholders will realize a substantial return (if any) on their investment or that they will not lose their entire investment in the Fund.

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/versity-invest-expands-sales-team-301574567.html

SOURCE Versity Invest, LLC
White Pine Pictures executive Andrew Munger has re-launched his outfit Ultramagnetic Productions with a slate of drama and documentary projects.

Munger first operated Ultramagnetic Productions from 1997 to 2004, producing non-fiction projects including Walmart Nation, Campaign: The Making of a Candidate, Xanadu: In Search of Domestic Perfection and Make Some Noise! for networks such as the CBC, Discovery, History and Life/Slice. He shuttered the company in 2005 to run television production at World Vision, Canadas largest non-profit organization, before moving to Torontos White Pine Pictures in 2014.

After eight years, Munger is stepping down from his role as director of unscripted development at White Pine in order to restart Ultramagnetic.

However, he will continue as an executive producer on several key White Pine feature documentaries, including Buffy Sainte Marie: Carry It On (Bell/PBS) and The Con: Churchill and Roosevelt Secret American War (Super Channel/WNET/ARTE/Beyond Rights). The latter doc is directed by John LEcuyer (ReGenesis) and co-produced with Quebecs PMA and Germanys Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion.

Munger is also attached to other ongoing projects in advanced development at White Pine, including Encrypted: The Dark Side of Digital, Woodstock Dreaming and an as-yet-untitled Midwest crime project. CAAs Hannah Epstein is repping these projects.

Among the titles on the Ultramagnetic slate are Michaels Wars, a scripted drama based on the life of British-Canadian foreign correspondent Michael Maclear; and Say It Loud: How A Black Music Mecca Grew in the Great White North, a feature documentary looking at how Canada became a Jamaican music powerhouse.

During the America-Vietnam war, Maclear became the first Western TV correspondent to be granted admission to North Vietnam. Munger has optioned Maclears 2013 memoir Guerilla Nation: My Wars In and Out of Vietnam, in a deal negotiated by Canadian attorney Michael Levine with the exclusive cooperation of Maclears daughter, author Kyo Maclear.

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Meanwhile, Say It Loud is being directed by Graeme Mathieson, with Clement Virgo (Billions, The Wire) as executive producer and musicologists Nicholas Jennings and Klive Walker as consultants. The project, which has received development support from Ontario Creates, examines how pioneering musicians such as Jay Douglas, Nana McLean, Leroy Sibbles and Jackie Mittoo laid the groundwork for modern Canadian stars such as Drake, Daniel Caesar, Kaytranada and Jessie Reyez.

Munger said: This new arrangement with White Pine allows me greater flexibility to develop passion projects, both scripted and unscripted, under the relaunched and revitalized Ultramagnetic umbrella.

Ive had a great run with White Pine and want to thank Peter Raymont and Steve Ord for their support and the opportunity to work at one of Canadas most respected and successful production companies, and to collaborate with some of Canadas most talented filmmakers like Daniel Roher, Phyllis Ellis, Fred Peabody, John LEcuyer, Mike Sheehan and many others.

White Pine president Peter Raymont added: Andrew worked tirelessly in developing documentaries and doc series at White Pine Pictures. We wish him all the best as he pursues other opportunities.

At White Pine, Munger was a driving force on documentaries including the Martin Scorsese-backed Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band, which opened the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, as well as the Emmy- and Canadian Screen Award-nominated movies Toxic Beauty and All Governments Lie.

Munger also created and co-produced Wild Pacific Rescue, a three-part wildlife series, and Arctic Secrets for Blue Ant Medias Love Nature strand.

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My family and I visited an arboretum during a recent trip to Sevierville, Tennessee. We had a lovely time walking alongside a tranquil river that was flanked by over 70 different species of trees on either side.

I was struck by the contrast between the trees and plants that grew closest to the water and those that grew farther away. The ones that made their home along the river bank were laden with lush, vibrant green foliage and bright-colored flowers. Conversely, those that made their home farther away from their water source were sparse with pale, yellow-green leaves and hardly any flowers at all.

I couldnt help but think of these words recorded by the prophet Jeremiah, The person who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence indeed is the Lord, is blessed. He will be like a tree planted by water: it sends its roots out toward a stream, it doesnt fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit. (Jeremiah 17:7-8).

As I reflected on these verses, I learned some important truths that have had a tremendous impact on my life. First, the person who trusts in the Lord doesnt need to worry in times of trouble. They will continue to flourish in the most difficult of circumstances. Amazingly, they will not just survive, but they will thrive by continuing to bear fruit in the midst of their adversity.

This promise comes with a conditionwe must learn to trust in the Lord. In order to access these blessings in times of trouble, we must spend time getting to know God when life is good. When I discussed my observations with my brother, he shared the following analogy that he uses in his job as a pastor.

Life is like a table propped up by four legs. When things are easy and there isnt a lot of stuff piled on the table, it doesnt matter if its legs are wobbly. But when life gets difficult and the burdens get piled higher and the load becomes heavier, the table will come crashing down if its legs are not strong enough to support the added weight. He went on to share that the legs represent four vital spiritual disciplines: Bible study, prayer, time spent in community with like-minded individuals, and worship.

We learn to trust God through the reading and study of His word. Through the Bible we discover truths about His character and divine attributes. We realize how much we can trust Him with our future when we read of all He has done in the past. I recently heard Bible teacher Jen Wilkin say, The heart cannot love what the mind does not know. We must take the time to engage our mind through Bible study before our love for God can truly grow.

Prayer allows us to talk to God like we would a treasured friend. We can share our triumphs and our tragedies with Him. The Apostle Paul tells us that when we present our requests to God through prayer, we will have peace that surpasses all understanding.

If there is one thing that the pandemic has shown us, it is how much we need one another. The writer of the Biblical book of Hebrews encourages us to not give up gathering together so that we may encourage one another and spur each other on to good works. Sitting at home, on the couch, watching church in our pajamas might be convenient, but it is not how things are supposed to be. We need a community who can rejoice with us during the good times and mourn with us and come alongside of us during difficult seasons.

Finally, we must learn to truly worship the Lord in all we say and do. Worship is not just confined to a few songs sung on Sunday morning. Worship is a posture of the heart toward the Lord that says, Not my will, God, but Yours be done.

When our lives are supported by these four pillars, our trust in God will grow, and we will be able to face any difficulty in life knowing that He will cause us to not only survive, but thrive.

For specific resources you can use to strengthen the legs of your table and a free 10-Day Devotional that will help you learn more about the nature of God, visit heatherablondi.com.

Heather Ablondi is a womens ministry speaker and author who lives in Fredericksburg. You can contact her through her website, heatherablondi.com.
Some local residents can still recall just over 50 years ago when the Rappahannock River swelled over 22 feet during Hurricane Agnes. The Category 1 hurricane that formed in the Caribbean in June 1972 left 128 people dead in its wake, with 13 of those fatalities in Virginia.

Falmouth resident Julie Cooper said she was 17 at the time, and had just graduated from Stafford High School a few days before Agnes rumbled through Fredericksburg. Cooper said it rained so hard during the storm, she could barely see her own hands before her.

We knew a storm was coming but we didnt prepare for anything, Cooper said. I dont remember my parents buying any extra canned goods or anything like that.

Agnes arrival came soon after the beginning of the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30 every year.

Kyle Pallozzi, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sterling, said this is the period of time when hurricanes are most common due to rising temperatures of a wintered-over Atlantic, whose water temperature usually peaks around the second half of August.

Hurricanes gain most of their energy from the ocean, Pallozzi said. The ocean heats up through the summer and then really reaches its peak in that August-to-early-September time period.

Pallozzi said hurricanes begin in areas where several storms merge.

If its a large enough area, youll start getting the speed and youll get a circulation that forms a spin in the atmosphere above that area and eventually it develops, Pallozzi said.

Staying ahead of any storm in terms of home and personal preparedness is something all emergency service agencies recommend, rather than rushing to find a store for emergency supplies as a storm is bearing down.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency recommends preparing a home emergency kit that can easily be located and accessed during a power outage or when an individual or a family needs to hunker down for several days after a storm has passed.

The agency recommends one gallon of fresh water be set aside for each person to survive several days in isolation, as well as several days worth of supplies including nonperishable food items, a can opener, extra batteries and a battery-powered radio. Other items to consider include a first aid kit, flashlights and a whistle to summon help. A basic tool kit is also recommended along with face masks, plastic sheeting and moistened towelettes, as well as necessities for seniors and household pets.

The National Weather Service recommends a home emergency plan that details how to account for everyone in the family, as well as what their specific roles and responsibilities will be during an emergency. The NWS recommends keeping the plan in the emergency supplies kit or another safe place for quick and easy access.

In the event of a residential power outage, Dominion Energy spokesman Craig Carper said the best way to report an outage is through Dominions mobile app, the website dominionenergy.com, or by calling 866/366-4357. Most importantly, Carper said downed power lines are dangerous and should always be considered off limits and energized.

You should stay at least 30 feet away (from power lines) and make sure family members, neighbors and pets also avoid the downed wires, Carper said.

Carper said one of the lessons learned from the Jan. 3 blizzard that left thousands in the region without power involves the use of residential generators.

Sadly, we see deaths from this, Carper said. If you have a generator, be sure its fueled, tested and properly connected before the severe weather arrives, follow the manufacturers instructions and always operate outdoors with good ventilation.

Keith Karlstromer, co-owner of Mr. Bs Small Engine Repair in North Stafford, knows plenty about generators. He said he repaired well over 100 generators during and after the Jan. 3 blizzard, along with chain saws and other power tools that failed to operate.

Karlstromer said homeowners can prepare for the hurricane season now by routinely starting power tools and generators monthly and running them for 10 minutes or longer.

If you get in the habit of running your equipment once a month, guess what happens in August when a storm hits? Karlstromer said. It runs.

Karlstromer, who suggests avoiding ethanol gas in small engines, said frequent operation of small engines is not only a good precaution, but it also helps rotate stale or bad fuel out of the fuel tank.

You want to run it as long as you can because you want to use up that gas thats in that tank, Karlstromer said. You want to replenish that gas, especially if its ethanol fuel.

Patricia Wolfrey, who serves as executive director of the Rappahannock Chapter of the American Red Cross at 2217 Princess Anne St., said during a natural disaster, residents may find pharmacies closed, a lack of transportation, or may be completely dispersed from their homes. For those reasons, Wolfrey recommends having at least a one month supply of medication safely stored in child-proof containers.

(Having) those medications on hand helps you grab and go as opposed to try to get a prescription refilled, or trying to find one when youre trying to deal with where am I going to live for the next 30 days, Wolfrey said.

Pallozzi said during the hurricane season its important to monitor local weather forecasts and know the difference between a hurricane watch and a hurricane warning. He said those messages brings vital information, saying hurricanes not only produce high winds, but they can also bring other serious threats including heavy rainfall, flooding, ocean surges and tornadoes.

A watch is like have awareness, be careful, this could happen, whereas a warning is, its happening, Pallozzi said.

Several websites are available to help Fredericksburg-area residents prepare for a storm in advance or to track a storm as its approaching. Visit ready.gov/hurricanes, weather.gov/safety/hurricane-plan, or redcross.org. To monitor and track hurricanes through the National Hurricane Center, visit nhc.noaa.gov.

James Scott Baron: 540/374-5438 jbaron@freelancestar.com

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By STAFF REPORTS

The Horatio Alger Society, founded in 1961, has gathered in Fredericksburg at the Hampton Inn and Suites for its annual convention. The groups conference was held locally last year, as well.

The conference, which runs through Sunday, will include the presentation of an award to a local high school student, along with other presentations and meetings, a banquet and an auction of member-donated books and other items.

The group will also hold a book sale at 9 a.m. Saturday in the Hampton Inns Spotsylvania Room. The sale will be open to the public.

Alger Jr. (18321899) wrote more than 100 popular books, which usually featured poor boys who sold newspapers, shined shoes or worked in stores to support themselves or their families. By the end of the books, the young men would wind up in respectable positions, well on their way to prosperity.

The Horatio Alger Society was founded as an organization of Alger book collectors. It has evolved to include collectors of all youth literature. The members conduct research on Algers life, his works and his influence on the culture of America for the societys bimonthly publication, Newsboy.

In keeping with Algers ideals, each year the society presents its monetary Strive and Succeed Award to a local high school student it believes could be a typical Alger hero in one of the authors books.

This year, the scholarship will be presented to Michael Mikey Harper of Fredericksburg. Harper, who will attend Christopher Newport University in the fall, has successfully battled ADHD and hearing difficulties.

Hearing aids are expensive. Instead of budgeting for college, we found ourselves budgeting for hearing aids, said his mother, Christine Harper, in a news release from the society.

Mikey discovered he had a passion for music, which helped him excel in school, according to the release. He participated in school plays, learned to play the trumpet, and joined the high school marching band.

Scott H. Harris, executive director of the University of Mary Washington Museums, will speak at this years banquet. Jack Bales, reference and humanities librarian emeritus at University of Mary Washington, is hosting the convention for the second consecutive year.
A Caroline County teenager who was part of a drug deal that went bad in 2020 was ordered this week to serve 22 years in prison.
VIRGINIANS should be proud to show their pride this month. After all, the commonwealth has a lengthy list of highly talented LGBTQ+ individuals we can call our own.

From writers such as Willa Cather (Death Comes for the Archbishop) and Jeremy O. Harris (winner of the 2018 Rosa Parks Playwriting award), to politicians like Mark Levine (delegate and early advocate for same-sex marriage) and Amy Walter (political analyst with the Cook Report), and most every walk of life in between, LGBTQ+ people from Virginia have made important marks on our society, culture, and politics.

Whats truly astounding is how quickly opinions about the LGBTQ+ community have changed in the United States.

It was just 40 years ago, for example, that the Department of Defense declared homosexuality incompatible with military service and discharged some 17,000 Americans serving in the armed forces.

And it wasnt until the mid-2000s that same-sex marriage was accepted by more Americans than opposed it.

To be sure, gaps exist in the way people think about same-sex marriage. Not surprisingly, more Democrats than Republicans approve of it, and more Catholics than evangelicals. But nearly all these groups have been trending in a positive direction.

Even for evangelical Christians, who in Pew Research Center polling have been the slowest to embrace LGBTQ+ people, a number of important works in recent years have effectively challenged the idea that evangelicalism and acceptance of LGBTQ+ people are incompatible.

Among the more-notable works is David Gushees Changing Our Mind. Widely considered to be one of Americas preeminent Christian ethicists, Gushees 2017 book has helped thousands of Christian families across the U.S. and in other parts of the world to welcome their LGBTQ relatives and friends, according to the books publisher, David Crumm

The latter half of the 2010s, then, has been something of a halcyon time for supporters of LGBTQ+ people. The highlight of this move to acceptance, of course, was the 2015 Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which struck down bans on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional.

So its unfortunate that against the backdrop of the Pride Parade that will occur Saturday in downtown Fredericksburg are the gathering clouds of bigotry and hatred that have too long plagued the LGBTQ+ community.

A study released earlier this month by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project reports a deeply disturbing rise in anti-LGBTQ+ mobilizations nationwide.

Among its findings:

Anti-LGBT+ mobilizationincluding demonstrations, political violence, and offline propaganda activity like flyeringincreased by over four times from 2020 to 2021.

ACLED data indicate that 2022 is on track to be worse than last year.

Further, Human Rights Watch has been tracking anti-LGBTQ+ legislation across the country. While 14 states and the District of Columbia saw no anti-LGBTQ+ legislation introduced in 2022; eight states passed such legislation, and another 28, including Virginia, introduced such bills.

And in a disturbing sign of where things may be headed, this past week the Texas Republican Party adopted a platform that called homosexuality an abnormal lifestyle choice.

Despite some missteps with the states LGBTQ+ advisory board recently, Gov. Glenn Youngkin has not voiced the same extremist opinions about the commonwealths LGBTQ+ community.

As our region celebrates Pride Month, and prepares for the Fredericksburg festivities on Saturday, lets celebrate the many, many accomplishments of the LGBTQ+ community. Lets also be mindful that there are still those who wish to roll back the many recent advances weve made.

When one considers the merits of our states LGBTQ+ community, it should be an easy call.

Virginia is for lovers. Regardless of who one chooses to love.
By Trend

Russias COVID-19 case tally rose by 3,154 over the past day to 18,412,805, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Friday, Trend reports with reference to TASS.

As many as 1,102 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Russia over the past day, down 8.3% from a day earlier. The number of hospitalized patients decreased in 39 regions, while in 38 regions the figure increased. The situation remained unchanged in eight regions. A day earlier, 1,202 people were rushed to hospitals.

Moscows COVID-19 cases surged by 240 over the past day versus 246 cases a day earlier, reaching 2,775,983, according to the anti-coronavirus crisis center. St. Petersburgs COVID-19 cases increased by 227 over the past day versus 220 a day earlier, reaching 1,535,071.

Russias COVID-19 recoveries rose by 3,225 over the past day, reaching 17,839,346, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Friday.

A day earlier, some 3,517 patients recovered.

Russias COVID-19 death toll rose by 65 over the past day, reaching 380,776, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Friday.

A day earlier, 68 COVID-19 deaths were registered.
Citizens for Voter ID will be having a series of town halls across Nebraska featuring Gov. Pete Ricketts.

A town hall is planned in Fremont at 10 a.m. Tuesday, June 28, at LA Fire Proof Door Co., 325 N. Main St.

Voter ID petitions will be available to sign at each event. The governor and Citizens for Voter ID will make remarks before taking questions. This event is open to the public.

Any questions regarding the event should be directed to Citizens for Voter ID at 402-470-1187.

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U.S. authorities have released one of the last remaining Afghan detainees held inside the Guantanamo Bay detention center on the island of Cuba.

The family of Asadullah Haroon -- who was held for 15 years -- said they had been informed of his release on June 24. He is believed to be about 40 years old and to now be in Qatar.

The Pentagon said in a statement that Haroon had been transferred from the detention facility and would eventually be repatriated to Afghanistan. It thanked the government of Qatar for its assistance.

Haroon was arrested by U.S. forces in 2006 while working as a honey trader traveling between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

He was transferred in 2007 to Guantanamo Bay, accused of being a courier linked to Al-Qaeda and serving as a commander with another militant group. He was not formally charged, and his family denied the allegations.

The prison is located within a U.S. military base on the island of Cuba and is under U.S. jurisdiction.

It was opened in 2002 and at its peak housed about 800 suspected militants captured by U.S. forces, many held without charge or the legal power to challenge their detention.

Most of the inmates have been released, including senior Taliban leaders. In April, U.S. military officials said 37 detainees remained at the facility.



The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama announced it was seeking to close the facility, but the plan was stymied by opposition from Republican politicians and legal issues.

President Joe Biden's administration has been working to reduce the number of detainees, also with a goal of eventually shutting it down.

Based on reporting by AFP, Reuters, and AP
An aftershock has killed five people in eastern Afghanistan just hours after Taliban authorities said they have ended search-and-rescue operations from a major earthquake two days ago and raised the death toll to at least 1,150 in the war-torn country's worst such disaster in two decades.

Abdul Wahid Rayan, the Taliban director of the state-run Bakhtar news agency, said on June 24 that the death toll had risen to 1,150 from previous reports of 1,000 killed. Rayan said at least 1,600 people were injured.

Pakistan's Meteorological Department, meanwhile, reported on June 24 that a 4.2-magnitude quake had struck the region, which the Bakhtar news agency said took five more lives in the hard-hit Gayan district.

The disaster has posed a challenge for the Taliban-led government, which is largely isolated as a result of its hard-line Islamist policies toward human rights, especial with regard to the freedoms of women and girls.

The country is already battling a severe humanitarian disaster, worsened by the Taliban takeover of the country in August 2021.

Earlier on June 24, Mohammad Nassim Haqqani, spokesman for the Taliban's Ministry for Disaster Management, told the media that 10,000 houses were partially or completely destroyed in the earthquake in a remote area near the border with Pakistan.

"The search operation has finished," Haqqani said, without giving an explanation as to why the search for survivors was being called off some 48 hours after the temblor.

On June 23, Haqqani told RFE/RL that it was difficult to get accurate information about the damage because of the poor condition of the telephone network in some areas.

He said supplies of medicine and other critical aid were inadequate.

The 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck about 160 kilometers southeast of Kabul, in a mountainous region with small settlements. Paktika and Khost provinces were worst hit.

Aid organizations such as the local Red Crescent and World Food Program have stepped in to assist the most vulnerable families with food and other emergency needs like tents and sleeping mats in Paktika and Khost provinces.

Wahidullah Amani, a spokesman for the World Food Program (WFP) for Afghanistan, told RFE/RL that WFP and other partners were on their way to the affected areas.

Rescuers struggled earlier to reach remote areas as efforts were hampered by bad roads and heavy rain and as the country's Taliban rulers called on the international community to make donations to help with relief efforts.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter that eight trucks carrying food and other supplies had arrived from Pakistan. Aid also arrived by air from Iran and Qatar, he said.

The quake was the deadliest in the country since 2002, when a similarly powerful quake killed about 1,000 people in northern Afghanistan.

U.S. President Joe Biden has directed USAID and other federal government entities to assess how it can respond to help those most affected by the earthquake.

"We are committed to continuing our support for the needs of the Afghan people as we stand with them during and in the aftermath of this terrible tragedy," national-security adviser Jake Sullivan said.

The United Nations said it was deploying medical health teams and providing medical supplies, but it said it does not have search and rescue capabilities in Afghanistan.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has also warned that the crisis could add to the risk of cholera developing across the country.

Dapeng Luo, the WHO representative in Afghanistan, said about 500,000 people were already in May experiencing diarrheal disease, one of the main symptoms of cholera.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters
1 Afghan men search for survivors amid the rubble of a house destroyed by the earthquake, on June 23 in Paktika Province's Gayan district.



The Taliban declared the search for survivors to be over on June 24. The disaster poses a challenge for the Taliban-led government, which is largely isolated as a result of its hard-line Islamist policies toward women and girls. The country had already been battling a severe humanitarian crisis after crucial foreign aid was halted following the Taliban takeover in August 2021.
As a child in upstate New York in the 1950s, Marty Felix relished Sunday drives through the country with her dad. Take us by some horses, went her request.
Colorado Springs hotel scene heated up this week as stakeholders gathered for the groundbreaking of a Residence Inn hotel at the Colorado Springs Airport, and the dual-branded SpringHill Suites and Element hotel downtown celebrated its ribbon-cutting.

A wave of hotel development throughout the city will add 400 rooms to Colorado Springs hotel capacity between the new 261-room dual-branded hotel and the 139-room Residence Inn, set to be completed in early 2024.

Opened late last month, the $90 million, eight-story dual-branded Marriott/Westin hotel features an upscale restaurant called Lumen8 Rooftop Social, an interior courtyard, an indoor pool, a fitness center, 216 underground parking spots, 4,200 square feet of meeting space and other amenities.

The hotel employs 100 full-time staff and is expected to employ up to 150 full-time and 50 part-time workers, Olive Real Estate Group Principal Jim DiBiase said. The hotel is the largest opened in Colorado Springs since the 311-room Great Wolf Lodge and Water Park opened in December 2016.

Im excited for the opportunity of growing the brand and opening in this market, which has so many wonderful things, said Marlon Whyte, the global brand leader for Element hotels. The brand is built around sustainability and outdoor-inspired design.

The hotel is split between the all-suite SpringHill brand, aimed at budget-conscious travelers, and the more upscale Element brand, which caters to business travelers on longer-term stays of five days or more.

In addition to the positive social impact the hotel brings, the dual-branded model is the perfect solution to the markets demand for upscale, urban-focused accommodations that include extended-stay options in the citys downtown core, DiBiase said in a hotel news release. It is a testament to the growth of business and tourism travel in Colorado Springs.

Nightly rates range from $139 at SpringHill Suites and $189 at Element during the slowest travel periods of the year  typically in the winter  to more than $300 during the peak summer season.

Residence Inn hotel at the Colorado Springs Airport broke ground Wednesday after COVID-19 delayed the project.
Mikaele Poloa already was on parole when he walked out of the El Paso County jail, freed after posting a $4,000 bond while facing felony charges for allegedly attempting to rape a woman at gunpoint, stealing a car and committing a carjacking while armed with a handgun.

In the weeks that followed his release, Poloa, 21, of Colorado Springs, went on to fire a shotgun at the face of a man in an apartment noise dispute, police records state. Then Poloa absconded altogether from parole supervision.

He's still on the run, and the Colorado Department of Corrections now says that Poloa shouldn't have been released in the first place. Officials have chalked up the mistake to a paperwork error.

Public safety is our top priority, and this is unacceptable, which is why his case is a priority for our fugitive apprehension unit, said Annie Skinner, a spokesperson for the Corrections Department, in a prepared statement. Due to a failure of the division to file the parole complaint in the allotted time frames, the parole hold had to be lifted.

She said the Corrections Department takes this issue very seriously and is conducting a review of what caused the delay in the filing of the parole complaint to take any necessary action.

The mistakes accompanying the parole supervision of Poloa occurred at a time when law enforcement officers and key elected officials have argued lenient criminal justice policies in Colorado have contributed to rising crime rates in the state. Those calling for a reversal in policies include Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen.

After his release from jail, Poloa aimed a shotgun and fired at the face of Andrew Herrera, 20, in front of Herreras girlfriend, according to an affidavit seeking a warrant for Poloas arrest on charges of attempted second-degree murder and being a previous offender in possession of a gun. Colorado Springs police Officer Rebecca Joines stated in the affidavit that the shooting occurred at 12:03 a.m. on April 18 in the Bonfoy Apartments, located in the 100 block of Bonfoy Avenue in Colorado Springs.

Herrera and his girlfriend had been knocking on the wall of their apartment, trying to get Poloa and his friends in the adjoining apartment to cut their loud noise, according to the police report. Poloa and two of his friends had gathered that night to celebrate the birthday of a friend who recently had been killed, police say.

Poloa, armed with a sawed-off shotgun, and an acquaintance of his, decided to confront Herrera, according to the police report. An acquaintance of Poloas had warned that video surveillance in the apartment complex would capture any confrontation, but Poloa said he had nothing to lose because he already faced up to 60 years on pending criminal charges, the police affidavit states.

Poloa then knocked on Herreras front door and when Herrera answered, Poloa fired the shotgun at Herrera, missing and striking the door frame instead, the report states.

Herrera, armed with a Glock handgun, fired three gunshots in return, which went through Herreras apartment wall, into the hallway, and into an apartment across the hall, but struck no one, police said.

The alleged shootout occurred after a string of alleged crimes by Poloa while on parole, as detailed in court records and police reports.

The Colorado Parole Board in March 2021 granted Poloa discretionary parole from a four-year prison sentence he was serving at the Bent County prison, releasing him from prison about two years before his mandatory release date. Poloa had been convicted of witness intimidation, menacing domestic violence and aggravated motor vehicle theft, all felonies.

Documents show he was sentenced to prison after he was convicted of threatening to shoot his girlfriend and run her over if she did not get in his car, of witness intimidation against his girlfriend and another woman, herself a sex assault victim in another suspects criminal case, and of stealing a vehicle. His parole packet assessment states that he would be at high risk of reoffending once released from prison. A judge placed him on probation when he was a juvenile, but Poloa had walked away from probation supervision, documents state.

Poloa told parole board members that he had grown up in a family that associated with the Crips gang but was ready to turn away from crime. He asked the parole board to release him early from prison so he could become a good example for his daughter. He admitted that drinking alcohol had caused problems for him in the past, but said he believed his drinking would be under control while on parole.

He added that although he had been convicted of threatening to kill his girlfriend, he did not have a firearm with him when he made that threat. Court documents show that police officers investigating that threat found a 9 mm handgun with two rounds in the magazine in the hotel room where he was staying.

His compliance with his parole supervision terms after his release from prison was poor from the start, documents show. He failed to adhere to required parole office visits, ditched substance use monitoring and missed appointments for substance use treatment.

A little over a month after Poloas parole release, a case work audit found that his parole officer, Anthony Riggins, needed to actively try to locate offender and address the numerous parole supervision violations Poloa had accrued without consequence.

Riggins issued an arrest warrant, and on July 3, Colorado Springs police arrested Poloa on that warrant and for two separate criminal cases. Documents show police charged Poloa with stealing a Honda sedan, which had $800 in cash in it, from a female acquaintance, and also charged him, in a separate incident, with attempted felonious sexual assault.

Police say the 27-year-old woman he tried to rape was leaving a friends house in the 2600 block of Grand Vista Circle in Colorado Springs on the morning of July 3, where she had been helping care for a child with autism. Poloa confronted her and threatened to kill her with a handgun he said he had in his back pocket unless she performed oral sex on him, the police report states.

He fled when she screamed for help , according to police. Police apprehended him later that night after chasing him by foot after they responded to an anonymous indecent exposure call. They found him nearby, clinging to the undercarriage of a garbage truck. The woman Poloa allegedly attempted to rape later picked him out of a police photo lineup, the police report states. Police said they found a wallet stolen from another womans parked car on Poloa when they arrested him.

While Poloa was incarcerated at the El Paso County jail on the attempted rape, car theft and parole violation charges, Colorado Springs police charged him in September of last year for a third criminal case, this one for an alleged armed carjacking that had occurred before his incarceration.

A 32-year-old man told police that Poloa walked up to his rented silver Volkswagen Jetta he was in at a Waffle House parking lot in the 700 block of West Fillmore Street and asked for a cigarette during the early morning hours of June 20, 2021.

When the man said he did not have a cigarette, Poloa lifted his shirt, displaying a black handgun in his waistband, and threatened to shoot him unless he let him take the car, according to a police report. Authorities said that when they later recovered the car, they found inside the car a yellow hoodie Poloa had been wearing with Just Do It in bold letters. Video surveillance at a nearby convenience store the night of the carjacking captured images of Poloa walking toward the Waffle House wearing the same hoodie 34 minutes before the carjacking, the police report states.

Documents show parole officials were alerted of the new criminal charges filed against Poloa during his parole supervision. Although Poloas parole officer had issued a warrant for Poloas arrest for parole violations, the parole officer eventually cancelled the warrant and issued a summons instead, requiring Poloa to appear later for a parole revocation hearing back to prison for violating his parole conditions, which required him to not engage in criminal activity.

On Nov. 19, 2021, parole officer Riggins released a parole hold that would have kept Poloa in jail and told Poloa that if he bonded out of the El Paso County jail on the pending criminal charges, he would have to report to the Colorado Springs parole office to renew his parole supervision. Riggins declined comment.

The hearing on whether to revoke Poloas parole and send him back to prison originally was scheduled for Jan. 26 of this year, while Poloa was still being held at the jail on pending criminal charges. That revocation hearing, though, was rescheduled to January 2023 to allow adjudication of the new criminal charges Poloa had accrued while on parole, records show.

On April 4 of this year, Poloa posted $4,000 in bond to secure his release from the jail. The jail notified parole officials that Poloa was bonding out, according to parole supervision records.

It is our departments practice to place holds and file parole complaints on those individuals who have violent charges pending, said Skinner. As such, they typically remain in custody pending disposition. Because time frames were missed in this case, he was issued a parole summons, which then allowed his release once he bonded on his charges.

After Poloa bonded out from the jail, his mother pleaded with Poloas new parole officer, Garret Robinson, to put her son on electronic monitoring because he was not staying home at night when his parole supervision terms required him to do so.

Parole supervision records show that Robinson told her that his managers in the parole department likely would not approve of an electronic ankle monitoring device unless he could show Poloa was engaged in ongoing criminal activity. He said that he would give Poloa a verbal warning to stay home at night, and Robinson delivered that warning to Poloa that same night during a phone call.

Weeks later, a parole fugitive apprehension unit contacted the parole officer to alert him that Poloa was a suspect in the attempted murder at the Bonfoy Apartments and had fled parole supervision. Warrants have been issued for Poloas arrest on charges of attempted murder and being a previous offender in possession of a gun, along with the pending felony charges of attempted sexual assault, trespassing, motor vehicle theft and aggravated robbery.
Jimmy Sengenberger is host of The Jimmy Sengenberger Show Saturdays from 6-9am on News/Talk 710 KNUS. He also hosts Jimmy at the Crossroads, a webshow and podcast in partnership with The Washington Examiner.

Jimmy Sengenberger is host of The Jimmy Sengenberger Show Saturdays from 6-9am on News/Talk 710 KNUS. He also hosts Jimmy at the Crossroads, a webshow and podcast in partnership with The Washington Examiner.
South Africa: President Ramaphosa urges for UN Security Council reform

President Cyril Ramaphosa says there is a need to urgently reform the United Nations Security Council so that it can credibly and effectively perform its mandate.

The President said it is unjust that Africa, with a population of 1.3 billion people, does not have permanent representation on the UN Security Council.

President Ramaphosa was delivering his statement at the High-Level Dialogue on Global Development on the sidelines of the 2022 BRICS Leaders Summit, hosted by China on Friday.

As like-minded emerging market countries, we need to move from a common vision of an emerging international order to a common programme of change. We must be committed to shaping our own institutions to support the growth and development of emerging economies.

Our vision has been to harness our common vision and resources to improve the lives of our people through mutually beneficial cooperation and to actively shape the world to benefit the Global South, he said.

The President called on BRICS [Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa] to approach its cooperation with a spirit of openness and solidarity, with the genuine intention to find mutual interests and build common values.

We have the potential to leverage our combined economic strength to drive a sustainable global economic recovery.

It is up to us, as emerging and developing economies, to put the global South on a new trajectory of progress, prosperity and self-reliance and to shape an inclusive and equitable international order, the President said.

He said that this is an opportunity to move from solidarity to collective action for the benefit of all the countries people.

The President further expressed his sincere appreciation to the BRICS chair for continuing the blocs tradition of meaningful engagement with like-minded emerging markets and developing economies.

We all share a desire for increased representation and a progressive perspective in global governance institutions. We share a common history of struggle against imperialism, colonialism, exploitation and continued underdevelopment.

Our ties of solidarity were forged at the Bandung Conference in 1955, which culminated in the formation of the Non-Aligned Movement, he said.

President Ramaphosa emphasised that the summit remains the template for South-South cooperation and solidarity.

Less than a decade ago, the President said that the world united in a historic decision on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

We recognised that eradicating poverty was the greatest global challenge of our time. We committed ourselves to a common agenda for humanity that would see us collectively address climate change, conflict, poverty and insecurity, the President said.

Promote international peace and security

The President highlighted that the COVID-19 pandemic further revealed the inter-connectedness and exposed the countries shared vulnerability.

He further said that the Ukraine conflict has exposed the fault lines in the international order.

Urgent global issues like COVID-19, poverty, inequality, climate change and the broader sustainable development agenda have been eclipsed by the conflict.

We must safeguard the principle of multilateralism. We need a United Nations that is fit-for-purpose and clear in its benefits to all humanity, especially in times of insecurity and crises, the President said.

President Ramaphosa called on nations to promote international peace and security by advocating inclusive dialogue and the peaceful settlement of disputes.-SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2022-06-24. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
By Trend

Tunisian police on Thursday arrested former Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, who is also a former senior member in the Ennahda Islamist party, on suspicion of money laundering, his lawyer said, Trend reports citing Reuters.

Police in the city of Sousse seized Jebali's phone and his wife's phone and took him to an unknown location, according to a statement by his family on Facebook.

Jebali's arrest raises opposition concerns over the human rights record since President Kais Saied seized control of executive power last year, in a move his opponents called a coup.

The Interior Ministry declined to comment on Jebali's arrest. The ministry called a press conference for Friday, without giving any details.

Jebali's defence team said they met him at his detention centre of the investigation into terrorism crimes.

"Jebali told us he will not answer the investigators questions and he entered into a hunger strike as the issue has a political motivation and nothing to do with money laundering", Jebali's lawyer Mokhtar Jemai said.
El Paso County Commissioners Cami Bremer and Holly Williams may be in the clear in a campaign finance violations case, but the nonprofit that donated to them is facing greater scrutiny.

In two separate motions made June 10, the Colorado Secretary of State's Office asked Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Beall to dismiss complaints alleging Bremer and Williams violated campaign finance law by accepting donations from a nonprofit.

The office said it found Bremer and Williams, who are both running for reelection this year as El Paso County commissioners, cured the violations and "substantially complied with their legal obligations under Colorado campaign and political finance laws."

Civic nonprofit Colorado Springs Forward donated $5,000 to each of the commissioners in September. The donation was prohibited under state law, the Secretary of State's Office said in letters to both candidates. The checks were also over the $2,500 campaign donation limit a candidate may receive under state law.

Previous Gazette reporting revealed the nonprofit had a related political action committee, known as Colorado Springs Forward State Political Funding Committee, that could have legally donated to the campaigns.

Katie Kennedy, the committee's registered agent, told Secretary of State officials in a letter the political action committee could have legally donated to the campaigns and likely caused confusion about the sources of the contributions to the candidates' campaigns.

Former El Paso County Republican Party treasurer John Pitchford filed an initial complaint over the donations in February focused on the committee he thought was the donor based on campaign finance records, The Gazette previously reported. He later filed complaints against the commissioners for accepting the prohibited donations from a nonprofit, among other violations, when additional information came to light through the secretary of state's investigation.

The Secretary of State's Office said it recommended dismissal of the complaints because both candidates adequately cured the alleged violations when they submitted documentation including copies of checks they received from the nonprofit and checks they both wrote to refund the money, screenshots of bank account information and bank entries for stop payment requests along with showing they both amended their campaign finance reports originally filed Nov. 1 to accurately reflect the donations and refunds.

In Bremer's case, the Secretary of State's Office also said it found "insufficient evidence" to support an additional allegation that Bremer requested the political action committee "destroy financial information."

Bremer told state officials in an email she originally wrote a check on Oct. 26 to refund $2,500 of the prohibited $5,000 contribution but mailed it to the address registered to the political action committee, which she believed made the donation. Later, she said, when Colorado Springs Forward notified her the original check she received was not written from the correct account and the entire amount should be returned, she realized the first refund check she wrote for $2,500 had not been cashed.

"I asked that if that check was located by (Colorado Springs Forward) that it be destroyed," Bremer told state officials.

She also placed a stop payment request for the check with her bank, a copy of which she provided to the Secretary of State's Office.

She then wrote another check on Feb. 28 for the full refund of $5,000, she said, which the nonprofit cashed.

Pitchford said he thought the state's investigations into the complaints were "half-hearted at best."

"I understand the position the Secretary of State's Office is in," he said. "They are not a law enforcement agency. But they acknowledge (both candidates) failed to comply with (campaign finance) reporting law."

Bremer and Williams both told The Gazette the recommendation to dismiss the complaints was the right conclusion because they rectified the violations quickly.

"They saw that I went above and beyond to be transparent and I think the (request to dismiss) is a reflection of that," Bremer said.

The deputy secretary of state has until July 15 to decide whether to dismiss the complaints against Bremer and Williams.

Concurrently, the state Elections Division has initiated an investigation of the nonprofit Colorado Springs Forward, alleging it made prohibited campaign donations to Bremer and Williams.

Colorado law prohibits corporations from contributing to candidates or political parties.

The Secretary of State's Office has given the nonprofit until Tuesday to cure the violations.

Reached by phone Thursday afternoon, Kennedy said she is not authorized to speak on the matter. Phone calls made to board members listed on the nonprofit Colorado Springs Forward website were not immediately returned.

Information on its website states Colorado Springs Forward incorporated in April 2014 as a nonprofit organization made up of individuals and organizations primarily focusing on "achieving significant growth in the local economy."

In past years it has supported initiatives like Colorado Springs' 2015 voter-approved 2C sales tax, Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers' 2015 campaign for mayor, and campaigns of two El Paso County commissioners who successfully ran for office in 2016.

Campaign finance records available from the Secretary of State's Office as of Nov. 1 show the political action committee did not report contributions it may have received in order to make the prohibited donations to Bremer's and Williams' campaigns because it only had a balance of $850 on hand.

Campaign finance records as of June 7 show the same.

The Colorado Springs Forward political action committee last reported contributions and expenditures more than six years ago, on June 7, 2016. Records show the organization reported it had $3,850 on hand and made $3,000 in contributions  three separate $1,000 donations to three political campaigns between March 22, 2016 and May 26, 2016.
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FILE PHOTO: Plants are seen in a burned forest at the Nembi Guasu conservation area in the Charagua, Bolivia, September 24, 2019. REUTERS/David Mercado/File Photo
Demonstrators gather outside the United States Supreme Court as the court rules in the Dobbs v Women's Health Organization abortion case, overturning the landmark Roe v Wade abortion decision in Washington, U.S., June 24, 2022. REUTERS/Michael Mccoy
By Trend

Turkiye continues efforts with the United Nations, Ukraine and Russia to ensure the export of Ukrainian grain to the world markets, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavushoglu said on June 23, Trend reports citing Hurriyet Daily News.

We see this plan of the U.N. as a realistic plan, we see it as feasible. For this reason, we strongly support it, and we find it important in terms of the legitimacy of this process, he said, speaking at a joint press conference with his British counterpart, Liz Truss.

For her part, Truss said the U.K. and Turkiye work together to get the grain out of Ukraine. Welcoming Turkiyes leading role in efforts to open a grain export corridor from Ukraine, Truss underlined the urgency of the grain crisis. The problem will have devastating consequences if not solved within the next month, she added.

If an agreement is reached in a meeting to be held in Istanbul soon, then there would be a control center to be established and a safe zone out of the Ukrainian territorial waters will be opened, Cavushoglu said.

Asked about allegations regarding stolen grains from Ukraine, Cavushoglu said these claims have been expressed by Ukraine from time to time.
Abortion rights demonstrator reacts outside the United States Supreme Court as the court rules in the Dobbs v Womens Health Organization abortion case, overturning the landmark Roe v Wade abortion decision in Washington, U.S., June 24, 2022. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
FILE PHOTO: A logo on the Sanofi exhibition space at the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France June 15, 2022. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier
A worker from the war crimes prosecutor's office takes in the damage from overnight shelling that landed on a building of Kharkiv's Housing and Communal College as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues in Kharkiv, Ukraine, June 21, 2022. REUTERS/Leah Millis
By Trend

India's digital economy and the infrastructure sector has a total potential for $2.5 trillion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday. Addressing the meeting of the BRICS Business Forum, Mr. Modi said the digital transformation unfolding in India has never before been seen on the world stage, Trend reports citing The Hindu.

There are more than 100 unicorns in over 70,000 start-ups in India, and their number continues to grow. There are investment opportunities of $1.5 trillion under our National Infrastructure Pipeline. The value of the Indian digital economy will reach $1 trillion by 2025, said Mr. Modi who will address the BRICS summit virtually along with other heads of governments of member countries on Thursday.

Transformative changes are taking place in every sector in the emerging New India, said Mr. Modi presenting opportunities emerging in areas like space, blue economy, green hydrogen, clean energy, drones and geo-spatial data.

The BRICS summit of this year is being held in the backdrop of the Ukraine crisis which found reflection in the remarks by China's President Xi Jinping, who hosted the forum as China is the BRICS Chair this year. Mr. Xi appeared to implicitly criticise NATO and the West over the Ukraine crisis.

The tragedies of the past tell us that hegemony, group politics and bloc confrontation bring no peace or security; they only lead to wars and conflicts, he said. The Ukraine crisis is another wake-up call for all in the world. It reminds us that blind faith in the so-called position of strength and attempts to expand military alliances and seek ones own security at the expense of others will only land oneself in a security dilemma.

He also hit out at western sanctions, saying that it has been proved time and again that sanctions are a boomerang and a double-edged sword. "To politicise the global economy and turn it into ones tool or weapon, and wilfully impose sanctions by using ones primary position in the international financial and monetary systems will only end up hurting ones own interests as well as those of others, and inflict suffering on everyone, he said.
FILE PHOTO: A picture of Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed during an Israeli raid in Jenin, is displayed at the Al-Jazeera headquarters building in Doha, Qatar, May 11, 2022. REUTERS/Imad Creidi
Courtesy of Sachs Foundation A Sachs Foundation scholar, center, celebrates receiving a grant for college during a recent foundation luncheon. The Colorado Springs-based nonprofit, in partnership with Teach for America Colorado, recently announced the launch of an initiative designed to combat the shortage of Black teachers throughout the state.
Cyclists stop for a cup of coffee and bagels in Monument Valley Park during the 2022 Winter Bike to Work Day in Colorado Springs.
When someone files a personal injury lawsuit in Colorado and wins at trial, the plaintiff may receive not only monetary damages, but interest on that amount starting from the date of the injury.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday overruled its own longstanding precedent guaranteeing access to abortion, now leaving it to the states to decide the parameters of their reproductive rights statutes.
The Colorado Springs Police Department is working on implementing changes recommended in a study released in April that examined use of force and expects to post progress reports on its website soon.

Recently appointed Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez told the Colorado Springs City Council this week about implementation steps at a meeting with the report authors. The study took a broad look over four years at arrest trends, use of force, pointing of firearms and racial disparities, among other data points to develop a list of detailed changes. The report by Transparency Matters was commissioned following an outpouring of concern by the community in protests and public meetings about how police interact with minorities and use of force.

"We are taking each of these recommendations extremely seriously," Vasquez said.

The report called for eight broad steps to improve policing, such as improving timely release of information, reducing racial disparities in use of force, improved oversight of instances when people are held at gunpoint and an independent audit of the department's use of force training.

Vasquez said his staff is meeting weekly on study recommendations and working with experts on future steps.

In about a month, he expects to have an online report available to show the public the changes the department is making, including improvements to transparency.

Police officers and the public agreed, according to survey results, in the study that the department could improve the timely release of information.

Colorado Springs police are meeting with the District Attorney's and the City Attorney's offices to help guide changes to transparency, Vasquez said.

Report author Robin Engel, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Cincinnati, said a standardized approach to the release of information can help so that officers and the public know what to expect.

The department is also working on an independent audit of use of force training. The report found that officers were critical about the amount and quality of the training around use of force that can include hands on tactics, pepper spray and tasers.

The office also has a new state-of-the-art training simulator that could help officers prepare for use of force scenarios, retired Lt. Col. Rick Brown, an author of the report, told the council.

The study found that nearly 6,000 people had force used against them by the police over four years and most of those people, about 70%, had a firearm pointed at them. Black arrestees are 36% more likely to have force used against them and Hispanic arrestees are 20% more likely, the report found.

Brown recommended the police collect far more information about the pointing of firearms, a form of force that the department tracked separately and with less documentation. Good records can show supervisors are providing the proper oversight on pointing of weapons and ensure officers follow the constitutional requirements for holding someone at gunpoint. Pointing a gun at someone is governed by the Fourth Amendment as a form of seizure, he said.

Brown said that in 13% out of a sample of 140 cases of pointing of a firearm, the action was not justified, and in 9% of the cases not enough information was provided to determine if it was justified.

He noted the instances need to be well documented so that supervisors can guide and train new officers. Across the nation and in Colorado Springs front-line supervisors also tend to be young and need guidance.

In addition to concerns about training, officers said in the survey and in focus groups they were concerned the department does not have enough officers to police the community and officers do not have time to police proactively.

Councilman Wayne Williams said he would like to see budget proposals for next year to help address this issue. The council does not provide direct oversight to the police department, but it does approve the budget.

The police department has been working on increasing staffing levels for several years.
The Colorado Supreme Court decided an Arapahoe County judge incorrectly dismissed a man's attempt to seek custody of his stepdaughter, clarifying that stepparents do not need to have exclusive physical care of a child nor the biological parents' consent in order to pursue custody.
By Trend

The NewsBlaze online newspaper published an article devoted to the Azerbaijani government's activities to support the second Karabakh war veterans and people with disabilities, Trend reports.

According to the article, the YASHAT Foundation provides full support to veterans through involving foreign doctors in their recovery process.

Thus, the author of the article interviewed two veterans who received assistance through the foundation.

One of them is 24-year-old Arif Hajiyev who sustained an arm and an eye injury. The article noted while all other wounded soldiers who suffered eye injury received a prosthetic eye from the Israeli team of doctors, Arif was the only one to receive a donors cornea.

Speaking of the state support for his recovery, Hajiyev noted that he didn't only receive the best medical attention, but also was provided with a car, a house, and financial assistance provided by YASHAT.

Another war veteran, Captain Vasif Dilavarzadeh, who served in Azerbaijans military for 11 years. He also fought in the April 2016 battles in addition to the second Karabakh war.

Participating in the battles for Murovdag in 2020, Dilavarzadeh was seriously wounded in the leg and had to undergo seven surgeries.

Addressing his countrymen, Vasif Dilavarzadeh said: "I wish peace for the next generation. However, be ready to defend your country."
Chairman of Azerbaijani Union of Writers sends letter of thanks to president

24 June 2022 [16:40] -

Chairman of the Azerbaijani Union of Writers Anar sent a letter of gratitude to President Ilham Aliyev, Azernews report per Azertac. To be updated

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Cerro Gordo County first encountered the infamous emerald ash borers in Mason City two years ago. This year, they've moved their way into Clear Lake.

Emerald ash borers are considered one of the most destructive tree pests in North America, according to the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. The emerald ash borer larvae disrupt water and nutrient flow within the tree, and throughout the summer and fall ash trees die.

The emerald ash borer has been making its way across Iowa since 2010, when they were marked on the Northeastern border of Iowa in Allamakee County. Since then, the emerald ash borer has slowly made its way across Iowa throughout the past 12 years. They've also been verified in Hancock County's portion of Forest City this year. Winnebago County's Forest City saw their first infestation last year.

Few counties remain outside the treatment consideration areas in Iowa. The southwest portion of Hancock County and most of Mitchell County remain untouched for now, with all of Kossuth County currently safe. Most of North Iowa has become enveloped by treatment areas, which rest with a 15-mile border around a known infestation.

Clear Lake's infestation was brought to Clear Lake City Council by Chris Sweers of K&C Tree Service this June. He pointed out an infestation within two block of City Hall, where emerald ash borers had already killed two ash trees.

You need to get out ahead of it," Sweers noted several ash trees in Clear Lake, "I just wanted to have a conversation and make you guys aware of it.

Emerald ash borer infestations have a 99% mortality rate. With a wide range of ash species in Iowa, some areas factor in a tree's estimated value to the community before undergoing the expense of treatment. For example, a Green ash tree with a trunk 40 inches in diameter can save a single family residence in Des Moines up to $376 each year.

Treatment to ash trees has to be done for several years to protect the tree, with some treatments lasting longer than others. Trees which show signs of infestation may not come back, even after treatment, depending on the severity of infestation.

Preventative treatments are most effective for ash trees when emerald ash borer infestation is confirmed within 15 miles from the trees. In many cases, a recommendation comes from the health of the tree, landscape value, and the cost of treatment over several years. Time for homeowner treatment will come back in early August; Imidacloprid is a common treatment for emerald ash borers, found as a soil drench and in granular form.

Rae Burnette is a GA and Crime & Courts Reporter at the Globe Gazette. You can reach her by phone at 641.421.0523 or at Rae.Burnette@GlobeGazette.com

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Mock Application Sessions

You can attend this event only once.

Hello, everyone!I attended one of these Mock Application Sessions in the last cycle and found them really helpful. I would highly suggest everyone to register for a mock application session by the AdCom of NYU Stern. You can register here: https://apply.stern.nyu.edu/portal/ft_events?_ga=2.185581739.386279365.1656054281-1270113197.1654769541 A quick summary of what happens in these sessions:The AdCom picks up a mock resume (it won't be yours, chill), LoRs and essays. Then send you to random breakout rooms on their own. Each breakout room is responsible for assessing a specified portion of the application. It can be test scores, work experience, essays, LoRs, etc. - anything that forms part of your application when you hit the submit button. Then they invite people to come forward and discuss the findings of their group.Pros:1. Face-to-face interaction with the AdCom2. Opportunity to display your critical thinking3. Opportunity to understand how AdCom reviews every application4. It's super fun and you get to network with people who might be a part of your cohortThings to consider:1.So, since I attended it in the last cycle, I can't register for it again even from a different e-mail address.2. Make sure you are not too critical in your assessment. You have to understand that the resume and the essays etc. are probably of a real person, or were written/prepared by someone. Instead of being too critical and pointing out flaws, have a positive outlook and understand how the gaps in the mock application can be bridged.These sessions are highly interactive, so please make it a point to interact and have fun. Hope this helps!
OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

a certain part of the ancient wall will have to be removed as part of the project

The past cannot be allowed to hold back the future.





This is a Boldface Type question, in which you are required to define the role of the two boldface sections in the argument. Read the argument and break it down using indicative words:



Sentences 1 is a prediction, a statement about the future. (Note that although it is a prediction we can't be sure whether to classify it as a premise or a conclusion until we finish breaking down the argument.)

The first boldface portion, or the first half of sentence 2, begins with though, a conjunction of opposition, and introduces a fact. Therefore, we can classify it as a premise which weighs against the rest of the sentence.

The second part of sentence 2 is another prediction, leading to sentence 3.

The second boldface portion, or sentence 3, is a judgment that resembles a recommendation, which indicates it is the conclusion of the argument, which relies on the previous predictions. The author is saying that the benefits of the project (10% increase in GNP) outweigh the drawbacks (removing part of the ancient wall).

Since the conclusion in sentence 3 is based on the previous predictions, we can now reclassify the predictions in sentences 1 and 2 and recognize them as premises leading to the conclusion that "the past cannot be allowed to hold back the future".

This answer choice tries to distract you by describing the first boldface as a prediction. Even though the first boldface uses the future tense (will have to be removed), it is incorrect to define it as a prediction.

The argument describes the need to remove a part of the old city wall as a fact (i.e as something certain rather than uncertain). Since the removal of part of the wall is a given - a required condition for carrying out the project - it cannot be defined as a prediction. You can immediately eliminate answer choices that incorrectly define the first boldface part; do not waste time reading the rest.



Another reason to eliminate this answer choice is that the incorrectly defines the second boldface portion as evidence of the prediction that part of the wall will have to be removed. The second boldface's statement about the past not holding back the future is not evidence of anything - it is the argument's conclusion and bottom line. Incorrect.This is a Boldface Type question, in which you are required to define the role of the two boldface sections in the argument. Read the argument and break it down using indicative words:The argument describes the need to remove a part of the old city wall as a fact (i.e as something certain rather than uncertain). Since the removal of part of the wall is a given - a required condition for carrying out the project - it cannot be defined as a prediction. You can immediately eliminate answer choices that incorrectly define the first boldface part; do not waste time reading the rest.Another reason to eliminate this answer choice is that the incorrectly defines the second boldface portion as evidence of the prediction that part of the wall will have to be removed. The second boldface's statement about the past not holding back the future is not evidence of anything - it is the argument's conclusion and bottom line.

The author's position can be identified in the conclusion: The past cannot be allowed to hold back the future. In other words: the ancient wall should be removed.



The first boldface is a consideration against this position because it describes the removal of the wall as a drawback: Though a certain part, etc. Nobody is eager to see an ancient monumental relic of archeological importance torn down. This is why this statement weighs against the proposal to tear down the wall.





This is a Boldface Type question, in which you are required to define the role of the two boldface sections in the argument. Read the argument and break it down using indicative words:



Sentences 1 is a prediction, a statement about the future. (Note that although it is a prediction we can't be sure whether to classify it as a premise or a conclusion until we finish breaking down the argument.)

The first boldface portion, or the first half of sentence 2, begins with though, a conjunction of opposition, and introduces a fact. Therefore, we can classify it as a premise which weighs against the rest of the sentence.

The second part of sentence 2 is another prediction, leading to sentence 3.

The second boldface portion, or sentence 3, is a judgment that resembles a recommendation, which indicates it is the conclusion of the argument, which relies on the previous predictions. The author is saying that the benefits of the project (10% increase in GNP) outweigh the drawbacks (removing part of the ancient wall).

Since the conclusion in sentence 3 is based on the previous predictions, we can now reclassify the predictions in sentences 1 and 2 and recognize them as premises leading to the conclusion that "the past cannot be allowed to hold back the future".

While this answer choice defines the first boldface part correctly, it defines the second incorrectly. The second boldfaced portion is a position or a recommendation; it is not hard evidence. Incorrect.This is a Boldface Type question, in which you are required to define the role of the two boldface sections in the argument. Read the argument and break it down using indicative words:While this answer choice defines the first boldface part correctly, it defines the second incorrectly. The second boldfaced portion is a position or a recommendation; it is not hard evidence.

Incorrect.



An inference is a conclusion based upon premises, whereas the need to remove of the wall for the project is factual - a premise in itself. You can immediately eliminate answer choices that incorrectly define the first boldface part; do not waste time reading the rest.

Incorrect.



While this answer choice defines the first boldface part correctly, it defines the second incorrectly. The second boldfaced portion does not discuss the future and therefore is not a prediction; it is a position or a recommendation which relies on the predictions in the argument.

The plan to build a new merchant quarter in the city of Istanbul will surely contribute towards reestablishing the city as the central trading hub it used to be in the past. Though, the project will, if it meets the analysts' predictions, raise the GNP (Gross National Product) by over 10% over the first four years following its completion.In the argument, the two portions in boldface play which of the following roles?A. The first is a prediction; the second is evidence in support of that prediction.B. The first acknowledges a consideration that weighs against the main position that the argument advocates; the second is that position.C. The first is evidence against the position of the speaker; the second is evidence in support of it.D. The first is an inference that weighs against the main position that the argument advocates; the second is that position.E. The first is evidence against the position of the speaker; the second is a prediction in support of it._________________
In five words, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Mountain Valley Pipelines request that it draw a new three-judge panel to reconsider permits for the embattled project that have repeatedly been struck down.

The court denies the motion, read a one-sentence order filed late Wednesday.

In a highly unusual move, the company building a natural gas pipeline through Southwest Virginia asked the Fourth Circuit in May for the random selection of a panel to hear the latest challenge of its permits, made by a coalition of environmental groups and local opponents.

Mountain Valley contended that public confidence in the court is threatened by its continued rejection of government approvals for the 303-mile pipeline, often by the same trio of judges.

The pipeline snakes through Southwest Virginia into Pittsylvania County.

The public has certainly noticed these exceptional results and has zeroed in on the peculiarity that each case involving an authorization for Mountain Valley draws the same three-judge panel, the motion stated.

The Richmond-based Fourth Circuit, which consists of 15 active judges and three senior judges to hear appeals from five states, has a computer program that randomly assigns three-member panels for incoming cases.

However, the courts rules allow for the same judges initially appointed at random to remain with a case when it comes up again, under certain circumstances.

When the first lawsuit involving Mountain Valley reached the court in 2018, the computer program indiscriminately picked three names  Chief Judge Roger Gregory and Judges Stephanie Thacker and James Wynn.

That led to their assignment to most, but not all, of the dozen or so future cases in which federal and state permits issued to Mountain Valley were contested.

Supporters of keeping the same judges on similar cases say it improves judicial efficiency, as the panel gains knowledge of past history and familiarity with complex issues.

Lawyers for a coalition headed by the Sierra Club argued that it was the facts of the cases  not the judges who heard them  that led to Mountain Valleys losing record.

Those facts show systemic flaws in the permitting of MVPs pipeline, rather than a deck stacked against it, read a brief filed by Appalachian Mountain Advocates and the Southern Environmental Law Center, two groups that represent the petitioners.

Many of the cases decided by the panel involved what it found to be inadequate oversight by government agencies to control muddy runoff from the massive construction project. Mountain Valley has been cited nearly 400 times by Virginia regulators for violating erosion and sedimentation control regulations since work began in 2018.

Officials with the Sierra Club and Appalachian Voices, which are part of the group that is fighting the permits, declined to comment Thursday. A spokeswoman for Mountain Valley also had no comment.

The cases involve the latest challenge of stream crossing permits  one issued by Virginias State Water Control Board last December and a similar authorization by West Virginia  where the pipeline starts.

Generally, it is not known which Fourth Circuit judges will hear a case until the day of oral arguments before the court. No date has been scheduled in the stream crossing cases, which will likely not be heard until the courts September term, at the earliest.

Steve Emmert, an authority on state and federal appeals who has never seen a motion like the one filed by Mountain Valley, said the brevity of the Fourth Circuits ruling was not unusual.

Unlike formal opinions in which the court explains its reasoning and cites case law, rulings on motions usually contain little detail, according to Emmert, a Virginia Beach attorney who is not involved in the pipeline litigation.

I imagine that this is a disheartening ruling for the pipeline, but the court absolutely has the discretion to control its case assignments, he said.

The remaining crossings of streams, rivers and wetlands is not the only obstacle Mountain Valley must overcome to meet its target of completing the long-delayed, $6.6 billion infrastructure project by late 2023.

Earlier this year, the Fourth Circuit  again represented by Gregory, Thacker and Wynn  struck down for the second time two other authorizations: One for the pipeline to pass through the Jefferson National Forest and the second a finding by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that endangered species would not by jeopardized.

Mountain Valley is applying for renewed permits yet again.

In a filing this week with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the lead agency overseeing the pipeline, the company submitted details on its application to the U.S. Forest Service for approval to pass through public woodlands in Giles and Montgomery counties and Monroe County, West Virginia.

All of the trees have been felled along a 125-foot wide right of way through 3.5 miles of the Jefferson National Forest, according to the documents.

About half of the land along Sinking Creek and Brush Mountain has been cleared and graded, but no pipe has been installed in the forest.

The pipeline will cross under the Appalachian Trail as it traverses Peters Mountain. Plans call for Mountain Valley to bore a tunnel for the pipe about 90 feet below the trail, leaving a buffer of about 300 feet on either side of the scenic foot path.

Critics of the pipeline say its corridor will still be visible from the trail for miles away.
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China Construction Bank has entered into a partnership deal with ADDX, a full-service capital markets platform with Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) licences, to help domestic investors in China participate in the countrys official offshore investment scheme.

One of the country's leading banking groups, China Construction Bank has a network of 14,510 branches and more than 351,000 employees. The banks market capitalisation at the end of 2021 was $175 billion, making it the sixth most valuable bank in the world.

The financial institutions announced today the signing of a MoU that paves the way for them to work together on the custody and distribution of a $200 million quota allocation under the QDLP scheme.

Launched in 2012, the Qualified Domestic Limited Partnership scheme (QDLP) allows sophisticated investors in China to participate in renminbi funds focused on overseas investment opportunities.

Unlike other offshore schemes such as QDII and Wealth Management Connect, the QDLP allows offshore investments in a greater variety of assets  not just public market products, but also private market ones.

Last year, ADDX reached an agreement with Singapore-regulated wealth and fund management company ICHAM, which has received a $200 million allocation as part of the Chongqing governments overall $5 billion QDLP quota.

Under the agreement, ADDX will be a key venue for investments from the ICHAM fund in China authorised to raise capital from Chinese institutions and individuals.

ADDX will also offer these Chinese investors access to private market opportunities issued as digital securities, covering a broad range of asset types including private equity funds, venture capital funds, real estate funds, hedge funds, pre-IPO equity, bonds and structured products.

The agreement announced today allows ADDX to operationalise the QDLP scheme for investors through a collaboration with China Construction Bank.

Under the MOU, the bank could be appointed to act as the custodian bank for the $200 million in investments made on ADDX through the ICHAM fund. China Construction Bank (Chongqing branch) could also distribute to its wealth clients the fund units under the QDLP allocation.

"As Asias largest private market exchange, ADDX is eager to bring the global investment opportunities on our platform to China, Asias largest wealth management market," said its Oi-Yee Choo.

"By allowing domestic capital to buy into high-quality offshore assets, China is ensuring its investors can build globally diversified portfolios that are best positioned to preserve and expand gains from the opening-up of the countrys economy over the past few decades," she noted.

"The potential enhanced returns from such a move will in turn drive further economic growth in China, as the capital gains from investments flow back into China to create new jobs and to strengthen the buying power of Chinese consumers. In enabling these investments, ADDX is privileged to work with China Construction Bank, a respected and world-leading financial institution," she added.
RALEIGH  North Carolinas seven largest hospital systems reaped sizable financial benefits last year, even as they received billions of dollars in federal assistance during the pandemic, according to a report released Wednesday from the State Treasurers Office.

The state employee health insurance plan, which Treasurer Dale Folwells agency oversees, and the National Academy for State Health Policy reviewed audited financial reports of the hospital systems.

They found that the systems  Atrium Health, Cone Health, Duke Health, Novant Health, UNC Health, Vidant Health and WakeMed  reported $5.2 billion in combined net income in 2021. The seven nonprofit systems also saw cash and investments grow by a cumulative $7.1 billion from 2019 to 2021, the report said.

The report, which was reviewed by a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said the prosperity came as the health plans accepted $1.5 billion in COVID-19 relief funds and $1.6 billion from Medicare to prepay for services during the pandemic.

Folwell, whose office has released two other reports since last fall criticizing large nonprofit hospitals for their financial and charity care practices, said such federal assistance was supposed to help struggling hospitals and care for needy patients.

As the wealthy systems gobbled up the lions share of COVID relief dollars among North Carolina hospitals, rural and disadvantaged hospitals starved, the report said.

Folwell, a Republican first elected in 2016, said the seven hospital systems should return the taxpayer-funded federal dollars or scale back increasing hospital costs to patients.

When asked for comment, a Cone Health spokesman referred the News & Record to a statement by the N.C. Healthcare Association.

The seven health systems represent more than 80 hospitals in the state, according to the association, which represents for-profit and nonprofit hospitals.

The association said in a written statement that the report falsely demonizes health systems for applying for and using COVID-19 relief funds for medical providers, and conveniently forgets that hospitals were facing an unknown virus in 2020. Hospital systems didnt receive additional money for expenses and lost revenue related to the delta and omicron variants, which increased COVID-19 hospitalizations.

Cherry-picking financial data, and then spinning it, is not reflective of the many immense struggles and challenges facing the hospital field, the statement read.

Folwell also supports pending legislation that would require North Carolina hospitals to provide minimum levels of free or discounted care to low- and middle-income residents not covered by insurance.

You should care about the massive transfer of wealth that is going on in this state from the citizens to these multibillion-dollar nonprofits, he said at a news conference. The State Health Plan covers nearly 750,000 teachers, state employees, retirees and their dependents  making a major user of hospital services in the state.

Wednesdays speakers focused a great deal on Charlotte-based Atrium Health, which the report calculated as receiving over $1 billion in COVID-19 relief and Medicare advance payments. Atrium had $1.2 billion in net income in 2021, according to the report.

The Atrium finances cited in the report did not include Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, which Atrium acquired in October 2020 in a transaction valued at $220 million. High Point Medical Center is also now a part of Atrium.

Atrium Health spokesperson Dan Fogleman told The News & Observer of Raleigh that the funds the system received covered but a fraction of what it lost because of the pandemic.

The funds helped pay for many needed services, he said, including mass COVID-19 vaccinations and testing, as well as personal protective equipment and ventilators. They also helped Atrium avoid layoffs and keep rural hospitals in their system open, according to Fogleman.

Its troubling that health systems like Atrium Health are being attacked while we are still caring for communities that are recovering from the pandemic, he said.
SUMMERFIELD  The twisted, ruined car drew a long, thoughtful look from Sophia Entrikin.

This is going to be really fun, the elementary schooler finally said.

Minutes later, she ripped into another empty car with the aid of firefighters and a giant Jaws of Life cutting tool.

This week, Summerfield Fire District is holding its sixth annual Fire Camp for rising third-through-fifth graders at Station 9. The week-long camp combines lessons on fire safety and other safety skills with activities to get students excited about firefighting.

Earlier this month, the district won an award at the North Carolina Fire and Life Safety Conference for the camp. The award is for programs that prevent fire injuries and deaths as well as make communities safer.

Our main goal is for the kids to learn something that could save their life, said Jenna Daniels, an assistant fire chief.

fire camp Nine-year-old Holden Shepard pours water into a barrel during the sixth annual Fire Camp at Summerfield Fire Districts Station 9 in Summerfie

Already, she said, theyve had parents of campers sign up to volunteer for the district and former campers enroll in their other program for teenagers. And Lt. Reece Walker, who teaches children at the camp how to call 911, said he heard about one former camper who alerted dispatchers after her familys house was struck by lightning.

Firefighter Michael Landen said its rejuvenating to see kids look up to them. Its a week thats eagerly anticipated by the whole fire district, he said.

This year, the camp had 36 participants  divided into groups of about six children each and named after fire district vehicles. The Tanker 9 and Engine 29 groups both cycled through Walkers 911 lesson on Wednesday. Walker joked with the children while helping them practice, using a phone that wasnt hooked up.

fire camp Firefighter Michael Landen, left, and Lt. Zach Hardy demonstrate a house fire to campers on Thursday.

He stressed to campers that the first thing dispatchers will want to know is where they live. Most students in the groups knew their home address. Others, well, they had to give it some thought.

On Thursday, Engine 29 watched Landen and other firefighters demonstrate how fire can spread from room to room in a plywood, doll-house-like structure.

Next, after a quick snack break, they joined Steve Satterfield for a fire drill. That involved climbing into a big, red fire engine and riding across the back parking lot to the scene of a pretend fire, located in a trailer inside a garage-like structure at the back of the station property.

Tanner Thornton, wearing a blue hat, held the front of the hose as a team of kids guided it through the darkened garage and into the trailer, pretending to turn it on and put out a non-existent fire in the trailers kitchen.

Next, the groups search team headed into the trailers bedroom to locate Timmy  a doll-like cloth pillow meant to represent a human in need of rescue.

Tanker 9 finished out their morning with a chance to cut open vehicles like firefighters do.

The district staff had three mangled, old cars on the back lot of Summerfield Fire Districts Station 9, where the camp takes place.

I want to break something, said camper Hailey Landen as she awaited her turn.

fire camp Lt. Chris Gibson, left, helps Bryce Cox, 10, cut a door during Fire Camp on Thursday in Summerfield.

After a couple of other students tried, Hailey and Sophia donned protective shirts, goggles and gloves and stepped up to one of the cars, taking turns at the front and back of the vehicle. Engineer Matt Hall and Lt. Chris Gibson helped them hold the whirring cutter/spreader tools that firefighters often use to rescue people trapped in wrecked vehicles.

Sophia cut into the inside top to the trunk area and got a little scared when she launched some of the broken glass resting on the vehicle.

On the other hand, she enjoyed cutting into the part of the car near what had had once been the front window and yanking off part of the trim.

Fun, she said.

Contact Jessie Pounds at 336-373-7002 and follow @JessiePounds on Twitter.
GREENSBORO  Two years ago, the public first learned about the death of John Elliott Neville. On Thursday, in a federal courtroom, one chapter in the reckoning over his death closed.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles approved a $3 million settlement in the wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the Neville family in the Dec. 4, 2019 death of John Neville. Neville died after an incident at the Forsyth County Jail and the lawsuit and prosecutors allege that a nurse and five detention officers ignored Nevilles medical distress. The detention officers had Neville pinned on his stomach in a jail cell, while he yelled 30 times that he couldnt breathe, according to video of the incident and the lawsuit.

Neville, 56, lived in Greensboro where he worked in construction and was the father of five children. The incident leading to his death took place 24 hours after he was first booked into the jail on Dec. 1, 2019.

Forsyth County Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough Jr. did not publicly acknowledge Nevilles death until the Winston-Salem Journal asked him about it on June 26, 2020. He said he did not say anything publicly partially because Nevilles familys attorneys, Michael Grace and Chris Clifton, asked him to keep things quiet. Kimbrough also said he did not release any information because of the investigation by the State Bureau of Investigation into Nevilles death, an investigation he said he requested. He has since said he would publicly release information about inmates who die at the Forsyth County Jail.

The nurse, Michelle Heughins, and the five detention officers  Lt. Lavette Maria Wiliams, Cpl. Edward Joseph Roussel, Officer Christopher Bryan Stamper, Officer Antonio Woodley Jr. and Officer Sarah Elizabeth Poole  were charged in July 2020 with involuntary manslaughter. In April, a Forsyth County grand jury declined to indict the officers but did indict Heughins with involuntary manslaughter. As it stands now, she is the only one facing criminal charges in Nevilles death. With Eagles approval of the settlement, Heughins is also the only individual facing civil liabilities in the lawsuit. The other remaining defendant in the lawsuit is Wellpath LLC, the former medical provider for the Forsyth County Jail. Wellpath, formerly known as Correct Care Solutions, has been sued several times over inmates who died while in custody at the Forsyth County Jail. All the previous lawsuits have been settled.

Claims in the latest lawsuit against the detention officers, Forsyth County Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough Jr. and Forsyth County were dismissed with prejudice, meaning that they cannot be refiled.

Nevilles death prompted not only criminal charges against the detention officers and Heughins but also protests during the summer of 2020 that resulted in 55 arrests and a 49-day occupation of Bailey Park led by Triad Abolition Project. There had already been protests nationally and locally over the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was killed when a white Minneapolis police officer put a knee in Floyds neck for more than nine minutes. On video captured by cellphones, Floyd is seen saying I cant breathe several times, just like Neville.

The hearing on Thursday took a little more than 30 minutes, and afterward, Sean Neville, Nevilles son and the executor of his estate, said he was relieved that part of it was over.

The familys  were satisfied, Neville said outside the federal courthouse in Greensboro. I think it worked out in the best interests of everybody.

But there is a long road ahead.

A trial in the civil lawsuit against Wellpath and Heughins is scheduled for the week of April 3, 2023, in U.S. District Court in Greensboro, but attorneys for Heughins and Wellpath have filed motions to continue the trial to an unknown date until Heughins criminal case can be resolved. They are also requesting a stay in all proceedings in the civil case, including discovery and depositions, until theres a firmer idea of when the criminal case might be resolved.

When the criminal case will be resolved remains unclear. Theres no trial date, and Heughins is mounting a legal defense against the criminal charge. Her criminal defense attorneys have filed 12 different motions in Forsyth Superior Court, including a motion to dismiss the indictment against her.

As the sun bore down on a hot summer day Thursday, Sean Neville said he had no idea how long it will take to get justice for his father.

I guess that at this point, Im of the mind that it will take as long as it takes, he said.
WASHINGTON  The White House has launched a formal partnership with 11 East Coast governors to boost the growing offshore wind industry, a key element of President Joe Bidens plan for climate change.

Biden, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and other top administration officials met with governors, wind industry officials and labor leaders late last week at the White House. The session focused on ways to expand important segments of the offshore industry, including manufacturing facilities, ports and workforce training and development.

Together were stepping up. Were about to build a better America, Biden said. Its not just about the future. Its about right now.

The partnership comprises governors of both parties from North Carolina, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.

Missing from the compact is Virginia, where Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin has moved to withdraw the state from a regional carbon-limiting initiative meant to combat climate change.

Spokesperson Macaulay Porter said Youngkin supports the offshore wind industry, and his administration has participated in calls with the White House on the topic.

The commonwealth is already a leader in offshore wind, and the Youngkin administration is focused on ... this emerging sector in a way that is consistent with promoting jobs for Virginia and its right-to-work philosophy, Porter said, referring to a state policy that promotes a workers right not to be required to join a labor union.

Youngkin is fully committed to Virginias current offshore wind project and will continue to support any future project that meets Virginias economic needs and protects ratepayers from high energy costs, Porter said.

In working with states and the private sector, the White House said it will provide Americans with cleaner and cheaper energy, create good-paying jobs and invest billions in new American energy supply chains, including construction of wind turbines, shipbuilding and servicing.

Biden has set a goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2030, enough to provide electricity to 10 million homes, support 77,000 jobs and spur $12 billion per year in private investment in offshore wind. Offshore wind is a key component in the Democratic presidents plan to make the nations electric grid carbon free by 2035.

The Biden administration has approved two large-scale wind projects, Vineyard Wind in Massachusetts and South Fork Wind off New York and Rhode Island. Both are under construction with union labor. The Interior Department has begun reviews of another 10 offshore projects that, if approved, would produce 22 gigawatts of clean energy.

Danish wind developer Orsted signed a project labor agreement last month with a national union representing 3 million people in the building trades to construct the companys U.S. offshore wind farms with an American union workforce. Orsted currently has six offshore projects in five states.

A national agreement signed with North Americas Building Trades Unions covers contractors working on those projects and future ones, with no termination date on the project labor agreement. It sets the terms and conditions for union workers to build offshore wind farms, with targets to ensure a diverse workforce. It contains provisions for training to ensure they can construct the complex infrastructure, which costs billions of dollars.

We recognize that states are huge players here, said David Hayes, a White House climate adviser. With a formal partnership, the Biden administration can work with the governors on policies going forward and help ensure that there is an American-made supply chain for this brand-new industry, Hayes said.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, said he and other East Coast governors are united with our regional and federal partners not just by geography but by a shared commitment to clean and affordable energy, economic opportunity and a future in which all community members are shielded from the worsening impacts of climate change.

The federal-state collaboration comes as the Biden administration has announced a plan to conduct up to seven offshore wind auctions by 2025, including one held last month off North Carolina and earlier this year in a coastal area known as the New York Bight. Other sales are expected in the Gulf of Maine, the central Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, as well as offshore in California and Oregon.

Environmental and clean energy groups hailed the federal-state collaboration.

Today, there are just seven offshore wind turbines in the United States, and were going to need a lot more, done responsibly, to meet our clean energy goals, said Diane Hoskins, campaign director for the conservation group Oceana. She called for strong safeguards for marine life to avoid, minimize and mitigate the impacts of offshore wind.

Heather Zichal, CEO of the American Clean Power Association, an industry group, said wind energy developers support the federal-state initiative. Clear and predictable permitting for offshore wind is essential to recognizing its potential, and there is still work to do, Zichal said.
" " Licking a newborn baby has practical applications among mammals, even aside from the obvious cleaning function, so why don't human women feel the need? BSIP/Getty Images

Cats do it. Dogs do it. Giraffes and lions and lemurs do it, too. Some humans have even been observed licking their newborn babies clean. But for the most part, human mothers don't respond in this way after giving birth. Ever wondered why?

Among mammals, the instinct to lick the newborn clean exists for very practical reasons.

For one, licking removes the amniotic fluid from the new baby, according to veterinary professors Donald M. Broom and Andrew F. Fraser in their book Domestic Animal Behavior and Welfare. This keeps the infant warmer because thick amniotic fluid conducts heat away from the body. But licking also stimulates the newborn and draws the baby's attention toward the mother, they said.

But if you were to ask the baby-licking mammals themselves, they might have a variety of other reasons right at the ends of their nonexistent fingertips  perhaps safety, cleanliness and nourishment.

It's possible that the licking cleans up smells that signal "a newborn was here," protecting the infant from predators, and that eating the placenta and amniotic fluid provides nourishment and replenishes energy lost in labor.

In fact, licking occurs "for a combination of reasons," says Lee Dugatkin, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Louisville and co-author with Lyudmila Trut of the book, "How to Tame a Fox and Build a Dog," published in 2017.

"One would be health-related  removing any nasty creatures on the surface of the skin, such as bacteria, viruses, that sort of thing," Dugatkin says. Another reason, Dugatkin explains, relates to the mother recognizing the baby. "It may be the start of a chemical recognition system between mothers and offspring. Licking is one way to get that sorted out. There are all sorts of bonding behaviors that go on between mother and offspring," and licking may be one of those "early chemo-tactile links" that the mother has to her baby.

So why don't human mothers do it?

A major reason may be that humans no longer need to. "There hasn't been [evolutionary] selection for licking your offspring. We can clean without licking." Dugatkin says. Humans, after all, do have functional hands.

"My guess is that we have so many other ways to get the benefits and information associated with licking," he says. "Visual and tactile senses in humans are very strong," and so selection might be weaker for a licking behavior. "We rely so heavily on ... more sophisticated cognitive behavior. My guess is that licking is not as useful," he says.

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Skin Stimulation

But one surprising idea was put forward by famed anthropologist Ashley Montagu, who died in 1999. Montagu, author of more than 60 books, wrote an entire book about skin and touching. He theorized that human beings don't lick their young because humans have relatively long labors compared with most mammals.

In Touching: The Human Significance of the Skin, he wrote that skin and body stimulation of the infant is important because it sets in motion the proper development of organ systems: Licking provides that stimulation, but so do uterine contractions in long labors. Because of the stimulation provided by a long labor, licking after birth is less necessary, Montagu concluded.

Not so fast, said a couple of anthropologists, Donald G. Lindburg and Lester Dessez Hazell. They wrote in American Anthropologist in 1972 that Montagu's conclusion was simply not justified. The organ systems of newborns, such as the respiratory, digestive and genito-urinary systems, don't need stimulation after birth to function properly, they wrote.

At this point, we might also note that anthropologists have observed some humans licking their newborns. Lindburg and Hazell mentioned that Tibetan women in the late 1800s did it, according to anthropologist William Rockhill in 1895. "They do not wash and bathe a newly born child, but the mother licks it as soon as it is born," Rockhill wrote.

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Please Don't Eat the Baby

So, although humans don't typically lick their offspring as other mammals do, that doesn't mean we keep our muzzles away from newborns. We kiss, we nuzzle, we lip-smack and pretend to gobble up the new little morsel. It's just what we do with babies.

An international team of scientists investigated this impulse to "eat the baby." It has biological underpinnings, they concluded. Johannes Frasnelli, a researcher in the Department of Psychology at the University of Montreal explained that the smell of newborns activates the same neurological system in mothers that is activated when a person is very hungry. It's the neurological system that makes humans desire certain foods.

Sure, we find new babies delicious! We just don't need to lick them clean anymore.

Now That's Interesting The key to a calm, happy child is licking  if you're a rat parent, that is. When mother rats licked their little rats frequently, the offspring were more likely to be exploratory and resilient, according to columnist Alex Korb in Psychology Today.
A group of women business owners closed their downtown Helena storefronts Friday afternoon following the Supreme Court's ruling on the Dobbs v. Jackson decision that overturned the nearly 50-year-old Roe v. Wade decision and eliminated the constitutional right to an abortion.

"Every single one of us scheduled for the morning shift arrived sobbing," Montana Book Co. Assistant Manager Abby Shea Pigott said. "I just don't think given this morning's decision we can be expected to provide stellar customer service."

The women said the decision to close their businesses for the day gave their employees time and space to grieve but also sends a message.

"Asking my female staff in particular to continue serving drinks today felt inappropriate to be honest," General Mercantile owner Lindsey Barnes said. "We're very angry."

The sign posted on the Merc's door at noon Friday read, "We went to sleep as equal humans in the eyes of the State and woke up as property. We don't feel like making coffee. We're going to rest today and fight tomorrow."

Melisa Synness owns Buzz Boutique on the Gulch and said she too was closing for the day in solidarity.

"It's really hard to concentrate today," Synness said. "We even knew this was coming, but it's still so shocking."

Montana Book Co. book seller Rilee Reynolds said she feels angry too.

"I'll probably go home and cry, call my friends and be angry with them," Reynolds said. "This is atrocious what happened today. Women are allowed to feel what they're feeling today, and we will stand in solidarity."

Beargrass Trading Company owner April Sargeson said she may lose customers "who are on the other side," but that her decision to close her store was deeply personal and one she had to make.

"I hope people are proud of me as a business owner and woman for standing my ground and doing what I believe in," Sargeson said.

Katelynn Greenberg, owner of Sewing Bee Alterations and Tailoring Specialist, said previously scheduled appointments require her to keep the shop open, but that her business will always support the causes of human rights and gender equality.

"I am taking a bit of a mental health day, but I also want to be here to support the community," Greenberg said. "If somebody does come in and wants to cry, they can. I'll cry with them."

Friday's Supreme Court ruling was a crushing blow to many, but the businesswomen said it simply means efforts will be redoubled.

Barnes, who lives outside of cell service, said she received the morning's news once in town via a text message from her mother that simply stated "Put your combat boots on."

A majority of Americans support the constitutional right to abortion "and six people just took it away," she said. "Everything goes into elections now. ... We'll continue challenging those who challenge us."

A 2019 Pew Research Center survey found about 80% of Democrats and left-leaning independents believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and that a majority of all Americans, 61%, feel the same.

Synness said it is time to regroup.

"We really need to find our allies who are out there, the people who care about privacy and health care," she said.

According to a social media post, a "grass-roots," "self-selected coalition" under the banner "Montana March for Reproductive Rights" has scheduled a protest at the state Capitol Building for 11 a.m. Sunday. The group can be contacted via email at montanareproductiverights@gmail.com.

In Montana last year, lawmakers passed four laws that limited access to abortion in the state. Three of those are now on hold while a lawsuit against them, filed by Planned Parenthood of Montana, plays out before the Montana Supreme Court.

The laws on hold would ban abortions after 20 weeks gestational age; require a woman to be informed of the option to view an ultrasound before an abortion; and require informed consent before a drug-induced abortion and block providing the medication through the mail.

There was another law in the challenge, to prohibit health insurance plans sold in the federal exchange in Montana from covering abortion care, but it was not part of Planned Parenthoods preliminary injunction request.

Similar legislation had been passed by the states GOP-majority Legislature in years past but was vetoed by Democratic governors. In 2020, Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte won election; he campaigned on limiting access to abortion.

At an anti-abortion rally held in the Capitol in January, Sen. Steve Daines told the crowd the Roe v. Wade decision would likely be overturned this summer when it considered Mississippi's ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

"But the second important part of that case of course is it's going to return the power back to the states," Daines said.

The decision Friday does not end access to pre-viability abortions in Montana, as the state does not have a so-called "trigger law" like all of its neighbors, but the Legislature could seek to further restrict access in the next session.

Editor's note: Story updated to correct name in Supreme Court lawsuit.

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A proposal to add new environmental protections to stretches of the Gallatin and Madison rivers is dead for now, after failing to gather enough signatures to appear on the November ballot.

Initiative 191 failed to attract enough support by the June 17 deadline for ballot initiative petitions to be submitted to county election offices, Cottonwood Environmental Law Center Executive Director John Meyer acknowledged Friday.

Cottonwood, along with the Gallatin Wildlife Association and Montana Rivers last month decided to stop working on the measure, Meyer wrote in a May 25 letter to Commissioner of Political Practices Jeff Mangan. The letter was a response to pending complaints against the groups for failing to report their spending in support of the proposed initiative.

We took a realistic perspective and the fact that we had to fight the Attorney General for two months in court, we just lost all that time, Meyer said. That was the deciding factor.

In March, the Montana Supreme Court unanimously reversed a decision by Attorney General Austin Knudsen that had temporarily halted I-191 from going out for signature-gathering.

I-191 sought to designate 35 miles of the Gallatin River, from the Yellowstone National Park boundary to the Spanish Creek confluence, and about 55 miles of the Madison River, from Hebgen Lake to Ennis Lake, as outstanding resource waters.

The designation affords the states highest protection and would prohibit any new or increased pollution adversely affecting water quality. The permitting prohibition would also be extended to temporary changes causing an adverse change in water quality  only permanent changes are prohibited under current law.

The extensive protections being proposed generated intense opposition from developers, industry groups and others who argued it would stymie development and economic growth in the area. Several conservation groups also came out against it, including Montana Trout Unlimited. The groups conservation director told lawmakers earlier this year that he had concerns the designation could prohibit permitting for some restoration work.

Dozens of organizations in the state including economic development groups, businesses in the area and trade groups for major industries lined up to fight the proposal. In a Friday press release from a coalition formed in opposition to I-191, Montana Chamber of Commerce President Todd O'Hair said the initiative went too far.

Nearly every segment of our Montana economy depends on clean, healthy water, he stated. Montanans have done a tremendous job of working together to make sure our water resources are protected  that's why we have some of the toughest water quality laws in the country. That collaborative approach has served us well and is the reason that the radical I-191 initiative failed to gain any traction.

Under a new law passed in 2021 that requires legislative panels to weigh in on proposed ballot initiatives, the proposal also received bipartisan opposition from the Water Policy Interim Committee in April. Three of the panels five Democrats joined all five Republicans to oppose the measure, although the vote didn't directly affect whether an initiative could move forward.

The initiative needed more than 30,000 signatures by last weeks deadline. Meyer said he didnt have a final tally of the signatures, but knew they were well short of that threshold.

He also acknowledged not initially filing campaign finance reports required under state law for groups that engage in significant political fundraising and spending. The sponsors of the proposal spent just $10,000, he said, adding that the reports have since been submitted to the state's political practices office. State records show a ballot issue committee for I-191 registered earlier this month, but no finance reports were available Friday.

The coalition opposing the initiative has reported raising $175,000 since April from the state Chamber, developers and agriculture groups.

Proposals to protect portions of the upper Gallatin and Madison rivers have been pursued by conservation groups in the state for the past two decades, and the effort likely isnt over. Meyer said he plans to try again to get it on the ballot in 2024.

The Montana Supreme Court is also weighing an appeal from Cottonwood and other environmental groups who sued the state after the Board of Environmental Review rejected a petition that sought to add environmental protections to the waterways.

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The state labor department ruled this week that the Montana Highway Patrol engaged in an unfair labor practice by introducing a new physical fitness test and incentives outside of union negotiations.

State troopers, organized under the Montana Federation of Public Employees, filed the complaint in January that centers on new rowing machines recently purchased by the highway patrol. On June 20, an administrative hearing officer with the Montana Department of Labor and Industry's Board of Personnel Appeals found introducing the new rowing machines, even as a pilot program, violated the union's previous agreement on the Montana Physical Abilities Test, also known as the MPAT.

MFPE President Amanda Curtis said Thursday the case was less about the machines than it was about the bargaining process.

"Our guys are all in for physical fitness, they understand it's a really important part of the job to help them stay safe and to serve Montanans," Curtis said. "It was really not about the physical fitness test. It was about honoring their collective bargaining rights. If you let them get away with a physical fitness test, what are they doing to do next?"

A spokesperson for the Montana Department of Justice did not offer comment when reached by email.

The highway patrol's fitness test comes with incentives for better performances on the obstacle course that included running, jumping, climbing, vaulting, lifting, carrying, pulling and pushing. Taking the MPAT is mandatory, but completing the test earned troopers increasing incentives. Four-minute, 30-second times to complete the course would net the trooper $1,000 and 40 hours of compensated time; any time longer than 7 minutes and 30 seconds got them nothing.

In September, MHP Col. Steve Lavin issued an email to the agency announcing a transition to a new testing format by January 2022, moving away from the MPAT and toward quarterly rowing tests, which would be mandatory. Considering all the actions involved in the MPAT, the rowing tests are less likely to cause injuries. By the time of Lavin's email, MHP had already purchased 20 rowing machines.

Lavin's email also said the agency needed testing groups on the rowing machines before the new format went into effect. In exchange for taking part in the pilot program, troopers would get the $1,000 and 40 hours of compensated time, the highest level of incentives from the MPAT.

The union claimed the introduction of new rowing machines violated a memorandum of understanding that's been in place since 2017. At the time of Lavin's email, the union had specifically requested to bargain over fitness tests in the ongoing contract negotiations. According to the hearing officer's decision, the MHP administration never responded to the request.

As the case moved through administrative proceedings, MHP argued that because troopers were not required to participate in the rowing tests, but could still take the MPAT and get the associated incentives, that it had not violated the state's collective bargaining laws. The Board of Personnel's hearing officer disagreed.

"It is immaterial as to whether MHP had actually implemented the final rowing test as a replacement for the MPAT," hearing officer Jeffrey Doud wrote in the June 20 ruling. "What is material are the financial incentives attached to the troopers' participation in the rowing test in a comparable manner as the existing, and bargained-for, MPAT."

Curtis said the bargaining process is still underway. A contract is out for vote with the union members, she said, although Curtis did not yet have the results.

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Acciona, a major Spanish infrastructure group and a leading water contractor in Saudi Arabia, showcased its key sustainable infrastructure solutions at the Saudi-Spanish Investment forum held recently in Riyadh and reiterated its commitment to provide new sources of safe drinking water to boost the kingdoms water security.

The forum, organized by the Saudi Ministry of Investment, discussed ways to share knowledge and contribute to the kingdoms economic diversification plans.

Spains Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism Maria Reyes Maroto was at the event which was also attended by Saudi Minister of Investment, Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al Falih, Minister of Tourism, Ahmed Bin Aqil Al Khatib and Minister of Commerce, Majid bin Abdullah Alkassabi.

Acciona was represented at the forum by Jesus Sancho, Director General for the Middle East, Francisco Javier Nieto, KSA Country Director for Acciona Water solutions, and Julio de la Rosa, Business Development Director for Acciona Water solutions in the Middle East.

During a panel discussion on 'Water Management and Infrastructure,' de la Rosa highlighted Accionas capabilities to advance the countrys Vision 2030 goal of creating a vibrant, more diversified and more sustainable economy and society.

Acciona has already delivered two desalination plants and is currently building four more plants in the KSA. These plants employ reverse osmosis, a more efficient and sustainable technology for extracting potable water from seawater, he stated.

"Once all are completed, the plants will produce 2.36 billion liters of drinking water a day, enough to supply more than 8 million people, almost one-quarter of the population of the country," said de la Rosa.

Acciona is also helping to reduce the carbon emissions associated with the energy for desalination by integrating solar energy at desalination plants, he added.

The forum concluded on a successful note with Spanish water and utilities companies pledging to help the Kingdoms Vision 2030 programmes and goals since both share the challenge of providing quality water to the population while working on an environment of limited natural resources to do so.

A leader in regenerative solutions for a decarbonized economy, Acciona has a business presence in more than 60 countries and is involved in renewable energy, water treatment and management, eco-efficient transportation and mobility systems and resilient infrastructures. Acciona had netted recorded sales of 8.1 billion ($8.51 billion) in 2021.-TradeArabia News Service
At last weeks celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Montanas 1972 Constitution, there were many memorable moments, including the presentation of Jim Rice, Associate Justice of the Montana Supreme Court, during the panel discussion about The Basic Rule of Law: The Backbone of a Constitution.

Rice, who prior to his 2001 Supreme Court appointment had been a Republican legislator, spoke out boldly and clearly about the role of the judiciary in defending the institutions of our democracy. Rice said, We live in a time of extremism. Weve heard a lot about the extreme polarization in society, about our viewpoints and that has given legs to extremism in our words and language and extremism in actions. He added it was beyond the right of protest, even robust protest. Its beyond the exercise of free speech and its beyond the right to petition for redress of grievances. These are extreme actions that undermine our institutions and tear at the fabric of the rule of law.

Rice said that for the first time in our nations history the transfer of power after a national election was not peaceful. The peaceful transition of power is a hallmark of the American system, or at least it was. About rising political violence in words and deeds, Rice said he wished he could say that that was just happening in faraway places. No, its reached the shores of Montana and we have seen it here.

During the 2021 Legislative session, the Judiciary held discussions about a proposed bill that changed the method of choosing judges when there were vacancies, after the existing law had worked successfully for nearly 50 years. The Legislature issued preemptory subpoenas for judicial documents. When the Supreme Court issued an order temporarily staying the Legislatures demands until a review of confidential and privileged information could be conducted by balancing the Montana Constitutions right-to-know and privacy sections, what did the Legislature do? According to Rice, in response to the order the Legislature and the Department of Justice notified the court that they REFUSED TO ABIDE BY THE COURTS ORDERS and would proceed as they deemed fit. Thats a clear violation of the rule of law.

This act of extreme defiance fit with the national pattern. And the national pattern of extreme rhetoric followed as a statewide public official said to the public: the Supreme Court justices on the Montana Supreme Court are corrupt. Instead of working and finding a legal solution within Montanas Constitutional balancing of the branches of government, the Legislature had torn away at the fabric of our governmental institutions.

Rice said he thought how foolish I have been, and how shortsighted, to assume that our institutions would always endure. Didnt you just think they would keep going on forever? He pondered the Gettysburg address - Abraham Lincoln asking whether this nation as conceived and dedicated will long endure  and wondered will our institutions be lost? Rices response was firm: over my dead body, which received a standing ovation.

Rice, in his written opinion in the Legislatures case, noted that over the 240 years from the Federalist Papers to the Montana Constitution it is unquestionably and irrefutably the province of the judiciary on all matters that are brought to it to declare what the law is, even to the legality of the actions taken by the other two branches of government, an American constitutional concept called judicial review.

Relative to constitutional judicial review, and noting that the judiciary has no army to enforce its orders, a question was asked what are we going to do to make sure that the judiciary maintains its authority?

Justice Rices response was our power to enforce our duty comes from the support of the Montana people. Thats where we get it.

After two standing ovations, Justice Rice left us to contemplate what we, as citizens, should do to ensure our governmental institutions  our democracy  survive this time of extremism. The answer is in us. Operating within the rule of law, we need to support our democratic structures, processes and institutions, even when we might disagree with the specific decision. Support candidates committed to the rule of law.

Are you ready for that battle?

Evan Barrett lives in historic Uptown Butte after retiring following 47 years at the top level of Montana economic development, government, politics and education. He is an award-winning producer of Montana history videos who continues to write columns and commentaries and occasionally teaches Montana history.

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DECATUR  Decaturs Popeyes fried chicken restaurant, located at 775 E. Pershing Road, has been sitting idle for two years.

However, the chicken fryers may be starting up again within the next year.

During a meeting this week of the Macon County Health Department board, representatives from HZ Ops Holding, Inc. sought members' support to reopening the Pershing Road store.

Wed like you to grant a reopening, said Nick Freeman with HZ Ops Holding. Were here pleading for your cooperation, your blessings  and to be part of this community once again.

The board voted unanimously to approve the restaurant's ability to reapply for a permit.

Plans include approximately $500,000 worth of improvements and are estimated to take nearly a year to complete.

The representatives said they understand any concerns the community and business owners may have. This has been a big black eye for us, Freeman said. We want to make it right.

The Macon County Health Department noted dozens of violations in an inspection conducted in June 2020, including uncooked chicken being kept at unsafe temperatures and cross-contamination risks. The business license was revoked after the final inspection. The restaurant had failed a previous inspection less than a year prior to the closing.

The building had several issues, including faulty plumbing and broken equipment and appliances, as well as a pest infestation.

The Houston-based company operates other fast food restaurant brands, including Taco Bell, Wendys and Burger King.

Board members cited several concerns, including the group repeating past mistakes, the need to hire proper management, and staffing issues affecting many restaurants throughout the country.

We have to build a new team, said Mir Ali, with HZ Ops Holding, Inc. We have to come up with a plan.

The company purchased the local Popeyes restaurant in 2017 without studying the facility, the representatives said. Shame on us for buying it blindly, Ali said. Within 45 days it already had a few existing conditions.

Since the representatives have come on board, the company has revamped many of their restaurants. We really need to work with these people and give them the resources, Freeman said. Were willing to reinvest into the community. And you hold us to it.

Contact Donnette Beckett at (217) 421-6983. Follow her on Twitter: @donnettebHR

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DECATUR  A Decatur police officer arriving Thursday evening to assist with an ongoing pursuit discharged his weapon in the direction of a suspect who was pointing a handgun at him, officials said.

Police Chief Shane Brandel said in a news release there were no injuries reported in the officer-involved shooting and that Patrick A. Hutton, 26, of Decatur was taken into custody on preliminary charges of aggravated assault of a police officer, possession of a firearm by a felon, armed violence, aggravated fleeing of police. Hutton remains held in the Macon County Jail with bail set at $2.5 million, requiring the posting of $250,000 to be released.

According to a news release, an officer was stopped in traffic in the area of Jasper and Eldorado streets at approximately 7:51 p.m. when he observed Hutton, the sole occupant of a vehicle near him, holding a handgun.

The officer eventually got behind the vehicle, at which time the officer heard a gunshot and observed the driver with his arm out of the window with a gun in his hand.

The release stated the officer then attempted to conduct a traffic stop and a pursuit ensued. When it reached the area of Fairview Plaza, another responding officer was arriving in the area. It was then that officials say Hutton pointed his gun at the second officer, prompting the officer to discharge his weapon. Hutton was not hit by the officers gunfire.

The news release states Hutton continued to flee from officers and eventually stopped at Fairview Avenue and Eldorado Street, where he was taken into custody without further incident. A firearm was recovered at the scene of the stop.

The investigation is ongoing.

Contact Scott Perry at (217) 421-7976. Follow him on Twitter: @scottperry66

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Yelp is closing three of its U.S. offices after finding most of its employees prefer to work remotely.

In a blog post Thursday, Yelp Co-Founder and CEO Jeremy Stoppelman said the company will close its offices in New York, Washington and Chicago on July 29. The online review and reservation company also plans to downsize its office in Phoenix.

The offices the company is closing were its most "consistently underutilized," with only about 2% of workspaces in use each week, Stoppelman said.

San Francisco-based Yelp announced a remote-first work model in February 2021. Stoppelman said Yelp has proven it can be successful with a remote workforce, noting that the company achieved record revenue of just over $1 billion in 2021.

"Yelp continues to experience the benefits of a remote workplace and it's the clear path forward for us," Steppelman wrote in the blog post.

Stoppelman said internal surveys show 86% of Yelp workers prefer to work remotely all or most of the time, while 87% said that working remotely makes them more effective. Since the company began reopening its offices about nine months ago, only 1% of the company's global workforce is coming into an office every day.

Stoppelman said the remote-first policy has also helped with recruiting.

"Our workforce was previously concentrated in the areas where we have offices, and now we have employees spread across every state in the U.S. and four countries," Stoppelman wrote.

Yelp, which has 4,400 employees, said offices in San Francisco, London, Toronto and other locations will remain open for now.

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New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

Thunderstorms likely this morning. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms this afternoon. High 91F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies. Low near 70F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph.
A local parent is leading an 11th-hour effort to try and prevent a school closure in Sullivan County.

This spring, Heather Imburgias son Declan finished sixth grade at the Innovation Academy of Northeast Tennessee, a sixth- to eighth-grade science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) school in Blountville.

This August, Declan will have to find another school to attend if the Sullivan County Board of Commissioners approves the school systems budget that excludes funding for the academy, as passed by the school board this month.

Imburgia says she feels like there wasnt enough time for discussion about the school closing, and a more open dialogue could have led to ways of funding the school.

I get the complications of budgeting and of projected budgeting, I just think that the real fail here was no official opportunity for public discussion and for public action to create a plan to keep it open, Imburgia said. We would have had community support  we are having community support.

Last Saturday, Imburgia launched an online petition calling on the Sullivan County Board of Education to reverse its decision to close the academy, although she admits its a longshot.

What we need is for the school board to reverse that budget, that way Innovation Academy is technically open, so that we can apply for grants and funding, Imburgia said. I know that thats difficult and probably not likely, but thats what we are asking for.

So far, the petition has more than 400 signatures and two dozen comments from signees.

Cutting IA only hurts our children, wrote Catherine Ellis on the Change.org page about why she signed the petition. We need to focus our investments on them, not strip them of these opportunities.

IA should be supported, commented Nancy Pierce. It should be the crown of the school system, not shut down.

What the Innovation Academy also meant to the kids who attended it only adds to the frustration for parents like Imburgia, who said its students generally benefit more from the hands-on type of learning the school provided.

A traditional classroom setting for these types of students hasn't always been successful, Imburgia said. (The academy) is a real gem and could be an incredibly successful program.

The budget for the academy, which was located at Sullivan Central Middle, was about $425,000, according to Imburgia, who said it enrolled 75 kids.

One school board member  Paul Robinson  voted against approving the budget.

School Board Chairman Randall Jones said the school's closure was one of several cost-cutting moves by the school board to cope with less revenue due to declining enrollment in Sullivan County schools.

"The Innovation Academy Program was closed when the BOE (board of education) approved the GP (general purpose) budget on June 6, 2022. The closure was one of several cost saving cuts made when this budget was approved," Jones wrote in an email. "The 2022-2023 budget is approximately $4 million less than the 2021-2022 budget. These reductions were necessary in order to develop a balanced budget with the declining enrollment and the available revenues. The County Commission will vote on the total general purpose budget not on the individual line items. Without increased revenues, there is no money available to reinstitute any reductions in the GP budget approved by the BOE."

The budget has not yet been approved by the Sullivan County Commission, but Mayor Richard Venable said Thursday that it will likely be approved sometime in early July at a full commission meeting. Venable noted cutting the schools funding was not a decision made by the commission.

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The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn a constitutional right to abortion won't have any immediate impact in Virginia, where abortion remains legal up to the third trimester of pregnancy if doctors believe there is a health risk to the patient.

But GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin said Friday that he wants to ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Although Democrats pledged to fight that effort, the governor potentially has the votes in the General Assembly to do it after a Democratic senator, Joe Morrissey of Richmond, announced support for restricting abortion.

The high court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade also means more people seeking abortions are expected to travel to Virginia from other states, 26 of whom either had "trigger laws" to ban abortion if Roe was overturned or are expected to quickly enact bans or restrictions.

Youngkin said he asked a group of Republican legislators to work with his administration on abortion legislation they will introduce in the session that starts in January.

"The Supreme Court of the United States has rightfully returned power to the people and their elected representatives in the states," he said in a statement. "I'm proud to be a pro-life Governor and plan to take every action I can to protect life."

Youngkin said he has asked Sens. Siobhan Dunnavant, R-Henrico, and Steve Newman, R-Lynchburg, and Dels. Kathy Byron, R-Bedford and Margaret Ransone, R-Westmoreland to "join us in an effort to bring together legislators and advocates from across the Commonwealth on this issue to find areas where we can agree and chart the most successful path forward.

While House GOP leaders who control the chamber support restricting abortion, Democrats, who hold a 21-19 edge in the state Senate, pledge to defend abortion rights.

This outrageous ruling does not change the law here in Virginia," said state Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond. "Because of our strong state laws, abortion remains legal in Virginia. As other states face restrictions, Virginia will remain a safe haven for abortion care. We welcome everyone to make their reproductive health decisions free of government interference.

But Morrissey issued a statement Friday saying he supports legal abortion only "up to the moment a fetus can feel pain." If he sided with the Senate's 19 Republicans next year, GOP Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears would be a tie-breaking vote to pass abortion restrictions in the legislature.

Youngkin spokeswoman Macaulay Porter said by email that the legislative work group would prioritize "protecting life when babies begin to feel pain in the womb, including a 15-week threshold."

Experts say such "fetal pain" laws are scientifically unfounded.

"There is no science and evidence backing any of this stuff. ... There's no evidence that there's fetal pain at this point," said Terry McGovern, chair of Columbia University's Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health. "I feel like they have completely just disregarded science and evidence."

Morrissey did side with his fellow Democrats on an abortion vote a week ago. Youngkin wanted to end state funding to cover a small number of abortions - poor women pregnant with a fetus that has "a gross and totally incapacitating physical deformity or with a gross and totally incapacitating mental deficiency.

Morrissey and Senate Democrats blocked Youngkin's attempt to cut that funding.

***

The end of Roe means states now choose whether to ban abortion and how to restrict it. Tennessee has a trigger law to make abortion illegal soon, West Virginia has a law banning abortion, and abortion is now banned in Kentucky because of a trigger law.

That means more people traveling to Virginia from other states for an abortion. The state has about 15 clinics.

Whole Woman's Health, a Virginia abortion provider, has already helped about 100 women travel from Texas to Virginia for an abortion after lawmakers there banned most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.

Whole Womans Health will continue its long and proud tradition of providing high-quality, compassionate, personal abortion care in the remaining states where pregnant peoples needs and rights are still respected and protected under law," Amy Hagstrom Miller, Whole Woman's Health president and CEO, said in a statement after Friday's 6-3 ruling was released.

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia and other organizations had already been working to educate women that abortion would remain legal here, after a draft version of Friday's high court opinion was leaked in May.

pwilson@timesdispatch.com (804) 649-6061 Twitter: @patrickmwilson Staff writer Sabrina Moreno contributed to this report
An event by the Melungeon Heritage Association this week will feature an author signing event on Friday at 2 p.m. at the Parish House as well as a series of lectures that will be held on Saturday, starting at 10 a.m., at the Virginia Museum of Natural History.

The beginnings of the Melungeon people, and other mixed ancestries people, is in the 1600s, 1700s with those early intersections between Europeans, Africans and Native Americans, Melungeon Heritage Association President Heather Andolina said. It is certainly a lesser known history in America, and I think some of it is because they were non-white people.

The Melungeon people originated through the very beginnings of colonization in America, writer Darlene Nixon said. The mixture of European, African and indigenous people began to face discrimination and self-isolated to shield themselves from threats.

Many of these communities were located in very isolated places, for example, Appalachian mountains, Andolina added. I think thats also why theyre not as well known, because these communities really kept to themselves.

Andolina said that one of the ways to know whether someone is of Melungeon ancestry is by surnames. You can see where these groups of peoples, through their surnames, migrated and they kept migrating through Virginia, North Carolina, even from South Carolina eventually into the Appalachia region, she added.

Melungeon peoples characteristics varied because of their mixed descent, Nixon said, ranging from dark to blonde hair, lighter to darker skin and a wide variety of eye colors. Many people dont find out that they have Melungeon ancestry until adulthood, she said.

The term Melungeon is said to come from the French word for mixed, which is melange. The term is loosely associated with Appalachia, Andolina, Southeastern Kentucky, northeastern Tennessee, parts of North Carolina and of course parts of western Virginia, she said.

The Melungeon Heritage Association is a non-profit organization that documents and preserves the history and cultural legacy of mixed ancestry peoples of the southern and eastern United States, Andolina said. Our organization does mostly focus on the Melungeon people, but we do expand out to other peoples of mixed ancestries in the southeast because the Melungeon people are tied  to other mixed ancestries like the Lumbees, the Red Bones and the Brass Ankles.

The main goal of the event in Martinsville is to bring people together who have this unique ancestry, whether it is Melungeon or just mixed ancestry in general  We bring in authors, historians, researchers, people who  make it educational, Andolina said.

Nixon is one of the authors who will be at the author event at the Parish House on Friday. Her book is called Our Side of the Mountain: A Pocahontas to Melungeon Revolution and it tells the story of what her mother remembers about growing up Melungeon.

Writing has always been her passion, Nixon said, and through conversation with her mother and grandmother she was able to put together a fascinating story recounting their stories following day-to-day life as her mother remembers it.

Some of the cultural distinction of Melungeons are living off of the land, being superstitious, not bathing every day but washing their feet every night and the way and reasons that they kept animals, she said.

Nixon added that the cultural habits that she listed will vary depending on who is asked, probably having similarities but differences deepening on the region they are discussing.

The idea is to tell a little bit of a story about these people that are coming to Martinsville and why you might want to go and learn a little bit more about it, Nixon said. We want to benefit our authors and shine a light on the Melungeon heritage  That we exist and that we are proud people of our culture and heritage.

Monique Holland is a reporter for the Martinsville Bulletin. She can be reached at monique.holland@martinsvillebulletin.com or at 276-734-9603.
No longer banished from network TV, the Daytime Emmys hands out trophies from Pasadena. Maya Rudolph has money to burn in the Apple TV+ comedy Loot. PBS seeks The Great American Recipe in a multicultural food competition. The latest Downton Abbey movie begins streaming on Peacock.

9/8c

Series Premiere

Maya Rudolph is, as ever, priceless as poor little rich woman Molly Novak. Money couldnt buy her lovethe divorce settlement from her cheating ex (Severances Adam Scott) was $87 billionbut maybe good works from the foundation she never even knew she had could make her a better person. The workplace comedy features Poses Michaela Jae Rodriguez as the foundations skeptical executive director, Joel Kim Booster as Mollys hilariously disdainful assistant, Ron Funches as her delightfully upbeat cousin and The Conners Nat Faxon as the hopelessly smitten, hopelessly square accountant who figures, Nobody ends up choosing the dependable guy. The comedy is uneven, but the feel-good vibe is worth its weight in bullion.

Series Premiere 9/8c

A new food competition celebrates the diversity of American cooking with contestants from divergent backgroundsVietnamese, Southern soul food, Italian, Syrian, Hungarian, Mexican and more. They display signature dishes each week to impress judges Graham Elliot, Leah Cohen and Tiffany Derry. Far from a cutthroat Top Chef battle, Recipe dishes out personal stories as the contestants describe family recipes and other inspirations. The winner will have one of their dishes displayed on the cover of The Great American Recipe Cookbook, which will include recipes from all of the shows cooks and judgesand host Alejandra Ramos, Today food and lifestyle contributor.

Movie Premiere

If you (like me) missed your chance to watch one of your favorite shows on the big screen for the second time, Peacock adds the recent movie sequel to its Downton library of six seasons, the 2019 film and the 2016 The Manners of Downton Abbey special currently streaming. In A New Era, a movie crew sets up shop inside the Abbey while some of the Crawleys and their beloved staff head to the south of France for a holidayand a chance to snoop into Countess Dowager Violets (Maggie Smith) scandalous past.

The race to Mars heats up, as does the pace of this gripping alt-history space drama as loyalties are tested when Helios tries to poach more NASA talent for its own mission aboard the retrofitted Polaris (now Phoenix) vessel. As the timeline for launch moves up, NASA chief Margo (Wrenn Schmidt) draws closer to her Soviet counterpart Sergei (Piotr Adamczyk) in ways that could prove perilous to both.

Inside Friday TV:

Come Dance with Me (8/7c, CBS): In the dance contests season finale, the final three teams perform an encore of their routine the judges liked the most while taking on tricky new choreography in hopes of nabbing the $100,000 prize. The judges and choreographers also get to strut their stuff.

American Anthems (10/9c, PBS, check local listings at pbs.org): In a literal demonstration of singing someones praises, a new series sends country stars out to local communities to meet everyday heroes, learning their stories that become inspirations for a new song. In the opener, Jennifer Nettles surprises the founder of a cancer foundation with just such an uplifting new tune.

Trevor: The Musical (streaming on Disney+): 1994s Oscar-winning coming-of-age (and coming out) short film inspired this off-Broadway musical. Holden William Hagelberger , 13, stars as teenage Trevor, whose story of self-discovery and self-worth led to the creation of the non-profit The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention and mental health organization for LGBTQ youth.

, 13, stars as teenage Trevor, whose story of self-discovery and self-worth led to the creation of the non-profit The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention and mental health organization for LGBTQ youth. Rise (streaming on Disney+): An uplifting sports docudrama tells the origin story of NBA stars and brothers Giannis, Thanasis and Kostas Antetokounmpos and how their family emigrated from Nigeria to Greece, where they discovered the sport that would take them to the big time.

and and how their family emigrated from Nigeria to Greece, where they discovered the sport that would take them to the big time. Money Heist: KoreaJoint Economic Area (streaming on Netflix): The Spanish cult thriller gets a new translation with a series set in the Korean Peninsula, where a man known as the Professor assembles a team to raid the Korea Unified Mint.

Chloe (streaming on Prime Video): Erin Doherty (The Crowns Princess Anne) stars in a complex six-part psychological thriller as a woman obsessed with the seemingly charmed life of Chloe, a childhood friend whose death by apparent suicide prompts her to pretend to adopt a new identity and infiltrate Chloes inner circle.
For N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore, it was long overdue and a major win for protecting life. In Gov. Roy Coopers eyes, it represents a right tragically ripped away.

Fridays landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade and reversing the U.S. Constitutional right to abortion means these and other state leaders will be in a position to shape the future of abortion rights in North Carolina.

Hours after the decision was handed down, lawmakers provided some insight into what that future will hold.

In a statement Friday, Senate Leader Phil Berger said the Senate will take immediate action to ensure North Carolinas late-term abortion ban is reinstated.

He added, Senate Republicans will determine whether other steps are appropriate to strengthen our pro-life laws, but I do not anticipate legislative action prior to adjournment.

Moore said the legislature is unlikely to address abortion during the current session. He said lawmakers would wait until next year, after the elections. North Carolinians can also expect pro-life protections to be a top priority of the legislature when we return to our normal legislative session in January, Moore said.

North Carolinas Democratic leaders intend to push back on efforts to curtail abortion rights. Gov. Cooper said in his statement that he would continue to trust women to make their own medical decisions as we fight to keep politicians out of the doctors exam room.

Sen. Dan Blue, Democratic leader in the Senate, tweeted: Ive spent much of my adult life working to expand freedoms and protect rights. Today, in North Carolina, we trust women. We need to protect that trust by protecting the right to legal abortion care. We cant go back.

The U.S. Supreme Courts action is very disappointing, and women should have the right to make their own personal reproductive decisions, State Senator Paul Lowe Jr. said. He is a Democrat who represents Forsyth County.

A sobering moment

The end of the federally protected right to abortion was a cause for celebration for at least some of North Carolinas state leaders.

I am overjoyed with the decision by our Supreme Court, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, a Republican, said in a statement. For decades we have been praying for a day like today, and it is finally here. I have experienced the pain of abortion in my own life and know the long-term effects it can have on families.

Robinson has spoken about how his wife, Yolanda, had an abortion prior to their marriage. It was the hardest decision we have ever made, and sadly, we made the wrong one, Robinson said in a video he posted to social media.

Robinson said now is the time for the state to carefully craft legislation that will safeguard the life and health of all our citizens, born and unborn.

Not all Republicans shared Robinsons spirit of elation.

Rep. Jay Adams, a legislator from solidly Republican Catawba County, said he has mixed feelings on the issue and called it a sobering moment.

While he identifies himself as pro-life, Adams also said, I also have seen all of the ramifications of unwanted pregnancies over my lifetime, and I have a very broad view of the matter.

He added, I recognize there are circumstances where people have extremely difficult decisions to make and I would prefer that they have some options, but Im not on the other side of the thing where I think its wholesale whatever you want to do up until birth of the child.

State Senator Joyce Krawiec is a Republican who represents Davie and Forsyth counties.

There is little chance that North Carolina will be able to pass any more restrictive abortion laws over the veto of Governor Cooper, she said. Republicans do not have veto-proof majorities. We need support from Democrats to override a veto, and that wont happen. The governor vetoed a bill to protect babies who survived an abortion attempt and no Democrats voted for the override. If a Born Alive Abortion Survivor bill couldnt pass, there is no chance of anything more restrictive being passed.

Rep. Mitchell Setzer, who also represents part of Catawba County, said he opposes abortion with exceptions for rape, incest and to save the life of the pregnant woman.

His initial reaction was one of uncertainty as to what the decision will mean for state law. I dont know where we stand at this moment as far as the general statutes in North Carolina, Setzer said. Do we default back to something from 1973 when Roe v. Wade was first issued? Theres questions. There will have to be legislative action, I am assuming, but I dont know what that will be. This is new for all of us.

Both Adams and Setzer emphasized the sensitivity of the matter and said it would require a deliberate process.

This is going to take a lot of work to arrive at some kind of consensus, Setzer said.

Speculating on where things will end up, Adams said, I think that North Carolina is going to come up with something that is, it wont be satisfactory to the pro-choice people. I dont think it will be completely satisfactory to them. But on the other hand, it probably wont be satisfactory to the pro-life people to a certain extent.

Kevin Griffin is the City of Hickory reporter at the Hickory Daily Record.

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Bosch, a leading global supplier of technology and services, ended its 2021 fiscal year with AED1.72 billion ($470 million) in consolidated sales across the Middle East, thus logging strong growth of 17% compared to the previous year.

Meanwhile, in the first quarter of 2022, the sales revenue of the supplier of technology and services rose 5.2%. For the year as a whole, Bosch expects sales to grow more than 6%, and to achieve an EBIT margin in the range of 3% to 4%  and this despite the likelihood of considerable burdens, especially due to rising costs for energy, raw materials, and logistics.

Commenting on the results, Per Johansson, General Manager of Bosch Middle East said: "2021 was a special year for us, with many major milestones paving the road to achieving our growth last year. Being in the region for several decades now, Bosch is turning challenges into opportunities by developing technology that is Invented for life, and in turn, improving the quality of life for people across a number of markets. As we continue to expand our regional presence and provide consumers with value through best-in-class solutions and advanced features, we are sure that this positive trend will continue through 2022." The number of associates employed at Bosch across the Middle East stood at 183 as of December 31, 2021.

Leveraging opportunities

In 2021, Bosch's Automotive Aftermarket business division registered significant growth in the Middle East. Bosch's ability to fill voids in the after sales market, following logistic challenges faced by automotive spare-parts companies, enabled the Mobility Solutions Automotive Aftermarket division at Bosch to perform successfully during the year. Furthermore, despite global supply issues, Bosch's Power Tools business division outperformed the market, with robust double-digit growth in the region, compared to the previous year.

Moreover, Boschs Building Technologies division also grew by double digits in the Middle East in 2021, attributing its success to a rebound in almost all countries that Bosch is operating in across the region. This was further supported by the divisions focus on several key industries including governmental, transportation, hospitality, finance, and banking.

The Thermotechnology division, part of Boschs Energy and Building Technology business sector additionally registered remarkable expansion in the Middle East during the prior year Consequently, Bosch strengthened its foothold in Jordan by participating in key projects across diverse sectors including pharmaceutical, hospitality, construction, residential, commercial, food, education, textile, and packaging, ensuring sustainable growth despite market volatility.

Outlook for 2022

Despite the dynamic economic uncertainties such as the war in Ukraine and its implications across the globe, Bosch has been striving to build on its legacy in the Middle East and plans to continue its growth in 2022.

Over the last two years, markets across the region and its industries have faced unprecedented challenges due to the pandemic, which have been compounded by supply chain disruptions and, most recently, a global semiconductor shortage, all of which have had a cascading effect on the automotive and technology industries, among others. As the demand for increased connectivity in technology grows, Bosch continues to serve the society with its innovative solutions that are cleaner, greener, and more connected than ever before.

By utilising exponential technologies, GCC countries are progressively emphasising the importance of digital in accelerating economic diversification and promoting sustainability. Technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, cloud computing, virtual reality, and the Internet of Things are enabling long-term reforms and supporting the national agendas of key markets within the region.

Each step toward digitalisation undertaken across organisations contribute to the public sector's maturity in delivering sustainable public service growth in line with the fourth industrial revolution.

Strategic course

In 2021, Bosch achieved significant growth in sales and result despite a difficult environment. The successful outcome of the 2021 business year bolsters our confidence as we tackle the challenging environment of the current year, said Dr Stefan Hartung, chairman of the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH.

One of the considerable uncertainties is the war in Ukraine and all its implications. In his view, the current situation highlights the pressure on policymakers and society to become less dependent on fossil fuels and to vigorously pursue the development of new sources of energy.

For this reason, he said, the Bosch Group is systematically continuing its efforts to mitigate global warming, despite the challenging economic environment. In addition, Hartung announced Bosch will be investing some three billion euros over three years in climate-neutral technology such as electrification and hydrogen.

Electrification route to climate neutrality

He believes electrification is the fastest route to climate neutrality, provided it is based on green electricity. That is why Bosch is driving sustainable mobility forward: in 2021, the companys orders relating to electromobility exceeded ten billion euros for the first time.

But Hartung also stressed that hydrogen is needed as well. Industrial policy should focus on making all sectors of the economy hydrogen-ready, he said. In the interest of effective climate action, Bosch is also entering the components business for hydrogen electrolysis. The company plans to invest nearly 500 million euros ($526.22 million) in this new area of business by the end of the decade, half of it by the time of market launch, which is planned for 2025.

At the same time, the Bosch chairman announced that, over the next three years, the company will be investing another ten billion euros in digitally transforming its business. Digitalisation also has a special role to play in sustainability  and our solutions start from this premise, Hartung said. This year alone, moreover, Bosch plans to take on 10,000 new software engineers worldwide.-- TradeArabia News Service
HICKORY  The Catawba Valley Interfaith Council announced that to celebrate its annual membership meeting this year it has the privilege of screening the documentary film, "Mission: Joy  Finding Happiness in Troubled Times," an insight into the friendship between His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, and Bishop Desmond Tutu.

Following the film, the Rev. Christy Lohr-Sapp and Buddhist teacher John Esse will offer comments from a Christian and Buddhist perspective. Time permitting, comments or questions will be entertained from the audience as well.

The event will be held Thursday, June 30, at 7 p.m. in the Belk Centrum auditorium on the Lenoir-Rhyne University campus. The public is invited.

Rabbi Dennis Jones, CVIC president, said, At a time when our nation seems more divided than it has been in our lifetimes, what could be more needed than for individuals of faith and principles to come together, form and celebrate relationships across religious, national, ethnic, political party lines, or any other barrier which would seem to separate us. As human beings, we have much more that unites us than that divides us.

A brief business portion of the meeting will follow the filming and discussion to conduct the election, by those who are CVIC members, of new CVIC Board representatives for the upcoming 2022-2023 year. CVIC is a local not-for-profit organization of faith-based and secular communities in the Catawba Valley serving as a catalyst for hope and cooperating for the purpose of dialogue, information sharing, and celebration. Their purpose is to create a more compassionate community and honor the rich diversity of religious, spiritual, and secular traditions in the community.
States will now have control over abortion laws and regulations with the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on Friday.

The decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling from 1973, takes away the constitutional right to abortion.

North Carolina-based organizations and local Democratic and Republican representatives weighed in on the decision.

Lynn Dorfman, chair of the Catawba County Democratic Party, said she is disappointed in the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

I am resolved to elect leaders who will stand up for womens rights, Dorfman said. We need to elect leaders and keep leaders in power who believe in supporting womens rights.

Catawba County Commissioner Sherry E. Butler, who is a Republican, said she agrees with the U.S. Supreme Courts decision. She said she hopes North Carolina leaders will decide to ban abortion in the state.

I applaud the Supreme Court justices for taking a bold stand and doing whats right in Gods eyes, Butler said. Life starts at conception.

The North Carolina Medical Society position is that an abortion is a personal health and medical decision to be made by a qualified doctor and the patient, CEO Chip Baggett said in a news release.

According to the North Carolina Medical Society website, the organization also supports patients being fully informed about abortion and alternatives to abortion, the right for physicians to not be required to perform or assist in an abortion if it is against their personal beliefs and for physicians to not be required to notify a minor patients guardians of the patients pregnancy or a procedure to interrupt the patients pregnancy without the patients consent.

Todays Supreme Court ruling means the lives of countless unborn children will be saved from abortion, and for that we are profoundly thankful, Bishop Peter Jugis with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte said in a news release. The Catholic Church has always professed that every human life is a gift from God and holds inestimable value, and even with this step forward, our work to protect the dignity of all human life, from conception to natural death, continues.

Jugis said the ruling means the church would need to increase its efforts to support women and couples facing unexpected or difficult pregnancies. He said the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte partners with agencies across 46 counties in western North Carolina to provide resources, such as health care, housing, food and transportation, to pregnant women and new mothers.

Supporters of anti-abortion laws want to reduce the number of women who seek the procedure and discourage them from going to other states. At least 276,000 women terminated their pregnancies outside their home state between 2012 and 2017, according to a 2019 Associated Press analysis of data collected from state reports and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About 630,000 abortions were reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2019, the latest data available, although information from some states is missing.

More than half of U.S. abortions are now done with pills rather than surgery, according to the Guttmacher Institute. The trend has spiked during the pandemic with the help of telemedicine. In 2020, pills accounted for 54% of all U.S. abortions, up from roughly 44% in 2019.

Americans have nuanced attitudes on the topic. In an AP-NORC poll conducted last June, 61% said abortion should be legal in most or all circumstances in the first trimester of a pregnancy. However, 65% said abortion should usually be illegal in the second trimester and 80% said that about the third trimester. Many Americans said the procedure should be allowable under at least some circumstances even during the second or third trimesters.

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In his letter, Verne Harvey talks about the onslaught of religion. Why are people worried about the onslaught of religion," especially Christianity, that teaches us not to kill, yet you are not concerned about those hell-bent on defending the onslaught of abortion which, by all rational definitions, is taking a human life? Something sounds backwards there.

Who is speaking up for the right of that unborn baby? Why do those who like to complain about oil companies or other corporations making too much money yet are silent and refuse to consider how much money the abortion industry takes in? If the abortions done today were only about saving the life of the mother, or in the cases of incest or rape, I would bet we would not have the millions of abortions that are and have been performed since the enactment of Roe.

Then you have Brian Cooke, in his letter, stating that our country is founded and guided by the Constitution, not the Bible. Perhaps Brian might want to consider the words of our premier founding father, George Washington, who, himself claimed that morality is and should be the basis of laws. The whole experiment called the United States of America was founded on Christian principles, declaring in the Declaration of Independence that our rights and our freedoms are given to us by the Divine Creator.

It is largely because of Christians and religious values that the United States even exists in the first place. Roe vs. Wade was bad law then and is bad law now. And no, it will not drive women to back-alley-coat-hanger abortions, at least not any with any sense. That kind of talk is just rhetoric and distraction so you wont consider what is really happening.

I would agree with you in that we do not need a theocracy and that is not what the Constitution, the Declaration, or even Christians today call for. But we do say we should stand up for what is right and just.

The First Amendment was written to protect the church from the government, not the other way around. If our laws and our government are not based on Biblical values, whose values would you rather have them based upon?

Michael Davis

Conover
Greenhouse gases are emitted though human activity, and they accumulate in the atmosphere. University of California, Davis, professor Frank Mitloehner describes this layer of gases as a blanket that retains solar heat, which serves a good purpose.

Without this blanket, life on earth would not be possible. It would be too cold, Mitloehner said during the June Hoards Dairyman webinar.

The problem, he continued, is that the blanket is becoming too thick, because we are producing too many greenhouse gases.

Not all greenhouse gases are the same, and Mitloehner explained some of the reasons why methane may be unfairly judged at times.

It is true that methane is a potent greenhouse gas, Mitloehner said, calling the gas fast and furious. It is furious because of its potency, being 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide. On the flip side, it has a much shorter lifespan. While carbon dioxide will stay in the atmosphere for 1,000 years, methane will remain just one decade.

After about a decade, the methane is gone, Mitloehner pointed out. The same is not happening for other greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide or nitrous oxide. They dont have atmospheric removal, and that has a significant impact on how the gas warms the planet, he added.

He illustrated this concept using a commute to work. He said if a person lives 20 miles from their job, every time they drive to work, they burn gas and put carbon dioxide into the air. Each day, this adds new carbon to the existing stock of carbon. It collects over time and stays in the air for 1,000 years.

Methane is often treated like a stock gas that accumulates, but Mitloehner said it is a flow gas which means it is both produced and destroyed.

By cutting back methane emissions, we can have an immediate impact on global warming, and reduced methane production can offset the warming effects of other long-lived gases like carbon dioxide, helping bring dairy toward climate neutrality. Mitloehner said that business as usual on farms wont cut it, though. It will take innovation and adoption of new technologies to achieve the sustainability goals being set by various organizations, states, and food processors.

To learn more about methane and its role in global warming, watch the Hoards Dairyman webinar, Dairys path to climate neutrality. The sponsor for this webinar was FeedworksUSA.

To comment, email your remarks to intel@hoards.com.

(c) Hoard's Dairyman Intel 2022

June 23, 2022
National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom has signed an export contract with the Moldovan state company Energocom, according to which it plans to supply 85,200 MWh of electricity to Moldova in June at a price of $77 per 1 MWh.

Energoatom has great potential to increase the production of electricity, so its export to Moldova, and subsequently to the neighboring EU countries, is an extremely promising area of the company's trading activities," the company said on its Telegram channel on Friday.

At the same time, thanks to the export, Energoatom will receive an additional source for financing of public service obligations (PSO), according to which the population is supplied with electricity.

As Energoatom said, Ukrainian exports will allow Moldova to diversify electricity supplies and strengthen the country's energy security, since its power consumption largely depends on generation at the Moldavskaya State District Power Plant of Russia.

According to the results of daily auctions, on June 4 and on June 5, Energoatom bought 150 MW of interstate section towards Moldova on a flat schedule, another 200 MW on a flat schedule was bought by PJSC Ukrhydroenergo, which has been exporting electricity to Moldova since May 12.
The State Service of Geology and Mineral Resources of Ukraine and the Polish Geological Institute - National Research Institute signed a memorandum of understanding in the sector of geology and mineral resources in Warsaw, Roman Opimakh, the head of the state geological service, said on Facebook.

"Priority in cooperation will be given to the digitalization of secondary geological information and the establishment of management of primary geoinformation according to EU standards, regulation of activities with geothermal energy sources," Opimakh said.

In turn, as the Embassy of Ukraine in Poland reported on Facebook, the signed memorandum will contribute to the development of cooperation in the exploration work of both countries and will accelerate the attraction of Polish investments in the field of mining on the territory of Ukraine, which will be important in the restoration of Ukraine as a whole.

Opimakh informed the format of cooperation between the parties provides for research and work on the geological study of the subsoil, the exchange of experience on the unification of legislation in the mining sector, as well as the study of the conditions for waste disposal and storage of useful substances in geological structures.

In addition, a joint analysis of the best practices for the collection, storage and open access to geological data and the involvement of experts to conduct a feasibility study regarding the prospects for the development of Ukrainian deposits of critical raw materials in preparation for the green transition are envisaged.

"The document was adopted for a period of five years. The signing took place in the presence of the Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Climate and Environment of the Republic of Poland, chief geologist of the country Piotr Dziadzio," Opimakh said.

As part of his working visit to Warsaw, the head of the Ukrainian agency also visited the Polish Geological Institute - National Research Institute, where he presented current investment proposals in the field of subsoil use in Ukraine (auction proposals).
Customers expect personalisation during every brand interaction  but they dont trust brands to keep their personal data secure and to use it responsibly, according to a new report from customer engagement platform Twilio.

According to Twilio thats the dilemma companies everywhere are currently facing, when it released its third annual State of Personalisation Report 2022 which found that 62% of consumers expect personalisation, saying that a brand will lose their loyalty if their experience is not personalised  meanwhile, 49% will become repeat buyers if personalisation is offered - yet only 40% of consumers say they trust brands to use their data responsibly and keep it safe.

Twilio says its report shows lack of trust is increasingly affecting consumer buying decisions, and 60% of consumers say trustworthiness and transparency are the most important traits of a brand, up from 55% in 2021.

Delivering personalised experiences requires personal data, so changing consumer attitudes towards sharing data online creates a paradox for businesses.

First-party data, or data collected directly from customers with their consent, is optimal for privacy. According to the Twilio report, 63% of consumers say they are fine with personalisation, as long as brands are using their own data and not data purchased or rented from third parties.

Twilios report also states that:

Consumer privacy a generational challenge  and an opportunity

Companies have long rented customer relationships from advertisers and social networks. These companies collect behaviour and demographic data and then resell it as targetable audiences. But sweeping privacy regulations  at both the government and corporate levels  are forcing companies to shift from renting to owning their customer relationships.

This pivot is not a simple one. Half of the companies Twilio surveyed said recent changes to data privacy regulations have made personalisation more difficult. But with Google set to join Firefox and Safari in banning third-party cookies by the end of 2023, the shift to first-party data is no longer optional.

Many companies are already responding to these changes in consumer preferences, regulations, and technology, with 43% of business leaders embracing first-party data because it provides better privacy for customers.

Data and technology hurdles to personalisation at scale

Technology remains a hurdle for many companies. Tech giants have fleets of data scientists and massive budgets to achieve personalisation at scale, but Twilios report shows the majority of businesses are still struggling to achieve omnichannel personalisation, despite 6 out of 10 respondents reporting increased investment in personalisation in 2022. The most common barriers include lack of technology, unclear ROI, lack of accurate data, and organisational impediments.

Technologies such as customer data platforms give businesses the tools they need to achieve compliance while managing first-party data for personalisation. Customer data platforms collect first-party data at every customer touchpoint to create a single, unified view of the customer. Business leaders are embracing such technologies, with 53% investing in better technology to manage customer data. These companies are equipped to build deeper customer relationships.

A customer data platform is the brain behind a companys customer engagement strategy, said Kathryn Murphy, GM of Twilio Engage.

The ability to act on first-party data in real-time empowers businesses to go beyond the surface level to deliver hyper-personalisation at scale.

Twilios State of Personalisation Report is based on two surveys conducted by Method Communications between April and May 2022 - a consumer survey targeted adults who purchased something online in the past six months and a business survey targeted B2B and B2C business managers and above who are familiar with their company's customer experience, marketing tech, or customer data strategies.

Twilio reports that there were a total of 3,450 respondents from Australia, Brazil, Colombia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, Spain, United Kingdom and United States, with a minimum of 250 respondents from each country.

The full report can be downloaded here.
Samsung Electronics Australia has been ordered by the Federal Court to pay $14 million in penalties after it admitted misleading consumers about the suitability of various Samsung Galaxy phones to be submerged in pool or sea water.

The order to pay the penalty follows proceedings brought by the competition watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

The false or misleading claims were made about the water resistance of the S7, S7 Edge, A5 (2017), A7 (2017), S8, S8 Plus and Note 8 Samsung Galaxy phones (Galaxy phones) - and there were more than 3.1 million of these Galaxy phones sold in Australia.

The ACCC statement notes: Between March 2016 and October 2018, Samsung Australia conducted a marketing campaign that included nine ads published across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, on its website, and in-store, which represented that these Galaxy phones were suitable to be used in pool and sea water.

The ACCC says Samsung Australia has acknowledged that if the Galaxy phones were submerged in pool or sea water there was a material prospect the charging port would become corroded and stop working if the phone was charged while still wet.

Samsung Australias water resistance claims promoted an important selling point for these Galaxy phones. Many consumers who purchased a Galaxy phone may have been exposed to the misleading ads before they made their decision to purchase a new phone, ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said.

We reviewed hundreds of complaints from consumers who reported they experienced issues with their Galaxy phones after it was exposed to water and, in many cases, they reported their Galaxy phone stopped working entirely, Cass-Gottlieb said.

The ACCC also notes that prior to the launch of the Galaxy phones, Samsung Australias parent company, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (SEC), was already seeking to mitigate the effects of this charging port corrosion caused by charging following exposure to water - and despite this, Samsung Australias marketing campaign promoted Galaxy phones being used in pools and sea water while there remained a material prospect the Galaxy phones would be damaged due to corrosion.

Samsung Australias ads promoting its Galaxy phones featured people using their phones in pools and sea water, despite the fact that this could ultimately result in significant damage to the phone, Cass-Gottlieb said.

This penalty is a strong remi nder to businesses that all product claims must be substantiated. The ACCC will continue to take enforcement action against businesses that mislead consumers with claims about the nature or benefits of their products, Cass-Gottlieb said.

The ACCC says the vast majority of Samsung Australias contravening conduct occurred prior to the increase of maximum penalties for breaches of the Australian Consumer Law. Similar conduct under the new penalty regime could give rise to greater penalties.

Samsung Australia admitted that it had contravened Australian Consumer Law and made joint submissions with the ACCC in respect of penalties and orders, the Commission said.

Consumers who purchased one of the relevant Galaxy phones and experienced damage to the charging port after submerging the phone in pool or sea water and then attempting to charge the phone while water remained in the port are encouraged to contact Samsung Australia.

By way of background the ACCC said: In 2019 the ACCC instituted proceedings against Samsung Electronics Australia Pty Ltd in the Federal Court for false, misleading and deceptive representations in advertising the water resistance of various Galaxy branded mobile phones.

Samsung Australias nine relevant advertisements can be accessed here.
MATTOON  The divisive nature of the issue of abortion nationally can be seen in the different perspectives of Coles County community members on the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe vs. Wade.

"We are certainly very happy with the decision that came out today because it provides protection to the unborn," said Pastor Andrew Herzberg of St. John's Lutheran Church in Mattoon.

"I'm not surprised (about the ruling). I'm sad and I'm angry and I'm resolved not to accept this but to fight it," said Jeannie Ludlow, professor of English and women, gender and sexuality studies at Eastern Illinois University and a longtime abortion rights activist.

Herzberg said the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, which includes St. John's, believes that each life is sacred from the moment of conception all the way through its natural end, so it opposes anything that would stand in the way of that life being lived.

That belief is symbolized in the small white crosses that St. John's places every year on its campus along Charleston Avenue/Illinois Route 16 in memory of the unborn, Herzberg said. The Mattoon church will continue such efforts while abortion continues to remain legal in Illinois.

"I don't think our work in going to change in Illinois given the state of where Illinois is at on this issue. We certainly pray that might change, but understand it might not in our lifetimes," the pastor said.

Herzberg said the church should always strive to offer compassion and forgiveness to those who seek it regarding abortion and to advocate against hate and violence on all sides of this issue, which is very politically charged.

"My prayer right now is for peace," Herzberg said. "Violence is in no way what you want."

Ludlow, who is a trained pregnancy options counselor, said she is worried about friends who own and operate clinics that provide abortions and the patients they serve. She said she has a friend in North Dakota who will have a 30 day buffer and be able to continue providing care through that period, but recognizes the states that have immediate trigger laws will not have that opportunity.

Though Ludlow cautions against leaning on the fact that Illinois is currently a safe state for abortion, she wants people to remember that if they live in Illinois, their rights are still protected.

"When abortion was illegal, in almost in all of the United States, except in very particular circumstances, people had to resort to some very scary and sometimes dangerous actions in order to stop their pregnancies," Ludlow said.

Ludlow said a surge in patients coming from out-of-state to receive abortion care is expected, something that has been seen across the country as states sign into law stricter abortion legislation.

"In Illinois, we're seeing patients from Texas, we're seeing patients from Oklahoma and so it's important to get on the appointment calendar as early as possible," Ludlow said of those seeking an abortion.

No clinics in the immediate area provide abortions, but Ludlow said there are still clinics around Illinois and she expects more will in the states where it is still legal.

Ludlow said people will need to focus on abortion in the upcoming election, even if they are not typically single issue voters.

"This is a Supreme Court decision about a particular law. That does not mean that we can never have legal abortion nationwide again," Ludlow said. "So, what we need to do now is we need to elect people to our Congress, who will support reproductive justice and reproductive rights."

Ludlow said she is concerned that the Supreme Court seems to believes that it can overturn old established case law. She said people should come together at this time.

"This is not a done deal. This one case is done and it sets really scary precedents. But we still have the power, we the people, and so we really need to use that power. We need to use it in talking to each other and we need to use it to vote," she said.

Mattoon resident Todd Farris, who attended the annual March for Life two years ago in Washington, said he feels like Roe vs. Wade was bad precedent, as he feels that Ruth Bader Ginsburg did too. Farris said he believes that the ruling on Dobbs that strikes down Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood was the only recourse that the Court had on the matter.

"On a personal level, the fight has only begun, as we now will march on Springfield and state capitols across the United States to protect the most innocent of our citizens, those in the womb of their mothers," Farris said. "We won't stop until abortion is unthinkable in the conscience of the American people."

Coles Progressives member Silver Damsen of Charleston said while the Supreme Court says it is concerned about the Constitution and the intents of the Founding Fathers, she feels they are ignoring precedent in the U.S., in other wealthy countries, and in the process clearly violating privacy and the separation of church and state.

"That the Supreme Court is going against the will of the majority and a will that is in keeping with the standards of European and other wealthy countries because of the philosophical/religious idea that official human life begins at conception, not only is an obvious violation of Church and State but of democracy itself," Damsen said. "Such actions justify increasing the number of Supreme Court justices so that a minority of extremists don't govern the actions of the majority of Americans."

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Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Friday he plans to call the Illinois General Assembly into special session in the coming weeks to consider abortion-related measures.

"Despite the action of the Supreme Court today overturning Roe v. Wade, the right to safe, accessible reproductive health care is in full force in Illinois  and will remain so," the governor said in a statement.

In a statement released shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday issued a ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, the Chicago Democrat said he had support of House Speaker Emanuel "Chris" Welch and Senate President Don Harmon.

"Together, we are committed to taking swift action to further enshrine our commitment to reproductive health care rights and protections," he said.

The governor's full statement is below:

In Illinois, we trust women. Despite the action of the Supreme Court today overturning Roe v. Wade, the right to safe, accessible reproductive health care is in full force in Illinois  and will remain so.

In Illinois, weve planned for this terrible day, an enormous step backward and a shattering loss of rights. We passed the Reproductive Health Act, enshrining choice as the law of the land in Illinois. We removed the trigger law that would have prohibited abortion in Illinois with the overturning of Roe v Wade. We expanded health care so that finances are not a barrier to receiving reproductive care.

In Illinois, we are a state committed to expanding access to reproductive health care including abortion care, contraception access, fertility treatment and gender affirming care. Weve made it clear that we trust people to make the best decisions for themselves about their own reproductive health.

In Illinois, we will hold firm to these rights and continue to work with stakeholders to expand them. To that end, I am calling the General Assembly into special session in the coming weeks, with the support and consultation of House Speaker Emanuel Chris Welch and Senate President Don Harmon. Together, we are committed to taking swift action to further enshrine our commitment to reproductive health care rights and protections.

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Following the violence in the Atala area of Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh over derogatory remarks made by now suspended BJP leaders, police have booked five prominent leaders who were earlier active during the anti-CAA protests in the city. The families of these leaders maintain their innocence.

TCN Staff

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PRAYAGRAJ (UTTAR PRADESH)  Two days before violence erupted in the Atala area of Prayagraj (Allahabad) in Uttar Pradesh on June 10 over remarks against Prophet Mohammad by now suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma, corporator of ward number 78 of Kareli area Fazal Khan had appealed to people to maintain peace through his Facebook account.

The 35-year-old Samajwadi Party member Khan has worked hard for the development of his ward and is popular among residents of the Kareli area.

On June 11, Khan shared photographs on Facebook in which he can be seen directing sanitary workers during a cleaning drive in the area. Until then, he and his supporters were unaware that Khan had been named in the FIR lodged at Khuldabad police station after the violence at Atala.

Along with Khan, Students Islamic Organisation (SIO) activist Umar Khalid, All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) district president Shah Alam, AIMIM leader Zeeshan Rehmani and All India Kisan Mazdoor Sabha (AIKMS) General Secretary Ashish Mittal were among 70 persons named in FIR for violence at Atala. The police have issued a non-bailable warrant against them and TwoCircles.net has learnt that all the five have left their homes.

Police officials said that further action which includes attachment of properties will soon be initiated against them if they fail to surrender.

The five leaders accused of violence in Atala were also active during anti-CAA protests in the old city. Their kin is struggling to prove their innocence.

It was only through newspapers that we learnt that Fazal is also among those named in the FIR, Mohd Kamil, a supporter of Fazal, told TwoCircles.net. . Fazal himself made appeals for peace and warned the youths of the area not to attend any protests. Earlier he was arrested and spent many months in jail on charges of distributing objectionable pamphlets outside a mosque, he added.

Khans mother, Zareena Khan contested municipal elections in 2012 for the post of Mayor and has been vocal about the rights of labourers and workers.

I have written a letter to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath demanding a fair enquiry, Zareena told TwoCircles.net. My son is popular among locals and is being framed in such cases as a part of the conspiracy. On June 10, he was attending a funeral at Lakhanpur village and was there from 12 in the noon to 8 in the night.

SIO member Umar Khalid is another co-accused in Atala violence. On June 10, Umar Khalid shared videos and photographs of the SIO convention at Azamgarh on his Facebook account. A few hours later he shared a screenshot of a news channels screen in which his name was being flashed as one of the accused wanted in violence at Atala. He claimed that he had nothing to do with the violence as he was not in Prayagraj on June 10.

Umar Khalid is now also on the run, his family said. His brother Hamza Khalid has approached the court.

How can my brother be involved in attacking cops at Atala when he was attending the SIO convention in Azamgarh which is 200 kilometres away from here. We are requesting the officials to initiate a fair enquiry into the violence and remove the names of those from the FIR who were not involved in the violence, Hamza told TwoCircles.net.

In March 2020, Umar Khalid was arrested after the anti-CAA protests at Roshanbagh on the charges that he was among those who attacked a police team during Janta Curfew at Atala. He was later granted by a local court after being in jail for over four months.

Besides Khan and Khalid, AIMIM district President Shah Alam and party leader Zeeshan Rehmani and AIKMS leader Ashish Mittal played an active role during the anti-CAA sit-in at Mansoor Ali Park in Prayagraj.

Senior lawyer KK Roy is now preparing to file an appeal at the court on their behalf. These people have been targeted by the administration as they took part in 66 days of a peaceful sit-in at Mansoor Ali Park. Police framed them in the case related to violence at Atala but it will be challenged before the court. The government is afraid of people who are secular and believe in democracy and peaceful protests, Roy told TwoCircles.net.

In a statement issued on June 11, AIKMS condemned the Prayagraj administration and UP Government for linking Ashish Mittal to the disturbances in Prayagraj and Kanpur. AIKMS had opposed the implementation of NRC and CAA by the government and this was the reason that our leaders are being targeted, the statement said.

In response to ADG Prayagraj Prem Prakashs statement given to media persons, Dr Ashish Mittal through a press statement said that allegations against me are completely fabricated. Neither I nor any person from AIKMS has any association with the incident and we challenge the government to present any proof against use. On June 10, I was present at the court of ACM (second) in Prayagraj in connection with the charges of issuing some statements on the Kanpur riots which are also false.

Circle Officer Shahganj Satyendra Tiwari told TwoCircles.net that 103 persons have been arrested so far in connection with violence at Atala on June 10. Fazal Khan, Shah Alam, Zeeshan Rehmani, Ashish Mittal and Umar Khalid are wanted by police for their role in the violence. A non-bailable warrant has been issued against them and further action will soon be taken with the permission of the court, Tiwari added.
CHICAGO  For the first time since December 2004, five planets  Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn  have moved into alignment, a rare sight visible to the naked eye throughout the month of June, but expected to reach peak visibility Friday morning.

While it is fairly common for the five planets to become visible in the sky at the same time, this months alignment is unique for the planets alignment in their order from the sun, according to Michelle Nichols, director of public observing at the Adler Planetarium. While the five planets are expected to become visible at the same time again in December, they wont be in their current order from the sun again until 2040. Nichols said that finding a good location to view the alignment could be a roll of the dice, especially for people in the city.

(Seeing all five planets) is pretty difficult in Chicago because Mercury and Venus are going to be very low in the sky, so you need a clear view pretty much downtown the eastern horizon, she said. So unless youre in an area that is completely flat or youre up on a little bit of a hill, the only place where you could see that in Chicago proper is down by the lakefront.

Friday morning will be an extra special sight to stargazers, as not only will the five planets be visible just before sunrise, but the moon will also join the alignment, and Mercury will hit peak visibility. Though all of the planets should be visible to the naked eye, Nichols recommends stargazers bring binoculars to get a better look at Mercury.

To identify the planets successfully, Nichols says viewers should look for Venus and Jupiter, which will be the two brightest planets, and follow the line from there. She also made a distinction between stars and planets, noting that stars twinkle and planets do not.

Nichols emphasized that stargazing hopefuls will have a chance to spot the five-planet alignment for several more days, even if they miss the morning dubbed the most special on Friday.

Tomorrow is not the only day to do it. The planets have been visible for the latter half of June. The only thing that people have been focusing on for tomorrow is that  the moon will be in that actual alignment tomorrow morning, but if its not clear or people sleep in or if theres something that keeps people from seeing it tomorrow morning, they can look Saturday morning, Sunday morning. Its not a lost cause if you dont get to see it (on Friday).

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CLEVELAND (AP)  Coinciding with unrelenting cyberattacks against Ukraine, state-backed Russian hackers have engaged in strategic espionage against governments, think tanks, businesses and aid groups in 42 countries supporting Kyiv, Microsoft said in a report Wednesday.

Since the start of the war, the Russian targeting (of Ukraine's allies) has been successful 29 percent of the time, Microsoft President Brad Smith wrote, with data stolen in at least one-quarter of the successful network intrusions,

Nearly two-thirds of the cyberespionage targets involved NATO members. The United States was the prime target and Poland, the main conduit for military assistance flowing to Ukraine, was No. 2. In the past two months, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Turkey have seen stepped-up targeting,

A striking exception is Estonia, where Microsoft said it has detected no Russian cyber intrusions since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. The company credited Estonia's adoption of cloud computing, where it's easier to detect intruders. Significant collective defensive weaknesses remain among some other European governments, Microsoft said, without identifying them.

Half of the 128 organizations targeted are government agencies and 12% are nongovernmental agencies, typically think tanks or humanitarian groups, according to the 28-page report. Other targets include telecommunications, energy and defense companies.

Microsoft said Ukraine's cyber defenses have proven stronger overall than Russia's capabilities in waves of destructive cyberattacks against 48 distinct Ukrainian agencies and enterprises. Moscow's military hackers have been cautious not to unleash destructive data-destroying worms that could spread outside Ukraine, as the NotPetya virus did in 2017, the report noted.

During the past month, as the Russian military moved to concentrate its attacks in the Donbas region, the number of destructive attacks has fallen, according to the report, Defending Ukraine: Early Lessons from the Cyber War. The Redmond, Washington, company has unique insight in the domain due to the ubiquity of its software and threat detection teams.

Microsoft said Ukraine has also set an example in data safeguarding. Ukraine went from storing its data locally on servers in government buildings a week before the Russian invasion  making them vulnerable to aerial attack  to dispersing that data in the cloud, hosted in data centers across Europe.

The report also assessed Russian disinformation and propaganda aimed at undermining Western unity and deflecting criticism of Russian military war crimes and wooing people in nonaligned countries.

Using artificial intelligence tools, Microsoft said, it estimated "Russian cyber influence operations successfully increased the spread of Russian propaganda after the war began by 216 percent in Ukraine and 82 percent in the United States.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
GREENSBORO  Two years ago, the public first learned about the death of John Elliott Neville. On Thursday, in a federal courtroom, one chapter in the reckoning over his death closed.

U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles approved a $3 million settlement Thursday in the wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the Neville family in the Dec. 4, 2019 death of John Neville. Neville died after an incident at the Forsyth County Jail and the lawsuit and prosecutors allege that a nurse and five detention officers ignored Nevilles medical distress. The detention officers had Neville pinned on his stomach in a jail cell, while he yelled 30 times that he couldnt breathe, according to video of the incident and the lawsuit.

Neville had five children and worked in construction. The incident leading to his death took place 24 hours after he was first booked into the jail on Dec. 1, 2019.

Forsyth County Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough Jr. did not publicly acknowledge Nevilles death until the Winston-Salem Journal asked him about it on June 26, 2020. He said he did not say anything publicly partially because Nevilles familys attorneys, Michael Grace and Chris Clifton, asked him to keep things quiet. Kimbrough also said he did not release any information because of the investigation by the State Bureau of Investigation into Nevilles death, an investigation he said he requested. He has since said he would publicly release information about inmates who die at the Forsyth County Jail.

The nurse, Michelle Heughins, and the five detention officers  Lt. Lavette Maria Wiliams, Cpl. Edward Joseph Roussel, Officer Christopher Bryan Stamper, Officer Antonio Woodley Jr. and Officer Sarah Elizabeth Poole  were charged in July 2020 with involuntary manslaughter. In April, a Forsyth County grand jury declined to indict the officers but did indict Heughins with involuntary manslaughter. As it stands now, she is the only one facing criminal charges in Nevilles death. With Eagles approval of the settlement, Heughins is also the only individual facing civil liabilities in the lawsuit. The other remaining defendant in the lawsuit is Wellpath LLC, the former medical provider for the Forsyth County Jail. Wellpath, formerly known as Correct Care Solutions, has been sued several times over inmates who died while in custody at the Forsyth County Jail. All the previous lawsuits have been settled.

Claims in the latest lawsuit against the detention officers, Forsyth County Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough Jr. and Forsyth County were dismissed with prejudice, meaning that they cannot be refiled.

Nevilles death prompted not only criminal charges against the detention officers and Heughins but also protests during the summer of 2020 that resulted in 55 arrests and a 49-day occupation of Bailey Park led by Triad Abolition Project. There had already been protests nationally and locally over the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was killed when a white Minneapolis police officer put a knee in Floyds neck for more than nine minutes. On video captured by cellphones, Floyd is seen saying I cant breathe several times, just like Neville.

The hearing Thursday took a little more than 30 minutes, and afterward, Sean Neville, Nevilles son and the executor of his estate, said he was relieved that this part was over.

The familys  were satisfied, Neville said outside the federal courthouse in Greensboro. I think it worked out in the best interests of everybody.

But there is a long road ahead.

A trial in the civil lawsuit against Wellpath LLC and Heughins is scheduled for the week of April 3, 2023, in U.S. District Court in Greensboro, but attorneys for Heughins and Wellpath have filed motions to continue the trial to an unknown date until Heughins criminal case can be resolved. They are also requesting a stay in all proceedings in the civil case, including discovery and depositions, until theres a firmer idea of when the criminal case might be resolved.

When the criminal case will be resolved remains unclear. Theres no trial date, and Heughins is mounting a legal defense against the criminal charge. Her criminal defense attorneys have filed 12 different motions in Forsyth Superior Court, including a motion to dismiss the indictment against her. In the motions, she argues that she shouldnt have been charged with a crime because the policies of the Forsyth County Sheriffs Office at the time prevented her from intervening. She had no authority to give orders because the sheriffs offices Special Response Team was in charge, Heughins attorneys have argued. Those polices didnt change until months after Nevilles death, according to the motions.

Those motions might be heard in August, according to court documents. Sean Neville, through his attorneys, is opposing any delay in the civil trial.

Forsyth County District Attorney Jim ONeill is also weighing whether to resubmit indictments against the detention officers, who have since been fired, to another grand jury, Michael Grace, one of Sean Nevilles attorneys, said in court Thursday. ONeill has previously said he has been in constant contact with attorneys for Nevilles family and that he had not yet made a decision.

Whitney Pakalka, an attorney for Sean Neville, said in court that the case settled because there was a risk that if the case had gone to trial, the plaintiff could lose. She said there is already strong evidence that the defendants were liable in Nevilles death but theres no telling what a jury will do when faced with allegations of misconduct among law-enforcement officers.

Dec. 4, 2019

Neville, 56, of Greensboro, died at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist medical center on Dec. 4, 2019, three days after he was taken into custody and brought to the Forsyth County Jail on a misdemeanor assault charge in Guilford County. Almost exactly 24 hours after Neville was first booked into the jail, detention officers and Heughins went into Nevilles cell after his cellmate pushed a call button. Neville had fallen from his top bunk  4 feet from the floor  after having seizure-like symptoms. He was found sweating with vomit on his clothes and blood around his mouth.

The lawsuit alleges that Heughins and the detention officers ignored Nevilles medical distress and did not immediately send him to the hospital. He was pinned in his jail cell, placed in a restraint chair with handcuffs and ankle restraints and taken to a multipurpose room where Heughins tried a second time to get a pulse. Then, he was taken to another cell.

According to the lawsuit, officers had Neville get face down on the mattress in another cell on another floor while detention officers piled on top of him in an attempt to take off the handcuffs and ankle restraints. The ankle restraints were removed and his legs were propped up to his buttocks in a trifold position. The detention officers used one handcuff key, but it broke and they then got another one that also didnt work. They got a bolt cutter that also failed and then waited for another bolt cutter that finally did work. During this time, the lawsuit said, Neville said he couldnt breathe 30 times.

According to the lawsuit, by the time the handcuffs were removed, Neville had been in a prone position, similar to a hog-tie position, for 12 minutes. Detention officers stripped Neville of his blue jumpsuit and left Neville alone in his cell in that position. They went back in and started life-saving measures when Heughins noticed Neville wasnt breathing. Nearly 20 minutes after Neville was first placed in the prone position, Heughins started CPR. He was revived several times both at the jail and at the hospital before he went into a coma. He was declared dead on Dec. 4.

An autopsy report said Neville died from a brain injury caused when his heart stopped and his brain was deprived of oxygen. He asphyxiated while being restrained with his arms behind his back and his legs folded up.

As the sun bore down on hot summer day Thursday, Sean Neville said he had no idea how long it will take to get justice for his father.

I guess that at this point, Im of the mind that it will take as long as it takes, he said.

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A Winston-Salem man is facing an assault charge after a woman was shot and wounded last week, authorities said Friday.

Jacky Daniel Jones, 60, of Fosterdale Lane is charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, inflicting serious injury, Winston-Salem police said.

He was being held Friday in the Forsyth County jail with his bond set at $500,000, police said.

Officers went to the Quality Mart store at 1980 Pecan Lane at 1:48 a.m. June 18 after a reported shooting, police said.

When officers arrived, they found Tatianna Tanisha Jones, 42, of Lois Street with a gunshot wound to her arm and a graze wound to her torso, police said.

Investigators say Tatianna Jones and Jacky Jones were riding in her vehicle when they began to argue. Tatianna Jones then stopped her vehicle in the middle of Solomon Drive, and both she and Jacky Jones got out.

Tatianna Jones was shot in her arm and torso, police said. She then ran nearby to the Quality Mart store.

Jacky Jones ran from the area, police said. A police dog was used to track him, but the animal couldnt find him.

Jacky Jones turned himself in at the jail Friday, police said.

Police didnt describe the relationship between Tatianna Jones and Jacky Jones.

Anyone with information regarding the shooting is asked to call Winston-Salem police at 336-773-7700 or Crime Stoppers, either at 336-727-2800 or on the Spanish language line at 336-728-3904. Crime Stoppers of Winston-Salem Forsyth County also is on Facebook.

The Text-A-Tip program at 336-276-1717 allows people to text tips, photos and videos to the police.

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Forsyth County Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough Jr. presented a medal of valor Thursday to Rex, a police dog, who helped two deputies arrest a man last Christmas.

During a ceremony in the Forsyth County Sheriffs Office, Kimbrough also presented Deputy Ryan P. Rae and Cpl. Donald Pendolino with meritorious service medals for their actions in the incident on Dec. 25, 2021.

Kimbrough also presented Pendolino a law enforcement Purple Heart for being injured in the line of duty.

You deserve the medal, Kimbrough said to Pendolino.

Kimbrough then gave the medal of valor to Pendolino to put around Rexs neck.

I dont recall ever giving an award to a canine, but I guess there is a first time for everything, Kimbrough said.

That night, I saw a canine run and jump into a vehicle along with his handler, (and) stayed in the fight under unusual circumstances, Kimbrough said. Without a canine, I dont know how that would have ended.

Rex did what Rex has been trained to do, the sheriff said. And for that, Rex deserves the medal of valor award.

Kimbrough said he saw a video Wednesday of last years incident. An attorney with the sheriffs office advised Kimbrough not to publicly release the video, the sheriff said.

Rex is a 6-year-old Czech shepherd who has worked with the sheriffs office for four years, said Annie Sims, a spokeswoman for the sheriffs office.

The incident began about 1 a.m. on Christmas Day when Rae stopped a red Ford Mustang going north on U.S. 52 at an estimated 90 mph in a 60 mph zone. Rae stopped the vehicle off the highway on Bethania-Rural Hall Road, Capt. Brian Hall of the sheriffs office said.

Another deputy, Pendolino with Rex, the police dog, was called for backup.

After Pendolino and Rex arrived on the scene, Pendolino prepared the dog to sniff the suspects vehicle, Sgt. Tony Deweese, an assistant trainer in the sheriffs offices K9 unit, said during the ceremony.

The suspect then fought with Rae and managed to jump back into the Mustang and drove off, dragging deputies Rae and Pendolino for some distance before they fell to the pavement, the sheriffs office has said. Rex was in the car with the suspect.

Rex forced the suspect to crash his car and also forced him to get out of the vehicle, the sheriffs office said.

When the driver tried to run, he struck Rex with his fist, the sheriffs office said.

At which point, Deputy Rae, Corporal Pendolino and canine Rex found themselves quickly in the fight of their lives, Deweese said. Canine Rex stayed focused on (his) task.

Pendolino suffered a broken wrist and a head injury in connection with the incident, Deweese said.

Ricky Wallace Simon, 28, of Lee St. in Rural Hall, was later charged with assault with a deadly weapon on an officer, inflicting serious injury; possession of a firearm by a felon; resisting arrest; speeding to elude arrest; and assaulting a law-enforcement animal, according to an arrest warrant.

Simon also was charged with six felonies connected to possession and trafficking of heroin and cocaine; several misdemeanors and traffic violations including driving while impaired and driving left of center, court records show.

A search of Simons vehicle on Christmas Day turned up 31.6 grams of cocaine, 36.2 grams of heroin, about half an ounce of marijuana and a Glock semi-automatic handgun, the sheriffs office said.

After Simon had been arrested at the scene, Rae urged emergency medical technicians to check on Simon to make sure he was OK, Kimbrough said.

That says a lot about you, Kimbrough said to Rae. That shows the human side of you. That was something that the world should applaud for you for.

Simon was being held Thursday in the Forsyth County Jail with his bond set at $600,000, the sheriffs office said. He is scheduled to appear in court on Oct. 27.

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Despite the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that came down Friday, people who want an abortion in North Carolina can still get one  for now, experts and advocates said.

While abortion remains legal in North Carolina, our access here is hanging by a thread, and it all depends on the outcome of the November elections, Jillian Riley, director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood South Atlantic in North Carolina, said in a statement.

North Carolina has 14 clinics, including clinics in Winston-Salem and Greensboro, that provide abortion care, according to Planning Parenthood South Atlantic. People seeking abortion already face barriers to health care due to systemic discrimination and racism, particularly people in Black, Latino and LGBTQ communities as well as those who live in poor communities, who are young and who live in rural communities, the agency said in a news release.

In a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court officially overturned the 1973 Roe V. Wade decision. Thirteen states, mostly in the South and Midwest, have laws on the books that would ban abortion when Roe v. Wade is overturned, the Associated Press reported. Another six states have either near-total bans or laws that prohibit abortion after 6 weeks of pregnancy, before many people know they are pregnant, according to the Associated Press.

But for now, North Carolina does not have a law in place banning abortion, though the state does have restrictions. And on Friday, Senate Leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore, both Republicans, sent a letter to Attorney General Josh Stein, asking Stein to reinstate the states ban on abortion after 20 weeks.

Right now, it doesnt change anything in North Carolina (in regards) to abortion access, said Julia Jordan-Zachery, a professor and chair of the Womens, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department at Wake Forest University.

Jordan-Zachery said it is important for people to understand that the Supreme Courts decision Friday is part of a long fight over reproductive justice and human rights that dates back to at least the 1960s.

There have been a series of attempts to overturn (Roe v. Wade) at the local, state and national levels, she said. This did not just happen. This is very much planned and has been in the political works from 1973 until now.

The push against Roe v. Wade is part of a larger conservative movement going back to efforts back in the 1960s when Black women and women of color advocated for reproductive justice, Jordan-Zachery said.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, efforts to pass abortion restrictions have increased since 2010. Between Jan. 1, 2011 and July 1, 2019, states have enacted 483 new abortion restrictions, the institute said.

As of June 17, North Carolina has a number of restrictions on abortions. Health plans offered in the states health exchange under the Affordable Care Act cover abortion only in cases of life endangerment, rape or incest. A patient also must receive state-directed counseling that includes information designed to discourage the patient from getting an abortion, and the patient must wait 72 hours before getting an abortion.

North Carolina also requires abortion clinics to meet certain standards related to their building, equipment and staffing.

Planned Parenthood South Atlantic said in its news release that Fridays decision could lead 26 states to quickly ban abortion.

Dr. William Pincus, an ear nose and throat specialist, is the president of North Carolina Right to Life, which is headquartered in Greensboro. He said he was elated at Fridays decision.

Were very pleased that the court recognized that abortion on demand was not part of the Constitution, he said.

He said the decision should mean that North Carolina reverts back to the state law prior to Roe v. Wade  women would be able to get abortions only before 20 weeks.

The only exception would be for the health of the mother. Pincus said he believes the language regarding the health of the mother is too vague. He does not support abortions for people who have been victims of rape or incest.

Pincus said those crimes are violent and unjustified but that it would also be unjustified for a woman who was a victim or rape or incest to have an abortion.

I personally know two women who were the product of rape, he said. They are glad that their mothers did not abort them.

He also opposes late term abortions. He said that Roe v. Wade allowed people to have abortions all the way up to nine months, but he also acknowledged that late term abortions made up a minority of all surgical abortions.

Pincus said there should be more financial and other support for women so that they can take care of their children. Fathers should be required to support their children, and that the state does not adequately support what he called pregnancy care networks that provide parenting classes and help with housing.

He said women should not be penalized for having an abortion.

We think the woman is the second victim in abortion, he said. The baby dies and the woman is a victim.

The N.C. Medical Society issued a statement affirming its support of people seeking abortion.

The North Carolina Medical Society position remains that an abortion is a personal health and medical decision to be made by a qualified doctor and patient, Chip Baggett, CEO of the medical society, said in a statement.

Jenny Black, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, said in a statement Friday that the Supreme Court decision will have devastating consequences across the South, forcing people to travel hundreds, sometimes thousands, of miles for abortion care or potentially be forced to remain pregnant against their will.

Our highest priority is making sure our patients can get the care they need, she said. Our health center doors remain open, and we arent going anywhere.

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Forsyth County health officials and the two main hospitals are urging local residents to call 911 only for emergencies, while using other medical resources for non-emergency needs.

A joint statement was released by Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, Novant Health Inc. and Forsyth County Emergency Medical Services.

The groups say that staffing challenges and high call volumes are increasing emergency department and ambulance wait times.

Emergency departments have limited staff and resources that specialize in helping individuals with the most urgent and serious needs, like severe trauma, shortness of breath, chest pains, strokes or other life-threatening conditions, the groups said.

If you do have an emergency and must call 911 or go to the emergency department, please be patient as emergency personnel and health care workers are doing the best they can to respond in a timely manner and meet the needs of everyone in the community.

Among recommended options are urgent-care clinics for people without a primary-care doctor or who cant get an appointment in the short term.

The groups promote hospital virtual care services for Baptist and Novant, as well as a 24-hour, walk-in Behavioral Health Urgent Care at 650 Highland Ave.

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We still see them on occasion: Groups of two or three, huddled together in a small patch of shade, sharing their morning cigarette break.

Or, sometimes, the solitary smoker, standing alone against public opinion and health directives.

But such sightings are increasingly rare. Smokings popularity is waning. Its no longer a common sight in movies or, thank goodness, in restaurants and bars.

Its no longer cool.

This is good news, not only for those who prefer not to be tarred with the scent of second-hand smoke, but for the loved ones of smokers, who are often left to mourn the victims of the cancer-causing agents, as well as for smokers themselves, who may want to quit, who may have tried to quit, but need a little push to finish the job.

A recent proposal from the Food and Drug Administration is likely to help. The federal agency wants the nicotine content in traditional cigarettes to be reduced to minimal and potentially non-addictive levels by as early as May 2023, the Journals Richard Craver reported earlier this week.

Nicotine is powerfully addictive, FDA commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said in a statement. Making cigarettes and other combusted tobacco products minimally addictive or non-addictive would help save lives.

Each year, 480,000 people die prematurely from a smoking-attributed disease, making tobacco use the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Additionally, tobacco use costs nearly $300 billion a year in direct health care and lost productivity.

This proposed rule is a tobacco product standard that would establish a maximum nicotine level in cigarettes and certain finished tobacco products. FDA would take this action to reduce addictiveness to certain tobacco products, thus giving addicted users a greater ability to quit.

This product standard would also help to prevent experimenters (mainly youth) from initiating regular use, and, therefore, from becoming regular smokers.

Its the nicotine, after all, that provides the pleasurable hit of smoking. Reducing that pleasure would make the habit even less appealing to younger would-be smokers. The best way to avoid struggling with smoking is to never start.

This isnt the only action taken recently by the FDA in an attempt to eliminate the scourge of smoking. The agency recently opened the public comment period for a proposed ban on distributing menthol cigarettes, which are less harsh than non-menthol cigarettes  thus more palatable to younger people  and which have traditionally been marketed more directly toward African American consumers.

And on Thursday, the FDA banned Juul Lab e-cigarettes from the U.S. market, citing their appeal to young people. The FDA had already banned the sale of fruit-flavored e-cigarettes after critics claimed the products targeted teens.

Some anti-smoking advocates worry that the new nicotine limit would backfire: that smokers will smoke more very-low-nicotine cigarettes to receive the nicotine satisfaction theyre currently accustomed to.

Science has shown for decades that people smoke to get nicotine, but die from the smoke, according to David Sweanor, an adjunct law professor at the University of Ottawa and the author of several e-cigarette and health studies.

Thats a legitimate concern.

But its likely to be outweighed by making smoking less pleasurable to begin with.

Some will bristle against a federal agency once again trying to control our lives. But the more accurate way to phrase that objection would be trying to keep us from dying painful and costly deaths. Smoking leads to misery. If a federal agency can adopt policies that reduce it, more power to it.

Our area has a storied history when it comes to tobacco, which contributed greatly to our economy before we realized just how dangerous and harmful it is. Since then, weve done well to diversify our economic infrastructure.

Cigarettes are still a $95 billion industry, and tobacco companies arent likely to accept these new limitations without engaging in a legal battle.

But it will be hard for them to cite many reasons to continue this ill industry.

As the FDA puts it, cigarettes are the only legal consumer product that, when used as intended, will kill half of all long-term users.

Theres no better time to quit than now, and the CDC stands by to help with smoke-cessation resources: www.cdc.gov/tobacco/quit_smoking/cessation/index.htm

But, again, the best way to avoid struggling with smoking is to never start.
A deal with Trump

For once, I sort of agree with Cal Thomas (Jailing Trump over Jan. 6 would hurt the nation, June 20). I mean, we shouldnt really jail this ex-president even if he was guilty of a crime(s). As Thomas stated in his headline, that would hurt the nation and implied that it would likely divide us further politically.

So lets negotiate a deal.

However, not running for president again is not enough compensation. We wont send him to jail, but as part of the plea agreement, he must apologize to the people of the United States for his conduct as president. And he must concur that:

he lost the election fair and square;

the election was not rigged;

he is to blame for helping to incite the insurrection on Jan. 6 at the Capitol;

he took money from his followers based on false pretenses (and will pay them back).

Only then can we have some closure and begin to heal from his hurt upon our nation.

Dave Wanucha

Mocksville

Instruction required

The testimony given at the June 21 hearing on the events of Jan. 6, 2021, should be required viewing for all of North Carolinas congressional delegation.

The witnesses, each faced with extreme pressure, resisted that pressure with decency. They upheld their oaths. They did their jobs honestly and reported the facts. They have suffered for their decency, but they are clear of conscience.

It would be instructional for our delegation to see what decency in the realm of politics looks like, what it sounds like and what it is. How people in the arena can still behave with what used to be called common decency and is now, apparently, not common at all but rare. Our delegation who voted not to confirm the election of President Biden clearly requires instruction in the practice.

Sharon Johe

Lewisville

The point

What is the point of drag queens reading to children?

Drag queens perform for a living in nightclubs for adults. If wokeness or an anti-homophobic persona is trying to be achieved then why not have a lesbian or gay married couple read to the kids?

Conservatives believe in an objective moral truth from a living God. Most of us try to live lives that glorify him. Yet, we always seem to be called hateful when we disagree with anything mainstream.

We were called hateful in 2020 when we wanted the rioting and protests to end.

We were called hateful when we wanted a choice for masking our kids in school.

Now we are being called hateful when we disagree with having a drag queen reading.

Just because one disagrees with another does not equate to hate. It is just a differing opinion.

Love is love are the signs we read. However, the text messages and phone calls to some of the conservative leaders mentioned in your articles and TV broadcasts prior to the event were anything but loving.

We can see the moral decline of this country. It is blatantly obvious that schools and communities want to sexualize children at young ages.

We do not agree and will continue to fight that the truth prevails. However, our fighting will look a bit different. We fight on our knees in prayer and not by yelling profanity or showing body parts in protest.

Nikki Reed

Co-founder and co-president

The Conservative Women of Forsyth County

Winston-Salem

Important question

There is one very important question that I have not heard any of the Second Amendment zealots (specifically the NRA or local, state and federal elected officials, or the recipients of NRA political funds) answer:

Western European countries, have:

mental illness

violent video games and movies

nationalist political organizations and indoctrination

widespread social media with all of its potential evils

to some extent, foreign jihadists still carrying out acts of violence, etc.

What they dont have is wholesale gun access by the general population (specifically assault weapons and related accessories).

Accordingly, Western Europes combined mass shootings and mass murders are minuscule compared to the United States of America. The question I would like answered is: Why is that?

David Botchin

Winston-Salem
WASHINGTON (AP)  The Supreme Court on Friday stripped away womens constitutional protections for abortion, a fundamental and deeply personal change for Americans' lives after nearly a half-century under Roe v. Wade. The courts overturning of the landmark court ruling is likely to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

The ruling, unthinkable just a few years ago, was the culmination of decades of efforts by abortion opponents, made possible by an emboldened right side of the court fortified by three appointees of former President Donald Trump.

Both sides predicted the fight over abortion would continue, in state capitals, in Washington and at the ballot box. Justice Clarence Thomas, part of Friday's majority, urged colleagues to overturn other high court rulings protecting same-sex marriage, gay sex and the use of contraceptives.

Pregnant women considering abortions already had been dealing with a near-complete ban in Oklahoma and a prohibition after roughly six weeks in Texas. Clinics in at least eight other states  Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, South Dakota, Wisconsin and West Virginia  stopped performing abortions after Friday's decision.

In Ohio, a ban on most abortions at the first detectable fetal heartbeat became the law when a federal judge dissolved an injunction that had kept the measure on hold for nearly three years. And Utah's law was triggered by the ruling, going into effect with narrow exceptions.

Protests built into the evening in a number of cities, including thousands demonstrating against the decision outside the barricaded Supreme Court. Thousands more chanted We will rise up! in New York's Washington Square.

At the White House, Biden said, It's a sad day for the court and for the country. He urged voters to make it a defining issue in the November elections, declaring, This decision must not be the final word.

Outside the White House, Ansley Cole, a college student from Atlanta, said she was "scared because what are they going to come after next? ... The next election cycle is going to be brutal, like its terrifying. And if theyre going to do this, again, whats next?

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, agreed about the political stakes.

We are ready to go on offense for life in every single one of those legislative bodies, in each statehouse and the White House, Dannenfelser said in a statement.

Trump praised the ruling, telling Fox News that it will work out for everybody.

The decision is expected to disproportionately affect minority women who already face limited access to health care, according to statistics analyzed by The Associated Press.

It also puts the court at odds with a majority of Americans who favored preserving Roe, according to opinion polls.

Surveys conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and others have shown a majority in favor of abortion being legal in all or most circumstances. But many also support restrictions especially later in pregnancy. Surveys consistently show that about 1 in 10 Americans want abortion to be illegal in all cases.

The ruling came more than a month after the stunning leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito indicating the court was prepared to take this momentous step.

Alito, in the final opinion issued Friday, wrote that Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 decision that reaffirmed the right to abortion, were wrong had and to be be overturned.

We therefore hold that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. Roe and Casey must be overruled, and the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives, Alito wrote, in an opinion that was very similar to the leaked draft.

Joining Alito were Thomas and Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett. The last three justices are Trump appointees. Thomas first voted to overrule Roe 30 years ago.

Four justices would have left Roe and Casey in place.

The vote was 6-3 to uphold Mississippi's law banning most abortions after 15 weeks, but Chief Justice John Roberts didn't join his conservative colleagues in overturning Roe. He wrote that there was no need to overturn the broad precedents to rule in Mississippi's favor.

Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan  the diminished liberal wing of the court  were in dissent.

With sorrow  for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection  we dissent, they wrote, warning that abortion opponents now could pursue a nationwide ban from the moment of conception and without exceptions for rape or incest.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that the Justice Department will protect providers and those seeking abortions in states where it is legal and "work with other arms of the federal government that seek to use their lawful authorities to protect and preserve access to reproductive care.

In particular, Garland said the federal Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of Mifepristone for medication abortions.

More than 90% of abortions take place in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy, and more than half are now done with pills, not surgery, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.

Mississippis only abortion clinic, which was at the center of Friday's case, continued to see patients Friday. Outside, men used a bullhorn to tell people inside that they would burn in hell. Clinic escorts wearing colorful vests used large speakers to blast Tom Pettys I Wont Back Down at the protesters.

Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky and Missouri are among 13 states, mainly in the South and Midwest, that already have laws on the books to ban abortion in the event Roe was overturned. Another half-dozen states have near-total bans or prohibitions after 6 weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.

In roughly a half-dozen other states, including West Virginia and Wisconsin, the fight will be over dormant abortion bans that were enacted before Roe was decided in 1973 or new proposals to sharply limit when abortions can be performed, according to Guttmacher.

Outside the barricaded Supreme Court, a crowd of mostly young women grew into the hundreds within hours of the decision. Some shouted, The Supreme Court is illegitimate, while waves of others, wearing red shirts with The Pro-Life Generation Votes, celebrated, danced and thrust their arms into the air.

The Biden administration and other defenders of abortion rights have warned that a decision overturning Roe also would threaten other high court decisions in favor of gay rights and even potentially contraception.

The liberal justices made the same point in their joint dissent: The majority eliminates a 50-year-old constitutional right that safeguards womens freedom and equal station. It breaches a core rule-of-law principle, designed to promote constancy in the law. In doing all of that, it places in jeopardy other rights, from contraception to same-sex intimacy and marriage. And finally, it undermines the Courts legitimacy.

And Thomas, the member of the court most open to jettisoning prior decisions, wrote a separate opinion in which he explicitly called on his colleagues to put the Supreme Court's same-sex marriage, gay sex and contraception cases on the table.

But Alito contended that his analysis addresses abortion only. Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion, he wrote.

Whatever the intentions of the person who leaked Alitos draft opinion, the conservatives held firm in overturning Roe and Casey.

In his opinion, Alito dismissed the arguments in favor of retaining the two decisions, including that multiple generations of American women have partly relied on the right to abortion to gain economic and political power.

Changing the makeup of the court has been central to the anti-abortion sides strategy, as the dissenters archly noted. The Court reverses course today for one reason and one reason only: because the composition of this Court has changed, the liberal justices wrote.

Mississippi and its allies made increasingly aggressive arguments as the case developed, and two high-court defenders of abortion rights retired or died. The state initially argued that its law could be upheld without overruling the courts abortion precedents.

Justice Anthony Kennedy retired shortly after the Mississippi law took effect in 2018 and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in September 2020. Both had been members of a five-justice majority that was mainly protective of abortion rights.

In their Senate hearings, Trumps three high-court picks carefully skirted questions about how they would vote in any cases, including about abortion.

Associated Press writers Jessica Gresko, Fatima Hussein, photographer Jacquelyn Martin and video journalist Nathan Ellgren in Washington, Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston, Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi, Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, Leah Willingham in Charleston, West Virginia, Michael Hill in New York and Kantele Franko in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.

For APs full coverage of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, go to https://apnews.com/hub/abortion

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

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G.N. Saibaba, a wheelchair-bound academic, is an active campaigner for the rights of oppressed communities, including Dalit and Indigenous communities. He was arrested in 2014 for allegedly having links with banned Maoist organizations. In March 2017, he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Basil Islam | TwoCircles.net

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NEW DELHI  In a joint statement, international human rights organizations have expressed concerns about the deteriorating health of former Delhi University professor and activist G.N. Saibaba, sentenced to life under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). They called on the Indian authorities to provide urgent access to health care and release him on humanitarian grounds.

G.N. Saibaba, a wheelchair-bound academic, is an active campaigner for the rights of traditionally oppressed communities, including Dalit and Indigenous communities. He has spoken out against the violence and discrimination faced by these communities, especially in mineral-rich central India. He got arrested in 2014 for allegedly having links with banned Maoist organizations. In March 2017, he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. An appeal for suspending his sentence is pending in the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court.

Saibaba is 90% physically disabled due to polio and other severe health issues, including a heart condition, a brain cyst, hypertension, and breathing difficulties. He is in solitary confinement in the anda cell of Nagpur Central Jail. Family members said that due to the extreme summer heat in cramped conditions, he had suffered a severe deterioration of his health, including rectal bleeding and breathing difficulties.

In 2018, the United Nations rights experts called for Saibabas release on medical grounds. The report reminded India that any denial of reasonable accommodation for people with disabilities in detention is not only discriminatory but may well amount to ill-treatment or even torture.

While in prison, his left arm got paralyzed due to nerve damage and the lack of timely treatment. Following the COVID-19 outbreak, he has twice contracted the virus, dangerously worsening his health. Many experts fear that continued denial of urgent health care to Saibaba might result in irreversible and possibly fatal damages.

Following are the demands made by the international human rights groups:

Release G.N. Saibaba on humanitarian grounds for health reasons.

Pending his release, provide G.N. Saibaba with immediate and ongoing access to adequate health care, move him out of solitary confinement and make reasonable accommodations for his disabilities.

Ensure G N Saibaba is protected from torture and other ill-treatment while in detention and that he is allowed, without delay, regular access to his family and lawyer.

For the National Human Rights Commission of India to act to ensure G.N Saibabas access to adequate treatment, in line with the appeals submitted by his family and civil society.

Amend the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, following a genuine and meaningful consultation with independent civil society organizations and human rights defenders, to bring it into line with Indias obligations under international human rights law.

Ensure human rights defenders in India can carry out their human rights work without fear of reprisals, including through misuse of the criminal justice system.

The joint statement released on 22 June 2022 is signed by CIVICUS, Amnesty International, Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, Front Line Defenders, Human Rights Watch, International Federation for Human Rights, and World Organisation Against Torture.



Basil Islam is an independent journalist and researcher based in South India. He tweets at @baasiie
Doctor Octopus, Green Goblin, Carnage and Venom were no match for Spider-Man. What finally brought his demise? A fallen tree branch.

The red and black Spider-Man-inspired sculpture that sparked controversy in 2019 when it was mistaken for devil horns lost its final battle after a tree fell on top of it during a storm last week.

The 6-by-6-foot fiberglass sculpture, which depicted Spider-Man's hands and web-shooters, was created by Ian Anthony Laing as part of Campus Life's serving hands public art campaign. It was later sold to Mark DeMars of California, but the sculpture stayed in Lincoln at his parents' house.

"He bought it and was really enjoying it and now it's been totally demolished by a random act of God," said Matt Schulte, executive director of Campus Life. "It just kind of creates a sinking feeling, but it also brings back good, positive memories of what the project was."

While DeMars is a big Spider-Man fan, he didn't buy the sculpture for its nod to the Marvel Universe  he bought it for the controversy behind it.

"I told him the story of the hands and how they were seen as devil horns, and he thought that was hilarious," said Barb DeMars, his mother. "So unbeknownst to us, when it came up for auction, he purchased these hands for us."

The sculpture found a home in their backyard and became more than just a joke to Barb and Jim DeMars.

"I am devastated. I mean, I would just sit here and look at it. I would smile every morning and think of my son," Barb said. "It just happened. And it could have fallen anywhere else, but it hit the hands."

The DeMars family is hoping to have the sculpture repaired or recreated, which could prove to be difficult as the original mold to the hands has since been thrown away.

The sculpture found the spotlight in 2019 when a woman noticed it displayed at 27th and Capitol Parkway and mistook the fingers for devil horns.

She was outraged.

She said the sculpture offended her and called it a "hate crime against the church" in a letter to the mayor's office. She wanted it gone.

Schulte had calls from news agencies across the country wanting to know more about the controversial sculpture.

Stories about the Lincoln sculpture ran in CNN, the New York Post, Daily Mail and more.

Even though the problem had been resolved, the story of the mishap blew up.

"Somehow or another it just got picked up," Schulte said.

But ultimately the offended woman learned the intended meaning behind the sculpture.

"Eventually she came back to me and said 'I'm sorry, I see now it's Spider-Man hands and I'm glad that you guys are doing good work in the community,'" Schulte said. "It was nice that we could reconcile with her."

Reach the writer at 402-473-2657 or jebbers@journalstar.com

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Authorities on Friday arrested a 58-year-old Peru man accused of shooting his neighbor during a dispute Saturday, according to the Nebraska State Patrol.

Guadalupe DeLaCruz turned himself into the Nemaha County Sheriff's Office early Friday morning, nearly a week after the shooting in the 1200 block of Sixth Street in Peru, the patrol said in a news release.

Last weekend, DeLaCruz entered 25-year-old Mark Dupre's fenced-in backyard with a handgun as Dupre hosted a pool party with 15 to 20 others, including some children, according to the affidavit for DeLaCruz's arrest.

DeLaCruz told investigators he had gone to his neighbor's house to complain about the noise, but was met with threats from Dupre and a 22-year-old man who was attending the party.

DeLaCruz fired his gun at least twice, striking Dupre once, according to the release. A second shot toward the 22-year-old missed, the State Patrol said.

Party attendees disputed DeLaCruz's account of events, investigators said in court records, saying that Dupre and the 22-year-old hadn't poised a threat to DeLaCruz before the shooting.

Dupre, who was taken to Bryan West Campus in Lincoln with non-life-threatening injuries, has since been released.

DeLaCruz was charged in Nemaha County Court with first-degree assault, use of a firearm to commit a felony, attempt of a Class 2 felony and possession of a deadly weapon while committing a felony, according to court filings.

He is being held at the Nemaha County Jail.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7223 or awegley@journalstar.com. On Twitter @andrewwegley

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It was quiet  unusually quiet  when Sonora Torquati arrived at work Friday morning.

Her co-workers were in a funk and "acting weird," she said, which was out of the norm.

"Then, about 20 minutes after open, I learned what happened," Torquati said. "Everyone was just kind of upset."

On Friday, in a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, erasing the landmark precedent that provided women a right to an abortion.

The holding by the court's conservative majority, written by Justice Samuel Alito, triggered abortion bans in 13 states across the country.

Nebraska wasn't among them. In April, an attempt by the Legislature to put a ban in place if the 1973 decision was overturned failed to overcome a filibuster.

Abortion remains legal, and accessible in the state for now, said Andi Curry Grubb, the state executive director for Planned Parenthood of Nebraska.

"Today's decision did absolutely nothing to change that," Curry Grubb said in a Zoom call with reporters Friday afternoon. "Planned Parenthood and the CARE Clinic of Bellevue proudly offer abortion care and will continue to do so."

While nothing has changed in Nebraska, Torquati and her niece, Marleigh Manrose, said news of the decision was a gut punch.

"I was sitting in my living room and saw it on the news and shed a few tears when I found out," said Manrose, who was among people who gathered at the County-City Building on Friday evening during a protest organized by Planned Parenthood.

"I felt like a part of my freedom was taken away today," she added.

Protests took place across the country, including in Omaha, where an estimated 1,500 people gathered at Memorial Park.

At the Lincoln protest, 300-400 people filled the sidewalks and spilled onto Lincoln Mall across 10th Street as they listened to a handful of speakers.

Attendees waved signs, both printed and homemade, that expressed anger at the decision, the Supreme Court and Republican politicians, as well as support for other women.

"I personally know people who have had abortions," Manrose said. "It's their body and their choice, and nobody else should have an opinion on it."

Speakers at the event encouraged those in attendance to channel their anger and energy into direct action, both in upcoming elections, as well as if the Legislature convenes later this summer in an anticipated special session to enact an abortion ban in Nebraska.

"With this decision, the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey and dismantled the federal constitutional protections for abortions that have existed for 50 years," said Scout Richters, reproductive rights counsel for the ACLU of Nebraska.

Richters said the ruling "allows anti-abortion politicians across the country to force women and other people who can become pregnant into lives they did not envision."

Earlier Friday, Ashlei Spivey, founder and director of I Be Black Girl, said Friday's decision will have a disproportionate impact on women of color and those living in rural areas.

"If you want to force people to have pregnancies, we know the mortality rate for people of color is significantly higher," Spivey said.

Colette Yellow Robe echoed Spivey during the rally, saying the Supreme Court's decision would have added negative consequences for Indigenous women and women of color.

She called Friday's decision "a direct assault" on the sovereignty of women, and called on the protesters to push back on what she described as a calculated effort by abortion opponents.

"This cowardice and the declaration of war against all women in this country requires our allies to put words into action," Yellow Robe said. "This is no longer just a woman's issue, this is a human rights issue."

Erin Feichtinger, policy director at the Women's Fund of Omaha, called the decision "an unprecedented stripping away of a fundamental right that has existed for five decades."

Any ban on abortion, which the Legislature is expected to consider, would also have "a devastating impact" on the economic well-being of women, as well as businesses and communities, she added.

Instead, Feichtinger said lawmakers should consider bills to ensure women receive equal pay for equal work, are able to be safely housed and food-secure, and have paid family leave if and when they do choose to become parents.

All of the speakers at Friday's virtual news conference said they are prepared to fight any proposed abortion ban that may go before the Legislature in the coming weeks.

"We have been doing all the work we need to to prepare for every scenario we could face," Curry Grubb said. "We're going to do the exact same thing we did during the (legislative) session: remind Nebraskans this is now the values they stand for, remind state senators that they serve their constituents.

"We're going to turn people out and we're going to defeat anything that they bring," she added.

Others who support abortion rights also indicated the fight now moves to the state Capitol and other areas where policy is made.

Abbi Swatsworth, executive director of Out Nebraska, called the decision an attack on "every person with a uterus," including those in the LGBTQ community.

"We need to be organizing, we need to be getting to the polls," Swatsworth said during the rally. "It is only arm-in-arm, it is only hand-in-hand, it is only stepping up together that we can make a difference in this fight."

Richters said recent polling shows a majority of Nebraskans oppose an abortion ban, which demonstrates there is momentum behind the effort to defeat any proposed legislation.

"We continue to evaluate all of our options, including litigation, work in the Legislature, and at the ballot box, to use all of the tools we have to fight back against these bans and keep abortion legal," she said.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7120 or cdunker@journalstar.com. On Twitter @ChrisDunkerLJS

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Patton Oswalt always has something cooking on the back burner. And the front burner, for that matter.

He'll be in Lincoln on Friday night for a long-awaited COVID-postponed-and-rescheduled engagement at the Lied Center for Performing Arts, but first he'll wrap up shooting "Manhunt," an Apple-plus mini-series that centers around the 12-day search for John Wilkes Booth following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865.

For Oswalt, whose list of movies, television and stage credits is the length of a CVS Pharmacy receipt, staying busy has been a constant. The guy is seemingly everywhere.

"Im grateful for everything I have been able to do," he said. "I love doing creative stuff so when it comes my way, I am always up for it."

Still, you can't play every part. You can't be in every production. There comes a time when you have to learn to say no.

That's an acquired life skill, Oswalt admits.

"You have to know when to juggle and when to take time off, when to power down and when to let yourself relax. I definitely make sure to take care of that." he said from Savannah, Georgia, where "Manhunt" is being shot.

"You definitely learn that as you go along. You learn to feel it out by trial and error until you fall into a nice pace. Its hard to describe. When youre there, you know it."

No need to describe. He's there. Living his best life. Blessed for the opportunity, he says.

In "Manhunt," he's playing Lt. Lafayette Baker, who is one of the lead investigators in the search for Booth, who shot Lincoln inside Ford Theater. In just two days, Baker and his men arrested four conspirators in the plot and a few days later, he tracked Booth to a Virginia barn, where he was killed.

"They were trying to keep him from getting down to the South because they thought  and they probably werent wrong  that if he could get down to the South, he would be taken in by the Confederacy and treated like a hero," Oswalt said.

All that's missing from Oswalt's role in the period piece are the mutton chops (he had a beard and a heavy flannel uniform). His performance, coming to livestream later this year, gives just another glimpse of his versatility.

Consider in the last year, he's played the man charged with finding the treacherous villain who killed the president of the United States; an irresponsible and somewhat childlike high school principal in "AP Bio," an underrated sitcom airing on Peacock; and Chuck Colson, an adviser to President Richard Nixon, in "Gaslit," a modern take on Watergate that focuses on the untold stories and forgotten characters of the scandal that would eventually bring down an administration.

And don't forget the commercial ads for Caesars Palace or the cherry on top: his standup comedy routine.

In 2012, the New York Post opined that since Oswalt began performing comedy in the early 1990s, he has mastered the art of conversational joke telling. In the decade since, he'd honed his craft and found a voice that can cover a variety of topics.

Performing at the Lied is a step up from the last time he was in Lincoln. His appearances on "The King of Queens" made him a headliner at local comedy clubs everywhere, but now playing theaters is an indicator of his hard-earned name recognition.

"It definitely feels better that a lot of the audiences are now connoisseurs of comedy," he said. "Now, as opposed to going to see comedy, they are going to see a specific person. There's something about that person that they like. You get people with more of a connection to who you are and what you do.

"That always feel great."

Reach the writer at 402-473-7391 or psangimino@journalstar.com. On Twitter @psangimino

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The top contenders in Nebraska's Republican gubernatorial primary shelled out the big bucks in the days leading up to the May 10 election, according to the latest round of campaign finance reports.

The filings, which include donations and expenses from April 26 to June 14, show the three leading GOP candidates  hog producer Jim Pillen, Falls City businessman Charles W. Herbster and state Sen. Brett Lindstrom  spent millions of dollars during the reporting period. Spending surged at such a rate that both Pillen, who won the Republican primary, and second-place finisher Herbster loaned their campaigns hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In total, Pillen has received nearly $9.5 million in contributions since he launched his campaign in 2021, with more than $1 million collected in the seven weeks covered in the latest filing. He has spent almost as much as he has raised, with nearly $9.1 million in expenditures. Of that total, Pillen's campaign spent nearly $2.2 million during the most recent reporting period. Pillen's campaign manager could not be reached for comment.

Herbster's campaign received about $13.2 million in overall contributions, including nearly $575,000 during the reporting period. He spent over $12.7 million during the course of his campaign, with more than $1.5 million of those expenditures coming in the latest filing period.

Herbster largely self funded his campaign, though he didn't report contributing any of his own money in the latest filing. He previously reported contributing $11.3 million cash to his campaign since the start of 2021.

Lindstrom, who finished third in the primary, didn't come close to Pillen or Herbster in terms of funding. In total, Lindstrom received more than $3 million in contributions, including more than $391,000 in the most recent reporting period. He spent $3 million overall, and about $650,000 during the recent reporting period.

Lindstrom's campaign reported an ending cash balance of nearly $56,000.

The Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue, received far less funding than the top three Republicans. She has brought in nearly $191,000, including about $43,000 in the latest reporting period. Blood has spent nearly $152,000, with about $53,000 of that coming in the latest reporting period.

Blood, who will face Pillen in the November general election, reported having just over $39,000 cash on hand at the close of the recent reporting period. Pillen reported having just over $373,000 cash on hand.

The latest filings encompass a period after the GOP gubernatorial primary was rocked by allegations from eight women who claimed Herbster groped them at public events in recent years. The allegations were reported by the Nebraska Examiner, an online news site.

Herbster's deputy campaign manager, Rod Edwards, said the article did not play a role in their campaign's final expenses. Instead, he said most of their money went to competing with attack ads that aired on television.

"There was a lot more money against Charles than Charles was able to spend," Edwards said.

Both Herbster and Lindstrom were the target of negative ads from third-party groups. One group, Conservative Nebraska, had the backing of Gov. Pete Ricketts, who supports Pillen. Ricketts contributed nearly $1.3 million to Conservative Nebraska. His parents, Joe and Marlene Ricketts, contributed a total of $250,000 to the group, according to the latest report.

Conservative Nebraska reported spending more than $950,000 opposing Lindstrom and $858,000 opposing Herbster.

For all three Republican candidates, advertising made up the lion's share of their last-minute expenses. Pillen paid more than $1.5 million for advertising between three different companies before the election. Lindstrom spent over $467,000 on television advertisements.

Herbster's campaign spent more than $1 million with one company, the Louisiana-based marketing firm People Who Think. Edwards said the campaign worked with the company throughout the election on campaign advertisements.

All three candidates loaned their campaign thousands of dollars. Pillen made two loans to his campaign totaling $550,000  one $250,000 loan May 4 and one $300,000 loan June 10. Lindstrom loaned his campaign $50,000 in late April.

Herbster loaned his campaign $350,000 May 9, the day before the primary election. Edwards said Herbster did this to cover recent expenses and balance the campaign's budget.

The Herbster campaign reported having nearly $524,000 cash on hand at the end of the recent reporting period.

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OMAHA  All four members of Nebraskas congressional delegation voted against a bill intended to curb gun violence in the U.S., saying they were concerned that the legislation would impinge the rights of law-abiding citizens.

Supporters of the legislation, which heads to President Joe Biden for his approval, dismissed that concern as unwarranted and stressed the need for action in the wake of deadly mass shootings, including one that killed 19 children and two teachers at a Texas school and another that killed 10 people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York.

The claims were not enough to win support from Sens. Deb Fischer and Ben Sasse and Reps. Don Bacon and Adrian Smith, all Republicans.

The $13 billion measure would toughen background checks for the youngest gun buyers, keep firearms from more domestic violence offenders and help states put in place red flag laws that make it easier for authorities to take weapons from people adjudged dangerous. It would also fund local programs for school safety, mental health and violence prevention.

While the members of Nebraskas delegation expressed support for some elements of the legislation, those aspects were not enough to override their concerns.

My vote today was constitutionally-based, not politically-based, Bacon said in a statement Friday after the vote in the House. "There was much in this bill that is commendable, but the red flag portion opens up consequences I cannot support."

Bacon, whose district includes Omaha, pointed to recent court rulings  including Thursdays U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down a New York law that restricted peoples ability to carry concealed weapons  as signals that the legislation would be found unconstitutional. However, he said, he supports the mental health and school security provisions in the bill.

Fischer also supported some aspects of the legislation but had concerns it would infringe on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens  an argument echoed by gun lobby groups that opposed the legislation.

"I appreciate that this bill contains funding for expanded mental health services and enhanced school security  these are important ways to help keep our kids and communities safe," Fischer said in a statement. "However, I have serious concerns about other parts of the legislation that would infringe upon law-abiding citizens Second Amendment rights and limit due process. I cannot support this bill.

Sasse voiced support for legislation proposed by Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, and John Barrasso of Wyoming. That bill, which called for rededicating more than $38 billion in American Rescue Plan Act money toward enhanced school security and mental health resources, would have been "a more responsible step" to achieve the goals of the gun violence bill "without compromising constitutional rights," Sasse said in a statement.

He said action to combat gun violence should focus on the mental health issues that are at the root of mass shootings committed by deeply troubled and suicidal young men while ensuring strong due process protections.

Unfortunately, the way this bill has been hastily drafted, it accomplishes the first but not the second, and I cannot support it," Sasse said.

Smith, whose sprawling district includes most of the state, said the bill would not achieve the goal of stopping senseless and heartbreaking acts of violence.

Ive heard from many Nebraskans who are concerned about their constitutional rights, he said in a statement Friday. I know the members of the Senate who negotiated the bill  and my Republican colleagues who supported it in the House  have good intentions, but I am seriously concerned parts of the bill, particularly the red flag provisions, are too broad and could have unintended consequences on Americans who are not a threat.

The votes in both the Senate and House received some level of bipartisan support, though less in the House, where 14 Republicans joined every Democrat in the 234-193 vote Friday. In the Senate, 15 Republicans joined all 50 Democrats in passing the bill 65-33 Thursday.

Biden has said he will sign the bill.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Some Nebraskans are finding out it literally pays to go green.

Norfolk has become the latest Nebraska community to make money off going solar  savings that are being shared with Norfolk businesses and citizens who signed up for solar energy. The city of about 24,400 is doing so through an 8.5 megawatt community solar farm that is going live within the next few weeks.

Electricity from the project will cost less than conventional electricity, resulting in savings to those customers who signed on. For participating residential customers, the savings can amount to as much as a $16.43 reduction in their monthly electric bill, said Grant Otten, spokesman for Nebraska Public Power District.

The solar farm is a project of Norfolk, NPPD and N Solar, a collaboration of three companies: Mesner Development Co., GenPro Energy Solutions and Sol Systems.

That solar has become so affordable isnt surprising. The cost of large-scale solar farms has dropped dramatically in the past decade or so, by as much as 82%, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a part of the U.S. Department of Energy.

Andrew Grin, vice president of Sol Systems, said the electricity from this solar farm costs less than conventional electricity for several reasons. The team has worked with NPPD before and owns enough community projects in Nebraska that it can reduce its cost of operating and maintaining the solar panels. Additionally, Sol purchased equipment for this project in 2019, which allowed the developers to avoid recent supply-chain problems and enabled the project to benefit from an increased tax credit.

The simple answer is due to the economies of scale and our experience in the state, he said.

Heres how the program works: Residents and businesses buy monthly shares in a newly built farm and in return get a monthly reduction on their energy bill that is larger than the share price.

For Norfolk residential customers, each monthly solar share costs $6.15, while the corresponding rebate is $8.70. Customers also save through lower taxes and fees on their bills. Homeowners can purchase up to five shares. (Residents pay a one-time signup fee of $50 and get that money refunded after three years.)

All shares have sold out, and there is now a waiting list. Rebates began showing up on this months bills.

Randy Gates, finance director for Norfolk, said the city will save about $170,000 a year on its electric bills. The citys residents and businesses will see a total savings of $132,000 a year, he said.

The new solar farm, at maximum output, generates the equivalent of about 10% of Norfolks peak demand for electricity, Otten said. Its output is the equivalent of the power needed by 1,250 homes. However, because it wont operate 24/7, its actual annual impact will be less than that. The farm, which cost more than $10 million to build, is located on the west side of town.

In a community solar project, residents band together to help fund a solar farm. That differs from the home-based solar panels that people put on their own roofs or utility-scale solar projects, in which a utility funds the construction of the farm and receives the electricity.

NPPD has entered a 30-year agreement with Sol Systems to purchase the electricity at a fixed cost.

NPPDs next community solar project will be in York, Otten said. Other communities that have formed solar partnerships with NPPD are: Kearney, Scottsbluff, Venango and Ainsworth.

The Omaha Public Power District has a 5-megawatt community solar farm in Washington County, and like the Norfolk solar farm, shares sold out before the Washington County one came on line.

OPPD is pursuing Nebraskas first utility-scale solar farm in Saunders County. The 81-megawatt solar project near Yutan would generate enough electricity to power 14,000 homes, and construction is expected to start next spring, said Jodi Baker, spokeswoman for OPPD.

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Abby Mills is not an artist.

The 16-year-old, who attends Mercy High School in Omaha, doesnt take art classes there. She doesnt spend hours drawing in her free time.

But once a year when the College World Series rolls into town, Mills shows off her artistic skills on the sidewalk next to the tailgaters in Lot D outside what now is Charles Schwab Field.

Armed with chalk, Mills draws the logos of all eight teams that qualified for the CWS on individual sidewalk squares. The drawings are all freehand. Mills said she pulls up a photo of the teams logo on her phone and goes for it.

For some teams, the logo is simply initials, such as ND for Norte Dame. For Arkansas, Mills drew a teeth-baring menacing Razorback.

This year, Mills started drawing the logos at about 8:30 a.m. on Friday, June 17, and finished around noon. Her two sisters, Lily, 14, and Marly, 12, helped her color in the logos.

The hardest part, she said, is drawing the logos in the heat, although her parents make sure she takes breaks.

The logos still were intact Wednesday. Mills said she worries about getting tramped by fans while she draws the logos, but once theyre done, people go out of their way to avoid stepping on them.

The chalk art began in 2017 when Mills and her sisters were bored at a tailgate. They used chalk to write out the names of all eight teams in the CWS. In 2019, Mills said, she started doing the team logos.

I was shocked at my own artistic skills, Mills said of the results.

Angie Mills, Abbys mom, said her daughter doesnt give herself enough credit. On occasion, she said, Abby will draw things for her high school or her sisters school, but its not as elaborate as what she does for the CWS.

To prepare, Mills said, she has to go to multiple craft stores to make sure she has enough chalk in the right colors.

This year, Mills said she watched the regionals and super regionals and cheered on teams based on their logos. Do they have pretty colors? Does she want to draw the logo? Can she actually draw the logo?

Mills favorite logo to draw this year was Stanford University, which features a tree and an S.

Fans love the chalk art. Sometimes they will ask Mills to stop by their tailgate spot to draw a logo near them even if their team didnt make it into the series.

Some fans have asked Mills if she pours water over the logos as teams are eliminated. Normally, Mother Nature takes care of that and washes away all the logos with rain. But this year, she poured water over the Texas logo after the Longhorns were eliminated.

Its the only time Ive ever done it, Mills said. I thought, Why not? because Ive been waiting to do it, and the rain normally does it for me.

Angie Mills said her family has had tickets to the CWS for 40 years, but now her daughters sidewalk chalk art is how people find them every year to reconnect.

I think its cool people get so much joy out of seeing it, she said.

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RACINE  A 17-year-old allegedly shot a man five times.

Damian J. Mason, a.k.a. "Tank," of the 1100 block of Washington Avenue, Racine, was charged with felony counts of first-degree reckless injury and endangering safety by reckless use of a firearm.

According to a criminal complaint:

On June 19, officers were sent to the 1100 block of Racine Street for a shots fired call.

At the intersection of 13th Street and Park Avenue, officers found a man in a black vehicle suffering from gunshot wounds. He had about five gunshot wounds to the right side of his body.

They spoke to the man as he was being transported to the Ascension All Saints emergency room. He said that he got into an argument with a woman and her son, Mason, displayed a gun and fired several shots into his vehicle as he fled. He said Mason was standing on the passenger side of the vehicle when he began firing.

Mason was given a $50,000 cash bond in Racine County Circuit Court on Friday. A preliminary hearing is on June 29 at the Racine County Law Enforcement Center, 717 Wisconsin Ave., online court records show.

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Hong Kong: Quarantine hotel measures unveiled

The Government announced today the immediate implementation of measures to curb scalping of designated quarantine hotel (DQH) guest rooms and the inclusion of three more hotels under the eighth cycle of the DQH Scheme.

The DQHs should require their partner travel agents not to block book the guest rooms without the booking details of guests. Travel agents must provide relevant information of the guests to the hotels with full payment settled at the time they reserve the rooms.

The hotels should also ensure that all room bookings must be made under a real name and full payment must be settled in advance. The DQHs should concurrently develop a fair and transparent refund policy.

Additionally, the hotels should ask the travel agents to itemise the fees charged on the receipt and ensure the hotel room rate is the same as the published rate listed on the Government's website.

The Government will monitor the situation closely and take appropriate action if non-compliance cases are found.

Meanwhile, three more hotels have been added to the eighth cycle of the DQH Scheme. They are Bay Bridge Lifestyle Retreat in Tsuen Wan, Mira Moon Hotel in Wan Chai and Prince Hotel, Hong Kong in Yau Tsim Mong.

The three hotels will start accept room bookings from tomorrow to provide some 900 additional rooms.

Including these three hotels, there are a total of 65 DQHs under the eighth cycle, providing around 24,000 rooms.

This story has been published on: 2022-06-24. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
The pro-life community has been looking forward to it. Pro-choice groups have been loathing it. Now, it's happened.

Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide, was officially overturned by the Supreme Court Friday morning in the decision of Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization.

The legality of abortion is now up to the states.

In Wisconsin, abortion is a felony except in an incredibly limited exception when the mother's life is in danger and two physicians concur that her life is in danger, an exception so narrow that medical experts say still leaves the mother's life at risk in emergency situations where decisions need to be made quick.

There are no exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest.

It remains legal to travel to other states to perform or receive an abortion. Abortion remains legal in Illinois.

Here's how Wisconsin elected officials and organizations are responding:

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester: Safeguarding the lives of unborn children shouldnt be controversial. Todays decision reaffirms their lives are precious and worthy of protection. I agree with the justices in their opinion when they say, The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives. I urge those who disagree with the decision to remain peaceful.

U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, a Janesville Republican whose district includes all of Racine and Kenosha counties: Im proudly pro-life. Todays decision will bring this important issue back to the states. This is a great victory for life.

Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, D-Racine: Lets call this what it is: a brazen, political act that rolls back essential human rights. By striking down a precedent of nearly 50 years, the U.S. Supreme Court has sent our country back to the 1970s and Wisconsin back to the 1840s. During Governor Evers special session on protecting reproductive care, we had an opportunity to protect Wisconsinites access to abortion, but legislative Republicans ignored the call and the will of the people of Wisconsin. Republicans unwillingness to act is inexcusable, and they will be directly responsible for the negative outcomes of this decision. The Supreme Courts decision to throw out historically enshrined protections and the GOPs inaction will have significant consequences for our friends, families, neighbors, and communities. Let me be clear: we will not stop fighting for access to comprehensive healthcare, including abortion. While today hurts, we will not be deterred in our pursuit of reproductive rights.

State Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine: "Like millions of Americans, I believe Roe v Wade was wrongly decided 50 years ago. Just as Plessy v. Ferguson was wrongly decided in 1896, it took the Court some time to recognize and correct their error, but it both cases the Supreme Court eventually came to the correct result. As a result, the issue of abortion has returned to the states, were it belongs. I, for one, am proud that Wisconsin has recognized the sanctity of life since its founding."

Dr. Wendy Molaska, president of the Wisconsin Medical Society: Todays decision raises concerns that could result in significant interference with the physician-patient relationship  the sanctity of which is the bedrock of our healthcare system. Defaulting to a law first created in 1849 is not the best path forward. Inevitable confusion over the continued validity of that 19th century law makes proactive legislative action prudent.

The Wisconsin Medical Society supports legislation that would acknowledge the right of a physician to perform and give advice on this medical procedure  or refuse to do so according to the physicians training, experience and conscience.

The health and safety of our patients is our top priority. Wisconsin law should reflect that priority and ensure physicians can have full and frank discussions with patients about their health care without fear of imprisonment.

Archdiocese of Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki: "As a Church that advances the Culture of Life and as members of a civil society, we welcome the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in the Dobbs case. While no doubt we all feel a renewed hope for the future, let us also remember that our struggle to preserve the sanctity of human life is only just beginning. Abortion laws now return to the individual states. Our challenge is to continue to promote that human life begins at conception and needs to be protected at all times.

"The Church will continue to support all women  especially those experiencing unplanned pregnancies where abortion seems like the only or easy solution  by providing the spiritual, emotional and financial support necessary through our parishes, support networks and pregnancy centers. I appeal to all in our society to work together to make the thought of abortion not only unthinkable, but also unnecessary. More than 63 million children lost their lives to the scourge of abortion. May their souls, and all the souls of the faithful departed, rest in peace."

Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, who has called on Congress to codify the right to abortion services, said Friday he would never stop fighting to make sure that every single Wisconsinite has the right to make their own health care decisions. But Evers has few powers beyond his veto pen.

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.: "Today is a victory for life and for those who have fought for decades to protect the unborn. For almost 50 years the decision of nine unelected Justices prevented a democratically derived consensus on the profound moral issue of abortion. This decision will now allow that democratic process to unfold in each state to determine at what point does society have the responsibility to protect life. Hopefully, the debate will be conducted with sincerity, compassion, and respect for the broad range of views that people hold."

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.: "An activist majority of the Supreme Court has overturned Roe and nearly 50 years of precedent, taking away the constitutional rights of American women to make their own personal choices about their body, their health, and their family. Republicans have taken Wisconsin women back to 1849 and it is Republicans who want to keep us there with support for having politicians interfere in the freedoms of women who will now have fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers have had for decades. I ask people to join this fight with their voices and their votes because we will not be taken back, we will move forward."

State Sen. Bob Wirch, a Somers Democrat whose district includes part of Racine County: This is a sad day and I dont believe that government should get in between women and their doctors when it comes to decisions. This is an arbitrary decision by the Supreme Court that the voters will remember in November.

State Rep. Tip McGuire, a Kenosha Democrat whose district includes part of Racine: If conservatives on the Supreme Court get their way, reproductive healthcare in this state will get sent back to the Dark Ages. Now is the time to take action so that our state does not mandate forced pregnancies, particularly in cases of rape and incest.

State Rep. Chuck Wichgers, a Muskego Republican whose district includes Waterford: Today, the U. S. Supreme Court corrected a judicial ruling that has hung darkly over our nation for far too long. It is the job of government to protect life. We are a nation founded on the inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. When the most basic right to life is denied to innocent, unborn babies, it is not long before all human life is degraded. We have seen this happen in our country even as women made incredible gains in equal rights. Abortion does not empower women, it trades one set of problems for another. There are tremendous resources available to women facing unplanned pregnancies; not only basic things like diapers, formula, and clothing, but adoption support, housing options, counseling, and education. Now more than ever, Wisconsinites will come alongside those faced with unplanned pregnancies instead of offering a false solution like killing an unborn child.

Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito said, Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division.

Since Roe v. Wade was decided, over 62 million unborn babies in America lost their lives to someone elses choice. According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, there have been 585,624 abortions in our state since 1974. That is 34 children who died by abortion every single day, 365 days a year, for the past 47 years. These are heartbreaking numbers. Today is an historic day in America.

Matt Sande, Pro-Life Wisconsin legislative director: "Abortion is no longer a constitutional right in America, and never really was. The shackles of the 'Roe/Casey' legal regime have been thrown off and now Wisconsin and every other state in our nation is free to ban abortion without exception."

Dan Miller, Pro-Life Wisconsin state director: "We have longed for the day when no more babies die and no more mothers cry. The blood of the more than 550,000 aborted Wisconsin babies cries to heaven for justice. Nothing will stand in our way to see that abortion ends in Wisconsin! Victory for the rights of the preborn is quite literally in the hands of our state legislature and governor. Please pray for them."

Planned Parenthood: "Today will be remembered as one of the darkest days in the history of SCOTUSwomen will die as a result of this destructive decision by these Trumpian justices.

"The court has failed us all  but this is far from over.

"We know what politicians want because it's already happening: to ban abortion state by state& eventually a national ban. But, like generations before us, we'll fight for each other. If you or someone you know needs an abortion, reach out: 1-800-230-Plan & http://AbortionFinder.org"

Rebecca Kleefisch, former Wisconsin lieutenant governor and current Republican gubernatorial candidate: "A victory for unborn babies!"

Tim Michels, Republican Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate: "It is important that we continue to compassionately work on winning hearts and minds. We need to build a world that is safer for all, a world where better education is provided, and an economy that allows for all to prosper. Life must always be protected. We should not demonize those who don't believe that, but rather redouble our efforts to show how they can provide a high quality of life for their children.

"The pro-life movement does not end with todays victory. In fact, its vital that we grow stronger."

State Rep. Tod Ohnstad, D-Kenosha: The decision to overturn Roe v. Wade now turns the clock in Wisconsin back over 150 years, with all abortions criminalized in our state  with no exceptions to rape or incest. The Legislature had the opportunity to repeal Wisconsins 1849 abortion ban through Governor Evers Special Session; however, Republicans gaveled in and out in under 30 seconds, refusing to even debate the issue.

Mandela Barnes, Wisconsin lieutenant governor and Democratic candidate to represent Wisconsin in U.S. Senate: "The Supreme Court just struck down Roe v. Wade. There is no reason to put women in danger and take us back in time. Congress needs to act now, enough wasting time. Everything is on the line this November. Anti-abortion politicians like Ron Johnson need to go. In the Senate, I'll fight hard to protect women and make Roe the law of the land."

Tom Nelson, Democratic candidate to represent Wisconsin in U.S. Senate: June 24, 2022, is a day of infamy for women, for the Supreme Court and for the U.S. Constitution. Never in our lifetimes did we think that we would live in a nation where freedoms would decrease instead of increase. The Supreme Courts extremist majority showed its true colors  trading away basic rights and freedoms for a backwards, dystopian vision that the majority of Americans DONT want.

"I know that so many folks in our community are grieving, outraged and shaken. I want you to know that I will NEVER stop fighting to protect the right to choose for women across our state and our country.

"In the post-Roe America that is now our reality, the Senate is the frontline for abortion rights. We are just one Senate vote away from codifying a womans right to choose into national law  and ensuring every American can make their own decisions about their body and their future.

"With Wisconsins 1849 criminal abortion ban still on the books, we need bold, immediate action in the U.S. Senate to protect womens lives. Democrats must end the filibuster, codify a national right to a safe and legal abortion and expand the Supreme Court. Im the only candidate in this Senate race to advocate for this position.

U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Wis.: Todays landmark ruling is a historic victory for human rights. This decision paves the way for us to protect all life.

Alex Lasry, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate: "Today will be remembered as one of the darkest days in the history of SCOTUS  women will die as a result of this destructive decision by these Trumpian justices."

Larry Dupuis, legal director at the ACLU of Wisconsin: "While today is an undeniably bleak day in our countrys history, we can not allow ourselves to give up the fight. Feelings of hopelessness and despair are understandable given the magnitude of the crisis we now find ourselves in. But even in moments like this one  where we may feel completely powerless in the face of grave injustice  we must remind ourselves that we still do have power. Everyones rights are on the line now, so its important for all of us to make our voices heard, and to get involved. We need the officials who represent us in local, state, and federal government  as well those we elect to the judiciary  to be firmly committed to defending bodily autonomy, reproductive freedom, and the other civil liberties we hold dear.

Melinda Brennan, ACLU of Wisconsin executive director: We encourage everyone to channel the righteous anger you may be feeling right now into action. There are elections set for this August and November, as well as a crucial state supreme court race next April. You can also talk with your neighbors, contact your legislators, get engaged and organize within your community.

Adam Rogan of The Journal Times and Joe States of Lee Newspapers contributed to this report.

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RACINE  While other people have spent the 90-degree days this past week relaxing by bodies of water or grilling out, Dulce Contreras and 70 other volunteers spent their days painting, digging and repairing homes in the Uptown neighborhood.

Belle City Catholic Service Camp is a partnership that Active Catholic Teens in Service does every year with the different Catholic communities around Racine.

The camp is known for its missionary work in helping restore houses every summer.

Among the volunteers were Maria and Lupe Sandoval, whose son Andre Sandoval was active in the ACTS projects before dying by gun violence in August 2021. Andre was one of ACTS biggest advocates before his death.

According to investigators, Sandoval was killed by Tamir Williams, who had cut Sandovals hair before the two argued over the bill. Williams followed Sandoval out of a Mount Pleasant salon and then shot him. In October 2021, Williams was found not mentally competent to stand trial, but regained competence this spring after treatment and has now pleaded not guilty.

Andre Sandoval, who was a 21-year-old Burlington resident at the time of his death, had put in a full weeks work during the groups projects last summer as an adult volunteer. This year, his family joined to honor his memory.

This years theme is Live Like Andre, in honor of Sandoval.

Taking back the city

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the camp would travel to different parts of the country for missionary work, but the travel was deemed too costly and dangerous with an active pandemic. So the camp now works on homes in the City of Racine. This year, the group has spent the last week restoring 18 houses on the 1700 block of Howe Street.

Theres substantial evidence that investing in specific areas can have profound impacts, particularly in preventing violence.

A November 2021 reported titled Want to reduce violence? Invest in place. published by Brookings Metro, a subsidiary of the Washington D.C.-based Brookings Institution research group, states: To understand the causes of  and potential solutions to  violence in the U.S., one must pay attention to the long-standing relationship between violence and place. Within cities, gun violence is concentrated in a small set of disinvested neighborhoods, and within these neighborhoods, such violence is even more concentrated within a small set of micro-geographic places, like particular streets.

This is a well-established trend that holds in every city or non-urban setting in which it has been studied. And when it comes to solutions, a growing body of evidence also demonstrates the promise of micro-level place-based interventions  such as rehabilitating vacant lots or increasing the number of community organizations  in significantly decreasing violence within these neighborhoods.

Dulce is the daughter of Eloy Contreras, the director of ACTS. Working directly under him, Dulce does a bit of everything at ACTS, including scheduling and paperwork. She is also a recent graduate of Racine Lutheran High School.

Howe Street residents have shown appreciation to the group in many ways. Some of the residents help the kids working on their house, and the group is often gifted water, sodas and fruit. Dulce said people are dropping off supplies and donations all the time. Even big companies like S.C. Johnson have lent support.

This years project has 50 youth volunteers from 8th to 12th grade and about 20 adult volunteers. The youths will work on the houses from June 20-24, doing things like repairing porches and fences and providing new coats of paint to siding. Whatever the kids cannot get done in the week will be completed by the adults.

The main thing is that we want to get more kids, Dulce said. We want to make it bigger and bigger every year ... Our big motto this year is that we want to take back our city ... We want to take back whats ours. This has been a big year where a lot of gun violence has happened and we want to take it back. Its kind of crazy: we go to these vigils where someone is killed, but we come back home and we dont do anything about it. We want to make Racine the Beautiful Belle City.

Involved in Belle City Catholic Service Camp ACTS Youth Ministry

St. Patrick

St. Sebastian

St. Lucy

St. Louis

St. Rita

Siena Catholic Schools

St. Edward

St. Richard

St. Catherine's High School

Catholic Community in Central Racine

St. Paul the Apostle

St. John Nepomuk

St. Joseph Parish and School

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According to Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, the birth control Plan B pill, also known as the morning-after pill, is legal and remains available in Wisconsin. The so-called abortion pill now appears illegal, following Fridays landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade.

While most forms of abortion remain legal before the fetuss volatility in neighboring Minnesota and Illinois, in Wisconsin a law from 1849 (which has been unenforceable since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision) appears to now be in effect.

Under current interpretations of the law, birth control is still considered legal, but performing abortions in Wisconsin is a felony.

No law prohibits someone from going across state lines to obtain an abortion.

Lisa Boyce, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, said in an email Friday: The morning after pill is a birth control method that prevents pregnancy so that remains legal. The abortion pill is no longer legal to access here in Wisconsin  people will need to go outside of the state (to get it).

Plan B

The Plan B pill is considered to prevent a pregnancy rather than end one, and thus is still considered legal in Wisconsin.

Different variations of the pill (scientifically known as levonorgestrel emergency contraceptives) have different names, but all serve practically the same purpose: to prevent a female from becoming pregnant the day after or within five days of having intercourse.

Brand names often available over the counter include Plan B One-Step and Next Choice One Dose.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, Plan B works like other birth control pills to prevent pregnancy. Plan B acts primarily by stopping the release of an egg from the ovary (ovulation). It may prevent the union of sperm and egg (fertilization). If fertilization does occur, Plan B may prevent a fertilized egg from attaching to the womb (implantation). If a fertilized egg is implanted prior to taking Plan B, Plan B will not work.

Plan B reduces the chance of a pregnancy occurring between 70% and 95%, with a lower likelihood of a pregnancy occurring the sooner after intercourse Plan B is taken.

The right to birth control, such as Plan B, could disappear, however. In a concurrent but separate opinion filed Friday by conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, he advised that the Supreme Court should reconsider all of this Courts substantive due process precedents, including Griswold (legalizing married couples to use contraception), Lawrence (legalizing same-sex relationships) and Obergefell (which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide).

Another due process case decided under the 14th Amendment not mentioned by Thomas is that of Loving v. Virginia, told states it was illegal to ban interracial marriage. Brown v. Board of Education, which banned racial segregation in schooling and disallowed an earlier separate but equal allowance in the law, is also considered a due process case.

Abortion pill

How southeast Wisconsin is reacting to overturn of Roe v. Wade U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil called the decision "a great victory for life. Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, D-Racine, said Lets call this what it is: a brazen, political act that rolls back essential human rights."

According to Planned Parenthood, what is known as the abortion pill is no longer legal in Wisconsin  although that conclusion remains disputed.

There are two common names for what is usually referred to as the abortion pill, which is actually two pills. They are mifepristone (a.k.a. Mifeprex) and misoprostol.

Mifeprex first became FDA approved in 2000.

Taking the pills usually ends a pregnancy within 70 days of gestation; i.e. after a woman has become pregnant and within 70 days of their last period.

For use, the FDA advises taking a 200-milligram Mifeprex pill and then, 24-48 hours later, taking 800 micrograms of misoprostol buccally  which means within the cheek pouch and allowing it to dissolve.

This method is considered more than 90% effective at ending pregnancies.

Then, 1-2 weeks later, those who have taken the doses should follow up with a health care provider.

President Joe Biden, a Democrat and professed Roman Catholic, has said he is looking to make it possible to get abortion pills through the U.S. Postal Service.

After the Supreme Court decision was announced Friday, however, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said he is telling states that they cannot ban mifepristone. Whether that advisory will be followed remains unclear. Earlier this month, Louisiana made it a crime to mail abortion pills.

Taryn McGinn, a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who works at the universitys Collaborative for Reproductive Equity initiative, said that Wisconsins 1849 abortion ban only makes the performing of an abortion illegal. Thus, according to McGinn, the individual who is pregnant and has an abortion would not be committing a crime in Wisconsin.

Under that reading of the law, abortion pills could be legally prescribed by a doctor in Illinois and then taken by a woman in Wisconsin would be legal.

Its likely that Wisconsin will hear lawsuits over a number of years over whether and how that (1849) law will be enforceable, McGinn said in a phone interview Friday.

Garlands Friday statement, in part, read In particular, the FDA has approved the use of the medication Mifepristone. States may not ban Mifepristone based on disagreement with the FDAs expert judgment about its safety and efficacy.

Lawrence Gostin, who runs the ONeill Institute for National and Global Health at Georgetown Law, said he has discussed a variety of options with administration officials but believes they are gun shy given the potential for legal challenges that could lead to more roadblocks from a Supreme Court dominated by conservatives.

Some of Gostins suggestions included having Medicaid cover the cost of traveling across state lines to end pregnancies, as well as expanding access to abortion medication that can be delivered by mail.

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As doctors in Wisconsin immediately stopped providing abortions on Friday and turned away women in waiting rooms, some were planning to start an independent clinic in Illinois, where abortion remains legal.

A group of doctors plans to start an independent clinic in the Rockford area to initially offer pill abortions and eventually provide surgical abortions, said Dr. Douglas Laube, who performed abortions at Planned Parenthood in Madison and is former chair of obstetrics and gynecology at UW-Madison.

Planned Parenthood sites in the Chicago suburbs of Waukegan and Aurora are also planning for an influx of patients from Wisconsin, said Mike Murray, vice president of public policy for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin.

There definitely are discussions about what needs to be done to absorb that demand, Murray said. There are some wheels in motion.

Fridays U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion nationally, clears the way for the states abortion ban to once again be the law of the land. The 1849 law bans abortions except when the mothers life is in danger. Under that law, doctors could be charged with felonies for performing abortions and face up to six years in prison and $10,000 in fines.

Wisconsins ban is expected to face immediate legal challenges, and its not at all clear whether it would, or could, be enforced. Still, clinics were taking no chances Friday.

Nearly 70 women had abortion procedures scheduled with Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin on Friday and Saturday, said Dr. Kathy King, the groups medical director. Four women had abortions at Planned Parenthood clinics Friday morning before the Supreme Courts order came down, King said.

Women who were awaiting the procedure were told that they couldnt be done in Wisconsin. Instead, they were given help with scheduling appointments in other states, said Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin President Tanya Atkinson.

Although abortion services are not available in Wisconsin for now, Planned Parenthoods doors across the state are open and we are here to help patients get the care they need, said Lisa Boyce, spokesperson for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. This includes helping patients access safe abortion care where it remains legal, offering travel assistance, and providing appropriate follow-up care when they return home.

Abortion care providers are also preparing to travel to Illinois to help the likely influx of patients from Wisconsin who may seek abortion care, King said.

A person who answered the phone at Affiliated Medical Services, which also provides abortions in Milwaukee, said it was busy contacting patients about the ruling and declined to comment further. Its website suggested that when Roe v. Wade was struck down, the group would stop providing abortions and instead provide resources for out-of-state abortion clinics, travel support and general questions.

Some hospitals also perform abortions if the fetus has a lethal condition or the mothers life is at risk. In a statement Friday, UW Health said, While reverting to a 173-year-old state law on abortion will create some legal uncertainties, we recognize that this court decision has effectively banned abortions in Wisconsin except to save the life of the mother, and UW Health will continue to comply with the laws related to reproductive health care.

Options sought

More Wisconsin women are expected to order abortion pills through the mail and carry out their own medication abortions. A Wisconsin law requires providers to dispense the drugs in person, but people can circumvent the process by ordering pills in other states or from Europe.

Youre going to see self-managed medication abortion just soar overnight, Ingrid Andersson, a nurse midwife in Madison and co-founder of Pregnancy Options Wisconsin: Education, Resources and Support, or POWERS, which assists people seeking abortion, told the Wisconsin State Journal last month.

Laube said Wisconsin women also might travel to Minnesota and Illinois, where state laws would still allow abortions. To help expand access in northern Illinois, he and other doctors are looking at setting up a clinic in the Rockford area. They considered South Beloit, but couldnt find the right kind of facility there, he said.

The first step would be to try to set up something relatively soon to be able to address women that can use medical abortions, Laube said.

Once the facility is equipped for surgical abortions or another site for surgical abortions is found, those procedures also would be offered, he said. The first priority will be for women, primarily from Wisconsin, who need services that would have normally come here to Madison, he said.

Laube said he and the other doctors are applying for Illinois licenses, which could cause delays. The process could take three to four months unless something can be fast-tracked, he said.

Laube said he and two UW Health doctors who work at Planned Parenthood  Dr. Abigail Cutler and Dr. Eliza Bennett  are among those discussing the Rockford plan. At least one other retired doctor from Madison and two from elsewhere in the state also might participate, he said.

Murray said ramping up Planned Parenthood sites to meet demand could be a tall order throughout Illinois, where the organization provides about 17,000 abortions a year. With a range of certain or possible abortion restrictions in other surrounding states  Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan and Missouri  up to 30,000 additional abortion patients a year might seek services in Illinois, he said.

The state does about 46,000 abortions a year overall, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

The Associated Press and State Journal reporter Elizabeth Beyer contributed to this report.

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Copperas Cove, TX (76522)

Today

Partly cloudy with afternoon showers or thunderstorms. High around 95F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

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Scattered thunderstorms during the evening, with mostly cloudy skies after midnight. Low 72F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
1. Yes. Roe was bad law and never should have been enacted. Last weeks ruling was just.

2. Yes. The court ruling correctly leaves the question of reproductive rights to the states.

3. No. Roe v. Wade was established law. The ruling will cause a womens health crisis.

4. No. The decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was more about politics than the law.

5. Unsure. Its hard to say whether it was the right ruling; it depends on your perspective.

Vote

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KEARNEY  When it comes to barbecue, Brandon Benitz knows flavor.

Bentiz, 46, of Kearney is a certified judge with the Kansas City Barbecue Society, and will be a judge this weekend at BBQ on the Bricks in downtown Kearney sponsored by the Kearney Eagles Club. He first got the taste for judging in 2013 when he was asked to be a celebrity judge in Kearney.

The very first bite of competition barbecue I ever had, it was so good, I thought I would pass out. I kid you not, Benitz said. It was unbelievably good.

A few months later he took a four-hour certification course and became an official judge, and has since judged 35 sanctioned and independent competitions. I have to say its one of the most fun things I do in my life. Its an experience for me, and I completely love it.

When looking for a good piece of meat, KCBS judges consider appearance, taste and tenderness in four meat categories: chicken, pork ribs, pulled pork and brisket. The KCBS has just added steak as a fifth meat and a separate competition.

Each judge gets six portions of each type of meat, and judges are encouraged to take at least two bites of their portion of meat. Chicken and ribs are Benitzs favorite.

I just like the taste of the chicken and pork better, he said.

Judging usually takes about two hours. He typically doesnt eat before competition.

Anyone can be trained to the KCBS standards, and become a judge. The Midwest BBQ Association also have their own standards.

At home Benitz likes to grill ribeye steaks on his propane, using some of the various 34 spices he keeps on hand, including his own blend of salt, pepper and garlic. He claims to come close to being as good as the master grillers, and hopes to perfect his talents when he buys a wood pellet grill.

I try, but I cant come close to what I can find on the national circuit. These cooks are just too good, he said.

When he isnt judging, or barbecuing, Benitz is a commercial and investment realtor with Century 21 Midlands in Kearney.

His payment for judging? The food he consumes. Its a good gig to have. I love doing it.

Starting at 5 p.m. Friday and continuing through Saturday, 24th Street from Avenue A to Central Avenue and 24th Street from Central Avenue to First Avenue will be closed for the event. BBQ on the Bricks is open to the public from 5-7 p.m. Saturday.

Tickets are $15 per person and can be purchased at the Kearney Eagles Club at 17 W. 24th Street. The Eagles will be serving a plated meal provided by the teams. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Fort Kearney Aerie #2722. The event is hosted by the Eagles, the Midwest BBQ Association and the Nebraska Pork Producers.
KEARNEY  Gov. Pete Ricketts favors a total ban on abortions, but Nebraska lawmakers may not have the votes to achieve that, state senators from south-central Nebraska said on Friday.

There are multiple senators who want a total ban, but there are some who want to exclude the victims of rape and incest, Sen. John Lowe of Kearney said about the potential for a partial ban that would exclude victims of rape and incest or allow abortions to save the life of a mother.

I am pro-lfe. Im in favor of no abortions, but if the only way to get this passed is to work without rape and incest, thats what Ill have to do this year, Lowe said.

The 37th District he represents in the Legislature encompasses the city of Kearney.

On Friday, Lowe was wrapping up his first Leadership Nebraska class and debating whether to remain in Lincoln for additional meetings.

Two bills that wouldve restricted abortion failed to get out of committee during the legislative session.

District 38 Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil represents an agricultural district that stretches along the southern border of Nebraska. He said he is pro-life, so he believes the only circumstance in which an abortion would be appropriate is to save the life of the mother.

With incest and rape, an abortion still would be murdering the unborn child, Murman said.

He anticipates the governor will call a special session so the Legislature can debate the abortion issue, but there may not be a special session if there arent enough pro-life senators to break a filibuster.

Hes got to be sure that every senator is there. Well need 33 votes because our proposal will be filibustered, Murman said.

Sen. Dan Hughes of Venango also represents an agricultural district. Hughes was spraying pesticide on corn Friday morning when asked about the abortion issue. Hughes District 44 stretches from Lexington to the Colorado border in southwest Nebraska.

I have always been a pro-life senator, but I have to see the bill before I can comment on it, Hughes said when asked if he could support a total ban. All I know right now is that if there is a special session, it will be contentious.

Hughes said he agrees that abortion is a state responsibility, not federal, and so I agree with the Supreme Courts ruling that overturns Roe V. Wade.

Asked whether a total abortion ban would saddle women with excessive consequences for an unplanned pregnancy, Lowe said, Is it fair to heap all of the consequences onto the baby?

Hughes said, The man is just as responsible. The woman has to carry the baby and give birth, but I dont know how you legislate fairness.

All three senators said they hope individuals and organizations step up to love and support pregnant women who will be affected if the state bans abortion.

We hope the communities embrace these women and that the women embrace their babies, Lowe said.

We probably have to have a greater emphasis on supporting women, Hughes said.

We need to love and support them in any way we can, Murman said. Its a responsibility of every individual and faith community.
KEARNEY  Lets be honest, we all have our favorite home-makeover shows.

Fixer Upper. Flip or Flop. Love It or List It. Home Town. Property Brothers. The list of choices goes on and on.

For some people, its fun to dream about that perfect kitchen or spacious en suite. For others, these programs serve as inspiration to pursue an exciting and challenging career.

Much like reality TV stars Chip and Joanna Gaines, Erin and Ben Napier and Jonathan and Drew Scott, the University of Nebraska at Kearneys interior and product design program continues to grow in popularity. With more than 50 students enrolled last semester, its doubled in size since Dana Vaux joined UNK eight years ago.

For people who are creative and like the idea of being in a creative industry, this program gives them an opportunity to do that while making a good living, said Vaux, an associate professor and program coordinator.

A degree in interior and product design prepares students to work in a variety of settings, from custom furniture and lighting design to full-scale residential and commercial projects. Classes are taught by expert faculty with a wide range of knowledge and backgrounds, allowing students to learn about art, architecture, business, construction and other related areas.

Were able to tailor the instruction to meet a students interests and strengths. Its very customizable, said assistant professor Ahna Packard, who has professional experience in TV, movie and theater set design.

HANDS-ON LEARNING

UNK senior Mikayla McFate really enjoys that aspect of the program. Shes interested in residential work, but wants to be exposed to all elements of the design field.

Im very thankful I chose UNK, McFate said. I feel like Im getting a well-rounded experience here and I like the hands-on approach, because thats how I learn best.

A Callaway native, McFate has always had an eye for design. She helped a local couple design their new home during high school and shadowed a professional designer in Lincoln who recommended she attend UNK.

That was a really good initial learning experience for me and it solidified my decision to enter this field, she said.

Because of the smaller class sizes, UNK students work one-on-one with faculty and develop close relationships with their classmates, many of whom take the same courses together year after year.

Our students are kind of like a family, said assistant professor Rebecca Hermance. They get to know each other really well and we get to know them.

Most of these interactions occur in Discovery Hall, a state-of-the-art STEM building that opened in fall 2020. This cutting-edge facility is a significant upgrade from Otto Olsen, the former vocational and industrial arts building it replaced.

Obviously the design of Discovery Hall is beautiful, so I feel like its very fitting for our major to be in a more modern, relevant building, McFate said. I also think the classroom environment is a lot nicer here.

With 90,000 square feet of space, Discovery Hall features four interior and product design studios, a lighting and materials lab, fabrication lab and open gallery where student projects are displayed.

In the materials lab, students can experiment with different types of tile, paint, flooring, upholstery and other finishes, using adjustable lighting to change the color temperature. The fabrication lab has 3D printers, laser cutters, a CNC router and other tools used to make scale models and prototypes. And every student has access to a computer workstation with the latest design software.

Experiential learning is such a big term right now, and we do it every day in everything we do, Vaux said. This space and these labs allow students to have those experiences.

At UNK, interior and product design is closely tied to construction management, with students in both programs taking courses such as construction materials and methods, mechanical and electrical systems and building codes and inspections. Faculty from each discipline were involved in the development of a construction management minor thats popular with interior and product design majors.

Thats been a really great option for our students, especially as design-build becomes more common, said Vaux, referencing a delivery method where the designer and builder work together under a single contract from the beginning stages of a project.

The collaboration with construction management was a noted strength during the interior and product design programs recent reaccreditation. Previously achieved in 2007 and 2014, this designation from the Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA) tells employers UNK graduates are well-prepared for professional positions.

When you graduate from a CIDA-accredited program, the person who hires you knows youve met a high standard of knowledge, Vaux said. It separates you as a professional.

REAL-WORLD EXPERIENCE

Along with their on-campus activities, UNK students have the opportunity to work on projects with community partners.

Recently, students collaborated with the S.A.F.E. Center to generate ideas for expanded housing for people impacted by domestic violence and presented design options to a developer turning a historic downtown Kearney building into a hotel. They also worked with the Holdrege-based South Central Economic Development District, which acquired a house from the Nebraska Prairie Museum property to relocate and renovate.

Pretty much every class has a project thats related to a real-world scenario, Vaux said.

Students also complete an internship prior to graduation, giving them additional on-the-job experience.

The best way to figure out if youre in the right field or in the right area of your field is to just give it a try, and I think internships are really great for that, McFate said. Its a great trial run to see what youre looking for in a career.

McFate is currently interning with Studio B Design, a Kearney business that serves customers from concept to completion, whether its a remodel or new construction.

Im loving my internship right now, she said. Its everything I was looking for in residential design.

The UNK senior plans to start her career in Kearney, a very achievable goal since most students in the interior and product design program land a full-time job before they graduate.

Theres no shortage of demand for interior design specialists, and I dont see it slowing down, Vaux said.
The recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, have prompted questions from business and law enforcement experts in Dane County and around the state about whether technology can help curb future massacres.

Its possible that rapid response tech can assist in protecting schools, public buildings and workplaces from active shooters, according to a panel of experts the Wisconsin Technology Council hosted as part of a Tuesday luncheon event. But tech makes up only a small part of a larger answer when it comes to mitigating and preventing the frequency of mass shootings in the U.S., the panel and one UW-Madison professor said.

The panel discussion comes as a June 22 New York Times report said that the U.S. saw 433 active shooter attacks  in which one or more active shooters killed or attempted to kill several people in a populated place  from 2000 to 2021.

Joe Hanson, Midwest regional director for sales and implementation for Critical Response Group, which specializes in the creation of mapping and visualization tech for schools, hospitals, businesses and other clients, said during the panel his companys product can equip first responders with a common operating picture when a critical incident like a mass shooting occurs in a large building.

The tech itself doesnt prevent such incidents, but it provides a structures accurate layout, which can help locate an active shooter and save lives, said Hanson, who has an extensive military background.

Communication is always the biggest point of friction (during critical incidents), he said.

West Allis Police Chief Patrick Mitchell agreed, noting that Uvalde police officers took 74 minutes to neutralize the gunman at Robb Elementary School. Better means of communication could have prevented the 21 fatalities that occurred during the massacre on May 24, he said, adding that protecting wellbeing and safety of innocent civilians should be a public safety officials highest priority.

When someone is wounded, the minutes it takes to transport them to a medical facility are critical, Mitchell said. In those situations, minutes can mean life or death.

Ion Meyn, a UW-Madison associate professor of law who lectures on topics including civil rights and criminal law, said in a separate interview that stopping gun violence goes beyond technological advancements.

Prevention lies in research to better understand why shootings happen in the first place, as well as stricter gun control laws, and in some cases, outright bans, he said.

Any compromise on that front, Meyn said, involves asking what level of unnecessary death are we going to live with?

Local, state impact

With financial support from the state, CRGs goal is to have its tech inside 400 Wisconsin school districts within the next few years, Hanson said in an interview.

The average cost for tech installations is roughly $3,000 or 2 cents every square foot, he said. CRG is currently in five states, including Texas.

Two school districts in Dane County already use CRGs tech  both the Middleton-Cross Plains Area and Sun Prairie School District said in the last week that the tech has given them at least some peace of mind in the wake of the Uvalde shooting.

Safety grants from the Wisconsin Department of Justice allowed the Sun Prairie School District to purchase CRGs product, said Nicholas Reichhoff, director of student policy and school operations.

The detailed maps are GPS aligned and provide satellite imagery of the area surrounding the building, he said. Each map clearly identifies building access points, room labels, hallway names, stairwell numbers, and other key locations.

In addition to providing these to the district for our internal use, the maps are uploaded to a secure server that is accessible by local law enforcement when responding to critical incidents, Reichhoff said. This provides officers, especially those from agencies outside of Sun Prairie, the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the building to assist their response in the event of an emergency.

Digest

Madison biomedical giant Exact Sciences has entered into a long-term supply agreement with California biotech company Ultima Genomics, according to Exact. Under the agreements terms, Ultima will provide Exact access to its various genetic sequencing technologies. That will help Exact develop advanced cancer diagnostic tests. The biomedical giant said it recently became an Ultima investor.

The Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce has opened applications for its 2022 Pressure Chamber startup initiative, which is slated to return on Aug. 16 during Wisconsins largest tech and entrepreneurship event, the Forward Festival. The winning company will meet with top Silicon Valley investment businesses in the fall, the Chamber said.

Madisons Summit Credit Union recently became the top mortgage lender in Wisconsin, according to 2021 data collected under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. For more than a decade, Summit has been the top mortgage lender in Dane County, the company said.

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In response to the Supreme Court of the United States issuing its ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, Bishop William Patrick Callahan issued the following statement (provided by the Diocese of La Crosse:

We welcome todays ruling by the Supreme Court, as we continue to proclaim a vision for our society that upholds the truth that every human life is sacred and inviolablea society in which the legal protection of human life is joined to profound care for mothers and their children.

We intend our Catholic parishes to be places of welcome for women facing challenging pregnancies or who find it difficult to care for their children after birth, so that any mother needing assistance will receive life-affirming support and be connected to appropriate programs and resources where she can get help. These include numerous Pregnancy Resource Centers within the boundaries of our diocese and across the state, as well as the Pregnancy Support Services and Adoption Services of our own Catholic Charities. We will do everything in our power to raise awareness of, and to strengthen, that network of compassionate care.

We will continue to support laws that ensure the right to life for unborn children, along with legislation that ensures that no mother or family lacks the basic resources needed to care for their children, regardless of race, age, immigration status, or any other factor.

In addition, recognizing that more than 65 million children have died from abortion in the U.S. since Roe v. Wade, leaving an untold number of women, men, and families suffering in the aftermath, we also commit to reach out in healing ministry to those wounded by the trauma of abortion.

In these ways and more, the Catholic Church will continue to witness to the sanctity of all human life, from conception to natural death, and to work to build a true culture of life in our nation, a culture that lovingly embraces and supports mothers and children before and after birth, along with their families. In the midst of lifes sufferings and challenges, we will strive always to be channels of the love of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

[E]very human life, unique and unrepeatable, has value in and of itself; it is of inestimable value. This must always be proclaimed anew with the courage of the Word and the courage of actions. It calls us to solidarity and fraternal love for the great human family and for each of its members. Pope Francis on the 25th Anniversary of Evangelium Vitae (March 25, 2020)

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A 41-year-old Sparta man wanted on a Wisconsin bench warrant was arrested Wednesday in Winona.

According to the City of Winona Police Department, Kenneth Michael Sizemore was pulled over after police were alerted that Sizemore was wanted in Monroe County. Authorities in Monroe County allege that Sizemore cut off a bond monitoring ankle bracelet and ditched it in Winona.

Monroe County Circuit Court Judge Richard Radcliffe issued a warrant for Sizemores arrest June 20.

During the traffic stop, Winona police allegedly found methamphetamine and a pipe with methamphetamine residue. Sizemore also allegedly gave police a false name.

Police referred Sizemore for charges of fifth-degree drug possession, obstructing an officer and operating without a valid Minnesota drivers license.

Sizemore has three pending cases in Monroe County, including first-degree recklessly endangering safety by use of a firearm, receiving stolen property and bail jumping. He was free on a $3,000 cash bond at the time of his arrest.

La Crosse Tribune reporter Steve Rundio can be reached at steve.rundio@lee.net.

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The Supreme Court of the United States on Friday issued a ruling that strikes down the landmark case Roe v. Wade, which has federally protected abortions for nearly 50 years.

The ruling means it will now be up to states to determine whether abortions are lawful or not. In Wisconsin, a 1849 ban on most abortions is now likely to take effect, which makes it unlawful for doctors to perform an abortion except when necessary to save the mothers live.

Below are reactions from Wisconsin and Minnesota:

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers:

This is an unfathomably grim day for our state and our country. I am heartbrokenfor the millions of Wisconsinites and Americans the U.S. Supreme Court has abandoned and for our country and our democratic institutions. This is an absolutely disastrous and unconscionable decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, the consequences of which I hoped to never see again in my lifetime. I know many across our state and nation are scaredworried about their own health and about the health and safety of their family members, friends, and neighbors, who could very soon see the ability to make their own reproductive healthcare decisions stripped from them. My heart breaks for them, I grieve for them, and I pray for their strength and courage in the days ahead.

Our work to do the right thing for the people of this state must continue. We will fight this decision in every way we can with every power we have. As people in Wisconsin and across our country make their voices heard in the days and months ahead, we will do so peacefully and without violence. Ive said it before, and Ill say it again today: I will never stop fighting to make sure that every single Wisconsinite has the right to consult their family, their faith, and their doctor to make the reproductive healthcare decision that is right for them, and without interference from politicians or members of the Supreme Court who dont know anything about their life circumstances, values, or responsibilities.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz:

This Supreme Courts decision is a blatant violation of Minnesotans right to make their own reproductive health decisions.

But let me say it again: There will never be a ban on abortion in Minnesota under my watch.

I know youre angry. Im angry too. But right now we need to do everything in our power to not go backwards.

Minnesota is a leader in reproductive rights in our region and across the entire country. I will not allow Donald Trumps 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court to set our state back 50 years to a time where abortion rights werent protected.

Every Minnesotan  not anti-abortion politicians or Donald Trumps Supreme Court  should be able to decide for themselves whether or when they start a family.

Deb McGrath, D-Menomonie, candidate for Wisconsins 3rd Congressional District:

I am angry that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade. Americans have lost access to a fundamental, constitutional right. Make no mistake, this is not happening in a vacuum. Anti-choice politicians are waging an all-out assault on our freedoms. My own Republican opponent Derrick Van Orden believes abortion should be outlawed in all cases  even rape, incest, and at the expense of the womans life. These radicals are stripping away our ability to control our own bodies and giving that power over to politicians. This is an attack on our right to make personal decisions about our healthcare, lives, and families, McGrath said in a statement.

But I will not be silenced. My mother and I fought for Roe in the 70s, and now I speak boldly with my own daughter and grandchildren in mind. Congress must codify Roe v. Wade into law, and protect womens right to choose when and how to have a family. I will always fight to defend and protect our reproductive rights, she said.

State Sen. Brad Pfaff, D-Onalaska, and candidate for Wisconsins 3rd Congressional District:

Todays Supreme Court decision is devastating. The notion that government should dictate personal healthcare decisions of women should shock and terrify all of us. And make no mistake; todays decision will cost women their lives.

Wisconsin must act swiftly to repeal the archaic 173-year-old statue that makes abortion illegal in our state. Congress must codify abortion access into law immediately.

This date has long been foreseen, rumored, talked and warned about with no tangible action or outcome as a result. Congress owes it to women and their families to not waste an ounce of time in standing up for their most basic, fundamental rights and freedoms. And if they dont then shame on us as a Party.

Derrick Van Orden, R-Prairie du Chien, candidate for Wisconsins 3rd Congressional District:

I believe that every child is a child of God, and todays decision is a major milestone for the sanctity of life.

Wisconsin state Rep. Jill Billings, D-La Crosse:

Conservative extremists on the U.S. Supreme Court today overturned the 50 year precedent of Roe v. Wade, resulting in the restriction of the right to bodily autonomy for over 50% of Americans. This Courts action will not reduce the number of abortions that occur in Wisconsin and in our country but will instead make abortion harder to access and less safe. The decision if and when to start a family is one of the most personal decisions one can make. Politicians and Supreme Court Justices have no place in these personal healthcare decisions.

It is vital that we end Wisconsins archaic 1849 criminal abortion ban. It is absolutely shameful that on Wednesday, Republican Legislators ignored the will of the people of Wisconsin and snubbed the Governors Special Session on reproductive freedom. Their inaction, in conjunction with todays U.S. Supreme Court decision will have serious, lasting consequences on the health and freedom of our friends, families, neighbors, and communities.

I will not stop fighting until the right to access comprehensive reproductive healthcare in Wisconsin is restored.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin:

Today is a victory for life and for those who have fought for decades to protect the unborn. For almost fifty years the decision of nine unelected Justices have prevented a democratically derived consensus on the profound moral issue of abortion to be formed. This decision will now allow that democratic process to unfold in each state to determine at what point does society have the responsibility to protect life. Hopefully, the debate will be conducted with sincerity, compassion, and respect for the broad range of views that people hold.

Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin:

An activist majority of the Supreme Court has overturned Roe and nearly 50 years of precedent, taking away the constitutional rights of American women to make their own personal choices about their body, their health, and their family. Republicans have taken Wisconsin women back to 1849 and it is Republicans who want to keep us there with support for having politicians interfere in the freedoms of women who will now have fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers have had for decades. I ask people to join this fight with their voices and their votes because we will not be taken back, we will move forward.

Wisconsin state Sen. Patrick Testin, R-Stevens Point:

After nearly fifty years and over 63 million lives lost to abortion, the U.S. Supreme Court has finally turned the page on a sad chapter in American history. Abortion is not health care; it is not birth control. It is the taking of a human life. I will do my part to ensure that Wisconsin values and affirms life at all stages.

Wisconsin Medical Society President Wendy Molaska, MD:

Todays decision raises concerns that could result in significant interference with the physician-patient relationship  the sanctity of which is the bedrock of our healthcare system. Defaulting to a law first created in 1849 is not the best path forward. Inevitable confusion over the continued validity of that 19th century law makes proactive legislative action prudent.

The Wisconsin Medical Society supports legislation that would acknowledge the right of a physician to perform and give advice on this medical procedure  or refuse to do so according to the physicians training, experience and conscience.

The health and safety of our patients is our top priority. Wisconsin law should reflect that priority and ensure physicians can have full and frank discussions with patients about their health care without fear of imprisonment.

Minnesota DFL Party chairman Ken Martin:

This Supreme Courts ruling is a travesty of justice that will inflict tremendous suffering on countless people across America. With federal abortion protection gone, we know that Republicans are going to redouble their efforts to ban abortion in Minnesota, as Scott Jensen, Doug Wardlow, and Jim Schultz have promised.

The Minnesota DFL Party and our leaders will do everything in our power to defend access to abortion. Voters who dont want to see anyone jailed for seeking reproductive health care must show up and vote like our health depends on it, because it does. Republicans will use the same playbook they used nationally to erode protections for abortion here in Minnesota, and the only way to stop that is by defeating them at the ballot box.

A Better Wisconsin Together Executive Director Chris Walloch:

This decision from our nations highest court is devastating, its dangerous, and its unacceptable. No judge, no politician, no elected or partisan-appointed official should be able to infringe upon private decisions made between patient and doctor.

This takes away rights that weve been guaranteed in this country for nearly 50 years. Countless Americans, including millions of Wisconsinites, will feel the tremendous negative consequences of the courts failure to protect our freedom to decide if, when, and how we become parentsand lets be clear, its the marginalized members of our communities, people of color, and those with lower-incomes who will be hurt most by this decision.

A Better Wisconsin Together stands alongside everyone grieving this ruling and expressing deeply justified outrage, frustration, and sorrow as we come to terms with the fact that the conservative members of our Supreme Court would rather see a five decade backslide in our rights than continue giving those who can become pregnant the freedom to decide whats best for themselves and their families.

In the coming days, weeks, and months, A Better Wisconsin Together and partners will continue to fight for reproductive freedom and access to safe and legal abortion care in Wisconsin. We will lift up resources for those in need of abortion care, we will uplift any and all opportunities to pass legislation in Wisconsin that will protect the right to choose, and we will not give up until every Wisconsinite can safely and freely have access to comprehensive reproductive healthcare.

In Wisconsin, you can take action today by tweeting, writing, or calling (1-800-362-9472) your local legislator, expressing your frustration, and demanding they vote to pass the Abortion Rights Preservation Act.

Minnesota Medical Association, Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians

and other medical groups in Minnesota:

Abortion is a component of comprehensive medical care. Healthcare decisions, including whether to have an abortion, are deeply personal and should be made between a patient and their physician. The implications of this decision are profound and will include disruption and, in some states, elimination of equitable and safe access to medical care for women in the United States. This decision further threatens to exacerbate already unacceptably high maternal morbidity and mortality rates in the United States.

Many patients across the Midwest will likely be compelled to travel to Minnesota for abortion and related services. We are committed to ensuring access to safe, effective, and equitable healthcare, to upholding the sanctity of the patient-physician relationship, and to protecting physicians and other healthcare professionals from criminal penalties for the delivery of evidence-based healthcare services.

7 Rivers LGBTQ Connection Executive Director Alesha Schandelmeier:

The Center: 7 Rivers LGBTQ Connection recognizes that all people have a fundamental right to sexual and bodily autonomy. Reproductive rights are LGBTQ+ rights!

Mayo Clinic Health System statement:

Health care for people who are pregnant is complex and personal. As with any medical concern, decisions regarding the health of a person who is pregnant are best discussed between the patient and the health care team.

La Crosse Mayor Mitch Reynolds:

While the decision released this morning by the U.S. Supreme Court did not come as a surprise, it is still devastating for women who would decide their own health outcomes. The decision also underscores the absurdity of the situation the state of Wisconsin finds itself in; governing womens health based on a state law from 1849. From a time when humans were still owned as slaves in our nation. A time when our government was actively involved in a genocide of indigenous peoples. A time before women had the right to vote, or practice law, or have full control over their finances. From a time when husbands could have their wives locked away for expressing strong opinions.

I would hope leadership in the legislature understands the antediluvian obscenity of governing womens bodies based on a 173 year-old law and finds a path towards restoring reproductive self-determination for women in Wisconsin.

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Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers shared his response to the US Supreme Courts decision to overturn the Roe v Wade ruling on abortion Friday, while at a press conference in La Crosse.

Evers, who is in the area ahead of the 2022 Wisconsin Democratic Convention, said he would do everything in his power to fight the ruling through legislative, executive or judicial action. This could even include pardoning individuals charged in Wisconsin for providing or receiving abortions, he said.

The ruling handed down Friday morning by the Supreme Court means individual states can determine whether abortions are lawful or not. In Wisconsin, a 1849 ban on most abortions is now likely to take effect, making it unlawful for doctors to perform an abortion except when necessary to save the mothers life.

Based on his understanding of the law, Evers said the 1849 law is currently in effect in Wisconsin.

For almost 50 years, women in the state of Wisconsin have had these reproductive health decisions, the right to make those, Evers said at the news conference. Theres nothing, in my opinion, more dangerous than having politicians making health care decisions.

Given failed efforts to repeal the abortion ban law earlier this week, Evers said he didnt anticipate any help from Republicans in Wisconsin.

Evers also spoke to his supporters in attendance about his campaign for re-election this fall, touching on his efforts to improve road conditions, bring broadband internet to more people, increase funding for public schools and decrease unemployment rates.

Near the end of the conference, Evers spoke about Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, who recently received attention for his effort to give former Vice President Mike Pence false elector paperwork ahead of the certification of the 2020 election.

Senator Johnson showed his true colors over the last couple of days in case anybody was wondering, Evers said. Every single election, whether its a primary or big election or a small election, we have great people working in our municipalities and city government that make sure that each election is fair and safe. And Ron Johnson slapped them in the face this last week.

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Six weeks before primary elections for state and federal offices, the Wisconsin Elections Commission is warning voters to beware of elections-related mailings that, if heeded, could interfere with their ability to vote.

One in particular from Austin, Texas-based Election Mail Service tells recipients they are not registered to vote and directs them to do so with the commission, according to the mailer and a Thursday news release from the commission.

The mailer is being sent to many people who are already registered to vote or have already requested absentee ballots, the commission said. The commission does not process voter registration forms; under state law, thats the job of local municipal clerks, of which there are some 1,850 across the state.

The WEC and local election officials are getting calls from registered voters who have already requested their absentee ballots, and who say they thought the mailer meant they had done something wrong and needed to make another request, the news release says.

Election Mail Services address is a post office box. Elections Commission spokesperson John Smalley said the commission doesnt know whos behind the group.

Their mailing database is obviously outdated, and we have no idea where they got it. Along with the mis-targeted, already-registered people, they are also sending mailers to people who have been deceased for years, Smalley said.

The Elections Commission says Wisconsin residents can check voter registration status with their local clerks or the commission at myvote.wi.gov.

Political and independent groups are allowed to send out voter registration and absentee ballot request forms, Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe said, but the commission advises residents to scrutinize them to make sure theyre legitimate.

The deadline to request an absentee ballot for the Aug. 9 primary election is Aug. 4, but the U.S. Postal Service advises voters to mail their ballots at least one week ahead of the election so they arrive at clerks offices on time.

The general election is Nov. 8.

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Tears streamed down the face of Victoria Gutierrez as she stood on the Capitol lawn and held a banner alongside a union colleague that read "Labor for abortion rights." Gutierrez and hundreds of others had gathered in the heat of an early summer evening to protest the U.S. Supreme Court overturning of Roe v. Wade Friday, a watershed moment in the country's battle over abortion rights.

"It's not over," said Gutierrez, 55. "It's not just about abortion rights. It's about women having agency to start their families. It's about childcare."

A crowd of over 1,000 people had swelled at the top of State Street Friday night to protest the high court's decision. Speakers from community groups like Freedom Inc. gave impassioned speeches on the steps of the Capitol for over an hour on Friday, leading demonstrators in repeated chants of "Shame!" and "Abort the court!"

Freedom Inc.'s Crystal Ellis likened the Supreme Court decision to an attack on people of color, women and marginalized groups, calling it a "gender-based violence issue."

"It's just another example of state violence against our most marginalized communities," Ellis said.

The protest disbanded around 6:30 p.m. to march around the Capitol.

The Roe ruling by the Supreme Court's conservative majority strikes down nearly 50 years of federal abortion protections. The fall of the court's landmark 1973 decision paves the way for state abortion law to govern reproductive rights. In Wisconsin, a 173-year-old near-total abortion ban has taken effect.

Because the 1849 law is still in place, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin halted all abortion services as of Friday due to the Supreme Court ruling, until the organization receives clarification from a court regarding the enforceability of the 19th century law.

At the Capitol, protestor Gracie McGovern, 26, held a sign that said "not your body, not your choice." Other demonstrators held signs that read "keep your religion out of politics" and "Abortion saves lives."

"I'm mad," McGovern remarked. "I'm very, very mad. We shouldn't be in this situation in 2022."

While some brought signs and musical instruments to Friday's protest, some brought guns.

Lilith Kievskaya arrived to the demonstration with an off-brand AK-47 and a pistol with the stated purpose of deterring right-wing groups or agitators who might arrive. Kievskaya said she was part of America United, a Madison-based organization focused on "anti-racist community defense."

Madison police have said they are collaborating with other law enforcement agencies to respond to demonstrations over the weekend, said spokesperson Stephanie Fryer. The department is not granting leave requests for Friday and Saturday, and extra patrols will be outside "organizations and businesses that may generate interest" because of the Supreme Court's decision, Fryer said. State Journal reporter Lucas Robinson contributed to this report.

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The DeForest Police Department said Thursday that is seeking attempted homicide and sexual assault charges against a man already charged with kidnapping and stalking.

Chief James Olson said in a statement that his department has been analyzing evidence in the investigation of the case against Gabriel Savage, 19, who was charged in April with attempted kidnapping and stalking.

Savage posted bail and was released from the Dane County Jail last Friday and after his release, investigators were made aware of new information regarding the original investigation that supported additional charges, Olson said.

No details were released regarding the new information.

Savage was arrested again on Wednesday and returned to the Dane County Jail on tentative charges of four counts of attempted first-degree intentional homicide, attempted first-degree sexual assault of a child with the threat of force, and attempted first-degree sexual assault with the threat of force, Olson said.

The Dane County District Attorneys Office will review the new information and decide what, if any new charges Savage will face. Savage has another court appearance scheduled for Friday afternoon.

The DeForest Police Department believes this is an isolated incident and no additional public safety threat remains regarding this investigation, Olson said. We ask the community to remain patient with this process.  Over the course of the investigation, we have remained in contact with the identified victims and are taking all necessary precautions to ensure their safety.

Savage was charged April 8 with stalking and attempted kidnapping after police say that on the night of March 20 he parked outside a young womans house in DeForest with a semi-automatic rifle, handcuffs and a plan to kidnap her, sexually assault her and threaten to kill her, according to writings obtained by officers.

Savage allegedly had an infatuation with the woman while they were in high school together. The woman told police she barely knew Savage.

We were able to stop an unimaginable tragedy, Olson said at an April 8 news conference detailing the case.

When DeForest police responded to a 911 caller who reported a suspicious vehicle on a street in the village around 10 p.m. on March 20, they found Savage alone in the car dressed in all black clothing, with an AR-style, semi-automatic rifle in the front passenger compartment of the vehicle. A search of the vehicle found around 270 rounds of ammunition and two pairs of handcuffs.

Savage has multiple mental health conditions and made statements in 2018 that he wanted to commit a school shooting, according to the criminal complaint against him.

Later, officers searched Savages apartment and found handwritten notes detailing a plan to harm a young woman, according to the complaint. Olson said the writings demonstrated a clear and present danger.

Some of the handwritten papers talked about crushing up drugs in a beverage and offering it to the young woman so she became unconscious, sexually assaulting her, and holding the woman at gunpoint and threatening to kill her if she makes any noise, according to the complaint.

Savages mother told officers that her son had an infatuation with a young woman that he had gone to school with since seventh grade, the statement says. His mother gave police a notebook written by Savage that included the young womans name and her address. Savages parents also found a knife and two more sets of handcuffs in their sons vehicle, according to the statement.

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MADISON, Wis. (AP)  Doctors across Wisconsin immediately stopped providing abortions on Friday, turning away women in waiting rooms and calling to cancel pending appointments following the U.S. Supreme Courts ruling striking down its Roe v. Wade decision.

The immediate halt to abortions came even as questions remained about the enforceability of a 173-year-old state ban.

Nearly 70 women had abortion procedures scheduled with Planned Parenthood Wisconsin on Friday and Saturday, the group's medical director, Kathy King, said at a news conference. Four women had abortions at Planned Parenthood clinics Friday morning before the Supreme Court's order came down, King said.

Women who were in Planned Parenthood clinics on Friday morning awaiting abortions were told that they couldn't be done in Wisconsin. Instead, they were given help with scheduling appointments in other states, said Planned Parenthood Wisconsin President Tanya Atkinson.

Atkinson said offering travel assistance and helping women upon their return to Wisconsin will now be a focus of the group.

Wisconsin has an 1849 law that bans abortion, except to save the life of the mother, but whether that law is enforceable is expected to be challenged in court. Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, said he would have news next week about how his office would respond to Friday's ruling.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who is up for reelection in November, told The Associated Press he would do everything he could to protect abortion rights. He said that includes not appointing district attorneys who would enforce the ban and waiving prison sentences for anyone convicted under it. Evers also said he was hopeful Kaul would sue to at least put the ban on hold, but he had not discussed it with him.

Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, whose jurisdiction includes the state capital, Madison, said for the first time that he would not enforce the state's ban. Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm has previously suggested that he would not enforce it, either.

If the voters want a district attorney who prosecutes women for seeking an abortion or licensed providers who are acting in the best interest of their patients, they will need to elect someone else, Ozanne said.

The nonpartisan Wisconsin Legislative Council, which is comprised of attorneys who advise the Legislature, indicated in a memo that the enforceability of the state ban will likely have to be decided by a judge.

Barbara Zabawa, an attorney who specializes in health care law and serves as an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukees college of health sciences, said she believes Wisconsins abortion ban went back into effect when the Supreme Court issued its ruling, but that enforceability will be the issue.

It's understandable that local prosecutors wouldnt enforce a law that was written more than 100 years ago, declared unconstitutional in 1973 and then reinstated, said Sara Benesh, chairwoman of UW-Milwaukees political science department.

All of this is going to have tons of litigation, she said. Its going to be a disaster (for women with unwanted pregnancies) as we figure this out.

Under the Wisconsin law, doctors could be charged with felonies for performing abortions and face up to six years in prison and $10,000 in fines.

A person who answered the phone at Affiliated Medical Services, which also provides abortions in Milwaukee, said it was busy contacting patients about the Supreme Court's ruling and declined to comment further. Its website suggested that when Roe v. Wade is struck down, the group would stop providing abortions and instead provide resources for out-of-state abortion clinics, travel support and general questions.

UW Health said in a statement that, While reverting to a 173-year-old state law on abortion will create some legal uncertainties, we recognize that this court decision has effectively banned abortions in Wisconsin except to save the life of the mother, and UW Health will continue to comply with the laws related to reproductive healthcare."

Hundreds of people gathered Friday afternoon at the Capitol for an abortion-rights rally, one of many scheduled across the state.

A Republican candidate for governor, Tim Michels, earlier this week called on Evers to put the Wisconsin National Guard on alert in the event of violent protests. The office of an anti-abortion group in Madison was vandalized last month and no one has been arrested.

Another Republican candidate, former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, released a TV ad heralding the ruling and saying the fight over abortion now moves to the Statehouse.

On Wednesday, the Republican-controlled Legislature refused to overturn the state's ban, as Evers had called on them to do. Evers is making abortion rights a pillar of his reelection campaign, as are Democrats looking to take on Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson.

Associated Press writer Harm Venhuizen contributed to this report. Venhuizen is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/HarmVenhuizen

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

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In a recent Everyday Grammar story, we asked our listeners and online fans to tell us about their favorite books. We received many wonderful messages from our audience around the world. Thanks to all for the great exchange.

In todays report, we will take a close look at one of these notes. Language teacher Orhan wrote to us from Iran, where he teaches Turkish.

Orhan described an important day and an important book in his life.

Orhan's message

He wrote:

I am Orhan from Iran.

When I was 20 years old, I was visiting my father's family in Tabriz that I saw my cousin was reading a book in Turkish.

We suggest removing that and breaking the sentence into two shorter statements. The sentence could also use the simple past  visited instead of was visiting.

The updated sentence could be something like this:

When I was 20 years old, I visited my fathers family in Tabriz and saw my cousin reading a book in Turkish.

Orhans next line gives more details about why the Turkish book interested him:

Despite being millions of Turkish speaking people in Iran , our mother language , Turkish , is not formal and there is not schools that teach in Turkish so I didn't see a Turkish book until that day.

We suggest breaking the sentence into shorter individual sentences and then re-ordering the ideas. Lets put the sentence, I had never seen a Turkish book before that day, first. It flows well from the sentence just before, ... and saw my cousin reading a book in Turkish.

There are a few grammatical changes we might make as well. For example, there is not schools... should be there are no schools....

We also suggest replacing despite with although.

The updated sentences might go like this:

I had never seen a Turkish book before that day.

Although there are millions of Turkish speakers in Iran, Turkish is not an official language. There are no schools that teach in Turkish.

Orhan then wrote:

Based on my request my cousin gave me that Turkish book.

The sentence could be simplified to the following:

My cousin gave me that Turkish book.

Then Orhan explained the effect the book had on his life.

I learned grammar of Turkish by reading that book and interested in Turkish literature so I went Turkey to study Turkish literature.

We suggest using Turkish grammar instead of grammar of Turkish. The updated sentences might go like this:

I learned Turkish grammar by reading that book. I became interested in Turkish literature, so I went to Turkey to study the subject.

Orhan ends his piece with:

That thin book is my favourite book and changed my whole life.

The ending words - changed my whole life - are the most important. They could stand as their own sentence, as in:

That thin book is my favorite book. It changed my whole life.

Closing thoughts

Here is Orhans message with our suggested changes:

I am Orhan from Iran.

When I was 20 years old, I visited my fathers family in Tabriz and saw my cousin reading a book in Turkish. I had never seen a Turkish book before that day.

Although there are millions of Turkish speakers in Iran, Turkish is not an official language. There are no schools that teach in Turkish.

My cousin gave me that Turkish book. I learned Turkish grammar by reading it. I became interested in Turkish literature, so I went to Turkey to study the subject.

That thin book is my favorite book. It changed my whole life.

We thank Orhan for his message and wish him continued success in his teaching and in his English studies.

If you would like to receive writing advice, write us a short message of 4-6 sentences. Talk about your favorite movie  when you saw it, what it means to you. Maybe your message will be chosen for our next exploration of writing on Everyday Grammar.

Im John Russell.

John Russell wrote this lesson for VOA Learning English.

________________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

update  v. to change (something) by including the most recent information

grammar  n. the whole system and structure of a language

cousin  n. a child of a person's uncle or aunt

despite  prep. in spite of

formal  adj. following established form, custom, or rule
Scientists say climate change is one reason for early rains that brought major floods to Bangladesh and northeastern India.

Flooding usually takes place later in the year with rain brought in by strong winds called monsoons.

This years heavy rainfall came as early as March.

It may take a long time to understand how much climate change played a part in the floods. But scientists say that climate change has made monsoons unpredictable over the past 10 or 20 years. This means that much of the rain expected to fall in a year is arriving in only a few weeks.

The northeastern Indian state of Meghalaya received nearly three times its average June rainfall in just the first three weeks of the month. Neighboring Assam received double its monthly average in the same period. Several rivers flow from the two states into the Bay of Bengal in Bangladesh.

Bangladeshs Flood Forecast and Warning Center warned recently that water levels would remain dangerously high in the countrys northern areas.

Roxy Matthew Koll is a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune. He said the monsoons have been changing since the 1950s. There have been longer periods of dry weather mixed with periods of heavy rain. Koll added that extreme rainfall events were also expected to increase.

Until now, floods in northeastern Bangladesh were rare. Assam state usually faces floods later in the year during the usual monsoon season. Anjal Prakash is a research director at Indias Bharti Institute of Public Policy. He said the amount of early rain this year makes the current floods an unprecedented situation.

This is something that we have never heard of and never seen, he said.

Bangladeshs Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina recently said the country had not faced such a crisis in a long time. She noted that the water coming from Meghalaya and Assam in India had affected the Sylhet area in northeastern Bangladesh.

Hasina said that floodwaters would go away soon from the northeast. But the water would likely hit the countrys south on the way to the Bay of Bengal.

We should prepare to face it, she added.

At least 42 people have died from floods in Bangladesh since May 17. Indian officials reported that flood deaths have risen to at least 78 in Assam state. Seventeen others were killed in landslides.

Hundreds of thousands of people are displaced. Millions in the area have been forced to move into evacuation centers.

Bangladesh is one of the countries considered most at-risk to flooding and the poor are strongly affected.

Mohammad Arfanuzzaman is a climate change expert at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. He said that floods like the one this year could have widespread effects. Farmers could lose their crops and be forced into debt. Children might not be able to go to school and could face an increased risk of disease.

Poor people are suffering a lot from the ongoing flooding, he said.

Im Jonathan Evans.

Aniruddha Ghosal and Al-Emrun Garjon reported on this story for the Associated Press. Jonathan Evans adapted this story for Learning English.

________________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

unprecedented  adj. not done or experienced before

evacuation  n. the removal of persons or things from an endangered area
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established the constitutional right for women to choose to have an abortion.

Abortion is a medical operation that ends a pregnancy. Fridays ruling is expected to lead to abortion bans or restrictions in about half of the states in the country.

The decision

The court, in a six to three ruling, upheld a Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The vote was five to four to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Justice Samuel Alito wrote the courts opinion for the conservative majority. He wrote, We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision. Planned Parenthood v. Casey is a 1992 court decision that confirmed abortion rights in the country.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that he upheld the Mississippi law but did not want to overturn the 1973 decision. He noted that the ruling is unnecessary to decide the case before us.

Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan disagreed with the majoritys ruling. They wrote, With sorrowfor this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protectionwe dissent.

To dissent means to disagree with an official opinion.

The three dissenting justices noted that with the decision,  a woman has no rights to speak of. A state can force her to bring a pregnancy to term, even at the steepest personal and familial costs.

State laws

Thirteen American states, mainly in the South and Midwest, already have laws that ban abortion in the event that Roe v. Wade is overturned. The Guttmacher Institute, an organization that supports abortion rights, says 26 American states are likely to ban abortion without Roe.

Some states, including Texas and Oklahoma, permit private citizens to bring civil legal cases against anyone who assists a woman seeking an abortion.

States controlled by the Democratic Party such as California, Connecticut and Washington have passed laws to protect people who provide or seek abortions from legal action.

The decision to overturn Roe v. Wade came even though a large number of Americans say that they support abortion rights. In a public opinion study carried out in March of this year, the Pew Research Center found that 61 percent of U.S. adults say abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Thirty-seven percent said they think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.

The center said its numbers have not changed much in the past few years. Support for abortion rights is much higher, at 80 percent, among those who identified as Democrats or who support Democrats. The center said 38 percent of Republicans and their supporters approve of abortion.

Reactions

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, said the decision is part of a Republican Party plan to take away a womens right to make their own reproductive health decisions.

In a statement, Pelosi said, In the Congress, Republicans are plotting a nationwide abortion ban. In the states, Republicans want to arrest doctors for offering reproductive care and women for terminating a pregnancy.

Mike Pence, the former Republican Vice-President under Donald Trump, said on Twitter, Today, Life Won. The long-time abortion rights opponent then called for abortion to be banned across the country. Pence wrote,  we must not rest and must not relent until the sanctity of life is restored to the center of American law in every state in the land.

Overturning Roe v. Wade has long been a goal of Christian conservatives and many Republicans.

As a Republican candidate, former President Donald Trump promised in 2016 that he would appoint justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade. As president, Trump appointed Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. They were part of the majority that overturned the decision on Friday.

Abortions in the U.S., around the world

Both the Guttmacher Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , or CDC, say legal abortions have generally decreased in the U.S.

Guttmacher recorded more than 1.5 million abortions in 1991, about two-thirds more than the 930,160 it reported for 2020. The CDC reported just over 1 million abortions in 1991 and 629,898 in 2019.

Worldwide, the World Health Organization said about 73 million abortions take place yearly. The health organization calls it a common health intervention and a critical public health and human rights issue.

Im Ashley Thompson.

Hai Do wrote this report for VOA Learning English.

We want to hear from you. What do you think about the abortion issue in the United States and how is the issue dealt with in your country? Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

_______________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

reference n. the act of mentioning something in speech or in writing

implicitly adv. understood but not clearly or directly stated

terminating n. the act of causing the end of something

relent v. to agree to do or accept something that you have been resisting or opposing

sanctity n. the quality of being holy, very important or valuable
Bottom line: Don't count on recent rains to save us. Here's what you need to know.
LEXINGTON  Several pieces of Latin American and African art donated to the Lexington Public Library, Lexington High School and Sandoz Elementary by Natalie Hahn were publicly acknowledged at the library on Tuesday, June 21.

Hahn, the donor of the 19 works of art, chose to recognize KRVN and the contributions of the Max and Eric Brown families.

Hahn, Eric Brown and Ruth Brown have all known each other since they studied journalism together at the University of Nebraska  Lincoln. We had a lot of fun there, Eric Brown said.

A native of Polk, Hahn received additional degrees from Ohio State University and Harvard University. She received the Sower Award in 2020 from Humanities Nebraska, the Distinguished Nebraskan Award in 2018 from the Nebraska Society of Washington, D.C., and a Doctor of Humane Letters honorary degree from UNL in 2000.

Hahn chose to honor KRVN and the Browns because of their long friendship and to recognize her mother, Grayce Hahn Burney, who contributed radio features to KRVN for Erics dad, Max Brown, who founded the station in 1951 and was its first manager, succeeded in 1979 by Eric.

The donated Latin American and African art was collected by Hahn during her 38 years with United Nations Programs. It includes wood carvings, masks, woven tapestries, hand embroideries, batiks, painted leather and more.

When the Browns learned of Hahns desire to have it permanently on display, they suggested Lexington as an appropriate location. LHS principal Audrey Downey and then-library director Kathy Thomsen were contacted and they confirmed their thoughts.

Nine pieces were presented to the library, six to LHS and four to Sandoz. The art was gifted just before the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic but was formally acknowledged on Tuesday.

Hahn spoke about her time with the United Nations and her decision to donate the art to Lexington.

This is an exceptional town, Hahn said of Lexington. Hahn said Ruth Brown had told her there were three special things about Lexington, that the town embraces diversity, thinks big and the community gets things done.

Hahn said Lexington and KRVN are both special to her noting KRVN as the largest rural radio station in America. She said the station is also important to her because her mother, Grace Hahn Burney was a journalist and had a weekly radio program with KRVN.

She said KRVN and the Brown families have not only made a difference for Lexington, but nationwide.

Hahn also spoke of being impressed by the Lexington Community Foundation (LCF) and how they were able to raise $350,000 during their Key event in April and have raised $5 million over the past few years.

I have visited a lot of community foundations over the years in Nebraska, Hahn said, Lexingtons is the best, bar none.

Speaking to Lexingtons diversity, Hahn said, What could be nicer than give global art, to a global city. She said there are 30 different languages spoken and there are over 40 nationalities represented in the community. I feel I am in the United Nations, Hahn quipped.

Hahn said this is where the donated art belongs, with children who appreciate it, who will learn from it and help them appreciate their own countries.

Hahn also spoke about her 38 years working with the United Nations, having lived in New York and Rome and spending 14 years in Africa.

When people ask Hahn how she ever came to work with the United Nations and travel the world, she responds, 4-H.

The 4-H International Farm Youth Exchange allowed her to travel to New Zealand and her local Rotary Club helped her travel to India. After those experiences, Hahn said, I knew I had to be global.

Hahn would eventually join the United Nations and was working in one of their 24 different programs, the Food and Agriculture Organization while living in Rome. She said they worked particularly with home economics education and with colleges of agriculture in the African nations of Lesotho, Botswana and Kenya.

Later, a friend encouraged Hahn to move from Rome to Nigeria, Hahn was skeptical at first but her friend simply encouraged her to come and see the nation.

In Nigeria, Hahn traveled to the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture; she said it was a beautiful 1,000 acre center, but only had all male doctoral students, but they never worked with women.

Hahn said in Africa, women are the farmers and to help empower them, she started African Farmer and her Husband program and worked with 13 food crops and having a breakthrough with soybeans.

She said the soy milk derived from the plant was used to feed children and it helped to save lives. The women would also take the soybeans and mix them with a local nut, dawadawa, which created a high protein mixture to sell. Hahn said 300 women a day were trained with the growing and use of soybeans.

After three years of her work in Nigeria, Hahn was told that a delegation representing the king of the Yorubas had arrived to speak with her. At first, Hahn was nervous thinking, What have I done?

However, Hahn learned that the women of the Yoruba tribe thought she should be made a chief. She thought this was strange, her being a white woman given this honor and the Yoruba delegation said she would indeed be the first.

Before she would be named a chief and given a title, her work had to be watched for a period of one year.

After the year of observation, Hahn was given her title during a large ceremony involving thousands of people, with 30 international visitors and her family from Nebraska.

The Yoruba peoples honored Hahn with a chieftaincy and bestowed the title Balogun Iyalaje, meaning

the person who empowers. Hahn quipped that she thought that title given to her was better than her Harvard degree.

After her time in Nigeria, Hahn was working with the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in Malawi, at the time the, 13th poorest country in the world.

Malawi had been ruled by Hastings Kamuzu Banda for 33 years, who presided over one of the most repressive regimes in Africa, an era that saw political opponents regularly tortured and murdered. He also cultivated a cult of personality, every business building was required to have an official picture of him hanging on the wall, and no poster, clock or picture could be higher than his portrait.

Hahn said the education system in the country was still based on the former British system that featured school uniforms and paying school fees. She said that if a family had seven children, they couldnt pay the fee and none of the children would get a chance to go to school.

Representing UNICEF, Hahn met with the three Malawi presidential candidates and encouraged them to abolish the former system and if they did so, UNICEF would provide a pencil and notebook for each child on their first day of school.

The result was school enrollment jumped from one million to three million, largely because mothers could attend school with their children. Hahn said she then had to find enough funds, quickly, to acquire enough materials for all of these children.

Hahn said the International Rotary Club, Peace Corps and thousands of other volunteers helped to distribute the materials. The children did something astounding to the volunteers when they received their pencils; they broke them in half to give to a younger brother or sister at home.

One of the photos, of a young Malawi child with their pencil and notebook and several like it are currently in the office of LHS principal Audrey Downey. She said when the African students come in and sees the art; it reminds them of their home.

Downey said the students will often tell a story about their home country when they see the pictures or the art.

Also during her time in Malawi, Hahn was instrumental in developing a national orphans policy in Malawi, a nation hard-hit by HIV-AIDS.

After contracting malaria seven times and traveling back and forth to Africa regularly, Hahn decided it was time to come back home. Her mother even joked with her, Honey, I love what you are doing in Africa, but what are you doing for Nebraska?

To that end, Hahn founded the Malaika Foundation that has organized educational workshops for 3,500 teachers and provided 68 fellowships to teachers and students to study abroad.

Hahn said malaika, means my angel in the Swahili language, spoken in Kenya and Tanzania.

Now residing in Lincoln, Hahn said she has experienced much during her 38 years of global travel but said, Nebraska is the best.

Hahn said what she would ask of Lexington is to keep doing what the community is already doing; she said the community is progressive. She noted the importance to understand the country and cultures that Lexingtons new immigrants are coming from.

She offered her congratulations to the Lexington Public School administrators and teachers as she said they have a, marvelous challenge, but are being helpful of welcoming new students to Nebraska and Lexington.

Downey said on behalf of Lexington Public Schools, they thank Hahn, so much, for her donation that she had made to the district.

Lexington is diverse, but thats what makes us so unique, Downey said, People say it is a challenge, but is a wonderful challenge to have. This is a unique and powerful community to be a part of.

Sandoz Principal Barry McFarland also offered his thanks and said when the students see the African or Latin American art they will exclaim, Who made it, did they use colors or markers?

McFarland said when he was growing up; one had to travel to a sizable city to see the type of art that is now on display in Lexington. To have that art here, is a gift beyond measure, he said.

McFarland also spoke in his capacity as the president of the LCF board; he said Hahn is now a part of the reason why Lexingtons community is richer in culture.

He noted that in his time as board president, he has seen that if the Lexington community gets something in their minds, get out of the way, because it is going to happen, they will make it happen someway.

McFarland said that when people like Hahn come in and help celebrate the diversity, it makes the community that much better. We are very grateful, thank you so much.
Gov. Pete Ricketts and Speaker Mike Hilgers of Lincoln said they would work together to determine when to call the Legislature back into special session to consider enacting a ban on abortion in the state.

"I am keen to protect pre-born babies, but I'll have to work with the speaker with regard to what he thinks we will be able to accomplish," Ricketts said Friday during an event celebrating the completion of new state offices in the Fallbrook development in Lincoln.

Abortion remains legal in Nebraska up until 20 weeks after fertilization, according to current state law.

Friday's Supreme Court ruling leaves the decision on how to restrict abortion up to individual states. Thirteen states had trigger laws in place that will automatically ban abortion within one month of the ruling.

The governor would not predict when the session would be scheduled but indicated he'd rather call state senators back than wait until the next session begins in January.

He pointed out that Tuesday's special election to replace Rep. Jeff Fortenberry would change the makeup of the Legislature. State Sens. Patty Pansing Brooks of Lincoln and Mike Flood of Norfolk are seeking to fill the remainder of the 1st District congressman's term.

In the closing days of this year's legislative session, a bill to ban abortion in Nebraska if states were given full regulatory authority by the court was trapped by a filibuster. A cloture motion to free the bill for consideration fell two votes short on a 31-15 count, with Flood voting yes and Pansing Brooks voting no.

Ricketts also mentioned that Sen. Tom Brewer had just left for a trip to Ukraine. Brewer, a Republican who supported the bill to ban abortions, had said he would return for a special session.

Sen. Adam Morfeld of Lincoln said a special session is "all-but-guaranteed," and will likely take place later this summer.

Had the trigger bill senators considered this past session passed, it would have made it a felony for anyone to provide any medication or undertake any procedure with the intent of ending the life of an unborn child, starting at fertilization. The woman undergoing an abortion, however, could not be charged.

Lawmakers who opposed the bill have vowed to continue their opposition in the event of a special session. Several of them repeated those promises Friday in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling.

"We have stopped an abortion ban before, and we will do it again together," Sen. Megan Hunt of Omaha, who led an eight-hour filibuster on the failed trigger bill earlier this year, wrote on Twitter on Friday.

Sen. Joni Albrecht of Thurston, who introduced the trigger bill, said she has been negotiating with some lawmakers on alterations that would address sticking points of opposition in the previous legislation  mainly that the bill would have inadvertently banned in vitro fertilization, or IVF, and hindered doctors attempting to perform life-saving operations.

"We have to be certain that we cover all our bases," Albrecht said.

Albrecht said she isn't sure what the new bill would look like, because it will largely depend on a full analysis of the Supreme Court's ruling.

Two other abortion-restricting bills were proposed during this year's session, but neither made it out of committee. One, introduced by Sen. Suzanne Geist of Lincoln, would have banned chemical abortions after seven weeks. It would not have regulated surgical abortions. The other, introduced by Sen. Julie Slama of Dunbar, would have banned abortions after a fetal heartbeat could be detected. That usually occurs about six weeks after fertilization.

Slama said Friday she would support any abortion-restricting bill in a special session, as long as it is capable of reaching 33 votes to end a filibuster. Albrecht said she does not expect Ricketts to call for a special session if he isn't confident a proposed bill will pass.

"We should not walk away empty-handed," Slama said.

The fate of any bill will ultimately depend on the makeup of the Legislature, which has already changed from the end of last session because of the death of Sen. Rich Pahls of Omaha. Pahls was not present for the vote on the trigger bill because of illness, though Morfeld said Pahls likely would have voted for the bill.

Ricketts appointed Omaha businesswoman Kathleen Kauth as Pahls' replacement earlier this month. At her appointment ceremony, Kauth said she would have voted for the trigger bill had she been serving at the time.

Nebraska Family Alliance policy director Nate Grasz called for legislative action.

"Pre-born babies who can smile, yawn, suck their thumbs and have their own heartbeat can be legally aborted up to 20 weeks in our state," he said.

"We will immediately begin working with our state lawmakers to pursue the strongest protections possible for every unborn child in Nebraska, because every life should be cherished and protected," Grasz said.

Morfeld, a candidate for Lancaster County Attorney, also issued a statement Friday declaring that "I will not criminalize doctors or women for reproductive decisions" if he is elected to that office.

"I will not turn every miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, IVF procedure and split-second, life-saving decision by a doctor into a criminal investigation.

"These are private decisions that should be left to a woman and her doctor, not politicians and lawyers."

Reporters for the Omaha World-Herald contributed to this story.
Pope: Catholic, Oriental Orthodox Should Look At More Sacramental Sharing

Pope Francis kisses a pectoral cross during an audience with young priests and monks from Oriental Orthodox churches at the Vatican June 3, 2022. In his address the pope said Christians are called to bear witness to Christ together and never "against" one another. ( Vatican Media) ROME -- The theological dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches has reached a point where it seems appropriate to consider expanding the opportunities for the faithful of any of the churches to receive the sacraments from one another when they are not available in their own community, Pope Francis said.

"Based on the theological consensus noted by your commission, would it not be possible to extend and multiply such pastoral arrangements, especially in contexts where our faithful are in minority and diaspora situations?" the pope asked members of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches.

Welcoming the commission members June 23, Pope Francis said that "ecumenism always has a pastoral character" and is not simply about theological ideas.

"Among our churches, which share apostolic succession, the broad consensus revealed by your commission not only about baptism, but also other sacraments, should encourage us to deepen a 'pastoral ecumenism,'" he said.

In 1984, St. John Paul II and the head of the Syriac Orthodox Church signed a declaration that "in certain circumstances authorizes the faithful to receive the sacraments of penance, Eucharist and anointing of the sick from either community," Pope Francis noted. And a 1994 agreement allowed Catholics and members of the Malankara Orthodox Syriac Church to receive the sacrament of matrimony from either church.

"This was made possible by looking at the concrete reality of the members of the people of God and their good, which is superior to ideas and historical differences," the pope said. The agreements focus on "the importance that no one be left without the means of grace."

The commission is completing what Pope Francis described as "an important study on the sacraments, a document that demonstrates the existence of a broad consensus and, with the help of God, can mark a new step forward toward full communion."

The Oriental Orthodox churches participating in the international dialogue with the Catholic Church are: the Armenian Apostolic Church, Coptic Orthodox Church, Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Malankara Orthodox Syriac Church and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church.

The Oriental Orthodox churches, which are in communion with one another, trace their origins to the Christian communities that did not accept the wording of the Council of Chalcedon's definition in 451 that Christ was fully human and fully divine. Between 1971 and 1996, the Catholic Church and the individual Oriental Orthodox churches resolved their differences over the Chalcedon statement.

Pope Francis insisted at the audience that for pastors of all the churches, the good of souls is more important than ideas or historical controversies.

"Jesus Christ became incarnate, he was made man, a member of the faithful people of God," he said. "He did not become an idea, no; he became man. And we must always seek the good of men and women and of the faithful people of God."

Pope Francis also insisted the "ecumenism of daily life" lived by the faithful of the churches must be taken seriously in theological discussions and recognized as a place where God is at work.

Especially in the Middle East, he said, Christians often experience more unity than their churches' theology would convey, especially through "the ecumenism of suffering, the common witness to the name of Christ, sometimes even at the cost of their lives."

So, the pope said, the reflection of theologians should focus "not only on the dogmatic differences that have arisen in the past, but also on the current experience of our faithful."
DOVER, Del. (AP)  Evidence presented Friday in the corruption trial of State Auditor Kathy McGuiness suggests McGuiness expected an employee to handle a controversial contractor payment at the heart of her criminal case, not knowing the employee would quit while on vacation.

Defense attorney Steve Wood showed jurors a series of emails exchanged in September 2020 among McGuiness, former chief of staff Thomas Van Horn, and administrative officer Shequanna Cousin about paying a past due invoice to My Campaign Group. The firm had received a no-bid communications services contract from McGuiness in 2019.

The auditors office had submitted the $11,250 invoice to the state Division of Accounting for approval, but it was sent back because the purchase order for the contract, which allocated a total of $45,000, had a remaining balance of only $4,350.

McGuiness then asked Van Horn and Cousin if it was possible to pay $4,900 of the $6,900 excess as a direct claim voucher outside the purchase order. Such payments are allowed if a change order or after-the-fact waiver request is submitted. The $4,900 amount, meanwhile, meant that the auditors office would not have to wait around for approval from the Division of Accounting because the payment approval threshold was $5,000.

Yes, it is possible to do, Cousin responded in an email, asking if Van Horn and McGuiness wanted to proceed with paying $4,350 under the purchase order and $4,900 as a direct claim, for a total of $9,250.

Five days later, McGuiness sent another email telling Van Horn and Cousin, who was out of the office on vacation, that she was getting calls from My Campaign Group owner Christie Gross about getting paid. With Cousin out of the office, McGuiness asked Van Horn to verify whether any payment had been made.

Van Horn told McGuiness and Cousin that he had already sent the $4,350 under the purchase order, and that they would have to do a waiver for the remainder.

McGuiness replied that Cousin was authorized to make the $9,250 payment but indicated that she was unsure about the process since this is not in my wheelhouse. She questioned whether the $4,900 needed to be a direct claim and whether the remaining $2,000 required a waiver.

As part of her duties, Cousin was responsible for paying purchase orders, payment vouchers and submitting waiver requests. Unbeknownst to McGuiness and Van Horn, however, Cousin had decided to quit and would not be returning from vacation.

They didnt know you were gone, and they were sending the email to the person who is charged with doing the after-the-fact waiver, right? Wood asked. And you didnt do anything ... because you were gone.

Correct, said Cousin, who agreed with Wood that if she had filed a waiver request the payment would have been fine.

McGuiness, a Democrat elected in 2018, is responsible as state auditor for rooting out government fraud, waste and abuse. She is being tried on felony counts of theft and witness intimidation, and misdemeanor charges of official misconduct, conflict of interest and noncompliance with procurement laws. McGuiness is the first statewide elected official in Delaware to face criminal prosecution while in office.

Prosecutors allege, among other things, that McGuiness orchestrated the no-bid contract for My Campaign Group, a firm she had used as a campaign consultant when running for lieutenant governor in 2016, then deliberately kept the contract payments under $5,000 to avoid having to get them approved by the Division of Accounting. They claim that splitting up the funding sources for the final invoice and making two payments  one for $9,250 and another for $1,950 using a state credit card  was a deliberate attempt to avoid regulatory scrutiny and amounts to illegal financial structuring.

Despite those allegations of concealment, the auditors office sought approval from the Division of Accounting for a single payment of $11,250, more than double the $5,000 reporting threshold, and actually received approval from the accounting division for the $9,250 payment. The director of the Division of Accounting testified that employees in her agency made a mistake in granting that approval, but no one in that agency has been charged with a crime.

Prosecutors also allege that McGuiness hired her daughter and her daughters best friend as temporary employees in 2020, even though other temporary employees had left because of the lack of available work amid the coronavirus pandemic. Authorities allege that in hiring her daughter and exercising control over taxpayer money with which she was paid, McGuiness engaged in theft of state money and conflict of interest.

Authorities also allege that when employees in her office became aware of McGuiness misconduct, she responded by trying to intimidate the whistleblowers, including monitoring their email accounts.

The trial resumes Monday.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Now, pro- andanti-abortion advocates are gearing up for a new phase of the abortion conflict.

While many people may think that the political arguments over abortion now are fresh and new, scholars of womens, medical and legal history note that this debate has a long history in the U.S.

It began more than a century before Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that established that the Constitution protects a persons right to an abortion.

The era of The Pill

On Nov. 14, 1972, a controversial two-part episode of the groundbreaking television show, Maude aired.

Titled Maudes Dilemma, the episodes chronicled the decision by the main character to have an abortion.

Roe v. Wade was issued two months after these episodes. The ruling affirmed the right to have an abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Maudes Dilemma brought the battle over abortion from the streets and courthouses to primetime television.

Responses to the episodes ranged from celebration to fury, which mirrored contemporary attitudes about abortion.

Less than 10 years before Maudes Dilemma aired, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first commercially produced birth control pill, Enovid-10.

Although various forms of birth control predate the birth control pill, the FDAs approval of Enovid-10 was a watershed in the national debate around family planning and reproductive choice.

Commonly known as The Pill, the wider accessibility of birth control is seen as an early victory of the nascent womens liberation movement.

Abortion also emerged as a prominent issue within this burgeoning movement. For many feminist activists of the 1960s and 1970s, womens right to control their own reproductive lives became inextricable from the larger platform of gender equality.

From unregulated to criminalized

From the nations founding through the early 1800s, pre-quickening abortions  that is, abortions before a pregnant person feels fetal movement  were fairly common and even advertised.

Women from various backgrounds sought to end unwanted pregnancies before and during this period both in the U.S. and across the world. For example, enslaved Black women in the U.S. developed abortifacients  drugs that induce abortions  and abortion practices as means to stop pregnancies after rapes by, and coerced sexual encounters with, white male slave owners.

In the mid- to late-1800s, an increasing number of states passed anti-abortion laws sparked by both moral and safety concerns. Primarily motivated by fears about high risks for injury or death, medical practitioners in particular led the charge for anti-abortion laws during this era.

By 1860, the American Medical Association sought to end legal abortion. The Comstock Law of 1873 criminalized attaining, producing or publishing information about contraception, sexually transmitted infections and diseases, and how to procure an abortion.

A spike in fears about new immigrants and newly emancipated Black people reproducing at higher rates than the white population also prompted more opposition to legal abortion.

Theres an ongoing dispute about whether famous womens activists of the 1800s such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony opposed abortion.

The anti-abortion movement references statements made by Anthony that appear to denounce abortion. Abortion rights advocates reject this understanding of Stanton, Anthony and other early American womens rights activists views on abortion. They assert that statements about infanticide and motherhood have been misrepresented and inaccurately attributed to these activists.

These differing historical interpretations offer two distinct framings for both historical and contemporary abortion and anti-abortion activism.

Abortion in the sixties

By the turn of the 20th century, every state classified abortion as a felony, with some states including limited exceptions for medical emergencies and cases of rape and incest.

Despite the criminalization, by the 1930s, physicians performed almost a million abortions every year. This figure doesnt account for abortions performed by non-medical practitioners or through undocumented channels and methods.

Nevertheless, abortion didnt become a hotly contested political issue until the womens liberation movement and the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. These movements brought renewed interest in public discussions about reproductive rights, family planning and access to legal and safe abortion services.

In 1962, the story of Sherri Finkbine, the local Phoenix, Arizona host of the childrens program, Romper Room, became national news.

Finkbine had four children, and had taken a drug, thalidomide, before she realized she was pregnant with her fifth child. Worried that the drug could cause severe birth defects, she tried to get an abortion in her home state, Arizona, but could not. She then traveled to Sweden for a legal abortion. Finkbines story is credited with helping to shift public opinion on abortion and was central to a growing, national call for abortion reform laws.

Two years after Finkbines story made headlines, the death of Gerri Santoro, a woman who died seeking an illegal abortion in Connecticut, ignited a renewed fervor among those seeking to legalize abortion.

Santoros death, along with many other reported deaths and injuries also sparked the founding of underground networks such as The Jane Collective to offer abortion services to those seeking to end pregnancies.

Expanding legal abortion

In 1967, Colorado became the first state to legalize abortion in cases of rape, incest, or if the pregnancy would cause permanent physical disability to the birth parent.

By the time Maudes Dilemma aired, abortion was legal under specific circumstances in 20 states. A rapid growth in the number of pro- and anti-abortion organizations occurred in the 1960s and 1970s.

On Jan. 22, 1973, the Supreme Courts ruling in Roe v. Wade nullified existing state laws that banned abortions and provided guidelines for abortion availability based upon trimesters and fetal viability. The subsequent 1992 ruling known as Casey reaffirmed Roe, while also allowing states to impose certain limits on the right to abortion. Roe remains the most important legal statute for abortion access in modern U.S. history.

Since Roe, the legal battle over abortion has raged, focused on the Supreme Court. If the draft opinion overruling Roe and Casey stands, the battle will end there and shift to the states, which will have the power to ban abortion without fear of running afoul of the Supreme Court. And the long history of conflict over abortion in the U.S. suggests that this will not be the last chapter in the political struggle over legal abortion.

This story is an updated version of an article published on June 10, 2019.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/abortion-has-been-common-in-the-us-since-the-18th-century-and-debate-over-it-started-soon-after-182496.

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THURSDAY, June 23, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday ordered Juul Lab's to pull its e-cigarettes off the American market.

Todays action is further progress on the FDAs commitment to ensuring that all e-cigarette and electronic nicotine delivery system products currently being marketed to consumers meet our public health standards, said FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf. The agency has dedicated significant resources to review products from the companies that account for most of the U.S. market. We recognize these make up a significant part of the available products and many have played a disproportionate role in the rise in youth vaping.

The products include the Juul vaping device and four types of Juul pods: Virginia tobacco-flavored pods at nicotine concentrations of 5.0% and 3.0%, and menthol-flavored pods at nicotine concentrations of 5.0% and 3.0%, the FDA said.

At one time, Juul controlled 75% of the e-cigarette market, The New York Times reported. Juul is expected to appeal the decision.

The American Vapor Manufacturing Association (AVMA), an industry trade group, hinted at the legal battle to come.

Measured in lives lost and potential destroyed, F.D.A.s staggering indifference to ordinary Americans and their right to switch to the vastly safer alternative of vaping will surely rank as one of the greatest episodes of regulatory malpractice in American history, AVMA President Amanda Wheeler said in a statement.

The FDA has already banned the sale of fruit-flavored e-cigarettes after critics claimed the products targeted teens. Regulators have since been reviewing thousands of applications for vaping products after tightening their oversight of the electronic cigarette market.

Juul can challenge the expected ruling one of three ways: appeal the decision through the FDA; file a challenge in court, or file a revised application for its products.

Several years ago, Juul's fruity flavors and "hip marketing" were blamed for jumps in underage vaping. Among the criticisms were that Juul used young adult models, celebrities and social media influencers in its marketing campaigns. In response, the company stopped using models, suspended all advertising in the United States and shut down its Facebook and Instagram accounts.

The company stopped selling its fruity and sweet flavors in 2019. In 2020, all manufacturers were required to submit their products to the FDA for review to stay on the market. They are considered a potentially less harmful alternative for adult smokers, but remain a concerning gateway to smoking for young people.

Juul's submission to the FDA included only its menthol and Virginia Tobacco flavors in nicotine strengths of 3% and 5%. The company also pitched a new device that would only unlock for users who were 21 or older.

Juul's popularity among young people is lower than it was in the past: It is now considered the No. 4 brand among high schoolers, according to a federal study released last September, WSJ reported.

Underage vaping in general has dropped since federal restrictions raised the age to buy any tobacco products to 21, the newspaper added.

The FDA also plans to mandate the elimination of nearly all nicotine in cigarettes, saying it would upend the $95 billion U.S. cigarette industry. Tobacco companies could sue to fight it the ruling if it happens, the newspaper reported.

More information

Visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for more on the dangers of vaping among teens.

SOURCE: The New York Times; Wall Street Journal

Originally published on consumer.healthday.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange.
BERLIN (AP)  Germany activated the second phase of its three-stage emergency plan for natural gas supplies Thursday, saying Europe's biggest economy faces a crisis and warning that storage targets for the winter are at risk due to dwindling deliveries from Russia.

The government said the decision to raise the level to alarm follows the cuts to Russian gas flows made since June 14 and surging energy prices exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. The third and highest stage is the emergency level.

The situation is serious, and winter will come, Economy Minister Robert Habeck said in a statement.

The reduction in gas supplies is an economic attack on us by (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, he said. We will defend ourselves against this. But our country is going to have to go down a stony path now.

Russia last week reduced gas flows to Germany, Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia just as European Union countries are scrambling to refill storage of the fuel used to generate electricity, power industry and heat homes in the winter. Russia's state-owned energy giant Gazprom blamed a missing part sent to Canada for repairs for the cutbacks through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline running under the Baltic Sea to Germany  Europes major natural gas pipeline.

It comes on top of gas shutoffs to Poland, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, France and the Netherlands in recent weeks.

Germany's government said current gas demands are being met and its gas storage facilities are filled to 58% capacity  higher than at this time last year. But the goal of reaching 90% by December wont be possible without further measures, it said.

Even if we cant feel it yet: we are in a gas crisis, Habeck said.

He said Germany would not react to the situation by keeping all supplies it receives to itself and cutting off neighboring countries. Instead, the government was urging industry and residents in Germany to reduce their consumption as much as possible.

The prices are already high, and we need to be prepared for further increases, Habeck said. This will affect industrial production and become a big burden for many producers.

To reduce demand, the government plans to hold auctions that would see large industrial consumers receive money if they relinquish their contracts.

Since declaring the first phase of its emergency plan in March, Germany and other countries have been trying to get additional gas from European neighbors such as the Netherlands and Norway as well as liquefied natural gas from producers in the Gulf and further afield.

To the horror of environmentalists, the government also announced Sunday that it would increase the burning of more polluting coal and reduce gas use for electricity production.

The government said it had informed European partners of the move in advance.

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.
Within minutes of the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the constitutional protection to an abortion, Wisconsin politicians and organizations spoke to the decision and a 1849 state law banning abortions in Wisconsin in nearly all circumstances. Quotes have been edited for length.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers

This is an absolutely disastrous and unconscionable decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, the consequences of which I hoped to never see again in my lifetime."

I will never stop fighting to make sure that every single Wisconsinite has the right to consult their family, their faith, and their doctor to make the reproductive healthcare decision that is right for them, and without interference from politicians or members of the Supreme Court who dont know anything about their life circumstances, values, or responsibilities.

State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester

Safeguarding the lives of unborn children shouldnt be controversial. Todays decision reaffirms their lives are precious and worthy of protection.

I agree with the justices in their opinion when they say, The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin

An activist majority of the Supreme Court has overturned Roe and nearly 50 years of precedent, taking away the constitutional rights of American women to make their own personal choices about their body, their health, and their family. Republicans have taken Wisconsin women back to 1849 and it is Republicans who want to keep us there.

Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson

Today is a victory for life and for those who have fought for decades to protect the unborn. For almost fifty years the decision of nine unelected Justices have prevented a democratically derived consensus on the profound moral issue of abortion to be formed."

Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, one of several Democrats vying to challenge Johnson in November

This decision will punish women and cost people their lives. The American people deserve elected leaders who will go to the mat to protect our basic freedoms and thats what I intend to do. Its past time to abolish the filibuster and make Roe the law of the land.

State Treasurer and Democratic Senate candidate Sarah Godlewski

Today, millions of women and families in Wisconsin and across America are waking up to this devastating news: we no longer have the right to make our own health care decisions. Its time to act, to mobilize, and to take back our rights and freedoms."

Outagamie County Executive and Democratic Senate candidate Tom Nelson

"In the post-Roe America that is now our reality, the Senate is the frontline for abortion rights. We are just one Senate vote away from codifying a womans right to choose into national law  and ensuring every American can make their own decisions about their body and their future."

Democratic Senate candidate Alex Lasry

"Sadly, today will be remembered as one of the darkest days in the history of the Court, as women will die as a result of this destructive decision by these Trumpian Justices.

Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway

"They have also fundamentally damaged and undermined the right to privacy upon which many other rights rest. Get readythey will come for contraceptives; they will come for marriage equality. They are clearly ready to turn back the clock, and they do not care who is harmed in the process."

"We will not be arresting abortion providers in Madison. Our City stands opposed to the overturning of Roe v. Wade and opposed to the 1849 statute banning abortions in Wisconsin."

Dane County Executive Joe Parisi

"People need abortions  when their birth control fails, after a sexual assault, to save their life, or simply because they dont want to be pregnant. To force people  some of them children themselves  to give birth when they dont want to is inhumane and appalling."

Dr. Wendy Molaska, president of Wisconsin Medical Society

"Todays decision raises concerns that could result in significant interference with the physician-patient relationship  the sanctity of which is the bedrock of our healthcare system."

The Wisconsin Medical Society supports legislation that would acknowledge the right of a physician to perform and give advice on this medical procedure  or refuse to do so according to the physicians training, experience and conscience."

The health and safety of our patients is our top priority. Wisconsin law should reflect that priority and ensure physicians can have full and frank discussions with patients about their health care without fear of imprisonment.

Former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, Republican candidate for governor

One day, we will all look back on Roe v. Wade as one of the U.S. Supreme Courts most egregious cases that allowed the killing of more than 60 million babies over nearly half a century.

Tim Michels, Republican candidate for governor

It is important that we continue to compassionately work on winning hearts and minds ... Life must always be protected. We should not demonize those who do not believe that, but rather redouble our efforts to show how they can provide a high quality of life for their children.

Julaine Appling, president of anti-abortion organization Wisconsin Family Action

"For my entire adult life, I have worked and prepared for this day. I remain hopeful that Wisconsins pre-Roe prohibition on abortion will only be eclipsed by an authentic respect for life ethic."

"We call upon Attorney General Josh Kaul and all county district attorneys to uphold the 1849 law that is still enforceable. We ask simply that you do your job and set aside your personal political agendas."

State Sen. Melissa Agard, D-Madison

This is a horrible day for our country ... Now, in our dystopic reality, our children will have fewer freedom than their parents."

Every person must have the right to make reproductive healthcare decisions that are best for them. No government should interfere with complex medical decisions made privately between a person and their doctor."

Republican U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, 1st Congressional District

Im proudly pro-life. Todays decision will bring this important issue back to the states. This is a great victory for life.

State Sen. Janet Bewley, Democratic minority leader

A sad day, and a harbinger of what might be in store in the future. What is next? The right to marry? The right to contraceptives?

Paul Farrow, chair of the Republican Party of Wisconsin

"Republicans have always believed in the sanctity of life  that it is precious and worth defending. As we continue to push for recognition of the value of human life, Republicans will continue to speak up for unborn children and vulnerable mothers and families."

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The former executive director of the Madison School Districts recreation division was sentenced Thursday to three years in prison after pleading guilty to possessing child pornography in 2019.

Im ashamed about what happened, said Jacob Tisue, who led Madison School & Community Recreation from 2017 until his departure after his arrest, before he was sentenced by Circuit Judge Nicholas McNamara. I apologize to my community. I was a community leader. Im totally flabbergasted I would go down that hole.

Tisue, 47, of McFarland, was arrested on Aug. 29, 2019, after investigators followed a July 22 tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which led police to a Yahoo account used by Tisue. He was charged with 12 counts of possessing child pornography.

Under a plea agreement, Tisue pleaded guilty to one count and the remainder were dismissed. Under state law, child pornography possession carries a mandatory minimum sentence of three years in prison, which Deputy District Attorney William Brown sought, along with Tisues lawyer, Mark Eisenberg. Tisue will also serve three years of extended supervision after his release and will be placed on the states Sex Offender Registry.

Tisue was also ordered to pay a $500 surcharge for the image he was convicted of possessing.

McNamara said that while theres no evidence Tisue produced or distributed child pornography himself, the crime is still serious because it perpetuates the abuse of children depicted in the images, often while theyre experiencing the worst trauma of their lives.

People will continue to do this because they know men like you want to see this, McNamara said.

If thats where you were headed, if thats where you were, McNamara said, then what else about you do we need to be concerned about? That you could lose that much perspective, your soul, we need to be concerned about, because thats not safe.

According to a criminal complaint, when Tisue was confronted by investigators at his office at MSCR on Madisons Near West Side, he said he found them on the blogging site Tumblr and downloaded them to his cellphone and emailed them to himself. He apologized to the officers, the complaint states, and said his searches for young women in bikinis had escalated into viewing sexually explicit images of girls.

Brown said those images, once they get onto the internet, are nearly impossible to scrub, so the victims of child pornography are constantly re-victimized. Some are even stalked by obsessed users who manage to identify them and seek them out. He said Tisue was not one of those people.

Eisenberg, conceding that the law mandates at least a three-year prison sentence, said he still finds it troubling that those who commit hands-on sexual offenses against children are allowed to seek probation, but someone like Tisue cannot.

Most of those convicted of possessing child pornography are not hands-on offenders, he said, but people who went down the wrong path and are looking at this crap.

Tisue, he said, was one of those, and needs treatment in the community, where its better and more easily available, rather than in prison, where it is not.

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A notebook found in mid-June by the parents of a DeForest man who was arrested in March for an alleged plot to kidnap a former high school classmate detailed his plans to rape her, kill her and kill everyone in her family before killing himself like Romeo and Juliet, according to a criminal complaint filed Friday.

The new complaint against Gabriel S. Savage, 19, charges him with four counts of attempted first-degree intentional homicide, attempted first-degree sexual assault and attempted sexual assault of a child.

Savage, who had been released last week on $10,000 bail, was re-arrested on Wednesday. He was ordered held on $100,000 bail after appearing in court Friday.

Savages lawyer, Jennifer Cunha, sought dismissal of the new complaint because it alleges acts that Savage only ideated and wrote about in a journal, and none that he actually attempted to carry out.

She argued that state law requires that it be shown Savage committed an unequivocal act, toward the commission of a crime, and not merely unequivocal intent. The fact that Savage wrote what he did in a journal does not create an unequivocal act, she said.

A private writing is not an unequivocal act, Cunha argued. It is a private document that articulates nothing but private thoughts.

She said theres no evidence he intended to show it to anyone.

But Deputy District Attorney William Brown argued the unequivocal act  thwarted by a DeForest police officer on a routine patrol  happened when Savage was found parked outside the home of the woman and her parents in DeForest on March 20 with a semi-automatic rifle, dozens of rounds of ammunition and two pairs of handcuffs.

For that, Savage was charged with attempted kidnapping and stalking and was ordered to stand trial on the charges following a preliminary hearing.

The new criminal complaint, Brown said, replaces that case entirely.

Court Commissioner Brian Asmus let the new case proceed, noting that the burden at an initial appearance is low and prosecutors still have to prove their case.

According to the complaint:

After Savage was arrested in March, police were given a notebook by Savages parents in which he wrote about going to the womans house in DeForest and about how to load the rifle. Police also located Post-It notes in Savages apartment in which he wrote about checking the womans Facebook page for motivation.

On Monday, a younger brother of the woman told police he was involved in an internet chat group that Savages brother also frequents. That day, Savages brother had sent a message to the group asking if anyone knew how to reach a different woman, who lives in Sun Prairie, because his brother, Gabriel Savage, had written in a notebook about killing that woman and her family.

Savages brother wrote that his parents had found the notebook and were not going to turn it over to police, but he wanted to warn the Sun Prairie woman.

A police detective in Wisconsin Dells, where Savages parents live, visited the parents and they gave him the notebook. They said they had found it under the drivers seat of Savages car while cleaning it out to sell it to raise bail money for Savage.

Police found nothing in the notebook to suggest the Sun Prairie woman had been targeted by Savage.

But police said the notebook appeared to be a manifesto that discussed the DeForest woman. Its title was My Mission  Savage.

It begins by stating, You must all be wondering why I did this, well I will tell you why ... It goes on to detail Savages interactions with the woman throughout high school and how he later found her address.

It then details a plan to shoot and kill the woman and her family and rape her and her sister. He then wrote he would kill himself while lying next to the woman and holding her hand, like Romeo and Juliet.

He also described how he wanted to be buried in his brown leather jacket.

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Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne said his office will stick to prosecuting crimes in a way that reflects the community's values, stopping short of vowing not to prosecute abortion providers under Wisconsin's 1849 abortion ban following the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade.

"If the voters want a district attorney who prosecutes women for seeking an abortion or licensed providers who are acting in the best interest of their patients, they will need to elect someone else," Ozanne said in a statement on Friday.

"I have every intention of utilizing the power Dane County voters entrusted in me and will use my discretion to prosecute only those crimes that keep our community safe and represent our collective values," he added.

The District Attorney's Office did not respond to a question asking for clarification on how Ozanne will approach charging decisions.

With the end of federal abortion protections, local enforcement of Wisconsin's abortion law rests with district attorney's offices where abortions are performed. Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin has already suspended abortion procedures as of Friday.

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin has said the groups legal team is reviewing the Supreme Court's decision Friday and would provide more information once theyve confirmed what the decision means for Wisconsin.

Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul has previously joined in on opposition to the law, saying he won't use Department of Justice resources to prosecute abortion providers.

Kaul said Friday his office was reviewing the decision and would provide more information next week on how we intend to move forward.

But the Department of Justice's stance toward abortion could change if voters boot Kaul and elect a Republican attorney general in the Nov. 8 general election.

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Tears streamed down the face of Victoria Gutierrez as she stood on the Capitol lawn and held a banner alongside a union colleague that read "Labor for abortion rights." Gutierrez and hundreds of others had gathered in the heat of an early summer evening to protest the U.S. Supreme Court overturning of Roe v. Wade Friday, a watershed moment in the country's battle over abortion rights.

"It's not over," said Gutierrez, 55. "It's not just about abortion rights. It's about women having agency to start their families. It's about childcare."

A crowd of over 1,000 people had swelled at the top of State Street Friday night to protest the high court's decision. Speakers from community groups like Freedom Inc. gave impassioned speeches on the steps of the Capitol for over an hour on Friday, leading demonstrators in repeated chants of "Shame!" and "Abort the court!"

Freedom Inc.'s Crystal Ellis likened the Supreme Court decision to an attack on people of color, women and marginalized groups, calling it a "gender-based violence issue."

"It's just another example of state violence against our most marginalized communities," Ellis said.

The protest disbanded around 6:30 p.m. to march around the Capitol.

The Roe ruling by the Supreme Court's conservative majority strikes down nearly 50 years of federal abortion protections. The fall of the court's landmark 1973 decision paves the way for state abortion law to govern reproductive rights. In Wisconsin, a 173-year-old near-total abortion ban has taken effect.

Because the 1849 law is still in place, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin halted all abortion services as of Friday due to the Supreme Court ruling, until the organization receives clarification from a court regarding the enforceability of the 19th century law.

At the Capitol, protestor Gracie McGovern, 26, held a sign that said "not your body, not your choice." Other demonstrators held signs that read "keep your religion out of politics" and "Abortion saves lives."

"I'm mad," McGovern remarked. "I'm very, very mad. We shouldn't be in this situation in 2022."

While some brought signs and musical instruments to Friday's protest, some brought guns.

Lilith Kievskaya arrived to the demonstration with an off-brand AK-47 and a pistol with the stated purpose of deterring right-wing groups or agitators who might arrive. Kievskaya said she was part of America United, a Madison-based organization focused on "anti-racist community defense."

Madison police have said they are collaborating with other law enforcement agencies to respond to demonstrations over the weekend, said spokesperson Stephanie Fryer. The department is not granting leave requests for Friday and Saturday, and extra patrols will be outside "organizations and businesses that may generate interest" because of the Supreme Court's decision, Fryer said. State Journal reporter Lucas Robinson contributed to this report.

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Elizabeth Beyer | Wisconsin State Journal Elizabeth Beyer is a digital producer for the Wisconsin State Journal. She joined the team in 2019 and was formerly a data, video and audio reporter at the La Crosse Tribune. Follow Elizabeth Beyer | Wisconsin State Journal Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today
WASHINGTON (AP)  Federal agents searched a former top Justice Department official's home and seized records from key Republicans in at least five states linked to Donald Trumps efforts to overturn the 2020 election, in what were clear signs that authorities are ramping up their investigation of associates of the former president.

Authorities on Wednesday searched the Virginia home of Jeffrey Clark, who was known at the Justice Department to champion Trump's false claims of election fraud. Agents in recent days also served subpoenas on the Republican Party chairmen of Arizona, Nevada and Georgia, three states that went for President Joe Biden and where Trump allies created slates of alternate electors intended to subvert the vote. And Republicans in two other states  Michigan and Pennsylvania  disclosed they had been interviewed by the FBI.

The Justice Department appears to be escalating its probe of pro-Trump efforts to overturn the 2020 election, which culminated in the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection. The disclosures of law enforcement activity came as the U.S. House committee investigating the riot said it had new evidence of Trump's efforts and his knowledge that he had no legal basis to try to overturn the election.

The committee's Thursday hearing focused on Trump's desire to install Clark atop the Justice Department in his administration's last days. The reason for the search of Clark's home was not immediately clear and it was not known what information agents were searching for. The person who confirmed the search was not authorized to discuss it by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Both the committee and federal authorities are probing the use of replacements for duly chosen electors in seven battleground states that voted for Biden. Trump and his allies furiously pressured authorities in those states to replace Biden's electors with ones for him on specious or nonexistent allegations that his victory was stolen.

The committee this week disclosed text messages that showed an aide to U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican and Trump ally, tried to hand-deliver fake elector certificates to an aide for former Vice President Mike Pence. The texts show Pence's aide refused to accept the votes.

Johnson told a Wisconsin conservative talk radio host on Thursday that the fake elector slates came from the office of Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania. A spokesman for Kelly responded that Johnson's claim was patently false.

Said the spokesman, Matt Knoedler, Mr. Kelly has not spoken to Sen. Johnson for the better part of a decade, and he has no knowledge of the claims Mr. Johnson is making related to the 2020 election.

Among those who have received subpoenas in recent days, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation, was Georgia Republican Party chairman David Shafer.

Nevada GOP Chair Michael McDonald turned over his phone to federal agents Wednesday when they approached him outside his car in Las Vegas and presented a warrant, according to another person familiar with the matter. McDonald in December 2020 stood outside Nevada's state capitol with other fake electors to swear a so-called oath of office," flanked by men in camouflage with semi-automatic rifles.

Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward, her husband, Michael Ward, and two other alternate electors also received subpoenas, according to a third person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss it publicly.

In Pennsylvania, FBI agents interviewed the chairman of the Allegheny County Republican Party at his home Thursday and gave him a subpoena for communications between him, Trump electors in the state and members of Trumps campaign and legal team, the party official, Sam DeMarco, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

DeMarco said in a statement that his conduct as an elector was open, above-board and predicated solely on protecting President Trumps legal rights should he prevail in court. That is why I agreed to serve as an elector solely in the event the president prevailed in his legal challenge to the Pennsylvania vote.

And in Michigan, Michele Lundgren told the Detroit News that someone from the FBI served her with a subpoena Thursday and that another Trump elector was served on Wednesday. Lundgren, 72, said her discussion with the agent was long and pleasant and that she let one of the agents go through her phone and computer.

They kept asking me questions and asking me questions, and I kept telling them answers, she said.

Clark's home was searched by federal agents shortly before a committee hearing in which he was the focus. Three other former Justice Department officials testified about an extraordinary Jan. 3, 2021, Oval Office meeting at which Trump contemplated naming Clark  who led the departments civil division  as acting attorney general in place of Jeffrey Rosen, who resisted Trumps efforts to involve the agency.

Trump relented only when other senior Justice Department officials warned Trump that they would resign if he followed through with his plan to replace Rosen with Clark.

A lawyer for Clark did not return an email and phone message seeking comment.

Chairman Bennie Thompson said he read about the raid on Clarks home moments before the hearing started. Were not privy to what the Department of Justices reasoning is for doing it," he said. "As you know, we demonstrated that he was recommended to lead the Department of Justice and people felt that he was absolutely unqualified to do so.

Russ Vought, president of the Center for Renewing America, which Clark recently joined as a senior fellow, tweeted that federal officers forced Clark into the streets while he was wearing pajamas and took his electronic devices.

All because Jeff saw fit to investigate voter fraud," Vought continued. "This is not America, folks. The weaponization of govt must end. Let me be very clear. We stand by Jeff and so must all patriots in this country.

Associated Press writers Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, Sara Burnett in Chicago, Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Sam Metz in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Michelle L. Price in New York contributed to this report.

For full coverage of the Jan. 6 hearings, go to https://www.apnews.com/capitol-siege.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP)  Cyprus signed a deal with Airbus Helicopters on Friday to purchase six light attack helicopters with an option for another six as it seeks to shed Soviet-era armaments and procure military equipment compatible with other European Union member states.

No financial details were disclosed during the signing of the agreement for the H145M helicopters. Cyprus Defense Minister Charalambos Petrides said the helicopter can operate day and night, strike targets accurately with mass firepower and can support ground operations in an information gathering role.

With the acquisition of the new Airbus attack helicopters, we will also be able to strengthen the existing framework of our numerous international and regional partnerships, by increasing interoperability with regional states, Petrides said.

Airbus Helicopters Executive Vice President Olivier Michalon signed the deal on behalf of his company.

Cyprus was divided along ethnic lines in 1974 when Turkey invaded following a coup aimed at union with Greece. Only Turkey recognizes a Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence in the islands northern third and maintains more than 35,000 troops there.

Charalambides said Turkeys troop presence in the north leaves no room for complacency in matters of defense.

The defense and national security of our homeland is nonnegotiable, the minister said.

Cyprus has been trying to sell off 11 Soviet-era Mi-35 attack helicopters it procured more than 20 years ago because of their obsolete avionics and high maintenance costs. Serbia has expressed interest in purchasing the helicopters.

Meanwhile, breakaway Turkish Cypriot authorities have called the helicopter purchase as a provocation that threatens regional stability.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
SPRINGFIELD  One patient from Iowa needed gas money and a place to stay. Another from Indiana, in a domestic violence situation, couldn't use her own funds for care. She also needed help with child care.

These are among just a couple of the hundreds of individual cases Rose, the abortion patient navigator program manager at Planned Parenthood of Illinois, said she has helped steer in the past two years.

Her job description is fairly simple: help patients, especially those from out-of-state, coordinate their visits to receive abortion services in Illinois. But the job itself is hardly that.

"Deciding to get an abortion, making that decision, is about so much more than making an appointment and walking into a health center," said Rose, whose real name is not being used because of safety concerns surrounding her work. "There are just so many factors."

As a "blue island" among its conservative neighboring states, Illinois has become a key battleground for abortion rights advocates and opponents. Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the state's Democrat-led General Assembly have enacted measures aimed at accommodating an expected influx of out-of-state patients, and more such steps are being planned. Abortion opponents, meanwhile, see gaining more political power in the outlier Midwestern state as a vital step in their fight against the procedure.

Among the barriers to abortion access: transportation from home to a clinic, where to stay when you get there, how to maintain confidentiality if in an unsafe home situation and  an issue that crosses over with so many others  how to afford the procedure and associated expenses.

Rose describes her job as "trying to take the onus and responsibility off of patients to have to identify all of their needs  and resolve some of those barriers as best we can."

Her job  and that of those working at a regional logistics center that opened in the Metro East region earlier this year  has become essential as obstacles facing people in need of abortion services grow, advocates say.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday in Dobbs v. Jackson Woman's Health Organization to uphold the constitutionality of Mississippi's law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks.

And, in what was telegraphed via a leak in May, the nation's high court voted 5-4 to strike down Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that established a constitutional right to an abortion.

Several conservative states have already enacted laws that essentially ban the procedure. At least half of U.S. states, including those surrounding Illinois, either have "trigger laws" that ban or severely limit abortion with Roe's overturning or have lawmakers who indicate a likelihood to enact such laws in the near future.

Illinois has gone in the opposite direction, enacting laws in recent years that have expanded access. But the state's status as an island for abortion rights in the Midwest has the potential to put a strain on providers, who are preparing for "a tidal wave" of patients from surrounding states.

"It's not something that will be a slow buildup," said Brigid Leahy, director of government relations for Planned Parenthood Illinois. "Back when Texas imposed its ban on Sept. 1 of last year, we saw our first patients at Planned Parenthood of Illinois health centers from Texas two days later."

Though abortion will remain legal in Illinois, a steady influx of out-of-state patients may unleash "a massive ripple effect" that could potentially impact access.

Abortion providers say physical capacity is not an immediate concern, but staffing clinics and resources to address logistical challenges faced by an increasing amount of patients will be paramount if Illinois is to be a true island for reproductive health.

"Illinois is positioned to be protective of folks who need access to care," Leahy said. "The phase we are moving into is trying to ensure that there actually is access for folks."

Influx of patients

Planned Parenthood estimates that anywhere between an additional 20,000 to 30,000 people annually could travel from out-of-state to Illinois for abortion services with Roe's overturning, a massive influx that would place the number of abortions performed in Illinois at an unprecedented level.

More than 46,000 abortions were performed in the state in 2020, according to state public health data. That's higher than in recent years but lower than the 1990s, when more than 50,000 procedures were performed some years.

The numbers show a clear rising trend of out-of-state residents receiving care. In 2020, 9,686 such women terminated a pregnancy in Illinois, up from 7,534 in 2019 and 5,668 in 2018. Data from 2021 was not available.

These numbers, abortion rights advocates say, are a reflection of the restrictions that have already been put in place to limit options in other states.

With the writing on the wall, many have spent the past few years planning for this moment, whether that meant working to change Illinois laws or, for abortion providers, deciding where to locate new facilities.

CHOICES Memphis Center for Reproductive Health, a Tennessee-based provider, is opening a clinic in Carbondale later this summer. The close proximity to the city's Amtrak station, which is along a line that runs through Memphis, wasn't a coincidence.

Up north, Planned Parenthood of Illinois has opened clinics in Waukegan and Flossmoor in recent years, both just miles from bordering states.

"Those areas were recognized to have a need for Illinoisans, but also they're fairly close to borders and five major highways that would allow people from other states to get to them," Leahy said.

And in 2019, Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region opened its 18,000-square foot facility in Fairview Heights, which replaced a much-smaller facility and is equipped to perform surgical abortions.

Along with Hope Clinic in Granite City, the provider has seen a significant amount of patients come from across the river in Missouri.

The Show-Me State has stood out thus far.

In 2020, 6,578  more than two-thirds of all out-of-state patients  came from Missouri, where lawmakers have placed severe restrictions on the procedure and attempted to make abortions illegal after eight weeks of gestation, a measure that was blocked by the courts.

It is one of the states with a "trigger law" on the books, which went into effect minutes after the court's ruling.

Illinois Right to Life executive director Amy Gehrke said Roe being overturned is like "the reverse of the Dred Scott decision," referring to the Supreme Courts 1857 ruling denying U.S. citizenship to Dred Scott and other Black Americans.

"You'll have Missouri where pre-born babies are recognized as human and are protected and here, just across the river in Illinois, the Reproductive Health Act said pre-born children have no rights and no protection and in essence that they're not human," Gehrke said.

Earlier this year, the Fairview Heights facility expanded again with the opening of a "regional logistics center" aimed at helping out-of-state patients arrange travel and lodging and connect them with resources, such as abortion funds.

Colleen McNicholas, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, said they expect to care for up to 8,000 patients this year at the Illinois facility, which can handle up to 15,000 at full capacity.

The regional logistics center, jointly run by Planned Parenthood and Hope Clinic, currently employs four case managers but may hire up to 10 more depending on demand.

McNicholas said each patient aided by the logistics center typically receives between $900 and $1,500 in support, which comes from existing abortion funds and other groups. Planned Parenthood is "covering whatever gap remains for now," McNicholas said, though she acknowledged "that is not necessarily sustainable" long-term.

"We have never in this country faced a reality where we have needed to mass mobilize millions of people for such basic health care," McNicholas said. "And we are doing it in a system where the infrastructure is already so fragile, where there isn't support, where public and private insurance in all of the states who are going to lose access doesn't pay for the care."

No matter the amount of planning abortion rights groups have done, McNicholas acknowledges the post-Roe reality "is really going to put a strain on the public health system."

At its current patient load, the Fairview Heights facility operates eight hours a day, six days per week. McNicholas said that will likely change with demand, with the first move to 10-hour days, then to 12-hour days and then even mixing in some Sunday hours.

She said "a flag" for when these changes are needed would be when patient wait times hit one week. The current "gold standard," she said, is 72 hours.

In order to maintain access, McNicholas said, they will need to beef up staffing to fill those extra hours and ensure that patients have everything they need to get to their appointment.

"We don't need to build a bigger facility; we don't need to build another facility," McNicholas said. "What we need to do is ensure that we have a very tight system that helps folks get from A to B and then back to A. And that's really going to be the way that we are addressing this access crisis."

Expanded access in Illinois

Where much of the country has zigged to the right on abortion rights, Illinois has zagged to the left in recent years, enacting some of the most liberal reproductive health laws of any state.

In 2017, then-Gov. Bruce Rauner signed House Bill 40, which permitted state health insurance and Medicaid coverage for abortions and removed "trigger law" language that could have made the procedure illegal in the event Roe v. Wade was overturned.

This was followed up by Pritzkers signing of the Reproductive Health Act in 2019. The law enshrined reproductive health care  including abortion access  as a fundamental right in Illinois.

And late last year, Pritzker signed legislation repealing a 1995 law that required an abortion provider give an adult family member at least 48 hours notice before the procedure is performed on a girl under the age of 18.

Illinois lawmakers might not be done. Pritzker, with the support of Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, and House Speaker Chris Welch, D-Hillside, has called for a special legislative session next month to consider more abortion rights legislation.

"Together, we are committed to taking swift action to further enshrine our commitment to reproductive health care rights and protections," Pritzker said.

Among the bills that could be taken up is House Bill 1464, which would prevent a licensed doctor in Illinois from being disciplined in Illinois if another state suspends or revokes their license for performing an abortion.

The legislation passed the Illinois House in late March but was not taken up by the Illinois Senate prior to its April adjournment.

Abortion rights advocates have also urged the Pritzker administration to allow advanced practice clinicians such as nurse practitioners and physician assistants to perform in-clinic abortions. Thirteen states allow this practice.

Currently, advanced practice clinicians in Illinois can only prescribe abortion-related medications, which are typically only prescribed within the first 11 weeks of a pregnancy.

But, by allowing them to perform "aspiration" abortions, which involve the use of suction to empty the uterus and typically occur 14 to 16 weeks into pregnancy, advocates believe this would help alleviate staffing shortages they are facing.

Pritzker, in an interview with Lee Enterprises earlier this week, said he supports that change.

"We certainly are looking at both using our own executive branch powers and also going to the legislature on the subject," Pritzker said. "We're working with the Attorney General and our own legal staff to determine what we can do."

Either way, "we will do it," Pritzker added.

"I am focused on making sure that we expand the number of professionals in our state to make sure that we're providing the health care that people are seeking," he said.

However, do not expect any new flashy state abortion funds, such as those created by California, New York and Oregon, for clinics to prepare for the influx and beef up security.

"In Illinois, we treat reproductive rights and abortion as health care," Pritzker said. "So it's included already in much of the health care dollars that we allocate to the women in our state."

On the other side of the issue, Illinois Right to Life, the state's most prominent anti-abortion group, is gearing up in what they call "ground zero" in the fight against the practice.

"Our work is just beginning now that Roe is going to be overturned because things, I believe, are possibly going to get worse before they get better," Gehrke said, acknowledging the incoming influx from surrounding states.

Still, Gehrke believes "the state can be won back for life."

"We were a pro-life state for the most part until 2017, just five short years ago," Gehrke said. "And with a lot of hard work and a lot of education, I really believe that the needle will move back."

A lot may be riding on the results of the November election. All the candidates running in the GOP primary for governor have taken anti-abortion positions while Pritzker has been staunchly supportive of abortion rights.

Gehrke believes abortion opponents would "only need to flip just a handful of seats" in the General Assembly to prevent more abortion rights legislation from passing.

In the meantime, for navigators like Rose, getting woman across the river from Missouri and other states into Illinois is about ensuring they can access health care.

"You can't make abortion go away by criminalizing it," Rose said. "It just makes it unsafe and harder to access. And birthing people are put at risk when abortion is criminalized, most especially people in marginalized communities, poor people, people of color, people who don't have the advantages of wealthy people who can easily buy a plane ticket and travel to get an abortion.

"What energizes me is how discriminatory and unjust that feels and the opportunity to have an active role in assisting those patients is what really drew me to this position and kind of lit the fire for me to do what we can to support, really, bodily autonomy," she said.

Contact Brenden Moore at brenden.moore@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter: @brendenmoore13
Returning the determination of abortion legality to the states will, without question, harm economically disadvantaged women and further compound health disparities.

Data show that preventable health disparities exist because of economic, environmental or social disadvantages that adversely affect a specific population. Black women, for example, are more likely than white women to die in childbirth because of a whole host of economic and medical disparities, but that gap is smaller in states that have expanded Medicaid.

Outlawing abortion in deeply red states will further perpetuate a two-tiered system in which women have different rights and health benefits depending on where they live. In blue states, low-income women will have access to health care through Medicaid, including abortion if they need it. And in some red states, low-income women wont have access to health coverage or abortion.

This will harm everyone  leading to poorer health outcomes and more poverty. States that are likely to outlaw abortion are the same states that are less likely to give families the health care, educational opportunities or financial support that could help lift people out of poverty. As a result, children born into families that would have preferred an abortion will be more likely to live in poverty than equivalent families in blue states.

People with means will be able to travel to blue states to get an abortion if necessary. But the women without resources will be left to have unwanted children or children with chromosomal abnormalities and be forced to put their own health at risk in some cases.

Women in the U.S. will have fewer rights than women in the deeply Catholic countries of Argentina and Ireland. In the 1950s and 60s, poor, unwed mothers in Ireland were often sent away to Catholic convents, where their babies were essentially sold to rich Americans. This is the world the U.S. is harkening back to by outlawing abortion. The idea that adoption alone can solve the issue, as Justice Amy Coney Barrett suggested, is naive. Women should not be forced to put their bodies through nine months of pregnancy and childbirth  which can be life-threatening  in the service of others who may want the child.

If the goal is to reduce the number of elective abortions, we have more effective ways to do it than banning all abortions. Data show that providing free birth control to women greatly reduces unplanned pregnancies and reduces abortion rates 62% to 78%.

The U.S. has the highest uninsured rate and the worst maternal mortality among major industrialized countries. Carrying a pregnancy and having a baby is not a health-neutral event for the mother. By outlawing abortion and forcing women to carrying unwanted pregnancies, the government is saying that the life of the unborn  that may or may not survive pregnancy  is more important than the living, breathing person carrying it.

Some abortions will always be necessary. Birth control isnt 100% effective and unexpected medical issues can always arise that necessitate a woman to have the freedom to choose what she wants to do. Abortion is a vital part of comprehensive health care that reduces health disparities and improves health outcomes.

Increasingly, health outcomes are determined by policies set at the state level. Policies around Medicaid expansion, tobacco, the environment and labor issues are all correlated with health outcomes. Letting abortion be decided by the states will further enhance health disparities and leave poor women in red states worse off.

Step back and see the hypocrisy. The so-called small government, pro-life party wants to regulate what books children read, what bathrooms people use and what medical procedures women can have. Instead of protecting the unborn, they are forcing them into a life where their rights and interests are only protected until they are born.

Kane is the director of health policy for the Progressive Policy Institute.
From the outset, the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol has been marred by political motives and malfeasance, making it unlikely the vast majority of Americans will have confidence in the committees ultimate findings.

In fact, before the hearings even began, the committee was tinged by partisan politics when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., defied protocol and refused to seat two of Minority Leader Kevin McCarthys picks for the committee  Reps. Jim Banks, R-Ind., and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. Instead, she chose Reps. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., and Reps. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.

While Banks and Jordan would have added a semblance of balance and credibility to the nine-person committee (which consists of seven Democrats and two Republicans), Pelosi nixed both and replaced them with two of the most anti-Trump Republicans in Congress.

Instead of getting to the bottom of what occurred on Jan 6, 2021, the committee is interested only in scoring political points with the public and deterring Trump from potentially running for the presidency in 2024. For instance, why is the committee ignoring that President Trump approved the deployment of thousands of National Guard troops to the U.S. Capitol in the days leading up to Jan. 6?

Why is the committee not questioning Pelosi and Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser about why they did not increase security at the Capitol in the days before Jan. 6 after they were briefed that viable security threats existed?

Why is the committee overlooking the single death that occurred that day during the so-called insurrection? On Jan. 6, a Capitol Hill police officer killed Ashli Babbitt at point-blank range, though she posed no immediate threat and was unarmed.

Why does the committee seem disinterested in Capitol Hill police officers allowing hundreds of so-called insurrectionists to enter the Capitol during the chaos that ensued after the initial breach?

Why is the committee not digging into the reprehensible treatment of those who entered the Capitol complex with no intent to cause harm or damage? More than 16 months later, some of the Americans who entered the Capitol grounds while committing no major crime other than possibly trespassing remain in jail.

Why has the committee not made public thousands of hours of video at the Capitol complex that would add much-needed context to the events of that day?

And why is the committee not doing more to investigate the pipe bombs found at the Republican National Committee headquarters and the Democratic National Committee headquarters the night before Jan. 6?

Perhaps the committee is not interested in finding the full, unvarnished truth about what happened on Jan. 6. Perhaps the committee is solely interested in using the pomp and pageantry of its hearings to distract the American public from the awful economy and all the other problems Americans believe are far worthier of congressional hearings and actions. And perhaps the committee is well-aware that the midterm elections are expected to result in an overwhelming red wave, so they are doing everything they can to tar and feather their political opponents before they lose control of Congress.

Whatever the case may be, it is clear that the Select Committee is a crass political endeavor that is unlikely to resonate with the majority of the American people. Most Americans know Jan. 6 was a stain on the country that could have been avoided in the first place, but is now being used for political gamesmanship on behalf of congressional Democrats.

Talgo is senior editor at The Heartland Institute. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.
Commuters who travel on Madisons Beltline have a smoother ride and will soon experience improved traffic flow during peak travel times.

The Beltline has a history of pavement problems and congestion concerns. The state Department of Transportation made many improvements over the last several years. After concrete patching failed in 2016, crews replaced the patches with new layers of asphalt pavement.

We also examined ways to improve traffic flow on the Beltline (Highway 12-18). The inside median shoulders were upgraded last year along the Beltline, between the Whitney Way exit and Interstate 39-90, for use as an additional travel lane during peak traffic periods.

We call this the flex lane.

The flex lane on the Beltline is an innovative solution to ease backups during the busiest times and provide reliability for motorists who use it every day for work or business. It provides a safe, cost-effective solution to address periodic and recurring congestion without the need to expand the highway beyond its current footprint.

While the flex lane is a first for Wisconsin, 17 states have implemented the concept, including the neighboring states of Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota and Ohio. Each state has found success with better reliability for travel times and safer highways. During design of the flex lane, we proactively talked with our counterparts in Michigan about their best practices of the flex route in Highway 23 north of Ann Arbor.

Over the past few years, we have engaged Madison-area emergency responders, law enforcement, local and state officials, the business community and the general public. This collaboration helps educate motorists on the benefits of the flex lane and how to drive it. We also coordinated with our partners at the Dane County Sheriffs Office and Dane County Highway Department to provide timely response to potential incidents and maintenance efforts.

Heres how the flex lane works: Signs located above the lane will indicate when the flex lane is open with a green arrow. When the lane is closed, a red X will appear. Cameras and sensors give state DOT traffic operators real-time views and data to efficiently maintain the flex lane system.

The flex lane is dynamic and expected to open during the typical morning and afternoon rush hours and major events. Outside of those times, the flex lane will be closed to provide a wide median shoulder for emergency stopping.

Contractors are putting the finishing touches along the Beltline to make the flex lane operational. As we prepare to open the flex lane this summer, please drive safely by wearing your seat belt, putting your phone away, being patient, leaving room to brake, driving the 55 mph speed limit on the Beltline, and only using the flex land when you see a green arrow.

The flex lane is an innovative way to keep people and commerce moving along the Madison Beltline during peak traffic hours. Its one more way the DOT is making Wisconsins highways safer and more reliable.

Thompson is secretary of the state Department of Transportation. For more information about changes to the Beltline, go to: wisconsindot.gov/FlexLane.
Riveting bipartisan congressional hearings have brought the events on and leading up to the Jan. 6 insurrection to prime time. Compelling evidence shows that then-President Donald Trump carried out a widescale conspiracy to overturn the will of American voters and illegitimately hold onto power. Trump, including his supporters, betrayed the nation while violating his oath of office.

The committee has grounded its work in documenting, substantiating and sharing the facts. Its work has been guided by nonpartisan career prosecutors who have interviewed 1,000 witnesses and reviewed at least 140,000 documents. The committee has been connecting the dots about the multipronged plan to overturn the election. Whats most striking is that, so far, the committee has almost exclusively presented testimony from senior Republican government officials and operatives  many of them Trumps closest aides  in their own words.

As important, the hearings clarify continuing and future threats to elections. Americans want to know the truth. They want accountability, and they want concrete actions to prevent an insurrection from happening again.

And the committee has already clarified a lot.

First, the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol was not spontaneous. It was part of a well-planned and unprecedented power grab that started months earlier  the first attempt by a U.S. president to block the peaceful transition of power. The attack was carried out, in part, by dangerous white supremacists such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. They answered Trumps call to come to Washington and did so armed and prepared for battle. Trump relentlessly pressured his vice president to break the law by refusing to certify the Electoral College result  and, though he now denies it, Trump reportedly supported threats to hang the vice president.

Second, Trump lied to his supporters and the American people after being repeatedly advised that zero evidence suggested widescale election fraud. The messengers included Trumps attorney general, campaign manager and lawyers, and daughter Ivanka Trump. Every time his advisers debunked a false claim, Trump would resort to another theory.

Third, strong evidence shows Trump and his team likely violated federal laws, including impeding the rightful counting of electoral votes. This builds on a finding from a federal judge that Trump likely committed a crime by attempting to obstruct the joint session of Congress. Regardless of criminality, Trumps actions were a corrupt attack on democracy.

Fourth, the committee has shown that Trump betrayed his supporters. Not only did he knowingly bombard them with disinformation and falsely promise them he would remain president, but his campaign raised $250 million in donations after fraudulently claiming the money would be spent on a nonexistent election defense fund.

Whats next? The committee will present findings and recommendations in at least one written report, likely by September.

The committee's recent hearings outlined Trumps corrupt plan to replace the U.S. attorney general with someone willing to lie, and Trumps pressure on state and local election officials to change valid election results illegally.

Besides investigating the past, the committee must explain the continuing threats to U.S. elections. Trump has not stopped peddling lies or maligning officials who certified lawful election results.

In a worrisome development, many candidates are running for statewide positions on a platform of overturning election results. Meanwhile, many states are passing laws  inspired by lies about the 2020 election results  designed to make it harder to vote and easier for partisan officials to sabotage elections. Election officials of both parties continue to receive death threats for properly doing their jobs.

All of this is a recipe for disaster.

Thats why Americans need to demand that officials protect their right to vote and that election lawbreakers be held accountable. Congress must pass legislation making it impossible for future presidents  of either political party  to steal an election. And a robust coalition of conservatives, liberals and independents must lead the fight to protect democracy. The future of our nation depends on it.

Roberts is the managing director and Sozan is a senior fellow on the democracy policy team at the Center for American Progress. They wrote this for InsideSources.com.
TWIN FALLS  Just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court released a 5-4 decision overturning a persons constitutional right to seek an abortion, Idaho legislators, governmental officials and ordinary folks have shared their opinions.

Gov. Brad Little commented on the decision, saying it was long-awaited and Idaho has been at the forefront of enacting new laws to protect preborn babies.

Todays decision is the culmination of pro-life efforts to defend the defenseless  preborn babies who deserve protection, Little said. It also is affirmation of states rights, a fundamental aspect of our American government.

He also said that this moment in history will create growing needs for women and families in the coming months and years.

Families, churches, charities, and local and state government must stand ready to lift them up and help them and their families with access to adoption services, healthcare, financial and food assistance, counseling and treatment, and family planning, Little said. We are being called to support women and our fellow community members in extraordinary new ways, and Im confident Idahoans are ready to meet this responsibility with love and compassion.

What does the Supreme Courts decision mean for Idaho? This decision is sinful, said ACLU of Idaho Executive Director Leo Morales. Its going to cause irreversible harm and trauma for generations to come."

But many local women disagree with the governor.

Prior to Roe, over 1 million women died giving themselves abortions, Jill Skeem said. Abortion will not go away because Roe was overturned, but safe abortions will be gone and womens lives will be in jeopardy.

Now there is talk about abolishing contraception? Skeem continued. If you want to get rid of abortions, provide birth control.

The Times-News gathered other womens responses through Facebook.

I feel incredibly devastated as someone who could need an abortion in the future to survive, wrote Nikita Bennett. My children dont deserve this, your children dont deserve this. Women who fought for their rights dont deserve this.

Ignorant day for Capital Hill, wrote Jessie Barnes. This decision doesnt just affect reproduction rights, but also medical privacy, privacy in general, and it allows for the government to control the citizens rights to make their own medical decisions. This country is headed down a steep slope and theres no brakes.

Roe v Wade was one of *the* most prominent talking points from politicians campaigning in the area, wrote Kelsey Mason Knapp. The dog caught the car. I didnt think it would happen. What will they run on now? Im kind of afraid to find out.

Coming from a person who was a foster kid that no one wanted, sad sad day! wrote Sharon Park. There are so many unwanted kids out there now being abused etc.... Once these babies are born no one cares about them.

Skeem is especially outraged because men are not being held accountable in this ruling.

These women are not getting pregnant by themselves, she said. Men should not be making decisions for women and their bodies and lives.

Even Idahos far-right activist Ammon Bundy weighed in.

Bundy, whos challenging Little in the gubernatorial race, said the decision was constitutionally correct and that he was grateful enough justices recognized state sovereignty.

Now we will see if Governor Little and the legislature of Idaho do what is necessary to outlaw abortion in the State of Idaho. Piggybacking off of another states heartbeat bill, in my opinion, is insufficient in protecting the most innocent, Bundy wrote in a statement. My heart is more at ease now that our nation has moved in this direction.

Twin Falls resident Lisa Stieneke also felt the decision was needed.

All human life is created in the image of God and should be protected Stieneke wrote. The Supreme Courts decision today made me hopeful that progress is being made.

Boise Mayor Lauren McLean posted on Twitter that the decision is particularly harmful to women of color and to low-income women.

I am infuriated, & intensely worried. The decision to terminate a pregnancy is deeply personal and private, Mclean wrote. This decision by the Supreme Court will have devastating consequences on the health, privacy, & economic independence of women throughout our community, state, and nation.

I remain steadfast in my support for all people who need access to abortion care & stand with them in fighting for privacy in health care decisions.

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HEYBURN  The U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration has fined a local potato processing business after an investigation into a fatal accident at the plant on Jan. 26.

According to the inspection detail report, which remains open, Royce Jensen, 62, died after falling from a catwalk.

OSHA fined the company a total of $28,714 for two violations.

The company was issued a violation of $14,357 for duty to have fall protection and falling object protection. The second violation was also for $14,357 and for general requirements.

The penalties were issued on May 13 and abated on June 9.

Abatements means the company took action to comply with the standard or recognize the hazard identified by OSHA during the inspection.

OSHA is also performing an inspection on a second Mini-Cassia Company, Barclay Mechanical Services, of Paul, in an unrelated fatal fall a day earlier on Jan. 25.

OSHA has not released its finding yet on that incident.

In an earlier interview, Cassia County Coroner Craig Rinehart said a 58-year-old man died at a Barclay job site at 700 S. 350 E., where he was working on a silo.

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I had the privilege of speaking at a ceremony held at the Minidoka Relocation Camp in Jerome County on June 13, recognizing the 80-year anniversary of the start of camp construction. The Camp was one of ten established in the western states in 1942 to imprison Japanese Americans who were uprooted from their homes in Hawaii and the West Coast during the Second World War (WWII). Around 13,000 of them, mostly American citizens, were imprisoned at Minidoka. They posed no threat to their country but were rounded up simply because of their race. The Camp has been designated as the Minidoka National Historic Site (MNHS). It reminds us of a grave racial injustice brought about by hysteria whipped up by irresponsible news outlets and pandering politicians. President Franklin Roosevelt issued the order to incarcerate our fellow Americans. Former Idaho Governor Chase Clark applauded the move. It found strong support among the Idaho population.

An honor roll at the entry to MNHS lists the names of hundreds of young men from the Camp who heroically served their country in the European Theater of WWII, while their families were imprisoned at home. No instances of disloyalty ever surfaced among the incarcerated Japanese Americans. Yet, those who remained in Idaho after the closure of the Camp in 1945 were subjected to ill treatment and racial slurs during the following decades. A number of Camp survivors, their children and human rights supporters gathered at the June 13 ceremony to recognize this historic wrong and dedicate themselves to preventing anything like it from being perpetrated against any future group of fellow Americans.

This was not an isolated instance of racial injustice in the history of Idaho. Our history is replete with wrongs committed against racial and ethnic minorities, starting with Native Americans and continuing with Chinese miners, African Americans and Hispanics. I learned of the Battle of Bear River in grade school back in the early 1950s, only to learn many years later that it was not a fierce battle between the U.S. Army and Shoshone warriors in 1863, but a deplorable massacre of men, women and children. It is called the worst slaughter of Native Americans in U.S. history. Nor were we taught of the massacre of 34 Chinese miners in Hells Canyon in 1887, a crime for which nobody was ever held to account. The 1870 census disclosed that 28.5% of Idahos population was Chinese. No wonder that it is only around 1% today.

And, these are not problems confined to the distant past. The Ku Klux Klan was strong in Idaho in the 1920s and white supremacists were on the rise in Kootenai County in the early 1980s. After having practically eliminated them by the early 1990s, they have come back in force in recent years, thanks in part to an influx of extremists flowing to Idaho from progressive states in search of a white redoubt. It is essential that Idahoans be made aware of our racial history to understand that we are not above committing wrongs against vulnerable minority groups. Recognizing our faults is not designed to make anyone feel bad, but to acknowledge our mistakes so we dont repeat them. Lets not have any more Minidoka camps or other such affronts to human rights.

The regrettable fact is that racism never really dies. Each time enlightened leaders manage to rally our citizens to beat it back, it merely lurks under the surface, awaiting another charismatic demagogue who will fan the flames of hatred for personal gain.

Jim Jones is a Vietnam combat veteran who served eight years as Idaho attorney general (1983-1991) and 12 years as justice of the Idaho Supreme Court (2005-2017). He is currently a regular contributor to The Hill online news. He blogs at JJCommonTater.

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Here's how the Supreme Court decision affects health care, politics, and more in Charlotte and North Carolina.

With Fridays Supreme Court decision to overturn its landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, North Carolina is now one of the last states in the South to protect a pregnant persons ability to get an abortion.

A leaked opinion indicating the Supreme Court would overturn the 1973 abortion ruling sent shockwaves through the country in early May. But even with the decision to overturn Roe, abortions remain legal in North Carolina. And because Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper is not facing a veto-proof Republican-led legislature, that will likely hold for now.

But that could change if Republicans gain a super majority in the upcoming November elections.

For now, abortion clinics will likely see a spike in out-of-state patients.

At least 26 states are certain or likely to quickly ban abortion, according to data collected by the Guttmacher Institute. And 13 of those states have laws in place designed to be triggered automatically or by state action following the overturn of Roe.

And as other Southern states further restrict abortion access, more people will need to travel to North Carolina for abortions.

Texas, Mississippi patients head to NC

A Preferred Womens Health Center, one of three abortion clinics in Charlotte, performs more than 100 abortions each week, clinic executive director Calla Hales told the Observer last month.

Its already very common for the clinic to see patients from Tennessee, South Carolina and Georgia, she said. And theres been a recent increase in patients from further states, like Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.

And since the May opinion leak, theres been a slight increase in out-of-state patient numbers at the Latrobe clinic, Hales told the Observer Friday in an email.

But that will only increase as Southern states continue to restrict abortion access.

What is abortion law in NC?

North Carolina also has some laws on the books restricting abortions. In N.C., people seeking an abortion must receive state-mandated counseling and wait 72 hours before receiving an abortion.

That will still be the case with the overturn of Roe v. Wade.

But there are still questions around abortion access in the state. An N.C. law banning abortions after 20 weeks  put on hold after passing and later ruled unconstitutional  could be allowed to go into effect for the first time with Roe overturned.

But its unclear how fast that could happen.

In the Triangle, some reproductive health rights advocates are preparing for the influx of inquires for abortions and other health care matters. Jenny Black, the president of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, said the organization is working to inform potential patients about what rights are still available to them.

To patients who might be worried or scared about this decision, abortion is still legal and accessible in North Carolina. We are going to fight like hell to keep it that way, Black said. It is a dark day when the Supreme Court tells you that you are no longer a free and equal citizen of the United States.

Black said advocates are not giving up the fight for abortion rights just because the Supreme Court says that we should. She also wants people to remember the upcoming elections in the state that should further sway the rights residents already have.

The stakes for North Carolina just got a lot higher. If we want to protect abortion rights, we have to be mindful of that in the election season, Black said.

Travel for abortion

We know that abortion bans disproportionately affect Black, Indigenous and people of color, Black said. This affects people with low incomes, who live in rural areas and people who traveling long distances to access healthcare is already a burden. These bans are going to impact those people the most.

Even some North Carolina residents need to travel long distances for abortion access.

Just nine of North Carolinas 100 counties have abortion clinics. All are in the states more populous areas, including Mecklenburg, Wake, Forsyth and Cumberland counties.

But some residents on the N.C. coast have to drive more than 150 miles to the closest state clinic, the Observer previously reported.

About 25,000 people get abortions in North Carolina. Nearly one out of five of those people come from other states.

For out-of-state patients, that can mean added cost, time and stress to the procedure.

Its a lot of logistical needs for a provider as well, because youre having to balance time constraints, Hales told the Observer in May. We do have patients that fly in and do their procedure and theyre like, I have to be out of here by 4 p.m. or Im gonna miss my plane.

Theres this added level of stress.
Billy Martin, the Democratic nominee for N.C. Senate District 46, kicked off his campaign Thursday evening.

Martin, who is also a member of the Marion City Council, spoke to a crowd of more than 50 people at Spillway Bridge & Co. on Thursday. In his speech, he talked about the Republicans who are in charge of the state General Assembly, according to a news release.

Lets focus on those tax cuts and the huge surplus of money sitting in Raleigh today, he said. For me, that tax cut might mean I will receive an extra $50. But those same tax cuts calculate to thousands and in some cases millions of extra dollars for millionaires, billionaires and huge corporations. The surplus comes from monies received from the American Rescue Plan, defunding mental health and underfunding education just to name a few. They have more money in Raleigh than they know what to do with.

Republicans boast their way of doing business has led to this huge surplus but at what price? North Carolina has one of the most restrictive and harshest unemployment systems in the nation, money from the American Rescue Plan was available with not a single Republican vote in Congress, people with mental health issues have been sent home to their families effectively exploding our homeless population across the state and let us not forget operating an educational system with the least amount of resources. Our only solution is to vote these people out of office and replace them with people of compassion and true love for our people and country.

A native of Marion, Martin, 72, graduated from high school and attended Winston-Salem State University, where he received his Bachelors Degree. He has a Masters Degree in secondary school counseling from Western Carolina University and worked for 31 years as a guidance counselor in the public school. He is currently elected as a Marion City Council member and has been for the past 26 years, of which he served as mayor pro tem for four years. He is a very active member of the McDowell County community and he has donated his time to various organizations including McDowell Technical Community College, the West Marion Community Forum, Addies Chapel United Methodist Church and the Democratic Party, according to the news release.

Billy is a loving, caring person, said his wife Connie. He gives freely of his time and means to help others. He trusts God and believes that everyone should be treated fairly and given a chance to succeed and thrive. Hes a wonderful husband, father, grandfather, friend and citizen. He loves our mountains and wants what is best for everyone. He will make an excellent N.C. senator.

District 46 is a new one that resulted from the recent redistricting efforts. The North Carolina General Assembly is required to redraw these districts following each decennial census due to population changes and the need to maintain equal representation. N.C. Senate District 46 includes all of Burke County, McDowell County and the eastern half of Buncombe County, according to the news release.

Martin said he is motivated by comments from Robert Reich of the Bill Clinton administration: The moral crisis of our age has nothing to do with gay marriage or abortion; its about insider trading, obscene CEO pay, wage theft from ordinary workers, Wall Streets continued gambling addiction, corporate payoffs to friendly politicians and the billionaire takeover of democracy.

Martin pledged to make himself available to respond to any of your concerns, suggestions or questions. My intentions are true and righteous, he said. This is a spiritual journey for me. Im simply a man who aspires to lift people up rather than hold them down.

For more information, visit www.BillyMartin4NC.com.
Moroccos breakthroughs in the promotion of womens rights have been hailed by two pundits of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) who have congratulated Morocco for the advances made in this respect and commended King Mohammed VI for his determined actions seeking to improve womens rights and status within society.

The experts made their comments while taking part in Geneva in an event organized by civil society on the sidelines of the 50th session of the UN Human Rights Council and the examination of the Moroccan dossier by the CEDAW.

They hailed the Kingdom for all the advances made in matters of womens rights improvement, highlighting in particular the setting up of a legal age of marriage to struggle against the marriage of minor girls and the assertion of the principle of equality between men and women in family relations, as enshrined in the Family Code.

They also underscored the fact that the Moroccan Constitution of 2011 prohibits all forms of discrimination, a provision that is reiterated in several legislative texts.

The experts exchanged views with members of the Moroccan delegation that were taking part in the event.

In this connection, Abdelwahab Gain, President of the African Human Rights Watch, and Professor Shaibatah Mrrabih Rabou, President of the Sahara Center for Studies and Research on Development and Human Rights explained to their interlocutors how Morocco complies with its obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women to which it adhered in June 1993.

They also surveyed the measures taken by the Government to ensure guarantees of womens rights before the judicial system, womens political participation, economic empowerment and the right to employment, health care and social security.

The two activists, who contribute to civil societys efforts to strengthen advocacy with UN institutions for the Kingdoms territorial integrity issue, recalled that they got in touch in Geneva with several experts from North Africa and the Middle East, including from the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, to discuss ways of upgrading cooperation on issues of concern to North Africa and the Middle East.
Arab-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry signed Thursday a five-year agreement with Egypt to open a regional office in Cairo, the Egypt government said in a statement, Arab Finance reports.

The deal according to the statement contributes to the creation of a direct communication between businessmen and the Egyptian and German business communities.

Minister of Trade and Industry Nevine Gamea signed the agreement with Secretary-General of the Arab-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry Abdulaziz Al-Mikhlafi.

The main purpose of the opening of the new office is the representation of the Arab-German chamber in the commercial promotion and economic cooperation between Egypt and Germany, Gamea said.

The new commerce chamber, the minister also noted, will undertake a set of activities to achieve its objectives including communications with counterpart Egyptian institutions and authorities and businessmen to establish commercial and investment communication channels between both countries.
Qatars Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani is set to visit Cairo on Friday, his first visit in the most populated Arab country since 2017 the year Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut off ties with the tiny Gulf country.

The ruler will meet up with President Abdelfattah al-Sisi. This would be the second highest level of contact between the two countries since both leaders met during a summit in Iraq last year.

Sheikh Tamim last visited Egypt in 2015, two before Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Bahrain severed ties with gas-rich Gulf country on charges that Doha sponsored terrorism.

The Saudi-led group dropped the charges, against Qatar, in January last year at a reconciliation conference. The Visit comes a few days after Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman also visited Egypt and announced $7.7 billion in investment deals between Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

It also comes on the heels of Qatar Economic Forum. Egypts Minister of Trade Nevine Gamea who took part in the summit said Qatar is willing to increase investments in several areas including energy.

Egypt in March announced that Qatar had pledged to invest $5 billion into the countrys economy.
Togos decision to join the Commonwealth will help it develop closer ties with English-speaking countries, opening up new horizons outside Frances sphere of influence in West Africa, the Togolese Foreign minister said.

Togos application for membership is expected to be approved by leaders of the Commonwealth, a community of 54 nations made up mainly of former British colonies, meeting at a summit in Rwanda on Friday and Saturday, as is that of Gabon, also a former French colony.

Togos motivation is to expand its diplomatic, political and economic network and forge closer ties with the English-speaking world, Togos Foreign Minister Robert Dussey told Reuters.

He said he expected Commonwealth membership to offer new export markets, funding for development projects and opportunities for Togolese citizens to learn English and access new educational and cultural resources.

Togo is located on the West African coast, with a population of about eight million and an economy largely dependent on agriculture and phosphate mining.

Ruled for 38 years by Gnassingbe Eyadema and now by his son, Faure Gnassingbe, the country has long had close ties with Paris, but is now seeking to be less dependent on France.

The French Foreign Ministry has said that Togos and Gabons moves to join the Commonwealth were sovereign decisions of those countries and that it would not be appropriate to comment on them.
Vital Kamerhe, the former chief of staff of President Felix Tshisekedi who was sentenced in 2020 to 20 years hard labour for embezzling nearly $60 million as part of the Head of states emergency programme, was acquitted on appeal. The case had gone to the Supreme Court, which had dismissed the case. His co-accused, Lebanese businessman Sanoh Jammal, was also acquitted. The Court of Appeal of Kinshasa-Gombe justified its judgment by the lack of evidence.

In both the first and second instance, the prosecutor and the civil parties had supported the offences of embezzlement and corruption with a series of isolated acts. Both sides also relied on the enrichment of certain members of the Kamerhe family.

The appeal judges now say that there is no material evidence to date and clear the presidents former right-hand man of all charges. The ruling was delivered in an atypical manner. After two postponements, there was no formal hearing. It was communicated to Vital Kamerhes lawyers.

The verdict did not come as a surprise in political circles, where the situation has been easing since the end of 2021.

The judges of the Court of Cassation had initially granted provisional freedom to Vital Kamerhe, motivating their decision by the very critical medical picture of the concerned. In April, the same court had overturned the confirmation of the conviction by the Court of Appeal of Kinshasa  Gombe. The Court of Cassation had found that the appeal judge had violated the rights of the defence while the case was not in a state to be tried.

The case was sent back to new judges who have just annulled the previous judgment in all its provisions.

For Mr. Hugues Pulusi, Vital Kamerhes lawyer, justice has repaired its injustice and the truth has triumphed over the lies.

It remains to be seen whether the prosecutor will not attempt a new appeal, but this acquittal allows Vital Kamerhe to return to the political arena on the eve of the elections.

Jubilant scenes erupted in Bukavu, South Kivu province, following the announcement of Vital Kamerhes acquittal.
Africas first messenger RNA vaccine factory was inaugurated in Rwanda on Thursday, with the aim of producing treatments for Covid-19 and other diseases for millions of the continents inhabitants by early 2024.

The factory installed by the German pharmaceutical laboratory BioNTech in the Rwandan capital Kigali is the first of three planned on the African continent.

This inauguration is a historic step towards equity in vaccines, said Rwandan President Paul Kagame at a ceremony attended by the head of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, and other senior officials.

Africa is the worlds least vaccinated continent against Covid-19, with less than 20% of its 1.2 billion people having received two doses of vaccine. The pandemic has revealed Africas huge dependence on imported vaccines and its technological backwardness compared to Europe, China and the United States. The best way to tackle inequality is to put the tools in the hands of those who need them most, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

BioNTech said it planned to employ about 100 Rwandans once the plant was operational and train them to make several new vaccines using the latest mRNA technology. The idea is really that () vaccines for Africans should be produced on the African continent, stressed BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin.

He assured that the technology deployed in Rwanda  and later in factories in South Africa and Senegal  ensures that vaccines will be produced with the same quality as anywhere else. Why shouldnt Africans have access to the most modern and effective pharmaceutical products? There is no reason for this, he added.

Production will include vaccines for Covid, but also pioneering treatments currently in development for malaria, tuberculosis and HIV, diseases that are taking their toll on Africa. Human trials of a BioNTech malaria vaccine using mRNA technology are expected to begin in late 2022.
Model predictions for a 70-year-old person. a Predictions for a 70-year-old male based on the linear regression model for absolute lymphocyte count (ALC), hemoglobin count, CRP, and platelet count. b Observed ALC for the three slope groups. The colored line is a linear smoother. c The graphs show the cumulative incidence of time to first treatment or death from time of diagnosis for the three pre-diagnostic slope groups for a male with CLL-IPI 1. CRP C-reactive protein, CLL-IPI international prognostic index for chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Credit: Communications Medicine (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s43856-022-00117-4

Within five years, 25% of patients suffering from chronic Lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) will develop a serious infection or need early treatment for CL: 10% of these risk dying within a month.

In order to help these patients, doctors would like to be able to identify those at risk of developing infections immediately after they have been diagnosed with CLL.

A team of researchers from the University of Copenhagen and Rigshospitalet has made this their mission, and this has led to the development of an app.

Chief physician and Clinical Associate Professor Carsten Niemann, who is part of the team responsible for the new study, explains:

"It has improved our chances of identifying those patients, once diagnosed, who will require treatment and close follow-up. We have developed an app that allows doctors to enter previous and current blood test results and thus receive data on the individual patient's risk of a severe course of illness," says Carsen Niemann from the Department of Clinical Medicine at the University of Copenhagen and the Department of Haematology at Rigshospitalet, Denmark's leading hospital.

If a patient is considered to be in the risk group, they may benefit from starting treatment earlier. A new study seeks to determine whether this is indeed the case.

And even though the researchers still do not know whether patients would benefit from starting treatment earlier, the new knowledge will be able to ease pressure on the healthcare system and patients, Carsten Niemann explains:

"Instead of practicing the same frequency of monitoring and hospital follow-up for all patients, we are able to target efforts to those at high risk of a severe course of illness."

The app is currently in its pilot phase and still has not been approved as an official aid. Nevertheless, it can be used, even though it does not save the data entered.

"We are working on a new project which aims to make another version of the app interact with the medical records system. This requires a series of authorizations, which means that for the time being only the pilot version of the app is available," says Carsten Niemann.

Blood tests from 1.3 million Danes

As part of the study, the researchers analyzed a data set containing 112 million blood tests from 1.3 million Danes, 1,123 of whom suffer from CLL.

A main aim was to study the change over time in lymphocyte count, which is the concentration of a specific white blood cell in the blood.

"We knew that in the years leading up to diagnosis, CLL patients exhibited a high number of these white blood cells. But we did not know how or precisely when the number started to increase. It is these numbers, among others, that we have analyzed in order to predict who is at risk of developing CLL and who is at risk of suffering from an infection," explains first author of the study medical doctor Michael Asger Andersen from the Department of Clinical Pharmacology at Rigshospitalet.

Patients were also monitored via the Danish CLL register, which gave the researchers access to data on prognosis, treatment and course of illness as well as patients' unique mutations in the CLL cells.

"Another important parameter has been the connection between the development in white blood cell numbers and mutations in the genes responsible for the cells' transformation into cancer cells. This is referred to as patients' IGHV mutation status, and driver mutations," says Michael Asger Andersen.

"We were able to demonstrate that those patients experiencing rapid growth in white blood cellsthe lymphocyte countalso appear to harbor more mutations which help make the cancer cells more aggressive. And vice versa: Those experiencing a more modest increase in white blood cell numbers, harbor fewer mutations, but mutated IGHV status. That is, the growth pattern is closely connected to patients' IGHV mutation status and pattern of driver mutations."

The Danish health records offer a unique advantage

The researchers subsequently inserted these findings into the CLL-PLY app.

"A lot of studies have been unable to merge genetic data with routine blood test results; here the Danish health records provide us with a unique advantage," says co-author of the study Clinical Professor and chief physician Christen Lykkegaard Andersen from the Department of Public Health at the University of Copenhagen and the Department of Haematology at Rigshospitalet.

In particular, the researchers have benefited from the Copenhagen Primary Care Laboratory (CopLab) database, which constitutes general practitioners' laboratory data from around 2000 till 2016.

Parallel with this study, the researchers have been involved in a major European collaboration compiling information about mutations and clinical data from a lot of different patients.

"We are constantly seeking to expand the dataset in order to strengthen the association between routine blood test results and genetic data and thus improve results in the future," Christen Lykkegaard Andersen concludes.

The research was published in Communications Medicine.

Explore further Having cancer may increase the risk of developing diabetes

More information: Michael Asger Andersen et al, Pre-diagnostic trajectories of lymphocytosis predict time to treatment and death in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, Communications Medicine (2022). Michael Asger Andersen et al, Pre-diagnostic trajectories of lymphocytosis predict time to treatment and death in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s43856-022-00117-4 Get the app: clllab.shinyapps.io/cllprognosis/ Journal information: Communications Medicine
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

There is no internationally agreed standard treatment for children discharged from hospital with pneumonia. St George's researchers recently found that shorter courses of lower-dose antibiotics are just as effective as higher doses taken for longer, potentially making life easier for families as well as reducing the risk of antibiotic resistance.

Pneumonia is one of the most common serious lung infections in young children worldwide. If children don't need to be in hospital, they can be treated at home with an antibiotic called amoxicillin, given as a liquid syrup.

Even though it's prescribed so often, not much is known about the best way to use amoxicillin: how long it should be used for, for example, or its lowest effective dose.

The CAP-IT trial studied 814 children who had developed pneumonia in the community, had been admitted to hospital and then discharged within 48 hours or had been seen in the emergency department.

The researchers assigned the children randomly into four groups, all of which took the antibiotics twice a day. One group received a high dose of amoxicillin for seven days, another a low dose for seven days, and a third a high dose for three days. The fourth group received a low dose for three days.

This meant the researchers were able to study different doses and different treatment lengths simultaneously.

The researchers looked at the number of children who needed extra treatment within 28 days. They found no differences between any of the groups: in all groups, around 1 in 8 children needed more treatment.

This means that a short course at a lower dose appears just as good as a longer, higher dose.

Children receiving antibiotics at home will do just as well on a three-day course of treatment as seven days. They could also take antibiotics just twice a day instead of the U.K. standard of three times.

This should mean that administering the treatment is easier for caregivers, that children are more likely to complete the course, and that they can return more quickly to normal life.

Bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics, making infections more difficult to treat. The development of resistance is slowed by using antibiotics carefully, at the lowest dose for the shortest period that still treats an infection effectively.

The researchers collected nose and throat samples from around half of the children and found that there was no difference in the levels of antibiotic resistance in their pneumococcal bacteria, either before or after treatment.

The researchers point out that they only tested pneumococci bacteria in the nose and throat. They don't know whether resistant bacteria may have been present elsewhere in the body, or if other types of bacteria may have developed resistance.

The researchers hope that the study will lead to changes in prescribing guidelines. They are also doing lab studies to check how the amoxicillin affects the development of resistance in other bacteria.

They are also part of a large clinical trial in South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe which is assessing the best treatment for young children discharged from hospital who've been treated with injectable antibiotics.

"Our research suggests we should consider changing how we manage young children with a clinical diagnosis of community-acquired pneumonia," says Dr. Julia Bielicki, a pediatrician and researcher at the Center for Neonatal and Pediatric Infection at St George's.

"Our results support a treatment course of just six lower doses, making the full course of antibiotics easier to take at home and less likely to lead to the development of antibiotic resistance."

Explore further Study: Children with pneumonia leaving hospital can have antibiotic treatment reduced to three days
An image from the comic Compassion by Kayleigh Fine, which was commissioned to illustrate the importance of compassionate care for 2SLGBTQ+ people. Credit: Kayleigh Fine, Author provided

Compassion is more than being nice and can be viewed in many different ways. Philosophers, religious leaders and scientists from different parts of the world have all discussed the meanings of compassion within their own contexts. It can be described as a distinct emotion, a virtue or a way of life that recognizes the pain and suffering of others. Compassion can be a means to self-healing and feeling our common humanity.

But compassion is also action: a "form of engagement with the world." Compassion has the potential to positively transform social systems or the potential to reinforce current beliefs that can separate people.

Some have even critiqued the concept of compassion, particularly from a Western perspective, as an emotion that is focused on oneself and leads to the comparisons of the self with others.

Within Western health-care systems, there is growing recognition that compassion is an essential component for positive health and well-being. There have been calls for compassion to be a greater part of the care processes of health professions and the training of health professionals.

Researchers have shown that as little as 40 seconds of compassion have made positive differences in patients' experiences and health. In those 40 seconds, compassion can be expressed by acknowledging patient concerns, showing support, acting as a partner and validating emotions.

Compassion and health care for 2SLGBTQ+ people

Accessing and receiving compassionate health care, however, is often not possible for many groups, including Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and other sexual identities, such as pansexual or asexual (2SLGBTQ+) individuals.

Excerpt from the comic Remember by David Winters showing the hate and stigma people living with HIV and AIDS often face. Credit: David Winters, Author provided

Heteronormativitythe assumption that all people are straightand cis-normativitythe assumption that all people are distinctly either a man or a womancreate many health disparities for 2SLGBTQ+ people. They also create barriers to accessing safe and inclusive care.

Heteronormativity and cis-normativity can lead to fear, ignorance, prejudice and acts of violence towards 2SLGBTQ+ in Canada. Research has shown that education on these topics during training for health-care professionals is beneficial, but physicians have reported a lack of advanced knowledge on 2SLGBTQ+ issues. There is a growing recognition for the need of more 2SLGBTQ+ health training and more funding for 2SLGBTQ+ health research.

Transformative compassion study

The aim of our forthcoming research, to be published in the journal Qualitative Health Research, was to explore the meanings of compassion for 2SLGBTQ+ individuals.

In our studycarried out at Mount Saint Vincent Universitywe talked with 20 self-identifying 2SLGBTQ+ people from across Canada. In online interviews, we asked them to share experiences of compassion (or non-compassion) and to tell us about their beliefs and values about compassion. Many of the things our participants shared were about compassion and health.

In our findings, we explored the meanings and expectations of compassion in health care for our participants. As one them said: "Good health care has to have compassion at the core." Several of our participants noted that comfort, safety, inclusive language and awareness and understanding of the shared trauma that many 2SLGBTQ+ individuals suffer are essential components for health care to be compassionate.

Excerpt from the comic Remember by David Winters showing the compassion given by a nurse. Credit: David Winters, Author provided

Compassionate health care is not guaranteed

Another participant believed that when "you're accessing the health-care system you would expect compassion from the health-care system. I know a lot of people, queer or not, don't have that experience. Compassion isn't guaranteed in health care, but when it's found it's celebrated."

For example, this participant described their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in which their doctor showed compassion to them by including their partner:

"COVID brought out this huge experience of shared humanity among all kinds of different people a lot of compassion showed through in those first early months, where we're all in this together."

Compassionate comics

We wanted to share the beliefs and experiences expressed in the study as a means to start conversations about compassion, and to work towards creating awareness about the power of compassion to positively transform the lives, health and well-being. We have previously used comics as a means to share our research, and chose to do so again.

Excerpt from the comic Remember by David Winters. Credit: David Winters

To create our compassionate comics, we enlisted the talents of 12 2SLGBTQ+ artists from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Greece. We asked each of them to illustrate stories told by our participants.

For example, a few participants used the HIV/AIDS crisis as an historic example of both the non-compassion in the health-care system and the power of compassion to change systems.

As one participant related: "When I was in my 20s, the AIDS crisis was at its peak, and although in the long run I think that inspired compassion among the general public, at the time there was a lot of negativity. A lot of blaming of people, blaming of behaviors. A lot of religious nastiness. So, over time that has changed and I think media had a lot to do with it. And the organization of the queer community during the AIDS crisisand I think more visibilityhumanized people to the general public in a way that hadn't happened before."

This story is reflected in a comic titled "Remember" by Canadian artist David Winters. In the 10-page story, a nurse walks through a crowd of anti-gay protesters outside her hospital to go to work. She shows compassion to a dying man by listening and showing understanding to him when others did not.

Our study results are reflective of only a few voices from the 2SLGBTQ+ umbrella, so we cannot make overarching generalizations. However, we can suggest that compassion was seen as a central and critical component for good care.

We suggest that in order to truly transform health care, we must examine and challenge assumptions of sexuality and gender in health-care practices and systems. Doing this will help all people feel comfort, safety and understandingin other words, compassion.

Explore further Nurses' experience of compassion impacts delivery of care

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Credit: Yoav Aziz/Unsplash

Much research has been done on the effectiveness of masks to mitigate the spread of infectious diseases. However, standard infection models tend to focus only on disease states, overlooking the dynamics of a complex paradox: While masking reduces transmission rates and consequently disease prevalence, the reduction of disease inhibits mask-wearingthereby promoting epidemic revival.

To investigate this bidirectional relationship, a team of researchers led by the University of Virginia, developed a multi-contagion framework and intertwined a threshold model for mask-wearing behavior, or "social contagions," with an epidemic model. The threshold model accounts for various behavioral mechanisms that influence mask-wearing, such as peer pressure, fear of infection, elite influence, and prosociality.

In their paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers posit that the final epidemic size (or attack rate) of a disease exhibits a critical transition when populations assume the disease spreading is more infectious, triggering a sustained massive response of mask adoption which sharply decreases the final epidemic size.

The conundrum is that when disease rates are low, mask-wearing becomes an afterthought, and a less infectious disease could cause a higher attack rate than its more infectious counterparts.

Results highlight that without proper enforcement of masking, reduction in the disease transmission probability via other interventionssuch as mass vaccinationmay not be sufficient to reduce the final epidemic size. This was the case in a resurgence of COVID-19 cases in the United States after vaccinations when the number of new daily cases jumped by approximately an order of magnitude from early June 2021 to early September 2021.

"Interdisciplinary models are absolutely critical for helping refine our assumptions," says SFI Fellow Stefani Crabtree (Utah State University), who contributed to the research. "The findings have helped me to not bow to peer pressure. I'm still masking at grocery stores and in crowded areas because, even though I am vaccinated, I know it will help."

In their study, the researchers described mask-wearing as a "complex contagion" whose adoption requires multiple interactions and sources of reinforcement to produce the "contagion" and help model behavioral adoption (switching from masked to unmasked and vice versa). This is opposite to disease transmission for which a single contagion would be enough to transmit the disease.

While mandatory masking may be viewed as cumbersome and expensive, mathematical models incorporating individual adaptive human behavior during epidemics have shown the essential role of continuous reinforcement of masking in minimizing epidemics.

"An even larger issue to tackle is how polarized our society is," says SFI External Professor Simon Levin (Princeton University), a co-author on the paper. "I have never in my lifetime seen individuals so divided over something I consider commonsense public health measures."

Explore further Is there still a benefit to masking?

More information: Zirou Qiu et al, Understanding the coevolution of mask wearing and epidemics: A network perspective, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2022). Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Zirou Qiu et al, Understanding the coevolution of mask wearing and epidemics: A network perspective,(2022). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2123355119
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Heat can be deadly.

As summer temperatures climband as climate change contributes to more 100-degree days each yearheat illnesses become a more serious risk, particularly for young children, older adults, outdoor workers, athletes and people with chronic conditions.

"On any day with extreme heat, emergency rooms in Los Angeles see an additional 1,500 patients," said Dr. David Eisenman, a professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and co-leader of a research project to address extreme heat in Los Angeles.

"We estimate that an additional 16 people die on a single day of heat in Los Angeles County," Eisenman said. "There are an extra 40 deaths a day by the fifth day of heat."

These heat illnesses disproportionately affect Black and Latino members of the community living in historically redlined neighborhoods, he said, where housing units have less insulation, often lack air-conditioning and there are fewer trees to provide shade.

"Part of the lack of investment was the lack of trees and shade," Eisenman said. "These are communities that are several degrees hotter all the time. And on an extreme heat day, they can be 10 or 20 degrees hotter."

Los Angeles recently named its first chief heat officer, Marta Segura, to oversee the city's systemic and acute response to extreme heat events.

Eisenman said heat is the type of hazard that requires "multiple sectors of government and society to mitigate it as well as help us adapt to it, because it's already here."

On the individual and community level, here's what to look out for and how to respond to heat illnesses like heat stroke and exhaustion.

Different kinds of heat illnesses

Heat illnesses and injuries range from simple heat rash and sunburn to more serious conditions such as heat exhaustion and heat stroke, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

All call for cooling down the affected individual and getting them out of the sun. Heat stroke, however, can be deadly, said Dr. Mark Morocco, professor of emergency medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and attending faculty at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center emergency department.

"That use of the term 'stroke' is because you should really think of it as a life-threatening heat illness," Morocco said. "Heat stroke is an emergency, a very big emergency, the way a regular brain stroke is. That's something where you need to immediately react and get your person to somebody who can help them. That means calling 911."

Heat stroke is when the body's core temperature exceeds 103 degrees. Such high temperatures "cook" the body at a cellular level, "so proteins stop working and basic body functions begin to break down," Morocco said.

Identifying symptoms of heat stroke

People experiencing heat stroke often begin acting strangely, like they are "drunk with heat," Morocco said. A person who is dangerously overheating may:

Seem confused or agitated

Have trouble walking or talking

Experience nausea or dizziness

An individual experiencing these symptoms needs immediate cooling and emergency medical attention. Call 911, and while waiting for help to arrive:

Get the person out of the heat, into shade or an air-conditioned space.

Loosen or remove tight or constricting clothing.

Begin cooling the person down however you can. Apply cold, damp towels to their body or spritz them with cold water. If possible, point a fan at dampened skin to create evaporative cooling.

"The thing to remember is we want to reduce the core body temperature as quickly as possible, back down to what sounds like a relatively normal temperature range, where people are used to taking care of fevers," Morocco said.

Heat stroke can affect anyone, whether or not they are exercising outdoors in the heat. While exercisers should take particular caution, even sitting in a hot apartment for several days can raise the body's core temperature to potentially dangerous levels.

Symptoms of heat exhaustion generally appear before heat stroke sets in.

Identifying symptoms of heat exhaustion

People experiencing heat exhaustion don't exhibit the behavior associated with heat stroke, Morocco said, but they are likely to:

Appear overheated

Sweat profusely

Have a quick pulse

Feel tired or weak

Experience muscle cramps, nausea or vomiting

Individuals experiencing these symptoms need to get out of the heat and into shade or an air-conditioned space, drink non-alcoholic fluids and rest.

People experiencing heat exhaustion will usually recognize they are overheating, Morocco said. However, those experiencing heat stroke may not, as the condition worsens with continued exposure to heat.

"People can be exposed to increasing levels of heat over a heat wave of a couple of days, or even a week, and slowly get worse and worse and worse," he said. "It begins with, "It's hot; I feel bad." And maybe they have other medical issues or challenges. And then, all of a sudden, they slip into this state where they're not able to really recognize quite what's going on with them."

Take action to prevent serious illness

It's critically important to check in on loved onesespecially older adults who live aloneduring heat waves.

It's wise to stay out of the sun during the hottest times of the day, if possible. If you exercise outdoors, aim for early morning or late evening. When spending a day at the beach or the park, seek out a shady spot. Remind children to rest periodically and drink water.

And when a heat stroke hits, look for cool places to be inside. If your home lacks air conditioning, consider heading to a mall, a movie or a cooling center. Los Angeles County maintains a list of cooling centers at Ready LA County.

"The most important thing for folks to realize is that in hot weather, you've got to check on people who are at risk," Morocco said. "That includes the elderly; it includes people who have lots of medical problems; it also includes infants and children."

Explore further Mayo Clinic minute: Heat exhaustion and heatstroke
Credit: London Medical Laboratory

A leading testing specialist says he has detected an 8% jump in cases of previously unidentified prostate cancer this year, mirroring research conducted by Prostate Cancer U.K.

The leading blood testing expert, Dr. Quinton Fivelman Ph.D., chief scientific officer at London Medical Laboratory, says: "In our testing we've seen a notable 8% jump this year in previously undetected cases, very possibly because people with mild symptoms may have put off visiting doctors during COVID. It's vital men present as early as possible when noticing any indications.

"It's also concerning that men don't realize that having a father or close relative with the disease significantly increases their chances of developing it. New research from the U.S. Prostate Cancer Foundation shows 58% of prostate cancer is driven by genetic factors. Men who have a close relative with prostate cancer may be twice as likely to develop the disease, while those with two or more relatives may be nearly four times as likely to be diagnosed. Crucially, the risk looks to be significantly higher if your father or close relative was diagnosed before the age of 60.

"Prostate cancer is now the most common cancer in the U.K. with 1 in 8 men developing it, but men are hiding their heads in the sand over the disease. The prostate produces a fluid that mixes with sperm to make semen. Particularly as men get older, issues with the prostate are common and can lead to cancer if undiagnosed.

"The most recent U.K. figures available reveal 57,192 new cases. For the first time, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in Britain, ahead of breast cancer (57,153) and lung cancer (48,054). In 2020, Prostate Cancer U.K. reported the number of men dying from prostate cancer in the U.K. had exceeded 12,000 in one year for the first time.

"Of most concern, 42% of men don't want to visit the doctor even when they observe the first signs, such as having to wee more frequently in the night, reduced flow or blood in their urine. They put off visiting until their symptoms worsen, even though the NHS says catching prostate cancer at stages 1 and 2 has a near 100% success rate, as opposed to around 50% at stage 4.

"One way to help slow the tide of increasing prostate cancer deaths is by making it easier for those men who are unwilling to visit their doctor to get tested for the disease. An at-home finger-prick prostate blood test can cut out the hassle and embarrassment of a GP visit and reassure men, or alert them to a possible problem. At home blood tests also mean men without symptoms can test themselves regularly if their father or close relatives developed the disease at a young age.

"The blood tests check the levels of prostate specific antigen (PSA). A high PSA can indicate problems with the prostate gland. Of course, a PSA test cannot be solely relied on to either confirm or exclude the presence of prostate cancer. However, it is a good indicator. If a PSA reading is high, then you will need further investigations with a urologist.

"PSA is found in two forms in the blood: bound PSA which is bound to proteins in the blood, and free PSA which isn't bound to proteins. Some studies have shown that if the free PSA makes up more than 25% of a man's total PSA, he is at lower risk of having prostate cancer. Equally, men with a lower percentage of free PSA may be at higher risk of having prostate cancer."

Explore further Mayo Clinic minute: Prostate biopsy technique reduces infection risk

Provided by London Medical Laboratory
After the US Supreme Court on Friday made the country the first to withdraw abortion rights, here is a snapshot of highly unequal access to terminations around the world.

While some countries have a total ban others permit terminations under certain conditions.

The US U-Turn: A first

The conservative-dominated US court overturned the landmark 1973 "Roe v Wade" decision that has enshrined a woman's right to a termination for half a century.

It said individual states can permit or restrict the procedure themselves.

Along with women in Canada, Europe and Oceania, the United States had typically benefited from the world's most liberal legislation on terminations.

However the abortion issue remains deeply divisive in the United States: laws severely restricting abortion have been passed already in 13 Republican-led US states, although they have until now been struck down for violating Roe v. Wade.

In neighbouring Canada, where in 1988 a top court ruling struck down restrictions on abortions, thousands of anti-abortion demonstrators held an annual rally in front of Canada's Parliament in May.

Illegal

Over the past 25 years, more than 50 countries have changed their laws to facilitate access to abortion, in some cases recognising its essential role in protecting a woman's life, her health and fundamental rights.

Abortion nevertheless remains illegal in some 20 countries, notably in Africa, where Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Guinea-Bissau, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Senegal all maintain a ban.

Terminations also remain illegal in Honduras, Nicaragua, Suriname, Haiti and the Dominican Republic as well as the Philippines, Laos and Palau.

In Europe, there remain outposts which continue to uphold a total ban, in Andorra, Malta and the Vatican State.

Elsewhere, El Salvador adopted in the 1990s draconian legislation which banned terminations in all circumstances even if the mother's life were deemed at risk.

Theoretically, abortions are punishable by up to eight years in prison but some judges see any termination as an "aggravated homicide" which can bring terms of 30-50 years in jail.

Severely restricted

Many countries allow abortion, but subject to severe restrictionsnotably if the mother's life is in danger.

Such countries include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Ivory Coast, Libya, Myanmar, Sudan, Iraq, Syria, Uganda, Venezuela and Yemen.

Access to abortion is very limited in Brazil, only in cases of rape or again, if the mother's life is under threat.

Chile in 2017 ended almost 30 years of a blanket ban and now allows interventions for rape, or if the life of the mother or baby is at risk.

Chilean lawmakers approved a proposal last September to decriminalise abortions up to 14 weeks after conception though the senate still has to debate and vote on the matter.

In traditionally staunchly Catholic Poland, the constitutional court in October 2020 sparked protests after ruling against abortion in cases where the foetus is malformed.

Abortion in Poland is only permitted in cases of rape, incest or if the mother's life is in danger.

Recently won right

In parts of Europe, the right has been acquired, or improved on only recently.

The European microstate of San Marino gave approval by referendum last September.

Argentina's parliament passed a law authorising abortion up to the 14th week in December 2020. Previously, it was only legal in the case of rape or a mother's life being under threat.

New Zealand only decriminalised in 2020. While most Australian federal states had legalised by 2018, New South Wales took a year longer.

South Korea ordered an end to a ban in 2019 judged unconstitutional and a softening of highly restrictive legislation.

In traditionally Catholic Ireland abortion became legal in 2018 after much debate and following a referendum which overturned a constitutional ban.

The following year saw liberalisation in Northern Ireland, which had been the sole part of the United Kingdom still holding out.

Britain had legalised with a 1967 act of parliamentthe Soviet Union having been first off the mark globally with legalisation in 1920.

Mexico's supreme court last September declared a ban as unconstitutional, paving the way for legalisation in the nation's 32 federal states.

Mexico's southern state of Guerrero on May 18 decriminalised abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, becoming the eighth region in the conservative Latin American country to do so.

Explore further Abortion rights around the world

 2022 AFP
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

A World Trade Organization deal on patents is not the intellectual property waiver that campaigners hoped to see.

A decision by the World Trade Organization (WTO) to waive certain intellectual property (IP) rules in order to widen access to COVID-19 vaccines has been met with disappointment by global health campaigners.

The much-debated Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver was first proposed by India and South Africa in October 2020 to allow COVID-19 vaccines to be manufactured in developing countries without infringing patents held by big pharmaceutical companies, mostly in the global North.

The deal allows governments and vaccine producers to forego the procedural requirement of issuing a compulsory license for the production and exportation of COVID-19 vaccines for a five-year period, but it does not waive any IP rights.

Only 16% of people in low-income countries have received a single vaccine dose, compared to 80% in high-income countries, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

However, health equity advocates say the so-called "compromise" deal reached at the WTO's 12th Ministerial Conference in Geneva on 17 June is insufficient to secure production of vaccines and other medicines in developing countries.

"We are disappointed with the limited and inadequate outcome after nearly two years of negotiations at WTO," said Yuan Qiong Hu, senior legal and policy advisor at Medicines San Frontiers (MSF).

"There are a number of shortfallsmost notably that it does not waive any IP rights to enable rapid global production scale-up and more independent supply of COVID-19 medical tools."

Compulsory licensing is used by governments to allow another party to produce a patented product or process without the consent of the patent owner, or to use the patent-protected technology itself. Patents give pharmaceutical companies exclusive rights to manufacture and market their drugs and prevent others from doing so for a period of 20 years.

WTO director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the declaration would make access to medical supplies "more predictable in this pandemicand in the next one."

"The TRIPS waiver compromise will contribute to ongoing efforts to deconcentrate and diversify vaccine manufacturing capacity, so that a crisis in one region does not leave others cut off," she told ministers at the close of round-the-clock negotiations in Switzerland.

But around 300 civil society and public health organizations put their names to a statement condemning the decision and calling on governments to circumvent or "outright defy" the WTO rules.

According to Yuan, the ruling limits the number and scope of flexibilities within the TRIPS agreement to certain countries and within a limited timeframe.

The adopted text also excludes essential medical technologies, such as ventilators and testing kits, limits the range of countries that can make use of the mechanism, and does not cover the full range of IP necessary to enable production and supply, MSF argues. The deal currently only applies to vaccine production and requires WTO members to decide on an extension covering treatments and therapeutics after six months.

"As a result, MSF believes these limitations set a negative precedent for addressing future global health challenges," said Yuan.

"Even the process to arrive at this outcome has been flawed, discriminatory, lacking in transparency and inclusivity. [Civil society organizations] have been criticized for raising legitimate concerns," she added.

Stand up to 'bullying'

Fatima Hassan, founder of the South Africa-based Health Justice Initiative, said it was hard to say whether the outcome was a "waiver" or just a "deal."

"It will now depend on each country to use what it can in this tiny deal," she said.

Countries in the global South still lack access to COVID-19 diagnostic tests and treatments, said Hassan, adding: "The best way forward is for every southern government to admit they got bullied, stand up to the big pharma and issue compulsory license now to address testing and treating gaps."

According to a senior WTO official, who asked not to be identified for bureaucratic reasons, there has been some confusion over what is meant by an IP waiver.

"This is not to get too technical, but the COVID-19 debate has seen multiple versions of this concept, and the real-world differences are incredibly important," he told SciDev.Net.

He said neither the WTO nor any other international organization could waive IP rights.

"Depending on what is meant by waiving, this is something that can only be done by national governments, and most likely national parliaments," he said.

"What was proposed in the WTO was a waiver of international treaty obligations that would open up a wider range of choices for national governments to waive, suspend or curb IP rightsa very different thing.

"Any government wanting to suspend the effect of IP rights would have to take action domestically, either by executive action or through the legislature."

Provided by SciDev.Net
Transmission electron micrograph of RSV. Credit: CDC/ Dr. Erskine Palmer / Public Domain

An oral antiviral drug that targets a key part of the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) polymerase and inhibits the synthesis of viral genetic material has been identified, a finding that could provide an effective treatment against RSV disease, according to researchers in the Center for Translational Antiviral Research at Georgia State University.

The findings, published in the journal Science Advances, identify AVG-388 as the lead drug candidate, which effectively blocks the activity of the viral RNA polymerase, an enzyme responsible for replication of the viral genome. RSV is a leading cause of lower respiratory infections in infants and immunocompromised individuals, but no efficient therapeutic exists. The virus caused an estimated 33.1 million cases worldwide in 2015 that required 3.2 million hospitalizations and resulted in 59,800 deaths.

Finding effective drugs to fight RSV has been challenging. Through mutations, RSV has escaped advanced candidate classes that prevent the virus from entering a cell. To overcome this issue, recent drug development efforts have focused on the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase complex of RSV because of the possible broader window of opportunity to fight the virus during viral genome replication and transcription.

"We have identified the AVG class of inhibitors of RSV RNA synthesis," said Dr. Richard K. Plemper, senior author of the study, Distinguished University Professor and director of the Center for Translational Antiviral Research in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State. "Through chemical optimization, we have developed the clinical candidate AVG-388, which is orally efficacious against RSV in animal models of infection."

In addition, the researchers demonstrated potent antiviral activity in human airway epithelium organoid cultures.

"In this study, we have mapped an exciting druggable target in the RSV RNA-dependent RNA-polymerase and established the clinical potential of the AVG inhibitor class against RSV disease," said Dr. Julien Sourimant, first author of the study and a postdoctoral fellow in the Center for Translational Antiviral Research in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State.

The research team investigated the effect of treatment on viral replication at different oral doses intended to prevent or cure disease. They demonstrated that treatment reduced virus load by several orders of magnitude in the different disease models.

"Our results lay the foundation for formal development of the AVG class and the structure-guided identification of companion drugs with overlapping target sites but distinct resistance profiles," Plemper said.

Co-authors of the study include Julien Sourimant (first author), Carolin M. Lieber, Jeong-Joong Yoon, Mart Toots and Richard K. Plemper of the Center for Translational Antiviral Research in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State; Mugunthan Govindarajan, Venkata Udumula and Michael G. Natchus of Emory Institute for Drug Development at Emory University; Kaori Sakamoto of the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Georgia; Joseph Patti of Aviragen Therapeutics Inc. (now at JP Biotech Advisors Inc.); and John Vernachio of Aviragen Therapeutics Inc.

More information: Julien Sourimant et al, Orally efficacious lead of the AVG inhibitor series targeting a dynamic interface in the respiratory syncytial virus polymerase, Science Advances (2022). www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abo2236 Journal information: Science Advances Julien Sourimant et al, Orally efficacious lead of the AVG inhibitor series targeting a dynamic interface in the respiratory syncytial virus polymerase,(2022). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abo2236
Credit: Olimpik/Shutterstock

Even seemingly simple movements are very complex to perform, and the way we learn how to perform new movements remains unclear. Researchers from Japan have recently proposed a new model of motor learning that combines a number of different theories. A study published this month in Neural Networks revealed that their model can simulate motor learning in humans surprisingly well, paving the way for a greater understanding of how our brains work.

For even a relatively simple task, such as to reach out and pick up an object, there are a huge number of potential combinations of angles between your body and the different joints that are involved. The same goes for each of your musclesthere is an almost endless combination of muscles and forces that can be used together to perform an action. With all of these possible combinations of joints and musclesnot to mention the underlying neuronal activityhow do we ever learn to make any movements at all? Researchers at the University of Tsukuba aimed to address this question.

The research team first created a mathematical model to imitate the learning process that occurs for new motor tasks. They designed the model to reflect many of the processes that are thought to occur in the brain when a new skill is learned. The researchers then tested their model by attempting to simulate the results of three recent studies that were conducted in humans, in which individuals were asked to perform completely new motor tasks.

"We were surprised at how well our simulations managed to reproduce many of the results of previous studies in humans," says Professor Jun Izawa, senior author of the study. "With our model, we were able to bridge the gap between a number of different proposed mechanisms of motor learning, such as motor exploration, redundancy solving, and error-based learning."

In their model, larger amounts of motor explorationthat is, variability in movementswere found to help with the learning of sensitivity derivatives, which measure how commands from the brain affect motor error. In this way, errors were transformed into motor corrections.

"Our success at simulating real results from human studies was encouraging," explains first author Lucas Rebelo Dal'Bello. "It suggests that our proposed learning mechanism might accurately reflect what occurs in the brain during motor learning."

The findings of this study, which indicate the importance of motor exploration in motor learning, provide insights into how motor learning might occur in the human brain. They also suggest that motor exploration should be encouraged when a new motor task is being learned; this may be helpful for motor rehabilitation after injury or disease.

Explore further Researchers exploit the body's innate drive for safety to improve motor memory

More information: Lucas Rebelo Dal'Bello et al, Computational role of exploration noise in error-based de novo motor learning, Neural Networks (2022). Lucas Rebelo Dal'Bello et al, Computational role of exploration noise in error-based de novo motor learning,(2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.neunet.2022.06.011
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We're now pretty used to swabbing our nose to test for COVID when we have a scratchy throat or new cough. But should we also be using our rapid antigen test (RAT) to swab our throat, as some social media sources suggest?

As people with an omicron infection often get a sore throat early on, they reason that omicron is found first in the throat. So swabbing the throat and nose together, some social media sources say, is more likely to accurately detect an infection.

A sore throat is more common with omicron than delta. However this doesn't mean you should use your nasal RAT to swab your throat for omicron. It's best to follow the instructions on the packet.

Remind me, what are the different types of RATs?

There are several different ways to test for COVID using a RAT.

Oral samples can include saliva (spit into a tube), saliva from a tongue or cheek swab, or a throat swab (tonsil area).

Nasal samples can be collected from the front (anterior), middle or back (nasopharyngeal) of the nose.

There are also many different brands of RAT. Their ability to detect a positive case varies depending on the brand, the variant, whether the person has symptoms, and their viral load at the time of the test.

What do studies say about RATs for the nose vs throat?

It's complicated. The time lag between researchers conducting a study and its publication means studies that compare sampling methods were largely conducted before omicron, or before the widespread use of RATs.

A systematic review of 23 pre-omicron studies found nasal and throat samples tested together were more sensitive (meaning they accurately detected a positive case) than nasal samples alone: 97% vs 86%.

However, these were swabs taken independently (with two separate swabsone for the nose and one for the throat) and then combined at the point of testing the sample, rather than taking a combined nasal/throat swab (where the nose is swabbed then the throat is swabbed with the same swab, or vice versa). They also used PCRs rather than RATs.

A study conducted during the omicron wave tested 49 people with PCR-confirmed COVID who had both nasal and throat swabs. It found 86% of positive cases were picked up by nasal swabs on a RAT compared with 47% detected by throat swabs, and 89% by both methods.

This suggests omicron is not more easily detected in the throat. Adding a throat swab did not pick up many extra cases (3%).

However, a preprint study, which is yet to be peer-reviewed (checked by independent scientists), reports conflicting results.

In this study, individual nasal and throat swabs both detected 64.5% of infections. But some nasal samples tested positive when the throat swab was negative and vice versa. Doing both tests individually picked up around 89% of positive cases.

When individual nasal swabs were compared to a combined nasal/throat swab, the nasal swabs picked up around 68% of the cases, while the combined swab picked up around 82%.

In summary, of the two recent studies that include an omicron sample, the published study found that nasal swabs were much more effective than throat swabs at detecting COVID. And if the results of both tests were combined, only 3% of extra cases would be detected.

The preprint (unpublished) study reports conflicting results, suggesting a combined nasal/throat swab would pick up an extra 14% of cases.

Does omicron appear first or at higher levels in the throat?

A survey found those with omicron were 9% more likely to report a sore throat than those with delta, whereas the latter were more likely to report a runny nose and sneezing.

However, when comparing saliva from a throat swab to a deep nasal swab in a study of 624 people, researchers found more virus (known as viral load) in the deep nasal swabs than in saliva tests. A test is more likely to detect a positive case when the viral load is higher.

The researchers found more virus in the nasal swab regardless of the day the specimen was collected, which suggests the virus doesn't appear earlier in the throat.

Detection of COVID in saliva from the throat was 4% less likely in omicron compared to delta cases, which suggests omicron doesn't increase the viral load of saliva in the throat either.

However, it's important to note, the nasal swabs we take at home are unlikely to go as deep as those in this study, which could affect the results.

Other things to consider

The type of swab also differs, depending on whether it is designed for a nasal or oral test, and may not always be appropriate to sample a different area, because of differences in swab shape and flexibility.

The pH (a measure of acidity) also differs in the throat and the nose, and altered pH can affect COVID test function, and therefore could potentially affect the result.

So what should you do?

The website of Australia's regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, recommends performing either a nasal or oral test, as the instructions direct.

Likewise, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends RAT instructions are followed to the letter.

While the U.K.'s National Health Service (Britain) website refers to swabbing both the throat and nose, this is using a RAT kit that is made to do both.

As there is currently no clear evidence that omicron appears in the throat earlier or at higher levels, and RATs are designed and tested for the specific area being sampled, it makes sense to continue to follow the test instructions.

If you wish to swab both areas, it's best to use two separate tests designed for those areas.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Published today in PLOS ONE, "Serial T-SPOT.TB responses in Tanzanian adolescents: transient, persistent and irregular conversions," investigators from the Geisel School of Medicine and Muhimibili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) report high rates of new tuberculosis (TB) infection among adolescents in Tanzania. Multiple blood tests for TB infection were conducted over three years in 650 schoolchildren age 13-15 and showed that the risk of acquiring new TB infection was 3 percent per year. In addition, by performing six or more blood tests on each volunteer with an interferon gamma release assay (IGRAs) the study team identified new patterns of transition between positive and negative IGRA tests for TB infection.

The data were obtained during the DAR-901 TB vaccine trial supported by the Global Health Innovative Technology Fund (GHIT, Tokyo), with additional support from Oxford Immunotec (Oxford, UK), and the Jack and Dorothy Byrne Foundation (New Hampshire).

"Although not all TB infections lead to TB disease, at a population level this annual rate of infection is expected to lead to significant future rates of morbidity and mortality," says lead author Maryam Amour, MD, MPH '15, a lecturer in the Department of Community Health at MUHAS. "This highlights the importance of developing TB control measures for this high-risk age group."

Christiaan Rees MED '20, Guarini '18, co-lead author and an internal medicine resident at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, MA, who analyzed the trial data during his Geisel elective in Tanzania, says of the study, "One of our novel findings was that conversion of IGRA results to positive was usually not sustainedin fact, some participants converted to negative and then back to positive again. This raises the possibility that we may have been seeing TB infections that were cleared."

The findings demonstrate the feasibility of using the T-SPOT.TB (Oxford Immunotec, UK) IGRA test for serial testing of adolescents in a school setting.

Principal Investigator for the DAR-901 vaccine trial, Ford von Reyn, Ph.D., a professor of medicine and director of the DarDar International Programs at Geisel, indicates the results suggest a new possible approach to TB case finding. "Early TB infection is not associated with symptoms and is not usually detected until a skin test or IGRA blood test is performed years later," he says. "If you can test schoolchildren in a TB endemic region every 3-6 months and identify newly acquired infection, you have an opportunity to find and treat the person with symptomatic TB disease who infected the adolescent and thereby reduce further transmission."

Explore further Successful TB vaccine moves forward after phase 2 trial

More information: Serial T-SPOT.TB responses in Tanzanian adolescents: transient, persistent and irregular conversions, PLoS ONE (2022). Journal information: PLoS ONE Serial T-SPOT.TB responses in Tanzanian adolescents: transient, persistent and irregular conversions,(2022).
The researchers note that as of Jan. 1, 2022, more than 18 million Americans (8.3 million males and 9.7 million females) with a history of cancer were alive. The three most prevalent cancers for men were prostate, melanoma of the skin, and colon and rectum, while for women, the most prevalent cancers were breast, uterine corpus, and thyroid. Fifty-three percent of survivors were diagnosed within the past 10 years; 67 percent were aged 65 years or older. Racial disparities in treatment included proctectomy or proctocolectomy for stage 1 rectal cancer (received by 41 and 66 percent of Black and White patients, respectively) and surgical receipt for non-small cell lung cancer (49 percent for stages I to II and 16 percent for stage III versus 55 percent for stages I to II and 22 percent for stage III for Black and White patients, respectively). For most cancers, Black patients were less likely to be diagnosed with stage I disease, with large disparities seen for female breast (53 versus 68 percent) and endometrial (59 versus 73 percent) cancers.
FRIDAY, June 24, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling on Friday that overturns the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing a woman's right to abortion. The decision sets the stage for a swift rollback of abortion rights in more than half of the United States.

"The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion... and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives," the high court said in its opinion on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.

In that case, Mississippi's sole abortion provider, Jackson Women's Health Organization, sued the state in 2020 after lawmakers banned abortions past 15 weeks, with no exceptions for rape and incest. Thomas Dobbs has been the state's chief health officer since 2018.

"This is just a huge setback in the strides we've made for reproductive rights within this country," Joanne Stone, M.D., chair of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive science at Mount Sinai Health System in New York City, told HealthDay. "It's been devastating to me to think about how this is going to impact women throughout the country."

More than one-quarter of all U.S. abortion clinics are expected to face eventual closure, as 202 facilities come under state-adopted abortion restrictions following the ruling, according to a report from the University of California, San Francisco Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health center. The decision will "particularly decimat[e] abortion access for pregnant people living in the South and Midwest, where most of these closures would occur," the report said.

There are 26 states certain or likely to move quickly to ban or severely restrict abortion access following the court's decision, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health think tank. These include 13 states with so-called "trigger laws" in place that will ban or severely restrict abortion rights immediately or through quick state action.

States with trigger laws are Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. Meanwhile, nine states still have pre-Roe abortion bans on their books that will now become active, and another 11 have bans on early gestational age abortions that until now had been blocked, Guttmacher said.

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Originally published on consumer.healthday.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange.
Hospitalizations for COVID-19 are ticking up in Missoula County again, concerning health officials amid a shortage of health care workers.

Officials on Friday urged those who test positive to seek therapeutic medicine.

Eleven county residents and three non-residents are currently hospitalized, according to Missoula City-County Health Department data. There are just under 400 active COVID cases county-wide, similar to numbers seen in February.

Cases have slowly increased for the past several weeks.

We have a perfect storm of highly infectious sub-variants, little to no COVID precautions being taken, and waning immunity among individuals who were among the first to be vaccinated and boosted, said Missoula City-County Health Officer DShane Barnett in a press release.

Missoula County is the highest-vaccinated county in Montana. Roughly 73% of the population has at least one dose. Barnett said vaccination is the best way to prevent catching the virus, and encouraged booster shots as well if eligible. Roughly 30% of county residents have not gotten a booster shot and 8% have yet to get their second shot for the original dose.

COVID-19 vaccines have recently been approved for those 6 months to 5 years old, roughly 3% of the countys population.

The health department is also recommending therapeutic drugs for those who have already tested positive for the virus. That means residents should get tested with any COVID-like symptoms as soon as possible because the medication must be taken within five days of feeling sick.

Do not brush those symptoms off as a cold. Its better to know right away and seek treatment, Barnett said, Weve been hearing reports of folks feeling fine during their first few days of COVID, then taking a turn for the worse after they have passed the eligibility window for therapeutics. Therapeutics are one of the strongest tools we have to prevent hospitalizations. Residents should be seeking them out if they test positive.

Paxlovid and Molnupiravir are the first two oral treatments approved by the U.S Food and Drug Association to limit the spread of COVID-19. The health department has a tool on its website to assist finding a provider. The drugs are also found in several Missoula pharmacies.

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The University of Montana will hold an on-campus listening session on Thursday, July 7 to gather public comment on the proposal of renaming the Liberal Arts Building. The proposed name would be the Dennis and Gretchen Eck Liberal Arts Building.

The session will be held in the President's Room of Brantly Hall from 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

The proposed name, the Dennis and Gretchen Eck Liberal Arts Building, is fitting, given the generous support Dennis and Gretchen have provided to the college over the past several years," explained Julie Baldwin, UM's College of Humanities and Sciences interim dean.

The Ecks are both native Montanans and alumni of UM. Their gifts exceed $11 million and have funded renovation of the major portion of the Liberal Arts Building.

UM's S.E.A. Change Initiative was founded by the couple, which prepares students to be the leaders of the next generation.

University of Montana's Liberal Arts Building is a high-traffic area. It was constructed in 1953 and has been the primary home for UM's humanities class offerings.

Thanks to the Eck family, the building now includes 25 classrooms, a 120-seat auditorium, a new central building entrance, three student and faculty hubs, ADA-accessible restrooms, a new academic advising center and significant upgrades to the technology within the building.

If you cannot attend, public comments may be submitted electronically via email to news@umontana.edu or mailed to Brantly Hall 101, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812.

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PERRYVILLE, Ark. (AP)  A man being booked into a central Arkansas jail on drug charges pulled out a gun and fatally shot a guard before someone disarmed him, authorities said Thursday.

Jeremiah Story, a 21-year-old detention officer at the Perry County jail in Perryville, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) northwest of Little Rock, died at a hospital early Thursday, the State Police said in a news release.

Roderick Lewis, 37, shot Story in a bathroom late Wednesday night while Lewis was changing out of civilian clothes and into jail issued attire, said the State Police, which was asked to investigate by the county sheriff's office. A State Police spokesman said Lewis used a gun he had with him when he entered the jail. Lewis was charged with capital murder Thursday afternoon in Story's death.

It was not clear Thursday afternoon if Lewis has an attorney representing him.

Lewis, of North Little Rock, was arrested earlier Wednesday evening and was being detained on drug and drug paraphernalia charges.

A witness to the shooting was able to disarm Lewis, who was later transferred to the Faulkner County Detention Center in Conway, police said.

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

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WASHINGTON (AP)  The White House on Thursday launched a formal partnership with 11 East Coast governors to boost the growing offshore wind industry, a key element of President Joe Biden's plan for climate change.

Biden, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and other top administration officials met with governors, wind industry officials and labor leaders Thursday at the White House. The session focused on ways to expand important segments of the offshore industry, including manufacturing facilities, ports and workforce training and development.

Together were stepping up. Were about to build a better America,'' Biden said. It's not just about the future. Its about right now.''

The partnership comprises governors of both parties from Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.

Missing from the compact is Virginia, where Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin has moved to withdraw the state from a regional carbon-limiting initiative meant to combat climate change.

Spokesman Macaulay Porter said Youngkin supports the offshore wind industry, and his administration has participated in calls with the White House on the topic.

The commonwealth is already a leader in the offshore wind industry, and the Youngkin administration is focused on ... this emerging sector in a way that is consistent with promoting jobs for Virginia and its right-to-work philosophy,'' Porter said, referring to a state policy that promotes a workers right not to be required to join a labor union.

Youngkin is fully committed to Virginias current offshore wind project" and will continue to support any future project "that meets Virginias economic needs and protects ratepayers from high energy costs,'' Porter said.

In working with states and the private sector, the White House said it will provide Americans with cleaner and cheaper energy, create good-paying jobs and invest billions in new American energy supply chains,'' including construction of wind turbines, shipbuilding and servicing.

Biden has set a goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2030, enough to provide electricity to 10 million homes, support 77,000 jobs and spur $12 billion per year in private investment in offshore wind. Offshore wind is a key component in the Democratic president's plan to make the nations electric grid carbon free by 2035.

The Biden administration has approved two large-scale wind projects, Vineyard Wind in Massachusetts and South Fork Wind off New York and Rhode Island. Both are under construction with union labor. The Interior Department has begun reviews of another 10 offshore projects that, if approved, would produce 22 gigawatts of clean energy.

Danish wind developer Orsted signed a project labor agreement last month with a national union representing 3 million people in the building trades to construct the companys U.S. offshore wind farms with an American union workforce. Orsted currently has six offshore projects in five states.

A national agreement signed with North Americas Building Trades Unions covers contractors working on those projects and future ones, with no termination date on the project labor agreement. It sets the terms and conditions for union workers to build offshore wind farms, with targets to ensure a diverse workforce. It contains provisions for training to ensure they can construct the complex infrastructure, which costs billions of dollars.

We recognize that states are huge players here,'' said David Hayes, a White House climate adviser. With a formal partnership, the Biden administration can work with the governors on policies going forward and help ensure that there is an American-made supply chain for this brand-new industry,'' Hayes said.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said he and other East Coast governors are united with our regional and federal partners not just by geography but by a shared commitment to clean and affordable energy, economic opportunity and a future in which all community members are shielded from the worsening impacts of climate change.''

The federal-state collaboration comes as the Biden administration has announced a plan to conduct up to seven offshore wind auctions by 2025, including one held last month off North Carolina and earlier this year in a coastal area known as the New York Bight. Other sales are expected in the Gulf of Maine, the central Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, as well as offshore in California and Oregon.

Environmental and clean energy groups hailed the federal-state collaboration.

Today, there are just seven offshore wind turbines in the United States, and were going to need a lot more, done responsibly, to meet our clean energy goals,'' said Diane Hoskins, campaign director for the conservation group Oceana. She called for "strong safeguards for marine life to avoid, minimize and mitigate the impacts of offshore wind.''

Heather Zichal, CEO of the American Clean Power Association, an industry group, said wind energy developers support the federal-state initiative. Clear and predictable permitting for offshore wind is essential to recognizing its potential, and there is still work to do,'' Zichal said.

Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani in Washington and Sarah Rankin in Richmond, Va., contributed to this story.

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

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